Beep…beep…beep
The noise echoed through a room in the middle of the night, a room filled with nauseating agony and self-blame. There was no laughter, no small talk, no nothing. It was so quiet you could hear the occupants breathing and the steady tempo of the beeping…gradually growing slower and slower by each passing moment. Fresh tears rolled down the face of Maddie Fenton as she held tightly onto her husband and daughter. They too were crying, their sniffles and hiccups rising in volume as each tear poured down their cheeks freely. They watched as a figure in the bed in front of them breathe slowly, monitors and fluid bags attached to their body at work. An oxygen mask was placed over their face, each intake of breath ragged. If only he had said something to them earlier, if only he had told them everything…If only Danny trusted them enough to tell them about his other half…
He wouldn't be dying.
They were all the simplest of symptoms, everyone thought of it as a stomach bug and that it would pass in a matter of days. He would feel hot to the touch, and his skin was sweaty and clammy. He complained of dizziness and that his stomach turned into someone's personal punching bag, keeping him up late into the night. Aches and pains swelled and filled his entire body, so much pain all at once that he could barely stand and move around. He would just lie in bed and try to sleep everything off, hoping that he would be up on his feet. That's how it all began on a typical Monday morning.
Beep…beep…beep…
Danny seemed perfectly fine getting out of bed and was in a rather cheerful mood at the beginning of a school week, a smile never fading from his face as he said good morning to his family. But as the smell of pancakes and sausage drifted into his nose, Danny ran straight for the bathroom. Concern flooded through Maddie as she watched her youngest child run out of the room, and before she knew it she was patting his back softly as he hunched over in pain, letting whatever contents were in his stomach into the toilet. After he finished the small room echoed with pants and coughs, Danny spitting every few seconds to get the taste of bile out of his mouth. With that Maddie sent him right to his bedroom and he never once left it, sleeping all day long.
When a few days passed she thought he would have recovered and off to school, but something else was wrong with Danny, something so much worse than she could have thought of. Even Jack began to see the changes, and his cheery personality slowly started to fade. Danny was growing thinner and thinner each day, his skin pale and sickly, and most of all his eyes. They were no longer that bright blue and no longer had their shine to them…now, they were glazed over and filled with no emotion...they were lifeless.
Beep…beep…beep
To everyone's horror the so called stomach bug was actually a disease that had to do with the amount of ectoplasm flowing freely through his bloodstream. This had taken Danny's parents by surprise. What was ECTOPLASM doing in his system? Finding out their son's secret was the worst thing that could have ever happened to them. They knew that he was shocked, but didn't know he actually walked into the Ghost Portal and accidentally turned it on. Jack had completely forgotten that it was his doing with that switch, and blamed himself for Danny's illness. Maddie, Jazz, and Sam and Tucker kept telling him it wasn't his fault, but he wouldn't listen. Sam started feeling the same way, knowing that she was the one to tell Danny to go check out the giant metal device, and telling him to keep his ghost powers a secret. Now her best friend and the one she loved was as good as dead, because of the mistake she made.
Even Vlad felt remorse for the Fenton's, and he was more hurt to know that the one he saw as a son was so fragile and vulnerable. He himself never experienced any type of negative effect from ectoplasm, maybe it was because he was only hit in the face with the substance, and not his entire body. He wished he knew about this sooner, so he could have found a way to save the boy's life. But now, he just wiped himself clear of the picture with Danny, and focused on more important matters. He didn't need the death of a person to drag him down, as harsh as it sounded.
Beep…Beep…
When trying to find a cure for Danny's disease grew too difficult and proven impossible when test after test failed and seemed to speed up his death, Jack and Maddie decided enough was enough and checked Danny into a hospital. It wasn't the greatest idea, knowing doctors would not be able to do anything to help their son, but it was a last resort for the parents. They hoped that maybe, just maybe they were overlooking things and a simple medicine would help Danny and get him back onto his feet, and they could be a family again.
The room he stayed in was quickly filled with flowers and stuffed bears, anything that made the room look and feel brighter. It sure did make the room look colorful, but everyone felt grim and hopeless.
School just wasn't the same without the trio of friends. Sam and Tucker didn't talk as much as they used to, and barely cracked a joke about anything. Word spread like wildfire about the true identity of their own hero, and even the students who didn't care very much for Danny took pity on him and his loved ones, and couldn't find the strength to smile at all the good he did for them all along.
People stopped by and visited Danny, although he slept the majority to the time due to all the medications the doctors and parents put him on, but they stayed there for a few minutes, left a card or some flowers and left. Sam and Tucker visited the most and stayed for hours at end, Danny being awake or not. They told each other secrets they never told anyone, and that was the day the Sam confessed her feelings towards Danny, which he returned. He placed his trembling hand into hers and gave it a small weak squeeze, before drifting off into a peaceful slumber. Sam couldn't take it and ran out of the room, and Tucker frowned, wiping tears away from his eyes and left. That was the last day Danny saw his friends.
Beep…beep…
He never really woke up much anymore; he would just lie in the hospital bed, twisting and turning, moaning in agony as he clutched at his chest. The medicine helped only a little, but other than that it was hopeless. The Fenton's stayed in that room day and night, watching the occupant in the bed whine and moan in his sleep, feeling their hearts breaking. How could someone so sweet and caring towards everyone around them have to go through so much pain? It wasn't right each of them wished that they were in Danny's place. Jazz never left the bed's side, holding onto her baby brother's hand lightly, stroking it softly. She didn't want to see him like this, but there he was in front of her, losing a battle that should have never been started.
Beep…
Danny groaned softly and opened his eyes slowly, looking at Jazz and his parents, giving them a soft smile. Maddie started sobbing softly at how pale Danny was, his skin making him look like a corpse. Jazz's grip tighten on his hand and lowered her head, orange hair falling in front of her face and hiding the fresh tears that spilled down her cheeks, and Jack looked away biting his lip. The heart monitor's speed slowed, beeps happening far apart from each other, looks of dread washing over the Fenton family.
He tensed up for a second and felt like something was slipping out from inside of him, and relaxed when the feeling went away. The air around him cooled, but no one noticed it, only he did. He shivered lightly as the cold forced focused on his shoulder, and he looked up to see his ghostly half, faded and smiling gently. The ghost gave his shoulder a squeezed before leaning down to whisper in his ear.
"It's time…"
Danny looked as if he was about to speak, only to be cut off short by a wheeze for air, and started to claw at his chest. The breathing mask fell from his face and he coughed and gurgled, greenish red blood spilling from his mouth and bubbling up in his throat. Jack, Maddie and Jazz held each other close as doctors rushed into the room to tend to Danny. He was having spasms and had to be restrained as one doctor stuck a needle filled with a clear fluid into his arm, his movements calming. He panted and coughed, shaking before letting out a strangled scream, then fell limp on the bed.
The three watched as the doctors preformed CRP to his body, the electrical shocks making his body jerk, but other than that, no movement, no breathing, no nothing. Jazz buried her head in her father's chest and wailed in grief, and Maddie's face was twisted in agony as the tears were an endless river from her eyes. Unable to do anything, they watched as the life of Danny Fenton slipped out of existence.
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Oh look at that, I wrote angst, I'm a bit stuck with Double Trouble, but I'll work something out with that. So in the meantime I wrote this, after listening to the song "Crime and Punishment" on loop for about 2 hours straight. I like how this came out and I feel like drawing something to go along with this. :P