Chapter 5.
Hey guys, sorry its been so long. I was away. Here's another one, the story continues. Lets get on with it then shall we?
Oh and hey, thanks lots for the reviews. Keep 'em coming.
I can't hear love cause we're at war
And revenge is so loud and the drums are so proud
But oh, I'm in a cage and I hear mercy say "I'm here now"
And it's the only way out
...
"Danny's dead. I just received a call from Duke right now. Car crash." Chin said as he walked into the control center, his phone still in his hand.
"What? Oh my God. That's really bad." Kono said devastated.
"Yeah, man that's just tough." Lou said with a sad shake of his head.
Steve walked into the room from his office. "Hey what's going on?"
"Oh so sorry Steve, just received a call from Duke, Danny crashed his car. He's dead man." Chin said sadly
"Oh..., oh no that's sad man. That's really bad." Steve said shaking his head in sadness. "Wow that's just so sad." Steve said again, looking really sad."Phew, that's uh..that's bad." He leaned on his computer table for a while. "Anyways lets just have a moment of silence for the guy. I mean, he was one of ours yeah?"
"Yeah brah, sure." Chin said, and they all bowed their heads for a moment of silence in respect for Danny.
After a while Steve looked up, "Ok, that's it then. Lets carry on. We have a case? Kono?"
"Yeah, uh...victim found dead in an alley with a GSW..." Kono went on with the details of the case. It was back to work as usual.
Danny woke up, heaving. He had been having a nightmare. It had only been a nightmare. Where his friends didn't care. Where all he could get after his death was an "Oh, too bad." And freaking moment of silence! That was the worst. It was just a nightmare, phew. Where Steve didn't care whether he lived or died. Just a nightmare.
Or was it?
"You mean nothing to me. Nothing." He remembered those words vividly and they didn't fail to bring with them that dreadful feeling of pain and bereavement.
Just a nightmare. Or was it?
He spent the whole day thinking, sitting on his lanai, thinking. He may have done irreparable damage here and hurt his best friend. His brother. He had no right to call him that anymore. No right. The more he thought about it the more he was more and more convinced that he wasn't needed anymore. Steve didn't want to see his face anymore and he couldn't live in a world where he and Steve didn't talk. He'd rather move away. Maybe try and forget. But he definitely couldn't do it here, and he couldn't take this cold war anymore. He gave up. He surrendered.
He remembered his conversation with Rachel after he had woken up from the nightmare.
"Rach, if I were to need to move from here, to go someplace else. Would you go with me?" He had asked tentatively, not quite sure what he was asking himself.
"You mean, move from Hawaii?"
"Yeah, maybe."
Rachel had looked at him and hesitated for a bit, "It's that bad huh?"
"Yeah, I think so. And I don't think I can do anything to change it now. And I can't ...I don't think I can stay here like this anymore. It's not something I think I could do."
She had scooted close to him and held him, "Yes, I'll go anywhere with you."
Now he just sat there pondering that new possibility, it was a way out.
Grace must have noticed him brooding and moved to sit next to him on the chair.
"Hey Danno," She said and came to rest her head on his shoulder as he held her close.
"Yes monkey?" He said and she just smiled up at him.
"Are you ok Danno?" She asked
"Why, am I ok? Of course I am ok monkey. What are you saying?"
"I am not a kid anymore you know. I notice things. You and Uncle Steve are not talking are you? What happened?"
Danny sighed; he didn't know what to say to that. "It's just, something happened and...It was my fault. Alright? I don't want you to ever blame Uncle Steve for this. We love Uncle Steve don't we?" He asked
"Yeah, of course. But you're not happy Danno. What's going on?"
He just sighed again and planted a kiss on her forehead. "If we were to move again, say maybe to Jersey, would you be ok with that? Just asking. If you'd rather not then we won't."
She looked at him seriously now, knowing that her father would not have come to such a decision lightly. "If that's what would make you happy Danno then yes, we can move."
"No monkey, it's not about what makes me happy, it's about you most of all. I know you've got friends here; you've even got a boyfriend here. I don't want to take that away from you..."
"No Danno, it's ok. Sometimes it can be about you too. Yes, it's ok." She said as she hugged her father close, sad that he had to make such a decision.
With that Danny felt relieved, "Let's go tell your mother then." He said and got up to go inside the house to find Rachel.
...
Joe had been surprised by the reception he had received from Danny. He had expected the cold, hatred he was receiving from Steve. But no, Danny seemed...resigned. Like he had given up. He wasn't fighting anymore. Now he sat outside his house on the lanai, with a beer in hand. He had come to apologize. For Steve. For what he was responsible for. For destroying a bond between brothers.
"Danny I...I heard what went on between you and Steve and...I am responsible for putting you in that position. Son, I am sorry." He waited for at least a rant. It didn't come.
Danny sighed and looked out to his beautiful garden. "You know, I wanted to blame you so much for this. If hating you would help things between me and Steve I might just try it." He said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes at Joe. "The truth is it's my fault. I lied to him for two weeks and...I don't know how I could have managed that..."
"You didn't want to hurt him Danny. You didn't, couldn't hurt him like that." Joe evened out
"But I did Joe. I did anyway. Maybe more that I could have hurt him if I had told him the truth."
"No, he would have hated you either way son. A bearer of such news...I don't know but...its gotta be hard. You had no way out son. You're the closest person to Steve right now that means you're also the closest person he could lash out at. It's the downside of being the close one." Joe said with a grimace.
"Yeah, I don't know Joe. Steve is not just lashing out this time. He hates me. Really hates me." He laughed mirthlessly.
"You don't mean anything to me"
He remembered those words and the look on Steve's face when he had said it. He had meant it.
"I don't know man; Steve seems...he's done, Joe. Everyone in his life seems to have betrayed him. Including me. I was supposed to...including me Joe." Danny said in resignation as he took a swig of his beer.
"I know. I am just...really sorry son" Joe said solemnly
"Yeah well ...hey you have to make sure you tone down on the 'son' thing with Steve. At least for now." Danny said, half jokingly
"Yeah, now that you've mentioned it..."
"You put your foot in your mouth again didn't ya?" Danny asked with a sideways glance. Joe just nodded solemnly
"Hey, I know. I know firsthand what it's like. I was in your shoes not many years ago. With Charlie. And even though my son was three he understood enough to hate me for taking away his father. He was only three man. And I can't imagine what you're going through." Danny said with understanding
"Yeah, Steve is defiantly not three." He said. "And he has enough hate to go around. I'm sorry for the trouble you're going through Danny. And I'm grateful that you're not lashing out at me too."
"Like I said Joe, I actually know what you're going through. If it wasn't for that maybe I might have blindly lashed out at you too. Because, the thing is I have a knack for feeling Steve's pain. And right now he's hurting. He's hurting real bad." He said with a deep contemplation.
"I'm sorry." Was all Joe could say.
...
Danny had made up his mind. He would talk to Steve one more time and if that didn't work he would leave. He'd give him the space he needed and seeing him every day at work was not helping matters. He was beginning to coldly look through Danny now. Steve looked right through him like glass. He didn't see him. It was worse. It was way worse than if he could lash out again.
He understood though. He did. Steve had loved his father so much and even in death he never stopped looking up to the man. His father's memories were all he had left, and now they had been taken away. Destroyed and played around with. And he could only imagine the pain Steve was experiencing at this betrayal. At the hands of the one person he trusted with his life. His best friend. Steve was going to be damaged alright.
He walked into Steve's office and took a seat across the table. Steve just gave him that stare. Yeah, this was going to be hard but...something had to be done. It had been too long like this and it could only mean that Steve had not even begun to process this. The one person he could have turned to being the person who had been part in this betrayal. Oh God. Danny felt terrible seeing the cold pain in his friend's face when he looked at him.
"I need to talk to you...Steve." Danny started
"Then talk Detective." He said coldly
"Steve...we need to stop this. Ok? You need to stop." Danny pleaded
Steve just stared at him, he didn't budge.
"Look, you need to talk about this. I'm here if you need to talk and if not me, then someone Steve."
"Is this something to do with work? Because if it isn't I've got better things to do." Steve said coldly.
Danny sighed and released a sheet of paper. He laid it on Steve's desk. He then took out his gun and badge and laid it on the desk too. "I am resigning. Effective immediately." He said, looking resignedly at Steve. He noticed a flash of something in Steve's eyes then it disappeared just as quickly. He just continued looking at him coldly.
Danny sighed. "I'm sorry Steve. I'm so sorry for all of this and...I'm also sorry that I got to know it first. I am more sorry that I kept it from you for so long." He laughed again mirthlessly. Then he wiped his face in exasperation and sighed. "I don't know man I...now thinking about it in hindsight I realize that I really didn't have any excuse to keep it from you. Only that...only that I didn't want to hurt you. God I was so scared to see you hurt like that I just...I couldn't do it." His throat was now dry. He looked into Steve's eyes and leaned forward to speak to him in earnest.
"I love you like a brother Steve. You're my brother. That was not a lie. That was never a lie. And I...I couldn't hurt you...I just...I couldn't."
Steve remained quiet.
"I can't stand us being at odds like this and so I feel that maybe if I get out of your way you might finally get the ... I don't know the strength to process this? So I'm leaving for New Jersey this week. It's funny but I never realized that you're a big part of why this Island was home to me. You're the reason I would have still stayed here, even with my family back I never thought of going back to Jersey. This was my home. You. The team, our ohana. Chin, Kono even Lou and Jerry. But you. Mostly you. Now that you're no longer..., well..., so..." He sighed. "Do me a favor will you? Speak to someone alright? Chin, Kono, Lou? Don't shut them out. Please. Don't shut them out." He said as he got up from the chair.
"Remember what I said ok?" He said before exiting. Steve never said a word. He just let him go.
...
Kono halted as she saw Danny exiting the building heading for his car. Did they catch another case?
"Hey brah, where you headed?" She asked walking up to him.
"Kono hey." He said but he looked serious. He waited for her to catch up. 'I am uh...I am leaving Kono."
"Leaving? Yeah, to go where? Are you going to follow up on some evidence or something? Hey, brah you know better than to leave your partner behind now huh? I am your partner at least for the meantime. So where are we headed?" She asked excitedly
"Kono, I mean I am leaving ... Five O. So I guess that means I am headed home."
"What? Wait a minute why? Did Steve fire you? Did..."
"No hey slow down. I resigned. Made it better for everyone. If i hadn't he would have fired me anyway...or left himself."
"No way, he wouldn't..."
"Yes he would. In his frame of mind right now it's either I go or he goes. He can't stand to look at me and I don't want him going off somewhere alone. He needs you guys. He needs his ohana and..."
"No Danny, he needs you. Can't you see that?'
Danny ignored that pleading tone in Kono's voice. "Just...you guys just make sure you keep an eye on him alright. Yeah, when he gets like this he may need to take a hike or some of his ninja escapades, don't under circumstances leave him to go alone. Ok? In his current state of mind he'd get himself in serious trouble."
Kono smiled solemnly as Danny spoke, seeing how he was already being protective of Steve before he even left. This was wrong. This was so wrong.
"Danny don't..."
"I'll miss you guys. But I won't be the one to... to put an end to the nice family we had built here. Just know that I'll miss you very very much. Come here." He said as he drew her into a hug. "I'll remember Ohana for the rest of my life. In fact I'm gonna teach the people back in Jersey all about Ohana."
Kono stilled in his arms and drew back. "Wait what? Jersey?"
"Yeah." Danny said with a shrug.
"No Danny his is unfair. Steve is being really..."
"It wasn't him. It was me. I made the decision. I'm...let's keep in touch ok?'
"When are you planning to leave?"
"Sometime this week. I'll text you the exact date. Take care of each other. Take care of him ok?"
At Kono's teary nod he got into his car and drove off.
Kono stood there for minutes. This felt like a death. It felt like...this wasn't right. She walked into HQ to find Lou and Chin with the same solemn looks on their faces.
"Hey cuz?" Chin said and seeing her face drew her into a hug.
"Yeah, we tried." Lou said, shaking his head
"Not enough. We didn't try enough, we should do something." Kono protested
"Like what cuz? This has just become one horror story I can't..."
"Where's Steve?' she asked as she looked into his office. He was just sitting there staring at his computer.
"He hasn't moved from that position since Danny left the room." Chin said
"Yeah, you gotta give it to him. The man can be proud." Lou said
"They are both being very proud and stupid. We need to make them see reason." Kono said
"Oh you mean like the last time we interfered and it all turned out worse that we had thought? Yeah that did go well." Lou chipped in.
"No, I mean, Steve obviously needs to face his demons and Danny...someone is influencing Danny. I mean Jersey? Rachel." She said in realization. "It's Rachel, its gotta be her pulling him away to go to Jersey." She said with enough venom directed at Rachel.
"No, hey cuz. Let's not jump to conclusions. Danny would not have made this decision lightly. We had become a family and I had a long talk with him recently. The guy is broken up about this whole thing and he feels if it continues like this he might help to divide this ohana. Which I told him would never happen but you know Danny when he's convinced about something.
Kono sighed, no she wasn't convinced. She'll have to go see Rachel.
...
So till next time guys,