Summary: A case hits Magnum too close to home. Literally.

Juliet Higgins awoke to the sound of a dog barking. There was no mistaking the sound – it was definitely Zeus or Apollo. Higgins groaned and rolled back over in bed, pulling the pillow over her head as she did so.

"Five more minutes, lads. Just five more minutes." She muttered. She was bone tired from helping Magnum with a case and waking up before the sun had even fully risen was not helping matters. He'd been hired to prove a man, Jason Kekoa's, innocence in a recent murder. Magnum had been instantly convinced that Kekoa was being framed and had cajoled Higgins into helping. Last night, they'd managed to get some information out of a reluctant witness that had broken the case wide open. They had plans to head to the North Shore later in the day to recover the missing evidence that would clear Kekoa's name, but that was hours away. Both she and Magnum were exhausted, and she'd made it clear that she would be in bed until at least ten in the morning.

It was odd that the dogs were out and about this early. They typically slept at the end of her bed and wouldn't leave the room until she did. As the barking grew louder, Higgins resigned herself to the fact that she would not, in fact, be sleeping in this morning. Moments later, Zeus came bounding into the room and jumped onto the bed. He was still barking as he planted his feet on her chest and began nudging the pillow off of her face.

"Alright, alright…I'm awake." She said irritably. As she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she frowned. Zeus was a calm, well-trained dog who knew better than to behave like this. Now, he was nearly frantic as he jumped off and on the bed. When she'd finally freed herself from the blankets, Zeus began gently nipping at her pant leg, pulling her toward the door. That's when she noticed the blood on his nose. She was suddenly struck with the realization that she had yet to see or hear from Apollo. Her blood ran cold as she slid into a pair of sandals.

"Zeus, find Apollo." She commanded. Zeus barked once sharply and took off toward the door. Juliet followed at a dead run. What the hell could have happened to Apollo here? It was a gated estate with excellent security and the lads weren't exactly helpless.

She followed Zeus out the front door and was surprised as he headed for the guest house. Surely if Apollo had been hurt over there, Magnum would have noticed and given her a call. As they neared the house, a different fear began to grow. The front door stood ajar, something Magnum would never have done. For all of his laid back affect, the man could be downright paranoid when it came to security and she knew that he tripled checked all of the locks before he went to sleep. Reaching the front step, Higgins felt her breath catch in her chest at the sight of blood on the door. Suddenly wishing she'd brought her gun, Higgins grabbed a large rock from the flower bed and stepped inside.

The house was a mess. Furniture was overturned and broken into pieces. Pictures were smashed, and glass littered the floor. Magnum's gun lay discarded in the entrance. There was blood everywhere – in pools, smears, sprayed across the walls – and in the center of the chaos was Magnum. Higgins froze in horror. He was sprawled in a lake of red, his skin deathly pale. Blood ran from wounds in his chest and abdomen, and from slashes on his arms. Apollo lay by his head, licking Magnum's cheeks and nudging him with his nose, whimpering softly as he did so. Dropping the rock, she slid to her knees at his side.

"Magnum?!" She screamed. Her fingers flew to his neck and she waited through twenty agonizing seconds before she felt the faint flutter of a heartbeat. Weak and uncertain, but still there. Higgins nearly sobbed in relief. She fumbled in her pockets for a moment before puling out her phone, suddenly glad that she'd had the foresight to grab it. She quickly dialed 911, then put the call on speaker while she grabbed a basket of washcloths that had fallen from the kitchen counter. As she pressed the cloths into the worst of the wounds, she relayed the situation to the operator in a few terse sentences. Within moments, she had been assured that help was on its way. Ignoring the request to stay on the line, she hung up and thumbed over the security app on her phone that allowed to her remotely unlock the front gate. Magnum needed help immediately and she didn't think he could afford to wait while HPD broke through the reinforced gate. With that done, she gathered Magnum gently in her arms, using her entire forearm to hold pressure on the wounds.

"Thomas?" Her voice trembled. "You're going to be okay, do you hear me? You'll be fine. Just stay with me." Higgins could hear the sirens in the distance and she'd prayed they'd make it time. Every breath that wheezed past Thomas' bloodless lips seemed weaker than the one before. Tears broke from her eyes and splashed down onto his bare chest.

"Come on, Thomas." She whispered fiercely, burying her face in his dark hair. "You can do this. Please…"

Minutes went by and Higgins was startled by the sudden arrival of HPD. She was even more surprised to see Katsumoto leading the way into the house, gun raised and eyes hard. His gaze softened as he caught sight of the two of them on the floor.

"Jesus…" He muttered, holstering his gun as the rest of the officers continued to clear the house, then kneeling next to them. "I was in the area when the call went out. EMS is four minutes behind. What the hell happened?" Juliet shook her head.

"I don't know. Zeus came and got me this morning, barking like mad. He led me here and I found him…" She broke off, unable to finish the sentence. Katsumoto put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze. "The security system didn't pick up whoever did this."

"I've got guys searching the property now and CSU will be here soon. We'll figure this out." Without prompting, the took an unused cloth and pressed it to one of the wounds Higgins hadn't been able to get. "How's he doing?"

"Not good. I don't think-" Higgins broke off when Thomas groaned softly. "Thomas? Thomas, can you hear me?" She could see his mouth working, his eyes trying to open as he tossed his head back and forth.

"Hang in there, Magnum. Help's on its way." Katsumoto assured him. Thomas' eyes had opened a fraction and it was clear he way trying to speak. Upon seeing Katsumoto, Thomas reached a hand out and grasped weakly at the detective. Katsumoto frowned. "Magnum? What is it? What's wrong?" Thomas tried, but he couldn't form the words. Blood bubbled from his lips and ran in lines down his chin.

"Shhhhh, don't try to talk." Higgins soothed, trying to conceal her panic. Magnum didn't seem to hear her and his grip on Katsumoto's jacket tightened. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he tried again to speak, but all he could manage were a few incoherent sounds, wet and wrong.

"Just relax, Magnum. We'll find who did this to you." He promised. What little strength Thomas had seemed to fade then, and he went limp in Higgins' arms.

The water from the faucet was nearly boiling, but Juliet didn't seem to notice as she scrubbed viciously at her hands. No matter how much soap she used, she could still see the bright crimson of Magnum's blood staining her hands. Her mind seemed stuck on an endless loop, replaying the moment in the ambulance when his heart had stopped, the way his body jerked as the electricity from the defibrillator coursed through him, the unnatural rise and fall of his chest as the ambu-bag forced oxygen into his lungs.

"That's enough, Honey." Said a soft voice behind her. Juliet turned and saw a middle aged nurse standing a few feet away, holding a bundle of clothes.

"What?" She asked dumbly. The nurse gave her a small, understanding smile.

"It's gone. You got the blood off. Now you're just rubbing your hands raw." Higgins looked down at her hands again, surprised to see how they practically glowed with irritation.

"I…I didn't realize…" The nurse reached over and turned the water off.

"Shock's a powerful thing, dear. Messes with your head."

"I'm not…I don't think I'm…" Juliet rambled. The nurse took her by the elbow and led to her to one of the nearby showers.

"Of course not." She tutted, clearly not believing her. "Now, let's get you cleaned up."

Higgins stared her phone as if it might bite her. She knew she had to call them, but thought of telling Thomas' two best friends that he was dying was almost more than she could take. She'd been tempted by the nurse's offer to do it for her, but Juliet knew she owed those men more. Taking a deep breath, she pressed call.

"Hey, Higgy!" Rick answered cheerfully. "TC and I were wondering when you guys would call. We had bets on how long it would take before Thomas needed our help." Higgins felt her throat tighten. Could she really do this? Destroy their worlds in an instant? These men had been through so much already and losing Thomas would crush them. She must've paused too long, because when Rick came back on the line, his voice was tinged with concern. "Jules? Everything alright?"

"It's…" She began uncertainly. "It's Magnum. He's-" A sob broke in her chest and she cursed herself for not being able to finish.

"Is he alive?" Rick's voice was quiet, terrified.

"I th-think so." She hiccupped. "He's in surgery now."

"We'll be there in ten"

Thomas rose slowly from the depths of unconsciousness. Sensations returned to him one by one. The rhythmic hiss and beep of machines, the smell of antiseptic, a pinch on the crook of his elbow. Slowly, his brain managed to come up with the word hospital. He could feel the haze of drugs weighing on him heavily and he was tempted to let it pull him under again when he heard voices nearby.

"How is he?"

"It's bad. Six stab wounds, half a dozen slashes, concussion, broken ribs, punctured lung. It was the blood loss that almost got him though."

"Pressure bottomed out in the ambulance. They got him back, but it was close. You guys anywhere yet?"

"CSU is still processing, but so far no DNA or prints. Place was a mess. Magnum put up one hell of a fight."

"Damn right he did."

"Any idea how they got in? I thought Robin's Nest had a top of the line security system."

"CSU found evidence of hacking. Some sort of device in the front gate sensors gave them access to the network."

"So they could've just hopped the fence?"

"Probably did. I've got guys going through the traffic cams nearby to see if they find anything suspicious, but it's a busy intersection so we may not get anything."

As Thomas listened, memories came back to him in pieces. Images slammed into him, one after another. A fight, a knife, blood, a man, black mask, ripping the mask off… His mind hit a wall going a thousand miles an hour. That face. He knew that face. He'd seen it somewhere, he just couldn't place it.

A soft sound to Thomas' left brought him back to the present and he struggled for a moment to open his eyes. When his lids finally parted, he saw a man in pale blue scrubs and white jacket filling a syringe. Dazedly, Magnum's eyes found the man's face. He stiffened. That face…

Adrenaline shot through his system as he recognized the man. He tried to call out, but he gagged on something hard in his throat. Thomas began struggling, trying desperately to move away from the man. All the while, his throat worked, trying to vocalize his terror.

"What the hell?" Rick's voice cut through the fear as he rushed into the room, followed closely by TC, Higgins, and Katsumoto. "What's happening?"

"He woke up and started struggling against the ventilator." The man answered, quickly capping the syringe and stuffing it into his pocket. "I'll go get Dr. Harmon." With that, he ran out of the room.

"Easy, Tommy." TC soothed, sitting in the edge of the bed and smoothing back Thomas' hair. "You're in the hospital. Everything's gonna be okay." Thomas barely heard him as he tried to speak over whatever was in his throat and oh God just get it out…

"No no no no no, leave that alone, buddy." Rick cautioned as he pulled Thomas' hands back to his side. "You're on a ventilator. You need that to help you breathe, okay? The tube needs to stay in for a little while." Desperate to be understood, Thomas reached out with a flailing hand and latched onto Katsumoto's sleeve with surprising strength. His words came out as no more than meaningless grunts.

"Easy…easy. Just relax." Katsumoto leaned in closer. Just as with back in the house, Magnum seemed consumed by the need to communicate with him. He gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "You're safe here, Magnum. I've got HPD posted all over this floor. No one's going to get to you here." He promised. If anything, that seemed to agitate him more. By the time Dr. Harmon arrived, Rick and TC had been forced to hold Thomas down to prevent him from injuring himself further.

"Here we go, Mr. Magnum." Harmon said as he injected the contents on a syringe into the IV. "This will make you feel better." Turning to the others, he said, "This should put him out for a while."

"What was that?" Higgins asked.

"Your friend has just been through a traumatic experience. He's confused and in pain and waking up on a ventilator is not the most pleasant experience. This type of reaction is normal. Right now, we just need to keep him calm and give his body a chance to heal." As Harmon spoke, Thomas could feel the drugs dragging him back under.

"Don't fight it, Magnum." Higgins said softly, carding her finger gently through his hair as he drifted off to sleep.

It was pain that brought Magnum back to consciousness. It was small, just a twinge in his arm. The drugs from earlier were still in his system, weighing down on him oppressively. It took him longer than it should've to realize that the pain had come from something pulling on his IV. He rolled his eyes languidly over just in time to see the man from before plunge a syringe into his line. They locked eyes as the man depressed the plunger and, in that moment, Thomas knew that he was dead. He closed his eyes and never heard the shouts as he fell back into the welcoming darkness.

"Police! On your knees, do it now!"

Voices swirled around him like smoke; there, but to illusive to grab. Thomas let them wash over him as he lay there and tried to grasp their meaning.

"That was too close. We almost lost him this time." A deep voice rumbled.

"Did lose him." Another voice corrected. "Three times, actually. We let him die three times."

"You mustn't talk like that." A woman said quietly. "There's no way we could've known."

"Magnum knew. He kept trying to tell me. That's why he panicked when he woke up the first time. He must've recognized him." A third man said bitterly.

"We figure out who he is?"

"His name's Evan Tran. He was Alan Carver's bodyguard."

"Carver? The man Magnum's client was accused of killing?"

"We did some digging and found out Tran and Carver had had a falling out after Tran started embezzling from Carver's company. We searched Tran's place on the North Shore and found the money and the gun used to kill Carver."

"Magnum must have run into him when he visited Carver's office."

"So this guy goes through all the trouble of breaking into Robin's Nest to kill Magnum…why not just run? He had the money."

"Tran had some outstanding debts to pay off with the Yakuza. He needed that money. A guy like Tran has no experience going on the run. If he'd left, they'd have found him. The way he saw it, killing Magnum would make this whole thing go away."

As he listened, the words began to bring him back to consciousness. Slowly, fragments of memories surfaced slowly and assembled themselves into a fuzzy picture. With awareness came pain, prompting him to open his eyes. It took a few tries, but finally his lids fluttered open.

"Ouch…" Thomas managed to croak before he started to cough. Four heads whipped around and suddenly he was surrounded, his friends looking down at him with obvious concern.

"Easy, buddy. You just came off the ventilator. Hang on a sec." Rick said, spooning an ice chip from a nearby cup into Thomas' mouth. Magnum accepted it gratefully, savoring feeling of the icy coolness on his abused throat.

"You're in pain." Higgins observed quietly as she surreptitiously pressed the call button. Thomas just nodded, the beeping of the heart monitor speaking for him.

"Just breathe through it, man. Like we practiced." TC coached. "In…and out…in…and back out…" He continued like that until the nurse finally arrived with the medication. The relief in Thomas' body was immediate. The awful tension leaked from his shoulders and he sagged tiredly back into the mattress. With the pain gone for the moment, more pressing thoughts surfaced. Panic started to overwhelm him again, but he lacked the strength for a physical reaction. Still, Higgins noticed.

"Thomas? What's wrong?" Her small hand squeezed his.

"The…man." He whispered. "Not…nurse…" Thomas knew his explanation was vague at best, but talking suddenly seemed harder than it should be. Even so, the others seemed to understand. Katsumoto perched on the end of the bed and clapped a hand gently on Thomas' leg.

"We got him, Magnum." He assured. "He's in custody now. He can't hurt you again." Katsumoto paused, glancing guiltily at the floor before continuing. "I'm sorry I didn't figure it out sooner. You kept trying to tell me, but I didn't understand."

"S'not you're fault." Magnum slurred. When he felt he'd made his point, he changed the subject. "How…bad?" He asked. Rick sighed.

"I'm not gonna lie to you, TM. It's not good." Rick quickly ran through the list of injuries Thomas received in the fight with Tran. "And if that wasn't enough, you nearly died from the overdose." At Thomas' confused look, Higgins continued.

"When Tran came after you here in the hospital, he tried to kill you by injecting a massive dose of morphine into your IV line. Katsumoto arrived in time to stop him, but Tran was still able to inject half of the syringe. We nearly lost you." She said quietly.

"Doc says you're gonna be okay, but it's gonna take some time." TC added.

"Home?" Thomas asked hopefully. Rick shook his head.

"Not yet, buddy. You're gonna have to stay here a while, okay? But we'll stay with you." It was disappointing to hear, but Thomas had expected it. In all honesty, he knew he'd never make it out the bed. Even now, he could feel his eyes closing of their own accord.

"Sleep, Magnum. We'll be here when you wake up." She promised as she gently tucked the covers around him.

It was nearly a month before Thomas was able to come home. After weeks stuck within the antiseptic walls of the hospital, he expected to feel comforted when he returned to Robin's Nest. However, as TC pulled through the front gate, Thomas could feel his heart begin to pound uncomfortably in his chest.

"You okay, man?" Rick asked.

"Yeah." Thomas lied.

Climbing out the van was a group effort, requiring both Rick and TC to hoist him down to the pavement. Both men maintained a firm grip on their friend as Thomas worked to overcome the pain and dizziness.

"You good?" TC asked when Thomas finally straightened and tried to shrug out of their grip.

"Never better." Thomas muttered sourly. It wasn't like him to be pessimistic, but something about being back at the estate had him on edge. He was nudged out of his dreary thoughts by the sound of barking. Moments later, Zeus and Apollo came bounding over. Prepared for the worst, Thomas was surprised when they began licking his hands, their tails wagging excitedly.

"Looks like you finally managed to win them over." Higgins mused as she approached the group.

"They're not attacking me…" Thomas said, confusion evident in his voice.

"Surely, not. In fact, they rather seem to like you." She said with a smile, extending her arm as she did so. "Ready?"

"Guess so." If his gloomy demeanor surprised her, Higgins didn't let it show. Instead, she hooked an arm around him and slowly led him toward the house, TC and Rick close behind.

"I've got the guest room all made up for you. I took the liberty of bring over some of your things, pillows and such, so that you can rest a little easier. Kumu was planning on stopping by later to-" They were almost to the front step when Thomas suddenly stopped walking. Juliet looked over and the terrified look in his wide eyed stare caught her off guard. "Magnum? Are you alright?" He said nothing, just stood there, stock still and trembling. Higgins could feel his heart hammering in his chest. She followed his gaze over to the guest house. A dozen or so workmen were busy taking in cleaning supplies and carrying out broken pieces of furniture. Realization dawned on her and she placed a hand on his cheek, gently but firmly turning his face toward hers. "It's over, Thomas." She whispered, loud enough so only he could hear. "He can't hurt you anymore. You're safe here. And you don't ever have to go back in there if you don't want, okay?" Thomas nodded visibly trying to calm himself.

"Okay." He answered, equally as quiet.

"Everything alright?" Rick called from behind them.

"All good, gents." Higgins replied easily, no trace of the previous conversation evident in her tone.

"Hey, Higgy!" Rick greeted jovially as he got out the Ferrari. He had taken to driving to the sportscar while Thomas was laid up. It had been six weeks since the attack and Rick asserted that a car like that would languish if not driven regularly. Privately, he admitted that he simply liked having a piece of his friend with him. Higgins, surprisingly, didn't seem to mind.

"Good morning. Malasadas?" She asked pleasantly, inviting him into the kitchen.

"You're a saint, Higgy. Mahalo!" Juliet chuckled.

"You're an easy man to please."

"What can I say, eighteen months of prison food really helps you appreciate the little things in life." He paused to shove half a donut into his mouth. "Where's our boy?"

"He's on the lanai right now. I thought some sunshine and fresh air would do him good." She led Rick to the large open door and stopped. Rick raised an eyebrow at the sight of Thomas asleep on the couch, a dog on either side. Zeus' head lay in Thomas' lap and Apollo's front paws were draped over his chest.

"Well that's new…you sure it's safe to leave them like that? They haven't always been his biggest fans." Rick remarked cautiously.

"Quite safe. Since the incident, the lads have really taken a shine to Magnum. They've even become rather protective of him. They'll barley leave his side these days. Proof, I guess, of Magnum's uncanny ability to win people over." Juliet explained. Rick laughed quietly.

"You wanted proof, Higgy, all you had to do was look at yourself."