Danny's screams startled the sleeping birds sending them flocking into the air, he seemed to fall for a long time, struggling to grab onto something even if was just to slow his rapid descent.

Danny barely caught the vine as he tumbled half way over the edge, he felt his shoulder tear and his elbow pop. Cursing into the nothingness he swung himself over, after several attempts he managed to grab the vine with his other hand taking some of the strain off his damaged arm but found it impossible to pull his heavy frame back up.

He realised very quickly how weak he had made himself, he had been drinking nothing more than the whiskey over the past two weeks and food was whatever that could be picked and not cooked. Looking down he realised that there was extremely thick vegetation he prayed that the second drop would be kinder than the first because truth be told he saw no choice.

Hanging for a while longer was agony with the decision made he closed his eyes and let go. This time there was no scream just echoing snap of branches as they tore into his bare skin, the bushes seemed to form friendly helpful arms and hands slowing his fall, depositing him more gracefully to the ground.

Taking deep breaths it seemed to take forever to stop his heart from trying to rip it's way out of his chest, every exposed part of skin stung with the early morning dew, his ankle throbbed with the pain that radiated in time with his shoulder and elbow. Even though he hadn't hit his head he felt totally disoriented.

Sitting up seemed like a good idea but his stomach had other ideas expelling what little it held causing Danny's head to spin. Laying back he stared at the way he had come. His last thought before he passed out was that he had been a complete arse again.

Steve didn't need training to track Danny he hadn't exactly been careful with the path he had taken at this rate a toddler could have tracked him, sure the rain had washed away the footprints but it couldn't mend the broken plants.

He had only been walking for an hour when he come across the discarded whiskey bottles, Steve briefly recalled how Danny had mentioned that the bottle had become his best friend after he had witnessed his partner getting murdered next to him and how it had cost his relationship with Rachel.

Standing he scanned the area nothing else had been damaged beyond the dumping point, fear dropped in his stomach like a lead weight, walking to the incline he noticed a lot of vegetation damage to much to have been caused by animals.

Cursing he dropped his pack to the ground retrieving the rope he secured it around the strongest tree and lowered himself down to a ledge about 10 feet below, his prey of finding Danny was squashed like a bug because the ledge was so narrow the only other place he could be was over the edge.

Danny woke his head was pounding and his skin was sore, his throat was like sandpaper he realised that he needed to find water soon or his was going to be in real trouble. Pushing himself up he closed his eyes and took deep even breaths until he felt calm enough to stand.

The pain and angle of his arm indicated dislocation but although flexing his fingers was painful nothing felt broken. Popping several buttons of his shirt he slipped his arm inside, next he wiggled his ankle hissing at the agony it inflicted required further investigation. Struggling one handed he managed to pull the pant leg up he curled his lip at the black and blue swollen mess, "shit now that is definitely broken"

Looking around his spied a branch that he must have brought down during the fall, it looked only a few feet away but with odd damage to his body it might as well be a million miles away, there was no choice he put himself in this position so crying over spilt milk was useless.

Managing somehow to get on his belly he inched painfully forward exhausted by the time he touched the branch. Luckily it was a good strong branch with a ready custom crutch like handle, at least something was in his favour. By the time he was unright sweat was soaked through his shirt and running down his face which wasn't helping his thirst.

Looking around his surroundings did nothing to stop to fear from eating away at him, he was truly lost, but one good thing about having a super seal for a partner was the skills you pick up and not deliberately. Testing the branch's ability to support him he trudged in the direction that Steve had taught him to follow when looking for water, he just prayed that he remembered the rules correctly.

Time remained a mystery and even the idea of using the sun to tell it was useless due to the thick vegetation that was determined to place him back on his arse, but the sound of running water was all he needed right now to bury the impending doom that he felt.

He all but practically fell in it, the cool water slid down his throat but he knew that he shouldn't drink too much or he was in for another bout of vomiting his stomach up. And he felt miserable enough.

Managing to stand back up he studied the surrounding jungle, every tree and plant looked the same, the one logic thought that planted itself in his brain was a backward version of "what goes up must come down" But damned if he knew how his was going to manage that one with his injuries.

Steve stood in the carpark pinpointing the location that Danny had vanished, He knew that a fall of any kind was fatal depending on how one lands. But for some reason Danny was like a clumsy cat with nine lives and no matter how negative everyone was being Steve was determined to find him and then kick his arse all the way home.

Danny had painfully and slowly started making his way up a ragged unstable incline, mud slipped away making his feet slide inflicting stubborn pain from the bottom of his foot through to his hip joint. He had caused the whole stupid situation so he could worry about his ankle later because he knew Steve and if he was hurt trying to locate his sorry arse Danny wouldn't be able to cope any more.

Steve abseiled down the rocky front it would take to long taking the alternative route not saying that Kono had not taken it with the second search party. But Steve was impatient and a fall like this without the correct equipment was likely to have caused some nasty injuries and he refused to bring a body back.

It took just over half to descend to the base he had to cut and chop some of the vegetation but most had been damaged. The ditch/deposit site was obvious vomit, crushed plants, broken twigs but no blood which was the first positive of the day. Steve knew that they were running out of time but this meant that Danny was in a better shape then Steve had envisioned.

Steve stood for a moment eyes closed trying to think of what Danny was thinking, based on the alcohol, vomit and the heat he realised that one thing would be on his mind "Water" Chin looked up from what he was doing.

"Chin, Danny would be looking for water"

Danny pulled himself physically up the last of the incline, collapsing down on a massive dislodged boulder. The heat had peaked during the climb and drained him of what little water he had lined his stomach with and now the surrounding area spun uncontrollably making him shaky and sick.

He leg burned as well as throbbed, his elbow and shoulder had started to swell horribly producing pins and needles in his fingers, he hung his head, closing his eyes brought images of Melissa her perfect smile, warm embraces and tender love which simply brought sadness to his heart.

He sometimes wondered why he bothered nothing ever went right, Steve seemed to want to hang more with Chin or Lou, Rachel had lied to him and he had missed major milestones of his son's development that Stan had witnessed, Gabby had preferred a job to their future the bleeding list was endless but right now he really needed to sleep.

Eyes rolling his body slumped sideways into an unceremonious heap, luckily he was unconscious before he hit the ground as he landed on his dislocated shoulder.