The Crash

Danny and Steve go climbing with some of Steve's SEAL comrades, when something happens.

Danny glanced upwards, and wished he hadn't. He saw Steve slip. The SEAL regained his balance, but the sickening lurch of his body, all the weight suddenly on one arm, was frightening. There was silence for a moment. Danny reached up to the next hold. Then the silence in the valley was broken by a terrible sound. "Nooooo!"

It was Steve. Slipping again, he fell, this time. Danny looked up in time to see his partner's body flying down the rope at an uncanny speed, gaining momentum as it went. The SEAL and his comrade, Chris, had secured the rope as they went, but one of the securing clasps ripped out as Steve fell, and went clattering down. He fell twenty feet to a ledge. The hollow thud of his body on the stone was sickening. Danny felt his stomach heave.

"No!" A cry rang out, and only later did Danny realise that it was his own voice. "Joe!" The blonde was shouting at the man who looked lost, staring at Steve's broken body as if he had been struck. "Joe! Danny succeeded in making him look down. "Come down. Someone has to go down to the ledge.

Joe nodded, and started climbing down. Danny gestured to his own climbing partner, Peter. "Can we climb to the ledge?"

"No."

"Right. We go down, then. We need to call an ambulance. We can't move him if his neck is broken."

"Alex is a paramedic." Danny's climbing partner nodded at a lean, red-haired man, who was already on his way to the ledge.

"He doesn't have any supplies with him, though."

"No." Peter admitted. He was already starting to climb down.

"We need to get to the lower ledge. I'll call the ambulance from there."

Danny and Peter reached the ledge after five minutes. There, balancing and trying to remember that he was wearing a harness, the blonde Detective reached his pack and called the ambulance.

At the ledge, Alex was already checking the supine figure lying there. Looking up, Danny felt his heart race. "His neck isn't broken." Alex called down, relief lightening his words. Everyone breathed out, a collective sigh of relief.

"Good." Danny called back. "What is broken?"

"His shoulder and his right leg."

"Can you secure them?"

"Kind of."

"Do it. Then Joe can lower him down."

"Almost there." The blonde nodded to his climbing partner, looking down at the distant ground below. Peter grunted in agreement and they resumed their climb.

Forty minutes later, they were on the ground. Joe, Alex, and Chris were lowering Steve. It was slow work, and they were about thirty feet off the ground. From here, Danny could see his partner. He was clearly unconscious, his head hanging lifeless forward onto his chest.

The blonde blinked, amazed to feel tears running down his face. "Please." Danny whispered. "Please. Live."

Ten more minutes, and Steve was on the ground. Danny, free of harness and climbing gear, ran to his partner. He felt over his skull, his face, his shoulder. He could feel the ugly jagged break, and smell the blood where a shard of bone protruded from the shoulder.

Danny looked away. But he did not leave Steve's side. "It's all right. It's all right." It was his own voice, repeating the words as he stroked his partner's hair.

The medics from the ambulance were gathering. One of them tried to move Danny away while they set up a drip, lifted Steve onto the stretcher. The blonde did not move. The medic who had been trying to move him raised his eyebrows. Then shrugged. "You can ride with him in the back."

"Good."

The rest of the climbers stood back as Steve was lifted on the stretcher and carried to the ambulance. Danny followed them as they raised the stretcher into the van and shut the doors. Then they were off, back to town and the hospital.

On the bed, Steve was unconscious, skin pale and hair wet with sweat and blood. Danny sat beside his partner. In his two hands the blonde cradled one of Steve's. "Stay with me."

Pain. Waves of it, rising and falling in the head like waves on the sea. Steve felt himself carried on waves of pulsing, pounding pain, more frightening and debilitating than anything he had experienced before. He tried to open his eyes. The light hurt. He shut them again. "Where…?" The SEAL felt himself drifting out of consciousness again even as his mouth framed the question.

Ten minutes later and he felt the pain lessen. Something cool touched his forehead, relieving the pounding ache. Steve tried to move his arm, but the shoulder burned as if it was on fire. He moved the left arm instead. Squeezed his hand shut. Felt something there; something warm. Someone else's hand.

He opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was blonde hair. The skin beneath was pale, and Steve blinked to focus. Then his eyes met two blue ones. "Danny?" His voice was thin and strained, but the incredulity in it was obvious. Speaking hurt too, and Steve leaned back on the pillow, already feeling exhausted.

"Steve. It's me." Danny's voice was light with relief. It sounded as if the blonde had been crying.

Danny, crying? Over him? What had happened? "Where…" Steve tried again.

"You're at Queen's Medical Center." The blonde replied to his partner's question. "You fell." He paused. "You broke a shoulder and a leg, and hit your head really bad. But you'll be all right." Danny gripped Steve's hand again. The SEAL felt his heart melt with joy of that, even as he struggled to remember the events Danny described. "And," the blonde was continuing, "how could you risk your life like that? Don't you realise that people care about you?" There it was again. Danny was crying, his voice harsh and angry, and full of feeling. And scolding.

Steve groaned, weakly, and then coughed. "There. It's okay." Danny was moving the pillows, supporting his partner's head as he coughed.

What had happened? Steve shook his head and winced. "How long…?" He asked, feeling exhausted.

"Two weeks." Danny nodded. He sounded grim. "But," and Steve could hear him smiling now, "I will certainly be coming in here to visit you every day. You can't really expect me to leave you to your own devices, can you?"

Steve laughed. It hurt, but he did not mind. Just then, everything was absolutely wonderful.