Sorry guys, a day late. My fault, no excuse. Hope you will enjoy the chapter.
Purple Heart – Chapter 13
Washington D.C. – American University – 2006
The remaining days of the week passed in a blur and after going to work, filtering through hundreds of video segments, thankfully not stumbling over another one with him as the main actor, and doing his physical therapy, Steve was more than happy to have reached Sunday.
Steve leisurely leaned against the wall and grinned at Catherine who looked at him open mouthed.
"What… How… I mean…" It was obvious that Cath was a bit too puzzled for words.
"I think this is my cue to leave you alone," Ty, who stood next to Steve, said. "Call me if you need me earlier than ten."
"Will do, and thank you, Ty." Steve was more than thankful for his friend's help. He had not only picked him up, but had also waited patiently with him until Cath arrived. "Just in case" he had said.
Ty waved his good-bye and was gone.
"You walked here?" Cath asked after she had greeted him properly.
"Yeah. I hope that's okay? I'm not the fastest walker at the moment. And maybe you could stick close by?" Steve asked her a bit sheepishly.
"Of course. Steve, this is great. Just tell me if you need me to do anything," Cath told her friend and stepped even closer. She was very happy that he was standing; she just hoped it was not too much for him. "So, I take it your wheelchair is at home?"
"No, in the cab. This was a spur of the moment decision. I haven't been dizzy all day, and I feel really good right now, so I thought I'd give it a try," Steve explained why he was not using his chair right now. "Tyrese will bring the chair when he picks us up. I don't think I'll be able to stay upright longer than a few hours," Steve said and pushed away from the wall.
He grabbed on to Cath's arm, silently asking for permission. Seeing her smiling he leaned on her for support.
"So, would you like a drink before the game? We still have about an hour. They have a good restaurant on the upper floor. You can look down to the field from there," Steve explained.
"Yeah, I'd like that," Catherine said and guided Steve towards the elevator, sure that he didn't want to tackle the stairs.
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Steve had to grab the handrail in the elevator when the cabin started to move. The balance disorder kicked in and he felt a little like falling.
"You okay?" Cath asked and tightened her grip on his arm.
"Yeah," Steve told her. And so far he was not dizzy, just a bit unsteady. "I'm okay, just a little lightheaded," Steve added and smiled reassuringly at Cath. At least he hoped it looked reassuring.
A moment later they reached the upper floor and stepped out of the elevator.
The area was pretty busy with lots of people milling around, waiting for the game to start. It made Steve a little uneasy to be surrounded by so many people. He knew that bumping into anyone would leave him sprawled on the floor.
It was hard enough to hold his balance with his hurt leg and the hovering vertigo, being pushed would not end well.
"The restaurant is that way," Steve said and motioned to their left. "It overlooks the main arena; our game will be in the second, smaller one. Seeing all these people I guess there will be a game here as well."
They made their way through the crowd slowly, but without incident. And they were in luck and were shown to a table right away.
"So what have you been up to since Friday?" Catherine asked after they sat down at one of the tables at the window wall overlooking the court.
"Not much really. Friday was filled with PT, and after that I was practically dead to the world. Saturday was a slow day, I only had water therapy, which is really relaxing," Steve recounted his time since they had last seen each other. "How was your meeting yesterday?"
"Really nice, thank you. I haven't seen Tim in a few years. He was in D.C. only for two days, so I'm really happy that we could meet."
"He is an old friend?"
"Yeah, we went to school together in our senior year. He had great plans when he was young," Cath told him smiling and thinking about her high school boyfriend.
"And…?"
"Well, he's married with four kids, and lives in Wisconsin on a farm," Cath said with laughter in her voice. "Not what he imagined, but he seemed really happy."
"Why was he in Washington?"
"He attended a convention on Friday, flew home late last night. Now enough about Tim, let's talk about you." Cath abruptly changed the topic.
"What about me?" Steve looked at her in surprise.
"You promised to tell me about your dad and sister. And your mom," Cath added as an afterthought.
"Guess I did promise something like that," Steve said and thought about what to tell her.
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McGarrett's home, present time
"Wait a minute, you told Catherine your life story during your first week together? And we had to drag every little bit of information out of you?" Danny interrupted Steve's storytelling.
"Uhm… and your point is?" Steve looked at his friend.
"My point? My point, my friend, is that you keep all your personal stuff close to your chest, but told Catherine every little detail within minutes of meeting her?" Danny asked agitated.
"First of all, it wasn't within minutes, and second… she had asked nicely," Steve told his friends with a grin.
Danny snorted at that and even Max chuckled at the implication that Danny obviously didn't ask nicely.
"Besides you knew a lot about me by the second day, you had pulled my file," Steve said, directing his comments to Danny.
"As if that did me any good. The only thing in your file is the overuse of the word 'classified'," Danny told Steve in mock anger.
"So, you did pull my file?" Steve laughed at Danny.
"Ha ha, very funny. You know I did."
Steve looked at his friend and remembered the night he found out that someone had tried to access his military file. Not very successfully, as it turned out. Steve had never told Danny that he had been informed by his former CO that an HPD detective had requested his file but was only granted access to the basic information about him.
"So, I guess it was not really what you wanted to learn?" Steve asked.
"No, it was not. I mean, come on you can't really blame me." Danny turned to his friends sitting at the table. "I had my peaceful life on this godforsaken island, doing my thing with HPD and then this lunatic here came along," Danny said and motioned to Steve who only grinned. "He stole my case, highjacked me and pulled me into his 'investigation'." He used air quotes to show what he thought of that investigation. "Which I might add was more than questionable."
"What are you talking about?" Steve interrupted.
"I'm talking about your screwed understanding of police protocol, and your nothing-will-stop-me mentality of the early days," Danny told him smugly.
"That 'nothing-will-stop-me' mentality has saved my life a few times. Besides, you don't want to talk to me about protocol, do you?" Steve challenged Danny.
"Guys! Really, will you please not start that discussion again?" Chin interjected before their argument could get out of hand.
"Chin, I take it they have had this discussion before?" Doris wanted to know.
"Oh, you can say that," Chin told her with a smile.
"I actually find that rather odd, Steve always followed protocol while on active duty," Catherine added with a grin.
"Only when I had to. It's important that the team plays by the same rules, but sometimes you just have to bend the rules a little. But, Danny, when did I last break protocol?"
"Uhm, okay, I'll give you that," Danny answered him with a laugh, but was obviously not finished. "But you were still a lunatic when we met."
"Yeah, well…" Steve had to admit that his methods back then could be called a bit unorthodox, but that was because he first had to adjust to a more civilian form of investigating.
"But Danny, you must admit, we did get results," Chin added in defense of his boss.
"That we did," Danny agreed and he was more than willing to say that they were a great investigative unit, even though it took some time to get used to Steve's unusual thinking.
He looked over at his friend and watched him shifting in his seat for the umpteenth time in the last minutes. He watched Steve using his right hand to place his braced leg into a different position while his left hand rested pretty much useless in his lap. Danny knew that he didn't have enough strength in his left arm to help lift the leg. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good. The brace gets uncomfortable after a few hours. I hate this shit," Steve said frustrated and gave up finding a more comfortable position.
"Uncle Steve, that is not a nice word. Pay up," Grace scolded him. She had sneaked up on them. "I'm getting rich this week; Danno had to pay ten bucks already." Grace grinned at her father.
"He did?" Steve looked at Grace to elaborate.
"Uh huh, he cursed at his crutches. Loudly," she told them matter of factly.
"That I can understand," Steve muttered under his breath. He himself got really annoyed at his inability to walk without the aid of the crutch. Unfortunately he could only use one, and putting weight on his injured leg still hurt.
"Uncle Steve, when will you lose the brace on your leg? Jenny in our class wears a brace almost like yours all the time. Do you have to wear it forever, too?"
"No, Gracie. Only for a little bit longer, I get rid of it maybe next week or the week after that. My leg's almost all healed," Steve told Danny's daughter.
"Will you come in the water then? I miss swimming with you."
"Yeah, we can do that," Steve told her with a smile. He had been in the water a couple of times already, and even though he couldn't really use his left shoulder, he had no problem swimming one armed. Besides his shoulder would be a lot better in two weeks, at least he hoped so.
Grace beamed at them thinking of the prospect of being in the ocean again in a couple of weeks. She turned and was back to her 'project' just as fast as she had come to the table.
"You sure you can do that?" Danny asked.
"Danny, I can swim with both hands bound behind my back. I can move in the water a lot easier than on land, besides my therapist said swimming would be good as long as I didn't overdo it."
"Speaking of overdoing it, wasn't it risky to move around without the wheelchair, and not even using crutches?" Doris asked, coming back to the time in Washington.
"No, not really, I had a very nice crutch actually," Steve said and smiled at his girlfriend.
"Hey! Not nice," Catherine answered in mock anger.
Washington D.C. – American University – 2006
"Before you tell me all your life's secrets will you excuse me for a minute?" Cath asked as she stood up from the table and motioned to the restrooms at the back of the restaurant.
"Of course. You want me to order something to drink for you?" Steve asked seeing the waiter coming their way.
"Yeah, surprise me," she told him with a smile.
Steve watched her leave and when Tom, their waiter, reached their table he ordered an orange juice for himself and for Catherine. She had told him last Sunday that she didn't like white wine, but enjoyed a good red one, but not in public. That was information to file away for later use, and to ask why no alcohol in public.
It took only a few minutes for their refreshments to arrive, but he didn't order any food since Cath was not back yet.
Steve wondered what was taking her so long. He looked at the area of the facilities but couldn't see anything unusual. A couple of minutes later he decided to go check on Catherine. Over ten minutes seemed like a long time to him.
Steve slowly stood up, but had to grip the chair's backrest to keep his balance. He looked at the distance to the restroom area and calculated if he could make it unaided. If he left the table there would be nothing he could hold on to.
He had a bad feeling about why Cath was still not back. He couldn't explain it but he just knew that something was wrong.
Making up his mind he took his first tentative step toward his goal. Encouraged by the fact that he still wasn't dizzy, he made his way through the restaurant as fast as he could. He was rather slow, and his right leg trembled and hurt from the strain he put on it, but a minute later he pushed open the door leading to the small hall where the restrooms were situated.
What he saw made him stop in his tracks. He narrowed his eyes and took in the situation. Catherine was standing at the end of the hallway, obviously arguing with a guy in front of her. Steve couldn't hear what she was saying but her gestures made it clear that she was not amused.
"Don't touch me," she loudly called out and gave the man a little push.
That was the signal for Steve to move. He walked as fast as his hurting leg would allow across the hall. He was almost in touching range when Cath obviously had had enough and kneed her opponent in the groin. But instead of going down, he howled in pain and slapped her across the face.
That was probably the worst he could have done.
Steve was sure that Catherine would have been able to handle that moron, it was Luces as Steve now realized, on her own. But before Steve could stop himself he descended on Luces and had him against the wall with his arm behind his back and the shoulder almost pulled out of its socket.
That punk had hit his girl… wow, where did that come from… and that was absolutely unacceptable.
Steve had his still weaker right arm at Luces' neck and pressed the moron's head into the unforgiving wall. Steve held Luces in place with his left that still held his opponent's arm in a strong grip.
"Move and I'll break your arm," Steve warned him.
"Let me go, you freak," Luces called out and struggled against Steve. But he stopped when Steve pushed his bent arm a bit more upward. Threatening not only to snap Luces' wrist but also to dislocate his shoulder.
Steve heard Luces groan in pain and was glad that he stopped his struggle to break free. Steve was not sure how much longer he could keep his hold on Luces.
Steve turned to Cath and saw a trickle of blood running down from her nose, which only fueled Steve's anger.
"Are you okay?" Steve asked her softly.
Cath only nodded and looked more pissed than hurt.
It took another moment for two men from the security service to arrive on the scene. They had a police officer in tow and not a minute later handcuffs clicked around Luces' wrists. He had gone rather quiet after realizing what he had done.
"Lieutenant McGarrett, fancy meeting you again," Officer Ash said to Steve. "Is this going to become your new hobby? Getting into fights?" The officer who he had met after the Metro incident asked.
"Guess I simply have bad timing," Steve answered and leaned back against the wall.
"I think your timing is perfect. Thank you for coming to look for me," Cath said as she stepped closer and took his arm to give him much needed support.
"Do you want to press charges, ma'am?"
"Yes, absolutely," Cath answered without hesitation.
"Good. I'm afraid I have to ask you both to accompany me down to the station," Officer Ash informed them.
"Can we meet you there? I want a medic take a look at Lt. Rollins, and I can't walk that far anyway," Steve had to admit.
"Steve, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I just need to sit down soon." Steve was very pleased that he still wasn't dizzy, but he felt his strength leaving him at an alarming rate. And he wanted to avoid a breakdown in public.
He knew from experience that his condition could deteriorate very fast.
"Steve, I'm fine, I don't need any medical attention," Cath said, obviously having no desire to see any medical personal.
"Just humor me, please? We can go down to see coach Redding, he is a trained paramedic."
"When you do, tell him to write down your injuries and treatment. We need that for the report," Officer Ash added to Steve's argumentation.
After hearing that, Cath gave up her resistance and Steve promised to come to the station as soon as they could.
They both watched Luces being led away by the police officer and Steve turned to Cath. "I'm sorry about all this. It's not how I envisioned our evening."
"Why are you apologizing? That idiot Luces is the one to blame," Cath answered as they made their way to the elevator.
Steve had to lean a lot more on his friend than he liked and his leg hurt a lot more than just a few minutes ago.
"I think you need that EMT of yours more than I do," Cath told Steve and very unceremoniously put Steve's right arm over her shoulder. The fact that Steve didn't even try to fight her was more than enough answer to her suspicion how he was doing. "Can you make it for a few more minutes?"
"Yeah, I'll be okay. Cath?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for being so cool about all this," Steve said.
"You're welcome," she answered with a smile.
Steve held on to Cath and the handrail, trying to shake out his leg that was threatening to cramp. Steve felt really shaky and he was not sure he could stay upright if he let go of the handrail.
Thankfully they didn't need to find out. When the door opened coach Redding stood right in front of them, ready to step into the elevator.
"Steve! What the heck happened to you guys? Ma'am are you okay?" The tall burly man asked.
He didn't even wait for an answer but took charge right away. He turned and yelled back at the open door of their changing area. "Benny, get out here!"
A moment later a young man, who looked a lot like the coach, appeared. "Yes, dad?"
"Help me get Steve to the treatment room."
It only took them a minute to get them both into a room equipped with two massage tables and lots of cabinets on the walls. It was obviously the room where the athletes were treated for smaller injuries and massages.
Steve didn't make it to the couch before his leg started cramping. He couldn't keep the pained groan in when the intense pain hit.
"Just a sec, Steve," the coach helped him sit on the edge of the massage table and before Steve even knew what was happening he was lying pant less on his stomach and Redding was massaging his cramping thigh. "Benny, get me some oil out of the cabinet, and then take a look at, I'm sorry, I don't know your name," he said to his son but looked at Catherine. All the while he worked on Steve's upper leg muscles.
"Catherine," she said and looked at Steve who held on to the massage table like his life depended on it. She could see that he was in a great deal of pain.
Steve relaxed a little when the massage took effect and loosened the cramped muscles at least a little bit. The pain was intense after the nerves decided they also needed to have some fun. The pain from the irritated nerves was the worst and he knew that he needed to take his pain meds, but that was something he tried to avoid as much as possible.
"Steve, you have your pain meds with you?" Redding asked, fully knowing that he couldn't massage the pain away. He was only able to loosen up the muscles, but that wouldn't prevent the intense nerve pain Steve was obviously just suffering through.
"Pant pocket," Steve groaned out.
A minute later a glass of water and one of his pain pills appeared in front of him. Steve turned onto his side and swallowed the pill, washing it down with the water. The cramping in his leg had stopped but the nerve pain was getting worse, so he stayed on his side and grabbed at his hurting and trembling leg.
He watched Catherine getting thoroughly checked by Benny, and waited for the drugs to kick in. He knew that they would probably knock him out for a few minutes, but right now, with the intense pain in his leg, he wouldn't mind one bit.
Steve already felt slightly detached from the scene in front of him and blinked a few times, but knew that it was a lost cause. He registered that Redding placed a blanket over him, but that was the last he knew before he slipped into a short drug induced nap.
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