"Danny?" Sam asked desperately, leaning over the rail on Danny's bed. A tear flowed freely down her cheek, landing on the sheets below.
"He's in a coma." a female doctor walked in, a concerned look on her face. "I'm Dr. Cameron. I'm helping Dr. House treat Daniel." she held her hand out.
"Sam." Sam said quickly, taking Cameron's hand.
"Ah." she shook hands with the teen then pulled her hand away. "Is Daniel your boyfriend?"
Sam giggled, lying through her teeth. "What? No! We're just…good friends." she noticed the odd look on the doctor's face and replied "His name is Danny, by the way."
"What?" Cameron asked, full attention on Sam.
"His name's Danny." Sam repeated, looking down at Danny again.
"Oh. Ok." Cameron walked over beside Sam and sighed. "Do his parents know he's here?"
"No." Sam replied quickly, tears gathering in her eyes. "They don't."
"Where are they?" Cameron asked gently, noticing a tear flow down the teen's face.
"I don't know." Sam whispered, wiping away the offending tear.
"What do you mean?" Cameron asked, suddenly aghast and worried.
"I don't know." Sam whispered again, looking at the doctor.
Cameron opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it. Something was very wrong, and it was apparent she had only broken the surface. Cameron looked out the big window gently and sighed. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"
Sam looked out the window at the blue sky. Thin, white clouds floated across the sky slowly. "Yeah." anger arose within her, making her vision become blurry. She wanted to scream at the sky, yell at it for being so cheery! This isn't a happy day! Is rain to much to ask for?
Cameron noticed the distressed look on the teen's face. She took in a deep breath and tried a different way of talking to the teen. "Look, I know you guys aren't from around here. And this whole deal with his parents, I don't know where they are either. But you can talk to me Sam. I'm just here to help." maybe the pleading approach would work?
"Look, sister. Just because we aren't from around here doesn't mean we need any more or any less kindness than an average patient." Sam exclaimed angrily, stopping a few inches from Cameron's face. "We don't need help. But we need you. Just get him better, and I'll take care of it from there."
"Oh…ok…" Cameron said, her voice losing its confidence at a surprising rate. "I'll just-"
"Get out." a heavy clicking sound echoed off the walls. "Now Cameron."
"You are such an ass! I'm just trying to help Sam!" Cameron turned and exclaimed, annoyance playing with her face.
"Well she obviously doesn't want your help! Now get out!" House replied angrily, staring down at her. "I need to have a talk with little miss Goth."
"You think because she's Goth you have a right to be an ass?" Cameron shot back, refusing to lose. "She is just here to care for Daniel!"
"That's my job, bitch! Now go!" House instructed, never stopping his angered glare.
Cameron stared at him, a surprised look on her face. Her mouth hung open as she walked slowly out of the room.
"Look, mister, I don't know what you're doing-"
"Shut it. Sit." House instructed, pointing to a chair with his cane. "We have something important to talk about."
Sam eyed him anxiously before sitting down. Folding her hands on her lap, she pretended to give him her full attention. All she was really doing was fuming.
"Now why don't you tell me what's happened to Daniel?" House said smartly, looking her in the eye.
"He has a cut on his arm." Sam shot back, playing the teenage ignorance card purposely.
"What makes you think I'm blind?" House replied, agitation in his voice. "How did he get that cut?"
"Oh, see, you needed to be more specific." Sam rolled her eyes. "I don't know." of course she was lying. No way would she tell him what had happened. He'd think her crazy!
"You're lying!" House exclaimed, seeing the look on her face. "What happened to Daniel!"
"It's none of your business!" Sam shot back, gasping a second later. She had just proven her bluff. "…If I knew what happened…?"
"Nice try. You are lying. Did his parents do this to him? Why is he cut, Sam?" House demanded, cutting down on the pissy attitude a little.
"It wasn't his parents. I can promise you that much." Sam said, looking away from the doctor. She refused to make eye contact and continued. "His parents are gone. Neither of us know where they are or how we got here."
"Bingo! We have the truth! Can you tell me how you ended up in my hospital at least?" House asked, trying to be a little nicer.
"After traveling for a few days, the cut became really…yuk. So I demanded we find our way to a hospital. And this was the closest one." Sam replied, looking at Danny sadly. "He didn't want to come, but I made him. Imagine the consequence if I hadn't."
"He could've died." House said plainly, tapping his fingers along the top of his cane. "And he might still be in danger."
"I know." Sam whispered, tears gathering in her eyes once more.
"Can you tell me where you guys originally came from?" House asked, surprisingly happy with himself for being so understanding.
"No." Sam looked away, fighting tears.
"Why not?" House asked, his agitation coming back. "You had to have come from somewhere!"
"I know!" Sam yelled, her anger spiking. "We went back to where we came from, but it was totally different. No one that we knew was there. It was as if we had crash landed in a different universe."
"Weird." House started thinking Sam needed to be hospitalized too. "Are you sure you're ok?"
"I'm fine." Sam replied, looking annoyed. "This is why it wasn't your business. I knew you'd think me crazy."
House looked at her, a frustrated look on his face. "Are you sure you-" he stopped himself. How could they not know where their town was?
Sam looked at him with a confused look on her face. Then she sighed and looked at him. "Is interrogation over now?"
"One more thing." House said slowly, his mind working in high gear. "What are your names?"
"I'm Sam Manson." Sam replied, looking at House curiously. "And he's Danny Fenton. Why?"
"Just trying to put the puzzle together." House stood up and walked slowly out of the room. "I'll be back soon."
House walked slowly down the hall and into an office, sitting down behind a computer. He had heard those names before! Just where exactly?
Looking at the computer screen, he double clicked on the Internet Explorer button and waited for the search engine to pop up. In a few seconds Google showed up, a blinking line waiting for his typing.
House eyed the bar anxiously. Was he seriously going to type in this kid's name, just because he thought he heard it before? Wasn't that going over the deep end, even for him? It didn't matter. He was already hacking on someone else's computer. Might as well finish what was started.
He moved his fingers to the keyboard and typed in "Danny Fenton". Then he pressed enter and waited for the web options to load. His mouth dropped when he read the first thing to pop up. It read "Danny Phantom (character)". He put his hand back on the mouse and scrolled down, seeing pictures of a cartoon. This cartoon looked a lot like the boy he had in his hospital. Same black hair, frail frame, blue eyes. It was like they were twins!
He clicked on the Google Images tab and began looking at photos. One in particular caught his eye. A blue ring cut the boy down the middle, flowing from head to foot. Half of him had grey hair and a black outfit, while the other side was the boy who came in to get medical attention. Could it be possible? A cartoon getting sucked into the real world? But how could that even be imaginable?
House groaned as his head began to hurt. He only got headaches over things that were really complicated. And this might just be one of the most difficult cases he would ever face.
