Synopsis: The road to recovery isn't as easy as Danny Williams thought it would be. Steve McGarrett is hiding inside his mile-high emotional wall and, without meaning to; he has started blocking Danny out. But when gun smugglers come searching for payback, will Steve be there for Danny? Or will his Jersey partner be forever silenced. DANNY!WHUMP and STEVE!ANGST. NO SLASH. Friendship only.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hawaii Five-0 and am not getting any monetary gain for this story, just playing in CBS's sandbox for a while. These characters and storylines remain the property of CBS. No disrespect intended, just great characters that inspire their own stories.
Rated: T for violence and injuries. Not a Death-Fic.
Notes: Angst and Hurt/Comfort are kinda my thing and I opened a can of worms in the first story, 'Words can Kill'. Here's the sequel.
Chapter Five:
Revelations in a Lava Tube
Steve was rocketed back to those awful moments when they'd been trapped inside that collapsed building. He'd been in explosions before, although he'd never had an entire building fucking dropped on him. It had been scary as awareness seeped back into his concussed mind. His vision had been fuzzy and the ringing in his ears had been deafening. As he'd moved he did a mental tally of his injuries, concussion? Check. Broken ribs? Maybe, a check? Vision? Blurry and greying at the edges, but check.
And that's when he realized it. He couldn't hear Danny. The man that couldn't be silent for twenty seconds wasn't making a sound. When that bomber had strapped an explosive to his chest, complete with a proximity sensor and Steve had told Danny to remain 'completely still'. His partner had questioned what would happen if he couldn't remain 'completely still'?
Steve had answered in no uncertain terms, 'then this bomb is going to explode and both you and me are going to die'. The wide-eyed fear on Danny's face had been plain as his gaze flickered back and forth between the dead man and Steve.
But now, buried in the rubble and hoping like hell that someone realized they were down here. It was less horrifying than the moment that Danny didn't immediately answer him.
"Danny!" He called into the dust filled room.
Steve shoved his way out of the broken building pieces and struggled to his feet. He wiped some of the dust and grit out of his eyes and waited for the room to stop spinning. "Danny?! Answer me!"
He moved through the cement pieces and his eyes landed on a hand. The hand was covered in dust and it wasn't moving. Denial sprang up from his gut and Steve had to force himself to close the distance and see if this was his partner. He and Danny had been in some tight spots over the years, but he'd never truly considered losing the irritating detective in the line of duty. The one exception had been the saran incident.
A sudden groan of pain caught his attention and Steve stumbled across the floor and knelt down. "Danny?"
The detective's usually vibrant hand opened and closed slowly. "Steve? What happened?"
"Building exploded."
Danny coughed. "Fantastic, so it was a trap? I was right?"
The larger man wasn't sure if he should be irritated or happy that Danny was trying to get him to admit to a mistake. Either way, he needed to assess the cop's wounds, since he was still trapped under at least a ton of concrete.
"Can we do this later?" Steve asked as he looked around for something he could use as leverage.
Danny coughed again and nodded as much as he could. "Yeah, okay."
H50 H50
The word terrified didn't come close to describing the gambit of emotions that raced through McGarrett as he watched Danny's blonde head disappear beneath the waters inky blackness. It took his frazzled brain a few seconds to catch up to the desperate nature of their situation before his body was simply reacting out of habit. His head was throbbing and his hands were still bound together in front of him. The water was waist deep for him, so that meant it would have been sitting low on Danny's chest if the smaller man had been standing. It was also February in Hawaii and the water, contrary to popular belief, isn't all that warm.
The water is the only reason I survived that fall. Steve thought fitfully as he splashed forward, driving his bound hands beneath the surface before feeling around for his fallen partner. When his hands didn't immediately bump into Danny's body panic slipped in and fused with the terror creating an explosive emotional state for the SEAL. "Danny!" He called out in a hoarse voice. His words resounded inside the tube and the inside of his head lit up in pain. It was heart stopping when his call didn't result in any type of answer. "DANNY?!" He cried again and then he felt it.
The soft pull of fabric, as something brushed against his fingers, had Steve thrusting both hands deeper beneath the surface, his own face nearly disappearing as he reached deeper. For one heart breaking moment he thought he'd lost it, but then his fingers closed around Danny's collar and he hauled the smaller man above the surface. Sometimes water rescues aren't what they look like in the movies. The victim doesn't immediately start coughing and breathing on their own…luckily for Steve, sometimes they are exactly like the movies.
The detective's head lolled against his chest as Steve pulled him close enough to check for breathing. Danny's breath spluttered against him as he unconsciously coughed the water from him lungs. God bless the gag reflex.
"Danny, Danny, hey buddy, can you hear me?" Steve was fairly certain, looking at Danny's closed eyelids, that his friend couldn't hear him. "Come on, man. This isn't the time to go all silent on me." He was rambling and he knew it. Water sloshed against the side of the lava tube and then splashed back on Steve. A slight shiver ran through him at the cool temperature. He shook his head, since he wasn't willing to let go of Danny to wipe it away.
Steve could feel the shivers starting to rack the other man's body and everything he'd learned in navy SEAL training started to kick in. There were medical conditions that he would eventually have to worry about, but looking at Danny. The cop was already suffering from some of them. Hypothermia, hypovolemic shock, respiratory distress as the body temperature drops, and that wasn't even taking in the fact that his partner had some sort of wound on his side. A broken arm and God knows what else. And then there was whatever Danny had been keeping from him for that past five weeks. All in all, Steve was feeling pretty damn useless at the moment. The only thing he could do was keep his friend's head above water as the storm raged above them.
"Come on, I came all the way out here and got thrown into the hole with you, just to make sure you were okay." He forced a breath. "So you have to be okay, Danny. Otherwise that's just a crappy thing to do." The navy man continued to talk as the storm raged around him and his burden. He made sure that Danny was kept above the water and his concern was going up exponentially when he realized that the water was now at his chest. If the rain kept up like this, then he was going to be swimming soon and that wouldn't be good for Danny either. Judging by the way his friend had looked on the video, it was entirely possible that Danny wouldn't be able to tread water for very long.
"You have…aneurism face." Danny's words pulled Steve back to the present and he glanced down. His partner was staring up at him, a slight smile on his slightly blue lips and a worried look in his unfocused eyes.
"I don't have an aneurism face." Steve responded without thinking. Lightening flared and he looked more closely at his friend. He didn't like what he was seeing. Danny's eyes were unfocused and he was pale, even for a non-native.
"I'm sorry to tell you. But, yes. You do. You have an aneurism face." Danny's voice was soft and Steve had to lean in to hear it over the rising howl of the winds. The smaller man blinked slowly and then looked around. "We're in trouble aren't we." It wasn't even a question. "…wasn't a dream?"
"No, Danny. It wasn't a dream."
Danny blinked slowly. "Good. Would'a been a shitty dream. No hula girls or beer."
The SEAL wanted desperately to take his friend's mind off their current situation. "I've been in worse." Steve lied. He, himself, had been in worse, but never when he had to think about the well being of someone else. And certainly no one that he was as close to as Danny.
A furrow formed between Danny's eyebrows and he forced his own legs down until they connected with the water-covered floor. "What? When?" He continued. But the look on his partner's face had him sighing in defeat. "Let me guess. It's classified."
Steve actually smiled at that. He actually could tell Danny about that time, but seeing the old Danny staring up at him when he didn't answer was worth staying silent. "How're you?" He finally managed.
"Uh, I've recited every major lineup for the New York Yankees and I still haven't managed to forget the fact that I'm trapped in a very small space." He looked around. "One that is getting smaller the more it rains. To be perfectly honest, I'm a little tired of the water. I'd like to sleep in a bed tonight." Danny forced the snaky response past the pain that was threatening to undo him. The leader of his team couldn't do anything to alleviate Danny's condition. Better to keep him focused on survival.
"Not what I meant." Steve said softly.
Danny looked away. He knew exactly what Steve had meant, but he didn't want to explain to his friend that he wasn't doing too well. His vision was blurry and his chest was burning in a 'I think I might be getting pneumonia' sort of a way. Shivers were running through his body and setting off his nerves endings in a very painful way. The wound in his side would spasm every now and then, his arm hurt like hell, and his back? The only reason he was able to stand up right now was because the water making him more buoyant. If he'd been on dry ground, Danny was pretty sure he'd have collapsed by now. He wasn't sure how honest he should be with Steve at the moment. It wasn't like his partner could do anything about the pain or their current situation.
"I know that, babe. But can we concentrate on getting out of here first? There's nothing you can do for me until then." What little Steve could see of the Jersey man's face was begging him to let this go.
Steve frowned. He knew that Danny wasn't being completely honest with him and that was part of the reason they were in this situation to begin with. Not the cave, that was completely and one hundred percent the fault of that asshole that had taken them, but the strained friendship thing. "Fine, but if you die on me? I'm gonna kill you."
Danny couldn't stop the slight smile that pulled the edges of lips up. "You heard that, huh?"
"Just the part where you threatened to kill an unconscious man." Steve was trying to figure out how he was going to keep Danny above the water, if it kept rising, and try to climb out. He had to let go of the injured man's shoulder.
"If you heard me, you weren't that unconscious." Danny shot back.
"Says you. Maybe I'm just that good?"
Danny snorted. "Oh, I'm sure that's what you'd have me believe. That your super ninja-SEAL training gave you some kind of recuperative power that the rest of us do not have."
Steve lessened his hold on the shorter man to see if he was gong to slide under the water again. "Can you stand?"
For once Danny didn't shoot back with a sarcastic comment. "Uh…I think so. Not sure for how long though."
"I'm going to get us out of this, Danno."
A flood of relief washed through the cop when he heard Steve call him by the nickname. Truthfully, he actually hated being called Danno; the only reason he referred to himself like that was because of Grace. But somewhere along the line, the name had shifted and now it belonged to both his daughter and the stubborn SEAL that insisted on using it. "M'kay…" Danny managed as he was forced to take all his own weight when Steve stepped away.
Steve looked up at the walls and swore internally. They were nearly flawless. Which meant that he couldn't climb them without the proper equipment and it wasn't like he had any of that on him. "I can't climb these." He murmured in a defeated whisper. For all the things he could do, scaling a wall with no handholds wasn't one of them. He wasn't Spiderman after all.
"So now what?" Danny asked as he sagged against the wall. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but he found he was disappointed when Steve couldn't scale the smooth walls.
Steve looked up and realized that the storm was weakening or else they were in the eye and it wasn't over yet. Jesus, don't let it be that. But the water was no longer rushing over the side; it was dribbling down the walls. When he saw Danny sagging further into the water he moved closer to the smaller man. "How bad are you? Be honest, Danny."
The blonde pulled in a shuddering breath and Steve heard the unmistakable wheeze in his lungs. The tiny razor slices of fire inside his chest were only overshadowed by the vice like grip on his lungs. "Guy stabbed me in the side, before he hauled my ass outta of the doctor's office." Danny revealed slowly.
"Son of a bitch." Steve's hands were immediately searching beneath the water for the wound.
"Would you stop. You can't do anything and I think it stopped bleeding anyways—"
"How would you even know, Danny! It's been underwater for hours." Steve felt bad that his anxiety was getting the better of him. But he was starting to wonder if he could get them out of this situation.
Danny held up his good hand in a placating gesture. "I don't. I'm just saying that it doesn't hurt at the moment and we have bigger problems than me."
That stopped Steve cold and he moved so he was directly in front of his partner. "This isn't a good situation, I'm not going to lie to you. But you're wrong if you think that there is anything that is more important than getting you back to Grace." Once that floodgate opened, Steve found that he needed to finish. "I'm sorry, Danny."
Confused blue eyes lifted to meet his gaze. "For what?" A shiver ran through him and Steve couldn't help but notice that Danny was breathing shallowly and his lips were turning a darker shade of blue.
"Everything."
Danny's eyes widened and he tilted his head. "Everything? Like WWII, the stock market crash, or the fact that you never let me drive my car?" He was baiting the Navy man and he was doing on purpose.
"I'm going to go with the car thing." He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. "And for pushing you away when you got out of the hospital. It was my fault you were on that road and I just…" Steve leaned against the side of their watery prison and folded his arms.
Danny's eyes softened he pressed his lips together as he listened.
Steve whispered softly. "I'm not with—"
"Emotions? Gee, I never noticed."
Steve glared at him. "But with you? And Chin? And Kono? It's different. I can't loose you guys."
Danny nodded. "I know that. So do they. But Steve, you can't shove us out of your life when things go wrong. Because in this line of work, things will always find a way of going sideways on us." A wave of dizziness trickled through him and Danny closed his eyes in an effort to steady himself. He immediately felt the strong grasp of his partner, holding him up.
"Whoa there partner."
Danny raised his head and grimaced. "I am not a horse, Steven." And with that their reprieve was over. The winds started to howl again and the rain started slowly, but quickly picked up to a torrential downpour. Another shiver raced through Danny and he couldn't stop the chattering of his teeth. He found himself trying to find warmth and there was a whole slew of it next to him.
It only took Steve a moment to realize what Danny needed. He needed body heat. If they didn't get the detective's temperature up, he was going to fall unconscious again. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm going to hug you now." Steve said.
"I don't swing that way, Steve." Danny's words were split up by the chattering of his teeth. But he didn't move when Steve pulled him against his own body.
"Yes, I'm aware of that, Daniel. Neither do I. But if we want to survive the night? We need to stay warm."
Danny didn't answer and Steve looked down. His partner's head had fallen to the side and he was slipping in and out of awareness. "Come on, Danny. We just need to make it until morning. Stay with me."
There was a moment of stormy silence and finally. "Not going anywhere…gotta get home to Grace."
H50 H50
"You can't go back out tonight. I'm sorry." The pilot said with a level of compassion that most military personnel don't possess after years in the service.
"But they're still out there." Chin remarked. His gaze flickered over to Kono, where a medic was sewing up the gash in her leg.
"I'm aware of that, Lt. But until that storm lets up? It's too dangerous to fly."
Chin shook his head in frustration. They knew the general area where Danny was supposedly being held, but the arrival of the tropical storm had derailed search and rescue efforts.
"Sir?" A woman in uniform stepped up to the Captain and handed him a report. The man's face shifted and looked over at Chin.
"The storm has just been upgraded to a Catergory 1 hurricane."
TBC…
Author's Note: So here's the promised chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I'm working on the next chapter. So that should go up soon. Danny's going down hill and Steve can't help him. The storm has been upgraded and Chin and Kono are sidelined. It's going to be an interesting few days.
PLEASE REVIEW: Just let me know people are reading.