Chapter 31:

Dr. Collins had – after the most severe injuries had begun a healing process – decided to transfer Danny to the psychiatric station. Of course he had been fighting with her rather heatedly and long. He had assured her he was fine and that he didn't need a therapist, but she hadn't given in.

Nobody ever wanted to enter that wing of the hospital willingly and especially after what had happened to him, she could understand he didn't want to go there – talking about it was definitely not one of the things he wanted to do. But she couldn't just let him go – it was hospital policy and he needed to be checked.

He had lost that fight against her and he didn't really have much of any chance to insist against it and so he had been transferred. As to be expected he hadn't been cooperative – not with the psychologist and not with the hospital personell, responsible for taking care of him while he was there.

There had been an especially uncomfortable relationship to one of the orderlies – Marcus Hayes. He was having a problem with Danny since he had first arrived here, although nobody was entirely sure where that problem came from. Maybe it was because of the injured man's profession or because of his ethnics, but whatever it was – Marcus was giving him a pretty hard time.

Fortunately the orderly was not informed of the details of Danny's injuries or the exact reason why he had been transferred. But Marcus had found subtle enough ways to pick on him, obviously not expecting much of any defense from the other man. So far Danny hadn't really reacted to the orderly's attempts – up until this morning.

Danny had been in the community room of the hospital wing, sitting there close to the window as uncommunicative as he had been since the first day of his transfer. Marcus however – obviously having a particularly bad day – had asked him to get up and get back to his room in a rather rough tone. He however received no reaction, which obviously made him decide to get physical on Danny.

He roughly grabbed him by his shoulder, trying to get his attention and it was the one wrong move to make. Danny's sensitivity about being touched hadn't vanished, it had rather grown and now that the male orderly dared to touch him and actually hurt him by doing so – Danny simply just lost it.

He felt the urgent need to defend himself and although he was injured and actually unable to even walk on his own – due to the still healing broken legs he managed to attack the other man. His returning strength, in comparison with his sheer terror, his instincts and the surprising reaction he was able to hit the orderly in the face, caused Marcus to let go.

However the other man's reaction came back on Danny immediately. It had been the one thing he had been waiting for, since Danny had first entered this wing of the hospital. Although Danny had been trained in self-defense, his lack of ability to move around, and him not yet back at full strength, he had no chance to get away from Marcus.

The orderly managed to hold him down, though he did so with much of an effort. Danny was vehemently struggling against him in the moment of sheer panic the orderly's defense had caused. He frantically tried to get away, out of the arms grabbing him and forcing him down, but it wouldn't work.

„Get me some sedative, quick!"

Marcus called out to one of the nurses, who hurried to fulfill his demand. He was still struggling with Danny when the nurse came back – he wasn't willing to give up the fight against the orderly, although doing so hurt. His injuries were still way to grave to pull a stunt like that.

The nurse came back, unsure what to do with the medication she held in a syringe in her hands. The orderly looked at her in an annoyed way, like he asked himself why she was still standing there.

„Inject him with it, goddamn it! What are you waiting for?"

The orderly managed to hold Danny's arm down, leaving him completely exposed and helpless to the nurse who held the syringe in her hand. He finally found his voice again, realizing what she would be doing and that he didn't want to be taken back into this world of darkness where he couldn't escape his nightmares. He started cursing at the orderly, telling him he had no right to do that.

It caused the nurse to hesitate for another moment, but the orderly's gaze made her kneel down next to Danny and finally do what she had been asked to. Danny could feel the pinch as the needle was stuck into the vein of his arm and he stopped fighting for a moment – knowing she would hurt him if he moved against the needle in his arm.

He tried to struggle some more after she pulled the needle out again, but he could feel his will and strength die down more and more as the medication distributed itself in his blood stream. He could feel dizziness rush over him and it was getting harder to focus on his surrounding. He believed to hear the orderly ask the nurse to call his therapist, but he wasn't sure the other man had really said that. And seconds later everything went black around him.

The orderly had in fact called Danny's therapist - Dr. Riber - and she had hurried to come down here. She met the orderly in the community room, where she was asked by him to join him to the patients' private rooms. But he didn't seem to bother to tell her why she was here.

„What happened? Why did you call me?"

„It's one of your patients, Doctor. Daniel Taylor."

„What about him?"

„He's on medication right now, Dr. Riber. I had to have him sedated. He attacked me."

Dr. Riber took a look in Danny's room and at her patient in his bed. What she saw made her frown in surprise as a first reaction, before she turned to the orderly her face clearly showing her anger.

„He's in restraints!"

„As I told you – he attacked me. But he's calm for now – the medication kicked in..."

„Still you had no right to do this without consulting a doctor. We're gonna talk about it later, alright?"

„Yes, Dr. Riber."

She was aware that the orderly seemed in no way feeling like he had done anything wrong. She had been aware of the personal problem he seemed to have with her patient, but she had never believed it would cause such a situation. However she believed what the orderly had told her – he had been attacked, one could see it on his face and apart from that the orderly had no motivation to lie to her.

Her most difficult problem right now was to find out the reason for the situation, that had caused the orderly to have a bruise on his face now and her patient being on medication and in restraints. She had a certain believe, but she didn't wanna speculate – she wanted to hear it from her patient.

Dr. Riber entered the room taking a close look at Danny. He was calm right now, not struggling against the restraints holding him down, but she knew that was due to the medication. She had a look at his file and it had been a rather high dosage – another thing which the orderly hadn't had any right to do without consulting her. She would cope with that problem later, for now her primary concern was her patient. She addressed Danny in a soft but decisive tone.

„What happened? What happened to your face?"

„I was in a fight with one of your orderlies."

„Why?"

„Why don't you ask him."

„I will, but I wanna hear from you."

„Will you take of the restraints if I tell you?"

„No, I can't – you have been fighting with one of the orderlies, which – in medical terms – means that you are a danger to others. I can't take of the restraints, it's against hospital policy."

„Then there's nothing I can tell you."