I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

Note: So glad you liked the last chapter – the breakfast muse and then the saber-toothed plot bunny have jointly taken over – this happens with icky work days. Thank you ALL AGAIN for the support and great reviews.

The usual about lack of medical, drug, etc knowledge. FF folks .. enjoy! A continued request to NOT try any of this at home etc, etc etc. Blah, blah and more blah.

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

Chapter Seven – The Deep End

With nothing to do on the short but chaotic ride through the busy streets, Steve kept himself occupied by holding another wad of clean bandages against Danny's sluggishly bleeding head wound. It wasn't necessary and the medics only looked at him for a moment as their persistent chatter and data exchange continued between the racing ambulance and the Tripler trauma room staff. Almost afraid to ask as he lurched along to the rough motion of the vehicle, Steve grunted as his shoulder painfully connected with the side of the wall. "How's he doing?"

There was a slight pause as the first medic continually focused on and rechecked Danny's erratic vital signs. "I'd like to see some of these readings come down. But at least they aren't rising …we're pushing fluids to hopefully flush his system but without knowing what the toxin is .. we can't do more yet."

Palpating the bones in Danny's right arm from shoulder down to wrist, and then carefully around the swollen elbow joint, the medic frowned at the thick swelling below his fingers. "There could be a bone broken here near his elbow. He'll be x-rayed when he's stabilized. And I wouldn't doubt a concussion with that blow to his head."

Steve rubbed his burning eyes with his free hand at the news and asked again, but was denied. "I'd like to remove the cuffs now. He doesn't need them. He's been quiet."

The first medic who was still assessing Danny's arm shook his head adamantly as he did his best to bravely confront the distressed SEAL. "I'm sorry. It's just not a good idea. He could escalate without warning." Steve's jaw worked angrily but when he failed to stare down the determined medic, he relented.

"You'll need to have your cheek looked at too. Looks like he got you pretty good there." The medic paused in his care of Danny to lightly sketch his fingers across Steve's face. The spot where Danny had elbowed him was already swollen and showing signs of severe bruising. Steve hissed in surprise and pulled back as the medic gently touched a particularly painful spot on the cheekbone. "Could be fractured .."

"Later." Steve snarled at the man. Pointing to Danny, he'd had enough of being denied and wouldn't stand for being poked and prodded. "Him. You just focus on him right now. Nothing else. No one else."

At that the medic did hesitate with his hand momentarily frozen in the air until it flew back away from Steve's face. Understanding that a line had just been crossed, he busied himself with monitoring Danny's vitals. But even with his head down, he paled when he didn't feel the SEAL's cold glare leave him for a good many minutes.

Everyone was at the ready as soon as the ambulance came to a complete stop in front of the emergency room at Tripler Medical. They were met by a small contingent from the trauma area and as the doors slammed open, Steve came face to face with Doctor Ramirez and two nurses as he stumbled out and then nearly hugged the man in complete relief.

"Thank god it's you." Steve blurted out in a harsh whisper. "Danny ..."

"Commander? Steve?" Ramirez grabbed his arm to steady him as he then helped guide the gurney off the back of the ambulance to reveal that Danny was in fact, his serious patient.

"Cuffs? Restraints? When they said they were bringing in a possible overdose .. I had no idea …come along."

Not waiting for a response but ensuring Steve trotted along behind, the doctor whipped his stethoscope out and hurriedly moved the gurney with his team to a trauma room as he made demands for blood to be drawn and immediately analyzed. A perceptive nurse saw the plastic bags clutched in Steve's hands and had them additionally sent along to the lab.

Steve was sick to his stomach when the results came back on the blood toxicology panels and then confirmed that the container of milk had been contaminated with PCP or angel dust. No other food stuffs had been tainted. Standing in the back of the room he made an urgent call to Chin Ho and filled him in completely on what had happened and demanded that the apartment be scoured from top to bottom.

"Chin there's an HPD officer in the hall waiting for you. But handle this personally. You and Kono .. I don't want anyone accidentally missing a particle of dust that's a fraction out of place. No leaks. Nothing leaves our circle. Contact Duke for me … double the manpower at the Edwards."

As he ended the call, Steve took up a dominant stance at the foot of the bed. Hands on hips, he simply changed. Flipped the switch entirely that had started to turn in the ambulance. Ramirez felt it and glanced briefly in his direction before focusing once again on his patient. Whoever had done this had just signed their own death sentence and a chill went down the doctor's back.

Required to follow the same procedural precautions, Ramirez kept the restraints on Danny as his team handled triage and assessed his condition. Continually taking vitals and then stabilizing his blood pressure, the doctor wanted stitches in Danny's head wound, a CAT scan and x-rays of the injured arm. Steve stood unmoving as he heard orders given and watched the expert activity. He only moved when Ramirez motioned and pointed towards the cuffs as he began to unbuckle the canvas straps.

"Get those off him. The worst is over."

With relief, Steve quickly walked over and then gently uncuffed Danny's wrists and huffed noisily at previously hidden bloody bruises. He'd not made the cuffs too tight, but Danny's aggressive attempts to escape had still damaged the area. Ramirez frowned and sadly shook his head in dismay as he also saw the extensive bruising and nasty swelling.

Steve carefully turned the worst wrist over in his own fingers as he sneered in self-reproach. He was furious as he spit out the next words. "I've never seen anything like this. I had to cuff him .. I had to cuff .."

But his voice trailed off and Ramirez motioned to a nurse to dress the newly discovered wounds. She quietly inserted herself near the doctor as she swabbed the bruised areas and gently cared for the small abrasions.

"I know how out of it he was to have put up such a fight." Ramirez said quietly. "I'm sorry, Steve. I know this doesn't mean much yet, but you did do what was necessary to keep him from hurting himself even more. And frankly, he would have."

The only answer to the understanding words was a disgusted grunt. "It's escalated." Steve bluntly said to Ramirez as Danny began to show signs of regaining consciousness and moaned. The interruption was unexpected and very welcome. Steve leaned down for a moment to study the closed eyes and furrowed brow. "Danny? Hey ..."

But another dire thought had Steve's stomach clench and if possible, a second switch flipped as his face significantly darkened and became more lethal. Ramirez attempted to place a settling hand on Steve's arm as he dared to ask. "What? Has something else happened?"

"The milk. The milk was spiked." Steve's voice was ice cold and dangerously monotone as he looked down at Danny and realized what they'd all just been told from the lab. Grace had come very close to ingesting the drug with cereal or something as benign as milk and cookies. "Grace. She could have been there …she might have been there. He sent her back to her mother on Friday. To be safe."

Ramirez frowned and hadn't caught up to the change in topic. "I'm not following you. What are you talking about?"

Struggling against the rising tide of nausea, Steve explained Danny's visitation schedules with his daughter and how the issues on Friday made him renege on the weekend plans.

"We don't know how long the milk was contaminated. Grace could have been exposed to this .. another day, another time. It could have happened. Kids drink milk constantly. If she had been there …" And then it was Ramirez' turn to darken in an unconcealed anger as he listened in a stunned silence.

Muttering out loud, Steve explained more to the doctor but he was motionless and foreboding. His absolute stillness .. a direct antithesis to what would have been Danny's demonstrative agitation .. was in short, sinister. Danny's head tossed miserably on the bed and Steve frowned as he placed a soothing hand on Danny's forearm.

"Grace. The damned roses. His car. And now this .." He only paused then and took a step back from the bed as his cell phone vibrated. Ramirez waited as he answered the call with a curt "Kono. Report."

Steve's lips thinned in anger while he listened to her initial findings. Without a word, he ended the call and looked at the doctor. "They found another rose. On his bed. But, no immediate other evidence."

Another moan drew their attention and Steve moved back to the gurney to place his hand once more on Danny's arm. This time, he finally was able to open dazed blue eyes and in total confusion, Danny mouthed Steve's name soundlessly.

"Steve." Head pounding and incredibly sore, Danny felt like he'd been hit by a Mack truck of enormous proportions and didn't know why. He licked dry lips and tried again but he just couldn't gather the energy so he settled for simply being taking slow breaths.

The last thing his fuzzy mind remembered was that he could see through the skin on his left hand .. completely through it. As it spookily undulated with a crazed wave-like motion, it had taken on a life of its own. From his hand, it had then started to creep up his arm and then it moved into his shoulder. That had been unnerving, but when he could see through it to the red pulsing veins, sinews, flesh and then individual bone, Danny had come unglued; wholly petrified. The sane part of him knew he had been drugged. But the irrational side had come forward .. unbidden and had taken full control to kick his sanity completely to the curb.

He understood now that he was hospitalized. He recognized Ramirez's voice as well as Steve's. He could hear Steve speaking and the frightening tone held his attention in a rapt awe. Even with his eyes closed and his body sluggish, Danny could feel it .. the precarious pending storm in his partner's voice and he knew something terrible had happened.

"Drugged?" His mind whispered and upset, he tossed his head on the pillow. The worry pulled strongly at him and Danny forced his reluctant eyes open, but exhausted his voice utterly failed him. "Steve."

"Steve?" Trying again, he finally succeeded and recognized the face for what it was as he blearily studied the multi-colored and badly bruised cheek. The hand on his arm was strong and soothing, but the face said so much more as it provided a completely different message.

Sternly, Danny managed only one other word. "No."

But the war had been declared and Steve had every intention of ending it.

~ to be continued ~