"I'm telling you, this is a bad idea."
"Alright! I heard you the first time. No need to repeat it."
"Just thought I'd make it clear."
"Believe me, you have."
It was a usual morning for Steve and Danny. The team was working on a somewhat strange case, and had finally gotten some new information, which is why Steve and Danny were now sitting in the Camaro, driving into the unknown.
As usual, Steve wanted to handle everything with a bit of force, while Danny wanted to go by the book, which resulted in another one of the pointless arguments between the pair. To be fair, neither of them really ment what they said, as these rants have become almost routine and fun fot them.
The pair continued to sit in silence for a few minutes, before Steve spoke up again.
"You done?"
"Do you hear me talking, Steven?" Danny replied none too gently, making Steve chuckle.
"Good. Apparently the place is known to be the hiding spot for James and his smugglers, so this should be an easy bust."
"Great. It better be. I'm taking Grace to see Moana" Danny confirmed, before the pair started laughing.
"Sounds fun" Steve teased.
"Hey! It's Dinsey" Danny warned. "Of course it's fun."
Their partnership really was one of a kind.
H50
Immediately upon arriving at the scene, they were met by Kono and Chin.
"Hey, guys" Kono greeted "So what's the plan, boss?"
After Steve explained everything and Danny once again started complaining about going in without back-up, they split into pairs and went in. The cousins through the front, the other two through the back.
After clearing the first floor and reporting back to the cousins, Steve and Danny headed up the stairs, where they walked into a big and almost dark room. Apart from a dozen containers filled with who knows what and a few pieces of furniture it seemed empty.
"Clear" Steve announced silently.
"No kidding?" Danny added sarcastically making Steve roll his eyes. "I though we were coming here to, you know, actually arrest someone."
"Just keep going, will ya?"
"Of course, babe" Danny answered with the cheesiest voice he could manage. He took a few more steps forward when all of a sudden music started blasting, making him freeze on the spot. Glancing back he noticed Steve did the exact same. After making eye contact he also spotted the fear in his partner's eyes.
"Steve?"
"Danny, don't move an inch" he warned.
"Why? Steve, what are you talking about?" he asked, mirroring the fear.
"It's fine. You're fine, but you might've stepped on something, so I need you to stay perfectly still, okay?"
At this Danny's head started going through about a million of bad things this could mean, but stayed still nonetheless. Steve slowly and delicately made his way closer to Danny, carefully examining the ground. What he found made his heart drop.
The floor underneath Danny was caved in. As in about half an inch lower than the rest of the room. In addition, a few colorful wires were visible on the sides.
God, please let me be wrong Steve thought to himself, accidentally leting out a bit of a gasp.
"What? What is it?" Danny asked with panic in his voice.
"Buddy, I need you to stay calm, okay?"
"Okay."
"Promise me."
"Alright, I promise. Now tell me, what the hell is it?"
"I can't say for sure, but my best guess would be it's a bomb."
"What?!" Danny exclaimed.
"It's okay. I'm gonna get you out of here, but right now I have to warn Chin and Kono. We don't need any more detectives standing on wires."
"Yeah," Danny said quietly "yeah, you're right."
"Chin" Steve said into the radio, waiting for a response.
"Steve!" his voice was heard immediately. "Where's the music coming from?"
"They have this place rigged, Chin. I need you and Kono to get out right now and call the bomb unit."
"But Steve what about y-"
"Chin. Now." After a pause he continued "And tell them to put a step on it."
"You got it boss."
HPD
After what seemed like an eternity of Steve explaining everything to Chin and keeping Danny as distracted and calm as possible, the bomb unit finaly arrived.
Two specialists named Tim and Nate walked into the room fully dressed in protected clothing. Obviously, that made the poor Jersey detective freak out even more, undoing all the calming that took place in the last twenty minutes.
"Oh my god..." Danny whispered, barely audible.
"Calm down, buddy. I've got your back. We're gonna get you out in one piece, I promise."
"Excuse me, sir, you're gonna have to evacuate" one of the astronauts announced to Steve earning a killer stare from the Commander.
"I am not leaving my partner, no matter what, got it?"
"Steve, he's right. You need to get out, this obviously isn't safe" Danny agreed with Nate.
"I'm not going anywhere, Danno" Steve said gently, before turning back towards the bomb unit. "Am I gonna have to beg here or are you gonna start helping?"
The two quickly got to work, knowing better than to argue.
After more than an hour of examining the bomb system, they still weren't any closer to figuring it out. Steve was constantly talking about all sorts of things with the distraught detective. Danny's legs were now aching from standing in the exact same position for so long and he was shaking allover.
"Sir, would you mind stepping aside for a moment?" Tim asked Steve.
After glancing at Danny and actually considering the option, the shaken up detective spoke up.
"I wanna know."
Steve nodded "Anything you need to tell me, my partner can hear."
"Alright, no problem" Tim answered with a bit of a shake in his voice. "After a thorough examination, I'm afraid there's no way of counteracting the bomb."
"What?!" Danny yelled immediately, while Steve was too taken aback to speak.
"I'm sorry, detective" the other douche answered.
"Are you saying you're gonna let me blow up cuz you don't know how to crack this stupid bomb?!"
"No, hang on, detective Wil-"
"No! You hang on! I have a little girl waiting for me at home! You have to be kidd-"
At the mention of Gracie, Steve snapped out of his trans and sprang into action.
"Danno, wait a sec. I'm sure that's not the case. Listen to what they have to say."
At that Danntly fell silent, though his hands were visibly shaking.
"As I was saying" Tim continued "there is something different we're going to try. We're not leaving you, detective. Just try to stay calm, okay?"
Danny nodded insecurely, his chest raising and falling rapidly. Maybe they really did have another plan.
"We're going to protect you as much as we can with protective gear before we actually detonate the bomb."
Well that didn't make anyone feel any better. Or safer for that matter.
"You're joking" Danny said after a pause.
"I'm afraid there's no other way" the specialist in bombs apologized turning towards Steve. "And I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. This is way to dangerous."
"He's right, Steve. I can't have you getting hurt because of me."
"Nope, no way. I'm not leaving without my partner." Steve said to Tim, completely ignoring Danny. "You can either put me in one of those protective things or let me stay here unprotected. Your choice."
The two bomb professionals shared a look, when Danny interrupted.
"He's a Neanderthal. There's really no point in arguing. Trust me."
HPD
After twenty more minutes of preparation, Steve was dressed in one of those astronaut suits. One of the douches was ordered to leave in order to have as few injured people as possible. Tim and Steve were holding up a huge protective blanket, which they were going to use to cover Danny. Hopefully that would keep him safe.
"You ready buddy?" Steve asked as confidently as he could manage.
"Are you kidding me? I'll never be ready."
"Point taken" Steve smirked.
"Let's just get it over with" he said with a sigh. "Tell Gracie Danno lo-"
"Danny!" Steve interrupted him. "You'll tell her yourself, buddy. I'm gonna see you later, okay?"
"Okay."
"Just try to relax. You'll be okay. We got you. On three?"
"On three."
Taking a deep breath, Danny looked straight into Steve's eyes. The emotional look spoke a million words.
"One" Danny started.
"Two" Steve continued.
"Three" they said in union.
The next few seconds were more of a blurr. Steve and Tim tackled Danny, covering him with the blanket, while attempting to throw all three of them to the floor.
The bomb went off, sending them flying across the room, until they all crumpled to the floor.
After a few seconds of confusion, Steve finally opened his eyes glancing around. The room was filled with thick smoke. He could barely make out the still form of his partner covered with the blanket, and Tim, who was already in a sitting position.
"Detective McGarret, are you okay?" he was asking him.
Steve quickly pushed himself up and crawled over to the shiny silver blanket, pulling it away to reveal his unconscious friend. He was lying face down covered in ashes.
"Danny!" Steve screamed in comlplete fear, grabbing his partner's shoulder to shake him.
"No, don't move him!" the douche warned him. "The EMTs are on their way up."
As if on cue, two paramedics came rushing in, going to Danny's side immediately.
"You guys okay?" one of them asked refering to the other two men.
"I'm good" said the douche, followed by a barely audible 'yeah' from Steve.
Ten minutes later all five of them were outside. The EMTs were carrying Danny who was now secured on a backboard. Steve was walking right next to him, while Tim probably stayed back to secure the scene.
"Steve!" Kono's scream sounded out as she and Chin came running towards their friends.
"Are you okay?" Chin asked Steve, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing.
"It's Danny" he whispered. His voice was obviously shaking, making the cousins worried.
"I know, brah. Danny's though. He'll be okay, alright?"
"Yeah."
They carefully loaded Danny into the awaiting ambulance and Steve quickly jumped inside. "I'm coming with him."
"Hang in there, brah" Chin responded.
"Keep us posted" Kono added before the door closed and the ambulance drove away, sirene blasting.
HPD
Four hours later, Steve was still pacing nervously up and down the waiting room, replaying the drive to the hospital in his head over and over again.
"Hang in there, Danno, you'll be okay. You're doing great" Steve kept up a monologue of soothing words, while holding Danny's left hand.
"What's the ETA?" the paramedic working on Danny yelled to his partner.
"Three minutes. How's he doing?" the driver asked back.
"Make that two. He's not doing so hot." In that moment alarms started blasting. "His resps are too low, I need to intubate" he announced before moving above Danny's head, pushing his chin up and shoving a tube down his throat, immediately attaching an ambu bag.
Just as Steve thought it couldn't get much worse, another alarm went off. A flatline.
"He's going into cardiac arrest!" the EMT yelled to the driver, before turning to Steve "Hey, I need you to come here and squeeze this every five seconds. Can you do that?"
He immediately switched places with the paramedic and started breathing for his brother.
One, two, three, four, five. Squeeze.
The EMT was now straddling over Danny's torso, doing chest compressions none too gently. Steve could hear the ribs breaking and it made him feel sick.
One, two, three, four, five. Squeeze.
"-ve? Steve!" he was ushered back from the memory. "You with me, buddy?"
That was Chin. He and Kono have joined him about three hours ago and were patiently sitting in the waiting room.
"I'm sorry, what?" Steve aksed.
"I said you should really stop pacing around, brah. You're not helping anything."
"Oh. I thought there was news" Steve responded, obviously disappointed and completely ignoring Chin's comment.
As if on cue, the doctor walked in. He was visibly exhausted, but there was no regret on his face, which to everyone's relief ment that Danny probably wasn't dead.
"Doc, how is he? Is he okay?" the ohana asked in union, making him smile. They cared so much about each other.
"He's alive."
Everyone exhaled in relief.
"Now, I'm gonna be honest with you. Danny's not out of the woods yet. He sustained serious damage from the blast. He must've hit his head on the floor, which caused his brain to swell up quite a bit, pushing him into a coma. That combined with the broken ribs resulted in serious breathing difficulties, which is why he is still dependant on the ventilator. The surgery was to fix the internal bleeding from his liver and stabilise the broken ribs. His right arm is in a cast as his wrist was fractured, but other than that, nothing's broken. Considering he has just encountered a bomb, I'd say he's lucky. I have my money on him."
"Thanks, doc. Can we see him?"
"Of course, follow me."
The doctor led them to the third floor, aka the ICU. Stepping into room 308, the team was left shaken up by the sight in front of them. Danny was lying prone on the bed, as pale as a ghost. A light sheet covered him up to his waist, leaving quite some injuries exposed. Bruises were covering most of his body. The two incisions on his torso were covered with bandages. Drainage tubes were coming from both sides of his chest, but by far the most intimidating was the endotracheal tube shoved down his throat.
"When's he gonna wake up?" Steve asked quietly.
"We can't say for sure. It could be hours or weeks, but that's nothing to get worked up about. We'll go one step at a time."
HPD
Not getting worked up was easier said than done. Danny hadn't woken up that day, nor the next day. It has now been over a week and his condition hasn't changed one bit. Sure, his bones were healing and the intracranial pressure was decreasing, but he was still in a deep coma, completely unresponsive.
Steve was sirring by his side once agan, just like every day for the past week. He was holding one of Danny's hands, gently speaking about pointless things.
He was suddenly interrupted by barely noticeable movement from his partner. First it was his finger, then the whole hand, then his eyelids and after some coaxing and encouragement, Danny's eyes finally opened. They still seemed a bit distant, but it didn't matter.
What mattered was that Danny was finally awake.
"Hey, buddy. You're gonna be okay, I promise. Just don't try to talk, there's a tube in your throat helping you breathe" Steve said, slamming the emergency button on the wall and taking hold of both of Danny's hands to make sure he didn't start pulling on any of the tubes and wires. "You scared the crap out of me, you know that?"
Steve could swear he saw Danny's lips pull into a smile.
"So much for getting you out in one piece, huh?" he said with a grin, before adding "It's good to have you back, brah. I love you."
At that a sparkle appeared in Danny's eyes and he gave Steve's hand a strong squeeze.
No words are needed between two loving hearts.
THE END
B is for Bomb
I tried to think of something less obvious, but it didn't quite work out, I promise the future letters will be more original though.
Alrighty, so firstly I need to apologise for the humongous break I took from writing. I know, it took me feeoreeeveer to post this and I'm sorry. As I said, I started first year of college and let's just say it hit me really hard. I have no free time whatsoever, which totally sucks, as I can't do anything I really love (for example write). In addition I have a personal "situation" that is rather unpleasant, so that doesn't help either. Anyway, I know this probably happens to most people, so I'm gonna stop whining now. I just thought I'd remind you why my schedule is bound to suck. I'm really sorry. Thank you for being patient.
On a happier note, thank you so so much for reviewing. It really does mean the world to me. Thank you for being supportive and thank you for any constructive criticism, that you give me. I really appreciate it.
I should probably mention that I am by no means a medical professional, therefore these situations are likely to get unrealistic at times, but I will try my best. Feel free to correct me though, but please try not to be rude.
Speaking odf which, I have no knowledge in scuba diving whatsoever, therefore I apologise for any mistakes that I made in the previous chapter. Thank you for letting me know, I will try not to make them in the future. I hope they didn't bother you too much.
Thank you for reading. Please review if you have the time. It means everything to me.
Hope you have a great day.
Love, N
