Duty or Loyalty - Chapter 1
Title: Duty or Loyalty - Chapter 1
Author: silmanumenel
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Danny/Steve, pre-slash
Warnings: None, as far as I can tell.
Word Count: 1.955
Summary: When your uncle is the head of one of New Jersey's biggest mafia families, your life certainly cannot be normal, as Danny has to learn from an early age. The law is the law, but family is everything, so Danny's dream job of being a cop is bound to cause all sorts of conflict. Or: The AU in which Danny is still Danny, but most of his family is on the other side of the law.
In this chapter: Steve is crazy - but that's nothing new - and Danny has to realize that his life in Hawaii is really not getting any easier.
Notes: Thanks for sticking with me through the setting of the stage and this monster of a prologue. The action starts now - more or less.
Prologue Part 1 / Prologue Part 2 / Prologue Part 3 / Prologue Part 4 / Prologue Part 5
“You are a crazy, crazy person and I do not even want to know,” are the first words out of Danny’s mouth when he returns to HQ after his extended coffee break - and who’s to know if he drank tea on his coffee break? - and they’re nothing new, if still perfectly accurate. Seriously, how sad is it that he has reason to say them nearly every day now?
Steve of course immediately whips out his aneurism face with a side of I’ve-no-idea-what-Danny’s-talking-about-but-he’s-WRONG, and Danny is honestly wondering what it says about him that he can read all of that in his partner’s expression. But that’s probably a thought better left for another time because Danny’s a bit afraid of where it might lead him, and alright, he’s always in touch with his emotions and not ashamed of it, Italian/Irish family and all that, but honestly, admitting that you like your batshit-insane shooting-things-is-my-hobby partner a bit - okay, a lot - more than just platonically is really rather out there, right?
So he’ll instead think about the fact that even on days where they miraculously do not have a case, Steve manages to do something crazy, although like Danny’s stated, he doesn’t even want to know what. He just walks over to the desk where Steve is pretending to do paperwork - Danny’s not deluding himself into believing this is actually what Steve is doing because Steve seems to be chronically allergic to paperwork and if he actually does a report by himself, Danny has to rewrite the whole damn thing because Steve sees no issue with writing things like, ‘The suspect was uncooperative therefore he was tied to a buoy until he thought better of it’ - and slaps a knife down on top of the forms scattered everywhere.
“Here, I believe this is yours. Abby gave it to me. Said you forgot it this morning when you got your coffee.”
Steve meets his eyes for a second, then ducks his head and actually looks sheepish for once, picking up the knife and slipping it into one of the drawers.
“Oh, yeah… that…”
“No, stop right there,” Danny interrupts him, holding up his hand, “As I said, I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know why you felt the need to take out your knife in the coffee shop, I don’t want to know how you could forget it, and I also do not want to know why you are carrying a switchblade around with you on a regular basis. Which is illegal here I might add! I guess I should be grateful it’s not your KA-BAR!”
Steve of course now turns the puppy dog eyes on him which are even worse than aneurism face because they make him look softer than he normally is and more attractive than should be legal, and yes, there’s the pout as well.
“I wouldn’t take my KA-BAR to the coffee shop. And I just helped Abby with one of the screws on the coffee machine.”
Danny shakes his head, wondering for the millionth time how this is his life now. When he came here, he thought the worst that could happen would be his untimely death by a falling coconut, but that naturally was before he met Mr. I-blow-up-ten-warehouses-before-breakfast and was shanghaied into this band of crazy people that masqueraded as a taskforce. But the absolute worst thing is that he likes it and can’t imagine it any other way anymore. In his quiet moments, when he’s sitting in his apartment with nowhere to be and no cases to solve, he can even go so far as to admit that Five-0 was probably his saving grace. He doesn’t know if he would have managed to get out of this pit of depression he’d dug himself into on his own, even if he’d wanted to. Now he has friends again, family, ohana, people he feels he can actually trust, who care about him, and they’ve gone a long way towards making him feel at home in this still so often strange place.
And he has Steve. Steve who has become so much more to him than he could ever have imagined, who makes him want to try again, makes him want to open up in a way he’d thought he’d never again be able to after the divorce. Even more than that, actually, because Steve has managed to insinuate himself into his life to a degree Danny wouldn’t have believed was possible, and if he is completely honest with himself - which he usually tries to be - he has to admit that he trusts Steve more than he ever did Rachel. A fact which has prompted these crazy urges that have only grown stronger in the past few months of telling Steve the truth about his family.
It all started with Frank Salvo, someone Danny had known quite well, and not from a case back in Jersey as he had told Steve at the time when he asked why Danny knew so much about Salvo and his dealings. There had been a case alright, but he had of course not been allowed to work it because of the mob connections. Salvo had been one of the Macaluso’s biggest rivals, and Danny well remembers his uncle’s glee when the police had shut down a considerable part of Salvo’s operations. Danny never had any proof and of course no one in the family talked about it, but he is almost completely sure that it was his uncle himself who provided some of the intel the Organized Crime Unit mysteriously received from somewhere.
So it was a bit of a shock to have Frank Salvo appearing in Hawaii, and Danny was grateful that his name was never mentioned before it all went down, that the mob boss never learned of Five-0’s involvement at all before his death because Danny could not be certain Salvo did not know about him and who he was. But after the case was over and he and Steve were winding down with a few beers on Steve’s lanai, when he should have been happy that no one got hurt and that his secret had not been exposed, he was blindsided by the sudden impulse to tell Steve everything. He didn’t do it of course, there was too much that could have gone wrong, there was his oath and not knowing how Steve would react, but it was a damn near thing, and it worries Danny that he was prepared to give it all up that early into their partnership. Especially seeing as he’s never wanted to tell anyone before, not even Rachel.
Since then Danny’s had the thought more and more often, usually at the strangest of times, and he has the feeling that he’s slowly but surely going crazy. Because just thinking about telling Steve is pure madness and a risk he surely can’t afford to take, as his rational side likes to remind him, at the same time insisting that Steve really doesn’t need to know, their friendship is fine as it is and why ruin a good thing? But there’s also this other side of him that wants so much more than just friendship with Steve and that keeps saying he shouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
“Danny? You okay?”
Steve’s voice cuts his musings short, and he gives himself a mental head slap. These are not the kinds of thoughts he should be having when he’s trying to knock some sense into Steve, or at any time really because they’re sure to lead nowhere. So Danny forces himself to focus on Steve again who is still watching him with this - not adorable, not at all - confused expression on his face.
“Yes, yes I’m fine. I’m just wondering if the thought of you only taking a switchblade to the coffee shop is supposed to make me feel better. What, because a retractable blade is so much more safe? You know…”
But here he is interrupted by Kono’s voice floating in through the office door.
“Guys, I’m back! Let’s eat!”
It’s been a really slow day so far, the delivery guy bringing their requisitioned office supplies and the new coffee machine the most exciting thing that happened all morning, and Kono finally offered to go on a lunch run, saying that she needed to get out for a bit, even if it was just to stand in a line and watch other people get frazzled over their orders. Danny only hopes she didn’t bring loco moco because no matter how often they tell him it was not intentional, he’s never forgetting the chili one they once gave him and that had him wheezing for a whole afternoon.
Steve of course is out of the office faster than Danny can blink, but Danny is still not about to let this slide.
“Don’t think we’re finished with this, Steven. We’re going to have words. Words about proper coffee shop etiquette. And the weapons you carry on your person!”
Steve only waves a hand at him, already grabbing one of the bags Kono is handing out, and Danny follows him, eyeing the one for him suspiciously while Kono rolls her eyes.
“It’s salad, Danny. It won’t bite you, and I’m not trying to poison you.”
“Salad?” he asks, a little incredulously, “Why did you get me a salad?”
Kono grins at him and reaches over to pat his cheek.
“Because Gracie’s worried about your cholesterol levels. She told me about her health class and how her teacher said that deep-fried, sweet things can be very bad for people who have a lot of stress and get agitated easily.”
Steve snorts at that, spraying little bits of his wrap or whatever it is everywhere and earning himself a glare from Chin who has been on some kind of vendetta ever since their boss spilled his coffee on the computer table last month, and Danny thinks he might also like to strangle him just a little if he wasn’t feeling so comfortable and content at the moment. He’s not been shot at, Steve didn’t violate any civil rights, he’s having a nice, quiet lunch with his friends and he’ll get Grace not only for the weekend but for Monday as well because the teachers at her fancy private school are going to some kind of retreat. Steve’s invited them over to his house for Saturday because Danny finally and to his eternal shame relented to his partner’s and his daughter’s combined begging and pleading and agreed to Steve teaching Gracie the basics of surfing, and they’ll probably have pizza and a movie afterwards, and Danny doesn’t even care that he’ll have to watch ‘Tangled’ for the tenth time. He’s just looking forward to it, not least because he can’t wait for the look on Steve’s face when Danny tells him that he and Maximus are really very similar.
But good things never seem to last for him, so it is of course at precisely that moment that everything goes to hell in the proverbial handbasket. Because just as Steve is opening his mouth, probably to add something to his on again off again favorite topic of Danny’s supposed temper issues, his phone starts ringing, the jazzy opening chords of ‘Mack the Knife’ resounding in the otherwise silent office. It’s a tone that Danny has heard only once during the whole time he’s been in Hawaii, right after his arrival - he’s been the one to call since then, it’s simply easier as he can then make sure he is alone first - and it fills him with utter dread, makes his blood run cold because somehow he knows. He knows that something bad has happened.
TBC
Chapter 2
Author: silmanumenel
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Danny/Steve, pre-slash
Warnings: None, as far as I can tell.
Word Count: 1.955
Summary: When your uncle is the head of one of New Jersey's biggest mafia families, your life certainly cannot be normal, as Danny has to learn from an early age. The law is the law, but family is everything, so Danny's dream job of being a cop is bound to cause all sorts of conflict. Or: The AU in which Danny is still Danny, but most of his family is on the other side of the law.
In this chapter: Steve is crazy - but that's nothing new - and Danny has to realize that his life in Hawaii is really not getting any easier.
Notes: Thanks for sticking with me through the setting of the stage and this monster of a prologue. The action starts now - more or less.
Prologue Part 1 / Prologue Part 2 / Prologue Part 3 / Prologue Part 4 / Prologue Part 5
“You are a crazy, crazy person and I do not even want to know,” are the first words out of Danny’s mouth when he returns to HQ after his extended coffee break - and who’s to know if he drank tea on his coffee break? - and they’re nothing new, if still perfectly accurate. Seriously, how sad is it that he has reason to say them nearly every day now?
Steve of course immediately whips out his aneurism face with a side of I’ve-no-idea-what-Danny’s-talking-about-but-he’s-WRONG, and Danny is honestly wondering what it says about him that he can read all of that in his partner’s expression. But that’s probably a thought better left for another time because Danny’s a bit afraid of where it might lead him, and alright, he’s always in touch with his emotions and not ashamed of it, Italian/Irish family and all that, but honestly, admitting that you like your batshit-insane shooting-things-is-my-hobby partner a bit - okay, a lot - more than just platonically is really rather out there, right?
So he’ll instead think about the fact that even on days where they miraculously do not have a case, Steve manages to do something crazy, although like Danny’s stated, he doesn’t even want to know what. He just walks over to the desk where Steve is pretending to do paperwork - Danny’s not deluding himself into believing this is actually what Steve is doing because Steve seems to be chronically allergic to paperwork and if he actually does a report by himself, Danny has to rewrite the whole damn thing because Steve sees no issue with writing things like, ‘The suspect was uncooperative therefore he was tied to a buoy until he thought better of it’ - and slaps a knife down on top of the forms scattered everywhere.
“Here, I believe this is yours. Abby gave it to me. Said you forgot it this morning when you got your coffee.”
Steve meets his eyes for a second, then ducks his head and actually looks sheepish for once, picking up the knife and slipping it into one of the drawers.
“Oh, yeah… that…”
“No, stop right there,” Danny interrupts him, holding up his hand, “As I said, I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know why you felt the need to take out your knife in the coffee shop, I don’t want to know how you could forget it, and I also do not want to know why you are carrying a switchblade around with you on a regular basis. Which is illegal here I might add! I guess I should be grateful it’s not your KA-BAR!”
Steve of course now turns the puppy dog eyes on him which are even worse than aneurism face because they make him look softer than he normally is and more attractive than should be legal, and yes, there’s the pout as well.
“I wouldn’t take my KA-BAR to the coffee shop. And I just helped Abby with one of the screws on the coffee machine.”
Danny shakes his head, wondering for the millionth time how this is his life now. When he came here, he thought the worst that could happen would be his untimely death by a falling coconut, but that naturally was before he met Mr. I-blow-up-ten-warehouses-before-breakfast and was shanghaied into this band of crazy people that masqueraded as a taskforce. But the absolute worst thing is that he likes it and can’t imagine it any other way anymore. In his quiet moments, when he’s sitting in his apartment with nowhere to be and no cases to solve, he can even go so far as to admit that Five-0 was probably his saving grace. He doesn’t know if he would have managed to get out of this pit of depression he’d dug himself into on his own, even if he’d wanted to. Now he has friends again, family, ohana, people he feels he can actually trust, who care about him, and they’ve gone a long way towards making him feel at home in this still so often strange place.
And he has Steve. Steve who has become so much more to him than he could ever have imagined, who makes him want to try again, makes him want to open up in a way he’d thought he’d never again be able to after the divorce. Even more than that, actually, because Steve has managed to insinuate himself into his life to a degree Danny wouldn’t have believed was possible, and if he is completely honest with himself - which he usually tries to be - he has to admit that he trusts Steve more than he ever did Rachel. A fact which has prompted these crazy urges that have only grown stronger in the past few months of telling Steve the truth about his family.
It all started with Frank Salvo, someone Danny had known quite well, and not from a case back in Jersey as he had told Steve at the time when he asked why Danny knew so much about Salvo and his dealings. There had been a case alright, but he had of course not been allowed to work it because of the mob connections. Salvo had been one of the Macaluso’s biggest rivals, and Danny well remembers his uncle’s glee when the police had shut down a considerable part of Salvo’s operations. Danny never had any proof and of course no one in the family talked about it, but he is almost completely sure that it was his uncle himself who provided some of the intel the Organized Crime Unit mysteriously received from somewhere.
So it was a bit of a shock to have Frank Salvo appearing in Hawaii, and Danny was grateful that his name was never mentioned before it all went down, that the mob boss never learned of Five-0’s involvement at all before his death because Danny could not be certain Salvo did not know about him and who he was. But after the case was over and he and Steve were winding down with a few beers on Steve’s lanai, when he should have been happy that no one got hurt and that his secret had not been exposed, he was blindsided by the sudden impulse to tell Steve everything. He didn’t do it of course, there was too much that could have gone wrong, there was his oath and not knowing how Steve would react, but it was a damn near thing, and it worries Danny that he was prepared to give it all up that early into their partnership. Especially seeing as he’s never wanted to tell anyone before, not even Rachel.
Since then Danny’s had the thought more and more often, usually at the strangest of times, and he has the feeling that he’s slowly but surely going crazy. Because just thinking about telling Steve is pure madness and a risk he surely can’t afford to take, as his rational side likes to remind him, at the same time insisting that Steve really doesn’t need to know, their friendship is fine as it is and why ruin a good thing? But there’s also this other side of him that wants so much more than just friendship with Steve and that keeps saying he shouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
“Danny? You okay?”
Steve’s voice cuts his musings short, and he gives himself a mental head slap. These are not the kinds of thoughts he should be having when he’s trying to knock some sense into Steve, or at any time really because they’re sure to lead nowhere. So Danny forces himself to focus on Steve again who is still watching him with this - not adorable, not at all - confused expression on his face.
“Yes, yes I’m fine. I’m just wondering if the thought of you only taking a switchblade to the coffee shop is supposed to make me feel better. What, because a retractable blade is so much more safe? You know…”
But here he is interrupted by Kono’s voice floating in through the office door.
“Guys, I’m back! Let’s eat!”
It’s been a really slow day so far, the delivery guy bringing their requisitioned office supplies and the new coffee machine the most exciting thing that happened all morning, and Kono finally offered to go on a lunch run, saying that she needed to get out for a bit, even if it was just to stand in a line and watch other people get frazzled over their orders. Danny only hopes she didn’t bring loco moco because no matter how often they tell him it was not intentional, he’s never forgetting the chili one they once gave him and that had him wheezing for a whole afternoon.
Steve of course is out of the office faster than Danny can blink, but Danny is still not about to let this slide.
“Don’t think we’re finished with this, Steven. We’re going to have words. Words about proper coffee shop etiquette. And the weapons you carry on your person!”
Steve only waves a hand at him, already grabbing one of the bags Kono is handing out, and Danny follows him, eyeing the one for him suspiciously while Kono rolls her eyes.
“It’s salad, Danny. It won’t bite you, and I’m not trying to poison you.”
“Salad?” he asks, a little incredulously, “Why did you get me a salad?”
Kono grins at him and reaches over to pat his cheek.
“Because Gracie’s worried about your cholesterol levels. She told me about her health class and how her teacher said that deep-fried, sweet things can be very bad for people who have a lot of stress and get agitated easily.”
Steve snorts at that, spraying little bits of his wrap or whatever it is everywhere and earning himself a glare from Chin who has been on some kind of vendetta ever since their boss spilled his coffee on the computer table last month, and Danny thinks he might also like to strangle him just a little if he wasn’t feeling so comfortable and content at the moment. He’s not been shot at, Steve didn’t violate any civil rights, he’s having a nice, quiet lunch with his friends and he’ll get Grace not only for the weekend but for Monday as well because the teachers at her fancy private school are going to some kind of retreat. Steve’s invited them over to his house for Saturday because Danny finally and to his eternal shame relented to his partner’s and his daughter’s combined begging and pleading and agreed to Steve teaching Gracie the basics of surfing, and they’ll probably have pizza and a movie afterwards, and Danny doesn’t even care that he’ll have to watch ‘Tangled’ for the tenth time. He’s just looking forward to it, not least because he can’t wait for the look on Steve’s face when Danny tells him that he and Maximus are really very similar.
But good things never seem to last for him, so it is of course at precisely that moment that everything goes to hell in the proverbial handbasket. Because just as Steve is opening his mouth, probably to add something to his on again off again favorite topic of Danny’s supposed temper issues, his phone starts ringing, the jazzy opening chords of ‘Mack the Knife’ resounding in the otherwise silent office. It’s a tone that Danny has heard only once during the whole time he’s been in Hawaii, right after his arrival - he’s been the one to call since then, it’s simply easier as he can then make sure he is alone first - and it fills him with utter dread, makes his blood run cold because somehow he knows. He knows that something bad has happened.
TBC
Chapter 2