Steve hung up the cell phone angrily, shoving it back into his pocket with an elementary frustration. It was the first weekend in quite a long time that the team was taking off, which they less than they all deserved. An issue with illegal immigration through shipping cargo had taken the team weeks to solve, including weekends working, undercover operations, and far too little sleep. The most that the team had off was one weekend about two weeks ago, which Steve had spent with Danny.
Now it was finally time to rest, and Steve had thought there would be nothing nicer than to spend a day at a sports bar with Danny, then head home for a few cold ones at the beach. He believed this to be a deserving break for his hard working partner, as well as for himself. But the detective hadn't even picked up the phone today, through the ten calls that Steve had made. Each of them had gone straight to the canned, tinny voicemail box that Danny hadn't even bothered to set up properly.
It was late enough in the day that Danny wouldn't still be sleeping. As much as Danny loved his sleep, he would never sleep in past ten in the morning if he could help it- food was his dearest love, and he would wake up just for the purpose of getting a decent breakfast. At the very least, Danny would text Steve in the morning just to greet him, see how he was doing for the day.
Despite his frustration, nothing felt too out of place for Steve. The last free time Danny had he had spent with Steve, and the afternoon hadn't exactly ended on the friendliest note. Steve didn't know exactly what he had said- he was only trying to engage in the normal friendly banter that they naturally slipped into at every possible moment. He had merely teased the detective in the usual manner- the fact that he hadn't had the chance to take some of the more daring leaps that Steve had been able to. It was nothing more than a slight tease, which he expected Danny to rebound from without a second thought. In fact, the Jersey native would have predictably said something about what he had been able to do in Jersey that no one in this "pineapple infested hellhole" had been able to do.
Instead, Danny had stormed off angrily, pushing his way through the undergrowth and back to the truck, and Steve had to go chasing after him down the mountain. He had been assured that Danny hadn't been injured externally, and it had puzzled him what was bothering his partner internally. Despite his questioning, however, Danny had remained silent.
Work had proceeded through the week with friction, but nothing that hindered performance on the job. However, now that the weekend had come, the nectar-sweet break that the whole team had looked forward to, Danny was nowhere to be found. No particular alarms were raised by Danny ignoring him considering not only that it was the weekend, but that they hadn't been on the best of terms as of late. That didn't mean, however, that Steve was any less frustrated.
His initial reaction to Danny ignoring him would have been to call Chin to see if he was free- Steve had been interested in trying his hand at spearfishing once more. Unfortunately, Chin and Kono had left the main island to visit family for the weekend, and would remain at that family gathering until the beginning of the next week. It looked like Steve was out of luck for entertainment for the day.
Resigned to his fate, Steve wandered up to his bedroom to brush his teeth, attempting to rid his mouth from the remnants of breakfast- eggs, beer, and some toast. It wasn't exactly the best start to the day, but it wasn't one that Steve was ready to complain about.
After waking himself up a little bit more, Steve moved down to his office, turning on his computer with a small yawn. It might have been valuable to have a weekend of rest, but as tired as he was, he might as well chew through a few emails, and wrap up some reports for work, before he went to relax as fully as he could.
All he could do was groan as his inbox showed it was full with more than one hundred unread emails, each of them screaming with a different amount of importance. Just as Steve was preparing to sit down for a good chunk of work, he noticed an email towards the top of the group from Danny. Furrowing his brow, Steve clicked on it, and waited for it to open.
The email had no title, and no words within it. The only thing that came up as the email opened was a digital copy of a postcard, an image of two men dangling from ropes in a massive cave, lights illuminating a magnificent, large cavern. The photo merely said "Hawaii's Wonders" across the top in a massive, pink and yellow font.
Steve felt his heart drop into his stomach. It was this again; that stupid cave system that he had shown Danny, those unusually tough comments that he had taunted Danny with. Was that really why Danny hadn't been answering his phone today?
Steve would have preferred to imagine that Danny was just giving him a hint to why he was pissed off, that this simple image was only a reminder of his crude and unthoughtful words. But the ten missed calls that hadn't gone through to the blond detective was evidence enough that Danny wasn't home today, stewing over a past mistake. He was out accepting the challenge that Steve himself had issued.
Concern washed over him, and Steve couldn't help but pull out his phone again, watching it dial Danny's number one more time, hearing that annoying canned voice again after what must have been an eternity of ringing. Shortly afterwards he sent a short text, an inquiry as to where Danny was. Within a minute, his phone alerted him that the text was unable to be sent. Cursing beneath his breath, Steve wasted no time in grabbing the backpack from the back porch, the same one that he had taken to Devil's Threshold last weekend. He hadn't bothered to unpack, and figured that if Danny had done what Steve thought he had done, he would need all of the gear in it to help his friend.
It took just another minute for Steve to hurry into the truck, and throw it into drive, tearing out of his driveway. He pushed the rising panic down in his gut as well as he could, reassuring himself that Danny wouldn't be halfway up the mountain by now, that he was in no real danger. Danny was talented, and skilled, but he had no experience in cave exploration, and as he had tried to tell Danny, the caves were dangerous even for those with experience. There was a feeling in his gut now, a bad, terrible, awful feeling that something was wrong.
Noting the clouds that were filling the sky, hiding what had been gorgeous weather this morning, a sunny sky turning grey with the threat of ill weather. Steve groaned, regretting all of the words he had said to Danny, regretting that it had come this far. Now as he pushed his foot farther down on the gas pedal, all he could do was pray that he found Danny in time.
Sorry for the lack of excitement in this chapter, but I hope you enjoyed anyway! Thanks so much for reading, and thank you so incredibly much for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites I've already received on this story! Please, if you have anything to say at all, positive or negative, feel free to drop a review or leave me a PM! Thanks again so much, I'll update soon with Danny's condition :)