Christmas Turkey II

A/N: This is the second year I've written a Christmas story. Thanks to rewob17 and TheDogo for all their help. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Five-0 and its characters are owned by CBS. I'd love to have one, or two, of them for Christmas though, but I'll have to make do with the DVDs.

Christmas was the time of year for family, celebrations, and fun. It was not the time of year to die, especially not in front of your teen-aged daughter. But Danny knew that was exactly what was going to happen if help didn't arrive soon.

The two were behind a shelving unit in the grocery store closest to their house. Danny sat, his back against the shelves, while Grace crouched beside him.

"Everything will be okay, monkey." Danny put his hand on his daughter's and helped her push harder against the thigh of his left leg. "Uncle Steve will be charging in here soon. You know how he gets when any of his Ohana is in danger."

"I know how he gets when you're in danger, Danno. And I'm not a baby, I know this is bad." Grace looked around at the nearby shelves. "I need to get something to use as a tourniquet." She shifted as if to move away from her father.

"No! Wait!" Danny gripped his daughter's hand tighter. "Stay here, I'm not sure where the Jackass is."

"He's over by the counter, on the floor. You hit him when you shot back at him." Grace removed her hand from Danny's and crept away towards a nearby shelf that held hardware supplies.

"Grace, no!" Danny tried to move after her, but the bullet in his leg stopped him as the pain increased a hundredfold, just from the slight movement. Blood started flowing faster from the ugly wound.

Grace returned before Danny could recover from the pain, and she gently moved him to a prone position on the floor. She had a length of rope in her hand which she immediately used to apply a tourniquet to the top of her father's thigh, tying it off as tight as she could. Once done, she pulled a roll of duct tape out of her pocket and used it to secure her outer shirt over the gaping wound. She'd removed her shirt as soon as she'd pulled her father behind the shelf, knowing she needed something to help apply pressure to stop the bleeding.

The two had come to the store to pick up their Christmas turkey. Steve was not that far behind them, also headed to Danny's house to help them decorate the Christmas tree.

Father and daughter were in the back getting the turkey when a man came in to rob the store. Danny couldn't believe it. This was the second year in a row that he'd gone to buy a turkey and some Jackass had decided to rob the store.

He'd made Grace hide behind the shelf unit while he went to the clerk's rescue. The gun the man had trained on the clerk swung towards Danny when he called, "Five-0, drop your weapon!"

The sound of a gunshot and a burning pain in his left thigh caused the detective to fall as he fired his own gun, so he didn't see the man fall. Grace had immediately pulled him behind the shelves out of the line of fire. She was already on her phone, Danny figured to 911, but it turned out she'd called her Uncle Steve, Super SEAL, McGarrett.

As Danny lay there, hoping help arrived soon, because he knew the bullet had at least nicked an artery, he promised himself that next year, if he made it 'til then, he was not buying a turkey. This was the second year that turkey shopping had resulted in him being injured. At least this time his partner was not to blame as he had been the previous year.

Suddenly, there was the sound of glass shattering and a loud call of "Five-0!" and Danny knew the cavalry had arrived in the form of his insane partner. A few seconds later Steve dashed around the end of the shelf unit looking for his best friend, and his niece.

"Grace, are you alright?" Steve quickly assessed Grace as he dropped down beside a very pale Danny.

"I'm okay, Uncle Steve, but Danno's leg is bleeding really bad. I tried to stop it, but it's still bleeding." As Steve took over, Grace released the pressure on her father's leg and sagged down beside him.

"I have an officer down. I need EMS in here stat!" Steve called out.

At the sight of Steve, Danny had relaxed, he knew that Grace would be safe now. But this led to him not being able to keep his eyes open, and he was just giving into the darkness when his partner's worried words reached him.

"Danny, keep your eyes open. You stay with me now. You hear me?" Steve moved his right hand to rub it through his partner's hair. Such an action was guaranteed to elicit a reaction, but Danny's eyes only flickered open for a few seconds before they closed again.

"Damn it, Danny, don't you give up on me." Steve moved his hand from the blonde head to slap, not too gently, his partner's cheek. "Wake up!"

Danny's eyes flew open and focused on the SEAL. "Did you just slap me?"

"Yes, I did, and if you don't keep your eyes open I'll do it again." Steve looked up as two EMS workers entered the store. "Over here, hurry."

Grace, who'd been holding her father's hand during this exchange, now stood and backed away, allowing the EMS workers access.

It took only seconds for EMS to scoop Danny up and rush out the door with him. Steve knew that time was of the essence in dealing with an arterial bleed. He'd have gone with them, but he had Grace to take care of. She stood a short distance away, tears running down her cheeks as she watched the ambulance take off with its sirens blaring.

"Grace, come here." Steve enveloped the distraught girl in a hug, then slowly led her out of the store to his truck.

Chin and Kono had just arrived, Steve had called them after he got off the phone with Grace. He motioned for them to wait while he got Grace into his truck and closed the door.

"Danny was shot in the leg, looks like it nicked an artery. EMS didn't even wait to start an IV, they just scooped him up and ran." Steve started moving around to the driver's door. "HPD has the scene in hand, the robber is dead, courtesy of Danny I might add. I'll meet you guys at Queen's." With that he jumped into the truck and peeling out of the lot, turning his siren on as he left.

The cousins exchanged worried looks before they too left for the hospital. Kono called Lou on the way to let him know what was going on.

The wait seemed to last forever. Steve learned that Danny had been taken directly to surgery upon arrival. They were directed to a private waiting room, which soon filled with their Ohana. Max, Jerry, Kamekona, Flippa, Duke, and other HPD officers rotated in and out.

It was two hours before a surgeon entered the room looking for Steve.

"Commander McGarrett?"

"Yes, here." Steve led Grace over to the surgeon. "This is Danny's daughter, Grace."

"Nice to meet you, Grace." The surgeon looked at Steve, an unspoken question in his eyes.

"You can speak in front of everyone here," Steve confirmed. The surgeon didn't look like he had bad news, so Steve hoped he was right to let him speak with Grace present.

"Very well. Detective Williams' surgery went very well. The bullet nicked the femoral artery, but someone's quick thinking seems to have slowed down the rate of blood loss."

"That would be Grace," Steve confirmed. He was proud of his niece. "She learned first aid in the Aloha Girls and applied what she learned to help her dad."

"Well, Grace. Your dad owes you his life. If you hadn't acted so quickly he'd have bled to death."

Grace nodded. She'd known how bad her father's injury was, and she'd been sitting for the last two hours hoping that she'd done enough to save him.

"We're moving the detective to a private room. He's still receiving a second transfusion, but that should be the last. I'm afraid he'll have to stay here for a couple of days, just to make sure the repair to the artery holds. Then he'll need therapy to get full function back in his leg. You can all see him soon. I'll have a nurse take you to him once he's settled."

"Thanks, doc." Steve shook the doctor's hand and then led Grace back to her seat.

By the time the nurse came to take them to Danny, there was only the Five-0 team, Lou having joined them at the hospital, and Grace left. Everyone else had started filtering out once they knew Danny would be okay.

"Danno!" Grace ran to the bed as soon as she realised her father was awake. "I was so worried about you."

"I'm sorry, Grace. I never meant for you to have to worry like that. But I'm so proud of you. You saved my life." Danny pulled his daughter up onto the bed, and she immediately wrapped herself around him, holding on tightly.

"Yeah, she did good." For a man who'd been so close to death only a few hours ago, Steve thought his partner looked really good. It was amazing what blood transfusions and fluids could do for you, not to mention surgery. Steve walked up beside the bed and rested his hand on Danny's shoulder. He needed the contact to help ground him and release the fear he'd carried since first seeing how pale his best friend had been.

"Of course she did, Steven. She's a Williams after all." Danny smiled up at his partner, happy to still be alive and able to banter with the man who had become closer than his own brother.

The rest of the team stood around the bed now, each relieved to see that Danny was indeed okay.

"Listen, man," Lou started. "I think you should quit buying turkeys at Christmas. Kono told me what happened last year."

"I think you're right, Lou. But at least this year it wasn't this Neanderthal's fault." Danny nodded at his partner.

"Doc says you'll be out in a couple of days, just in time for Christmas." Steve pointedly ignored Danny's remark. "You'll be coming to stay with me, and no arguments."

"Fine, there's no point in arguing with you anyway. You'll just steamroll over anything I say. Besides, that means you get to cook Christmas dinner this year." Danny smiled as he looked down at Grace. "Make it anything but turkey, because I'm never going to eat turkey again. It's way to hazardous for my health."

Everyone laughed.

Merry Christmas.

The End