A/N: So this one gets a little heated (and not in the fun way).
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and make no money doing this. I'm just having fun playing with them. All mistakes are my own.
Chapter 86
"So we did a quick check of HPD personnel against the enrollment at Sacred Heart and found this." Chin swiped at the table's screen, sending the picture of Officer Derrick Martinez onto the larger screen.
"He's been with HPD about four months. He was one of the many officers on scene the day we found Grace." Kono continued briefing them. "It appears his older brother was a friend of Stan's. They'd done a couple of business deals together. The brother's son, Tony, is the one that caused the issue at the school."
"Charming," Danny glared at the screen. "So at best, Martinez was spouting off about the case to his brother and Tony overheard. At worst, he intentionally told the kid knowing he'd mouth off in front of Grace."
"How do you want to handle it?" Steve watched his partner.
Danny's turned slowly from the scree to face McGarrett. "How do I want to handle it? You mean you don't have a plan already formulated in that crazy head of yours?"
"I didn't say I didn't have thoughts, but by nature of the timing of Grace's call, I took the lead with the school. I figured you'd want your shot." Steve shrugged. "I can line up a shark cage if you'd prefer."
"Not what I expected." Danny stared up at Steve with a look full of surprised affection. "It's incredibly thoughtful of you to leave some ass chewing for me, babe."
Steve gave him what others classified as a trademark McGarrett grin.
"Goof." Danny shook his head as he turned backed to stare at Martinez's picture. "So while talking about Rachel's death was a completely asshole move on his part, he hasn't technically done anything illegal. And he is a cop, so we should probably avoid some of our more questionable methods of scaring someone into line."
"More questionable methods," Kono barely held in a giggle. "And which methods do you classify in that category?"
"Shark cages. Dangling people off roofs. Anything involving grenades in public places. You know, all his favorite things." Danny nudged Steve playfully with his elbow.
"Shouldn't we be figuring out the plan?" Chin laughed at the trio. "We can catalog all Steve's questionable tactics later."
"Fair point." Danny admitted. "Given the situation, I saw we go pay him a visit in the squad room."
"We?" Steve's eyes lit up at the idea that he'd be joining the confrontation.
"Yes, we. By which I mean all four of us. You know, strength in numbers and all that." Danny shrugged. "I can't imagine it's gonna get out of control, but you have to admit we have some serious presence when you put us all together. And we never know if he's gonna have friends standing on his side."
"When?" Chin asked.
"No time like the present." Danny looked to the others for approval.
"Let's go." Kono slapped him on the shoulder.
The four headed out of headquarters, ready to go see what Martinez had to say for himself. As they were heading down the stairs, Duke caught sight of them.
"Catch a case?" He called out as they approached.
"Not exactly." Danny responded.
"Grace okay?" Duke was obviously picking up that something was wrong.
"She is now. Had a bit of an issue at school today." McGarrett answered this time.
"Anything I can help with?"
"Nah. We're just headed over to have a little chat with Officer Martinez about keeping his mouth shut when his nephew is around."
"Derrick Martinez?" Duke appeared even more interested.
"Yeah." Steve answered, noticing the shift.
"Mind if I come along? He could use a reminder that he should be looking out for more than just himself." Duke frowned. "Kid's got potential, or at least he would, but he's got an attitude and doesn't always seem to take the job serious. He's far too worried about having fun stories to tell."
"And it appears the propensity for story telling is a family trait based on what young Tony was spouting off in the cafeteria."
The five walked in relative silence as they approached HPD.
"Hey guys!" The young officer at the front desk called when he spotted them.
"Hey McGarrett! What's Five-0 doing in these parts?" Another veteran of the force came over, shaking Steve's hand. "Not that you aren't always welcome to pop by."
"Just paying Martinez a visit. His mouth is causing some problems." Duke explained.
"Well shit." The other officer looked neither surprised nor pleased at the revelation. "That kid has got to get it together. What'd he run his mouth about this time?"
Danny and Steve both noticed several other officers paying attention to the conversation. Judging by their expressions they weren't particularly fans of Officer Martinez either.
"Details of Rachel's death." Danny answered. "In front of his 11 year old nephew who just happens to attend Grace's school. So you can imagine what the kid decided to start mouthing off about at lunch today to terrorize Grace."
"Shit." Several of the officers had gone from looking annoyed to down right pissed. "Somebody wanna grab the captain? I think he's gonna wanna be able to make an appearance at some point during the dressing down Martinez is about to get."
"I'll get 'em." One of the other guys ducked down the hall.
"You boys lead the way." One of the lieutenants stepped toward them. "I believe we'll be joining you." As he spoke more cops appeared around them.
Danny gave a sharp nod, looking at the dozen or so men that now stood around them before following Duke toward where Martinez would be found. Approaching, they could see he was on his cell phone, and quickly picked his end of the conversation.
"Nah, brah. They can't do shit to Tony. Not like he was tellin' lies. Bitch had it coming, you said as much."
Five-0 and company stopped just a few feet the still oblivious cop. Everyone in the group appeared to be twitching to hit him after that comment.
"Seriously, who do you think Caldwell's going to believe? A hysterical little brat and her two fuckin' homos or the nephew of one of her biggest supporters."
McGarrett cleared his throat, deciding that if they had to listen much longer things might actually escalate to a shark cage.
Martinez turned, mouth open to make some smart ass comment about being interrupted until he saw the group. "Brah, I gotta go. Later." He tossed the phone on his desk. "McGarrett, what can I do for you?"
"Oh I think you've done plenty already." Danny closed in on him, getting right up in Martinez's face. Fortunately, he was only about an inch taller than Danny. "Was this just a game to you? Not a fan of Five-0, so see if you can get your nephew to make our daughter's life a living hell? Thought you'd get away with it because your brother has Caldwell in his pocket."
"I'm just sayin' what everybody else is too chicken shit to say. Nobody wants people like you here." Martinez leaned forward, trying to intimidate Danny. "I bet these guys are all just here to watch you get your ass handed to you by a real cop."
"That's what you think, huh?" Danny wasn't backing down. "You think because you're an arrogant, close-minded asshole that the rest of HPD is too?"
"I think you four are nothing but a three ring circus that wouldn't know how to be real cops if your life depended on it?"
"Enough!" The Chief of Police bellowed from behind the gathered crowd before they all split to let him through. "I'm not sure where you get off thinking that in less that four months you've earned the right to speak for the entire Honolulu Police Department or what gave you the idea that your small-minded, prejudiced views in any way reflect the beliefs of even a fraction of your fellow offers, much less the entirety of them. But you clearly don't know shit if you honestly believe the bull you just stood there spewing at Williams."
"I …" Martinez started.
"Oh no. We're well past the point where you get to speak." The chief cut him off, looking around to where damn near every officer in the building had gathered, a united front behind Five-0. "You're on my turf here, Martinez, and I don't take kindly to punks that don't know there place and clearly have objectives other than to protect and serve at the top of their priority list. Pack your things. I want you gone."
"You can't …"
"Oh, I can and I just did. Did you forget you're still in your probationary period? There's not a review board on this island that would let you pass with an attitude like yours."
"Duke, Scott, you two wanna make sure he doesn't cause any problems on his way out?"
"My pleasure, Chief." Duke stepped forward.
"You know this doesn't stop anything." Martinez spouted off to Danny. "Tony's untouchable at that school. Caldwell won't let you near him."
"First off, we don't plan on touching that kid. The school is taking care of that. And second, they will be taking care of that. Caldwell already joined the unemployment line."
Five-0 watched as Martinez paled at this assertion as Duke grabbed his arm, turning him toward the locker room, but not before Martinez could open his mouth again. "Better watch your back detective. You keep making enemies more powerful than you and that girl of yours will land in the system."
Before anyone could say a thing, Danny wheeled around, slamming his fist into Martinez's jaw.
"You should consider your next move carefully," Steve stepped forward, towering over the idiot that was now on the ground. "You seem to be under the misguided assumption that your brother's money makes all of you untouchable. I promise you, you try to deliver on that threat and you'll discover just how wrong you are."
Grabbing Danny's hand, McGarrett headed the opposite direction of where Duke was hauling Martinez. "Come on, Danno. I think we've wasted enough time on the trash."
"More than enough." Danny followed his partner, flanked by Chin, Kono, the police chief, and the majority of the others.
"So what's this I hear about Five-0 starting a monthly self defense seminar for women and children?" The chief asked when they were out of the room. "That really happening?"
"It will. We're still ironing out the details." McGarrett turned his attention to the chief. "I've actually been thinking it would be great to expand the idea a bit and offer something for male victims or those at risk as well. I know there's less attention there, but it is a problem. I just have to figure out how we do that without making the women and kids, some of which are likely very skittish around men, uncomfortable."
"Not a bad idea. Would you mind some help from my guys?"
"We'd actually love that. I'd mentioned to the Governor that I thought it would be a great opportunity to partner up." Steve watched as several of the officers expressed interest in participating.
"We get enough of us we could figure out a way to do both groups. Maybe one in the morning and one in the afternoon." One of the guys spoke up, getting nods from several others.
"Sounds like we should be able to make something work." Steve smiled. "We've gotta work out more of the plan, but I'll reach out when we get a better idea. Maybe you can identify a person or two work with us on the details?"
"That shouldn't be a problem." The Chief laughed, knowing the hard part would be narrowing down the volunteers rather than finding them. "I'll discuss with the guys and get you a couple of names soon. Now why don't the rest of you get back to work." He waved them all away. "If you four have a minute, I'd like to talk to you in my office before you go."
McGarrett glanced at his watch. "We've got about a half an hour before we need to get to pick up Grace."
"I'll be done in far less than that." The Chief led them into this office, shutting the door behind them. "First, I hope you all realize that in no way, shape, or form does the bullshit Martinez was spouting off represent the opinion of the rest of the department. There may still be a few that aren't exactly huge fans of Five-0 or the pair of you," he motioned to Steve and Danny. "But those few are smart enough to keep their mouths shut and not stir up any trouble. I just wouldn't expect them to volunteer to do anything with the lot of you."
"We wouldn't expect everyone to be happy with us, but we do appreciate you being upfront." Steve interjected.
"I guessed you might be realistic about that. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure there was no question about things between Five-0 and HPD. We're all on the same team. I happened to meet with the governor this morning and he gave me the heads up about the upcoming interview. I have to say, initially I wondered what the hell you four were thinking, but as we talked about it I realized it really is the smartest move. That being said, I'm sure you guys are expecting fall out from it." The team nodded in agreement with his assumption. "Just know that we have your backs. Anybody here causes problems, you let me know. Got it?"
"We appreciate that, Chief." McGarrett responded, pleased to hear they did have his support. "As we said, we don't expect everyone to approve. Anybody gives us a real problem, we'll let you know. As long as the detractors don't go out of the way to cause an issue or become unprofessional when we're working together, we'll respect their opinions. While Danny and I have no intention of hiding in the shadows, we also realize that not everyone will be accepting, so we'll be sure to keep things professional when we're working to avoid any unnecessary issues."
"He's right," Danny added. "We can't tell you how much we appreciate the support from HPD, but provided they aren't total asses about it, we don't expect anyone to have a hard time just because they don't like Five-0 or don't approve of our choices. That'd be a fast road to causing problems that none of us need."
The chief leaned back, partially sitting atop his desk. "I appreciate the candor, gentlemen. And I'm sure that stance will be respected. Now, I'm sure you have better things to do than stand around my office all day, and I need to finish dealing with the Martinez mess."
"Thanks, Chief." The team all shook his hand as they filed out of his office.
Once clear of the building, Danny finally turned to his partner. "One question."
Steve stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, looking down at Danny. "Only one?"
"Only one at the moment." Danny rolled his eyes. "What made you start kicking around the idea of the mens self-defense? Not that I don't think it's a great idea, just didn't expect it."
"I was doing some research. Thought it would be a good idea before we start the classes to see what I could learn about domestic violence and such. Ran across some statistics around male victims, and realized that the stuff I was reading was right. It's an issue for both genders. The majority of cases are against women and children, but that doesn't make the male victims any less victims or any less worth protection."
"Very insightful, boss." Kono looked a surprised from where she and Chin stood a few steps away.
"She's right. Very insightful." Danny nodded. "And if we're going to take stance against it, we better take a stance against all of it. Not just the stuff everybody hears about."
"Exactly." Steve threw his arm around Danny's shoulders. "Now what do you say we go fetch our daughter."
"We'll see you guys at the house later. Grace owes us a chapter of Harry Potter." Chin called after them.
"See you then." McGarrett hollered over his shoulder. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some shaved ice with Gracie. This has been one hell of a interesting day."
"I'll second that." Danny wrapped his arm around Steve's waist. It had definitely been a day he wouldn't mind forgetting.
*~*~* GUARDIAN*~*~*
A/N: So I obviously know nothing about the legalities of how all that would actually go down with Martinez getting canned, but I know most place's probationary periods provide little protection if you fuck up.
Take a second to review/comment and let me know what you think.