THE HONOR

(Epilogue to “King of the Hill” with some M*A*S*H crossover.

by

Sylvia

Language caution: I use the “N” word here, the racial epithet Auston used in the episode during one of his flashbacks. It’s in the context of Auston describing the racism he went through in Vietnam.)

April, 1969

“Are you sure you want to do this, Danno?”

“Yeah, Steve. I need to.”

Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams, the head and second-in-command of Hawaii Five-O, sat side by side at Honolulu International Airport, waiting to board the plane that would take them both to Washington, D.C.

“Anyway, I think Corporal Auston needs it more than I do,” Danny said.

It had been three months since Marine Lance Corporal John T. Auston, hit on the head with a baseball bat at a Little League baseball game Danny was coaching, had gone into post-traumatic stress and had shot Danny and a Honolulu police officer while he was being tended to in the hospital.

The HPD officer had suffered a minor wound to the leg. But Danny had been seriously wounded in the stomach and had bled a lot before Steve, Five-O officers Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua and HPD Detective George Kealoha had been able to engineer an intricate rescue. Steve had dressed up as a Marine corpsman and had convinced Auston, who believed he was back in Vietnam, of the ruse.

Danny and the HPD officer had both recovered. Auston had been transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, where he was being treated by Dr. Sidney Freedman, chief of psychiatry there and an old friend of Steve. They had met during the Korean War.

“You’ve told me Dr. Freedman is the best, and that Auston has made a lot of progress,” Danny said.

“Yeah, but you still don’t have to do this,” Steve said.

“Well, Steve, look at it this way. If I have any flashbacks, at least there’s a psychiatrist there to deal with it,” Danny joked.

Their flight was called. Steve and Danny boarded the plane and took a seat.

In flight, Steve noticed his young officer still worried – to the point where he didn’t flirt with any of the stewardesses. Danny was as prolific with the opposite sex as he was with police work, and Steve, Chin and Kono had often joked that there wasn’t a female employee of an airline that had landed in Hawaii who Danny hadn’t dated.

“You know, Danno, the stewardesses have been wearing black armbands,” Steve kidded.

“What?”

“Usually by this time, I would have thought you’d gotten their life’s history,” Steve said. “They’re wondering what’s going on with you.”

Danny managed a small smile. “I’m concerned about this Auston thing,” he said.

“It’ll be OK, Danno,” Steve reassured his friend. “He’s got pros around him.”

After the plane landed in Washington early the next morning, Steve and Danny made their way to the medical complex. They would check into a hotel later.

Both men flashed their badges to security and reception personnel, and Steve asked for Dr. Freedman. After about five minutes, a graying, curly-haired, mustachioed man came to greet them.

“Sidney,” Steve said, reaching out to shake hands with the other man.

“How are you, Steve?” Sidney Freedman responded. “It’s been about 100 years, hasn’t it?”

“Something like that,” Steve said with a chuckle. “My associate, Dan Williams,” he said, introducing Danny.

Danny and Sidney shook hands. “Good to meet you, Dr. Freedman,” Danny said.

“Please, it’s Sidney,” the psychiatrist responded. “Good to meet you, Dan.”

As the three men walked toward an elevator, Danny asked, “How did you meet Steve?”

“I’ll save that story for after this meeting,” Sidney said. “It’s lengthy, action-packed and involves tears.”

Danny looked with curiosity at Steve, who said, “He’s joking.”

As they rode up in the elevator, Steve asked, “How is Corporal Auston?”

“Well, as I told you on the phone, he’s doing very well,” Sidney said. “The flashbacks and nightmares have stopped; he’s still working through the guilt of some things in Vietnam – and of what happened to Dan. How are you feeling, by the way?” he asked Danny.

“Good,” Danny said.

“Back at full work and everything?” Sidney asked. “McGarrett here have you back at his famous 48-hour days?”

Danny laughed. “Absolutely,” he said.

The elevator doors opened, and the three men walked out and went through double doors into a ward. They stopped in front of one room.

“Give me a minute,” Sidney said, opening the door. As Steve and Danny waited, Danny nervously fussed with the buttons of his jacket.

“Take it easy, Danno,” Steve whispered. “You do that here, and they may keep you for observation.”

“Very funny, Steve,” Danny said, but it did the trick.

Just then, Sidney opened the door and motioned the two detectives in.

Corporal Auston, a big man, stood in a T-shirt with “Marines” on it and pajama bottoms. He faced Steve and Danny.

Steve glanced at Danny; it was his call to make the first move. Danny reached out his hand. “How are you, Corporal?” Danny asked.

Auston shook Danny’s hand tentatively for such a large man. “Better,” he said. “How are you, Detective?”

“Fine,” Danny said.

“I owe you a big, big apology, Detective,” Auston said. “Man, I must have terrified you, besides hurting you….”

Danny nodded. “Things were very tense,” he said, a slight smile on his face.

“I don’t know how to make it up to you, Detective,” Auston began.

“First of all, you can call me Dan. Secondly, Dr. Freedman is right; you have to let go of the guilt,” Danny said.

“I’m John,” Auston said. “Would you like to sit down, Dan?”

The two men walked to a table and two chairs and sat. Steve marveled at how his second-in-command had calmed down the moment he and Auston began talking.

“It’s almost like they’ve known each other all their lives,” Steve said to Sidney.

“Well, they both have quite a bit in common; two young men, carrying out dangerous missions, taking orders,” Sidney said. “Although in John Auston’s case, I don’t think his commanding officer was as benevolent as you are to Dan.”

Steve smiled. “Danno might tell you otherwise,” he said.

“Danno?”

“Long story,” Steve said.

“Well, that nickname, not to mention your presence here, tells me you do think very highly of your second-in-command…big brother complex, perhaps?” Sidney teased.

“Dr. Freedman, the only way I’m getting on a couch is to take a nap,” Steve teased back.

Sidney chuckled.

Steve thought a moment. “Sidney, does Auston know about….well, the rescue effort in the hospital room?”

“That you were his ‘medic?’ Yeah,” Sidney said. “By the way, good strategy….I always knew you had promise as a psychiatrist.”

Steve laughed.

“In fact, let’s go sit in on their conversation,” Sidney said, motioning Steve to follow him to the table.

As they walked over, Auston and Danny continued their conversation.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do…..I’ve still got some work to do here,” Auston said, turning to Sidney. “Right, Doc?”

“A little bit,” Sidney said, patting Auston on the shoulder. “John, do you know this man?” he asked, motioning toward Steve.

Auston looked puzzled.

“This is Steve McGarrett, the head of Hawaii Five-O and Dan’s boss,” Sidney said. “He dressed up as a medic to rescue Dan…and you.”

“Sorry for the disguise, John,” Steve said, with a slight smile. “I needed to rescue my detective.”

Auston nodded. “I understand, Mr. McGarrett,” he said. “Thank you for not shooting me.”

Steve, taken aback, looked at Sidney. “The truth will set you free,” Sidney said, smiling.

After the session with Auston, Sidney took Steve and Danny to the hospital cafeteria for some coffee.

“Looks like he’s making progress, Sidney,” Steve said.

“Yeah, but we’re not done yet,” Sidney said. “There’s one more hurdle.”

“The medal,” Danny said. Sidney nodded.

“It’s still waiting for him….Hard to say whether the president would still agree to honor him, given what happened. Politicians can be funny that way,” Sidney said with slight sarcasm. “It’s also a different president.” Lyndon Johnson had still been in office when the standoff had happened. Richard Nixon was now in office.

“I don’t think Auston would get a security clearance anyway,” Danny said.

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. He looked at Sidney. “What would happen in that circumstance?”

“I honestly don’t know, except for the part I play in clearing him mentally to receive the medal,” Sidney said. “The rest is up to the Marine Corps brass. But you two guys could make a lot of difference by being there with him.”

“Of course,” Steve said. Danny nodded in agreement.

“Can you stay in Washington an extra couple of days?” Sidney asked.

Steve had left Chin in charge in Hawaii. He was overseeing Kono, and there was temporary help from Honolulu Police Department Sgt. Edward “Duke” Lukela and from Kealoha.

“I’ll just check in at home and see how things are going there,” Steve said.

As he went to find a phone, Danny asked Sidney, “So, how did you and Steve meet?”

Sidney laughed. “It was, of course, during the Korean War. I used to make house calls.”

Danny was puzzled. “House calls?”

“To foxholes,” Sidney continued.

Danny looked amazed. “Did you pay a ‘house call’ to Steve?” he asked.

“No,” Sidney said, smiling. “To an Army soldier. Steve was there with Naval Intelligence for some sort of assignment. For whatever reason, he was in that foxhole with the soldier when I arrived. The soldier had just been reassigned after being wounded.”

“Wow,” Danny said, shaking his head.

“I think Steve wound up counseling both of us,” Sidney said. “That man has nerves of steel.”

Danny nodded in agreement.

“We all got out of it OK,” Sidney said. “I’ll tell you though, I’d love a session with your boss, just to know the things he went through there. I don’t think he’s ever discussed them in full with anyone.”

“And it’s going to stay that way, Sidney,” Steve said as he walked back to join them.

“Just telling Dan how we met, Steve,” Sidney said.

“Ah, yes….Sidney’s foxhole calls,” Steve said. “In between trips to that M*A*S*H unit you used to visit to play poker.”

“They were the nuttiest doctors I ever knew in my life,” Sidney remembered. “I think that’s why they were all so good.”

Danny sensed Steve wanted to change the subject from Korea, so he asked, “Everything OK at home?”

“Yeah. Chin’s got everything under control,” Steve said.

“Even Kono’s appetite?” Danny joked. Steve laughed, and turned to Sidney.

“So we’re yours for the next two days, Dr. Freedman.”

“Good,” Sidney said.

The next day

“I don’t know about receiving that medal, Dan,” Auston said.

“Everyone says you deserve it, John,” Danny said.

“I don’t feel like I do – and what happened in Hawaii is only part of it.”

Auston sat in silence a moment.

“Have you ever served in Vietnam, Danny?” Auston asked.

“No,” Danny said. “I was briefly in the Navy between college and the Honolulu Police Department, but that was before things developed in Vietnam.”

Auston shook his head. “You’ve never seen anything like it, man,” he said. “Imagine hell. This was 10 times worse.”

Danny nodded. “I know,” he said. “Through you.”

Auston nodded. “Yeah, you do. But only the end of it.”

“Go on,” Danny encouraged.

“I’ve told the doc about it…..I guess I should tell you.”

Danny patiently waited.

“I got to ‘Nam in early 1967,” Auston recalled. “My unit. Instantly, because of my size and my color, I started getting it from the sergeant. ‘Nigger this and nigger that.’”

Danny recoiled at the use of the word.

“Does it make you uncomfortable, Danny….that word?” Auston asked.

“It’s angry….no, it’s cruel, and that’s the way it’s intended when it’s used,” Danny said.

“Yeah, and the sergeant intended in every way to be cruel. I’d get the rough assignments.”

“This may be a naïve question, but did you ever try to report the sergeant?” Danny asked.

“By the way you started that question, you already know the answer,” Auston said.

“Yeah,” Danny said.

“Man, I went to every higher-up I could think of, but the answer I got was ‘He’s gung-ho!’ Yeah….gung-ho all right,” Auston recalled bitterly. “For a while, I couldn’t talk about it with the doc without starting to go back into it.”

“Reenacting it,” Danny said.

“Right,” Auston said. “I realized, when I spoke to the doc a lot, that it wasn’t just what I saw there, but how I felt that drove me into these things.”

“I’m glad we’re both here for you to have figured it out,” Danny said, with a smile.

Auston nodded and sighed. “Me, too.”

While Auston was telling Danny his story, Steve was hearing the same story, with a more clinical angle, from Sidney.

“Auston gets safely over here, something as innocuous as a little boy swinging a baseball bat,” said Steve, shaking his head. “Repeated horrors for him, new horrors for Danno, and for all of us.”

“Yeah, but Dan has an amazing capacity to forgive,” Sidney said, motioning at the body language of the two men sitting on the other side of the window. “You told me he studied psychology, right?”

“Yeah, but he preferred police work. Anyway, he’s said he didn’t think his efforts with Auston worked that day,” Steve said.

“Well, they’re sure working now,” Sidney said.

“I won’t be going to the White House, that’s for sure…..I doubt they’d even let me on a tour at any point,” Auston said. “I guess I’d be getting the medal here. Not exactly black tie.”

“Nobody says you can’t wear a dress uniform in the mental ward of a hospital,” Danny said. “At least I don’t think they do.” Both men laughed.

“John,” Danny asked. “What were you going to do afterward….if you’d gone to get the medal?”

“Well, I had a month of R & R coming, but then I would’ve gone back to my unit,” Auston said.

“Then maybe what happened is for the best, at least the fact that you’re not there anymore,” Danny said. “What are you going to do when you get out of here?”

“I don’t know,” Auston said. “I was working on an assembly line in Michigan when I was drafted.”

“Cars?” Danny asked.

“Yeah. Fords,” Auston said.

Danny smiled. “I’ve got a Mustang,” he said.

“Beautiful car,” Auston said.

“Yeah,” Danny agreed. He thought a moment. “You could always go to school, couldn’t you?”

“Tough to manage, with a lack of money,” Auston said. “And I’d have to tell them about all this.”

The two men sat, silent, for a few minutes. Auston smiled.

“I’ve learned a few things in here, Danny,” he said. “The main one is to take things one day at a time. Maybe tomorrow, school won’t seem so impossible.”

“Maybe a medal will help…Huh?” Danny asked.

Auston thought. “Maybe,” he said.

“What kind of a future could he have, Sidney?” Steve asked. “Especially when people find out about….”

“Well, he’s gotta depend on the kindness of strangers, or maybe some friends,” Sidney said. “He worked on an auto assembly line before. He likes assembling things – mostly cars.” He told Steve of Auston’s Michigan background.

“Hmm, maybe some detectives in Detroit I can talk to,” Steve mused. “I know the chief of homicide a little bit, from some conferences and work dealings. Maybe there’s a pipeline there.”

“Especially since John never had trouble before this,” Sidney said. “I looked at everything – spotless record. What’s the circumstance of his case in Hawaii?”

“The DA decided not to bring charges, on recommendations from Danno and me,” Steve said.

“Good,” Sidney said. “That helps.”

Steve stared off into space for a moment.

“Thinking about what you, thankfully, didn’t have to do?” Sidney said.

“Yeah,” Steve said. “I didn’t exactly start out with great methods. I went up to that area of the hospital with guns ready to blaze.”

“Trying to rescue your friend,” Sidney said. “I know all your men are special to you, Steve, but Dan a little more so?”

Steve smiled. “Trying to analyze me, Doc?” he asked.

“Why not? It’s something to do,” Sidney said.

“You ever have a protégé, Sidney?” Steve asked.

“A few,” Sidney said. “If they’re real protégés, they don’t listen to a word I say.”

Steve chuckled. “Well, sometimes that’s the case with Danno, too,” he said.

“You’ve got a good cop there, Steve – not just in the things you have in common, but the things that are different,” Sidney said. “Also, a good friend. And you are a good friend. How many bosses would have not only encouraged their employees to do what Dan’s doing, but also would have come with them?

“And it must have taken a lot for both of you to make this trip,” Sidney continued. “I’m glad you did. And so is John Auston.”

The next day

A military honor guard assembled in an auditorium at the medical center. The purpose: A medal for Marine Lance Corporal John T. Auston.

Auston stood in full dress uniform, at attention. Facing him were Brigadier General Robert Bower and Colonel David McClendon.

Steve McGarrett stood in his full Naval dress uniform, which he had brought just in case Auston decided to accept the honor. Behind him stood Dr. Sidney Friedman, in his Army uniform, and Danny Williams.

“Lance Corporal Auston, please step forward,” McClendon said. Auston did so.

“For meritorious service in Vietnam, we present you with this Medal of Valor,” Bower said, pinning the medal on Auston’s chest. He and Auston saluted each other and shook hands. Auston shook McClendon’s hand and saluted him, as well. He then turned to find a line of well-wishers, including Steve, Danny and Sidney. He saluted Steve and Sidney.

“Thank you, Doc,” Auston said.

“Good for you to have, John. You deserve it,” Sidney said.

Auston gave thanks to Steve as well.

“Let us know, Corporal, if you need any assistance,” Steve said. “We’d be glad to give it to you.”

“That means more than words can say, Mr. McGarrett,” Auston said, and turned his attention to Danny.

“You’ll keep in touch, right John?” Danny asked.

“You bet, Dan,” Auston said. They shook hands.

“Good luck to you, Corporal,” Danny said.

“And good luck to you, Detective,” Auston responded.

Sidney walked Steve and Danny to the exit.

“Sidney, Steve’s right. You do good work,” Danny said. “You did with John.”

“Well, actually, lots of people heal themselves. I just give a little boost,” Sidney said.

“Take care of yourself, Sidney,” Steve said, shaking the doctor’s hand. Danny followed suit.

Sidney smiled at them both.

“There’s an old phrase I like to repeat to my friends about their attitudes toward life:

Gentlemen, take my advice,

Pull down your pants, and slide on the ice.”

Steve and Danny both laughed and walked out.

“Glad you came?” Steve asked when they were both on the plane.

“Very glad,” Danny said. “Thanks for coming with me, Steve.”

“I was glad to do it,” Steve said. “Sidney said Auston should be out of there in coming weeks.”

“I wonder what’s going to happen next,” Danny said.

“An assistant police chief near Detroit has a cousin with a business repairing classic cars,” Steve said. “He’s going to give Sidney a call.”

“That’s great,” Danny said.

“You did good, Danno,” Steve said.

“I just talked to him,” Danny said.

“Sometimes, that’s the best thing,” Steve said.

The stewardess came up the aisle with the drink cart. She smiled at Danny.

“Hi,” she said. “Care for something to drink?”

“Beer,” Danny said, smiling back.

She looked at Steve as if he were a chaperone. “And you, sir?” she asked.

“Orange juice, please,” he said.

She gave it to him, and smiled again at Danny. “Be back in a bit with your lunch,” she said. “I’m Randi.”

“I’m Danny,” he said.

Steve chuckled and took out his copy of the Washington Post to read. He knew Danny was just fine.

PAU