"Oh my God, Danny!"
Sam cupped his face with her hands and looked at him desperately in alarm, her breath coming in short quick gasps. For a minute Danny though she may have a panic attack from the shock, but she was able to calm herself by taking in deep breathes for a couple of seconds.
"How did you get like this?" she cried in concern, her voice noticeably cracking while she was on the verge of tears.
Danny shook his head gently and pulled Sam closer to him with his large furry arms. His eyes clouded over, tears coming to his own eyes at the image of his friend about to cry- a friend who never in her life had been seen or known to cry about anything, but he tried to be strong for Sam's sake. She wrapped her arms as far around his neck as she could and hugged him tightly. He could feel her warm, wet tears landing on his shoulders, the fur catching them and making his coat glisten in the dim light. He choked back a sob, choosing instead to stroke her hair with his large paw and grumble softly,
"Don't worry Sam, it can be fixed…I think…I just need to find Leon…"
"My God we leave you for one night and you get into this mess!" she choked through tears, attempting to lighten the mood, which Danny acknowledged with a smile and strangled chuckle.
Suddenly, sirens began to howler from down the road, indicating the police had arrived to inspect the area. Sam gasped and pulled away from Danny to peek out through her broken fence. She discovered they were only a few doors down from them and she gathered that seeing a destroyed fence might draw their attention up to her garden. Sam turned to Danny in panic and worry.
"Danny, the cops are down the street! You have to hide!"
Danny nodded and jumped to his feet. Stumbling a bit on his hind legs, he dove behind a large clump of bushes, causing stray leaves to flutter into the air, and he lay there, afraid to breath. Danny strained his ears, his forehead furrowing in concentration, until he could hear the sound of footsteps approaching. He gulped and prayed Sam would be able to handle it alone.
Sam watched as a tall, lanky police officer approached her while taking in the scene before him- a wooden fence, complete with a large jagged hole and broken panels scattering the garden. He raised his eyebrows in shock, making a low awestruck whistle as he turned to Sam.
"Did a large animal run through here ma'am?" asked a police officer pointing at her fence.
"Uh…Yeah…I-I was sitting in my garden when he crashed through here. He saw me and took off in the other direction."
Sam pointed down the street towards the park. The policeman followed her finger, his eyes alighting with suspicion before turning back to her. His stare made Sam uneasy, and she shifted her weight slightly from one foot to the other, waiting for his final judgement.
"You're saying it ran into the park?" he asked in confusion.
Sam merely smiled nervously and nodded her head, "Yeah…lot of foliage to hide behind, I guess…"
The police officer blinked once at her. 'She may be right,' he thought to himself, 'even though she's kinda shaken…'
"Thank you for your cooperation ma'am, and try to have a good night…oh, and uh, it'd be best if you, you know…stayed indoors…"
Sam nodded briefly and the policeman walked off back to his car, still staring at the fence with a scrutinizing expression, while one proceeded to call for back up through the radio. When they left, Sam turned back to the overgrown hedge Danny hid behind. She could faintly see an orange tinge to the bush, and hoped that she was the only one to have noticed that detail.
"The coast's clear Danny, you can come out now."
Danny slowly emerged from behind the bush, causing many of what Sam had first though to be twigs to move from their place. It turned out, the stripes on Danny's back came in useful in urban life after all, since the bush turned out to be barer than it had first appeared. He slowly walked up to Sam, balancing on three legs, while looking around him just to be sure no one saw him.
"We'll have to get a bandage for your hand…" she spoke quietly, "Wait here, I'll be two seconds!"
She took off into her house without waiting for his reply, not that she'd understand it anyway, and headed for her room. She knew where her first aid kit was kept- first drawer to the right in the wardrobe nearest the window. She was always armed and ready for Danny's return from fights, but this time, it seemed Danny had gotten himself into something way out of his league.
'No,' Sam mind scolded her, 'he's been in worse and he's come out ok- you should have more faith in him. After all, it can be fixed…can't it?'
Blinking back newly forming tears at the thought of Danny's permanent appearance, she grabbed the first aid kit and her mobile phone before charging back down the stairs and out into the garden. Danny looked up from the yellow flower he had been twirling between his furry fingers to find Sam had returned and was walking up to him, smiling reassuringly at him while patting the box. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a gunshot narrowly missed Danny's head and caused them both to jump backwards. The police had returned to question the neighbours when they spotted Danny in Sam's back yard. The same young cop was standing at the front door of a neighbours house, gun raised in both hands while the other stood with a loudspeaker in one and a gun raised in the other.
"STEP AWAY FROM THE GIRL!" the eldest shouted through a loudspeaker.
Danny turned to Sam in fear, alarm, but mostly guilt. Now he was in for it, and he had gotten Sam into trouble too. She had lied for him, and he was sure that she wouldn't be able to escape punishment this time. Sam shared the same expression as she desperately tried to come up with a plan of escape. They had little time to react or to think, but both were thinking the same thing- Must Get Out Of Here! In that split second of spontaneous urgency, the decision was made and Sam ran towards Danny, with the first aid box in hand. Knowing what she was planning, and knowing it was too late to stop her, Danny crouched forward, bending his knee to give her a leg up, before she jumped on his back.
"GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!" she shouted to him.
He nodded his head and, before the police could comprehend what had just happened, he jumped over the other side of Sam's fence, clipping the top with his sharp claws and causing splinters of wood to follow in their wake. Sam suppressed a gasp of shock as they landed with a thud in the neighbours' garden and ran for it. She gripped one of the spikes on his back and held on for dear life, closing her eyes in an attempt to calm herself and prevent motion sickness getting the better of her! Danny, meanwhile, concentrated on running on his hind legs and using his tail for balance. The muscles in his legs pushed him forward and gave him the ability to jump greater heights than any normal human. (But nothing too absurd like in the movie The Hulk! Urgh…anyway-) He jumped over walls and fences until he was on open road. Knowing where he had to go, he sprinted towards the hills in the distance- he knew they would be safe there. As Sam had said- more trees equals more protection. His paws pounded on the cement below him, but his sensitive ears allowed him to hear past that to how far away the police cars were, based on the sirens. He couldn't hear anything- he must have lost them. He quickened his pace, just to be sure, and headed for the hills.
Danny pushed branches and twigs out of his way as he attempted to get through the dense wood that circled the hilltop. He panted in exhaustion as he forced himself to keep going. His legs ached and he was developing a cramp in his stomach. 'Just a bit further,' he told himself, 'Just a little more.' Luckily, they reached a clearing, complete with a lake, that was hidden from view to the people and, more importantly, the authorities of Amity. Sighing in relief, he walked over to a nearby tree and crouched down to let Sam off his back. She awkwardly slid off and stumbled round to face him as he rested against the tree, panting heavily. She had managed to keep a hold of the first aid kit during the journey, which she now held in a death grip, afraid to let go. As she appeared before him, he looked at her pale, strained hands before finding her face. She was shaking from shock.
He grumbled softly, pulling her closer to his in a warm, furry embrace. He pulled away slightly, watching as her grip on the first aid box loosened, and her knuckled became their regular colour. She grinned shakily and began to inspect his broken wrist. He had acquired some extra scratches on his arms and face on his hike through the woods, and so had Sam. Her bare arms and delicate face was lined with scratches, some leaking a small amount of blood. Danny raised his right hand and stroked her cheek with the back of his 'index finger'. Sam looked up at him and smiled despite her sad eyes.
"Your hurt…"
Sam only heard a sympathetic moan escape his mouth, but she smiled in understanding and patted his arm.
"I'll be ok, don't worry about me…" she soothed as she went back to his hand.
"But I do worry about you Sam…"
She didn't acknowledge that she understood him so he sighed in defeat.
"Danny…your hand's gotten worse…"
He looked down at said wrist to see a small piece of bone was poking through his skin. He hissed at the sight and looked in the other direction.
"I'll do what I can on it, but I really think we should take you to see a doctor…"
Danny looked at her with an odd expression.
"…Vet…"
He grunted a laugh and looked back across the horizon. Sam rubbed his wrist gently with her hands, contemplating what to do. Well, she knew what to do, but she feared what such an action would bring…
"Danny…" she spoke softly, causing Danny to face her again, but she avoided his eyes, "I-I'm gonna have to push the bone back under your skin…" She finally met his eyes, and they were pained to say the least, "I-It's going to hurt…"
Her voice broke at the end of her confession as she watched for Danny's reaction. He knew she was right, and he didn't want to think about it too much, so he quickly nodded his head and looked back at the horizon. Sam rubbed some alcohol onto his wrist, which caused him to cringe in pain. She paused, and then began to push the bone back into place. She could hear Danny's sharp intakes of breath and whimpers of pain as he tried not to roar out loud, and it hurt her to know he was trying to be brave. She could never do it, as courageous as she tried to make herself out to be, she knew she would have to kick, or scream, or bite something to distract herself.
Holding the bone in place she quickly began to wrap a bandage tightly around his wrist in an attempt to force the piece of bone to stay under his fur and cleaned up the mess she had made. Danny had managed to keep a brave face as she worked the bandage on him, despite the throbbing pain. When she had finished, the cloud of tension lifted as she took a seat against the tree beside Danny and sighed unsteadily with relief. The sun was setting and turned the sky an orange-yellow colour with cream clouds floating by. There was a lake a couple of meters away that glistened in the light and seemed to turn a golden colour as it reflected the sky. It was so peaceful here.
"It's beautiful…" Sam breathed, gazing at the clouds as they swirled around the sun and danced in the sky.
Danny turned and smiled at her, "Not as beautiful as you…"
It was the most romantic and honest thing Danny had ever said to Sam without his clumsy nervousness getting the better of him; the only problem was she had no way of understanding him. She looked up at Danny to see he was staring at her with half closed eyes. She smiled at his relaxed face and pointed at the sky.
"The sunset…it's beautiful isn't it?"
Danny shook his head and pointed at her. For a moment Sam was extremely confused by his action, but slowly realized what he had implied. She blushed madly and looked away. Danny turned his attention sadly back to the sky, hoping he hadn't made her too uncomfortable.
'What just happened? Where did all that courage suddenly come from?! Must be some sort of animal instinct or something…I hope I didn't upset her…'
He was snapped out of his train of thought by the pressure of a light weight on his shoulder. He looked down to see Sam resting her head against his shoulder and her arm wrapped around his, carefully avoiding the area near his bandage. Her eyes were closed and he could feel her soft breath warming his arm. He smiled to himself and closed his own eyes before allowing exhaustion to take him and drifted off to sleep.
(Thanks to all who reviewed- keep 'em coming please!)
