Nicki was a really fun character to write. I needed someone who could goad Danny out of his hopelessness and challenge him when he felt sorry for himself - neither of which were possible from the warm and reassuring Shannon. Nicki was very elastic at first, both in background and appearance, and for a while had a more dominant role in the plot - including an evil boyfriend and a whole subplot on how she ended up as the legal guardian of her little sister. And an apartment fire. It was epic. And totally unecessary and distracting, haha. It got shaved down to a smaller and more focused role in the final version.

These are a few scenes that didn't make the cut, which I'll comment on individually, since they're all a bit different.

-Hj

This was Nicki's original introduction - at this early stage Danny was a lot more involved at the clinic, and I was also feeling out her personality. I knew I needed someone who didn't feel sorry for Danny but would go out of their way to engage with him as well. It was ultimately cut for length and because it just didn't quite fit with the feeling of Part 1. I put her at the reception desk in Danny's first visit to the clinic instead, which was a much more efficient way to integrate her, and she was able to perform a function while still showing some of her personality.

The mop landed with a wet slap on the linoleum. The hallway was empty, though Danny could hear the chatter of the nurses and phones ringing at the front desk round the corner.

They had worked it out so he could spend time doing odd jobs here at the clinic at the same time that Shannon did her volunteer shift as a nurse. Mopping floors wasn't exactly Danny's idea of fun...but he liked feeling useful. It made him much less uncomfortable about the whole "free" treatment thing.

Danny heard a pair of high heels coming from behind, but didn't bother looking up, too busy trying to work out how to wring the mop out one-handed.

"Look at this, we have a new mop boy."

He looked up to find a girl maybe three or four years older than he was. She was dressed in slacks and a blouse instead of scrubs, and had an armful of folders clasped in her arms. She looked him up and down, smirking. Her eyes fell on his sling. "What happened to you? Fall off your skateboard?"

Danny scowled at her. "Do you need something?"

"A car, a mansion, a million bucks," she shrugged, leaning against the wall and-purposely, he'd bet money-blocking his progress. "Nothing you can do about it."

"Sorry, I left my genie at home in a thermos."

She wrinkled her nose, confused by the reference. "You're a weird kid."

"I'm not a kid."

"If you aren't, puberty ripped you off."

"Maybe you're just freakishly tall."

"Maybe you're just freakishly hairless?" She leaned in to squint at his face with mock scrutiny. "I've seen peaches with manlier growth."

"Nicki," Shannon appeared from around the corner, frowning over her reading glasses. "Stop teasing him. He's new here."

"I know," The girl grinned down at him. "That's what makes it fun."

Danny made the mop intangible and swiped it through her shoes-cleaning the floor and leaving her socks totally drenched.

"Hey!"

"Sorry," he deadpanned. "I'm new here. Still working out how to use this thing."

Shannon rolled her eyes. "Good grief, you two. Nicki, you're supposed to be filing those papers. Danny, it'll do you no good at all to clean the floor if you make Nicki track water all over the place."

"She started it," he mumbled.

"Well I'm finishing it. Nicki, scoot!"

Nicki tossed her brown ponytail over one shoulder, clutching her stack of folders as she stalked away. The effect was somewhat ruined by the squelching sounds her soggy shoes made with every step.

Shannon chuckled as the girl disappeared around the corner. "Looks like you made a friend."

"I think you need new glasses."

"Oh come on. That's the first time I've seen you really enjoying yourself since we met."

"Being harassed by random girls is supposed to be fun?"

"Some boys can't get enough of it."

"Some boys are nuts," he retorted. "I get enough of that crap from my sister."

Shannon smiled; so he had a sister. "Come on, put that mop away. Let's go find some lunch."

Early on I knew that a) Gabe could sense ghosts and b) Danny would eventually befriend him by saving him, but it took me a while to work out the how and when. This was my first try at the rescue, which was ultimately trashed because the timeline changed (no snow/ice) and I figured out how to work the saving-Gabe bit into the punks-with-a-gun storyline - which made it shorter, more elegant and more interesting, imho.

The truck was perched on the top of the gentle incline of the alley behind the clinic, backed up close to the big back door of the clinic. That left only a couple of yards of icy, salt-slush covered pavement to walk through. Its driver had retreated inside with a handful of paperwork and was most likely sipping hot coffee and chatting with the nurses. Jerk.

"Last of the heavy stuff," Nicki announced, dropping another box of antiseptics into his outstretched arms. He winced at the jab of pain this sent up his injured arm, struggling to shift the weight onto his other arm.

"How come I'm the one carrying heavy things through the puddles, while you get to stand in the nice dry truck and throw things at me?"

"Because I'm the girl," she said, grinning as she leaned against the side of the truck. "And Patrick said you need to work out that arm."

"Patrick can go jump in a snowdrift," Danny grumbled. His arm was getting better, he had to admit. He could turn it over with little difficulty now, and even grip things. But it hurt like heck, especially when he tried to pick things up. Whenever he told Patrick that the man would slap him on the back and tell him that meant it was getting stronger. That guy's bedside manner reeked.

Danny sloshed through the icy, wet mess and deposited the box in the storage room with the rest of the supplies. This place would be absolute heaven for the Box Ghost. He tried not to think too hard about the usually pathetic ghost getting his hands on the syringes and chemicals in this room. That would be...a lot more than he could handle right now. Not that he'd tried any hero work since then. He hadn't even tried going ghost; the memory of being utterly unable to hold a physical form for more than a microsecond was still too fresh. In this wind he could be blown away in a second.

"Will you stop that?"

He looked up at Nicki, who was staring down at him with an annoyed look. "Stop what?"

"Every time the wind kicks up, you look like you expect something to jump out and attack." She smirked. "Jack Frost out to get you?"

"With my luck, probably."

She cocked her head, looking at him curiously. "Sometimes you don't make sense, Danny."

"Just give me the next box, will you?"

She pushed a big—but thankfully, light—box into her arms, then grabbed another similar one and scooted out of the truck, landing with a little splash in the puddles. "This is the last of it."

"Yes! I am so ready for a coffee break."

"For you, it's more like you take life breaks from your coffee."

"Haha, guess so." Another gust swept over them, and Danny shivered and looked around.

Nicki sighed dramatically. "Geez, what is it?"

Nothing. But...he spotted a figure at the bottom of the hill. An old man sat bent over something sitting on a crate, a metal barrel beside him flickering with a fire. Danny squinted, trying to figure out what he was doing, when he realized he recognized the navy blue jacket. "Isn't that Gabe down there?"

"That's him. I wonder why he's not up at the clinic."

Probably avoiding him, Danny thought with a pang of guilt. He'd really scared the old man the first time he showed up. He didn't know how Gabe could tell, but somehow he knew about the ghost thing. Probably best to just pretend he hadn't seen him. Danny turned back, already thinking about the hot, fresh coffee in the break room.

A loud snap came from under the truck. It was barely audible with the noise of the nearby streets, but for some reason it made his skin crawl. Danny paused, looking back. "What was that?"

Nicki was already climbing back onto the loading platform. "What was what? Come on, stop dragging your feet, it's cold out here."

Danny took one last look at the truck. The big vehicle gently, quietly rolled backwards. It picked up speed as it went down the hill. Danny's eyes widened as he realized it was headed straight for the warehouses at the bottom- and Gbe.

Nicki gasped. "Hey, that truck is-"

Danny was already sprinting down the sidewalk. He ran hard- harder than he had in weeks, pushing past the ache from the bite scar on his leg, past the exhaustion and discomfort of running with one arm trapped-driving himself until he flew by the speeding truck.

It wasn't fast enough. The old man finally looked up. eyes widening. He stood up and took a few staggering steps to the side, but it wasn't nearly far enough. The shadow of the runaway truck swallowed him up.

Danny launched himself forward, and he might have been flying for real now, he wasn't sure. He half collided, half caught the old man in a bear hug—too late, he knew a split second before. He shoved himself and the old man into intangibility just as the truck reached them. He used his momentum to plow straight through the truck and clear on the other side. They skidded a dozen feet into a pile of cardboard boxes.

The truck hit the warehouse with an almighty boom, rattling tiles off the roof and denting the steel wall into a v-shape. Danny rolled off the old man and looked back just in time to see the truck burst into flames.

He turned back to Gabe who hadn't moved. Suddenly his heart was in his throat. He hadn't had time to be gentle; old people were fragile, right? He hadn't killed the old guy trying to help him, had he?

Gabe sat up. The last brave few wisps of hair that remained on his sunburned head stuck up wildly, and his glasses were askew, but otherwise he seemed none the worse for wear. He looked from the smoking remains of the truck to Danny, bleary eyes wide with surprise. "A spook just saved my life."

Danny snorted, flopping onto his back, still breathless from his run but grinning in relief. "You're welcome."

"Heey!" Nicki stumbled to a halt, panting, resting her hands on her knees. "You - run - so dang fast."

Danny scrambled to his feet, only to sit down hard, suddenly lightheaded.

Nicki touched his shoulder, peering into his eyes. "Hey, you okay? You're white as a ghost."

"Ghost? Ha!" Gabe cackled gleefully, ignoring Nicki's baffled look. Danny just rolled his eyes.

This one is so AU for SoaD canon that it takes some explanation.

Nicki was the original victim of the alley shooting, but at some point in the writing process and discussing it with beta readers the idea came up to have it be Shannon instead. I was looking for ways to cut minor characters as much as possible, and Nicki was one of those on the chopping block. Shannon's 'death' would have been exciting, certainly, and incredibly devastating... but that in the end was the exact reason I decided to stick with my original choice. We were in the final stages of the story and I was trying to put Danny on a path to recovery. Making him responsible for injuring the person who'd taken him in would have just driven him further away - and Nicki didn't have the emotional sensitivity to help him through the last few chapters and his encounter with Maddie the way that Shannon did.

I did write a few things in that direction, though, and this is a little remnant leftover from those explorations.

Nicki took the half block from the bus stop at a brisk walk, Shannon's keys clutched in her hand. It felt surreal that her friend was in the hospital with a freaking gunshot wound. They were putting her in surgery this afternoon.

And Danny was just gone. Nobody knew how bad he was hurt or whether he'd left town, but nobody could find him, not the police, nobody at the clinic.

Nicki had volunteered to go over to Shannon's place to let Harley out and get a few things. They were putting her in surgery this afternoon, reconstructing her arm where the bullet had splintered it. Nicki shuddered; that had been barely three blocks from her house. If it had happened ten minutes earlier she would've heard the gunshot herself.

The lights were on. That was weird. The police had come by to look for Danny, but Nicki remembered the cop that talked to Shannon saying everything was dark. Harley trotted up to her, sniffing at her hands in a friendly way, and followed her into the kitchen.

There were a few pieces of dog food still in the bowl, and Harley licked them up industriously.

Somebody had been here before her.

"Danny!"

Nicki went upstairs and threw open all the bedroom doors. Nothing, no one. She went back and stood in the living room, turning around, as if she might find him hiding under a lamp or a table or something. Nothing.

"Hey, Danny! You in here somewhere? Why are you hiding?"

Silence. The clock ticked on the mantelpiece.

Every second frayed on Nicki's temper. She clenched her fists. "You can't hide from everything, you idiot! Shannon could really use her friend right now! You could be helping catch these guys! What is wrong with you?"

Nothing. She felt like an idiot, lecturing an empty room.

"It's not your fault! You know that, right?"

Probably not. That kid took self-deprecating to a whole new level.

"Fine then. If you want to mope around and feed the dog, then whatever, I don't care. Have fun with that."

She stomped out the door, making a point of turning out all the lights and locking everything up. If he didn't want to face it, that was his problem.

A/N:

Moving right along, here's another bunch of deleted scenes! I hope you enjoy. Also can I say it's lovely to see your familiar usernames in the comments? I miss you guys.

Sapherer: That's totally okay with me, hehe.

Till next time,

-Hj