I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: So, everyone's prayers are amazing. The surgical follow-up in NYC was quite interesting. ASTOUNDING is the right word.

Of course, more tests next week ... but it seems as if the terrible, SCARY and nasty "it's the size of an orange" growth is "gone". Doctor can't readily explain it .. hence, more tests. At this point, I need this other test too to be sure I believe it.

But no surgery right now and everything is postponed. The doc is THRILLED - I am BEYOND THRILLED. So, wow - REALLY weird but amazingly, wonderful stuff!

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

Chapter Five: Letters L - O

Usually he heard their gentle buzz of sound, but this time Steve felt them return first. Chin had been there and then there was a short lull of absolute silence; now Kono and Danny had rejoined him. He was becoming desperate to waken and avoid the spiral that constantly lurked. He tried harder to make that fact known as he successfully managed to move both his hands this time. Weak, definitely not consistent, and not nearly as sustained for as long as he wanted - but Steve did it and he celebrated the short-lived success.

"No. You aren't listening." Steve moaned the words in his head as their warmth continued but nothing happened to help him. He was almost afraid then that they would never understand or that possibly, he didn't understand and maybe that was the real problem.

Steve barely heard the vibration of their voices. He couldn't pull himself closer to them no matter how hard he tried and he suddenly gave up to accept what he could sense.

Something had happened.

"Danny?" Steve tried to think and found that failed too. He was forced to hang in limbo between the people that he sensed would never leave him and the pitch blackness of the downwards spiral that was determined to claim him. With a herculean effort he tried once more, moved his fingers just enough, and then lost the battle to an induced sleep.

Danny was bending over Steve when the fingers simply slackened in both their hands. "He's out again." Danny complained before habitually checking the clock. Doctor Ramirez was pleased with the stabilizing vital signs and Steve's heart was maintaining a normal sinus rhythm, but he was loathe to rush time.

His last words to Danny were barely patient and he would not be swayed. "To rush this would be folly, Detective. The fact that he is improving is testament to his care and the track that we're on."

In other words, Ramirez was uninterested in the constant questions and potential to move-up the time to take Steve off the sedation and then the ventilator.

They stood that way until Steve seemed to lose his flagging strength to sleep deeply again. Heaving a long suffering sigh, Danny leaned back down even though this time, he was sure Steve couldn't hear him. "Soon. Just a few more hours, Steve."

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

The two sat briefly before Danny was on the move again; this time, down to the small gift shop for a newspaper and magazine to thumb through. He found Kono staring out the hospital window when he returned to the room and settled himself in a chair. He tossed her the magazine before opening the daily paper to the first page.

"Okay. Here's one. He's a natural leader." Danny had made Kono privy to his quiet game and he looked up from the newspaper he wasn't exactly reading to verbalize his suggestion. Chin had left to take a break and in his worried boredom, Danny had clued Kono in on his private musings. She'd been instantly taken with the game and had been happy to help keep Danny's mind engaged and possibly not as focused on what had happened.

"That works, but it's too obvious. I have something better." Her rebuff was lightly offered and it was obvious by her shrug that she preferred it over leader. "I thought you'd say loyal."

"No, what I wanted to say was lunatic." Danny chuckled which earned him an exasperated look. So to keep the peace, he agreed with Kono's choice albeit with a twisted compromise.

"Fine, he's our loyal, lunatical leader. I'm revoking his ability to use the word benevolent in any future sentence."

"What? That's not even a word!" Kono complained with a disgusted shake of her head. "Lunatical?"

"Fine. I can move on to moron." The mumbled snark was almost too loud and Kono glared in shock at the one word which came too close on the heels of lunatic and the non-word of lunatical.

It all proved Danny still wasn't far off from his dismal thoughts and prior moodiness. Though what else would Danny come up with in his current, still somewhat ruffled temper. His pleasure at Steve's earlier attempts to communicate had moved back into a snarky, sarcastic place since Ramirez stayed his medical course of action. Now too, the newspaper had become an issue.

"Five-0 Officer Gravely Injured. Suspect Dies."

The newspaper headline angered him and he never should have read the annoying article in its entirety. In fact, Kono had frowned and then looked away when she read it, herself. With a headache blossoming, Danny was getting tired again as his mental frustration mounted in spades and he replayed Steve's halo'd t-shirted back disappearing out a window into a sun-filled blue sky. At that moment with that fresh memory repeating itself thanks to the local paper, he wasn't interested in having a long heart-to-heart conversation with his partner anymore .. he was once again approaching a different and very personal realization.

"Not nice, brah." Kono let it go as she tried to distract him again, and then wouldn't say any of the words she'd come up with in milliseconds. She grinned to herself as masculine, macho, and muscular rolled teasingly through her thoughts and Danny narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"What? What's so funny?" He squinted when she shrugged again and then almost blushed. He ground his jaw, rattled the paper in warning, and then realized that it all compounded his private decision. The black and white images of the front page showing the external view of the second floor balcony and cordoned off sidewalk with distant medical personnel rattled him once more. If anything, the reverse perspective looking upwards from the ground was worse.

"Not a thing." Kono grinned. But Danny suddenly wasn't interested in the game or knowing what Kono might have conjured up.

"Forget it. I don't want to know .. you're right." Danny waited longer and immediately felt bad when Kono's face fell in disappointment. Trying to ignore her expression, he hid behind the newspaper until he heard her aggrieved sigh. He frowned, tried to hide and was completely reluctant to participate, but he felt compelled to change his mind again and from behind the paper, one muffled word emanated.

"Machine-gun." Kono pounced on it right away with a short laugh.

"That's not .. no. Can't use it, Danny!" She snorted and had to smile even if she couldn't see his face. There was another short silence until Danny dropped the newspaper, looked into her eyes, and then stared at Steve's much too quiet body. Her smile faded because the mood was back.

"Maddening." He was angry again as he crumpled the paper haphazardly and got to his feet. "He's maddening .. the machines .. this whole thing. When he wakes .. I'm .."

His almost said done but stopped in time to allow his voice to trail off roughly before he slammed the newspaper into the chair. "Sorry, Kono. I need some air."

"I know, Danny." Kono watched him spin in place and then leave the room and the ICU in a furious huff.

Alone, she shook her head in complete agreement. "Maddening it is."

Kono stared at the lax face and the unmoving strong hands that were so out of place in a hospital bed. The sheets were starkly white against his healthy tan of those same hands which peeked out from bandages and IV ports. The doctor had no plans to lessen the sedation in the near future. They were just passing the thirty-six hour mark and Ponch wanted Steve sedated for at least seventy-two hours.

Three full days of uninterrupted healing and Danny was coming unglued at the half-way mark. Unable to focus on work and unwilling to leave the hospital, he stalked the halls. Though nothing was sensationalized or blown out of proportion, the newspaper article and its few black and white photographs hadn't helped matters.

More recently, even Chin had failed at calming Danny and now he'd walked angrily out of the ICU in a heated temper. Chin was due back soon, and Kono vowed that they would have Danny go home for a forced decompression of sorts. She easily knew that the mediation wasn't going to be pretty. Neither cousin understood that Danny was once again approaching a startling new revelation though.

Danny would make sure that Steve would get well .. that he would heal .. but then, Danny had an important personal decision to make. He left the ICU with that thought seated firmly in his achy head which he tried to clear in the still too bright sunshine. Instead, the brightness aggravated the headache and twisted his stomach. A lone female reporter had recognized and approached Danny where he had tried to sit quietly in the shade of a tree. Her overly excited attempt to get an update on the Commander's progress was not received well. His weary reply of 'no comment' and sudden desire to escape back into the building had surprised the woman and she'd immediately assumed the patient's condition even more dire.

Her pointed questions regarding Steve's health had irked Danny. He managed to repeat himself blandly enough even though he only wanted to snap angrily by the time he hit the sidewalk to the hospital's main entrance. "He's recovering. He's fine. I have no other comments at this time."

Skirting the elevators to bound up two steps at a time, he had left the reporter standing in the main lobby by taking the stairwell to the third floor. Grossly more moody, Danny returned less than thirty minutes later where both Chin and Kono were waiting for him just outside the ICU doors. By that time, Chin had been gone for almost four hours and was refreshed.

Danny, who had yet to leave the hospital grounds, was clearly not doing well.

The intervention was abrupt and this time, neither cousin would negotiate. Kono drove him home with promises to return after a few decent hours of sleep. And Danny did just do that after a stifling-hot shower and a change of clothes plus the added bonus of a meltdown of sorts.

"Five-0 Officer Gravely Injured. Suspect Dies."

The headline wouldn't leave his mind and Danny surged to his feet minutes after laying down with the terrible realization that his partner had truly almost killed himself. Only Doctor Ramirez had remained level-headed enough as time progressed and Steve continued to heal to his satisfaction. He sat on the edge of his bed as he ran his hands tiredly through his hair. He'd gotten too close to his partner and it was affecting his job and ability to make a decision objectively.

"You know what? This isn't going to happen, again. Never. Just .. never." He repeated what he had stated earlier while standing over the hospital bed. He almost felt vindicated .. almost because of his sadly deceased, former partners: Grace Tilwell and Meka Hanamoa. Almost but not quite. The words were hollow and he felt empty after saying them which he blamed on not believing Steve could ever change. The article had been short and noteworthy because the SEAL did noteworthy, noble acts. It was all part of Steve's very nature and Danny almost threw his hands up in the air.

"Gravely injured?" In his fatigue, emotions skyrocketed again as he angrily said the words. Noteworthy and noble didn't have to come with a non-refundable price tag for either of them. With that, Danny lunged forward to send his fist painfully into the wall of his bedroom. The shallow dent creased by a few spidery veins of white chalk was immediate.

Danny didn't want to be done or finished or even change himself, but he needed to figure out his best options. More than the injuries lurked in his mind; it was the knowledge of what would happen after the physical healing. Steve's 'normal' would happen and Danny wasn't sure he could cope anymore. For his own sanity, he needed to take a step back to regain his professional perspective. The decision calmed him though he still didn't feel entirely satisfied.

The stinging ache got his attention when he accidentally touched the sheets. Looking down, he saw that he had cracked the skin across two knuckles which only made his tension headache flare relentlessly.

"Nice move." He complained to himself before struggling to his feet for the bathroom. A few bandages later with two pain killers for the ache that had settled between his eyes, and he was ready to try to lay down once more. Danny fell into his bed and didn't move for an entire six-hour block of time even though he continually had visions of a falling dark blue shape against a lighter sky.

Hours later, Kono returned to pick him up and while she glanced at the few bandages on his knuckles, she didn't question him. The time ate up a blessedly good portion of the count-down to Doctor Ramirez's imposed major hurdle and that in itself was a blessing. A full day remained for the sedation to be lessened enough for Steve to be possibly removed from the ventilator.

"You didn't miss a thing. Doc checked in a few minutes ago and he's doing well. He removed the chest drains and he's on track for taking Steve off the ventilator." Chin vowed to both Kono and Danny upon their return. As if to prove a point, he pulled his keys from his pocket. "Now that you're both here and things are good, I'll be back in a few myself."

"Alright." Having half-expected to find a miracle waiting, Danny remained a bit somber as Chin left and he wandered over to the bed as if to confirm the man's words.

"Obstinate." It was whispered and hardly audible but Kono heard him. He wasn't sure if he meant Steve's obdurate nature or if he was pleading with him to be obstinate now so he would simply get well.

"He's going to be okay. Doc said so .. Steve is going to be totally fine." They seemed to have jumped a few letters since she had last sat with him. However Kono believed what she said wholeheartedly even though Danny refused to answer. With nothing to do but wait, she picked up Steve's hand and tried to communicate their return the only way possible.

~ to be continued ~