Two and half hours later I came down the corridor again to find both men pacing about the place like expectant fathers, it was actually quite cute to see considering one was a NJ cop who was a wannabe tough guy and the other was a decorated Navy Seal who ran into burning buildings guns blazing. I opened the door and they both just looked at me as I let them know she was perfectly fine and just being transported up to her room on the kids ward – she would be sore for a couple of days but once she was home and the wound healed she would be back to her usual monkey self. I let them know it was three little scars she would have since they did it laprascopically to minimize the damage to growing skin; Danno was wiping his face and Steve was doing the same, I rolled my eyes and dragged both of them out of the room and made our way up to the kids ward.

While the boys went to visit Gracie I made all the necessary phone calls to Chin and Kono and also to Rachel to let her know what has happened so far, she was frantic but understood that I had control of the matter with Danny and she was well cared for – she wasn't due back for another month due to Stan's work but would call later tonight to speak to Gracie and Danny; I gave her my phone number and told her to call just after 7pm and she should be awake by then. I headed back along the corridor and heard the wails of the new-borns coming from the nursery, I went over and smiled as I saw them all in their cots with the families dotting over them from the window viewing area. That dream had never gone away and it had burned itself into my brain every night, right down from the joy to the pain to the agony of waking up and finding out it wasn't real. Steve had tried to get me to talk about it when we were in Scotland, all he knew about it was that the dream was about us having a family, he wasn't aware of how real it had been for me and the loss I was feeling – the desperation and almost humiliating loss I felt over something that was not real. The shrink had gotten nothing from me during the mandatory evaluation that the doctor had sent me on, I just gave him the SEAL death stare and he backed right down as I shoved it into the deepest part of my soul.

"There you are, Gracie is asking for you!" a voice called gently.

I had begun to walk down the corridor again and Danno had spotted me, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the room where I got a massive grin from Gracie who was already sucking on the ice chips on the small table beside her.

"Hey young lady, I'm glad to see you awake so quickly – how do you feel?"

I moved to her side and gave her a gentle hug and kiss on the head as I put up her hair in a ponytail to keep it out of her way, she grinned and flinched slightly and I clocked the meds she was on – should be another dose coming shortly as I looked over her notes.

"A lot better than before Sadie, there is no more pain, but it aches a little?" she replied.

"Yeah it will kiddo but only for a day or so while you heal; the good news is you have battle scars now, three of them and it's a girls privilege to name them – do you remember what I call mine on my stomach?" I replied grinning.

She nodded and went slightly pale, she leaned back as I grabbed the bowl and held her as she threw up; Danno blanched and sat down again as he saw I was handling it.

"You need to take it easy monkey; you're a ninja in training and need to build up strength slowly and heal before the heavy metal routines! Here, have some more ice chips and they'll help settle your stomach!" I replied cleaning her face.

Steve was laughing his face off and I chuckled as I saw Danno rubbing his face and yawning, I didn't blame him considering we had been up for over 24 hours and none of us had taken a rest or eaten properly so we were all low on energy. I left the room for a moment and went and got the surgeon to give them an update on the medical side of things and spoke to the senior nurse and porter to get a couple of things organised for the room, they both nodded and I headed back to the now cleared room.

"Okay Danno here is the plan; I want you to go with Steve and get something to eat, shower and change your clothes….don't argue with me! I'll stay here with Gracie and when you come back….what did I just say? When you come back….Danny I will smack you if you try and talk again! Thank you! When you come back there will be a second bed here for you with a TV and some DVDs and a surprise for Gracie when she wakes up later on hungry. Now go and get sorted!" I ordered them both.

I took a seat down beside Gracie who had fallen fast asleep again and pulled the stuffed toy out of my bag and snuggled it in beside her, she moaned softly and went back into deep sleep mode; I smiled and settled down for the next couple of hours with a book.

A couple of hours later both men came back in looking a lot better and more relaxed than earlier on, by the smell of them they also had stopped off at the Hawaiian food store for some nursery food and a couple of beers to settled Danny down. Steve motioned that Rachel had called and he nodded in thanks for me to calling her and taking the brunt force she unleashed once she heard Gracie was having an operation – I had whispered that the Al-Qaeda we had fought were less lethal than a primal mama bear – Steve agreed as he had seen Rachel go ballistic before due to Gracie being in danger from what she believed to be Danny's fault. I gave him a quick update on what was going on and left him to the room that had been sorted out with the spare bed etc.; he kissed my cheek again and Steve and I headed out the hospital a few minutes later.