I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: posting from work since I have the world's best beta's ever!
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The rustling of what sounded like paper eventually drew Danny out of a drug-induced slumber. He sensed who it was without needing to ask. The occasional thump or heavy gravelly slide of a thick-soled boot across linoleum were more than basic clues. Not to mention, the likely unconscious aspect of a deep tonal sigh which was far from being feminine. If he hadn't woken with such a knifelike headache, Danny could almost envision Steve slumped in some chair or another, booted ankle rocked sideways on a knee with a newspaper held limply between fingers. He'd look bored for certain as he held the paper up, using it no more than as a prop, while sneaking glances over its thin top.
Danny would nearly see that in vivid color if he had wanted to try harder than he was at that very moment. But he simply didn't feel well enough to do more than a faint mental sketch, merely satisfied that he wasn't alone. For a long, drawn out space of time, Danny tried to will himself back to a futile sleep. Still upset though, he soon appreciated his ability to hide and feign the impossible as he dwelled on himself. Undeniably, he hurt from a body-wide illness. To make matters more trying, he was now positive that he felt every inconceivably placed wire, tube and line layered into his body from stem to stern.
His only basic comfort was the cool oxygen flowing relentlessly over his nose and mouth, yet that lasted for just so long, too. The hard plastic outline of the mask combined with the bandages circling his head brought on a stifling claustrophobic feeling. And behind that thickness of material lay rounded sterile pads beneath which his eyes ached with a deep hollow dryness.
Fighting the pang settling in the pit of his stomach, Danny sucked in a steadying breath of air, beating back a soft frustrated moan at the same time. As before, his right arm lay leadenly by his side. Yet, its deep fiery ache continued to flicker up into his bicep. Without thinking, Danny tried to move his left hand but was startled to feel a soft restrictive band around his forearm. Attached to the bed's frame, he wasn't able to move his arm more than that of a weak twitch.
"What?" His ghosted whisper even surprised him but his inability to move more than a few left-handed fingers was frightening. It only added to a no longer faint sensation of being truly trapped and he shifted his head on the pillow uncomfortably.
"Hey .. what?" Danny's breath shuddered in his throat, causing his new enemy of a waking headache to trigger an uncertain feeling of nausea. His left hand fisted as he tried to lift his arm again, failing entirely as the restraint kept him securely anchored to the bed rail.
"Ste …ve. Steve?" His voice weakly quavered as his tiny movements and plaintive murmurs finally increased in volume. They were enough based on the increased loud shuffle and blatant curse which seemed to put an end to whomever … no, it was certainly Steve for the harsh profanity … had been reading or at least idly thumbing through pages.
"Dammit! Whoa, hey … Danny? I'm here. How long have you been awake? How do you feel?" Steve's tone was almost offended, angry even. Not anticipating such an outburst, Danny struggled to breathe before answering.
"Few … minutes. Arm … why … can't I move?" Swallowing hard, Danny heard Steve push the chair roughly across the floor so he could have more room to stand over the bed. The chair skidded, banged and screeched across the linoleum in a distressing tune which exacerbated rising nerves and Danny visibly winced. There was another cursed reprimand about the clattering din, then the warmth of a hand bore into Danny's arm and just above the hospital's restraints.
Sitting nearly on top of the bed, Steve soundly berated himself for not beating Danny to his full waking state. He'd been watching every movement like a hawk. Carefully gauging every wince, soft murmur and twitch of an errant finger and still, he'd completely missed it. Steve grimaced unhappily as Danny panted worriedly behind the oxygen mask and sweat dotted his forehead. Pale and now completely agitated once more, his partner was already coming undone.
"You kept going for your face and the bandages. The nurses were afraid you'd hurt yourself by tearing out the intravenous lines. It's nothing...totally nothing to worry about." Steve hadn't argued the decision because even asleep, Danny kept moving in restless circles. Angry with himself now though, he was talking fast and anxiously looking from heart monitor to the hallway and back to his partner's ashen face. "Why didn't you tell me that you were awake sooner? How do you feel?"
Without waiting for a reply because he could literally see the answer, Steve was already hitting the call button. "Hey, you're going to be fine." He groaned deeply in his throat though as Danny's distress grew when his heels dug into the mattress and his fist tightened resentfully. No matter what he was saying, the reactions spoke of real physical pain and so much more as Danny's respiration increased erratically.
"Try to calm down. How bad? Is it your arm ... something else?" Feeling useless, Steve tried to help or even offer a distraction as his partner's head lolled miserably on the pillow again. Still raised on a gentle incline, Danny would have been able to see the width and breadth of his hospital room. But now, he lay there weakly trapped as time ticked by much too slowly for all of them.
"Bad. Feel ... sick. Just sick." Danny willed his left arm down to the bed, though his fist stayed firmly in place to prick his palm with half-mooned shapes from his nails. He knew he wasn't helping himself as his heart raced to kick a bass drum inside his already sore temple. That same drum was twisting his stomach into a queasy offbeat knot and he coughed dryly in a vain attempt to dispel the feeling. "Headache again ... I think ... I think I'm going to be sick."
Steve must have been caught off guard by the rare honesty because nothing happened for a minute. The delay was brief as Steve's hand tightened firmly on Danny's forearm just above the arterial lines and the soft Velcro restraint. Distressed that there was little he could do, he resorted to rubbing Danny's arm methodically. Still purposefully blinded for the next few hours, trapped in a hospital bed and now essentially strapped in place, Danny was being asked to cope with the impossible.
"Listen to me, alright?" Steve perched on the edge of the bed, forcing Danny to open his tight fist with his other hand so he could provide a more tactile foundation. Quietly and slowly, Steve began to describe each bandage, needle and treatment affecting his partner's creative imagination. Releasing Danny's arm, Steve gently traced a portion of the bandage near his temple. Then he moved back to the restraint, stopping just shy of the primary impressive line adhered to the inside of Danny's wrist and just below the base of his thumb. Without moving, Steve then only described the soft splint the injured right arm was resting in. But he took his time there to describe the positive results related to blood flow and a heathy pressure, though without a doubt, its reddened and bruised discoloration was visually alarming.
"I can take it off now that you're awake." Sighing in relief as a nurse entered on a fast walk, Steve groped for the Velcro release. Waiting for the nurse's sharp nod of approval, he ripped the restraint from Danny's forearm, happily catching the genuine softly murmured word of thanks escaping on a shuddering exhale. "Just don't forget you've got to be careful. It's me they're coming after if you hurt yourself, Danno."
Quirking an eyebrow, the attending nurse rocked back on a heel while folding her arms authoritatively. Her reaction made Steve grin though a true smile never reached his eyes. He had zero intention of going anywhere and based on the time, Chin would be returning within the hour. He knew she would advise Ramirez or the doctor on duty and that was equally fine with Steve. But now ... for that current waking moment ... he could at least make his partner slightly more at ease.
"What else can I do?" Steve murmured worriedly as the nurse remained close by evaluating readings. He caught her eye and tapped his own head to relay the volume of Danny's headache. She frowned, tapped her watch and then nodded to one of Danny's intravenous ports before skipping from the room at another impressive pace. He recognized the jointly shared message and slowly let out a lungful of air.
"The nurse is getting meds for you, Danno. Something for your head and for the pain in your arm. But what else can I do?" Worried, Steve allowed Danny to virtually strangle his hand as another tremble wracked his body with a vengeance. The short litany had certainly helped for a time but fatigue and pain were replacing that short respite much too quickly.
"Do?" His choked laugh was soft but its pain had Steve forcefully whispering ridiculous platitudes just before Danny's voice broke on a weak inhale. "Anything but this … anything."
Looking down first, Steve closed his eyes to gather his thoughts as Danny's hand began to shake uncontrollably. "I called Rachel," he blurted the words without thinking, unable to take them back as they lingered loudly over the bed.
"And ... uh ... besides your stellar driving skills, that woman should have been a detective." Steve was in now as he dug a deeper trench. "Or, a lawyer ... you know, Danno, she's a piece of work. Either way, she ripped me a new one for not calling sooner from one end of the island to the other."
He waited then with a bewildered half-wince gracing his face wondering what his partner might say after such a revelation. The cold fingers in his hand had stopped trembling almost instantly, yet Steve's internal jury was still out as to the optimism of the pending verdict. Danny's lip twitched upwards under the oxygen mask. For a blessed second, Steve recognized the glimmer of amusement.
"What else?" Danny's whisper was softer and possibly a trifle more relaxed. "What else did she say?"
Danny was at least interested and no longer cautiously perched, Steve purposefully settled himself more on the bed. That one question was absolutely all about Grace. Trusting that Steve and Rachel would have done the right thing until he was better enough to host a visit from his daughter, Danny found his focus.
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Steve's cell phone was vibrating incessantly. Nonstop in fact. He glanced down quickly and scowled irritably when he saw Duke Lukela's name before turning his attention back towards Danny. His mood had nothing whatsoever to do with the older sergeant. Steve was busy, distracted actually, and he knew that Duke would leave a message. Ignoring the vibration until it ceased, Steve would call him back later ... later after the ophthalmologist removed Danny's bandages and pronounced him completely healed.
Standing at the foot of the bed next to both Ellen and Ponch, Steve's eyes were drawn inadvertently to Chin Ho's newly annoyed fidget. Brow furrowed, he was now looking at his own cell phone and evidently deciding what to do next. Steve's startling self-revelation was that Lukela might be desperately running through the Five-0 task force in a sequenced determination to gain someone's undivided attention.
"Shit," Steve mumbled under his breath as Chin confusedly waggled his cell phone in his direction. Choosing to send the call to voicemail, the next to vibrate was Kono's and Steve then knew it was definitely Lukela. Having caught the tail-end of the silent exchange, Kono's mouth adopted a stern line as she quickly glanced from Steve to Chin and then settled on Danny's face. Trying to ignore it, she failed only to sigh resignedly as Duke's personal number continually flashed across her screen. As unhappy as the two men about the interruption, she disgustedly shook her head at their obstinacy. Plugging her left ear with her finger, Kono bolted from the room with a rarely seen resentful expression because they all wanted to stay for this critical juncture.
They all wanted to stay for Danny.
Heaving a partly worried sigh, Steve let his eyes wander as they followed his youngest team member before focusing back on Danny's face. Sitting upright in the hospital bed, tension radiated from him as the ophthalmologist steadily unwrapped each layer of stifling white material. The room was already pre-darkened in preparation for the unveiling of sensitive eyes which hadn't seen a speck of light in more than thirty hours.
"What's wrong?" Steve hissed when Kono returned a few scant minutes later. Her face was dark with anger and she shook her head to delay the conversation with a nod towards Danny instead. Her eyes also flickered with a deepness of purpose which was more than worrisome.
"Later, boss." Even Kono's soft tone was full of a certain loathing and Steve worriedly growled out a breath on a low exhale. Whatever Duke had called about obviously wasn't good news and needed to be discussed more privately.
The ophthalmologist had long ago excluded corneal abrasions as an issue by fluorescein staining Danny's eyes and conducting a very thorough slit lamp examination. His conclusion was that there were no abrasions or significant issues, so he treated Danny's eyes with antibiotic ointment and eye pads with a recommendation that the poison would have resolved somewhere between twenty-four and forty-eight hours. Erring on the side of caution as per the example of the snake bite itself and his patient's overall general condition, Doctor Leroy Houston Parnell felt comfortable removing all bandages at just shy of thirty hours.
On the verge of ripping the bed sheet to shreds with one hand, it was evident that his patient had more than enough of waiting. Nerves had become an overloaded sense of utter impatience worsened by an inability to clock watch. Warned that he'd be in the hospital at least one more full day, Danny needed the bandages off his face. He needed to see.
Danny's query of 'is it time yet?' had started to take on an interesting quality reminiscent of a bad trip in an unairconditioned vehicle with three red-faced sweaty ten year olds beating each other senseless into sticky vinyl back seat. Buffeted by fifty-mile an hour drafts from completely rolled down windows, dirty fingered 'don't touch me's' and 'he did 'it's!' might resound around the crinkle of trashed cellophane bags and the unfathomable smells of bare feet and humidity laden stale potato chips. Each would then scream out a crescendo of repetitive 'are we there yet?''s.
The core differences in the comparison only began with the age group in question. Afterwards, it was Danny's own partner and two Asian cousins who were all on an identical page and if Danny wasn't asking, then one of these other three were similarly traipsing behind one physician or another wanting to know if it was time yet.
Technically Danny's condition was quite stable but Ramirez still had him on a variety of medications including hydrocortisone intravenously, antihistamines and phenergan to combat the itch. Tentative discussions were beginning regarding the possibility of discharge and post-hospital care but these only hastened desires to depart. Plus, the ophthalmologist wasn't budging in his earlier assessment nor in the steadfast timing of his original course of action. Earlier that morning, Danny had been assisted to his feet where he'd wavered uncertainly. Akin to having the flu, Danny's entire body ached from head to toe and at first, he'd been unable to take a single step.
Splinted and wrapped, his injured hand and arm were tucked tightly into his chest. Still badly swollen, discolored and blotched with redness, the limb alternated between exuding a bone-deep ache or an aggravating itch. His good left hand had been wrapped around an orderly's forearm while he stubbornly and quite blindly journeyed the short width of his room and then took a brief portion of the ICU hallway. Settling for a slowly shuffled hunch while fighting off another headache and stomach cramps, Danny practically looked and felt like a blind, doddering ninety-year old.
Determined to prove the ophthalmologist's reports correct regardless of these lingering symptoms, Danny knew that he'd need to be functioning and on his feet to achieve his last hurdle: going home. However, when his thrice asked question of 'is it time yet?' was finally answered with an affirmative by Doctor Ramirez, Danny wavered in indecision as if someone might be playing a cruel joke. Despite the swath of bandages covering the majority of his face, his skin turned a grayish shade of paper white and his mouth closed firmly when stress locked his jaw.
Ramirez's bemused look would have antagonized his patient into a defensive rant had he actually been able to see it. Instead, Steve silently explained the unanticipated reaction with a pensive shrug.
Danny simply feared what he desperately wanted. And so when he did speak, Danny wanted everyone there with him in spite of the poor delivery. No private rooms with a doctor he barely knew, no secret unveilings or dramatic fanfare with softly voiced sympathetic questioning.
Simultaneously anxious and excited, his final blunt remark was fraught with a resentful frustration. "I don't care who's there, just get these damned bandages off!"
Startled back to the present, Steve realized that the bandages were nearly entirely removed and he shifted uneasily on his feet. The unconscious reaction made Ellen look up to him with a soothing smile and Steve tried to return his own as he forcibly controlled the soft whoosh of air leaving his slightly parted lips. Danny's left hand had stilled in the bed sheets which were damply wadded inside a white-knuckled fist.
"Keep your eyes closed until I say, Danny." Taking of the last of the outer bandages, only the two eye pads remained as Doctor Parnell leaned back slightly from his bedside perch. His wry smile was for himself because he hadn't had such an audience since med school. His soft drawl was decidedly from the southern portion of the United States, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee to be exact, and he enjoyed his job immensely. Leroy Houston Parnell enjoyed helping people and he smiled happily as he gently removed the last of the restrictive soft pads.
"Minimal redness but no signs of swelling." Leroy remarked solely to Danny as if they were indeed quite alone. The room was dimly lit but the change would still cause some discomfort and so, Leroy shielded Danny's eyes with his own hands from the little gleam of overhead lighting. "Slowly, when you're ready. The room is somewhat dark but remember that you will likely feel a bit of a pain and your vision could be a bit hazy. All of which is normal."
With Parnell's hands cupped over Danny's brow, Steve couldn't see all of what had happened next but he certainly heard it and he fretted for the lack of sound until he truly saw his partner's smile. Squinting and rapidly blinking back reactive tears even from the low lights in the room, Danny nodded as a stray tear trailed down his left cheek. "Yeah, it's good. A little cloudy like you said ... but definitely good, Doc."
Palming the space between his own eyes for the dull throb of pressure, Steve felt Ellen rock into him happily but he was rooted in place only able to watch Ramirez now join Parnell by Danny's side. Stuck at the foot of the bed next to Ellen and flanked by Kono, Steve carefully leaned on the frame and hung his head to gather himself back together.
Whatever warm buzz of speech was taking place between the two doctors now flew around Steve's head as utter nonsense while he peeked up to study Danny's face to be sure. To be entirely certain that Danny's smile was firmly in place and that Parnell's continued examination yielded optimistic results. Though there was still a squint, any true discomfort was fading quickly as Danny's eyes acclimated to the light and in short, one Doctor Leroy Houston Parnell was extremely pleased with his patient's fine recovery.
"Thank god," Kono mumbled as she tented her fingers over her nose as if partially hiding, yet she was watching every move like a rabid watchdog. She pressed hard on the bridge of her nose to prevent a surge of relieved tears before glancing over to Steve. The mood was soon going to change based upon Sergeant Lukela's more than troubling news. But for now, for just a few more minutes, all of that would need to wait.
Her error though was that glance and before she could look away, Steve had her eye. "What?" He whispered, just below the ongoing rumble of the two physicians.
Scowling, Kono bit her lip and allowed her anger to once again briefly show. She looked to Danny and then to Ponch before sidling a few steps closer to Steve. "It's Franklin Ray." She was hardly moving her lips as the rest of it came out in a susurrus filled with undisguised hatred. "He's escaped police custody."
~ to be continued ~