Chapter 7

Ten seconds later, the doctor and nurses came rushing in, pushing Vivian out of the room. She hoped Danny would be able to go through this without someone he knew with him. After waiting ten minutes, she saw the doctors removing the tube, and Danny coughing uncontrollably. She saw a nurse insert a sedative into Danny's I.V. Danny stopped coughing and calmed down. In seconds he was back in a deep sleep. Vivian sighed as she went to go see Jack and Sam. When she got to the cafeteria, she just saw Jack. Sam must of gone home. Jack noticed her and her grim face, so he jumped up and approached her.

"Viv, what's wrong? What happened?" he asked eagerly.

"Danny woke up, but he was fighting the ventilator. He's breathing on his own now, but they sedated him again. The doctor didn't want anyone visiting him for the rest of the night."

"Not if I have something to do about it," said Jack as he began to walk back towards Danny's room. He, then, stopped and turned to Viv. "Why don't you go home and freshen up; I'll see you tomorrow." Vivian nodded and waved goodbye.

Jack continued to Danny's room and was about to go in when he was stopped by Dr. Bentley.

"Excuse me, Agent Malone, but Danny isn't allowed to have visitors until tomorr-"

"Well you are gonna have to make an exception for me. He has no one with him, and if he wakes up in the middle of the night and there is no one there with him but complete darkness, he's gonna go crazy. I can calm him down and he'll be resting like nothing happened." Jack panted with fury.

The doctor hesitated, but then decided that the agent was right. He sighed and let Jack by. "Don't stress him out,"he said lastly.

Jack nodded as he waved him off. He closed the door and just stood there, watching Danny sleep. He thought Danny was sleeping peacefully, but when he got closer and sat down, he saw that Danny's face was etched with fear and pain. He could tell that Danny was being plagued by nightmares. He sighed and took Danny's hand in his.

"Get better, Danny, please." he whispered.

He didn't notice that he'd fallen asleep until he woke up. He looked around at his surroundings and realized he was still in the hospital. He suddenly realized what had woken him up. He heard mumbling coming the bed in front of him. It was Danny in his nightmares; he was talking in his sleep.

"...The kid opened up to me..." "...took an opportunity..." "don't deserve to be on the team."

Jack's heart broke seeing this. Danny was reliving those horrible moments before and during the time he went missing.

"It's all my fault, all my fault, It's my fault!" "I deserve..." "...can't remember." Danny mumbled.

Then Jack heard something he'd thought he'd never hear. "I'm sorry, Martin, it's my fault"

"...my fault you were shot" "...shouldn't of distracted you..." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Tears escaped Jack's eyes as he heard what Danny was saying. He was reliving the ambush. Jack put a hand on Danny's forehead and tried to calm him down.

"Shh, Danny, you're okay. Just go to sleep, you're not alone; I'm right here."

It seemed to work, because Danny's breathing slowed, and the mumbling stopped. His face relaxed Jack knew he was finally sleeping peacefully. Jack leaned back on the chair and sighed. He felt guilty and he felt like he'd never get to sleep.

"I'm sorry, Danny," he said quietly. Finally, his eyes grew heavy and he fell asleep to the repetitious beeping of the monitors.

The next day, Jack woke up with a start. He already regretted sleeping in a uncomfortable plastic chair. His neck hurt like hell, along with his back. He looked over at Danny, and saw no change since last night. He debated on whether to go get something to eat for breakfast, and decided on just getting a quick coffee so he wouldn't take too much time leaving Danny alone.

Five minutes later, he got back, sipping a hot black coffee, when he saw that Danny was waking up. He gasped as he ran to Danny's side, placing the coffee on the nightstand.

"D-Danny! Danny, its me, Jack. Can you open your eyes?" Jack said frantically.

"J-Jack?" Danny croaked. He couldn't remember what happened, but when he saw Jack, everything came flooding back to him. He begins to cry as his breathing started to become erratic.

"Oh, god, Jack! I-I'm sorry, I sc-screwed up...b-big time! It's-It's my fault; everything is my fault! I'm s-so sorry, Jack! I-I understand fully if you want to kick me off the team! I could of got you guys killed! I'm s-sorry!" Danny rambled in a scratchy voice, since his throat was sore from the tube.

Jack was astounded at what he was hearing. Danny blamed himself for all the things that had happened the past month. Jack tried to calm Danny down; he was going to hurt himself if he didn't.

"Danny, Danny! Take a deep breath, calm down. You are going to injure yourself even more. Take deep breaths" Jack said as he rubbed Danny's back. Danny tried to calm down, taking deep breaths, but that only made it worse. He winced and his arm embraced his side; he started coughing uncontrollably and it hurt for him to breath like he was.

A couple nurses ran in and removed Jack from the room. Jack wiped his tear-stained face and watched as the nurses sedated a hysterical Danny. He watched as Danny's heart rate slow, saw Danny's eyes open wide in fear, then his eyes closed slowly once again.