Chapter LXXVII

Danny slowly opened his eyes. He could tell from the natural lighting in his hospital room, or lack there of, that it was night time. The large digital clock opposite his bed pinpointed the exact time at 11:30. He looked over next to his bed and couldn't help but grin. Tucker had fallen asleep in the empty bed next to his. The techno-geek's PDA sat on his chest, rising and falling with each rhythmic breath. It blinked and vibrated as messages and alerts flooded its systems, but Tucker slept on, not even registering his neglected machine.

Sitting closer to him was Sam. Unlike his other best friend, the young woman was awake. The small light on the desk next to Danny's bed was on, providing just enough light for her to read her current literary fascination, Pride and Prejudice.

"Good to see some people are getting stuff done," Danny mumbled, the grogginess of his deep sleep still lingering.

His sudden greeting caused Sam to jump slightly. She smiled after realizing Danny was, in fact, awake, and set her book down, folding the corner of the page she was reading to avoid losing her place.

"Good to see some people are getting better. How are you feeling, mister I-can-sleep-for-two-days-without-consequences?" Sam teased.

Danny's aura of drowsiness disappeared as quickly as his eyes widened in shock. He sat upright, not even aware that the action was painless. "Two days?!" he almost shouted.

"SHH!" Sam put her index finger to her mouth and tried to push her friend back down in his bed. "Yes, two days! Why, did you forget about something?"

"Well, uh," Danny rubbed the back of his neck and removed Sam's hand from his shoulder. "Not that I can remember, but still, two days?"

"Don't worry. Valerie has done a half decent job of keeping ghosts away. And you never really miss anything when it comes to school."

Danny chuckled at Sam's reassurance. Now he did notice the absence of pain, in particular his gut wrenching, chest bursting cough.

"Well I do feel a lot better. I bet I could go home tomorrow," Danny rubbed his chin. "But I doubt they'd let me."

"Yeah," Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. "Doctors; they just aren't satisfied until they've made you uncomfortable in every way you can imagine."

"And when they accomplish that," Tucker mumbled as he sat up, rubbing his eyes. "They find new ways to make you feel uncomfortable."

"Glad to see you've joined us in the land of the living," Danny looked at Sam, who stared indifferently at her friend. "Well, half living, anyway." Danny scratched his head, unsure as to why he had upset Sam.

"Oh dude, I missed a ton of messages," Tucker whined as he examined his PDA. "The interns! I forgot about our date!"

Danny couldn't help but chuckle, and found to his delight that it did not force the General Grievous cough out of his lungs. Sam picked up her book and continued reading.

"You could tell them you were keeping me company," Danny offered. "Chicks dig the sentimentality gig."

A feminine hand slapped the patient's head with surprising force. "Says you," Sam growled. "I, for one, dig the honesty gig."

"Tell me, Sam," Tucker picked up his glasses from where they had fallen on the floor. "If it was you expecting me for a date, would you still be interested if I told you I fell asleep while watching my friend?"

Sam thought for a moment. "No, probably not. I'd respect you for telling me the truth, though."

"Really?" Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"No, not really."

"That's what I thought." Tucker sent the message telling one of the two young women that he had been watching over his friend and had lost track of time.

"So any ideas on how soon I can get out of here?" Danny felt an uneasy feeling creep into him. It was the same one whenever his parents talked about dissecting Phantom . . .

Danny's eyes widened and he sat upright again, quickly enough that Sam dropped her book from the sudden movement.

"Did they take any blood?"

Sam and Tucker looked at each other, not understanding. Danny grabbed Sam's wrist; the anxiety wracking the inside of his head. "Blood samples! Did they take any?"

"Oh yeah, they did that yesterday," Tucker replied absently as one of the interns replied to his message.

"WHAT?!"

"Shut up, Danny!" Sam hissed. "They did do some blood work. The ectoplasm in your blood was written off as a minor contamination from the paper cuts you got."

Danny's firm grip on Sam's wrist loosened.

"Yeah, and they were curious about your speedy recovery for a while, but they figured it was probably just another side effect from your ghost wounds." Tucker paused from his messaging. "Which is stupid, really. You'd think a ghost-inflicted wound would take longer to heal than a regular one."

Danny's grip loosened even further. His hand slid down Sam's small wrist and gently swung to the floor. "Thank God."

I told you there would be no sense in worrying about it, Daniel.

Do not scold him! He was in a coma!

He was SLEEPING! There is a difference, you buffoon!

Who sleeps for two days?

Considering that he was almost vaporized, and almost bled to death, and was infected with an unknown ectoplasmic toxin, I'd say it is excusable.

Perhaps, but those two days have given that creature time enough to plan its return.

This is true. If it is some sort of canine, then it must have your scent. If it comes looking for you, you are finished.

"Let's try to be a little more optimistic," Danny encouraged.

"Uh, ok?" Tucker replied. "I thought we were doing a good job. Unless he's talking to you," Tucker glared accusingly at Sam. "All that black must be affecting his mood."

"At least I can take mine off," Sam snarled.

Tucker's eyes widened in shock. "Goodness gracious, a racist joke and sexual innuendo in only seven words!" Tucker began laughing. "Alright, female, you win. But for future reference, I do NOT like mayonnaise on my sandwiches."

Sam made a go for Tucker, preparing to tear his head off, but Danny held up a hand. The dark haired boy was deep in thought and didn't notice where his hand made contact with Sam's body. It was several seconds of stunned silence and unawareness on Danny's part before the boy's head snapped up.

"Oh . . . my . . . G-"

Sam furiously slapped Danny's hand off her chest and wrapped her arms around the area tightly as she sat back down.

"Sam, I am so sorry," Danny apologized. The girl only looked back at him in bewildered shock. "I-"

"First you accidentally kiss, and then you accidentally feel her up?" Tucker chuckled as he snuck his PDA back into his pocket. "If I accidentally become someone's godfather, I swear . . ."

It wasn't Sam's book that hit Tucker in the head, nor was it an ecto-blast from Danny. Skulker materialized in the far corner of the room as Danny's ghost sense went off, sending a wave of pain through his torso. The mechanical biped's arm-mounted energy cannon was still smoking.

"I swear that you are the most ill-mannered human I have ever come across," Skulker grumbled. "If it isn't already awkward enough for these two to be alone in the same room together, you just have to continue blathering on like you do."

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Whatever, dude."

Skulker turned his attention to Sam, who was still hugging her chest and occasionally casting a sideways glance at Danny, who was now ignoring her.

"Samantha, how have you been?" Skulker asked as kindly as he could.

"Good, up until about two minutes ago," the girl replied as she stood up. Danny made no acknowledgement of her movement, apparently in some kind of trance. The young woman walked over to her uncle and hugged him.

Skulker returned the embrace as best he could. It was quite an unusual sight. "What happened two minutes ago?" The robotic body suit maneuvered around Sam and moved closer to Danny. "Did Tucker make some lewd comment about your relationship with Daniel?"

"No," Tucker responded before Sam could object to having a relationship with her best friend. "Danny accidentally copped a feel. Sam freaked out."

Skulker, after failing to recall what the phrase meant, consulted his hard drive. Definitions from all over the Internet came to his consciousness. When he remembered how Sam was hugging her chest and giving the boy wary glances, well, the math basically did itself.

"That seems very unlike him," the mercenary mused. He waved a mechanical hand in front of the boy's eyes, but it elicited no response. "Surely this isn't the Paper Shredder's doing . . ."

"Nah, he wasn't paying attention. As usual." Tucker slid off his bed and shook Danny's shoulders. The boy jolted out of his daydream and looked around.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I was thinking about . . . stuff."

"I'm sure you were," Sam muttered.

"Daniel, I believe I may be able to help you rid yourself of the ghost toxin in your blood."

Danny gasped in excitement. "You found a cure?"

"No, but I have often been forced to use deadly venoms in my, er, field of work. Naturally I made anti-venoms in case my own weapons were ever used against me. I have quite a considerable amount of expertise in this matter."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Danny rolled out his bed. "To Fenton Works!"

"Calm yourself," Skulker ordered. "You cannot simply leave this hospital, especially not looking like that."

Danny looked down and saw the paper hospital gown he had been dressed in. He yelped before diving back under the blanket that covered his bed.

"I will . . . ensure that you are discharged tomorrow and we can begin working on treating you properly, not with this," Skulker looked at an IV that was hanging from a stand nearby, "barbarically primitive equipment. Sleep well."

Skulker turned to face his niece and Tucker. "Do you two require transportation?"

Sam and Tucker looked at the wall clock, which told them it was now 12:03.

"Sure," Tucker said. "I guess my parents thought I was staying here for the night." The boy cast a frightful glance at the table where the syringes had been. "As if."

"And I guess my parents though that too," Sam agreed. "I don't know why my dad, of all people, would let me stay here, though."

Skulker placed one massive metallic hand on each child's shoulder and turned them invisible and intangible. The ghost took off through the ceiling, leaving Danny alone in his room.

As I was saying earlier, you should really pay more attention.

Nonsense! He was acting out of natural instinct! Notice how she hesitated to remove your hand from her –

She did remove it regardless of how long it took. The initial shock was considerable.

Whatever happened to that talk we had about being quite every once in a while?

That talk never took place. We are part of your mind, Daniel; we would remember such a conversation.

SOME OF US could keep our thoughts to ourselves, because OTHERS OF US would rather not be bored to death with unnecessary big words!

You have the mental capacity of a single celled organism! You would do the universe a service by purging your essence from Daniel's mind!

OOOOH! I'm so scared!

Shut up! SHUT UP! I'll purge BOTH of you from my mind if you don't stop it!

You cannot! Only a ghost of Skulker or Technus' caliber has the technological know-how to accomplish such a feat. Any less qualified attempts will kill you.

If the alternative is having you two use my brain as a battlefield, then I'd do it in a heartbeat!

Our host presents a very good point.

Indeed. Perhaps we could forego this incessant bickering for a while. At least until Daniel has successfully dealt with this toxin situation.

Agreed.

Good. Now, can I go to sleep?

You do not need our permission to use your own body to perform basic human functions. We can only guide you. You are in control of your body.

Although I think sometimes we would do a better job . . .

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to interrupt the next shouting match.

There will be no more of that for now.

Yes, we will quiet ourselves so you can sleep.

You know, I never really thought of this, but if I'm in a hospital gown that means someone saw me naked.

Yet another brilliant deduction.

Thanks John Madden, I don't think we would have ever figured that out on our own.

I'm just saying . . .

We are well aware of the situation.

Mhmm.

You think it was a nurse?

Possibly.

Perhaps Sam was asked to do the honors.

Don't be stupid. She is not qualified to perform such a task.

So now a person needs credentials to take off another person's clothes? What would it matter anyway? Danny will be on the receiving end of that treatment in a few years time and I'm willing to bet on our continued survival that Sam won't need a license.

Holy crap! You're as bad as Tucker!

Now you've gone and angered our host!

I was stating an observation.

Just be quiet. Danny rolled over on his side. I might have slept for two days straight, but I'm still tired.

Danny heard the voices bicker for a moment, but they quieted down enough for Danny to finally drift off to sleep.

"It appears that Phantom's healing factor still functions, despite our efforts to incapacitate him," Walker said to himself.

Wulf had staked out the hospital room Danny was going to be held and managed to install one camera in a lonely corner of the room. It was unnoticeable, even to a highly trained eye.

"Ho maestro, mi havi malprosperi vi!" Wulf whimpered as the massive ghost hunkered down in the corner of the room.

Walker sighed and got down on one knee. "My friend, you have done no such thing. This minor delay has given me ample time to prepare for my confrontation with Phantom. Now stop this ridiculous behavior at once! We must prepare for his arrival."

Wulf rose to all fours and padded over to his master, who scratched the ghost behind his large pointy ears. "Kio voli vi havi al fari?"

Walker grinned and turned the channel on the large television that had since been moved into one of the newly refurbished rooms in the prison. The screen depicted a familiar artificial portal to the human realm.

"La fantomo-infano testamenti morti per mi ungegi," Wulf growled.

"No," Walker turned off the television. "His death will come from my hands alone." The deathly white ghost grinned. "It is unfortunate that Daniel will be unable to see the irony in his demise." Walker turned his attention back to his companion. "Go and wait for him in the laboratory. When he appears, bring him to me. Destroy any that stand in your way."

Wulf bowed. "Gi voli esti fari, mi maestro."

The lupine specter took off, leaving the prison in a hurry and making best possible speed for the Fenton Portal. Danny Phantom would die this day, and Wulf would die before failing his master.

To Be Continued

A/N: I guess this was mostly a filler chapter to flesh out the voices a little more and to give the gang some hang-out time. Sure, it's in a hospital, but when you're best friend is Danny Phantom you don't really get to be picky about these things. Not much to comment on, though. Again, I'll leave the speculation to you.

And if you haven't noticed, I have a "new" story up. There's two descriptions of it; one in my bio and the other in the story itself. It's called A DOOMED Alliance, and it would please me to no end if you took a look at it. I see it as a way to flex my canon muscle by writing something that isn't AU.

Also, don't forget about the poll!

I noticed that the number of reviews per chapter has dropped slightly. Hmm. I'm sure it will pick up once this segment comes to a close. Thanks to those of you who do review, especially Goldamon X, Writin' Dude, slyfoxx, MissMeliss4251, Halbringer of destruction, Coppa-Cola, Fulcon, and Musicallity.

PEEK N' PEEK!