A/N Yes, this was a one chapter, completed story. However, the Valentine's episode 10.16, left me with this little "missing scene" gift from the muse about where Danny was while the ohana was congregating at Steve's house. No, I don't plan on writing any more chapters (but I hadn't planned on writing this one, either).

But first, two frustrating things. First, why did they name the woman Danny set Steve up with, Brooke? That's the name of the woman who was being abused by her husband who Danny helped back in Newark. Then her ex-husband shot him while they were in quarantine. All the female names out there and they have to repeat this one? Second, last week, Steve apologized to the female vet for not calling her, using the "it's not you, it's me" line, saying he couldn't focus on a relationship right now. Yet, apparently, he's been seeing Brooke quite a bit since that first blind date. Last week I was giving him kudos for his self awareness. This week he just seems like a liar.

I do not own "Hawaii Five-0" or the characters. A shout out to Phoebe Miller for encouraging me to post this little ficlet. All mistakes are mine.

H50 H50 H50

This morning, Danny was sitting in one of the HPD interrogation rooms, trying to make sense of why a woman would confess to the murder of her abusive husband when it was obvious to him that she had not done it.

A few hours ago, Danny was risking his own freedom to protect this woman from being extradited for the murder, after the team had figured out that the man of her dreams, who she was trying to protect with her confession, had not committed the crime either.

Now, Danny was back in HPD sitting in the basement in front of a computer. After the team had all left for the evening to get ready for their special Valentine's Day plans, he had come here. Danny's plans were to work a few hours before going home and having a couple beers and some leftovers for a late dinner.

It was pretty pathetic as Valentine's Day plans go, but it properly reflected his love life so it made perfect sense. His own chances at love had come crashing down around him just weeks earlier, first figuratively with Rachel and then literally with Joanne, the woman of his dreams.

The computer search for a license plate ending in 724 had come up with close to a thousand cars across the state. Each car owner had to be investigated. It wasn't as simple as looking for a man of a certain age. The car may have been sold, or the car may have been borrowed, possibly even a rental. There were numerous possibilities. It was a tedious, time consuming process and HPD just didn't have the resources to dedicate to it. So, Danny had taken on the task himself. His kids and his responsibility to the task force came first, but otherwise, whenever he had spare time and a HPD computer was available he would come here and sift through the information. A few times he had knocked on the door of a potentially interesting suspect. So far, he had not come up with anything solid.

The case today had touched Danny deeply. His experience working with spousal abuse victims while on the Newark PD, particularly Brooke, had affected him so much that he had done his own research on the subject. That knowledge had helped him solve many cases back then and was key to solving this puzzle today. Yet retrieving that knowledge also caused many emotions to resurface - about Brooke and her extremely violent ex-husband but also about Joanne.

Joanne had hinted at being in the process of leaving a previous relationship. He couldn't recall precise words. Way too much had gone on that day for that. Yet, the feeling was there. Had Joanne left an abusive relationship, or just a failed one? He didn't know. The little he did know about her was from their extremely short time together that fateful day and from her sister in the even shorter time they had spoken to each other in the coroner's hallway. He knew he could use his skills and the technology available to him through 5-0 to delve deeper but he wouldn't do that. It felt like too much of an invasion of her privacy. She hadn't shared any details of her life. He needed to respect that.

And so, he was left to wonder.

Refocusing on his search for "724", he read through the information of the next car owner on the list. A 78 year old woman from a town several miles down the road where he and Joanne had been pushed off the highway by the young distracted driver of "724". At first glance, investigating her further would make no sense but Danny was a detective and he knew you got nowhere in an investigation if you stuck to first glances. 78 year old women, he theorized, often had grandchildren. Following his instincts, he entered her name in a search and found a very interesting possible lead. The woman actually had 24 grandchildren, including 13 grandsons who were old enough to drive. Further searching revealed that each of them did indeed have a driver's license. Some owned their own cars but some did not.

This was certainly a promising lead and he would have stayed all night and plowed through all of the information but a HPD officer was now waiting to use the computer and he knew his time was up. It was Valentine's Day and as much as he would love to find "724" right now, he didn't feel it was the right time, nor did he have sufficient information, to go knocking on this woman's door inquiring about who might have been driving her car that day.

He looked at his watch, happy to see that Steve would be out of the house by now for his date with Brooke. He didn't need the reminder that he was so very much alone, nor did he want to deal with Steve asking him if he was all right. He was fine. Whatever that meant.

No, the house would be empty so Danny could go "home" to Steve's, pop open a few beers and ruminate about his lost loves in solitude.