Chapter Text
“I’m gonna go check on my partner.” Danny announces. As he turns, Anthony speaks up. “I’ll drive you, come on.”
Danny can only nod his acceptance.
“You sure you wanna be around another Reagan after the 24 hours of hell my sister put you through?” Danny asks dryly sometime during the trip. Anthony scoffs and shakes his head, “I’m doing this for Baez, not you.” Anthony spits back light heartedly.
Danny smiles tightly at the man, “Well, I appreciate it Abetemcfluffy.” Danny replies, a chuckle bubbling from his lips.
“If I wasn’t driving right now, I’d punch your arm for that joke.” Anthony laughs. He knows Danny’s a good guy, a good cop. No matter how much of a pain in the ass he can be, and the fat jokes he makes, he knows they’re all in good nature.
As they’re driving, Danny can’t help thinking about the basement. He knows at one point they were beyond exhaustion, sleep deprived while waiting for someone to come rescue them.
Baez’s words — or what he thinks were her real words — kept playing in his head.
“I love you, Danny.”
Shit, had he said it back? He thinks he remembers saying it quietly, but had he really?
“Ay, Reagan, we’re here.” Anthony announces, pulling Danny from his thoughts. He nods, then as he’s getting out of the car he hears Anthony call out “I’ll stay here, go be with her.”
When he gets inside, he notices the gift shop, so he goes inside and finds a huge teddy bear. He smiles warmly at the stuffed toy, imagines her curled up with it while she’s resting her knee.
He takes it and heads towards the cash register.
“Your significant other is going to love this.” The store clerk says fondly as she looks at the man, beaten down and a bit scared.
“Yeah, yeah I think she will.” Danny replies, not bothering to correct her.
He loves Maria Baez. He knows, theoretically, that they shouldn’t pursue a relationship. They’re partners, and that could cloud their judgements when working cases.
But God, he’s so in love with her. When exactly did that start? He couldn’t pinpoint an exact time. He knew when she had accidentally ODed on fentanyl, he was worried sick that he might lose her.
He wouldn’t have made it if he had.
It was too soon after Linda, but Danny thinks the crush started around then. He questioned at the time if he was on the rebound, but no. It’s been years since that, and he’s only fallen more and more in love with her.
This definitely wasn’t a rebound.
When he gets to the floor she’s on, teddy bear in hand, her nurse informs him that they’re keeping her overnight, so he shoots a text to Anthony to go home and the nurse shows him to Maria's room. He quietly enters, sitting next to her and holding the bear while she slept peacefully.
Seeing her look so peaceful in sleep made his heart swell, and finally slow to a normal pace. He didn’t even notice the adrenaline still rushing through his veins.
“Hey, you.” He hears a groggy voice mumble and he sees her eyes flutter open. He smiles fondly at her and holds the teddy bear in front of his face, making its paw wave at her, which makes her smile and laugh softly. “You’re adorable.” She responds weakly, her hand up reaching for the bear and he hands it to her gently.
“How’s the knee?” He asks as he sits in the chair next to her bed, she shakes her head. “It’s not so bad. They took a piece of wood out of it and got me on some good stuff now. Says I’ll be able to go home tomorrow most likely.” She feels her eyes droop, but she snaps her eyes open again and looks at Danny.
“I have to tell you something.”
Danny raises an eyebrow and she feels her cheeks flush at his gaze.
“I, uh…I meant what I said, Danny… I love you.” She admits and suddenly wishes the meds had worked longer so she could escape the embarrassment she feels with her confession.
Danny blinks. Then his smile goes ear-to-ear as he nods at her. He knows he should be wary, the drugs still being in her system oughta make her say anything right now.
He knew she was telling the truth, though. His heart squeezes at the confession and he feels like he can breathe for the first time in years.
“Good, because I love you, too.” He replies matter of factly and she feels her whole face drop as her jaw hangs open and her eyes widen. Danny then one ups her and leans over to her and kisses the side of her head, which finally snaps her back to herself and she smiles brightly at him.
“Guess we have some talking to do, huh?” She asks as sleep starts to take over, and he nods slowly. “Yeah, but for now, rest. We’ll figure out the rest later.”
Then, before she’s completely asleep, he hears her mutter:
“I’m yours now, Reagan. Don’t fuck it up.”
Just like that, she falls asleep and Danny can only chuckle.
“You’re mine, I’m yours forever.” He mutters to himself, but somehow hopes she heard him.
As he sits in the chair and watches her sleeping peacefully, his mind wanders to what this means. He thinks of a world where they are together, job be damned. He thinks of a world where they want to be but the job would make it all confusing and the conflicts that could bring to his judgement. The conflicts that could bring to her judgement.
Yeah, they would need to talk this out when she wasn’t high on pain medication and figure this out.
And they’d do it together.