He's going to kill the next person who asks him if he's ok.

It's not a metaphorical, 'kill', like Kono has a habit of muttering under her breath at the old woman who manages to pull in front of the young officer at the same intersection every time she's in a rush to get to the palace or Lou's angry mutter under the breath in direct towards Kamekono's spicy mouth burning Friday shrimp combo. Hell, it can't touch Danny's near daily, 'You Neanderthal- if you kill me or break that liver, I'll kill you twice' nag .

No, this is a -I will actually kill the next person who asks if I'm all right.

Steve McGarrett rests against the rails that lines the windowed hallway at Queen's Medical Center. Two floor above the ground level, the SEAL is standing directly between the non- emergency ICU and the cardiology wing, drenched in sweat and trembling in his Kevlar vest, navy blue button down and cargo pants. He can't enjoy the beautiful evening setting sun that's left a cool, calming feel in the hallway; instead, he's waiting impatiently and daring someone to bring the news he's been hell bent on avoiding for the last four hours.

"Sir, can I get you a-"

Steve's eyes flicker over to the short brown haired nurse standing in light purple scrubs by his side. She smiles slightly at the commander and doesn't flinch when the man's dark brown eyes darken. Steve glances down to the identification tag dangling from the woman's neck and reads off her name quickly -Hailey.

"I'm Five-0." It's a short, terse response that comes from Steve. "Leave me alone."

"I know you're Five -0, Commander McGarrett," Hailey responds. She points to his Kevlar vest and adds, "I've taken two bullets out of you, remember?"

If Danny was here, he'd have a goddamn list of nags ready to go. I miss that list. Steve shakes his head and rests his head against the glass of the wide windows that displays downtown Oahu. The thought of his partner makes him want to scream, puke- yell, cry and kill, if that nurse or anyone else asks, Are you okay?

"Oh, Nurse Hathaway….thanks, I've got it….he's…we've had…a day. I've got it."

Kono. The young officer's voice, much calming than the nurse's, suddenly appears behind the pair. He doesn't look over to see Kono pull Hailey to the side and mutter something barely audible to her about 'the job'. He blanks out everything around him until there's a gentle touch on his shoulder bringing him back to reality.

"Steve," Kono calls out softly. She's back in a pair of jeans and HPD sweatshirt instead of the black pants and low cut shirt she had been wearing as a cover hours earlier. "Boss, you have to eat or drink something. Boss?"

Steve opens his mouth to back off but his guilty conscious takes over. "Danny's dead, isn't he? They….he's dead because of me, isn't he?"

Kono's eyes widen slowly, her eyes brimming with worry and concern. "Steve, that isn't what….what do you think happened?"

Four hours ago

Standing a few feet away from the edges of the King Kamehameha statue in downtown Oahu, the team stands in a huddled group, gearing up for a raid on one of the adjacent business buildings across the street. It's one of Oahu's rare cloudy days that's started with a team of four masked suspects robbing a jewelry ten blocks down the road, stealing a white 2017 Lexus RX and driving erratically down the streets of Oahu towers the statue.

Toss in five hostages taken by the suspects off of the sidewalk and it can officially be considered by many of being one hell of a case.

Or in Danny's opinion, a case that's Steve's fault.

"That doesn't make any sense, Danny," Kono jokes as she tightens the right strap on her Kevlar vest. She pulls her Colt M4 Carbine sling over her neck and attaches the rifle quickly. "So a robbery on a Tuesday is Steve's fault?"

"Don't get him started," Chin warns fruitlessly, but as expected, Danny's already out the door, "No, it does make sense. We seem to be cursed with a robbery on Tuesdays every week, which always happens to be the day McSeal gets a package from ammunition weekly."

Steve darts between the two men, ignoring his partner's comment. His mind is racing as usual- as a Navy SEAL; a one tracked mind had been drilled into him- assess the situation, analyze the players, mark out your moves and go- but now there's room for a little internal snide little joke towards his partner that would push Danny into a full blown rant filled with random hand waving and an offer to pay for therapy.

"HPD just gave the update that SWAT is ready to breach the first floor," Steve states quickly.

"Do we have eyes on where our suspects might be now?" Kono asks.

"Nope, our SWAT boys are feeling a special type of trigger happy today," Lou finishes, joining the group. "We've got two with multiple weapons and one with grena-"

A heavy explosion cuts Lou off- the windows on the first floor suddenly shatter as deep flames erupts from the windows. The entire Five-0 team and handful of HPD officers duck behind the scattered HPD cars as bystanders scramble in different directions. Steve manages to raise his head slightly over the trunk to see of the suspects duck out of one of the side doors that leads into an alley.

"Danny on me! Chin, Kono- check the building! Lou- get me eyes on a two radius!" Steve yells over his shoulder. He glances over his shoulders to see him react as if they were moving in slow motion- Chin pushing Kono along the side of the vehicle, Lou raising the barrel of his shotgun towards the chaos on the street and Danny locking eyes with him, ready to follow his lead.

And then as it's Tuesday, everything goes to hell.

"Hey, are you listening to me?"

Kono's hand touch his shoulder and Steve jumps suddenly at her quick, gentle touch. She's standing much closer to him now, shaking her head at his guilt ridden expression. She begins pulling at his Kevlar straps and quickly pulls the blood soaked vest over his head. "There's no way you could have predicted what would happen next."

"Don't, don't, Kono," Steve grimaces and points towards the ICU, "You know that this is on me- I go towards danger and Da- Danny's always ok." Touching his right temple with his index finger, he stammers, "And now he has a….he was shot."

His suspect is too easy.

Steve stands up from one of the suspects he chased onto a delivery ramp half a block away handcuffed prone on the pavement. It's calm in the air which he assumes to be a sign of the case being in the clear- it's a change from the screams, the fire engines and police sirens blaring in the air and the gunshot assuming to be from his suspects and team members.

Steve drops off of the ramp and puts a finger to his ear to call Danny. During their pursuit, they had split ways with Danny continuing after the first suspect down the main street. By now, Steve's getting ready to call for an all clear and a quick back and forth with his partner when he turns the corner and sees a familiar figure lying face down on the pavement between a concrete bollard and an empty white truck.

I know that- is that- "Danny?" he mumbles. The ex- SEAL takes a few a shaky steps before he recognizes the same black slacks and shoes his partner had been wearing earlier. His breath leaves him and he stammers, "Danny?"

The sight of blood pooling onto the concrete near Danny's temple causes his knees to shake. "Danno?"

"McGarrett, where's our- goddamn it, Williams! Someone call 911-"

Steve takes a staggering step backwards and repeats, "Danno?" as Lou drops to his knees next to his partner. Lou, talk to me. Tell me he didn't get shot!

The dark haired man blinks again and finds himself being pushed back by Lou and Kono. Tell me alive, repeats over and over in his head, tell me he isn't lying on the pavement bleeding. Tell me I still have Danno.