I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: the concept of this drug and what unfolds between Steve and Danny as the main characters are directly adapted from a wonderful story in a completely different fandom published 2009 and updated 2011. A kind reader of both fandoms asked if I would try to adapt it for H50.

Before taking this challenge on, I attempted to contact the author over a 4 week period and through various means - but with no result. The person has not been active since 2011 from what I can find out. The original characters and plot from that first story are the property of that original author (NoirCat). No copyright infringement is intended here in this adaptation.

Chapter One

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

The case easily ranked as one of the worst in their short history together as a law enforcement team. Highly visible, the stakes were quite literally those of life and death.

"Tired?" Steve snorted in a real disgust at Danny's question. Or, maybe it was just an honest observation about all of them because each was running almost on steam. The issue was that Steve might have been just a bit more stressed.

"Maneuvers were poorly timed." Danny remarked. He was silent and refused to even look up because now the words were Danny-code for: "are you really okay?" or "how are you really feeling?" or "what did the Army - so sorry - the NAVY - make you do this time?".

Steve had put off his Reserve commitments more than once in the last few months and simply needed to ship out for a four-day long weekend of required maneuvers. His partner was quite right that timing was terrible; but sometimes it was unavoidable and never going to be perfect.

He'd dedicated himself dutifully to every aspect of his mission, but Steve's mind was never far from land where their latest case occupied every second of every day for the past many months. Barely on soil for five hours, he was already in his office and getting a concise summary from his partner before their other two team members joined them. At least he was trying to obtain that update between his partner's gentle jibes and ambiguous comments about his health and general physical state.

"Steve? You just got back .. did you get any rest before coming in today?" He glowered in annoyance when Danny continued to push and then chewed his lip briefly before finally looking up with a disguised wince when the skin pulled tight across his cheek. Danny had an expectant look etched across his face and was of course, staring right at the deeply purpling mark.

"That's quite a bruise." Steve sighed in absolute aggravation as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. It took an immense amount of self-control to not idly rub at his achy cheekbone where an over-zealous midshipman had gotten in an unexpectedly good hit during their one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat training session just the prior afternoon.

"It happens, Danno. I'm perfectly fine. It was exactly like having a vacation at the beach minus the sand." The raised eyebrows communicated disbelief but at least Danny stopped pushing verbally and instead, shoved a large cup of coffee across the desk.

"Mahalo." Steve genuinely grinned as the pestering eased and the hot steamy aroma reached him. "Now you tell me .. where are we at?"

At first almost nonchalantly thinking they had the unsavory but more typical escalating drug problem to cope with, that impression quickly faded as the strong hallucinogen left the black market and hidden back streets to enter the publics' domain. In specific carefully limited quantities, the hallucinogenic high was considered to bar-none not only for its unrivaled feelings, but for the length of that euphoria.

And then, well. It came in oh so many easily dispensable varieties: pill, powder, liquid or injectable. Pop it, sniff or drink it, or even stick it in a tube with a nice pointy needle, and the fascinating ethereal experience was yours for the taking. The test bed of human guinea pigs was ever-expanding assisted by its many modes of dispensation. But as that population of users grew, so did a true understanding of its dire effects and long-term results.

According to Doctor Max Bergman, their trusty medical examiner who had been tasked with picking up grisly pieces, the liquid form was equally absorbable through the skin making it even more the treacherous scare since it truly required special handling.

At first dubbed 'glow' or simply shortened to 'G'', the drug was incredibly cheap at first. But as it became more and more popular, its price was slowly being driven up even higher to reach the interest of a few more wealthier prospective buyers.

Regardless of the defined user community, the generic issue had clearly become the definition of 'carefully limited quantities' since there wasn't an addict in the world that could or would follow manufacturer's instructions for any of the drug's very exciting forms. To boot, more of something called 'glow' was always going to be better in their lexicon of thought. However, in this case, that tenet couldn't be further from the actual truth.

Despite its mode of delivery into the human body, there were two critical drawbacks which were quickly discovered amongst the new drug's believers. For those severely depressed, any thoughts of suicide became literal attempts, two of which had already succeeded. One of those had taken an innocent life along in the process.

Secondly, administering more than the recommended dosage had frightening ramifications which preyed upon a person's natural aggressive tendencies. A nervous person would become angry; an angry person would easily fill with an unchecked violent rage which lasted for hours.

So eventually, another nickname had been contrived for 'G' as its first euphoric and near heavenly impressions were stifled by its more dire affects. Users said they were 'fogged' after a particularly bad hit where they first felt impossibly strong and then wouldn't remember large blocks of time. Some didn't believe these higher dosage hits to be so bad, either. Experimenting with values, some felt they had gotten it right in order to obtain a certain desired new edge. This included particular antagonistic gangs arguing over turf, plus a few underground, back-street illegal fighters; who under the guidance of their handlers, were fogging at will in order to win big … and win they did at the expense of the unwitting opponent.

"So." Steve sighed appreciatively after bravely slugging back a deep, hot swallow of coffee. "What's new?"

Danny had a bit of a glint in his eye and Steve could tell something fairly decent had been learned. "Kono thinks she has something beneficial after the latest events from this weekend. It may shed some light on the Matthews incident." He was right, and Steve perked up immediately when the Matthews family name was mentioned in the same sentence.

"Or, it might not be related at all. We need to go slowly here." Playing devil's advocate, Danny wanted to lay the ground rules to forestall projections and half-baked suppositions on Steve's part. They were having a bit of a disagreement about the Matthews incident and Steve frowned at the mild warning.

"But it could." Steve declared as Danny made a face in return.

Audibly sighing, Danny nodded. "Yes, it could be related. Kono has spent hours on this and what she found could shed some light on a few things. But again .. we should move slowly."

"Understood." Steve muttered distractedly into the lid of his coffee cup. The McGarretts were long time friends of the joyously overly-large Matthews family dating back to their move to the Hawaiian islands. Welcoming them with open arms, Jane and Brian Matthews had embraced Doris and Jack McGarrett with their two young children forging a strong friendship through thick and thin.

The youngest son in the Matthews enormous, rambling clan of ten rowdy children now attended Kukui High and was a budding all-star football player. Never before in trouble, young Jason Matthews had been arrested over a month ago and was languishing in the Youth Correctional Facility despite emotional protests that he hadn't done anything intentionally wrong. Anxious now and in some ways ignoring his partner's comments to move cautiously, Steve checked his watch to estimate both Kono and Chin's arrival for that morning. The continued discussion was something he would definitely be looking forward to.

~ to be continued ~