A/N: Thank you for reading! Please leave a review! I wanted to thank specially for everyone who takes the time to give me comebacks, I appreciate it very much.

Chapter 33: You´ll be late

Danny passed his hands over his head, helping the warm water of the shower wash away the enormous amount of foam the shampoo he had applied had made over his recently cut hair. He loved the sensation of the shorter sides, so he kept running his palms over them, alternating with running his fingers through his longer hair on the top.

The day before, Steve had made a private appointment with Danny´s hairdresser and then he had driven him to it. The fact that Danny´s disappearance has been all over the news for months and his case has become very famous on the islands made the Head of 5-0 to be very suspicious and careful about Danny´s exposure to the public at a so much recent stage of his rescue and release from the hospital. During all his recovery period in the hospital the detective had not been in contact with the news, and only yesterday he had been in possession of his cell again. Steve didn´t know if Danny had been snooping on the internet, but it was not something he wanted to intrude into, because he wanted to let Danny regain his freedom in every sense, so he couldn´t be controlling him as if he were a kid with his phone. But he would be there, if he was needed, if Danny asked anything or started with questions.

Nevertheless, if he could do anything to evade curious people which could overwhelm Danny it was a fact that he would do whatever on his power to do so. That is why he had accorded with the barber to make a private appointment with Danny, and asked the professional to be discreet with his questions, or better said, to act normally. He could have asked him if he could go directly to the house, but he didn´t want to protect Danny by isolating him. Sooner or later he should go back to the world, and besides a short trip would be beneficial for the mind.

Danny had been cool with it, he hadn´t paid much attention to Steve reasons and hadn´t questioned his decisions. Eager to get hair off his head, he had sat quietly and silently on his barber´s chair, letting the talk be conducted by the other two men. He found himself totally oblivious and not paying any attention to the banal topics they were touching. Closing his eyes, he had enjoyed the sensation of the comb caressing his scalp and the sound of the scissors and razor. During his months in captivity, Danny had developed an extraordinary sense of hearing, because while all his other senses were limited and restricted, the only thing he could do with liberty was to hear. His hearing was the only sense which could transfer the walls and help him on not losing completely his mind. He trusted his hearing every day. It told him when the rainforest was quiet when he heard the birds singing with happiness; it told and prevented him when someone was coming, every day at the same time, to fed him and lose the length of his chains to allow him reach the bucket and make his necessities; it told him when they left and abandoned him again. It was his ally in his desire of hearing his friends coming, but at the same time it was his enemy when that desperate desire was involuntary transformed on illusions and Danny kept hearing things that were not real. On those times, his heart ached and he thought that if they didn´t find him soon, he´d lose his mind. So, at determined moment of his imprisonment, he had stopped listening, because many times he had been fooled when he thought Steve was calling him through the dense forest. The only free sense he possessed had ended auto limited by his fear of expect something that might never happen. So low his soul had descended, that when found, he didn´t even bothered to make the effort to look up or make some sign of life.

It had taken time. In fact, it was during all his recovery period on the hospital that he started to regain confidence on his senses again. It was an actual fact, and it was checked by force by Danny, that when you recover something that you have been deprived of, then it becomes more valuable and cherished. Danny was experiencing this a hundred percent. Yesterday, at the barber´s shop, he almost fell asleep on the chair while listening to the metal sound of the scissors and feeling the breeze coming through his clean and shorter hair. The perfume of the hairspray with which his haircut was finished filled his nostrils and submerged him on a nostalgic feeling of sunny mornings, before work started and busy days developed between cases, friends, and his kids... Oh, how he missed his life, how much he missed his old self, how much he missed everything that was stolen from him, his freedom, his independence, his pride, his outspoken personality. Oh, how much he hurts still. How much he still needed to heal.

Placing both hands on the steamy tiles, Danny bent his head forward and let the warm shower wash away the rest of the foam, which travelled alongside his body and slowly disappeared trough the small drain grate, fighting its getaway with a considerable amount of swirling water. The sensation of the almost too hot water on his shoulders was heavenly, and Danny lost count of how many minutes he had spent there, letting the water caress his increasing red skin. The bathroom slowly started to fill up with hot steam, so Danny reached and opened the small window, to let the fresh air in and to allow him to breathe easier. Mouth wide open to allow his protesting lungs to receive fresh air, Danny rested his forehead on the wall and, turning down the heat of the water, he let the cooler liquid refresh him.

The change of temperature wasn´t welcomed by his body though, making its protest in form of goosebumps which nearly become shivers, until his flesh lost a bit the heat accumulated and the temperature leveled. Sighing with relief when that happened, he started to enjoy again the soothing pattern of the water hitting his head and shoulder with force, and then caressing the rest of his body while descending. Danny didn´t intended to leave the shower just yet, so he established a fight of wills against his protesting ankle, because it was really starting to hurt and wanted to disobey by quitting already. Danny fooled it by supporting more weight on his right leg and by grabbing the faucet in front of him while leaning more heavily on the wall. He didn't want to get out. He partially knew that, apart from enjoying the shower, he was delaying finishing it because he had scheduled an appointment with the psychiatrist. He realized that he didn't want to face reality and it scared him as much as the mere fact of facing it. If it were for him, he would stay in the shower all morning, not caring that his finger prints were already like very old raisins. Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupted him and his ramblings and startled him, bringing him back to the present and making his heart nervous without any certain cause for it.

"Danny, you ok in there?" Lou´s questioning tone put in evidence the enormous amount of time the water has been running.

"Yeah!" Danny made sure his reply was heard above the running water. Damn, until when would he have to have a babysitter? The silent complaint was short-lived though, because he knew his friends meant the best, and also because the mere thought of not having their help and support simply terrified him. He knew that if Steve had not been there the other night, he would have been a prisoner of that panic attack for much longer time; he knew that if his partner had not been there in the morning, he would not have gotten up from bed; he knew that he would not have gotten a haircut for sure. He knew that if Lou was not there today, he would not leave this shower for at least two more hours. This actual fact, and the realization, once again, of its truthfulness gripped his heart with renewed and unmerciful anguish. His sight blinded for a few seconds and the fear of another panic attack made his neck to tingle and his legs to become jelly. And then they buckled, and they doubled and soundlessly carried Danny down, and left him sitting on the tub.

"Danny? Come on buddy, you´ll be late for Dr. Hale´s appointment. Steve will be here at any moment to pick you up".

At the mention of his psychiatrist and anticipating the fact that he would have to talk and open up in front of this doctor when what he really wanted was to crawl back in bed and disappear for the rest of the day, Danny thought he would pass out when his hearing chose to focus primary on his blood circulation, making the annoying whistle to elevate its volume as Danny became more and more panicked. First his sight, then his legs, now his hearing, and last: his already battered dignity.

Danny opened his eyes when the water of the shower stopped hitting him as it was turned off. He wanted to move, to get up, but his body still didn´t respond him. Hi closed his eyes again when Lou covered him with a big towel. "Breathe buddy" he though he heard and so he opened his eyes again. Lou was there, kneeling beside him, giving him a worried look but at the same time emanating the security in which Danny was so use to cling to. He tried to speak, but realized the panic has stolen his voice too, so he breathed a big mouthful of air, and then another, and another, following the instructions and responding to his friend´s encouragement. He felt the towel being used to take the excess of water from his hair and to dry his face, shoulders and chest while he numbly and slowly was starting to regain his bearings. His vision and hearing normalizing, Danny took with trembling hands the towel by himself.

"Thanks. I´m ok now…" The low voice didn´t support his statement while Danny started to get up ant to cover him with the towel.

"Alright" Lou assisted him on getting out of the tub and made sure his friend didn´t slip on the wet floor. "What happened? You fell?"

"No, I think I kind of fainted…and went down"

"Did you hit yourself?"

"No, my legs buckled and I just sat there…" Danny couldn´t help the edge of irritability on his voice at having to explain everything as he let go of Lou´s hands when he stepped on the little mat placed by the sink.

"Ok" Convinced that Danny was now fine and with balance and not wanting to risk his friend losing his temper, Lou finally paid attention at the banging on the front door, which was becoming louder and louder as nobody opened it. "You finish drying yourself, I´m gonna go open the door before he brakes it".

As soon as Lou left the bathroom on a rushed jog to let Steve in, Danny reached and pushed the door closed, seeking for some privacy to finish his very personal task.