A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows. Thank you to 4thofFive who noticed Grace's injury went from knee to ankle at one point - it was originally going to be her ankle, and I changed it to knee, but obviously didn't change all the mentions of the injury correctly. :-) Hopefully, I caught the rest of them!

The next morning Danny had almost totally shrugged off the incident at the drugstore as he cleaned up the living room. Despite her injury, seeing Grace had improved his mood ten-fold the night before. They had spent a relaxing evening eating pizza and watching movies. Danny smiled as he picked up the squishy, pink football from the floor and tossed it onto the couch. He and Grace had played catch across the room, an activity he normally would have forbidden inside, when they'd grown tired of the movies. His smile widened, and he chuckled as he remembered her smiles and squeals at the normally forbidden play and how they'd had to stop throwing the little ball around when they'd both been laughing too hard to throw straight.

A knock at the door interrupted Danny's thoughts, and he wondered who it could be at shortly before 8:00 on a Saturday morning. Whoever it was, he hoped they didn't mind him answering the door in his sleep pants and t-shirt. He was surprised to see Duke at the door and even more surprised to see Steve standing right behind him, looking grim. Danny waved them in, "Hey, guys, what's going on? I didn't hear my phone? Do we have a case? I just have to get dressed and get someone over here for Grace..."

"Danny, we don't have a case," Steve told him.

Danny frowned at the seriousness of Steve's tone, and, on closer inspection, he noticed his partner had a variation of aneurism face that he wasn't sure he'd ever seen before. He looked between Duke and Steve and tried to decipher the mood in the air. He squinted at them, "What's going on?"

"You haven't seen the news?" Duke wondered. "Last night or this morning?"

"No," Danny waved his hand dismissively, "Grace and I watched movies last night, and I haven't turned the TV on yet today."

Duke looked at Steve, and at Steve's nod, took a breath to do something he really didn't want to do.

"What's going on?" Danny hissed, wanting to find out what the problem was before Grace was up and within hearing distance. Judging by his friends' behavior, whatever they had to tell him wasn't good.

"I'm here to collect your badge and gun," Duke informed him as gently as possible considering the circumstances.

"You're what?" He looked between the two men and shook his head. "Steve, what's going on?"

"I'm sorry, Danny," Steve told him. "I tried for two hours last night to convince the governor this wasn't necessary, but he's getting pressure from Senator Grimway and the media."

"But, why?" Danny sank down onto his couch and tried to think of where he'd recently heard the senator's name mentioned. It finally clicked and he looked up at Duke. "Is this because of what happened yesterday?"

Duke nodded, "Unfortunately, the Senator came over and..."

"Stuck his nose in where it didn't belong," Steve snorted disgustedly.

"And some of the witnesses talked to the media, and things are getting blown way out of proportion, and..." Duke paused and Danny could almost see the storm clouds gathering over the normally affable sergeant's head, "the media says they have an HPD officer giving them information."

"What information?" Danny's hands flew through the air as he started to get agitated and pace the room. "The woman was robbing the place for drugs and pointed a gun at me! I defended myself and all the other innocent people in there!"

"This police informant," Duke spat out the word, thoroughly disgusted at whoever had talked to the media without authorization, "apparently told the media that the suspect never fired."

"I told you her gun jammed!"

"Danny," Steve soothed, "Calm down. We're going to do this by the book, okay? Duke's going to get your statement, and..."

"And what?" Danny prompted as Steve stopped and gave him a puppy dog look. He stared at his partner unblinking for a moment and had to step closer, "And what, Steve?"

"And you're on paid administrative leave until this is all settled."

Danny blinked, letting the words settle in, "Administrative leave?"

"Paid administrative leave," Steve repeated. He shrugged and offered a weak smile, "Think of it as paid vacation time."

"Paid vacation time?!" Danny erupted. "Paid administrative leave means I'm being investigated! Paid administrative leave means someone thinks I did something wrong! Paid administrative leave means the media is going to assume I'm guilty of something I'm not!"

"Danny..." Duke tried to explain.

"Whatever happened to 'means and immunity'?" Danny continued to rant. "Not that I need it in this case, because I don't, but none of us has ever had to do this before... well, okay, Kono did that first year, but that was an I.A. witchhunt and there was that whole thing with Jameson... so what's the governor gonna do, huh? Hang me out to dry? So I guess I'm on my own..."

"Danny!" Steve grabbed his arm and tried to focus his attention, "You're not on your own, and you know it! Just stop and let us explain."

Danny took a deep breath and knew Steve was right. His ohana was always there for him and this time would be no different. He let Steve lead him back to the couch and dropped his head in his hands momentarily before looking between the two men again, "Alright, what's going on?"

"Like I said," Duke began, "Senator Grimway has gotten involved since he was nearby at the time of the... incident."

"So what's he sticking his nose in for? Senators don't usually jump right into the middle of something like this... Oh," realization sank in and Danny waved his hand, "Re-election year... never mind. Go on."

"Exactly," Steve nodded. "Re-election year, and we all know that politicians need to jump on some bandwagon."

"So what's the good senator's?" Danny snarked, "Police brutality? Gun control? What did I do to offend him that he now wants my head on a platter?"

"Senator Grimway seems to be focusing on police procedure rather than gun control," Duke explained. "The media is being very vocal about you 'shooting to kill rather than wound' and the senator is jumping on that. He seems to think that you didn't give the suspect enough warning before shooting, and then you shot her in the chest rather than just shooting her in the shoulder so she couldn't fire... his idea, not mine."

"Enough warning!" Danny was close to exploding again. "She had a gun pointed at me! And shoot her in the shoulder? You know that doesn't mean she wouldn't have been able to shoot. What was I supposed to do?"

"Exactly what you did," Steve told him with a no nonsense look. "We all know we're trained that way for a reason, but civilians don't see it that way. They think we can shoot the gun out of someone's hand like in the movies, but it's never that simple."

The three sat in silence for a moment before Danny grabbed the remote off the end table and flicked on the TV before the other two could stop him.

"I wouldn't do that," Duke warned.

"Yeah, Danno," Steve agreed, "You don't need to see that."

Danny sat transfixed and horrified as he listened to the perky young reporter, standing in front of the Palace, report, "...shooting yesterday. Our inside source tells us that Detective Williams is on paid administrative leave following that shooting. He also tells us that Detective Williams never identified himself as an officer of the law and just shot the teenage suspect, Susan Winters, without warning..."

"Teenage?" Danny looked over at Duke. "She was a teenager? She looked 25."

"19," Duke confirmed. "Turning 20 next week, actually."

Steve snorted, "Old enough to know better. The media just wants to sensationalize it by calling her a teenager."

Danny nodded and looked back at the TV where the reporter continued to drone on, "Witnesses report that Detective Williams left in a hurry after the shooting, which leads us to wonder what's going on. Are Five-0 and HPD hiding something? Why did Detective Williams shoot to kill rather than using a non-lethal method of stopping her? We'll be back after this short break to speak with the victim's family and more witnesses to this tragic incident."

"Danno?"

Danny jumped as Grace's voice sounded behind him. He quickly turned off the TV and plastered a smile on his face, "Monkey! You're up. How's the knee?"

"It's a little sore, but not too bad," Grace assured him as she let him lead her to the couch. She eyed Steve and Duke and, being her father's daughter, noticed the tension in the air. "What's going on? What was that woman on the TV talking about? Are you in trouble, Danno?"

Steve quickly stood to allow Danny space on the couch next to his daughter, "Look, Danny, we'll be back in an hour to take care of... business."

Danny smiled and nodded at their understanding and turned back to his daughter as they turned to leave, "Listen, monkey, everything will be okay. I ran into a little trouble yesterday afternoon before coming home and I had to... had to shoot a woman."

"Did you kill her?" Grace softly asked, eyes wide.

"Yes, sadly I did."

"Why?" Grace wondered.

"Well, sweetie, I didn't really have a choice. She pointed a gun at me, and I had to shoot to protect myself and everyone else around."

"Oh," Grace nodded though Danny could tell she was still thinking about something.

"What is it?" Danny encouraged her. "If you have more questions, now is the time to ask. You're probably going to hear some things in the next few days, but I want you to hear it from me."

"Why did you have to kill her?"

Danny sighed and squeezed the pink, squishy football he'd grabbed absentmindedly, "I told you, Grace, she pointed a gun at me."

"But couldn't you shoot and not kill her? Tommy says the police are all just power hungry and shoot to kill because they know they can get away with it."

"Do you really believe that?" Danny wondered, stomach twisting in knots at the thought of his daughter viewing him as some sort of monster.

Grace pondered for a split second and shook her head, "No, Danno, I don't. You've always told me that you only carry a gun to keep others safe. I know you wouldn't just shoot someone because you could."

"Good," Danny nodded. "When I shoot someone it's because I have to, not because I want to. And I know that some people think we should just shoot them in the arm or leg or something just to hurt them rather than kill them, but if someone is just shot in the arm they can still shoot at me. And I don't think a bad guy, or girl, is going to try to just shoot me in the arm. They are going to shoot me to stop me so I have to try to stop them first because I always want to be able to come home to you. Does all that make sense?"

Grace nodded, sadness melting away at her dad's reassurance.

"Good," Danny smiled. "So how about I make you some breakfast, and then I'll let you beat me at cards."

Grace nodded enthusiastically, "How about French toast? Can you make French toast?"

"With cinnamon and powdered sugar sprinkled on top?"

"Of course."

"Anything you want, Monkey," Danny grinned and lobbed the pink, squishy football at his daughter from the kitchen doorway.

"Danno!" Grace giggled.

Danny felt some of the weight lift off his chest as he heard his daughter giggle. So long as she still believed in him, and loved him, he didn't care what anyone else thought.