Shelter from the Storm

At any other time, Danny would have laughed about it. It came as a surprise to him, but right now he could safely say that he really didn't hate Hawaii.

It didn't come as much of a comfort at the moment, since right now, more than Hawaii, more than pineapple on pizza, and more than Steve's questionable choices in music, Danny hated his life.

Maybe Danny could blame it on the awful day he'd had… Make it an awful week… or maybe month?

He wished he had his phone, but unfortunately, a couple of hours ago, in a fit of rage he had thrown his phone to the floor and stepped on it repeatedly. After that, he had gotten into his car and driven away… He had wanted to be away from the city, away from people and away from everything and everyone that had made his life a living hell in the last few weeks.

The sea reminded him of Malia's funeral, of Kono's surfing, it reminded him of great fun spent at the back of Steve's place, building sandcastles with Grace or just chilling on the lanai with his Ohana, so he drove away from it, not really caring in what direction he was going, or the ominous clouds that covered the sky.

The storm shouldn't have caused him any trouble if only he'd stick to the main roads and hadn't chosen the dirt path that crossed a small patch of forest in the middle of nowhere.

It was only dumb luck that had prevented him from crashing headlong into a large tree after he'd lost control of his beloved Camaro, slipping randomly through the deep mud. He came to an abrupt stop when the car fell halfway into a small ditch on the side of the road.

No matter how hard he tried, the car was completely stuck; he obviously didn't have his phone, he was in the middle of nowhere and there were buckets of water falling from the sky. It sure was fitting for Danny's mood, but it didn't help his current situation in any way.

With a weary sigh Danny got out of the car, getting soaking wet in a matter of minutes, and started the long walk back to civilization. It wasn't more than 10 minutes later that he slipped and fell for the first time, his patent leather loafers not giving him much of a purchase on the slippery road. Unfortunately, the second time was the charm, when he slipped off the side of the road, and right into a cluster of rotten tree roots.

Both of Danny's feet broke through the rotten wood and collided with something squelchy but solid at the bottom. The feel of something twisting in an unnatural way near Danny's ankle made him scream in pain. "Fuck!"

Once the shock of the fall had passed, Danny tried to get his legs out of the mess of roots and rotten wood he was stuck in. He managed to take out his bruised, but mostly unharmed left leg, but when he tried to lift his right leg he realized that it was stuck, and that pulling at it only made it hurt worse than it already did. "Great… Things just keep getting better and better!" He muttered.

Forced to stay in place, Danny tried and failed to find a less uncomfortable position, but every small movement on his injured leg sent sharp spikes of pain through it. Finally accepting that he wouldn't get out of the situation on his own, that he had no phone or any other means of communication and that he was basically in the middle of nowhere, soaking wet, covered in mud and with a rather painful stuck leg, he decided he was well and truly screwed. It was the proverbial icing on the cake, so deciding that there was nothing left to do that would improve his situation, Danny lowered his head to rest his forehead on his unstuck knee and proceeded to recount to himself all the reasons why he hated his life.

His morose thoughts were accompanied by the constant sound of the rain with a few thunders thrown for good measure, a steady annoyance that Danny did his best to ignore. The sound of some cracking twigs nearby were not so easy to ignore, so he lifted his head and looked around, trying to figure where the sound was coming from. The same sound came from somewhere closer to his right, and Danny decided that with his luck nothing good would come out of it.

Danny took out his gun, thankfully still in his holster, and pointed it in the direction of the noise. He had no interest in being eaten by a wild boar or any other beast that lurked in this damn forest, so he would make sure to shoot them before they could jump at his throat.

"Detective Williams? Are you there?" Danny certainly didn't expect a human voice to be one making all the noise, so he really didn't know how to respond. The sight of Mamo Kahike coming from between the trees and wearing a raincoat didn't make any sense to the blonde man.

The older man looked relieved to see Danny, but seemed concerned by the fact that Danny's gun was still pointing in his direction. "Detective Williams? Danny?..." He asked tentatively.

Danny looked at the gun still on his hand and back at Mamo. When he realized what he was doing, he put the gun away. "Sorry… How… What are you doing here?" He asked the older man.

Mamo came closer, crouching next to Danny and taking a good look at the place where his leg was stuck. "Well, you've managed to get yourself into some trouble, haven't you?" He said with a kind smile. "I was coming down from the mountains; I was looking for some site to do one of our reenactments. Saw you had some car trouble back there, and when I saw you were not in the car, I followed the trail you left… Do you want help getting out of there?" He asked, looking again at Danny's leg.

Danny nodded, now beyond confused. "Yeah… Please…"

It took some time, a lot of work and quite a bit of discomfort on Danny's part, but they finally managed to get his foot out of where it was stuck, and with the help of Mamo they moved back to Mamo's truck and got out of there.

According to Mamo, it would be safer to ride out what was left of the storm in a small cabin nearby rather than try to make the drive back to the city, so Danny ended up sitting on a wooden bench, in front of a worn wooden table, with his leg held in a makeshift splint and an old blanket wrapped over his shoulders. Mamo came closer and placed a cup of hot tea on his trembling hands. "Here you go… This should help to get you warm…" He said with a small smile.

Danny held the mug closer and took a small sip. The truth was that at this point it was not only the cold what was making him shake, and he was far too tired to keep pretending. He just didn't know if there was anything he could do to make things better "Thank you…" Was all that he could say to the kind man sitting nearby.

Mamo placed a warm hand on Danny's shoulder, noticing the tension coming off the younger man. "Would you like to talk about it?" He asked Danny, not bothering to pretend that nothing was wrong.

Danny took a trembling breath, trying to decide where to start. "I'm not sure if you know, but things haven't gone well for us for a while. With Malia's death, Kono's near drowning, and Steve having to deal with a bunch of personal issues, we've barely be able to keep each other afloat… I… My ex wife has to move to Las Vegas, she wants to take my daughter away and I said I would fight to keep her here. Grace has made a home in here, and I don't think it would be good for her to have to be uprooted again, and I'm starting to get used to all the things that annoyed me in the first place… I have friends here, and I wouldn't like to leave…" He said with a sad smile.

Mamo patted him on the back comfortingly. "You've made a home here as well…" At Danny's self conscious shrug, he continued. "Well, then what is stopping you from fighting to keep your keiki in the island?"

Danny seemed to curl up into himself, holding the mug as if it could protect him somehow. "To-today I got a call from my lawyer. He said that on Thursday there would be an hearing for the case, that a judge would decide whether Rachel could take Grace to Vegas… But… He said that… That he couldn't in good conscience go ahead with the hearing without telling me first that he didn't believe I had a chance to win. That he knew Stanley had too many connections, and that the system over here was much more likely to work in Rachel's favor than in mine. He advised me to just sign the petition and let her go…" He looked up with tear filled eyes to Mamo's face. "He said that they have tickets to leave on Friday, and that maybe is should just let her go…" He finished, shaking his head and passing his hand down his face.

Mamo sat closer to Danny and put his arm around the distraught man's shoulder, but Danny didn't seem to notice. Now that the floodgates had opened, he couldn't stop himself from speaking aloud about everything that had piled up on his shoulders. "It's not just that I don't want her to go… I… I don't know if I can follow! I… The team needs me right now, and even if they didn't… I don't have money for a ticket… I don't have money to rent a place in a safe part of town; Las Vegas PD is not hiring, and I've no idea if there's any other job I could get out there! She… she's leaving in five days and I c-can't… I can't follow!" He gasped, hiding his face in his hands, finally unable to keep his tears from falling.

Mamo held him close and gave him time to calm down. When Danny seemed to get himself together, he addressed the younger man. "Danny… Why didn't you go to your Ohana with this?"

Danny scoffed. "Go to my Ohana? Did you not hear what I said before? Chin just lost his wife, Steve's dead mother appeared to tell him that she wasn't really dead after all, it was all a lie, and Kono is still reeling after a son of a bitch tried to kill her and forced her cousin to choose between her and his wife!" Danny's agitation made him miss the sound of the door at his back opening quietly, and of three people entering the room. "In what universe could I trouble them with petty stuff like this?"

"Oh, Danny…" The sound of Kono's voice at his back made Danny jump to his feet.

When Danny saw Kono, Steve and Chin standing near the door of the small cabin he stumbled away from them until he reached the opposite wall, shaking his head in denial. He looked accusingly at Mamo. "Why'd you call them? They don't need this!" He said, waving his hand in his team's direction.

Steve stepped closer to his partner. "Danny, he called me when he found the Camaro, he wanted to know if we already had called a tow truck, and I told him that we had been looking for you…" He moved to Danny's side, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We were worried, Danno…"

Danny shook his head, using his shirt sleeve to wipe his tears. "I'm alright… It's not that big a deal…" He mumbled, looking at the floor.

Danny was surprised to feel another hand on his other shoulder, and looked up to see that Chin had come closer. "You once told me that you had my back, and you've had it, ever since we've met…" The older man said.

"You also told me that there is no my own in a friendship and your problems become my problems…" Steve said next, squeezing Danny's shoulder to catch his attention.

Kono was there too, taking Danny's hand in both of hers. "You've been there for us even when we wished you weren't…" She said with a smile, which brought a tearful chuckle from Danny. "You've been there even when you've had problems of your own… Why don't you let us return the favor?"

Danny looked at his team, his friends, for a minute, and finally seemed to decide that he really didn't have a choice at this point. "Ok…" He said softly, with a tired nod.

They moved back to the small table and sat down to listen as Danny told them about the lawyer, about the plane tickets and about his fears of not being able to follow Grace. By the time he was done telling his story, the storm seemed to have stopped. "… so I guess that now I have to start looking for jobs in casinos, or as a security guard somewhere…" Danny finished, sniffing softly and looking down at the new mug of tea in front of him.

"What? You can't really be thinking about going to Vegas, Danno!" Steve asked, surprised.

Danny gave his partner a confused look. "Seriously? Just a couple of weeks ago you were telling me to stop fighting, that it would hurt Grace, and now you're asking me that?"

"Well… yeah… but I meant that you should find some less confrontational way to keep Grace here… Now that that's out of the question, I don't think you should just give up…" Steve said, trying to get his friend's eye.

Chin nodded in agreement. "Besides, since when a lawyer doesn't take a case because he doesn't have good chances of winning? It doesn't sound right…"

None of the people sitting at the table seemed to have noticed that Mamo had stepped outside for a while and that now he had come back inside. "That's because it isn't right, Chin Ho…" Mamo said, coming closer to the table and looking at Danny. "I made some calls, and the only reason why your lawyer advised you to sign the petition was because he was paid to do so… He was also instructed to return the money he had charged you since he started working for you, but it seems it conveniently slipped his mind…" He took a piece of paper from his pocket and moved to put it in Danny's shirt pocket, but hesitated at the still muddy state of said shirt, so he switched to Chin's pocket, and placed it there. "Now here's the phone of an attorney that knows you're Ohana, and is willing to fight against the big dogs. He agreed to meet with you tomorrow and he thinks he can help…"

Danny nodded, giving the older man a small smile. "Thank you so much, Mamo…"

Mamo patted Danny's hand. "You're very welcome, Danny."

"Alright Danno… Time to get home…" Steve said, standing up from the table, followed by Chin and Kono.

"But not before you get that leg checked over at the hospital…" Kono said, looking concerned at Danny's splinted leg.

Chin nodded in agreement. "And then you're crashing at Steve's place…"

"But not before you take a shower, because you look like you took a mud bath in your clothes…" Steve said, scrunching up his nose in distaste.

"Wait, what's wrong with my own place?" Danny asked his friends, very confused by the latest turn of events.

Steve put his arm around Danny's shoulders. "There's nothing wrong with your place Danno… But we're throwing some steaks to the fire later tonight, and you probably won't have your car, so you might as well crash at my place…"

Danny shrugged, a little dejectedly. "Alright…"

He had really forgotten about his car until Steve mentioned it, but before Danny could ask him about it, Mamo spoke. "I called Kamekona, and he's coming over with a tow truck… We'll take care of it, Danny…"

They finally left the cabin and said goodbye to Mamo. Danny gave him a heartfelt hug thanking him for everything he did for him, and started limping his way to Steve's truck. Before he took two steps he had two pairs of arms hanging onto his waist and his shoulders and taking up most of his weight. "Hey… I can still walk!" Danny said, annoyed at being seen as weak.

"You've been carrying a great weight on your shoulders for a long time, Danny… There's no shame in letting us share the load for a little while…" Chin said.

Danny saw the truth in his friends' eyes and made a conscious effort to accept their help more graciously. They helped him to the back seat, with Steve sitting on his side, Chin driving and Kono in the passenger seat. Danny finally relaxed in his seat and blinked tiredly a couple of times. "Do you want to take a nap, Danno? Maybe try to lay down a bit?" Steve asked from his side, moving to make more room for his partner.

Danny stopped Steve's movement with a hand on his arm. "Don't worry babe… I'm good…"

Steve gave him a look. "You sure about that?"

Danny took a minute to think on the awful day he'd had and yet somehow, with the help of his friends… His Ohana, he had managed to ride through the storm. He was not completely unscathed, but they made the best shelter he could ask for right now, so looking back at Steve with a tired smile, he nodded. "Yup… I'm sure…"

The End

A/N: Well, this started in my head as a coda for the season finale, but I took too long, the new season already started and messed up most of my ideas, so this came out.

Now, this is the end of this series, just because I think 20 is a nice round number, but it doesn't mean that I won't be writing any more oneshots, I just won't post them in this batch.

I'm not sure if having all the oneshots in one place is better or worse, so I'd really like your feedback on the matter. Do you prefer all the short stories in one place or you like it better when they're posted individually? If you have any opinion, let me know.

Anyways, thank you very much for reading, and as always I'd love to hear what you thought of this last installment.

See you soon!