Chapter 10
Nothing's that easy
Finding Daniel 'Fairburn' was easier said than done. Despite her best inquires, Sam had been unable to attain an address or anything else of use. Finally, with darkness closing and the horror stories she had heard of what happens to women who wander big cities alone at night in mind, Sam returned to her hotel room (generously paid for by the GIW). Once back in the lavish suite she had been set up in, the raven-haired woman immediately picked up the phone and dialed her home phone number.
"Hello?" Rebecca's voice sounded from the other end of the line.
"Hey 'Becca, it's Sam. I made it to Chicago alright" Sam answered.
"How's the search going?"
"Badly, I don't really want to talk about it. Is Madison there?"
"Yeah, hang on."
There was a clunking noise and, after a few minutes, Madison's voice sounded.
"Mommy?"
"Hey sweetie, how are you?" Sam inquired in light, motherly tone.
"Mommy, where are you?"
"Mommy's in Chicago sweetie, she'll be home in a few days. Do you miss me?"
"Uh huh."
"Mmmm, I miss you too. You sleep good okay?"
"Okay."
After their brief conversation, Madison handed the phone back to Rebecca.
"Hey, so when will you be home?" she asked anxiously.
"I don't know. I'm hitting some dead ends, but I know for a fact he is alive." Sam explained in a quiet tone.
There was a brief silence from the other end of the line as these words were processed by Rebecca. Eventually she spoke in a slow tone.
"So…why would he not tell you? Or anyone for that matter?"
"I don't know." Sam whispered.
"So what are you gonna do when you find him?"
This question brought about an odd mixture of emotions in Sam. On one side, she felt almost ecstatic about the prospect of finding Danny alive. On the other, she also felt a sudden, but strong sense of anger.
"I'm either going to kiss him or I'm going to kick his ass" she growled, voicing the two conflicting emotions quite well, "I'll be calling again at some point. Tell Madison I said goodnight" and before Rebecca could answer, Sam had hung up the phone.
Still trying to process the feelings running around in her, Sam decided to simply change into a nightgown and climb into bed. However, she could only toss and turn in the unfamiliar bed as questions and emotions troubled her greatly. She stopped at one point and stared at the empty spot in the bed next to her, remembering all the times she had stared at the empty spot in the bed next to her at home.
The memories of all of those painful night caused tears to well up in Sam's eyes and she began to sob quietly, tears leaking free. Thus she sat in the dark crying quietly to herself as she had done so many times after the funeral of her husband. But now she had found that all her tears had been in vain, the funeral was a sham, and her daughter needlessly knew nothing of her father.
"Damn it Danny, why?" Sam thought in confusion and anger as the tears continued.
"Why, why, why?"
The next morning, Sam was struck by an inspiration. She looked up Garrett Long, the only other mechanic to survive the burning of the auto-shop aside from Jack and Danny, in the phone book and headed to his address. It was a small bachelor's apartment near downtown, and Sam knocked tentatively on the door. She had expected a massive, greasy behemoth of a man, but instead the door was answered by a slender, tall man with brown hair.
"Hi, can I help you?" the young man greeted the strange young woman with a smile.
"Hi, I'm Sam Fenton. Are you Garrett long?" asked the latter.
At this question, Garrett's face fell a little and he began to close the door.
"Sorry, I'm not doing anymore interviews with the newspaper; I don't know who burned down the shop and…"
"No, no, no Mr. Long! I'm not a reporter" Sam insisted, putting her foot in the doorway.
At this assurance, a look of relief appeared on Garrett's face and he opened the door once more.
"I'm sorry; they've been swamping me since the whole fire thing and all. Yes, I'm Garrett Long, what can I do for you?" he apologized before gesturing for Sam to come in.
Said young woman entered the squalid apartment and followed Garrett into the kitchen where they sat across from each other at a small card table that acted as his dining room table.
"Forgive the furniture, I'm not exactly a man of means." The latter explained as he sat down.
"Strange, you seem to be a very intelligent person" Sam observed, noting his use of vocabulary and wording.
At this Garrett chuckled. "It's true; my parents were very well to do. They sent me to M.I.T. and I graduated with a Masters in Engineering." He explained.
"So why would you be working in an auto-shop?" Sam inquired curiously.
"I found that I didn't like the rat race that came with being a high quality engineer. So, I left and started working here" Garrett continued with a grin, "I've had no regrets about it. I find that I enjoy a frugal lifestyle".
"I wish I had your attitude." Sam admitted with a laugh.
"Well, I digress, what was it you were going to ask me?" Garrett asked after he and Sam had a good laugh together.
"Right, I'm looking for someone, I was hoping you could tell me where he might be" Sam stated, her face becoming serious once more.
"Okay, who would that be?"
"Daniel Fairburn."
Sam watched with curiosity as a look of anxiety suddenly crossed Garrett's face and he began to shift nervously.
"Ummmm, may I ask why?" he spoke after a moment's silence.
This time it was Sam's turn to shift uncomfortably. On one end, the connection between her and Danny was really none of this man's business. On the other hand, he already looked unsure about talking to her about it, and keeping her reasons for looking for Danny a secret might only make him more uneasy about giving away his location. After thinking on it for a minute or so, Sam let out a sigh.
"I think he may be my dead husband." She admitted in a somber voice.
Once again, Sam's curiosity was piqued by the flash of anxiety and panic that crossed Garrett's face at her words.
"What's he so nervous about" she wondered.
"I…uhh…I knew Fairburn, but we weren't close friends or anything" Garrett explained in a shaky voice.
"He's lying." A voice in Sam's mind told her as she continued to stare blankly at him.
"Well, can you at least tell me an address of where he lived?"
"Ummm, again, I don't really know him that well so…"
Sam's temper got the better of her. But she couldn't help it. She could practically smell the bullshit on Garrett as she stood up and stared down at him angrily. The guilty look on his face fed this rage.
"I already told you, I'm not a reporter. All I'm trying to do is find my husband, SO WHY ARE YOU LYING TO ME!" Sam's voice grew to a shout.
Garrett could give no reply; the sight of this young woman who looked as though she was about to break down crying caused his defenses and will to crumble. Still, his deep sense of loyalty to his friend would not allow him to tell her that Daniel Fairburn and Daniel Fenton were one and the same. Nonetheless, he let out a sigh and gave in on one of her demands.
"He lives at 2346 Maitland Street. Apartment 4B." he revealed at last in a quiet voice.
This sudden caving in left Sam speechless for a moment, and she simply stared at Garrett in shock. Said mechanic could not bring himself to look Sam in the eye.
"Thank you" she whispered, and then left without another word.
Garrett continued to stare at the surface of his kitchen table, even after he heard the front door of his apartment shut after Sam.
"Jesus Danny, you never said you had a wife." he thought bitterly.
Danny felt the pain rocket through him as a beam of energy hit him square in the chest, sending the Halfa against a hard concrete wall. He was in ghost form, and stood to face his opponent, another ghost who was grinning down at him. The two foes were fighting inside a large, abandoned building somewhere in Downtown Amity Park, where a disturbance had called Danny away from work.
That disturbance was a Class 5 specter, one of the more powerful classes of the type. The specter shot another beam at Danny, but this time he dodged it before firing his own at the evil entity. It struck the ghost, but it simply shook it off with a cold grin.
"Is that all you got?" it chastised him with a laugh.
"No, WE ALSO HAVE THIS!" a voice shouted from behind the specter, which turned to see her and Sam, each holding a Fenton Ghost Stunner. They looked like small tazers, but fired bolts of energy that caused the molecular structure of a ghost to freeze.
She fired the first shot, but the specter managed to dodge it. Nonetheless, both she and Sam began to fire a barrage of energy bolts at the ghost. Said target was so busy dodging these shots that he did not notice Danny who flew up and grabbed the specter in a headlock.
Despite feeling confident that he had the ghost under control now, Danny soon found just how wrong he was. The evil entity let out a furious roar and flung Danny back across the room. Then, with an evil laugh, the ghost flew off through the ceiling of the building. But, rather than turning himself intangible, the ghost simply busted his way through the ceiling, leaving a large gaping hole.
There was a cracking and rumbling noise that seemed to permeate the whole building, and large chunks of rubble began raining from the ceiling. Danny's mind was drawn back to a sign he had seen on the building just before he had entered to confront the specter. The sign had read: "Warning! Do not enter! Building condemned due to instability!"
Horrified, Danny began running toward his wife and her.
"Get out!" he screamed above the din of noise as the building started to collapse, "GET OUT NOW!"
Sam was shouting something to Danny, and she was looking on in horror. Suddenly, a large chunk of the ceiling fell between Danny and the two women, and he fell backward.
"NOOOOOOO" he screamed desperately as the building caved in all around him, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Danny's eyes shot open and he sat up, breathing heavily. He glanced around and realized that he was sitting on a Greyhound Bus. Dani sat in the chair next to him and she looked at him in concern.
"What's wrong" she asked.
"Nothing, nothing, just a bad dream." Danny assured her as he leaned back in his seat with a sigh.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
Danny laughed. "Are you a therapist now?" he asked with mirth.
"No, but talking helps sometimes." Dani replied in a dead serious tone.
Danny thought about it for a few minutes, then let out another sigh, this time a deeper one.
"It was about that day. About Sam and…her" he explained tentatively.
"It wasn't your fault" Dani insisted.
"You told me that a hundred times on the way up to Chicago. I made my decision, and you did decide to help me after all."
"Doesn't mean I agreed with the decision, Danny. Running from your guilt won't make it go away."
"Thanks for the advice Dr. Freud." Danny rolled his eyes in annoyance at this familiar lecture.
"Fine then, why don't you explain to me your reasoning behind it all. I'd love to hear it" Dani hissed angrily.
Danny stayed silent for a moment as he considered the demand.
"I saw them in the hospital. They covered her up though. They pronounced her dead as soon as she got to the hospital. Sam…oh God Sam…she two broken bones in one arm and god knows what else. I visited her in the hospital later but she was asleep. Looking at her in that bed, I realized that it could have just as easily been her laying on a slab in the morgue like…like…" Danny found himself unable to continue.
"So that's why you left, why you let them think you were dead?"
"I did it to protect her. She died helping me. I couldn't bear the idea of Sam meeting the same fate." the young man whispered, his chest feeling like it had been set on fire as he recalled the painful memories.
This time it was Dani's turn to sigh. She did not agree with what Danny had done by any means. Still, she felt pity for the way things had been going for her "big brother". He had been though a lot and it had all near about broken him. Most of all, Danielle knew what it was like to be in Danny's position. The feelings of guilt and helplessness were all too familiar to the clone.
"So how long's it been since you saw the folks?" Dani inquired in an attempt to change the subject.
"Four years, they think I'm dead remember." The Halfa replied.
"Well, this should be interesting" Dani thought, but she said nothing more aloud.
Eventually, the bus pulled into Amity Park (it wasn't too long of a ride from Chicago to Amity Park; after all, both were on Lake Michigan). After disembarking, Danny headed straight for his old home. It was a creepy sense of Déjà vu, and what made it all the harder was that Danny had to hide his face during the walk to the Fenton residence (after all, many people knew who he was here).
They reached the old Fenton home, and it looked almost exactly the same, save for some new equipment that had been added to the roof.
"So what are you going to tell them?" Dani asked, a little nervous at the prospect of seeing Jack and Maddie again.
"Haven't quite figured that out yet" Danny muttered as they approached the front door.
"Well, this isn't going to be easy."
"It never is."
Danny rang the doorbell and, after several minutes, the door was answered by an elderly Maddie with grey hair. She was smiling at first, but one look at her son's face wiped it clean off, and she gasped.
"Hi mom" Danny whispered with a weak smile.
Despite it being a rather short and unactiony chapter, this chapter was important. We learned more about Garrett, more about the accident and Danny's reason for leaving. Also, I've begun to notice a lot more people using the term 'Hellbent' in their story summaries so at least I left behind some sort of legacy :). Please respond to my work in a review if you wish. It lets me know if the story is going the way I want it to. Cheers.