Hey guys, it's Mitch again. Unfortunately, HipsterMaybe's going to stay in the hospital another night since they had to suction the fluid from her lungs and as you can imagine, it was a pretty nasty process. Anyway, I found this story on her laptop and it was just too good not to post, so please enjoy this product of my mismatched sock wearing, organic food eating, seventies rock listening, selfless charitable giving, stunningly beautiful, wild curly haired girlfriend's imagination. I sure did!
Danny stared at Steve and had to put forth some serious will power to keep a straight face. The big and imposing figure of Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett was sitting cross legged on the ground while staring dreamily at the flower in his hand. Danny shook his head and reminded himself that this wasn't exactly Steve right now.
After the World Health Organization had published a report stating all of the illnesses of tropical climates, the governor had insisted on updated immunizations that would include the new ones listed in the report. They were told ahead of time that there were possible side effects, but that they were all temporary. For a few hours after they received the injections, they all seemed fine. Then, Steve walked into Danny's office, stumbling like a drunk.
"Whoa, buddy. You okay?" Danny asked, helping Steve over to the couch. Steve didn't speak, just stared off into space. "Steve. Steve! C'mon, man. Talk to me!" Steve's glassy eyes found Danny's as if he had just noticed his friend for the first time.
"Oh, hi Danno. Look at the floaty lights!" Steve exclaimed happily, pointing his finger at nothing in particular.
"Floaty lights?" Danny asked, arching an eyebrow. He felt Steve's forehead, but there was no fever that he could detect, nor could he smell any alcohol on his partner's breath. He carefully removed Steve's gun from its holster and placed it in the top drawer of his desk. "Okay, Steve. I'm going to go talk to Chin and Kono. You stay here and look at the floaty lights, ok?" Steve nodded happily, still engrossed in the nonexistent spectacle before him. Danny slipped out and on the way to Chin's office, he rapped on Kono's window and signaled her to follow.
"What's up Danny?" she asked once the door to Chin's office had been closed.
"Remember those side effects the nurse mentioned after we got our shots?" They nodded.
"You think you're reacting?" Chin asked. Danny shook his head.
"Not me. Steve. He's totally stoned."
"Come again?" Kono asked.
"He stumbles in my office and says he's seeing floaty lights. Don't' believe, he's still lookin' at 'em." They went to Danny's office and sure enough, there was Steve trying to touch the 'floaty lights'.
"You weren't kidding, brah." Chin said, not bothering to hide his amusement at the sight of their tough as nails leader dancing around the room grabbing at thin air and giggling like a child.
"So, um, what are we gonna do with him?" Kono asked. Danny sighed.
"Right about now he's acting like a four year old Grace, so that's how I'm going to treat him."
"So, McGarrett-sitting?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Just then, Steve bounded over to him excitedly with his hands shut tightly around something.
"Danno! Danno! Look! I caught one of the floaty lights!" Steve said, looking immensely pleased with himself.
"You did?"
"Mmmmhhhhmmm! You wanna see?"
"Absolutely. Let's see what you got in there." Steve opened his hands and, for the benefit of his addled friend, Danny pretended to look excited.
"Do you like it?"
"Oh, I love it! Here, Steve. Why don't we go for a little drive?"
"Okay!" Steve said with a trusting smile. Chin leaned in to Danny.
"You taking him to get checked out?" he asked.
"Yup."
"Danno, can we get some shave ice?"
"Sure, buddy." As they walked out of the office, Danny smiled at Chin and Kono. "Just like Grace."
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The doctor told him that these side effects were temporary and would fade soon enough. Until then, the only thing they could do would be to wait it out and make sure he didn't hurt himself. After buying Steve some shave ice as promised, Danny drove back to HQ. Once he was out of the car, he saw Steve, sitting in the grass, admiring a flower.
"C'mon, Steve. Let's go inside."
"Can I take my flower?"
"Of course you can." He led Steve up to the Five-0 offices and sat him down on the couch. After a moment, he handed Steve his phone, on which an episode of one of Grace's cartoons she had downloaded was playing. That seemed to occupy him.
"So, what did the doctor say?" Kono asked.
"Basically all we can do is wait it out. Should only be a couple hours, but until then, we're babysitting McGarrett the man-child." Chin smiled and shook his head.
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An hour passed in peace. Three members of Five-0 caught up on paperwork, and one fell asleep behind Danny's desk watching Spongebob. All in all, it was a quiet day for the governor's task force. That was until four heavily armed men in ski masks burst in.
"Everybody put your hands up and come out here. Do it now!" One of the men yelled. Three of them did as they were told. The other slept on peacefully.
"Where's McGarrett?" the one Danny assumed to be the leader asked as his men relieved them of their weapons.
"He's not here. He left about an hour ago to check in with an informant." Danny lied, thinking fast. If they caught Steve in his state, then there would be no chance of the big man defending himself. The leader swore, then raised his gun.
"Alright, then. Let's go downstairs so we can be there to greet him when he comes back."
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Steve stretched and rubbed his eyes. When he opened them, he was surprised and definitely confused as to why in the hell he was laying down behind Danny's desk. He stood up and looked around. Strange, the offices were empty, but the lights were still on. He checked his watch, but it was only early afternoon. Walking over to the window, he checked the parking lot to see that their cars were all indeed still there. Frowning, he walked out of the offices and down to the lobby. But he stopped short before he reached the stairs. He could hear raised voices from below. Creeping closer with stealth born from years of training, he listened in.
"We've been waiting for over an hour. Where the fuck is he?!" A man shouted angrily. Steve could hear the sound of a fist colliding with a flesh and a groan of pain.
"I…t-told you already." Danny's wheezed as though he wasn't getting enough air. "He's talking to an informant. Couldn't tell me who. Dunno when he'll be back."
"Call him." The man said. Moments later, Steve felt his pocket vibrate and he quickly hit the ignore button.
"It went to voicemail." Another unknown voice said.
"God damn it!" the man yelled and Steve heard the dull thud of another blow being landed on Danny, as well as the grunt of pain that followed.
"Stop it! It's not his fault!" Kono's voice yelled.
"You want some too, Sugarmouth? You're real pretty…it'd be a shame to mess up your face."
"Don't you touch her!" Came Danny's weak, yet determined voice. It sounded almost muffled, as if his nose were broken or his mouth full of blood.
"You're just asking for it, aren't you Jersey?" a cold voice taunted.
"Hey, let's just calm down, alright? McGarrett will be on his way back soon enough." Chin's calm voice reasoned. This seemed to pacify the angry voice for a while. Chancing a glance from behind a pillar, Steve looked down at where his team was being held. His blood turned to ice as he say his three closest friends, his family, bound at the wrists and ankles. Chin and Kono were sitting against a wall, looking relatively unharmed. Danny however, lay on his side in the middle of the room. His face was bloody and bruised and his chest looked as though it was a struggle to make itself rise and fall. The floor around him was slick with blood. Steve started looking for options. The front door had been rigged with explosives, so obviously help couldn't be brought in through there. A quick check proved the same case for all other doors. He went to grab his gun when he realized, there was no gun. He was now completely confused, so he went over what he knew. He had woken up with no gun behind Danny's desk and now his friends were being held hostage because someone wanted to get to him. Danny had obviously been lying to protect him when he told the men that Steve was with an informant. That left Steve with only one option. He ran back into the Five-0 offices and quickly hit his fourth speed dial.
"Hello."
"Duke, it's Steve. Listen to me. We have at least four men with guns here holding my team hostage. As far as I can tell, they want me. They've rigged all entrances with explosives."
"Ok, I'm sending HPD and S.W.A.T. in quiet as well as an ambulance. Steve, if they want you and they've locked down the building, why are you not with them?"
"I don't know, Duke. Something's off here. I woke up on the floor behind Danny's desk ten minutes ago with no gun."
"We'll figure this out, Steve. Do you know how your team is?"
"It looks like they're ziptied at the hands and feet. Chin and Kono are okay, but it looks like they've been using Danny as their punching bag. He's going to need that ambulance."
"Alright, I'll inform the hospital. So, what's the plan?"
"I'm giving them what they want. Find a way to get S.W.A.T. and bomb squad up to the window in our offices. Use that big scissor lift across the street."
"Okay. Be careful, Steve." They disconnected and Steve went back to where he had hidden before. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out.
"Let them go." He said bravely, walking slowly down the stairs. Chin and Kono's heads shot up and they stared at him in shock. Danny looked up, slower than he should've, and stared at Steve with pleading eyes.
"No, Steve…please!" he begged, his voice barely a whisper.
"Well well well…McGarrett. Meeting an informant, Williams?" That earned Danny another harsh kick to the stomach.
"Enough!" Steve yelled. "You have me, now you let them go and we'll work this out." The masked man smiled coldly.
"I'm afraid that's not how it works, McGarrett. You two, restrain him, I'll call Cutter." Two of the masked men nodded and closed in on Steve with zip ties.
"You fight us, your partner suffers. Got it?" Steve nodded and allowed himself to be bound, searched for weapons, and dragged to sit between Chin and Kono. Frightened eyes scanning him, Kono whispered in Steve's ear.
"Steve, are you with us? God, please tell me your back to normal."
"Yeah, I'm normal…why wouldn't I be? And why the hell did I just wake up behind Danny's desk?"
"The immunizations we got had side effects and you started reacting. You were…well, not yourself. You fell asleep on the floor behind Danny and when these guys came in, Danny lied because he knew what they'd do to you if they found you like that." Steve blew out a breath. Well, at least that made sense. "Please tell me you have a plan." Kono whispered. Steve simply nodded as two of the masked men came over. One man stayed at the window, keeping watch and the leader was still speaking in hushed tones on his cell phone. Without a word, the men dragged him to the center of the room and dropped him next to Danny. Immediately, Steve began to assess his partner's condition. Danny was pale, his ice cold skin damp with sweat. With some difficulty due to their bindings, he checked his partner's pulse, only to find it fast and much too weak. Of the skin that Steve could see, most of it was bruised. Several of the blows had split the skin and blood ran down his face from a particularly nasty cut at his temple. More blood trickled from his mouth and his probably broken nose. Throwing a quick glance at the man on the phone to make sure that he was still occupied, Steve leaned over the injured man.
"Danny? Danny, can you hear me?" A soft groan, then Danny's eyelids fluttered open to reveal dull and glassy orbs of pain.
"Steve…it'll be okay…know you're confused, but it's jus' the side effects." Danny managed to whisper. Steve shook his head, marveling at how even though Danny was probably in shock and bleeding internally, he was still worried about everyone else.
"I'm good now, Danny. It wore off. I've got a plan, so just hang in there. It's my turn to take care of you." Danny's unfocused eyes appraised Steve, then he nodded before letting his body relax. Seconds later, he was unconscious once more. Steve squeezed his friends hand gently.
"You just rest buddy. I'll get us out of this."
"You love birds about done?" the leader asked, walking towards them. Steve glared at him coldly and damn if the men didn't flinch under his best 'Navy SEAL Death Stare'.
"What do you want?"
"Me? The two million I'm getting' paid for deliverin' some sensitive information to a very rich man. Sensitive information that you're gonna give me." Steve let out a derisive snort. "Think this is funny, do ya?" The man asked, leaning in in an effort to be threatening. It failed miserably.
"Yeah, little bit." Steve retorted as he head butted the man and simultaneously removed the knife he kept hidden in the sole of his shoe and slid it to Chin and Kono. Immediately, they began to cut through the zip ties. Steve had already sawed through his while they weren't looking. They had been convinced he was just sitting next to Danny idly. Amateurs. Slipping his hands and feet out of the broken plastic, Steve pushed himself upright and stood protectively in front of Danny. Once he was joined by Chin and Kono, they each took one of the masked men. Kono's jujitsu proved very effective against her adversary and he went down quickly. Chin's sleeper hold incapacitated his goon just as fast. Steve's was down for the count after one roundhouse kick to the face. That only left their leader, who had crawled back up to his feet and was brandishing Steve's knife in an intricate attack pattern. Steve arched an eyebrow and raised the one of the guns he had pulled from the unconscious men at his feet and shot the man in the shoulder. Chin quickly restrained him and Steve and Kono ran to Danny's side. Gently, she lifted his battered head into her lap. Now that the imminent threat was gone, Steve could perform a more thorough examination. As he began to unbutton Danny's torn and bloody shirt, S.W.A.T. followed shortly by the bomb squad guys sprinted into the room and began to check the hostiles' restraints and work on the explosives on the doors. Steve didn't notice this, however, because he was far too concerned with the rigidity of his partner's abdomen that proved his theory of internal bleeding correct. As Steve gently palpated Danny's ribs, the man in question coughed harshly.
"Shhh, easy Danno. Help's coming. You're doing so good." Steve soothed until the coughing subsided. To his surprise, Danny's eyes blinked open. They were unfocused and the pupils were blown wide, but the managed to find the general area where Steve's face was. Danny had no strength to speak, so he squeezed Steve's hand weakly.
"I'm here, buddy." Steve glanced up as the man disarming the bombs yelled "Clear!" and the paramedics surged forward. "Help's here, Danny." The injured man blinked then lowered his head to the floor and closed his eyes. As the paramedics swarmed him, they fired off questions about his injuries. They confirmed the internal bleeding, severe concussion, broken nose, and broken ribs that Steve had mentioned. When he asked about his breathing they listened closely to their stethoscopes.
"I think his lung's been punctured here on the left side. It's starting to collapse. We need to get him loaded up now." The medics worked efficiently and soon Danny was in the back of the ambulance with every member of Five-0 seated around him. The three of them had climbed in at the last second and the medics saw that this was a fight they would not win.
At the hospital, Danny was quickly taken away and they were told that he would need surgery to repair his lung and the bleeding in his abdomen. They sat in the waiting room for nine hours, all exhausted, yet unable to sleep a wink. When the doctor finally did come out, they were all instantly alert.
"How is he?" Steve asked anxiously.
"We're going to keep him in ICU for a while, but I believe he'll make a full recovery." The woman said with a smile. The relief was sickeningly palpable and it showed on their faces.
"What's the damage?" Chin asked.
"Severe concussion, but his skull is intact and we couldn't find and bleeding or swelling to be worried about. His left lung did collapse, but we were able to re-inflate it repair the hole. We've set his ribs, so they should heal as well. The internal bleeding in his abdomen was a result of a particularly vicious blow that lacerated the spleen. We were able to repair that as well and avoided removing it. The rest of his injuries are relatively minor. Broken nose, fractured right arm, and a hairline fracture to the clavicle." Steve blew out his cheeks at the long list of injuries. The doctor smiled kindly.
"I know it seems like a lot, but he is a strong man and he'll be okay. I can take you to his room now, but I warn you, he's likely to sleep for quite some time."
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She was right. Danny slept for three days straight, yet the three team mates never left his side. They watched as the ventilator was removed and the black bruises faded to purple, and some a sickly yellow. Still, Danny's eyes remained stubbornly shut. This of course, drove Steve crazy as he was not a very patient man. However, when Danny did decide to grace them with his presence, Steve was wholly unprepared. It was just after noon on the fourth day. Chin and Kono had nodded off about an hour ago and Steve was on the verge of sleep. Just as he closed his eyes and his breathing evened out, the hand below his twitched and a low groan emanated from the bed. Steve woke with a start and fell out of the chair in his surprise, knocking over the vase on the table as he went down and startling Chin and Kono out of their dozes. Scrambling to his feet, Steve took Danny's hand in his own.
"Danno? You with me? Come on partner, open your eyes for me. Just like that." Steve coached. Another moment passed, then two startlingly blue eyes flickered open.
"'teve?" Danny asked groggily.
"Yeah. Yeah, Danny, it's me. How ya feelin'?"
"Like I've been hit by a semi…please tell me I did not get hit by a semi."
"No, nothing like that. What do you remember?"
"Watchin' your loopy ass pick flowers." Steve glanced at the others, wondering if Danny wasn't all there yet. "Danno, what are you talking about?" Kono laughed.
"Don't you remember boss? The shots we got had side effects and you reacted badly."
"Like, how bad?"
"Let's see…" Chin said. "Well, Danny compared you to a four year old Grace, which I think is pretty accurate. It's not often you see a Navy SEAL playing with nonexistent 'floaty lights' and picking flowers." Steve's eyes widened.
"I what?"
"Yup, you were totally stoned. I thought it was particularly adorable when you fell asleep on the floor behind Danny's desk." Kono said, playfully elbowing Steve.
"Not to butt in here, but what the hell 'appened to me?" Danny asked weakly.
"While Steve was sleeping the effects of the vaccines off, we HQ was broken into. Four armed men came in looking for Steve. You lied and told them that he had left to go see an informant because you know what they'd do to him if they found him like that. Anyway, they took us down to the lobby and bound us. After a while, they got antsy and started using you as a punching bag. That's when Steve woke up and saved the day. We took out the four guys and, after we interrogated them, they told us that they'd been sent by Senator Mark Hale. Apparently he got elected using some not so legal means, and the guy we just arrested in that drug bust last week knew about it. They wanted some information from you that Hale was going to tell them on the phone. We never did find out what he wanted to know, though. When police tried to arrest him, he had a heart attack right there in his office." Danny raised an eyebrow.
"Damn…" Danny mused hoarsely.
"Yeah, buddy. You were pretty banged up and you've been scaring the crap out of us for three and a half days now."
"Sorry." Danny said sincerely, his eyes drifting shut. It was plain to see that even the short conversation had worn him out. Steve squeezed his hand.
"It's alright, Danno. You sleep now. We'll be here when you wake up." He swore he saw the corners of Danny's mouth twitch upwards.
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It was three months before Danny could return to full field duty, though Steve still worried over him constantly. He had to admit his own personal mother hen was quite annoying, but his heart was in the right place, so Danny put up with it. It was only a week after the doctor had cleared when the case they were working blew up in their faces…literally. The serial bomber they had been after torched Steve's truck, causing them to use the Camaro to chase the bastard down. And when the Camaro suffered a similar fate, they were left to catch the bomber on foot. After one of the blasts brought the warehouse they had chased the suspect into to the ground and Steve, though uninjured, became trapped, it was up to Danny to stop the bomber. Short those his legs may be, Danny ran like a son of a bitch, eventually catching up to the man in a full body tackle. When Steve finally freed himself and caught up to his partner, he found Danny cuffing the bomber, who lay on the ground, struggling feebly. In one hand, Danny held the trigger device and with the other, he gingerly touched his bleeding lip. Steve's sprint staggered to a halt a few feet in front of Danny. After carefully checking him over for damage, Steve smiled.
"Book 'em Danno."
So, good right? She's love to hear your thoughts. She's sleeping right now, but when she wakes up, I'd love to have some review to read her.
Thanks for reading,
Mitch and HipsterMaybe
