Note: This is my attempts at a Danny/Chin story. Hope you enjoy.
Thanks to wenwalke for her excellent skills at correcting all my mistakes.
Disclaimer: No copy right infringement intended. Just having some fun.
Chapter One
Danny smiled to himself as he felt the power of the Camaro beneath him. For once he was getting to drive his own car to a potential crime scene. The team had been working hard to bring down a drug ring. The streets of Hawaii had been flooded with a particularly strong form of cannabis that had caused many users to hallucinate, and there had been several incidences of people getting hurt. One man had even died after he thought he had wings and tried to fly off the top of his apartment building. The team had managed to take down several of the low level drug dealers. However they hadn't managed to find out where the drugs were coming from, and who was supplying them.
Chin had been following up intelligence from one of his CI's, while the rest of the team returned to the office. They'd found a message on their office phone, from an anonymous source, claiming they had been out hiking and stumbled across a field of plants that looked out of place.
The team all thought it unlikely to be the drugs they were looking for as it was too close to a popular hiking trail. Danny had volunteered to meet Chin up at the trail to check it out, as Chin was already close to the site. The others had all been surprised the Jersey native had volunteered, and that he had quickly changed into jeans, T-shirt and hiking boots. Danny wasn't known for his love of the outdoors, but Steve knew Danny was still dealing with the death of his brother, Matt, and his own actions in Columbia, and thought some time out in the open, with Chin, might do his best friend some good.
Danny was enjoying the drive to meet Chin. He had left the city behind and was making the most of the open road that wound its way up to the summit of the trail. Either side of the road was nothing but Hawaiian rain forest, the trees hundreds of years old. The sun was high in the sky, signalling the approach of midday, and Danny was grateful for the air conditioning in the car. But he was well aware that he would soon be leaving that luxury behind and heading down the trail with Chin on what was most likely a wild goose chase.
He knew the others had been surprised that he had volunteered to head into the rainforest. It wasn't that he didn't like the outdoors, in fact he enjoyed most of the times Steve had dragged him down some obscure trail, or having to cut down forest in Cambodia, he just didn't like the fact that they always seemed to get into trouble whilst doing it. At least this time he would be with Chin, as Steve 'trouble magnet' McGarrett had stayed behind to canvas the streets with the rest of the team. He was hoping a good trek in the forest would get him out of his head for a bit, and he could ignore the constant feelings of regrets he had from killing Reyes in cold blood. No matter how many times he told himself he had done the right thing to protect Grace and the rest of his family, because he knew Reyes wouldn't have let the matter drop with the return of the money. He was still struggling with how it had changed him. He had always prided himself on being a good cop, never going too far over the line, but that day he had gone so far over he wasn't sure he deserved to find his way back.
Finally reaching the car park he saw Chin sat on a log, his bike parked to the side, and steered the Camaro over to join him.
"What took you so long, Haole?" Chin said rising to his feet and smiling to greet Danny.
"Hey, you had a head start. You get anything from your CI?" Danny asked while grabbing a backpack from the trunk, filled with supplies for their trek.
"He said he had heard there was a new ring in town, didn't know any names. But he said that they meant business as they have already scared off most of the other dealers on the street."
"Great and here was me hoping they would be too baked to put up a fight." Danny joked.
"So do you think we're about to get lucky?" Chin asked as they headed off down the trail.
"I doubt it. These guys are too smart to grow their crop up here so close to the trail. Knowing my luck, it will be a field of pineapples. But we have to check it out, right?"
Chin just laughed and followed after his friend.
The two trekked for an hour to the point where the lead had said they'd seen the field. Both men were hot and sweaty, and had finally decided that they were right and this was a false lead, there was no sign of any fields or illegal grows.
"Come on, let's head back." Danny said passing Chin a bottle of water. "There is nothing here and none of the hikers we have passed have seen anything either."
"Do you think it was kids playing a prank, or the real dealers trying to throw us off their trail?" Chin asked.
"When we get back, maybe you can do your thing and try and track the call."
"Yeah, and if it turns out to be kids, I may have to give them a good talking to." Chin replied with an evil grin that Danny knew meant, scare the crap out of them.
Danny smiled then sighed and started to head back to the trail head.
"That was a big sigh, brah, you ok?" Chin asked. He had been aware Danny had been quieter than normal the whole trek. He also knew Danny was struggling with what happened in Columbia, although he didn't know all the details. All Steve had told them was that Matt had already been dead, and he and Danny had to fight their way out, and Danny had killed Reyes.
"What? Yeah I'm fine. We haven't been hiking that long."
"I know that, it's just you seem to have a lot on your mind. You know you can talk to us don't you?"
Danny stopped and turned to face Chin, causing him to have to abruptly stop.
"I know, thanks man. I just ... I just have a whole world of guilt I'm working my way through." Danny explained.
"Guilty? Danny, Matt was dead before you got there. You did everything you could to save him. He got himself into trouble. You're not to blame."
"You know, I'm actually starting to accept that. Steve and I have talked about it, and I know you're both right. There is no point thinking about the what ifs. What if I had shot him and stopped him leaving? For all I know Reyes would have just had Matt killed in jail. I'm actually making my peace with that bit."
"Ok, so what do you have to feel guilty about?" Chin asked confused.
Danny looked down at his feet, he wasn't sure he was ready to go there just yet, to openly voice his issues. He hadn't even discussed them with Steve, who had witnessed Danny's darker side that day, and the two of them hadn't spoken a word about it since. Steve, the good friend that he was, had just accepted that Danny did what he had to do.
"It's fine if you don't want to talk about it, it's just I can see something is eating you alive." Chin replied not wanting to push his friend, and he started to walk back up the trail.
"I killed Reyes." Danny blurted out, "I crossed the line."
Now it was Chin's turn to stop and turn around, "they were gonna kill you, Danny."
"No. We had taken out his goons and I went after Reyes. He killed Matty and he threatened Grace." Danny paused and swallowed. "What kind of a cop am I that I killed a man, point blank? I made him look me in the eye and I ... pulled the trigger." The last words were barely above a whisper as he dropped his backpack to the ground and sat down breathing hard.
Chin quickly closed the distance between them and dropped down at Danny's side. He sat close to his friend, their shoulders touching in an attempt to ground Danny who was obviously struggling to hold his emotions back. "I understand what you did, why you did it. It doesn't make you a bad cop. In that second you weren't a cop. You were a grieving brother, and a protective father."
"But the way I did it..." Danny said starting to play with a blade of grass by his side.
"When I went after Delano, he was down. He didn't have a gun. He taunted me that I wouldn't shoot an unarmed man."
"He was wrong?" Danny asked finally looking up and making eye contact with Chin. They had all read Chin's report that stated he had killed Delano in a shoot out, and no one had questioned the details of what went down.
"He was wrong." Chin confirmed. "I thought about handing my badge in." He admitted, "but then I realised, the world was a better place without him, and he forced me to cross the line. He had already gone after Malia and Kono while in jail. I wasn't prepared to risk him going after my family again."
Danny let out a big sigh then gave Chin a small smile, "thanks man."
"You're a good man Danny, the fact that you're struggling with this proves that. Don't let it eat you up any more."
"I'll try." Danny promised rising to his feet. He actually felt better now he had voiced his issues, and knowing Chin could relate made him feel relieved. "Ok, let's head back. Steve will be wanting an update, and we still need to get these drugs off the street."
"Sure." Chin replied pushing off the ground and walking alongside his friend who now didn't seem quite so weighed down by his emotional burden.
5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0
Making it back to the trail end Danny headed to the car, while Chin headed to his bike and grabbed his leather jacket. Shrugging it on he was about to swing his leg over the bike when he heard Danny shouting a string of swear words that he definitely wouldn't want Grace to hear.
"Err, everything ok?"
"No. Everything is not ok. Some jerk has slashed all of my tyres. All of them." Danny yelled, his arms waving around wildly.
Chin wandered over to the car and circled it. "They certainly did a number on them." Seeing Danny attempt to check his phone for a signal he added, "You're wasting your time. You won't get a signal all the way up here."
"I know it was a long shot." Danny sighed and rammed the phone back into his pocket. "Who the hell would do this? Do you think it was one of the hikers we passed?"
"I don't see why they would do this. I think it's more likely the same person who made the call to get us up here. They're messing with us."
"Great, it's gonna cost me a fortune to replace all four tyres, and now I'm stuck here 'till you can get down and send a tow truck for me."
"Or, you could jump on the back of my bike, and we can send a tow truck to collect the car later." Chin suggested.
"Are you serious? You want me to get on the back of that death trap?" Danny said indicating the bike, "no way. I'll stay here thanks."
"Come on. You really want to stay here all afternoon. I promise I'll take it slow. I have a cousin who can come collect the car, he'll sort the tyres for you too. I'm sure he will do you a good deal."
Danny stopped and thought about it. He really didn't want to have to wait to be picked up. He was hot and tired, and was looking forward to a cool shower. Today had been the hottest day of the year so far. "Fine," Danny conceded. "But no racing around the corners and you'll have to show me how to hold on."
"No problem brah, don't worry everything will be fine." Chin smiled as he headed back over to the bike. He watched Danny grab the backpack and put it on, before joining him at the bike.
TBC