Danny arrived at the hospital to find Kono alone in the waiting room. Two HPD officers were on guard in the hallway. Kono moved to greet him and they embraced.
"Any news?"
"No…nothing yet. How's Gracie doing?
He grinned, "She's good…..she's only six….she bounces back quick"
"I'm glad she's okay Danny"
"Thanks to Superman…...he saved her life Kono"
"Thank God for that Danny"

They were interrupted as Danny's phone rang, "This is Williams"
"Danny, it's Duke. We've got the results on the license plates…..the car was stolen"
"Are you sure Duke?"
"Yes. The car belongs to an elderly couple. It was stolen from the parking lot of a restaurant when they were eating dinner last night. They had reported it right away"
"Damn it…we don't have anything Duke?"
"We'll keep investigating and stay in touch"
"Thank you"
Hanging up the phone he looked at Kono, "We've got nothing. Who in the hell did this?"
"We'll find out Danny, let's just worry about Steve right now"
They moved to the vending machines to grab coffee and they settled in for the long wait.

The surgery took six hours and when Doctor Kalanni entered the waiting room Danny took a deep breath trying to prepare himself. They stood and shook hands introducing themselves.
"How is he Doc?"
"He's critical…"
Danny jumped in, "But he's alive?"

"Yes, he survived the surgery but his condition is very tenuous. His head injury is severe and there is swelling and bleeding on his brain. We have him hooked to a drainage tube which will help relieve the pressure. On the left side of his body, he suffered six broken ribs. One rib ruptured his spleen but we were able to clean him up and repair the spleen. He also has severe internal bruising on his left kidney and left lung. Honestly though, with the blow he took, it's a miracle he doesn't have more internal damage. He wasn't so lucky with his arm and shoulder. We repaired and stitched the broken clavicle. His shoulder was broken and that required pins and screws to set. He also suffered two breaks in the humerus and his ulna was broken. Then we have the injury to his eye..."

The Doctor paused and Danny stated, "Go on Doc"
"His eyelid was ripped, almost off and his cornea was also torn. A micro-surgeon is working on his eye now. His nose was broken and it took quite a while to clean the dirt and pebbles from the scrapes to his face and jaw. We'll need to watch him very carefully for infections"

"He's going to make it though, right Doc?"
The Doctor looked at the extremely tense Detective sitting across from him, "Danny, it's really too soon to tell. At this point he's touch and go"

"What are you saying? No sugar-coating this Doc, is he gonna make it?"
"The next forty eight hours are critical. His odds are not good at this point"
Kono grabbed Danny's hand as he asked, "What exactly are his odds?"

"I would say he has only a twenty percent chance to make it through the night"
Kono gasped, "Twenty percent?"
"The swelling on his brain is our main concern but any infection could prove deadly in his weakened state"
Danny's voice shook with emotion, "Doc, can I see him?"

"He won't be out of surgery for at least an hour and he'll be in recovery for a couple of hours. I'll be monitoring him in the ICU through the night. One of you can be with him there"
Kono nodded and Danny stated, "I need to stay with him. Are you aware of the needed security for him?"
"Yes, the entire staff is aware. As I told you detective it will be at least a couple of hours until you can see him. I will send a Nurse in to get you"
"Thank you Doc" The three shook hands and after the Doctor left Danny moved over to the large window overlooking the hospital courtyard and he wept silently for his partner.

About twenty minutes passed before he felt a soft hand on his forearm, "Danny, I brought you up a sandwich"
"I'm not hungry"
"Danny please. You need to eat, you need to stay strong for him and for Gracie…please eat"
"Okay….thank you Kono"

Kono stayed with him until the Nurse came in to take him to Steve.
He embraced her and kissed her forehead as she told him, "Send him my love…..take care of him Danny"
"I will sweetheart"
She watched him leave with the Nurse and then she made her way out of the hospital. They had agreed that she would join Chin at Rachel's and spend the night there. With all the unknowns surrounding them now they needed to stay together, to watch out for each other.

5050505050505050505050

It was a horribly long night for all of them. Danny sat at his partner's side, holding his right hand and lovingly stroking Steve's hand and forearm. Tubes covered the SEAL's body. There was a tube down his throat hooking him up to the respirator that aided his breathing and there was the nasal cannula giving him oxygen. Two IV's in his right forearm pumped fluids and antibiotics into his bloodstream. They had wires and tubing hooked to his chest monitoring his heart rate. They had performed a colostomy and that bag along with the bag hooked up to his catheter tubing hung from the side of the bed. And then there was the drainage tube coming from the man's shaved scalp. Clear taping covered the long stitched gash on his eyelid. His eye itself was swollen shut and medical tape also covered the eye. Danny looked at the raw and swollen face of his friend who at this moment was not even recognizable.

The Doctor had told Danny that the respirator was there only to aid his breathing because of the bruised lung but God he hated that sound….that mechanical sound…..A sheet covered Steve's body from mid-chest down. Danny stared at the man's chest, finding comfort in the steady up and down movement.

Clear tape covered the stitched jagged gash where the clavicle bone had broken and punctured his skin. His shoulder was bandaged and in a brace and his arm was in a plaster cast from his armpit to the fingers, totally immobilizing the arm.

His ribcage was tightly wrapped up to where the incision was where he had been operated on. A bandage covered the four to five inch incision on his left side. The bruising on his left side from the impact was horrible, and the scraping from the skidding on the road covered every inch of visible flesh on his right side.

Danny watched him, not sleeping…afraid to sleep. He talked to Steve all night. He talked about the cases they had solved but mostly he talked about his life back on Jersey. He told his partner about his life growing up in a middle-class neighborhood in Jersey. He talked about his brother Matty and his three sisters. He talked about how he met Rachel, after she hit his squad car when he was a Jersey cop. He told Steve about his love for his beautiful Rachel and he talked about the best day of his life, when Gracie was born.

As the night went on he bared his soul to his unconscious partner about the break-up of his marriage. Suddenly after seven years of marriage she had decided she couldn't handle being married to a cop. Nothing he said could convince her to give their marriage another try and three months after their divorce was she dropped the bombshell on him that she was moving to Hawaii with her new boyfriend Stan Edwards. He had fought the move, and Rachel's way of fighting back included marrying Stan.

Tears streamed down Danny's cheeks as he told Steve about his suspicions of Rachel's infidelity with Stan. She had always denied this but in his mind he was convinced that she had been cheating with Stan for quite a while unable to believe that she had met, married him and moved to Hawaii in a mere three months…..

He wiped his tears as he continued to speak softly, "Steve, you're right….I do still love her. Damn, I love her so much….well she's not pregnant. That's the only good thing to happen today. I'm so sorry partner. I treated you horribly today. You were trying to be a friend and I snapped at you…..hell, I hit you. I can't believe I did that. But worse than that I said I didn't trust you with Gracie. Steve, you gotta know I didn't mean that. I know how much you love her and I know that you …..you would do anything to keep her safe. You saved her life today buddy. I am forever indebted to you…..please forgive me Steve"

The one-sided conversation continued throughout the night and when the Doctor came in at about eight the next morning and after checking the patient he turned to Danny, "He's doing well Danny. His vitals are good"
"So he'll make it?"
"He's still not out of the woods, but he's doing well. I'm optimistic"
The Doctor was smiling and THAT brought a smile to Danny's face. He sighed deeply as he asked, "When do you figure he'll wake?"
"With this type of head injury it's difficult to say. I would hope that he will show signs of waking in the next 12 hours or so"
"Are you going to move him to a room?"
"Yes, later this morning we'll move him. He's stable Danny, this is very good"

A short time after the Doctor left a Nurse entered the ICU, "Detective Williams, A Detective Kelly is here to see you"
"Please tell him I'll be right out, thank you" Danny then tenderly stroked Steve's forehead, "I'll be right back buddy, you hang on"

He left the room and entered the hallway, "Chin, hey"
"How is he Danny?"
After getting an update Chin then said, "That's good news. Danny, we may have a lead"
"Really, what?"

"Duke called me about half an hour ago. He got a call this morning from Halawa Prison. Sang Min says he knows who did this and he wants to make a deal. He'll only talk to you"
"Okay…..is everything okay at the house?"
"Yes, the new shift just took over. There haven't been any problems"
"I need to get over to the prison. Can you stay with him?"
"Yes, but promise me you won't do anything foolish. We have to do this together. You call me"
"I will. You take care of him now"

The men embraced briefly and then Danny left. Moments later tension filled his body as he pulled onto the freeway driving towards the prison.

******** Please let me know what you think ! Hope you're still enjoying ! *********