A/N: Thank you for reading!
Tangled sheets.
He weakly turned his head to the right. The sound of a plate being placed on its regular spot on the floor next to his bed called his attention. His eyes searched anxiously, looking for the food and water. Deeply inside of him, where his pride and dignity laid crushed and trampled, he felt ashamed. He was behaving like a chained and unattended dog whose only expectation and purpose of the day was the food. The food, if anyone could call it that. It provided his body nothing but the basic to keep him breathing, to keep him alive and, therefore, valuable. Nothing nutritious at all. Each day, it was becoming harder and harder to gather the needed strength to reach the plate and even to swallow the tasteless meals that, to him, looked like pasty worms. He blinked away the nauseating image, and when he looked again, the plate had moved away a few feet. How did that happened? Ok, he wanted to take it back, he didn´t really meant it looked like worms. Please, he really needed it, he needed to be alive for when he was rescued. He needed to stay alive for Grace and Charlie. He needed to stay alive, for his friends and family. If it required him to eat meals which looked like worms, so be it, he´ll do it. He blinked again, and now his disgusting mental image became real. Huge and juicy worms overflowed from the plate, some of them making its way to the bed. Scared, Danny blinked repeatedly. What was happening? He was startled when he realized that a dark shape of a person was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. The only thing he could clearly see about it was that it was smiling with delight. A sinister smile that was soon accompanied by an equally sinister laughter. It was scaring, and, above all, Danny couldn´t understand such behavior. Usually, he was left alone, nobody sat by his side to watch him eat. Maybe they wanted to see if he would eat the new recipe. Looking at the plate again, Danny started to panic when he saw the disgusting bigger and bigger worms making their way towards him. The laughter increased as he desperately wanted to get up, but he couldn't move. He found himself tied tightly and, although he kicked and writhed with all his might, he couldn´t get away from his vulnerable place. Breathing and panting heavily, he helplessly watched until he lost sight of the now rat size worms that got under his bed. They must be for sure climbing up the metal legs of the bed, so he mentally prepared himself to see them peek over the edge of the mattress at any moment. Out of fear, each harsh breath ended in whining, and his eyes were wide with dread and anticipation. In case something was missing, the man got up and also approached his bed. Although, he was not laughing anymore but seemed worried. Danny stopped paying attention to him when the man just stood there and everything else seemed to go dark. The high windows allowed him to see the very dark and angry clouds that completely blocked the sunlight away, and a constant thunder was like a lament. He shuddered to the bone when a sudden an unexpected bright lightning beat the darkness and he was unable to stop himself from screaming as the light allowed him to see the now giant worms climbing on top of him and the dark figure of the man standing close and right next to him. Apart from laughing, the man had not made another sound, but for some reason, Danny keep hearing his name being called with insistence. An extremely loud thunder accompanied the subsequent darkness and Danny felt a shooting pain on the bladder. A worm must have started eating him! He desperately tried to roll on himself, to bring the knees to his chest, but his legs were trapped in a tangle of ropes and chains. Another loud thunder; his name being practically shouted directly in his ear; a very rough shake from the mysterious man and, with an animalistic grunt, Danny woke up.
….
Steve opened his eyes when a thunder made the glass of the windows vibrate and the torrential rain began to hit them with the force of the wind. He took one second to realize where he was. Lying on a bed below the windows of the ICU room where Danny was settled, he had fallen asleep as soon as he rested his head on the pillow. Yawning, he arranged the blanket under his chin and watched the drawings that the water was doing while falling on the glass and marveling himself with the well-defined lightning bolts on the horizon. Unable to fall asleep again, he contented himself with this distraction, until he heard the movement of sheets and a low whining. Instantly tossing the blanket aside, he abandoned his comfort and walked to his friend´s side. Danny´s legs were tangled with the sheets, his breathing was heavy and choked and it was obvious that he was fighting, or trying to fight, something on a cruel nightmare.
"Danny". He tried to wake him, but the nightmare seemed to have a very strong grip. "Danny, come on buddy wake up." Steve tried to bring him back many times, each new one his voice increased his volume, and when that didn´t work out, he finally and as a desperate measure, grabbed his partner´s biceps and roughly shacked him, with the necessary force to achieve breaking the strong connection with the nightmare. "Danny!" This time, accompanied by a loud thunder, Danny´s frightened eyes snapped open, immediately and desperately looking for something on the bed and trying to get away from him.
"Danny it was just a nightm.."
"G..t G,, ..way.. Get them off me! Get them off me please.. please take them away…"
"Look at me, look at me! It was a nightmare, It´s over. You are safe, Danny. You are ok." Steve forced him to lock eyes with him. When he achieved that, he tried to silently communicate calmness, security and understanding. He patiently waited for Danny to process everything. After a few minutes, when the confusion seemed to recede a little and Danny blinked repeatedly to adjust his sight to the reality and then focused entirely on his friend´s eyes, Steve tried to make a so, so waited and desired coherent communication with his friend since he was found.
"Hey"
"Hey"
"It was a nightmare ok, a bad one, but it´s over".
"..k"
Testing the waters. Steve tried to read every expression and reaction of his friend. Danny seemed exhausted and considerably weak, at the verge of falling asleep again. So he would force himself to go easy and not overwhelm Danny with his necessity of knowing each detail right now.
"Ok. You need anything? How about some water, uh?"
"I have to go. I can´t go"
"What? Where Danny, go where?" Steve gently encouraged him to clarify.
"Hurts"
"What? Where does it hurt?"
"I can´t pee. I need to go..." Danny was talking half awake and half asleep, but seemed to be lucid enough to realize he needed to resolve this matter.
"But you have a catheter…" Steve looked towards Danny´s tangled legs and sheets, and immediately began to unravel them. On the process, he found out that the tubbing had been held down and pressed, blocking the drainage of urine. He lifted Danny´s leg and allowed the liquid to reach the container bag. He finished unraveling the rest of the mess and then covered his friend and smoothed the sheets back in place.
"Better?"
There was no response. Exhausted, Danny must have fell asleep again. That was his assumption, so he was startled when Danny spoke again.
"Will you stay with me?"
Steve was taken aback by the question, but instantly answered firmly "Of course, I´m not going anywhere. I´m staying right here, ok?" He tried to emphasize and prove his point by giving Danny´s forearm a squeeze. "Ok?"
"..k"
"Ok. Go back to sleep, Danno".