Danny caught a brief glimpse of the culprit, but it was too late.
Before he could stop it, his body was up in the air. It was the down part, however, that did the damage. His head smacked the corner of the end table with a resounding thud. And then there was the audible snap of bones and accompanying searing pain as he landed wrong on the arm he had outstretched to catch himself.
He lay on the floor of his tiny apartment trying to focus on breathing through the agony. His vision was beginning to blur as the pounding in his head steadily increased. Reaching into his pocket with his good arm he fumbled for his cell phone.
He just had time to press the buttons and mumble out a weak, "officer down," before his lights went out completely.
"Where the hell is he?" Steve fumed, more out of worry than anger. "He's more than an hour late."
Chin and Kono remained silent watching as their commander paced back and forth across the room. Danny was rarely ever late, and when he was he always called in first.
"And he's not picking up his damn phone. That does it…I'm going over there."
The cousins shared a look as Steve grabbed for his keys and made a bee-line for the door.
"It's about time," Chin sighed. "He was wearing down the floor."
"And wearing on my nerves," Kono added. "I just hope Danny's alright."
Steve heart started to beat faster as he rounded the corner and say two patrol cars and an ambulance in front of Danny's apartment complex. As his heart sped up so did his truck, so much so that he had to screech to a halt behind one of the cruisers.
'Danny would have loved that,' he thought. 'Just be okay so I can hear you bitch about it next time."
But Danny looked anything but okay as he approached the ambulance and saw his partner lying seemingly unconscious on the gurney.
"How is he, Joe?" Steve asked the familiar paramedic.
"He's got a nasty bump on his head and his arm is broken in at least a couple of places. We're taking him over to Queens."
"Has he said anything?"
"He woke briefly and mumbled something that sounded like 'stupid blonde'," the young EMT answered. "But he was pretty out of it."
Steve furrowed his brow. "Can I have a minute with him?" Joe nodded and Steve stepped up into the vehicle. "Danny? Can you hear me, partner?"
Danny heard Steve's voice through the intense fog. He tried to open his eyes, but quickly slammed them shut as the light sent daggers through his skull.
Steve saw Danny's eyes flutter briefly and heard a low moan escape from his lips.
"That's okay, brah. Just rest easy." It was unnerving to see the Jersey boy so still and so quiet. He took hold of his hand and squeezed. "We can talk later."
Squeezing the hand back weakly Danny thought, 'We can talk, but there's no way in hell that I'm gonna tell you what happened.'
TBC…