Open Water – Chapter 04 - What happened?

Honolulu, Saturday 0930 hours, Anytime Café on Kapiolani Blvd.

Danny had called Steve four times now, and every time he had only gotten as far as his voicemail. Danny was not worried yet, not really, but there was this voice in the back of his head that told him to double his efforts to reach Steve.

"Detective Williams, so nice to see you again," Mekie greeted him. "Are you alone today, where's your friend?" The friendly elderly waitress asked him.

Steve and Danny had had breakfast at the café a few times in the last weeks. It was a good place with great breakfast varieties and good service.

"Hi, Mekie. Yeah, it's just me today. I'm running a little late, can I have the usual?" Danny didn't want to waste any time with his normal ritual of reading the menu even though he mostly ended up with the same anyway.

"Sure, I'll be right back with your coffee and toast," Mekie told him smiling. She was by now used to his normal order of French Toast with strawberries on the side, never on the toast, God forbid to put fruit on his meal, and also on the side bacon and scrambled eggs.

"Thank you, Mekie."

Danny took his phone out and dialed Steve for what felt like the umpteenth time. But again he only reached his voicemail, and just like every time before Danny left a message to call him back as soon as he got this.

On a whim he tried the landline at the office, but of course no one answered. Chin was still in the hospital and Kono with Adam.

Lastly, he called the front desk at Five-0 headquarters and left a message to inform Commander McGarrett to call him should he march into HQ.

A minute later Danny dug into his breakfast, but he couldn't really enjoy it. His thoughts were with his friend, wondering where the heck he was.

H50 – H50 – H50

At the same time between Oahu and Kauai

Steve had been in the water for three and a half hours now; an incredibly long time for a normal person to swim in the open water of the ocean, not so for a SEAL. But Steve was injured, and he found it harder to swim the longer he stayed in the water.

The wind had picked up again, and Steve was sure the waves had reached ten feet by now. It was really hard to tell without them breaking, although it was a good thing that they didn't. It was a steady up and down, but he still felt like he made some headway and was not just bobbing in the water.

At the moment there was really not much for Steve to do other than try to stay afloat and make his way nearer to the shore. So, he let his mind drift again and thought back to the case they had just closed.

H50 – H50 – H50

Tripler Army Medical Center, Thursday 2000 hours

When Steve had arrived at the hospital over an hour ago, he first had tried to learn what was going on with Chin, but his watchdog Nancy wouldn't let him out of her sight. At least he was able to convince Catherine to find out what was going on with his friend.

"Nancy, I'm telling you I'm fine," Steve again tried his luck to tell her that he really was okay now. "Look, they did a CT and it was all good."

"Save your breath, Steven," Captain Nancy Rollins interrupted him. "We are waiting for the ECG and the specialist to take a look at you before you can even entertain the idea to get off that bed."

Steve glared at her, which only made her grin even more. He knew that she only had his best interest in mind, but he needed to get back into the game. He still didn't know what had happened to Kono and Danny, or to the three suspects. He needed to find that out. Steve looked at her and tried a different approach.

"Nancy, I really appreciate your concern. But I feel a lot better now, I'm not dizzy, I can breathe just fine, and I'm sure my heart is perfectly fine as well," he told her with a smile that he knew worked like a charm on the female population.

Obviously it had no effect on a Navy Captain who happened to be the mother of his girlfriend. She looked at him totally unimpressed.

"I wondered when you would get the smile out," was all she said.

"Hmpf," Steve grumbled and chose to look out the window into the night.

"Steve," Nancy softly began. "I know you want to be with your team. I completely understand that. But you have to understand that a contusion to the heart muscle IS a life threatening injury, even if you feel well now. We have to make sure that the bruising didn't reach your heart. I promise as soon as the cardiologist gives his okay you can leave."

"Okay," Steve conceded. "But I really feel fine."

"I know. But barely two hours ago you were showing every sign of a serious injury, and you were far from okay. There might be nothing wrong, but we need to make sure."

"Can you please try and find out what is going on with Chin, and where Catherine disappeared to?"

"Only if you promise to stay right here," Nancy answered and waited for him to agree.

"I'll stay here and wait for the cardiologist," Steve promised and breathed a sigh of relief when she finally went to see what was going on with Chin Ho.

He leaned his head back and took a deep breath, something he could do now without gasping in pain like he still was doing about an hour ago. There was an impressive bruise forming on his chest, but the CT already showed that nothing was broken or even cracked.

Steve had told them repeatedly that he had had way worse and that their worry was unfounded. Although he had to admit when the bullet hit it had felt like he had been kicked by an elephant. The pain hadn't been that bad in the beginning, but the punch he took had knocked all air out of him and left him like a fish out of the water. That was why he had passed out. Lack of oxygen tends to do that to a person; Steve had to chuckle at the thought.

"Very good, Commander, you're in a good mood. I take it you're feeling better?" Dr. Milton Kilani asked. He had just entered the trauma room Steve still occupied.

"Actually, I do. I feel fine," Steve told the cardiologist.

"Well, let's see how accurate that assessment of yours is," Kilani said and studied the chart he brought with him.

"Are those my test results?"

"Yes. Your cardiac enzymes are all in normal range. Your echocardiogram also looks good, no fluids in the pericardium—"

"That is something around the heart, right?" Steve remembered from his training.

"Yes, it's a thin sac surrounding the heart. Blood or fluid can gather there and cause problems. But you don't have to worry, your echo looks perfectly normal."

"I told you I'm fine." Steve couldn't remember how often he had told that to everyone who was willing to listen.

Kilani only smiled, he had dealt often enough with SEALs and other special forces guys and knew they were always 'fine'. "Your ECG shows no abnormality. I still would prefer you agreed to a twenty-four-hour ECG, just to be on the safe side."

"If I can have that 'to go' we can do that, otherwise, I'm outta here." Steve hadn't heard anything so far that showed him any reason to stay even a minute longer.

"Actually, we can do that 'to go'." Dr. Kilani had to laugh at Steve's surprised face. "It is a very small device, nothing like those things with a big battery pack you might know. It's just a pulsometer around your chest. The data is written on a chip."

"I use one of those when I go on a run of more than five miles," Steve told his doctor.

"I think we should do that. Sometimes a reaction to the trauma can be delayed, if nothing out of the ordinary shows up in your 24-hour ECG, then we know for sure that you got away unharmed. Well, except for that stunning bruise," Milton said and motioned to the by now purple bruise over Steve's sternum.

"Doesn't hurt much," Steve said and gently touched the angry contusion.

"Give it a few hours," the doctor told Steve smiling, knowing from own experience how painful such a bruise can get. "Okay, we will put the device on you, and then you're good to go. IF you experience any unusual pain, shortness of breath, racing heartbeat, call 9-1-1 right away."

"Will do," Steve said, but was sure that nothing like that would happen.

Fifteen minutes later Steve was finally allowed to leave after he signed his discharge papers. He was by now really worried that neither Catherine nor Nancy had come back from their task to find out what was wrong with Chin.

Papers in hand Steve made his way to the surgical ward where he knew he would at least find Chin, if not also his girlfriend and her mother.

H50 – H50 – H50

Steve wondered why he hadn't heard anything from either his partner or Kono. It had been two hours since the botched-up operation and he was still out of the loop. That had to change. But before he could even try to call Danny he ran into the rest of his team on his way to the elevator.

"Steve!"

He turned upon hearing his friend calling his name and waited for them to reach him.

"How is Chin?" Kono asked when they stood eye to eye.

"I don't know," Steve had to admit.

"What do you mean you don't know? I thought you went with him! Why don't you know how he is?" Kono almost yelled at him.

Steve knew that she was driven by worry for her cousin, he could understand that, but it was still no reason to yell at him.

"I was just on my way to find out," Steve told her trying to calm her down.

"Where the heck have you been until now?"

It dawned on Steve that neither Kono nor Danny knew what had happened to him. He wondered what he had missed after he had passed out.

"Steve, are you okay? Where is your shirt? And why are you dressed in scrubs?" Danny asked before Kono could start another tirade.

Steve looked down at his attire, at the bluish scrubs he was wearing. His tee shirt had two neat bullet holes in it and was beyond repair. And he hadn't been wearing pants to begin with. So, he should probably be grateful that he was not forced to run around in his underwear.

"I'm fine. Let's find out about Chin, then you can fill me in on where you have been," Steve said as he pressed the button for the elevator.

"You sure you're okay? Duke said you were unconscious for a while?" Danny asked and looked at his friend with a critical eye.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm fine, Danny. Tell me what happened after Chin was hit, I didn't come to until Nancy was already tending to him, and you guys were nowhere to be seen." Steve asked again.

"I was a few seconds behind Chin, and Kono was about half a minute out. When I entered the plant's grounds I only saw three bikes just taking off. Chin was on the ground, and you were struggling to get up," Danny recounted the events from earlier. "Steve, I had no idea that you passed out almost right after. Two units from HPD were right behind me, so I didn't stop and took off after the bikes."

"You did the right thing, Danny," Steve assured his friend.

"When I reached the scene, Captain Rollins was out of the van even before I was. She took over from one of the HPD officers," Kono chimed in, still obviously distraught. "Danny called for back-up… and I wasn't sure whether to go or stay…"

"Kono, it's okay, HPD and a doctor were on the scene. Danny needed you more than we did," Steve tried to make her see reason. "You went after Danny?"

"Yeah. But when I reached him, he had already lost all three of them. We didn't have a chance against their bikes."

"HPD and I split up, going after the bikes, but we couldn't keep up with them, Steve." Danny was still angry that they got away.

"Okay. Do we have anything on them? License plates, type of bikes, anything?" Steve wanted to know as they stepped into the elevator.

"Yeah, we've got a BOLO out, but I wouldn't hold my breath. They are gone, Steven. And I bet the plates were stolen," Danny said with clear frustration in his voice. "Hey, you okay. Steve?"

Steve felt Danny's hand on his arm and looked at his friend. "Yeah, I just tried to remember his voice. I… I don't know, Danny, something doesn't seem right about all this."

"Boss?"

"Yeah, Kono?" Steve looked at their youngest member who had finally calmed down.

"Sorry for before…"

"Hey, it's okay," Steve told her, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder. "We're all worried about Chin." Steve smiled at her reassuringly. He knew that she didn't mean to yell at him, or worse, that she thought he didn't care about her cousin.

"Were you in the ER the whole time?"

That was a question Steve had hoped wouldn't come up again, but he obviously had to tell them what had happened on his side during the last hour.

When he was finished with his tale they had reached the surgical ward where they saw Nancy and Catherine in a discussion with what looked to be a doctor. They looked up when they saw the team coming out of the elevator.

"Nancy, what's going on? How is Chin?" Steve asked as soon as they were in earshot. He looked at the small group and could see that Nancy was only seconds from descending on the Army Captain. For a moment Steve wondered why he was still a captain at his age, but lost the train of thought when Nancy spoke up.

"Dr. Duvall doesn't want to tell us anything," Nancy answered and sent daggers at the doctor.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander McGarrett, and Lieutenant Kelly is a member of my team. This is Officer Kalakaua, Chin's cousin." Steve motioned to Kono and continued in a voice that left no room for discussion. "Now, Captain, tell us what is going on with Lieutenant Kelly."

"Of course. I apologize, but hospital policy—"

"Doctor!" Steve had had enough now.

"Sorry, Commander. Lieutenant Kelly is in recovery at the moment. The bullet hit an artery and he lost a huge amount of blood. We were able to repair the damage though. Luckily there was only minimal tissue-, and no bone-damage."

They all sighed in relief, but looked at the doctor who obviously wasn't finished.

"However… as I said the blood loss was extensive… Lieutenant Kelly coded twice… there was just not enough blood for his heart to pump… we're not sure about the long term effects yet."

"Long term? He's going to be alright, isn't he?" Kono interrupted.

"We can't say for sure at this point."

"Doctor, what are you not saying?" Steve just waited for the other shoe to drop.

"Lieutenant Kelly is unresponsive, and we're not sure about the extent of brain damage."

H50 – H50 – H50