[Hawaii Five-0] Uncharted
Title: Uncharted
Author:
kitsune_tsuki
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Pre-slash, Steve/Danny
Word Count: ~ 2,600
Disclaimer: In no way, shape, or form do these characters belong to me.
Summary: Danny's been in Hawaii a grand total of six months before he runs into weird shit.
Notes: Part of a series in the spirit of the Five Ways fics - in this instance Five Ways Steve and Danny Don't Meet (...And Eventually Live Happily Ever After).
Danny's been in Hawaii a grand total of six months before he runs into weird shit. Weirder than Jersey, even, and that's saying a lot. It starts off as a regular homicide, as if that means anything given the crazies running around, and Danny is fine with that, really he is. He's fine with going over the crime scene looking for clues and evidence and fitting the pieces together to find the killer and not thinking about what kind of sick bastard thinks there was something to Soylent Green after all.
"God," Meka says, when they find a third victim. "What the hell makes someone do that?"
Danny doesn't know what to say to that because cannibalism is not something he can claim to have any sort of experience with.
====
====
Eventually they get a lead on where their lead suspect has holed up in an abandoned building. Danny gets there first, with Meka just a few minutes behind. Even though Danny knows he's making a mistake, he still goes in without waiting for backup. It's a feeling, the voice at the back of his mind telling him their guy's going to get away if he waits, that the sick fucker is going to slip through their fingers, just disappear to start up somewhere else if Danny doesn't go after him right then.
It's stupid and reckless and the only reason Danny's the one who sees the way the guy's eyes catch the light like a fucking cat when the guy freezes in a patch of light coming through a broken window.
“Stop! police!” Danny yells, even though he knows the guy's going to bolt.
Danny gives chase, running through empty rooms and echoing hallways until they reach the other end of the building and there's nowhere left for the guy to run. Danny knows, then, when the guy wheels around that he's not imagining things when he sees the fangs and something like claws and realizes something is very, very wrong with their guy. Something that dental surgery or contacts can't explain, but then the guy's rushing him, and Danny's training takes over.
It takes half a clip to drop the guy and by the end of it Danny's ears are ringing and his worldview isn't what it used to be.
"Shit like this never happened in Jersey," he says when Meka arrives with their backup and asks if he's okay, because that much is true.
====
====
The thing is, Danny can't let it go. He gets his hands on the coroner's reports on the victims and their guy, and things just. They don't add up. It's subtle, he'll give whoever wrote the report that much, but it's there. It's there in the carefully chosen words that could mean any of a million things if seen in the right light. It's there, and Meka thinks he's cracked, but aside from keeping a closer eye on him to make sure he's not about to have a spectacular meltdown, he doesn't say anything about it.
"You're obsessed, you freak."
Well, other than the obvious.
"Shut up," Danny says, because yes, okay, he's aware he's obsessed. He doesn't need Meka pointing it out to him.
Someone is lying, covering something up, and Danny doesn't like it. He can't forget about the way the guy's eyes had caught the light, or the way he'd moved when he went after Danny. He knows the rational thing to do is let it go and move on. Chalk it up to being someone who really loves their thesaurus and was probably pre-law before switching to medical school. A trick of the light, or maybe adrenaline. Something, anything.
The only problem is Danny's never been all that great at lying to himself, and he sure as hell can't leave well enough alone.
====
====
A few more weeks pass when Danny gets the news he's being being reassigned.
"What the hell?"
Danny's captain just shrugs and hands him the paperwork. "It's out of my hands," he says, almost looking like he's sorry to see Danny go. "The governor's involved."
Danny has no idea what to make of that. Up to that point he didn't know the governor had any idea he even existed.
"Oh, shit," Meka says, when Danny tells him about the transfer. "You're screwed."
"What? Why?" Danny asks, not liking the way Meka's looking at him like Danny was just diagnosed with some kind of terminal disease.
Meka shakes his head and mumbles something about the task force Danny's been assigned to and the high turnover rate and lasting emotional trauma from the rare few who survived the experience.
"I hate you," Danny tells him, because Meka lives to fuck with him and there's no possible way his new assignment can be as bad as he's making it out to be.
====
====
When Danny walks into the Five-0 offices and gets directed to a room that looks like it came out of a psycho's shrine to obsession? He has the feeling Meka wasn't just pulling his leg.
The computer screens are filled with crime scene photos that are disturbing to him in all kinds of new ways and there's a whiteboard pushed into a corner covered in barely decipherable handwriting and drawings of things Danny can't even begin to identify. The computer table taking up the majority of the room is piled high with files, crumpled paper and what at first glance seems to be a dead body slumped over at one end.
"Jesus," Danny mutters, taking everything in.
The not as dead as previously suspected body sits up, sleep-shadowed eyes narrowing suspiciously when they land on Danny. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" he asks, not for the first time wishing he was back in Jersey.
The guy stares at Danny like he doesn't quite understand why Danny isn't answering his question the way he expects, and then a voice from behind Danny speaks up.
"Fresh meat from the mainland, Boss."
Danny sighs because it's not like he hasn't gotten that before, and looks over his shoulder at the speaker. There's an amused smirk on her face that probably doesn't bode well for him.
====
====
Danny's starting to think Five-0 is the HPD's dumping ground for misfits and freaks. It's really the only explanation for allowing someone like Steve McGarrett to be in charge. Danny can't get a clear explanation from anybody regarding the whole reason the Five-0 task force was formed, but it seems to involve high-speed pursuit chases and shootouts, and that's only his first day on the team.
Their current case has something to do with a group of missing college kids with ties to political figures, which explains why the case is given top priority, but not why Five-0 is handling it.
Steve shrugs and gives Danny a lazy smile and a line about Five-0 being the governor's task force like that's actually an explanation.
There's more to it, Danny knows. It's in the way Steve and the others are careful with their answers when he asks questions about the case and what they've found so far. He'd say it's more to do with him being an outsider, but it's. It's more than that, and it's driving him crazy.
"Just so you know," Danny informs Steve after a bracing foot-chase. "You guys keeping me in the dark about this case? Not helping."
Steve just looks confused, and a little winded as he cuffs the poor bastard he brought down with a running tackle. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Danny rolls his eyes and starts back the way they came. "Don't forget to read him his rights, asshole."
====
====
Mr. Fleet-feet turns out to be someone Steve and Chin have known for years, a scraggly guy who instinctively runs when he sees a cop and sings like a bird the moment Chin walks into the interrogation room. He gives them an address and even though he's not the most credible informant around, they don't have much else to go on.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Danny says, staring at the warehouse. Danny's trying to shake the sense of deja vu, the voice at the back of his mind telling him they need to act nownownow, or they'll be too late. Steve's already gearing up like he's expecting to run into a small army, which strangely enough, doesn't reassure him one damn bit. Chin and Kono are waiting for the word to move in, and it all feels wrong.
"Just believe in the Force and you'll be fine, Obi-Wan," Steve mumbles, slipping out of the car and down the street before Danny can stop him.
"Fuck my life," Danny mutters, checking his own gun before he follows.
====
====
The kids are still alive, staked out in the middle of the warehouse like sacrificial offerings.
"Danny - "
"Yeah," Danny says, "Go, I've got you."
Steve doesn't look back as he slowly makes his way towards the kids, trusting Danny to have his back. There's no sign of whatever sick bastard is behind this, but Danny's bad feeling is still there at the back of his mind and he doesn't like this at all.
He likes it even less when he turns at a sound behind him and finds out the bastard from his last case? Not so dead after all.
This close, he can see all the ways the guy is just not right, from the eyes to the fangs to the claws and the unearthly howl it lets out before he - it - literally tries to eat Danny's face.
He empties several rounds into it before it slams into him, bearing him to the ground under its weight. He loses his gun when its claws rake across his shoulder and tear into the the Kevlar vest, a gust of hot, rancid breath hitting him and then Steve's right there with his weapons of not inconsiderable destruction.
Danny lays there, stunned, bleeding, and trying to get his breathing under control while Steve shoots the shit out of the thing.
"Jesus Christ," Danny wheezes, honestly surprised to be alive. "Jesus Christ."
"Danny?"
Kono's looking down at him, something like worry on her face.
"Hey," Kono says warmly as she crouches next to him. She's kind enough not to mention the way Danny's blood is getting all over her clothes when she helps him sit up, and smiles at him like maybe she's a little glad he isn't dead or missing his face. "Welcome to the team."
Danny looks around and sees Chin trying to calm the hysterical kids down while Steve is pouring what smells like gasoline all over the thing that attacked him like it's not a big deal. Chin and Kono must agree with him on that one since they' don't so much as bat an eye, even when it starts shrieking and flailing the moment Steve lights it on fire.
"What the hell?" Danny asks, because really. What the hell?
====
====
The first thing Danny does after he's released from the hospital for his minor injuries, a few scratches that could have been so much worse, he corners Meka for a little chat about his new team. Meka finally explains what the whole stigma surrounding the Five-0 task force is about. Danny's not all that surprised to discover his obsession with his guy, the one who tried to eat his face, is what got him into trouble in the first place by raising red flags all over the place.
The second thing he does is track Steve down, which turns out to be easier than expected.
"He's been in there since we got back," Chin tells him. There's something in the set of his face that makes Danny feel like less of an outsider when it comes to their team. Like maybe the fact he came back even though he has every right to want out is some kind of sign that he might just belong there with them. "You going to talk to him?"
"No," Danny says, drawing the word out. He's not planning on talking to Steve at all. Yelling, however? That he can do.
====
====
"Okay," Danny says, shutting the door to Steve's office behind him. "You want to explain what that was out there?"
Steve stares at him in confusion.
"The warehouse, McGarrett."
Steve seems to realize Danny is determined to get answers, and counters with a question of his own. "Why did you come back?"
That is a very good question. Steve drives Danny absolutely crazy with his blatant disregard for proper police procedure and tendency to provoke otherwise docile criminals into trying to shoot him to death. He drives like it's his life mission to give Danny a major coronary, and is the reason Danny's life has taken a turn for the fucking bizarre by drafting Danny into the HPD's version of the X-Files.
"Oh, goddamn that show," Steve bitches, when Danny maybe says that last part out loud without meaning to. "We're not the fucking X-Files, Danny."
"Really," Danny says. "So that thing today. That was just some run-of-the-mill crazy trying to eat my face."
Steve smiles at him like he's not a filthy, filthy liar. "Exactly."
"Jesus Christ," Danny says, anger draining out of him as he drops into the chair across from Steve and closes his eyes. He's tired of trying to figure out his own damn team and tired of trying to get a straight answer out of anybody. "I fucking hate everyone, starting with you."
There's a long moment of silence, and then, “I meant what I said," Steve says. "We're not the X-Files, Danny."
"Yeah?" Danny asks, wondering when he stumbled through the looking-glass without realizing it. "Enlighten me."
Steve does, telling him about the things that lurk in the shadows, things that normal people have no idea how to handle. He tells Danny all about it, and how Five-0 fits oh-so-neatly into the gap between things like that and the police officers and ordinary people who don't know what they're dealing with. Like Danny. Like Meka. Like everyone else who thinks the only thing they need to worry about are people just like them who have a few crossed wires.
"You didn't answer my question," Steve asks, something in his voice making Danny look at him. "Why did you come back?"
"Something tried to eat my face today," Danny reminds him, as if he wasn't there, as if he didn't save Danny's life. "And you were there to stop it." He shakes his head because that's not right. Danny stopped it that first time. Steve though. Steve knew how to kill it.
Steve raises an eyebrow, knowing Danny's not done.
"You know about Grace," Danny says, because Steve's a snoopy bastard who can't keep his nose out of Danny's business. "I'd like to know how to keep things from eating her face too, you know."
Actually, what Danny wants is to be able to send her somewhere she'll be safe from run-of-the-mill crazies and things trying to eat her face, but he knows better than to think a place like that exists. What he doesn't say, but Steve seems to have no trouble picking up on is that for the first time since he came to Hawaii, Danny feels like he's somewhere he might belong.
"Not everything out there is going to want to eat your face," Steve points out, like he thinks Danny's in it just for the chance to meet things that want to eat his face, and Jesus, that's already starting to get old.
"Right, right," Danny says, nodding. “I've heard there are things out there with a hankering for liver."
Steve glares at him. "Still not the X-Files, Danno."
Danny smiles, because it's possible part of the reason he came back was the chance to see that little vein pop out on Steve's forehead. "Prove it."
Posted at http://kitsune-tsuki.dreamwidth.org/332379.html. | You can reply here or there. |
Author:
kitsune_tsuki
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Pre-slash, Steve/Danny
Word Count: ~ 2,600
Disclaimer: In no way, shape, or form do these characters belong to me.
Summary: Danny's been in Hawaii a grand total of six months before he runs into weird shit.
Notes: Part of a series in the spirit of the Five Ways fics - in this instance Five Ways Steve and Danny Don't Meet (...And Eventually Live Happily Ever After).
Danny's been in Hawaii a grand total of six months before he runs into weird shit. Weirder than Jersey, even, and that's saying a lot. It starts off as a regular homicide, as if that means anything given the crazies running around, and Danny is fine with that, really he is. He's fine with going over the crime scene looking for clues and evidence and fitting the pieces together to find the killer and not thinking about what kind of sick bastard thinks there was something to Soylent Green after all.
"God," Meka says, when they find a third victim. "What the hell makes someone do that?"
Danny doesn't know what to say to that because cannibalism is not something he can claim to have any sort of experience with.
====
====
Eventually they get a lead on where their lead suspect has holed up in an abandoned building. Danny gets there first, with Meka just a few minutes behind. Even though Danny knows he's making a mistake, he still goes in without waiting for backup. It's a feeling, the voice at the back of his mind telling him their guy's going to get away if he waits, that the sick fucker is going to slip through their fingers, just disappear to start up somewhere else if Danny doesn't go after him right then.
It's stupid and reckless and the only reason Danny's the one who sees the way the guy's eyes catch the light like a fucking cat when the guy freezes in a patch of light coming through a broken window.
“Stop! police!” Danny yells, even though he knows the guy's going to bolt.
Danny gives chase, running through empty rooms and echoing hallways until they reach the other end of the building and there's nowhere left for the guy to run. Danny knows, then, when the guy wheels around that he's not imagining things when he sees the fangs and something like claws and realizes something is very, very wrong with their guy. Something that dental surgery or contacts can't explain, but then the guy's rushing him, and Danny's training takes over.
It takes half a clip to drop the guy and by the end of it Danny's ears are ringing and his worldview isn't what it used to be.
"Shit like this never happened in Jersey," he says when Meka arrives with their backup and asks if he's okay, because that much is true.
====
====
The thing is, Danny can't let it go. He gets his hands on the coroner's reports on the victims and their guy, and things just. They don't add up. It's subtle, he'll give whoever wrote the report that much, but it's there. It's there in the carefully chosen words that could mean any of a million things if seen in the right light. It's there, and Meka thinks he's cracked, but aside from keeping a closer eye on him to make sure he's not about to have a spectacular meltdown, he doesn't say anything about it.
"You're obsessed, you freak."
Well, other than the obvious.
"Shut up," Danny says, because yes, okay, he's aware he's obsessed. He doesn't need Meka pointing it out to him.
Someone is lying, covering something up, and Danny doesn't like it. He can't forget about the way the guy's eyes had caught the light, or the way he'd moved when he went after Danny. He knows the rational thing to do is let it go and move on. Chalk it up to being someone who really loves their thesaurus and was probably pre-law before switching to medical school. A trick of the light, or maybe adrenaline. Something, anything.
The only problem is Danny's never been all that great at lying to himself, and he sure as hell can't leave well enough alone.
====
====
A few more weeks pass when Danny gets the news he's being being reassigned.
"What the hell?"
Danny's captain just shrugs and hands him the paperwork. "It's out of my hands," he says, almost looking like he's sorry to see Danny go. "The governor's involved."
Danny has no idea what to make of that. Up to that point he didn't know the governor had any idea he even existed.
"Oh, shit," Meka says, when Danny tells him about the transfer. "You're screwed."
"What? Why?" Danny asks, not liking the way Meka's looking at him like Danny was just diagnosed with some kind of terminal disease.
Meka shakes his head and mumbles something about the task force Danny's been assigned to and the high turnover rate and lasting emotional trauma from the rare few who survived the experience.
"I hate you," Danny tells him, because Meka lives to fuck with him and there's no possible way his new assignment can be as bad as he's making it out to be.
====
====
When Danny walks into the Five-0 offices and gets directed to a room that looks like it came out of a psycho's shrine to obsession? He has the feeling Meka wasn't just pulling his leg.
The computer screens are filled with crime scene photos that are disturbing to him in all kinds of new ways and there's a whiteboard pushed into a corner covered in barely decipherable handwriting and drawings of things Danny can't even begin to identify. The computer table taking up the majority of the room is piled high with files, crumpled paper and what at first glance seems to be a dead body slumped over at one end.
"Jesus," Danny mutters, taking everything in.
The not as dead as previously suspected body sits up, sleep-shadowed eyes narrowing suspiciously when they land on Danny. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" he asks, not for the first time wishing he was back in Jersey.
The guy stares at Danny like he doesn't quite understand why Danny isn't answering his question the way he expects, and then a voice from behind Danny speaks up.
"Fresh meat from the mainland, Boss."
Danny sighs because it's not like he hasn't gotten that before, and looks over his shoulder at the speaker. There's an amused smirk on her face that probably doesn't bode well for him.
====
====
Danny's starting to think Five-0 is the HPD's dumping ground for misfits and freaks. It's really the only explanation for allowing someone like Steve McGarrett to be in charge. Danny can't get a clear explanation from anybody regarding the whole reason the Five-0 task force was formed, but it seems to involve high-speed pursuit chases and shootouts, and that's only his first day on the team.
Their current case has something to do with a group of missing college kids with ties to political figures, which explains why the case is given top priority, but not why Five-0 is handling it.
Steve shrugs and gives Danny a lazy smile and a line about Five-0 being the governor's task force like that's actually an explanation.
There's more to it, Danny knows. It's in the way Steve and the others are careful with their answers when he asks questions about the case and what they've found so far. He'd say it's more to do with him being an outsider, but it's. It's more than that, and it's driving him crazy.
"Just so you know," Danny informs Steve after a bracing foot-chase. "You guys keeping me in the dark about this case? Not helping."
Steve just looks confused, and a little winded as he cuffs the poor bastard he brought down with a running tackle. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Danny rolls his eyes and starts back the way they came. "Don't forget to read him his rights, asshole."
====
====
Mr. Fleet-feet turns out to be someone Steve and Chin have known for years, a scraggly guy who instinctively runs when he sees a cop and sings like a bird the moment Chin walks into the interrogation room. He gives them an address and even though he's not the most credible informant around, they don't have much else to go on.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Danny says, staring at the warehouse. Danny's trying to shake the sense of deja vu, the voice at the back of his mind telling him they need to act nownownow, or they'll be too late. Steve's already gearing up like he's expecting to run into a small army, which strangely enough, doesn't reassure him one damn bit. Chin and Kono are waiting for the word to move in, and it all feels wrong.
"Just believe in the Force and you'll be fine, Obi-Wan," Steve mumbles, slipping out of the car and down the street before Danny can stop him.
"Fuck my life," Danny mutters, checking his own gun before he follows.
====
====
The kids are still alive, staked out in the middle of the warehouse like sacrificial offerings.
"Danny - "
"Yeah," Danny says, "Go, I've got you."
Steve doesn't look back as he slowly makes his way towards the kids, trusting Danny to have his back. There's no sign of whatever sick bastard is behind this, but Danny's bad feeling is still there at the back of his mind and he doesn't like this at all.
He likes it even less when he turns at a sound behind him and finds out the bastard from his last case? Not so dead after all.
This close, he can see all the ways the guy is just not right, from the eyes to the fangs to the claws and the unearthly howl it lets out before he - it - literally tries to eat Danny's face.
He empties several rounds into it before it slams into him, bearing him to the ground under its weight. He loses his gun when its claws rake across his shoulder and tear into the the Kevlar vest, a gust of hot, rancid breath hitting him and then Steve's right there with his weapons of not inconsiderable destruction.
Danny lays there, stunned, bleeding, and trying to get his breathing under control while Steve shoots the shit out of the thing.
"Jesus Christ," Danny wheezes, honestly surprised to be alive. "Jesus Christ."
"Danny?"
Kono's looking down at him, something like worry on her face.
"Hey," Kono says warmly as she crouches next to him. She's kind enough not to mention the way Danny's blood is getting all over her clothes when she helps him sit up, and smiles at him like maybe she's a little glad he isn't dead or missing his face. "Welcome to the team."
Danny looks around and sees Chin trying to calm the hysterical kids down while Steve is pouring what smells like gasoline all over the thing that attacked him like it's not a big deal. Chin and Kono must agree with him on that one since they' don't so much as bat an eye, even when it starts shrieking and flailing the moment Steve lights it on fire.
"What the hell?" Danny asks, because really. What the hell?
====
====
The first thing Danny does after he's released from the hospital for his minor injuries, a few scratches that could have been so much worse, he corners Meka for a little chat about his new team. Meka finally explains what the whole stigma surrounding the Five-0 task force is about. Danny's not all that surprised to discover his obsession with his guy, the one who tried to eat his face, is what got him into trouble in the first place by raising red flags all over the place.
The second thing he does is track Steve down, which turns out to be easier than expected.
"He's been in there since we got back," Chin tells him. There's something in the set of his face that makes Danny feel like less of an outsider when it comes to their team. Like maybe the fact he came back even though he has every right to want out is some kind of sign that he might just belong there with them. "You going to talk to him?"
"No," Danny says, drawing the word out. He's not planning on talking to Steve at all. Yelling, however? That he can do.
====
====
"Okay," Danny says, shutting the door to Steve's office behind him. "You want to explain what that was out there?"
Steve stares at him in confusion.
"The warehouse, McGarrett."
Steve seems to realize Danny is determined to get answers, and counters with a question of his own. "Why did you come back?"
That is a very good question. Steve drives Danny absolutely crazy with his blatant disregard for proper police procedure and tendency to provoke otherwise docile criminals into trying to shoot him to death. He drives like it's his life mission to give Danny a major coronary, and is the reason Danny's life has taken a turn for the fucking bizarre by drafting Danny into the HPD's version of the X-Files.
"Oh, goddamn that show," Steve bitches, when Danny maybe says that last part out loud without meaning to. "We're not the fucking X-Files, Danny."
"Really," Danny says. "So that thing today. That was just some run-of-the-mill crazy trying to eat my face."
Steve smiles at him like he's not a filthy, filthy liar. "Exactly."
"Jesus Christ," Danny says, anger draining out of him as he drops into the chair across from Steve and closes his eyes. He's tired of trying to figure out his own damn team and tired of trying to get a straight answer out of anybody. "I fucking hate everyone, starting with you."
There's a long moment of silence, and then, “I meant what I said," Steve says. "We're not the X-Files, Danny."
"Yeah?" Danny asks, wondering when he stumbled through the looking-glass without realizing it. "Enlighten me."
Steve does, telling him about the things that lurk in the shadows, things that normal people have no idea how to handle. He tells Danny all about it, and how Five-0 fits oh-so-neatly into the gap between things like that and the police officers and ordinary people who don't know what they're dealing with. Like Danny. Like Meka. Like everyone else who thinks the only thing they need to worry about are people just like them who have a few crossed wires.
"You didn't answer my question," Steve asks, something in his voice making Danny look at him. "Why did you come back?"
"Something tried to eat my face today," Danny reminds him, as if he wasn't there, as if he didn't save Danny's life. "And you were there to stop it." He shakes his head because that's not right. Danny stopped it that first time. Steve though. Steve knew how to kill it.
Steve raises an eyebrow, knowing Danny's not done.
"You know about Grace," Danny says, because Steve's a snoopy bastard who can't keep his nose out of Danny's business. "I'd like to know how to keep things from eating her face too, you know."
Actually, what Danny wants is to be able to send her somewhere she'll be safe from run-of-the-mill crazies and things trying to eat her face, but he knows better than to think a place like that exists. What he doesn't say, but Steve seems to have no trouble picking up on is that for the first time since he came to Hawaii, Danny feels like he's somewhere he might belong.
"Not everything out there is going to want to eat your face," Steve points out, like he thinks Danny's in it just for the chance to meet things that want to eat his face, and Jesus, that's already starting to get old.
"Right, right," Danny says, nodding. “I've heard there are things out there with a hankering for liver."
Steve glares at him. "Still not the X-Files, Danno."
Danny smiles, because it's possible part of the reason he came back was the chance to see that little vein pop out on Steve's forehead. "Prove it."
Posted at http://kitsune-tsuki.dreamwidth.org/332379.html. | You can reply here or there. |