Chapter Text
Danny leaned tiredly against the staff room wall as he waited for the coffee maker to finish filling. After a stakeout last night and maybe three hours of sleep this morning he was exhausted. He could only be grateful that they had no new cases so Super SEAL would be kept caged for a while like the animal he was.
Danny couldn’t help the small smile the spread over his face. The SEAL was particularly insane yesterday jumping over moving cars, dangling off buildings and at one particularly memorable moment, lobbing cocoanuts down on a perp. All with the certainty that Danny would be right behind him. The best part of the day was when Steve dove into the water after one of the bad guys. The image of him climbing out of the ocean, the water streaming off his body as his tee-shirt and cargo pants clung to him like a second skin would feature prominently in Danny’s dreams for days to come.
“Hey, Danno.”
Danny almost jumped out of his skin when the man he was fantasizing about spoke almost directly into his ear, his hot breath scorching Danny’s skin. The detective slapped a hand over his heart melodramatically.
“Jesus, Steven! Warn a guy would you? Freaking ninja!”
Steve smiled impishly at his partner and Danny didn’t think it was cute at all!
“Whatcha doin’?” Steve inquired as he took up leaning against the wall when Danny moved to the coffee machine to fill his mug.
The detective concentrated intently on pouring the hot coffee into his mug so he wouldn’t have to see the way the muscles of Steve’s arms strained against the sleeves of his tee-shirt.
“I know you didn’t go to the police academy, babe, but even a cadet in his first month of training could see I’m getting myself a cup of coffee.”
Steve rolled his eyes and favoured Danny with an indulgent smile.
“Yes, thank you. I was aware of that. They taught us all about it in BUD/s training.”
Danny could help but grin at that. Steve was getting so good at the snide comebacks. A far cry from when he and Danny first met and the Commander would stare at him stony-faced whenever Danny made some smart-assed remark.
“So,” Steve asked with an overly casual air, “what are you and Grace doing this weekend?”
Danny leaned his butt against the small counter of their tiny staff room.
“Grace is leaving tomorrow for a one-week field trip to a couple of the other islands. Rachel is going along as chaperone.”
Steve nodded.
“Oh that’s right. So…I guess maybe you have some free time?”
Danny raised an eyebrow at his partner. Steve and Catherine had broken up in a messy way over a month ago and the two partners had started spending more time together, often with Grace in tow. Danny loved every moment they spent together and couldn’t help hoping…
The blonde man cleared his throat and stood up straight.
“Could be. What did you have in mind?”
“Surfing at the north shore then lunch and…we’ll see after that.”
The last words were delivered in a low, deep voice and Danny felt his heart skip a beat at the tone.
“Yeah, ok,” the detective replied as calmly as he could. “Sure, that sounds nice.”
Danny wrapped his hands tightly around his coffee mug and skirted around Steve to hurry out of the staff room and back to his office. Maybe it was his imagination but he was certain he could feel Steve’s eyes glued to his back as he crossed the bull pen. Danny entered his office and shut the door behind him, grateful for a quiet moment to gather his thoughts.
The quiet moment ended when his phone began to ring. Danny put his coffee cup down on his desk and smiled when his sister’s name popped up on the screen. Three years older than him, Diana was his favourite sibling, especially now that Matty had vanished. Yes, she bossed him around when they were children, but she was funny and smart as hell. Anytime she won an award in school, and she won lots of awards, Danny would be in the front row in the auditorium cheering for her. Now she was a corporate lawyer in New York and the mother of two beautiful children.
“Hey TieDi! How are you? Why have you waited so damned long to call me?” Danny teased as soon as he answered the phone.
Danny could visualize his sister rolling her eyes from 5,000 miles away.
“What? Your fingers are broken? You can’t pick up the phone and call me sometimes baby brother? I guess working on your fancy-dancy task force with that gorgeous Navy SEAL keeps you pretty busy, huh?”
“Fancy-dancy? What are you 90 years old?” Danny retorted as he sat in his desk chair and leaned back to get comfortable.
“Bite me, Daniel…how’s Grace?”
“Perfect and beautiful as ever,” Danny replied with a grin. “How are Olivia and Bryant?”
“Spoiled, lippy and always thinking up new ways to drive me insane.”
“So about the same?” Danny laughed.
“Yeah, about the same,” Diana laughed along with him. “They’re both doing well. Livy loves her ballet lessons and Bryant is supposed to graduate from 10th Grade with honours this year, will wonders never cease.”
Danny snorted.
“He’s got your brains, obviously. Thank god he got Phil’s looks.”
Diana barked a laugh at her smart-mouthed brother.
“Asshole. Speaking of looks, how is that SEAL of yours? Have you two finally given into your passion for each other?”
Danny blushed and turned his desk chair slightly away from his door even though it was closed and he was in his office alone.
“First of all he’s not my SEAL and second of all…we’re not…I’m not…we’re just…”
Diana chortled wickedly.
,
“Well said, Daniel. You can’t even talk about him without getting tongue-tied but you’re not in love with him, right?”
“How are Mom and Dad?” Danny blurted desperate to change the subject.
“Nice change of subject, baby brother,” Diana mocked but decided to let him off the hook. “They left two days ago for their vacation. Mom was so excited she was vibrating.”
Danny smiled happily.
“I don’t blame her. After 43 years together they’re finally having a honeymoon, and in Europe. They’ve never been any farther than Miami.”
“I’m so glad we were able to help them pay for at least part of it.”
“Me too. I wish I could have been there to see them off at the airport.”
“I wish you had been too with mom chattering away a mile a minute and Dad checking and triple checking his pockets for his passport. But…look Toad, there’s something else I phoned you about.”
Danny flinched momentarily at the use of his childhood nickname. If Steve ever found out he’d never live it down. SEAL and Toad. He could just hear the taunts now.
“What’s going on? Is everything ok?”
“Yeah, yeah everything is fine,” Diana responded quickly, “I just heard some news from a friend of mine in the DA’s office in Hoboken and I thought you’d want to hear about it from me first.”
“Ok?” Danny replied cautiously.
“It…well there’s no easy way to say this, Danny, but they’ve found the remains of Peter Martinelli’s body.”
Danny sat upright with a jerk, his throat tightening. He swallowed heavily and could feel a weight lower on his chest as he struggled to take in a shaky breath.
“P-Petey? I don’t…where? How?”
“It’s kind of creepy, but his body was found in the basement of that old brownstone we used to live in on Willow Avenue.”
Danny leaned his elbows heavily on his desk and dropped his forehead into his free hand. He shuddered involuntarily.
“But…I mean how could they miss that? They searched the building top to bottom when he went missing. Why didn’t they find him earlier?” his voice was tight with shock.
“I don’t know but the whole area is being gentrified now and while they were gutting the place for renovations they found his bones behind this old partially broken down brick wall – he’d been walled in,” Diana responded in a slightly horrified whisper. “They tentatively identified him through the clothes he was wearing but they’re pretty sure it’s him.”
Danny swallowed thickly again as his mind drifted back to that afternoon in 1983; the afternoon he hadn’t allowed himself to think about in 30 years.
“Danny?” Diana’s voice came gently over the phone and he realized he’d been lost in thought and not hearing what she was saying.
“Yeah,” he answered hoarsely.
“I’m sorry, baby brother. I know this must be hard for you. I just wanted you to hear it from me first in case the Hoboken media called, or the police.”
“The police?” Danny answered quickly, a slight edge of panic in his voice.
“Well, yeah, Danny. You’re a cop. It’s an unsolved disappearance and they’ve just found a body. They’ll probably want to re-interview everyone who was with Peter that day don’t you think?”
Danny cleared his throat loudly and sat up.
“Yeah, yeah of course you’re right. It’s what I’d do. Sorry I’m just…”
“It’s ok, Toad. I know this must dredge up a lot of bad memories. Are you going to be ok?”
Danny tried to make his voice sound light as he responded.
“Yeah. Yes of course. It was a long time ago right? Deep down we always knew he was dead. I’ll be fine.”
**********
Danny shifted restlessly on the bed and moaned in fear. He wanted to get away, wanted to escape but the dream wouldn’t release him.
He was being pulled into the old brownstone, his memory providing details of his first childhood home that he was sure he’d long forgotten. He pushed open the ornate doors and walked into the darkened foyer. It was strangely empty and so quiet his hammering heart beat seamed to echo off the brick walls. An unseen force pulled Danny towards the basement doorway under the main staircase. He struggled to get free, a struggle that had him scrabbling at the sheets covering his body as the dream gripped him.
“No,” he moaned softly, sweat beading on his face.
The basement was darker and murkier than he’d remembered as a child. Back then he and Petey had played down there for hours racing their Hot Wheels across the cement floor or practicing their sword-fighting skills with the broom handles they’d taken from their mothers’ apartments. They always tried to be quiet but eventually Mr. Smitrovich, the building Super, would clomp down the stairs, dirty white tee-shirt tight around his flabby belly, and yell at them to get lost.
Danny couldn’t slow his panting breath. He wanted to run as far and as fast as he could but he was unable to free himself. He heard a soft moan to his right and against his will felt himself being pulled toward a broken down brick wall. Beyond the wall was what seemed like an endless black void. Danny was certain that if he got too close to the wall the void would swallow him whole.
“No, I don’t want to,” Danny mumbled now thrashing in the bed.
“Danny,” a broken voice whispered from the dream.
“No…please!” Danny whimpered.
As Danny neared the wall he could hear the rhythmic sound of dripping water and his nose stung with the smell of wet metal and mildew. He shivered in the bone-chilling cold of the basement. Danny’s eyes were drawn into the darkness and he suppressed a cry as he saw the small, twisted body of his best friend Petey lying in a heap on the cement floor of the dusty, narrow space that had been created behind the brick wall.
Danny sobbed at the sight of the broken body. Petey was covered in blood, the blue jeans he’d been wearing that day caked with his dried blood. He lay on the floor, his back turned away from Danny, one arm twisted above his head as if he’d been dropped from a great height.
As Danny watched in horror, Peter’s head lifted from the floor and turned slowly toward Danny with the sickening sound of grinding bones. He eyes popped open to stare at Danny with dry, empty eye sockets. Danny coughed at the bile rising in his throat.
“Why, Danny?” Peter’s dry, shriveled lips whispered.
“Petey… please,” Danny sobbed.
“I trusted you, Danny. You were my best friend. I trusted you. It’s your fault.”
“I-I’m sorry!” Danny cried as he struggled trying to get away from the wall, his bed sheets ripping as he dug his fingernails into the fabric.
“How could you do it, Danny? I trusted you.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Danny pleaded
“I was your best friend. You can’t keep pretending it didn’t happen. You can’t escape it anymore.”
“Please I, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Nothing happened! N-nothing happened.”
“You could have told them, Danny. You could have been honest. Thirty years I’ve been behind this wall. For 30 years my mother has waited for me to come home. You could have told them the truth.”
“No!” Danny screamed. “No, no, no!”
Danny lunged upright in bed, his sweat-soaked sheets tangled around his feet. He nearly tumbled off the mattress as his arms flailed trying to find something to grab onto, something that would hold him in the present and stop him from sinking into the dream again.
The blonde man sat crouched miserably on the end of the bed clutching a pillow to his chest and shivering from the sweat drying off his body. He felt his emotions strangling him and tears pooled in his eyes.
“God, oh my god,” he whispered brokenly as he dropped his face into his trembling hands.
TBC