Danny's sleep was plagued by nightmares. He dreamt of strange faces looking at him in anger. He dreamt about water closing over his head and being unable to breathe. He also dreamt about an evil man threatening his girl and taking her away. He dreamt about a cop burned alive, with his badge on his mouth and of a dead woman with a shiny cross around her neck.
He tried to fight the nightmares, he tried to wake up, but there was a weight over his chest that wouldn't let him fight. He felt hot and cold at the same time, alone but surrounded by strange shadows. It made him fight twice as hard to wake up, and after a while, it paid off.
Unfortunately, his first awakenings were not much better than his nightmares. Everything wavered in and out of focus, he was connected to a bunch of cables and tubes that wouldn't let him move freely and even if he wasn't, he was too weak to even think about moving.
There were familiar unfamiliar faces whenever he awoke. Sometimes it was the Hottie, who would always give him a beaming smile and try to calm him down with a soft "It's alright, brah".
Other times it was Mr. Poker-Face. He would just sit there, reading something or watching TV, giving comfort by his sole presence. He would talk to him in soft words that he wouldn't remember or understand later, but he felt safe around him.
Then of course there was Mr. Tall, Dark and Scary, who was a goof. Every time Danny woke up and he was in the room, he would give him a goofy smile, like Danny had gotten him a hand grenade for a birthday present or something like that… And Danny had no idea why the thought of hand grenades came to his mind when Mr. TDS was in the room.
No matter the company, whenever Danny was awake he felt like crap. It hurt to breathe, his head hurt as well, everything was confusing, and people wouldn't make any sense. He was assaulted by coughing fits that at best left him panting and from there they could either make him throw up in front of his visitors (which for some reason annoyed him immensely) or pass out in front of them, with their terrified faces as the last thing he saw.
It took an undetermined number of days, but things finally started to get a little bit better for Danny. At least physically he was feeling a bit better, and the crushing weight on his chest was starting to dissipate.
He woke up one of these days to the sight of Mr. Tall, Dark and Sleepy, crashing on what looked like a very uncomfortable chair. Before he could say anything to startle the man awake and see if he squealed like a girl, there was a knock at the door and a strange man, who Danny was positive he hadn't seen before, came into the room.
Danny didn't even have the chance to start freaking out, which was his initial plan, because Mr. TDS stood before the newcomer, effectively blocking his sight of Danny. "Who are you? Who authorized you to enter this room? Get out! I have to confirm your identity!" And with that, they were gone.
A few minutes later, they both came back to the room, the unknown guy looking extremely annoyed and Mr. TDS looking all pinched in the face, like he was sorry about something but would do it again anyway.
The unknown guy approached the bed. "Mr. Williams-"
"Detective Williams!" Snapped Tall guy from the side.
The unknown guy sighed. "I'm sorry, Detective Williams, I'm doctor Reeves, and I'm the neurologist reviewing your case…"
Danny assumed that he was referring to him when they talked about Detective Williams, so he gave him a small "Hey" in return. He turned to Tall guy, and found him looking ready to pounce at the smallest threat. "Hey! Stand down, would you?"
Tall guy grinned and relaxed his stance minutely. Danny turned to the doctor, who looked amused. "I'm sorry, He's still not house trained, it seems…" He said, shrugging.
The doctor gave him and Tall guy a smile. "It's alright Detective, Commander McGarrett is only looking after your welfare, I understand. As I was saying, I'm the neurologist assigned to your case…" He looked down at a tablet on his hands. "And now that your fever has finally cleared, I'd like to make a neurological assessment, if that's ok with you?"
Danny looked uncertain, but nodded anyway. "Sure, go ahead…"
Doctor Reeves turned to McGarrett, but before he could open his mouth the Commander started talking. "I am staying right here. I promise to stay out of the way and not say a word to interrupt your assessment, but I'm not leaving my partner alone with a strange doctor."
The doctor looked at Danny for confirmation. "Detective, do you mind if Commander McGarrett is in the room during the examination?"
Danny looked at the Commander, trying to understand how he had managed to get people that cared so much for his well being when not a week ago he was sure that he was all alone in the world. He was distracted from his thoughts by the doctor's voice. "Detective?"
Danny jumped and turned back to the doctor. "Yeah… He can stay." He said, sending a small smile to his goofy watchdog.
It took about an hour of following fingers with his eyes, lifting and wiggling legs, arms, fingers and toes, memorizing random phrases and answering dumb questions for the damn doctor to look like he had anything useful to say.
He sat down on a chair, looking at the other two men on the room and finally focused his attention on Danny. "Well, Detective… From your physical examination and your tests, it looks like you're recovering from multiple traumas to your head. Fortunately in your case, the trauma didn't cause any swelling or bleeding of the brain. You did have a severe concussion, but the forced rest of the last few days has helped with your recovery…"
For Danny it all sounded well and good, but he still wasn't hearing an explanation for his current problems. "I'm sorry doctor, but you're still not telling me what the hell is wrong with my head and whether I'll ever remember all the stuff I forgot!"
The doctor lifted his hand in a placating gesture. "Detective…"
"Don't call me detective! I may have been a detective once, but right now I wouldn't know how to be one! I'm not a detective anymore!" Danny snapped, not really knowing why that fact made him so angry.
"Breathe, Danno…" A gentle hand on his shoulder made him take a deep breath to calm himself, which got him coughing his lung out, which brought back his headache.
Once he got his coughing under control he glared at his friend. "I'm alright…"
McGarrett lifted his hand and moved away from Danny, and Danny motioned for the doctor to continue.
"Alright Danny… What I was trying to tell you is that while some of your injuries could cause some memory loss, it shouldn't be a loss of the magnitude you're experiencing right now…" Doctor Reeves said with a concerned expression on his face.
Danny looked from the doctor to McGarrett, who looked just as confused as he was right now. "I don't understand… If my nuggin' was not knocked hard enough to cause this, then why can't I remember anything?"
"Danny, when physical reasons are ruled out, the only ones left are psychological reasons. Your brain could have chosen to delete some information as a defense mechanism…"
Danny couldn't understand the doctor's explanations. "What? What's that mean?"
The doctor looked grim. "Danny, I'm afraid it means that I can't help you recover your memory."
TBC…
A/N: Ok, this is the part where I tell you that my medical expertise does not even amount to the proper aplication of a bandaid, so please just pretend that all that medical mumbo jumbo that the doc is saying makes some sense and if it doesn't, please don't hate me for it?
Anyways, thank you very much for reading, and leave a note if you feel like it!
