Fic: Malasada's H5Obigbang chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE: Danny Williams
(Art By: Anuminis)
The tickle of water splashing his face was what finally roused him, yanking him from a blank void into a cold, aching hell that shot terror straight into his heart and sucked the breath from his chest. He lay where he was, crumpled and afraid to shift and find out what was wrong with his body, watching numbly as the rain fell hard enough outside to spray through the car’s broken window. It took a long moment for awareness to shift into understanding, and he realized he was still in the car, but the car was upside down, a small stream leaking across its ceiling as he lay there.
Car. Upside down. Crash. The lightning flashed outside, the boom of thunder near deafening. Between the rumbling noise he heard a soft, distressed sound. Oh God- his family! Clenching his teeth he ignored the searing pain in his arm and turned his head to see the rest of the car. The entire thing creaked and shifted slightly from the small movement and he froze. Nothing could have prepared him for the horror of seeing his wife, his dear sweet angel, hanging upside down from the driver’s seat, still buckled in place, eyes wide and sightless in the dark around him. Dead. Gone.
A searing pain lanced through his entire being, an overwhelming flood of destitution and he weakly reached out to brush his fingers along her still warm face, no longer caring that the vehicle groaned at the movement. He groaned right along with it.
“Dad?” the muffled sob was so quiet he almost didn’t hear it and for the second time in a minute his heart stopped beating, this time in sheer relief.
“Daniel,” he yanked his gaze away from Sarah, ruthlessly swallowing back bile, and looked towards the back of the car to his boy. “Danny,” he nearly sobbed the name and a fresh wave of pain rushed through him as Danny kept staring at the back of his mother’s head.
“Mom’s not waking up,” Danny whispered, the rain pounding into the car making it hard to hear, but he heard enough and didn’t bother to stop the tears as they came.
“Danny,” he said more forcefully this time, ignoring the hitch in the middle, “look at me,” he ordered/pleaded. It was a long moment but Danny finally looked to him, his face mostly hidden in the dark, but there was enough light from the dashboard, from the reflective brake lights, to show his outline. To show the whites of his eyes. He blinked in the darkness, willing to see his son better. The car shifted and slid a little, metal against rock screeching unnaturally and Danny didn’t scream so much as suck back a sob, just like he did when he was having a nightmare. Paul tried to smile supportively, knowing that if his son could see him it wouldn’t comfort him at all.
“Danny, Danny you need to tell me if you’re hurt,” he pleaded and made to move forward, to reach him. That was when he realized that it was more than just his arm that was injured in the crash. He bit through his lip viciously to keep from screaming, unable to hold back the whimper of pain that speared his entire leg and up his side, and didn’t notice the new warm blood running over his chin as he sucked in lungs full of salty ocean air. When the dizziness cleared a bit a moment later he risked a glance over his shoulder, as much as he could, and quickly turned back to face Danny. He distantly wondered at how severely dislocated his hip and knee must be in order for his leg to be stuck under the dashboard while his body lay face down on the roof of the car. Maybe they were just broken to the point of jelly.
He decided to ignore it as the world fritzed in and out, bold neon colours highlighting the overturned vehicles innards. He could see Sarah’s hand lying limp not far from his face, wrist just resting on the ceiling.
“Dad,” Danny cried out, snapping his focus back to him. He wondered how many times his boy had called for him.
“Danny,” he blinked heavily, looking at the prone form of his son. Something didn’t seem right, but that could be the shock talking. “Danny, you need to tell me if you’re hurt,” he ordered again, trying for steady and unable to help falling short. “Danny!”
“I can’t- can’t feel my legs Dad,” Danny whimpered, and suddenly the way he was lying, his legs flopped together and too motionless compared to the rest of him, made sense. “Can’t move,” he trailed off and this time the sobs he had grown so good at holding back these last few years, let loose.
Paralyzed. His son had broken something in his back. Broken.
The car shifted again, only a few inches but enough that he finally looked out the glassless window beside him, and right down the side of a very tall cliff. Jesus H Christ. He yanked his eyes away from the massive waves toiling far below, the brief flash of lightning doing more than enough to explain exactly how much worse this devastation could get.
Danny sobbed again, and Paul looked back at him. Paul was stuck, the car was shifting, his mind quickly sped past the memory of Sarah’s body hanging almost right overtop of him, and Danny was broken.
He had to get Danny out of the car. Save Danny. He could do that, he could save his boy. He reached out to Danny with his good arm, ignoring the crumbled glass that shifted around him.
“Danny, Danny take my hand,” he said softly, regaining his boys attention from his mother. “Danny, I need you to listen to me very carefully,” he implored as he wrapped his fingers around his boys tiny, tiny trembling ones. “Remember that time we were playing ball and you ran into the swing set and cut your arm?” He held onto Danny’s hand a little harder as the boy shifted a little, but thankfully didn’t start healing Paul. Paul didn’t know what he would have done if Danny had started doing that, didn’t know if he would have been able to let go as his boy chased away the pain and effectively hurt himself. “Remember?” He urged, swallowing impulsively as lightning lit up the cab. Danny’s face was smeared red and why hadn’t they been wearing seatbelts? He thought of Sarah and then pushed it from his mind.
“Y-yeah,” Danny whispered back, and it was enough.
“Remember how you fixed yourself, how you borrowed something from me and made the cut disappear?” Danny nodded in the dark, he could just see it, and the relief it brought him calmed something deep within Paul. It stilled the terror, chased away the pain, made the world clear. He could do this, he could save his son.
“Danny, I need you to do that now, okay?” He squeezed a little tighter when Danny made a halfhearted effort to pull his hand away, too tired to really struggle.
“No,” he mumbled, “No-”
“Yes, Danny. It’s okay, it’ll be okay, you just need to take as much from me as you need to heal your legs okay? Make sure that you’re legs work properly again and then I need you to crawl out that window beside you and go get help.”
“No-” Danny sobbed again, choking a little. Paul understood, he did: that one time Danny had taken whatever it was he’d needed to heal himself had made Paul pretty much useless for two entire days. It had nearly killed him. Danny had been afraid to touch him, touch anyone, for a month after that. His son was young, but he was smart, he knew that taking from Paul now would put him in a bad way. He was going to do it anyway, Paul would make sure of that.
“Yes Danny, listen to me! I am your father and I am telling you to heal yourself, take anything you need from me, take everything, but you will fix your legs and go get help. Understand?” He got no reply. “Danny, understand!?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled, a bit of his stubbornness leaking through the fear and nearly had Paul laughing hysterically.
“Hey, you remember the address of the man we were going to meet?” Paul asked suddenly, blinking as the world lost a little clarity.
“Yes.”
“Good. He’s expecting us. You go to him, okay? Once you’ve gotten some help you go to him. Promise?”
“Promise,” he sniffled loud enough to be heard over the storm raging around them.
“Good, that’s good Danny. I love you, okay? I love you so, so much and I want you to heal yourself now. It’s okay,” he encouraged his boy, getting a little desperate now as time was passing too quickly. He needed Danny out of the car now. “Do it, please Danny, do it.” Danny didn’t say anything for a long moment, and then he didn’t need to. The warm rush that Paul had grown so familiar with whenever his son fixed one of his hurts tingled through his chest, his shoulders, flowed down his arm and then he could feel it as it leapt from him. He could feel it as it was absorbed into Danny, as he willed it into Danny. He didn’t remember the first time, Danny was too young, had no control, but now he’d grown a little, understood more, and it made a difference Paul thought. He felt the rush of giving, of knowing he was helping, and wondered if this aching, tired joy was what Danny felt every time.
Before he knew it his hand grew limp, and it was Danny clinging to him now, calling his name, crying and shaking his whole arm to get his attention. Paul opened eyes he didn’t realize he’d closed, lifted his cheek from the dirty, glass strewn ceiling he was lying on and pretended that it didn’t take everything he had to move.
“How’s that Danny,” he didn’t notice that his words slurred as he spoke. “You fixed? You can feel yer legs?” It was very important he knew that.
“Yeah Dad, they can move again,” he didn’t sound happy about it. “Dad, you need to move now,” he tugged at his hand again. “You need to get out of the car.”
“I will Danny, I will,” he tried to squeeze Danny’s hand in reassurance and wasn’t sure if he managed. He just wanted to sleep. “After you,” he ordered, but Danny didn’t let go of him and the jolt of the car shifting violently, screaming as something at the front broke, just like his leg, just like his life. “Danny, out of the car now, you need to go, get help,” he urged, willing to say anything to get him gone. “Get out and get help.”
“Dad-”
“Now Danny! Do as I say!” He snapped and felt a deep regret as Danny yanked his hand from his own and began clumsily, thank God, crawling to the broken window that lay behind his mom. He didn’t stop until he was out of the car, just like he was told, and then he turned back and looked back in the window at Paul.
“Love you Danny,” Paul muttered, hoping he was loud enough to be heard, and then watched as his son’s shadowed form disappeared, hopefully heading back up the slope to the road and safety. Safe. Paul smiled and with his last bit of strength reached out and grabbed at Sarah’s hand, managing to grip two fingers in his own, before closing his eyes to sleep.
He didn’t hear the final screech of metal against rock, or feel the lift of gravity as the car finally lost its battle with the elements and slipped over the cliff.
He was long gone by the time the storm cleared and the dull brightness of morning cast a desolate glow over the world and over the little boy who sat huddled at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the waves that had taken his family.
He was nothing but a memory by the time Danny stumbled back to his feet, nearly tripping over the cliff himself, and began the three mile hike to the next town, and discovered that he was good at lying as he begged his way onto bus after bus, claiming lost tickets and that his family was waiting for him, until he reached the address his parents had made him memorize.
The man who opened the door to him didn’t do much for him. He looked him over with a heavy sigh and drove him to a convenience store on the other side of town with orders to go inside and tell the woman behind the counter that he was lost. He did leave him with one thing though, which was nothing more than a torn transformers wallet with three dollars and a beat up copy of a forged social security card that told the police his name.
Danny Williams was born.
=======================================
It took almost two weeks before the first inkling of a break in the case made an appearance. Two weeks where the criminal elements of Honolulu were laying as low as they possibly could as the fury that was widely known as Steve McGarrett, closely assisted by his remaining teammates, was unleashed. Steve didn’t have the patience to smooth talk people into telling him what he wanted to know, which was no different than usual, but now it was fueled with an energy that hadn’t been seen outside the most dire covert ops that he wasn’t allowed to acknowledge existed.
Chin had taken to removing various new weaponry from Danny’s Camaro every morning before heading up to the office to find Steve hunched over the computer table or making demands into a phone. Later, when Steve would go to the car to retrieve said weaponry Chin would very pointedly not back down from the angry glare Steve sent his way when his plans to force the populace to bend to his will were thwarted. The criminal population had no idea what had happened to Danny, that was becoming very, very clear as they threw out the white flags before Five-O even entered their various domains and expressed their very sincere regret at not being able to help.
Chin was worried as hell about Danny, was doing everything he could think of to help, but Steve was taking it to a new level and the Governor was beginning to hint that their team should start thinking about taking on some small cases along with the search for their missing man. The moment she’d suggested that via conference video Chin had reached out and grabbed Steve’s shoulder, squeezing the tension hardened muscle forcefully to keep him from saying, or doing, something he would regret once they got Danny back. Like quitting and going on the hunt alone.
That wasn’t happening on Chin’s watch.
He stood hunched over the table when the office phone rang and looked over to see Steve seated behind his desk, shoulders hunched, head bowed and cellphone up to his ear. Chin didn’t need to be told that it was Grace on the other end of the line making her daily after school phone call to Uncle Steve. She was the only one who could force him to bow his head and sit still for twenty minutes while she spoke about who knew what to the SEAL. Danny would be so proud of his little girl. Chin swallowed back the tightness in his throat and reached for the still ringing phone, Kono having gone to get them some real coffee from down the street, the place that sold it by the piping hot ten-cup box.
“Detective Kelly,” he announced into the receiver.
“Good afternoon Detective, is Detective Williams around?” he pinched the bridge of his nose and took a breath to stave off the inevitable frustration. They’d been trying to keep news of Danny’s disappearance on the relative down low from the general public, but getting these calls the last two weeks had been hard.
“No he’s not. Can I take a message?” He looked to make sure Steve was still in his office, now grinning tiredly at something Grace was saying.
“Detective Williams has requested that any further information on the ongoing investigation into the Hoffman trial be forwarded to him directly,” she sounded young and slightly unsure if she should say anything to him and for all Chin prided himself on his patience he wasn’t really feeling it right now.
“Detective Williams and I are partners, tell me what it is and I’ll pass along the message.”
“Of course Detective Kelly. One of the men matching the description of Rachel Edwards carjackers was identified in Lanai this morning. His prints identified him as Bryce Smith, a Honolulu local with a minor rap sheet and no convictions.”
“Okay,” Chin frowned, because he knew a few of the details from that day but he and the rest of the team had been fairly busy trying to save a witness from assassins. Of course Danny would be interested in the case as it had placed his daughter and ex in danger. “Is he being shipped back to Honolulu for charges?”
“No, sorry Detective I’m not being very clear,” she gave a little nervous giggle that he wasn’t accustomed to being on the receiving end of. “Bryce Smith is dead. A fisherman off Lanai’s coast recovered his body thirteen days ago. There was a mishap with the bolo put out on the sketch Mrs. Edwards provided and their department was slower than we would like to connect the dots, but it has been confirmed that he was involved in the Edward case. Mr. William’s will be glad to know at least one of the two men have been found.”
“Right, I’m sure he will. Thank you for relaying the information Miss?”
“Oh, Abbey, Rain Abbey, and please wish the detective luck when he takes the stand.”
“I will,” he hung up and stared at the phone.
“News?” Kono asked, the perpetual worry frown from between her eyes was in place as she deposited the coffee box and mugs on the side table and Chin pursed his lips.
“I’m not sure,” he eyed the coffee and chose to forego it for no and moving swiftly to the main computer. “You know anything about the Hoffman case?”
“Beyond the fact that he had something to do with Grace’s carjacking?” Kono moved up beside him.
“They just found the body of one of the jackers. He’s been dead two weeks, found off the coast of Lanai,” he informed as he began accessing the files available through the system. “Danny wanted to be kept informed.”
“As if he would let something like that go,” she snorted, almost sounding normal and he spared her a quick glance to see her looking intently at the files.
“Danny’s standing at the trial,” he explained, finding what he was looking for and pulling it up.
“He never mentioned it,” she frowned and Chin nodded: Danny hadn’t mentioned it, at all. He found the main case report and began reading. It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for and he dropped his head in frustration.
“What is it?” Steve demanded, pulling away from where he’d been leaning against the wall the last few minutes, his laser focus on Chin the whole time. The man had a sixth sense for when important information was uprooted.
“Danny was the one who produced the evidence in the fraud case against Hoffman, confiscated it from Stan and submitted it. It’s damning evidence and Hoffman will get time for it, but its Danny’s testimony that will put him away for the long haul. Danny was very emphatic about wanting to be at that trial.” Chin looked over at Steve, who’s tired face was visibly upset. Pissed off to be more precise.
“He never said a thing to me,” Steve growled.
“I know I’m missing something here, but what’s the deal?” Kono looked up from the file and Chin was struck with how young she was. He forgot, sometimes, that she had only been on the force for a year.
“Hoffman’s big time, big money. He had enough riding on the tapes that Stan recorded to send armed men after it. Once the tapes were submitted as evidence he could, theoretically, decide that it would be better if Danny didn’t show up to the trial because he would have a greater possibility of getting through the trial with minimal or even no jail time.”
“You think he’d put a hit on Danny? Is he that stupid?”
“Or is he that desperate and used to getting his own way,” Chin closed the files and logged out of the system. “If Danny thought he was a threat he didn’t mention it, which means he probably did something that he felt would keep the guy off his back.”
“Danny’s an idiot,” Steve growled and turned to stalk out of the room. “Always riding my ass about procedure and playing it safe and doesn’t even tell us he could be in a potentially dangerous position.” Chin wisely didn’t say what they were all thinking: that Danny was apparently someone who used a lot of words to tell them very little about anything. Chin almost felt sorry for the guy, because Steve was not going to make their reunion easy that was for damn sure.
“We going to Hoffman?” Kono asked as they followed Steve’s fast walk from the building.
“We’re going to Hoffman,” Chin agreed. It could be nothing, but they were desperate and unwilling to leave any more stones unturned. Steve drove calmly through the streets and Chin kept looking at the muscles clenching in his jaw, wondering if dental work would be on the menu once Danny was back. Wondering if Danny could just fix it with a touch. He swallowed thickly at the thought, still uncertain how to react about that revelation, figuring for the most part nothing would change in the day to day. Knowing that some things would never be the same.
Steve was already slowly packing up Danny’s crappy little apartment box by box. Chin knew because he’d gone by to help a few nights ago when sleep wasn’t enticing enough. They’d started in the bedroom, getting Danny’s clothes packed away, being careful not to wrinkle the ironed shirts and ties.
There were four boxes already parked in Steve’s hallway, outside the spare bedroom that was being completely emptied out of Steve’s childhood bedroom to make way for Danny. Steve had been eying the wall that separated the room from his sisters and Chin was waiting for it to disappear, wondering if the extra space would make the transition easier for Danny. No. Danny wasn’t going to like the fact that his residence and privacy had been shifted without his say so.
Chin was going to back Steve up on this one, because Danny needed the protection, whether he believed it or not. He’d learn to deal.
Still, the calm car ride said more about Steve’s state of mind than the silence.
They arrived at the detainment center where Hoffman was being held while he awaited his trial date. No option for bail because of the suspicion that he’d hired armed men to terrorize Grace and Rachel. The guards barely blinked at the Five-O credentials waved in their face, leading the group to an empty meeting room with nothing more than a table, chairs, and a two-way mirror.
“You have recording options for this room?” Chin asked the guard and the man nodded, saying he’d get a tech there immediately. He and Kono went behind the glass partition, watching as Steve prowled around the table for a few minutes before leaning against the wall and relaxing his entire body. He looked casual, comfortable, and it didn’t take long for the tech to show and make sure things were in order.
“Can you keep the sound off for now, just record the image?” he ordered more than asked but the tech nodded eagerly, clearly excited to be working with Five-O. When Hoffman was escorted into the room and pressed into a chair he looked haughty and irritated. Orange was not a good colour on him and he glared at Steve, clearly not recognizing him and not caring. Steve smiled politely and shifted to face Hoffman, his back to the camera, and leaning slightly over the table. It didn’t look menacing from behind.
It took a few words to catch the housing commissioners undivided attention. After a minute or so the housing commissioner paled, two red cheeks the only colour on his face, and then a thin sheen of sweat appeared around his hairline. He swallowed thickly, staring at Steve with wide, disbelieving eyes, and began nodding eagerly. Steve leaned back in the chair.
“You can begin recording sound now,” Chin ordered and the tech did so, pressing a few buttons and the conversation playing out filtered into the viewing room.
“You want me to call your lawyer?” Steve asked, calm and cool like they were talking about the weather. Hoffman looked like he was thinking about it, for all of three seconds, before he shook his head and roughly cleared his throat.
“No, no that won’t be necessary,” he shifted in his seat and Steve leaned back further, crossing his arms over his chest.
“You understand that this meeting is being recorded?” Steve asked with the same calm.
“Yes,” Hoffman swallowed thickly, glancing briefly over Steve’s shoulder at the mirror Chin and Kono were behind, “Yes I understand.” He looked like he was going to be sick.
“You have some information for me regarding Stan Edwards’ fraud case and Detective Danny Williams’ participation in it?” Steve delivered flatly, but there was no mistaking the undertone that demanded the truth.
“Yes, I do.” He hesitated here but Steve didn’t prod him to continue, he just waited silently, and Hoffman got to the point pretty quickly, despite the fact that he looked like he was in pain. “I hired two men to search Stan Edwards vehicle and home for tapes that- that would prove that I have been abusing my position as housing commissioner with blackmail for personal monetary gain.”
“Is this one of the men you hired?” Steve swiftly pulled out his phone and displayed the photo of Smith that Chin had beamed him on their trip here. Hoffman swallowed and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Let the record show that the image is of Bryce Smith,” Steve tucked the phone away. “What else?” It wasn’t so much a question as a demand.
“Detective Williams,” Hoffman stopped again and really started to look nervous now, the sweat more pronounced, his face more ruddy, “met up with me the day of the carjacking and informed me that he had taken custody of the tapes that I was trying, trying to obtain. I understood that he would be submitting them as evidence against me, and that it wouldn’t be long before I was a-arrested, so I- I…”
“You what?” There was no mistaking the coldness in Steve’s tone now and Chin clenched his fists tightly as he imagined where this was going.
“I hired Smith and his associate to take care of Detective Williams.” Hoffman closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat, completely defeated.
“Shit,” the tech in the room with them looked between Chin and Kono, his eyes blown wide in amazement. “What the hell did your man say to him to get that confession?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Kono replied crisply as she glared daggers at Hoffman through the glass.
“When you say ‘take care of’ what exactly do you mean?” Steve wasn’t done yet.
“Kill. I mean I hired them to kill Detective Williams.”
“Why?”
“Because without his presence at a trial I had a much higher probability for a minimum sentence, even if Edwards appeared as witness.”
“Who was his associate?”
“I don’t know.”
“Not good enough,” Steve growled and Hoffman’s eye flew open.
“I swear I don’t know! I didn’t even know Smith’s name until you told me. All contact went through throwaway phones, I only met them in person once to pay for the first job in cash. The second job-“
“The assassination,” Steve interrupted coldly and Hoffman nodded dejectedly.
“The assassination was paid to a Swiss account they set up, but you have to understand! They didn’t finish the job!” He looked imploringly at Steve, like this would somehow make it better. “They took the first half of the money, but it was returned to me in full over a month ago! I figured they got cold feet and by that time it was too late to-” he cut himself off abruptly, but Chin could guess that the man had smartened up to the point where he realized finishing that sentence would not help him.
“When did you order the hit?”
“The same day everything else went down,” he crumpled in his seat and Steve stood slowly, everything about him screaming tightly controlled violence. He stared long and hard at Hoffman, fingers twitching at his side, before turning his back and leaving the room. Chin turned to the shocked tech.
“Copies of that recording need to be sent to Five-O, the investigating detectives, Hoffman’s lawyers and the prosecuting attorney. Understood?”
“Yeah, sure, but-” Chin didn’t wait for the rest of the response, instead he met Steve in the hallway with Kono and the three of them moved to the car.
“The hit was sent out three months ago,” Chin stated and Steve nodded tightly. They were silent until they reached the car and were back on the road, away from prying ears.
“You think it was Smith that took Danny?” Kono asked, her phone out as she began searching for information she could access without being at the office.
“I think they went to kill Danny and somehow caught him in the act. Decided they could make easy money using his skills and set up the snatch and grab.” Steve practically snarled, his knuckles white around the steering wheel.
“Those are big assumptions brah,” Chin had to point out, but his mind was reeling with the possibilities and his gut was telling him they were finally on the right track.
“Makes sense,” Steve swerved around a slow car and pressed down on the gas.
“They used you to force him to show his ability,” Kono thought aloud, pointing out what they already knew, “which means they watched him enough to know who he cared about most, and then what? They were killed? Smith was found in the water the morning after Danny was taken, you think it could have been Danny?”
“He would have come back if it was him,” Steve blew through a yellow light, the unspoken knowledge that while Danny might not be certain of them knowing his secret he would not leave Grace hung between them. That was a fact as solid as saying a person needed air to breathe. At least Smith hadn’t used Grace as the ‘example.’
“So maybe they met up with a third party then, and they killed Smith?” Chin turned the idea over a few times and decided it had potential.
“Or Smith’s partners flipped on him and took Danny for themselves,” Steve pulled into a parking spot and they were out of the car in one fluid wave, heading back up to the office. “Lets get everything we can on Smith. We’ve got him, we can find his partners and then we’ll go get Danny back.” Agreed. Chin took a moment to stop and grab a still warm cup of coffee from the box Kono had bought before taking up his customary place at his computer. Good, this was better. They finally had a place to start.
===========================================
Chapter 10
Masterpost