fic: Stay (1/2)
Title: Stay
Author: stellarmeadow
Fandoms: Hawaii Five-0, Captain America
Parings: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
Rating: NC17
Summary: As 5-0 investigates an assassination linked to an M.O. going back fifty years, they get more than they bargained for when Captain America and Sam Wilson show up to help.
Notes: This story has been stuck in my head for months, but I needed for H50 to be done before I wrote it, and then it took longer than planned, and ended up about twice as long as planned. But I couldn't let go of the similarities between Steve and Steve, and I really loved exploring that, and how it affects those around them. So happy to have it finally out there now, though, and hopefully there are more than a dozen people who actually want to read a crossover between these two universes.
In case you're not familiar with one of the universes, here are quick ways to catch up so you can read:
Captain America 2 Summary
Summary of H50 Season 4
Huge thanks to all the people who encouraged me when I was banging my head against the wall with this thing. Hope you enjoy it for your suffering in having to listen to my frustration! :)
The drive to U of H was a lot quieter than their usual rides, and Danny knew he was partly to blame. He was usually good at filling any silences, but lately any topic he brought up, no matter how broad, led one of three places--Catherine, Doris, or Wo Fat.
He wasn't in the mood to talk about any of them, so he kept his mouth shut.
"I don't get it," Steve said, eyes on the road, which, while good for their continued safety, was never good for their conversation.
"The Governor is receiving death threats, so we need to be on site for his dedication of the new research facility to make sure he lives through it," Danny said, hoping Steve would take the hint. "What's to get?"
Steve's glance gave Danny a second to prepare himself for one of the three topics he didn't want to deal with. "Wo Fat went to all that trouble to get here and get that message to me that we needed to talk," Steve said, and it was a testament to how much Danny hated the discussion of Catherine and the limbo she'd left Steve in these days that he was actually relieved by the safer topic of Wo Fat. "It's been a week, and nothing. No message, no sign of him anywhere on the island. Nothing."
They'd been over this a couple dozen times, at least. "He's Wo Fat," Danny said, as if that explained it. "Who the hell knows what goes on in that head of his?"
"But if it was so urgent--"
"Maybe he's biding his time," Danny said, starting down the list of reasons they'd already covered before. "Maybe he needs money or resources before he feels safe meeting with you. Maybe he is waiting for the right time for some reason. Or maybe," Danny said, pausing for a breath, "just maybe we got really lucky and a coconut fell on his head and killed him."
Steve's eye rolls always looked amusing in profile. "Seriously, Danny, that coconut thing is not true. I don't care how many internet sites you quote."
And yet it never failed to redirect the conversation. "Says you. But 5,386 Google hits say differently."
"Five million Google hits say that New Jersey sucks," Steve said. "That doesn't stop you from proclaiming it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread."
"That's because sliced bread originated in New Jersey, my friend. You can't argue with that."
Steve gave him the Are You Seriously Trying That? face, one of Danny's favorites. "I can and I will," Steve said. "Beers after work--the one who comes up with the most reliable supporting evidence doesn't have to pay."
"You're on," Danny said, "assuming you don't have any phone calls or anything."
Too late he realized he'd just given Steve an opening to talk about Catherine. "No," Steve said, shaking his head. "I got a text last night, just another message that she had a lead on a lead."
Danny had always liked Catherine, but over the last month he mostly wanted to smack her. He got her noble quest thing and all, he did. But her quest had almost gotten Steve killed, and she wasn't even around to deal with the fallout. She was off tilting at windmills while Danny was the one getting three a.m. phone calls dealing with Steve's nightmares--when he wasn't at Steve's at 3 a.m. anyway--and left with this strange push and pull between them that, but for the constant reminder from Catherine that whatever was between her and Steve was kind of unfinished, might have led to something good over the past few weeks.
All things considered, her quest might be noble, but it was also really fucking annoying.
Steve's phone rang before Danny could think of a single supportive thing to say. "Chin," Steve answered on the speaker phone.
"We got another email," Chin said. "It specifically mentions the dedication ceremony today."
"Okay, we'll meet you there in five," Steve said, with steel in his tone that, even if Danny hadn't known they were ten minutes out, still would've made him grip the armrest and hold onto his ass.
***
"Far be it from me to argue with Captain America," Sam said, his tone indicating that he would, and frequently did, do just that, "but tell me again what makes you think that the Winter Soldier might be in San Diego?"
Steve's sigh was far more long-suffering than he really felt. He liked that Sam challenged him--it kept him from going off on some wild goose chases in this search. But sometimes it could be a little frustrating. "Because someone purchased the bullets that Bucky always uses."
"So some guy buys some bullets and you immediately book flights to San Diego to see if it was him?"
Steve's sigh was more impatient this time. "Do you have a better lead we should follow?" Because they'd been at this for a couple of months and they had nothing to show for it. He didn't know why he'd expected the search to be faster, like he had some sort of internal compass that led straight to Bucky or something.
If that were true, he'd have known Bucky was alive years ago.
The fact that he hadn't known still stung, deep down, like a shard of glass he couldn't pull out of his gut. The single most important person left in his life and he'd just let him fall and left him for dead, left him for Hydra to mold into something Bucky would've hated, if he'd known.
Maybe it was better that he didn't know who he'd used to be.
But no, he needed to remember. Needed to have everything that had happened put right. Steve wouldn't stop until he did.
"Hey," Sam said, his hand reassuring on Steve's arm. "Sorry. I just...I know it's frustrating," he said, though Steve could tell that wasn't what he'd intended to say. "I know you want to find him, and this endless road of dead end leads isn't what you wanted."
It was odd, the way Sam understood him so well, like they'd known each other for a lot longer than a couple of months. But then they had been through similar ordeals, even if they'd been over sixty years apart. "Yeah, sorry," Steve said, flashing him a smile. "It's difficult. But I shouldn't take it out on you."
Sam's shrug was as easy as his smile. "If that was going to drive me away I'd have been gone the first week."
Steve winced at that. "Am I really that bad?"
"You have your days," Sam said, his tone amused.
"Okay, let's go talk to this guy and see what we find out."
"One, 'Hey, did you happen to sell these to a guy with a metal arm?' coming up."
***
Steve's voice was sharp and clear in Danny's ear as he asked, "Anything?"
Danny scanned the crowd on his side of the stage, but he didn't see anything particularly menacing. It was hot, even for Hawaii, so it wasn't like most people had a lot of clothing to hide guns or bombs. The most clothing award--outside of law enforcement and dignitaries--went to the priest who was there to bless the land.
"Nothing," Danny replied, hearing Chin and Kono do the same.
"Governor and dignitaries on the move," Steve said.
"Roger that," Danny replied in his best mocking soldier voice, knowing it would give Steve that pinched face that Danny liked to call 'Score One for Jersey.'
Steve didn't reply, so Danny assumed the Governor and the others were around. That suspicion was confirmed a moment later as the Governor led the way out of the nearby building to the outdoor stage, Steve by his side, scanning the crowd.
They reached the stage without incident. Steve stood aside once he was on the stage to let the Governor pass by to the podium.
"Dear friends of the university," the Governor started, and Danny tuned the words out, but not the tone, a practice born of necessity during a stint with the Mayor's security detail in Newark. He continued to scan the crowd, including Steve in that scan, seeing nothing out of the ordinary at first.
A few minutes in, though, he saw Steve's face change, saw him looking up, and followed his line of sight to see what had caught his eye. A bright flash of light on a building maybe 200 yards away. A reflection, maybe, but if it was, there shouldn't be anything on top of that building that caused it. They'd been over the area from every angle.
He didn't hear the shot so much as he heard the sound of the bullet hitting someone, the gasps of the crowd, and the body falling down. Danny turned to see the scientist who had been sitting just to the right of the podium lying on the ground, her bright green top slowly turning red as blood spilled out of a bullet hole.
Steve was ushering the Governor off the stage, providing cover with his body, the other dignitaries close behind. Danny followed, seeing paramedics rushing onto the stage as he ran by. He didn't stop until he was inside, a few steps behind Steve and Denning.
"Everybody okay?" Danny heard Steve ask.
There was a lot of talking all at once, but Danny got the gist--no one in the room was hit. "Everyone accounted for?"
"Except Dr. Whistler," a tall man in an ill-fitting suit spoke up. "She was shot."
"The paramedics are with her," Danny said, meeting Steve's eyes, feeling the familiar sense of relief that he was okay.
Chin and Kono checked in on the radio, confirming Danny's suspicion that the sniper had been too far away to get to. They'd only found one shell casing, probably missed by the shooter in his haste to clean up, since there'd been at least three shots.
That disappointment was quickly followed by even worse news--Dr. Whistler was dead.
Danny knew the Governor a little by now, knew that he would be feeling some guilt over someone dying in his place. He gave the man a sympathetic smile as he dragged Steve off to the side. "You good?" Danny asked.
Steve nodded. "We need to get Whistler to Max and get ballistics as soon as possible, see if we can get a lead to track this guy down before he tries again. We got lucky this time."
"Tell that to Dr. Whistler."
Steve winced. "Yeah," he said, putting a hand on Danny's shoulder and leaving it there a moment longer than really necessary, but Danny wasn't complaining. "At least with the Governor safe for now, we have a chance at catching the doctor's killer."
Which was one of the things that sucked about their job, but it was better than nothing.
***
Steve watched as Sam slept comfortably in the airplane seat beside him. Sam had no trouble dropping off to sleep on planes anywhere, a talent that Steve envied. It wasn't that Steve minded flying. But when they were flying over oceans, they were completely out of communications range. Nothing that happened in the world could penetrate their sheltered bubble in the plane.
Since New York he'd had trouble coping with going dark. Since the fall of SHIELD, that neuroses had only doubled. He was scared to turn his phone back on at the end of the flight, worried about what kind of horrible thing might've happened in the four hours or so they'd been out of touch between San Diego and Honolulu.
Adding to that worry was the knowledge that the bullets they were tracking had been shipped to Honolulu two days ago. He couldn't escape the feeling that time was running short on this lead.
Sam jolted awake as the plane touched down, rubbing his eyes before stretching his arms over his head. He glanced down at Steve's hand, where his phone was sitting, and rolled his eyes.
"Here," Sam said, taking the phone out of Steve's hand and turning it on. He waited for the phone to boot up and checked the texts and the world news. "Nothing," he said. "The world is still--"
He cut off and frowned at the phone tapping the screen and scrolling. "What happened?" Steve asked.
"The world is fine," he said. "But there's been a sniper shooting in Honolulu."
"What?" Steve took the phone, his hope that it was a coincidence rising a little as he read the brief news alert. Shooting at the University of Hawaii, the shooter missed the Governor and hit a scientist sitting beside him. More to come. "It can't be him," Steve said, putting the phone in his pocket as they pulled up to the jet bridge and the seat belt lights went off. "He doesn't miss."
"Maybe he does. He missed his target with Fury."
Steve shook his head. "No, he got the car the first time, Fury just got away. And the second, he hit his target, just not a kill shot. Barely."
"Not getting a kill shot is missing for this guy."
"Bucky," Steve said as he grabbed his bag and stood. He couldn't quite meet Sam's eyes, didn't want to see the look that would be there. "His name is Bucky."
He glanced at Sam's eyes and saw the expression anyway--some odd mix of sympathy and impatience. "Go," Sam said, nodding towards the front of the plane. "Let's see what the cops have to say."
***
Danny poked his head into Steve's office. "Ballistics report is in," he said, turning and heading back to the bullpen, knowing Steve would be right behind.
Chin and Kono were at the computer table, waiting. "Charlie just sent the report," Kono said, tapping at the screen and swiping some files onto the overheads. "The bullets were Soviet," Kono said. "That much they could tell. And they matched the one casing we found."
"So is that an unused one?" Steve asked, nodding at the screen, where a smooth bullet was pictured.
"No, that's the weird part. That one was pulled from Whistler's body."
Danny frowned. "That's impossible. There's no rifling."
"That's what's weird," Kono repeated.
Chin swiped something else up onto the screen. "There've been reports," he said, "over the years of an assassin using those bullets. But that's over 50 years. It's more likely a group, or something passed down. There's no way it could be just one person."
"Yes," a voice said from behind them, "it could."
Danny whirled around, hand on his gun, before he saw the speaker was Captain America himself, accompanied by one of the HPD officers who escorted guests to them, and another man Danny thought looked vaguely familiar. "Great," Danny said, "don't tell me this guy's a superhero. No, wait, better, he's an alien, right?"
Before Captain America could respond, Steve stepped forward. "Sam?" he said, moving towards the man Danny couldn't place. "Sam Wilson?"
The man blinked a few times, then his face cleared, a bright smile spreading across it. "Steve McGarrett!"
Their handshake made Danny want to step between them. "How, exactly," Danny said, "do you two know each other?"
"Sam saved my life," Steve said. "Our whole team, actually. He and his partner got us out when no other air support could even get close."
"And this guy almost didn't make it," Sam said, pointing at Steve. "Insisted on the rest of his team getting out first. I barely made it out with him in tow."
Danny shook his head, totally unsurprised. "That sounds like him," Danny said.
"I heard about Riley, man," Steve said to Sam, his voice making it clear to Danny what he'd heard. "I'm sorry."
Sam shrugged. "It happens."
And it still leaves a mark when you lose a partner, Danny thought, seeing that written all over Sam's face. "So now that we know how you two know each other," Danny said, "maybe someone can explain why you," he nodded at Sam, "and Captain America are here and how you know our assassin?"
"Call me Steve," Captain America said.
Danny looked at his Steve, then at Captain America. "That could get a little confusing."
Captain America shrugged, and Sam rolled his eyes. "Call him Cap, then," Sam said, elbowing Cap in the arm. The look they exchanged made Danny wonder just what their relationship really was, but Cap straightened up and put on what passed for an attempt at a smile. "Sorry, we've taken a lot of plane rides the last couple of days," Sam said, "and his manners tend to disappear."
Danny couldn't help but laugh at that--looked like Steve really did model himself after Captain America after all. "At least he has them some of the time," Danny said. Steve glared at him, but Danny just gave him a sunny smile.
Steve gave him a look before turning back to their visitors. "This is Danny Williams," he said, nodding at Danny. "And the rest of our team," Steve added, waving a hand at Chin and Kono. "Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua."
"Nice to meet you," Cap said, his manners apparently surfacing.
"So what can you tell us about the assassin?" Steve asked.
"That depends," Cap said, "on whether it's really the man we're looking for."
"There's more than one person who uses these bullets and manages to do it without any rifling?" Steve asked.
"No," Sam said before Cap could get a word in.
Danny saw the look they exchanged. "Then why would it not be your guy?"
"Because our guy doesn't miss," Cap said, giving Sam another look.
"Except when he does," Sam said.
Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. They didn't have time for this. "Look, the Governor's life is at stake," he said. "Can we maybe get some idea of what we're dealing with here?"
"You," Cap said, looking at Chin, "were on the right track. The assassin you're talking about is known as the Winter Soldier, right?"
"Yeah. But all those kills over 50 years?" Chin said. "Couldn't be one guy."
"Why not?" Cap said. "I'm 95."
Chin frowned. "But there's only one of you."
"Apparently not quite," Sam said.
"Someone else was working on replicating the serum I took," Cap said. "He managed to create an assassin who could be...."
With a look at Cap, Sam picked up the story. "He could be stored and wiped between missions. They kept him in cryo freeze until they needed him, then thawed him out. Once his mission was done, they wiped his memory and froze him again."
"So the Winter Soldier is real?" Chin said.
"Pretty much," Sam said.
Steve had been listening to the exchange with the look that Danny knew meant his bullshit meter was pinging. Or maybe it was just that Danny's was, too. "So what are you not telling us?" Steve asked.
He didn't need the look Sam and Cap exchanged to confirm it, but it did nonetheless. "Not telling you?" Sam said.
"SHIELD no longer exists," Steve said. "So it's not like you're here for a routine check on an assassin. So either this guy is someone SHIELD used to do their dirty work, or he's Hydra. And he clearly means enough to you to go after him despite you being a man without an agency, so to speak."
Cap clenched his jaw together and Danny added another note into the column of how Steve was way too much like Captain America. "Before he was the Winter Soldier," Cap said slowly, "he was Bucky Barnes. My best friend."
Shit. That explained a lot, both now and with what had happened in DC. "So you're here to show an assassin mercy," Steve said, "because he used to be a guy he doesn't even remember?"
"No, I'm here to find my friend, who left Hydra because he was starting to remember."
Danny could tell by Sam's face that whether or not Barnes remembered anything was still very much in question. "Well, if he's trying to kill the Governor," Danny said, "then it doesn't seem very likely that he's remembering he's a good guy."
"Is it possible your Governor is Hydra?" Cap asked.
Danny looked at Steve, then at Chin and Kono, knowing what they were all thinking. "Anything's possible," Danny said finally, since they would all have vouched for Jameson a hundred percent until they realized she was in bed with the Yakuza. "But not likely."
"Do you have any photos or video from the event?" Cap asked.
Kono tapped on the computer table. "We have it queued up," she said. "We haven't had a chance to go through it yet."
"Can we just see the shooting?" Cap asked, giving her a smile and adding a, "Please?" that had Kono beaming and Danny rolling his eyes. Figures, the one time she chooses to be a total girl about someone it would be a superhero.
She pulled up the video to the right time and let it play. Danny watched as Whistler jumped up a little, as if the bullet had surprised her, before she fell to the ground, as the Steve covered the Governor and started leading people off stage.
"Can you play it again?" Cap asked, frowning at the screen. Kono played it twice more before Cap pointed. "There," he said, "go back a few seconds."
Kono rewound frame by frame until Cap said, "Stop." He pointed again. "Look at her face--she's looking up towards where the bullet comes from before it hits her. She's getting up just as it hits, like she's trying to get away."
Danny frowned. "That's pretty thin."
"Do you have any background on her?" Cap asked.
"What are you thinking, Cap?" Sam asked.
Steve answered before Cap could get the words out. "He's thinking that Whistler might've been the target all along."
***
The police were already going through Whistler's files when they got to her office at the University. Cap surveyed the room, knowing that if he just paid close enough attention, if he looked hard enough, he'd--"There," he said, crossing to Whistler's desk. Sam was at his side by the time Cap was able to pull the almost imperceptible door open on the side of the desk.
Inside the small compartment was a thumb drive. Cap inserted it into the computer on the desk, looking through the files. "I'm no expert," he said, looking up at Sam and the 5-0 task force, "but it doesn't take one to bet that Hydra is all over this research, even if she's scrubbed the name."
He pulled the thumb drive out and pocketed it. "I'll send it to a contact and confirm."
"That's evidence," McGarrett said, stepping forward as if to block him.
"Yes. It is." Cap gave him a level look. "My evidence."
He thought for a moment that he was going to have a challenge, but Williams took a step forward and said something to McGarrett. After a moment, he backed down. "You'll share your findings?"
"Of course." It wasn't as if SHIELD had the ability to classify things anymore, he thought grimly.
"Good."
He saw Sam's eye roll, but ignored it. "Why don't you guys join us for dinner in a couple of hours," Sam said, "and we can compare notes on what we've found?"
Cap was about to add to the invitation, but something outside the window caught his attention. He moved to get a closer look, and got one solid glimpse of a man that made him think he might be cracking up. He blinked, and there was nothing there.
"Cap?" Sam asked, his tone making it clear it wasn't the first time. "You see something?"
He shook his head and moved away from the window. "Must've been a trick of the light," he said. "Let's go make a few calls and see what we can find out about this research."
***
They'd just pulled into the parking garage at the Hilton when Steve's phone rang. He glanced at the screen, then at Danny. "It's Catherine," he said. "Go on in, I'll be there in a minute."
"Tell Don Quixote I said hi," Danny muttered as he got out of the car. He had managed to stuff most of his Catherine-shaped issues back down inside by the time he got to the Tropics Bar and spotted Sam.
"Good to see you again," Sam said as Danny sat down. "Cap's on the phone; he'll be down in a minute. Where's the rest of your team?"
"Chin and Kono have a family thing on the North Shore this weekend, but they're on call if we need them," Danny said. "Steve's in the car, also on the phone."
Clearly not all of his issues were well-hidden. "On the phone?" Sam asked. "Is that a euphemism for something?"
Danny rolled his eyes, pausing to order two Longboards from the waitress before deciding whether or not to answer the question. What the hell, it wasn't like he'd see this guy again after this. "Ex-girlfriend," Danny said. "Or possibly girlfriend. I'm not really clear on that one."
"Is he clear on that one?"
"No," Danny said. "He's not."
"Ah."
It was only one word, but it sounded like it had a wealth of understanding behind it. "She's off on some quest to save some kid. Very noble." Danny said.
"And it's impossible to compete with a noble ideal that's still out there somewhere," Sam added.
Danny looked a little more closely, seeing the understanding there, but seeing more, too. "So what's the deal with Cap and this Bucky guy?" Danny asked, certainty settling in about the problem there when he saw Sam's reaction.
"Bucky was his best friend," Sam said. "They served together. Cap saved him when he was captured. And then he died," Sam said, taking a drink of his beer. "Or so everybody thought."
"But not so much, I'm guessing, if you think he might be our assassin."
Sam sighed, studying his beer bottle. "Bucky was the Winter Soldier," he said, after a moment. "That part's fact. But what he is now is anyone's guess."
"Cap thinks he's changed?"
"Cap thinks Bucky pulled him out of the Potomac."
"And what do you think?"
Sam shook his head. "Doesn't matter what I think. Not to him."
"I'm not asking him." Danny thanked the waitress as she put the beers in front of him, waiting until she was gone before continuing. "I'm asking you."
"I fought that guy," Sam said. "There was nothing there. He was a machine."
Danny studied him for a few seconds. "But...?"
"Cap knows him," Sam said. "And after what was done to him...who am I to say he doesn't deserve a chance if he's fought his way back?"
"If he's still killing it doesn't sound like he's fought his way back."
"If he's killing off Hydra he might have."
Danny took a long drink of his beer. "So if he comes back, where does that leave you?"
Sam raised a shoulder in a half shrug. "Cap has all these stories about before. He talks about things no one else remembers--little things, even, like candy. The other day he was talking about some candy--Abba Dabba candy or something like that--and he realized no one had any idea what he was talking about."
He took a drink. "I hate the look he gets when that happens. Just like the way he looks when he talks about what it's like to survive that serum. To wake up after being frozen for decades and have the whole world have changed." Sam looked at Danny. "There's only one person on the planet who has any idea what that's like. And it's not me."
Danny got that, more or less. "Steve and Catherine served together," he said. "They're hardwired by the Navy and impossible to pull back sometimes. I get it to a point, but only to a point."
Danny considered his next story for a moment, but fuck it. He hadn't signed anything saying he couldn't talk about it. "The two of them went off to Afghanistan last month to chase down that kid," Danny said, his voice low. "I barely got Steve back after he was captured, and I still wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares about it going the other way."
He turned his bottle in his hand. "And I know he'd go back in a heartbeat if he thought he could help. So every time she calls, I think, that's it. I'm gonna wake up tomorrow to a note that he's gone off to rescue her."
"But he hasn't left so far."
"No." Danny agreed. "He hasn't. And I don't know if it's because he really believes he'll be making it harder for her to work if he does, or if it's because of the nightmares he still has."
"Nightmares from last month?"
Danny's laugh had no humor to it. "Last month, last year, the year before that." He glanced up at Sam. "Trust me, the guy's got enough nightmare material to last for decades."
"Yeah, I'm familiar." Sam drank the last of his beer and signaled to the waitress. "I...flew," he said. "And one day my partner got shot down right in front of me."
"Riley?"
Sam nodded. "Losing a partner makes you question what you're doing there, y'know?"
"I know," Danny said, remembering how Grace's lifeless body felt all these years later. "But you gotta move on, right?"
"You do," Sam said, nodding his head. "Doesn't mean the nightmares go away, though."
Danny saw Steve round the corner to the table and sat up, nodding as Steve made eye contact. Something in his eyes seemed off, though, and Danny watched him carefully as he sat down. His shoulders were rounded, and he wasn't entirely meeting Danny's eyes.
Maybe he'd wait to ask how the call went until they were alone.
"Any word on the thumb drive we found?" Steve asked.
"Cap was still on the phone with his contact when I came down," Sam said. He looked up towards the door. "Looks like he's done, though."
Danny looked over his shoulder to see Cap heading towards them, a few eyes in the crowd widening as they realized who he was. He didn't seem to notice, though, he just crossed to their table and sat down next to Sam. "Whistler was Hydra," Cap said. "Hill confirmed it. The research matched something they knew Hydra had been working on but they didn't know where it was coming from."
"Then he didn't miss," Sam said.
"You don't know it was him," Cap shot back.
"Calm down. I meant he in the general sense," Sam said.
Cap looked like he wasn't sure, but he let it go. "Did you find out anything?" he asked, looking at Steve, then at Danny.
"We interviewed a couple of her research assistants, but they were only working on small parts of it. They had no idea what the overall project was."
"Hydra was even better than SHIELD at compartmentalization," Cap said. He didn't sound like it was a compliment. "Whoever took her out did the world a favor."
Danny saw Steve's fist clench. "And nearly killed our Governor in the process," Steve said.
"But he didn't."
"But he could've. Five people were hurt in the rush to escape after the shooting. Innocent people. What about them?"
"Innocent people get hurt in war," Cap said.
Steve's eyebrows shot up, and Danny braced himself to stop a fight. "You think I don't know that?" Steve said. "But in my experience it's usually because someone goes off thinking they're some kind of god meant to bring vengeance--"
"Okay," Danny said, placing his hand on Steve's forearm. "Dial it down a notch. We're all on the same side here, right?"
Steve's lips thinned as he looked at Danny a moment before he sighed, and Danny felt some of the anger leave him. Steve gave a short nod. "Right."
"Good," Danny said. "Then let's order some dinner and talk about how we're going to find whoever this is and do whatever needs to be done."
They placed an order, and managed conversation well enough until Cap stood suddenly, his attention out on the beach. "Be right back," he said, hurrying out of the restaurant and onto the beach. Danny watched him look around before he slowly made his way back to the table.
"Something wrong?" Danny asked, as Cap sat back down.
"No. I just thought I saw someone I knew."
Danny exchanged a glance with Sam and knew they were thinking the same thing. But since no one had shot at them, Danny let it go.
***
Steve could tell Sam had something on his mind as they went up in the elevator, but Sam was kind enough, or military enough, to wait until they were in Steve's hotel room before questioning him. "What was out on the beach?" Sam asked as soon as they were in the room.
"Nothing." Which was the truth--whatever he'd thought he'd seen, it wasn't there when he'd gotten to the beach.
"Okay, what did you think was out on the beach."
He really needed to get better at lying. "I thought I saw someone," he said, moving a few steps away into the center of the room.
"Was it him?"
Steve shook his head, turning to look at Sam. "I thought I saw Rumlow."
"Rumlow's in DC covered in burns from head to toe."
"But what if he's not?"
"Dude, I had a front row seat for the crash that burned him. I can barely believe he's alive, and I sure as hell can't believe he's walking around."
Steve would've said the same thing about Bucky for half a century. "What if he had the serum in him?"
Sam's head shake was quick and emphatic. "No way. I fought him. It was nothing like fighting you or...anyone with the serum."
"Okay, maybe someone gave it to him after and it healed his wounds. Maybe he's here cleaning up Hydra's mess."
"Steve...I'm not saying it's impossible, but....it's pretty out there, man."
Steve turned, looking beyond the curtains to the sliver of view of dark blue sky that ended in black ocean below. It looked so peaceful, and yet he'd crashed into its depths more than once, expecting never to come back again.
A flicker of movement behind the curtain drew his attention, and he ran out onto the balcony, yanking the curtain back. But there was nothing there, only sea breeze causing the curtain to move.
He went back into the room and met Sam's eyes, seeing the sympathy and concern there. He wished he could just accept that, move on, let Sam help him forget the past.
"Nothing there?" Sam asked softly.
"No."
"You know, it's not crazy." Still that same voice, soft and careful, like Steve had to be handled with kid gloves. "It's perfectly normal to see--"
"Spare me the analysis, doctor," Steve said, pushing past him. "I'm going for a run."
***
Danny watched Steve's profile as he drank his beer and looked out at the ocean. He'd known when Steve had joined them at the table that his call with Catherine hadn't gone well, but he'd decided to give Steve until they were home and Danny finished his first beer to talk, before Danny dragged it out of him. And if it was as much because Danny needed the beer to have the conversation, so be it.
When Danny cracked open his second beer, he shifted his body towards Steve. "So what did Catherine have to say?"
Steve's answer was a long time coming, as he finished his beer and put the empty down. "She's run out of leads on her own," he said, his voice strangely flat, a tone Danny usually associated with Doris. "But the CIA offered her some intel, so she's working with them to go after the cell that captured Najib."
Danny was sure he'd heard wrong. "The CIA?"
Steve nodded, looking out at the ocean, refusing to even look Danny's direction. "She thinks they can help her find him."
Still with that tone, and Danny got why now. He took a deep breath, but it didn't help shove down the anger he felt at the CIA, at Doris, and now at Catherine for what they thought it was okay to do to Steve. And at Steve, for thinking it was okay. He got duty, but this...this was just beyond duty. "So Catherine knows about your mom, and about how she used the CIA to run away, and that was her decision? To go work for them?"
"With them, Danny. Only to find Najib."
"Oh, please, Steven, we both know what working 'with' the CIA really means. You're never really out--just ask your mom. No, wait, you can't! Because she's still off working for the CIA! The same CIA, I might add, that just tried to kill us both not too long ago!"
Danny broke off at the look on Steve's face, one he didn't have a name for, but he recognized it from the early days of their partnership, from every time something reminded Steve of his dad, before the wounds started to heal. The one that said Steve was trying to think of all the ways he could've prevented what happened.
"No," Danny said, his voice quieter, but firm. "No. Absolutely no. You do not get to blame yourself for this. This is not your fault."
"I never said it was my fault."
"No, but I know that look and I know you, and you're sitting there trying to find a way to take at least some of the blame. And I won't let you."
Steve shot out of the chair. He took a few steps towards the water, then turned back moving until he was towering over Danny. "They had no choice," Steve said, his voice hoarse. "Catherine has to find Najib. My mom has to stay alive. They had--no, they have no choice."
"They had the choice not to go in the first place," Danny countered, standing up, inches from Steve, close enough he could feel the harsh, uneven breaths as Steve struggled to keep his control. "You keep defending your mom. You spent half your life defending your dad. And now you're defending Catherine. At what point," Danny asked, holding Steve's gaze, "are you gonna realize that you're better than that? You're worth so much more than a life where people just keep deserting you."
Steve flinched a little. "Not everyone deserts me," he said, his voice quiet now. "You don't desert me. Ever."
The truth of that hit Danny in the gut, more because Steve realized it than just because it was a fact. He'd tried, but he hadn't been able to leave, and he'd stopped fooling himself about the reason a while ago.
He just hadn't thought Steve had noticed.
The ringing of a phone startled them both. Steve's phone, Danny realized, as Steve took a step back and pulled the phone out of his pocket. Only when he put the phone to his ear did he tear his gaze away from Danny's.
"McGarrett."
The way every muscle in Steve's body tensed for battle told Danny whoever was on the other end, it wasn't good. "Fine," Steve bit out after a moment, jabbing the screen to end the call.
"Steve?"
Steve looked at him. "That was Wo Fat. He's named his price for a meet and some answers."
"What?"
"He wants the serum they used on Captain America."
***
Cap wasn't surprised to see Sam still waiting on him when he got back from his run. "Did you make it to the other end of the island and back?" Sam asked mildly.
Which was just enough to make Cap feel like a jerk. "I'm sorry," he said.
"I get it," Sam said, waving a dismissive hand at the apology. "And like I said, the idea that Rumlow is in one piece and here is out there...but it's not impossible. I'm just asking you to keep your mind open."
After a moment, Cap nodded. He was still trying to figure out what to say, though, when there was a knock at the door. He opened it, frowning when he saw McGarrett and Williams there. "Has something happened?" Cap asked.
"Not with the case," McGarrett said. "But...I have a favor to ask."
Cap could tell the words didn't come easily. "Come in."
McGarrett came in, Williams close behind. A quick look at Williams' expression told Cap that he was there reluctantly, though why was still a mystery. "We put a guy away," McGarrett said. "Wo Fat. He broke out last month, and I have a chance to meet with him and put him back where he belongs."
"How can I help with that?" Cap asked.
"Wo Fat's price for a meet is the serum that they used on you."
"I wish I could help," Cap said, and he really did. "But there is no more serum." Even as he was saying it, the visions of Rumlow flashed through his mind. "All we had was destroyed the day they gave it to me."
McGarrett's eyes narrowed as he looked at Cap for a long moment. "Do you have anything that I can offer him? A lead on the formula, anything? I'm not planning on letting him have it, but I need it to get close to him." McGarrett stepped a little closer. "This guy had my father killed and hunted my mother for years," he said. "I need to catch him."
He and McGarrett were a lot alike, he could tell. And he understood what it took for the guy to be this forthright. "I'm really sorry," he said. "We'll help you catch him any way we can. But there is no more serum. SHIELD tried to find it or replicate it for decades with no success. It's gone."
McGarrett studied him for a moment longer, then nodded. "Okay," he said, nodding again. "Thanks. Sorry to have bothered you."
"If there's any other way we can help you capture him, let us know."
With one more nod and a look at Williams, McGarrett strode out the door, leaving Williams to call out a thanks as he followed.
Cap looked over at Sam, who was watching him closely. "What?"
"You know why he asked you twice, right?"
"Because he really needs it?"
"Because you're a terrible liar and it was obvious you were hiding something."
Cap sighed. "I wasn't hiding anything. I don't have the serum, I don't have any way to get it."
"But you think it exists."
"Bucky is living proof that Hydra managed to make some version of it," Cap said. "Rumlow was one of their most trusted soldiers. They'd give it to him to repair him and make him stronger if they had it. I know they would."
Sam thought about that for a moment. "Your theory is getting less crazy by the minute," he said, sounding reluctant.
"Then we need to figure out who shot the Governor and find him before 5-0 does, or they could all be dead."
***
It was a quiet ride back to Steve's house. Steve didn't talk, and Danny didn't know what to say to break the silence. Part of him really wanted to finish the conversation they'd been having before Wo Fat called, but he knew Steve wasn't in the frame of mind to have it.
Which left Wo Fat as the obvious topic, but he was pretty sure Steve wouldn't want to hear what Danny had to say on that matter, either.
It wasn't until they were inside the house that Steve turned to Danny. "How did he know in advance?" he said.
"What?"
"The serum. He couldn't have known I was going to be working with Captain America when he broke out--unless he's the one behind the shooting and he did it in a way sure to get Cap here."
"Wo Fat's not that good a shot," Danny said.
"No, but he could hire someone who was."
Danny shook his head. "With what money?"
"He has to have some stashed on the island somewhere," Steve said, waving a hand as if logic was insignificant. "Or maybe someone owed him a favor. He's Wo Fat."
Which was a catch all for a whole bunch of inexplicable stuff the guy had managed that normal people could not. "So Wo Fat wants the serum to heal his burns and make him pretty much invincible," Danny said. "So he decides to assassinate someone nobody knew was Hydra, except him, apparently, knowing that it'll get Cap to fly all the way to Hawaii and give him the chance to get you to get the serum from Cap."
Steve looked at him as if that was sane logic. "You got a better idea?"
"Maybe he was just biding his time until you had something he wanted and he saw this opportunity so he took it?"
"Maybe." But Steve didn't sound like he meant it.
Danny sighed. He knew better than to try to talk logic into Steve where Wo Fat was concerned. "Look," he said. "Let's just--"
Steve's phone rang, and he had it out in a flash, checking the number. He didn't need to say it--Danny could tell from his face that it was Wo Fat. "McGarrett." Steve listened for a moment. "I have it. Ten o'clock. Tantalus. Got it."
He hung up, and Danny counted to five to try not to yell. "Please tell me," he said slowly, "that you did not just tell Wo Fat you had a serum that doesn't even exist."
"I did not just tell Wo Fat I had a serum that doesn't even exist."
"You are not funny."
Steve put his hands out. "What was I supposed to do, Danny? We have to catch him. Do you know something else he wants?"
"You, dead?"
"If he wanted me dead, I'd be dead. No," Steve said, putting a hand up, "don't argue with me--look how many chances he's had. He doesn't want me dead."
Yet. "Until he's done with you," Danny said. "Then what?"
That muscle in Steve's jaw that spelled nothing but trouble was jumping as he took a deep, loud breath through his nostrils. "I have to go meet him," he said, looking at his watch.
"Fine. I'm coming along."
"He said come alone."
"Of course he did. I know you are not nearly as stupid as you sound right now."
"Danny--"
"Steve! I am not letting you go alone."
The muscle was working overtime. "Fine," Steve ground out after a moment.
"And we should call for backup."
"You are my backup."
Yeah, that helped. Because the last time he said that, Danny ended up being shot and blown backwards off a porch. "You are a menace."
"Kinda makes you wonder why you want to save me," Steve said, raising an eyebrow, some of his humor returning now that he'd more or less won the argument.
"You're telling me."
"Let me grab a few things and we can go."
Steve ran off to the garage, and Danny pulled out his phone. Chin and Kono were on the North Shore and would never make it back in time. He started to call them anyway, then remembered Cap's offer to help.
It would be a hell of a lot harder for Wo Fat to escape from Captain America. Might also sell the serum lie if Cap was discovered.
Checking over his shoulder to see if Steve was in sight, Danny sent a quick text to Sam.
***
"You're sure this is the place?" Cap whispered.
Sam checked his phone's GPS. "As sure as I can be without SHIELD's equipment to back me up, yeah," he whispered back.
For all that SHIELD clearly had to go, Cap missed the resources, too. "I don't see--wait." He crept closer to the edge of the tree line, catching a glimpse of movement on the other side. "There."
He watched as McGarrett and Williams approached an Asian man of indeterminate age, at least in the moonlight and at this distance.
"I thought I told you to come alone," the man, who Cap assumed was Wo Fat, said.
"I guess I don't take directions as well as McGarrett here does," Williams said, jerking a thumb at McGarrett.
Wo Fat looked at Williams, then back at McGarrett. "You have the serum?" he asked.
"You first," McGarrett said.
Clearly he'd lied to Wo Fat about having it to get the meeting. Because lying to criminals that you have what they want worked out so well.
Wo Fat studied McGarrett for a moment. "You don't have it."
"I'm not stupid. I don't have it on me." Cap had to hand it to McGarrett, he was good. Cap would've probably bought the lie if he didn't know for a fact McGarrett didn't have it. "You tell me what I want to know, though, and I'll go get it."
There was a long, tense pause before Wo Fat said, "You're lying." He took a step back and pulled out a gun, aiming it at McGarrett.
Cap threw his shield, knocking the gun out of Wo Fat's hand as Cap ran out to stop him before he could get away. He had Wo Fat on the ground in a few seconds, face down, his hands trapped in one of Cap's. "Got any cuffs?" he asked, looking up at McGarrett and Williams.
McGarrett gave Williams a look that made Cap glad he wasn't planning on being around for whatever discussion they had later. "Here," McGarrett said, pulling out a zip tie and handing it over.
Cap secured Wo Fat's hands and helped him up, handing him over to Williams. "Need any help with him?" Cap asked.
"I can take it from here," Williams said. "Thanks."
Movement at the edge of the clearing caught Cap's eye, and he turned to catch the end of what looked like a person disappearing into the trees. He ran into the woods, chasing after whatever had moved, but when he stopped, there was no sign of anything other than trees.
He looked around and listened for a minute, but there was nothing. Already dreading the conversation with Sam, he headed back out to where everyone was still standing, watching him. "See something?" Sam asked.
"I thought I did," Cap replied. "Must've been a trick of the light," he said, before turning to McGarrett. "We'll meet you at your headquarters."
McGarrett looked like he might argue, but Williams got in there first. "See you there," he said, dragging Wo Fat, and by extension, McGarrett, towards their car.
***
The drive back was eerily quiet. Steve kept one eye on the road and one in the rear view mirror, trained on Wo Fat. Danny mostly kept both eyes on Wo Fat.
They'd just locked Wo Fat in the rendition room when Cap and Sam showed up. "Thanks for letting us come back here," Cap said. "I didn't want to give anything away in front of your guy, but there's a chance he might know something about the assassin."
"We thought the same thing," Danny said, ignoring Steve's glare.
"What made you think so?" Steve asked after a moment, as if he was giving away a state secret just by asking a question.
After a nudge from Sam, Cap sighed. "I wasn't lying about the serum," he said. "We don't have it. Haven't since they gave it to me. But there is a chance that Hydra had something similar."
"The assassin has super serum?" Danny asked. "Great. That's fantastic."
"We don't know who the assassin is yet," Cap said.
"So there's more than one super serum-fueled assassin running around?" Danny said, making a face. "Even better. What next, the president is actually Hydra?"
Sam put his hand on Cap's arm. "Hydra had a soldier," Sam said, "high up in their command, named Rumlow. He was burned in the Insight helicarrier wrecks at the Triskelion. Burned bad, too. All over. Last we heard he was in a coma in a military hospital under heavy guard."
"You think he got the serum and is all better and out shooting people?" Danny asked.
"We don't know anything yet," Cap said. "I have a call in asking someone to make sure he's where he's supposed to be. But...it's possible."
Steve had been standing beside Danny silently, but radiating tension out of every pore. "Why?" he asked.
"Why what?"
"Why do you think that he might be here and on the serum?"
Cap glanced at Sam before he said, "I thought I saw him a few times. At Whistler's office, on the beach, tonight when you captured Wo Fat."
"And you didn't think to tell us until now?" Steve asked.
"It was impossible," Cap said. "It couldn't have been him. So I dismissed it as my mind playing tricks on me."
"And now you think differently?" Danny asked.
"Maybe. I don't know." Cap shrugged. "There's enough of a question there that I'd like to talk to Wo Fat and see if he knows the guy."
Steve laughed. "He won't tell you anything."
"He might."
"If you have a blow torch, maybe," Steve said.
Danny's eyes darted to Steve's face, but there was no emotion there. "It wouldn't hurt to let him have a chance," Danny said to Steve.
Steve frowned at him, then shrugged. "Fine. Take your best shot."
"Come on," Danny said. "I'll take you down there."
He led Cap and Sam down to the rendition room. Cap went in, but Sam stayed outside with Danny to watch through the mirror. Wo Fat raised an eyebrow as Cap walked in, a smug smirk totally out of place for someone who was tied to a chair in police custody.
"Who are you working with?" Cap asked.
"Do you have the serum?" Wo Fat replied.
Cap waited for a moment. "No."
Wo Fat didn't waste another breath. He just stared ahead in response to the rest of Cap's questions until Cap came back out of the room. "Are you sure he's not Hydra?" Cap asked.
"No," Danny said honestly. Because he wouldn't put it past Wo Fat to use Hydra for all he could get from them. "But if he is, he's got no loyalty to them."
"Why?"
"Because his only loyalty is to himself. He'll work with anyone who can help him, but he'll turn on them in a second if someone else can help him more."
"At least you have him in custody," Sam said.
"For now."
Cap frowned. "For now?"
"He's broken out of every prison we've put him in. Even the ones you can't break out of."
Cap thought for a moment. "I need to make a call," he said, pulling out his cell phone.
***
"Come on, Hill," Cap said quietly into the phone, "I know Stark has to have some place to shove this guy. Or at least an idea how he can make it so the guy can't break out."
He heard Hill's long sigh, and knew he'd won. "I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks. I owe you one."
"One?" She laughed. "You wish."
He laughed with her as he hung up and joined the others in the main room. "I'm sorry I couldn't get him to talk," Cap said. "But I may have a lead on a place he can't break out of, if that helps."
"Hell has an opening?" Williams said.
"Not quite. SHIELD facilities are all out of the question now, obviously, but I know someone who might be able to help. I'll let you know as soon as I hear back."
"Thanks," Williams said. After a nudge from Williams, McGarrett echoed the thanks.
Cap nodded. "Least I can do. Thank you for letting me talk to him." He nodded to Sam. "We should go. I'll be in touch tomorrow once I've heard back."
***
Chapter 2
Author: stellarmeadow
Fandoms: Hawaii Five-0, Captain America
Parings: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
Rating: NC17
Summary: As 5-0 investigates an assassination linked to an M.O. going back fifty years, they get more than they bargained for when Captain America and Sam Wilson show up to help.
Notes: This story has been stuck in my head for months, but I needed for H50 to be done before I wrote it, and then it took longer than planned, and ended up about twice as long as planned. But I couldn't let go of the similarities between Steve and Steve, and I really loved exploring that, and how it affects those around them. So happy to have it finally out there now, though, and hopefully there are more than a dozen people who actually want to read a crossover between these two universes.
In case you're not familiar with one of the universes, here are quick ways to catch up so you can read:
Captain America 2 Summary
Summary of H50 Season 4
Huge thanks to all the people who encouraged me when I was banging my head against the wall with this thing. Hope you enjoy it for your suffering in having to listen to my frustration! :)
The drive to U of H was a lot quieter than their usual rides, and Danny knew he was partly to blame. He was usually good at filling any silences, but lately any topic he brought up, no matter how broad, led one of three places--Catherine, Doris, or Wo Fat.
He wasn't in the mood to talk about any of them, so he kept his mouth shut.
"I don't get it," Steve said, eyes on the road, which, while good for their continued safety, was never good for their conversation.
"The Governor is receiving death threats, so we need to be on site for his dedication of the new research facility to make sure he lives through it," Danny said, hoping Steve would take the hint. "What's to get?"
Steve's glance gave Danny a second to prepare himself for one of the three topics he didn't want to deal with. "Wo Fat went to all that trouble to get here and get that message to me that we needed to talk," Steve said, and it was a testament to how much Danny hated the discussion of Catherine and the limbo she'd left Steve in these days that he was actually relieved by the safer topic of Wo Fat. "It's been a week, and nothing. No message, no sign of him anywhere on the island. Nothing."
They'd been over this a couple dozen times, at least. "He's Wo Fat," Danny said, as if that explained it. "Who the hell knows what goes on in that head of his?"
"But if it was so urgent--"
"Maybe he's biding his time," Danny said, starting down the list of reasons they'd already covered before. "Maybe he needs money or resources before he feels safe meeting with you. Maybe he is waiting for the right time for some reason. Or maybe," Danny said, pausing for a breath, "just maybe we got really lucky and a coconut fell on his head and killed him."
Steve's eye rolls always looked amusing in profile. "Seriously, Danny, that coconut thing is not true. I don't care how many internet sites you quote."
And yet it never failed to redirect the conversation. "Says you. But 5,386 Google hits say differently."
"Five million Google hits say that New Jersey sucks," Steve said. "That doesn't stop you from proclaiming it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread."
"That's because sliced bread originated in New Jersey, my friend. You can't argue with that."
Steve gave him the Are You Seriously Trying That? face, one of Danny's favorites. "I can and I will," Steve said. "Beers after work--the one who comes up with the most reliable supporting evidence doesn't have to pay."
"You're on," Danny said, "assuming you don't have any phone calls or anything."
Too late he realized he'd just given Steve an opening to talk about Catherine. "No," Steve said, shaking his head. "I got a text last night, just another message that she had a lead on a lead."
Danny had always liked Catherine, but over the last month he mostly wanted to smack her. He got her noble quest thing and all, he did. But her quest had almost gotten Steve killed, and she wasn't even around to deal with the fallout. She was off tilting at windmills while Danny was the one getting three a.m. phone calls dealing with Steve's nightmares--when he wasn't at Steve's at 3 a.m. anyway--and left with this strange push and pull between them that, but for the constant reminder from Catherine that whatever was between her and Steve was kind of unfinished, might have led to something good over the past few weeks.
All things considered, her quest might be noble, but it was also really fucking annoying.
Steve's phone rang before Danny could think of a single supportive thing to say. "Chin," Steve answered on the speaker phone.
"We got another email," Chin said. "It specifically mentions the dedication ceremony today."
"Okay, we'll meet you there in five," Steve said, with steel in his tone that, even if Danny hadn't known they were ten minutes out, still would've made him grip the armrest and hold onto his ass.
***
"Far be it from me to argue with Captain America," Sam said, his tone indicating that he would, and frequently did, do just that, "but tell me again what makes you think that the Winter Soldier might be in San Diego?"
Steve's sigh was far more long-suffering than he really felt. He liked that Sam challenged him--it kept him from going off on some wild goose chases in this search. But sometimes it could be a little frustrating. "Because someone purchased the bullets that Bucky always uses."
"So some guy buys some bullets and you immediately book flights to San Diego to see if it was him?"
Steve's sigh was more impatient this time. "Do you have a better lead we should follow?" Because they'd been at this for a couple of months and they had nothing to show for it. He didn't know why he'd expected the search to be faster, like he had some sort of internal compass that led straight to Bucky or something.
If that were true, he'd have known Bucky was alive years ago.
The fact that he hadn't known still stung, deep down, like a shard of glass he couldn't pull out of his gut. The single most important person left in his life and he'd just let him fall and left him for dead, left him for Hydra to mold into something Bucky would've hated, if he'd known.
Maybe it was better that he didn't know who he'd used to be.
But no, he needed to remember. Needed to have everything that had happened put right. Steve wouldn't stop until he did.
"Hey," Sam said, his hand reassuring on Steve's arm. "Sorry. I just...I know it's frustrating," he said, though Steve could tell that wasn't what he'd intended to say. "I know you want to find him, and this endless road of dead end leads isn't what you wanted."
It was odd, the way Sam understood him so well, like they'd known each other for a lot longer than a couple of months. But then they had been through similar ordeals, even if they'd been over sixty years apart. "Yeah, sorry," Steve said, flashing him a smile. "It's difficult. But I shouldn't take it out on you."
Sam's shrug was as easy as his smile. "If that was going to drive me away I'd have been gone the first week."
Steve winced at that. "Am I really that bad?"
"You have your days," Sam said, his tone amused.
"Okay, let's go talk to this guy and see what we find out."
"One, 'Hey, did you happen to sell these to a guy with a metal arm?' coming up."
***
Steve's voice was sharp and clear in Danny's ear as he asked, "Anything?"
Danny scanned the crowd on his side of the stage, but he didn't see anything particularly menacing. It was hot, even for Hawaii, so it wasn't like most people had a lot of clothing to hide guns or bombs. The most clothing award--outside of law enforcement and dignitaries--went to the priest who was there to bless the land.
"Nothing," Danny replied, hearing Chin and Kono do the same.
"Governor and dignitaries on the move," Steve said.
"Roger that," Danny replied in his best mocking soldier voice, knowing it would give Steve that pinched face that Danny liked to call 'Score One for Jersey.'
Steve didn't reply, so Danny assumed the Governor and the others were around. That suspicion was confirmed a moment later as the Governor led the way out of the nearby building to the outdoor stage, Steve by his side, scanning the crowd.
They reached the stage without incident. Steve stood aside once he was on the stage to let the Governor pass by to the podium.
"Dear friends of the university," the Governor started, and Danny tuned the words out, but not the tone, a practice born of necessity during a stint with the Mayor's security detail in Newark. He continued to scan the crowd, including Steve in that scan, seeing nothing out of the ordinary at first.
A few minutes in, though, he saw Steve's face change, saw him looking up, and followed his line of sight to see what had caught his eye. A bright flash of light on a building maybe 200 yards away. A reflection, maybe, but if it was, there shouldn't be anything on top of that building that caused it. They'd been over the area from every angle.
He didn't hear the shot so much as he heard the sound of the bullet hitting someone, the gasps of the crowd, and the body falling down. Danny turned to see the scientist who had been sitting just to the right of the podium lying on the ground, her bright green top slowly turning red as blood spilled out of a bullet hole.
Steve was ushering the Governor off the stage, providing cover with his body, the other dignitaries close behind. Danny followed, seeing paramedics rushing onto the stage as he ran by. He didn't stop until he was inside, a few steps behind Steve and Denning.
"Everybody okay?" Danny heard Steve ask.
There was a lot of talking all at once, but Danny got the gist--no one in the room was hit. "Everyone accounted for?"
"Except Dr. Whistler," a tall man in an ill-fitting suit spoke up. "She was shot."
"The paramedics are with her," Danny said, meeting Steve's eyes, feeling the familiar sense of relief that he was okay.
Chin and Kono checked in on the radio, confirming Danny's suspicion that the sniper had been too far away to get to. They'd only found one shell casing, probably missed by the shooter in his haste to clean up, since there'd been at least three shots.
That disappointment was quickly followed by even worse news--Dr. Whistler was dead.
Danny knew the Governor a little by now, knew that he would be feeling some guilt over someone dying in his place. He gave the man a sympathetic smile as he dragged Steve off to the side. "You good?" Danny asked.
Steve nodded. "We need to get Whistler to Max and get ballistics as soon as possible, see if we can get a lead to track this guy down before he tries again. We got lucky this time."
"Tell that to Dr. Whistler."
Steve winced. "Yeah," he said, putting a hand on Danny's shoulder and leaving it there a moment longer than really necessary, but Danny wasn't complaining. "At least with the Governor safe for now, we have a chance at catching the doctor's killer."
Which was one of the things that sucked about their job, but it was better than nothing.
***
Steve watched as Sam slept comfortably in the airplane seat beside him. Sam had no trouble dropping off to sleep on planes anywhere, a talent that Steve envied. It wasn't that Steve minded flying. But when they were flying over oceans, they were completely out of communications range. Nothing that happened in the world could penetrate their sheltered bubble in the plane.
Since New York he'd had trouble coping with going dark. Since the fall of SHIELD, that neuroses had only doubled. He was scared to turn his phone back on at the end of the flight, worried about what kind of horrible thing might've happened in the four hours or so they'd been out of touch between San Diego and Honolulu.
Adding to that worry was the knowledge that the bullets they were tracking had been shipped to Honolulu two days ago. He couldn't escape the feeling that time was running short on this lead.
Sam jolted awake as the plane touched down, rubbing his eyes before stretching his arms over his head. He glanced down at Steve's hand, where his phone was sitting, and rolled his eyes.
"Here," Sam said, taking the phone out of Steve's hand and turning it on. He waited for the phone to boot up and checked the texts and the world news. "Nothing," he said. "The world is still--"
He cut off and frowned at the phone tapping the screen and scrolling. "What happened?" Steve asked.
"The world is fine," he said. "But there's been a sniper shooting in Honolulu."
"What?" Steve took the phone, his hope that it was a coincidence rising a little as he read the brief news alert. Shooting at the University of Hawaii, the shooter missed the Governor and hit a scientist sitting beside him. More to come. "It can't be him," Steve said, putting the phone in his pocket as they pulled up to the jet bridge and the seat belt lights went off. "He doesn't miss."
"Maybe he does. He missed his target with Fury."
Steve shook his head. "No, he got the car the first time, Fury just got away. And the second, he hit his target, just not a kill shot. Barely."
"Not getting a kill shot is missing for this guy."
"Bucky," Steve said as he grabbed his bag and stood. He couldn't quite meet Sam's eyes, didn't want to see the look that would be there. "His name is Bucky."
He glanced at Sam's eyes and saw the expression anyway--some odd mix of sympathy and impatience. "Go," Sam said, nodding towards the front of the plane. "Let's see what the cops have to say."
***
Danny poked his head into Steve's office. "Ballistics report is in," he said, turning and heading back to the bullpen, knowing Steve would be right behind.
Chin and Kono were at the computer table, waiting. "Charlie just sent the report," Kono said, tapping at the screen and swiping some files onto the overheads. "The bullets were Soviet," Kono said. "That much they could tell. And they matched the one casing we found."
"So is that an unused one?" Steve asked, nodding at the screen, where a smooth bullet was pictured.
"No, that's the weird part. That one was pulled from Whistler's body."
Danny frowned. "That's impossible. There's no rifling."
"That's what's weird," Kono repeated.
Chin swiped something else up onto the screen. "There've been reports," he said, "over the years of an assassin using those bullets. But that's over 50 years. It's more likely a group, or something passed down. There's no way it could be just one person."
"Yes," a voice said from behind them, "it could."
Danny whirled around, hand on his gun, before he saw the speaker was Captain America himself, accompanied by one of the HPD officers who escorted guests to them, and another man Danny thought looked vaguely familiar. "Great," Danny said, "don't tell me this guy's a superhero. No, wait, better, he's an alien, right?"
Before Captain America could respond, Steve stepped forward. "Sam?" he said, moving towards the man Danny couldn't place. "Sam Wilson?"
The man blinked a few times, then his face cleared, a bright smile spreading across it. "Steve McGarrett!"
Their handshake made Danny want to step between them. "How, exactly," Danny said, "do you two know each other?"
"Sam saved my life," Steve said. "Our whole team, actually. He and his partner got us out when no other air support could even get close."
"And this guy almost didn't make it," Sam said, pointing at Steve. "Insisted on the rest of his team getting out first. I barely made it out with him in tow."
Danny shook his head, totally unsurprised. "That sounds like him," Danny said.
"I heard about Riley, man," Steve said to Sam, his voice making it clear to Danny what he'd heard. "I'm sorry."
Sam shrugged. "It happens."
And it still leaves a mark when you lose a partner, Danny thought, seeing that written all over Sam's face. "So now that we know how you two know each other," Danny said, "maybe someone can explain why you," he nodded at Sam, "and Captain America are here and how you know our assassin?"
"Call me Steve," Captain America said.
Danny looked at his Steve, then at Captain America. "That could get a little confusing."
Captain America shrugged, and Sam rolled his eyes. "Call him Cap, then," Sam said, elbowing Cap in the arm. The look they exchanged made Danny wonder just what their relationship really was, but Cap straightened up and put on what passed for an attempt at a smile. "Sorry, we've taken a lot of plane rides the last couple of days," Sam said, "and his manners tend to disappear."
Danny couldn't help but laugh at that--looked like Steve really did model himself after Captain America after all. "At least he has them some of the time," Danny said. Steve glared at him, but Danny just gave him a sunny smile.
Steve gave him a look before turning back to their visitors. "This is Danny Williams," he said, nodding at Danny. "And the rest of our team," Steve added, waving a hand at Chin and Kono. "Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua."
"Nice to meet you," Cap said, his manners apparently surfacing.
"So what can you tell us about the assassin?" Steve asked.
"That depends," Cap said, "on whether it's really the man we're looking for."
"There's more than one person who uses these bullets and manages to do it without any rifling?" Steve asked.
"No," Sam said before Cap could get a word in.
Danny saw the look they exchanged. "Then why would it not be your guy?"
"Because our guy doesn't miss," Cap said, giving Sam another look.
"Except when he does," Sam said.
Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. They didn't have time for this. "Look, the Governor's life is at stake," he said. "Can we maybe get some idea of what we're dealing with here?"
"You," Cap said, looking at Chin, "were on the right track. The assassin you're talking about is known as the Winter Soldier, right?"
"Yeah. But all those kills over 50 years?" Chin said. "Couldn't be one guy."
"Why not?" Cap said. "I'm 95."
Chin frowned. "But there's only one of you."
"Apparently not quite," Sam said.
"Someone else was working on replicating the serum I took," Cap said. "He managed to create an assassin who could be...."
With a look at Cap, Sam picked up the story. "He could be stored and wiped between missions. They kept him in cryo freeze until they needed him, then thawed him out. Once his mission was done, they wiped his memory and froze him again."
"So the Winter Soldier is real?" Chin said.
"Pretty much," Sam said.
Steve had been listening to the exchange with the look that Danny knew meant his bullshit meter was pinging. Or maybe it was just that Danny's was, too. "So what are you not telling us?" Steve asked.
He didn't need the look Sam and Cap exchanged to confirm it, but it did nonetheless. "Not telling you?" Sam said.
"SHIELD no longer exists," Steve said. "So it's not like you're here for a routine check on an assassin. So either this guy is someone SHIELD used to do their dirty work, or he's Hydra. And he clearly means enough to you to go after him despite you being a man without an agency, so to speak."
Cap clenched his jaw together and Danny added another note into the column of how Steve was way too much like Captain America. "Before he was the Winter Soldier," Cap said slowly, "he was Bucky Barnes. My best friend."
Shit. That explained a lot, both now and with what had happened in DC. "So you're here to show an assassin mercy," Steve said, "because he used to be a guy he doesn't even remember?"
"No, I'm here to find my friend, who left Hydra because he was starting to remember."
Danny could tell by Sam's face that whether or not Barnes remembered anything was still very much in question. "Well, if he's trying to kill the Governor," Danny said, "then it doesn't seem very likely that he's remembering he's a good guy."
"Is it possible your Governor is Hydra?" Cap asked.
Danny looked at Steve, then at Chin and Kono, knowing what they were all thinking. "Anything's possible," Danny said finally, since they would all have vouched for Jameson a hundred percent until they realized she was in bed with the Yakuza. "But not likely."
"Do you have any photos or video from the event?" Cap asked.
Kono tapped on the computer table. "We have it queued up," she said. "We haven't had a chance to go through it yet."
"Can we just see the shooting?" Cap asked, giving her a smile and adding a, "Please?" that had Kono beaming and Danny rolling his eyes. Figures, the one time she chooses to be a total girl about someone it would be a superhero.
She pulled up the video to the right time and let it play. Danny watched as Whistler jumped up a little, as if the bullet had surprised her, before she fell to the ground, as the Steve covered the Governor and started leading people off stage.
"Can you play it again?" Cap asked, frowning at the screen. Kono played it twice more before Cap pointed. "There," he said, "go back a few seconds."
Kono rewound frame by frame until Cap said, "Stop." He pointed again. "Look at her face--she's looking up towards where the bullet comes from before it hits her. She's getting up just as it hits, like she's trying to get away."
Danny frowned. "That's pretty thin."
"Do you have any background on her?" Cap asked.
"What are you thinking, Cap?" Sam asked.
Steve answered before Cap could get the words out. "He's thinking that Whistler might've been the target all along."
***
The police were already going through Whistler's files when they got to her office at the University. Cap surveyed the room, knowing that if he just paid close enough attention, if he looked hard enough, he'd--"There," he said, crossing to Whistler's desk. Sam was at his side by the time Cap was able to pull the almost imperceptible door open on the side of the desk.
Inside the small compartment was a thumb drive. Cap inserted it into the computer on the desk, looking through the files. "I'm no expert," he said, looking up at Sam and the 5-0 task force, "but it doesn't take one to bet that Hydra is all over this research, even if she's scrubbed the name."
He pulled the thumb drive out and pocketed it. "I'll send it to a contact and confirm."
"That's evidence," McGarrett said, stepping forward as if to block him.
"Yes. It is." Cap gave him a level look. "My evidence."
He thought for a moment that he was going to have a challenge, but Williams took a step forward and said something to McGarrett. After a moment, he backed down. "You'll share your findings?"
"Of course." It wasn't as if SHIELD had the ability to classify things anymore, he thought grimly.
"Good."
He saw Sam's eye roll, but ignored it. "Why don't you guys join us for dinner in a couple of hours," Sam said, "and we can compare notes on what we've found?"
Cap was about to add to the invitation, but something outside the window caught his attention. He moved to get a closer look, and got one solid glimpse of a man that made him think he might be cracking up. He blinked, and there was nothing there.
"Cap?" Sam asked, his tone making it clear it wasn't the first time. "You see something?"
He shook his head and moved away from the window. "Must've been a trick of the light," he said. "Let's go make a few calls and see what we can find out about this research."
***
They'd just pulled into the parking garage at the Hilton when Steve's phone rang. He glanced at the screen, then at Danny. "It's Catherine," he said. "Go on in, I'll be there in a minute."
"Tell Don Quixote I said hi," Danny muttered as he got out of the car. He had managed to stuff most of his Catherine-shaped issues back down inside by the time he got to the Tropics Bar and spotted Sam.
"Good to see you again," Sam said as Danny sat down. "Cap's on the phone; he'll be down in a minute. Where's the rest of your team?"
"Chin and Kono have a family thing on the North Shore this weekend, but they're on call if we need them," Danny said. "Steve's in the car, also on the phone."
Clearly not all of his issues were well-hidden. "On the phone?" Sam asked. "Is that a euphemism for something?"
Danny rolled his eyes, pausing to order two Longboards from the waitress before deciding whether or not to answer the question. What the hell, it wasn't like he'd see this guy again after this. "Ex-girlfriend," Danny said. "Or possibly girlfriend. I'm not really clear on that one."
"Is he clear on that one?"
"No," Danny said. "He's not."
"Ah."
It was only one word, but it sounded like it had a wealth of understanding behind it. "She's off on some quest to save some kid. Very noble." Danny said.
"And it's impossible to compete with a noble ideal that's still out there somewhere," Sam added.
Danny looked a little more closely, seeing the understanding there, but seeing more, too. "So what's the deal with Cap and this Bucky guy?" Danny asked, certainty settling in about the problem there when he saw Sam's reaction.
"Bucky was his best friend," Sam said. "They served together. Cap saved him when he was captured. And then he died," Sam said, taking a drink of his beer. "Or so everybody thought."
"But not so much, I'm guessing, if you think he might be our assassin."
Sam sighed, studying his beer bottle. "Bucky was the Winter Soldier," he said, after a moment. "That part's fact. But what he is now is anyone's guess."
"Cap thinks he's changed?"
"Cap thinks Bucky pulled him out of the Potomac."
"And what do you think?"
Sam shook his head. "Doesn't matter what I think. Not to him."
"I'm not asking him." Danny thanked the waitress as she put the beers in front of him, waiting until she was gone before continuing. "I'm asking you."
"I fought that guy," Sam said. "There was nothing there. He was a machine."
Danny studied him for a few seconds. "But...?"
"Cap knows him," Sam said. "And after what was done to him...who am I to say he doesn't deserve a chance if he's fought his way back?"
"If he's still killing it doesn't sound like he's fought his way back."
"If he's killing off Hydra he might have."
Danny took a long drink of his beer. "So if he comes back, where does that leave you?"
Sam raised a shoulder in a half shrug. "Cap has all these stories about before. He talks about things no one else remembers--little things, even, like candy. The other day he was talking about some candy--Abba Dabba candy or something like that--and he realized no one had any idea what he was talking about."
He took a drink. "I hate the look he gets when that happens. Just like the way he looks when he talks about what it's like to survive that serum. To wake up after being frozen for decades and have the whole world have changed." Sam looked at Danny. "There's only one person on the planet who has any idea what that's like. And it's not me."
Danny got that, more or less. "Steve and Catherine served together," he said. "They're hardwired by the Navy and impossible to pull back sometimes. I get it to a point, but only to a point."
Danny considered his next story for a moment, but fuck it. He hadn't signed anything saying he couldn't talk about it. "The two of them went off to Afghanistan last month to chase down that kid," Danny said, his voice low. "I barely got Steve back after he was captured, and I still wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares about it going the other way."
He turned his bottle in his hand. "And I know he'd go back in a heartbeat if he thought he could help. So every time she calls, I think, that's it. I'm gonna wake up tomorrow to a note that he's gone off to rescue her."
"But he hasn't left so far."
"No." Danny agreed. "He hasn't. And I don't know if it's because he really believes he'll be making it harder for her to work if he does, or if it's because of the nightmares he still has."
"Nightmares from last month?"
Danny's laugh had no humor to it. "Last month, last year, the year before that." He glanced up at Sam. "Trust me, the guy's got enough nightmare material to last for decades."
"Yeah, I'm familiar." Sam drank the last of his beer and signaled to the waitress. "I...flew," he said. "And one day my partner got shot down right in front of me."
"Riley?"
Sam nodded. "Losing a partner makes you question what you're doing there, y'know?"
"I know," Danny said, remembering how Grace's lifeless body felt all these years later. "But you gotta move on, right?"
"You do," Sam said, nodding his head. "Doesn't mean the nightmares go away, though."
Danny saw Steve round the corner to the table and sat up, nodding as Steve made eye contact. Something in his eyes seemed off, though, and Danny watched him carefully as he sat down. His shoulders were rounded, and he wasn't entirely meeting Danny's eyes.
Maybe he'd wait to ask how the call went until they were alone.
"Any word on the thumb drive we found?" Steve asked.
"Cap was still on the phone with his contact when I came down," Sam said. He looked up towards the door. "Looks like he's done, though."
Danny looked over his shoulder to see Cap heading towards them, a few eyes in the crowd widening as they realized who he was. He didn't seem to notice, though, he just crossed to their table and sat down next to Sam. "Whistler was Hydra," Cap said. "Hill confirmed it. The research matched something they knew Hydra had been working on but they didn't know where it was coming from."
"Then he didn't miss," Sam said.
"You don't know it was him," Cap shot back.
"Calm down. I meant he in the general sense," Sam said.
Cap looked like he wasn't sure, but he let it go. "Did you find out anything?" he asked, looking at Steve, then at Danny.
"We interviewed a couple of her research assistants, but they were only working on small parts of it. They had no idea what the overall project was."
"Hydra was even better than SHIELD at compartmentalization," Cap said. He didn't sound like it was a compliment. "Whoever took her out did the world a favor."
Danny saw Steve's fist clench. "And nearly killed our Governor in the process," Steve said.
"But he didn't."
"But he could've. Five people were hurt in the rush to escape after the shooting. Innocent people. What about them?"
"Innocent people get hurt in war," Cap said.
Steve's eyebrows shot up, and Danny braced himself to stop a fight. "You think I don't know that?" Steve said. "But in my experience it's usually because someone goes off thinking they're some kind of god meant to bring vengeance--"
"Okay," Danny said, placing his hand on Steve's forearm. "Dial it down a notch. We're all on the same side here, right?"
Steve's lips thinned as he looked at Danny a moment before he sighed, and Danny felt some of the anger leave him. Steve gave a short nod. "Right."
"Good," Danny said. "Then let's order some dinner and talk about how we're going to find whoever this is and do whatever needs to be done."
They placed an order, and managed conversation well enough until Cap stood suddenly, his attention out on the beach. "Be right back," he said, hurrying out of the restaurant and onto the beach. Danny watched him look around before he slowly made his way back to the table.
"Something wrong?" Danny asked, as Cap sat back down.
"No. I just thought I saw someone I knew."
Danny exchanged a glance with Sam and knew they were thinking the same thing. But since no one had shot at them, Danny let it go.
***
Steve could tell Sam had something on his mind as they went up in the elevator, but Sam was kind enough, or military enough, to wait until they were in Steve's hotel room before questioning him. "What was out on the beach?" Sam asked as soon as they were in the room.
"Nothing." Which was the truth--whatever he'd thought he'd seen, it wasn't there when he'd gotten to the beach.
"Okay, what did you think was out on the beach."
He really needed to get better at lying. "I thought I saw someone," he said, moving a few steps away into the center of the room.
"Was it him?"
Steve shook his head, turning to look at Sam. "I thought I saw Rumlow."
"Rumlow's in DC covered in burns from head to toe."
"But what if he's not?"
"Dude, I had a front row seat for the crash that burned him. I can barely believe he's alive, and I sure as hell can't believe he's walking around."
Steve would've said the same thing about Bucky for half a century. "What if he had the serum in him?"
Sam's head shake was quick and emphatic. "No way. I fought him. It was nothing like fighting you or...anyone with the serum."
"Okay, maybe someone gave it to him after and it healed his wounds. Maybe he's here cleaning up Hydra's mess."
"Steve...I'm not saying it's impossible, but....it's pretty out there, man."
Steve turned, looking beyond the curtains to the sliver of view of dark blue sky that ended in black ocean below. It looked so peaceful, and yet he'd crashed into its depths more than once, expecting never to come back again.
A flicker of movement behind the curtain drew his attention, and he ran out onto the balcony, yanking the curtain back. But there was nothing there, only sea breeze causing the curtain to move.
He went back into the room and met Sam's eyes, seeing the sympathy and concern there. He wished he could just accept that, move on, let Sam help him forget the past.
"Nothing there?" Sam asked softly.
"No."
"You know, it's not crazy." Still that same voice, soft and careful, like Steve had to be handled with kid gloves. "It's perfectly normal to see--"
"Spare me the analysis, doctor," Steve said, pushing past him. "I'm going for a run."
***
Danny watched Steve's profile as he drank his beer and looked out at the ocean. He'd known when Steve had joined them at the table that his call with Catherine hadn't gone well, but he'd decided to give Steve until they were home and Danny finished his first beer to talk, before Danny dragged it out of him. And if it was as much because Danny needed the beer to have the conversation, so be it.
When Danny cracked open his second beer, he shifted his body towards Steve. "So what did Catherine have to say?"
Steve's answer was a long time coming, as he finished his beer and put the empty down. "She's run out of leads on her own," he said, his voice strangely flat, a tone Danny usually associated with Doris. "But the CIA offered her some intel, so she's working with them to go after the cell that captured Najib."
Danny was sure he'd heard wrong. "The CIA?"
Steve nodded, looking out at the ocean, refusing to even look Danny's direction. "She thinks they can help her find him."
Still with that tone, and Danny got why now. He took a deep breath, but it didn't help shove down the anger he felt at the CIA, at Doris, and now at Catherine for what they thought it was okay to do to Steve. And at Steve, for thinking it was okay. He got duty, but this...this was just beyond duty. "So Catherine knows about your mom, and about how she used the CIA to run away, and that was her decision? To go work for them?"
"With them, Danny. Only to find Najib."
"Oh, please, Steven, we both know what working 'with' the CIA really means. You're never really out--just ask your mom. No, wait, you can't! Because she's still off working for the CIA! The same CIA, I might add, that just tried to kill us both not too long ago!"
Danny broke off at the look on Steve's face, one he didn't have a name for, but he recognized it from the early days of their partnership, from every time something reminded Steve of his dad, before the wounds started to heal. The one that said Steve was trying to think of all the ways he could've prevented what happened.
"No," Danny said, his voice quieter, but firm. "No. Absolutely no. You do not get to blame yourself for this. This is not your fault."
"I never said it was my fault."
"No, but I know that look and I know you, and you're sitting there trying to find a way to take at least some of the blame. And I won't let you."
Steve shot out of the chair. He took a few steps towards the water, then turned back moving until he was towering over Danny. "They had no choice," Steve said, his voice hoarse. "Catherine has to find Najib. My mom has to stay alive. They had--no, they have no choice."
"They had the choice not to go in the first place," Danny countered, standing up, inches from Steve, close enough he could feel the harsh, uneven breaths as Steve struggled to keep his control. "You keep defending your mom. You spent half your life defending your dad. And now you're defending Catherine. At what point," Danny asked, holding Steve's gaze, "are you gonna realize that you're better than that? You're worth so much more than a life where people just keep deserting you."
Steve flinched a little. "Not everyone deserts me," he said, his voice quiet now. "You don't desert me. Ever."
The truth of that hit Danny in the gut, more because Steve realized it than just because it was a fact. He'd tried, but he hadn't been able to leave, and he'd stopped fooling himself about the reason a while ago.
He just hadn't thought Steve had noticed.
The ringing of a phone startled them both. Steve's phone, Danny realized, as Steve took a step back and pulled the phone out of his pocket. Only when he put the phone to his ear did he tear his gaze away from Danny's.
"McGarrett."
The way every muscle in Steve's body tensed for battle told Danny whoever was on the other end, it wasn't good. "Fine," Steve bit out after a moment, jabbing the screen to end the call.
"Steve?"
Steve looked at him. "That was Wo Fat. He's named his price for a meet and some answers."
"What?"
"He wants the serum they used on Captain America."
***
Cap wasn't surprised to see Sam still waiting on him when he got back from his run. "Did you make it to the other end of the island and back?" Sam asked mildly.
Which was just enough to make Cap feel like a jerk. "I'm sorry," he said.
"I get it," Sam said, waving a dismissive hand at the apology. "And like I said, the idea that Rumlow is in one piece and here is out there...but it's not impossible. I'm just asking you to keep your mind open."
After a moment, Cap nodded. He was still trying to figure out what to say, though, when there was a knock at the door. He opened it, frowning when he saw McGarrett and Williams there. "Has something happened?" Cap asked.
"Not with the case," McGarrett said. "But...I have a favor to ask."
Cap could tell the words didn't come easily. "Come in."
McGarrett came in, Williams close behind. A quick look at Williams' expression told Cap that he was there reluctantly, though why was still a mystery. "We put a guy away," McGarrett said. "Wo Fat. He broke out last month, and I have a chance to meet with him and put him back where he belongs."
"How can I help with that?" Cap asked.
"Wo Fat's price for a meet is the serum that they used on you."
"I wish I could help," Cap said, and he really did. "But there is no more serum." Even as he was saying it, the visions of Rumlow flashed through his mind. "All we had was destroyed the day they gave it to me."
McGarrett's eyes narrowed as he looked at Cap for a long moment. "Do you have anything that I can offer him? A lead on the formula, anything? I'm not planning on letting him have it, but I need it to get close to him." McGarrett stepped a little closer. "This guy had my father killed and hunted my mother for years," he said. "I need to catch him."
He and McGarrett were a lot alike, he could tell. And he understood what it took for the guy to be this forthright. "I'm really sorry," he said. "We'll help you catch him any way we can. But there is no more serum. SHIELD tried to find it or replicate it for decades with no success. It's gone."
McGarrett studied him for a moment longer, then nodded. "Okay," he said, nodding again. "Thanks. Sorry to have bothered you."
"If there's any other way we can help you capture him, let us know."
With one more nod and a look at Williams, McGarrett strode out the door, leaving Williams to call out a thanks as he followed.
Cap looked over at Sam, who was watching him closely. "What?"
"You know why he asked you twice, right?"
"Because he really needs it?"
"Because you're a terrible liar and it was obvious you were hiding something."
Cap sighed. "I wasn't hiding anything. I don't have the serum, I don't have any way to get it."
"But you think it exists."
"Bucky is living proof that Hydra managed to make some version of it," Cap said. "Rumlow was one of their most trusted soldiers. They'd give it to him to repair him and make him stronger if they had it. I know they would."
Sam thought about that for a moment. "Your theory is getting less crazy by the minute," he said, sounding reluctant.
"Then we need to figure out who shot the Governor and find him before 5-0 does, or they could all be dead."
***
It was a quiet ride back to Steve's house. Steve didn't talk, and Danny didn't know what to say to break the silence. Part of him really wanted to finish the conversation they'd been having before Wo Fat called, but he knew Steve wasn't in the frame of mind to have it.
Which left Wo Fat as the obvious topic, but he was pretty sure Steve wouldn't want to hear what Danny had to say on that matter, either.
It wasn't until they were inside the house that Steve turned to Danny. "How did he know in advance?" he said.
"What?"
"The serum. He couldn't have known I was going to be working with Captain America when he broke out--unless he's the one behind the shooting and he did it in a way sure to get Cap here."
"Wo Fat's not that good a shot," Danny said.
"No, but he could hire someone who was."
Danny shook his head. "With what money?"
"He has to have some stashed on the island somewhere," Steve said, waving a hand as if logic was insignificant. "Or maybe someone owed him a favor. He's Wo Fat."
Which was a catch all for a whole bunch of inexplicable stuff the guy had managed that normal people could not. "So Wo Fat wants the serum to heal his burns and make him pretty much invincible," Danny said. "So he decides to assassinate someone nobody knew was Hydra, except him, apparently, knowing that it'll get Cap to fly all the way to Hawaii and give him the chance to get you to get the serum from Cap."
Steve looked at him as if that was sane logic. "You got a better idea?"
"Maybe he was just biding his time until you had something he wanted and he saw this opportunity so he took it?"
"Maybe." But Steve didn't sound like he meant it.
Danny sighed. He knew better than to try to talk logic into Steve where Wo Fat was concerned. "Look," he said. "Let's just--"
Steve's phone rang, and he had it out in a flash, checking the number. He didn't need to say it--Danny could tell from his face that it was Wo Fat. "McGarrett." Steve listened for a moment. "I have it. Ten o'clock. Tantalus. Got it."
He hung up, and Danny counted to five to try not to yell. "Please tell me," he said slowly, "that you did not just tell Wo Fat you had a serum that doesn't even exist."
"I did not just tell Wo Fat I had a serum that doesn't even exist."
"You are not funny."
Steve put his hands out. "What was I supposed to do, Danny? We have to catch him. Do you know something else he wants?"
"You, dead?"
"If he wanted me dead, I'd be dead. No," Steve said, putting a hand up, "don't argue with me--look how many chances he's had. He doesn't want me dead."
Yet. "Until he's done with you," Danny said. "Then what?"
That muscle in Steve's jaw that spelled nothing but trouble was jumping as he took a deep, loud breath through his nostrils. "I have to go meet him," he said, looking at his watch.
"Fine. I'm coming along."
"He said come alone."
"Of course he did. I know you are not nearly as stupid as you sound right now."
"Danny--"
"Steve! I am not letting you go alone."
The muscle was working overtime. "Fine," Steve ground out after a moment.
"And we should call for backup."
"You are my backup."
Yeah, that helped. Because the last time he said that, Danny ended up being shot and blown backwards off a porch. "You are a menace."
"Kinda makes you wonder why you want to save me," Steve said, raising an eyebrow, some of his humor returning now that he'd more or less won the argument.
"You're telling me."
"Let me grab a few things and we can go."
Steve ran off to the garage, and Danny pulled out his phone. Chin and Kono were on the North Shore and would never make it back in time. He started to call them anyway, then remembered Cap's offer to help.
It would be a hell of a lot harder for Wo Fat to escape from Captain America. Might also sell the serum lie if Cap was discovered.
Checking over his shoulder to see if Steve was in sight, Danny sent a quick text to Sam.
***
"You're sure this is the place?" Cap whispered.
Sam checked his phone's GPS. "As sure as I can be without SHIELD's equipment to back me up, yeah," he whispered back.
For all that SHIELD clearly had to go, Cap missed the resources, too. "I don't see--wait." He crept closer to the edge of the tree line, catching a glimpse of movement on the other side. "There."
He watched as McGarrett and Williams approached an Asian man of indeterminate age, at least in the moonlight and at this distance.
"I thought I told you to come alone," the man, who Cap assumed was Wo Fat, said.
"I guess I don't take directions as well as McGarrett here does," Williams said, jerking a thumb at McGarrett.
Wo Fat looked at Williams, then back at McGarrett. "You have the serum?" he asked.
"You first," McGarrett said.
Clearly he'd lied to Wo Fat about having it to get the meeting. Because lying to criminals that you have what they want worked out so well.
Wo Fat studied McGarrett for a moment. "You don't have it."
"I'm not stupid. I don't have it on me." Cap had to hand it to McGarrett, he was good. Cap would've probably bought the lie if he didn't know for a fact McGarrett didn't have it. "You tell me what I want to know, though, and I'll go get it."
There was a long, tense pause before Wo Fat said, "You're lying." He took a step back and pulled out a gun, aiming it at McGarrett.
Cap threw his shield, knocking the gun out of Wo Fat's hand as Cap ran out to stop him before he could get away. He had Wo Fat on the ground in a few seconds, face down, his hands trapped in one of Cap's. "Got any cuffs?" he asked, looking up at McGarrett and Williams.
McGarrett gave Williams a look that made Cap glad he wasn't planning on being around for whatever discussion they had later. "Here," McGarrett said, pulling out a zip tie and handing it over.
Cap secured Wo Fat's hands and helped him up, handing him over to Williams. "Need any help with him?" Cap asked.
"I can take it from here," Williams said. "Thanks."
Movement at the edge of the clearing caught Cap's eye, and he turned to catch the end of what looked like a person disappearing into the trees. He ran into the woods, chasing after whatever had moved, but when he stopped, there was no sign of anything other than trees.
He looked around and listened for a minute, but there was nothing. Already dreading the conversation with Sam, he headed back out to where everyone was still standing, watching him. "See something?" Sam asked.
"I thought I did," Cap replied. "Must've been a trick of the light," he said, before turning to McGarrett. "We'll meet you at your headquarters."
McGarrett looked like he might argue, but Williams got in there first. "See you there," he said, dragging Wo Fat, and by extension, McGarrett, towards their car.
***
The drive back was eerily quiet. Steve kept one eye on the road and one in the rear view mirror, trained on Wo Fat. Danny mostly kept both eyes on Wo Fat.
They'd just locked Wo Fat in the rendition room when Cap and Sam showed up. "Thanks for letting us come back here," Cap said. "I didn't want to give anything away in front of your guy, but there's a chance he might know something about the assassin."
"We thought the same thing," Danny said, ignoring Steve's glare.
"What made you think so?" Steve asked after a moment, as if he was giving away a state secret just by asking a question.
After a nudge from Sam, Cap sighed. "I wasn't lying about the serum," he said. "We don't have it. Haven't since they gave it to me. But there is a chance that Hydra had something similar."
"The assassin has super serum?" Danny asked. "Great. That's fantastic."
"We don't know who the assassin is yet," Cap said.
"So there's more than one super serum-fueled assassin running around?" Danny said, making a face. "Even better. What next, the president is actually Hydra?"
Sam put his hand on Cap's arm. "Hydra had a soldier," Sam said, "high up in their command, named Rumlow. He was burned in the Insight helicarrier wrecks at the Triskelion. Burned bad, too. All over. Last we heard he was in a coma in a military hospital under heavy guard."
"You think he got the serum and is all better and out shooting people?" Danny asked.
"We don't know anything yet," Cap said. "I have a call in asking someone to make sure he's where he's supposed to be. But...it's possible."
Steve had been standing beside Danny silently, but radiating tension out of every pore. "Why?" he asked.
"Why what?"
"Why do you think that he might be here and on the serum?"
Cap glanced at Sam before he said, "I thought I saw him a few times. At Whistler's office, on the beach, tonight when you captured Wo Fat."
"And you didn't think to tell us until now?" Steve asked.
"It was impossible," Cap said. "It couldn't have been him. So I dismissed it as my mind playing tricks on me."
"And now you think differently?" Danny asked.
"Maybe. I don't know." Cap shrugged. "There's enough of a question there that I'd like to talk to Wo Fat and see if he knows the guy."
Steve laughed. "He won't tell you anything."
"He might."
"If you have a blow torch, maybe," Steve said.
Danny's eyes darted to Steve's face, but there was no emotion there. "It wouldn't hurt to let him have a chance," Danny said to Steve.
Steve frowned at him, then shrugged. "Fine. Take your best shot."
"Come on," Danny said. "I'll take you down there."
He led Cap and Sam down to the rendition room. Cap went in, but Sam stayed outside with Danny to watch through the mirror. Wo Fat raised an eyebrow as Cap walked in, a smug smirk totally out of place for someone who was tied to a chair in police custody.
"Who are you working with?" Cap asked.
"Do you have the serum?" Wo Fat replied.
Cap waited for a moment. "No."
Wo Fat didn't waste another breath. He just stared ahead in response to the rest of Cap's questions until Cap came back out of the room. "Are you sure he's not Hydra?" Cap asked.
"No," Danny said honestly. Because he wouldn't put it past Wo Fat to use Hydra for all he could get from them. "But if he is, he's got no loyalty to them."
"Why?"
"Because his only loyalty is to himself. He'll work with anyone who can help him, but he'll turn on them in a second if someone else can help him more."
"At least you have him in custody," Sam said.
"For now."
Cap frowned. "For now?"
"He's broken out of every prison we've put him in. Even the ones you can't break out of."
Cap thought for a moment. "I need to make a call," he said, pulling out his cell phone.
***
"Come on, Hill," Cap said quietly into the phone, "I know Stark has to have some place to shove this guy. Or at least an idea how he can make it so the guy can't break out."
He heard Hill's long sigh, and knew he'd won. "I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks. I owe you one."
"One?" She laughed. "You wish."
He laughed with her as he hung up and joined the others in the main room. "I'm sorry I couldn't get him to talk," Cap said. "But I may have a lead on a place he can't break out of, if that helps."
"Hell has an opening?" Williams said.
"Not quite. SHIELD facilities are all out of the question now, obviously, but I know someone who might be able to help. I'll let you know as soon as I hear back."
"Thanks," Williams said. After a nudge from Williams, McGarrett echoed the thanks.
Cap nodded. "Least I can do. Thank you for letting me talk to him." He nodded to Sam. "We should go. I'll be in touch tomorrow once I've heard back."
***
Chapter 2