A/N: Danny is in for a happy surprise this chapter! Can you guess what it is before reading?

CHAPTER 19

Thursday, two weeks later – Mau'i Memorial

Danny found himself dangling his legs over the side of the bed, contemplating how many steps it would take to reach the bathroom on the other side of the room. The catheter had only been removed the night before, but his nurse had insisted if he wanted to go home, he'd have to prove he was ambulatory enough to get to the bathroom. Upon his insistence to give it a try, she had helped him sit on the edge of the bed in preparation for his little jaunt. Then she was called out of the room for an emergency elsewhere on the floor, "Don't be doing anything crazy like attempting to make it to the bathroom on your own, Mr. Williams. I'll be back soon," and with that, she had just left him sitting there, frustrated beyond words.

"Okay, I have been cooped up in this hospital for two whole weeks, and I'm going nuts. I need to get home to Grace. If I have to show "Nurse Ratchett" that I can do this, I just better do it!"

Danny started to scoot himself towards the edge of the bed, looking down at the floor to judge the distance until his feet would touch. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't pain free, either. Although his ribs were healing nicely, using his beleaguered stomach muscles caused enough pain to make him stop and catch his breath, frequently.

"Come on, you shmuck, you can do this." Danny was trying hard to convince himself that it was feasible for him to get off his bed and shuffle to the bathroom, when out of the blue a boisterous, "Danno!" filled his room with a joyful sound. His head shot up from looking at the floor in consternation, to behold a vision of bubbly effervescence hurtling towards him at breakneck speed. He just barely had time to open his arms wide in order to catch her, and pull her in close. Breathing in the scent of coconut and papaya shampoo, he closed his eyes and hugged his baby girl tightly as his ribs and abdomen allowed. "Grace, I'm so glad you're here. What are you doing here?"

"I'm glad I'm here, too, Danno! I missed you so much! Uncle Steve said it would be all right for me to see you, and I flew over in Kamekona's helicopter. That was so cool!"

"Uncle Steve said that would be all right, did he?" Danny glowered at "Uncle Steve" standing in the doorway with a very satisfied grin on his face. "Uncle Steve didn't think perhaps he should have my permission before handing you over to Kamekona for an oceanic flight?"

"Oh, it's okay, Danno, he asked Mommy first."

Steve had the good grace to duck out of the room at that point, leaving Danny and his daughter some private time together to catch up. He saw Dr. Peterman rounding the corner of the corridor, and decided this would be a good opportunity to talk to the man about the other patient in Peterman's care, Ayden Aikau, who had suffered a more severe traumatic brain injury than had originally presented in the first couple of hours of the ordeal on the crater.

"Hey, Doc, got a minute? I wondered if I could talk to Ayden Aikau soon. I'd like to get his statement before heading back to Oahu."

Peterman smiled warmly as he stopped to visit with Steve. Over the course of the past two weeks, he had come to know, and appreciate, the Five-0 team. As Commander McGarrett had warned him, Detective Williams had been a larger than life personality in the confines of the small hospital, but cantankerous outbursts aside, he had been a source of entertainment for the staff, especially after he started to feel better. Dr. Peterman would find orderlies and aides whiling away their break time in Danny's room, listening to his stories of "daring do" that his crazy Neanderthal partner performed on a daily basis. Nurses would vie to arrange their schedules to be assigned to Detective Williams' floor, so they could change his bed, give him his meds, and take him on wheel chair excursions and shuffled walks, up and down the halls. Oh, yes. He was certainly the most popular patient Mau'i Med had seen in quite some time!

Although Lt. Kelly and Officer Kalakaua had returned to Oahu shortly after confirming that their teammate was going to recover completely, Commander McGarrett had stayed on the island the whole time. He'd finally agreed to spend nights at his hotel, after Danny had literally kicked him out of his hospital room when he was well enough to realize his friend hadn't slept in a bed in nearly a week.

Now, Dr. Peterman was ready to release Danny from the hospital. If his ultrasound tomorrow showed good progress, he could recover just as well, if not better, in a more, homey environment. He wasn't going to release him to go back to Oahu, just yet, though. Peterman wanted to monitor Danny's abdominal cavity swelling for just a few more days, and he felt Danny could use a little more time before heading back to the strains of daily living. It was going to take at least a month before he would even be ready for desk duty, let alone full reinstatement on the task force, so what were a few more days on Mau'i?

Dr. Peterman spoke confidently to Steve, "Well, Commander, I think we can arrange for that conversation this afternoon. Ayden is recovering well from the bleed on his brain, after we removed the piece of skull that had been smashed in by the shovel. You know, it's a wonder the boy was coherent at all when you rescued him. His brain had already swelled to the point where he couldn't remember his own name, by the time he was admitted here. He'll need surgery again when the swelling has completely subsided to replace the hole in his skull with a metal plate."

"He will make a complete recovery, though?" Steve felt a small amount of remorse for his lack of sympathy towards Ayden when he and Danny were rescued. He still felt the kid deserved jail time for his part in the drug smuggling plan, but Steve and Danny had already discussed not pressing charges against Ayden for what happened in the field, after he had been knocked senseless in the barn.

"The kid couldn't stop something from happening when he was unconscious on the ground, Steve," Danny had spoken in Ayden's defense. "He told me he had no idea who was waiting in the barn, and I remember he tried to help me, and, he tried to stop the goon from finishing you off back at the cabin, as well. I think the kid was swept up in events that he was unprepared for, and which quickly escalated out of his control. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, Steve."

When Steve returned to Danny's room a short time later, Grace was sitting on top of the bed showing her father a new game on her smart phone. Danny looked up at Steve with a soft glow in his eyes and a peaceful smile on his lips. At that moment, Steve knew he would do anything to keep that look of happiness on his friend's face all the time.

"Doctor Peterman says tomorrow's the day you get to fly the coop, if you promise to behave and follow his directions. He doesn't want you to leave the island for another few days, though, so we'll be staying at the Waihulu Inn. I've arrange with Rachel for Grace to stay, too. If it's okay with you, Gracie?" Steve teased.

"Oh, yes, Uncle Steve, I would love to stay! Danno, we'll go swimming, and maybe Uncle Steve will take me snorkeling, and…and…whale watching, and…"

"Whoa, there, young lady, Steve, do you hear her? Are you sure about this? I don't think I'll be much fun to be around, and she can be a demanding little peanut!" Danny was worn out just thinking about all the mischief his Grace, and her Uncle Steve, could get into in the name of his so-called recuperative time on the island. "Maybe we should just head back to Oahu?"

Grace visibly deflated, a tiny pout marring her sweet features, "Danno, I promise I won't be any trouble. Please, can we stay just for a couple of days?"

"Yeah, Danno, I think I can handle the "little peanut" just fine for a few days. Besides, the Doc won't let you out of here if you don't commit to staying on Mau'i for at least three more days. Don't worry…it'll be fun!" Steve beamed at Danny, knowing he was getting the last word in on the subject.

"That's exactly what I am worried about," Danny mumbled, but Steve and Grace were not worried, they could see the happy look on Danny's face.

_H50H50H50

He was back in the pitiful excuse for a cabin. The one room stunk of old sweat and mildew. The mattress he was laying on was dank and filthy. He was struggling hard to breathe, and every attempt to draw air into his lungs sent flames skittering across his chest. He heard a voice, Steve's voice, demanding and angry, "Let me go to my partner," he was shouting. In his dream, Danny opened his eyes and saw one of the cartel goons raising a rifle to shoot his brother in the back. "Gun," Danny screamed! But to no avail. In slow motion, Danny watched the fiery blast, and the bullet shoot out from the barrel of the rifle, quickly accelerating and finally blasting a hole squarely in the center of Steve's back. He watched as his friend, and brother, fell to the floor, lifeless.

"NO! Oh God, no! Steve, I'm sorry I didn't have your back!"

Danny woke up completely disoriented. He was drenched in sweat, gasping for breath, sitting up in an unfamiliar bed. All at once he felt the searing pain in his belly that always indicated he had overdone it…yet again. His shaking hand distractedly brushed his wayward hair back into place as he willed his wildly beating heart into some semblance of a normal rhythm.

He reached for the glass of water on the bed stand, but his depth perception was not as good as usual, and he knocked the glass off the table, sending it crashing to the floor.

"Shit."

"Danny, are you okay?"

Sighing lightly – it still was too painful to draw a deep breath of air into, or dispel it out from his damaged lung – Danny looked over at his vigilant partner lying in the hotel bed across from his.

"Yeah, I'm okay, just another dream. Sorry I woke you." Danny tiredly dug his palms into his burning eye sockets. They'd had a busy day; Steve had driven them up the coast to Napili Bay, one of the best snorkeling areas on the island. Danny sat in the shade of a huge umbrella set into the sand and watched Steve and Grace snorkel away the morning. He'd tried to nap in the afternoon, but Grace was anxious to spend as much time with her dad as she could, so she fidgeted, checking on him every five minutes to see if he was ready to play a game, or watch a DVD with her. He hadn't slept much this night, either, and he was bone weary, but deathly afraid to close his eyes and face a return of the vision of Steve being shot from behind, or in his other recurring nightmare, the raging bull bearing down on him. He was so thankful that Grace was sleeping soundly in the adjoining room.

Steve sat up in bed and turned on the night light. He got a good look at his partner, and he didn't like what he saw. Danny looked downright haggard. "Are you sure you're okay? Can I get you anything?

"I'm fine, Steve. Just…quit it."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Nothing to talk about, Steven."

"I'm not buying that, buddy."

Danny looked at his partner long and hard. How to tell him that he was afraid? He wasn't just scared to death of the nightmares. It was deeper than that. How could he tell Steve he felt as if this time he just didn't have it in him to go back to Oahu, and return to Five-0 as if nothing had changed? He was afraid he was finally done as a cop, and he was terrified that his little girl, who idolized the ground he walked on because he always put the bad people in jail, would turn away from him in disgust if he couldn't do it anymore.

Would Super SEAL be able to understand where he was coming from? Or would he look down his nose at him, and cast him aside as a schmuck who couldn't handle being a cop because of fear?

That would break his heart. It really would, but Danny would understand it. Lt. Commander Steven J. McGarrett, decorated Navy SEAL, would never be able to respect someone sworn to defend and protect, and then not be able to do that anymore because of his personal phobias.

"Danny, talk to me," Steve had seen all the emotions flitting across Danny's face in that heartbeat of time. He recognized the indecision and fear there, and he had a pretty good idea where those feelings were coming from.

"Forget it. Let's get some sleep." Danny decided to avoid the whole miserable problem and turned off the light. He gingerly lay back down in the bed, and turned away from his partner.

It took Steve a couple seconds before he agreed, "Okay, buddy. Goodnight." Then he laid his head back down on the pillow, but simply stared at the ceiling without even trying to go back to sleep.

Steve had been wide awake for the better part of an hour, trying to figure out how he could help his partner. He was startled by a terrified shout of fear, and pain, "NO! Get away!" Quickly throwing the sheet off, he darted across to Danny's bed, and found his friend shaking and sweating again, just as he had been an hour ago. Steve took a corner of the sheet, dunked it in what remained of the glass of water, and gently wiped the sweat off Danny's face.

The cool wetness awakened him, and he was relieved to be free of the raging bull once again. But Danny knew that each time he had one of these nightmares, it was harder for him to overcome his dread of returning to his normal life. He knew Steve was sitting on his bed, but he couldn't open his eyes to look at him. He turned away to lie facing the wall. He felt the bed shift then, and soon he could feel the warmth of his best friend lying fully against his own body. And then, he couldn't hold back any longer. Tears leaked from his eyes, and he was wracked with long, painful sobs.

Tenderly, Steve consoled his partner, letting him know with just his touch that he had him, that it would all be okay. In those moments, Steve finally realized what was bothering Danny so much. It wasn't very different from the way his SEAL teammates had often felt after a particularly horrendous mission that had gone sour. It wasn't any different from the way HE had felt after more than one of those missions.

-To Be Continued-

Because we're just not quite there yet