Jazz picked up the last of the mascara-stained tissues that were scattered around her room and tossed them into the trash can by her desk. She felt accomplished – her progress with Sam tonight had really boosted her confidence as an amateur psychiatrist.
Jazz glanced at the clock on her computer – 8:27 pm. She nodded to herself, figuring that it was time to see Danny. She'd wanted to give him enough space to calm down after that big fight with Sam. She knew he'd never talk to her if she tried while he was still worked up. She left her bedroom and mentally prepared herself to give the next round of therapy.
Jazz had heard Danny go into his room while she was talking with Sam, and she was sure that Tucker had to have left by now – there hadn't been a peep for hours.
Jazz knocked on his bedroom door. "Danny? Can I come in?"
No response. She peered at the gap under his door – it seemed totally dark inside. Maybe he decided to take a nap to cool off.
Jazz knew Danny would get mad if she came in without permission, but she couldn't help herself.
She turned the knob as silently as she could to avoid waking him and pushed the door open, peeking her head in. The room was pitch black except for the red glow of Danny's digital alarm clock and…
What the hell is that?
She pushed the door open the rest of the way and flicked on the light. Her brow furrowed. Odd, she didn't see anything on the bed with the light on. Danny's blanket was missing – the bed was empty except for a lone pillow. Potential scenarios ran through Jazz's head as she analyzed the situation. Why would Danny's bedding be missing, her brother nowhere to be found? It wasn't like him to just leave without telling anyone. Not to mention whatever was on his sheets… Jazz sighed, frustrated. She hated mysteries.
She turned the light back off… there it was.
Faint, glowing green streaks smeared across Danny's bedsheet.
Jazz walked over in the dark to get a closer look, thankful that Danny had recently started cleaning his room so she didn't have to avoid the usual piles of clothes and garbage. She rubbed at the marks, but they stayed put. The chalky texture felt foreign on her fingertips. This must have dried hours ago, at least. It looked like the inside of a glow stick, or…
That goop Dad was messing with a few weeks ago.
It all rushed back to Jazz – Sam suddenly dragging her up the stairs, the green glow of the basement. Her curiosity curdled into rage. She couldn't believe she'd been so stupid.
Jazz dashed out of Danny's room and down the stairs, making a beeline for the basement. I knew they were messing with ghost stuff down there! If he trashed the lab while she was at home, they were both going to be in "a world of trouble," as their dad usually put it.
Jazz flung the basement door open and began to dash down the stairs. That green light still illuminated the normally dull, grey walls.
"Danny!? Are you still down here? Listen, if you're messing with... oh… oh my god."
The portal. Working.
Jazz squinted against the bright light. Strange green electricity swirled inside the portal like a small storm. She couldn't see past the threshold of the portal due to the incredible density of the ecto-energy.
She looked around the room. No sign of Danny anywhere. Neon green stains – of what she now knew could only be ectoplasm – were splashed chaotically across the floor.
Jazz tried to piece together what happened. It looked like someone had carelessly dumped multiple beakers of ectoplasm right at the portal's entrance. Shoe prints had stepped in it, then dragged something large through the pile of goo and over to the corner. The glow was swiped over something dark red, probably another chemical of some sort. The shoe prints faded into nothing as they approached that area of the room. She walked hesitantly over to get a closer look.
Another pile of ectoplasm – this looked oddly thicker. There were handprints on the floor too, she noted with disgust. Why were Danny and his friends touching this goop?
The trail stopped there. There were other areas with random splashes of ectoplasm – the edge of the sink, the wall by the stairs, but nothing that told a story. Jazz was confident about a few things – Danny had fled the mess he'd made, fearing punishment from their parents. Even though he'd gotten the portal working, he'd done it with his two friends who weren't supposed to be down here and had trashed the lab in the process. Jazz also knew Sam was genuinely upset at Danny earlier. Jazz had never seen that girl cry before, and she didn't seem like the type who would be able to do it as a diversion.
Nobody's fake crying was that good.
Jazz fished her phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. She went to her contacts and scrolled down to Danny's number. She hit dial.
What am I even going to say when he answers? 'Hey, how did you and your teenage friends somehow get the Fenton Portal working? Why did you trash the lab? I'm pissed at you, but also, are you okay?'
Beep beep beep!
Jazz looked for the noise.
Beep beep beep!
She walked over to the two backpacks in the corner, careful to avoid the large tubes that laid across the lab's floor.
Beep beep beep!
Danny's bag.
Uh, hey, this is Danny Fenton. Leave a message, or you could just text me like it's the 21st century. Get back to you as soon as-
Jazz hung up.
Danny never went anywhere without his phone.
She re-opened her contacts and scrolled to her mom's entry. She dialed.
"Jazz? Hello?"
"Mom, I'm sorry to bother you guys on your date…" Jazz noted the shaky quality of her voice with surprise. "I think you need to come home. As soon as possible."
Jazz walked around the room, trying to distract herself from the anxiety in her chest. She kept her eyes glued to the floor so she didn't step in the ectoplasm or trip over anything. She noticed a few random gloves scattered around the floor.
"Jazz, sweetie, what is it? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Mom. But… I don't really know how to say this… the portal is on."
Silence.
"Mom?"
Her mom's voice was oddly quiet and measured on the other end. "Sorry, honey, I didn't hear you for a second. What did you say?"
"The Fenton portal. I came downstairs and… I don't know what happened, but it's on. It's working."
A crash on the other end.
"Mom? Are you th-"
"JAZZ!" Her dad's voice boomed over the receiver. Jazz winced and held the phone farther from her ear. She hadn't heard him shout that loud in weeks. "Now, princess, tell us exactly what you see, alright?"
"Hi Dad, it's uh… well, it's got this bright green glow inside, filled all the way to the door. There's-"
More crashing on the other end. Her dad's voice again, this time farther away from the microphone. "MADDIE! She's right. The Fenton Portal… HA! I knew it! I never doubted for a second that it worked!"
"Dad!?" Jazz shouted, trying to get her dad's attention again. She heard dishes clashing loudly in the background. She winced again, this time from secondhand embarrassment. She was glad she wasn't there to see the shocked faces of the other patrons in the restaurant.
She heard her dad raise the phone to his ear again. "Jazzy! Stay right there, do you hear me? Don't move a muscle. Keep your eyes on that portal."
"Dad, there's something else. Danny-"
"We'll be right there! See you soon, sweetheart!"
Beep.
Jazz sighed. Once again, her parents' ghost obsession kept them from being the actual nurturing adults their children needed. She looked around at the chaos of the lab again… this time spotting something new. She walked over to where it sat on the floor near the entrance of the portal.
She bent down and picked it up – a Polaroid camera. The lens was completely shattered. She didn't recognize it – this had to be Sam or Tucker's.
Jazz scanned the floor again, looking for any other clues she may have missed. She bent down again, picking up the small white square she spotted near her feet. Jazz flipped it over and let out a small gasp.
An unsmiling picture of Danny, near the entrance of the de-activated portal. He looked unsure and irritated. He limply held his old jumpsuit, preparing to put it on.
"Oh little brother…" she mumbled to herself. "What did you DO?"
"We're almost there, Sam. Just a couple more blocks."
Sam adjusted Danny's unconscious body on her back. His head slumped forward over her shoulder, wiping against her face. Black hair tickled her neck. It felt wet – she knew there must be blood on her cheek.
"Thank god. These boots weren't made for strength training."
"You know I can take him back, if you want."
"Nah, it's fine. You've done more than your fair share. I'll just have to start wearing more practical shoes – somehow I doubt this is the last time we'll have to carry him."
Tucker laughed at the absurdity of their shared situation.
When they first left the school, Tucker had been carrying Danny while they all bantered with each other. Sam was telling them an embarrassing story from summer camp, and Danny held securely onto Tucker with his comforter wrapped around his shoulders… until Danny's body had gone into overdrive about a third of the way to Tucker's house.
With no warning, those bright white rings had shown up again, wrapping around Danny over and over. The second each pair of halos disappeared, a new set manifested at his torso. His eyes started flicking around in that same disconcerting way they had in the lab, when he'd first fallen out of the portal. Danny lost his balance completely and fell off of Tucker's back, landing face-first on the concrete with a sickening crack. Sam quickly grabbed Danny's arms while Tucker lifted his legs, and they had to clumsily carry him into an alley to avoid the possible eyes of anyone out for an evening walk. The sun had set, and the ghostly energy was lighting up the street. The rings prickled and froze Sam's hands every time they washed over her, like she had stuck her bare hands into a pile of ice shards. She wondered how awful this felt for Danny.
With Danny safely out of sight, they laid him back on the ground behind a dumpster as gently as they could and crouched next to him. His face was covered in the blood pouring from his nose. The fluid switched from viscous and green to watery and crimson every time that halo passed over his face.
Danny rolled over to his side, gagging violently, but vomit wouldn't come. Red blood and ectoplasm dripped off his nose onto the concrete.
Sam felt powerless. There was nothing to do except watch her friend writhe, overcome with nausea or pain. Probably both.
Mercifully, he fainted. The rings traveled over his body one last time, leaving him as a normal human.
Sam grabbed the bottom of her shirt and wrapped it around her hand to dab some of the blood and ectoplasm off of Danny's face.
"Sam, you don't gotta do that. Let me look for a tissue or something in my… oh, damn it. I must have left my backpack at FentonWorks."
"It's fine," she said, wiping some of the blood that had smeared on Danny's forehead and down his chin. "It's not like it'll stain on black. And besides… even if it does, what could be more goth than blood-stained clothes?"
Tucker reached down to pick Danny back up, but Sam quickly shooed him away.
"Tucker, think about it. You can't exactly walk into the Foley house with blood all over your shirt. Could you just go find where Danny's blanket fell? I've got this."
"My hoodie is red, I'm sure it'll blend in. Besides, he wouldn't-"
But Sam had already pulled Danny onto her back. She hated being shipped off to summer camp, but in that moment she was thankful for all the physical activities she was forced to do. She knew she wouldn't have been able to pick him up without a summer of exercise… although she couldn't help but notice that Danny seemed lighter than he should be.
Now, Sam and Tucker found themselves approaching the Foley household. Sam looked up at the house. In the daylight, it was a cheery pastel blue, but in the darkness, coupled with everything that had happened today, it seemed murky blue and eerie.
"So… what's Plan D?" Sam asked, turning to Tucker.
"Huh?"
"Plan C was rush Danny past your parents and hope they don't ask questions, right? So what are we gonna do now?"
Tucker chuckled. "We've been asking each other that a lot today."
Sam gave a sad laugh in return. "It feels like so much longer than just a day."
Tucker nodded.
They stood together in silence for a moment, taking in their new bond. Sam realized they'd never really spent time together without Danny before. Now they were the only two people in the world able to take care of their best friend – an ambiguously dead kid who was unable to help himself.
Sam swallowed. "I'm… I hope this isn't cheesy, or whatever, but… I'm glad you're here with me, Tucker. I really don't know how I'd do this alone."
Tucker reached over and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Me too, Sam."
Tucker took a deep breath, preparing for the next challenge. "I think Plan D has to be waiting for Danny to wake up or for my parents to go to bed. Unless you think you can carry him up the ladder I was going to use to sneak you in."
Sam adjusted Danny on her back to keep him from slipping. "Doubt it."
"Then I'll go inside first so I don't miss curfew and tell my parents that Danny needs to come over late for some reason. It'll have to relate to why I'm carrying his dirty-ass blanket around with me. I'm hoping they just go to bed soon and we can sneak you both in using the stairs."
Sam nodded. "That sounds good. I'll take Danny a street or two away so they don't see us."
"Perfect." Tucker pulled his PDA out of his pocket to check the time. 9:42 pm. "Keep your phone on. I'll text you when it's safe, then come meet me at the front door."
Tucker held out his arms and rotated around. "Any Danny blood?"
Sam looked him up and down. "Yeah, there's some on your hands. Just barely."
Tucker looked at the slight glow on his palms. "Eh, that should be fine. Not like my parents know to look for ghost blood." He gave her a thumbs-up, then wasted no time jogging up the driveway to his house.
Sam felt the low hum of anxiety in her chest increase to a whir as Tucker disappeared inside his home. She remembered Danny's casual thumbs-up… the one he'd shot them right before he…
Tucker yanked her off the floor, bathed in the green light of the portal. "He's still in there! Danny's still in there! What do we do?" She could barely hear him over the screams of her best friend. The…
She forced herself to cut the thought off, squeezing Danny in her hands. He was solid. Warm. Alive.
A.N.: Nothing like a traumatic event to bring friends closer together, right? And jeez, Danny really keeps passing out a lot this evening. I'm sure Sam and Tucker will do the responsible thing and take him to a hospital to get his head checked :)
Thank you to my reliable friend hazama_d20 for beta reading this! You can check out his fic Talent Night on AO3, which I'm beta reading for him.
And now, time for our weekly SHOUT-OUTS! Stroke my ego with a follow, review, or fave and you could end up HERE in the Hall of Fame! Dp-Marvel94 and the immortal moron, thank you both for taking the time to leave me a review! Seriously, I look forward to these reviews every week! I just started Dp-Marvel94's fic Face to Face, it's awesome so far! Please go check his fic out if you like DP origin fics!
In addition, thank you to The Squids and CollectorOfTheUnimaginable for the follows, and GlassPark for the fave!
See you guys next week!
Ani