Hello all, I hope you're still with me. I'm terribly sorry to keep you waiting this long! I've been extremely busy, but here's the next chapter, finally.
I want to thank everybody who reviewed, you're great!
Enjoy!

The next morning, Danny slowly woke up to find Steve still in the chair by his bedside. He was asleep, in a position that looked like it was very uncomfortable and it would surely give him a crick in his neck.

But Danny didn't wake him up, because he was certain Steve hadn't had much sleep last night. He looked around his room and was glad to see the monitors were gone and only one IV was left in his hand.

It didn't take very long for Steve to wake up though, although, truth be told, Danny possibly fell asleep, so he wasn't entirely sure it wasn't that long before Steve woke up.

"Hey babe. You didn't look to comfortable there. Did you sleep well?"

"I actually slept quite well," Steve said, turning his head from side to side. "How do you feel? Are you in any pain?"

"I am not, actually. They have me on the good stuff, apparently. Not too good though, since I'm not high as a kite."

"No, unfortunately you're not. I would have liked to experience that," Steve grinned.

"You say that now, but trust me, you don't. You really don't." Danny shifted a little and winced.

Steve was immediately next to him. "Are you okay, buddy? Do I need to get a nurse?"

"Relax, Steven. I'm fine. The pain's not too bad. I promise I'll tell you if it gets too much."

Steve relaxed, but only a little. Danny noticed and told Steve "Seriously, I'm alright. Just sit back down. Or, if you really want to do something for me, get me some coffee. You know how I get when I don't have my fix of coffee."

Steve was glad he could do something, he was going mad just sitting around doing nothing. "I'll go get you some coffee. Anything else you need?"

"Uhm, I could use some toiletries, and some clothes," Danny said, noticing Steve's eagerness to do something, anything. "You already brought clothes, didn't you? Maybe you could bring me some books, and my laptop."

"Of course, I'll see what I can do. I already brought clothes yesterday, though"

"Good. Oh, and Steve?"

"Yeah Danno?" Steve asked, avidly to do anything Danny asked.

"Go and have a shower. And maybe you could go for a swim. We both know you'll probably go insane if you don't exercise."

Steve smirked and saluted Danny. "Yes Sir!"

"Good. I wouldn't want to have you going mad on my conscience."

"Normally you don't seem to care about that when you're driving me crazy with all your rambling," Steve said in mocking exasperation.

"I do not, I repeat, do NOT ramble. I do express my opinion, though."

"Yes you do, but I'm willing to let that go, since you're in the hospital. Take it easy, and be nice to the nurses."

"I am afraid I am not going to do anything BUT taking it easy in the near future. And you're asking ME to be nice to the nurses? I'm always nice, and you know it, Steve."

"Not when you haven't had your fix of coffee. Since you didn't have that, I'm telling you to be nice to those poor nurses. I don't envy them at all."

"Just shut up and go, Steve. The sooner you leave, the sooner you'll be back here with that much needed coffee."

"Alright, bye Danno. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"See you later, Steve."

When Steve returned to Danny's room about an hour and a half later, the doctor just covered Danny back up with the sheets.

"How is he doing, doc?" Steve asked.

"He's right here, you know, and he can speak for himself. I'm doing fine." Danny sounded a little irritated.

Steve looked at the doctor for confirmation.

"He's doing good. He's obviously a little worse for wear, but he's healing up nicely. I want a repeat scan this afternoon, but that's just a precaution. The surgical site looks good, and if he keeps doing so well, he'll be discharged from the hospital within a few days."

"That's amazing, Danny!" Steve was amazed by the progress his partner had made. Sure, he might not have necessarily suffered life-threatening injuries, but it had still been quite serious. Danny seemed to be bouncing back though.

"It is," Danny said, but he didn't sound like he meant it.

As soon as the doctor had left the room, Steve moved over to Danny's side. He handed him his coffee, a muffin, a banana and a small cup of yoghurt.

At Danny's questioning look, he simply said "You have to keep your strength up. What was that about?"

"What was what about?"

"You know what I mean. I'd expect you to be a least a little pleased at the prospect of leaving the hospital."

"I am, it's just..." Danny hesitated a little. "I'm still not going to be able to take care of myself, and I'm especially not going to be able to go into the field any time soon, if ever.
I have to be on bedrest for the first week and a half, and use a wheelchair for at least the first week after that if I want my leg to fully heal. If that pin shifts only a little, my leg will probably never fully heal."

Steve didn't say anything, he just pulled Danny into an embrace.

TBC

Thank you so much for reading, please let me know what you think.