Before Callie left for work on Monday morning, she listened to a sleeping Steve's lungs. As she moved the stethoscope around, she frowned at Danny across the room. "I'm afraid pneumonia is setting in. That explains why his fever still won't come down." She smoothed her hand across his sweaty forehead. "I'd like to see an x-ray before I decide what antibiotics he needs. Would you mind bringing him to the office later? I could get x-rays and give him a breathing treatment."
"No problem," Danny said. "That's what I'm here for."
She nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Danny. Just let him sleep for now and call me when he wakes up. I can work him in anytime, but I want to make sure he doesn't have to wait when he gets here."
"This dating a doctor thing has some major perks," Danny joked.
Steve came downstairs a few hours later, looking and feeling worse than before. He dropped into a chair at the table where Danny, Chin, and Kono were already gathered. He crossed his arms on the table and laid his head on top of them.
"How are you feeling?" Chin asked hesitantly.
"Like I'm dying," Steve whined. "I've never felt this bad before. Not when I had malaria in Somalia, not after North Korea…never. Dying."
"You had malaria?" Danny asked.
"Yeah. Delayed extraction after a mission, ran out of preventative meds." He paused. "Damn mosquitoes."'
"Huh. Learn something new every day," Danny mused. "Dr. Callie thinks you may have developed pneumonia. Based on the wheezing and the fact I can hear your lungs crackling from here, I concur with her diagnosis."
The other three people looked at Danny as if he'd sprouted feathers. "Concur? Really, brah?" Kono said, eyebrows raised.
"It's that damn word of the day calendar Gracie gave him," Steve grumbled into his arms, where his head had fallen again. "If I ever make it back to the office, I'm throwing the thing out. Not that making it back seems likely at this point."
"Whiny and dramatic? This is going to be a fun day," Danny teased. Without looking up, Steve flipped him off.
"Guess I should add grumpy to that list too."
After a chest x-ray, breathing treatment, and an IV of antibiotics and fluids, Callie released her patient back into Danny's care with instructions to make sure Steve spent the afternoon resting and drinking as much as possible.
Knowing Steve wasn't keen on the idea of food quite yet, Danny stopped by Kamekona's for shave ice for lunch. That counted as fluids, right?
"You tell the big kahuna I'll bring dinner for the ohana tonight," Kamekona said.
"You don't have to do that," Danny hedged, not wanting to hurt Kamekona's feelings but also knowing that his partner probably wouldn't be happy about the smell of garlic shrimp in his house.
"No, no, I insist. You just let me know how many I'm feeding and what they would like."
Time to try another tactic. "You know, big guy, Steve's been really sick and still isn't up to par. I'm not sure he'll be able to eat that tonight."
"No worries, brah. I got it all under control." The large man grinned. "I'll see you tonight."
"Sure." Danny knew when to admit defeat.
The partners stepped out of the car and walked slowly to the house. Opening the front door, Steve swayed on his feet and Danny caught hold of his elbow. "Uh-uh," he said as he opened the door. "No passing out."
"I'm not going to pass out," Steve fussed, unsuccessfully trying to jerk his arm away. "Let go of me."
"Nope. I'm tired of hauling your Navy SEAL ass off the floor this week. And it's only Monday."
"It's not like I meant to pass out, Danny," Steve grumbled. "You could have just left me there."
"Oh, I could have. But I'm a better friend than that. Who leaves their shivering, sick as a dog partner passed out in the floor?"
"Who complains about doing it later?" Steve muttered under his breath.
"You don't have any fat on you, but you, my friend, are heavy as hell. Now, bed or couch?"
"Couch. It's closer," Steve wheezed.
"Fine, but you have to sleep. Or at least rest."
"Fine."
In the dining room, the cousins and Jerry Ortega grinned as they listened to the bickering. After dosing Steve with Advil and orange juice, Danny joined them.
"Want some lunch, Danny?" Kono asked. "We ordered pizza."
"Sure." He grabbed a plate from the kitchen.
"Hey, Danny," Jerry greeted him. "How's it going?"
"Oh, it's going, that's for sure," Danny mused, taking a bite. "To hell in a handbasket, but it's going."
Kono rolled her eyes. "And you called Steve dramatic this morning?"
"Hush, Kono."
"So, from your phone call earlier, I understand he has pneumonia?"
"Yep. The man does nothing by halves. Callie did x-rays, then gave him a breathing treatment and IV and prescriptions for antibiotics and a couple different inhalers. It was a good time." He paused to take another bite. "To her credit, though, she knows how to handle him. It was a lot better than what it could have been. Still, he's being a grouch today."
"Danny," Chin admonished gently. "I think he has a right to be, don't you?"
Danny sighed. "I know he does. And he really hasn't been too bad, given how rotten he feels."
"I'm going to say hello," Jerry said, standing up and leaving the room.
"Hey," Danny whispered. "Did anybody tell him we were off this week? I completely forgot."
"No, brah," Chin chuckled. "He showed up to an empty Palace this morning. Thought we'd all been kidnapped…or abducted. Luckily he found us before he did anything crazy."
"Oops," Danny said.
Jerry returned from the living room, looking concerned. "He looks really bad."
"He feels really bad," Kono said sympathetically. "I'm going to go sit with him for a while."
Kono curled up on the end of the couch and pulled Steve's legs onto her lap.
"What're you doing?" Steve mumbled.
"Just being here," she rubbed his calf muscles. "When I'm sick, my legs hurt. Yours?"
"Yeah," he whispered.
"This okay?"
"Mmm. Helps."
"Is it okay if I watch tv?"
"Jus' don't give the remote to Danny."
Kono laughed. "I wouldn't think of it, Boss."
"Hey," Callie said as she popped into the living room after work. "How's my favorite patient?"
"About the same," Kono said, smiling from her spot on the couch. "He has slept a lot this afternoon."
Steve stirred a tiny bit on the couch.
"Hi, bud," Callie whispered. "Can I join this party?"
She slid in and adjusted him, so his head was on her lap. "What're you watching?"
"Say Yes to the Dress," Kono said, giggling. "Steve's just watching the inside of his eyelids though."
"'M 'wake," he mumbled.
"Yeah, sure, you are," Kono poked at him. "That's why you were snoring."
"'Kay. Sorry. Can't breathe through 'm 'ose. 'is sucks so bad," he sniffed, already asleep again.
Callie and Kono exchanged an amused look before turning back to the tv.
Jerry, Danny, and Chin came in from the lanai soon after Callie arrived. Jerry walked into the living room, then turned right around and walked back out of sight, pulling Danny and Chin with him. "Is that her?" he asked in a frantic whisper, eyes wide in full Jerry mode. "She's really pretty. And tiny. Like a doll or something."
"She is very attractive," Danny agreed. "And I would love for you to tell her she's tiny 'like a doll or something' to her face. She's tough, I've heard. Former Navy and all that."
"I should introduce myself," Jerry continued to whisper. "What should I say?"
"How about, 'Hi, I'm Jerry?'" Chin said, chuckling.
"That works," Jerry replied, eyes still wide. "My hands are sweaty."
Jerry walked into the living room for the second time trying desperately to exude an air of self-confidence. He went straight to Callie.
"Hello. I'm Jerry Ortega, Special Consultant to the Five-0 Task Force."
"Hi, Jerry Ortega, Special Consultant," Callie replied sweetly with a genuine smile. "I'm Callie. It's so nice to meet you."
"You are very pretty," he blurted out.
"Smooth, Jerry." Chin laughed.
The front door flew open a while later. "Aloha, ohana!" Kamekona burst into the room.
Steve nearly jumped out of his skin, then quickly settled down when Callie rubbed his shoulder and Kono squeezed his calf.
"Has no one ever told you not to do crap like that to a SEAL?" Kono asked. "Not smart, brah. Also, why are you bringing food into this house? Take that stuff to the lanai or back out on the porch. And don't walk through the house with it if you're going to the lanai. Walk around. Please."
"You got it, sistah," Kamekona said. "I didn't mean no harm." His attention landed on Callie. "Hi, there, little lady. You must be McGarrett's doctor lady friend."
Callie laughed and Kamekona grinned. "That laugh is something else. Like little bells or something. I think I'll call you Tinkah Bell. You special."
As they ate dinner that night, Callie looked around the table at these people, this ohana she had so quickly become a part of. The talking and laughing went on late into the night, long after Steve had wearily trudged to bed. Even after he went upstairs, she didn't feel like she needed to. She felt like she was a part of this.
She belonged.