Chapter Text
The sound of a car door slamming brought Steve’s mind back to present awareness. How did I get here? Right…. He remembered vaguely being helped onto the back of a horse…no, that was Danno…then passing through the forest on the path back to the road at a much more sedate speed than on their previous attempt.
He realized that he was folded awkwardly into what must be the back seat of a car, his head resting against someone’s…Danno’s…shoulder. The car was moving now, and he could hear voices.
The lawyer Thomas was saying, “…wish we’d brought my car instead of the Cit so there’d be room for him to lie down.”
Danny’s voice from over his head, sharp with worry. “He needs to go to the emergency room!”
“Don’t worry, the clinic has everything needed. It’s intended as a place for us to go when a human hospital would be awkward,” came Nathaniel’s reassurance.
Steve opened his eyes and struggled to sit up. “I’m fine.”
“Just relax and stay still,” Danny said, trying to steady him.
The car took a sharp corner and bumped over a pothole, knocking Steve into the car door and sending another wave of pain crashing over him.
When it receded, he opened his eyes to realize that he was held securely in Danny’s arms, his face resting against soft fabric and warm skin. A bathrobe or something? He must have borrowed it, he thought irrelevantly.
The car swayed onward while he turned over the events of the evening. Being taken from his bed and driven blindfolded to the forest, the unicorn court, Danny standing naked, declaring his love...he found it difficult to drag his mind away from that image. Ironic that the most surprising thing I learned about Danno tonight was not that he was a unicorn, Steve thought ruefully. Of course Fiona was right. I care about him. He’s…important to me. But there can never be anything more between us.
Steve looked over at the dark glass of the side window, seeing Danny’s face reflected in it as he anxiously watched their progress through the forest. He found himself noticing the full curve of Danny’s lower lip, and, unbidden, the thought came to him, I wonder what it would be like to kiss him? Somehow the sight of his second-in-command unclothed and the knowledge of his feelings had done odd things to Steve’s perceptions, and he had to fight a momentary urge to reach up and find out what it was like to kiss him. He closed his eyes, trying to halt this train of thought, but found the warmth of Danny’s chest similarly distracting.
The car stopped briefly, then took a sharp turn. Steve let out a groan as he inadvertently moved his injured arm.
“Steve, are you okay?” Danny asked, tightening his hold.
“I’m fine, Danno,” McGarrett assured him. “Just my arm getting to me.”
“We’re almost there,” Nathaniel said reassuringly, and Steve realized that they were once again in Honolulu, driving though city streets. The car pulled up in front of a modern medical building, illuminated despite the late hour.
Dr. Toshiro turned out to be a slender Japanese woman with a long mane of shining dark hair, at least in her human form. She ushered them into a perfectly normal looking examining room. “I understand you hit your head and were briefly unconscious,” she said to Steve, examining his eyes. “How do you feel? Headache, dizziness, blurred vision, nausea?”
“I was a little dizzy earlier, but that might have just been the pain from my arm,” McGarrett told her. “Maybe a bit of a headache.”
“Hm.” She made a note on the clipboard she held. “Let’s get some X-rays. My technician is going to demand overtime for being dragged out at night like this.”
Nathaniel, leaning against the wall of the exam room, assured her, “Fiona will cover the bill.”
While waiting for the X-rays to be developed, Dr. Toshiro stitched Danny’s cut and gave him a tetanus shot. “Come back on Tuesday to have your stitches out,” she told him. “Until them, absolutely no transformation, or the wound will be reopened.”
The X-rays revealed, to McGarrett’s annoyance, that he had a fractured ulna, which the doctor immobilized in a plaster cast.
“It should be fine for you to go home as long as someone is with you to check on you at regular intervals during the night. I assume Dan here can do that.”
Danny and Steve both started to say something, and then subsided, realizing that there was really no other option which wouldn’t require difficult explanations.
“Now, you should both go and get some rest.”
“Dr. Toshiro, thank you for coming in at this hour,” Nathaniel said as they took their leave.
“Naturally, Fiona’s wish is my command,” she said with a wry smile.
The white Citroen pulled up in front of Steve’s building. “Will the two of you be okay?” Thomas held the door as Steve climbed painfully out of the car.
“Danno and I can manage.”
Nathaniel handed him a card. “If there’s anything at all you need, please call on us.”
“Stay in touch, anyway,” Thomas added.
“Thank you for all your help,” Danny said. He followed Steve up the steps to the lobby door.
I hope we don’t run into anyone I know, Steve thought, catching sight of their reflection in the mirrored doors of the elevator. He was barefoot in muddy, torn pyjamas, Danny wore nothing but a bathrobe, and they both looked very much worse for wear.
Fortunately, the corridors were deserted. Steve let them safely into his condo, left unlocked by his abductors earlier that evening, and closed the door behind them. They stood awkwardly for a moment.
“Danno...I’m sure we both want to wash up. Why don’t you take the shower first?” Steve suggested. “I think there’s a new toothbrush in the cabinet over the sink.”
“Thanks, Steve,” Danny said, gratefully bolting for the bathroom and a temporary escape from having to face his boss.
Steve sighed and lowered himself into one of the living room armchairs, leaning back and closing his eyes. The pain medication Dr. Toshiro had given him was making him feel slightly as though he were flying, which was not helping him in his efforts to reconcile the events of the evening with anything in his previous experience.
Unicorns exist. They have their own government. Danno is a unicorn. Danno...is in love with me? And when he’s naked, he looks like...that.... Steve drifted off into a light doze.
“Steve?” McGarrett felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?” He opened his eyes to a sight so similar to the one he had fallen asleep thinking of that he was momentarily startled.
He rubbed his eyes. When he opened them again his second-in-command was still leaning over him looking concerned, but Steve realized he was actually wearing a towel wrapped around his waist.
“I’m sorry. After what Dr. Toshiro said about checking on you, I just wanted to make sure....”
“Thanks, Danno.” Steve found himself noticing that his partner’s skin was still damp from the shower, the towel hanging low on his hips…he abruptly realized where his thoughts were heading and reined them in.
Seeing the direction of Steve’s gaze Danny straightened, flushing a bit, and asked, “Do you think you could loan me some pyjamas?”
“Of course.” Steve climbed painfully to his feet and went to the bedroom, opening the second drawer of the dresser. These dark green silk ones should look nice on him...I mean, they should feel nice on him...no, no, that’s not what I mean, either, of course, he thought, shaking his head to clear it, then regretting the action.
Back in the living room, he handed Danny, who was trying not to meet his eyes, the pyjamas and headed off to the shower, where he did his best to clean up while keeping his left arm out of the water. I’ll have to have my barber wash my hair properly. I can’t exactly ask Danno to help me, even if he weren’t injured himself.
When Steve emerged from the bedroom in pyjamas and dressing gown, the living room was empty, and the sliding glass door to the lanai stood open. He stepped through into the soft tropical night.
Danny stood facing out over the city, his hands resting on the railing, the too-long cuffs of Steve’s pyjamas turned up at his wrists. Even in profile Steve could see he didn’t look happy. “Danno?”
The young man started. “I didn’t hear you come out. Steve....” he began, looking down at his bare feet, “I’m really sorry about everything that happened tonight.”
“I told you before,” Steve said, coming to stand close beside Danny at the railing, “Everything that happened tonight was a result of you saving my life in that clearing.”
Danny turned to face out over the railing again. “I know I can’t ask you to somehow forget what you heard. After the unicorns’ case is over, I’ll resign,” he said. “Maybe take a job on the mainland....”
“I don’t want your resignation, Danno. While the department’s non-discrimination policy wasn’t written with unicorns in mind, I’m quite sure your job description didn’t include a species requirement,” Steve said with a smile.
“You know that’s not why I have to go,” Danny said quietly, still determinedly looking out at the city.
“Danno, look at me.”
Danny turned towards Steve, the moonlight casting half his face in shadow.
“You don’t have to leave because of anything that happened tonight. We can go on as we were.” I don’t know if that’s true. To find this out, to know how he feels...but this is all we can have, and I don’t want to lose him.... The thought filled him with a pain he was afraid to examine.
“Can we?” Danny asked, giving Steve a haunted look. “Can you work with me, now that you know?”
“We have a case to solve, so we’re going to find out,” Steve said firmly. “But for now, let’s get some rest. It’s been a long evening.”