I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Steve caught up to Danny just as he was hitting the hospital's primary exit to the parking lot. Unable to do more than offer his presence as support, Steve maintained a certain respectful distance at the same time. The cold case was now resolved but everything which had originally transpired had clearly occurred on Danny's original home turf. While Steve obviously knew the general particulars about Hannah Murphy, he needed to let his partner run the show. So, what had just occurred with Riku Bhandari was entirely Danny's own. At least up until the point where Steve anticipated now stepping in to help solidify the evidence to officially resolve Hannah Murphy's case with one hundred percent surety.

Steve watched as Danny winced and slammed sunglasses into place. His left handed fumble for the truck's handle slipped and he nearly missed the running board while pulling himself in. Before Danny could even try to awkwardly reach over his body, Steve was there to close the door.

"I can't believe this." Danny intentionally banged his head twice against the soft headrest as the truck started to move. "Can you believe this?" The look he gave Steve was filled with every emotion from disbelief to even a satisfied glimmer of success. He was upset but also oddly pleased as he struggled to find the right place to land his feelings.

"You were right about getting some good out of something bad," Steve remarked thoughtfully. He respected Danny's right to process the magnitude of what had just been resolved after such a long period of time. As unfortunate as it was, the link to an old tragic case moved Danny beyond Doctor Franklin Ray and well past bad dreams. The good which had been derived provided a better purpose on a few different levels. But he wanted to help, as did Chin and Kono, and he was firm though he remained careful.

"While you're out for the next few days, we will go back in and write this up. I'll get Bhandari's lawyer out here again and we'll close it ... ironclad it. When it's ready and when you're ready, bring in whomever you need to close the Jersey side. Including contacting the family."

At first wanting to object, Danny's mouth opened and then closed with a startled but agreeable sound. The proverbial angst of paperwork, continued questioning and finalizing reports to make the new charges stick would take days. Re-engaging the right officials from New Jersey would also take time since personnel had turned over long ago. Run-down, tired and still battling the residuals effects of illness, Danny sighed but nodded in agreement. "Fine. Okay ... you win. Thank you."

Intrigued but pleased, Steve smiled while tapping the steering wheel. "You're welcome, Danno. And I know this might sound strange ... but congratulations." It was a difficult situation but also something to bring a certain level of satisfaction despite its generally unhappy ending. His glance towards Danny discovered a small but duly sad smile in place.

Steve's final look was at the bandages on his partner's gently cradled right hand and he mentally changed direction for a new destination instead of the office or even Danny's place. It was time to exercise a certain executive level decision where Steve naturally assumed carte blanche over his second IC, subjecting the man to the flavors of his benevolent dictatorial rule. Almost too casually, the mental plans were put into motion with a startling ease as what should have been a particular turn at a stop sign became its direct opposite.

Once he had relaxed enough to realize that Steve was not driving towards the expected Five-0 headquarters, Danny now frowned while squirreling more upright in the passenger seat. His eyes narrowed distrustfully behind his sunglasses though he flatly refused to ask where they were going. Amused by the stubbornness, Steve continued to take circumspect glances over as Danny cataloged possible destinations.

"Are you kidding me?" Whipping off the sunglasses in surprise, Danny's eyes were wide as he and his partner pulled directly into the clinic parking lot. "Excuse me, but what exactly do you think you're doing?" For all of his musings, he hadn't quite caught on until Steve made a final right hand turn onto a battered and abused tertiary road.

"What is wrong with you!" It wasn't a question as Danny gestured one handed towards the rambling wooden porch. Throwing his truck into park and killing the engine, Steve leaned over with a coy smile which just begged Danny to argue.

"Forty-eight hour checkup, Danno, and you're right on time." Steve offered affably and without apology as he smoothly opened the driver's side door. The reverberating sound and vacuum of air nearly hurt Danny's ears when the door was slammed shut. Seconds later, Steve was dramatically opening the passenger side for his highly perturbed partner. "Let's go. Ponch awaits and he's a very busy man. Besides, Doctor Mitchell has an official question for Five-0. Not for you though because you're still on sick leave."

"Busy my ass. And what question?" Danny snarked in full annoyance as he slid out of the truck. Nailing his left middle finger into Steve's chest hard enough to force him back a step, Danny leveled a warning glare into his face before punctuating each word. "Subterfuge. Not. Appreciated."

Steve had to laugh as Danny virtually mowed him down to ascend the few short steps to the clinic's front door. As sad as it was, something good had come of their terrible last few days and Danny was actually more at ease ... more himself as he fell into a brief easy banter. Smiling broadly now, Steve once again followed in his partner's wake for the promised medical follow-up examination.

"Hey, Docs." Danny's greeting was aimed at both Doctors Ramirez and Mitchell who were standing side by side in the reception area. Both men looked up simultaneously, a set of mirror-imaged identical twins causing Danny to grin at the dual reaction. Doctor Ramirez had a son from a previous marriage. A son he hardly saw and no one on the island had ever actually met. Despite that, Jasper Mitchell seemed more like his mentor with every passing day and Danny wondered if the elder doctor had ever made the juxtaposition himself. He was still making the mental comparison when Ponch's jaw cocked solidly to the left.

"I hear you have a question for us, Jazz?" Danny asked with the utmost casual of tones. The younger doctor was about to reply when his mentor lay a stern quieting hand on his shoulder. Dutifully obliging, Jazz backed up to give Ponch room to speak.

"Is that your badge on your belt?" Eyebrows raised, the quizzical tilt to his head was first alarming to Jasper who could literally feel the harsh reprimand coming. He actually flinched when Ponch pointed to Danny's police issued revolver. While pointing, the finger in question rotated slowly in a counter-clockwise direction. "And there ... is that your gun?"

Unsuspecting, Danny shrugged in total confusion while resting his left hand casually on the closed holster. "Well, yeah Doc I am an officer. What did you expect to see?" Danny laughed, completely confused by the change in questioning tactic but finally hesitating briefly as Jazz shared a subtle shake of his head. Behind him, Steve gave out with a low amused chuckle.

"Not those. Not today." Ponch glared at his patient who was now measuring Jasper's rather horrified expression. No longer shoulder to shoulder, Jazz had purposefully sidled at least five steps away from Ramirez while behind Danny, Steve more obviously cleared his throat in warning.

"Tell me, Detective. When one is on holiday or vacation or let's say perhaps ... on sick leave. Does one normally carry either of those credentials so obviously on their person?"

"Oh." Danny got it then and grimaced as if in pain. "Uh. Well. Something came up."

"You have a fine team behind you, Detective. A very good one in fact." Ponch was only warming to his reprimand as he shoved past his younger peer to round into Danny's personal space. "What exactly came up that they couldn't handle for you while you recover for the next ten ... now eleven ... days? Hmm?"

"Uh. A case ... a very important case. But we discussed it in the truck ... Steve and I did ... and they're all going to take over now that it's ... wrapping up." His reply was far from eloquent and Danny blinked when Ramirez held his hand out meaningfully. "What did you just say about days? Eleven?"

Guessing that his hand was the issue as the doctor refused to offer added clarity, Danny rolled up his sleeve to demonstrate the healing but Ramirez only chuffed in disgust. Gently palpitating the wrist and forearm, he was displeased about the still reddened and obviously irritated area.

"It's still swollen. When did you change that dressing last?" Ponch was talking while now examining the thick fingers. Most of what he was doing was for show as he chuffed, clucked and made a series of disagreeable noises in his throat.

"This morning. It's fine. I feel fine, Doc." Feeling ridiculous now, Danny followed the doctor who tugged briefly on his elbow. Over his shoulder, he steeled a withered look directly towards Steve who shrugged dramatically while making a valiant effort to not laugh out right.

"He shouldn't be working yet," Jazz more quietly stated as Steve ambled slowly over. "But this important thing. It's still Franklin Ray I assume? It has to be something related to him."

"Yeah, but it's a good thing and Danny just about put it to bed this afternoon. He insisted on getting involved and really, it was his to manage so I can't blame him," Steve added as he watched Danny disappear into an examination room. His attention now rotated fully back towards Jasper Mitchell. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Money." Steve's interest was piqued as the one word rolled off Jasper's tongue. "There's this rather substantial amount of money which was deposited into the clinic's bank account and I don't want it ... I don't know what to do and I need your help."

"From who? From Ray?" It was the first time anyone in Five-0 had heard of such a thing occurring and Steve glowered as Jazz emphatically nodded. "How much are we talking about?"

"Two hundred thousand dollars. It's his donation ... and I don't want his blood money. I don't know what to do or where to go next." Jasper had discovered the deposit the prior night. Stunned surprised turned into anger and now he was simply settling on being very personally offended. He didn't know what to do until Ponch merely smiled and suggested calling Steve for guidance.

He sighed in relief as Steve did just that with a very simple explanation. "Consider it confiscated as part of this case, Jazz. It's that simple. I'll contact the right authorities in HPD and we'll get in touch with the bank. With your permission, we'll take it off your hands and submit it as additional evidence."

The cash was a boon to the small establishment and at first, a myriad of exciting possibilities had flooded Jazz's mind for one glorious second. One wonderful second of time where he imagined the lowly clinic becoming truly state of the art. His crash to earth was sudden and more realistic though. There was no way in his right mind or his conscience that he could live with himself for accepting this particular and much too sizable donation. After bringing it to Doctor Ramirez's attention, he had stated the same with a loud laugh. "You're just going to need to keep accepting the occasional island chicken as payment, my young friend!"

~ to be continued ~