Jax's medic remained calm, despite the urgent beep of the cardiac monitor, and the completely unsettling flat line that it displayed.
"Okay, she's lost a pulse . . . we've got pulseless VT," he said, double checking her jugular. Steve appreciated the fact that he didn't assume that the machine was always right. The medic swiftly and decisively balled his hand into a fist and struck Jax soundly mid-sternum.
There was a pause, and then blessedly, a beep. And another.
Steve remembered to breathe.
"Sorry, that was probably a little strange looking," the medic started.
"Precordial thump," Steve said. The medic raised his eyebrows in surprise. "We don't have a lot of defibrillators in the field," Steve explained. "Good call."
"Wha' hap'ned?" Jax mumbled.
"Hey, Jax, you stopped pumping there for a minute, but I kickstarted you," the medic said.
"Thump?" Jax asked, wincing.
"Yeah, you'll have a bruise, sorry, Jax," the medic said. Jax liked Officer Gibson. They'd ridden together several times after her first partner took a civilian job. Generally, Gibson was by-the-book and extremely conservative, in contrast to Jax's more creative approach.
Jax raised her eyebrows and smirked. "Yeah? Careful, word might get out that I was a bad influence."
#*#*#*#*#
Malia met them at the ambulance bay; an entire team of doctors and nurses with her. In the flurry of activity, she put her hand gently on Steve's arm.
"Steven," she said gently, "I need you to go get checked out - don't argue, Steve, it's obvious you've taken at least one good hit today." She cupped her hand around his jaw. "By the time they check you, I'm sure the rest of your team will be here, and as usual, you can use the locker room to get cleaned up. You all can wait in the Family Waiting Room near Trauma 2 and 3; that's where we'll put Danny and Jax. I'll come get you the minute we have a handle on things. And since you're medical proxy for Danny, there's no doubt going to be paperwork for you to sign."
"Her heart stopped, Malia," Steve said, still not quite recovered from the scare. "And Danny . . . he's lost so much blood, and that wound has been open too long."
"I know, Steve, but as usual, you did everything you could in the field, and they're in good hands, okay?" Malia turned to a nurse who was waiting patiently. "Julia, please take Commander McGarrett to triage and do a vitals and concussion check. Steve, is any of this blood yours?"
"No, ma'am," he said politely. "It's all . . . " he swallowed hard. "It's all Danny's and Jax's."
#*#*#*#*#
By the time Steve was declared mildly concussed and dehydrated, with a severely bruised shoulder and strained collarbone, but otherwise sound, the rest of the team had arrived, and they quietly cleaned up and regrouped in the locker room. Grover hesitated outside the door of the family waiting room, and announced that he was going to go in search of coffee.
"He's anxious about how things played out today," Chin observed. "He did hand Jax over to someone who turned out to be with Declan. But any of us would have trusted Mahelona; I wouldn't have seen that one coming."
Steve nodded. "Under normal circumstances Grover would never leave a partner; none of us would. Nothing about today was normal. I over-emphasized getting Jax and Kono out of the building. It's on me."
"Everyone did their best," Chin said. "By the way, how hard was it to hand Jax over to Grover when we were getting out of the wing? I was a little surprised you did that; but I think it was a good move."
"It was one of the hardest things I've ever done," Steve admitted. "But I knew Danny was more seriously injured than he was letting on and wasn't sure he'd ask for help for himself. And as a team leader, I knew what Grover was feeling . . . "
"You wanted to demonstrate immediately that you trusted him," Chin finished. He nodded in satisfaction. "Your dad would be proud, Steve."
Kono came into the room, still rubbing her hair with a towel. "Anything?" she asked anxiously.
"Not yet," Steve said.
The smell of coffee wafted through the door, as Grover reappeared, setting down the tray of steaming cups. "Steve," he started, "They showed me credentials. I recognized Mahelona from the Rivera booking just six weeks ago. I don't know what to say -"
"Say that you brought creamer for Kono," Steve said, gripping Grover on the arm. "That's the only possible problem we have right now, Grover. Everything else is good."
"When we know Jax and Danny are okay, everything will be good," Grover said. "And yes, I have cream for Kono."
They each grabbed a coffee and settled as much as possible into the slightly uncomfortable chairs. Steve lasted three minutes before he began pacing the floor, but thankfully, Malia interrupted his travels before the rest of his team got dizzy.
"Okay, guys, I have an update for you," she said, entering the room and closing the door quietly behind her. "Jax has so far not had a recurrence of the arrhythmia; which is excellent news. We have to be very conservative with pain medication until we're sure her heart rate is stable, and her electrolytes are back in balance, so she's incredibly uncomfortable, but of course mostly she's worried about Danny."
"I thought Danny just needed stitches," Kono said, frowning.
"He's going to have plenty of those - in fact, I've called plastics in for both of them, and Danny's injury is going to be repaired in a surgical suite, just to take every precaution," Malia added. "The laceration is very, very deep; in fact, if it were lower on his ribcage it would have been even more serious. We're debriding carefully but there is a risk of infection." Malia caught the look of guilt that flashed across Steve's face. "From the original laceration, Steve. Danny described the blade as a very rudely fashioned shiv. Those types of weapons are a breeding ground for germs and contaminants. We'll be keeping Danny at least overnight and starting him on IV antibiotics if necessary."
"What about Jax?" Steve asked.
Malia studied him for a moment. "She should stay, but we know she's going to argue. Maybe if we suggest that Danny needs her here . . . "
"That should work," Steve said, grinning and nodding in agreement. "Are you manipulating my team, Dr. Waincroft?"
"Every chance I get," she replied without apology. "It's usually the only way to get you to stay put and heal."
#*#*#*#*#
Trauma 2 and Trauma 3 were separated by a curtain, and Jax was ignoring the intern trying to clean her arm, and instead, she was actively trying to figure out whether or not her IV pole was long enough to reach and pull it back. Or pull the damn thing down altogether. At the bottom of the curtain, she could see entirely too many sets of feet clustered around Danny's bed. There were hushed voices and murmured consultations, but she couldn't hear Danny's voice and that terrified her. She made out the words infection and surgery and her heart monitor started beeping.
"Officer Nolan," the intern said, in mild desperation, "you really have to be still. I'm still trying to clean up your arm, and all of your wiggling around is messing up your cardiac monitoring."
Jax grabbed the saline syringe out of the intern's hand, and expertly shot a focused, narrow stream of the liquid into the graze on her arm, letting gravity do the rest. She plucked a sterile gauze pad off the tray and slapped it over the now freshly bleeding wound.
"There," she said, nodding in satisfaction. "Clean. Please, tell me what's going on with Danny."
The intern shook his head and threw up his hands in exasperation. "I'll go get a report."
Jax frowned as the intern's feet left the room altogether. That wasn't helpful at all. She shifted uncomfortably on the narrow gurney as her leg throbbed in time with her still steady heartbeat. Alone, safe and sound, with nothing to distract her, the pain from the knife wound and bullet graze was impossible to ignore. The chorus of concerned voices still surrounded Danny, and yet there was no sound of his blustering and ranting. It was wrong; it was all terribly wrong.
A familiar pair of desert brown combat boots appeared underneath the curtain, just before Malia pulled it back.
"What's happening with Danny?" Jax demanded, panic lacing her voice. The cardiac monitor flashed a warning as her heart rate increased, and Steve propped a hip on the edge of her bed, combing his fingers through her tangled mass of red curls.
"Jax," Malia said, "calm down, you're tachy again. Danny is going to be okay. He was sedated to make him comfortable while the laceration was debrided. Because of the risk of infection, his stitches are going to be placed in the surgical suite."
"Oh," Jax said, sagging into the thin pillows in relief. "He's going to be okay?"
"We will have to keep him overnight and watch carefully, but yes, he should be absolutely fine," Malia said. She picked up Jax's chart and started glancing through it. "You haven't yet been given any pain relief, Jax; how are you holding up?"
Jax shrugged. "I'm okay, just, no one would tell me about Danny, and he's so quiet. It freaked me out."
"I can imagine," Steve murmured, smiling down at her.
Malia stepped on the other side of the curtain, and they could hear her quiet voice in conversation with the other doctors and nurses. In a moment, the curtain was pulled back, and an orderly pushed Danny's gurney closer to Jax.
Danny was pale, and still, and quiet. It was absolutely terrifying.
"Danny," Malia said, squeezing his shoulder gently. He frowned and struggled to open his eyes, with Steve and Jax looking on anxiously.
"Wha'is it?" he mumbled.
"We're going to take you and get you stitched up now," Malia said. "Is that okay? Steve can sign the consent form."
"'Course," Danny said. "Steve'sa good guy. Trust 'im with Jax. Trust 'im with Gracie. Crazy neanderthal."
"Okay," Malia laughed and handed Steve a clipboard, and he signed the designated line with his usual crisp, efficient script. "You feel better about things now, Jax?" Malia asked.
Jax nodded. "Thank you, Malia," she said. "I might owe your intern an apology."
"Oh, that wasn't my intern" Malia explained. "That was an intern from plastics, who's going to help stitch you up. And I would definitely apologize, since he's going to be the one wielding the lidocaine in a few minutes."
#*#*#*#*#
It was several hours before Danny and Jax were finally settled in a regular room. Malia had once again bent hospital policy, explaining to those who questioned that everyone on the floor would ultimately be happier if the team members could be contained to a small area, as opposed to having one large former Navy SEAL and one small, limping but determined former SWAT officer roaming the halls trying to keep up with each other.
"You sure you don't want to go home, get some rest? We can trade off shifts overnight," Chin offered. It was an unspoken rule of Five-O, that despite the excellent care Malia could ensure, no team member stayed alone overnight at the hospital.
Steve rubbed the back of his neck and grinned sheepishly at Chin. "Well, Jax really needs to be on a cardiac monitor, so she needs to stay, and I don't want . . . I don't think I'll get much sleep at home. Without her."
"Oh, so it's like that," Chin said, his eyes crinkling fondly at Steve. "Okay then. Well, try to get some rest. We'll say our good byes and check in with you in the morning."
#*#*#*#*#
Jax shifted for the millionth time, trying to get comfortable, and managed to jostle both her arm and leg at the same time.
"Shit," she choked out.
Steve's years in the Navy had enabled him to sleep in almost any circumstances, and he had drifted off in the recliner between Danny and Jax's bed. His eyes popped open at Jax's muttered curse. "You okay, ku'uipo?" he asked, unfolding his tall frame and carefully resting his hip on the side of her bed. He gently brushed her riot of red curls out of her face.
"I'm okay; the local has worn off," she sighed. "How's Danny doing?"
"He's resting comfortably," Steve assured her. "They have him doped to the gills."
"Good," Jax nodded. "The less he tosses and turns and the more soundly he can sleep, the better. He won't pull his stitches."
"And yet you're tossing and turning," Steve pointed out. "What can I do?"
"Tell me about Novak. The case," Jax said.
"Jax, this can wait . . . "
"Please. It will distract me," she pleaded.
He told her what he could of Novak's history and the cat and mouse game that they'd played, until he'd been pulled off to go after the Hesse brothers. It did the trick; as they retraced Novak's criminal history and the obviously well-orchestrated events of the day, almost an hour slipped by.
A quiet knock on the door announced the arrival of a nurse to check Jax and Danny's vitals, and she had a welcome order of meds for Jax.
"Your heart rate has remained stable for long enough that we can safely administer some narcotics. This is the pain relief protocol that's in your chart, Officer Nolan," she said, "we're just giving it to you in your IV instead of tablet form, so it will work even faster. And I'm going to unhook you from all of the cardiac equipment." The nurse quietly and efficiently administered Jax's medication, unhooked and stored the equipment, and checked and recorded Danny's information as well.
Steve raised his eyebrows at her after the nurse left. "No arguing? No insisting you're fine?" he teased.
Jax groaned. "No. Not this time. Okay, back to today - we got out of the building before it blew. Do you think Novak did, too?"
"It's certainly possible," Steve agreed. "The Halawa Correctional Response Team and HPD forensics will be working around the clock until we have an accurate head count."
"If they don't find Novak's body, who will be on the case?" Jax asked, starting to blink slowly as the pain killers made their way through her system.
"That's a good question," Steve said. "It depends on which aspect of this situation takes priority."
"But you think Five-O will be involved, don't you," Jax guessed.
"If he's on the island, my guess is that Five-O will coordinate, yeah," Steve said. "Let's talk about that tomorrow, though, Jax. You need to rest."
Jax yawned and closed her eyes. "Okay," she said agreeably. "I'm really tired. Today sucked."
She was quiet for a moment, and then her eyes popped wide open.
"Steve," she said urgently. "That asshole Mahelona took my SIG. I think Grover got it back, though. Will you ask him?"
"Yep," Steve said, perching back on the edge of her bed again. He knew from experience that the good painkillers prompted random and often amusing ramblings from Jax, and he really wanted her to stop fighting it and rest. He ran his fingers through her hair, rubbing the back of her neck in an effort to get her to relax. "I'll ask him tomorrow. It's the middle of the night. Danny's sleeping; you should sleep."
"Okay," she whispered. "I don't want to wake Danny up."
Steve chuckled and settled back into the recliner. There were several minutes of quiet, and he thought she'd drifted off, until he heard a quiet whimper.
"Ku'uipo, what is it?" he whispered.
"I'm cold, and I can't get comfortable, and you're all the way over there," she said, in the tone that he recognized, with amusement, as highly medicated and completely unfiltered.
"I can fix that," he said, as he picked her up carefully out of the bed. He moved her IV pole next to the recliner as he sat back down, cradling her against him. "Better?" he murmured into her hair.
She nestled her head into the crook of his neck, inhaling the familiar smell of salt water that seemed to always linger on his skin. "Much better," she mumbled. She sighed contentedly and finally drifted off to sleep.
#*#*#*#*#
"It's like deja vu all over again. I remember this scene from that undercover op Jax did the first week she was on the island."
Steve looked over at Danny, who was awake and studying them fondly.
"Danno," Steve said, grinning at Danny over the unruly mass of Jax's curls tucked under his chin. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I've been carved up with a shiv," Danny said honestly. "How's Jax?"
"Her heart rate stayed stable, so they were able to finally give her something for the pain," Steve said. "You both had another dose about an hour ago."
"Danno?" Jax mumbled, opening her eyes slightly and peering at Danny. "Hey," she said brightly. "Wow, you look like shit."
"Hey, rookie," Danny said, grinning at Steve. He recognized that medicated, unfiltered quality to her voice as well. "You don't look so great yourself. You okay?"
"'M'fine, Danny," Jax said, absently waving her hand in dismissal. "I don't have a concussion or anything. My heart is normal again. I just have some stitches; no biggie." She pondered for a moment. "You're not going to make any rules, are you? You know, like before. You made a rule - no . . . you know . . . - until I didn't have stitches."
Danny rolled his eyes. "No, babe, no rules."
"Good," Jax nodded emphatically. "Because at this point, it's un . . . unnecessary. One or the other of us has stitches or something half the time. We've learned to navigate around it. Creative. Steve is really, really -"
Jax was cut off by Steve placing his hand over her mouth.
"Okay, honey, I think Danny gets the picture," Steve whispered, as Danny groaned. "Stop it," Steve ordered firmly, as Jax nibbled delicately on his hand, "I'm putting you back in your bed now, okay?"
Jax sighed. "I miss our bed."
Danny groaned again. "Call the nurse. I want to demand a private room."
#*#*#*#*#
"What have we got, Chin?" Steve asked, striding into the main room of Five-O headquarters. The rest of his team was huddled around the computer console, and files were up on the plasmas.
"We've got a manhunt," Kono said. Chin frowned at her. She was entirely too excited about the situation.
"But before we explain - how are Jax and Danny?" Chin asked.
"Both due to be released this evening, if all goes well," Steve said. "Danny is still on IV antibiotics because of the risk of infection. Jax is doing great - her heart rate stayed steady and they were able to start giving her IV pain relief. She's not fighting for discharge, thankfully, because she can stay and entertain Danny. For once, she'll get the rest she needs."
"Whatever we can do to help, Steve, you count on us," Grover offered. "Renee, too. She said we'd be happy to have Danny at our house while he recuperates; or Jax, for that matter."
"Thanks, guys, I'll keep it in mind. Now, who are we hunting?" Steve asked, nodding at the plasma screens.
"We have four bodies unaccounted for," Chin said. "Two prisoners, and Declan Novak."
"That's three; who's the fourth?" Steve asked.
"Remember Officer Mahelona?" Grover said, his voice uncharacteristically angry.
"Yeah, of course," Steve said. "He tazed Jax and you both shot him."
"Indeed we did," Grover said. "Jax caught him just below the knee as he carried her upside down; and I caught him center mass. Somehow, he not only survived the two gunshots, but apparently escaped."
"We have four very dangerous criminals loose on the island," Kono said, and although her eyes were sparking with adrenaline, she was obviously well aware of the seriousness of the situation. "An international arms dealer, a prison guard, and two maximum security prisoners."
"What agency are we working with?" Steve asked. "Homeland? FBI? Naval Intelligence?"
"U.S. Marshals Service," Chin said. "They're sending an agent in this afternoon to join us."