𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐍

Another sigh escaped him, resisting the urge to shake his head. She'd already been through enough without his adding his own drama to the list. Sometimes he forgot about that. Danny hadn't exactly been close to her husband when he'd been alive. They didn't really run in the same circles after all and considering he had hightailed it out of this forsaken town as quickly as he could, it hadn't really given him much of a chance to know him if he had wanted to. "I'm sorry," he told her instead, wrapping his arms around her shoulders as a gesture of comfort. "I shouldn't have brought it up. You didn't need my shit added to whatever you've got going on. Thanks for patching me up. And for looking after Matt when I couldn't." He avoided the question she'd asked, not wanting to give her anything else to worry about. The wound had healed up as best as it would, and he was pretty damn sure most of the lingering pain was in his head. Another left over piece from his time there. "I'll try and stay out of any more fights." Releasing his grip on her, he wriggled his way out from where she had him trapped, moving to put away the first aid kit she had dragged out of his cabinet when she had first arrived.

@bloodyoblivion ⠀⠀ “you think i don’t know that?”  she mumbled, the crease between her brows only deepening as she stared at him. it didn’t faze her that his hand rested on top of hers, it was a comforting gesture that he had done a thousand times over during their childhood. but now, as grown adults, things are different than they were for the both of them—- she should recognize that and pull her hand away, but she couldn’t. her body didn’t want to move and she couldn’t force it.
             ⠀⠀  “i’m not saying you’re not trying, danny.”  she mumbled, her head dipping down for a few moments. she couldn’t think clearly, or maybe it was just that she couldn’t fucking form the words that she wanted to say. either way, she couldn’t voice anything. him being here, between her and the table, with cuts and bruises and scars only brought back awful memories for her. she couldn’t handle when kaylen died, how would she be able to function if she lost her best friend? when her head finally lifted again, it was only when he moved his hand away from hers and she watched it go to his chest. she knew what it must have done to him, how different everything became after that moment.
             ⠀⠀ without thinking, she moved her hand to his, hoping to give him the same comforting gesture he had just given her.  “is it fully healed?”  she looked back at him, making eye contact once more in attempt to see what was hidden. she had always been good at knowing what danny was thinking, but now? she wasn’t so sure that she could, he was (understandably) different than before.  “or is it a psychological pain you put into it?”

So the army had written then. He had expected them to, and knowing what they were like, it would have just been the bare basics. Wounded in action with minimum details of what had happened. His hand moved over hers for a moment, noting the grip that had tightened on the table. Probably wouldn't do much to reassure her, but at the very least he could try. Blue eyes flickered back up to meet her face, trying to keep his face as neutral as possible. No point letting it get to him. "Good. Matt doesn't need to know. He's had a hard enough life with everything else that's gone on." Sure, his little brother wasn't oblivious to what would have gone on, but at least he didn't have to know the depths of it. "I'm trying, Lils. You have no idea how much I'm trying. But there are some nights I can't sleep, when I wake up and I'm back over there. They carried me out on a stretcher under fire. To be honest, I didn't think any of us were getting out alive. I didn't think I was still alive at that point." He hadn't wanted to talk about it, but somehow, Danny figured the woman needed to know more than he needed to avoid the topic. Didn't mean he had to give her the gory details of what had actually happened. "I was in the hospital for months. It hurts still, sometimes." The hand that had covered hers moved involuntarily, inching towards his torso, towards the mangled scarred mess that was covered by his shirt.