A lunatic moon

Chapter 10 - Tests and results

The following morning, all he could think about was that including today, he had two nights left before turning on the third night. The night of the full moon. It worried him, but not a whole lot. He figured that worse comes to worst, he'd kill a bunch of people that deserved to die. A cold thought maybe, but hey, what are you gonna do when you gotta werewolf curse riding your back like a ten ton baboon? He hoped for control and had been practicing hard. It was a weird feeling knowing you had certain abilities, but weren't sure what they were and just what exactly you were capable of.

He hadn't even seen Jean Duhamel at his worst, so he had no idea what to expect. He knew that if he ever got out of here, he was going to certainly put that to the test and pay a visit to Old and Ugly at the next turning.

When he went for breakfast, the cook told him that he might want to give the scrambled eggs a miss that morning. Without saying so, the message was clear, that's where the salt peter was this morning. Instead, the cook gave him triple bacon, he knew by now how much Danny loved meat. Danny made himself an excellent bacon and tomato sandwich with two cups of coffee before being called down to see Doctor Rickert for an evaluation. Tom and Clay brought him down and stood on either side of him, while he waited for Dr. Rickert to fill his pipe. Finally, the doctor looked up and with a flick of his hand dismissed the two burly orderlies.

"Please Danny have a seat." This time Danny was invited to sit in one of the comfy leather armchairs.

He waited some more for Rickert to light his pipe and puff up a blue cloud that wreathed his head. Finally, he looked at Danny directly.

"So how are you feeling? You seem to be responding well to the medication."

Oh if only he knew. Danny thought. He'd amassed enough tranquilizers to drop a large horse. He'd also been careful about where he hid it too. He just assumed that the orderlies tossed all the patients' rooms while they were out in the garden, or at one of the three meals of the day. so far nobody had discovered the packet of pills he'd coughed up over the last week he'd been there.

"Actually Doctor," Danny began the spiel he'd been rehearsing. "I feel a lot better, calmer, you know? The only problem is that I wish I could apologize to the old man I beat up." He knew that would be impossible, but he said it just to show remorse.

"I'm not sure if you will be allowed any contact with your victim, But it's important that you understand just how serious that was. It's my understanding that you broke his wrists."

Danny dropped his chin to his chest and put a hand to his face and groaned. "Oh god, I can't believe I did that. I was just so upset and, I don't know, confused I guess. I've never done anything like that before."

Doctor Rickert opened a file, presumably Danny's and looked at it for a few minutes.

"Yes, you don't have any criminal history, or history of violence either. It seems to me that this was a, what could we call it, a one off? It was most likely brought on by the stress of losing a close friend. You understand that your friend, uh, Michael Vansickle, is it? Was struck by a train and that Mr. Duhamel had nothing to do with his tragic death, don't you? It says here that you also believed Mr. Duhamel was responsible for a particularly grisly murder of one of your classmates too."

"Well she wasn't in my class but she went to the same school. Yeah, I don't know why I thought that either." Danny could have won an award for looking sheepish. He hung his head shaking it from side to side and made his voice crack on the word 'either'.

Doctor Rickert seemed to be buying his performance. Danny wasn't entirely sure if he bought it hook line and sinker, he'd probably seen some masterful acting from his patients during his tenure here at the PAC. But so far so good.

"You know the police have no reason to believe that Mr. Duhamel is in any way connected with Ms.Gifford's death. Sometimes Danny, young minds, when under a lot of stress, or having difficulty grieving the passing of a close friend, they can experience what we doctors call a break from reality. This is not to be confused with a 'psychotic break from reality'. Those are much more serious events and can last a long time. That is a serious mental illness that is often associated with paranoid schizophrenia. Sometimes those patients are never entirely cured. The preliminary results of your tests show no signs of schizophrenia, I'm happy to say. In a situation such as yours. The proper medication, combined with grief counseling can help someone in your position a great deal. You say the medication is making you feel calmer? How about other things? Are you able to focus?"

"Oh yes!" Danny nodded vigorously. "I've been thinking a lot about how to try and make the best of this as a learning experience. A tough one, yeah and I feel really bad about Mr. Duhamel, but if I have to face the music in court and go to jail for what I did, I'm ready for that. I deserve to be punished."

"Well..." Doctor Rickert said quietly, rapping his pipe against the stone ashtray. "If I can help to mitigate that, I will. Why don't we run a few tests Danny and see how they turn out? If I can write a report in your favor and maybe spare you from having to serve any time I will."

The next part was easy. Danny had been trying to think of things that would make him cry and he found that if he thought of his three brothers at home and how much he loved them, the tears fell like rain. He did that now and heaved a deep sigh, in a shaky voice he asked the doctor,

"You would do that for me? Thank you! Oh thank you!" Tears tracked his flushed cheeks.

"Whoa." Rickert said.

He held up his hands, pipe clamped between his teeth, he spoke around its stem. "Let's not get carried away, Danny. This is not a get out of jail free card. I want to run some intensive tests first. Then based on those results, we'll see where we stand then. If I think you are fit to be released, I will make that recommendation only when I think you are mentally capable of carrying on your upcoming year of school, with you taking your medication regularly and as prescribed. I will also be recommending counseling. Not forever, but for a period of time. These will be court ordered conditions that you must follow, instead of serving any hard time in a juvenile detention center."

He removed the pipe from his mouth and withdrew a pouch of tobacco from the pocket of his lab coat.

"In the meantime, go get your morning meds from Nurse Christie, spend a little time thinking about our conversation here and I will catch up with you later this afternoon. After lunch and outdoor time, sound good?"

"Yessir." Danny said eagerly, he stood up and held out his hand for the doctor to shake. Rickert frowned and ignored it, then dismissed him with a flick of his wrist.

Danny saw Nurse Christie and got his meds, catching them in his throat again like an old pro. He coughed them up in his room and added them to the growing pile of poison in his plastic package. Some movement outside his door caught his eye and he cursed himself for not having closed it. It was Rich by himself and he looked rough. Danny nonchalantly tucked the package of pills under his shirts and stood to look at Rich. Rich stared back, his hair wild and sweaty, dark rings hung under bloodshot eyes. Purple bruises marked his neck where Danny had choked him. He looked like he'd been crying. A lot. When he spoke his voice was a hoarse whisper.

At first, Danny didn't understand what he'd said, he saw Rich's lips moving, but that was all.

"What was that?"

Rich cleared his throat and in a firm loud voice said, "I said I'm going to fucking kill you, like I told you, you won't see it coming motherfucker. I mean it."

Danny didn't like Rich, but he didn't want to make all sorts of enemies here either, he was tired of it. Even though he knew it wouldn't make a difference, he said. "Oh get over it Rich. Jeezus, grow up why don'tcha?"

Maybe the wrong thing to say, because Rich's eyes narrowed to slits, he smiled an evil little smirk, turned on his heel and walked away. Danny sighed and looked down at his hands. They were soft and pink and did not look like killer's hands. He wanted nothing more than to just get out of here without any further hassle. If he could shake hands with Rich and Ronnie and even Freddie the Big Stink, in an effort to make peace, call a truce, or whatever, he would.

He knew though that if he made the effort, they would laugh in his face. People like that needed someone to hate. the new kid usually fit the bill. Danny wondered who the hated one was before he arrived. He wondered if it was Benji, maybe it was the kid Freddie body slammed in the dining hall, during the storm. Whoever it was, the focus was off them and all of it was on Danny now. And that was the last thing he wanted. He wondered if there was a way to turn this around. Get the focus off him and onto somebody else.

Short of the arrival of a new kid, he was going to have to make somebody else seem more interesting, but how? Instead of going to hang out in the common room he closed his door and lay on his bed thinking hard. He tried to summon Mike-boar, but the boar didn't show up while he was awake. Danny wondered where he was right now. More importantly, he wondered what Mike-boar was. Was he a figment of his imagination? Mike's spirit turned animal guide? He wondered off handedly if he was going crazy. He didn't think so, but then again...here he was locked up with people who were clearly worse off than he was. Or were they? He reminded himself that he just had to keep his head down and stay out of any more trouble. He wondered about the tests that Doctor Rickert had in store for him and what exactly they would tell the doctor about himself.

He thought about control and wondered if he could affect the outcome of those tests. He didn't think so. How could he possibly control the outcome, unless he could act his way through it with more lies and phony answers. What if the tests were scientific in nature, like if they hooked him up to some machines?

He tried not to think of the upcoming full moon. Two more nights and then on the third it was going to be officially full. He thought he could feel something already. Something creeping up under his skin. A wildness. An anger and desire to rend and destroy flesh, break bones, crush vital organs...He shook his head to loose the net and shake off the thoughts. Peace, quiet, control...control and target. He smiled then. Anyone looking at Danny lying on his bed right now would say he looked crazy. His smile was...scary. With that same crazy smile tilting across his young and handsome face, a 16 year old teenager pulled on his sneakers and left his room for lunch in the dining hall.

For lunch they were having hamburgers, Danny took three burgers with no buns, and declined the potato salad. He sat with Benji, eating ground beef patties dipped in ketchup and making small talk. Benji's eating habits no longer bothered him. In fact, each time Benji poked at his pre-masticated food, little strings tugged at Danny's heart. He believed Benji's story that it was his father who'd knocked out Benji's front teeth with the barrel of the shotgun, before shooting his wife and finally himself, while they sat at the dinner table. If Benji was lying, it was he who deserved an Oscar for being the world's greatest actor.

Besides, apart from the way Benji had described it to him, it just felt right. Somehow Danny knew it was true. they sat there eating and talking about their favorite TV shows, ('Unsolved Mysteries' for Danny and 'Columbo' for Benji) eventually the topic came around to the three amigos, Rich, Ronnie and Freddie.

Benji was convinced that they had it in for Danny in a big way. Danny didn't doubt that for a second. He'd felt their eyes on him the entire time he'd been in line and even now he could see Rich looking over at them. Benji told him to be careful, that they would gang up on him, three on one and could easily hurt him badly before an orderly had a chance to break it up. If they even bothered that is. Fights weren't uncommon in the PAC. It was filled with lots of angry male teens. Hormones, egos and insecurities raged like unchecked wildfires. Meds could only do so much and it didn't take much to set a resident off.

When alliances were made against a mutually approved target, life in the PAC could take an unexpected turn. Making existence there a sheer hell. Danny promised him he'd be careful. When they were done, they put their trays away. Benji went back to his room to read and Danny went out the back doors of the PAC to sit in the garden with its high walls topped in barbed wire.

As the moon cycles, waxing and waning, so do many other things, both in the natural and the man-made world. Tides flow and ebb, seasons come and go, even police investigations start and stall. Just like Bell and Sam's investigation into Julie Gifford's unnatural death did that week. It took three days to get the sets of autopsy reports and photos from the coroner for Michael Vansickle and Julie Gifford. Then it took three more days to get permission from Doctor Rickert at the Psychological Assessment Centre to interview Danny Ferguson.

Meanwhile, Danny languished in the PAC. First fighting with Rich and Ronnie, learning the procedures and nuances of the PAC, making friends with Benji and practicing 'control' in the garden; as the full moon rapidly approached. The afternoon after his appointment with Doctor Rickert, but before his scheduled test session, Danny sat in what was now his favourite lawnchair, it was green with yellow stripes, facing the flower beds.

He was practicing control with the various creatures that lived outside, around the trees and flowerbeds. Drawing thin golden threads with his mind between butterflies and flowers, honey bees collecting pollen, birds and insects, wherever he could. He drew lines to connect the fuzzy golden bees, bringing them together and gathering them in a swarm. Steering them as one squadron through the fragrant rose bushes, from blossom to blossom, then over the high iron fence and away to their hive again. Even a shiny and brilliant ruby throated humming bird received assistance from Danny, finding particularly plump flowers full of sweet nectar.

He focused his vision on the grass below the multi-hued rose bushes, spotting tiny ants walking up the tips of various blades of grass. Accomplishing this at a distance of twenty feet from where he sat. He focused on them and sent the ants single file, up the thorny branches of the roses. Where they found enough aphids to farm glistening drops of sugar dew for their queen. He was having a marvelous time of it. Content, relaxed and strong.

Then his eyes briefly glazed over, as he drew just a few seconds of power from every living thing within his view and control. His heart rose up, thudding in his chest and he felt immense joy, but not just joy, incredible booming power flooded his soul. His veins ran with fire and his eyes twinkled the golden glow of a hundred suns. Just for a few seconds. That was all he needed. He was amazed and just a little fearful of the strength of that power. He was learning control and learning that, although it felt good, there was also an unpredictability to it. He might be able to draw power and force his control over lesser creatures, but they were still free and wild. And therein lay the unpredictability of a wild card. Everything had free will. Especially the larger animals. He could sense it whenever he touched them with his mind.

Although he might be able to suggest certain actions, he was not able to control their motive. their freewill fought back like an elastic band stretching and stretching. Not to the point of breaking, but rather to the point of slipping free from his grasp and snapping back. Snapping with a stinging fury, directed at anything in its path, except him. The fury of their freewill was the wildcard and that's where he had absolutely no control. He didn't think he could be hurt if he lost his grip and the elastic nature of their freedom came whistling around, like the lashing of a whip. He was the wielder of that power after all...It didn't mean that others around him were free from harm though. This was how unpredictable his ability was. In the meantime, it felt good to grow stronger. He'd never felt this much in tune with the natural world around him before. He'd never felt this much love for it. This much strength because of it. It was all so beautiful.

He leaned back relaxing, letting the sun warm his face. That's when Rich, Ronnie and their latest recruit, Freddie Jerome, stepped in as a team, to scare him and attempt to ruin his day. The first thing Rich did, was kick the legs out from under his green and yellow lawnchair. It collapsed and Danny sat in the wreckage of aluminum and vinyl strapping, looking up into their sweaty, grinning faces.

Rich leaned down, hands on his knees, his face so close to Danny that he could smell Rich probably hadn't brushed his teeth in days. Rich had hungry breath. It was foetid. Danny shrank away from it. Rich mistook his action as a sign of fear, so he grinned even wider.

"Hey Danny, you little fuck." Rich whispered. "You ever put your hands on me again and Freddie here is going to break your fingers. All of them, one by one."

Danny frowned and asked him, "How come you don't wanna do it Rich?" Rich's grin faltered. "What about you Ronnie? Do you wanna break my fingers...one by one?" Danny asked, looking up at little Ronnie, the scared puppy. Forever destined to be nothing but a sidekick, or cuckold. Danny thought to himself. Ronnie said nothing but glared at Danny. No longer grinning.

"You think you're so smart." Rich growled. "You'll see. First, we're gonna fuck up your little garden, then we're gonna fuck you up."

Rich quickly looked around to see if any orderlies were watching. Nurse Clay and Nurse Tom were in the yard this time, but they were busy smoking off in the far corner, talking with each other. Nurse Clay was waving his arms about, obviously pissed off at something, but they were otherwise distracted. Rich and Ronnie hurried over to the flower beds and started tearing out the flowers, while Freddie kept guard.

Danny remained still and impassive as they destroyed the garden. He sat staring up from his broken lawnchair, at the hulking Freddie Jerome. Danny could smell his armpit stink from the ground. Freddie smiled meanly at him. Danny suspected that Freddie had something else in mind for him.

Rich turned around, laughing at Danny while he shredded tulips and Ronnie ripped up Pansies. They pulled out the forget-me-nots and butchered the black-eyed daisies. They stomped on the impatiens and tore up the petunias. When they were just about done, Ronnie made the grave error of reaching for a handful of roses and shredded the palm of his hand on some large and mature thorns. He tried to pretend that it didn't hurt, but Danny could see the tears welling up in his eyes and blood dripping from his lacerated hand. Poor Ronnie!

Neither of the orderlies had witnessed the destruction of the flowers, not that they would have cared. Danny imagined the gardener might though. They came back to where Danny was still sitting. Rich was breathing hard. Ronnie had stuffed his bloody hand in his pocket.

"Enjoy the show you little piece of shit? You ever touch me again and you're dead!" Rich spluttered.

Spittle flew from his lips and Danny drew back from it. Rich laughed hard at that. That was when Freddie decided to make his move. He went to kick Danny in the nuts. It was a perfect target and he had every opportunity. Danny's legs were still spread, from when the chair legs had broken. But Freddie was big and slow. Powerful yes, but slow as molasses as far as Danny was concerned and he caught Freddie's foot easily and held it fast.

Freddie's mean smile slipped and Danny saw a twinge of worry. He held Freddie's foot and began rotating it counterclockwise. Freddie tried tugging it out of Danny's hands, but it may have well been cast in concrete. Danny rotated his foot from ninety degrees to one hundred, to one-o-five. The more he twisted, the more Freddie's face changed from worry, to concern and then as Danny slowly twisted, finally to fear. He hopped up and down on his free foot and reached out, grabbing Rich's shoulder for balance. Rich sagged under Freddie's massive bulk.

"Fuck off!" Freddie yelled at Danny. "Let go!"

Danny gave it one last hard twist and Freddie's big knees folded under him. His huge hand clutched at Rich, his fingers digging in hard and dragged him down, breaking Rich's collarbone in the process. Rich screamed and the two of them were flailing on the ground. Ronnie removed his bloody hand out of his pocket and took Rich by the hand of his injured arm and tried to pull him to his feet. The effort caused Rich to squeal like a stuck pig and the orderlies came running.

They looked down at Danny. A crowd of patients who'd been playing cards on a nearby picnic table, gathered around.

"What the hell did you do Ferguson?" Clay demanded of Danny.

But the crown of onlookers vouched for him and in a babble of confused voices, tried to explain that Freddie, Rich and Ronnie had been picking on Danny and Rich had fallen down. A couple of people in the crowd pointed out to the orderlies that Rich and Ronnie had also wrecked the garden.

Clay was still suspicious as he carefully helped Rich to his feet, to take him to the infirmary. Tom stood there eyeing Danny, where he sat in his busted lawnchair. Danny spread his hands, smiling and said,

"Look Nurse Tom, I didn't do a damn thing. They're all my witnesses!" He gestured to the other patients.

The crowd of patients nodding, all agreed and neither Nurse Tom nor Clay could do a damn thing about it. Rich was whining and shrieking with every bump to his broken collarbone, as they led him away. Freddie followed limping, his face beet red with anger and hate. Ronnie slunk away, nursing his palm.

Doctor Rickert appeared in the doorway of the building and Danny rose to his feet to go complete his testing and assessment. He smiled to himself and whistled a little tune along the way.

Rickert met him at the back door to the PAC. "You seem to be in a good mood Mr. Ferguson." He said puffing on his pipe.

"Just another beautiful day in the garden Doctor." Danny replied.

"Splendid." Rickert said blowing a cloud of sweet smelling smoke into the blue sky. "Let's go get you sorted shall we?"

Danny sat at a writing desk in a small room attached to Rickert's office while Doctor Rickert sat at another desk facing Danny. Danny had a sheaf of blank papers, two ballpoint pens, a large primary school pencil with a sturdy but blunt lead and a pink eraser.

"There are two different parts to the written portion of your assessment Danny." Doctor Rickert said while loading his pipe with a fresh pinch of tobacco. He hadn't asked if Danny minded him smoking, but Danny didn't care anyway.

"The first written part is my own creation. I have spent many years perfecting it, while interviewing my patients and in my opinion, it very accurately illustrates and assesses the patient's overall state of mind." Rickert said and puffed his chest out proudly.

"I'm going to say some things and I'd like for you to draw what you think I mean. You do not need to be an artist of any caliber. Stick people are perfectly acceptable. Even squiggles and scribbles can be used to show how you feel about a particular statement. I say this, so that you need not expend too much time, or energy on each drawing, or sketch."

He struck a safety match on the edge of his desk and lit up his pipe, puffing hard to get it going. He smiled at Danny. "Shall we begin?"

When Danny was done with his sketches illustrating Doctor Rickert's statements. Rickert gathered them up glancing at a few and nodded. Saying "Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm..." To himself. Then he handed Danny a rather thick, stapled document that was apparently a questionnaire nationally accepted by the College of Physicians and Psychiatrists, as a tool to assist in the psychological assessment of troubled teens.

It took Danny just over an hour to finish it. By the time he was done, it was getting late in the afternoon and Danny noticed Rickert furtively checking his watch.

"Okay Danny, this next part we will have to hurry through just a little bit. It's just about time for me to go home, but your assessment is almost complete too, I'm happy to say." Danny was happy to hear it.

"Now if you'll follow me through here, I'm going to take some physical measurements and run a few scientific tests with the equipment Doctor Lawrence uses more often than I do. I prefer a more passive, or pharmacological approach to assessment and treatment of the psyche. Whereas, Doctor Lawrence prefers a more...uh...Practical approach to psychological treatment as a whole."

Tucking his empty pipe into the pocket of his lab coat, he opened the door to a bright room. The walls were painted a clinical white and a variety of Electronic machines lined the walls. Wires and cables snaked across the floor and disappeared into various ports and connectors. As Danny took it all in, he worried about what looked to be a modified dentist's chair, dominating the center of the room. There were leather restraints on the arm rests and metal cuffs for each ankle. A wide strap was available for cinching tight across the chest.

Danny then noticed a vicious looking device, that was obviously for delivering electroshock therapy. It was a metal crown with two horns that swiveled down to either side of the patient's head. The patient was fitted with a rubber mouthguard, the electrodes were then screwed in tightly to the temples and electrical current was applied. He followed the wires from the crown, back to a machine behind the chair, that had a large central dial, a series of buttons and lights and a big, red rubber handle on a manual on-off switch.

But to his relief, Doctor Rickert instead gestured to a simple wooden chair in the corner where Danny recognized a blood pressure cuff and off to one side, against the wall, a regular doctor's scale for weighing people. Danny sat in the wooden chair, while Doctor Rickert pumped up the blood pressure cuff on his arm and recorded his vitals. He told Danny to remove his t-shirt and then started attaching stickers and cold wire leads to his chest, forehead and the crooks of his elbows. He flipped on the machine and a printer and waited a few minutes for it to warm up. Then Rickert pressed a green button on the printer. At first, nothing happened, but then slowly the paper scrolled recording a bunch of squiggly lines that meant nothing to Danny. After close to five minutes, Rickert switched it off and tore the scroll of paper from the printer and rolled it up. He checked Danny's reflexes and took his temperature.

Then smiling, he told Danny to stand up and gestured towards the big dentist's chair in the middle of the room, with all it's restraints and electrical cables. Before he could protest, Nurse Clay and Nurse Tom strode in reeking of cigarette smoke. Danny could also detect the odour of stale alcohol.

"Hop up into the chair please Danny." Rickert said cheerfully.

Clay pulled on a pair of black rubber gloves with a snap.

Danny balked and wet his lips, looking nervously, first at the chair, then the two large orderlies and finally the door to freedom. Rickert chuckled. "Oh, I assure you it won't hurt a bit. And it'll be over before you know it." At this, Clay grinned, until Rickert flicked a stern look his way. Danny hesitated, then considered the alternative. If he fought back, they'd lose and he'd win. Then his secret would be out that he had some kind of special, or supernatural strength. They'd want to conduct even more tests on him, but at a government facility. Probably a secret one, underground somewhere, with huge steel blast doors. He'd never see freedom again. He would have to be extra careful in here. Especially around the doctors.

He thought he was doing well faking his way through the written tests so far and his conversations with Doctor Rickert up until now seemed promising as well. This could very well be his ticket to getting out of here after all. So he climbed into the dentist's chair and lay back, fitting his head into the oval headrest. Clay came over and buckled the straps around his wrists while Nurse Tom secured his ankles. Doctor Rickert readied an injection and walked over pushing up the sleeve of Danny's right arm.

"This will help you relax during the procedure." He said and gave Danny a wink. Danny allowed Rickert to inject the drug, but he didn't feel any effect whatsoever. Tom cinched the chest strap and Clay fitted a rubber mouth guard between Danny's teeth. Rickert walked behind the chair and switched on a machine Danny heard a low hum. Then he appeared at Danny's right hand side and started attaching electrical leads with sticky conductors to his forehead and arms, then one on either side of his neck. Finally, he removed the headgear from a hook and placed it on Danny's head, turning wingnuts on either side that tightened the electrodes to his temples. When he was done he looked at Danny and gave him the standard speech that he'd given to hundreds of patients before him.

"Are you comfortable? Relaxed? Okay then, I'm about to start the procedure. I am going to pass some electrical current through your temples. Don't be frightened and try not to fight it. It is going to cause your muscles to contract and you will want to make fists with your hands."

He demonstrated by holding up his own small, soft and carefully manicured hands. Just in case Danny was confused and didn't know what a fist was. He continued his little speech.

"It will also make you want to bite down." As if Danny had a choice. "That is what the rubber mouth guard is for, bite down on that."

Finished, he rubbed his hands together in preparation. "Alright then. Just Relax Danny. This won't take long. Then you can go back to your room."

He disappeared behind the chair and Clay and Tom took up position on either side of the dentist's chair. Danny couldn't understand why, he was firmly strapped into place and although he'd probably be able to break loose if he wanted, the average patient would have been totally immobile. Having the two orderlies guard him just seemed unnecessary. In actuality, they were there to keep an eye on the patient and alert the doctor if any emergencies arose.

He heard switches clicking and heard a louder humming sound. The lights in the room dimmed imperceptibly. Clay glanced at Tom, a trace of a smile on his lips. Tom just stood with his arms crossed, frowning at Danny. Danny couldn't resist and tipped Tom a wink. The frown faded and his eyes widened.

"Just checking the leads." He heard Rickert say from behind his head and Danny felt a brief tingle course through his body.

"Okay Danny, I am going to count down from three and then throw the switch. It will sting for a second or too, but that will go away."

Clay sniggered quietly and apparently got another dirty look from Rickert, because he dropped his gaze and the smile and shuffled his feet, like a little kid being scolded by his mother.

Rickert said, "Counting down now...Three...Two...One!" He threw the switch...

At first, Danny's body jumped and he involuntarily made fists with his hands, but he didn't feel any sting. He just felt warm all over. Both Clay and Tom were watching him intently. As Danny watched them watching him, he noticed that their eyes were wide. Disbelieving. Surprised. His hands relaxed and he experimentally wiggled his fingers. He looked up at Tom and Tom's mouth was open in an 'O', he kept looking over at Clay, like 'Are you seeing what I'm seeing?'. Danny wondered what the big deal was and would've shrugged if he hadn't been tied down.

Clay was shaking his head and stuttering, trying to get Rickert's attention. "Uh..uh...Mmm...Doctor... Uh, Doctor Rickert, I think, Um...Maybe you should..."

Rickert threw the switch into the 'OFF' position and hurried over alarmed. "What's wrong? Is he okay? Danny! Are you okay son?" Danny looked at Rickert and gave him a little nod from the headrest. "Did it hurt too much? If it did I can use a lower voltage." Danny gave a tiny shake of his head.

Clay was sputtering now. Clearly disappointed that the desired effect from the electroshock had not occurred. "Doctor, nothing happened to him. I think a wire is loose."

Tom agreed. "Yeah, Doctor Rickert. He didn't experience the muscle spasms and he was able to wiggle his fingers, hell he didn't even close his eyes!"

Doctor Ryckart sighed impatiently, at the two orderlies. "That's just not possible. I tested the leads and received a positive green light. Nothing is loose, there are no short circuits and everything is attached. you made me interrupt the procedure before it was concluded and now I have to begin again. As a licensed therapist it is frowned upon for a doctor to conduct this procedure twice in the same day. It qualifies as cruel. I could get in a lot of trouble just because you guys can't keep watch. It's an easy task that I'm asking of you."

He shook his head, angry. He walked up to the chair and spoke softly to Danny.

"Okay, I'm going to start this again and you're certain that it wasn't too much? Because I'm going to increase the voltage ever so slightly."

And he gave Clay a damning glare. He disappeared behind the chair again and turned a dial on the machine, increasing the voltage by a fraction.

"Alright, Danny. Same thing as last time, I'm going to count down from three. And don't worry this is the last time you will have to do this... Three...Two...One!" He threw the switch.

Danny felt warm again, but that was all. He looked up at Clay and smiled around the mouthguard. Clay was Hopping up and down and pointing at Danny. This time it was Tom spluttering.

"Duh...Duh...Duh...Doctor!" Was all he could manage.

Clay was screeching like a cat with its tail under a rocking chair, waving one hand at the doctor and pointing at Danny with the other.

"Shut up the two of you goddamnit! You know I can't leave the machine unattended!" Rickert roared above the loud hum and buzz of electrical current. Danny heard him sigh, then the shuffle of his loafers on the ceramic tiled floor, as he came around to have a quick peek at his patient. Danny quickly squinched his eyes shut and threw his head back, made fists out of his hands, bit down on the mouth guard and started shaking his body all over. Silence, but the electrical buzzing from the machine and it's circuits.

"Damned fools!" Ryckert said and Danny heard him go back to the machine.

A few more seconds went by, then the buzzing stopped as Rickert threw the switch. Danny relaxed his body and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was both Clay and Tom leaning over the chair glaring at him. At first, Danny thought Clay was going to try and strangle him, he looked that angry.

But Rickert was furious with them and had had enough. "Out! Out! The both of you! Get out of my sight!"

He threw open the door leading into the hallway snapping his fingers at them.

"But Doctor..."Clay tried, showing his palms...

"I do not want to hear it!" Rickert yelled. "Get out NOW!"

He got behind Tom and pushing him into the back of Clay forced the two orderlies out of the office, then he slammed the door and sighed. Hurrying over to Danny he quickly undid the restraints and began apologizing for the two orderlies' appalling behaviour. Danny removed the rubber mouth guard and placed it on a tray beside the chair. Rickert unscrewed the electrodes at his temples and helped Danny to sit up.

"Are you okay Danny? That wasn't supposed to happen like that. I don't know what got into those two, but more than once now, I've seen them take pleasure in our patient's uh, discomfort."

Danny groaned softly and held his head. He felt fine, but put on a little show for the benefit of Doctor Rickert. The only difference Danny noticed about anything was that he still felt warm inside. Not like a fever or like he was overworked, but that heat in your belly when you've just taken a swig of whiskey and the alcohol is spreading. It wasn't unpleasant, but he felt a sense that it needed to come out. He figured that he'd simply absorbed all the electricity that had poured into his body and it was still in him, stored somewhere. He imagined that he could do the same thing when he'd reached out to the storm and just dump the charge. He had a good idea of where he was going to dump it too.

Doctor Rickert continued to fret over him. "Just wait here while I get you a cup of water." He said and rushed out of the room. When he returned he handed a paper cup to Danny and watched him as he gulped it down.

"Apart from the dirty trick those two imbeciles pulled, everything in the procedure was nominal." He explained while wringing his hands nervously. "There shouldn't be any lasting, uh, adverse effects from the extra 'dosage' of current. In fact if anything it will help you to remain calm longer. How's your head? Are you able to stand? Maybe you'd like to go to your room and lie down for a bit?"

He took the empty cup and dropped it in a trash can, he peeled off his rubber gloves and tossed them in as well. Rickert seemed anxious to get rid of Danny. All of a sudden Danny understood that Doctor Rickert just wanted to sit at his desk, for a few nips from a silver flask of brandy and a soothing pipeful of his fragrant cherry tobacco. He didn't know how he knew this, but he'd stopped questioning how he knew these things some time ago. Danny nodded and got to his feet, wobbling a little and with the aid of Rickert, was led to the door. Danny had to reassure Doctor Rickert that he was quite alright and there was no need to visit the infirmary, where by law they were required to generate a report.

When the doctor opened the door to the hallway, the two orderlies were nowhere to be seen. Danny thanked the doctor, who quietly apologized again for the actions of Nurse Clay and Nurse Tom, then closed the door. Danny combed his hair back with his fingers and with a smile on his face, strolled down the hall to his room. As he stood in front of the mirror of the little bathroom looking at himself with his door open, he heard footsteps in the hall. He walked into his bedroom and there stood Clay and Tom in his doorway, smelling like fresh liquor and cigarette smoke.

"Nice trick there Ferguson." Clay said. "How'd you pull that off? You must have disconnected something when we weren't looking."

"Yeah." Danny agreed, smiling. "It was real easy, strapped to the chair like that. You must think I'm Houdini, or something."

Clay looked like he wanted to punch Danny in the face and took a step towards him but Tom grabbed his arm and held him back. "Don't bother Clay. He's not fucking worth it. We're in enough shit as it is with Doctor Dickhead. He's probably gonna have our jobs. You don't want a charge for assaulting a patient and a fucking lawsuit too. This little shit will get what's coming to him. I'll pay Freddie Jerome a carton of smokes to fuck him up good."

Danny laughed and walked right up to Nurse Tom. He had to look up at the big orderly, but Danny poked him in the chest anyway and said,

"You can pay Freddie and Rich and Ronnie three cartons of smokes to fuck me up, cuz I'll be waiting with bells on."

Tom didn't take kindly to being poked in the chest by some little shit and grabbed him by the wrist. Danny transferred the electrical charge he'd just absorbed into Tom, he just sent it over like a thought. Tom's hair instantly, comically, stood on end and his blue eyes went wide. He knew something bad had just happened to him. Danny shook free from his grip and stepped back. "Just Sayin." He took a few more steps away, with his hands up in a truce.

Clay said, "You're right Tom, he ain't worth it." And reached for Tom to pull him out into the hall. Danny saw it coming a mile away and couldn't help but smile. Tom saw him smiling and knew what was coming too. In the same way you know that if you shuffle your feet through thick pile carpet in your socks on a dry winter day, you'll build up a nice static charge. He tried to avoid Clay's hand but he wasn't quick enough.

The resulting static shock was a lot more than Danny had expected. It wasn't a little zap, it wasn't even a crackle, it was an ear splitting bang and a blinding white flash, accompanied by the smell of burned skin and singed hair. Clay flew back into the hallway and ended up flat on his back. The tips of the fingers on his left hand were burned and smoke rose from his scrubs. At first, Danny feared he was dead, but Clay groaned, prompting a wave of giggles out of Danny.

Tom ignored Clay on his back eight feet away, he was busy inspecting the spot on his arm where Clay had touched him. His sleeve was scorched and a painful looking blister was forming on his skin. His eyes were glistening, his lips pooched out and he didn't even look at Danny. Instead, he went and after carefully poking him a couple times, afraid of another shock, helped Clay to his feet. With Clay's arm around his shoulder the two of them stumbled away without looking back.

Away from the new kid, who had somehow been causing so much trouble lately. That little shit Danny had been the focus of attention for too long and had become a thorn in their side.

Danny closed his door and lay on the cot to wait for dinner. Tonight was chicken night.

Which was good. He felt like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight...