A/N: I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and no I didn't hurt Grace.

Chapter Eleven

Rachel had stayed only a few minutes when she brought Grace to the hospital. Once she was satisfied that Danny would be alright Rachel had agreed to leave Grace until the evening, when Kono would take her home.

Chin and Kono had also left, and Steve went for a walk in the hallway to give Danny and Grace some alone time. It gave him time to speak to the HPD officer stationed there by the overprotective Chin. Fifteen minutes later Grace came to find him as Danny had fallen asleep. "Can we play cards, Uncle Steve? I brought a deck and lots of other stuff to do." The two of them walked back to the room hand in hand and settled on Steve's bed.

"What kind of card game do you want to play?" Steve asked.

"Poker, of course." Grace replied as she shuffled the cards expertly. "Danno always beats me so I want to practice."

"Oh, so you're a card shark are you Miss Williams?"

"What's a card shark, Uncle Steve?"

"Never mind, Gracie. Let's see if we can improve your game so the next time you can beat Danno." The two settled down to play, while Danny slept on.

The two remaining poachers walked boldly into the hospital. They had cleaned up and changed clothes; no one would recognise who they were. It wasn't hard to find out what room number they needed, and they went straight to that floor. Their problems started with the HPD officer stationed outside the room. Somehow he had been alerted and was ready for them as he called out, "Commander! Trouble!" So their plan of taking the occupants of the room by surprise was negated now.

At the sudden urgent call of: "Commander! Trouble!" from outside the room Steve jumped from the bed and grabbed his gun from the draw of the night stand between the two beds. He also took out Danny's gun and placed it next to his partner's right hand.

"Danny, wake up," Steve said as he gently shook Danny's right shoulder. "Grace, get down on the floor and stay out of sight."

"What's going on, Steve?" Danny asked as he came fully awake on hearing the urgency in Steve voice.

Before Steve could answer there was a gunshot right outside the door to their room. Grace, who had done as Steve ordered, was on the floor between the beds. At the sound of the shot Steve crouched down using the bed for cover, and trained his gun on the door.

Danny, his gun now in his hand, swung his legs over the side of his bed and dropped to the floor besides Grace. "It's okay Monkey," he said soothingly. "Here, crawl under Uncle Steve's bed and get behind the night table. Can you do that for me please? I need you somewhere safe, Grace."

Grace did as her father requested. She was scared and really wanted to stay beside her Danno, but knew she would distract him. Seconds later the door to the room was thrust open, and Grace covered her ears as the sound of loud gunshots filled the room.

The men separated as they burst into the room, each firing a shot at a bed only to realise there was no one in either bed. Both men adjusted their aim quickly, and fired rapidly at the space between the beds.

Steve dove to the floor and fired as he went hitting the man closest to him several times in the chest.

Danny threw himself in front of the night table where his injured shoulder connected and pain exploded almost taking him into blackness. But he still managed to fire several shots under the bed blindly hitting the second poacher in the legs. When the man fell to the floor, Danny put a bullet in his head before he could bring his gun up to fire again. Then he could hold back the darkness no longer.

There was silence for a few seconds, before Steve was moving to check both poachers ensuring they were dead. Once satisfied he moved back between the beds. "Danny? Grace? Are you both alright?"

In the short time it had taken Steve to check the poachers, Grace had moved out from behind the night table and now sat, Danny's head in her lap. She looked up at Steve as tears ran down her face. "He's not moving, Uncle Steve." She cried.

Steve moved up beside Grace and placed his fingers at the pulse point on Danny's neck. He sighed in relief when he found a rapid, but steady pulse. There was a large red blood stain spreading quickly on Danny's left shoulder, and Steve couldn't tell if it was a new wound, or the old one reopened. He was about to check when there was a shout from outside the room.

"Steve! Danny! Can you hear me?" Chin's voice was filled with worry.

"We're clear, Chin! Get medical help in here now, Danny's hurt!" Steve called.

Chin had arrived, HPD right behind him, seconds after the two poachers took out the HPD guard and entered the room. When the gunfire in the room ceased he'd waited a few seconds then called out. They had no way of knowing what had happened in the room, and until Steve had called out to him, Chin had feared the worst.

Dr. Price, who happened to be at the nurse's desk when the gunfire started, grabbed supplies, a nurse, and a gurney, and followed Chin into the room.

Steve quickly moved out of the way, but Grace refused to move, her father's head still cradled in her lap. Dr. Price took only seconds to evaluate Danny's condition before he was barking orders.

"Move this bed and get that gurney in here." While Chin unlocked and moved Danny's bed aside, the nurse pushed the gurney into replace it.

Dr. Price spoke quietly to Grace. "We're going to lift your dad up and put him on this gurney. Can you help by holding his head straight?"

Grace nodded through her tears as Dr. Price then had Chin, the nurse, and Steve help him lift Danny up.

"Liz, I need you up on the gurney. Put as much pressure on his shoulder as you can." Dr. Price said urgently as he helped the nurse climb up onto Danny's gurney. "Let's go, we need to get to an OR, stat."

"Doc! What is it?" Steve asked as Grace flew at him wrapping herself around his waist.

"He's reopened his shoulder wound and torn the artery repair we did." Dr. Price was already heading out the door. "He'll bleed out in minutes if we don't get this stopped." With that Danny was gone from the room.

Steve wanted so much to follow his partner, but he knew that Grace had to come first. That would be what Danny wanted, and that was what he'd do. "Grace, sweetheart." When Grace didn't look up, just kept her head buried at his waist, Steve eased her away from him and knelt down in front of her. "Grace. It's alright. Danno will be alright. The doctor will get him fixed up again as good as new."

Grace finally looked at Steve and sniffed mightily to clear her nose. "You promise, Uncle Steve? Danno will be alright?"

"Yes, Grace, I promise." 'Don't make a liar out of me Danno.' Steve thought as he hugged Danny's daughter to him.

TBC