I didn't think this fic would be complete without a bedside vigil chapter...or two. This one belongs to Mickey, but don't worry...Steve is getting one of his own!

Enjoy...

Chapter 23 – A Father's Vigil

"A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again."

~ Enid Bagnold

Honolulu Medical Center, twenty four hours later…

Michelangelo Vincent James sat quietly in the hospital room staring at her figure lying on the bed. She had been there for almost twenty four hours now and everyone had been hoping and praying for some movement. Some sign that the body of his youngest child had a soul still attached to it. As he sat in the chair previously occupied by his son Frankie, he took Harper's hand in his and looked at her for what seemed like the millionth time. Tears welling in his eyes, he couldn't handle the sight. He closed his eyes against the vision of her on a heart monitor, IV drip, and an oxygen-mask.

With nothing but the bleak, eternal night stretching before him, Mickey's world-weary mind had nothing to do other than rove the many paths of his imagination. Most led him only to how he had pictured this reunion with his daughter. He had imagined the fire in her eyes, the venomous chill in her voice as she called him every name in the book. It was entirely possible that she would throw something at him…most likely something heavy and pointed and aim it at his head…because she had inherited her mother's fiery temper. And he would let her, because he deserved it. But eventually, his little girl would forgive him. She always did. And then he would buy her dinner and they would split a bottle of her favorite wine by the fire. Or they would walk in the park, arm in arm, her head resting on his shoulder as she told him what a completely insufferable fool he was and how she didn't want him any other way.

But none of the pictures in his mind had ever included a dark, lonely hospital room, respirators, heart monitors, and never-ending silences.

Nights without sleep and days of holding back raw emotions were starting to wear on the seasoned police officer. The Superintendent walked around the room some and then came to rest in front of the window. He looked down at the bustling night of Honolulu. When his daughter had married Steve she believed that one day she would end up living in this city by the bay. She knew that one day her husband would want to move back to his childhood home and Harper had joked that Mickey and the boys should start looking for retirement property here.

After that conversation, Mickey and his little girl didn't speak for almost six months. And because of his pride and supreme stupidity, he hadn't been there to walk his little girl down the aisle at her own wedding. But she had forgiven him then…so she would forgive him this time, too.

The seasoned cop stared out at the ocean and then watched the cars come and go from the parking lot below and, after a bit, wandered back to the chair beside the bed. He looked at his darling daughter, lying there so peacefully, like an angel with her long lashes lying against her face under closed eyes.

"Hey baby," he softly spoke, lifting her small hand to his lips and kissing it softly. Her hand felt cold, even though Mickey knew there was blood pumping through it, keeping it warm. Without even realizing it, he started rubbing her small hand between his two larger ones, in a fruitless attempt to give it some heat. Then he leaned forward and started playing with the edge of her blanket...tucking it around her so that she would be warm. As he did when she was a little girl and he would tuck her into her bed at night.

"Stupid question, but how are you feeling?" he asked as he ran a shaky hand through her hair, a sniffle escaping his lips. Quietly, he said, "You don't know how much this hurts, Harper, sitting here hour after hour, waiting, watching… hoping that this will be the moment that you wake up. The moment that your eyes flutter open and again look into mine with such love and joy. The moment when your skin grows less pale, and your hand finally responds to my constant grip."

Watching her serene face once more for a sign of recognition and receiving none, he continued to talk to the darkness, "I'm not one for bedside vigil's, baby girl. But here I am sitting in this uncomfortable chair while you sleep…holding your hand and weeping like a child." Her father laughed a heartless little laugh as he said, "You would be so ashamed of me. I know what you'd say, too. You'd tell me to go back to Chicago, get some sleep, that you were feeling fine and not to worry about you. And I, of course, would know that you were lying. So thank you for not waking up during those times. I couldn't bear it if you saw me like that, broken and hopeless. You always have been stronger than I am, Harper. You don't have to prove it like this."

He hadn't eaten in over twenty hours and hadn't slept since God knows when. His daughter should have been yelling at him to take care of himself, but instead she was unconscious, her alabaster skin the color of talcum powder. Fear crept into his heart, as Mickey desperately turned his attention to the monitors around her, checking that the constant beep was still evading the silence of the still room, and that the green line was still bopping up and down to the relentless rhythm.

"Just keep talking to her. Wherever she is, I know she can hear you."

Looking around the dark hospital room, dimly lit by only the moonlight coming through her window, Mickey James recalled the doctor's words as he took a deep breath and started to talk…

"Your room is one of the lucky ones to have a window out onto the outside world. Tonight the moon is casting a peaceful glow over the city, the sun having gone down hours ago. And yet I'm still here. I'm not the only one, though. You should see that waiting area." Mickey let out another little laugh, this one not quite so heartless as he told his daughter, "The boys are all here…Tommy and Bobby arrived a few hours ago and I'm surprised they managed to wait that long. They've been bothering the doctors and nurses pretty much nonstop since they arrived. And the Five-0 team, the FBI, and the Governor's private security team have set up shop in the waiting room down the hall. Your ex-husband certainly does know how to put on a show. The Governor herself even came by a few hours ago to offer her support. All of those people are just waiting for some good news. None of them have slept in days either and I think the hospital staff just wants them to go home..."

Running his hand through his hair, Mickey shook all thoughts of the waiting area out of his head and kept on talking. "Just like everyone else, I haven't slept in...I can't even remember how long...but I know I won't until you wake up. Funny, isn't it? You'll wake up, and then I'll sleep. I can't sleep at the same time, like normal people, because this isn't a normal situation. I need to know that you're alright...awake...alive, before I can tend to my own needs."

The Superintendent shook his head at that...how could she possibly wake up and be alright? He looked at his child lying in the ICU attached to a maze of wires and tubes, surrounded by monitors and drips, it was difficult to believe she would ever be okay again.

"I know you hate all this. The mask that covers your features, the machine that breathes for you. You've never liked relying on anything else. Or anyone else. You were always the strong one, the one who could keep going, the one who went too far. And now...I listen to you breathing, each suck-hiss of the respirator assuring me that you still live." He drew in a ragged breath and said, "It's all too familiar, you know. I sat in a room like this talking to your mom and then to Vinnie…it didn't turn out too well for us those times. You're going be the death of me, young one, if you keep this up. I don't know how much more any of us can take."

He looked again at his daughter lying there on the warm sterilized bed and Mickey lost himself in his thoughts for awhile longer, then shook them away as Harper would want him to do.

"I have to stop thinking this way." he said. "Every time I do, the tears threaten to cascade down my cheeks, and I can't let anyone see me cry. My God, I don't even know who I'm hiding my tears from anymore. All I know is that those tears which are still left inside me will stay there and I will reserve them to shed in joy and relief when you wake up. This is the way I live my life. I have to remain strong, because that's what everyone expects. Even when my heart is broken…"

"Mickey."

The Superintendent hadn't even heard Steve enter the room and didn't know how much of his conversation with his daughter the S.E.A.L. had overheard. But there was no going back now. And he knew the younger man understood.

"I could look at that face forever and not tire of seeing it," Mickey whispered, taking her small hand in his once again. "She is so beautiful, both inside and out. Just like her mother."

"When I was off on missions, I would close my eyes and picture that face," Steve replied softly, moving fully into the room and going over to stand by the window. Crossing his arms over his chest, he looked down at his ex-wife and added, "Those eyes, that smile, the smattering of freckles she refused to admit she had. It got me through a lot of tough times."

Mickey let out a tired sigh and kissed his daughter's hand as he nodded at Steve's words. Sensing that the older man needed a break, Steve continued, "The first time I met your daughter, she ignored me. The second time we met, she insulted me…a few times. And the third time…we argued. The first of many, as it turned out." Shaking his head and smiling at the memory, the Commander added, "And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I knew my life was never going to be the same again."

"I understand exactly what you're talking about," Harper's father agreed, looking lovingly down at his little girl. "I felt that way the moment they set her in my arms on the day she was born. She gets under your skin, doesn't she? And then when the walls come tumbling down, she works her way into your heart. She's tough. She tries to hide it. She's difficult. But if you make an effort, she's worth it." Looking up at his former son in law, he added emotionally, "She's worth the effort."

Steve simply nodded in response because the lump of emotion in his throat had rendered him mute. Sensing this, Mickey continued, "She's my little girl...well, she used to be. Now she's a beautiful, grown woman. A cop. She chose to spend her life saving people. But you know, I can still remember the wishes that she made when she blew out the candles on her seventh birthday cake. She wanted to ride a Harley when she was big enough and she wanted to marry her daddy when she was all grown up."

Mickey's voice cracked and he could feel his throat begin to tighten. He paused a moment to get himself in check and then said, "But she married you instead. And she grew up and moved away from home and…"

"It's okay, Mickey…"

"No, it's not okay. I missed so much. I wasn't there when she needed me the most…again." Without taking his eyes off of his daughter, Mickey reminded Steve, "I lost my wife, my son, and my partner to this job. I won't lose my little girl." Bending close to her sleeping form, he brushed his lips across her forehead and whispered, "I would do anything for you, Harper. The only thing that's kept me going all these years was knowing that you were waiting for me." His voice strengthened as he said, "So, it can't end like this. Not before I get to tell her all the things that have gone unsaid."

Mickey sighed heavily and stood up to stretch, but there was no motion from Harper. No acknowledgment of what he had said to her. But somehow, that incessant beeping of his daughter's heart monitor was soothing, stupefying, and all he could do was watch the steady rise and fall of her chest as air was forced into it, up and down. Mickey took a moment of deliberate silence, then looked up at Steve and finally whispered, "I would die for her, but I'd rather protect her from anything that would harm her. Sometimes I think we waste our words and we waste our moments, and we don't take the time to say the things that are in our hearts when we have the chance."

Leaning forward to kiss her forehead, Mickey rubbed his palms up and down his thighs as he looked over at Steve and said, "It's hell to get old, McGarrett. I think these old bones need to rattle around a little bit before they lock up on me completely." Heading toward the door, he said, "I'm going to get a cup of coffee. You want me to bring you back one?"

Steve nodded and Mickey paused again as he began to open the door, saying, "You're right, Commander. Your life is never going to be the same again. That little girl has a way of changing everything." Stealing another glance at his beloved daughter, he added softly, "For the better."