Please Don't Let Me Go

Prologue

//A.N. This Prologue has domestic violence and death mentioned. PLEASE be cautious when reading.//

Hey Danny, Jessie and I are going surfing, do you want to come along? We're getting dinner afterwards," Steve says from the doorway where he's poking his head into Danny's office.

"Where are you? Can he get to you?" Danny questions whomever he's on the phone with.

Steve steps into Danny's office, "Everything ok?" he asks, full of concern.

  Danny starts writing down an address and then picks up his keys and runs out the door without acknowledging Steve's presence.

   “Danny, wait! Where are you going?!” Steve calls after him. 

    Danny gets into his car and speeds away, just as Steve exits the building. “OK Willa, I’m on my way right now, stay on the phone with me. Where is Rick?” 

    “He’s looking around the house and calling my name, he hasn’t checked the basement yet. Hurry Danny! He’s really gonna kill me this time!”  Willa whisper-yells into the phone. 

    “Bitch! I know you’re down here! If you don’t get up here by the time I count to 3, you will NOT like the consequences! 1-2-3! “

Willa hasn’t moved from her place, and is quietly sobbing into the phone. 

    “Ha! I found you, Bitch! Who the fuck are you on the phone with! That’s another rule you’ve broken! Now you’re really going to pay!” Rick screams. 

    Over the phone, Danny hears Willa scream after a bunch of fighting, then a thud. He then hears a crunch and the line goes dead. “Willa!” Danny screams in fear, then floors his car, racing to her house. Once he gets there, he draws his weapon and sneaks in. He looks around but sees nothing. Danny then makes his way to the basement. What he sees, literally causes his heart to stop. Willa is unmoving on the ground, battered and bruised, and bloody. Danny thinks she’s dead and checks for a pulse. He finds one, but it’s very weak. He calls a bus as he gently pulls Willa’s head into his lap. “Hang in there Willa, help is on the way,” he whispers as he kisses her forehead.

    Within 10 minutes the bus arrives and the EMTs take Willa and Danny to the hospital. The doctors take over and tell Danny he has to wait in the waiting-room and that they'll come find him after they’ve done surgery on Willa’s arm and cheek. 

    Danny finally calls Steve. “Hey, um, can you come to Honolulu General, I really need you here.” 

    “Danny, is everything ok?  Are you hurt? Why’d you run off like that?!” Steve asks, rapid fire. 

    “I’ll tell you when you get here, please just hurry,” Danny says. 

   “I’m on my way right now. Jessie’s coming too,”  Steve says.

    “OK,” Danny says and hangs up. He sits in a chair, elbows on knees, head in hands, and cries. 

    30 minutes later, Steve and Jessie walk into the hospital. They scan around until they see a broken Danny. They immediately rush to his side. “Danny! What happened? What’s going on?”

    Danny looks up; his eyes have a devastated look and are red and swollen from crying. With shaky breaths, he slowly tells Willa’s story. About how he became involved, and how he’s been trying to help her. About how he’d had her in a safehouse but Rick had somehow found her. He’s just finishing his story, when a doctor comes out. 

    “Family and friends of Willa Strandford?” the doctor calls out. 

    Danny, Steve, and Jessie stand up. 

    “What is your relationship to Miss Strandford?” the doctor asks. 

    “I'm Daniel Williams, her best friend. She doesn’t have any family,” Danny explains.

    “Mr. Williams, I regret to inform you that Miss Strandford is no longer with us. There was  too much internal bleed that we were unable to stop. The wounds were too extensive for her to survive. I’m deeply sorry."

    “NO! WILLA!” Danny screams and collapses. “She can’t be dead! She just can’t be! I never got to tell her….” Danny suddenly passes out and Steve, who had caught him when he collapsed, helped the nurses place him on a stretcher. 

    After doing an exam, it turns out that Danny had passed out due to the shock. 
 
                            

    They’d found Rick and arrested him a week later. He was charged and convicted of domestic assault and second-degree murder. 

    Danny, Steve, Jessie, and the rest of the 5-O Task Force, as well as the HPD attended Willa’s funeral in support of Danny, despite none of them knowing Willa except Danny.