Synopsis: When Danny Williams is arrested for the murder of Marco Reyes and extradited to South America, an old enemy sees an opportunity to deliver a debilitating blow to Five-0. With two of his friends detained and time running out, Steve does the only thing he can…he has himself thrown into the prison with Danny. But will he be in time to save his partner. DANNY!WHUMP and STEVE!ANGST. NO SLASH. Friendship only.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hawaii Five-O and am not getting any monetary gain for this story, just playing in CBS's sandbox for a while. These characters and storylines remain the property of CBS. No disrespect intended, just great characters that inspire their own stories.

Rated: T for violence and injuries.

Notes: Angst and Hurt/Comfort are kinda my thing, so if you've read anything else I've written you know this going to bad before it gets good. I'm taking some liberties with the episode "Pono Kaulike" to fit my vision of the story. Don't kill me for it, it was one of my favorite episodes in Season 5.

A/N: Please take a second and let me know if you're interested in this being continued.

Chapter 7:

A New Ohana

To say that Chin was incredulous would have been an understatement. He was staring at Joe in shocked silence. This plan had very little chance of working and what was worse, was that there were no other options now. Steve had seen to that when he'd taken the plunge inside of a Colombian prison and left the leg work up to his team. It wasn't that that was a problem; it was that there was only this one option. If things went sideways on them, they were all pretty much screwed.

He leaned against the railing on his porch and let the Hawaiian breeze drift across his skin. Their lives weren't all that great recently. A lot of things happening that were creating problems for the team in general. Chin was having issues with Gabriel. Kono and Adam were still trying to escape the mistakes of his father. Danny was one walking problem. The loss of his brother had hit him hard, not to mention getting taken last year and all the problems that had come from that. And Steve? Well, Steve was still dealing with what Wo Fat had done to him. And the shift in the team was palpable. They were each still pulling their weight, but they were al a little distracted.

"It will work, Chin." Joe said simply.

Unconvinced brown eyes lifted to meet the intense blue of the older man. "Joe, there are so many moving parts. If even one of those falls through, Steve and Danny die. There's no margin for error here." He shook his head. "And that concerns me."

Kono stepped from the house. Here features soft and supportive. "Then we don't make any errors."

"Kono, you know better than that." Chin knew that his cousin was aware that things often skidded sideways for Five-0. So he was curious where the newfound optimism was coming from. He stepped toward her. "What makes you so sure it'll work."

She smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. "Because it has to." Kono blinked and the smile dropped away. "Because there aren't any other options here."

"I've been in communication with my contact. We can shave one day off the rescue mission, so Saturday is the day." His voice softened and Lou picked up on the subtle change.

"What's happened, Joe? Are our guys okay?"

Chin stepped away from the railing, his attention fully focused on the man standing in his kitchen. "Joe?" He asked when the silence went on too long. A pang of fear licked along his insides and twisted them painfully in concern. He hadn't wanted to believe that they could actually be too late. That things would have progressed to a point where it wouldn't matter if they made it to Colombia, his friends couldn't be saved.

"Calm down. They're both alive."

"And safe?" Lou asked pointedly.

Chin lifted his gaze and tilted his head to the side. He wanted to know that too.

"Last I heard. They are alive, but I'm not sure if I would call them safe." He sighed. "They're in cartel country. Reye's country." He didn't want to lie to them and yet he wished that he'd been able to find a better way to get them out. But as it stood, this was the best plan and Joe wasn't all that confident it would succeed.

Chin's frustration finally made it to the surface. "Did you even try to stop them? To stop Steve from diving full tilt into a suicide mission?"

"Have you ever tried to stop to McGarrett from doing anything? Has it ever worked?" Because I've known that boy for a very long time and I've never been able to convince him of anything." Joe's words were painful to hear, but they were also accurate and that made it so much worse. "Especially when he had friends on the hook. He'd take a bullet for any one of you."

It was Kono's turn to weigh in. "But for Danny?" She allowed the fear and the anger to cloud her normally clear features. "Oh my god…what he will do for Danny is scary as hell."

"So lets make sure this isn't their last mission together. Okay?" Joe said earnestly.

"When do we leave?" Chin remarked after a moment of reflection. Not on the situation. He knew he was going after Steve and Danny, but on the nature of Five-0's relationships with one another. They really were family, Ohana.

H50 H50

Danny watched Steve as he stared out at the ocean. He hadn't really talked about what Wo Fat had been tinkering with inside his head. Danny knew that his partner had believed, one hundred percent that his father was alive when he'd come to. So that was obviously one of the memories that had been toyed with. And to be completely honest? That was enough.

The mere thought of believing, even for a moment, that Matthew was still alive and then having that ripped away from him was devastating. So he knew what his partner was feeling. Danny had been on the receiving end of that kind of guilt and it weighs a person down in a way that nothing else can.

His heart ached for his best friend and yet to few times he'd tried to get Steve to open up, the stubborn SEAL had simply shook his head and secluded himself inside his room. It was so hard to watch. The house was too quiet and it made Danny feel more alone than he'd felt since moving to Hawaii and meeting Steven J. McGarrett.

The damn man hadn't left Danny alone since he'd highjacked the detective's life. Every waking moment was somehow filled with Steve's larger than life presence. But now as Danny stood on the patio behind the house and watched his best friend stare forlornly out at the crashing waves he wondered if he would get that man back. The one that insisted on ordering pizza with fricking pineapple on it; and ham! That was just wrong on so many levels that Danny couldn't even wrap his New Jersey brain around it.

Seriously, who puts fruit and breakfast meat on their pizza? He'd even offered to bake an authentic 'pie' for his Neanderthal partner, but Steve had refused to eat it without the disgusting fruit. So Danny had refused to make it.

"If you're making it for me, then I should get to have whatever I want on it." Steve said innocently.

Danny huffed in real irritation. "No, Steven. I am making it so you know the difference between that thing masquerading as pizza and a real pizza pie." His hands punctuated his points as he ticked off all the reason he wouldn't allow Steve to destroy a good pizza. "First, there should never and I mean 'never' be a piece of fruit on something that's a dinner food—"

"What about spaghetti?" Steve interjected quickly.

The smaller man spun around and stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "What about spaghetti?" Danny asked through clenched teeth.

Steve lifted an eyebrow. "Well, technically tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables. So wouldn't that mean that if you're eating spaghetti or lasagna that you're eating a fruit?"

Danny could feel his temperature rising as his temper flared dangerously. Steve always knew which buttons to push with him and he hated it…he really did. "Where did that even come from?" he cried incredulously.

"We were talking about pineapple on pizza. You said no fruit on dinner foods. I merely brought up tomatoes." A twitch at the edges of his mouth was the only evidence that he was enjoying this sparring session with Danny.

The blonde threw his hands up in the air. "I give up. I try and do something nice for you and turn it into the Spanish Inquisition." He stalked out of the kitchen. "Order whatever you want. Hell, order dominos or pizza hut! I don't give a flying—"

The sound of Steve's bellow following him out of the house had been irritating at the time, but oh what Danny wouldn't give to hear that now.

He watched Steve as he stared at the chair next to him, almost like he was expecting someone to be sitting there. Danny's eyes flickered up at the clouds moving past in a lazy crawl across the sky and then he started toward his friend.

"Steve? You okay babe?" Danny didn't know what he'd been expecting. It was certainly not his partner's watery eyes as he turned and acknowledged the detective's presence. The naked pain was more than Danny could handle. He loved this man looking at him. It was as deep as he'd loved Mattie, but it was different. Because he and Steve were equals where Matthew would always be the 'little brother'. They'd been through so much and there was no way that they could spend the kind of time together that they did without love.

The entire team was that way. They'd developed into something so strong, something that was cabled together with the bonds of friendship and…love. And seeing someone he loved suffering was a terrible thing for Danny Williams.

Steve's eyes pulled away and he cast them back out at the ocean. Danny wasn't sure if that was an invitation to stay or an order to go. So he stood there and kicked at the sand beneath his feet. One thing that he loved about living here was the flip-flop. Back in Jersey he wouldn't have been caught dead in a pair of the rubbery and less than manly summer shoes. But here it was almost a requirement to own them. Plus his loafers looked seriously strange with the cargo shorts he was sporting.

He didn't know how long he stood there before Steve spoke. "I miss him." His words were thin and high with emotion, but it was the tremor at the end that nearly broke Danny.

The blonde sank into the wooden chair and ran his hand down his face. Stubble pulled at his palm, he should have shaved this morning…he thought silently. He wasn't sure what to say to his friend. The broken nature of Steve's words bounced around inside his skull and Danny simply nodded. He knew what the man was going through. He'd been through it…was still going through it with the loss of Matt. But Steve hadn't left him to dangle above the torrent of emotions alone; he'd been there to give Danny a lifeline. His eyes slid sideways and he blew out a slow long breath. He could do the same for Steve, he could be the line that tethered his friend to the living rather than dwelling with the dead.

"I know you do." Danny turned so he was looking directly at Steve. "But Steve, you are not alone buddy. I know when this happened five years ago you were…alone. But not now. You got me, Kono, Chin, and Lou. Not to mention Kamekona, Max, Jerry and everyone else you've managed to touch over the years."

Steve lifted glassy eyes and quirked an eyebrow. "Touch? Don't you mean annoy?" He was trying to find his sense of humor and Danny appreciated the effort.

"No buddy, you only 'annoy' me. The rest of them seem fine with your Cretan ways. But to be fair, they grew up on this rock and probably think it's normal." A small smile pulled at the edges of his lips as he reflected on the differences in the relationships that Steve had built with the entire damn Island of Oahu. "But there isn't a person on this entire string of Islands that wouldn't do anything for you." He said softly. Blue-green eyes shifted and caught the intensity in Danny's blue gaze as Steve listened intently.

"It was just so real. The whole scenario was so real and plausible." He drifted into silence. Danny waited; he wasn't the most patient person. As a matter a fact his mother had once suggested that he pray for patience when he'd been going in for confession. Danny had adamantly refused. Why would he ever pray for god to give him more things to be irritated about? That seemed like the worst prayer ever.

A stuttered breath from the chair next to his told him that Steve had once again lost control of his raw emotions. For a man that hadn't even been able to tell Danny about his childhood, listening to him break apart was like watching a lost puppy try and find his way home. It was heartbreaking.

"You wore Hawaiian shirts." Steve finally said.

Danny's eyebrows shot up. "Well then you know it was a dream. Because I wouldn't be caught dead in one of those." He shuddered internally at even the thought of putting on one of the loud native shirts. While he loved the freedom of the flip-flops, he did not see the point of wearing a shirt with so many patterns that it belonged at a rave where the people were hopped up on acid.

"And you loved Hawaii. Said it was the best place you'd ever lived." Steve continued without looking away from the ocean as it rolled up on the sandy beach.

"Okay, now I know you know better than that." Danny stated firmly.

Steve finally smiled and turned to look at him. "Yeah, that should have been my first clue. You couldn't be happy here if your life depended on it."

Danny allowed the first real breath of relief to fill his lungs. Steve would be okay. "It's a rock infested with pineapples and shrimp."

"I'm going to tell Kamekona you just said that." There was a hint of the old humor there and Danny was grateful for the joke.

"Don't. If he thinks I don't like shrimp, he'll charge me triple for something I hate."

Steve laughed. He actually laughed at that and then patted Danny on the shoulder sympathetically. "Yes. Yes, he would."

H50 H50

Steve drifted through the memories as he climbed back to awareness. His body singing in a chorus of sore muscles and pulsing pain. His head hurt and his hand was killing him at this point. He'd listened to the person in his pitch black cell breathe evenly until he finally drifted into restless sleep. But now as he felt himself becoming more aware of his surroundings he wondered just who the hell was in here with him. Were they in the same cell? Or were there several cells in the inky blackness?

He nearly choked on the dry scratchy thing that passed as his voice. "Hello?" Steve coughed several times before managing to control of his throat. "Uh…Hello?" he called again.

A moan answered him and his heart nearly fell through the floor. He would know that voice anywhere. "Danny?"

TBC…

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. More whumpage to come as the team arrives in Colombia and Steve tries to save Danny from a reckless plan that will surely get them both killed. It's a holiday weekend here in the States and I totally took advantage of the extra days off. But here is the newest chapter. Thank you to all of you that read and reviewed the last chapter! You guys are the best!

Please review: Just let me know you're still reading along with this one. Thank you!