Here is chapter 4. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read, review, or add this story to their favorites. I never imagined I would get such an amazing response to this fic. This hasn't been beta'd so all mistakes are mine. Also, I don't know how medically accurate this fic is. I have done quite a bit of research for this but I'm no medical professional.

Things are about to get even rougher for Steve.

Chapter 4

It's been three days since Steve woke up. The day after he woke, they moved him out of the ICU to a private room. He's been having speech and physical therapy several times a day for the last three days. His speech has improved tremendously but it's still not fully back to normal yet, some of his words still slur together and he talks slower than normal, especially when he's tired. The progress on regaining strength on his right side is slow going. Steve can barely lift his right arm to feed himself and even then he only manages a few bites before he gets too tired to continue. It frustrates him and he refuses to eat more if he can't do it himself-not that he has much of an appetite anyway; which is why he still has the NG feeding tube in. One of his IV's has been taken out but the Foley is still in. Steve isn't strong enough to get out of bed yet. All his therapy is done in his room with him lying or sitting propped up in bed. He gets very nauseous and dizzy if he sits up for too long thanks to his head injury. Dr. Freeman says it should get better in the next few days.

Five-0 still hasn't been assigned any new cases so the team is pretty much free to come and go as they please. They go into the office for a bit and then head to the hospital to see Steve when the paperwork gets too mundane.

Steve appears to be asleep when Danny arrives at the hospital. Danny takes a seat next to his bed and pulls out the latest edition of Sports Illustrated. He starts flipping through pages but mostly he just watches Steve over the top of the magazine. He can tell Steve is only pretending to be asleep. His breathing is too irregular and every so often Steve squeezes his eyes shut tighter. His forehead is wrinkled in pain.

"Hey, Steve. I know you aren't asleep what's wrong?" Danny doesn't get an answer but Steve squeezes his eyes shut tighter.

"What's wrong Steve? Come on talk to me. Are you in pain?"

"No."

"What's going on then?" Danny asks in concern.

Steve opens his eyes to look at Danny. "Somethin's not right. Dunno what. Don' feel good."

Danny sees fear and confusion in Steve's face when he finally looks at him.

Steve is about to say something else when his eyes roll back and he starts to convulse.

Danny barely pushes the call button before two nurses come rushing in. Danny watches his horror as they tend to a still convulsing Steve. A few more people enter the room and Danny is unceremoniously pushed into the hall.

Danny waited for almost ten minutes before Dr. Freeman came out of the room.

"What's going on Doc?"

"Steve suffered a grand mal seizure. We are prepping him for a CT scan and EEG now."

"What caused the seizure? Steve said he felt weird before it happened."

"At this point, my best guess is that it is a result of the head trauma and subsequent surgery. We are doing the CT scan to rule out a spontaneous bleed. Did Steve complain of increased pain or dizziness before the seizure?"

"Not really, I noticed he was pretending to still be asleep when I was in there, he had his eyes squeezed shut tight. I asked him what was wrong but he just said he didn't feel right. He said something was wrong but didn't know what. Then he moaned and his eyes rolled to the back of his head right before he started seizing."

Sarah, Steve's primary nurse for the day, steps out of Steve's room, "We are ready to transport him to radiology Dr. Freeman."

"Good, I'll go downstairs with him for the scan. Danny, you can wait here for our return. I will let you know the results of the scan as soon as I have them."

Danny nods and watches and Dr. Freeman and a couple orderlies push Steve's gurney toward the elevator. After the doors close, Danny heads back into Steve's room and attempts to resume reading his magazine.

Danny waits for over an hour before Steve is brought back to his room, he appears to be sleeping as he doesn't stir when they transfer him from the gurney back to his bed. A few minutes later Dr. Freeman enters.

"What's the news Doc? How's he doing?"

"Steve did not suffer a spontaneous bleed. He woke up briefly during the scan so we gave him a light sedative; he is sleeping now and will probably sleep for several hours. It appears that the seizure is a result of the trauma and surgery."

"Is he going to suffer seizures for the rest of his life?"

"It's possible that Steve has developed Post-traumatic epilepsy but it is also possible that this was a spontaneous occurrence. His EEG was inconclusive, so we will do another in a couple days. We have increased his dose of anticonvulsants in the hopes to prevent any more seizures but anticonvulsants don't always work with PTE."

"How is this going to affect his career? Will he still be able to run Five-0?" Danny was full of questions and very concerned for how his friend will deal with this if he does end up have seizures for the rest of his life.

"As long as we can get the seizures under control with anticonvulsant medication he should be able to return to Five-0 in full capacity. He will have to be seizure free for at least 6 months before he is allowed to drive again and allowed back in the field. As for his Naval career, it will unfortunately mean a medical discharge if he does have PTE."

"Steve isn't going to handle that very well."

"Right now it's too soon to tell if this seizure was a onetime deal or if he has PTE. We will monitor his condition and if need be increase his dose of anticonvulsants again to get the seizures under control if he continues to have more. For now we just have to wait and see. Do you have any more questions for me?"

"Not right now. Thanks, Doc."

"You're welcome Danny. If you think of any other questions just ask the nurse to contact me and I will be more than happy to answer them, otherwise I'll stop back to see how Steve is doing in the morning."

"Thank you, Dr. Freeman. See you tomorrow."

"Good night, Danny."

Danny sits down next to Steve's bed; he appears to be sleeping peacefully. Danny knows how much being a SEAL and the Navy mean to Steve. To think that Steve came back healthy and whole after three years in Afghanistan and numerous dangerous SEAL missions only to be taken out by a climbing accident on his day off makes Danny sick. He is really hoping this seizure was just a onetime deal.

He stays with Steve for another couple of hours and is about ready to head home for the night when Steve wakes up.

"Hey, Steve. How are you feeling?"

"Tired…have a headache again. Wha' happend? Water?" Steve's voice is rough with sleep and he isn't really awake yet; he fumbles with the bed control to raise his head up a bit.

Danny pours a fresh glass from the pitcher by the bed and hands it to Steve. He puts it back on the bedside table when Steve is done. "You had a grand mal seizure. Dr. Freeman sent you for a CT scan but he doesn't know yet if it was a single random occurrence or if you have Post-traumatic epilepsy."

Steve closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, "Epilepsy?"

Danny nods, "They ran some tests but didn't get any conclusive results yet. They upped your dose of anticonvulsants and will monitor for more seizures and repeat the tests in a few days. Right now it's too soon to tell if you have PTE or not."

"This is gonna end my career, Danny; both with Five-0 and the Navy." Steve is more awake now so his speech is better but still slightly slurred.

"Maybe not. Dr. Freeman said that if it is PTE you'll still be able to head Five-0 if they can control the seizures with medications. He said that if you are seizure free after six months you'll be able to drive and go into the field and do everything you normally do."

"It'll still mean a medical discharge from the Navy."

"Yeah, that's true. But there is always the chance that it's not PTE. And no matter what happens, you'll always have me, Grace, Chin, and Kono. Right now we just have to take it one day at a time."

"Yeah, thanks Danny." Steve closes his eyes and Danny can tell he's fighting sleep but also that he is still trying to process everything.

"Why don't you go back to sleep Steve? I'll come by again tomorrow morning. Chin and Kono will stop by too."

"Night Danno." Steve says with his eyes still closed.

"Good night, brother." Danny left as soon as he was sure Steve was sleeping comfortably.

TBC

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