Wānana Pū – Recollect

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or the characters.

A/N: Hey Guys, sorry I went MIA on you all. It's been a hectic few weeks! They have been flying by. Didn't realize it had been so long, so I'm really sorry for it. Thank you for waiting and I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter anyway.

The story is set somewhere in season 7. If there are some grammar of spellings issues left, they're all mine. I really enjoy working together with Julieb716, but life went crazy (on both sides) and that's why this chapter hasn't been corrected or anything. I did my best, but hey I'm human and I make mistakes (probably a lot of them). Anyway I thought I owe you all a next chapter since you all have been waiting for so long.

Let me give you a "previously" so you don't have to go back to the previous chapter to check where I left you all waiting...

PREVIOUSLY ON... Okay this sounds silly :)

Danny had surgery to repair damage done to his liver. He might needed a liver transplant, leaving Steve unusually unsettled about that idea. The surgery was a succes and he didn't need a transplant. Steve went to sit by Danny's bedside along with Grace and Charlie, both kids asleep. Danny woke up and had a chat with Steve.

Last paragraph of chapter 17;

Steve lifted Charlie carefully off his lap, trying not to wake the little boy. Charlie luckily slept through most of everything that had happened tonight. Steve placed him next to Danny with a proper distance, so he wouldn't be able to hurt Danny. Only somehow Charlie noticed the gap and he snuggled up against his father while he continued to sleep. He rested his tiny hand on Danny's chest. Danny pulled him tight and leaned with his head against Charlie's. Sure the pain medication was nice and all, but having his son curled up against his side was way better than any drug. Danny's eyes fluttered as he tried to fight the sleep. He couldn't keep up the fight though. He was exhausted. Steve slid the oxygen mask back on him before Danny closed his eyes and dozed off with his son in his arms.

-H50-

Chapter Eighteen

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TUESDAY – 11:36 AM – ICU KING'S MEDICAL CENTER- DOWNTOWN HONOLULU.

After several hours of adequate sleep Danny finally woke up again. As he missed the warmth against his torso, Danny rolled his head to the side. Charlie was no longer there. His heart skipped a beat. His son wasn't next to him anymore. Where the hell did he go? Danny tensed and jolted upright to search the room for his son, no one was there though. He regretted the movement instantly as a sharp ache flared through his abdomen. He clenched his jaw and leaned his head back on the pillow closing his eyes to ride through the pain.

"Danny, you okay?" A familiar female voice popped up as a warm hand touched his arm. Danny opened his eyes again staring right into the two concerned brown eyes of Kono. The oxygen mask was still on his mouth, so he moved the mask out of his way to speak freely.

"I'm fine, where are my kids?" Danny asked while he shifted in bed, trying to find a comfortable position.

"Don't worry, they're at school." Kono reassured. "We said they could stay home for the day, but Grace wanted to go anyway. Steve will pick them up later if that's okay?"

"Great, thanks Kono. I really appreciate you all taking care of them. I would do it myself you know…" Danny pushed himself up, proving he was stronger than he probably looked.

"Hey, it's okay, they're 'ohana," Kono placed her hand on his shoulder, saying he didn't have to prove anything to her. "Grace asked me to tell you she's glad that you're okay." She added the promise she made with his daughter earlier.

Danny sighed deeply and sadness clouded his face. "She must have been worried sick."

"We all were and still are, just a little." Kono showed a minimal measurement between her thump and index finger. She winked giving him her best smile, trying to cover the seriousness.

"Can't be looking that bad right?" Danny sounded taunting.

"You look just fine." Kono comforted as she retraced her steps to the chair on the other side of Danny's bed. She had been sitting there before she went out to grab some coffee.

"Good, I mean I knew you were coming so I dressed up and all."

"You did?" Kono's eyebrows went up. "That gown looks great on you." She teased.

"It does? Doesn't it." Danny exclaimed aroused as his eyes were smiling before he turned his attention to the empty room. "So where's everyone?"

"Steve has a meeting with the Governor and Chin and Lou are visiting Dr. Bennett's relatives, to see if they can help out." Kono explained and took a sip of her coffee.

"So you're on patrol duty?" Danny mocked.

Kono grinned. "No, I'm not. I figured it would be nice for you not to wake up alone."

"Thanks babe," Danny brightened and a smile appeared on his face. "How's the case going? Anything new?" He wondered if they had found anything in his absence.

"Well… According to Eden's financials she received 500 dollars each month on the same date for over five years, which Eden transferred to a savings account on her daughters name. The monthly deposit was untraceable though. We contacted her parents to see if they gave the money to her, but they hadn't." Kono filled Danny in.

"Then who gave her the money? The father of her daughter?" Danny mused.

"Could be possible." Kono raised her eyebrows. She hadn't thought of that yet.

Danny fiddled with the IV in his arm. He hated the IV; it pulled on his skin every time he moved his arm. "Do we know who he is?" He asked.

Kono shook her head in disappointment. "No, he isn't mentioned in any document and the babysitter has never seen or heard of him."

"Okay, so that's a dead-end, what about Eden?" Danny asked curious. "She has been going to a therapist for years, did we find out why?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"I had to dig deep, but I found an old case where Eden was mentioned as a witness during an investigation," Kono searched for her tablet, so she could show it to Danny. She had taken all kinds of stuff with her. Mostly files she had picked up at HPD, somewhere in that mess was her tablet. "Also, Eric recovered a voicemail from Eden to Dr. Bennett just before she got killed saying, she really need to speak with her and that she knew who did it. It wasn't an accident, it really happened. She remembered him and saw him."

"That's at least something. What was the case?" Danny inquired impatiently.

"The suicide of her best friend." Kono added as she found her tablet and swiped on the thing searching for the right document.

"That would put me in therapy too, only we both know Steve doesn't go that easy." Danny teased. Kono snorted as she handed the tablet to Danny. Doctor Lewis entered the room before Danny was able to even start reading the report.

"Good morning, Detective Williams. How are you feeling?" The doctor asked.

"Call me Danny and I'm okay, I guess." Danny replied. He didn't think it was necessary that they would call him detective, as he was not on duty at the moment.

"Good to hear." Lewis nodded pleased. "Ma'am would you mind stepping out for a moment, I need to do a quick exam and changes his dressing? Won't take long."

"Sure, no problem." Kono smiled understandingly and looked around to see if she should take all her stuff with her or not.

"She can stay," Danny waved off the doctor's request. He gave the tablet back to Kono. "Just keep searching for a connection in the meantime."

"All right," the doctor said as he studied the statistics on the monitor. "Your BP is still a little low, are you light headed? Dizzy?" Danny shook his head. He hadn't experienced any of that. Actually his head felt better than it had felt in weeks. "Lets finish the blood transfusion in that case," Dr. Lewis pointed at the unit of blood that was hanging on the same pole as the antibiotics.

"Can you sit up for me?" He asked as he gently helped Danny by pushing him forward on his back. The doctor listened to his lungs with the stethoscope. After a few seconds Danny's body started to tremble. He didn't have the strength to sit up with no use of his abdominal muscles. "Argh," Danny grunted as he dropped back. It felt like he had been doing abdominal crunches all day. He grimaced as his abdomen protested at the strain it placed on his surgical wound.

Danny held onto the sheets with a death grip. His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, his heart rate spiked and he clenched his abdomen while he squeezed his eyes shut. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Kono had been watching from the corner of her eyes, but with Danny in pain she stared concerned to her friend, not knowing if she should do something or not.

"You're doing great. The muscles in your abdomen have weakened. It'll take longer to regain the strength than the first time." The doctor explained. Danny listened with his eyes closed. He got startled as the doctor placed the nasal cannula under his nose.

"Try to breathe, slowly." He encouraged. Danny tried to focus on his breathing, but he was tired all of a sudden. All his energy was drained. He fought to keep his eyes open, only the exhaustion got the better of him and his eyes started to flutter, his eyelids closing slowly.

"Just relax while I redress the incision, all right?" The doctor added. Danny nodded tiredly without saying anything. He just let the doctor do his thing while he dozed off, pain lingering on his face.

Doctor Lewis continued, maybe it would be better anyway for him not to see the incision. He opened the hospital gown and before he took the bandage off he put on some gloves. The doc smiled comforting at Kono, who remained seated while concern etched on her face. As doctor Lewis changed Danny's bandage, Kono caught a glimpse of the violent gash that split his abdomen and she'd turned away, back at her tablet.

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TUESDAY – 1:11 PM – ICU KING'S MEDICAL CENTER- DOWNTOWN HONOLULU.

After the doctor left, Danny had slept for an hour and a half. Kono stayed with him the entire time while she continued to work on the case. Everyone had come by the hospital. Chin and Lou brought lunch with them. It was against hospital policy to be with this amount of people inside the ICU, but Doctor Lewis had made an exception since Danny was doing better than he expected. They would move him at the end of the day to the recovery floor where he would have a private room and where they could visit as they pleased.

The team quietly discussed the information they had gathered so far while Danny was still resting. They ate their lunch while they went on with the investigation.

"I've been going over this report and something doesn't add up." Kono informed the team.

"Why's that?" Steve folded his arms as a line appeared between his eyebrows.

"It says that Lauren Rhodes, Eden's best friend, committed suicide. Only she had no reason for it. Her family was devastated and they didn't see it coming. She was just like Eden a perfect student, but still she killed herself." Kono summed up the report on the tablet.

Danny had woken up by the chatter in his room. He had been listing with his eyes closed for a while. "What if it wasn't suicide?" He shared his thoughts.

"There he is," Lou exclaimed, happy to see his friend awake. "How are you?"

"Next time I'll ask them to bring in a zipper, so they don't have to cut me open again." Danny grimaced as he shifted and pushed himself up, so he could sit.

"There won't be a next time, how about that." Steve stated, as he looked serious at his friend.

"Are you saying I can get an early retirement? Because as long as we work together, you can't promise me that." Danny sassed.

"Ladies?" Lou looked warningly, but joyful at both men.

"Danny, you really think Lauren was murdered?" Chin considered the possibility, but he wasn't entirely convinced.

"Could be, right?" Danny looked questioningly around at his friends.

"Would make sense," Kono nodded. "She didn't leave anything behind, no note, nothing."

"Plus Eden said on the voice mail to Dr. Bennett that it wasn't an accident." Lou chimed in.

"What does the rest of the report say? Any witnesses, other than Eden?" Steve asked, eyeing Kono, since she was the one with the document on her tablet. It would be easier to be back at HQ, where they could see it all at once on the screens and all, but Steve rather be here, by his friends side.

"Lauren was found on the 12th of May 2009 in her bedroom on campus. She threw a party the night before, inviting all her classmates. According to this list everybody from her year was a witness. Eden was the key witness though. She found Lauren hanging in her bedroom the next morning." Kono informed.

"That's awful." Lou said remorseful and he shook his head. He felt sorry for the girl.

"All right, Kono send Max the original M.E report, let's see if he think's it was suicide or not. I don't want to open up some old wounds for nothing." Steve demanded.

"On it," Kono replied as she sent the case over at the M.E's office. She continued to read through the case file. "Get this, in her statement she said she was asleep all night."

"How can you be asleep when there's a party going on?" Chin wondered, staring at his coworkers.

"Maybe she lied," Danny shrugged his shoulders. "When did Eden give birth to her daughter?" He asked curious.

Kono searched on her tablet. "February 8th 2010," she looked up at Danny as she provided him the answer.

"I'm not a mathematic or something, but I uh, I don't think it's a coincidence that seven years ago, Lauren committed suicide, Eden dropped out of school and got kicked out of the house after she got knocked up." Danny shared.

"I don't think she lied about being asleep though. Eden was a perfect student, right? Somehow she got mixed up in all of this. That night changed her life and not in a good way." Steve stated and placed his hands on his hips.

"Is it just me or am I the only one who wants to know more about the father of Eden's daughter. I'm telling you, he has something to do with it." Danny sounded convinced. Normally his gut was telling him he was right or not, but at the moment all he could feel was his abdomen aching. The smallest movement triggered a wave of pain, which he tried to ride through, but it placed an unpleasant strain on the surgical incision.

"I don't know that, but I do know there happened a lot more on that night then we know," Steve sighed. "If Eden got murdered by someone from her past, it could be someone she met on campus, right? Do we have the names of those classmates?" He asked, since he had not his own tablet available.

Chin showed a list of names on the tablet. "Right here."

Steve scrolled through the list. "All right, let's check it out."

"We'll go back to HQ, let you rest for a bit." Lou patted Danny on his leg. Not that he wanted to leave, but it was the best for Danny's own health.

"It's not necessary," Danny waved it away. "I'm not tired."

"You're lying," Steve rolled his eyes. "And besides you had major abdominal surgery less than twelve hours ago, so it's not open for debate." He commanded.

"Debate? What are you, running for president?" Danny asked astonished, but sarcastic at the same time. "Let me tell you, nobody's gonna vote for a nut job like you."

Steve leaned forward and grinned. "You'll be surprised."

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WEDNESDAY – 5:42 PM – RECOVERY WARD KING'S MEDICAL CENTER - HONOLULU.

The next day Steve picked up Grace and Charlie from school and went straight back to the hospital, so they could visit their father. Steve asked for Danny's new room number at the main desk on the ground floor. They would move him by the end of the day, so Steve figured they had done that by now and he was right. The three of them went up to the recovery floor and searched for the right room. They found it quite easily, but the room was empty. Some of his stuff was there though. It was a bit odd. They decided to check the ICU, to see if they were moving him at the moment or something. Danny wasn't in the ICU either, so Steve checked his friends whereabouts at the nurse station. The nurse informed him that they had taken him for a few scans and he should be back in his room on the recovery floor.

They probably had to wait for a bit, but they walked back anyway. To their surprise Danny was back in his room. They had just missed him. A female nurse was easing him into the chair next to his bed. Danny grimaced as he sat down. He hadn't noticed his visitors standing in the door opening.

"I'll be back in ten minutes to get you up for a short walk, okay?" The nurse informed her patient as she placed the IV pole behind his chair.

"I'll take him for a stroll through the hallway, no problem." Steve offered as he entered the room. Danny looked up surprised. He really hadn't noticed them yet.

"All right, that's fine, I'll be back later to check on you." The nurse smiled as she exited.

"Thank you." Danny smiled back as she left his room. He wasn't looking forward to walking the halls yet. They took him for a few scans and now they placed him in a chair. Doing those things already tired him, let alone he had to go for a walk. Maybe he would be up for it after resting for ten minutes in the chair.

"What's wrong with you Danno? You hurt?" Charlie asked staring with a crooked head at his father wearing a hospital gown and sitting in a chair like an old man.

"No, silly I'm not hurt, just a little banged up." Danny reassured his son.

A cheeky smile appeared on Charlie's little face. "Superhero's don't get hurt, right?"

"That's- yes that's true, but I don't think I'm a superhero, I'm mean you clearly are. Me? I don't know about that."

"You sure can't fly with that thing on." Grace teased and pointed at the hospital gown that he was wearing. She dropped on the empty bed, since Danny was sitting in the chair. Danny and Steve snorted, they both could hear Danny's attitude in the girls sassy comment. Charlie didn't get it and kept staring at his father.

After ten minutes of chitchat Steve kindly reminded Danny he had to make a short walk. Steve remembered how painful it was to walk the halls just after the liver transplant, but it definitely speeded his recovery. Danny had to do the same and besides Danny had been in the same situation before. Danny pushed himself reluctantly out of his chair. Steve could see the pain on his face, so he was instantly next to him to support him. He grabbed him underneath his shoulder and pulled him up.

"Easy," Steve tightened his grip as Danny swayed on his feet. He waited a moment so his friend could get steady. Steve handed Danny the IV pole from behind his chair for extra support. Grace and Charlie waited patiently for their father in the door opening. Steve grabbed a robe off the bed. Figured it was from the hospital, because he'd never seen Danny wearing one at home nor did he bring it along with his personal stuff. He helped Danny put the robe on.

"You good?" Steve asked as he noticed Danny was already trembling and breathing heavier than usual.

"The hallway isn't that long, is it?" Danny looked questioningly at Steve.

"No, don't worry you can do this. Don't push yourself though." Steve encouraged.

Danny shuffled out of his room holding the IV pole. Steve was walking slowly next to Danny on his right side, holding him tight underneath his shoulder. Danny scanned the hallway quickly. He had to make it to the end and back. That was all he had to do. Grace and Charlie were already walking ahead.

Halfway through the hallway Danny became slower. His whole body ached and every step was exhausting, but he pushed himself. His kids were here, so he had to. Steve noticed Danny needed more support than before. He tried to keep Danny steady as he observed his friend. Beads of sweat covered Danny's forehead, he was short of breath and his legs were shaking.

"Steve," Danny sounded weak and anxious. "Get my kids out of here."

-H50-

Thanks to everyone that has read and reviewed this story. I'm thrilled with the response!

How awesome is it that some fellow Dutchie's are reading this story and even a few from Belgium and France! It's just great! Not that anyone else is any less. I appreciate every single one of you! It's incredible that there are people reading my story, never thought anyone would, let alone this many!

I did read all the amazing reviews and tried to answer them. (decades ago though...) For the people who gave their review as a guest, I did read them and I honestly am grateful for them, so thank you for your kind words. As always my sincerest THANK YOU for reading this story and sticking with me as this story continues. And again sorry for the wait.

Always love to hear your thoughts...