Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or its characters. No infringement is intended.

Author's Notes: This story started as a short, little one-shot, but Fifilla gave me an idea on how to make it a multi-chapter story instead. She gave me a lot of great ideas for this story and helped keep me on track with plot and characterization. This story is so much better with her input.

Thank you: To Wenwalke - for being my guinea pig when the story was finished to make sure it made sense. Along the way she spotted a confusion for the reader because apparently, I thought all of you could read my mind and know what I had in my head! Trust me, you don't want that! So any confusion that remains is my fault along with any typos or misspellings.

HUGE Thank You: To Fifilla for the awesome ideas on how to make this a longer story, and for the many email discussions on just how exactly I was getting from Point A to Point B and for making sure I had a reason for everything I did! This story would not exist without you!

Enjoy!

It all started with a rumor. No one knew how it started, but it didn't take long for the island of Oahu, indeed all of the islands that made up the state of Hawaii, to hear it. The Five-0 task force was on the outs. More accurately, the two leaders of said task force were on the outs. With each other. Rumors abounded of fights at crime scenes that became so bad that they had to be physically separated by others at the scene. Several witnesses could attest to the fact that Detective Williams punched Commander McGarrett at a crime scene. Again. Even more witnesses had seen Detective Williams storm out of Five-0 Headquarters. Again.

The day that Danny stormed out of Headquarters had started innocently enough. Kono had arrived carrying a bag of malasadas only to find that Chin and brought a box of coco puffs. The cousins smiled at each other knowing full well they were both trying to clear the tension that seemed to have permeated the Five-0 offices the last month.

"How are they this morning?" Kono asked, risking a glance in Danny and Steve's direction as they worked in their separate offices.

Chin frowned, "Quiet. And that worries me."

"Maybe it'll be okay today," Kono answered hopefully.

"Maybe," Chin shook his head sadly. "I wish Danny would just tell us what's wrong. He hasn't been acting right for weeks."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure he'll tell us in his own time," Kono tried to encourage him. "He knows we're here for him. We just need to be there for him when he's ready."

Suddenly, Steve appeared from his office, cell phone pressed to his ear. He motioned everyone to come to the smart table. Danny joined the others, and if anyone needed any more proof that something was wrong with him, they need look no farther than now when he failed to make a snarky remark about Steve's aneurism face.

"That was the governor," Steve grimaced as he practically slammed his phone down on the smart table. "He's putting the pressure on to solve this latest rash of mob violence."

"We've been working overtime on it for weeks," Chin sighed. "I think we'd all like to be closer to an answer on this."

"Agreed," Steve nodded. "But that drive by on Kalakaua Avenue yesterday has tourists spooked and that spooks the governor."

"What else can we do?" Kono wondered. "They're such a new group that even Kamekona is stumped on who the leader is or where they base their operations."

"Danny, did you get any leads from any of your connections? Do we know if this is someone looking to take over where Frank Salvo left off, or anyone else with prior mob or gang connections? Yakuza offshoot, maybe? More than likely it's a new group from the mainland looking to set up operations here."

Danny sighed and heaved himself off the smart table where he'd been leaning, "No, I don't know who is behind this. So you think that just because I'm from the mainland that I should automatically know who this is?" Danny's face started to turn red as his rant warmed up. "That just because I'm the token Haole in your little group that I know all other Haoles? Or that I know how all Haoles think? Well, I have news for you! I'm tired of being the token Haole or Island Affirmative Action pick or what have you. I'm done here! Find yourself another Haole to do all your work!"

The team watched in stunned silence as Danny slammed his badge down on the smart table and stormed out of the Five-0 offices.

Steve stood in shock for a moment before chasing after Danny. He caught up to him at the bottom of the winding staircase near the main entrance, "Danny! Hey, wait up."

"What, Steven?" Danny sounded peeved. He looked even more so.

"What the hell was that?" Steve waved towards the top of the stairs from the direction they had just come. He concentrated on keeping his voice level, "You don't really believe what you just said, do you? We're your friends. Just tell me what's wrong. Please." He reached out to put his hand on Danny's arm, hoping to lead Danny back to the office with him.

Danny jerked his arm away from Steve and took another step towards the door, "Just leave me alone, okay? I've had enough of this. Just leave me the hell alone!" With that, Danny exited the Palace without once glancing back to see the hurt look on his partner's face.

Chin and Kono looked at Steve expectantly as he came back into the offices. Steve just looked at them and shook his head.

"It's not you, Brah," Chin said sadly. "Something's obviously been eating at Danny for a little while, and he's reached his breaking point."

"What can we do?" Kono looked ready to cry.

Steve shrugged, "We'll just have to keep working this case for now. I'll go talk to him later, but for now we just have to let him go cool off. I'm sure he'll come to his senses and come back before too long."

For the rest of the day the now three-man team worked at trying to uncover the latest mob action and trace it back to a source. They all tried not to sneak looks at Danny's empty office, gold badge sitting on the desk where Steve had put it.