Just A Simple Exchange
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Ch. 7
Rick felt a slight thrumming through the mattress first, and frowned, studying Magnum's face carefully for clues. His friend's eyes were closed at the moment, the crow's feet around them deeper than just a short while ago and the space between his eyebrows was puckered and the lines there were deepening as he watched. He gently reached out and tried to smooth the creases between the eyebrows with his fingers and felt Magnum trembling. His frown grew and glancing up, he saw TC had noticed and was closing on his side of the bed. "Tommy, what's going on?"
Magnum's eyes flew open and he gulped, heavily. "Huh? Why do you ask?"
"You are getting that scrunchy face thing you get, going on. Pain's getting bad, isn't it?"
Magnum shook his head. "Naw, I'm…."
Both of his friends' finished his sentence, with him. "Fine."
"Yeah, sure you are." TC rolled his eyes, as the alarm on the heart rate monitor began to sound. Right as it did, Thomas began slowly inhaling deeply through his nose and exhaling slowly through his mouth in a very controlled manner. "Come on, guys. It's okay. I've got this. I can handle it." However, the terseness and hesitation between words and phrases suggested otherwise. "I'm sure it's too soon for me to have anything and I don't want anything, anyway. I'll be okay. Just give me a minute here."
TC was turning to go get the nurse, when Nurse Hong entered the room. TC remarked to Magnum, "We might. I doubt she will."
As the nurse was behind him, Magnum looked his question at Rick, but before his watchful friend got a chance to explain, Nurse Hong spoke up, causing the private investigator to flinch slightly, startled. "Magnum, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?"
Magnum replied firmly. "It's nothing. I can ride this out. Could you please shut off that damn alarm though? It's making my head hurt." He closed his eyes, shaking his head, mouthing 'no, so dumb', realizing, admitting that probably didn't increase his chances of avoiding further medication.
Higgins had come around to Rick's side of the bed, and regarded Thomas with a slightly sardonic expression on her face. "Careful, Thomas…you'll drown in that machismo!"
Thomas opened his eyes, made a face at her and stuck his tongue out, quickly.
Juliet snorted. "Oh, very mature, Magnum."
Nurse Hong gently remonstrated. "Thomas Sullivan Magnum, you mustn't hide your pain from me. You have coded three times in the past 18 hours…you don't need to place unnecessary stress on yourself at this point, unless you enjoy the charming accommodations here in ICU."
"I just really hate throwing up, ma'am," Thomas replied. "Besides, it's too soon for me to have any medication, right?"
"Your doctor thinks you should be on a PCA, but I doubt you would self administer,…" Hong responded. "you would have better pain control that way."
"As long as we're here, we would take care of that for him," Rick remarked, cheerily. "And trust me; we'd know when to do so."
"Rick, you are so not helping."
"That's a matter of opinion, TM." TC chuckled, "And at the moment, yours doesn't count!"
"Hey, traitor, whose side are you on?" Magnum groused at him.
"Yours, always; but, not the you that is your own worst enemy, Thomas," Calvin told him firmly. "You've been through hell and are currently sojourning there still. Riding this out isn't an option right now, TM. Let's see what the doctor can do to help you."
"Do I get a choice?" The retired Commander muttered.
"No!" Everyone else in his room retorted as one voice.
"Figures - outmanned, outgunned and outmaneuvered…" He went on.
"You will get to 'ride out' your suffering a bit longer while I reach your doctor. He'll conference with the other doctors involved in your care to determine how best to handle this." The nurse advised gently, patting his upper arm and frowning as she noticed his persistent trembling. "I'll just go call him."
Trying to distract himself from the rising tide of pain being joined by his other old friend, nausea, Thomas tried to start a conversation with Wright. "So, you haven't told me yet. What's all the damage?"
Rick gave him a disbelieving look. "You really want to have this conversation now? Honestly, Thomas?"
"I'd like to know what all I've got going on, okay?"
"Trying to distract yourself from how much it hurts, aren't you?" TC smiled at Rick as their eyes met.
Rick launched into the rather lengthy list of injuries. When he got to the ribs replaced by 3D printed titanium, Magnum totally cracked his friends up. "Cool! I'm on my way to replacing Hugh Jackman as Wolverine!"
TC shook his head at the man's antics. "First of all, that was Adamantium, not titanium. And, you'd have to have a lot more metal than just the front portion of 7 ribs and the plates and hardware in your arm to qualify for Wolverine. Not to mention which you don't have his nails growing out of your knuckles, my man; or his rapid healing, unfortunately, bucko."
"Those knives coming out of his knuckles would come in handy, though," Thomas replied.
Higgins was facepalming and trying to control her grin as she slowly shook her head side to side. "You gents are all past puberty, right?" She gave Thomas a look which he saw as he was watching her with one corner of his mouth quirked in a grin. "So you won't use Uber, but you drop pop culture references left and right?"
"Hey, we spent a lot of time in the 'Stan watching Marvel movies! Sue me!"
"For what money?" She responded, sardonically. She regretted it when Magnum sighed. The former agent asked, curiously. "Half a mo-, did you have a laptop when you were 'in the 'Stan', as you say?"
Magnum's eyes shot open and he regarded her, briefly. "Yeah, but it got shipped home when we were 'missing' and I imagine it was sold off with my Mom's estate." He closed his eyes again and a single tear rolled down his cheek from his 'good' eye.
Damn! That was the last thing she meant to remind him of! Somehow it seemed she couldn't win with this man. Bloody hell, Magnum had a complicated back story with far too many traumas she barely knew about and understood even less of. It seemed she was constantly to bumping into or blundering over things that caused him emotional pain or stress. It made her feel like an awkward school girl all over again and she hadn't been that for an absolute age! It was infuriating.
Juliet hated feeling this way. He had seemed so simple at first…a glorified beach bum, immature and rather ridiculous at his age, that she had been saddled with at her employer's behest. Instead, he turned out to have more in common with an onion - having layers and layers of complexities hidden just below that deceptively simple appearing surface impression. It was extremely intriguing peeling back the layers, but she didn't really want to add to the man's pain, not at all. She was rather growing fond of him, as much as she liked to pretend otherwise. He grew on you, rather quickly worming his way in, as TC had put it…was that only yesterday? It seemed a lifetime ago. She tuned back into the conversation as Rick continued to list the injuries Magnum had suffered. She gulped at hearing them recounted again and wanted to throttle Magnum when Thomas quipped at the end of the list.
"Oh, is that all?"
"Is that all? My god, Magnum, are you a masochist or something?" Higgins exploded.
"I just meant 'it could be worse'." He retorted. "And no, I am not a masochist. I thought those guys were going to kill me. Anything less and I figure I got off pretty easily."
Rick lightly slapped his head. "Not funny, TM. You did 'die' three times in less than the past 24 hours, so cut it!"
"Hey," Magnum play-cringed, "Careful! I have a concussion, remember? And I told you, I'm sorry that I put you through that. I really am, Rick."
Rick smiled at him. "Just quit minimizing it, Thomas. It traumatized me." Seeing the regret that appeared in his friend's eyes, he immediately ordered. "Do NOT add that to your overly huge list of 'mea culpas', buddy."
"Hey, I may have lapsed, but I'm still a Catholic boy at heart."
"You've lapsed, my giddy Aunt! Besides your dog tags read Episcopalian." TC stated, patronizingly.
"That was the Magnum side, TC. Mom always took me to the Catholic church after Dad died, you know that. They didn't have a box for 'mostly Catholic, but baptized Episcopalian.' " Magnum looked at Rick pleadingly. "Could you get this 'ice pack' off my face? It's gone tepid a long time ago."
"Drat, I am so sorry. I forgot to get that off you when I should have." Nurse Hong rejoined them and immediately moved to take the ice pack off. "I'll bring you a fresh one in a while."
"It's okay. I could use a break from the weight for a while." Rick winced at the appearance of Magnum's face. "Let me guess. I've got an amazing Technicolor display going on?" Thomas reacted to his friend's wince.
"Oh, yeah." Rick acknowledged. "That's got to hurt like hell."
"It kind of blurs in nicely with everything else that's hurting," Magnum admitted.
Both Rick and TC reacted with a bit of alarm at that admission from their friend.
TC launched a pre-emptive strike. "So what did the doctor say about his pain level? 'Cause if my boy here is admitting to that last, it's getting worse as the moments go by."
Trying to change the subject, Magnum spoke up. "I'm kind of surprised respiratory therapy hasn't shown up yet to get me to expand my lungs…"
Recognizing the dodge when she heard it, the nurse advised him. "Not distracted, Magnum…the doctor will be joining us shortly gentlemen to deal with the pain level. RT has been put on hold until he's made that determination, so has turning you before you try that dodge."
Rick commented. "Damn, she's good! You are so busted, Thomas. She has your number now."
"I had his number when I saw 'retired Navy SEAL on his paperwork'. I've cared for McGarrett before."
"How is Steve these days?" Magnum may be down a hand, but he still had cards to play.
"Do you know the Commander?" Hong queried.
"Oh, yes, this Commander knows that Commander," TC assured her. "Even came to his rescue a time or two in the day."
"Now, TC," Magnum protested, "No telling tales out of school."
"Well, damn, Thomas, it's true! The man was supposedly in the reserves and we still had to run to his rescue. Everybody on this damn island thinks the sun rises and sets on McG, but he's got nothing on you."
"Theodore, stand down," Magnum said, sharply, his face flaming red with embarrassment.
"Why, Thomas, it's certainly true? You did come to my rescue a time or two. Hey, Rick, TC," The task force head had just come into the room, while that interplay had gone on. "I'm …"
Juliet smoothly interrupted the man. "The much-vaunted head of Hawaii's Five-O task force, I presume?"
"Much-vaunted? Guess that doesn't impress you much, eh?" The man smiled his most ingratiating smile.
"Detective Katsumoto told us you were trying to take over Thomas' case. I'm Juliet Higgins, the majordomo of Robin Master's estate."
"Oh, yes. I know who you are, Ms. Higgins. There isn't much that happens on this island I am not aware of. However, I backed off of taking the case away from Detective Katsumoto. I'm more interested in getting a look at this 'research' and knowing who the 'researcher' was."
"Number one) we don't even know where it is; and, number two) it is the intellectual, private property of Robin Masters'." Juliet said, archly.
"I know exactly where it is, Higgins," Thomas said, firmly. "As for getting a look at it, Steven, that would take a subpoena because she's right. It belongs to Robin...and who the researcher is, is protected. He's a source."
"I don't think a novelist's sources are protected like a journalist's are, Magnum, but let's set that aside for now." McGarrett had come around the foot of the bed to stand on Rick's side more towards the foot end because Higgins was between them. "Whoa, buddy? They really put you through the grinder, didn't they?"
"Almost literally," Rick agreed, "he's a real mess."
"Gee, thanks, Rick." Magnum retorted.
"If the shoe fits…" TC interjected.
"Commander McGarrett, out! I didn't give you permission to interview my patient yet…or visit him." Tanaka snapped as he came in the door, quelling any excuse the man might have. "This is intensive care, not a step-down unit. Leave."
The commander snapped off a salute at the doctor. "See you soon, Thomas. Get better!" And he exited.
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A/N: I know the time overlaps may not precisely work, but this is my story and I'll play if I want to. And that was just a quick guest appearance…not sufficient to need to re-classify this as a crossover, right? Still not going to become a full-fledged crossover.
Updated with some minor corrections and changes as of 3/6/2019
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