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Pride, Admiration and Respect

Chapter Seventeen

.

"Annie."

"Steve! You're awake! How are you feeling?"

"Groggy and remembering why I hate pain meds so much. But I have to admit, my head is a lesser degree of excruciating now. How long was I out?"

"You're stringing together complete sentences too and that's a hell of a lot better than it was before. You've been sleeping for about nine hours," she smiled.

"Did Danny wake up? How is he?"

"No, he hasn't woken up yet but he's doing better. The doctor was in a couple of hours ago. All his vitals are still stable, so that's a good thing. They needed to change his antibiotics though. He did start to develop peritonitis but they think the new drugs will handle it. The good news is he doesn't need constant sedation anymore which is a huge improvement. He's not unconscious now, just sleeping. Sleep is the best thing for him, I know, but I still can't help wanting him to just wake the hell up already!"

"I can certainly understand that. You look like shit, by the way."

"What a charmer!"

"No seriously, have you been home at all?"

"No. Chin and Kono have been wonderful. They've brought me clothes and food… whatever I need. I'm not leaving here until he wakes up and I'm not sure I will even then."

Steve had to chuckle at that.

"What?"

"You sound just like Danny. I hate to tell you how many times I've woken up in hospital beds with Danny by my side looking like death on a cracker because he refused to leave. Must be a genetic Williams trait or something," he smiled.

She smiled at him too, then grew serious. "What about you? Do you need anything? Are you in pain? Are you hungry?"

Steve waved off all her questions and concerns. "The only thing I need right now is for you to tell me if you're alright and what the hell happened!"

"I'm alright. Bumps and bruises for the most part. I have a couple of loose teeth from one particularly hard hit but nothing that can't be fixed."

Steve noticed the bandages around both her forearms. "What happened to your arms?"

"Oh yeah… that. I managed to get the ropes off at the very last minute. I guess they weren't as loose as I thought they were. Tore myself up pretty good. But I'm fine. EMT swooped in and took you and Danny off at a run. I came in the ambulance with Danny and the guys fixed me up pretty good on the way here than in the ER. No problem."

"How did we get out of there? The last thing I remember was you spitting in Sanchez's face. That was nicely done, by the way. But it's all a blank after that."

"Yeah, well, the goon with his gun on you decided it was a good idea to pound the damn thing into the side of your head. Hence, skull fracture and major concussion. You were out cold when the cavalry showed up. Chin, Kono and Toast figured out where we were. Cordoba is dead. Sanchez is in custody."

"Why do I get the feeling there's more to it than that?"

Before Annie could answer, a sound from Danny's bed caught their attention. It was low at first. So low neither was sure they had actually heard it. The soft moan of a man fighting to wake up.

Annie rushed to Danny's side while at the same time yelling back at Steve, who was weakly attempting to get up, "You…. stay put!"

Hearing Annie's sharp words as they were entering the room, Chin was immediately on alert. "What's going on?" he anxiously asked.

"He's waking up!" Steve exclaimed.

"I'll get the doctor."

As Kono turned on her heels and rushed from the room, Chin took up a position by Steve's side, a hand on his shoulder to make sure he did, indeed, stay put. Chin wouldn't put it past him, injuries and pain be damned, for Steve to try to get to Danny's side.

Careful to avoid the dressing on his wrist, Annie took hold of Danny's hand.

"Danny…. can you hear me? It's Annie. You're alright. Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

Not a soul took a breath in the room as they waited and after only a few seconds, which felt like an eternity, Danny weakly squeezed Annie's hand.

Annie looked over to Steve with a huge grin on her face. "Atta boy, buddy!" Steve called from his bed.

Slowly… very slowly… Danny began to try to open his eyes. Chin quickly ran to close all the window coverings and Annie doused the light over his bed. Soon, small slits of the palest blue began to peek from under Danny's lashes and slowly, but surely, his eyes opened and he began to try to focus on the room. Annie's face was, obviously, the first thing he saw.

"Hey…." he whispered, trying to swallow and lick dry cracked lips.

"Hey yourself. Oh Danny…. it's so good to see those baby blues again, bro. How do you feel?"

"Thirsty…."

"Kono's gone to get the doctor. As soon as he gives the ok we'll get you something to drink."

"You ok?"

"Don't you go worrying about me. I'm just fine. See… standing on my own two feet and everything which is more than I can say about you," she joked.

"Steve?" No one missed the worry in his weak voice.

"I'm right here, Danny," Steve called from his bed. "Don't worry, I'm good."

Danny actually managed a small smirk at Steve's words. "Of course you are."

Just then Kono returned with Dr. Ing in tow. "Well, look who decided to join the party. Nice to see you with your eyes open, Detective Williams."

"Danny," he corrected with a small smile.

"Of course… Danny. How are you feeling?"

"Like I got run over by a semi, that backed up over me, then ran me over again."

Dr. Ing chuckled. "Well, I can certainly understand that since I think that semi might have done less damage. But, don't worry. We managed to put all the pieces back together. You're going to be fine. Your vitals all look good, and your kidney and liver functions are back to normal. You won't be running around the island for a while but I think after plenty of good old fashioned rest you should begin to feel like yourself in good time. You were very lucky, Danny."

He then proceeded to fill Danny in on everything he'd already told the others. By the time he was done, Danny was exhausted, looking grey and wanting nothing more than a drink of water and the cool side of his pillow. Once Dr. Ing was done with his examination, Carol the nurse bustled in with some ice chips for Danny to suck on.

"I know it's not the pitcher of water you were hoping for but you need to start off slow. Just suck on this to wet your mouth and we'll get you something tall and cool the next time around, I promise, she smiled at him. Danny smiled back and gratefully took the spoonful of ice Annie offered him. Two minutes later, he was sound asleep again.

Steve had watched it all from his bed, with Chin's hand still firmly on his shoulder. He was extremely disappointed he didn't get a chance to talk to Danny, but Danny was here. He was alive, healing and in the bed right beside him. With those thoughts happily humming in his brain, Steve let his eyes drop shut knowing Danny would be there to talk to when they both woke up in the morning.

.

~~H50~~~~H50~~~~H50~~~~H50~~~~H50~~~~H50~~~~H50~~~~H50~~~~H50~~

.

"Steve…. hey Steve…"

"Hmmmmm?"

"Hey man…. wake up! I'm tired of watching everyone sleep," Danny whispered.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping too?" Steve whispered back as he rolled over to face Danny's bed with a huge smile on his face.

"I woke up."

"Obviously. Well, you look a lot better than you did last night! How long you been up?"

"I don't know, half hour or so. Having a hard time getting comfortable. Damn ribs!" Then glancing around room he added, "Just look at them, will you! Do you think any of them have been home at all?"

"Chin and Kono have been in and out between home, HQ and bringing stuff here for Annie. She hasn't left your side since we got here."

Danny turned his head to look over the side of the bed at the reclining chair pushed as closed to him as it could get. He smiled warmly at the only thing he could see. The top of the tousled head of his beloved sister, sound asleep but with her hand still in his.

"She did great, Danny" Steve said. "I wasn't conscious at the end, I don't know everything that went down yet, but before I was knocked out? You would have been so proud of her. She stood her ground, didn't give them an inch. She's a Williams through and through, brother!"

"I was always proud of her. I suppose I should have told her that more, huh?" Danny said as he attempted to sit up higher in the bed. It was the loud groan of pain when he moved a bit too fast that woke up not only Annie, but Chin and Kono as well, who had been sleeping on the loveseat on the other side of the room. It took all of about 3 seconds for all three of them to converge on Danny. The sight was so comical; Steve couldn't help laughing.

"Owww… don't make me laugh... my head!" He laughed and moaned at the same time.

"What are the two of you doing up?" Kono lovingly scolded. "Didn't you hear the doctor? You're supposed to be resting!"

"We have to wake up eventually, don't we?" Danny asked. "If we didn't, then we'd be dead!"

He meant it as a joke but Annie blanched. "Don't …. just…. don't! Don't even joke around about that."

"Hey…. I'm sorry, sis. That was stupid. Come here…" Annie gently put her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her the best he could between the pain, and all the wires and tubes, and held her close. "It's ok… I'm ok," he said, over and over in her ear.

Steve turned moist eyes onto Chin and Kono who looked a bit choked up themselves. Clearing his throat, he spoke to Chin.

"So… fill us in. I guess you could say Danny and I were a bit out of it there at the end. What happened?"

Annie sat more comfortably on the bed next to Danny. Chin pulled up a chair between the two beds and with Kono by his side, he began to fill them in.

"As we suspected all along, it was all about the flash drive. It was the only remaining record of all of Cordoba's transactions and activities. We're still not sure if it was an original or a copy but we are sure it was the only one left and he needed to get his hands on it and destroy it."

"Destroy it?" Danny asked. "Why would he want to destroy it if it was so valuable to him?"

"Because he was under orders to do it."

"Orders from who?" Steve asked. "I didn't think Cordoba answered to anyone."

"Oh…. he answered to someone all right." Kono put in. "Congressman Sheldon Lankford."

"What?" Annie exclaimed. "What the hell does he have to do with anything?"

"Well…. there's the confirmation we needed to answer a speculation we've been going with. That you had no idea he was involved with any of this because that information was removed from the NYPD files you and Tony were assigned to investigate."

"I think you better start from the beginning," Steve said.

Chin cleared his throat and continued. "Annie and Tony were assigned to investigate all the NYPD files on Cordoba. Within those files was evidence that Lankford, then head of the DEA, orchestrated the raid that set up cartel leader, Diego Andres, for the fall that resulted in Cordoba taking over the organization. Once Cordoba was in power, he bankrolled Lankford's election bid for Congress. After Lankford won, he used his influence to steer the Feds away from Cordoba's dealings."

"Wait a minute," Annie interrupted. "There was nothing in those files about any of that."

"It was there, Annie." Kono said. "You remember how you said you and Tony hadn't gotten to all the files before you were assigned to the warehouse raid? That assignment was deliberate. You were put on that detail to get you away from those files. While you were away, Sanchez went through and removed all evidence that related to Lankford. And just in case you and Tony had managed to find the evidence before Sanchez could get to it, Cordoba gave orders that both you and Tony were to die in that raid."

"What was Sanchez's deal in all this?" Danny asked.

"Money…. power… a sense of prestige," Annie speculated. "I don't know. His father wanted him to be an attorney but he wanted to be a cop. He sucked at both. I suppose being part of Cordoba's inner circle gave him the sense of importance he always wanted."

"So Lankford gave the order to get that flash drive back so there would be absolutely no evidence that he was in bed with the cartel." Danny stated.

"That sounds about right." Annie said. "Alex told me in that room that he was the one to plant the seed in my Captain's head about adding me and Tony to the raid." She sadly shook her head. "He knew we were both going to die there. All because we might have seen something in those files. I still can't believe it. He was a friend."

"How did you end up finding us?" Steve asked.

"Toast." Kono answered. "He cracked the encryption on the drive, found the link to Lankford and then found the real estate listing on the building you were in. He manned the surveillance van during the raid and found the secondary entrance point to where you were being held. He was incredible. He worked round the clock on this. We owe him a lot."

"God bless that strung-out ATM hacker," Danny said affectionately.

Chin just chucked. "I wouldn't count on seeing him anytime soon to thank him though. He said something about needing to spend some time "meditating." He probably won't resurface for days!" They all laughed at that thought.

But then Danny became serious. "I just want to thank you guys. If you two hadn't gotten there when you did… taken down Cordoba and Sanchez …. the doctor said I'd have died and I'm sure Steve would have too."

"Don't just thank us," Kono said. "I may have taken out Cordoba but it was Annie who got Sanchez."

"What? How?" Steve puzzled as he looked at Annie. "You were restrained too."

Annie looked down at the floor. "It wasn't anything. I didn't do anything anyone else wouldn't have done."

"She's being modest." Chin said. "She worked the ropes off her arms and then her legs and took Sanchez down… hard. She managed to get the drop on him and get his gun away from him. Because of her, we were able to take him alive and we'll be able to flip him to get what we need for the Justice Department to go after Lankford."

"That's how you hurt your arms, isn't it?" Steve asked and Danny glanced down to look at her bandaged arms. "You said you 'managed to get loose.' How?"

"Right before that goon knocked you out…. you remember? Sanchez had lifted the chair I was tied to…." Steve's expression darkened at the memory and Danny was going a bit pale.

"Well, when he slammed the chair back down, the force of it made the back of the chair give way a bit. He didn't realize it wasn't as strong as he thought. Anyway, I noticed I was able to move my arms around under the ropes a bit. That's why I spit in his face. To get him away from me before he noticed it too. After a bit of time, I was able to work the ropes loose enough to get my arms out. Well, almost loose enough." She said, softly rubbing her hand over the bandage on the opposite arm.

"I said it before Annie, and you just proved me right. You're a damn good cop." Steve told her.

Danny was looking at Annie in a way she'd never seen before. When she looked him in the eye she saw what she had always hoped to see there. Not just the love of a brother for his sister that she'd always seen but something even deeper. He was finally looking at her as a fellow law enforcement officer. As an equal, a comrade in arms. Looking at her with a bond based not only on the love he always had for her but now, also based on pride, admiration and respect.

He gave Annie a warm hug but then a question needled its way into his head. "May I ask, just what events transpired to find the two of you in that room with me anyway? I assumed you'd see that video of me was a setup for a trap."

Steve nervously cleared his throat. "Yeah, the fact the GPS coordinates for the first warehouse was the only file other than the video on that phone, made it kind of obvious."

"And yet, you found yourself… both of you… in Cordoba's clutches anyway. Pray tell, how did that happen, Steven?"

Chin and Kono were chuckling with undisguised mirth. When Danny looked his way, Chin held his hands up in front of him as if he expected to have to physically defend himself. "Don't look at me, brah. I tried to stop them. Even told them you'd disapprove. They wouldn't listen."

"What did you do?" Danny almost growled into Annie's ear as he stared Steve down.

"Now Danny, you need to stay calm." Annie began. "The doctor said you need your rest. This conversation can wait until later." She threw a worried look at Steve.

"We didn't do anything, Danny. We went to the warehouse where we thought you were being held and Cordoba's men got the drop on us. Shit just happens sometimes." Steve answered.

Danny wasn't having one bit of it. "You went in without backup, didn't you? And not only that, you dragged my sister in there with you."

"It was her idea!" Steve childishly protested which made Chin and Kono chuckle even more.

"It was her idea? What the hell is that supposed to mean? You're the Commander." He ranted, putting air quotes around "Commander". "Oh no, I know exactly what happened. She didn't want to wait for HPD to get there and since you never want to wait, you naturally seized on the opportunity to finally have an ally to be completely reckless with. I knew it! I told you! Didn't I tell you? I didn't trust the shenanigans you two could get into together? Going into a situation that was an obvious trap without backup!"

"But Danny….." Steve began.

"Do not "but Danny" me, Steven! I swear to God, if you dare to even try to utter any combination of syllables that even remotely resemble the words "Annie was the backup" I will heave this broken body out of this bed and flatten you!"

That did it! Chin, Kono and Annie couldn't control their laughter any longer especially when Steve had a look on his face like a puppy who just got his nose whacked for peeing on the floor. Wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes Chin looked over at Steve.
"You can't say I didn't warn you, brah!"

"Good morning everyone" came the sing-song voice of Carol the nurse as she breezed into the room. "So wonderful to see everyone up and happy and ready to start a new day. You three…" she said waving a hand at Chin, Kono and Annie "...off you go. Go get something to eat or better yet, go home and get some real rest. These two have dates with half a dozen different departments this morning so this slumber party is over."

They all laughed and after hugs and reassurances all around that everything was going to be fine, the three of them left Steve and Danny in Carol's more than capable hands.