Chapter Text
Danny stepped up to his parents. The visiting specialist’s eyes flickered down to Danny before staring back up at his mother. The fluorescent hospital lights buzzed overhead.
“So, my dear, how have you,” a flicker to Jack, “both been? It’s been ages since we last saw one another.”
Danny huffed and looked away from the smile directed at his mother.
Maddie politely laughed, “oh, it has been a while, hasn’t it?” Danny felt a hand on his shoulder pulling him forward and in front of her. “I have a son now, Danny, in addition to our daughter Jazz.”
A boisterous laugh, “As smart as her mother. Here,” Jack rummaged around in his hazmat suit pockets. “I’ve got photos if you want to see!”
A thin smile, “Yes, maybe some time later.” Two eyes settled on Danny, “We are here to see to young Daniel’s health.” Danny squirmed in his mother’s hold.
Jack stilled, “Absolutely right, as always.” At a stern glance from more than one nurse, Jack lowered his voice, “I suppose we should take this somewhere more private.”
Vlad, focus back on Maddie, nodded. “Yes, that would be preferred. There are laws we have to adhere to about such things after all.” He spun on his heel and walked off. Danny lurched forward with his mother’s momentum and followed.
Vlad took them through a few offshoot hallways before opening a door, revealing an office. “Well, here we are.”
“Oh, is this your office Vladdie?”
“Doctor Masters, if you will Jack.”
Danny scowled. “I thought this was a check up? Don’t you need to do that in a – ya know – hospital room or whatever?”
Vlad smiled down at Danny, gesturing to the seats in front of the rather large desk, an unspoken command for everyone to sit. “Well, normally, yes. Since you have such a special case, I thought it’d be prudent to discuss areas of concern, look over the tests you’ve already done, and create a targeted plan for future inquiry instead of stumbling around trying to find something wrong that may or may not exist.” Vlad grinned at Danny. Danny shifted his weight in the chair.
“I guess?” Danny looked away from Vlad.
“Well, we did a number of tests at home,” Jack started. Maddie moved to the bag slung over her shoulder, pulling out a tabbed folder filled with papers.
“Ah, organized as always Maddie,” Vlad said, grabbing the stack.
“Oh! That was me Vladdie! Color coded to separate each spectrum of tests. We’ve got red for regular check ups – of course pre-accident baselines as well as post–accident results, and green is for -”
Danny tuned out his dad’s enthusiastic ramblings and started looking around the room instead.
“-niel?” A snap. “Daniel?”
“Sweetie?”
Danny looked back down from where he was counting the ceiling tiles. “Huh?”
“Dr. Masters wanted you to walk him through the accident. If you’re okay with that?”
“Oh, uh, sure. I mean, I went down to the lab, it’s in our basement – uuh not that I was supposed to be down there, by the way, Jazz and me have been told to stay out but I got curious, and I went down anyway.”
Danny glanced over to his mom, who nodded. “Dr. Masters used to be your father and I’s research partner.”
“Oh, ok.” He sat up a little straighter. “So, the ghost portal my parents had finished wasn’t turning on, and they’d been doing tests trying out different things, and nothing worked! So I thought it was safe.” Danny looked down at the front edge of the desk. “And I went into the portal and I tripped on something, or slid? I lost my balance and it felt like my hand hit something and all of a sudden -” Danny stopped. Spots danced in front of his eyes, and he was acutely aware of the electricity buzzing throughout the room. The smell of fried wiring, burning skin, taunt, shrinking, convulsions, a twisting burning sensation throughout his body. He took a shaky breath in. It echoed in his ears.
“- right.” A voice close to him. Cottony muffled sounds. “Yes, he’s been learning to work through these.”
The sensation of a large hand rubbing across his back came back into focus, dragging Danny’s focus out of his memories. Danny was hunched over, hands curled, breathing, sitting in a chair – not stumbling to his knees – no screaming – no screaming – no screaming - breaths evening out. He slowly lifted his head, the white spots fading out of his vision. His father’s hand was a warm, firm presence on his back. He straightened up. Gave a thin smile to the doctor.
“Uhm. Well, I was electrocuted and managed to stumble out of the portal and when I came to, the lab was green – the light from the portal - it had turned on or booted up or something when I was inside I guess, and – and,” Danny blinked hard. “I thought I was okay, so I went upstairs and took a nap. I woke up to my parents rushing into the room. They had checked the lab security, and, well, you have the results of all the checks they did after that.” Danny left out the part about the hazmat suit melding into his skin, his two best friends watching in horror, the eerie green light spilling out of his eyes, the ethereal hair floating around his head, the bright rings flowing over his body, giving warmth back to his skin and the clothes he had on under the hazmat suit untouched, hands pulling him in for crushing hugs. Tucker corrupting as much of the security footage as he could, while Sam monitored his breathing and checked his reflexes. It wasn’t enough to stop his parents from finding out, but he kept the worst of it from them all the same, keeping his friends out of trouble with his omissions. Danny brought his knees up onto the chair, ignoring Vlad’s pinched expression as he did so. If his friends weren’t there – if the lie about being alone was true – if he - if they – if - . Danny felt the warm pulse of air onto his arms, from where his head rested. He blinked as tears welled up, “the ifs don’t matter,” Danny thought. “I’m here, I’m alive, I have my friends. That’s enough. That has to be enough.” By the time he got himself under a semblance of control and looked up, Vlad was leaning in, sharp eyes categorizing Danny’s every movement.
“Any physical changes? However temporary – eye color? Hair? Anything like that?”
Danny swallowed. Thought back to his reflection in the mirror. “Uh, no, nothing?”
“Are you sure?”
Danny narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know! I had just been electrocuted, I wasn’t exactly checking myself out in a mirror after!” He huffed and flopped back in the chair.
“Hmm,” Vlad hummed, jotting down some notes.
The appointment soon delved into discussing the rest of the folder, a lot of terminology that Danny was only vaguely familiar with. Steps for continued testing were solidified and another appointment was scheduled for the following week.
Vlad stood up to escort the family out, “since I was back in town, I was thinking about hosting an old college – bachelor’s college that is – reunion. See everyone again, would that be something you’d be interested in?”
“Hmmm.” Maddie glanced over at her husband’s hopeful face as she collected the bag together. “Perhaps. But Dr. Masters, -”
“- Oh it’s always Vlad with you dear -”
“How did you end up here? Our local hospital doesn’t see many specialists come through, so it was quite a surprise to find out that not only was there an ecto radiation specialist, but one so conveniently close as well.”
They walked out of the office, making their way through the hospital.
“Well, there’s only so much ectoradiation research you can do in ectoplasm deficient environments.” Vlad chuckled. “Part of my research grant was the link between self-professed paranormal hotspots of activity and readings of ectoradiation with high levels. With this hospital so close to one of the most abundant records of said paranormal activity I -” Vlad cut himself off. “To keep it short, I thought that a hospital so close to one of those hotspots would provide opportunities to test and research the ecto radiation spread, if not here directly, then with day trips to Amity Park and the surrounding areas as well as creating a record of ecto radiation half life.” He tilted his head toward Danny, “Among other reasons.”
Danny shuffled a little further from Vlad.
“Well,” Vlad clapped his hands once, “it was lovely to see you again, terrible circumstances, but lovely all the same. I’ll see you next time?”
Jack grinned, “Of course! We were worried about our Danny boy, so we’ll be coming to every appointment! Both of us! And of course, if there’s any way we can help out with your research, just say the word Vladdie!”
“It’s doctor you imbecile.”
Danny blinked, not sure that he really heard that last part.
A bland smile. “Yes, I’ll be sure to let you know.” Dr. Masters ushered them out the final set of doors.
As the GAV pulled out of the parking lot, Danny saw the doctor back up at the fourth floor window, watching the vehicle pull away.