'Come and get me'

Danny silently read the dare, comprised of the four simplistic words, a second time. The envelope had not been sealed. He hadn't so much as glanced at Junior for any kind of approval before pulling the single folded page out to see what Gabriel had left for his designated recipient.

Junior had seen the name on the envelope and felt a flutter of misgiving as he watched his superior hastily open and read the note that clearly was not meant for him. He wondered if Commander McGarrett would have done the same if the roles were reversed. He wished his fellow SEAL was here now. He didn't hold anything against Detective Williams, but McGarrett shared the same military training and experiences and ever since he had stepped onto his stoop that day a little over a year ago, he felt an unspoken collegial connection. It was safe to say his comfort level with the Detective's decisions were not as honed as they would have been with the Commander's.

"Sir?"

There was no response as his sense of unease persisted.

"Sir? Do you think…" His appeal was cut off when he heard the Five-0 identification warning shouted out by a familiar voice. He leaned into the adjoining living room to greet the new arrivals.

Tani came through the door first with Adam just a step behind. Both had their firearms drawn, but as soon as they saw Junior and that he had let down his guard in favor of something else that had his and Danny's attention, they holstered their guns and approached their team members.

"Danny?" Tani uttered.

"Everything okay here?" Adam followed up.

"Oh, hey." As soon as Danny heard Adam's voice, he quickly folded the note and stuffed it into his pants pocket, out of sight, with the unneeded flash bang that had also been stowed there earlier. He briefly made eye contact with Junior and read his consternation but was unaffected. "Well if you call coming up empty 'okay', then yeah, everything's peachy."

"I take it you found the place abandoned?" Adam ignored the snarky tone.

"Oh, I think we'll get a match on the fingerprints on this glass. I think it was left for us to find on purpose." He again glanced at Junior to see if he had anything to add about the note and was pleased to see he did not, even in his obvious disagreement.

"Is this even real?" Adam wondered aloud. "How can this be happening? He was dead."

Danny sympathized with Adam's lack of belief that a foe such as Gabriel could be back after they had been so sure he had been dealt with decisively. "Oh, it's real. Junior, get forensics to sweep this place and have them start with the glass. I'm pretty sure Waincroft's left his calling card as a gift minus a pretty bow."

"Copy that, sir," Junior acknowledged.

"Let's meet up with Jerry and regroup back at the office." Danny felt the walls of the small house closing in on him and he needed to get air. He tried to pass by Tani and Adam to get outside as fast as he could, but Adam grabbed his arm.

"Danny, I…"

Danny stopped abruptly and locked eyes with Adam. "I know," he interrupted. "I know." That was all that was needed in the moment. Danny understood the conflict and turmoil that must be raging in Adam. He didn't have an answer for him. There was nothing he could say that would fix the situation. He could only let him know that he was not alone.

The unspoken words conveyed what they needed. Adam knew that he got it. Gabriel had made their lives hell a few short years ago. There was no way that either of them would let it happen again.

"I gotta get out of here," Danny admitted.

Adam released his hold and nodded before slapping his back in a brotherly gesture of encouragement.

Even outside of the claustrophobic setting, Danny still didn't get relief. Just breathing was a chore as he tried to mentally sort through the quagmire of a mixture of worry, anger, regret, indecision and to top it all off he had to hold it together so he can locate and deal with Gabriel.

"Is he okay?" Tani asked Junior, as if their extra brief time together would clue him in.

This was his opportunity to divulge the note to the others. He looked at Tani then to Adam and back to Tani. He should tell them. They need to know... "Yeah, he's fine," Junior mumbled his cop-out then passed between the two to follow Danny outside.

Junior found Danny leaning over with his hands resting on his knees, but as soon as Danny saw he was not alone, he arose, unwilling to show any weakness. "You ready?" He began to walk toward the car.

"Hey, how 'bout you let me drive?" Junior offered.

Danny stopped in his tracks and looked at Junior as if Charlie had offered to drive. Without saying a word, he resumed his walk and went straight to the driver's side. Junior shrugged and took shotgun.

~~~~~H50~~~~~

"Look, Adam and Gabriel have history. It's… sensitive." Junior hadn't asked for an explanation. In fact, it had been eerily quiet in the car for the last five minutes. Danny had squirmed in his seat and took turns fidgeting with the grip on the steering wheel with one hand and then with the gear stick in the other. "If Adam had seen that note, I'd have a bigger problem on my hands."

"It's your call."

Continuing to answer Junior's unasked questions, Danny explained further, "He's killed who knows how many people, he tortured Kono and Adam, stole Adam's money which led to the fiasco of a gang war and Adam going to jail for killing a couple of Yakuza henchmen that deserved it anyway. For God's sake, he shot Adam, thankfully didn't kill him, but came this close to causing him to never walk again." Danny held up his thumb and finger showing the sliver of luck that Adam had been afforded. He took his eyes off the road for an instant to see Junior's mouth agape at what he was hearing. Danny was spilling his bottled-up rage and the flow couldn't be stopped. "And Chin? He almost went to prison because of him, too. Hell, the son of a bitch shot and killed his father."

"I… I didn't know." To this point, the only thing that Junior knew about Gabriel was that he had attempted to kill Steve, and time would tell if he may still be successful in that endeavor. That in itself was enough, but he had no idea of the other mountain of depraved transgressions this man had committed.

"You get it, now? You get why I can't light that fuse yet? We've got to be smart. We've got to do this right and I need time to think."

"I get it." Junior waited another half minute and followed with, "I do."

"Okay." Danny had gotten out the pent-up fury and had wound down.

"You do need time to think about it. And I know that normally you've got Steve to help you with this kind of stuff, but just know… if you need to… you can bounce anything you need to off of me, or Tani, or Jerry for that matter. Even Captain Grover should be able to help soon."

"Thanks, I appreciate that."

"You're welcome. I just can't help but wonder if it wouldn't be best to contact Lieutenant Kelly? Maybe that's what it'd take to pull the guy out of hiding and it sure wouldn't hurt having the extra help."

"I don't know. I mean, yeah, probably, but not yet. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. I got to get a handle on this, on Gabriel. I'd love to take him out of commission first. I want him to be in custody… or truly dead when I make that call to Chin and Kono."

"And what if… "

"What if Steve dies? You can say it. They'll be mad at me if they find out I didn't let them know about Steve, but right now, I'm going to take that chance. And if Steve dies, it'll be option B for Mr. Waincroft. Let's take one thing at a time. Okay?"

Before Junior could reply, Danny's phone buzzed. He glanced at the ID. Danny felt like his heart had dropped into his stomach when he saw the caller. He pulled over to the side of the road before answering. "It's the hospital," Danny revealed to Junior. Stifling trepidation filled the car as Danny ran the back of his hand across his brow and watched his finger tremble uncontrollably as it touched the phone to answer.

"This is Danny Williams." Junior heard the panic despite the valiant, but unsuccessful, effort to conceal it. Then Junior was privy to one side of the conversation.

"Okay? … He is?" Danny turned the phone away from his mouth so he could blow out a slow, cleansing breath without it being heard by whomever was on the other side of the conversation. "Starting when? I see. … Yes, yes, of course. And you're sure? Thank you, doctor, for calling and letting me know. I'll be there. Thank you… uh, thank you, again. … Uh-huh, bye." Danny disconnected the call and stared out the windshield as cars whirred by. He rubbed his hand over his mouth and then after taking what seemed to Junior, an unreasonably long time, finally explained.

"I can get in to see him."

"He's okay? That wasn't bad news?" Junior was having to piece together the clues as best he could.

"It wasn't bad news. They're going to let him have visitors starting in about an hour, one at a time and in short intervals. This could change. They have to monitor him closely, but they think he's stabilized sufficiently."

Only six and a half hours in and the doctors felt that Steve could have visitors already. It wasn't lost on Danny that SuperSEAL was ahead of schedule for this milestone, in typical Steve fashion, and he grabbed on to the hope that this must be a positive sign.

"That gives us time. We'll go ahead and meet up with the others at HQ first to catch everyone up and set up a game plan for our next move before I head over." Although small and hesitant, Danny smiled for the first time since he landed on the island earlier that morning. "That son of a bitch," he mumbled to himself as he pulled into traffic. "Should have known."

~~~~~H50~~~~~

Danny was steps ahead of Junior as they entered the bullpen. "Jerry, you got anymore? I don't have a lot of time."

"The forensics team was able to send the fingerprints over to the lab from the site. DNA will take longer, but we already got a positive ID on the prints." Jerry swiped Gabriel's image onto the screen. "No surprises."

"'kay, you got anything I don't already know?"

Jerry felt a little deflated. His boss may have not needed the confirmation, but he hadn't been as sure and felt the information was more pertinent than Danny's disparaging reaction implied. He brushed it off and continued, "They're still going over the house to see if they can come up with anything and HPD's issued a BOLO on the Audi. Nothing yet."

"All right. Get with Duke. I want anyone on the force who has a CI to get with them. We need ears to the ground. Let's even check in with Kamekona. He may have heard of a ripple of something new and not even realized it could be Waincroft. … What's keeping Adam and Tani? … I want anyone serving time at Halawa, that has ever been within ten feet of Waincroft, to be interviewed. If one of 'em wants to sing, I'll want to be there personally."

"Hey, sorry we're late," Tani apologized as they joined their team. "There was a wreck on King Street. You must have just missed it. So, what did we miss?"

"We got a confirmation that the prints are indeed Waincroft's," Junior jumped in. "Detective Williams is going over our next course of action."

Danny backtracked and began to repeat his instructions for the new arrivals. As he spoke, Tani was taking mental notes. She leaned on the table and glanced up at the screen and did a double take. "That's John!" she interrupted. "What's John doing up there?"

~to be continued~

\,,,/BronsonL