Chapter 64 "Love & Ouches"
A/N: (14 July 2017) You are the best. I deeply appreciate your reading the story at all, and the reviews, follows, and faves. Those always stun me and make me feel unworthy, but glad too! I want to keep writing for you for as long as I can type!
Here is the thumb drive chapter. It didn't go *quite* as I expected, but what about this story has? I hope you enjoy it. Much love to you all!
CBS owns all things Hawaii Five-0.
Chapter 64 "Love & Ouches"
(Friday, 30 December 2016, 6:30 p.m.)
Steve rested his temples against his left fist. He was tired, but not as worried as he had been. Duke had processed the paper, envelope, the little Ziploc baggie that held the thumb drive, and the thumb drive, then turned the drive over to Steve while the computer looked for matches for fingerprints. The outer envelope was a mess of fingerprints, but nobody had a criminal record or was a person of interest. But on everything else, only one print was present, and it had a match: Stan Edwards. Then Duke took Lou Grover's statement while Steve snuck off to a far room to look at the contents on the drive, after covering the camera in the room.
He spent two hours watching the videos. He cried, he sighed, he was furious, and he calmed down greatly towards the end. He could show this to Danny. He should show this to Danny.
Steve pulled the thumb drive out of the computer he was using in the HPD crime lab, zipped it into a pocket on his cargo pants, and gestured to Duke, who was waiting to take him back to Tripler.
"Lou head home?" Steve asked Duke, who was working at a computer at another desk.
"Yeah, after he gave his statement. We talked for awhile." He shook his head. "You never know about some people, do you?" he added cryptically.
Steve's brows furrowed, but only a little. He was fighting another headache, and decided to not fight it. He rummaged in the medicine cabinet and snagged the Tylenol. "What do you mean, Duke?" He held out the bottle for Duke to open. "Two please," while he got a cup from the dispenser and filled it with water.
"We all wondered who set up that Go-Fund-Me page for Danny. It's over a hundred grand now. Turns out it was Lou. He had the page capped today, so in two weeks Danny will have a fat check to take to the bank and help him and his kids. Lou doesn't want Danny to know it was him." He handed Steve two tablets.
After Steve took them, he shared a grin with Duke. "We'll talk to Lou about that. He should be recognized. I had no idea."
"Me, either. So, you ready to go?"
Steve nodded and called Dr. Cornett to let him know he was on his way back. He got through on the third ring. "Hey, Doc. How's Danny?"
Dr. Cornett sounded as weary as Steve felt, and his voice was very nasal. "He's still sleeping, but probably not for more than another half hour to an hour. Becca and Hannah are with him, reading him cards people have sent him."
"That's good." He was smiling softly. "Reading him those cards was a really good idea," he said, climbing into the passenger seat of Duke's police cruiser. "How's your nose? Will you need surgery?"
Steve could almost see Cornett trying not to touch it. "Nope! The doc popped it right back into place, and it'll be fine in two or three weeks, and then I'll be my wife's handsome husband again. In the meantime, I look like I lost a round with Danny's elbow."
Steve grimaced, all the way to his bloodshot eyes. "Well, you did. And you're still Sarah's handsome husband. Seriously, you okay?"
The Doc's voice was earnest, grateful. "Yes, Steve. I'm okay." Then his gentle voice asked, "How are you doing?"
Steve took a couple seconds before he answered, and his voice had a lightness it hadn't had for a while. "I'm actually pretty good. I think this will help Danny. I wasn't a fan of your idea of just showing it to him, but now I think it will be the only thing that really helps. When he knows exactly what happened, he won't be able to imagine the worst. Just make sure I have a device to show it to him on. We're stopping for take-out, but will eat in the car."
"I'll get my laptop. I do approve the take-out! You haven't eaten enough lately. Where are you stopping?"
"Tiki Take-Out." Steve watched Duke grin. They could both see the twinkling, neon sign against the setting sun, a block ahead.
Dr. Cornett made an indescribable but definitely 'I need that!' sound. "Steve! I'll pay for you and Duke's dinner twice! Pleasepleaseplease, get me the barbecue pulled pork burger with double bacon, and their biggest fries and a coke and brownie, I beg you! Three of each! I gotta feed my two beautiful daughters, too! And a bald kiddy hamburger for Angel. And anything you think Danny would like."
"'Bald?'"
"Yeah! You know, plain, no sauce, pickles or onion, just patty and bun?"
Steve laughed. "Bald! For Angel! Will do. We're pulling in now. See you soon." He pocketed his phone and leaned back, for even a little rest felt good now. "You heard the man. Well, I heard him. He's paying. Go for broke."
.
H50 H50 H50 H50
.
Twenty-five minutes later Duke dropped him off at Tripler's ER entrance, and he zipped in carrying a tray with four drinks in it, and a bag of food the size of a shopping tote. It was slung over his rigid cast, while the drinks caddy was balanced on his left hand. Luckily, there was a guard on the elevator up, who punched the buttons for Steve.
Dr. Cornett was waiting for him when he juggled everything out of the elevator on Danny's floor. "Oh, Doc!" he exclaimed, as Cornett took the drinks so Steve could move the bag with the food in it over to his left hand. He winced at the technicolor black eyes and the swollen, very red nose. "Danny is going to apologize every time he sees you for at least a year."
Cornett brushed that off. "It looks worse than it is. Ohhhh this smells good! I can barely use my nose right now, but I can still smell just enough of these burgers to sit down right here in the hall and eat mine. But I won't, because Danny is waking up. He may not remember too clearly what happened that caused the restraints, which have to stay until, well, we see how he reacts to that thumb drive. I've given him some movement with the wrist cuffs, hoping he won't feel quite as scared, and have him in a chest strap and ankle restraints., and I've left the cuffs in the room. If he needs them, call me. I'll stay out of sight unless you do, until he's seen the drive. I'm keeping him mildly sedated, to take the edge off the anxiety. When you go in, Becca and Hannah will come out, so it will be just you two. But I'll be watching his readouts from the nurse's station."
"Okay," said Steve, sobered completely by the sight of the damage Danny's elbow had done, and the worry that they had so underestimated his PTSD. "Oh, you better give me Angel's burger. It's in there somewhere. You'll find what we got Danny, but he probably shouldn't eat until after, you know, he sees. Fridge it and if he gets hungry later, you have a microwave, right?"
The Doc nodded, then rummaged around until he found Angel's 'bald' burger amongst the much larger ones. He handed it to Steve.
It was a silent exchange when Steve went in, and the two Cornett daughters moved the mailbags and stacks of cards over to a chair across the room. Steve gave them both hugs, and kissed Becca on the cheek, and Hannah on the lips, and went in to Danny's room, letting the door close before he looked at the figure on the bed.
.
H50 H50 H50 H50
.
"Oh, Danny," Steve whispered, worry and sadness in his voice. He hated seeing his partner held down by the padded and locked chest strap and ankle restraints. His wrists were semi-restrained, so he could move them freely for about a foot before their tethers would not go further. He could not reach the cannula, clasp his hands, or reach anywhere near the little bag of keys clipped to the foot rail of his bed.
The oxygen mask had been replaced by a nasal cannula, a new IV line was in his left upper arm, out of his reach, and the lines attached to the patches reading his heart and breathing were hidden beneath a pale yellow hospital gown. But the thing that caught Steve's eyes the most were the bruises on Danny's arms, a testimony to how hard it had been to get him under control when he lost it. Dark areas where fingers had had to hold him tightly, digging into his flesh.
Angel meowed softly at him, and he reached out to pet her. She was in her perch by Danny's ear, which meant Danny was working his way out of his formerly heavy sedation, ready to come back to consciousness soon.
Steve pulled over his usual chair and sat down, taking Danny's hand that no longer had the cast on it. He ran his thumb across the back of Danny's hand, wishing he could remove that cuff. He saw the computer Dr. C had left him, and also saw the strap with the more restrictive wrist cuffs on it.
Since Angel wasn't alerting him that Danny would wake up imminently, he leaned forward and gave his sleeping partner a kiss on the forehead, then showed Angel the burger. She loved hamburger, and the smell enticed her. She was willing to sit on Danny's chest and eat the little pieces Steve turned the burger into, on their wrap. She ate half the burger, and stopped, burped, and gave Steve's hand a rub, so Steve re-wrapped the rest of the burger and the two pieces of bun, and went to the door to catch a nurse's attention. Janice, otherwise known as Wow, was still on duty, and she nodded at his request to give these to Dr. Cornett to add to the contents of the refrigerator.
When Steve turned back to Danny, he noticed at once that Angel was alert, focused, and already purring. Steve took his seat and held Danny's hand while Danny's eyelids slowly flapped open. He saw Steve, and smiled in confusion. "Hey," he said.
"Hey yourself," said Steve, feeling his tension trying to creep into being visible. He did battle to stay relaxed. And he thought he should tell Danny about the restraints before he discovered them on his own. "Don't freak out at the cuffs and straps. You had a PTSD flare and these became necessary. It's okay. They aren't permanent."
Danny tensed, and pulled on everything, eyes widening. "What did I do?" he asked, confused, while Steve's good hand was everywhere at once, keeping him grounded by the touch of someone who loved him until Danny accepted his plea to just relax and he'd tell him everything he could. Danny settled, but his heartrate was up, his breathing too fast and shallow. "Steve? What did I do?"
"What do you remember?"
Steve watched Danny search his mind, and the moment he found the answer to Steve's question, he withdrew into himself and became unnaturally still. Angel's purr and little paw pats went into overdrive. Steve began running his thumb over the back of Danny's hand, and was puzzled when Danny's hand made a fist, which he pulled out from under Steve's hand. "Don't," he said, much too quietly.
Steve's heart dropped in his chest, but he held in the hurt. "I love you," he said.
"You made a secret phone call, hid evidence from me, which other people know about, and when it comes out in court, you will get awfully tired of being jeered at, and you may want to love me, but you won't after the Governor asks me to resign, and I leave Hawaii to get away from the publicity of everyone knowing Stan did a whole lot more than touch me because the god-damned video got shown in court."
Steve sighed. "I don't know how you figured all that out, but you have some of it right, and some of it wrong."
"You lied to me."
"Sortof. I kept some things from you that I believed would bring on the kind of thing your detective mind scrambled, which means I made an error in judgment. For that, I am sorry. But I'm not sorry I tried to protect you from information you weren't ready to have. I'm sorry for being human in your presence."
That took the anger out of Danny's downcast eyes, which flew up to meet Steve's. "I'm sorry," he finally said. He slid his hand down under Steve's. "Obviously I wasn't ready, anyway, or I wouldn't be strapped to a bed."
"And your doc wouldn't have a busted nose."
"Omigod! Who broke it?"
"Your elbow."
"My …?" Danny swallowed hard, and tears pooled in his eyes until one slid down his cheek. Steve could have sworn Angel sighed as she pawed it ever-so-gently away. "Now he'll hate me, too."
"Please don't cry," pleaded Steve, wearily. "My sinuses can't take another cry today, and where the hell is the Kleenex box?" He got up and went to the door, signaled for Janice to fetch Dr. Cornett and "900 Kleenex boxes."
Dr. Cornett was there so fast, with three boxes of the requested tissues, that he said to Steve, "I bi-locate. It's my super power. Oh, you want me to come in?"
Danny took one look at his doctor's puffy red nose and black eyes, and Dr. Cornett sighed and released his wrists and loosened the cannula so he could blow his nose and keep Angel from having to keep up with his tears. "I'm so sorry!" Danny wailed, and finally took the cup of ice-water handed him.
"Drink that, all of it. You'll dehydrate yourself, and your sinuses can't take this either. Can you stop crying? Steve, you too. Dammit! I'm not supposed to cry till my nose heals!" He wasn't angry; his voice was caring, but had a definite tinge of desperation to it.
"Oh, sorry," said Danny, keening again, while Steve smacked himself on the knee until he stopped crying. They both wound down until they blew their noses, and sat there quietly. Steve and Dr. Cornett nearly lost it when Danny meekly held out his wrists to be re-cuffed.
"No, Danny, no need." Cornett cleared his throat. "And I forgive you for busting my nose. I know you didn't mean to. Besides, I think we met in the middle. Do you need any more sedative? Steve has something to show you. It won't knock you out."
Danny thought for a few seconds, before he nodded and folded his hands in his lap. Angel crawled into his hands, her purr clearly heard as Danny began to pet her.
"I thought you might." He pulled out a syringe with 2 ccs, and injected it into Danny's IV drip. "That's a mild benzodiazepine, so if you feel stressed later, just let me know and I can increase the dosage a bit."
Dr. Cornett made sure Danny could reach the ice water, and got out another cup for Steve. He fetched them each two Tylenol, which Danny took and Steve declined, telling them that he had taken a couple less than an hour ago. Cornett nodded and told them he'd be back if they needed him. Before he left, he gave Danny's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Son, feeling any better?"
Danny nodded.
Dr. Cornett squeezed his shoulder again, and quietly left the room.
Steve had his chair as close to the bed as it was possible to get it, and brought the laptop computer from its hiding place and put it on the bed. He was glad it didn't have a large screen. He told Danny about Duke finding the phone in Stan's office, and how he had brought it to him, told him not to watch it, and so of course Steve did, and immediately destroyed it. "I pulverized it, Danny," he admitted, and told Danny what was on it in the most general of terms. "So I went to Dr. C, because I forgot to waterproof my cast, and I needed to ask the doc how much you had been tested for diseases, and we talked about that, and he gave me a new cast, and we came to see you and you said you had a nightmare and thought Stan and raped you and I should be tested too, because Stan might have raped me too, and that just blew my mind. It had never occurred to me, and I didn't know what to do, and I hadn't seen all that phone video, so I didn't know if you were right or not, and I was thrown! So I called Duke, and asked him how far he got in the phone video, and we'd both stopped at the same place pretty much, so I didn't tell him what you suspected about Stan, and so I still didn't know. And I'm thinking I might as well get tested, since you could be right, and I'm realizing how you are feeling because we're in the same boat. And then, of all things, Lou gets this thumb drive from Stan, mailed before he died, but it got sent to the wrong place, misdelivered, and only got to Lou today. At his office. He brought it right to me, today, and hadn't looked at it, treated it like evidence, and so we hoped, we, that is, me and Dr. C, it might have the phone video on it, because then you could know, and I could know, and nobody else had to know."
"Oh. So you a-and Duke saw, but not Lou or anyone else." Danny was taking it all in, tense, but not as tense as he would usually be in these circumstances. He was daring to hope, but also knew from what had been said that Stan had raped him. But not Steve. So he had been right about that.
"Do you need water?" asked Steve, observing the tension. "Want me to break for a bit, give you time?"
Danny shook his head. "No, uh. Keep going. I'm okay." I think I'm okay. I hope I'm okay. I'm glad Steve is okay. I know he's worried, so I'll hold it together, because he's carried enough.
"Okay. Because I brought the thumb drive." He unzipped the pocket it was in and withdrew it, and held it up for Danny to see. "If you feel up to it, we can watch it together. I saw it at the crime lab after you had your PTSD flare, made sure the camera didn't see it, and this is the only copy. This is the only copy, Danny. I'm the only one who has seen it all. Do you want to see it? I'll be right here, with you, and won't let you go. We'll face this together, if you feel you are up to it. If you want me to destroy this, too, I'm good with that. If you want to be the one to bash it to atoms with a hammer, that can be arranged."
Danny took the drive in his hand, and treated it as if it was radioactive. "I'm not sure." He wanted to know, and he didn't want to know. "What would you do, Steve?"
"I don't know. Knowing what's on it, I'd wish I didn't. But not knowing, I'd wish I did."
"Can you tell me … what Stan did? I mean, I don't even know what I mean, Steve."
Steve was watching Danny closely, and he privately thought it might be better if Danny didn't see it, but knew something about what had happened. So he gave a strange laugh, and asked Danny if he'd ever seen Stan's junk.
"Of course not! It's below moldy Spam on my list of things I gotta see."
"I gotta tell ya, then, he's got the skinniest snake I ever saw."
"And how many have you seen?"
Steve harrumphed. "Navy SEAL, Danny. No privacy! So, a hundred? 89? 103? Hell, I dunno! But Stan had the skinniest. Long enough, I suppose. But some guys are bigger than that when they aren't, you know, into it."
Danny gaped at Steve, and then began to laugh.
Steve shook his head. "No, seriously! I don't know how Rachel ever felt anything!"
Danny laughed even harder, and Steve felt relieved. "Maybe she didn't," Danny wheezed, which made Steve laugh, too.
"Maybe not! And then, I kid you not, Danny, he's barely even started before Mo Morris walks in on him and he's gotta stuff all his junk back in his pants so Mo doesn't see anything, and Mo chews Stan out because he thinks Stan was just getting ready to! Neither Duke nor I saw that part because we both stopped watching, because we were too upset at the, you know, getting started part."
Danny's laughter briefly morphed into crying, but he pulled himself together, and while he wasn't relaxed, he wasn't a bowstring either. "So was that all that is on this thing?" He held up the radioactive thumb drive.
"No," replied Steve. "There's video of when Stan was fitting out the box, and putting you in it, and Angel, who hissed at him and scratched him good on his leg. There is footage of me being put into the driver's seat of your car, and Neil in the passenger side, that part is mostly me, we don't get a good look at Neil. So, no new information, just video of stuff we already knew, mostly. Oh, I almost forgot. He videoed Rachel shaving your head, with the clipper and then with the razor. That part is upsetting, too."
Danny sat soberly now, thinking. "Well, I don't need to see that. So it's not evidence that needs to be preserved. I mean, Stan is dead, and Rachel shaved my head, so it can be destroyed?"
Steve nodded.
"Can I take the hammer to it this time? When I'm released?"
Steve nodded.
"Okay. I don't need to see this thing, then." He handed the drive back to Steve, who weighed the little thing in his palm.
"You sure?"
"I'm sure. I trust you. I know you wouldn't lie."
They hugged, after Steve zipped the thumb drive back into his pocket. Danny asked, "Can we see if Dr. Cornett will let us hit it with something out on the patio, so it can't be watched again? I don't think I need these straps and stuff anymore."
.
H50 H50 H50 H50
.
Dr. Cornett released Danny's restraints, and they made their way down to the lanai. The Doctor had produced a hammer from the tool box in his car. So the three went down the hall, and made sure there was nobody else there, and they decided Danny would take the killing swing.
He went down on one knee and placed the thumb drive on the stone lanai, and raised the hammer high, and brought it down as he bent over the drive.
And the utterly unexpected happened. The hammer bounced right back up at Danny's face, smacked him right in the nose, which broke with a sharp snap, and ricocheted off and hit Steve right on his. "Ow," moaned Danny, unaware of Steve's equal plight, for his, "Oh," grunt had been virtually simultaneous. Dr. Cornett gathered up the wrecked thumb drive, shoved it in Steve's pocket, the hammer in his own belt, and yelled for a nurse, while both men experienced what he had earlier, holding their hands (or in Steve's case, hand) over their gushing noses.
"Dabbid, id broge by doze!" they swore in unison, each becoming aware through the means of peripheral vision and stereo hearing that they shared identical plights. Dr. Cornett was sighing. "Don't worry, boys, I'll fix you both up."
And he did.