Note: time to wrap this one up. Thanks for all the reviews and thanks to wenwalke for her help.

Chapter Nine

Danny awoke to the sound of birds singing, and the smell of coffee wafting into his bedroom. Easing his arm off the supportive pillow, he carefully swung his legs off the bed and sat up, winching as the stitches pulled in his right thigh. He reached over to the bedside table, grabbed his sling and eased his arm into it, placing it over his head he then attempted to wrap it around his body to anchor it in place. Failing miserably with his one good hand he sighed and gave it up as a lost cause.

As he left his bedroom he ran his hand through his unruly hair in an attempt to straighten it. Then he limped down the hallway, wearing just sleep pants and a t-shirt.

Entering the kitchen he wasn't surprised to find Steve busy making breakfast for them both. His friend had insisted on staying with Danny once he was released from the hospital, at least until he was happy Danny was strong enough, and able, to take care of himself.

Steve obviously sensed Danny's arrival as he turned and smiled at his friend, "morning Danno. Breakfast is almost ready," then seeing part of the sling dangling he chastised. "You know that thing has to be fastened properly to support your shoulder."

"Yes, I do know that, Steven. But I can't for the life of me fasten the damn thing." Danny replied attempting to grab the strap and once again failing to pull it around his back.

"Come here." Steve laughed grabbing the strap and securing it in place. "You done your exercises yet?"

"No not yet, I've only just woken up, can I at least have a coffee first?" Danny yawned.

"Did you get much sleep?" Steve asked concerned at the bags under his friend's eyes.

"Yeah some, once I took some more painkillers around 2 am." Danny answered honestly, taking a seat at the breakfast bar.

Steve passed Danny a coffee then retrieved his medication. "Here, painkillers and antibiotics."

"Thanks." Danny smiled. Normally Steve's mithering would bug Danny, but he had decided to let his best friend have a few days of fussing and getting his own way, before he blew his top. It was the least he could do after all the support Steve had given him. For three days, and nights, Steve had remained glued to Danny's side in the ICU. Only leaving for a brief bathroom break or when the nurses were taking care of Danny's personal care. Chin had also shown his loyalty and spent every hour of the day by Danny's side too, only going home to sleep. While Lou and Kono had taken care of the paper work and spent as much time at the hospital as possible.

Danny knew it had been a rough three days for his friends, but he barely remembered any of it himself. Left exhausted and confused from the fever, his memory was sketchy. But he had been told how ill he was, and how terrified all his friends had been when his temperature climbed so high he started to seize. Dr. Pearce had been concerned that the infection had spread to the bone and ordered a scan. Finally Danny's fever broke and his vitals picked up. Three more days in a normal room to recover his strength, and complete the course of IV antibiotics, and he had finally been released into Steve's care the night before.

Downing the medication, Danny took a slip of his coffee then placed it back down as Steve brought over a bowl of fruit and yoghurt. Steve then went to the fridge to get the fresh fruit juice. Danny looked at the breakfast, and was grateful for something other than the gloopy porridge, or soggy cereal, he had had for the past week.

Steve poured out two glasses of juice and joined his partner at the breakfast bar, then rolled his eyes as he saw him scratching at the dressing on his side.

"Will you stop scratching? Do you want it to leave scars?" He said while playfully clipping Danny around the head.

"I can't help it. You try being covered in dried out road rash and not scratch it. It itches like hell."

"I could do it." Steve replied smugly then started to eat his breakfast.

"Of course you could. I forgot for a second your Super SEAL. You can compartmentalise the itch." Danny snarked.

Steve ignored the comment, knowing from personal experience just how bad healing road rash could be. "Shut up and eat your breakfast. Then you can have a shower, I'll put your cream on, and re-do your bandages."

"Why thank you nurse McGarrett, whatever would I do without you?" Danny joked.

"You'd still be stuck in hospital 'till you didn't need daily dressing changes any more." Steve replied.

"Good point." Danny said picking up his spoon and diving into his breakfast. His appetite was finally starting to pick up now the infection was under control. Steve just smiled to himself, happy to see Danny on the mend.

After breakfast, Steve was true to his word and helped Danny to remove his t-shirt and dressings, and put on his sling designed for the shower. Then after Danny had washed up Steve applied the cream and dressings to his friend's side and arms. He then helped Danny with his physical therapy.

Once they finished, they moved to the living room where Steve worked on some reports, and Danny watched TV, occasionally looking over Steve's shoulder and correcting mistakes, much to Steve's annoyance. Steve was relieved when the rest of the team arrived at lunch, giving him an excuse to avoid more paperwork.

They sat down to lunch and Chin passed Danny some of Kamekona's famous garlic shrimp, Danny's personal favourite. "How's the shoulder, brah?"

"It was a bitch last night, but not so bad now I'm high on painkillers." Danny smiled. "How was your first day back? I see you lost your sling."

"Yep, feels good now, and this morning was boring. Desk duty sucks, but at least I'll be off it next week." Chin smiled.

"Great, rub it in why don't ya, I'm gonna be stuck on desk duty for weeks." Danny groaned.

"Hey, at least you get to come back, for a while there I thought we both had our days numbered. Besides, think of all the time you will get on the smart table, we'll have you a pro on the thing before you're back in the field."

"You do realise it's only a few weeks of desk duty, not years." Steve said passing around bottles of water.

"Hey." Danny called, fraying hurt.

"Come one, Danny, we all know that technology is not your friend." Lou smirked.

"Fine, but you don't have to be so mean about it." Danny fake sulked, and the others all laughed.

After lunch the others all cleared away while Chin took the opportunity to steer Danny away. "We haven't really had any time together this week."

"Are you kidding, you've been with me almost as much as Steve." Danny said confused.

"I know, but I meant no time alone. I wanted to check how you were doing with everything. If you're ok with everything we discussed on the trail, before everything happened."

Danny smiled, grateful for his friends concern, "you're a good friend Chin. I...err ... I think I'm actually good with everything. I might have some way to go to totally make my peace with what I did, but I'm gonna take your advise and not let it eat me up. I'm good at my job, I love my job. I get to put scumbags like the guys that hunted us down, away. I didn't think twice to take out those guys, because it was them or us. That's what I'm trained to do. What happened with Reyes wasn't so different. It was him or my daughter, my family. I'm gonna be fine Chin."

"That's good to hear." Chin smiled and patted Danny on his good shoulder.

The rest of the team entered the room, and Chin stood and joined Kono and Lou, ready to return to the office.

"Everything ok?" Steve asked his brow furrowed.

'Yeah, it's all good." Danny replied back. "Everything's good. Now you guys get back to work, and you," he said pointing at Steve. "You, need to re do that requisition form, because there is no way the Governor is going to agree to what you have written."

"Maybe you should do it then." Steve suggested.

"Me? Oh no. Not me. I am on sick leave and going for a nap." Danny replied and headed towards his bedroom.

"Good luck with that paperwork, man." Lou said patting Steve on the shoulder.

"I don't need luck I just need to delay finishing the requisition 'till next week when Danny's back on desk duty. Then I'll bury it in with all the other requisitions I plan to send his way." Steve replied with a cocky smile, causing the others to laugh as they headed out of the house.

THE END