Hello my pretties! I have returned!

Shout out to Phoebe Miller for half-beta reading, lol!

Fact #164: Some mistakes can be fatal.

Season: 5th Season

Water trickled down his brow in small rivulets. His muscles had pulled tight enough in his back that his shoulders were protesting the strain and a headache was beginning to impatiently thud behind one eye from the tension in his neck. The crunch from his grinding molars vibrated in his ears.

He pulled a deep breath in between his clenched teeth. Held it. Let it out slowly. It was a good thing he was in here with the suspect and not Danny. The room wasn't all that big and the racks of shelves laden with glass aquariums and plastic storage bins made it feel smaller. Each breath was a struggle in the dense humidity and eighty-five degree temperature, even now that he wasn't fighting the suspect hand-to-hand.

The many reptile lamps scattered confused shadows in every direction, but had managed to catch himself and his suspect in the crosshairs of their beams of light. The man was as drenched in sweat and ambient moisture as Steve felt.

Fairly confident the suspect wasn't going to bolt on him, he slowly turned his head toward the overturned table at the back of the room. The black barrel of his gun peeked out from under a mess of documents. On a good day, sprinting the fifteen feet to grab it would've been child's play for him. He didn't even need it to take down the suspect. The guy had been scrappy and fought more like a panicked animal than a trained fighter, which had thrown Steve off initially and which was why his gun was under the table, but now that he knew that, it wouldn't take him but a couple of seconds to apprehend him. Maybe.

A pressure on the toe of his boot drew his attention downward.

His next breath was a shallow inhale. Don't move, don't move.

Charcoal gray scales covered the long tube of muscle slithering uncomfortably close to him. It weighed more than it looked like it should. And this wasn't the biggest one.

He had come across snakes on missions while with the SEALs. Cobras and adders in the Middle East had startled his team more than once, but they typically wanted to be left alone and Steve was more than happy to oblige them. Anacondas in South America were nothing to sniff at, but they relied on brute force more than a venomous bite.

These three snakes were none of those.

He released his shallow breath in a shaking exhale. The burning orange eyes of the monstrous snake laying perfectly still between him and his suspect locked onto him in a cold, dead stare. He held the snake's gaze and mentally beat himself for not listening to Danny.

Yesterday…

Steve snagged the keys as they arced up over the Camaro. He wondered if Danny even realized he tossed him the keys without him having to ask now.

He strapped the seatbelt across his chest and pulled out of the parking lot at the same time.

"Seatbelt first, then backing out, okay?" Danny grumbled, still in the process of latching his seatbelt and setting his cup of tea into the cupholder. "We don't have a truck full of armed assailants on our tail, you know. You're allowed to take your time once you climb into the driver's seat. Adjust your mirrors, turn on the AC, pick a radio station, buckle up."

"I can multitask," he said.

Danny rolled his eyes.

Steve glanced at him. "How're you feeling?"

"Peachy."

"You don't look peachy."

"While neither do you, sunshine, and you don't smell like a basket of roses, either," Danny said.

Steve frowned. "I got called in early."

"Too early to take one of your one minute Navy showers after your workout?" Danny asked. He waved a hand between them. "Aren't we supposed to be on desk duty, anyway? Until we, you know, recover from being stranded on a deserted island? If I was back at my ma's I would have already put on ten pounds."

He thought Danny still looked thin, but he wasn't expecting all his muscle mass to come back at once. It was turning out to be more of a struggle for himself than he had imagined it was going to be. Certain foods didn't settle right with him. His energy wasn't at full capacity. Even his workout that morning had been shorter than what he'd set as a goal.

"We're just going to see Max. Not very strenuous," he said.

"Maybe not on the body, but the mind is a different story," Danny said, earning a grin.

Of course, as soon as they got down to Max's office outside of autopsy, the ME hit them with unexpected news and that morbid enthusiasm they had grown accustomed to seeing. The way he scurried into autopsy and posted himself on the other side of the blanketed table near his computer was a telltale sign he had something interesting.

"Gentlemen, a pleasure as always. It has been a while," Max started out. "I see your latest mishap on the Canadian island has left its mark."

Steve crossed his arms over his chest. The concerned looks he kept getting from his teammates and coworkers was starting to wear on him. Ten days on the island hadn't emaciated him that bad. Thinned him out a bit, sure. But he had survived through worse times for longer periods in the SEALs. Ten days on an island where they had access to freshwater was nothing compared to a month in a desert where water was more valuable than gold.

It seemed Danny had been worn down by the constant concern, too.

"Yes, yes, we know the Deserted Island Diet worked its magic a little too well on us, can we move on? Please? What do you have for us?" Danny asked.

Max dropped the subject and reached for the cover on the body on the table. "This is victim number three. Tristan Read."

The face of the dead man was intact, though he knew there had been bloody track marks from his eyes and nose when he had initially been found. Max tugged the cover down further and exposed the Y shaped cut from the exam he had conducted earlier. As far as corpses went, this was one of the least gory ones Steve had laid eyes on. He'd seen Danny in worse shape than this guy.

His brow pinched. "Hold on. Victim number three?"

"Hate to break it to you, babe, but your counting's off. This is victim number two," Danny said.

Max raised his brows. "If you had come an hour earlier, you would be correct. After my findings while examining Mr. Read here, I had a sudden sense of deja vu. I pulled this record from an autopsy one of my coworkers did two days ago."

Steve squinted at the file that popped up on Max's screen. "Kevin Holden. Died of massive heart failure."

"Mr. Holden was an older gentleman that had heart issues already," Max said.

"So it wasn't a heart attack?" Danny ventured.

"No, it was."

Steve shared a look with Danny. "How does he connect to our other two victims?"

"While Mr. Holden's cause of death was heart failure, the cause of his heart failure puts him as the first victim," Max said.

"And the cause is…?" Danny held his hands out palms up.

Max tapped a few keys on his keyboard. A blood work panel took the place of the autopsy file. Steve was versed in many things, but reading and interpreting medical jargon was not his forte.

"I believe these two victims as well as the one on the Big Island were bitten by a snake." Max lifted up the part of the cover over Read's arms and held up his left hand. "Seeing as this man has a litany of scars and calluses on his hands, I nearly missed it. There is a small wound between his thumb and forefinger, nothing more noticeable than a slight bruise and two puncture marks made by something no wider than a hypodermic needle. I found similar marks on Mr. Holden's big toe."

Danny winced.

The Amazonian Tree Whip snake that had bitten him had been nigh undetectable, and probably would have remained that way if Mauna hadn't found it in his clothes. Steve's gut clenched. His partner had the misfortune of being envenomated more than once, both times had resulted in some of the worst times in Steve's life. Staying on desk duty was starting to sound more attractive, if only to keep Danny out of harm's way if snakes were involved again.

"Also, when I examined Mr. Read this morning, I found all of his organs had been liquified," Max added.

This time Danny blanched and paced away from the table.

Steve eyed the incision on Read's abdomen, already imagining the soupy mess Max must have found when he cut into him. The impeccable state Max kept his tools, room, and bodies in hid the grotesque truth well.

From his safe distance at the door between autopsy and the office, Danny fluttered a hand out in their direction. "So, uh, what kind of snake liquifies organs, huh? Is that something a rattlesnake does or a king cobra? Or a sea snake?"

"Due to the lateness of discovery with Mr. Holden and Mr. Read, the proteins were harder to detect and identify. Thankfully, my counterpart on the Big Island was able to perform his autopsy on Mr. Little a mere two hours after his death. The samples he collected confirmed the presence of cytotoxins and hemotoxins in the bloodstream. He also found similar puncture wounds on Mr. Little's heel."

"Is this something native to the islands or the surrounding area?" Steve asked.

The brown snakes on the island were a nuisance to the bird populations, but otherwise were fairly unremarkable and not particularly known for their deadly aggression. The sea snakes that occasionally were spotted in the waters off the island were more cause for concern, yet he didn't hear of cases of envenomation pouring in from them. People were more liable to get stung by a jellyfish than bitten by a sea snake.

"Not to my knowledge. The ME on the Big Island as well as myself have sent samples off to various labs with larger databases. We hope to hear back from them later today or tomorrow," Max said.

"Anything else, Max?" Steve asked.

"I advise you to watch your step on this case," Max said.

Steve collected Danny at the door and left with a cold shiver crawling up his skin.

He would never admit to anyone that he had leapt four feet in the air when he came across the snake at the suspect's storage unit in Waikiki. Chin's back had been turned. The kerfuffle of cardboard boxes disturbed by Steve's impromptu dance move drew his attention and a puzzled look.

"You okay there?" Chin asked.

"Fine." Steve lowered his gun and took his finger off the trigger. He shoved it back into its holster.

He picked up the ghost of a snake by the tail. The shed skin looked a lot less like a living snake in his hands than it did on the floor. It was barely a foot long. Distinctive scales and an arrowhead shaped head. There was a chance the lab would be able to identify it. They had yet to come back with what kind of snake the venom found in the three victims was from.

In the meantime, Five-0 had found a name that the three victims had in common, which was how they had wound up in the storage unit. Danny hadn't been pleased that Steve elected to go to there despite still being on desk duty, but had finally grumbled at him to stay safe and stayed at the Palace with Kono and Catherine to run through the financials of the mysterious Philip Schneider.

So far, all Steve knew of Schneider was that he had a lot of cardboard boxes full of junk and a snake shed, the latter of which seemed suspicious considering how their victims died.

He slid the pale skin into the evidence bag Chin held open for him.

"Kind of a weird coincidence that three people were all killed by a snake over the last few days," Chin said with a knowing tone as he sealed up the bag.

"Especially since Hawaii doesn't have any snakes capable of dropping a human," Steve said. He pulled open another box and found more junk. "What was this guy even keeping in here?"

"Looks like the contents from a closet," Chin agreed, setting the evidence bag aside and grabbing up an article of clothing from his box. It was a shoulder padded blazer. "A closet from the 80s."

Steve stacked the box of junk on the old workbench in the unit and crouched down. He sliced through the tape of the bottom box with his knife. His brows knitted together. This one was much more interesting than knick knacks or clothing that hadn't been worn in thirty years.

"Chin, look at this," he said.

Chin looked at the contents over his shoulder. "Looks like pet supplies."

He picked through the items carefully. There were two old heat lamps, a busted UVB bulb, a few well-worn water dishes, a rolled up green mat, some faux foliage, and a collapsible snake hook.

"Seems like we need to talk to Schneider," Steve said. He stood up with a groan. His still recovering body wasn't pleased with his running around today, but complaining about it would get him nowhere. He stopped and tilted his head, an empty spot in the back corner catching his attention. "He was here recently."

"What makes you say that?" Chin asked, busy moving the junk boxes off of the larger bottom boxes. He set two down with a huff and dusted off his hands, glancing at where Steve was looking as he did. "Dust voids. Must have taken something with him."

Steve scrubbed a hand through his hair in thought.

"Got more supplies," Chin said. He had torn into another of the bottom boxes. "Looks like mostly reptile equipment to me."

"Illegal pets?" Steve ventured. Snakes were definitely on the no-no list when it came to owning animals on the islands as were a lot of lizards.

"My question is, how did we wind up with two victims on this island and one on the Big Island?" Chin asked, still sorting through all of the supplies in the other boxes. Schneider appeared to have specialized in reptiles and amphibians judging by the items they were finding.

"Maybe it's another animal smuggling operation," Steve ventured. "There's got to be a few people on the islands who wouldn't care if it was illegal to own snakes."

"And there're always a few lolos where the more dangerous something is, the more desirable it is." Chin sighed and stood up. "We need to look into our victims better and see if any of them had a taste for exotic pets."

Steve nodded. "Call Danny and see what he's got. We'll drop that snakeskin off at the lab on our way back."

They finished looking through the boxes, coming up with more junk and more reptile supplies. Steve found a fragmented snake skull inside one of the boxes and bagged it up to take to the lab, too. Other than that small discovery, there was nothing more useful in the unit.

He hoped Danny had better luck.

Chin eyed Steve disapprovingly while he talked on the phone. The conversation with Danny and the girls on the way to the lab had proved a little too useful and had given Steve a little too much confidence. According to the financials, Read was tied to Schneider as a business partner, and Holden and Little had made purchases over the last month that were questionable and may have linked back to Schneider and Read on the Big Island.

All of that information had gotten Steve's juices going. He was on the phone with the airfield the team used to hop islands when a case called for it.

Chin braced his hands on his hips and stared up at the cloudless blue sky outside the forensics lab. It didn't take a rocket scientist or a psychologist to see that Steve and Danny were tired of being told to take it easy. Mentioning the dark circles under Steve's eyes or Danny's still thin frame had turned into good icebreakers, that was if someone was looking to pick a fight with them.

"You think that's a good idea?" he asked once Steve had made the arrangements and put his phone away.

"He's not a gun runner and he has no known associates," Steve said.

"That's because his only known associate is dead."

Steve shoved open the door to the lab harder than necessary.

"We need to get to his stash house before anymore people wind up dead," Steve said.

Chin followed his quick stride towards Fong's lab. "The police on the Big Island can handle that."

"It won't even take the whole afternoon," Steve said.

Chin sighed. He knew better. Once Steve had sunk his teeth into a case, he liked to finish it out. Very rarely did he let someone else round up the bad guys.

Tired of dancing around the fact that Steve wasn't one hundred percent back up to his Super SEAL self yet, Chin hung back for a second near the lab doors and texted Danny. If Steve thought everyone else was being too sensitive about his less than stellar condition, maybe the one other person that had been on the island and was in the same boat as him would be able to talk him out of going to the Big Island. Or maybe he would knock some sense into him.

Chin just didn't want either one of them hurt when it could have been prevented. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and washed his hands of the matter.

Steve and Fong stood back by Fong's station near the rear side of the lab. By the time Chin crossed the lab where the other techs were working on various things for the college and HPD, Fong had the evidence bag with the snake skull in his hands and had a deeply furrowed brow.

"The fangs on this skull are distinctive," Fong said. One side of the front of the skull was missing and the other side was cracked from being buried under heat lamps, but there was enough left to see the backwards curved teeth. "You see these two longer fangs up front? Almost right on top of each other?"

On the side still present, the two forwardmost teeth were fractionally longer than the other spiny teeth.

"Not many snakes have dentation like that. Gaboon vipers have double fangs, but they're much more massive than this," Fong explained. He set the skull down and turned to his computer.

"So this is from a venomous snake?" Chin asked and raised a brow at Steve.

"I am reasonably sure, but I'll put it through the proper tests to make sure," Fong said.

"Do you have an idea of what it is?" Steve asked.

Fong hesitated, fingers hovering over his keyboard.

"I don't want to alarm you unnecessarily until I know for sure."

Chin put his hand on Fong's shoulder. "We would rather be alarmed than unprepared."

Steve folded his arms over his chest. Despite the tired circles under his eyes and less muscled arms, he looked rooted to the spot like a tree waiting for bad weather. He obviously wasn't going to budge until he got an answer. Chin thought he was wearing what Danny called his Stubborn Face.

"Upon first glance, this skull appears to have belonged to a Fire Wyrm," Fong said.

Chin felt Steve go rigid next to him. The air went deadly still around them, as if the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. His skin prickled down his spine. Uncle Haku had warned him and the other kids about Fire Wyrms, even though they weren't endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Anyone who lived or traveled in rural areas in the Ring of Fire had heard about Fire Wyrms.

"As you may know, Fire Wyrms can grow to excessive sizes and have extremely potent venom," Fong continued. "The results from the proteins found in the victims haven't come back yet, but Fire Wyrm venom would be more than capable of liquifying internal organs."

"Who in their right mind would want to keep a pet Fire Wyrm?" Chin questioned.

Fong brought up a search engine on his computer and clicked through the images that popped up. "While deadly, they do have a certain allure to them."

"Thanks, Charlie," Steve grunted and headed for the doors.

Chin glanced at him then back at Fong. "Keep us updated."

"I will, Lieutenant," Fong said. As Chin followed Steve towards the doors, Fong called out to him, "Lieutenant?"

Chin stopped and looked back.

"I advise you to proceed with extreme caution."

Chin nodded. He didn't need to be told twice. Animals didn't scare him, not even the ones with hundreds of legs or the ones that cruised the reefs with mouths full of teeth. But Fire Wyrms? Those terrified him.

"No! Absolutely not. That is so idiotic, Steven!"

Kono could hear the rant from her place near the borrowed SUVs. Chin stood next to her, shaking his head and gearing up while they left Catherine to mediate between the arguing boys. In the meantime while they waited on a plan, she checked the shin guards she had strapped on along with her steel toed boots and gloves. She wasn't completely snakeproof, but it was better than nothing. Her organs were going to stay nice and firm, not turn into soup.

"Did you know Charlie was super into snakes and reptiles at one point?" she said.

Chin tightened his tac vest and raised a brow at her. "Reminds me of this little keiki I knew a couple years ago."

"I gave up on snakes after that brown snake bit me," she said.

Chin chuckled. "I remember you running inside the house, crying about this miniscule bite on your thumb."

"Hey, it scared me! I think most seven year olds would cry if a snake bit them, venomous or not," Kono said.

She secured her gun in its holster as the other half of their team approached the vehicles.

"We're going to head out to Schneider's place," Steve said.

Kono had figured as much. That's why they were on the Big Island in the first place, wasn't it?

"And you three are going to conduct the raid while we," Danny jerked his hand between him and Steve, "are going to sit in the cars, got it?"

Kono felt the last remark was aimed more at Steve rather than the rest of them. Steve's face was stormy and aggravated, his shoulders were hitched up and his arms crossed firmly, the muscle in his clenched jaw twitched.

"Let's go, then," Chin said, breaking the awkward staredown between their bosses.

Kono climbed into the SUV with her cousin. Danny slid into the back behind her while Steve jumped into the driver's seat of the second SUV. Catherine shot her a helpless look in the wing mirror and got in the passenger side.

"That animal is going to be the death of me, you know that?" Danny huffed.

Kono looked at him in the rearview mirror. "I hope not. What would we do without our favorite haole?"

"Eat pizza with pineapple on it, most likely."

Steve's knee bounced. He was picking up bad habits from Danny. There was a time when he would have made no movement if he was anxious, but here he was. Knee bouncing as he waited to see what came of his teammates storming into Schneider's house.

Catherine went through the front door with a well placed kick and the cousins covered the back. The house was out in the remote jungle. If Schneider had been watching the driveway, he would have seen them coming. He may have been prepared for them.

He glanced at Danny sitting in the backseat of the other SUV. Danny pointedly refused to make eye contact with him. He had only come along because Steve wasn't going to be dissuaded from wrapping up the case in person, and had cited that partners didn't let partners go off by themselves when they weren't technically supposed to be doing fieldwork.

Unfortunately, Danny had recruited Cath to help convince him to sit in the car like a grounded child until the situation was deemed safe enough.

And Steve hated sitting.

The lack of gunfire or yelling told him there was little excitement to have been had by his team. He and Danny would've been fine going in with them. They would've been able to more thoroughly clear the house.

A person slunk from the bushes along the side of the house, then took off at a breakneck pace through the jungle.

Steve threw open the door and pursued.

Even though it was early October, the temperature was immediately apparent. It stuck to him and bogged him down like it never had before. When he had been on the island, he had never imagined it would take him more than a day or two of proper hydration, food, and rest to spring back. He may have been building his muscle back up, but it was slow going and his stamina was weak.

By the time he came to the small building Schneider had streaked into, he was shaking.

"Pull it together, McGarrett," he grumbled and unholstered his gun.

He took a deep breath in and busted through the door.

Present…

"Why are you selling Fire Wyrms?" Steve hissed.

Schneider trembled.

Two of the snakes had retreated to the back of the room, but the biggest one remained between them. It seemed perfectly calm. Steve knew from experience that all that muscle could uncoil and strike within the blink of an eye, though, and so he didn't move. He stayed frozen to the spot, for once unsure what his course of action should be.

His backup weapon was in an ankle holster as was his knife. If he reached down slow enough, there was a chance the snake wouldn't be disturbed. Or he might get bit and get to know firsthand what it felt like to have his organs melt.

He bided his time.

Schneider made the first move. He lunged for the door. The snake puffed up in alarm and locked onto his fleeing form. Schneider squawked in panic and yanked the door open, revealing someone else standing on the other side.

The blood drained from Steve's face. "Danny!"

Schneider crowded behind his partner as the snake struck with a peeled open maw.

Steve leapt at the snake with his boot knife drawn. It was his fault Danny was once again in a venomous creature's path, and he would gladly distract it and take the bite instead.

Except Danny caught the snake by the throat with a scaled up hand. It hissed and writhed around Danny and Schneider's legs. Steve blinked. Then blinked again. He would never cease to be amazed by his partner's reflexes.

"Hey, hey! Where do you think you're going?" Danny snapped at Schneider as he tried to escape out the door.

Chin was waiting for him with open arms. "Woah, brah, what's the rush?"

Steve pulled a zip cuff out of his back pocket and carefully looped it over the snake's still parted maw. He zipped it closed.

"While I appreciate the concern, it's not totally necessary," Danny said. He dropped the snake on the ground and flexed his wrist, retracting the scales. He dragged Steve out of the building with him and shut the door firmly behind them. "If you had waited another five seconds before bolting like a dog after a rabbit, you would have gotten to talk to Fong who said that he had misidentified the skull and it was actually an Ash Adder, also known as a False Fire Wyrm. The adults are nonvenomous, but apparently the tiny ones are venomous enough that their bite can cause death if not treated properly. Or so says Fong."

"No, no, what're you talking about?" Schneider said as Chin cuffed him. "This shipment was supposed to be a batch of Fire Wyrms! One of the hatchlings got loose and bit two of my customers and Read, so when I finally caught it I cut its head off with a shovel. I never wanted anyone to die."

"You ever think that maybe you shouldn't be dealing with such dangerous reptiles, then?" Danny asked.

"This was a one time deal. I was getting ready to ship out the others just to get rid of them, but then you guys showed up and this lunatic jumped me and dumped the tank!" Schneider cocked his head at Steve.

Steve rolled his shoulders and neck. He was pretty sure Schneider was the one who had grabbed the edge of the tank and flipped it off its stand.

"Looks like your dealer ripped you off," Chin said. "All you had were Ash Adders."

"Do you still have the one you killed?" Danny asked.

Schneider gestured with his chin. "It's buried back there behind the building."

Steve scrubbed his hands down his face and shook off the last of the adrenaline. "Do you have anything else dangerous in there we should be aware of?"

"No. I'm not typically one of those crazy whackjobs that deals with venomous and poisonous animals," Schneider said.

"No, you're just a regular whackjob that deals with snakes," Danny said.

"I needed the money, and people will pay the big bucks for the ones with big fangs."

Chin led Schneider away towards the cars where the girls appeared to be on their phones relaying the situation to the appropriate authorities. Steve crossed his arms snugly across his chest and followed Danny back to the cars.

"I should punch you for following that guy," Danny said. "What were you thinking, huh? You knew there was a high probability of dangerous snakes being on the property, and yet you followed him anyway. What were you going to do? Shoot the snakes?"

Steve shrugged. "I assumed they were going to be inside tanks."

Danny laughed. It was that giggly laugh that told Steve he had been riding a wave of anxiety.

"You know what they say about assuming."

"It would've been fine if Schneider hadn't freaked out and knocked over the tank they were in," Steve said. He paused and glanced back at the building with a frown. "My gun is still in there."

"Well, let's hope the snakes don't figure out how to fire it," Danny said. He nudged Steve in the ribs with his elbow. "I'm glad you didn't get bit and turn into pudding, Super SEAL."

"Me too."

Steve sank down onto the adirondack with a sigh. Danny sat in his designated spot, nearly comatose with half a beer balanced on the arm of the chair.

"They get all the animals cleaned up?" Danny asked without opening his eyes.

Steve dug his heels into the warm sand and twisted the cap off of his beer with a pssht. "Yep."

"Good." Danny slouched even further into the chair. "I, for one, am glad Schneider got ripped off and didn't get the real deal."

"Should've stuck with constrictors," Steve said. He took a swig of his beer and inhaled the salty sea air. "Since when did you get brave enough to grab a snake like that?"

"I blame it on you. I've probably been hanging out with you too much, because as a beat cop back in Jersey I almost shot a snake because it scared the living crap outta me. What was I thinking grabbing that snake like that? Who am I? Steve Irwin?"

Steve grinned. Little did Danny know he wouldn't have grabbed a snake if he could help it. The comfortable silence rained down on them as they watched the sun on the horizon cast ribbons of sparkling golden light on the ocean. The waves lapped quietly and politely at the shore, speckling it with foamy webs. A bird whistled in the trees in his neighbor's yard.

His phone vibrated.

He set his sweating beer down and answered it. "McGarrett."

"Evening, Commander. Sorry to disturb you, but I thought I would update you on the case."

Steve sat up a little bit. "You're fine, Fong. Go ahead."

Danny cracked an eye open at him.

"The results finally came back from the lab, and while not entirely conclusively, they strongly suggest it was the Ash Adder hatchling that killed our victims. They might have survived, but with their underlying medical conditions combined with the lack of treatment, they had unfortunate outcomes. The snake body CSU recovered from the property was positively identified as an Ash Adder by two herpetologists and a professor at the college. The size of the skull matches the width of the bite marks Dr. Bergman found."

"What about all the other animals collected from Schneider's?" he asked.

"They're still being identified by the zoo. It looks like he had several species of snakes, geckos, chameleons, salamanders, dart frogs, and even a few tarantulas on the grounds. I'm glad to hear you're all okay."

"Schneider was unarmed and wasn't much of a fighter," Steve said, not mentioning how he had initially gotten the upper hand on him. "We've seen worse."

"I'm sure, but I was more concerned about the snakes that were loose."

"The Ash Adders?" Steve glanced at Danny.

"It turns out I was right to caution you. While the skull from the storage unit belonged to an Ash Adder and two of the three loose snakes in the building were Ash Adders, the largest out of the three was indeed a Fire Wyrm. A pregnant young adult female. The zoo has her in its care currently since they are considered an endangered species."

Steve swallowed. His palms went icy and sweat trickled down the back of his neck. Danny had grabbed a Fire Wyrm by the throat.

A Fire Wyrm. A snake known for its uncanny ability to envenomate even the toughest scaled dragons. A snake with no antivenom. A snake that was all but guaranteed to kill with one single bite.

"I imagine she wasn't moving as fast as a non-pregnant specimen would have, but she still would have been a massive threat. Maybe one day you'll tell me how you managed to zip tie her mouth shut."

"Yeah, maybe," Steve grunted. "Thanks for the update, Fong."

"No problem. Have a good evening, Commander."

"Thanks."

Steve set his phone on his leg and stared out at the setting sun. His stomach turned.

"What did Fong have to say?" Danny asked.

Danny, for once in a long time, looked relaxed and content in his chair. The circles under his eyes weren't as dark and his frown lines had softened.

Steve picked up his beer bottle. "It sounds like they've got most of the animals from Schneider's property identified."

"And there weren't any nasty surprises waiting for them, huh?"

He savored the cold beer on his tongue. A pregnant Fire Wyrm whose fangs had been mere inches away from his partner sounded like a nasty surprise to him. Her being weighed down with eggs was probably the only thing that had saved him from her strike.

He exhaled heavily and looked over at Danny.

"Nope. Looks like Schneider was telling the truth. Nothing else deadly on the property."

Danny nodded and looked out at the ocean. "Good."

Steve followed his line of sight. "Hey, bud. Promise me something."

"Hmm?"

"Don't grab anymore snakes."

Next time on "Dragons", Grace brings home some interesting news from school and uses her connections for a project.

I am so sorry for the lateness guys! I really didn't intend on taking a month long hiatus. Part of it was I lost my motivation to write and the other part was that I was traveling. But, getting out of town for a while really gave me a boost and I've got ideas and more oomph now!

Not sure if the next chapter will go up next week or the week after. My schedule is a little up in the air, so we'll see.

Thank you guys for sticking with me this far!

Oh, wanted to also ask, is there anything specific anyone would like to see or have me touch upon in upcoming chapters?