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

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Chapter Two

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"Stop! Don't be stupid... get off!" Sammi punched Mark once in the shoulder as the tussle became more serious. "I'm going to drop it!"

The two teetered dangerously on the slippery rocks badly enough to stall their argument as they fought for individual balance. With his hands raised high and fisting the exciting find, Grace clearly saw the dull sheen of metal which Sammi held so protectively to prove what she thought she had seen the first time.

"Danno! Danno!" Her second stunned shout was louder and aimed in her father's direction as she stumbled backwards, only to fall splayed legged in the wet sand. Dumping her trash bucket in the process, she lost her voice for a moment as the rusty, sand-encrusted 9MM handgun wavered in the air when Sammi faltered and almost fell. To save himself and the weapon, he thrust the gun into Mark's hands before falling to one knee with a childish cry of pain as sharp volcanic rock tore flesh off his bare skin.

"Shhh!" Even from his near kneeling position and with tears in his eyes, Sammi managed to glare at the girl in anger. "Grace, shut up!" He hissed in fury that his classmate would automatically rat their find out to her police father. From his crouched position where he now rubbed around the deep bloody scrape on his knee, he watched Mark turn the gun over and over in his hands before possessively hefting its ocean-ruined weight.

"It's old and broken anyway. You're going to ruin everything!" Carefully standing and stumbling backwards a step, Sammi scowled at Grace from where he balanced now between a shallow crevasse and the relative safety of the sand. He threw her a dirty look when he saw her father approaching on fast jog. "Damn it! Mark, he's coming! Shit. Hide it!"

"You can't hide it!" Grace was shocked that they would try to lie about finding the weapon. But Sammi's juvenile attempt at swearing was upset and even tinged with fear as he wiped hot sweat from his forehead. There was no way to hide anything and he knew it. Still, excitement was winning out over caution as he demanded the deadly weapon before they had to turn it over to the adults. "Give it, Mark. I found it first! He's coming already and I want to hold it again."

"Put it down!" Unable to find her feet quite yet, Grace sat stranded in the wet sand completely ignoring the way her shorts were absorbing the uncomfortable salt water. She was mad now as she elevated her voice sternly. "You have to put it down!"

Raised with and around police officers, Danno had taught her about guns and the dangers regardless of what might look benign. While she certainly was not afraid of them, she understood and respected what could happen in the wrong hands.

Danno's first rule was very simple: Do Not Touch.

The second, third and fourth rules were also quite easy to remember: Do Not Touch. EVER.

And even though she rarely saw a weapon off her father's uniform or outside of his job, that rule had been ingrained into her very psyche since before she could walk. It was an important fact of life which Grace appreciated very much.

"Put it down, Mark… it's not safe!" Trying again as sweat trickled down her back and Sammi intentionally climbed back up to confront his friend, Grace bit her lip nervously when the boys began their argument all over again. Completely ignored, she could only uselessly watch as Mark especially seemed to get more angry at Sammi about who had found it and what would happen next.

"No! You did not find it first… I did!" Angrily, Mark clutched the 9MM to his chest while slapping Sammi's hand away. His nasty expression aimed entirely at Grace mirrored his best-friend's disgust before he quickly paid her no mind and disregarded any other unwanted advice she thought she had to offer.

"I know what I'm doing and I'm keeping it." Balanced similarly to Sammi, his back was to the open ocean and with his loss of focus, Mark tottered off-balance before regaining his tenuous footing. Snatching the weapon closer to his body, he evaded Sammi's seeking fingers even when his friend only seemed to want to help keep him upright. His face changed darkly when he noticed Grace's father so close now before aiming his defiantly hissed words back at Sammi.

"No way! I want it…. and I'm going to keep it!"

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Danny smiled politely as little Kia Montrose's mother prattled on about the importance of his job and completely downplayed her impressed cooing regarding his participation on the Governor's personal task force. She was attractive and appeared to be demurely sweet with a strong, over-riding need for manly protection. But she was clearly not as vacuous or as helpless as that first impression based on her encroachment into his personal space. As Kia slunk away in abject humiliation, Danny only felt very sorry for the little girl who had more dignity and poise than the mother.

"Well. Coffee? Today?" He paused, then blanched as her hand tightened on his arm and the subject of coffee was brought up. The excuse was ridiculous. It was more than obvious that coffee and their children were simply means to a viper-like end… or beginning depending upon how you might want to perceive it. Danny easily chose end before things could escalate, but he failed to adroitly dislodge Gina's cherry-red talons.

"I know you must be very busy. But today would be perfect. Don't you think?" Gina Montrose casually rubbed her thumb a few times across his skin just above his watch. Blithely, she turned a blind eye to his lame attempt of widening the space between them. His squirmed step backwards merely resulted in one stalking slink forwards in an oily pursuit.

"Once the girls are done here… coffee for us and well, shave ice treats for them?"

"Umm. While that sounds nice, Grace and I do have another commitment. An important obligation, actually." He was lying through his teeth as he glanced over his shoulder nearly begging Grace to come to his rescue. Almost lying because it was merely pizza night and if he counted, maybe it would even be the third one that week. But who was counting? He and his daughter certainly weren't keeping track or complaining. Yet his deflection was also pitiable because he knew the seasoned divorcee easily guessed the sorry attempts to escape. The woman was outwardly pleasant but clearly not his type; though she evidently needed first-hand proof after depositing not one, but three war-torn and weary ex-husbands in her not so enviable wake. Having that happen once in his lifetime was enough for Danny. She was nothing more than a self-absorbed, lonely wolf in black sheep's clothing looking for attention.

"Grace and I have plans." Distracted as his special look beckoned Grace to his side, Danny was at first mortified by his daughter's almost adult-like answering grin, coy wave, and startling lack of obedience. Based upon Kia's own need to be invisible and his daughter's gleeful amusement, the elder Montrose evidently had a reputation amongst the children. One of which he would have greatly appreciated knowing before offering to carry her over-abundant supply of luncheon items to the picnic tables. So now, rather than getting support from his lovely daughter, he found himself momentarily numb-brained as he turned back towards Gina. "Uh... we have... uh, very important plans."

"Can't you change them, Danny? I can make it worth your… well, you know. You are a detective after all." Gina purred and clung persistently, allowing her innuendo to hang as an enticement. Her hand was like a cold dead vise encircling his wrist though and Danny's smile wavered weakly as he decided how much force would be within the precepts of the law to free himself from her tines. How much weight full immunity and means might carry with Governor Denning as he envisioned physically peeling each finger from his skin.

"Nope. Can't do it." Irked by the persistence, Danny's tone of voice changed as he glanced again towards Grace. He was long tired of Gina and had more valid priorities. In fact, he knew the falsetto pitched 'oh, please?' would come next and he smile-grimaced at what he guessed his mouth might accidentally… no, it would be on purpose… spew forth.

"Excuse me." More deliberately, Danny ended the conversation with the suddenly less amorous and jilted woman who was now taking personal exception to his refusals.

"Danno!" His daughter's panicked shout from the water's edge was timely, but the tone tore Danny's chest in half. A split second later, he automatically wrenched himself away from the offended Gina, leaving thin scratches from her manicured nails across his forearm. "Danno!"

"Did she fall?" Gina squeaked in true alarm. It hadn't taken much effort for Danny to free himself because her stunned gasp also had gauged the fear in the shouted words much as any parent's would. Yet Danny couldn't provide the obnoxious female any credit for that because he'd already forgotten her existence.

"Grace!" Danny's single-minded goal of reaching his daughter's side intensified as he saw her tumbling backwards in the sand. There was a low splash of water and his mind registered the stunned look on her face and the fact she was staring wide-eyed at the two young boys balanced precariously on the rocky outcropping.

"Grace? What's wrong?" Still many few feet from his daughter's side, Danny called to her yet she never turned his way or answered. From his vantage, he had only glimpsed Grace stumbling and falling to an awkwardly wet sitting position. Standing on the rocky out-cropping a few feet above her, two of her classmates seemed to be arguing over something and he frowned at the strange antics. In fact, his disapproval increased because the boys had no business looking for garbage or playing on the dangerous rocks.

Cupping his hands to his mouth, his next shout was for their benefit. "You boys! Get down off those rocks!"

He sighed in exasperation when the boys clearly feigned not being able to hear him above the sounds of the surf. Jogging nearer, Danny only assumed that they had found some oddity in the waters and were arguing over ownership. Then, though it wasn't like her, he wasn't immediately certain if Grace had disobeyed the orders not to climb the rocks and had tried to follow the boys.

"Grace? Are you okay, Monkey? Did you try to go up there?" Danny spouted the questions just before falling to his knees with a slap of water followed by a faint sandy, sucking sound as one knee sank a decent few inches deeper into the muck.

"Grace, what's wrong?" Regardless of the shallows, Danny bent over her shoulders to help her up, but she was shaking her head adamantly. She was soaked up to her waist now as rippling waves lapped lazily at her left hand which was fisted under the water in the murky sand, yet she wasn't looking at him.

Not at all.

He bent over her head with every intention of checking for cuts or abrasions from the sharp volcanic rocks, but Grace was practically entranced by the boys… and it wasn't out of jealousy or from a childish sense of being upset. His daughter was extremely angry. Ignoring the water and the way his left knee was sinking, Danny followed her dripping right hand which pointed unerringly up at the bickering twosome. Her focus was laser sharp and he followed her finger as she pointed in their direction and he finally saw what the two where holding.

What they were arguing about.

"Oh nonono." Danny muttered repetitively under his breath. He was about to holler at them to get down when the warning subsequently died on the tip of his tongue. He clearly saw it, nevertheless he certainly didn't believe his eyes until Grace spoke the unfathomable truth out loud.

"They have a gun." His stomach churned as his very worst fear solidified into reality as she stumbled over a horrific truth. "Danno, they found a gun stuck in the rocks. A real gun."

In an instant, Danny had Grace in his arms and then shielded by his body. The belligerent looks shared on the boys' faces indicated that they knew they were in the wrong. However, they seemed more annoyed with Grace about confessing their exciting find as they tussled each other for its ownership. From that moment on, Danny barely heard her worried objection and only registered the fact that she had listened. His own focus narrowed to a pinpoint as his attention was drawn entirely to the juvenile altercation with the not-so childish brackish piece of steel. "Go, Grace. Right now and tell everyone to stay away. Tell your teacher to call HPD."

"But." Grace tried but his eyes now never left the two boys or the dangerous object they were so infatuated with as it was resentfully pushed and pulled amongst excited and very uneducated fingers.

"But… Danno." Her nearly inaudible complaint was only automatic because she was already obeying him on a run and looking for the nearest adults.

Behind her, she could hear her father talking firmly to the two boys in a calm but authoritative voice and tears pricked her eyes. Danno could do anything and she knew that he would be able to get the gun away from Mark and Sammi. After being submerged in the ocean, it was probably broken anyway and just like Sammi said. But becoming more frightened with every step that took her away from Danno and closer to her confused teacher, Grace felt a lump formed by fear sealing off her throat.

~ to be continued ~