Chapter 7: Formation of Brotherhood.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Fosters.
AN: The first chapter in the rewrite written brand new for the story. Please review, and hope you guys like it.
Connor's POV:
The rest of the day was entertaining to say the least. We were introduced to Danny's special condescending way of insulting people who looked at us wrong. We were introduced to the sassy side that he reserved for adults, as well, during our first class with him.
Biology with Ms. Jackson.
Now, she is probably the most loathed teacher in the school. When Jude and I showed Callie, Mariana and Brandon our schedules and they all saw that we had her for a teacher, they all winced.
"Dude that's too bad, you got the Cryptkeeper for Bio." Brandon had said.
"You might want to make sure you have a pillow for her class." Mariana had joked.
"I need three shots of espresso to stay awake in her class." Callie had said, dead serious.
Our first day in her class, we were horrified to discover that they weren't exaggerating at all. She was an ancient droning fossil of a woman, and it was near impossible to stay awake in her class. Jude and I were convinced that she was being so boring on purpose. She would ask students questions, and when they got it wrong, she would practically insult them.
Now, we sat in class, and Jude and I were snickering at the nauseous look of absolute horror that Danny wore on his face as she droned on and on.
"You alright?" I whispered to him.
"I can feel my IQ draining by the second." He uttered in terror.
Ms. Jackson asked somebody a question.
"YOU! What does RNA stand for?" She barked.
"Uh. I don't know, ma'am." The boy answered.
"Well, you would if you bothered to open a book." She sneered, "I swear, kids these days. I wonder if you are literate at all half the time."
The boy sniffled, and Danny's demeanor again changed. He stopped looking horrified and started looking pissed off.
"Are you kidding me right now?" He deadpanned, "That was uncalled for, madam."
She turned to him, shocked that somebody had spoken up against her.
"I don't expect a foreigner to understand how things work here." She sneered.
"And I don't expect an old fossil like you to understand how things work in the 21st century, but teachers aren't supposed to talk to students like that." Danny sassed, "You're being paid to teach Biology, not make your students cry. If I'd had a teacher like you back in Scotland, they'd have fired quicker than you could speak a syllable."
Jude and I snorted, which had the unfortunate side effect of drawing her attention onto us.
"Something funny, boys?" She sneered.
"No ma'am." Jude said quickly.
"Leave them alone." Danny growled, "Or I'm gonna file a complaint with Vice Principal Adams- Foster. What we she say if she found out you were treating your students this way, her son among them. Hmm?"
She glared at him for a moment before turning back to the white board and scribbling furiously on it.
"Oh, and by the way? RNA? Stands for Ribonucleic Acid. Which is covered properly in the next chapter. Not this one." Danny sassed.
Jude and I were trying desperately not to topple out of our seats. It's kind of difficult when you're laughing so hard.
As we were leaving the class, word spread via text from student to student, and within minutes people were talking about Danny slaying the Cryptkeeper. Danny just rolled his eyes as we walked down the hallway to Poetry II with Mrs. Carlson. He was walking backwards as we walked forwards.
"Why are you walking backwards?" Jude asked him.
"I want to. Besides, it rude to talk to somebody without looking at them." He joked.
When we arrived at poetry, we quickly learned that the only reason Danny was taking this class was because he wanted an easy A. He certainly had the skill for it. He was far better at writing poetry than me. When the final bell rang, we strolled out onto the sidewalk in front of the school. Danny turned to the two of us and pulled out his phone.
"Hey, I'll be right back, okay?" Danny said, "I gotta call my mom and ask if I can stay over."
He walked away with a look of excitement on his face. Jude and I turned to each other.
"So now that we're alone... what do you think of him?" Jude asked.
"He's cool. Protective. Nice. Underneath all the snark, he seems... sad. Lonely." I said, "And did you see how he was with the baseball team? I know the one who threw the fastball. Derek Rodriguez. Nobody has ever been able to catch one of his fastballs before, and Danny caught it and batted it back into his face like it was nothing."
"He's kind of intimidating." Jude admitted, "But underneath all that, he's pretty cool. He just needs friends."
"JUDE! CONNOR!"
Danny rushed back up to us, his iPhone clutched in his grasp. He was smiling.
"Okay, so I talked to me mum." Danny said as he approached us, "She said I could stay the night, since it's Friday. I just have to catch a ride with you, Jude."
"Sounds great." Jude said, "Come on. We gotta go. Momma gets impatient if we make her wait. See you later, Connor."
"See you later Juju." I said, leaning in and placing a light kiss on his cheek.
As the two of them started to walk away, I heard a car horn honk and a loud voice.
"COME ON CONNOR!" My dad's voice exclaimed from behind me, "WE'VE GOT PIZZA TO PICK UP!"
I laughed to myself as I slid into the passenger seat of my Dad's Suburban.
"What kind of pizza?" I asked.
"Only kind worth eating. Meat lovers pizza." Dad said.
I refrained from pointing out the small unintentional innuendo my Dad had just let slip
"So how was your day?" Dad asked, "You seem extra chipper today? No problems with the idiots today?"
"I'm not that lucky, but today was good." I told him, "Made a new friend today."
My dad looked at me surprised.
"Really? That's good." He said, "Who is he?"
"His name's Danny." I said, "He just moved here from Scotland. He's cool. He scared the whole baseball team half to death."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah.
"How'd he manage that?" Dad asked.
"Rodriguez threw a baseball at us. One of his fastballs. Danny snatched it out the air, and batted it back with his walking stick. Hit Rodriquez in the nose. Then he screamed at them. It was awesome. He even stood up to the Cryptkeeper in Bio. You'll like him when you meet him tonight when you drop me off at Jude's."
"Is he... ya know? Gay, like you and Jude." Dad asked awkwardly.
"Yes dad. He's like me and Jude." I said exasperatedly.
"Okay. That's fine." He said.
"This is still surreal." I said honestly, "You not freaking out over this kind of thing."
"Oh please." Dad scoffed, "I walked in on you and Jude making out shirtless three months after you started dating. If I can handle THAT, you having gay friends is about as scary as you cutting yourself shaving."
I groaned.
"You're never gonna let that go are you?" I asked.
"Nope. Probably not." Dad said with a smirk.
The rest of the day flew by at the speed of sound. We went home, ate the pizza, watched TV until it was time for me to go to Jude's house. I grabbed my backpack and followed Dad to the Suburban. Within minutes we were pulling up outside Jude's house.
"Come on, I want you to meet Danny." I said.
I led Dad inside and Stef met us at the door.
"Hey Connor, they're out back waiting for you." She said.
"Thanks Stef." I said.
I led Dad out into the backyard. He stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of Danny.
"Dad, meet Danny Evans." I said, "Danny this is my dad, Adam Stevens."
"Jesus Christ." Dad said.
Danny was wearing the same black "KGB" ensemble he had wore to school.
"I see what you meant in the car." Dad leaned over and whispered to me, "You sure know how to pick them, don't you?"
"Told you." I said.
"It's nice to meet you, sir." Danny said, reaching out to shake my dad's hand.
"Same to you." Dad said, "Connor told me about how you stood up for them."
"I protect my friends." Danny said simply.
Dad laughed.
"You and I will get along just fine."
Dad stayed for ten minutes before taking his leave. We enjoyed having the house pretty much to ourselves, since Callie, Mariana and Brandon were all away at College. We pigged out on snacks, or at least Danny and I did. Jude doesn't like snacks that much. We cracked up at Danny's myriad of jokes. We convinced Jude to watch the original version of Night Of The Living Dead. He spent half the movie rolling his eyes at the primitive special effects. We were playing video games, and Danny was showing us how to beat a mission in Fallout 4, that neither Jude or I could ever seem to beat.
"So, how long has it been since you stayed at a friend's house?" I asked Danny.
"Long time." He said.
"I could tell." I said, "When you told us your mom okayed it, you were practically giddy with joy."
I hadn't even finished the sentence, when Danny froze.
His shoulders dropped and he slumped. His breathing changed, and his eyes started turning red.
"Excuse me for a moment." He said, and quickly made his escape back to the backyard.
I turned back to Jude, confused.
"What did I say?" I asked.
"I don't know." He said, "Go make sure he's okay."
I nodded and made my way out to the backyard.
Danny was standing in the middle of the yard, and his shoulders were shuddering with sobs. He was staring at something in his hands that I couldn't see.
"Are you okay, Danny?" I asked, now genuinely worried.
Danny jumped, and shoved whatever he was holding back into his wallet, which he then shoved back into his pocket.
"Um. Yeah, I'm o-okay." Danny croaked, his voice breaking showing just how not-okay he really was.
"You wanna talk about it?" I asked.
"No." He said flatly, "I don't."
"Okay. Fine. I won't push." I said, "But if you ever need to talk, or a shoulder to cry on, Jude and I are here for you, you know that right?"
Danny eyed me for a second, before he sighed and nodded.
"I know." He said, "It's only been a month. It's too soon to talk about it yet. Just... give me time, okay?"
"Of course." I said.
Having said all we needed to say, we rejoined Jude in the living room and resumed playing Fallout 4. Danny threw himself into it, starting a new saved profile and just butchering every living thing he came across to vent some pent up emotions.
We played it until midnight. Danny had just mowed down three Super Mutant Masters with an upgraded mini-gun, and he paused the game and saved his progress before handing Jude the controller.
"I'm beat, guys." Danny said, "I'm gonna go to bed, okay?"
"Yeah, dude." Jude said, "We're getting tired too. We'll be up in a while."
"Okay. Goodnight." Danny said.
"Night, man." We said.
No sooner than we heard the door to Jude's room upstairs close, did we turn
"Was he okay?" Jude asked me.
"I don't think so, Juju." I responded, "He was crying. Like, full on sobbing. Something happened to him, and whatever it was, it was really bad."
"Did he say anything?" Jude asked, "Did he tell you anything?"
"Yeah, he didn't say much." I responded, "He said that it's only been a month since it happened and he's not ready to talk about it with anybody yet."
Jude thought about it for a minute.
"Well, when he feels like he's ready to tell us, we'll be here for him." He said.
"Yeah." I said, "I'm glad he's our friend. He's a really cool guy."
Neither Jude and I knew it, but Danny was sitting at the top of the stairs listening to our conversation. He smiled to himself, and slowly and quietly he stood up and went back into Jude's room.
He pulled out a small photograph and stared at it for a second. He kissed the photograph, and wiped away the tear that streaked down his cheek.
"You told me that I had to find others who could help me, Giddy." Danny whispered, "I found two of them. You would've liked them. They would have loved you, as much as I did. I much as I still do."
He stared at the photo. It was a photo he hated, but loved with all his heart. A photo he couldn't bear to part with, despite being a reminder of what happened. Fourteen and a half years worth of memories, happy and sad, flashed through his mind. Danny's composure crumbled, and the overwhelming feeling of heartbreak that had been present, but kept at bay for a month finally overpowered him and he fell to his knees. After a few moments, he forced himself to crawl into the spare bed and curled up under the blanket.
"I miss you, Gideon." He cried, "I miss you so much, beloved."
Danny let go, and cried as hard as he possibly could, the laminated photo still clutched in his hand, clutched close to his chest.
When Jude and I finally came up to go to bed, we found Danny still awake, crying softly, trying to fake being asleep. We shared another glance at each other, but left Danny alone.
It killed the both of us to know that, at the moment, there was nothing we could do to help heal his shattered heart.
All we could do was be there for him. And we would be...
Always.
AN#2: Okay, so that's the first completely new chapter of the rewrite. Hope you liked it. It felt good writing new stuff with Danny in it again. In the original story, I showed that he was heartbroken and traumatized by what happened in his past, and I wanted to show a little bit more of that in the rewrite.
Please leave lots of reviews, with any ideas or prompts I can use, and tell me what you guys think of the new stuff.
