Wow, thank you for all your lovely favs, follows, and comments. I'm so glad you liked the start of it and I hope I won't disappoint you all with the rest of this fic.

It was impossible to ignore the uneasiness Danny felt growing in his belly. He was being irrational, he knew that. Everything was fine.

But Steve was late.

Steve was never late.

Shaking the doubt off his mind, Danny glanced at his watch. Steve would surely make fun of him. Blame him for always thinking the worst straight away and worrying over nothing.

"You good, brah?" Chin's voice carried over to him.

"Hm?" Danny lifted his head. All the attention seemed to be forwarded to him instead of a bunch of information on the smart table in front of them. Kono and Lou stared at him with suspicion, just like Chin. "Yeah," he said. "I was just thinking."

But minutes passed as they stood there and Danny was done waiting. He'd surely feel better knowing Steve stayed out of trouble for once. He gave him a call. The phone kept ringing, but it went unanswered, so he tried again.

Nothing.

Danny didn't like it one bit.

But just when he was about to share his concern with his friends, his phone rang and Steve's name flashed on the screen, immediately easing the tension in his chest.

"Hey," he answered it. "Why don't you answer the phone? You on the way already?"

For a moment, there was just quiet on the other side of the line.

"Steve? You there?"

Nothing but silence.

Danny glanced at the screen, checking whether the call was connected. It was. "Steve?"

"D'nny."

Instead of providing relief, hearing Steve's voice made Danny freeze. It didn't sound right. "Hey, you good?"

He could hear Steve's heavy breaths, but his friend didn't reply. He ignored the sudden attention of his colleagues and focused on finding out what was going on.

"What's wrong? Huh? Are you hurt?" he asked.

"Don't… don't know." Steve's voice was slurred and quiet.

Danny was in full panic mode by now. His eyes met Chin's, who glared at him with confusion. "What do you mean you don't know? What happened?"

"They…they…" A sudden fit of cough cut Steve off.

"They what? Who are they? Did someone hurt you?"

A soft, pain-filled groan was the only answer. But enough of an answer.

"Steve?"

Nothing.

Danny rubbed his face in frustration, more and more questions popping on his mind, fear rising every second of Steve's silence. He could hear him breathing. Heavy, ragged breaths accompanied by almost inaudible moans in between.

"Talk to me, buddy. Can you tell me where you are?"

"Don't kn…ow."

That was it. "Chin…" Danny said, but didn't really have to. His friend's fingers were already dancing on the keyboard, working on tracking Steve's phone.

Danny put the phone on speaker and dropped it on the smart table, all of his attention now focused on keeping his partner talking to him.

"You were going to the Sea Life Park, right? To drop the girls."

"The Park," Steve managed. "Yeah."

"Are you with them?"

It took Steve way too long to reply, but eventually, he did. "No."

"Steve, you have to help me a little, alright?"

"Not in the park anymore."

"Okay, good," Danny encouraged him. "So, you dropped the girls off, and then what?"

"Not sure."

Danny looked up at Chin with urgency in his eyes. But his older colleague shook his head. Not yet.

"Come on, babe." Danny re-focused on his partner. "What can you see?"

"T-trees."

Trees, out of all the things. This pineapple-infested hellhole was full of the damn trees!

"That's it," he said despite his frustration, refusing to tell Steve it wasn't very helpful. "What else?"

"Sorry."

That wasn't an answer Danny had expected. "There's nothing to be sorry about, okay? Just try to tell me what you can see so I can come get you."

"Your car."

"You in the car?"

"It's… it's wrecked," Steve slurred between heavy breaths. "I didn't mean to…"

His eyes snapped wide open. "Were you in a car accident?"

Steve grew silent again, unnerving Danny even more if it was even possible.

"Steve, talk to me. Are you still in the car?"

"Uh-uh."

"Alright, just hang in there, buddy. Chin's already looking for you, okay? We're gonna get help."

No reply again.

"Steve?"

"They're coming, Danny," Steve said just when Danny thought he'd get no answer. But it only raised more questions.

"Who's coming?"

"Can't move. Why can't I move?"

Danny's chest seized. If Steve really was in a car accident and he couldn't move now, it surely didn't mean anything good. He also didn't seem to grasp Danny's question, which was another reason to be worried.

"Steve? Who's coming, huh?" he tried again.

"'m s'rry," Steve whispered instead, his voice growing weaker.

"No, no. It's okay, there's nothing to be sorry about, okay?"

The silence stretched over longer than before.

"Steve?"

Nothing.

"Buddy?"

Danny could feel the tears building up in the back of his eyes already. It felt so wrong to hear Steve like this and not be able to help.

"Answer me, Steven!" he raised his voice, but there was no reply anymore. "Please."

There was some kind of a distant noise growing louder, but his partner remained utterly silent this time.

"Chin?" Danny could feel his voice cracking.

The noise again. Almost like… steps? Distant voices?

"Almost there," Chin said.

Yes, definitely some voices. Male. But Danny couldn't figure out any words. But it was the next thing Danny heard that made his heart come to a sudden stop.

An unmistakable sound of a gunshot.

Danny almost didn't breathe as he watched the blurry shapes of the buildings around him from the passenger's seat of Kono's car. The ride was silent and there wasn't much to say.

Something bad happened.

Whatever it was, Steve was in trouble. And if the silence on the other side of the line after the deafening sound of a gunshot was anything to go by, his partner might be dead. But he couldn't afford to think like this, otherwise he'd crumble and fall apart.

Kono must've sensed he didn't want to hear any comforting words at the moment. So she stayed silent, too, with a bewildered look in her eyes as she raced to the east, where Chin have located Steve's phone mere seconds after that gunshot.

Gripping the phone tightly in his hand, Danny couldn't stop thinking about all the possible scenarios. The worst of them penetrated his skull and replayed on his mind like some kind of a horror movie.

Even after hearing the gunshot and then nothing but utter silence, the call had remained connected. Praying Steve could still hear him, Danny kept talking even then, ushering reassuring phrases to his friend. Until about a minute ago, when the line went dead.

Danny kept his eyes on the road, not fazed by Kono taking her driving almost to level McGarrett. His mind was racing, and his fear grew exponentially as they neared their destination, hoping the EMS he'd called earlier would already be there.

An HPD vehicle flashed by in the opposite lane. Its flashers rippled blue but its sirens were muffled by the deafening roar of blood in Danny's ears.

Kono stomped on the brakes, feeding the wheel quickly through her hands as the car slid around. She bumped across the median and took the opposite exit ramp. She drove down in the wrong direction, but Danny didn't care. She looped around, speeding beneath the flyover, and drove to the scene they had noticed from above.

It was a T-shaped crossroad, with a man diverting the traffic. An ambulance and a fire department truck were parked up on the side of the road covered with broken glass and metal pieces torn away from the vehicles. The road fell down into a steep slope, tire marks stretching along the grass and disappearing from sight somewhere below. On the bottom of the slope a dark wreck of a vehicle, flipped onto its roof, was leaning against a short but wide tree.

It looked like Danny's Camaro.

It was his Camaro.

He swallowed hard, his stomach flipping over.

He jumped out of the car the second it came to a stop and rushed toward the convoy of emergency vehicles, not paying much attention to an HPD officer calling out to him.

Looking left and right, Danny frantically looked for the one person he so desperately needed to see, slipping as he rushed down the hill.

And then he saw his car, this time close enough to actually take in its devastated state. But still, Steve was nowhere to be seen.

The rear of the vehicle was facing him. There was a small group of men and women in uniforms gathered around it. The crowd coalesced around the wreckage, blocking Danny's view.

Danny pushed into the scrum. "Out of my way."

"Sir, you cannot be here!" one of the firefighters said.

The hell he couldn't. "Where is he?" he asked, his chest tight with fear, squeezing the air out of his lungs, suffocating him. "Where's Steve?"

"Sir, please–"

As the crowd moved around, Danny finally caught a glimpse of the man behind the wheel. He would swear his heart came to a stop at the sight of Steve's bloodied face and unmoving body in the remains of the vehicle.

"Steve!" he called out, lunging forward, ready to sprint toward his best friend.

A strong pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulders, though, and in a second, there was another one. He squirmed, fighting them to let him go.

"Come on, Sir, try to calm down, okay? You can't be here. Please wait by the road."

Danny shook his head. "No, you don't get it! That's my friend!"

"I understand, but–"

"Is he alright? I need to see him!"

The fireman didn't back off. "Look," he said. "We don't have time for this. You go and wait up there so we can do our job. One of the officers will talk to you."

Danny shook his head again and fixed his eyes on his best friend, still and covered in blood. "Is he…?" His voice caught in his throat. He couldn't even imagine the possibility of Steve really being gone.

"He's alive, but he ain't in a good way," the fireman said. "Please, go so we can help your friend. We can't do that if you're on our heels."

Danny stood his ground. "No. No, I'm not leaving him. Let go of me!"

"Detective Williams?" a voice came from behind him.

Danny turned, watching an HPD officer in his mid-thirties walk toward them. "Yeah."

The officer outstretched his arm toward Danny, who shook his hand. "Officer Haukea," he introduced himself. "I've heard a lot about you. It's an honor to finally meet you. It's a shame it has to be at such circumstances, though."

Not in a mood for a chat, Danny turned back to the horrible picture of a crowd of people around the wreck.

"It's okay," Haukea nodded at the fireman standing in Danny's way. "Let him stay."

The fireman huffed a defeated sigh and let go of Danny. He gestured at his colleague to do the same. "Fine," he snarled. "But please don't interfere and let us work."

Craning his neck, Danny tried to get a better look at his friend, but his view was obstructed by people swarmed around the car. The distress on their faces was yet another reason to be concerned. The crowd moved around with skilled practice, stabilizing the vehicle, yet, none of them made the move to pull Steve out.

His friend still hung there upside down, the seatbelt holding him in place. He could see that someone have fixed a c-collar to Steve's neck to prevent more damage and draped an oxygen mask on his face, but left him there.

"Why is he still in the car?" He turned to officer Haukea, sensing something was very wrong.

The officer opened his mouth to say something, then let out a sigh instead, his eyes softening.

"Tell me!"

"I'm afraid it's gonna take a while," Haukea said.

"What? Why?"

"There are complications," Haukea started. "He's stuck."

That's what the firemen were here for, right? "Stuck? They can cut him out, can't they?"

"Well, it's complicated and they're trying to figure out the best way to get him out safely. He got impaled on a branch when hitting the tree. It's pinning him to the seat and the slightest move of the branch or the car—"

"Could kill him," Danny finished, horrified at what he'd just heard.

"Yes," the officer confirmed. "So they need to be very careful, but it'll take time."

He heard enough. Ignoring the voices calling out to him to stop, he made his way to the wreckage. But he wasn't ready to see what he did.

Tears began to burn in the back of his eyes and he sucked in a shaky breath when he finally had a clear view up close.

One of the branches snaked through what used to be a window at the passenger's door, through the left side of Steve's upper chest and its tip protruded on the back of the driver's seat. There was a pool of blood underneath him and like all that wasn't bad enough, his lower body disappeared under the deformed plastic that crushed his leg.

"S…Steve?" His voice broke.

But no answer came, and Steve remained stubbornly still, only his chest rising and falling slightly.

Danny's eyes were fixed to his friend, scanning him up and down. Something was missing, though. Even though Steve was covered in blood, Danny couldn't see a gunshot wound. At least not from his point of view. No one mentioned it, either.

"Was he shot?" he asked a bypassing paramedic.

She squinted her eyes in confusion. "We're not aware of any gunshot wounds. But it's difficult to examine him properly until we get him out of there," she said, and rushed away with no further words, making her way to her colleague.

Danny didn't understand. He had heard it. A gunshot. There's no way he'd mistake that sound after hearing it so many times during his career, was it?

His thoughts were interrupted by a low, pained grunt coming from the wreckage.

"Steve?" Danny dropped to his knees in an instant, curling his fists to refrain from touching the car or his friend. "It's alright, buddy, I'm here. You're gonna be okay."

Steve stirred, the movement causing him to make a wheezing sound.

"Commander, you have to stay still," one of the paramedics said. "It's important that you don't move."

Slowly, Steve fluttered his eyes open into narrow slits, his lashes almost pressed against the cheeks.

"You heard her, buddy," Danny said. "No moving, alright?"

Following his voice, Steve shifted his gaze to him. "D'nno?" he whispered, wheezing as he did so.

Danny forced a feeble smile. "Yeah, I'm right here. You're good, buddy. We'll get you out of here."

"H-hurts," Steve slurred.

"I know," Danny said. "But you gotta hang in there just a little bit longer, okay?"

Steve didn't answer. His eyelids slid close and he forced them apart again, clearly trying to speak, but the words came out unintelligible.

"What's that?"

"Not an a–" Steve got cut off by a violent fit of cough for a moment, his face pulled into a grimace. "Accident."

Danny could say that much without Steve telling him. The gunshot he'd heard was enough evidence of that, but there was more. Even in this state of mind, his detective's brain worked just fine to notice there were no tire marks that would suggest anyone braking before the crash. A big dent on the driver's door suggested the Camaro was hit by another vehicle, yet it was nowhere to be seen, just like the driver. No one was here to help Steve out or to call for help.

"I know it wasn't," he reassured his friend. "We'll figure it out, okay? But let's not worry about it now."

Steve seemed to calm down somewhat and closed his eyes again.

"Are you sure that it's the only way?" a female voice carried over to him from behind his back.

Danny turned to see the fire chief talking to the paramedic that Danny talked to moments ago.

"His chances are already slim. If that branch moves even more, he's not gonna make it," the paramedic said.

"Look, you said it yourself," the fire chief said with a frown. "We're running out of time. If we don't pull him out now, he's as good as dead anyway. We have to move now."

She let out a sigh, then nodded. "Alright, let's try."

Danny's heart seized. "Try what?"

They both turned to him. The paramedic was the one who spoke up, while the fire chief rushed away to give instructions to the rest of the team.

"They're gonna saw the branch off," she said. "Then they can extricate him so we can transfer him to the hospital."

"But…" Danny shook his head. "But you said–"

She nodded. "It's a risk. But it's also the best option if we want to give him a fighting chance. We're racing against time here."

It didn't sound good at all and he felt his chest tighten even more. When he turned back, his partner was out of it again.

"Alright, Sir, please move aside." A strong hand pushed him out of the way and he obeyed reluctantly.

He watched five men surrounding the wreckage, proceeding with the plan that Danny didn't like one bit. He'd swear he hear Kono's and Chin's voices at some point, but he couldn't care less. His attention was solely on his partner, who desperately needed medical help and this delay was driving Danny crazy.

"Come on, buddy, you can do this," he mumbled, refusing to believe there was any chance this extrication might easily go wrong.

Minutes passed, and even though the team's action seemed well-coordinated and as fast as possible without causing more damage, Steve was still in the car. The only thing keeping Danny sane was the very fact that the oxygen mask on his friend's face kept fogging up. And as long as his partner was breathing, Danny didn't lose hope.

He kept watching, feeling helpless as ever, fear rippling through every cell in his body. The tension in his muscles doubled up when he heard a quiet whisper coming from the man nearest to Steve.

"We're losing him."

*to be continued*

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