Previously:

Sam interrupted, piercing Vlad with a searching stare. "Nathaniel's covered in blood, Vlad. Red blood." Not ectoplasm.

"Yes, well." Vlad eyed her right back, eyes hooded. "Please forgive the mess, so sorry..."

Sam didn't respond. She seemed to be struggling with words, and Vlad didn't seem interested in helping her. The others watched, as though it wasn't their place to speak. Even Danny's younger self was quiet.

"As I was saying, then. Goodbye, Samantha, everyone." Vlad nodded to them, then caught Danny's eye. He started to turn to leave.

"Wait." Sam's voice was clear, and insistent. They waited.

She caught Vlad's eyes again, and held them.

"Vlad...thank you." Sam's eyes flicked toward Danny for an instant. "Both of you." She smiled. It was tiny, and full of the pain of her near loss, but it was sweet and sincere as well.

Danny finally turned away to carry Vlad back home.

Chatper Twenty-Seven: Struggle

Slap.

"Come on Vlad, concentrate..." Danny pulled Vlad into a more upright position, hoping it would help him stay awake, and thus maintain his ghost form. All he got in response was a quiet, pained sounding exhalation.

I can't believe this is happening.

Of all the people who mattered to Danny, Vlad was not supposed to be the one who needed taking care of. He was self sufficient, in control always, and had a back-up plan or three waiting if things fell apart.

Yet things were falling apart now, with every ticking second. Danny sat against a wall in Vlad's laboratory, holding the older ghost in his lap like an overgrown child, waiting for help. After parting company with Sam and the others, Vlad had given Danny a number to call: Doctor Schueller, the same person who had fixed Danny up after the fight with his younger self some months ago. Danny had used a phone off of Vlad's multi-tool belt to reach him.

Then he had rushed to get Vlad back to the lab, as the older ghost's condition began to deteriorate rapidly. Even now, he was only partially maintaining his ghost form; his hair was human, his eyes a pale blue. Vlad was slipping fast.

Even the pressure Danny had felt when trapped in the Fenton thermos didn't compare to the stress he felt now, as he was forced to do nothing but wait for the ghost doctor to arrive through the portal.

It was ironic on some level, to be quietly sitting with Vlad there in the lab. Surely Vlad could see that Danny must have gone searching for Nathaniel after seeing the clip of the Box Ghost he had left open earlier, which meant that he knew all about Vlad's spying. The video clip was still repeating even now.

That really didn't matter any more.

"Vlad...Vlad!" Danny jolted in surprise when the black rings signaling Vlad's transformation appeared. Another energy drop! Vlad's cape and gloves were gone, and his skin, though blue, lacked that subtle glow every ghost had.

"Hey, wake up...!" Vlad was barely conscious. He grimaced as Danny lightly slapped him a few more times.

"Dan...iel..." His words degraded into a nearly inaudible groan. Then his body went limp, as the black rings briefly appeared again. They didn't completely follow the length of his body, blinking out early. There wasn't enough energy left even for that.

Vlad had fainted, and now Danny was left holding a human with a deep, bloody wound in his chest. As he watched, it began bleeding out again, whatever stasis Vlad's ghost form had provided having completely evaporated.

"Vlad! Vlad! Damn it, wake up!!" Danny stared for a long moment, as panic coursed through him. "God..." He set Vlad down, quickly tore off his own cape, and started wrapping it around Vlad's chest. He had to slow down that bleeding...

A cold shudder ran through Danny, and he stared up at the portal, suddenly mad with hope. A slightly plump, petite, older man was hovering there, a briefcase in one hand. Danny leaped up.

"Doctor Schueller!"

"What is this?" He had a German accent. And he was looking at Vlad, flabbergasted.

"It's your patient!"

"No it is not!" Now he looked mildly angry, and worried.

Danny stared, about to completely lose his temper. He floated closer, eyes wide. "That is Vlad..." Then he got it. "He's a halfa! Half ghost, half human! Do you understand?"

Schueller's eyes went wide. Then he dragged his gaze away from Vlad, grimacing hard. "I'm...not prepared for this. I did not know..." He flew over to Vlad, looking at him more closely. "He must maintain his ghost form, or the human form will certainly die..."

"Right..." Danny stared, panic flaring up again. Did this man even know how to treat humans?

Then the doctor changed modes, and called on the professional training Vlad had no doubt hired him for. He barked orders at Danny. Vlad was quickly flown upstairs to a bedroom, and soon Danny found himself standing by the doorway, watching as Schueller advanced on Vlad's form, a round, flat, device held in either hand.

Danny heard Schueller mutter something in German as he brought the metallic devices down on Vlad's chest. Then energy gathered briefly in the room, and zap! Vlad's body bounced, and the smell of sizzling blood was permeating the room.

He's using a defibrillator...!

"Damn it..." There was another zap as Danny, horrified, started forward to stop the doctor. How was this...?

Then Vlad transformed. He was still unconscious, but Schueller had somehow triggered...

There was another zap, and this time Vlad gave a brief blood curdling yell as his body was yanked up again. Danny's hands were on his head, fingernails digging into his scalp as he turned to Schueller. It was that, or Schueller's neck.

"What...!"

"Shut up, please!" Schueller had a sheen of sweat covering his face. He set down the defibrillator-like device. "Hold him up for a moment!"

Danny was panicked, confused, and completely suspicious of this ghost, but he also couldn't fix Vlad. This man had a chance. He pulled Vlad up by the shoulders.

Schueller, using a pair of scissors, quickly snipped Vlad's lab shirt off of him, carefully pulling it away from the wound in his back and chest as he went, then threw it and his cape into a corner. He pocketed the scissors. Then Schueller, with a look of concentration, held his hands up, palms facing each other a few inches apart, and quickly formed a thin, deep red disk of ecto energy between them. He grabbed it and drew it out, shaping it as though it were noodle dough, quickly stretching it out and folding it over itself several times. Then he pulled it taught once more, and placed it over the wound in Vlad's back. He let go after a moment and it stayed in place.

"Lay him back down please." Schueller began making another red energy patch, because that was what it was. He looked up, catching Danny's eye briefly as he worked. "Are you related?"

Danny only paused at the question for an instant. He was related, albeit in a very twisted way. "Yes." His eyes were riveted on Vlad's limp form, nearly covered now in green ectoplasm, with a few drops of red human blood mixed in.

"Good." There was a pause while Schueller applied the second bandage to Vlad's chest. "Use your hands to focus energy here and..."

Then the black rings suddenly appeared, and Vlad was human again.

Schueller moved instantly, and Danny backed off, trying not to lose it completely. How was Vlad going to survive, if they had to use that thing on him every few minutes? How could the doctor get anything done?

It took one zap, and one scream, and Vlad was a ghost again. Danny swore he was smoking slightly.

Schueller was on Danny immediately, grabbing his hands and placing them on Vlad's chest. "Energy, now, or he will transform again." Danny nodded, the look of fear in Schueller's eyes chilling him. Danny was right; they couldn't afford to use the defibrillator again.

Schueller spoke quickly. "Keep it soft. Let the energy sink into him naturally." Danny tried to do as he was asked. A dull red glow began to emanate from his palms, and Vlad's eyes opened briefly as he heaved up, yelling out. Danny pulled back instantly.

"Too strong! It should be green! Think healing! Quickly please, try again..." A drop of sweat rolled down Schueller's brow. Danny read the desperation there. Schueller was holding the defibrillator up again, ready to move if Vlad transformed.

The situation was a nightmare.

Danny tried again. Please, if anybody's up there, let this work...please let this work...

Vlad's eyes opened for an instant and he made a harsh guttural noise. Danny flinched back again, using even less energy. Please, please, please...

"Calm, you have to be calm..." The doctor's voice had gone soft, soothing. And there was a glimmer of hope there too. Danny focused even harder, his desperation receding slightly.

Take my energy, Vlad, please let me help you...let me help...

And the glow slowly shifted to a subtle, pale green. Danny had never seen this kind of ecto energy before, hadn't known he could produce this. Vlad's body slowly relaxed.

For several minutes they both stood, as Danny focused on controlling and maintaining the new, strange energy flow. It slowly grew less alien to him, and the subtle, soft energy stabilized into a steady flow. Finally, Dr. Schueller put the defibrillator down again.

"Good." Schueller's relief was almost tangible, something you could pull out of the air surrounding him. "Whatever you do, you must not stop." He went over to the bedside table where his briefcase was, and started preparing something just out of Danny's peripheral vision.

Schueller spoke with his back turned. "You will be giving him a transfusion. You will be able to maintain the energy while I do this? Or no?"

Danny frowned, speaking carefully as he remained focused on his hands. "That...shouldn't be a problem. But doesn't he need stitches first?"

"I will deal with that first, yes."

Danny didn't respond, focusing instead on the energy flow. A minute passed as the doctor continued doing whatever he was doing. Then something else occurred to Danny.

"Don't we need to have the same blood type?"

"No, it doesn't work like that. It has to do with energy. If you were not compatible, however, you would not be able to share with him as you are doing now." There was a pause, and a shuffling noise. "That is why I asked if you were related. It is not always necessary to be family, but the likelihood is much better..." He drifted off, focusing back on whatever he was doing.

A cold thrill went through Danny as he digested Schueller's words. So there had been a chance, a moment ago, that he simply couldn't help Vlad like this. And surely the doctor would have done it himself if he could...

Schueller walked into Danny's vision, and came to stand on the opposite side of Vlad's bed. He was holding a beaker of something bright green. "On the count of three, I need you to turn him onto his stomach and hold him down."

Danny tensed. "I'll have to stop..."

"We must be quick, but it is alright for a moment. I will count down. Yes?" Danny nodded, throat tight, and got ready.

"One. Two. Three!" Danny moved instantly, grabbing Vlad's hip and good shoulder, and flipped him. He only had an instant to take in the bright red patch of ecto energy dissipating to leave the wound open again. Then Schueller was pouring green fluid over it, and Danny's sole focus became keeping Vlad's writhing body in place.

Something like a chemical reaction took place, as every bit of liquid seemed to vaporize as it hit the wound. Steam tinged pale green went everywhere, filling the room with the smell of Vlad's ecto blood, and something bitter.

Through the haze, Danny heard the doctor yell to him. "Turn him back over!" Danny flipped Vlad again, gritting his teeth at the sensation. After the initial struggle, Vlad had gone completely limp. He looked and behaved like a corpse. Even his face was empty, while before it had been tense with pain.

The fear sitting in Danny's stomach rose up and, like a switch being flipped, transformed into rage. He clenched his hands, face twisting. "What did you do...?"

"I sealed it!!" Schueller glared back at him, furious for an instant himself. "Of course." Then he closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. "Please, the energy again..."

Danny's hands were back in position in an instant as if of their own accord, the urge to throttle Dr. Schueller gone as fast as it had come. Finding the right focus came faster a second time, and soon the soft green glow was back.

If Vlad died due to Doctor Schueller's incompetence, Danny's vow of non violence might go out the window, along with the doctor. But if Vlad died because of him...

A dark, nameless fear loomed somewhere in the back of Danny's mind. He knew better than to explore that space, to go anywhere near that space. It was enough to recognize it, and understand that he'd been down that road before.

Danny grimaced, and stared up at the ceiling. Anywhere but down.

Vlad looked dead. A dead ghost.

Stop it.

Danny forced himself to concentrate on the energy transfer, refusing to let his mind wander anywhere else. If Vlad could take his energy, then he was still alive. Period.

After a little while, Dr. Schueller wrapped a rubber tie around Danny's arm, pulling it tight. Danny hardly noticed. A minute later there was a prick as a needle was inserted into a vein, and soon Vlad was receiving Danny's ghostly blood.

Two hours, and two more transfusions, trickled painfully by. Danny was given a strange drink between each transfusion, something Dr. Schueller said was the ghostly version of an energy drink. All that mattered was that it would allow Danny to act as a walking blood bank, at least for a little while, and still function normally so that he could maintain the energy flow that sustained Vlad's ghost form. Danny wasn't sure what would happen if Vlad were to transform while receiving a transfusion, and he didn't want to find out.

The transfusions were finally over, however, and now Schueller was gone, to retrieve the tools needed to operate on Vlad's human half. That promised to be a much more complicated ordeal, and Danny, alone with Vlad, was trying not to think about it. Schueller hadn't said much, but the doctor didn't need to: it was clear he believed Vlad was still in danger. His ghost half would likely fully recover at this point, but the human counterpart...that was a different body, a different set of rules.

And who could guarantee, if the human half died, what would really happen to the other? They hadn't been separated, as Danny's ghost and human halves had been long ago...

Danny's gaze slowly fell on Vlad's form, studying him. He was fully transformed now, which gave him hope, even if it was Danny's energy sustaining it. Vlad's hair was black, such a contrast to his human half, and his build, currently laid bare from the waist up, was more muscular. His left arm had been set in a sling by Schueller, and wrapped thoroughly to keep it from moving and thus aggravating the wound in his lower shoulder. He hadn't been given any stitches. Apparently, for ghosts, that generally did more harm than good.

Hadn't Vlad realized how much blood he'd lost? How dangerous it would be, if he were to pass out? That he might bleed to death in human form? Was his judgment that skewed? Did he want to die?

Danny felt a swell of desperation rise up, and a little anger. Damn you Vlad, you're supposed to be smarter than this...

Danny's gaze softened, as he reasoned things out. It was poor judgment, brought on by physical shock. Vlad was smart, but somehow he'd been taken by surprise. He had likely had some amazing plan, but something had gone horribly wrong and he'd gotten hurt. And he just...it wasn't like he got injured like this every day. If ever. He had pushed himself, overestimated his strength, hadn't recognized just how far past the threshold of a safe recovery he'd gone...

Because he hadn't been thinking about himself. He'd been focused on Nathaniel.

Danny closed his eyes and bowed his head for a moment. Vlad couldn't die. Not now. Maybe his motives weren't the best, maybe he was manipulative and often hard to get along with, but that man he'd known years ago, back in his own time, when they'd both lost everyone they held dear...

He was lying here now.

Danny opened his eyes again, and gazed down at Vlad's blue-green chest, in a shade so similar to his own. His skin was too pale right now, washed out, and still streaked with now dry ectoplasm. Only the blood surrounding the area Schueller had wrapped was clean. If Danny looked carefully, he could see a subtle, incredibly slow rise and fall. He found irrational comfort in the movement, because for a short while Vlad hadn't been moving at all. Now his face held expression again and he was breathing, even if the look was pained and breathing, for a ghost, was abnormal.

Am I studying him in case he never wakes up?

The thought swooped in like a vulture, landing, invisible, in the middle of his mind. Vlad hadn't woken up through the transfusions, or even when they'd sealed up the hole in his chest by pouring that gunk in the wound earlier. His body had reacted, he had even yelled out, but he hadn't really been awake.

If somehow everything went wrong with the coming operation, if Danny's last communication with Vlad had already taken place...

Danny's hands began trembling, subtly shaking against Vlad's skin, where green energy still flowed into him. Danny's shoulders followed, as the shuddering increased, radiating out from a chest that suddenly had a led weight instead of a heart and everything was constricting further around that weight, every second. The trembling in his hands became jerky, forcing themselves through muscles clenched painfully tight.

Danny hunched over, clinging to the focus need for maintaining the energy flow, as if it were his own life line instead of Vlad's. The taste of salt came to his lips, so similar to human tears he could still remember. He sat hunched for some time, as the spasms grew less and less, and he slowly gained control again.

When Dr. Schueller returned some time later he didn't comment on Danny's face, or the puffiness under his eyes. He was all business, and was even dressed differently, with another set of gloves, and a mask he hadn't bothered with earlier at all. But then human bodies became infected more easily.

Too soon, it was time for the moment of truth. They only had a rough idea of how bad off Vlad's human half was. If it was comparable to his ghost half, that was already a nightmare. If it was worse...

"Stop the energy." Danny stared up at Schueller, a surge of fear washing through him. Then he slowly lowered his hands. They shook subtly from fatigue and fear.

Moments passed by, and stretched into what felt like minutes. Then, with a flash of dark light that made them both start, Vlad became human again.

Danny was only half aware of standing up, and turning slowly to walk a few paces away. The doctor seemed to be checking Vlad over, and in a brief instant of despair Danny vaguely wondered why. He had forgotten, or maybe had refused to notice, how bloody Vlad had been earlier, and thus how much blood he must have lost...

Danny hadn't looked closely before turning away; he was too terrified of what he would see. Was it even possible for Vlad to be alive? Perhaps his life was slipping away this very moment..! Danny stayed facing mostly away, staring at the wall, unable to think straight as terror gripped his heart.

"...don't believe it." The doctor's voice came as if from a distance. Danny cringed slightly, as the words finally processed. After all the work to keep him alive, if Vlad were dead, Schueller would be amazed, in denial. It was only natural...

No...

"This is incredible!" A hand grasped his elbow, tugging slightly, and Danny turned to see Dr. Schueller grinning up at him. It was surreal.

Then things sped back up again as a wild hope rushed in, and Danny pushed past him, wide eyed, to study Vlad closely.

Schueller had used a sponge to clear away the blood. What was left was the start of a very deep, very nasty bruise. Aside from that, Vlad looked...surprisingly good.

Danny could only stare.

Schueller went around to the other side of the bed. "Help me turn him. Underneath may be worse." He sounded more excited than worried, though. Together they turned Vlad over onto his stomach, and Schueller carefully wiped away the blood on his back.

Danny just didn't understand! Elated couldn't begin to describe how he felt right now, but...all that red, human blood...it was Vlad's! But it didn't come from this little thing.

There was a thin cut on his back, corresponding to the wound he had in ghost form. It was two inches long at most. It was nasty looking, but simply couldn't account for the blood caked over Vlad's body.

Schueller studied the cut closely, then declared it was nearly an inch deep, and would need two sets of stitches. One for the skin, and another to reconnect the muscle that had been cut apart below the skin.

But Vlad wouldn't need the six pints of plasma Schueller had with him, or the six following pints of blood. Schueller did give Vlad half a pint of plasma, and said it was more of a courtesy than a necessity, since despite all the blood Vlad clearly lost earlier, he was doing quite well now.

Danny helped Schueller with the surgery, though that generally meant staying out of his way. Two sets of needles, two types of thread, forty-five stitches, and an hour later, they were done.

And that was it. Vlad was out of danger. The other wounds were superficial, or at least non life threatening. After rubbing some sort of ointment into the humongous bruise on Vlad's shoulder, Schueller wrapped it up, and put the arm in a sling. Then they cleaned Vlad up and moved him to another bed. Finally, Schueller gave Danny a list of things to do, and left, promising to check up on Vlad the next day.

As Danny sat watching Vlad sleep, it finally clicked. He immediately felt stupid, and was certain that his younger self would have known or guessed from the start...

Vlad was a halfa, of course. That explained the healing. Danny had possessed the ability to heal at an incredible rate, too, long ago. For whatever reason, whichever form wasn't being used would always heal incredibly quickly. It went into some extreme regeneration mode that Danny had never achieved as a pure ghost.

In some ways, Danny's human half had made him much stronger.

The thought came as a shock, that faded quickly into a resigned, pained embarrassment. A few years ago, Danny knew that he wouldn't have been capable of recognizing that simple fact. He had been too mired in layer after layer of denial; had been convinced that everything human was weak. Perhaps that was why the explanation for Vlad's miraculous recovery hadn't occurred to him until now.

Of course, as a halfa, Danny remembered that injuries carried over from one form to the other, too. If they didn't, Vlad's human body wouldn't have been injured at all. And Danny knew the ghost half had sustained the injuries, because as a human Vlad was intangible in the Ghost Zone, and so couldn't have been hurt in that form. Again, Danny was amazed at not catching that sooner, but then it had been years since he had thought of things from a halfa's perspective.

But Danny should have known about the healing; should have remembered. Now that he did, he couldn't imagine having forgotten in the first place.

Ultimately, though, would things have changed that much? It had been the delay, the hours spent maintaining Vlad's ghost form even as he slept, that had allowed his human half to heal so quickly. It may even have saved his life, because as a human, if he had bled out while his ghost half was hypothetically healing...

Assuming Dr. Schueller had come been prepared to treat a human, Vlad might have died on the operating table.

Somehow things had worked themselves out. And after his earlier brush with despair, Danny found himself reveling in a deep sense of gratitude.

The early rays of the dawn were beginning to peek through the bedroom window. Danny slowly leaned forward, allowing himself to rest his head and shoulders on Vlad's bed.

As he fell into a peaceful slumber, Danny could hear Vlad's deep, regular, and infinitely comforting breathing.

Author's note: Woo. I'm not dead. I did break my finger though, curses. If you checked my profile, you know what I've been busy with: school! Please R&R. It helps me update faster? :) (Being done with the semester should help too.) Update: I am a random idiot. :)