Title: A is for Awake
Author: stellaluna_
Rating: PG
Pairing: Danny/Don
Summary: Written for scarletts_awry.
Disclaimer: None of these are mine. Characters are the property of Anthony Zuiker, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS, and Alliance Atlantis.

***

Flack presses a hand to his forehead and squeezes his eyes shut tight. When he opens them again, nothing has changed: the world is still strange and blurred around him, and the spike of pain sunk into the center of his head hasn't eased at all. He blinks hard, hoping his vision will clear, but the streetlights are hazy, haloed nimbuses of light all along the street, and the buildings are nothing but hulking, dark shadows. He can't even read the street sign less than a dozen yards up ahead.

Focus, he thinks, and turns on the radio, scanning through the stations until he finds a song with a good, solid beat, something that will maybe be enough to keep him awake. Beside him, in the passenger seat, Danny sighs a little in his sleep and turns, settling his forehead against the window. It's all right for him, Flack thinks; he probably got all the sleep he needs last night, and now he has no problem dropping off into another nap. He hasn't been up for hours and days on end. He hasn't been driving himself into an early grave with research and worry and fear.

Flack looks over at him. He's frowning in his sleep, his face lined with tension, and Flack thinks that maybe he isn't being fair. Danny may be able to sleep, but who knows how much good it's doing him? Sleep is no good if the demons all follow you down into nightmare territory; Flack knows that by now, and he's pretty sure Danny has known that for years. Flack reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder, briefly. Danny's skin is hot to the touch, like he's running a fever, and his muscles feel sharp and knotted. Flack lets go of him after a minute and turns his attention back to the road. His eyes feel heavy, but he won't let them shut. He has to stay awake, for both of them.

He wasn't even supposed to be here, but he can never say no to Danny.

***