The Beginning

By

Landon Richardson

Official Disclaimer

The character of Lieutenant Commander Steven 'Steve' McGarrett, Former Detective John 'Johnny / Jack' McGarrett, Detective Meka Hanamoa, Amy Hanamoa, Billy Hanamoa, Mary McGarrett, Doris McGarrett, Frederick 'Fred' Doran, Victor Hesse and Anton Hesse do not belong to me, I'm merely using them for entertainment purposes.

The character of Detective Sergeant Danielle ' Danni' Williams probably can be considered to be mine by now. Although she was originally based on male Danny, she soon evolved, becoming her own person. She has her own background, her own family, her own history and her own distinct personality. This isn't to say that the Danny Williams we all know and love is completely gone, he still emerges through her at times. I like to think of female Danni as what male Danny could have been like if everything in his life had gone the way he wanted. As in full custody of Grace and a decent relationship with his ex.

The character of Grace has also changed slightly due to the change in Danni. Her surname is Taylor as this is her father's surname and was Danni's married name (Danni reverted back to using her maiden name once her divorce had gone through). Her parents also are amiable which has also impacted Grace but never fear, she's still the sweetheart we know and love, if anything she's even more of a sweetheart now.

The characters of Duncan Taylor, Danni's ex-husband and Grace's father, Captain Kai Hookano, Detective Rory Clements, Detective Bryan Keawe, Detective Russell Kaiwi, Detective Oscar Alika, Lieutenant Aaron Akuna, Barbara Dunn, Special Agent Walker Humphries, Chief Medical Examiner Abigail 'Abbie' FitzGerald and Wanda Clarke however do belong to me so please do not use without permission.

Thank you.

Author note

Welcome to Chapter two of 'The Beginning'

Thank you to everyone who read the last chapter and reviewed or followed of made it into a favourite. I really appreciate it, especially as I know that a story such as this one isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. I am enjoying writing it though I must admit that turning male Danny, who is a character I truly love, into a female has been a great deal more challenging then I had initially assumed it would be. I think however, it will be worth it in the end.

It is likely that this will be the first story in an ongoing saga but we shall see. I have plenty of ideas and ways I want to fix the series which I want to explore and a saga like this would give me the opportunity to do so.

This chapter is obviously the chapter where Steve and Danni come face to face with one another for the first time. I've made a few changes to the scene but it should still be easily recognisable to fans of the original pilot episode.

The story itself is set on the 23rd September, this was the date which made the most sense to me since we know from the gravestone shown in a future episodes that Steve's Dad was murdered on the 20th September. This date would give Steve time to be picked up, debriefed on the operation and flown over to Hawaii to deal with matters there.

I've placed the date of John's funeral as the 23rd as well though in this story I have Steve arriving on the island on the day on the 22nd September which gives him time to meet the Governor and finish the last arrangements for his father's funeral. He has literally finished at the wake, gone back to the hotel room he's renting, changed out of his uniform and headed straight over to his father's house.

It's a strange feeling for me to be writing Steve and Danni in this way because it's so clear to me as the author to see just how much Steve managed to get underneath Danni's skin, which as the story and the saga progresses, you, the reader, will see just how rare it is to manage. Female Danni is a great deal calmer and steadier in personality than her male counterpart, something which I place down to having full custody of Grace so seeing her react to him is intriguing to me.

I've also have stated that Steve was fifteen years old when he was sent away from Hawaii by John. This is based on two facts, one that according to the wiki pages and the show, Steve was born on the 10th March 1977 and secondly that Doris apparently died in April 1992, if this was the case then Steve would have just turned fifteen. I've put down in my own personal timeline that Steve and Mary were shipped out on the 1st May 1992 and that Mary was born in February 1980 making her twelve at the time. Obviously I might be wrong but it's what I'm going for.

I have also made mention of John's family in this chapter. This is obviously not the same family which is mentioned ever so briefly in the main series, though in my defence when I wrote this we had no idea about John's family, after much internal debate with myself I decided to keep the family I had created even after we found out more from the show, mainly because the family are so important in the saga I'm creating. As this is already technically an A/U I decided that it wouldn't matter if I made a few more changed.

Anyway, enough from me, please enjoy.

Official story summary

When Danni Williams moves to Hawaii, all she wants to do is to keep her head down and survive the time she has to stay there. The last thing which she expected was to meet Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, a man who seemed more intent on getting her blown up and finding out everything about her life then he was about following proper police procedure. Danni has a job to do though and one way or another she is going to do it.

Chapter Summary

Danni has an encounter which will change the course of her life even if she doesn't realise it at that point.

Official Romances mentioned in the story

Detective Meka Hanamoa / Amy Hanamoa (Mekmy)

Michael 'Mike / Mikey' Landon / Carys 'Rys' Landon (Mirys)

Mentions of past Duncan Taylor / Danielle 'Danni' Williams (Dunni)

Mentions of past John 'Jack / Johnny' McGarrett / Doris McGarrett (Joris)

Hints of Steven 'Steve' McGarrett / Danielle 'Danni' William (McDanni)

Hints of Steven 'Steve' McGarrett / Catherine 'Cath / Cat' Rollins (McRollins)

Hints of Ryan Moore / Danielle ' Danni' Williams (Rynni)

Romances mentioned in this chapter

Mentions of past Duncan Taylor / Danielle 'Danni' Williams (Dunni)

Mentions of past John 'Jack / Johnny' McGarrett / Doris McGarrett (Joris)

Warning

This story features a female Danni Williams in place of a male Danny Williams. Although in some of the stories which I publish, male Danny does exist, this is a story where he does not.

If this is not your cup of tea then please hit the back button.

Secondary Disclaimer

I do not have a Beta so please forgive any mistakes which may creep into this story, I always do my best to edit the story and to double check it before uploaded one of my works but sometimes mistakes do creep in, this might also include me accidentally using an English word in place of an American word as my brain, being English, doesn't always pick up on it being incorrect.

The places which I have mentioned are either made up or have been obtained from google including any areas or addresses. One day I hope to go to Hawaii in person but until then I'll have to make so with using my imaginations to build the places in my mind.

Saga

Part one of the Rewrite Saga

Chapter Two

Face to face for the first time

Thursday 23rd September 2010

The McGarrett Family Home

2727 Piikoi Street

Honolulu

Oahu

State of Hawaii

Danni hit the indicator, glancing to her left and to her right before she twisted the steering wheel sharply in her hands, pulling the borrow car into the McGarrett's empty driveway and killed the engine, extracting the keys out of the ignition with a sigh.

For a moment she allowed herself to simply sit in the driver's seat, her eyes closed as she savoured the first real sense of peace and quiet which she had experience since stepping foot in the Detective bullpen in the HPD headquarters. For some reason the room, which was normally so quiet in the mornings, had been rammed with various Detectives making it hard for her to give the McGarrett case her full, undivided attention.

It wasn't that she was against talking as a general rule, she knew better than most people how important it was for people in their line of work to have an outlet, not just for stress but to bounce ideas about their various cases off of.

What she did have a problem with was having to listen to the barely concealed conversation about her which were happening close to her. If it wasn't some snide, bitter comment about the way she chose to work then it was a lewd remark about how great her ass and breasts looked in her dress that morning.

She longed to be able to get up out of her chair like she would have done in New Jersey and react, giving the culprits a tongue lashing which none of them would forget in a hurry but experience had taught her that it would do little good here in Hawaii. If she reacted to what they were doing then they would know that it bothered her and simply continue to do it in hopes of being able to draw another reaction out of her.

The only real option which Danni had was to keep quiet and to keep her head down, acting as though she couldn't hear any of what they were saying to her.

Being able to use the excuse of going over to the McGarrett family house to have a second look around the property had been a blessing in disguise for her, though she had to admit that anything which would have gotten her out of the bullpen that morning would have had her undying gratitude.

Breathing out loudly, she opened her eyes and began gathering her belongings together from the passenger seat beside her, dropping her keys into her bag before she pushed the driver's door open and stepped out onto the gravelled driveway. Her nose wrinkling up as a wave of heat and humidity hit her like a sharp slap to the face, stepping to the side, she closed the door and waited to hear the sound of the door automatically locking behind her before she shifted her attention over to the two storied house in front of her.

The first thing which struck her was the quiet atmosphere which seemed to surround the place. She could hear the individual sounds of her own breathing and the gravel crunching beneath her as she shifted her weight slightly. The leaves on the surrounding trees and bushes rustled softly in the breeze, making her smile to herself.

Looking around her there was no sign of anything which had occurred at the property three days previously, it all looked remarkably normal.

Reaching up Danni absently hooked a curl of hair which had managed to escape her hairstyle, behind her ear and tilted her head to the side as she scanned the surrounding area to ensure that she was alone. Even after six month of living in Oahu, she still hadn't managed to shift her mind away from the New Jersey mentality of believing that there were Paparazzi lingering everywhere trying to get the winning shot, especially since John McGarrett had been considered to be a local hero if the reaction to his death had been any indication for her to go by.

Once she was satisfied that she was alone, Danni turned back to the house, her eyes narrowing as she stared up at the place, trying to view it as though she was looking at the place for the first time.

It was a surprisingly lovely house, two storied and fairly large though it somehow managed to retain a cosy feeling to it. There was enough space that the owner would be able to have several people around at once without any fear that they would trample over each other but at the same time she doubted that if someone was there alone, that they would feel overwhelmed.

As she stared up at it she was struck by a feeling which she couldn't explain. It felt almost as if the house was giving off an aura of sadness, perhaps reflecting the personality of its previous owner. The idea of an old woman, slightly out of her prime while still trying to hold on desperate to her former glamour and beauty hit her.

That was what the house reminded her of.

Danni's eyes moved across the exterior taking in the shabby white paint which was already beginning to peel away from the walls. It was a job which would be easy enough to remedy and could be completely within a weekend if someone felt the urge to do it. Add some weather proofing to protect that new paintwork from the sudden, violent downpours which Hawaii seemed to experience on a regular basis and the house would be back to a reasonable level of cosmetic beauty which would make it pleasant to look at.

The sad thing was that the simple job would probably remain undone and the house would instead fall into a bigger state of disrepair like so many other houses on the island which she had spotted since moving there, houses which were tucked away, almost out of sight, from the main roads and living areas. Oahu was a small island compared to most places and it never seemed to take long for any news, especially bad news to travel across it.

Danni would have been surprised if by now, there was a single person who lived on the island who still had no idea exactly what happened to John McGarrett within the supposed safety of his home. Hell, the people on the island probably even knew the details which Danni and Meka had purposely kept out of the official press release.

The house had been tainted by what had happened there and as a result she high doubted that it would be able to attract a buyer if McGarrett's son and daughter decided to cut their losses and place the house on the market.

The local population were notorious for being spiritual and would be too nervous of encountering John McGarrett's restless spirit to purchase the place. The McGarrett siblings best hope of selling would be if a business man or woman were interested in the place as an investment but in Danni's humble opinion that was even more unlikely then a local buying it.

Why would a business man or woman want the added responsibility of buying a property on an island which was as expensive as Hawaii when they could merely check themselves into one of the many hotels which were on the island and have everything which they could possibly needed provided to them with nothing more then a simple phone call?

Danni blinked, shaking her head as she dragged her thoughts away from the fate of the McGarrett house and to the actual man who had lived there instead. Even though she had never met John McGarrett in person, she felt as though she knew him as though she had.

The people who she had interviewed had all told her similar things about the man, stating that he was a decent sort who had been kind and friendly to people and who had always been willing to listen to anyone and to step in and defuse any tense situation which might have popped up with a joke. They had mentioned that there had always seemed to be an aura of sadness to him as though he had a great weight of some kind crushing it but it was a sadness which made sense given his family history and what he had been through.

Danni twisted around, unzipping her bag and pulled out the McGarrett case file from within. She flipped it open to the first page, rereading his bio to refresh her memory on the victim's backstory.

A backstory which had started off simple and progressively became more complicated the older he seemed to get.

John McGarrett had been born in Hawaii in March 1942, the younger son of Steven and Jeanine McGarrett. His older brother William, according to the official records which she had dug up, had been born to the couple in January 1939. Things had seemed pretty normal for the small family right up until December 1941 when Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese, dragging America into the war. There, according to records, Steven McGarrett had died, having gone down with the USS Arizona leaving his wife alone with a small child of two and the prospect of being six months pregnant in a place where she had no close family or support network around her.

She had given birth to John and then packed up their belongings and moved back to Maryland where she had been raised and where her parents and some of her siblings had still lived as soon as the war had finished and began to rebuilt her shattered life with their support.

Somewhere along the line John's mother had met a man called Noah Landon, fallen head over heels in love with him and married him, going on to produce four children of their own. Twin girls who were called Anna and Theresa who had been born in April 1947, Deborah, who came along in late November 1950 and Michael who had rounded up the McGarrett-Landon family in August 1954.

John had gone through the normal schooling system before he had joined the Navy, fighting in the Korean war before he returned back to America and became an Officer of the law, eventually making his way through the ranks until he became a Homicide Detective.

He had married a woman called Doris Walker in November 1974 and moved back to the old family home in Oahu, the pair of them settling down together and producing two children. Steven who had been named after John's father and was known as Steve by most people who had been born in March 1977 and Mary Ann who had followed in February 1980.

The records on John after that point had been sparse, just a few wok recommendations which McGarrett had picked up along the way until April 1992 when Doris McGarrett, who was listed as being a Science high school teacher at the time, was killed in a car accident, her death ripping the family apart.

Her death seemed to change John McGarrett who had reacted to the tragedy by sending his two children to the mainland to live with his family. Mary had ended up in Los Angeles, living with Deborah and her two adopted sons Richard and Thomas while Steve had found himself living in Maryland with Michael and his family. John himself had chosen to remain in Hawaii and had apparently ceased to talk about his children to anyone, even those closest to him, always shutting down the subject the moment it was raised until people got the hint and stopped asking after them.

Added to the fact that John had apparently never mentioned that he actually came from a large family with several siblings seemed to indicate that there was some sort of rift between them all. The few times when she and Meka had mentioned John's brothers and sisters during their interviews had been met each time with a blank or confused stare and the comment that the person who they were speaking to had always assumed that John had been an only child and that the only Aunt and Uncle who Steve and Mary had were from his mother side of the family and even they were rarely mentioned and had certainly never come to visit.

As far as she and Meka could tell no one from the Mainland had flown out to visit John and his family producing a strange, overall picture, one which grew all the more stranger once she had known that John had sent his two children to his two youngest siblings to raise when he had appeared to have no real contact with either of them. She couldn't help but wonder whether John had even called his brother and sister to warn them that his children were already on their way or whether he had merely placed Steve and Mary, who were just fifteen and twelve at the time on a plane and then called to let them know what time the flight would arrive and to ask them to pick Mary up from LAX and Steve up from the airport in Maryland.

Somehow she had the feeling that it was the second option.

The knowledge of what he had done had surprised her but she had forced the thought away as something to look into at a later date when all their other leads had failed to pan out.

Still Danni hadn't been able to completely curb her curiosity about the unusual situation so she had rang Paul Matthews who had been a member of her squad back in New Jersey and who now worked for the Intelligence unit and had asked him to look into the fate of the two McGarrett children and to see whether either of them had ever actually returned to the island after their father had sent them away. The report had arrived quickly just like she had known it would and had been an surprisingly interesting read.

Mary had stayed in L.A, finishing up her High School with good marks though she had shunned the idea of going onto college, instead drifting through a variety of jobs which she only stayed in for a few months at most. There were a few petty counts of shop lifting on her record but nothing which had sent up any warning flags that the other woman had been involved in her father's death at all.

Steve on the other hand had seemed to thrive with his Uncle, graduating High school with impressive grades before he enrolled into Annapolis when he was only eighteen. He had graduated from there, first in his year and had gone onto become a SEAL. According to his highly redacted records he had been in that Unit for six years before transferring over to the Intelligence Unit where it appeared he was still stationed within.

There had been nothing in either of the records which had stated whether Steve or Mary had seen each other again once they had moved to the mainland. She only hoped for their sakes that Deborah and Michael were on speaking terms and friendly enough with one another that they had flown out to each other so they could spend time together and therefore allowing Steve and Mary to spend time with one another.

Danni couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose one of her parents only to then on top of that loss have to lose her siblings and her remaining parent as well.

The emotional damage that split must have done to both Steve and Mary who were both old enough at the time to know exactly what was going on didn't bear thinking about.

Whatever reasons John McGarrett had for sending his children away it must have resulted with him being lonely, living in the house which had once belonged to his parents and where he had raised his own family. Once upon a time the various rooms must have been filled with the sound of laughter and conversation, remove that and all John would have had left were the painful memories of what had once been.

For a moment Danni allowed herself to feel a brief sense of pity for the man and the life he had chosen for himself before she pushed it away, focusing her mind back on the task at hand. It was her job to solve his murder and to bring the killer into justice. It wasn't her job to dissect his life choices, even the choices which she couldn't understand like him sending his children away in a situation when most parents would have clung to their children, determined to keep them as close as they could. The fact that he hadn't done that indicated that either he was a man who wasn't suitable to be a father or something else had forced his hand into making that decision.

The only question was what that could have been.

"Focus on the task at hand Danielle." Danni murmured to herself as she slipped the file back into her bag and shouldered it. She glanced towards the front door, taking a step towards it when she stopped and instead turned to the right, walking towards the fraying yellow tape which still surrounded the property and begun slowly walking the route which it took. Her eyes moving over everything to see whether there was anything which was damaged or out of place but as far as she could see there was nothing, or rather that everything which she did see which looked unusual could be explained away by the amount of CSU agents and Uniformed Officers who had been on the scene on the first day.

Moments later she found herself back at the front of the house and headed up the garden path to the front door which she stopped in front of. She tried the handle, pleased to find the door resisted the move meaning that it was still locked from the last time they had been there when Danni had watched Meka lock it behind them. The last thing either of them needed was to deal with a scene which had been contaminated further.

Danni rummaged through her bag for a moment before pulling out an envelope which held the key to the property. She opened it, extracting the key from within and inserted it into the lock, turning it and opening the door. Pulling it back out, she entered the house looking around her with a thoughtful gaze.

It was cool inside which was a blessing considering the heat outside which had been steadily growing throughout the day but she could still detect the scent of dry blood in the air which caused her stomach to churn unpleasantly. Danni reached up with her hand, covering her nose and mouth briefly, closing her eyes to compose herself before she stopped her hand again and focused her attention on the job at hand. The McGarrett crime scene had hardly been the worse one which she had found herself at during her career and she highly doubted it would be the worst one in the future either.

She looked towards the living room, scanning it for a moment to see if anything jumped out at her before her eyes landed on the door which led to the are of the house where the murder had taken place.

John McGarrett's study.

Danni moved towards the closest chair and dropped her bag onto it, searching through it for a moment before she found what she was looking for and pulled out a pair of latex gloves which she always kept with her and her cell phone. She swiped her thumb across the screen and quickly selected the messages and fired off one to Meka and to Rory to let the both of them know where she currently was. It was something which they had started doing within a week of knowing both men, mainly because it was a system which Danni had used while she had been in New Jersey. Just a simple text to at least two fellow officers so that there was at least two people who knew exactly where she was while out in the field. It was a simple solution and backup in case anything happened to go wrong. It was especially important that day since she was running solo.

Satisfied Danni dropped her cell back into her bag and walked across the room towards the study, slipping on her gloves as she did. She stepped into the room, rolling her shoulders back before looking around her, her mind easily slipping into work mode.

The chair which John McGarrett had been tied to when he had been tortured and murdered was still situated in the centre of the room where Hesse had clearly dragged it over to. It had been a clever position with everything just slightly out of McGarrett's reach which must had added to his growing sense of despair. The old man had been tied up with rope tight enough to leave marks and to cut off his circulation. First his limbs would have descended into numbness which would have rendered his hands and his feet useless. He would have been able to move his head but that would have been it. He would have been completely defenceless against the vicious attack which had followed. Hesse had left the rope secured about John's hands and ankles when he had left and CSU had processed it once Doctor FitzGerald had given her say so but it had wielded no results. The only skin samples which they had gathered from it had belonged to the victim.

Danni moved towards the chair, touching the top of it lightly with her fingertips as she stared down at it with a thoughtful frown. She hunched down beside it, facing in the same way as John would have been placed so she could see what he would have been able to see in his final moments. The two predominate things which she could see was McGarrett's desk and the mantel piece over what appeared to a defunct fire place.

Danni stood back up and looked over at it, making her way across the room until she stood in front of the mantelpiece, her gaze fixed on the various pictures which were spread out randomly across the thin surface.

The majority of the pictures which she could see seemed to dated back to the eighties, maybe one or two from the very early nineties. They featured a pretty blond woman of average height who seemed to be sporting a perm, no doubt because it had been the fashion at the time. A small dark haired boy and dark haired girl joined her in the pictures, in different stages of growth. There were some more recent pictures of the two which told her that John had never forgotten his children even after he had sent them away, cementing the growing theory in her mind that something else had been going on in the man's life which wasn't documented anywhere.

There was an older picture featuring a young man in an uniform who was staring at the camera with a serious expression though Danni could detect a hint of a smile around his mouth which would fit in with the cheeky expression in his eyes which the camera had managed to capture. The photo must have been a picture of John McGarrett's father Steven taken before he had gone down with the Arizona.

Another photo looked to feature John McGarrett when he was probably about fourteen or fifteen on a beach no doubt on the mainland somewhere. The photo featured a young looking woman with dark hair and blue-hazel eyes who was sitting in deckchair on the sand wearing a big floppy hat protecting her pale skin who Danni was certain must have been John's mother Jeanine. The inclusion of an older looking boy of about seventeen or eighteen who must have been William and four younger children, three girls who looked as though they were nine and six and a small boy of about two who was being held by his mother who must have been Michael, told her that this was a picture of the McGarrett family which had probably been taken in 1956 or 1957. A picture which must have been taken by John's stepfather and one which seemed to show a happy family if the large grins on all their faces was any indication for her to go by.

Danni moved away from the mantelpiece, stopping next to the desk, her eyes sweeping over the surface casually, stopping on the discernible fingerprint. She frowned at it. There had been no mention in the initial report she had received of any fingerprints in the house other than John McGarrett's and none of the fingerprints which had been recorded had been on the desk. This was clearly something else.

Danni moved quickly back through the rooms, stopping beside the chair with her bag on it and reached into it, plucking out her cell phone before she headed back into the study and over to the desk. She snapped a couple of pictures of the fingerprints from different angles and messaged them directly over to Alexis Moss who was in charge of the small fingerprint section in CSU with an accompanying text asking her to run the fingerprint as a matter of urgency and to let her know what the result of it was once they were in.

She glanced up as her eyes landed on the wall behind the chair where the blood and some risdual brain matter, now darkened to the colour of rust, showed up visibly against the faded white paint. Even that would soon be gone after she or Meka made a call to the cleaning company who HPD tended to use at their crime scenes.

Shaking her head, Danni glanced down when her phone pinged at her to indicate that she had received a text. She read it quickly, a slight smile curling her mouth when she saw that it was a response from Alexis stating that the photos had been received and printed out and would be moved to the top of the pile for analysis, proving once again that the weeks which Danni had spent getting to know each and every member of the CSU teams on both the day and night shift had been well worth the effort though Meka had tried to warn her at the time that she would be wasting her time.

Not only did those friendships and connections help her when it came to how quickly they received information and results for their cases but it also left her with a group of people in her life who she genuinely liked and who she enjoyed spending time with.

She took a moment to fire of a quick thank you message, suggesting at the same time that they met soon for coffee or lunch before she placed her cell phone on the desk surface, her eyes drawn once more to the empty chair in the middle of the room.

There was no doubt in her mind that this murder had been extremely personal to Hesse. The damage which had been inflicted on John McGarrett's body had indicated that Hesse had spent at least two hours torturing the old man before he had finally killed him by shooting him directly in the face at point blank range, obliterating his features beyond recognition. Danni understood why Hesse had killed him but what she couldn't figure out was why he had chosen to torture John McGarrett for such a long period of time.

It made little sense to her.

If their theory was correct and this death was directly related to John's son then John McGarrett had not been the man who Hesse had wanted, that would have been the son. It was Steve McGarrett who had Hesse's younger brother in his custody but Hesse hadn't gone for Steve, he had gone directly for John. Hesse must have spent weeks scoping the McGarrett home out or at least he had paid someone to do the job on his behalf which meant that he was looking into John long before John's son had Victor's brother in custody.

That also led to the simple question of why Hesse had chosen John McGarrett as the victim in the first place?

If the whole point of it had been to cause the maximum amount of suffering and pain to Steve McGarrett then why pick the one target in his life who, as far as she could tell, hadn't seen Steve since he was fifteen years old and placed on a plane to Maryland. If Hesse had really wanted to damage the younger McGarrett then the best targets would have been his Uncle or his Aunt or his four cousins who he had lived with since they had been the ones who had taken him in at fifteen and treated him as one of their own.

The whole situation made her head spin.

Danni knew of two reasons why someone would take the chance to torture someone at an unsecured location. The first one was if the mission and the information you were after, overrode your own safety, The second was because the person who was inflicting the torture in the first place was sadistic, taking pleasure in hurting others and making them suffer as much as humanely possible. It was like a drug to their system which overcame all their instincts of self-preservation

Had Hesse done this under some misguided belief that because John McGarrett was Steve's father that they had a close relationship with one another? Had he thought that there had been a chance that Steve had revealed something to his father which Hesse had wanted to know or was all of this simply the result of Victor's Hesse's desire to make Steve McGarrett suffer as much as he could by making him listen over the phoneline to the death of his father and the knowledge forever burned into his brain that there had been nothing which he could do to prevent it from happening?

She could only pray for the Commander's sake that the exact details of what had been done to his father was never fully revealed to him.

Either reason behind Hesse's choice to kill John McGarrett sent a chill down her spine.

She knew that John must have known that he wouldn't be getting up out of that chair again even if the Commander had complied with whatever request it was which Hesse had made of him. John would have realised from the moment Hesse had forced himself into his home that morning, beating him until he couldn't stand and then tied him to the chair that he was going to die that day. The old man would have sat there after being tortured, unable to move properly, bleeding from his various wounds and probably barely conscious, having to listen to his only son being mentally and emotionally abused over the phone and know there was nothing which he could do about it.

If Hesse had been attempting to break John McGarrett's spirit before killing him then he had certainly gone the right way about it to make it happen and yet, from what Danni could tell, his plan had failed rather spectacularly in that aspect because John McGarrett hadn't broken. Instead he had spent the last moments of his life convincing Hesse that he could help him get what he wanted if he let him speak to his son only to then take that time to warn the Commander not to do whatever it was that Hesse wanted him to do even though he must have known, even as he uttered the words, that he had signed his own death warrant with them.

It was a form of bravery which she had only come across a few times in the past and one which struck a chord in her.

Danni had been a cop for ten years, her first year on the streets of New Jersey had her walking the beat with Sergeant Pittman who had been twice her age, had smoked like a chimney and was still one of the best people who she had met. He had taken one look at her and had taken her under his wing, teaching her more about people and how to read them and the situations which they found themselves then she had learnt in the previous twenty one years. She had spent a year with him before being taken from the streets.

Danni had worked in both vice and narcotics, doing jobs which she still couldn't think back on without feeling a desire to shudder. She had been lucky, coming swiftly to the attention of Captain Robert Gregory who had arrived from Philadelphia to take over the job of Captain of the Detectives. He had read the latest report which she had submitted on a joint case and snapped her up for Homicide where she had proceeded to thrive. She had earned her Detective badge by the time she was twenty five having completed her Master degree and had swiftly shown her worth to the department, being rewarded at the age of twenty nine with a team of her own which had focused on working on the hardest cases which came through the department.

Danni had always been talented when it came to reading people and the year long training which Sergeant Pittman had given her had cemented it until it was second nature for her, making her the equivalent of a human lie detector. She had seen the worst of humanity and she had seen the best of it as well and the sacrifice which John McGarrett had made so he could warn his son, demanded her respect and she would show it the only way she could.

By bringing the man who had killed him in for justice.

There was no way in hell that Danni was going to allow him to escape her. She would hunt down the son of a bitch and make him pay for what he had done to John McGarrett. She might not have known the victim personally or ever met him but Meka had, having already been on the force as first an Officer and then as a rookie detective when the elder McGarrett had been one of the senior Detectives in the department. Danni could still picture the look of shock, mingling with horror which had come to Meka's face when the Captain had arrived at their desk with the file and told them who had been murdered. It was a look which Danni hoped that she would never see on her partner's face again.

Just how many times had Hesse done this to in the past?

Just how many people had he killed?

How many people had he broken by making them listen to their loves ones die or had Steve McGarrett been an one off in that aspect?

All these thoughts swirled around her mind until they crystallised in one plan.

She would find Hesse and she would lock him behind bars for the rest of his miserable life. She would make it her personal mission to make sure that he never saw the light of day again so that no one could be hurt again like John McGarrett had been.

Danni's body suddenly tensed as her head whipped around, her eyes narrowing as she listened carefully, her ears picking up on the faint sound of a muffled voice coming from somewhere nearby.

A sound which told her that there was someone else who was in the house with her.

She moved into the living room and over to the chair where she had dumped her bag, reaching and pulling out her loaded gun before she moved quickly through the house, following the sound. She stopped outside the kitchen door, pressing her head against the cool wood and listened carefully before slowly opening the door and stepping into the empty room. She glanced around her quickly before moving across the floor and stopping outside the pantry door. She listened again before opening that door, her eyes landing on the door which she knew from the layout of the house would lead her to the garage.

The same place where the voice was coming from.

Danni hesitated for a moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep, steadying breath, saying a silent prayer before she brought her leg back, locking her feelings and emotions away as she kicked the door open and moved swiftly into the garage, her gun held straight in front of her, pointed at the intruder, directly over his chest where she knew his heart would be beating.

Her eyes flickered over the room, noting instantly that the two of them were the only people in the room before her gaze flashed back to the man, taking in as much details about him as she could. He was tall, probably around six foot one, perhaps six foot two at a push and was clearly in great shape if his athletic frame and muscles were any indication to go by. She noticed that his hands were large and slim and were currently wrapped around a gun which was pointed at her. She forced herself to ignore that fact as she spoke, her voice coming out icy and steady.

"You, place your gun on the floor and slowly put your hand behind your head." She instructed.

"Who the hell are you?" The man demanded, speaking over her and ignoring her instructions as though she had remained silent. Eyes which were a mixture of blue and hazel narrowed at her, moving over her face with a deadly expression in them which made the blood in her veins freeze, her mind jumped to Grace, picturing her daughter's smile as she wondered whether she had left everything in order for her in case the worst happened.

There was no doubt in her mind that the man in front of her was a professional, who had taken more than his fair share of human life.

She could feeling something niggling at her from the back of her mind, something which was telling her that she had seen the man in front of her somewhere before but she couldn't place where from.

"Who the hell am I?" She retorted, pushing the feeling away as her own eyes narrowed at him, her mind switching effortlessly into fight mode determined to do whatever it took for her to get out of that garage alive so she could see Grace again. She looked around her quickly, taking in everything which she could use to increase her chances of surviving this encounter. Keeping him off balance and talking would be one of them, giving her a chance to figure out a plan. "I think the more important question here fella is who the hell are you and what are you doing here? In case you haven't realised this is a crime scene." She told him as she straightened her spine, thankful for the fact that she was in her heels, giving her a much needed boost of height.

"I asked you the question first." The man responded coldly. Danni's hand tightened on her gun, her index finger resting on the trigger. She could get a shot off and dive behind the car before he could return fire if she timed everything perfectly. The car would shield her and give her cover to shoot at him from if the situation descended into that.

"I'm Detective Danni Williams with HPD and you have exactly three seconds to tell me who you are and what you're doing here at my crime scene. I'm not going to ask you again." She stated, she thought she saw a quick flash of surprise come to his eyes at her announcement but it was gone, leaving behind a cold blankness before she could be sure that she had seen it.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett and this is my father's house." He said after a long pause. The answer caused Danni to blink, her mouth parting slightly in surprise. Out of everything she thought he might say to her, telling her that he was the son of her murder victim hadn't been one of them.

"So that's why you look so familiar to me, because of the photographs." She said with a shake of her head, thinking back to the mantelpiece in the study.

"Photographs?" He demanded attracting her attention back to him. She nodded at him before focusing her thoughts again, ignoring his question.

"If you're Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett then you wouldn't mind putting your gun down and showing me your military ID to back up your claim will you." She ordered making sure the tone of her voice made it clear that she was making a statement rather than a request.

"How about you show me your police ID and badge first to prove to me that you're who you claim to be." He retorted causing Danni to glare at him in frustration.

"All we're doing here is going around in circles." She pointed out to him. "I'm the one with the jurisdiction here Commander so just show me your ID already so we can both move on."

"You don't have any jurisdiction here until you can prove to me that you are who you claim to be and the best way you can prove that is by showing me your ID and your badge. It shouldn't be a problem if you are who you say you are." McGarrett answered her sounding as frustrated as she felt with the situation. He looked as though he was a step away from moving towards her and giving her a shake, something she almost wished he would do just so she could have the excuse to arrest him. He spoke, attracting her attention again. "How about I make this easy on you. I'm not going to place my gun down until you prove to me that you're actually Detective Williams and not someone trying to imitate them. For all I know Detective Danny Williams is really a man which you are clearly not."

"Of course because the nickname Danni couldn't possible be short for Danielle could it." She scoffed back, rolling her eyes at him before she forced herself back to the issues at hand. "Let me make things easy on you as well. I'm not putting my gun down until you prove to me that you've Lieutenant Commander McGarrett after all for all I know you could simply be someone who is imitating him." She stated, throwing his own words back at him. "Clearly what we have here is a deadlock so by all means let us both just stand here for the rest of the day and point our guns at each other and wait to see who gets bored or tired first. I mean it's not like I have anything else to do with my day." She stated, forcing a thoughtful expression onto her face as she continued. "Oh wait, I do because I'm in the middle of trying to hunt down the man who killed John McGarrett so do us both a favour and just get your ID out and show it to me. That's all I need from you, I'm not asking you to sacrifice your first born child to me or anything." She told him calmly.

For a split second he stared at her, an expression on his face which seemed a cross between disbelief and confusion before the same constipated look came back to his face causing her to sigh silently as she came to the conclusion in her mind that the man in front of her had to be one of the most pig headed and stubborn men she had ever met in her life.

"Use your free hand and slowly take out your ID from wherever it is that you're storing it and show it you me. I can promise you lady that you're going to get tired of holding that gun up long before I do so you may as well make it easy on yourself." He stated.

Danni raised her eyebrow up at the patronising, commanding tone he used against her.

Clearly the man in front of her was a man who was used to giving orders to people and to have them drop everything they were doing at the time to complete what he wanted. There was only a small handful of people who Danni would consider obeying without question and none of them were currently on the island she was on. There was no way that she was going to obey a stranger just because he clearly expected her to. It had never been her style and she wasn't going to start letting it be now.

"Please after you, I insist." Danni replied mildly, taking one hand off her gun for a second so she could wave it in his direction before she grasped the butt of her weapon again, keeping it steady.

"You know I'm all for equal rights so how about we show each other at the same time? Would that please you enough to show me." He suggested, the comment causing her eyes to widen at him before she let her expression fall into the natural thoughtful look she often one. One which she had been told time and time again by Meka was almost impossible to read what she was really thinking.

"So we do it at the same time then." She said, breathing out slowly when he nodded his head at her.

"That was what I said." He pointed out.

"Shall we count to three or would you rather we just whip then out right now?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow, ignoring his comment again.

"Sure we can count to three if you want. It's as good a number as any other number." He replied, shifting slightly on his feet. It was the first movement which Danni had seen him make since he had swung around to confront her.

"Three it is then." She stated. "So just to clarify, on the count of three we show each other our IDs and badges." She waited until he nodded at her before speaking. "One" She began, taking one hand off of her gun again and reaching up for the cord which she wore around her neck which her Detective Badge was attached to.

"Two" The man continued, his own hand moving towards one of the numerous pockets on the dark cargo pants which he was wearing.

"Three" Danni finished, pulling the cord over her head and holding up her badge to the side of her face, her own eyes focused on the military ID badge which he was holding up for her, scanning it carefully as her mind ran through all of the key tells which would state that the ID he was showing her was forged but there were none meaning that either it was one of the best forgeries which she had seen or it was in fact real and the man who was standing in front of her was truly Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett.

The same man who she and Meka had been trying to contact for the past three days.

Danni lowered her gun from him slowly, absently placing the cord back around her neck. She kept her gaze one him, taking him in properly now that he didn't have his gun pointed at her.

He was a good looking man, incredibly so if she was being honest with herself, with smooth sun tanned skin which was broken only by the dark scruff adorning his jaw and cheeks, strong even features and big, heavily lashed blue-hazel eyes which were staring back at her with a half puzzled, half frustrated look as though he was trying to figure her out and failing miserably at it. Dark brown hair which appeared to have the smallest hint of a wave to it was cropped close to his skull in a military style which suited him, bringing more attention to his features.

She swallowed, forcing herself to look away from him for a second to compose herself as she mentally reminded herself that she had a job to do and that Commander McGarrett wasn't the first good looking man she had come across in her line of work even if he was the first one to check off every weakness which she had when it came to the opposite sex.

"Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett" She said on a sigh, her voice going back to its usual quiet tone as she gave the garage another close look. This had been the one room during her initial visit three days ago which she hadn't explored properly, the most she had done was give the room a cursory glance before heading out back into the main house.

"Detective Danielle Williams." He responded, she glanced towards him, speaking before she could help herself.

"It's Danni." She stated, meeting his eyes when he looked at her closely before he nodded.

"Danni" He repeated, the sound of him saying her name causing a pleasant shiver to pass over her.

She blinked, surprised by the reaction as she glanced away from him and bringing the conversation onto a more neutral ground.

"You're a difficult man to locate Commander, my partner and I have been trying to contact you for the past three days though we've had no luck with that." She told him.

"Who did you speak to?" He asked her with a frown

"It was someone called Commander Barclay" She answered, raising an eyebrow at the pissed off look which came to his face at the name. Clearly there was some sort of history between the two men, bad history if the expression was any indication for Danni to go by. "I'm sorry for the loss of your father Commander." She said quietly. "I can't even pretend to imagine how you must feel right now or what you and your sister are going through but be rest assured that my partner and I are doing everything which we can do to bring the man responsible for his death in." she promised.

"Thank you." He responded, sounding almost surprised though whether it was at her or himself she wasn't sure.

"I know that you're a military man which means that you must have come across some military police in your time and the way they tend to run things which means that you are already aware that you can't be in this house right now. The yellow tape around the perimeter is normally a giveaway for that. This crime scene is still considered active, as soon as it no longer is then either my partner or I will contact you and …" She stopped when he cut across her.

"Really Detective? Because looking around me this crime scene doesn't exactly look active does it. I'm pretty positive that the only two people here at this active scene are both in this room right now." He told her, waving his arm around him, his eyes fixed on hers, they were narrowed again, though this time she was left with the impression that he was narrowing them in thought rather than in anger like before. "Why have you and your partner been trying to contact me?"

"I've been trying to contact you because I want to discuss your debriefing with you." She replied, titling her head to one side as she stared back at him. "You know this crime scene was locked down, how exactly did you find your way in here when I was the only one with a key to the property?" She asked him.

He blinked at her as though surprised by the comment before he nodded his head towards the door behind her.

"I had a key to the front door from when I still lived here as a kid, my Dad clearly never bothered to change the locks." He explained with a shrug as though the answer should have been an obvious one to her. His eyes moved over her face thoughtfully before he spoke again, a brisk tone to his voice which had been lacking before. "So, you said that you wanted to discuss my debriefing with me, I'm assuming that is still the case?" He said, waiting until she nodded at him before he continued, slipping his gun back into the waistline of his cargo pants, his eyes never leaving her face once. "My CO told me that he would be sending a copy of it to the lead Detectives on my father's case which I'm assuming is you and the partner who you keep mentioned so I'll make a deal with you Detective. I'll sit down with you and discuss my debriefing for as long as you want if you in turn tell me everything which has been happening with my father's investigation over the past three days. I think that is a pretty fair trade don't you? We both end up getting what we need and want from the meeting."

"That's not how it works Commander." Danni responded firmly. "You know that I can't share any information with you on an active, ongoing case regardless of your connection to the victim. We do need to discuss your debriefing but it can wait until first thing tomorrow morning. I can either come and meet you somewhere or you can come into the Police Precinct for it, whichever option makes you feel more comfortable"

"Why wait until tomorrow to speak to me, if you've been trying to reach me for the past three days like you say you have been then why not make the most of having me here, right in front of you, and ask me what you need to know. A question for you and a question for me." He replied with a frown.

"It can wait until tomorrow morning because I know that you buried your father this morning Commander." She told him softly, catching the flinch which he almost successfully hid from her. "You need time to reflect and to absorb what you just had to do. My questions can wait until tomorrow to give you time to do that." She said steadily.

"Most people would still demand answers despite that, I probably would if I was in your shoes." McGarrett remarked, his frown growing.

"Well, I'm not most people." She responded simply.

McGarrett stood still for a moment, an unreadable look in his eyes which left her with the feeling that he was trying to burrow his way inside of her head so he could read her thoughts.

"Victor Hesse wasn't alone in this house when he murdered my father Detective, did you know that?" He demanded, reaching up and running his hand through his dark hair. "There was someone else who was here with him when he was here. There was a space on the surface of his desk in the study where a laptop was set up, a thirteen inch one I would say and it wouldn't have belonged to my old man because he hated computers with a passion. He would never have kept one in his house full stop, especially not anything which was new or up to date. The only reason he even got himself a cell phone was so he could make his yearly Christmas phone call to me and my sister." He stated, an undercurrent to his voice which Danni picked up on but couldn't quite identify.

She glanced over her shoulder towards the garage door before she looked back, her eyes dropping to the ground, moving rapidly from side to side as the final pieces of the puzzle which had been eluding her slipped into place leaving her with a clear, concise picture of what had happened at the McGarrett house three days ago.

It made sense for there to be someone who had been there helping Hesse through the attack, someone who could very easily have been the one who had been tracking John McGarrett's movement and building up his schedule.

The elder McGarrett was a former Detective who according to the people who knew him best, had kept fit and healthy throughout his retirement by going for daily runs and even entering and completing marathons. Regardless of his advancing years he still would have been difficult for someone to subdue alone. Add the fact that it would have taken time to set up the equipment for what he was planning, time which she knew he had spent torturing the older man meant that help was a must. Hesse must have been taunting McGarrett over the phone so that his accomplice would trace the call and find their position before calling in the attack which had decimated the convoy which McGarrett had been travelling with. Danni doubted that McGarrett would have had a disposal phone on him. Why would he need one after all since the only people who had his number was probably family members and people who he trusted.

She brought her eyes up, blinking when she realised that he was watching her again with the same thoughtful look as before when something else clicked in her mind, something which made sense in her mind.

"You contaminated the crime scene." She said coolly, her eyes dropping to his hand which were bare. "The fingerprint which was on the surface to the desk, that was you right?"

He shrugged at her.

"If the CSU team had done their job properly in the first place then they wouldn't have missed it the first time around. It makes me question what else they've missed Detective." He stated, anger coming over his face.

"You need to leave this property now." She told him calmly, using her gun to point towards the door which she had come through. "This is an active crime scene and you don't belong here at present. As I stated, I'll speak to you about your debrief tomorrow but until then keep away from this case." She remarked, making a mental note to bring a fingerprint kit with her tomorrow so she could fingerprint him just in case the CSU team decided to make another sweep of the place.

He looked furious for a moment before the expression suddenly eased away placing her on guard. She watched as he shrugged at her, the movement surprisingly elegant before he twisted around and picked up an old, rusty looking, red tool box from the side.

"Whatever you say Detective, you are the one who is in charge of this active crime scene after all. I'll be at your desk tomorrow by nine, make sure that you're there, I'm sure you can understand that I have a lot to do while I'm here." He told her, taking a step towards her and the exit.

Danni ignored the comment, her eyes flickering past him to the side where the tool box had been and spoke.

"Leave the tool box behind as you go Commander." She told him coldly, shifting her body so she was directly blocking him from the exit. The move seemed to surprise him if the tilt of his head was an indication. Clearly he had thought that she would just let him leave and take whatever he wanted with him.

"What this?" He said, lifting the box so she could see it clearly. "I came with this box when I arrived, something which you would know if you had actually been working the scene when I got there. This tool box belongs to me and I'm taking it with me."

"Yes and no." She responded with a shrug. "Yes, the tool box probably does belong to you unless your father has willed it to someone else but no you're not taking it out of here because I know for a fact that you're lying to me." She commented, moving towards where he was standing and slipping past him, coming to a stop next to the counter and turning to face him. For a moment she thought he may try and make a break for it but instead he twisted around so he was facing her.

"Look Detective, I…" He began to say stopping when she cut across him.

"You might be wondering how I know that you didn't come with the box and it's a reasonable question so I'll tell you why in two simple reason, the first reason is this." She said pointed with her gloved finger to the area where the tool box had stood. "This Commander McGarrett is what is known as a dust void, dust voids can only occur when an object which has been sitting somewhere for a while is suddenly moved. If you had brought that took box with you and casually placed it on the side then this void right here wouldn't have existed." She remarked,

"And your second reason?" McGarrett asked after a slight pause.

"I was here three days ago and I saw that tool box sitting on that counter top. You weren't here three days ago so it would be impossible for you to have brought it with you. I doubt you've stepped foot on the island for years before now." She said softly, a gentle note slipping into her voice. "That means that the tool box you've currently holding was here at the time your father was murdered which makes it evidence. A piece of evidence can only be moved by someone who is actively working on the case and the last time that I checked that list didn't include you Commander which means you need to place the box back where you found it. I'll take your fingerprints tomorrow so I can supply it to CSU so they can eliminate you as a suspect since your fingerprints are no doubt all around the house now." She tilted her head to the side looking back at the box before looking back at his face, a spark of curiosity erupting. "What is it about the box which makes it important to you?"

"I would rather know how long you've actually been a Detective with the Honolulu PD or better yet how long you've been qualified as a Detective for full stop. A year? A couple of months? Is this actually your first real case?" He responded.

Danni raised and eyebrow at the sudden attack.

"What has my resume got to do with the question which I asked you?" She countered, fighting the sudden urge to shake him. There was no doubt in her mind that Commander McGarrett was one of the most frustrating men she had met since stepping foot on Hawaii and she had met her fair share of them. "Tell me, are you Barbara Walters in disguise or something because if you are then I would love to get some autographs from you, my Mom and my Aunt are both big fans of yours and would be thrilled to receive them in the post." She stated, unable to keep the sarcasm from melting into her voice.

"Your resume has everything to do with it when you're the lead Detective who has been investigating my father's murder." He snapped back at her, his eyes moving up and down her before they met her gaze, a look of anger in them. She met the gaze steadily, remaining silent for a moment as she mutely reminded herself that the Commander had just lost his father in the worst possible circumstances and was now standing in the place where it had happened.

That would be enough to shake anyone up.

"I can assure you Commander McGarrett that your father's case is not my first case as a Detective or the first Homicide investigation which I have run." She told him simply. "I promise you that you that my partner and I are doing everything we can to bring the man who did this in. But you, taking evidence from the scene for whatever reason you may have, is stopping me from doing my job because instead of focusing my attention on the case I'm instead having to focus it on you. You more than anyone should know that every second I give Hesse is another second he has to plan and escape." She said, catching a flash of something in his eyes before it dispersed.

For a moment she had thought she had gotten through to him but his next words made it clear to her that she hadn't.

"In that case let me get out of your hair Detective Williams, that way you won't have to worry about me keeping you from doing your job. I would hate to do that after all." He said sarcastically, turning from her and moving towards the door again, the tool box still in his hand.

Danni's hand curled into a fist, her patience stretched to the limit as she spoke.

"Take that tool box out of this room Commander McGarrett and I'll arrest you for tampering with evidence during an ongoing investigation and obstruction." She told him coldly, her voice stopping him in his tracks. He looked back at her over his shoulder, his eyes dropping to her fist before he looked back at her face.

"Oh?" He said. "Are you going to call for some back up to give you a hand with that?" He asked, sounding almost curious.

Danni met his eyes directly.

"I won't need any back up, if you carry on testing me then the only call I'll be making is for an ambulance for you." She replied seriously, watching as he did a double take at her.

"What?" He said, drawing out the word.

"You heard what I said Commander." She replied. "Place the box down, I don't want to arrest you giving the circumstances but I will if the need comes to it. Don't push my hand in this." McGarrett stared at her as though he was seeing her for the first time, a calculated look on his face as he lifted the tool box and slowly placed it on the old black car which was partially covered by a faded woollen blanket. Danni silently let the breathe she was holding and spoke, ignoring the fact she felt surprisingly drained. "Thank you." She stated.

"I wouldn't be so quick to thank me yet Detective Williams." McGarrett answered.

Danni watched thoughtfully, ignoring her growing sense of unease as McGarrett reached into one of his pockets and pulled out his cell phone and a business card which looked as though it had seen better days. He glanced at the back of the card at the number written there and typed it into his phone, hitting down on the connect button, his gaze meeting hers with a barely concealed triumphant expression which did nothing to calm her sense of unease.

She found herself wondering who he was calling.

Was it his Commanding Officer or Captain Hookano?

Surely he must have realised that making a call to either man would be a waste of his time.

She spoke, breaking the silence between them.

"What are you doing now Commander? Who are you calling?" She asked. A half smile came to his face at her questions though he remained silent, instead holding up his hand in a classic stop sign which made her eyes narrow in reaction.

"Uh yeah hello, Governor Jameson please, could you tell you that it's Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett calling for her." He said into the phone.

Danni snorted, shaking her head as she crossed her arms over her chest, her gaze flickering towards McGarrett as he took a single, long step towards her so he was in her personal space. She ignored how tall he was and the fact that he was clearly trying to loom over her to make his point. Instead she simply straightened her spine, tilting her head back and giving him a thoughtful look, refusing to look away even when he took the handset away from his ear, pressing a button on it and holding it so that it was between the two of them.

"So what point are you trying to make to me here then?" She asked him. "Are you trying to say that you have access to the Governor of Hawaii on your speed dial and that she is happy to take your calls is that it? Well I'm genuinely happy for you. Congratulations on that." She told him. "But if you think the fact that us going through this charade here will stop me from doing my job then I'm afraid that you're wrong and all you're doing is wasting everyone's time here. If you're holding out the phone for me to speak to her then don't bother. I thought that you would have realised that there was more at stake here than your pride such as finding the man who took your father from you but clearly that's just my opinion on the matter. You're not the man I thought you would be." She told him truthfully.

She saw a brief look of surprise cross his face before it turned into another look she couldn't read.

"Commander McGarrett? It's Governor Jameson here. I had hoped that you would call after the conversation that we had yesterday afternoon. How can I help you?"

"It is" McGarrett confirmed taking the call off of the speaker now that he had made his point to her. "I thought about the offer which you made me and I've decided that I'm going to take the job." He told the woman as he turned away from Danni.

She stared at his back for a moment before she looked away, twisting her own body around so that she was facing the car. She leaned forward, resting her palms against the cool black metal and closed her eyes.

Whatever job McGarrett was talking about probably meant bad news for her.

She forced herself to straighten and opened her eyes, looking back towards him, surprised to see that his gaze was fixed on her again with a thoughtful look.

"Yeah, let's just say that I've found something which changed me mind." He told the Governor in response to whatever it was that she said to him on the phone. Danni watched as he frowned slightly looking away from her to stare at the wall to the side of them, his full attention clearly fixed on the conversation which he was participating in. "No, no, no I don't want to wait to do this, doing it immediately would be better for me. I'll speak to my Commanding Officer today and gets myself transferred into the reserves so I can run your taskforce for you." Danni breath caught at his words. The sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach growing as she watched the look of confusion on his face get replaced by one of determination and understanding. "Okay, you want me to do it right now then? Okay that's fine, I've got a witness with me." He said, a tone of satisfaction coming to his voice as he looked back at her again, holding his hand up in the air before he turned away from her so she could only see his back. "I, Steven Jack McGarrett, do solemnly declare upon my honour and conscious…"

"Oh no" Danni whispered to herself, closing her eyes tightly as the familiar words of the oath which every Police Officer took on the day of their graduation from the Police Academy washed over her. She could still remember the day she had given her own oath, her family and Duncan watching her graduate with pride from the crowd.

The oath was one for Police though, it made no sense to her why an Active Navy SEAL would be quoting the oath to the Governor of Hawaii over the phone though she had the strong feeling that she didn't want to know.

McGarrett finished his call, turning as he pushed his phone back into his pocket and looked at her, meeting her eyes as he slowly and very deliberately picked up the tool box from where it was resting on the car.

"I think you'll find now Detective Williams that this is now my crime scene, not yours." He declared before he turned and walked out of the garage leaving Danni rooted to the spot, staring after him with a sinking feeling in her stomach which made her feel sick.

What had just happened?

Author Note

Thank you for taking the time to read my story, it's much appreciated. An especially big thank you if you left a review, a favourite or a follow. It means a great deal to me.