Authors Note: Tag to 7x22 (What happened after the fight with Lee Campbell) This was supposed to be a one-shot, but now it is a two-parter. I hope you don't mind :) I don't own anyhing and hope the writers and the holder of rights don't mind either.

Chapter1

Finally – the fight was over. Lee Campbell was impaled by a piece of rebar. It hadn't been Steve's intention to do that, but when it was done he stared at his opponent until his eyes went dead – the threat was over.
And then he felt his own adrenalin fade – he had to sit down. Then he felt exhaustion and pain – he had to lie down.
He looked around – nobody there who wanted to harm him and even if, Steve wasn't sure he could have done anything about it. Lee had put up a good fight and a lot of punches had found their mark not to mention he had thrown him through a glass-door first.
Steve could deal with the pain, but he felt like he had no strength left.
'Maybe it had something to do with getting deprived of oxygen,' he thought when he remembered how Campbell had his head wrapped in construction foil, trying to suffocate him and later on choked him with a piece of rebar.
'Just need a moment, only a minute. Then I have to check on the team. Can't hear any gunfight, so they have finished their job anyway.'
He closed his eyes.

The team checked if everyone of their enemies was either dead or out of action and cuffed the latter before noticing that Steve still wasn't back with them.
They left the perps to the HPD-Officers and took off in the direction their leader had been seen last.

And they could follow his path easily: A knocked over market stand, a smashed glass-door, blood on the floor and a dead Campbell.
And then they saw Steve: on the floor, on his back, with several bleeding wounds on his head, dirty clothes and out like a light.
Danny could see that his best friend was breathing, but he rushed to his side anyway. He was concerned by Steve's passivity on their entry. The passiveness changed when Danny kneeled down beside him. Steve had only sensed someone, but being unconscious for a few minutes didn't make him recognize Danny's voice right away. He didn't feel the need to react, but that changed when he got touched. He tried to defend himself and struck out, but his movements were sluggish and the hits not aimed, so he didn't do any harm.
Danny grabbed Steve's flailing arms and held him by his wrists.
"Stop fighting, Steve. It's us. You are safe. Campbell and his friends are either dead or in custody. It's over."
Steve was still totally dazed, but recognized the voice and stopped fighting and when his vision finally cleared enough to see Danny, he said "Sorry, must have fallen asleep. I am good now."
"Yeah, looks like it," Danny answered sarcastically, noticing the still unfocused eyes of his friend.
Steve tried to sit up, but as soon as he raised his head, he felt dizzy, his vision got blurry again and he felt pain in almost every part of his body. He lacked the strength of sitting up higher as well as even holding himself in the position he was in and fell back. Thankfully, Danny had noticed his friend's distress and had put one his hands at the back of Steve's head, preventing it from hitting the hard floor.
"I think it is better you stay down. Ambulance is already on the way."
"'kay," Steve closed his eyes again.
"And you have to stay awake. Look at me, talk to me."
"Don't worry. Just resting my eyes. Head…head hurts."
"I can imagine that. Looks like you got a few hits there. Anything else that hurts?"
Steve didn't answer.
Danny nudged his friend's shoulder carefully.
"Hey! Steve! Come one."
"'eard…you. 'on't wann…talk. 'urts. 'verywhere."
"Okay. Then squeeze my hand every few seconds, so I know you are still with me. Can you do that?"
"…'kay," he squeezed Danny's hand.
"How long for the EMT's?" Danny asked Chin.
"Looks like they have just arrived," he answered seeing them enter through the broken glass-door.

Danny had sat in a hospital waiting room a lot of times, waiting for news about an injured or sick friend, co-worker or family member. But he knew he could do that a thousand times more and he would still hate it. Waiting wasn't one of his strong suits.
The rest of the team had already joined him, but that hadn't helped his restlessness. He had started to pace the room ten minutes ago. Grover had tried to talk to him, saying that pacing wouldn't make things go faster.
"Sit down and relax."
But Danny needed to move and didn't listen to the captain.
It took another twenty minutes of waiting and pacing though before someone came out.
Danny didn't even leave the doctor time to introduce himself, he just demanded answers.
"Please, calm down detective. Your friend will be fine. But he has to stay here over night. We need to monitor him. We'll do another examination tomorrow morning. Then we will decide if he can be discharged or if we'll extend his stay."
"Why? What is wrong?"
"Nothing life threatening, if he listens to our instructions. He has a lot of bruises all over his body including a slightly bruised kidney and heavily bruised upper jaw. He also has some cuts on his face, but the reason we are keeping him here is a severe concussion and a broken cheekbone. Thankfully, it is a clean break and the bones hadn't shifted. That means we can avoid surgery.
But it still is a serious and very painful injury and if he isn't careful the bones can still shift, even after a few days, making surgery necessary then.
And that means even if we can discharge him tomorrow, he needs someone by his side for about a week or two who can support him with some basics like cooking, making him drink and eat enough and taking his meds."
'He's gonna like that very much,' Danny thought, but he knew he would be able to convince Steve to let him stay with him, because the alternative would be the hospital.

Steve had vomited twice during his examination in the ER and once the next morning, but other than that his stay had been uneventful. It's been two days since his arrival. The attending doctor had just checked him over and had been satisfied with what he had seen.
Of course, Steve had wanted to go home and the doctor had been OK with it after the SEAL had promised to follow the instructions to the detail and Danny had reassured him that he would see to it that Steve would keep his promise.

Although Danny had tried his best to drive slowly and carefully, Steve had noticed every single bump in the road. Despite the medication he was on, it had sent spikes of pain through his skull.
It wasn't a long drive, but Steve was relieved when it was over.
The short ride had exhausted him even more. He wanted nothing but to lie down and rest.
Danny needed to help him out of the car and supported him on the way to the house. They made it inside, but then the SEAL's energy was wasted and he needed to rest on the couch.
"Just a few minutes 'anny."
"You don't need to go upstairs. We agreed to the guestroom."
"I know. 's too far. Just a min'te. Please."
Danny wanted his friend to be in a real bed, but the pleading voice and the fact that Steve was slurring the words again made him relent.
"Okay." He helped his friend to sit down, then he went to the kitchen to get some water.
He put a filled glass in Steve's hand.
"Drink this. Slowly."
Steve did. When he was finished, he said "Thanks, Danny. I think we can go now."
They walked very slowly and when they had reached the bed, Steve was happy that he could sit down again.
He changed his shirt on his own, but needed some help from Danny with his shoes and cargo pants. Bending down was not his friend at the moment. When he was lying flat, he closed his eyes and waited for the sleep to claim him – which didn't take long.
Danny adjusted the blanket and left the room, but the door ajar. Then he went upstairs and got some stuff Steve would need like fresh clothes, towels, toothbrush etc.
He had his arms full and was about to leave the room when he heard the front door close and a female voice calling "Steve?"
Danny went to the top of the stairs and couldn't believe it.
"Mary?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Wow. What a warm welcome. I can ask you too. And what are you doing upstairs?"
"Does Steve know you were coming?"
"No, I wanted to surprise him."
"Well, I think it worked out."
Danny descended the stairs. It was only then that Mary noticed the items Danny was carrying. She put two and two together and paled, asking with panic in her voice "What happened Danny? How bad is it?"
"Calm down, Mary. He's…"
"He is my brother, Danny…and the only one I have left. Don't…don't lie to me."
"I won't. Please calm down, lower you voice and have a seat. He's going to be fine."
"Okay," Mary answered still skeptical, but sat down.
"Where…where is he. What happened?"
"He is in the guest room – asleep. He got hurt during a fight, but as I said he will be fine. He just needs some rest and he has to take it easy for a few weeks."
"Can I see him?"
"Of course, you can. But don't wake him. We just came home from the hospital and he was pretty exhausted. And don't worry, it looks much worse than it is."
Despite Danny's warning, Mary still had to gasp at the sight of her brother. His knuckles were red and raw, he had a deep cut on the right side of his forehead almost reaching the hairline which had required stitches. Another cut on the left side above his eyebrow. Both areas around the wounds were swollen. But she had noticed all of that only after she had taken some time to really look at Steve. The only thing that she had realized right away was the left part of Steve's face. The eye was swollen shut and the area around it down to his upper jaw was ablaze with color. It stood out like a fly on a wedding cake and the pale skin of the rest of his face didn't make it any better. She needed a few minutes to collect herself before she returned to the living room.
She looked at Danny and said "He looks awful, Danny. Shouldn't he be in a hospital?"
"The doctor said it is okay for him to stay at home as long as he stays to the protocol. And I am here to make sure he does. And if he gets worse or he develops a fever, we are supposed to come back immediately. So, everything is covered."
"What about his eye?"
"It's fine. The swelling is coming from the broken cheekbone. It is supposed to go down the next few days. But the bone needs about four weeks to heal. That means he has to be careful. No swimming or running or anything else during that time."
"The bruising on Steve's throat…did…did the guy try to kill Steve?"
Danny sighed.
"Yeah, he did. But he wasn't successful – thankfully."
"I hope Steve had hurt him too."
"Yeah, he did," Danny confirmed.
"Good. I hope it hurts a lot!" Mary blurted out in anger.
"I am sure it did," Danny said, shortly having the picture of the impaled Campbell flashing before his eyes.
Thankfully, Mary didn't ask any more questions.