Chapter 7

A/N: I want to thank each and every reader and reviewer! Your kind words and constructive critiques mean the world to me, and I appreciate them greatly! I know I haven't written to those who have reviewed the last two chapters, but there is a reason: Chapter 6 and then 7 were banging me on the skull, and I decided to thank all of you by writing them. 6 was a challenge, but 7 was a challenge-squared.

This was a huge challenge to write. This is when the fat hit the fan, big time, or at least marks the real beginning of the task of fixing the rest of the ohana. In this chapter, it is going to look more broken than ever, but not to worry. I am quite sure there will an ending full of healing, whenever we get there!

I am so grateful that you are enjoying the story. I appreciate everyone who reads and those who take the time to review. Chapter 8 is using a hammer too, but I will hold off on writing it a day or so, and this time I really will respond to everyone who writes a review. Thanks sooooo very much!

The usual caveat: I own nothing, this is for fun, etc., and to pay back those writers who broke the ohana in the first place. It's not that easy to fix! (Yes, I hold a grudge.)

Chapter 7

When Steve showed that he had heard every word Kono had said, Danny sat up carefully, and as the silence of Kono, Chin, and Grover lengthened, he pushed the blanket away and swung his legs over the side of the bed, moving as quickly and quietly as possible. He would have given anything at that moment for the superpower of invisibility. He could not stop hearing Kono's words, the way she had whispered, "It's a good thing Danny's asleep. We can surprise Steve now. Visiting will be more awkward now that they're sharing a room." The pain in his heart was far more intense than he could have imagined. Steve had heard, too, and had asked Kono to explain herself. "Awkward in what way? I would really like to know why this week you have almost completely ignored the friend you call ohana, the man who saved my life, who risked his own life to do that."

Then followed the silence. Danny had to get out. He had to get out of the room, and away from this. He did not want to hear how Kono answered Steve. She was waiting for him to leave, they all were, because no one had said anything. It had to be bad. He had to get out.

"Danny." Steve's voice was so gentle, so understanding. Danny's face contorted briefly, and he bent forward at the waist, as if in pain, or as if to duck a blow. "Partner. You don't have to go. Please stay. Let them explain."

But Danny could not do that. "I kinda think they are, with all this silence." He knew then, that it wasn't about this week. He wondered how far back it went. "This ... this isn't about a week." He very carefully stuffed his socked feet into the slippers the hospital provided. "I...I can't do this right now." His voice was an unsteady whisper, and he shook his head. "I can't," he repeated. He glanced at Steve, and his friend's face was so full of sorrow, and he knew Steve had just realized that this went deeper than either of them had thought. Danny wrenched his gaze away. He did not look at Chin, Kono, or Grover. "I can't."

"Where will you go?" asked Steve, and in his friend's voice, he heard only understanding.

Danny grabbed his IV pole, and pointed vaguely out the door. "Uh. You know. Out. Uh. Halls." Danny's voice was now as expressionless as his face, but he had pulled himself to full height, his dignity beginning to reassert itself.

"Okay, Buddy. Danno?" Danny was halfway out the door when he heard the name only those closest to him could use: his children, and his best friend. It was like a verbal embrace, and brought him to a stop. "Don't go far, okay?" Danny nodded without turning, and closed the door softly after him.

And then he started walking, carefully, and the tears built up in his eyes even as his roiling stomach became nauseous. When he needed to, he found a public restroom, reaching a stall just in time to retch up his breakfast, and a few other meals long since digested, followed by a prolonged bout of dry heaves. When those finally subsided, his throat burned, his ribs were on fire, and his breathing labored. He hit the flush button, then sat on the cold, tile floor for awhile, trying to catch his breath and let his ribs recover. When the pain reached the tolerable range, he left the stall, washed his hands, rinsed his mouth, and splashed his face at the sink, then made his way back to the hallway and kept on walking.

H50 H50 H50 H50

When Danny left the room, Steve finally let himself feel furious with Kono, although he kept his expression even. His green-tinted blue eyes darkened. He had seen the startled look on Chin's face, so he knew that she had not spoken for her cousin. Lou Grover had looked surprised, followed by downcast eyes, so there was something there.

"I'm waiting," he said.

Kono finally pulled in a deep breath. "Boss -" She had stopped when she took in the color of Steve's eyes. Her gaze dropped to the rolling bedside table she had moved to stand behind.

The silence lengthen again, so Steve turned to Chin Ho Kelly. "Chin? Anything to say?"

Chin cleared his throat. "Last week was chaotic, perhaps more than you know," he began. "There was media attention, interviews and appearances, and I took those on, as your third, and temporary head of Five-0. I meant sincerely to give more time to Danny, because he is my friend, and I know he needed...us."

Steve pursed his lips. "You were with me hours a day."

Chin started to glance toward Kono and Grover, but stopped the motion. "I let Danny down," he admitted, regret and acceptance of blame in his voice. "I didn't mean to, Steve. I hope he will accept my apology."

Steve read the glance, and knew the problem had not been with Chin. He pointed toward the door. "Go find him, Chin. I don't want him to be alone right now. I think he's had enough of that."

Chin nodded, and a few steps took him to the door. He closed it as quietly as Danny had.

"Lou?" asked Steve. "Kono? Either of you are free to speak. The sooner, the better."

Lou Grover finally said, "He shouldn't be your partner. I know he has been for a few years, but you chose him before you met me. He pushes your buttons, he still has trouble working the Smart Table, he gets himself hurt -I'm not saying he does it for the attention, but I wonder sometimes. That man will complain about paper cuts. He wrecks his knee on a regular basis. I'm not even sure he should be on the Five-0 Task Force at all, now that I got your back. He doesn't fit in with the rest of us, and as far as I can tell, he never has. Hell, he likes boysenberry syrup on his waffles! That's just...that's just wrong. He should not even be in Hawaii, let alone on Five-0 as your partner. He's irritating."

Steve was stunned. He would have laughed if Grover were not so serious. Steve ran quickly over the million possible replies, and only settled on 'neutral' because he knew he did not have the full story yet. When he did, he would definitely not be neutral. "So I guess it's safe to say you didn't visit him because you don't like him and want his job."

"I like him just fine. But that doesn't mean I think a whiner from New Jersey should be your partner, when I could do that job ten times better. And you know it."

Steve was angry. Not showing it was the hard part. Some anger slipped into his voice, but he held most of it in check. "So you want me to kick Danny's ass off Five-0, and make you my partner, and you didn't bother to visit him because you want his job, even though you admit you like him. Is anything I just said untrue?"

Grover nodded briskly. "Not quite how I would put it, but close enough."

"Anything else? Now would be the time to tell me."

Grover pursed his lips. "Nope. That's about it for me."

"Okay." Steve switched his rock-hard gaze to Kono. "Your turn."

Kono blurted, "He whines, Boss. About everything. It drives me crazy. He donates bone marrow to his kid, and whines about his hip hurting for months. His ex-wife is a bitch, but I still see why she divorced him. Now he's given you half his liver, and we're going to hear about every twinge and ache forever, AND about how he saved your life. When you got shot on that plane, I just kept thinking, I wished it had been Danny instead. If he had died, even, Five-0 would have been okay. But if you died, Danny would be in charge, and we'd all be driven nuts. I would be switching a Five-0 shield to an HPD badge, Boss. I agree that Lou would be a better partner for you."

Steve was so angry, his stomach was turning into an ulcer. He wanted to lash out, protect his partner! But he had asked them how they felt, and that meant he had to listen to what they said. Only then could he figure out what to do about the awful, overblown things he was hearing.

"So you didn't visit Danny because you thought he would whine about giving me half his liver and being in pain, and, what, brag about saving my life. You don't like him, either."

"And I was worried you might still die, so I wanted to spend time with you and be there for you. I mean, I do like Danny, but he can be a pain. He's Five-0's weakest link. I don't respect him. -He didn't even have the guts to kill the guy who shot you, Steve. He could have. We saw! Twice he had his gun pointed right at him, not even standing five feet away. But he couldn't fire. You want this guy as your partner, Steve? A guy who he could not even kill the guy who almost killed you?"

"And you would have?" This was asked to both Grover and Kono.

"Between the eyes," they answered in unison.

"Even though it would have been murder, and he would have been charged, convicted, and gone to prison, where cops don't live very long?" Steve ran his hands through his hair. "So why do you think he didn't kill the guy in cold blood, like you both would have? Despite that you each had your guns and did not shoot the guy, when you clearly could have, right?"

Kono shrugged. "He's a wuss, Boss."

Grover replied, "He's a coward."

"I want to know why you are upset with him for not committing cold blooded murder on that guy when neither of you did, either. No, don't answer that now, but you'd better think it over." Steve felt that if he heard one more word, he would explode. He needed to stand up for Danny, and he would, but he had to make Kono and Grover see how wrong they were. "If you could hear yourselves-!" Steve began. "Really hear yourselves! I'm...I'm so disappointed with both of you, I can barely talk to you right now."

"You asked us how we felt, Boss." Kono was barely looking Steve in the eyes.

"Yes, I did." Steve felt as if he were in the middle of a nightmare. "And you told me how you feel. I am just so shocked and sickened by what you are both saying." He leaned back in the bed, and closed his eyes, grimacing. He felt in need of his pain meds, along with a bottle of antacid. "I feel sick."

Kono and Grover both became concerned. "Do you need the nurse?" asked Kono.

Steve sighed. "Gosh, I have to think about this. If I say I'm in pain, you will think I'm a whining wuss, and if I ignore the pain and doc's orders, you will admire me for being tough and courageous."

"Commander McGarrett," said Grover, in his best compassionate wise cop voice. "If you are in pain, you need to speak up about it."

"But Danny shouldn't. You know," said Steve, finally venting some anger. "I bet you didn't even notice the new bruising and stitches on Danny's forehead, up by his hairline. When you came in today, I bet you only glanced at him long enough to see if he was awake or not."

Kono shifted on her feet. "Uhm, well. I didn't notice, so it can't have been that bad," she said. "Why does he have stitches on his forehead?"

Grover muttered, "This time. He's always getting something."

"As are we all. As am I," added Steve, harshly. "I get banged up more than all the rest of us combined."

"But you don't complain as much as -"

"Shut up!" Steve shouted at both of them, holding up his hand for silence. He kept his hand up until his anger was more controlled. "So I'll tell you about those stitches, and the surgery - yes, I said surgery - Danny had last night because I did something massively stupid." He told them about his teasing of Danny, how he had thrown pineapple bits at him, and that one of them had landed on the floor, and Danny stepped on it and fallen badly. "He hit his head, hurt his liver and a kidney, broke ribs, because of me being stupid," finished Steve. He didn't give either of them a chance to say anything before he continued on. "But then, that can't come as any surprise to you, can it? I routinely take life and death risks because I know that my partner, Danny, will back me up, even though I know I am risking both our lives. I never mean for him to take a bullet, but it happens. Or he injures his knee jumping off a second floor balcony to chase a perp who is doing his best to see to it that I don't live to see another day. As long as he doesn't complain or ask me to apologize, it's all good, right? No biggie! If I do something stupid and he pays the price, well, if he dies, Five-0 will still carry on just fine! You said it."

Steve paused just long enough to take a deep breath. "You know, maybe you're right, maybe he should go back to Jersey and forget about his daughter, which is why he's here in the first place." Steve's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Oh, I'm sorry, he has two kids. Well, shoot, forget about 'em both, since their mother can care for them, and what kid needs their father that badly anyway? There's always Step-Stan. Danny could fly out a couple times a year, maybe Skype, and Step-Stan could take Gracie to the yearly father-daughter dances. If he's not away on business to Kalamazoo, or Timbuktu, or China, or England." Steve slapped his hand on the side of the bed. "Oh damn. I forgot. Danno loves his kids, and gave up everything in his life when his wife divorced him because she couldn't stand the stress of his job, and moved to Hawaii after marrying a rich guy so she can live in style while Danno spends his paychecks on child support and tries to manage in an apartment that almost triggers his claustrophobia, which is probably another problem he has that you hold against him."

Grover looked annoyed. "You've made your point, Commander. But it doesn't change things."

Steve looked out the window, obscured by Get Well balloons more than curtains. "It should! But nevermind. Obviously you two both think I am too stupid to figure out who would be the best partner for me, and the best one to run our Task Force in my times of absence or recovery from whatever injuries I've suffered. I don't see how you can respect me at all, since my judgment is so dreadfully poor when it comes to such an important decision as who is my partner. You see, I kinda like having a guy who would not execute someone out of revenge, who respects the oath we all swore to uphold the law, even when we do kinda skirt the edges. What's an execution and resulting prison sentence? Shows loyalty, yes it does. But I don't want that kind of attitude on my team."

He looked back at Kono and Grover. "Which brings me to a decision I have to make: whether or not to ask for your badges. Because, you see, with Danny, I always know where I stand. You both - I don't know about Chin, yet - have been lying to me and Danny for...how long? ... about us all being ohana. Your words say one thing, but your actions say something else entirely. I know now what part is the lie. Anything else you are lying to me about? Tell me now, because I will take it into consideration as I make my decision about whether or not either one of you is fit to be on the Five-0 Task Force. I will say right now, you are on restricted duties. I can't trust you to have Danny's back. Not after you admitted you don't care if he lives or dies."

"We didn't say that!" Kono looked and sounded stricken, with tears sliding down her cheeks.

"I heard you, Kono. Now both of you get out of my sight. Take the rest of the day off and go home. Think about what you told me, but be back here at 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. I will give you my decision then. Now I really don't care if you think I am being a wuss because I am calling the nurse to bring me some meds. Get the hell out of Danny's and my room."