Chapter 9 "Christmas Cards & The Escape Plan"
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A/N: (11 August 2016) Wow, you are the best! I appreciate so much reviews and reads and favorites and follows—you are really the best! I apologize for not replying to reviews, but I figure the best thank you is a new chapter! Life is a lot crazy right now, so it's either write chapters or write thank yous. I truly do appreciate the effort you put into reviewing, and I am continually motivated to keep writing!
Hopefully Danny's plan is understandable. Let me know if it is not clear, and I will definitely make it clear. It is not an easy plan, and there will be bumps along the way…
Now and then I have to stop what I'm writing and look up something, like when is sunset in Honolulu (or thereabouts) on December 20th of this year. I also found the recipe for Danny's favorite Malasadas, because if there is one thing about research, it is that it is like looking up videos: one leads to another which leads to another which leads to another. I have been good about not digressing too much.
I took such a liking to Dr. Cornett that I've given him a family. He won't detract from the main characters, though.
The whole mystery is about to become more defined, and then comes the figuring out just what is going on, and who did it!
Enjoy! I truly hope you do!
Usual disclaimer: CBS owns and makes money off Hawaii Five-0. I write using their characters and have fun, but make no money. This is for enjoyment, and because I'm hooked on the darn show!
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Chapter 9 "Christmas Cards & The Escape Plan"
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Steve did get a chance to talk to Dr. Cornett when the tall, fit, going-gray-haired man stopped in to see him on his morning rounds. It was just after 9 a.m. He greeted the security officer and Officer Kai amiably, then entered Steve's room, and greeted Kono with a nod. "You got the short straw?" he asked her, noting her working with her laptop on a very makeshift desk near the door, while Steve ignored her and him as he was focusing on his own laptop, currently displaying photos from the crime scene that was Danny's house.
Kono smiled brightly, briefly. They had all gotten to know Dr. Cornett when Steve had needed the liver transplant from Danny. He was Danny's doctor, and had handled his part of the transplant plus Danny's lengthy, complicated follow-up.
Kono, reading through the file on Danny's car, and the scene where Steve had been found by the newlywed couple, was glad for a short interruption. "I volunteered because I knew Steve would respond better to a woman babysitter, and Abby had to do interviews and partner Chin running around collecting information."
"Good logic, I suppose. Could I have some privacy with Steve, and then I'll be out of your way." Cornett sounded subdued.
"Sure! Uh, are you okay?"
Steve's head snapped up and he started paying attention.
"I'm fine." He sighed and admitted that he had received Danny's Christmas card in the morning mail. "So did my daughter, the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner who helped Grace Williams when she had to stay overnight after she broke her arm at Thanksgiving."
"The cheerleading accident," said Kono, remembering a frazzled Danny and Steve at the football game where Grace had been improperly caught after a lift move, and been instead dropped to the ground, landing on her left arm. All of Five-0 had been attending the game to have some fun time together, and all of them had practically bi-located to her side as soon as she let out the shocked gasp that caused Danny to "beam" to her side so fast, the others had seemed almost slow comparatively.
"I didn't realize Grace's nurse is your daughter," said Steve. "Grace just calls her Nurse Becca and raves how now she wants to be a Pediatric Nurse rather than a Marine Biologist."
"Yup. Rebecca Cornett, all 5 feet 2 inches of her. She has a fraternal twin sister who teaches kindergarten. I got lucky with my kids. My son is on active duty as a trauma surgeon at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Takes after his old man."
"LRMC," nodded Steve. "I was through there once. Glad it was only once, but the care is the best there is. How long has your son been over there?"
"Almost four years. He gets to come home this year for Christmas. Flies in in three more days, gets to stay two weeks, but the last week he'll be on Maui while we watch the grandkids. Belated honeymoon."
"Flies in Christmas Eve," murmured Kono. "And Maui is a great place to honeymoon."
"I won't still be a patient, but if possible, I'd like to meet him. We might know some people in common, besides you. Er, if it would not interrupt your holiday plans." Steve was relieved when his doctor said he thought it could be arranged.
"I work part of Christmas, but I get a few days off while he's home. -More, if it can be arranged. I'm sure David would be happy to meet you. Hopefully you will have found Danny by then."
Kono felt as if her insides had twisted when Dr. Cornett had mentioned receiving Danny's Christmas card. "We hope so too. Hope he sent a good card."
Dr. Cornett pulled it out of his lab coat, almost gingerly, and passed the card around. It was a photo of Danny and his kids, Grace and Charlie, all wearing festive holiday colors, smiling huge smiles, and hiding the cast on Grace's left arm, almost a mirror image of Steve's. Under a traditional greeting, Danny had written in his legible hand writing, "To the best Doc. Seriously, we qualify for a frequent flier discount! Not that we want to use it! Thanks for taking good care of us! Have a great Christmas, you and yours!" It was signed by Danny and Grace, and included Charlie's attempt at printing his name in red crayon.
"Awwww, that's so cute," said Kono. She knew she would find a card just like it in her own mailbox when she went home later in the day.
Steve smiled sadly. "I took that photo. We did our cards together when he had his kids last weekend. We mailed them day before yesterday."
Sure enough, the postmark was Monday the nineteenth of December.
"We'll find him," said Steve. "He loves Christmas." He pushed aside the gloom he felt deep inside, because they would have to get very lucky to find Danny by the holiday he loved so much. "So, you are a Grandpa!"
"Twice! My wife and I are quite delighted." The doc returned the card to his lab coat pocket, as carefully as he had taken it out. "I really hope Danny can spend the holiday with his kids and friends." Doc Cornett had once said he became attached to his patients, and apparently it was quite true. But it was also true that Cornett was hiding behind his professionalism. "Okay, Steve, time to be poked and prodded and asked questions."
"I am aquiver with anticipation. Let's get this over with."
Kono slipped out of the room with the murmur that she was going to call Adam, her husband.
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H50 H50 H50 H50
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Danny had been busy since naming Angel, and realizing he had to be very careful with everything left in the box with him. He knew the best plan he could come up with to get out would take time, and it all began with him somehow getting the chain unfastened from the bolt on the floor.
However, he had made sure his supplies were organized first. Obviously, he had been left barely a month's worth of water, and cat food. He was going to have to go on a starvation diet to make his peanut butter and crackers last a month, but at least he did have water. And light.
He kept an eye on the glow stick, still bright. He really had no idea how long it had been making light, but he had spent time figuring out the currently-unlit string of Christmas lights up at the ceiling. He saw one small hole, glued closed and entirely out of reach, but through it was a black-coated wire which attached to the lights on one end. He had seen them before: there had to be a solar panel outside the box somewhere, and it would collect the sunlight needed to power the battery that in turn powered the lights. They would come on at dusk, and last about 8 hours.
With the glow sticks lasting twelve each, he had a month's worth of 20 hours of light, then 4 hours of darkness, after which the Christmas lights would come back on.
Those four hours of darkness would be when Danny tried to sleep. He had to set up a schedule. He used the notebook and mechanical pencil to make a calendar of sorts, so he could keep track of the days, and if he could tell if it was storming outside. This way he could have a pretty accurate idea of when he was, since he did not know where.
Danny remembered the date he was drugged: December 20, and it had been a couple of hours after sunset, which at this time of year was a little before 6 pm. He remembered the Christmas lights had been relatively bright the first time he had awakened. Later on, they had been much dimmer, and he had used the first glow stick, which would last for a few more hours.
By his calculations, it was somewhere roughly around 7 am on December 21st. "First day of Winter. How fitting," he thought. The darkest day of the year.
That meant he had started the glow stick glowing close to 2 am that morning. Which meant it would last until 2 pm, at which time it would be dark and he would have to rest during those hours. At a little before 6 pm, the Christmas lights would come back on, if he was right about the solar panel.
Danny carefully noted when he had fed Angel, and when he had drunk and how much. He knew the minimum amount of water for survival in dire circumstances was about three quarters of a gallon, or 96 ounces. That meant a maximum of 6 water bottles per day. Angel's portion would come out of his, since she did not drink that much, and he had to stretch the water as long as he could. He would make sure she had enough, but he would literally have to watch out not to even spill any. Every drop counted now. Washing was something he simply had no water for, but he did have the baby wipes. He could keep his hands and face clean. Soon his beard would begin being more than scratchy stubble, and his hair would start to grow back. That would help him keep track of time.
Food was definitely going to be a problem. He would become well acquainted with hunger, but at least he had something to eat. Luckily, too, he could afford to lose a few pounds. He knew he would do just that, starting very soon. He would wait until he was hungry, then allow himself a 'spoonful' (the smallest amount he could measure on the end of one side of the wooden tongue depressor sticks he had for a spoon.) That would be when Angel ate, and she would get most of a packet of cat food every day. He would only save a little each day, to make sure she did not run out, but he could not stand the thought of her going hungry.
Later in the 'day', he would have a cracker and a very few raisins. And a few hours later, he would allow himself another spoonful of peanut butter. In three days, or four if he could wait that long, he would have one of the tiny containers of pineapple juice. He would substitute that for the raisins that day.
It was going to be miserable, but he knew it was far better than being left with nothing. Danny knew it would take perhaps two weeks to get out of the box, maybe longer. It all depended on how fast he could rid himself of the chain tethering him to that bolt.
Angel had been napping, but she woke up, yawned and stretched, and rolled over against Danny, who was sitting next to her blanket, writing in his notebook. She meowed softly at him, so he put aside the notebook after he stowed the pencil inside the plastic spiral. He slid it under the blanket after tearing out one piece of paper.
Angel watched that paper very closely, while rubbing up against his knee. He petted her for a short time, enjoying hearing her purr. They had a little conversation about how well she had slept, and if she ever did anything but give him advice and sleep. She flipped back and forth on her back, talking back indecipherably, until she finally rose and stood on his legs. She rubbed his face and stared very curiously at the paper.
"Oh, you want to know what this is? By the way, I put litter in your box, so, you know, if you need to do that, you now have a bathroom."
This last part did not interest Angel in the slightest –at least not yet. She was intent on the paper.
"I don't have a proper cat toy for you, but I still have the evidence that paper and you have a thing. So I thought I would make you a toy."
He held it up and she took a swipe at it. "Ah ha, see? I was right. You need a proper paper toy, because the notebook is off limits."
He crumpled it into a ball, making just as much crumple-noise as he could. Angel looked very interested, her eyes practically forgetting to blink, the pupils huge. She had hunkered down flat, and was ready to pursue that little ball of paper wherever Danny tossed it.
He finally let it sail across the box, and she dug her back claws into his legs and launched herself after it.
"OW, dangit!" He hiked up his pant legs and looked at the 8 neat holes she had left in his legs, 4 each. They were not bad, and only bled a little. "I forgot about your claws."
Angel fetched the paper ball back, and dropped it at his feet, and looked contrite. "What did I expect from a baby kitten?" After a few pets, he picked up the ball, feeling very pleased she had brought it back. He tossed it again, and this time she launched from the floor, and went crazy batting the ball all over the box. When she wanted him to toss it again, she trotted back to Danny with the ball in her mouth, and dropped it at his feet again. He was charmed.
"Grace and Charlie would so love you," he said, and then swallowed hard, and drank a sip of water, cleared his throat, and then sent the ball sailing again. But Angel held off in chasing it, instead leaning her head against him and purring comfortingly. "Those are my kids. I love them," he explained, and she jumped onto his knees, which were still drawn up from when he had checked her neat claw marks. She rubbed against his face, and licked the tears he was trying to keep from sliding down his face.
"Meow."
"I will love you for them, but when we get out of this box, you are going to meet them and they are going to demand to keep you, but I will keep you at MY house, because I think you and I should stick together, right? Besides, Rachel and Step-Stan are both allergic to cats, I think, so you have to stay with me."
She jumped over to Danny's right shoulder and purred as she rubbed against his ear and cheek. "I will make sure Charlie is gentle with you, but you have to promise not to scratch them, or me for that matter. I understand about the toy. Accidents happen."
Danny had himself under better control. He simply could not think of not getting out of the box, with Angel, and returning to his family, to his whole extended ohana. "You can scratch Steve, though, if he's being a pain." Danny grinned, Angel purred, and then he put her down on the floor again, and she ran to the ball and chased it all around the box.
Danny watched and then moved over to where the chain was bolted into the floor of the box, with those ridiculously large bolts. He needed to be free of the ring, so he selected the closest link he could work with, and began to scrape one of the curving ends along the edge of the plate the ring was attached to. He knew it would take a long time to scrape through it, and was appalled by the sound it made, but he would keep at it as long as it took to make the end break. The chain would still be stuck to his ankle, but at least he would have no tether.
Besides, he would need the remaining links to cut through the wall of the box, to make a hole just big enough for him to escape through. It would take a long time to get out, but he was determined.