You're Never Alone

Chapter 17

Word Count: 1518

Phil grabs Dan underwater, running out of air and suddenly a loud crash breaks the tank, letting out the water and Phil gasps for air. PJ runs over and Louise grabs Phil, hugging him close to her chest. Phil watches as PJ does CPR on Dan to save him. It feels like hours when it's probably only a minute or two but Dan finally coughs up water and gasps for air. Phil smiles and PJ helps Dan sit up slightly. Dan gets on his hands and knees, coughing as water exists his lungs and air enters them.

    Both Dan and Phil's chests burn from lack of oxygen but the two still smile at each other, happy to even be alive and breathing. Adrian runs over to Dan and hugs him desperately with tears streaming down his face. Phil hugs Louise and PJ runs over, hugging Phil as well.

    "You're not dead! Oh my god you're not dead!" PJ days over and over again to Phil and Phil chuckles slightly.

    "No, PJ, I'm not dead," Phil says and stands up with the help of Louise. Dan also stands with the help of Adrian but sways, almost falling over. Adrian thankfully catches him but Dan waves him off.

    "I-I'm fine," Dan mutters but Phil knows he's lying.

    PJ gets everyone's attention as the sound of running footsteps start to get closer. "Let's get out of here!" he yells and all the rebels including Dan and Phil run of the room. They all go through the secret entrance and thankfully there's not a lot of them so they can all get out of the palace faster. Dan tries to run but the world is tilting and spinning around him.

!#$% (minor electrocution)

    Unexpectedly a wave of shock hits him and he screams, collapsing to the floor as the hall around him goes black. Goddammit the cuffs were still on. PJ ushers everyone out and on the streets and Adrian scoops Dan up, carrying him out. They all disperse into the city and PJ, Phil, Adrian, and Dan run to an apartment building that takes them about thirty minutes to get to with Phil having to get on PJ's back halfway there. They get through the door, with a couple other rebels already in the room, and Adrian sets Dan down on the living room floor.

    "How do we get these things off of him?" PJ asks after setting Phil down on a couch so Phil can catch his breath and kneeling on the floor next to Adrian.

    Adrian holds Dan's wrist in his hands, inspecting the cuff and purposely ignoring the claw marks on his brother's arm. "If I'm being honest, I'm not sure." Dan's hand moves slightly and Adrian looks over at his brother to see Dan's eyes are open.

    "Adrian," Dan says hoarsely. "Use your powers on the symbol." Adrian flips Dan's hand over and identifies the symbol of fire on Dan's inner wrist of the cuff. "You've seen these before, right?" Adrian shakes his head and Dan sighs. "These are literally stuck into my wrists with needles so please be gentle and careful."

    Adrian nods with wide eyes and presses his thumb on the symbol of the cuff on Dan's right wrist, using a bit of power to unclasp it. It opens and he slowly takes it off. Dan clenches his eyes shut in pain as it's removed. Adrian gives it to PJ and quickly but gently takes off the other cuff, leaving Dan with holes around his wrist from the needles. Louise comes over and cleans off Dan's wrists to disinfect it and Dan thanks them before slowly sitting up.

    Joe hands Dan and Phil dry clothes and the two change in the bedroom. As they get clothes on, the two are silent. Dan is able to change everything but his shirt so he waits for Phil to finish so he can have some help.

    "Phil, will you help me with my shirt please?" Dan asks and Phil nods, walking over to Dan. They struggle for a couple minutes just to get it over Dan's head and Phil gasps when he sees Dan's back. "Hey it's okay."

    "You're back looks awful," Phil whispers and it really does. It's covered in blue swirls and waves that are swollen and the surrounding skin is red. Those scars are going to brutal. Phil gets a shirt back onto Dan and sits next to him.

    "How bad is it?" Dan asks and Phil sighs slightly.

    "It's blue swirls and waves, lines that are smooth and curved. To an outsider, it's beautiful but to someone who saw how it happened, it's terrible," Phil says quietly as tears fill his eyes and Dan reaches over, taking Phil's hand into his own. Phil looks over as the tears fall and sees Dan also crying.

    Dan gently rubs Phil's knuckles with his thumb and sniffles. "Usually I say I've been through worse but now that would be a lie."

    Dan and Phil get into the bed together and sleep. They sleep for hours and peacefully for the first time in a couple of weeks. They finally wake up and Dan realizes that Phil is basically spooning him. Honestly he could care less. Phil wakes up maybe ten minutes after Dan and chuckles at their current position. Dan sees a phone on the night stand presumably left there for him and checks the time.

    "Well we've slept for the past 14 hours so," Dan says and Phil smiles, wrapping his arm around Dan's waist.

    "Finally." They stay like that for half an hour or so before deciding that they should probably get up now. Dan slips on some shoes left next to the bed for him, Phil does the same, and slips the phone into his pocket. They go into the kitchen quietly as to not disturb the sleeping people in the room because it was only seven in the morning and get some food. Phil makes them coffee and they sit on the counter each eating an apple and a roll. Phil notices that Dan is still extremely pale and Dan laughs softly.

    "I know that I still look very pale, Phil," Dan says quietly and Phil blushes slightly, looking away. Dan smiles at the fact that he can now use Phil's actual name again.

    Joe wakes up from his place on he couch and yawns before noticing Dan and Phil together in the kitchen."Oh look who's finally up," he mutters as he gets up and walks over to get himself coffee. "You two look like the walking dead."

    Dan chuckles. "That's one way to describe it." Joe leans against the counter across from them looking extremely tired. "What have all the rebels been up to?"

    "Well," Joe starts, sitting on the counter so he doesn't have to stand. "The whole time we were basically frantically finding a way to get you two out of there. And now that we have, we called Mark to check both of you out later today."

    Dan gives Phil a confused look and Phil clarifies. "Mark is our doctor." The three of them just sit around in the kitchen for a while just talking about anything but Dan and Phil's stay at the palace. When Joe gets back to work on his laptop in the living room, Dan turns to Phil.

    "I know you have a question. Ask it," Dan says gently and Phil sighs.

    "When we first we taken as prisoners, you said that the cells didn't allow powers and now that we're out of them, how long does it take for them to come back?" Phil asks and Dan frowns.

    "A couple of days or a few hours if you're lucky," Dan explains and Phil nods. Dan holds out his palm and tries to conjure up a flame but nothing happens. "Mine will probably take longer than yours."

    Phil holds out his palm and tries to make a snowflake but nothing happens as well. "Well the few hours is not applied to me obviously."

    A couple hours later when everyone is up, the apartment is filled with quiet chatter. Dan and Phil sit in the living room talking with PJ and a couple other people. Now that Dan helped them, they don't hate him as much. In the afternoon, Mark comes over and checks out Dan and Phil in the bedroom.

    Mark looks Phil over first just saying that he has some minor bruising on his ribs but that he should be fine. After Phil leaves the room, Mark looks over Dan. He checks his wrist, his back, the slash across his chest, basically everything. He steps back and looks at Dan grimly.

    "What's wrong?" Dan asks quietly and Mark sighs with a frown.

    "Well you're okay for the most part but you're just extremely weak. What happened to your back, if I may ask?" Mark questions quietly and Dan explains the knife and where it came from. "Okay well I can say that you'll be okay after a few days. Phil too."

    "Okay thanks," Dan mutters and Mark leaves.