Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or the characters affiliated with the show.
A/N: Hey everyone, here's another story for you guys. I wrote a similar story a few years back but never got around to posting it because I was afraid it wasn't good enough so after leaving it on my laptop for several months, I deleted it. Recently, due to the lack of weekly episodes, I decided to rewrite the story. Still not sure it's good enough to be posted but I'll try anyway. Not really sure how the story will pan out this time round but I hope you guys like it.
...
"Hey! Good Morning, Danny," Tani called out cheerily, as she spotted Danny walking in through the glass door to the headquarters. She instantly regretted her decision when she saw Danny's grumpy face.
"There's nothing good about this morning. Not one thing, I say." Danny started, his hands waving in the air.
"You're not your usual ray of sunshine today. What's wrong?" Steve asked, arms folded and raising his eyebrows.
Oh boy. Wrong question, Tani thought. After 3 years working with Danny, she knew better than to probe when he was having a bad morning.
"What's wrong?! The better question, I think, should be what's not wrong. Because there will be a shorter list of things that's not wrong," Danny huffed.
Steve and Tani waited for him to continue when Lou entered the headquarters. Tani signalled to Lou to not say anything but it was lost on him. "Good morning, fellas." Lou exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear, one hand holding on to his malasada and the other clutching his cup of coffee. "Ain't it a beautiful Friday morning?"
Danny let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes, clearly annoyed at everyone's cheerful demeanour that morning. "Oh, what's wrong Danny?" Lou asked when he finally realised the tension in the room. "What did McGarrett do this time?" He chuckled, earning a side glance from Steve.
"What's wrong is that.. uhh.. everything is wrong. So i have hardly had a good night's sleep with all the cases we have coming in this week. And I was really looking forward to a nice weekend with Charlie. But guess what? Rachel called to say that Stan is here for the weekend and he would like to spend some time with Charlie. Of course that little boy is more than thrilled because it means he gets to stay at the Hilton for the weekend. And if I don't let him I'm going to seem like the bad guy, right? And.. and Grace? She hasn't answered my calls since 2 days ago because she's annoyed at me."
"What did you do?" Steve asked simply.
"What did I do? What did I do, huh? Let me tell you. I did not do anything. I just fetched her from the airport the other day, we had a conversation and apparently I was too prying about her social life. I'm her father for God's sake, can't I ask her anything? So now she doesn't want to talk to me. And you know what else, as I was having my coffee this morning it spilled all over my shirt and I had to take another shower. So... now you guys know what's wrong?" Danny finished narrating his series unfortunate events.
Tani, Lou and Steve exchanged glances, none daring to say a word, lest they triggered another bout of Danny's rants. Lucky for them, right at that moment, Steve's cell phone rang, "All right, we'll be right there."
"Great, another case!" Danny put up his hands as if surrendering to his fate. "Let's just hope I make it home this weekend."
...
The case had been pretty straight-forward, a home invasion that they surprisingly managed to wrap up within several hours. That had managed to put Danny in a considerably better mood. The case had kept his mind off his kids for a little while and he was thrilled that he could go home early unlike the previous days when they had been swamped till late at night.
"Hey, you wanna grab a drink at my place before heading home?" Steve peered into Danny's office.
"No. I'm exhausted. This week has not been a good week.. at all. I just want to lay in bed the whole weekend. So... if there's a case, please don't call me," Danny quipped, knowing full well it wasn't about to happen.
Steve smiled, "Okay Danno, go home."
"I will. Just let me get this paper work sorted out first. I don't want this to be the first thing I see when I come back to work on Monday." Danny continued typing away on his laptop.
"Okay, if you change your mind about coming over, call me. I'm off." Steve said.
"Mm'kay. Drive safe."
...
It was 10.46 p.m. when Steve was awakened by his cell phone ringing. He looked at the caller i.d. Duke. "McGarrett."
"Steve? I know it's late but there's something you need to know." The urgency in Duke's voice was not lost on Steve.
"What is it Duke?" Steve sat up.
"It's Rachel, Danny's ex-wife. She has been stabbed in her own home."
"What?!" Steve could hardly believe his ears. His thoughts immediately went to Grace who had come home from college for her vacation and was staying with her mother. "Duke, how's Grace?"
"I don't know yet, Steve. I'm on my way there now. The call just came in."
Steve hurriedly put on his usual cargo pants and a black t-shirt, he grabbed the keys to his truck and headed for the door. "Danny? Have you told Danny?" Steve asked, he couldn't imagine Danny's reaction if he found out.
"Danny was the one who called in HPD." Duke paused for a second, "Steve, Danny confessed to the crime."
...
Steve drove his truck like a mad man. Duke's words did not make sense to him at all. Why would Danny confess? There was no way Danny could have done it. Steve managed to call Lou and Tani to inform them to meet him at Rachel's house. He didn't say much else except that they needed to be there.
Approaching Rachel's house, an ambulance sped past Steve's truck. The siren wailing in the silent night air confirmed that Steve wasn't in a bizarre dream, and that this was truly happening. With a screeching halt, the truck came to a stop at Rachel's driveway. Steve's eyes spotted the familiar black Camaro along with 2 other HPD cars parked outside the house. Steve got out of his truck just as Danny appeared from the house with his hands cuffed and 2 HPD officers standing on his either side.
"Yo, Danny! Danny?! What happened, huh?" Steve stopped the 2 officers. He looked wide-eyed at Danny. There was blood all over the front of his shirt and his hands were stained with dried blood. His eyes were red and he looked so lost and confused.
Looking up at Steve, Danny's eyes regained some recognition, "Grace! Steve you have to find her. Find Grace! And Charlie. Make sure he's safe. You hear me, Steve? You hear me?" Danny begged.
"Wait!" Steve shouted at the officers as they continued to walk towards the patrol car. "Danny? Tell me what's going on. Are you okay?" Steve placed a hand on Danny's shoulder.
"I'm okay. Just find Grace. And.. tell Rachel I'm sorry. Tell her I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Danny was on the verge of breaking down as he lifted his cuffed hands up to cover his face. Steve stared at him, dumbfounded.
"Commander, we really need to go." The officers pushed past Steve and led Danny into the patrol car. Steve tried to stop them when Duke called out to him from the house.
"Duke, what the hell is going on? Why are they taking him away?" Steve asked, his anger rising.
"Steve, what's going on?" Tani called out as she and Junior, who had stayed the night at her house, jogged towards Steve. They had briefly caught a glimpse of Danny being led into the patrol car and being driven away.
"Danny called in HPD at 10.41 p.m. and said he had stabbed Rachel. When we got here the house was a mess and he was sitting over Rachel, trying to stop the bleeding. No sign of Grace or Charlie." Duke explained as calmly as he could as he led them into the crime scene.
"Does that make sense to you? Why would he try to stop the bleeding if he did this?" Steve raised his voice. Duke was family, and he had a huge amount of respect for the guy but at that moment, Steve couldn't think of anything else besides Danny. Seeing Danny's resignation earlier and his hands cuffed was more than Steve could handle.
"Steve I understand you're mad, but we're working with what we have now. Danny said he got into a heated argument with Rachel and things got out of control, before he knew it, he had stabbed her." Duke said. "We have no choice but to take him in."
"But why did you have to cuff his hands?" Steve retorted.
"He got violent after the paramedics took her away. It took 3 men to pin him down, Steve. You know as well as I do I would never cuff him if I had a choice."
Steve sighed deeply, wiping his face with both hands. "Okay.. okay. Let's assume for 1 second that his absurd explanation is true, then where's Grace? Where is she?" Steve continued, right as Lou entered the house.
Lou looked around the living room, trying to make sense of what had occurred in the house. "What the hell happened in here? Where's Danny?"
While Duke stepped aside to take a call, Steve brought the team up to speed with what had happened. None of them believed whatever they heard. Danny would never do something like this no matter how enraged he was. It just didn't make sense.
"Look, I know there is more to this. Right now we need to find Grace. But before that, Tani, I need you to head over to Stan's hotel and make sure that he and Charlie are okay because if someone had planned this, they might be in danger too. Junior, you head back to the headquarters and track Danny's phone records and GPS location. I want to know where he was since he left work and exactly what he was doing. We need to find his alibi. Lou I need you to head to the hospital, stay with Rachel, keep me updated about her condition. I'll go talk to Danny."
"Steve." Duke called out, his face a mixture of worry and confusion.
"What is it?"
He did not know how to break the news to the 4 members of Five-0 but he had to. "I just got a call. The patrol car that took Danny was in an accident." Duke continued, "Danny is gone."
...
To be continued..