AIE MANAWA – BORROWED TIME
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or the Characters.
A/N: Thank you all for the lovely reviews, favs and follows. I really appreciate it! The story is set mid Season 6.
Mahalo and Enjoy.
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Chapter Thirty-seven: It's All About Time.
"Danny, hey easy. What's wrong?" Steve was standing by Danny's side, not sure what he could do. Danny was breathing rapidly, his heart rate spiked and his left arm clenched his abdomen. He looked with his big baby blue eyes at Steve. Total panic crossed his face. A nurse came running in followed by doctor Owens.
The nurse placed a small plastic bin on Danny's lap and as soon Danny realized it was there he doubled over and threw up. Danny was now in a more sitting position, leaning forward with the bin in his hands. Doctor Owens placed her stethoscope against Danny's chest to listen to his heart. "It's okay easy detective, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth." Steve watched the doc closely; she did look concerned, but she was not shouting or screaming things. She was calm.
Danny leaned back, totally exhausted by the movement he went through. All the color in his face had disappeared. His heart rate eased back to a normal rhythm. The nurse took the bin away and replaced it with a new and empty one. He really hated to throw up and with Steve in the room he was even more embarrassed.
"Here take this." The doctor offered him a cup with water, to get rid of the horrible taste in his mouth. Danny gladly accepted and took a small sip. He closed his eyes for a while, but then he remembered that he hadn't seen this doctor before, so he looked at her a bit surprised.
"I'm doctor Owens, head of the cardiology department." Doctor Owens noticed Danny looking at her with some question marks. "How is your chest feeling?"
"What is it with people asking about my feelings, I just puked my guts out, how do you think I'm feeling, huh?" Danny didn't leave out his sarcastic tone. He was tired of people wanting to know how he was feeling. He felt like crap, but he was not going to admit it that easily. He had felt worse.
"Just answer the question." Steve had given the doctor and the nurse some space to work, but when Danny brought back the sarcastic act, it was time for him to step in as well. He moved closer to the bed again and looked at Danny with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Oh I'm sorry if I'm 'exaggerating' again." Danny didn't let go of the sarcastic tone. He even raised his eyebrows when he looked at Steve.
"I didn't say that, did you hear what I said?" Steve leaned a bit forward, chin up. Daring Danny to say something else than the truth.
"Yes, I did hear what you said, there's a lot wrong, but my ears ain't it." Danny still tried to keep calm. He could feel his stomach contract again. He really didn't wanted to puke again, so he forced himself not to.
"Then I don't see the problem why you can't answer the question." Steve threw his hands in the air and placed them on his hips in disbelief.
"My answer is somewhere down the toilet right now!" Danny raised his voice, causing to raise his heart rate as well. He coughed and clenched his right side. His ribs were acting up again. He hadn't felt them in awhile.
"Gentlemen." Doctor Owens said it really calm. It did the trick; she got Danny's attention. "Lets stay calm, and just tell me if there's any tightness in your chest." Once again she placed her stethoscope against Danny's chest.
"No, it's fine." Danny commented, rolling with his eyes.
"Hey, listen to me." Steve snapped with his fingers to get Danny's attention back. Danny slowly turned his head to Steve. "Do me a favor, cut out the crap and just tell her what you said to me before, you said your chest was bothering you."
"What-what are we? Back in high school? Snitching on someone?" Danny said it with disgust and he didn't try to stay calm. He couldn't believe what Steve just said. He sat up once again. Which was not a good move. He immediately lay back again. The room started to spin and he felt like he had been on a boat for days.
"If you want to call 'trying to help my best friend' snitching? Then yes." Steve shrugged his shoulders, he didn't understand why Danny made such a big deal about almost everything lately.
"I just left you guys alone for a few hours and this is what I get in return?" Doctor Murray stood in the door opening, hands on his hips. Still wearing his scrubs and his scrub cab. Both men stopped arguing, they locked eyes but that's all what happened.
"Doctor Murray can we have a word, outside please?" Doctor Owens hung the stethoscope around her neck and sighed she would be right behind him. Murray agreed and Owens closed the door behind her. Steve was left alone with Danny in the room. Both man stared at each other. Danny was the one giving the death stare. Steve was the first one to give in during their staring contest. He walked over to the corner window of the room and stared outside.
"What's the matter with you?" Steve shot a quick look at Danny before he would continue to stare back outside. "Fine if you want to shut me out, really it's not, but I'll play along. Only lying to the doctor? Why would you do that?" He waited for Danny to answer, but Danny had closed his eyes.
"I'm tired Steve." Danny mumbled. He was curled up in a more fetus position, on his left side, legs up to his chest. Holding the bin tight with his left hand, in case he needed it.
"So am I." Steve gave up when Danny didn't say anything properly. He stared back outside, arms folded. "So am I."
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They let Danny rest for a bit on doctor's order. Steve went outside to blow of some steam and check in with the team. He would just tell them that they finished up the first session of dialysis and the results would be in soon. The break out he just had with Danny didn't need to be brought to daylight. Doctor Murray went back in after forty minutes or so. He expected Danny to be asleep, but instead Danny was lying on his left side, eyes open and staring at the closed blinds.
"You're awake." Doctor Murray quickly continued before Danny could even respond with a sarcastic comment. "I'm not going to ask how you're are feeling, I'm here to explain all of it to you and if you have any questions you ask them."
"Just relax, try not to fall asleep and let me do the talking, okay?" He took of his lab coat, dumped it on a chair and took place on Danny's bed near the foot end. He was sitting with one leg leaning on the bed.
"Sounds like fun." Danny tried to sit more up, so he could listen to what the doctor had to say.
"Alright. Well let's start at the beginning to refresh your memory. You were brought in last night. Steve and Kono found you in your bathroom, almost passed out on the floor. Steve rushed you in to the ER with an elevated heart rate, a high fever and tenderness in your abdomen, indicating a fluid build up around your kidney." The doc even told him about the whole tachycardic thing and using the defibrillator to get it back in sinus rhythm. Danny had regained a little color by resting after puking his guts out, but right now he blended in with the white sheets he was lying on. It scared the crap out of him that they really used a defibrillator. It was a really close call.
"Doctor Owens is keeping you under close observation to prevent any other incident. She did a few tests and nothing serious seemed to cause the tachycardic episode. Except for the high blood pressure, possible stress and the fever. The dialysis is putting a big string on your heart, you seem to be handling the dialysis, but it was a pretty big risk to make. So we're really relieved about that. But you need to understand the seriousness of your condition. Arguing with Steve like that? Isn't helping anyone Danny."
"You won't say. What about the infection? The other doc told me, but I don't remember the whole conversation, it's a bit fuzzy." Danny was trying to change the subject. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if Steve and Kono wouldn't have found him.
"Yeah about that. I have some results back, I'll share them with you first before I'll tell you the rest, if that's okay?"
"I don't know which is better, but first tell the bad news and then the good news. That's how it works right?" At least it was what Danny did, if he had to break good and bad news.
"That might be, but as you wish. You have indeed a kidney infection. One that's causing an inflammation of your kidney filters. That's why there was blood in your urine and why you had an elevated blood pressure. Your kidney is failing as well. It was working 30% before the dialysis." Murray looked serious at Danny.
"So I am on dialysis because my kidney is failing?" Danny interrupted. Steve hadn't provided him a real answer, so he needed to know what he was dealing with.
"Yes and no. Your kidney was indeed failing, but with the infection you have it's sometimes required to do a few rounds of dialysis, to help your kidney function properly again. So we did it for two reasons."
"Was? You said was failing?" Danny did hope Murray said it right.
"Lets go to the good part, shall we?" Murray put a small grin on his face before he continued. "The results after your first dialysis session show a slightly improving line. The numbers are rising, which means no further deteriorations. With a kidney working only a 30% it's fifty-fifty on which way it can go. It can climb up or it deteriorates and in your case, it's improving. It's really good news Danny." The small grin changed to a proper smile.
"No transplant or dialysis?" Danny wasn't convinced yet.
"No transplant, and about the dialysis, we are not there yet, you'll need a few more sessions to get the kidney working properly again, but after that, it should be fine." Murray placed his hand on Danny's leg, letting him know he should be relieved with the news he just had been told.
"Does Steve know?" Danny leaned more on his back. Steve had been away for a while now.
"No not yet, he left for a minute. He needed some air. Really Danny, you should be glad to have someone like Steve around." The doc stood up, his pager went off, which was in the pocket of his lab coat. He checked it out.
"I'll send him card or something." Danny didn't get what the doc was trying to say, but he was tired and could use some shuteye.
"No really, we had to put him in a tough spot on making the decisions for you. That wasn't easy for him to do." Murray put the pager back in the pocket and put the lab coat back on.
"He did what?" Danny asked confused. He hadn't really thought about it.
"He had to sign off on the procedures. You weren't quite able to, so you're next of kin had to." Murray let his hands disappear in the lab coat pockets as well.
"Alright, that explains all of it." It made much more sense now to Danny. He hadn't been much awake, but he was still a detective, he figured it out quite easily.
"What?" Now it was Murray's turn to look confused.
"Him, sitting here like a white knight." Danny waved to the, now empty, chair where Steve had been spending most of his time.
"You should give him some slack Danny. He's here to support you and you should let him. You'll need him. Dialysis will be tough on your body and psychological." Murray glanced a bit judgmental at Danny.
"So he can hang around while I throw up and can barely keep my eyes open." Danny tried to sit up and adjust the pillow in his back. His stomach was killing him, so maybe another position would help ease it a bit.
"If that's what he wants, you should let him." The doc shrugged his shoulders.
"He feels guilty and so do you. But why?" Danny gave up on the pillow, instead of making it more comfortable, his back just started to ache. He looked at Murray. He didn't know for sure, but the way Murray had been there for him, it felt a little off.
"Steve, I don't know. Me? Yes, I feel guilty." Murray didn't see the point of denying it. He helped adjusting the pillow for Danny, as soon Danny gave up himself.
"Oh please, don't beat yourself up about it. It would've happened anyway." Danny waved it away. He didn't need to know why the doctor would feel guilty, there was nothing they could change about it. Not anymore.
"You don't know that." Danny could hear the emptiness as the doc said it.
"That is true, but there is nothing we can do about it anymore, can we?" Danny tried to be optimistic for the first time ever. He was the one always assuming the worst.
"No. The only thing I can do, is make you feel comfortable and give you something for the nausea, because don't tell me you aren't." Murray looked thorough.
"No I am, so I would appreciate that." Danny leaned with his head back against his pillow. Eyes closed. He was still sitting a bit up though because the bed rest wasn't flat, it was raised a bit.
"After I examine you and while you tell me how you feel." The doc already put on some gloves. He wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"Smart move. But I'll bite." Danny knew it would be better not to resist and be honest.
"Good, lets see how that scar tissue is doing." Murray opened the hospital gown and removed the bandage covering the surgical scar. Danny hadn't seen it yet, at least last time he didn't look at it. Doctor Murray applied some slight pressure. Danny hissed, it really didn't feel nice, and it looked open, red and irritated. "We're not there yet, but the antibiotics are kicking in. Your fever is almost down as well, so those are good signs." The doc packed it back up again.
"We'll give those ribs some time as well shall we?" It wasn't a dark purple bruise anymore it was slightly changing into a more healing greenish and yellow color with some dark purple spots. Murray needed to put some pressure on it anyway. "Can you lean a bit more to your left side?" Danny did as he was asked, while the doc put pressure on his back touching an old scar, so he could check on the fluid build up around his kidney. Danny arched his back. It was still really sensitive when someone touched the scar tissue. "It's completely normal to feel some discomfort, it has been less than a few months. It's still healing on the inside.
"Again, give it some time huh?" Danny filled in the sentence for the doc as he winched when the doc pressed once more.
"Yes indeed." It brought a smile on the doc's face to hear Danny already knew what he would've said. He put the gown back on and closed it. Danny leaned a bit more on his back.
"What about your chest? Is it tight? Burning?" Murray listened to his heart with the stethoscope.
"Bit of both. The thing coming out of my chest is bothering me more than the tightness." Danny pointed to the catheter. "Trouble breathing?" Murray went on to listen to his lungs. "The oxygen is making it easier." Danny admitted. He hated that is was strapped under his nose, around his ears and secured under his chin, but it did its thing.
"Alright, we'll keep that in place for a while then. Can you sit up for a bit?" The doc supported Danny as he pushed himself up. The movement made his stomach turn, compounding his nausea. Danny leaned over, vomiting right in the bin he grabbed from the side. When he finished vomiting, doctor Murray took over the bin and offered a paper towel to clean up. Danny dropped back, resting his head on the pillows and taking some deep breaths.
"It's okay that's it for today, try to catch some sleep. It'll help." The doc adjusted the pillow for Danny, while covering him up with the sheets. "I'll talk to Steve for you. Try to rest." Murray placed a new bin on the bed, in reach for Danny. He pushed the button for some meds. It would help Danny relax. After several minutes Danny was asleep and the doc left him to rest.
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Steve had stayed outside for over fifty minutes. He needed the fresh air and the doctors knew where to find him. He checked in with the team. Chin wanted to come over for a while, but Steve said it was fine and he could handle it. He would call him back as the results would come in. Steve was just about to go back in as doctor Murray walked up to Steve.
Murray told Steve about the conversation he had with Danny, explaining the situation and examining him. As last he shared the new results.
"That's really good news! So he's going to be okay?" Steve sounded astonished.
"Seems to, yes. Danny is sleeping for the moment, so take your time before heading back in." Doctor Murray wanted Danny to have the time he needed to feel a little better.
"Thanks doc." Steve gave Murray a hand and his other hand was placed on Murray's shoulder while he gave him a thankful look. The doc headed back inside. Steve stayed outside, he would call Chin letting him know the good news as well. Chin would inform the rest. As Steve was about to take his phone out of it's pocket, his phone rang. He really hoped it wouldn't be a new case. He looked at the display showing the caller ID.
He let out a deep sigh and answered.
"Hey Gracie."
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A/N: Mahalo for reading. Hope y'all are still enjoying the story?