Author's note: Mele Kalikimaka! Here is the next instalment. The next chapter shouldn't be far behind. Again, thank you to everyone who reviews, I think that I would probably given up without you.

Throughout the night Steve continued to come in and out of consciousness. Danny had refused to leave his side. Every time he would come to he seemed to be confused and frightened. They all hated seeing him like this. But it was Danny who was finding it most distressing

But, as Danny kept telling himself, he just had to suck it up and get on with the job at hand. After all, he had no doubts that Steve would be right there with him if the tables were turned. So he just kept talking him though it.

The neuro specialist assured the team that he would be awake and more cognisant by the next day. Which was when the really hard part was going to begin.

H50H50H50H50H50H50

It was Monday afternoon, almost twenty-four hours had passed since he first came out of the medical coma. That morning, the team finally gotten word that Catherine had been granted shore leave and would be arriving back in to Honolulu on Tuesday afternoon. She was only in Darwin when Kono had called her but she couldn't leave right away, something about a joint operation she was part of . The whole team were glad she would be finally here.

Kono, who was reading next to his bed, was suddenly alerted by the increased pace of his heart rate monitor. Steve's eyes flew open with a start. She jumped to her feet and stood over he boss so that he could see her with his high neck brace.

"Hey boss, its Kono. You are in the hospital. Everything is alright you are safe here." She was trying to sound calm and reassuring like Steve's doctors had instructed them.

Steve's eyes slowly moved around the room, trying to focus in on his surroundings.

"Kooonoh" he exhaled as he tried to say her name. "Whhhaa happnd?"

She looked down over him, but his eyes couldn't seem to find her face, they were still wandering around the room, half opening and closing.

"You were hit by a car" Kono really didn't know what to do, Danny had been with her every time that Steve had woken up. But after her and her cousin had forced Danny to go home and rest, she was now alone.

"Can you stay awake for me? I am going to get your doctor"she could feel her own heart rising. She walked out to the nurses station, embarrassed at how panicked she was feeling.

"Commander McGarrett is awake, is his doctor near by? He seems to be talking more".

"Okay, we will just page her. You can go back inside and be with him. She shouldn't be long" The nice young nurse smiled up at her, mistaking her panic for excitement.

On he way back into the room she grabbed her phone and send a text to both Chin and Danny. "STEVE IS AWAKE AND TALKING - PLEASE COME".

H50H505H50H5

By the time the two other members of the team arrived Steve's full neuro team, with the addition of Dr Lucas, were in his small ICU room hovering around the bed.

"Right Steve, I think that you are awake enough for us to send you down for a set of MRIs". Dr Lucas was standing over the bed, his voice clear and slow so that his patient could understand him. "I need you say yes, so that we can go ahead to get you down there. Is that okay".

"Yeh, that fine" Steve's words where still slurred and faint. "What happened?"

"You were hit by a car on the North Shore. We need to have a look at your head now that you are awake as well as your spine". The doctor was still perfectly calm.

"Spine?, why?" Even though his words was quiet and distorted, his team could here the alarm in his voice.

Danny and Chin who were standing in the door way, moved in to the room to stand on the other side of the hospital bed. This is what the two men had been dreading.

"There has been damage to your spinal cord, but I would really like to have the latest MRIs before we talk about this further. Can we take you down now Steve so that we can see what is going". Dr Lucas gently took Steve's hand, and offered him a reassuring smile.

"My spinal corrr? Wad 'as happened?" there was a definite note of panic in the SEALs voice. It was something that none of his team mates had ever hear from their boss before.

Danny lent over the bed rail so that he was in his buddy's line on sight.

"Hey Steve, just let the doc take the MRIs. They won't know anything until they do that. Okay?" Danny pulled is lips back into the concerned smile his normally reserved for mothers of kidnapped children and frightened witnesses, worry lines furrowed over his brow.

"Mmmm, okay Danno" the SEAL replied, his hazel eyes staring up at is partners face, still unable to focus or really comprehend what was happening.

H50H505H50H5

Back in his ICU room after the nurses had finished connecting, reconnecting and resetting the machines and resettling him in the bed Steve waited for his doctor. He didn't know how long he had been in the MRI, in honesty he didn't even remember going down there or entering the machine, just the banging and whirring noise as it moved around. At one point was certain that he was back in the USS Hammerhead, his training sub, nestled into one of the missile cradles where his rack was. He got quite a shock when the lights came on and they pulled him out of the long tunnel and into the sterile bright light of the hospital.

Why did they need to take those MRI images of his spine? What did the doctor say? The information was somewhere deep in the back of his mind but he just couldn't grasp it. His ideas kept becoming foggy and changing. He tried to picture where he was at the North Shore but there was nothing, he couldn't remember a thing. Even so he had an over riding feeling that his was bad, really bad.

As if to confirm his fears Dr Lucas walked into his room follow by his team, each with their face as dark as thunder. Kono looked close to tears and there was a look on Danny 's face he had never seen before. Something was really bad.

Dr Lucas walked over to Steve's bedside, he had a file and some imaging paper in this hand. "Hello Steven. I am Dr Lucas, your primary physician here at Queen's. You have been in a medical coma for the past week. You were hit by a car on the North Shore. Don't worry that you won't be able to remember it, you gave you head quite a wack. But it all seems so be healing nicely up there".

It was clear to Danny that this man had had to give this talk to many patients. He was calm and assuring, much like a police man breaking bad news to loved ones of a victim.

"But what about my spine doc? You wanted images of that?" Steve's voice was tense and fearful.

Dr Lucas let out a long breath and leaned his forearms up on the bedrail. "Well, when you were hit by the way you collided with the ground caused your spine bend in an unnatural shape. Like this' he demonstrated by curving his hand and pointing near his knuckles. "This part of your spine came in contact with the road, which caused the vertebrae to break as well as the spinal cord which it encases".

"How bad is it?" Steve could almost not bare to ask. Fear was creeping in from all sides like a black fog.

"You have fractured and dislocated your spine at your T12 vertebra" the doctor pulled out the latest MRI images which he had in the folder "this is your lower thoratic spine, if you can see where the white lines are, these are the rods and pins which we had to inset to stabilise your spine. However " the doctor exhaled another large breath and looked down at Steve with genuine sadness in his eyes "this kind of theoretic spine fracture appears to be a complete neurological injury, which means that the spinal cord was entirely severed".

Steve could understand what the doctor was telling him, but his brain was refusing to compute the information. This couldn't be happening. Not to him.

"Of course we are going to have to wait for the swelling around the injury to decrease. You will have a very limited range of motion in your hands and arms for now as you are still in spinal shock. But this is most likely to return as the swelling subsides and you regain strength in those areas".

"But my legs?" Steve knew what the answer would be, but he was praying the doctor would say differently.

Before answering the doctor slowly shook his head. "These kind of injuries are always different on each individual, however as it is a complete injury any motion or sensation below the injury point, which is a little above your hips isn't likely. I am sorry son, but it is my duty to tell you the truth in these matters. Believe me when I say that I really am sorry. " He patted the wounded warrior on his shoulder.

Steve was utterly speechless. He was still unable to properly understand what he had just been told. It couldn't be true, things like this don't happen to him. He was too strong.

Steve tried to look down at his legs, he was suddenly aware of the plastic fitted brace around his neck which cradled his chin and jaw line, restricting any movement of his head and fragile neck. He tried to lift a hand to touch it but his hand, which was beginning to form into a downwards facing fist was un-responsive. He was only able to lift his elbow an inch off the bed before it dropped back down.

Steve was beginning to panic, his eyes darted around the room, his breath sped up to a point where he was almost hyperventilating. The normally totally calm SEAL was gripped with uncontrollable panic. He felt like he was drowning, as the waves of cold fear contented to wash over him, sweeping away any rational thoughts and flooding his mind only with raw emotion.

Suddenly the floating sensation which came with the panic had become faster, he was now spinning as if his bed was positioned on a flying saucer. Suddenly he felt an acidic taste in his mouth as bile began to rise up his throat. "I am going to be sick" he managed to choke out".

"Nurse!" Steve could hear Danny yell, "A little help in here!".

But is was too late, the acidic bile pushed itself up from his throat escaping his mouth. Dr Lucas had a kidney tray placed in the divot between his chin and bottom lip to catch the vomit as Steve spluttered and coughed it up from his almost flat position.

Two nurses ran in, grabbing the medical tray in the corner of the room.

"You are alright Steven, just try and spit it up" they helped to wipe his mouth off and gave him small sips of water from a bottle with a long straw so that he could wash the remnants out.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry" Steve managed to pant out as the nurses help tend to him.

Standing in the middle of his room, completely unable to help, Danny began to realised just how much his now powerless friend was going to need. He looked over at his leader, his brother in arms being choked by his own vomit unable to even use his hand to help himself or sit up, being tended to like a child. His fragility and powerlessness made him simultaneously want to cry and scream. It was all just so unfair. But no matter what he had promised Steve that he would be there and he would.

He walked over to the bed and grabbed Steve's had which had curled into a loose ball. You are going to be okay, we are all here. Steve looked up at his friend, tears caught between his thick lashes.

"Danny, I am so sorry" Steve whispered softly, "Oh God, everything is going to change now".