Without Words

Disclaimer: If you recognize it then I don't own it.

A/N: For Whumptober 2022 #25 Silence is golden- lost voice

Danny woke, screaming for his partner. Electricity coursed through his body in agonizing bolts, starting at his neck. The instinctual and animalistic sounds being ripped from his throat broke as he clamped his mouth down hard to stop the sound. The shocking sensation ceased with his noise. The silence echoed around him in the dark as he panted from the pain. Shakily he sat up from the dirt floor. He reached up to wipe away his sweaty drooping hair only for his hand to stop short of his destination. He squinted down in the gloom, his muddled mind taking a moment to comprehend the restraints holding his hands together. He yanked at it uselessly trying to free himself in frenzied movements. As warm blood dripped from his raw wrists his training started to take over his drugged panic. The fog lifted over his mind as his reasoning came back to him slowly. He was tied, trapped, and alone in the dark. The last thing he remember was clearing an old hunter's cabin in the woods. This is why he hated the woods, this never would have happened in a nice populated city. He had been looking for a suspect in a case. Clearly, he had been found instead. He closed his dry eyes against slowly fading vertigo and the embarrassment of being caught. All he needed to do was sit tight and wait for backup to notice he was missing and come looking. His body slumped back against the floor. Super SEAL would never let him hear the end of this.

"Steve!?" He called into the darkness. White hot agony pulsed at his voice. His partner had been with him as they searched the shack. They had been on the trail of a homegrown bomb maker who had a few days ago started making threats and showcasing small explosions with the promise to escalate quickly. The two of them had been following a lead, Steve had taken one side of the old structure while Danny had taken the other. The last thing he remembered was separating and then a big blank. Until he had come back to consciousness in a haze of pain. Had he been tased? Had someone been in the dark room with him? Where was his kidnapper now? Where was Steve? Was his partner alright?

He heard the sound of shuffling and digging behind him. He craned his head, shuffling awkwardly to face the new development head on. Nothing had made sense since he had awakened he wasn't taking any chances. He waited tensely in the darkness until a small sliver of light broke into the room. He blinked at the brightness of it, making out the grimly smiling face of his partner.

"Sorry it took so long," Steve enlarged the hole in the dirt and rotted boards until he could wiggle inside, "I had to go slow around his booby traps."

Danny's uncharacteristic silence was getting to Steve, causing him to ramble on, "Fine, I'm sorry I didn't save you sooner. I was able to escape into the woods and get under cover before the gas took me down. He couldn't find me. I didn't mean to leave you behind. I knew you'd be okay, he likes big public spectacles. He got away. He has the place rigged. He was probably hoping we would just blow up trying to escape. I had to go slow."

"Danno," Steve groped his way over to his silent partner in the semi-darkness, "Hey, Danny, talk to me. What's wrong?"

Danny reached up with his bound hands meeting Steve's own. They held onto each other for a moment. Drawing strength and reassurance that the other was alive and there with them.

"What did he do to you, buddy?" Steve asked gently as his hands went to the collar secured to his friend's neck. It looked like a traditional barking collar that shocked a dog when it barked. Something was off about it. He grabbed a flashlight from his pocket to get a better look at it. There were wires and a small blinking light in the back of it. It seemed the bomb maker hadn't just rigged the property.

"Son of a bitch," Steve cursed, looking down, not meeting his partner's searching eyes. Instead, he saw the binding around Danny's wrists. He couldn't free his partner's neck but he could take care of his hands.

Steve ignored Danny's look and dropped one hand to his cargo pants pocket and pulled out a knife. It was large and overkill and perfect for the Navy SEAL. Danny shook his head slightly at his partner's antics, he was such a Boy Scout with how prepared he was. In one smooth motion, Steve had freed his partner's hands and was helping to rub the circulation back into them. Steve inspected the chaffed and oozing wrists with a tight look on his face. Danny wanted to ask about the collar but he couldn't. He had been slow on the uptake at first, he blamed the drugs, but he wasn't stupid. When a bomb nut put a collar around a cop's neck that shocked him when he talked there had to be more to it than the need for silence. Danny gave his partner a nudge and a significant look.

"He get sick of listening to you, too?" Steve spoke evenly as he wrapped bandages around the abused wrists, "I told you, it might kill you to be quiet."

Danny glared at him. He didn't like being ignored. There was so much he wanted to say. He made a mental note to read Steve the riot act when he could talk again. Starting with the Commander's misplaced guilt and ending with his big-ass knife being compensation for inadequacies in other areas.

"You should be so proud of me, I called in backup and everything. The rest of 5-0 is on their way," Danny could hear the worry that he couldn't completely hide in the taller man's voice. The Navy SEAL was worried. Steve refused to lose anyone else he cared about. He was getting that hopeless look in his eyes. He couldn't defuse a bomb and it had to be killing him. He was such a control freak. He took everything personally, even when it wasn't his fault or there was nothing he could humanly do. The neanderthal liked to think he was more than human. That normal limitations and weaknesses didn't apply to him. That toxic mindset just set him up for failure. Danny may be a born pessimist who constantly waited for the other shoe to drop but at least he didn't feel the need to carry the whole damn world on his shoulders. Like some idiots, he could name.

Danny reached for the taller man's chin, his fingers turning the head back down to him. They looked into one another's eyes in the dim lighting. Danny waved his hand between the two of them letting Steve know they were in this together. Whatever happened it was not Steve's fault. The Commander couldn't tear his gaze away from his determined silent partner. Steve felt his hands steady and his shoulders loosen slightly under Danny's calming look.

Steve patted his hand against the side of Danny's face with a small smile, "I got you."

Danny grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it softly, reassuring Steve without words that he would be fine. That they both would be fine.

Sirens and lights signaled the arrival of the rest of 5-0, police backup, and the bomb squad. The small cabin and the surrounding area were quickly cleared and then the small cabin was swarmed with concerned friends and law enforcement officers.

"Danny, hey, buddy," Steve refused to be moved from his friend's side as the bomb was defused, "Here we go, almost there. I'm right here."

"Did that feel good?" Steve asked when the bomb squad finally removed the rigged collar.

Danny nodded with a wide grin.

The pair settled in Danny's car in a comfortable and companionable silence. Sometimes in their partnership, they didn't need words. A meaningful touch, a subtle hand gesture, and even a look could convey so much without speaking at all. But sometimes they did need words. Danny took a deep breath before he started into his built-up rant all the way back to headquarters without pausing for a breath as Steve drove and silently listened just happy to hear his partner's voice once more. Danny had been right they were both going to be fine.