"I can give you twenty reasons right now why you're wrong, why you're so wrong" Steve spat, one of his hands coming off the wheel as he drove down the afternoon traffic of Honolulu. Danny was shaking his head next to him, teeth grit in frustration. The tension in the car was as high as ever, neither man willing to back down on their side of the argument.

"If I had known that you were such an expert on films from the 1980's, I would have never started this in the first place" Danny retorted sarcastically. They had already been arguing for the better part of five minutes, and at this rate, they would continue for just as long. It was obvious to Danny that Steve was about to continue in his go at the film, but the two froze in the midst of their heated debate to the ringing of Steve's cell phone. With a heavy sigh, and a glare at Danny, he answered it in his usual tone.

"McGarrett."

Silence for a couple of seconds as chatter came through over the cell, and Steve's face grew more grim by the second. A few seconds later he ended the call, and replaced his other hand on the wheel.

"We'll have to finish this one up later, Danny. They want all HPD and law enforcement in the area to some high rise apartments about two blocks from here. Buckle your seatbelt, buddy" he said with a tight smirk.

Danny shook his head and pulled on his seatbelt to prove that it was indeed secured, but something rolled in his gut. The look on Steve's face, the fake smile, all were usually red flags when it came to the stoic SEAL. Looks that didn't come around very often, enough to set Danny on high alert with his best friend. As the car picked up speed, he looked ahead and asked, trying to diminish the nervous feeling that was making his chest constrict.

"So, what's this all about? Did you get any details over that call of yours?" He asked, trying to sound as annoyed and as inquisitive as usual. Steve only shook his head however, and pushed the car forward at yet another increased speed.

This was yet another warning sign for Danny, who realized that it would be better to just shut up and see what happened at the end of this minute long ride.

For the duration of that minute, Danny tried to push down the nervousness in his gut, staring out the window and wondering what in the world could have Steve anywhere close to spooked, or so serious. Of course, serious was the nature of their job. There was nothing about being so involved with crime that wasn't serious. But for some reason, this was something different.

The minute was over quickly, and there were already a couple of squad cars outside of the apartment buildings. This was a part of town that was slightly more busy than the rest of the island, and today it had a small crowd of police officers standing in a cluster at the bottom of the one building.

"What the hell is this, Steve?" Danny asked, scanning the area for a glimpse of a coroner or a body, or hands on holsters in the threat of a chase. Yet there was none of this, only lots of cell phones and radios in hands, and a small crowd of civilians being pushed past a barrier. His heart was beating at an increasing tempo, and something inside made him look up, towards the top of the apartments.

In that moment he stopped breathing, stopped thinking, it felt like he even stopped living. There, with the sun as the backdrop, stood a girl on the edge of the apartment roof, toes curled over the edge.

No. Not again. Not this all over again. The thoughts ran through his mind at a hundred miles an hour, making his hands shake and his stomach churn. Steve turned to him, but the words weren't going through. There was too much static in his mind, too much blood pounding in his ears, too much pain in his heart. There was no way that he could manage to do this again. Not after what happened last time.

Finally Steve snapped him back into reality with a hand on his knee, and a loud voice almost right in his ear.

"Danny! Danny, are you alright? What's wrong!" Steve was yelling, shaking Danny's leg gently. Danny could only close his eyes tightly shut and reply with a hoarse whisper.

"I'm not going to fail another little girl. I'm not going to see the faces of her mother and father after they watched their daughter fall and snap her neck. I'm not going to do that again. I can't do that again."

There was silence from Steve for once, and Danny could feel his eyes boring into his skin. It was too late now, the scenes from that September afternoon back in Jersey were already playing in his head. The description of that day was running through his mind and out of his lips before he could stop himself, blabbering the words in a soft voice, biting back the pain.

"It all started on the first day of fall a few years back, just before I left Jersey…"