A/N: Here we go folks a sequel to Any Cost! Trying something a little different for me, starts out pretty light hearted but will get more serious later! Hope you like it!
Chapter 1
Steve McGarrett sat at his desk weeding through paperwork feeling like a chisel and blow torch would be a more appropriate, effective, management technique. He was hoping to get as much of the stack cleared away for the weekend. He leaned away from the tedium, back popping loudly, and surveyed his team. Kono was diligently working away at her forms, nearly finished. Off aways was Chin Ho and Max comparing walking canes, not that Max used his anymore. He seemed content and relaxed, the conversation easy, but whenever a person walked by, paying them no attention, he darkened and shrunk away subtly. Unless you were looking you wouldn't notice but it was like a neon sign to Steve. He was still deeply scarred both physically and mentally. It was going to be a long while before he was truly healed. He talked to them sometimes, everyone except Danny that is, about the torture he went through to protect Grace. There was a strange rift between the two. Not of anger, distrust or anything like that but a sense of unworthiness. Danny felt he could never make up for the suffering and Chin believed he hadn't done enough leaving both feeling undeserving of the others friendship. It left them both awkward and strained in each others presence. A harsh wheezing cough drew his attention back to the Jersey boy. He was slumped back in his chair, arms folded tight around his torso, shivering with beads of sweat rolling down his flushed red neck. It had been no secret that he was ill but he stubbornly denied the fact. It had been a week now of him refusing to accept that he had a bad case of flu or worse. Another hacking cough which startled everyone, sending a sharp squiggle line of ink across Kono's form making her curse and pull out a fresh one, and Steve threw down his own pen.
"That's it." His chair screeched along the floor as he jumped up and stormed over to Danny. "Get up, I'm taking you home."
"Wha?" Danny lurched giving Steve a small pang of guilt. He hadn't realized the man was asleep at his desk. His eyes were red rimmed, puffy, with dark circles smudged under them, and flushed with fever.
"C'mon, up, I'm taking you home."
"No 'mgood." He mumbled followed by a violent hacking cough that had the rest of the team eying him like a bio-hazard.
"Up up up." Steve chanted grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and pulling him from the chair. It should have required more force and involved more resistance but Danny was down to his last drop of energy. He already knew he wouldn't win so he surrendered and was dragged out to his car he never drove. He sank into the passenger seat and tried to curl himself up into a ball. The bright sunlight burned, the breeze froze him and the heat roasted him like a pig on a spit. He hated life today. He could vaguely hear Steve lecturing him about letting himself get this sick but he wasn't listening. His head throbbed too much to care. He must have drifted to sleep because he was suddenly jerking awake in front of Steve's house with a bag from the local pharmacy filled with stuff he supposed was for him.
"Not my house." He muttered glaring at Steve's garage door.
"No it's not, you're not staying alone in that shoebox you call an apartment while you're this sick."
"M'fine, stay a' my place." The argument was destroyed with a coughing fit that left him leaning heavily on the car and rasping desperately for oxygen. He was helpless as Steve hauled him into the house, tossing him into the nearest recliner, and began fishing through the grocery bag.
"Drink." Steve ordered popping open a can of ginger ale. Danny took it but only stared at it, his stomach roiling just hearing the fizz. Steve let it go for the moment as he began making up the couch into a bed then warmed up some soup and put it in a mug followed by a couple of pills.
"Going home. I'm fine." he grumbled lumbering out of the recliner only to have himself deftly whirled around finding himself sprawled on the couch, not a drop of his soda spilled.
"You're not and you're not, now shut up, drink you soda, eat your soup and take these."
"No, don't need them." He batted away at him but Steve would not be deterred.
"Do it willingly or I force feed it too you? Do you want me to have to grind em up into a saline solution and stab you with a needle?" Danny eyed him warily calculating the reality of the threat then scooped up the pills and swallowed them back with soda abruptly.
"Animal."
"I want to see half that soup eaten when I get back or else." Steve ordered getting the blankets tucked around Danny and even put on a movie for him. He left minutes later to the snores of his sickly friend. "One done, one to go." He muttered heading back to the Palace. Chin Ho had a physical therapy appointment and it was his turn to drive him to and from as he was still restricted from any amount of driving. He found them gathered around a desk playing a fierce game of go-fish.
"He gonna live?" Kono inquired.
"Eventually."
"Time to go?" Chin asked getting that look of dread.
"Eh, you've got time to finish the round." He pulled up a chair watching as Max wholloped them all at the game. That light hearted charisma faded as they loaded up into the car. A tense silence took hold during the drive and while they waited for the therapist to finish with her previous patient. Steve kept quiet as he handed over the water bottle and prescribed ibuprofen. He swallowed it back and went back to chewing his lip anxious. These appointments were always productive but agony.
"Danny doing okay?" Chin asked quietly. Steve turned to look at him knowing he wasn't referring to the current bout of flu.
"He's pretty good Chin, worried he's let you down somehow. Grace wants to see you too. I think I heard something about a tea party? Or maybe it was a spa day." Chin squirmed.
"Yeah well, now's not a good time." Chin deflected.
"Chin Ho Kelly? You ready hun?" The clerk called him providing the perfect escape route from the conversation. Steve had been skirting closer and closer to the uncomfortable tension between the two. He seemed determined to force the issue while they were content to avoid it entirely. Steve sighed disappointed seeing him disappear into the private room. He felt a headache beginning from the strain of struggling to figure out how to fix things. Time passed slowly as he waited in the lobby, fielding a few phone calls to pass the time. After he drove Chin home after the appointment. He was pained and exhausted as usual and would be down for the count for the rest of the day. He helped Kono finish up paperwork then went back to settle in with Danny for the evening.
They passed the days in an easy routine with an ill but grumpy, more than usual, Daniel. Steve seldom made it to HQ on time having to tend his patient. The few discussions about a doctor visit ended up in such fierce rebuttals that Danny would plunge into a coughing fit lasting until he was blue in the face. Steve let it go for the time being. The lingering fever was persistent but not high enough to worrisome. He would practically force feed him chicken soup, medication, and ginger ale. They were thankfully low on cases allowing him to do midday visits combined with a little harassing just to keep Danny fresh and irked. Wednesday rolled around and his fever spiked.
"Danno, wake up Danno!" He shook his friend roughly but the man slapped his hand feebly.
"Smnghuba." He muttered unintelligibly. Steve huffed.
"C'mon Danny, time for more pills and food." Daniel groaned and tried to roll face first into the couch. He was too hot, quivering with cold and his body ached like he were a hundred and eighty. He just wanted to sleep buried in the seat cushion and wait to die.
"B'z''ff." He pulled the blankets up over his head to shut out the world only to have Steve rip them off making him yelp at the rush of shocking cool air.
"No no you get up. You need to eat, take drugs, shower, definitely, shower. I'm pretty sure you're growing cultures for bio-weapons."
"Jerk." Danny slurred as Steve hauled him upright frowning as he swayed.
"Eat, I mean it." He snapped pushing fresh of soup into his clammy hand interrupted by the doorbell. "I find you laying down again when I get back and I'm hosing you down in the yard instead of a nice hot shower you hear me?" He threatened wagging a finger at him heading towards the door.
"Hey Steve you read...You don't look ready to go?" Catherine scowled at his pajama bottoms and loose fit T-shirt which was probably a few days old.
"What? Dressed for wha...oh! Oh I'm so sorry! We had a date tonight!" Steve slapped his forehead feeling stupid.
"Yeah, you obviously forgot." Steve wanted to shrivel up under a rock and die seeing the knock out, sexy slinky dress Cath was wearing that made his knees wobble a bit.
"No, yes, no it's just Danny." Catherine rose an eyebrow critically.
"Danny? You forgot about this," she waved her hand along her silhouette sensuously, "for Danny? Let me in I've gotta see what he's doing to you that's so much better than me."
"Wait Cath, it's not like...wait what do you mean what he's doing to me?" He argued as she shoved her way into the room putting extra effort to swing her hips making him gulp and pant a little with yearning. She continued to the threshold of the living room then stopped.
"Awww, that's so sweet playing nurse for Danny. He looks pretty sick." Steve joined her irritated seeing the man was again asleep sitting upright.
"Yeah, he is. Fever spiked pretty bad a few hours ago. I was thinking if it didn't start coming down in a few hours I'd take him to the e.r. He's arguing of course."
"It's like having a little kid." Cath commented as Steve wrapped his arms around her and started petting the silky fabric but she smacked him good. "No dinner, no handsy." Steve sighed but squeezed her tighter.
"Alright, how bout you keep an eye on the child while I pick up some more supplies and then we pretend he doesn't exist and eat dinner up stairs, get a little handsy?" Catherine snickered and hustled upstairs to steal a pair of his pajama pants and a shirt. It wasn't the dinner out they'd planned but the evening turned out to be pretty good. They found Danny's fever broke by morning as they got ready for work. He was getting some genuine rest so McGarrett let him alone for the most part. He filled a thermos of soup leaving it near him with a note and a baggie of pre-portioned pills. Cath grinned watching him get the man set up for the day getting minor rebellions like bickering children when Danny half-woke until he suddenly landed a kiss to his forehead and walked away leaving Danny spluttering.
"A kiss to the forehead?" Catherine questioned.
"Just checking the fever." He quipped.
"A thermometer would do the job."
"Yeah but a thermometer just doesn't get that look of abject horror." He snickered.
"That depends on where you stick it." Catherine rebutted. Steve stopped in his tracks staring at her mortified.
"I'm dating a monster!"