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

Notes: A brief update that C11 was fixed to be more correct regarding the position Kono would be in for a kidney operation (front or side). I did not research that as I should have - thanks to the kind reader for letting me know and I hope it is more correct now. ;-) I admit it - I was terribly lazy there!

Also, it looks like Ponch is getting a female puppy. The poll is still up on my profile page; please go vote because the next question will be what to name "her" unless the boy votes out-number the girl ones by tomorrow. It's a somewhat close race!

Chapter 12

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

Danny edged down the staircase slowly, it was a short flight which led to a deep, dark storage basement that he wasn't particularly impressed with and more than half the reason he was being so cautious. He hoped his subject would miraculously appear before he got too far with every intention of surrendering. It wasn't going to happen and unfortunately, he was positive that the driver had come down this way. With a glance into the insanity called an operating room, he was determined to follow this last man for Kono's sake. He also knew that Chin or Steve would be just a few paces behind and that knowledge bolstered him as he moved forward.

"Five-0! Come out with your hands where I can see them!" He heard nothing though as water dripped in the distance and some mice or rats squeaked even farther away. It was then that the first locked door drew his attention and only because a distinctly out-of-place case of bottled water lay open in front of it. Very close to the landing, the door was a heavy metal as was most of the entire building. It was bolted heavily from the outside with no additional lock.

Keeping an eye down into the darkness, Danny tugged and yanked on each of the two large, rusty bolts until they slid free with a bang and he managed to get the door open. It took a minute for his eyes to grow accustomed and he choked first on the malodor and thick heavy air which reeked from filth and old food.

Covering his nose and mouth with the crook of his arm, Danny carefully inched in to stare at the rumpled shape in the corner. There was a slight movement and Danny's face fell worriedly when he saw the shape morph into a the outline of a man. He was sure that he knew who it was.

"Jasper. Jasper Mitchell?" However, the shape seemed to shrink down more instead of welcome him, and Danny tried to bend in closer for a better look.

Jasper had heard the jagged sharpness of the bolts being slid from left to right. It was the only sound he could really count on hearing on a daily basis. Always once, sometimes twice and he both looked forward to and dreaded it. Since the younger one had already rolled a bottle of water his way not so long ago, Jasper was truly frightened this time. He knew that Alan would grow tired of having him around; tired of having to remember that he still had a captive who knew everything. In addition to that knowledge, as Alan had first threatened, Jasper himself provided him with so many other golden opportunities.

So now when the bolts slid much too soon - and he could tell only because he hadn't yet opened his latest water bottle - Jasper was truly petrified. Wedging his body in a corner, he had his legs drawn up to his chest and he was trembling slightly from a deep chill. That only increased when he felt the dim light from the corridor streak towards him in a wide V.

As he began to tremble more, Jasper ignored the man as he ground his forehead into the concrete of the corner and focused hard on the way the surface rubbed against his skin. He was probably bruising himself, but it didn't matter. He wouldn't have long to live now anyway.

"Hey!" Danny tried again softly. "Doctor Mitchell?"

Jasper took a few minutes then to think. He blinked wildly and forced his head to turn closing his eyes against the continued light. He didn't recognize the voice and no one had spoken to him really except for Alan on the first day. For a long moment, he wasn't even sure he had heard correctly.

Danny called out once more and with a bit more enthusiasm when a recognizable head slowly bobbed upwards to stare back. "Doctor Jasper Mitchell?"

Taking one last chance at the shadow of a man who was most unfamiliar, Jasper flapped his mouth before managing to get a sound out. It held a shred of hope but was steeped in a great deal of desperation.

"Yeah? Yeah .. it is." The voice was roughened and extremely weak. The missing doctor was alive and Danny grinned happily despite the strong sour smells hitting his nose.

"Five-0. Doc Ramirez says you're late for work, so he borrowed your dog and sent us to bring you home." The stunned snort was delayed followed by a hacked cough which was muffled by hands that were obviously tied together tightly.

The sad sound and action sobered Danny instantly as he kept his weapon at the ready and waffled for a moment between the doorway and being able to reach the downed man. The stairwell was bad and the dark corridor worse. This small concrete room was going to be nearly impossible. Literally with one hand on the door and the other out-stretched towards Mitchell, Danny reached out, falling woefully short. Besides, the young doctor wasn't even making an attempt to get up.

"Hey. I need some help here." Using his comm link, he quickly updated Steve and Chin, then demanded one of them to his location immediately. "Need .. some help .. I lost sight of our third but I found Mitchell!"

Only Chin's confirmation on his existing movement made Danny act more quickly. "One minute, Danny. On my way."

"Uh .. how fast can you do this?" Without waiting for an answer, Danny set his jaw to beat down his old demons and then lunged forward to grab the doctor under his arms. He then urged Mitchell on as he virtually hauled him to his feet and back out to briefly rest against the door jam. With visions of the door eerily slamming shut on them, Danny's own heart hammered until he got them both completely out by sheer willpower.

Once to the base of the staircase, he propped Jasper against the railing with a circumspect eye behind him still towards the bowels of the lower level. The young man was heaving and retching from the sudden exertion. His bound hands were held against his chest and his eye were tightly closed from any glimmer of light, no matter how small.

"You need a shower and a good hot meal, Doc." Danny sympathized with the man as he trembled and sagged weakly in his hands. Hardly able to stand, Mitchell couldn't even find his voice to speak. So though the staircase was short, it was undeniable going to be a big obstacle. Danny would need help to get him up and he waited the few minutes it would take for Chin to arrive.

"Seriously, it's good to see you and we know everything. You're going home." Grimacing at the red, swollen wrists and puffy fingers, Danny glanced briefly to the top of the stairs. He didn't have a knife in his board shorts and would need help as the man swayed. Danny was about to call for Chin when the man's voice echoed through his headset.

"Right here, Danny!" He heard the steps coming and sighed in relief before addressing Mitchell again. Sirens were closer too as HPD arrived at the rambling warehouse.

"There's another officer here to help get you up these stairs, then we can get these ties off. Have you been down here the entire time?"

"Parker." Jasper rasped out the word as he nodded with tears beginning to stream down his face in both relief and due to the first real light he'd been exposed to in days.

"Yeah, Doc, we know." Forcing his eyes to slits, he hazily looked at Danny.

"How?" Jasper was still shocked to find himself outside his man-made cell and nearly afraid to believe it was true. Barely standing but being strongly propped up, the man in front of him was wearing a police issue tac-vest with a very official gold badge thrust into his top left breast pocket. He boasted a high-tech communications device in one ear and was smiling happily at Jasper's face as if he's personally won something special. As he tried to breathe easier, Jasper didn't have the strength to wonder about the tennis sneakers or what looked like board shorts. Frankly, that part didn't matter.

"But .. how?" He asked again. Before Danny could answer, a shape loomed up behind his latest protector. Jasper flinched at the same time Danny fisted his weapon firmly.

"Hey!" Jasper gasped in stunned fear when he recognized the driver. It was an additional warning for Danny, but not provided fast enough for him to properly react. As he tried to shield Mitchell with his own body and shout into his comm link, Danny saw the downward motion and instinctively raised his right arm. As he turned, the scalpel caught him first in the back of his thick vest. It harmlessly deflected when Danny turned to bury his fisted gun firmly into the driver's face. The man was cold-cocked backwards, stumbling almost to his knees before he recovered to dive at Danny once more.

"Chin!" Danny bellowed as echoes of running footsteps reached the top of the metal stairwell. With the doctor now sprawled on the floor behind him, Danny tried to turn his gun directly on his attacker, but the quarters were close and the man too fast. With hardly a pause, the driver was on him for a second time and Danny was pushed backwards into the railing where the hard metal dug into his back. This time he felt the blade from the scalpel bite into his right forearm and slash downwards towards his wrist. Feeling nothing except a dull tingle, Danny dropped his gun when his fingers went briefly numb. It clattered uselessly to the cement floor, discharging loudly in the small space.

Kicking out, he caught the driver in the knees as his stray bullet settled somewhere in the distant basement. On its heels though was another loud boom to briefly deafen Danny from over his head. Clipped in the shoulder, the flesh wound only briefly slowed the driver as he continued to scrabble for Danny's neck with the surgical blade.

"Danny!" Chin was on top of them now. Pounding down the top half of the metal staircase, the angle was wrong and he couldn't get off another clean shot. Above his friend, Chin could see the ongoing struggle but without a clear view of the attacker, he was afraid to take another chance.

Grappling for the detective's throat with every intent of using the scalpel one last time, the driver was close to over-powering Danny who was now hindered by the pain trickling through to end in numbed finger-tips. Changing tactics, the driver squeezed the deep slice with strong fingers nearly crippling Danny with the surge of agony he hadn't felt before with the first slicing cut.

"Chin. Now!" Danny gasped at the man's strong persistence as he lost traction.

Ducking low, he allowed himself the rough slide down the metal he'd been pushed up against. Pulling the driver forward into the stairwell and the beam of light from above, Danny hoped it would give Chin the window he needed. "Do it now!"

Forcing his right hand to fist, Danny hammered once at the exposed head just as a second shot literally blew his attacker away. Completely released and stunned by the force of the surprise attack, Danny sat hard and bumped down two extra steps before crumpling into a seated position on the bottom landing. He was breathing hard as he buried the fingers of his left hand into the now very painful, bloody wound.

"Good riddance." Danny coughed out in relief. Laying in front of him by the force of Chin's weapon, he knew the man was dead before he hit the concrete.

"Danny! Are you alright?" Chin shouted, already stomping the rest of the way down the staircase. He cursed when he saw the blood and Danny's rather stunned expression. Through their radios, they heard Steve demanding a status based on the sounds of the distant fray.

"Clear now, Steve. All clear." Breathing hard through his nose to combat the pain, Danny reported their status firmly as Chin tried to peel his fingers from his bloody arm. "He's down. We're good."

"Let me see." Chin demanded as Danny pushed him towards Mitchell instead. He and the doctor much preferred being out of the dank basement level. "Danny, let me see it."

"Up top. Check on Mitchell and let's get him out of here." Shrugging his friend off, Danny's teeth were tightly clenched as he fisted the blood which was swarming through his fingers. Weakly lying on his side, Jazz had his eyes partly opened as the violence began and ended within seconds.

"Come on, Doc. Let's get out of here." He jolted when a new pair of hands grabbed his forearms to bring him up into a slouched seated position. "Can you walk?" The Asian officer gave him a little shake to rouse him from his shock and Jazz slowly nodded but didn't make a single attempt to rise.

"Mitchell?" His first rescuer stood now behind the Asian holding a bloody arm and the driver lay dead in a heap behind them. For a moment, Jazz couldn't take his eyes off the body, though he had seen many as a physician.

"Doctor Mitchell. Let's go." In a daze, Jazz looked up at Danny bleakly and finally, with Chin's assistance forced his legs under him.

"Hold on, Doc. We can get these off you." Noticing that his hands were still tied, filthy and shaking, Chin leaned down first to retrieve the scalpel used on Danny. In one motion, he cut the ties from Jazz's wrists and then had to hold the doctor up again as the pain shot clear through to his elbows. Hissing through the ache, Jazz stopped near Danny first and then stilled his swollen fingers long enough to skirt the deep narrow wound efficiently. His mouth was dry and refusing to work properly. What he was thinking was slow to be verbalized and then he had to focus hard on breathing it out.

"Deep. Need .. supplies. Stop the .. bleeding." It was worse near the man's wrist and Jazz had to blink several times to be sure. "It's .. very ... deep." Remembering the boxes of medical supplies from the clinic, he tiredly leaned his head on the railing near Danny's shoulder. It was too many words and he couldn't get his tongue to work in his much too dry mouth.

"It's just a scratch, Doc. We'll look at it up top." Glancing at Chin who had one side of the weakened doctor, Danny released his bleeding arm long enough to also grab Jasper under the arm. He was determined to go upstairs. With a final glance down the dismal hallway and the treacherous storage room, it was time to leave.

"Let's go." Danny stressed. Besides, everything plus everyone they needed was on the main floor of the warehouse.

"Now. Let's get out of here. Please." He missed or ignored Chin's disbelieving glare because he only wanted to get upstairs for a good many reasons. It was a sentiment that Jazz wholeheartedly agreed with as he doggedly tried to put one foot on the first step and needed both men's help the rest of the way. Once in the main warehouse, both Danny and Jasper sank down to the floor side by side. Danny's confusion about the way he was suddenly feeling quite evident as he cradled his arm and complained at the volume of blood oozing from what appeared to be a very narrow wound. The addled doctor couldn't possible be correct because Danny was sure that he'd only sustained a bit of a scratch.

"What the hell." He muttered as the blood continually pooled through his fingers. He was beginning to feel tired and woozy even though he fully believed the wound wasn't so bad. "It's just a scratch."

"Supplies. Over there .. it's deep." Jazz whispered and pointed towards one clearly marked clinic box. Chin was quickly off and ripping it open to get to its contents. "Need that one."

"How's Kono?" Danny asked as Chin sifted through the box to bring back gauze and bandages. Before answering, he took the time necessary to firmly wrap Danny's arm round and round under Jasper's muttered instructions to tightly tie off the dangerous slice nearest Danny's wrist. In the background, sirens and loud voices were now over-running the warehouse as HPD brought up their rear and entered the building in force.

"I think she's okay." Chin's face was lined with worry as he worked quickly to try and stem the flow of blood from Danny's arm. "Steve stopped Parker in time. She's got some sort of intravenous lines going in and we're afraid to take them out. We can't wake her up."

"Damn it." Danny was clearly upset as he waited for Chin to finish the fast triage. The dark worried look wasn't lost on him as he listened to the sirens coming closer. "We need that ambulance here now."

"Another? Alan got another?" His brain was admittedly slow, but Jasper was keeping up with the chatter. He was shocked to hear that Parker had another patient in the warehouse and he began to tremble even more. The ambulance would take time and he needed to help.

"Take me." He raised his arm to Chin in askance, and Chin realizing that he had a doctor at their disposal, quickly agreed.

"Danny?" The detective was also clambering to his feet using the wall as a prop and he gestured tiredly towards the operating room.

"I"m coming. Go with Mitchell .. get him there and let him check Kono out. He needs to."

"Maybe you should stay here, Danny." Chin advised as he propped his friend against the wall quickly when he stumbled. He had his hands full with the two men and Danny could only offer him a smirk. HPD was now on site and he could see Duke coordinating men as they peered queerly at the young man still cuffed inside Kono's own car.

"I'm fine. It's just a scratch and HPD is here. Go. Doc Mitchell needs to see Kono." Danny balanced himself against the wall and closed his eyes to rest. Steve was yammering in his headset about their delay and he tiredly answered that the situation was under control and that everyone was okay.

"Yes. I know we're taking a long time. We had to help Mitchell up from below." Under other conditions, the aggrieved conversation would have been amusing. Chin however was barely able to smile just yet as he got Mitchell moving in the right direction.

"Yes, Steve. We're all coming your way now. HPD is sweeping the building from top to bottom." A pause and then Danny chuffed a light laugh when Steve inquired about the gunman and then the young doctor.

"The second gunman is dead. We left him down below. Yes .. yes, Mitchell's a bit worse for wear, but alive." Danny continued to follow behind Chin and the ailing doctor slowly, taking his time and stopping often to catch his breath.

"Mitchell was locked up here the entire time. He's on his way to check on you … and Kono." It was an effort for Danny to speak. He was doing it on purpose since he needed the focus to keep his feet moving rhythmically along. He also hadn't missed the way Chin was continually looking over his shoulder to ensure he was following.

"Bright." Mitchell suddenly gasped as he closed his eyes and tears traced his cheeks, blindly trusting the officer to walk him safely out of his dark dungeon and across the warehouse floor. Continuing to try, Jazz blinked through wetness to finally get a hazy view of the main warehouse. He was surprised and even reassured to see his Jeep parked off to the side as they made their way to the frightening door.

"Almost there, Doc." Chin encouraged him gently. From his tone, it was obvious that he was anxious for Alan's latest victim to be seen, even if the doctor in question was ill himself.

"Yeah." The murmur was fearful as he, too, kept moving. The sight of Honolulu police giving him a bit more courage. "Let me see her. I need to see her."

Chin was literally holding Jazz up with an arm draped over his shoulders and another his waist. He was trembling badly and cold to the touch from either the damp concrete cell or shock, or likely even both. Walking from the storage room to Parker's makeshift operating theater was a task only made possible by the officer's firm insistence.

"Are you alright?" Chin asked as he felt the hesitation building.

Jazz was afraid. Very afraid of what he might find even though the officer insisted Parker's latest patient was still alive and breathing. Rather than answering, Jazz made his feet walk forward step by excruciating step to enter the converted room now operating theater. He stopped dead when he saw Parker tied and restrained on the floor, unsure finally of moving forward.

"I need help with him. Then we have to go back for Danny; he fell back." Chin stated as Jazz wobbled in front of Steve, breathing harshly through his nose, and caked with days-worth of filth and sweat. The doctor was exhausted, shell-shocked from his captivity but happily quite alive. Yet Steve frowned at what Chin had just said.

"Danny? What do you mean?" He missed Steve's worried look about his own partner and then the short explanation about the thin, deep wound.

"He keeps calling it a scratch. Mitchell here said it was deep before I dressed it. I think he's okay, but he needs a hand and then a trip to the hospital." The officers were ignoring Parker and their conversation helped Jazz to tamp down the fear. Determinedly, he turned a deaf ear to the occasional spat of giggles issuing from the floor.

Working hard to focus, Jazz missed the praise and the thankful expressions. Intent only on staying conscious, he first visually examined the young woman on the gurney and then wanted to see more.

"Let me .. see .. her. Closer." Jazz whispered again as Steve walked around the gurney quickly to take up his other side as his legs almost buckled.

"Chin?" Steve asked when he saw the distressing state of the young physician.

"I'm okay. Need to see her." Jasper said breathlessly as he bent over Kono to check her vital signs and then read the writing on the bags of fluids before disengaging each of them. He could do that much; he needed to do that much, even if just for himself. To prove that at least one of Parker's patients was indeed very much alive.

"Plain .. fluids." He pointed to one and then blinked rapidly as a dark shadow dropped over his vision. Jazz could offer a prognosis on himself by then. He simply refused to acknowledge the stress and shock which was soon to win out. Swaying dangerously, he heard the concerned murmurs. He concentrated on the two sets of strong hands which held him upright because he needed to make sure this girl was alright.

"Sedative." Jazz forced his mouth to work as his vision briefly cleared because the girl was fine. "She's sleeping."

The anxious Asian officer was in his face demanding to know more and Jazz nodded with a weak, passing smile. It felt as if his thick fingers were not his own, but he carefully removed the intravenous lines and then the ports in her arm. Amazed when the dark-haired man was there with the right bandage to cover the small puncture wounds.

"Yes. She's .. okay .. sleeping." He lost it then and nothing mattered as the world tilted suddenly and only Steve and Chin prevented the young doctor's utter collapse to the hard floor. Moving him well away from the downed Doctor Parker, they positioned Jazz as comfortably as possible on a spare gurney that was off to the side. After that, Chin stayed with him and his cousin, wrapping both of them in blankets, and then elevating Jasper's legs as he quaked uncontrollably.

"Danny? We need to talk." Growling at his partner over the comm link in annoyance for not telling him he'd been injured, Steve started to leave on a run to be with Danny only to virtually careen into him in the doorway. Relieved then because Duke was there too with a firm hand under Danny's good elbow.

"He wants to talk." Eyes now unfocused, Danny was oddly giddy as he senselessly explained what Steve said to Duke. "About my scratch."

"That is not a scratch, buddy." The stern reprimand was voiced as Steve steadied him with Duke's help when he rocked in place still cradling his arm to his chest. Though pale, Danny still had a smirk etched across his face.

"It is. It's a scratch." Danny insisted as Steve frowned at the deep pink color staining the thick bandage. "Hey, what happened to your face?"

Steve absently touched the bruise by his temple where the cooler had connected. "It's nothing. It's fine."

The smug smile only deepened as Danny rolled his eyes dramatically from Steve to Duke only to lose his balance. "It's nothing he says." Danny chuckled and held up his arm as a comparison making Duke grin despite what was going on. "And now he wants to talk."

"Sit down, Danny." Duke frowned as his guiding hands were refused and Danny insisted upon standing.

"Uh huh. This is nothing, too. This my friends .. this is only a scratch." He was annoyed however when Duke chimed in to agree with Chin, their ill doctor and Steve.

"No, Danny, it's not and maybe you should sit down." Duke advised at the same time Steve made a face before offering advice of his own.

"Yeah, well. Let's just see what the EMT's and then E.R. have to say about this arm of yours." Steve retorted with a temper as he rummaged through boxes for more gauze. While Steve searched for supplies, Duke finally helped lower Danny into a seated position as he suddenly wobbled and then paled even more.

"We have two ambulances coming. I'll get a third out here in case we need help in transport." Duke confirmed as Steve tightly wrapped gauze on top of gauze and Danny hissed through a spike in the pain.

"Scratch." Danny repeated tiredly while watching his arm disappear under a mountain of gauze yet blood continued to seep through. When it had first happened, he'd barely felt a thing. The blood had even been delayed in streaking down his arm until the driver had so fiercely grasped it. Such a narrow, tiny cut had no business being so persistently annoying.

"I know." Almost distractedly, Steve softly agreed if only to shut his partner up as he used his hands as a tourniquet over the top of the newer bandages. But he was growing more distressed as they too, pinked.

"Kono? She's okay?" Danny asked before Duke could do the same in order to make sure he had heard the tail-end of Mitchell's words correctly. "Sleeping? Really?"

Both men were relieved when Steve nodded more easily. "Mitchell said she was only sedated. Parker never touched her .. she's not hurt, just sleeping it off."

"Good. That's good." Danny leaned his head back against the wall and tiredly closed his eyes. He was worn-out, more dizzy and it was finally over. Even though his arm was now throbbing in time to his heartbeat, everything was made better because both Kono and Doctor Mitchell were alive. He lost his smirk and ability to smile though as a feeling of nausea seemed to tighten his stomach.

"Umm." He winced and swallowed hard to push the feeling away. Next to him, Danny felt Steve shift on his knees and the grip tightened over the wound in his arm and he grimaced uncomfortably.

"Danno? What's wrong?" Alarmed by the sudden silence and ashen complexion, Steve glanced down at the still bleeding wound. His distress grew when Danny didn't open his eyes to slur out a mumbled reply.

"A little .. dizzy. Feel sick." With his eyes closed and white noise becoming louder, Danny didn't see Steve's pensive expression. He could feel it though as he continued to insist that he was fine. "Just a scratch."

Using the smooth concrete wall to anchor his body which seemed to be listing crazily to one side, Danny didn't know when Duke left to escort the teams of paramedics to the rear room. He didn't hear the demands for a third ambulance or see Kono still on the operating table with another gurney next to her. Between which, Chin was standing guard for her and Jasper Mitchell who was wrapped in a sheet but trembling badly. He never saw four HPD officers literally carry Doctor Alan Parker suspended between them to a waiting patrol car.

"Barely there." Danny slurred softly.

"Sure, Danno. Okay." Equally quiet, Steve stayed on his knees holding up Danny's arm as the EMT's gathered around them. Danny only knew that Steve didn't object to what he said this time as a cold sweat beaded his forehead. He could only feel an unrelenting pressure painfully encircle the deepest section of the wound made by the sharp scalpel. Half-conscious, Danny would have been surprised to learn that he had been rushed into the first ambulance in lieu of anyone else.

Vaguely listening, Chin registered the soft conversations taking place behind him knowing that the right people were taking charge. Tucking another blanket around Jasper Mitchell's shoulders, Chin gave way for the paramedics. He then leaned over to give Kono a kiss on her forehead before needing to back away entirely. His worst thoughts finally fled him completely as the paramedics seconded Doctor Mitchell's first assessment.

The pleased smile on one paramedic's face allowed a rush of air to leave Chin's lungs. "She's just sleeping, sir. Her vitals are all normal."

"That was a close call, cousin." Whispering just over her head, Chin's eyes welled with relieved tears as Kono's lips twitched unconsciously. He still couldn't smile though even when she murmured something about stupid lolo surfers under her breath.

~ to be continued ~