H50 fic: Full Immunity (gen, PG-13)
Mar. 16th, 2011 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zinnithTitle: Full Immunity
Author: Zinnith
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: General for the show.
Warnings: Meta. Ethics. Dark-ish.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.
Author's Notes: This discussion has been raised before by people more talented than me, but I still had to get it off my chest before I go back to the shinyhappyfun. Unbeta'd so feel free to point out any mistakes I might have made.
Summary: Danny’s conscience speaks in Grace’s voice these days.
Danny used to keep to the straight and narrow, do things by the book. That has been changing lately, more and more for every day. He has been changing, and it scares him.
He clings to rules and procedure because it’s something he needs, something to keep him on an even keel when his anger threatens to get the better of him. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to pick the wrong way.
But that was before he got pulled into Steve McGarrett’s world. Before he saw all the crazy, stupid, impossible things Steve does and gets away with. It’s wrong, Danny knows it’s wrong, but he can’t help but admire the simplicity of it, the way Steve just throws the book right out the window and gets shit done anyway. To be honest, Danny wishes he felt more uncomfortable about it. He’s beginning to feel like it’s far too easy to get used to the way Steve works.
Chin Ho was a regular cop back in the day and there are times Danny wants to ask him if it bothers him too, all the things they do. Then again, Danny asked around when the McGarrett case first landed on his desk and he found out that McGarrett Senior was an old school kind of cop, that he wasn’t afraid to cut a few corners to get results. Maybe Chin took his cues from Jack the same way Kono takes hers from Steve.
Danny’s conscience speaks in Grace’s voice these days. There was a time when it didn’t even need a voice, when it was simply there, quiet and steady and reliable. Now, he has to think about how many lines he can cross and still be Gracie’s dad. After every closed case, he studies his own face in the mirror, pretends he’s under her scrutiny. As long as he can fall back on Gracie’s voice in the back of his head, he’ll be okay. He does his best to be that voice for Steve, because he’s fairly sure that Steve doesn’t even have the frailest whisper of his own.
It’s not the questionable interrogation techniques that bothers him the most. Danny hates to admit it to himself, but it all makes a twisted kind of sense. Why the hell should they stop to consider the constitutional rights of the criminal scumbags who cross their path when they can make a difference? He knows that the end does not justify the means, knows it in his heart like it’s written there in permanent marker. But he’s afraid that the words are beginning to fade, that one day he’ll take a look and find the place where they used to be blank and clean, giving him free reins to do whatever he wants to get the job done.
What keeps him awake at night is the lack of consequences. No one questions the Governor’s task force, no one holds them accountable but the Governor herself. It makes Danny wonder how far they’d be able to go before she puts her foot down and says ‘enough’. What if she never does? Will they be able to hit the brake on their own?
Danny keeps a list in his head, tries to create a structure. He figures that as long as he has some kind of a moral code to hold onto, he’ll be in the clear. The rules don’t apply when innocent lives are at stake. They don’t apply when it’s family. They don’t apply when it’s personal. The problem is that everything is beginning to get personal. There are always lives at stake. The excuses keep piling up.
He wonders what will happen when the day comes that he won’t even need an excuse. He hopes that he’ll have the strength to turn in his badge and just walk away. Above all else, he hopes that he’ll recognise the point of no return when he comes to it. That he’ll be able to turn back instead of crossing that line in Steve’s wake.
He just wishes that he could be sure.
Author: Zinnith
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: General for the show.
Warnings: Meta. Ethics. Dark-ish.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.
Author's Notes: This discussion has been raised before by people more talented than me, but I still had to get it off my chest before I go back to the shinyhappyfun. Unbeta'd so feel free to point out any mistakes I might have made.
Summary: Danny’s conscience speaks in Grace’s voice these days.
Danny used to keep to the straight and narrow, do things by the book. That has been changing lately, more and more for every day. He has been changing, and it scares him.
He clings to rules and procedure because it’s something he needs, something to keep him on an even keel when his anger threatens to get the better of him. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to pick the wrong way.
But that was before he got pulled into Steve McGarrett’s world. Before he saw all the crazy, stupid, impossible things Steve does and gets away with. It’s wrong, Danny knows it’s wrong, but he can’t help but admire the simplicity of it, the way Steve just throws the book right out the window and gets shit done anyway. To be honest, Danny wishes he felt more uncomfortable about it. He’s beginning to feel like it’s far too easy to get used to the way Steve works.
Chin Ho was a regular cop back in the day and there are times Danny wants to ask him if it bothers him too, all the things they do. Then again, Danny asked around when the McGarrett case first landed on his desk and he found out that McGarrett Senior was an old school kind of cop, that he wasn’t afraid to cut a few corners to get results. Maybe Chin took his cues from Jack the same way Kono takes hers from Steve.
Danny’s conscience speaks in Grace’s voice these days. There was a time when it didn’t even need a voice, when it was simply there, quiet and steady and reliable. Now, he has to think about how many lines he can cross and still be Gracie’s dad. After every closed case, he studies his own face in the mirror, pretends he’s under her scrutiny. As long as he can fall back on Gracie’s voice in the back of his head, he’ll be okay. He does his best to be that voice for Steve, because he’s fairly sure that Steve doesn’t even have the frailest whisper of his own.
It’s not the questionable interrogation techniques that bothers him the most. Danny hates to admit it to himself, but it all makes a twisted kind of sense. Why the hell should they stop to consider the constitutional rights of the criminal scumbags who cross their path when they can make a difference? He knows that the end does not justify the means, knows it in his heart like it’s written there in permanent marker. But he’s afraid that the words are beginning to fade, that one day he’ll take a look and find the place where they used to be blank and clean, giving him free reins to do whatever he wants to get the job done.
What keeps him awake at night is the lack of consequences. No one questions the Governor’s task force, no one holds them accountable but the Governor herself. It makes Danny wonder how far they’d be able to go before she puts her foot down and says ‘enough’. What if she never does? Will they be able to hit the brake on their own?
Danny keeps a list in his head, tries to create a structure. He figures that as long as he has some kind of a moral code to hold onto, he’ll be in the clear. The rules don’t apply when innocent lives are at stake. They don’t apply when it’s family. They don’t apply when it’s personal. The problem is that everything is beginning to get personal. There are always lives at stake. The excuses keep piling up.
He wonders what will happen when the day comes that he won’t even need an excuse. He hopes that he’ll have the strength to turn in his badge and just walk away. Above all else, he hopes that he’ll recognise the point of no return when he comes to it. That he’ll be able to turn back instead of crossing that line in Steve’s wake.
He just wishes that he could be sure.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-16 06:55 pm (UTC)Danny’s conscience speaks in Grace’s voice these days.
Great study of his character.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 09:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-16 07:03 pm (UTC)I like getting Danny's POV on the "Full Immunity and Means" that is the Five-0 credo and that he fears one day they will cross a line that will make him just as guilty as the criminals he seeks.
And I like that he has Grace to keep him from becoming too out of control, too Steve-like.
Great work on this :)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 09:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-16 07:24 pm (UTC)This! I've thought before that Danny's whole life is all about the man he is to Grace. The dad he is to her now and the women he'll hope she become.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 09:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-18 12:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 01:03 am (UTC)< rant > (Feel free to ignore if you wish!)
I've watched quite a few Hawai'i 5-0 eps because She Who Controls the TV likes it. I have to confess that, like so many fen on my flist, I think the actor who plays Steve McGarrett is eye-candy of the highest quality. I haven't seen enough of Chin Ho or Kono to judge anything about their characters--hmmmm, why does that remind me of another TV series?? >:-P
However, contrary to the majority of fannish opinions I've seen, I think the character Steve McGarrett is like John Randolph's opinion of a political opponent: Like rotten mackerel by moonlight, he shines and stinks. I'm ashamed of the American TV industry & American public that seems to think whatever McGarrett does is good & heroic & justified because 1) his father was killed, 2) he's a veteran & has Suffered For His Country, & 3) those people he's torturing or shooting or just messing with are bad people so they don't deserve Constitutional rights, do they? It's not like the 5-0 task force is running roughshod over people who matter.
< /rant > Whew. Sorry. It just disturbs me. I'm prob'ly also over-critical because the great writers writing 5-0 fanfic aren't writing SGA fic any more. :-( I was never in a 'living' fandom before SGA so I wasn't prepared for the emotional wrench when people started finding shiny new loves....
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 10:01 am (UTC)There will be no ignoring of rants! I agree with you - Steve is a ridiculous character. He's like a caricature of the typical American action 'hero' and if he was played by another actor, I probably would despise him, but Alex O'Loughlin manages to give him just enough humanity to make him insteresting to me from a writer's point of view. The inside of his head is a very scary place to be - not unlike John Sheppard's actually. The difference between the two of them (and this is my character interpretation) is that my John is very much aware of how screwed up he is, his eyes are open in regards to all the morally questionable things he's done. I honestly don't think Steve understands what's wrong about the way he is and that's pretty terrifying.
Not to mention the very disturbing idea of law enforcement officers who can do whatever the hell they want in the name of justice - it's the same 'we're right because we're the good guys and we're the good guys because we say so' mindset that is so common in most sci-fi and action/adventure shows. It was the same with SGA - in the real world, the Atlantis expedition would've been hit over the head with the Geneva Convention long ago.
I do feel a bit like I'm cheating on SGA. On the other hand, at least I'm writing again so I refuse to feel guilty. I still have stories to tell about Atlantis, I just need to get over the cancellation first so I can tell them properly *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-18 06:07 am (UTC)I do feel a bit like I'm cheating on SGA. On the other hand, at least I'm writing again so I refuse to feel guilty. I still have stories to tell about Atlantis, I just need to get over the cancellation first so I can tell them properly
Oh, I realize that my feelings are my own, & I've written just enough myself to know that you have to write what interests you now. The story that's clamoring to be told is going to whistle & shine light in your eyes & generally be a bloody nuisance until you write it, whether it's on the to-do list or not. *g* And don't get me wrong, I've read some (short) 5-0 fics & enjoyed 'em. (Including this one, of course.) I just haven't become infatuated with another show myself....
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-18 10:56 am (UTC)(Of course I'm not saying that we're perfect in Sweden. Things have been changing quite a lot since 9/11.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 03:14 am (UTC)your fic Full Immunity has been recced HERE (http://community.livejournal.com/h50_rec_room/6959.html)
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 08:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 08:50 am (UTC)Great job, Zin (as always!) ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 10:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-17 01:09 pm (UTC)