I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: Gotta love these sneaky wabbits! thanks for your patience the sneaky wabbits were also oby-noxiously persnickety after insisting on additions. I say one or the other - they get to add something or be annoying - certainly not both!
HUGE thanks to CinderH - the bunny had totally gone off track (darn ether sniffing!). Thanks to TheDogo for kicking bunnies to the curb with a bit more purpose! :-)
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CHAPTER NINE
Danny was furious with himself and for the unwanted circumstance fobbed off on him. Scarcely able to even look at Steve, he sat in an embarrassed rumple in the passenger seat of Steve's Silverado truck. Exhausted and in a foul mood that had continued on for hours, he focused only on the dock and the two fishing boats which bobbed aimlessly side by side.
"I'm sure he's fine." Steve tried again, but got nowhere as Danny merely scowled through the windshield. Making a face, Steve pinched the bridge of his nose for his partner's ongoing ill temper before returning to the task at hand. If Danny had been entranced by the foreboding brought on by his nightmare, then Steve had been equally stunned by the eventual and very emphatic torrent of words.
Reading his friend's astronomical volume of stress, he'd insisted upon picking Danny up at home rather than meeting him at the office. Steve had found him outside on the sidewalk covered in a sheen of sweat and just pacing. The time waiting had allowed Danny's temper to simmer and then begin to boil over. Angry with himself as the worst of the dream faded, his attitude seemed to be even resentful as he slid into the Silverado.
Steve's initial questions were apparently too careful because Danny simply shut him down and tuned him out. Abandoning that caution, it cost Steve a very significant amount of determined prodding to get Danny to even begin speaking. Prodding turned into pointed demands, and he soon found that it was because this last dream was much worse than what he'd borne witness to. The defensive posturing proved it, as did Danny's initial reticence which conversely morphed into an animated retelling that still seemed greatly edited.
Studying the boats and cataloging movement below decks on one, Steve spoke softly into the air while rapping the steering wheel in the truck. "We'll put this to bed and call him."
"Whatever." The reply was abrupt as Danny bent his head to check his weapon for the hundredth time. His fingers were damp and he was barely able to sit quietly in the enclosed space as they waited for the buy to go down.
After the nightmare when he'd essentially pounced on his cell phone to blurt out his statement, Danny found that Steve hadn't called about Doctor Ramirez at all. He'd called about the failed overnight sting operation and a resurgence in the fractured group's activity. According to a much more reliable source, the deal would be going down at dawn and at a different, more remote marina. Apologizing for the last-minute scramble, Steve had called to convene the team for rapid deployment.
It had caught Danny completely unprepared and he'd had a terrible time mentally changing gears. Then, since he had slipped so very badly not only on the phone but in person, Steve had pushed because he didn't like what he saw nor the attitude that he was getting. Neither was the way to go into a mission and he argued only to get to the bottom of it.
Unable to gain his equilibrium, Danny had resentfully vented what he called a ridiculous story with a fair amount of self-editing especially related to his final sickening thought of maybe being killed by the vile creature. That latter part he absolutely kept to himself. Though some irritability remained mostly aimed at himself, the purge had helped to some extent. True to form, Danny was all business by the time they'd readied themselves down by the dock.
Taking a moment to size his partner up, Steve quizzically absorbed the tightly pinched expression. He was absolutely on the job but continually irked about the disturbing dreams. He sniffed under his breath in understanding because Danny was back to studying the docks and the faint shadows glimpsed through boat windows. Before he could say anything more on any subject, Danny leaned over in interest and instantly Steve was on alert.
"There. Let's go." Danny pointed with the muzzle of his gun. The movement was subtle but much more obvious since the two original silhouettes had become a hazy grouping of four. "It's going down right now."
He didn't wait for Steve as he thumbed his comm link to advise both Chin and Kono. Heaving an appreciative sigh, Steve allowed the assertive control as he followed his partner carefully out of the truck to put a more acceptable end to at least one issue.
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Hours later Steve received a call that he hadn't expected despite Danny's earlier issues. It was a call of reckoning that he didn't precisely know how to present to his team once he'd heard Ellen Ramirez out. He didn't know what to do after completely failing in calming the normally unflappable woman. More specifically, that conversation and its very special subject was something he didn't quite know how to present to Danny.
"Damn it." Alone in his office Steve swore softly as he stood over his desk and tried to organize his newly scattered mind. It had taken hours, but they had diligently wrapped up their early morning successful mission. The criminals were interrogated, dressed down, processed into the system, and duly jailed. Kono had already snuck out of the offices as soon as her signature hit the approval line at the bottom of her report. Danny had finally calmed down too, taking solace in his work. Steve was relieved for the healthy distraction, yet now all of those apprehensive feelings were going to percolate to the surface again.
"Ready to go?" Looking up sharply, Steve hadn't realized that he'd gotten so buried in his thoughts. Smiling and tapping his watch, Danny was in his doorway and obviously more than ready to leave for an early dinner downtown. "Drinks. Dinner? Day's over .."
"Ah, no. Not just yet actually. There's a bit of a problem." Caught off guard, Steve apologetically interrupted while staring into Danny's face. His entire demeanor caused the smile to evaporate, the happy comments to dwindle away and the worried lines of stress to instantly reappear.
"Something's come up." Leaning on his knuckles, Steve dropped his eyes to study the pen he'd left on his desk. "Ellen Ramirez just called."
"What?" Feeling the blood drain from his face, Danny's voice fell an octave to barely reach where Steve was standing. He didn't want to hear more of what Steve might say; not a single word of it. Before he could think, his feet moved by their own volition and he was striding angrily towards his own office before Steve could offer an explanation.
"Danny." He was too late because Danny was already gone. The door simply slammed shut and Steve heaved a worried breath as he watched his partner storm away. Instead of following him, Steve waved to Chin who sat baffled by the suddenly odd behavior between the two men.
"What was that about?" Chin questioned. "You two, okay?"
"I need you to check into the background of a Doctor Franklin Ray." Cutting to the chase, Steve worked entirely off his instincts. According to Ellen Ramirez, Ray was the last person to have been with her husband five hours earlier. While it wasn't an alarming amount of time, the plain fact was that it was entirely out of the ordinary for the caring doctor and devoted family man.
"The philanthropist? We met him at the clinic that one time." Expecting a better explanation, Chin was even more confused by the demand. "Okay. What do you want me to focus on ... and why?"
"Yeah, the very same man, Chin. I want to know what he's doing here in Oahu. Where he lives, who works for him, what he does on a daily basis, even what his hobbies are." Steve was speaking to Chin but nervously watching Danny as he paced miserably from one end to the other in his small office.
"I have a very good reason to pay him a personal visit, but need much more information. I need everything you can get on him and as soon as possible."
"Consider it done. But why ... and where are you going now?" Chin chuffed a noise as Steve rounded his desk with every intention of leaving.
"Doctor Ramirez has been reported missing by his wife." At that, Chin's jaw literally fell open in surprise. However, he kept his counsel while waiting for Steve to chunk through his mental processes. "Danny and I are going to the family home to interview Ellen and his brother, Mike. Doctor Mitchell will also be meeting us there since he was the one who first thought there might be a problem because Ponch never showed up at the clinic today and no one can reach him."
"How does Franklin Ray figure into all of this?" Chin knew there had to be a common thread. There had to be some sort of relationship between the two, and once again, he was left surprised by the answer.
"Ray was the last one to see Ponch this morning. Ellen said she called him and so did Jazz, but the man suddenly seems quite unable to help." Having only met him one brief time at the clinic, Steve already didn't trust that initial response. While Ray had seemed pleasant enough, in truth he had been aloof and dancing through overly polite words which could be perceived as not entirely sincere. As heresy, that interaction meant mostly nothing. However, Ponch had considered him a much closer friend and based on what Ellen related, certain things didn't feel right. Coupling all of this with Danny's disturbing story or dream or whatever they tried to call it and the situation was distinctly unsettling.
"Jazz had a voicemail from Ponch that he'd be late because he was visiting Ray's home to help with something important. He didn't say what exactly, however he never showed up at the clinic. He missed each and every one of his appointments."
"You got it." Understanding that Steve needed to meet the doctor fully armed with information, Chin nodded in consent. "Give me a few hours and I'll have what you want and, if it's meant to be, even a search warrant."
"Thanks." Scooping up the keys to his truck, Steve leaned into Danny's office before fully entering to block the repetitive path. "Danny, let's go. "We need to see Ellen and I'll fill you in on the specifics in the truck."
Taking the higher dominant road, Steve purposefully invaded his partner's space, and was forced to stumble backwards when Danny rudely brushed past him in a furor. An elbow just missed Steve's sternum as his tightly strung friend stalked from the office and down the hall. Muttering under his breath, Steve shook his head uselessly as he trotted to keep up.
Doing his best to ignore the tempest in the passenger seat, Steve caught Danny up while on the road, knowing that he was paying attention to every word despite the fractious attitude. However, Danny was listening in and around flitting images of broad-shouldered silhouettes backlit by skittish horses and colorful snakes. After making it through the bulk of the day, Danny had moved on by focusing on his work, and had stupidly assumed it was over. He had assumed that Ponch was fine, that nothing had happened and the dream had been nothing more than that.
Nonetheless, one unexpected phone call had ruined that particular notion.
The shocked surge of anger had faded quickly only because he was simply exhausted. A poor night's sleep interrupted not once, but twice and Danny found that he was again mentally back-pedaling to keep up with events.
He was bone-tired, worried and continually off-kilter. Pausing to try and focus, he chose to lean his head against the cold glass of the window, closing his eyes in an attempt to moisten what felt like a dry-eyed burn.
"You okay?" Danny knew the question would be coming and he waved an idle hand between them to acknowledge and refute the careful tone. He was upset, yet essentially fine. However, he suddenly didn't feel like speaking as his head gently thumped the glass in time to a rougher portion of highway. It wasn't to last though as he lazily jounced along to the truck's heavy ride.
There was a muted disagreeable sigh, indicating that the abstract wave wasn't enough. A faint smile glimmered because Danny easily imagined the occasional circumspect glances based upon the subtle drift or slight change in forward motion.
"Eyes on the road, partner." Danny drawled tiredly, satisfied for once when he heard the muffled surprised snort from the driver's seat.
"You sic'd Chin on this Doctor Ray character pretty fast." Keeping his head wearily braced against the glass, Danny only half-rotated his head to peer one-eyed over towards Steve. After a short sleepless night and a very long active day, he was now working on squirreling away any remaining energy reserves for the visit to Ellen Ramirez. What he wasn't sure he'd be able to hide were the ghostly shadowed images lurking so closely to the surface. His voice was slightly raspy and giving away a bit of that truth, too. But he approved Steve's move whole-heartedly, knowing that anything Chin might uncover would be helpful before they paid the wealthy philanthropist a personal visit.
"I have a feeling we're going to need more than the usual background check. I want us prepared when we get over there to ask Doctor Ray a few questions using our own special brand of tactic." Steve stayed intentionally bland, recognizing Danny's need for space and yet support at the same time. He grinned, pleased when Danny managed a short laugh at his choice of words. He had witnessed one disconcerting nightmare for himself, and didn't doubt that morning's event was any less the trial.
Especially based upon how he'd found his partner treading in an agitated repetitive circle in his own parking lot.
On top of it all, what Danny had confessed had stayed with Steve throughout the entirety of the day. It had stayed in the recesses of his mind through their morning operation, through interrogations and had just come to be a dusty, moldy feeling of disquiet until Ellen Ramirez's phone call. Glancing over to where Danny still sat huddled up against the passenger door with his eyes closed, Steve disapproved of the lax way he was limply rocking in time to the truck's movement. Because for that outward appearance of supposed relaxation, the gritted set of his jaw was easily giving him away.
Steve knew that if the edited version of the dream had stayed with him as a second-hand story of sorts, then it had been and continued to be much worse for his partner.
~ to be continued ~