Hi Everyone. I'm so sorry for not updating. I'm training for my third half-marathon and my time has been monopolized by that, homework and other things lately. So my apologies, the next chapter will be back on Thursday as it should be. This didn't go where I thought it would so I hope it is okay. Please let me know!
Rose xxx

Two other things
*For reference, Grace is meant to be seven or eight in this. Once again, I'm taking creative licence, but it works better for me if she is young enough to have things explained in a 'little kid' way.
*My medical knowledge is based partly off googling and partly off nothing but pig-logic. If you have an MD, try not to pick it apart :)

"It may be temporary." The words rang in Danny's ears, though he knew the same was not true for Steve.

"May?" Danny wasn't sure the day could be longer, and it had only just gone nine am. During the night, Hani and Declan had both woken with no ill-effects. Bell had been detained for questioning before a decision could be made regarding sentencing and Johnson was awaiting trial. But Danny, Chin and Kono were exactly where they'd been since the investigation had been mostly wrapped up and handed off to the local PD; at Steve's bedside.

Steve had, despite his anxiety and best efforts, fallen back to sleep almost immediately after his doctor had arrived, and was still as such, not having stirred during the loud MRI he had, nor the CT and battery of blood tests. The stillness was worse than the waking panic. His partner was still tied to the bed by multiple IV's, a catheter and worst of all, the ventilator.

"Just a precaution." Danny had been assured. "Help him get his strength back without straining his lung too much. We'll remove it when he's a little more coherent, a bit stronger." Danny wasn't sure he had ever been more tired.

"Yes Detective, may." The doctor sighed, no doubt every bit as tired as Danny himself. Callahan was his name and he had overseen the case at the hospital. 5-0 had seen little of him, with the man working closest with his younger patients. However, with the two children awake and near ready to be discharged, his focus had been sifted to his oldest patient.

"The lab techs have completed their analysis of the toxin. It was essentially a mix of various viruses. One of which was a derivative of meningitis. Nearly thirty percent of meningitis cases end in a degree of hearing loss due to inflammation around the brain and the fluid in and around the ear canal. In some cases, this is temporary. We are administering the anti-virus continually now that it has been duplicated to eliminate the trace elements of the virus itself in Steve's blood and we're hoping this will help reverse the hearing loss. We don't have any data on this disease, obviously, but with meningitis at least, at least half of sufferers who are treated within the first few days will reverse the hearing loss. We're still optimistic, Detective and you need to be too. It will help Steve."

Danny took a second to absorb the information. One detail stuck out and again his rage was invoked, his usual restraint non-existent after the roller-coaster week he'd had.

"Did you just say the lab techs have finished their evaluation?"

Callahan frowned. "Yes detective, they faxed me the report several minutes before I was alerted that Steve was awake."

"Are you telling me that we have been working on that report all week and it's only now we have a cure, only now that it doesn't even matter, that we have a report?"

"Detective our techs have been doing the best the can. Having an anti-virus sped the process considerably, it led us to be able to understand the fabrication much better."

Danny took a step towards the doctor, taking a breath. Kono interrupted before he could get another word out. "Danny calm down, we don't need you yelling and-"

"And what Kono? Waking Steve up? Don't think that'll be a problem. Hell, I could bring in a bloody metal band and play Metallica and he'd be none the wiser. I'm so glad your scientists were just waiting for the easy way out on this report rather than working harder. If they'd have had this report done yesterday, maybe Steve would be awake now because my shouting would have woken him!"

Danny didn't take another breath before slamming the door open, stalking out the hall. As he approached the elevator he was stopped by a small girl, holding a balloon and a picture.

"Daniel, where are you going?" Rachel spoke before her daughter, hand gripping Grace's tightly when she saw the unconcealed anger on her ex's face.

Without a glance at his daughter or ex-wife, Danny turned towards the stairwell. It would be faster than the elevator anyway.

Kono watched Danny disappear out the door, knowing he needed a few minutes to cool off before anyone attempted to go after him. She addressed Callahan.

"I'm sorry about him. They're close, this hasn't been easy for him. But that isn't an excuse and when he's calmed down he'll apologise himself."

Callahan smiled. "Thank you, but he isn't the first concerned family member to yell at me in my career. Hell, he isn't even the first this week. As I said earlier, we are administering the anti-virus and hopefully, this hearing loss will be temporary. And, if it isn't we can cross that bridge later."

Both Kono and Chin shook the doctor's hand, happy for him to take his leave. As he left, the door stayed open and another to figures walked in.

"Uncle Steve!" Grace's young voice cried. It was a testament to Steve's recklessness that the sight of her beloved Uncle with a tube in his throat wasn't cause for a double take. Rachel waited back with a look of confusion as the usually light-sleeping Navy man didn't stir as her daughter approached. Grace too, seemed to notice the oddity, slowing her approach. It was a testament to Steve's recklessness that the sight of her beloved Uncle with a tube in his throat wasn't cause for a double take.

"Uncle Steve?" Questioning, this time, she stopped short of touching Steve's pale arm. Kono felt dread well up at the conversation she knew she needed to have in the wake of Danny's absence.

She knelt by Grace, shooting Rachel a look in lei of a greeting. "Hey, Gracie." She halted there, pulling the girl into a hug that was tentatively returned.

"Auntie Kono, why isn't Uncle Steve waking up? Is it why Daddy left?"

Kono sometimes resented the young girl's keen observation. "Gracie, Uncle Steve is still very sick, you know that?" Grace nodded. Her father had explained that though Steve wasn't going to die anymore, he still had a temperature and felt really bad.

"Well, one of the parts of Steve that is sick is his ears. He can't hear at the moment. The doctors hope it will get better, but it might not, okay?"

Rachel's gasp was a louder reaction than Grace's wide eyes. "Does that mean he will wake up if I give him a big hug then?"

Smiling sadly at the childish logic, Kono shrugged. "It might Gracie. He's very tired but either way, I know a hug would make him feel lots better. Just be careful of the tubes, okay?"

Smile fixed back in place, Grace resumed her approach to the bed, climbing up on the chair she didn't know her father had spent the night in; from there she wriggled here way into Steve's side, cuddling up close.

Steve could feel something small and warm worm its way next to him. Something, likely an arm, draped itself across his stomach. He felt small feet rest against his legs. There was only one person that would cuddle against him like that. Grace. There was a moment of confusion. Though mature, Grace wasn't usually quiet. And Steve, with his finely tuned ears, should have been to hear the sheets rustling as she got settled. With further thought, he could also feel a tube resting uncomfortably in his throat and knew he should have been able to hear the rhythmic hiss as it gave him air; air he could feel rushing in and out of his chest with an icy rush. It was the lack of a steadily eating heart monitor that finally made memory come flooding back. The case, the kids. Finding himself in hospital, not able to hear Danny's elation as he woke from what must have been yet another closes call. Dread crept up, but lack of strength and the girl on his chest stopped him thrashing up from sleep. He felt airy as if he would float away. Too hot, but with beads of ice pooling in his collarbone from where they dripped down his neck. Every limb ached, and he knew that falling back into a gentle sleep would e a thousand times more pleasant than his waking. But no one had ever called Steve McGarrett a stranger to pain. He pried his eyes open, moaning without sound as the light took to his head like an ice-pick.

Grace's head shot up as she heard a muffled groan from the body she lay on. The rest of the room heard the noise, too, and though they crowded in Grace had eyes only for the pained man below her.

His eyes were slitted against the light, duller than the sparkling sea blue she was used to. She ran a finger down his face, starting above his eye and racing the outline of a brow and cheekbone that were more pronounced than the last time she had seen him.

Steve could feel the panic he had tried to quench well up as he opened his eyes and was met with a painful, soundless world. But a small hand ran across his face and he was met with brown eyes the sound of a full moon.

"Grace?" He whispered, lips struggling to form a word he couldn't hear.

Her lips moved quickly, a smile on her face. It quickly disappeared when she realised he couldn't hear her. The brown of her eyes became glassy and as tears pooled, he reached a heavy arm to pull her head back into his side, hating he was the reason for those tears. With Grace's head no longer obscuring his vision, he could see the faces of Chin, Kono and Rachel- Rachel? He was sure his partner was meant to be Grace's father, not her mother.

"Danny?" He tried once more to whisper but knew not how successful he'd been until Kono approached. She offered a hand through his hair, the gentle movement a welcome relief from the other sensations across his body, all of them pain. She grasped his hand and began tracing letters there, making sure he could see what she was doing as well as feel it.

A-N-E-U-R-I-S-M. She paused, placing his hand back on the bed and raising her's to her hair, miming a head exploding before pointing to the door. Getting the drift, Steve felt rather than heard the rumble of his own laugh. He wanted to ask more questions, wanted more answers, but the simple movements he had made so far were exhausting. Even with a machine breathing for him and a body lying limp on the bed, he could feel exhaustion pushing past his walls. Sleep was upon him before he'd had a chance to properly wake.

Kono sighed as her boss slipped back to sleep, seemingly without noticing. She nodded at Chin, watching as he sank into Danny's old seat, resting a comforting hand on Grace's back as she furiously clung to Steve's unmoving body. Gesturing to Rachel, she moved outside with the other woman.

"Kono is this permanent?" For her faults, Rachel did care. For her daughter, her ex-husband and for the man lying on a hospital bed a room over.

"They don't know yet."

"Do I take it that Daniel isn't taking it well?"

Kono managed a watery chuckle. "You could say that. You saw him on your way in?" It wasn't really question. "He could do with someone to talk to. With Steve out, you're the one that knows him best. If you don't mind, I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

The British woman smiled. "I couldn't ever live with him, but I do care for him. I'll find him, just keep an eye on Grace for me?"

"Of course."

Danny made it as far as the bench in the hospital's garden before his anger gave way to desolation. He sunk down, head falling to his hands, pulling at his hair in an attempt to manifest the pain that was churning up in his chest. The anger, he realised was not anger, but guilt and fear. Fear for Steve, for fiercely independent Steve who had never relied on anyone in his life and who's independence gave him life. Fear for the man he had grown to love as a brother and a life that would fade away with his hearing. Guilt for not being better, being faster, for not figuring out he was sick earlier, for not getting Johnson sooner, for not being able to keep his partner safe as Steve had done for him so many times before. His phone buzzed in his pocket. For a second he considered ignoring it, but couldn't fathom missing a message regarding Steve for something as stupid as his own stubbornness. He quickly saw it was a message from Tim Richards, the supervising officer at the holding cells as HPD. Swiping to unlock it, his breath caught.

"Gahh." He stood, ripping the chunk of hair he'd kept grasped in his free hand clean from his head and letting tears he'd been too afraid to cry for the past week out as he hurled his phone across the garden.

Because Johnson had killed himself. Johnson was with his daughter and Danny couldn't bear to face his knowing he was in part responsible for her Uncle's condition. And there really was just no justice in that.