Note: Thanks once again for the reviews. Glad you liked my use of 'Mither' it's not a word that gets used much any more so much so my spell check doesn't like it. Lol.

Time for Steve to be brought up to date.

Chapter Three

Chin hung up from his phone call with Kono and immediately called the hospital to alert them to the incoming trauma. Once he had done that, he tried Steve and again it went to voicemail. Jumping on his bike he rode straight over to Steve's and knocked on the door. There was no answer, but Steve's truck was parked out front indicating Steve was still home, so he walked round back and down to the shore line. Looking out to sea, he spotted Steve in the water. The waves were much calmer around this part of the island, so Steve was obviously making the most of a mid morning swim, on his day off. As Steve ploughed through the water he must have sensed the change on the beach and paused a second. Seeing Chin stood there, he picked up his speed heading for shore.

As Steve neared the shallows, Chin picked up the towel from the beach chairs and walked to meet his friend. "Hey." Steve greeted him. "The waters great man, although it's starting to pick up."

"It picked up a little too much up the coast." Chin replied. "Kono and I tried calling you."

"Sorry man, I've been swimming for the past hour, what's up?"

"Kono took Danny surfing this morning to Kyla cove. The waves picked up a little faster than she expected, and Danny's been hurt."

"Oh man, tell me he didn't break something?" Steve joked not realising the seriousness of Danny's injuries.

"Kono said he was shocky, and was worried about his conscious level. I think it's bad, Steve, I could tell by her voice that she was scared. They had to climb out of the cove as she had no signal to call for help." Chin explained.

"Shit. Give me two minutes to get changed." Steve said before running into the house and returning fully dressed. They both jumped into Steve's truck and headed for the hospital.

"Did she say whether he was unconscious?" Steve asked.

"She didn't have to, he answered her when she told me she was worried, but he didn't sound good, brah. I called the hospital and told them they were on the way. Dr. Pearce was on stand by. They should be there by now."

"That's good." Steve replied, now worried sick about his partner and poor Kono, for having to deal with it alone.

They arrived at the hospital and were directed to Danny's room. They entered to find Kono sitting by Danny's gurney, while Danny slept propped on his side. He still had the oxygen and monitor in place, and the BP cuff automatically went off as they entered the room, showing a BP still too low for the medical teams liking. The heat reflective blanket was still in situ, IV fluids, and now blood, running and disappearing under it.

The two men quietly moved over to Kono, who stood and greeted them with a hug. "What happened? How is he?" Steve whispered not wanting to wake his sleeping friend. At least he hoped he was sleeping.

"We went to Kyla cove this morning for a surf lesson."

"Kyla cove? Was he ready for that? Obviously not," Steve answered his own question.

Kono stood back defensively. "Yes, he was ready for it, and he was killing it out there. He did really well, but then the waves picked up, so I said we should head in. He wanted one last run, so I let him. He was doing so well, he nailed his biggest wave yet, but then.., the waters shifted. Only a pro would have stayed on the board. One minute he was up, the next he was in the water, and he didn't surface for a while. Then, when he did he got dragged back under. God he is so scraped up from the coral, and cut his heel pretty bad. But his board hit him on the head, and the fin... the fin sliced his back, it's a bad cut. He needs surgery to clean them all out and stitch them up, but Dr. Pearce wanted to stabilise him first, and treat the shock." Kono sank back down into the chair she was occupying, and dropped her face in her hands, noticing for the first time the blood staining them.

"Hey, it was just bad luck Kono. You did well getting him here." Chin said rubbing her back.

"How'd you get out of the cove?" Steve asked, worried he'd offended Kono and her teaching skills.

"We walked out. I had to support him, a lot, but he managed to walk, well hobble back up. But he was exhausted from the blood loss, and was shaking so much from the shock." Kono explained.

"You got him here, Kono. You did good." Chin said putting his arm around her.

"Yeah, you did." Steve added. "Why didn't you tell me you were going there? I wasn't doing anything. I'd have come with you."

"Because... Because...'cause, you have a tendency to undermine him. Joke about his ability, and I needed him confident. We wanted to focus on the lesson. We went to the cove so there wouldn't be many others around. As it happened, we had the cove to ourselves."

Steve looked mortified, "I undermine him? I just like to wind him up, he knows that. It's what we do."

"You know how it is when you're learning something new, brah? It's easy to get your confidence knocked." Chin replied.

Steve just shrugged in reply and Kono flicked Chin a quick look, worried that she shouldn't have said anything. Chin just shook his head in response.

"He lost so much blood, he needed a transfusion?" Steve asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, given the shock he was in, Dr. Pearce felt it was best. The cut to his back bled, a lot," Kono explained.

"How bad is it?" Steve asked moving around behind his partner.

"Pretty bad. It's going to need a lot of stitches to close it."

Steve carefully pulled back the blanket, trying not to disturb his partner, and then pulled back the tape holding the gauze in place.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Chin asked.

"Seeing how bad it is for my self." He replied, then widened his eyes and looked to Kono. "Shit, that is bad."

Chin leaned over to look for himself. "No wonder he needs blood."

Replacing the gauze, and blanket, Steve moved back around to join Chin and Kono. "He seems pretty out of it."

"They just gave him another dose of morphine which pretty much knocked him out." Kono explained.

Dr. Pearce returned to the room and greeted Steve and Chin. "I'm glad you're here, Steve. He's doing better now, and I'd like to get him to surgery to clean out these wounds before the infection gets worse. But given the last lot of morphine knocked him on his arse, I need you to sign the forms as his medical proxy."

"Sure." Steve said taking the forms she handed him and signing them. "How long do you think it will take?"

"At least a few hours, we need to clean the wounds properly, and then stitch them up." He's going to need to be admitted and stay for a good few days for antibiotics. You know the drill guys; I'll come find you in the waiting room, once we're done." She explained as Gus, the orderly, returned to the room and helped move the equipment monitoring Danny, then pushed the gurney out of the room towards the OR.

TBC