AN/: It's short it's in third person. It's very quickly donw and i am thinking aobut going back redoing it some time in the far away future. In the mean time enjoy.
Hey There Delilah
The adults were all in the corner of the room talking like they thought she was too immature to hear what they were saying. She hated that. She was eight after all I mean it's not like she was going to cry. Okay so she already had cried but common! She had broken her arm I think that warrants a little crying. The girl on the gurney shifted a little bit. Her but was already getting sore form sitting for so long.
Tired of staring at the Adults and trying to understand what they were saying she fell back on her new favorite pass time: reminiscing about the fight earlier today. Oh this had been no ordinary fight this had been a fight with Danny Phantom in it. Sure they were common enough in Amity Park but she had never seen one. Her parents were always shoving her away and covering her eyes like the sights before them were to horrifying for her to see.
She always ended up watching the fight n the news anyway.
Anyway that's beside the point. Danny Phantom had had a fight at her school today where there weren't any parents to pull her away. She could stay as long as she wanted and get a front seat to the action. She could watch her favorite superhero do his thing and cheer him on and maybe if she was really lucky she'd get to say hi to him when he was done kicking ghost butt!
It all went swell at first, the noise was enormous and there were flashes of light everywhere. She couldn't hear herself think with all of the commotion. Then of course fate played its role. A wall decided that it didn't want to stand up anymore and that it would be much happier on the floor. Not really caring about who might be in its way it didn't hesitate to crash down.
Directly on top of Delilah.
So here she was in the hospital with a sling on her arm and the adults once again shielding her from what they thought was too much for her little mind to handle. Though she supposed that they had been right about the ghost fights, she did end up getting hurt. However, she didn't regret staying behind.
Oh heavens no. If she had the chance to do it again she would probably try to get closer. Watching that fight was amazing. She had never seen anything like it in her life. Phantom could make energy come out of his hands. HIS HANDS! I mean how freaking awesome is that? You don't; get to meet a person like that every day.
Finally the adults broke their little huddle and came over to talk to her.
"Delilah honey we're going to go because you need you're rest and we don't; want you staying up on our behalf. We'll be back in about forty five minutes alright sweetie?" Delilah's mom tenderly stoked the side of her daughters face. Delilah only roller her eyes.
"I'll be fine mom. Kids break their arms all the time. You'll see I'll be back to climbing trees and swimming in the pool in no time." Her mom smiled down at her resilient little second grader and walked out of the room. Delilah's Dad wasn't far behind after giving her a quick peck on her cheek.
Delilah sighed and looked down at her arm. It still throbbed. Though she had already decided that she would do the whole thing over again and that she wouldn't; change anything, that didn't; stop her arm from hurting.
Unbenounced to Delilah there was a certain superhero in the room hovering just below the ceiling. Danny watched her as she drifted into a daydream. He'd seen the way that she looked at her arm and it only made his insides twist with guilt. He'd tried he really had. He just hadn't been fast enough. That wall came down quick and she wouldn't move from her spot. He felt so guilty, because it really was all his fault. He'd been trying to lead the ghost away from the preschool and low and behold he had only lead them straight to the elementary school.
Oh how fate loved to mess with him.
He said he would check up on her though. It was his fault that she was in the hospital. He was going to apologize too. Sam and Tucker said that he didn't need too. That she would be alright and he didn't; need to risk exposing himself more than he needed to, but they didn't; understand. They didn't; have to cope with any of the guilt.
Danny internally sighed and figured now was as good a time as any to get things over with. HE invisibly floated down to the end of her bed and looked for something to jostle around. Sam hated it when he just popped up out of the blue and she usually ended up screaming and drawing a lot of attention to them both. Danny knew the adults who had been in the room would not appreciate his presence and he didn't; need any more attention drawn to him than necessary.
He found a clipboard at the end of the gurney she was lying in and jostled it around a bit. The movement got the girl's attention like Danny had planned. She looked curiously at the end of the bed and was about to shrug it off as just her making things up when Danny slowly faded into view.
At first Delilah wasn't; sure she could only see a hazy outline but she imedietly froze in excitement when she realized just who had materialized before her. She openly gaped at the teenager at the end of her hospital bed. Finally realizing her mouth was open Delilah put her hand over her mouth so that Danny wouldn't have to stare into its depths.
They sat and stood there for a long moment. Delilah tried to believe her eyes and Danny tried to not look like he was uncomfortable with her stare. After a while though things were just getting silly and Danny decided that if anyone was going to say something fist it was going to have to be him. Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously before he spoke.
"I'm ah, sorry." Delilah was confused and it showed on her face Danny smiled a sad smile at the expression, "a-about you arm I mean." Danny looked away as Delilah looked down at her arm in her sling. Danny kept going now. The fact that Delilah still wasn't saying anything was making him nervous. He fiddled with his hands as he rambled on to fill the awkward silence.
"I-I know how much that kinda stuff can hurt, believe me I've been thrown into enough things to know, and I was really sorry when I saw that you'd gotten hurt. I know I was supposed to be there and I understand if you hate me for not saving you even though I was right there. I tried to get to you in time but the Ghost I was fighting, his name is Ho-Tep-Ra, he had my foot in this ghost proof mummy wrap and I couldn't really move and shields I make that I can project around other people are still kind of sketchy, and I didn't; want to end up hurting you more, because if I don't get it right it ends up like an ecto blast. So I was just here to-" Danny looked up when he felt a small warm hand on his jumpsuit. His eyes snapped to the hand and followed the small arm up to the head attached to it. The little girl had a huge smile on her face. Her eyes were laughing as she spoke.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for. I'm sorry I was in the way. You're a superhero and you were just doing your job. It was my fault for not getting out of the way. I wanted to stay and watch the fight. Thanks for coming to check up on me." Danny blinked a couple of times before he stuttered back to life.
"But it was still my responsibility to get you out of the way and I should have been there, you wouldn't; be here if-
"Well then that settles it I am definitely sure I wanted my arm broken." Danny's mouth hung open and he sputtered.
"What!" Delilah laughed and fell back on her butt, carefully avoiding jostling her arm.
"If I hadn't; broken my arm I wouldn't; have gotten to watch you fight and you wouldn't be here right now! If this is what I get for breaking my arm I'm should do it a lot more often!" Danny was shocked and immediately waved his arms in exasperation.
"W-wait, no you can't, you don't want to do that! Ghost fights are dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt and-"Delilah cut him off with laughter again
"You're too funny! I was just kidding. You're fights are cool, and I'm excited to finally meet you, but breaking your arm hurts. I'm not about to make a hobby out of it." Danny deflated as he listened to the girl explain that she was not in fact thinking of injuring herself so that he would come visit her. He also felt a new wave of guilt as she mentioned dhow badly her arm hurt. Danny sighed before he spoke.
"Look, about your arm…"
"It's not your fault Phantom, and there is nothing you can say to change my mind." Danny just looked away awkwardly. What was he supposed to do make this girl hate him so that she would believe he was the cause of all her pain? Somehow it just didn't seem right. Danny suddenly realized that the girl had called him by his ghost aliis.
"Hey, you don't have to call me Phantom; you can call me Danny, only all of the people who want to skin me alive call me by that name." The girl grimaced and made a disgusted noise. Danny chuckled.
"Yeah there's this ghost his name is Skulker. He's a big metal guy. He's been around enough, you seen him on the news?" The girl on the bed nodded eagerly as she listened to her hero, "Well he's been hunting me for two years now. Every time I see him he mentions exactly how I'm going to become another piece of his 'collection'." The girl continued to look disgusted as she responded.
"That's sick!"
"You don't have to tell me." There was another silence, though not as awkward as some of the ones they had already had. Delilah was the one to break it this time.
"My name is Delilah by the way." Danny smiled
"Hey that's like that song-
"Hey there Delilah, I know." Danny smiled mischievously.
"I guess you get that a lot?" Delilah flopped down on her gurney and said in a bored monotone.
"You have no idea." Danny only laughed which caused Delilah to give him a mock mad look. Danny quieted down and there was silence once again. You ever notice how that tends to happen around people you don't know very well. Danny decided to try to remedy exactly that.
"So what grade are you in?" Delilah looked a little confused with the conversation topic but it seemed normal enough. I guess that's what threw her off.
"I'm in second grade." Danny's eyebrows shot up.
"Really you're that old?" Delilah laughed a little.
"You say that like I'm fifty." Danny blushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, which only caused Delilah to laugh harder. Danny tried to defend himself.
"Well you're little and I can't really tell the difference between what grade kids are in!" Delilah calmed down and shook her head.
"Fine whatever. What grade are you in?" Without thinking Danny replied.
"I'm a junior in High School." Delilah cocked an eyebrow.
"Really, you can still go to school?" Danny's eyes widened when he realized the mistake he'd made.
"No! Um that's what grade I was in when, I uh, died." Delilah didn't really know what to say to that and felt bad about bringing it up by the way Danny was shifting around all uncomfortably. So she did what any second grader would do. She abruptly started talking about something different.
"I have a dog his name is Skipper. He can be kinda stupid, and he's a little fat, but I love him anyway. He's a good dog." Danny blinked a couple of times in bewilderment getting used to the topic switch.
"Hey who else is in your family?" Delilah happily answered her hero's question.
"Well, there's my mom and my dad and my little brother Aaron. HE is going to be so jealous when I told him I got to meet you! Not really like he'll believe me though." Danny got a confused look on his face when Delilah started to act all sheepish. From the short time he'd known her this wasn't how she usually acted. Danny decided to find out what was the matter.
"Hey are you okay?" Delilah nodded energetically though she still had a worried look on her face.
"Yeah I was just wondering if I could ask you to you know um, sign my cast." Danny just stared at the little girl for a moment. When Danny didn't; do anything Delilah continued to talk thinking she had done something wrong, "Well you know just so Aaron will believe me and then I can show it to all of my friends too and-"Delilah was cut off by Danny's snickers. She glared up at the ghost teen from her spot on the bed and shot him a demanding, "What?" Danny quieted himself before he answered with a broad smile.
"I'm sorry you just have to understand, nobody has really ever uh, asked me for my autograph before. It's mostly an 'I want to rip you apart molecule my molecule' sort of deal." Delilah nodded deciding to forgive him for laughing at her discomfort. She avoided his gaze though when he didn't answer her initial question.
Danny realized something was wrong again and was wondering what when it hit him.
"Oh, and yeah sure, I'll sign your cast no problem. I just need to find a marker…" Delilah's eyes lit up and she would have danced with glee had she not been severely injured at the moment Danny rummaged around in the little side table next to the gurney and only found pencils. HE set those aside in case they didn't find anything better to use. He turned around and was about to search the same little compartment he had found the clipboard in for something there when Delilah turned around pulling a green felt tip pen from the exact place he had been about to look. Danny smiled and took the pen form her hands. He sat down on the bed next to her ready to sign her cast wherever she wanted. Delilah was ecstatic and started to take her arm out of her sling only to stop with a painful hiss as her arm was moved around. That had really hurt! Danny worriedly stopped her form trying again.
"No wait!" Delilah obediently stopped and she watched as Danny took a cautions look around, "I can make you're sling intangible but you have to promise not to freak out." Delilah excitedly nodded and held her arm out to her favorite ghost teen superhero. Danny lightly touched the blue sling and it instantly fell out of the tangible plain. Danny lightly prevented the now unsupported arm from thumping painfully into Delilah's lap as she let out an amazed gasp. Danny slowly lowered her arm to rest in her lap and reached for the green pen on the bed. Uncapping it with his teeth he quickly and lightly signed the little girls cast. Her eyes were absolutely glowing with happiness as he crossed the't'.
"There now you can-
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Danny was cut off by the shriek of an overprotective mother.
"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER YOU GHOST CREEP!" Danny gently set Delilah's arm on her lap before he got off the bed and expertly dodged a wildly swinging purse. Danny sent Delilah a goodbye smile before he shot through the roof. Doing exactly what the crazed woman wanted him to do.
He knew how people like that were. He ran into them too often. The only way to calm someone like that down was to just fly away. I killed Danny on the inside to know the the was the cause of all that woman's distress. He wished that everyone would see that he's really not the villain they all think he is.
Danny sighed and he directed himself towards Sam's house. He was staying there for the weekend with Tucker. He was at least happy he got to say he was sorry to Delilah, even if she didn't; think it was her fault. He was happy he got to meet a person who wasn't; in on his secret that thought he was a good guy. It made him feel a little better on the inside. Delilah had lit a little happiness in Danny's heart. Maybe being this town's superhero wasn't such a thankless job after all.
