Falling For The Ghost Of You

A Room Full Of Strangers- Danny

A Room Full Of Strangers- Danny 7

There was sand in places sand had no business in being. Danny's hair, his jeans, his eyes as they slowly blinked open.

Someone was shaking him, rolling him onto his back, but between the sand and the night sky, he couldn't tell who. Faces swam in and out of clarity and lips moved, but Danny couldn't understand a word through the ringing in his ears.

More movement, more faces, all meaning lost to Danny as his brain tried to figure out what was happening and why he felt like he'd lost a fight with a mermaid.

He didn't realize he'd closed his eyes until they snapped back open with the realization that his shirt was being stripped off. Liz's face came into focus above him, mouth forming frenzied words that were distantly becoming audible. Something about "You idiot," "It's okay," and "Don't worry."

In any other situation, being manhandled out of his clothes may have been cause for concern, but Liz was telling him it was alright, and frankly, Danny was too tired to question anything beyond that.

His awareness filtered in and out, senses coming and going like the tide. He could smell salt and sea and something sour before he was picked up in strong, cold arms. He jolted when the interior of the car met his back, panicking only for a second when soaked denim began to peel away from his legs. A cool breeze chilled his skin, blowing his consciousness out of his body and somewhere to the right, taking with it any processing power his brain had left.

It wasn't until well into the drive, a few blocks away from the Tower, that he finally had all -or at least most- pieces of his consciousness working at the same time.

Robin sat tensely behind the wheel, taking turns a touch too fast and illegally passing cars. Liz was folded sideways in the passenger seat, dividing her attention between the road and the rest of the passengers.

Cyborg was lying awkwardly in the trunk, head in Starfire's lap as she pressed buttons and rerouted wires in his neck.

Danny was in the back seat leaning against the door. To his right was a sick-looking Beast Boy, and past him, Raven pressed her palms to her eyes.

"Hey," Liz offered a strained smile when she saw him looking at her. "Are you with us this time, sunshine?"

Shit. She hardly ever played the "sunshine" card. It wasn't the worst term she could have used- she had a hierarchy that correlated to the severity of the situation- but it was up there.

"What happened?" Danny's voice was more of a rasp, and he gratefully accepted a bottle of water. Goosebumps rose on his exposed arm and he realized that beyond a beach towel and his underwear, he was totally naked. "Where are my clothes?"

"Contamination," Beast Boy explained, turning to hack a cough into his elbow.

"We told you that water was nasty stuff," Cyborg piped up. "Unfortunately, that explosion sent you for a nice little swim. You might wanna try and rest while you can before the effects start to hit."

"Oh," Was all Danny could think to say. Flashes of the fight lazily trickled into his memory, but each one brought with it a wave of stinging discomfort.

Liz reached back to give his knee a reassuring squeeze. "Close your eyes, Danny."

He listened.

Decontamination showers were, in a word, unpleasant. The only saving grace was that it wasn't like what Danny had seen on TV; he wasn't stuck in a pop-up box with barely any privacy while someone in a hazmat suit scrubbed him with a broom. The Titans had a lovely little private shower explicitly made for such occasions.