Awareness returned slowly. She felt…distant. Heavy. Exhausted. There was a stillness that seemed to permeate the air, and as her senses returned to her, the light smell of disinfectant hit her nose. She was in the hospital. There was pretty much no question about it. As she mentally took stock of her injuries and pondered how serious her condition might be, the whisper of worried voices reached her ears, and she lay quietly, content to listen and learn what she could about her current situation.

"What were you thinking, jumping on Danny like that? You know she will always step in to stop a fight between you two!" Angry female Hawaiian tone. Kono, she thought. A low murmur answered the accusation, and she snapped out a bitter response.

"It doesn't matter! She loves you both! Seeing you fighting drives her over the edge, and you idiots know it! You deserve that shiner she gave you!" A distinctly masculine chuckle answered her, and Nicki sensed the Hawaiian's fury as she rounded on the culprit.

"Don't laugh, Danny! You shouldn't have egged Steve on! You knew what he would do, and what she would do. It's as much your fault as his!" The Jersey native chose to grumble back at Kono in childish mulishness.

"I didn't tell her to kick Super SEAL in the face. That's her fault." A sharp crack and a pained grunt were the response he received. Nicki smirked. Kono had undoubtedly punched Danny in the face. A poorly concealed snort echoed through the air in the silence that followed. It was Chin, she was sure. Kono's voice angrily broke the silence a moment later.

"There. Now you two have matching shiners, because you're both idiots!" Deciding that she had heard enough, Nicki opened her eyes, blinking tiredly. Her gaze searched out Steve, and he turned his head just in time to look into her eyes. He was on his feet and at her side a second later.

"Hey, Nicki. How do you feel?" Guilt was heavy in his tone. His mask was down; it was all over his face and in his eyes. He felt like shit, and she knew it. Her eyes drifted to the massive bruise covering almost the entire right side of his face, and she reached up to grasp his chin and turn his head, studying her handiwork as he averted his eyes and cringed at her touch. Her inspection was brief but thorough, and she released him a few moments later. He turned back to meet her gaze, his eyes sheepish as she glowered at him.

"Been better. Headache. You?" Her question was brisk, and he cringed again before answering.

"Just bruising. No lost teeth or cracked bones." She snorted, eyeing him in a less than friendly matter as she pondered a response. When she spoke again, it was one single word that cut him deeper than any knife ever had.

"Pity." A sudden ache in her head sent her scrambling for the nurse call button, a snarl crossing her face as her eyes squeezed shut. Her teammates all started to voice worried questions at once, and the ache instantly morphed into a throbbing pain that beat in time with her racing heart. Maddened by the sudden pain, she helplessly slammed her fist onto the plastic tray attached to the bed, snapping it off by mistake. Big hands grasped hers immediately, both to stop her from causing more damage and to convey support. She dimly heard Steve command the team to find a doctor as darkness threatened to overwhelm her again. Another set of hands grasped hers as Steve let go to take her face gently in his hands. She realized, with a start, that he was shaking.

"Nicki? Nicki, what's wrong?" Opening her eyes felt like the hardest thing she'd ever done but she managed to get it done, finding herself staring into worried pools of steely blue. Steve's face was inches from hers, but she still had to blink the fog from her eyes just to see him clearly. Surprised by his close proximity, it took a moment for his question to sink in enough that she realized he was waiting for her answer.

"Headache. Bad headache." Her voice was rough and gravelly and shook slightly from the pain. His eyes filled with sorrow, and his fingers trembled as he ran them through her hair. She let her eyes fall shut as she focused on his hands and what he was doing, desperate to ignore the pain. His voice echoed near her ear.

"I'm sorry, Nicki. Chin and Kono are getting help. Just hang in there." She nodded tiredly, her head falling forward slightly before he tightened his grip to stabilize her head. She heard running feet approaching, then someone burst through the door. Normally she would have looked to see who it was. Now, she couldn't even bring herself to care.

"Doc is on the way! How is she?" Chin, she realized. Steve rumbled a response, but she didn't pay attention as a strange tingling started right above her left ear. Her confusion swiftly morphed to terror when something started putting pressure on her eardrum. She jerked her left hand free from Danny's grip and clapped it over her ear, horrified to feel warm liquid oozing from between her fingers. All eyes were on her as she slowly withdrew her hand, trembling uncontrollably as she started at it wide-eyed. It was streaked with blood. A few seconds of shocked silence followed, then all dissolved into chaos.

Steve was bellowing for a doctor. Danny's hands were viselike where they held hers. Chin paced like a caged tiger. A man in a white coat raced in, followed by what seemed like half the nursing staff on the floor. Steve filled him in as the doctor quickly examined her ear. He cursed at what he saw. Everything was a blur of uniforms and movement after that. She was whisked from the room, Steve and Danny running along at the head of her bed as they rushed her to radiology for an emergency CT scan. She heard someone demand the neurosurgeon. She had suspected the cause of her sudden and terrifying symptoms, but she hadn't really thought about it otherwise. At that moment, she knew what was wrong, but had to wait for imaging to confirm.

Nicki let her eyes drift shut as Danny and Steve were stonewalled from entering radiology by two beefy nurses. If she was right on what her ailment was, time was spinning down at an alarming rate before she reached a point of no return. She was hustled onto the bed that would take her into the machine, then she knew nothing more.

After being escorted back to the room Nicki had previously occupied, Steve found himself facing his incredibly worried team. They were silent, whether from shock or fear, he didn't know, but they were looking to him for reassurance. He hated that he didn't have the answers they wanted, and he sought. Nevertheless, he had to say something. Raising his head, he looked to each of them in turn, steeling himself for what he already knew was coming.

"I don't know, guys. They wouldn't tell me anything. I don't think they have the first clue what's going on as it stands. She's in radiology, going in for an emergency CT scan." The team's silence became pensive. Grim. Suddenly Danny flicked his phone open, his fingers tapping the numbers he needed before he put the device to his ear. Steve looked at his partner, his eyes questioning, but Danny held up a finger to forestall any questions as the line connected.

"Max! It's Danny. Listen, if I were to give you a list of symptoms, could you hazard a diagnosis? Yeah, it's about Nicki. Yeah, a uh, really bad headache, fatigue, and then blood started coming out of her ear. What?! Are you for real? Yeah…yeah, I'll keep that in mind, Max. Thanks. They took her to radiology…no, no, nothing yet. All right. We will, Max, thanks. I'll let her know." The phone closed with a harsh snap, echoing in the silence like a death knell. Steve watched in concern as Danny's head dropped, then his body twisted as he turned away, then back. The phone was clenched tightly in his hand, which raised and fell through the air in another unconscious display of Danny's terrible worry. Steve's heart clenched in his chest, then he approached the tense Jersey man, getting up in his space to catch his attention.

"Danny, what did Max say?" The blonde met his partner's steely eyes for a moment before looking away again. His obvious distress was terrifying, and Steve couldn't help it when he grabbed the other man and shook him lightly.

"Danny." The SEAL's guttural growl, plus the tight grip he had on Danny's shoulders, finally succeeded in shaking the detective back to reality. His eyes met Steve's with such blatant worry that the brunette clenched his teeth harshly in an effort to keep from shaking him again. Danny spoke before he could.

"Brain aneurysm. Max thinks it's a brain aneurysm." Steve's heart stopped, his breathing caught in his chest, and his head shook slowly in denial. Of everything he thought it could be, he had hoped against hope that it wasn't that. His lips were moving before he even realized that he was speaking.

"But…but that's…" In his denial, he had released his partner, twisting to pace across the room. Suddenly his overloaded brain started assembling the pieces of the puzzle that was, simply, how someone of Nicki's health could have fallen prey to such a debilitating condition. He whirled to face Danny, his eyes narrowing as rage manifested itself on his face.

"The fall. When she was thrown out the window…that's what caused this. Danny, Chin, Kono…find him. I want him, dead or alive. Get Honolulu PD to help. I'll call the governor; I'll call in every favor I have. Find him." The cousins nodded and were gone, fueled by their boss's rage and his need for retribution. Danny hesitated, looking at his friend long and hard. Steve returned his stare, his eyes burning with wrath as well as worry for their critically wounded teammate.

"We'll find him. Don't let her go, Steve. She won't if you don't…but then again, you've always known that, haven't you?" The Jersey man's face was tense and drawn, but he sent his partner a sad smile, knowing his feelings for the woman currently fighting to survive. It was one rivalry the two men had never given any ground on, though it seemed Nicki had been gravitating more towards Steve as time went on. It had rankled Danny to no end, and it almost killed Steve to hear his best friend admitting he was beaten, especially now that it looked like they might lose her.

"I won't, Danny. Now go. Get the bastard that did this to her." Bright blue eyes glittered as Danny nodded, then he, too, was gone. Steve slowly sat down, uncertain what to do now, but resigning himself to waiting, for quite possibly a very long time.

Hang in there, Nicki. He thought, hoping Max was wrong…but somehow certain that the medical examiner was right. He wouldn't let her go. It wasn't in his DNA. Yet, he couldn't do it alone. If Nicki wasn't willing to fight…all was lost.

A/N: I am actually quite delighted at the response that the first chapter received. Being new to the H50 crew, I was uncertain if I had managed to get a good enough read on Danny and Steve to convey their emotions and responses appropriately on paper. It would seem I have had some moderate success with it. *Happy dance*

To my four kind reviewers, thank you for taking a moment to impart your comments! To all who read, favorited, and followed the story, thank you as well! Few things are more encouraging to a writer than reviews and readers tagging a story.

As always, love if you will, hate if you must. I will take anything that you care to dispense.

Until we meet again...

Kani