Moving Steve to the rehab ward went surprisingly smoothly. Danny thanked the staff from the NCCU for all that they did for Steve, and Will assured him that the same team of doctors would still treat him even though he was on a different ward, as they also covered the rehab ward. He was thankful for that, as he didn't particularly cherish the new idea of explaining Steve to a new team of doctors.
Shortly after they'd gotten Steve settled into his new room, the speech therapist and the wards group of physiotherapists and occupational therapists came and introduced themselves to him and Danny, and explained that their role was to get Steve on a sort-of baseline for when he moves to the new facility. They clarified that their main goals would be to get Steve walking or at least standing with the help of equipment, to build up his coordination so that he could start to feed and dress himself, and to get Steve talking and cognitive in the few months that he was predicted to stay here. He was already starting to follow things that moved with his eyes and seemed to be able to understand when people were talking to him, but still wasn't talking.
Together they hoisted Steve into a wheelchair and whisked him off to begin the physio session, and Danny took the opportunity to speak to Will, who had just finished seeing another patient.
"Hey, Will."
"Hey Danny, what can I do for you? Is Steve okay?"
"Yeah, he's having his first physio session here. I have a couple of questions if that's alright?" Will nodded, so Danny continued. "When Steve gets better, will he be able to understand what I'm saying? What kind of mobility do you expect him to have by the time I bring him home?"
Will rubbed the back of his neck. "Those are hard questions, Danny. At this stage, it's more likely that his ability to understand things will be limited - so speak to him as if you would a child, because that's the kind of level he'll be functioning on. The same will most likely go for him talking. If he does get that back it'll be simple phrases that he'll manage better, at least to start with. As for mobility, well... As you know his right side has been compromised due to the brain damage. My hope is that with daily physio exercises we can get the spasms under control, along with the medication that he's already on for them - that's something he'll most likely need when he goes home, though hopefully not as much as he's having now. The spasms are painful for him, but once his nerves heal and the physio does its job they'll decrease."
Danny nodded, letting that all sink in. "But he's not going to be walking perfectly though, right?"
"As I said, it's a tricky question. He may need something in the long run like a brace to keep his leg from buckling in short distances, like around his home. For longer distances or trips outside, he'll most definitely need a walker or even a wheelchair. But that's just my hope for him. Everything depends on how Steve recovers and copes with the rehab, both here and when he leaves." Danny thanked him and went off in search of Steve.
Danny found him in the wards makeshift gym with the physiotherapist, who was currently bending Steve's right leg at the knee while he was still sitting in the wheelchair. She turned to look at him as he walked through the door and smiled.
"Hi there, I'm Danny, Steve's partner." Danny introduced himself as he walked towards them and squeezed Steve's shoulder in a greeting.
"Hi Danny, I'm Alana." She said as Danny came to sit on the floor next to her. "Steve and I are just doing some stretching on his bade side today." Alana said, grinning at Steve as she flexed his muscles. Danny smiled up at Steve, who was staring at the leg Alana was moving with a determined look on his face. "We've already worked his right hand and arm, doing the same thing as I'm doing now but also making him grip a stress-ball." Danny nodded, making mental notes on what Alana was doing so that he could help in the future.
"What about his left side?" Danny asked.
"Oh, we'll work on that too, as he's spent weeks immobile. But that side won't need as much work as the right." Alana explained. Danny stayed with them, and after a while he noticed that Steve's focused gaze was now on him. Once they'd finished Danny wheeled him back to his room and he and Alana managed to get Steve into the recliner chair next to his bed.
Later on the occupation therapist came in, and introduced himself as Jason. Danny crouched next to the chair as Jason produced some everyday items from the box at his side, laid them out on the table in front of Steve and manipulated his left hand to hold and pick up one of the items – a kids building block, explaining to Steve what he was doing. Jason repeated it, making him put the block down, let go, and pick it up again several times, before letting go of his hand and sitting back. Steve stared at the brightly coloured block, then at Jason before looking back at the block. Danny held his breath as he watched Steve slowly slide his hand across the table and curl his fingers over the block, and let out a gasp as he managed to raise it a couple of inches above the table before putting it back on the table. Steve turned his head to look at Danny, who beamed back at him when he saw the small smile on his face.
"Well done, babe!" Danny cheered as he pulled Steve into a sideways hug and pressed a kiss into his hair. Knowing that there was something going on in Steve's head, that he was cognitive, meant more to Danny than anything.
"We keep doing this sort of thing and he'll be doing it on his own before you know it." Jason said with a grin.
The speech therapist saw him a couple of times a week, and used flashcards with pictures and easy words on to try and get Steve talking again. Danny joined them on the first session and remarked that he used similar cards with Rachel when they were teaching Grace how to speak. Kym, the therapist, explained that Steve needing to remember how to talk and toddlers not knowing are similar, and that cards like that are the best way to start. By holding them up and telling Steve what they were, she hoped to engage him enough to start saying the words back. Progress was slow at first, but one day Kym showed him a card with a picture of a cat on it. Steve stared at it before making a grunting sound, getting both Kym and Danny's attention. She raised her eyebrows and showed him a few other cards, but got no response. Showing him the cat again elicited another grunt.
"He likes cats." Danny explained at Kym's confused look. "Well, done, babe." He said, rubbing Steve's back. After that, Danny brought in some photos of him, Grace and the team at Kym's request to use in her next session. She held a photo of Danny up and pointed to the man in question, and Steve's eyes flitted between the photo and the man, before settling on Danny and smiling.
Now that Steve was settled on the rehab ward and progress was slowly being made, Denning requested that Danny return to work after the weeks of absence he granted after the accident. Danny begrudgingly agreed, but warned Denning that when the time comes that Steve is moved to the new rehab place he'll need time off to help with the transfer.
He came to visit Steve whenever he could, maybe three times a week depending on their caseload, and got weekly reports from the doctor on his progress. Steve's injured side began to repair itself and, one mealtime almost two months later when Danny was feeding him, he reached with his slightly shaking right hand and took the spoon from Danny. After a couple of seconds he managed to bring it up to his face, hitting the side of his mouth at first but on the second attempt he hit his target. He finished the rest of his dinner with next to no help from Danny, who just sat there with a huge grin on his face and tears in his eyes.
The daily sessions with Alana and the other physiotherapists had clearly paid off, as he went from barely any mobility to flexing his arms and legs on his own and being able to sit on the edge of the bed without any support to hold him up. Danny came to visit one day after Steve has been there for several months and got the shock of his life when he walked into the gym and saw Steve standing on his own two feet, using a stand-aid supported by a physiotherapist to hold himself upright. Walking over to where they stood, Danny had to refrain from hugging the crap out of him when Steve saw him coming and grunted happily, a smile plastered across his face.
Danny was beginning to get concerned that, while physically he was on the right track, he still only managed to communicate with noises and pointing. One evening, he was sitting with Steve in his room and going through the photos he'd brought, pointing to the people in them and saying their names. His and Grace's pictures elicited happy noises from him, which Danny always praised.
"You're almost there, babe, aren't you? We can't move you to the new rehab until you're talking a little bit, so we really need to get practicing. Then from there we can go home." Steve looked at him as he spoke with a strange look on his face. Danny bit his lip, an idea forming. Mixing up the photos he laid some out on the table in front of them.
He pointed to a picture of Chin and said his name, and did the same to a picture of Kono and of himself. But when he pointed to a picture of Grace, he said "Danny". Steve frowned and shook his head, before pointing to Danny's picture. "Well done, babe. Yup, that's me alright."
"Danno."
"Yup, I'm Danno - wait, what?!" Danny's head snapped up to look at Steve, who beamed at him before reaching across to hold his hand.
"Danno!"
Danny squeezed Steve's hand before jumping round the table and pulling him into a fierce hug, letting a few tears slip out. Steve slumped into Danny and burrowed his face into his neck, letting out a sigh. Danny hadn't said 'Danno' at any point that Steve had been in hospital, so Danny realised that Steve saying it can only mean one thing.
Steve remembered who he was.
That moment seemed to awaken something inside Steve, as his progress started to rapidly improve. His speech and vocabulary expanded, but with the limitation that Will had told Danny about months before; Steve talked and sounded like Grace did when she was much younger. But he was talking, and that's all that Danny cared about. Kym extended their sessions and got him to try different sounds and longer words, his voice was unpractised after months of silence but Steve focused on what Danny had said, that he'd be one step closer to going home.
Steve was finally taking steps with the help of a walker, and whenever he could visit Danny slowly walked next to him as he shuffled along the corridors of the ward, a serious and determined look on his face.
Now that he was talking, the doctors were able to assess him properly and deemed him to be functioning at the same level as a child, unable to fully control his emotions or process complicated information. His long-term memory had faded but the doctors assured Danny that some things might return, but warned him that some of the memories may not be good. Taking that into consideration, Danny had chosen a rehab facility that specialised in ex-military service-people for Steve to go to for a few months before going home – he was worried about any memories of SEAL missions coming to the surface.
While all of this was going though, sadly Danny had to work more and more. Governor Denning was putting pressure on Five-0 to keep up with everything in the absence of Steve, so Danny missed out on some of his progress. He didn't like this at all, and nor did Steve; at one point Danny didn't visit for two weeks and when he came back Steve launched into his arms, and Danny held him close as one of the nurses explained that Steve had been miserable and had needed lots of motivation to continue with his rehab. He felt so guilty for suddenly leaving Steve for that long, and promised that he'd never do it again.
It was a week before Steve's moving date, as he'd been deemed ready to be discharged. To celebrate, Danny finally gave in to Grace's pleas and brought her to visit Steve, along with Chin, Kono and Lou.
"Now listen, monkey," Danny pulled his daughter aside outside Steve's room, the team waiting beside him. "Uncle Steve is very different to how you remember him, okay? His talking, thinking and walking were permanently affected. He's come a long way since the accident but still got more to go." Grace nodded, a solemn expression on her face.
"Does he remember me, Dad?"
"He certainly does. Now come on, let's go and say 'hello'!" Danny ushered everyone in, and relished in seeing Steve's face as everyone came in. He recognised Chin, Kono and Lou and repeated their names after Danny said them. But when he got to Grace Steve stood up, grabbed his walker and shuffled over to her.
"Gr-Gracie?" Steve stumbled over her name, the hard sounding words still difficult for him. Grace nodded and gently hugged him.
"I've missed you, Uncle Steve." She whispered. Danny subtly brushed a stray tear away before bringing in enough chairs for everyone. Everyone had a good time catching up with Steve, who was engrossed in helping Grace colour in her new adult colouring book. His coordination was still shaky and he couldn't keep in the lines but she didn't seem to mind.
After a couple of hours Danny's phone rang, and his heart sank when he answered the call from the governor, demanding that all current members of Five 0 are to attend. While Steve was distracted with Grace, he quietly filled Chin, Kono and Lou in on their new case, before taking a deep breath and turning to Steve.
"Babe? Chin, Kono and Lou have to go to work now, so say goodbye."
"Oh… Bye Kono, Lou, Chin!" They bid farewell to Steve, patting his shoulder and Kono kissed his cheek on the way past him, before standing in the doorway waiting for Danny. Steve turned back to smile at Danny. "Danno stays?"
"No babe… Danno has to go too." Steve's face fell, as did Grace's as she hugged him goodbye. Danny drew him into a hug and kissed his forehead. "Danno loves you, Steve, and I'll be back to see you as soon as I can." He stood up to go, but wasn't prepared for Steve to clamp his arms around his waist and bury his face in Danny's stomach.
"No! Danno stays!" Steve cried, tears already seeping out onto Danny's shirt. "Stay! Please…"
Danny was stunned for a brief moment, and remembered what the nurse had told him when he hadn't visited for two weeks, and how Steve had been in his absence. He never wanted to make Steve feel like that again. At that thought, something inside of him snapped.
"Shh… it's okay Steve. Danno's staying here." Danny soothed him as he wrapped his arms around his shoulders, fingers stroking his hair. "I'm not going away, buddy, okay?" Steve nodded, still sobbing into Danny's belly. Danny glanced at Grace, who looked worried and then at Chin, Lou and Kono who were still standing in the doorway and looking emotional themselves.
"Tell Denning that I quit." Danny said with tears in his eyes. He gazed down and smiled forlornly at the man currently clinging to him like a limpet. "Steve's my priority now."
