A/N- last chapter! I'm sad that it's over, but happy to have a small break to rest and sleep. We've been instructed to not report to work tomorrow while the sanitation crew comes in and wipes everything down. Apparently 20-25% of our employees were out this week with all kinds of flu-related illnesses. All I've got is a chest cold, thank goodness. Enjoy this last bit and Mahalo for all the reviews. Looking forward to seeing you for the next one.
After Danny handed Foster off to Chin, he returned to Steve's room and found that he had to wait while the doctors repaired the damage that had been done when Steve had leaped out of bed to choke Foster. Danny wasn't at all surprised that, despite his injuries, Steve had managed to overpower and subdue Foster using only his bare hands. Well, one bare hand and one bandaged hand. Danny amended mentally. It was still an impressive feat, even for his crazy, ex-SEAL of a partner. And now I owe Chin $40, he realized.
Disturbed that Foster had managed to access not only the hospital, but also make it all the way to Steve's room without being recognized and apprehended, Danny spent his wait time interviewing the staff to find out how the situation had occurred. The results- which boiled down to human error and shift changes- were self-explanatory but left Danny feeling decidedly unsatisfied.
After being nearly choked to death, Foster had come to and was briefly examined by a doctor before being released into HPD custody. A text from Chin reported that Foster was now back at headquarters and showing some impressive bruising around the neck but sustained no permanent injuries. Someone from IA would stop by later to interview Steve, but Danny knew better than to worry about that now.
When Danny was finally allowed back in over an hour later, Steve appeared to be asleep. He was propped on his side, with pillows positioned around him to keep him from rolling onto his back. A new IV and fresh bandages were present, while the wires for the chest leads trailed from the top of his hospital gown.
As Danny sat down in the plastic chair beside the bed, however, Steve's eyelashes fluttered and finally opened.
"I thought there was a gun," he muttered wearily, his voice raw with pain. "I thought…"
"Hey, that's okay, babe." Danny rubbed his arm soothingly as the nurse pushed something- pain meds, he hoped- into the IV port and quietly left the room. "I am a little surprised it took you so long to pull one of your signature, crazy-SEAL-ninja moves," he ribbed gently. "Figured you would've killed him and broken out of that bunker hours ago."
"It wouldn't have worked." Steve tried to shift into a more comfortable position, curling slightly around the pillows that kept him propped up. "Foster was too careful: never came within arm's length of me unless I was already restrained… kept me from obtaining any weapons and from using the ones that I had… I was working on a few ideas, but some of them depended on having more time." Steve thought of the hole he had chiseled in the crumbling wall around the base of the rebar. "There was nothing else I could have done."
Danny frowned. It took him a moment that Steve wasn't admitting defeat as much as simply stating the facts of the situation. Feeling guilty, he squeezed Steve's arm gently. "I'm sorry we couldn't get to you sooner."
"Not your fault, Danny." Steve was whispering now as his eyes fluttered, struggling to stay open.
"Mm," Danny responded noncommittally. "Save it for the morning, big guy. You need your beauty rest." He was surprised when Steve didn't argue. Keeping his hand on his friend's arm, he continued the gentle rubbing motions until Steve's breathes evened out and he finally fell asleep.
…
In the middle of the night, Danny found himself suddenly very much awake.
Since the hospital staff had been shaken by Foster's attack, Danny had been granted special permission to spend the night and a small cot had been brought up for him and placed in Steve's room. Now awake and blinking blearily at the dim lights flashing on the machines behind Steve's bed, he wondered what had brought him out of his slumber. A thin strip of light seeped under the doorway from the hall, and the usual muffled sounds of the hospital at night could be faintly heard, but Danny knew neither of these things had woken him.
Then he heard a low moan.
Sitting up, Danny swung his legs off the bed and moved quickly to his partner's side. Steve's forehead was crinkled and his hands twitched in unseen pain. In the dim light, Danny could also see that his eyes were moving rapidly back and forth behind closed eyelids.
"Steve?" he whispered.
Steve moaned again.
Danny shook his shoulder gently. "Wake up, babe."
"D'ny?" Steve muttered something incoherent and Danny grabbed his wrist as Steve threw his bandaged hand haphazardly toward the bed rail. "Wh're .you?"
"I'm here, babe. I'm right here." Danny touched Steve's shoulder again, eliciting a sharp whimper from his friend. Startled, Danny withdrew his hand. "Does it hurt?"
"Hur's," Steve slurred. "Hur's bad." He tossed his head against the pillow while Danny struggled to keep him still.
"I'm calling a nurse, babe, just hold on." Still holding his partner down with one hand, Danny fumbled about for the button to call the nurse, but couldn't find it. As he felt around on the bedside table in the dark for it, Steve lurched suddenly in the bed.
"Pl… please…" he moaned.
"Please what? What do you need?" Danny leaned close, trying to understand the mumbled words falling from his friend's mouth.
"No m're… Foster… please… st'p."
Danny jerked back, startled. In the dim light, he saw tears running down his partner's face. Steve wasn't speaking to him at all, he realized. He was having a nightmare. Danny changed tactics. Patting Steve's cheek, he rubbed a hand up and down his arm. "Steve, it's Danny. You're having a nightmare. Wake up."
Steve frowned, caught somewhere between nightmare and reality. "Why're y'… waitn'…" he slurred as his body temporarily stilled. "Wh' s' long?" He took shuddering breath as another tear rolled down his cheek. " He's hurting me, D'ny. H'rry… pl'se" He broke off again as another whimper escaped his lips.
Danny's knees buckled with a sharp pang of guilt. Unable to find the button to call the nurse and unwilling to leave his friend's side, he did the next thing he thought of: he jerked the wires connected to the chest leads, pulling two wires off.
Immediately, a loud alarm blared and a new, brighter light began flashing. This, in turn, brought the nearest nurse who threw open the door, flooding the room with noise and light. The chaos finally pulled Steve from his slumber and his eyes sprang open, spinning wildly over the room as he tried to sit up in bed. Even in his battered, drugged state, he was still a force to be reckoned with, and Danny struggled to keep him reclined as he practically hugged him to the mattress.
"Steve!" he shouted in the man's ear. "Steve, it's Danny. Wake up!" As several nurses and a doctor ran in, he relinquished his hold on his partner, except for Steve's hand which he kept in a tight grip.
"He's having a nightmare," he explained tersely to the new arrivals in the room. As Steve lurched in the bed once again, Danny squeezed his good hand firmly. "Steve, you're safe!" Danny held on tightly as Steve's good hand jerked in his grasp. "Quit thrashing, you Neanderthal! You'll tear your scars open again!"
After a long minute, Steve finally calmed as his eyes found Danny. "D'ny?" he muttered.
"Hey," Danny murmured softly, ignoring the frantic activity around him. "You back with me?"
Steve gulped convulsively and looked around the room.
"Hey. Hey!" Danny tapped his partner's nose. "Look at me. At me." Danny waited until Steve's eyes had settled on him. "Foster isn't here. He's at HPD, in a nice, cold cell, and he's not leaving anytime soon," he reassured. He studied Steve's face, not quite sure if his partner understood. "Steve? Did you hear me? You're safe."
Steve's eyes swept the room once more before he finally nodded.
"These nice people want to check you out, babe. Make sure you're okay. Think you can roll over for them?" Danny coaxed.
Steve nodded again and allowed the nurses to roll him gently on his side as the doctor examined the stitches and bandages on his back. A few minutes later, he was returned to a resting position and the room quieted as the people left. Through the whole process, he had clutched Danny's hand possessively, missing the guilt on his friend's face as he saw the wounds and bindings up close for the first time. Now, once more tucked in bed, he allowed Danny's hand to gently slip from between his fingers. For a moment, Danny thought he had drifted off. Then he heard a small voice.
"Danny?"
"Yeah, babe?"
"Thanks for coming for me." Steve's voice, though weary, was finally clear. "It's good to know that…" Steve paused for a breath, "… that you've always got my back."
Although it was dark in the room and Steve's eyes were closed, Danny forced a smile. "Anytime, babe. Anytime."
…
"Alright, brah, pay up."
"I don't think so. This last round doesn't count."
"How does it not count? Steve was in the hospital bed and still went all ninja on the guy!"
"He wasn't in any real danger, though. No gun, no bomb, no weapons…"
"Maybe Foster planned to smother him, how can we know? I'm guessing when Foster's psyche profile comes back, we're going to find out the man is lolo."
"So?"
"If Steve was in danger, then you owe me $40, brah."
"No, you owe me $40 for pulling him out of that bunker."
Steve groaned inwardly as the voices pulled him out of his restful slumber. He recognized Danny and Chin's voices, with Kono making the occasional interjection, but the meaning of the words didn't actually sink in. Instead, he found himself disoriented and confused and several of the monitors beeped as he began to panic.
The alarm alerted Danny, who was beside him in an instant, rubbing a hand gently on his arm. "Steve, you're okay. Wake up for me. You're safe," he soothed in a low voice.
"D'ny?" Steve mumbled, eyes still closed. He tried to reach out with his hand, but it flopped uselessly on the covers. "Why're y' in m' house?"
"We're not in your house, you goof."
Steve frowned and wrinkled his nose.
"Come on, babe- I need you to join the living." Danny's warm hand took Steve's own and closed over it gently. "Want to open your eyes for us?"
"No." Steve was perfectly happy with his eyes closed. In fact, he really wanted to go back to sleep, but a dull throbbing sensation in his other hand, the hand that Danny wasn't holding, kept him present. As he tightened his fingers around the sheets, the pain ratcheted up a notch and with it, a flash of memory. His eyes sprang open. "Foster?" His eyes searched the room before settling on Danny's blurry form at his side. "What h'ppened?
"Take it easy, babe. Foster's locked up at HPD. He won't be hurting anyone else."
Seeing Chin and Kono sitting behind Danny, Steve tried to sit up, but Danny held him down. "Hey, hey, I said take it easy. You've already torn your back open once. Let the doc check you out first." He thumbed the nurse call button, then gently raised the bed a few inches and tried to rearrange the pillows for improved viewing. "That better?"
"Yeah." Steve blinked blearily until the others came into focus.
"They must have you on the good stuff, babe. Normally you hate naps."
"Uh… yeah," Steve agreed, closing his eyes again. "Fuzzy… hate it."
"Trust me, if you could see your back, you'd change your mind."
Steve grunted.
"How are you feeling? Any pain?"
"Yeah."
"Really?" Danny exchanged a worried look with Chin. He hated how weak and vulnerable his partner looked, covered in bandages with lines and tubes sprouting from under the sheets. He hated Foster even more for taking advantage of a man who only wanted to help his son succeed. "What hurts?"
"What doesn'?" Steve slurred, trying to shift again. His efforts quickly had him out of breath, which earned Danny a stern look from the doctor as he entered.
"Detective, Officers," he greeted them shortly. "Give us a few minutes, please?"
Danny and the others rose obligingly and moved to the hallway. A few minutes they were ushered back inside and found Steve resting more comfortably with access to the pain pump within easy reach.
As Danny settled back into the plastic chair, Steve's eyes flickered over the two cousins. "You an' Chin okay?"
"Us?" Kono gave a light, nervous smile. "We're not the ones in the hospital bed, boss."
"Heard you had a rough night," Chin added. "Figured a little extra company might help."
Steve nodded slightly. " 'Preciate you coming to get me."
"Like we wouldn't get you," Danny scoffed. Seeing his partner struggle with basic conversation, he patted his arm gently. "I hate to sound like a broken record, but why don't you take another nap? It'll be lunch in a couple of hours- I'll wake you then."
"Lunch sounds good," Steve murmured.
Chin smiled and briefly squeezed his hand. "Rest up, Steve," he said quietly, then turned to Danny. "Kono and I will head out and pick up something. We'll be back soon."
Danny nodded his understanding and pulled the plastic chair closer to the bed as the cousins left. Picking up a magazine and thumbing it open to the page where he had left off, he had just found his place in the article when a soft noise made him raise his eyes.
To his surprise, he found Steve watching him, a small frown creasing the forehead above two tired eyes.
"You're supposed to be resting," Danny chided. "What's going on in that head of yours?"
"Heard you earlier," Steve said quietly. "You and Chin. What were you arguing about?"
Danny looked away guiltily. "We- Chin and I- placed bets," he finally admitted. "I thought… I mean, you and I, we've been through so much shit, so many crazy situations before and… we- well, me, I guess- I thought you'd pull some crazy SEAL stunt and have the guy handcuffed and strung up by his ankles by the time we got to you." He paused to take a breath. "We had no idea… I mean, if I'd known…" his voice trailed off.
Steve stared incredulously at his partner. This was the cause of the guilty expression on Danny's face? A little, harmless bet? "Danny?"
Danny didn't respond.
"Danno. Hey!" Steve snapped his fingers on his good hand in front of the detective's face. "Danny, it's okay." He focused hard on not slurring his words. "Trust me: sometimes a dark sense of humor is the only way to get through some situations. My SEAL team- some of the jokes we told… it comes with the territory." He watched Danny's face for some sign of comprehension. "Danny, you can't feel guilty for making light of a serious situation. You and Chin found me, and you saved me. You. Saved. Me. Got that?"
Danny nodded mutely
"Good." Steve settled back against the pillows. "So who won?"
"I did," Danny sighed morosely.
"Hey. What did I say about the guilt thing?"
Danny nodded but also shrugged.
Steve rolled his eyes. "How about this: you have to donate half your winnings to the victim? It's only fair…"
That brought Danny back and alert very fast. "Fair? Fair? Do I need to remind you, Mr. I-Forgot-My-Wallet, how much is currently on your tab? You should be donating to me, not the other way around…"
Steve grinned as Danny rambled on in a classic rant, allowing the drone of his partner's voice to wash over him and lull him into peaceful slumber.
Danny didn't even notice when he fell asleep.
Epilogue: Three days later
"Danny, I can walk," Steve whined as his partner pushed the wheelchair slowly toward the hospital entrance.
"Babe, it's hospital policy. You know the rules." Danny kept a firm hand on the SEAL's shoulder, forcing Steve to stay seated as he guided the wheelchair through the atrium toward the double-doored exit. "If you'd hold still so I could push with two hands, we'd get this done faster."
Annoyed, Steve slumped back in the seat and tapped one foot impatiently against the footrest. He breathed a sigh of relief when the doors finally opened and a fresh Hawaiian breeze greeted them. Relaxing somewhat, he allowed Danny to push him down the sidewalk but was surprised to see Chin leaning against the hood of his blue truck in the pick-up zone.
"Howzit," he greeted the pair. "Ready to get out of here?"
"More than ready," Steve grunted as he pushed himself upright and swung himself carefully into the passenger seat.
"Good," Danny responded as he slid into the driver's seat and started the engine. "Just one more errand to run and then we'll get you settled at home."
"Errand?" Steve frowned.
"My car, babe. You know, the one you always drive but don't pay insurance on." Danny pulled out of the parking lot and headed north. "The nice state of Hawaii paid for our helicopter ride over here, remember? Actually, you probably don't remember any of that at all," he added as an afterthought. "Anyway, it's still sitting at the trailhead. Where we left it. Five days ago."
"Why is it still there?" Steve demanded. "Why didn't you get it earlier?"
Danny rolled his eyes. "Honestly, sometimes I think you are more worried about that car than the rest of us combined. Think about it, Steven: Where is the car?"
"Trailhead."
"Okay. And who drove the car there?"
"I did."
"So who had the keys?"
"I had them."
"Good boy," Danny smirked as Steve shot a glare in his direction. "And where did you put those keys?"
"In my backpack." Steve sighed. "I get the picture, Danny."
"And where was the backpack?" Danny persisted.
"I said I get it."
"Do you, Steven? Do you really get it? Because for the past five days- FIVE- I have been stranded, unable to get back into my apartment or get my car or do anything else for that matter because the Army didn't finish inventory of the bunker until last night. If you'd let the owner of the car have the keys, then maybe, just maybe, said owner could have gone home and taken a shower and gotten a fresh change of clothes, but no! You, Mr. Control Freak, had to have them…"
From the back seat, Chin followed the one-sided argument with a serene smile. The scars- both physical and psychological- may not have fully healed, but the ohana was back together, and for Chin, that was all that mattered.
A/N- Not the strongest ending, I know. Definitely my weak point. I may come back and readjust this chapter later. We'll see. In the meantime, thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews on this story! You guys are wonderful! In return, here's a preview for my next story, The Unicorn:
(On the telephone)
"Duke, Danny Williams here. We need a case. Any case, at this point- I'm not picky. … Why? Cause my partner is an animal, that's why. A crazy, cooped-up animal who needs something to do before he turns feral and kills me… No, I'm only slightly exaggerating… Yeah, Duke, just give us the next case that comes in… Yup, I don't care what it is- I want the next case to be assigned to Five-0, no matter what."