Wanna know what took this chapter so long? I wrote the first bit of the chapter on paper and then I lost the paper. But then I found it and started to type it again! Woohoo! So enjoy!
For the second section in this chapter (after the first divider mark [this thing: ,.~*~., ]), I was getting a lot of the feelings from this new song by one of my favorite bands, Demon Hunter. The song is called "The Last One Alive" and it really portrays the kind of lonely sadness I describe with Danny in that section.
Oh yeah, there's more Danny in this chapter than in the past 3 chapters. :P
Anonymous review replies:
AJ- Yus they are! X3
Destiny of the Halfa- Chapter 4
The day was, at last, over. Sam packed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, ready to go home and close her day with a cup of tea and a chapter of a good book. However, in an effort to get closer to her colleague, the young woman offered Danny a ride home.
"It's no trouble, really," she said, stepping outside the building.
Danny shook his head. "No thanks, I'll take myself home," he said, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.
Sam sighed. "Come on, I'm sure no one's ever offered to take you home before," she said. "Just give me the address and I can take you."
"No!" Danny insisted. "Just no. I don't need a ride."
"So you walk all the way home?"
Danny smiled in a half-smug manner. "A bit more complicated than walking," he replied. "I... I appreciate the offer, Sam. But no." He sat on the bench outside the building next to the base.
Sam shrugged. "All right, then. Bye." The woman headed for her black car, leaving Danny on the bench. She didn't hear his quiet "good bye", nor did she see the man's hardened face soften a bit.
She chuckled to herself, trying to decide how Danny might get home if he didn't ride, drive, or walk. He surely doesn't fly, she thought, sitting down in the driver's seat. After all, that would be silly.
,.~*~.,
Danny arrived at his house. It was a very old, very tall brick building with vines climbing the sides of the walls and the rails on the stairs. It might have been a very nice-looking house at some point, but a century's worth of wear and tear had really broken it down. It rather more looked like a house for a grouchy old man than one for a young man like Danny.
He turned the key in the lock, checking over his shoulder to see if there was anyone watching. Seeing nobody, he opened the door to the house and entered. He shut the door, hung up his jacket, and wandered into the cluttered living room.
Sighing, Danny sat down on his tattered couch. He shut his eyes and exhaled, allowing himself to relax. It had been a long day, and he felt sick to his stomach with stress. People bothered Danny, and Danny hated to be bothered. He didn't consider himself to hate people, for he always ended up doing stuff for them back in the "good old days". But now they generally avoided him and his old house on Black Road. In fact, it was rumored that his house was haunted. Perhaps that's what had Danny so baffled about Sam.
She had offered to take him home. Nobody ever did that. She seemed to see him as a human being rather than the paranoid monster a lot of his neighbors saw him as. Give her enough days with me and she won't, Danny thought.
He tried to keep his other side a secret, but everyone seemed to know it. He was a freak who had grown tired of trying to be normal and had just given up on it.
Danny rose from the couch with a lonely sigh and went to the kitchen to make some coffee.
,.~*~.,
They were screaming. They were screaming in fear, anger, and sadness. The wails pierced his thoughts, threatening to drown him in a chorus of emotion. And he hated them. He hated the screaming, the dreadful screaming...
He added his own scream of rage to the mix, swinging punches at the air; flipping, twisting. And finally, he stood in the middle of nothing, wiping the sweat from his brow. It was silent.
,.~*~.,
Danny woke up with a gasp. He sat up, rubbing a sore spot on his back. He stirred to further consciousness to realize he was on the floor, his covers in a heap beneath him.
He grunted, standing up. It was seven o' clock anyway. Nightmares were fantastic wake-up calls.
,.~*~.,
Sam had packed up her bag and was getting ready to leave for work. She had eaten a breakfast of oatmeal and a banana and watched the news. For whatever reason, she was in a cheerful-ish moor this morning. Maybe it was the fact that she felt she had made some progress with her stubborn coworker, Danny. Sam was stubborn, too- she'd do anything to get through that thick skull of his to see what was underneath.
Sam smiled confidently, shutting the door to her house and heading down her driveway to her car. She had a feeling about today, and she didn't usually get good feelings. She felt she could break through to Danny, despite his shell. There was another man beneath his cool blue eyes who the man on the surface was intent on keeping hidden.
As she drove to the base, she wondered what she would have to do to break through to him. She had just tried a friendly yet completely Sammish approach so far, and it seemed to be working. But she wondered if there wasn't another way to get the quiet, brusque man in the leather jacket and blue necktie to open up. She would have to wait, she guessed.
,.~*~.,
Danny arrived at work to find that Sam hadn't gotten there yet. He was silently pleased with this fact as he sat down in his chair and turned on his computer. He allowed himself a pleased smirk as he started on his breakfast. It wasn't that he didn't like Sam, but she just made his skin crawl. In fact, she was probably the most interesting human being he'd ever encountered. By "interesting", he meant that she was incredibly strange and seemed to be... nice enough... depsite her attitude. In fact, her attitude seemed to mimic his at times.
As soon as his monitor popped up, the door opened up behind him. "You could at least be a bit more prompt," Danny said, spinning around to give his new assistant a glare.
Sam shrugged. "I am prompt," she said. She motioned at the clock above the office door. "Eight-o-five sharp." She tossed her bag aside and crossed her slender arms.
"Eight-o-five sharp," Danny muttered mockingly under his breath, turning back towards his computer. "That's about as sharp as a teddy bear's claws."
He heard Sam sigh, knowing she was probably frustrated with his mood. Get used to it, he mentally told her. Then again, she may have been sighing at his terrible comeback. Danny thought it was funny at least.
"Same old thing today?" asked Sam, suddenly looming over the man's shoulder.
Danny flinched, disliking the close contact. "I'll answer your question if you don't hang over my shoulder like that," he growled. Once Sam had moved about a foot away, he answered her with a blunt "yes".
"I thought you occasionally 'shook it up'," Sam said.
"Occasionally," Danny emphasized, finishing his biscuit.
"Why can't today be an occasion?" asked Sam.
"Because it isn't," said Danny, becoming increasingly irritated at the young woman's annoying persistance. Why couldn't she just leave him alone and let him eat his breakfast?
"I mean, you eat the same old breakfast and wear the same old jacket and necktie... and I do hope you wash those jeans."
"I do, if you were wondering."
Sam continued. "And you have the same old routine and the same old way of doing things. Why wouldn't you want to do something different?"
Danny wanted to tell her that he did it because that was the way he did it. He wouldn't want it any other way because it would change the way he'd lived for all his years, that it would ruin traditions, that it would make his life a wreck again. But he didn't suppose Sam would understand anything he would say down that alley. Plus, it would push her to ask more questions.
"You know, what do I have to do for a little peace and quiet in the mornings?" asked Danny, slamming his cup down on his desk.
Sam shrugged. "I was only saying that you're a very ordered, meticulous guy," she said, ever-so-innocently.
For some unexplained reason, Danny suddenly felt bad about snapping at Sam. She hadn't said anything offensive. But he clung to his stubborn will and pushed the guilt away, keeping his grumpy disposition. This was one of the reasons he didn't like being around people. They made him less than numb to the world. They made him feel something other than nothingness. And he only knew how to handle nothingness. Anger and sudden guilt were not things he could deal with anymore.
"Don't say anything else unless I ask you," Danny said, running his hand through his sleek black hair. He tended to do that when stressed.
"Geez," Sam interjected, walking to the other end of the room. "I feel like I'm talking to a cranky old man."
,.~*~.,
Sam was taking another walk around the base at half-past ten. She didn't know how her colleague could sit in front of a computer and various work-in-progress devices all day and not even speak a word. Sam got fidgety being in the same room with him for too long. She'd have to remind herself to bring a few books with her tomorrow.
Sam wasn't expecting a young woman about her age to come asking about Danny, but one did just that. "So you're Danny Fenton's new assistant?" the woman asked, raising an eyebrow. She was a slightly heavyset young woman with dark skin and hazel eyes, her long black, wavy hair held back by an orange headband.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Who's asking?"
"Valerie Gray," the other young woman responded. "And that man is more trouble than he's worth."
Sam's eyebrows raised. "Oh, is he?" she asked. "I hadn't figured that out yet," she added with sarcasm.
Valerie shrugged. "I'm just saying you should be very careful around him. He's hiding something. Something big. Leave it to him not to tell anybody."
"What's this all about?" asked Sam. She turned her head to see that Danny was casting a look at her, and it was one of suspicion.
"He's not the man he claims to be," Valerie explained. "He has a secret he doesn't want anyone to know about. That's why he stays here till the latest hour possible and gets here right on time."
Sam narrowed her eyes. "Look, I have to get back to, um... assisting," she said, trying to get a good excuse to get away from the woman. Valerie was making Sam feel very uncomfortable.
Valerie handed Sam a small, folded-up piece of paper. "Have it your way then," she said. "This is my address if you ever want to come and talk about this some other time. I think you'll find the evidence I've gathered about him to be especially interesting." With that, the woman strided away.
Evidence? Sam thought, watching Valerie as she left. She headed back toward Danny's office, unnerved by her conversation. By the look Danny was giving her while they were talking, she was sure that this Valerie Gray character had met Danny before. Exactly what her beef with him was, Sam didn't know the details.
Sam subtly shoved the piece of paper into her pocket. She had to get to the bottom of this.
,.~*~.,
End chapter 4! Valerie was an unexpected plot twist even to me. Yes, I am just writing this as I go along. I have an idea for later on though. XD It's just a matter of getting there. There will be action later, I assure you.
Please review! I love feedback and I REALLY love responding to feedback! Love talking about ideas and getting ideas from reviewers. Basic scene ideas I can work with, too. Depending on if they can connect with the plot I have in mind.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and that it was worth the long wait. :3
