Chapter 13
It was 2:30 in the morning when the alert on Jerry's computer went off. He pushed his chair away from his desk and rolled over to the monitor, a satisfied grin settling on his face. Grabbing his cell, he dialed Steve. A groggy voice answered.
"Commander, the alerts I set up in the server went off. I'm pretty sure they're accessing the information now."
"They hacked in?"
"Yep, looks like it. I'll give it a little bit before I start poking around in there, but I'm pretty sure they're getting everything they'll need on the house."
"That's great, Jerry. Do me a favor – get with the TSA and work on getting the passenger manifests for every flight coming in from the Middle East, including connecting flights, and get with every private airstrip in the entire state. If we can figure out who they are before they land, we can track them once they do."
"And if not?"
"We know where they're going; we'll wait them out." Jerry heard the rustling of sheets and clothing on the other end. "I'm on my way in."
By the time Steve got to headquarters, Jerry was in the bullpen. A schematic of… something, Steve couldn't tell, was up on the main screen. "What is that?"
"This is our event log for our server – basically, it's like a map of every command we make when we use our computers," Jerry magnified a certain area, bringing it to the center of the screen. "See that?"
Steve nodded.
"That's our IP address, our network code – all of this is ours. But if you look over here…" Jerry brought up another screen, "you'll see an external access point from a hidden IP address at 2:28am our time. And when I go to the files we hid with the fake safe house information, you'll see that someone from that same external IP address managed to access the file. They were in there less than five minutes before they closed it out and they tried to cover their tracks, but they didn't cover them good enough."
"Alright, so they have it then." Steve took a deep breath. "They don't want to wait to get this done, that's for sure, so we'll probably be seeing them by the end of the week. You get with TSA yet?"
"Not yet, I wanted to work through this and trace back the footprints."
"Alright, I'm gonna work on getting in touch with them then. Good job, Jerry – go home, get some sleep."
"You're just going to stay here all night?"
"I'll catch a quick nap during the morning once everyone else gets here," Steve waved him off.
"Okay, but if Detective Williams asks how long you were here, I'm telling him the truth." Jerry headed out, leaving Steve to his phone calls and the schematics of the house they were using. The head of the TSA in Hawaii wasn't thrilled about being woken up at three in the morning, but Steve didn't have time to care about the guy's beauty sleep. The promise of owing the TSA one and lunch on Steve was enough to put the other man at ease and by the end of the phone call, Steve was assured he would have a full accounting of every passenger list on a flight with connections or origins from anywhere in West Asia no later than noon.
It was 6:30am when Steve picked up his phone and text Danny to let him know not to worry picking him up for work, and it was also his sense of self preservation, at least in the meantime, that led Steve to tell his partner that he was already at the office and to come in at his normal time.
So, Steve was completely unsurprised to see Danny saunter through the door just before 7:30am.
"Good morning."
"Don't you good morning me. How long have you been here?"
"A while," Steve quickly picked up some files and made his way out of the office. Distance; distance and movement, that was the key here. "Our guys bit and broke into our servers last night, they have the info on the house and the location, and we'll have the passenger lists of the planes coming in or connecting from the Middle East pretty soon, and, since we have the account information the money was sent to, we should have at least one name and face to cross reference with those manifests. So," Steve turned around and beamed, now that the smart table was between him and Danny, "it's been a good morning."
"That's wonderful, I'm glad it's been such a productive morning for you, Steven."
Steve wasn't fooled by the conciliatory words for one moment, but who was he to be impolite? "Thank you, Danny."
"That still doesn't answer my question, that question being: How long have you been here?"
"You know, I've really lost track, Danny. I've been working, making phone calls, you know… working," Steve held up the files as if to say, 'See? Work. I was doing it'.
"Okay, well," Danny pulled out his cell phone, "I know for a fact Jerry stayed here over night to monitor our network, so I'm willing to bet lunch that if I call him, he'll have some idea of when you got here."
"Okay, alright, fine. Don't wake Jerry up, he got to bed late." Steve huffed through his nose, his nostrils flaring.
"And how late would that be?"
Steve mumbled a time. Danny scoffed. "Was that English?"
"A little after three this morning, okay?" Steve sighed. "I'll take a nap, Danny, I promise."
"Yes, yes you will take a nap, because we will be camped out at a house for the next few days where sleep will be hard to come by, waiting for international terrorists to drop in, thinking they're going to kidnap a kid back to Jallabad-"
"Morocco," Steve rolled his eyes.
"-and they're probably not going to just walk nicely up to the door and knock, Steve. They're probably not gonna be polite and say, 'Excuse us, Mr. McGarrett, we'd like to take Khalid back to our desert sandcastle where he can grow up to be just like us one day!'. They're not going to do that, they're probably going to have guns and knives and God knows what else, which means they're going to put up a fight, which means you need to get some sleep!"
"I will sleep, I promise, Danny. I'll sleep. I've just got a few more things to do and then I promise, you'll see me taking a nap."
"Yes, because I will be taking you back home to take that nap." Danny stuck his hands in his pockets. Steve sighed.
"Is it going to be like this now? Huh? Now that we're dating or seeing each other or whatever it is that we're doing, is it going to be you with the mother hen routine every time I get up a little early for work?"
"Ohhh, I think we came in at the wrong time, fam."
Lou's voice was the absolute last voice either Danny or Steve expected to hear at that moment, but of course he wasn't alone – Adam, Junior, and Tani were right behind him, and the looks on their faces were the perfect expressions of shock.
Danny was the first to recover, because of course his motor mouth could work in any situation. "What, uh… what - why are you guys here so early?"
Lou peered at him.
"You text me and told me Steve was already here, and I assumed that meant we had something, so I texted Adam, he called the other two. Here we are." Lou offered a sarcastic grin. "Isn't it great?"
"So, we were right," Tani mused, looking between Steve and Danny. "There is something going on?"
"Hey, I got an idea; instead of concentrating on what is or isn't going on in our personal lives, let's focus on getting a game plan together for the next few days for when these lowlifes show up at the house, okay?" Steve pierced everyone with a kind but pointed look that sent a very clear message to his team: the topic of he and Danny was not up for discussion, at least not at the moment.
Hawaii Five-0
"Alright, so cameras and motion sensors are up around the house and the perimeter of the property," Jerry informed them as they filed into the living room of the safe house one by one, setting down their gear and looking around. "We'll be able to see them coming no matter the direction they choose, and since this place has a lot of acreage, we won't have to worry about upset neighbors or anything like that once the action starts."
"Or putting bullets through their windows," Danny added helpfully.
"Or them," Tani grimaced.
"Or any of that," Jerry grinned. "We also have the passenger manifests of flights leaving the middle east or connecting anywhere within that region and coming to any airport in Hawaii. Thought you guys might want to have a look at this guy here," Jerry tapped in a few commands to his laptop as everyone crowded around it.
"Karim Rafik Soulhain," Steve read aloud. "Who is he?"
"That is one of many aliases for one Karim Rafik Al-Massoud," Jerry typed a few keys and brought up a file. "He's on British Airways flight 2756 departing at 7:37am Marrakesh, Morocco time."
"Okay, so it's just about," Steve looked at his watch, "4:30pm here, so that means he'll be on a plane come 8:30pm our time. What's his flight plan?"
"A stop off in London, where three guys connected to the Hassan family have also coincidently booked flights – all on different airlines though and leaving at different times. The last guy's flight to Honolulu is at 7:30pm London time tomorrow, but they'd all be together on the island no later than… 1:30 in the morning on Wednesday."
I'm not even gonna ask how you calculated that in your head," Lou shook his head.
"Smart," Adam nodded. "What are their names?"
"Interpol knows them as Michael Omar Harrak, Omar Saad Azoulay, and Benjamin Anis Belkacem."
"And their jackets?" Tani asked.
"All of them have connections to groups the United States would consider less than savory, and they've been implicated in a handful of intimidation operations within Morocco and elsewhere in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, especially when it comes to groups or individuals funding terrorist operations against the United States and the West. For example," Jerry clicked the mouse a few times. "Two of these guys, Azoulay and Harrak? They were thought to be connected to the kidnapping of two children from a wealthy Jordanian family. When I flipped through the investigators' reports, it had all the signs that those two were in on it, but they couldn't get anything solid."
"And what happened to the kids?" Junior asked, his tone of voice making it clear he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to that.
"They were both returned safely after their father dropped out of a local political race. And who was his opponent, you ask?" Jerry flipped to another page. "Haroun Nabeez Al-Amari, older brother to one Azra Hassan."
"Wait, wait, wait," Lou rubbed his head as if it hurt, and at this point, it probably did. "You're telling me that these two numbskulls kidnapped two kids, and just by coincidence, the father drops out of a race and no one thought to look at Azra's brother as being a possible suspect?"
"Like I said – they couldn't make anything stick, not to Azoulay and Harrak, and definitely not to Azra's brother." Jerry shrugged.
"Meaning they were probably bought off," Danny muttered. "Okay, so what now?"
"Now, we set up here and wait for them to come to us," Steve shrugged off a jacket and started going through the gear.
"You know," Danny started, and Steve looked up at him. "We could just wait at the airport for these guys and arrest them right on the spot."
"For what? Flying into Hawaii? Last time I checked, that's not illegal, Danny."
"No, but like Jerry said, they have relationships to some groups the U.S. doesn't like too much, so we go to whatever airport these yahoos are flying into, get them right off the plane, arrest them, and turn them over to the U.S. Marshals and we all get to go home."
"Yea, and then they get the Hassan family's hot shot lawyers on the phone and they're released in an hour. No way," Steve lifted up an armor bag and started to piece together the rifle within it. "These guys aren't getting away off a technicality. I want them to come here, thinking Khalid is here, so we can end this, and that kid can come back home and go to school and have a normal childhood. Whether these guys go down hard or not, if they come to this house, we've got 'em, right? We can get search warrants for all of their belongings, we'll probably find the laptop or computer they used to hack into our systems, we've got the money going to an account in their name – if they come to us, Danny, we've got them. If we go to them, they walk."
Danny hated it when Steve was right, and he said so. "Thank God Charlie's with Rachel this week," he muttered, prepping his own rifle. "Why the hell are they flying over the Atlantic to get to Hawaii anyway? Wouldn't it be faster for them to go the other way?"
"You'd think so, but it's not really, not by much. If they're going from Marrakesh to London, that's a four hour flight-"
"How do you know?"
Steve rolled his eyes. "I spent some time in Marrakesh, Danny, remember?"
Oh.
"And then from London to here is about 18 hours. If they're meeting up in London, it's because they have some things to go over, plus three of the guys are already there." Steve finished one rifle and went onto the next. "My guess is they'll make their final plans there and hop on a plane here. Once they touch down, they'll either hole up somewhere, sleep for a bit, and then come here or they'll come right to the house from the airport."
"You want me to get in touch with Duke and have him get HPD on the ground at the airport? Call us when they come in one by one?"
"No, I don't want to spook them," Steve paused. "I don't want them knowing we have any idea we know they're coming and if Duke sends officers to the airport, they might figure it out and bail."
"Okay, alright, so how about sticking the kids at the airport starting tomorrow afternoon?" Danny crept up beside Steve. "I know you want these guys bad, babe. But we need to know when they get here, right? We need to put eyes on them so that we know they're here, where they're at, and when they're on their way. We can keep HPD off to the side on a long leash, Steve. They know how to do this stuff."
Steve breathed deeply and nodded after a few seconds. "Yea. Yea, you're right. Okay."
Danny nodded, slipped out his phone, and dialed Duke.
Hawaii Five-0
Despite Danny's comments to the contrary, Steve had made a pretty good career out of being patient. Sitting in a cave with five other guys for days, sometimes weeks on end waiting for your target to show himself did that to a person. For the rest of Monday night and most of the day Tuesday, the team kept tabs on their four suspects, calling airlines and various law enforcement contacts they'd made throughout the years, confirming that each man had boarded their flight and all were on their way to Hawaii. It was through those conversations that they discovered their visitors weren't going to be leaving the same way they came in.
"MI6 has been interested in Omar Harrak for quite a long time," Harry said. "He's a pilot, can fly most single or double engine planes."
"Yea? Who trained him?" Steve asked.
"Why do you think we want him so badly?" Harry shot back. "We don't like it when people come to our country for an education only to want to use it against us one day."
"Yea, well, join the club." Steve walked the perimeter of the house, doing one more check on the cameras as he did. "So, I'm guessing they have a plane on standby at a private airstrip?"
"They do indeed, reserved for departure at 9:00am your time Wednesday morning. It would seem they don't want to waste anytime. I'll have my friend at the office forward you the information just in case you need it."
"Thanks, Harry, really, for everything you've done on this."
"Buy me a beer and some of that wonderful shrimp from your man, Kamekona, and we'll call it even."
"Sure thing," Steve cleared his throat, trying to frame his mouth to ask the question he'd been wanting to ask for a while now, but Harry, unsurprisingly, beat him to it.
"Ah, is that the awkward silence settling in before an even more awkward question is asked?"
"Maybe I was just enjoying the nice breeze."
"You're as likely to enjoy a 'nice breeze' as I am, old boy. Come on then, you may as well get it over with." Harry sounded as if he was enjoying this far too much.
"I'm not trying to get in between you two or anything, but the last two phone calls and then yesterday at the palace… I just want to make sure she's okay, Harry, that's it."
"Well, I wouldn't want to speak for the good lieutenant, but I can speak for myself here, and I can assure you, Steven," Harry's tone turned serious, any playful banter now forgotten, "my intentions towards her are quite genuine. I enjoyed what little time we spent together last year helping you, and earlier this year I had the opportunity to spend some more time with her. She's quite a woman, Steve. I care about her very much."
"I know you'll take care of her, Harry," Steve sighed.
"I don't know what happened between the two of you; Catherine only told me she had to make a difficult choice, but that in the end, it was the right one – for both her and you, even though that decision ended your relationship."
"She's right," Steve said quietly. "You know, I was going to ask her to marry me about four years ago, and she found out about it after the fact, told me that she would've said yes, but… but when she said that, she was standing on an airstrip getting ready to jet off to another mission and that wasn't a life I could or would follow her in. And I think she knew that. So, yea, she would've married me, but I don't think it would've lasted, and I think she knew that too."
"I understand," Harry answered, his voice kind. "I don't know that I'll ever meet her father, but in lieu of that encounter and since you are likely one of the more visible men in her life, I can only promise you that I will treat her with the honor and respect she deserves."
"I know you will, man, I have no doubts about that." Steve cleared his throat. "Just do me one solid, Harry."
"Of course."
"Don't wait to tell her you love her. And don't let her run away from it either."
A noise behind him caught his attention and Steve turned to see Danny making his way across the yard, hands in his pockets as if he were taking a leisurely stroll and not waiting for international criminals to turn up. "Is Khalid doing alright?"
"He was slightly maudlin when we first arrived, but Catherine took him to see the dolphins this morning and he's much happier now for that."
"Good. Tell him I'll see him soon, will you? Tell him I love him, and that Danno loves him too," he grinned at Danny as the other man stopped just a few paces from him.
"I'll do that. The next time I hear from you, I expect these bastards to be trussed up and ready for transport to the nearest prison cell."
"You got it. Tell Cath I said hi." Steve ended the call and cleared his throat, looking at Danny.
"Did he really used the word scoundrel?"
"You're really going to be commenting on another person's vocabulary choices? Really?" Steve snickered and continued his trek around the property while Danny followed behind.
"So, when this is all over and Khalid is safe, what are you going to do?" Danny asked as they reached the end of the driveway. Steve checked one camera while Danny looked at the other. He didn't fail to notice that Steve was taking quite a long time to answer his question. "You know what I think you should do?"
"I'm sure you're going to tell me."
"I think when this is all done, and these guys are caught and on their way to jail, I think you should go to the judge and petition for permanent guardianship over Khalid."
Of all the things Steve was expecting Danny to say, it wasn't that. It made him a little emotional, if he was being honest. "Really?"
"Yea, babe. Really." Danny finished with his camera and walked over to Steve. "You've done so much to keep that kid safe, Steve, but I think he's done even more for you. You love him like he's your own. You actually try not to throw yourself in front of bullets now. You're only driving 15 miles over the speed limit and not 35," he laughed, glad to see that Steve was laughing along with him. "That kid adores you, Steve. And now that you have him in your life, I don't think you can go back to the way you were before."
Steve couldn't help the small smile that lit his face, lifted his heart. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"I mean… what about you and me?"
Danny shook his head. "Not following here."
"You've been there every step of the way with Khalid, Danny, and you have no idea how much that means to me, but if we, you know… pursue an 'us', are you going to be okay with two kids-"
"Yes."
"Danny-"
"Yes, Steve." Danny pressed a hand against Steve's chest. "Yes. What, did you think I'd actually have a problem with that? Khalid's in my life now just as much as he's in yours. Charlie loves him like a brother. Those two are inseparable, hell, even Rachel's taken with him. Steve," Danny stepped up close to him, and it may be giving him a crick in his neck to look up at Steve at this angle, but he didn't care; Steve needed to get this. "There is no scenario where I wouldn't accept you with Khalid. None. No matter what happens with us, whether we get together, stay together, whatever. Whatever happens with us, I will never tell you to abandon that kid. Never."
Steve wanted nothing more than to pull Danny into a hug and keep him there, but he was cognizant that his team, however respectful they were being, were watching, and while he was by no means ashamed of Danny, they needed to have a talk about how public they wanted to be with this development of theirs. He settled for resting his hand over the one Danny currently had on his chest, squeezing the fingers there gently.
"Thanks, Danno."
They finished their perimeter checks and headed back inside. The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent napping, eating, and preparing for what was now a confirmed, early morning visit from their suspects. By eight in the evening, Tani and Junior were headed to Honolulu International, and by 9:00pm, they were settled in the airport's security hub, cameras from every angle, entrance, and exit looking back at them. It was only about an hour before Tani caught movement on one of the screens.
"Hey, I think that's our guy," she looked down at the face sheet in her hand while Junior checked the flight information. "Yep. Karim Rafik Soulhain is on the island." Junior dug out his phone to text Steve while Tani called Jerry, who was sitting in the parking lot of the airport.
"Jerry, Soulhain is on his way out. See if you can get the number of the cab or rideshare he gets into."
"Copy that."
Tani hung up the phone, returning her attention to the monitors in front of her. By midnight, they had only to wait on their fourth suspect. Junior called Steve, updating him.
"We only have the one guy left and he's on a flight that doesn't land until 1:30am or so."
"Alright, good work. Jerry got the numbers of the cabs and the license plate of the Uber that drove our suspects away from their airport. We're working with the companies right now to see where they were dropped off. You and Tani head on back."
Now, it was nearing 3:00am, the witching hour as Jerry fondly called it through the earpieces they were all wearing. The house was dark. Jerry had been sequestered in a room upstairs in the back of the house, curtains drawn to block the light from his computers as he monitored the cameras and motion detectors all along the property. Adam and Lou were posted at the top of the stairs and across from where Khalid's room would've been, a stop gap just in case their suspects made it up to the second floor. Danny had put a nightlight in the room, the better to entice their prey, and had left the door open.
Downstairs, Junior sat on the couch with a light on watching television, a thin tack vest underneath his t-shirt and a bowl of popcorn at his left hand while flicked through the channels with the remote in his left. Tani lay in wait in the kitchen, crouched down in the entrance way with a clear line of sight to the front door and, if she looked to her left, a view of the living room in which Junior currently lounged. He tossed a grin her way; clearly, he thought he'd gotten the best end of the deal here. Tani rolled her eyes at him.
Last but not least, Danny and Steve were outside, hunkered down in bushes as they waited for the first signs of their intruders.
"What time is it?" Danny whispered. Steve checked his watch.
"3:38am."
"They leave the motel yet?"
"Haven't gotten a text from Duke saying they have," Steve looked down at his phone, which suddenly buzzed in his hand. "Check that." A lone message from Duke read They're leaving the motel. Follow?
Steve texted back, No. Instruct all unmarked units to communicate via Jerry from this point forward until I give all-clear. Like clockwork, it wasn't long until everyone heard Jerry in their ears.
"Post Three is reporting a four door Toyota with no plates approaching from the west."
"Here we go, guys," Steve breathed into his mic and melted back into the shrubbery, Danny doing the same beside him.
"Post Two reporting same four door Toyota turning onto our street."
"Junior, you ready in there?" Steve asked.
"Yes, Sir."
It was another five minutes before Jerry chimed again. "Post One reporting same car stopped on the side of the road two houses down from ours. Headlights are off. Suspects making their way out of the vehicle."
"Armed?" Danny asked.
"Post One confirms they can make out at least two rifles."
"Eyes on target," Steve breathed, watching as four figures moved in the distance.
"Motion detectors at driveway confirm."
Steve and Danny watched as the group split up, two headed towards the front of the house, the other two headed for the back.
"Be advised, we have two suspects heading for the back of the house," Danny murmured quietly, watching from his perch as the two unsuspecting morons shimmied by him. A few seconds later, Jerry's voice was in his ear again.
"Motion sensor is going off on the kid's room."
"We got it," came Lou's answer.
"Motion sensor is going off at the front door."
"Got it," Tani bit out.
Steve and Danny watched as the two men at the front door jimmied open the lock. "Junior, suspects are attempting entry."
"Got one suspect down," Lou announced. "I repeat, one suspect down." Upstairs, Lou was currently sitting on one of the men, Michael Omar Harrak, a hand over his mouth as Adam cuffed him. "You want to be real quiet right now, my man," Lou warned. "See, I've got an itchy trigger finger, and it tends to not do so well when there's a lot of yelling and loud noises."
Back outside, Steve leveled his rifle at the two men, still speaking quietly. Beside him, Danny rose as well, a hand on his shoulder letting him know he was right there with him. "Jerry, tell the units to move in now." Steve stepped out of the bushes as he heard Jerry's order flow through his comms. "Hands up, Five-0, do not move!"
Both men startled and immediately moved to aim their rifles towards the voices. Steve and Danny let their bullets fly, and the two men went down in a heap, groaning all the way.
"Danny, Junior, Tani, take care of these guys, we got one more." Steve was racing away from the front of the house and heading for the back just as the last man came around the corner. They collided, Steve managing to stay upright while the would-be kidnapper slipped to the ground on dew covered grass. To his credit, he tried to scramble back up and get away, but Steve was on him, and with more than his usual assertion. He was supremely happy when the guy attempted to land a punch; Steve offered a headbutt in return, and the man finally went down, dazed. As Steve rolled him over and cuffed him, he heard the sirens of HPD units screaming from the street.
"You get one phone call," he muttered to the man, blinking up at him. "Use it to call your people back in Morocco and tell them I can do this for the rest of my life if it means keeping that kid safe." Steve yanked him to his feet, pushing him towards the front of the house where Danny met him.
"You gonna say it?"
Steve furrowed his brow. "Say what?"
"You want me to…" Danny rolled his free hand at the guy.
"Oh, yea," Steve grinned. "Book 'em, Danno."
"I hadn't heard it in a while, you know. I missed it," Danny grinned, taking the perp off his partner's hands and marching him towards an HPD unit.
In the end, three lived, with one of those on their way to the hospital. The other suspect who'd tried to enter the house via the front door and who had been shot by Steve, Danny, and Tani, and had died almost immediately. But holding cells were waiting for the other three, pending the FBI and the U.S. Marshals to take them into custody. The night was giving way to dawn, and after checking on his team to make sure they were okay, Steve took out his phone and texted Catherine.
10-4 here. We'll come to Maui tomorrow afternoon. Don't tell Khalid.
By the time everything was wrapped up, it was nearing six in the morning. Tani and Junior were still going strong, as evidenced by their insistence on breakfast at Sidestreet. "We'll even pay," Tani announced, "to give you old timers a break."
"Old timers?" Danny scoffed as he leaned against the Camaro. "I'm 43, rookie. I can stay up all night and pay for my breakfast."
"I feel like that's a statement with a very subtle, dirty message behind it," Tani grinned at him when Danny flushed a bright red in the morning sunlight.
"Remind me to sign you up for the next sexual harassment course."
"If we're getting food, let's get going and get it." Lou headed for his beloved Suburban, opening the driver's side door. "And afterwards, don't plan on seeing me at work until tomorrow morning at the earliest." Junior and Tani piled in with Lou while Jerry rode with Adam. Steve took a deep breath, watching them drive off.
"Steve? You good?"
"Yea, Danno." He smiled at his partner, gripping his hand tightly for a few moments before letting go.
"I'm good."
Hawaii Five-0
"I gotta say, I never thought I'd be back here," Danny ambled along behind Steve at a leisurely pace, hands in the pockets of his cargo shorts as he crossed a wooden bridge leading to the outside restaurant of the resort he and Steve had visited a few years ago. His partner cocked a curious eyebrow. "As nice as this place was, it's got some painful memories for me," Danny elaborated.
"You only sprained your ankle, Danny, okay? It's not like you had a heart attack here or suffered a stroke, or fell from a flight of stairs," Steve gave the man a dubious look over his shoulder. "Besides, we're only here for the night, right? And there's no therapy sessions, no Lorraine, no three-legged races around a ball room." Steve paused for a moment, looking around the outdoor eating area and spotted the trio he was looking for. "Just friends, Khalid, and food," he grinned and started forward, ignoring Danny's grumbling about negative associations with locations harboring traumatic experiences. Steve slipped behind Khalid's chair, the boy talking a mile a minute about something as Catherine and Harry gave him their undivided attention while doing their best to hide knowing smiles behind their hands. Steve slipped a hand over Khalid's eyes. "Guess who?"
"Steve!" Khalid scrambled up to stand on top of his seat and practically launch himself at Steve, his little arms latching around his neck tightly as Danny ambled up from behind. Khalid burrowed his head into Steve's neck, clearly happy to stay just like that for as long as he could. Steve caught the soft look on Catherine's face and moved around the chair to sit down, holding Khalid as close to him as he could. "How ya doing, buddy? Did you have fun? I heard Cath took you to see the dolphins."
While Steve and Khalid caught up, Danny quietly updated Catherine and Harry on the foiled kidnapping attempt. "One died at the scene, the other one's still in the hospital – he's expected to be okay, so he can spend the rest of his life behind bars," Danny shrugged uncaringly; served the creep right as far as he was concerned. "The other two aren't talking."
"Well, I'm sur e between Harry's contacts, the money trail, and everything else in between, you guys will have more than enough to put them away for good," Catherine was answering Danny, but her eyes were on Khalid and Steve. Danny couldn't help but feel a pang of… something. Not jealousy, or insecurity, but something, something he couldn't pinpoint, not yet.
"I'll ask my friends in the region to keep an eye and an ear open for any more activity they hear regarding Khalid or the Hassan family," Harry offered, folding his napkin in his lap and leaning back. Danny didn't miss the way his fingers just barely grazed Cath's forearm. "I imagine the message has been made clear by now that their little plan didn't work."
"Yea, well," Danny cleared his throat, "hopefully they don't try again. I know Steve won't mind reducing their family members and assets little by little, but…" his gaze lingered on Khalid, and once again, Danny was amazed at how resilient children could be. The boy showed no signs of any stress or trauma, completely oblivious as to what had happened over the last few days and recovering from his parents' actions over the last year.
"He's okay, Danny," Catherine reassured him, a kind expression in her eyes as if she knew what was going through Danny's head. "He's a great kid, you know? Considering what he's seen and gone through, if Harry and I hadn't known, I don't think we ever would've guessed."
"Guessed what?" Steve asked, by now having turned Khalid around to sit in his lap, but Khalid was choosing to curl himself around Steve's middle, resting his head on his chest and wrapping his arms as far around Steve as he possibly could, as if he was afraid Steve was going to leave him again.
He probably is, Danny thought to himself.
The rest of the evening went easily, a gentle breeze pushing off of the ocean as dinner was served and a local, easy listening band struck up some tunes for the diners. Danny and Steve both got burgers – "It's still the best burger I've ever had in my life," Steve mumbled around beef and tomato and lettuce; Catherine was rather amused by that – and Harry picked up the tab for everyone. "A thank you for my impromptu destination vacation," he said, sliding his credit card into the money book and handing it to the server.
"So, Steve," Catherine leaned back in her seat, feet propped up on the table while the man in front of her cradled a fast fading child in his lap. "'Still the best burger you've ever had in your life'?"
Danny laughed, shoving fries into his mouth. Steve glared at him.
"Sounds like you've been here before?" Catherine arched an eyebrow. Danny just laughed more.
"I, yea, you know, Danny and I, we had some state mandated training we had to get out of the way, so we decided to just get it all done in one weekend."
"Training?" Danny coughed. "I'm sorry, did you say training?"
"It wasn't training?" Cath asked, looking between the two while leaning a little more towards Harry in her seat. "What was it then?"
"Well, long story short, this genius decided that we get our state mandated therapy – not training, but therapy – out of the way for the year at this group retreat that was being held at this resort a few years ago, except," Danny pointed a finger at Steve, "except that, when Super SEAL here saw the words 'Relationship Boot Camp', he didn't read anything else and he signed us up for a weekend that turned out to be a couples therapy weekend."
"I hate you," Steve deadpanned.
"Oh, I don't know McGarrett, I always thought you and Daniel could use a bit of therapy together." It was clear that Harry was enjoying this quite a bit, if the gleeful expression on his face was any indication. "Two blokes who can't stand to be apart from each other need a bit of therapy every now and again, wouldn't you say?"
Maybe it was Steve clearing his throat, or maybe it was Danny's sudden fixation on his plate, but either way, Catherine and Harry, two trained special agents for their respective governments, knew when they'd hit a nerve.
"Hey, he's falling asleep here," Steve motioned to Khalid who wasn't just falling asleep, but was out cold, his breathing deep and even. "What'd you guys do today?"
"Oh, he had a blast," Catherine tossed her napkin on the table. "We had breakfast here so he could talk to the dolphins, and then we went out to the beach for a while, had lunch, we explored the resort grounds a little bit," she smiled softly at her ex. "I'm not surprised he's tired, he didn't have a nap all day."
"Jerry was kind enough to get us a two-bedroom suite. The little tyke has his own bedroom; you can put him down in there if you like," Harry stood up, taking the money book back from the server and signing the check.
"How much is that two-bedroom suite costing the taxpayers?" Danny stood up, not serious at all about the question, and both Cath and Harry knew him well enough to merely smirk at him.
"We thank them for their generosity," Harry stuck his credit card back in his wallet and led the group through the resort and to their room.
"Danny and I are two floors down," Steve said as they entered Catherine and Harry's suite. The former pointed to where Steve could take Khalid and Steve busied himself with getting Khalid out of his day clothes and into his pajamas.
"He really is very good with him," Catherine mused quietly, watching Steve from the living room, and Danny felt that pang of something again. Fear, maybe? Fear that Steve might remember what he could've had, fear that Catherine was missing what she'd used to have. "Yea, he's uh, he's really something," Danny mumbled, taking a seat on the couch while Harry headed off into the bedroom Danny assumed Catherine and Harry were sharing.
"He probably learned everything from you," Catherine sat down beside Danny, who shook his head, rubbing his arms slightly. "Yea, I think he did, Danny. The way Steve was acting tonight? I've seen you behave the exact same way with Grace dozens of times."
"I'd personally like to think he's always had it in him."
"Yes, but you've brought it out." Catherine wasn't going to be budged from her opinion. Danny didn't answer, choosing instead to sit quietly while they waited for Steve.
"Danny, has something happened?"
Danny scratched his throat, going for nonchalant. "What do you mean?"
"You both got pretty quiet downstairs when Harry mentioned you guys not wanting to be away from each other. The last time you came here, you were together for a therapy weekend with a bunch of other couples – I'm assuming you stayed and didn't leave? You actually went through the counseling sessions which were intended for married couples to better their relationships?"
"Yea, speaking of Harry, how are you guys doing?"
"And now you're trying to deflect and change the subject," Catherine grinned. "Steve did mention that I work with the CIA for a reason, right?"
"Yea, he might've mentioned that once or twice." Danny muttered. No matter how Steve felt about it now, that topic was still a sore spot for Danny. It likely always would be, even if his relationship with Steve was sliding more into the romantic side of things. "I think maybe we just don't talk about it right now?"
"Talk about what?" Because of course Steve would have to choose that moment to walk into the living room.
"Nothing. You ready?" Danny stood up, patting his pockets for his room key.
"You don't want to stay and catch up for a while?" Steve peered at him, and Danny was so tempted to say that, no, actually, he was still dragging ass after Five-0's early morning meet and greet with a group of terrorist kidnappers the previous day, and that he very much would like to go to his room and go to sleep. But Steve didn't seem to want to do that, if the teenager-eager-to-stay-out-an-hour-past-his-curfew expression was any clue. Relegating himself to his fate, Danny flopped back down on the couch next to Catherine and waved a hand at Steve, who grinned at him.
Two hours later, it was almost 10:00pm and Danny was curled on the couch down and out for the count while Harry had shuffled off to the master suite with a book and a glass of scotch, leaving Steve and Catherine on the lanai with their beers and conversation.
"Have you heard from Chin or Kono lately?" Catherine leaned forward to set her beer on the table and shook her hair out. "I remember you mentioning Chin was in San Francisco with his own task force."
"Yea, he is. He and Abbey are doing great – they're uh, they're getting married next summer," Steve took a long drink of his beer as Catherine made a note that she really did need to get in touch with Chin to congratulate him herself. "And Kono and Adam?"
"Yea, that uh… that didn't work out as well," Steve pursed his lips, feeling a pang of sadness for Adam. Steve may have been sitting in handcuffs at the time, but Danny had described the conversation he'd had with Adam well enough to understand that Adam Noshimuri had truly been at the end of his tether and may have well been on his way right back into the arms of the Yakuza had Steve not sent Danny with that offer. He'd had a feeling, of course, that Adam would be out of sorts; who wouldn't be after their wife had left them, and not even for another man, but for a mission?
Steve laughed at himself. How similar were he and Adam, falling for women who had both chosen their work over their marriage or relationship?
"Kono left him," Steve said succinctly. "It was rough on him, for a while. But he got through it. Danny helped a lot since he'd gone through a divorce himself. He kind of knew exactly what to say to Adam to keep him going, knew exactly how he was feeling."
"Wow," Catherine breathed. "I didn't expect that, after everything she'd gone through to be with him, to marry him."
"Yea, well," Steve shrugged, wanting very much to get off this topic. It hit too close to home for him, for obvious reasons. "I called Kono, we all did. It hurt her too, I think, to realize that she was going on a path that he couldn't follow her on and that she couldn't walk back. But Adam's okay now, at least he's on the road to it. He's seeing someone, moving on with his life, got a new place."
"Can't help but see the similarities in our situation a few years ago." Catherine offered him a small, apologetic smile. "I really am sorry I hurt you, Steve. I should've told you the morning after Kono's wedding what my plans were."
Steve shrugged. It was over and done with, a four-year-old mistake that they'd both moved on from. "I understand why you did it, Cath. Do I wish you'd have just out right told me? Sure. Would I have been thrilled that the CIA had recruited you and that you'd joined up? Probably not, but it's water under the bridge now, you know? We've both moved on." He gave her a pointed look at that statement. "Speaking of which-"
"Oh, here we go," Catherine laughed, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs at the knee. "I was wondering how long you could go without asking."
"You don't even know what I'm going to say!"
"Oh please, Steve; one thing that has not changed over the years is that I know how to read you like a book."
"Alright, okay," Steve set his beer down. "What was I going to say?"
"You were going to ask about Harry."
"No, I wasn't," Steve said. "But since he's the first thing you thought of, it's clear he's on your mind, so…" He felt a warmth spread through his chest as he watched Catherine chuckle and shake her head at him, the familiar, easy feeling he'd felt with her so often returning. "I actually talked to Langford a few days ago when we were prepping the safe house," Steve confessed somewhat sheepishly. "He's a good man, Catherine."
"Yes, he is," she sighed, settling back into her chair as she folded her hands in her lap.
"You like him?"
"I do. Yea, I do," she bit her lip, looking at Steve for a moment. "You know, when you told me that you were going to ask me to marry you, for a little while afterwards, I felt like I'd missed my chance, that maybe I'd made the wrong decision for my career, for my life."
Steve nodded his head. He'd felt the same way, when he'd gone back to his house with a ring in his pocket only to have her tell him she was leaving. "And you don't feel like that now?"
Catherine looked at him for a long moment. "No," she breathed. "I feel like I can have everything now."
"I'm happy for you, Cath." Steve assured her softly, and he was, truly. There wasn't a cell in his body that held any resentment for her now. "I hope you're happy with him."
Catherine's voice was tight as she thanked him, looking over her shoulder into the living room of the suite. "What about you?" She cleared her throat and turned her attention back on Steve, fixing him with penetrating look. "Are you seeing anyone?"
"I, uh…" Steve shifted. "I'm – yes? Kind of? We don't really know right now what we're doing. We agreed to wait until all of this got sorted out." He grabbed his beer, taking a long pull from it.
"Ah," Cath nodded her head, as if she understood completely, "so now that 'all of this' is pretty much over and Khalid is safe, are you and Danny going to talk soon or just push it off?"
Steve had forgotten what the feeling of carbonated liquid shooting up his nose felt like, and he was absolutely certain he never wanted to feel it again as he tried to work out the sudden tight, fizzy feeling from his sinuses. Once he got himself together, he blinked his eyes clear of the moisture and cleared his throat. "Uh…"
"He didn't want to talk about it either," Catherine grinned, enjoying the discomfort of her ex just a little. "You signed yourself and him up for a couples retreat, Steve?"
"I honestly didn't mean to," Steve held up his hands. "I swear, I didn't. And believe me, at the time, talking about sexual compatibility was about the most uncomfortable thing I'd done in years."
Catherine offered him a bemused look. "I can imagine, especially if you two were sharing a room." She watched him quietly. "I'm not wrong, am I; It is Danny?"
"Yea," Steve breathed tightly after a few moments. "It hasn't been long, but… yea."
"I'm glad for you, Steve."
"You too, Cath." Steve quirked the corner of his lips at her. They both settled back into their seats, enjoying the breeze, their drinks, and each other's company.