These are things I am doing (Danny, his friends, Abby at the beginning)

[daniel_marlow]

"Nooooo!"

Danny had his arm flung over his face and he was hiding in the crook of his elbow from a very bossy Abby. "Daniel Marlow, you need to finish your lunch."

Danny groaned, fairly sure if he ate anything else he was going to throw up. Abby had informed him, however, that he needed to eat more than he had been to put some weight back on. Something about not fucking his heart up more than it already was. In order to do that, considering his stomach had shrunken from disuse, he needed to not give up on his meals after three bites. "You are mean to me!" he accused her, still hiding.

"Yep, I'm a dragon lady. Not literally, in case that worries you. Now eat your damn tater tots before I tell your mother on you."

Behind Abby his friends filed into the room, though Danny didn't entirely hear them. He was still hiding in his arm. "That's a dirty trick, Dr Abby. A dirty, dirty trick."

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[runrachelrun.insanejournal.com]

Rachel hadn't seen Danny all week, not since he tried to kill himself, not since she broke her arm, not since Cai and Zoe started classes again and left her with nothing but herself during the long, long days.

She'd seen Cai a couple of times - three, including today. Cai kept checking in on her, and together they'd watched half a season of Adventure Time and he'd even made a couple of meals, meals that didn't need to be cut up; meals that didn't make her feel pathetic just to eat. Rachel was getting serious depressed each time she had to make toast soldiers. But Cai seemed to get that instinctively, and bought over reheatable things she could eat with one arm. If she wasn't so in love with Danny she would have been developing a serious crush on Cai.

Cai had picked her up to drive her to the hospital, after Zoe called her ("can you call Cai?" Zoe had asked her. "And why can't you call him?" Rachel had asked. "I have more homework than I can see," Zoe snapped. "Just call Cai and get him to meet us at Danny's hospital.") Rachel leaned on Cai as they waited for Zoe and as Abby talked to Danny. Rachel felt heavy, tired and sluggish.

Her arm was still in a sling, and underneath it she was wearing one of the t-shirts she'd stolen from Danny, its soft cotton bagging around her body, but softer than anything she owned and three times as comforting. Her jeans smelled a bit like stale beer, but she hoped no one would notice over the smell of the hospital.

"Maybe we should just go in?" Cai asked, sounding nervous.

"No," Rachel scolded, poking him with her good hand. "We have to wait for Zoe."

"Okay," said Cai, but he said it in a funny way, it made Rachel sit up straight and eye him up.

"Why, you don't want to wait for Zoe?" She asked. Cai shook his head to say that wasn't it. "You don't want to see Zoe?" Rachel narrowed her eyes at him and he shook his head again. "Ooh, you really want to see Zoe," she nodded understandingly.

"No, God Rach, shut up."

"Ooh, blasphemy from Finch," Rachel smirked. "She's gonna drag you straight to hell."

"She - I don't-" Cai stammered a few times before Rachel slapped him fondly on the arm. She'd seen Zoe, coming round the corner toward them. She stood, and Cai followed a few seconds later.

"Hey," Zoe said to Rachel, stopping a few paces from her so she could take her all in. Zoe hadn't seen Rachel since she'd got out of hospital either. Her long hair was pulled up with a large leopard-print hair clip and Zoe couldn't tell how tired she was, because she'd managed a couple of sweeps of careful eyeliner, and lip gloss. But even then, there was something about the way she carried herself that didn't look good, or healthy.

Danny was the same, once they all entered the room. All in one piece, and alive, yes, but there was something about him that just screamed unhealthy. Like some primal part of Zoe wanted to keep away from him like she was afraid she'd be infected. She didn't listen to that primal part of herself though, none of them did, though out of the three of them, Cai hung back the furthest.

Rachel closed the distance toward Danny the fastest, crying out "Danny!" and stopping short of throwing herself across his bed. The relief she felt on seeing him was so big it nearly cracked her open and started her weeping. She barely registered that Abby was in the room at all. "Oh god, Danny - can I - can I touch you?"