Note: Thank you for all your reviews, especially the guest ones that I cannot write back to. Thank you. I am sorry that this took so long, but this chapter has been on my mind and prewritten for a very long time until I decided to change it all up, then rewrite it and rewrite it again. I guess it was my test. I am happy with it now, but somehow the dialogue resisted me for a long time. SO, on with the show. Leave me a word and tell me what you think.

"Yes, Steve. It's me. Danny. Your partner Danny. Danny Williams? Remember me…?…"

In Danny's head his response rattled away in his very usual rambling and accusatory manner.

In the real world, in that back street entryway, under the harsh light of a streetlamp though, his words were completely failing him.
He had thought about it, for nine long months, whatever he would say to his best friend that had just up and left… and now, he was just staying silent like someone had soldered his mouth shut.
His mouth felt completely dry while the rain started to dampen his hair and he could feel the cold humidity draw into the folds of his clothing and his skin below.

Danny could only see Steve's profile under a bowed head, but what he saw comforted him. He looked good. Paler than he'd remebered him, but between the lack of daily tropical sun and the unflattering light from the streetlamp, his friend's complexion wasn't a source of worry for him.
No. Steve looked like he always had. Muscular, square, former military, impenetrable. What really unsettled him, was his measured reaction at finding Danny on some cold early spring night on his front door.

He drew a slow and steady breath, before he stated: "9 months. It's been 9 months, Steven. Time to come home." The end of his sentence trailed off, and it remained suspended between the two men, somewhere between an assertion and a question.

For a minute it seemed once more that Steve hadn't heard because nothing in his posture or his expression acknowledged the very direct words from his former partner. Then, he shook his head. The former Navy SEAL hadn't moved from his place beside the now open door just as Danny hadn't moved from his post a few feet beside him.

"Tell me something, Danny… have you all been safe?"

His words seemed to hold deeper significance for Steve than they initially did for Danny who at first couldn't see beyond their first meaning, until something at the back of his head finally clicked into place…

"What..?! You mean … safe-ER…? Without … you…?" Danny let out a simple huffing sound that held all his pent up frustration of the last months, flying hands helping the process along. "You have got to be joking, Steven. Really. No… NO…! No, we haven't been safer, or better or anything!" Another breath, just as frustrated as the first. "Let me spell this out for you and your thick head: we have been worried sick about you, son of a… oh, never mind!" These last words were accompanied by an evasive gesture that was about as forceful as a blow to the head could have been. And while it aimed at levelling some of the hot anger that was now boiling up within the sturdy Jersey native, it did nothing to help him understand what was coming next.

"Danny, stop! Have you been safe? Is everyone OK?" A tense expression graced Steve's features, before finally for the first time he turned his head to look Danny Williams who couldn't believe his insistence nor the look on Steve's face that he could only qualify as … cross. What on earth was going on?

With a dejected sigh, he eventually replied. "Yes, Steve. They are all well. And they are all here. You didn't doubt one second that we'd all come for you, did you?"

A long moment passed between former collegues and friends. The reply came from somewhere else, however.

"Actually, I was very much counting on it." Came the reply from the shadows at Danny's back.

A very familiar voice with the husky timbre of a killer and the smirk for someone who had just won his most prized trophy.

Both, Steve and Danny, were frozen on the spot, both recognising voice and speaker and both their minds racing for a sound explanation until with a shove none other than Catherine Rollins was shoved into the light towards Steve and Danny, and every single member of their protected little family followed her until last - with a distinct flair for dramatic entrances - none other than Wo Fat, gun in hand stepped into the light.

Danny's first reaction was a sound he'd never even knew he could make. Somewhere between a growl and a pained sigh. Steve's reaction wasn't simply there. His mind was reeling and he barely managed to shoot Cath a quick glance while she brushed herself off before Wo Fat grabbed her once more at the back of her coat. Her eyes were screaming murder, her whole body tense. She was furious about how they had not seen this coming. She the least. How their worst enemy had simply snuck on them, drawn a weapon on Chin sitting in the driver seat as they were waiting in a rental van in the darkness for Danny's sign that Steve was ready to see them.

"This really has been a bit too easy, Detective." He shoot in Danny's direction. "Now I know none of you have a gun, as we're in Canada and nobody would have been allowed their service weapon. But knowing good old Steve here, I will ask him exactly once to hand your gun over slowly. Now."

Still running through options and scenarios in his mind, there was a beat, before - instead of drawing his concealed 9mm - he try to gain some time and footing.

"I don't…"

"Wrong answer."

A single gun shot was lost between the crates and the rain that refused to carry the sound any further.

"Joe…!"

The former Navy SEAL commander sank without a sound, true to his training of so many years to the drenched asphalt of the harbour bay, a single red spot gracing his chest.

Steve's cry didn't carry much further than the gun shot and before he knew it, he had unconsciously and mechanically thrown his weapon on the ground before Wo Fat - still holding Cat - stepped on it.
He sank down beside his former commander, the wet ground immediately drenching his trousers, and with the look of a military man, he could see that the gun shot had torn through Joe's back and exited through his chest. The amount of blood that was already pooling below Joe White's still form was shocking and a low bubbling sound left little doubt about the gravity of the gun shot wound.

Kono and Chin were standing beside Cath, unable to move or reply.

"It's ok." Joe kept whispering to get Steve's attention who was fixing Wo Fat towering above him, his gun pointing at Cath's throat.

"For all the tactical genius, that you have, you are very predictable, Commander. I didn't have to lift a finger to find you. Not when your team would do the same work. I just had to sit still and follow their movements. Once they all booked their flights out of Oa'hu, it was pretty obvious that they would lead me to you." And with a taunting gesture of his squared chin, he added: "You know where your weakness lies, don't you? Your attachment."

"You bastard." Danny was working up a real fury between his flexing shoulders. "I swear to God…, if he doesn't kill you tonight, I will."

Joe grabbed Steve's collar and when he finally had his attention, a ragged breath accompanied his words. "Steve. Listen to me. It's all good… You are good… You… need to accept this, like all the rest. You don't need a father anymore, Steve… You have… a family now. Go and take care of your family."

"Get up." And as if the words were attached to strings, Steve got to his feet in a smooth motion, stealing a piercing look into Danny's direction.
Slowly moving towards Wo Fat, he calculated all his possibilities and the danger of every single action… but, without a gun, backup or help, he or Cath didn't stand a chance.
His look had prompted Danny to take up his place at Joe's side and taking in the damage, Danny softly picked up Joe's hand offering calming words to the dying man.

"Let's go." Wo Fat trailed his gun now directly at Steve's face, before he used his left hand to shove Cath away from him towards Danny and Joe.

With a subtle, but clear move of his head, he motioned Chin and Kono to stand beside the others. Cath was still standing with her back beside Steve and for the smallest moments their hands brushed against one another, just as with a flick of his wrist the former Chinese military man, shifted his target, grabbed Steve at his collar, drew him towards him and locked him in a chock hold and then… pulled the trigger.