Pohā
Danny sat next to his friend's gurney in the emergency department.
Danny was so glad that Steve was conscious.
But he hadn't forgotten what happened when the doctor took him to see Steve. After receiving that sedative, albeit a low dose, Steve hadn't woken up. Danny sighed and held onto Steve's hand. His breathing was even as was the rise and fall of his chest. Danny eyed the chest tube protruding from Steve's chest before his gaze landed on the cardiac monitor that was beeping in regular intervals. To Danny that was incredibly reassuring.
But he had sustained some serious injuries in that car crash that much had Steve's primary doctor told him.
There was a cardiac contusion causing ventricular arrhythmias which is why they were in the emergency department waiting for a room becoming available in intensive care to become available as this has to be monitored to make sure said cardiac contusion wouldn't cause problems as in continuing bouts of ventricular tachycardia.
Also concerning was the moderate concussion Steve sustained in the crash but luckily, Steve wasn't bleeding into his brain.
Danny leaned forward, his chin on his hands. He continued to stare at the cardiac monitor, observing.
"I'm sorry." Steve whispered as he shifted slightly, suppressing the grunt. This was probably about the Camaro issue.
Steve looked down, ashamed.
He was connected to the cardiac monitor, it was displaying his regular heart rate and rhythm. His doctor had insisted, however, Steve sure was annoyed by the wires snaking down his chest and monitoring his heart rhythm. Steve eyed the monitor with great displeasure but he could see where the doctor was coming from considering they had to defibrillate him in the ambulance due to a malignant arrhythmia.
His head hurt and his stomach felt weird as well but he had been given some pain killers although, naturally, he had refused at first. He did not like having to take pain killers at all. But then, Danny had coaxed him to take something that wasn't quite strong but he would still benefit from it.
Danny saw his face expression, instantly the Jersey detective realized what this was about. His Camaro.
To be honest, he hadn't thought about the Camaro after receiving Steve's phone call, Danny could still remember Steve's pained voice, his heart had dropped when he figured out what had happened, that Steve had been in an accident.
Yet, he had no idea how serious it was.
At least not at the time of the call …
"Hey, none of that."
Danny got up from the chair he had been vacating. Steve was only half awake, he gazed at him half- lidded.
" 'm sorry," Steve repeated weakly, his voice barely loud enough for Danny to hear. "Steve, look at me, buddy. Look at me." Danny said loudly to get Steve's attention, trying to calm the SEAL down. Bleary eyes focused on him, or at least attempted to do so.
"You are okay." Danny told him.
"Camaro, D'nny." Steve insisted as the pain in his abdomen increased, despite the pain meds. Danny grabbed his hand, firmly pressing it to let Steve know he was not alone in this mess. His bruised face was scrunched up, Danny noted.
"Don't worry about the Camaro, Steve."
Steve gazed at him.
Not responding.
Steve suddenly flinched as the pain in his abdomen increased. Danny scanned his best friend's face, seeing the paleness, making the bruises more prominent. "Steve?" Danny said his name, a bit worried. "You alright?" Steve nodded unconvincingly as the pain his abdominal area grew stronger.
A small, suppressed groan escaped his throat.
Danny frowned, alarmed.
"You're not alright." He stated with utter concern.
Steve attempted to sit up, and leave the bed to prove that he was good and not in need of medical attention even if the untrained eye could see that he was. Danny gaped, open-mouthed and at last definitely surprised at his best friend's actions, at Steve for a moment as he tried to disconnect the IV line before getting up.
Some of the wires connected to the cardiac monitor were disconnected.
Danny, however, would have none of it; he stopped Steve from leaving the bed.
"Hey, you moron, stop."
Danny's voice was loud and firm.
"I am fine." Steve insisted as he tried to free himself from Danny.
Danny pressed him back into the pillows to stop him from leaving; because of his injuries Danny was able to get him to stop resisting. "Cut it out, Steve, you are injured and not leaving this bed. You need rest, especially since you have bruising on your heart. That's what's causing the chest pain and the rhythm disturbances. They said you crashed in the ambulance, Steve." Danny reached for his hand. Totally unexpected, Steve stopped resisting and just lay back. Steve stared at him, eyes wide open.
"I ... crashed?" He shook his head, for a moment, everything swirled around him so Steve closed his eyes and hoped the dizziness plaguing him would soon dissipate to a more tolerable level. "I can't remember anything about that. The ride to the hospital is …" Steve breathed in sharply as a new wave of pain rolled through his body.
"… blurry. I think I was in and out of consciousness."
His voice was quiet.
Steve seemed to have noticed the concerned glance Danny was throwing him. "You feeling alright, Steve?" Steve regarded him with an annoyed look, once more Danny saw the bruises lining Steve's face, the stitches needed to close the head lac. As he looked at his friend's arms and legs, they were also covered in bruises, not to mention the giant one on Steve's chest right over the sternum. That must hurt.
Danny grimaced in sympathy.
In this moment, a nurse entered the cubicle to perform a quick check on his vitals and also the necessary concussion checks. "Hey, there, Commander McGarrett. You're awake. Can you tell me how you feel?" She asked as she checked the pupil reaction finding them to be normal and reactive, yet Steve was bit sensitive to light. "I'm okay, a bit light- headed and nauseas but all things considered, I am alright." Steve lifted his head, looking at Danny. "You need something for it?" Steve shook his head. It was not that bad.
Not yet, anyways.
"Any pain? I can up your pain meds?" She asked, scribbling something down in his chart that was hanging on the foot of his bed. "Nah, 'm fine. I don't need any pain meds." Steve declined the offer although if he was honest, he was kinda hurting. "There is no shame in accepting pain meds, Steve." Danny noted from his seat next to him.
"But I don't need them, Danny:"
The unspoken thing being, 'I'm a SEAL, we are trained to deal with pain'.
The nurse glanced at him, a knowing smile on her face.
She knew those types.
Definitely a military man.
"If anything gets worse, don't hesitate to press the call button." She pointed towards it. "I'll be back to get check on you in fifteen minutes." She said causing both her patient and Danny to nod in reply. Then she left them alone again and Danny turned all his attention to Steve. Stoically, Steve gazed at him before breathing in deeply, forgetting about the broken ribs.
"Ah, shoot." He hissed as instant pain shot through his chest.
Shallow breathing it is.
"You are not fine." Danny simply stated. "You want me to get the doctor?" Steve worked on controlling his breathing, trying to breathe shallowly so that the pain related to breathing in deeply wouldn't happen again. A feeling of unease seeped coupled with intermittent waves of nausea running through him, waves of pain running through his abdomen. Steve squeezed his eyes shut, trying to deal with it.
But he was glad that he was no longer in that car wreck.
It was getting hotter in here, at least Steve felt like that.
The dizzying heat and the increasing pain in his upper abdomen made things worse. Then add in his slightly irregular heartbeat, he gazed at Danny, eyes barely open.
"Steve, buddy, you alright?" Steve's weak nod did little to convince Danny as the blonde could clearly make out the pain lining his place. Danny frowned as he took in Steve's face expression. He knew the man well enough to know that he was in pain right now. Something was wrong with him, very wrong. Danny sure realized it. Steve let out a weak gasp as the pain intensified significantly. A searing pain ripped through his abdomen.
The pain in his abdomen increased.
Steve was hardly able to hide it from Danny who was watching over him.
"N'h, 'm good, Dan … ny." Furrowing his brows, Danny eyed the injured man. That was barely a whole sentence; the reply had been slurred. Danny locked eyes with before starting off with a mini- Danno rant. "You are not fine. I should call the doctor; Steve." Danny got up from the chair, pacing back and forth through the cubicle.
"You, my friend, are by no means fine. You will stay here, in this bed until the doctor gives you a clean bill of health. Understood?"
Steve avoided looking at him.
Pain still evident on his face. Sighing quietly, Danny promised himself to keep an eye on Steve who seemed to doze lightly, as best as it was possible in his situation. " 'm fine." Steve ground out, trying to convince him, not that Danny would have believed it. Right now it was fairly obvious that Steve was not fine.
Right now, Danny was seriously considering getting a nurse or doctor to take another look at Steve because this was not typical behavior.
Silence.
Except for the persistent beeping and noise of the various machines, the only sounds in the room were Danny and Steve breathing. Steve rolled around on the gurney, trying to find a more comfy position. But the pain made it impossible. Every position was painful; Steve gritted his teeth, trying to deal with the pain just like he learned to. The commander struggled with the many colorful leads of the cardiac monitor; almost getting those all tangled up.
"Wait. Let me help you, buddy." Danny intercepted as he helped Steve.
"Careful, don't pull out your IV."
Danny, who had stood at the foot of his gurney before, moved to the wall and grabbed a chair from the corner of the cubicle. Danny watched Steve settling down, being very quiet and less argumentative. For a short moment, Danny eyed the IV bag containing saline. The rhythmic sound of the heart monitor was comforting to him.
However, something was very wrong with Steve.
Being a police officer, Danny immediately picked up on the alarming symptoms, internally debating whether or not to inform someone.
Another look at his best friend and partner and he knew which decision had to be made.
Worried at how Steve barely responded for him, Danny immediately pressed the call button, while trying to get Steve to respond to him. "I am getting the doctor. Hang on, buddy." Danny whispered as Steve let out a small, pained whimper, confirming that something was wrong.
The pain in his abdomen got worse.
The cardiac monitor started beeping faster as it picked up on the increasing heart rate.
Blearily, Steve moved his head to the side, ignoring the unsettling feeling in his abdomen as he attempted to focus on where Danny's voice was coming from.
A sharp pain shot through him, he flinched.
Steve didn't fight Danny when the man insisted on accepting pain killers. Pain was now worsening and he couldn't contain a groan any longer.
" 's hurts, D'nno." Steve grounded out as his hand shot out.
He grabbed Danny's wrist and clutching onto it.
"Abd'men hurt'." Steve's eyes closed.
"Steve, open your eyes." Danny begged, hoping Steve would respond and that they would answer their damn pagers. Steve could barely hear that voice but he willed himself to open his eyes.
Opening them was a strenuous process but Steve was able to peel them open, slightly.
Danny's worried face came into his view.
"The doctor will be here soon. Come on, buddy. Stay with me. I know it hurts but you gotta stay conscious, Steve." Steve gave a feeble nod, eyes closing again. It was harder to stay conscious and the pain was overwhelming. Steve felt like shit. Danny glanced up, hoping for Steve's doctor to return to have a look at Steve. His skin was grey, and he was squirming on the gurney.
Danny pressed Steve's hand, running his thumbs over the somewhat clammy skin. "Hang on." Danny said, very concerned about Steve.
Danny's brows creased in concern.
Steve's pale complexion, the persistent sweating told a whole different story.
"Steve, come on, buddy, answer me."
Danny shook his shoulder, gently at first, then after the absence of any kind of reaction more firmly. No response at all. Add in the pale and ghostly, almost white complexion, Danny realized that Steve's condition is deteriorating. Yet the only response from the only semi- conscious Steve was a low, pained moan.
The cubicle was crowded with doctors, nurses.
As well as the erratic, disjointed beats displayed on the cardiac monitor.
A nurse came into the cubicle in long strides, alarmed by the shrill- sounding alarm and beeping sounds from various machines connected to Steve.
"What's going on?"
"He's barely conscious. He said his abdomen hurt." Danny answered, visibly shaken.
"His pressure's low." She noted as she retook the patient's blood pressure and found her patient unresponsive. Steve's eyes were closed. He seemed to have lost the fight to stay conscious. "Commander McGarrett, can you hear me? Nod if you can hear me." The nurse said loudly. She looked even more concerned than she did when she entered, tapping against his cheek to wake him up. But Steve remained stubbornly unconscious.
"I'll get Major Owens right away."
Minutes later, Steve's doctor, wearing a lab coat, hurriedly entered the room. The nurse immediately started spouting off words that Danny only hardly understood. "He's getting worse. His BP is down, his heart rate is up. He's in circulatory shock."
There was too much medical jargon, talk about blood pressure being too low and pulse rate too high amongst other things, things that he did not have the strength to comprehend right now. "Steve." He croaked out, not believing what he was seeing, all the medical personnel hurrying around in an organized chaos.
How did they go from Steve talking to this?
Danny could not understand that at all. Danny stood there, shocked.
He watched as the doctor tried to communicate with Steve but couldn't quite an adequate reaction from him. "I'm going to check out his abdomen." Major Owens explained loudly in case his patient still was able to hear him despite the lack of adequate response from the injured SEAL while pressing down gently to feel for any tenderness. Danny's eyes got wide as he saw that Steve's abdomen was markedly bruised; covered in purplish bruising.
The blonde detective let out a shocked gasp.
Realizing the implications.
Danny staggered backwards until he stood with his back against the wall.
Albeit Steve was barely conscious at that point he felt the doctor pressing down on his abdomen.
Instantaneously the painful feeling cutting through him is comparable to a knife slicing through his belly and it also elicited a reaction from Steve.
Fuck, this hurts like hell.
Reflexively, Steve instinctively curled up, shying away from the doctor's hands putting pressure on his blood- filled abdomen, trying to deal with the excruciating pain coming from his abdomen, pointing to intra- abdominal hemorrhaging. "I know it hurts. But you need to stay calm. We're going to help you, commander." Major Owens tried to calm his patient who was in a great deal of pain.
Steve had his eyes squeezed shut as he grunted.
A shiver rushed through Danny as he heard Steve's pain- filled grunt in response to the pain, Steve's eyes were half- mast, still a little bit opened but soon after that they fluttered closed. Steve had lost consciousness. "He's probably bleeding out. His internal bleeding must have gotten worse." He continued calm and collected knowing this patient needs to go to an operating room right now; his eyes on the patient before giving orders.
Soon Steve had another IV access as well as a central line.
The oxygen mask covering mouth and nose fogged up every time Steve took a breath, his respirations were coming quick and shallow.
"Call down to OR, we need to have an OR ready and prepped. Tell them we're coming down with an emergency ex lap.", Steve's physician was referring to an exploratory laparotomy to locate the source of the bleeding.
Danny's eyes darkened, panic flooded his body.
The medical staff has loosened the gurney's brakes, intending to move Steve down to an operating room as they already knew that this man suffers from worsening internal bleeding, considering a trauma scan was done, only a short time after Steve was brought into Tripler Army Medical Center. "Tell them to have O neg. on standby and have the OR staff prime the rapid infuser for immediate blood transfusion. We're going to need it. Hurry."
Blood.
Going to need it.
That does not sound too good. Danny felt his heart race hollowly in his chest, his breath hitching slightly.
The gurney rolled over the usual grey and white- carpeted linoleum into the hospital's hallway, through the urgent rush and hectic of the emergency department. As a team of doctors and nurses pushed the gurney down the hallway something changed in Steve's clinical status, and that quite out of sudden.
Benumbed and trying to keep his feelings under wraps, Danny followed them across the hallway.
Steve has to be alright.
He's a fighter.
A damned car crash cannot be what takes him out.
Danny's mind circled around that thought constantly as he observed with heightened concern the medical staff rushing around Steven, and then the wailing cardiac monitor only intensified the building dread of what is going to happen to Steve, their team leader but most of all friend; good friend. What would Steve dying do to him, to Chin and Kono? To them? It would wreck them, destroy them. Danny refused to think about the real possibility of Steve dying, here or on the table or afterwards.
Steve had to survive.
Otherwise, Danny would have no idea what to do. Steve's his brother and best friend, his partner, even goes as far as calling Steve his soulmate. That day that Danny got drafted into Five-0 was one of the best days in his life, although he would never admit that to Steve's face. Steven J. McGarrett had given him everything, a family and a new life, 'ohana.
He had followed his daughter to Hawaii.
It was the best decision he had ever made. Not only was he close to his daughter.
But Danny also found his place, and a tightly- knit family.
But yet?
With Steve severely injured …
Danny shook his head in denial. Nope, he would not go there, he would not. Danny would not, could not accept the fact that his badass and loyal to a fault- Super SEAL, Neanderthal animal might be on the verge of dying right now.
Eyes fixated on the herd of doctors and nurses around the gurney transporting Steve when suddenly the portable cardiac monitor at the foot of Steve's gurney went off with shrill and disturbing sound.
Danny stopped.
Breathless he observed them, knowing someone would eventually tell him to leave. Go to the waiting room, wait for news there. Danny had to know what was going on with Steve.
The gurney stopped abruptly.
Someone felt for Steve's pulse, trying to get him to react to their stimuli. But it was useless as Steve was out cold, the leads connected to his heart monitor remitted the erratic rhythm disturbances onto the screen causing the organized commotion break loose.
But the SEAL was not responding to anything.
Steve made no sound or movement as a doctor pressed his knuckles into the sternum. That would have hurt, had he felt it.
What the hell was going on here?
The doctors said the internal bleeding was not that bad, that they could wait it out in intensive care until it resolved on its own? But apparently, that no longer was the case as Steve's condition had so suddenly taken a turn for the worse. To make things worse, Steve's pressure started dropping causing the machine to sound an immediate alarm to alert the doctors of the impending complications about to arise.
No, no, no. Danny thought himself.
Please, Steve, don't give up on me now. Keep fighting.
A nurse increased the drip on his IV fluids to keep up with the blood loss. Despite instant action, Steve continued to deteriorate.
A horrifying, eerie sound of the cardiac monitor resounded in Danny's ears. A numb feeling spreading through him, he watched as only seconds later medical personnel rushed into the cubicle and converging on the bed, one pushing a crash cart telling Danny that it was as serious as he feared.
It seemed like chaos yet it was organized chaos.
Danny held his breath, seeing Steve's pale, pained face.
It was clear even to the untrained eye that something was horribly wrong.