Chapter Ten: Sam and Tucker plug the holes of a sinking ship.
It was funny how quickly something could be taken from you. One moment as resilient as ever, the next all signs of life snuffed out. As fleeting as a candle against the wake of a slamming door.
Sam gently held what was left of the withered rose in her palms. Her hands were steady as she inspected the dried up petals. Nothing but dust remained; Vlad had all but destroyed the plant. His heat had been so fast and intense that he had almost mummified the flower, leaving a hollow shell in its place. Sam felt a terrible sadness take root somewhere deep inside her. There was no amount of nurturing that would bring this flower back to her. At least not in its original form. All that vibrance and softness had been permanently altered.
She turned amongst the remaining flora in the glass house and peered up at the side of the manor, up to the third floor window. She wondered if Tucker's discussion with Danny was going any better. Vlad had stormed out of the greenhouse, determined to get as far away from her as possible. He seemed to be unsure of how to deal with guests that he couldn't outrightly kill or control. It was probably better in the long run anyways. The further away Vlad was from all of them the better.
The more answers she dug up the more questions she unearthed. It felt as if Danny had entombed this part of himself far away from them without their knowledge and they were left frantically trying to exhume him. Like a disease attacked a plant, they needed to cut this off at the roots if they had any hope of coming out of this intact.
The soft noise of water dripping and the chirps of frogs outside was interrupted by a electronic vibrating noise. Sam blinked, shaken out of her thoughts as she fished around in her jeans for her phone. Seventeen missed calls. Like a jolt of lightning Sam remembered Jazz and her promise to involve Danny's parents should Sam and Tucker not return last night.
Sam flicked the phone open with a wince.
"Jazz." She greeted, voice strangely sweet, "So... don't be mad."
Tucker and Danny's conversation was going a bit better than Vlad's and Sam's had gone. Danny hadn't iced any living creature or plant life into oblivion. He also hadn't attempted to terrify Tucker into submission. He was - if anything - being more open than he had ever been before.
This honesty wasn't something Tucker was used to. This Danny wasn't someone Tucker had ever met before. It was almost like he was meeting his best friend for a second time.
"Sam's okay." Tucker frowned, "She's a bit shaken up and she has some marks on her back, but if anything she seems stronger than before."
Danny made no attempts to mask his relief.
"She shouldn't be." He told Tucker seriously, "She should be dead."
Tucker shivered.
"Or-" Danny continued, "Really sick. She shouldn't be walking around. And she shouldn't be feeling better than she did before. That makes no sense."
"What do you mean?"
Danny said nothing for a long moment. Tucker watched his puzzled face shift as he struggled to reconcile something.
"Vlad said you were here to talk about the Portal?" Tucker prompted, "Did you figure out what you needed to know?"
The question was hopeful. Obviously Tucker wanted to figure all this out and get out of here as soon as possible. If only things were that easy.
Danny got up out of the bed and moved to the window. The room was still strangely dark, like an underexposed film strip. Even though the lights were on they were ineffective against Danny's icy mood. Tucker was struggling not to shiver.
"I learned what I already knew. So really, I learned nothing." Danny told him cryptically, fingertips tapping along the windowpane for a long moment before he heaved a sigh. He gazed out at the world outside where it was a balmy eighty degree day. Where birds were singing and life was thrumming.
"And what did you already know?" Tucker felt the impatience growing inside him. He tried to restrain himself from getting mad. Danny stiffened and turned around, giving him an apologetic smile as if he could feel Tucker's annoyance.
"Sam didn't tell you already?" He raised an eyebrow, sounding pleased.
Tucker rolled his eyes.
"Yes, yes. Sam's loyal. She keeps all your secrets, even when pissed at you."
Danny leaned against the wall as he shook his head a little. Sam never ceased to surprise him. Just when he thought he had irreparably damaged their relationship she still found a way to forgive him. Danny wasn't so sure he should be forgiven.
"Look, Danny. Explain." Tucker found the anger he had been trying to hold back was washing over him now as he watched Danny turn away from him again and look out the window.
This was serious. Sam had scratches on her back. They were at Vlad's. There were cuffs on Danny's wrists. Tucker was impatient to get out of here. This place gave him the creeps and Danny was behaving was like it didn't bother him at all. Fury battered through him and Tucker found himself standing up.
"What is going on? Because I really don't get it. Hell, this is the first time I've even seen you or really talked to you in months."
Tucker's chest was heaving, eyes glaring, hands balled into fists. He felt the tirade swell and tumble out of his lips as his body took several aggressive steps forward until he was inches away from Danny's face. All that pent up hurt was pouring out. Danny spun to look at him, his eyes bright and wide. For some reason he looked… almost like he liked Tucker being this mad at him. His expression only served to piss Tucker off even more.
"You hurt Sam when you broke up with her and never gave her a reason why, and you keep hurting her over and over again. I want to believe that you have a good excuse, but you attacked her last night. I can't keep standing up for you. There's a limit to how much asshole-ery I can take and we're reaching that limit."
"I know." Danny suddenly looked afraid. Afraid of what? Losing Tucker and Sam? Tucker didn't understand. It was Danny that had pushed them both away from him, not the other way around. "And I promise there's a reason for my… asshole-ery. Although, it might not be an excuse."
"I thought you were the good guy." Tucker accused. Danny stiffened at his words, his face growing stormy.
"Things aren't black and white Tucker! People aren't good and evil! Grow up! It's not that simple!" Danny nearly yelled back, glowing eyes cutting through the darkness as he lost control of his cool and the room dipped into the teens.
"I didn't say they were!" Tucker defended. Abet, a bit of his bravado whooshed out of him in the face of Danny's anger.
"I can't keep being what you want me to be. I can't keep pretending to be a hero. I tried, but it's not enough. Pretending doesn't make it real. It's not healthy."
Tucker started at that.
"Where is that even coming from? I've never called you a hero. You've always been just my best friend. Do not put this all on me." Tucker muttered. But he knew it was a lie even to himself. The line between awed worship and best friendship had blurred a long time ago. It was why Tucker always struggled with his role: sidekick or friend? Because the two weren't mutually exclusive and came with their own sets of baggage. It was why Tucker found himself perpetually jealous or disappointed in Danny. Because he whenever he found he was viewing Danny more as a hero his own self-confidence fell by comparison, which inevitably turned into jealousy, which turned into a fight.
"I'm not putting it on you. This is all on me." Danny frowned, calming a bit.
"What are we even putting? And where are we putting it?" Tucker asked, bewildered and finding himself - as usual - terribly lost within Danny's multiple layered metaphors.
The pair of them stared at each other for a minute, looking back at the ridiculousness of the conversation. Simultaneously they both gave a sharp peal of embarrassed laughter, and Tucker felt the heavy haze in the room lift a notch or two, making it easier to breath.
"So? Explain?" Tucker asked after sobering as he crossed his arms and gave Danny a pointed look.
"Ok." Danny held his hands up in surrender, still smiling slightly, "I told Sam that I thought I was a portal."
Tucker blinked.
"What?"
"A portal. I am a ghost portal. Vlad is a ghost portal. Danielle is too, maybe? I don't know for sure, but I do know that the Fenton Portal doesn't do anything."
Tucker shook his head for a moment as he tried to wrap his head around what Danny was saying.
"So what does that have to do with anything?" He asked.
Danny's smile faded.
"It has everything to do with everything."
Sam was holding her phone about two feet away from her ear, and still, she could make out what Jazz was yelling.
"-Called you a million times! The least you could do was shoot me a TEXT or SOMETHING! I thought you guys were all DEAD-"
Sam rolled her eyes as she waited for Jazz to scream out her peace. It took a full minute and a half, but soon enough, even Jazz ran out of air.
"Are you done?" Sam asked in a monotone voice.
"God, sometimes you're such a-" Jazz trailed off, but Sam could easily fill in the blank. It didn't really upset her. Jazz was in the right; Sam should have called her. But everything had happened so quickly. Last night was all but a blur in her mind. Sam could hardly believe it had happened herself, and she had been the one who had experienced it. And then this morning she had forgotten in the urge to figure everything out and leave.
"I'm sorry. I should have called." Sam told her, "Did you… you know?"
"Tell mom?" Jazz's voice sounded tired suddenly, "Of course I did."
Sam felt her heart start to pound in her chest.
"And?"
"She freaked out of course. She nearly ended me for not telling her sooner and then left this afternoon. She should be there by tonight or tomorrow morning."
"Dammit, Jazz!" Sam cursed.
"What was I supposed to say?!" Jazz shouted back, "Danny never came home! He was missing for half a week! She was a day away from calling the police and filing a missing persons report!"
"She's only going to make things more complicated."
"Why? What's going on?"
"I don't know." Sam admitted, quieting. She ran a hand through her loose hair and nearly tugged it out at the thought of Danny's mother - and Vlad - in the same house. Or Danny's mother seeing him like… like he had been last night. The epitome of an uncontrollable malignant entity. Just like she had always thought Phantom had been.
"Sam." Jazz's voice was suddenly calm and soft, "What happened? Why don't you want her there? Is it something about Danny's powers? Did Vlad do something to him?"
Sam knew she couldn't tell Jazz what really happened. About how Danny had attacked her. At least not until she talked to Danny about it herself.
"Danny's just sorting through some stuff." That was putting it lightly.
"What sort of stuff?" Jazz's voice was suddenly highly suspicious.
"You know. Like… stuff his mother shouldn't need to know about." Sam winced at what that sounded like, but here she was, once again, lying for Danny.
There was a long pause in which Sam was certain Jazz was rapping her fingertips together like an old movie villain, or stroking her nonexistent beard. Sam had the distinct impression that Jazz was like a telephone psychic, capable of sending a probe through the line and into her ear. It seemed that no matter what Jazz was able to see right through her.
"You're still protecting him. You won't tell me what's really going on. You're lying to me."
Sam flinched at the accusation, but Jazz was plowing forward. Her voice was ice cold. Sam had never heard Jazz sound so frigid before.
"Why do you feel the need to lie to me? Do you think I can't handle whatever is going on? That I can't help? Why do I always have to find out what's going on with my brother myself?
"I don't know any more than you do!" Sam hissed.
"You know way more than I do." Jazz retaliated sharply, "Do you like being the one that holds onto all of Danny's secrets?"
Sam didn't answer, but yes. Yes she did, in some weird way, get pleasure in being Danny's confidant. Although, hearing Jazz unraveling her psyche was a little stomach turning. Sam never liked when Jazz showed her just how predictable and typical she really was.
"We're on the same team. Remember?"
"Of course we are." Sam struggled.
"So? Let me in on what's happening."
Sam didn't answer. She knew that if anyone should be here to talk to Danny it should be Jazz. Whatever was haunting Danny seemed to come from himself, his own mind. But, Jazz was too far away to do any good, and as it was now there was a time limit on getting this whole mess sorted out lest Madeline Fenton find out what her son was really capable of.
Sam's hand was shaking slightly as she held the phone up to her ear. She felt as if some of the trust she had built with Jazz over the past few years was crumbling away.
"Now you won't even speak to me? Sam?" Jazz's voice was like a knife, "These secrets are only pulling all of us further apart. You should know that better than anyone by now. Let me know when you want to have a real conversation."
Sam opened her mouth to defend herself, to say something - anything - to get Jazz to not be mad at her, to get her to understand, but she was met with the quick chime of the phone call ending and she stared down at her screen, seeing Jazz's smiling avatar peering accusingly up at her.
She spent a minute standing in the atrium, sadness creeping through her. She wondered if she had done the right thing by not telling Jazz. Jazz's parting words were tumbling around in her though, taking hold in her mind as Jazz's words often did. All these lies Danny had built for himself had only been tearing them all apart. Jazz was right. Sam hoped that by the time they had purged everyone of all of their dirty laundry they would still walk out of Vlad's manor in one piece.
Regardless, however, Sam knew that they had to figure things out before Maddie arrived.
Sam turned on her heels and marched right out of the greenhouse back into the manor. She moved quickly up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and without pausing swiftly made her way down the hallway. Tucker had had long enough and Sam needed to let them both know of the impending arrival of Danny's mother. Really, it was silly for her to stay out of this. She wasn't afraid of Danny. Maybe she had been last night, briefly, but not anymore. Something much bigger was going on - that much was clear from the things Vlad had said. Danny had some sort of obstacle to overcome or else those cuffs were going to remain a permanent accessory.
With a soft breath, Sam shoved the door into the bedroom open and stepped inside without preamble. It looked very much the same from last night. It was still cold and it was still dark, despite the fact that it was a beautiful day outside.
Danny was by the window and had already had his gaze upon her before she had even entered the room.
Tucker spun to look at her.
"Sam- What are you-? I told you to stay-"
"I gave you more than enough time to yell at him." Sam crossed the room in three strides, "Besides. Danny won't hurt me. Right?"
Sam ignored the way that Danny seemed to try and shrink back away from her against the wall as she approached. His muscles tensed as he breathed her in. Although, he looked more like himself than he had last night. The room itself suddenly felt lighter, more livable.
"No." He told her.
"Good." Sam grabbed her cellphone and waved it, "Because I just got a call from Jazz. Seems your mother is on her way."
"What?" Danny breathed, face pale.
"It's time to let us in on everything." Sam told him, voice softer as she pocketed her cellphone again, "Time to let us understand. No more secrets. No more lies."
tbc...
A/N: Short set-up chapter, but you get all the answers in the next one. C: This chapter took a while to write and I'm anticipating the next one to take just as long...Dialogue isn't my forte, but I'm working on it.