"Danny!" The voice cut through his consciousness like a knife, just another wound to add to the list. He hoped if he didn't respond, the voice would go away and he could go back to dying slowly.
"Danny, please open your eyes, please!" the voice begged of him, he felt the restraints that had been cutting into his wrists loosen and fall away completely. It was Jaz, he thought with sudden recognition, which could only mean his brain was torturing him again. Jaz wasn't here; she should be away at college; Danny felt the ankle restraints being removed. He had had many fantasies in the past few weeks, but this one was the most realistic, and that included the one where he came out to his parents, dated Sam, and saved the earth from a meteor.
Danny opened his eyes, maybe if he saw that no one else was there, that he was still alone in the lab, his brain would believe it. That's when he saw her, blue eyes and red hair, Jasmine, his older sister.
"That's it Danny, open your eyes for me. We need to get you out of here and to a hospital, do you think you could change back?" Jaz looked at him with concern, he could only guess what he looked like, the concern was probably warranted.
"I... I..." His throat was dry, his voice coming out hoarse, taking a shaky breath in and licking his lips for moisture he tried again. " I can't."
"Oooooooooook..." Jaz looked at him with confusion. "Let's get you up then, we have to get you out of here."
Sitting up with the help of his sister, Danny felt his vision start to tunnel inwards. The last thing he saw before he passed out was the floor coming towards his face fast.
When Danny woke, he found himself in a big bed in a room that he didn't recognize. The bed was plush underneath him and the sheets silky and smooth against his skin, the pillows were fluffy and smelled clean. It was a large room, very opulent… wait he did know where he was. He had to be at Vlad's, only that fruitloop would have a room that looked like the one that he was in. Now that he knew where he was, he saw that the room was done up in green and gold, packers colors.
"So little badger, you decided to come back to the land of the living." Vlad materialized next to him. He was impeccably dressed as always; three-piece suit, tie, and silver hair pulled back in a low ponytail.
"How did I get here?" The last thing that he remembered was being in the lab. Being strapped to the table and wanting to just fully die.
"Your sister brought you to me, after finding you strapped to an exam table in your parents' lab." Vlad looked a little pissed on his behalf. "Had I any indication that you were in fact being held there, I would have come for you immediately. This is no doubt the fault of your idiot father."
Danny thought about that for a minute, his dad was the one who had captured him. It was his mom though, who had started the testing and torture. It had been around the clock experiments on him for the first few days until they realized that Fenton wasn't home, that he was gone. They had blamed Phantom for that, interrogating him and torturing him to get the location of their son from him. Danny had held strong though, he knew that if they knew that Fenton was Phantom, that they would drown in their guilt and he couldn't allow that.
"Believe what you want, nothing I say will change what you think of my family." Danny wasn't going to get into this fight with Vlad, he was simply too tired to fight with anyone. Groaning he sat up in bed, he felt like shit, placing his feet on the floor Danny hung his head to fight off the nausea that swamped him and braced his palms against his knees.
"Daniel, you shouldn't be getting up right now. You need to rest." Vlad made to push Danny back down to the bed. His tone was soft, which threw Danny off a bit and allowing him to be moved towards the bed. "I don't want to fight. Just rest, let your body heal a bit."
Danny wanted to fight him, but he was tired. He could feel his eyes drifting closed.
Danny's parents had left three days ago to take Jaz to move into the dorms of her dream college. Meanwhile, Danny had been busy training with Sam and Tucker, he needed to get stronger if he was going to continue fighting ghosts in his spare time. Four more days of constant training before they came home, which means that he had to get busy if he wanted to finish everything that he wanted to accomplish.
Walking down to the lab he let the twin bands of light encompass his body, there was no time like the present to start for the day. Once there he started the warm ups that Sam thought would be best to start with, flying through the hoops that he programmed to come down from the ceiling and such.
"GHOST!" he heard bellowed. It surprised him so much that he dropped from the air with a thud. A moment afterwards he felt a pinch in his shoulder and felt the world dim around him as he lost consciousness.
"You can't be serious! What would make you think that I'm going to leave him here with you?!" Loud voices woke him up from the deep sleep he had slipped into.
"Jaz, I am simply suggesting that going home to the people who tortured him for six weeks is not a good idea." Vlad's calm voice replied to Danny's shrieking sister.
Danny moaned as he opened his eyes, the light didn't seem so bright the last time he woke up. He was in the same room as before, but this time it was occupied by Vlad and Jaz, both of whom seemed to be arguing over him. "Hey, I'm right here. There's no need to yell." He sat up with a groan, he was hoping that he could diffuse the situation if he let them know that he was awake, not that he could have continued to sleep through their fighting.
"Danny! I'm so glad your awake! And OK!" Jaz flung herself at him.
"Jaz, I'm ok, but I can't breathe with you squeezing the life from me." She released him and Danny took a long breath. He could see the worry in her eyes. "What are you fighting about?"
"Were not fighting, we are discussing when you should come home with me."
Danny thought about it for a minute, if he went home, would his parents know his secret? If they didn't, he would never be able to tell them, it would be a secret he would have to keep the rest of his life. If they did know, he would just be putting himself right back on the dissection table. What Vlad and Jaz had been arguing over now made sense to him, it seemed as if Jaz wanted him to go home, and Vlad wanted him to stay. Vlad had been silent up to this point, Danny looked over to him and wondered what he should do.
"I'm not sure what I want Jaz," Danny was watching Vlad, measuring his response to Jaz. "Of course I would love to go home, but I'm not sure if I could handle that."
"Little Badger, if you don't think you're ready for that just yet, may I suggest that you stay here for a bit longer? Just until you decide that you're ready?" Vlad decided that it was time he interject his opinion on the matter.
"Vlad, I can't ask that of you, I mean, what would we even tell my parents? The cops? You're the mayor, but I don't think that will just solve all our problems, I've been missing for the last six weeks." Danny had hope that Vlad had valid arguments to his objections, half-hearted as they were, they were really for Jaz' sake.
"I've already contacted the authorities and let them know that I found you this morning on my front porch and that I had the best medical team here to help with your recovery. I have already called and talked to your parents and they will be over shortly to see you. I had hoped that you would want to stay, so I went ahead and told them that I had the best psychiatrist on call to tend to any psychological needs you may have after your abduction." Vlad answered all of his concerns and Danny sighed in relief, which he hoped sounded like defeat to his sister, and nodded.
"I'll stay, for now." Danny looked at his sister, who he could see was finding it difficult to see him wanting to stay with the Fruitloop who used to torment him on a weekly basis. Just as he was going to assure his sister that he would be okay, there was a knock at the front door and they all knew that it would be the Fenton's.
Vlad left to answer the door and Danny could tell the moment that he opened it because he heard his dads classic greeting for the 'V-Man'. Preparing himself to see his parents, Danny took a steadying breath, this was not going to be easy on him and he didn't want to give them any clue as to his whereabouts for the last 6 weeks.
A soft knock sounded on the bedroom door, Jaz took his hand in support and Danny was faced with his parents, the two people who had tortured him for the last 6 weeks. Seeing them now, he wasn't sure if he would ever be ready to go home, because all he saw were his tormentors. They both rushed to his side and embraced him, his body wanting to deny the touch.
"My baby! You're okay, I can't believe you are here." His mother cried into his neck.
"Danny boy, we're so glad you came back to us, we were so worried about you." His father was trying to hold back tears of his own.
Danny was trying to hold his composure, he knew that his parents cared for him, how they would do anything for him. That had been made perfectly clear when they were trying to get his location from the 'ghost boy'. "I'm ok. Just tired. And sore, maybe a little banged up. Nothing for you guys to worry about. I'm back and everything is going to be ok." Danny assured his parents. He knew they weren't to blame for the whole incident, at least that's what he told himself.
"oh sweetie, I was so worried about you, I'm your mother and that's what mothers do, we worry for our children. I thought that we had lost you, we tried everything we could think of to find out where you had been taken."
"I think that Daniel needs a little more rest, why don't we leave him to get some rest for now." Vlad interjected himself into the family moment that was going on, Danny was relieved because he didn't think that he would be able to stomach his parents telling him anything that they had done to try and get him back, especially when he had lived all of it firsthand.
Danny woke up to find himself strapped to an exam table, looking around himself he saw that he was in the lab at Fentonworks. He didn't know what had happened to him, just that the last thing that he remembered was a pinch in his arm before everything went dark.
At the moment, he was alone in the lab, testing his bonds he was met with an electrical shock that ran through his body and almost made him lose consciousness again. Fighting against his dimming vision, Danny heard voices coming closer to him and recognized them as his parents.
"Maddie, don't worry. I'm sure he is fine, just out with his friends enjoying the summer." His dad was saying. They must have been talking about him, which means that his Mom was worried about where he was, how long had he been out?
"Jack, I'm not so sure. When I called the Manson's, they said Sam was at Tuckers and when I called the Foleys they said that he was at Sam's. That doesn't tell us where our boy is. What if that ghost we caught is keeping him somewhere?"
"Then we will just have to get the information out of him, MOLECULE BY MOLECULE!"
After quite a bit of convincing, Danny's parents agreed that him staying at Vlad's wa/s what was best for him. Vlad could do all the convincing with his smooth talking, and all he had to do to convince Maddie was to tell her that he had the best doctors in the country looking after her son. During all this Danny spent most of his time in bed, avoiding his family and it wasn't soon enough that they were heading back to Fentonworks and leaving him in peace at Vlad's house.
A couple of days after their departure Danny decided that he was ready to venture out of his room. Thus far Vlad had left him pretty much alone to heal his injuries and figure out what he wanted to do next, only bringing him food and sending his staff to attend to his every need. Descending the steps of the overly large mansion, Danny was sure that he was getting lost. He had been here before, but had never really paid attention to his surroundings.
Making his way into the study, Danny saw his host. Vlad was sitting at his desk, on the computer working on something. Standing in the doorway Danny watched the man work, he knew that he was probably interrupting, but he really didn't care.
"Can I help you Daniel?" Vlad asked typing away
"No, I just wanted to get up and stretch my legs." Danny watched Vlad type away for a few more minutes in silence. "Vlad… by the way…. I just want to…" Danny let the sentence trail off. He really didn't know how to continue, this was awkward enough without him standing in the doorway of his onetime nemesis' study.
"Daniel, come in and sit down. Do stop lingering in the doorway," At this Vlad shut his laptop, stood up from his desk and went to sit in a comfy looking chair in front of the fireplace. "There is no reason to thank me, it's the least that I can do after the ordeal that you went through."
Danny cautiously entered the study, taking a seat in the chair next to Vlad's. "I don't understand Vlad, why are you letting me stay here? Being nice to me and acting like you care?" Danny was very confused about this whole situation. It was almost surreal sitting here with Vlad and having this conversation.
"Little Badger, I must admit, when I had heard that you were missing I may have lost my cool. Hearing that the one constant person in my life for the past couple of years was gone? It deeply unsettled me. Despite all the animosity that has been between the two of us, I may have grown accustomed to your presence." Vlad looked a little embarrassed to be admitting such things to him. "When Jaz showed up on my doorstep with you in that state, I saw our whole relationship in a different light."
Danny thought about what Vlad was telling him, it was true that over the last year or so the way they fought each other had drastically changed. It seemed as if their encounters had turned more into training sessions than actual fights. Also, even though Danny would never admit it, he knew that his feelings for the other halfa were not what they used to be. For some time now he had harbored amorous feelings for the older halfa, and the man had starred in more than a few of his racier fantasies, especially after a particularly heated fight between the two.
"Vlad, I'm not sure what to make of what your telling me."
Vlad didn't know if the boy was ready to hear what he had to tell him. It was one thing to hear that your one time nemesis now cared for your well-being, it was another entirely to hear that he was obsessed with you in an amorous way. Something just drew him to the boy, he wasn't sure what it was. "Daniel, I am just saying that I no longer think of us as enemies."
Danny thought about it for a minute, if Vlad no longer thought of him as an enemy maybe they could be friends? He knew that being Vlad's friend was the last thing that he wanted, considering his feelings towards the elder halfa, but he would settle for what he could get. "Vlad… I know this may sound weird but… maybe we could be friends?"