Michael had to admit that Daniel seemed to do pretty well with himself even one handed, especially since he was sure the man was right handed. For a moment he was a bit worried Daniel really wouldn't need him. In fact he watched with amazement as Daniel dug his keys out of his right pocket with his left hand, and unlocked the door. Michael followed him in.
"Want something to eat, or drink?" Daniel asked.
"Bottle of water?"
Daniel walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water as Michael walked over to the couch.
"Catch." Daniel said as he tossed the water to Michael. Michael caught it and sat down on the couch.
"Watch what you want. I think I'm going to go take a nap." Daniel said, walking towards his bedroom.
"Okay. Call if you need anything."
Michael quietly got up from the couch to sneak behind Daniel to see how the injured man was going to fair.
Daniel, with his back to the door, reached over behind his head, grabbed a portion of his tshirt at the collar and pulled it over his head. He tentatively pulled off the sling. Michael heard him wince once as the scratchy material of the sling rubbed on his stitches. He pulled back the covers, pulled a second pillow over, and crawled into bed. Michael watched with intent interest, watching Daniel's cute butt press against the fabric of the scrub bottoms he was still wearing. Daniel laid on his left side, his right arm curled protectively against his midsection. Michael left him to his nap. After all the excitement of the day, he decided to pull out the couch to lie down. While one of the Harry Potter movies played in the background, Michael drifted off to sleep.
Daniel woke up about 2 hours after he'd fallen asleep. It had been about 6 hours since his last pain pill, and his arm and thigh were throbbing. First things first though, he really had to pee. He stumbled into the bathroom. After a bit of struggle he finally managed to piss without making to much of a mess. He walked out to the living room because he wasn't sure where Michael had set his meds, if he'd even brought them in from the car. He laughed when he spotted Michael zonked out on the couch, snoring.
Daniel shrugged and looked around for any sign of the drugs. As he walked into the kitchen, he spotted the white pharmacy bag on the counter. He shook the vial out, and using his hip, he stabilized it against the counter and used his left hand to undo the child proof lid. He reached into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. Daniel contemplated how to open the water, since pushing it against his hip like he did with his pills would result in water spilling onto him, and he was sure Michael would make fun of him if it looked like he wet himself. Or he could ask Michael to open it, but he was sure that he'd get made fun of for that too. Daniel figured he could hold the bottle in his right hand easier then trying to twist the cap off.
"SON OF A..." Michael woke up to a violent yell that cut off before the curse slipped out. He bolted up, and ran to the kitchen. Daniel was standing there holding a paper towel to his right arm, blood leaking through. A bottle of water was on the floor.
"Hey, are you okay?" Michael asked.
Daniel looked at him through a glaze of tears.
"Yeah. I think I might have torn a stitch though."
"Why didn't you wake me up? I could have helped."
Daniel just shook his head.
"Daniel, really, that's why I'm here. Let me help you."
"Look, I can take care of myself. And if I wasn't so concerned about you making fun of me for spilling water, I would have done that instead of trying to use my right hand. I didn't want you to say 'I told you so', whereas if you weren't here, I would have no problem with water on my pants instead of bleeding. So this is your freaking fault." The tears that had been brimming started to fall. Michael stepped up and pulled Daniel to him. Daniel buried his face into Michael's neck and gave into the tears.
"I'm sorry." Michael said. "I know you can take care of yourself. I've already seen how you've adjusted and was surprised. I just know how stubborn my dad has been when injured and eventually he always gave up because he couldn't do something, so before knowing how well you could adjust I just assumed you would have problems. I'm sorry."
"Okay." Daniel said, muffled and teary against Michael.
"I also just want to take care of you. You're special to me, being my best friend here. Let me take care of you because I want to, not because you need it?"
"Okay."
"Good. Now let me look at your arm."
Daniel took a small step back from Michael and pulled the paper towel off. Michael grabbed some fresh paper towel, moistened it with some cold water and started to wipe some of the blood off. Daniel swiped at his face, removing the remaining tears.
"Ew. Your shirt's all gross from me crying on you, and there's blood on it now."
"Don't worry about it. I'll change in a moment, let's make sure I don't need to call Ben about your stitches okay?"
Daniel held still as Michael poked at his bite wounds, making sure nothing had gaped open. He gritted his teeth, as Michael's prodding reminded him he needed to take his codeine.
"Okay, it all looks good to me." Michael bent over and picked up the water and cracked it open. Daniel reached over for his pill, popped it in and chased it with the water.
