"We both know that you can be quite …umm … vocal when you don't agree with something. It's one of the things I love about you, Danny, but it leaves me wondering, when you felt that you were being sidelined by your ohana, why didn't you speak out and say something?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Beth instantly regretted the light tease as she saw the look of deep hurt and disappointment flitter across Danny's exhausted face before he turned away from her to stare at Charlie's matchbox car. "Danny?" she said softly as she reached for him.
Danny swallowed hard and shook his head in a silent plea he wasn't willing to finish the conversation with her just yet with either Grace or Charlie in the room. Weakly clearing his throat, he softly asked Grace to take Charlie down to the cafeteria.
Sensing whatever Danny wanted to say to Beth, he did not want either Charlie or herself to hear, Grace nodded as she lifted her little brother off the bed and told him that she was taking him to the cafeteria to get a drink and something to eat.
Beth watched them leave the room, aware that Steve was still sitting in the wheelchair listening in as she turned back to Danny who had picked up Charlie's toy car. "Danny, what happened?"
"I'll tell you what happened," Steve answered as he grabbed the wheels of his wheelchair and wheeled himself back into the shared ICU room, "Danny tried, but we didn't listen. We were supposed to be ohana but when Danny really needed us, we weren't there. I guess it's because, we have always thought that Danny was the strongest one of us, that we never saw or even wanted to see that he was struggling … or…we just didn't want to see." Steve swallowed and shrugged as he looked at Beth. "So then when Danny needed us the most, we dismissed his complaints as just him ranting and didn't listen, instead we all made silly jokes and pushed him away. We found excuses to turn a blind eye that Danny was struggling and starting to go under under with the weight of everything that was happening to him , not because we didn't care, but because the idea that Danny was struggling scared us." Looking across at Danny, he added softly, "I know everyone thinks I'm the strong one, the crazy SEAL who doesn't think twice about taking insane risks, but it's Danny who really is the strong one out of the two of us. Hell, despite the fact that I had screwed up and wasn't there when he needed me the most, he was there for me when I needed him and without even thinking about it, he gave me half of his liver and saved my life. And what did I do? Instead of saying thank you, I told him that Charlie would grow up and hate him as much as I did." Swallowing hard as the full realization of just how bad he had allowed things to get not only between Danny and himself but also Danny and the rest of the team fully dawned on him, he looked back at Beth as he continued guiltily, "I made a stupid joke about how much I hated him when Danny tried to tell me just how unappreciative and ungrateful that I was being, just like we have been doing for the last few months when he has tried to tell us anything. We got so caught up with teasing-"
"We dismissed or made stupid jokes about everything he said, even when he was giving us good advice or theories when we were working on cases."
Steve and Beth turned to look at Kono as she walked slowly into the room and across to the side of Danny's bed. She waited a heartbeat before Danny reluctantly looked up at her, his eyes bright with unshed tears, as she swallowed hard, trying to force down the lump in her throat and to blink away her own hot tears that were threatening to fall, "We really screwed up, Danny and I'm so sorry. I-I never meant to hurt you. But I did! You have always been there for me, ready to help or just listen but when you needed me the most." She bit her bottom lip and quickly brushed away the tears that began to trickle down the side of her face as she reached for Danny's hand and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Danny, I-I really screwed up."
"We all screwed up, Danny," Chin said softly from the doorway, "And we hurt you by our actions, more than I guess any of us will ever really know. We're supposed to be ohana, and ohana means that no one ever gets left behind but we left you behind and for that I am truly sorry. We can't change what we did, Bruddah, and we don't expect you just to forget and forgive us but all I can do is promise that we will try hard to make sure that it never happens again, if you will give us another chance … Please." Walking into the room, he stood behind Steve's wheelchair as he pleaded softly, "Please, Danny, don't give up on us yet, just give us another chance…"