AN: I don't own the characters or anything. This is just to get this story out of my head.
A/N A major shout out to bswindle20! She got the tip of the hat to Scott in the last chapter - Danny's line "not my first rodeo." Nice job bswindle20. Our boy Scott is an accomplished rodeo rider on top of his plethora of other skills. I don't think the man ever sits still, unless you count sitting down to write his plays and movies. I'm thrilled that somebody got it.
A/N Another shout out to the guest reviewer who caught the Emergency reference with the Paramedic named Johnny. I'm happy somebody caught this one too.
A/N Yet another tip of the hat to our multi-talented Scott in this chapter. A shout out to whomever finds it.
"Danno loves you!" Danny shouted after Charlie as the maid walked him back into the house after they had shared their pizza dinner at the end of the evening together.
As the door closed behind his son, the sheer will that had propelled Danny through the afternoon and evening finally gave out. He stumbled as he turned, Steve's strong arms preventing him from hitting the pavement, barely. He was seriously crashing now. "Hey buddy, come on. Just push through a little bit longer," Steve told him. "I'm taking you to the ER now and that's final."
"No argument from me," Danny mumbled. The pain was thrumming through his body now. His right shoulder felt so swollen that he thought the skin was going to burst, his hip ached tremendously and he was sure there was an entire marching band playing inside his head. Steve's strong arm curled around his left side, supporting his weight. Even with Steve's help, he was hardly able to make it to Lou's truck and pull himself up into the high passenger seat.
When they were back in Lou's Suburban, Steve turned to Danny. Danny's energy level had spiraled downward after the firehouse. He hadn't eaten much and, while he had been as attentive to Charlie as ever while they ate, he didn't really speak much.
"You look like crap," Steve told him before putting the truck in gear and heading out onto the road.
"Thanks, Mr Cheerful. I feel worse than crap so I'll take that as a compliment." He paused – speaking took energy that he really didn't have. "Just drop me off at the ER, okay? Bring this truck back to Lou and get yours. I can have Melissa pick me up when I'm done. She was planning to come this evening anyway since Grace won't be there tonight and I told Eric to find a place to crash tonight."
"Not happening, partner. Not leaving you there alone. Besides, I spoke with Lou while you were at the playground. We'll just switch back tomorrow."
"There's no need for you to sit for hours in the ER, Steve. You know how interminably long those places take." He halted Steve before he could speak. "And I'm not calling in any favors from the governor on this one."
"That wouldn't be prudent?" Steve asked with a smirk.
Danny chuckled softly. "No, it wouldn't."
"I'm staying with you, brother," Steve stated emphatically.
He got no reply. Danny's head was leaning against the headrest, his eyes closed. His breathing seemed labored and he offered up an occasional moan. Steve was torn between speeding up and getting to the hospital faster or slowing down and decreasing the effects of the bumps and turns. Steve chose the former, calling himself a psycho Ninja since Danny wasn't doing it. He knew the name didn't have his partner's flare but he just couldn't reach Danny's level in that area.
When they pulled up outside the Emergency Room, Steve gently shook Danny's good shoulder. "Danny we're here." Then he popped the button to release Danny's seatbelt.
Danny moaned softly at being disturbed and rolled his head to look out the passenger window. That door looked so far away. "Couldn't you get any closer?"
"You want me to drive inside?" Steve responded with a gleam in his eye before he got out. Then he leaned back in and spoke again. "Stay here. I'll be right back."
"It's okay. I can make it. Don't want to go rolling in there on a gurney like some goof." He reached over with his left hand but couldn't reach the door handle. "Just open the freakin' door," he shouted as Steve ran around to his side of the truck.
"Whatever you say Sonny," Steve said with a grin as he did his partner's bidding.
"Don't call me Sonny," Danny mumbled back.
By the time Melissa joined them in the Emergency Room, Danny had undergone a preliminary exam and been given some mild painkillers. With Steve's help he had managed to remove Chin's shirt without damaging it and was propped up on the gurney in nothing but his boxers.
She stopped short at the sight of him. His right eye was black and puffy and there was a deep cut next to it, still oozing blood. His right shoulder was severely swollen and there was bruising all down his right arm, his side and his leg but he was alive and alert and that's what mattered. She gave Steve a quick hug and then turned to Danny. "Hey Jersey."
She gave him a soft kiss and then, pulling back and sitting on the edge of the gurney, she gently stroked the uninjured side of his face.
"What happened?" She asked Danny.
He kept his answer simple. "Car chase gone wrong. Guy we were chasing had no driving skills at all."
Steve was surprised, yet pleased, that Danny pointed the blame at the fleeing perp and not him. He caught Danny's eyes, thanking him silently.
Melissa then turned to Steve. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Melissa. Got hit on the passenger side so unfortunately, Danny took the whole hit."
"You poor thing," she soothed, turning back to her man. "Looks like it really hurts."
"He's faking most of it," Steve teased.
"Faking these bruises? That blood?" Melissa asked. She knew Steve was just busting on him, but she felt the need to defend him.
"Yeah, Steven. With this plethora of bruises?" Danny added with a 'take that' smile.
"Reading the dictionary again, Danno?" Steve joked.
"Just naturally loquacious," was Danny's smiling reply.
"How was your time with Charlie?" Melissa asked as she sat on the edge of the bed next to him.
"Absolutely amazing. The kid is just incredible. I love him so much Melissa." As they waited for the doctor, Danny went on to tell her about their time together. He expressed his appreciation for how much help Steve was as well. If Melissa was jealous that Steve had spent that time with Danny rather than her, she didn't show it at all.
The doctor came in to inject a local anesthetic near Danny's injured eye. As usual, the needle was long and several injections had to be made to numb the whole area so the process inflicted a decent amount of pain on it's own, especially in an area as sensitive as the face. Unable to watch, Melissa looked at Steve as she held Danny's left hand. While that started to work the doctor would check the shoulder before stitching up the cut, Danny opting not to wait for a plastic surgeon. What was one more scar?
The shoulder exam was somewhat brutal as the doctor tested Danny's strength and range of motion and it left him drained, sweating slightly, a little shaky.
With no time to recover from that exam, the doctor set to work stitching up the cut by his eye. He then moved on to palpate Danny's abdomen and do strength and range of motion tests on Danny's leg.
By the time the doctor was done examining him, Danny felt and looked much worse than when he had come in and they sent him off for an x-ray and MRI. Being told it would be at least 45 minutes, Steve and Melissa took a walk to the cafeteria for coffee. While he appreciated that Danny had forgiven him and let him off the hook with the explanation to Melissa, Steve felt like he needed to come clean. He explained the whole thing to her as best he could, expressing his regret more than once. He told her how much Danny's friendship meant to him and how relieved he was that Danny had forgiven him. She assured him that Danny thought just as highly of him and said that if Danny was willing to forgive then so was she.
She shared with him how difficult it was to see Danny injured yet again. They had known each other for a couple years now, since Danny had saved her life on that highway, and she had seen him seriously injured three times before this. The first time, after being caught in the collapse of the bombed building he had broken a rib, been impaled by a piece of rebar, and had a hairline fracture of his pelvis requiring weeks of grueling physical therapy. The second time he nearly died from blood loss when her abusive ex found them and gave Danny a concussion before stabbing him in the stomach. The third time he had not even been cleared for active duty yet after the stabbing. He had been thrown in that Colombian prison and was severely beaten more than once. When he finally made it home, he had two bruised kidneys, a bruised liver, several severe lacerations to his face requiring multiple stitches, a few cracked ribs and a bruised spine. Then he was back riding a desk for a few more days after the bone marrow transplant that saved Charlie's life. The sprained ankle at the Tough Mudder race followed. He was so happy when he finally got back to active duty.
Steve was worried as she spoke of all these injuries. He knew that the major reason why Danny and Rachel's marriage didn't work out was because she couldn't handle the strain of worrying about the risk of injury or death. It took a very strong woman to be married to a cop, especially one on a high-risk task force like Five-O. As if she read his mind, Melissa assured him that she wasn't going anywhere. She knew that being a cop was who Danny was. She couldn't ask him to walk away from it anymore than she could ask him to stop breathing. He was a strong man and she would be strong as well. That didn't mean she wouldn't cry though and as she did, Steve held her, wiping away some tears of his own for his best friend who had suffered so much recently.
"He's going to be okay, Melissa. He's tough and he's a fighter." My badass partner Sonny, he thought with a silent chuckle. "Active duty will take a while, but he'll be back kicking my butt at chess in no time."
tbc
