Rachel Gatina

"We got her back, Danny," Steve whispers, reaching over to gently clasp his shoulder. "You, me, the rest of Five-O - there wasn't anything that was going to stop us from getting your little girl back to you and Rachel, alright? Peterson's going to be rotting in a jail cell for the rest of his life if I have anything to say about it." The amount of tension in his jaw is enough to hurt, but he forces himself to relax - if not for his own sake, then at least for Danny's.

From:

"I'm so sorry, Danny," Rachel whispers, feeling helpless and completely over her head. She knows Danny is a little desperate to get back to his kid at the best of times, and can't fathom what this feels like. "No one else has seen it. It found me, and then I showed Steve. I promise."

From:

He draws in a breath, letting his hand fall down as he gestures to the reel. "I need to see it," he says. "Steve, Rachel, I love you. I trust you, but I need to see with my own two eyes that my baby girl is safe," he's practically pleading, now. "I need to make sure she's safe and I can't do that from here, but I can watch and make sure she is."

From:

It's a better reaction than Steve's been anticipating and he nods instantly, moving over to wind the reel back to the beginning so Danny can see this all go down for himself. "Do you want us to stay?" he asks, glancing to the couch. "We can stay, if you want."

From:

"Or just I can go, Danny," Rachel offers, knowing her place in all of this. "If you want some privacy with Steve, I'll go."

From:

"No," he says sharply, taking a seat on the couch and feeling like he's about to put himself through hell. "No, you're both staying." He's killing himself by watching this, he knows, but he has to. He has to see what happens, he needs to see Gracie safe in his arms.

From:

"Then we're not going anywhere, Danny," Steve murmurs, crossing the room to sit beside him, though he's not about to crowd his space. He knows Danny will want them close, but not to the point of feeling stifled.

From:

Rachel settles in on the other side, framing Danny in and sitting a little farther out than Steve. She leans back, certain her belly won't take another hour of leaning forward in horror and watches Danny as the action starts to unfold.

From:

Danny sits, stonewalled, as he watches both his friend die, watches his ex-scumbag partner kidnap his baby girl, and watches himself shoot Stan. It only goes from bad to worse with every moment and suddenly, he doesn't even know what to do. He feels sick. That voicemail to Rachel, his need for Grace to be safe. He wants her here with him more than he ever has, and by the time he sees her safe, he feels absolutely numb.

"I just-- both of you -- I need you both to go," he says, evenly.

From:

It's even harder to watch the second time, and that isn't even taking into account the fact that he's got the real-life version sitting right next to him, going through every emotion as it happens, every feeling.

"You sure?" He sits up from where he's been leaning back against the couch, watching Danny's face more than he has the screen this second time around. "Danny."

From:

"Hey, I'll go," Rachel says softly, slicing a hand through the air. She levers herself up to her feet and shoots Steve a look hoping it conveys stay with him or take care of him or something of that nature.

"I'll go straight home so you can find me if you need anything, okay?"

From:

Danny keeps steady, even though it's killing him. He wants to scream, he wants to do a million things (like shoot Rick, like kill Rick), but he can just sit here steadily. "Both of you, just, go. Steve, don't be at the house for a few hours," he gets out, voice so soft, it's almost hard to hear.

From:

"Danny, I don't - "

He feels helpless standing here, looking over at Rachel, and realizes his face probably more than makes that clear at this point.

" - I can't leave," he says, quiet and insisting. "I won't leave you to deal with this alone. It's different, now that we're - it's what I'm supposed to do for you. Be here."

From:

This is rapidly entering not your place territory so Rachel nods to Steve and squeezes Danny's shoulder before leaving as quietly as she can. She takes a few steps outside the rec room before leaning against the wall and squeezing her eyes shut, hoping to hell that Danny lets him stay.

From:

Danny gives Steve a helpless look, not sure how he can even begin to put this into words. He doesn't want to feel like this, he doesn't want to feel any of this. "You just watched me pour out my heart to Rachel, you just watched my baby girl get kidnapped, you watched my scumbag ex-partner torture me. Steven, I can't process this with you staring over my shoulder. I need to get through one hurdle at a time right now."

From:

"Then I'll look at the goddamn wall if I have to," Steve replies, his voice rising, becoming more insistent even if he stays well below the barrier between yelling and normal conversation. "You think I would've let you go through any of this alone if we'd lived it out ourselves? Some versions of us did, but I'm going to tell you right now, Danny, I wouldn't have done it any different. I would've been there every step of the way, finding out everything I could about this son of a bitch, stopped at nothing to make sure Grace made it back home to you and Rachel, and I'm going to be here for you, now."

From:

Danny's been holding it back, the desperate need to let it all out, but the minute Steve's done, the minute, Danny can't even try. His eyes are shiny with tears, he lets out a choked cry, and just wants to be back home, more than any other time. "He took my baby, Steve, he took -- he took her," he says, that edge of panic still in his voice as he claws at the air, the anger mixing with desperation.

From:

Steve doesn't say anything for a long time, bowing his head slowly, the tension in his jaw reappearing again before he nods, willing his hands to unclench from their fists. It'd be a hit for the rest of the team in any situation like this, but it hits harder now, because it's Danny, and because he just wants to be able to do something to make it better. "And we get her back," he whispers. "And we're gonna keep her safe. All of us."

From:

Danny feels like he can't breathe and he's grateful that he's not wearing a tie -- if he were, he feels like it might be strangling him, at this point. Still, as it is, he grasps at his collar, the burning fury not subsiding at all. "I want to kill him," he growls. "I want to kill Peterson, I want him dead, I want him to suffer for what he did to her."

From:

"After what he pulled, Danny, he's going to be locked up for a really long time," Steve replies. "And I'll be there at every parole hearing with a list of reasons why his ass needs to rot in there."

From:

"I don't want him locked up. I want him dead, I want him dead," Danny insists, as sharply as he can. He doesn't want Rick to live. "He took my daughter!" he shouts, as loud as he can. "He took my Grace. You saw it. You saw it twice. What would you do, in my place?"

From:

"I'd kill him, Danny," Steve replies, without a tentative note in his voice. "But what would happen if you had that chance to kill him and took it, huh? You think Grace would want to be visiting you every day through a glass window? Talking to you on that phone? You can't take that kind of a risk with your future. Or with hers."

From:

Danny takes a deep breath, reminding himself of his one-true purpose in life -- protecting Grace -- and knows that if he were to kill Rick like he wants, his baby girl would never have him. "Okay, I wouldn't kill him," he admits, exhaling sharply. "But, god, Steve. What he did -- I don't understand. I testified, I told the truth. His actions were his actions, he just got caught."

From:

"People like that, Danny, once they get a taste for corruption, sometimes they can't get enough," Steve admits, keeping his voice even as he speaks. "It works its way into every part of their life until they're turning on the people they care about, and they don't care who gets hurt in the process."

From: