Chapter 14:
Danny POV-
"Okay…um...my family consists of you guys, my brothers, my Aunt Danielle, Thomas, Mikey, Aunt Jazz, Uncle Peter, who she met at Yale, Carrie, and Grandma and Grandpa Fenton," she started. Of course, I knew all of this but I let her go on.
"Wait so Danielle comes back," Sam asked for clarification, and Wren nodded, "Jazz will be thrilled when she finds out she got into Yale. What about my parents?" she wondered.
"They left when Amity Park got taken over by the ghosts, I haven't seen them since, but they didn't like me very much anyway…of course they always gave expensive gifts…" Wren said thoughtfully.
"That sounds about right," Sam shook her head in frustration, "Continue. When did the ghosts take over?"
"When I was seven. Vlad brought all these ghosts from the ghost zone to be his army. They started with Amity Park and then they took over the world," she continued. I had suspected as much but the actualization of my thought was still frightening. "…Dad, you are the leader of the resistance. Mom, you handle weapon distribution, Tucker is in charge of hacking, Dash is…was, chief of police, but is now on the front line of defense with you," she continued.
"Wait, so Dash and I are friends?" I wondered.
"Yes," she nodded.
"That makes what he did to you ten times worse. I'm going to kill him," I growled, my eyes turning green.
"Don't," she shook her head, "he doesn't know what he did, and I'm over it anyway. It just really creeped me out at the time. Plus, I'm pretty sure James wouldn't forgive me if I let you kill his dad," she smiled.
"Who's his mom?" Sam asked.
"She doesn't live here, but her name is Liz," she told us.
"Who does Tucker end up marrying?" I wondered.
"Umm…you wouldn't believe me if I told you," she smiled awkwardly.
"Who?!" Sam asked, a little louder.
"Paulina," Wren told us finally.
"No way! Are you serious?" I questioned, unable to picture Tucker with Paulina.
"I told you you wouldn't believe me," she shrugged, "Their daughter is staying with Paulina, I'll see if I can point her out to you, but she definitely inherited her dad's love of technology."
"Wow, invite her over to my house tonight, we'll have fun watching him guess who her mom is," I laughed and Wren smiled.
"Okay, breaking time stream rules all over the place today. Clockwork is going to be pissed," I grinned.
"Wren Elizabeth Fenton, watch your language!" Sam scolded.
Wren suddenly embraced her, taking Sam off guard.
"Sorry," Wren sniffed after a moment, rubbing her eye, "You just have no idea how much I miss hearing that," she rubbed her eye again, "How did you know Elizabeth was my middle name?" she asked after a few seconds.
Sam didn't seem to know the answer to that question; "Maternal instinct, I guess…" she shrugged, putting her arm around Wren's shoulders.
"So Clockwork brought you here?" I asked, breaking up the mother-daughter moment.
"Yeah, you asked him to," he told me.
"Why?" I inquired.
"I had been wondering the same thing until about ten minutes ago," she told me.
"So…we didn't tell you?" I guessed.
"Nope," she glared at me.
"Don't look at me like that! I'm sure we had our reasons, and you know now so…" I defended. How can I be defending a decision I haven't even made yet?
"So…do you think I have ghost powers?" she asked quietly, wringing her hands in her lap and looking up at me. I sighed; something tells me I will get manipulated a lot by her.
"I don't know," I admitted, "I guess there's one way to find out." I changed into my ghost form and stood up. Wren stood up too, grinning in anticipation.
"Try not to expect too much, I don't know if this will work," but I could tell everything I just said passed from one ear through the other, "I'm going to make you invisible. You see if you can hold it, okay?"
Wren nodded vigorously. I made myself invisible and touched her arm.
"That feels weird," she giggled.
"You get used to it," I told her, "Now I'm going to let go. Focus on holding it." I slowly removed my fingers from her arm and, right away she became visible again. She was disappointed.
"Sorry, Wren," I told her.
"One more time?" she asked.
"It doesn't work like that," I told her.
"Pleeeease, just one more time?" she pleaded, "I know I can do this!" I sighed. I definitely will be getting manipulated a lot in the future.
"Okay. One more time," I agreed, once again touching her arm. Wren took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "Okay, I'm letting go." I told her and removed my fingers. The invisibility faltered and I almost told her that it had not worked when she became invisible again.
"Is it working?" she asked anxiously.
"Yep," I told her, shaking my head with a smile on my face, "It works."
"Really?!" Wren asked in surprise, opening her eyes and causing her to lose focus. The invisibility faded and she was once again standing in front of us, grinning from ear to ear.
"So now you can train me, and Jackson!" she bounced up and down on her heels.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I held up my hands, "Who said anything about training you? If I didn't do it in the future something tells me I won't like that I'm doing it now."
"But that is kind of your decision," she smiled at me hopefully, and then changed to a more serious look, "I know you don't want me to help fight the war, but, I'm tired of being helpless. I want to know that my parents—that you guys are alright, and that I did everything that I possibly could to help. Please, please, let me do this."
Wow, three for three, she is definitely good at that.
"Alright," I agreed finally. She squealed in delight and hugged me.
"Thank you, daddy," she grinned.
"Yeah, yeah," I chuckled, "now go back to class so your mother and I can talk." Wren giggled but obeyed running back inside to return to class.
Once she was gone, I let out a deep breath.
"Wow, we're going to be parents, is that as weird to you as it is to me?" I wondered.
"Definitely," Sam agreed, leaning back against the bleacher behind us, "and you know she just played the 'daddy's little girl card' three times, don't you?"
"I knew I was just manipulated, I just didn't know it had a name," I chuckled again.
"Yeah, it's basically the first thing all daughters learn regarding their dads, I'm just surprised you fell for it so easily," Sam told me.
"Yeah, well…when I was in Jackson's dream last night…he had a memory of the day she was born…and I guess I was just thinking of when I saw myself holding her…" I smiled involuntarily.
"Hmm…how did I look?" Sam smirked.
"Well, for someone who had just had a baby you looked pretty damn good," I smirked back and Sam laughed.
"Jazz is going to want to know that Carrie is her daughter," I said, voicing the thoughts that were running through my head.
"Yeah, they're a lot alike: preppy, obsessed with getting into Yale, don't like my clothes," Sam laughed and I laughed too, "Except Carrie must spend a lot of time with us in the future because she has great taste in music."
I laughed again, and suddenly realized how close my face was to Sam's. I studied her face. Her perfect smile, the little dimple she gets on her cheek when she laughs, and her beautiful amethyst eyes. I pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and she paused giving me a bemused smile. I leaned in quickly, and kissed her. Sam kissed me back, wrapping her arms around my neck in response.
This kiss was so much better than any fake-out-make-out we had ever had. Because now, I wasn't just kissing my best friend, I was kissing the girl who I now had absolute confirmation that I would be with for the rest of my life.
We pulled apart and she smiled at me, leaning her head on my shoulder.
"So how do I look in the future? I don't get fat do I?" she asked in mock horror.
"No, you look great," I grinned.
"Paint me a picture," she mused.
"Kind of like…Jennifer Connelly…but with prettier eyes," I told her.
"Hmm…Jennifer Connelly, I'll take it," she laughed like she was trying it on for size, "What about you?"
"Me?" I questioned.
"Yeah, who do you look like in the future?" she poked me.
"Hmm…John Stamos," I decided.
"You look like John Stamos?" she arched an eyebrow at me, not buying it.
"Yes," I insisted.
"Hmm…with or without the mullet?" she continued.
"You wish I had the mullet?" I smirked at her, making her laugh.
"Oh yeah, totally," she laughed again, "But something tells me our kids wouldn't forgive you for that."
"Maybe not, but something tells me, that with me fighting a war and all, they won't have enough embarrassment in their lives," I asserted, and Sam chuckled again, "So, it's decided then, I'll grow a mullet."
"Business in the front, party in the back?" she smiled.
"Oh yeah," I laughed, pretending to slick back a mullet, making Sam burst out laughing.
Suddenly the football players ran out onto the field, which meant that it was already fifth period.
"Should we go tell Tucker he has a daughter?" Sam asked.
"We shall," I said, extending my elbow for her to hook on to. She did, looping her arm through as we headed to lunch.