Mirror Man

The Man In The Mirror!

"Well, the good news is nothing is broken", the doctor said cheerily, Danny felt anything but cheery, he was sore, he was tired and he was still thinking of those painful grey eyes, wishing he knew what had become of the man on the road.

The bleeding, choking man that invaded his thoughts every time he closed his eyes.

The man who'd whispered his name with such a soft tone that it lived rent free in his head, a tone that warmed him, a tone that somehow he knew he'd recognise instantly if he ever, by some random chance, met the man again.

Bumping back to reality a voice broke through his thoughts.

"You've done quite a number on your skin though, that's one nasty friction burn and a lovely bruise, how did you do it?", the doctors voice once again broke through his haze, "oh erm broken mattress spring, I um ........there was a crash outside my flat last night and.....yeah, shot out of bed a bit rapid, and......yeah, OW!".

Danny flinched as the doctors gentle fingers rubbed over the sore spot, the cooling cream beginning to gradually numb the pain, "well, I would suggest a new mattress then Mr Taylor", the doctor stated the obvious as he stuck the dressing pad down with tape.

"No shit Sherlock.......OW" Danny whined, "sorry, I didn't mean to be rude" he flushed as the words left his mouth, "I'm just not having the greatest weekend so far......sorry".

"I'll prescribe you some pain killers and antibiotics, just a precautionary measure to keep away any infection okay?!", the doctor scribbled on his pad, pulling off the top sheet handing it to Hina he left the cubicle.

"Danny, are you really okay?", Hina, the woman leaning in and pulling Dannys t-shirt gently back down as the doctor left the cubicle, said quietly, her eyebrows drawn together with worry.

"No, not really", the blonde man sniffled, "I can't afford a new mattress Hinny, I'm barely making the bills and feeding myself right now", a lone tear trickled from one blue eye, "I'm just so sick of being this way, why can't I just have one tiny piece of luck, just once?", Danny gingerly slid off the bed, one hand clamped to his side, the other holding onto his best friends arm.

"One day Hun, one day you'll be okay", Hina smiled her usual sunny optimistic smile, "now come on, we're going to the bed place, I'll pay for a mattress for you, just pay me back when you can" she smiled that huge smile again, holding out her arm, bent at the elbow, for him to slip his through the gap, steadying her friend as he hobbled beside her.

"No Hinny, you can't afford that" Danny gritted his teeth as the gasping exclamation pulled his ribs once more, "oooow, I can't.......can't let you do that", hanging on to the steady arm of his best friend Danny protested breathlessly, each step towards the doors to freedom from the sterile environment and the smell of disinfectant, marred by the twinge in his ribs.

Taking a seat by the hospital pharmacy eyeing up the long queue, Danny dozed on the womans slim shoulder, her steady breathing lulling him into a short but fitful nap.

"I've been saving for years Dan, just a bit here and there, I've got a few hundred, I'm not going to miss a bit" his friend said firmly, "and you cannot sleep on that god awful mattress again" Hina declared as they left the pharmacy an hour later.

Danny opened his mouth to protest as another shot of pain made him hiss, "exactly!" his friend grinned in triumph at his being unable to argue the point, "right, there's a place just down the road, can you walk that far?" the girl gripped his arm as he nodded, finally finding a way to walk that wasn't going to rip his chest to shreds.

****

A few hours later Danny reclined on his new mattress, not the priciest or the best but it was at least flat, and god was it comfortable.