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

Notes: darn saber-toothed bunny is still running loose ...that's all I can say!

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O

Chapter Twenty

The report of the shotgun was unmistakable. It clearly solidified the reason as to why the shooting had indeed stopped and would never resume; at least when it came to Jameson's side of the equation. Canted on his heels Danny wobbled while staring at Steve with a continued look of unabashed surprise. Steve grinned back because despite suffering from smoke inhalation and being nearly rocked into oblivion, Danny was utterly speechless. And frankly, it had little to do with the fact that help had finally arrived.

"Okay." Danny's mouth quirked into a weak smile and then he tried to laugh around a hitch in his throat. His short okay was more of a thankful cough. The severity of his expression and tense posture had altered so much, Steve swallowed hard around the scratchiness in his throat. That one gesture .. the simplicity of that one decision .. had been critically important to his partner.

Then the loud echo of the shotgun only seemed to compound Danny's honest relief as he whispered their team-mates' names through yet another series of shattering coughs which brought tears to his eyes. "Sounds ... like .. Chin .. Kono."

He managed to get the words out but he didn't recognize his own voice at that point. He and Steve were nearly mimicking each other's ragged breathing and pained coughing. Other sirens were approaching fast from the tertiary road and they could see the kicked up plumes of dust from the firetrucks and emergency vehicles which were soon to enter the dilapidated parking lot. The fluctuating shrill sounds were coming and going around him. It added to the sudden spiraling feeling as Danny watched Kono and Chin running towards them from the trees. He blearily saw other uniformed shapes and might have even recognized one or two of the distant HPD officers that had so quickly followed his friends. With the threat over, he was suddenly exhausted and wobbled again as he felt Steve's hand find his shoulder. But he suddenly couldn't focus his vision as pain spiked in his head and down through his neck and shoulders.

"Steve?" The soot-streaked face in front of him began to swim and ebb before him. Suddenly even more disoriented than before, Danny blinked in confusion as all of Steve's features merged into a haloed nondescript blur. He coughed and then winced as a lance-like hot pain stabbed through his head and down into his neck. Once that happened, his gun fell from his fingers and everything turned to black as he felt himself falling.

Steve saw the exhausted change and thinking he was simply relieved by the end of the standoff, placed a reassuring hand on Danny's shoulder. Unable to stop coughing himself, Steve continued to grin happily until he felt the vibration under his fingers become an all-out uncontrollable tremor. Danny paled and wheezed out his name just once before the brief smile left his face during a sharp spasm.

"Danny? What .. hey... are you okay?" The sudden blinding pain his friend experienced was evident and Steve gasped harshly as he watched Danny's eyes simply roll back in his head.

"Danny!" Despite the ache in his arm and what had settled like a concrete block in his chest, Steve caught Danny as he plummeted forward into his arms. Laying him down gently, Steve glanced up as Chin and Kono fell on their knees next to them. Kono immediately started unfastening Danny's vest to use it to elevate his legs.

"His pulse is too fast. He's not breathing well at all." She announced with fear in her voice. She took in their filthy clothing and smoke-stained faces before also seeing the third man lying nearby. They were close to the fire and she turned her attention back to Danny. Not seeing signs of any bullet wounds, Kono tentatively touched the bloody hair near the edge of the head wound. "What happened?"

"Explosion ... he got caught up in it." Still only able to whisper, Steve didn't realize he was trembling too as the adrenalin dump began in earnest. They both needed medical care, but he had never anticipated this with his partner. "Ambulance. Chin .. need .. ambulance. Head injury .. maybe more. Watch .. his .. head. There was an .. explosion."

Trying to explain it all at once and beginning to ramble, Steve only managed to begin wheezing more noisily himself. His face reddened immediately as he held a hand against the pain in his chest and fought the compulsion to cough more.

"Sit. Help's on its way. Breathe slowly .. just breathe. We'll take care of him." Chin was shushing him as he argued with Steve to also take a seat in the abused unkempt grass of the yard. Two other HPD officers were dropping down to the ground to care for Michael Jameson. With the utmost of care, they gently cut through his bonds and rolled him to his back to begin basic triage. One looked to Chin and nodded that the man was alive, though by his expression, it looked critical. The firetrucks were puling in now and firemen were quick to unfurl hoses and to not salvage the building per se, but to prevent the dangerous spread of more fire.

"Tell them ... building's ... empty." Steve demanded as the Chief came their way. But then he was back to Danny as Kono vainly tried to wake him. "Kono. How is he?"

"Sit down .. let me check you out. Kono's got Danny and everyone's doing their thing, Steve. Let them do it." Reprimanding him and interrupting Kono before she could reply, Chin focused on man-handling Steve first to a seated position, where he also removed his vest and then examined the deep crease in his arm. He sighed in relief when the bloody wound was truly just a deep gouge in his outer muscle. But Steve's breathing was decidedly labored and Chin became instantly concerned.

The Chief took in the scene with the three injured and turned to demand that additional medical supplies and oxygen be brought over to the yard. Their equipment would be much better than even what HPD carried in their own cars and in lieu of the still traveling ambulances.

"No one's in there?" Though no one could have survived at that point, nor would he have allowed his men to enter for the dangerous fire-trap it was, the Chief confirmed the fact through Steve's nod and Chin's verbal confirmation.

"Good. My men can get to work controlling this monster." He left again as three more of his men came running over with medical equipment, regulation oxygen tanks and masks. Chin took one offered for Steve and Kono sat back to watch the second fireman fastened the large mask over Danny's lax face. The third man was diligently attending Michael Jameson with the two HPD officers assisting, but it was clear that he was in the most distress as the fireman began chest compressions.

Groaning under his breath with unease, Chin looked from Jameson to Steve who was staring at Danny while he greedily wheezed in the clean air. His eyes were reddened and tearing madly from both smoke and the stress of coughing. The fireman helping stopped Steve from talking when he removed the oxygen mask to flush Steve's eyes thoroughly. The relief for that forgotten ache was nearly immediate as Steve sighed in relief before spasmodically coughing again. Left breathless and panting, he closed his eyes as the fireman wiped his face quickly with gauze before fastening the mask back in place.

That same fireman then left to care for Danny in the same way as he carefully lifted each of Danny's eyelids to flush any irritants away. The wash left long smudges of dirt from his cheeks and down into his hair in streaks of black wetness which the fireman tried to remove by once more using clean gauze over his face. Once he finished, he sat back and watched his peer finish examining Danny's head wound and noting vitals. Between the two of them, they at least had Danny looking a bit better after a thick bandage was applied to the deep slice in the back of his head.

Steve was completely distracted as he tried to hear what the firemen and Kono were softly conversing about. He nodded when asked if Danny had lost consciousness at any previous time or seemed unaware of his surroundings. More notes were jotted down and one was soon on his radio demanding status of the ambulances which suddenly seemed even more desperately needed. Then he never heard Chin's repeated questions about the potential for unseen injuries on his own body.

"Other than your arm .. where are you hurt? Steve? Point or nod. Steve?" When he didn't get an immediate answer, Chin held the tac-vest up and twisted it quickly to see the holes and silver slugs and grimaced. He intentionally moved into Steve's line of sight by flapping the vest almost in his face and fingering the two bullet holes.

"Steve. You took a couple of hits .. how's your back?"

"Yeah." Steve coughed raggedly while half-gesturing and down-playing the fact. His voice was muffled through the mask as the fireman insisted on keeping it against his face. "Building .. blew .. Danny was too close. It's okay. I'm okay."

Rolling her eyes at the normal bravado, Kono looked up from where she was continuing to care for Danny with the firemen. "Were you two in there? How long?" By Steve's face and continued hacking, it had definitely been much too long. Not so discreetly, Chin took Steve's pulse and was unhappy about the fast rate and what sounded to him like very distressed and congested breathing. On his knees, he moved to Steve's back and lifted his shirt to reveal two reddened marks.

"How do your ribs feel? Anything feel broken?" Chin pressed around his ribs and was relieved when Steve shook his head no. But he knuckled his sternum to weakly admit his originally damaged chest hurt. One of the fireman was half listening as the Five-0 officer got the Commander to share a bit more about what had happened on the property. It was clear both had issues from severe smoke inhalation but what he described next made the firemen truly stop and pay attention.

"Chest ... it's the smoke. From... the smoke." Pointing to Michael Jameson, Steve shortly explained how they'd had to get the hostage out and barely did in time. "Then .. it blew .. like a flash over. I thought a bomb ...had gone off." He was panting again as his breath wheezed in and out too shallowly.

"Okay, that's enough." Chin demanded as Steve stuttered on an inhale and rubbed his chest. "No more talking now. We got it, Steve."

"It was a backdraft." One confirmed with a worried frown. He glanced towards his own partner while gently palpitating Danny's neck, shoulders, torso and then each arm and leg. He murmured something about wanting a cervical collar and a backboard. Kono listened with a growing apprehension as the fireman radioed for two backboards; one for Danny and one for the critically injured Michael Jameson.

He tried to smile reassuringly at her as Danny moaned in pain. She held his hand but never stopped listening to the fireman's words as he continued to monitor Danny's pulse rate and poor respiration. It was obvious that he was troubled and even Steve had picked up on the vibe. He confirmed what his partner had said after looking at the debris field so close to them. "Definitely a backdraft. You can't get far enough away - fast enough - when the circumstances are right."

"Where's that ambulance?" Shocked over Danny's condition and by what she was hearing, Kono looked to each of them. The remote location of the apartment building plus the increase in highway traffic were the key issues and they could only wait at that point.

"It was a bear to get here .. but they're reporting an ETA of less than four minutes now. Maybe three; but wait .. something's wrong." The firemen looked up as the Chief came running back. He was on a dead run and gesturing to the building while simultaneously yelling into his command piece. What they couldn't hear from his lips, they heard directly from the firemens' radios.

"Get out of there! Move them now! You can't stay there. You have to move them now!" All eyes turned as one towards the severely tilted building where the frame was cracking, sagging and beginning to weaken badly. Neither Chin nor Kono had noticed if before and Steve definitely hadn't as he followed the Chief's steady hand. The rear corner where the blaze had first started was giving way at an alarming rate and when it collapsed, which would be soon, it would be much too close to their current positions in the yard. There was no time to wait for the backboards or extra hands as everyone able began to hastily mobilize.

"Chin .. get Danny .. get him out of here." Steve yanked the oxygen mask from his face as he virtually clawed up his friend's body. Without waiting, Kono traded places with Chin so he could help the fireman carry Danny between them. HPD officers had instructed each ambulance driver to come in off the highway and to park in the small area to avoid the hazards and time involved navigating the tertiary road. One had arrived and two more were slowly wending their way to the same location.

With that information, the two officers and the fireman with Michael Jameson shouted instructions to the others to follow them in a retreat towards the path and copse of trees. They did the best they could to jar Danny as little as possible as they steadfastly moved him across the yard and away from the collapsing apartment building. It was none too soon as the loud crack resonated behind them and the building began to shift like a house of cards on its foundation. Half collapsed in upon itself, while the remainder slid sideways and onto the grassy yard where Steve had earlier broken through the first floor window. Everything seemed to reignite again as flames, sparks and cinders flew in the air after the tremendous plume of black soot.

Steve was leaning heavily on Kono as he insisted upon waiting to make sure that Chin and the fireman had Danny safely in a carry position. But he was dizzy and sick by the time he and Kono reached the small dirt path and when he collapsed, Steve pulled Kono to her own knees with a stunned exclamation.

"No, no, no! Steve, stay on your feet!" She couldn't hold him up as they hit the ground together and his head sagged to his chest. He could only look up briefly as his vision swam and oddly, he glimpsed a blood-stained white sheet off to the side. With his chest seizing from a fist-sized weight that seemed to be constricting his lungs, he was gasping for air again. Kono was horrified as his lips began to take on a distressing tinge of blue. "I need help here!"

Steve wanted to ask about what had to be a body and then he wanted to apologize to Kono. However by then, he couldn't even speak as HPD officers and firemen surrounded them to cover his face with yet another oxygen mask. Kono moved aside for the stronger men to physically carry Steve the rest of he way towards the small parking area by the main highway. The critically injured Michael Jameson had been evacuated seconds earlier and the second ambulance was parking in the spot it had just vacated. It was clear that Danny would go next based on his condition.

"Kono?" Steve blinked his eyes rapidly when he felt the world tip on end and things around him blackened into silence. When Steve came around next, an oxygen mask was still over his nose and mouth and he could hear a loud hum of engines and a barrage of strident voices. Different people were caring for him now and with a start, he realized that he had lost consciousness for a short time. Kono was nowhere in sight and he struggled briefly against the strange, restraining hands.

"Kono?" Glassy-eyed, Steve called brokenly for her again as he looked up through a blurry haze and was stopped when he tried to remove the mask fastened to his face. He vaguely knew that he was on a gurney and could only sense the hectic activity around him. One arm was encased with a blood pressure cuff and the other already sported a white but blood-stained bandage. None of it appealed to him and Steve made a concerted effort to once more get up or at least get the mask removed. The strong hand that once more stopped him was compounded by an equally stern male voice which belonged to a rather flustered EMT.

"Sir? Commander? You have to stay calm for us." He may have said those very words a good many times to Steve based on his exasperated tone. It caught his attention and Steve tried to relax as the EMT made a quick promise. "Sir, if you hang on for just one second. I'll get Officer Kalakaua for you .. but sir, you do need to remain exactly where you are. You absolutely can not get up!"

As promised, her face suddenly appeared and it was just for a second since the EMT's wanted to get on their way as quickly as possible. But it was enough for Steve to read the blatant concern for both of them before his vision began to gray from another abusive bout of coughing. On his opposite side, he felt a prick in his hand as the standard IV was prepared. He wanted to ask more but the cloudiness at the edges of his vision gathered to form a murky darkness and Steve closed his eyes as the dizziness began to increase. But he felt Kono's steady hand on his arm as the gurney began to move.

"He's okay so far, Steve. He's already on the bus and on the highway. Chin's with him and you're next." Steve's hearing was the last to go before he lost consciousness and he murmured in relief when he finally heard Kono's reassuring voice. Worn out from the day's trauma and unable to stop the plunge, Steve finally fell completely to the darkness.

~ to be continued ~