Note: Just a little Hardston one-shot I had in my head since the episode. Set a few hours after 1x08

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I didn't tell them Ryan

Mike woke up slowly after hours. He realized he was in a hospital, guessing he had a surgery. After all he had been stabbed just like Ryan once. Ryan. From the corner of his eye he saw someone sitting next to his bed about to doze off, who seemed to look like him and after he managed to slightly turn his head he knew it was really him. He remembered Ryan coming to his rescue in the nick of time and how he took care of him until the ambulance arrived. And even though Mike had a lot of pain and was anxious to tell him that he hadn't told them anything, he saw the look on Ryan's face and how hard he tried to look confident that Mike would be fine while he comforted him. Ryan had been very afraid of losing him. He could see it in his eyes and could feel Ryan's hands on top of his chest, always one hand so that he could feel Mike's reassuring heartbeat.

Mike had Ryan's attention as he tried to move when he was completely aware of his hurting back, which brought him to the conclusion that he had laid down for a while. Ryan quickly put his hand on Mike's telling him not to move and that he had to rest, but that he will be fine. Mike's eyes locked with Ryan's and with a raspy voice and very quietly he started repeating "I didn't tell them Ryan." over and over again. He couldn't stop repeating those words, it was too important for him to let Ryan knew he could count on him. That he could trust him with everything, because he would rather die than giving Joe's people information and betraying Ryan. He could never bear to know that he had let him down so he fought. He fought through all those rounds with "ding ding" at the start, keeping his mouth shut and fighting through the excruciating pain.

Mike didn't stop, he kept on saying "I didn't tell them Ryan.", tearing up and shaking. His voice getting raspier and quieter with every word and Ryan couldn't keep his strength up anymore. His eyes were tearing up again as well so he decided to sit next to Mike on the bed, putting one of his arms around him and holding him close almost like he had when they were waiting for the ambulance. Whispering: "I know Mike, I know." into his ear and putting his head on Mike's. "But you need to sleep Mike! I can't do this without you so please rest now." Mike was clutching Ryan's other arm which was lying on his chest again. Ryan gave him the feeling of protection, giving him permission to be exhausted.

After a few minutes sitting together like this, Mike stopped shaking and whispered "We both got stabbed", his voice almost gone, with a slight smile on his face. Ryan pulled him closer when he remembered Mike's painful moaning at the time when he had to wait for the right moment to intervene."Parker will probably think we bond over it." Mike's eyes got heavier and he only smiled, his voice was gone so he couldn't agree otherwise, but he appreciated Ryan lifting the mood.

It didn´t took long for Mike to finally fall asleep after he rested his head on Ryan´s chest, only hearing half of Ryan´s "I know what you did today and I'm more than just proud of you Mike, you are so much stronger and braver than you get credit for and I promise I won't go anywhere, please rest now Mike." whisper in his ear. Ryan noticed Mike relaxing on his chest, hearing his breath relaxing. He was glad. Glad Mike was going to be okay and he was finally resting. Ryan kissed his temple and then moved to his head on top of Mike's looking through the window and allowing himself to let one of his tears escape. Mike was going to be okay and this was all that mattered for now.