Gone
Gone.
That was the only coherent thought that Venom’s mind could form.
They had left Eddie alone and defenseless and they would never forgive themselves.
Eddie said he needed to focus today, he had a big interview with yet another sinister CEO for an exposé piece that he’d been slaving over for the past few months. So to help him focus they both agreed that Venom would spend the day with Flash. In retrospect, a terrible idea. Everything was fine until 3:00 when Eddie was supposed to pick up the kids from school but he never arrived. The school called Flash because he’s one of their emergency contacts and that’s when Venom’s whole world fell apart.
The children were immediately suspicious, they knew there was no way their dad would just forget to retrieve them from school. The kids all eyed Venom quizzically as they stood with Flash in the living room, even Sleeper looked skeptical which they would have thought impossible.
“Where’s dad?” Carnage asked with narrowed eyes.
“Your father…” They didn’t know where to start.
“Your Dad is still at work. Right, V?” Flash answered.
Well it wasn’t a total lie.
“Yes. Still at work.”
“Why aren’t you there too?” Agony followed up.
Dammit, these kids pay way too much attention.
“Are you guys getting a divorce?” Scream asked looking worried.
“What?! No! Of course not! I know it is…unusual for your father and I to be seperated but it’s only for a few hours for work...which is where he is.”
Every moment they spent directing their children away from suspicion was another moment Eddie was in danger. As they fielded more questions from the children Flash and Venom conversed silently with each other trying to devise a plan.
“So who took him?” Flash asked. He was a soldier, he needed intel for an attack strategy.
“They’re a pharmaceutical company that’s been systematically driving up the cost of a life saving cancer medication, Eddie was pretty angry about the whole thing.”
“Pharmaceutical? They could be using Eddie to lure you there, or find the kids.”
“That is a worst case scenario...but one we should expect.”
“How do we get in?”
“We will need help. Luckily, this company is always schmoozing doctors to get them to prescribe their drugs and we just happen to know a very good doctor.”
“You want to use Dan?”
“He will be able to get me inside, yes.”
They explained all of this to Dan over the phone and despite his woeful inexperience with sinister organizations and kidnappings he was eager to help. Anne of course was furious and insisted on staking out at the house with Flash to keep an eye on the (still suspicious) children while Venom and Dan departed to rescue Eddie.
“Get him back. In one piece, preferably.” Anne said as Venom merged with Dan.
“We will.”
The headquarters of the company where Eddie had gone for his interview this morning was a tall and sleek building in the city just like all of the other tall and sleek buildings in the city. It was unremarkable. It was where Eddie was, their Eddie. Dan, to his credit, walked straight up to the receptionist, showed his hospital ID badge and announced that he had an appointment upstairs. The woman looked him up and down before taking the ID badge from him and inspecting it.
Daniel Lewis, M.D.
She looked at the picture on the badge then up at the real thing before handing it back to him along with a guest badge that would unlock the elevators and pointing to the where the elevators were.
“I can’t believe that worked.” Dan admitted as the elevator doors slid closed.
“This is a pharmaceutical company, you are a prolific doctor at the best hospital in the city, they want to sell you drugs.”
“So where the hell do we go now?”
“Upstairs, there has to be someone working here who knows something. Eddie never does anything quietly.”
Back at the house the kids’ imaginations were running wild about why Eddie wasn’t at home with Venom. In their minds it could only be bad news.
“You think Daddy will still love us after he leaves?” Scream asked sadly.
“They aren’t getting divorced, Scream. Dad even said.” Carnage replied incredulously.
“Of course that’s what Dad said but Daddy still isn’t home.” Scream pointed out.
“Because he’s at work.” Carnage stated.
“At work without Dad? No he’s not. Daddy and Dad are never not together this long.” Scream was convinced that Venom and Eddie being apart for this long could only mean one thing- they were splitting up.
“I think Daddy will still visit us.” Agony said.
“I miss him.” Lasher said quietly, clutching his knees to his chest.
“What’s with all the sad faces?” Flash asked as he came in the room with Sleeper in his arms.
“Dad left and he’s not gonna come back.” Phage’s shoulders sagged as he spoke.
“Left? Eddie didn’t leave, he’s just at work.” Flash tried to explain.
“Daddy never works this late. He’s always home after school and Dad is always with him. He left.” Scream lamented.
“Guys, I promise he didn’t leave. He’ll be back soon, both of them will.” Flash forced a smile.
Venom and Dan snooped around until they found some poor unsuspecting research assistant who was really in the wrong place at the wrong time. He walking and looking down at a clipboard so it was very easy to catch him off guard. Against Dan’s more pacifist nature Venom used the doctor’s arm to grab the man by throat and easily lift him off the ground. Venom sheathed Dan’s face with their own.
“What the Hell is that thing?!” The man choked and squirmed.
“Where do they keep the security monitors?” Venom’s voice rumbled.
“I-I-I-” He sniveled.
“Talk.”
“T-The security room is on the twelfth floor!” He screamed out.
Venom took over the rest of Dan’s unwitting body and decapitated the employee before getting rid of the evidence.
“Oh my God, Venom!” Dan hissed.
“Sorry. Eddie is used to that.”
“That...was so cool!” Dan said giddily.
“Thank you.”
They made their way to twelfth floor and found the room they were searching for, it was outfitted with a computerized lock but Venom’s strength busted it easily. Inside there were walls of screen after screen playing live footage of every inch of the facility from rooftop to basement. Empty hallways and occupied boardrooms and labs with white coats performing unknown experiments that just the sight of made Venom bristle. In Venom’s opinion, no good could come of people in lab coats messing with things and they probably had their no good hands on Eddie which infuriated them to even think about.
Scanning across the countless screens their eyes were snagged by a face so familiar that they couldn’t forget it if they tried.
“There he is!” Dan pointed to the monitor Eddie was displayed on.
Anne was having a much less productive time, she was in charge of watching over Sleeper while Flash was tasked with distracting the older children from their paralyzing fears of abandonment- roles they definitely should have switched around. Sleeper was crying in her arms and she had absolutely no way to console him. Sleeper desperately wanted his parents and she very much was not them.
“Maaamaaa! Paaapaaa!” He trembled and sobbed the only two words that have come out of his mouth in the last hour.
He struggled and squirmed so she put him down only for him to start to crawl around looking for them. Only once he pitifully attempted to climb the stairs (a skill he was just a little too young to possess yet) did she scoop him back up again. The poor little thing wept listlessly into her shoulder as she pulled up a picture of Eddie on her phone to show to him. Sleeper blinked the copious tears out of his gleaming red eyes and focused on the screen in front of him.
“Muh muh…” Sleeper reached for the phone with both hands.
His mouth wobbled threateningly when he realized that the picture was just a picture and not a video call or anything else that could talk back to him.
“Lets see if your siblings can cheer you up.” Anne said guiltily, having realizing that Eddie’s picture served to tease the poor thing more than anything else. Maybe Flash was having more luck.
Dan and Venom quickly made their way to the floor that corresponded to the monitor they spotted Eddie on. From the graining footage on the monitor it looked like Eddie was in a boardroom with some other people- handcuffed to a chair because it was Eddie. Venom was deliberate to stay inside Dan’s body but they still ripped the boardroom doors off their hinges and the four people inside (Eddie included) jumped.
“Dan?” Eddie was the first to speak up at the manic looking man who had burst into the sleek and pristine conference room.
“Sort of...?” Was the only answer the doctor could think of.
Eddie suddenly got a very smug look on his face and Dan knew that he knew Venom was there too. Still, they all had to be careful. The scientists at this company would sell their souls for something like Venom to experiment on and that’s most likely why Eddie is handcuffed to that chair to begin with.
“You are in trouble.” Venom’s voice rumbled out of Dan’s mouth and they sounded pretty pissed.
“I have everything under control here.” Eddie said back, unfazed by Venom’s seething.
Dan’s face suddenly relaxed into an expressionless mask and then into an unimpressed look which Eddie recognized as Venom making a face at him.
“You shouldn’t hijack our friend’s face, V. It’s rude.” Eddie chastised.
There were three other men in the room- a person in a nice suit and two others they could tell were just muscle, probably to beat something out of Eddie because people always seemed to want to beat something out of him. The man in the nice suit- the CEO or some other higher up of this pharmaceutical company- looked the most confused by the very odd conversation happening. It was a conversation that seemed to be between three people even though there were only two people standing there.
“Who the hell are you?” The man in the nice suit asked.
“I’m uh...A friend.” Dan answered lamely.
Dan’s lame uncertainty was abruptly replaced by righteous fury.
“What are you doing with him?!”
The other three men in the room all looked jarred by this strange back and forth.
“Eddie are you okay?” Dan asked urgently.
“I will rip off your limbs!”
While the others looked terrified Eddie looked gleefully amused at this Jekyll and Hyde act from over his one black eye.
“Who gave you that black eye?” Dan tried again.
“Yes who, darling?”
The affectionate name seemed to make the other three even more nervous.
“I don’t remember. I’m working here!” Eddie answered.
“You are injured and handcuffed to a chair!” Venom roared through Dan’s mouth.
“It’s just a black eye, V!” Eddie protested.
“Boss, I don’t think this guy is worth it. Whatever this is...it’s something else.” One of the muscular men suddenly spoke up.
“No! He can’t be allowed to publish his story!” The man in the suit said.
“Story?” Dan’s confused voice broke through.
“That is what you are holding him for? His story?” Venom sounded equally befuddled.
“Of course! It would irreparably damage this company’s reputation!” The suit yelled.
All of the sudden Venom was uncharacteristically sheepish, they’d evidently jumped the gun. This had nothing to do with them or the children or symbiotes of any kind. Eddie got kidnapped just for being Eddie. Of course.
“A-Are you a demon? I heard that Dr. Strange guy was dealing with demons in midtown last month.” The other muscular man asked shakily.
Demonic entity was as good an excuse as any they supposed.
“Yes.”
“Hear that, boss? Demons. You don’t pay me enough to deal with demons.” He stated and the other muscular man seemed to agree.
“You’re scheme is really falling apart here.” Eddie pointed out to the suited man in charge.
“Shut up!” The man in the suit looked very nervous, he was losing his footing and quick.
Dan then turned and shot a death glare and the man.
“You are going to let Eddie Brock go now, he will not publish the story.”
Even Eddie thought Dan looked scary with Venom talking through him- nothing like the humorous, easy going friend he was used to.
The man in the suit weighed his options (which seemed to be let Eddie go or die) and lost his resolve right in front of them. He chose to let Eddie go. Eddie was smug once again about walking out the front door of the building just like he had come in that morning.
“That was so cool!” Dan was excitedly fanboying in the driver’s seat of his car like he wasn’t a highly respected doctor.
“Venom you’re so cool!” Dan kept going.
“I’m cool too.” Eddie sulked.
Flash and Anne were fighting a losing battle, these kids would not be convinced of anything until they saw their parents at home and back together for themselves. Even Sleeper was hanging onto his air of depression. Anne felt like she might cry with joy when she finally saw Dan’s car pull into the driveway outside. At a complete loss for anything else to do to prove to his nieces and nephews that everything was okay, Flash just flung open the front door for the kids to see who was home.
Eddie was only about halfway to the front door when he was tackled to the grass by the small swarm of his children.
“Hey, you guys miss me?” Eddie laughed.
They all just clung harder and refused to let him move.
“Never leave again.” Lasher’s voice was muffled in his chest.
Eddie mentally questioned Venom about their spawns’ desperation but Venom just responded with the feeling they were unsure as well. Eddie just shrugged one shoulder and laid down in the soft green grass as the children cuddled further into him.