Note: Medical stuff. I know nothing, except what Dr. Google has told me.
Chapter 5
Alec sat by the bedside of the scrawny young man he'd befriended and rubbed his face. The air smelled like every hospital he had ever been in: antiseptics and cleaning chemicals.
Danny's open fracture on his shattered leg had required hours of surgery and the insertion of a dozen metal plates, wires, and screws to keep it all in place. Then had come the strict regimen of antibiotics to counter the infection that was sure to result from hours of the open wound being dragged around in the desert sand.
The two broken bones in his forearm had been easier to take care of, only requiring a cast and painkillers to dull the pain.
The dehydration was being countered by the IV drip in his arm. It had put a strain on his kidneys, but he should be fine in a few days.
Then there were all the cuts and bruises that littered his body, as though some divine artist hadn't known whether they wanted their canvas to be black and blue or red with severe sunburn. The burns on his face were especially serious; large, painful-looking blisters had formed on his cheeks, forehead, ears, lips, and the tip of his nose, and his whole face was red and inflamed. The blisters that covered the back of his hands and wrists had popped and bled.
The result was that Danny's face and hands had been covered in medicated bandages to help cool and heal the damaged skin, making him look like a half-finished mummy.
He had yet to wake from the healing sleep the doctors had induced following his surgery, though they had said that he should begin stirring soon.
The heart monitors and other machines began to show signs of Danny's return to consciousness. Sure enough, the bandages covering his left hand twitched.
"Danny," Alec said softly, when the mechanical beeping echoing the younger man's heartbeat sped up. "Danny, you're safe. You're in hospital. Everything's alright."
Danny's bandage-swathed face turned towards his voice, his breaths coming short and fast. Alec cursed internally that he couldn't see the younger man's face at all, so he had no idea what he was thinking. He could take a guess, however.
"Danny, the skin on your eyelids was sunburnt, so they've put bandages over your eyes. It's okay. You've not gone blind." Alec wished that he could reach out to touch Danny's arm or hand, but any contact would likely cause pain, so he held back.
"Alec?"
Alec could barely hear the pained whisper, but he knew from experience that the kid's throat must be parched, so he grabbed the cup of ice chips by the bedside table and carefully picked up a small spoonful of them.
"I'm going to give you some ice chips, okay? It should help with your throat."
After the first painful, tentative spoonfuls, the rest of the cup was accepted eagerly.
"Feeling better?"
"Y's." Danny cleared his sore throat. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, kid."
"Alec?" The mask of bandages seemed almost hesitant to continue. "My leg?"
"Surgery. You'll be back to normal, more or less, after about six months or so and the proper PT. It was a bad break, and there's still a risk of infection. Your arm will be alright, too."
Alec could sense that there was still something else that the kid wanted to know.
"Do you want your dad here?" he asked, trying to figure it out. "He's been making a fuss back at HQ since they told him you'd gone missing. It seems even telling him that you've been found and that you're okay isn't working to calm him down. He wants details so he can come here and see you for himself."
Danny snorted and sighed. "He knows the policy."
MI6 policy was to inform whatever next-of-kin was on the injured employee's paperwork what had happened in vague terms or even white lies if the family wasn't cleared to know (or no longer cleared to know, as in Danny's father's case). If the employee was injured out of the country, the family usually had to wait for them to be transported back to London to visit.
"Do you want him to come?" Alec asked. "If you want him, I'll get him here." Even if he had to go around MI6 policy. Besides, based on what he was hearing from HQ, M would be willing to turn a blind eye if it would get an aggrieved former double-oh out of her hair.
Danny had been quiet for long enough that Alec thought that he might be drifting back to sleep when he spoke again. "No," he said carefully. "No. It wouldn't be very grown up of me to have my dad come and pick me up from the school infirmary, would it?"
Alec chuckled softly. "No one would blame you if you wanted him here."
"Is he driving M mad?" Danny said dryly.
"Yes. Q, too, for that matter." In fact, Alec was very certain that Drake was close to getting the answer out of the quartermaster, who was a bit neurotic on the best of days. It was likely that the reason he hadn't already was because he had been warned off from scaring him due to the older man's bad heart, so he had to go about it in other ways without giving him the fright of his life.
Danny sighed again. "Can you send a message? Tell him that I'm fine and can he please look in on my plant? I installed a watering mechanism but I haven't actually tested it yet. That is, the mechanism is fine, but I'm not entirely sure how much water the plant needs. The instructions seem so arbitrary. Exactly how much water per cubic centimeter is 'until the soil is moist to the touch,' I mean, honestly?"
Alec couldn't help smiling. His father was terrorizing MI6 and all the kid could think of to say to him was about his plant?
"Oh," Danny added, as if he'd heard Alec's thought, "And tell him to please stop bothering M and Q. I'm an adult now, thanks."
Alec was glad that he didn't have to school his expression due his friend being essentially blind right now. Under normal circumstances, Danny would already be huffing in his uniquely stroppy manner at the big grin Alec was exhibiting at the message Danny wanted him to relay to his father.
"Okay. Anything else?"
"You're laughing at me," Danny concluded accurately. "That's not fair; I'm a bit drugged up right now, and I'm in a considerable amount of pain."
Alec leaned his forearms on the bed, careful to not actually touch the kid. "I'm only laughing a little. We should get you high more often. Once you're off of pain meds, we're getting you drunk."
"You are incorrigible," Danny said primly. Then the playfulness dropped from his posture, leaving a tension that had Alec frowning.
"What is it, Danny?"
The bandages on Danny's throat convulsed, as though he had swallowed. "Clive. He- he's dead, isn't he?" He sounded small, almost childlike.
Oh, kid.
Alec sighed and decided not to soften the blow. Despite how he looked and sounded, the younger man wouldn't appreciate a lie or coddling.
"Yes."
"Was it the sandstorm or the blood loss?"
Alec could almost see the flat line the expressive mouth would be forming under the gauze.
"Is that important to you?" he asked.
"Yes."
"I'll find out." Woodslow's body should have reached London by now. They'd be conducting an autopsy, as they always did with double-ohs (when there was a body).
"Thank you." The bandages on the sunburned throat moved again. "He told me to go," Danny said hoarsely, "He said to- to take his jacket. Didn't need it anymore, and I did."
Alec nodded, even though the boy wouldn't be able to see it. "He was right. You're not feeling guilty about that, are you?"
"You made him promise." It sounded accusatory.
Alec turned the words over in his mind before he uttered them. He knew that he would have to be careful with what he told this brilliant, perceptive mind.
"He would have sent you off with his jacket regardless. He knew better than to have you stay with him out in the open in the middle of a sandstorm, and you wouldn't have been able to drag him to the shelter, with the state you were both in. Telling you to take the jacket was practical."
The skinny, bruised chest heaved under the thin sheets. "I don't think…I don't think I can accept that."
Alec let out a long breath. "Yeah. I suppose that someone who isn't used to...all this wouldn't be able to understand that a dead agent wouldn't mind a friend or an ally making use of his body or belongings if that would help them to survive a little longer or win the battle."
"But he wasn't dead yet."
"He was dying," Alec said firmly. "Even if he'd been able to get to shelter, rescue would have been too late to save him." The injured lad was silent. "Danny."
"It's not the same."
Oh, how fragile he sounded. Not at all like the scrappy, snarky young man who spoke to professional assassins with such insolence. Alec was suddenly glad that he couldn't see Danny's face. It was likely screwed up in a pained grimace, and there were likely tears soaking into the bandages now. The narrow shoulders and thin chest shook with suppressed sobs.
Danny continued tearfully, "It's not the same when it's...My dad told me about situations like this. Friends dying and such. But it's different when it's right there. When you live it."
Alec scrubbed a hand across his face. He wasn't equipped to handle situations like this. He wasn't a psychologist, dammit, nor was he a comforting sort of man. "Yeah. It is. But you survived it. And soon it'll be just another story."
"So I'll just get used to friends dying." Danny's voice was flat. "I can't- I won't. I'll do whatever it takes to keep that from happening."
Alec just sighed.
"I won't let you die, Alec."
"Death's always around the corner in my profession, Danny," he said softly, "Clive knew that too."
"Won't let you die like him."
Alec ran his hand through his hair then down his face. He looked down at the bandaged face, which he just knew was set in a determined expression under the gauze and sighed. "Go to sleep, Danny."
Danny reached out blindly towards him with his bandaged hand. "Alec?"
Alec touched the bandages, but gently, since he didn't want to hurt the kid. "I'm here."
"Stay?"
"Of course."
"Only until I fall asleep," the boy said, as though he didn't want to seem childish.
"I'll be here when you wake up," Alec promised.
. . . . .
He called HQ once the kid was asleep.
He dutifully relayed Danny's morphine-influenced message to Villiers, who promised to communicate it to Damien Drake ASAP. M's secretary sounded rather...harried. Alec assumed that Drake had been leaning heavily on him to share his son's condition and location with him.
Then M came on the line.
"Bring him home, Trevelyan. You've already been there far too long. I'll have Q send you the details for your flight home."
Alec straightened unconsciously. The order rubbed him the wrong way.
"No," he said, and waited for M's incredulous response.
"What?"
Alec breathed deeply, knowing that he needed to remain calm and not blow up at his superior. "With all due respect, ma'am, I'm not putting him on another plane. He's terrified of flying."
"Then drug him!"
Alec pressed his lips together tightly to keep the vitriol in. "I will not, ma'am. We'll take the train."
Then he hung up, not wanting to give her a chance to argue. He tightened his hand around the phone to the extent that the plastic case started to crack.
He respected the woman, but god, she infuriated him sometimes, especially with how she treated agents.
. . . . .
Q sent him their travel itinerary an hour later. Cars, trains, and ferries. No planes.
He also sent a string of ones and zeros that Alec assumed was meant for the boffin.
. . . . .
"Danny?"
The kid was stirring again. Alec saw him stiffen the exact moment the pain registered.
"Alec?"
"How are you feeling?" Alec asked softly.
"Like I fell out of a pl- " The kid cut off, unable to say the word. The heart monitor sped up a little.
Alec decided to ignore the slip. "The doctors are letting you go tomorrow afternoon, granted you don't spike a fever tonight."
Danny was silent for some time. "When's the f-flight back?" he asked, his voice wavering. The machines reflected the hammering of his heart.
"We're not flying back," Alec said firmly. "We're going by land and sea."
"W-What?"
"I said," Alec repeated determinedly, "We are taking the scenic route home. Car, train, ferry."
The words sank into the sudden silence between them.
"That- That doesn't sound very efficient," the kid finally said.
Alec swore, loudly. "I don't care about that. I care about- " He broke off.
"You care about me?" Danny finished softly.
Alec cursed again. "Yes," he ground out. "I care about you, kid. We're not getting on a bloody plane. I'm never letting you get on a sodding plane ever again if I can help it. Not unless you want to."
Danny let out a shaky breath laden with relief.
"Thank you, Alec."
Alec crossed his arms, uncomfortable at the amount of sentiment he'd shown.
"Go to sleep, kid."
"Not a kid," the kid sighed sleepily.
"You just keep telling yourself that," Alec muttered. "Someday it'll come true."
. . . . .
AN: Happy Mother's Day! :)