Who the duck is Alice?

Disclaimer – not my characters or premise, no money is being made from this story

Warnings – mild potty mouth

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Tani let herself quietly into Steve's house, in case Junior had managed to get their boss to actually sleep. She'd had a 911 text from Junior only ten minutes ago, saying Steve was sick and her partner needed back up.

They'd had a suspect that had coughed all over the team, or at least the arresting officers and interrogators, which was Steve and Lou. They'd called a doctor to look at the suspect, who'd diagnosed strep throat and possibly some sort of 'flu. Lou had claimed that as a dad, he was immune to such things, but he'd gone home early looking a bit pale. Steve had seemed fine, but whatever it was had apparently hit not long after he'd gotten home. Now it was 9:30 at night and Junior was calling for reinforcements. Not that Tani was sure what her partner expected. She cared, but she was no nurse.

"Hey," Junior met her at the top of the stairs with an empty plastic bottle, "Can you get some more water?"

"Sure," Tani took the bottle from her frazzled partner, "How is he?"

"High fever, really restless, and he keeps asking for someone, but I'm not sure who," Junior frowned, "He keeps wanting his laptop. I wish Danny was here."

Danny had gone to LA to testify in a case that he had worked on with NCIS. He had a late flight back to Hawaii, and would be at the airport, waiting to board.

"Have you called him?" it seemed an obvious solution to Tani, but Junior was a bit more hesitant around Danny. The man was not a Navy SEAL, but McGarrett called him partner for a good reason, and the two newest members of the unit were quick to realise that Danny's ability to read people and situations was unparalleled on the team.

"Do you think I should?" Junior asked, "I don't want to bother him."

"Call him," Tani ordered, "I'll be right back."

There was a cold bottle of water on the fridge, so Tani refilled the empty and swapped them out. By the time she entered Junior was talking to Danny with the phone on speaker, and Steve kept trying to take it from him. Tani refilled the empty glass next to Steve's bed as Junior finished listing symptoms.

"Is someone with you?" Danny asked, when Junior fell quiet.

"Yeah, I'm here too," Tani replied, trying to get Steve to drink some water.

"Good. One of you needs to go to that all-night pharmacy around the corner and get some stuff for me, the other can stay with Steve," Danny directed, "And am I on speaker?"

"Yeah Danny," Junior replied, "I've got a pen and paper, what do you want me to get?"

Danny listed off medications for Junior to fetch, and Tani swapped phones with her partner as the man hurried off to the pharmacy. Steve was still making uncoordinated swipes at the phone, and Tani gave in to him, passing it over. The croak he made was obviously meant to be a greeting of some sort, but it made no sense to Tani at all.

"You sound awful," Danny's voice was amused, "You better not be giving the kids a hard time."

"Hey!" Tani protested, more because it was expected, than because she was offended. She knew Steve and Danny called them 'the kids': both men had made a point of offering training and past experiences to herself and Junior. Steve's face was a picture of remorse though, so the comment clearly had the intended affect.

Danny talked his partner into lying down and finishing the water that Tani had poured for him, then lowered his voice and started talking to Steve about the court case he had just testified in. Steve, for his part, put the phone on the pillow next to his ear and closed his eyes. Danny had a unique rasp to his voice, a function of accent as much as anything else, and at this low register it was a comforting sound. For the twenty minutes that Junior was gone, Danny spoke quietly and Steve just listened.

Junior returned with the medications and took the phone back from Steve, who swiped clumsily at him and knocked the empty glass over. Fortunately, it didn't break. Danny talked them through setting up and using the digital thermometer, prepping the soluble painkiller he'd recommended, as well as the electrolyte mix, and then talked Steven into taking both in slow sips to avoid abusing his already sore throat.

"You'll need to keep an eye on his temperature," Danny told Tani as Junior rescued the finally empty glass, "If it hits 104, he needs the hospital."

"Got it," Tani replied, "I'm going to pass you back to him, he's getting restless again."

Steve settled once the phone was back in his possession, croaking something at it. Danny sounded surprised, but continued to talk quietly to his sick partner.

"What do we do when Danny has to hang up?" Junior asked quietly as he wrung out the wet cloth Danny had instructed him to prep and laid it over Steve's throat, careful not to drip water on his phone.

"Hopefully the painkiller will have taken his fever down enough for him to sleep," Tani sighed, "I am not looking forward to fighting with him for the six hours of travel time that Danny has ahead of him."

Steve did seem to be falling asleep though, or at least dozing, which helped when Danny raised his voice to get Junior's attention.

"They're calling my gate," Danny said, "I'm gonna have to go. You said he wanted his laptop earlier?"

"Yeah," Junior frowned, "Why?"

"There is a file on there, a video file," Danny sighed, "It might help to settle him if you need it. He keeps it in a folder called Alice, and the name of the file is 'song'. Try playing if for him if he wakes up again. He can have the painkillers again four hours after the first dose. Keep him hydrated and keep the cloths on his neck cool – they'll help with the discomfort. Check his temperature every hour, and if it's climbing more often than that. I'll be there by 7 am, so good luck. Call an ambulance if you need to though."

"Copy that," Junior nodded, looking at their dozing boss. He really did look awful, really pale with a hectic flush overlaying it, sweating and red eyed.

"Have a good flight, Danny," Tani added and he thanked her before hanging up. Junior exchanged wide eyed looks and Tani didn't blame him. She felt like a babysitter with a sick kid, whose parents were out of town.

"I'm going to find that file," Tani decided and set up the laptop. It wasn't too hard in the end, the Alice folder was on the desktop and although there were hundreds of files in there, only one was labelled 'song'. Junior brought some chairs up from the dining table and they settled in beside Steve's bed, talking quietly for a couple of hours while Steve dozed and coughed. He got really restless at 3 am though and Tani put the laptop on the bedside table and clicked play on the file Danny had mentioned. Steve shifted in the bed so he was facing the screen and watched it with half lidded eyes, blinking slowly.

On the screen, a picture of grass, with someone's feet, came up. The camera was clearly attached to something, and it was pointing forward, but mostly down. Whatever it was attached to jerked, and then the sound of running and human effort started, followed by a grunt as whoever was behind the camera launched themselves off a sudden cliff. There was the sound of wind and the camera showed the land rushing below the flier as they wheeled slowly and gained height.

"It's a hang-glider," Junior realised. On the bed, Steve was relaxing slowly. Tani jumped when Danny's voice grumbled from the laptop.

"The things I do for you, partner," followed by, "You'd better not show this to anyone."

There was silence for a while longer, and then Danny started… humming. Sort of. It was hard to tell. There was a definite tune to it, but very random. Tani glanced at Steve, and then nudged Junior. Steve was practically asleep, one hand resting on the bedside table next to the laptop. As random and odd as the 'tune' seemed to them, Steve obviously attached some meaning to it.

Getting the next round of Danny-mandated-fluids into Steve was a lot easier. They kept the video on repeat, and while Tani found the humming a little grating, it seemed to make things better for the boss. Junior clearly didn't like the noise much at all, but tolerated it for the sake of their reluctant patient, who was still and calm, apart from the occasional coughing fit.

Junior roused at 7am, and moments later Tani heard the front door again, followed by a bag being put down and footsteps on the stairs. A travel rumpled Danny appeared, with a bag of groceries in one arm and a bag of pastries in the other.

"These are for you," Danny murmurs and passes the pastries over. There are coffees at the bottom of the bag and Tani sighs in pleasure after her first sip. Junior takes the groceries and Danny goes to check on Steve, getting a drowsy croak from him. Danny grins and leaves the computer running its video before turning to look at the both of them.

"When's he due for the next lot of medication?" he asks quietly, and Tani glances at her phone.

"Half an hour," she replies. Junior comes back up from putting away the groceries and reclaims his cup, taking a satisfied bite of his pastry as well. Danny grins at them and makes shooing gestures, joining them out on the landing.

"I'll stay with him for now. You should both sleep here though, no sense in getting into a wreck when you've been up all night. Get a couple of hours, then if you're up to it, you should go home," Danny touches Tani's arm and smiles gratefully, "Thanks for looking after him."

"He's not been too bad," Junior concedes, "But if we can turn that video off, I'd sleep better."

Danny sniggers and nods, "Done deal. Get some sleep you two. I've let Duke know you're not going to be in until lunch at the earliest, he'll pass it on to Adam and Quinn, and Lou if he makes it."

"Lou says he's immune, because he's a dad," Tani grumbles, looking forward to getting some sleep.

"That's a myth," Danny informs her and goes back in to Steve. The humming soundtrack cuts out, and she and Junior have a brief moment of argument about couch vs sharing the spare bed, which Junior wins and they both head to the spare room.

Tani wakes up at 1pm with a killer sore throat and horrible headache. Junior is no better off, and when they both stagger out looking for something to drink Danny takes one look at them and sends them back to bed. He comes in after a few minutes with cold cloths, his special blend of painkiller and electrolytes and fusses over them until they've drunk it down and laid back down to rest. Tani can hear him on the landing, talking to Adam, telling their team mate that 'the kids have succumbed to it too'. Lou has also apparently gone down for the count, and taken his family with him, but Tani falls asleep before she can hear Danny's reaction to that bad news.

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In the end, Danny doesn't even get sick. Steve very kindly moves downstairs to the couch once his fever has broken, giving Tani her own bed. Danny does the rounds of medications, cool cloths and kind words for all three of them. He's a lot more patient than Tani would be with Juniors stubborn desire to nurse himself (although she suspects that Danny threatens her partner with an old-fashioned spanking if he doesn't settle down and behave, which surprisingly works). He also shows a surprising level of understanding of girl modesty – at least surprising until she remembers he has a daughter, who he has cared for through various childhood illnesses.

They stay in quarantine until Danny is sure they are past the contagious stage though. Adam and Quinn bring groceries and leave them at the door, with Danny supplying the lists (and, Tani suspects, the money). It's only a week, and surprisingly Tani is not ready to kill the men of the house at the end of it. Quinn had bought her some fresh clothes and things, which helped, and Junior does a round of laundry once he's feeling better, so no one is dragging dirty clothes home.

At Danny's request, the night before they all go home, they sit down outside for a meal, enjoying the last of the evening sun. Danny cooks them a pasta meal, he's actually very good at it, and they sit outside once their plates are empty, talking in a desultory kind of way. Danny falls asleep at the end of the table and Steve skooshes over to let his partner lean on him. Tani feels a little bad that Danny looks so tired, even when asleep. He'd really gone above and beyond for them.

"Steve, I gotta ask," Junior says, once it is established that their voices won't wake their soon to be ex-nurse, "What was with that video of Danny's humming you wanted to watch? And why is it in a folder named Alice?"

Steve grins at them both, and Tani leans in, sensing they're about to learn a bit more about Danny that he would not think to pass on himself.

"He wears an Alice band, when he flies. It keeps the hair out of his eyes," Steve tells them, "Grace gave the first one to him. When it wore out, Kono found him another: it's blue with pink spots on it. He's about due for a new one."

Tani sniggers and immediately starts planning to go shopping for an Alice band this weekend. Maybe something floral.

"As for the singing," Steve shrugged the shoulder his partner wasn't sleeping on, "Danny told me once that the reason he flies is because of how the wind sings to him. He said it blows all the bad away. A few years ago, I bought him a top-of-the-line unit he could strap to his rig – it would record sound as well – because I wanted to see if I could hear what he heard."

"Could you?" Junior asked curiously, and Steve frowned.

"Not the same way he did. I bugged him about it a few times, and in the end, he said he'd try and vocalise what he heard," Steve grinned, "Resulting in that video. Gracie and I have been banned from posting that online. He knows where I sleep, so…."

Tani shook her head, ignoring the threat (that is really no threat, Danny would never hurt Steve) to focus on the more important things, "Are there other videos?"

"About ten years' worth, all online on a site that Grace designed for a school project in grade one," Steve grins, "He's even had scientists contact him about the videos, mainly botanists or marine biologists. He followed a pod of whales once, every day for a week while he was off work, which got a whole bunch of people interested as well. Now that he can record sound, sometimes he talks about what he's seeing, especially if there is something unusual below."

Tani pulls her browser up on her phone, and Steve tells her how to find Danny's site. There are a lot of videos there.

Months later, when Danny is missing and she can't sleep, Tani pulls up one of Danny's videos with sound and lets the wind noises rush over her. In her memory there is still the sound of the tune that Danny hummed for Steve and it carries her off to sleep.

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