'Hoikeana (Revelation)' [Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams]
Title: "Hoikeana (Revelation)"
Author: that_1_incident
Fandom: "Hawaii Five-0"
Pairing: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams (a.k.a. #MCDANNO)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~2,800
Summary: While Steve's away hunting Joe and Wo Fat in Japan, Danny leaves him a voicemail every day.
Disclaimer: Listen, if I owned the rights to "Hawaii Five-0," the pairings in the show would be very different and the theme song would be our national anthem. #bye
Author's Notes: The fact that a lot of the Steve/Danny dialogue in this was taken pretty much verbatim from episode 2x22, "Ua Hopu (Caught)," is a testament to how ridiculous(ly in love) they are. I mean, really. I barely had to give them a nudge. (Also, this is cross-posted to AO3 and FF.net).
---<---<---@
Danny calls every day while Steve's off gallivanting around Japan in search of Shelburne, no doubt kicking ass and taking names in the process. He leaves a message every time because first of all, Steve's still his partner despite his recent asinine behavior, and second of all, Danny has a bone to pick with him. Steve can't just take off like he did, leaving nothing more than a "Dear Danny" letter in his wake. This is not some "Dear John" situation. As Danny tells Chin and Kono (and Kamekona and Rachel and the guy at the gas station who asks where his buddy is when he goes to fill up the Camaro), he's perturbed.
--
"Listen, I get that you feel like you have to do this by yourself, OK, I get that, but you've gotta think of the people back here who care about you, who are wondering how you're -"
Danny's in the middle of leaving his fifth voicemail in as many days when he realizes "perturbed" is the wrong word. He's not actually perturbed or even pissed - he's hurt.
He hangs up mid-sentence. Steve doesn't call him back.
--
A couple of days later, the global population nearly takes a steep dive due to a smallpox outbreak that Five-0 and the Los Angeles NCIS division are instrumental in averting, so it's fair to say Danny's life gets a little busier than usual. A couple of the NCIS guys fly out to help work the L.A. connection, and Danny realizes backseat driving must be a SEAL trait, and an immensely unattractive one at that.
"Let me explain something to you," he haughtily tells Steve's voicemail a few seconds after Special Agent Hanna mercifully exits the Camaro. "You can't save the world if you're dead, Steven. And if you and your kind keep telling me how to drive my own damn vehicle, you're not gonna be alive for too much longer, OK? There's only so much a man can take."
It belatedly occurs to him that leaving death-threat voicemails may not be the best way to get Steve back on the grid, so he ends the message with a softer, "Wish you were here for this one. Hope you're staying safe."
He pauses.
"Despite your insane instincts to do the contrary, you animal."
Then he hangs up.
--
The funny thing about narrowly preventing a global pandemic is that it makes you grateful for the things you take for granted.
Danny's first move after he and Chin help NCIS nab the nefarious Dr. Holden on the mainland is to call Grace, of course, but as soon as he gets off the phone with her, his thoughts turn to Steve. Steve's name is sitting stubbornly in his Recent Calls list with the number "10" next to it in parentheses, and considering that the return calls Danny's received amount to exactly zero, an eleventh attempt is unlikely to prove fruitful, but Danny has to try.
"Listen, you big galoot," he begins after the beep, and immediately decides that this is the best way he's ever begun a voicemail, "I have no idea what you're doing in Japan or if you're even still in Japan, for that matter, but we kinda saved the world today and I'm feeling pretty good about that. And although we did it sans you and with substantially less violence than I'm sure you would have brought to the table - I miss you, OK? And I love you."
He hadn't planned to say that last part, and his throat goes bone-dry in an instant.
"I mean, uh…" He scrabbles for a way to redeem the situation, conscious of the dead air being recorded on a tiny chip inside Steve's phone, one agonizing second at a time. "I mean, I'd love for you to come home soon. All right, bye."
--
A couple of days after he gets back to O'ahu, Danny's heading into his office when his cell rings.
"Detective Williams."
Silence.
"Hello?" He pulls the chair away from his desk and lowers himself into it. "Detective Williams."
"Long time, partner," Steve says collegially.
Danny, predictably, explodes.
"What the hell is the matter with you?! Where the hell have you been?!"
"Looking for Joe and Shelburne," Steve tells him matter-of-factly. "Didn't you get my letter? I explained."
"No, no, you didn't explain." Danny's on his feet again, gesticulating wildly as he paces around his office. "You didn't explain anything - you just left me a letter and then you took off. And if you didn't know I got the letter, I'm guessing you didn't get my messages."
"I didn't take off," Steve corrects him, purposely avoiding the topic of his voicemail, a move Danny thinks speaks louder than words. The bastard probably deleted his messages without taking the time to listen. "You're making it sound like I was on the run. Why're you angry?"
"I am not angry," Danny says with exaggerated calm.
"Well, you sound angry."
"I'm not angry, OK?! I was worried, and now I'm concerned. That's all."
"OK, well, uh, I appreciate your concern."
Honestly, maybe it's better Steve never checked his voicemail if Danny expressing mere concern is going to make him all awkward.
"Thank you," Steve says, as if he's trying to take another stab at the whole gracious human interaction thing, "but I'm fine."
"Well, you don't sound fine; you sound like you're stressed out." Danny hopes the worry in his voice sounds at least vaguely contained. "Did you find Joe?"
Steve sighs. "No, but I think I might've found Shelburne."
Danny rolls his eyes. This is typical Steve right now. Only Steve has the power to make Danny swing from relieved to hear from him to intensely irritated by his entire existence in under a minute.
"What do you mean, you think? You either found him, or you did not find him. It's one or the other."
"It's complicated."
Oh, OK. Now Steve's taking a page out of Facebook's playbook.
"All right with the secrecy - I don't need it right now," Danny snaps. "I mean, did you just call to not tell me what's going on with you?"
"No, I called to tell you that I'm in Osaka and I have Wo Fat in custody, all right?"
"You took - " Danny shakes his head. "Way to bury the lede, buddy."
"Danny, I know I owe you an explanation and you're gonna get it, but right now I need your help. Are Chin and Kono around?"
Danny scowls. Steve asking for help is like his kryptonite. He can't stay angry when his partner needs him - and Steve knows it, the bastard.
He heads out of his office, motions to Chin and raps on the glass partition separating him from Kono. The three of them gather at the table computer, where Danny puts his phone on speaker and gets Chin and Kono up to speed in the most succinct way possible: "Steve's in Japan. He needs us."
"I'm bringing Wo Fat in," Steve tells the room without preamble. "I was in Osaka tracking Shelburne when I heard chatter about Wo Fat, so I coordinated with Interpol, got a lock on his location and executed a raid."
He relays the information as calmly as if he were reciting a shopping list. Typical, typical Steve.
"Oh, you make it sound very easy," Danny can't resist commenting.
"It was too easy - that's what I don't like." Steve sighs. "Wo Fat surrendered himself."
He sounds tired yet focused, and Danny wasn't lying - he really is concerned. He knows SEALs are trained to operate on little sleep, but contrary to Steve's entire belief system, there are limits, damn it.
"I found a phone," Steve continues, and Danny makes himself concentrate on what his partner's saying. "It was used to call a number in Honolulu seventeen times in two days - I want to know who he was calling."
Seventeen? Wow, Wo Fat even has Danny beat.
"You have the number?" Kono asks, ready to run a trace.
Steve reads it to her, and a few moments later, the computer spits out a hit.
"Looks like Kewalo Basin," Chin announces, mainly for Steve's benefit.
"OK, we're all over it, babe," Danny says in the direction of the phone.
"Just be careful, OK?" Steve sounds grim. "I don't know what Wo Fat's up to, but he wanted me to find this phone. I don't want you walking into an ambush."
"Hey, listen, we will be fine," Danny assures him. "Just do me a favor: Take care of your own six."
He can picture Steve's incredulous double-take all the way across the ocean and wishes he'd put more thought into his choice of words.
"...Sorry, did you say six?" Steve queries disbelievingly after a beat, and of course it'd be too much to ask for him to let that pass without comment.
Danny puts his head in his hands. At least this wasn't as bad as when he told Steve he loved him in a damn voicemail.
"OK, I've been gone way too long." Steve's almost laughing on the other end of the line, and the sound gives Danny a funny feeling in his chest. "You're starting to sound like me."
"I know, I know, and it just made me want to throw up," Danny moans, pinching the bridge of his nose. He has a hell of a headache coming on, and it's one hundred percent Steven stupid McGarrett's stupid fault. "Can you hurry back, please?
"Roger that."
--
When Five-0 minus Steve head to Kewalo Basin, they discover a dead woman - Anna Douglas - who seems more CIA than the Cultural Affairs classification on her government ID would lead them to believe. Danny calls Steve right away, and even though he knows Steve's waiting to hear more about the person Wo Fat was calling, he's still surprised when his partner answers. He'd kind of gotten used to the terse "McGarrett; leave a message."
After he updates Steve on all that's happening stateside, he can't help but ask what's going on with Wo Fat. There's no way Steve will provide a straight answer, but he's mildly interested in what kind of runaround his partner will give him.
"Sorry, Danny, that's classified."
And there it is.
"It's classified?" Danny echoes indignantly. "Is that a joke? Are you kidding me?"
"No, I'm not kidding."
"OK, uh, well… when are you bringing him back?"
"I can't tell you that either, Danny," Steve informs him with a touch of frustration. "I can't tell you these things over an unsecured line, you understand? It's a security issue."
As far as Danny's concerned, Steve's face is a security issue.
"OK, you know what I think? I think that you think that saying stuff like that is cool," Danny accuses. "Let me explain something to you: It's not cool. It's actually the opposite of cool. It is - it is really, really hot, Steve."
Steve doesn't respond, and Danny's thumb and forefinger fly back to the bridge of his nose.
"I was - that was not how I meant for that to come out," he says lamely as the throbbing behind his eyes intensifies.
"Danny…"
"You know what, forget it," Danny says quickly, not wanting Steve to finish his sentence. "I don't care. Well, no, I care, I'm just gonna find out myself, OK? I'm gonna track your plane."
"No, you won't; we're coming in dark," Steve says resignedly.
"Dark, huh?"
"Yes, dark. As in off the radar. Dark."
"I know what 'dark' means, Steven, you don't have to keep saying it. Is staying off the radar really necessary?
"It's protocol, Danny, OK?" There's less of an edge to Steve's tone now, more of a softness. "I'm sorry, but I can't answer your questions right now. I gotta go."
"Wait, I got an easy one: What are you wearing? ...You know what, don't answer that. I'm sure it's top-secret, so I will take a guess - cargo pants."
"Goodbye, Daniel."
--
You could say Danny's maybe a little bit to blame for not letting the whole dark flight thing go, but he's certain he would never in his life have found himself in an abandoned warehouse with a half-dozen CIA spooks trying to intimidate the hell out of him if he had never met Steve McGarrett.
"The investigation into Agent Douglas' death is closed," the head spook tells him as soon as one of the other guys pulls the black bag off his head (which, by the way, smelled delightful). "We made everything disappear. The body you found at the scene, the shell casing, the autopsy report, everything. This case is closed because it was never open to begin with."
Danny squares his shoulders. "Do you think I'm just gonna go along with that, genius? How do you group of morons think you're gonna keep this quiet when Wo Fat gets here, huh?"
"What makes you think anyone's bringing him in?" his captor asks coolly, and a prickle of fear makes itself known deep inside Danny's chest.
"Because I know for a fact that he's on a plane here right now."
"Yeah, well, that plane doesn't exist," the spook says in a tone that makes Danny wonder how many other "nonexistent" things this guy has dealt with over the course of his career.
Danny slowly runs his tongue over his bottom lip, trying to keep himself composed.
"Listen to me, if anything happens to that plane..." he begins as calmly as he possibly can, even though he can feel his throat tightening with every word, "I promise you, I'm gonna find you and I'm gonna kill you, OK?"
When the man strikes him in the face, he barely feels it.
"Don't be ridiculous; we're the good guys."
Danny laughs desperately. He figures they're not buying his act anyway, so why not lose his cool?
"What did you do, good guys? Huh?" he demands a little hysterically.
"Nothing - all we have to do is wait and let nature take its course."
--
The nature reference makes a lot more sense after Danny escapes the warehouse courtesy of his guy on the inside and learns that Steve and Wo Fat's plane crashed somewhere in the forest reserves on the western side of O'ahu. Of course, Steve being Steve, the course of nature involved neutralizing seven Yakuza, stealing their helicopter and promptly flying it to Dillingham Airfield.
Danny's not surprised in the slightest.
He, Kono and Chin get to the airfield a few seconds after Adam Noshimuri and his band of Yakuza to find Steve in the middle of a standoff, as per usual. Noshimuri makes it out alive, his lawyer doesn't (because Kono's a hell of a shot) and Steve… well, Steve's looking just as G.I. Joe ready-to-go as always, if a little rough around the edges.
Danny kind of wants to kiss him.
He nixes that idea pretty much as soon as it bubbles up in his brain and heads over to greet Steve in a manner much more safe for work, opening with, "See, I knew it: cargo pants.
"Book 'em, Danno," Steve responds with a twinkle in his eye.
"You could've just said hello, huh?"
Steve smiles wanly and places a firm, warm hand on Danny's bicep in response, massaging the muscle, and electricity frissons through Danny's body. Well, shit.
Danny turns to Wo Fat, says "C'mon" very brusquely and, with supreme effort, manages to walk away from Steve's reassuring touch long enough to get Wo Fat secured in a cruiser. He's back for more soon enough, though, ambling up to Steve and observing, "You're a mess."
"Yeah, yeah."
Steve hugs him for a couple of seconds like he did with Chin and Kono, but as Danny moves to pull away, he holds him in place.
"I got your voicemails," Steve whispers, breath hot against Danny's ear.
Danny tenses instantly. He's not sure he trusts himself to speak.
"I listened after we hung up in Osaka," Steve murmurs, and Danny tries really hard to look like he's not having a moment with Steve even though they're totally having a moment. "I'm sorry I disappeared like that. I could tell in your voice how, uh… how much it upset you."
Danny nods quickly and steps back. He's shaking slightly and doesn't want Steve to notice.
"It's fine," he says in as easygoing a tone as he can manage, and his voice sounds strange over the jackhammering of his heart. It isn't fine - not really, not yet - but Steve's sorry and that counts for something. That counts for a lot.
"For what it's worth…" Steve leans toward him again, as casually as if he's about to make an offhand comment, but what comes out instead is, "For what it's worth, I love you too."
He slots an arm around Danny's shoulders, and although Danny freezes in shock for a second, he barely skips a beat before snaking his hand around Steve's waist. When Steve starts massaging his shoulder again, Danny slides his thumb through one of the loops on Steve's stupid cargo pants, two puzzle pieces that fit.
---<---<---@
Author: that_1_incident
Fandom: "Hawaii Five-0"
Pairing: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams (a.k.a. #MCDANNO)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~2,800
Summary: While Steve's away hunting Joe and Wo Fat in Japan, Danny leaves him a voicemail every day.
Disclaimer: Listen, if I owned the rights to "Hawaii Five-0," the pairings in the show would be very different and the theme song would be our national anthem. #bye
Author's Notes: The fact that a lot of the Steve/Danny dialogue in this was taken pretty much verbatim from episode 2x22, "Ua Hopu (Caught)," is a testament to how ridiculous(ly in love) they are. I mean, really. I barely had to give them a nudge. (Also, this is cross-posted to AO3 and FF.net).
---<---<---@
Danny calls every day while Steve's off gallivanting around Japan in search of Shelburne, no doubt kicking ass and taking names in the process. He leaves a message every time because first of all, Steve's still his partner despite his recent asinine behavior, and second of all, Danny has a bone to pick with him. Steve can't just take off like he did, leaving nothing more than a "Dear Danny" letter in his wake. This is not some "Dear John" situation. As Danny tells Chin and Kono (and Kamekona and Rachel and the guy at the gas station who asks where his buddy is when he goes to fill up the Camaro), he's perturbed.
--
"Listen, I get that you feel like you have to do this by yourself, OK, I get that, but you've gotta think of the people back here who care about you, who are wondering how you're -"
Danny's in the middle of leaving his fifth voicemail in as many days when he realizes "perturbed" is the wrong word. He's not actually perturbed or even pissed - he's hurt.
He hangs up mid-sentence. Steve doesn't call him back.
--
A couple of days later, the global population nearly takes a steep dive due to a smallpox outbreak that Five-0 and the Los Angeles NCIS division are instrumental in averting, so it's fair to say Danny's life gets a little busier than usual. A couple of the NCIS guys fly out to help work the L.A. connection, and Danny realizes backseat driving must be a SEAL trait, and an immensely unattractive one at that.
"Let me explain something to you," he haughtily tells Steve's voicemail a few seconds after Special Agent Hanna mercifully exits the Camaro. "You can't save the world if you're dead, Steven. And if you and your kind keep telling me how to drive my own damn vehicle, you're not gonna be alive for too much longer, OK? There's only so much a man can take."
It belatedly occurs to him that leaving death-threat voicemails may not be the best way to get Steve back on the grid, so he ends the message with a softer, "Wish you were here for this one. Hope you're staying safe."
He pauses.
"Despite your insane instincts to do the contrary, you animal."
Then he hangs up.
--
The funny thing about narrowly preventing a global pandemic is that it makes you grateful for the things you take for granted.
Danny's first move after he and Chin help NCIS nab the nefarious Dr. Holden on the mainland is to call Grace, of course, but as soon as he gets off the phone with her, his thoughts turn to Steve. Steve's name is sitting stubbornly in his Recent Calls list with the number "10" next to it in parentheses, and considering that the return calls Danny's received amount to exactly zero, an eleventh attempt is unlikely to prove fruitful, but Danny has to try.
"Listen, you big galoot," he begins after the beep, and immediately decides that this is the best way he's ever begun a voicemail, "I have no idea what you're doing in Japan or if you're even still in Japan, for that matter, but we kinda saved the world today and I'm feeling pretty good about that. And although we did it sans you and with substantially less violence than I'm sure you would have brought to the table - I miss you, OK? And I love you."
He hadn't planned to say that last part, and his throat goes bone-dry in an instant.
"I mean, uh…" He scrabbles for a way to redeem the situation, conscious of the dead air being recorded on a tiny chip inside Steve's phone, one agonizing second at a time. "I mean, I'd love for you to come home soon. All right, bye."
--
A couple of days after he gets back to O'ahu, Danny's heading into his office when his cell rings.
"Detective Williams."
Silence.
"Hello?" He pulls the chair away from his desk and lowers himself into it. "Detective Williams."
"Long time, partner," Steve says collegially.
Danny, predictably, explodes.
"What the hell is the matter with you?! Where the hell have you been?!"
"Looking for Joe and Shelburne," Steve tells him matter-of-factly. "Didn't you get my letter? I explained."
"No, no, you didn't explain." Danny's on his feet again, gesticulating wildly as he paces around his office. "You didn't explain anything - you just left me a letter and then you took off. And if you didn't know I got the letter, I'm guessing you didn't get my messages."
"I didn't take off," Steve corrects him, purposely avoiding the topic of his voicemail, a move Danny thinks speaks louder than words. The bastard probably deleted his messages without taking the time to listen. "You're making it sound like I was on the run. Why're you angry?"
"I am not angry," Danny says with exaggerated calm.
"Well, you sound angry."
"I'm not angry, OK?! I was worried, and now I'm concerned. That's all."
"OK, well, uh, I appreciate your concern."
Honestly, maybe it's better Steve never checked his voicemail if Danny expressing mere concern is going to make him all awkward.
"Thank you," Steve says, as if he's trying to take another stab at the whole gracious human interaction thing, "but I'm fine."
"Well, you don't sound fine; you sound like you're stressed out." Danny hopes the worry in his voice sounds at least vaguely contained. "Did you find Joe?"
Steve sighs. "No, but I think I might've found Shelburne."
Danny rolls his eyes. This is typical Steve right now. Only Steve has the power to make Danny swing from relieved to hear from him to intensely irritated by his entire existence in under a minute.
"What do you mean, you think? You either found him, or you did not find him. It's one or the other."
"It's complicated."
Oh, OK. Now Steve's taking a page out of Facebook's playbook.
"All right with the secrecy - I don't need it right now," Danny snaps. "I mean, did you just call to not tell me what's going on with you?"
"No, I called to tell you that I'm in Osaka and I have Wo Fat in custody, all right?"
"You took - " Danny shakes his head. "Way to bury the lede, buddy."
"Danny, I know I owe you an explanation and you're gonna get it, but right now I need your help. Are Chin and Kono around?"
Danny scowls. Steve asking for help is like his kryptonite. He can't stay angry when his partner needs him - and Steve knows it, the bastard.
He heads out of his office, motions to Chin and raps on the glass partition separating him from Kono. The three of them gather at the table computer, where Danny puts his phone on speaker and gets Chin and Kono up to speed in the most succinct way possible: "Steve's in Japan. He needs us."
"I'm bringing Wo Fat in," Steve tells the room without preamble. "I was in Osaka tracking Shelburne when I heard chatter about Wo Fat, so I coordinated with Interpol, got a lock on his location and executed a raid."
He relays the information as calmly as if he were reciting a shopping list. Typical, typical Steve.
"Oh, you make it sound very easy," Danny can't resist commenting.
"It was too easy - that's what I don't like." Steve sighs. "Wo Fat surrendered himself."
He sounds tired yet focused, and Danny wasn't lying - he really is concerned. He knows SEALs are trained to operate on little sleep, but contrary to Steve's entire belief system, there are limits, damn it.
"I found a phone," Steve continues, and Danny makes himself concentrate on what his partner's saying. "It was used to call a number in Honolulu seventeen times in two days - I want to know who he was calling."
Seventeen? Wow, Wo Fat even has Danny beat.
"You have the number?" Kono asks, ready to run a trace.
Steve reads it to her, and a few moments later, the computer spits out a hit.
"Looks like Kewalo Basin," Chin announces, mainly for Steve's benefit.
"OK, we're all over it, babe," Danny says in the direction of the phone.
"Just be careful, OK?" Steve sounds grim. "I don't know what Wo Fat's up to, but he wanted me to find this phone. I don't want you walking into an ambush."
"Hey, listen, we will be fine," Danny assures him. "Just do me a favor: Take care of your own six."
He can picture Steve's incredulous double-take all the way across the ocean and wishes he'd put more thought into his choice of words.
"...Sorry, did you say six?" Steve queries disbelievingly after a beat, and of course it'd be too much to ask for him to let that pass without comment.
Danny puts his head in his hands. At least this wasn't as bad as when he told Steve he loved him in a damn voicemail.
"OK, I've been gone way too long." Steve's almost laughing on the other end of the line, and the sound gives Danny a funny feeling in his chest. "You're starting to sound like me."
"I know, I know, and it just made me want to throw up," Danny moans, pinching the bridge of his nose. He has a hell of a headache coming on, and it's one hundred percent Steven stupid McGarrett's stupid fault. "Can you hurry back, please?
"Roger that."
--
When Five-0 minus Steve head to Kewalo Basin, they discover a dead woman - Anna Douglas - who seems more CIA than the Cultural Affairs classification on her government ID would lead them to believe. Danny calls Steve right away, and even though he knows Steve's waiting to hear more about the person Wo Fat was calling, he's still surprised when his partner answers. He'd kind of gotten used to the terse "McGarrett; leave a message."
After he updates Steve on all that's happening stateside, he can't help but ask what's going on with Wo Fat. There's no way Steve will provide a straight answer, but he's mildly interested in what kind of runaround his partner will give him.
"Sorry, Danny, that's classified."
And there it is.
"It's classified?" Danny echoes indignantly. "Is that a joke? Are you kidding me?"
"No, I'm not kidding."
"OK, uh, well… when are you bringing him back?"
"I can't tell you that either, Danny," Steve informs him with a touch of frustration. "I can't tell you these things over an unsecured line, you understand? It's a security issue."
As far as Danny's concerned, Steve's face is a security issue.
"OK, you know what I think? I think that you think that saying stuff like that is cool," Danny accuses. "Let me explain something to you: It's not cool. It's actually the opposite of cool. It is - it is really, really hot, Steve."
Steve doesn't respond, and Danny's thumb and forefinger fly back to the bridge of his nose.
"I was - that was not how I meant for that to come out," he says lamely as the throbbing behind his eyes intensifies.
"Danny…"
"You know what, forget it," Danny says quickly, not wanting Steve to finish his sentence. "I don't care. Well, no, I care, I'm just gonna find out myself, OK? I'm gonna track your plane."
"No, you won't; we're coming in dark," Steve says resignedly.
"Dark, huh?"
"Yes, dark. As in off the radar. Dark."
"I know what 'dark' means, Steven, you don't have to keep saying it. Is staying off the radar really necessary?
"It's protocol, Danny, OK?" There's less of an edge to Steve's tone now, more of a softness. "I'm sorry, but I can't answer your questions right now. I gotta go."
"Wait, I got an easy one: What are you wearing? ...You know what, don't answer that. I'm sure it's top-secret, so I will take a guess - cargo pants."
"Goodbye, Daniel."
--
You could say Danny's maybe a little bit to blame for not letting the whole dark flight thing go, but he's certain he would never in his life have found himself in an abandoned warehouse with a half-dozen CIA spooks trying to intimidate the hell out of him if he had never met Steve McGarrett.
"The investigation into Agent Douglas' death is closed," the head spook tells him as soon as one of the other guys pulls the black bag off his head (which, by the way, smelled delightful). "We made everything disappear. The body you found at the scene, the shell casing, the autopsy report, everything. This case is closed because it was never open to begin with."
Danny squares his shoulders. "Do you think I'm just gonna go along with that, genius? How do you group of morons think you're gonna keep this quiet when Wo Fat gets here, huh?"
"What makes you think anyone's bringing him in?" his captor asks coolly, and a prickle of fear makes itself known deep inside Danny's chest.
"Because I know for a fact that he's on a plane here right now."
"Yeah, well, that plane doesn't exist," the spook says in a tone that makes Danny wonder how many other "nonexistent" things this guy has dealt with over the course of his career.
Danny slowly runs his tongue over his bottom lip, trying to keep himself composed.
"Listen to me, if anything happens to that plane..." he begins as calmly as he possibly can, even though he can feel his throat tightening with every word, "I promise you, I'm gonna find you and I'm gonna kill you, OK?"
When the man strikes him in the face, he barely feels it.
"Don't be ridiculous; we're the good guys."
Danny laughs desperately. He figures they're not buying his act anyway, so why not lose his cool?
"What did you do, good guys? Huh?" he demands a little hysterically.
"Nothing - all we have to do is wait and let nature take its course."
--
The nature reference makes a lot more sense after Danny escapes the warehouse courtesy of his guy on the inside and learns that Steve and Wo Fat's plane crashed somewhere in the forest reserves on the western side of O'ahu. Of course, Steve being Steve, the course of nature involved neutralizing seven Yakuza, stealing their helicopter and promptly flying it to Dillingham Airfield.
Danny's not surprised in the slightest.
He, Kono and Chin get to the airfield a few seconds after Adam Noshimuri and his band of Yakuza to find Steve in the middle of a standoff, as per usual. Noshimuri makes it out alive, his lawyer doesn't (because Kono's a hell of a shot) and Steve… well, Steve's looking just as G.I. Joe ready-to-go as always, if a little rough around the edges.
Danny kind of wants to kiss him.
He nixes that idea pretty much as soon as it bubbles up in his brain and heads over to greet Steve in a manner much more safe for work, opening with, "See, I knew it: cargo pants.
"Book 'em, Danno," Steve responds with a twinkle in his eye.
"You could've just said hello, huh?"
Steve smiles wanly and places a firm, warm hand on Danny's bicep in response, massaging the muscle, and electricity frissons through Danny's body. Well, shit.
Danny turns to Wo Fat, says "C'mon" very brusquely and, with supreme effort, manages to walk away from Steve's reassuring touch long enough to get Wo Fat secured in a cruiser. He's back for more soon enough, though, ambling up to Steve and observing, "You're a mess."
"Yeah, yeah."
Steve hugs him for a couple of seconds like he did with Chin and Kono, but as Danny moves to pull away, he holds him in place.
"I got your voicemails," Steve whispers, breath hot against Danny's ear.
Danny tenses instantly. He's not sure he trusts himself to speak.
"I listened after we hung up in Osaka," Steve murmurs, and Danny tries really hard to look like he's not having a moment with Steve even though they're totally having a moment. "I'm sorry I disappeared like that. I could tell in your voice how, uh… how much it upset you."
Danny nods quickly and steps back. He's shaking slightly and doesn't want Steve to notice.
"It's fine," he says in as easygoing a tone as he can manage, and his voice sounds strange over the jackhammering of his heart. It isn't fine - not really, not yet - but Steve's sorry and that counts for something. That counts for a lot.
"For what it's worth…" Steve leans toward him again, as casually as if he's about to make an offhand comment, but what comes out instead is, "For what it's worth, I love you too."
He slots an arm around Danny's shoulders, and although Danny freezes in shock for a second, he barely skips a beat before snaking his hand around Steve's waist. When Steve starts massaging his shoulder again, Danny slides his thumb through one of the loops on Steve's stupid cargo pants, two puzzle pieces that fit.
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