Chapter 12
They had picked up Catherine for a checkup and Steve used the time to buy a coffee and some malasadas in the cafeteria downstairs. For hospital pastries, the malasadas weren't bad at all. Steve had made himself comfortable in the entrance area, sitting by one of the large windows and looking out.
His thoughts were with Abby, Danny and Chin. I wonder if they had caught the guy. He would have loved to have been there. That thought got him thinking again.
What was the next step? Yes, it had been nice to be on the road and not chasing after crooks for once. But he missed his home, his ohana, and to some extent his work at Five-0. He put the coffee cup to his lips again, but it was already empty. He briefly considered getting another coffee, but decided against it.
He returned the empty cup to the cafeteria, took the bag of malasadas for Catherine, and walked back to the ward at a leisurely pace. Once there, Catherine was also just pushed back to her room.
The ringing of a cell phone rang out to him from the room. Apparently, pissed off as he was, he had forgotten to plug it back in. When he picked it up, he saw that he had at least ten calls in Danny's absence. As he answered, his eyes fell out the window to the hospital parking lot, where at that moment an LAPD vehicle pulled up and two people ran into the hospital.
"Yeah, Danny? You got him?"
"Damn it Steve, where are you and why aren't you answering your phone?"
Offended, Steve grumbled back, "Where am I supposed to be? I'm with Catherine, you told me to ..."
Hectically Danny interrupted him:
"Grab Catherine and then get the hell out of there, Theo wants ..."
The rest of the sentence was lost in a huge explosion.
Danny turned pale. "No," he whispered.
Through the window, he heard the sirens go off. Without another word, Abby, Chin, and Danny ran to their vehicles and headed for the hospital with blue lights and sirens blaring.
It was a terrible sight. A large part of the building had collapsed and a stream of injured people came out of the part that was still standing. Bleeding, some of them disoriented, they ran into the parking lot. The alarmed rescue forces had their hands full to care for the people. Searching, Danny hurried through the victims, but he could not discover Catherine and Steve anywhere. Abby and Chin were in a similar situation. They met again at the entrance. Danny looked hopefully at his friends, but they both shook their heads.
When Danny tried to enter the hospital, Chin held him back.
"Danny, where are you going?" "I need to find Catherine and Steve."
Chin glanced at the building and then shook his head.
"Danny Catherine's room was in the collapsed part, I'm afraid ..."
Now it was Danny's turn to shake his head.
"I'm sure they're around here somewhere." Chin looked at Danny's determined face and then nodded.
"Okay, we'll go find her." Abby put a hand on Chin's arm.
"Please be careful." Chin pressed a kiss to his girlfriend's forehead and then entered the foyer with Danny. Injured people were still streaming toward them, with or without rescue workers. But everywhere they looked, Catherine and Steve could not spot them. As they continued to try to find their friends, they brought out injured people who were no longer walking well or even unconscious. All of a sudden, the power ended. Rescue workers were already beginning to retrieve the dead.
Danny stood in despair among the rubble. He had hoped that Catherine and Steve might not have been in Catherine's room at the time of the explosion. Danny stroked his face. He had to face the truth that his friends hadn't made it this time.
Danny was in a trance. He didn't even notice that tears were streaming down his face and Chin had put his arm around his shoulders to take him outside.
