Disclaimer: unless Hell has frozen over and no one notified me, I'm never gonna own WaT.
……………………
9:30am
Danny walked into the room. She was curled up on her bed with her back to him, drawing.
"Hi, Clare," he said.
She rolled over to face him and smiled.
"Danny," she said, jumping off the bed and running to him.
She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly, a hug that he returned as he felt a grin spread across his own face.
"How you doing?"
"Okay. They might even let me go home for a weekend soon."
"Good. I'm really pleased for you." The smile showed her he meant it, too.
"How are you? You look tired."
"I am. Didn't get much sleep last night," he said. He didn't want to tell her that he hadn't actually got any sleep, as it would only worry her.
Since Clare's disappearance a few months ago, Danny had been visiting her a lot. He felt that he had found a kindred spirit in Clare. They had a lot in common.
Danny cautiously walked over to the young girl, standing alone by the water.
"Clare," he said carefully, trying not to startle her.
She turned to face him.
"Get away from me," she said.
"I'm not gonna hurt you. My name's Danny."
"Leave me alone."
"I can understand why you want to be alone. It's nice here. Clare, I understand why you feel the way you do. I lost both my parents when I was eleven. We were driving somewhere and they were fighting," Danny sighed, as the memories of that day came back to him, not that they were ever very far away. "My dad was yelling at my mom. He used to like to yell at my mom. I wanted him to stop so I said something." Danny could tell that he was beginning to get through to Clare and he had to fight the urge to stop talking and leave these memories where they were, locked in his mind, never seeing the light of day. "Then he turned around and yelled at me. That's when the car started to swerve." In his head, he heard his mom start to scream and his dad swearing. He could still remember what it was like to be in that car. Thinking that this was it; that he was going to die. That was the last thing he remembered before he was knocked unconscious till he came round in hospital and was told his parents were dead. "I never told anybody that. Ever. And I know what it's like to keep a secret. I didn't mean to do anything wrong that day. I was just a kid…just like you." He could see from the look in Clare's eyes that he had reached her, made her realise that she was not alone. But he knew there was one more thing she needed to hear. "Clare, your mom knows you didn't mean to hurt her. She knows you didn't mean to make her fall. She knows that you would do anything in the world to bring her back, Clare. But she doesn't want you to do this." He wrapped his arms round her and pulled the knife from her hand. "Your mother loves you Clare."
As he held her tightly while she cried, it took all his strength not to just break down himself and cry along with her. Her father came over and Danny let go and walked away.
When he was away from the crowd, he gave in and let himself cry.
They both sat down on the bed. Clare watched Danny for a moment, until he became self-conscious.
"Clare, why are you staring at me?"
"Wondering why you're here."
"Okay, I'll leave," he said, jokingly. He went to stand up before Clare hit him playfully on the arm.
"That's not what I meant. You just usually call before you come down and you didn't this time. What's up?"
"I just wanted to see you. Wanted to talk."
"What about?"
"You're very nosy today."
"I'm very nosy most days. And I prefer the word inquisitive."
Danny laughed. Granted, he hadn't really known Clare before she went missing. But he had seen her paintings and drawings when they had been looking for her and, he now realised, there was a lot of her personality in them. After she had been found and returned to the hospital, she had been quiet, withdrawn, and nervous. But now she was getting back to normal, at least what he thought she was normally like, and that made him happy. She was a sweet kid.
Danny was glad that she was getting help to work through her feelings over her mother's death. He didn't want her to keep it all inside, like he had. He ended up going off the rails, breaking the law, until he was eventually caught shoplifting rum from a liquor store at the age of 13. He was given two choices when he got to court: after school program at St Benedict's church or juvenile detention centre. He chose St Benedict's and never broke the law again.
"So, are you gonna talk to me, or what?" said Clare.
Danny sighed. He knew that Clare wouldn't give up until he talked but he didn't want to tell her the whole story in case she ended up back in the state she was in before.
"It's twenty years ago today that my mom and dad died," he said nervously, watching her face for her reaction.
"Oh. You okay?" Clare could tell that Danny didn't want to talk about it to her. She knew that he wanted to protect her but she also knew that she was one of the best people to understand what he was going through.
"Been better," he said.
"Hey," she said, knowing she had to change the subject. "Got something for you."
She stood up and went to the desk in the corner of the room. She pulled something out of the drawer and sat back down beside him.
"Close your eyes and hold out your hands."
Danny did as she said. She placed something in his hands.
"Okay, you can look now."
He opened his eyes and looked down at the piece of paper he was now holding.
"Wow," he said.
"An original Metcalf."
It was a painting of the lake where they had first met. It was nighttime, and there were two white figures in a hut on the water's edge. Above the hut were three stars, painted in silver glitter.
"I remember you saying one time you came to visit that when you were a kid you'd name stars after people that you missed," she said. "So, erm, that's your mom, that's your dad, and that ones my mom." She pointed to each star in turn and looked up at him. "I painted another one, exactly the same, for me to keep. You like it?"
"I love it," he said pulling her into a hug so that she couldn't see the tears in his eyes.
……………………
2pm
Jack came into the main office, looking slightly less tense than he had all day.
"Okay," he began. "I just got a call from a security guard at Copper Meadows Psychiatric Hospital."
"Copper Meadows?" Samantha questioned.
"The hospital Clare Metcalf disappeared from a few months ago. They keep a computer log of all cars that come into the parking lot and apparently Danny's car was there at around 9:30 this morning. I'm gonna head over there. My guess is that he went to see Clare so she might know where he was going. While I'm gone, Sam, check Danny's phone records. Martin, you can check his credit card and bank account activity. This is really starting to look like a voluntary disappearance so he could have taken some money out or paid for something somewhere. Viv, I want you to come with me. But first I need to talk to you. In my office."
Viv followed Jack into his office.
"What is it, Jack?" asked Viv.
"This goes no further than you and me, right. Nobody is to know that I know or that you know. Especially not Danny. Okay?"
"Of course."
"When we found Clare Metcalf, it was Danny that went to talk to her. He told her that his parents are dead, so he knows how she feels."
"Jack, everybody knows his parents are dead."
"Yeah, but Danny told Clare about the accident. In detail. He still had his mic on and I heard them talking. Apparently, his parents were fighting and he said something and his dad turned round to him and lost control of the car."
"Oh my god."
"He said to Clare that he knew that he didn't mean to do anything wrong but…I don't know…he probably would have said anything to calm her down. And you know as well as I do that Danny's never been one for talking. But there was something in his voice. After Clare's father came over, Danny just walked off."
"You think there's something that he's keeping back, right."
"Yeah. I'm really worried about him."
"Why hasn't he called in, though?"
"I don't know. We'll ask him when we find him. If he was at Copper Meadows to see Clare, we have to tread carefully. Very carefully. We don't want to make her panic. And we can't mention what Danny told her that night."
"Okay."
……………………
3pm
"Hey," Martin said. "How did it go?"
Jack and Viv had just returned to the office.
"He was visiting Clare Metcalf," said Jack. "And it wasn't the first time, either. According to the visitors log, he goes up there at least once a week. He calls her all the time, too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Clare says they get on really well."
"Did he tell her anything this morning? Where he was going?"
"No. He came over, said he just wanted to see how she was, she gave him a painting she did, they talked a bit more, and he left. She could tell he felt down but he wouldn't talk much. Just told her that it's twenty years ago today that his parents died. Any credit card or bank account activity?"
"Yeah. He used his credit card at a gas station in Dobbs Ferry."
"Dobbs Ferry?"
"Yeah. A service area on Interstate 87, north from here, just beyond Yonkers."
"You and Sam head up, check that it was Danny that used the card."
"Okay."
Martin and Sam left the office. Jack closed his eyes and sighed. Viv put her hand on his arm.
"We'll find him, Jack."
……………………
A/N Okay, Clare is very different (hopefully) to the way she was in the show but that's deliberate. I wanted to show that she is getting better. You know, it was awful writing this chapter. Having to watch Enrique Murciano over and over and over to get the scene from Clare de Lune right. Oh, the things we do for our art! (And yes, I know fine well that I could just have got the words off the Internet, but shhh!)
