I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*
Chapter Nine
With his head aching strongly enough to churn his stomach, Danny stared mutely at the dark-haired bowed head. He was baffled by the fact he was in a hospital room and that Steve was dozing just two feet from his side. His next awareness continued to be that of his injured body. Stiff and in a world of hurt from his head down to his abdomen, he felt as if he'd been literally mowed down by a sixteen wheeler.
"Steve?" Danny's ill-used voice cracked as he wheezed out his friend's name. Despite being so hoarsely uttered and just above that of a whisper, the dark head swung up instantly at the sound.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Steve's eyes were red-rimmed from lack of sleep and compounded by stress as he eased to his feet in one smooth motion. His question was fair, nonetheless cautious, as he measured Danny's face. Earlier wakings had been less than satisfying due to his partner's ongoing state of confusion caused by the concussion and worsened by the residual drugs left in his system.
"You've been out for hours. Ponch went home, but he'll be back later this afternoon. How do you feel?" Steve offered, hesitant to relax entirely until he could better gauge Danny's level of clear-headedness. Once more, he felt the beginnings of disappointment as Danny lazily blinked, completely unable to focus his eyes. Then, the soft reply took much too long; ending on a dismal exhale of a question.
"I don't know," Danny whispered after a long pause, wincing when the cervical collar prevented his head from moving. Cloudy memories poked at the fringes but his mind refused to grasp more than a splinter of light or ghost-like voice and his stomach twisted fearfully. "I was … home?" A baffled frown followed as he lifted his right hand up to his line of sight when he felt the fat, pudgy heat around his swollen knuckles and broken fingers. He stared dumbly at the bruising and splints before resting his hand back on the bed, realizing that his left hand felt only marginally better.
"I was home?" Danny repeated. His head felt as if it were about to split into two and the slightest movements were sending deep tendrils of pain into his neck and upper back. It had happened again and he was petrified to ask as Steve worriedly loomed over him. "What happened? Where … where are we?"
"Hospital. Downtown." Briefly closing his eyes, Steve nodded as he patiently tried what he'd repeated so many times. As before, the easiest was to use Danny's own words and so, that was where he began. "You lost a few hours again; actually, a hell of a lot more than just a few. But this time, it seems as if you got into a fight along the way. You managed to get yourself to my place."
"Fight?" Deep lines furrowed for a moment across his forehead. He vaguely realized that Steve's face had fallen, before he gave his demonstrative expression up for the pain it caused when it pulled on his stitches.
"I don't … remember," Danny whispered repeatedly. He wanted to doubt the truth though every part of his body ached with a vengeance. He wanted to argue Steve's short explanations even though he was hospitalized in what seemed to be an intensive care unit. A hollow feeling of fear formed in the pit of his stomach as his awareness increased and one terrifying stray thought made itself known.
"Did I hurt … anyone?" His voice broke again as he gazed hazily up at Steve. Wracked in pain and now in a hospital bed, it had happened again to surpass any prior experience in spades.
"We don't think so, buddy," Steve replied truthfully with a sickly upset sigh entirely for his partner's benefit. He wanted so much more resolved, but what they were finding was coming in excruciatingly slow dribs and drabs. To add to the insult, Steve had to refrain from asking Danny any probing questions. Plus, there was no way he could easily share the small bits of knowledge which they did have due to his partner's negligible health. His next words were careful as he provided what he felt most reasonable. "Camaro's clean and Kono is checking with HPD for any reports which might fit; but it seems that you might have been the victim. We don't entirely know what happened. At least not yet, but we will."
Danny closed his eyes wearily at the strange news, listening quietly despite his rising sense of dread to Steve's voice while cataloging the severity of each deep ache. It had happened again and this time, he'd been in a fight. Despite how he felt, there was a good chance he had hurt someone badly. To top it off, if Steve was saying that he'd managed to get to his house, then he'd also been driving once more. None of what he was hearing boded well.
"But…," his mouth moved but no other sound came out. Stuck in place and with a true fear growing, Danny didn't understand what was happening or why. And for some reason, he didn't dare feel up to asking when as Steve gently picked up the conversation.
"Ponch is in charge of your care, Danny. I contacted him right away and we're keeping everything quiet. But for now, you need to rest," Steve softly murmured as a look of panic flit worryingly across Danny's face. "We'll get to the bottom of it. I promise that we will."
"Steve," Danny wheezed through the ache in his chest and abdomen. The one word begged for help and understanding. As far as he could remember, he'd taken a shower after work, maybe ... maybe taken two pills for a headache, and then gone directly to bed. Yet, his abused body was undeniably claiming something else with a terrible vengeance. "This … has to stop."
"It will," Steve quietly promised, relieved in no small part as the bulk of Danny's conversation proved he was finally more coherent. Acutely relieved when this new conversation omitted any vague talk of him... Vincent Morse, the crazed trumped-up doctor... from having returned from the dead. So instead of continuing their soft patter, Steve encouraged him to keep his eyes closed so he could sleep. "Don't talk too much. You need to take it easy, Danno."
There was a number of other things on Steve's mind which he pushed aside to focus on his partner and getting him to rest. Some were becoming quite urgent and Steve wanted to share them, but as he saw the flickers of discomfort cross the wan face, it was more than clear that Danny wasn't ready yet. Except for Danny's own traces of blood, the Camaro had been clean. So beyond the gaping hole of time which put Danny in the hospital, explaining the Camaro was the only easy part.
Holding back on sharing the preliminary feedback from what Chin had boxed and delivered to the CSU was already proving to be much more difficult. Steve continually soothed his mind by reminding himself that Danny couldn't yet cope; nor had he discussed the findings with Doctor Ramirez. He had to wait because the lab wasn't done; not nearly done evaluating what Chin had diligently emptied from Danny's refrigerator, freezer and taken from his personal bathroom supplies for inspection.
Chin's alarmed first call to Steve had been only to confirm an as yet unidentified issue with the cold carafe of coffee and dregs from the dirty mug. A subsequent call confirmed additional suspect contaminants in what Chin had taken from Danny's bathroom medicine cabinet. The lab was diligently continuing its work, but their initial cautionary words were more than enough to escalate the team's united level of anxiety.
"Try to sleep," softly whispering under his breath, Steve shook his head in exasperation as his gentle prodding was ignored. More awareness brought with it an increased level of agitation and Danny was searching relentlessly though hours of lost time. As he watched him struggle, Steve regretfully knew that he'd have to tell his partner at least a small portion to quiet his mind.
"Danny, you have only one job right now and that's to rest so we can take care of what's been happening to you," he pressed hard, persuasively encouraging his friend to relax by offering the smallest amount of information. "Kono is working on a few things with HPD and Chin's gone through your house with a fine-tooth comb. Personally. Just Chin, and he's going through some things with the lab."
"How …? I didn't … why …?" Danny tried to persist, but found himself falling silent out of physical necessity. Blearily trying to focus on Steve's face, he waited for the few answers his partner might be able to provide because he could read the tension. Steve's ongoing soft delivery was too dangerously calm; he was being much too careful with him and his demeanor alone ended any attempt at argument before Danny could protest.
"Take it easy. I know and it's okay," Steve gently urged Danny to relax because as infuriating as it was going to be, there wasn't a single doctor who expected Danny to remember any portion of what had occurred. Heaving a sigh for the continual expression of devastation which now included no small modicum of trust, he hesitated before leaning down to take Danny's arm. "We don't have all the details yet, but you were drugged through some of the food and medications in your house … Chin's checking it all out with the lab's help."
"Drugged? In... my house?" Danny murmured, his face pinched in confusion. "How?" The doubt once again began to mount though as Steve carefully filled Danny in with preliminary details of the growing threat. "I don't …understand."
"Listen to me. You're going to rest and let me handle this, Danny," Steve's hand was clasped firmly to Danny's arm as he fought the frightening depths of his mental block. "Please just let me handle this. For the time being, you're in the safest place possible and I plan to keep it that way."
"Safe?" Coughing out the word, Danny's eyes misted over with a terrifying suddenness. Something else had happened, but his brain refused to cooperate. Faint whispers of a familiar woman's voice taunted him without real shape or form. Yet, he knew her and he knew she had been real. "Not … safe. He, no... she. She was here... the nurse." He shuddered then, closing his eyes against darkly remembered taunts.
"Danny? What is it?" Steve's mouth tightened in a worried line as frightening words once more stammered haltingly from his partner. Not related to a male doctor this time, instead a nurse causing Steve to flounder for a moment. Because despite the bewildering set of circumstances, what Danny seemed to suggest was entirely possible. "She who?" Steve urged again. There was no doubt that Danny was more coherent. He was definitely more aware and yet, he remained focused on what Steve suspected was an attack possibly related to Vincent Morse. There was a difference now though and still Steve grabbed at it anxiously.
"A nurse?" He narrowed his eyes at the change. Steve knew he shouldn't ask because he was grabbing at straws. He was taking an enormous risk at planting an erroneous seed, nevertheless he needed something to act upon and so he pushed. "Who was here, Danno? Do you remember a woman... a nurse here in the hospital?"
It was a testament to their friendship that Steve chose to believe the tiniest strands of truth which might be percolating to the surface. He was positive that there was something of value in Danny's splintered memories. As anxious as his partner, he was willing to consider any possibility even if Ramirez wholeheartedly disagreed; and the fine doctor certainly would as Danny vacillated again.
"I don't know." Danny muttered morosely, his eyes fluttered alarmingly as his voice trailed off. His mind churned as violently as his stomach as he fought through memories which were much too distant. Yet one in particular seemed as if it had just happened. Was it a woman? Here, or had he dreamt it? Could it have been his nurse?
"A woman. Maybe," he whispered. "Yes. I know her voice." Danny was woefully drained of energy, waking in yet another strange place and this time, wracked with debilitating pain. The circumstances were all too much and he wearily sagged into the bed with an emotionally distraught expression.
Steve had told Ponch the details behind the old case, the wrongly discounted threats, followed by the subsequent brazen abduction. Morse had a penchant for riddles and games; Danny and the team nearly lost the unfairly played competition even after Danny had been rescued. However, in the doctor's opinion, the memories made sense in a sickly rational manner. The trailers on the island had been fashioned to look like the innards of a real hospital. The bed, supplies, and the few people keeping Danny subdued had all looked and felt like medical personnel. As a traumatic time now unfolded, Ponch only saw the similarities which would cause the mind to dwell. He completely discounted any real benefit or truths behind these memories based upon his patient's dire condition. Steve knew without a shadow of a doubt, Ponch would swear their discussion folly. Ponch would also object loudly to Steve's ongoing encouragement based upon his patient's weakening state.
"It's alright. I'm sorry," Remorseful for pushing so hard as he heard the older doctor's icy warnings in his own head, Steve relented and soothed as his partner's stress ratcheted ever upwards. "We'll talk about it later. We've got security on the door and I'm not leaving tonight."
"It's…not. No." Danny's face fell though as he shakily raised his hand again to touch his temple. She had been there. Swollen fingers found the edges to the bandage and he grimaced. She had hurt him… the nurse from before.
"She was here, Steve," Danny said definitively despite Steve's reluctance to continue the discussion as his bruised left hand began to shake. "I'm sure of it. The nurse … from…. inside there." He could imagine that he sounded ridiculous, even so he was positive as he flinched from the tight stitches just below his hairline. Anticipating disbelief when he peered up at Steve, he saw instead only a sincere thoughtfulness.
"Morse's nurse," Steve whispered the man's name, worriedly measuring Danny's reaction before fairly choosing to fairly remind him of the hard facts of the matter. "The female voice on those tapes? Ponch believes you're dredging up past memories …. both brothers are dead … you know that. You killed Vincent Morse yourself."
"Yeah," Danny mumbled as his stomach twisted from his feelings of distress and a strange foreboding. "But …she's…real." His voice was uncommonly low and he slurred his words badly as a harsh throbbing settled relentlessly in his head. Ignoring Steve's soft suggestions to stay quiet, Danny insisted on finishing what he had to say. "She's… here … she hurt me," Danny admitted in a hesitant whisper. "Here … now." Missing the shock on Steve's face, his eyes closed briefly in order to beat down the feeling of nausea sneaking into his stomach.
"I've been here all along, Danno," Steve continued to whisper, now mortified that someone may have made into the ICU without his knowledge. "How could she have hurt you… what did she do? I saw everyone who's been in and out of this room."
Watching Danny struggle so hard dredged up his own past feelings of blame and absolute guilt. Even ill, Danny read Steve's remorse as they seared unforgivingly across his face. He watched as Steve's head swung reactively towards the corridor where two nurses hurried past on their way to another patient's hospital room.
"Danny...," Steve scowled, now eyeing the medical staff suspiciously.
"No," Danny slurred while his left hand flopped feebly on his chest to deny the self-recrimination. "No... time." Steve blamed himself for downplaying Morse's original threats which eventually had resulted in Danny's disappearance. That part was over and he needed Steve's help now. He only needed to be believed in that very moment and Danny wasn't to be disappointed by Steve's next promises as the attention returned his way.
"I know what you mean," Steve vowed as he permitted his surge of guilt to ease and earned a small smile for his efforts. "I do and I'll look into everyone here right away, Danny. I'll turn this place on its ear." No matter who represented this current threat, there was no way in which Steve would be making the same error in judgement twice. He would check into the nursing staff and demand changes. He would do whatever it would take to keep Danny safe and resolve the attacks. "I'll be right here until we figure this out and put an end to it."
"The… nurse?" Behind lids which had drooped of their own accord, Danny forced out his question through a cracked and barely audible whisper. He was growing more fatigued by each passing second and losing his voice to a general weakness. It left Steve to wisely guess the true depths of the question and he nodded reassuringly.
"Yes, I believe you and I'm taking this very seriously because no matter who is doing this …. you're in danger. Anything is possible and I'm not willing to gloss over a single thing you're saying or remembering, Danno. It's not …." Steve abruptly stopped on the word he was going to add, his eyes full of a wounded concern when Danny ended the sentence for him.
"Safe? No." He cringed, tiredly opening his eyes to then sloppily gesture to indicate the aura of the hospital room in an attempt to make his meaning known. However, what Steve could see of the pain in his eyes alone added the desired import, as did his final plea.
"I can't stay … here." He swallowed hard, screwing his eyes closed as bile painfully rose to settle in the back of his throat. It burned and Danny coughed, grimacing as he rattled his head and chest. He sensed Steve moving, knowing that he'd used the bedside remote to summon help. He also knew that his inane request to leave was just that - inane. He was too ill to be going anywhere and his emotional desire to take flight was more than dangerous to his well-being. He knew the coming answer was final based solely upon the apologetic look on Steve's face.
"Sorry, Danny, you need to be here. I'm totally responsible for what happened before, and for that very reason, I'm not going anywhere now," Steve ground out angrily as Danny moaned under his breath about the body-wide ache which he could no longer ignore. Briskly rubbing his hands over his face and palming his eyes until they darkly sparkled, Steve realized the import of what he'd just said. His own stifled moan spoke of a deep distress because he didn't know if he might still be responsible.
"We've talked way too much and you need to rest," Steve whispered. Without needing to think, he viciously thumbed the call button again when he felt the sickly heat through Danny's shoulder. Ramirez was going to have his head if Steve didn't castigate himself first for allowing the conversation to continue on for so long. Yet, what was shared between the two had been entirely necessary.
"I'll be here and we already have HPD at the door," he promised again, hunkering down lower over the bed to offer any type of support he could as Danny's face scrunched uncomfortably. "You're never going to be alone. Not even for one second."
Steve understood his friend's desire to leave the hospital setting; the ornate plans orchestrated by Morse were highly detailed reconstructions down to the bland linoleum floor tiles that a true hospital would have. Then afterwards, the team had often wondered about the elusive nurse. Reconnaissance of the remote hideaway confirmed her existence but left nothing of value to identify the woman. With Morse gone, there was no reason to believe the woman might come back for Danny. Conversely, there was little reason to doubt that she just might have with sickly ulterior motives. In short, this nurse which Morse had employed during his treacherous game had been quite real. And as Steve knew too well after having learned the hard way, they certainly weren't willing to discount certain truths.
"Trust me. I promise that we've got this well in hand. We do." Stationed resolutely over the bed as one of the nurse's came in with Doctor Lemke, the resident attending, Steve kept his hand placed comfortingly on Danny's shoulder. The new arrivals had startled him and the unhealthy heat was soaking up through the hospital gown.
"It's alright. Doctor Lemke is the attending and he understands; he's working with Ponch," Steve swore worriedly under his breath when his friend shrank away from the unknown faces. He stayed visible and lurked over the bed as Lemke tsked and quietly fretted over certain readings. Through it all, Steve remained indomitable as the physician coaxed delayed answers from Danny. Eventually he administered a careful dose of pain medication despite a mild objection which Steve gently over-ruled.
"You're going to be fine, Danno," Steve affirmed when he felt the tremor through his hand. "Pain meds, buddy. Go to sleep now." Firm in his own conviction, Steve stayed on his feet as a reckoning force against any unknown face entering the room even long after Danny fell into an uncomfortable sleep.
~ to be continued ~
