I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: thanks everyone for such a great response to this story!
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"I'm sorry, man," Steve said hurriedly as he listened to Chin yawn and hoarsely mumble that it was fine. It was late, or early. One's interpretation of the hour depended upon personal state of mind, regardless Steve wasn't even thinking because he had to call someone. With hospital staff few and far between, and with updates on his partner quite literally non-existent, he needed help.
"Chin, I'm sorry that I woke you. But I need you here. I need you here. Right now."
The yawn on the other side of the connection was quickly stifled. Steve could almost see his friend nodding in agreement while he listened to the rustling sounds Chin made as he got out of bed and quickly dressed.
"It's okay, Steve. It's all right," Chin reassured him, the clink of metal jangling in the background as he grabbed his car keys from the hallway table. "I'm on my way ... Danny will be fine. He's fine ... I'll find out."
"Yeah, okay. Thanks," Steve replied distractedly. "And one more thing ..."
He was all over the map with his thoughts and emotions, relieved that Chin was allowing him time to gather himself together without rushing. Relegated back to his bedridden state, Steve was taut with anxiety, his nerves raw and frayed. Doctor Benning had disappeared with his partner and no one could tell him a single thing. Nothing. Only that Danny had been rushed into emergency surgery and for what reason, again no one seemed to know. That was bad enough and Steve had to stop himself from punching the bed as a way to expend useless, pent-up frustration. But the severity of the deep bruises he'd finally seen running across Danny's side and chest had left an indelible stain on his mind. He wasn't only worried now, he was scared.
"Chin, I need you to do something else for me. I want to see pictures of the accident. I want to see them now ... so bring them with you."
"The accident?" Chin asked in confusion. "Ah? Which ... what?"
"The plane ... the crash site where Danny put us down ... bring the pictures and the accident reports," Steve said. "Bring all of it ... I want to see it all, Chin. Now. Tonight."
After the ending the call with Chin, Steve didn't know how he could have been so oblivious. Using his injuries and need for emergency surgery seemed more like poor excuses to him than rational, acceptable reasons. In the past, the welfare of any one of his men had always come first.
Always. When had he forgotten that? When had he'd found it acceptable to neglect any single member of his team? But this was even outside the realm of that horrendous derogation of duty.
Danny wasn't just part of his ... duty or a job. And Steve hadn't just neglected any member of his team, he'd forgotten his friend.
As another nurse trotted by the doorway to his room, not even pausing long enough to look in on him, Steve's eyes glossed over with tears. A second later, he wound up viciously punching the bed anyway.
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"Where is he now?" Steve asked as he squirreled his shoulders into the mattress in order to shift himself up higher. By now, even without formal confirmation, he knew. He just needed to hear it. "Chin? Where's Danny?"
"He's still in surgery ... then they expect he'll be in ICU for a while," Chin replied as he entered the room, wincing when Steve's mouth fell open. Under his arm, he held a sheaf of files. Inside, were the reports, transcripts, and photographs from the plane crash on the beach.
"He ... ah ... he'll be there for awhile, too. According to Benning, Danny has a slow bleed which developed into a hematoma. He crashed once ... but, they got in there just in time."
"Is he going to be all right?" Steve asked hesitantly. His question was spoken in monotone, his voice weary and riddled with strain. "Do they even know yet?"
"It's early, but Benning thinks so," Chin answered. "She came out to tell me as much as she could ... then, she went back in to assist." By the expression on his face, Steve could read Chin's confusion about what he said next. However, after seeing the myriad of bruising, Steve wasn't surprised at all. He was simply sad, bordering on a sickly feeling of helplessness.
"His liver's fine and Danny was evaluated before surgery, but it was early on and the scans missed the bleed," Chin slowly explained, his tone incredulous and yet worried that he'd miss something in the complicated retelling. "I don't understand it though, Steve. From the crash ... Doctor Benning described it as having occurred from getting so badly knocked around during the crash and she said that Danny developed a hematoma. On his spleen ... the condition ... it has a certain name, but I don't remember what it's called exactly."
"That's all right," Steve murmured, his eyes never leaving Chin's face as the Asian took a deep breath. His heart lurched as his worst fears were validated even if Chin didn't have the precise medical jargon under his belt. There was no doubt that Doctor Benning and the surgeon would be filling them all in once they were able; they'd have the whole story.
"Go on, Chin. What else do you know?"
Chin nodded, a weak smile communicating the apology for not being able to relay each and every medical word. Regardless, he knew enough to get to the crux of the matter. "They got in there just in time ... barely in time to drain the hematoma. They're finishing up on the repair of the damaged blood vessels to his spleen."
"That's why he's been so tired and sleeping so much," Steve quietly added. "And he's really been hurting. He's hardly said a single word about that though."
He rocked his head back into the pillows, his face showing a new level of stress and fatigue because he could fill in the rest based on his own knowledge and field experiences. "He was bleeding out internally and no one knew. How much longer?"
"In surgery? They're estimating about thirty or forty minutes," Chin said, slightly confused again by Steve's lack of argument over the diagnosis. He'd been positive that the setback was related to the donor surgery. What he'd been told was baffling at best and yet, Steve seemed to have known regardless of his demands for help. Chin's worry only intensified when he looked over, the younger man's hands were trembling and all color had drained from his face.
"He's weak, Steve. His system took one hell of a hit and he's not completely out of the woods yet. After he's moved to recovery, they said he'd be in intensive care for one or two days; to ensure he's stabilized."
"They never should have allowed it," Steve whispered hoarsely as he replayed in his mind what he'd seen earlier tracing so vividly across his partner's abdomen and chest. "No one should have allowed the operation to happen; there's always other options."
Chin's mouth flapped open, nothing coming out though. Steve was slowly unraveling right in front of him. But options? No, there hadn't been and any single one of them would have stepped up. Hell, they were all shoving shoulders to do just that until Danny intervened to shut them down because his argument of matching blood types was irrevocable.
But now? Chin didn't know what to say once he'd learned the facts. Danny hadn't suffered from any complications from the donor surgery at all, though having it done certainly hadn't done him any favors.
"There were no options at the time, Steve," Chin stated quietly. The files he clasped under his arm shifted and he startled before they could fall to the ground, a new realization dawning. Steve knew or had at least suspected the reason behind Danny's sudden turn and that was why he'd asked for the crash reports. All of that was proven valid when Steve's finger rose high in the air, the anger in his eyes plain to see as he pointed to the files.
"The plane crash ... he was hurt, Chin! He was hurt and volunteered himself for major surgery ... and they allowed it? You all allowed it?" Steve's monotone was gone now, his voice rising to an angry hiss because he'd seen the damage along his partner's torso.
"Where were you? The medics? Who the hell intervened to insist he get properly checked out?"
Steve stared at Chin waiting for a reply, but the man looked lost. Steve blinked, taken aback by what the silence indicated. No one had asked? No one else had thought to intervene? What was happening now ... the bruising inside and out was all from blunt force trauma - just like from being in a car accident. Only in the hard landing of a damaged plane, one that Steve now bet that it was a divine miracle a novice had managed to land at all, about ten times worse ... or more. Steve blamed himself; he blamed the doctors. He blamed practically everyone for not being more astute. Evidently caught up with the criticality of his care though, they'd forgotten one of their own along the way.
"He rode in the ambulance with you," Chin sighed belatedly, his arms held out beseechingly. "He refused medical care to finish the ... mission. To get to the lab, before it was too late."
"Refused? And then ... kept going?" Steve ground out. "Give me those reports."
"He was thoroughly checked out before the surgery, Steve. He was checked from top to bottom," Chin reminded his friend as his temper rose and he beckoned for the paperwork to be handed over, which Chin did grudgingly.
"He was banged up, yeah, but he walked away from the wreckage. And yes, we wanted to stop him ...in fact, we tried to stop him!" Chin insisted. "But you know how he can get and no one saw this coming ... plus, according to Benning the bleeder would have been too small to come up on a scan ... it's no one's fault. And Danny ... he was adamant that he be the one to undergo surgery, Steve. Adamant ... because your blood types matched and it made sense to go with him in order save time because you had hours to live. Telling him no also wasn't going to be an option!"
"God dammit," Steve cursed more loudly as yet another revelation came to light. His eyes widened in horror and he shook his head in distress as he opened the top file, the first picture that of the ruined, smoking fuselage. He paged through another picture and then a third, tossing each haphazardly on the bed.
"He walked away from this?" He whispered incredulously under his breath. "This?"
The damage was incredible and a direct antithesis to the breathtakingly beautiful backdrop of blue sky, crystalline waters and sparkling white sands. Breathing in sharply through his nose, Steve paused to bristle at the plane's bullet-riddled exterior and then the dark stains ruining the seats, his anger growing.
"He walked away from ... this wreckage? What the hell, Chin?" Steve's voice rose to an all-time high as he waved a picture virtually under the older man's nose. "Danny walked away and no one stopped him? No one checked him out until he volunteered for surgery ...for me? This shouldn't have happened ... not to Danny ... not like this."
"Steve, ..." Chin started to say something and then stopped short. He had nothing of value to add. Steve was entirely correct. The man had a right to be this upset. In fact, as Chin watched Steve shove the first file to the side in favor of the second, his eyes fell back to the pictures which now littered the bed.
This was really the first time he'd seen the evidence. Sure, he'd been there in person, but the remembered mental images didn't entirely compare to the vivid photographic proof. In the quiet of the hospital, Chin had time to focus on what the scene actually entailed. He had time to digest the scope of the crash and better ascertain the force of impact based on what he now had the leisure to examine.
Unable to speak, Chin glanced up to look at Steve, his own feelings in a turmoil.
The ex-SEAL's face was as white as the sheet he was laying on. His hands were shaking badly as he read through an accident report, his jaw set; in fact, his entire body seemed to be vibrating.
But not from pain, from a surge of fury.
~ to be continued ~