This wasn't the story I intended to post this week, but all this talk about season finales put this wicked cliffhanger in my head and I wanted to post this before the show's season finale. These scenes would come at the end of a mostly unrelated episode and they do not relate to any of my other stories.

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Null and Void

Ears covered for protection, Five-0 officers Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett and Detective Danny Williams alternated shots at the Honolulu Police Department firing range.

"Clear!" Danny announced, raising his empty weapon to his shoulder and pointing it at the ceiling.

"Clear!" Steve agreed, following suit.

They emptied their automatics, reloaded and holstered them before pressing the buttons to bring the targets closer.

Each target had grouping of holes so close they could have been covered by a quarter.

"No winner again. I guess we buy our own beers," Danny said. He felt a vibration in his pocket, pulled out his phone and raised his eyebrows when he checked the message.

"Rachel sent me a text," he reported. "She wants to talk to me before Grace gets home from school."

"Why a text? I thought you were on speaking terms with your ex," Steve said.

"We were," Danny agreed. "There must be something she thinks I'll object to and she doesn't want to argue about it on the phone."

"Maybe she wants Grace to eat more pineapple on her pizza," Steve suggested.

"Ha ha," said the detective, who thought fruit on pizza was sacrilege.

Danny started the laborious process of texting a reply. Steve couldn't stand to watch him struggle with the tiny keyboard on the smart phone. The commander snatched the phone from his partner's hands, quickly texted "Be right over" and handed it back before Danny finished sputtering his outrage.

"I take it you're giving me permission to leave early then," Danny said tartly.

"Permission granted," Steve said, snapping a salute, which looked odd coming from someone wearing beige cargo pants and a black T-shirt.

Danny rolled his eyes, straightened his tie and left.

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Danny's daughter, Grace Williams, waited patiently on the steps in front of school until she was the last child left.

"Father late today?" Mrs. Fujita asked.

The girl shook her head. "Mommy's supposed to pick me up today. We were going to buy shoes." She pointed her toe and showed the badly scuffed Mary Janes.

Mrs. Fujita offered her cell phone. "Maybe you'd better call. Your parents might have gotten confused about whose day it is to pick you up."

Grace doubted that. She knew her parents were more likely to obsess about whose turn it was than to forget. There was no answer at her home phone or her mother's cell, so she tried her father.

"Williams," came the answer.

Grace felt a rush of relief. "Daddy, Mommy's supposed to pick me up but she's not here and she's not answering her phone and Mrs. Fujita wants to go home."

"I'm sorry, baby, something's come up with your Mom and me. We can't get there." Danny's voice was even and controlled, which for some reason sent chills down Grace's spine. "Why don't you call Uncle Steve to pick you up?"

"Okay," Grace said, her voice shaking.

"I love you, Grace." The girl heard her mother's voice at some distance from Danny's phone.

"Did you hear that, monkey?" Danny asked. When the girl said yes, her father added in a voice rough with emotion, "Whatever happens, baby, remember, Danno loves you."

"Love you, too," Grace answered.

Danny hung up. Grace turned to Mrs. Fujita and the teacher saw tears in the girl's eyes.

"Something's wrong. I need to call someone else."

The teacher agreed and Grace dialed a number that her father had insisted she memorize.

"McGarrett."

"Steve, Daddy said I should call you to pick me up."

"Grace?" He couldn't believe Danny's daughter was calling him.

"Please, Steve, I'm scared. Daddy sounded funny."

Steve wasn't good with kids. He hadn't even realized that until he met Danny. He'd just never had much experience with children while he was in the Navy. But now he was a police officer and a little girl was in trouble. No, his partner's little girl was in trouble.

"I'm just a few blocks away, Grace. I'll be there in five."

He made it in four.

As much as she wanted to go to her own home, Mrs. Fujita seemed hesitant to release Grace to Steve. Some of the girl's fear had communicated itself to the teacher. But Steve showed his ID and Grace swore she knew the man. He even knew Grace's code words, "Derek Jeter."

In the cab of the dark blue Silverado pickup, Grace explained how she couldn't reach her Mom and her Dad said to call Steve. "He said, call 'Uncle Steve,'" the girl emphasized.

Grace called Chin Ho Kelly Uncle Chin, because that was how he'd introduced himself to her. But Steve and Kono had just used their first names. "Uncle" Steve seemed to be a message. What it meant, neither of them knew, but it made them anxious.

"Your Mom texted your Dad and asked him to come over before you got home," Steve told the girl.

"Do you think they were fighting?" Grace asked. She knew texting instead of talking was a negative sign.

Or maybe, with Stan off in Singapore, the former spouses' lingering attraction had led to … No, Steve did NOT want to go there. "Maybe something happened at the house," Steve said, trying to break the mood of dread that engulfed them. "Maybe … the pipes broke and they're body surfing out the front door on a big wave."

Grace laughed dutifully, but not as if she meant it.

The police radio had been muttering calls all along, but suddenly one caught their ears. "Caller reports shots fired, 4347 Summer Street, Kuliouou." Grace gasped. It was her address.

Steve pressed hard on the accelerator.

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The gate was wide open at the Edwards home and a patrol car had just pulled up to the front door, which was also open. As Steve screeched to a halt in the driveway, two officers who Steve recognized entered cautiously, guns drawn.

Grace whimpered.

"Grace, stay in the truck," Steve said urgently.

The girl promised.

Steve started to leave, hesitated, then leaned over and shut off the police radio. Only then did he run for the door with his badge in one hand and his gun in the other.

He thought later that he must have been in shock. At first, all he could see was a crime scene. A woman, shot through the neck, lay twisted as if she'd been running toward the door when she was gunned down. Arterial spray splattered across the foyer as if it had been painted by Jackson Pollack. Beyond her, a man lay face down, a pool of blood spreading from beneath him. His left hand was hidden under his body. His right stretched out to touch the butt of an automatic.

It took a long moment of dazed study before Steve could grasp that the woman was Rachel and the man was Danny.

The officers had cleared the house and recognized McGarrett. One went out to the car while the other raised his radio and said, "We have two DBs. Looks like a murder-suicide."

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Now, wouldn't that be a wicked season-ending cliffhanger? Fortunately, I won't make you wait three months to find out what happened.