Chapter Twenty

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! Am I too cruel with all the cliffhangers I have left you with? Mwhahaha! Not much more of this story to come now, but depending on response and comments there may be a sequel..

Chapter Twenty

"Oh Jesus Danny" Steve muttered as he took in the empty room. The bed covers were strewn over the vacated bed, and there was no sign of the former occupant.

"Now what?" Kono asked softly, her eyes tearing in fear for her friends safety. Steve didn't reply immediately, he headed for the door to check on the HPD officers- given the slight chance that their injuries may not have been fatal after all. He stepped through, and instantly raised his side arm at the absence of the two bodies, he then twisted quickly to the side at the figure heading towards him, soon lowering his weapon again at seeing Chin. Chin raised his finger to his lips, and gestured for Steve to follow him. Steve leant through the doorway and signalled at Kono to follow. The three 5-0 officers were soon in a small hospital room slightly away from the hall.

"Chin, Danny's gone" Steve whispered, his fear weakening his usually confident voice. Chin smiled gently and pushed open the second door of the room to reveal a soundly sleeping very much safe although not exactly well Danny Williams. "Oh thank god!" Steve commented moving closer to his friend and squeezing his hand to reassure himself that he was in fact really there. "How?" Steve asked when he had gathered his thoughts enough to ask.

"When I located the office it was empty, as in cleared out but the name on the door showed who it belonged to. As soon as I realised I assumed that he had skipped out, anyway I concluded that if he had skipped out it probably meant that the final move was about to come and Danny was at the most risk- I headed to his room and formulated a quick plan. When I explained to the nurse she helped me to discreetly move Danny here" Chin informed them, making it all seem very easy. When he had realised who the office had belonged to he had immediately recognised that the doctor must have fled- a quick enquiry with the receptionist had more or less confirmed it for him. A quick visit to his truck and both HPD guards had been issued with covert vests and ear pieces for easy contact with Chin, and within ten minutes Danny had been safely moved to his new room which only the one nurse and Chin were aware of, with the exception of the two new HPD guards stood just within the door. He had then stood out of the way and waited- it was unfortunate that he hadn't quite had time to fill the boss of 5-0 in on his plan, however in some ways the natural reaction of the commander to what he had seen would have fitted in nicely with the plan- even if he had shaved ten years off of his friend's life in the process.

"Chin, I could kiss you" Steve replied honestly, his relief showing clearly on his face. Kono nodded her agreement.

"Good work cus" she told him, pleased beyond belief that things were not as they had initially seen.

"Thanks guys, I think I struck lucky more than anything" Chin replied modestly. Steve grinned and shook his head- at that moment extremely proud of his team. "Sorry I didn't get a chance to pre warn you guys" Chin continued, meaning it fully. He knew how his friends must have felt to believe that Danny had been taken again, but somehow he knew he would be forgiven.

"No problem, I'm just glad hes okay and that the HPD guys weren't really hurt" Steve replied, partly because he knew how much to heart Danny would have taken it if the other officers had been killed protecting him. "Which doctor is it that we need to hunt down?" Steve asked, his voice switching from caring to menacing and his body taut at the thought of yet another person betraying his partner.

"Dr Lewis" Chin replied softly, he had been shocked to discover who had been allocated the office in question. The young man had seemed caring and professional, but he supposed that money was a powerful tool.

"Ah man" Kono muttered softly, pulling her phone from her pocket in one smooth movement and starting the checks that she instantly knew would be required.

"I can't believe that he had slept through all of this" Steve commented softly.

"Well the nurse gave him a little bit of help" Chin commented sadly.

"What happened?" Steve asked, his concern elevating again.

"He was having some pretty horrendous dreams, and he woke up disorientated and upset. Luckily Lewis had already disappeared. Anyway the nurse arranged a mild sedation and his tiredness took care of the rest" Chin replied, feeling sad again for his friend's ordeal.

"We need to check everyone that is going to come into contact with Danny, maybe even arrange for him to leave" Steve commented. The other two nodded in agreement.

"I'll speak with the nurse and see what she thinks" Chin offered. Steve nodded once his attention now refocused on his friend who appeared to be stirring slightly on the bed. Danny jerked, his body protesting as his mind surfaced from the fog. As he tried to move his hand, the IV lead trapped him in place and his confused mind panicked at the restriction. His head shot up and his eyes frantically danced unseeing around the room, his living nightmare being completed in his tired aching mind.

"Danno, come on man I'm here and you're safe" Steve soothed him, eager to bring the blonde out of the clutches of his nightmare. He took hold of his hand and brushed his fingers gently against the pale knuckles. "It's ok we're all here and no one can hurt you" Steve told him re-enforcing his earlier promise. Gradually the seals voice cut through the fog of the injured man's brain and Danny appeared to surface.

"Steve?" he whispered softly, hoping that his mind wasn't playing tricks on him.

"I'm right here bruh" Steve told him, leaning over and pressing the buzzer to request the nurse to come and attend to his friend.

"I don't feel so good" Danny told his friend, his face turning an alarming shade of green, with a mild flash of panic Steve reached for the bin with one hand and with the other assisted the poorly man in rolling towards it, minding his injuries. The injured man heaved into the bin that his friend held for him, his stomach empty due to the lack of solid food since his ordeal, but painful heaves caused bile and sickly acid to raise from his stomach. His head pounding he surrendered as his friend helped him to slowly ease back against the pillows. Steve's level of concern increased as he felt the heat radiating from his friend, and took note of the fevered flush to Danny's otherwise pale skin. He turned and exchanged a look with Kono who was just finishing up a phone call. She nodded discreetly and headed to the door, feeling in her gut that their friend needed help quickly she moved to find the nurse.

"Ok Danny, the nurse is on the way" Steve comforted his friend, who looked worse than he had in days. Just as the words left his lips Chin and Kono came running back into the room, a pretty young nurse on their heels. She didn't hesitate to approach her patient.

"Hey Danny, its Emily- I knew you would be one to cause me problems" she told him softly as she professionally made a note of his pulse and SAT level. Her face screwed up in concern at the results, and she carefully popped a thermometer into her patients mouth. After a few seconds it beeped and she withdrew it and again noted the results. "Well Daniel, you are in trouble with me that is 104.2. I think you have managed to get yourself an infection" she told him, her face serious. He was still extremely weak and an infection of this magnitude could prove very dangerous for the blonde. She turned back to Steve and gestured for him to follow her out of the room.

"My guess is that he has got an infection, he has a high grade fever, and his resps are raspy. This could be dangerous and I am going to have to get a doctor in here" she told the seal.

"Who is the duty doctor?" Steve asked, rubbing his hands over his tired face.

"Dr Hamilton" Emily replied, she had grown quite attached to the Jersey detective since she had found him thrust upon her, and the decline in his health had her worried.

"But she's a shrink" Steve replied in confusion. Emily looked at him perplexed at his comment.

"She is a he and he is one of the best emergency physicians in the state" She replied.

"Is there more than one Dr Hamilton at the hospital?" he asked.

"No, just David Hamilton" Emily replied.

"Oh God" Steve groaned, realising that the betrayal for his partner had gone even deeper than they realised. "So who the hell was Laura Hamilton that Dr Lewis insisted Danny see?" he questioned. Emily looked at him in horror.

"I have no idea, but I can call security to check all of the CCTV if it would help. For now though we really do need to get a doctor in here" she replied assertively, not willing to delay further treatment to her patient any longer.

"I'll get Kono to carry out the checks, you can give him a call while we wait I guess" Steve replied, before walking back into the room to delegate the task to the rookie. As he went back into the room, his partner looked even worse than before. His pallor was white and he was covered in a light sweat. His eyes were flickering behind closed lids and his breath was shallow and raspy. Steve felt a shudder of fear run through him at the sight of his devastatingly ill friend. He stepped forward and was soon joined by the nurse who carefully placed an oxygen mask over her patient's face. She returned a few moments later with a washcloth that she placed on the blonde's forehead.

"We need to get his temperature down" she commented and Steve nodded.

"This Dr David Hamilton checks out ok Steve, no links at all to anybody else involved" Kono told the seal commander. The nurse nodded in outstanding and left briefly to page him. The ten minute wait for the doctor to attend felt like an eternity to the group awaiting his arrival.

"Emily, what the hell is going on?" he asked in confusion as he walked into the room to find a patient that he had absolutely no knowledge of.

"I'll explain later doctor, in the meantime here is Danny's chart" she told him handing him the article. He read through it as quickly as he could.

"Oh boy" he commented afterwards. "Okay then, looks like an infection. We just need to get to the bottom of how bad this infection is. I'll check the incision sites from his surgery- can you guys just wait to one side" he told them, getting a feeling that there was far more to this situation than he currently knew. He moved across to the sink, scrubbed his hands and moved back to the patient. "Emily if you can remove the bandages" he asked her, and she nodded before moving to scrub up also. As the bandages came away the doctor gasped at what he saw. Where there should have been a neatly stitched surgical incision there was an angry red puffy wound that was leaking vile pus. "Emily, we need antibiotics what's he on now?" he asked, and she tilted to show him the chart. "Double it" he commented. "I am going to drain it and we need a CBC please" as he spoke the doctor expertly cut through the stitches holding the incision together and inserted a drain into the infected site. "That should help in fighting the infection, but we need to get this temperature down before he is caused any lasting damage" he commented. "Emily can you go and get eight ice packs, and run a luke warm bath please" he told her. She nodded, having expected him to take that course of treatment. "Guys, since I am under the impression that discretion is key here and you don't want anyone else involved- I may need your help" the doctor told the 5-0 officers in front of him.

"Anything doc" Steve replied. Dr Hamilton nodded wordlessly, and continued to make his new patient as comfortable as possible. Emily returned a few moments later.

"Bath is ready" she told her audience. The doctor nodded and carefully covered Danny as much as possible so he would not be instantly recognisable. He handed a set of scrubs to each of the 5-0 members and a surgical hat. Steve smiled his heartfelt gratitude and after a few moments the group were ready to move. They only travelled a short distance down the hallway. They entered a small, sterile bathroom area. Emily assisted the doctor in covering Danny's wounds with a protective film and then with the assistance of Chin and Steve he was lowered carefully into the bath. Steve looked around him, and for the first time was glad that Danny was only semi-conscious, they had found him in a room scarily similar to this one, he felt a shudder run through him and deliberately turned his attention back to his now shivering friend.

"Ten minutes and no longer the doctor" told Emily softly. "I will see you back in his room in fifteen" he continued and then headed off to check on his official patients. After ten minutes Danny's shuddering had increased and the friends were momentarily scared that he was having a seizure.

"It's ok, the water is doing its job" Emily commented and moved the stretcher back over towards the tub. She nodded at the two men and together they eased their wounded friend back into the bed. They wheeled him carefully back to the room, where Dr Hamilton was waiting for them. He nodded in greeting and then with the assistance of Emily ice packs were placed under the wounded detectives one moveable knee and under both arms. A new cool cloth was placed on his forehead and a light blanket was pulled up to cover up to the waist of the blonde. Emily then once more took the mans temperature holding her breath as she waited for the result.

"101.1" she told her audience with a sigh of relief. The doctor nodded in satisfaction, glad that they had at least improved matters.

"Good" he commented. "Right then Emily when you have made Danny comfortable, I will see you in my office for a full explanation" he told her. She sighed as she nodded, and the doctor left shortly afterwards.

"Will you be in trouble?" Steve asked softly. She laughed lightly and shook her head.

"Not when I explain. David finds it hard to be mad at me for long. Besides he is ex forces so he understands the need for security" she told him with a smile. Once she had noted down all of Danny's vitals, which all seemed more positive than earlier she headed off to meet with the doctor.

End Chapter Twenty

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