As Danny came to again, he was a little afraid to let himself come up all the way, period. After all, he didn't know whether he'd be getting his mouth stuffed full of ice chips and an armful of Monkey, or whether he'd be in a world of hurt choking on his own blood and being told by some EMT named Jo she was sorry when he asked about Steve.
"Danno?"
"Monkeeeey," he whispered, then felt her climb onto the bed.
So. Moonbase it was, then. Not Hawaii.
"Danno, you're okay."
"I am, sweetie, nothing but a little cut." He opened his eyes. The look on her face told him she didn't believe him. This was mirrored, of course, by Mr. I-Have-A-More-Expressive-Face-Than-Danny-Has-Words McGarrett's cross between Liar! Face and I-Get-That-She's-Young-But-Still Face.
Grace just snuggled into him, avoiding the single IV line that was inserted into the back of his left hand.
"Anything new?" he asked his partner.
"We've identified both men," Steve said, quickly glancing down at Grace, then obviously deciding this was okay for her to hear. "You were right, Danny. They were not only with the original crew who designed and built the house, they were two of the five who told Gabbana they wouldn't return for the additions being planned."
"Hey, I know that name," Grace said. "Are you talking about Step-Stan's construction crew?"
Danny nodded, hand petting her head. "Yeah, but don't worry about it."
"Some of those guys weren't very nice."
Danny and Steve raised their right eyebrows simultaneously. "You knew them?" Danny asked.
"Well, not really. But they were working on the Lunar West airlock when we moved up here, and some of them were still inside finishing different things like my bathroom."
Steve seated himself in the chair next to Danny's bed, then hunched forward so he was more eye-level with Grace, still snuggled against her Danno. "What makes you say some of them weren't very nice?"
"The guy who was working on my combination sonic/water shower didn't seem to like Step-Stan or Virg very much. I liked Virg, though, he was real nice to me. He even brought me a big lunar rock that has cool silver stripes all the way through it! He found it when they excavated for the house." Grace paused thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, the day he gave it to me, that guy Bob and four other guys were right there. That's when Bob started saying mean stuff, so I just went to find Mom and Junior."
Steve's and Danny's eyes met. Not a word was spoken, but Danno knew not a single one needed to be.
Stan appeared at the door to the small hospital ward door. "Grace, Dr. Kelly has offered us some cookies she had shipped up from Honolulu Cookie Company. Want some?"
"Oh, yeah! I miss that place! I'll be right back, Danno, and I'll bring you a cookie!"
Danny grinned as he kissed the top of her head. "Thanks. One for Steve, too?"
Steve grinned. Grace smiled as she rolled off the bed. "One for Steve, too," she confirmed, then joined Stan. Stan, who gave Danny a knowing look.
Huh. Maybe Danny shouldn't have been so harsh on the guy. He was not only nice, he was observant.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Steve asked as soon as Stan and Grace were gone and the door had swished shut behind them.
"You're damn right I am. We need to get a look at that rock Gabbana gave to my daughter, and we need to find out if the guy she heard grumbling about Stan and Gabbana is one of our vics."
"We also need to find out where the other three of those five who claim they won't return to the Moon with Gabbana are," Steve said with a nod. "I'll get Kono and Chin on that angle, and I'll head back to the Edwards home to pick up Grace's rock."
"We got anyone who can analyze that?"
"Yep. The Naval Base over in the Kepler region has two officers who are geologists on-staff. I'll give them a call on my way to get Grace's rock."
"When can I get the hell out of this bed, anyway? I feel like a useless lump sitting here."
"You're not a useless lump, Danny. You could be dead right now."
Danny looked up and suddenly remembered…and gasped, eyes widening.
"Danny?"
He reached out and gripped Steve's forearm tightly.
"Danny, what is it? You okay?"
Danny could feel his face change. He felt fear claw its way up from his gut like an icy hand intent on ripping him to shreds from the inside out. "Steve," he breathed.
"What? You in pain? What?"
"Hawaii."
Steve looked him, cocked his head. "What?"
"We're in the Camaro on a street in Hawaii."
"Danny, we haven't been in the Camaro or in Hawaii, for that matter, for five months now."
Confusion made his brain matter feel like oatmeal as he struggled to fight the vivid memories, recollections, but how could they be? They'd never been upside down in the Camaro. Never been in an accident that severe.
"Danno, you're scaring me here, man, what's going on?"
He took two deep breaths, relaxed his hold on Steve's arm only fractionally, and over the next fifteen minutes proceeded to tell him what he 'remembered' – a term so relative in this case he almost couldn't bring himself to use it.
"I'd wake up," Danny said by way of conclusion, noting the I-Have-No-Clue-What-To-Do-With-This Face Steve was sporting. "And I'd find myself here in this bed with you feeding me ice chips. Then the next time I'd wake up I was smashed all to hell and dying, choking on my blood, in Hawaii."
"And I died."
"Well, come to think of it, I'm not really sure. I couldn't talk, and when I said your name, all Jo said was that she was sorry. I remember thinking you had died, though," Danny finished quietly.
Steve rose to his feet, paced away, ran his hands through his hair and returned to the bedside. "We're not in Hawaii. There is no Camaro or asphalt up here, and I'm not dead."
Danny looked away, feeling like a complete idiot for even having told his partner about stupid dreams.
"But maybe there's something in what you experienced that you're supposed to know," Steve finished. Danny's eyes snapped back to him. "Hey, in Hawaii there are people who interpret dreams and have visions, and I've seen and heard enough to not discount it completely."
"What am I supposed to know, Steven? We're not even in Hawaii, it's not like we're going to get into an accident like that up here."
Steve replied with a one-shoulder shrug.
"It was so real," Danny said. "And the thing was, the whole time in the Camaro, that damn Carpenters song you like so much was playing."
Steve made a face. "The one we fight about constantly?"
"Yeah," Danny replied with a scowl. "That one."
A pregnant silence ensued until at last Grace returned with Step-Stan and a handful of cookies. She handed one to Steve, one to Danny and then sat down in the chair to happily munch on her own.
"I'll go ask Stan about the rock," Steve said.
Danny nodded and took a bite of his cookie. He should be happy. He had everything he needed right here: Grace, happy and healthy…a delicious cookie he could tell had coconut in it…his own health…and Steve not dead.
Yet for all the world he couldn't displace the unsettled feeling in his gut that had taken up residence the moment he'd begun telling Steve about the Hawaii car crash dreams.
It just kept telling him something was not right. Only thing was, he couldn't figure out what.
He awoke with a start. The room he was in was pitch black. There were several machines making regular sounds, beeps and bleeps and blips, nearby. He felt detached, as though hovering above himself somehow, yet he knew he was lying in a bed.
Nothing hurt.
Nothing at all.
In fact, he couldn't feel a thing.
Danny blinked, trying to see anything in the room…finally thanks to the glow of several monitors next to his bed, eerie blue-tinged shapes began to appear one by one. A hospital table on wheels, the kind they use to feed patients by rolling the bottom of it under the bed, bringing the tray to the patient's sitting-up level.
A standard hospital-issue chair against the opposite wall.
The doorway to the bathroom.
The door to the hall.
The bed he was lying in, metal bars raised on both sides.
He swallowed. His mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton balls. He lifted his head to get a better look around and—
Why won't my head move?
Danny frowned. He tried it again.
Nothing. At all.
His heart started beating faster.
"Steve?"
No Steve. No Stan. No Grace.
No Malia.
His eyes frantically looked around from the thirty-degree angle his body was resting at.
Beep-beep-beep
Bleep…bleep…bleep…
Bip-boop. Bip-boop. Bip-boop.
The monitors were all hooked up to him.
Something around his head, he could feel it on his forehead.
Sensors all leading underneath the off-white blanket covering his body neck to toes.
Toes.
He tried wiggling them.
Nothing.
He swallowed hard.
"Grace?" he called out a little louder.
Suddenly a shadow moved in the corner he hadn't looked at yet. A small girl, too small for his eleven-year old daughter, stepped forward.
Jesus Christ. It was Grace! But she was only…maybe nine at the most?
"Danno?"
Behind her appeared a taller figure.
"Rachel?"
"Danny," she said, tears streaming down her face as she and Grace moved closer to the bed. "You're awake."
"What's going on?" he asked.
Grace burst into tears.
Rachel's increased to the point where she couldn't even keep them wiped off her cheeks.
"What the hell…where am I? Why do you look like you did two years ago?"
"I'll fetch the doctor," Rachel said, and before Danny could ask what the hell was going on, she was quickly out the door.
Leaving Grace behind.
The little girl stole up to the side of the bed until she was right where Danny could look into her eyes without straining to do so. "Grace, honey, what's going on?"
"You were in a bad car accident, Danno," she replied tearfully.
"Where's Steve?"
Her only response was to bury her face in his abdomen and begin all-out bawling. Danny could see she was clutching at his belly, that she was shoving her forehead into it. But he couldn't feel it.
"It isn't supposed to happen this way!" she wailed as she raised her head, bloodshot eyes spilling tears so fast they were soaking the blanket. "Danno, it isn't supposed to happen this way!"
Panic. Sheer, unadulterated panic. He felt it seize his gut, brain-freeze his mind. Vision going white. Hands scrabbling to find purchase as he felt like he was falling…falling…yet those hands of his, those oh-so-expressive hands that were always on the move?
Weren't actually moving.
Nothing but his eyelids and his lips were.
"You have to stop it, Danno, you have to!"
"Stop what?"
But Grace just looked at him. She reached out and grabbed his unfeeling hand in both of her own. She kissed the back of it. "You can do it, Danno. I know you can."
He heard the unmistakable sound of a flatline.
He heard his baby girl let out a wail of anguish.
After that, he didn't hear anything at all. Not even that damn Carpenters song.