Disclaimer: See initial chapter.
A/N: This one is short. Just a glimpse of what is going on in Danny's heart and head. Just a reminder that this is a supernatural love story; it's a little sappy, I'm afraid.
"There, you're as good as new," Danny declared after he'd finished patching up Steve, who was still glaring in the direction the cat had disappeared in.
He'd cleaned the cat scratches on Steve's ankle – they were deeper than he'd thought they'd be – knowing that if they were to get infected, Steve could get sick. He'd then wrapped Steve's ankle loosely in gauze. It was the only thing he'd had that would cover the entire area. The cat had really gotten him good.
He patted Steve's thigh as he stood, and bit back a groan when his knee protested the movement. It had been three weeks, to the day, when he'd tackled the man who'd claimed to have stabbed Chin, and Danny's knee still ached. He was determined not to go to the doctor about it, though, certain that the problem would eventually fix itself.
Fact was, he didn't want to be forced to take any time off. Without Chin around, they were short a man, and, more than that, Danny couldn't stand the thought of not being able to help with the investigation into Chin's disappearance. He wanted to find Chin.
The cat growled at Steve when he stood, and, though he knew that it was wrong, Danny laughed, and the cat gave out a self-satisfied sounding meow. Steve scowled at the cat, and Danny shrugged when his friend looked at him.
"We're meeting Kono at the falls," Steve said. "We're going to try to retrace Chin's steps as best as we can; see if we can't find something that HPD missed."
They'd done this before, multiple times, but Steve was adamant that something had been missed, and was determined to go over the scene again. The entire park, nearby beach and woods, had been combed, and they hadn't found anything new. Danny was starting to give up hope that they would find a single shred of evidence, other than the man's phone and the bloody paw print, but he merely nodded, and reached down to pat the cat on its head when it butted against the back of his knee, and started rubbing Danny's leg and purring.
When Steve turned toward him and went to walk by him, the cat hissed, and Steve stopped in his tracks. The man and the cat seemed to glare at each other, and Danny shook his head at the two of them.
"We'll have to take Kono out somewhere, afterward, get her mind off of all of this for a little while," Danny said.
If Danny wasn't mistaken, the cat seemed to perk up at that. It flicked its tail, and made one of its almost silent meows. It seemed to look right at Danny, making him shiver, and Danny looked away from it in favor of following Steve out the front door.
He hoped that they'd make a breakthrough today. That they'd find Chin, maybe lost and wandering in the nearby woods, a mild head injury the explanation for why he hadn't contacted anyone or returned to them yet. He nearly slammed the door shut on the cat who'd followed him, silently, and gestured for the feline to go back inside, petting it beneath it's chin when it seemed to sigh and frown at him.
"Go on inside now," Danny said, ignoring the irritated and impatient sound that Steve made, and the ensuing hiss from the cat. "I'll be back later today," Danny promised the cat, and he flicked Steve off when the man smirked at him as he made his way over to the waiting car.
His phone rang, the ring tone indicating that it was Duke calling. Danny frowned at his phone wondering why Duke was calling him on a Saturday, and answered before it could go to voice mail.
"Duke?" Danny gestured for Steve to stay quiet when the man opened his mouth to ask a question. Steve crossed his arms over his chest, and waited, the same impatient look on his face that he'd had when Danny was dealing with the cat.
Danny shook his head, and gripped his phone tighter as Duke explained the reason for his call. He had to bite his tongue to keep the string of curse words that were on the tip of it from spilling forth. Duke was only the messenger, and it wouldn't be fair for Danny to go off on him about this. It wasn't his fault, after all.
"Thanks, Duke," Danny said, resigned, deflating a little at what he'd heard. "I appreciate the heads up. No, Steve's here, I'll tell him. We're going to meet Kono at Waimaea Falls. We'll tell her together," Danny promised, and then he hung up and faced Steve.
"What was that about?" Steve's brow was furrowed, and he absentmindedly rubbed at one of the scratch marks the cat had left on his leg.
"Keahu Mahaku killed himself early this morning," Danny said. "According to one of the guards, he'd seen that 'bitch ghost' again, and she spooked him –"
"Enough to make the man kill himself?" Steve shook his head and clenched his fists.
"Apparently," Danny said bitterly.
With Mahaku dead, there was little chance of them getting a real lead on Chin's whereabouts, or an answer as to what had really happened to Chin that day three weeks ago. Danny doubted that Mahaku's account of a ghost spiriting Chin away was what really happened. He closed his eyes and rested against the side of the car, an unbidden image of the cat came to the forefront of his mind, but he pushed it aside in favor of focusing on what needed to be done today.
Danny felt his headache returning, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He gestured for Steve to get them on the road, and, once he was in the passenger's seat, he closed his eyes, tried not to let the images from his recurrent nightmare wash over him, and hoped to god that they'd finally catch a break.
"We'll find him, Danny," Steve said quietly, placing a hand on Danny's forearm.
"I hope so," Danny murmured. For Kono's sake…and mine.
"I have a feeling that we're going to find something today," Steve said, voice full of hope that Danny just wasn't feeling.
Danny ignored the feeling of unease that had settled in the pit of his stomach, as well as the constant barrage of images that seemed to want to parade through his mind - of Chin, of the bedraggled looking cat when Grace had discovered it, of Mahaku, knife glinting in his hand... He would have to muster some kind of hope, like Steve, when they met Kono. She was strong, and wasn't sitting on the sidelines, crying over the loss of her cousin, but Danny could tell that the loss of Chin was wearing on her with every passing day. Hell, it was wearing on him.
"You okay, Danno?" Steve's voice sounded far away and overly concerned.
Danny waved a hand between them and shrugged. His head hurt, and he couldn't stop picturing Chin – alive, well, a huge grin on his face, and the damn cat going after Steve's ankle like it was a mouse. Danny wondered if they'd find Chin that way, happy and smiling, or if the picture of Chin that plagued his nightmares night after night was a much more accurate depiction of the missing man than the one that was currently invading his thoughts.
"You'll see," Steve said, and Danny could imagine the wistful look on Steve's face. "Today will be the day."
If only Danny could believe him.
