Once again, thank you so much for all the lovely reviews! Bryce x

On with the fic...

Danny watched Steve swim ahead of the dinghy, his powerful strokes steady and rhythmic, and felt the slight lurch when the rope became taut. He dropped the bottle and twisted his body, determined to help paddle when he noticed Steve's arms slow under the weight of the tow.

A huge wave of despair washed over him and he swallowed hard at the hopelessness of the situation. He was going to die in the middle of the ocean, miles away from anywhere, all alone leaving his best friend fighting for both their survival by pushing himself until there was nothing left to give.

Life just sucked. Years as a cop, risking his life everyday and surviving, and this was the way it was all going to end? Danny never saw this coming. Even partnered with an insane Navy SEAL, he never thought he'd end his life as fish food. His irrational part of mind told him he should have known though, because fate was a bitch, and she'd outdone herself this time.

An image of his daughter flashed in his mind and he bit back a sob. She was the one thing that made his life worth living, his raison d'être, the one thing he'd done right, and his very soul ached so, so much that he might never see her again. Her angelic face, her infectious smile, her beautiful, big bright eyes ... She had her mother's eyes...

He never regretted leaving everyone and everything he'd ever known to follow his ex-wife to Hawaii, because he'd do anything for his precious daughter. What he did regret was that if he died, he'd be leaving her so young to grow up without her father. It was the one thing Rachel was most afraid of, being married to a cop. And even though Grace would still have her mom and Step-Stan, she wouldn't have her Danno.

And that thought, the idea of never seeing his little girl again, made Danny determined to fight harder, and he dipped his hand in the ocean and stubbornly paddled.

Eventually, finding he just didn't have the strength to help, he simply let his hand dangle limply over the side of the dinghy and rested his chin on the edge, resolutely keeping his eyes fixed on Steve. He could feel the baking sun on his bare back making his skin tight and sore, and was finding it harder and harder to stay awake and not give in to the calm lulling effects of the gentle rocking motions.

Danny knew he was in a bad way, and he knew Steve knew it, too. He'd lost a lot of blood, and recognised the telling symptoms of dehydration and the onset of shock due to the amount of his precious bodily fluid he'd leaked all over Chin's uncle's boat, in the ocean and the fucking dinghy. He was sweating, too, but his damp, clammy skin dried too quickly under the scorching Hawaiian sun, leaving him itchy and raw. Coupled with the intense throbbing, burning pain that radiated from his shoulder every time he breathed, Danny was pretty fucking miserable.

He had no idea what time it was. They'd set off that morning early, that much he did know, and was fairly sure it had been around noon when a gun-wielding psycho-pirate-wannabe had gate-crashed their relaxing little fishing trip and left them to die in a slowly leaking dinghy. But Danny still hadn't any idea how late in the afternoon it was. Of course, Steve, the know-it-all Super SEAL, could probably tell him down to the nearest nanosecond just by the position of the sun in the sky, licking his finger and holding up and seeing which way the fish were swimming, not that Danny could muster up the energy to actually care anyway.

Squinting out at the horizon still filled him with dismay when all he saw was ocean as far as his eyes could see; ocean, sky, and nothing else, and he seriously hoped Steve was swimming in the right direction, because he hadn't got a clue. He sighed wearily, breath hitching uncomfortably, rested his head on the dinghy and continued to silently watch his partner methodically cut through the waves, one long arm after another.

Just as he fought his eyes open once again, sudden renewed jolts of pain startled him instantly alert when something nudged the front of the dinghy, and adrenalin fuelled fear had him up in two seconds flat.

"Hey, what the hell was that?" he shouted out, his voice hoarse and raw. He looked up to see Steve stop swimming and turn to face him, steadily treading water to keep him afloat.

"What?"

"Something just bumped into the boat! Sorry, the dinghy."

Looking alarmed, Steve shook the water from his eyes and shouted back, "What d'ya mean something?"

Danny's eyes caught the shadow of something big just under the surface of the water, and his anxiety and fear for his friend quadrupled. "Something! Steve, there is something in the water, there is definitely something out there," he shouted urgently, waving his one good hand frantically. "C'mon, c'mon, get in the boat! What're you doing? C'mon!"

Steve, his eyes darting over the surface of the water, started back for the dinghy. Hearing the sheer terror in Danny's voice spurred him on, because his rational mind told him that the 'something' had to have been attracted by the scent of Danny's blood, and that was bad.

A fin broke the surface, slicing through the waves like a knife, and Danny's breath caught in his throat. He looked at Steve only a few feet away and saw the shark heading right for him.

"Steve, it's a shark!" he yelled, gasping through the pain in his shoulder to lean forward, hand outstretched. "Get outta the water! C'mon, c'mon! Hurry up!" Jesus Christ, it was gaining on Steve and he wasn't swimming fast enough! "It's right behind you! Get in the boat, get in the boat! C'mon, c'mon, get back in the boat! Come on... Come on!"

In a matter of seconds, Danny grabbed his partner's bicep and helped him back into the dinghy just as the wholly terrifying, huge, deadly fish swam by, so close that Danny swore he saw the thing's fucking teeth!

Panting, Steve leaned forward on his knees. "It's a dinghy."

What the hell? "It's a dinghy, huh? Even in the face of death you are annoying," Danny grouched, slumping back with his hand tight against his shoulder, watching as Steve's eyes roamed the ocean.

"Where'd it go? Ohh... That's a Tiger Shark, man," he said wide eyed, clearly both awed and scared shitless. Tiger Sharks were known man-eaters. He'd literally escaped with his life.

"That's a Tiger Shark," Danny repeated, shock settling in at the frightening turn of events.

"Yeah," Steve simply nodded. He looked at Danny, frowning at the man's flushed appearance.

"Well, no big deal then, right?" Danny snarked incredulously. "Have you seen Shark Week? I don't wanna be on Shark Week, alright?! That thing gets near you, you punch it in the nose, trust me."

Shark Week? Steve rolled his eyes, "I'm not gonna punch it in the nose!" He leaned over and pressed his fingers against Danny's throat, ignoring the scowl directed at him.

"That's what you're supposed to do; otherwise it eats your hands! I'm telling ya, I know this stuff," Danny carried on, wincing when Steve checked his shoulder.

Hiding his worry because Danny's pulse was too fast and weak, and he could practically feel the heat pouring off him from two feet away, heat that had nothing to do with his sunburn (which was bad enough), but everything to do with the raging fever he was now fighting, Steve balled up his discarded vest and dipped it in the ocean, squeezing the excess over the side.

"I'm not gonna disrespect this animal by provoking it," he stated, keeping up the lively discussion. He gently laid the cool wet material against Danny's burning skin, smiling tightly when he heard the grateful sigh.

"Please, please don't get all 'Island' on me now, okay?" Because, come on, a shark was a shark! A wave of dizziness rolled through Danny and his eyes slipped closed, only to snap open when he felt Steve's hand on his face.

"Besides, I'm cramping up bad, man, I need a rest," Steve murmured. It was true; his muscles were beginning to spasm painfully, though he knew he could go for a lot longer yet. But his concern over his friend, the man-eating shark currently shadowing them, and the fact that his plan to get them home had sunk along with his hope of being rescued made his mind up. "Right now, we take a break, we wait."

"Wait? Wait for what?" Danny looked around expecting to see a boat or something that Steve had neglected to tell him about.

"For the huge Tiger Shark to go away, Danny," Steve answered, adding determinedly, because even futile, any plan was better than none, "then we stick to the plan."

Sighing, Danny just shook his head. The ocean was devoid of anything except them, oh, and the fucking shark. "Trust me. It's gonna be a long wait."

"What, you're a shark expert now?" Steve mused, cocking his head to the side with a wry smile.

Scowl back in place, Danny lifted his finger and pointed it at his partner, "No, I am an expert on McGarrett the Danger Magnet!"

Of course! He was wondering when it came down to blame. "Oh, this is my fault?" Steve asked, grimly hoping it would provoke Danny.

Ranting meant he was still with him, still fighting...

"Who else on the planet earth could turn a nice relaxing day of fishing into a boat jacking and a shark encounter?"

A very good question, and given their bleak and grim situation, every fibre of Steve's being itched to just apologise for anything and everything, but he was scared that if he did, Danny's usually lively and active mind would quieten and he'd just drift away. Instead, he mustered up his inner bitch and let loose.

"I'm a danger magnet? Let me tell you something, it's your negative attitude!"

"Ooh I see, I see," Danny retorted right back. "So the shark can sense my negative attitude?"

Yeah, and smell his blood in the water, Steve thought darkly. He wasn't going to say that aloud though. "Sharks can sense fear, just like dogs."

Well, duh! "We are in a leaking dinghy, in the middle of the ocean, of course I'm scared!" Danny shouted, wishing he had the strength to punch him for pointing out the glaringly obvious.

Steve looked at him hard. It wasn't just the shark Danny was afraid of; it was the water, too. In fact in all his time he'd known him, he'd only seen his partner to go into the ocean a handful of times. Even surfing with him, Danny never ventured out to the big waves on his own. "It's water, Danny, it's just water," he reasoned wondering what the hell was going on with his friend.

"With Tiger Sharks and rip tides, and all kinds of other stuff to make you dead!" Danny counted off heatedly. "Not everybody's a Navy SEAL, Steve!"

The outburst exhausted what looked like the last of Danny's bluster, and Steve watched as he leaned his head back and sighed heavily, his hand, previously frenetically stressing his point, now lying limply on his thigh. He re-wet the vest and draped it over Danny's torso again, dragging a hand over his own face as his eyes tracked the movement of the Tiger Shark twenty yards to the left of them. He swallowed painfully, his dry throat raw, but doggedly continued on, needing to keep Danny awake and alert and fighting.

"Seriously, Danny, what is your problem with the ocean? Huh?" he asked bluntly. "I mean, who hates water? Sixty percent of the human body is water!"

Groaning, Danny lifted his head and fixed Steve with a baleful glare. He was tired, he didn't want to talk, he just wanted to rest, for fucks sake! "That explains why I hate people, alright? And you are at the top of my list," he hissed meanly.

"Yeah? Right now I'm thinking that shark would be better company," Steve bit right back when Danny's eyes closed again. Shit. "Hey, Danny-"

"Then go," Danny snapped, blinking rapidly awake. "Then go swimming with the Tiger Shark. But do me a favour... if he comes near you, punch him. I don't wanna be the one to tell your sister you ended up man-sushi!"

"Nobody is gonna be man-sushi!" Steve shouted back. "The ocean is fine, the ocean is safe, so long as you know what you're doing."

Licking at his dry and cracked lips, Danny shook his head. The ocean was deadly. It wasn't fine, it certainly wasn't safe... that not so friendly man eating Tiger Shark proved that. He leaned back and looked up at Steve, deciding to tell him why he hated the water so much. He reasoned that the odds of making it home alive were as good as making it through a whole week without being chased, shot at and/or beaten up at work with his crazy-assed partner anyway, so what would be the harm in sharing a private piece of his life with his best friend?

"I used to love the ocean, okay? I went to Wildwood every single summer of my life. My parents would rent a summer house there," he started softly, letting the long locked away memories flood his mind. "This one summer, my best friend Billy Selway... He comes with us, right?" Steve nodded silently. "And we had this competition thing going. Everything. Frisbee, ah, football, baseball, anything, you name it." Danny took a shuddering breath and shifted, bringing his hand up to his shoulder. "So, one day, we decide to swim out to the buoy and back. Half way out there I get stuck in this really bad riptide, and I, I start to panic. So, Billy sees me and he starts to head out to me, but then halfway out to me, something happens and he gets stuck in this undertow and, ah, one minute he's there, one minute he's gone." He stopped talking as he relived that awful moment, blinking when tears filled his eyes.

Steve pressed a hand to Danny's knee. "I'm sorry, man."

"Found his body three miles down the coast," Danny murmured shakily, "And I've... I've not told that story in a very long time." He looked back up at Steve. "It took me moving to Hawaii with my daughter to even get back in the ocean again. So, that is why I don't like the water, okay?" Steve squeezed his knee in comfort, warmed and touched by the fact that Danny had trusted him with such a painful childhood memory. Now, he understood Danny's fear. His heart ached though because he knew he'd failed Danny, failed that trust, because he couldn't see a way to save them now.

They sat in silence for a moment while Danny collected his thoughts, but it was quickly interrupted when he bolted forward with a grunt, pointing towards the horizon.

"Oh, oh! What is that? What is that?"

Twisting around, Steve lifted his hand to shade the sun from his eyes as he squinted towards where Danny was pointing, his heart immediately thumping in his throat at the sight, the beautiful sight of a yacht, right there almost within reach! And in that instant, Steve felt hope flare again.

"It's a yacht," he grinned.

"Sure it's not a dinghy?" Danny asked sarcastically, but Steve didn't care. He patted Danny's knee and laughed.

"You're a funny guy."

Danny grinned back, joining in when Steve started shouting for help.

H-5-0

Iolani Palace, Five-O HQ.

Lt. Catherine 'Cat' Rollins walked into the war room of the Five-O headquarters with a cell phone to her ear and a troubled look on her face as she clicked it off. Kono looked up questioningly.

"Any luck?"

"No, they weren't at the South Shore sailing club and Steve's cell keeps going straight to voicemail," Cat frowned. "Any luck on tracking the phones?"

Kono shook her head, "No, both signals are dead. How late are they?"

"Three hours. I'm officially worried. All I know is that Steve said he wanted to take Danny to his dad's secret fishing spot to get him his first tuna. Something's wrong..."

Chin walked in hearing the tail end of the conversation and added helpfully, "So, they took my uncle's boat, so I should be able to track the GPS."

Both Cat and Kono watched keenly as Chin's fingers danced across the smart table. He looked up confused. "You said Steve asked you to pick them up from the South Shore Sailing club?"

"Yeah."

"They're on the North shore," he said, pointing to where his uncle's GPS signal was blinking on the computerised map of the harbour there.

Not wasting any more time, all three grabbed their weapons and credentials and rushed to the North shore to find out what was going on.

When they got there, all they found was an empty boat. Kono quickly headed back to the harbour's office, while Chin and Cat boarded, their eyes instantly drawn to the dried blood smears on the deck, and the bloody shirt stuffed down beside the pilot's chair.

"Oh, my god," Cat breathed. She gingerly picked up the shirt.

"Do you recognise who that belongs to?" Chin asked.

"Could be Steve's, I don't know," she said thickly, wincing at the bloody hand prints on the side of the boat. What the hell had happened, and where were the guys?

Chin frowned when he found the back pack, still with Danny's and Steve's guns and badges inside. "They wouldn't have left these behind," he murmured uneasily.

Kono returned having talked to the harbourmaster, reporting that no one saw the boat dock or anyone leave, and lightening had taken out the security cameras anyway. "We need to check the hospitals, get the crime lab down here, find out what the hell happened." She saw the blood and went pale, swallowing hard.

"Well, at least we know they went fishing," Chin said when he found the tuna fish in the ice box.

It was little consolation.

H-5-0