FanFic: "Ground Fire" (Hawaii Five-0) - Chapter 19 of ??
H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"I didn't drop you, Danno." Where before Steve's grin was hard to come by, he was now smiling from ear to ear. The relief in that smile was evident in each syllable of every single word. He rapidly searched his memory trying to figure out what his partner meant though. The sudden slip and resulting near fall in the dark as he carried the stretcher with Chin finally came to mind. He had skidded on the damp uneven rocky ground only to hit a boot-sized amount of loose pebbles. He had landed heavily on his left knee to prevent a real tumble. Danny had been duly rocked badly, but he certainly hadn't been dropped.
"If I had, I guess I wouldn't have hurt my knee saving your lazy ass by not dropping you. Besides, how could I ever explain something like that to Grace?" Unconsciously, Steve fingered the swelling around his kneecap. Why it chose to hurt now, he had no clue. Then again, the short chase across the TAMC parking lot, his side-long launch into the shooter, and dash up the hospital staircase hadn't done him any favors. Add in sitting now for hours on end, and Steve was sure that his issues with his knee were only superficial.
"Uh, huh. Grace? That's low, Steven." The squinted, near one-eyed glare was weak but there. The attempt meant to communicate annoyance but it was entirely negated by the faint quirk of Danny's own smile. There was a pause as he gathered energy and willed the last remnants of dizziness to go away before a sort of dare whispered between them. "Besides, what makes you think ... my daughter ... would believe you?"
As bad as it was, the game was on. In reply, Steve gave out with a pleased chuffed sound that mimicked a soft laugh. "Because, your daughter would always believe me."
"Oh really?" Danny's grin deepened at that notion. "Why's that?"
"Because her Uncle Steve is the epitome of valor and ... natural agility."
"Valor ... I'll give you. Maybe .. because you dropped me ... which also ... does nothing for your claim ... of agility." Danny's half lidded eyes managed to pry themselves fully open just before sagging partially closed. He was intent on speaking no matter how difficult it was becoming as he used up valuable oxygen and energy reserves that were minuscule at best. Steve narrowed his eyes as he noticed the subtle wheeze beginning on each shallow breath. Danny had been completely out for hours and was still treading a fine, critical line.
"I did not drop you!" Steve hushed out indignantly, at the same time a warning finger came up to forestall another attempted staccato outburst. "But that's enough for now, Danno. You need to rest, buddy."
Even warned, Danny was already taking another breath though to continue his point. While Steve disagreed wholeheartedly, he continued to gather dismal energy reserves against a body-wide tidal wave of exhaustion. A steady inhale then pushed out an incredulous whisper. "But natural .. agility? You ... almost dropped me!"
"Now it's almost dropped you?" Much quicker and unable to help himself, Steve practically laughed at the unintended slip. "And, yes. I'm perfectly skilled. Nimble, in fact."
Completely amused since Danny was more than just a bit off his game, Steve watched as a hand flailed a few inches off the white hospital sheet while Danny searched for words in his still somewhat muddled mind. He was sure that would be all based on the weakly raised eyebrow, but Danny was far from done.
"Hey! Okay." Steve was about to interrupt and put his foot down to end all conversation when the first loud, indignant puff came up from the bed. "Danny .. really." He started and then rolled his eyes towards the ceiling in futility as the same hand had the gall to wave higher. "Danny!"
"No. No, Steven. Nimble? You said ... nimble?" Danny finally snarked back, face reddening as he pushed through each steady inhale and exhale. "You ... are the epitome of a Neanderthal bull ... in a pristine ... china shop."
The friendly teasing was tired, wispy but definitely in play despite the obvious way Danny was feeling. Without permission and torn between laughing and his increasing concern for Danny's well-being, Steve thumbed the call button to the nurse's station. That action also effectively ended the ongoing need to talk, along with an unexpected dry cough.
"Alright, now that's enough. Point taken. Seriously, Danno, enough talking." Raising the bed slightly, Steve ended the short discussion by offering Danny the small disposable cup filled with mediocre tap water from the equally sad little plastic pitcher. The ice had long ago melted with the only evidence being the ring of dampness left on the elevated tray table. "I'll refill it and add ice." Steve amended when Danny made a slightly disagreeable face.
"S'fine. Seriously." Danny closed his eyes as he let the water clear the dry ache from his throat. He missed the rueful shake of Steve's head and the way he snared the nurse's call button to send a second request for someone to come look at his partner. Despite waking more coherently than Steve could have hoped, Danny was tired and feverish. Reddened points on his cheeks warred against a general pallor which was more pale than normal.
"Better." Danny murmured softly, fighting through leaden eyes to peer up at Steve. "Thanks." Anything wet was simply good enough and eyes slowly closing again, he had no real complaints after taking the soothing careful sips. The dizziness was lurking and he was indeed very tired.
"You've been out for a long time." Suddenly morphing into a very serious change of mood, Steve carefully sat on the edge of the bed to admit what had been foremost on his mind. He was more relieved than he thought possible when his partner truly woke without the frightening blank stare. He was making sense and was even in a fairly good mood as proven by the short teasing conversation. As the nurse had stated earlier, Danny had turned an important corner towards healing and Steve sighed audibly in relief. "Hours in fact, Danny."
With his eyes closed, Danny quietly absorbed that comment, easily reading the worry behind the words. Still immersed in the memories of the black, windy jungle, Danny wasn't entirely certain what was causing Steve's real concern. They had escaped the first murder attempt and eluded the second. He and Kono had managed to hide until help arrived ... help in the form of Chin and Steve which had almost too easily negated the final threat. But in thinking of that, Danny frowned behind closed lids as other memories swirled forward.
It hadn't been the final threat because something more had happened. And Chin .. Chin had been involved with more gunfire and another physical struggle. Newer memories threatened and niggled at him then despite Steve's ongoing soft murmur of conversation. Advice that he relax and remain quiet to calm his breathing and even go back to sleep. However inside, Danny was suddenly much less at ease and becoming more agitated as he tried to fine-tune remembered scents, painful touches, and frightening sounds.
There was a brief silence as the two sat quietly together with Steve still perched on a tiny scrap of mattress. Wondering why a nurse or doctor had yet to arrive and assuming another emergency elsewhere within the specialized unit, Steve was sure that Danny had fallen back asleep anyway. Multi-tasking quietly, he was experimenting behind the scenes with the tight kink in his knee and he winced before abandoning the concept of fully straightening it out in front of him. He'd have it checked later and was just about to return to the chair, when Danny's eyes flew back open in alarm.
"Danny?" Instantly attentive, Steve was back on high alert. "What's wrong?"
"Kono. Where is she? Is she alright?" Danny went to his first larger than life memory of dark jungle and Kono's near-ashen face. She'd been sick, injured and had soldiered on for all of them. She had kept Tortorro in line until help arrived virtually alone. But before Steve could answer, Danny gasped at the second much more recent event where he'd struggled against Mike .. there had been trouble in the hospital. He remembered that vividly now. The sharp stench of gunfire, shouts and even fearful screams.
He had tried to get up in order to help, but had been prevented with a near ruthless insistence.
"Mike. Chin. They were both shot .. by the orderly." The rush of stunned words wrought havoc on his breathing for a moment and Danny swallowed hard, completely ignoring Steve's soft sounds which were meant to calm him. He wound up falling limply back and just trying to breathe normally as an alarm went off somewhere behind his head. Somehow, someway .. one of Angel Tortorro's men had laid in wait for them in the trauma area to finish the job.
"Damn it, Danny." Lurching off the bed and hissing around a bad stumble which tweaked his knee, Steve found himself more anxiously hitting the nurse's call button for a third time. He grimaced towards the doorway and the dim-lit hallway for the late night hours. There was literally no activity that he could sense near their room. Not daring to take another step for his knee, Steve remained by the bed. He watched as Danny slowly regained some control of his breath, yet the machine was still making its annoying repetitive trill of sound.
"They're all fine." Steve insisted. "Everyone's okay, Danny. Just hold on and I'll explain. Don't get so worked up."
The agreeable nod was driven by Danny's inability to draw in a satisfying breath and he closed his eye to concentrate solely on relaxing. Drenched in sweat not only from fever, but now from a spark of pure adrenalin, Danny willfully sucked in a steadier breath. He was trying.
"Slowly." He nodded again to the demand when Steve grasped his forearm as another dry cough bubbled up. He was fine. The rest of the team was also fine. So now, it was only the vividness of the memories and Danny tiredly palmed his forehead only to have his hand pulled away by cool female fingers. Before he could fully open his eyes though, an oxygen mask was being fastened back into place.
"O2 stats dipped. But his blood pressure is all over the map all of a sudden." The ICU nurse explained softly to both men after rechecking Danny's readings and general comfort level. She peered queerly at Steve's near one-legged stance which he pursed his lips belligerently about rather than offering her a reason. Instead of pursuing what had happened, she focused on her actual patient who was happily awake with more improved readings than not.
"It's nice to see you, Detective. Very nice ... but too much talking. You can't stress yourself like this. Not yet." Patiently waiting after dispensing medication, she smiled in appreciation as his blood pressure returned to a more acceptable range.
"Is he alright?" The unexpected question from a new male voice came from the doorway. It preempted Steve's very similar question entirely as the two turned to look at the new visitor. Nervously glancing from the nurse to Steve, the young man looked as if he might even bow as he fingered a white envelope in his hands. "Officer Iona. HPD. Sergeant Lukela sent me. Is Detective Williams alright?"
The nurse couldn't help her grin at the brief introduction. Fully uniformed down to perfectly polished shoes and albeit extremely skittish, it was obvious that he was an employee of the Honolulu Police Department. She glanced briefly to his hands where he was flipping an envelope over and over between shaky fingers. The repetitive action had been going on for some time based on its worn and worried edges. Young though he was, she thought nothing of his presence especially when Steve seemed to accept his arrival.
"He's going to be fine." The nurse finally answered. Her expression was approving as Danny began to lose his battle to remain awake, very pleased to see that he was allowing the medication to pull him back under. "He needs to sleep. He needs to rest." She stressed once more. Then she stopped long enough to measure Steve's continued odd stance and the pained expression which he was failing at hiding. "What's wrong with you?"
Whatever the nurse had dispensed was strong and Danny found himself floating once more. The heightened feeling was far from disconcerting this time, though. It dampened memories, helped him to breathe easier and allowed his body to relax into a happier lethargy. Eyes closed and allowing the medication to work, he dozed but listened to words that he was losing back to the old, pleasant hum of vibratory sound. He heard the nurse's bold inquiry and his forehead creased in concentration before a sketchy type of smile lifted one side of his mouth under the oxygen mask.
"Check 'em .. out." Slurred and barely audible under the mask, Danny tried to be heard. There was a fidget below their noses and Steve had to grin at the stray, lazy finger which pointed absolutely nowhere in the direction of his aching knee. In fact, the words were only just intelligible. "Dropped .. me .. knee."
The nurse had leaned over to try to hear Danny better. "Dropped?" She cocked her head quizzically at what she thought she heard, before turning on Steve. "What? Did he say that you dropped him? Dropped?"
"I didn't drop him!" Steve offered lamely. He made a face in total disgust because that particular conversation had ended. Minutes ago, in fact. It had ended and yet, Danny was still getting the last word in despite closed eyes and being half asleep due to medication and wracked with fever. He swore that there was even a faint smile to his partner's lips under the mask and a faint crinkling near his eyes.
"Go to sleep, Danno." He took the chance that Danny was shamming, then. The huffed, rudely sounded retort proved Steve right when Danny's grin did indeed crinkle his brow even more. He paused and avoided the nurse's laughing eyes entirely.
"Iona?" Turning to the newly arrived HPD officer who screamed rookie by his very demeanor, Steve casually changed the subject. At least, he tried. "So, Iona ... Duke sent you over?"
Looking nervously from the bed, to the nurse and back to the Five-0 commander, Iona shrugged before remembering to stand at attention. The atmosphere in the hospital room was strange at best as attention moved from the recovering detective to his superior. Not daring to speak though, Iona only measured the commander's weird stance. He frowned before schooling his features back to blandness. The man was dressed in full SWAT-like gear, very rumpled and undoubtedly exhausted. Things were beginning to make sense now as the nurse purposefully folded her arms to ready for a stand-off.
"Iona?" Lost in those thoughts, the Five-0 commander brusquely called him back to center. "Lukela wanted you to give me that?"
"Yes. And I'm to give you this and wait for your orders." Hurriedly, Iona handed him the small white envelope which Steve opened, not losing the fact that the nurse hadn't budged an inch. Peripherally, Steve could just see her trying to measure the swollen joint under the badly scuffed knee of his pants and how he had it cocked so he could balance on his toe. Even the new HPD arrival was pensively looking at him now.
Ignoring both, Steve read the letter which was indeed from Duke. He glanced curiously at the nervous unsettled young officer who was standing at full attention but allowing his eyes to wander down to Steve's injured knee. "Hey." Steve waved the letter in the air towards the Rookie to draw his gaze back up. "This is interesting, Iona." His second read through it made him chuckle as he realized what the older Sergeant was doing.
"So, Officer Keanu Phillip Iona. Do you know what this note says?" Steve asked, grinning when the young man swallowed convulsively.
"No, sir. Only to report here, sir, and to await your orders." The officer in front of him was the one who had seemingly erred so badly in allowing Andrea Winston to escape their care. As a penance, Sergeant Duke Lukela had assigned the embarrassed young man to the Five-0 team for the foreseeable future. He was to do anything that Steve required as his team recovered, no matter how mundane the task.
"Uh, huh. Evidently you've been temporarily assigned to our team ... actually, as my personal assistant." Steve smirked and then seriously almost lost his balance as his primary leg cramped and his toe slipped on the linoleum. His wobble was significant enough for Iona to spring into action by grabbing Steve's arm before he could literally fall on the floor. His muffled oaths were telling as to the true nature of his discomfort.
"So, it is your knee." The nurse pursed her lips and folded her arms sternly because now, she was certain of what the detective had whispered. "Officer Iona, it seems that you've been assigned as the 5-0 gopher while the entire team is laid up. I have a job for you as the Commander's personal assistant." The only silent reply from Iona as he held his new boss up by one arm, was the egregious look lacing his face as he tried to absorb the import of what his senior officer had saddled him with, and possibly indefinitely.
"No." Steve objected around another wobble which required Iona to tighten his hold before aiming him to the lone chair. His groan leaked out regardless of his best efforts as his knee refused to any added movement or weight. "No, not the whole team and he's my assistant. You can't order him around." Steve objected through teeth that were now gritted in pain, glaring at the woman as she had the gall to chuckle.
Pre-emptively waving her hand at Iona, the nurse ignored Steve to point outside towards the hallway. "Find me a wheelchair. We have something to get to the bottom of."
~ to be continued ~
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