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Chapter 4:

Danny's return to consciousness was as abrupt as his entry into unconsciousness had been.

The first thing he knew was a stabbing pain, spreading from his neck to the back of his skull and all the way down his spine, immediately followed by the realization that he was unable to move his head.

Jerking to awareness, his eyes snapped wide open.

His breath hitched when the bright light of the room sent an almost unbearable wave of pain through his head. Squeezing his eyes shut, Williams bit his lower lip in a vain attempt to suppress the piteous whimper that tore from his throat.

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy, brah."

Danny felt a touch on his arm, a hand gently closed around his right biceps, grounding him until the pain finally reduced to a more tolerable level and his ragged breaths calmed down. Gritting his teeth, he swallowed convulsively against the rising nausea, solely concentrating on breathing deeply in and out.

Once he was reasonably sure that his stomach wouldn't try to play any more funny games, Danny ignored the jack-hammer in his head and very carefully opened his eyes, looking directly into Kono's worried face.

Briefly tightening her grip on his arm, Kono forced a smile onto her lips, "Hey Danny, it's good to see you. How do you feel?"

Danny narrowed his eyes, it was difficult to tell over the all-consuming pounding behind his eyes but something in her voice sounded strange. Panic welled up inside him when he tried to look around the room but as before he was simply unable to turn his head. His breath caught in his throat, the fingers of his left hand twitched involuntarily, the movement sent a spike of pain through his hand and along his arm.

"Kono?" Danny moaned hoarsely. "I can't move my head… why can I not move my head?"

"Easy, Danny, everything's alright, okay?" Kono quickly reassured him, her hand soothingly rubbing up and down his right arm. "You're wearing a cervical collar, but it's just to ease the pain from the whiplash you sustained. You'll be alright, do you understand? Everything gonna be alright."

Danny furrowed his brow but finally the meaning of Kono's words sank in and he took a deep breath, briefly closing his eyes.

"What else?" he rasped, not bothering to utter a complete sentence, to his relief Kono seemed to understand his question.

"Apart from the severe whiplash, you have two cracked and one broken rib, probably from the shot you took to the vest, a sprained wrist, two broken fingers," Kono pointed at the splints that immobilized Danny's left pinky and ring finger, "and some nasty cuts and bruises."

"All things considered, you were really, really lucky, brah," the young woman said quietly, once more gently squeezing Danny's arm before she removed her hand.

"Don't feel so lucky," Danny mumbled, grimacing with pain, the bright light stung in his eyes and he blinked rapidly against the dull throbbing in his head.

He had trouble thinking straight but something felt weird, he was sure that he'd missed something, he just couldn't wrap his mind around it…

Suddenly his eyes went wide and Williams grabbed Kono's wrist with his right hand, not caring about the white-hot pain that shot through his whole body.

"Steve?" he merely croaked out the word, his eyes fixed on Kono's face, searching for any hints about McGarrett's condition.

Kono's eyes darkened with sympathy as she placed her hand on top of Danny's hand; absentmindedly Danny noticed how cold her fingers felt against his skin as he impatiently waited for her to answer. "Kono?" he whispered a few moments later, his heart skipping a beat when he saw the look on her face.

"I… I don't know, Danny," she answered falteringly. "All I know is that he was admitted just about half an hour ago and that he's in surgery right now. Chin's upstairs, waiting for any news…" Her voice trailed off and Danny saw how she swallowed heavily.

"What…" Danny frowned in confusion, unable to clearly voice his thoughts. "But… how long…" He had no idea how much time had passed since their 'landing', but if he had been tended to, there must have been quite some time gone by, right? He was lying in a private room, his fingers were splinted and he could feel the tight bandage around his ribcage, all that didn't happen in the blink of an eye. But then why on earth had Steve just been brought in mere minutes ago?

Heaving a sigh, Kono warily unwrapped Danny's finger from her wrist, guiding his hand back onto the sheets before she stepped back from the bed. Nervously pacing the room, she ran both hands through her hair, desperately searching for the right words.

Since Danny was unable to move his head, his eyes followed her every movement until she finally stopped at the foot of the bed. Resting her hands on the bed rail, Kono returned Danny's gaze and explained, "The crash was only about three hours ago, but it took more than one hour to pull you from the wreckage."

"One hour?" Danny interrupted her unbelievingly.

Smiling unhappily, Kono replied, "The helicopter overturned before it crashed into one of the buildings, it was just bad luck that of all possible directions it just went directly toward that hangar. The firefighters had a hard time getting you out of there, but they finally succeeded and you were brought here."

"And Steve?" Williams asked, his voice pressing and hesitant at the same time. He saw Kono's knuckles turn white as she tightened her grip around the bed rail, the tiny gesture sucked out all his meager strength, leaving behind only a bone-crushing exhaustion. "Kono, please, what happened?" Danny whispered hoarsely.

Two small wrinkles appeared between Kono's brows, she tightly pressed her lips together for a second before she replied, "Once you were rescued I accompanied you to the hospital; I just know what happened afterwards because Chin told me about it when he came in a short while ago. But what I do know is that it took even longer to free Steve, they were still working on him when we left the scene." She interrupted herself, taking a deep shuddering breath before she continued, her voice slightly wavering, "Danny, he… he stopped breathing. Luckily there was just enough space in and around the wreckage for two of the paramedics to squeeze their way through to him. I don't know how they did it but somehow they managed to intubate him. We couldn't see what was happening but we heard them demanding one blood bag after another…"

Danny stared at her wide-eyed, his mind slowly processing her words. His heart constricted painfully when he thought back to the time in the helicopter, remembering the makeshift tourniquet and the amount of blood on Steve's clothes. He saw Kono's lips quiver as she took another deep breath, trying to compose herself, "Chin told me they needed almost another forty-five minutes to get Steve out of the wreckage after we were gone and then another twenty minutes to stabilize him for the transport to the hospital."

A single tear ran down Kono's cheek, averting her eyes from Danny, she angrily wiped it away with the back of her hand. Seeing the distress she was in, Williams immediately pushed all of his own pain and worry for his partner to the back of his mind.

"Hey… hey, it's okay. Come here," Danny said soothingly, gingerly raising his right arm.

Kono slightly shook her head, the movement barely visible, as she pressed her palms against her eyes. "I'm okay, it's just…" she said embarrassedly, vigorously rubbing the tears from her face.

"Come here," Danny repeated a bit more firmly, carefully waving his hand. "I could use a hug too, you know?" He flashed her a smile, motioning her to step closer.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me," Kono whispered as she sat down at the edge of the bed. She leaned forward until she could rest her head on Danny's shoulder, her arm lightly placed across his chest. "You know that I usually don't cry this easily, but… but seeing the two of you there in that wreckage, seeing the helicopter crash into that hangar…" Her voice trailed off and Danny felt the small shiver that ran through her body.

"You saw the crash? You were there?" he asked surprised, gently patting her back with his uninjured hand despite the pain the movement caused.

Kono nodded against his shoulder, "I was with Chin at headquarters this morning. Once you called, we directly set off for the airfield. We arrived only a few moments before you came in." She kept silent for a few moments before she hesitantly continued, her voice low and tremulous, "It was terrible, I've never seen a helicopter crash and knowing that you and Steve were in there…" Another shiver shook her slender frame, much stronger than the last one.

"Ssssh, I'm sure everything will be alright, okay? I'm fine and Steve's a fighter, he will be alright," Danny said, not only to soothe the young woman next to him but also to restore his own peace of mind. "I know he'll be alright."

A few minutes passed with neither of them saying a word, they just bathed in each other's company until Danny's pain resurfaced and slowly became overwhelming. Squeezing his eyes shut against the agony in his body he tried desperately to keep his breathing deep and smooth.

"Kono," Williams finally moaned weakly. "I need…"

"Oh God, Danny, I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" Noticing the change in Danny's condition, Kono immediately jumped up." I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," she exclaimed, throwing a concerned look at her teammate who pressed one arm against his abdomen.

Danny tried to shake his head but the cervical collar prevented every such movement. "I need to sit up," he said urgently, returning her gaze. "Think I'm gonna be sick…"

Kono reacted promptly, in one swift move she not only pinched the call button and adjusted the bed for Danny to sit up but also pressed a bowl in his hands, steadying his trembling fingers with her own. Waiting impatiently for the nurse to arrive, Kono watched in macabre fascination how Danny's pale complexion slowly changed to a sickening green.

Slightly dizzy from the sudden change in position, Williams closed his eyes, his lips firmly pressed together as he tried to breathe slowly and deeply. His stomach clenched painfully and he swallowed convulsively against the bile in his throat, the last time he'd thrown up had been more than fifteen years ago and he would be damned if he broke this streak.

"Detective Williams?" Danny slightly flinched when he felt a touch on his arm, he didn't notice someone enter the room. "I'm Nurse Betsy. Can you tell me how you feel?"

Without opening his eyes, Danny whispered through clenched teeth, "Queasy."

"That's to be expected, nausea is a well-known side effect of the pain meds," Betsy nodded sympathetically as she produced a syringe out of her pocket. "I'll give you an antiemetic, that should make you feel better in no time."

Cautiously opening his eyes, Danny watched Betsy insert the contents of the syringe into the catheter on his left arm; he frowned slightly, he just noticed for the first time that he was actually hooked to an IV line.

"Thanks," Williams murmured gratefully, looking up to catch her gaze. His heart skipped a beat when he took in her appearance, her shining red hair remembered him of the conversation he had with Steve earlier that day. Was it really just a few hours ago when they joked about red-haired nurses?

"You're welcome," Betsy replied with a little smile, gently patting his shoulder. Shifting her gaze to Kono, she added, "Call me if there's no change in the next ten minutes."

"I will," Kono answered, "Mahalo." Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Kono watched the nurse quietly leave the room before she looked back at Danny, whose eyes were again closed, his hands clawed around the bowl that Kono had handed him earlier, his complexion still held a hint of green.

Kono wished she could do more than just soothingly rubbing Danny's arm but minute after minute passed without improvement and she watched helplessly how Danny's condition worsened, his breathing now fast and shallow. He laboredly swallowed every few seconds, his lips tightly pressed together.

After seven minutes of watching Danny's torment, Kono finally decided that enough was enough. Leaning forward, she forcefully pressed the call button, gently squeezing Danny's biceps, "Hold on, brah, I just called for the nurse, I'm sure you'll feel better soon."

Impatiently observing the door, Kono stood up as soon as she saw the door handle move only a few moments later. Nurse Betsy came in, followed by a tall, middle-aged Hawaiian doctor, his grayish hair and the rimless glasses gave him a serious appearance but the mischievous sparkle in his eyes made Kono immediately feel comfortable around him.

"Detective Williams, do you feel any better?" Betsy asked, gently grabbing Danny's right wrist to feel his pulse.

Danny really began to hate that damned cervical collar, he definitely wasn't up to answer right now but he had no other choice. Unable to shake his head, he breathed out a whimpered, "No." That uncharacteristically short answer told Kono that her teammate must feel terrible, but obviously the doctor also wasn't too happy about Danny's condition either.

"Detective Williams? My name is Mano Alakika, I'm your attending doctor." His voice was quiet and kind when he explained, "As Nurse Betsy told you earlier, the nausea you're suffering from is a well-known side effect of the pain medication you were given to ease the pain from your injuries. Usually the antiemetic has worked by now and the nausea should have abated. It's very uncommon but we do sometimes have patients who don't respond to the antiemetic at all." Dr. Alakika made a short pause, resting his hand on Danny's shoulder as he asked, "Do you understand what I'm trying to tell, Detective?"

Danny took a deep breath before he slowly opened his eyes. Glaring defeated at his doctor, Williams answered sarcastically, "Yeah, seems like I'm one of those lucky guys."

The ghost of a smile appeared on Dr. Alakika's face. "It's good to see that you haven't lost your humor." Briefly squeezing Danny's shoulder, he continued, "We have two possibilities; you can either stay hooked to the pain meds and suffer the nausea or we can stop the medication completely. I'm sorry that there's no other option at the moment, but before you decide what you want to do let me tell you one more thing. I know that, despite the meds, you're in pain right now, I have to warn you; without the pain medication, it's inevitable that the pain gets even worse."

Danny stared at Dr. Alakika, almost laughing out loud, the man obviously had no idea what he was talking about, because Danny couldn't imagine that he could possibly hurt more than now, these pain killers didn't do any good at all. "Can't be worse than now," he said through clenched teeth, gesturing toward his left arm. "Take it off."

Seeing the short nod from Dr. Alakika, Betsy immediately started to close down the IV line, removing the tube but leaving the catheter in place for future use.

"Try to sleep for a while," the doctor advised, heading for the door. "If the pain becomes too bad, call the nurse, she'll get you something to help you sleep."

Already feeling a tiny bit better, Danny defensively waved his hand, "It's okay, I can handle the pain, I just cannot stand the feeling of being sick."

Dr. Alakika had just opened the door when Danny stopped him, asking, "Doc? Do you have any news about Commander McGarrett?"

"No, I'm sorry, Detective," the older man answered, an apologetic smile on his lips. "As far as I'm aware he's still in surgery and given his injuries, I'm pretty sure that it'll take at least another two or three hours. I'll make sure someone gets back to you as soon as there is any news."

"Thanks, doc," Williams said exhaustedly, letting let his head sink on the pillow, disappointed about the lack of information but for the moment just glad about the fact that the nausea was slowly but surely abating. After one last tired smile in Kono's direction he closed his eyes, trying to follow Dr. Alakika's advice.

But sleep wouldn't come and half an hour later, Danny wasn't so sure anymore if he really could handle the pain. He hurt everywhere, his head, his ribs, his back, his hand; it hurt to breathe, it hurt to sit, it even hurt to lay still. He didn't know if it was better to sit up or lie down and after having bothered Kono a few times to adjust the bed he just remained sitting, it didn't make any difference.

Danny drifted in and out of sleep, vehemently dismissing each of Kono's offers to call the nurse. They still hadn't heard from Steve and there was no way Danny would accept getting sedated without knowing about his partner's condition.

Kono did her best to distract Danny from the pain he was in, but her efforts became more and more futile the more time went by. She watched Danny's stiff posture, his pale complexion, the deep lines on his forehead, his tight jaw and just as she was about to overrule his wishes and call for help, the door opened and her cousin walked into the room.

Chin looked as tired as Kono felt, he gave her a quick hug before he addressed Danny, "Good to see you awake, brah. How do you feel?"

"Been better," Danny admitted, wiping the sweat from his forehead with slightly trembling fingers. He locked eyes with Chin, barely daring to ask the most important question that was on his mind, "Steve?"

Taking a deep breath, Chin answered, "All I know is that he made it through surgery and that he's now in the ICU. His doctor wouldn't tell me anything else because I'm not listed as next of kin…" The frustration in Chin's voice was soon replaced by his normal calm tone when he continued, "But she promised to be here shortly."

The next minutes passed agonizingly slow, all three Five-0 members took in a short gasp of relief when the door finally opened and a young, dark-haired doctor entered the room.

Danny's heart sank when he saw Dr. Alakika and Nurse Betsy following straight on her heels. Obviously he wasn't the only one who reckoned the presence of his doctor as a bad sign, out of the corner of his eye he saw Chin moving closer to Kono, protectively wrapping his right arm around her waist.

The young doctor nodded a brief greeting in Chin's and Kono's direction before she turned toward Danny. "Detective Daniel Williams? You're listed as Commander McGarrett's next of kin, is that correct?" She asked, her voice all businesslike but not unfriendly. Her dark hair and tanned skin together with the way she rolled the R's were clear signs of her Hispanic origin. She waited for Danny's affirmative murmur before she continued, "My name is Dr. Lucia Santiago, I'm Commander McGarrett's attending surgeon."

"How is he?" Danny asked impatiently, slightly shifting his weight to get a better look at her.

"Our foremost goal was to take care of the gunshot wound on his right upper arm. The bullet nicked the brachial artery, but we were finally able to repair the damage. He lost a lot of blood and we had a rough time stabilizing his blood pressure." Dr. Santiago interrupted herself, her almost black eyes darkened even more when she quietly said, "I'll be honest with you, it was touch and go for a while and we almost lost him a few times. I was told that the paramedics administered blood transfusions on site? Well, I'm sure that without those, he'd never made it to the hospital."

Williams briefly closed his eyes over her brutally honest words, the sharp intake of breath he heard from Kono matched his own feelings of helplessness and shock.

"Commander McGarrett's blood pressure is still critically low but we're optimistic that with some more blood transfusions and enough fluids we'll get it under control in the next few hours." Dr. Santiago made another short pause, giving the team time to process her words. "Apart from the gunshot wound, he has some cuts and bruises and a broken collarbone. But these are only minor injuries, nothing a few days of rest won't heal."

Danny stared bleakly at the dark-haired doctor, he was sure that there was something else, something she didn't dare tell them so far and his fears were confirmed when she continued, "However, our main concern at the moment is neither the gunshot wound nor any of his other visible injuries."

"What do you mean, 'visible injuries'?" Danny asked frowning, exchanging a quick, confused glance with Chin and Kono.

Looking back at Dr. Santiago, he just saw how she silently communicated with her colleague, the look in both doctors' eyes didn't add to calm Danny's frayed nerves. He felt his heartbeat quicken, a firm throb against his injured ribs.

"I think you're aware of the fact that Commander McGarrett stopped breathing soon after the crash?" Dr. Santiago asked, taking a deep breath as she locked eyes with Danny. "We assume the reason for that is a spinal cord trauma."

Seeing the blank look in Danny's eyes, she explained, "At the moment, Commander McGarrett is not showing any reflexes at all and the fact that he's not able to breathe on his own indicates a spinal cord injury above the fourth cervical or C4, which means the nerves and muscles responsible for breathing are affected. However, neither X-rays nor CAT scans showed any visible damage to the vertebrae or the spinal cord so we're hopeful that it's just what we call a 'spinal concussion'. In that case the loss of function is transient and all reflexes as well as his breathing should be back to normal in the next 48 to 72 hours."

"I… I don't understand…" Danny spluttered, trying to grasp the meaning of her words as he swallowed past the lump in his throat. "Are you trying to tell us that Steve is… that he is… paralyzed?"

"I'm sorry," Dr. Santiago nodded sympathetically, her voice calm and soothing. "But as I said, we're still hopeful that the paralysis is not permanent. The development over the next two or three days will be crucial."

Staring at her in shock, Danny suddenly had the feeling that his chest was too small for his frantically beating heart, he greedily sucked in the air to get rid of the tightness. He felt his stomach clench, the bile rose in his throat, but he no longer had the strength or the willpower to fight. He squeezed his eyes shut, hectically swinging his hands through the air. Just as he started to retch, something was pressed in his hands, leaning slightly forward he emptied the meager contents of his stomach into the bowl.

He didn't notice the steady hand on his forehead or another one soothingly rubbing circles on his back, helping him through this seemingly endless ordeal. When he was finally done and only dry heaves left his throat, he dropped his head back onto the pillow, deeply grateful for the cup that was pressed against his rough lips, for the cool water that washed away the ugly taste in his mouth.

"Sorry," he tried to say but he wasn't sure if he uttered a real word or just some unintelligible mumble, and to be honest, he really didn't care.

His eyes still closed, Williams tried to calm down his erratic breathing, but the more he tried, the more labored it became. He felt sweat running down his face when the agony in his body reached a new, unknown peak, his right hand frantically clenched into a fist.

"10 mg Diazepam IV."

Dr. Alakika's kind voice barely penetrated the fog in Danny's head and before he could react, he felt a warm fire first crawl up his arm, then through his veins and his whole body. He tried to open his eyes but his eyelids were suddenly as heavy as lead and all he could do was blink sluggishly.

His breathing evened out as Danny's body involuntarily relaxed against the soft sheets, all the pain he was suffering, the headache, the pain in his neck and back, the throbbing of his injured ribs slowly retreated one after the other.

The only thing the drug couldn't take away was the worry for his partner, that one feeling remained a constant twitch in his heart, even when all the physical pain faded and Danny finally succumbed to the dark, warm coat of sleep that embraced him.

(tbc)