Mirror Man

He Said Your Name!

"He...he said your name".

Danny almost choked on the mouthful of now cold coffee he'd gulped down, "what?".

"Mark, he...... told us about you, just before they put him into a coma", the woman smiled awkwardly, "he....his brain is bruised, even though he had his helmet on, so they've......." she gulped.

"They've put him into a coma so his brain can rest" the man finished his wifes sentence for her as she picked at the base of her nails, eyes set to the floor.

"How....how long will-will they keep him under?" Danny asked in as strong a voice as he could muster.

"We don't know, they're monitoring his brain activity, he's breathing on his own, he just needs to rest fully, maybe a week or two, until the swelling goes down", Marks father sighed heavily, pinching his brows together, shaking his head tiredly.

"Oh, o-okay, well I'm glad he's alright, I mean........you know, he's not alright but he's.......um alive", Danny shooshed out a breath, not knowing what to say next, the air around crackled with awkward static.

"Could I.... could I see him?".

Danny felt a sudden urge to break the silence.

"I, I would really like to know he's okay" he smiled nervously at the older pair looking at him with questioning eyes.

What Danny really wanted, no, needed to know, was if that was really their son, Mark, that he was seeing in the mirror, prove to himself that he wasn't going completely mad.

The woman grinned widely as her husband let out a long exhale of nervous breath, "we were going to ask you if...if you would come, he said your name because he knows you helped him, he....he, would like that, we just didn't know how to ask, o-or if you would want to".

The relief on the couple's face was palpable and as Danny smiled back he felt happy, he would finally know who the man behind the visor was, who the haunting grey eyes belonged to, and hopefully prove that the mirror man wasn't just a sign of his fevered brain malfunctioning.

****

Feeling self conscious and scruffy in his faded jeans and too big t-shirt, the result of years of struggling to feed himself properly and keep up with bills and rent, and the relatively decent black puffy coat Hina had bought him the previous Christmas, he scuffed the toe of his only decent pair of trainers against the curb as he waited beside the woman, for the older man, whose name he now knew was John, to park the car in the hospital car park.

Feeling a little awkward he tried to look nonchalant as the woman, Rachel, tapped her foot nervously, casting glances at Danny, smiling gently when she did actually catch his eye.

"You really didn't need to come......if you didn't want to", her nicely toned quiet voice broke through his thoughts.

"I wanted to, I.....I really really wanted to, I am fine, honest" Danny babbled quickly as the woman lay a shaking hand on his arm.

"He will know you're here, the doctor said he can hear", she smiled as her husband appeared and in a strange show of solidarity linked her arm with Dannys as they walked in through the hospital entrance, John the other side taking her free hand in his.

****

The smell of disinfectant assaulted the blonde mans nose, twitching it he sneezed into his crooked elbow, trying to muffle the noise and trap in any unwanted germs, the sound of the sneeze loud in the quiet of the room, where lay the object of Dannys visions.

Amongst the beeping of monitors and the muted noises of the busy corridor beyond the closed door John and Rachel were first to approach the still figure on the bed.