Hello!

I decided to upload another story for you :)

I always thought there should be a little more input about Steve's radiation poisoning on TV and that's why I put down a storyline in a one-shot (or better a two-shot, because it's two chapters!). There isn't much of a plot other than suffering, some sickness and some softness...

The scene is set shortly after the actual episode where Steve showed first signs of the radiation poisoning: It might be a little messed up in the time frame with everything but I guess it doesn't matter for this one.

I'm not a native English speaker, so I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes! I hope it's still comfortable to read.

* little (very little) slash-warning*

For this particular story I put Steve and Danny in a relationship, just because I felt it woone be easier to transfer the emotions and heaviness behind all this stuff between Steve and his spells and also between Steve and Danny themselves. It's neither anything explicit nor is it the main point of this story! It's just for the fluff :) and for you to know if you don't like this at all :)

Hope you like it!

"You got to be kidding me.", Danny Williams mumbled out loud when he glared at the clock on the wall in his office. Somehow, he felt like it was offending him on purpose. The time didn't seem to go any faster. That might be, because Danny kept looking at it every 30 seconds, hoping, it would miraculously change the current time (showing 2:37pm) to 5pm – at least.

Danny leaned back in his chair and sighed. On the desk in front of him laid the report he was working on… well, he was trying to work on it. But if he would be honest with himself, he was only putting words together to sentences, hoping, it would make any sense in the end. Not going well so far. The last three weeks have been a lot of work for Five-O. They had busted another drug cartel, already the third one in the last six months. The Governor had been very pleased with them and especially Steve had to run from one press conference to the next, briefing the HPD and having meetings with the Governor himself and other important people Danny didn't even know they exist until now.

Steve. Danny's thoughts wandered to his boyfriend and the head of Five-O who was hopefully writing on his own report as well right now. Danny wasn't convinced he would, though. If there was something Steve didn't enjoy, it was everything about police bureaucracy. Everything that required his butt sitting on a chair for at least a few hours, doing nothing than typing words into his computer. Danny smiled. This man had his talents, for sure… but there were also some weaknesses he couldn't deny.

His smile was fading slowly when he let his thoughts wander a little further. Danny was a little worried about his lover. Barely 7 months ago, Steve had been diagnosed with radiation poisoning from a dirty bomb they had defused during a particularly hard case. Since then, Steve had been dealing with short-term effects like nausea, dizziness, exhaustion, achiness… also nose and gum bleeding. He had been seeing his doctor regularly and he was the one who had assured Steve, those short-term effects would decrease within the upcoming months, but it could take up to a year, maybe a few months more. Of course, there was no information about long term yet. Danny remembered loads of discussions he had with Steve about that, but eventually they decided to not let themselves get crazy about something they couldn't predict anyway. And Steve had been careful; he was taking his medication regularly and made his doctor's appointments every couple month for a check-up. The meds helped with those sudden spells he was dealing with; they lessened the frequency they would occur and Danny had a feeling most of them weren't too bad compared to the beginning. Still, there were some heavy cases where Steve would be out for at least a few days, at the worst case scenario for a week. Fortunately, that didn't happen for at least 4 weeks now.

A knock on his door brought Danny back to reality and as he looked up, the rookie of Five-O entered his office. Tani Rey has been on their team for only 5 months now, but Danny already loved her. She was a great addition to the team besides Lou Grover and Junior Reigns – who wasn't on the team yet officially (if you would be correct), but Steve had already taken him in, so it was just a matter of time until Junior would graduate from the police academy and earn his official position on Five-O- Until then, he was helping out … yeah, let's put it like that.

"What a ray of sunshine. What can I do for you?", Danny smirked at the female officer while he pretended to continue working on his report. Fake it till you make it, right?

Tani gave him her usual unimpressed look. She seemed to be immune against Danny's antics. "If I'm a ray of sunshine, what makes that you? A dark, rainy cloud?"

"Oh, that's funny. You should tell that one Steve, I think he would love to put that one into his inventory of How to mock my partner.", Danny retoured without any hesitation which made Tani grin even more. Yep, perfect match to the team.

"Speaking of your lover boy: he needs to sign that.", she waved a piece of paper in her hand; Danny felt himself pouting that she was obviously done with her report and he hadn't even typed a full sentence since lunch. Tani didn't seem to notice something as she went on. "I don't know if that's a thing here, but the boss is asleep on his desk. And since you lectured me on busting in on an unaware Navy-SEAL, I thought I would take the safe route and get my signature from the second boss."

Danny curled his lips and sighed. "Asleep, huh? Okay, give me that.", he motioned her to hand over that piece of paper and Tani did. He scribbled down his name in the corner before he stood. "Good work. Can you hand it over to Grover? He will handle it.", Danny gave the report back and squeezed himself through the door Tani was still standing in.

"Uh, sure. And where are you going? I though nothing came in today.", she asked and followed Danny who was making his way through to Steve's office.

"No, nothing came in yet. But I guess Steve and I will do an early homerun for today."

"Oh, okay. Is everything alright? I mean, why don't you let him sleep? I already guessed it's not a thing but honestly, the last weeks have been exhausting and I'm craving a good nap as well.", she went on, suddenly unsure if she had done something wrong by telling Danny the boss fell asleep on duty. She knew about their soft and lovely dealing with each other in their private time, but she also knew neither Steve nor Danny brought that into their work-relationship. Tani didn't say it, but she always admired that.

Danny stopped in front of Steve's office door and turned around to face Tani. He smiled tiredly. "Yeah, you're right. We all deserve a good night's sleep after those weeks and the two of you should head out early as well. It's just – ", Danny paused, sighing and rubbing his suddenly tired face. "Look, it's a long story and I… we should have told you by now but as you said, the last weeks had been busy and there wasn't any time for a talk. Steve has radiation poisoning from a dirty bomb we defused months back, you maybe heard of that one. To keep it simple, he's still suffering from short-term effects from time to time and I learned to read the signs by now.", he explained in a few words while he was waving his hand into the direction of their boss office. "Falling asleep in the middle of the day on his office desk is one of them. It's not something Steve would do normally."

Tani stared at him. "My god. Are you for real? I mean… Of course, I heard of that bomb thing, everyone had.", she paused and bit her lip. "So, is he… is he sick? Like…", she didn't dare to end her sentence.

"Sick like cancer? No, not yet at least.", Danny ended her thoughts. "There are no words on long-term effects so far but for now, it doesn't look too bad. It might stick with those short-term effects he is dealing with now, but we don't know for sure yet. But those spells he is getting are knocking him down pretty good, so I'm just being careful and intervene early. Tani, I'm truly sorry we didn't say anything to you until now, we should have. Well, Steve should have but I guess you know by now how he is."

"No, it's alright! I mean, I understand, I'm new to the team and it's not really my business."

"Hey, don't think that. Everything on the team is your business as well, that's just how this works. Ohana, you know? That's why I'm sorry when didn't say anything. I will kick his ass for that when he's better", Danny smirked which made Tani laugh.

"I don't doubt that at all.", she turned to go back to her office but paused for another second. "Hey… uh, thanks for telling me. And call, if there is anything I can do, will you?"

"I will, thanks Tani", Danny smiled, before he watched her heading back to her office. Tucking the report under his arm, he knocked and opened the door to Steve's office.

Truth to be told, his boyfriend sat at his desk, arms down on the plate with his head laying on top, looking asleep. Being honest, Danny already had suspected something was up this morning when Steve hadn't gotten up for his usual morning swim and even denied a decent cup of coffee. He had seemed tired, sluggish and a little off, but Danny had known better than to suggest staying home. Also, sometimes Steve felt bad by getting up in the morning, but it gradually got better during the day, so he was able to work without any problems. Today, that didn't seem to have worked out very well. Yes, Steve hadn't had much sleep lately with all those important meetings and case working, but it wasn't like him to fell asleep like this. This was a red flag in his full glory.

Danny made his way over to the desk and reached out with his hand. He hadn't been kidding earlier when Tani mocked him about lecturing her waking a trained Ex-SEAL. But Danny also knew, Steve wouldn't lash out in a harmless situation like this. Yes, he would be cautious every time his boyfriend was caught in a nightmare, because more than once he had been greeted with a fist or a flying elbow after trying wake up the Ex-SEAL and tore him out of the horrors he was replaying in his dreams. But this? No, Danny had known Steve for long enough now that he wouldn't be concerned at all about something like this happening.

"Hey, Steve? Babe, wake up.", Danny softly called out as he laid his hand on Steve's shoulder, shaking it slightly. "Come on, you're getting yourself a strained neck for a week with sleeping like this."

Steve's eyes started flattering and a second later he snapped out of sleep, looking confused and groggy. "Huh?", he mumbled incoherently and it was obvious he struggled to get a grip on reality. Also, the dark bugs under his eyes had grown bigger since this morning and Danny just had to get a look into his face to know his boyfriend felt like crap.

"Are you okay? You fell asleep on your desk.", Danny looked at him concerned while rubbing his shoulder unconsciously.

Steve rubbed tiredly his eyes, slowly leaning back in his chair while he seemed to consider his answer. Another thing that has changed over the time: Steve's honesty about how he was doing. Since he and Danny got together, the Ex-SEAL learned it was better to tell the truth instead of giving his partner shit about a possible injury. Since the liver translation and now the radiation poisoning thing, Steve was aware there wasn't any reason to play with his health. He wouldn't start now.

"I'm sorry, I guess I don't feel very well.", he replied eventually, still leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.

Danny had placed his hip against Steve's desk, not retrieving his hand off his partner's shoulder. "I could have guessed that by now. Another one incoming?"

By now, they didn't have to say it out loud, they just knew. In 90% of the times when Steve felt off, it had been a sign of an upcoming spell. Just two times it had turned out to be "just" a nasty cold or a plain exhaustion from overdoing it, but that had been a rare occasion. Sometimes, they could tell in advance something was going to come up and sometimes, it hit Steve out of nowhere. Fortunately, the latter one was also a rare occasion. It would restrict Steve's work abilities in a tremendous way and that was something he would have problems to deal with.

"Yeah, it might.", Steve's strained voice snapped Danny out of his thoughts. His partner sighed out loud, the chair squeaking softly with his movement. "I should head home early today and get some rest, maybe I can still prevent the full outburst."

"Well, I wasn't planning on letting you stay anyway.", Danny smirked at him and stood. "It's not really the best marketing strategy for Five-O if the leader is asleep on duty, you know?"

Steve rolled his eyes (by now that might be considered as a reflexive movement, always following on particular words coming out of Danny's mouth, who knew?) and heaved himself out of his bulky chair. "Really, marketing strategy? Only people like you fall for things like marketing strategies."

Danny patted his partner on the back as he slowly walked past him and followed him. "I'm offended."

"Tell me something new about you."

"I'm even more offended."

Steve gave him a sloppy handwave and he was already starting to head out the main door when he stopped by a thought coming to his head. "Wait, I need to… tell Grover."

"No, you don't. I'll do that, you go downstairs and sit in the car, okay? Can't have you faceplant all out of a sudden in front of these people here."

Steve's eyebrows furrowed. "That happened only once and I didn't faceplant."

"You did. Falling flat with your face on the unforgiven floor, I would call faceplant. And once is already enough, may I remind you of what we talked about 30 seconds ago? If there is any worse marketing strategy for a public service than falling asleep on duty, it is faceplanting in front of the publicity."

"We are not a public service, we are a taskforce. And publicity?", Steve picked those offending phrases out of Danny's words flying out of his mouth which made the Detective roll his eyes as well now.

"Would you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Stop talking and go sit in the car."

"Okay."

And with that, Steve turned and shuffled his way to the elevator that would bring him downstairs to the main hall of their headquarters. Danny shook his head and made a beeline for Grover's office on the right side; knocking, before he went in.

"Heard the two of you already a mile away.", Lou's deep, soft voice greeted him, as the big man leaned back in his chair and smirked at Danny. "What can I do for you, sunshine?"

"I will ignore that on purpose, just so you know.", Danny stated, before he went on. "Hey, can you do me a favor?"

"Name it, Jersey."

"Steve's, uh, not doing so well and we head home early today. Do you mind taking over for the rest of the day?"

Lou furrowed his eyebrows, suddenly looking worried. "Of course, I don't mind. Another spell?"

"Yeah, seems like that.", Danny smiled sadly. "Maybe he's better tomorrow, I can't say by now."

"Don't rush anything. Just give me a call if you need anything, okay?"

"I will, thanks Lou."

Danny headed out and made his way over to the Camaro which was still parked under a tree in the parking lot in front of the headquarters. When he came near, he saw his partner sitting in the passenger seat with his head leaned back, eyes closed and slightly tensed facial muscles. He also looked slightly paled. Danny sighed and got into the car.

"All set, let's go home."

Steve only gave him a short grunt as an answer, otherwise he didn't move. Danny decided to let him be and steered the car out of the parking lot onto the main street. The drive went silently. Steve was busy controlling the nausea that was already starting to show and Danny seemed to sense exactly that. The Ex-SEAL's head felt it was fogging up with clouds, embracing his mind swirling it around like a carousel. Steve started to feel dizzy even with his eyes closed. He hated that. He hated that feeling like when you knew you're about to have surgery and they wheel you into that room, preparing you for anesthesia and there was nothing for you to do other than waiting and enduring it. Now, Steve knew he was about to slide into one of these spells he had been getting and it was no fun. And there was nothing that he could do other than hoping it wouldn't turn out to be too bad.

The moment they arrived home and his nausea had flared up to the worst in such a short amount of time, he already knew that had been a lost thought. This was going to be bad one. One he hadn't had since months now.

He didn't even need to say something as Danny got out of the car and went to the passenger side to grab his partner. The two of them could work like a charm – well, at least if there weren't any rantings, discussions or yelling about recklessness. Take a guess from which side.

"Up you go, Babe.", Danny had already opened his door and helped Steve getting out of the door. The lingering dizziness struck him once again and for a moment, Steve thought he would do the faceplanting-thing anyway. But Danny had a strong grip on him and kept him upright, guiding him inside. They made the stairs in snail pace and Steve considered for more than one moment to just curl himself on those stairs right now, not being bothered at all. And he might have done that if there wasn't Danny who dragged him further upstairs.

"Let's get you to bed.", his partner's soft voice told him as they reached the top of the stairs, going for their bedroom. The next movement worsened the threatening feeling in his stomach and Steve felt the bile rising in his throat. He swallowed thickly, taking deep breaths through his nose.

"I… I don't think I can make it to bed.", he pressed out between clenched teeth and next thing he knew, he stood in the bathroom. Not a second to early. The nausea seemed to have reached its point of no return and Steve had barely time to drop down on his knees in front of the toilet as everything he ate this morning and yesterday came up again. His throat burned like a spreading fire and from one moment to another, he found himself being busy not to suffocate between throwing up and the coughing fits that started to shackle his trembling body. For a moment Steve was sure there wasn't any oxygen getting into his lungs and he started sucking in the air like his life was depending on it.

"Hey, hey… breathe, Babe, breathe…", a soft, familiar voice sounded right next to him and suddenly, Steve felt this particularly warm hand on his back, rubbing little circles, shifting upwards to his sweaty neck. Danny's thumb massaged the base of his neck and Steve was able to concentrate on this movement, letting himself catch his breath again. He already lost all the food he had eaten the last day and after a couple times of dry-heaving and coughing up some bile, his body seemed to surrender. Exhausted, Steve let his head sink down onto his arm which was embraced around the toilet in fear of not being able to hold himself upright. For a few seconds, Steve did nothing but breathing. He felt the wetness around his eyes due to the tremendous work his body has endured by throwing up a lung (at least that was how it had felt) and he was still trembling like a leaf in the wind. The paleness on his face had reached its highest point by now.

Danny kept rubbing his partner's neck, his sweaty hair and clammy cold skin. He waited until Steve's breathing and heartbeat calmed and it seemed safe enough to get him to move. With that, Danny got up and grabbed a wet cloth from the sink. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

He persuaded Steve to lift his head from the toilet and lean back against the cold wall while Danny splashed the mess away and knelt in front of his miserable boyfriend. Gently, he cleaned up Steve's face and cooled down his cold-sweaty skin. Steve had his eyes closed and did nothing but to surrender into Danny's care. "You think you can stand up?"

Steve nodded weakly and scrambled his body into a position where he might be able to get up to his feet. Thankfully, Danny had already grabbed him and did most of the work. Before Steve could think of anything else, he found himself sitting on the edge of their bed. He was ready to list sideways and maybe fall asleep with his feet still on the ground, but Danny intervened as he seemed to have read his mind. "Uh uh, don't even think about it. Stay.", he pointed his finger at Steve and if he had any strength left, the Ex-SEAL would have barked back. Not today, though.

Danny grabbed a clean shirt and a pair of sweats from their cabinet and started undressing Steve who neither protested nor was he being very helpful. Finally dressed, Danny pulled the sheets back and allowed his partner to lay down.

"Do you need anything? Your meds?"

Steve barely shook his head. If he would take his meds now, they would come up again in no time. He would have to wait until the nausea reduced and he was able to keep them down with some food. Urgh, food. Steve moaned and curled himself into a fetal position, not caring at all how pathetic he might look like this. He did feel pathetic, so why not giving in to it? Also, Steve had loosened his excessive pride in front of his boyfriend a long time ago; he was allowed to feel shitty and even more to show it.

Grateful, he noticed how Danny wrapped him up in his blanket and gave him a kiss on his clammy cheek. "Try and get some sleep, I'll be here.", he told him softly. Steve had his eyes closed already and not a minute later, he sensed the room getting darker and he felt the exhaustion pulling him under in no time.

Danny had barely drawn the curtains closed and turned off all the remaining lights when Steve's breathing evened out. Sighing, he pulled the sheets up a little more to his partners shoulders and watched him sleep for a moment. It wasn't the first time this happened and still, it wasn't easy for Danny to be forced to watch his boyfriend suffer like this and not being able to do anything but stay at his side. Even though Steve had always told him that was be more he would ever ask for, Danny felt it wasn't enough. And by now he kind of knew the different patterns of the radiation poisoning and this spell seemed to be a particularly bad one. He just hoped he would be wrong and Steve might be feeling better the next time he woke but Danny honestly doubted it.