Note: Thankyou all for the reviews. I really appreciate everyone's kind words and support, and of course thanks as always to wenwalke.

Chapter Eight

Steve, Chin and Kono were sat around Danny's hospital bed. Grace had managed to sneak up on to the bed, and was now sleeping cuddled up to her dad's side.

After three hours in surgery, Dr. Pearce had arrived to let them know Danny was being moved to a private room. They had managed to repair the damage and stop the bleeding. With lots of rest, Danny would be just fine. All three friends couldn't believe just how lucky they had been.

Danny started to wake and turned his head to see what the cause of the unexpected weight against his side was. He smiled when he saw Grace fast asleep. "She flaked out as soon as she got up there." Kono explained upon realising Danny was awake.

"She's really ok?" Danny asked his friends.

"She's fine, Danny." Steve reassured.

"What about me? When can I get out of here?"

Steve smiled, "don't get too ahead of yourself, buddy, you're stuck here for a few days." Seeing Danny's eyes immediately flit to Grace, he added, "don't worry about Gracie, she can stay with me."

Danny moved his hand to carefully push himself up the bed a little, but Steve quickly stopped him. "Careful Danny, you have a couple of tubes in your side you don't want to dislodge."

"A couple?" Danny asked.

"One's a standard drain, and the other is a nephrostomy tube. It goes into your kidney and drains the urine to give your ureter chance to heal. They managed to patch that up and placed a stent in it. They will need to remove it in a few weeks time, but the nephrostomy tube and drain should be able to be removed in a few days." Steve explained.

"More surgery?" Danny asked disappointed at the sound of a long recovery.

Steve bobbed his head from side to side. "Not exactly surgery, let's just say there is a more natural route they can take to retrieve it."

Danny paled upon realising what Steve meant. "Well isn't that something to be thankful for." He replied sarcastically, gaining grins from his three team members. "Can't they just leave it?"

"Afraid not D, too much of an infection risk."

Danny shifted slightly, mindful of the tubes, and Steve helped to sit him up a little. "So a few days, then I can go home right?"

"Then you can come back to mine." Steve answered. "You really bruised your kidney buddy, and the doc has prescribed bed rest for at least two weeks, to make sure the bleeding settles."

"Two weeks? When you say bed rest, you mean taking it easy right?"

"Sorry, Danny. It means bed to bathroom, and back, maybe the couch after the first week is up."

Steve commiserated. "Which is why you, and Gracie, are coming to stay at mine for a bit."

"Seriously? I'm gonna be stuck in bed for two weeks?" Danny asked shocked.

"Maybe a bit more, depends on the bleeding." Chin answered.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Thanks for that, buddy, way to cheer me up."

"Danny, you survived a helicopter crash. I think a couple of week's bed rest is pretty good, all things considered." Chin replied.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Danny sighed and pulled Grace closer to him. "There is no way I am ever getting on a chopper, ever again."

"I think that's fair." Kono soothed, "in fact, I don't think I'll be getting in one either."

Danny smiled at her then turned his head to Steve. "You can help Kamekona buy the next one. Make sure there is room for parachutes."

5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0

A week later, Steve came down his stairs carrying a breakfast tray. Seeing Grace sat on the sofa he said, "It's your turn next time. If I have to go up there one more time! He is driving me insane."

"He's just bored, Uncle Steve." Grace replied. "I'll go keep him company." And she dashed up the stairs.

Steve washed up the dishes and started to feel bad. Grace was right. If he had been stuck on bed rest, he would have been climbing the walls by now. Danny had begged to be allowed downstairs and would rest on the couch, but Steve had insisted he stay in bed as the amount of blood in Danny's urine had not decreased, and another scan before Danny was discharged, showed his kidney was still significantly bruised. At least the nephrostomy tube had been removed, and the repair job was holding.

Steve grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed upstairs. Entering his guest room he saw Grace cuddled up to her dad's side, reading to him. Danny had his arm around her, pulling her up close, and had a content smile in his face. Steve set the water bottle down by Danny causing him to frown. "You know, if I drink any more water, I'm gonna turn into a fish."

"Sorry Danny, but you heard what the doc said. You need to drink at least three litres a day to flush your kidney."

"I know, but I thought she wanted me on bed rest. If I keep drinking this much I'm gonna be going to the toilet every hour." Danny moaned.

"Well, at least you get to stretch your legs then." Steve laughed as his phone beeped. He reached into his pocket, pulled it out, and read the message. "Kamekona is on his way over with lunch."

"Seriously? Again? If he keeps dropping food by like this I'm gonna be as big as he is. I can't even burn any of it off, stuck here." Danny said indicating the bed.

"I think he just feels bad, Danno." Grace said sweetly.

"He doesn't need to feel bad, he saved our lives landing that thing the way he did. He's the one that's losing business."

"Not for much longer. He already has another helo lined up. He's just waiting for the insurance money to come through." Steve explained.

"Already? That was fast work."

"I may have helped him out a bit. I have a buddy who left the navy and specialises in helo's now. I got him a good deal on an ex display that has nice strong rotors. My buddy is flying it over from the mainland next week."

"Thanks good." Danny smiled, although he couldn't believe Kamekona was gonna be flying again so soon after their ordeal.

"So what do you two have planned for today?" Danny asked looking at Steve and Grace, "and please, tell me it's not any more lessons in fire starting, or anything equally dangerous."

Steve gave Grace a nervous glance, worried that she had told Danny about the knife lesson. But the twinkle in Grace's eye told him that their secret was safe. "I don't know. Maybe we could just hang out here today and keep you company. Max dropped some old board games around last night, to keep you occupied. We could play some of them. But we have to be careful, as I think some are collector items."

"Cool." Grace said jumping off the bed to go collect them, causing Danny to flinch as pain flared in his back and side. Grace returned less than a minute later, arms full of stacked boxes. She placed them on the bed, and the top one slid off on to Danny's lap.

Danny looked at the box in disbelief. It was old and faded, showing the games age. "Is Max serious or is he having a joke at my expense?"

Steve looked confused, but then Danny held the box up, and he had to stifle a laugh. "Helicopter Race Game. I remember playing that with dad when I was younger. You have to spin the dial and move the right amount of spaces."

"We are not playing that one." Danny said tossing the box to the bottom of the bed.

"What about this one then?" Grace said beaming and holding up another game.

This time Steve did burst out laughing as he saw Grace holding up the game, Operation. "Oh, my, god, you're killing me here." Danny said throwing his head back against the head board. "This is going to be the longest week of my life."

Steve smiled, then took the game from Grace and pulled it out of the box. "At least you get to live it, Danno. For a while there, I thought we'd lost you all. Come on, I'll let you off from playing the helicopter one, but Operation is pretty cool."

"Yay." Grace said starting to set the game up. "Here Danno, I think you could use this." She smirked as she handed Danny a small piece of plastics. Danny looked at it, then back at his daughter confused. "It's a spare rib," She giggled, "At least that ones not broken."

Both Steve and Danny started laughing, Danny having to brace his broken rib to ease the pain. Danny shook his head in amazement at his daughter. Any other kid would have been traumatised by their ordeal. But not Grace Williams, she took it in her stride, and Danny was sure she secretly loved the impromptu camp out. Perhaps she was spending too much time around Steve, Danny wondered, then again maybe that's not really a bad thing.

The End

BTW The Helicopter Race Game actually exists.