Or, In Which Danny Goes to Valerie For Medical Help For Once
There weren't many things Valerie had been expecting to do on a Sunday morning, but patching up her ex-boyfriend was not one of them.
Danny had just shown up to her apartment, with that sheepish grin, and had ever so politely asked if she had a first aid kit he could use. Danny had been pretty roughed up, with one arm pressed against his stomach, and a bloodied hand on the door frame. Valerie made a mental note to clean up the hand-shaped bloodstain in the morning.
But that didn't matter at the moment, because her ex-boyfriend was bleeding out.
"Ah- Uh, thanks, Val. Uh, I'll just... Uh... Fix myself up and be out of your hair..."
"I can do it if you want." Valerie immediately began asking him questions. "Who did this to you?"
"Uh, yeah, okay, thanks..." Danny coughed, "Uh. Ghost."
Valerie's hand tightened around the first aid kit. "Oh. You gonna tell me who?"
Danny shrugged. "Doesn't matter anyways, I've had worse." His eyes widened, and he clapped a bloodied hand to his mouth. Valerie assumed he hadn't meant to say that.
"What?" Valerie stared at him. "What do you mean you've had worse?" Oh god- had the ghosts gone after Danny before? His parents were ghost hunters, after all. Her ending their relationship hadn't protected him at all.
"I, uh..."
Would he have been safer in the end, if she'd stayed with him?
"Danny."
"I've... been hunting. Ghosts, I mean. Ghost hunting."
Oh. That wasn't what Valerie was expecting; she was thinking something along the lines of 'my parents job makes me a target for ghosts'. "Huh. Never took you for the ghost-hunting type."
"Yeah, well, don't go telling anybody."
"Wouldn't dream of it." She popped open the kit. "Take off your shirt," she blurted suddenly.
"What?" He twisted, wincing slightly. Valerie lifted the bandages. "Oh," He chuckled, nervously, "right."
Valerie smiled, and unwrapped the gauze. After Danny had taken off his shirt (before today Valerie never would have pictured wimpy Danny Fenton to have muscles, or those scars) she began disinfecting the wound. Most people would be in tears over it, so colour her surprised when Danny just flinched slightly. "Dang, Danny, this is pretty bad..."
"Think I'll need stitches?" He inquired.
"... No. It's more... No. You said you had worse?"
"Yeah." Okay. So he wasn't gonna elaborate on that. Valerie was okay with that, she guessed.
"You're pretty good at this..." Danny murmured. "You practice a lot or anything?"
"... You could say that..."
Danny shrugged, apparently giving up on questioning her. She was glad for that. "Thanks for, uh, patching me up, Val..."
"Well, it's not like I was just going to let you bleed out on my carpet, now was I?"
Danny snorted, mumbling something she couldn't hear.
In the end, Danny had wound up staying the night (at Valerie's insistence, though he refused to take the bed, instead taking the floor while saying he'd "slept on worse before." Danny never told her what worse was, in the end). In the morning, Valerie had woken to an empty bedroom, and wondered if Danny had gone home, only to walk into the kitchen to find him making breakfast.
"Hope you're hungry," he'd said, holding up a plate with a good 5 pancakes on it, "because I may have misjudged how much the recipe would make. Is your dd home, by any chance?"
"Uh." What.
"Hey, where do you keep the syrup? I mean, if you have any... Any kind would do, but maple would be preferred."
"Uh. There's corn syrup in the pantry."
"Oh, great!" Danny swung around with surprising grace for somebody who was bleeding out not even 8 hours ago. Valerie watched as he hopped over a chair and landed in front of the pantry.
"Top shelf."
"Mhm..." He pulled the door open, with a little grin, and practically jumped to to top of the pantry, murmuring about pancakes. "Nngh..! There we go!"
Valerie slid into a chair. "You're looking better."
"Feel better, too!" Danny chirruped, stretching his arms out. "You're pretty good at doing all that medical stuff."
She smiled slightly. "T-thanks, Danny."
