Chapter 8
A/N: Um. This chapter did not cover as much ground as I thought it would, so the Kono/Lou part is still ahead. But let me explain! I love Kono and Lou too, and don't for a millisecond believe they would act the way they have in this story, EXCEPT that they did in 6.25 act waaaaay out of character, and I'm trying to explain what is essentially unexplainable. Don't shoot me yet! At least you get the Chin/Danny part here!
The reviews after 7 were especially great and I appreciate all who wrote, and all who read! I'm not done responding yet to the reviewers, so I have not forgotten you! I appreciate everything you say!
And I hope you enjoy this strange chapter. Um. Yeah. The part after the little h50 refused to unhappen, so I went with it. I am going to go hide now. Chapter 9 soon to follow!
Chapter 8
Steve heard the door close behind Kono and Grover, and then made a grab for the button which would bring the nurse. It turned out a bright blonde named Bridget was just coming in. "It's time for your-" she began to say, holding a meal tray and a little cup of pills. But as soon as she saw him, she stopped and immediately put the tray and medications on the bedside table. "You are very pale, and look upset. Would you like me to call Dr. Simmons?"
Steve didn't realize he looked that bad, and opened his mouth to say so. What he got was a digital thermometer stuck under his tongue, effectively silencing him for twenty seconds, which the nurse spent hooking Steve up to heart and respiratory monitors, and Steve spent fidgeting. As soon as the thermometer beeped and Steve could speak, he did. "I don't need the doctor. What I really need is for you to send a nurse after my roommate, Danny Williams. I need him back here. I just had an upsetting meeting with co-workers, uh, about Five-0 stuff, and I need you to find Danny and another of our team, Chin Ho Kelly, who is probably with him. Besides, it's Danny's med and meal time too, right?"
"Temperature is 99.1. It is time for Danny, too. His tray and meds are on the cart just outside the door. I saw him go for a walk awhile ago, but I thought he had already returned," said Bridget. "Take these, please." She held out the meds and a cup of water and watched as Steve swallowed them in one quick gulp.
"Could I have an antacid please? My stomach heated up when I received some bad news."
"I am sorry to hear that, Steve. How heated? Give me a number."
"9."
"Ouch. It is a common side effect as your new liver gets used to you. I'll get you something right away. Let me check your chart to see if there are any restrictions on which one we can give you."
"Okay, but I really need to talk to Danny and Chin, so could you check after you send someone to find them?"
"Oh!" Bridget frowned, but it was out of concern. "Of course." She turned on her heel and left the room. Steve lay back, wondering how on earth he was going to tell Danny any of what had happened with Kono and Lou. He decided he would hold off until he knew where Chin stood. He was really hoping for the best there, because he felt the task force unraveling before his eyes.
H50 H50 H50 H50
Danny had remembered that there was an outdoor patio for patients well enough to use it and their visitors, but it was all the way down the hall, about 3000 miles from Steve's room. But it was the best he could do for a place that qualified as "out", and right now, he needed out. Fresh air and sunshine would be a bonus. He needed to be as far from what was going on in Steve's room as was humanly possible. So he pasted a pleasant if vague smile on his face, and gritted out the long walk down the hall to the patio.
By the time he reached it, he was shaking from the exertion, almost gasping from the pain in his ribs. It was close to the time for his pain meds. But they were 95,000 miles away. He was not going back to his room until he was positive Kono and Grover had left. Maybe by then he would feel up to that long walk. He could endure the pain. He just needed a chair. Or better yet, he could take possession of the lounge he saw over by the corner of the patio, with no one sitting near it. There was an umbrella over it, shading it - at least for now. In two hours, the shade would have moved so he would be soaking up skin-cancer-causing sun rays, and frankly he did not care. His whole life had gone south this week. Funny how he never saw these things coming.
Carefully, he positioned himself on the lounge. He began to feel a little better almost immediately. The extreme fatigue he felt did not concern him, as both he and Steve had been warned that their bodies would commandeer all energy available to regenerate their livers. They were also not allowed to drive until further notice, and had been ordered to take at least three months off work, and lifting anything over ten pounds was forbidden for at least six weeks. Danny understood everything but the driving part. However, this one was going to bother Steve a lot more than it bothered him.
He moved the IV pole so it was in the deepest shade, noticing his IV bag was almost empty. 'Whatever,' he thought to himself. He knew he was dehydrated from the episode of un-eating half his life's worth of meals. He turned his face away from the the main expanse of the patio, a few other patients visiting with ... whoever they were sitting with. He leaned back against the little headrest and watched a gecko exploring the flowerbed nearest him. It was full of pretty tropical flowers, the names of which he had not yet learned because flowers anywhere were not his thing. He could not have named many in New Jersey, either. But he liked blue flowers, and none of the flowers he was watching the gecko inspect for insects were blue. Then he noticed one very small patch of one of the few blue flowers he could name: forget-me-nots, which were not specifically tropical. They grew everywhere. But that little patch seemed to be struggling. "You and me both," he whispered.
"Danny?"
Danny started, not expecting Chin to be standing next to him. "Walk louder. Hi. 'Sitting down and swapping stories'," he added, his tone careful but not unfriendly. "My dad says that. Pull up a chair. I do not want to know what Kono said."
Chin snagged another chair, matching the lounge but with no foot rest. He pulled it over so he could sit next to Danny. "I'm glad you don't, because I don't know myself." Danny turned to watch the bright green gecko, which seemed to feel very territorial about the little blue flowers. He didn't expect Chin to ask him about his recently acquired forehead stitches. "What happened there?"
Danny shrugged and turned away from the gecko and back to Chin. "I slipped on a piece of pineapple. Took a fall." Since sooner or later Chin would comment on his difficulty breathing, he just pointed to his right side. "Now these ribs are sore too."
Chin asked sympathetically, "How many times have you banged up your ribs in the past six years?"
"Lost count. Doesn't matter."
Danny felt the moment when Chin decided to come to the point that he must have tracked Danny down to come to. He heard the soft-spoken words slide gracefully into the silence. "About this week," he began.
"Chin, buddy, it's okay that you spent your time with Steve. I completely understand. Let it drop."
But Chin did not let it drop. "It isn't okay, Danny. You needed us, too. Kono was focused on Steve, because she was having a hard time with the fact he got shot and how close he came to not making it."
"I know she had a real hard time when you were shot so recently." Danny watched Chin nod.
"Yeah. That was another part of it." He finally noticed the gecko, and watched it pensively. "I kept telling myself we would visit you 'tomorrow', and a day would come and go, then another, until a week had passed. I don't have a good reason for not sitting with you, maybe bringing the chess board or watching a game." He looked Danny right in the eyes, dark brown meeting baby blue. "I came to apologize for letting you down."
Danny reached out and tapped at Chin's closest knee. "Apology accepted, buddy. We're good."
"Thanks, bruh."
Danny smiled. "Funny thing about words. 'Brother' morphs into 'bro' which in Hawaii morphs into 'bruh'." Danny said to the gecko, "The whole 'ohana' thing. I just wonder if I still am a part of it. I've always been on the outside, you know, because of the whole Jersey thing. Now... Grover only came by once, when I was asleep, and I think that is why he came then. And I guess Kono never intended to go beyond those micro-visits."
Chin looked sad. "What tipped you off?"
"You changed pronouns. 'We' became 'I'."
Chin half grinned, even if it was tinted with sadness. "Someone would think you were a detective."
"Or just weirdly good with pronouns."
Danny tried to suck in a deep breath, but that proved not his best idea. A tiny grimace had already thinned his mouth before he stopped it and sent his expression back to bland.
It was Chin who broke the silence. "Honest, Danny. I never meant to leave you so alone this week."
Danny nodded. "I appreciate it. At least I know I still have two friends."
"So you are really not sure anymore about Kono and Lou?"
Danny was again seeing in his mind's eye how they had looked when Kono said what she had said, and Steve had said what he had said. "Before Kono's verbal rug-pull, and the ensuing silence, I thought we were ohana. I never questioned it. I kindof have to now."
"I couldn't blame you if you did, but did you doubt me?" asked Chin, and Danny took a few seconds to form his reply. "For a brief moment, yes," he answered honestly. "Then I saw how tense they were, while you were, I dunno ... Zen."
Chin's chuckle was half what it usually would be. Danny looked up at Chin. "You're worried, too."
Danny watched Chin study the gecko. "Yeah. I'm worried, too."
h50h50
It was then that another nurse approached them with steps like thunder. "Daniel Williams! Are you Chin Ho Kelly?"
Danny whispered to Chin at warp 9 that this nurse was not the nice one and that Steve literally hated her. "Yes!" they both said, with fake pleasant smiles.
"I do NOT like playing Fetch The Patient, and I smell VOMIT!"
"Ahhhh," said Danny, while Chin Ho sniffed the fresh, flower-scented air and shrugged. Danny continued, soto voce to Chin. "I think Nurse Carla was a bloodhound in a former life. And she did not win the superpower lottery in this one since expelled semi-digested food seems to be her specialty." To the nurse, who was built like a linebacker, he said pleasantly, "It is remotely possible you that you smell a molecule or two of that because the guy in the stall next to me was having stomach issues. This is a hospital." Danny kept the smile in place, and noted that Chin was following his lead.
"Hmph," snorted Nurse Carla. "What did he look like? Patient, or visitor?"
"Ohhhh," said Danny. "I ... could not say!" He was not about to admit to offering meal gifts to the porcelain throne. "It was more of an audio experience for me than a visual one."
"Hmph." Danny was glad when she dropped the subject like a hot rock. "Commander McGarrett needs you both back in the room, STAT, so let's march. Mr. Williams, you are LATE for your meds, and your IV is on E!"
She set off at a pace there was no way Danny could match, not even with Chin's help.
"Too fast?" His voice was somewhere between 'apology' and 'don't kill me'.
He watched the nurse roll her eyes at him. "Fine. IneedaWHEELCHAIR!" Nurse Carla bellowed just inside the patio door, and Danny blanched. What seemed like a half second later, a person materialized with a wheelchair that looked ancient. He had a bad feeling about it. But it was the only way to match her pace. Danny definitely did not feel he could walk all the way back without passing out. He swallowed his pride and obediently sat in the thing, and Chin, now in charge of the IV pole, had to run to keep up with Nurse Carla as she steered her patient.
They shot down the hall, with the front wheels of the chair shimmying and shaking while making an ear-splitting "REEEECH!REEECH!REEEECH" sound, obviously paying homage to the music of the shower scene in the movie Psycho. Danny hung on to the arms of the chair for dear life. When they arrived at Steve's room, Danny whispered, "Jesus." Chin had to pry his fingers loose from the armrests and then help him over to the bed while Nurse Carla yelled in triumph at Nurse Bridget, who was handing Steve a dosage of something thick on a spoon. "Found 'em both! All yours." She and the chair vanished.
"Help! Bathroom!" Danny wheezed, his voice tight, words clipped and desperate.
"You look green!" said a bug-eyed, three-part harmony of Steve, Chin, and Nurse Bridget.
"Yup."
The bug-eyes were all still focused on Danny's even greener face as he whispered, "That race down the hall, Nurse Ratchet and that psycho chair ... another ... five seconds and I would've been ... catatonic. -Too late!" He reached for anything he could find to stand in for the toilet. He grabbed Steve's regulation little plastic water pitcher, which was still half full, and made his offering as everyone mobile scattered like roaches when the light goes on. Steve yanked his blanket over his head, and all waited for the hurch-gurch sounds and splashes to end.
When they did, Chin peered around the corner of the door, and Steve lowered the blanket so his eyes were peeking cautiously over the top. "Danny? You done?"
"God I hope so," he rasped weakly, now sitting on the very edge of his bed. His hand shook as he put the water pitcher down on his bed, where it promptly fell over and spilled, and everyone but Danny grimaced.
"What happened?" asked Nurse Bridget, who had risen from her hiding spot beside Steve's hospital bed and was now heading purposefully for Danny.
Danny managed to answer. "Finally met ... a worse driver ... than Steve." He slid down the side of his bed to the floor in a surprisingly graceful, slow motion faint.