luka

“They won’t let us see Danny,” Bart bursts. He’s constantly moving, shifting his feet, rubbing his hands against his pants, tapping the arms of the chair. Barry is worried that Bart is going to actually hurt himself trying so hard not to go super speed.

“Danny, um, he was still mostly out when we arrived,” Wally says as he pries himself up off of Iris’ shoulder. His eyes are wet with tears that he hastily wipes away. “He stirred some, but obviously didn’t know where he was. He was agitated, but he has to be in a lot of pain.”

“They’re keeping us out because of the exposed epidermal layers from the burns,” Dick adds. He’s got that Bat focus going on, which is worrying in its own right. There’s not really the room, but Barry is already thinking about how to get Wally and Dick to stay over for the night.

“That makes sense—”

A sudden clatter of metal against the linoleum floor has them all swinging toward the noise.

“Is that where—”

“Stay away from me!” Danny screams.

Wally runs. Everyone else is on his heels and it’s only Speedster and Bat reflexes that keeps it from being a pile up of bodies as he stops just inside the door.

“Stay away from me, I mean it!” Danny’s crammed himself back in the corner of the room. He’s got a knife—no, scissors in his hand, pointed at the doctor and nurses like a weapon. It’s shaking in his grip. “I don’t care what fucking experiment you have in mind, you’re not getting to run it!”

“Danny, hey, Danny,” Wally says and steps forward. “We’re—”

“Wally?” Instead of being comforted, his face crumples. “Not… did you tell them? Like her? …no, you don’t know…”

“A hospital, Danny, we’re just in the hospital,” Wally tries again. “There was a fire, remember?”

“I.. but… the white, all the white,” Danny mumbles. His eyes dart around the room. They aren’t quite focused.

And then Bart is dashing forward. Barry could have stopped him, the kid wasn’t even using super speed, but they were in public. And… Danny was scared, Barry could see that. And scared could mean dangerous. But it was Danny and Bart, and Barry knew that Danny loved Bart already.

Sure enough, Danny clings to Bart at the same time that he tries push Bart further behind him, like he’s trying to protect Bart. Danny seems to settle for turning so that Bart is tucked more in the corner and guarded from the rest of the room. The scissors stay pointed at the staff.

“Danny, hey, look, Barry and Iris brought your rabbit,” Bart whispers. He motions past Danny’s guard to Iris, who’s clutching the stuffed animal tightly. “As soon as you’re cleaned up, you can hold him! But right now you’re a bloody mess, dude.”

“But they’re… but they wouldn’t want you…” Danny mumbles.

“Hey! How bout we just go look out the window. You can see we’re still in Central!” Bart suggests and starts nudging them that way.

Danny let’s Bart push him, even if he keeps Bart closest to the wall and the scissor sup. When they get to the window, Danny pushes back the semi sheer curtain and blinks against the bright light. “I…”

“See, Central!” Bart chirps.

“It… this…” Danny drops the curtain and looks back at the room. “You aren’t the GIW?”

“Just a doctor and two nurses,” the doctor says, voice soft and even despite the situation. “I’m Dr. Branson. This is Nurse Cortes and Nurse Greenberg. You’re at Memorial central. You have some pretty sever burns and we’re worried about electrical shock and smoke inhalation.”

“Yeah,” Danny says with a concerning little laugh. “Got shocked.”

Dr. Branson nods. “All we want to do is help you with that.”

“Can you hand the scissors back, Danny?”Barry asks, keeping his voice as gentle as he can despite the fear he's feeling. “They’re just going to use them to cut off your shirt so they can look at the burn.”

Danny blinks down at the sleeve of the burned and blood stained shirt. “But… Iris got me it…”

“I’ll get you another on, honey, it’s okay,” Iris says and steps a little further into the room. “I’d rather see you taken care of. I bet that I can find one just like it.”