Not too much action in this one, but I'm actually constructing a case. Feels like I haven't done that in a while.

Thanks to Phoebe Miller for beta reading!


Fact #128: You know what they say about assuming.

Season: Between 4th and 5th Seasons

Arm freshly bandaged, local anesthetic starting to wear off, Danny wasn't exactly in a chipper mood when he finally made it back to the Palace that night. Since the adrenaline had disappeared and left him high and dry, all his aches and pains from the brawl became pronounced. His back hurt from landing on it, his knee hurt from twisting it, his jaw was bruised, red scrapes slowly flushed into existence on his chest and abdomen from the Drake's spines and wild flailing, and his arm throbbed.

"Hey, brah," Kono greeted as he entered the bullpen.

Danny glanced around. It was empty save for her.

"Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"Catherine's hanging out at HPD and the boys are down in interrogation," she said. She looked him up and down. "How's the arm?"

He winced as he shrugged. "They said I'll live, supposedly. Cleaned it out real good, and none the too gently, might I add. Though a prickly cactus in personality, at least Mauna is usually gentler in her ministrations than Nurse Ratchet at the ER."

Kono chuckled. "Are you sure your sparkling attitude didn't warrant some of the mistreatment?"

"Hey, I'm taking offense at that remark," he said. He tapped a hand on his chest and then waved it between her and him. "I'm a perfect gentleman with medical personnel, it's all you gung-ho boneheads that provoke my more unpleasant side."

"You saying Chin's a bonehead?"

"Well, maybe not him. But you take after our occasionally malevolent overlord McGarrett half the time," he said. Turning to what was displayed on the smart table and the hanging monitors, he pointed. "What do you have so far?"

Kono set her hands on her hips, turning to face the monitors, as well. "What don't I have? Due to the troupe's popularity, it wasn't hard to dig up a lot of information on all the individual performers. Akio Ikeda seemed pretty clean. Had one drunk and disorderly arrest on his record from his teen years, but other than that, nothing."

"What about the others?" he asked. While he didn't want anyone to be a bad guy, he'd prefer it if totally innocent people weren't victims.

"Isaac Mann, on the other hand, was part of the theater's staff, not the troupe's," she said. She tossed his profile up onto the center monitor. "Mann has had a few encounters with HPD. Nothing that put him in jail for long, and he seems to have kept his nose clean that last couple years, which was why he was able to get a job at the theater."

Holding his forearm and rubbing his thumb over the bandages, he asked, "And Miss Bitey?"

Kono cracked her knuckles. "Now her, I've got some stuff on. It wasn't public record, but a little poking around and a few emails to some friends in Japan got me this."

Danny took a couple moments to read through the information up on the screens. His brows knitted into a scowl. "She's suspected of having Yakuza ties?"

"Yua Agata has been suspected of having ties to the Yakuza for years, but nothing has ever stuck. Tonight's the first incident where there's been enough evidence for an arrest," she explained.

"Where is she now?"

"At the dragon holding cell at HPD."

"Should we be worried that her Yakuza contacts will come looking for her?" he asked. That's exactly what they didn't need, a standoff between HPD and the local gangs.

"I already let Duke know. They've got four guards posted outside her cell, security cameras, and no one's going in or out. Also, that's why Catherine's there."

He nodded. "Good. What about Malone? I presume that's where Steve and Chin are?"

"Yeah, Steve was antsy to question him." Kono glanced down at the smart table. "Jack Malone was in the military for two decades before being honorably discharged. He went on to join a security firm and quickly rose to being one of the head officers. He's been doing that for almost a decade. His firm has worked for the theater for seven years as well as several other places that host large gatherings of people. There've been some complaints from other employees files against him, but it looks like he hasn't broken any laws."

"Marsden said that some of the other employees joked about Malone killing someone someday," Danny said. He shrugged. "Maybe that day was today."

"But why?"

"Have you met the guy? He didn't seem exactly easy to get along with. What were the complaints about?"

Kono leaned over and squinted at the files. "Outbursts of anger."

"See. Ikeda or Mann could've made him angry and before he knows it, all he sees is red and then bam! He's got a body on his hands."

"Seems a little coincidental that Malone would commit manslaughter at the exact same time Agata was trying to get away with a mysterious black bag."

Danny scratched the back of his neck. That whole scenario didn't seem likely to him, either, but he was the spitballer of the group. If they needed rapid fire ideas, he could throw them out there. Typically, something he said would give Steve an idea that they could pursue from there.

"Did Charlie call and give any indication what was in the bag?" he asked.

"Not yet. Still waiting on Max, too," she said. "It's gonna be a long night."

"Yeah," he agreed. He clasped his hands together. "Speaking of, I was promised malasadas and coffee when I got back."

"Coffee, we've got. Malasadas, we don't. Sorry, brah," Kono said and patted his shoulder. "We'll get a box from Liliha's first thing in the morning."

Danny grumbled as he stalked off to get a cup of coffee from the break room.

"I'm surprised you still like malasadas after the Black Dragon Eel incident," she called after him.

"Don't remind me."


Down in the interrogation room, Steve was taking a chance while he was behind Malone's chair to scrub his hands over his face and collect his thoughts. He'd tried connecting to him as a fellow soldier to no avail. He'd tried connecting to him as a fellow leader to no avail. He'd tried threatening him to no avail.

If it was him sitting in the chair, he knew that his weak spot would be his family and his team. They were pretty much one in the same. Malone had no family that Kono could find. Father and mother were both gone. No siblings. No wife. No kids. It seemed like the guy didn't even have any friends.

"You're doing a piss-poor job as a head at your security firm," Chin said.

Steve tilted his head at him, wondering where his teammate was going with this. If he had any idea, he was onboard.

"Excuse me?" Malone growled.

Chin shifted his weight on his feet. He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "It's your firm's job to make sure the people you were hired to guard stay safe. Two people under your protection are dead. And that's going to reflect poorly on your company."

"I did as I was told to do. I made my rounds as usual. Whatever happened, it happened under someone else's watch," Malone said.

"Those other men there at the theater? Those are your men. Your responsibility. Those deaths? Those are your responsibility, too. So man up, soldier, and take that responsibility!" Steve yelled.

The vein in Malone's neck bulged. "How dare–"

"How dare I what, soldier? Call you out on your failures as a leader?" Steve questioned.

"Steve." Chin held up a hand calmly.

Steve eyed him. He let his hackles fall. He hadn't been even close to beating the guy, yet. Why stop him?

"Yakuza don't talk," Chin said simply.

Then Steve got it. He saw the confusion flash across Malone's face plain as day. He straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You think Agata will rat on her partner?" he asked Chin quietly, but not quietly enough for Malone to not hear.

"Hold on," Malone rumbled. "I don't know what Agata is tied up in, but I have no association with the Yakuza."

"You think we believe that?" Chin said. "Someone managed to kill a performer and a staff member between your rounds, and you let Agata, someone with Yakuza ties, slip away when you corralled everyone backstage. Sounds like a hell of a coincidence to me."

"Me, too," Steve said.

Malone sat for a moment in silence.

"Come on, Chin. Agata may be able to implicate him," Steve said, reaching for the door handle.

"Wait."

Steve stopped with his fingers barely touching the handle.

"I didn't know Agata was tied up with the Yakuza, and I don't know if Mann and Ikeda were, too. But I'm not. I would rather die than work with scum like them," Malone said gruffly.

"Then what happened?"

Malone sighed. "I missed one of my rounds because I was with Seung."

Steve frowned and turned back around. "The performer that was crying in the bathroom?"

"She and I see each other whenever the troupe comes through Honolulu."

"If you were with her, then how long of a gap was there between rounds?" Chin asked.

"Twenty minutes," Malone said. "Possibly thirty."

Chin looked across at Steve. "Enough time for someone to kill Ikeda and Mann."

Steve had felt like something was off with Malone, and he could tell his partner had, too, but he supposed the secret affair was the culprit. They would confirm with Seung if she had been with Malone and compare times of death once Max delivered them. For now, though, it was time to turn their attentions elsewhere. The evidence seemed to be shifting in favor of Agata being the murderer.

"Commander," Malone said.

It was the first time that night the man had called him by his title.

"Don't tell anyone about Seung and I. For her sake. I don't want the troupe leader to kick her to the curb because she was fraternizing with me."

Steve nodded stiffly. "Don't know what you're talking about, soldier."


Duke shook his head at the Drake pacing the length of the holding cell. He'd seen much bigger dragons during his time as a cop. Much scarier ones, too. McGarrett, for instance, was nearly seven and a half feet tall with all the toned muscle and flashy teeth to go with it. This Drake was under five feet with thin limbs, but the anger radiating off her was enough to give even him pause.

He wondered if it would be a lawyer who showed up first to collect her, or the Yakuza.

"No one in or out, understand?" he said to the older officer standing guard, a man he'd known for decades and had complete trust in.

"Understood, Sir."

Duke left them to their posts. He walked through the officers loitering around the entrance of the holding cells, only a select few having an actual reason to be there and the others merely curious about the dragon. For all the issues that involved dragons on the islands, it wasn't very often that HPD held one until further notice.

What he didn't appreciate was the mutterings he could hear.

"I heard she kicked Williams' ass."

"Huh. I heard that she took his arm off."

"Nah, McGarrett swooped in and saved the day, as per usual. Probably littered the theater with bullet holes."

"Yeah, just a regular ole superhero, that McGarrett."

"I thought the security guy had to save him?"

"Enough!" Duke snapped. He eyed the younger officers where the gossip was originating. They were the ones that hadn't worked with Williams or most of Five-0 extensively like some of the more seasoned officers had. "Are you involved with the case?"

"No, Sir," one of them stuttered.

"Then it's not your business. If you don't have enough work to do, I'm sure some of the senior officers would be happy to let you fill out their reports for them," Duke said coolly.

Two of his older officers nodded and looked suggestively at the rookies. Suddenly, it seemed they remembered they had work to do and disappeared back to the bullpen, a few casting glances back at him as they went.

"McGarrett called Rollins," one of the older officers said. "He wants to take a crack at interrogating her again."

Duke sighed. "Better him than us. Hopefully he can get more than one word in English out of her."

"She knows the word 'lawyer' pretty well," the other officer grunted.

"She also knows some pretty colorful language, too," Duke said.

The three officers shared a laugh and departed, leaving this mess to Five-0.


Max had no problem working late into the night. Often times, his circadian rhythm would become disoriented from being in the dark examination rooms of the medical examiner's office. Now was one of those times. It was a quarter past midnight and he felt as vibrant as he did at a quarter past eight in the morning.

"Victim appears to have been a smoker, judging by the yellowing of the teeth and nails as well as the scarring on the lungs," Max said as he autopsied Isaac Mann.

He had drawn blood from Akio Ikeda and sent it off for testing already. He'd given the performer a decent autopsy in the two hours that he'd had custody of the body, checking him over for physical marks and for anything odd internally. From what he had gathered, nothing seemed outwardly wrong with the slightly built man. Of course, he was thorough and had sent stomach contents as well as spinal fluid out for testing along with the blood.

Ever the industrious man, he had moved onto his second victim while awaiting the test results.

"Hyoid bone has been fractured," he noted. "Possible causes include hanging, which would seem likely given the state that the victim was discovered in. It may also suggest manual strangulation. However, there appears to be no defense wounds nor evidence of anything other than a braided nylon rope causing the bruising to the anterior neck."

"Evening, Doctor Bergman."

Max frowned. He flipped his face shield up and turned around. One of the lab assistants stood patiently at the door of the examination room.

"It is actually morning. How may I help you?" he asked.

The man flashed an apologetic grin and held a clipboard out to him. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Doc, but the forensics lab asked me to deliver this to you."

Max accepted the clipboard. He narrowed his eyes at it. "Who exactly at the lab sent you? They usually send my test results via computer."

"The Asian fella," the assistant said. "Short hair."

"Fong." Max nodded. His eyes widened. "This is incorrect. The lab must have mixed up my sample with another."

The assistant's brows went up. "What makes you say that?"

"Because I am fairly certain my male victim was not pregnant," Max said. The lab had never screwed up this bad. "I need to call Mister Fong."


Eliot waited until the doctor had vacated the examination room, lost in his own head over the mix up and not paying attention to him. Quietly, he slipped through the doorway and approached one of the bodies.

"Really, Hardison? You made him pregnant?" he grumbled lowly.

"Hey, when you have a better idea, I'm all ears. But as long as y'all are askin' me to do last minute hacks into the forensics database, I'll say whatever I want. I could've given him two blood types. Hell, I could've given him Type Z Negative blood, but then the good doctor would stop wondering if there had been a mix up and start wondering if someone was pulling a fast one on him."

"That's enough, Hardison."

Eliot put the constant chatter in his ear in the background while he quickly checked over Ikeda. Mann's death seemed more straightforward. After their romp in Japan, it was the mysterious death of one of the performers of Takahashi's favored dance troupe that was more unsettling.

He lifted up Ikeda's stiff hand. There. That's what he'd been looking for.

"Nate. Injection site under the thumb nail," he said.

"Again, man? What is it with psycho killers stabbing people under the nail? Gives me ghost pains just thinkin' about it."

"Doesn't seem like the Yakuza's style."

Eliot set Ikeda's hand back the way he'd found it. He walked back over to the doorway, having heard the doctor finish up his call to the forensics lab.

"No, but it is a distinctive style," he said under his breath. "Pull Parker out of HPD."

There was a beat of silence.

"Okay. Parker, you heard him. Forget getting close to Agata."

"But I'm so close. Sergeant Lukela just walked away from the doors and it sounds like McGarrett's coming over here."

"Parker, get out. Now," Eliot hissed.

"I know, Parker, I know, but the last thing we want is those Five-0 guys knowing we're here. Did you know they have a drain in the floor of their interrogation room? Who has a drain in their floor in their interrogation room?"

Eliot smirked. It had been irritating the first hundred times he'd been told about the drain, but the more he thought about it, the more he decided he like Five-0's style. A drain in a concrete room was a great way to put some fear into the smarter criminal element.

"Take this back to the lab, please," the doctor handed the clipboard back to him. "There was a filing error in their system. He is sending me the proper results as we speak."

"Sure thing, Doc. Sorry about that," Eliot apologized.

He ducked out of the office. His trademark scowl settled on his face as he made his way out of the building and away from prying eyes.

"Nate, this ain't gonna go well."


Early morning deliveries were a mixed bag for Jae. On the one hand, he enjoyed being out and about before the heat set in and before too many people were clogging the streets. On the other hand, people weren't always happy to see him at seven in the morning.

He knew Five-0 usually clocked in around eight, sometimes earlier or later depending on whether or not they were working a case. Occasionally, they'd be out of the office already and he'd have to have a guard sign for the package. The team must have been in this morning, though, because Howard at the front desk let him up after he'd gone through security.

His happy mood faltered as he heard raised voices before he even made it through the glass doors to the bullpen.

Jae sighed.

He peeked in, hoping to spot Lieutenant Kelly. The older officer typically wasn't involved in whatever argument had made landfall at the smart table.

Disappoint struck. He couldn't see him. Or his cousin. Or Lieutenant Rollins. All he could see were the Detective and the Commander standing at the smart table. The Detective's hands were wildly gesturing as usual, the Commander looked either pensive or annoyed, and the room crackled with tension just like his hair crackled with static electricity after jumping on his nephew's trampoline.

He nearly turned around and bailed, except the Commander had caught his eye and waved him over.

"You always show up at inopportune times, you know that?" the Detective snapped at him.

Jae was taken aback by the remark. He knew the Detective had a temper, but he'd never turned it towards him.

"Cool it, Danny," the Commander said as he signed for the package. He didn't look that happy with his partner. "Sorry, Jae, it's been a long night."

Jae nodded and swallowed dryly.

Empty coffee cups littered the tables, recycling bin, and the floor from the few that had missed the bin. He opened his mouth to ask if they had heard of a reusable thermos, but wisely closed it again upon taking closer note of the Detective and the Commander.

They looked tired. The Commander was moving slower than normal and was more stubbled than usual. The Detective's arm was bandaged, dark circles shadowed his eyes, and a general unpleasant vibe radiated from him. After his initial greeting, Jae wasn't eager to invoke another verbal hit over a stupid coffee cup.

"Rough case?" The words slipped out before he could wrangle them back.

"If you consider no leads and an uncooperative suspect a rough case, then yes," the Detective said. Thankfully, he turned towards the hanging monitors and thus turned his back on Jae.

Jae wasn't a cop, nor had he ever had the urge to be one. He was repeatedly reminded of that almost every time he came up to the Five-0 offices. He didn't care to see the photos of bodies and crime scenes up on the screens. He didn't want to know about the tattooed guys on the screens, though he'd been on the island long enough and around enough law enforcement to guess the guys were either Triad or Yakuza. He didn't even want to try to decipher the reports from the medical examiner and all the mumbo-jumbo on a file labeled as the Toxicology Results.

He didn't want to know. Occasionally, he wanted to know. Curiosity was a natural human instinct. Curiosity also sometimes got the deliveryman shot. And with the rumpled Commander and sleep deprived Detective not in a conversational mood, this was one of those times he didn't want to know.

Jae clipped his portable scanner back onto his belt and handed the Commander the envelope.

"Hope your day gets better," he said with a partial grin.

"Me and you both, kid," the Detective grumbled.

He headed for the doors, nearly tripping over a stray cup that had rolled its way away from the bin. A hop, skip, and a jump later he nearly face planted into the door, and wouldn't that be a nice parting gift, leaving his smudged face on the pristine glass.

"Hey, be careful where you're walking. Don't want you to put your head through a door or something. Really don't feel like taking you to the ER or cleaning up a bunch of blood this morning, okay?" the Detective called after him.

"Sorry, guys!" Jae shot over his shoulder as he pushed out the door.

He bumped into Lieutenant Kelly.

"Oh, man, I'm sorry, Lieutenant," he apologized.

The Lieutenant looked at him, but it was lacking the Detective's irritation. "Should've come five minutes later, brah. Wouldn't have had to walk in on Hurricane Danny back in there."

Jae deflated once he felt that he wasn't going to get snapped at by the Lieutenant. "Wish I had. Think I might put you guys at midmorning deliveries instead of early morning."

The Lieutenant clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Doesn't matter. Hurricanes make landfall anytime of day."

"So, it's like this all the time, or is today especially bad?" he asked. He hadn't actually stepped in during many actual arguments, but that may have just been fortuitous timing on his part.

"Well, it's crazy all the time," the Lieutenant chuckled. "But if you're referring to Danny, he's not running on much sleep. None of us are. And he hasn't had his malasadas yet."

Jae nodded as the Lieutenant held up a box from Liliha's. He wasn't exactly a happy camper in the morning, either, if he hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

"See? Should've waited five minutes," the Lieutenant said, and then disappeared through the doors. "I come bearing a peace offering."

"About damn time."

Jae shook his head as he got onto the elevator. He had a new article for his blog, at least. Something along the lines of Detective Williams not being a morning person and how malasadas appeased the beast.


Next week on "Dragons", all is not well in Five-0 land.

Thanks for reading, guys! Stay safe, don't run out of TP, and please review. ;)