022: I Won't Let Go

The next seventy-two hours was just an intense blur for Angela. She could hardly separate one day's events from the next. She could only remember sometimes sitting in the waiting room with Martin as they both sat in silence, waiting for news.

Everything seemed to be moving in either fast forward or slow motion around her. Nothing felt real: A doctor coming out to the waiting room, the sound of a loud heart beating, the news that Samantha was conscious, the news that Danny was going into surgery, the dried tears on her face, and the feeling of absolute emptiness.

The first time that Angela remembered anything concrete was late on a Thursday afternoon, about thirty-six hours after they had arrived at the hospital. Martin had fallen asleep in the chair next to her, his mouth slightly open and his head resting on a sweatshirt. Angela was staring blankly at a tile on the ground when a pair of feet stopped in front of her.

She slowly lifted her eyes to look at a doctor who was standing in front of her with a look of concern on his face.

"Angela Harper?" he asked.

"Yes," she said warily.

"I'm Doctor Hobbes," he said, extending his hand to her as she stood up slowly. "You're… uh, Danny Taylor's girlfriend?"

Angela simply nodded. She was too scared to ask any news for fear that it would be something that would break her.

"Well, he's out of surgery now."

"And… he's… going to be alright?" she dared to ask.

Doctor Hobbes hesitated as his eyes rested on Martin's sleeping form. "We hope so. We were able to extract the two bullets, but he's lost a lot of blood. And there's some internal bleeding."

"But… you can fix that, right? I mean, you can just get him some more blood and fix the internal bleeding, right?"

Again the doctor hesitated.

"Just tell me," Angela said softly. "Is he going to make it or not?"

"He's got a fighting chance, but the way that the two bullets were positioned really complicates things. I would have thought that anyone with those wounds would have bled to death within a couple of hours, even with medical attention. But it appears that he's strong."

"He is," she replied quietly. "He is."

There was a small paused between the two of them before Doctor Hobbes spoke again.

"Anyways, I came to tell you that you may visit him if you wish. He'll probably be sleeping, but it's been awhile since his surgery and his signs are as stable as they can be."

"I can see him?"

The doctor nodded.

"Now?"

"Yes, let me show you to his room."

The doctor led her down several halls until they reached number 378. Angela's heart was pounding hard and her knees began to feel weak.

"I'll leave you here then," Doctor Hobbes said.

She nodded before remembering something. "Oh, wait. Samantha Spade? Is she alright?"

"You know her as well?"

"We're all FBI agents. That's her boyfriend out in the waiting room."

"Ah. She's doing fine, but she's still drifting in and out of consciousness. I don't think there will be any permanent head or brain damage, but she shouldn't have visitors quite yet."

"Thank you."

The doctor nodded before leaving Angela outside Danny's door.

It was odd, but it took a lot of willpower to open up the door. Angela was so scared what she would see inside.

A soft, steady beep was coming from a heart rate monitor in the corner with a green line spiking up every second. The room was dark and quite besides the beeping machine. Angela walked cautiously over to the white bed quietly as if scared to disturb the heart machine.

He looked so helpless lying there in the bed. He had an oxygen tube attached to his nostrils and an IV in the top of his hand. There was a large bruise on his left cheek bone. His right shoulder was wrapped in white gauze. His dark black hair was matted and dirty and his face looked pale.

Angela didn't even realize that there were tears streaming down her cheeks, and she hastily tried to wipe them away. She found that she couldn't look at his broken body anymore. She walked over to a chair sitting several feet away from the bed and pulled it up to the side of the bed. She didn't look at him, but instead placed her head on the side of his bed, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

---

Angela woke up sometime later though she wasn't sure why. It took a few moments for her to realize that there was a soft sound coming from somewhere in the room.

"Ang… Angela…"

She looked up quickly and saw that Danny had a small, tired smile on his face as he looked at her.

"Danny," she whispered gratefully. "Oh, my… how are you?"

"I'm alright," he said in a broken voice. "I ache all over though."

"I'm not surprised."

There was a small pause between them. Then Danny turned his head away from her and looked at the curtains that were covering the windows.

"How long have you been here?" he asked. Something in his voice didn't make Angela feel good.

"Since they brought you in. It's been about forty hours or something like that."

Danny didn't reply but kept his face turned away from her. The room was silent for several minutes.

"Danny… are you alright?" Angela asked gently.

"I'm so sorry," he croaked. He turned his face to her and she was surprised to see a tear running down his cheek.

"What? Danny… Danny, what's wrong? You didn't do anything."

"I put you through all of this again," he said as another tear rolled down. "I didn't mean to…"

"Of course you didn't. But don't blame yourself for what happened, Danny. It's not your fault that you got shot."

"But I promised… I promised that nothing was going to happen to me."

The conversation that they had had nearly three months ago suddenly came back to her.

-

"Hey… listen to me," he said seriously, brushing her hair out of her face. "You're not going to lose me, ok?"

"But… what if something bad happens?"

"Nothing's going to happen to me."

"How can you say that?"

"Because. I just know."

"No, you don't, Danny. That's just the point."

"Hey, do you trust me?"

Angela bit her lip as she looked at him and a tear rolled down her face. Danny's thumb brushed it aside.

"Do you?" he repeated softly.

She nodded quietly.

"Alright then. I promise you. Nothing bad is going to happen to me. I promise."

She was silent for awhile. "Promise?"

"Promise."

They were quiet for awhile longer. She sniffed loudly, and Danny smiled gently. He pulled her into his arms against his large, warm body and kissed her on the side of her head.

"I promise," he whispered.

-

"Danny…" she said. "It's ok."

"I let you down," he whispered. "I let you down."

"Oh, no, Danny, no you didn't. I couldn't be more proud of you."

"I hurt you."

"No, no, Danny. You keep me who I am today. You keep me going. Danny, I love you. You never let me down."

"You're attached to me. And I'm going to let you down soon. I'm not going to make it."

"Hey, don't talk like that," Angela said seriously as she gritted her teeth. "You are going to be fine. I promise. I talked to the doctor, and he said—"

"He doesn't know what he's talking about," Danny said. Angela suddenly realized how labored his breathing was becoming.

"Danny, you need to take a break. You need to rest."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't want to hurt you."

"Don't talk like that."

"I'm so sorry," he repeated softly. "So sorry."

"No, Danny—"

The door suddenly swung open. Angela turned to see Doctor Hobbes standing in the doorway and several others behind him.

"Excuse me, Miss Harper, but you're going to have to leave."

"But—"

"His vital signs are dropping and if you want to help, you need to leave now."

"He's… he can't…"

"You need to leave now."

A nurse now held onto her shoulders and led her out of the room and closed the door.

"No, no, no, you don't understand," Angela protested as the nurse led her back to the waiting room. "I need to be there. He can't… he's not going to…"

"I know," the nurse soothed as they reached the waiting room. "I know. Let the doctors do their job."

"He can't die," Angela said, with a desperate pleading in her eyes. "He can't."

The nurse squeezed her shoulders sympathetically before leaving her alone in the waiting room again, with Martin still fast asleep in the chair where she had left him.

---

Angela didn't know how many hours or maybe days later it was when she finally prepared to leave the hospital. She no longer had any business here, and it was time for life to restart again.

She was absolutely sure that she would smell like that way-to-clean hospital smell for weeks and weeks. Angela ached for her own bed as she had slept in a hospital waiting room chair for God only knows how many nights.

She walked down the hall to room 378 but found that someone else was already there.

A nurse was standing outside the door, removing the piece of paper that read "Danny Taylor" from the door. It seemed as if the nurse didn't know how to react to Angela's presence so she simply turned and quietly continued down the hall.

Angela walked slowly down the hall to the room and opened the door.

The room had been cleaned and it looked as though bloody Danny Taylor had never set foot in this room even though he had spent easily two weeks in this very room. The bed had been remade with pure white sheets and the curtains were still shut over the windows.

It felt odd to think that he was once here. It was a rather depressing room to be in for the last few hours of your life.

On the chair, Angela noticed that there were a few of Danny's belongings that hadn't yet been collected. She walked over and fetched his tie (one of his favorites, a red and black striped one), his wallet, and his badge.

She flipped the badge open and smiled slowly at his picture on the badge. She touched it gently before closing it again.

There was a knock at the door. Angela turned and was surprised to see the man whose picture was on the badge standing right in front of her.

"Hey, are you ready?" Danny asked her. He was leaning heavily on a cane (which he had grudgingly agreed to use because he thought it made him look like an old man), and had a cute, bright grin on his face. His arm was in a sling to reduce movement of his injured shoulder.

"Yeah, I was just getting a few of your trivial belongings," she said, holding them up. "You know, like your badge and wallet."

"Hey, that tie is not trivial," he said as he tried to grab it from her.

"If you want it…" Angela teased as she held it behind her back. "You'll have to win it from me."

Danny grinned and leaned down and kissed her. Both of them quickly forgot about the tie as they indulged themselves in the simple act.

"Let's go home," Angela said gently as he pulled away from her.

"I'll second that," Danny whispered as he kissed her on the top of her head.

And the two of them left as Angela draped his tie around her neck and Danny attempted to trip her with his cane, both knowing that while they could never promise that nothing would ever happen to one of them, they would always, always love each other.

---

THE END

---

A/N: I can't believe it's over.

I really, really, really can't. I mean, when did I first start this thing? I don't even remember.

October. This story has been running for two and half months solid. Good God. I can't believe it's over! I'm so sad! I'm going to miss every single one of my reviewers, those who have reviewed from the very, very beginning and those who have just recently found the story. I think I might tear up here…

Oh goodness.

Moving on.

Well, I really, really, really hope you guys have enjoyed reading this story as much as I had fun writing it. Writing is and always will be one of my highest passions and I intend to write until the day I die.

I credit my inspiration to our lovely Danny Taylor. May the writers of the show bring back your wonderful nature that once captivated and inspired many fans. May you shed your unbecoming façade of "puppy love" and may you bring back your wit, charm, and careful nature that we all adore. May you toss aside those characters who cripple your own unique character and may you bring back life to the show. To Danny Taylor.

I got a little emotional as I wrote that.

Next on Laura's agenda is to replenish my muse and to strike up another fan fiction. I've got to rewrite the ending to one story, draft this next Danny story, and finish the outline of my book. Not to mention live life.

So for awhile, I shall be on hiatus. I will always be writing, but I write better when I know that I don't have a deadline. Besides, who wants rushed writing?

Once again, thank you for making this story such a great success (over 8100 reads and 139 reviews! You guys are FANTASTIC!) and I look forward to what you have to say for my next story.

Have a GREAT weekend, a SPLENDID holiday, and a MAGNIFICENT New Year!

With love and appreciation,

-Laura