AN: Hello, another update for all of you! This chapter was interesting to write - especially from the case perspective- but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. I hope you all like the end result! As always, thanks so much for reading and reviewing - your encouragement is truly motivating!

If Danny had to list his least favorite places on the island, his old HPD precinct would be in the top five without a doubt. He didn't hate it quite as much as Rachel's fancy mansion where she flaunted her new life with Grace and Stan, but it easily beat nearly every other place on this sun-drenched, disgusting rock. The six months he'd spent working there defined the word 'misery' like no other experience could.

Despite the increase in hospital visits - another one of Danny's top five hated places - correlated with joining Five-0, Steve hijacking his life ended up being the best possible thing for him. He'd take bullets flying over his head any day if it meant not needing to deal with these unprofessional schmucks and their high school locker room style of hazing.

And when someone managed to get their hands on his personnel file, everything went straight to hell. Apparently, the only thing worse than being a 'haole' was being an 'elite haole.' Though they knew nothing of his power-makeup, they stopped any sort of civil interaction altogether. Only Meka talked to him like a human being.

Throwing a glance in Chin's direction, he sighed as he noted the stone-faced expression and determined stare. No matter how bad he had it, Chin had it far worse. Only thing worse than being viewed as an outsider is being viewed as a traitor by life-long friends and family members.

Yeah, Steve definitely picked a team of HPD pariahs. Somehow, though, Danny didn't think he cared one bit.

"If looks could kill," he muttered out of the side of his mouth, "this place would be a freaking cemetery."

"Are you referring to theirs or Steve's, brah?" Chin murmured back, his typical humor twinkling in his eyes.

"Oh, Steve's for sure. Y'know, I'm convinced that if he focused enough, he could incinerate people on the spot."

"Now that would be a useful trick. It's a shame he can't give us a demonstration right about now."

In front of them, Steve huffed. "You guys know I can hear you, right?"

Twin snickers earned a glance of mock annoyance from the SEAL. With that look, the malicious whispers were easier to ignore.

"McGarrett." Captain Tanaka strode out of his office. Scanning the two teammates flanking Five-0's leader, he ignored the two and returned his full attention back to Steve. "The Governor called and said you were taking over despite this being an internal HPD matter."

"An internal HPD matter?" Danny took it upon himself to respond. "You got a, uh, a dead guy in one of your interrogation rooms with no clue as to how it happened. You really think HPD should be investigating this?"

Ever the peacemaker, Chin grabbed Danny's elbow in a gesture of both support and warning. Not now, he could almost hear the man's voice in his head, choose your battles.

"What my partner means," Steve stepped in, "is that the Governor wants an outside perspective on this one. Considering the problems this precinct has experienced with dirty cops, it's a completely logical decision and one you should respect as a fellow officer."

Damn, Steve wasn't pulling any punches today. As often as Danny called him a neanderthal, Steve was quite capable of being diplomatic when he chose - he just often chose not to. However, interacting with HPD seemed to have become his lone exception given Danny's abrasive disposition, Kono's status as a rookie, and Chin's tenuous situation.

Sure enough, Captain Tanaka grunted and shot a glare in Chin's direction at the mention of 'dirty cops.' The roles smoothly reversed - this time, Danny gripped Chin's wrist in warning - as the officer motioned Steve towards his office.

"Let's get this over with," he growled.

"My team is going to look around while you and I meet." Steve's tone brooked no argument. "If your officers aren't accommodating, I'll - -"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got the Governor on speed dial." Sneering at Danny and Chin one last time, he spat out clipped details. "Interrogation room 3. Honilo was the lead on this."

Spinning on his heel, the captain headed back for his office as Danny called, "Thanks for - - he's gone." Throwing his hands up in the air, the mainlander resisted the urge to flip his old captain off. "I swear that guy goes out of his way to make me miserable."

Chin shrugged. "He's actually a really good cop. He just hates being forced to do anything and he hates haoles."

"Luckily for all parties involved, neither of you have to meet with him. You guys talk to this Honilo guy." Glancing towards the impatient captain, Steve lowered his voice. "We're still not ruling out an inside job yet, so keep your eyes peeled. I'll meet you at the crime scene when I'm done with this, alright?"

As Steve headed towards the Captain's office for the mandatory briefing, the two other teammates sauntered over to the desk of the careless detective who managed to get his new informant killed. A detective who, unfortunately, they both knew from several unpleasant interactions.

"Detective Honilo. Somehow, I am not surprised this all happened to you." Ever the agitator, Danny laced his tone with as much snark as he could muster and gestured grandly around the bullpen. "I mean, your desk oughta have some sort of warning, like, 'Detective Honilo: Incompetent.'"

"You want to explain what happened earlier this morning, brah?" Chin easily slid into the lead questioner role, taking up residence on the corner of Honilo's desk.

Over Danny's brief tenure at HPD, he quickly learned which people to avoid if he wanted to do his job well with the least amount of harassment. Honilo was one of those people he circumvented at all costs. Not only was he the definition of a schmuck, but he seemed dead-set on making Danny's life as horrendous as possible. Astonishingly, he managed to succeed - a miracle considering how terrible Danny's life already was at that point.

True to his nature, the narcotics detective sneered at the two Five-0 cops. "Well, if it isn't the haole and the traitor." He spat on Danny's shoes. "I don't gotta explain nothing to you two. Get me some real cops and I'll be more than happy to help."

"Real cops?" Danny laughed - that little chuckle right before he punched someone in the face. He propped his shoe on Honilo's desk and wiped off the saliva with a random loose-leaf sheet. "What's your definition of a real cop, Honilo? Because if it's anything like what you pretend to be, I think we're overqualified."

Leaning in, Chin's voice lowered. "C'mon, bruddah, do the smart thing here and answer our questions. I'm sure you've heard all about Commander McGarrett's interrogation techniques. You keep this up and we're going to assume you had something to do with the murder. Once he gets his hands on you," he shrugged and patted the detective on the shoulder, "you're pau. Hope you got life insurance."

"I didn't kill the guy!"

"'I didn't kill the guy!'" Danny imitated him, voice squeaking in the mocking portrayal. "Never heard that one before. Have you, Chin?"

"Never. Well, from an innocent man, anyway. The people who say it are usually the ones who did it."

"You wanna try again, Honilo? Or should I just bring out the cuffs now?"

Honilo's response was to cuss both men out profusely.

"Alright, alright, since you asked so nicely!" Reaching into his pocket, Danny pulled out his handcuffs and flipped them open. "Stand up, put your hands behind your back."

"Screw you." The detective only leaned back in his chair and smirked. "I'll tell you what happened, but only so I can watch you two make yourselves look stupid trying to figure it out. This case won't be solved, especially by you two."

"That remains to be seen, doesn't it?" Motioning for Danny to put the cuffs away, Chin leaned back slightly. "Walk us through it."

With that obnoxious leer still firmly plastered on his face, Honilo flipped open a file and shoved it in their faces. "Perp we arrested for possession gave up a Mr. Jacob Pui'iaka in exchange for a lighter sentence. Said he was the main supplier of the new batch of fentanyl on da streets. HPD and S.W.A.T. conducted a raid around 5 am to bring him in. They scared him and his wife shitless out of a dead sleep."

"How considerate of them," Danny snarked. "I'm sure that helped with the interrogation process."

For the first time in the conversation, Honilo's smirk disappeared. The man actually frowned, eyes clouding briefly as he thought back. "Actually, I barely needed to ask any questions. Didn't even open my mouth and he promised to talk in exchange for a plea bargain and placement in protective custody."

"Protective custody?" Chin leaned forward. "He asked for that immediately? Without any prompting?"

"Yeah." Honilo blinked and scratched his nose absentmindedly. "Guy was squirrely about something. He was pretty adamant about his lawyer ratifying the deal before he talked though, so I left to call the number he gave."

Chin appeared deep in thought, so Danny took over the questions. "And you didn't come back to the room?"

"No, why would I?" The sneer was back on the detective's face. "The guy asked for his lawyer and around here, we have to respect that request. He was cuffed to the table with the door locked and wasn't going anywhere. Figured I'd check on some stuff while I waited for the lawyer to arrive."

"How long did that take?"

Shrugging, the detective pushed his chair back. "Half hour. Went back in the room and found Pui'iaka dead as a doornail. No sign of a struggle, no forced entry, nothing. Tell me how you two clowns think you can solve a mystery like that, huh? Now, I got better things to do then talk to you, so screw you."

With that, the detective rose, grabbed a file off his desk, and thrust it into Chin's lap. Then, he pushed past them and sauntered out with a chorus of snickers underscoring his exit.

"Nice guy," Danny muttered and turned to his teammate. "What are you thinking?"

Rubbing his chin, the Oriental man paused for another beat before asking, "You notice how he said that Pui'iaka asked for protective custody right away?"

"Yeah. Guy knows what to ask for when it comes to making deals."

"Exactly. Doesn't that seem a little strange to you?"

Danny chewed his bottom lip, turning the question over in his mind. "Maybe a little. I've had tons of perps ask for protective custody as part of their deal. It's usually one of the first things they ask for after I flip 'em. But people who know to ask for that are the ones who really know the system and know that they're dead if word gets out that they talked."

"Right, and Pui'iaka doesn't fit that bill. Think about it." Chin rose from sitting on the corner of the desk and started to pace, file tucked under his arm. "Honilo said our vic offered to give up the information immediately. Even if you don't want to go to jail, you probably resist at least a little at first, right?"

"Yeah, the whole 'snitches end up in ditches' thing is drilled into most of these guys' heads from the start." He was beginning to see where his teammate was going with this. "So the information he had must've bothered him a lot. It must've been super important, and his request for protective custody shows that he probably knew someone would come after him. He probably knew the murderer, or knew of them."

"But he didn't beg for Honilo to stay in the room with him," Chin continued, playing off of Danny's train of thought. "So he thought he was safe in the police precinct, or he thought he had some time at least before they came after him. To me, that eliminates the scenario where he's absolutely terrified of everything that went down."

Nodding, Danny fiddled with his tie. "It does raise some more questions, but this entire case is one giant question mark. I mean, we got nothin' but a dead supplier with a needle mark in his neck in the middle of a police precinct."

"Well, let's see if we can dig up some more evidence."

Grinning, the Jersey detective gestured grandly towards the interrogation rooms. "After you, Watson."

Interrogation room 3 wasn't difficult to find. The yellow crime scene tape gave it away immediately, as did the officer standing at the entrance. Waving their badges, both men were allowed through to the completely unimpressive crime scene. As they donned gloves, Chin quietly dismissed the officer, leaving the two men alone.

"Well, this has gotta be a record for the lowest amount of evidence tags used in a crime scene." Danny shook his head, pointing at the two measly yellow signs. "I mean, I feel like they're really reaching here. Did they actually need to tag the chair the guy died in? Or the cuffs?"

Chin sighed, setting the file down on the scratched surface of the metal table. "They don't call us for the easy ones, brah. Let's get started, alright?"

Working with Chin was always an interesting experience. His process was the complete opposite of Danny's, but the differences meshed in such a way that allowed the full picture of a scene to emerge. Whereas Chin tended to silently poke around the scene before stating his conclusions and observations, Danny liked to call them as he saw them and verbally process each one. Chin also preferred to observe the evidence with every scent - eyes, nose, ears, hands, and even taste engaged - while Danny posed scenarios and focused on finding missing pieces.

Two extremely different ways of painting the same picture, often leading to astute conclusions.

Not that there's much of a picture here to look at, he thought grimly.

Flipping the file open, Danny pulled out several photographs and laid them out side by side. He examined each from all angles before beginning his circuit of the room starting behind the chair where their dead perp sat.

"Alright, so Pui… Pui'ia… our vic was sitting here at the time of death. He had a clear view of the door, so he would've seen the person come in to kill him. Since he had no visible reaction, he either knew the person and trusted them or didn't see them as a threat. But since he had no reaction at all…"

Well, that angle was going nowhere fast. Switching gears, he examined the room itself. "We got one security camera in the corner of the room with a clear view of both the door and the perp. Plenty of blindspots, but the door's the only way in or out. No way they get past the camera though. Maybe the ducts?"

But upon locating the ventilation ducts, he dismissed the theory. The vent was far too small for anyone to fit through. Still, it was another opening into the room. Perhaps the perp administered the poison in gas form through the ducts. However, that would require access to the ducts, which was incredibly restricted. Additionally, gas was a clumsy form of murder - especially for a specific target - and it would inherently affect other people. With no one else suffering from symptoms, gaseous poison was a slim bet at best.

He glanced at Chin, but the man was totally in his own observations. He almost looked lost, so focused on the minute details around him that his surroundings disappeared. In fact, he didn't even blink when Danny hesitantly called his name.

What the hell?

Stepping closer to his teammate, his concern mounted until it became a looming stormcloud unable to be ignored. Frozen in place, Chin didn't even appear to be breathing as he crouched in the corner of the room behind the door. His eyes were slits yet still unblinking, glued to the same wall his palm rested on.

Yet, when Danny studied the same area, he saw absolutely nothing. No evidence, no hidden message that pointed them towards the killer, not even a crack in the dingy green paint. Nothing was there - certainly nothing worthy of Chin's unblinking attention.

Coupled with Chin's earlier strange behavior, this was downright terrifying.

"Chin?" He risked moving closer, inwardly preparing for the worst. "Yo, buddy, you with me? You okay?"

No reaction.

Damn it.

Having a Navy SEAL for a partner quickly taught him about the folly of startling individuals trained in combat. Though Chin was no SuperSEAL, he still hesitated moving into the man's personal space. He could pack a mean punch and Danny didn't exactly feel like messing up his face today.

But when another call - louder and more commanding - still yielded no reaction, he inwardly sighed and stepped closer. "If you punch me," he warned, "I'm making you ride with Commander Crazy for the rest of the month. He'll drive your car too."

Still no answer.

Sighing, he reached forwards and lightly shook his teammate's shoulder - -

- - who immediately spun around and sent a fist cracking against Danny's cheek before the blond could dodge it.

Stars exploded across Danny's field of vision as he fell backwards onto his rear. One hand flew to his cheek while the other raised to de-escalate his impromptu sparring partner. "Whoa, whoa, Chin! Take it easy, huh? It's just me!"

He didn't dare rise even as the older detective's eyes cleared. It took a moment for Chin to put the pieces together, a sheepish look crossing his face as he realized what happened. "Sorry, Danny," he apologized, offering a hand to help the blond to his feet. "You startled me."

"Obviously." Accepting the hand, Danny rode Chin's pull to his feet and rubbed his cheek gingerly. "We really gotta talk about this team's 'punch first, ask questions later' policy."

"Are you alright?"

Hiding a wince, he poked at the rapidly swelling area. "'M fine. 'Course, I'm gonna have a lovely shiner in a few hours, but I suppose I'll live." He waved away Chin's attempted apology and focused his full attention on his teammate. "What the hell were you doing? I called you multiple times and you didn't even blink!"

If Danny hadn't been looking for it, he would've completely missed the slight stiffening of Chin's posture. "Must've zoned out trying to think through this case."

"You zoned out? No, you didn't 'zone out.' I've zoned out before and whatever the hell you were doing was something else entirely! So why don't you try again, huh?"

Jaw clenched, Chin glanced towards the door. "Danny - -"

"No way, Chin." Stepping into the man's personal space, he jabbed a finger into Chin's chest and lowered his voice. "You've been acting weird about this case from the start and I want answers, alright? I'm your teammate and I'm your friend; you can trust me. Like I said in the bar, I got your back now, okay? So cut the bull and tell me what's going on!"

Dark brown orbs met piercing blue, each reading the other through the window to the soul. Finally, Chin's shoulder slumped slightly. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"What can I say? I'm a stubborn guy."

Sighing, Chin stepped past Danny and checked the hallway before closing the door. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black fob with a red button. Pressing it, he grabbed Danny's arm and pulled him into a blindspot from the security camera. "This temporarily scrambles the audio from the camera," he said, waving the fob. "Not that anyone's gonna check it, but what I'm about to tell you can't get out, alright?"

Swallowing the boulder that appeared in his throat, Danny nodded solemnly. "You have my word that this stays between us."

With one final glance towards the closed door, Chin began a rapid explanation. "When Steve walked us through the case this morning, I started to suspect… well, I had to come down here and see for myself. I could just be paranoid, you know? I didn't want to jump to conclusions and - -"

"Chin! Just spit it out, alright?"

"Right, sorry." He took a deep breath, eyes boring into Danny's. "The murderer is an elite, a pretty strong one too. It's why the cameras didn't catch them and the perp didn't see them coming."

Well, damn it. Danny said as much in far stronger words.

Gesturing towards the corner he'd been staring at so dedicatedly, Chin continued his explanation. "They got in, probably followed somebody, and waited until Honilo left before they made a move. Then they just waited in that corner until Honilo came back and snuck out the open door."

"And you know all this how, exactly?"

Chin just looked at him. Immediately, the boulder in Danny's throat dropped to his stomach. After selecting the perfect profanity for the situation, he rubbed away the headache pounding at his temples. "You're kidding me."

Shaking his head, Chin stepped closer to Danny with an expression that was the very definition of grim. "We're chasing an elite here, Danny. You know what this means, right? For all of us?"

Danny nodded, face still buried in his hands. "It means we're screwed."

"If we're not careful, yeah."

Groaning, Danny resisted the urge to put his fist through the cement wall. Because though his team was a great many things, careful was nowhere on that list. As a result, they risked bringing to light things that should stay hidden.

"We gotta contain this. Who all knows about you?"

"Anyone who's got access to my full file. You, Steve, the Governor, and probably a few others - the same people who know your status, I guess," Chin answered immediately. "Only Kono and some close family members know details… and now, so do you."

With the drawn-out sigh of a man resigned to fighting a migraine the rest of the day, Danny straightened and met Chin's gaze once more. "Is there anything else we can do here?"

Chin shook his head mutely.

"Okay, okay. Let's go wait for Steve outside. When he's done, we're going straight back to HQ to sort this out."

Pulling out the black fob, Chin clicked the button and fell in step behind Danny as they exited the interrogation room. But as they walked through the bullpen for the second time, Danny barely felt the stares and mocking whispers of the HPD detectives.

After all, it's hard to notice minor inconveniences when your entire life implodes before your very eyes.

Aaaaand another foreboding ending. I really enjoyed writing the relationship between Danny and Chin here and really tried to capture a snapshot of their season one bromance. To me, they're both seasoned cops and also HPD outcasts, which allows them to form this special bond. As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter! Thanks so much for reading!