Welp, still working, but also with a lot more downtime than ever. Also, I'm on a roll! Enjoy!


Chapter 28

Danny slammed his hands on the counter, nearly seething with rage. "Excuse me," he snarled at the quailing state official. "What."

"W-well, uh, Mr. Fenton, if you don't have possession of the deed, and there isn't any record of you still owning the land, then there's nothing we can do," stuttered the man, and he shrank under Danny's growl.

"There's nothing here about us owning the land, despite being here since the seventies?!" Danny snarled, and the man swallowed nervously.

"It seems as if we've had a bit of a - er - break-in, recently," the man stammered, and Danny's eyes narrowed.

"How. Convenient," he hissed, just barely keeping his powers at bay, and the man shivered as the room temperature seemed to plunge. His eyes darted to the side, and he said in relief, "Oh, Mayor Befufftlefumpter!"

Danny turned to see the old mayor creak in on his wheelchair, and immediately made a beeline for the wizened man. "Ah, wait-!" the official squawked, but it was too late; Danny had already reached the mayor.

"Mayor Eustace Huckabone Befufftlefumpter," he greeted before either man could stop him. "The Gleefuls have invaded our home, taken and ruined our possessions, and have stolen the deed to our property. They are massively breaking the law, and I insist you do something!"

"I don't need to do anything," wheezed the mayor with a chortle. He blinked owlishly at Danny through his wispy hair and thick glasses. "You need to do something."

"What," Danny said flatly, and the man grinned gummily at the halfa before he patted his hand and wheeled around him.

"We used to settle this by fighting in the middle of the street. To the victor goes the spoils!" the mayor cackled, and Danny's expression fell flat in disbelief and annoyance. He turned his gaze to the official, and the man swallowed at the ice-cold glare.

"He's not...he's not quite all there," the man confessed. "He told me last week to use my daughter as bait in order to get the raccoons out of our attic."

Danny scowled, and shook his head. "You know what, fine. If the law's not going to help us, then I figure it out myself."

"Wait!" the official cried as Danny stalked out of the office. "You can't-!"

And Danny slammed the door behind him.


"They're not doing anything?" Stan asked in resignation when Danny stormed into their motel room.

"No! Someone "conveniently" broke into the records office earlier this week, and now they don't have anything to prove that we own the property," Danny growled, his green eyes fierce.

"I bet it's that little rat that did it," Stan grunted. "Well, they're making a big announcement later today, so I say we crash it and ruin the twerp's day."

"This is all my fault." At this, both Danny and Stan turned their attention to Dipper, who was sitting on the motel bed with his head in his hands. "Normally I'm able to save the day."

"Don't worry, Dipper!" Mabel said cheerfully. "Looks like Mabel's gonna have to be the hero of the family now! I'll defeat Gideon with my grappling hook!"

"Mabel, no offense, but that grappling hook has literally never helped us once," Dipper told her.

"Oh yeah?" Mabel challenged, and she aimed it at the lamp on the motel's dresser. "Lamp grab!"

"No! No, no, no," Danny exclaimed, darting over and catching the hook before it could collide with the lamp. "No grappling hooks indoors. It's one thing if we were at home, but we're paying for this room. And neither of you have to be the hero," Danny told them, exasperated. "We'll handle this situation."

"And besides, shouldn't the guy with actual superpowers be the hero?" Stan pointed out, and the twins mulled that over.

"Oh, yeah, right," they agreed.


"Hellooo, Gravity Falls!" Gideon exclaimed from the Mystery Shack's porch, and the townspeople cheered.

"Ugh," Danny grumbled from the back. He wore a dark jacket, sunglasses, and a hat to hide his identity, and Stanley scoffed next to him.

"You said it."

"Just wanna say, I don't know what we're doing here, but I am loving these fake moustaches!" Mabel exclaimed, and Soos nodded grimly.

"If anybody asks, I'm not Soos," he whispered seriously, pointing at a small post-it note taped to his hat that read, "Not Soos."

Danny leaned in to Stan as Gideon began talking. "It seems like most of the building is still intact, especially the gift shop," he muttered, and Stan nodded in agreement. "I'm going to sneak in and make sure everything is still okay, though."

"I'll create a distraction," Stan murmured back, his narrowed eyes fixed on the middle schooler unveiling his new park. "Be sure that nothing's damaged."

"...An' let me show you our new mascot, Lil Gideon Junior!" Gideon exclaimed, and revealed Waddles in a blue suit and wig. "Boom! He's a pig!"

"Waddles!" Mabel screamed in horror. "You monster!"

"All right, that's it!" Stan exclaimed, hurling his hat to the ground, and he gave Danny a discreet wink before he shoved his way through the crowd, with Dipper and Mabel close behind him. Danny had the opportunity to see them kick over Gideon's cardboard cutout before they forced their way to the podium, and he used his ghost powers to sink into the ground.

It took him a second to find the basement - being underground was always so disorienting - and he floated down to the lowest floor.

"Looks like everything is still good," Danny said with a sigh of relief, using a ball of ectoplasm to create light. He didn't want to turn the lights on, in case Gideon would notice, so he painstakingly went over every cord, wire, button, and lever to make sure everything was in good shape. He and Stan had made too much progress lately to have all of their good work go to waste.

Thankfully, everything seemed to be just fine, and Danny checked the roll-top desk to make sure the first journal was still there before he nodded in approval.

"We'll get the Mystery Shack back," he told the journal, like he was speaking to Stanford, and his eyes glowed green in the murky dark of the basement. "We promise."


"So everything's good?" Stan asked Danny the moment he returned to the motel room, and Danny nodded.

"Yeah, everything's good," he said, and eyed the twins watching them with wide eyes. "Tomorrow, maybe I'll just...possess him so I can get the deed back. Or at least steal it back."

"Sounds good," Stan said, before his cell rang. "Oh, hold on a second…"

Dipper and Mabel turned wide eyes onto Danny as Stan excused himself from the room.

"Possess him?" Dipper asked nervously, and Danny grimaced.

"It's where I...take over someone's body," Danny explained awkwardly, and Mabel's jaw dropped.

"You can do that?" she said, awed, before she pointed at her twin. "Possess him!"

"What?! No!" Dipper squawked, but Danny had already shifted and phased into the young boy.

"You know, it's really weird when it's someone smaller than you," Danny said, looking up and around before he turned green eyes on Mabel. "He's a lot sweatier than I remember being too."

"Whoa!" Mabel exclaimed, and Danny phased out of the male twin to hover in front of them both.

Dipper shuddered. "I don't like that, not at all," he informed the ghost.

"What'd it feel like?" Mabel wondered, and Dipper contemplated it for a moment.

"It's like...it's like I blinked, but the blink took a lot longer than a tenth of a second," he said slowly. "And that I couldn't hear or feel anything when it happened either. More like I passed out, but still know what's going on around me?"

"Cool! Do me, do me!" Mabel cheered, and Danny shook his head. He settled his feet on the ground before he shifted back into his human form.

"Not right now," Danny said, just as Stan came back into the room. "It's time for you guys to start getting ready for bed."

"Awwww," Mabel sighed, but she trooped off to the bathroom. Dipper shivered once more, and quickly followed after her.

When the bathroom door shut, Stan turned to Danny. "That was their parents that called," he explained quietly. "I think we have to send them home soon if we don't fix this."

"Agreed," Danny said, his shoulders slumping. "As much as I like them, we can't have them holed up in a motel room for the rest of the summer."

Stan cast a sad look at the bathroom the kids were in, and Danny placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," Danny reassured him, and he gave the older man a small smile. "I'll have the deed by tomorrow, and things will be back to normal."

"Will they believe we didn't steal it from him, though? The cops were on Gideon's side, last I checked," Stan said pessimistically, and Danny shrugged.

"We'll find out tomorrow, at any rate. Either way, we'll stick together, just like we always do," he informed him, and Stan sniffled before he yanked Danny into a hug.

"You're the best friend an old man can ask for," he said, before he coughed and shoved Danny away.

Danny grinned in reply. "If there's anyone old, it's me."

"Oh, right," Stan snorted, and surreptitiously wiped some tears away. "Because of Menopause."

Danny laughed at the old joke. "Exactly."


Early the next morning, Danny Phantom slipped out of the motel room and made his way over to the Gleeful's house, invisible and intangible. Slowly, carefully, he floated through the walls and up to the second floor, only pausing when he floated into Bud Gleeful and his wife's room by mistake.

He made a face at the snoring, and continued on until he found Gideon's room.

The little hellion snored softly, unaware of the presence in his room, and Danny cast a quick look around while he dropped the invisibility. He didn't have much time before the boy woke up, so he hurried over to the blue suit slung over a nearby chair. When he didn't find the deed in any of the pockets, he frowned and began to look all over the room.

He searched through a couple of different drawers and through the closet, and swore under his breath when he still couldn't find it.

Where…? Green eyes landed on the child psychic, and followed the boy's arm to the pillow, which had a small bit of parchment sticking out from underneath it.

There!

Swiftly, he crossed the room and carefully phased the item out. He didn't notice that the pillow shifted with the absence of the item, because he was too busy staring at it in growing elation.

It wasn't the deed that he held in his hands.

It was a red and gold-bound leather journal, with a six-fingered hand and the number two written on it.

Danny's breath hitched, and he was so focused on the journal that he failed to notice Gideon waking up until it was too late.

"Wuh...huh?!" Gideon jerked up at the sight of the book in Danny's hands. "No!" he screamed, and before Danny could react, the little psychic already had the book back in his hands. He flipped a couple of pages and thrust a pudgy little hand out at Danny.

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, vade audiamus te!" he chanted, and his eyes glowed before something with the force of a brick wall slammed into Danny. The halfa gasped in pain, and the force shoved and pushed at him until he was outside of the Gleeful's home. He watched as Bud Gleeful burst out of his room in the commotion.

"Gideon?!" he called, hurrying into the room, and Danny cursed at the bad luck. "What happened?"

"Some...spirit jus' tried t' take mah book! Give me a second, daddy, so I can ward the house in case it comes back!"

Danny swore, and dove for the house again, only to slam into another barrier. "Damn it!" he hissed, and watched with a sinking heart as a gold barrier shimmered in the place where Danny struck it before it faded back out of view. He turned his gaze back to the house, and scowled when he saw Gideon's piggy little eyes watching him through the window.

"Begone, cursed spirit!" Gideon shouted through the glass, before he shut the curtains.

There went that opportunity. He would have to get Gideon when the little punk was outside of the house.

But first, to inform Stan…


"Didja get the deed back?" Stan demanded as soon as Danny phased back into the room, and the halfa shook his head.

"No, he caught me before I could find it and managed to...repel me or something. With this Latin chant to ward off ghosts, or something. But it doesn't matter!" Danny said with a frantic shake of his head. He was so excited, he could barely speak.

"Doesn't matter?!" Stan demanded angrily, rising to his feet, and blearily, the twins opened their eyes. "Of course it matters! Now we might have to send the twins home!"

"Huh? What?!" Dipper yelped, now fully awake, and Mabel's lips quivered.

"But - we don't want to go home!" she protested, and Stan's shoulders slumped.

"I know, sweetie, and we weren't going to if Danny got the deed back, but-"

"But nothing!" Mabel cried, leaping to her feet. "Keep us here!"

"Just give me a second, let me talk to Stan for a second -" Danny tried to reason, but the older man shook his head.

"Just...just stop, Fenton. You missed your chance," Stan sighed, and he left the room. Danny stood there, stunned and a little hurt, before he shook his head. He turned his gaze to the twins, and he felt his heart sink when both of them refused to look at him.

"I'm sorry," he said, and he stepped out of the room in disappointment.

The twins exchanged looks behind him, and their expressions settled into determination. They were going to get that deed back.


"No!" Gideon gasped later, while Dipper and Mabel struggled in the hands of the gnome army. "Could it be? Is it?!" He laughed in delight at the sight of the red and gold book, and he eagerly flipped through the pages. "Hehe, of course! It all makes sense! The one place I'd never think t' look! An' you had it the whole time! An' you must've known I had it, because you sent that spirit after me!"

"Spirit?" Mabel questioned, and Dipper's eyes widened.

"Danny, he knows about Danny," he hissed quietly to his twin, and Mabel's jaw dropped. Thankfully, Gideon didn't hear them, because he was too busy gloating about his newest conquest.

"An' t' think that ah considered you a threat," he said almost fondly, tweaking Dipper's nose, and the boy struggled.

"No, give that back!" he demanded, but Gideon pulled it further away from the twin's grasp.

"Every victory you had was because of yer precious book!" he taunted, and Dipper threw himself forward.

"Give it back, or I'll -!" Dipper began.

"Or you'll what, huh? Huh?" Gideon interrupted with a sneer. "No muscles, no brains. Face it, you're nothing without this!" He hefted the book, and picked up the whistle tied around his neck. "Bye bye forever, y'all!" And with a deep breath, he blew the whistle.

"Nooo!" Dipper cried as the gnomes carried them off into the woods, and Gideon grinned gleefully in reply.

He wouldn't realize until later that the journal he held was the third journal, instead of the first that he'd been looking for.


"Well, that's it. Guess the bus should be here soon," Dipper sighed, pacing in the middle of town. Mabel sat nearby on a bench and tried to smile reassuringly at her twin.

"Dipper, don't give up! You always have a plan!" she encouraged, but the male twin hunched his shoulders pessimistically.

"No, the journal always had the plan," Dipper snapped, and he waved his arms, nearly smacking a woman walking nearby. The lady tossed him a sour look and continued on down the road. "Think about it Mabel, Gideon was right! The only courageous or cool things I've ever done have been because of that journal! Without it, I can't help you, or Stan, or Danny, or anyone!"

Mabel watched her twin sadly, and she looked down the street towards the road leading to the Mystery Shack.

"There's gotta be something we can do," she said tentatively, but Dipper only shook his head in defeat.

"What can we do?" he asked her, and when Mabel had no answer for that, Dipper sighed and took a seat next to her.

And together, they sat on the bench, wishing that things could be different.


"Dude, you gonna eat your pancakes?" Soos asked. After a bit of wandering through the woods and unable to find Little Gideon again, Danny found himself at Lazy Susan's Diner, where Soos had found another job.

Danny sighed and shook his head, not even bothering to look at Soos. He pushed the full plate towards the other man. "I guess not. You can have them, Soos."

The Hispanic man shrugged and took the plate, before shoving one into his mouth. "What's got you so down, bro? Were you able to get the deed back?"

"No, I wasn't," Danny groaned, and he slammed his head down onto the table. "What's the point of having ghost powers if I can't even use them when I need them the most? And to top it off, Stan and the twins aren't talking to me anymore, and we're gonna have to send the twins home."

"That sucks, dude, I'm sorry," Soos said around a mouthful of pancake, and Danny gripped his hair in frustration.

"There goes my chance of getting home," he said despondently. "I'll be trapped here, forever."

"I always thought you were from Gravity Falls," Soos said with surprise, but Danny shrugged, his head still planted firmly on the bar's wooden surface. The door to Lazy Susan's Diner chimed, but Danny didn't care to see who walked in.

"No, it's complicated," he sighed into the bar. "But without the Mystery Shack, I can't go home, and I guess I never will."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Stan said from behind him, and Danny's head shot up from the bar. He turned to look at his old friend, and Stan gave him a weak smile before he settled into the seat next to Danny.

"We'll get the deed back, even if I have to kidnap the kid myself to do it," he said, and Danny's eyebrows rose.

"You'd do that, for me?" he asked, and Stan grinned.

"It's not the first time I've done something illegal, and it won't be the last!" he declared, pumping a fist into the air, before he hissed and clapped his hand to his ear. "Ow, ow!"

"Stan?" Danny asked in confusion, and the older man grunted in annoyance as he rubbed his ear.

"My hearing aid keeps going off for some reason," he grumbled, before he lowered his arm. "I have no idea why."

"Maybe there's a radio frequency nearby," Danny suggested, but Stan shook his head.

"The only radio near here is the jukebox, and that's not really a radio. Plus, I've been here hundreds of times and I've never had a problem," he complained. He folded his arms, and Danny caught sight of a Lil Gideon pin on his lapel.

Suddenly, it clicked. "Stan, let me see that pin."

"What pin?" Stan asked in confusion, before he looked down at his front. "What, the Lil Gideon pin?" he asked in confusion, and Danny nodded rapidly before he held out a hand.

Stan pulled it off his suit, but before he passed it over, he caught sight of something on the back. A wide, triumphant smile split his face.

"That's it! Danny, you're a genius!" he cheered, before he seized Danny's face and planted a rough kiss on the halfa's mouth. Soos let out a whistle, and Danny could only stare at Stan, dazed, confused, and a little grossed out while the conman leapt to his feet. "Let's go destroy that twerp!"

And before Danny could pull any cognitive function together, Stan bolted out of the diner.

"Dude, did that just happen?" Soos wondered in awe, and Danny shook his head.

"I think it did," he said, making a face and taking a long drink of his Pitt Cola. "That was gross."

Something rumbled ominously outside, and Danny glanced at the sunny window with a frown of confusion. "It's not supposed to rain, is it?"

"Nope, Shawndra Jiménez reported clear weather all week long-"

CRASH!

Diner patrons screamed as a gigantic, metallic foot landed just outside the window, and Danny traded an alarmed look with Soos before he raced out the door.

He nearly collided with Stan on his way out.

"Giant Gideon Robot!" Stan screeched at him, pointing, and Danny gaped at the sight.

Just as Stan described, a large robot with Gideon's likeness stomped down the street towards the main part of town, and Danny exchanged an alarmed look with Stan.

"That can't be good," Stan quipped, and Danny clenched his fists.

"I think now would be a good time to bust him, don't you think?" he suggested, and Stan grinned widely, evilly.

"You read my mind, Casper. Let's ruin him!" he declared.

Together, they ran towards Stan's car and followed the robot to the main part of town. It was clearly being operated by Lil Gideon, because it had stopped in the middle before shrieking something at a pair of children.

It wasn't until they got closer that Danny realized who Gideon was yelling at.

"Don't lie t' me, boy! Hand it over!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Dipper shouted back. He was trembling under the robot's gaze, but he held his ground with Mabel at his side.

At this point, many of the town's residents had stepped out to see what was going on, and everyone gawked at the robot.

"Welp, looks like our robot overlords are here for us," stated one man with a bushy gray mustache and a flat hat, and Stan slowed to a stop at the curb.

"What's he doing?" Lazy Susan wondered loudly.

Everyone gasped, however, when the robot reared back with clear intentions to punch the twins, and Danny's heart nearly leapt out of his chest.

"GET OUT OF THERE!" Stan bellowed at the twins, and swiftly, Mabel seized her twin and shot the grappling hook to the side with a delighted cheer. It sent the two of them flying. Thankfully, Gideon missed, and staggered into the nearby post office and local pizza joint, nearly trampling half of them in order to get his balance back. A large man in a free pizza shirt sighed in disappointment when he took in the broken store.

And with everyone's eyes on the twins and the robot, Danny shifted.

Hardly anybody noticed the light, but Stan did. He turned, wide, terrified eyes on his friend, and only caught a glimpse of determination on the ghost's face before Danny rocketed into the sky.

"Hey, Gideon! Why don't you pick on somebody else!" he called, before he shot a blast of green ectoplasm at the robot.

"Who's that?" someone asked from down below, and Gideon shrieked.

"You-!" he began, but before he could get another word out, Danny shot another blast at the robot, nailing it in the face and leaving a smoking dent.

"I'm not giving you another chance to speak, after what happened last time!" he declared, before he shot forward. Danny dodged a swinging fist, and shot another ectoblast, one that seared off half of the brat's metallic pompadour. The robot stumbled under the impact, and Danny winced when the robot's foot landed on a nearby car. The car alarm rang, and with an unhappy groan, Toby Determined pulled out his keys and turned it off.

"Go Danny!" he heard from below, and he grinned broadly as he sent another blast towards the robot. Down below, Tyler Cutebiker threw up his fists with a delighted cheer.

"Get 'im, get 'im!" he yelled enthusiastically, and beside him, Manly Dan let out a roar.

"Stomp that robot to pieces!" he bellowed, slamming his axe into a nearby lamppost to the detriment of the others. Some of the townsfolk around him had to scatter as it cracked under the strain and crashed to the ground. Danny snorted, and floated in front of Gideon's robot for a second.

"You know, when the Mayor Befufftlefumpter suggested battling you in the middle of the street, I wasn't quite expecting this," he declared as his eyes glowed blue. Ice crackled out of the palms of his hands, and Gideon let out a cry as it caused the robot to slip. The robot slid and the citizens of Gravity Falls let out enthusiastic cheers when it destroyed the small federal tax office.

"No!" Gideon squealed, but another ectoblast from Danny caused the robot's eyes to shatter. Danny caught a glimpse of a terrified, pale, chubby face, before he flew towards the off-balance robot. He seized the gigantic figure with both hands and channeled his intangibility into the cold metal before he flipped it and sent it half-way into the street. The robot flailed as the legs were trapped underneath the frozen pavement, and Danny threw an ectoblast at the robot's eyes. They shattered under the force, and he caught a glimpse of a pale, sweaty face before he soared into the robot. He spared a triumphant grin at the child psychic.

"You're done for, Gideon," he told the child, before he sank an intangible hand into the child's coat. After a second, he yanked out Ford's journal, and grinned widely at the sight of the large 2 scrawled across the front. "I'll be taking this, thank you very much!"

"NOOOO!" Gideon wailed, flailing, and Danny seized the little psychic and turned them both intangible. He phased out of the robot, and unceremoniously dropped the child into the street before he turned invisible.

He rejoined the crowd after he shifted into Danny Fenton, hastily stuffing the second journal into the glove compartment of Stan's car before he pushed his way to Stan's side. The man was in the middle of happily gloating at Gideon's misfortune, and he hardly shot Danny a glance as the halfa joined him at the forefront of the crowd.

"How's this for psychic! Bam!" he kicked open a panel, and waved wildly at the screens that filled the interior of the robot. "Take a look!"

"Wait a second!" Lazy Susan gasped, lifting up her bad eyelid to peer at one of them. "Is that me?"

Other members of the town stepped closer, and upon seeing their images on the screens, gasped in shock.

"That's me!"

"What the-!"

"That's right!" Stan exclaimed, before showing off his own pin, with a screen mimicking the miniature camera on it. "These pins are hidden cameras! And my hearing aid was picking up the feedback!" He turned an evil glare on the child psychic. "Who's the fraud now?!" he taunted, before he crushed his own pin.

Following his example, everyone else took their pins and crushed them under their feet before they turned their own angry glares on the boy. Gideon giggled sheepishly and nervously, and Deputy Durland shook his head.

"Gideon, we trusted you!" he said, betrayed, and Manly Dan clenched his thick fists.

"You lied to us!" he growled, and Gideon sweat under their gazes.

"Please, ah - uh, it's not what it looks like!" he stammered, before he cowered when everyone glared back in response. "What are ya gonna do with me?"

Everyone looked at the resident fight enthusiast. "Tyler?" Durland asked, and the town's local fight enthusiast wiped his eyes and looked away.

"Get 'im," he declared with finality, sniffling, and clenched his fists. "Get 'im!"

Gideon gasped, and Officer Flubbs took a deep breath. "Lil Gideon, you are under arrest for conspiracy, fraud, destruction of property, and for breaking our hearts," he announced sadly, and Gideon cried when Deputy Durland pulled out a tiny set of handcuffs.

"Wha - no!" Gideon cried, and Danny grinned triumphantly at the boy. He deserved every bit of misfortune coming to him.

"Just one more thing," Stan declared as the officers led Gideon to the police precinct, and he seized the boy by the back of his coat before shaking him vigorously. A series of items fell out of the boy's coat, and Danny's eyes brightened when he caught sight of the deed. "I believe this belongs to me!" Stan announced cheerfully, and he grinned brightly as Gideon was led away.

"You can't do this to me!" Gideon shrieked desperately as the officers dragged him away. In the background, Dipper and Mabel searched through the wreckage before Dipper let out a disappointed sigh and moved to join Stan at the front of the crowd. "Y'all are sheep! You need me! I'll be back! You'll hear from mah lawyers!"

Once the boy was out of sight, Shawndra Jiménez approached the Pines family and Danny.

"There you have it," she announced into the camera and her microphone. "Local Hero Stanford Pines has just exposed Little Gideon as a fraud! Anything you have to say to the town, Stanford?"

"The Mystery Shack is back, baby!" Stan announced triumphantly, and Shawndra nodded.

"And what was the creature that fought off Gideon's robot?" she asked, and Danny grinned broadly.

"Oh, that's just a local ghost we like to call Danny Phantom," he said with a knowing chuckle, and the twins giggled. "It's thanks to him that nobody was truly hurt."

"Well, congratulations on the re-opening of your shack, and thank you, Danny Phantom, for protecting our town. This is Shawndra Jiménez, reporting out," Shawndra announced, and the twins cheered.


They were able to get repairs done fairly quickly, with many members of the town offering their services in an apology for standing with Gideon during the fiasco. And that night, after the twins were in bed, Danny took Stan aside.

"I need to tell you something, and I can't hold it off any longer or I'm going to explode. It's a surprise," he announced in the kitchen, and Stan held up a hand.

"Hold on, before you do anything, I have a surprise for you too," he told the halfa, and Danny nearly growled in frustration until he saw what Stan offered him.

Stan grinned triumphantly as he held out the third journal, and Danny's heart thundered in his chest as he stared at the book in disbelief and hope.

Speechless, he turned his gaze at Stan, who beamed at the look on Danny's face. "I know! Now we just gotta get the second one, and we'll be ready to go!"

With shaking fingers, Danny reached into his own jacket, and slowly produced his own journal.

This time, it was Stan's turn to be speechless as he stared at the other journal in Danny's hand, before blinding smiles erupted on their faces.

"No way," Stan breathed, and Danny barely was able to keep his voice down as he replied, "Yes way."

Stan took the second journal out of Danny's hand, and seized Danny in a firm hug. And joyously, Danny hugged him back, just as hard.

"We're getting him back, Stan," he said, as happy tears sprung to his eyes, and Stan laughed into his shoulder, his voice thick with emotion.

"We're going to do it! We're going to bring him home."


Hope y'all enjoyed it! Stay safe everyone!

Posted: 3/30/2020, 11:10 AM EST

EDIT: Thank you to GDR10 for the correct spelling for Shawndra Jiménez's name! I really appreciate it! (3/30/2020, 1:07 PM EST)