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Gil tells him to take her home, and Malcolm is positive if she had even an ounce of strength left, she would be using it to fight him.
But Gil just gives him that look, the one he uses when he’s made a decision and going to make you follow through with it, no matter what, so Malcolm doesn’t fight it. He knows that look. There’s no use in trying to change his mind.
Not that he wants to, but he the smallest part of him feels like he should, for Dani’s behalf. So later, once she’s back to being herself, and he can tell her that he tried.
Dani watches them from the hospital bed, and she looks so tired, so small in the terrible, starch sheets, and Malcolm has to stop himself from physically dragging thee doctor into the room so her can discharge her. Her wants to get her out of here, get them all out of the hospital, get them somewhere that isn’t covered in stress and death.
“I’ll get her home safe,” Malcolm promises, and the tension in Gil’s shoulder’s slips just enough that Malcolm knows he did the right thing by not protesting.
“Thanks. JT and I’ll finish up at the station. Keep us updated.” Gil claps his shoulder and then goes to say goodbye to Dani.
Malcolm watches her offer him a small smile, and waves when her eyes fall onto him as Gil tells her the plan. She rolls her eyes, and it’s such a Dani thing to do Malcolm feels himself relax a little.
She’s going to be okay. The doctor already told them she would be, but seeing her smile and get annoyed at the thought of him taking care of her proves that she will be.
He waits until Gil leaves to collapse into the seat next to her, the stress of the day seeping into his bones.
“I guess this is payback, huh?” Dani asks.
Malcolm rests his elbows on his knees and leans closer to her. “I mean, you’ve brought me home home how many times at this point, it’s only fair.”
Dani hums, her head falling back against the pillow. “I have dirty dishes in my sink. And my bed is not made. And if you judge me for it, Bright, I swear, I will punch you.”
“Oh no, the horror.”
She laughs, a brush of air passing her lips and landing on his face, and she’s going to be okay. There’s still blood dried on her skin, and there’s dark circles under her eyes, and he can see the fear in the clench of her jaw, but she’s going to eventually be okay. She has Gil, and JT, and Edrisa, and him, if she wants him, and it’s just a gunshot wound. One she survived. One she’s going to recover from.
Her blood has dried under his fingernails, and he’s still trying to recover from the thought that they could have lost her, and the doctor is taking forever to draw up the papers, and he just wants to get her home.
Get her home and get her blood washed off the both of them, and figure out the next steps to getting her better.
“Bright,” Dani says, her eyes snapping open. “What happened,” she pauses, her jaw clenching again, and he knows she reliving it, and he wants more than anything to stop that from happening to her. “What happened after?”
His hands tremble, and he tries to piece the seconds back together in his memory. One second they were chasing their suspect down an alley, and the next, Dani was stumbling, and Malcolm only barely caught her before she fell the ground, blood seeping through her jacket and into his hands and onto the street, and his heart almost stops.
“JT caught the guy. He’s in lockup. JT and Gil are interrogating him now. He will not get away with this.”
Dani looks likes she’s about say something when the doctor finally walks in, discharge papers in his hands.
He jumps and grabs it as fast as can. He’s taking her home.
xXx
Dani leans against him as he fumbles around with her keys, the exhaustion of the day and the loss of blood, and the entire trip from the hospital to her apartment wiping her out completely. Her left arm is in a cast, protecting the damaged muscle in her shoulder from even more pain, and he’s got the bullet in his pocket, because the doctor gave it to him on the way out, just in case she wants it.
Dani Powell was shot in the shoulder today, and now Malcolm was walking them into her apartment, a bag full of her bloody clothes and antibiotics in his free hand.
She shoves herself off of him once he gets them close enough to the kitchen island, dropping her weight into the chair and rambling around her drawers for something.
He takes a moment to take in her apartment, trying his best not to profile her from it. But he can’t help it.
(She’s a middle child, and a Yankees fan, and her father is a fire fighter and she likes tea more than his mother, and…)
“Where is it?” Dani rips open a drawer, and he notices her hands are shaking.
“Dani, let me…”
She whips out a pair of scissors and turns to him, a threat in her voice. “Shut up, Bright.”
He holds up his hands in surrender and takes a step back, settling on the other side of the island.
She struggles to get her hands to stop moving as she slices the hospital bracelet off her wrist, the scissors clattering to the table the second she’s done. Dani drops her head to the counter, and Malcom gives her a moment before taking a few steps closer.
“Dani.”
She sighs, and then flips her hair back, resting her head on her good hand, which he notices have stopped shaking so badly.
But they are still covered in specks of blood and dirt and everything. He searches until he finds her paper towels and runs the water until it is warm, before stopping in front of her, holding his hand out in question.
Dani nods, and he gently wipes the cloth over her jaw, and down her neck, scrubbing away the blood until it’s almost like it didn’t happen.
Almost.
Her eyes flutter shut, and the only noise is their breathing, and he wants to ask her if she is okay, but he doesn’t want to push her. She’s always given him the space he needed, and he wants to do the same fo her.
“Do you want me to make some tea?” he asks, and she opens her eyes, the terrified, lost look disappearing with a blink, and she’s exhausted, but there’s a gleam of Dani in her eyes.
“Isn’t that how your dad poisoned his victims?” He can hear the teasing in her voice, and he thinks, maybe, she’ll be okay.
“Point taken, no te-“
“No, Bright, I’m kidding. Tea would be great. As long as you promise not to try and kill me.”
“Ha.” He rustles around her kitchen, finding the tea pot and picking one the teas from her ginormous stash, and when he turns back to her, he feels like someone’s punched him in the heart.
“You didn’t have to stay.”
Malcolm almost spills the tea. They are technically friends, he thinks. Sort of friends at this point. He wants to be her friend. But maybe he was over estimating.
“Are you suggesting that JT can make a better cup of tea than me?” He asks. He’s good at deflecting, at pretending.
That gets a smile out of her, but she shakes her head, only wincing sightly from moving so much.
“He’s much more of a cheap beer kind of guy. But I mean,” she pauses her good hand pushing her hair back, but its falls into her face again instantly. “You don’t have to stay and take care of me.”
He pushes her cup of tea to her side of the counter. “What are friends for?” He asks, throwing her words back at her, and she smiles a bit more. “Plus, we’re even now. You took care of me after the snake and after the drugs. I can make you a cup of tea after getting shot.”
Her hands tremble for a second before she wraps them around her mug. “Is this the part where I tell you I’m not a virgin and I’ve lots and lots of sex.”
“I was hoping that part was a dream.”
Dani shakes her head and pulls her tea up to her lips. The cups shakes a bit, tea sloshing over the sides before she puts it down, her hands tightening around the mug.
“I have some tricks I use to stop the tremors, if you want them.” He says, staring into his own cup of tea instead of at her.
“Umm,” she bites her bottom lip and tries to tuck her hair behind her ear again. “That would be nice.”
Malcolm nods. “I can text them to you. Different therapists had different ideas, and I also found a few online.” He takes another sip of tea before allowing himself to look at her again.
She’s somewhere between smiling and looking terrified, which he thinks is normal for the day she’s had.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He asks her.
She takes a long sip of her tea. “I think, I want a grilled cheese.”
Malcolm smiles. “I think I can do that.”
xXx
He gets her settled on the couch, with a fresh cup of tea and a perfectly grilled cheese sandwich, even if the cheese is slightly less fancy than his.
She flips on the TV and and pushes her hair back again, groaning when it falls back into her eyes.
“You know this whole use of one arm thing is starting to get old really fast.” She says, opting to just blow her hair out of her face.
“The doctor said you won’t need to be in the sling for too long.”
“Ugh.” She drops her head back on the back of the couch. She glances down at her clothes and she groans. “Did they cut off my shirt? That was my favorite shirt.”
“If it makes you feel any better, they gave us back the pieces.”
“Ugh, not better at all.” she says, wrinkling her nose at the shirt JT brought her from the precinct. Her hair falls into her eyes again, and she turns to turns to glance at him. “Would you wig out if I asked you to put my hair up?”
“Umm, no. Ains always said I sucked a putting her hair up though.”
“I believe in you.” She says, and everything about her excudes exhaustion, but she’s smiling at him. And really, right now, he would do anything to keep her smiling.
She’s in JT’s extra office shirt and Gil’s jacket, and she’s still got flecks of blood on her hands and the orange surgery goo on her shoulder and she can’t put her hair up by herself, and Malcolm is oddly struck with the the thought that Dani Powell is one of the most important people in his life.
And he almost lost her today.
She holds out her hair tie to him, and he knows she doesn’t trust easily, and she’s only asking him to help he put her hair up, but it feels like it means more.
“Let me know if I hurt you or anything.” He grabs the hair tie and stands, moving himself behind her on the couch so he can gather her hair, doing his best to be as gentle as possible.
It’s quiet, just the sound of the TV humming quietly, his hands running through her hair in an attempt to get it out of her face.
A noise of triumph escapes his mouth once he finishes, and Dani rolls her eyes back to look up at him.
“Thank you.” Every time she blinks it takes longer for her eyes to open again.
“Do you want to move somewhere more comfortable before I go?” He asks, afraid that he’s overstaying his welcome.
Her eyes snap open, and he can see the fear in face.
“Wait, I don’t want to be alone.”
“Oh.” He moves back around the couch and settles down next to her. “Okay, then.” She wants him to stay. He’s stupidly happy that she wants him to stay.
“I just,” Dani pauses ’”I've been shot at before. But never, you know, actually shot. It puts things into a different perspective. Taking more time than I thought it would to process that.” She’s not looking at him, but she’s talking to him, and he knows it’s a good thing. Years of therapy have taught him that.
“That makes sense. There was a study I read in school about how we all process trauma at different…” He trails off, his eyes falling to her, and almost out of nowhere, he feels like he’s been punched in the gut. Because she’s looking at him, eyes full of something he can’t quite place, but somewhere, something inside of him suddenly wants to kiss her.
Which, is not what he was excepting. And it takes him off guard.
“You don’t want to listen to me ramble about scientific papers,” he says, and she shakes her head, but she’s smiling, bigger now, and he’s happy for it. Even if it’s because of his inability to navigate social situations.
“Not really. I’m way too tired to process it right now.” She yawns and her eyes fall to him again. “Wait, will you be okay without the restraints?”
Malcolm smiles at her and grabs his tea. “I’m not going to sleep.”
“Wait, Malcolm-“
“I’ll be fine. Close your eyes, Dani.”
She looks like she wants to protest, but then a yawn takes over her body again, and the fight leaves her completely, and within in minutes, she’s asleep.
xXx
She falls sleep with her head on his shoulder. He waits until he’s sure she’s asleep before he slowly moves her, making sure she won’t hurt herself.
Malcolm does the dishes. He takes her clothes out of the hospital bag and soaks them in the sink, doing his best to clean the blood out. He makes some more tea. He finds a blanket and places it over her, and then settles himself on the floor, pulling up a a new article on his phone to read through.
Well, he tries to read it. But mostly, his mind keeps sending him back to almost losing her. To her blood flowing down his hands, to the fear in her eyes as he told her she was going to be okay, that she needed to be okay.
He’s used to nightmares. He’s used to reliving things in his mind over and over until it haunts him. And he knows this is going to enter into the loop, just another moment in his life that won’t let him sleep.
He almost lost her today.
He almost lost Dani Powell before he actually got to be her friend, and the thought terrifies him. He doesn’t want to lose her. He can’t.
(He also can’t process the sudden want to kiss her, but he’s going to ignore that for now. For the rest of time if he can help it. He can barely handle friendships most of the time.)
Her scream pierces the room at 3 am. He’s at her side in an instant, resting this hands across her knees, taking her good hand in his.
“Hey, Dani, you’re okay, Dani, look at me, breath, you’re okay.”
She breathes, in and out and in and out, and she’s shaking, but he breathes with her, keeping her hand in his.
“You’re okay. You’re safe.”
She nods, and drops her head into his chest as he pulls her into a hug, holding her until she’s breathing normal again.
“Let me make you so more tea,” he says, once she stops shaking so badly. He moves to go to the kitchen, but she grabs his wrist and pulls him back, and her lips press into his cheek.
“Thank you.”
His cheeks heat up. Something inside of his brain stops working.
“Huh.”
She scrunches up her nose and pushes him away, but he’s frozen.
He almost lost her today. But he didn’t.
And now, he’s going to make her some tea, and she’s going to be okay.
And tomorrow, they are going to make sure the guy who shot her get’s punished for his crimes.
And maybe, he’ll get to be her friend. Maybe one day, something more.
“I’m going to make us some tea.” He says, finally standing up from the floor, and Dani rolls her eyes at him, and she looks like Dani again, now that she has some sleep, and oddly, he’s the happiest he’s been in a long time.
And maybe, everything’s going to be alright.