Thank you so much for all your fantastic reviews! :-)
Now on with the next chapter...

Chapter 25:

A myriad of thoughts raced through Steve's mind while he stared down at the small, harmless looking syringe in his hands. He hoped that Danny never learned about the fact that he indeed was, well, perhaps not really afraid, but rather not very fond of needles whatsoever – otherwise he would never hear the end of it.

"Steve, no!" Danny whispered somewhere to his left from his position on the floor, but McGarrett knew that he plainly and simply had no other choice.

Willing himself to relax his muscles, Steve held his breath as he rammed the needle into his own arm with a grim determination that surprised even himself, and pressed down the plunger in one swift move.

He had barely time to remove the needle when almost immediately he began to feel the effects of Baines' drug.

A cold and hot burning sensation flooded from the injection site up and down his arm, the syringe and the orange plastic box he had still been holding dropped from his numb fingers and danced almost soundlessly over the white tiled floor.

Trying to take a deep breath to blow away the cobwebs in his mind he sagged back against the cold wall when his legs began to tremble violently.

"Will you sit down already, you moron," Danny's strained voice reached his ears, laced with a tiny bit of anger but above all with worry and open fear.

But before Steve's muddled brain could process Danny's words and transform them into a useful instruction, he felt his legs buckle and he slid down the wall in a less than graceful move.

"Ah, very nice," Paul Baines beamed with joy at the sight of his prisoner. "I never would have imagined the effects would set in so immediately." Tacking the gun into the waistband of his pants, he happily rubbed his hands and watched Steve with growing interest and curiosity. "Very nice," he repeated, clicking his tongue and giggling maniacally under his breath as he stepped closer to the bars to have a better view of his human guinea pig.

Swallowing forcefully, Steve tried to form a coherent sentence but all he could muster was a hoarse, "What… gave me?"

He hadn't the strength to look up at Baines and he almost wasn't able to hear the older man's answer over the buzzing in his ears.

"You want to know what was in the syringe?" Baines correctly interpreted Steve's stammered words. "Well, Commander, it's the very same drug you already took in every day with your toothpaste. And I must say I'm immensely pleased about the effects, especially if administered via injection."

Steve needed a long moment until Baines' words slowly seeped into his consciousness. Nodding faintly, Steve could definitely feel some of the symptoms he unfortunately knew very well from his blackouts over the last few days. But nevertheless this experience now was somehow different from the times before when he quite simply just had passed out from one second to the other.

Desperately trying to stay awake, Steve blinked sluggishly as the world around him began to spin. Every time he forced his eyes open, the room seemed to get darker, gray shadows were slowly creeping into his peripheral vision.

Sitting in a crumpled heap on the cold floor, Steve's whole body was trembling slightly. He wasn't able to move his limbs, every single one of his fingers seemed to weigh at least a ton. McGarrett felt just so damn tired, more tired than he had ever been before in his whole life. Even the simple task of blinking was finally too much and after a while he just didn't bother to open his eyes any more.

Blood was rushing in his ears and there was an uncomfortable tingling in his arms and legs, but the only thing Steve really perceived was the thunderous beating of his heart. The muscle in his chest hammered against his ribs in a painfully slow rhythm. The time between two beats seemed to get longer and longer and suddenly Charlie Fong's words raced through Steve's drugged mind.

… the worst case scenario we're talking about here might be cardiac arrest…

For a moment he could hear the words as clearly in his mind as if the young lab technician was standing right beside him, but then the memory faded away as quickly as it had appeared. A heavy darkness filled Steve's thoughts, pressing against his mind as well as his body, giving him the daunting feeling that he was covered in thick, viscous mud from head to toe.

There was darkness and silence all around him, the only anchor to the here and now was the slow beating of his heart, but even that lifeline was getting thinner and thinner with every passing second.

"Steve?"

Danny's anxious voice slowly drifted through Steve's exhausted mind but he just couldn't get his body to react in any way.

"Hey Steve, can you hear me?"

The voice seemed to be closer now, and when cold fingers wrapped around Steve's forearm, he summoned all of his rapidly waning strength and forced his eyes open. McGarrett sluggishly blinked a few times until the blurry shadow in front of him finally assumed the form of his partner.

"Try to stay awake, Steve. Do you hear me? Try to fight the effects, okay?"

Furrowing his brow in concentration, Steve licked his dry lips as he thought about an answer but forming the required words was far beyond his current capabilities.

"Nononono! Open your eyes, Steven, come on, no sleeping here."

Steve's eyes snapped open once more when the grip around his armed tightened and sharp fingernails painfully dug into his skin. He felt his heartbeat quicken just a tiny bit and the heavy veil around his consciousness was lifted slightly. His tired gaze traveled sluggishly across the room until it finally fell upon his partner.

Danny sat right beside him, one hand wrapped around Steve's forearm, the other one pressed to the wound on his own thigh. Narrowing his eyes about the amount of blood that covered the floor around Danny's leg, Steve tried his best to follow Danny's instructions and fight the effects of Baines' drug but to no avail.

As much as he tried to keep his eyes open, his body just plainly and simply wouldn't obey. The world around him turned gray and once more the buzzing in his ears and the hollow beating of his heart drowned out everything else, even the frantic tone of Danny's voice and the sounds of turmoil and shouting from outside the cell.

In the blackness that once again firmly pressed against his mind he could feel his heart beating slower and slower, and he briefly wondered if he would somehow know it if one of those heartbeats would be his last one.

Lingering on that thought and waiting for the next heartbeat that might never be coming, Steve didn't feel his head lolling to his chest nor his body slowly tilting to the right.

Danny had not shifted his attention from his partner ever since Steve had taken the syringe out of that silly little plastic box. When he finally heard the redeeming shouts of HPD and Five-0 from upstairs, all he did was briefly shut his eyes in relief.

But when Williams opened his eyes again after only a short moment, he found Steve no longer in a sitting position leaning against the wall but lying motionless on his right side.

"No, no, no! Come on, Steve, not now," Danny hissed anxiously through gritted teeth. "Cavalry is here, hang on buddy, just a few more minutes, okay?"

Suddenly remembering the EpiPen that was still somewhere in one of Steve's many pockets, Danny tried to move closer to his partner. Baines had said that the drug Steve had injected himself with was the same as was hidden in the toothpaste, so Danny figured that now would be the perfect time to see if Fong's theory about the adrenaline was true. God, he just hoped that now was not that one time in the decade when Charlie was wrong about his findings.

A dull pain sliced through Danny's left thigh when he crawled closer to his friend and a new wave of dizziness rushed over him. Looking down at his injured leg he noticed that the makeshift tourniquet Steve had applied earlier obviously wasn't doing its work anymore. Blood oozed lazily from the gunshot wound, the crimson fluid formed a sickening contrast to the white tiles.

With trembling hands Danny grabbed the sleeves of his alienated dress shirt and pulled the makeshift tourniquet as tightly as possible.

Black dots danced in his vision and he squeezed his eyes shut in a vain attempt to suppress a hoarse groan. He had felt a lot better lying down flat on his back but if he wanted to help Steve, he needed to move. The pain in his leg mingled with the pain that radiated from his shoulder and judging from the sticky feeling of his undershirt those wounds had also started bleeding again.

Damn, it couldn't be so difficult to cross that short distance to his partner, only a few more inches and he would be able to reach Steve's pockets where the – hopefully lifesaving – EpiPen was stowed away.

Danny's breath was now coming in fast, shallow gasps and instead of disappearing, the black dots in front of his eyes grew bigger and bigger. Exhaustedly he leaned his back against the wall, desperately trying to catch his breath. Against his will his eyelids drooped when the world around him started to spin faster and faster.

Clenching his jaw, Williams gathered all of his remaining strength. If he passed out now, Steve's chances of surviving where slim at best. Danny knew that he must somehow find the energy to move his body, search for the EpiPen in Steve's pocket and administer the dose of adrenaline. Dead easy, right?

Danny's eyes snapped open when the door to the room burst open with a deafening noise. For a second he just stared at the two recent arrivals before a huge grin colored his features. And despite the worry for his partner, despite the uncertainty about Gabby's fate and despite the fact that he was sitting in an alarmingly fast growing pool of his own blood and that his whole body was on fire, Danny couldn't help but burst out laughing at the sight of his two teammates limping through the door.

Her weapon at the ready, Kono was the first who stormed into the room as fast as her injured leg allowed. The young woman still wore the same white bandage as the last time Danny had seen her, covering her right leg from the ankle up to her knee.

Right behind her, Chin Ho Kelly also limped through the door, a grim expression on his face, the trademark shotgun in his hands, and a shining white walking cast on his right ankle and lower leg.

A huge wave of relief washed over Danny and he felt like all the pent up tension of the last hours fled his body, leaving him breathless and shaky. His whole body was trembling violently and he needed all of his willpower to utter a semi-coherent sentence.

"Chin, the key… Baines has it… hurry up…" he exclaimed hoarsely, pointing weakly at the steel door inset in the row of bars. Exhaustedly closing his eyes he tried to take some deep breaths but all he could muster were some shallow gasps that didn't help at all to get rid of the ever growing dizziness. "Hurry up… need help here… Steve…" Danny murmured feebly, his voice trailing off in mid-sentence.

Most probably he might have blacked out for a moment because the next thing he knew was someone shouting his name, loudly and repeatedly.

"Danny!"

Moaning faintly, Danny swallowed laboriously, and furrowing his brow in concentration he finally managed to open his eyes.

"Danny, come on, talk to us," Chin's deep voice encouraged him. Hesitating for a short moment until he was sure that Danny was alert and listening, he asked urgently, "Danny, where is the key? Do you know where Baines is?"

The lines on Danny's forehead deepened in confusion when he let his gaze travel across the room. "He was here…" Blinking rapidly, Danny cleared his throat before he locked eyes with the other man, "He was here the whole time… don't know…" His voice was getting stronger now, the discovery that their captor had obviously somehow managed to get away sent a small rush of adrenaline as well as a surge of anger through his body.

Finally able to take a deep breath, Danny struggled to cope with the dizziness when he resumed his former attempt to get closer to his still motionless partner.

"I'll go upstairs and search for the key," Kono said firmly, already whirling around when Danny's voice held her back.

"Kono, wait! Gabby… she has to be somewhere upstairs… Baines… he drugged her," he said hastily, his blue eyes dulled with worry and pain. "I need to know… make sure she's alright, okay?"

Locking eyes with Danny, Kono threw him a reassuring smile. "Will do, brah," she answered swiftly, holding his gaze for a moment before she turned around on her good leg.

"Hurry up, cuz," Chin said quietly, briefly grabbing her forearm to emphasize his words. "And call EMS."

Sharply nodding her head once, the young woman threw one last worried glance at her two caged team members before she limped out of the room.

Knowing that Kono would do everything to make sure Gabby was tended to, Danny shifted his concentration back to his partner. Agonizingly slowly, he dragged his aching body across the blood-covered tiles, wincing heftily when a loud gunshot filled the air.

Jerking his head to the left he saw Chin closely examining the door lock, his shotgun loosely in his right hand.

"Sorry, didn't work," the older man said without looking up, a wry smile playing around his lips. "Have to try it again."

Narrowing his eyes, Danny looked pensively at his teammate before he asked matter-of-factly, "You know what Sigmund Freud would probably say about your gusto for such a ludicrously big weapon, right?"

The smirk on Chin's face grew a bit bigger and instead of answering he once more cocked his gun and pulled the trigger in one swift move.

The door burst open with an earsplitting metallic screech which reverberated eerily through the empty room. Putting the shotgun to the floor, Chin rushed to Danny's side as fast as his casted leg allowed, grimacing slightly when he kneeled down next to his teammates.

"You're a mess, brah," he said with a brief glance at all the blood that covered not only Danny's clothes but also the white tiled wall and floor. Taking in the other man's pale complexion and the beads of sweat that covered his face, Chin placed his hand on Danny's good shoulder and squeezed sympathetically. "You alright?"

"No," Danny admitted breathlessly, weakly motioning toward Steve's motionless form. "But I can hang on a few more minutes. First we need to make sure that Steve's alright."

"What happened to him?" Kelly asked as he bent over McGarrett, noticing astonished that all the blood on Steve's hands and clothes seemed to be Danny's. Grabbing the taller man's shoulders he cautiously rolled him over onto his back, immediately pressing his fingers to Steve's carotid.

After a few seconds the expression on Chin's usually calm face turned blank, the forlorn shimmer in his dark eyes sent an icy shiver along Danny's spine.

"Chin… no," he whispered, shaking his head in denial as he desperately started to ransack Steve's pockets.

"I can't feel a pulse…" Chin confirmed Danny's worst fear, frantically readjusting his fingers. After a few more excruciating seconds, he finally breathed out a small sigh of relief, "Oh no, wait, there it is. But it's very slow and almost not palpable."

Looking up when he got no reaction from Williams, he furrowed his brow when he saw the smaller man still rummaging through Steve's pockets. "What are you doing?" he asked curiously, confused about Danny's strange behavior.

"Chin, somewhere in his pockets there must be an EpiPen, "Danny replied hoarsely without looking up. If possible, his complexion was even paler than before and he looked like he was ready to pass out at any moment. Danny's face was contorted with pain and judging from the way his hands were shaking he seemed to be in a world of pain. "I'll explain later," Danny added frustrated, throwing a pleading look at his teammate. "Let's just find that damn thing."

Half a minute later, just when Danny swore to himself that he would eliminate every single pair of cargo pants in McGarrett's wardrobe with his own hands, he finally found the EpiPen in the very last pocket he searched.

He needed three attempts until he was able to pull off the safety release with trembling fingers, then he pressed the small device against Steve's left thigh with the last bit of strength he could muster, silently counting the passing seconds in his head.

Finally having reached the ten second mark, Danny carelessly dropped the injector to the floor, exhaustedly sagging against the nearest wall. He swallowed convulsively when the dizziness returned with a vengeance and the pain in his body peaked to a new, unknown level.

Blinking sluggishly he watched almost detachedly how Chin once again checked Steve's pulse. "Chin… is he okay?" Danny slurred, one last time fighting back the tendrils of unconsciousness that slowly crept into his mind.

"Yes brah, I think he is," Chin said after a long moment of silence. "Pulse is much stronger now, I think he's gonna be alright."

"Good… that's good," Danny whispered, closing his eyes as he finally allowed the darkness to take over.

(tbc)