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Chin stood in the doorway of Steve’s intensive care pod watching his boss closely. His heart had been in his throat for the last three days. When Chin had last been in the room, he and Steve’s medical team had decided that he had turned the corner; he had spent two days so close to death that Chin had been afraid to stop watch the slight rise and fall of his chest as assisted breathing kept him with them.
Finally willing to leave the room and help Kono to find the driver of the second truck, he had returned when summonsed by Steve’s doctor. He literally hadn’t known what to do or say when he had been told to ‘get back here now or it will be too late for goodbyes.’
So for the last three days he had never been further than the bathroom across the hall. His time had been consumed with tethering Steve to this life as he drifted in and out of a drug clouded haze, his body shattered, his heart broken, his soul consumed by guilt. Sometimes it felt like Chin’s perseverance was the only thing keeping him here. Steve would drift out of his unconscious state, his eyes empty and void, his lips moving but no words sounding then almost as if he was remembering something his monitors would all start beeping, their readings shooting off the charts. His medico’s would work to stabilize him with Chin begging him to fight, and the whole cycle would start over again.
It had taken two days for Chin to work it out. The pointed absence of a certain team member was nothing but a brightly blinking indicator for Chin. Steve was losing his grip on life, his mind giving up on the fight to keep the physical alive. He thought he was alone again. Forsaken for an indiscretion that only Steve was aware of. Giving up because he had failed. Chin wasn’t going to let that happen. John McGarrett had never given up on him and since he’d been back on the island, Steve had fought for him at every turn. There is no way that Chin was giving up on him. Now he stood in the doorway, waiting patiently for Danny to emerge from the small identical pod further down the hallway. The same pod that held the comatose body of one, Grace Williams, watched over by her mother, her father and her step-father.
Three hours after he took up his post, Danny emerged from the room, his hands jammed deep into his pockets. His shirt rumpled, his khaki’s crushed, his hair flopping over his forehead, curling at the ends, his head bowed watching his feet as he walked. Chin waited until he got closer and called him softly. Called him three times before his head tilted in obvious acknowledgement but no other recognition.
Chin walked away from the doorway and laid a hand on Danny’s shoulder to force his attention.
“Not interested, Chin.” Danny spoke his voice flat.
“We’re losing him, Danny.”
“Like I said. Don’t Care. Not interested.”
“What?” Chin snapped, his hand tightening on Danny’s shoulder and twisting him around to face him.
“I said I’m not interested.” Danny shrugged out from under Chin’s touch. “Leave me the fuck alone.”
“You might be the only one that can bring him back to us, brah.”
“Don’t give me that fucked up island dialect mumbo jumbo. And I don’t care. Let him die. Fucker has always had a death wish.”
“You don’t mean that, Danny. You think we don’t know how close you are?” Chin frowned unable to understand what was happening.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Danny frowned, his eyes narrowed angrily, puffing his chest out and balling his fists.
“It means Williams, half the fucking HPD knows that you two were sleeping together, and the other half suspected it.” Chin explained, frustrated with Danny’s behavior. “I don’t know what the hell your problem is but you need to suck it up and get in there and help him.”
"You think I don't fucking know that? But the fact remains that my daughter is lying in a room down the hall. In a coma. A coma that insane version of a Navy superhero put her in."
“That’s cruel and unfair.” Chin put his hands on his hips as he watched Danny closely.
“He drives like an idiot, this you know. He hit the truck holding my baby girl. Who else could be at fault?” Danny almost yelled at Chin, stabbing a finger into his chest as he did.
“And like you would know if you read the preliminary report, Steve was trying to get to Grace. The truck hit him, not the other way around. This. Is. Not. His. Fault.” Chin stepped closer to Danny with every word until the smaller man was backed up against the wall.
“I can’t deal with that, Chin.” Danny sighed, “My little girl could be dying, don’t you understand that.”
"And your lover nearly died trying to save her, still might."
"He has a hero complex and you know it."
“I know how hard he tried to get to her. I know how worried he was. He wasn’t reckless he was trying to save her. Until one of them wakes we’ll never know what really happened.”
“What if she doesn’t Chin?” Danny looked up at Chin his eyes glazed.
“He’s giving up, Danny.”
“I can’t help that, Chin. I told him the other day, I’m done. Not my problem anymore.”
"You scared, Danny. I get that. Believe me, I get that. But you need to get over yourself. Don't sever ties while you’re feeling like this or you're going to end up regretting it."
“The only thing I will regret is if my little girl dies. Now get out of my way.”
“Then grow a set you cowardly bastard. Stop blaming your partner and forgive him. Help us catch the person who did hurt her, hurt him, not the only person who loves you as much as she does.”
“I’m not a coward.” Danny spat at Chin, his eyes filled with blue fire.
“Prove it.” Chin turned on his heel and walked back into Steve’s room.
His primary objective concluded, Chin sat on the hard plastic chair beside the bed and watched his friend and boss. Chin wanted to touch him, to hold his hand or something. To give him a physical tether to the world of the living. Instead, Chin sat, afraid to touch simply because he couldn’t find enough skin that wasn’t bruised, livid red and purple coloring that covered all the skin visible to Chin, some so swollen and distended that it was grotesque, his fingers like thick fat sausages, the skin splitting in places. He was declared lucky by his medical teams, aside from severe bruising of his muscles and some organs, some dislocated but the only bones he had broken were a few ribs and bones in his forearms. He was thus far uncommunicative because his jaw had been dislocated.
He felt useless sitting here, while the whole team left Kono taking point on the case. But he wouldn’t leave Steve alone, not like this. He wouldn’t leave this brave, stoic man to let himself drift away when there was a trio of watchful loved ones just down the hall. He couldn’t leave Kono here. She had visited the first night and his brave kick ass cousin had cried the whole time she was here. No, this was where he had to stay. Kono could handle everything, she was a good investigator, the best there was outside of the other three on their team, and she could channel her own pain into the righteous anger she was currently wearing like a cloak and find the bastard that had almost killed two of their family and had killed another little girl.
Until there was another to take his place, this was Chin’s vigil.