"KAYLA!"
Steve was thrashing around so much and straining so hard against the padded cuffs around his wrists that Shane feared he would hurt himself. Shane jumped up and pressed his hands on Steve's shoulders, trying to keep him still.
"Tha's one doozy o' a nightmare," Deakins said. "Hope we don' have those ev'ry night."
"That's the least of my worries right now," Shane answered through gritted teeth. Even as weak as Steve was, Shane was having difficulty keeping him from pulling too hard on the restraints and hurting himself.
"Steve, it's just a nightmare," Shane said. "Steve! Calm down. It's just a nightmare."
Two orderlies rushed over and muscled Shane out of the way. One put all of his weight across Steve, pinning him to the bed. The other was carrying a padded strap that he hooked on one side of the bed and tossed over Steve's chest. A hook dangled off the bed, next to Shane. The orderly yelled at Shane, "Lock it down.
Shane looked back at Steve and saw that his eye was open, but confused and uncomprehending. That look turned to anger and he thrashed around more violently, yelling, "Get the hell off of me."
"Lock it down," the orderly called again to Shane. "The hook, damn it."
Steve was not pulling as hard against the restraints before, and something told Shane that if he helped tie Steve down, that would end of any chance he could help the man.
"Let him go," Shane ordered. He grabbed the padded strap and tossed it to the other side of the bed, then pulled the orderly off Steve and shoved him aside. To Steve, he said, "Calm down. Nobody's going to hurt you."
Steve's eye seemed to focus a little and he blinked a couple of times. He did not say anything, but stopped most of his struggling. Shane noticed, however, that Steve kept flexing his hands into fists and seemed to be testing the wrist restraints.
"Okay, Steve. That's better." Shane kept watching Steve's hands; he had no idea what to do next. This was not something he had dealt with before.
"Don . . . Donovan?" Shane turned to look at Steve's face. He was staring up at him, finally appearing to recognize his surroundings.
"Yes, it's me, Steve." He answered the question he expected Steve to ask next. "You're in a hospital in Cyprus. Do you remember last night? Do you remember us finding you?"
Steve's eye closed and, for a moment, Shane thought he had fallen back asleep. Then it opened. "Kayla . . . Said you'd take . . . take me to Kayla."
Shane had said a lot of things the night before, and he searched his brain trying to remember what Steve was talking about. Then he remembered. Deakins was down and he was trying to get Steve to move on his own. "Yes, Steve, I said that. We just need to make sure you're okay first. Then we're going to take you to Kayla." He hoped that was sufficient.
It appeared to be, because Steve did not press the issue. He tried to raise his right arm, but it was stopped by the restraint. Steve looked down, and his eye widened, as if he was seeing it for the first time, then pulled his arm quickly back and up. Then he jerked his head to the left side and realized that hand also was restrained.
"Steve, try to calm down," Shane said. "They're for your protection, so you don't hurt yourself." The orderly on Shane's side of the bed tried to push past him, but Shane blocked his path. "Steve, you need to calm down."
Steve stopped struggling and looked up. In a soft voice, he said, "Get me out of these. Now." Shane looked down and saw a look he had never seen on Steve's face before. He was not quite pleading, but it was as close as he probably had ever come.
Shane closed his eyes. The restraints were there for a reason; he had just seen how much of a danger Steve could be to himself. But Shane also knew Steve. "Blast it," he said, then turned to the orderlies. "Help me untie him."
"We can't," one of them said. "The docs said he needs to be restrained."
"This is my man," Shane barked. If there was anything he could take from his mission being unofficial, it was that. "So get these bloody things off him."
"I'd done listen to Spooky over there." Deakins added some commentary from his bed. "He don' look like much, but he's a hella lot tougher than he looks."
The orderlies still hesitated, so Shane grabbed the restraint around Steve's right arm and began trying to figure out how to remove it. Then he froze. "What the bloody hell?"
Beneath the padded hospital restraint, Steve's wrists were worn raw. The wound was deep, caused by something that had dug into his wrists, not the soft restraint that Shane held. Around that, Shane could see white scars that seemed to have similar shapes.
Plainly, Steve had been restrained before, and probably not for his own protection. No wonder he had panicked when he found himself tied up in the hospital.
Shane grabbed at the restraint and ripped it off, not caring if the thing broke. He yelled at the orderly on the side. "Get that damned thing off him now!" This time, the orderly complied, and he removed the cuff. Once it was off, Shane looked at both orderlies. "Tell the doctors that if I ever see this man tied down again, I'll have their bloody heads."