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Steve’s heart jumped into his throat the moment Danny said he was being tailed and that they weren’t being subtle about it. His heart nearly stopped all together when the sound of gunfire and tires squealing came through his phone speaker and Danny abruptly quit responding. Suddenly nothing else in the world mattered more than getting to Danny and making sure he was safe; the sun could have fallen out of the sky and it wouldn’t have mattered - hell he probably wouldn't have even noticed. Steve was laser focused on getting to his partner; everything else was background noise.
The Camaro was a giant ball of fire. The heat was nearly unbearable as metal and leather and chemicals were consumed by the flames, but Steve barely felt anything as he pulled the driver’s side door open. He only pulled away once his sleeve caught on fire, but even the searing pain was a background worry as he watched Lincoln extinguish the flames on the driver's seat. The news that Danny wasn’t in the car was a relief, but a short-lived one. His mind was immediately working in overdrive trying to figure out who would be bold enough to his partner and why. He began barking out orders to HPD and the rest of Five 0 before he was even consciously aware of it; Steve felt like he was watching his own body move from a distance. Even driving back to HQ felt like a haze – one moment he was standing next to the burning shell of their beloved Camaro and the next he was standing around the table with the rest of his team.
Watching the footage of Danny being grabbed, a black hood placed over his head before he was thrown into a waiting SUV made Steve feel like he was going to be sick. The voices of the team were faint and muffled compared to the sound of his own blood pulsing through his ears as he watched the man he loved get taken and tossed around like he was worth nothing more than a sack of garbage. Steve knew he looked like a mess as he gave more orders – shirt singed, eyes wide and filled with tears, soot covered – but none of it mattered. Nothing would ever matter more than getting his partner back, and he was grateful that the rest of the team agreed. Everyone sprang into action the moment orders were given, the same determination and anger he felt clear on their faces.
--
“Hey, we knitted together the traffic footage. We were able to track the two SUVs from the spot Danny was grabbed. It looks like they were heading east.” Tani said as Steve exited his office.
“Unfortunately, after about a mile we ran out of camera coverage.” Added Quinn.
They were going to find those SUVs no matter what the cost.
“Tell HPD I want birds in the air. I want every available officer – and I mean every single person who has a badge on this island – looking for Danny Williams.” He replied, before pulling his ringing phone out of his pocket.
“Hello?” He answered without bothering to look at the caller ID. The morning had been full of desperate phone calls to and from dozens of people, so all he could do was hope that someone had some good news.
“It’s good to finally hear your voice, Commander.” An unfamiliar female voice said, and Steve immediately set his phone on the table for Tani to start tracing the call.
"Who is this?”
“My name is Daiyu Mei. I believe you knew my husband, Wo Fat.”
He looked away from his phone as a tangled web of emotions surged through his body. They would never be free of Wo Fat, it seemed, and from the look Adam and Lou shared, it was a common thought. After the immediate shock, all Steve felt was fear. They knew all too well how dangerous anyone connected to Wo Fat was, and if there was anybody in the world would be able to kill Danny, it would be them.
“Do you have Danny?” He asked with a voice taking on more than a hint of desperation.
“Correct. It seems that we both have something the other person wants. I have the person you care most about in the world, and you have something that is rightfully mine.”
Danny was the person he cared most about in the world, no question about it, but hearing those words come out of the mouth of someone who was holding the man hostage shook Steve to his core. He couldn’t lose Danny, not like this.
“What do I-what do I have? What do I have that’s yours?”
“The cipher. Deliver it to me and Detective Williams lives… and don’t insult me by pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about. Assume I know everything.”
Steve could hear the fear and desperation in his own voice when he responded. He knew it wasn’t the way he should have responded, but he could think about nothing else but getting his partner home safe.
“And how do I know he’s okay?”
The sight of Danny strung up and bloody appeared on the screen in front of the table and Steve had to swallow down a wave of bile. The pristine white shirt Steve had tossed him a mere couple hours ago was soaked with blood all around the collar and shoulders, and Danny’s face was already a mess of bruises and swelling. Steve wanted to scream, punch something, do anything to get Danny out of there and home safely. He’d burn the whole fucking city down if that’s what it took.
“Whatever she wants you to do Steve, don’t do it, okay? Don’t give her anything.” Danny’s voice was calm and steady, but it was clear to everyone that he was stressed and hurting.
“So, do we have a deal?” Mei asked, unphased. “Don’t make the same mistake you made with your father, Commander McGarrett. Don’t allow a loved one to die because of your stubbornness.”
Steve could feel the concerned stares of the entire team as her words rang out, and he had to clench his fists to hide their shaking. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again. He had more than enough blood on his hands, he couldn’t live with Danny’s too.
“Tell me where you want the trade to go down.”
“I’ll text you the information. Come alone, Commander. Do exactly as I ask… or your friend dies.”
--
Adam caught up with him on his way to the elevator.
“You’re not just gonna give her what she wants, are you?”
“Listen, I made the mistake of hesitating when Hector demanded Lincoln. Almost cost us two lives, remember that? I’m not making that mistake again.”
“Look, you seem to be forgetting, that situation worked out just fine – we got the woman and her son back.”
“Yeah, we got the woman and her son back because of Lincoln!” He snapped back. He knew Adam was just trying to talk some sense into him, to make him think clearly, but it was too late. He had made up his mind and no amount of talking from Adam was going to change it. “Not me. Now, giving Daiyu Mei what she wants – trading this cipher for Danny’s life – that’s it, that’s all I got. That’s the play.”
“Okay.” Adam gave in, and Steve was relieved that he understood. If anyone would know the absolute mess of emotions fighting for supremacy in his brain, it would be Adam Noshimuri.
But then he continued.
“What she told you back there about your father? There’s no way you could have saved him, okay? The odds were stacked against you that day. But right now – right now you’ve got Five 0 in your corner, and it wasn’t long ago you told me that very thing. Let us help you find another way, alright? There is no guarantee that even if you give her that cipher she’ll spare Danny’s life.”
Steve knew Adam was right – knew deep down in his heart that Adam was right that he wasn’t alone and that there were other options, but he didn’t feel anything but painful loneliness and guilt. No matter how much logic would argue against it, all he could feel was the crushing weight of knowing ten years’ worth of deaths were on his shoulders, and the burden of being the only person who could save Danny.
“I’m going to the trade alone. I’ll call you.”
He had to look away from the pained expression on Adam’s face as the elevator doors closed.
“Good luck, brother.”
The moment the elevator doors cut him off from the concerned eyes of his team, Steve sagged. The moment of his father’s death just kept replaying over and over again in his mind, and he was so painfully fucking exhausted and scared. He couldn’t – wouldn’t – go through that again.
--
Getting to the meetup point felt like it took an eternity, though it was only 20 minutes. Driving down the dusty road towards the same two black SUVs that had taken Danny, Steve steeled himself for whatever was to come. He was cold, determined. Danny Williams was coming home one way or another.
“Where is he?” He asked the moment they were all out of their vehicles, peering around Daiyu Mei obviously.
It took all of his power to keep his rage in check and not slit the throats of Mei and her men as they stood there smugly, and he only succeeded due to the mental image of Danny trapped somewhere bloody and alone while they fruitlessly scoured the island.
“2342 Kapule Avenue. You’ll find him there.”
“No, doesn’t work for me.” Steve pulled out his phone, focused solely on keeping his hands from shaking. “You’re gonna livestream him from my phone. I want the geostat data to prove he’s where you say he is, and he’s alive. Otherwise, there’s no deal, alright?”
Mei dialed his phone with the same infuriating smirk on her face as Steve shifted his weight restlessly from foot to foot. Danny’s body suddenly appeared on the screen and – oh God was that more blood?
“Danny! You okay? Hey!”
“I’m fine, Steve. Don’t trust her, okay?”
She ended the call and Steve snatched his phone back.
“Hey!”
“Now give me the cipher.”
He handed the paper to her almost absentmindedly as he stared down at his phone, willing Danny’s face to reappear and tell him everything was fine.
“Good decision.” She said, and Steve was immediately backing away.
He ran back to his truck, peeling out and setting the sirens as he turned back down the gravel road. He called Tani as he skidded around a corner and back onto a main road.
“Tani, yeah, it’s me. Listen, I need an all-units alert. Send HPD SWAT to 2342 Kapule Avenue, tell them that’s where they’re holding Danny. I-I’m five minutes out. You tell them that, okay?”
“You got it.”
And then it was silence once more in the cab of his truck, nothing beyond the wail of the sirens and screeching of tires penetrating the roar of blood in Steve’s ears. He flew down the streets, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights, cutting curbs without a care for any other person on the road. Danny’s name played like a mantra in his head.
The truck was barely stopped outside the house before he was jumping out and pulling his gun, scanning the surroundings for any sign of his partner. He barely stepped foot into the building before Danny was there, sprawled on the ground in a pool of his own blood. Steve dropped to one knee and rubbed Danny’s blood-soaked torso, nearly crying in relief as an arm came up to bat him clumsily away.
“Hey. Hey, there you go. Okay, alright, buddy.”
He felt for an exit wound on his back as Danny groaned incoherently.
“Okay, you keep groaning alright? Come here, put your hand behind my head. Hold on, hold on, hold on.”
One arm held Danny’s around his shoulders while the other grasped tightly to his waist, half-carrying him as they stumbled out of the building. The rest of Five 0 climbed out of their cars and stared as the two men approached, but Steve’s focus was solely on his partner.
“Here we go. I’m right here.” He said as they made there way towards everyone.
“Door. Get the door!” He called, and Tani immediately threw open one of the rear doors of his truck.
“I’ll drive!”
“Okay, climb in. I need you to climb in, alright? I’m right behind you buddy. Get in, alright.” Steve murmured.
Lou tossed him a pressure back as he cradled Danny in his arms and then Tani was peeling out.
“This is Commander Steve McGarrett of the Five-0 Task Force. I got a patient coming in, GSW to the chest. Alright? I need surgeons prepped and ready for him when I get there. I’m bringing him in myself. Alright? Good, go, go, go.”
He hung up the phone and immediately turned his focus back to the man cradled in his arms.
“You’re good buddy.”
Danny was so pale, the bright red soaking his shirt contrasting with the ever-whitening skin of his face. Steve knew his hands were shaking, but he pressed them as hard as he could into the oozing wound as he desperately tried to ignore the unending tide of warm liquid seeping through his fingers. He had no idea how long it took them to reach the ER – though certainly less time than traffic laws should have allowed – but it still felt entirely too long. Danny kept slipping and out of consciousness, and every time he was out Steve couldn’t shake the feeling that he would never wake up again.
Danny did wake up as Steve and a nurse hauled him onto a stretcher and raced inside - the rest of Five 0 hot on their heels – but could do nothing but lay there limply as he was manhandled. Steve relayed information about his condition as they met the surgeons outside the OR, hand still firmly placing pressure on the bullet wound. As the nurses went to wheel the stretcher away, Danny lifted his arm and knocked it awkwardly against Steve’s.
“Hey, I’m with you bud. It’s okay.” He soothed, patting Danny’s chest softly.
And then they were leaving, wheeling Danny away and leaving Steve adrift and coated in the blood of the man he loved. The whole team stood in a shell-shocked silence, and Steve leaned heavily against the wall as his body suddenly became too heavy to hold up. He closed his eyes, internally begging any deity who would listen to keep Danny alive.
--
The chapel was quiet and dim compared to the rest of the hospital, and blissfully empty. Steve couldn’t remember the last time he had gone to church, but sometime after Danny had been rushed away to surgery he found himself sitting on one of the hard wooden pews and praying harder than he ever had before. His hands were clasped so tightly his knuckles were turning white, but as he stared up at the crucifix on the wall he felt nothing but cold, hard determination.
“You wanna take somebody? Take me.” Steve said, voice low and dangerous. “Not him, you take me.”
Danny was not going to die in that hospital if he had anything to say about it. He didn’t care if it took trading his own life – Danny Williams was not going to die from that goddamn gunshot wound.
Lincoln found him there, sat in the dark with tears in his eyes as he begged God to take his life instead. He sat in the pew behind Steve and spoke quietly.
“No news - He’s still in surgery. Look Steve, I know you know this, but we need to get that cipher decoded. We have a photo of it. With any luck, my guy can crack it.”
“What difference does it make?” He replied numbly.
“I’ll tell you what difference it makes. We crack that cipher, we figure out why Daiyu Mei wanted it, maybe we learn what she’s got planned next. It’s our best chance at catching her.” Lincoln paused. “Look, all I’m asking for is your permission to take that cipher to Nang. You stay put right here. I got this.”
Steve rubbed his face harshly with a sigh.
“Take Quinn with you. She’s gonna give you a hard time, tell you she wants to stay here and support me, but you tell her that the best way to do that is for her to help you. Alright?”
“Copy that.”
Lincoln got up to leave, but Steve stopped him.
“Hey.”
He silently took his gun off his belt and handed it over his shoulder, and the man took it with a soft pat to his shoulder. Once more, Steve was alone.
--
After a while, he made his way back out to the waiting room to rejoin his team in their anxious vigil. Every time a doctor or nurse so much as looked at him, Steve’s heart began to race, but every time they just kept on walking. The hours seemed to pass like agonizing molasses, and it was getting to them all. Finally, finally, one of Danny’s surgeons appeared and the whole team jumped up holding their collective breaths.
“How’s uh… what’s going on?” Steve asked, unable to even make himself ask if Danny was alright.
“He just got out of surgery and he’s stable for now.”
All of the air whooshed out of his lungs and he could hear the same thing happening to every other person standing behind him.
“We’re not entirely out of the woods yet, but we just cleared a big hurdle.” She continued.
Steve could barely string words together to form a coherent sentence.
“Alright. Can I – Can I – can I, uh, can I see him?”
“Yeah, come.”
--
They had seen each other in hospital beds covered in bandages and wires more times than either of them would ever care to admit, but the sight of Danny still rocked Steve as he walked into the room. He just looked so… lifeless. All the lively boisterous energy that made up Danny Williams seemed to be gone, replaced by bruises and pale skin and bandages. Steve simply grabbed his left hand and stared, centering himself with the steady rise and fall of Danny’s chest beneath the blankets. He catalogued every centimeter of his face, taking in all the new bruises and cuts, as if he were trying to commit every single cell to memory. In a way, he was. The thought of never seeing Danny alive again had plagued Steve for several torturous hours, and now that he could see him alive, Steve drank it in. He would never, ever take Danny’s existence for granted.
All Steve wanted to do as he sat there listening to the steady beeping of the machines was to press a kiss to Danny’s forehead and see his bright eyes open again, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Danny’s face was a mess of bruises, and he couldn’t bear the idea of causing him even the slightest bit more pain.
--
“Hi. Why’d you stop holding my hand?”
The sound of Danny’s voice, raspy and slurred as it was, snapped Steve out of his fugue and his head shot up.
“Hey.” He replied - though it came out more as a breath than anything else – as he took Danny’s hand again.
“We’re fighting?” Danny asked and Steve wanted to cry from the sheer range of emotions he felt.
“I thought I lost you there, man.”
“Nah. You can’t get rid of me that easy, alright?”
All he could do was nod in response.
“You know, when a patient wakes up you’re supposed to be relieved. At least act happy, a little bit.”
“I am happy.” Steve said in a whisper.
“Yeah? Me too.”
They sat in silence for a moment before Steve spoke again.
“She used you. She used you to get to me. She almost killed you.”
“Eh, she didn’t. I’m right here. I’m chillin’.”
“Yeah, it’s… it’s just it feels an awful lot like what I went through with my father, that’s all.” He admitted.
“Stop, please. You’re annoying me already.” Danny replied, forehead creasing. “If I had a dollar for every time you’ve saved my life…”
“You’d have a lot.”
“I’d have like, twenty bucks or something.”
“You’d have a lot more than that, actually.”
“Yeah.”
“Twenty-five bucks.”
The familiar banter helped combat the lingering, sinking sensation in Steve’s stomach, but then his phone rang and the reality of the situation hit once more.
“Hey I’m sorry, its Cole. Want me to take it outside?”
“Go ahead, answer it. Put it on speaker, would you? I’m bored.”
The day’s emotional rollercoaster continued as Lincoln and Quinn announced that they had cracked the cipher, and as Steve realized the location the cipher pointed to was the same cemetery his mother had supposedly been buried in when he was a child. Danny encouraged him to leave and go find out what the hell was going on, and Steve was out in a flash.
--
Doris’ crypt was destroyed, whatever had been stored inside long gone, and they still had no idea what she had even hidden there in the first place.
A review of the surveillance tape that Quinn was able to access from her laptop confirmed that Mei’s crew had beaten them there, and that the crypt had been filled with piles of cash. Lincoln was confused, but Steve couldn’t find the energy to explain. It had been one extremely long, painful day, and the last thing he wanted to do was re-live all of the shit his mother had put him through.
The identification and phone trace they were able to attain from the footage led them to the docks, and as he chased Mei across the storage containers, all Steve wanted to do was put a bullet in her head and end it right then and there. But even as he cornered her and stood there with his gun aimed directly at her chest, he couldn’t pull the trigger. He wanted to do nothing more as she talked about Wo Fat and his father and his mother, but… he couldn’t. His father’s voice and then Danny’s voice echoed in his brain, telling him that she wasn’t worth it, that rotting in prison would be a crueler sentence.
“Book her, Cole.”
--
A week later, Danny was released from the hospital and sent home in Steve’s care. As Steve carried all of his medications and stuff into the house, Danny went straight out to his favorite beach chair. Once he was done getting everything set up, Steve joined him outside.
“How you feeling?”
“Depressed.”
“Depressed? Why are you depressed?”
Danny looked over at him before turning back out to the water.
“You know that lady, the nice nurse at the hospital? She was bringing me those red Jell-Os with the whipped cream on top. I miss her. She was very nice to me.”
His concern evaporated into fond exasperation.
“Yeah, can I give you a word of advice? Don’t mistake a caregiver for someone who cares. She was getting paid to be nice to you.”
“Oh, really?” Danny asked. “You know, jealousy is not, uh, pretty on you.”
Steve grinned and leaned over to press a soft kiss to Danny’s lips.
“What do I have to be jealous about? I saved your life – again, I might add – so you owe me.”
“Oh, so that’s what this relationship is? I just owe you for saving my life? How does that work with all the times I’ve saved your sorry ass, or all the years you’ve removed from my life due to your neanderthal behavior?” Danny’s tone was serious, but the impact was lessened by the obvious grin on his face.
Steve just looked at him fondly. He was nowhere near healed from the gunshot, but sitting in that chair in their backyard with the sun shining and a faint breeze ruffling his hair, Danny looked… good. He looked alive and relaxed, a hundred percent more himself than he had looked in all the bright lights of the hospital.
“C’mon,” Steve said, standing up. “Got a whole welcome crew on their way. Can’t miss your own welcome home party, can you? Plus I think Eddie is going to destroy your pillow if you don’t give him some love soon – poor guy has been missing you for some reason.”
Danny stared up at him.
“Gonna make me get up?”
“Yeah, get up. Come on.”
He stood with a reluctant groan but went easily into Steve’s embrace.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Good, now let’s get inside before the party starts without us.”
It was slow going as they made their way across the yard to the lanai due to Danny’s cane and shuffling gait, but they were in no rush. Steve would have stayed by his side even if it took all day, because Danny was alive and home and everything was going to be okay.
Just as he got Danny settled comfortably on the couch, the team walked in the front door carrying food and balloons and who knows what else. One by one everyone stopped to say hi to Danny and give him a hug, but they also made sure Steve got his own hugs as well... and that fact nearly brought him to tears. Despite – or perhaps because of – everything they had been through in the various years they had spent together, they had become one large, mishmashed family. They had been a group of misfits, broken hearts, lost causes, and still somehow came together and created the most beautiful, kindhearted, loving family that fought every single day to make not just each other better, but the world too.
Steve knew from the moment he invited each and every one of them to join the Task Force that they needed it in their lives, but as he sat in that room full of life and love and laughter despite the death and destruction they faced every day, he realized that he had needed it too. It brought Danny into his life when he needed it most, and he was lucky enough for the guy to see something in him and stick around for an entire decade. He didn’t know if he believed in soulmates, but he couldn’t deny that if they did exist, Danny was his. There was nothing in the world that he was more grateful for than the grumpy Jersey cop sitting on the couch across the room, and though he never would have predicted it on that fateful day they pulled their guns on each other in his garage, he knew Danny was his heart and his home. Steve hadn’t even known it was possible that home could be a person instead of a place, but just like he always seemed to do, Danny proved him wrong. But though Danny was home, he knew his life would be devoid of so much love without the rest of the team. They each had a piece of his heart in their own ways, and he’d lay his life down without a thought a thousand times over if it meant keeping them safe.
Steve was lost in thought as everyone mingled around him, until Adam walked up and pressed a beer into his hands.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Steve replied, shaking himself out of his thoughts.
“Everything okay? You looked like you were focused on something.”
“I was just thinking about all this.” He waved his hand vaguely at the room. “How we met all of you, that kind of thing. This whole thing with Danny reminded me just how much I need you all. You’re… you’re my family, and without you I don’t know where I’d be.”
Adam looked at him for a moment, gaze soft.
“I’ve never properly thanked you, have I?”
“For what?”
“For always seeing the good in me. You gave me a second chance at this life and I’ll never forget that. I love you, brother.” Adam said, voice quiet and serious.
Steve pulled him into a tight hug, wrapping a hand around the back of Adam’s neck.
“I’ve never properly thanked you either. I owe you a lot, but when Mei had Danny you reminded me that I’m not alone anymore – that I haven’t been in a long time. And that you understood what I was feeling and why I was doing what I was doing. You tried to talk me down when nobody else would, and then you let me go when everyone else would have fought me.”
Adam pulled back, patting Steve’s side with tears visible in his own eyes.
“We’re ohana, Steve. Always have been and always will be.”