I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: I had an annoying day - no results; many errands; much personal angst. Still thinking 'no news is good news' though. I will be having Hershey's Capuccino Crunch Ice cream in mere seconds as a consolation gift. Hmm .. or maybe Cookies N Cream fudge ripple. Or both .. one never knows how dangerous it may get in the kitchen. However, sometimes annoying days also mean extra chapter postings since it feels good to hit that 'ol post new chapter button.

Yeah this is a cliffie though. Saber-toothed bunny is well in charge now. So you KNOW they are NOT in the clear, right? And the DWOCD addiction is a personal issue, so Steve may be whumped at the moment. However ... well ... share and share alike!

Also, does a pyromaniac ever leave after setting a blaze? Theory says no because they like to watch their nasty little creation. Eric Jameson has not left the property - oh, oh!

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O

Chapter Sixteen

They skirted the property with guns drawn, staying low and trying to sight any activity. The parking lot was empty but for Jameson's dilapidated truck and the old, beat-up tenant's Honda. Black smoke was starting to billow out more ferociously from the rear, main floor apartment through partly opened windows and seams in the walls. Except for that, the rest of the building was currently untouched and free from harm. Choosing the front door which could also lead them upstairs to the tenant, Steve and Danny entered quietly and quickly.

No one was there. At least at first blush. Remaining cautious, Danny and Steve tried the doors and then forced them open for the two lower level occupied apartments. They cleared each in seconds, relieved to find them empty for the day. Smoke was beginning to fill the hallway from under the rear vacant apartment. It was pitch black, oily and Danny knew what lay behind the door without needing to look.

"Upstairs." Danny gestured that he would go and mimed that Steve wait below. The one other Vernon Fields tenant was still there. They could barely smell the cooking sauce, but the music and raucous, happy singing was scarily oblivious to the danger below. Steve went cautiously down the now smoky hall with both his weapon and the fire extinguisher to stand watch. Danny bounded up the stairs to the second floor towards the scent of sauce and sounds of the music and the horrifically booming off-tune singer.

"Hey! Five-0! There's a fire in the building!" Danny fisted the door three times before simply kicking it open on the startled middle-aged man who stopped singing and nearly fell back into his steaming pot of pasta sauce. The wine glass he was holding crashed to the ground as he brandished the wooden spoon in self-defense.

"Fire! Get out of the building! Is there anyone else here?" The man gaped as he stared at Danny's full tactical gear and the impressive weapon he held in his hand. He shook his head no about other people but still seemed wholly unable to move. "OUT!"

Danny moved to grab the man, but he dodged him to snatch up two, thick cooking mitts and then the double handles on the tall kettle. "I want my sauce!"

"What? Leave it!" He couldn't believe it as the tenant practically used the piping hot pot as a shield and refused to budge.

"No!" Eyes bulging, the man was near tears but determined to hang on to his precious gourmet creation. "I'm not leaving without my sauce!"

"For the love of god! Fine .. go, go, go!" Ushering him first down the stairs, Danny aimed the man out the front door. "Now, go ... and keep going!" The lower level had already become heavily smoke-festooned and the man began to talk gibberish as he hurriedly half-ran with his sloshing bubbling pot of sauce to the far side of the parking lot.

"Steve!" Incredulous for a minute, Danny watched the man get away with his priceless cooking before trying to peer down the hallway. "Hey, Steve!" But he couldn't see a thing as the smoke became much more dense. He coughed as he readied his rifle once more and edged down the hallway.

"Here! It's clear ... they're gone." The scratchy-voiced return bellow of sound made Danny sigh in relief. He caught up to his partner as Steve was putting his shoulder to the door which seemed to be stubbornly wedged closed. Danny took a few moments to stand between him and the door with a warning hand on Steve's chest. He had seen fires like this before and was extremely concerned about what was happening on the inside of the room.

"We need to get out of here. The one tenant is outside already." Danny eyed the dark, sooty color of the smoke that was roiling from under the door and through its cracks. "Whoever is in there is toast and we don't have the right gear. We need to find Jameson and his people."

Steve stopped as his arms dropped limply to his side. He had heard the faint shouts for help when he first got to the apartment. Feeble and growing more quiet as time ticked by and he was now uncertain about leaving. Danny was also torn as he frowned and put his hand on the hot wood. A small tickle settled in the back of Steve's throat and he coughed once to clear it. But the acrid odor was becoming worse.

"Somebody is in there." He saw the desperate worry in Danny's eyes and he had no immediate answer as a sharp crack sounded over head. The fire had worsened considerably and the calls for help had diminished and then stopped entirely. The loud splintering sound of sorely weakening wood made them both react in tandem as the two stopped speaking to use their shoulders in an attempt to barrel down the apartment door which was already hot to the touch. There were no fire alarms, the sprinkler system never engaged and the one Vernon Fields fire extinguisher in the hallway seemed to be empty when Steve pulled it of the wall.

"Not yet .. we can't. I heard him, Danny. He was calling for help." Even if they were able to get the door opened, they only had the small canister from the car to fight the growing inferno. Danny made a face as the smoke thickened and the heat began to creep into the hallway. The chances of someone surviving on the inside had grown more and more dismal and all he could now hear was the roar of flames and the crackling or splintering of wood.

"None of it works!" Steve complained as he tossed the useless Vernon Fields extinguisher to the ground and tried again to force the door open. His cough worsened as a fist-sized pain settled in his sternum when the smoke irritated his still highly sensitive lungs. Danny was beginning to cough more frequently, too and he pulled on Steve's arm after joining him in one final attempt. It was no use and they needed to salvage what they could.

"Come on .. let's go!" Danny had his rifle slung over his shoulder by that point. Steve's was resting against the wall with their own much smaller fire extinguisher; but both were in easy reach. However, he had seen Steve's face change and knew that something more was bothering him. It was a pure physical distress that became apparent when he fisted the space between his throat and collar of the tac-vest.

"Steve .. you can't be in here. Let's get out now. I don't think .. anyone could survive in there .. we're too late." Newly worried about his partner's healing lungs and beginning to hack more heavily, Danny turned to leave but stumbled to a halt at Steve's harsh shout. The weak calls had started again and this time Danny also heard the plaintive and weak cries for help.

"Oh man." Danny fisted his hands in frustration as the faint pleas reached them separated only by a few inches of walled plaster. It changed things again and Danny started to pound on the door in earnest. "He is alive. We have to get him out if we can."

"I'm going around - stay here. We'll get it ...from both sides." Steve had re-slung his weapon over his shoulder and then had picked up the old non-working fire extinguisher. He thoughtfully hefted it in his hands and without looking back, was well on his way outside through the broken rear emergency door.

"Hey, no! Both sides? Wait!" Forced to abandon his plan, Danny was nearly apoplectic as Steve disappeared on him out the broken, rear door. "Steve! Come .. on! You can't do this!"

The crash of smashing glass from the inside of the apartment was instantaneous. It stopped Danny in his tracks just as he reached the emergency door to follow his partner. It drew him back towards the apartment as a heavy retching cough emanated from inside the room followed by Steve's ragged shouts.

"Danny .. I'm in!"

"I'm going to kill him. I swear that I am so going to kill him!" Danny's voice failed him as the next inhale brought the rising smoke into his lungs. He coughed and gagged while pounding on the door in time to Steve's muffled voice.

"Danny! He's .. here. I almost have.. him." The moan was faint but near the tiny kitchen and he zoned in on it. Steve's throat was already bitterly sharp as he gagged and the lump in his chest seemed to painfully expand. He had used the old extinguisher to break the bay window knowing it was a straight line to the front door. Using the crook of his elbow in a vain attempt to breathe more carefully, he used his own Stinger flashlight to narrow his line of sight. But the room was an inferno. Heat touched his face and soaked into his clothing as he crouched down and peered through the murky smoke inch by harrowing inch.

Then he saw him. Bound and on his side, the man was semi-conscious and moaning in a fearful panic.

"There you are." His voice was nearly gone as he heaved the barely conscious and bound man towards the door. Flames were licking up the wall and spreading across the ceiling in a red and yellow display. It was almost mesmerizing until Steve saw the beam that had cracked in half to block the one and only main door. It was the main reason they couldn't get in to the apartment. Dragging the man closer, he put his shoulder to the splintered wood and with a thundering crack, managed to move it away. From the opposite side, he could hear Danny calling for him and using his body to forcibly try to get the door to open.

"Got .. him! Danny .. he's here!" Steve pulled and tugged on the now warped door which was refusing to open for that new reason. Pressure from above had sagged the frame and begun to damage the hinges. But his voice was enough for Danny to take up their smaller fire extinguisher in an attempt to use it as a battering ram. On the opposite side, Danny jarred his hands and arms as he slammed the metal can into the door again and again, faintly pleased as it began to splinter the wood and edge open the old hinges.

"Steve! Damn it .. Steve! Open the damn door!" He knew Steve was right there on the other side as the coughing increased and another loud crash sounded. The damaged door opened sloppily on its hinges just as Danny bodily flung himself and the dented extinguisher into it. Falling into Steve, Danny dropped the canister and fisted Steve's vest in a fury.

"What the hell? Just what in the hell are you thinking!" Eyes burning with rage, Danny pushed Steve back a step with both hands heedless now of the thick smoke and oily smell and taste that was settling on his tongue and in his nose. Whatever incendiary the old man had use burned hot and was extremely acrid; just as he had remembered and time was definitely running out.

"Damn it Steve! Why do you always ... do that? What do you ... think .. you're doing? Get the ... hell out of here!" His voice was damaged and broken from a throat stained by smoke and now heat.

Already unsteady on his feet, Steve stumbled as Danny unexpectedly came at him through the front door. Half catching his partner and half protecting himself from the unanticipated fury, Steve was forced to recover as Danny physically tried to yank him back towards the hallway. His eyes were red as they teared madly from smoke and heat, and his chest was now burning from the immediate stress of the hazardous lack of air.

"Hostage." Steve gagged and nearly vomited on the spot as he resisted Danny's hands and fell to his knees. Pulling Danny down with him, he fumbled for the man's arm. Unwilling to go too far, Danny followed Steve's hands until he connected with fabric and then a limp hand.

"Here!" Danny lurched forward blindly searching for the person's torso. The fire was burning hotly as flames lapped up the walls and spread across the ceiling to the upper floors. Danny looked up in horror as the floor to the upper apartment began to cave in the ceiling over the small kitchen. Using all his strength, Danny fisted Steve's shirt sleeve with one hand and began dragging the unconscious bound hostage backwards and towards the hallway door.

"Pull." He panted for help and then gagged on an inhale just as he felt Steve join sluggishly in his efforts. Almost silently except for ragged breaths and painful bouts of coughing, the two worked together to get Eric Jameson's son into the hallway. They were on their last legs by the time they got the few feet needed, but the apartment was already decimated and the inferno was rapidly taking over the rest of the building.

Their moves became frantic as they automatically came to the same conclusion. The old emergency door was closest and Steve used his body to prop it open where they could feel the tease of cooler, fresher air on their backs. The deep pressure in his chest intensified and his vision grayed for a moment only to clear to find Danny an inch from his nose.

"Steve!" Despite the smoke-stained soot covering his face, Danny's eyes were lined with worry and tell-tale stress. His hand was cupped behind Steve's neck as he tried to keep him conscious and on his feet for the few more seconds they needed. Through his hand, Danny could feel his worse struggle to breathe as they knelt together in the hallway with the bound and injured hostage between them.

"We're right here now ... but stay low. Pull." As with Steve, Danny's face was covered by smudged black streaks and his lungs weren't much better off as he tried to do two jobs at once. Giving his neck one last squeeze, Danny released him to renew his efforts with the yard now only a few short feet away.

"Go. Air .. get out .. move."

~ to be continued ~