DP: Coma

Welcome

...Beep...

...Beep...

...Beep...

...Beep...

The familiar sound of my unnaturally slow heartbeat filled my ears as my clouded brain tried to make sense of where I was and what had happened. The smell of death and disinfectants hung heavily in the air like an aura, burning my nose and lungs. The soft sniffling to my right told me that, yes, I was indeed hurt and in the hospital. Again.

I tried to move, to make a sound, finding it harder than I had in a long time, not since I'd woken up from defeating Pariah. The beeping in my ears was making my head pound, and I knew that noises had to be made. This silence was going to kill me, if nothing else came and finished the job first.

I started slow, moving my numb fingers, before attempting- quite successfully might I add- to cover my ears and block out the noise- or lack thereof- of the hospital. "Danny!" I flinched from the sudden outburst, though it was better than the silence, and my eyelids, crusted over as if from sleep, forced themselves apart as two long arms curled around my midsection. A mop of short, black, unkempt hair was the only thing visible as the figure wrapped themselves around my torso with enough strength to knock the wind out of me.

"S-Sam?" I managed to croak, finding my voice rough and unreliable.

"Danny! Oh God, Danny!" She started, tears running down her cheeks, her makeup, which would be running by now, hadn't even been put on. "I'm so sorry! I should've never told you to go in the portal! It was a stupid statement made by a stupid girl! I-" I raised my hand, gently stroking her tears away with my thumb to silence her.

"Sam, we've been over this before. It's not your fault, and I will always thank you for it." I whispered, hugging her close to me, unable to remember what was making her so worried.

"What? Danny, you're making no sense. We've never talked about anything, you never had a chance." She said, frowning down at me, her red eyes watering in guilt.

"W-What? No, I have! We've been fighting ghosts together for the last four years!" Doesn't she remember anything? What deserve here? A different ghost? Sam looked at me with such grief that my heart practically shattered right there.

"Danny, you've been in a coma for the last 6 months. Whatever happened since the portal incident was all in your head." She explained, new tears threatening to escape her beautiful amethyst eyes.

"But my heart beat is still slow, so something must be the same!" I exclaimed, my head automatically spinning to look at my vitals. Just because it was in my head, doesn't make it any less real.* "Temperature: hypothermia level, heartbeat: practically nonexistent, breathing: also agonizingly slow, this is perfect!"

"Perfect?! Danny, we thought that your vitals were going to kill you!" She screamed, her lip quivering.

"But they haven't! And if I'm right... Sam, can you close all the curtains, please?" I asked. "I'd do it myself but if I unhook myself the doctors will come." She stated at me, confused for a moment, before complying. The scraping sound of metal on metal was music to my ears, and once she was done, I sat up, feeling for a cold spot that I hoped to Clockwork was still there.

I shivered as I felt the white rings of ectoplasm form around me, the ectoplasm littered throughout my body rising to the surface, changing me into the Ghost Boy, Danny Phantom.

A gasp and thud from the other side of the room made my eyes- which I hadn't realized I'd closed- snap open. Sam, who was now on the floor in the opposite corner of the room, was staring up at me with wide, confused eyes.

"...Danny?" I smiled down at her as I phased out of my needles and cords. I wouldn't be long. Floating down to Sam, I held out one gloved hand.

"It's still me Sam, I just look a little different." She hesitantly took my hand, shivering at my temperature.

"What- I don't... understand..." She stuttered, her face twisted in confusion.

"I'll explain as soon as I'm out of here. Get Tucker and go to my house. We need to go to my basement." She nodded as I flew back to the bed, hooking back my cords and needles, and changing forms again. "Sam." She paused in the doorway, her hand hovering over the doorknob. "I love you." She blinked before smiling.

"I love you too Danny." She walked out of the room, and it was only then that I saw two bright red eyes peering at me from beside the door.

"Clockwork!" I exclaimed, smiling up at the ghostly equivalent of my father.

"Hello, Daniel." He said smiling, as he switched into his elderly form, his cloak billowing out behind him and through the hospital wall. "Welcome back to the world of the living. Now, we have some things to go over..."

A/N: Not my best work, but I had this thing nagging at me for a while so I thought, hey, why not? It's not as long as I'd like it either, but I have some ideas for future (hopefully better) chapters if anyone wants any. For now though, it's completed as a one-shot.