Epilogue: These Dust Covered Boots
Title: These Dust Covered Boots
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,821
Pairings: Danny/Steve
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Series Name: Cact, Steel, adn Surf
A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to find the perfect ending for this. For a while I felt that the last chapter would suffice but I was hit with inspiration, probably brought on by cold medicine and a killer headache, so if it doesn't quite fit tell me please.
They track a link leading to the leaders of a human and drug trafficking ring all the way to the Kaʻū Desert before they lose the majority of the trail. Steve has Catherine on the phone trying to get her to use the satellite to find where they would be hiding and Chin's eyebrows are furrowed as he does his damnedest to get a triangulation from the cell number they know at least one of the heads have on them. It comes in and out of service so much that he can't get a good lock on it to trace it and his scowl could probably kill if directed at their suspects. Catherine has done her best but she only able to narrow it down to about a hundred miles of dry Hawaiian Desert causing Steve's eyes to be narrowed in his frustrated Aneurism face number 4, trying to possibly shoot lasers from their intensity.
Kono has been cleaning and reassembling her sniper rifle, it's her baby and she has just been named in the top ten best shots on the islands after learning from both Steve and Danny, she's anxious and awaiting orders since this was the only lead they had to finding a congressmen's niece. Danny has gone over every lead and gone over every bit of evidence they have at least three times and he's frustrated, he grew up in the desert, amongst sand and clay and rocks, and he could track their suspect down but Steve is too used to doing it his way that he still sometimes forgets that Danny's got skills none of them have or at least not to the extent he does. He's gone walking in the dry arid heat before just to get away, tracking someone on a little island desert is nothing compared to that. He could leave and they wouldn't be able to find him, he could lose them and they'd never know, but the people they're after they have no experience in the desert and their trail is burning itself into Danny's eyes like a giant neon sign.
It's been months since Danny showed them his true colors; been about two since he broke down and moved in with Steve. He has a stake in a local stable with a black and white pinto Morgan colt that's close to four and he's got him almost trained just right. He's so sure footed and graceful Danny couldn't help but name him Slick when he helped Nana Ignacia birth the silly foal that night years ago when Grace had still been so tiny and his marriage good. He's glad that Steve helped him bring him here even though he misses Chaser horribly since he passed. Danny finds it increasingly funny, despite the few setbacks it's caused, that he's somehow found a balance between him being a city boy and the one that grew up on a ranch. The ties have almost permanently disappeared and it isn't unusual for him to wear jeans or t-shirt anymore mixed amongst his dress shirts and slacks. More oft than not he's back to a pair of old worn boots he's had for ages instead of the loafers he'd secretly despised or a pair of chucks that Steve can't seem to wrap his head around him wearing.
He's free here in Hawaii in a way he's never been except on the Ranch in New Mexico, he's still a Haole but most times now he spits Spanish or Navajo back at the people throwing pidgin at him and he smirks at them as they puzzle over his words. Many, he thinks when thoughts of his homes over the years surface, used to call him gringo or dumb hick. Haole is just another name that doesn't fit right.
He can't help but roll his eyes and gesture for Kono to follow him when he's had enough of waiting and his suggestions being ignored by the two more experienced islanders. They leave a note and grab the equipment Danny has secured while the SEAL and older Cop talk about what else they can do. Danny has alerted this islands branch of the HPD and they have wide band Radios that have miles for range. They have water and food and space blankets packed just in case; their weapons in their customary places with knives hidden in their packs for extra back up. He gives Kono a ball cap and puts on his own slightly battered cowboy hat, sunscreen and sunglasses for both of them. He's got a map and a compass and a direct line to dispatch so they will have someone charting where they're going. He's gunna teach the rookie how to track in the desert the way he learned, and not with fancy machines that often times he breaks rather than uses correctly.
When Kono points this out he just grins at her and points out he was raised as a country boy, a ranch hand, what's he gunna use half that stuff for anyways? She laughs at him and concedes to his point and then falls slightly in awe as he points out the signs to her, reading the ground and faint scuff marks as easily as one of the reports on his desk. She's only seen him in his natural element a few times, and each makes her wonder what home is to him, he's learning to surf and to live with the beach, he copes with all the greenery around with all the odd animals that pop up. But now she follows his sure footed walk as he follows a trail she's still learning to see, he doesn't stumble or look uncertain, if anything he looks more at home now than ever. And when he pauses and he tips his hat back to look at the position of the sun and follow the trail out with his eyes she can't help but grin as she watches him fall into what they're doing his gait silent and quick.
She's only seen him be so silent few times before, and right now it's like he's a ghost walking this volcanic ground. She watches the signs as he points them out, learns how to see them as he does and slightly marvels that he isn't leaving any trail himself and as she is. She can see the disturbances she's leaving in her wake but there is nothing to show that the compact man beside her is even there or ever was. At one point she's so engrossed with following the trail she doesn't realize that Danny isn't with her and there are no traces of him anywhere. The stray thought that he really is a ghost passes through her mind before she shakes it off and radios in her position before following the trail once more. She goes on for a good hour when she gets slightly stuck, the trail showing that there was a scuffle and several directions are taken at once.
She denies ever screaming when Danny's hand settles on her shoulder.
His grin is mischievous when their radios crackle to life and they hear from their partners; they share a look that's half exasperated and half amused that it took them this long to catch up. They tell them their current coordinates and Danny tells them about the scuffle that went on between the fleeing heads of their current criminal organization, tells them that one of them is now lame in one leg and another more than likely has a dislocated shoulder, he can't help the grin that crosses his face when Kono accurately tells them it's three people they're tracking and one of them is probably the brains of the whole thing and the other two are working under his orders and they're the ones that were fighting.
They follow the even more exaggerated trail, their prey even more sloppy with their wounds. It doesn't take them long before Danny motions for a halt and turns his radio down to almost mute, their near an out cropping of rocks, probably from the last eruption, and as she turns down her own radio she listens and hears the argument their prey is have amongst themselves. She keeps silent, knowing Danny's probably going to quiz her on when the trail changed from hours to just minutes old. They stalk up behind them and draw their weapons and train them the leader, the only man with a weapon. It takes just seconds for them to surrender, the three dehydrated and dusty and tired from the trek through desert heat without water or knowledge of where they were going.
When they get back to the station Kono is bouncing with pride, having led them back the way they came by following her lead and how well she took to Danny's lessons, quick though they were. She can tell that neither man waiting for them is happy but at the same time they're impressed with what they've accomplished.
The interrogation goes surprisingly easy but their captives are tired and woozy and it doesn't take them long to break. The girl had found out about their operation when one of her friends had gone missing, that they already knew, she was going to expose them to her father if they hadn't done something so they had taken her and tried to pawn her off unto one of their clients. Turns out she was just a shade too mouthy and knew too much before he had decided to kill her and they were charged with the clean up for giving him faulty merchandise.
It sickens all of them but they get a client list and learn the whereabouts of the body and return her to her father. And if later Steve finds Danny lying silently in the hammock out back with his hat over his face and his shoulders tense it's just between them, they each have their own coping mechanisms.
Danny twitches at the feel of warm skin pressed against his side and he sighs, some of the tension melting away into weariness; he loves his job but Grace gets older by the day and their victims somehow seem to just keep getting younger and it breaks his heart. He removes the hat and lays it on his chest before turning his head and buries his nose into Steve's side, trying to hide from his thoughts and grins softly as he feels an arm wrap around his shoulders and Steve's hip settling more firmly against his own. At least he's himself now, no longer hiding and with a man who loves him either way.
Somehow this strange paradise has become home, has almost become perfect; he's fully happy and content for the first time since Grace was born.
He just won't tell Steve he actually likes Hawaii, no need to swell the ridiculous man's ego even more after all.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,821
Pairings: Danny/Steve
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Series Name: Cact, Steel, adn Surf
A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to find the perfect ending for this. For a while I felt that the last chapter would suffice but I was hit with inspiration, probably brought on by cold medicine and a killer headache, so if it doesn't quite fit tell me please.
They track a link leading to the leaders of a human and drug trafficking ring all the way to the Kaʻū Desert before they lose the majority of the trail. Steve has Catherine on the phone trying to get her to use the satellite to find where they would be hiding and Chin's eyebrows are furrowed as he does his damnedest to get a triangulation from the cell number they know at least one of the heads have on them. It comes in and out of service so much that he can't get a good lock on it to trace it and his scowl could probably kill if directed at their suspects. Catherine has done her best but she only able to narrow it down to about a hundred miles of dry Hawaiian Desert causing Steve's eyes to be narrowed in his frustrated Aneurism face number 4, trying to possibly shoot lasers from their intensity.
Kono has been cleaning and reassembling her sniper rifle, it's her baby and she has just been named in the top ten best shots on the islands after learning from both Steve and Danny, she's anxious and awaiting orders since this was the only lead they had to finding a congressmen's niece. Danny has gone over every lead and gone over every bit of evidence they have at least three times and he's frustrated, he grew up in the desert, amongst sand and clay and rocks, and he could track their suspect down but Steve is too used to doing it his way that he still sometimes forgets that Danny's got skills none of them have or at least not to the extent he does. He's gone walking in the dry arid heat before just to get away, tracking someone on a little island desert is nothing compared to that. He could leave and they wouldn't be able to find him, he could lose them and they'd never know, but the people they're after they have no experience in the desert and their trail is burning itself into Danny's eyes like a giant neon sign.
It's been months since Danny showed them his true colors; been about two since he broke down and moved in with Steve. He has a stake in a local stable with a black and white pinto Morgan colt that's close to four and he's got him almost trained just right. He's so sure footed and graceful Danny couldn't help but name him Slick when he helped Nana Ignacia birth the silly foal that night years ago when Grace had still been so tiny and his marriage good. He's glad that Steve helped him bring him here even though he misses Chaser horribly since he passed. Danny finds it increasingly funny, despite the few setbacks it's caused, that he's somehow found a balance between him being a city boy and the one that grew up on a ranch. The ties have almost permanently disappeared and it isn't unusual for him to wear jeans or t-shirt anymore mixed amongst his dress shirts and slacks. More oft than not he's back to a pair of old worn boots he's had for ages instead of the loafers he'd secretly despised or a pair of chucks that Steve can't seem to wrap his head around him wearing.
He's free here in Hawaii in a way he's never been except on the Ranch in New Mexico, he's still a Haole but most times now he spits Spanish or Navajo back at the people throwing pidgin at him and he smirks at them as they puzzle over his words. Many, he thinks when thoughts of his homes over the years surface, used to call him gringo or dumb hick. Haole is just another name that doesn't fit right.
He can't help but roll his eyes and gesture for Kono to follow him when he's had enough of waiting and his suggestions being ignored by the two more experienced islanders. They leave a note and grab the equipment Danny has secured while the SEAL and older Cop talk about what else they can do. Danny has alerted this islands branch of the HPD and they have wide band Radios that have miles for range. They have water and food and space blankets packed just in case; their weapons in their customary places with knives hidden in their packs for extra back up. He gives Kono a ball cap and puts on his own slightly battered cowboy hat, sunscreen and sunglasses for both of them. He's got a map and a compass and a direct line to dispatch so they will have someone charting where they're going. He's gunna teach the rookie how to track in the desert the way he learned, and not with fancy machines that often times he breaks rather than uses correctly.
When Kono points this out he just grins at her and points out he was raised as a country boy, a ranch hand, what's he gunna use half that stuff for anyways? She laughs at him and concedes to his point and then falls slightly in awe as he points out the signs to her, reading the ground and faint scuff marks as easily as one of the reports on his desk. She's only seen him in his natural element a few times, and each makes her wonder what home is to him, he's learning to surf and to live with the beach, he copes with all the greenery around with all the odd animals that pop up. But now she follows his sure footed walk as he follows a trail she's still learning to see, he doesn't stumble or look uncertain, if anything he looks more at home now than ever. And when he pauses and he tips his hat back to look at the position of the sun and follow the trail out with his eyes she can't help but grin as she watches him fall into what they're doing his gait silent and quick.
She's only seen him be so silent few times before, and right now it's like he's a ghost walking this volcanic ground. She watches the signs as he points them out, learns how to see them as he does and slightly marvels that he isn't leaving any trail himself and as she is. She can see the disturbances she's leaving in her wake but there is nothing to show that the compact man beside her is even there or ever was. At one point she's so engrossed with following the trail she doesn't realize that Danny isn't with her and there are no traces of him anywhere. The stray thought that he really is a ghost passes through her mind before she shakes it off and radios in her position before following the trail once more. She goes on for a good hour when she gets slightly stuck, the trail showing that there was a scuffle and several directions are taken at once.
She denies ever screaming when Danny's hand settles on her shoulder.
His grin is mischievous when their radios crackle to life and they hear from their partners; they share a look that's half exasperated and half amused that it took them this long to catch up. They tell them their current coordinates and Danny tells them about the scuffle that went on between the fleeing heads of their current criminal organization, tells them that one of them is now lame in one leg and another more than likely has a dislocated shoulder, he can't help the grin that crosses his face when Kono accurately tells them it's three people they're tracking and one of them is probably the brains of the whole thing and the other two are working under his orders and they're the ones that were fighting.
They follow the even more exaggerated trail, their prey even more sloppy with their wounds. It doesn't take them long before Danny motions for a halt and turns his radio down to almost mute, their near an out cropping of rocks, probably from the last eruption, and as she turns down her own radio she listens and hears the argument their prey is have amongst themselves. She keeps silent, knowing Danny's probably going to quiz her on when the trail changed from hours to just minutes old. They stalk up behind them and draw their weapons and train them the leader, the only man with a weapon. It takes just seconds for them to surrender, the three dehydrated and dusty and tired from the trek through desert heat without water or knowledge of where they were going.
When they get back to the station Kono is bouncing with pride, having led them back the way they came by following her lead and how well she took to Danny's lessons, quick though they were. She can tell that neither man waiting for them is happy but at the same time they're impressed with what they've accomplished.
The interrogation goes surprisingly easy but their captives are tired and woozy and it doesn't take them long to break. The girl had found out about their operation when one of her friends had gone missing, that they already knew, she was going to expose them to her father if they hadn't done something so they had taken her and tried to pawn her off unto one of their clients. Turns out she was just a shade too mouthy and knew too much before he had decided to kill her and they were charged with the clean up for giving him faulty merchandise.
It sickens all of them but they get a client list and learn the whereabouts of the body and return her to her father. And if later Steve finds Danny lying silently in the hammock out back with his hat over his face and his shoulders tense it's just between them, they each have their own coping mechanisms.
Danny twitches at the feel of warm skin pressed against his side and he sighs, some of the tension melting away into weariness; he loves his job but Grace gets older by the day and their victims somehow seem to just keep getting younger and it breaks his heart. He removes the hat and lays it on his chest before turning his head and buries his nose into Steve's side, trying to hide from his thoughts and grins softly as he feels an arm wrap around his shoulders and Steve's hip settling more firmly against his own. At least he's himself now, no longer hiding and with a man who loves him either way.
Somehow this strange paradise has become home, has almost become perfect; he's fully happy and content for the first time since Grace was born.
He just won't tell Steve he actually likes Hawaii, no need to swell the ridiculous man's ego even more after all.