Human
A Danny Phantom/Law and Order SVU crossover
By Jaybie Jarrett
Summary: When the ecto-dejecto makes Danielle ill, she is found by the SVU. Their investigation leads to a complicated case which begs a hard question. What is the measure of 'human'?
Prologue
Once she flew off, Danielle Fenton felt better than she ever had in her whole life. The breeze felt better, the air freer and she even thought the grungy downtown apartments of Elmerton would be like a five star hotel. But who said she would even have to go back there? Now that she wasn't under threat of destabilization, she could go anywhere. She was free.
Dani spread her hands out as she flew on past the billboard bordering Amity Park. She did twirls and loop-de-loops over the New Jersey borderline. A few people looked up for a moment, swearing they saw a girl that looked just like the ghost boy. For the people who caught her, she did a cartwheel. Deep down she knew it was careless but what harm would it do, really? Dani started thinking about what she wanted to do from here. 'Maybe see the world' she thought, 'check out Cape Canaveral'. As a ghost she could travel quickly and invisibly, and as child she could probably slip into a crowd. With her powers she could now defend herself against…well just about anything. She started to feel a little dizzy and calmed down with the tricks.
But the dizziness didn't go away. 'It'll just take time' Dani told herself. In five minutes, she still felt dizzy and her head hurt a little. She slowed down and looked for a place she could stay for a night. She couldn't make out the signs below her. "That must be it" Dani thought, "I'm probably flying too high." So she flew down lower, to the top of a building. She landed on the building and took moment to rest. She imagined what Danny would say "you've got to be more careful, Danielle. You just nearly died, take it easy"
Right, take it easy. Dani pushed herself up on her feet, slowly. She was shaking and felt unsteady on her feet. The scene in front of her was blurry but she could just make out a motel, maybe, a couple feet, or blocks. It was hard to tell. "This isn't right" she thought, and instinctively she looked down at her feet to check if she was melting. No, not melting, and she could feel none of the burning that forewarned it. She took a few steps and nearly tripped. Flying was easier. Besides she was on a building, this wasn't safe.
Dani took off again. Her control over her invisibility slipped a few times, as did intangibility. She hit tree branches and nearly smacked into signs. Her flying was no longer graceful but erratic. Unfortunately, the motel didn't seem to be getting any closer, if she could make it out at all. Her head hurt, and now her stomach hurt, but she was afraid of crash-landing or running into people. What was going on? She certainly wasn't in danger of melting, but this wasn't normal either. She made a clumsy turn at a deserted space, with the motel still in sight. Maybe.
This was safer. Now to gain control of speed. Dani slowed down and tried to inch closer to the ground. As she was getting close her body made a little sort of spasm. Much worse than the shaking. Not good. Not good, not good not good. The one and a half year old ghost looked down at the ground miraculously having managed to get down to six feet away from it. The question was how to land. She was worried about flying more but nervous about walking and her control was slipping out of her grasp. She was like a little kid, going too fast on their first bike ride without training wheels. A little kid with the flu. Her body spasmed again and she felt something hot bubble up in her throat. She coughed up a ball of fizzling ectoplasm.
Now Dani was panicking completely. She fought to keep from crashing into the ground. Seeing it six feet below her was frightening, especially in this state. She coughed and released another fizzling gob of ectoplasm. Her sight blinked out for a few moments and she was losing control. With a feeble cry for help, she crashed into a bunch of bumpy, pointy objects. Her head was pounding and warm wet liquid trickled down the back of her neck. As she coughed more she heard the familiar sound of her transformation. Her surroundings were dark and unfamiliar. Everything slowly went dark and Dani managed to gasp something before slipping into unconsciousness.
"I just think that you might be blaming him for something he's not in control of"
"He's in complete control of it. If it weren't for him I wouldn't be carrying around people's garbage."
Two men in bright vests, lugging large black bags walked into the junkyard, carrying on a political argument. A larger, older man opened the bags and dumped them in a hole filled with junk while his partner went back to get more. The older man continued complaining about a 'socially intelligent moron' and shaking the bags.
"How much stuff do these people throw away?" He muttered. He heard a pained moan. "It's just garbage, if you don't like heavy lifting, get a new job."
"It didn't work, help me" This time the voice was coming from within the trash pile. The man froze. That didn't sound like a tape recorder, it wasn't muffled. He lifted the bag, moved around a few things until he saw a hand- a human hand.
"oh…oh God" he pushed away some more of the trash, to reveal a twelve or thirteen year old girl wearing a shirt soaked in blood, vomit and some unknown green glow paint. She was just a kid. "MIKE, I FOUND SOMETHING!" He climbed into the pit to the girl. Her skin was cold to the touch but before he could withdraw his fingers he felt a pulse.
"what…early Christmas sh-" the friendly jibe was cut short "What the- please tell me that ain't a kid"
"Call an ambulance now, she's alive but just barely." The younger man fumbled with a phone while the older one carried the girl to steady ground.