A/N: This chapter is for all the members of the DWOCD forum because there was not enough Danny whump in the last chapter. For the Steve whump lovers, this chapter has some of that as well.
Chapter 7
Steve heard the shots in the building, but it took him a couple of minutes to take out the gunman who had him pinned down. Once he saw the man fall Steve sprinted for the building but pulled up short just inside the door when he saw the two dead men and spotted Danny's guns, badge and phone. They were the exact same objects left for them to find when Duro took Danny months ago. Steve heard the plane start up so he dropped his assault rifle and ran towards it reaching the door just as Duro's man was closing it. With one hand, he grabbed onto the plane, with the other he pulled the man roughly from the opening. The plane was already starting to move quite quickly and Steve struggled but managed to pull himself into it. He rolled to his knees his hand going for his gun, but a sharp pain in the thigh of his right leg stopped him.
"Don't move, Commander, or the next bullet will be to your chest." Duro stood at the front of the plane his gun indeed pointed at Steve's chest. Steve could see Danny's blonde head in one of the three rows of seats, and he could hear Grace's quiet sobs. He knew that, at this moment, he had no chance against Duro. There was only Duro and the pilot, so at some point Steve figured he would find a way to get them out of this.
"Slide your gun towards me, please. Then I want you to close the door and sit back against it." Steve did as Duro asked. "Now we'll all go for a little ride, shall we?"
Duro remained standing as the plane took off but had to dive for cover as gunfire erupted from the ground and strafed both sides of the plane. Steve threw himself sideways to the floor of the plane and Danny pulled Grace onto his lap and covered her body with his.
It was eerily quiet as the plane left the ground and flew out over the ocean. Danny checked and found that the bullets had hit neither him, nor Grace. Duro was still on the floor and Danny knew he would not get a better opportunity. He pushed Grace gently back into her seat against the side of the plane and put his finger to his lips to indicate she remain quiet. Danny hoped that Steve was all right at the back of the plane and that no bullets from the ground had hit him, but he had no time to worry about that. With any luck, Danny thought, maybe at least one bullet had hit Duro though.
Danny managed to get in one good punch before Duro pushed him to the side and brought up his knee hitting Danny's already injured ribs. Suddenly, Danny found it difficult to breathe and was unable to do anything as Duro regained his feet, still in possession of his gun.
Duro took aim and with calm precisions, fired a bullet into Danny's already injured shoulder just where the vest ended. "Now, don't cause any more trouble Detective." Duro said just as calmly.
None of the bullets from the ground hit Steve but his leg would not co-operate when he tried to get to his feet to help Danny as he attacked Duro. He could only watch as Danny lay on the floor clutching his left side and gasping for air. Steve had just lurched to his feet when Duro calmly shot Danny then turned the gun on him.
"Move back, Commander. Sit against the back of the plane where I can see you."
Steve again did as Duro requested trying to get a good look at Danny as he did so. He could hear that the plane was in trouble. The engine note sounded off. There were two prop engines, one on either side of the plane and both had to have sustained damage in the barrage of gunfire from the ground. The confirmation of that came when the pilot spoke to Duro.
"We have to turn back to the Lanai airport. The engines are both damaged, there's no way we'll reach Oahu." The pilot sounded scared.
Duro swore but then he looked pleased about something. "Well at least we can dump our excess baggage while we're over the ocean."
"Think again." Danny growled as he used Steve's gun to shoot Duro in the chest.
Danny had lain on the floor of the plane battling first the pain in his side, then the new pain from the gunshot wound to his shoulder. As he lay there and listened to Duro talk to Steve and then the pilot, he realised two things. One that Duro figured Danny was too hurt to do anything, and two, that Steve's gun was under the seat beside him and within his reach.
There was only going to be one outcome from this encounter with Duro for Danny and that would be Duro's death. Danny did not shoot to wound; he shot to kill. The bullet entered Duro's heart, and he was dead before he fell. The problem was that as he fell, he twisted and his gun discharged, a bullet hitting the pilot in the neck.
Steve watched as Danny made his move, then he dragged himself to the seats and used them to lever up into a standing position. He saw the pilot slide to the side and come to rest across the two front seats as he passed out, and Steve knew that he had to reach to controls before the plane went into a dive towards the ocean.
Danny also used the seats in an attempt to get up but any movement made his side and shoulder hurt even more. "Stay down," Steve said as he passed Danny, sparing a look to see how bad the new wound was. He also glanced at Grace who looked steadily back at him with tears running down her checks.
Duro was of no real concern, as Steve knew that Danny had shot to kill. Steve pulled Duro's body out of the way and reached for the pilot just as the plane started to nosedive. He pushed the pilot back to lean against the side of the plane then slid into the co-pilot's seat and grabbed the yolk.
Grace wiped the tears from her face then moved from her seat and settled to the floor beside Danny. "Are you alright, Danno?"
"Yeah, Monkey. I'll be alright." Danny tried to keep the pain out of his voice, but Steve still heard it.
"Grace, help Danno up and into a seat, sweetheart?" Steve requested. "I'm sure he'll be more comfortable up off the floor."
"Okay, Uncle Steve. I can do that." Grace replied. Danny groaned as Grace helped him up and back into the seat, he had so recently vacated.
Steve evaluated the condition of the plane and its controls as Grace helped Danny. As he thought earlier, the damage to the plane was bad and it was going down, soon. By now, they were quite far out over the ocean and Steve doubted that the plane would stay up long enough to reach Lanai let alone the airport. Steve turned the plane and headed back towards Lanai.
"Grace, I want you to fasten Danno's seat belt, and then I want you to fasten yourself into the seat next to him." Steve ordered.
Grace did as Steve told her, but Danny heard the worry in Steve's voice. "You can fly this plane, right Steve? What about the pilot?"
"The pilot bled out within seconds of Duro's bullet hitting him in the neck, and yes, I can fly this plane, Danny. But I think there's too much damage to the engines to get us back to Lanai."
It took Danny a second to realise what Steve was saying. "What? You mean we're going to crash?" Danny whispered as he put his good arm around Grace. No, they could not crash now! He had just found her and eliminated Duro. She should be safe now not stuck on a plane that was about to crash.
"Crash land, Danny. Not crash, we are going to crash land on the ocean." Steve replied with a sigh. He knew that Danny was worried about Grace and so was he.
"We could jump out." Danny stated.
"No we could not. I may be able to jump out and survive if we got low enough and the speed down far enough. However, you would die because of the injury to your ribs and Grace needs her Danno, remember. Besides, I can't guarantee that Grace wouldn't be injured, or worse, when she hit the water." Steve explained.
"Oh! We will die if we crash into the ocean, too. It's not exactly calm down there." Danny looked out the plane's window at the ocean and could see what to him looked like high waves.
"There is a lot more chance of our surviving a crash landing on the ocean though." Steve tried to fasten the harness as he talked but only managed to secure the lap portion. The plane was rapidly losing altitude then one engine coughed and flared out.
"I'll keep the nose up as long as I can, but when the propellers hit the water we will probably flip over and you need to be ready for that. The plane should float for a while but you have to get out quickly." Steve tried to think of what he knew about this type of plane. It was a Piper Navajo and probably built in the sixties. He was reasonably sure the plane's stall speed was 75 mph but with one engine already gone, none of that would matter.
"I'm scared, Danno." Grace cried.
"Yeah, me too, Monkey, but remember we have Super SEAL landing the plane. If anyone can do this, he can." Danny soothes.
Steve hoped that the faith Danny expressed to Grace would pay off. That he could in fact successfully land the stricken plane on the water. They were about twenty feet above the water when the second engine gave out and Steve knew he would not be able to keep them up for much longer.
"Danny, there's a hatch at the back of the plane. If we are lucky, there will be a survival kit in there. Make sure you get it out before the plane sinks."
"What? Why are you telling me all this? You are the Superhero. It's up to you to get us out and save the day."
"You need to know just in case I can't save the day, Danny." Steve sighed. "We're almost down. Are you ready?"
"What do you think?" Danny bit out.
"Yeah, I know. It will be all right, Danny. You'll see."
They were out of time. The plane seemed to hover over the water for a brief moment before it just dropped the last few feet. Steve fought hard to keep the nose up but to no avail. Within seconds, the propellers hit the water and the plane flipped over on its back and came to rest on its roof.
TBC
A/N: A big thank you to my husband, rewob17, JazzieG and IreneClaire for their invaluable help with this part of the story. My thought was to have them jump out of the plane, but my husband said no they'd be killed, and when I sort help, everyone else agreed with him. As it turned out, crashing the plane makes the story so much better as you'll see in the next chapters.