Somehow Dani manages to scrape through the following week in one piece, even though the memory of what happened in the waiting room at the hospital haunts her almost continually. She told Nico she was in love with him. Or thought she was. And they'd almost kissed. Again. If Coach hadn't burst in when he did - demanding to know why the hell he was being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, and if Nico was maybe losing his touch, allowing things to escalate into that kind of violence - and if Dani hadn't grabbed that opportunity to get the hell out of there as fast as she could, who knows what might have happened.
§
Dani goes back to the hospital the next day, half expecting to find Nico there, but he's not. Instead, she finds Xeno in a room by himself, still groggy from his surgery. The doctor that comes in to check on him informs her that, even though it was a close call and Xeno lost a lot of blood, the knife missed all vital organs, resulting in no permanent damage. The whole time she's there, no-one visits, and it's enough for all of Dani's maternal instincts to kick in, especially when at noon the nurse comes in with a drab-looking plate of hospital food and Xeno eyes it like he might burst into tears. "I'll be back in an hour," she tells him, "don't you dare eat that," and when she does come back, it's with a take-away box of meatballs in tomato sauce and a big slice of apple pie and all the comics she could find in Ray Jay's room.
And so Dani goes back the next day, bearing food and magazines, and the day after that, and the next. At first Xeno doesn't say much to her, apart from "Thank you" or "Please" or "M'am", but his eyes and face light up into a smile every time she walks into the room, which is all the gratification Dani needs. In between she drives back and forth to her practice, attending to her patients, and the facility, where they are dealing with the fall-out from the incident at the club.
Surprising or not, things in that respect work out in their favor. As soon as the press gets wind of what happened, the media circus starts all over again, but this time it's viciously berating the members of the Pittsburgh Vikings that took their homophobia so far a man got put in the hospital because of it. In the slipstream of that a furious public debate begins, demanding more fair play in sports off and on the field.
Rex doesn't quit. At first he's just relieved Xeno will be fine, then he gets angry at the Vikings who targeted him in the first place and in the end he seems to come to terms with the fact that he is now, in fact, the poster boy for LGBT rights in sports. It helps that the team draws even closer together in the face of public scrutiny. In passing, Matt tells Dani that the players have devised a new rule amongst themselves: the incident at the club, the press, and the sexual orientation of Rex - or of any of them, for that matter - stays off the field and out of the locker room. "It's actually amazing," Matt says, "how it's got them all so pent up, but they're like channeling their energy into their game, like they're determined to kick everyone's ass to hell and back and I swear to God, Dani, none of them have ever performed better than they have this week during training." The real test, Dani knows, will be the next game, so she does talk to all the players separately over the next couple of days, sliding in subtle anger management tips for those hotheads that she thinks need it the most.
Weirdly, all through that first part of the week, Nico remains absent. For three full days, he doesn't show up at the facility, he never visits Xeno the hospital and he never once pops up in Dani's car. Dani gets so anxious she nearly asks Coach where the hell he is, but Coach has been looking at her kinda funny, and it makes Dani cringe when she thinks of the reason why, that she was practically on Nico's lap when Coach walked into the waiting room and there was no chance in hell he could have missed the meaning of that.
So instead, she asks Xeno about it later that afternoon.
"Oh," the bodyguard tells her while he's munching on the angel wings she baked him, "the boss is on a break, Coach's orders, you know, catching up on some sleep, but he's been here every day!"
"What do you mean?," Dani huffs. "I have been here every day… I haven't seen him once."
"Mmmm… He always comes at midnight."
"At midnight?"
"Myeah," Xeno murmurs with his mouth full, throwing her a look.
"And why is he on a break?," Dani asks, already knowing the answer. The last few weeks Nico had been looking dead on his feet, she noticed so herself.
"He's been having trouble sleeping, I think. He never sleeps much, but lately… I'm not sure I'm supposed to say though, but that business with the Pittmans."
"I know," Dani sighs. "It's just that, I… We could have used his help this week, with everything that's going on," but even as she's saying it, Dani knows that's not what she really means.
Xeno throws her another quizzical look. "But Dr Santino, the boss is always there when he's really needed. You just need to call him, or text him. You know that, don't you?"
For a while they're both quiet. Xeno's playing with the pastry left on his plate, a little nervously.
"He saved me, you know," Xeno then says quietly. "Back in the day, it was just me and my mom and my brother. The South Bronx was still a bad neighborhood then, but our mom, she was great, you know. Kept me and my brother on the straight and narrow, kept us tight. She taught me how to cook - banana pancakes, flatbread pizza, cheese-steaks." Xeno smiles. "Your cooking reminds me of her. When she died, things got bad fast. My brother was older, and I was 16 so I got to live with him, but pretty soon he fell in with this bad crowd, and then… Well, for a while, so did I. I did some things I'm not proud of. This one night, my brother and some of his gang decide to rob a liquor store and they put me on stake-out, but everything goes wrong cause the owner of that place has a gun and he chases them into the streets and we're all running and then out of nowhere this guy pops up and just floors me - and I know I've seen him before, you know, in our neighborhood, and I think, that's it. I'm going in now. I'm 17 years old and I'm going to jail. But instead he just gets me to my feet, and he gives me a look and asks me if this is what I want the rest of my life to be, and if I think that that's what my mom would have wanted for her boys. I swear, Dr Santino, that almost had me bawling like a baby. "Your brother," he says to me, "is a lost cause. There's nothing I can do for him. You, you can come work for me. It'll be better money than anything you can rob or steal on the streets, and safer." I've been with him every day since, Dr Santino, and he's never once let me down. He really is one of the good guys. The best, if you ask me."
Dani is so moved by Xeno's story that she doesn't quite know what to say, so she just pats his hand a little, and gives him a big hug when it's time to go, and she drives home feeling shaky, yet strangely unsurprised at this additional proof of Nico's capacity for kindness.
§
Thursday, as Dani's leaving the facility, Coach reminds her about the fundraiser gala the Hawks are hosting the next evening and that her presence is required. Dani is cursing underneath her breath, because in the middle of all the turmoil, she had in fact forgotten about it. She makes a mental note to herself to go dress-shopping the next morning - the event is black tie and also a big deal, since all the sponsors will be there, and a lot of press, and with the team getting so much attention the evening has to be nothing if not perfect.
She's still thinking about dresses when she walks into Xeno's hospital room and finds Nico and Xeno playing a game of poker on his bed, Nico sitting in a chair next to it, laughing. Immediately the tension in the room grows so thick you could slice it with a knife. Dani has to stop herself from taking a step back and running out again, but instead she forces a smile and reluctantly sits down in the chair on the other side of the bed.
"Dr Santino," Nico says, "how nice of you to join us. I hear you've been saving this one from the ordeal of hospital food with some - and I'm quoting here - insanely good cooking." Nothing in his manner betrays anything about what happened the last time they saw each other.
"Uh-huh," Dani mutters, feeling her ears pinking up. "So, where have you been?"
"I've been sleeping, mostly," Nico says coolly, drawing another card. "Coach assured me things were under control, and I'm sure he would have called me if I was needed."
"Oh, okay," Dani says, biting her tongue. "You do look… rested." He looks good, Dani thinks. Sexy, clad in tight black jeans that sat low on his hips a button up light blue shirt that he rolled up at the sleeves, revealing strong, muscular underarms. Even his perpetual, annoying little smirk was back. It grows a little wider just as Dani catches herself ogling him, and when he looks up briefly, a hint of amusement in his eyes, Dani feels like she's just been caught with her hand in the cookie-jar.
Xeno scrapes his throat, looking from Dani to Nico and back like he's watching an extremely exciting ping-pong match. "You know, I'd leave the room if I could, but eh, I can't even really leave the bed, so…"
"That's alright," Dani mumbles, hoping she's not blushing profusely like a dumb teenager. "I just came to give you this - she takes yet another Tupperware box from her bag and puts it on Xeno's bedside table - but I really should be getting home to Linds."
Nico follows her to the door and outside into the hallway and stops her there. His hand grabs her wrist, sliding down, and then curls his index finger around hers, until they are holding hands in some small way, and Dani can't even begin to explain the way her heart clutches in her chest, to feel Nico clinging.
"We need to talk," Nico says, softness in his expression. "About us," he adds, as if that was something that needed to be clarified.
Dani nods, nervous. She didn't feel this 16 when she was 16. "Linds is going to Ray's tomorrow and tomorrow's the fundraiser thingie and I still need to get a dress," she says, babbling now, "so maybe, ehm, Saturday?"
"Saturday's fine," Nico says. They're just staring at each other in the hallway of the hospital, their fingers still laced together, both silent as the realization that, maybe, they're what's happening sinks in. Dani must be looking terrified, because the expression on Nico's face grows even softer, before he whispers 'hey, come here' and draws her into his arms. Immediately Dani's overwhelmed, dizzy with the sensation of being enveloped by him, like she's melting into him. Nico's arms crush her against the flat of his chest, one hand coming to rest in her hair, as she buries her face in the crook of his neck, taking in his smell, his warmth in small, shaky gasps of breath. "Just breathe," Nico whispers somewhere near the top of her head, but Dani hears his heart beating wildly in his chest, betraying he's every bit as affected as she is. Nico plants one kiss in her hair before he unfolds himself and takes a step back, looking at her like he wants to do a whole lot more, but he just squeezes her hand, says "I'll see you tomorrow at the fundraiser" and disappears back into Xeno's room.