2.21

Chin Ho Kelly was a worried man. He was worried about small pox on his islands, worried about his family, Malia and Kono especially, but he was more, much more worried about Danny. The man was quiet, reserved, completely opposite of his normal lively self that he was beginning to think the guy was depressed. He would not, actually, be surprised if Danny was diagnosed with some sort of depressive illness, from the start of the year going from the highest high, thinking he was going to be a father again, to the lowest low when he found out he wasn't, and things getting worse for him since then. Chin felt guilty some times when he felt so happy, when he was with Malia in their lovely house, and he thought about Danny being virtually homeless and alone and lonely. But he knew the other detective would rip him a new one if he told him he felt that way, he would tell him that Chin deserved it, and Malia definitely, and not to be so moronic.

Danny deserved it as well, and Chin had thought Steve was providing that for him – Danny had definitely been happier, as had Steve from after his wedding, it was obvious something had changed, and for the better, in their relationship.

But now Steve had gone, left on his own, again, something he had promised them all he wouldn't do in the hospital after they had gotten him back from Korea, and Danny was bereft.

Chin thought, reminding himself of when he watched from the door to Steve's study in the beach house that his colleague and friend looked smaller than he had done, hunched over the paperwork on the desk in front of him, trying, probably in vain, to find out where Steve had gone. He couldn't leave him to deal like this, so he walked in, calling his name quietly. "Danny?" he asked, and stood close enough so he could lay a hand on the other man's tense shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

Danny had looked up at him and the expression on his face was dark, angry but mostly hurt. Whatever he told Chin was window dressing, the Lieutenant listened in between the lines and really wanted to kick McGarrett's ass at that point – Danny was upset that he had gone, angry that he had only left him a note, and hurt that after everything they had gone through, Steve didn't trust him enough to let him in, didn't love him enough to stay and let Danny help him.

But there wasn't much he could do about it there and then, before Chin could suggest anything Danny's phone had rung and they suddenly had a case – one that could spell disaster for the whole Hawaiian chain if they fucked up. Something else to weigh down those broad shoulders.

At least the small pox case provided Danny with a distraction, even if it was in the shape of two NCIS agents from the mainland. Typically one was a SEAL that knew McGarrett, and Chin noted that however much Sam wanted to talk about Steve Danny changed the conversation to something else. He really didn't want to talk about his lover, or ex, Chin didn't know at that point, and he had also noticed the look Danny had on his face when they had found out the bad guy was involved in a family dispute with Callen. He agreed, another one, another stupid feud that had caused the virtual destruction of an entire family from what Chin had gleaned from Callan, not worth it, at all.

And he understood too, why Danny was so reluctant to go into the places with the disease, especially the warehouse where they found the other three victims, hell, he didn't want to go in and he hadn't almost died from another biological weapon barely twelve months ago. So he took it on himself to protect his friend, he heard Callan and Hanna comment when Danny was dealing with the clean up crew from CDC and fielding a call from Denning at the same time.

Chin heard the two men before he rounded one of the many corners, and he stopped when he heard them talking. Sam Hanna had seemed to hit it off with the other detective, but Chin didn't know about the other guy.

"They work well together," Sam was saying quietly to his partner.

There was a pause so Chin thought Callan must have nodded. "Williams seems to be a bit high strung though," he said after a moment. Chin grinned and nodded himself – understatement.

Sam laughed quietly. "He's the complete opposite of Steve," he replied. "I can see why they would work together, chalk and cheese."

Chin had to agree as well, they did work very well together, Danny filled all the empty places Steve had made in and around himself, whether the other SEAL liked it or not.

"But he seems a bit reluctant to put himself in any sort of trouble," Callan added after another pause. "He hung back when we got here, I thought for a moment he wasn't going to come with us. Surely your friend Steve wouldn't work with that."

Chin was going to leap in to Danny's defence there and then, his smile faded and he clenched his fists, but he waited for Hanna to reply. "You're insane," he said with a huff. "Hell, I didn't want to walk in this place. Only someone as insane as you would want to come in here, with what we know is here. Do you want small pox?" he questioned. "It seems to me the sane person amongst us held back,"

Chin nodded, approved, sort of, and stepped round the corner into their eye line. "He almost died only a few months ago from sarin poisoning," he said to Callan with a glare. "And he has a daughter."

Callan had the good grace to look away for a moment and then nod. "I didn't know that," he replied and looked up at him again. "Sarin huh? That must have been bad,"

"It was," Chin replied bleakly. "You try watching your friend struggle for every breath, then go into convulsions and pass out in front of you, because he tried to help someone else. Better yet," he added and got in Callan's space. "Go through it yourself,"

The mainlander thought about it for a moment, made sure he stayed relaxed, he didn't want the other man in front of him to fly off the handle, he didn't know how he would protect himself from that, even if he could – Chin Ho Kelly, and Danny Williams, were really unknown entities to him. Before he could say anything, his own partner stepped in.

"Like I said, G," Sam told him with a soothing smile. "The only sane one of us."

Other things Chin had noticed concerned him too – yes, Danny was eating at Kamekona's, he really did love the big guy's garlic shrimp, but not as much as he had been known to put away, and it was getting more obvious that his clothes were getting too large for him, his shirts didn't stretch as much over his shoulders, and he had started to use another hole in his belt, tighter than before. He was tired too, Chin had seen him tired before, of course, in their job, the term office hours didn't really have any meaning. But at least before he would have Steve to take him home and make him sleep. Now though he didn't have that, and Chin remembered how panicked Danny had been when he had figured out almost immediately that Steve was in trouble in Korea, before any of the rest of them had even had an inkling of being any trouble. At least then they had known the area he was in, now all they had was a vague map in the McGarrett house that pinpointed an area in Japan, and Steve may not even have gone in that direction.

So he was tired, irritable, worried, scratch that, probably petrified for his partner, so much so he wasn't eating well, and Chin decided there and then as he watched the other guy put down his fork after only eating about half of the small portion he had asked for, that he was going to take him home when this had finished and ask Malia to take care of him. She was fond of Danny, she wouldn't take much persuading, and it might stop her from going after him for a while, she seemed to take real offence at his love of the 'occasional' cocoa puff or malasada, or three that he and Kono shared as breakfast – most days.

But before he could do that and actually take him home with him, Danny got another call from Kono and they were moving again.

He sighed, took a last longing look at the food and beer they had amassed, and jogged after the other three men back to the cars. He wondered, as he followed the silver Camaro, if Steve knew just how good Danny was at pursuit driving, but then decided just to concentrate on getting there in one piece. And then, a few minutes later, wondered just what LA was going to be like on his lungs.

LA

Danny looked around when they got off the flight and sighed. This was the first time he had been back on the mainland since he had moved to Hawaii, and he had hoped he would have been going over to Jersey with Grace to see his parents, rather than chasing after some crazy with a bio weapon. And the moment he found himself there, he started to feel home sick, he wanted to go home, and that meant back to Hawaii, not to Jersey. He felt … out of sorts here, he didn't know anyone here, he didn't know the way they worked here, in fact he felt the same here as he had when he had stepped foot on Hawaiian soil for the first time. At least he had back up this time, he had a friend with him, and he turned his head and saw Chin standing next to him, looking around them as they followed Sam and G. His friend noted him watching him and looked at him with a smile. "Ready for the crazy?" Chin asked him quietly as they made into the terminal building.

Danny shook his head but smiled back at him. "Kono and Steve would fit right in though," he retorted wryly.

Chin nodded. "Uh huh," he agreed. "True." He kept an eye on his partner for the day, as he had promised Kono, and hid his amusement quite well, he thought. It was quite obvious Danny had a thing about needles, the way he was prevaricating at the injection, and the green tinge he had when Deeks fell over … although Hetty had stabbed him with the needle pretty badly.

It was also obvious that Danny wanted to go home, two calls to Grace in under 6 hours, the painful sniping at Deeks, the lack of any sort of enjoyment in the work on the case. At least he and the two NCIS agents had had some sort of twisted pleasure from attacking the trailer with a JCB, Danny had just given them a slight fake smile and stepped back to let them do it. Chin understood it, really he did, he wanted to get back to Malia and Kono, even some of his extended family, but he had thought Danny would be enjoying being on the mainland a bit more than he was. But then again, he would probably feel better if Grace was with him and they weren't chasing a crazy woman with a pandemic-inducing bug in her handbag. Or if Chin were actually Steve.

Despite thinking about it, Chin wasn't insulted. Danny was, and would probably be forever in love with the SEAL, it was written all over his face when they were together. Steve though, kept his feelings close to his chest, or tried to. It was obvious to those close to him that he loved Danny, but whether he was actually in love with Danny was another matter. The Lieutenant just hoped his friends and colleagues would figure this out soon, that they were the most compatible pair Chin had ever seen, and they could be fab together. If Danny would get some self-confidence, he had plenty of bluster, plenty of fearless bravery, masses of intelligence and integrity, but lacked any positivity about his own self worth. Steve had an ego that almost matched his abilities to create havoc and mayhem, but he was more than enough for Danny's big heart, he needed the other detective more than air, that was obvious, but he needed to get that stick out of his ass and let go of his obsession with Wo Fat so he could spend his time loving Danny. And the sooner both of them could figure it out the better – he and Kono could stop babysitting them and he could work on her, she was hiding something, someone from him and he didn't like it.

But first things first, they had a crazy mad scientist to catch.

End