A.N – okay so I'm not totally happy with this chapter, but since it's been so long since I posted I figured I should just get it over with and put it up.

" you're not going to die on me. Not again, not like this. Come on Steven"

I pressed harder on his chest trying to spark some life back into my partner, to bring him back to the land of the living. I had already lost one friend on this god-forsaken island; it wasn't going to happen again.

"Sir. Sir. We have this under control, you need to stop."

NO. Not yet, he was going to live. I wasn't going to let someone close to me die, if I could have done something about. One. Two. Three more seconds. No breath. No pulse. WAIT there. The smallest rise of his chest. Alive, he was alive. For now. Deep breathe Danny. Stay Calm. Going to be okay.

Someone was trying to pull me off; I looked up into the face of a paramedic.

"Sir, you need to move so that we can look at him."

Someone else was talking to me. Trying to pull me up. I recognized Kono's voice through the haze in my mind. She pulled me up turning me away from the paramedics trying to save Steve's life. They were loading him onto a gurney, while simultaneously shoving a tube down his throat, an IV into his arm, pulling out needles all bad signs. But he was still breathing. Still alive.

"Come on Danny, were going to meet them at the hospital."

"No, I'm going in the ambulance with him; he needs someone to be there with him."

She looked at me with a doubtful look on her face,

"Are you sure? You know Steve isn't going to like this right."

I cracked a small smile at that, the thought of Steve even trying to resist me right now was a long shot.

"When has that ever stopped me before?" I said, as I jogged back to the ambulance. The medics ignored me as I climbed into the back with them. To busy trying to stabilize Steve, to worry about a stray cop.

I settled myself on the left side of Steve as far out of the way as possible. I grabbed Steve's hand more for my own comfort then his at this point. I needed the extra reassurance that he was still with us. Looking down at his face he could have easily been dead. With the tube shoved down his throat he wasn't even technically keeping himself alive. At this point he had to rely on the flimsy help of technology.

The medics worked busily around me, I'm guessing Kono had relayed to them what kind of snake bite he was suffering from, because one of them was trying to have the anti-venom waiting for them at the hospital. In five minutes this whole mess could be on its way to being resolved. And our lives could go back to normal. That's what I thought, but I didn't live in the world of Steve McGarret, who had to make everything ten times harder than it had any right to be.

If it was even possible his hand went even limper in my hand, synchronizing itself with the shrill beep of the heart monitor. Something that had been haunting my dreams since Steve had died the first time.

My stomach dropped. This wasn't happening, not again. The beep resounded through my brain, all I could hear was the mass confusion going on around me as the medics rambled on.

Low BP. He's having trouble getting oxygen. His livers shutting down. So are his lungs. Charge to Three-Hundred. No response, go again. Charge to Three-Fifty. Clear. Go again. I got a response. He's Stable for now, but not for much longer. Were here. Carry him out. Doctors Waiting. Sir! Sir! Your going have to wait in there. Doctor will be out later. Sit down here. Danny! My name. Who was that? Look up. Someone there.

"Danny! Danny! Hey you okay? Do you know where Steve is?"

I looked up into the face of Kono, not really registering what I was seeing; I think I was still in shock. My brain was fuzzy, nothing was making sense. She sat down on my right side, and Chin on the left. I didn't see Cath anywhere, and I suddenly had the worst case of Déjà vu back to when I had been here the last time.

She put her arm around me trying a different tactic,

"Hey, Danny you have to snap out of it. When Steve wakes up he's going to need you to be there for him."

"I-I-I just….He died on the way over here Kono. I couldn't do anything about it, and now Hess is still out there, and the chances are he's going to come after Steve again. What are we supposed to do? What if he dies for real this time?"

She took my hand in hers,

"He's not going to die Danny; Steve is the strongest person any of us know. Whatever gets thrown our way were going to deal with it. Okay? And were going to catch Hess, no matter how long it takes us understand."

I leaned my head back against the wall, and nodded to tired, emotionally and physically, to do anything else.

"Get some sleep Danny, Kono and I will wake you up when the doctor comes out."

I nodded at Chin, not bothering to take my head off the wall. If i went to sleep i could forget abot this. I wouldn't have to tell Gracie that her beloved Uncle Steve was dead or I wouldn't have to plan another funeral. But Hess was still out there, and if Steve survived this attack we would still have to deal with him.

Four hours later we were still waiting; we had all taken short naps but hadn't really been able to sleep without knowing what was going on with our other team member. We had watched an endless stream of sobbing loved ones trickle in and out of the waiting room. Each waiting for the doctor to come out and present them with a miracle. I felt like we had already used all of our miracles.

"Family of Steve McGarret.", a doctor came out of the double doors searching for the next eager parade of family members.

We delivered all jumping up simultaneously making our way to the doctor at the other end of the room, I wasn't sure if I was ready to hear what he had to say anymore. But no news was bad news, or so they said.

"Were his family." Kono said arms crossed over her body, eyes red. The very definition of a grieving family member.

The doctor gave Kono a doubtful look, but then he glanced at the badges all three of us were wearing, and seemed to decide that it was best to just let it go.

"I have some good news and some bad news. Mr. McGarret suffered from what would have been several minor knife wounds but the toxin he was injected with caused problems with blood clotting. He's lost a lot of blood, but we have him on blood transfusions for this. Also the effects of the venom have also caused kidney damage and respiratory problems. We have him on life support right now until his body can support itself."

"How long till we know he's going to be okay?" Chin asked, voicing the question we all wanted to know the answer to.

"There's something else you should know about Mr. McGarret's condition. He only has one kidney, and because of the extensive damage that he has suffered to the one he has we have put him on dialysis. If the damage starts to worsen we will have to put him on the transplant list and take the situation from there."

"Wait, why does he only have one kidney?" The last time I had checked everyone was supposed to have two.

He flipped open the folder he had with him, what I assume was Steve's medical file, and ran his finger down the page searching for the relevant information. He stopped about halfway down the page, and then looked back up at us,

"From what I can see he had cancer a few years ago, and they were forced to remove the kidney. That's all I can tell you. If you would like to see him for a few minutes they should have him in the ICU by now."

Cancer. This was something I couldn't deal with right now. Normally I would have given him the 'I'm your partner, your supposed to tell me everything speech', but right now he just shoved it to the back of his brain to be dealt with later.

We followed the doctor across the hospital until we arrived on the sixth floor, the same place where I had been the first time. Hopefully there weren't similar results.

He stopped at the door and turned around to face us,

"I want you guys to be prepared for what you're going to see. He is on life support so there is a tube down his throat, and there's a lot of wires and monitors. He's not going to look like himself; I understand how difficult that can be for some families so I just want you to be prepared."

He pushed open the door ushering us in, and then quietly shutting the door behind him as he left. I lingered at the back letting Kono, and Chin go in first, I dint need to see this again. Thought of Steve dying while I tried to revive him was still fresh in my mind.

Kono sank into the chair at the side of his bed, silent tears slipping down her face. Chin lowered himself into the chair next to her placing his arm around her shoulder.

"It's okay Kono, it's okay to cry. It's the best way for the soul to heal." Chin said trying to reassure her.

"B-But everything's so different now. I don't know what to do; it's so much harder to do this when you love someone like this."

Chin did a double take, "Wait what you mean, when you love someone like this. Please tell me it's just brotherly love."

Kono gripped his hand harder, looking down at his face with sad eyes. I had never seen the look on Kono's face, and it didn't belong, she took a breath bracing herself.

"Umm, we were going to tell you guys we were dating, but then Steve died, and I didn't see the point in telling anyone."

I looked at Chin, he looked at me. For a moment we forgot about what was going on, and shared a moment of confusion.

"You and Steve? I thought Steve was dating Cath, when did they break up?"

"They weren't really dating." she said giving me a 'what were you thinking' look

"Wait, they weren't dating? Every time I went to Steve's house they were doing it like bunnies…Wait then why did he tell Cath that he wasn't really dead instead of you."

"I'm guessing because she didn't have to be around any us, it makes perfect sense to me. He needed all of us to really believe he was dead. For the emotions to be real."

She went back to smoothing the hair off of Steve's face, signaling that this topic of conversation was over. Chin was looking between his baby cousin and Steve, still trying to figure out what was going on between the two of them. I switched my attention back to the later, leaving Chin to try and figure out what had just happened.

His skin was still chalky white, even though one of the monitors said that he was running a temperature of 104. Looking at his face I suddenly had the feeling that something was about to go wrong.

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Everything was dark. He could hear voices. Talking to him, saying his name. So much pain. So hot. Was he on fire? Why was it so hot? GET ME OUT. PLEASE SAVE . Why wasn't anybody listening? How was he supposed to get rid of it? So weak. What was wrong with him? What was going on? It was getting brighter, the pain was fading. That was better. The light was getting brighter. He had to open his eyes, had to see what was going on. Sitting up he looked around, there was someone coming towards him. They were coming through the light standing right in front of him. Speaking. Listen Steven; get a hold of yourself,

"Hey Steve, I figured I would be seeing you pretty soon, with your Rambo complex and all that jazz."

He looked up into the face of the one person he thought he would never see again,

"Mary? But your dead, how is this possible?"

She looked at me like I was stupid,

"Geez Steven, I never took you to be this dense. You are dead, well technically you're not dead yet. You still have a chance; the doctors are still trying to save your life."

"Why am I in the hospital? What happened to me Mary?" there were too many holes in my memory I didn't know if I should know what was going on or not.

"It was Hess. He poisoned you, among other things. Your kidney is failing; your lungs and heart are shutting down. Your body can't take it anymore Steve. You're dying."

"NO. I can't die, not now. I have too much to lose. I have a family. You can't let me die Mary. There has to be another way"

"I was hoping you would say that. There's something you should know though Steve, you're not out of danger yet you're going to get worse before you get better, and if you die again you can't go back, you'll be dead for good."

"Thank you Mary, I'm hoping for both of our sakes that we don't see each other soon."

She walked away. The world started going dark around. Eyes slipping shut of their own free will. The pain returning with it. Something cold rushed through me and I knew no more.

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The doctor came out of the door again; after the monitor had gone off we had all been shoved out of the door in a rush, and had been sitting out here for ten minutes. Left to worry once again, in the terse silence that came with these kinds of things.

"We managed to revive him but there are some complications." he said with a serious voice. The atypical doctor voice. Nothing good ever came out of that voice.

"What kind of complications?" Chin asked, a frown was starting to form on his face.

He hesitated, "His kidney and his lungs have started to shut down, the toxin has completly overwhelmed his system We have upped the dosage of the anti-venom, and antibiotics but there's nothing more we can do at this point."

I jumped out of my chair, "What are you saying; he's just going to die! Isn't there something you can do for him? What kind of doctor are you to just let him die like this?"

He gave me a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry Mr. Williams, and there is nothing we can do. Right now there is a ten percent chance that he will live. But at this point I don't think he will make it through the night. I'm sorry."

"Do you think he will ever wake up?" Kono whispered. Her eyes were starting to pool with tears.

"There's a slim chance that he will, but even if he did he probably won't even know what is going on. The high temperature that he is running has caused delirium. Now I know that the hospital has very strict rules about people in the ICU, but at think at this point the best thing that he needs right now is for his family to be with him."

He laid his hand on Kono's arm briefly trying to offer a small amount of comfort then turned around, and walked back off in the other direction.

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