Time frame: the day after the episode "What You Want"
((because that was the PERFECT GOD DAMN OPPORTUNITY for character development))
Hero
x - x - x
Man, I really screwed up this time. By nature I hate admitting I'm wrong, but I can't remember ever having been this wrong before. And look at him, he's not even mad. Man, oh man. This is worse than that time I confused Pajama Day in fifth grade and wore mine a full week early. I didn't think I'd ever be wrong-er than that.
I'm your best friend. I'm not jealous, I'm concerned.
Maaan.
Sam's pulling the disc out of her PS3 and putting in disc two of Paranormal State - Season One. Danny used to hate these woefully inaccurate ghost hunter shows (go figure, his parents kind of turned him off to ghost hunting as a career with overexposure). But now that we've been sucked into the biz (not by choice, mind you) we all get a major kick out of it. I mean, what's not funny about a bunch of grown men standing in a dark basement and speaking to the air, then going "Shh shh I think I heard something! Oh god HOLD ME!" It's a laugh riot.
Danny goes instantly from blankface to this funny intense look like he's about to scream, and I shield my face with our shared blanket just in time for his sneeze to fill the air. When I emerge he looks contrite. Sniff. "Sorry Tuck. That one came outta nowhere."
"I swear to god if you get me sick.." Sam warns under her breath as she clicks through the menu screen, looking for a good episode.
"You got us sick," Danny retorts, his voice distorted through his plugged up nasal cavities.
"Maybe, maybe not. You could've caught a different strain. So keep your sneezes covered if you want me to stay healthy enough to take care of your sick butts."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." Danny casts me one of his sidelong smirks. Danny and I have a wealthy store of 'looks' which say different things. We've been friends so long we can pretty much have entire conversations without saying anything aloud (which they did in class, all the time). This particular smirk is the 'you and I both know Sam's probably wrong this time but we will let her think she's won the argument in the interest of keeping us all sane' smirk.
Normally, I would give him the halfhearted eye roll which says 'I'm not particularly on board with pretending Sam is right when she's not because that girl doesn't need her ego fed, but I am on board with keeping us sane so I'll keep my mouth shut this once.' But instead I only gape at Danny. How is it even possible that he's slipped so swiftly back into bro-mode? No 'grovel at my feet and do me favors till I forgive you' period?
"What?" Danny says instantly. "'Mm not leaking, am I?" he whispers, quickly wiping at his nose with a furtive glance over at Sam who has finally decided on the fifth episode.
"Hh, no," I snort, unable to contain it at Danny's worried face.
Man, if the script was flipped, if Danny had done to me what I had done to Danny, I'm not sure I'd have been so readily forgiving. What does that say about me as a friend? As a person?
What does that say about Danny?
This episode is even dumber than the last. When someone drops a flashlight and everybody yelps like frightened animals, Danny laughs so hard he knocks over the bowl of popcorn and it spills all over our blanket (which is now covered in the germs of three sick people, so maybe it's about time it gets washed anyway).
By the time Sam comes back with a new blanket, one not covered in greasy popcorn butter, Danny has skipped through the end credits to the next episode.
"So are we marathoning this? Is that what we're doing all day?" Sam asks us, tossing the whole thick blanket over our heads. "Because as much as I love taking care of you guys, I do have to check up on the greenhouse later."
"You do that whenever you want," Danny replies as we finally got the blanket untangled from our arms. "Me and Tuck'll just wait here, miserable and dying."
Sam lands flat on her stomach, crushing our legs under the blanket, and yawns with disinterest. "Don't be such a baby."
"Miserable and dying!"
"It's just a cold Danny, you guys don't even have to stay in bed all day. You should get some fresh air. You guys could chill in the greenhouse with me while I water – "
"Pass," we reply in unison.
"Lazy," Sam accuses.
"Sick," Danny counters, waving a finger sassily. "Not to mention exhausted. Dead tired. Beat."
"You already napped for like four hours earlier! What did you guys doyesterday, run a marathon?"
I shuffle uncomfortably beneath the blanket, averting my eyes from the other two, opting instead to watch the fat pigeon which is skipping outside on Sam's windowsill. I've been dreading this conversation.
But, "Not much," is all Danny says. His feeble shrug wiggles the pillows behind us. "We were.. pretty bored without you around I guess."
Sam smirks. "Well I am the fun one."
I stare at Danny questioningly, but Danny doesn't so much as glance my way. What is his deal? Isn't he going to tell Sam? Isn't he going to mention what a complete and total ass I made of myself? Doesn't he think he deserves to gloat about being right just a little bit? This is totally unlike Danny to just… pretend that nothing happened. If I was in Danny's place, I would never let him live it down. So what gives?
Instead of being smug about it, here is Danny, palling around with me as if I had done no wrong. Danny snorts at the show and hits me in the shoulder, flashing me the did you hear that, wasn't that damn hilarious look. But I can't find it in me to laugh.
When Sam abandons us later to see to her plant babies, Danny acts no different.
"I nominate you to change out the disc," he says quickly, when the end credits of the last episode on the disc fill the screen.
Normally I would argue, but instead I sigh and roll off Sam's bed. What would normally be a comfortable silence as I rifle through the Paranormal State case feels awkward to me, as I search for something to say to my best friend.
I pause, twirling the third disc around my middle finger. "Danny…?"
Danny looks up, blinking and startled, like he'd been half-asleep. "Huh? What?"
"Why… why haven't you said anything to Sam?"
"What do you mean?"
"About what happened. Yesterday."
"Oh. Well, I dunno." Danny scratches his cheek absently, looking genuinely befuddled at my inquiry.
My free hand went to my hip, and I felt the strange need to defend myself. Against what, I wasn't sure. "I'm just confused. Normally we make fun of each other and give each other crap all the time, for stuff much smaller than this. I just can't understand why you haven't said anything!" I threw my hands up in exasperation, nearly flinging the disc off at the ceiling. "You just.. let it go! I mean, you're really not even gonna tell Sam?"
Danny frowns back at me, sniffing weakly. "Well… no? I figured it was your business. If you want to tell her you can." He wipes at his nose again before folding his arms with a huff. "And of course I just let it go, Tuck. What are you dumb? It's not like it was really your fault. You were under the influence of Desiree's powers. I'd be a dick if I held a grudge over you for that."
"Yeah but…" I grimace, feeling my insides squirm. "It's not like it was allDesiree, and you know that. It never would've happened if I hadn't been a jealous ass to you in the first place."
Danny just shakes his head. "Look, whatever. We're both asses, okay? I'm over it though, so you should get over it too. And put in that disc before it flies off your hand, and sit down before you fall over. You look terrible."
I grin at him, amused despite myself.
I end up telling Sam what happened myself, although Danny butts in every five seconds to throw in his two cents. ("Oh come off it Tucker, it wasn't that bad"and "okay yeah but that didn't really hurt, stop beating yourself up!")
And… something dawns on me which I had always kind of known. Obviously I became friends with Danny because he was a good person. He was fun, we had stuff in common, and as time went on that spark blossomed into full-blown best-friend-dom. But this whole experience slapped me in the face, and I realize now that Danny is a straight up Good Person. A better person than anyone I know, actually.
Better than me.
Danny being a 'superhero' has kind of been a joke so far. His 'ghost powers' are new, and so is the whole 'fighting ghosts' thing, and whenever Sam or I call him a superhero it's largely an inside joke between the three of us. Making light of the strange and scary situation that has become of Danny's life.
But for the first time, I'm a bit stricken. I'm seeing my sarcastic dork-of-a-friend in a brand new light, and the word 'hero' seems perfectly relevant. For the first time, Danny becomes somebody whom I look up to. Someone who inspires me to be a better person.
