Chapter 22 – The Men Who Love Her, Part III

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof."

~ Richard Bach

Twenty minutes later…

The Five-0 team joined an army of FBI Agents and worried James men as they rushed through the entrance to the Honolulu Medical Center and were quickly re-routed upstairs to the Intensive Care Unit. When the elevator doors opened, all chaos broke out.

"I want a 24 hour police protection detail on that door! Two FBI Agents…now!" Steve bellowed out, pointing at the door to Harper's room. "No one gets through. No one! And I want background checks being done on all staff who are taking care of Detective Harper James. Let's move, people!"

"Where is her doctor?" Mickey James demanded, descending upon an unsuspecting nurse behind the desk. "I want to talk to her doctor!"

"When can we see her?" Frankie asked a confused doctor as he emerged from a nearby hospital room. "Is she conscious? Is she going to be alright?"

"What the hell happened?" Danny inquired from one of the park rangers who had come from the scene and was now mingling around out in the hallway. "Where did you find her?"

"Is Detective James in any condition to answer some questions?" Chin asked to no one in particular.

Suddenly a strong, feminine voice rang out among the chaos.

"Everybody shut up!"

All heads turned to see a formidable looking woman exiting Harper's hospital room with a pissed off expression on her face. Turning to hand her chart to the young doctor standing next to her, she walked into the center of the masses and announced, "My name is Dr. Maria D'Angelo and I am the woman most of you want to talk to. But right now you are going to have to shut up and let me do the talking."

When the group settled down, Dr. D'Angelo continued in a calmer voice, "I know that Ms. James is a high priority patient to all of you, but this is my unit. And in here, EVERY patient is a high priority. My staff can't do their jobs with all of you mopes getting in the way. So, I need the family to go with my colleague Dr. Marcus here…he will update you on her condition and take you into the room a couple at a time."

Everyone watched as Mickey and Frank followed the doctor's directions and Steve caught his team watching him closely to see if he would join the family or stay out in the hallway. He stayed and turned to listen as Dr. D'Angelo continued, "The rest of you…follow me."

The sight of all those tough cops and F.B.I. agents dutifully following the petite doctor with the big mouth would have been comical if the situation hadn't been so dire. Stopping in a waiting room down the hall, Dr. D'Angelo stood up on a coffee table and addressed the agents from the Honolulu FBI office and the members of the Five-0 taskforce.

"Okay, I'm going to start by telling you what I know and then you can ask me some questions." Looking down at her chart, the doctor began, "Approximately 45 minutes ago, Harper Elizabeth James was brought into our emergency room and was immediately diagnosed with Post Traumatic Shock. Ms. James has fallen into a catatonic state, which means that she can not talk and is not responding to any sort of treatment. There's no telling when she'll be lucid. It could be hours or weeks. Her face and body have suffered severe damage in the forms of lacerations, bruising, and swelling and her right wrist is broken in two places. She suffered a slight sprain to her left ankle, but considering the heights from which she jumped…she is very lucky. One of our ER nurses performed a rape kit and it's on the way to your lab as we speak. The nurse did inform me that there was no bruising or tearing in the vaginal area…"

A collective sigh of relief went up through the group as Dr. D'Angelo continued, "Yes, that is a good sign…but gentlemen, you have to remember that this woman has been to Hell and back. She was fished out of the river in Akaka State Park by some local tourists out for a leisurely hike and happened to see her body floating nearby. It is a complete miracle that she is alive."

"The bruising," Steve asked, a grim look on his face, "is it from the fall into the river?"

The dark haired doctor frowned and shook her head, watching the Commander's face closely, "The coloring of some of the bruising tells us that she suffered very little injury from the jump into the river. No, these bruises were older…at least a day or two. That girl was beaten. Severely. To within inches of her life, I would guess." Pausing to let that image sink in, Dr. D'Angelo then said in a stronger voice, "Harper James is a fighter, but her vital signs have all meandered downhill since she arrived and everything is systematically shutting down…"

"When she was kidnapped, we found Ketamine in the blood at the scene," Kono informed the doctor, "Have you screened her for drugs?"

"Yes, we did." the doctor affirmed, looking back down at the chart in her hands. "Our initial tests show that her blood, her urine... they're clean. But we sent samples down to our labs for a more detailed analysis. We should have the results by this evening." Shaking her head, she added, "Something is doing damage that we don't have a finger on. Her vital signs are not consistent with Post Traumatic Shock. Whoever did this…"

"We know who did this," Steve interrupted, folding his arms over his chest, "Now we just have to find him."

"Well if I could help you with that one, I would," Snapping the chart closed, the doctor finished, "That's about all I can tell you. I need to get in with the family now. But we are going to monitor her and if there are any changes, we will notify you immediately."

As Dr. D'Angelo walked off down the hall toward the patient's rooms, Danny shook his head and said, "She's alive. That's all that matters. She's a fighter…no damsel in distress, I'll tell you that much. Little Miss Chicago didn't wait around for us...she saved her own damn self. So, she'll pull through. And then she'll tell us where to find Wo Fat."

"We can't wait that long." Steve informed him, quickly stuffing down all of his emotions and getting back into professional mode. "Danny, the Governor has promised us help from the FBI and her personal protection team so get all of the available men and go back to where they pulled Harper out of the river. Contact Jenna and form a search grid, combing that area. Call in search and rescue, park rangers, the Marines, everybody. She came from somewhere…and if she was drugged, she probably didn't get too far in her weakened state." Turning to Kono, he instructed, "Go down to the ER and get the clothes Harper was wearing when they brought her in and then take them back to our lab. The river may not have washed away all of our evidence." And finally, "Chin, get down to the hospital lab and find out what you can about the tests they ran on Harper. And then enlist them to help you figure out what drugs could be causing this reaction in her and who would have access to them."

Everyone scattered without a word, except for Danny, who lingered on his way to the elevators. Watching his friend knowingly, he said quietly, "It's probably best that you stay here…in case she wakes up."

Understanding exactly what he meant, Steve told him, "I know that this world doesn't hand out a lot of second chances so it's a miracle that I got her back, Danno. And I'm not going to let her out of my sight ever again."