Note: Thanks for all the support and reviews. Time for some action now I think.

Chapter Nine

Steve was becoming restless. He felt frustrated watching Danny in so much pain. While his heart rate and blood pressure had remained stable, he was beginning to find it harder to breathe. Dr. Pearce had been back to review him and repeated a chest X-Ray which had shown the contusion had grown, as she feared. But fortunately it wasn't too bad, and she had only increased his oxygen vowing to return later to review him again.

Danny shifted a little in bed, and seeing Steve wound up so tight, he pulled down the oxygen mask so he could be heard better, "why don't you go home?.. I'm ok."

"What? No, I'm staying the night. I'm fine."

"You could go help Kono with Grace." Danny could feel Steve's tension, and he felt guilty that he was the cause of it.

"Kono has Grace covered. I'm staying at the hospital." Steve folded his arms across his chest almost daring Danny to say otherwise.

"Ok. Fine, but why don't you go stretch your legs for a bit." Danny took a few deep breaths through the oxygen mask then lowered it again, "you could go see how Pua is doing. I know it's getting late, but I'm sure he would appreciate a visit."

Steve seemed to think it over for a second then agreed. "Ok, I'll run up and check in with him. You put the oxygen back on though, and don't misbehave while I'm gone."

"I promise." Danny retuned the mask to its correct position and sighed with relief as Steve finally left the room. Hopefully the quick stretch of his legs, and change of environment, would relax his partner a little. Feeling the ache in his chest increase Danny hit the button on the pain pump and immediately started to feel its effects.

5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0

Roberto Abello slipped into the hospital unnoticed. A well timed bump into a doctor relieved the man of his security card and gained him access into the staff changing room. Rifling through the shelves he found a set of scrubs, and quickly changed into them. A scrub cap and white lab coat completed his look. Hiding his gun under the lab coat he exited the changing room, and keeping his head down he looked for signs to point him in the direction of the Critical Care Unit.

Exiting the elevator he headed straight forward towards the doors to the unit. Using the security pass once more he smiled to himself as the doors gave a click and were released from their magnetic hold. Opening the doors he had to quickly side step as a tall, dark haired, muscular, tattooed man hurried past him, bumping his shoulder and almost revealing the gun.

"Sorry doc." The dark haired man apologised.

Roberto's eyes were drawn to the gold badge on the man's waist, and his heart raced. He wanted to pull the gun right there and then, but his brain took charge and told him he would have a better chance of escape going after the weaker member of 5-0. "No problem." He replied relieved that the man obviously didn't know who he was.

As the dark haired man made his way towards the stairs he continued on to the nursing station. Suddenly realising he didn't know what room the detective was in, he looked around and was relieved to see a white board with names written against room numbers. Skimming down the names his eyes stopped on the name he desired, and he cautiously made his way to the correct room.

Once inside he shut the door behind himself and stared at the man in the bed. Excitement flailed inside him, this was it, he was about to get his revenge for his brother's death. The blonde detective must have sensed his presence because he opened his eyes and looked at him.

"Did Dr. Pearce finally go home?"

Roberto pulled his gun out from the lab coat and pointed it straight at the man in the bed, who instantly pulled off his oxygen mask and looked him in the eye. "What the hell?"

"Was it you? Did you do it?" His hand was shaking with adrenaline now.

"What? What do you mean?" Danny asked confused.

The door to the room suddenly burst open and Dr. Pearce ran in and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the man holding a gun on her friend. She had been returning to check in on Danny when she was alerted to a spike in his heart rate on the monitor at the nurse's station. All the nurses were busy attending to another patient, so she had rushed to check on her patient alone.

"Get in and shut the door." The gun had swung to point right at Dr. Pearce, and she immediately did as ordered.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Detective Williams is very sick."

"I'll be putting him out of his misery then." The gun swung back in Danny's direction. "Did you kill him? My brother, was it you?"

"Who the hell are you?" Danny asked, grateful that the gun was no longer pointed at his friend. He didn't want Andrea caught up in whatever this mess was. What a great time for him to send Steve away.

"I'm Roberto Abello."

"Oh." Danny replied now understanding why the man was so pissed at him. "Look, let the doctor go. She has nothing to do with this."

"So she can go for help. No, I don't think so. She can watch as I put a bullet in your head. Then she will be my perfect hostage to get out of here. Maybe I can even trade her for my brother's freedom."

"I thought we killed your brother." Danny spat, knowing it would anger the man but not caring. He really wished the team had brought him up to speed, too. His head was spinning with all this new information.

"You killed Carlos. I want my brother Eduardo. Your team killed my brother. I'm going to make them pay. They will know what it feels like to lose a loved one when I blow you away." Roberto was sweating heavily now, his hand shaking so much Danny thought the gun might fire any second.

"I won't go with you." Dr. Pearce's voice showed that she was scared but she was determined to stay strong. "Kill him and there is no way I will go with you, but if you leave now I will go with you as a hostage. You can trade me for your brother."

"Andrea, no," There was no way Danny could let her leave with this crazed man.

"No. He has to die. I want them to suffer like I'm suffering. To feel the pain, what are you doing?" Roberto screamed as he saw Dr. Pearce's hand reach for the nurse control in an attempt to signal for help.

Danny was fuelled by adrenaline now, and with the painkiller in his system he seized his moment. Roberto was losing control, the gun flicking between himself and Dr. Pearce in a rage. Danny saw the moment when Roberto decided he was going out shooting, and his finger started to pull the trigger, the gun still pointed at the doctor. He leapt out of bed, ripping both IV's out of his arm, and wires off his chest, instantly causing the monitors to scream. Danny lunged at the gun hand and pushed it up as a shot rang out across the room. His momentum kept them going, and Danny knocked Roberto off his feet and they both fell to the floor. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his good friend Dr. Andrea Pearce drop to the floor, but he had no time to see how badly injured she was, or even if she was still alive as he was locked in a battle with Roberto for the gun, desperately hoping that Steve hadn't gone too far away.

TBC

more Tom, have a good day.