Purple Heart – Chapter 10

"Good morning, Steve. The CO wanted to see you as soon as you're in," Peter informed him when Steve wheeled into their office.

"Morning. Did he say what about?" Steve asked while turning around.

"Nope, just to go see him right away."

"Oh, okay."

Steve wheeled out and down the hallway to his CO's office, where he was told to wait a few minutes. Steve hoped he wouldn't be sent home again. He felt pretty good, especially since he now had some kind of control over his right leg back. This morning he had PT and his therapist, Amy, was very pleased with him.

The session had been painful, and he had to take one of his prescription pills afterwards to be able to come to work. Even after the medication took effect his leg was still hurting. But in general he felt better than he had since the injury happened.

"Lieutenant McGarrett, you can go in now," the petty officer told Steve.

"Thank you," Steve said and wheeled through the door that was opened by the yeoman.

Steve was surprised to see Catherine sitting in front of the commander's desk.

Steve's first thought was, Crap! Did someone see us yesterday?

"Lieutenant, please come in. Good to see you looking better." Commander Brennan motioned for Steve to take his place next to Catherine.

Steve greeted his CO and nodded to Cath sending a questioning look in her direction.

"Have you met Lt. Rollins, Steve? She is one of our analysts in section three."

"Yes, we have met," Steve answered and worked hard to keep the grin in. "Nice to see you again, Lt. Rollins."

"Likewise, Lt. McGarrett," Cath answered with a smile.

"Sir, you wanted to see me?" Steve turned back to his CO. He put his hand on his thigh to keep the leg from trembling too much. He still got muscle spasms which were very annoying, even though they weren't that painful anymore. Today they were probably caused by the intense PT he had earlier, and today they were painful.

"Yes, I did. I was just talking to Lt. Rollins and telling her that I think it would be a good idea for the two of you to work together."

Well, this looks promising, he thought to himself. "Are you reassigning me, Sir?" Steve asked in hope. His current job might have some purpose, even though he didn't see what that might be; it was more than boring. And Steve was sure anything else would be more interesting… especially if Catherine was involved.

"I know you feel rather useless at your current post, no matter how often I have told you that your work is important," Brennan told him with not quite a straight face. "But I think you could be more productive and contribute a great deal working with Lt. Rollins."

"May I ask what Lt. Rollins is doing, Sir?"

"Lieutenant?" Brennan looked at Cath and motioned for her to explain.

"We are sorting through all the data we receive from various sources out in the field. Right now we are trying to find out about a group of rebels who have planted dozen of bombs, and killed or injured a lot of people. They are a threat to our troops. It's practically what you guys do on site, just that we are doing it from here," Cath explained her current job.

Steve thought that they were not doing the same thing by a long shot, but kept his mouth shut. No need to tell her that her risk at being shot at or blown up by said bombs was pretty low.

"And what do you expect me to do?"

"I'm sure you could easily identify if the targets where hit by the same group or not. I imagine you have encountered some of the insurgents and had the opportunity to interrogate them?"

"That is classified," was Steve's automatic answer. He had no idea what he could share with these people. They might be Naval Intelligence, but his missions were mostly highly classified. Most of the time they were not even there 'officially'. Before he could share any of his knowledge he needed to get orders from a higher up than Commander Brennan.

"Lieutenant, you don't have to share anything right now. You will get your orders this afternoon, and I'm sure they will tell you what you can disclose, and how far our clearance will go," Brennan told him, obviously knowing what Steve's concerns had been. "This is just a briefing about what you're going to do from tomorrow on."

"Yes, Sir."

"Good. If you don't have any questions, Lt. Rollins will show you your new office. Dismissed."

H50 – H50 – H50

Cath and Steve left and went to Catherine's office that was located a floor down. When they were in the elevator, she turned to Steve.

"How are you doing this morning?" She asked as she laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Good. PT was a bit rough, but I'm good," Steve told her. The pain in his leg was lessening a bit more and the trembling had stopped a few minutes ago, so he was feeling okay right now. "Do you think we should have told him that we know each other not just from work?"

"You think? I mean you are not my superior officer, at least I don't think you are." Cath looked a bit unsure all of a sudden. "That would be a problem, but I think we're okay."

"Huh. I do have seniority, so technically I outrank you and we are in the same chain of command. But this is only temporary anyway. Being here in your office I mean. So maybe we should just keep quiet about it?"

"It's not like we will do it in the elevator, or anything. I mean I can keep my hands off you while working," Cath told him smirking.

"What? You think I can't? Well, Lieutenant, challenge accepted," Steve told her with a grin.

They switched into professional mode as soon as the door opened and made their way over to Catherine's office that she shared with her young colleague, Ensign Dana Lane.

"Dana, this is Lt. McGarrett. He will be working with us for a few weeks." Catherine introduced Steve to the ensign. "Steve, meet Ensign Dana Lane."

"Sir, it's a pleasure to meet you. I've heard a lot about you," Lane said with a smile.

"Really? And please call me Steve." He looked at Catherine and wondered what she had told her about him. They had only known each other for a few days. Seeing her blushing and not making eye contact, he realized Lane was referring to 'girl talk' and not anything even remotely professional. That made him smile even more.

"Steve, you can take the desk over there. If we pull it a little more into the room you should have enough room to maneuver pretty freely," Cath said and motioned to the desk standing along the window. It was a bit close to the back wall, but if they would pull it forward to the door it would be a perfect place for a person in a wheelchair.

"That will work. Thank you. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Cath answered and looked curiously at Steve.

"Why do you have your own office? I mean normally you, as a lieutenant and Dana as an ensign would be working out of an open space office."

"We have a lot of sensitive material as hardcopies here, so we needed more space than just a cubicle, and we needed the security for it. So here we are," Cath told Steve. "That reminds me, we need to give you access to the finger print panel. I'm going to call one of the admins to get you into the system."

"Thanks. So, I guess I should get back upstairs, clear my desk out and wait for you to get clearance to talk to me," Steve told them with a laugh.

"That's okay, we didn't expect you to come here before tomorrow anyway. I'll clear out my desk, so you can have it," Cath told him.

"I can take the other one, you don't have to clear out because of me." Steve didn't want to be a bother to anyone.

"Nonsense, you need the extra room. It's okay, really, don't worry." Cath looked at Steve and hoped he was okay with it.

"Okay, thanks."

Cath put the phone back on the cradle in frustration, she had been trying to get in contact with the computer guys while they were talking, but without much luck. "Dana, can you go down please, and tell them to put Lt. McGarrett into our door pad?"

"Yes, of course. Be right back," Ensign Lane said and was already half out the door.

Cath watched her leave and then turned back to Steve who was looking at her cluttered desk. "Hey, are you okay? You've gone a bit pale in the last minutes."

Steve had been fighting a case of vertigo for a few minutes now, and could feel how his blood pressure was going down. He had hoped not to be so obvious, but Cath had a good eye for such things. "No… I'm not feeling so good… I'm really dizzy." Oh shit, Steve thought as his vision grayed at the edges. This was something he really wanted to avoid, and normally the pain killer helped to keep his BP up after he worked hard at one of his physical therapy sessions. But it seemed that it failed this time. "I need to lie down…"

Steve had already got out of his wheelchair and was sliding down onto the floor, to the astonishment of Cath, who was not sure what was happening.

"I'm calling 9-1-1." Cath had the phone in hand to call their own paramedic team.

"NO… I'll be fine… can you put… my legs up?" Steve closed his eyes and took deep breaths. It was the first time in two weeks that it got this bad and he was actually on the verge of passing out.

Cath looked still a bit unsure but did as he asked. She wheeled his chair into the right position and placed Steve's legs onto the seat. He was now in the shock position, but Cath was not sure that would be enough.

She kneeled down next to her friend and gently touched his cheek, "Are you with me? Steve?"

"Yeah… Just give me a minute… I should have gone home after PT…," Steve told her. He was feeling a little better, but he was still worried he would pass out. The room was still spinning and it was making him nauseous. "I'll be okay… my blood pressure just bottomed out…," Steve still had to open his eyes, but he was sure if he did that right now, he would get sick.

"Is there anything I can do? Are you sure I shouldn't call for help?" Cath was not really convinced that her friend would be alright anytime soon.

"Un huh," was all that Steve answered. He was too busy with just breathing to bother with a lengthy answer. His head had started pounding when he lay down on the floor, probably still from the concussion his doctor insisted he suffered Thursday. He had felt fine until later on Sunday, and his head started hurting again after PT. That was one of the reasons he took one of his prescription pain killers.

"Does this happen often?" Catherine asked still stroking his forehead, careful not to touch the bruise on the side of his head.

"In the beginning almost daily. After a while it got better; I passed out the last time about two weeks ago at PT," Steve told her still with his eyes closed. He couldn't remember clearly how it had happened, only that one moment he was walking at the parallel bars and the next he was laying on the floor with his feet propped up.

Normally he had enough warning time and could prevent the actual passing out part. But sometimes it simply happened from one second to the next. The attacks occurred very seldom now, and his doctor was sure they would stop soon. Steve hoped he was right about that.

Thankfully this never happened in a public place or here at work. He had always been at home or at one of his physical therapy sessions. If his doctor found out about this episode Steve was sure he would not be allowed back to work for at least a few days. So best he never found out.

"Maybe you could call Ty so that he can pick me up?" Steve asked.

"Yes of course. Are you sure you can make it home? Steve, I really think we should call for help." Cath again tried her luck. Looking down at her friend, it was clear to her that he was feeling really sick at the moment, and she was sure that he would not be able to get up from the floor.

Steve thought about her words for a moment before he answered. He had been sure that this would pass pretty quickly, but he wasn't feeling better yet. On the contrary, his head hurt a lot more than a few minutes ago, and the vertigo had yet to lessen. "Uhm, maybe they could give me something to get my BP up," Steve told her.

"It will be okay, Steve. I'm sure they can help," Cath assured him as she dialed their medical service.

Not even five minutes later two medics came into the office and took over the scene. Steve told them about his injuries and that this has happened before. He admitted that he wasn't feeling better after a few minutes like he usually did.

"Do you have an emergency medication for when this happens?" one of the medics asked.

"No. It was always better as soon as I lay down. My head really hurts," Steve whispered as an afterthought without opening his eyes.

"You said you suffered a concussion and have a skull fracture?" The medic asked as he waited for the reading from the BP cuff. "Oh, 78 over 50, that is way too low. No wonder you feel this bad. Lieutenant we need to start an IV to get fluids in, and we will take you to the ER."

"No, I'll be fine," Steve weakly protested. He really hated this situation, but also knew that he was in no shape to get up, or leave on his own.

"I'm sorry, but you are not. Just hang in there and let us do our job," the medic told him.

Steve gave up then and let them do whatever they felt necessary. He really did feel like crap. His head was ready to explode, his leg was hurting again, and the room was spinning. Steve wondered for a moment how he ended up in this situation. This morning before PT he had felt really good, after the session not so much, but that was to be expected.

Even half an hour ago he was fine, but now he was going back to the hospital. Damn. And all this in front of Catherine.

"Lieutenant? McGarrett! Are you with us?"

"Hmm," Steve heard the medic talking to him, but didn't really care about it. He knew that should bother him, but somehow he didn't care about that either. The last thing he felt was someone shaking his shoulder, but he was too tired to tell them to stop.

H50 – H50 – H50

What's wrong with Steve? Anything serious? You'll find out soon.

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think.