A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews I'm glad so many people are enjoying my story. This chapter is for all the DWOCD members because we all just love a hurt Danny. Enjoy.
Chapter Two
Danny woke to more pain than he'd ever imagined. His ears were ringing, his side hurt really bad but the worst pain was in his shoulder. The position he was in didn't help with the pain as he lay on his left side. He rolled slowly onto his back, which eased the pain slightly. It was pitch black, and for a few minutes he couldn't remember where he was, or how he got there.
Slowly the memories came back to him. He remembered that Coleman had shot him then run off. He knew that he'd told Steve to go after Coleman and he'd get himself out of the warehouse. Right! He'd tried, but Coleman hadn't left. As Danny made his way slowly towards the door that Steve ran towards he saw Coleman off to the side behind some crates. He looked agitated, and was fiddling with something in the floor.
Danny thought about calling out to Steve, but he was already at the door and gone through it before Danny could open his mouth. Coleman didn't even look up as Danny approached. He wanted to take Coleman alive if he could, so as he rounded the crates he picked up one of the pieces of wood that were lying around. Coleman was too busy to notice Danny, and seemed to be nearing a state of panic.
"Come on open will you! I'm almost out of time."
"What are you out of time for?" Danny asked just as Coleman managed to open a trap door in the floor. Then it was like a light bulb went off in his head, and Danny gasped. "Wait! Did you already set the bomb?"
"Yes." Coleman spun around and reached for his gun.
Danny swung before Coleman was fully turned and the blow landed to the side of Coleman's head. The hit was harder that Danny intended and Coleman dropped as if he were boneless. Danny reached down and check for a pulse, there was none.
"Not quite the way it was supposed to go." Danny stepped over Coleman's body. If Coleman was that frantic Danny figured he didn't have much time before the bomb went off. He looked at the door Steve had gone through, but it was over half the warehouse away. So Danny took the only choice he had, he climbed down into the tunnel revealed by the trap door, and closed the door behind him.
It was dark, but a little light came from above, so Danny could see that the tunnel was small and led out under the wall of the warehouse towards the sea.
"Great. Looks like I'm the one who'll take a swim." He mumbled as he crawled forward as fast as he could. His left arm was practically useless, and he held it tight against his ribs that were protesting the exertion, but he knew he had to go as far as he could. When the bomb blew the tunnel could very well collapse, and he didn't want to be there when it did.
He'd crawled about twenty feet when the earth around him trembled, and everything went dark, as the warehouse exploded.
Danny lay on his back and took stock of his injuries. He wasn't sure how long he'd been unconscious. His side still hurt like hell and he suspected he had cracked, if not broken, ribs. He put his right hand up to feel his shoulder thinking that the bullet impact may have broken something, if the amount of pain was anything to go by. His hand came away wet, and sticky.
"Oh great, the damn vest didn't stop the bullet. Now I'll bleed to death because no one knows I'm in this stupid tunnel. Or worse it'll get infected, as bullet wounds left unattended do, and I'll die from sepsis. Wait I have a phone. I'll just call for help." Danny found it too quiet and the sound of his own voice was a comfort to him.
His phone was in his left pant pocket and how the hell was he supposed to get it when his left arm was useless? A voice popped into his head "You can do it, Danno. I know you can do anything." Grace had said those words not that long ago, and Danny wasn't convinced it was true but he'd try for Grace. It took a lot of effort, and pain, but Danny finally managed to get himself into a semi seated position against the tunnel wall. In that position he could reach his left pocket with his right hand.
"Finally!" Danny yelled in triumph as he pulled the phone from his pocket and activated the light app he had on it. "Wow that's too bright." He turned it off again, but he had seen that the tunnel behind him had collapsed, as he figured it would.
"Okay, Steve. Answer on the first ring please." Danny activated the phone and hit speed dial. Nothing happened. "What? Come on you can not be broken, the light worked." He said in frustration as he checked the phone.
"Oh great, no bars, I guess you don't work underground you stupid phone." He was about to throw it away in frustration when he realised that he could still use the light app. So he turned it back on and looked down the tunnel towards the sea. The tunnel seemed to angle down slightly, and appeared to dead end.
"No. No. No. There's no way I'm trapped in this tunnel with no exit, and unable to call for help. There has to be a way out."
Danny turned off the light and put the phone in his pocket. Then he slowly crawled towards the end of the tunnel.
Steve, Chin, and Kono raced back to the warehouse. It had been four hours since the explosion, and Danny hadn't been found yet. If he was somewhere near the warehouse someone should have seen him. The firemen and police were still there. They'd searched the surrounding area, but Steve walked it himself because he knew Danny was there, somewhere, and he had to find him. Kono searched too, and they both came back at the same time.
"Hey guys, come look at this." Chin sat in the car with his laptop open and an intent look on his face.
"What you got Cuz?"
"I pulled up the plans for the warehouse, and look at this." Chin ran his finger along the screen and stopped at a line not quite halfway down the length of the warehouse. "You know what this is?"
"It's a tunnel." Steve gasped. "Where does it go?"
"There." Chin pointed at the water. "This shows that the tunnel leads to the water. There has to be an exit somewhere along the sea wall."
"We'll need a boat Chin." Steve ran to the edge and looked over the wall. Kono and Chin were close behind him. "There's nothing to see from this angle."
"I'll have one here in five minutes." Chin put his phone to his ear and walked back towards the vehicles.
Chin stayed on shore and watched as Steve and Kono searched the sea wall for an opening.
"There's nothing here, boss." Kono was exasperation after their third pass along the wall.
"It must be underwater. I'll go in and swim along the wall. Maybe I can spot something if I'm closer." Steve removed his vest, gun, and boots, and dove over the side of the boat. As he bobbed back up he saw that Kono was about to follow him.
"Kono, maybe you should stay in the boat."
"Not gonna happen, boss. We can cover more of the wall if we both look." Kono dove in beside Steve.
"Hey Steve. Over here Steve!" It was Kono who finally found the end of the tunnel.
There was a grate secured across the opening, and it was rusted shut. Steve dove down with a rope from the boat and secured it to the grate. Then he and Kono moved aside as the boat pulled it away.
"Kono you wait out here, there's no telling how long the underwater part of the tunnel is." Steve took a few deep breaths. Then he dove and swam into the tunnel to search for Danny.
Danny had reached the end of the tunnel. He found that out the hard way when he hit the wall. It wasn't a hard hit, but it was enough to make him see stars. For a few minutes he had to just lay there and breathe through the pain. When he had his breathing back under control he pulled out his phone and checked it for bars. None, but he did notice the time, and realised it'd been over four hours since this all started.
"Where the hell are you Steve? I thought you'd have found me by now." Then he voiced the fear he'd had since he first woke up. "You better not have run back into that warehouse before it exploded."
After a few minutes Danny turned the light on and saw that the tunnel took a right turn, and dropped down. There were steps, but at the bottom of them was water.
"Oh great, how the hell am I supposed to get out now?"
Exhaustion was creeping over him, and he was sure it was due to blood loss from his shoulder. His temperature was rising, he felt hot, and sweat was dripping off him. He was unable to do anything about that, but he could at least try to get out. He went down the stairs on his butt, as he was totally unable to stand. The water was cool as he eased into it which felt heavenly. The phone would not like the water, so Danny left it a couple of steps up with the light on. It made it easier for him to see the tunnel which was completely submerged.
"Great. Here goes nothing."
Danny took some deep breaths and swam into the tunnel. It was hard swimming with only one arm, and he didn't get far. The fact that he was still wearing his vest didn't help. He knew he should've tried to remove it, but he couldn't bring himself to attempt it because of the pain in his shoulder. There was no way to tell how far the tunnel went, but he knew he'd never make it. So he turned back and crawled up the steps until he was out of the water. Then he just lay there and looked at the water.
"I can't do it, Grace. I'm sorry. I can't get out." With that he closed his eyes and drifted into an exhausted sleep. So he missed the squeal as the grate at the end of the tunnel was pulled away.
Steve swam along the tunnel and was sure he could see a light at the end. When he reached the steps he surfaced, and was stunned, and very happy, to see Danny.
"Danno! Danno!" he exclaimed.
There was no response so he pulled himself up the steps next to Danny and touched his fingers to the pulse point on Danny's neck. There it was, strong, and steady.
"Danny, wake up." Steve patted Danny's face. "Come on Danny, time to wake up."
Danny stirred, and slowly opened his eyes.
"Hey 'bout time you found me, Super SEAL."
"Yeah, I'm really glad to see you too, Danny." Steve started to check Danny over for injuries. He knew Danny had been hit in the vest, at least once, and could actually see the bullet lodged on the left side.
Steve opened the straps and gently removed the vest. Danny's eyes were closed again, until Steve pulled the vest over his head, then they flew open as he cried out in pain.
"Ah don't do that. That hurts." Danny groaned.
"Sorry, I didn't know the second bullet had hit your vest as well." When he got the vest all the way off, Steve realised that the bullet hit the edge of the vest, and had gone into Danny's left shoulder at an angle.
Steve had brought a first aid kit with him in a water proof bag. He set it on a step above his partner, and pulled out the supplies he'd need. The wound had started bleeding again now the vest was off, so Steve put a gauze pad on it, and bandaged the shoulder to hold it in place. Then he used another bandage to secure Danny's left arm to his body.
Danny didn't say a word throughout, though his breathing increased rapidly. He lay there with his eyes closed, and a grimace of pain on his face. When Steve was done he put his supplies away and sat next to Danny while he looked at the water.
"How are we going to do this partner?" Danny's voice was weak. "I tried to swim out, but I couldn't reach the end of the tunnel without running out of air."
"Good job you didn't reach the end, Danny. There was a grate across it that you'd never have moved. We had to use a boat to pull it off."
"Oh okay." Danny was really tired, and hot. The water had cooled him, but he could feel his temperature rising again. Now that Steve had found him he just wanted to sleep, and let Steve handle everything else.
"Hey. Don't fall asleep, Danny. I still have to get you out of here and I need you awake for that." Steve pulled Danny up to sit against him. "Come on partner, we can swim out of here together."
"I don't know, Steve. I'm not sure I can hold my breath long enough."
"Yes you can. You need help, that bullet has already been in you too long without treatment, and your temperature is up. We need to go now." Steve prepared to ease Danny off the steps, and into the water, just as Kono popped up.
"Kono? What are you doing here?" Steve asked.
Kono held up some scuba gear. "Thought you could use this for Danny?" She looked at Danny and took in his appearance. "You know how to use this, Danny?"
"Yeah I know how." Danny answered weakly.
Kono put the mask over Danny's face and he opened his mouth for the breathing tube.
"Alright you go first with Danny, boss, I'll bring the rest of the stuff."
Steve nodded and he pulled Danny closer as he moved off the steps towards the underwater tunnel. He took some deep breaths.
"You ready?" Danny nodded, so Steve pulled him down and swam into the tunnel.
To Danny it took forever to get out of the tunnel, and he was exceedingly glad that Kono had brought the scuba gear in for him, as he'd never have held his breath long enough. When they came to the surface Steve had to take a few breaths before he could calm his breathing. It had taken longer to pull Danny out than it had taken to go in, and he'd nearly not made it. Kono came up beside them, and immediately swam over and removed the mask to assure herself that Danny was still okay.
"Steve, this way, Chin has paramedic's ready for Danny." Kono indicated Chin standing on the sea wall.
Steve turned so Danny's head rested on his shoulder and swam over to the sea wall where a basket was lowered down by the firemen. With Kono's help, Steve manoeuvred his partner into the basket and then fastened the straps across him. Danny's eyes were closed the whole time, which worried Steve.
"You're going to be fine, Danno, just hang in there." Steve squeezed Danny's hand.
"Didn't I say you'd end up in the water, Aquaman?" A small smile touched Danny's lips as his eyes opened.
"Yeah, Danny, you did. Now let's get you up there and to the hospital."
TBC