The two sat quietly for quite a while before Danny stood and moved to Catherine's side.
As she looked up at him with tortured eyes, he asked "Are you okay?"
Chuckling nervously she replied, "No….I'm not"
He said softly, "Me either. Cath, can you tell me how Wo-Fat got to you?"
"I was going crazy on the ship, it was so noisy and I needed to get away and clear my head. I checked into the Sun Hill Hotel and after having a couple of drinks in the Hotel bar I took a cab to a local restaurant. He must have been following me Danny because as I exited the restaurant he came up behind me and held a gun to my back. He told me he had Billy and that if I didn't come with him, he would kill him"
"Why wasn't Billy with you?"
"He doesn't have any leave time available and he was on duty"
"So you went with Wo-Fat"
"Danny, all I could think of was North Korea and how he had tortured Steve…..so yes, I went with him. A car pulled up and his man drove us to the warehouse. He was enraged Danny…he had me undress…"
As she paused, Danny looked at her bruised face and asked softly, "Catherine, did he sexually assault you?"
She shook her head, "No, no he didn't. He hit me several times and cut my chest but that's all"
Danny placed his hand under her chin and lifted her face up, "Don't diminish that Catherine. I'm so sorry that happened to you"
"Thank you Danny, I'm fine though…I promise"
"While we're waiting here maybe you should have a Doctor check you out"
She nodded and said softly, "Okay"
As Catherine left Danny called Chin and asked him to come to the room.
Chin arrived a few minutes later, "Hey, do you have news already?"
"No, sit down buddy"
Danny then told him about Catherine and Billy and when he was done Chin said "Oh shit….."
"Yeah. This is going to break him Chin"
"Danny right now we need to worry about his physical well-being. Losing Cath will be emotionally devastating for him, but he'll get over it… we'll be there for him and he'll get over it"
"Chin, you know how Steve feels about his SEAL brothers and now one of them is taking his love from him. He's not only losing Cath, he's losing Billy too"
"Love hurts Danny. You know that, I know that and Steve knows that"
Danny looked at his friend. He saw the pain in Chin's eyes and he knew that his thoughts were with his lost wife. He had lost her once only to re-connect and find true happiness. Their marriage had been a beautiful event shared by their entire Ohana and just a year later she had been taken from him forever, brutally killed by Frank Delano.
Danny smiled softly at his friend saying, "It sure can hurt my friend, that's for sure" He then asked, "Have you contacted Kono at all?"
"No. All she'll do is worry…..I'm not going to call her until he's out of the woods"
"I agree"
They chatted for a while until Catherine returned and Chin stood to embrace her.
"Did Danny tell you?"
"Yes"
"I'm so sorry Chin"
"You don't have to apologize Catherine. You need to follow your heart. It will hurt Steve, but he'll understand"
Through her tears she said, "I do love him Chin, I do"
"We know that…..we all love him and we'll be there for him"
"Thank you both"
They had stitched Catherine's cheek, and the three all sat and visited, sharing stories of Steve while they waited.
Four hours later Doctor Ian Gerhart entered the room.
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He stood in front of the nervous friends, "He's alive, but his condition is very critical. As I thought the bleeding was both vascular and to the organs. His spleen and his left kidney were bleeding into his abdominal cavity and I have repaired the organs along with the vascular damage. The problem is that he could begin to bleed again and it's impossible to predict at this point if that will happen. I did also remove some infected tissue and drained his back wound. His fever remains very high at 104 and we need to get that under control fast. If we don't, the infection combined with the risen could lead to respiratory distress. As much as he doesn't want this, I strongly recommend that we keep him in a medically induced coma while we battle his fever and monitor him"
Danny didn't hesitate, "You do whatever you need to do Doctor"
"Thank You. I've inserted two drainage tubes, one into his abdomen and the other into the back wound. We're going to apply cold packs around his entire body to help bring down the fever and I'm also going to keep him on a ventilator. He handled the surgery well and his vitals are stable. Do you have any questions for me?"
Catherine's voice shook as she asked, "Does he need the ventilator?"
Ian shook his head, "He can breathe on his own Cath but with his body weakening the ventilator will aid him"
Catherine nodded, "Okay….thank you Ian"
After shaking hands with the men and telling them all that Steve would be brought in shortly, he left the room.
Danny sighed deeply, "Okay…so far, so good. Our boy is fighting"
Chin then said, "It's going to be day to day"
Danny replied, "More like hour to hour brother"
A short time later they all stood to the side as Steve was wheeled in and transferred onto the bed.
He was naked and covered in bruising, bandaging, wires and tubes. His lower body was still swollen from the injection and the pallor of his skin was horribly pale. They watched as a team of Nurses checked all the tubes, bags and wires coming from his body. There was the abdominal and back drainage tubes, the feeding tube and the catheter and colostomy bags. He had probes and wires attached to his chest to monitor his heart and of course there were the numerous IV's pumping plasma, blood, saline and antibiotics into him. And then there was the ventilator…
Danny's eyes couldn't leave Steve's face. Even knowing that the ventilator was in place as an aid to Steve's breathing and not a necessity, it unnerved him horribly. His eyes moved from Steve's mouth and the tube inserted down his throat to the SEAL's eyes. Even from where he stood he could see Steve's eyes moving behind his closed lids and he knew what that meant. In his drug induced state Steve was dreaming.
Once the Nurses had the cold packs applied and they covered him up, they left the room.
Danny moved to his partner's side and placing a hand onto Steve's sweat-drenched forehead he leaned in and spoke softly into his ear, "You're doing great Steve, you just keep fighting babe…..we're all here for you"
Catherine was on the other side of the bed with Chin next to her. She leaned in and kissed Steve's cheek, "I'm here Steve and I love you"
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Over the next thirty six hours the three took turns talking to, and tending to Steve. One of them stayed with him constantly while the others would sleep.
Steve's fever would decrease slightly and then spike again, hovering between 102.8 and 104.4
Danny was sitting with him and talking about an upcoming hike into the jungle to see the famed petroglyphs.
"You know Steven I can't believe you talked me into going back up there again. You almost killed yourself last time by falling off that damn cliff" He grinned as he added, "But if you remember right I was there to save your crazy ass. All kidding aside buddy, Gracie is so excited about seeing those silly rocks. Who's kidding who though, she's more excited about spending the day with you. You've got that kid wrapped around your little finger, but you've had her since the day you two met. I need you to keep fighting Steve, you're beating this thing and you're beating Wo-Fat…you keep fighting and you don't let him win partner!"
About an hour later Danny was telling him about Gracie's new science project on the solar system when suddenly Steve's heart monitor began to blare his body began to seize violently.
Jumping up Danny grabbed Steve's shoulders as he hollered out, "HELP, I NEED HELP IN HERE!"
"STEVE, STEVE RELAX…I'VE GOT YOU BABE, RELAX"
As the medical personnel arrived in the room they pushed Danny aside and he watched on in horror as the seizure went on and on…...He felt ill to his stomach as he watched Steve's body shake and spasm uncontrollably while four large sailors tried to keep his body still enough so he wouldn't pull out any tubing or injure himself.
He stood several feet from the bed with his left hand covering his mouth and his right hand clasped onto his left upper arm as he repeated quietly over and over again, "Come on Steve…..stay with me partner….you stay with me"
Ian arrived as the seizure was still occurring and moving to the bedside he listened as the Nurses called out Steve's vitals. Looking back the whole incident was over in less than ten minutes but to Danny, it seemed to last forever. Eventually Ian moved to Danny's side and taking hold of the detectives arm he guided him out into the hallway.
"Is he okay Doc?"
"His blood pressure is dangerously low Danny and he's suffering from heart palpitations"
"What does that mean?"
"This heart is pumping too fast and forceful. Unfortunately I'm also hearing fluid buildup in his lungs"
"What can you do for him?"
"I need to give him noradrenaline to increase his blood pressure but there are severe dangers with this"
"What are the dangers?"
"Noradrenaline will stimulate alpha receptors in the walls of his blood vessels causing the muscles to contract. This results in narrowing of the blood vessels which redirects blood to essential organs such as the heart and brain. It also produces greater resistance for the heart to beat against, and this increases the blood pressure. But by introducing this chemical into his vessels we greatly increase his risk of additional vascular bleeding"
Danny sighed deeply and Ian added, "Danny, I strongly feel we need to do this and we need to do it immediately. He's at a high risk right now for cardiac arrest"
Danny swallowed hard and said firmly, "Do it Ian"
******** Much more to follow – I hope you're still enjoying *********