I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended. The same goes for the fantastic show and wonderful characters portrayed in Flashpoint.

Notes: thank you all for such awesome feedback! And especially to CinderH and Jazzie for tremendous beta help. I am putting this final chapter up now because work went to "hell in a hand basket" while I was on vacation. Plus my mother is scheduled for what will hopefully be minor surgery - but she is 81 so I am worried. Thanks for enjoying and for encouraging this latest story!

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Chapter 15

The meeting with Governor Denning went distressingly later than anticipated. It was nearing seven o'clock by the time they were done and able to leave for the night. Disgusted by the sometimes never-ending amount of work, Steve sighed audibly as he tossed his case book into the passenger seat and climbed into his truck. Once again, both Chin and Kono had left before him but he had made it clear that he would be swinging by Danny's place personally.

Before turning the key in the ignition, he pulled out his cell phone knowing already that Danny had tried to call him, too. He wasn't all that surprised to see that Danny hadn't left him a voicemail message, either. He hadn't been able to take the call. The meeting had just been kicking off .. late .. and based on the man's steely glare, the Governor had been in no mood for another interruption. Hesitating only briefly, Steve had reluctantly been obligated to let Danny's call go.

He took the returned call as a good sign though; one that meant he was welcome to call back again. Emotions had been running murky and deep and he hoped they could simply talk it out if and when Danny was ready. Steve leaned back in the truck and hit redial but once more there was no answer and this time, it didn't sit well. Steve was sure that Danny wouldn't be sleeping this late into the day. Staring at the screen, he frowned as he left a short message.

"Hey, Danny. Just got out of a meeting with Denning. I'm on my way over." Steve's next move was a natural, spontaneous reaction and one that he had intended from the very start. And though it could look as if they were tag-teaming their recovering friend for a third time, Steve didn't wait for a reply. He simply drove directly to the small apartment complex.

"He didn't. Where's the damn car!"

Steve's jaw immediately clenched in anger because the first thing he noticed was that the Camaro was missing; and Danny wasn't cleared to drive. He parked in an open space and counted cars to be certain before furiously yanking his cell phone out for a second time and thumbing redial firmly. Ana's voice lurked in the back of his head more ominously and now Steve was truly worried. Sad was one thing, missing again after being released from the hospital for scarcely the half of one day, was entirely something else.

Steve nervously tapped the seat of his truck as the cell phone rang once and then twice. And then on the third tone he nearly jumped when Danny's voice finally echoed back at him. The one word acknowledgement was calm, blandly quiet but certainly welcoming. And the tone immediately set him even more on edge.

"Steven."

"Where are you?" He had to stop himself from practically punching the steering wheel in his frustration because the only thing Steve could hear in the background was the distant sound of waves and the overwhelming cat-calls of sea-gulls. He glared suspiciously at the phone because he could have sworn he heard a poorly stifled yawn.

"Damn it, Daniel. Where in the hell are you? You have no business driving .. or even getting out of bed."

He heard the measured sigh, the rustling of a papers and then a somewhat amused but not so oddly tired, chuckle. Chin had explained Danny's release orders and two to three days of bed rest were top priorities. Ana had stressed a concern about Danny already not heeding doctor's orders. And the proof of that was staring Steve directly in the face.

"I'm fine."

"Daniel. Answer the first question." Driving or running around town were most definitely not part of the recovery plans, but then Steve didn't know what to think of the final explanation. On top of it, he could easily hear the hint of roughness in Danny's voice which made it sound suspiciously as if he might have even been sleeping. "Where are you?"

"Calm down, big guy. I'm sitting outside on your lanai, Steven. I guess we had the same idea. Ships in the night and all of that. But if you're offended by my visit, I'll leave." There was a pause as Danny apparently checked the time on his watch. He seemed surprised and his tone became defensive as his voice took on an odd strain.

"In fact, I've been here for hours and it's so late .. you must have had plans. So I'll pack it up now and be gone before you ..."

"No!" His interruption and correction were quick as his brain mis-fired and he hastily made sure that Danny would stay exactly where he was. "No, we had a meeting with Denning which ran over. So, of course not. I just .. didn't expect you to be there. Which is why I came here."

Steve groaned as he ran his hands over his face since they evidently both had similar ideas and it was starting to sound like a comedy of errors. So he quickly back pedaled as he restarted his truck and got on the road. On the other side of the connection Steve could sense Danny calming too. The minor notes of regret or possibly even defensiveness completely faded as soon as he'd said the Governor's name. But now Danny was oddly quiet and Steve couldn't help making sure things were fine.

"You okay?" There was another short pause before the small and almost startled confession reached his ears.

"I fell asleep." Biting his tongue to smother an automatically snide remark, Steve grinned to himself as Danny tried to lamely change the subject. "So. You had a meeting?"

"With Denning. It ran late. I'll be there in five." In his honest relief, Steve's voice lost most of its strain. "Just stay put, Danny. I'm on my way now."

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Danny's best plan was to return to Steve's house to wait for him to come home from work. Chin was right. But most of all, Ana was right. And then his apology could only be done face to face and by the time he'd resolved himself, Danny was anxious to set things straight. Unaware of the late work meeting, that plan had taken much longer to put into play than anticipated and Danny had fallen asleep outside on the lanai. The first call from Steve had woken him in a disoriented, bleary-eyed state and he was just waking more as his phone rang a second time.

Minutes after speaking to him, Steve was standing over his partner and accepting a rather subdued but honest apology. He had noticed the unopened case of Longboards on the nearby table as well. It was a type of planned peace offering; an important aspect of any Williams' style apology .. or celebration. In fact, after purposefully pointing to the bottles Danny had begun speaking almost immediately and Steve hadn't even had a chance to lambaste him for daring to drive.

At that point, the only thing Steve could do during a short lull was repeat his much earlier words. There was nothing to recant and the honest truth was that any one of them would do it again. "Danny, really .. I had to."

"I know. It was standard protocol." The conversation was much different this time. Danny was staring blankly at the ocean as he smiled and was completely relaxed into the lounge chair. "But this thing with Ana was just something I kept so long to myself. Only a very few were privy to that knowledge and so, Ana's files were sealed. Permanently. This whole situation with her has been ours .. no - mine - it was mine. For so very long."

Danny shook his head in self-disgust as he amended the words and closed his eyes, completely tapped by the long and very emotional day; not to mention the week. He had never considered how much he had made her existence his own. Heaving a sigh, Steve sat down quietly next to him to listen. It was obvious that Danny needed to purge the whole story from beginning to end.

"Just so many years of keeping her safe and making sure she grew up .. whole and in one piece. I followed her through CPS and then foster care. At the time, I wasn't in any position to do anything myself and I would have. I even briefly tried to initiate the steps; but the timing was wrong. The pieces didn't fit for a single, cop father and a troubled eight-year old." Steve raised his eyebrows in surprise at the personal level of commitment Danny had dared to consider for a child he barely had known at the time.

"But she was lucky. Ana was such a pretty little girl with that long black hair and a sweet smile. And so very smart. Her foster family never officially adopted her, but they were a steady and well balanced family unit. They knew how to deal with her needs and they helped her through the night-terrors and all of those deeply buried secrets. In that, they did more than I ever could have done."

His eyes stayed closed as he recounted the story but there was a smile playing across his lips. "We kept in touch constantly. She was jealous when I met Rachel you know. She actually cried when she heard about Grace's birth. I had to reassure her that we would always be there for each other. And I did .. we did .. all these years."

Danny's next words began on a long shuddering inhale to end on the softest of whispers. "I don't know; I over-reacted I guess because I thought she wouldn't be able to handle the truth. And it was me all along. I couldn't handle having her know the truth because all I remember is the first time I saw the face of a terrified eight-year old girl hiding under a bed."

A half-grin crossed Danny's face and while it supported the new peace he was feeling, Steve could see the mounting exhaustion in the deep lines creasing his forehead. "She handled all of this much better than me. Ana was a great kid and I've still been treating her like that same little girl. She reminded me of that today, too."

"She's still lucky and she knows it." Steve smiled warmly and blew out the breath he'd been holding for what felt like an eternity. "From what I can see, she's grown into a wonderful, smart and beautiful young lady."

And then Danny was still acting almost like a proud semi-father as he beamed up at Steve. "That she has. She's one of the few to beat the system."

"I still can't believe that he showed up. Here. I can't believe what he almost did." Unable to remember what had happened that day, Danny still was shocked by Robbie Clancey's arrival on the island and what he had dared to do. Sobering now, his voice dropped to a dull whisper. He still couldn't wrap his head around what had happened and the days he'd lost in the hospital. Ana's fear merged into his own and then on to what could have been a lost future with Grace.

"She was right again, Steve. I thought I was protecting her all this time. But if she hadn't finally learned the truth, Robbie would have won. Her life could have been irrevocably destroyed especially if you all hadn't figured out exactly what was going on."

Danny massaged the space in the middle of his forehead and his fingers skimmed the small bandage still protecting the healing scar from the incision on his temple. And then his eyes met Steve's own. "The truth had to come out and it was the right thing to do. You did the right thing for this as a case, for me and for Ana .. and I don't know what else to say except that I was wrong."

"We did what we always do, Danny."

Danny made a small agreeable sound and then smiled at the truth of that simple statement which also alleviated his newly growing stress after mentioning Clancy's name. His team and his friends were one in the same. Ana wasn't the only lucky one in the equation.

"We didn't have anything to go on, Danny. Nothing." Steve took the opening to stress his own form of apology. "We didn't know who Ana was .. I didn't know where you were going that morning. Kono was critical to kick-starting our first few leads and we took off from there."

The amused and approving eye roll wasn't lost on Steve when he brought up Kono's name. The entire team was now very much well-aware of her proficiencies with virtually any type of computer related device. "One thing let to another and we didn't know if the closed files held useful clues or not; but it was the natural next step. And once we got the information, it was obvious that Robbie would never have known the real truth."

Steve paused and then scowled darkly. "So yeah .. we could maybe have taken him down without revealing the actual case data."

"No. No, Steve there's need for second guesses on this one." Danny was dismissively waving his hand in the air with a genuine acceptance. "No more what if's. I've done enough of that for a lifetime."

They sat together in a friendly relaxed silence until Steve glanced over once with a sly smile spreading across his face. "So tell me, Danno. Are there any more out there that I need to know about?" The bubbling laughter was just lurking below the surface as he tried to carelessly shrug off his light taunt.

"I mean .. if you have any more of these hidden secrets, don't you think we should share more? In fact, I distinctly remember you saying that to me once."

Danny awkwardly turned in the chair with an incredulous look. "Share?"

He opened his mouth once and then twice before his finger came up soundlessly as if to object. Steve's grin widened across his face and he leaned over to snag a Longboard from the case. It felt like a victory as he stymied his normally verbose partner. But just as he opened the bottle and took his first measured pull of beer, Danny leveled him with a wicked glare.

"I can neither deny nor confirm the truth of that statement, Steven."

What little liquid had trickled down Steve's throat came flying back up as he reddened and sputtered foam over his shirt and chin. He had to use the back of his arm to wipe the beer from his face as Danny snorted happily from where he sat. "Perfect."

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Less than an hour later, Steve chuckled softly to himself. He had already plucked Danny's keys coyly from where they had fallen to the ground near the lounge chair. Safely stowed in his pocket, there would be no driving on the horizon, at least for the foreseeable future. Standing, he then meaningfully held his hand out. Danny looked as if he might keel over in a sitting position if that could even be possible.

"Come on. Let's go."

Based on how Danny had left the Camaro, he had been forced to virtually park sideways in his own driveway. He also had noticed that Danny's shirt wasn't exactly buttoned correctly from top to bottom. It was off kilter beginning at the first button where he'd completely missed the proper button-hole. The resulting mis-matched attempt left it puckered and pulled as if a two-year old had participated in dressing his partner - in the dark. And Steve would never dare bring up the socks which were not even in the same color family. And now he was virtually melting into the frame of the lounge chair.

Regardless of the various clothing related faux pas, until then Danny had flatly refused to leave the comfort of the lanai. Steve also knew that refusal was a studied deflection; Danny was utterly sapped of all his energy and hoped Steve didn't notice exactly how much he'd overdone it that afternoon. But night was now falling more rapidly and he'd been dozing long enough in the pleasantly fading light of dusk.

Danny frowned quizzically at the gesture as if it was poisonous. "What? I apologized. So now, you want to hold hands?"

"I thought we'd skip down the beach together." Steve grinned at the overtly disgusted expression that crossed Danny's face and then laughed. "Yeah, and then put you to bed. No, you fool. I want to help you up and by the way you look right now, you aren't going to get too far."

Even though Danny had taken his time and had driven carefully, the too bright sun and taxing day were clearly overwhelming. After both Ana and Chin had vented their justified arguments, his own thoughts hounded him until he could get them off his chest. And the wait for Steve to get home in order to talk, had taken much too long on top of everything else. And while it was now true that he felt undeniably better, that fact only allowed his physical ills to kick back in with a vengeance. So Steve was correct as Danny practically staggered to his uncooperative feet and his knees buckled.

"Whoa, pal! You must be overdue for meds." Steve was instantly there to add a supporting hand to save him from what would have been an ugly tumble. "Consider the riot act as having been read, partner. You can't afford a relapse, especially on the first day of being released from the hospital. I almost saved you the trip but you had to take it upon yourself to drive. So, I hope you had the foresight to bring your pain medication because the only thing you are going to do is put your feet up here and get some decent rest."

The owlish look supported the validity of the fondly stated reprimand. Danny was bone-tired and his head was definitely beginning to ache from the healing damage made worse by bright sun, incessant activity and his own brand of personal, mental game playing.

"Yeah. Meds are in the car." He was finally content to be escorted into the cooler recesses of the rambling house. For the time being, bed meant the comfortable sofa and meds indicated a need for a mandatory light dinner first. After those chores had been suitably accomplished, Steve found himself spreading blankets over his soundly sleeping friend as the television hummed in the background. He was pleased to see the deep furrows and heavy stress lines ease considerably across his face as Danny readjusted his position and fell into a deeper sleep.

"Classified ." Steve gave out with a soft injured sniff and then shook his head as he remembered what Danny had forgotten as a result of the beating. Those first words still rankled him and left a bad taste in his mouth. And even though Danny didn't recall voicing it, his actions echoed his strong feelings up until that very day. But the realization of his own abused feelings gave Steve reason to pause for when he might use the word so quickly in the future.

"Classified my ass, Danno." But Danny's latest dry wit had him smirking happily. There was no way Steve could hide the chuckle at that point about his partner's correctly put use of neither being able to confirm nor deny the existence of other Ana Madison-like past cases.

The smile turned to a hesitant frown though as Steve turned from the window to gaze at the distant slumbering shape hidden safely under the mound of blankets.

Danny hadn't actually answered the question.

~ END ~