Chapter Thirteen: Attachment
"Danny? Are you awake?"
Danny had heard him, but didn't show it. The truth is, he couldn't sleep at all. He kept reliving what his father had done to him in his dreams and he woke up with tears slipping down his cheeks. When the door was closed and he was left alone again, he turned on his back before he slowly got up and knocked on the door. "Dad?"
Maybe he didn't hear him. Maybe he would just walk on. Maybe he would leave him alone, but he didn't WANT to be alone. He wanted…NEEDED Phantom. The door unlocked and Jack looked down at him.
"Danny, why aren't you asleep?" Jack asked.
"I-I wanna…see Phantom." Danny said quietly. "Please? I…I've never been without him, not since the incident…"
Jack pursed his lips and then nodded. "Alright. Come with me." He held the door open. Danny followed him out, looking towards the lab. They walked inside and Jack opened the box to allow Danny to walk inside.
"I'll be back in a few hours." Jack said. "Until then, get some rest." He closed the box and walked out, the closing door enveloping them in darkness.
Danny looked at the softly glowing boy next to him and reached out to wrap his arms around him. "I'm sorry…" He whispered. "This is my fault…I trusted him…"
"We both did." Phantom replied quietly, turning his head to face him. "He fooled you, me, Sam, Tucker…even mom and Jazz."
"Phantom…" Danny started to sob softly, clinging to him. Phantom held him close, gently stroking his hair comfortingly until he went to sleep. All they had was each other now, and if they had any chance of getting out alive it was up to Phantom to figure out how.
Danny's soft breath was warm on his ghostly body, but he didn't mind. This was Danny, a part of him, and he needed this kind of closeness. As Phantom looked up at their silent prison, he tried to think of there was anything, any cracks or weaknesses that he could use to escape. He already knew, though, that there weren't. Trying to blast himself out was futile.
The next question, then, was who had supplied such an efficient prison for a ghost? And all those ghosts must've been planted; none of them looked like they belonged.
"The Guys in White." He murmured. "They must've helped him. Must still be, that's who he was calling earlier."
"Who was…?" Danny asked, looking up at him.
Phantom looked at him. "…Go back to sleep, Danny. I'll figure this out; you get the rest you need."
"He cut you open…" Danny realized, looking at the healing stitches. "He did it to me, too…"
"Yeah, I know." Phantom sighed. "Staying up isn't going to help you heal any faster, Danny. You should sleep; especially since he's apparently gonna pit you against a wild animal."
"A what?!" Danny sat up.
"Some kind of wild animal. Don't jerk like that; you'll tear your stitches." Phantom gently coaxed him into lying against him again. "Just relax, go to sleep, and I'll wake you if you have a nightmare, okay?"
"Okay." Danny nodded, nestling his head into the crook of his counterpart's neck.
Phantom sighed, looking out at the doors. 'Even if I don't get out, I have to save Danny somehow.' He thought.
Thinking about it all night wasn't going to help, unfortunately. And Jack would never listen to the pleas of a ghost or—as he claimed Danny was—a monster. If they were going to escape, it would be while the cell was open to get Danny out for his bout with the animal.
Danny whimpered softly and Phantom's attention was drawn back to him. Frowning, he gently smoothed the boy's hair, making soft "shh" sounds over and over again. If only he could go back in time and fix this, but it was too late for anything like that. Besides, it might be an "untouchable event in time". As if he would accept that.
Still, what mattered was getting Danny out right now. All the "what if"s would have to wait. He gave a futile bang on the side of the box, which spooked Danny awake.
"W-What is it?" Danny looked around.
"Nothing. I was just upset." Phantom sighed. "Sorry to wake you. Go back to sleep."
Danny nodded, laying his head back down and letting himself slip off to dreamland again.
With nothing else to do, Phantom let himself slip off to his half-sleep state again. When the doors opened sometime later, he woke up and glared at the person at the door, holding Danny protectively.