"John! Come downstairs for a minute, please!", Steve called upstairs as he dropped into his place.

Their was silence for a minute before the boy shuffled out of his room, coming downstairs. "What's going on? I'm doing my homework."

"You can go right back to it but I need to talk to you first. I had a call from your school teacher.", Steve looked at him, making a pause to wait for a reaction. Nothing came, so he continued. "He told me, you would have done some reasearch about gunshot wounds during lesson? Why the hell would you do that?"

John avoided his father's look, staring down at his feet and just shrugging his shoulders. Steve raised his eyebrow. "Oh, nothing? So you have nothing to say about this?"

"No."

"Fine. Then I will store your surfboard for the rest of the week, maybe that will help you thinking."

This brought some reaction from his son. His head snapped upright and he glared at Steve. "What?! But I was going to join Liam and his Dad for some waves on the North Shore this weekend!", he protested loudly.

"Yeah well, maybe you should thought of that earlier before you create some shit like this in school!"

"Argh!", John cried out, frustration spreaded out in his face and some angry tears were showing up in his eyes. "I still hate you!"

He wanted to turn around for going back upstairs but Steve grabbed his arm. "Hey, I'm not done!", he was interrupted by his ringing cell. Not loosing the grip on his son, he took the call. "McGarrett?"

As he listened to his phone, he looked at John who avoided his glaze again. Wiping away the few tears from his face, he just stood there, arms crossed in front of his chest. "Yeah, I understand. I will be there in 10, thanks Chin.", the former SEAL ended the call and spoke to John. "Sorry but I have to go. I will have Kamika coming over to watch you."

"Yeah, as always.", his boy snapped back, not revealing his tensed position.

Steve sighed and let go of him. "Go back to your homework. This conversation is not done yet."

* Headquarters *

The next morning, Steve came in late as he had to drop of John at school and the boy had done everything but getting himself ready for school. When the former SEAL strolled into HQ, the team was already gathered around the smart table waiting for him.

"Sorry 'm late.", Steve stated shortly, taking his position.

Danny looked at him. "You ok? How did the talk with John go?"

"How do you think?", Steve shot him a glare. "It went great. Please cut it and tell me what's going on here."

Danny bit his lip and nodded, not to give the two cousins standing next to him a short look, seeing the same expression on their faces. But Kono jumped in immediately and started typing on the smart table. "HPD found this genius here running around with the knife which was used in our murder. 19 year old kid, said he had found it in the trash and decided to keep it."

Danny rolled his eyes at the picture of the kid turning up on their screens. "Perfect. Why going to the police when you can keep it? Brilliant move."

"HPD had arrested him after he tried to jack a car with it…", Kono continued. "They questioned him about the murder but he said he knew nothing about it. He told them he would know this place where found the knife pretty well and lot of people could have dumped it there. But he also said, he would have seen our victim around there a couple days before he was found dead on the beach."

"Wait. You are saying this kid had seen our murder victim a day before he got killed and said nothing? Doesn't he read any newspaper or watch news?", Danny couldn't believe it.

"Apparently, he didn't want to get into any trouble. He gave us a name from the people the victim was seen at the time. HPD ran it through their data and é vóila: guy is on the run for drug dealing, blackmailing and some severe body harm. One of their informants got us an address, apparently there will be another gun deal."

Steve clapped his hand and remained his upright position. "Okay, let's go."

Danny held up his hand and waved it around. "Woah, what do you mean lets go?"

"You heard her, we have an address. It's our one and only chance.", Steve explained while he was getting his rifle and some additional ammo.

"Yes, an address! From a kid who was running around with our murder weapon which he found in some dumpster in the streets of Honolulu. That's a great idea, Steven!"

Steve interrupted gathering his stuff. "Do you have a better idea? I'm all open.", he waited for a reaction and as nothing came back from his partner, he grabbed his vest. "Didn't think so. Grab your vest, were heading out."

* 20 minutes later*

"Steven!", Danny practically yelled over the range of gunshots exploding over them.

Of course this had to end up like this. Running right into a gun deal, not a second before weapons were grabbed and fired at the team of Five-O. Steve and Danny were hid behind two containers, ducking from the incoming shots. Steve popped around and fired two shots back, revealing a painful cry from one of the shooters.

"Cover me!", he yelled back at Danny who stared at him in disbelief. "Cover you? With what? 5 of my last bullets against those guys with automatic weapons?!"

Steve didn't wait out his partner's bickering and stormed around to ran to the other side of the container. Danny popped out of his hidden place and fired two bullets straight at the three guys left, hiding behind their cars. While Steve came around and surprised one of them from behind with a straight shot into the back, Danny saw his chance and took down the second one who had been startled from his falling dead partner next to him. He got down with a bullet in his chest. While Danny checked around for other shooters, the third one had taken off and Steve was right behind. Danny started running, desperately trying to keep on with the two. Steve jumped onto the car right in front of him, using it as a stair to hop on the deck of the container. With a sprint forward he was able to take the jump, tackling the third guy from above with some impressive precision. Both of them were falling to the ground, struggling but a second later Steve found his position above the shooter, smacked away his gun and pushed his head against the concrete to send him into unconsciousness. Steve stood up when suddenly another shoot rang through the air. Danny spun around, spotting another one high above another container, aiming his gun right at Steve. Without hesitation the Jersey Cop fired his two last bullets directly into the guy, causing him to fall over and ending dead in the ocean behind him. As Danny turned back to Steve and the still unconscious suspect, he froze.

"Steve!", he yelled and started running towards his friend who was swaying dangerously before he felt sideways to the ground. Blood was spraying from his leg, letting the blood pool around his thigh growing bigger and bigger from one second to another. As Danny knelt down next to him, he immediately realised the seriousness of the situation: a gunshot in the leg shouldn't bleed like this. Apart from the fact, it had ripped part of the artery.

"Shit, McGarrett! You bleeding moron!", Danny cursed as he started undoing his belt in the most hectic way while Steve was groaning underneath him, breathing like he couldn't draw enough air into his lungs. His eyes were wide open, his face all sweaty and beginning to pale rapidly.

"Stay awake, you hear me?!", Danny shouted at him as he slid his belt under Steve's leg, wrapping it around and pull it fasten as hard as he could. Steve cried out, the pain threatening to take him out of consciousness.

"No, I told you to stay awake!", Danny kept talking, ripping his shirt off next and pressing is against the bleeding hole in his partner's leg. "Chin, Kono! Call an ambulance ASAP!", he repeated twice into his ear shot while pressing against the makeshift bandage to produce as much pressure as possible. Steve groaned again, trying to shift away but Danny held him in place.

"It's alright. You gonna be fine, you hear me?", he told his bleeding friend, trying to assure this to himself as well. Steve looked at him, glassy eyes filled with pain.

"D… Danny…", he pressed out between his rapid breaths, grimacing.

"No talking! Keep breathing!", Danny cut him off but Steve didn't listen.

"John… Hes… You have to…", he started again but was interrupted by a heavy cough, causing him to rasp for air. Danny would have liked to squeeze his shoulder in order for some touchy comfort but he didn't allow himself to put away any pressure from the still bleeding wound.

"No, no! Forget it! Don't even think about it, I will not promise you to take care of your kid! You will do that all by yourself, mister!", Danny snapped at him.

Steve had closed his eyes and for a moment Danny thought he had lost him. But a second later they shot open again, bleary and unfocused. "No… No… Promised him to… pick him up from school…", the former SEAL breathed out.

Danny had to laugh – wether if its because of Steve's ridiculous concern about not being able to pick up his son from school or just the desperate, overwhelming feeling of trying to keep his partner alive. "You are such an idiot, McGarrett! I will take care of that, okay? I promise. Now quit the talking and stay alive."

Finally, after what felt an eternity to Danny, the ambulance had arrived together with Chin and Kono. By the time of their appearance, Steve had lost his fight against consciousness. Good thing was, he was still breathing. The medics didn't waste much time, there wasn't anything more they could do other then doing a makeshift bandage like Danny already had done and giving the injured man some fluids in order to help him outrage the tremendous loss of blood. So, it didn't take 3 minutes to pack Steve onto a gurney and rush him into the back of the ambulance. Danny stood there, watching them and trying to resist the urge to jump right in next to his partner. He would like to but there was something else he needed to do and he was so not looking forward to it.

That's it with the chapter today!

A little mean with the cliffhanger, I know.. but I will update on Monday :)