A/N: Thank you for reading and reviewing.
Chapter 2: Missed calls.
Steve needed space and healing. For some time now, aggravated recently by Joe´s and his mother´s deaths, he felt the need to seek some peace, for his body, for his mind and for his soul. He thought travelling would help. Go away some time; see new places; meet new cultures; refresh his mind and his thoughts. Make his spirit grow and so be able to overgrow the pain that made his heart ache. And then he would come back to his ohana in Hawaii, completely free of the burden that constantly put a frown on his face. In the meantime, it would be nice to travel free; without responsibilities; without a time schedule to stick to; without cases and people depending on his skills to save their lives. That would do him good, and it was going great. For just being the first week, he was happier, having fun, enjoying his free time. Maybe that´s all he needed, a long vacation, to clear his head. He had one big `problem´ though, that keeps making pressure to his heart and resurfacing constantly as unease at any unpredicted moment: Danny.
His heart felt oppressed any time he thought of his brother, whom in his desperation to seek peace he had left behind having barely walked out of the hospital after almost losing his life. The guilt he felt seeing him suffer to get up and walk, seeing his face beaten up and stitched, had increased his desire to put his troubled mind in order; aggravated his ongoing stress and catapulted his thoughts that made his heart ache because everyone close to him always suffered. Only after making completely sure that Danny would be accompanied and absolutely taken care of in every aspect of his recovery, Steve gave himself permission to wander away in search of whatever he thought would make him good. But this search was constantly tainted by his mind and heart going back to Danny, and so, in his constant need to check on him, he started to call his friend every Hawaiian night to take note on his progress and make sure he was ok.
The day after he left, Steve couldn´t take his mind off the worry for his partner and called him. Obviously, Danny has been taken by surprise, Steve could tell by his tone and the long pauses Danny made while apparently trying to digest the sudden situation he had found himself into: talking with his best friend, much more sooner than he had expected. The detective knew they would communicate sooner than later, but just the second day after the departure, he did not see it coming. He also thought that he would be the one pressing the call button, and the fact that it was Steve who took the initiative and in so short notice made him happy. And Steve, for his part, took delight in hearing the enthusiasm that Danny´s voice displayed as he told him that Grace and Charlie would come to stay with him at the weekend and how much he would enjoy it. The Commander´s guilty heart was somehow comforted every time by just listening to his friend. Danny seemed ok, and was well taken care of and accompanied, so, encouraged by this fact and that hearing Danny´s voice put what it was needed to completely ease his spirit, Steve chose to call him every night.
But this night Danny didn´t answer his three call intents and it worried him. Forgetting in his nervousness that Danny has moved back to his own house, he called Junior. The young man was apparently not close to his phone because he picked up in the third attempted call. The delay made Steve to conjecture dark hypothesis and he was almost despairing when Junior picked up the call. He was clueless of anything regarding Danny, so Steve hurriedly thanked him anyway and then immediately tried another source. He called Lou and, for his sake, he answered the phone right away.
"Steve" Lou knew that the two friends have been communicating, so it didn´t surprise him that Steve called him when obviously the deeply asleep Danny didn´t pick up the phone.
"Hey Lou…" The ex-swat could tell just by listening to the pause that Steve wanted to ask directly about Danny but was arguing with the fact that it would be rude not greeting him first. So Lou smiled at how his friend managed to take care of both things asking at once. "How are you? Do you know where Danny is?"
"Yes I certainly do. He´s on his bed, sleeping soundly" Lou kept his tone light and carefree, washing some of Steve´s worries away.
"Is that late? I´m sorry…" Answering absently, it was obvious that Steve was checking the hour and calculating, wherever it was that he was at.
"No, it's ok, it´s just that he was totally spent, you know, with his kids here and everything. So he went to bed early" Doubting about revealing the next info or not, he chose to not let the detail out. "And he forgot to take his meds so, he was a bit groggy for a moment. But he´s resting now".
"Groggy, how…?"
"He was a little bit in pain, obviously. Throw up a little. He overdid it, you know who we´re talking about, but he´s resting now, so don´t you worry, next time he wakes he´ll be as good as new" Lou minimized the extent of the pain and the vomiting because he could feel, even through the phone, the anxiety and worry emanating from Steve.
"Ok…but, he´s ok, now…" The guilt and insecurity in Steve´s voice was heart-wrenching.
"Yes of course he is. Listen to me, weren´t you supposed to be resting and forgetting or something?" Wrong choice of word, and Lou realized it as soon as it escaped his mouth.
"I am NOT travelling to FORGET any of you! I didn´t went away to…"
"I know and I´m sorry I said that. My bad ok? I just wanted to say that you should be doing some healing, and worrying like that won´t help, I believe".
A loud sigh at the other side, followed by a pause.
"I know Lou. I´m sorry I jumped at you like that, it´s just that it is killing me that he´s still hurting, you know? It stabs me every-time I remember".
"Which is more than once a day, I can assure that with more than 100% of chances of being right".
"Yeah" Steve´s assumption came low and in a very guilty voice.
"But you don't have to. He´s all right, his wound is healing nicely, no infection, clean and taken care of; so take your mind again back with you and stop worrying. This was just an isolated misfortune due to him forgetting to take his meds and overdoing it a little, nothing else. I´m sure that as soon as he sees your missed calls he´ll call you back so keep your phone with you and wait for it, but stop worrying".
"I will. Thank you Lou" Speaking with Lou brought ease to his heart. Steve knew that the ex-Swat was the one helping Danny with exercises and cleaning and taking care of the wounds, both in front and on the back of the shoulder, and if the wounds were healing nicely, it was a very good sign. So he´ll try to relax a little bit, and wait until Danny called him back, because he knew he would.