Six hours of sleep: that was more than enough for Steve McGarrett, and the oversized cup of black coffee only put the edge in his step as it burned his hand through the inadequate insulation of the cup. He inhaled another sip, reducing the level of the scalding liquid inside.

Not that he wanted to admit it, but there were times when this was a pretty good gig. Dammit, he actually enjoyed taking down the people who wanted to ruin these islands for the rest of the world. Never thought I'd say it, he mused to himself, taking another sip, but this cop stuff isn't half bad. Not where I thought I'd end up—still going to keep up the connections with my guys in the military—but I can handle this stuff for a while. We'll see where it leads.

At the moment it led to the inner sanctum of Five-O, where the computers and the heartbeat lived, and Steve's feet were taking him there. Steve liked that spot, too; it reminded him of Command Central, where the planning of the various missions had taken place during his military days. Out in the field, the body was king, guided by his brains. Here, inside the cocoon of technology, was where he realized that half the joy of the job was out-thinking the competition.

He was the first to arrive, the cool of the inner room replacing the heat from outside. Steve took a moment to allow his eyes to adjust, lifting the cup of coffee once again to his lips, declining to set it down on the table with the embedded computer screen that was such a valuable asset to their cases. Danny had started to call him last night, and Steve wondered what that was about. Maybe a prank call, to let Steve know that cop work wasn't all fun and games? Maybe something that Danny had forgotten to tell him earlier and didn't think could wait? Guess it could wait after all; the man hadn't bothered to leave a message. Steve's phone had already been sitting on the nightstand next to the bed while a short but very necessary shower had been taking place, which was why Steve hadn't picked it up in the first place.

Steve glanced at the clock on the wall, noting that it wasn't yet quite noon. With a sigh, he wandered into his own office to sit down before his personal office computer to go through the email, dismissing the invitations to play on the local cops' soccer tournament against the fire department. Worthy cause—local kid's hangout—but he had too much to do and too little time to do it in. Likewise, he skipped through the listings of local crimes, knowing that he couldn't keep all the details in his head. If he needed them, he'd have Chin run a search query. The man was good with the uber high-tech equipment in the room next door.

The other three should be in within the next few minutes. Danny would come flying in at the last minute, tie neatly choking him around the neck. Chin he expected to take the day off to recuperate, although Steve was laying fifty-fifty odds that the man would insist on coming into the office. It all depended on how much influence Kono had over her cousin—and how much pain Chin's arm would give him. Although Steve wouldn't put it past Kono to slip a couple of those little white pills into her cousin's morning orange juice…

"Hey, Steve." Kono walked in, bright-eyed, looking as though she had spent yesterday relaxing on the beach. Ah, the joys of youth…

Chin didn't look so good but Steve had to admit that he didn't look all that bad, either. His arm was in the sling that the nice folks at the hospital had given him and Steve, after a closer look, could tell that the man was feeling no pain. Steve fixed him with a stern eye. "You didn't drive in, right? You didn't bounce off both sides of the road?"

"Right." Kono answered for him. "He's stuck here until one of us decides to take pity on him and take him home. Which, if he's not careful, will be very soon," she added.

Chin grimaced. "I'd forgotten how bossy she can get when she thinks she's right," he confided to Steve.

"I am right."

"She is right." The two responses came out almost in stereo.

Steve grinned. "You heard it here first, bro. Listen, you see about putting together your report of what happened last night, then I'm sending you home. You deserve it. While you're doing that, Kono and I will see how Hanolo has been spending his own time and what lawyers he has under his thumb."

"Reports: such joy. For this, I came in?" Chin looked around. "Where's Danny? Shouldn't he be joining us?"

"Maybe he overslept. Speaking of which, he tried to call after I got home. Maybe he forgot that he had Grace for the day, or something like that."

"I don't think so," Kono mused. "Wasn't he griping yesterday about having to switch his time with her? Something about Rachel taking her to the circus?"

"Yeah. Maybe he forgot that, too." Steve tabbed his own phone, and got voicemail. "Yo, Danno! Wake up and get your ass in here. You think you're the only one who was up late last night, Mr. Big Shot from The East Coast?"

Kono was going through her own email. "Maybe he figured that we'd have to make a formal court appearance. See, here it is: invitation to formally charge one Peter Hanolo on offenses too numerous and heinous to name in a single email. The D.A.'s moving fast on this one."

Chin leaned over her shoulder. "Sure is. That's a command performance for the D.A. in front of the judge to see how high we can set the bail. You bring your lip gloss, cuz?"

She made a face at him. "That was last night, cuz. I don't need lip gloss for this appearance. We've got Hanolo dead to rights. We've got my testimony, Danny's, and the tape to back us up."

"Three hours from now," Steve noted. He looked around the room in annoyance. "Where is Danny? The judge and the D.A. are not going to be happy if he misses this appointment."

Kono got to her feet. "I could swing by his place."

Steve shook his head. "I'll do it. You work on your testimony, what you're going to say to the judge. Chin, coach her."

"I don't need coaching!"

"You do if I say you do," Steve told the rookie with a grin to take the sting out of his words. "You—and the rest of us—put in a lot of effort on this case, and it's not going to go down because one cop can't get his butt in gear and the other is left stuttering on the stand."

"We've got the tape. Tell me how Hanolo's going to explain that away."

"Out of context," Chin told her immediately. "It was a joke. Hanolo was exaggerating. I can come up with a dozen more ways to twist the words, Kono, without thinking twice." Remember what happened to my career as a cop?

"Not going to happen," Steve said firmly, "because both cops are going to be prepared to testify at Hanolo's trial, whenever they decide to hold it." He stood up and walked to the door. "I'll haul Sleepyhead out of his beauty rest, and when I get back, I'll expect to hear you singing like a rock star, Kono." He opened the door. "Hey."

An office worker was walking up with a large envelope in her hands, one large enough to hold a sheaf of official papers that were not folded in polite thirds. "For you, Mr. McGarrett."

"Thanks, May," Steve told her automatically, furrowing his brows and accepting the envelope. "Uh, is this something I want?"

She shrugged. "It was dropped off the boys in the brown truck, and it went through the detector without a beep as well as the irradiator. You want me to take it to the lab for further testing before you open it?"

Steve shook it; there were pieces of paper inside but nothing that rattled. "That's okay." He turned to the other two. "Are we expecting anything?"

Chin shook his head. "No, and we don't have anything outstanding that would justify sending a warrant. Open it."

"You got it." Steve slipped a long finger under the flap of the envelope and ripped through the seal. He slipped out the contents and dumped them onto the table.

Steve froze.

"Sonuva—" Chin bit off the curse that rose unbidden. Kono only hissed in horror.

It was a head shot of Danny, but not as they had seen him last. No, Danny had been tired but triumphant as he jumped into his car outside of Chin's place, waving at Steve to pull out ahead of him. He hadn't had two black eyes, one completely swollen shut. There hadn't been a long cut across his cheek, leaking blood. There hadn't been more blood seeping out of his mouth, the jaw hanging slack.