One shot~~ Danny and child
The boy was in a car accident that damaged the frontal lobe. Specifically affected his memory, thought process and attention as well as problem solving. He can still do everything on a normal function, it just takes him a lot longer than normal for the affected things.
He couldn't be older than ten but standing on that building, it was hard to tell. The sky is a dark blue, twinkling bright from the stars and surrounding city lights. Looking down, the boy shivers and backs up. He shoves his hands in the pockets of his wind breaker and shrinks into his coat. Although the sky is clear, the air is still colder than the snow and ice that was left from earlier. He stands in the silence disturbed occasionally by the echoes of cars below. He uses the moonlight to look at his watch, 8pm.
'Mom is going to wonder soon…'
He shuffles his feet, kicking the small rocks left on the building roof. The wind blows, causing him to wince and duck his head further into the jacket. After it stopped, he pulled his hat down, covering the top of his ears again. Again, left to silence, the boy stands still, thinking. Voices flow into his mind from the past month. His friend's voice starting the whole show in his mind.
"You're different. You've been acting weird since vacation." "I'm sorry. I'm just tired."
His teacher's voice echoing with disapproval, "Your grades are fine but you're falling behind. If you don't pick up the pace, you will fail." "But I'm doing my hardest…"
Soon, he hears his parents, his friends, classmates, teachers and even strangers.
"Do you even know what you are doing?"
"Why are you so slow?!"
"Will you just sit this out; it takes you too long to answer!"
"I don't know what happened, dude, but, you would be better off in the slow class."
"Retard!"
"You're so dumb!"
"It's all your fault!"
"You have torn this family apart!"
"Why are you so useless?" "Do you even have a use?!" "And I thought you were dumb before…" "Why are you such a loser?!" The voices began mashing, echoing, louder. Combining, winding down into one word. "Retard!"
Tears stream down his face, the voices so loud, everything starts to spin. The boy begins breathing heavily.
"Retard!"
He attempts to dry the ice cold tears running down his face.
"Retard."
He walks, stumbling, towards the edge. He bumps into it and grabs the railing.
"Retard!"
"I AM NOT!" He yells out, his voice squeaking at some points. He looks down at the street, ten stories below. He looks down, gathering his broken thoughts.
Unknowing to him, a few blocks over, a white haired, green-eyed boy is fighting a giant white ghost snake. "Danny! Look out!" A girl in Goth clothing yells. A boy wearing a red beret tosses a metal thermos. "Catch, Dude!" The ghost boy, Danny, catches the thermos and sucks the snake into it. "Thanks, guys." He says as he lowers to the ground. "Yeah, well, we try." The goth says as she blushes. Danny nuzzles his nose on hers. "Ew! I'm right here!" The other boy exclaims. They laugh. "I AM NOT!" A childish voice screams out. Danny looks to his friends. "Sam? Tucker? Did you hear that?" They nod. "Where did it come from?" "Sounded like a good distance away." Tucker says. "I'll take the sky. See if I see anything from up there." Danny takes off. Sam and Tucker walk down the street, following Danny.
"I AM NOT A…" the voice quiets down. Danny looks over, seeing a body slumped against the railing. He flies to his friends, "I think I found the source." They nod and Danny flies toward a building, they follow.
"Why do they… call me... that…" the boy sniffles out quietly. His eyes look down. Phantom flies up the building behind him. Before Danny can say anything, he hears the boy mumble, "I guess I am… and I should… fix that." The boy climbs up the slight raise and slips in between the bar and the raise. He wasn't thinking about dying, his body just led him to the edge. It felt natural. Danny's eyes grow wide as the events unfold before him. As the boy stood, facing away, Danny studied him. His wind breaker is green and his pants indicated the boy wasn't planning on being here. He had intended to play in the snow. Suddenly, the boy fell forward. Coming back from his thoughts, Danny flies after the boy, catching him two stories down. He floats them down slowly, holding the small boy in his arms. By the way the boy gripped onto him, that wasn't planned either. They landed softly, the boy refusing to let go. Sam and Tucker join, questioning what happened. "I don't know. Are you okay?" Phantom asked the kid. He didn't respond, just held onto him, digging his face into Danny's hazmat suit. They take him to the nasty burger for warmth. Finally managing to pry the child off, they sit him down and order some warm food.
As the trio walked to the counter, Danny transformed back to human form. Valerie smiling at them, "Well, looks like you've been busy." Danny chuckles, "Yeah, the kid fell off a building. I caught him. We've been trying to get him to talk but, he's not talking." Valerie raises an eyebrow and looks at the kid, who took off his hat. "Oh my god! That's the Harkins' kid!" The trio looked at her confused. "You know him?" "Yeah! He's my neighbor. Over break, his father was involved in a car accident; he was in the passenger's seat." "Car accident?" Tucker questioned. "Yeah, he was in the hospital for, like, two weeks due to brain injury." Sam thought and decided to ask, "What caused the accident?" Valerie's concerned expression turned to a down-casted glare, "His father. He was driving under the illegal influence." The trio's eyes grew bigger. "He has some thinking problems. Don't get mad at him if he takes too long to answer why he tried to kill himself. If you lose patience, I will hurt you." Valerie threatened them. Danny looks at her questioningly. "And that concerns you, why?" Valerie turns, depressed. "I…. hear his mom go off on him sometimes. She blames everything on him. Calls him a retard constantly. He just thinks slow. He's not retarded. He's actually really smart." Tucker gives her a reassuring smile. "I'll bring your food out when it's done. Just… be nice." They return to the booth. "So, what's your name?" The boy looks at Danny, processing every word. After a few seconds, the boy responds, "Davy… er, David." Danny smiles. "Hello, Davy. I'm Danny. This is Sam and Tucker." The two wave as their name is mentioned. A few moments later, Valerie approaches the table. She sits the tray down and smiles at Davy. "Hi, Davy." He looks up, trying to remember something. "V…Valerie! Hi, Valerie." "Hi, hunny." Valerie pulls up a chair at the end of the booth. "What happened, Davy? Why did you do that?" If sugar could be sad and talk, that what Valerie sounded like. As Davy thought of how to respond, he buried his head into his arms. "I didn't mean to." His muffled reply came. Sam, who is sitting next to Davy, puts a hand on his back and rubs it sympathetically. He raises his head but doesn't look up. "It's just… I can't do anything right." He pauses, thinking, then continues. "I can't remember things… I can't even think fast… And it takes me forever to remember something that happened yesterday, let alone a week ago." He pauses again, trying to find the right words. Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Valerie just wait for the boy. None of them dare to interrupt him. After a few more moments, the boy continues. "Everyone calls me retarded. I feel like they are right. Ever since the accident… I've become a weirdo. Nobody likes a loser." Danny thinks for a second and smiles, an idea forming in his mind. "You know, Davy, being in an accident doesn't mean your life is ruined." Davy looks at him, his face slowly twisting in anger. "Yes it does. Nobody wants to be around a loser who can't think on his toes." "Sometimes, being in an accident is a gift in disguise. At first it feels like a curse but as you get used to it, you realize it's a gift. A blessing." Davy looks across the table to the older teen. "How?" he inquires. "You'll learn in time. Don't let others put you down. Sometimes accidents can give us abilities we never thought was possible." Sam raised an eyebrow at Danny. She knew he was speaking from experience but wondered why he thought that applied to a car accident. She soon figured it out when she saw the little boy perk up.
The next couple of hours were spent getting to know Davy more before deciding it was time to go home. The trio walked Davy and Valerie to their apartment complex, and then parted ways, promising to hang out again soon. There was no way for them to know at the time that, in the future, less than 8 years into, Davy was going to be the youngest neuropsychologist to tackle the subject.
Moral: All it takes is some positive encouragement mixed with the right friends to feel like you can accomplish anything. And when you feel like you can accomplish anything, more than likely you will do things you never thought was possible.