Chapter Three
"He is so scrummy." Marley said as they brought up pictures from the bands latest concert. The lead boy had blonde floppy hair that had a natural wave to it.
"I prefer Sam." Grace announced, "I like the way he gels his hair, all spiked, and his blue eyes, he's sooo hot." Both girls giggled then looked up as they heard a car horn sound outside. An engine started up and roared out of the drive. "Was that Ian's car? I thought he was staying."
"So did I? Maybe your dad is gonna drive me home." Marley said confused.
Grace stood and saw the door closed. "Did you close the door? I though I left it open."
"No, it was open." Marley answered frowning.
Grace went over to the door and tried to open it, but found the handle wouldn't budge.
"Is it locked?" Marley asked as Grace kept trying the handle.
"It doesn't have a lock, it can't be. Danno!" She yelled expecting her dad to come and fix the door handle, somehow. When she got no reply she tried again. "Danno, we're stuck."
"Maybe he can't hear you. Let's try together and bang on the door." Marley suggested and both girls started banging.
"Danno!"
"Mr. Williams!"
"Something's wrong." Grace said pulling out her phone. "Danno would have come by now. Why did Ian leave so fast?"
She pulled up Steve's number and hit dial. "Hey Gracie, what's up sweetheart?"
"I don't know Uncle Steve, something's wrong. Marley and I are trapped in my bedroom, and Danno's not answering when I call him. Marley's manny just drove off really fast, but we thought he was staying."
"Ok, Grace. Don't worry. Danny is probably just outside and can't hear you. I'm actually only a block away from your house. I was coming over to show your dad something. I'll be there in a minute, ok?"
"Ok." Grace replied, then hung up the phone and returned to yelling for her father, and banging on the door.
5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0
Steve increased the pressure on the accelerator as he turned the final corner on to Danny's street. He had been on his way over to show Danny the latest work he had done on the Marquis, and if he was honest with himself, he wanted to gloat that he had managed to do it himself and not had to take it to a mechanic, like Danny suggested. Now Grace's call had him concerned.
He slammed on the breaks as he pulled into Danny's drive, right behind the Camaro. He moved quickly to grab his knife, wishing he had his gun with him.
Steve opened the front door and could clearly hear Grace, and her friend, calling out and banging on the door. Scanning the living room his heart slammed to a halt for a second, as he saw the trail of blood drops leading to the kitchen.
Cautiously he followed the trail and peered around the kitchen door, more blood drops disappearing behind the kitchen island. Steve quickly moved around, seeing the kitchen held no threats, and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the sight in front of him.
His best friend lay lifeless in a pool of blood.
"Shit, Danny." He said dropping to his knees by his best friend's side. His hand shaking from the adrenaline burst, and trying not to panic, he carefully felt for a pulse, trying his best to ignore the shouts of the girls from the bedroom. Finally he found a pulse, weak and thready, a pulse none the less, but it was obvious Danny wasn't breathing.
"Grace." Steve yelled out, as he pulled out his phone. First rule of resuscitation, get help, he told himself.
"Uncle Steve?" Grace yelled back.
"Grace, call Chin, get him and Kono here, now." He demanded as he dialled 911 and requested an ambulance.
"Uncle Steve, where's Danno? Is he ok?" A scared voice yelled back.
"I need you to stay where you are Grace. Call Chin." Steve yelled, before attempting to force air into his best friend's lungs.
He tried twice, but struggled to get much of a chest rise. He quickly rolled Danny over, and was able to see the stab wound to the right side of his back. Laying him back flat, he quickly wiped his partner's blood from around his mouth then lurched to his feet, desperately looking for something he could use.
Steve was trained in emergency field medicine, and knew the knife had hit his partner's lung, causing it to instantly collapse, and his chest cavity to fill with air, and most likely blood. He needed to release that, if he had any chance of getting Danny to breathe again. Pulling open a draw, he finally found something he could work with, a bright pink, plastic, curly straw that had a small plastic pineapple attached to it.
Taking his knife he quickly shaved off the end into a sharp point, then ripped open Danny's shirt. Steve then had to take a second to force back the nerves, unable to believe he was about to cut into his best friends chest. Hand shaking a little, he quickly felt down Danny's ribs. Locating the space between the second and third, he placed his knife in line with the middle of Danny's clavicle. Fighting to still his shaking hand, he quickly made an incision in the skin then grabbed the straw, "pull it together." He shouted to himself before forcing the straw into Danny's chest, and letting out a relieved sigh as he heard hissing as air escaped. He then grabbed a food bag and placed it over the end of the straw to act as a one way valve, so air could only escape and not add more.
He quickly checked Danny's pulse again then moved on to attempting to force air into Danny's lungs. This time Danny's chest rose much better, so Steve continued to breathe for his best friend, all the time aware of the pool of blood soaking into his cargo pants. He continued like this for what felt like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes, before the sirens of the ambulance could be heard, and Ani and Jonah, two EMTs that the team were very familiar with, burst into the house and Steve yelled at them to direct them to the kitchen.
"What we got Steve." Ani immediately asked as she dropped down beside the partners and opened her bag, grabbing out the equipment to intubate Danny.
"Grace called, worried, I found him like this. He's been stabbed in the back." Steve informed them sitting back on his haunches and taking big breaths to try and calm him self.
"Your handy work?" She asked indicating the straw and bag with a nod of her head, as she titled Danny's head back to expose his airway better. "Gonna need some suction, Jonah." She shouted, and seconds later Jonah was there with the portable suction, clearing Danny's airway of the blood that had pooled there.
The two EMTs worked skilfully to secure Danny's airway, then passed Steve the bag to continue forcing oxygen in to his lungs. "Nice and steady, Steve, not too hard," Ani coached as she moved to secure IV access and connected a bag of crystalloid fluids, knowing Danny needed volume and quick, to replace all the blood he had lost. Jonah secured Steve's crude attempt at a needle decompression, and connected Danny to the monitor, then ran to grab the gurney from the ambulance.
"We need to scoop and run, Steve, this is bad. You've bought him some time with your straw trick but he needs the hospital, now." Ani said looking the Commander in the eye. She had never seen him looking this scared before, his brain was obviously still trying to catch up with the events that had unfolded. His hands were still shaking, but he was managing to keep up a nice steady rhythm with the oxygen bag, and Danny's colour was slowly improving from a dusky gray, to white as a sheet.
"Oh my god," Kono cried as she's skidded to a halt in the kitchen doorway and stared at the scene in front of her.
"Kono, Grace and her friend are trapped in her bedroom. Please can you go to her? She must be scared out of her mind. Don't let her in here, though." Steve ordered making eye contact with Kono that silently said no daughter should see her father die.
Kono immediately swung around and ran to Grace's bedroom. Finding a chair wedged under the handle she quickly removed it, and flung open the door. Both girls were sat on the bed, arms around each other, sobbing. Marley attempting to comfort Grace, who knew something bad must have happened to her Danno for Uncle Steve not to have come to her aid straight away, and the ambulance arriving had confirmed her fears.
"Auntie Kono." Grace sobbed, leaping from the bed and into Kono's arms. Her face was stained with tears, and the sobs shook her body. "Auntie, where's Danno?"
"He's with Steve and the medics. Grace, no." She called grabbing Grace as she had tried to run passed her, to her father. "Grace, you can't go out there, your dad wouldn't want you to see him like that."
"What's wrong? What's happened?" Grace sobbed desperate for news on the father.
"Your dad's hurt, Grace. It's bad. What happened? What do you know?" Kono asked steering Grace back into the room, and shutting the door behind them. She and Grace sat on the bed, and Kono beckoned Marley over too, so she was sandwiched between two very scared little girls. Trying hard to force back her own tears, and keep her voice calm, so not to scare them further, she asked again. "Girls, what happened?"
Grace sat sobbing, curled into her Aunties chest, trying to catch her breath, so Marley answered. "I came over to play, with Ian my Manny. We were on the internet, in here, when a car horn sounded, then Ian's car drove away, fast. Then we noticed the door was shut and we couldn't open it. So we called for help, but Mr. Williams didn't answer. So...so...Grace called her Uncle." Marley managed to finish before breaking down herself, once again.
Kono clung to both girls, desperately trying not to break down her self. She had to stay strong for them, but she knew, from the few seconds she had seen Danny, and the fear in her boss's eyes, that things were very bad. Danny was clinging to life by a thread, and no one knew what had happened, but Danny and the mysteriously disappearing Ian.
TBC