Last chapter for a bit.

Thanks to Phoebe Miller for beta reading!

Fact #120: Family protects family.

Season: Between 4th and 5th Seasons

"Woodward."

Steve glanced over at Danny. "What?"

"Jayne." Danny waggled his phone, though Steve had been told they had lost signal several miles ago.

"What about her?" he asked.

"The more I thought about it, the more I got this feeling that I knew what book she had written," Danny said. "So, I texted Grace back when I still had a couple bars, and asked her who the author is of that book she got from the museum."

His brows furrowed, at the ruts in the road and at the implication. "The book with the picture of the orca dragon she showed me?"

"Yeah. Guess who wrote it and was in that picture?"

"Jayne."

"One Jayne Woodward, traveler extraordinaire," Danny said. He ran his fingers through his hair and leaned back in the seat, watching the trees creep by the windows. "I guess she wasn't lying, huh?"

Steve tightened his grip on the steering wheel. "I'm sorry, buddy. It's just…I don't know."

"Yeah, I understand. It was weird coming across a dragon that didn't want to kill us for a change," Danny agreed.

Steve took note of the unhappy look on his partner's face. He remained silent and tried to trace his possible train of thought. It seemed like every dragon they encountered had wanted to kill or at least attack them, save for a few individuals. Dragons weren't necessarily killing machines, but they could certainly be crafted into one. There were a lot of tools in their arsenal.

Tools that leant themselves not just to killing.

"You worried about Eric?" he asked.

Danny squinted at him. "What, you read minds now?"

"I read you."

He sighed and let one hand flutter about like a moth around a bulb. "You know, I've tried, Steve. I have. I know he's a grown man and he's not even my kid, but I worry for him, you know? I worry about how his schooling's going, I worry about where he's going to work, and I worry about him dating Jessa."

"She hasn't tried to kill him since the first time," Steve stated more than asked. He knew that if there had been another close call involving the daredevil then he would've heard about it. That is, if Danny had heard about from Eric at all. He'd only found out about the surfing near miss on accident.

"It only takes once, Steven. One time. What if she takes him cliff diving and he cracks his head on a rock? Or what if they go rock climbing and his harness fails? She's got wings, he doesn't. I don't think she gets that."

Steve breathed in slowly. The scent of cool mountain air and blooming wild roses blowing in through his cracked window soothed his second-hand tension. He knew that Jessa had stepped wrong early in her and Danny's relationship. As an outsider, he could see that she probably hadn't meant to, that she was probably only doing what she usually did.

As Danny's friend, though, he was in his corner. Or at least had his best interests at heart. He didn't want him to do something rash and drive a wedge between him and Eric.

"You could talk to her while we're up here," he said finally.

"And say what, exactly? 'Hey, please don't kill my nephew'?" Danny questioned.

"Just talk to her. Maybe you'll start liking her again."

Danny shrugged and held his hands palms up. "Yeah, and maybe she's become less of a wingnut since I've seen her, and maybe Hell will freeze over."

As if to prove the likelihood of Jessa becoming less of a daredevil, the belly of a royal purple and gold Wyvern swooped down over the truck and pulled ahead.

Danny pointed.

Steve sighed.

The cabin was a two story building situated in a clearing amongst all the tall evergreens. A truck was already parked out front when they arrived. Jessa, having flown in front of and to the side of them for quite a ways, touched down in the rolling grass to one side of the cabin.

This area was a bit different than where they had camped out and met Jayne. That had been in a series of valleys with a river running through, whereas the cabin was higher in elevation, high enough that they could probably hike up to timberline in under an hour.

Steve braced his hand on the door once he'd climbed out. They were really high compared to Oahu. He was glad now that they had gradually climbed to this elevation.

"Jessa," Danny greeted tightly.

"Ey, how's it going Mister Eric's Uncle?" she greeted more cheerily as she crow hopped through the grass towards them. "Made it up here in good time, I reckon."

"How long have you guys been up here?" Steve asked.

She glanced around at the towering evergreens that spilled away down the stepped slopes of the mountain. "Two days. Kinda jus' piddled around the first day an' went on a hike yesterday."

Danny looked around at the empty firepit off in the grass and the empty porch of the cabin. "Where's Eric?"

"Oh, ya know, I brewed him in some stew an' ate him for lunch," Jessa quipped and chuckled. She exhaled in a snort when she didn't get a matching response. "He's havin' a rest. Think the thin air's got him."

Danny headed for the cabin and left Steve outside with Jessa.

"He still doesn't like me, does he?" she asked and looked at Steve.

"It's Danny," Steve said. He didn't want to overstep his bounds and say more than his partner would want, so he kept it short. "It took him a while to warm up to me, too."

"What did I do to him?" she asked, genuinely curious and not snarky.

Steve tipped his head at the cabin. "You should ask him."

"Afraid I won't come out alive," she muttered and followed him down the path to the cabin.

At least the proper camp dinner of hotdogs and beans had seemed to satisfy his partner that night and an argument hadn't broken out yet.

They sat around the bonfire outside of the cabin as the light dimmed to a glowing orange on the western horizon. The stars came out in droves, great swathes of them splattered across the sky, unmolested by the lights of a big city. On the flat section of grass below them by the cold creek a few yellow dots flickered in and out.

"Fireflies," Steve said and grinned. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen fireflies.

"I thought it'd be too cold up here for 'em," Jessa, now human and clothed in warm clothes, said. "I'd like to go down there an' run through the grass an' make a bunch of 'em all light up an' fly around."

"Unfortunately, as we found out last night, they don't that in real life," Eric said.

Danny drummed his fingers on his knee, the other hand flicking out as he talked. "So, what brings you up here, huh? The views or the peace and quiet or something else?"

"Well, it's my coach's cabin an' he lets me have access once in a while," Jessa said. The ring in her nose and the snakebite piercings in her lip glowed in the dancing light of the fire. Her eyes shined brightly in excitement. "There's a cliff here that I like to free climb. It's got real good cracks for me to go right up. Took Eric there yesterday."

Eric chuckled and rubbed his hands. "You'll be happy to hear, Uncle D, that rock climbing is not for me. She tried to show me, but I wimped out."

"An' he got some tiny blisters on his hands," she laughed. "You were still whining 'bout them this mornin'."

"Hey! They still hurt," Eric objected.

Steve glanced between the look Danny would giving him and Jessa, a look that read that he had had a right to be worried about her taking his nephew on dangerous activities, though Steve doubted Eric had climbed high enough for a fall to hurt him or that Jessa would've let him climb without a harness.

He stood up. "Hey, E-Train, come take a walk with me."

"Me?" Eric asked. "Why? You going to try some crazy ninja move on me in the dark?"

He glared at Danny, not wondering where he would've gotten that idea. "No. Come on, I want to talk to you about maybe working at the HPD crime lab when you graduate."

"Oh." Eric jumped up. He pivoted on his heel and pointed between the two left sitting. "Don't kill each other, got it?"

Danny knew what Steve was doing as soon as he had stood up and invited Eric on a walk. It was his indirect way of telling him to figure things out with Jessa. Apparently, Jessa was onboard that train of thought, as well.

"Why do ya hate me so much?" she asked once Steve and Eric were out of earshot.

"Hate? I don't hate you," he said. He scooted to the edge of his stump seat and gestured fully with both hands. "I dislike your taste for insane stunts and sports, alright? Eric could've been killed or maimed surfing with you during a storm."

"But he wasn't killed," she said. She put up her hands. "I'll admit, it was probably stupid on my part to take a newbie surfing in an area I wasn't totally familiar with."

"Probably stupid? Try really stupid and boneheaded and selfish." He chopped a hand into the other palm. "He didn't even want to tell me about it when he got back, I only found out because I saw the bruises."

"Now, hold on–"

"And then, because of you, he was in the line of fire of a heavily drugged, fire breathing, raging, muscle bound athlete who, in one second, could've burned him severely, or crushed him or bit him or any number of things. Do you know what his mother would've done if I'd let anything happen to him? He's all she's got, okay?"

"Hey, I–"

"Or he could've become a target because he was associating with you. What if Bugs' coach had tried to drug him, too, or what if he had accidentally intercepted you getting drugged?"

Jessa huffed under the barrage. "Oh, come on–"

"Or what if you had been the target instead? What if you had been drugged and you had hurt him, huh?" Danny jabbed a finger at her. It was an unfair accusation and he knew it, but it didn't stop him.

"For Christ's sake–"

"No, you listen to me! That kid's family, and I'm not going to let anything happen to him. You're dangerous enough without Devil's Tongue being slipped into your drink–"

"Excuse me?"

"–and I don't want you dragging my nephew into one of your psychotic pastimes and getting him killed."

Jessa bolted up to her feet, her heated expression reddened by the flames. "Ya bloody bastard, ya listen to me now."

Danny blinked and started to stand.

"Nuh uh. I listened to your bloody tirade an' now ya get to listen to mine."

This is just what he needed. A physical fight. He'd started the verbal assault, he wouldn't start a brawl, but he would finish it. In the back of his mind he sensed that this had gotten out of hand, but he was on a roll now, and he was sure this wasn't what Steve had meant when he said to work things out.

"I like Eric. A lot. In my career I don't get to maintain a lot of relationships, but so far, we're working. The surfing thing was my bad. I'm sorry! But he's a grown ass man who can make choices for himself. I've never forced him to do something he's not comfortable doing, and you're not his father, so back off."

"You're right. I'm not his father, I'm his uncle, but his father walked out on him and his mom, so someone's gotta look after him," he said between gritted teeth. He waved a hand at her. "Family protects family. And you're not family."

Later that night, much later, around two in the morning, Danny lay staring up at the wooden beamed ceiling. After Jessa had stormed off, Steve had returned to the bonfire alone with a disapproving look on his face. Eric had apparently run off to catch Jessa.

Now that his temper had cooled and the cabin was quiet, he reflected on what had been said. All the worry and concern and what-ifs had been true feelings, but he'd relayed them with much more venom than he had meant. Him laying into her about the possibility of her getting drugged and harming Eric was as hypocritic as he could get when he himself had been drugged into a raging monster and tried to kill Steve.

What had started as a rift between him and Jessa had been widened into a chasm. And now Eric was mad at him.

He shoved the blankets off and snuck out of the downstairs bedroom, leaving Steve presumably fast asleep on his cot.

Starlight pierced through the front windows of the cabin. He flipped the deadbolt and stepped out onto the open porch. The planks of wood were cold under his feet, a nippy breeze rustling through the evergreens and grass like the earth was breathing. A cricket incessantly chirped under the steps.

He leaned against the railing facing the downhill slope. A vast ocean of velvety black ebbed above him, twinkling with pinpricks of light and a great streak of cloudy haze. The arm of Milky Way visible in all its glory here far above the hustle and bustle of man.

"If ya spit on me, I'm gonna take ya on a joy ride."

Danny looked down.

Jessa was sitting on the ground below the porch, leaning against one of the supports.

"What're you doing up?" he grunted.

"Enjoying nature," she grunted back.

A horrid scream echoed softly through the forest.

He stiffened. "The hell was that?"

"They say that a serial killer used to live in the cabin, an' he'd drag his victims out into the woods to murder them," Jessa said. "Some say ya can still hear their screams."

He glared down at her.

She combed her curly hair back from her face with a scowl visible in the darkness. "It's a fox. Gah, don't ya laugh at all?"

"Ha ha."

"You're a bit of a jerk, ya know that?" She tilted her head back to look up at him.

Danny didn't say anything. He knew he'd been a bit much earlier, but his pride wouldn't let him recant on it, especially since he meant a good portion of what he'd said.

Jessa picked at the grass around her. "Do ya really think I would hurt Eric?"

He sighed and wiped a hand over his face. "I don't know. Honestly, I don't think you'd do it on purpose, it'd probably be an accident. He hasn't had his reflexes honed and his experience bank filled like you have."

Her head bobbed in a nod. "Did ya know I have a sister?"

"No. Eric never mentioned it to me, but he doesn't mention a lot of things about you to me."

"Probably trying to avoid what happened tonight," she said. "Anyway, I have a younger sister. My whole life, I've been a daredevil, gave my mother a head full of gray, but I never let my sister do what I was doing. I would free climb, but I would hook her in a harness. She would go swimming with me, I would strap a life jacket on her. She wanted to go canyon flying, an' I said no."

"You knew what you were doing was dangerous," he said.

"Oh yeah. I've never kidded myself 'bout that," she agreed. "Blokes break wings all the time canyon flying. I wasn't gonna have her do that. She yelled at me and pouted, but she's still alive. Thankfully, she grew outta wanting to do everything I did when she was a teenager."

"You guys still close?" he asked, thinking of how he and Matty had drifted apart without him even realizing it.

"Still go together like shrimp an' a barbie," she said. He could hear the smile in her voice. "I'm jus' sayin', that I understand not everyone's like me with a death wish. And I know your jus' trying to protect him, but I'm begging ya, don't make me break up with him."

"Would you?" he asked in surprise. "Break up with him?"

"His relationship with ya is more important than his with me." She shrugged. "But that doesn't mean I wanna break up with him."

He sighed. "Thank you. It makes me feel better to verbally hear how much you care for him."

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure if that caring extends to his uncle," she muttered. She snapped her head back around to look at him. "An' I didn't appreciate some of the things ya said. The only reason I didn't make ya swallow a few teeth is because you're Eric's uncle."

Despite the threat of violence, he knew what the right thing to do was. "Look, I'm sorry, babe. All those are real worries of mine, but I was sort of out of line dumping all of that on you alone."

"Apology accepted. Jus' don't call me a selfish bonehead again," she said. "Ya better apologize to Eric in the mornin', too."

"I'll talk to him," he said.

After hearing the horrid fox scream again, he bade her goodnight and went back into the cabin.

As he climbed into his cot, he heard Steve stir on the other side of the room.

"Is your apology acceptance pending?"

Danny cracked a smirk. "No. It's been accepted. She's more gracious than I am."

They hung around the cabin with Eric and Jessa for the better part of the morning before heading back down the rutty road. It had been a pleasant, cool morning with equally cool heads. Danny wasn't sure if he and Jessa would ever get along extremely well, but at least the chasm had miniaturized back to a rift. And Eric would come around after his self-proclaimed stirring apology.

"Do you have to pick a fight with everyone?" Steve asked as the truck bounced over exposed stones and rumbled through narrow ruts.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, though he knew darn well.

"Me, Kamekona, Mauna, Grover," he said.

"Hey, hold on. I'll admit to the first three, but you're the one that has a problem with Grover," Danny objected. "I've tried to be civil with the man, because in case you haven't notice, we need SWAT to back us up."

Steve made a face. "Haven't had a run in with him since the parking garage collapse."

"Maybe you scared him with your snarly face," Danny said. "Or maybe we've settled whatever debt he thought we owed him or whatever by saving his life."

Steve twitched a shoulder in a shrug. He supposed they would see when they returned to Oahu. They had to catch their flight tomorrow morning in Denver.

His phone dinged.

He looked down and reached for it.

Danny snatched it. "No way, Super SEAL. Eyes on the ill maintained road. I'll take care of it. It's just a voicemail from Chin. Hopefully the island hasn't burned down."

He held the phone up between them and put it on speaker.

"Hey, Steve, I'm guessing you must be somewhere without cell signal, but hopefully you get one soon. We've got a problem."

"That's comforting," Danny murmured.

"Shh," Steve shushed.

"There was a riot and a prison break at the Ranch. Duncan Hughes escaped and is in the wind."

Next time on "Dragons", Duncan makes his reprisal near Absaroka County.

Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you Jan 14th with some revenge, crossovers, creeps, and...a nosy blogger?