A/N: sorry it took so freakin' long. i think she's done now. thanks for all the ups, for all my stories. much obliged, yo.

Another chunk of time was gone when Danny woke up. He checked his watch and found it to be almost three o’clock. He couldn’t believe it. It made him nervous to see how much time he was losing to sleep – and he still felt tired. From the looks of the notes and books on the bedside table, his father, Adam and Stella had all been by to visit. Danny frowned and struggled into an upright position. He dug around and found Donald the Bear tangled in the blankets at his feet, and propped it up next the other things left by his friends and father.

Sighing, he resolved to stay conscious till Sara came by to check on him, then demand permission to go see Don, maybe Louie if he felt up to it.

After almost half an hour, a nurse did come by to check on him, but it wasn’t Sara. It was another girl, about twenty-five and beautiful with dark eyes, black hair and full lips. She gave Danny a cool, silent look before setting about checking his head wound, neck, vision and response. Danny swallowed and refused to look her in the eye. She didn’t look exactly like Aiden, but she could’ve been her sister.

She didn’t say a word as she did her thing until Danny finally asked in a raspy voice, “What’s your name?”

She met his gaze briefly and said shortly, “Kate.”

“…You’re the one I made cry, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Any significant pain anywhere, particularly your neck?”

She didn’t sound like Aiden, she didn’t talk Brooklyn, something Danny was incredibly thankful for.

“No. Look-”

“Bad headaches?”

“No, I’m fine. Look, I…” Danny trailed off weakly, ashamed, as she finally stopped prodding him and just gazed back at him eye to eye.

“What is it, Detective?”

“Danny. Call me…call me Danny. I just…What did I say?”

Kate heaved a sigh and gave him a level glare. “You called me ‘fucking stupid’, an idiot, accused me of being reckless and out of my mind. You kept asking me what the hell I was thinking. You were swearing and yelling and you were cr– visibly distressed.”

Danny’s jaw tightened and he glanced away, then back to her face. “I don’t think I was talkin’ to you. When I said all that crap. I…I wasn’t mad at you. M’sorry you caught it.”

Kate paused, then shrugged. In a more giving tone than before, she said, “It’s nothing. You’re in for a stress-related illness and you had a fairly bad concussion. You’re excusable.”

Danny didn’t answer, just shrugged helplessly back.

csinycsinycsiny

Kate gave Danny permission to go visit Don on the condition that he go in a wheelchair and be back in bed by six o’clock. He almost fought the wheelchair, but then he caught sight of her face and wavy dark hair just right in the mid-afternoon sunlight, and changed his mind. He knew he was being silly about it, but he also knew he never could win an argument with Aiden. He didn’t want to taint the vision he had of her doppelganger too much, or be around her too much.

So he let the hulking ape of an orderly push him in the wheelchair down the hall, into the elevator, down another hall, and into Don’s room.

Don was sitting on top of the blankets in grey sweatpants and white hospital t-shirt, his long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle in front of him, watching television. Daniel the Bear was sitting on the bedside table exactly like Donald was. Don looked up and grinned as Danny was rolled in.

“Not a fuckin’ word, Donnie.”

Don’s grin just widened and he gave him an innocent ‘who me? never!’ look.

The orderly got his hands up Danny’s arms and hoisted him onto his feet.

Danny let out a short yelp at being manhandled, not expecting it, and gave the guy a dirty look. “Maybe you should lay off the steroids there, Snack-Pack.”

The orderly just stared at him blankly for a moment, and then retreated with the wheelchair. “Buzz the nurses when you’re ready to go, sir.”

“Yeah, that’ll happen,” Danny muttered under his breathe.

“So good of you to come visit me, Messer. I liked your escort.”

“Fuck off, Don.”

“Fuck on, you get better results,” Don said sagely.

Danny pouted as he crossed the room and perched up on the end of the bed. He doubted patients were allowed to ‘fuck on’ in the hospital beds.

“You could ride to London on that lip.” Don smiled at him. “But you look okay.”

“I gotta migraine, but I am okay,” Danny said with a shrug. “Whaddabout you?”

“Man, I’m just bored at this point. You need more sleep?”

“No, why?”

Don lifted his shoulders and shook his head. “I dunno. How was the head shrinker? And don’t get cute.”

“Nothin’ new to report. I’m still mental. The jury's still out on the post-trauma stuff.”

“Mm, par for the course, huhn?”

Danny smirked. “Tell me ‘bout it.” He turned and squinted over his shoulder at the TV. “What’re you watchin’?”

“The Shinin’. Come’re?”

“Man, that movie scared the piss outta me when I was younger,” Danny murmured, ignoring his friend’s request.

“Movie scared the piss outta you when we rented it last month. And you said the exact same thing too. Come’re, Messer.”

Danny turned back to him and frowned. “What for?”

Don sighed and shook his head. He shifted more to the side to make room and lifted his arm to take Danny close. “Jus’ come’re, Dan.”

He hesitated, then crawled slowly to Don’s side and settled beside him, the taller man’s arm now slung around the shorter one’s shoulders.

“You gettin’ lotsa visitors? B’cause other than you, Mac and Stella, my worshippers seem to’ve dwindled.”

Danny grinned a little. “Poor lil Flackie. All alone.”

Don scoffed. “No, I still got your dumb ass comin’ all the time. Jeez, pal, you really got no life, huhn?”

“Meh, guess not,” Danny muttered. “But yeah, some people’ve come to see me. Stella came twice, my old man, Adam…I think Hawkes dropped by too, but I’ve been sleepin’ so much…I dunno why they do that.”

“Do what? Come when you’re sleepin’? I don’t think it’s somethin’ they really time out, Messer. Just works out like that. Believe me, I know all ‘bout it. I didn’t see my own mother till the third time she visited.”

“No…come at all. Why bother? S’not like I’m dyin’ or nothin’. They'll see me when I get out.”

Don groaned. “Man, you’re such a fuckin’ idiot of an asshole.”

“Uh, okay. Fuck you.”

“Was anyone there when you woke up yesterday?”

“Yeah, Mac was. I tole you that awready.”

“What time did you pass out in the shower?”

“To the second? I dunno. Maybe…five o’clock? What’s with the twenty questions? Who gives a fuck?”

Don gave him an exasperated look. “He waited till you woke up, Dan. He waited till I woke up and waited till you woke up. He does have a heart, y’know. Face it, Messer. He cares ‘bout us, ‘bout you. Of course he's gonna come visit.”

Danny scowled and shrugged. “Whaddabout when Stella was in the hospital, huhn? He made you stick around with her.”

“He was there when she woke up, then he tore off to figure out what the hell happened.”

“I hate that,” Danny muttered.

Rolling his eyes, Don said, “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.”

Danny huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I know, but-”

“If someone cares for you, you gotta actually think ‘bout your own safety and well-being ‘cause you don’t wanna hurt ‘em.”

“…Somethin’ like that, yeah.”

Don growled in frustration and pulled Danny into a bear hug. He rolled deftly and had the smaller man pinned beneath him in half a second. Danny yelped and squirmed, trying to get free, but he didn’t want to re-hurt his neck or the other man’s wounds, and Don was stronger than him, even laid up in a hospital bed.

“Don! Aw, c’mon, geddoff me, you asshole!”

“Messer, someday you’re just gonna haveta face up to the facts.” Don informed him. “You gotta just accept that Mac and Stella and Hawkes and Adam all care ‘bout your bony ass. That Aiden loved you like a brother. That your Pop and Louie love you. That I love you.”

Danny continued to glare at him, but stopped fighting. “You know what else I hate?”

“That I’m always right? ‘Cause, y’know, most other people find that charmin’.”

“…Nobody finds you charmin’, you douche.”

“Hick Chick happens to find me utterly delightful actually.”

The scowl darkened and Don bit back the urge to kiss Danny. It was a little too warm and comfortable stretched out on top of the CSI, and it had been two and a half weeks since they’d had sex, but Don forced himself to concentrate on what they were discussing.

“Too bad she’s back in Montana, Flackie. Poor bastard.” Danny said, his gruff voice dripping with sarcasm.

Don shrugged, trying to ignore how much that voice turned him on. “I know. I heard awready.”

To his surprise, Danny groaned and thumped his head back onto the pillow. “Fuck. You’re in the freakin’ hospital and I still manage to be the last fuckin’ guy to find out.”

Don wasn’t sure what he meant, but the Messer’s facial expression was priceless and he was so flat-out indignant that he laughed anyway.

When he was able to catch his breathe and Danny had stopped pouting so resolutely, he said, “I cannot wait till we get outta here, pal. Things’ll smooth out when we do.”

Danny smiled sadly. “You should see my one nurse.”

“Why? She cute? Cuter than me?”

“No, just…I miss Aiden. D’you miss Aiden?”

Don exhaled slowly and rolled off Danny. They both sat up a little, but didn’t move apart. “Yeah. I miss ‘er.”

Danny shifted uneasily and twisted his hands together. “…Are we at the end of our ropes?”

Taking a moment to seriously consider the question, Don slipped a hand between Danny’s clenched ones and separated them gently before the CSI broke a finger. “I read those damn books you brought me.”

Danny licked his lips, impatient for an answer, but knowing Don would get there, and be honest when he did. “Which ones, the Raymond Chandlers or Stephen Kings…?”

“The Tolkiens. You’re right; they were good once I made myself get into ‘em. And I always sucked at papers and book reports in high school, I rarely even bothered to read the assigned novel, so I blow at the whole analyzin’ thing, but I was thinkin’, y’know? Mostly ‘bout the two midgets-”

“Hobbits.”

“-Whatever. I know a lot of people would say we were Merry and Pippin for the most part, but I was thinkin’ we were like Sam and Frodo.”

Danny’s forehead crinkled up and he shifted again. “You’re sayin’ we’re midgets with hairy feet who eat too much?”

“Hobbits. No, I'm talkin' 'bout the bit ‘bout how neither of ‘em coulda made it by themselves. But together, they did. They were both good and strong on their own, but together they were strong enough to make it through. They made up for each other’s faults and held each other up. Am I right?”

Danny looked away and shook his head anxiously. “Since when are you Mister Gonna Answer a Simple Question with a Moral Story…”

“Am I right though?”

“…Yeah. You’re right, Donnie.”

Don gave him a broad grin and kissed his neck. “Toldja I’m always right, Dan.”

“Bastard…”

“Yeah, yeah, Messer. I know you know I’m charmin’ too.”