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-Chapter 12-

As Larry made his way down the hallway toward Danny's room, a young brown haired nurse stopped him. He smiled at her.

"Hi there Emily. How are you?"

"I'm alright Mr. McCoy." She glanced over her shoulder down the hallway. "He's having another nightmare." She met his eyes again, worry showing through.

"Thanks." Larry rushed the rest of the way to his son's room and pushed open the door.

Danny was tangled in his sheets, his face and t-shirt wet with sweat. As Larry closed the door behind him, Danny shifted. He was still for a minute before shifting again. His head turned back and forth; his eyes were clenched tightly shut.

Larry watched as his son's hands closed into fists and relaxed over and over. He sighed and walked toward the bed. As he sat on the edge, reaching to brush Danny's hair from his damp forehead, Danny let out a groan. Larry pulled his hand back and watched Danny. The more agitated he got, the closer to words his noises became.

Larry tried to wait it out and see if Danny actually said anything, but he couldn't stand watching him like this. He reached over and smoothed his hair back, the other hand gripping his son's shoulder.

"Shh! Danny, come on. Shh."

In an instant Danny had come back to consciousness and was pushing Larry away. Thinking quickly, Larry grabbed one of Danny's flying hands around the wrist. He leaned back to avoid being hit and grabbed the other wrist.

Restrained, Danny blinked and seemed to finally wake up. His eyes landed on Larry and filled first with fear and then shame. He pulled his hands away from his father and, shrinking away, rolled onto his side.

Larry frowned and reached over, putting his hand on his son's back. "Danny?"

There was no response. "Danny, please."

He felt Danny move his shoulders slightly, but he wouldn't look at him.

Larry moved onto the bed more and shifted around so he could lean over and see Danny's face. He put one hand on his son's arm and moved the other one absently through his hair soothingly.

"Danny, it's okay kiddo. All of this is okay." He stopped and watched for some reaction. Sighing, he continued. "I love you as much as ever. No, even more. I'm so proud of you. This is hard and you're making progress everyday.

"But no matter what, even if you stay just like this and never make any more progress, you're here and you're alive," he paused to turn Danny's face toward him. "And that's enough."

The two men looked at each other in silence for a few minutes before Danny, his eyes full of emotion, bit his lip and nodded. Larry smiled.

"You're everything to me kiddo. I don't know what I would have done if those soldiers had been at my door that morning to tell me you were dead." He squeezed Danny's shoulder.

Letting the heavy emotion pass, Larry grinned evilly and poked his finger into Danny's shoulder. "But you aren't going to stay like this. You're going to work your butt off and make as much progress as you possibly can." Larry sat back, letting Danny sit up some. "I was just outside talking to Kate. She said you aren't trying with her."

Danny rolled his eyes and turned his head away.

"Danny, you're doing great with Shawn, but you've got to work just as hard on the rest of it. It's just as important." He reached over and turned Danny's face toward him. "And I'm going to be working on it with you too."

Danny's mouth opened slightly and Larry smiled.

"No excuses now. We're going to do this."

By the end of the next week Danny was moving himself around most of the time. He still couldn't support himself upright on crutches, but he had the strength to steer the wheelchair.

He rolled himself into Kate's office, ready to work. She stood up and smiled.

"Hi Danny!" She immediately turned back to clear the paperwork on her desk. Instead of smiling and waving like normal, Danny frowned and moved himself to the table in the corner.

"Are you ready to work? Your Dad said you've been trying hard with him. That's good to hear." She kept herself busy and her back to him until she had her pile of cards in her hand and was ready to start.

Unused to being unable to give her any kind of response, Danny frowned and glared down at the edge of the table.

Kate sat down and looked at him. "You in a bad mood today?"

He nodded his head and looked up to see that she was reading through his file. Danny's mood soured further.

"Okay, let's get started." Kate pulled out some wooden shapes, a circle, a square, and a triangle; all painted different colors. She placed them in front of Danny. He moved his gaze from his hands and stared at them.

"Which one is the square?"

He looked them over for a minute before deciding and pointing to one.

Kate smiled. "That's right."

Danny looked up at her, smiling. Finding that she was busy writing in his file, his smile faded.

"Okay, which is the circle?"

An hour later, Kate had quizzed him on the shapes, changing the questions by asking about number of sides and color. She had then pulled out her picture cards and quizzed him on those.

Danny's frustration had grown with every wrong answer on his part and every instance of her not giving him her full attention. The only time he was sure he had it was when he had slammed his hand down on the table after being unable to pick out the picture of a football.

She had met his eyes and reached over to take his hand. Even angrier that she was now paying attention to him, Danny had pulled his hand away.

"Alright Danny, I'll see you tomorrow." She opened the door so he could wheel himself out.

Sighing, Kate watched him go around the corner. Pulling her door closed behind her, she headed for the door to the courtyard where Larry was waiting.

"He's pissed off at me." She grinned down at Larry, who was sitting on a bench. "It's going to be too cold to sit out here like this soon."

Larry stood up smiling. "I'll take it as long as I can." He put his hands in his pockets. "Did he realize that you weren't watching him on purpose?"

Kate shook her head. "I don't think so." She started walking down the pathway, away from the hospital. "He was mad. I don't know if he's going to get mad enough to be forced to talk though." She stopped and looked over at Larry, who had been walking with her. "I really believe that he's very close to getting some actual words out. He's been making more speech like noises and he was making them in anger at me." She sighed. "I think we should revisit the idea of tricking him."

Larry nodded. "I suppose I'm going to be saddled with that?"

"Well, we can all work on it, but I think it will be the least damaging if you do it. Hopefully once he realizes what we were up to, he'll be okay with it."

Larry put his hand on her arm. "I'm alright with doing it. It's not the first or last time he'll be upset with me." He smiled at her. "We'll work on it tomorrow. I'm going to go make sure he's calming down." He squeezed her arm lightly and headed back into the hospital.