Chapter 2

A few minutes later, Danny was steering the Camaro onto a narrow road, lined on each side by ugly, run-down looking warehouses, leading towards the harbor basin. The water. Dead end.

A suspect hitting a dead end was never a good thing. Dead ends were good for ending a chase, sure thing, but when someone on the run saw no way out anymore – trapped and desperate – things could go really, really bad really, really fast. Trapped, desperate people had a tendency to do stupid things. Like shooting guns.

Thankfully, Danny hadn't seen a gun on the kid before. And, judging by his looks, he'd never stand a chance in a hand-to-hand fight against Super SEAL. But you learned to not judge a book by its cover in this job. And the guy had surprised Danny already twice today.

First, when he had decided to run. And then again when Danny had finally – after minutes of seemingly aimless driving – spotted Steve. He was gaining ground on the kid but it looked like he was just not quite able to close the distance between them. The guy was fast. More than that, he was like some sort of circus freak, leaping over trash bins and containers and parked trucks like a frog. Which, of course, didn't really seem to bother Steve, who was his very own brand of freak.

At some point, they had jumped over a shoulder-high brick wall and Danny had lost his visual on Steve, the tall buildings blocking his view from whatever cross-country path his partner was chasing this kid down on now. When came up at a crossing a few seconds later, Danny didn't know what to do. He was about hit the brakes and ask Kono and Chin for their current location when he saw something out of the corner of his eye, high up in the sky.

Trying to keep one eye on the road, Danny craned his neck to the side, looking up and out of the window on the passenger side. And yes, there were Steve and the kid, running across the approximately twenty feet high rooftops of the warehouses, jumping over the narrow passages between them.

Fucking idiots.

The dock came closer and closer, but the two of them up there didn't seem to notice or care, because they were not slowing down, running at full speed towards the last building – which was separated from the water by an albeit narrow but asphalted (and thus very, very hard) road.

Danny sped up, shooting ahead of Steve and the kid, keeping his focus on the quickly nearing harbor basin in front of him. Only a few yards away from the edge, he hit the brakes hard and yanked the steering wheel to the right, making the Camaro skid around the corner and onto the driveway that ran along the dock. He stopped the car and pushed the door open. Jumping out of his seat he turned around and looked up, half expecting the kid, followed by Steve (because, yeah, the moron would not hesitate to risk the jump across the fifteen feet wide road), to come flying over his head.

But no. No one jumped. God bless the kid for having a last shred of common sense in his brain.

Instead, he heard Steve's voice – panting and out of breath, but firm and authoritative nonetheless – yell, "Hands! Show me your hands, and turn around. Slowly."

Then there was silence. Danny contemplated whether he should find a way to get up on that roof, too, but decided that maybe it'd be better to just wait down here instead and see if Steve was pissed enough to throw the kid down.

He was about to contact Kono and Chin (who should be around here somewhere) to let them know where the chase had ended (not that he actually knew where he was, but 'by the dock' would surely give them a close enough idea) but then he heard Steve's voice again.

„No! No, don't!"

The slightly frantic tone in his partner's voice made Danny look up just in time to see something black come flying off the rooftop. He let his gaze follow the small object as it skated in a high arch over the narrow driveway he was standing on, before it dropped into the harbor basin to his right with a dull plop.

Someone grunting, followed by the distinct sounds of a struggle made Danny's head snap back to the left, looking up again. "Steve?" he yelled, squinting against the blinding sunlight to see what was going on up there. Instead of a response, he only heard the sound of someone hitting the rooftop hard with a pained 'Oof'. "Hey Steve, you good?"

But his partner still didn't answer. Instead, he just heard heavy footsteps pounding on the roof, getting closer to the edge – and then silence.

Like Rocky, the fucking Flying Squirrel – minus the jet engine sound effects and the actual ability to fly – he saw Steve up in the air. Danny stared blankly as his partner sailed over his head and across the very, very hard asphalt road, arms whirling in huge circles as if he was trying to propel himself further forward, fighting against the incessant downward pull of gravity.

Gravity, however, seemed to be no match for Steve McGarrett, the fucking Flying Super SEAL. He missed the sharp brick edge of the dock by about half a foot and disappeared from Danny's view into the harbor basin. The loud splashing sound and flying spray of water following a fraction of a second later told him that Steve had hit the water.

Thank god.

Puffing his cheeks, blowing out a relieved breath, Danny shook his head.

Stupid fucking idiot.

He jogged towards the edge of the dock where his partner had vanished, looked down into the basin and saw . . . nothing. The water seemed barely disturbed, even almost. Only tiny, shallow waves were licking against the wall of the dock – but no sign of Steve.

"He okay?" Kono's voice yelled from somewhere. Danny didn't turn around, his eyes too busy scanning the water for his partner – but there was nothing, no bubbles, no movement. Only water. Lots and lots of dirty, smelling water. Danny hated water.

"Come on," he muttered, "don't make me drag your sorry ass out of there."

"He still under?" Chin was suddenly there, standing next to him, peering over the edge. Good. He could dive into that septic tank to fish out Apparently-not-so-Super-SEAL-after-all Steve McGarrett.

"Yeah," Danny nodded.

"You think we should–"

A splash, followed by a hand holding some kind of black, rectangular box-thing breaking the surface cut Chin off. Steve's head – popping up from the dark, grimy depth of the water – came up next. He spouted some water and sucked in a few deep breaths. "I got it," he panted while making sure the black box didn't dip under water again. For whatever reason. The thing was already wet.

"Terrific." Danny rolled his eyes. Whatever it was, it could not be worth the years that the little stunt from his partner had just shaved off his life.

"Yo Chin," Steve called from below them, wiggling the black box in his hand, "catch!"

He tossed the thing up and Chin, graceful and elegant as he was, easily grabbed the box mid-flight while smoothly sidestepping the sludgy spatter Steve had shot up along with it.

"What is it?" Danny asked, eying the thing curiously, but carefully keeping his distance from the filthy object.

"Looks like a hard drive," Chin said thoughtfully, slowly turning the box in his hands.

"It got wet," Danny stated the obvious. So, yeah, he was no expert in these computer things, but he did know that they had a tendency to stop functioning when they came in contact with anything liquid. Like the laptop he'd killed with a bottle of beer not too long ago.

"Not just wet," Kono commented, scrunching up her nose.

"Looks like a job for Fong, maybe he'll be able to pull something off of it," Chin said with a shrug.

"Yo guys!"

"Anyone hear anything?" Danny asked loudly, making a show of looking around.

"No, why?" Kono grinned.

Danny shook his head and shrugged. "Don't know, I thought I heard something."

"Little help here, guys!"

…

It took them a good fifteen minutes and some assistance from HPD to get Steve out of the water. Because, yeah sure, Danny had hand grenades in the glove compartment of his car, thanks to Steve, and god knows what other equipment stored in an ominous duffel bag in the trunk. But the moron had not thought to put something as simple as a rope in there. Or anything that could be used in actual real life situations for that matter. And, surprisingly, not even Steve McGarrett could climb up the straight six foot brick wall of the dock on his own. Whatever happened to Rocky, right?

But being stuck in the water did not stop the control freak from handing out orders. He had sent Chin and two HPD units back to the storage facility to continue the exciting task of watching the crystal meth stash. Kono had had the honor to go up on the warehouse roof to collect the kid who Steve had 'temporarily detained', which (unsurprisingly) was just Neanderthal speak for 'punched out cold'.

Danny, however, had successfully managed to delegate his job of getting Steve out of the water to two HPD officers. That old knee injury was preventing him from physically aiding in the rescue efforts. His knee always seemed to bother him more the closer he was to the water.

No, really. Cross my heart and hope to die. Scout's honor. And all that.

He had stayed around though, offering some very helpful advice. The Coast Guard was just one phone call away.

As soon as Steve had solid ground under his feet, everyone took a respectful step back. Because, frankly, he reeked and no one, including Danny, was particularly keen on getting any of that grimy harbor water on them.

"Thanks guys," Steve said with a nod to the two very young and very brave HPD officers that had helped pull him over the edge of the dock, and began to loosen the strips of his soaked Kevlar vest. He pulled the filthy thing off and had the nerve to hold it out to Danny.

"I'm not touching that," he said, making a disgusted face.

Steve rolled his eyes and dropped the vest to the ground instead. "What about the kid?" he asked, wiping away the water dripping from his messy hair to his forehead.

"Oh, you mean the one you knocked out cold on the roof–" he waved a hand at the warehouse behind him "–before you took your little swim in the place where the fish go to die?"

"Yeah, that's the one," Steve growled annoyed and kicked off his boots.

"HPD's got him in custody, they're taking him to the ER," Danny said, watching as his partner pulled on his soggy left sock.

"The ER?" Steve asked, making that 'come on, I barely even touched him' face.

"He was complaining of chest pain, which, you know, always freaks the medical types right out. The paramedics insisted to have him checked out. It's probably just bruised ribs or something."

Steve just nodded as he scrunched up the left sock to a ball in his hand and then went to work on the right one.

"Anyway, the kid seemed fine to me. Probably never had more than three teeth in his mouth," Danny added, making sure the sarcastic tone in his voice was evident enough so that even Steve would pick up on it.

"He came at me, Danny. I didn't exactly have a choice," Steve said, dropping both successfully removed socks on the heap of vest and shoes.

Danny just nodded in a 'yeah-yeah' kind of way.

"What about the drive?"

"Yeah, what about the drive? What's on that thing anyway that's worth taking a dive in this sewage plant?"

"No idea," Steve said with a shrug and then proceeded to pull his tee over his head, also tossing it on the reeking pile on the floor. "But must be something important since he clearly didn't want us to get it."

"Right." Danny stared down at his partner's discarded clothes and scrunched up his face. He expected dung flies to descend on the heap any second now. He then looked back up at Steve. "Hey, what's that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at a football-sized red bruise forming above the ribs on his right side.

Steve looked down and shrugged. "I said he came at me. He got in a good hit, so what?"

"With what, a sledgehammer?"

Steve just rolled his eyes.

"What? How did he manage to leave a mark like that through your vest?"

"The kid packed a mean punch," Steve said with a shrug.

"You sure you got the right guy? Because the kid from the storage unit did not look like Two Ton Tony to me."

"Who's Two Ton Tony?"

"Tony Galento, famous heavyweight boxer and actor from New Jersey."

"Hey boss," Kono called from behind Danny as she came walking over to them, "found this in the back of my car." She grinned and tossed a pink towel at Steve, mindful to keep her distance.

He easily caught it with his right hand, smiled a thank you at her and began to dry off, starting with his hair.

"You know that's not gonna cut it, right?"

"What?" Steve asked, peeking up at Danny from under the towel, squinting in confusion.

"You're not going anywhere near my car smelling like that."

Steve just shot him a look. He did that. It was supposed to be some sort of non-verbal counter-argument. Something witty probably that brooked no room for any further discussion. Something that other people were supposed to understand, because, what, he scrunched up his eyebrows in such an expressive manner?

Okay, granted, Danny did have a vague idea of what the imbecile wanted to communicate. He wanted to park his ass (still covered in grimy, soggy cargo pants) in one of the Camaro's seats, preferably on the driver's side. And hopefully, hopefully after that, he planned to drive to the nearest shower to get cleaned up. Though that last part was not a given, since Steve seemed not the least bit bothered by the smell (which, really, was getting worse and worse with each second he was standing around in the sun) or the dung flies that had to be very, very close by now.

But no, neither Steve nor the flies, nor any of his filthy clothes, and not even Kono's pink towel were going anywhere near his beloved car.

"No way."

"Come on, Danny," Steve pleaded as he slung the towel around his neck, using one end to wipe across his face again.

"No."

Steve just rolled his eyes and then shot a dopey puppy-eyed look in Kono's direction, raising a hopeful eyebrow at her.

"Uh-uh, no." She shook her head vehemently and took a step back, holding up both hands in front of herself as if she was afraid Steve would suddenly just ledge onto her. "I gotta head over to the lab and get Charlie started on that hard drive, sorry." She cringed slightly as she shot Danny an apologetic look.

He just gave her a dismissive wave with his hand. All of this wasn't Kono's fault after all. "It's okay, I'll just call a fire truck, have them hose him down and wrap him into one of those scratchy blankets."

Kono snorted. "I don't know man, looks more like a job for a hazmat team to me."

"Even better," Danny commented and looked over to his partner, expecting to see aneurysm face, but he was just standing there, his head tilted to the side, one finger wiggling around in his left ear.

"Hey, stop that," Danny yelled, waving his hands at Steve to get his attention.

"Huh?"

"Stop doing that before you make yourself go deaf."

Steve just frowned but stopped poking around in his ear. Instead, he started shaking his head like a wet dog.

"Hey, watch it!"

Both Danny and Kono took another couple steps back to dodge the spatter flying off of Steve.

"Well, I gotta run," Kono decided and patted Danny on the back. "You can keep the towel, boss," she called over her shoulder as she hurried towards her car.

Steve squinted as he watched her leave and then looked a little helplessly over to Danny. "What'd she say?" He sniffled and unnecessarily added, "I think I got some water in my ear." He then squeezed his eyes shut and slapped the side of his head with his flat palm a couple times.

"You don't say." Danny rolled his eyes and huffed.

...

- to be continued -

A/N: First off, a big Thank You to those who took the time to leave a review. I greatly appreciate it. Your kind, encouraging words made me very happy!

Second, and just for the record, I wrote this way before 3.04 aired. But I'm still sorry about sort of giving you a repeat of Steve jumping into polluted water and Danny watching from above.