Fic: Malasada's H5Obigbang chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE: Deal, No Deal
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It had been a few long weeks; weeks fuelled by visions of mansions in tropical paradises all over the world, private jets, beautiful woman, power, prestige and hell, maybe even a private island. The sky was the limit as far as he was concerned, and judging by the grin on his brother's face, he was feeling the same way.
“Make the call,” Eric told him as he pulled open the fridge. Bryce didn’t argue as he flipped open the phone and punched in the only number it had ever called. He waited two rings before it was answered.
“We’re ready for the live demonstration. How soon can you have your associate here?” He listened intently to the accented voice on the other end of the phone and his lips curled up in satisfaction. “Tomorrow evening will be fine, I will send you the coordinates where we will pick her up. Until then.” He listened to the farewell and snapped his phone shut as soon as it was over and met his brother’s eyes. “Tomorrow night,” he announced unnecessarily, but his brother just grinned and handed him a beer.
The sound of bottles clinking together had never been so sweet.
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“Drinks?” Kono asked after Steve had come out of his office and announced that the Biro twin case was finally wrapped up. Danny groaned inwardly at the thought of spending the next few hours socializing instead of curling up under the cover of his not-so-comfortable sofa bed and sleeping until the morning sunshine woke him up at an unholy hour. It wasn’t anything personal, it was just that the idea of watching Kono, all energetic and exuberant over closing the case all night when he was feeling this tired made him feel old. He wasn’t old, so he took offence to the feeling, but he couldn’t deny to himself that he was exhausted.
They’d been working on the case for almost two weeks, some of the days stretching deep into the night, and his little visit to Grace’s friend a few nights before had not helped his energy levels any.
Then he looked at Steve. Steve who had bags under his eyes, whose skin was doing its best to imitate pallid under his tan, whose step had been heavy and strained all day. Hell, Steve had been tired and distracted all week. It would have been his dad’s birthday this day.
“Drinks.” He’d found himself agreeing and figured he could gladly fight off his fatigue a few hours more if it made Steve’s face light up like it had.
Distraction and family was what Steve needed, and that was what he got, which was how the four of them wound up at a local favourite a short time later with Kamekona arriving soon after. If the big man, Chin and Kono kept up most of the conversation that night Danny wasn’t going to point it out. He was tired, not stupid, but it didn’t stop Steve from sending him little glances when he apparently thought Danny wouldn’t notice. Or, more likely, he just didn’t care if Danny noticed.
“And that is why there is a mermaid painting with Chin’s face glued to it at Cousin Ahe’s place,” Kamekona concluded and Kono just about bust a gut as she laughed while Chin glared mutinously between their rookie and Kamekona. Danny blinked back into the conversation, clearly having missed that entire story, and threw a smile on his face to try and pretend his attention hadn’t been drifting.
“How did you ever find out about that?” Chin demanded, his look clearly promising retribution, to which Kamekona smiled contentedly.
“Not much gets by me on this island, brah,” he reminded them all, lips quirking and his gaze fell on Danny, watching him silently for a moment longer than necessary before moving back to Kono. Danny had frozen mid-reach for his beer, the man’s look pinning him in place and he was sure that it wasn’t his imagination that Kamekona had wanted him to hear what he was saying. Not his imagination at all, the problem was that while he had heard it he wasn’t sure exactly what the big man wanted to impart. It made him uneasy.
“So,” Steve cleared his throat a little after the laugh and focused his attention on Danny. “I checked in at Queen’s hospital this afternoon. Apparently Ewa’s doing one hell of a lot better than the initial prognosis determined,” he looked relieved at this and it was sweet, and also a little disturbing.
“You checked up on her?” Danny blurted out, not his most cunning question but he was a little thrown off by the subject change.
“Yeah,” Steve shrugged, like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. “Grace was pretty worried, right? I wanted to know if she’d be okay. Apparently the doctors initially diagnosed her with severe spinal damage, said she wouldn’t walk again, but it looks like they read the x-rays wrong. Apparently she’s like a medical miracle or something, healing up faster than normal for her injuries.”
“That’s good news,” Kono smiled softly at Danny and he smiled back, hoping it didn’t look too strained.
“Yeah,” he muttered and took a pull of his beer, “it’s great news.” His neck was tingling the way it did when someone was watching him and he looked over at his partner and frowned in irritation.
Steve was giving him that look again. The ‘I think there’s something you’re not telling me but I can’t call you on it because I have no idea what the hell it is’ look. It was sort of a cross between a thoughtful little squint and a twisted press of his lips that was not attractive. Like at all. Danny didn’t call him on it, because he had a sneaking suspicion that making a comment about this particular look would somehow convince Steve that he should be asking the questions he hadn’t figured out how to word yet. Instead Danny made a weak excuse about too much beer and retreated to the privacy of the restrooms, effectively ending that possibility.
Okay, note to self: no more healing people while on the job and no more healing people off the job unless it was completely, absolutely, life or death necessary. He had to cut back, he had to be more careful, he had to stop.
He didn’t know what the hell it was about Hawaii, but he’d never been so blatantly obvious about his skill back in Jersey, or anywhere else, he was sure of it. He needed to fight the instinct harder because he couldn’t afford to be discovered, not here and not ever. He had Gracie to worry about and he had his position on Five-O to worry about and he’d be damned if he screwed up his life even more because he couldn’t resist easing the pain of every bruise and broken bone he came in contact with.
“You need to stop,” he growled and then startled a bit when a stall in the mens room opened and a big blonde guy with tattoos running up his forearms wandered out to join him at the sink. He tossed an irritating, knowing smirk at Danny that instantly put him even more on edge. Without acknowledging him Danny dried off his face moved back out the door and into the main hub of the bar. The music was louder than before, the beat picking up and shaking the floor as he moved through the crowd back to the table with his friends, and it was a strange thing how the worry that was beginning to plague him was both caused by and relieved by his team. He resisted rolling his eyes at himself.
Idiot.
He squeezed between a couple of bleached blondes, fingers twitching when his hand accidently brushed against the man’s forearm and sensed the ulcer he was growing like a lovechild. He tossed the woman he was with a quick little smile, fingers pressing into the mans arm a moment longer than necessary and it wasn’t until he was a few steps beyond them that his step faltered and a brief wave of fatigue crashed through him before running its course.
Damn it.
DAMN IT! He hadn’t even meant to do that!
He glanced back to see that the man had stopped dancing and had a hand pressed to his gut with a stupid, puzzled look on his face. His gaze seemed to instinctively find Danny and Danny turned away quickly, back towards his table, only to see his teammates watching his approach. He would have faltered again, his admittedly overactive mind flaring up with the thought that they had seen, that this time for sure they had figured it out! But then Kono smiled cheekily at him and Chin was apparently more interested in polishing off the last of his drink and Danny relaxed a fraction as he pulled up beside them and gave Kono a wary look.
“I miss something?” he asked and she just shook her head at him and pushed to her feet.
“I’ve got to get going. Gonna hit the Ala Moana before shift and I want an easy night.” You’d think she had just announced she was carrying Kamekona’s baby with the way Chin and Steve’s gazes snapped to her. Kamekona, apparently, had left while Danny was in the bathroom.
“Fo’real cuz?” Chin frowned and Steve gave her a hard look.
“Jalike to think that through a little more?” Steve pursed his lips, tossing a few bills to the table and pushed to his own feet. Danny stepped to the side, eyeing the last of his own beer glass and deciding the dregs would not be worth finishing, not after sitting out untouched in this heat. “That’s a heavy hill of water.”
“Relax braddah’s, I’m not turnin’ lolo on ya. I was there earlier in the week with Ben and my knee held out. Like new,” her grin was nearly blinding as she reassured them but both men still looked uneasy.
“You better be sure,” Steve ordered seriously. “I’m not breaking in a new rookie if you bite it.”
“Trust me brah, the knee’s practically better than before I busted it. I’m not putting my place on the team at risk,” she tossed a couple of her own bills on the table and gave them a wave before heading out. Chin followed a moment later which left Danny reaching into his back pocket and snagging his own wallet only to have Steve wave him off.
“Don’t worry about it,” he gave a tired grin and began heading to the door, and Danny spent a nearly unforgivable moment blinking at his back as his apparently overly tired mind interpreted Steve’s words. It didn’t take much effort to catch up to Steve a moment later, the man was moving more slowly than usual.
“Did I actually just hear you right?” Danny waved an arm, perhaps wider than necessary. “Did you just willingly pay for my drink without me needing to insist even once?” Steve gave him a dirty look and continued to head towards the parking lot. The music was so loud in the club now that Danny swore he could still feel its beat even after they’d left the building and he bumped Steve’s elbow just incase the man was too tired to get that he was just giving him a hard time, like usual.
“I have an ulterior motive,” Steve informed him as they wound their way through the full parking lot, heading all the way to the back as there had been no closer parking when they’d arrived. Danny frowned up at the light post as they got closer to his car: looked like the light wasn’t working, but the large bulb wasn’t broken so he disregarded any notion of foul play.
“Of course you do,” he muttered and rubbed at his temple, hoping this ulterior motive wouldn’t get him shot between now and Monday morning. With Steve you never knew.
“Need you to drive,” Steve smirked at him, the weariness in his entire frame hidden now as the light disappeared. “Had a couple too many,” he explained, like Danny didn’t already know that. Like he didn’t know Steve was more than a little drunk despite the fact that he was walking straight and not slurring his words like a normal human being. Like Danny wasn’t already planning on parking it in the man’s spare bedroom just to make sure he was okay, and by okay he meant ensuring the man didn’t choke on his own tongue.
“Oh, how responsible of you, letting me drive my own car home. Should I alert the press? Send out an interoffice memo specifying the date and time of this gracious allowance? Because I gotta say the novelty of driving my own car will probably never wear off seeing as it happens so infrequently. Maybe I should-” he cut himself off mid rant the moment Steve tensed. His hand twitched in the way Danny had learned meant urgent!quiet!. The warning was unnecessary because Danny had heard the same sound Steve had: a muffled cry. It had come from the shadowed bushes just beyond his Camaro and had quickly cut off. Steve gave him the look that asked ‘are you ready?’ Danny gave him one right back that he hoped suitably stated ‘of course, moron.’
Problems with this response: 1) Danny was the only one carrying a weapon as he’d pretty much threatened to transfer back to HPD if Steve drank with so much as his back-up gun strapped to his ankle. 2) Steve was drunk, although that probably wasn’t as big as a problem as it would be for most other people. 3) Well the third problem would be that Steve, the unarmed one, would no doubt decide that he would be the first to head towards the distressed cry. Oh and look, there was a giant knife in his hand.
Danny very pointedly did not comment as he followed his partner into the trees.
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The moment he heard the cry the drunken haze that filled his head cleared enough in the adrenalin rush that he didn’t think twice about responding. With a quick look to make sure Danny knew what was going on he pulled out the knife he’d strapped to his calf, in difference to Danny’s ‘no guns while getting drunk’ demand, and slunk as quietly as he could in the direction of the cry.
The trees weren’t very thick, but there was a decent grouping of lower shrubs and without the parking lot’s light everything was cast in shadow. It would be difficult to see anything from the sidewalk. The music from the bar in the distance and the waves on the beach beyond the trees were enough to mask the average decibel, which made it the ideal place for a coward to attack. If the victim was subdued quickly enough they could probably get away with anything and no one would ever hear to come and help.
Anger rushed hot through him and he crouched a little lower as the whimper came again.
“Shut up!” a mans voice hissed ahead of them and Steve glanced quickly to see Danny break away to his right with that look of concentration that meant he was right there with Steve and ready to throw down. Steve crept closer and found the source of distress in a small clearing; a woman with short, floppy blonde hair and glasses that sat askew on her terrified face was being held against a masked man’s chest. He had a thick arm wrapped firmly around her throat and a gun pressed under her chin. He jerked her and she choked down on a sob. This close he could see the tear tracks running down her cheeks and instinct told him to just charge the scene and take the man out with a swift strike.
The gun made him hold his position, and the fact that Danny was going to be taking point on this. Steve would remain hidden, the ace up his partner’s sleeve, until they knew more about what was going on. It was difficult to wait, nearly impossible, and he slowly crouched down behind the palm tree he was using both for cover to be ready to strike and to make him stay in place.
There was something odd about the situation though and an uncertainty began to creep up as he watched the struggling woman. The man was just standing there growling threateningly at her. Why wasn’t he doing anything more? Why would he drag her out here just to stand there?
He frowned, and then Danny stepped from the other side of the small clearing, broad shoulders squared and his gun aimed steadily at them. The moonlight was bright enough, along with the ambient light, that Steve could clearly see his partners face, and he did not look pleased as he glared them down.
“Five O,” he announced and the man wearing the black balaclava jerked at his voice and twisted around to place the woman directly between Danny and him. Steve prepared to move so he could take him from behind. “Drop your weapon and let her go,” Danny continued smoothly, gaze not wavering as he attempted to stare him down.
There was a moment of silence, where the man just stared at Danny, before he tightened his grip and pushed the gun barrel harder into her chin.
“Where’s your partner?” He demanded and turned a little to scan the clearing. He looked right where Steve had been crouched only moments before.
“Listen buddy, why don’t you let the nice girl go, put down your weapon, and we can talk about how your parents and guidance counselor failed you in your youth,” Danny said in way of answer, but the frown on his face was more pronounced.
“I have a better idea,” the man grinned, his lips surrounded by the black cloth and teeth gleaming. “How about you put down your weapon and your partner comes out from wherever he’s lurking.” Steve was almost in position. The brush was thin enough that it was difficult to move without being seen or heard, but he stilled at the warning in the gunman’s voice. A shock of unease ran down his spine, the dawning understanding that this was a trap coming too late.
A second masked man stepped out from behind a fat needle palm tree right behind Danny and pressed the muzzle of his gun to the back of his head. Danny froze and then very slowly pulled his hands apart and clicked the safety back on his gun before holding both arms to his side in surrender. The man snatched the weapon from him without moving his own gun.
“I would suggest that your partner show himself now, before a bullet finds itself imbedded in a very uncomfortable place,” the man still holding the woman ordered, his tone thick with smugness. Steve reassessed the situation and couldn’t come up with a way to end this without losing at least one of the two hostages. Clearly these two guys had thought this trap through. They were officially in it, and deep.
When the man holding the gun to Danny’s head shifted it to the back of Danny’s shoulder Steve realized that the time for stalling was over. He hastily slid the knife back into its sheath and stood.
“I’m coming out,” he warned and the guy with the woman turned and re-aimed his weapon to track Steve as he took the last few steps into the clearing. Steve couldn’t see most of the guys face, but he could see the surprise when jackass number one realized exactly how close he’d been to getting the drop on him. Not close enough.
“Put your hands behind your head and move into the middle of the clearing,” Number One ordered, his weapon trained steadily on Steve and he complied without hesitation, sharing a pained look with Danny as he was frog marched past Steve and ordered to stand with the gunmen. The fact that these guys were keeping them split up was not lost on Steve. “Kneel,” he was ordered and Steve dropped, his knees sinking painlessly into the sandy soft ground. He remained ready, glaring at them from the lowered position and waiting to strike at the first opportunity. He looked calmly at Danny, whose unruffled façade was beginning to crack a little and Steve would have to be blind not to see the worry leaking through. He’d have to be stupid not to share it. He couldn’t resist giving Danny a little half wink in weak reassurance.
“Listen,” Danny started, or tried to start, before the gun in his back dug in hard enough that he had to take a step forward to catch himself, and Steve watched as a switch flipped in his partner’s head and the worry was ruthlessly replaced with anger. That was more familiar and, oddly enough, made Steve feel slightly better about this FUBAR of a situation.
“Shut up,” the man holding the woman suddenly released her and she took a hasty step to the side. That was as far as she went before stopping to straighten her clothes and glasses and wipe daintily at her cheeks with her finger, erasing the tears.
“Shall we proceed?” The woman asked primly and received a sharp nod in return from both men.
“We’re waiting on you sweetheart. Get your boss online,” Number One ordered and she pulled out a very high quality videophone.
“Whatever it is your doing here: stop,” Danny finally verbalized his protest, glaring daggers at the woman, the betrayal he felt obvious on his face but the woman seemed unconcerned as she pressed the phone’s buttons. Steve shifted and the gun that was pointed very steadily at him shifted slightly to account for the movement and he froze again, a bead of sweat trickling down the back of his neck.
“Be quiet or we shoot him now.”
“As opposed to later?” Danny demanded, his tone incredulous. “That’s not the most effective incentive,” he grumbled but after a weary look to Steve, stuck there in the dirt and glaring up at the people towering over him he firmly pressed his lips together.
“I have a direct connection,” the woman announced. She had a faint accent that Steve couldn’t place and he focused on her as she turned the lens of the phone on him, clearly getting a shot of him. He glared. What the hell was going on?
“Good,” the man holding the weapon on Steve took a step closer to him.
“Don’t move,” the guy behind Danny warned, and Steve’s gaze zeroed in on his large hand clamping over Danny’s shoulder and squeezing. “We wouldn’t want him to hit something too important because you were impatient,” he decided coolly.
“I don’t want him to be hit at all!” Danny snarled but remained in place. “Whatever it is that you want you are not going to increase your chances of getting it by shooting him, understand? This will not go the way you’re planning, it never does, so let’s just hold our horses here and talk about this like reasonable human beings that don’t trick people into hostage situations and put the guns away. How’s that sound?” Steve listened to his partner’s panicked rant but his own mind had gone to a very calm and calculating place. He didn’t miss the impatient look the woman sent the men. He didn’t miss the fact that a new gun had been aimed at Steve and this one had a sleek silencer attached to it. He didn’t miss Danny’s fists clenching at his sides or the weapon that was pressed threateningly into his neck. Steve looked down the barrel pointed at him and waited for the inevitable.
“Time to get to work,” the man at the other end said softly and squeezed the trigger. Twice.
Steve had been expecting it, he wasn’t a virgin to gunshot wounds, but the few times he’d been shot they’d barely entered his flesh, just ripping close enough to take painful chunks of meat but nothing more.
These bullets slid home deep. He felt the impacts, one after another, an instant of lava hot burning and pain and his breath being stolen from him, before it transformed into an almost overbearing numbness; it became a dull ache in his belly and an elephant on his chest and distantly he figured he must look like an idiot with the startled look on his face but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to really care as he was falling. Falling? Oh, there was the ground. Nice of it to catch him.
He shook his head and tried to organize his thoughts, sound fluctuating in and out and he heard words like time and we know and your fault. He looked down to see what was sitting on him and, hopefully, figure out how to remove it and noticed that there was nothing but dark patches of liquid ruining one of his nicest blue t-shirts. He tried to probe at it with his hand, wanting to see what the liquid was, but he couldn’t seem to direct it properly and his fingers ended up digging in dirt instead of his shirt. It was kind of neat how his vision was shifting between normal and a shiny, flashy, silvery world. Like a picture in negative.
Then in a rush he remembered the guns and the masked men. Danny.
“Danny?” he meant it as a warning but it came out as a question and suddenly he went from staring up blankly at palm fronds overhead to staring into blue eyes that were startlingly close. He blinked at them.
“Yu’ave blue eyes,” he slurred and wanted to kick himself, because he was sure he had meant to put another word in there, somewhere.
“You must be a detective,” Danny muttered and pulled away enough that Steve could see around him again. Danny was on the dirt with him, one of his hands was covered in dark liquid and Steve realized with a start that it was blood. His blood, and Danny’s hand was shaking.
“S’okay,” he mumbled and made a grab for the hand but somehow missed. Danny corrected that quickly, his fingers wrapping around his own, warm and strong. “S’okay Danny, don’ worry, be over soon,” he tried to comfort him, because he could see the fear in the man’s eyes. Danny was probably the most expressive man he had ever met, and Steve loved that about him. He’d never told him that before, maybe he should tell him now, before it was over and Steve left him for good. It would be the right thing to do. “Dee,” he started and coughed as something hot and liquid tried to crawl up his throat and stop his words and Danny was suddenly back, leaning close and staring right at him.
“Would ya- would ya just be quiet for once, Steve? Please? Would you please let me work without interrupting?” Danny asked, his voice cracking a little and it didn’t make sense to Steve because usually it was Danny interrupting people all the time. Danny was the one they couldn’t shut up. Danny always had something to bitch about. But Steve trusted Danny, he always had, so he just nodded and let his head fall back down so he could stare up at the trees and the moon some more.
It was mesmerizing, so he couldn’t be blamed for not noticing when the heaviness in his chest lifted, the dull ache turning into a dull heat turning into a hot heat. He didn’t notice until the heat was gone, and the fire that had been digging into his stomach with a blunt wooden spoon disappeared altogether and then he was roughly being turned over onto his side.
Rescue position. The moment he recognized it he began to protest, clarity trying to gather in his mind, but strong warm hands pinned him in place and he coughed. Thick liquid gushed up from his throat. He started to retch helplessly at the sensation. It was disgusting.
“You’re good, you’re good, just go with it, just breathe,” Danny’s soft voice encouraged from right above his ear and he listened, throwing up until there was nothing left and then just resting there with his cheek on his arm and Danny’s really, really warm hand supporting his shoulder.
(art by: Evening Spirit)
“He fixed?” A harsher voice intruded and Steve tensed but couldn’t seem to move in response. His entire body felt heavy, almost unresponsive.
“No thanks to you,” Danny snarled in a tone Steve had never heard. The closest he could come to recognizing it would have been the day Grace had had a gun pointed in her face because of step-Stan. “You crazy assholes! You could have killed him!!”
“We knew you wouldn’t let that happen,” the other guy sounded unconcerned, smug, and Danny’s fingers flexed on his shoulder. He might have bruises later. Later. Later? Wait...wasn’t he supposed to be dead?
“There is no way you could know that. How the hell could you possibly know that?” The fear was back, disguised by bravado and anger. Steve tried to roll over and Danny helped him, pushing him onto his back. “Hey, don’t touch him!” Danny’s hand was pulled away and Steve opened his eyes in alarm, not having realized he’d closed them, only to find one of the masked men leaning over him with a gun pointed at him (not surprisingly) and a hand roughly pushing up what remained of his shirt.
“No wounds,” he announced.
“Incredible,” a woman he vaguely remembered being there said softly.
“So do we have a deal?”
“Yes,” she answered instantly and Steve looked around blurrily to see Danny being held back, his hands cuffed in front of him and eyes wide as he looked around the group.
“No! No deal!” Danny cut in but shut up the moment the gun that was still pointed at Steve moved a little closer.
“Should we kill him?” One asked and the other shook his head.
“We don’t need the extra heat. Just knock him out and drag him under the bush and we’ll get out of here. If you struggle,” the speaker leveled a hard look at Danny, whose broad shoulders were locked wide in silent protest, “then we’ll shoot him again and this time we won’t let you fix him. Understand?” Danny nodded silently, his nostrils flaring slightly as he tried to control his breathing.
Steve pushed up on his elbow and began reaching for his leg and the knife concealed under his cargos because having guns pointed at him or not there was no way, no fucking way, that they were going to take Danny.
He made it as far as his knee before the butt end of a gun smashed into his temple and crushed his last effort to stop them cold. He was out before his shoulders had even crashed back into the sand.
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Chapter 6
Masterpost