Hey ya'll! New story time! I'm waiting for inspiration to strike me for my other story, so in the meantime, enjoy this! A lot of you commented on my other story saying that I should turn my real life experience from after my surgery into a fic, and I just loved that idea so much! So this story will be based off what happened to me a couple weeks ago. My boyfriend, Mitch is sitting next to me right now, telling me everything that happened, since I don't really remember anything.
"Hey, there he is! How's the leg, partner?" Steve asked as he walked into Danny's room, Chin and Kono behind him. Danny still looked a little groggy from the surgery, but he seemed fairly alert.
"S'good. Got me on the good stuff. I can't feel a thing." Danny said with a toothy grin. He had put off this surgery as long as possible, but when his ACL started affecting his work and very nearly got his partner killed, he knew it was time to do something.
"You're high, aren't you brah?" Kono asked, barely able to keep from bursting out laughing.
"Yup."
"They say how long you have to stay here?" Chin asked.
"Just until tomorrow morning. Then I get to go home. By home I mean I'll be taken against my will held prisoner in the McGarrett fortress."
"Well, at least he still has his sense of humor." Steve said to Chin and Kono, then smiled at Danny.
"Hey, I know you're kinda dopey right now, but do you think you'd be up to having Gracie come in for a few minutes? She's down in the cafeteria with Kamekona right now." At that, Danny sat up a little and seemed to sober slightly.
"Of course I'm up to it." Like Steve had even needed to ask.
"I'll give them a call brah and have them come up." Chin said, then went into the hallway.
"So how long until your back at work?" Kono asked.
"Two weeks at home, but three months desk duty." Danny pouted. "Try not to let Rambo here blow up the island, will ya? Psycho keeps grenades in his bathroom."
"When are you going to let that go, Danny? I told you, I ran out of room in the safe and no one would ever think to look for grenades in the head. Except you…"
"Wasn't lookin' for 'em. Tryin' to find a towel for Grace. Speaking of Grace, hey monkey!" Danny said as the little girl entered the room. Steve smiled too. Fierce and terrifying though he may be, man was a marshmallow around his 'niece'.
"Hey kiddo, let me help you up." Steve said as he picked Grace up and place dher on the bed next to her father.
"Thanks Uncle Steve! Danno! Does it hurt?"
"Nah, docs here are pretty good. Wouldn't let that happen."
"I made this for you." She said with a proud little smile. It reminded him of the time she had handed him the picture after the Sarin incident. This time, it was hand drawn card, covered in monkeys. One of the monkeys was small and had a bow on its head. The other was larger, though not by much and had a tie at its neck and a badge at its hip. He smiled.
"I love it Gracie. It's beautiful…just like someone else I know!" he said, playfully pressing a finger to his daughter's nose. She giggled, a sound like tinkling bells. Danny pulled her close and held her tight. He must've fallen asleep because the next thing he heard was Steve's voice speaking softly, in the tone he reserved only for Grace.
"He's okay, honey. He's just sleeping. He'll be tired for a while. How about I take you home now? You can see him tomorrow once I get him settled at my place."
"Okay. Just a sec." He felt her long, vanilla-scented hair fall on his face and her soft lips gently kiss his cheek. "Night, Danno. I love you."
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The next morning, Danny sat on the edge of his bed, waiting impatiently for Steve to come back with his release forms. He was dressed in a pair of baggy sweats and his old police academy shirt. He missed his tie. Screw the 'Hawaiian dress code'.
"Alright, we're good to go." Steve said as he entered the room. "Shall we?" he said, nodding to the wheelchair in the corner.
"No. Nuh uh. There's no way I'm getting in that thing again. I can walk fine on crutches, thank you."
"Danny, its hospital protocol. I would think Mr. By The Book would want to follow rules."
"Yes, the good rules. Not the stupid ones!"
"Pick your battles, man. Two hours of arguing with that freakish nurse who looks like a linebacker, or a five minute ride in a wheelchair. Your choice." Steve said with a grin, knowing he'd won.
"Yeah yeah, alright." Twenty minutes later, the Camaro, which Steve had taken for his own personal use while Danny was laid up, stating that a car that nice would go bad if it wasn't driven regularly, pulled into Steve's driveway. With much grumbling, they managed to get Danny settled on the couch and watching a baseball rerun of an old Yankees game.
"Alright, man. I gotta go. Denning's PMSing and if I don't get to the meeting on time, he'll throw a hissy fit."
"Have fun." Danny grinned.
"Thanks." Steve said sarcastically. "Remember," he said, shaking the little orange bottle in front of Danny. "don't be a tough guy, and take these as soon as it starts to hurt, okay?"
"Yes, Dr. McGarrett."
"I'll see you later, man."
"Bye." Once Steve had left, Danny fell into a light doze, only to be awakened by a sharp pain in his knee. Taking Steve's advice for once, he shook out two of the pills and swallowed them down. A few minutes later, he was out again.
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Steve walked through his front door, humming the tune to some Bon Jovi song Danny had played in the car last week. In his hands, he had a pizza from the only Italian place that Danny approved on the island. Probably because no pineapples had ever made their way into the place, Steve mused. He was not at all surprised to find the house quiet. He figured Danny would be sleeping. Experience had taught him that surgery really took it out of you and those pills knocked you on your ass. As he walked as quietly as possible into the living room, he wondered if he should wake Danny for dinner, or let him sleep. When he finally reached the living room, those thoughts were driven from his heads and the pizza tumbled out of his hands as he ran to Danny's side. There, on the floor in front of the couch, Danny lay, shaking hard in the grips of a seizure. When he got closer, he could hear Danny fighting for each breath.
"Danny? Danny!" he yelled as he slid to his knees and placed his hands on Danny's shoulders. The jerking movements of his friend threatened to dislodge the SEAL's strong grip, but Steve held tight. Danny's eyes were unfocused and glassy and his breaths whistled and wheezed through his chest. Even as one seizure stopped, another started. Checking Danny's pulse, he could feel faint, but much too fast beating of his heart. When it became clear that Danny would not be able to answer him, he grabbed the phone off of the coffee table and quickly dialed 911.
"911, what's your emergency?" asked a cool female voice.
"This is Commander McGarrett, Five-0." Steve stated firmly. He was not usually one to flaunt his status in law enforcement, but he knew that it would bring help faster. "My partner, Detective Danny Williams, is suffering from multiple seizures, lasting about one minute each and extreme difficulty breathing. Be advised, he was released from the hospital this morning after having ACL surgery."
"Alright, Commander. We have you at 404 Piikoi Street and an ambulance is five minutes out. Is there any possibility that Detective Williams has abused his medication in some way?" Steve wanted to yell at her, to tell her that Danny would never do anything like that, but he also knew that it was possible that Danny could've accidently overdosed. Carefully releasing Danny and making sure he wouldn't hit anything, Steve grabbed the bottle of pills on the table and counted them out.
"I don't think so. Only two are missing, and he can take two of these every four hours, and he's been alone for about eight."
"Okay, I've relayed the information to HMC and they will be standing by. I'll need you to stay on the line with me until the ambulance arrives." As Steve watched his partner convulse, he became aware of a second, jerkier motion in Danny's body, different from those caused by the seizure. Quickly realizing what was happening, he turned Danny's head to the side just as Danny started to vomit. He felt his heart stop for a moment when he saw blood. Grabbing the phone, he practically begged the operator for guidance.
"Hello? Are you still there?"
"Yes, Commander. Has something else happened?"
"He started vomiting, but its blood. A lot…a lot of blood. What's happening?"
"Is he still vomiting?"
"No, he just stopped."
"What you need to do is open his mouth and check to see if he's bitten his tongue. If he has bitten off a piece of it, you need to take it out so he doesn't choke. Can you do that, Commander?"
"Y-yes." Steve stuttered. Carefully opening Danny's mouth, he shone the light from his phone inside, but while there was plenty of blood, he saw no cuts anywhere. "I don't see any bite marks. There's a ton of blood, but no cut." As he said that, he heard the wailing of sirens and a moment later saw the paramedics racing towards his house. He hung up, and quickly explained the situation to the medics. As they examined him, they too noted that given all of the blood, there should be a cut in his mouth. But there wasn't. Before anyone could argue, he jumped into the ambulance and sat down next to Danny. His partner's face was pale and smeared with blood. As they tore out of Steve's driveway, Danny began to jerk and shake with another seizure. This time it lasted for three minutes. After what seemed like an eternity in the ambulance, they arrived at Hawaii Medical Center. As promised, a team of was waiting for them and before he knew it, Steve was seated in the waiting room and being handed paperwork that, as Danny's medical proxy, he was required to fill out. When that was done, he sat down again and put his head in his hands, wondering just how thing had gone so wrong. He was pulled from his thoughts as his phone rang.
"McGarrett." He said tiredly, not even bothering to check his caller ID.
"Hey brah. It's Chin. Grace said you weren't answering your phone before and she wanted to see if she could come over and see Danny, so she called me."
"Chin, he's…God, I don't even know what happened. I came home and he was having a seizure and he couldn't breathe right."
"Is he okay?" Chin asked anxiously.
"Not really. Before the ambulance got to my place, he started throwing up. He…Chin he was throwing up blood. He didn't bite his tongue or anything. I don't know what happened."
"Jesus…alright, I'll call Rachel and Kono and I will be over in about fifteen."
"Thanks brother." When they disconnected, Steve looked down at his hands and for the first time, saw the blood. Suddenly feeling the urge to peel off his skin, he ran to the bathroom and held his hands under the hottest water he could stand, scrubbing them for well over ten minutes. When he finally emerged from the bathroom, he saw Chin and Kono burst through the glass double doors. Steve realized that he must've looked like hell since as soon as Kono saw him, Chin paled and Kono's hand flew to her mouth. Maybe it was all the blood smeared on his shirt.
"Oh my God, Steve! The blood…is that Danny's? What happened?" Kono asked, panic clear in her voice. He sat down and told them all that had happened. When he had finished, he saw his own fear reflected into their eyes.
"What did Rachel say?" he asked, after maybe twenty minutes of silence.
"She's worried, but she's not going to tell Grace just yet. Just give her an excuse that Danny's sleeping or something. She made me promise to call as soon as we heard anything." They lapsed into silence for about two hours before a doctor came into the room and asked for 'Family of Daniel Williams?". They all stood up.
"I'm Dr. Rostyne. You're his family?"
"His only family on the island is an ex-wife and daughter, but I'm his medical proxy. Steve McGarrett. We're basically family." The doctor nodded his understanding. "How is he?" Steve asked nervously.
"He'll live. Daniel suffered a reaction between the medication he was prescribed for pain after his knee surgery and the one he takes for migraines."
"How did that happen? Shouldn't it have been in his records?" Kono asked angrily.
"The doctor who handled his release" Rostyne said frostily, as though he was just as angry at the man responsible. "did not check his record's carefully and prescribed the wrong medication. It was also noted the Daniel specifically asked if it would interact with any of his medications. I assure that that doctor is being dealt with."
"So, what's the damage?" China asked.
"The seizures were caused by a chemical imbalance with caused his brain to misfire. They should have no lasting effects besides some headaches and dizziness, but those will fade in about a week. He is currently on a respirator, but we'll take that out as soon as his lungs are strong enough. The reaction cause inflammation in the lungs which made them swell shut. He's very lucky. Had you found him any later, I highly doubt he would have made it."
"What about the blood he was vomiting?" Steve asked quietly.
"There was some bleeding of the lining of the stomach. We expect it to heal, but he'll have to take it easy for a while. He will have a fair amount of pain, but for now we're managing that for him." They took a second to digest that. "If you'd like, I can take you to see him now. He should be unconscious for the rest of the night, but I'm sure he'd like to wake up to a friendly face. When they entered Danny's room, the first thing Steve was aware of was how awful Danny looked. It must've shown on his face because the doctor smiled at him and laid a hand on his arm.
"He's going to be fine, Mr. McGarrett. I know he looks bad, but really, he'll be okay." With that, Rostyne left, and each of the remaining members of Five-0 seated themselves around Danny's bed. Three hours later, his breathing had improved enough to replace the ventilator with an oxygen mask. Another two hours, and that was replaced with a nasal cannula. As the night wore on, the occupants of the room began to drift off, but not Steve. The whole night, he stayed awake, plagued by images of Danny shaking on the floor surrounded blood. It wasn't until eight the next morning, sixteen hours after he had been admitted, that Danny awoke. Chin and Kono were still fast asleep, but Steve saw the signs of Danny waking, and began to gently coax him to the surface.
"That's it Danno. Open your eyes for me. Come on. No, don't touch that Danny." He said, gently taking Danny's hand away from the tube beneath his nose that he had nearly dislodged. This seemed to bring Danny out of his exhausted forced rest a little more.
"Mmmmmppphhh…"
"That's it pal, open your eyes." Danny scrunched his nose, then blinked two bleary eyes open.
"'teve?" Danny mumbled groggily.
"Yeah, man. It's me. How ya feelin'?"
"Tired. Wha' 'appened? Thought I already left the hospital."
"You did, but the medicine they gave you reacted with one of your other medications and you got pretty sick. You're gonna be okay, but you'll have to take it easy for a while." Danny raised his eyebrows.
"How long've I been out?" Steve glanced down at his watch, his tired eyes taking a while to make sense of the tiny numbers.
"About sixteen hours. You scared the hell out of us, Danno."
"S'rry. Didn' mean to."
"It's okay. Just get some rest."
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Finally, five months after his ill-fated surgery, Danny was finally able to rejoin Steve in the hunt for Hawaii's most wanted. Though he'd never admit it, Danny had been itching for action and his first case back on full duty did not disappoint. There was of course the customary car chase, in which the Camaro was nearly run off the side of a cliff, an epic shootout, one of Steve's incredibly half assed but surprisingly successful plans, and at long last, a 'book 'em Danno'. It was good to be back.
Well, there ya go! My first story actually based on real events! Again, a huge thanks to CindyBeesWax, who provided the original inspiration in her reviews for Cat and Mouse and to all of you other guys who encouraged me to do this. Oh, and also a big thanks to Mitch, who provided me with the details that made this story possible. This is the first good thing to come out of that surgery!