A/N: Well, this is a tag to Episode 2X11, so there will be spoilers.
Anger… Management?
After meeting with Joe, Steve went back to HQ. There was too much going on, and he just couldn't deal with the whole Shelburne situation right now.
He reached the office, finding Chin and Kono having a hushed conversation by the smart table while Danny and Lori were doing paperwork in their offices. "Hey, everything alright?"
Kono looked up startled, while Chin looked concerned. "Yeah… We had a little bit of trouble booking Castillo."
Steve lifted his eyebrows. "What kind of trouble?"
Chin sighed, looking in the direction of Danny's office. "It seems that Castillo resisted arrest while Danny was getting him to booking. Castillo ended up with a broken jaw."
Steve's eyebrows rose higher, if possible. He glanced at Danny's office, noticing his friend with his head down, doing some paperwork. "Is he alright?"
Chin shrugged, shaking his head. "He's quiet." He said, looking concerned.
"At least he accepted some ice for his hand?" Kono said, sounding uncertain.
Steve sighed, moving towards Danny's office. He knocked on the door and entered, taking in the slumped shoulders and the discarded icepack over the table. He also noticed the fact that Danny was trying to type using only his left hand. "Hey, everything alright?"
Danny looked up and Steve could see that everything that had kept Danny wound tight throughout the day had uncoiled, leaving him looking deflated, exhausted. "Hey, yeah… Castillo was booked, the D.A. was getting everything ready, I just have to finish up the report and send it over."
Steve nodded, taking a seat in the chair in front of Danny's desk. "Is there a reason why you're typing the report one handed?"
Danny rolled his eyes. "Why do you ask if you already know the answer?" He said, lifting his right hand and flexing his fingers painfully.
Steve studied his friend's torn knuckles. "You wanna tell me what happened?"
Danny sighed tiredly, not looking at Steve. "What did Chin say?"
"He said that Castillo had resisted arrest and he ended up with a broken jaw. I'm more interested on your version…" Steve said, trying to catch Danny's eye.
Danny flexed his fingers, still not looking at Steve. "I didn't 'cuff him, didn't think it was necessary. While we walked he… He said next time he'd make sure to get my girl… Next thing I know, he's on the floor, with a broken jaw, and my hand hurts like a son of a bitch." He finally lifted bloodshot eyes to look uncertainly at his partner.
Steve sighed. Making a decision, he stood up and turned around and moved to the door. "Chin, could you come here for a sec?"
Chin came over, looking confused. "Yeah? What do you need?"
Steve pointed in the direction of Danny's desk. "Danny was just finishing some paperwork for Castillo's case, but we're taking off. Would you mind finishing it up? We'll sign it on Monday…"
While Chin was nodding his agreement, Danny was standing up and getting on Steve's face. "Taking off? I'm not going anywhere until I finish this paperwork!"
Steve lifted his hands in a placating gesture. "Danny, it's been a long day. You're tired, I'm tired, I want to go home and since you're still crashing on my couch I figured it was a good idea that we go together…"
Whether Steve was using Danny's protectiveness against him or if he was truly tired and wanted to go home, Danny couldn't really say, but the still visible marks on his friend's face meant that Danny was not willing to fight this one, no matter how much he wanted to. "Alright, let's go…" He finally said, with a weary sigh.
The fact that Danny's hand still hurt, meant that Steve wouldn't let him anywhere near the steering wheel, so he sat in the passenger seat, the adrenaline dump leaving him half asleep.
The next time he blinked, they were parking at Steve's place. In the time it took him to unfasten his seatbelt and open the door, Steve was already standing right there, pulling him out and steering him towards the house. He was unceremoniously dumped on the couch and he just sat there, while he listened to his friend moving around the house. Some time later, a sandwich appeared in front of him, so he ate it, and drank whatever it was in the glass that Steve left over the coffee table. He blinked again and found himself being pushed sideways to rest his head on a pillow. He looked up, glaring at the man hovering above him. "You were tired… Sleep…"
He felt Steve draping a blanket over his shoulders. "Don't worry Danno. I'm alright… Now rest…"
He would have said something, but his eyes had already closed, and he was well on his way to a night of fitful sleep.
As soon as the bus was pulled from under the pile of soil, he hurried inside, jumping through the shattered windshield. He found the teacher and a group of children standing around a prone figure. 'No, please, no!'
He approached the group, getting closer to the little girl lying on the ground. He kneeled next to her, taking in her dark brown hair, her dirt streaked face. He couldn't see her beautiful brown eyes, now covered by her closed eyelids. He reached out to gently shake her shoulder, but deep down he knew he had been too late, she wouldn't wake, he would never see her baby girl's eyes open again. "Monkey? Wake up…" 'Please! Please! Wake up!' "Monkey… Please?"
He shook her harder, not getting any response. He could hear the children around him starting to cry. "Please! Monkey! Wake up!"
"Danno! Wake up! Come on… Wake up!"
Danny bolted upright, coming face to face with his partner. He looked around, expecting to find himself in the buried bus, but he was lying on Steve's couch, which kind of made sense, since that's where he had crashed last night. "Hey… wha' timesit?" He said, trying not to sound as frightened as he was.
Steve studied him for a few seconds, and with a sigh stood up. "It's 7.30, get in the shower while I make some breakfast, we're gonna be late…"
Danny scratched his head and stifled a yawn, looking at his partner confusedly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Steven, but today is Saturday, isn't it?"
Steve looked away from what he was doing to give Danny a goofy smile. "Good Danno, you know the days of the week!"
Danny rolled his eyes. "What I'm trying to say is why are you waking me up at this ungodly hour if it's Saturday and we don't have to go to work?"
Steve lifted his eyebrows. "Oh! Well, that's because we're meeting with Kono, Lori and Chin at 8…"
Danny sighed tiredly, knowing that there would be no way to pry any useful information from Steve when he didn't want to share. He stretched tiredly and moved to the bathroom, planning on using all of the hot water, just out of spite.
8.01 found them getting out of the Camaro right outside of a large building.
"I know a 3 minute shower is too much to ask, Danny, but did you really need an 18 minute shower? You used all of the hot water!"
Danny tried and failed to look innocent. "Sorry babe, I must have lost track of time. Good thing that you got used to get cold showers in the Army, right?"
Steve rolled his eyes, moving towards the building. "Navy, Danno, and we're late already, so come on…"
They entered the building, coming into a large open space with training mats and a boxing ring. "What the hell are we doing here anyway?"
Chin, Kono and Lori came from around a corner. "Combat training. It seems we could use some practice…" Chin said, glancing in Lori's direction.
Lori shrugged, having the decency to look sheepish.
Meanwhile, Kono tossed a duffel bag to Steve. "What are you two waiting for? Go change!"
Steve took the bag and looked at his partner. "Come one, Danno…"
Danny didn't look too happy about the idea, but he followed Steve to the locker rooms.
They came back a few minutes later, wearing sneakers, track pants and t-shirts.
"Alright, Chin, you're training with Kono. Lori, you're with me…" Steve said, moving with Lori to one of the training mats.
Danny crossed his arms over his chest, moving to sit on a bench nearby. "That's a shame… I'll just have to sit here and watch…" He said, trying not to grin.
It didn't last too long, because a minute later, a large shadow loomed over Danny. "You're training with me, brudda."
Danny found himself in front of a scary sight: Kamekona wearing sweatpants as some kind of ugly windbreaker, boxing gloves on his hands. He opened and closed his mouth, but no words would come out.
Kamekona pulled him unceremoniously to his feet and dragged him to the boxing ring. Before he could snap out of his stupor, he had some kind of training gloves on his hands. He looked around, hoping that his team would find a way to rescue him from the catastrophe about to occur, but the traitors were looking anywhere but in his direction, so he supposed he was on his own. "Listen, Big Man… I appreciate the effort, but I'm sure Steve will be done with Lori in a little while, we don't have to do this…" He said, pointing at Kamekona and himself.
Kamekona gave him an evil grin, moving closer while bumping his fists together. "Don't worry, haole… I'll be gentle…"
Danny moved backwards, chuckling. "I'm not worried about myself, Shamu… You know the saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall."
"If you weren't worried, then you'd be fighting, not running, Shorty." Kamekona said, still coming closer.
Danny stopped moving away and moved to get in Kamekona's face. "I'd be careful of my words if I were you, Big Man."
Kamekona lifted his hand to do a 'come here' gesture with his gloved hand. "Why? From what I hear you only grow a pair in front of haoles in cuffs or when McGarrett is around…"
Danny started throwing some punches, which were easily blocked by Kamekona. "Castillo was not in cuffs…" He said, feeling his hackles rising.
Kamekona easily blocked a couple of more punches. "What'd he say? I bet he wanted your keiki all for himself…"
Danny wasn't pulling his punches so much anymore, but Kamekona somehow still managed to block them. "Why don't you shut the fuck up?" He said in an angry growl.
Kamekona continued as if he hadn't heard him. "Or maybe he wanted your wife? Sorry, ex wife… Shame the pē.pē was not yours…"
Danny did not hold back his next punch, and it landed squarely on Kamekona's jaw, making him stumble a couple of steps backwards. "Shut up!"
Kamekona shook his head dizzily and glared at Danny. "That the best you got? Is this how you fought for your ohana? No wonder they left-"
He didn't get to finish, because Danny came at him in a blind rage. He cornered Kamekona and started hitting him with all he had. All the anger, the fear, the sorrow of the last few months was pouring out of him through his punches, and other than noticing that Kamekona had lifted his arms to cover his head from the worst of it, he couldn't see or hear anything other than his angry growls and yells and the blood rushing through his ears.
He must have lost track of time, because the next thing he knew, he was still half heartedly hitting Kamekona's large middle, but instead of pushing him away, the big man was holding him close and patting his back. "Let it all out, brudda…" He kept saying.
Danny finally stopped hitting him, leaning tiredly against Kamekona's side. He rested his forehead on the big man's chest and was surprised to feel something hard. He released something between a laugh and a sob. "What th'fuck you wearing, Big Man?" He said, patting Kamekona's belly.
Kamekona used his free hand to open his windbreaker, revealing what looked like four or five Kevlar bests attached together and rolled around his large waistline. "I'm no fool, brudda… Wouldn't let you beat me up without some protection…"
Danny chuckled, noticing for the first time the soft tremors running through his body. He would have lifted his head from his position against Kamekona's chest, but he was exhausted. He noticed movement at the corner of his eye and looked up to see Steve hovering nearby. "You ok Danno?"
Danny shook his head helplessly. "Don't know…"
Steve squeezed his shoulder gently. "It's alright. Why don't we sit down for a while?" He said with a small smile, steering him off from the ring and towards a nearby bench.
They sat there in silence for about half an hour. Danny drinking water, Steve nudging Danny to drink water and the both of them laughing at Kono and Lori's attempts to take down Kamekona.
Danny finally turned to look at his partner. "I'm sorry babe…" He said with a tired sigh.
Steve turned to look at him with a confused expression on his face. "You're sorry? About what exactly?"
Danny looked down, shrugging. "I messed everything up…"
Steve chuckled. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but If anyone messed everything up, that would be me, and you just have had to run around the island, and lately across the ocean, to fix it up… Having to lose plenty of important things because of it…"
Danny passed his hands through his hair. "It's just… I lost too much…. And it keeps getting worse, and… I don't know how to fix it…"
Steve put his hand on Danny's shoulder, squeezing gently. "Well, for starters, it's not something you necessarily have to do alone… You have your Ohana willing to help…" He said, nodding in the direction of their team. "And if that's not enough, then we could look for some external help. I'm sure Chin has a cousin somewhere on the island…"
Danny lifted his eyebrows, looking a bit scared. "D'you think I need some 'external help'?"
Steve shrugged. "I've no idea, but if you decide you do, maybe we could get a volume discount, have the whole task force checked out?" He said with a goofy smile.
Danny chuckled, shaking his head.
"Danno, whatever you choose, you need to realize that it'll take time, and that you don't have to tough it up all by yourself. We have no trouble putting up with you on your less than happy days, but I don't want any more broken jaws in the near future, ok?" Steve said, turning serious.
Danny snorted. "So you get to dangle people off the roof, throw them in shark tanks, fly off to Timbuktu to perform daring rescues, but I can't break the jaw of a son of a bitch that almost got more than a dozen of children killed?"
Steve looked at him seriously. "Not when I'm not around to either be your backup or pull you away."
Danny lifted an eyebrow. "What about that little trip of yours across the ocean."
Steve shrugged sheepishly. "Let's just say that I learned my lesson, ok?"
Danny sighed tiredly, hanging his head. "Ok, no more broken jaws without backup."
Steve reached out to pat Danny on the back. "You'll be alright, Danno…"
Danny looked up at their team, their Ohana, tag teaming to take down Kamekona. The sight brought a small smile to his face. Maybe he should give it a little more time before giving up the fight. A screech from Lori as she was dangled from her foot drew an unwilling laugh from him. Yeah… They'll be fine with time…
The end.
A/N: Thank you for reading!
This story came about because of how affected Danny looked through the whole episode, and the fact that even Steve looked surprised when Danny punched Castillo.
I hope you liked it and feel free to leave a note.
see you around!