Chapter 13 "Emotional"

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A/N: (24 August 2016) Happy 40th Birthday Alex O'Laughlin, and an equally happy (and 1 day belated) Happy 40th Birthday to Scott Caan! I still find it incredibly amazing that two baby boys were born 2 hours apart, yet technically 1 day apart, and these two baby boys grew up to become the team we call McDanno! Some of the strangest coincidences happen like that, such as Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner being 1 day apart in age. Soooo bizarre! And so cool!

The last chapter got some great responses from quite a few people, so I guess the brainless phase is past on my part, and I thank you all for your thoughtful and encouraging reviews! I say this every time, but you really make me happy and humble all at once, because I know I'm not the best writer out there -not even close. False humility isn't a virtue, so I can say I know I'm a pretty good writer, but what I really have is the ability to plot. I swear that some people on this site are Limited Edition Swiss Army Knives when it comes to their writer skill set. There isn't anything they can't do! I am in awe! Those of us who are not LESAKs make the best of what we have to work with.

Thank you so much for reading, and those who review get a special thanks!

Disclaimer: CBS owns Hawaii Five-0.

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Chapter 13 "Emotional"

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(Tuesday, 21 December, early afternoon)

As the members of the Five-0 Task Force came out of the Medical Examiner's Office and walked to their cars, protected from the steady, soft rain by the balcony under which they had each parked, Steve was frowning. He felt unwell, emotionally drained, fighting tears. It was not because of their briefing by the Medical Examiner.

Steve knew what caused his feelings. At the car, he tried to hold it in, but it was strong, and tore at his heart. He leaned against Chin's Mustang.

"What's wrong?" asked his colleagues and friends.

Steve turned away long enough to brush tears from his eyes. His voice was rough when he answered, even after clearing his throat. "It's Danny. The darkness has broken him. He's drowning in the blackness, the not knowing why this has happened. He can't understand it. He's trying, he's hoping for the light to return, but he is … broken. He's trying to hide it from me. I can't be there to help him." The last two sentences came out as if saying them physically hurt.

Kono wrapped her arms around Steve, and held him, until he turned around and literally cried for a few moments on her shoulder while her own lashes were wet. Chin and Abby embraced, and Chin reached out to grasp Steve's left shoulder in support.

Steve fought to control himself, and finally stepped back from Kono. "I'm sorry. It came on so strongly." Steve cleared his throat again, and wiped his eyes on his camo T-shirt sleeve.

"There's nothing to apologize for," said Kono, her voice sympathetic. "You and Danny always had this kind of connection. But never under these circumstances."

"We promised him we would find him, so let's find him. Let's work the case, and find th who did this."

"We need to inform Mrs. Lane," spoke Abby, quietly. There were times when she felt left out of the close connection the other 4 had, because she had not been there long, and her entry to Five-0 had been under difficult circumstances. It still amazed her that any of the task force members trusted her at all, considering that she had originally come to them to spy on them and find information that would lead to their disbanding in disgrace.

And then she had fallen in love with Chin Ho Kelly, despite her efforts to not allow her feelings to go there. The fact that he had fallen in love with her made their pairing inevitable, and soon Abby was questioning her original motives for being with the team, until she confessed and threw away her spying, and joined the team with a free and grateful heart. Chin Ho had forgiven her, Steve had accepted her explanation and apology and given her her badge. Kono and Abby had become close friends, especially in the last few months.

But Danny was still a bit of a mystery to her. They were friends, colleagues, and thought well of each other. But they had not had time to really form a bond of their own.

Steve ran his left hand through his hair, and cleared his throat again. "Yeah, we have to talk to Mrs. Lane. We have too many things to do at once. So, Abby, dig up everything there is to be found on Ace Oahu Roofing Company, especially anything that could tie Neil Lane to Danny. I don't care how slim the connection is, I want to know it. Roofers usually work in teams, so dig into that especially."

"On it, Boss."

"Chin, I want you to liaison with Duke and the forensics team, the accident re-creation people. I want to know everything there is to know about that accident, how it happened, and how I was thrown clear of the car before it went over that cliff."

"On it, Steve." He hesitated. "Should I bring in Eric, Danny's nephew? He doesn't know yet."

Steve looked angry at himself. "I forgot. He's back in Newark, spending Christmas with his parents and the whole extended family. If he decides to return to Honolulu, definitely let him be part of this investigation. I'll call him and Danny's parents. And Rachel and, God help me, Grace."

"Kono," continued Steve, in full command of himself now, "we are going to talk to Mrs. Lane, and then …." His phone rang. He looked at it, annoyed, until he saw who the caller was. "Dr. Cornett," he told them before taking the call. "Okay, be there after I inform a widow that she is one. Yeah, the body was not Danny's, and now we have a positive ID on who it was. Then I have to go talk to Danny's ex and his daughter. Will you still be at Tripler in maybe 2 hours or so? Okay, see you then," he said after a brief conversation with his doc. "My labs are back. So first Mrs. Lane, then …." Steve sighed. "Grace called me earlier and asked why Danny hadn't called her last night or today. I lied to her. I had hoped we might find him."

"Just be honest now, and give her as much hope as you can," suggested Chin. "Grace loves you, so she will forgive you."

Steve hoped so. She was very much her father's daughter, and being fifteen, she had perfected the teenage use of eyes to express feelings, plus had inherited the "simmer" gene from Danny. When she spoke in anger, she did not use as many words as her father, but she sure got her point across.

Kono had just checked her watch. "Boss, Grace just got out of school, so maybe we should tell Rachel we're coming by? Grace will be expecting Danny to call her, and when he doesn't, you don't want to have to lie to her again."

"Yeah. Okay. Everyone else, though, get busy. Chin and Abby, see you both back at the office."

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H50 H50 H50 H50 H50

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Steve called Rachel. She picked up quickly, and British accent was tired-sounding. "Steve? I admit I am surprised you are calling."

"Oh?" he asked, since it was as good a stalling tactic as any.

"Yes. Usually it is Danny who calls. I hope nothing is wrong?"

"Actually, there is something I need to talk to you and Grace about. Could Kono and I come by?"

"Oh God. Is he dead? Are you going to tell me -?" She sounded terrified.

"No! No no no, Rachel, it isn't that," reassured Steve. "But there is something. Could we come by?"

"Should I have Stan here? He's taking a day after his trip, but I can call him in."

"Uh, that's entirely up to you. We can be there in fifteen minutes. Please don't tell Grace until we arrive?"

"Yes, alright," said Rachel, and her voice shook. "I think I will go fetch Stan. I feel quite terrified."

"We will explain everything in fifteen minutes."

Kono drove to a very nice neighborhood where many of the wealthy lived. The Edwards house had at one time been much bigger, with a gated driveway, but now was merely a luxury home that said "money" rather than shrieked it in pretentious solid gold calligraphy. The change had happened after Rachel had lost the case to try to win full custody of Grace so the family could move permanently out of Hawaii, to Nevada, where Danny would have been prevented from seeing his then-only child. Danny had petitioned the court to stop his ex-wife from taking his daughter out of state. He had already uprooted his entire life to be near Grace, and was not in a position to do so again.

Danny had won. For once, Danny had won. The judge had ruled that Rachel could not take Grace out of state. Danny's custody remained as it was.

Since Stan Edwards, Rachel's second husband, had been denied a promotion because he could not move his family to Nevada, and the judge had socked them with not only their own court fees but Danny's countersuit fees as well, they had decided to downsize by a third, and were now in a 4-bedroom house, rather than the six they had had before. Also, there was no gate and the garage only held three cars, not four. The housekeeper parked her car under a gravel carport beside the pristine, tile-imprinted cement driveway, dyed the color of red brick.

Kono pulled up onto the driveway, and said a silent prayer that this meeting went well. She had become an acquaintance of Rachel's, around the time of Steve receiving half Danny's liver, when Steve had been close to death after being shot while piloting a plane on an undercover assignment. Danny, not a pilot, had been forced to land the plane on Waikiki beach so the unconscious Steve would not be drowned if he brought the plane down in the water, as the air traffic controllers had strongly urged him to do.

Kono and Rachel had talked a few times after that, until things had petered out, although they were on good terms.

Steve, if pressed to admit it, had never liked Rachel, and never formed an opinion of Stan. He disliked Rachel because she had broken Danny's heart by never accepting his job as a cop, which he had been since before she met Danny. Their marriage had broken up in large part because Danny was a cop, through and through, and yet she refused to accept that part of him. Despite all the support groups she could have joined to help wives of police officers cope with the dangers their husbands faced, she had refused to become part of Danny's work life, instead repeatedly begging him to switch to a less dangerous job.

This had escalated after Grace was born, until the inevitable divorce. Still, Danny demanded he be able to remain close to his daughter. She was not going to grow up not knowing her father, not feeling his love for her.

Honestly, if Steve had been cornered into listing the appeal of Rachel's second husband, whom she married almost scandalously soon after divorcing Danny, it was that he was tall, handsome in that broad-shouldered Hollywood-good-looks way, and his job was very safe: he was as a contract negotiator for a worldwide real estate developer. He was very rich, and always had been. If life had been an aquarium of fish, Stan was striking to look at in a boring way, and equally boring in every other way. He never did or said anything interesting.

But he did take good care of Rachel, and Rachel's kids by Danny, so he must not be a jerk. Steve prepared to ignore Stan like he did every time he had ever been around him, not because he planned it, but because Stan was so ignorable.

Besides, Rachel and even more so Grace were who he and Kono were here to see.

They both had apparently been watching for their arrival, as Grace shot out the front door before Steve was fully out of the car. The cast on her left arm was bubblegum pink. "Uncle Steve! -Wow, you did break your arm! Does it hurt? Mom said you were here about Danno. Hi Kono!" She sounded like she didn't know whether to be worried, curious, or a teenage combination of something a lot more complicated.

"Hi, Gracie," said Kono, and began to walk toward the front steps leading to the nice, two-storey house with expert landscaping. Steve hugged the teen, and they followed Kono up the steps, while Steve said he would explain inside, so he could do it all at once, because they had a lot more stops to make. But since theirs was most important, they were making this one first.

Rachel, with Stan beside her, his arm wrapped around her protectively, stood at the Christmas-wreath decorated door. Inside the foyer was a designer Christmas tree, done in gold, white, and touches of red ornaments, lights, bows, and garlands. It was pretty in that uninteresting way.

"Where's Charlie?" asked Steve after he had greeted Rachel and Stan. Rachel looked nervous, and Stan looked bored but determined to be there for Rachel, since she was almost four months pregnant with his child.

"He's at the pre-school Christmas party," said Stan, glancing at his very expensive Rolex watch. "It ends in an hour. Will this take longer than that?" He was also showing vague curiosity about Steve's broken arm and bruises.

"No, no, it shouldn't."

"Stan, could you get us some tea? We'll be in the parlor," said Rachel, and Stan looked annoyed briefly before going bland again and wandering off with an underwhelmed reply of, "Sure, honey."

The parlor was apparently smaller than the living room, although still as spacious as half the first floor of Danny's whole house. It looked professionally done, with few knickknacks to show the actual personality of the people who lived in it. Steve was charmed when he saw one of Charlie's fire trucks under the settee Rachel sat primly on. He knew it was not supposed to be there, and he also recognized it as one that Danny had given his four-year-old son.

"I'm dying of nerves, Steve," admitted Rachel, once everyone had sat down. Grace sat by Steve on the opposite settee, with Kono on his other side, leaving Stan the space next to Rachel.

Steve explained the situation, leaving out details of the body being burned beyond recognition or anything to do with Neil Lane's identity, telling them only that a body fitting Danny's general description had been found in his car, but that the identification had already ruled out that it was him. "We know Danny is missing, and that someone tried to kill me and failed, but we do not have details yet on why, who, or how. We are working the case with every available personnel and you know we won't rest until we find Danny."

Stan had returned with a large silver, cloth covered tray bearing a plate of biscuit cookies, teaspoons, teacups and saucers, milk and sugar, and a teapot under a cozy, and a glass of milk for Grace. He set it down on the coffee table between the settees, and Steve had to clear his throat to get the incongruous picture out of his head of Stan putting a proper tea cozy over the teapot. At least Rachel poured. If Stan had, Steve thought he would have burst into giggles, despite the seriousness of the situation.

Rachel was clutching her teacup. "So you don't know if Danny is dead or alive," said Rachel, looking stricken.

"We know he is alive," said Steve, in his most reassuring voice.

"How?" asked Stan, sharply, which seemed to surprise even himself. "Sorry." He shrugged, and slipped into tea-sipping silence.

Steve explained that he and Danny had a "partner sense" of one another, and he just knew. He did not explain more.

"I knew this would happen, someday," said Rachel, and burst into tears. Stan almost dropped his teacup in his haste to soothe her.

"He's not dead," said Grace, firmly. "I would know it. Like Uncle Steve." She glared at Steve, though, and Steve felt uncomfortable.

"So what happens next?" asked Stan, to fill the silence that lengthened after Grace spoke.

"We find Danny," said Steve, and he finally took a sip of tea and ate a biscuit.

"But how?" asked Rachel, pulling herself together.

Kono spoke up for the first time. "We have some leads." This was not true, but it was said with confidence, to reassure, because soon they would have leads.

"Well, that's good," said Stan, refilling Rachel's teacup. He was entirely focused on her.

Rachel was still nervous. "These pregnancy hormones. Everything makes me emotional," she said. "I need to lie down, if you will excuse me? Please let me know when you find him? If there is anything we can do?"

Stan helped Rachel up and accompanied her up the stairs. But he was back very soon, and angry.

He stood in front of Steve, and his hands were balled into fists. "If this stress of Danny missing causes any harm to my child, or my wife, I will never forgive him."

"You can't blame Danny for this," exclaimed Kono, while Steve noticed again that Grace was glaring at him. She had risen and gone to a side table, and pulled out a black Sharpie pen from the one drawer.

"I can blame Danny for anything that causes harm to my family, if he is involved, and he is most definitely involved, and apparently you are too," Stan bit out, then turned on his heels and retreated back up the stairs.

Now Grace was standing in front of Steve. "You told me Danno was on a case."

"I know, honey," Steve confessed. "I thought we might have found him by now. I'm sorry I lied to you."

She held up the Sharpie. "So do you still want me to sign your cast?"

"Please!"

Grace bent over it, and carefully hid what she was writing until she had finished. Then she revealed one word, written very large:

LIAR

"Never lie to me again," she said in her best Danno imitation mini-rant voice. "And you better find my Daddy."

With that said, she hurried from the room and ran up the stairs.

Steve and Kono looked down at his cast, and sighed in unison.

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A/N: Don't worry, Danny isn't truly broken yet. He is a lot stronger than this! But he did break down when it got so dark. If the light comes back, he'll pull it together again!