Recap: 'Please just let her be okay' he thought to himself before resting his head on the headrest as Danny raced to the hospital.

ola (life)

*Steve's POV*

It'd been three hours since Jess had been taken to the hospital and straight into surgery to stop the bleeding. Danny had stayed with Steve at the hospital and was later joined by Chin, Kono and Kamekona. Steve couldn't stand this; there had been no word whatsoever on how she was. He stood up and began to pace whilst he decided on what he should do.

"Hey buddy, when there's news you'll be told, come on," he heard Danny say but he needed to know how she was. He spotted a nurse that was walking down the corridor and sprinted towards her.

"Excuse me, hey, hey!" he shouted as he neared her. He didn't mean to shout he was just desperate to know how she was. She looked taken back at how he had shouted for her but still nonetheless listened to what he had to say.

"Can you tell me how Jess Wilson is? She's been in surgery for three hours and there's been no word?" he pleaded hoping that she had some news on her. She didn't say anything which made the moments of silence feel like an eternity. "Is she okay?" he asked again desperate to find out what was going on.

"Look I get that this is frustrating for you," the nurse told him with a sympathetic look on her face, "but I can't discuss patients with anyone other than their family".

"She has no family," he blurted out almost as soon as she had finished talking, "me and the guys back in the waiting room are the only family she has..." and it was true. It was something he thought about quite often. Steve had Mary to class as family but Jess, she had no one. No siblings and both her parents were gone.

She nodded and could see that he was desperate to just find out how she was. "Look I'm not supposed to but I'll go check if there's any news, now you go back to the waiting room and I'll come find you," she told him as she saw him smile softly.

"Thankyou, thank you," he told her as he began to walk back to the team. Danny stood as Steve returned and held out his arms wondering if there had been any information on her condition. Steve shook his head before telling them about the nurse he had just spoke with.

*Fifteen minutes later*

Fifteen minutes in the hospital felt like three hours. Danny had phoned Grace to tell her that he was okay and to say goodnight to her. Both Kono and Chin had rested their heads on the wall behind them and shut their eyes as they figured that they'd just have to wait patiently for any news. Kamekona had taken to waving at every patient that walked past them whilst Steve sat staring at the same bit of wall that he had done for a while now. There was a shuffling of footsteps before he heard his name being called out.

"Steve McGarrett?" a male voice called out to him. He was brought back to reality as he looked to where the voice had come from. From the uniform that the man was wearing Steve could see he was a surgeon. He stood up eager to find out if it was news on Jess. He struggled to find his voice as he played through every bad scenario he could think of in his head.

"Y-yeah that's me," he spoke out as the rest of the team stood to join Steve and listen to what the surgeon had to say. The surgeon smiled softly as he began to speak, "I'm the surgeon who operated on Jess. The injury and bleeding she was brought in with was quite extensive. No major organs were damaged although what took us so long was trying to stop the bleeding".

Steve nodded as he took everything he was saying in. The surgeon took a breath and continued, "she's lost a lot of blood but we have managed to stop it. It could have been a lot worse, she's lucky," he told Steve.

"So... so she's okay?"

The surgeon nodded and smiled, "she's okay, we've stitched her up and she's asleep right now due to the pain medication she's on. She'll be sore for a while so I don't want her on her feet too much but yes she will be fine".

Steve took a deep breath as Danny smiled and patted him on the back. The rest of the team all took a deep breath too as they broke out in smiles. Steve couldn't say anything, he was just so glad she was okay.

"Thankyou, thank you for everything, can I see her?" he asked hoping that the answer would be yes. It'd been hours since he saw her and he was desperate to be with her at her side. The nurse that he had spoken to earlier and that was now stood by the surgeon nodded her head and motioned for him to follow her.

Steve looked back at his team, who were all smiling, and followed the nurse to the room Jess was in. "She's in here," the nurse told him as he thanked her and opened the door. Closing the door behind him he found himself just looking at her. Her face had several cuts on the right side where the glass from the doors had shattered. Hearing the stable, steady beeping come from the heart monitor he was thankful that she was okay. He didn't know what he'd have done if anything had happened to her.

He slowly made his way to her bed as he pulled up the chair and sat by her side. Grabbing her bruised hand gently he just sat there looking at her. She looked peaceful despite her injuries. Then it dawned on him. What had got her so scared when she had returned to the table?

*Jess's POV*

Her body felt like it had been hit by a truck. Everything seemed to hurt. She slowly opened her eyes. Her eyes were heavy; she was beyond tired but the beeping. The constant beeping was bugging her. What was it? She could feel something gripping her hand. It was a firm yet gentle grip. She slowly began to get her bearings back; looking to her right she discovered the source of the beeping. Everything came rushing back to her; the text, the explosion, the piping that had impaled her and the determined look on Steve's face to get her help before she lost consciousness.

She must have been breathing pretty quickly as the heart monitor started to beep like crazy. The pain in her abdomen was making its presence known as the pain shot right through her. The grip on her wrist disappeared as two strong hands came to hold her face before she saw who it was.

"Hey, hey, Jess, calm down, your alright," she heard him say. His hands were warm and his presence instantly made her feel calm. She took a few deep breaths to try to get her heart rate to return back to normal.

"That's it, just breathe," he told her whilst offering her a small smile. Her face contorted in pain as she laid her hand over the spot on her stomach where it was burning. She could feel the bandages through her nightgown. Breathing deeply she tried to focus on something other than the pain she was in.

"You want me to get the nurse for some more medication?" she heard Steve ask her as he brushed the hair out of her face. She thought about saying yes but then realised that she'd probably had enough of that already.

Shaking her head softly she looked at him, "n-no I'm good thank you". Her voice was croaky and her throat felt like she had swallowed a thousand razor blades. Steve must have realised the same as she did as the next thing she knew he was bringing a cup of water up to her face with a straw.

The cold water was a relief to the stinging sensation she felt in her throat. Glugging the rest of the water that was in the cup she took a few moments to just relish in the feeling the cold water brought to her. Steve was still hovering over her, his hand on her face whilst his thumb lightly brushed her cheek. She opened her eyes and smiled.

"How long have you been here?" she asked him worried that he hadn't had any sleep or food before taking in the cut above his right eyebrow and the bruise, that was beginning to worsen, he had under his left eye and cheek. He shook his head as he chuckled.

"You're the one lay in the hospital bed and I'm the one you're worrying about?"

She laughed softly as she realised that he was right. "I've been here since you were brought in, I wasn't going to leave you until I knew you'd be okay," she heard him say.

Smiling she looked down at her hands as she fiddled with her nails. Steve instantly knew that something was on her mind; it was a habit she would probably always have. Whether she was upset, nervous or scared the first thing she'd do is concentrate on fiddling with her nails. She heard him take a breath as if he was going to say something to her but he never got the chance as there was a knock on the door.

She heard Steve sigh before he called out, "Come in".

The door opened slowly as Danny popped his head round, smiling when he saw that Jess was awake. Opening the door fully the rest of the team piled in as Kamekona was the last to enter.

"So we aren't all supposed to be in here but we played the Five-0 card so here we are," she heard Danny say as he held out his hands showing her that they were in fact all here. She laughed as she could imagine him doing just that, using his authoritative position to get what he wants.

Steve scoffed as he sat on the edge of her bed, his arm over the head of the mattress. "I appreciate the gesture guys," she told them before continuing to laugh as she imagined the whole scenario. Kamekona took a step towards her as his hands were behind his back. He brought out a small brown bear and handed it to her. She smiled as she took the bear from him and studied it. It had on a Hawaiian shirt and a small lei around its neck. Looking back at him she grinned.

"Thankyou, it's lovely," she told him as he grinned from ear to ear.

"No problem hoaloha, had to wrestle with a keiki for that in the shop but I'm just glad you're safe," he replied as the others nodded and laughed with the thought of him tackling some poor child for the sake of a small bear.

"Yeah we're all glad you're safe Jess," she heard Chin say as he offered her a smile. She felt Steve's hand on her back before gripping her shoulder softly in agreement with the others.

She was lucky to know the people she did. They all were genuinely glad that she was okay and had stuck around to make sure she was too. Danny looked puzzled and looked at Steve gingerly asking her, "Jess what got you so scared before the explosion went off?"

She knew it was coming sooner or later but this was sooner that she had thought. She looked at Steve cautiously who still had his arm around her and saw that he offered her a small nod and a smile to show that he too was curious to know what had got her so freaked out. They deserved to know so she took a deep breath before explaining to them what she had seen.

"I had gone over to check my phone to see if anyone from work had contacted me and I saw that I had a message that hadn't been opened. At first I thought it might have been one of the staff at work asking me if I could go in so when I opened it I soon realised that it wasn't. All the message said was 'having fun without me?' and that's when the explosion went off almost immediately after it".

She felt Steve grip her shoulder a bit tighter than he did previously before he brought it back to his lap and as she looked at him her eyes didn't meet his. He was looking out the window and she could see that his jaw was clenched.

"You think it was Ryan?" she heard Kono ask before turning her focus on the team.

"I dunno, just seemed a bit coincidental to me? That girl you were talking to Danny, she seemed familiar, almost as if I knew her from somewhere," she directed at them before spotting that Steve was still looking elsewhere.

"She was just there for the charity event was all she told me, her name was Claire or something," Danny told her.

She shrugged not knowing what else to say. She could see that Steve was angry and just wished that none of this had happened. Kono must have seen the tension in the room as she was the one to speak up, "well guys we better go. We're pushing our luck being in here this long anyway," she told them before giving Jess a hug. The others did the same and said their goodbyes before leaving her and Steve alone. He hadn't said a word and it was scaring her.

She didn't know what to say to him. Sorry wasn't the right word to use, heck she couldn't find one word that would seem right in this situation. He had left the bed and was now standing at the window his back turned to her. She flipped the covers off of her legs and swung her legs round as cautiously as she could. The pain in her abdomen threatened to worsen so she took a few deep breaths and took it slowly. Sliding off the bed at a snail's pace her feet touched the cold hospital floor. She was now stood up and took a small step towards him, the pain in her stomach getting a lot harsher. She had reached him a lot quicker than she thought but breathing deeply she focused on him and not the pain she was in. She brought her hand up to touch his shoulder before he turned round in a flash, his face in a state of shock.

"Jess! You should be in bed, you could rip your stitches!" but none of that mattered to her. She didn't want him to be distant from her, not now.

Bringing her hand up to his face she rested it on his cheek. She lightly brushed her thumb against the bruise that had shown itself a lot more in the time he had been here.

"I hate you not speaking to me," she began to tell him hoping that he wouldn't be silent anymore.

He closed his eyes for a second and she could feel his jaw clenching. She knew how much this bothered him. But he took her hand off his cheek and guided it around his body as he brought her closer to hold her, his head resting upon hers.

"I won't let anything else happen to you. I made you a promise to protect you as a child and that still stands now. I would have hated myself if anything would have happened to you before," he told her and she could hear the pain in his voice.

Pulling away so she could see his face she smiled, "but nothing did. I'm okay Steve because you got me help. The message may not even be from him so until we know otherwise let's just focus on me getting out of here?" she asked hoping he'd agree to pushing the matter aside for at least a while.

The deep breath she heard him take made her realise that he was fighting with himself about what to do. But that was in his nature. He protected the ones he cared for and loved and for that she admired him.

"Steve I love you," she told him bringing him back to reality.

And that's all he needed to hear. He'd work on finding out who sent her that message but for now he'd focus on getting her home. If it was Ryan who had sent it her and caused the explosion then he'd cross that bridge when it came to it but he wanted her out of here.

He smiled, "I love you too," before leaning down and placing a soft kiss on her lips.

He brought his hand around the back of her body as he helped her walk slowly back towards her bed.

She was his life and he'd do anything to make sure that she stayed in it until the end.

Keiki – child

Hoaloha – friend