Depths

13. Sacrifice

This chapter has been edited.

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Jack had already called Maddie and Jazz about Danny's return. The boy was upstairs in his room taking a shower, and Jack was in the kitchen cooking him a bowl of soup. If Danny's weight and the vomit in the trash can was anything to go by, Jack didn't think Danny would be able to handle anything heavier than soft noodles and broth. Wherever he's been all this time, he got nowhere near enough nutrients.

Maddie and Jazz had both cried over the phone, both of them promising to be on the first plane over to Amity to see him. Jazz didn't care that she had an essay due the next morning, and Maddie didn't wait for Vlad to pack his things, she just went by herself.

Jack told them both that they should prepare themselves because Danny didn't look anything like he used to and was almost unrecognizable, but they insisted that they didn't care as long as he was safe and sound waiting for them to come home.

Danny had questioned why his mother wasn't in the house, but Jack had just quietly told him to go shower and get some rest, and that he would make him something to eat that his stomach could handle. He needed to get some nutrients into Danny's system before he went to bed.

Walking up the stairs with a mug full of warm chicken broth and some broken noodles, Jack hoped that this wasn't a dream. That he had actually woken up to the sound of the window shattering, and that he was actually walking up these stairs to take care of the son he had thought he lost.

He should take him to the hospital.

That could wait. Danny needed rest for now. He could take him to the hospital tomorrow. There was no telling what kind of PTSD or trauma his son went through, and what he probably needed most right now was to re-familiarise himself with his bed.

He knocked gently on his son's door and it was opened a minute later with Danny standing there in his Pj's. He smelled a lot better and his hair was clean, so his dad assumed he had already taken his shower. He looked so small now, much smaller than Jack remembered, and was dangerously thin. His skin was much paler than it was before he went missing, his hair was now passed his shoulders and a hectic mess that he looked to be having trouble keeping out of his face.

Jack held back the bite of sadness and instead held up the mug of soup, "Hey son, you should drink this before you go to sleep, get some nutrients into your body."

Danny didn't say anything, he just grabbed the mug and turned to sit on the bed, looking down at the creamy beige looking liquid with an almost lost expression that had his father sighing. He quietly entered his son's room and sat on the bed next to him as the boy weakly lifted to cup up to his lips and took a few slow sips.

The heat of the liquid was soothing and slipped down his throat to wash away the bile that still irritated him. It was surreal, the fact that he had just come back home and was now in his room rediscovering all these different flavors that he had completely forgot existed.

Like here was chicken broth,  the taste of it was so foreign but so potent and great that Danny knew he would never get tired of drinking it. This reminder of what chicken, and green onion, and garlic, and what all these other flavors tasted like would from this point on be one of his favorite memories.

He had always loved food, and his parents never had a problem with him finishing his dinner growing up because he was never much of a picky eater. But to relearn all the food that he hadn't eaten in so long after having anything but raw bacteria infested seaweed... Danny would never stop enjoying things even as simple as chicken flavored soup.

"Danny?" he heard his father ask quietly from his spot beside him, "Do you remember anything?" he had seen the number of scars that had decorated his sons body when they were in the kitchen and Danny hadn't been in the long sleeved pajamas that he wore now, and Jack didn't feel like he needed to ask where they came from. It seemed obvious enough since he was kidnapped by man-eating sirens, but what Jack couldn't figure out was how he survived and how he was able to make it back home.