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

Notes: Okay - the Poll for the puppy name will stay up a bit longer. There is a tie again so far!

Chapter 16

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

It wasn't what he expected, then oftentimes the things that sometimes happened in life - or in the line of police work - never were. Right arm in a sling, Danny couldn't comfortably drive but he had been cleared to work as long as he didn't exert himself. As long as he didn't do precisely what he was doing at that very moment. But he had two very good reasons for disobeying doctors' orders and he used both to adequately justify himself.

One, he and Steve had not asked for the car jacker to appear so boldly during their lunch at the open-air café where they were enjoying a blessedly mild day and the best burgers Danny had eaten in ages. Two, his partner had instantly responded to the woman's blood-curdling screams as if he was hearing Pavlov's Bell. Jumping the low wrought iron fence that separated café from sidewalk, Steve was in automatic pursuit and gone before Danny could bat an eye.

If Danny needed a third reason, he contrived in his mind that he was only mildly breaking the rules by following Steve at a slow, casual jog and dutifully avoiding the obstacles his partner was enduring. The car jacker had brazenly stolen and then promptly crashed the Mercedes two-seater after making a wrongly wild decision. The side road he had chosen for his escape was under construction and closed to all traffic. With nowhere to go, he had cooly slid into the side of a commercial town truck barely one half block from the café. It happened so quickly, that neither Steve nor Danny needed to do more than approach the idiotic felon on foot.

But unhurt, he'd abandoned the pretty dark blue sports car where it stayed wedged like a misfit metallic offspring to the mammoth orange and white truck. He had taken off running in an aggressive attempt to shake his pursuers through a variety of interesting obstacles, twists and turns. His first act was to dodge cars and trucks by running across two moderately trafficked streets. Much to Danny's chagrin, Steve had followed and then continued on over a tall chain-link fence, down a rocky slope, and into a long, wet culvert.

Of course after those two initial streets, Danny had abandoned thoughts of trying to manage the fence, hilly scrabble, or the culvert in lieu of a safer and much wiser course that allowed him to follow predator and prey without losing too much of a line of sight. He was pleased with himself and even with Steve for gaining critical ground on their man until he spotted the mouth to the large storm-drain through which the trickle of dirty water was aggressively disappearing.

Grumbling unhappily to himself, Danny held the sling protectively to his chest with his free arm as he slowly trotted along. He was soon going to be forced to either completely give up the chase or attempt at least part of the culvert on the opposite side of a tertiary road where he saw a short bridge. It was obvious that the storm drain ran under the bridge and reappeared on the opposite side within dense scrub-brush. He had no idea what happened after that since the watery slip of water seemed to be literally swallowed up by even more dense, dark green jungle.

Regardless, he could easily see that their prey had every intention of ducking into the corrugated pipe and following it through to where it would open up again on the opposite side of the street. The idiot would probably run to the ocean at this rate and Danny made a disgusted face. Still griping under his breath for what he was going to do, Danny headed straight for that egress at a faster pace.

Danny estimated that he could cut their perp off easily enough if he kept to his dedicated and deliberate goal. And when Steve slipped on wet rocks and fell to one knee just shy of their disappearing quarry, Danny set his jaw and gauged the short drop. Already on the other side of the street, he carefully swung over the low guard rail and then slipped once on the pebbly rubble, catching himself without jarring his arm too badly. When he got to the bottom though, what he found was completely unexpected and he almost forgot about their car jacker until he heard the slosh of booted feet echoing from the pipe.

Looking around quickly, Danny avoided his macabre find to pick up a stout, thick stick in his left hand. It would be awkward but he could manage what he needed to do especially since he heard the sounds escalating in volume which meant Steve was once more gaining ground stride for stride. He only needed to provide a bit of a delay.

Danny grinned when he saw the glimmer of a near stumbling shadow first. He aimed where he thought the man's knees would be, counted to ten, and then swung as hard as he could like a switch-hitter in a baseball game. The man's forward momentum did the rest. There were two resounding cracks. The first was caused by the solid thwack of the stick as it connected just above the man's right knee. He instantly fell hard, virtually ass over tea-kettle with a stunned cry of pain winding up face down in the water. The second was from the heavy branch itself which shattered neatly in two.

"You my friend, are under arrest for ruining my lunch. Do not even think about moving."

Within seconds, Danny had his gun out in his left-hand and aimed at the back of the man's head without so much as breaking a sweat. Stunned to be off his feet, he lay gasping in the few inches of water before squalling about a broken leg. Far from being apologetic, Danny cocked his head and made a face about the damaged limb. "Nah, I doubt it. Though yeah, I'm sure it hurts like hell."

With only a dusty knee, he was otherwise clean and dry in comparison to Steve as he pounded out of the dank drainage pipe. Winded and splattered by muddy water, Steve stopped when he reached the downed man and studied his nearly immaculate partner from head to toe ensuring that he hadn't re-injured his arm.

"You should have stayed at the café." Steve complained heavily through a series of deep inhales.

"You're right for a change; I should have. That was the best burger I've had in ages. This bozo owes me another one. Medium rare with extra fries." Rather than grinning at the snarky retort, Steve frowned almost in disgust.

"What?" Steve warily demanded. Danny was almost too delighted as he aimed a sniff in his direction and then winced dramatically.

"Shower, babe. Our lunch date is officially over." With an abstract wave of his hand, Steve bent over at the waist to suck in another few lungfuls of air. Danny grimaced at the wad of what looked like glimmering wet spider webs draped through his dark hair. On top of that, Steve's cargo's were ripped and soiled from hem to just above his shins from where he'd either kicked up water or slipped yet again into the silty muck.

"I see shampoo in your future."

"Shut up, Danno. I'll just borrow yours since you have enough for an army."

"Alright, but really? I thought it was the Navy." The withering look he received set Danny to grinning even more widely. He was sure that the filthy wad of whatever was moving sluggishly on top of his partner's hair.

"But .. seriously though. You .. ah .. first .. might want to get that off your head. You've acquired an alien."

"Umm. Yeah .. what is that?" Hampered by gun and sling, Danny awkwardly gestured a bit with his elbow up towards the thick dirty web or what could be some matted leaves and other filth. He watched in amusement as Steve wiped frantically with both hands to get the sticky mass out of his hair. As it clung to his fingers and something creepy with multiple legs seemed to run free, Steve swished even faster through the equally dirty drain water only to wipe his wet hands dry across his t-shirt.

"That's just ... great." Now muddy from top to bottom, Danny rolled his eyes towards the sky. "Perfect. You're going to need another tetanus shot."

"I know what you're going to say." Steve panted out as he leaned down to cuff their man and haul him to his feet. The man cried out as his right leg at first resisted carrying any of his weight. Now captured, he was thoroughly upset and spouting about the injustices of police brutality while both officers ignored him.

"No, I actually don't think you do." Though he was thinking it and vowing that it eventually would happen, Danny wasn't yet going to demand that Steve get another ride back to the office. It didn't matter that he couldn't drive with an injured right arm either. His musty partner was not stepping one mud-drenched boot into the new black Camaro. Taking a wide berth as Steve hopped the car jacker out of the dirty water, Danny still managed to avoid the fusty mildewy pair. He interrupted Steve's sarcastic comment about getting into the Camaro as he gestured dismally towards a large rocky outcropping and deep scrub brush which bordered the water in the culvert.

"I don't think you do." Danny sighed repeatedly before pausing at the foot of the incline which led back to the road. "You need to see this."

Steve frowned as he pulled their man back to stand still, ignoring the pained complaints when he saw the black plastic bag which was ripped open in places to reveal just enough of the gory contents. Steve winced as the breeze wafted the smell of decay in their direction and even their perp stopped speaking.

"Ten to one, this is Parker's last victim." Danny's tone was a dismal one. Partially hidden by the damaged black plastic, heavy undergrowth and just resting up against a large boulder, was a thin skeletal hand with an odd darkened oblong mark and a bit of what looked like the remains of a surgical bandage. Cradling his arm to his chest, Danny was morose because he knew even without Max Bergman yet making the formal declaration, that they'd just found Kylie Yeun.

"Damn." Steve muttered under his breath. "You're absolutely right." The two took a sad moment to look at each other before moving up the short slope. Their not so quiet day had progressively worsened one more notch up and entirely in the wrong direction.

~ to be continued ~