"I know." Dan coughed and winched as the stitches pulled. He was going to have a talk with the doctor that had stitched him back together. The bullet hadn't put him in critical condition, the doctor would have had as much time as he needed to do a seamless job.

His mouth curved into a slightly amused smile. "Yeah. Don't worry. I'll make sure that you're out of the house when I tell her." He paused a second and looked up at his old friend. "And that nothing gets broken." Dan loved Megan but she wasn't always the calmest person when she was upset and she'd have every right to be upset after he told her about the creature that he and West had built using her heart.

His brow furrowed and he stared at West. "The basement didn't collapse? I didn't get a chance to check. I was in the yard right after the crash and then I was here." His only clothes were the bloody muddy rags he'd woken up in. He paused and focused on taking a few steadying breaths. It didn't matter what had happened, he was here now and they needed to look towards the future.

"I won't leave you." Dan met his gaze this time, letting West know that he wasn't lying. "Never again. I'll go as far as I did with Meg and make sure that you come back." He's never had a friend like West before but he treasured that friendship, the trust and years of experience they shared. There wasn't a single person in his career that he felt knew him the way that West did. They'd been to war and back together.

West wasn't someone he could replace, just as he hadn't been able to replace Meg.