A/N - As school starts today, my posting schedule may change slightly. I will still post one chapter per day, I just can't guarantee when during the day.

Chapter 9

"Thanks, Chin," Steve sighed, his eyes drifting closed as he settled into a comfortable position. "I appreciate you coming to get me."

"No worries, Brah," Chin answered from the driver's seat of the borrowed Chevy Cruze. The reassurance from the steady rise and fall of the man's chest beside him, helped Chin to relax enough that he was able to joke, "It would look bad if the head of Five-0 passed out on the side of the road walking home from the hospital."

Steve managed to open his left eye to give Chin a half-hearted glare. The morning nurse had insisted he take one of his prescription pain killers before leaving the hospital. His arm rested comfortably in a sling, but his coordination was still a little off due to the narcotic's side effects. "One morning with Danny and you're spouting his nonsense."

Chin let out a chuffed laugh. "You know, he'd say he spends too much of his time with you

"Is that why he didn't come and pick me up?"

Chin chalked up the tough military man's child-like pout to another side effect of the pain medication. Hiding his laughter behind a calm smile, Chin replied, "Nah, the haole made a quick exit when he realized there was a lot of computer work to be done at the office. He's helping Mrs. Salvator locate an important document at her tour office."

"Danny's down at the marina?" Steve managed to perk up and take a clarifying look at the neighbourhood they were passing through.

Chin was already shaking his head, "No, Steve. We are not heading to the Salvators' office. This is not going to turn into a joke about 'how many police officers does it take..."

Steve's annoyed frown slowly turned into a sly smirk, "So you're saying the Jersey boy is okay; there's paperwork - he's in his natural habitat."

A small bump in the road jarred Steve's elbow against the center console. The vibrations ran straight to his injured shoulder and brought a quiet moan to his lips. It was probably another side effect, but he could hear a voice that sounded a lot like Danny saying 'Ain't karma a bitch?'

Chin eased to a stop at a red light and turned in his seat to give Steve his full attention. His practiced eye took in Steve's pale cheeks and eyes pinched shut. "I'm sure Danny is just fine. However, your doctor was quite clear. You are to go straight home and rest."

With a deep, steadying breath, Steve managed to open his eyes and meet Chin's gaze. "What the doctor recommended was that I eat something before I got settled in."

"You're impossible," Chin rolled his eyes. The light changed and he moved with the traffic. "What your doctor actually said is that he'd like you to try to eat something before the pain pills knocked you out. You're the one who refused the hospital meal because you were in too much of a hurry to leave."

Colour was slowly returning to his passenger's cheeks and there was a spark of interest beginning to grow in the man's eye. Chin intended to put a stop to it, "You're going straight home, doctor's orders."

Steve sat up, blinking the last of the sleep from his eyes. "Of course. That's what the doctor said." He agreed with a solemn tone. "I am a little hungry now, but I'll just heat a can of soup… I'm all out of crackers, but that's okay." The face grew pensive, "I'm sure you've got a ton of work waiting for you back at the office. I don't want to keep you from getting the filing done."

Chin knew he was being manipulated, could practically see the gears turning in Steve's brain as the man plotted how to keep himself free from what he would consider house arrest. Chin sighed, "You're pathetic. You know that, right?"

Steve grinned, "But you love me anyway."

"Does that work with Danny?" Chin wondered aloud, not really expecting a reply. The growing smirk on his passenger's face was answer enough.

With a sigh of resignation Chin could only follow directions as Steve's hand pointed to a street ahead, "If you turn right up there, you can get onto Piikoi Street. Islands Fine Burgers is over that way. Danny will be mad if we didn't call him for lunch. He loves their cheese burger. We can meet him by that park by Kamekona's."

Looking more alert than previously, Steve pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his partner. The smirk from winning the battle with Chin slowly dropped away as the call continued to ring unanswered. When it finally went through to voicemail, and the mechanical voice told him to leave a message, the best Steve could do was tell his partner to call him or he would order pineapple on his burger.

~H50~

Danny really wished he could rest his head. Every time he leaned it back to rest on the top of the chair it pulled on his ribs and he started to wheeze. Resting with his chin on his chest pulled on his wrists locked behind the chair; it hadn't taken long before he could feel slow, warm trickles over the heat from where his skin had been rubbed raw from the tight cuffs.

He had already discovered that sighing out his frustrations didn't feel so good on his chest either. The best he could do was slight tilts of his head from side to side to ease the tension in his neck but it did nothing to alleviate the growing drowsiness behind his eyes.

"Detective? Danny?" he could hear Mrs. Salvator's soft voice near his left shoulder. She sounded worried. Danny didn't like it. "Danny, I need you to sit up."

He could feel his frustration grow, "I am. I'm stuck to a chair. I have no choice but to sit up." Why did his voice sound… off? Danny managed to peel his eyes open and was surprised to find Mrs. Salvator perched at his side pulling at his shoulders.

"Please, Danny. You're putting too much pressure on your leg slumped down like that. You need to sit up. I need to wrap it." The frightened look on the grandmotherly face did more to wake up Danny than all the previous pleading.

"What? I don't understand," Danny was slowly coming to realize that he had drifted off, leaving Mrs. Salvator alone with the unsettled Wayne Roesler. "Are you okay?"

His concern seemed to amuse the older woman. "You're the one bleeding, and you're worried about me?"

She sounded okay and her concern seemed to be directed at him as she helped him sit further up in his chair. Blinking until he could see the rest of the room clearly, he found Wayne watching them from his spot by the window. He wanted to believe that he was matching the boy glare for glare until a spike of pain from his leg blurred his vision and his head dropped.

"Hey, what are you doing?" That came out sounding much rougher than Danny intended.

Mrs. Salvator's hands stilled from their gentle ministrations, "Your leg is still bleeding. I need to tie this towel here, around your leg."

Danny finally noticed the folded towel pressed against his thigh and another towel torn in strips ready to be tied tight to hold everything in place.

"This will hurt."

Taking as deep a breath as his restrained limbs allowed, he couldn't help the quiet muttering that slipped out, "Of course it will."

Without any further warning, Mrs. Salvator pulled the ends of the cloth together in a knot and kept pulling until Danny could no longer hold onto the moan of pain. She quickly tied off the knot and rubbed his shoulder reassuringly.

"You happy now?" Wayne growled.

Mrs. Salvator frowned at the angry man, but then swallowed whatever comment she had at the tip of her tongue. Danny was still breathing heavily, but trying to bring it under control. The calming circles being rubbed on his shoulder helped to center his focus until finally the throbbing pain was manageable.

Storming his way over, Wayne was soon pointing Mrs. Salvator back to her seat, using the barrel of the Sig Pro as his directional arrow. "You had better be able to walk outta here," he was checking the detective over, poking at the blood encrusted pants near the newly bandaged wound.

"Leave it alone," Danny demanded before realizing what was being said. "Where we goin'?" Danny didn't think he had been out for long, but apparently it was enough time for Wayne to come up with a plan.

"You'll know soon enough."

Danny didn't like the cryptic answer but the sly smirk left him feeling even more uncomfortable.

~H50~

Chin watched as Steve slowly lowered himself into the passenger seat. Once his friend was settled Chin passed him the take-out bag with their hamburger lunch.

"You sure you're going to last?" Chin asked, his concern growing as he watched beads of sweat form along the other man's hairline. "Why don't we take this," Chin nodded towards the bag sitting at a tilt on Steve's lap, "And head back to your place?"

"What?" Steve shook himself and seemed to find his second (or more likely third or fourth) wind. Looking up to see the worry etched into the lines on Chin's face, he sighed. "It's okay, Chin. I'm fine. Really."

Knowing a lost cause when he saw one, Chin only shook his head before closing the passenger door and heading to the driver's side. Once he was buckled in, he checked one more time on his passenger. Steve's skin, while not quite the normal, healthy tan he was used to, wasn't as pale as earlier either. It was the nervous manhandling of the quiet cell phone that caused the most concern.

"Why don't you try calling him again?"

Steve raised one eyebrow as he tilted his head enough to check the face of the man beside him. Chin snorted, "This isn't a test, Steve. Call Danny and tell him we'll have lunch at your place."

Now Steve huffed a short laugh, "So it is a test. I get a chat with an annoyed man from Jersey and you get to have free reign at the office for the rest of the day."

Chin matched the smile aimed at him as he reached over to steady the phone in Steve's hand. "You passed. Now if you can survive the rant I'm sure the man saved up just for you, then you also earned yourself a warm blanket and pillow for your afternoon nap."

"Shut up," was offered without any heat behind it, as Steve punched in his partner's number.

For the second time the smile fell from his face as the call continued to ring before being answered by voicemail.

~H50~

Pulling the cop's apprehended phone from his pocket, Wayne slid the ignore button and silenced the Army theme mid stream.

"Your friend really wants to talk to you," Wayne grinned, knowing it would, at the very least, annoy the bound man. "That's too bad."

Danny sighed as he leaned back into his chair, relieving some of the stress on his arms. He really hoped that Wayne would soon learn the reasons one should never ignore calls from one Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett.

~TBC~