The weather has gone weird. Is it a natural phenomenon or is something more sinister at work ? Who are you calling crazy ?
"Oh Frank, all the students are still sitting in the minibus," said Aneisha, suddenly remembering.
"Good point. Right, you three with me !" ordered Frank. "We'll take everyone back to school. He held up his hands as the others started complaining. "We'll go and see Dan afterwards OK ? He needs medical attention first," he said. With that, they all started trooping off back to the farm buildings to collect the rest of their school group. The injured SWAT team members were loaded into the ambulances, along with Dan and were taken away. Stella and the rest of her team started the clear-up operation at the mansion.
Frank drove the chattering students back to school. Their talk was all about the tornado. Once they realised Dan was missing, they became concerned. "Dan got hit by some flying debris from the tornado," Aneisha told them. "It's knocked him out."
"Rotten luck !" commented Roly. "That kid's so accident prone," he added. Zoe and Aneisha looked at one another and couldn't help giggling. Zoe had been tense for so long, the totally inappropriate comment let it all burst out. Tom glowered at them.
"It's not his fault !" he hissed.
Aneisha reached out and touched his arm. "We know Tom. We care too," she said softly. "Don't feel bad. It's not your fault either," she added, guessing why he was upset. "It could have been any one of us. Dan was just unlucky." Tom relaxed and gave her a faint smile. Aneisha always guessed what was on his mind.
After school they badgered Frank to take them to see Dan. They arrived in time to find Dan unconscious, being wheeled out of a hospital room, followed by a small stream of nurses and one security man. "What happened ?" asked Frank.
"Ah, are you Agent London ?" asked a flustered looking doctor. Frank nodded and the man stopped to speak to them while Dan was being wheeled away down the corridor.
"Yes, well Agent Morgan regained consciousness and became very distressed. He was clearly very, erm, confused and began fighting with the medical staff. It took quite a few of us to restrain him," said the man, glancing at the staff who were now dispersing around the medical unit. "We're taking him for an MRI scan to try and work out what is causing the problem. I'm afraid we had to sedate him," he said apologetically.
This news left the group subdued. "Oh no !" whispered Tom. He was the only one who had seen Sinstra Storm's erratic behaviour and he was frightened of losing his friend to the same.
Aneisha slipped her arm around Tom's shoulder and held him tight. "Come on. They're going to help him. Let's go and wait. Some time later they watched Dan being wheeled back, still asleep. His wrists each had a large bandage round them which had been tied to the bed rails on either side of his bed. They looked at one another with frozen expressions. Clearly the staff weren't taking any more chances.
People went in and out of Dan's room, but still they weren't allowed in to see him. They were getting restless and more and more worried when finally a doctor in a white coat came out and greeted them. He was holding a clip board covered in sheets of paper.
"You are friends of Daniel Morgan ?" he asked. They said they were, sitting forward in their chairs.
"Is he going to be all right ?" asked Tom anxiously.
"Well, he is certainly improved from earlier," said the doctor. "I'm the clinical psychiatrist," he explained, glancing at his notes. "Since Daniel had his MRI scan his mental state has changed significantly. It is remarkable. There are only a few things of possible concern," he said vaguely.
"What things ?" asked Tom.
"Well, he does seem to be unusually untrusting and cynical," said the psychiatrist. He looked startled as they all burst out laughing.
"He's always like that," said Aneisha.
"Oh !" said the psychiatrist with a small smile, "Well in that case, he appears to be fully recovered," he said. "That is apart from the minor concussion and the bruising on the throat," he added. "It appears there may be some therapy after all for Dr. Storm. I will be speaking to my colleagues at the psychiatric unit."
"Can we see him now ?" asked Zoe.
"Yes of course," said the psychiatrist.
They went into Dan's room full of hope. Dan was lying in his bed looking slightly cross. He perked up when he saw his friends. "What happened ?" he asked croakily, then coughed. "Nobody will tell me," he complained. "This doctor was asking me the weirdest questions. Do I think people are trying to hurt me ? Well, apart from KORPS, duh ! And, someone's tied me to the bed !" he said, tugging his wrists against the bandages tying him, and coughing again. Frank slipped out of the room unnoticed.
"Would you like a drink ?" asked Zoe. Dan nodded. She poured him some water and had to hold the cup to his mouth for him. He drank it thirstily.
"Thanks," he said when he'd finished.
Frank came back in with a nurse carrying a pair of surgical scissors. "I don't think we need these any more do we ?" she said smiling at Dan. She carefully cut through the bandages on this wrists, letting him free. Zoe immediately took one hand in hers.
When the nurse had gone, Dan looked a lot calmer. He lay back against his pillows tiredly. "Do you want us to go ?" asked Frank quietly.
"No. Please, I want to know what happened," begged Dan softly.
Tom took a deep breath. "Well, I don't know how much you remember," he said. "Storm set up a hurricane in the corridor so we couldn't get in the door to the control room. We tried to blow a hole in the side of the control room to get to you, but all it did was knock you unconscious on the floor, and Mr. Storm then set off weather fields through the whole house. There was no way we could get to you, so I called Nate and asked to borrow Digby," he explained. Dan looked baffled. "Digby is Nate's big humanoid robot. He could get through the weather fields unaffected and he was strong enough to get through the weather and the control room door," said Tom, grinning at the memory of Digby pulling the door off its hinges.
"When Digby broke in, Mr. Storm went bonkers and opened the safety door on to the courtyard and ran out into the weather fields and some of the fields swirled into the room and all around you," he said, pausing.
"Me ? Oooooh," said Dan. "Did it do anything to me ?" he asked, looking worried.
"Well, when you woke up, you apparently tried to attack the staff here," said Tom as gently as he could. "Then they had to sedate you and take you for an MRI scan. Amazingly, it looks like the MRI scanner itself has made you better. Perhaps those weather fields interfere with the brain's natural magnetic structure or something. The MRI seems to have put it back in order again."
Dan, looked at him. "I have no idea what you are talking about," he said.
"You're normal again," said Aneisha. "Well, normal for you anyway," she added cheekily.
Dan frowned at her, but then looked relieved. "Good, I think," he said. Then he seemed to remember something and leaned forward. "The tornado ! There was a tornado ! Is everyone OK ?" he asked.
Zoe gently pushed him back into his pillows. "Everyone is fine. Nobody got hurt by the tornado. Don't worry," she assured him. Staring into her eyes, Dan relaxed again and lay back. He touched his forehead with his free hand, wincing when he felt the wound which had been steri-stripped.
"You need to get some rest now," said Frank firmly. "We should go," he ordered. They all said their goodbyes and left quietly.
Once outside, Tom breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. Dan's back," he said.
"Yeah," said Aneisha. "He's just so accident prone !" she complained.
They all laughed with relief. Life was getting back to normal. "What's the weather ?" Tom asked as they left the MI9 medical unit.
"A bit of drizzle. Just ordinary," said Frank.
"Yay !" cheered the team.
"Ordinary is good !" said Aneisha.
THE END
A guest reviewer asked why it's always Dan who ends up in hospital in my stories. I can't really answer this. I supposed it's because he's the most obviously physical, apart from Zoe, and his overall lack of tact probably gets him into trouble. I don't have any plans currently for another story. I want it to be different.