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If Danny Williams was honest, he wasn’t having a great day. Although he had to admit that, just for once, it wasn’t caused by his partner, Steve McGarrett. Nope, it was being caused by the love he had for his little girl, eight year old Grace.
Now ordinarily Danny would say if he was with Grace, then he was having a fantastic day, the best in fact. That was before she had conned him, with those big brown eyes of hers, into bringing her to Kahala Mall.
The place was packed but he had promised his daughter that they could come shopping, get pizza and see a movie and Danny didn’t break his promises. The apple of his eye was skipping along beside him, gripping his hand through the throng of people and smiling. That smile right there could melt the ice of the polar caps and it never failed to melt Danny’s heart. Basically he was a sucker and he was pretty sure his daughter knew it!
The afternoon wore on and he had dutifully purchased a cute little outfit that Grace had spotted. He was sure Rachel wouldn’t approve as it wasn’t Country Club attire, probably another reason why he’d bought it, still she could wear it when she stayed with him. It was a pair of little pink shorts with a white t-shirt that had a picture of a young girl surfing on it, which Grace immediately related to Kono, unsurprisingly.
The father and daughter then went to Pizza Hut to have some, well, pizza. Of course there was no sign of pineapple on either of their pizzas. Danny allowed himself a light beer and Grace had a soda. She spent her whole time giggling as her father told her of some of the more child friendly antics that Steve had been up to in the past couple of weeks since he’d last seen her. Grace, in turn, told Danny all about the vacation she had taken to Florida with Rachel and Step-Stan.
Danny tried very hard to not show any resentment. The unfortunate fact of the matter was that Step-Stan had money and could afford to take his little girl to Florida for a ten day vacation. He couldn’t, though Danny had been grateful when Rachel assured him that they wouldn’t be taking her to Orlando. It wasn’t that Danny didn’t want Grace to go to Disney World, he just wanted to be the one to take her there and one day he hoped he’d actually be able to afford it, maybe he’d get Super SEAL to go with them. Getting Steve on some of those rides could prove entertaining!
The pair finished their meal and headed to the movie theatre to watch Grace’s choice of film, Puss in Boots. She had loved the Shrek movies so it was only natural for her to want to see this one. Danny purchased the requisite sweets and popcorn as well as some juice before they found their seats and spent the next couple of hours laughing at the antics of an animated cat.
It was late as they were leaving the movie theatre, at least it was late for an eight year old girl, but since she didn’t have school tomorrow her father wasn’t particularly worried.
All in all, if he had described this day to someone they would have wondered what had been so bad, apart from the packed shopping mall and having to listen to Grace wax poetic about Florida and what a great time she’d had with the man that wasn’t her father. None of that was what had caused Danny to have a bad day, the fact that he found himself, yet again, in a hospital bed was the reason for his bad day.
---- 5-0 ----
“Did you enjoy the film Monkey?”
“Yeah, it was good. I think Puss in Boots is great, he kind of reminds me of Uncle Steve,” the young girl said thoughtfully.
Danny was hard pressed not to splutter at that, Puss in Boots reminded Grace of Super SEAL! He had to ask, “Oh, why’s that?”
“He had all those cool moves and you always say Uncle Steve is like a ninja. I asked Auntie Kono what a ninja was and she said it was someone who had cool fighting moves, like Uncle Steve… and Puss!” Grace explained patiently, like it should be obvious.
He laughed at that, “Well I can’t say you’re wrong about the ninja part babe. Still I don’t think Uncle Steve is a cute cat!”
“No but he’s a Super SEAL!”
“That he is, Monkey, that he is,” they reached the Camaro and he settled his daughter in the back of the car making sure she buckled her seatbelt before putting the seat back and turning to get in the car.
That’s when he spotted the two men and knew that his day was going to go to hell. They were dressed all in black, hoodies drawn up to hide their features and they were stalking a young woman. Torn between helping her and protecting his daughter, he made a quick decision.
Leaning into the car he retrieved his gun out of the locked glove compartment. “Grace, call Uncle Steve, tell him we’re parked round the movie theatre side of the mall. Lock the doors and stay in the car until either Uncle Steve or I come back for you,” he gave her his phone.
“Danno?” there was a tremble in her voice that nearly tore Danny’s resolve but Grace would be safe in the car, the young woman walking towards a darker, quieter corner of the parking lot wouldn’t be.
“Grace, I need to go and help a young woman and I need to make sure you’re safe. Call Uncle Steve, tell him where you are. Can you do that for me baby?”
“Yes Daddy,” she took the phone and opened it up and he closed the door.
“Lock the doors Monkey.”
Grace unbuckled her seat belt and did as she was told. Danny had left the keys in the car so that if anything happened to him and he was searched the keys wouldn’t be found on him. His daughter was as safe as he could make her in the circumstances.
“Good girl. Danno loves you. I’ll be back before you know it,” he spoke to her through the window.
“Love you too,” she replied pressing the buttons on the phone to contact her Uncle Steve.
---- 5-0 ----
Steve was sitting out on his deck, sipping a beer, he’d met up with an old friend for dinner, the meal had been pleasant and it had been nice to catch up with Jon. They’d been friends in high school until Steve had left Hawaii, Jon had gone into the military too, so they still had lots in common but didn’t get to see each other that much due to their different deployments. Jon had just returned from a tour in Afghanistan and was on a two week leave. When he’d heard that Steve was back living in Hawaii he’d looked him up, that’s why he wasn’t with Danny and Grace at the movies tonight. His partner had invited him, probably at Grace’s insistence, but for once he had plans of his own.
The Navy SEAL grinned at thoughts of Danny’s little girl, she had not only Danny but Steve, Chin and Kono, wrapped around her little finger. A flutter of those long eyelashes around her large brown eyes was all it took.
He was pulled out of his reverie by the ringing of his cell phone, hopefully it wasn’t the Governor, flipping open the phone without bothering to look at the ID, “McGarrett.”
“Uncle Steve?”
“Gracie?” the SEAL was immediately alert, why on earth would Grace be calling him at nine on a Saturday evening?
“Daddy said to call you.”
“Where’s Danno?”
“I don’t know,” she wailed.
Oh, this was not good, “Grace? What happened?” he asked gently.
“Daddy told me to lock the car door and call you, he had to go and help a woman.”
“Did he say what he needed to help her with?” Steve was in the house and grabbing the keys for his truck the moment he’d heard Grace say she didn’t know where her Dad was.
“No,” clearly Grace was upset at her Danno disappearing and Steve needed to get to her.
“Where are you sweetie?”
“In the car, parked near the movie theatre,” Grace recalled what her Dad had told her to tell her Uncle.
“OK, I’m on my way Grace. I’ll stay on the phone with you.”
“Hurry Uncle Steve.”
“I’m coming,” Steve flipped the lights and siren on and took off out of his driveway, consequences of using them be damned, his partner and his daughter needed him.
---- 5-0 ----
Danny glanced back at the car containing the most precious thing in his life, once more assuring himself that she was safe and then turned his attention in the direction of where the two men and young woman had walked.
He crept between cars trying to keep out of sight, his weapon in the palm of his hand ready if it was required. A few more feet and he saw the two men make their move. There was no satisfaction in the fact he’d been right and they’d been up to no good, he would gladly have been wrong, got back in his car and gone home to tuck his little girl in. The woman’s muffled scream put paid to any doubts, the two men had grabbed her and were dragging her off towards the edges of the parking lot.
“Freeze, 5-0!” yelled Danny, safety off, gun raised.
The two men turned in his direction but didn’t let the young woman go, that’s when Danny saw the knife being held to her throat and her hands were gripping onto her attacker’s arm. Her terrified eyes locked on to Danny’s and he cringed at the fear he saw there. He hated it when someone caused fear to another human being, normally just because they could.
“I don’t think so cop,” replied the larger of the two, whose hand was covering the woman’s mouth, his voice deep and gravelly.
“Let the woman go,” Danny instructed, his voice firm but reasonable.
“Now, why would I do that?”
“I have a gun pointed at you and your friend,” he pointed out.
“That’s true, but you can’t risk shooting us because you might hit her,” he indicated the woman, even as his partner in crime moved closer to the larger man’s back to make sure he was shielded as well.
“Then I guess we have ourselves a genuine standoff, as I can’t lower my weapon while you have a knife at a hostage’s throat.”
“I could just slit her throat!”
“Yeah, you could do that,” he saw the woman’s eyes widen and tried to ignore the level of fear, “Of course you do and I’ll have a damn good reason to put a bullet in you. Why don’t you let her go and we’ll talk about this?”
“I let her go and you shoot me!” retorted the big guy.
“Yeah, she’s our only protection!” butted in the smaller guy, his voice was oddly feminine sounding but he definitely had the build of a young man.
“Harry, be quiet!” hissed the man with a knife.
“Oh great, tell the cop my name why don’t you? Mike!”
“Why you little…”
The situation was getting out of hand fast, the two men were now turning on each other, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing if Mike didn’t have a knife to the woman’s throat. He needed to get their attention back on him and calm the situation down, with any luck Super SEAL was on his way along with some HPD back up, of course this was Steve so he might be out of luck on the HPD back up side of things, but right now he’d take Steve’s insane ninja moves.
Mike had been so intent on arguing with Harry that he had loosened his grip on the woman and the knife had moved away without him realising, using that to her advantage she elbowed him in his rib cage and pulled away from him, she ran towards Danny and barrelled into him quaking in fear.
Danny’s left arm had automatically come up to embrace her while he kept his gun trained on the two hapless criminals.
“You alright?”
“I think so.”
“Do you think you can run back to the movie theatre?”
“I guess so.”
Danny needed to get the woman out of there so that he could subdue these two idiots until help arrived, they were both standing there like deer in the headlights at the moment but it would only be a matter of time before they realised that there were two of them and only one of him, even if he did have a gun, one of them was unarmed and he couldn’t very well shoot an unarmed man.
“Go. Call 911.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly before running as fast as her shaking legs would carry her back towards the movie theatre and help.
“Drop the knife and get on your knees,” he barked at the two men.
They both did as they were told, Danny walked closer kicking the knife under a car out of their reach, he heard the sound of sirens fast approaching. It couldn’t be HPD already, the woman hadn’t had time to get back to the theatre. Steve! That meant he would be there in a couple of minutes with the way he drove, the Detective took a couple of steps back but kept the two men covered with his weapon.
There was the sound of other sirens also approaching and Danny figured HPD and his partner were about to pull into the parking lot for the mall and allowed himself to start breathing again, relaxing his stance imperceptibly. Then he heard a noise behind him and he started to turn slightly to see if it was perhaps back up but still keep an eye on the two men kneeling on the asphalt, before he knew what was happening he felt a pain in the back of his head that he could only liken to being smacked with a baseball bat, his muscles started to spasm, the gun he was holding discharged and he collapsed to the ground.
---- 5-0 ----
“I’m just coming into the parking lot now Grace,” Steve assured the crying child, while desperately looking for signs of the Camaro. He wanted to get to Danny but he knew that he would want Steve’s first priority to be making sure Grace was safe. He slammed on the brakes as he spotted the car in question, he flipped the phone shut and ran over to it. “Grace?”
Big tear filled brown eyes met his from the front seat; cheeks tear stained and eyes red from crying, “Uncle Steve!” Grace opened the door and threw herself at him with speed he didn’t think she possessed.
“Hey, I’ve got you,” picking her up he ran a soothing hand up and down her back and mumbled to her until her sobs faded and were mere gentle hiccups. The sound of other sirens pulling into the lot made him spin on his heel and he watched as two HPD cars pulled in behind his truck, clearly having seen the lights.
A uniformed Sergeant walked over to him, “Commander McGarrett, Sergeant Dawkins. What’s happening?”
“I’m not quite sure, I got a call from Detective Williams’ daughter,” he indicated the girl in his arms, “but I haven’t had a chance to find him yet.”
A female officer stepped forward, “Hi, I’m Ani. Can I take her Commander?”
“What do you say Grace? Will you stay with Ani while I go and find Danno?”
The little girl pulled back from where her head was buried in his neck and looked from Steve to Ani, “You’ll find Danno?”
“Absolutely!”
“OK then,” Grace gave her Uncle a kiss on the cheek and he squeezed her before handing her into the waiting arms of Ani.
“Thanks,” he said to her before turning his attention back to the Sergeant, “Let’s go find Detective Williams.”
Steve, Sergeant Dawkins and the two other Officers strode off in the direction of the movie theatre, that’s when they heard a gunshot and all four broke into a run.
Three people could be seen running in the distance but Steve’s attention was drawn to the person on the ground. It was Danny and it looked like he was having a seizure, “Go after them,” he shouted to the three men with him, indicating they should carry on in pursuit of the people running away. He knelt on the ground next to his partner, there was no blood on the ground and he couldn’t find any sign of a gunshot wound, what he did find was the leads of a Taser in his back.
Steve had been unfortunate enough to be tasered and he knew Danny had as well, but this didn’t look like the resulting muscle tightening from that, it looked like an actual seizure and Steve knew there was nothing he could do except protect his partner from further injury. He pulled out his phone and requested an ambulance while waiting for the seizure to pass. It was probably only a couple of minutes but to Steve it felt like a lifetime, as his friend’s body finally went limp he ran his hands over his body to check for further injuries but didn’t move him. He then kept up a constant stream of reassuring words, not sure whether he was trying to reassure himself or Danny.
Ten minutes later the ambulance arrived and two familiar looking EMTs emerged, “Jake, Andy.”
“Steve, what happened?” asked Jake.
“He received a jolt from a Taser, when I got to him he was having a seizure.”
“Alright, let me take a look,” Jake waited for Steve to move aside before he started to make his assessment.
Andy knelt on the other side and inserted an IV into Danny’s left hand and started a bag of saline running.
“Temperatures up, he’s tachycardic as well. I’ll get those barbs out of his back and then we need to get him to the ER,” Jake gently stretched the skin taut around the first barb, which had landed about half way down the left side of Danny’s back, and eased it out before turning his attention to the one up at the base of Danny’s skull and repeating the procedure. They’d just loaded him onto the gurney when he started to regain consciousness.
“Danny…”
“Steve?”
“Yeah.”
“What ‘appen’?”
“What do you remember?”
There was a pause as Danny’s face scrunched up and then something obviously clicked somewhere because he immediately tried to sit up. That didn’t go so well, as he was strapped down to the gurney already.
“Grace!”
“She’s fine, Danny, she’s with an HPD officer…”
“Where’s Grace?”
“Danny, listen to me,” Steve placed his hands on his partner’s shoulders, “She is fine.”
“I need to see Grace,” Danny started to fight to get free of the gurney.
“Andy, get me five of diazepam, he’s confused and combative, we need to calm him down before we transport him,” Jake instructed.
A moment later Steve was holding Danny’s arm down so that Andy could give the medication via the IV port. The SEAL continued to hold on to his friend’s arm and speak quietly to him, trying to offer him some comfort, until the medicine took effect and Danny relaxed enough to be loaded into the ambulance.
“Are you coming with us Steve?”
“No, I wasn’t with him when this happened, his daughter was, I need to look after her, it’s what Danny would want.”
“Yes, I suppose it is,” Jake acknowledged with a smile before climbing in the back with his patient.
---- 5-0 ----
Steve strode into the ER reception area with Grace straddling his hip and clinging to his neck. On the way over he’d contacted Chin and Kono who had both told him they’d see him there. He hadn’t bothered to call Rachel since she was attending some bash on Maui with Stan and he really didn’t think his partner needed the drama right now.
Doctor Jensen spotted him as he was entering and stopped him before he made it to the reception area, “Steve…”
“Doc, how is Danny?”
“Let’s go somewhere more private shall we,” he indicated a small area off the main corridor. Chin and Kono arrived at that moment.
“Steve!”
“Guys, I’m going to speak to Doctor Jensen, can you take Grace?”
“I want to go with you Uncle Steve!”
“I need to speak to the Doctor about your Dad, once I have I’ll come and tell you what’s happening, alright?”
Grace was reluctant to let go of the SEAL but knew that he wouldn’t want to talk to the Doctor with her in the room. Adults were funny like that, “OK,” she reached her arms out to Chin.
“Hey Grace,” he pulled her to him and gave her a hug. Kono rested her hand on the child’s back as they moved off to the main waiting area.
Steve followed Doctor Jensen into the area he had indicated and asked again, “How’s Danny?”
“From what I’m told he suffered from a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Given the location of the barbs from the Taser it’s not unreasonable to assume that is what caused it. Especially as Danny doesn’t have any previous history of seizures, right now he’s confused, tired and has a headache but I’m going to admit him overnight for monitoring.”
“Can we see him?”
“As soon as he is settled in a room you can see him for a few minutes, but he needs to rest. A nurse will come and get you when he’s ready to see you.”
“Thanks Doctor Jensen,” Steve shook the doctor’s hand and then went to let the others know what was happening.
---- 5-0 ----
Danny had been in a world of hazy confusion for some time now, Doctor Jensen had explained it all to him, a nurse had explained it to him again but he was so tired and his head was hurting enough that he wasn’t really taking it all in. In the end the nurse likened it to receiving a concussion, which to all intents and purposes is what he had experienced, that made it a bit easier for Danny to understand.
The door to his room opened and Steve entered, “Up to some visitors?”
“Sure.”
Steve ushered in Grace, followed by Chin and Kono.
“Danno!” Grace ran to the bed and waited for Steve to help her up next to him, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah Monkey. I’ll be even better if I can have a hug!” Never one to let her Daddy down in the hug department, she laid down next to him and gave him the biggest hug she could manage, “Thanks Grace.”
Steve smiled at his partner who mouthed ‘Thank you’, over her shoulder as she buried her head in his neck.
“What do you remember?”
“It’s all a bit hazy to be honest,” he looked down at Grace still cuddled up next to him, not really wanting to go into too much detail with her there, “There were two guys and a woman. She managed to get away from them and I was waiting for help to arrive, then just a pain in my head. Next thing I’m waking up here!”
“There was a third man; he got you with a Taser. HPD caught them,” Steve kept it simple knowing they’d have time to go into further detail at a more appropriate time.
“That’s good. The woman…?”
“Not a mark on her, she was scared but thankful.”
Danny closed his eyes and took a deep breath, wincing at the pain in his back and chest.
“You OK?”
“Chest and back hurt. Doctor Jensen says it’s normal. Head feels like there’s grenades’ going off in it constantly!”
“We should let you rest,” Kono spoke for the first time.
“’M OK,” Danny murmured.
“Sure you are brah,” Chin patted his arm before he and Kono left the room.
“I gotta tell you, you scared the living daylights outta me Danno!” Steve had wanted to swear but managed to restrain himself as Grace was in the room.
“’M ‘orry,” came the sleepy response, medication starting to pull him under, “’N don’ call me Danno,” with that he was asleep.
Steve grinned before scooping the now sleeping Grace into his arms. He could only imagine how hard the decision had been for Danny to leave her in the car while he helped a stranger, but he was grateful that his partner trusted him enough to come to their aid when his daughter called. He’d come back with Grace in the morning and bring his partner home with them, where Steve and the little girl would make sure he was looked after.