Chapter Nine:
Steve holds the phone long after Chin tells him they've got Danny's location, long after Mary pushed the "end" button again. Kamekona sits on a chair that looks dwarfed by his size, watching some soap opera, and eating Steve's lunch.
"You sure you're fine?" Steve says, just to hear his own voice. Kamekona waves a hand at him but doesn't take his attention from the TV screen.
Finally, Steve hangs up the phone. Mary, who had been sleeping in the other bed, sits up, hair still remarkably neat. She doesn't move around as much as she'd used to, Steve realizes. He's not quite sure what to make of that.
Mary checks his temperature with a quick kiss to his forehead, and then his pulse, two fingers a steady pressure on his wrist.
"Will you let me know when they get Danno back?" he says. It's almost time for more meds, and the dosage is enough that everything turns fuzzy and he can't concentrate on anything until he sleeps off the high.
Mary smiles, "Sure." The word drops flat between them. He knows she's not going to honor his request, so he focuses his gaze on Kamekona until the big man looks at him.
"When they get haole Danno, I will let you know," he says, attention already back on his show. Good enough, Steve thinks, leaning back gingerly as the wounds on his back protest. Although tired, he musters a smile when a nurse enters the room. She smiles back, preparing to slip another dose of medication into his IV. Once the liquid is settled in the line, Mary shoos the woman away, settling in a chair she drags to Steve's bedside so she can read to him from some trashy novel about a naval officer and a reporter until her voice fades into the swell of unconsciousness precipitated by the morphine.
ooOoo
Kono slides in the window of the warehouse next to the one where Danny's being held. She stays low, gun out and sweeping the room as she creeps closer to the door adjoining the two buildings. In her ear, Chin directs her through picking a six-point lock that keeps this side shut.
The click sounds loud to her, but the noise level on the other side, a group of men laughing boisterously, seems to keep her presence from being detected.
"I'm ready," she whispers to Chin, hand on the door, pulling it just enough so she can peek through the crack. "They're on the side closest to where you wanted to make an entry." Chin begins prepping the alpha team, and she pulls a flash grenade from her flak jacket. "Going in three, two, one." She yanks the pin free and rolls the canister across the floor, closing the door and covering her eyes with her arm.
She waits until the grenade detonates, the flash still visible through her sheltered eyes, through the crack under the door. At the same time she reopens the door, she hears Chin and the alpha team breaking through the front entrance. She runs into the fray, her cry of "Five-Oh" joining the mix of noise as six men trapped between the teams start panicking.
At least three go for weapons, and Chin pumps two rounds into each with his Benelli M1. Another one, a young man who, like Kamekona, enjoys food a bit much, grabs Danny, using a key on a chain around his neck to unlock manacles from Danny's wrists.
Kono blocks him when he drags Danny toward the door she'd come through.
"Five-Oh," she says calmly, gun aimed at the man's forehead. "Down on the ground, hands over your head."
"Kono?" Danny's head shoots up, and he stares at her, relief and joy evident despite the heavy bruising and patches of blood covering his face. Her heart seizes at the sight of the wounds. Then, she catches a glimpse of his injured shoulder.
"I'm surrendering myself," the man interrupts, hands interlocked over his head, face down on the dirty cement. Chin wrests the man's hands onto his back where he cinches a pair of metal cuffs. They look a little tight on the man's wrists but no one, not even the suspect, says anything about it.
Kono shakes herself, looping an arm around Danny and leading him out into the sunshine. He blinks and squints, face turned to the sky. He stumbles every so often as they approach her car. She leans him against the boot, searching her backseat until she finds a scarf that she winds around his shoulder. Chin interrogates their suspect, the only one willing to talk, it seems, a few yards away from them. He glances at them when Kono makes a sound of distress as Danny lists to the side, eyes closed, breathing increasing in frequency, sliding down her car until she catches him.
"I'm taking him to the hospital," she says, already shoving him into the backseat. "Hang tight, Danno," she whispers, crawling behind the wheel.
"Don' call me Danno," Danny says, voice strained. "Only Grace and Steve get to call me Danno, and Steve only gets away with it 'cause otherwise he'd call me booboo or some other term of endearment that would only make me kill him faster."
During his rant, Kono starts the car and merges with the almost nonexistent traffic. With her lights flashing and a lead foot to rival Steve's, she knows they'll make it to the ER soon. Danny isn't doing well. She checks the rearview mirror, but if he'd opened them, Danny's eyes are closed again. "Danno?" she tries, happy when his eyes slit open.
"What'd I jus' tell ya?" he groans. "Do not call me Danno. I changed my mind, I'm going to kill Steve the next time he calls me that."
"Try the time after," she suggests, just to keep him talking.
"Oh no, Steve doesn't ever get to call me Danno again."
"Not even if I told you he's been really worried about you?"
Danny snorts. "Steve is not concerned about me, never has been."
"Yeah, we'll talk with Mary and see if you change your mind."
She pulls into the parking lot of Queens Medical, helping Danny to the entrance, where a couple of orderlies are waiting with a gurney. God bless Chin and his foresight to call ahead.
"I'll get started on your paperwork," she tells Danny, his admittance greased by the badge hanging from her belt.
"Don't call Rachel," Danny replies before the orderlies wheel him through the double doors and a nurse hands her a clipboard.
Kono wanders over to the waiting room, perching on a plastic-covered single seat. It's just as uncomfortable as they were when she was here two weeks ago for Steve's admittance.
A quick glance at the paperwork and she pulls out her phone. Despite Danny's words—his plea, really—ringing in her ear, she dials Rachel's number. Rachel should know Danny's medical history, she justifies. Before she can press send, her phone chimes.
"Hey, cuz," she says to Chin.
"Hey. I sent a unit to Rachel's house to check on them. If Wo Fat is outsourcing his revenge, it stands to reason he probably put a bounty on Danny's entire family on the island. Either way, it doesn't hurt to have them protected until this blows over."
"Are you gonna tell her or do you want to tell Danny?"
"I'll tell Danny. I'll be at HQ for a little while longer, but I'll swing by before they settle Danny in a room."
"Okay, good luck, cuz."
"You too, Kono."
He hangs up, and she turns back to the paperwork. Decisively she punches in Rachel's number again and hits the call button.
ooOoo
Rachel is awake, barely, when her phone goes off. Stan's in the shower, and Grace is still sleeping.
Caller ID says Kono, but the few years she spent married to Danny means her gut tells her it's him or something to do with him. None of his co-workers ever contacts her unless they are doing him a favor.
"Officer Kalakaua," she manages to whisper, despite her throat drying out. "How is he?"
"He's being evaluated. There should be an armed escort at your place now. Check in with either me or Chin Ho Kelly to be sure."
"Are we in any danger?" Fully aawke now, Rachel pulls on a robe and peers around the thick curtains covering the large picture window in the bedroom. She watches for a long moment while Kono thinks over her question. Satisfied that nothing is out of place, Rachel runs to Grace's room, thankful that it is Sunday and they don't have plans.
She checks Grace's window, catching sight of a squad car driving through the alley behind their house. Nothing else appears amiss, and she covers the window again, sitting on the bed next to Grace and stroking her sleeping daughter's face.
"I don't know," Kono finally says. "We think Danny was targeted as a way to get back at Steve—Commander McGarrett for taking down a criminal named Wo Fat. We believe that once word gets back to Wo Fat of their failure, that the retaliation will be even greater."
"Should we move back to the mainland?" Rachel runs her hand over Grace's head, smoothing some of her frizzy hair. Kono sighs heavily, and Rachel hears the unspoken anger in it.
"No," she says, maybe sharper than she means, because she follows with, "If you move, we can't protect you."
"Just tell me where Danny is. I want to talk to him."
"We're at Queens Medical," Kono says. In the background, Rachel hears someone say, "Detective Kalakaua?" and Kono hangs up with a brief, "See you soon."
"Danno?" Grace murmurs, batting at her mother's hand and sitting up. "Danno's okay, right?" She rubs a hand over her eyes, blinking up at Rachel, and Rachel can see she knows something's wrong. It makes it harder to lie to her, so she doesn't try yet.
She softens it, though, saying, "Danny's a little hurt." But, it doesn't help. Grace is out of bed and already at the stand they make her keep her shoes at.
"Grab my jacket, Mommy," she says, tugging on her rain boots. Danny bought her those, Rachel thinks with a jolt. The matching jacket is in her closest, and obligingly, Rachel gets it out. "Come on, Mom, we don't need to keep Danno waiting."
Let me talk to Stan first," Rachel says. She holds out the raincoat and Grace drapes it over her shoulders. "Brush your hair and teeth. You might also have time to change."
She leaves her daughter pouting in the middle of her room, rain jacket hanging off her shoulders, one boot on, one boot off.
"Hey, babe," Stan greets her when she enters the steam-filled master bathroom. He is taller than the privacy stand, so he watches, eyes widening in surprise when she sits on the covered toilet.
"Danny's in the hospital," she tells him. "Queens Medical. The one by his workplace. Grace and I are going over later. Will you be all right alone?"
His expression, set into a grimace at the mention of her ex-husband, thaws almost instantly at her words, and he smiles at her. "I will be okay as long as you and Grace are okay. Tell Danny I wish him a speedy recovery."
She's not entirely sure if he really does because he's an accomplished liar, and he's been even less accepting of Danny ever since Danny shot him in the shoulder.
"I'll call you when I know more," she says. "Oh, Officer Kalakaua said the police department has us in protective custody."
"Why?" Stan's posture stiffens, and his face hardens back into that ugly mask. "Was Danny injured because of his job? Is someone going to come after us?"
"I think his injuries were related to his job, yes, but it was not something he did."
"Still, should you really take Grace to see him? What if he puts her in danger?" The 'like before' goes unsaid but not unheard. Rachel knows it's there. It's always there, in her head. Every time she speaks to the lawyers, she always reminds them about the time Danny's ex-partner had escaped prison to come after them. Grace had been caught in the middle, kidnapped and tied up, and when Danny had freed her, she wouldn't leave his side for a week. Danny had ended up sleeping on a mat in Grace's room while she held his hand when the lawyers wouldn't let her stay at his apartment.
Thinking of this, Rachel leaves Stan to finish his shower while she slips out of her nightgown into an old t-shirt and a pair of worn jeans. She keeps these clothes to garden in, and it shows; stained and ripped knees, holes torn in the shirt.
Grace still has her rain boots and slicker on, but she's changed into a dress Danny bought her for picture day at school. She's also burshed her hair enough to tie it back in a pony-tail. Wordlessly, she takes Rachel's hand and lets her take her out to the car.
The ride to the hospital is quiet. Grace has her travel pack with her—the one she takes with her to visit Danny—but it remains unopened, and Grace stares out the window instead. Despite Grace's insistence upon wearing the raingear, it isn't actually raining, and for that Rachel is a little thankful.
They arrive without incident, although Rachel counted no less than three police cars following them from the house to the hospital. She nods at the officer, who meets them at the entrance to the ER. With directions from a nurse, and the officer still trailing them, they find Danny's room. Kono is waiting for them outside the room. Danny is just back from surgery, she says. She also says he's asleep.
The light is dimmed, but it's still enough to see by, and Rachel fights to keep her expression neutral at Danny's appearance. His face is bruised with a few angry scrapes on his cheeks and temples. It's his shoulder, though, that catches her eye. Thick white gauze covers the wound, but she can see where blood is seeping through.
"Danno?" Grace whispers, tiptoeing to the bed. Rachel grabs at her, and Kono deflects her hand. "Danno, are you going to be okay?"
"Of course he will be," Kono says softly. "He just needs a lot of time to rest. Did you know our bodies heal themselves when we sleep?"
Grace stares with wide eyes. "Is that why Danno's always telling me to sleep when I have a cold?" Kono nods.
"Come on, Grace," Rachel says. She's had plenty of this room and she doesn't appreciate the way Kono is undermining her. "We'll come back when Danny's awake."
"No," Grace says, standing with set feet and clenched fists. "I want to stay with Danno."
"I can look after her if you don't want to stay," Kono says. "She needs to see that her father is okay."
"Monkey?" a weak whisper queries, and Grace hops onto the bed, "Danno!" curling from her lips. Rachel hears the love and relief in her daughter's voice. If she admits to herself, she feels relief too.
Carefully, Grace hugs Danny, who, although awake, doesn't move much. "Mommy said we should leave, and Step-Stan didn't want us to come." Rachel flushes. She hadn't thought Grace could hear them.
"I love you, Monkey," Danny whispers, and Kono moves his good arm to help him hug Grace finally. "Thank you for visiting. Now, you wanna tell me why you're wearing raingear when it most specifically is not raining, at least not inside my hospital room?"
Rachel sighs, but she sinks into a chair across from the bed and rests her head against the wall. When did she become the bad parent?
Kono sets Grace up on a mobile bed like Danny's, tray extended and crayons and paper ready for her. Then, looking at Danny who's dozing, Grace who's drawing, and Rachel who's resting, she says, "I need to check on Steve. I'll be right back. Call if you need anything."
Once she's gone, Rachel lets the semi-silence lull her to sleep.