Thank you all so much for reading and for your patience. I'm really happy that you seem to enjoy this little story.

Again my thanks to Cokie316 for her incredible insight and to Sherry57 for fine tuning the grammar.


Chapter 08 – Finally !

Tom Delgardo is sitting across from his mother thinking about the man they found a couple of hours ago. He's so sure he has seen him before, but he just doesn't know where. Tom was hoping that it would come to him if he stayed a little longer at the hospital but so far no epiphany about the stranger.

"Mom?"

"Tom, do you remember him?"

"No. I think this is useless. You wanna go home?"

"We could wait for a little longer if you think it would help you remember where you know him from."

"I don't think it will help. Maybe it's better if I stop thinking about it. Let's get home, mom."

Tom and Katie make their way out of the hospital into the early evening of Tom's last Saturday in Hawaii.

H50 – H50 – H50

Terry O'Reilly is checking the vitals of her patient who was just transferred from the ICU to this private room. It took all night before he could be transferred out of the ICU. His BP dropped while still in recovery, and it took a while until they could stabilize it. She watches her sleeping patient and tucks the blanket around him, careful not to put any pressure on the thick bandages on his elevated right leg. She makes sure that his splinted arm is in a comfortable position. A dislocated elbow is a painful injury and she doesn't want him to wake up to any pain from his arm.

She untangles the IV line with the saline, antibiotics and pain medication and checks the various tubes and wires attached to him. All the while, her patient sleeps on, completely oblivious to all the gentle prodding and probing.

Satisfied with her work and the gathered vitals, she leaves the patient to rest. The recordings of his vitals are connected to the nurse station, so she will know immediately when he shows signs of waking up.

Her next task will be entering his stats into the system. They have decided to add him into the missing person database since they still weren't able to talk to him.

Terry opens the program that will send her data to HPD and on a whim checks the incoming reports first and almost falls from her chair when 'Steve' is looking at her from the screen. The official picture of one Lieutenant Commander Steven J. McGarrett, Head of Five-0, missing for thirty four hours of which he spent the last sixteen in this hospital doesn't resemble her patient much; looks way too serious in that photo but there is no doubt in her mind that 'Steve' is the missing Commander. Shit. She picks up the phone and dials the number on the screen.

H50 – H50 – H50

The Five-0's have been back at their HQ for a couple of hours. Even knowing that they couldn't do anything more last night, they were very reluctant to go home. After spending a day looking for their missing friend, they are still not closer to finding him than they were almost twelve hours ago. Malia met them at HQ an hour ago and brought food and coffee, but none of them enjoyed the breakfast. They're all thinking about Steve, who's still out there.

"I know you all want to go back out, but you're no help to Steve if you don't look after yourselves. It was the right thing to go home and rest last night." Malia sees that her friends are beyond worried about their leader. She knows they all are very close, but Danny especially is taking it very hard. Something more than worry is eating at him.

"Danny, are you all right? Sorry that was not the best choice of words, but something is bothering you. Can we help?" Chin also picked up on Danny's mood; he knows they're all worried but Danny is really down.

Danny finally looks up and what they see in his eyes makes them almost gasp. Guilt and sorrow are so clearly written in them as if it was tattooed on his forehead. "Do you know what some of my last words to Steve were? I said, 'I needed a break from him; I needed space; I didn't want to see him this weekend, that I didn't want him to meet my friends from Jersey'. I feel like an ass, how could I have been so stupid to hurt my best friend like that?"

"Steve told us, and yes we could see he was hurt, but also that he trusts you, he said 'Danny has a good reason, and he will tell me on Monday'. Danny it will be okay. Sometimes we do things without really thinking them through. Steve is your friend, and he will understand whatever your reason was." Chin looks at his younger friend and knows that no words will bring him any comfort as long as Steve is not found.

"Yeah, you see that is the problem, I'm an idiot. I didn't want him to meet my 'friends' because I'm embarrassed about them. I know that's bad, but my best friend thinks I'm embarrassed about him. Knowing that moron, he probably even thinks it's somehow his fault."

They all have to smile a little about the moron part, but before they can say anything else Danny's phone rings. It's lying on the table and seeing that it's an unknown number, he puts it on speaker, "Williams."

"Detective Williams?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"My name is Terry O'Reilly, and I'm a nurse at Hawaii Medical Center West. I'm calling about Steve McGarrett."

"Is he there?" Danny instantly gets his hopes up, and he can see that the others are listening intently too.

"Ah, well I think so."

"You think so?"

"Detective, let me explain please, yesterday afternoon 'Steve' - that's all we knew about him – was brought in by some hikers who found him. He was in and out of consciousness and was not really coherent. At that time, the ER was really busy, he was treated and had surgery and spent the night in the ICU. He just arrived on my station. When he came in yesterday, we checked the system, but he was not in it at the time. I just found out and called you right away."

"He's been at the hospital since yesterday?"

"Yes, since around four p.m."

They look at each other and can't believe that their friend was lying in a hospital bed safe and sound for the last sixteen hours while they were worried sick and traipsing through the jungle to find him.

"How is he, you said he had surgery?"

"Dr. Heller will tell you all about that. I'm not at liberty to tell you. Can you stay on the line for a moment please?" They can hear some talking in the background, probably Terry explaining what is going on, and then they have a man on the line, "Detective Williams? Danny Williams?"

"Yeah, I'm Danny Williams."

"I'm Dr. Heller. I think it is better if we talk in person about your situation."

"What? My situation? Is Steve all right? What is going on?"

"I'm sorry detective, but my first priority is my patient, and it is my job to protect him, sometimes even from his partner."

"Protect him? He's my partner and he was missing, tell. . ."

"Danny," Chin is intervening, "Dr. Heller, we will be there shortly and meet with you." Before the doctor can say anything else Chin ends the call.

"What was that all about and why did you do that?"

"Danny, calm down. He was not going to tell you anything. For whatever reason, it sounds like he thinks you're a threat to Steve. Let's go there and see what's going on. Malia, could you come with us please?"

"Yes, of course," she is looking at Danny and has a sneaking suspicion what this is all about. She's debating to 'prepare' Danny for what is most likely going to happen if Steve was still not able to clear some things up. "Wait!"

"What? Malia what is it?" Chin looks at his wife, wow, that is a word he still needs to get used to.

"Steve has many bruises in various stages of healing all over his body. He took a severe beating at the hands of Wo Fat and most of them are still somewhat visible. He has a lot of other old injuries he sustained over the years. We all know more or less how he sustained them, but a doctor without his medical file could come to a completely different conclusion." Malia looks at Danny to see if he understands her reasoning. "I don't know what his actual injuries are at the moment, but I think Dr. Heller is trying to protect Steve from more abuse until he can correctly assess the situation. I guess Steve was in a state of semi-consciousness at some point and might have mentioned your name, maybe just Danny or Danno. Max said that he would be confused and disoriented, who knows what he told them? That combined with his injuries led them to a conclusion."

"What conclusion," Danny has no idea what she's talking about. Obviously, Lori, Kono and Chin do because they are grinning at him, "what?"

"Domestic abuse," Malia is informing him.

"What? You mean. . .they think. . .that I. . .that he. . .that we are. . . I'm going to kill him."

"Oh come on Danny, you could do worse. I mean he's quite a catch, don't you think Kono," Lori is openly laughing now as are Kono and Chin, all the stress and worry of the last hours finally finding some release.

"Oh definitely sister, he's a great catch. Unfortunately, for all of us his heart is already taken."

It's probably for the best that they are not able to understand Danny's grumbling; death threats are not something anyone would like to hear.

H50 – H50 – H50

It only takes them fifteen minutes to reach the Medical Center and five more to reach the third floor where their friend is located.

"Terry O'Reilly? I'm Detective Williams, we talked on the phone. Can you please call Dr. Heller and tell us where Commander McGarrett is?"

"Yes, Detective of course, Dr. Heller will be here in a few minutes. He is needed in the ER at the moment, but it shouldn't take more than thirty minutes. If you like you can wait over there."

"No! I won't wait another minute, you tell me right now where our friend is, or I swear I'm going to arrest you." Danny has no idea what he would arrest her for but hopes that she will tell them where Steve is before it comes to that. "Look, our friend was missing for over thirty four hours; we just want to see him."

"Okay." Terry relents, after seeing Danny's distress. "Room 3912. But don't wake him. I'll tell Dr. Heller where to find you."

"Thank you."

They make their way over to the indicated room and Danny slowly opens the door. They all file into the dimly-lit room and look at the lone figure peacefully sleeping in the bed. They can see that he's hooked up to some monitors, and his injured leg sticks out prominently. They all study his features, take in all his obvious injuries, from the bump to the head, the splinted right arm and bandaged leg and the IV on the back of his hand. But despite all that he seems to be resting peacefully.

Malia is studying his file and takes a look at his vitals. "His ankle is pretty bad; they had to debride the wound in the OR. He has a severe concussion, and his elbow was dislocated. He had a small crisis in recovery and was in the ICU for the night, but they managed to stabilize him. I'm sure his doctor will tell us some more. Steve's temperature is still elevated, and they have him on pretty heavy painkillers and antibiotics. I doubt he will wake up in the next few hours."

"But he will be fine?" Danny is standing next to his friend's bed and looks down at him.

"Nothing indicates that he won't, Danny. Of course, infection is always a concern, but they have him on heavy antibiotics so that should help."

Danny sits down with a thud and lets out a breath he wasn't even aware of holding.

H50 – H50 – H50


So, what do you think? Everything good and well now? Our boy is safe and sound, right? They only have to wait for him to wake up, Danny can have his little talk and everything will be just peachy. Right!