Disclaimer and notes:
see chapter 1

Thanks:
Thanks for all the reviews and alerts, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!
Again a huge thank-you to montez for betaing, you are the best! :-)

3 hours earlier…

"Now I know…" Danny smirked, throwing a knowing look at his partner while he opened one of the big glass doors that lead into Five-0 headquarters, letting Steve go ahead.

Entering the office Steve turned toward Danny, rolling his eyes and asking good-humoredly, "You know what, Danno?"

Danny narrowed his eyes at the sound of his nickname but decided that now was not the time to respond to that bait. "Now I know why you've been smiling like a drunken rabbit ever since I picked you up… Steven." Danny's grin growing bigger as he put some extra emphasis on the last word.

Steve frowned, asking himself if he really wanted to know what a drunken rabbit might look like and how in heaven's name Danny would know such a thing. Raising his hand to cover his mouth, Steve tried to stifle a yawn. Danny smiled when that gesture confirmed his speculation, "Long night?" Patting Steve on the shoulder while they moved further into the room, then putting on his most innocent look, Danny asked, "So, how long will Catherine stay this time?"

"What?" Steve asked baffled.

"Oh, I'm just asking because I'm rationally concerned that when you're not getting enough sleep you might be even more dangerous for my well-being than at normal times."

"What makes you actually think that Cath is in town?" Steve was not willing to admit that he indeed had spent the night with her, though the thought brought a smile back to his face as he turned around hearing Danny chuckle.

"Remember the drunken rabbit smile?" Danny replied knowingly, looking up at Steve.

Embarrassingly he felt himself blushing a little bit, all the while trying to avoid Danny's inquiring gaze. Steve looked around, noticing Kono leave her office. "Morning guys," she waved, crossing the room to join her teammates who were standing next to the big computer table. Kono studied the two men in front of her, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly when she noticed that one of their famous banters was obviously in full swing. "What's up?"

"Nothing, nothing, we're just talking about McGarrett's love life." Danny said with a little nod of his head, giving her a mischievous wink.

"No, we are not!"

Steve tried to interject but Kono continued, "Oh yeah, I've seen the Enterprise is docked in Pearl Harbor. How is Catherine?"

"See, that's one clever girl," Danny said proudly before Steve could answer. "She didn't even need to see your drunken rabbit face to know what's going on."

Steve stared at them speechless for a moment. He'd just opened his mouth to deny that he had a face when Chin joined the group. "Drunken rabbit face? Did I miss something?" He looked around and after having seen Steve's expression he added good-naturedly, "Okay, I won't comment on that, but I guess it has something to do with that huge US Navy ship down at the harbor and the rumors that it needs some repairs that will take at least six weeks. Am I about right?"

"Six weeks?" Looking at Steve, Danny sighed theatrically. "How long can you last without sleep? You've been trained for that, right?" Throwing his hands in the air, he added, "Never mind, I bet you will get me shot anyway in less than a week."

"What are you talking about? I won't get you shot…" Steve said with an exasperated shake of his head.

"Aha! But you no longer deny that your pretty Lieutenant is here?" Danny asked confident of victory.

Steve couldn't help but grin sheepishly. "What can I say…" he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Obviously you are a better detective than I thought."

Chin and Kono looked at each other, smiling brightly in anticipation of one of Danny's famous rants and indeed they didn't have to wait long. "Excuse me?" Danny furrowed his brow. "A better detective than you thought? What the hell does that even mean, Steven? Actually I'm a damn good detective." He emphasized every word with an expansive gesture. "Did I tell you that I was…"

Chin's mobile rang, still smiling he fished the phone out of his pocket, listening with one ear to the ongoing banter between his teammates he took the call. "Kelly?" Chin answered and after a few moments the smile disappeared and his face became more serious the longer he listened. "When?" His voice had lost all the joyfulness from before and the others grew quiet as soon as they noticed the change. "How many?"

Steve threw him a scrutinizing look, mouthing silently, "What's wrong?"

Chin listened for a few more seconds before he covered the phone with one hand and explained quickly, "It's HPD, bomb threat at a school. Over 50 persons trapped inside the building, children as well as some teachers and parents."

Shaking her head, Kono asked perplexed, "What are they doing there? It's a holiday, isn't it?"

"Which school?" Danny chimed in breathlessly.

Chin nodded once to demonstrate that he had heard, passing on Danny's question, he listened to the reply before answering, "Academy of the Sacred Hearts."

"Isn't that Grace's school?" Kono asked with a side glance at Danny who was suddenly swaying slightly. All blood had left his face as he grabbed the edge of the table when his legs started to give away.

"Whoa, Danny?" Steve firmly grabbed Danny's elbow to give him some much needed support, "Hey, what's wrong? You okay?"

"Grace," Danny whispered, looking up to meet Steve's gaze. McGarrett could see pure agony in Danny's eyes and he was sure that his own heart stopped for a second hearing Danny's next words. "Grace… she… her class was supposed to be in school today. They're rehearsing a play for the school party next week."

"What?" Steve's voice cracked slightly.

"Oh my God!" Kono raised her hand to her mouth, horrified by the thought that anything might have happened to Danny's daughter.

"I need to call Rachel." With shaking fingers Danny took his mobile out of his pocket and dialed her number. It took three tries before he finally managed to hit the right buttons. Pressing the phone to his ear with his left hand, he ran his other hand through his hair over and over again. Impatiently he waited for his ex-wife to pick up. "Come on…" Deep wrinkles were visible on his forehead as he nervously bit his lips.

After what seemed like an eternity, not only to Danny but to everyone else in the room, the ringing stopped and Danny almost dropped the phone when a small voice answered, "Hello?"

"Grace? Oh thank God…" He cleared his throat, drawing in a shuddering breath. "Gracie, why are you at home?"

"I'm sick," Danny could hear that Grace's voice was hoarse and she coughed weakly. "Mommy wouldn't let me go to school today." She sniffed twice, "Danno, I won't be good next week when I miss all the rehearsals."

"Hey Monkey, don't be sad. I'm sure you will be great." Danny took a deep breath to calm his frayed nerves. "I promise to practice with you this weekend, okay?"

"Okay," Grace replied, sniffing and coughing once more.

"Now you go back to bed and get well soon!" Danny said, his voice still heavy with emotions. "Can you put Mommy on the phone?"

"She's right here," Grace said. "Bye, Danno!"

"Bye Monkey, Danno loves you."

"Love you too," Grace replied with a final cough. There were a few seconds of silence before another voice reached Danny's ears. "Daniel?" Rachel asked. "What's wrong?"

Turning around, Danny leaned heavily against the computer table, he noticed that Chin was still on the phone with HPD while Steve and Kono quietly discussed the situation. Every few seconds Steve's worried gaze drifted to his partner until Danny nodded letting him know that everything was alright. Almost instantly Steve relaxed and Danny smiled slightly. He winced when he heard his ex-wife impatiently calling to him, "Daniel? Are you still there? I'm waiting!"

Pulling himself together, Danny spent the next few minutes explaining the situation and calming Rachel, who was as terrified as Danny at the thought that their daughter had almost been in a bomb situation and that all of her friends were still trapped inside the school building. "Rachel, calm down! Grace is safe and we will do everything in our power to save the other children." Danny had regained his composure, his voice was strong and confident. "Just stay with Grace, I'll call you when we have news." He ended the call and turned toward his colleagues just in time to see Chin stowing his phone away.

"So, what do we have?" Steve was the first to ask the question that everyone had on their mind.

Chin's fingers danced over the display of the table. After a few more clicks and sweeps he answered, "HPD has already sent what they know so far." He pointed at the screens on the wall where the picture of a friendly looking, middle-aged man with short grayish hair and metal-rimmed glasses had popped up. "This is Hank Philips, 52, born and raised here on the Islands. He successfully runs his own little electric shop, no police records, not even a parking ticket." Turning around, Chin faced his three teammates and inhaled deeply. "At the moment he has taken 32 children, 3 teachers and 18 parents hostage inside the building of Sacred Hearts Academy. He has explosive devices planted in different sectors of the building. HPD knows where exactly they are and how many, but at the moment it's unclear what type of explosives we're talking about."

Kono stared at her cousin, "How do they know so much already?"

"Good question, couz. That's the weirdest part of this whole situation." Chin nodded, waiting until he was sure that everyone was listening closely. "It was Hank Philips himself who called HPD from inside the school building. He told them everything about the bombs, the hostage-taking and about himself."

"Okay, that doesn't make sense," Steve interrupted. "Why would he plant bombs everywhere in the building and then telling the police exactly where the devices are? This has to be some sort of trap or distraction… Has he made any demands so far?"

Chin shook his head, "Not yet. That's all we have at the moment."

"I think we should concentrate on the hostages." Kono said, already starting to browse some files. "Perhaps Hank Philips has targeted someone specific?"

"Good approach – check all the children as well as their parents and the teachers. Perhaps we can find a connection somewhere." Steve replied and turned around to look at Danny. "It's Grace's class… you don't know him by any chance, do you?"

"Never seen him before," Danny negated. Studying the picture on the screen, he asked, "What else do we know about him? Does he have family? What about friends? Colleagues?"

"Just a second…" Once again Danny was impressed by the efficiency with which Chin handled the computer. "Here it is." With another flick of his wrist he displayed a file on the screen. "This is all the personal information we have on Hank Philips."

Danny, Steve and Chin stared at the display, skimming over the dates. "He is married, three grown-up kids," Danny mumbled but Chin chipped in, pointing at the screen.

"Look at this date, looks like he is divorced."

Danny squinted and said slowly, "Have you noticed the date? The divorce was exactly 20 years ago; do you think this is coincidence?"

"What do we know about his wife and children? Are they living on the Islands?" Steve asked but Chin already had pulled up the information.

"Apparently they left Hawaii immediately after the divorce, I can't find any evidence that they have ever been back since." He scrolled slowly through the data, "Oh, look at this – the youngest daughter died two month ago in a car accident."

"Okay, it's just a gut instinct but I'm pretty sure that this is definitely not a coincidence." Danny said, Steve nodding slowly.

Chin's mobile rang and after a quick look at the display he said, "It's HPD again, I'll put it on speaker." He laid the phone on the table so that everyone could hear what was going on before he pressed two buttons and took the call, "Kelly?"

"Chin? It's Duke. We got news from Hank Philips." Sergeant Duke Lukela's voice sounded rushed and they could hear lots of busy activity in the background.

"Hey Duke, you are on speakers, go ahead," Chin replied.

"He just called again, announcing his demands. He promised to set free all the children in exchange for their parents. He already let the three teachers go as a sign of his goodwill."

Steve turned to Kono, saying quietly, "Forget about the children and only check the parents. There has to be a connection somewhere." Raising his voice, Steve asked, "But there are already 18 of the parents in the building, right?"

"That's correct. One of the teachers brought a list with the names of all the other parents. As soon as they are inside, the children will be allowed to go. He said we have one hour to gather them."

"Do we believe him that he will let the children go once he has their parents?" Kono asked. "I mean, we have no proof that he will stick to his word."

"And normally we don't negotiate with hostage-takers, do we?" Chin added gravely.

"There's something else…" They could hear Duke's heavy breaths over the phone. "It's about Detective Williams…"

"My name is on that list, isn't it?" Danny asked calmly.

Duke hesitated, "Yes, it is. I'm sorry… your daughter…is she…"

"It's okay!" Danny interrupted him. "My daughter is at home with the flu – I'd never thought that I would ever be happy about the fact that she's sick."

"Oh, thank God, at least some good news." Danny was deeply touched by the open sympathy he could hear in Duke's voice.

"Okay, we have less than one hour to think about a solution," Steve said. "Don't take any action until we're there. Keep us updated if there are any changes in the meantime!"

"Understood," Duke replied and ended the call.

Steve looked around, "Any ideas?"

"I'm going in," Danny announced immediately.

"Are you crazy? You are not going in there!" Steve looked at Danny dumbfounded.

"Listen Steve, I know it's dangerous, but my name is on that list. Perhaps Hank Philips doesn't know that Grace is not among the children. This will give us the chance to figure out what he really wants. And perhaps I can persuade him to give up or at least to set the children free."

"But you wouldn't have a weapon. No weapon, no vest, no back-up. You would be totally unprotected." Steve frowned angrily seeing the wry smile on Danny's face. "What is so damn funny?"

"Since when do you care for back-up?" Danny asked ironically but he became serious very quickly. Running his hand through his hair he sighed, "I know I won't have back-up and believe me, unlike you, I don't draw some insane satisfaction from such a Rambo-like situation but it is our best chance."

"I don't like it either, but I think Danny's right, brah," Chin said gravely.

Steve shook his head, "I don't think it's a good idea, it's too dangerous. We don't know what Philips is up to and…"

Danny interrupted him with a sharp movement of his hands. "Okay Steve, that's enough, we don't have time for this. I've made my decision; I will go in – end of discussion!"

Kono furrowed her brow, "I think we can wire you invisibly so that no one would notice. That would give us a chance to hear everything that's going on. And we could communicate… or at least you would be able to hear us even if you can't speak freely."

Danny gave her a grateful nod, "That would be great, thanks."

"Okay, I'll go and get everything." She turned on her heels, rushing toward the storage room to gather all the electronic equipment they would need.

"I still don't like the idea that you will be totally on your own once you're in the building!" Steve threw a look at Danny but noticed frustratedly that his partner was already busy listening to Chin's explanations about how they planned to wire him. "Hey, is anybody listening to what I'm saying?"

Rolling his eyes, Danny said firmly, "Yes Steven, we have all heard you." His voice became a little more gently as he continued, "Your concern is duly noted, but believe it or not, I've handled quite a few hostage situations before I met you. So, unless you have a better idea the plan is fixed – I will go in."

(tbc)