You'll Never Be Alone [mpreg|sequel]

xv

Sweat beads down Dan's forehead as he bites the cloth shoved in his mouth.

Carnage growls at the doctor as the man grabs a knife sterilized in fire from a pocket lighter of all things.  Dan pays the symbiote no mind.  He refuses to have another parasite within him.  Riot was enough, and Venom couldn't help him the first time beyond keeping him alive long enough for Riot to come back.

But Riot isn't coming back and he knows this.

He can't allow himself to wallow in self-pity like last time.

The tip of the knife digs into the opening the bullet created in his skin.  He scrunches his face but he perseveres.  He can't stop now, not even as dots float within his vision and threaten to overtake him.

He nicks and slices until finally he feels the bullet buried in his skin.  He tosses the knife aside and uses his fingers to dig the bullet out.

Finally he pinches the small metal and fishes it out before tossing it to the side much like he did with the knife.

He spits out the gag and looks at Eddy who stands in the doorway in mild surprise.

"Needle and thread," he manages hoarsely.

Eddy nods as he lands beside Dan on the bed, "Carnage, get out of here, I need Abel to help us."

Carnage grumbles but disappears without much of a fight.  Abel stares at both men in confused horror.

"Just," Dan pauses, "help me clean the blood."

"O-Ok," Abel agrees.

He grabs the clean towels Eddy brought and submerges them in the basin of hot water.

"So unsanitary," Dan snorts, ending in a hiccup of pain.

"God if I didn't know any better I would think you were high, Dr. Dan," Eddy rolls his eyes.

"It hurts like a bitch, but I can't keep screaming my throat raw.  My baby and I wouldn't survive if that's all I did."

"At least I boiled the water," Eddy sighs, still unhappy Dan refused Carnage or Venom's help.

Dan hisses when both Eddy and Abel work at the same time.  The needle stitching his skin together along with the press of a hot towel mopping up the blood on his skin is almost too much.  It's enough to have him screw his eyes closed shut.

"What happened to Riot?" Eddy finally asks, if only to distract the injured man from the pain.

It's the dreaded question that even Dan doesn't have the answer to, not really.

"Was it Drake?" Eddy wonders.

Dan tenses at the name, at the same time Eddy continues the running stitch.

He hadn't mentioned it to Eddy nor Carnage. How would he know?

"If Riot survived, there was a chance Drake did too," Eddy continues softly, "Venom didn't believe so."

"Well he did," Dan snaps.

He hisses when Eddy tugs at the thread.

"Sorry," the man apologizes unsympathetically. 

Finally, he ties a knot and snips the thread with Dan's feeble instruction.

Abel finishes cleaning up too, the clear water long since turned red.

Dan finally rests his head back against the wall, eyes closing.

He feels something soft pressing on his shoulder and when he opens his eyes he finds Abel holding gauze to the closed wound while Eddy cuts and tapes it into place.

"Thank you," he whispers.

"We'll get him back," Eddy promises.

Dan's brows furrow.

"What is it, Dan?"

"I'm not sure he wants to come back, I'm not sure he cares."

"He cared enough to come back the first time, he knows you carry his baby," Abel reminds.

Dan laughs a little hollowly, almost derisively towards himself, "Drake can give him that, can give him an army and so much more. We are nothing compared to him."

"Drake sounds like he belongs in the loony bin," Abel quips.

"He does," Eddy sighs, "but that's beside the point.  You said he held a device that could hurt both Riot and the baby? And only when that threat was made did he separate from you."

"That doesn't mean anything because before then there was... something, something there and I just can't explain it."

Home... seeing Drake made Riot feel like he was going home.

"No matter," Venom appears then, "we will help you as much as we can so you can give birth to your spawn. Whether Riot is in the picture or not, does not matter. We are family."

Dan can't help but smile at that, a small quirk to his lips even as tears threaten to fall.  His hand rests on his belly and he nods, "Thank you... all of you."