Radioactive

The first thing Danny registered when he finally came to his senses were the harsh fluorescent lights overhead, the slow but steady beeps of the heart monitor, and the distinctive smell of disinfectant. The world was coming back to him as his consciousness slowly pieced back together. He felt as if he was trapped under a malleable but unbreakable plastic wrapper, slowing suffocating him little by little.

Danny closed his eyes again; unable to keep them open any longer. At least he knew that he could break the barrier that has kept him unconscious for who knows how long. When Danny first noticed the blackouts, he had insisted to his friends that he was fine. He had always managed to come back to the surface, back to the real world. Danny supposed that this time, though, nothing his friends could do could wake him up, and they had to send him to a hospital. This fact alone terrified him.

Danny felt numb. He could taste vile stuff on his tongue, and the vague noise not far off was giving him a migraine. Shaking his head a little, he focused on the source and realized that it was his parents and someone unknown.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Fenton. I'm sure you can understand. We wouldn't want to startle–"

"Move away! He is my son. I have a right to see him. Let me in!" Sarah Fenton demanded, pushing past the nurse. David Fenton was much more reluctant, but he followed Sarah in and shot an apologizing look to the exasperated nurse.

Danny mustered up all his strength as he opened his eyes again and looked at his mother.

Secretly, he was glad that his mother was so worked up about this. He wondered if his mom would ever notice that something was wrong with him if he weren't admitted to the hospital somehow. Would she be this worried? Or would she dismiss his situation as mere exhaustion, overlooking it because she only sees what she chooses to see? He wanted to push away the dark thought, but as always, it continued to plague him.

Sarah Fenton had gotten thinner; her red hair duller and speckled with more gray than ever. Her worried eyes landed on her baby boy. Cautiously, she walked to him and enveloped him in a hug.

Danny didn't know what it meant that he could notice such physical changes in his mother. Had so much time passed that he could identify how much she had deteriorated since the last time he had seen her? Her hug was full of worry and warmth, but she no longer smelled like chocolate cookies and home. Instead she reeked of disinfectant, just like everything else in this hospital.

Just then Jason and Katherine ran in, although Carolyn, his sister, was nowhere to be seen. Carol was probably busy or held up by something at the moment, she has always cared so much about her brother.

His best friends were looking worse for the wear. Katherine looked so much plainer. Her make up was done half-heartedly, and her hair looked disheveled. Jason, no matter how much of a ‘techno-geek’ he was, didn’t even have his tablet with him, and his stubble indicated that he hadn’t shaved for a couple of days. Jason was currently fidgeting with his beret instead, watching uncomfortably as Sarah embraced Danny and played with his hair.

Danny cleared his throat. He accepted the glass of water Mr. Fenton handed him when he blatantly realized that he was connected to an IV. Something was very, very wrong, but he didn't want to find out the truth. He considered making a joke, but decided that it was not the time.

"Hey everyone. Uh, how long was I out?" he rasped, unsure what to ask about first, and slightly unsettled by the whole ordeal. Danny should have been more reactive about everything, but he felt nothing but an overwhelming numbness. The nurses gave him something—morphine to dull the throbbing pain at the back of his head, probably.

"Oh, Danny," Sarah muttered as her breath hitched. Jack moved in to embrace her in a hug. "Sweetie, you've been out for three weeks. We thought…- Well, I'm glad you're awake now."

Three weeks? Danny had trouble comprehending this. Three weeks was a very long time for him to go in comatose. He would have missed his SATs, ACTs, and whole lot of other schoolwork. As if Mrs. Byrnes didn’t mind him turning in the semester project late already…

As if catching onto Danny’s sudden but subdued panic, Katherine added, "Mrs. Byrnes understands. We talked to her, and she said that you can turn it in, if you can go back to school.”

"That's good. One less thing to worry about for now." Danny said blandly.

"Young man, you are definitely not going back to school in the near future."

"Why? I am going to have so much schoolwork to catch up on!" Danny stated, running a hand through his hair. Although Danny figured that he should probably be worrying about something other than his academics, he didn’t want to think about why he was in the hospital. He wished that he could just worry about simple things, mundane, everyday, common things.

He stopped his train of thought when he saw everyone's grave faces. He was going to ask about it, but he noticed the image residing on his bedside. It was the result of a PET scan. Danny Fenton's PET scan, his name scribbled carelessly with a silver sharpie against the black film.

While he was not the best at biology, he understood what it was. Positron Emission Tomography, a standard medical procedure to determine and trace cancerous masses by issuing the patient a small dose of radioactive sugars. Oh, that explained the funny taste in his mouth, along with just about everything else happening then.

"Mom, I'm fine. I don't-"

By then, Sarah was already broken down to tears. David tried to console her, but he resolved to take her out of the room in the end. Danny felt his heart wrench as he gazed at his parents' retreating figures. He thought back to how uncharacteristically quiet his father was; how broken his mother was; how numb he felt from whatever chemicals that were circulating his system—enough to drown his emotions and prevent him from panicking altogether.

"Danny," Jason said. "I-I'm sorry, man. We should have seen it sooner. We should have gotten you checked up before any of this happened."

Danny shook his head. "It's... It's okay. It's not like we could have done anything about it."

Jason nodded but shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, look, my mother wants me to be back as soon as possible. I… She wasn't even going to let me come today, so…” he trailed off weakly.

Jason didn’t want to stay in the hospital and see his best friend reduced to such a pitiful state. Danny was supposed to be the strongest person he knew! The past three weeks of sitting, waiting, and walking senselessly like a puppet with its strings cut—the whole fiasco had done a considerable toll on Jason.

"Don't worry about me, Jase. Don't let your mom wait up," Danny said, trying to go for a weak smile. His best friend gave him a quick, "take care," and left.

"And you, Kate? You should probably go home too. Your parents might be worried."

"They don't care about me. They won't notice anything," Katherine assured, her words lacking their usually strong conviction. Danny was secretly happy that she stayed. He wanted someone to keep him company. Maybe illness wouldn't be that bad after all; not if it meant having Katherine Johnson by his side all the time to talk to.

"Well, suit yourself," he said lightly as Katherine sat near the foot of his bed.

After a moment of silence, Danny cut in. "So, cancer, huh?” he asked, glancing at the scan. "Did they specify what kind?"

"No. They couldn't even find out where it's originated from," Katherine muttered, her spirits gone. She smoothed out her skirt and the wrinkles on the bed sheet she sat on.

“There’s always a cure, right? I read something about some new breakthrough a week—er, four weeks now, I suppose—ago. There’s always hope, right?” Danny said, his voice hopeful. This whole ordeal had quite some difficulties sinking in. It could not have been real; it didn’t feel real. He may not have been the most hardworking, but certainly, his health should not have been degraded to such a level.

He may not have been the nicest person around, but he had done plenty of good things in his time. Surely, the world couldn’t be this unfair. There must have been a mistake somewhere; it must have just been a twisted, demented dream.

“The Doctors said that they might try some new ‘miracle drugs’ that hadn’t fully completed their field testing yet,” Katherine said, snapping Danny out of his thoughts yet again, "but the malignant cells are spreading. They couldn't do anything about it," she finished bluntly, not finding any reason to cover it up. It pained her seeing Danny like that. She wanted to cry about how life wasn't fair, how Danny would be the last person to deserve this, but she held it in. If Danny's not breaking down, why should she?

"Huh," Danny said, and it was all that he could muster. He felt like a stranger looking in onto the scene, strangely detached and ambivalent, peering through a slightly distorted looking glass.

Katherine started getting angry. Danny looked like as if he didn't care. There are so many people who loved him and cared about him, but he was acting so indifferent about it all. Shouldn't he at least want to get better? Shouldn’t he at least care?

"'Huh'? Is that all? Danny, your family and Jason and I have tried everything in the past three weeks to get you to wake up and get better or something, and all you say is 'huh'? Do you know how hurt I would be—how hurt everyone would be—if we lose you? Do you even care?" she shouted, standing up. Her anger was aimed partly at Danny but mostly at the world.

Something in Danny snapped. Perhaps the chemicals were wearing off, slowly, but his emotions came in waves and rolls. He was aggravated by Katherine's little rant.

"What do you want me to say? What do you want me to talk about when I'm lit up here with the neon greens and reds from that stupid PET Scan like a freaking Christmas tree? Do you want me to reassure you that I will be okay? That I will walk out of this fine like from every other ghost fight?" he snapped back harshly, trying to control his rapid breathing.

No matter how confident he is usually, Danny had no control in this situation. According to the scan, he was made of cancer. He was cancer. There was nothing else to do but await Death. And he knew it. Denial may come later, but he knew it, and he knew that his family and friends knew it, too.

Surprised by Danny’s outburst, Katherine stared at him wide-eyed, her lip trembling. Everything was too confusing. Here she was, talking with Danny for the first time in three weeks, and they couldn't even manage a civilized conversation. She wanted to scream at the world, but that wouldn't help Danny. Nothing could help him anymore.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, sitting down again. She was not sure what she was apologizing for, exactly. The fact that she got irritated at her best friend? The fact that Danny had cancer and how the world was just never in favor of the innocent? The fact that she could not do anything to reverse the situation?

Even though Katherine prides herself to be a headstrong girl, tears like pearls still managed to find their way down her cheek. Leaning close to Danny’s ears, Katherine embraced him much like Mrs. Fenton did earlier, and whispered, "It's just too much. I don't want to lose you."

Upon hearing this, all the anger bled out of Danny—no one was at fault, no one but this untimely disease. He was tired, and he was tempted to just let the sleep take him so he could be lighter, freer. Danny felt numb again, and heaviness suddenly took him and forced his eyes to close. "I know, Kate, I know,” he said lightly. Unconsciousness rolled over him like a thick blanket, and the last thing he registered was Katherine 's sudden shouting, the noises from the doors, and the calling of the darkness.

Then, nothing else mattered anymore.

Hi all, thanks for reading this! I am going to submit this short story to a writing contest soon, so I would really appreciate for any suggestions and constructive criticisms. Please comment in relation to all aspects of this story--grammar, spelling, plot, emotions, dictions, etc. I want to try my best to improve my writing and to grow as a writer, so tell me if anything is out of place here. Thanks again! :)