Danny snapped awake abruptly, his core screaming in his chest to move, to fight, save! He flailed for a moment in the scratchy sheets, limbs uncoordinated and heavy from sleep and disuse. Then the pain in his core faded, slowly but surely, and Danny took a deep breath and looked around the room.
He was alone, the chair next to him where Wade had sat was empty. Where had he gone? Why had he gone? Wasn't he supposed to protect Danny? He'd saved him, so why hadn't he stayed? Danny felt oddly disappointed.
His attention switched to the door when he heard the click of the handle turning, joy bubbling up. Wade had come back! Of course he wouldn't leave. Maybe he hadn't outright promised that he would stay, but the man had been protective, bordering on possessive, and there was no way that he'd leave Danny alone in a strange place, even if they didn't know each other.
But it wasn't Wade, it was the other man. The one that had refused to introduce himself earlier. Stark, he thought he remembered the other's calling him. Spider-Man had called him Mr. Stark, though, so that meant he still didn't know the man's first name. Whatever, that wasn't important. Where had Wade gone? He'd said earlier that he didn't trust this man, so why was Danny alone in the room with him?
"Oh, hey kiddo. You're awake." Stark sounded surprised when he spoke, as if he'd expected him to still be asleep.
If he thought Danny was asleep then why was he here? Danny looked around again for Wade. There was another door in the room, presumably one that led into the bathroom. It was closed. Maybe Wade was in there? How could Danny ask Stark what he needed to? Wade was able to read his mind, maybe, but Stark clearly couldn't so how did Danny ask where Wade was. And what did Stark even want with him?
"Don't worry, kid, that psychopath is gone. You're safe now." Psychopath? Who was he talking about? And where was Wade?! Maybe he could mouth the question at Stark? Well, couldn't hurt to try. Probably.
"Where's Wade?" he mouthed at the man, gesturing for effect. Stark frowned.
"Ah, sorry kid, I don't know sign language. I'll grab you something to write with, hang on." and Stark left the room.
Hang on, sign language? Why would Stark need to know sign language, and how would that help? Danny didn't know sign, so why did the man seem to think that would help? Stark came back into the room carrying a sleek… computer monitor, maybe? What was that thing? A chalkboard? No, it was made of glass, and the man had a flying metal suit that he, presumably, made himself. There's no way the man would give him a chalkboard.
"Here you go, just open up the document app and type out whatever you need to say." Stark said as he dropped the thing in Danny's lap.
Danny tentatively picked the thing up, turning it over and examining it closely. It was thin, definitely made of glass and metal. It was about the same size as a clipboard, and it didn't even have a keyboard, so how was he supposed to type on this thing? As he turned it over again his fingers brushed against a button on the side, and he clicked it. The glass side of the device lit up, and understanding started to dawn on Danny. The thing was like an unwieldy and inconvenient PDA!
He glanced at Stark, and saw that the man was watching him with a raised eyebrow. "Never held a Stark Tablet before, kid?" he asked when he noticed Danny looking at him. Danny shook his head, mouthing the word 'tablet' to himself as he looked back at the thing in his hands.
Okay, not a PDA, but maybe a tablet was similar? He still didn't see any buttons to navigate the device with, but he figured it was maybe like Sams newest phone, the one with the slide out keyboard.
"Jesus, kid, do you not know how to use it?" Stark sounded a little frustrated, angry maybe, and the question was likely rhetorical, but Danny shook his head in response anyway. "Seriously?"
Danny glanced up at the man again, and almost wanted to laugh at his expression. He didn't, obviously. He didn't know the man, and Wade had said that he didn't trust him, or any of the other people that had been there, for that matter. What if this man decided he wasn't worth whatever effort he was putting in, or that he was an interesting 'specimen' like Ajax? He could strap Danny down to the cot at any time, and it wasn't like Danny could do much about it! Sure, he had his core back, but earlier it had burned when he tried to use it, and Danny wasn't sure that he could fight the man off if he decided to cut into him like the other's had.
"Kid? Are you okay?" Danny trembled on the bed. He was alone here. Where was Wade? Wade would protect him, would save him from this man, who would inevitably decide that he was worth experimenting on. Or maybe Spider-Man would help? The kid could climb walls, did that mean that he was like Danny? But Spider-Man trusted Stark, had said that Stark had put the lady, an AI (and how cool was that? Tucker would love it!) in his suit for him.
"Hey, you're hyperventilating. If you can hear me, I need you to breathe. Kid?" What if Stark was the one who gave Spider-Man the ability to stick to walls? Apparently human experimentation wasn't uncommon on this world, so it couldn't be that far-fetched, could it?
The room was going kind of dark around the edges, and Danny could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He struggled to breathe, but he didn't really need to. He was dead, dead people don't breathe. So he stopped trying to breathe, focusing instead on trying to sort out the thoughts tumbling around in his head.
Spider-Man was an unusual name, for sure, but Danny had just brushed it off earlier. What if he was brain-washed? Or more be controlled! Being manipulated by this man, Stark, into… into what? What would Stark need a 'Spider' human for? He didn't know, but anything that came to mind wasn't anything good, now was it? A weapon, maybe. Or a spy! An assassin? None of it was good. No, Spider-Man wouldn't protect him, he wasn't any more safe than Stark was. If anything, Phantom should be the one to protect Spider-Man from this monster!
Phantoms chest burned. His core! What was wrong with his core? Why did it burn? "Kid, breathe. Please breathe!" His core burned, it hurt, he felt like he was drowning.
Ajax had touched it. Ajax had touched it? He touched it! It wasn't meant to be touched! Danny may have nicknamed the man "soap man" but he was anything but clean. He had touched his core. He needed to get it out. It was unclean. Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrong WRONG! OUT, he needed it out!
Phantom clawed at his chest. Out! It was wrong, wrong. He needed it out, out now. Unclean. Wrong. Tainted. He could dig it out, purify it. The cut was already there, all he needed to do was to reopen it and pull the wrongwrongwrong out, and he'd be okay.
Hands grabbed his wrists tightly, pulling his wet hands away from his chest. Phantom struggled against the grip, angry noises bubbling out of his sore throat.
"Breathe!" someone was shouting at him. They sounded like they were underwater.
"Please, breathe!"
They were begging. Who were they begging? He should help. He needed to help, it was his purpose. "Kid, please!" were they crying? They sounded like they were crying. Who were they talking to? It couldn't be him. He was a ghost, dead. Ghost's don't breathe.
Someone was holding his wrists. Who? Phantom focused on it. It was odd; the grip was tight, firm and unwavering, but they weren't forcing his hands down, just holding him.
"Please."
There wasn't anyone else here, just him and the man begging for someone to breathe. Phantom didn't need to, he was dead. But he wasn't Phantom right now, was he? His chest ached, but it wasn't his core. Did… did he need to breathe? He pulled in an experimental breath, and the world rushed back in around him.
Stark was holding his wrists in a white knuckled grip, and Danny's hands were dripping red with blood. He looked at his chest. The bandages were torn and soggy with blood, and the recently re-stitched scar on his chest was sluggishly oozing red. Bleeding.
"You back with me, kid?" Starks voice sounded wet and panicked, and Danny looked up at him. His eyes were red rimmed and damp, and he looked pale. Danny swallowed thickly and pulled in another burning breath before nodding.
His chest ached, but it was his lungs and not his core which burned. Stark let go of his wrists and sagged back into the chair next to the bed. "Thank god." Stark breathed, sounding both relieved and exhausted. "I'll call doctor whatshisface to fix those stitches, then. If that's alright with you?"
Danny nodded, although he was sure that his opinion did not truly matter to the man, that he'd call the doctor regardless of Danny's opinion, but responding made him feel like it was still his decision.
Danny didn't know how Stark had done it, because he didn't have a pager and he hadn't pressed any buttons, but soon there was a knock at the door and the doctor was poking his head in.
"Hello," he said, closing the door behind him. "I hear we had a little incident." the way the man spoke was demeaning, and it grated on Dannys nerves. Reminded him a bit too much of Ajax.
"Yeah," Stark replied. "I'm not sure what happened, but the kid freaked out and started ripping at his stitches." the doctor nodded, humming in a way that Danny guessed was meant to be reassuring. It wasn't. If anything, the humming felt ominous. Threatening. "If you could redo them, that would be great."
"Of course, Mr. Stark." The doctor sat next to Danny, who shrank away from him. Where was Wade? "How are you feeling, son?"
'Don't call me son.' he wanted to say. Instead, he shrugged. Wade was supposed to be here, where was he?
"Alright, I'm going to give you a little more morphine and fix these stitches, and then you should sleep, okay?" Danny shrugged again. Not like he had much of a choice, anyway. The doctor grabbed another needle, carefully filling it with the pain killer, and Danny hunched his shoulders up to his ears.
He wanted his mom, or Jazz, or his Dad, but they were back home, and Wade wasn't here. He hadn't promised, though, so Danny couldn't fault him. He probably wouldn't want anything to do with a traumatized child either. His thoughts drifted to Dani as he felt the doctor grab his arm gently and insert the needle. She was traumatized, and he'd sent her off to fend for herself. She was just a kid, less than a year old, even if she didn't look it. He should look for her when he got home. Make sure that she was alright.
Danny didn't so much as flinch when the doctor started to clean his chest, or even when he stitched it back up. He felt floaty. He wondered what his friends and family were doing. Were they okay? He'd been gone so long, what if a ghost attacked when he wasn't there? Sure, there was Valerie, but what if she got hurt? And Sam, Tucker, and his family were all fully capable of protecting themselves, but what if something happened that they needed him for?
He drifted off to sleep on anxiety ridden thoughts of his friends and family dying because he wasn't there to save them.
Note
The first iphone was released in 2007, before that phones had a physical keyboard. Early tablets look ridiculous, and were fairly expensive. The first ipad was released in 2010, but there were 'tablets' long before that (1987 was the first tablet, the 'Linus Write-Top'). the show Danny Phantom was released, and presumably takes place, in 2004. Just for some context.
