KA HANA A KA MAKUA, O KA HANA NO IA A KEIKI - WHAT FATHERS DO, CHILDREN WILL DO

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or the characters.

A/N: Episode tag to S08E23 and S08E24. The episodes are set months after the episode where Danny gets shot while quarantined. Yes, they stretched the storyline until they solved the mystery shooting in episode 18, but when I watched episode 23, this particular plot-line started to create itself in my head. I probably wanted to extend the original storyline even more, or at least the whump... so I started writing. First, this was going to be an addition to a previously written story, but it got a life of its own, and therefore it deserves to be an independent story. This also means there's a bit more background and information before you get what the summary promised.

Also. Began writing this piece about two years ago. Then the season 10 final happened, and for some reason, it felt similar to this plot-line. So I figured I'd postpone this story for some time. Even kept putting off writing for a long time, but then the pandemic happened and while being in quarantine, I decided to give it another go. The story isn't finished yet... still plotting the last few chapters, however, I think we can all use something to distract ourselves from all the horrible things that are happening around the world, and fill our lives with some joy :)

Hopefully, with the little snippets of information during this story, the actual episodes will come back to mind. If not, don't worry, it's going to be a whump-packed story, and I sure hope it's enjoyable nonetheless.

CHAPTER ONE

THE ONE IN THE BACK WITH THE BIG MOUTH

THURSDAY EVENING - KING'S MEDICAL CENTER - HONOLULU - O'AHU

Today had the word disaster written all over it. Danny couldn't pinpoint the exact moment of where things went wrong, but right now, Danny was lying on a gurney at King's Medical center. With his chest hurting like it had done a couple months ago, straight after he took a bullet. In his opinion, this seemed pretty much the definition of disaster. And for once, there was no one other to blame than himself. Or was there? Thinking back to the events of today, Danny tried to figure out how he ended up here. Maybe it already happened when they caught the case.

From the earlier hours of this morning, they started investigating the murders of Mei Lin and the former mob boss Tommy Boyle. And eventually, they were also looking for Mei Lin's daughter, aka Junior's friend, Cammy Lin, who seemed to be on the run after she witnessed both murders. That was as much information they had gathered by the time the clock ticked past ten in the morning, meaning it was doubtful they would close the case today.

They did a bunch more research, and around two in the afternoon, Steve and Danny went to question Tommy Boyle's son. As the partners had arrived at the mob boss's wake, Steve once again managed to get them in trouble. Right now, that hardly seemed relevant on how Danny got where he was at the moment. But the fact was that when the bouncer had denied them from entering the wake, Steve had given a light punch to the bouncer's larynx. Like a karate chop, open hand, held horizontally, followed by a tap in the throat. Disabling, not fatal, but it did almost cost them their next lead. Which was more than relevant on how Danny ended up in the ER.

Luckily, Steve's ninja move misfortune hadn't kept the son, Conor Boyle, from talking. He even provided them with new details on the case. It left the Taskforce puzzled at the time, but Steve knew just the guy who could shed some light on their latest findings. Back then, Danny didn't think this day could get any worse, so he agreed with Steve, and they went to Jin Leung, the head of the Chinese triad, for a visit.

Danny lay his head back on the gurney and sighed. Right after he agreed on the visit, things really started to go downhill. Little did he know this was just the start.

SIX HOURS EARLIER - CHINA TOWN - HONOLULU - O'AHU

Arriving at the location where Steve hoped to find Jin Leung, the partners were stopped by two muscled guys guarding the front door. Danny guessed they were at the correct address. After showing their badges, they were let in through a massive wooden double door and entered a dimly lit room. The place was traditionally decorated according to Chinese culture. Almost everything was made from high-quality mahogany wood: the floor, the window blinds, the fine carved-out window panels. The room was furnished with luxurious dining chairs lined up in rows like a theatre. The chairs got divided into two sections by an aisle that led to a low platform. The stage was all the way in the front, but it was still high enough to see if you were sitting somewhere on the back row.

Behind the platform, there was a video beaming broadly, as in covering the entire wall. It showed two men fighting with each other. One guy was wearing black trousers and the opposite, a pair of white ones. On the actual stage were two younger guys. They performed a live replica of the Kung Fu fight that played in the background. It looked totally ridiculous in Danny's opinion. What were they trying to do? Be as good as the actual fighters? If that was the case, they had a long way to go because the recording was way more interesting to watch. It even got Danny's attention. Danny recognized one of the fighters as Bruce Lee, the other might have been Chuck Norris, but he wasn't sure. He was not a big fan of Kung-Fu fighting or fighting in general. He did like watching a boxing match but with the emphasis on watching. When it came down to fighting himself. He knew the basics. He knew how to beat a guy and win a fight. However, the techniques didn't really matter to him. He was no martial artist or whatsoever.

Apparently, Danny had been lost in his own thoughts because Steve tapped him on his shoulder to get his attention. Steve nodded ahead toward an older man, seated, on the front row, watching the fight. Jin Leung. The partners approached the head of the triad when another two guards stepped forward. Jin Leung eased them off and let both Steve and Danny walk up to him. As they closed in, the guys on the platform kept going at each other. Well, one of them was because the other guy was clearly taking all the beatings and losing hard. Dumbfound by the level of stupidity, Danny, unintentionally well to say, said. "Who are these clowns?"

Insulted, Jin Leung answered. "That is my grandson, in the black."

"Ay." Steve closed his eyes and let his head down.

Though Danny immediately apologized, Jin Leung was still not pleased with him. He invited Steve for a sit-down, but only because Jin Leung knew Steve's father. Danny, on the other hand, was silenced and sent to the back. A bit reluctant, Danny did what was asked and took place on the last row. He leaned back and crossed his legs. He was in for a long wait —no point in being impatient. Danny watched the men talk. It appeared to be an interesting conversation. Not that Danny could hear a word they said because of the distance. But he could tell because, over the years, he had become an expert in reading his partner's body language.

After a good three minutes, Danny tuned out. He was bored by the long duration of the excluded conversation, so he focused on the guards instead. They popped up out of nowhere, one coming in after another. They were all dressed the same. A pitch-black two pieced suit with a plain black collared shirt underneath. It probably was supposed to look intimidating, but Danny wasn't easily impressed. Behind him, the massive double door opened. Danny turned in his seat and watched another man enter. He had dark short hair, Chinese descent, wearing a black suit too, just like the other guards. The man straightened his suit jacket as if he was trying to cover something. Probably the gun strapped to his belt or the one shoved in the back of his pants. Danny figured the man wasn't the only guard packed with firepower. It was a good thing they came here with the right intentions; otherwise, things might not play out in their favor.

Ten minutes later, Steve stood up to answer a call. It wasn't a short phone call, so Danny assumed it was another team member calling with new information. He could either get up and check in with his partner or sit tight and not disrespect anyone. He chose the last option. He didn't want to offend a man that was guarded by at least six armed guys. Danny leaned back again. Watched the fight instead. It was coming to an end, as the guy wearing black had his arms around the other guy's throat. He was trying to choke him out. After a few seconds, the guy in white passed out and dropped to the stage.

Jin Leung started cheering and clapping his hands. Steve had ended the call and walked back to the man. Danny watched him extend his hand. Presumably thanking the man for his time. Jin Leung shook Steve's hand in return, said something too. Steve reacted, surprised by Jin Leung's words, but he shrugged his shoulders. Jin Leung pointed at his grandson and Steve turned to face the young guy but almost immediately nodded. Like he was giving his consent. This seemed odd. Danny frowned and leaned forward. He focused, trying to hear what they were saying.

"No, no, not you, but the one in the back with the big mouth."

Danny wondered what he meant by that. Only when Steve locked eyes with Danny, there was a particular look on his face. He was enjoying himself. He tried to hide a smile that, if not contained, it would lit up his entire face. That's when Danny knew he was in trouble. He sighed and dropped back in his seat. This was not good.

CHINA TOWN - HONOLULU - O'AHU

Danny figured he had deserved to be silenced and sent to the back row by Jin Leung. Except when he requested Danny to participate in the grandson his fantasy of becoming the next Bruce Lee, it went too far even for Danny.

"I don't want to fight this guy. Why do I gotta fight? This is so stupid." Danny argued as he didn't want to be the guy's new sparring partner.

"You don't have a choice. Come on." Steve hurried.

"Uh, yes, I do have a choice," Danny objected. "I'm a cop, okay? I don't have to participate in this goofball's Bruce Lee Kung Fu fantasy. I don't have to do that. You understand?"

"Listen to me. Take your shirt off." Steve admonished, causing Danny to roll his eyes. There was no way Danny could win this argument, so he grudgingly clipped off his badge and gun. He put them on the window sill behind him. Danny started unbuttoning and taking off his white blue striped shirt when Steve tapped him on his shoulder. "Oh, one more thing, make sure you don't hit him, okay?"

Danny's eyebrows snapped together. "What?" He stared cluelessly at his partner with his shirt in his hands. Steve stared back at him. Or maybe at his scars. Definitely, the scars because Steve's gaze moved down and fixated on Danny's bare chest. Briefly, but he did look at the hole that was three millimeters from the center on his chest. The cool grey eyes kept staring at the ruptured muscle, the one shaped like a crater that was big enough for the tip of a finger. It was the gunshot wound from a few months ago. It was not as if Steve hadn't seen it before, but he did look. Twice to be exact. Danny shrugged his shoulders to get his attention back.

"Don't hit the kid," Steve repeated, ripping Danny's shirt out of his hands.

Danny kept staring puzzled at Steve. "What do you want me to do, bite him?"

"Well, you're supposed to lose, Danny."

Danny's eyes went wide. "I'm supposed to lose?"

Steve nodded. "That's the thing."

"I'm gonna… you want me to…" Danny stammered as he was at a loss for the right words. "It's bad enough I gotta participate in this stupid thing, and you want me to lose on top of it all?"

Steve stepped closer, whispering. "Okay, unless you want to walk out of here in a hail of bullets, just get in there and lose. All right? Come on."

Danny strapped on the gloves. He didn't know why he was putting them on if he couldn't hit the kid. But as he was rather walking out of this place in one piece, Danny tightened the gloves around his wrists. Jin Leung suggested they would fight Wing-Chun style. Danny wasn't familiar with it, but Steve quickly explained it was like wax on, wax off. With a slight push from Steve, Danny stepped onto the stage. He rolled his arms, loosened his shoulders to warm himself up a little.

The grandson made some sort of ritualistic bow and started coming toward Danny. They sparred for a while. Then the kid started using his legs, which made the boy look skilled. This solely meant he was no longer only punching Danny, no he was now kicking too. Danny managed to duck, step aside, and avoid getting beaten. In his opinion, he was doing what was asked of him, but looking at Jin Leung, the man didn't seem pleased. Danny eased up, let the kid throw a few punches at him. At least to the point where the boy started to hit him repeatedly. Danny was not getting the crap beaten out of him, so he threw back a single blow. His fist hit the kid on his ear, and he dropped to his knees.

With disappointment, Steve pulled Danny off the stage, asking what he was doing. Danny could argue all he wanted, but Steve sent him back to the stage anyway. Commanding him to take the beat and not hit the kid. Danny climbed back on and helped the boy get back on his feet. They started a second round. With the suggestion of his partner kept in mind, Danny tried to stay tactic. Only it was simply not in Danny's nature to not react, and besides, if the boy thought that with a few punches, he could defeat him; he was out of his mind. They sparred until the kid punched his fist into Danny's ribs. It knocked the air right out of him. His breath left his body, leaving him gasping for air like a fish. Struggling to breathe, Danny lashed out. He hit the kid in the ribs too and Danny finished with a massive blow to the jaw.

The boy hit the floor, and Danny could feel the tension building in the room.

He was in trouble.

That was for sure.

Winded, Danny leaned with his hands on his knees. The kid stayed down. Apparently, nobody ever dared to punch him back, or he wouldn't have been this stunned. With all eyes on him, Danny took a deep breath.

"Hey, my bad, man. You— You all right?" He asked, helping the boy back on his feet.

Danny faced Jin Leung while he tried to catch his breath. He wanted to string a sentence together and apologize, but the air just didn't go in.

Suddenly Jin Leung started applauding. "I'm impressed." It even made Steve's jaw drop.

Still breathless, Danny straightened. "I didn't mean— any disrespect."

The old man fixed his gaze on the detective. "You would have been, had you not fought back."

Danny was glad he made the right choice to fight back. However, he kind of wished he would've done it sooner because the blow to his chest had done more damage than he was going to admit. Ever since that bullet had pierced his chest, both the gunshot wound and the incision made by nobody other than his partner had been a sore spot. In fact, many doctor appointments had followed that horrendous incident, and the doctor explicitly told Danny to be careful with fieldwork. A Kung Fu fight was probably one of those things he shouldn't be doing, but as Danny had never told his partner his chest was still daily bothering him, he figured it would be best just to take his shirt off and do the hand to hand combat.

Standing next to the stage, Danny unwrapped the sparring gloves from his hands and tossed them to his partner. "I hate you. You know that, right?" Danny stated as Steve caught the gloves with a smile beaming on his face. With disapproval, Danny snarked. "Why are you smiling? Is this funny to you?"

"No—no," first Steve chuckled then pretended to be serious. "It's definitely not funny. It's just been a while since you said you hated me." He handed over Danny's shirt.

"That's right," Danny snatched his shirt out of Steve's hand and put it back on. "Unfortunately for you, time doesn't make it any less true."

Steve shrugged. "Things worked out just fine, didn't they?"

"Not if I would've listened to you?" Danny argued, buttoning his shirt.

"Well, it's a good thing then that you never do," Steve teased, and in return, Danny made a mocking face. He tucked his shirt back into his pants, grabbed his gun and badge and secured both items back onto his belt. Doing so he felt a sharp pain shooting through his chest. He winced, and his hand moved directly to the side of his torso. This didn't feel right.

"You okay?" Steve asked, worry crossing his face.

Danny sighed annoyingly as nothing went past his partner and that eagle eye of his. "It's fine," he lied.

Truthfully, he was not near being fine as there was this tightness in his chest, making it painful to move air in and out. However, that wasn't new to him. He had been dealing with such pain for months now. It would come and go, like waves that rolled onto the beach and got pulled back to the ocean. Danny hadn't told his partner any of that and wasn't planning on sharing that today. Besides, Danny knew the pain would pass. It always did. So, he started heading to the door.

"Let's get out of here, huh."

Without further questions, Steve went along and together they walked up to the massive double door. Danny eyed the guy in the black suit that had entered the room earlier. He was still guarding it. Nor did he seem like he was going to let them through. Danny was right about that.

"Not so fast," the man spoke with a low, intimidating voice. The partners stopped. Steve's hand already rested on his holstered gun, but Danny waited before doing the same. He figured the man had more to say, and again he was right. The guy stepped forward and asked. "You want a rematch?"

Danny glanced aside at his partner and back to the guy asking the question. Hold on. The man was talking to him. Not at Steve. Astound, Danny jabbed his finger against his chest. "Who? Me?" he chuckled. "No, I'm gonna decline on that one. Respectfully, of course."

"That's a shame," the man in black shook his head. "Also, not the answer I wanted to hear." His tone indicating that it wasn't a question, to begin with.

Danny quickly tried to resolve the situation. Trying to lighten the mood. "Oh, I don't know about that. Fighting's not really my thing, you see."

"If you say so," and just like that, the man stepped aside and opened the heavy door. "Have a great day then."

Danny nodded, pleasing. "Thank you. You too, buddy." He poked Steve in the shoulder, suggesting they should get the hell out of that place.

CHINA TOWN - HONOLULU - O'AHU

Halfway down the steps, Danny looked over his shoulder and watched the massive door close behind them. "What's the matter with those guys, huh? Why are they so uptight?"

"They were not being uptight, Danny. They were being respectful and that's a big part of their culture." Steve stated, continuing down the steps.

"And I respect that, but culture or not, he didn't have to threaten me."

"Threaten you? Is that why you had to get out so eagerly?" Steve quizzed as they retraced their way back to the Camaro. It was parked on the side of the street.

"Did you even see that guy?" Danny looked up at his partner. "I mean, despite my good intentions, the guy looked offended, no?"

Steve looked back at Danny, with his eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, unlike you, I apparently am a cultural barbarian because I figured he asked a legitimate question. One you can answer freely with anything you prefer. Except he didn't ask me one of those. He just made a statement, which I shouldn't have said no to." Danny revered back to the guard, asking him if he wanted a rematch.

Coming down the steps, Steve stopped and turned to Danny. "A, you are a cultural barbarian. B, the guy did ask you a legitimate question, all right."

"Really? So, we're good then? No depth to pay for punching that kid?"

"Of course we're good," Steve unlocked the Camaro with its key fob. He went around the car and opened the driver's door. "I mean, we returned them a favor after they gave us some intel, so don't worry, okay? We paid out depth."

Danny leaned with both his forearms on the roof of the Camaro. "Hold on. We did them a favor?" He paused for a dramatic effect. "If I remember correctly, I'm the one that got his ass kicked, and if I would've listened to you, I'd be perforated with bullets right now and on my way to the morgue."

"They were not gonna shoot you, but if you keep talking with that tone of yours, you might end up at the morgue anyway," Steve mocked and dropped into the Camaro. Danny did the same. His partner was nuts enough to drive away and leave him behind on the side of the curb. Coming to think of it, maybe Danny should switch careers and become a psychic because the second he slammed his door shut, Steve tore off onto the street. Perhaps not a psychic, their marriage simply had become predictable over the years.

At the end of the street, Steve picked up the argument. "Let me ask you, did you even see them pull a weapon on you? Because I didn't."

"Why would you ask me a question where you already know the answer to?"

"Just humor me, all right?"

"Fine," Danny sighed dramatically. "No, Steven, I didn't see them pull a weapon on me, but they could have. Those guards were packed with guns, you know, those soulless clunks of metal that fire a bullet if you pull the trigger."

With a smirk on his face, Steve patted down his holstered gun. "You mean the soulless clunks of metal that are clipped onto our belts as well?"

"That's different!" Danny exclaimed.

"How's it different?" Steve raised his voice too. "It's the kind of arms you're referring to, are you not?"

"Don't ever in life use the word arms, okay? Arms are what your mother hugs you with," Danny airdropped his hand. "Never mind, you wouldn't know because you weren't hugged enough as a kid."

"That's low," Steve stated, visibly hurt by Danny's verbal outburst.

"I'm sorry, that was insensitive, I apolo—, ow." A sudden gush of pain jolted throughout Danny's chest and forced him to pause. This didn't make any sense. The pain should have subsided by now.

Worry transformed Steve's face as he looked aside. "What's wrong?"

— TBC / HAWAIIFIVE0 —

A/N : Leaving a review is always kind. Love to learn what you think about this story.

Next chapter will be uploaded in a few days.

Stay safe. Stay healthy.