Chapter 21
My cross to bear
Garrett was awakened by someone nudging him slightly, and his eyes opened with a start. Before him stood Danielle, who was looking down at him with a slight smile. For a moment Garrett admired her beauty in the morning sun that filtered into the Fenton RV. He had been sleeping in one of the beds near the back over the night.
"Morning sleepyhead, you were out for quite awhile." Dani observed with a giggle, "Anyway, we're there."
The latter stood up suddenly. "We've made it to D.C. already? What time is it?"
"Almost ten in the morning; like I said, you were out awhile."
They had left Amity Park about nine o'clock the previous night. Each had taken a turn on the wheel (Garrett's had been sometime between Indiana and West Virginia). Now, Sam was driving in silence as they roared down the main road. Garrett stood and looked out one of the windows. The Washington Monument could be seen a few yards off.
"Okay, so let's find a hotel. We pool our money together and we should have decent amount I think." Sam called back to her companions.
"No objections here. We'll need some place to plan our next move." Garrett agreed with a nod, turning his attention to Sam and sitting down in the passenger's seat.
"Out of curiosity, do we even know what are next move is going to be?" Dani inquired.
"That's why we need a place to plan one out." Said greenhorn Halfa replied absentmindedly as he consulted the Fenton GPS for directions to the nearest hotel.
As it turned out, the nearest hotel was a La Quinta only a few blocks from the White House itself. They moved into a simple room with two beds (Sam and Dani agreeing to share one). However, Garrett had insisted access to the internet. Now, as Sam dropped off the last of the equipment they had brought with them in the room, said engineer was setting up a laptop and several other tech implements.
"Setting up surveillance over President Foley will be difficult. They won't let us anywhere near him." Garrett pointed out as he typed away on the computer.
"If I can get a message to him, he'll grant some concessions I'm sure." Sam replied confidently.
"They're not just going let you walk in and talk to him, or send messages either; he's the most important man in the country." Dani reminded her "sister-in-law".
"If he knew I was here, he'd let us help him!" the latter insisted resolutely.
"Then I suppose that just leaves contacting him."
A silence hung over the group as each tired to think of a way to contact the President. Eventually, after some time of silence, during which, Dani and Sam unpacked some more of the Fenton Ghost fighting equipment they had brought with them, Danielle spoke up.
"I have an idea" she said slowly, "that just might work."
Sam smiled appreciatively at her.
"We're all ears."
A group of men all dressed in black suits and wearing dark sunglasses stood in the Oval Office. They all stood at attention when the office door opened and in stepped President Tucker Foley.
"Good morning gentlemen. We have much to discuss. About the State Dinner this evening…" the president began.
"Sir, if I may, I would once again voice my objections to the Dinner this evening. With all that had been going on lately, and based off intelligence from the GIW, Masters remains a serious threat. I believe you should cancel the event, or at least not attend yourself, sir." The leader of the men suggested for the third time that day.
"Baxter, I have already told you before and this is the last time we shall have this conversation: I am the President of the United States. People expect to be able to see their leader in this country. I will mix and mingle; it is just as important I do so as balancing the budget. I will attend the party this evening." Tucker repeated what he had said twice before, much to Dash Baxter's displeasure.
Tucker moved over to his desk and sat down with an exhausted sigh. "What else is on toady's agenda?" he asked.
His aid began naming off other things on his agenda that day, but Tucker was only half-listening. His attention was drawn to an envelope sitting on his desk. He was a bit surprised at first, having not noticed it before. After a few seconds, he picked up the envelope, opened it, and began to read the letter inside. As the president read the message, he garnered a smile that grew wider by the second.
"Mr. President, sir?" his aid inquired, seeing his boss distracted so.
"Mr. Heath, we had some State Dinner invitations left over did we not?"
"Yes sir, we did."
"I would like you to send one to the La Quinta in on Jefferson Boulevard, room 346, and see to it that it arrives there as soon as possible." Tucker instructed the man, who wore a puzzled expression at these instructions.
"May I ask who the invitation is for, sir?"
"Just an old friend, now come, there is still much to do." The president replied, standing up and exiting the officer, with is aid and several of the Secret Service men following.
Agent Baxter did not follow them immediately, but instead took a brief moment to investigate the letter which President Foley had left on his desk. He scanned over the document, and his eyebrows rose when he saw the name signed at the end.
"Sam Fenton, well I'll be damned." He thought with surprise.
Dash scrutinized the letter no further, and exited the Oval Office as well. No one had noticed the invisible Danielle who stood in one corner of the room and smiled at her successful delivery of the letter.
"That's one part of the plan done, onto the next one." She thought, fazing through the wall of the Oval Office, leaving it abandoned…
Or so she thought. As soon as Dani was gone, another invisible source picked up the letter off the desk and disappeared with it.
Garrett, after finishing his own preparations, and feeling a want to explore the city while Dani and Sam carried out their own tasks, had set out into D.C. to do some sightseeing. After all, there was no sense in waiting in anxious worriment back in the hotel room…and he had always wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial and other such sights. Garrett had intended to do so with his parents at one point, but of course they had been killed in a car accident on the way to his graduation ceremony at MIT.
The young man shook his head in an effort to clear his thoughts of such dark memories as he strode down the crowded streets of Washington. Garrett spent the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon visiting different sites. Each one filled him with a sense of awe, and had his mind not been weighted down with other matters, he might have enjoyed himself.
However, when he eventually neared the Washington Monument a wild, yet appealing idea entered his head. Checking to make sure he wasn't being followed, Garrett ducked into a nearby alleyway and shifted into ghost form. He had already more or less mastered going invisible, but flying was something new to him.
"Okay, focus on what you want, focus" he thought, closing his eyes tightly.
Like when he was going invisible, Garrett focused on the charge of energy that seemed to flow through him. This time however, he willed it to lift his body. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and looked down, after which, he let out a sharp gasp. He was indeed floating, a few feet above the ground. Focusing even more, he found he could make himself go even higher. However, as it turned out, floating was the easy part, next came steering. It took a bit of time and experimentation, but Garrett eventually developed a method for moving around. Once this was accomplished, he aimed himself toward his target, the Washington Monument. With a bit of adjustment, he headed straight for its pointed pinnacle and paused in a hover just above it.
Still invisible, he attracted no attention as he gently landed on the top of it. It was not the easiest position to maintain, and he had to balance himself carefully, but none the less, Garrett Long stood at the top of the Washington Monument and stared out over the city below him. It was a gorgeous sight.
"You know, I could really get used to this sort of thing." He said aloud.
"I thought that at one time." A voice replied, shocking Garrett so much that he actually lost his balance and began to slide off the tip of the monument.
Something seemed to catch him under the arms and keep Garrett aloft until he regained his senses and continued providing his own flotation.
"W…who's there?!" he demanded.
"Relax Bobby, don't need you hurting yourself." The voice replied.
"Danny?"
"We should go somewhere we can talk. This way." Garrett felt Danny take a hold of his hand and guide him away from the monument back toward street level. They both landed in an alleyway, where both Halfas went visible once more and shifted back to human form.
"What are you doing here?" Garrett asked once they were back out on the sidewalk.
"Valerie told me that Vlad planned to assassinate President Foley. What about you?"
"We tailed Vlad here with the Fenton Ghost Tracker."
" We?"
"Me, Dani, and Sam."
Danny froze in mid-walk. "Sam's here too?" he asked anxiously.
"Yeah, she's helping us find Vlad. How did you find me?" Garrett answered the question in an almost nonchalant way, much to Danny's ire.
"Don't act like my wife being here is unimportant!" he hissed angrily.
"What's the difference!? She's not here looking for you!" the latter replied with equal anger.
They both stared at one another for a moment, each matching the other's will. It was a very tense silence.
"Look, let us help you, we're all here for the same reasons."
"I never asked for your help."
"I'm your friend; you don't need to ask for it!"
"BOBBY, I DON'T NEED YOU AND THE GIRL'S BODIES ON MY CONSCIENCE!" Danny shouted desperately, causing Garrett to once again fall silent.
"How long are you going to keep carrying around your guilt, Danny? About Jazz, about Sam. What's the point of always lugging that burden around?" he whispered.
"It's my burden to bear, my cross, not yours. Valerie…Jesus Christ, Valerie died in my arms. Vlad stabbed her, killed her, and I swear I'll make the cocksucker pay!" Danny muttered as he turned and walked away from Garrett, "go home and take the girls with you, Bobby."
"You if need help, we're staying at the La Quinta on Jefferson Boulevard, room 346. We're not going anywhere." Garrett shouted after him.
Danny said nothing in reply as he disappeared into the crowd of people on the sidewalk.
"We're not going anywhere." His friend whispered the line a second time after Danny.
Danny wasn't sure how long he walked aimlessly along the streets of D.C. Eventually, he finally made his way back to the motel where he was staying after he and Wulf parted company the previous night.
"Good luck my friend. Much hangs on your success" he remembered the werewolf's last words to him before heading back to the Ghost Zone.
Now, Danny sat down on the bed in his small room with deep sigh. Garrett's words ran about in his mind.
"How long are you going to keep carrying around your guilt, Danny?"
"About Jazz, about Sam."
Maddie's voice joined the others in his memory.
"No one blames you for Jazz's death. You have to stop blaming yourself."
Danny buried his face in his hands as the voice continued to sound in his brain.
"Is that how you cope with the guilt, then? Drown it out with booze?"
"I deserve this."
"Why didn't you tell me about her?"
This last voice caused Danny to look up from his hands at the blank white wall before him. After several minutes of near catatonic staring, he came to a decision. Some part of him said that it was not a smart one, but he ignored that part and reached over to the phone sitting on the nightstand next to the bed. He picked up the phone and took out a phonebook from the drawer of the stand. After flipping through several pages, he found the number he was looking for: the La Quinta Inn on Jefferson Boulevard.
He dialed the number and listened to the phone ring.
"La Quinta Inn front desk, how may I help you?" a curt voice answered.
"Yes, can you connect me to room 346?" Danny requested.
"Yes sir, just one moment."
There was a dull, lulling sound, following by the phone ringing once more.
"Hello?" a voice Danny had missed so long answered.
"Sammy?" he whispered.
There was a silence on the other end for a few minutes.
"Danny? Is that you?" Sam's voice came through again at last, sounding shaky.
"Hey Sammy, how you doing?"
"Where are you?"
"You know I won't answer that."
"Danny, please…!"
Another silence as Danny chose his next words carefully.
"We can talk from here, can't we?" he asked tentatively.
"Why? Why did you leave? Why didn't you come home?" Sam began immediately.
"I was protecting you."
"Protecting me? By leaving me alone?"
"Sam, please try to understand! I didn't want you to share the same fate as Jazz. I couldn't bear the thought of that."
"So instead you'd abandon me?!"
"I knew you were tough enough to take care of yourself. You've always been a fighter, Sammy."
"That's more than I can say for you, running from your responsibilities as you did!" Sam's anger finally burst forth.
"I didn't run from them, I accepted them! I accepted the responsibility of protecting you, even if that meant separation. You think I haven't missed you? You think I haven't regretted what I've done?!" Danny replied, his tone not changing.
"Then let what's done be done. We can work something out, if you'll just meet with me face-to-face." Sam insisted.
"Sam, I'm sorry, I can't." Danny whispered.
Sam, seeming to take this as his closing remarks before hanging up, shouted desperately: "You have a daughter!"
Danny fell silent and his heart rate quickened. He had already known this fact of course, but still, hearing it from Sam still heightened his anxiety.
"She…she has your eyes." Sam contoured in a broken voice, clearly in tears on the other end.
Without another word, Danny slammed the phone down on the receiver, unable to continue the conversation. After this was done, he went back to staring blankly at the wall. Finally, the tears came. They poured from Danny's eyes as the weight of his guilt, added by his failure to be a good father, crushed down on him yet again.
And so that was how he spent the rest of the afternoon, crying on his bed over the family he had lost…
…the family he would never have.
Contact at last! I know many of you have been anticipating that. :) If it fell short of your expectations, than I apologize, but it is only the first conversation between our favorite couple. And it leaves still enough questions I think to keep you lot interested. More background on Garrett as well, he's had a rough early life no? Review and give me your opinion on the chapter if you will. Cheers.