Hey there!

So, today is the birthday of the amazing Lynn_Minoha, and since she's the one who encouraged me enough to give a try to the whole writing thing, I wanted to dedicate something to her, this way each time I post something here, she will remember it's been written because she thought I could do it. ^^

I hope you enjoy it, congratulations babe! :)

This one is pretty short, but I wanted to have it ready for today. I hope I'll come up with something else soon.

Danny stopped at the red light and sighed. Again.

The week had been long, too long for his liking. They had spent the last few days chasing a group of criminals around the island, never knowing when they would strike next because they had no concrete purpose, no defined targets, no pattern. They just seemed to raze whatever store or establishment they encountered on their path, stealing anything of value and injuring people in the process. They even killed a guard without hesitation when he tried to stop them from stealing and beating the customers of a hotel's cafeteria.

That's how it became a Five-O case. It was generating panic and a feeling of insecurity among both locals and tourists, and the governor wanted it to end as soon as possible. They worked along with HPD and managed to capture one of them after a sloppy job, but discovering they were barely kids didn't help. If anything it just made them more on edge to think that these 'kids' could be so savage, and apparently without any reason, just for the 'high' they got from it.

They finally caught them in the act using the little intel achieved with the arrest and after a brief cross fire only two of them avoided arrest, even if Steve had caught one of them in the leg with a bullet.

So, all in all, it was a rough week and the case was taking a toll in his partner too, if the fact that he almost absently walked to the passenger seat of the Camaro was any indication. Oh, and there was also the fact that he had just talked to him without getting any reaction, Steve just continued to stare through the window, lost in his own world. Yeah, time to forget about the case and the hellish week.

"Hey, Earth to Steve. Are you with me buddy?" This time Danny added a light pat in his friend's arm for good measure, snapping Steve out of his self-absorption.

"Sorry Danny, I was…thinking."

"Yeah, I could hear you thinking from here, babe. I think we need to unwind a little and forget these past few days, so what about we make a quick stop to grab some beer and go to your place? We could relax and watch the sunset from the lanai. Sounds good?"

"Wow Danno, I knew it would come the day when you'd love this island. Took you long enough, by the way."

"Love? I never said such a thing, Steven."

Steve was grinning at him now, something he hadn't seen in a while now.

"Yeah, whatever you say, buddy."

Danny spotted a small supermarket and pulled over in front of it, getting off the car.

"Okay, I'm gonna grab us some provisions. I'll be back."

"Hey, I thought you didn't like that phrase!"

"Oh, I like it when I'm the one saying it, which means there won't be grenades involved, just me coming back like a normal person." With that, he left a smiling Steve in the car and entered the supermarket.

It was empty, but it was late so it wasn't strange. But when he was picking up the beers, an odd sound caught his attention. It was like a muffled gasp, so instinct kicked in and Danny immediately drew his gun and started to quietly walk in the direction of the sound. Half covered by a shelf, he managed to see where the gasp came from. Dammit. It was one of the fugitives from earlier, the injured one as he could see, and he had the shopman in a chokehold with a gun pressed to his back. That meant the other one had to be here too and that he needed to do something fast.

Caught up in his own concentration, planning the best course of action while keeping and eye on the two men, it took him completely by surprise when he heard his partner's voice breaking the tense silence.

"Hey Danny, I remembered I wanted to…"

Danny didn't let him finish, everything happening too fast but feeling like it was in slow motion altogether.

"Steve, get down! Now!"

Steve reacted quickly and tried to get behind one of the shelves, but a shot rang through the air and Danny watched with horror as Steve fell to the floor.

Without thinking twice, Danny got out of his hideout enough to discover the second thug ready to shot at Steve again, but he shot him twice, square in the chest, before he could do it.

That's when he felt a searing pain in his left side. Looking down, he watched a growing red spot on his shirt and started falling to his knees, managing to focus enough through the pain to see Steve getting up just enough to shoot somewhere behind him and hear the strangled yell of the now dead man before Steve was rushing to his side, holding his injured left arm to his side.

Steve crouched and helped him to lie down as soon as he reached him, calling for help at the same time with his free hand.

"Danny! Breathe please, c'mon I've got you. Help is on the way, you're gonna be okay, you hear me?"

Danny just tried to control and slow down his breathing, barely aware of Steve taking off his outer shirt before gently but firmly pressing with it in his wound. He couldn't repress the yelp of pure and agonizing pain the pressure brought up, looking at Steve and discovering the concern written all over his partner's face.

"I'm sorry! Sorry Danny, I know it hurts but I need to slow the bleeding as much as possible. Hey partner, stay with me okay? Keep breathing, that's it."

Danny wanted to tell him that it was okay, wanted to tell him lots of things in case this was his last chance, but he couldn't get his voice to form words, shallow moans escaping his throat each time he tried.

All he could think about was Grace, how he wanted to hug his adorable daughter right now, and the irony of the situation. Because for all the times he told Steve he would kill him one day and all the extremely dangerous situations they've been through, here he was, bleeding to death in a supermarket with no one to blame but two damn teenagers in a rampage. Even if he suspected that Steve already knew it, he wanted his best friend to know that he never meant it, that all he had ever done was having his back and that he couldn't have asked for a better backup in all those dangerous cases.

"Danny please! Don't close your eyes! C'mon babe, stay with me, I need you to stay with me a little longer! Danny!"

He wanted to do it, really, but his eyelids wouldn't obey him anymore and all he could manage was to lightly squeeze the hand that was firmly holding his own, hoping the gesture would transmit to his friend what he wanted. He doubted it, but the darkness was insistently pulling on his consciousness and Danny couldn't fight it anymore, so with a last barely noticeable squeeze he let go, hearing Steve's voice sounding further and further away as the darkness surrounded him completely.

Fog. That was the only word he could think about. Still swimming in the darkness, sometimes it cleared enough to make room to a dense fog in which he could hear things, feel things. But he couldn't recognize them. Different sounds, beeps and a rhythmic swoosh, accompanied by several sensations on his skin like coldness, wetness, light pricks. But there were two constant things when he reached the fog. One was a warm touch on his hand or arm, soothing and continuous, gently demanding his attention. The other one was a voice, low and steady, trying to reach him constantly, to pull him out of the haze.

He knew that voice, recognized it immediately even if he couldn't put a name to it, but the darkness was still too thick and he couldn't get out of there yet, even if each time it cleared a little, the voices and sensations were becoming more defined.

So the next time he tried really hard to break through the fog, and as the constant beeping around him sped up and the touch on his hand increased its pressure, he managed to open his eyes slightly, glancing through the blinding light to the most relieved expression he had ever seen on the face in front of him before closing them again with a pained grunt.

"Danny? You with me?"

"Ste…ve?"

"Yeah babe, I'm here. How are you feeling? Can you open your eyes? I've kinda been waiting for a while for you to open them."

Danny really tried to open them again, but the tiredness he was feeling was too strong.

"Later…Sleep now. You wa…it."

The soothing touch along his arm was back, sinking him further into the bliss of sleep.

"No place I'd rather be."

This time, two voices filled the room as he rose to consciousness. One was Steve's, and after focusing for a couple of minutes he learnt that the other was owned by Dr. May, presumably his doctor, who was currently trying to reassure an apparently over concerned Steve.

"But shouldn't he be awake by now? I mean he woke up for barely a minute and hasn't shown signs of consciousness since then. Is there something wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong, Commander. I can assure you this is totally normal. His body has been under a lot of stress, but everything looks fine, he just needs to rest and come back at his own pace."

Oh. So it was taking too long for him to wake up completely and his partner was about to climb the walls. It was time for a final effort.

"Mi…missing me al…ready?"

"Danny!"

Two pairs of hands were immediately on his body, the female voice urging him to open his eyes, which he slowly did, focusing on the smiling faces looking at him. The young doctor checked a few things on him before leaving with the promise of coming back later for further tests. Steve thanked her, shaking her hand without leaving the bedside in any moment.

Danny finally focused in him. He had dark circles under his eyes, standing to attention on his slightly pale face, and the end of a bandage was visible under the short sleeve of his left arm. Feeling his brain clear enough, he couldn't resist the urge of commenting on that.

"So, you just can't avoid the bullets anywhere you go, huh?"

Steve's eyes went wide at that.

"What? I didn't even know they were there. You're the one who left cover, making yourself a target!"

"He was going to kill you." Danny didn't add anything else. There was no need.

"He could have killed you! I should be the one ranting this time about recklessness, in all Danny Williams' style."

Danny smiled lazily at that.

"So rant, babe. I just can't assure you I'll remain awake for it all."

Steve's tension and anger seemed to fade away a little at that, sitting on the chair next to the bed and holding his hand again.

"No, I don't want to rant. That's your place babe, and I don't want anyone else but you in it." A gentle squeeze to his hand followed. "Welcome back, partner."

Danny squeezed back, closing his eyes again.

"It's good to be back. But you shouldn't have worried anyway, you know?"

"Oh and why is that?"

"Because I told I would be back, and I always keep my promises."

Danny heard the low chuckle in response, and started to drift to sleep again.

"That you do, buddy. And that's a promise I'm never going to let you break."

Thanks for reading!

I really hope you enjoyed it.

If anyone has noticed that Dr. May is a character from Lynn_Minoha's fics, it's true, she's a special character for us so I thought she would like to see her here, and of course I knew she wouldn't mind that I borrowed her ;)

Oh and you know I always love to hear your thoughts :)