Missing Scenes, "Hana 'a'a Makehewa"
by Sammie
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. If they were, DDK and GP would be more than mobile scenery.
RATING: K
SUMMARY: Chin's thoughts during "Hana 'a'a Makehewa". Chin Ho-Danny friendship.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I love that Kono put one in Hesse with her rifle, and that Steve put the beat down on the same guy - I do love action. Yet I just couldn't stop thinking of what Chin and Danny would talk about as Chin just kneels there in the parking lot with a bomb around his neck, waiting as all the minutes go by. After all, it's really Chin and Danny who will most likely die.
When Danny reappeared, he had a grim look on his face, and Chin closed his eyes regretfully. So the haole hadn't been able to stop them - or at least make them put the money back.
His boss and his cousin were nowhere to be seen; given Kono's look when she came to tell him about the cash, Chin didn't doubt that Steve and Kono would follow through with what they had planned. The veteran cop did wonder a little as to why Steve took Kono with him, but whatever.
"He says I'm a crap shot with a rifle," Danny replied to his unspoken question. "And taking me would be - "
" - a crapshoot?" Chin asked dryly.
Danny looked surprised at the brief levity the hostage evinced, then gave a half-smile. "Hold still," he said in his normal, clipped manner. He pulled a cloth out of his pocket.
"Don't."
"I don't want to risk you shorting out the wires with all that sweat." Danny carefully wiped the sweat from Chin's face and his head, being careful not to move anything.
The older cop felt a little like a two-year-old, getting his face wiped, but it felt less hot and a bit of a relief. "Thank you."
"No problem." Danny plopped down on the asphalt.
Chin mentally shook his head. It was too dangerous here, and Danny still had Grace to consider. The cop was too close to him; he should be behind the barrier. "Danny, you should be behind - "
"D-ng, that gets hot fast!" Danny muttered, getting back up off the asphalt. "How're your knees?"
"I'm fine."
"Oh, of course." The man turned on his high-pitched, girly imitation voice. "'I'm wearing a bomb, but I'm fine'," Danny replied sarcastically. "Isn't that asphalt hot?"
"You need to be behind the blast barrier."
Oddly, Danny actually complied, walking away towards where the railings were. It was too much to hope that he'd stay there, though, Chin sighed as the cop came back with what appeared to be a foamy, one-inch thick block - something akin to what gardening stores sold to gardeners so they could rest their knees on them as they worked. "Danny," he said warningly.
"Hold still and carefully lift one of your knees, then the other." Danny stooped down and carefully shimmied the block under Chin's knees. "This isn't as hot or hard as the asphalt. Feel better?"
"Yes. Thank you."
"No problem." Danny then dropped a similar block onto the asphalt and started to sit down on it.
"You ought - "
Danny gave him a withering look, which cut him off. He wasn't leaving, Chin acknowledged. The cop sat down on another foamy block, stretching his knees in front of him. "The knees are always the first to go," he said, waving vaguely.
"Is that a reference to my age?" Chin asked, his amused grin taking the punch out of the question. It felt odd - but oddly heartening - to be having such a conversation at this time. And as much as he wished Danny were behind the barrier, at the same time it was comforting to have somebody nearby. Chin had already wracked his mind for hours to figure a way out of his predicament, long before Steve and Danny had arrived that morning; now his brain hurt. He just wanted to lie down and sleep and forget. Barring that, he needed something to get his mind off of what was happening.
"Nah. It's a reference to our piteous state as Steve McGarrett's team." Danny patted his own knee. "Mine still hasn't healed. My doctor actually told me to get a new partner."
Chin chuckled. "And what did you say?"
"I wish I could. But I can't." Danny thought for a moment, then something occured to him. "Next time, I'm going with you or Kono."
"Going with us where?"
"Anywhere, as long as Steve's not driving."
Chin grinned. "Don't be so sure you want to go in the car with Kono." At Danny's raised eyebrow, he grinned. "I rode in a car she drove not long after she got her license. I can only hope that she learned proper driving when she went to the academy."
"It can't be worse than Steve's," Danny protested, then looked at Chin's expression. "OK, it can. All right, Chin. From now on, I go with you."
"I do ride bikes."
"I'd feel safer on the back of your bike than dressed in full battle gear in a Hummer Steven drives."
Chin smiled. He didn't much think that he'd be taking anybody anywhere; he really didn't think he'd be getting out of this one alive. Still, he didn't dwell on it. "Or, if you want to sit in the surveillance van with me, you're quite welcome."
"At least it'll be cool in there. Hey, be right back." Danny got up now, then walked off to talk to one of the officers behind the blast barrier.
To be honest, he didn't know how Danny felt about seeing all those maps in his house. It was incriminating, he knew. Kono was fiercely loyal - if she saw a video of Chin taking the money she'd want to have an explanation first. He didn't know if McGarrett would get suspicious. John McGarrett may have trusted him, but Steve McGarrett had only half of his father's genes, and he'd seen Steve's thoughts about the case involving Danny's partner.
Well, the former HPD cop thought mirthlessly, at least if he blew up, then it all wouldn't matter.
He didn't know Danny that well, and he didn't know how Danny would react. Sure, he'd promised him support before, but out of the team, he and Danny knew each other least. They had little occasion to spend time together outside of work as it was, and Danny WAS a cop; after Chin, Danny had the most years on an actual police force. The maps in his house were incriminating. If he were (still) a cop, he'd arrest himself based on that evidence.
Danny returned, plopping back down on his makeshift seat. "How ya doing?"
"All right."
They fell into a silence, and then Chin said, "Danny, about those maps."
"Look, I'm sure there's a reason you have them." The tone was forcedly neutral. Chin didn't know if that was a good sign or not.
Chin's eyes flickered to the ground in front of him. "There is, but I doubt it would convince many people."
"How convincing something is isn't for me to judge," the cop said guardedly.
So the man wasn't sure what to think. Chin didn't know if this felt comforting in any way. "Danny," he said quietly, his eyes lifting from where they'd been fixed on the ground. It suddenly mattered to him immensely that at least another cop believed him. Kono was family. Steve was loyal to him out of trust of his father. Danny Williams was neither. "I didn't take the money."
Danny only nodded.
"Obviously Kono - Kono doesn't believe it," Chin replied, his eyes leaving Danny's face, looking around at the scenes around him as he spoke. "If she did she would have left like everybody else. And Steve - well, who knows what goes on in his head." Chin gave a soft, mirthless snort, and he could hear Danny chuckle as well. His eyes flickered to the ground, and then back up to other man, looking at him steadily. When he finally spoke, he almost cringed at how earnest and serious he sounded. "I didn't take the money, Danny."
He could see the emotions and the change flash across his teammate's face. He couldn't tell what the other man was thinking, but it was several moments before Danny gave him a one-sided smile, a softened expression on his face. He nodded once and said in a changed tone, "OK." Chin could almost feel himself relax after that.
They just sat in companionable silence for a while. It felt almost surreal; Chin looked around at the people passing by, at the building. He'd never thought much about this parking lot; it was just a parking lot. It held cars. People walked from their cars to their offices. Now, however, the whole thing seemed new to him. Why did that woman choose that make of car? What was the explanation for that large scrape on that truck? Why was the toughest cop on the island (all right, the toughest besides McGarrett) driving a minivan?
His thoughts now wandered to his family. Perhaps his being gone would heal the rifts caused by the scandal; he didn't know. At least he had siblings to care for his parents, and his life insurance would go to that as well. And Kono would be all right. After her surfing career had ended, he'd quietly altered his will, leaving some of his personal things to her just in case, knowing that the cop's pay was going to be less than she was used to as a professional surfer.
Malia.
Well, he thought ruefully, there wasn't much he could do about it now, was there. He had to admit, though, he sorely regretted not having parted on better terms - not that one could part on good terms, given the circumstances of their break. He had many regrets, and Malia was one of them.
Chin shifted slightly on his block, then said, "Danny, I need to ask you a favor."
"Anything."
"In my safebox at my bank, I have items of value, but I also have a set of directions."
"Directions for what?" Danny asked, and Chin gave him a look. "Oh."
"Kono...I know she doesn't want to think about it, and Steve's - well." Chin's eyes flickered to the ground, then back up. "You know as well as I do what it's like as a cop. I'm assuming you have a set of directions somewhere as well."
Danny laughed mirthlessly. "Yes, I do. And I have both a last will and testament and a living will and a life insurance - everything."
"So you know what I mean." Chin looked at the other man, who nodded silently. "I didn't want to make things even more difficult for my family, not having things planned. If...anything happens - " he trailed off.
"Chin." Danny leaned over, his face inches from Chin's. "You might want to tell somebody else all this, because if you get blown up into a fiery roast, so do I."
It took longer than normal for that to process in Chin Ho's mind. He'd forgotten about that. If Hesse set off the explosives, Danny wouldn't make it either.
"I'm going to assume you're hot, tired, and not thinking straight," Danny replied. "And if this is a calculated attempt to get me to go behind the explosives barrier, the answer's no."
They sat in silence for a little bit, and then Chin noticed a cop waving vigorously at them. "Is he here for you?"
Danny straightened and turned to look at the man. "Yup. Be right back."
When he returned, he was holding a small cooler. He reached in and pulled out a plastic cup with a lid. "I'll hold it," he said without preamble. "Drink before you get dehydrated."
Chin looked askance at the cup. If he drank too much and had to use the bathroom...
"You get dehydrated, you'll get weak, you'll move, and then it'll be all over. So drink."
Chin obediently held still as Danny lifted the cup towards him, putting the straw within reach of his mouth. The cold lemonade - more lemon than sugar, so a bit sour - did feel good going down his throat, and he felt cooler and more reinvigorated. He must've been more dehydrated than he'd thought - between the heat of the sun and his own tension, he must have lost a lot of water.
Danny's voice was quiet and, compared to his normal tone, much more gentle. "You all right?"
Chin started to nod, then thought better of it. "Yeah. I feel better. Thanks."
"Good." Danny carefully put the drink back into the cooler and then moved it out of the way, into the shade.
He returned, then looked the older man straight in the face. "Chin." His voice was solemn. "I don't know how long it's going to take Steve and Kono to get back or what will happen. I know you've got more hours in you to hang on, but you got to let me know if you're getting tired. We'll get you something to lean on, to prop you up."
"OK." Chin's eyes were on the ground, and then they flickered up to his teammate. "Thank you," he said, quietly, gratefully.
Danny just grinned reassuringly.
It was almost a shock when he felt Danny's hand on his shoulder, and the quiet tones: "Chin. It's over. We're clear." He felt the rush of air as the warm metal left his neck, and he collapsed towards the ground; he could feel his whole body trembling.
Danny's small, sinewy hand appeared before him, and he gratefully took it, letting himself be pulled up by the shorter man, and leaning against him in gratitude and relief as he was helped out of that parking lot.
He submitted quietly to the EMTs' care as they checked him over for shock, dehydration, and all the rest. Danny had kept him well-hydrated through most of his ordeal, for which he was grateful.
He tried to take off the bright orange blanket again, only to get a killer glare from the older EMT. He obediently put it back on. He looked like a traffic cone, he thought to himself grumpily.
After the EMTs had all finished, Danny came by and sat next to him at the back of the ambulance, and the two of them watched as the EOD team worked on the bomb. When they finally got it dismantled entirely, with no possibility of it being set off, a cheer went up from the sidelines.
"Want lunch?" Danny asked.
"Sounds good."
"Barbeque?" There was hint of mirth in the other man's voice.
"Too soon, brah. Too soon."
The exhilaration of beling alive was just that. Chin felt almost a little lightheaded, walking through headquarters as if dreaming. Everything seemed a little surreal - but in a good way.
It had taken Steve and Kono a long time to get back. When Kono saw him, she broke into a run, and he caught up his cousin in a big hug; she didn't release him for quite a while, and he was content in having the chance to hold family again. He had been so sure when she left that he would never see her again, and even hugging her wasn't enough to reassure himself that he was alive. When she finally pulled away, she had tears in her eyes. She blinked, then finally let him go.
Steve came upthen, giving him a brief, tight hug before releasing him. Chin could feel the younger man almost shaking - from relief, disbelief, or what he didn't know. The older man felt a wave of compassion for his boss. Chin Ho Kelly wasn't family, but he knew the burden of guilt McGarrett felt with regards to Hesse. It would have been bad enough to die on the job, but to die at Hesse's hands would set Steve even further on the revenge trail.
"Chin and I ordered in for lunch," a grinning Danny announced. "You want me to add to the order?" Neither Steve nor Kono seemed to jump at it, causing the other two men to exchange puzzled, concerned looks. "I'll take that as a no."
"No, add us." "Sure, food's fine." Both responses, offered simultaneously, seemed without enthusiasm.
"I'm going to go wash up," Steve announced in a short, clipped tone, and Kono followed him out without a word.
Danny frowned, his lips pursed, his brow furrowed. He then turned to Chin, who wore a same look of suspicion on his face. Danny gestured after them, then flicked his hand back and forth in a display of confusion. "I am totally out of the loop on something."
"You and me both, brah," Chin murmured.
"You're fine. We got Victor Hesse booked," Danny said, counting off on his fingers. "Sang Min's gone, but we've got Hesse, so we should have gotten the money back, too. What's going on?"
Chin just looked past the glass doors through which his boss and his cousin had just gone. He had a sinking feeling that something else had gone terribly, terribly wrong. His cousin, while not an especially effusive person, was not normally this subdued, and Steve was especially abrupt.
The two remaining teammates retreated to their offices for a little, and when Danny exited to pick up the take-out, Chin followed. Both were coming back up the stairs with the food when they noticed that their teammates had returned, freshly scrubbed and changed. Danny frowned, holding up a hand.
The blinds in Steve's office windows had been drawn - odd for him. He'd forgotten one, however, and Danny and Chin quietly stepped into their bullpen, angling to get a good look through those blinds to watch the scene unfolding in Steve's office.
Steve was sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk, his head in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. Kono was sitting in one of the other chair, her legs drawn up against her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees protectively. At one point, Steve looked up, and they spoke quietly before both stood up. Kono nodded at something, her eyes downcast; Steve's stance belied his distress, with one hand on his hip as he rubbed his face with the other. He said something, and she looked up suddenly and replied. She then reached a hand out, gently rubbing his arm in a consoling motion. He drew her into a tight hug, both arms wrapped tightly around her, crossing at her back; she wrapped both arms up around his neck. He must have murmured something, because she then nodded against his shoulder, her ponytail bobbing a little as she did so. After a minute, he finally released her.
"I got a bad feeling," Danny murmured.
"You and me both, brah."
They pushed through the doors, making more noise than they needed to do to alert their teammates of their return. They sat down at the table, unpacking the bags of food.
The door to Steve's office opened, and their boss held it for Kono to go through first. Both men looked up as their two teammates approached, standing close together, as if protecting each other. They exchanged looks, and while Kono turned physically towards Chin and Danny, she did not meet their eyes, her gaze dropping to the tabletop. Steve appeared to be steeling himself for the conversation. "I've got a meeting with the governor in about an hour, but the circumstances - we...Kono and I need to tell you something."
Under normal circumstances, Chin would have expected a snarky comment from Danny. Under normal circumstances, Chin would have interpreted this comment in an entirely different fashion. Both men, however, did nothing; they just gazed steadily at the distressed pair before them.
The dark-haired man took a deep breath, and the rookie shifted ever so slightly towards him in support. "The ten million's gone," Steve said bluntly. "Burned."
end