"Yeah," Danny said, by way of answering his phone without sounding as peeved as he was.

Because it was Chin calling and yeah, okay, no reason to snap at Chin.

"Kono's already got the comp fired up," Chin reported. "I'm on my way into the palace now."

"I'm there in three minutes," Danny stated before hanging up.

Thirty seconds later his phone rang again.

"Yeah, Kono."

"I'm bringing up the GPS for Steve's phone, but there's a problem."

Danny's scowl deepened. "That being?"

"He coded it so only you could get into it."

Very nearly plowing into a car that stopped fast in front of him at a red light, Danny slammed on the brakes. "What the hell are you talking about?" he practically shrieked, the Camaro's bumper barely a quarter of an inch from whacking the one in front of it. "Goddamn tourists."

"Danny, he's got it passcoded," Kono replied.

Then Chin's voice joined the mix. "She's not kidding. Steve's got it so only you can unlock his signal, brah."

"Of all the—" Danny spluttered. "Well what the hell's the passcode?"

There was such silence in response that Danny could hear his car's engine idling. Normally he couldn't. Then again, normally Steve had the tires squealing, so, you know, that could've been a contributing factor.

"You don't know it."

"That would be a no," Chin replied.

Danny sighed. "Try my daughter. Anything having to do with my daughter, I don't know!"

"I'm going to take it he's never talked to you about this."

"You would be taking it correctly, Kono," Danny sighed as the light turned green and the idiot in the rental car in front of him slowly hit the gas. "That's it. Jesus, I hate tourists!" Danny griped. He flipped the sirens and lights on, successfully scaring the hell out of the poor tourist couple, who jerked over to the curb so fast they took out a trash can.

Okay, Danny felt bad about the trash can.

"You've turned into kamaʻāina, brah! Hoʻomaikaʻi ʻana!"

"As soon as I decode that with the special ring I got out of the box of Sugar Smacks this morning, I'll ask Grace how to respond to you. Speaking of which, you figured out the passcode yet?"

"I've tried every combination of Grace's name, including her middle. I've tried her birthday. I'm out of ideas," Chin stated.

"Sugar Smacks?" Kono repeated, sounding rather bewildered.

Danny screeched to a stop in his standard parking place, grabbed his phone off the dashboard mount and got out of the car so fast even he wasn't sure he'd shut the door behind him. He ran full-tilt into the palace, finding out the hard way that extremely soggy shoes, socks and clothing in general did not mix well with the smooth, highly polished (and ridiculously waxed) floors of their esteemed headquarters.

Which was why Chin and Kono, having heard a terrible gut-wrenching sound followed by Danny's phone going dead, found him thirty seconds later with his back plastered against the double doors , every dripping wet inch of him more pissed off than either cousin had ever seen him.

Chin cocked his head and held his hand out.

Danny glared, but accepted the hand.

Kono picked up his busted phone.

Without a word, the three trudged (or in Danny's case, squelched) into the bullpen.

On the computer table's touch-screen, and on every screen hanging all around the room on the walls or from the ceiling, was a box asking for the passcode. Beneath the box was typed DW Only.

"That rat bastard, even with something like this he's got to be difficult."

"Well, it's got to be something he figured only you would know," Kono said, raising an eyebrow when Danny ran a hand through his hair and it…curled.

Chin tried hard not to roll his eyes but failed miserably. "Look, maybe we shouldn't do this," he said, earning a patented Williams glare. "I'm not kidding, Danny. Maybe Steve's got his reasons for going after Joe White on his own."

"I don't care what his reasons are," Danny growled. "Has everyone here forgotten what happened the last time he went off half-cocked on his own? We all had to go after him!"

"Yeah, Danny, we did," Kono said. "Joe White included."

Danny opened his mouth nice and wide to reply, but his retort died in his throat. Not because of what Kono had said, but because of what he saw appear directly behind her.

Or, more appropriately, who he saw appear.

"Steve?" he practically squeaked.

The cousins whipped around to find that, sure enough, not only was Danny not hallucinating, but Steve McGarrett was not alone.

"Wo Fat?" Chin said incredulously.

For standing there just inside the bullpen's double glass doors was Steve carrying Wo Fat over his shoulder. And not only was he handcuffed, but well and truly unconscious.

"Book him," Steve said to Chin, though his eyes never left Danny's.

Kono and Chin took charge of the prisoner, both sparing one last glance at Steve – who seemed completely unharmed – and Danny – who looked like he'd shrunk to half his normally slightly diminutive stature – before hauling Wo Fat between them toward the holding area.

You could have heard a pin drop.

Steve's eyes traveled from Danny's goofy hair all the way down his dripping clothing to the puddle that had gathered on the floor beneath him. Then they moved up and he frowned, kicking his head back, eyes fixed on a point somewhere near Danny's hip. "What'd you do to your hand?"

Danny looked down at his hand.

Oh, yeah. It hurt.

"Punched a hole through your window."

"Danno, you got anger management issues."

"No, I don't," Danny seethed, squelching across the bullpen until he was standing right in front of his partner. "I've got abandonment issues. As in you, my You're-The-Backup partner, once again flying off to wherever you damn well please without any of your team, without even a SEAL team for backup, all to find the guy who—goddammit, Steve, what the—mmfff!"

Steve raised an eyebrow when Danny's mouth continued to move even though his hand was covering it nice and tight. He couldn't help but smirk when Danny finally stopped trying to talk and instead chose to glare.

"Okay," Steve finally said, keeping his hand, fingers-closed, palm-flat against his partner's mouth. "You are not going to say a word now. It's my turn. Got me?"

Danny continued to glare.

"You're the one who's always saying I can kill a man with a hangnail," Steve said. Then he schooled his face into the meanest-looking one in his repertoire. "I have two hangnails at the moment, Daniel."

Danny's eyes widened.

Steve narrowed his eyes. "We on the same page, partner?"

Danny nodded slowly.

Steve kept his hand in place because…Danny.

Yep. Danny. Who tried to talk again.

Steve sighed. "Hand's not coming off until you hear me out."

Danny frowned, crossed his arms over his chest and glared.

Steve decided he had to hurry because Danny spit on his palm. Ew.

"Joe called me," Steve explained, "said he had been captured by Wo Fat."

Danny raised a hand in the air, finger jutting out from his fist, and tried to open his mouth to say something.

So Steve squeezed, hand fitting completely around Danny's jaw with little to no effort whatsoever.

Danny huffed.

Steve made a face. Because…yeah. Ew.

"And Wo Fat's men had your daughter in his sights. If something happened to him by Joe's hand, they were going to kill Grace."

Danny went completely still, eyes bugging out of his head.

Steve decided it was time to remove his hand. When he did, he wiped it on his cargo pants because…ew.

But Danny was completely speechless.

"I couldn't tell you, I couldn't just put a protective detail on Grace. The first sign of cops, they would've taken her, Danny."

For his part, Danny very much resembled a fish out of water. Jaw dropped, gaping openly up at Steve.

"Joe wanted me to know so I could keep Gracie safe. But I knew that I had to go to the source. That if I caught Wo Fat once and for all, his men would go underground until a new pecking order had been established. With Wo Fat out of commission, his agenda would be wiped away and Grace would be safe." Steve reached out and put a hand on Danny's wet shoulder. "You all would be, my sister included."

"And Joe?" Danny finally found his voice enough to ask.

Steve shook his head. "He didn't make it." He turned away from his partner. "Sacrificed himself so I could get Wo Fat out of Japan and back here to be charged with the crimes he's committed in this state."

Danny's face fell. "Grace?"

"She's safe, Danny. I called her just before I came into the palace. She's safe."

This time it was Danny who turned away. And, who didn't say a word. He was silent enough that Steve wondered if he'd actually left the room, so he turned around, only to find Danny with shoulders slumped and hands jammed into his pockets.

"You should call her. I told her I'd have you call her," Steve offered.

"I broke my phone."

Total silence. Danny could hear himself dripping all over the floor.

Finally Steve sighed. "I'm sorry, Danny, but…I did it for Grace. For Joe. For the team." More silence. "You never would've forgiven me if something had happened to Gracie."

Danny turned around, and when he did his eyes were bright with unshed tears. "I'm the one who should be sorry. And I am. About doubting you. About…about Joe. I'm just…" Danny turned and started heading toward his office.

He didn't know what to think.

Didn't know what to say.

Everything he'd thought and said since reading Steve's letter had been so…so wrong.

He didn't quite understand it all yet. How Joe and Japan and Wo Fat and Gracie were all mixed up together. How it was Steve had found and caught Wo Fat and managed to get him back to the island from Japan.

But what he didn't understand most of all was why the hell he'd been such a…such a goddamn…

"I am such a prick," he sighed as he entered his office.

He was startled when Steve's voice came from right behind him. "Yeah, but you're my prick."

Danny's eyes widened. He turned around to find his partner very unsuccessfully attempting to stifle a laugh. A laugh that turned into an all-out guffaw as soon as he saw the look on Danny's face.

"You," Danny said in mock-outrage. "That did not sound right. What would happen if Chin and Kono overheard you, do you know the kind of scuttlebutt around this place about us already and you're standing here, looming like Neanderthal saying I'm your prick, what the hell is the matter with you, Steven?"

Steve managed to stop laughing and gasping for air enough to say, "That's the passcode, by the way."

Danny's rant spluttered to a halt. "What is? Prick?"

Steve belly-laughed. "No!"

"You have the manners of a street rat. You are such a Neanderthal."

"Yep. That's it."

"You made Neanderthal your passcode?"

Steve grinned.

"Well, it suits you. You are one, you know," he huffed, crossing his arms and trying…but failing…to not smile.

"Yeah, maybe I am. But I'm your Neanderthal, right?"

Danny took a deep breath, but instead of unleashing further verbal acoustics upon the ears of one Steven J. McGarrett, he simply said, "Take me home and get me out of these clothes."

They both heard a snort behind Steve. Steve, whose eyes widened.

The partners turned around to look.

"Not a word," Steve said threateningly to the two cousins who were standing in front of the computer table with matching OMG looks on their faces. "Not. One. Word."

Kono and Chin held up their hands defensively, then mimed zipping their lips shut.

"Come on," Steve said to Danny.

Kono looked at Danny.

Danny looked at Chin.

Chin stared at Steve, then turned to Kono. "Guess we'll get the story tomorrow."

"Yeah," Kono nodded with an evil grin. "But which one?"

"And there goes the rumor mill," Danny groused as he splotched and squished and squelched after his partner.

His partner, who apparently had nearly singlehandedly – with the help of a hero named Joe White – captured one of the worst criminals in the world, saved his entire team and kept the life of one small little girl named Grace Williams intact.

Let the rumor mill do its worst.

Because Danny had been wrong. And if the way he had to pay for it was by enduring comments about him being wet and going to Steve's house to take his clothes off, well…as long as Grace never got wind of it, he could live with that.

Things could be worse.

Because Grace could be dead.

Or Steve.

Or any of them.

And Joe White was dead. Had given his life to do what he'd sworn to Steve's father he would: protect Steve.

Goddamn, Danny felt like shit.

They stopped at the hood of the Camaro, rain still pouring down, both of them equally soaking wet now.

Danny suddenly saw his partner in a whole new light. (And it wasn't just because lightning was flashing overhead.)

"Neanderthal," Danny said, voice so quiet Steve could barely hear it over the rain pounding on the car.

Then Danny tossed Steve his keys.

Steve gave him his trademark lopsided grin as he opened the car door. "Prick," he said over the roof before sliding in.

Yeah, okay, Danny was letting him have that one. Because he was.

Sometimes.

But in the aftermath of something like this, of finding out your daughter could've been killed if your partner hadn't done what he'd done…even Daniel Williams didn't have it in him to give Steve shit for a goddamn thing.

Not the way he drove like a maniac through the rain as he handed Danny his cell phone so he could call Grace.

Not the way he gave Danny hell over what a mess the man had made of his house during his absence even as he boarded over the hole Danny had made in the window of his lanai door.

Not the way he pushed and shoved Danny up the stairs to the shower even as he was talking into the phone right next to Danny, listening to Grace chatter on about her next fairy tale story she was going to write about Prince Steve and Prince Danno, Rulers of the O'ahu Kingdom.

Oh, Danny would get back to being Danny tomorrow once the shock had worn off and he'd had his fill of his sweet Monkey's silliness.

But for tonight, in the aftermath of having his emotions torn every which way from Sunday, of having convinced himself he and the team would have to go save Steve again and-what-if-they-weren't-in-time-to-save-his-life...all Danny could get himself to do once he'd hung up with Grace, showered and let Steve bandage his cut-up hand was apologize.

"Noted," Steve said, then smirked. "Acceptance is pending."

Danny's eyes widened right before he launched himself at his partner.

And the next day, if Kono and Chin kept wondering why the formerly unharmed McGarrett was sporting a bruised jaw, and why both of Danny's hands were wrapped in white gauze, well…the partners weren't going to do any explaining. In between the bickering, of course.

Besides…Kono and Chin weren't quite sure they wanted to know…

Dictionary

kamaʻāina: a long-term resident of the Hawaiian Islands

brah: bro, friend

hoʻomaikaʻi ʻana: congratulations

Author's Note: Me again! Just my standard self-promotion. I've got an original novel published if you get an urge to spend three bucks for something non-H50! Search either Smashwords or Amazon for Takers Chris Davis and you'll find it. It's the first in a series, with the second one coming out May 7th!