"Steve!" Duke shouted. "Don't go in there. The whole building is about to collapse." His warning fell on deaf ear as the distraught man shot through the front door.

With arms shielding his eyes from the blazing inferno, he shouted Danny's name repeatedly. The heat was picking up intensity but Steve had only one purpose in mind, which was to find his partner.

"Duke, check the south exit," Chin instructed." Kono and I we'll check the north, see if Danny had time to get out and that he's just unconscious on the ground."

"All right."

Both cousins went around the building but there were no signs of Danny.

Inside the burning building, Steve searched the ground for his partner with a pronounced squint. He finally spotted him a few feet away from the door, slumped over on the floor, unconscious.

Steve lunged at him and squatted down to try to shake him awake. "Danny! Come on, wake up!" He reached for the blond's neck. Relieved to find a pulse he swayed to his feet, then bent down to secure his arms underneath Danny's armpits and started to bodily drag him toward the exit. However the blast had jammed the access and Steve found himself trapped.

"Danny!" Steve heard called from outside the door.

"Chin! The door is stuck. See if you can open it from outside."

Tried as they did, Chin and Kono could no pry open the door. "Can't Steve!" Chin shouted.

"Stand back! I'm gonna kick it down."

Steve's repeated kicks caused vibration that triggered parts of the ceiling to rain down on him, momentarily stunning him. He quickly shook the dizziness away to resume his task. Once he finally succeeded in kicking the door open, he hurriedly hauled Danny up and swung him on his shoulder to stagger out of the inferno.

Once safely out of immediate danger, Steve hacked his lungs out and slumped to the ground, then tried to revive his partner. "Come on, Danny. Stay with me now."

Chin reached for the neck. "He's got a pulse." He then glued his ear to Danny's nose. "He's not breathing, though." Quickly he started pushing air into his lungs while Kono hurried to Duke to get an Ambu bag. Fire truck sirens were heard in the distance.

She came back to hand the bag over to Chin while Steve could only watch in a complete daze, as he struggled to remain alert. "Duke called 911. An ambulance's on its way." The word resounded like a buzz inside Steve's mind, but it was comforting enough to make him lose his battle with consciousness.

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Hours later at the hospital, Chin and Kono were keeping a vigil on their leader when he suddenly jolted awake.

Kono jumped from her chair and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Steve, it's okay. You're safe now." She spoke soothingly to the frantic patient, whose eyes swirled wildly about. Chin stood on the other side of the bed, poised ready to intervene if Steve got rough.

"Easy there, Steve," Chin spoke calmly. "You're in a hospital. Easy now. Calm down." He waited for his friend's coughing and erratic breathing to settle before he asked, "Do you want some water?" Steve nodded. "Kono?"

Kono poured a glass of water and dunked a straw in it. She brought it to Steve lips. "Tiny sips, now," she instructed as her boss hungrily quenched his thirst down his raw throat.

"Do you remember what happened?" Chin asked.

Steve closed his eyes and took a brief moment to summon his memory of the incident. In a flash, his eyes shot open, his breath caught in his throat and his heart rate on the monitor skyrocketed. "Danny!" he choked out hoarsely and turned to Kono with a hunted look. "Where's Danny?"

"Easy Steve!" Kono grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Easy! He's in the next room."

"How...how is he?"

The forlorn expression passing through the cousins' eyes wasn't lost on Steve. "Please, tell me. Is he all right?"

"He's, he's resting right now." Kono managed to prevaricate, but Steve wasn't easily fooled as the eyes belied her true emotions.

"I want to see him," Steve said more as a statement than as a request. As he started rising out of bed, a sudden bout of dizziness seized him, compelling him to lie back.

"Later Steve. Right now you both need your rest."

"I'll rest when I know he's all right," Steve insisted, again hauling himself into a sitting position. Once the rising nausea subsided, he swung his legs on the side on the mattress.

"Kono, get the doctor," Chin urged her cousin, knowing there would be no reasoning the stubborn SEAL.

"Chin, help me up, will you?" Steve reached his hand out to Chin who hesitated as he saw how the effort alone drained all color from his friend's face. "Please," Steve begged.

To Chin's relief, the doctor appeared in the door with Kono. "Commander McGarrett, what are you doing?" the woman doctor upbraided and quickly grabbed her patient by the shoulders to settle him back down on the bed and checked the IV line and electrodes on his chest to see if they were still in place. "You are not to get up."

"I'm fine. I can walk."

"That may be so but I will not have you out of that bed for at least the next twelve hours, save perhaps for bathroom breaks and with someone to help you until you can safely walk without stumbling," she spoke authoritatively as she adjusted the sheet over him.

"How's my partner?"

"You must be referring to Detective Williams?" she caught the fear in the cousins' eyes, cautioning her to spare him the bad news for now. "He's resting in the next room. You can see him tomorrow."

"No, I want to see him now!" Steve roared with all the might he could muster.

"Do I have to sedate you? Because I will if you don't behave and heed my instructions."

As exhaustion crept up, Steve forfeited the fight. His eyes glazed over and he soon drifted off.

"Thank you, Doctor Karnes," Chin gratefully acknowledged her help in subduing the patient.

"He'll need to be told about his partner, but right now is definitely not a good time. It can do him more harm than good. Hopefully tomorrow his vitals will be stronger and he will be able to absorb the shock."

"We hope so."

"Incidentally have you notified Detective Williams's parents?"

"Yes. They're flying in from New Jersey. Barring any flight delays they should be here tomorrow afternoon. I'll go pick them up at the airport," Chin informed.

"We also notified his ex-wife," Kono added. "She's in England with their daughter. She should be back a day after tomorrow."

"Good." Doctor Karnes glanced at her slumbering patient with sympathy. "I'll order that he'd be given a light sedative to make sure he sleeps through the night but if he should wake again, have the night nurse page me."

"We will. Thank you, Doctor."

Kono and Chin prepared for a long night of vigil and hoped that Steve would sleep soundly till the morning.

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Early the next morning, Kono was sleeping on the couch across from Steve's bed when she heard a noise. She blinked open her eyes and saw Chin setting a bag of paper with two coffee cups on the table tray. He'd gone home late last night after she had offered to take the next shift, but sleep had crept up on her and before she knew it, she was fast asleep on the sofa.

"Chin? What time is it?" she asked through a yawn.

"It's nearly eight thirty."

She rose to her feet and stretched out her limbs, rolling her head from side to side to get the crick out of her neck, as she made her way to the bed where the patient still lay sleeping. "Has he awakened?"

"Not yet and I want to keep it that way for as long as we can."

"When did you come in?"

"About an hour ago. I didn't want to wake you up."

"At what time are Danny's parents landing in Honolulu?"

"Their ETA is three thirty this afternoon," he sighed and veered off subject. "Here, Malia got us coffee and some malasadas."

"Thanks." As she reached into the bag, she noticed Chin's haggard look. "Did you sleep at all?"

"I managed to catch a few winks early this morning after you took over the shift."

A small throaty moan from the bed prompted both cousins to interrupt their breakfast. They stepped up to the bed and watched as two hazy blue eyes peered through a slit.

"Welcome back, Boss," Kono greeted with a smile. "How are you feeling? Any pain?"

Steve shook his head weakly and swallowed dryly.

"Kono, would you go fetch some fresh water?" Chin asked.

Kono did her cousin's bidding and left the room momentarily to fill the pitcher of water from the cooler down the hall.

Steve's eyes gleaned over the room and settled on Chin with a questioning look. "You're in a hospital. Don't you remember?"

It took a few seconds for Steve's muddled brain to register. With a lazy hand he signaled Chin to raise the head bed.

"Yeah, hold on." Chin adjusted the head to a comfortable level. "How's that? Not dizzy?"

Steve shook his head. A dry swallow elicited a small cough that sent a searing pain through his head. He squished his eyes shut and hissed in pain. Kono returning with the water was Heaven sent. Quickly Chin filled up a glass and tipped the straw to Steve's lips who drank heartily, causing him to slightly choke as the cool liquid hit the back of his parched throat and in turn, exacerbated the pounding in his head.

"Where's Danny?" Steve croaked out.

Chin and Kono exchanged grim looks.

"He's resting in the next room," Chin replied, hoping Steve would not insist to go to him as he did yesterday.

Steve's mind took only seconds to process the signification behind the glances. "How bad?" came the straightforward question that took both cousins unawares.

"You remember what happened?"

With eyes at half-mast, he nodded weakly, "Enough to know that you're hiding the truth from me. He's bad, isn't he?" Steve braced himself for the answer that was late at coming. "Guys, please, don't shield me. I need to know the truth."

"He's in a coma, Steve," Kono finally confided.

"And," Steve insisted sensing how there was more to that answer.

"And the doctors aren't optimistic as to his chances of recovery," Chin continued.

"His parents are flying in this afternoon to...," Kono's voice trailed off as she couldn't bring herself to tell Steve. She glanced up at Chin with tears brimming in her eyes.

"To decide whether or not to take him off the respirator. He's brain dead, Steve," Chin finished for her.