Author's Note: I apologize for the long wait for this update! Over the last several months, my life has been very busy, including getting our old house ready to go on the market, keeping it clean for the flurry of showings before we sold it, the move to our new house, and some traveling. Things are settling down now, thankfully, and even though we still have lots of boxes to unpack, I am getting back to my writing.

Thank you to my beta reader, katbybee, who inspired this story when she requested Danny whump for her birthday fic. It's well past your birthday, Kat, but I figure you don't mind dragging out the celebration for a while.

To all my readers, especially those who have reviewed, I thank you! I hope you will continue to enjoy this tale!

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Glossary (Irish-Gaelic - English)

Mo stór - My treasure

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Moira Keenan huffed in frustration as she sat at her computer, watching Danny Williams on the monitor. With a tap of a key, she could view him from any angle. Clothed only in a simple hospital gown, he lay strapped into a reclining chair that looked like something out of a dentist's office - well, except for the heavy-duty restraints that secured his arms and legs to the chair and the cranial device that had been fixed in place on his head. He'd had only a few moments of consciousness since Michael and Seamus had brought him to the lab, fresh from the airport. His two-week vacation had been perfectly timed, but now they were behind schedule and he wasn't close to ready to be sent home. Why wouldn't the program she'd written work the way it was supposed to?!

She read over the latest memories she'd programmed for him and prepared to revise them. Seamus had not been thrilled that she'd included a marriage. He was a possessive sort and had agreed to his wife's participation in this project only grudgingly. Moira enjoyed the fact that she had the power to arouse such jealousy. She also liked to dream a little. She loved Seamus, but he was no Danny Williams. Moira smiled slightly as her gaze fell on the detective and she wondered what exactly it was about him that attracted her. He was handsome enough, she supposed (though, to be honest, she knew many better-looking men), and there really was something special about the way he smiled in those rare moments when a stray thought of Rachel crept past the memory blocks Moira had set in place. Moira frowned. The fake memories she'd programmed of herself had not yet managed to elicit such a smile, but she still had hope.

Danny Williams' appeal went deeper than appearance or smiles, though. Over the last two weeks, Moira had become intimately acquainted with the detective, not in a physical sense of course, but through the window she'd created into his mind. She thought the allure came, in part, from the intense challenge involved in breaking him. Daniel Williams lived by a strict moral code, and Moira knew without a doubt that he would find her and everything she stood for abhorrent. To bring him to a point that he would be willing not only to die, but to kill for her - well, that was a delicious prospect right there. But she could not deny that his antiquated standards - the love for his family, the loyalty he gave to his friends, the willingness to risk his own life for what he believed was right - appealed to her. Oh, Seamus was certainly loyal to a point, but he could be bought, and he was more than happy to step on the heads of his so-called brothers to make his own way to the top. It certainly wouldn't require technological intervention to get him to betray those who were closest to him.

"I'll try to leave a little of the old you intact, Detective," she said softly as she glanced around to reassure herself that no one was around to overhear her. "And maybe when Seamus meets his inevitable end, you and I will run away together to a nice private island of our own. If you're not rotting in prison by then, that is." His purpose, after all, had to be her priority, above her own pleasure. Danny Williams was the key to destroying Hawaii Five-0 from the inside out, if she could just get the damned program to work.

With a few keystrokes, she wiped out the recently implanted memory she had given him of waking up to find her next to him in bed. All of it - the wedding photo, the rings, the snowbound cabin - would be replaced with a scene at a ski chalet in Aspen. From his seat at a bar, Detective Williams turned just in time to catch a glimpse of Miranda Cleary as she breezed past, stopping only long enough to cast a demure smile in his direction. Moira backspaced. Instead of a demure smile, Miranda winked at the detective and blew him a kiss, then moved on without a backward look. And Williams... well, he just dropped his jaw and stared after her.

"You belong to me now, Detective Williams," Moira murmured, her eyes glowing with anticipation. "And I look forward to every minute we will have together."

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Jerry stared at the computer screen, watching the security footage from the airport for the hundredth time. "You know what they say about insanity, don't you, Jerry?" he muttered. "It's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." He shook his head and went back to the segment time-stamped 6:00 a.m., February 10, when Steve had dropped Danny at the airport. "It's a dumb saying anyway. Maybe if I keep watching, I'll see something I missed."

The footage outside the airport clearly showed Danny's car. Danny got out... grabbed his bags... waved goodbye... and went inside. But when Jerry pulled up the next camera, Danny was nowhere to be seen. He froze the image and leaned forward to examine it carefully. A moment later, he straightened up. "Of course! Why didn't I notice that earlier?!"

"You got something, Jerry?"

Jerry jumped, startled to find Lou Grover standing right behind him. "Uh... yes, Captain, I think I do." He indicated a spot at the left edge of the monitor screen. "Do you see that clock there at the edge of the screen? It says 9:35."

"Yeah... and?"

"Look at the time stamp! It says 6:05. Someone has tampered with the footage. I can't believe it took me this long to catch it!"

Lou frowned. "It's a glitch? The clock is wrong?"

"All the clocks?" Jerry moved to another camera and advanced the footage. "See... this one says 9:37, but the timestamp reads 6:07. And..." He adjusted the footage ahead a few more minutes and chose yet another camera. "Same thing here."

"And Danny's flight was at 8:30, right?" Grover frowned. "Whatever happened to him, it had to have been here in Honolulu, or else someone went to a lot of trouble deleting that footage for nothing. Can you get the original footage back?"

"That's what I'm working on." Jerry's fingers flew over the keyboard for several minutes. He thought maybe he had it, but suddenly, the image disappeared altogether. "What the..." He banged on the keys, but nothing worked. "I'm sorry, Captain. It's just... gone. Completely. The whole day of footage, wiped out!"

Grover gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Keep trying, Jerry. Surely the airport has backup they'll let you see. And check the footage from Denver, too. I'd better contact the Commander with this information. Maybe he's looking in the wrong place."

"But Danny called him from Colorado. Talked to him all about skiing and everything... how he met some girl."

Lou shook his head. "I don't know... something about that sounded fishy, if you ask me. We all know how crazy Danny is about Rachel."

Jerry's eyes widened. "Maybe it's.."

"Oh no you don't, Jerry! I don't want to hear any of your conspiracy theories! Contact the airports and see what you can do about that footage. I'm going to call Steve."

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Steve, meanwhile, was sitting in a Humvee in blizzard conditions, heading west on I-70. They were making slow progress, stopping every so often to dig out stranded vehicles and get the people inside them to safety, but at least they were making progress. Steve's anxiety for Danny mounted with each delay, but it couldn't be helped so he simply threw himself into working beside Barlow and his men.

When the Humvee had pulled up to the rendezvous point that morning, Colonel Dogface himself had opened the door and invited Steve to jump in. "I decided it might be fun to watch a squid floundering in the snow" he'd said with a jaunty grin. "Hope you don't mind providing the day's entertainment." Steve had just rolled his eyes, but he was glad to have Barlow along.

He glanced at the phone when it rang and saw Grover's name flash on the screen, but when he answered he got static and then dead air. He scowled, but resisted the urge to hurl the device across the Humvee.

"Weather like this sure wreaks havoc with a cell signal," Barlow observed.

Steve sighed and shook his head. "It's a sat phone. Supposed to work in extreme weather - not sure what the problem is." He fired off a text to Lou, then groaned when it didn't seem to go through. Technology was great until it didn't work. After a few more fruitless attempts, he slipped the phone into his pocket, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes.

"Don't get too comfy, Squid." Barlow elbowed him in the side and then pointed out the window. "Looks like we've got more digging to do."

Steve peered out to see a car-shaped mound of snow off to the side of the highway. He pulled on his gloves and hat, wrapped his scarf around his neck, and then prepared to jump down from the vehicle as soon as it was stopped.

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Lou shook his head in frustration as he pocketed his cell phone. "Call isn't going through. Damn phone… Can't even get a text to send." His brow furrowed, he glanced at Jerry. "Take a break from that for a minute and see if you can send something."

Jerry pushed his office chair back from the computer, swiveling as he did so to reach for his phone, which he had left on a nearby cluttered table. Lou watched his fingers fly across the screen.

A moment later, he lowered his device. Lou scrutinized him carefully. "Well, from that little lost boy look on your face, I take it you didn't do any better than I did."

Jerry shook his head. "Can't get a call or text out to anyone. You know, this could really be-"

Lou raised a hand. "Stop right there. No conspiracy theories! Just get the damn phones working so we can communicate with Steve. Then get back to looking for that footage."

Jerry looked hurt… deflated, almost. But he raised two fingers to his forehead in a quick salute. "I'll do my best, Captain."

Lou felt a pang of guilt. He had little patience with Jerry's unending stream of theories, but he shouldn't have snapped at him. For all his quirks, he was an invaluable member of the team. Lou softened his tone and clapped a hand to the younger man's back. "Sorry, Jerry. I know you will. You always do."

A couple minutes later, Jerry sat back and pointed at the computer screen. "There it is - the satellite blackout was triggered at the very moment I started really digging through the security footage. Could just be a coincidence, but I think someone is trying to keep us from finding Danny, and they've got access to some real kick-ass technology..."

Lou frowned. "But you know how to get around it, right?"

With a heavy sigh, Jerry shook his head. "I'm not sure. I'll keep try-" Suddenly his face lit up and his fingers started flying over the keyboard again. "I might be able to isolate the source of the blackout. If I can, it would be worth checking out."

He leaned in close to the monitor and narrowed his eyes as he stared at the screen. Lou just watched the flurry of movement as his fingers tapped away, sometimes on the keyboard, sometimes on the touch screen. Finally the movement slowed and Jerry leaned back, a grin slowly creeping across his face. "Got it. Take a look."

Lou grimaced as he bent over to peer at the computer screen. "Now come on, Jerry. You know I can't make heads or tails of what I'm looking at."

"Captain, you're looking at proof positive that Steve is never going to find Danny in Colorado. We need to get hold of him right away!"

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Seamus peeked into Moira's control room, but he didn't actually cross the threshold. He knew better. The control room was Moira's domain, and no one went in there until she said, "Enter."

She kept one eye on her husband as she minimized the files she'd been preparing to upload to the detective's brain. It was fun to torment Seamus, but she didn't want to make him too angry. He might kill Danny before they could make their intended use of him. "All right, Seamus. You may enter," she finally said. "I'm giving him a short rest period. I don't want to fry the control circuits, after all."

"Have you had a successful test run yet?" Seamus growled.

"I'm very close." Moira kept her tone breezy. She wouldn't be caught dead admitting that every test she'd run had been a complete failure. "I'm preparing a new test now - I think he's ready."

"He'd better be. Sullivan wants him back at the Palace day after tomorrow, programmed and ready to start his assignment." Seamus moved up close behind her and began massaging her back, then dropped his lips to her neck.

Moira squirmed, but could not get free of his strong grip. "Not now, Seamus," she snapped once she realized he was not going to take her hint. Goodness, but the man is oblivious! "I'm still on duty, and so are you."

"Fine," he breathed out right against her ear before backing off a bit.

Moira didn't crane her neck to look at him, but she could feel that he was still in her personal space. She kept her back straight, her muscles taut, silently willing him to behave. "Sullivan is asking too much. If we send him back before he's ready, the whole project is liable to blow up in our faces."

"Then get him ready, mo stór." Seamus's brogue thickened. "Because he's goin' back day after tomorrow, an' we're goin' with 'im."