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

Notes: thanks for the continued wonderful reviews! I am super behind after travel and a crazed work day on Friday - I will get back to each of you this weekend. BUT really, thank you! Trip was good - and work was amazing on Friday - major issues seem to have been all resolved happily in my favor. It's a miracle!

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CHAPTER 7

Later on that night, they all wound up staying at Steve's in varying stages of disarray around the large house. Kono had plunked a full plate of food down in front of Steve and both cousins had watched him slowly turn an interesting shade of green before he stumbled into the bathroom to dry heave. Spoon feeding him pain killers and at least a large glass of milk, they'd pushed him to bed in a darkened room where he stayed for more than half the night. Waking once, he managed a light snack without waking his two guests before taking more medication and retreating until dawn.

And then in the morning, they all moved around each other coming in and out of the kitchen, circulating between the living space, the bedrooms and bathroom. Until finally and almost miraculously they met outside at the same time without having spoken a single word.

The three ambled into the SICU a few minutes early. No one stopped them as they slowly sidled into Danny's room and stood near his bedside.

"I don't think he's moved at all." Kono whispered as she picked up his limp hand and then immediately frowned. "He's hot though." Leaning forward, she lightly felt his forehead and cheek. And as she did, she noticed that Danny's face was flushed and that he was shivering under the blankets. "He has a fever?"

'He does. His temperature started to climb earlier this morning." They all turned when Ellen Ramirez voiced a soft good morning and then confirmed Kono's worries. They watched unhappily as Ellen changed depleted bags of fluids and antibiotics. "Ponch was here all night. I just sent him down to have breakfast and get cleaned up."

The news about the doctor surprised them as the nurse quickly went about her business. "His vitals are at least a little bit better." She sighed as she finished retaking Danny's blood pressure. "We'd like to see that come up more though. And now he's spiking a temperature."

"Damn it, Danny. What are you doing?" Steve muttered under his breath as he turned away from the bed with his hands on his hips. Consumed by worry, he whirled back seconds later to address the nurse. "Now what Ellen? What does this mean?"

"It's mostly due to shock .. and because of that, he's taking longer to recover from the emergency surgery. But Ponch called for a stronger round of antibiotics to be on the safe side and we're pushing fluids. Sedation was stopped hours ago. And I know it's not what you want to hear, but we can only watch and wait at this point." And they all understood that was all to be done so early in Danny's recovery.

"And no, he hasn't woken yet or shown any signs of waking. We'd like him to at least start doing that now." And that seemed to bother the strong-willed head nurse that gently laid the back of her hand over her patient's warm forehead.

"I'll get a cloth and cool water. Maybe that will begin to wake him. If nothing else, I know it will feel good and help with the fever."

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The hard tile floor was gone, as was the threatening loud voice of the soldier. But Ramirez had been there, he was sure of that and the older man had tried to help. What was the soldier's name? Danny frowned as he remembered the anger but not everything about the man. And what did we need help for? It was because of the soldier. But why - what had he done? Broken memories became a series of weird questions which he had no answers for; and Danny feebly realized he didn't know where that had been or why he should care.

"What..?" He mumbled as an unexpected chill ran through his body and his lids opened only partially to a hazy, gray shadowy world. He felt weak and sick. Snippets of oddly disjointed memories clicked in and out of his mind and he winced as his movements caused a deep aching sensation through his stomach. A child's hand and a gun leaked into his mind and he lurched unexpectedly at the alarming surprise of it and then groaned as a sharp fiery pain flared more into his lower back. Danny's breath altered and he moaned uncomfortably but was entirely confused when he saw a purple-clad child floating in his vision. "Grace?" A little girl who was Grace and yet not Grace had been there once but that was wrong too.

Suddenly there was something on his face and he tossed his head in a weak attempt to shake it off when a stronger force prevented his hand from pushing it aside. What lay on his forehead was cold, damp and Danny wasn't sure if he liked it as another freezing cold chill gripped his body. It was then that he noticed a heavy object covering half his face and even though the air he breathed in was cool, the constricting sensation was additionally disturbing; made more so when he couldn't even move a finger to reach it.

Growing frustrated, he moaned as the coolness washed over his forehead, cheeks and down his neck. Trying to get his lips around words he could barely think to ask, Danny nearly failed at his softly huffed out worried questions. "Where? What ..Grace?"

Through eyes that remained only half-open he couldn't focus on the unrecognizable shapes looming darkly over his head and he flinched away only to spontaneously move his right hand to cover the dull ache that had permanently settled into his belly. Once again, he was forcibly stopped and his frustration only grew. Under the oxygen mask, Danny tried to complain as his left hand joined in the struggle against even stronger pressures that now enveloped both his arms.

Sounds were muffled and he didn't understand the deep murmurs that only increased in a distressing volume. Combined with being held down, Danny was sure that he was trapped now but didn't have the strength to fight or get away. Even though Doctor Ramirez had to be there, the angry soldier was still in control. Something must have happened to the doctor and Danny needed to wake up and help. But he wasn't able to and somewhere in the background a faint wild beeping penetrated his hearing. But before real fear could set in, he moaned again as something warming entered his veins to eventually still his restless body and agitated heart rate.

"Was that necessary?" Chin complained to Ellen who had come back quickly into the room as the heart monitor began to climb in cadence. He and Steve had tried to rouse Danny with soft words and the cool cloth. And they were at first encouraged by the slight head movements and mumbled questions. But that had all turned to worry as Danny had stayed in a confused half-waking state where he'd begun to struggle against the oxygen mask and then their calming hands. Steve kept one hand on Danny's arm and another on his shoulder until he felt the tight tension slowly leave his body. He barely listened to the nurse's reply as he watched Danny's face relax and his breathing finally ease.

"Yes. I'm sorry." Ellen simply stated. "His vitals were climbing and he's clearly upset and agitated. He could also accidentally tear the wound open and we just can't take that chance." The thermometer proved that Danny's temperature was still high and much of his disturbing reaction was blamed on that.

"He .. uh .. he .. didn't know where he was." Kono mumbled under her breath. "He was still with Carter I think .. and it sounded like he thought Grace was there instead of Erin." Not expecting the feverish ramblings, Steve and Chin could only rinse the cloth and lay it across Danny's forehead. And Ellen didn't have too much to add to Kono's words as she covered Danny with another blanket.

Feeling more useless by the second, they allowed Ellen to usher them into the hallway where she kept her voice low. "The next few days are going to be very hard on him .. and also on you. The rise in his temperature is not a good sign, but you know that we are already aggressively trying to bring it down. Ponch will be back soon to check in on things."

"Yeah, okay." Steve softly replied but had no words left to say or questions to ask and then Ellen was gone to respond to another SICU patient in distress.

"What are we going to do?" Kono asked inanely. Her hands spread wide at the feelings of futility they all were experiencing. "Nothing?"

"I know that I need to call Rachel." The obvious first step was to let her know that maybe it was too soon for Danny's ex-wife to bring their daughter over for a visit. Steve pulled his cell phone out as he turned to leave the ICU area. "I'll be outside. All of this is just going to scare Grace."

Kono watched him walk away and shook her head before repeating her words in a worried voice. "This is just so .. wrong. What are we going to do, Chin? What are we supposed to do?"

"We pray .. wait .. and hope." His voice offered a quiet focused sense of reason and she sighed in frustration since Chin was right and that was all they could do until Danny won his battle. Silently, the cousins went back into the hospital room.

~ to be continued ~