AN: Next chapter will be up tomorrow, promise. (ETA- looks like a wonky something is going on with posting, so I'm reposting, but for the record the chapter below is from July 19 in case it doesn't show up that way)

Chapter 25

Once Danny's plane was off the ground, Cassie went home and called her parents and then she called Jen and Zach. The rest of her week was filled with starting to plan for a work transition; she'd told them she would stay on officially until right after the holidays even though a lot of that time would be on leave.

Jen drove up that weekend to help her plan and pack, and to talk about being part of a cop's life.

"Are you taking all your furniture with you?" Jen asked, going through sheets and towels to see what needed to be packed and what could be tossed or given away.

Cassie nodded. "I think so. I'll know more after I find an apartment."

"Have you picked some areas to look?"

"Kono has some neighborhoods in mind, and she's going to set up a few appointments when I get into town. I'd love to live downtown, but she says it's so expensive, I'd be better off a little farther out. I think rents can't be much worse than downtown DC, but we'll see."

"I think you should get an apartment on the beach," Jen said.

"With a guest suite for you?" Cassie asked pointedly and Jen shrugged unapologetically. "I'll see what I can do," Cassie said, tossing a towel at her. "I know I haven't even left yet, but I'm already looking forward to you all visiting."

"Me, too, and not just because I finally get my exotic tropical vacation. I can't wait to meet Danny's friends. Your friends, now."

Cassie smiled thinking about it. "You're going to love them. I suppose it's too much to hope you can come out every year, but you know you're welcome there any time, right?"

Jen stopped and reached out to hug her sister-in-law. "I know. And you always have a home on this side of the country." She let Cassie go and added, "And I'm so glad you have a support system already out there. What you're doing… Cass, I think Danny is a great guy and he is perfect for you. I'm so happy that you're so happy. But there are going to be times when life will suck. When he's gone for three days in a row, maybe making it home to fall in bed for two hours before he's gone again. Hearing something on the news, or a concerned call from a neighbor, and not knowing if he's involved or not. When he leaves in the middle of dinner or a party or a movie. Again."

Cassie studied Jen and asked a question she'd never thought to ask the woman who married her big brother and who was like a sister to her. "Is it worth it?"

Jen nodded slowly, but firmly. "Yes. I wouldn't choose any other kind of life, or anyone else to live it with." She grinned at Cassie. "And even when it's tough and scary, you're going to be happy. That man is crazy in love with you."

Cassie bit her lip and then smiled. "I know."

"Good thing you're head over heels for him, too."

Cassie's smile turned into a full-blown grin. "I know."

Danny had been putting off having this conversation, because he didn't know how to do this, but with Cassie's decision to move, it was time. He was worried she wouldn't meet with him in person, but he felt like he needed to talk to her that way. It wasn't until he'd been home a full week that their schedules matched up, and in spite of the fact that they were in the middle of a case, he took the time out to make the meeting happen.

He wrapped his hands around the coffee cup, not so much for the warmth, but as a reminder of Cassie. Funny how he'd never be able to think of the drink without thinking of her now. He smiled to himself and, in thinking about her, lost his nervousness. A voice saying his name startled him out of his thoughts.

"Daniel?" He looked up and Rachel stood there. She sat down and said, "Are you alright? You looked lost in thought."

He nodded. "Thanks for coming." He looked toward the counter. "Do you want some tea or something?"

"No, thank you. I can't stay long."

Of course. Danny a deep breath. "I wanted to let you know something."

Rachel studied him. "Is it about why you went to DC for two weeks?"

"It is, actually. Or rather, it's about who I went to see."

"You're seeing someone." It was more of a statement than a question.

"I am. She lives in DC now, but she's planning on moving out here in January."

She stared at him for a moment. "It sounds serious."

Danny nodded. "It is."

"And where will she be staying when she moves out here?"

"We're still talking about that."

"Daniel, it's not that I object to you having a girlfriend, but I'd prefer my daughter not be there when she's staying over."

Danny bit his tongue instead of responding to the first part of what Rachel said, focusing on the second piece. "She won't be staying over," Danny used air quotes around the words. "If - when - we move in together, it will be her home as well."

"So she'll be your live-in girlfriend?"

Danny sighed internally. "You know, Rachel, I'm not going to discuss the legal status of my relationships with you. It doesn't matter."

"I think it does. I don't think it's good for Grace to be living with an unmarried couple."

"Hmmm. Well, I checked our custody agreement - ran it past a lawyer just to be sure I was reading everything correctly - and there's nothing in there that says anything about that." He leaned forward and tried not to raise his voice. "Look, this is a courtesy notice, Rachel; I'm giving you heads up because that is the right thing to do here. There's someone else in my life, and she is a permanent fixture, which means she's also part of Grace's life now. And for the record, Grace likes her." He tapped the table to make his point. "You're probably going to meet her sooner rather than later, and, believe it or not, I'm trying to make that easier for both of you, because I know exactly what that feels like."

Rachel hesitated, then said, "Grace has met her?"

Danny breathed out in an awkward laugh. "Grace introduced us." He wasn't terribly surprised that Grace hadn't mentioned Cassie to her mother, at least not in the context of being Danny's girlfriend. His daughter could be just as protective of him as he was of her.

Rachel tried to cover her surprise. "Be that as it may, I am concerned."

Danny waved a hand. "Fine. Be concerned. But it doesn't change anything."

Rachel wrapped up their conversation quickly after that, confirming holiday times for Grace and the leaving in a hurry. Danny wasn't sure what she was going to do, and he didn't care. There was really only one person he wanted to talk to, but she was in a meeting, so he sent a quick text. He knew she'd call or text if she could, and his phone dinged a second later with a text: Love you, wish I were there with you. Talk to you as soon as I'm out of this budget review.

The utter normalcy of her message made Danny feel better. He headed back to the office knowing that everything was going to be fine.

Steve stuck his head in Danny's office. "Hey, how'd it go?"

"Ah, not especially well, thanks for asking."

"Sorry, partner." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Let me take your mind off it. We've got a lead."

He gathered them all in the bullpen and went over what they knew. "Duke just called. HPD received reports of someone with a gun at the big outdoor store on Kalia Avenue. They're doing a big event there today with demonstrations and classes, so at first people thought he was one of the guys teaching hunting safety."

"HPD checked it out just in case and sent us this photo. One of the officers responding to the call thought he looked like the description we gave them this morning for our suspect." Kono flicked the image onto the big screen.

"That does look like our guy," Danny said. They'd gotten the description from a witness to a shooting the night before, but this was the first solid lead they had on the actual person.

Kono nodded. "His name is Theo Anderson. Flew in two days ago, apparently following his wife and son. He's wanted in Nebraska for running a major drug ring. According to the FBI, his wife witnessed him in the murder of two of his rivals. She went to the cops, but instead of accepting protection, she ran." She flicked another image onto the screen.

Steve picked up the thread. "She's not doing a good job of hiding. This is her coming into Honolulu International last week, and she's registered at a hotel under her maiden name."

"Where's the hotel?" Chin asked.

Steve said pointedly, "Down the street from the store he's at now."

Lou said, "What are we waiting on then? Let's go get him."

Chin could tell that Danny was more agitated than usual. As they packed up gear, Chin asked, "Bad morning?"

Danny looked up, startled out of deep thought. "Ah, kind of, yeah. I had coffee with Rachel this morning." He paused. "Well, I had coffee. She sat there and judged me."

Chin nodded knowingly. "You told her about Cassie moving here."

"I did, and I got "Daniel, my daughter shouldn't see unmarried couples being happy and living together.""

Chin looked puzzled. "I thought Cassie was getting her own apartment."

"She is." Danny shrugged. "Maybe. For now."

"You're thinking about getting a place together?" When Danny didn't answer, Chin studied him and slowly grinned. "Whatever happened to find a woman you hate and buy her a house?"

Danny held up a hand. "No. Cass and I talked about her getting an apartment. She didn't assume she'd be doing anything else. It makes sense, she's good with that. But I don't actually want her living anywhere else. So my...thoughtfulness," he gave Chin a pointed look, "is just me working that out in my head. Trust me, I am not thinking about… that."

Chin grinned at his friend's thought process and his professed aversion to getting married. "Why not?"

"I made a mess of things the first time I tried it. What's to say I won't screw things up again?"

"Danny, you're one of the bravest men I know. Don't let the little things - like pride - get in the way of being with her. There's never enough time and you don't want to waste a second of it." He clapped Danny on the back and headed out.

By the time the team arrived, the scene at the store had gone from watchful to chaos. HPD had quietly begun evacuating the store, but when he saw what was happening, their suspect started firing at people. They had injuries on site, though fortunately no one had been killed yet.

Duke met them with the news that there were people in the building, but they weren't sure if they were hostages, or people trapped or unwilling to move. He also had the bad news that some people who escaped the building said the shooter had what looked like big grenades with him.

The team fanned out in a semi-circle to approach the building. They could see Anderson moving on a covered patio on the second floor, but couldn't get a clear shot.

Kono was looking for a sniper position, but there wasn't anything good. The parking lot was fairly large and flat, and none of the close buildings had good lines of sight.

The team advanced, hoping to get inside. HPD had set up a perimeter, so if Anderson escaped the building, they would catch him that way.

Suddenly, a blast shook the building. Everyone took cover, and as the smoke cleared Steve tried to get eyes on what had happened. "That was a bomb," he yelled to the rest of the team.

"You think?" Danny shouted over the cacophony of car and building alarms and people yelling.

Another blast shook the building, this time from a different part of the building.

Steve pointed up at the top of the building, where there the windows had been shattered and parts of two walls had blown out, and then at the damage on the second floor.

Lou shouted, "He's moving a lot. He must have planted the first one and run downstairs."

The smoke and the noise cleared a bit; Kono pointed a finger up by her ear. "Listen."

Steve nodded. "No shooting. Blast may have taken him out." He made eye contact with his team. "Let's go."

They all moved forward carefully but quickly. The three-story building appeared mostly stable, though the end of the building where the blasts were centered looked far less so.

Danny heard something to his left and peered through the settling dust. He saw a kid stumble out of a side door. "Shit. Steve!" Danny yelled for his partner, who was off to his right. The boy, probably about ten, saw Danny and ran toward him. Danny caught the kid and said, "Hey buddy, it's okay. I've got you. It's okay now. Was there anyone else inside with you?"

The kid clung to him and nodded. "My class is here. They're all inside."

Danny patted his back and realized that there was smoke billowing out the door behind the kid, bad enough that it obscured the rest of his team. He said into the radio, "Steve! I've got kids on this end of the building." He looked up at the side of the building, where he could see flames at the top of the building. "And fire. The blasts must have started a fire."

Steve's voice in his ear said, "Danny, can you…" and then more shots rang out. Danny heard Steve cursing, then, "How the hell is he still alive?"

"Crazy is hard to kill," Lou said dryly.

Danny could hear other calls for help from the building. "There are people in this side of the building," he told the team.

Kono added, "I've got them, too."

Danny looked down at the kid and knelt down so he could see him better, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, buddy. Where exactly is the rest of your class inside the building? Can you tell me?"

The kid looked terrified but nodded. "We were hiding under the stairs at the end of the hall. Miss Myers told us to stay there and be quiet. But then there was a bang and I got scared and ran."

"She did the right thing, buddy. So did you. Now I need you to do one more thing for me, okay?" Danny pointed off to where he could see the fire trucks. "Can you run over there? There are people who will take care of you while I get the rest of your class out of the building. Can you do that for me?" The kid nodded, and Danny patted him on the back and sent him running. Danny moved toward the building, noticing the smoke was getting thicker. "I'm on the west end of the building, headed toward the stairwell. There's a bunch of kids and their teacher there," he told his team.

"Be careful, Danny," Steve called.

Danny rolled his eyes. That was the pot calling the kettle right there. He moved into the building, carefully, half listening to the radio calls. Kono was shepherding a group of people outside while Lou cleared the building behind her. Chin and Steve kept looking for the shooter, who had moved down to the second floor and was hiding behind something at the top of the main staircase. As Danny ran across people, he pointed them out of the building while he headed for the back staircase.

As he approached the concrete staircase, Danny called out quietly, "Miss Myers? I'm Detective Danny Williams. I found one of your students outside."

A hand appeared from behind a stack of boxes. "We're here."

Danny hurried forward and found about fifteen kids huddled with three adults behind storage cabinets and boxes stacked behind and under the stairs. He holstered his gun and held out a hand to the teacher, who was sitting on the floor, a t-shirt wrapped around her bleeding leg.

He knelt down beside her. "Okay, we need to get you all out of here. Can you walk?"

"I think so," she said. Danny put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from moving just yet. He turned to the kids, still kneeling so they could see him.

"You guys picked a really exciting day to take a field trip, huh?" He made his voice sound relaxed and just a bit cheerful. A couple of the kids smiled and a couple of them nodded, eyes wide. "Well, some of my friends are just outside. They came for the excitement, too, and they have really cool fire trucks and ambulances and all sorts of vehicles with loud sirens and big flashing lights. You guys want to see those?" More of the kids nodded and Danny clapped his hands together. "Alright then."

He looked over his shoulder at the teacher. "Other than one kid, is everyone here?" She nodded. He pointed at one of the adults. "Help me get her up."

They got Miss Myers to stand, and found she could walk if she leaned on someone. "Okay, then. Here's what I need you all to do. Everybody grab the hand of the person behind you and the person in front of you." He gave them all a silly look. "And don't talk to me about cooties. We have suspended the cooties rule for the duration of our walk outside." A few of the kids giggled. "We're going to walk down the hall and out the door. And when we get outside, you're going to run toward the fire trucks. Got it?"

One girl raised her hand and asked, "What about the bad man?"

Danny looked at the teacher and she added, "We heard the shots."

Danny nodded. "Well, some of my other friends," he tapped his earpiece so the kids could see he was talking to other adults out there, "are taking care of the bad man. They have that covered, so our job is to get out of the building." The girl nodded at him, reassured.

He got the kids and adults in line and led them out into the hall. In spite of knowing Steve and Chin had the shooter covered, he wasn't taking any chances, so he cleared the hall as the group moved. "Steve, I've got eighteen people here, headed out the side door."

"Copy that, Danny."

Another blast shook the building. It felt different - and closer - than the first two, but Danny thought that might be because he was inside the building this time, which was a place he really, really did not want to be. Not again.

"You might want to move faster," Steve said.

"You think?" Danny snapped back. A few of the kids were crying and Danny called back over his shoulder in a casual voice. "Hey, hey, you guys. What's with all the hubbub? We're fine down here. That loud noise? That was nothing. You know what, it was probably just my friends. This one friend of mine, he's such a klutz. Trips over his own feet all the time and he's kind of a tall guy, so every time he falls, he's got so far to fall that when he lands, it shakes the whole building. I can't take him anywhere. And he's out there right now, so my guess is, he tripped again." He saw the kids relax and one or two of them giggle. If an adult was willing to be silly and nonchalant, things couldn't be too bad.

"Thanks, partner," Steve said in his ear.

"All for a good cause, Steven," Danny said in a low voice so the kids wouldn't hear. "Kono, are you out?"

"Yeah, Danny. We're clear on this side."

"Can you send EMS to the west side entrance? The kids are okay but the teacher's got a gash on her leg."

Kono sounded worried when she answered. "Can you get out another entrance? That one really doesn't look stable."

Danny looked around. The only other door they'd passed was a ways back, and the smoke was really starting to get bad. The kids were coughing now and he knew they didn't have long to get out of the building. "Don't think that's an option. We're in the service hall on the side of the building. We'd have to go back and through and I don't think we have time for that."

"We'll get as close as we can. But definitely move faster," Kono said.

"Shooter's down, so you're clear," Steve added.

Excellent," Danny murmured as he put his gun back in his holster and turned to the adult behind him. "Can you carry Miss Myers?" The man nodded and Danny said, "Great. When we get outside, do that. We need to move fast." He called out to the group as he walked faster. "Okay, you all. I've just been told that the fire trucks have someplace else to be soon. They're going to wait for us, but we have to hurry. So we're going to pick up the pace, and we get outside, you're all going to run as fast as you can, okay? I promise if you do that, we'll all get a chance to see the trucks and maybe even hit the sirens. Everybody know what to do?"

A chorus of yes, sirs came back. Danny could see the door and it was partly blocked by debris. He and the other adults quickly shifted it out of the way. In his ear, Steve said, "Danny, you gotta move, buddy."

Danny said through his coughing, "Door's blocked, but we're almost through. You out?"

"We're all clear. You're the last ones in. Move faster, brother."

They got the door clear. Danny opened it and nodded to the man to pick up Miss Myers. "Go!" he yelled, pushing them out the door. "Okay, kids, time to run. Don't let those trucks leave!" He touched each kid as they passed, counting heads. He counted fifteen and the last adult, so he let the door close and took off behind them. He could hear cracking behind him and knew the building was about to come down.

Through the smoke, he could see the first kids reach the emergency personnel running to meeting them. But now he only counted fourteen kids in front of him. He stopped and looked back. He saw a blond head on the ground; one of the kids had fallen.

Danny ran back and scooped up the girl. He glanced up and over his shoulder and realized they weren't going to make it far enough away from the building, so he looked for cover. He ducked behind what looked like a piece of blocky modern art and curled himself in a ball around the little girl as there was another loud noise and the whole end of the building came crashing down.