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"Now it's my crime scene."
Those could have been, should have been, the last words he heard from McGarrett, and in a kinder world, they might have been, but the world hates Danny Williams, and he's not exactly feeling all that generous towards it, himself, so he's honestly not even a little surprised when the authoritative rap on his door comes attached to a too-tall, too-broad, too-aggressive Navy SEAL with revenge on the mind and Daddy issues from here back to the boardwalks of Wildwood.
He hates him.
Because of this joker, he's home in the middle of the day, instead of at work, work, he might point out, where he's attempting to catch the guy who did this to McGarrett, Sr., which is normally what the child of a murder victim wants, right? They want the cops to do their damn job and haul the dirtbag in for justice.
They don't storm in and take over like it's their goddamn platoon out in fucking Afghanistan.
Except McGarrett, okay, he doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. There's a reason officers don't get involved if the deceased was a family member, and this is exactly why: it makes people angry, irrational.
(He hopes to hell this is McGarrett being irrational.)
It's too close, too personal -- and it's also not his case anymore, so he's got no idea why McGarrett, shirt sticking to his skin from the soaking rain that just hit, because it rains every goddamn day here, what a fucking miracle, Hallelujah, is standing on his doorstep, because it isn't that.
(And it's not that either, he refuses, it's not happening, and there's no possible way this whackjob noticed. It could be he doesn't even have a timer, or got his blown off while single-handedly stopping an insurrection with a couple of grenades and a can-do attidtude.)
So he just stands and waits, with one hand still on the doorknob, ready to slam it shut just as soon as possible.
Those could have been, should have been, the last words he heard from McGarrett, and in a kinder world, they might have been, but the world hates Danny Williams, and he's not exactly feeling all that generous towards it, himself, so he's honestly not even a little surprised when the authoritative rap on his door comes attached to a too-tall, too-broad, too-aggressive Navy SEAL with revenge on the mind and Daddy issues from here back to the boardwalks of Wildwood.
He hates him.
Because of this joker, he's home in the middle of the day, instead of at work, work, he might point out, where he's attempting to catch the guy who did this to McGarrett, Sr., which is normally what the child of a murder victim wants, right? They want the cops to do their damn job and haul the dirtbag in for justice.
They don't storm in and take over like it's their goddamn platoon out in fucking Afghanistan.
Except McGarrett, okay, he doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. There's a reason officers don't get involved if the deceased was a family member, and this is exactly why: it makes people angry, irrational.
(He hopes to hell this is McGarrett being irrational.)
It's too close, too personal -- and it's also not his case anymore, so he's got no idea why McGarrett, shirt sticking to his skin from the soaking rain that just hit, because it rains every goddamn day here, what a fucking miracle, Hallelujah, is standing on his doorstep, because it isn't that.
(And it's not that either, he refuses, it's not happening, and there's no possible way this whackjob noticed. It could be he doesn't even have a timer, or got his blown off while single-handedly stopping an insurrection with a couple of grenades and a can-do attidtude.)
So he just stands and waits, with one hand still on the doorknob, ready to slam it shut just as soon as possible.
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"Yeah, maybe."
Which is repeating himself, but it's different, now. It's not shutting that comment down, or arguing against it: it's possible, definitely possible, and this yeah, maybe is almost an agreement. After all, he felt the same way about his own dad.
It's just a response, after a swig of his beer, while finally taking a seat in the empty chair and immediately leaning to rest his elbows on his thighs, squinting against the glare as he looks up, out, toward the water, towards the sky, towards Steve, and away again. "Either that or she might just think I'm a selfish son of a bitch."
Without really looking at any of those, because he's stuck on an internal loop, this hard truth he can't hide from, that Rachel wields like a weapon, that Steve guessed within ten seconds of entering his apartment. His dirty, pitiful little secret. Why he stays, even when he hates this place, and he hates the people he's forced to work with, and he hates himself for always making it that much harder, always swinging first. "Because the truth is -- this is all I got."
Confessed to the sand packed under his shoe soles, but he glances up toward Steve for this, because this, this is his honesty, this is the only thing he's got on offer. Follows it up before it can stop. "I need this."
As close as a confession as he'll ever get, bare, raw honesty. If Steve wants to be partners, if the numbers on his wrist can even hope to have a chance, if he's going to be here without going insane -- this is what he's got. The truth. "I wanna do what I'm good at, I want to be reminded I'm good at what I do."
He is. Has a great record. Glowing references from Newark, and good ones here, even if they're reluctant. Which they are, because he hasn't given this place the chance a lit match would have a in a rainstorm, has punched back as often as he gets kicked down, or before.
But. If Steve's serious about this task force thing, if Steve really wants his help, if Steve's going to let him invite himself in and drink a beer on the beach, instead of telling him to fuck off and keep it cold and professional --
Then maybe this is a chance.
Not has a chance. Is. To prove he's still good. To prove he can do this, solve the case, be the guy Steve needed in order to catch a killer.
This, though. This, he's not great at, which is why he takes a second, a breath, looking up at the sky and gathering himself. "If that means having to put up with your twisted belief that you are never wrong -- "
Which he just can't help, because the guy is a lunatic, all right, and this day has been insane, even without the line of zeroes stamped on the inside of his wrist, but it's not actually sharp or angry or exasperated. It's almost -- along with finally turning back to Steve and a faint touch of amusement at the corners of his mouth -- teasing. The kind of familiar ribbing partners do. Already theatrical weariness, like Steve hasn't actually, at times throughout the day, surprised Danny by being. What. Human. And kind of...
Compelling? Appealing?
Likeable?
" -- then so be it."
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The kind of thing it's impossible to find words for, or for anyone else to understand on the same line.
But he likes to think he does get this one. At least as much as he needs to.
Danny, with his inability to keep look anywhere, like he can't quite sit right with himself over it, and a devotion to his kid that Steve's dad never had for either of his kids. This willingness to move half the world away, to a paradise he hates, to keep doing a job he thinks he's good at even if everyone around him hates him, and to keep going anyway. For her, and for the job. Put together and torn apart by those two magnetic forces.
It's not a problem Steve's ever had, but it's not one that's ever been missing from a team. Not even this part, where Danny rounds out those few hard, pried words, while Steve isn't looking away, for a sharp, more spiking edge to an insult at him. Which isn't. Sharp, or spiking, or an insult. Well. Maybe it is. But what it's not is put like it was earlier. Like when Danny was snapping in the car. Or those vicious, low words right after punching him.
This one where Danny barely looks at him until just the end. Just calls him the next mountain Danny Williams has to get by. He gets that. He might even respect it. That might be what that glimmer of a thing at the edge of his mind is when he's nodding to Danny and raising his beer toward the man, like it's a backwards tacit agreement. Maybe a better one than this afternoon by far.
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Steve's reply is only to pause, before holding out his beer, and that's the perfect button, a universal gesture. Olive branch in the form of brown glass.
So, maybe, they understand each other. Enough that Danny responds by tipping his own bottle and clinking the necks together, which is almost friendly enough that he's tripped into a grin before he realizes it, before letting it spread once he does. Because it's kind of nice, almost. Sitting here. Talking to Steve. Feeling like a person, and not a loaded gun that keeps getting dropped.
Turning out that Steve maybe isn't a hardass all the time, obsessed with work and incapable of normal human interactions, because there's something softer about his face now, though he's still watching Danny with a strange kind of intent. Like he's trying to translate words and expressions into something he understands. Or like he's not totally sure what Danny might do or say next, but founds himself wanting to know.
Danny's got no idea, but he doesn't mind. This might be the first time today that they've gotten along, but it clicked, somewhere, while he wasn't looking.
Maybe that's no bad thing.
Maybe this could work, after all.
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Maybe he won't be someone Steve has to push around and force to get the job done. Different people needed different thing to get it all done. To see the world, and how to organize themselves to be able to handle that world, itself, as it shifted them around with no more concern than a ship surrounded in every direction by the ocean.
But it sticks, the shred, a strike, a small splinter of curiosity, for Danny, with his three contingency plans for that.
One said his daughter was proud of him, and understood. One said he was an asshole who put this before her.
Which left one last one as Danny was looking down and out, with that ironic smile. "So, what's the third?"
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Third thing--?
Oh. Right.
(It's more of a surprise that Steve was paying attention enough to keep count than than Danny forgot his own train of thought.)
Grace understanding. That was one. The one that Steve got to even before he did. Or Grace hating him for it. The second one, that's first in his head, and a constant worry, behind this. The constant. Continual. The thing that keeps him going, even here, dragged so far from home, shoved into a place he hates. "Well, even if I tell myself this isn't permanent..."
He was looking away, but he turns it back to Steve, now, because that's not a confession, it's the thing he's been saying all day. It's not permanent, not home, not where he wants to be, not his choice; but he's here anyway, which makes this a little defiant. "...It's Gracie's home, now."
Which makes his duty crystal clear, inarguable. "It's my job to keep it safe.
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Eventuality, and something like acceptance Danny hasn't had at any other point of this day.
Steve was just going to open his mouth when his phone rang, and his attention snap like a band. Letting him rock back his position and start digging in his pocket to pull out his cell phone. Looking at Chin's name on it, only for a moment, before holding it up to his ear. Eyes on the horizon, but not seeing it or hearing the waves, as everything keyed to the phone. "Yeah?"
The world goes white. Even when he knows he'd hear a twig snap. He could turn and throw himself on a dime. But everything inconsequential goes gray and gone for Chin's words. Before he's nodding, barely, like there's anyway it could be seen. "Alright. Good work."
Phone clicking off and coming down, eyes still on it, as his mind was spooling out into new direction.
Tomorrow morning. Right supplies. Right plan. An opening avenue they could use, he could use. A chance.
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There's a short moment of tension that's not tension, not unpleasant, just a pause --
And then Steve's phone rings, sending him shifting back while Danny leans forward, peering out at the water and taking a sip of his beer and letting Steve have a little privacy for the call. Or, taking a moment for himself; who could blame him? That got...
Personal.
Surprisingly so. A lot of that is stuff he hasn't even talked to Meka about in so many words, though he's sure Meka's guessed, or figured it out. He's a good detective. And it's not like it's a secret, but it's also nothing he saw himself talking to Steve about, a few hours ago, when his face was in the dirt and his arm was twisted behind his back. Or before that. Or after.
And yet, here he is, sipping beer on the beach behind Steve's childhood home, like they were always going to end up right here...or something. He doesn't put a lot of faith in fate, no matter what his wrist might try to tell him.
Not looking back until Steve's hung up, and then it's only: "What've you got?"
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"That was Chin." Informative. "Sang Min bought the pitch." Flat. "He meets Kono tomorrow morning." Fast.
They were go for picking off the bastard who drugged little girls and sell them to the highest bidder. To get whatever they could from him, along with the chance of getting him, and getting him to turn on whoever was above him, as far as it took to get to Hesse. Who was on the shadow-y edge of this system, because it was one of the things he did everywhere and it was the fastest way to get himself out.
Using the same door to get out that all of these people were using to bring people in.
Except that Hesse was going to find Steve in the door of that exit. That was how this was going to end. Here. Now.
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"Alright."
It's a good start, for sure, good news, but he's cautious by nature, and Steve's slung straight back into the tunnel-vision of obsession. Someone's got to remind him that plans don't always work out the way people want, that things could still go wrong, because Steve charged in without backup earlier, and it was only by sheer chance that the worst that happened was a graze on Danny's arm. "Still no guarantee he's gonna tell us where Hesse is, though."
He's got the light of the fanatic in his eyes, the softer, considering expression of a second ago vanished like it never happened at all. Back behind the wall.
But there. Danny saw it. So maybe, they can go into this as partners. Maybe he can keep those size eleven boots of Steve's on the ground, and not leaping off a cliff chasing a blind lead.
Probably not, but there's something in the fact that he even wants to try.
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Maybe harder and faster than Steve knows it should.
Especially given Danny didn't actually insinuate it wasn't. That he didn't want it to. He just laid it out there, quick but calm. Like it was a reminder of logistics. Probability. One Steve knew better than anyone on the planet. How many time The Hesse Brothers had slipped through his and everyone else's fingers. How many times the floor was left littered with bodies, either bloodied with death or sullied beyond human recognition.
It's actively an effort. That one second pause. To swallow down an insane need that can barely be reigned back. Especially in this place, with this view, on these chairs. Where it's all too clear, and maybe he can almost risk letting it be that bare. After all these words, and Danny lack of understanding through half the day how much it matters, even when Steve can't let it.
How much that never stops it, even when he has to keep stopping it. Keep doing more.
"It's the only chance I have of finding the man who killed my father."
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"Yeah."
It coasts on an outgoing breath, both his hands wrapped around the bottle, green glass catching the sunlight and refracting it just like the waves do, but he's studying Steve, that face, that certainty.
He's seen it before. Sort of a Captain Ahab deal; men and women obsessed with revenge, or something less final but no less all-encompassing. That burning need to take them in, make them pay, win, even though it can't ever bring back the people lost. Hesse will still have fired that bullet, even if Steve catches him. He and his brother will still have terrorized the world for years.
But it's not about bringing people back, and Danny can get that, too. It's about laying them to rest. About making sure no one else ever gets hurt by that man again. White hat versus black -- and sometimes the motivation? That's all the difference between them there is.
He hopes to God Steve knows it.
"Okay. Then that's what we'll do."