H50 fic: When the Past Comes Knocking
Title: When the Past Comes Knocking (prequel to Night Terrors and Dream Warrior)
Author: grimcognito
Rating: PG-13 (bad words and brief descriptions of violent crimes and serious injuries)
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Pre-slash Steve/Danny
Genre: ANGST, a tiny bit of H/C
Warning: Descriptions of trauma, violent crimes, and mutilation. May be slightly triggery for some. Unbeta-ed
Spoilers: Hmm, not really.
Disclaimer: I own nothing and I make no profit from this. All details pertaining to police reports, medical refrences, and PTSD in this story are purely fictional.
Author Notes: I have no personal experience with this kind of trauma, and I make no claims to know how anyone would react in real life. If my description seems too off or unrealistic, please let me know and I will try to find a new way to describe things. I have also never read an actual police report, so any suggestions on how to reword it would be lovely. :)
Summary: Danny loses his cool at a crime scene and the team just wants to know why.
Word Count: 2659
A/N: Please pretend Danny never had that surfing lesson, and no one has seen him in shorts.
Steve is the last to arrive at the scene, the call coming in during his swim, and he skids to a stop with a spray of loose gravel. The lot in front of the old warehouse is already covered in black and whites, lights flashing in the grey morning air. Officers are bustling around, quickly taping off the scene and tagging evidence, little yellow markers numbering everything.
Scanning the crowd for his team, he spots Chin near the warehouse doors, looking concerned and waving Steve over. He jogs closer, concern gnawing at his gut-where are Danny and Kono? As he reaches Chin, he can hear the faint rise and fall of a familiar voice and feels his muscles relaxing slightly in relief. If Danny’s on a rampage, then he can’t be hurt too badly. Probably just saw something he felt was ‘outside of procedure’ and some poor green was getting the riot act.
It’s when he recognizes the tone that the worry comes rushing back. Danny’s not just ranting in his usual frustrated manner, he actually sounds angry. More than angry, in fact, Steve can’t remember a time he’s ever heard Danny so furious, and he’d gotten the man shot.
He turns to Chin, about to ask what going on, but Chin’s already answering him. “I don’t know what got into him, brah. Kono went in without back-up, Danny followed while I kept watch on the exits, and when they came out he dragged her off.”
Steve’s stunned, he knew waiting for back-up was one of Danny’s main rants, but never to this degree. And definitely never to Kono. What the hell had happened in the warehouse? “Did they run into any trouble inside?”
Chin’s looking just as confused as Steve feels, “Nah, but he looked like he just saw a ghost or something, pale and shaky. And really pissed off.”
What the hell? “I’m going to find out what exactly is going on. You catch up with HPD and make sure nothing gets missed.”
Chin pats him on the shoulder, as if to give him strength, and nods. Once he’s gone, Steve braces himself for-well, he’s not sure what for, but he’s braced against it-and walks around the corner to where Danny’s got Kono standing against a wall as he yells. His hands are barely moving, clenched into fists and held down at his sides.
“-what if there was someone in there, huh? I know you can take care of yourself, you wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t, but this guy were after, he’s no fucking joke! You can’t just waltz into a warehouse full of fucking power saws without someone to watch your back! This is where Reeves takes his victims to chop them to pieces!”
Jesus, Steve pauses for a second, because Danny’s not pissed, he’s far beyond that, he’s livid, face white with fury. And he can’t blame Kono for the look of stunned hurt; he thinks she should get some kind of reward for having stood through this for however long it has been going on.
“Danny.”
It’s like he can’t hear him, because Danny doesn’t even glance in his direction, still yelling. Kono sees him though, and her expression tells him there’s something seriously wrong here, more than Danny’s outburst.
“Danny! DANNY!”
With the last shout, Steve grabs Danny’s arm, and it finally seems to get through to him. Danny spins toward him, body tense and eyes a bit wild. “And you! Don’t you dare say a word! You’re setting the examples, running in without waiting, like you think nothings ever going to happen! But guess what, Steve. Shit does happen, and when it hits the god damned fan, you’ll wish you’d waited for that fucking back-up! Won’t you!?”
Shit. Steve’s seen that look before, when a person’s eyes are only half focused on the present. He’s never expected to catch it on his teammate’s face, because the only time he’s seen it was in the field, when a soldier broke down, triggered into a memory so violently they become stuck in it.
He needs to pull him out of it, he can’t let Danny stay there, in whatever dark part of his mind that’s taken hold, and he makes a quick motion to Kono with his free hand, seeing her scramble away in the edge of his vision now that Danny’s focusing on him. He speaks over Danny, because there doesn’t seem to be a pause coming up any time soon, “Danny. Danny, you need to calm down.”
Danny shoves him away, “I will not calm down! Next time one of you feels like running into a dangerous situation by yourself, think before you fucking act!”
With that, Danny shoulders past him, dragging a hand through his already mussed hair and stalking away stiffly. He’s limping, Steve notices. He wasn’t doing that yesterday, and Steve wonders if he hurt himself during the night. He’ll have to ask Chin if Danny seemed in pain when they arrived on the scene. But later, because right now, he’s going to find out what the hell had set Danny off.
He manages to track down Kono, after spotting Danny hunched over in his car, she’s speaking softly to Chin, clearly shaken. She looks up at Steve, arms crossed tightly over her stomach, “Boss, I swear I don’t know what got him like that. I made sure to check before going in, and we didn’t see anyone. He was fine until we got inside, then he started acting strange. I found the place where Reeves was killing his victims and he lost it.”
She and Chin are searching for answers, answers Steve doesn’t have, so he does what any good investigator does and asks Kono to show him exactly where she and Danny went in the warehouse. Kono pulls her work persona on with a nod, leading him to the main entrance, and Steve can’t help but feel a surge of pride at how well she’s handling things. She leads him in, past the main room and behind the towering shelves of dust covered boxes. HPD are wandering in and out, but they pay them no mind as Kono describes every detail of her search.
According to her, Danny had been acting normal, catching up with her just as she found Reeves workshop, then going strangely silent and withdrawn. He’d grabbed her arm when she tried to inspect one of the many saws set up around the scarred steel table and yanked her away from the scene.
Steve making mental bullet points as she described Danny’s behavior changing; how he went from merely frustrated at her gusto, to pale and tense, to dragging her from the building as if they were being chased, and finally, pulling her away from everyone and erupting in a rage she’d never seen before.
“I don’t know what did it, Boss. We’ve jumped into worse situations before, and he’s never acted like this before. Any ideas?”
Steve eyes the scene, the table surrounded by saws, and remembers the pictures they have set up in their office, bodies reduced to piles of flesh, and shakes his head. “It’s got to be something about all this,” he motions with his hand at all of it. “Something here triggered a memory, or some kind of trauma. I’ve seen it before, but only in the military. It happens sometimes to soldiers.”
The only question is, what had Danny remembered? Steve can’t recall a single mention of anything that would cause such a reaction, but it’s not something they’ve ever had a conversation about, and now Steve’s feeling really stupid about not reading all of Danny’s personal file. “I need to get Danny out of here, can you guys make sure all this is taken care of?”
“Yeah, Boss. Sure thing, just make sure he’s okay, yeah?”
“I will. Oh, one other thing. Did you notice Danny limping or anything when he arrived?”
Kono’s frown is thoughtful, “No, he seemed just fine. Why?”
“He was walking like he hurt his knee again. I’ll check to see if it’s anything serious.”
He heads off, leaving a concerned Kono behind. It doesn’t take long to find an officer to take his truck back to the headquarters for him, and he’s sliding into the driver’s seat of Danny’s car, buckling himself in and turning the key that’s already in the ignition. Danny’s got his seatbelt on, apparently having expected Steve to come for him, but he doesn’t speak the whole ride back to headquarters, just stares out the window silently.
It’s more than a little unnerving and Steve’s itching to fill the air with something other than tension, but not sure how much he should push or even how to start, so he says nothing. Once they get there, Danny practically runs to his office, locking himself in, and Steve would be all for kicking the door in, but he can see Danny just fine through the windows, doing paperwork and occasionally raking his fingers through his hair. He’s pale and twitchy, but Steve knows he won’t speak until he’s ready, so he reluctantly heads over to the computer table to review the case notes.
He could do this in his own office, but the view into Danny’s is better from here. A little over an hour later, Danny still hasn’t emerged, hasn’t even looked up from whatever he’s working on, when Chin and Kono return. They notice Danny’s shut door and look at Steve questioningly. He can only shrug in response, feeling as lost as they are, and pointedly moves on to ask them what updates they have from the crime scene.
They’re halfway through Chin’s rundown when Danny walks up to them, drops a folder onto the screen and faces Kono. “I’m sorry, Kono. I was out of line and I do trust you to do your job properly, but don’t let yourself get arrogant. Everyone needs back-up, even if it’s just your partner. You need someone to have your back, because you never know what might happen. I learned that the hard way, and I don’t want you to go through what I had to.”
Pointing at the file, he rolls his shoulders, still shifty, but a lot closer to his usual self than he’s looked since this morning. “Read that. I’ll be in my office.”
With that, he retreats before anyone can stop him, shutting himself in his office once more. The three of them look at each other, then down at the file, and Steve is the one to reach out and flip it open. The first page is a report for a work injury, something about Danny’s knee, and Steve spreads the papers out across the table top.
There’s an incident report, a leave of absence report, copies of medical records and bills, what looks like parts of a case file, and finally, a series of photos. When Chin flips them over to see, they all freeze at the sight. Kono breathes out a soft, “Jesus.”
Chin sucks in a breath and Steve thinks he might have stopped breathing all together. There are three photos, the first taken at the scene of a crime, eerily similar to the one they’d just returned from. Danny is lying on a table, strapped down and unconscious, one leg covered in blood from where it’s nearly severed from the rest of him, sliced through just below the knee. The second and third are close ups of the wound, cleaned and with a ruler held up to it for measurements. It’s hard to believe that’s Danny’s leg, because Steve’s not sure how anyone could walk after a wound like that, much less be as mobile as Danny is on a regular basis.
Kono is swallowing heavily, looking a little green around the edges, but holding her own, and Chin’s face is completely blank. Steve sucks in a steadying breath and takes a closer look at the reports, checks the date (seven years ago) and the time it took for Danny to be deemed fit to return to duty (nearly a year after the incident.)
There are notes, mentions of Danny’s intense willpower and determination to go through with his physical therapy. The fact that he only has to use a cane every once in a while and isn’t in a wheelchair says a lot in itself. Kono, who was reading the incident report, slides it to the center of the table so they can all see the paragraph she's pointing at. “Read this, guys.”
Steve and Chin lean in, and it all makes sense.
‘Officer Williams arrived first at the scene, having traced a call from the suspect to the location (blacked out address) where he called in for assistance but entered the premises before reinforcements arrived. No statement was able to be taken from officer Williams at this time, one will be added at a later date. When fellow officers arrived, Williams had been subdued and subjected to similar treatment as previous victims.’
The report goes on, but Steve can’t read any more. His stomach churning and cold spreading through his body, he quickly slides the papers back into the folder and shuts it. They stand for a long moment, wrapping their minds around this new information and Steve breaks the silence first. “There are a lot of similarities between these cases. Chin, contact Newark police and make sure the man from Danny’s case is still in prison and see if you can get that whole case file sent to us. Kono, run all of the evidence so far against this past case once we have it. We might have a copy cat on our hands.”
They both nod, Kono sneaking a glance in the direction of Danny’s office, “What about-?”
“I’ll check up on him. Don’t worry.”
Some of the tension dissipates, but not much, as Chin and Kono leave to their assigned tasks. Steve breathes in and out, picking up the folder and wishing he could burn it so he can never see it again, and walks right into Danny’s office. The door’s not locked, which Steve is grateful for, because he really doesn’t want to explain to the governor why he had to smash his way into his partner’s office.
Closer now, he can see how much of a toll this has taken on Danny, and his arms ache to just wrap him up in a tight hug and never let go. He waits, and it doesn’t take long before Danny tosses down his pen and glares up at him to cover up the fact that he’s terrified. “I know what you’re thinking. I already made an appointment with the HPD psychologist and requested the notes from my last one in Jersey. I’m fine doing the paperwork, just don’t take me off the case. I need to see this through, Steve.”
His eyes are pleading, and Steve can’t take it. “I wasn’t going to take you off the case.”
He’s walking around Danny’s desk as he says it, and Danny scoots his chair back to keeps his eyes on him. Steve wraps his hands around Danny’s wrist and tugs lightly, stepping back when Danny gets the message and stands up. Whatever Danny is about to say is muffled as Steve pulls him into a crushing hug, wrapping around him like he can shield him from the memories by making a solid, stubborn wall of SEAL all around him.
It’s impossible, but that doesn’t stop Steve from trying his damndest anyway. Besides, Danny is clutching him in return, pressing in close and fitting them together like two pieces of a puzzle. His face is buried in Steve’s collar, hair tickling his nose with every breath, and it’s a silent assurance that he’ll be there. No matter how long it takes, Steve will be there for him, and he won’t let go.
.......................
Apparently this has somehow morphed into an ongoing series. This would be a great thing, if I wasn't supposed to be doing all of my art for Fanime. >:[
Ah, well. I have one more planned. Hopefully I'll get some drawing done in between.