“He was here because of me,” Danny said, drawing Mal’s attention back to him. “He said and…and did all thoseawfulthings…because of me.”
“Danny…”
“I make everything worse for everyone.”
“No. You don’t believe that anymore. You know better. You never need to say it or think it again. Look at me.” Pulling his arms from being wrapped around Danny’s body, Mal took his face in hand instead with all the reverent affection he felt for him. “You make my life better. Makemebetter. Even when all you did was give me a worthy challenge.”
Danny sniffled andlaughed, such a sweet, wholly unique sound from how Ludgate had imitated it. Despite the weariness creeping into Danny’s bones with the great relief of finally being home, tears filled his eyes and he smiled at Mal so beautifully.
“We can be better, Sparky,” Mal said, brushing away the tears that escaped like he’d done so many times before, too many times, yet he’d do it again, as often as it took. “We will be better. We just need to start over.”
“No.” Danny shook his head, but his smile didn’t waver. “Not over.Again. We can start again?” The phrase came out a shaky, hopeful question, and Mal knew better than to let it linger unanswered.
“Yes,” he huffed like a relieved laugh. “We can.”
Danny snuggled Mal’s chest, but while he hid his face a moment, he soon looked up again. “Mal, can you, please, just tell me…”
If Danny needed to hear ‘I love you’, as much as the thought made Mal’s insides twist with so many onlookers, he’d comply in a heartbeat. But that wasn’t what Danny asked.
“What color are my eyes?”
Mal ached from the depths of his chest to the base of his spine. “Yellow. They’ve always been yellow.” Ludgate was the one whose eyes didn’t match.
“I’m not like him…” Danny said, eyelids drooping in exhaustion.
“Never.”
“I’m…” then he went limp, all remaining weight falling against Mal.
“Danny?Danny?” Mal’s voice rang with a note of panic, but helping hands reached down to take Danny from him. Half of him wanted to fight their intrusion, but he saw Rivers and Vaughn and knew Danny needed them to get better.
Ludgate had left Danny starved, dehydrated, and soul-weary. Danny needed more than Mal, just like Mal needed more than thieving and a place to rest his head, more than a single dear friend, a sister he couldn’t live without, and a handful of others he kept at arm’s length—and it was Danny who’d taught him that.
Stella and her young brother helped Mal stand, while Dom was the one who finally hefted Danny into her arms in a bridal carry and followed Rivers and Vaughn into the med room.
Priestly and Captain Shan asked questions over the comms that Lucy fielded so Mal wouldn’t have to. Stella smiled at Oz and thanked him, which made the tension creeping up Oz’s shoulders ease away despite being in a police station.
Then there was Grant, who moved toward Mal with watery eyes and too much emotion on his face. He gripped Mal’s arm, not to fight, but to offer gratitude Mal wasn’t sure he deserved.
Danny and Oz had saved the day, both far more than he had, yet Grant met Mal’s eyes and said “Thank you” in a way that made Mal feellike maybe their merry band of misfits wasn’t so impossible a team up after all.
Chapter22
Danny awoke to a familiar ache throughout his body as if his muscles were rebuilding themselves from scratch—as if he’d pushed himself too far on nothing but fumes, so he had to pay for it tenfold in his recovery. Which was exactly what had happened.Again.
A soft groan left him as he fluttered his eyes open, vision blurry for a moment until his surroundings came into sharp focus. He was in the hospital bed in the morgue, tucked into the med room. His shirt was off. And his shoes. He was wearing socks and slacks that he was pretty sure he’d had on…yesterday? Only what day was today?
He peered around for a clock, a tablet or computer to see the time, but instead his groggy mind took in the sight of a small gathering through the door next to the glass window that remained frosted.
Danny’s dad stood talking with Captain Shan. Then John shifted out of the way, gesturing broadly as he talked, and Danny sawMalamongst them.
The full memory of what happened the past twenty-four—forty-eight?—hours assaulted him as he roused fully, and while a fresh ache ricocheted through his body, he felt alert,determined. He was so hungry but finally rejuvenated thanks to an IV running through him.
Now, he tore the IV out, ripped the heart monitor from his chest, and the machines around him screamed. The men through the doorway turned and as a whole bolted into the room. Somehow, Lynn beat them to the bed, though Danny hadn’t seen where she came from.
“What are you doing?” she scolded with just as much authority as ever despite the state of her arm, more properly set now in a cast afterLudgate broke it. She gently pushed on Danny’s chest with her good arm when he stood from the bed. “You should—”
“I’m fine,” Danny said, willing strength to fill his voice rather than the rasp that left him. He felt stronger than he appeared once he was on his feet. He was the Energizer Bunny, damn it; ever rechargeable, ever ready to face what lay ahead—he had to be.
