I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: many thanks to all who are continuing to hang in there to read this story. And to Phoebe who always manages to fit my twiddles in!
H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O
Danny roused as a kiss was pressed to his forehead, then another barely touching his lips. He'd been moved from the ICU to a regular room that morning with a projected release of just the very next day. He'd been dosing in the quieter setting. Enjoying the light streaming through the one window. But as Steve lay his hand on Danny's forearm, he inhaled deeply and then smiled as he caught a teasing freshness of sun mixed with sea-tinged saltiness. He turned his head just enough, eyes still closed to lazily return Steve's next kiss.
"You don't really want to get married in a hospital?" Steve murmured softly in Danny's ear as he pressed his lips to Danny's cheek. "Do you?" The gentle sigh of words carried the hint of a smile and Danny spoke a simple truth.
"For you I would," he whispered. "And for our boys."
"I love you, you know." Steve's voice held a happy, wistful tone and Danny opened his eyes more, his smile growing as Steve's face came into focus. "Hey." Steve added as he studied Danny with a circumspect eye. "You look better."
"Home tomorrow," Danny said with a pleased smile which became doting when Steve's face brightened with delight.
"So, no time to get married anyway," Steve chuckled, incapable of stopping himself from leaning forward to plant another kiss on the side of Dany's head.
"Well, at least not here. We'd only have time between jello cups and who wants to do that? It wouldn't be ... decent."
Steve's chuckled turned into a quiet baritone laugh. "Well, I'm all for decency, Daniel." Steve raised an eyebrow, mastering an expression that incomprehensibly was both charming and yet fraught with a devilish undercurrent.
"Are you now?" Danny grinned as Steve feathered his fingers lightly down his arm, ending at the soft juncture of his wrist. Their fingers met, gently intertwining and Danny sighed happily. "You're a goof," he whispered while he studied Steve, happy that he was feeling better and soon to go home. The longer he stared at Steve though, the more confused he became. Steve was close to his hip, sitting hunched over and slightly canted and that was ... wrong.
Danny blinked himself further awake as he tried to figure it all out. His smile quickly became a sideways frown. He refused to release Steve's hand when his partner tried to pull away. Instead, Danny tugged Steve just a bit closer for a better look.
"What's wrong with you?"
"What? Why? Me?" Steve's expression was that of pure innocence as he tried to straighten his posture and hitched midway. He cleared his throat nervously as Danny studied him from head to toe and then back again. He scowled when Danny let go of his hand only to thumb the bed higher. "Take it easy. I'm fine, Danny."
Danny hummed a distracted negative sound. A dusty memory poked at him. Snippets of sound echoed in his head. Shadows that moved too fast, revolved aimlessly in his mind's-eye. He knew these things were scattered images of what had happened after he'd been shot, but he just couldn't remember anything more.
"What's wrong to your arm or is it your shoulder? What the hell happened?" Angered by his own daftness because days had gone by and not once had he thought if Steve might have been injured, Danny poked at the remote even harder. His neck and head twinged in pain as each objected to the change in position but he needed to see. Softly complaining about his body's woes, he pointed to Steve's left arm which was loosely slung to his chest. He was sure that hadn't been there before ... so just maybe ... this was a new injury? But no, that didn't compute either.
"Fine? When an appendage is fine, Steven, it's not normally strapped to one's body." Perturbed, Danny adopted a long sarcastic drawl. "Care to explain this particular accessory?"
"Travers," Steve explained tersely. Danny's expression darkened. Days had gone by and not once had he'd been made aware of Steve's injuries. Something else angered him though: the mere mention of the felon's name. Dead or not, Danny had zero interest in hearing it ever again and now saw fit to state precisely that.
"First, let's make one brand new vow, all right? That name never gets mentioned in our home ever again," Danny said.
"Fair enough," Steve concurred.
"Secondly ..." It was Danny's turn to raise an eyebrow when Steve visibly winced at the change in this tone. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Danny's ire piqued, made worse when Steve's lips twitched upwards to smile. "This isn't funny. I didn't know," Danny complained more about his own obtuseness as he eyed the sling suspiciously and the way Steve's left shoulder dipped painfully downwards. He absolutely didn't recall seeing that the day before, but then again, Danny hadn't actually been all that aware during Steve's initial visits.
"Why didn't I know?"
"Hey," Steve soothed. "You were in the ICU for a reason. You didn't know because I felt you didn't need to know ..."
"I didn't need to know!" Danny interrupted loudly. "But… Steve ...!"
"No." Steve managed to sit upright, his expression stern. "You absolutely did not need the added stress."
Danny made a face, disgruntled by the short explanation but knowing he'd not be able to make a valid point. "Fine," he groused. "But I know you weren't in a sling yesterday."
"You're right. I wasn't." Steve heaved a patient sigh as he scooped Danny's hand back up. "I tried to go without the sling for a few days. I tried to go for an easy swim to loosen things up and it's just sore."
"A light swim?" Danny shook his head in disbelief. Steve would try to swim. It was part of his DNA. However and because he was always on the move, he'd never just opt to wear something that restricted his activity - not out of the blue. He simply wasn't wired that way. Something else had to be wrong - something else clearly had to have happened - like this light swim hadn't been so light and Danny's face scrunched up. He opened his mouth to ask but Steve suddenly began to look sheepish as he fidgeted and released Danny's hand to try and adjust the wide strap which covered his shoulder. Intrigued by the change in attitude, Danny decided to wait him out.
"Well," Steve heaved out a long-suffering sigh. "I got caught coming out of the water."
"Got caught?" He slammed his mouth shut because he wanted to know by who. He had to wait this out; it was no doubt going to be a good explanation. Needless to say though, it had been the swim which aggravated Steve's injuries and it took all of Danny's internal strength to keep his mouth closed now.
"Yeah," Steve breathed out with another fidget. He glanced up into Danny's face, waiting for the anticipated rant but Danny refused to say a single word. Made more uncomfortable by this new level of silence, Steve looked at the bed next, then the window where he seemed to find an interesting cloud in the sky. Tapping at Steve's hand to get him to continue, Danny pursed his lips when their eyes met for a second time.
He bit his lip as he rotated a let's go finger in the air while forcing himself to stay silent. The half-grin that Steve gave him was a sickly one at best. Still, Danny could never have guessed what Steve was going to say next.
"Well. Like I said, I got caught coming out of the water … and Grace? She was not impressed … she made me wear this stupid thing. She made me wear the sling and she made me promise that I wouldn't take it off for the entire day."
"Grace? She caught you?" Startled by this unexpected admission, Danny snorted an inglorious nasal sound that was half laugh. Now that made sense! Steve's expression was now one of hopeless embarrassment.
"She's your kid, Danno. Through and through."
H5O* H5O
"I'm getting Grace," Charlie said as he got up from where he'd been sitting across from C.J.
C.J. made a face and stayed where he was sitting on the floor in their bedroom. He was upset and had wanted this to be a special surprise for everyone, but he knew Charlie was right; they needed help. They needed Grace.
Hours and hours had gone by. Charlie had made lots of funny faces at him, trying to show him how his tongue worked. He'd let C.J. hold his fingers to his throat. They'd tried to use a mirror to copy each other. They had tried and tried but nothing had worked right. Charlie was getting just as upset - mad even - and he'd given up. What had started out as a fun game was hard work and he just couldn't do what C.J.'s speech therapist might do.
No matter how hard he tried, Charlie couldn't help him get it right and C.J. was desperate and on the verge of tears. As Charlie left him alone, his breathing hitched and he itched at his nose. Daddy would say to keep trying. Except this certain word was super harder and he just couldn't get his mouth or his tongue to work the right way. Charlie didn't know what to do and neither did he.
C.J. looked up when Grace came into his bedroom and immediately felt his tears welling back.
'I can't do it,' he signed, lips quivering until his big sister held up her hand like a stop sign.
"Yes you can. Charlie told me and we can do it!" Grace said, beaming a beautiful smile down at him. She pointed to him and then tapped her mouth.
"Show me. Tell me what you can do, C.J. … and I'll help."
Then she dropped to her knees across from him. C.J. shrugged, unhappy and now not sure she could help him at all. Grace sat just where Charlie had been sitting for so long and held her arms out to him when he shook his head to say no, feeling sad.
'I can't,' he repeated the simple sign but Grace covered his fingers with her hand and he looked into her face. She was still smiling.
"Yes you can. Give me a hug first, okay?" She said as she pulled him towards her. C.J. let himself get tucked into her arms. He knew that she was talking to him because he could feel her breathing. He didn't know what she was saying until she ducked her head down to him, her lips moving slowly and her one hand making that one special sign he'd been working so hard on trying to say out loud. Her smile was as big as ever and C.J. had to smile too.
"C.J.? I'm going to help you say Danno."
~ to be continued ~
