Author's Note: I own nothing.
31 Confusing
Angelica frowned to herself as she checked Dani Fenton's vitals again. She was so glad that Dani had been found safe and sound. Well mostly sound. Her glucose levels were basically bottomed out, she likely hadn't eaten for the entirety of her captivity, and it looked like he'd somehow managed to keep her awake for that whole time too. But as concerning as that was that wasn't what had her worried at the moment. Dani's blood showed traces of ectoplasm in it, even having a slight glow in the dark. She didn't know enough about ectoplasm to say how it had happened. She had no idea what that meant for Dani but it got worse from there. She was underweight, not just from her captivity but in general. That in and of itself would have been enough of a concern, but Dani wasn't suffering any kind of effects one would expect from starvation or an eating disorder. As far as Angelica could tell Dani just had half the density of a human her age. She only weighed about fifty seven pounds. Without any negative effects one would expect from a condition that might have caused that. Nor could she find a condition that would have caused it. She frowned to herself as she sat at her office computer.
None of this made any sense. She'd been digging through her old medical textbooks trying to figure out what might be wrong with Dani. She hadn't found anything yet. She glanced up at the screen. She blinked sitting forward in her chair.
"Well that's not right." She said blinking at the file in front of her. She'd written it herself. Her brow furrowed. The file in front of her read 115 pound, the perfect average for a teen of Dani's age and height. That wasn't all of it though, her notes about Dani's blood having traces of ectoplasm in it were gone, all of her notes were gone. Replaced with simple observations about small bruises on Dani's wrists from the restraints, which she'd originally noted weren't there at all. She frowned; something, someone was changing Dani's file. She needed to check on Dani. She hurried out of her office and down the hall to Dani's room where she was sleeping. Slipping into the room she sighed. Dani was still asleep, she had yet to wake up. They were waiting to let Dani's parents and friends in until she woke up. Angelica let out a breath and made to step back out and almost walked right into one of the other nurses on the floor. She blinked. This nurse was newer at the hospital and it took Angelica a moment to remember her name.
"Flo, what are you doing in here? Dani's not your patient." Flo smiled and Angelica noticed a gleam in Flo's eyes. A red gleam. Flo checked her chart.
"Oh, I thought that this patient had been reassigned." She said and Angelica frowned. Something wasn't right. Flo shook her head down at the ipad in her hand. She turned it to Angelica. On the file was Flo's name not Angelica's. But Angelica was damn certain Flo's eyes hadn't been red at the start of their shift.
"That's odd, I don't remember changing that." She had to tread carefully, something here was off badly. Why would some ghost want to posses Flo. To get to Dani? But why? Freakshow was in custody. She'd have gotten word if that had happened. "Would you mind if I consult on her case? I'm friends with the family and the officer running the case. I know the Fenton's would be more comfortable that way." Flo smiled, though it looked a bit forced.
"Of course! Do you mind if I get a quick look at her vitals?" Flo asked slipping past Angelica, she hesitated but nodded. She did not want to leave Dani alone, unconscious and vulnerable with her possessed coworker, but as she made to protest her pager at her hip buzzed. She glanced down at it. She was needed in the ER. She made a split second decision.
"I've got to run down to the ER. I'll be right back with her family, if they aren't too busy babbling about hunting ghosts." She said with a smile hoping that her veiled threat would be clear. If she was wrong, if Flo wasn't possessed, it wouldn't be an odd thing to say. She rushed down to the ER as quickly as she could, hoping against hope that she was wrong and all was well.
Dani's world was groggy and someone was saying something. It took a minute for her ears to process what was being said.
"Come now, we don't have much time." The voice was feminine and coaxing. A cup of something was pressed to her lips. Out of instinct she drank and in moments her world was beginning to clear. What she found was concerning. She was in a hospital beg, in a hospital gown and a nurse she didn't recognize was pressing a cup of ectoplasm to her lips. She spluttered. The nurse rolled red eyes at her.
"Come now Little Badger, we don't have time for you to panic. Drink, before the other nurse comes back with your family." Dani blinked at the nurse.
"Vlad? What the fuck!"
The possessed nurse rolled her eyes again, glancing at the closed door. "Your face was all over national television Danielle. I knew no matter what you would end up at a hospital eventually and Halfa's don't have the same vitals as regular humans. You would have registered the vitals of a coma patient. And too many questions would have been asked, questions that would have eventually lead back to my accident as well. Drink." She took the cup from the nurse and downed the contents quickly.
"You came because you were worried?" She scoffed.
"Worried about the existence of Halfa's becoming more common knowledge. I prefer to do my work in the shadows, I don't fancy running from ghost hunters and the government as a regular pastime. Nor do I imagine do you. Though I wouldn't have pegged you for running off to the circus either." He said stepping the nurse he was possessing over to the monitors and reaching a hand out of her. He phased it into the monitor and the screen fizzed for a moment before going back to the regular beeping.
"First, I didn't run away, I was kidnapped. Second, the fuck did you just do." Dani demanded and Vlad rolled his eyes again.
"It registers ecto-signatures and will keep your monitored vitals looking normal. You're welcome." Dani's eyes narrowed.
"What do you want. You don't do things for people wanting nothing."
"I want you to be more careful. If you get caught it's a matter of time before I get caught. Neither of us wants that." He said, a grim expression coming over the nurses face. Dani nodded after a moment. Vlad took the cup from her dumping it into the bio-hazard waste bin. At that moment the door opened and Angelica Foley entered. She smiled at Dani, a flicker of relief in her eyes. Behind her came Jack, Maddie and Jazz. Jazz ran to her sister sobbing. She pulled Dani into a hug, Jack and Maddie following quickly behind her. Angelica turned to Flo who was blinking. Her eyes were hazel, not red and she looked downright confused. Either Angelica's ploy had worked and the ghost had left or they had done what they came to do. She quickly guided Flo out of the room, asking her to swap patients with her. This time the woman had no objections at all. Angelica stepped over to Dani, pulling out her pen light.
"Good to see you awake Dani. I want to check up on a few things, and there's an officer here who'd like to speak to you when you're ready." Dani nodded as her family pulled back falling into the chairs around the room, all exhausted. Angelica shined the light into Dani's eyes, going through the motions of looking for a concussion. She was delighted to find her eyes blue, if a little bloodshot from lack of sleep.
"You're doing fine, Dani. You'll need bed rest for a few days at least. I'll get someone to bring up some food. You're a bit underweight so we'll want to keep an eye on that. But otherwise you're in perfect health. Are you feeling up to talking to Officer Wulfric?" Angelica asked and Dani nodded.
"I think so yeah." Maddie patted her daughters hand. Angelica nodded, she felt much better leaving Dani with her parents as she went down to the lobby to talk to Dev.
