A/N I know, I owe you all an update to both Ohana and When Past and Present Collide, but this one shot just wouldn't leave me alone! I don't think Chin is the bad guy that Danny is assuming. This is my take on why Chin did what he did. ~Kelcor

With a distinct air of exhaustion, Chin Ho Kelly dug his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door to his house. He couldn't help the small sigh of relief to know that it was indeed, once again, his house.

Locking the door behind him, he picked up the remote control and allowed himself to fall back onto the couch. He turned on the television and began to flip aimlessly through the channels, his mind drifting back over the night's events.

How could Danny think he had betrayed his Ohana? He would never do that. Not after everything Steve had done for him, everything the whole team had done for him. His sole motivation when he accepted the HPD's offer of his badge and promotion was to ensure Steve wasn't railroaded, to lead the investigation himself so that no evidence was planted or ignored in an effort to close the 'open and shut' case quickly and quietly.

He pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger, hoping that would ease the pounding behind his eyes. The guilt he felt at having to be the one to slap the handcuffs on his friend's wrists was breaking his heart but he'd had no choice. He knew Steve didn't kill the governor... well, he mostly knew. Honestly, he didn't know what he would have done had their roles been reversed. If the governor had said the wrong thing, if she had been stupid enough to gloat about the death of McGarrett's mother and father, there was no telling what the SEAL might have done.

Regardless, if Steve had been the one to pull the trigger, Chin knew without a doubt that it was not premeditated. He may have been goaded into it by an over confident Pat Jameson, but Steve McGarrett didn't go to her house with the plan to kill her. And maybe he was right, maybe it was Wo Fat, but Chin needed to find the evidence to make that claim stick. He had to do this right or it will have all been for nothing and he may never get his new Ohana back.

Right now, all Chin wanted to do was close his mind off to reality and slip into a deep sleep. In a perfect world, he would wake up in the morning to find this was all just a dream. But Chin, of all people, knew this was anything but a perfect world. Unfortunately, he also knew there was no friggin' way he would be able to sleep without getting a certain crucial conversation out of the way. He picked up the phone, found the right number in his contacts, and pressed dial. The presence of other HPD officers had prevented him from pleading his case earlier...

"Hey, Danny... No, wait. Don't hang up. I need to talk to you... It's really important, bra... No, I can't discuss it over the phone... Ten minutes? Yeah, I'll be there. And, Danny?... Thanks."

The weight didn't completely lift off his shoulders but he did feel a little bit lighter as he grabbed his keys off the coffee table and headed out the door once again.

Time to clear some things up, once and for all.

The End