Danny stared blankly at the wall of the hospital waiting room, his sister and mother were both missing from the room. He didn't want to think about any, he didn't want to think about how his dad was having his third surgery, or how it's been two days since he's been stabbed, or how all this was his fault.
"Stop thinking." Danny jolted in his seat, turning to come face to face with Anderson. "You should have gone to school."
"And miss any news on my dad? No thanks." Danny sighed, turning his gaze back on the wall.
"This isn't your fault." Anderson attempted to comfort the teen, taking a seat in the stiff blue chair. "It was a wrong time, wrong place situation."
"He wouldn't be there if it weren't for me." Danny mumbled, resting his chin on his hand. "If I didn't mess up, then none of this wouldn't have happened."
"Danny you didn't do anything." Anderson sighed, eyes trained on the teen. "If anything this is Masters fault!"
"You won't get it." Danny pushed the tears that pricked at his eyes back. "He just-He has to-"
"Your dad will be just fine." Anderson reassured. "Soon enough he'll wake up and it'll be okay. His name will be cleared, Masters will be in prison. All will end well." Danny looked over at Anderson, eyes glossy and gave a small smile.
"Nothing is ever that easy for me..."
Danny groaned at the view of himself in the mirror, his eyes flashing to look at the pile of clothes that sat in the corner of his room. It's back to school, and he's forgotten to do any laundry, Sam was going to love this. Danny stood, dressed in ripped black skinny jeans, an over-sized Star Wars shirt. He didn't even remember packing these. Danny laughed and shook his head, remembering how he got these. The jeans came when he lost a bet with Sam and had to go goth for a week. The shirt came when Tucker got it for his birthday and thought he'd grow into it because of his dad's genes.
"Danny, your friends are here." Danny tossed his bag over his shoulder and rushed out of the room. He shouted a see you later and was almost out the door only for a hand to hold the door down. He looked over to see Lancer holding out a paper bag. "Breakfast. We have this conversation every morning."
"Sorry." Danny chuckled, taking the food. "Thanks."
"Danny...Danny...Danny...DANNY!" Danny jumped, focusing his eyes on an annoyed Sam. "I know a lots going on, but you need to stop zoning out." Sam groaned, taking a bit out of her lunch.
"Sam-" Tucker started, looking at the goth shocked. Danny's eyes turned to a glare.
"A lot going on?" Danny hissed, glaring at the vegetarian. "I can't right now, Sam."
"That's the thing! You don't seem to be able to do anything!" Sam threw her hands in the air. The movement gathered the attention of a few students in the area. "You're constantly ditching Tuck and I, we only see you in class and ghost hunting!"
"I'm sorry I've been so damn busy trying to fix this whole mess" Danny hissed, his voice lower than Sam's. "Quiet down before everyone in the school knows."
"Sam, cut Danny a break." Tucker cut in, trying to defuse the anger building between the two. "His dad's in a coma, it's going to be a little hard to be here."
"That's no excuse to ditch your friends-"
"Sam, Danny-"
"I'm Done." Danny grounded, getting up from his seat. Leaning forward, he hissed out. "If your done doing this, you know where to find me." Before either of the two teens could stop him, Danny was out of the cafeteria. Leaving behind a distraught Tucker, and a fuming Sam with all the student body in the cafeteria staring at them.
"Didn't think I'll see you back up here." Chris smirked, turning to see Danny take a seat next to them. "What brings you here?"
"My friends are being dipsticks." Danny sighed, annoyance spiking when he realized he left his lunch at the table. "Probably will be up here a lot more often."
"Best place to be alone." Chris mused, puffing out some smoke from his cigarette. "Sucks about the friends, it's around times like these you find out whose your true friends."
"Yea." Danny shook his head, tugging the sleeves of his shirt over his hands. "At least Tucker is more understanding."
"You'll always have one friend" Chris emphasized by holding out his index finger. "That one friend that sticks by you, especially when you least expect. I advise you to take their advises to heart." Danny absentmindedly nodded, his mind rolling over Chris's words. If he listened to Tucker, than when Clockwork shows up he would take him up on his offer. Sam thinks its not worth the risk, but she hasn't been very understanding.
Internally groaning, Danny just didn't know what to do. Too many different options and decisions that might just cause his whole world to fall apart. Or fix it. Everyday there seemed to be a new issue that just keeps adding onto all this anxiety that has been festering since Lancer called him in to his office. All of it overloading the teen...
"I didn't see you in class." Dash spoke, taking the swing next to Danny. "Did you skip because of what happened with lunch?"
"Everyone knows about that now?" Danny groaned, running a hand down his face. Dash gave the other teen a sad look.
"If Manson and Foley can't understand everything" Dash spoke, his eyes trained on the brunette. "Then they aren't really your friends."
"Tucker, he gets it. It's just Sam." Danny sighed, and shook his head. "I'm just going to give her space..."
"Best thing to do." Dash nodded, kicking his legs softly. The two fell into a silence, as usually happened during a meet up at the park. Danny shivered lightly due to the cold air, tugging his sleeves down. He glanced over at Dash, then back down at the grass.
"Hey Dash." Danny prompted, earning a glance from the jock. "If you had the chance to go back, to stop what had happened before, would you?" A silence filled the air, Dash mulling over Danny's words. Danny's heart hammered in his rib cage, worried he shouldn't have asked.
"Actually, no." Dash shook his head, a thoughtful look on his face. "It was because of all that that I'm where I am now. I mean, I probably never be friends with Paulina or Kwan if that hadn't happened."
Danny nodded, biting his lip. His mind racing to figure out what he should do. Clockwork was offering him a way out, now having to find out if his dad woke up or not. Sighing, Danny shook his head. He still had sometime to figure it all out... hopefully he did. Danny jolted, pulling his phone out from his pocket. Without checking the caller ID, he answered and pressed it to his ear.
"Hey?"
"Hey Danny, it's Anderson." Came a barely concealed excited voice of his male social worker. Danny froze for a moment, his mind working to figure out what happened.
"Anderson? What happened? Is everything okay, is-"
"Danny" Anderson cut in, Danny heard him take a deep breath. "It's about your dad... Danny, he just woke up."
Danny had rushed straight to the hospital. He could barely believe his dad has finally woken up, his day just took a good turn. He only hoped it stayed that way.
"Have you seen him?" Danny sniffled, hugging his sister. "Where's mum?"
"Yea, they're having us go one at a time." Jazz smiled. "Mum's in there right now, and he's doing just fine. Have you been sleeping?" Jazz asked, her eyebrows furrowing at the bags that had darkened under her brother's eyes. Danny smiled sheepishly.
"I've been getting a few hours." Danny rubbing the back of his neck. "I've been busy with hunting, and school work." Jazz raised an eyebrow, her features letting Danny know she didn't believe a thing he was saying.
"Is that all?" She questioned, and Danny nodded. Even if he was lying, those two things did play a large part of it all. Given last night he hadn't had much ghosting hunting... or homework, it had mostly been his anxiety and thoughts that kept him awake. "Danny-"
"Hey baby!" Maddie cut in, exiting her husband's room. Her eyes were red rimmed, tears were clearly being held back. "How are you?" She questioned, concern clear in her voice as she hugged Danny.
"Yea, I'm fine mum." Danny smiled, hoping the slight falter of his voice went unnoticed. "Can I see him?" He asked. In response he got a vigorous nod.
"Yea, yea you can." Maddie gave a slightly forced smile, pulling away from the hug, but kept her arms on her son's shoulders. "He's a bit off, they gave him some painkillers." Danny nodded, making his way to his father.
"Hey Dad." Danny spoke, sliding into the room. His eyes watered more seeing his dad hooked up to a few machines, dark bags under his eyes. "Hey, are you okay?" Danny smiled, sliding into the chair next to his dad's bed. His dad's face lit up.
"Hey Danny-boy!" Jack grinned, pushing himself into a more seated position. "It's take more than this to take down a Fenton." Danny couldn't help the genuine smile that slipped onto his face. Leave it to his dad to always keep his attention on the positive of things.
"Yea, how could I forget." Danny mumbled, swallowing around the lump in his throat. He placed his hand in his father's larger one. "what...What happened? It's just they wouldn't really tell me and-"
"It was just a wrong time, wrong place issue." Jack cut in, gripping his son's hand. "And it isn't your fault. Before you deny anything, Agent Anderson told me about your talk." Danny sighed, and shook his head. Wiping a few tears that slipped by.
"It's hard not to..." Danny mumbled.
"Even though, I don't blame you." Jack spoke, his face serious before a smile overtook it. "I've got good news though. They had proof that I never hurt you, I'm a free man!" Danny froze, wide eyes landing on his dad's grinning face. His jaw drop, waiting for his dad to tell him it was a joke. But he did. A grin spread on Danny's face, he threw himself into his dad, hugging him. A laugh rumbled from Jack, as he hugged his son back, the grin never slipping from his face.
"That means you'll be going home with Jazz and Mum?" Danny questioned, pulling away. The smile still fresh on his face.
"All of us will be together soon." Jack grinned.
Things were starting to go in a good direction. He'll be home soon and there will be no need for Clockworks offer. Vlad would even be off his back, and serving time that he definitely deserved. For once Danny felt like everything was going to end in his favor, nothing could go wrong. Everything seemed set, and he couldn't be happier...
AN: This took me longer to write, even though its short, than I expected because I had hit a small road block. I want to prolong the issues a bit longer before any other big shit happens.
Sorry for bitchy Sam, but not sorry. I had rewatched Phantom Planet, and god was Sam being a bitch. I didn't like how everyone was acting because Danny took his powers away, like wth its up to him if he wants to have to worry about being a hero or a government agency doing painful experiments on him. Yea, maybe what prompted him to do it was a shitty thing but it's still his choice. He didn't have powers when they first met, so his powers don't define him. Everyone was acting like he's always had the powers, and they have always been a part of him.
Anyways, Jack is alive! Here's an upside for Danny.
Depending how I order the next chapter depends how many chapter there are in total, but just a heads up I'm not planning for this to be a long story. I'm also planning more Danny bonding with Chris and Dash. I want to write more Lancer, but I don't know much about him. I'm going to try, but if I hate it, it probably wont happen.
I want more Lancer cause he did start all this after all, just gotta hope I can write the chapter well enough to publish. Lancer would probably be extremely ooc
Well, let me know what you all though. Review, favorite, follow, all the Jazz. Thanks 3