CHAPTER TWO

HURTING THE SAME WAY AS TWO MONTHS AGO

FIVE-0 HEADQUARTERS - DOWNTOWN HONOLULU - O'AHU

Walking back into the palace, Danny's hand seemed to be glued onto his chest's right side. Steve didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but it started to get suspicious. Without talking about the elephant in the room, the partners took the elevator up to their headquarter. They had discussed the case on the drive back, and now standing in the elevator, Steve figured he should bring Danny up to speed on the phone call he had earlier with Lou. About how the lead FBI agent that had been surveilling the Boyle's revealed they weren't investigating Tommy Boyle, but that the son Conor Boyle was their primary interest. A banker called Karl Ludwig was on their radar too. Because back in the day when the German bank converted to the euro, Ludwig was appointed to destroy the old currency. Except he saved some for a rainy day, but these days it's nothing more than some paper.

Halfway Steve's explanation, they reached their floor. They stepped out of the elevator, and instead of going straight ahead like they usually did, they took the passageway behind the office cubicles. This way, they could talk in private a little longer, allowing Steve to continue.

"Now if Ludwig wanted to get rid of the Deutsch Marks, he would have to go to a central bank, but if he would do such thing, he incriminates himself."

Danny put two and two together, just like Steve had. "So, he sold them to Conor Boyle."

"Yes, and the FBI figured there was some sort of money laundering going on, so they were going to let Conor complete the transaction before moving in on him. Except Conor and Ludwig got the jump on the feds —" Steve paused mid-sentence, to stop Danny from opening the glass double door. "Seriously, Danny, did that kid break your rib or something?" Steve questioned as it was bugging him that his partner was denying being hurt. Then it suddenly hit him. "Wait, is your chest okay?"

"What? My chest? Yeah—no—it's all good. Why?" Danny rambled, telling Steve all he needed.

"You're lying," he pointed at Danny's left hand, which was pressed tight against his ribs. "Your hand's been up there for the past fifteen minutes or are you holding a grenade with its pin pulled?"

"It's fine— it's nothing," Danny let instantly go of his chest. "You know who are like walking grenades, though?" he asked suspenseful. "Wives. Remove the ring, and BOOM, the house is gone."

Steve genuinely had to laugh but quickly composed himself as he knew what his partner was doing. "That's funny, but you're deflecting. You're hurting."

Danny rolled with his eyes. "All right, enough about it, it's nothing."

"I don't believe you, but you sure?" Steve asked to be certain. Danny didn't answer, but his annoying stare confirmed Steve's suspicion. Even though he was concerned about his partner, he would let it slide for now. "Okay. If you say so," he pulled the door open and let Danny go first. Steve walked in second and greeted the team that was standing around the smart table. "Hey."

Lou was the first one to speak. "What'd you do, take the scenic route or something?"

Joining the team around the table, Danny pointed with his thumb at Steve. "Long story short, this idiot made me get into a Kong Fu fight with another idiot."

Tani leaned somewhat bored onto the technical table. "Ugh, I wanna come with you guys next time. You have more fun."

Steve gladly changed the subject back to the case. "You guys got something, or what?"

Junior started. "Well, we still got nothing on Conor or Ludwig, but we may have a lead on Cammy's location."

"We've taken a deeper listen into Cammy's voicemail to see if there were maybe some location depending sounds." Lou added and nodded at Tani to go ahead.

"Here's the enhanced background sound." Tani pressed play on the sound fragment. All team members listened attentively as a loud and screechy resonant sound popped up, one that's produced by metal striking together.

Steve pointed out the obvious but added more detailed findings. "That sounds like metal on metal, right? Some kind of big door latching, and there are echoes. Maybe she moved into an enclosed space?"

"We're thinking the same thing." Lou shared.

Danny mentioned. "Okay, but that could be anywhere on the island."

Junior nodded. "The last message she left on her phone before she got cut off, I think she was trying to say she was in Ewa beach. There are a couple of rail carts down there where we used to hang out when we were kids. I mean, it's isolated, lots of places to hide."

Steve wasn't sure about that. It was a wild guess. Although it was one worth looking into, so he gave the youngest team member the green light. "All right, let's hope you're right." Junior gave an appreciative nod and took Tani with him on his hunch.

FIVE-0 HEADQUARTERS - DOWNTOWN HONOLULU - O'AHU

Junior turned out to be right. They had found Cammy hiding in one of the rail carts. Once they were about to bring her to safety, Conor Boyle and his men showed up on the remotely located scrapyard. After some gunfire and fistfights, Tani and Junior managed to take out most men. They called it in, and HPD showed up to arrest the men that were still alive. Tani had knocked out Conor Boyle, and they'd taken him with them back to HQ.

Steve joined them for the interrogation. Not because Tani and Junior weren't capable of doing it themselves, but it was a high-priority case, and Tani knew that. Besides, watching her boss interrogate criminals was always exciting and a learning experience. With Steve leading, it didn't take long before Conor Boyle confessed. He admitted all of it. Killing his father, then shooting Mei Lin because she witnessed the murder of his old man.

"See you in twenty-five." McGarrett said, turned to the door, and punched in the code so it would open. Tani followed him but looked over her shoulder as Junior wasn't behind them. Junior stood with his arms crossed, his gaze locked on Conor Boyle. Both Tani and Steve waited for him to come, but he stayed put. Tani eyed the leader of the task force briefly, not sure what to do.

Steve was about to say something when Junior commented. "You guys go ahead, it'll only take a second."

Steve nodded and left, so did Tani. The door fell shut behind her. Locked. She knew it had become personal for Junior when Boyle decided to go after his childhood friend Cammy. Tani just hoped it wouldn't get dirty in there. It had been quite the day for him, so she wasn't sure he would control himself. Standing in the elevator, Tani shared her thoughts. "Should we go back?"

"He's going to keep it professional." Steve asserted as if one hundred percent certain.

"Okay," Tani replied, a bit doubtful, even though her boss was almost always right. Steve probably noticed the hesitation because he briefly squeezed Tani's shoulder before stepping out of the elevator. She gave him a small smile as she appreciated the comforting gesture. Steve and Tani took a left and walked past the offices. Lou's office was vacant. He probably already left for the day. Going ahead, Tani did spot the detective in his cubicle. "Hey, Danny's still here. You guys up for a drink?" she suggested. "I think Juns could use the distraction."

Pushing open the glass double doors, Steve went first. "Sounds good to me. Just going to finish up first, think Danny's doing the paperwork." He gave a nod to Danny's office, where the detective was sitting behind his desk.

Tani stopped dead, standing in the door opening. "Yeah, why is it that he's always doing the paperwork?"

Steve shrugged. "He likes doing it."

Tani let out a huff. "No, he doesn't. Nobody likes doing paperwork."

"Are you volunteering to do it from now on?" Steve mocked.

Tani playfully scrunched up her face. "What? No! I would never, and hey, if you say he likes doing it, why deprive him of that joy."

"Smart choice." Steve grinned, and he went into his corner office.

With a smile on her face Tani walked up to the technical table, the one standing centered in the workspace. She closed all open files and shut it down for the day. When all the screens turned pitch black, Tani started going towards her own office. Halfway there, she changed her mind, and instead of going to her own office, she went over to the detective's cubicle.

Tani did the courtesy knock on the glass door but pushed it open before Danny could answer. "Hi there, can I help you finishing up?"

The detective looked up from his tablet. "That's very generous of you, but you're ten minutes too late with that offer."

"I was hoping you would say that," Tani smiled and leaned against the door frame. "Listen, we were talking about grabbing a drink with the team. Are you in?"

"Sure." Danny closed the tablet and grabbed his cellphone off his desk. He pushed his chair backward with his arms but flinched when he stretched his arms. He then slowly stood up from his chair, which made sense to Tani when a pained grunt escaped from his mouth. Danny tried to cover up by clearing his throat, but she heard it anyway.

Tani frowned and inspected her coworker. "Are you okay?" she questioned as she noticed that Danny looked pale and as if he could sleep for about a week. "You seem tired."

"I'll take the compliment." Williams said deadpan as he made his way over to Tani.

Even though it was not Tani's intention to insult her superior coworker, it did sound a bit like it, so she quickly tried to make a smooth apology. "No—I mean, you look fine, little tired… maybe… but not bad for a guy your age, plus you just finished a pile of paperwork after a long day."

Instead, she made it worse.

"A guy my age?" Danny pretended to be offended, but he smiled a tired smile at Tani. "What is it these days with Millennials and respect?"

"Okay, hold on, I'm not a Millennial. But you know what, as an apology, and as I'm still young and energetic, I will do the paperwork next time."

Danny eyed Tani dismissively and went past her. "Kiss ass." Danny coughed once to hide the comment, but that quickly dissolved into a violent coughing fit.

Tani kept the joke going. "Take it or leave it," when Danny didn't respond, she realized he was no longer kidding and was actually struggling to catch his breath. "You're not fooling me with another repelling comment, so what's wrong?" Tani asked, concerned, watching her coworker's chest heave up and down.

"I don't know," Danny said, breathing heavily. He staggered and put out a hand and steadied himself against the wall. His other hand pressed against his chest. Fear etched on his face as he looked up at Tani. "Something's not right." His statement was definite. Not a whine or a complaint, but a statement of fact.

Tani froze, a wave of dread hitting her. "Okay, um," she said, thinking rapidly as her eyes scanned the detective from top to bottom for any injury. Danny was pale, beads of sweat bathed on his forehead, and he was obviously out of breath. Up to the point where it started to sound suffocating. Something was really wrong because Danny eased himself down to the floor. With a bit of panic, Tani grabbed his left arm and guided him down. "Are you having a heart attack?"

"I'm not that— old, okay?" Danny squeezed his eyes shut, letting out a pained groan as he leaned back against the office wall.

"FYI, a heart attack has nothing to do with old age," Tani mocked as she didn't know what to do next. The fact that she had minor medical training due to her time at the police academy didn't mean she was great at the execution. Her boss, on the other hand, probably knew exactly what to do. Tani's eyes shot up to the corner office. If she shouted, Steve should be able to hear her, so she tried. "Boss, get over here!"

STEVE'S OFFICE - FIVE-0 HEADQUARTERS - O'AHU

Steve ended the call and leaned back in his chair. He'd called HPD to inform them about the arrest of Conor Boyle. With that news, two officers were on the way to take him in for booking. Steve guessed the officers would be here in less than ten minutes, meaning it was almost time to call it a day. He powered off his tablet and put it away in the top desk drawer. Tired, he ran his hand over his face. It had been quite a day, and staring at his watch, it was already getting late. He knew he said they'd grab a drink together, but he wouldn't mind going home. Evidently, the universe had other plans when a panicked call for help shouted through the offices.

"Boss, get over here!"

It was Tani. The urgency in her voice had Steve on his feet in seconds. He ran to the door to see where the shoutout was coming from. Right in front of Danny's office cubicle, Steve found his partner slouched on the floor with Tani standing helpless next to him. The sight made Steve's heart drop and panic seized him. Not wasting any more time, he burst through the door and sprinted towards his coworkers.

Danny was gasping in pain with his hand pressed on his right side.

"What happened?" Asked Steve, looking down with wide eyes at his friend and back up to Tani.

"I don't know. He suddenly had trouble breathing," Tani ran her hand through her hair in distress. "Boss, he doesn't look so good to me."

Danny was panting, struggling for air. He didn't answer, not to Steve's question, nor did he make a witty comeback to Tani. Unmistakably, Danny couldn't breathe properly. That alone already worried Steve, only the fact that the detective had nothing to say made Steve actually concerned. Like everybody knew, Danny always had something to say in return.

Steve squatted down beside his partner. He squeezed Danny's shoulder. "Talk to me, buddy. What's going on?"

Danny's panicked blue eyes locked with Steve's. "There's this sharp pain in—" he paused to catch his breath. "— my chest. Can't take a— deep breath."

"Let me see," Steve ripped open Danny's white blue striped button-up shirt. Steve's gaze landed on a light purple bruise that was starting to show on the right side of his partner's chest. Steve surveyed the swelling dispassionately. It didn't seem too bad, except it was at the same height as the surgical incision, the one from a couple of months ago. Steve applied a bit of pressure. It made Danny flinch with pain. Steve didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, but he was no doctor. Danny was probably going to protest against a hospital visit. However, he should go.

Apparently, Tani was thinking the same. "I'm calling an ambulance." She pulled her phone out of her back pocket.

"No— don't." Danny disagreed, like Steve predicted.

Steve shrugged. "Then what do you wanna do? Ask Noelani to come over and check you out? Danny, if you're gonna wait, she might as well clear a table in the morgue for you."

"Guys, this isn't funny," Tani stated frantically. "What do you want me to do?"

"Actually it was— funny— but maybe I should go— see a doctor. Think I popped my— lung."

"What?" Steve snapped as he placed his hand on the right side of Danny's chest to feel for movement. There was some, but nearly as it should. Steve stayed quiet for a couple of seconds. Tried to come up with a solution. Either they could call it in and wait for the paramedics to show up, or Steve could drive to the hospital himself. It would be a five-minute drive while waiting for the EMT's and actually getting to the hospital would probably be double that time.

"All right, enough, let's go. I'll take you." Without consent, Steve seized Danny by the elbow and pulled him off the floor.

CAMARO - HONOLULU - O'AHU

With Steve's shoulder to lean on, the partners made it to the Camaro. Steve opened the passenger door, and Danny dropped himself down onto the car seat. The movement multiplied the pain in his chest, and Danny hissed and bolted upright. It was an idiotic move, but he blamed his poorly oxygenated brain. Danny tried to breathe through the pain, taking in deep and controlled breaths. However, his breath was coming in shudders now, sending sharp waves of intense pain through his chest. If that wasn't already bad enough, a wave of cough rattled him.

Once the coughing stopped, Danny tiredly leaned his head back. Steve had run around the hood and stepped in behind the wheel. Danny could practically feel the laser-like look of concern aimed at the side of his face, but he was too drained to say something witty. Steve started the engine and drove off in a hurry. Flickering blue and red lights colored the surrounding night sky. Out of habit, Danny reached for the seatbelt.

His partner shot him a questionably look. "Forget your seatbelt. It's a five-minute drive." Steve pointed out as he didn't bother to put it on himself.

Danny fastened his seatbelt anyway. "You're driving, and I would very much— like to live."

"You honestly think that the chance of you dying on this drive is higher than running out of air?" Steve asked with disbelief, written all over his face.

"Like I said, you're— driving." Danny teased.

Fortunately, Steve ignored Danny. It was the start of an argument, and for once, Danny didn't have the breath to participate. His chest was hurting. Hurting the same way as two months ago, when he was lying on the floor with his life hanging in the balance. He couldn't be dying, though. All that did happen was a blow to the chest. No bullets were involved, just a fist. Yet, breathing became more difficult with each breath he took.

The panic increased in his chest, making his heart race even quicker than it already did. Danny didn't think he would ever ask Steve to drive any faster, but at this moment, it did cross his mind. There was no need to actually ask because Steve was already going fast. Fast like in the traffic passing by like jet stream. Danny could hear the motor revving fast and wondered if Steve could even drive civilized. On any day, he would've given a speech about ending up wrapped around a street light, but not right now. Right now, he needed not to die.

Danny wondered out loud. "How can it be— happening again?" His breath hitched after saying a couple of words. None of this was making sense to him.

"I don't know. It'll be okay, okay?" Steve reassured, but Danny could hear fear creeping into his partner's voice. "Danny?" Steve shouted impatiently when Danny didn't give him a response.

Danny let out a strained breath. "Don't yell at me— m' fine, right?"

"Yes, you are. Just try to keep breathing, all right?"

Danny did his best to do so, but it became harder and harder to breathe. Everything felt heavy. His chest, his eyes. Danny tried to fight against the sudden fatigue, but it made him want to close his eyes so badly. Danny attempted to blink the exhaustion away, only he didn't seem to win. Eventually, he allowed himself to close his eyes for just a minute.

He didn't even have his eyes closed for a second when a new kind of pain flared through his chest. It was caused by a big hand shaking his shoulder. Danny's eyes flung back open, and his gaze landed on his partner, who eyed him worryingly. "Eyes open, buddy." Steve instructed.

Danny mumbled something in return. He doubted Steve heard him. It was the least of his worries, so Danny didn't repeat it. Instead, strained breaths filled the silence in the car. Danny could hear the engine roar as Steve floored the gas and shifted up. They were going faster than before. Meaning Danny probably looked even worse than he felt. With his eyes locked on the road, Danny noticed a black Sedan coming towards them on the right. The vehicle was speeding and driving recklessly.

"Steve!" Danny warned. It was just in time for his partner to turn the wheel and avoid a collision. The Camaro spun around. Tires screeching on the road. Danny slammed with his side against the door. He gasped in pain, and his vision doubled. The last thing he heard before passing out was his own scream of pain.

— TBC / HAWAIIFIVE0 —

A/N : Thanks to everyone that has shown interest by reading, following or reviewing this story.

Next chapter will be uploaded somewhere next week.

Always love to hear your thoughts...

Mahalo !