Disclaimer: Do not own Hawaii Five-0. No copyright infringement intended.
Authors Note: Enjoy!
Chapter 7
"Danno."
She'd spoken his partner's name on a sigh as she stood, her legs unsteady.
"Come here, Monkey."
Danny's voice, soft and ragged, seemed to pull at her, so Steve placed his hands at her waist to guide her up onto the bed. He tucked her in beside her Dad, keeping lines untangled and his partner relatively free from the jolts of gangly arms and legs. Steve caught her smile when Danny's gentle squeeze deepened, his hold on her tightening. He heard Grace sigh again as she draped her arm across his partner's torso, her eyelids closing, the soft rise and fall of her father's chest likely lulling her, finally, to sleep.
Steve thought that Danny's presence seemed to secure a haven of sorts, like a boulder, deeply anchored, providing his niece shelter from emotional currents.
"You okay?" Steve straightened, his fingers gently combing through Grace's hair before pulling away to focus on Danny. But he was disturbed, and his frown deepened when his partner's body began to shake.
"Hey, she's okay. She just really needed to see you." Steve pressed his hips alongside the edge of the bed to lean closer, ready to soothe him. Because his friend's eyes, his one true tell, had taken on the look of the haunted.
"Is she? Is she … okay? Cause that's not … not what it sounded like to me." Danny's voice cracked. "I did that to her, Steven. I …"
"Alright, cut it out. What happened was an accident. This isn't your fault or Gracie's." Steve's rising scowl dug trenches across his forehead. His partner's muscles had gone rigid, tight and as hard as stone. And then the realization hit Steve. Danny wasn't looking at him, his gaze was focused on Grace. On the arm that was draped across his chest, his fingers trembling as they traced across the surface of her forearm.
"Shit, Danny don't."
His partner shouldn't have noticed the bruising yet. He wasn't supposed to even be awake.
"Damn you, man, for being an overachiever."
"I don't remember …" Danny glanced up at him, the sound of his whisper, raw and pleading. "Did I ... I did that?"
Danny didn't give him the chance to answer. His friend's breathing hitched, but then a deep seated groan ripped out from between his lips. A wounded sound that Steve had never heard before. One that wrapped around nerve endings.
"No. No, no, no. Christ, Danny, listen to me. Damn it, listen …"
Steve woke Grace with a frightened start. Without warning, he plucked her from her Dad's embrace, knowing this was a wicked déjà vu where decisions had been made for her and against her wishes. She stumbled backwards after he dumped her onto wobbly legs, her back colliding into Kono's chest as the woman's arms encircled her. The timing of the arrival of his teammates was impeccable.
"It's just me, Keiki."
Kono pulled Grace into the furthest corner of the room while Chin scrambled to the side of the bed, opposite Steve. A portion of Steve's torso and the full length of his arm lay across Danny's chest, pinning him to the mattress.
"Careful of his leg," Steve warned.
"Got it. Call button?"
He nodded, his hands full of a struggling detective.
"Stop it, Danny. Just listen." Steve's full attention returned to his friend. "You didn't cause those bruises on Gracie's arms. Those aren't your fault." Steve was grinding the words out, aware that his partner's body was beginning to sag.
"Danny, you're frightening Grace. Calm down and listen to what I'm telling you."
Steve heard Grace's gasp behind him and then her yell.
"He didn't do this! Uncle Steve, Danno didn't give me these bruises!"
"We know, Keiki. We know." Kono's voice barely made it over the struggle within the room. "Just give Uncle Steve a minute to calm your makuakane."
Steve's time had run out, though. A swarm of bodies descended upon the room, as if alarm pheromones had been implanted underneath his friend's skin, inciting a mass frenzy.
Danny's physician and two nurses displaced Chin with cool proficiency, their delivery of medical information and orders well practiced. They'd left Steve in place, his repetitive drone floating like a tattered leaf in the wind. Within seconds, the excitement was over and the room fell into quiet utterances.
Residual adrenaline still coursed through Steve's system causing his own hands to shake. The fingers of his left hand were still clenched within his partner's hospital gown. He just wasn't willing to remove his connection yet.
"Was a sedative necessary?" Steve ground out. He knew that knocking Danny out only meant that another meltdown was perched, precariously, on the horizon.
"Steve …" Chin's warning was cut off quickly.
"Sorry. Just … okay, I'm sorry. Is he alright?" Steve's hand coursed roughly through his hair.
"He should be. Care to tell me what happened in here?" Danny's plastic surgeon hadn't even flinched at the challenge.
"A … misunderstanding."
Chin chuffed. Steve turned his head to glare at him, but the man just rolled his eyes in return. He knew it didn't matter that Chin hadn't been present for what had initially set Danny off. The Hawaiian was a good detective, so his best bet was likely a damn good one.
"I assume the … misunderstanding, won't be occurring again? He needs his rest commander."
"Yeah, well, he'll get rest. And no, it won't happen again. We'll make sure of it." Danny's misunderstanding of the bruises had left Steve full of rage. Not at Danny, but at Kekoa. The young officer might be safely hidden within the eye of the hurricane … for now … but he'd be dragging the man's ass out into the eyewall as soon as he could get his hands on him.
"Detective Williams should sleep for several more hours now. I'd like to check his dressing, so I'll ask that Grace step out while we manage that portion of his care. She can come back in when the nurses are through. I'm assuming you'll be staying." The question was rhetorical, his response wasn't necessary.
"Steve …" The intonation of Kono's voice got his immediate attention. He'd forgotten about Grace until the physician's comment.
"Hey, come here." Without letting go of his partner, Steve beckoned to his niece. When she'd gotten within reach, he engulfed her within his arm, his torso hiding her from view to everyone with the exception of her father. "He's fine, Gracie. We just have to convince him … and you … that none of this was anyone's fault. What happened was an accident, that's all."
"Uncle Steve, Danno knows he'd never hurt me, right?"
"Yeah, he knows that, Gracie. He's just having a hard time remembering. And there are certain things that he won't recall because he wasn't conscious when they happened."
"Like when I fought Officer Kekoa when he tried to keep me from Danno?"
"Yep, like then."
"Do you think Danno will be mad at me for fighting with Officer Kekoa?"
"Hey, look at me. Your Dad won't be mad at you for anything that happened today. Nothing that you did caused Danno to get hurt. I know you think that when you moved, you somehow caused the saw to kickback. But Grace, you have to believe me when I say that what happened was an accident. Whether you moved or not, whether your Dad took his eye off the saw or not. Kickbacks happen. No one's to blame here. Not you and not Danno. Okay?"
Grace looked up to stare at him, like she was gauging the level of his sincerity. She finally nodded.
"Okay. But then you and Danno can't be mad at Officer Kekoa either."
"Grace …"
The depth of anger in his tone didn't seem to faze her.
"No, Uncle Steve. You can't be. I, uhm … I think …"
His niece's intensity seemed to crank up another level, the pride and worry that he read warring with each other behind the honesty of her gaze.
"I think Officer Kekoa has some bruises too. I might have … well, I'm pretty sure I caught him with my elbow and uhm … yeah, I kind of kicked him ..."
H50
Lou's towering figure circled Officer Kekoa, causing a notable shiver to run up the length of the rookie's spine. He smiled at the response. As the newest member of Five-0, he kind of likened himself to a silver backed gorilla. Dangerous opponents when they're in a fighting mood, but when conflict erupts, a Silverback mediates between fighting family members through their display behavior and threat patterns. Kekoa better be hoping that his display wouldn't escalate into a fight to the death, because there was no question in Lou's mind who the winner would be.
"Why are you limping?" Grover smirked as he passed once again behind the man, already suspecting the answer from the evidence before him.
"Sir?"
Lou threw up his hands, the forcefulness of the gesture creating an air current strong enough to cause the young officer to flinch.
"Let's not start that again or I'll be recommending you get another physical. The emphasis on an audiological evaluation rather than just getting your head examined." Lou about turned into the man's personal space after circling to the front, his nose mere inches from the young rookies. "So let's try this again. I asked you why you're favoring your right leg. I'd like an answer." Lou paused …
"Times up …"
"NOW!"
"It … hurts?"
Grover cocked his head to the side.
"Jesus, Kekoa, how did you ever make it through the Academy?" Leaning back slightly to create space, Lou held up his hand, causing the officer's mouth to close with a snap. "That was a rhetorical question you idiot. My initial question was not." Another pause as he pursed his lips impatiently.
"Okay, breathe. You're not here to kill the kid."
"So yes, I'm aware that your leg hurts. I've been in the police force for twenty-one years, long enough to figure out some life lessons. So take note … limp …" Lou wiggled the fingers of his raised right hand, "… owie ..." then lifted his left, fingers waggling. "The two are usually combined." He brought both hands together, his loud clap ripping through the air.
Kekoa slammed his eyes closed, a grunt unconsciously escaping through his pressed lips. When the kid opened them, he yelped in surprise, Lou now nose to nose with him again. This time though, Grover's voice was bare above a whisper.
"Lift your pant leg."
"S …"
Grover's eyes narrowed into slits.
Kekoa cleared his throat several times before he could manage the appropriate response.
"Yes, Sir."
Lou held his ground, forcing the inexperienced officer to step back before he could lift up his pant leg and stand back up. Bruises, the size of fifty cent pieces, littered the length of the man's shin.
Grover wolf whistled. He cocked an eyebrow before he bent over, placing both hands on his knees as if to get a better look.
"That seems to hurt." His finger jabbed towards the officer's shin as he stood back up.
"Yes, Sir. It does."
Grover took one intentional stride back into the rookie's personal space, his breath ghosting over the officer's face.
"Good. Hope it hurts for a while so you learn something from it."
Silence, the span of hammering heartbeats with the intensity of a point well made. Until Lou smirked.
"Now go report to Sergeant Lukela. He has a new assignment for you. Something that'll keep you out of Five-0's way for a while. Think of it as a move designed to keep you intact, rather than making our medical examiner pick up whatever pieces are left of you with his tweezers."
Kekoa closed his eyes with a groan. He kept them tightly lidded when Lou slid in even closer, his voice whispering into the young man's ear.
"Oh, and nice shiner, Kekoa. Can't wait for you to explain that one around the water cooler. Best just to be honest about it, if you get my drift."
Lou chuckled as he walked away.
"Good girl, Gracie"
~to be continued~