A quick note, anything in italics is Danny's writing.
Without opening his eyes, Danny woke to a pleasant, floating feeling, one that he recognized as Morphine. There had been a few cases where Sam had used her family money and influence to get him some when he'd taken a particularly brutal beating. Thinking of Sam made him close his eyes tighter against the threatening tears. He tried to take a deep breath to calm him, but his throat and chest screamed in pain and his sat up abruptly, eyes flying open as he remembered his battle with the cat monsters. Pain filled his entire body from his movement, and he curled into a ball on his side till it passed, somehow managing not to make a sound.
After several long moments, the screaming of his body dulled to a tolerable amount, and he opened his eyes again. He was looking at a stone wall, carved right out of the earth.
'Great, I'm underground,' he thought to himself. 'Wait, what?!'
Slowly this time, he sat up, and took in his surroundings. It was clearly some kind of underground lab, the very idea of which made Danny's hands shake with fear. Strange equipment lined the walls of the small room, and a doorway lead into what appeared to be a larger section. There was a soft noise, and Danny slowly looked for the source, and what he saw made him jump. In the darker half of the room, a strange man in a trench coat was slouched over a desk asleep, his head pillowed in his arms; Danny had missed him on his first glance. The man didn't really look like a scientist, more like an explorer, someone you didn't want to pick a fight with.
Once he had gotten a look at the room, and decided the man wasn't a threat just yet, Danny turned his attention to himself. Under the white blanket he was naked, except for a pair of underwear that wasn't his. At least they looked clean. The rest of his body was covered in an array of bandages, the ones on his throat being especially thick. With thin fingers, he prodded these bandages, remembering the bite the cat had given him, and marvling that he wasn't dead; though whether or not that was a good thing, he hadn't decided yet.
As a test, he tried humming softly, and was met with a surge of pain that made him gasp loudly and clutch his throat. The noise, though rather soft, was enough to wake the sleeping man, and send Danny into full panic mode.
Ford woke to a soft noise, groggily lifting his head from where he had fallen asleep at his desk and looking around. The boy was awake! Ford nearly fell out of the chair, the movement drawing a strangled noise that might have been a scream from the injured child.
"Easy, I'm not going to hurt you," Ford said softly. The boy's brilliant blue eyes were full of fear, his back pressed to the wall his cot was against, the IV dangerously close to being pulled out of his arm. He was clutching his throat like it hurt him.
Ford took a few steps forward, and the boy pressed himself further into the wall, his eyes shut tight. As he watched, the boy was turning transparent.
"No wait, please don't go intangible, you are only going to aggravate your injuries doing that!" Ford pleaded, the desperation clear in his voice.
The teen opened his eyes again, and Ford breathed a sigh of relief when he turned opaque.
"Uh, look. I'll uh… I'll sit down way over here okay?" Ford sat on the floor next to his desk, which was a good ten feet from the boy. He hoped this would allow the child to feel more powerful, as his head was higher than the scientist.
It seemed to work; the boy stopped pushing quite as hard on the wall.
"Uh, how about introductions," Ford said, trying to speak softly and calmly. "My name is Stanford Pines, though everyone calls me Ford."
The teen tried to say something, but all that came out was a breathy noise, and the boy winced in pain.
"Oh right, your larynx was damaged by the catberus," Ford stood up, drawing another strangled noise from the child. He rummaged around in his desk for a minute, until he found a small whiteboard the size of a sheet of paper, and a black dry erase marker.
"I'm going to come over there so I can give this too you, okay?" Ford asked gently. The child shook his head furiously no. Ford sighed.
"You won't be able to ask any questions if I don't," he explained calmly. The teen seemed to consider this for a moment, so Ford added, "I'll go right back over to my side of the room, okay?" Much to Ford's relief, the boy nodded.
As non threateningly as he could be, Ford crossed the room and set the board and marker on the cot next to the boys legs. The child noticed his hands, and gave Ford a questioning look.
"Oh, you noticed my polydactylism. I was born with six fingers on each hand," Ford wiggled his digits to emphasize his point. The boy looked away, and Ford took that as his cue to go back to the other side of the room.
Once he was seated, in his desk chair this time, he asked the question that was burning through his mind.
"So what is your name?" The teen struggled with the board and marker for a few moments, trying to get his weak fingers to do what he wanted, but eventually he got the marker uncapped and in a position he could write with. After scribbling something on the board, he turned it around for Ford to see.
Danny
"Do you have a last name?"
No
"How old are you?" Danny considered for a moment, and Ford realized he was deciding whether or not to tell him. But after a short internal conflict, he wrote, 15. Danny wiped the board clean with a corner of his blanket and asked, where?
"You are in my Lab," a dozen different emotions flashed across Danny's face, and Ford raised his hands in surrender. "I don't hurt kids though. I just study the strange and abnormal. Like this," he raised his hands and wiggled his fingers again. "And like you."
You know?
"Yes, and I'm not going to hurt you. I didn't take you to a hospital exactly because I did know. I didn't want to find out what would happen if certain members of the scientific community got ahold of you."
You don't look like a scientist. Ford laughed at that, causing Danny to jump at the noise, before a small smile crossed his face.
"What do I look like?"
A badass old guy?
"I'm sure my brother would disagree with you." At the mention of another person, Ford saw the fear creep back into Danny's eyes, so he quickly added, "You don't have to meet the rest of my family until you are ready."
Who else is there besides your brother?
"Oh. Well, my grand niece and nephew are staying the summer with us. Dipper and Mabel, they are twins, like me and my brother. And Wendy and Soos know about you as well, and I'm sure are eager to meet you, when you are ready. They are employees of my brother and his tourist trap that takes up a good half of our house. But they are as good as family."
Danny seemed to consider this with a sort of solomon quiet. Ford let the silence hang over them, waiting for the boy's next question. When it came, it wasn't what he was expecting.
Can I have some water?
"Uh, yes. But only a little. You don't actually need any, that IV is giving you all the water you need, and I don't want you to over exert your throat." Ford stood up and got a water bottle out of a mini fridge in a corner of the room. He fished a straw out of a cabinet, and brought them over to the boy.
"May I?" he asked, indicating that he wanted to sit on the cot. Danny scooted over, till he was on the edge, and Ford sat down. He looked at the boy's hands, covered in cuts and scrapes and bandages, struggling to hold onto the marker, and realized he wasn't going to be opening the bottle. So Ford did it for him, and inserted the straw.
"Remember, tinny sips. Do you need help holding it?" Danny shook his head and Ford passed him the bottle. Danny held it gingerly, and brought it too is lips. He took what Ford would not qantify as a small sip, immediately doubling over in a painful coughing fit, the bottle falling to the floor where it spilled. Ford's instinct took over, as he moved closer and started gently rubbing his back.
As he finally stopped coughing, Danny looked at his hands to see they were covered in blood. He looked over to see Ford sitting next to him, his hand still on his back. Danny flinched away from the touch, and Ford removed his hand, standing up.
"Let me get you something to clean that off." Ford went to the wall where a sink stood, a roll of paper towels mounted on the wall. He wet a few and went back to the teen, who had relaxed a little, but was still staring at his hands; blood dripped down his chin.
"Here," Ford gave him the wet towels, realizing that he probably wouldn't take well to being touched for a while. Danny took them and rubbed at his hands and face, though some of the bandages were stained.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Ford asked. "Anyone you want to call, or…" Danny shook his head.
"Okay, you can stay here as long as you want. Infact, I insist you stay here if you don't have anywhere else to go." Danny looked up at Ford, something like gratitude in his eyes. Ford could almost feel them connecting, when, like normal his brother barged in and ruined everything.
I want to ask, do ya'll want more frequent shorter chapters, or longer less frequent chapters? Please let me know.
