Danny entered the Governor's office with a purposeful tread. The newly appointed Governor looked up from his work to give him a rather cold welcome. "Mr. Williams, I don't have too much time, so if we could make this meeting as short as possible…"

Danny had to stop himself from correcting the Governor. It's been almost two weeks since he stopped being a detective. He missed his badge, but he had accepted the idea that ever since the disbandment of the Five-0 taskforce, he was not a detective anymore.

He focused on the business at hand, trying to ignore the scrutiny of Governor Page. Sure, his scraped knuckles, the few fading bruises under his left eye and the split lip would draw some attention, but he had cleaned himself up, even wearing one of those ties Steve hated so much. He had a work to do, so he took out the folder he carried and opened it to get into business.

"Governor, I'm here to request the release of Commander Steven McGarret and detective Kono Kalakaua. I bring evidence that both were framed. Governor Jameson promised us full immunity and means, and my team's actions were made under the cover of that."

He took some photos and what looked like a medical report from his folder. "With respect to the murder of Governor Jameson, while Commander McGarrett broke into Governor's Jameson residence, I have found footage that shows the man known as Wo Fat, breaking into the Governor's residence at the same time. Commander McGarrett was found semi conscious on the Governor's office, lying near her dead body and with the weapon that killed her in his hands. Commander McGarrett had been tased not ten minutes before the first police units arrived at the scene, and the Taser was nowhere to be found. There was no way that he could have shot the Governor in the state he was in."

He took what looked like phone transcripts and placed them in front of the governor. "Furthermore, I can show you phone recordings that prove that Governor Jameson had dealings with Wo Fat and the Yakuza. She received payments and provided information to them. This man is responsible for the death of both of Commander McGarrett's parents, and his relation with the Governor was meant to harm the Commander. They wanted him to fall."

Page looked up at this. "All the more reason for McGarrett to want to murder the Governor…"

Danny shook his head. "He only wanted to clear up the situation! Jameson asked him personally to form this taskforce! Would you believe that she was doing it all to destroy McGarrett?"

The Governor sighed, crossing his arms. "Leave all of this with me." He said, looking at the evidence Danny brought. "I'll see what I can do and let you know as soon as possible."

Danny looked at him pleadingly. "They've been in there long enough. Half of the population wants them dead, and the other half wants them as play toys. You have to get them out…"

The Governor didn't seem moved by Danny's plea. "I'll see what I can do and give you a call. Thank you, Mr. Williams."

Danny nodded and left the office.

The following morning found Danny standing next to his beloved Camaro, waiting for a familiar figure to cross the security gates of Halawa Correctional Facility.

As soon as Steve came out, he noticed the figure of his Partner. He took a moment to study Danny's bruised and exhausted face and his slightly slumped posture. "Did you take plates of the truck that ran you over?…" He asked, smiling.

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Did I take the plates!..." He shook his head, "This coming from a man whose face resembles an eggplant? Did they make you kiss the walls?"

Steve grinned. "They only tried once. I think I brought home the point that I didn't particularly enjoy it, so they dropped the subject."

Danny crossed his arms. "I'm sure it was a very interesting conversation…"

Steve grinned, extending his hand and drawing Danny into a hug. "I've no idea how you did it, but thank you, brah."

Danny hugged Steve back, taking comfort from the close contact. "I'll have you know that a Haole detective like me can still pull some tricks from under the sleeve. If you pay attention you may even learn something…" He patted Steve's back.

They drew apart, moving towards the car. Steve stood by the driver's door. "Do you have the keys?"

Danny spluttered. "How come I bust you out of jail, I go to the trouble to come pick you up and you still want me to let you drive my car?"

Steve shrugged. "It's a very nice car! Come on, I've spent more than two weeks in lockup, the least I deserve is to drive a nice car…"

Danny rolled his eyes, passing his keys to Steve. "Control freak!"

As they entered the car, Danny's phone started ringing. He took it out and looking at the screen, passed it to Steve. "It's for you."

Steve looked at the screen, not recognizing the number, he replied. "McGarret."

He could hear a lot of noise on the other side of the line, many happy voices talking at the same time, and then a familiar one. "Boss?"

Steve smiled in pleasure."Kono! Where are you?"

He could sense Kono's smile through the line. "I just got home! I'm guessing Danny got you out as well?"

He turned to Danny, noticing his pleased smile. "Yeah. He just picked me up. Are you alright?"

Kono chuckled. "Now that I'm home I'm great!" He could hear some people talking to Kono. "Listen, Things are a little crazy right now, but maybe we could get together for beers tonight?"

Steve nodded. "Absolutely! Tonight at my place! See you then…" He disconnected the call, looking at Danny.

Danny was lying back in his seat, looking through the window. Steve had never seen him looking as exhausted and lost as he did now. Attempting to draw him out of it, he asked a question that had been circling his mind since he got arrested. "So, any word on Wo Fat's whereabouts?"

That got Danny's attention; he straightened out, looking at Steve. "The last we saw of him was some footage of a security camera while he was leaving Jameson's property. He hasn't shown his face ever since. My best guess is that he left the island. He will lay low until he gets the chance to strike again."

Steve took his eyes off the road to look at Danny. "We'll be ready for him."

Danny nodded. "Yes we will."

They finally arrived at Steve's house. He parked the car and looked at Danny, not used to the silence of his partner. "Listen, I know you probably want to go home, but would you like to hang at my place for a while? I mean, we could order some pizzas, have a couple of beers…" Strangely enough, he was a bit nervous that Danny wouldn't want to stay. "I mean, you still have to tell me how you managed to get us out…"

Danny smiled, opening his door. "I'd love to hang out, Steve."

They entered Steve's house. It was total chaos. Upturned furniture, papers thrown haphazardly on the floor, the kitchen appliances thrown this way and that.

Danny passed a hand through his head. "Damn man, I'm sorry. I was supposed to clean this up before you got here, but I didn't think it would work so quickly, and I had kind of forgotten about it…" He shrugged. "I was in a bit of a hurry…"

Steve turned to him, wearing his aneurism face. "You mean you did this!"

Danny shrugged apologetically. "Well, part of it. I was in a hurry, the HPD was coming, and I needed to find your files before they got their hands on them."

Steve looked confused. "Wait a minute. The DA had a copy of all my files. Couldn't you find them?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "In case you have forgotten, Steven, I'm a detective. Of course I found your files! Because I am a detective, I also know that if I had taken them with me, I would have had half of HPD knocking on my door and dragging my ass into jail for obstruction of justice. I'm sure they would have enjoyed it immensely too. Instead I took copies and left them exactly where you had them stashed."

Steve sighed, relieved. "Of course you did, you are a detective, after all." He looked around at his home. And then back at Danny. "Listen, I don't want to deal with this right now. I'm going to go upstairs, try to find a clean towel and take a shower." He moved to the upturned couch, righting it and clearing away a space for Danny to sit on. "Why don't you pour us a drink, beer or whatever you can find in the mess of my kitchen and when I come back we'll sort this out, alright?" Without waiting for a response, he nodded and turned around in the direction of his room.

40 minutes later, Steve came back downstairs. He found Danny sitting on his couch. He had cleared out part of the mess; it didn't look like a bomb had exploded anymore.

He took a minute to study his partner. Danny was nursing a longneck, another one on the table waiting for Steve. Back at the car, he couldn't identify the expression on Danny's face, but now that he had a minute to think about it, he was saddened to realize that his partner looked absolutely and totally heartbroken. He took his place next to Danny on the couch, looking at him. "Danny, are you alright?"

Danny looked up from his beer to Steve, surprised by the question, but the minute it registered in his mind, he went back to staring at his bottle. He nodded. "I'm fine."

Steve couldn't believe that Danny thought he would convince him with that answer. All that he knew was that something was very wrong. "Is Gracie ok?"

Danny sniffed, shrugging. "I've no idea. I haven't talked to her in days."

Steve was speechless. "Wha? Well, what about Rachel, did you two have a fight?"

Danny shook his head again, still looking at his bottle. "Nope. In order to have a fight, there would have to be words involved. I haven't seen or talked to her either."

"What the hell happened, Danny?"

Danny shrugged, sniffing again. He was still looking anywhere but to Steve's face. "Well, a couple of weeks ago, Rachel comes over and tells me that she's pregnant. She's having my baby. She says that she's leaving Stan, and that since Hawaii is Stan's home, she and Gracie should go back to Jersey. She booked plane tickets for the three of us; we would meet at the airport after I took care of some business…" He left the bottle on the coffee table, resting his arms on his knees and hanging his head. "I ran into some trouble and I asked her to wait for me in the gate, I said I'd be there…" He shook his head, sadly. "I didn't make it, she left and we haven't talked ever since."

He moved to stand up, but Steve's hand on his shoulder prevented him from doing it. "Danny, did you try calling her?"

Danny looked up, taking a deep breath. "Did I tray calling her? I have called every single day, she won't answer, I've left hundreds of messages, she ignores them! I've sent emails, I've tried to reach her parents, I even asked my mom to talk to her!" He seemed to deflate, hanging his head, his trembling fingers threading though his hair. "It's useless. Nothing I can do… She… They're gone for good…" He covered his eyes with his hands, trying to control his hitching breaths.

Steve sat there, his hand still on Danny's shoulder, trying to provide what comfort he could. Part of the story intrigued him though. "Danny… When did this happen?"

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. "What difference does it make!"

Steve shook Danny's shoulder. "Danny, when did this happen?"

Danny flinched, not moving his hand from his face. "It was the day you and Kono got arrested."

Steve reeled back. "Danny! What were you thinking! Why didn't you follow?"

Danny shook Steve's hand from his shoulder and stumbled to his feet. "You stupid son of a bitch! Did you really expect me to leave my team to rot in jail! Did you really believe that I would abandon the closest thing I had to a family in this God forsaken Island! Was I supposed to sit idly while everything… Everyone I cared about was taken from me?" He sunk to the floor, curling into himself. "I'd already lost my wife and kids… I couldn't… couldn't lose you guys too…" He covered his eyes, sobs shaking his frame.

Steve kneeled next to Danny, wrapping him in an embrace, trying to comfort him somehow. "Shit, I'm sorry, brah. I'm so sorry… We'll get them back; I promise you we'll fix this…"

They stayed like that for close to half an hour, Danny holding on to him for dear life and Steve trying to provide what comfort he could. Once Danny started to calm down, Steve started to notice something that he should have realized hours ago. They had shifted so that Danny rested tiredly on Steve's shoulder. In spite of him starting to calm down, Steve could see the minute tremors shaking Danny's body, his pained breathing, the bandage under his right sleeve, and the fact that he was warmer than he was supposed to be. He shifted, trying to get the man's attention. "Danny, you're too hot."

That surely had an effect. Danny jumped, trying to get a safe distance between himself and Steve. "Whoa, What?... I mean, I'm really flattered, Steve, but… Unfortunately, I don't go that way…" He looked embarrassed, trying not to hurt his friend's feelings.

Steve rolled his eyes, trying to get closer to the man currently scrambling to get away from him. "Don't be an idiot Danny. You're running a fever!"

If possible, Danny tensed even more. "No I'm not!"

Steve tried to reason with his friend. "Listen Danny, you're running a fever, that means that you either caught a flu or something like that, or you managed to injure yourself and took such good care of it, that now you're dealing with a nasty infection. Since I don't see you sneezing or coughing, but you breathe like it pains you to do so, your face looks like a bulldozer ran you over and you've been trying to hide the fact that there's a poorly made bandage on your right arm, I'm willing to bet on option number two!"

Danny moved a little further away from Steve, shaking his head. "I don't know what you're talking about man…"

Steve raised his hand to silence Danny. "Danny, I'm going to give you exactly two minutes to tell me what's wrong with you or I'm going to pick up your skinny ass…"

Danny spluttered. "Skinny ass!"

Steve ignored the interruption. "Yes! Your skinny ass! We leave you alone for two weeks and you manage to drop like 15 pounds! So, you're not eating, you look like you haven't slept a wink either, and you're running a fever… Which leads us here… You, my friend, are going to tell me exactly what's wrong with you or so help me, I'm going to drag you to the hospital by your hair!"

Danny stood up unsteadily, taking a breath in preparation for the blow up that was coming. "Do you really need to ask WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME?"

Steve stood up as well, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "Danny… I just want to help. I'm worried about you man…"

Danny took a deep breath, closing his eyes. With shaking fingers he started unbuttoning his shirt. Without looking at Steve, he started talking. "In order to get part of the information I needed to get you and Kono out of jail, I ran into a couple of trigger happy fellows. Fortunately for me, I was wearing Kevlar at the time…" He opened his shirt to show two large bruises on his chest. "Fortunately for them, they don't make vests for the arms." He finished removing his shirt to show a flimsy looking bandage and an angry looking through and through on his arm. He stared at it, confused. "Strange, this didn't look as bad this morning." He stumbled on his own two feet, and ended up sitting on the couch.

Steve got up, picked up his keys and moved towards Danny. "Alright, we're going to the hospital."

He moved to help Danny stand, but he shook him off. "Hey! You said that if I told you, you would leave me alone!"

Steve looked confused. "Danny, that wound is infected! You have a fever, and while I'm humbled by your confidence in my abilities, I have no idea how to treat an infection like that…"

Danny seemed to sink further into the cushions, looking paler than he did a minute ago. The look of defeat he sported scared Steve more than anything. "Leave me be, Steve… Maybe… Maybe it's better this way?"

Steve moved quickly to sit next to his partner. "Danny, listen to me… You're the most stubborn mule I've had the pleasure to know. You can't let this defeat you! When I was arrested I was convinced I was screwed! I didn't see any way out, but you didn't give up on us, you're far too stubborn for that, you can't give up now!"

Danny looked at Steve, tears gathering in his eyes. "I'm just so tired Steve…"

Steve gently took one of Danny's hands. "I know, Danny, I know… I can't tell you how sorry I am that you had to deal with all of this shit on your own, but you're not alone anymore, brah. I promise you we'll find a way to make it right… We'll fix this mess somehow, but first you have to let me help you… Please!"

Danny sighed, finally giving up the fight. "Alright, you win. Take me to the hospital, so they can poke and prod me at will."

Just as Steve was helping Danny up from the couch, someone knocked on the door. Since the odds of Danny remaining standing on his own were slim, he helped him back down, going to see who was bugging them at this time of the day. Of all the faces he was expecting, Chin was not one of them. He stood protectively on the door, blocking the view inside. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Chin looked surprised, and a little hurt, but he hid it well. "I just wanted to see how you were doing…"

Steve looked up, trying to control his temper. "How am I doing? You wanna know how am I doing? I just spent two weeks in a prison full of people wanting to kill me! How do you figure I'm doing huh!" He turned around, noticing that Danny was barely hanging in there. "Fuck!" he turned to Chin. "You know what? I don't have the time to deal with this right know! Now get your ass in here and help me get him into the truck…"

Chin moved to take one of Danny's arms. "What happened to him?"

They were carefully moving Danny to Steve's truck. "What happened? He got shot, that's what happened to him, and he didn't have the sense to get a doctor to look at it! Stupid moron!"

Chin looked surprised. "It's not possible! He said everything had gone according to plan!"

Steve stopped moving to stare at Chin. "You knew? Well, of course you knew! You gave him the information, didn't you? Did you by any chance warn him that it was a suicide mission?"

Chin glared at him. "I told him about the risks, I was going to go with him, but he said that he needed me to keep my cover! He wanted me to stay at HPD, checking if we could find anything else!"

Steve shook his head. "Of course he would want to protect you too… Of all the stupid…" He was interrupted by a croak from the man hanging between them. "Hey… 'm still here…"

Steve grinned. "Yeah, yeah, and you'd better still be around by the time we get to the hospital, or you'll hear a piece of my mind, am I clear?"

The soft muttering of "Sir, yes sir!" made both Steve and Chin chuckle.

They finally managed to load Danny into Steve's truck. As he closed the door he looked at Chin. "Listen brah, we need to talk… But…"

Chin nodded. "Don't worry about it, just go… Let me know of any news…"

Steve nodded as he got on the driver seat. "Will do!" and they were gone.

Danny could hear Steve speaking to him, but he couldn't really make out the words anymore. It was stupid really, he had been feeling off since the day before, but there was stuff to get done, so he hadn't paid much attention to the ache on his arm, or the occasional bout of dizziness that assaulted him. Now everything seemed fuzzy and his head felt full of cotton. He focused on Steve's voice, which had gotten even more frightened in the last few phrases. "Danny? Answer me! Danny?" Someone was shaking him.

"'m still here…" he mumbled, or he thought he did, because Steve sounded more relieved now…

Suddenly it was all too much, his eyes closed on their own and with a softly muttered apology to Steve, he gave up the fight and let himself be taken by the darkness.

TBC...

A/N: If you're here, thanks for reading. This is my first Five-0 story, it's not betaed, and I hope I made the characters justice…

I hope to see you around! And leave a review if you feel like it!