Disclaimer – still don't own Hawaii Five -0. Just toying with their lives for a while. And my lawyer and psychiatrist both agree that I still don't own Steve. Dammit.
A/N - Once again, I am forced to apologize for the delay in posting this. I prefer writing drama to living it, but man, have I been living it recently.
Sang Min. Steve rubbed the back of his tired neck as he paced. His mother's fate, all of their futures, were in Sang Min's felonious hands. Danny leaned against the Camaro, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration as they waited. "Could you stop pacing, please?" he asked irritably.
Steve glared at his partner and continued wearing a path in the concrete under his feet. "I'll take that as a no, then." Danny muttered under his breath.
Headlights rounded the corner of the parking garage in downtown Honolulu were Steve and Danny were meeting the unmarked prison transport van bearing the criminal. Steve stopped pacing and Danny stood at attention as the van came to a stop a few yards from them. One guard slid the side door open while the other brought the Commander some forms requiring his signature.
"Steve McGarrett," Sang Min's heavily accented drawl was dripping with fury. "What, you couldn't live without me?"
The Commander scoffed and took a moment to survey the prisoner before him and found the mullet in pristine form. "Orange really isn't your color," he shot back.
Sang Min held his shackled hands out. "You're telling me," he sneered. "We gonna do this like civilized men, or what?"
"Civilized?" Danny laughed. "The, uh, comedy routine is coming along nicely."
"You want my help?" he countered. "You unlock these," he lifted his hands again towards Danny who rolled his eyes but indicated to the guards to remove the cuffs from Sang Min's wrists.
"Commander, Detective," the elder guard said, accepting the signed forms from Steve. "He's all yours."
Steve nodded curtly. Danny took Sang Min by the elbow and led him over to the Camaro. He opened the passenger side door and pushed the front seat forward. Steve crossed over to the driver's side and yanked the door open before sliding in to his seat. "Still not man enough to drive your own car, Danno?" Sang Min taunted. Danny responded by pushing the prisoner's head a little too forcefully into the back seat. He pushed the seat back and clicked it into place before sliding in. "I'm going to relish the chance, however small, to put a bullet in your ass, just for fun," Danny announced as the Camaro roared to life under Steve's touch. The Commander smirked at Danny's threat, then laughed aloud when Sang Min muttered "Police brutality," under his breath.
The trio arrived at Steve's house twenty minutes later. "Whoa, nice digs, McGarrett. I didn't realize public service paid so well," Sang offered from the back seat.
"Yeah, I'm sure you'd have chosen a more honorary path in life," Danny responded sarcastically, sliding from the front seat to open the back. Sang rubbed his wrists absentmindedly as he followed Danny into the house, with Steve close behind, preventing any thought of escape.
"Jenn?" Steve called as they crossed the threshold of the home. Both Jennifer and his mother emerged from the kitchen. "Holy Mullet," Jennifer exclaimed.
"This is a fashion statement," Sang countered irritably.
Nancy shook her head incredulously. "Your father rocked a mullet…in 1982," she said to Steve.
Jennifer turned to Nancy, her eyes wide. "Rocked?" she repeated.
Nancy shrugged. "Okay, I might have been watching some Disney Channel. Not the cartoons...although this one with two brothers is really funny and surprisingly pop-culture relevant…" she trailed off as four stupefied expressions started back at her. "Grace," she tried to explain with a nervous twist of her necklace around her finger. "I want to be able to communicate with Grace and my grandchildren on their level."
Danny blinked slowly before shaking his head discreetly and turning to Steve. "If you hear my daughter say she 'rocked' anything, you have my permission to ground her on the spot," he said quietly.
Sang's eyes darted suspiciously between Steve and his mother. "I thought your Makuahine was dead, McGarrett."
"Sang Min," Steve started with a smile, "I'd like you to meet CIA Special Agent Nancy Sheldon, aka Shelburne."
Sang's hand recoiled from the one Nancy had extended to him as if he'd been burned. "No, no, no, no, no," he stuttered, his eyes wide with fear. "No way, you on your own, McGarrett. Ain't no way I get in bed with Shelburne and come out alive."
Danny blocked Sang's hasty retreat toward the front door. He held his ground as he looked the criminal in the eye. "I'm actually okay with that. Steve?"
Steve replied with a nod of his head and a sly smile.
The color drained from Sang Min's face as he bent at the waist. "You didn't tell me nothing about this."
"I did, actually," Danny countered. "You said, 'you got a job for me?' and I said, 'we've got the one thing Wo Fat wants'. Not my fault you couldn't read between the lines."
"Getting out of prison and getting dead are two different things!" Sang yelled.
Danny's expression was bordering on gleeful as he regarded the criminal who had caused them so much headache. He still blamed Sang for his brush with death by sarin. He shrugged nonchalantly before answering, "I mean, not really, if you think about it."
Nancy shot a disapproving glare at Danny before taking over the conversation. "Sang, we need your help. My son and Detective Williams have offered you full immunity and time served in exchange for you getting word to Wo Fat that you know who Shelburne is and where she is. Once this is over, you'll never have to fear Wo Fat again. Are you in?"
Sang Min ran a hand over his face and chewed on his bottom lip, clearly lost in a myriad of choices and outcomes. He paced for several minutes while he contemplated before finally answering, so quietly they had to strain to hear."
"Yes…"
TBC…