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Cold and damp, Ryan hovers as the director for this block relays her vision for the scene to the camera operators then repeats the same into the walkie-talkie for her assistant and the crew manning the crane.
He and Danny are on a special night shoot for a big storyline in the winter schedule and things couldn't be more miserable, raining lashing down on their heads and a biting breeze cutting across the country roads. He'd regret offering to do part of this stunt if he didn't look forward to the challenge or the thrill of responsibility to get it right.
“You're such a nerd,” Danny had laughed when the show told him that he'd been approved.
It's simple enough – a car stunt that has Aaron at the wrong place, wrong time and Robert arriving to rescue him. The inclement weather that's au natural makes things a little more complicated, so Ryan has a stunt double ready to take over the reins for the tricky bits. He's just happy to drive a different car for a change, a Land Rover that Andy left to Robert when he escaped prison and went into hiding.
“Okay, come with me,” the stunt coordinator says gruffly to Ryan, pulling him from his thoughts.
“Right, I want all cast and crew who aren't necessary for this to get back behind the cordon. Let's take this seriously!” Judith shouts.
Ryan feels Danny tense next to him. He smiles to reassure and Danny casually punches his shoulder in a very Aaron-like fashion. Nobody knows that they took their friendship into a relationship around six months ago.
“Don't be too heroic,” he mutters, biting his lip.
Ryan straightens and puffs his chest out, affecting the Robert swagger and charm as he leans in to whisper, “I won't. But Robert will.”
He's pleased to see Danny's fond shake of the head as he turns to walk with the stunt coordinator to the car positioned down the road, both of them swaddled in bulky waterproof coats until Ryan has to get in and be in his infamous leather jacket. He passes a multitude of big puddles on the way and absorbs as much advice as possible before he hands his parka to a runner by the crane and hauls himself into the Land Rover. He puts both hands on the steering wheel and takes a slow, deep breath in whilst everyone settles and the only sound is the patter of raindrops that's miraculously slackened off. He flicks on the windscreen wipers to get rid of the film of water and the clapperboard snaps in front of his face followed by the stunt coordinator encouragingly tapping the driver's door.
Judith calls action and Ryan starts to drive, appearing to be in a war with calm and frantic, as per the character's current predicament. He's ignoring the crane running alongside him and focusing on emoting when the car twitches a little. He rights it effortlessly, figuring it's just gone over a pothole, and continues until suddenly he hits a puddle that's much deeper than it looks. The spray envelopes the windscreen and the sides of the car for a second before the wipers do their job but, in that exact moment, the Land Rover shudders and the wheels twist. His stunt double is supposed to drive towards Danny's, standing panicked and frozen in the middle of the road, stop to avoid him then Ryan takes over again to get out of the car to end the scene before the next section of dialogue, so Ryan is unprepared for the early detour.
He yanks the steering wheel hard to try and get it back on track, the car sliding uncontrollably through the water on the ground, and just when he thinks he's got it under control, it veers sharply in the opposite direction. He glances to the right and his eyes widen, breathing heavier in fright because the camera attached to the crane seems a lot closer than it should be. In a split second, it spins and crashes through the windscreen, the sound of smashing glass deafening and making him instinctively hunch to protect himself. His grip on the steering wheel loosens before the noise of crunching metal explodes in his ears and he's completely in freefall. His seatbelt pulls taut against his chest as the car smacks into the embankment and careens into the air, slamming down. The impact causes his head to rebound into the side of the door, knocking him unconscious as it zigzags into a lopsided tree, flipping the car upside down.
It feels like hours have passed when Ryan groggily come to in the ensuing quiet, so he's surprised to see he's in the car and still alone, realising that he must've only blacked out for a couple of seconds in reality. As the car hisses and creaks around him, he tries to move away from the battered camera wedged near his face, the frame of the windscreen holding it in place, but grimaces when his head pounds and his thigh throbs. He blinks slowly and something wet falls sluggishly over his eyelid and cheek, pulling a shaky gasp from him as he reaches up with a trembling hand and his fingertips swim in front of his eyes smeared dark red.
He's clenched his teeth and tried to twist out from whatever is holding his legs to the roof of the car, everything topsy-turvy, when a wave of yelling filters through the dead air and the fog in his brain.
“Ryan? Hey Ryan, can you hear me?” He recognises that it isn't Danny around the time he also spots a glimpse of fluorescent yellow coat from the corner of his eye, the paramedic crouched in the dirt next to the car and now all he wants to hear is Danny's voice. His eyelids feel so heavy and sleep seems like the best option, hoping that when he wakes up it'll all be sorted. “Ryan, I need you to listen to me.” the paramedic says, bothering him with his firmer tone, “Can you open your eyes for me? I need you to stay awake, mate.”
He feels a tug to his arm nearest the smashed window on his side and the sleeve of his jacket ripped apart, maybe cut, and frowns, ready to jerk it back when he hears it. It's weirdly distant, like he's submerged underwater, but he'd know that voice anywhere.
“No, fuck off!” Danny roars above the din of frantic white noise, sensing the crew all around the fringes of whatever mess he's got himself into. “I said, fuck off! I need – I need to - ” He sounds like he's struggling and focusing on what that looks like – his disgruntled flailing and scowling face – now seems more appealing than letting go. “Let me go! Ryan!”
He shifts at the renewed vigour from Danny like a reflex, wanting to go to him, to make sure he's alright and to calm him down, but a bright flash of pain rips through his leg, making him cry out, and his head answers it like an echo, the movement of his eyes rolling back stabbing him in the temples. He hears a soft thud and then Danny coming into view on his right side. The crumpled, stuck remains of the camera blocks most except his worried, blue eyes and his outstretched, muddy hand. The paramedic to his left uses Danny's distraction to prick the inside of his arm with a needle and push an oxygen mask over his face.
“Oh god, baby,” he croaks, and Ryan's eyebrows raise into his bloodied hairline, breath steaming up the mask, because no one is supposed to know. Danny must realise what he's thinking as he tries to touch him again. “Hey, hey, it's alright – you're gonna be alright,”
He can't move his shoulder enough to move his arm over the camera to link Danny's hand with his and everything is beginning to hurt more the longer he is trapped as it's about time he admitted that's what this is. He groans through the mask, still not quite having the energy to pull it off and speak and then the male paramedic and the arrival of more people not giving him a chance.
“Now then, mate,” he says, happier since he's got some of his checks done, “Tina's just gonna put this around your neck whilst we work on getting you out, alright? Sit tight, you're doing really well.”
He passes it through to the paramedic on Danny's side as her angle allows her to fasten the collar properly. Her upper body slithers into the gap between the camera and the passenger seat, her hands gentle and practised. “Okay, C-collar on,” she reports, moving back out.
“Can we get this thing shifted first?” the male paramedic says to someone out of Ryan's view.
“What're ya doin'?” Danny asks and Ryan looks as a fireman kneels down by Tina and Danny. “Can I stay?”
“It might be best if you move back a bit, both of you,” he bends to make eye contact with the male paramedic through the carcass of the vehicle, “That alright with you, Al? Won't be two seconds getting this out with one of our saws,”
Ryan can hear Danny getting more irate as Al gives a thumbs up, but the need to close his eyes has returned. He can't fight Danny whilst he fights everyone else. Luckily, it takes no time at all to remove the destroyed camera and he swallows his guilt at the sight of Danny in the window, laid out on his stomach and arm out. He smiles weakly and walks his fingers cautiously towards him until they meet in the middle. Danny's grip is strong and determined, alive.
“I love you. God, do I fucking love you,” he blurts out as Ryan winces from the jolt of surprise hurting his thigh, which he can now see is below the dashboard and fallen tree to the mangled bonnet. “I know I haven't told you and this is shitty timing, but I do. Christ, I couldn't - ” he pauses, eyes shimmering until he ducks his head and drops a kiss to Ryan's knuckles clenched in his hands. “I couldn't do anything, felt so bloody useless, and the thought of losing you and you not knowing - ”
Danny visibly upset and the thought of him having to stand by and watch the car disappear off the road sounds so horrible. “Sor – I'm sorr - ” he struggles with the word muffled through the mask.
“Don't you dare!” he snaps, his gaze whipping up to find Ryan's. A runaway tear falls down his face and Ryan squeezes his hand. “Don't you dare apologise. It was an accident, ya hear me?”
“Alright, Danny?” Al says, interrupting their moment. Ryan faces him with a slow roll of his head back to his side and he almost smiles at how suitably contrite he looks. “I need you to move from the car, no arguments. The lads are ready to lift the tree once I put this around Ryan's leg. He'll be out in no time.”
Even so, Danny looks unsure, but the thought of being freed makes Ryan nod at him, despite the fact that the pain is secretly getting worse. He lets slip a moan as Danny releases his hand and Al wraps a tourniquet tightly around his upper thigh, keeping the pressure on his injury, but calms when Al mutters loud enough for Tina to hear as she joins him that he's increased Ryan's amount of pain relief. As the firemen get ready to pull the tree and the car apart from each other like lovers in a wrongful clinch, Al tells Tina what he's going to do next in low, careful tones. Ryan strains to hear, gasping when the effort hurts his head and giving up when Tina's face floats into his eyeline.
“How's the pain? Easing off again?” he nods as best as he can with the collar in the way and she smiles. “That's good to hear. Won't be long now. Listen, when I tell you, I'm gonna need you to take some nice, deep breaths for me, okay? Can you do that for me? Just breathe into this like normal, slow and calm when I say.” She taps the oxygen mask with a light fingertip and he thinks it's a strange request, like something you'd tell a child, before she looks over her shoulder to Al and then back down at Ryan. “Ready? Now, breathe for me.”
He's two breaths in when he feels the weight he'd oddly got used to begin to lift from his legs. It's briefly like heaven before the lifting continues and it's as if his leg is being taken with the crushed car. Eyes screwed shut and jaw tight, he whines loudly through his teeth over Tina reminding him to breathe. In the middle of his panic, he tries to do as he's told, but they're coming too fast and shallow, no matter how much he wishes to control it. His head starts pounding again and his eyes flutter. If he can just close them for a second, ride out the worst of the feeling until Danny can come back -
“Al? His pulse has weakened - ” Tina swears under her breath and Ryan feels her grab his limp wrist, “He's tachycardic! Ryan? Ryan, can you hear me?”
There's a huge groan of metal and sparks flying that stops him from answering, a voice above him taking over that Al responds to. “Okay, on the backboard now and let's get this show on the road,”
The sensation that his leg is about to be ripped off has thankfully disappeared, so that when they eventually are clear to shuffle him onto a hard, plastic board and lift him enough that he can feel a cold breeze on his face, he feels almost nothing. He puts it down to probably the amount of drugs they've pumped into him and is relaxed for the first time since the car hit its first puddle. He's closing his eyes before he can ask if he's allowed.
“Ah Christ, no wonder!” Al says near his head before he feels pressure increase on his skull, enough to make him awaken and squirm against being strapped to a stretcher. A walkie-talkie buzzes.
3004 to Control...
RTA...
Fractures...
Head trauma...
GCS 11...
ETA 5 minutes...
Over...
Someone curls their fingers around Ryan's that lie palm flat on his ribs and follow him as he and the paramedics travel to where he's guessing the ambulance is.
“Hey, I'm here, baby,” Danny tells him, squeezing his hand.
Ryan squeezes back to say that he's heard him and there's a swell of noise and activity as they emerge from the patch of trees into the rest of the loitering crew and he feels horizontal land and the wheels of the trolley carry him away.
He's bundled into the ambulance and hooked up to machines that beep irritatingly. Danny keeps hold of him as Al checks him again until the engine springs to life and a snatch of memory hits Ryan right between the eyes, the car whirling and plunging into the dark making him suck in a breath. The beeping picks up a faster rhythm.
“What's happening?” Danny asks.
Good question, Ryan thinks but can't seem to get his mouth to work.
“Tina, step on it, please!” Al says, ignoring Danny. Ryan senses his shadow looming, but that's all. “3004 to Control. RTA patient en route, GCS 9 and falling, possibly unstable. ETA 3 minutes. Over.”
“Please, Ryan.” Danny sounds like he's whispering and he doesn't understand. “Just hold on. I love you.”
Despite his best efforts, even that's not enough to keep him awake.
Everything fades.
---
It's a struggle to open his eyes again and he manages one eye and a breath. His right eye seems glued shut and the beeping continues, only this time it comes as a steady stream. As soon as he thinks it, the noise gets more insistent and he finally realises that it's connected to him, monitoring his heartbeat. His index finger on his right hand feels weighted down and he dips his chin to his chest to try and look. The collar around his neck has gone but he still can't quite move enough to see his hand. He glances to his side instead and groans.
Danny pops up from nowhere, his face helping to quell the brightness of the overhead lights in Ryan's one eye.
“Hey – hey, can you hear me, baby?” He frowns, wondering why it feels like somebody has asked him that before. He groans once more, suddenly useless at organising his thoughts enough to speak. He opens his mouth but Danny shushes him. “No, no, don't try and talk. Just rest. You're okay.”
It's easy to work out that he's in hospital because he feels worse for wear, but no pain and not sure how he got here.
He takes Danny's advice without a fight and lets his mind drift into grateful slumber.
--
Voices.
“Do you really have to do that?”
Danny. Worried, maybe even a tad annoyed.
“I'm afraid so. It's the only way we can assess if there's any damage.” Another voice. A stranger. Female. “Mr Hawley? Ryan, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand once for Yes.” He squeezes, tired of hearing the same question, but not quite remembering where from. “Excellent. I'm just going to shine this light in your eyes, alright?”
He tries to shift, to shake his head No, because it's the last thing he wants after his brief time with Danny before, but his head throbs like a warning and the light comes anyway, a thumb to his eyelid. Blinking away the spots in his vision, eventually he keeps his eye open and makes out the shape of a woman hovering over him, obviously a doctor. Still in hospital then. He groans, surprised to be so tired when all he's done is sleep. “Hello.” she smiles when he manages to focus. “Welcome back. I think it's fair to say you had a lucky escape. Try not to worry about your right eye, I know it probably feels strange. The swelling will go down and then we'll do some tests, just to make sure your vision is clear in both eyes.”
The thought that it might not be causes his heart to kick in his chest and his eyes slide to Danny in panic, standing next to the doctor, chewing on his thumbnail. He immediately reaches for Ryan's hand and he sees what he couldn't the last time he was awake – a clip on his finger transmitting his vital signs to the monitor beside his bed. He feels clumsy and ugly and now they tell him there's a possibility he could, what? Need glasses? Be partially blind?
“Hey, baby,” Danny soothes, swapping places with the doctor to lean in a little. His slight smile is the best thing Ryan's seen since...he scrambles to remember a point in time, but comes up short. He blinks, feeling like his face is wet and raises his hand to find out. Blood, he remembers blood. Danny intercepts him, both hands now clasped in his. “Take it easy, shh, come on. You're fine.”
With a deep breath, he calms and allows Danny's thumb to swipe near his eye. It's wet, but only with tears. Embarrassed, he swallows and finally speaks. “Wh't 'app'n'd?”
He's looking at Danny, but the doctor answers. With another question. “Do you remember anything?” He feels angry, borne of frustration that he only has flashes and even they don't seem real. He'd laugh at the irony that they feel like they happened on a TV show if he was in the mood to be amused. He shakes his head, negativity draining away to be replaced simply by sadness. “I expected that might be a possibility, considering the trauma you suffered to your head,” the doctor says, filling in the blanks. “You were in a car accident. Head injuries are always serious, but we managed to stop the bleeding with a few stitches. A nasty wound, but no skull fractures. Your blood pressure is still a little higher than we'd like, but we've got you on a course of meds to hopefully bring that down. You've been through a lot.”
His headache makes sense. Something tells him to move and when he does, shifting in bed, his left leg feels odd. “My leg,” he says hoarsely, battling against the urge to curl up and sleep more. He feels like he's been hit by a bus then flattened by a steamroller. “Feels weird.”
“I don't want to overload you - ”
“Please,” he begs, “I want to know everything,” to see if I can remember.
“You've broken your left femur in two places. We've got you on a high dose of morphine to counteract the pain for now, to give your head injury a chance to heal first.”
Strangely, the only thing he can think is that Danny loves his thighs.
His face starts to crumple and he wants to stop it, but he can't.
“I'll come back tomorrow during my morning rounds,” the doctor says, efficient but not unkind. “The nurse will be by to check on you soon.”
With her swift exit, Danny pulls the plastic chair closer and sits down facing the bed, keeping their hands entwined whilst he strokes just above Ryan's eyebrow with his thumb. He smiles, making him feel better already. “You had me worried for a while there.”
His mouth is dry, but he has so many questions. Eventually, he settles on: “How bad was it?”
A muscle in Danny's face twitches and he swallows. “Well, you won't be winning Mr Yorkshire any time soon,” he jokes feebly.
“Danny.” He fixes him with the most serious look he can muster with a dodgy eye. “How bad?”
“Why do ya want to know?” he sighs, “You should be resting. Go back to sleep.”
Ryan feels his breathing escalate as he gets more and more pissed off, the hand Danny isn't holding clenching at his side. “I will when you tell me,”
“What difference will it make? It'll only upset you,”
“Because I can't remember!” he roars then winces as his head pulses with a flare of more intense pain. “Fuck.”
There's a beat of silence before Danny pushes a hand through his hair carefully, comforting. It's probably gross and matted with dried blood, but neither of them care. “I know you can't, baby,” he whispers, “but it'll come. You just need to give yourself some time. You heard the doctor, you've been through a lot.”
Sections of his body are totally alien to him right now, making him concede that Danny has a point. He lets go of his hand to cup his jaw in apology, but stops. His beard looks and feels a lot fuller than the last time he remembers. “Why haven't you trimmed? How long have I been in here?”
Danny leans forward, eyes pleading. “I was so fucking scared, I couldn't think about anything else but you. Couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, I didn't want to leave since you got here but your mum forced me to - ”
Mum? She was here? “How long?” he repeats, tone hard.
“A week.” he sighs.
Ryan bites at his lip to keep from screaming or crying or both.
A week.
He was practically unconscious for a week.
“So, can you please stop giving yourself such a hard time?” Danny asks, unusually timid.
It's that which breaks him, being alone with the man he loves – yeah, he loves him too – rallying against him out of fright and overwhelmed to see him still sitting there.
Ryan raises the back of his hand to his mouth to disguise the first sob, sinking into Danny's low-voiced words as he gives up resisting.
You're gonna be alright. You're here, I'm here. I love you.
---
It seems like a slow process, but is actually rather quick from that day to where Ryan and Danny are now, sat in the carpark outside the studios.
Once the doctors got his blood pressure back to normal and the swelling in his eye decreased with every passing day, they didn't hang around to get him started on moving around the hospital with crutches. He mastered the hobble and had his head stitches checked again before being approved for outpatient clinic only. One of the major factors that helped was the flashbacks. Bit by bit, he regained his memory of the night of the accident, remembering Judith and the specifics of the shoot and even some of his dialogue that he never got to film. The moment of impact is still a blank, all that comes to mind are the paramedics talking to him afterwards, but it's less of a worry. Who wants to remember something like that anyway?
Apart from his injuries of course, the worst moment was on day three of getting his sleeping pattern back on track. No longer sleeping mismatched hours of the day, he settled in for the night, only to be rudely awoken several hours later.
He'd had a nightmare, the accident bursting through his subconscious in terrifying technicolour, all the parts he'd collected during his hospital stay so far knitting together in an ill-timed production free for him to see. Danny wasn't there, but his mum was, jolting out of her own sleep at his shout to placate him quiet. In the morning, she'd called him sweetheart and kissed him on the forehead like he was still her little boy, making him blush as the night before came flooding back.
The best moment, if slightly cruel, was waiting for Danny to return from a coffee run.
“Not for you,” he grinned, waving the takeaway cup about then taking a grateful long gulp.
“Sorry, but, who are you?” he asked, deadpan.
Danny laughed, not falling for it. “Yeah, good one. Be more original next time, mate.”
Ryan frowned, pretending to think. “Okay, fine. But what am I doing here? What happened?” He kept his eyes as innocent as possible – both of them thankfully with vision restored and just a little bruising to wait out – and a straight, but open expression, as if he had no idea what Danny could be thinking. He paused until panicked horror crossed his face before chuckling. “Just kidding. Gotcha!”
“You wanker!” Danny exclaimed, punching him in the shoulder as Ryan faked that it hurt. “I can't believe you'd actually be that - ”
“Ready?”
His voice breaks through Ryan's thoughts in the present and he looks at him, smiling, clearly relieved to just be driving Ryan around because he's not strong enough yet and nothing else.
He nods and opens the door, even though he has to wait for Danny to get out and hand him his crutches. Danny was going to come into work without him until Ryan begged with first his words and then his mouth, sucking him off on the sofa whilst he was in the middle of his breakfast. His leg felt awkward afterwards from leaning sideways, but it was worth it.
They take it slow and steady into the building and Ryan turns towards their dressing room when Danny grabs him by the elbow. “Nah, this way. I've got something to show you.”
Ryan raises his eyebrows, but starts to follow. “It better be a new hiding place,” he says, caught up in the idea as they move down several corridors towards the sets, “because no matter what you say, I really do think Wardrobe has some sort of hidden camera installed and that's the last time I'm having sex with you in - ”
“WELCOME BACK!”
“ - there.” he finishes lamely, bowled over by the amount of people crammed onto the set of The Woolpack and the wall of happy shouting that greets them. Danny grins at him and it clicks. “You weren't needed in this early, were you?”
“They wanted to see you,” he replies, laughing as Isabel comes shooting through the gathered crowd and launches herself at Ryan's torso.
“Hiya, babe! I'm so glad to see you!”
Wobbling, he steadies himself with a tighter grip on his crutches then pulls one arm free to rub her shoulder. She smells sweet and feels tiny, just like normal. He thinks about joking, but she squeezes his waist in her hug and he decides against it. “I missed you too.”
“Oh, what about me then?”
Ryan looks up and his eyes fall on Kelvin in front of everyone else. He hasn't seen him since his break. “Mate! Oh god, you didn't have to,”
“My car's a write off because of you, of course I had to come back!” he teases. Ryan pushes away the guilt, determined to enjoy his castmates welcoming him back, even if it's only a flying visit and not a working one. His leg is improving, but obviously he has to walk without crutches and a limp before he can think of coming back to work properly. Realising that Isabel's not keen on letting him go any time soon, he gestures with his head to bring Kelvin forward for at least a warm handshake. “I see the docs weren't able to sort your face out though.”
“It's not your car,” he laughs, “and actually the doctor said she didn't want to mess with perfection!”
“Robert Sugden's in the house, everybody!” Kelvin declares and a giggly cheer rings out.
After that, a lot of the cast and crew have to get back to work and Ryan's not complaining as Isabel lets him go to receive so many more hugs and kisses and get well wishes. Lucy cups his jaw.
“If you're alright to stick around, lunchtime, my dressing room. I've got something for you, darling.”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Luce, are you propositioning me?”
“In your dreams, sunshine,” she scoffs, pats his cheek and leaves with Liz and Emma.
“Okay, put him down! Haven't you all got work to do?” Danny almost pulls Amy away from him, but shoos the stragglers away instead.
“S'not everyday someone makes a tit of themselves and survives to tell the tale,” she says, cheeky with a sweet smile.
Ryan laughs, even though he's starting to feel unsure from standing for so long without a break. He really does love them all like one big, crazy extended family.
Finally, it's just him, Danny, Isabel, Adam and Isobel left on the empty set, so he feels it's okay to sink into one of the seats around the edge, comfortable but open so he can stretch his leg out a little. Isobel sits on his other side.
“Alright, kiddo?”
He smiles at her scowl. “You know I hate that, ugh.” Her expression clears after a moment and she bites her lip, nervously glancing down at his leg. “Does it hurt?”
“No, not anymore. Just gets a bit stiff sometimes. I've had worse.”
He's glad that he had his stitches from his head removed a week prior to this visit, otherwise they might've got a lazy, unkempt, hazy-eyed Ryan instead. A shower and a shave did him wonders, regardless of Danny's constant teasing that not even a traumatic accident can make him grow a proper beard.
Adam claps his hands together, grinning. “Talking of stiff, I hear this idiot professed his undying love for ya when ya couldn't escape,”
“Adam!” Isabel shrieks, smacking him upside the head, “I told you that in confidence! And don't be dirty, there's children present!”
“Oi, it wasn't like that!” Danny protests, sitting next to Ryan.
“I'm hardly a child,” Isobel grumbles, before perking up, “but yeah, when were you gonna tell us you were a thing, never mind that you love each other? No, when were you gonna tell me?”
“It wasn't planned,” Danny mumbles.
Ryan puts his hand on top of hers and gives it a squeeze, smiling. “Soon, honest. We were just trying to find the right time and we hadn't used the L word yet, let alone telling anyone else.” The thought pulls him up short and he turns awkwardly to Danny. “I don't think I got the chance to say it back. I love you.”
Danny scratches the back of his neck, self-conscious, despite being in front of their closest friends. “Yeah?”
“I did before, I just didn't realise it and then going through that - ” He leaves Isobel's hand go to focus completely on Danny, figuring in for a penny, in for a pound. “All I could think about was you, so yeah, I love you.”
“Aw, that's so sweet,” Isabel coos.
“Come, on you two,” Adam says softly, “Lets give these boys some privacy.”
Part of Ryan wants to call them back until Danny links their fingers, looking down at how they fit. They've been a secret couple for a while now and although the accident broke through their desire to tell the people they trust the most, he can't regret hearing Danny say those words to him, whatever the circumstances. At least it can be an unusual, borderline funny in it's ridiculousness anecdote for years to come. There's light at the end of the very unexpected tunnel.
“I'm so glad you're okay, babe.” Danny says, 'baby' seemingly for when he's scared out of his wits. Ryan doesn't mind, he always liked it better for his boyfriend anyway. “I love you too.”
It's not the most glamorous location or the most passionate moment, but it feels right, sat in the place they spend a huge chunk of their time together inside of work. They lean in at the same time.
It's their best kiss.