Author's note: Here we go. Last chapter.

Thin Ice in Honolulu

Chapter 9: Reinventing Five-0

They had been summoned to the Five-0 offices by the new governor Peter Trent. The place looked abandoned, computer gear pulled out, smart table unplugged, files emptied. Kono trailed her finger along a desk and made a disgusted noise.

"Fingerprint powder everywhere," she said. "What'd they expect to find, our fingerprints? We worked here!"

In the main room, Danny leaned back in his desk chair with his bandaged leg on a straight chair. His crutches tilted against the deactivated smart table. Chin leaned beside the crutches. Jenna ran her hands along the smart table, wishing she could activate the amazing toy. Steve paced around the room restlessly.

"Thank you for coming," the governor said, causing the others to leap to their feet. Danny straightened in his chair as the next best thing.

Trent entered with his security men. The governor shook hands with everyone and asked about Danny's injury.

The detective shrugged. "It's sore, but it's healing. Keeping it elevated helps. Why did you ask us to come here, sir? Five-0 no longer exists – or does it?"

"Perceptive as ever. I can be just as blunt. I wanted to ask you to head up a new Five-0 task force."

While his friends around him stood stiff as stunned statues, Danny raised his eyebrows and gestured at himself. "Me?"

The governor perched on the smart table. "You. I think you proved your leadership skills in the latest crisis."

"You should do it, Danny," Steve said abruptly. "You'd be good at it. Better than I was."

Danny snorted. "No I wouldn't."

Shrewd detective's eyes met the shrewd politician's. Danny had the distinct impression the man was toying with him, toying with all of them. He wondered what would happen if he accepted, but he didn't want the job. He had to do too much paperwork as it was.

"I can catch the bad guys, but being head of Five-0 is more than that. You have VIP meetings and press conferences. You need someone more impressive. Ugly models don't sell lingerie and short guys don't make good figureheads. Face it, people are heightists."

"What?" Kono queried.

"People have more respect for tall people. Ninety percent of executives are tall."

There was a murmur of disagreement. Danny rolled his eyes. "You … are … all … tall! What would you know about it?" He pointed at the data analyst. "Am I right?"

Jenna shrugged. "He's right. It's even more than 90 percent."

"There! Dress me up in a tux and people think I'm a waiter. I'm more useful as a second-in-command," Danny said. "I'd rather be the one at the side sniping than the one in the center being shot at," he said honestly.

"The power behind the throne?" Chin said in amusement.

"Exactly!" Danny's hands waved wildly. "I'm the brake to keep us under control, but to get anywhere, you need an accelerator." He looked pointedly in Steve's direction. "Anyway, I have these anger management issues that sometimes get the better of me."

"No. Really?" Kono said.

"I think you underestimate yourself, detective," the governor said.

"No, but other people do," Chin said.

"And he likes it that way," Kono said.

Danny shrugged.

"I respect your decision, detective," Trent said.

Expected it, too, Danny thought, but (for a wonder) didn't say.

So, you would be willing to follow McGarrett again?" the governor asked.

The others agreed. Danny said, "Big, tall, intimidating naval officers make good figureheads. It's even a shippy word."

"Shippy, Danny?" Steve exclaimed.

"And what do you say, commander?" the governor asked. "You led them into disaster, but they're willing to follow you again. Can you lead them?"

The phrasing was brutal, but maybe Steve needed the challenge.

Steve slowly raised his head. His eyes glistened at the trust his friends showed him, but behind the moisture a proud fire gleamed.

"A military officer has to deal with defeat as well as victory, or he's no officer at all, sir."

"Have you learned anything from this?" Trent asked.

"That I still have a lot to learn," Steve answered with a wry twist to his mouth.

"Very well, you did some stellar work with Five-0. I'm willing to give you another chance. There will be some changes. 'Full means, but limited immunity.' I don't have a problem with creative interrogation techniques, but stealing money, breaking into government offices — no."

"And no grenades in my glove compartment," the irrepressible Danny said.

"It was only a flash-bang," Steve told the governor hastily.

"My daughter rides in that car," Danny said sternly.

"No armaments in other people's cars without their consent," Trent said, unable to keep a smile from twitching his lip. "Now, lieutenant," he turned to Chin. "You're willing to return to Five-0?"

"Yes sir."

"I don't see any reason you should lose rank. How does detective lieutenant sound?"

"It sounds great, but I couldn't take it. Danny's the Number 2 man in Five-0," Chin said.

Danny started to protest, but the governor overrode him "I was coming to that, Detective Lieutenant Williams."

Danny sounded it out silently, then shook his head. "I can't turn down the money, but the title is a mouthful. Since we're reinventing Five-0, why don't we just invent a new pay grade, say, Detective 1, with the same pay as an HPD lieutenant."

Trent thought that sounded reasonable. He looked at Kono. "I'm sorry, Officer Kalakaua, but …" Kono understood. She'd just come off suspension. It wasn't the proper time to give her a pay raise.

"No, having my badge back is reward enough, sir," Kono said sincerely.

"And Miss Kaye," Trent said, looking at Jenna who had been sure she was invisible behind Steve. "If you're planning to stay, I believe there's room in the budget for five in Five-0."

"Well, Danny did promise to teach me how to be a field agent," she said, but her tentative gaze was on Steve.

Danny shrugged when Steve gave him a look. "I thought I was going to die. I never figured I'd have to make good on that promise." At Jenna's indignant squeak, Danny added, "I promise to put you through the Daniel Williams Police Academy, Jenna. I hope you're a better student than my last one," he said with a pointed look at his partner.

"It's your decision, Jenna. We'll be glad to have you if you want to stay," Steve said.

"Yes, I want to stay."

"Yay," Kono said. "Now I'm not the rookie any more."

Chin chuckled and shook his head.

"Now for the less pleasant news," Trent said. "Commander, you didn't make any friends in HPD by choking an officer unconscious."

Steve bowed his head. Chin shuffled uncomfortably. The governor said, "Lieutenant?"

"Some of the people wondered if Steve might have PTSD."

Steve's head snapped up. He started to protest, but another voice overrode him.

"It's not PTSD. He's missing half the symptoms," Jenna said with the certainty of a born researcher. She blushed when everyone looked at her.

"Only half?" Danny asked drily.

"Um, yeah."

Danny gave Steve a look. As clearly as if Danny had telepathically projected it into his brain, Steve heard, "I said you needed help. I even offered to pay!"

"Chief Mahaka insists that you go through a psychiatric evaluation before you take command of Five-0 again," Trent said.

Aha! Danny thought. So you planned to give the job to Steve all along.

"I've arranged it with the admiral at Pearl. If it's any comfort, he's not convinced you need psychiatric help. He thinks this might be more a matter of retraining. He said the Navy sent you on too many lone wolf, black ops projects that weakened your officer training and didn't help you properly transition back into civilian life. He blames himself for not insisting on it."

His teammates half expected Steve to balk, but he was thinking bout unintended consequences. His vendetta had put a blot on Kono's record that would never be erased and caused a rip in Danny's heart that would leave an indelible scar. These people weren't his unit; they were his friends. There were no acceptable losses any more.

And he'd never found out why Wo Fat wanted him and his father dead.

"Whatever you say, sir," the naval officer agreed. "I know my actions caused suffering to people who trusted me," Steve said with the stiff posture of a military man explaining his actions to a superior. "I was a loose cannon rolling around the deck running over the people I was supposed to protect. I know I was wrong to take the law into my own hands, but that was my training for so long, it became instinct. Under stress, I reverted. I didn't listen to my friends." He turned to his wounded friend. "Danny, I …"

Danny stopped him with an angry forefinger. "You don't have to apologize, not for this. Wo Fat played us — played you, played me, played all of us." Danny turned his weaponized finger on the governor. "Just to be clear, the shrink will know that someone actually did kill Steve's parents and kidnap his sister. He's not paranoid; someone really was conspiring against him."

"I'll make sure of it," Trent promised. "I can arrange for you to talk to the psychiatrist yourself."

"Now I really will be committed," Steve groaned, feeling more himself as his friend's defense began to relieve his guilt.

"My bullet scars are not sufficient proof that I have your back?" Danny said, looking over his shoulder in outrage.

Steve gripped his friend's shoulder, the one scarred by a bullet on the first day they met. That was all the answer Danny needed.

"Then, if we're all agreed, Five-0 will resume operations in two weeks, time for evaluation and healing," the governor said.

Kono made a small sound of protest. "I've already had almost three weeks vacation."

"Suppose I make arrangements for you to work with Charlie Fong, brush up on your lab skills, cuz," Chin suggested. Kono happily agreed.

"During that time, I'll have the equipment reinstalled." The governor got up to go, then remembered and said to Danny, "Louis Francetti of Homeland Security wants his credentials back, unless you'd like to keep them and move to Washington?"

"It's like Christmas morning," Danny said wryly. "You can tell the chief I'm sorry, but that's only the fourth best offer I've had today."

"Fourth?" Chin couldn't resist asking. "I only count three."

"Steve's buying dinner," Danny answered.

The commander held out his hands in surrender. Kono cheered quietly.

"Governor," Steve said firmly. "I have one question before we start this all over again. How much did you know about Jameson's ties to Wo Fat?"

His question silenced the room as if it was an anti-noise bomb. If Danny had dared to speak, he would have told Steve for the second time, "I have never been prouder of you than I am right now." He had not cared for the cowed, apologetic Steve. He liked respectfully defiant, quietly aggressive Steve better.

Trent looked tired. He spoke to Chin. "Lieutenant, has there ever been a cop you knew was crooked? Not a hired assassin for the mob, but the kind who would give a warning instead of a ticket if you dropped $40 on the ground."

"Yes sir," Chin answered. Danny was nodding, too.

"That's what I thought Pat Jameson was. I knew she was … beholden to some special interests who smoothed her path, pushed her to the top more quickly than most of us could understand. Almost all of us have someone we owe," he said with seeming honesty. (But he was a professional liar, after all, Danny thought.) "I never expected this sort of corruption — multiple murders and millions of dollars. No, I didn't know. Apparently I didn't know Pat Jameson at all."

Steve studied him, then looked at his partner, he of the good instincts.

Danny looked to Jenna.

"Nothing showed up in his financials," the analyst said. She dipped her head, abashed when Trent looked at her. "We looked at everyone in the governor's office," she said in a small voice.

"A wise move," Trent said kindly. He joined Steve in sending an inquiring glance at Danny.

The Jerseyan shrugged. (He was doing that a lot today, he realized.) "I'm willing to chance it," he said. "If you're in, we're in, Steve," he said, answering for the others without even asking them. But he knew what they'd say. He was a detective. Besides, he could see them all nodding. They squared up beside Steve, as he stood with his hands on the back of Danny's chair. All of Five-0 looked firmly into the new governor's eyes.

"Then it's up to you, governor," Steve said. "Knowing what happened to the last governor who sponsored us, do you want Five-0 back?"

Trent met each gaze squarely, one by one. He straightened proudly, like the soldier he had been. "Yes, I do."

A sweet, joyful smile burst onto Steve's face. "Then Five-0 is back."

— H50 —

After the governor left, Danny retrieved his crutches and, with Kono spotting him, began the complicated process of standing without putting any pressure on his wounded leg. The bone wasn't broken, but the muscle hurt like a sonuvagun if asked to do any work.

Steve patted his multitude of pockets. He had his ID — it went with the badge — but he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his cash. Before his arrest? He put an apologetic look on his face. "Uh, Danny."

Without even looking back, Danny flipped up two fingers holding the slim gray folder that contained Steve's sole credit card and an assortment of folded bills. The detective had found it when he got the Camaro out of storage.

"Really? A duct tape billfold?" Danny asked, as he hobbled slowly toward the exit.

"I made it when I was a Boy Scout," Steve answered, smiling, falling in beside his friend. Chin, Kono and Jenna formed up around them.

Danny announced, "From now on, boys and girls, I'm taking control of the mysteriously missing McGarrett money."

Kono clapped her hands at the alliteration and Jenna giggled.

A twinkling, tinkling object sailed toward Steve's face. He plucked it easily out of the air.

"But I'm willing to share the car keys," Danny continued. "You drive, babe."

"Yes sir!" Steve said, snapping a salute. He jogged ahead to open the door for his friends.

— H50 —

Two weeks later, cleared for duty, (No, he did not have PTSD, thank you.) Steve looked out through his glass walls to see his friends rearranging their personal belongings in their Five-0 offices. Even Jenna had her own little space, crammed with computers.

Danny set a photo of his daughter on a bookshelf next to a cherished surveillance photo of Steve in full rampage with a flowered dress swirling around his hairy ankles. The portrait of Grace reminded Steve of his own picture. He pulled the framed piece of art out of his duffle and found a good spot where he could see it whenever he left the office. He hoped it would remind him of the people who depended on him to be a good leader and of the friends who had followed him even when he wasn't.

He wiped a cloth across the glass and smiled at the framed crayon drawing. The mighty lion tamer and his shaggy cats grinned back. Daniel and his friends had tamed the lions and freed Steve from his cage.

The End

(Or really the beginning of Season 2.)