Chapter 19: That perfume.
Birds singing happily are always a sign of a beautiful and sunny day. The sound of noisy birds was the first sensation Danny got. Confused of his lethargy, he tried to pay more close attention. The room appeared to be quiet, no sign of annoying doctors or nurses demanding things from him. But, quiet didn't mean inhabited. Danny´s good and trained hearing could distinguish different sounds. The almost imperceptible sound of clothes rubbing when someone adjusted his position on the seat near him; the sound of a sheet of paper being moved; the sound of toilet water running and then a door opening and light steps moving and stepping a short way later; the sound of someone sitting down. Someone was there, in fact more than one person, and his detective skills told him that one of them was his partner. He could tell those footsteps apart anywhere, but, the remaining visitors were just yet to be figured out.
Danny made a terrible effort to open his eyes, but it was not easy and he groggily wondered why. Frustrated, extremely drowsy and foggy, he tried to move, but his body weighed tons and his head was aching tremendously. He just achieved moving it an inch and the pain exploded, making him whimper in distress.
Every sound he had registered stilled for a second. The furthest person he sensed, his partner, got up without much regard, knocking the chair he has been sitting in on the wall. The second presence stopped passing the pages and dropped what seemed to be a newspaper on a flat surface, making considerable noise. The nearest presence shushed their careless movements while approaching his side. Danny tried in vain to open his too heavy eyelids, and let out a sigh at the time the third presence reached and shushed him, tenderly placing a warm hand on his left cheek and a soft kiss on his right temple, followed by a series of more kisses that ended with a more firm, humid and longer one on his forehead. His confusion and overwhelming ended when that particular soft perfume finally reached his nostrils. His whole body relaxed and his tension abandoned him. A strange and spontaneous sense of childish vulnerability came and left, leaving him seeking for his mother presence as a little scared child. Tilting his head towards the familiar floral sense, he asked with a drained and tired tone: "Ma?..." Still unable to open his eyes, he tried to reach her with his arm, but it was impossible to move it. Apart from the drugged sensation of heaviness on his members, his mom was apparently grabbing his arm and, on the other side, someone else was firmly stroking and massaging lightly the other one. A confused frown appeared immediately on his forehead in a silent askance mode, and as soon as it manifested another tender kiss tried to sooth it away.
"Yes honey, I´m here. Pop is here too, we´re here baby". A chocked sob escaped her lips and betrayed her intent to be strong and, apparently, she was unable to continue talking, focusing instead on caressing his temples. Hearing her cry gave Danny the impulse he needed to finally be able to open his disobedient eyes, even to mere slits.
"Hey there, boy" His father´s voice wasn´t much better than his mom´s in terms of hiding emotions. The old man felt silent, but kept a strong and secure line of sight attached with his son´s eyes, smiling and never stopping caressing his arm. Both parents went mute with the overjoy and other millions of emotions of seeing those precious blue eyes again, after three months of pure torture at the possibility of losing them forever.
"w..t h..ppnd?..."
"Shhh, everything´s ok" Although very caring, his mom wasn´t good at all at trying to make him not to worry. Everything was not ok. He felt miserable; wasn't able to move; every part of his body, especially his legs and arms felt extremely numb; he had even problems to move his tongue to talk and his mind was clouded; his head felt like it was ready to explode. But, above all, he felt cold. Extremely cold. Doctors have used general anesthesia to conduct the several procedures and surgeries that Danny needed. The fever broke last night, so, after an exhaustive examination and check up this morning, the surgical team concluded it would be best for their patient to avoid putting him through stressful moments of long hours of surgery. They concluded he was resistant enough to tolerate a general sedation to put him out. Everything went well and Danny woke up among the regular time it takes someone to come out of the anesthesia. Now he was suffering the primary and common side effects of the hated headache, shivers, and chills.
"..m cold"
"We know honey, we know" His mom smiled to him. "Steve´s looking for a blanket to cover you up, you´ll be warm again in a minute".
Steve picked up two blankets from the stand and, after handing them to Danny´s dad, he reassumed his place at the foot of the bed. Making eye contact with his partner while he was being covered and tucked in by two pairs of caring hands, he could tell Danny was still kind of out of it, still under some strong hold of anesthetic effects. The blond detective just stared at him and blinked slowly and sluggishly. Their shared look was broken when Danny´s dad helped lifting his head and assisted his son in taking a few small sips of water to reduce the evident dryness and soreness of his mouth and throat.
"Ok now?" The commander asked his friend, and smiled when he did not receive an answer but instead he got an intensified intrigued look again fixed on him. Grabbing and squeezing affectionately his friend´s good ankle, Steve excused himself.
"I´ll go get the doctor, will be back soon". Giving Clara´s shoulder a comforting squeeze, he exchanged with her a smile and left the room, intending in fact to leave the parents some moments alone with Danny for the first time before actually calling the doctor.