Here's the second version of Working Man. I'm partial to this one, but that's really only because I love the idea of Steve being a badass military man!

"So tell me, tell me, tell me,

What am I to do?

I think that this life is darker than the view.

So help me, help me, help me

Be a little more like you.

When everything is falling,

I'm gonna do the things you do."

"As I live and breathe, it's Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett!"

The loud voice carried through the crowd, and Danny turned instinctively with his partner to face whoever this was. Danny's hand fell automatically to his gun, just on the off chance that this was one more of his best friend's enemies that had come calling, but his hand fell away as soon as he saw McGarrett's face break into a wide grin. "Wallis! What in the world are you doing here?"

"I've got some training this month over at Pearl, but I had a bit of leave and I thought I'd see the sites while I'm on the island. What are you doing here? Are you on shore leave too?"

Steve's grin barely wavered when he answered, but Danny caught the flash of sadness that passed briefly through the taller man's eyes. "Nope, I'm actually working a civilian job here in Hawaii now."

"What—you? You left the Navy? Of all people I've known, I pegged you for a lifer for sure. What changed?"

McGarrett shrugged, Danny watching the interaction silently. "Things got a bit complicated personally and it just ended up working out that way." At Danny's small, involuntary snort at McGarrett's description of everything with Victor Hesse and Wo Fat, Steve seemed to suddenly realize that Danny was still standing there. "Oh, sorry! Danny this is Petty Officer Owen Wallis; Owen, this is my partner Detective Danny Williams."

Wallis reached out a hand to Danny quickly, but looked at McGarrett while the two shook hands. "It's Ensign now, actually. I, uh, actually left the medical corps and applied to SEAL training awhile back. I'm going to start Hell Week next month." McGarrett's eyes widened at that, but before he could speak Wallis went on. "It's actually because of you."

"Me?"

"After I treated you in the Stan, after I saw what you had done for you men, I couldn't stay in the medics. I couldn't keep patching guys up and not be doing something more."

"What are you talking about? Without guys like you—without you—I would have bled out right there in the field. I think that's pretty necessary." McGarrett interrupted in clear agitation, though Danny wasn't sure if that was because of what Wallis had said or because he had just revealed something that had happened to him while in the Navy, something the SEAL had clearly never been comfortable with.

"I'm not saying it's not," Wallis responded patiently, clearly anticipating that argument, no doubt having heard it many times before. "But," here Wallis paused and he cast a quick look at Danny, full of uncertainty, before pushing forward despite his presence. "But I was in a bad place when I met you, Commander. My view of life—it was dark. No matter how many guys I patched up, no matter how many bullets I removed, no matter how many pieces of shrapnel I pulled out of guys like you, it was never enough. There were always more. I was starting to feel like I'd lost my purpose, like everything was falling apart around me, and then…then I got to you. A man who had nearly blown himself on a grenade to save his men, no fear at all, just action. And I just thought that that is what I should be doing with my life. That I needed to be out there and be fighting—actively making a difference—not just stitching things up when they went bad. I needed a change. Anyway…" Wallis trailed off with a shrug, playing with the hat in his hands. "I decided to make that change. Do what you do. Or did, I guess."

The only sound for a moment was the quiet hum of the crowd around them, voices washing over the now silent trio. Finally, though, Steve nodded. "Well, you seem like you're doing better now, so I'm glad. You're a hell of a doctor though—it's definitely medicine's loss."

"Well, I guess figure this way I'll serve double duty. I can fight and fix my teammates up on the go. It's a win-win, right?"

Steve nodded in the affirmative, and then nodded towards Danny. "I'm really sorry to have to do this, but we're on a case and we're supposed to meet a witness. You let me know if you need anything, okay? It was really good to see you."

"You too, Commander," Wallis replied eagerly. "It's good to see you healed up and healthy."

"It's good to be that way, and it's all thanks to you. Take care, yeah? Let me know how Hell Week goes."

"Of course, Commander." Wallis reached out his hand for a parting handshake, but Steve pulled him in for a brief hug instead and smiled again as Danny and he started to move away.

When they had reached a point where Danny was sure Wallis was no longer in earshot, Danny finally broke their silence. "So you nearly blew yourself up on a grenade, huh?"

Steve glanced down at him, quickly and sharply, but then relaxed his features after a moment. "It wasn't…Wallis makes a bigger deal out of it than it was."

"That's not what it sounded like. You said he saved your life; that seems like a big deal to me."

McGarrett sighed, running a hand absentmindedly through his hair. "To be honest, I don't remember a ton of what happened after the explosion. I got hurt a lot over there—it was just sort of par for the course in my line of work—and yeah, Wallis kept me alive after that particular occasion. I just don't think it was quite as heroic as he says it was."

"Did you or did you not almost let yourself get blown up to protect your men like he says?"

"I mean, technically speaking yes, but—"

"And did you or did you not almost die in the process?" Danny wasn't even going to recognize the part of him that blanched at that question, wasn't willing to give any allowance to the mental pictures of his best friend bloodied and broken in some country far away, was only going to get the answer he wanted to out of the man beside him.

"I mean, sure it was close, but I've probably had worse injuries at some point, and—"

"Then Wallis seems like he knows what he's talking about and therefore is probably right about the whole thing. Besides, you said you didn't remember much of it anyway, so you don't really get to discount the guy that does. Anyways, whatever you think happened or whatever really happened, it seems like something good came out of all of it. The guy seems pretty driven now to be a SEAL and pretty happy."

"Yeah," Steve replied quietly, looking over his shoulder at Wallis' retreating form. "Sometimes change can be good."

"Speaking from experience, babe?"

Steve shrugged, mirroring the former medic's gesture minutes before. "Even before everything that happened with the Hesse brothers and my dad, the war had made me dark. Not like I'd ever been this incredibly happy-go-lucky guy before, but that war was hard. The things I saw, the things I did… Before my dad was killed, I thought I'd be in the military for life. Go up the ranks in the Navy, make a life out of it, ignore the demons and push through until they were gone for good. And then everything changed and I met you guys, and it turned out that this change brought me the good I needed at that point in my life." After a beat, he turned and offered up a small and slightly unsure grin. "Does that make sense?"

Danny nodded immediately, images of his own dark days in a tiny hovel of an apartment with barely enough room for himself, let alone his daughter, in the days before his crazy maniac of a partner came to the islands and had dragged him into this rollercoaster that was Five-0. Dark days ended by his own piece of good, his own piece of good luck that turned things around in the form of an ex-Navy SEAL, a piece of good who's definition just expanded to include pretty damn heroic next to best friend and selfless, if a bit messed up. So Danny just nodded again, saying simply, "It does."

Next week's story will be longer and will contain some more Steve-whump! Anyway, let me know what you thought!

Charlotte