I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: this is a whumpfest/angsty/bromance plain and simple. You can expect little plot, glossing over medical (though what's here could be vaguely on the mark). The muse got frustrated about the lack thereof (bromance/angst) of late on the show and literally purged this. It's not properly beta'd nor is there much of a solid timeline and many liberties have been taken. My goal was to let the muse run amok and have a grand time doing it! Any errors are my own - if you see something (spelling or missing word) I'd appreciate a heads up to correct it.

Chapter One

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

"It's okay," Steve murmured incessantly, both arms wrapped strongly around the miserably trembling body. "It's okay. I've got you ... it's over ... it's over and you can rest soon."

They had taken each of them separately with a fine-tuned precision and they had allowed them to see each other just twice in that four day period of time. But that second time had been wholly for Steve's sake to boost that one final terrible push over an inescapable edge. While Steve had been forced to manage the much too anticipated and almost typical abusive standards doled out, their punishment for Danny had been different.

In their four days of captivity, he hadn't been allowed to sleep; he hadn't been permitted a single minute of true rest. Generally, Danny hadn't been physically touched and yet ... he had.

"Mi''zn't?" There were no more words coming out of Danny's mouth. Just weird, inarticulate questioning sounds which tore at Steve every step from where he'd finally managed to thwart their captors. The three men were deader than dead solely at Steve's hands for they had made one mistake; and one was all he'd required.

"S'okay, Danno. Promise," Steve whispered, pausing in the dark under a tree to shift his partner up higher in his arms. He'd found Danny trussed up against a concrete wall in the bunker. Arms tied over his head, he'd been forced to stand for hours in either pitch blackness or alternately, under overly bright lights but always to an insanity-driven level of sound. Booming sound echoing to an astronomical level so loud, if it had been music, it had rendered into only nonsensical traumatic noise.

After the anticipated pummeling, it hadn't taken Steve long to realize what they were doing and he'd tried everything in his power to draw the attention back to himself. Bleeding, bruised and tormented by the three men, his brain had kicked in to understand the sheer depths of their evil.

So he'd lied, toyed with the truth and then lied again. Hours elapsed and Steve nearly lost his mind over what was being done to Danny. He fought back, argued, demeaned them in kind, and even lapsed into a belligerent silence, but the thick resonation of sound continued to reach him so many rooms away. As shock turned to anger and that became fear for his friend, Steve had seemed to finally break as they'd laughed or taunted him more.

Physically ... then mentally, to land on his worst possible emotional setting.

However, that turned out to be their very worst mistake. Using Danny was a distinct error in judgement because he wasn't Steve's weakness ... using Danny ... hurting Danny ... that act only provided the reason for Steve to finally break in a way their captors never guessed possible. And because of their mistake, now all were quite dead at the hands of a well-trained, highly skilled SEAL.

"Off." Danny stiffened as he uttered the first word Steve recognized. "Off ... off." His fingers clenched weakly around Steve's arm when his head came up, eyes blinking wildly where they had once been firmly closed against the world. He froze briefly, staring at something not quite there in the darkness as another hallucination gripped his exhausted brain.

"M'not ... off," Danny moaned fearfully, any semblance of words slurred and barely discernible. His body spasmed, the back of his head almost hitting Steve in the side of the face when he lurched away. "Pl... please ... Off."

"Shh, everything's going to be fine." Steve's whispers were low and meant to soothe, but he didn't even know if Danny heard or even sensed his presence. Sleep deprived, Danny was past caring and mostly limp as a rag except for the severe muscular tremors wracking him from head to toe. Low moans thrummed through Steve's arm vibrating from his chest. He groaned, gagging and then straining in what seemed a real physical pain as his body rebelled in its desire to simply sleep.

"No, Danny, take it easy ... it's just me. It's Steve." Real tears were pricking painfully at Steve's eyes when Danny clumsily fought him, fingers ice cold and fumbling. The mewls increased for a time along with the uncoordinated, weak attempts before a brief moment of silence where Steve could only hear Danny's harsh uneven breaths and now feel an uneven heartbeat under his arm.

"Hang on, buddy. Just ... hang on for me." Steve didn't know where they were and the pitch of night within the jungle only worsened his inability to determine a general location so he simply picked a direction which was away from their bunker-like prison. The best he could do was select a downwards transverse angle hoping that he'd hit a beach where he might better understand their position and develop a better plan.

"Up you go," he whispered, ignoring the crippling pains in his own abdomen, his right shoulder and along the left side of his ribcage to heft Danny's arm over his neck because he literally needed to carry the near comatose man by that point. Exhausted himself, Steve stumbled as best as possible towards what he thought might be the safest place away from where they'd escaped.

His breath whistled in his own ears as he lumbered along at an excruciatingly slow pace. Driven by adrenalin and the need to gain ground for Danny's sake, he remained alert and steadfast in his sole goal. But he'd soon have to stop to rest; he'd need to stop to attempt a form of triage for his friend despite non-existent medical gear or the right kind of help.

After what seemed like an eternity, Steve found that refuge within feet of the beach he also craved. "Thank god," Steve mumbled to himself, his eyes now long acclimated to the dark as he examined the moonlit expanse before turning back to face the dense underbrush which he planned to use as cover. But by that point, he was gasping for air himself and had stopped to literally vomit from both exertion and his own deeply aching pain. Seeing no threat, he forced his body to behave, gently sitting Danny down before he cleared his find of rocks, dead wood and jungle's natural refuse.

He was heaving in the crisp night when he fell to his knees in front of his friend. Danny hadn't moved from his ragdoll-like seat. Head bowed and bobbing in time to each shallow breath, his body shook from cold and trauma. But though he didn't move, he was far from quiet. Faint incoherent mumbles were now a constant as his fingers scrabbled through the sand.

"Danny?" Steve felt his tears well again as he cradled his friend's face in both his hands, forcing it to tilt upwards so that Danny might look at him eye to eye. In the faint moonlight though, Steve could just make out the unfocused gaze and utter lack of recognition in the swollen, bloodshot eyes. The vibrant blue was gone. Now dark and muddy, Danny's pupils were widely blown and shifting nervously to first look through him and then beyond, possibly towards the ocean. His brow furrowed and he jolted in Steve's hands, shivering and trying to shake his head free.

"Danny? Can you hear me ... do you know who I am?" Steve tried and failed completely. At a moment of loss, he rocked his forehead to Danny's to close his eyes and just settle. People could die from sleep deprivation and he'd seen it first hand. The tactic was a mean and damaging method of abuse and torture. It was something which Steve had experience in, yet something which Danny certainly wouldn't have ever borne witness to. Forehead to forehead, Steve fought to control his breathing, as well as his emotional rage. His over-heated skin still couldn't warm Danny's clammy coolness, brought on by shock and a much too low blood-pressure.

"Okay, buddy," Steve bit back the emotional surge of hoarseness in his voice as he forced himself to rest back on his heels. "Ready? We're going to hide here where it's safe until morning. You can sleep ... sleep as long as you want."

In front of him, Danny wobbled in place but didn't exactly respond in any way to his words. The lack of response left Steve wanting more and he found himself anxiously rubbing Danny's arms as if he might be able to warm him up.

"Just a few more steps and then you can sleep. You can sleep all night; as long as you want." He demanded that he manage his mission until the very end as he rocked to his feet to snag Danny under his arms. He once again ignored the pain which ricocheted through his ribs to lift upwards so that he could coax Danny under the heaviest limbs to lay him flat on his back.

The thick copse of trees and low-lying scrub would screen them perfectly, and yet allow Steve the safe view of the moonlit sands and tide. After this though, he had no plan. He had nothing.

~ to be continued ~