A/N: Thanks for reviews and follows! This is my longest story, so I'm glad to see that people are still following and enjoying it! Sorry I couldn't respond to people this week. Hopefully can do better next week.

It was soft muttering that first reached Danny in the depths of his sleep, a vague drone that interrupted his pleasant and much-needed slumber. He followed it, unwillingly, through layers of dreams and visions that were forgotten the moment he left them behind, leaving him just on the verge of wakefulness.

"Hey."

Something- no, someone- nudged his foot.

"You awake?"

Danny groaned.

"Come on, sleeping beauty. Rise and shine. We've got a lead."

Danny cracked an eye open and glared at the blurry image of his partner towering over him. He was sprawled across the bed in Steve's guest room, his head resting on his arm as the pillow had somehow been knocked to the floor. An ocean breeze poured through the open window and he suddenly identified the droning noise that had interrupted his sleep- waves.

He probably opened the window on purpose, Danny grumbled to himself. Nature's alarm clock- oh boy. Danny groaned again and rolled over. "What time is it?"

"A little after 9. You slept a solid 8 hours, buddy." Steve, his hair still wet from either a swim or a shower, was already dressed and apparently ready to go. He set something on the end table near Danny's head. "Here. Got your meds and some water. You can eat in the car."

Danny pushed himself up and blinked blearily around the room. "How do we have a lead? We haven't been in the office for nearly two days."

"Jerry. He called just a few minutes ago, says he has something for us." Steve grabbed the clothes Danny had tossed aside last night and chucked them at the detective. "He wouldn't tell me over the phone, so get your six in gear and let's go."

"Steven?" Danny fixed his partner with a hard look. "What happened to the doctor's orders? Bed rest and no work until we visit Queen's?"

"You're not doing any work, Danny! I'm driving, I'm following up on the lead, and I'll even do all the talking if you want."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Danny groaned but threw aside the blanket and stood wearily from the couch. With nothing else to wear (Steve's clothes certainly wouldn't fit), he pulled on the borrowed shirt and pants that the Hilo captain had generously loaned him yesterday and made a mental note to send the man a very nice thank-you note and reimbursement check.

Dressing took longer than normal, in part because his head still hurt, his chest still ached, and his throat was still a bit sore. Overall, though, he felt much better than at any point yesterday. Catching Steve's concerned look as he winced, Danny forced a brief smile. No point in worrying the man more than necessary. Danny was looking forward to spending a night in his own bed, but knew it wouldn't happen if Steve wasn't satisfied with his recovery. As it was, he had until early afternoon before his appointment to see the doctor at Queen's and hopefully be cleared for field duty… unless the case (or, more likely, Steve) got in the way.

Combing his hair down with his fingers, he dutifully downed his medication, took the proffered banana and toast, and followed Steve out the door.

…

"Underwater rugby."

"What?" Steve risked a glance over at his partner in the passenger seat. One banana, dry toast, a (decaf) coffee, and two hot malasadas later, Danny had finally perked up and become his usual chatty self. Steve was torn between feeling relieved and annoyed. Thankfully, the office was only a few minutes away.

"Underwater rugby. Your new sport."

"My new sport? Danny, we had this discussion last night. I don't need a new sport."

"You haven't seen this one, babe." Whipping out his phone, Danny pulled up a You Tube clip and thrust the small device in Steve's line of sight. "It looks like an Atlantis mating ritual, but this is perfect for you. It's like the sport was made for ex- Navy SEALs."

"Uh…" Distracted, Steve caught a few seconds of the writhing swimmers wrestling over a ball underwater before he returned his eyes to the road. "What brought this on?"

"You. The other day. Went swimming with that suspect in the water, down by the docks. You've been… agreeable… since then. Like it calmed you down." Danny waved one hand as the other protectively held his precious coffee. "You've had some kind of cabin fever -or whatever your species gets when you can't chase and shoot things- and then- bam!- you're nice and… and pleasant. As your partner, I want you to be this happy all the time, so I did some research and I found it." Danny took a deep breath and spread his hands dramatically. "Underwater rugby." He grinned and took a sip of coffee. "What do you think?"

"I think it's… interesting." Steve actually thought that he could beat both teams with his hands bound behind his back. "But Danny, I don't need a sport. Like I said, we've had that discussion."

"Babe, it's perfect for you. You'd probably excel at it."

Steve smirked. Yes, I probably would. "Danny, Jerry is waiting for us. He's back in town and got us a lead, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah… You mentioned that already. But I'm off-duty, remember?"

Steve grinned. "Don't worry- one hospital visit coming up, right after lunch," he promised.

…

At the office, Jerry leaned on the smart table, flipping between a myriad of windows and images on the large screen. Wholly engrossed, he didn't notice the arrival of Steve or Danny as they pushed through the glass doors and approached the table.

"Morning Jerry," Steve greeted. "What have you got for us?"

"You are not going to believe this!" Jerry said wide-eyed, practically quivering with excitement.

"Uh, okay." Steve exchanged a look with Danny as they took up positions on either side of the conspiracy theorist. "Not going to believe what? What am I looking at?"

"Recognize this face?" Jerry pulled up a DMV photo of a young man, early 30's, with dark, curly hair and green eyes.

"No."

"Yes."

Steve turned to Danny in surprise.

Danny shrugged. "He's that curly-haired putz from the café the other day. Pushed right past our table, didn't stop to say 'excuse me' or anything like that."

"You remember that?!"

"What? He was rude. I remember offensive people."

Rolling his eyes, Steve turned his attention back to Jerry. "What did he do?"

"He doesn't exist."

"What do you mean? That's his driver's license, isn't it? Is it fake?"

"Oh yes. I mean no, it's a real DMV photo, but everything about the guy is fake- name, SSN, age… In a way, it's a very clever forgery."

"How clever are we talking?" Danny wanted to know. "And how'd you find this guy? I only saw him that one time."

"You may have only seen him once, but he's seen you plenty." Pulling up several stills taken from security cameras across Honolulu, Jerry pointed out the same face in multiple frames. "I actually started with footage from the night that Steve was drugged, but I didn't get anything since that footage has been edited."

"Hang on," Steve threw out a hand, "what do you mean, 'edited'?"

"It's basically just a fifteen minute loop that repeats all night until about 3am. So you're watching the same 15 minutes of nothingness the whole time. And there's no way to figure out who messed with it- they cleaned up after themselves pretty well."

Steve frowned and caught Danny's eye. Danny shrugged. Your guess is as good as mine.

"Anyway," Jerry continued, "so then I decided to follow you guys around during the week and see if anything stood out. I started seeing the same car over and over and that's when I spotted this dude- Aaron Hernandez."

"So who is he?"

"On paper, he's a master's student at the university. He's also got some speeding tickets from HPD and two old drug charges from his 'hometown' back in Texas. Thing is, those charges are fake."

"Hold on," Danny interrupted, "If you're making a fake ID for yourself, why give yourself fake charges? Doesn't that kind of defeat the point?"

"Depends on who's looking at it." Steve pulled up the fake charges and studied the documents on the screen. "If you're trying to get in with the wrong crowd, a clean record is not what you want. This is perfect- just enough to make him look bad, but not enough to raise suspicion if he gets pulled over for a minor traffic violation." He flipped through the other information Jerry had uncovered. "It's probably a fake name, fake SSN, fake record, fake background, but a real local address. This is a cover, Danny, and it's a good one. It's been designed to withstand some pretty serious scrutiny."

"Okay." Danny scratched his jaw and tried to wrap his head around the new information. "So who is this 'Mr. Hernandez' and what does he actually want?"

Jerry shrugged. 'No idea. I figured you guys might know that after your little adventure on Wednesday."

"Really? How could we know that?"

"Oh, because he was there." A few more taps and a grainy video appeared on screen showing Danny and Steve being taken from the animal control truck Wednesday evening. Jerry paused it and pointed to a car sitting discreetly in a lot nearby. "That's his car. He may not have been involved in the action, but he was there, watching it all."

"You know…" Shaking his finger at the screen, Steve turned to Danny. "This would explain how they found us in the first place. How they knew our route. He's been watching us all week."

Danny looked around the office nervously. "Could he be listening in right now?"

"No," Steve shook his head. "I checked the office for bugs on Tuesday. It's clear. But that would explain how they were able to pin us down in that side street and capture us Wednesday evening. He must have passed them some sort of information."

"Makes sense, but why?" Danny asked.

"Let's ask him," Steve said, already heading for his office. "Jerry, do you have a real phone number on our suspect?"

"Sure do."

"Is it active? Where is he now?" Steve pulled his tac vest from a cabinet and tossed the gun cabinet keys to Danny while Jerry ran a trace.

Danny stood in the center of the room with the keys to the gun cabinet in his hand as his partner hurried to his office and began pulling on a tac vest and loading up his pockets with 'essentials.'

"Uh… Steve?"

Steve didn't hear him. Pulling the Velcro tight, he clipped a few flash-bangs to his belt and checked his backup weapon.

"Steven!" Danny waved his hand in front of his partner's face to get his attention. "Desk duty. Resting. Me. Remember?"

"Oh." The hospital visit had already slipped his mind. "Right. It's okay, D. I'll just call Duke and have him loan me someone." But as he hesitated, Jerry suddenly called them over.

"Uh… guys?" Jerry pointed to a flashing light appeared on the screen. "According to this… he's right outside."

"What?!" Desk duty and hospital clearances forgotten, Danny grabbed his own vest and yanked it over his head as Steve snagged a rifle from the gun rack and stuffed extra rounds in his pocket. Together, the partners ran down the stairs, leaving a somewhat-flustered Jerry behind.

"Okay." Jerry looked around the suddenly-empty office. "I'll just stay up here. Inside. Where it's safe. Yeah…"

…

But 'Aaron Hernandez' wasn't right outside for long. With a squeal of tires, he pulled out of the parking lot as soon as Steve and Danny ran out the front doors of the building. By the time they reached Danny's car and jumped inside, he was gone.

"Jerry?" Steve called over the phone. "He's running; we need a location!"

"Okay. Uh…." In the background, Jerry could be heard manipulating something on the computer. "His phone is still active. He's headed north on Bishop Street. Looks like he's headed for the Pali Highway."

"On it." Swinging toward Pali Highway, Steve sped up and tried to close the distance. But with a windsurfing competition scheduled that afternoon at Kailua, everyone else was apparently heading same direction. After several frustrating minutes of weaving in and out of traffic, he turned to Danny. "See anything?"

"Not yet."

"Hey Steve?" Jerry's voice came over the speakers. "Thought you might want to know- he ditched the phone. The signal just stopped about a thousand feet in front of you."

Steve cursed under his breath and scanned the traffic ahead.

"Got it!" Danny called suddenly. "Five cars forward, right hand lane."

Both cars were on the Pali now, and as Steve sped up, the other car lurched forward as well, speeding into traffic and flying through the last red light above Manoa Valley. The Camaro followed close behind, climbing up the mountain, then into the dark tunnels that cut through the volcanic ridge. A moment later, they emerged to the perpetual mist and the rain that clung to the top of the ridge. Danny squinted ahead.

"Lost him," he muttered under his breath as he scanned the cars crowding the narrow highway.

They entered the second tunnel and, a moment later, broke into the bright sunshine overlooking Kailua Bay.

Danny looked again. "Found him. Four cars ahead, left lane." As the highway dropped toward Lanikai and Kaneohe, Danny noticed no real progress had been made toward closing the gap between them and 'Hernandez.'

"Dang," he commented as Steve swerved around a truck that refused to yield to his flashing lights, "I think this Hernandez guy is almost a better driver than you are." He winced as they passed another car on the shoulder, placing them close- a little too close- to the guardrail. "And by better, I mean crazy fast. I'm not saying either one of you is a good driver. Just that you've got skills and he's got skills."

"Skills that he shouldn't have."

"What do you mean? And watch out for the-"

"Yeah, I see it." Jerking the wheel impatiently, Steve sped around a motorcyclist that had popped out from in front of a minivan. "The techniques he's using, Danny. They're the same ones I was taught."

"So?"

"So. It's like hand-to-hand combat: each country and branch of the military has their own style that they teach. If you're good, you can identify a foreign soldier's country of training just based on his fighting style. Driving is the same way."

"Okay, so you're saying this guy trained at the same Secret SEAL Spy School as you?" Danny gripped the door handle as Steve opted to turn the shoulder into an extra lane. "Hey! Stay on the road! On the road!"

"This is the road, Danny!" but Steve pulled obediently back over the white line as the Pali Highway dropped further toward the coast. "BUDs isn't a 'secret' SEAL school, Danny. And I'm just saying that something doesn't add up."

They flew past a few neighborhoods, struggling to keep up as the small, dark car in front of them turned right suddenly at the Castle Medical Center. With a squeal of tires, Steve followed, narrowly avoiding the curb as they rounded the corner on two wheels.

"Where the hell does he think he's going?" Steve growled. "This doesn't go anywhere. It dead-ends." They turned again, this time into a neighborhood in Lanikai and Steve slowed for a group of kids playing basketball who scurried out of their path. A moment later, the car in front of them pulled over suddenly to the side of the road and a figure leaped out, jumped the chain link fence, and went scurrying up the grass hill.

"Um, Steve?" Danny eyed the sign affixed to the fence in concern. "That sign says, "US Government, No Trespassing."

"Good thing I'm a government employee." Steve didn't bother to wait for the car to come to a complete stop as he threw on the handbrake and leaped out the door after the man.

Danny shook his head. "One day, Steven. One day…"

…

Steve sprinted up the hill, leaving his gun holstered so he could use his hands to grab and pull at the steep terrain. He had opted to leave the larger rifle in the car, a smart decision, he evaluated as he slipped and scrambled on loose rock toward the top.

Cresting the hill, he was surprised to find the hill hollowed out into a shallow, grassy bowl with two low, round, metallic structures sitting near the center. Aaron Hernandez was nowhere in sight. Steve slipped down into the grass and waited, hoping that the light coastal breeze would shift the grass and reveal his suspect. When no one appeared, he drew his gun and crept cautiously forward.

"Danny?" he hissed after a moment into his radio.

No response.

"Danny! Come in."

Still nothing.

It was possible, of course, that the hill was blocking his signal, but it didn't sit quite right with Steve. Moving discreetly forward, he stayed hidden in the long grass as he approached the strange structures. As he circled around from the right, he was surprised to find that one of the structures contained a small door. Leaving his hiding place, he darted across the open space to the door and quickly tried the handle.

Locked.

Huffing in frustration, he tried again and failed to notice another figure emerge from the grass behind him. Before he could turn around, a gun was planted firmly against his head.

"Don't move."

…

"Well, that could have gone better."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Can't change the past. Let's just focus on fixing it."

"What do you want me to do?"

"You? Nothing. I'm going to handle this next bit."

A/N: Okay grammar geeks: Oxford comma- do you use it or not? And why (or why not?)