Steve McGarrett cast a sidelong glance at his partner Danny Williams, riding in the passenger seat of Steve’s car. He was still feeling the adrenaline rush from having escaped death at the hands of Honoré Vashon and his “jury”, and he was looking forward to getting home and taking his time removing Danny’s SWAT team uniform. I knew he would come for me, he thought. As soon as I realized our plan had failed, I knew. I’m just glad we’re both still here, and I intend for us to enjoy that fact tonight....

McGarrett closed the door to his condo behind them, then turned to take his partner into his arms, not even waiting for him to set down the helmet he carried.

Danny dropped the helmet and returned Steve’s embrace. “Steve....” he said, his voice somewhat muffled against his partner’s shoulder, “That was too close.”

“We seem to be saying that a lot these days,” Steve said, resting his cheek against the younger man’s curly hair.

“This time was your fault!” Danny said, raising his head to look up at McGarrett. “You shouldn’t have just offered yourself up to them without a better plan!”

“What was I supposed to do, let them kill the hostages?” McGarrett asked reasonably, taking the opportunity to lean down and kiss his partner.

Williams felt his relief turning to anger as reaction set in. “Steve! Stop that!” he said, trying ineffectually to put some distance between them. “How many times are you going to make me watch you walk unarmed into a hostage situation?” he demanded angrily.

“I’ve always walked out again,” McGarrett said, nibbling on Danny’s sensitive earlobe.

“That...that’s not the point....” his partner said, trying to focus as Steve moved his mouth lower, licking and sucking at the tender skin of Danny’s neck. “Steve, listen to me!”

“I am listening,” his partner assured him mendaciously, continuing what he was doing to Danny’s neck as his fingers got to work on the zipper of Danny’s uniform shirt.

“You...ah!...you are not...stop that....” Williams said breathlessly, pushing at Steve’s shoulders. He suddenly had an idea to make his partner take notice. Reaching for the handcuffs clipped to his belt, he snapped one side over Steve’s right wrist and tightened it, then put the other side on his own left wrist.

“Danny! What the hell are you....” McGarrett began.

“I want you to hold still and listen to me!” his partner told him.

Steve smiled. “If you think this is going to distract me from what I was doing, you’re sadly mistaken.” He interlaced the fingers of both his hands with Danny’s and raised their linked hands above his partner’s shoulders to press against the wooden door. “It works both ways, you see....” he said, bending to claim Danny’s mouth once again.

When he had Danny standing breathless, looking up at Steve with slightly dazed blue eyes, his lips moist from Steve’s kisses, McGarrett raised his head and said seriously, “Danny. Do you think I liked knowing you were going to be in the front line coming to rescue me, and that anything that happened to you would be my fault? But we both know the risks we take are part of the job.”

“I...I know that, Steve,” Danny said, looking up at him. “But that doesn’t make it any easier.”

“I know, Danno,” his partner said, lowering his hands and releasing the one of Danny’s that he wasn’t handcuffed to. “But this time the risk paid off.”

“And you’d like to enjoy the fact that for once neither of us is in the hospital afterwards?” Danny couldn’t help but smile.

“Yeah.” His partner returned the smile. “That, and the fact that you look extremely cute in that uniform,” Steve said, laughing as Danny blushed. He finished unzipping Williams’ shirt, and slid his left hand under it to Danny’s waist, pulling him close. Steve tried to use his other hand to caress the newly exposed skin, but was pulled up short by Danny, who was trying to put his arms around Steve’s neck.

“How about you unlock these?” McGarrett suggested. “I could use my hand right about now.”

“Okay,” his partner told him, reaching for his pocket. He stopped. “Um...Steve...you’re not going to like this....”

McGarrett started a litany of swearwords in his head. “Danno...please tell me you have the key,” he said softly.

“I...I’m afraid in all the excitement I left my suit back at Five-O. It had all my things still in the pockets–wallet, keys...and you never carry handcuffs yourself, so I suppose you don’t have one?”

“No,” his partner said grimly. He had an idea. “Maybe Chin is still in the office. He could bring your suit by on his way home.”

McGarrett strode towards the phone, only to be brought up with a jerk by the handcuffs.

“Ow! Steve, wait....” Danny exclaimed, hurrying to catch up.

“Sorry, Danno,” Steve told him, picking up the phone receiver and propping it against his shoulder, then awkwardly dialing left-handed.

“Jenny? Is Chin there?” he asked.

He paused.

“I see. Thank you. No, no problem.” He replaced the receiver and turned to Danny. “He left half an hour ago. She thinks he went bowling.”

“Oh. Well, what about Jenny?” Danny asked, then thought for a second. “No, I suppose that won’t work.”

“Yeah, we can’t exactly ask her to bring your suit to my place and then only open the door a crack,” Steve pointed out. He took a step to start pacing, then realized he couldn’t indulge in his usual thinking aid without towing his partner along with him and sat down on the sofa instead, this time remembering to leave his hand raised until Danny perched on the sofa arm beside him.

“I guess we’re just going to have to go get the key,” Danny said. “Do you think you can drive this way?” He looked down at their linked hands.

“I can, but we can’t just walk up the palace steps handcuffed together. Can you imagine the field day the press would have?”

“What if I put a pillowcase over my head or something, and you pretended I was a fugitive you were bringing in?” Williams suggested.

“I can see the headlines on that picture,” Steve said dryly, “ ‘Five- O chief takes hooded prisoner away for secret interrogation.’ ”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until everyone goes home and try to sneak in,” Danny said glumly. “People get into our offices at night all the time without anyone noticing, after all. Steve...I’m really sorry about this.”

“I know how you can make it up to me,” McGarrett told him with a suggestive smile. “Come here,” he said, tugging on their linked hands.

Danny complied, sliding off the sofa arm to sit astride Steve’s lap.

Steve encircled him with his free arm and pulled him down, kissing him, with Danny responding in kind, their tongues entwined until they were both gasping for breath.

Danny sat up, throwing his head back as his lover’s mouth traced its way down his neck to his chest, finding his left nipple as Steve’s unimpeded left hand came up to tease the other with his fingers. “Ah!” he cried, pressing his hips against Steve’s, bringing them into intimate contact.

“Danny....” Steve said, his voice ragged. “Handcuffs or not, this isn’t enough....”

“I’m sorry, Steve,” the younger man told his partner. “I suppose, being attached this way, we can’t...well....”

“Oh, we can,” McGarrett told him with a smile. “I’ve been wanting to try this...come on, let’s go to the bedroom.”

Danny climbed off Steve’s lap and the two eagerly crossed to the bedroom, the handcuffs no impediment as they were both of one mind.

Once there, Steve found himself in a tug-of-war as they each tried to unfasten the other’s pants.

“You go first, Steve,” Danny said breathlessly, and Steve needed no further prompting to undo the belt of his partner’s SWAT team uniform, followed by the fastenings to his blue pants. Steve slid them and Danny’s underwear down, freeing his erect cock, as Danny gasped.

Williams kicked pants and underwear off. “My turn,” he said, “Steve, you’re wearing far too much clothing, as usual.” Smiling, he pulled off his partner’s tie, then unbuttoned his shirt, regretting that he could remove neither shirt nor jacket because of the handcuffs. Bending to taste Steve’s chest, he reached lower to undo McGarrett’s pants.

With a wordless sound, McGarrett roughly pulled down his suit pants and underwear, kicking them off. He led Danny to the bed and eased him back onto it, bending to claim his mouth once more.

“Steve...please...now.....” his partner said against Steve’s mouth, wrapping his legs around McGarrett so their erect cocks rubbed against each other. Steve groaned, and reached for the nightstand drawer with his handcuffed hand.

Guessing his intent, Danny reached with him, and Steve was able to secure the small jar of lubricant. He applied it to one finger of his free left hand and, bending to lick and suck the hard nub of one of Danny’s nipples, slid his finger into Danny’s tight ass.

“Ah! Steve!” his partner moaned. “Wait...can we...like this?”

Steve closed his eyes, fighting for control. “Yes...yes we can. It’s a bit more difficult, but I’ve wanted to try....” he broke off as he felt Danny moving his hips against his finger. “Wait...I...God, Danno.....” he managed. “Are you...ready?”

“Steve! I want you now!” Danny assured him, thinking, After what happened today I need to feel him, to know he’s alive....

McGarrett applied a generous amount of the lubricant to his cock, then said, “Danny...bend your knees.” As his partner did so, Steve raised one of Danny’s legs over his free left arm, then, clasping Danny’s other hand with his and raising it to beside the pillow, positioned himself to gently probe at Danny’s entrance.

“Steve,” his partner told him, blue eyes meeting. “I want you inside me, now....”

Steve clenched his jaw. He forced himself to remain gentle as he slowly pushed into Danny’s ass, rocking his hips back and forth. He watched his partner’s face, seeing the mixture of pain and desire as he moved deeper. “Danno?” he managed to ask.

“Steve! Please!” Danny said, closing his eyes and biting his lip.

Steve could hold back no longer, and buried himself to the hilt in his young partner.

“Ah!” Danny cried, looking up at Steve, thinking that the sight of his boss’s face in the throes of passion was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen. Enjoying the feel of Steve’s cock inside him, he moved his hips, demanding more.

Steve groaned, biting his lip. He started to move, his thrusts coming more rapidly as his partner met him stroke for stroke, one leg over Steve’s arm, the other around his waist, his handcuffed hand clasping Steve’s tightly.

McGarrett watched his partner’s face, totally given up to passion, the blue eyes half-lidded and his full lips slightly parted. He had been using both hands to keep himself propped above Danny, but now he shifted his weight and moved his free left hand down under Danny’s arm to stroke his partner’s cock.

“Yes! Ah!” Danny cried, throwing his head back as the new sensation hit him. He came, spurting hot jets across his abdomen and chest, fortunately mostly missing his open shirt.

Watching this, and Danny’s face slack with passion, and feeling Danny’s muscles contract around him pushed Steve over the edge as well, and, with a wordless cry, he spent himself inside Danny, shuddering, then collapsing on top of his partner.

As rational thought returned, Steve realized they had to be careful of their clothing. Taking a few deep breaths, he slid gently out, then rolled to lie on Danny’s left side. Fishing his handkerchief out of his jacket pocket, he cleaned them up as best he could. Well...with my jacket buttoned, no one will be able to see my shirt, anyway, McGarrett thought.

The two detectives pulled up next to the side door of the Iolani palace after a cautiously sedate drive over. Steve climbed out of the driver’s seat, Danny sliding across from the middle position to follow him out of the car. McGarrett let the car door softly close.

They quickly stepped across to the door, which Steve unlocked, Danny carefully matching his hand movements to allow him to use his right hand. They slipped inside, looking warily around for the night watchman, then twisted their wrists so Steve could grasp Danny’s fingers to better move in unison as they quickly mounted the koa wood stairs. I never thought I’d be walking through Iolani palace holding hands with Danno, Steve thought, amused.

When they reached the door to the Five-O offices, they stopped short. Although no lights shone from inside, it was open a crack. They exchanged a glance. McGarrett reached for his gun, unimpeded by the handcuffs as Danny anticipated his movement and reached with him, then drew his own weapon from the holster at his waist. Steve passed the gun to his left hand before silently pushing the heavy door open and quickly scanning the empty office.

McGarrett gestured towards the door to his own office, which also stood open a crack, in defiance of the way things should be, with a dim light occasionally showing through. They crossed to it, their feet making no sound on the thick carpet.

Danny glanced over at Steve, who nodded, then flung the door back. “Freeze!” they shouted in unison, pointing their weapons at the shadowy figure standing behind Steve’s desk, a flashlight in his mouth shining on something on the desk.

Williams reached awkwardly with his gun hand to hit the lights, revealing a man dressed all in black, bent over some sort of device on the desktop.

“Hands in the air! Right now!” Steve snapped, and the two detectives advanced, guns pointed. “Step back from the desk,” he ordered.

The intruder complied.

“Danno, check out what he was working on,” McGarrett told him, keeping his gaze and weapon pointed at the figure in black and extending his right arm to give his partner some slack.

“It’s a bomb. It doesn’t look like he got a chance to connect the wire to the detonator yet,” Five-O’s young bomb expert told him.

“Still, let’s all go out to the outer office and call HPD’s bomb disposal unit from there,” McGarrett said. “You! Walk slowly around the desk. Keep your hands where I can see them,” he ordered the intruder.

The man followed his instructions, then for the first time noticed the handcuffs and started laughing.

“Shut up and turn to face the wall!” Steve snapped, reaching up with his handcuffed right hand to loosen his tie. “Danno?” he said, handing the tie to his partner, who holstered his gun and awkwardly reached to tie their prisoner’s wrists without stepping between him and the gun in Steve’s left hand.

The prisoner was too busy laughing to resist. “I’d love to hear the story behind this one,” he said.

“Come on, into the outer office!” Danny ordered, gesturing with his re-drawn gun. The trio walked through the door. “Now stay there and don’t move!” Williams told the snickering intruder, stopping him in front of the first of the three cubicles along the office wall.

“Okay, Steve, why don’t you hold your gun on him and I’ll get the key,” Danny said.

Steve backed into the cubicle, allowing Danny to reach his suit where it sat folded on his desk chair. Rummaging through the pockets with his right hand, he came up with his key ring. “Got it!” he said, quickly unlocking the cuffs and removing them from Steve’s wrist and then his own.

As Steve transferred his gun to his right hand, Danny untied the prisoner and handcuffed him more conventionally, then steered him to a chair and returned to his cubicle to call HPD.

McGarrett got a good look at the prisoner for the first time. “Ah, Bertinelli. Vashon’s insurance in case he couldn’t finish me off at the jail?” he asked conversationally.

“I’ll tell you everything, McGarrett, if you explain how you ended up handcuffed to your second-in-command,” the would-be bomber said, smirking. “And at this hour of the night. Having a little fun, were we?”

“You don’t need to tell us anything,” Steve snapped, scowling at the prisoner as he put his now rather crumpled tie back on. “We have all the evidence we need to put you away, and Vashon’s never getting parole after the stunt he pulled today.”

After HPD had come and taken away Bertinelli, still snickering and suggesting that the officers “ask McGarrett and Williams what they like to do with handcuffs when they’re off duty,” and the bomb, still unexploded, Danny gathered his suit and joined Steve in the outer office to head home.

“What a day....” McGarrett sighed.

“I’m really sorry about the handcuff key,” Danny told him. “I hope no one listens to Bertinelli’s story.”

“If it weren’t for the handcuff key, I might have gotten blown up tomorrow morning,” Steve said dryly. “I think it’s a fair trade.” He put an arm around his partner’s shoulders. “Now, let’s go home. This time I’m finally going to get that uniform off you....”