Comfort

Chapter 14

Danny had been what he called "interrogated" by his doctors about how he was feeling. Suddenly, he had sympathy for the criminals they had questioned relentlessly. He understood that it was necessary, but it didn't mean that it made the process less exhausting. He heard a knock at the door and looked over.

"Hey, Danny, how you holding up? Sorry I couldn't come by sooner. Chin and I were tying up some loose ends on a case."

"Translation paperwork you're favorite thing to do."

"Yeh, well, this was worth it. It was to put Hoffman away for good."

Danny nodded.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better, but I've never felt so tired. I'm getting winded just having the doctors and nurses poke and prod me. They just got finished interrogating me before you got here and I feel like I ran a marathon. I think I've gained some sympathy for the perps we grill."

Steve laughed. He had actually missed Danny's rants.

"Yeh, I get that. Been in my share of hospitals. So what's the verdict?'

"Well, I guess I'm getting better, but I'm a long way from chasing bad guys or being in a car with you."

Steve smiled, but it faded a little. Danny noticed.

"What? Do you know something I don't?" Danny teased.

"No, no, it's just…you came pretty damn close to…you scared us."

Danny watched Steve's features and there was a quality there that reminded him of the day that he had found out his supposed friend Nick Taylor had betrayed him and he had berated himself for not seeing it.

"What's with the face?"

"Again with the face, there's nothing with my face," Steve protested, though it was a feeble protest at best since he knew he wasn't doing a great job at hiding what he was feeling.

"Yes, you DEFINITELY have a face. Wait a minute, you don't think…you think it's your fault this happened to me, don't you?"

Steve was silent. Danny had learned that a silent Steve was usually a guilt-ridden Steve.

"You do, don't you? Now, how could any of this be your fault? Hoffman hired a goon to kill me. You seem to think you have some kind of psychic ability and you don't. What happened to me was because Hoffman is a scumbag. I ticked him off, told him I had the tapes and he went after me. End of story. Okay?"

Danny was always great at bringing things into a practical clarity when the rest of them got caught up in self-recrimination.

"Okay."

"If anyone has to apologize, it's me for dragging all of you into it. I'm sorry about that. I just thought that giving the DA the tapes would have closed the deal."

Steve had to smile. Danny always stuck to his credo, the one that he had introduced to him the first day they had met, when you get someone shot, you apologize.

"Nope, it's not your fault either, the DA didn't process Hoffman so it gave him time to set up the hit on all of us. That's been taken care of though. Chin and I made sure this time and Chin had the privilege of arresting Hoffman himself."

"Wish I had been there to see that," Danny said. "So, okay, we're square then. Hoffman's put away. Can we move on now?"

"Yeh, yeh, we can move on."

"Good because I'm hungry. All they're serving is green jello. A man just can't subsist on lime jello. It's inhuman. It's just unnatural. It's probably got all kinds of chemicals in it, I mean, face it, what could possibly be natural about green jello? I'm sure there's something about it in the Geneva Convention."

Steve just laughed and listened. He didn't think he would ever complain about Danny's ranting ever again because the silence for the last few weeks was agonizing for him. For better or worse, Danny's rants were comforting, they gave comfort in a way that Steve had never realized they could until they were taken from him. So he let Danny rant.

It was music to his ears.

FIN. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed how I ended things. Thanks for all of the reviews and kind words! They meant more than I can express.