Hope

tags: whump!danny, angst with a happy ending

"Get out of there, Danny."

"Alright." The blonde Detective hung up the phone and started to turn back towards the road. But then a sinking feeling hit Danny hard in the gut and he felt a cool chill creep up his spine. He took out his gun and turned back towards the warehouse with every nerve suddenly on edge and crept forward into the darkness. He stopped at the back corner, aiming his gun towards the sky and took a deep breath before peeking around the wall of the warehouse.

A tall man moved around efficiently in the semi-darkness, more intent on what he was doing than on any concern that he might be interrupted. Danny took one more deep breath to prepare himself before stepping out to aim at the suspect.

"Five-0! Don't move or I'll shoot!" The suspect froze quite calmly and slowly raised his hands, a phone in his right one. Danny leveled his gun on the man and approached him slowly. "Put your phone down very gently," the blonde Detective ordered.

"Alright, Detective." The man said, in an unshakably voice. "I'll put it down. How about right here on this crate in front of me?"

"That's fine."

The suspect lowered it slowly to sit it on the crate. But the man already dialed a number and the explosion threw Danny into a nearby stack of wooden pallets.

ooOoo

Danny wanted to have a son with Steve's eyes. Maybe they could find a surrogate…

The smell of burning wood woke the blonde Detective from the dream… everything hurt and it took Danny a while before he could move and remembered where he was. He looked around but the suspect was gone. Danny got to his feet and searched the ground until he found his gun.

The warehouse, old and dry as it had been, was completely engulfed in flames and Danny could hear the distant sound of sirens. He stumbled towards the crates where the man had been standing and hurried along the backs of the buildings. From the looks of the crates, the suspect hadn't escaped the force of the blast. Danny had no idea how long he'd been out but he hoped his enemy had taken an equal amount of damage.

Blood trickled down into the blonde's eyes and the heat from the burning warehouse was almost too much to bear. Danny was nearly ready to give up in order to escape the dangerous flames when he saw the front end of a white pickup parked on a dirt access road at the other side of an old pharmacy building.

The man limping around the truck probably expected to drive away and disappear into the night while everyone was focused on the flaming buildings behind him. Danny leveled his gun at the man's back. "Stop! You're not going anywhere."

The suspect chuckled. "You couldn't just lay there for a few minutes more, now could ya?"

"I'm afraid not. You have too much to answer for, so turn around slowly." As the suspect turned, Danny regretted his instruction almost instantly when he saw the gun in the man's hand.

ooOoo

The man had never hesitated in his whole life… not for any person or in any situation. So he didn't hesitate now. His first bullet hit the blonde Detective in the side, spinning him away and sending Danny's shot into the back of the old pharmacy which was now burning like a kindred spirit to the warehouse. His second bullet stopped Danny's heart.

The man holstered his gun and climbed into his truck. With any luck, the whole block would go up, either masking or destroying the evidence. He backed out of the little access road and headed out of town.

ooOoo

Chrissie Miller checked her monitors one more time and glanced up when the big double doors swung open. "That's the most well trained man I've ever seen. Who is he?"

Her co-worker Millie chuckled and put a firm hand under Chrissie's chin to close her mouth. "That's Commander McGarrett. He's here every night."

"Oh dear God, Millie, please tell me he doesn't have a girlfriend?"

"Sorry, honey, it's even worse than that. He's Detective Williams husband."

"Oh." A sad look washed over Chrissie's face and she glanced down at the monitor. The readings were stable, but only because machines were helping the blonde man breath.

"It's a sad thing." Millie explained. "He comes in every night and sits there talking' to his husband. He just won't give up."

"I don't know if I'm cut out for this job, Millie. If I have to watch a man like that cry, I think it'll kill me."

Millie gave her a sad smile. "Just remember that for every tragic loss you have to watch, you get to see at least one miracle cure. You have to learn to look forward to the miracles cause they're well worth it. Why don't you go check on Detective Williams? Commander McGarrett's a real nice guy."

Chrissie took a deep breath and put on a pleasantly professional smile before walking into the blonde man's room. The Commander was sitting next to his husband's bed talking to him quietly.

"Hi there. I'm Chrissie Miller. I'm Detective Williams' nurse this shift." She shook the Commander's hand, then washed hers and checked the blonde's IV.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Commander Steve McGarrett, Danny's husband. How did he do today?"

She smiled. "He did just fine. His daughter and his sister came to sit with him for a long time this afternoon. His vitals are stable." She put on her more serious nurse face, "Of course he's still unresponsive."

Steve nodded, smiling down at the blonde man in the bed, hopefully. It'd been six weeks since Danny was found without a pulse behind a burning building. It was uncertain how long he'd been there before he was found and he'd been on life support since they brought him in. She honestly didn't think he would hold on much longer, but she didn't know how to say something like that to a patient's loved ones.

"You just let me know if you need anything."

"Okay, we will."

Chrissie walked back out to the nurses' station and put her head down on her arms. Millie patted her on the back. "That's about the saddest thing I've ever seen."

"It takes some folks a while to let 'em go."

ooOoo

Steve leaned over to kiss Danny's cold fingers as tears ran down his cheeks. "You gotta wake up soon, Danny, cause I think I can love nobody else."

There was the gentlest pressure on his fingers and Steve raised his head, his eyes suddenly wide. "What was that?"

He felt it again.

ooOoo

Chrissie watched the monitors at the nurses' station as suddenly the Commander raced to the door of the Detective's room, slipping on the polished tiles and nearly falling. 'Oh dear God,' she thought. 'Not tonight."

She hurried over to catch the Commander's arm expecting some problem that might finally signal the end and closure for the blonde man's family. But the tears running down the Commander's cheeks were the tears of desperate hope and he was smiling… a beautiful smile.

"He squeezed my hand!"

"What?!"

"I told him I can't love nobody else but him and he squeezed my hand!"