A/N: Hey, all you wonderful readers! Remember how I said that things were only going to go downhill from now on? Well, we hit a little turbulence, which as you know, can be very unpredictable on those rides. But this was a necessary chapter and so, might as well get it out the way on our way to the crash landing. So, beside the IDNOAC thing, here is Chapter 35. Enjoy—and put on your parachutes!
TrueHeart—Chapter 35—Catching A Breather
Danny and Sam startled again at still another loud crash they heard coming out of the alley they were just passing.
"What was that?" Sam loudly gasped.
Danny and she both instinctually ran into the alley to investigate the sound. In their worry, they both had instantly forgotten their woes and problems.
"I don't know, but better safe than sorry!" Danny answered back, instantly changing into Phantom as he ran.
They saw a very big black cat hunched over an unmoving ebony dove. Its jaws were too close to the small bird, as if the cat was going to eat its victim, when, in fact, of course, it was the enchanted lynx worriedly nudging his wife.
"Hey! Get away from him!" Sam yelled in protest to the cat, thinking that it might attack the bird again.
The wildcat startled at her yell.
Thinking now that they were new attackers, the lynx immediately twisted violently toward the human, hunching and tightly curling his body into an attack position.
When Danny saw the creature's intention, he reflexively stepped in front of his girlfriend. Just as he did, the lynx let out a wild roar. Without hesitation, the animal pounced upon the black-and-white entity in front of him.
Danny gasped when he could clearly see that this was no ordinary cat. It was a wildcat.
But he did not know that these were ghosts because the concentrated ghost masking gas was still deeply embedded in both the ghost animals' bodies, snuffing out their ghostly auras and making them undetectable to Danny's ghost sense. And because their aura was gone, their pelts looked authentic. For all Danny knew, then, these were real animals and that was a real, angry, and dangerous wildcat with his outstretched claws almost upon them.
The boy didn't question why a wildcat was even here, and fearing for Sam's safety, reacted instinctively. He immediately fired an ectoplasmic ray at the cat and the force of the impact slammed its body into the side of the building. The beast whimpered in pain just before he lost consciousness.
"I'm sorry, Sam!" Danny immediately said, flying toward the still cat.
"That's OK, Danny! He did attack you!" she replied sympathetically, understanding that he was sorry for hurting any animal.
Sam joined Danny in a heartbeat. After looking over the unconscious cat, she worriedly said, "You didn't shoot him with a strong ectoplasmic ray. It couldn't have hurt him this much! He looks like he's been in some kind of fight!"
Pointing to the still bird, Danny asked, "With that bird?" He instantly winced, knowing what a stupid thing that was to say. A bird that small could never have inflicted that much injury on this wildcat. It was totally impossible. Still, Danny couldn't understand why that in spite of the animal's multiple scratches—especially a rather long one on its side—and the torn-up fur, the wildcat wasn't bleeding.
Sam smirked at his reaction, but didn't comment. She turned back to the lynx and said, "He's not that big. Maybe I should take him home?"
"What?! Are you kidding?" Danny gasped. "That's a wildcat, Sam, not a kitten! He looks like some kind of bobcat or lynx. But I didn't know they could be all black. He must be rare! And just how did he get here?...Hey! He must have escaped from the zoo. We need to get him back!"
"NO!" Sam gasped in dread. "I don't want him there!"
"They're not going to hurt him, Sam. They'll help him. We don't know anything about taking care of those kind of animals—especially wild ones!"
"But we can take care of him. They'll just put him in a cage, and…"
"And I'll put him in a cage, too, if you keep him. C'mon, Sam!" he said more firmly this time.
But she didn't budge. Her thing about animals was still one of her crazy obsessions, and it would be hard to convince her to change her mind. After all, there was the 'Samson affair'.
He finally said, "And, by the way, letting four-hundred pound wild gorillas—or any other wild animal for that matter—out of their cages doesn't count as 'caring for them', you know."
"Funny! But I don't want him to go to the zoo!" Sam said. Then looking at Danny with pleading eyes, she conceded, "OK. I'll let you put him in a cage if you'll let me take him home! I'm sure he was more scared of us as much as we were of him. He just needs time to heal and then we can let him go!"
"I don't know, Sam. But, if we're going to bring him home for now, maybe I should be the one to take him."
"You know I've always been the 'cat person' half of us. And I promise that if he doesn't get better in the next couple of days, we'll bring him to the zoo."
He looked at her in surprise. That was different. She seemed like her 'old self'—sorta—and maybe she was working out of that kind of irrational weirdness about animals after all. "All right," he finally said. "But just for a couple of days, and then we take him to the zoo. Agreed?"
"Agreed!" she said with a weak smile. But then she said, "But does he really need to be in a cage?"
"Sam," he slowly replied with a frown, drawing her name out in slight reprimand.
"OK! I was just asking," she continued with a cringe, giving in. She then added, "Now, let's take a look at that bird he was attacking!"
They went to the where they had seen the dove. Danny carefully made a clearing among the boxes so that they could get near the bird, and not harm it any further. When he saw it, he gasped at its beauty. For some reason, he thought it must be a 'she' on how beautiful it looked. And especially since he hadn't heard of doves' being black. Her ebony feathers seemed to shine like the purest of silk. But then he noticed the sharp contrast of the blackness with the liquid redness soaking through the discarded paper still plastered against her chest.
"Oh, Danny, it's hurt bad!" Sam moaned, unconsciously drawing her hands up to her mouth at the dreadful sight.
But Danny noticed that the bird's chest didn't rise or fall as it should. He hated to tell his girlfriend, but he knew he had to. "I don't see her breathing, Sam. She might be dead!"
Sam didn't question why her boyfriend called the bird, a 'she'. The dove was so delicate and beautiful that the girl, too, thought the bird could be a female. But, of course, they could be wrong. But it didn't matter right now.
Sam gasped with her boyfriend's last words. "I hope not! Can't you do something to help her?"
He jolted at his next thought. "Hey! I almost forgot about my healing powers! But I don't know. She might be already gone. And I've never tried to use it on animals before. Do you think it might work on them?"
"At this point, it couldn't hurt the poor little thing," she said with a worried frown, even though underneath she was glad that he had offered to try.
The boy squatted next to the silent dove and slowly extended his left hand toward it. He was afraid to even lift the paper off of its chest as he gently touched it. And just as he touched the little bird, his hand glowed with blue energy, which quickly surrounded the dove. The small animal shuddered violently under the effects of his energy, and fearing he had hurt it more, Danny pulled abruptly back and extinguished his healing power.
"I didn't expect that," he said, obviously worried. But then, the bird shuddered again. Though encouraged that at least it wasn't dead as he first thought, he still was concerned. He added, "I hope I didn't hurt her more. And maybe I should wait to see if it worked before I try it on the cat. I don't want to hurt either one any further. I'm still not sure of this new power."
"Well, I think you would know. And I think you're right, Danny. But I'm glad you tried. At least the dove isn't dead. Still, we should take them to a safer place. They both will surely die in this cold."
Still looking at the dove, he replied, "OK, but we should keep them separated, at least for the bird's sake. You take the cat and I'll take the dove home. But, for now, maybe you should carry the dove. After all, she's probably lighter. No offense, of course."
"None taken," She said with a dry smirk. He was right after all. The wildcat would be heavier than an ordinary house cat, and neither she nor Danny wanted to risk dropping the animals.
Danny gently scooped up the senseless cat with both of his arms. He did this with ease, but he was still careful to support it.
Sam pulled the discarded red flyer off the unconscious bird and breathed with relief. It wasn't bleeding any more. In fact, she couldn't even see any dried blood. But she didn't think much of it. Maybe Danny's healing power had worked after all. But even if it hadn't, she still was glad that the wound had stopped bleeding.
She also gently lifted the small bird up, and it was much lighter than she thought it would be. She transferred it to the crook of her elbow, making sure that it was secure there. She knew that she would have to hold onto Danny now that both of his arms were busy supporting the wildcat.
She slowly wrapped her free arm around his waist and he carefully lifted off, turning them all invisible as they began their ascent. Soon, they were at Sam's house and Danny then made them all intangible as well and phased directly to her bedroom.
Danny landed softly and Sam directed him to a nearby bean bag. He laid the cat down upon it, sighing with relief that he had gotten it to a safe place for now. He then took the dove from Sam and said, "We do have some cages at home, but they're ghost cages, of course. But they should be able to hold these animals. After all, they have real bars that are coated with ecto-resin to keep ghosts in as well. I'll be right back, OK?"
His girl nodded and he flew off. She turned to the cat and checked it over again. It still looked very hurt, but already, some of its wounds looked as if they were healed. She thought that odd, especially since it had seemed so injured when she first saw it. And, of course, Danny's blow to the beast didn't help, either. Still, what wounds she could see, like that long one on his side, were not bleeding. And by the lack of dried blood, she was sure they must never have bled. She wondered why, but then she thought that maybe its scuffed up fur must have hidden most of her view of the wounds. And really, she didn't want to examine the beast more thoroughly with the fear that she might further hurt it. Still, she was suspicious of its left front paw. She reflexively reached toward it and took it gently in her hands. It was moving oddly, too oddly, as if it were an over-used spring; but she didn't think it was broken. At least, she hoped it wasn't.
Danny returned in no time with a ghost cage. He placed the small glowing pen on the ground and carefully opened its glowing lid, which was on the top of the cage. He then floated to the cat. With Sam staying close to his side, he gently lifted the lynx up once more. He placed him just as carefully into the cage, not only to keep the cat from further harm, but so that he would avoid getting zapped by the bars of the cage. After all, the bars were coated with ecto-resin; and that meant that any ghost that touched them would receive an unpleasant jolt from them... But, of course, Danny didn't know that by avoiding the bars himself, he had kept the unconscious ghost animal from getting jolted by them as well.
Just as he lay the cat safely down, he glanced up at Sam and knew from the look on her face that she was already regretting her agreement with him to put the cat in a cage. Just as he was closing the lid of the ghost cage, he reminded her, "Remember, that he only needs to stay there for a couple of days or until he's better. But not for long in either case. I still don't like that you want to keep him here."
"I know, but I'll be careful," she said, her face still scrunched in worry over the beast. "And I hope he gets better real soon." She looked right into his eyes this time and added with a weak smile, "And Danny?"
"Yes, Sam?" he asked.
"Thanks!"
He returned a weak smile and said, "I better go check on the dove! I still haven't put her in a cage, yet! And we'd better get to school my way or else we'll be late. See you later?"
"See you later," she replied, reaching for a hug. He obliged her before quickly pulling away and soaring back to his house.
Sam turned to look at the still silent wildcat and went out of her room and to the downstairs. She quickly filled a bowl with water and set it aside. Then, she pulled out some hot dogs and scrunched up her nose in disgust as she quickly broke them up into another bowl.
She went right back upstairs and opened the top of the glowing cage again, and quietly placed both bowls near the unconscious cat. She checked him over again and was surprised that his large wound in his side was almost totally gone. Still, she was thankful that it looked as if the creature was recovering. She closed the top and secured it.
Just as she finished, Danny phased into her room. He didn't give her a chance to talk. She didn't argue with that, as she knew that they needed to hurry. They interlocked arms and Danny turned them both invisible and intangible just before he shot upward. He turned on his supersonic speed as soon as they were outside.
As they rushed toward the school, they both felt some sort of reprieve from their difficulties with their hurt and with Tucker with the introduction of these hapless animals into their lives. Still, their hearts burned with unrest, both eager to resolve their misunderstandings sooner than later. And they were both a little thankful that these two animals had in many ways 'broken the ice' for them.
But, of course, they didn't know that these were the very same ghosts who had caused all that woe and effort to break them up in the first place, all under the evil direction of Penelope Spectra.