Keeping a Promise
Chapter 2
Disclaimer: see chapter one

A/N: WOW, I knew you guys were amazing, but just WOW. The reviews have been wonderful, the welcome back amazing. To quote Sally Field, "You like me, you really like me." Thank you all so very much for all the wonderful reviews, the encouragment has been fantastic, I just don't know what to say. This chapter is short (and yes a cliffy) but I wanted to give you all something before I got distracted with Christmas. I hope to have another chapter soon, got the idea for the next one rolling around in my head, just need to filter it out through my fingertips. Hope it works and yes, at least a couple more chapters are in the works, I can already visualize how I want this to end-so I hope to have it all together soon. Again Thank You all for the wonderful reviews and hope you enjoy this next chapter-Montez

The last time Danny had seen his partner strapped to a gurney was during the case involving the Russian diplomat, when both Steve and the suspect had been hit by a car as the man tried to escape. The stillness, in those few minutes, of his normally almost hyper partner had been some the scariest minutes of his life, but at least by the time Steve reached the hospital he had been conscious and trying to give orders. This time…this time the stillness remained, the translucent complexion making Danny's chest clinch as his eye's jumped from the heart monitor on the wall of the ambulance, showing an erratic, but beating heart, to his partner's chest to makes sure it was still moving as hitched breaths slipped in and out of is injured friend's body.

Time seemed to drag and go fast, if that was possible, and before Danny realized it the doors to the ambulance were being jerked open, medical personal swarming his friend as the gurney was pulled from the back. Williams jogged to keep up, but was stopped at the trauma room door by the nurse, "We'll take care of him." The words were meant to comfort, but comfort was not to be had by the Jersey native. Unconsciously rotating his injured arm Danny slowly made his way down the hall, closer to the nurse's station but close enough to the trauma doors to see when his friend was moved.

"Danno!" Danny turned when he heard the familiar shout of his little girl's voice, somewhat surprised to still see Grace, Rachael trailing a few paces behind her, at the hospital. He knew all the girls had been taken in to be checked out as a precaution.

"Hey Monkey…what are you still doing here?" Danny looked Grace over as he pulled back slightly from her hug, glancing at Rachael to make sure nothing was wrong with his little girl that he had missed.

"I wanted to wait for you and Uncle Steve and Lucy. I got to see Lucy when they brought her in, her mom and dad are with her…" Grace leaned in slightly, "I think Lucy really likes Uncle Steve now." The hint of a smile crossed the dark-haired girl's face, not realizing the gravity of the situation that her father was having to deal with, "Where is Uncle Steve? Lucy keeps asking."

Danny looked up at Rachael, though the woman knew how to make his life hell, he saw a hint of concern as his hollow expression finally registered on the woman's face, "Daniel?"

Grace looked between her parents a moment, she knew that tone from her mother, then looking closely at her father she saw the deep-set worry lines, the exhaustion and hint of fear on his face, "Danno, where's Uncle Steve?"

Kneeling back down he placed his hands on Grace's arms, "Grace, Uncle Steve got hurt protecting Lucy…the doctors are checking him out right now."

"He's going to be okay right?" Grace searched her father's face; she was good at reading him, better than he realized, but before he could answer the trauma room doors burst open, a gurney with several medical personal around it exited the room, heading toward the elevators. A flash of black hair could be seen as it turned into the hallway, but what nearly took Danny's breath was nurse who was squeezing the small balloon that was attached to the intubation tube that was now down Steve's throat, "UNCLE STEVE!" Grace shouted as her small body attempted to take off after the injured man.

Danny grabbed his daughter, pulling her close as a small cry escaped. His eye's transfixed on the moving mass of people until they disappeared in the elevator, then glancing up at Rachael, whose hand was over her mouth, before tightening his hold on his now shaking daughter whispering the words, "He'll be okay…" As much to comfort himself as it was to comfort Grace.

A few seconds passed between the time the elevator doors closed and Danny hearing a voice behind him, "Detective Williams?" Turning Danny saw Lucy's father standing a few steps behind them, his eye's going between the elevator and Danny.

"How's Lucy?" Danny straightened up, trying to put the scene he'd just witnessed out of his head a moment, his hand still holding Grace close to his side as the young girl tried to compose herself.

The question seemed to bring the younger girl's father out of his trace, "Lucy's going to be okay, the doctors said she was slightly dehydrated, exhausted and had a few scraps and bruises, they want to keep her until tomorrow morning as a precaution, but thanks to Commander McGarrett and you she should be just fine. Was that…" The man glanced back down the now empty hall, "was that Commander McGarrett? Is he alright? He seemed okay before…" The man knew he was rambling slightly, everything he had gone through, that his daughter had gone through still weighing heavily.

Danny let a nervous, hollow chuckle escape as he ran a hand through his slightly disheveled hair, "Yeah, that's what we thought too…" Williams pinching the bridge of his nose before looking back at Lucy's father, then to Rachael, "Rach, why don't you take Grace to visit Lucy a minute," Danny then knelt down to his daughter, "Grace, don't tell Lucy about Uncle Steve just yet, I need to talk to the doctor and then her dad and me will come and talk to you both, I just don't want to scare Lucy right now, okay."

Grace wiped her hand over her face, trying to remove the traces of the tears that had slipped free at seeing a man she had grown very fond of being hurt, "Okay" Was the girl's short answer as she turned to take her mother's hand, heading to her friends room.

Watching his own daughter heading down the hallway Danny looked at Lucy's father, "Did Lucy tell you about the man who started shooting at her and Steve when they tried to get away?"

The younger man nodded, "Yes, she said Commander McGarrett took her hand and pulled her close as they were running, trying to keep her in front of him, then he had her hide and made the guy chase him away from her, she said she kept hearing gunshots, but didn't move until Lt. Kelly found her and showed her his badge."

"We'll apparently one of those rounds hit Steve…but he didn't say anything once I found him, his only focus was to get back to Lucy because he had promised her he'd come back for her and I can tell you from experience if Steve says he's going to do something, then he WILL do it no matter what. It wasn't until after Lucy was leaving in the ambulance that we knew anything major was wrong." Danny looked back down the hall toward the lifts, "Now if I could just get a damn doctor to come and tell me how my partner is…" Danny's frustration was evident as now both hands slipped through his hair.

"He was carrying her." Lucy's father whispered as if in thought.

"What?" Danny turned, looking at the dark-haired man.

"Commander McGarrett, he was carrying Lucy when you all came into camp." The man looked at Danny like it should have been plain, what he was trying to say.

"He carried her the whole way once he got back to her, Steve wouldn't let her go until he gave her to her mother." Danny replied, eyeing a doctor who was making his way down the hall toward them.

"He had a bullet in his body, but he still carried my daughter back through the jungle, all the way to where we were?" It was like Lucy's father couldn't comprehend that someone who was apparently as injured as the Commander seemed to be, would have, or could have done what he had done.

Before Danny could respond to the young father's realization, a realization that Danny had known about for a long while now, that no matter what Steve follows through on making sure other's are safe before himself.

The doctor came to a stop next to the two men, "Detective Williams?"

"How's Steve?"