Chapter 29 "Danny's Decline"

A/N: (date) Thank you for the warm reception of Ch. 28, featuring Danny's decline and Rachel's bizarre interrogation. I really appreciate all the reviews, and here is the next installment. You are really kind to read, follow, and even favorite the story; I know I lost one reader with the last chapter, and think I know who, and am sad about that. I keep track of the story stats, and am especially sad to have lost the one I did, and yet very grateful for the two new readers who put the story on follow!

Something I really want to make clear, because it is so easy to forget when writing and reading any story, is that this is all AU. Obviously, I am a Danny / Scott Caan girl, with his brotherly friendship with Steve / Alex a huge favorite, and Chin, Kono, Lou following. I really love the whole cast! In this story, Lou isn't shining too bright with Danny and the others, but who is to say it will remain that way? Over time, things may mend or not. We'll see. But I like Lou, and I like Chi. And I really like Rachel. One story I thought about writing had them getting back together. But this story required her and Stan (Do we even know if they are still married on the show?) to be baddies, and so that is how it is going.

It's all AU, so doesn't reflect how I personally feel about the actual show characters. I like them! I really do!

I also entirely underestimated the difficulty of having two stories moving in tandem, so there is this separation of characters. Danny is in the box, for now, and everyone else is not. When the story allows them to reunite, believe me, this writer is going to celebrate!

CBS owns Hawaii Five-0. I only own the original characters involved in this story, and I sortof feel like Cornett and family (definitely family) are mine, since the Dr. *could* have been used in other episodes, but wasn't except for two. So, I have adopted him.

Chapter 29 "Danny's Decline"

(Friday, 23 December 2016, 9:30 p.m.)

"Oh my God," wheezed Steve as he handed Chin the phone on which they had just recorded Rachel's almost schizophrenic interrogation. "Is your mind blown?" he asked his Korean/Japanese friend and co-worker. "I know my stomach is."

Chin, usually not one to react with undue intensity, stood from his chair and just held his phone. His face was green. "Excuse me," he said quickly, and fled the room.

Steve almost followed him, but since it would have been for the same reason, and the bathroom was for one person, two men would have been one too many to fit as they upchucked over the toilet. Steve made due with a corner of the room, and afterwards went to stand out in the hall, still feeling vestiges of queasiness. Kono and Abby joined him, each looking sick. Chin joined them, and one by one they used the bathroom to rinse out their mouths and wash their hands and faces.

Abby, standing beside Chin, commented, "Rachel gave us all mind poisoning. Wow. Can we go outside and get some fresh air?"

The dissection of the interrogation continued outside in the parking lot, each member of Five-0 taking deep breaths of brisk, rainy air around Steve's Silverado, in which they had all ridden over, driven by Chin.

"Stan wanted to rip off some scalp?" Steve was horrified. "And can we order a psyche review for Rachel? Now that she wants to divorce Stan, you know she's going to set her sights on Danny again."

"He would never take her back." Kono spoke with assurance. "All we have to do is play that tape for him, and hand him a bucket."

"All this, because they wanted to move to Dubai." Steve shook his head, and felt wobbly. He climbed in the truck, and the other three followed, taking their places, but rolling the windows down enough to keep the air fresh. "That must be some fat job offer, because Stan has had to pass up a couple of promotions that would have required moving. I guess this Dubai one must have come with enough of a raise to really make it worth this, to them."

Chin, sitting behind the wheel, with Abby in the passenger seat, finally found his voice post his digestive eruption. "You know Stan isn't going to tell us anything, especially since Rachel didn't know the important stuff. If we could beat the crap out of him, I'm sure we could get him to cave in three punches, since he doesn't strike me as the physically brave type. But since we can't go caveman on him, and he knows it, he will just smirk at us and taunt us with what he isn't going to tell us."

Kono, sitting with Steve in the rear seats, almost growled her frustration. "I would so love to be able to go caveman on Stan. Because you know he would talk then. He's the worst kind of physical coward."

Steve was deep in thought, and his expression one of intense concentration. Chin, followed by the others, finally noticed. "What are you thinking, Steve? You have a look in your eyes."

Steve finally answered, without looking up from his focus on whatever he was swirling around in his mind. "I do have an idea. –And I think it might work. Let's go back to headquarters and talk it out, because it may be risky."

Chin drove them back to Five-0 headquarters, where they spent hours working out Steve's plan. Several phone calls were made. They didn't even notice when it turned Christmas Eve, but around 2 a.m. Chin drove to an all-night diner and brought them all back some chicken soup. They kept discussing Steve's plan as they ate, and for a couple more hours afterwards.

"Okay," said Steve, finally. "I think we are about as prepared as we can be, so let's all grab a few hours of sleep. I'm going to just sleep in my office."

"Sounds good," yawned Kono, and wandered away to her own office, where they saw her pull out her phone and make a call. Lip reading, they watched her say Adam's name.

Abby followed Chin into his office, and they snuggled together on his couch, asleep after giving each other a goodnight (nap?) kiss.

H50 H50 H50

(Saturday, 24 December, Christmas Eve, 4 a.m.)

Danny felt Angel's paws on his face, heard her frantic meows. He woke to utter darkness, and even in his depleted, sickened state, he instantly panicked. "No no no," he wheezed in a thin voice, realizing vaguely that his breathing was shallow, and it hurt. "I wasn't supposed to fall asleep. I can't see anything!" He felt disoriented by more than the cold darkness. His fever had risen.

Angel keep using one paw to keep him aware of where she was, and he finally realized she had brought one of the glow sticks over and somehow pushed it into his hand. He cracked it and shook it, with hands that were unsteady, and his body was now alternating between periods of intense shivering and quiet.

As the white light brightened the interior of the box, Angel leaped into his arms and burrowed against him. She was meowing and head butting his hand, until he petted her. She looked into his eyes, and then looked away very briefly at her food plate, as if trying to apologize.

Danny was trying to force himself to breathe more deeply, but it was as if his lungs filled to capacity too soon. That set off more alarm bells, but he did notice Angel's eyes flick to her plate. "Oh no, Baby Girl, I forgot to feed you. I'm s-sorry."

He couldn't stand, so he crawled, clutching the light stick, over to the pantry and opened another packet of kitten food, and poured the moist bite-sized pieces onto the plate, and then carefully filled her water bowl, then his own water bottle. Doing that little bit had exhausted him.

His hand hurt, and he glanced at his thumb, horrified in the detached way of the truly sick that about an inch of one vein in his thumb, below the bandage, had turned reddish. He knew that wasn't a good thing. He knew he had pneumonia, too.

He petted Angel as she ate with what seemed like feline apology, sorry to be hungry when her human was feeling so wretched. Danny told her it was okay, then curled up on the floor by the pantry, the blanket wrapped around him, waiting for Angel to finish. He was fighting to stay awake by the time she had eaten her last morsel, and only lightly felt her push inside his coverall against his chest, and purr comfortingly. When Danny fell asleep again, she stayed with him, and while Danny did not realize it, she never left him.

.

A/N: I know this is really short, but the next one will be really long.