Ch.2: Lullaby
Spinning around and around in his new chair, Danny whistled as he waited for his call to be answered. This happened to be his fifth try, and his fingers itched to grab his phone from the table to send another text to his contacts. Neither had responded to either form of communication, but despite his impatience, Danny remained firm in his belief they'd answer. Everyone answered to him eventually.
In the meantime, Danny had to ignore his mounting boredom. He glanced at his speakers, wishing to turn them back on, but he resisted his instincts. He forced his eyes back to the only hologram screen in operation, which only stated, 'Calling: Black Thorn and Drone.' As he continued to spin around, an excited smile played at his lips.
Finally (finally), a window popped up on screen as well as the box where Danny could see himself. His image came through first as it always tended to, seeing as his contact's generally had terrible service. Yet, for these two, he wore no disguise, his perfectly normal self grinning back at himself. A moment later, a dark-skinned boy joined his likeness on the screen, a grin of his own stamped on his lips. Despite his friendliness, he greeted Danny only with a, "What do you need, Danny dude?"
Danny's mouth dropped open. He threw his arms up. "What? No hello? No nothing? What am I to you – chopped liver?"
The second boy furrowed his eyebrows and rested a hand against his chin. After thinking the question over, he nodded his head. "Yeah. Pretty much."
"Oh, wow, thanks. Thanks for that, Tucker." Danny rolled his eyes, his smile broadening, but still needing to maintain appearances, he threw a hand over his wounded heart. "And here I thought we had a connection!"
"If we do, it's about as strong as the Wi-Fi signal I get here in my metal basement." The other boy – Tucker – looked down at his work just in time to miss the offended drop of Danny's mouth, though he couldn't have missed the scoff. Though not obvious from the camera angle, Tucker sported a savage grin.
At that moment, the second invitation to the call finally accepted, and a violet-eyed girl appeared on the technological scene. She wore a sports bra and sweatpants, and a shiny sheen of sweat blanketed her skin, her short, black hair sticking in all directions from her short ponytail. She had no time to say anything before Danny interrupted her, saying, "Sam-m-m, Tucker's being a jackass to me! You know, his best friend in the entire world!"
Unfazed by the greeting, the new girl Sam rolled her eyes. She shook her head, muttered, "The shit I put up with from these two," and said louder, "I'm sure it was well deserved. I mean, have you met yourself?"
"Yes, and lemme tell ya," Danny licked his hand and slicked back his hair, throwing it back in a manner akin to an over-hyped movie star, "I am the definition of an absolute stud. I can't think of a single person that can resist my overwhelming charm."
Tucker let out a long, obvious snort.
Danny glared at him. "You know, with the exception of Tucker here."
Tucker shrugged, a smirk emerging. "Well, I mean, like you said, no person could ever resist you, Danny, so I guess that means I'm a far more evolved being." All at once, Tucker stood, gave his audience of two a grand, sweeping gesture, and said in a faux deep voice, "Bow down, peasants! Your lord and savior has arrived to free you from the spell of the evil enchanter! I bring you the gift of advanced sight, so you too may see past his adorable smile and deep into his dark void of a soul!"
Cackling, Danny jumped from his chair, pointing a finger at Tucker. "Alas, I've prepared for this day, strange alien! You shall not be allowed past me to bestow your gifts to any of the common people."
From her window, Sam sighed, covered her face, and said, "How in God's name did my only two friends end up being children?"
"Join us, Sam!" Danny said, Tucker nodding along as he laughed. Danny pretended to hold the length of a skirt in one hand and fanned himself with the other, batting his eyelids at the girl. "You can be the damsel in distress that Tucker saves at the end! You know, if he even can."
"Um, can I have a prize that won't bite me after I've saved her?"
"No. Disappointment is a part of life. Even a lord and savior has to learn that eventually. It's all part of growing up."
"I've already learned that. I mean, look at you two. Do you think I'd have you as friends if I had options? Any options at all?"
Rubbing her temples, eyes closed to the sight of the two boys arguing, Sam interrupted, saying, "The urge to kidnap the both of you and torture you in forty-seven different ways is starting to become too strong to ignore."
"OOO, kinky~," Danny sang before he flopped back in his seat, sending it spinning once more. His eyes stayed locked on his screen while he twirled around, his neck contorting in ways it probably shouldn't. "Anyway, I got a few things I want to talk to you guys about. To start, did you guys get the wire transfer? I forgot to check the status."
Everyone calmed from their dramatic start, and Tucker and Sam nodded in time with each other. Tucker picked up the part he'd abandoned when he and Danny got into it and held it up for his friends to see. "Yeah, it came through at, like, two last night. I finally got to order that part I wanted, and I'm installing it now in the new android."
Danny's expression twisted in confusion. "Last night? I started the transfer, like, an hour ago."
The first signs of a smile started peeking at the corners of Sam's lips. "No-o-o, it's definitely been a day, Danny."
"What?" Danny halted his spinning, squinted his eyes at the tiny clock in the corner of the screen, and facepalmed. "Fuck. I knew I should have set an alarm. I really needed to call you guys last night. Something… important came up."
Sam and Tucker glanced at each other, intrigued and a little nervous by Danny's vague statement and off behavior. Sam shrugged it off casually, though, and said, "Well, we're here now, so what's up? Is it a new job? Lord knows we more of those. Business has been so fucking slow lately."
Tucker nodded his agreement. "Don't I know it. I've been dying of boredom over here!"
Danny grimaced. "Sorry guys. That would not be the case today. I haven't got anyone lined up for your services, but I'll be sure to start looking for anyone in need of your specialties and push your information out to the general public again. You should see an uptick of traffic after that."
"That's all fine and dandy, but if you're not calling to talk about a job, then what's the matter?" Sam asked.
Leaning against his desk, Danny clasped his hands in front of him and stared down at his desk hard enough to bore holes into it. He said, "Last night, I had a visitor."
If they hadn't been at attention before, Sam and Tucker gave the black-haired teen their full attention now. Tucker put his project down, leaning forward, while Sam pulled a chair from off-screen and sat down, setting her hands in her lap. They glanced at each other in unease. After all, Danny wasn't one to receive visitors unless it happened to one of them, and even those didn't happen often, what with their demanding jobs and what little life they had outside the criminal underbelly.
"Who was the visitor?" Tucker asked.
For the first time ever as far as Sam and Tucker were aware, they watched Danny shrink. His shoulders bowed forward and pulled himself tight to his desk, so he could duck his head and hide his face under his hands. He seemed scared and exhausted all at once, even as his voice stayed steady, if not even the slightest bit teasing. "You're not going to believe this, but… Batman's finally found me."
Had Tucker still been holding his tools, he would've dropped them. His mouth dropped open, eyes widening to saucer-size. "Well, fuck."
"What Tuck said." Sam raked her hand through her dripping hair, growling as it caught in tangles. She pulled her hand back and clenched it into a fist. "How is that even possible? I thought the Dark-Net was the best kept secret in the criminal underworld, so how's he finding out about it? Better question: how does he have time to find it, even if he did know about it? Isn't Gotham getting blown up every other week?"
Danny looked up from his almost defeated position and leaned back in his chair, his young face outlined in worry lines, an irritated frown twisting onto his lips. "Fuck if I know, Sam. I'm going to run a full diagnostic on my system later to see where he might've been able to crack my codes, but what does it matter now? He found my apartment." He shrugged, jaw tense. "I just wanted to let you now. I don't think he's figured how to use the program in any extensive way, and even if he has, there's no reason for him to be able to track you down. But since it is Batman, you should watch your backs." His signature smirk started to reappear. "I'm not busting you out of jail if you get caught."
"Yeah, speaking of that, how the hell aren't you not sitting in a prison cell right now? I thought Batman put people like you in a body cast and sent them to the nearest prison infirmary?" Tucker asked.
"Ha. Yeah, about that." Danny looked down again, one hand across his chest and the other hiding his mouth. "So, the reason I'm not currently rotting away is because Gotham's Caped Crusader decided that I was better as an asset than I was an enemy. So after being bribed with freedom, I agreed to three things: no more illegal jobs, I'm now his bloodhound for scumbags, and any scheme I come across, he has to know about it. It's pretty simple. Maybe a little too simple, but I would like to think the Bat is being straight with me, but I don't know." Danny shrugged and dropped his hands. "He may very well be setting me up for failure. I just want you guys to stay out of it, you know?"
"Yeah, we get it." Tucker nodded.
Sam asked, "But on that note, we don't want to see anything happen to you. Is there anything we can do to help you out?"
"Other than keeping yourselves out of it, no, but I'll let you know if I think of anything. I'll keep you posted."
"Good." Sam rose from her chair, pushed it back off-screen, then saluted to her friends. "Alright boys, the rest of my training session calls to me. Call me if anything comes up. Otherwise, Black Thorn out."
The girl's screen winked out, leaving the two boys alone for another few minutes before Tucker said his goodbyes as well. As soon as both had gone, the remaining three holograms awoke at once, the programs they'd been running resuming as if they'd never been shut off. The stereo turned on too, his rock playlist on full blast.
Danny leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, hands behind his head. He took a deep breath and sighed. His predicament played on his closed eyelids like a movie, but he pushed it from his mental movie theater, throwing it in his mind's recycling bin for now. He reminded himself there was nothing he could do now, that he would have to wait for his way out this time and not bulldoze his own. He told himself that, as far as he was concerned for this moment, the agreement between him and Batman didn't exist. He was simply Danny Fenton playing Phantom, the Dark-Net's creator.
As if reading his mind, the stereo sang, This won't stop 'till I say so~. This won't stop till I say so~. This won't stop till I say so~. Going and going and going and going and go~.
Opening his eyes, Danny leaned forward and got back to work.
His first priority job: spreading the word of his friends' lines of work. He dropped it in forums under various usernames and even snuck it into private conversations he 'stumbled' across. He did this first, so as not to forget to do it later down the line, which was a perfectly viable option, considering he'd forgotten to call them just twenty-four hours before.
Once satisfied with that job, he moved on to his work-in-progress just to get a break from the computer screens. Having already made a prototype, he built this next generation of it without all the kinks and bugs he'd found in the original. All the while, he monitored a number of IM chats, all of which had popped up with a specific set of keywords Danny had taught the system to recognize. He glanced at them every few minutes just to be sure it wasn't something he needed to insert himself into. Rarely did it come to that, however. Today seemed no different in that regard.
That is, until he saw Deathstroke appear on his list of flagged accounts.
Danny put his half-finished machine away as soon as he noticed. He rolled back to his central table, pulled the chat up to cover the entire screen, and sat back to watch. It didn't take long for murder to enter the picture. The user contacting Deathstroke, some guy going by 657-75, wanted a government agent killed over something about him and his wife being together. Or something. Danny didn't really care too much to read the spiel 657-75 wrote, but seeing the unnecessary rant made him roll his eyes. He turned quite a few blind eyes to a lot of jobs like this, but not today when it was over something this petty.
For a moment, Danny debated the best way to go about fixing this problem. He wondered for a moment if he should call Batman, wondered if this classified as a 'big issue,' but at the last minute, he shook his head. He threw all thoughts of the Bat out of his head again and focused on what he could do now. A smirk twitched at the corners of his lips.
A few minutes later, Danny smashed through one of his previous records. He watched Deathstroke log off the Dark-Net entirely as user 657-75 tried to explain the third user in the chat, 657-74, away. He'd done his best to explain that no, the other user wasn't his pizza deliveryman lover, and no, Deathstroke wouldn't be hunted and killed by the pizza deliveryman lover for performing this job, but alas, it'd just been too sketchy. Deathstroke was by no means intimidated, Danny knew, but the mercenary also knew when he shouldn't poke a bear – a smart move all around.
Chuckling to himself, Danny leaned back, his veins on fire with excitement. He kicked off his desk and spun around, feeling the hard beat of his heart against his chest and loving the sensation. His fingers itched for his keyboard. He stopped the chair and started searching for someone new to harass, his mischievous nature in need of feeding.
Unfortunately for him, he didn't get far. A KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK sounded at his door. How he heard it over the rap, only God knew.
His heartbeat ramping up now in nervousness, Danny swiftly shut down his operations. The holograms fizzled out, the computer screens surged to life, and with a few quick taps, they all turned to various online MMO games. Unfinished projects were shoved to the side and under notebooks, and the teen ripped his earpiece from his ear, the green hologram winking out. He tossed it on the tables as he got up and turned off the stereos. Once everything was quiet, he went to the door and opened it. "Yeah?"
Behind the door stood Danny's next-door neighbor, Loretta. She smiled at him as he came into sight, though she seemed in a hurry as she bounced and rolled on the balls of her feet. Her curly, brown hair had been pulled into a halfhearted ponytail, and she wore a wrinkled work uniform.
"Hey, Danny!" she chirped.
Danny relaxed instantly at the sight of her and returned her grin. "Hey, Lorrie. What's up?"
"Nothing much. Honestly, I just came over to ask a favor of you, if you're not too busy," she replied.
Danny knew the request before she even asked. He always did, and he knew before she even asked that he'd help her out any day of the week. Lorrie had always been so pleasant to him, so tolerant of his abrasive attitude and loud music, that he didn't think there was anything she could ask that he wouldn't say no to.
"Is it illegal?" Danny asked with a teasing grin, then pointed to the room behind him. "If it is, I'm sure I could take care of it really fast in here."
Loretta waved him off, humming a disapproving noise. "Never, silly boy. I wish you would stop asking me that every time I came over. I'm starting to grow concerned you're into some bad things," which he was but whatever, "and you know if I ever find out about you getting into trouble, I'll beat you into next week, right?" Though she smiled at him, the gleam in her eye and the tone of her voice told him she meant what she said one hundred percent.
Danny believed her. He would be stupid not to. It was a little unfortunate, though; if she really did need some shady help, Danny would drop everything in a heartbeat.
"Anyway, I wanted to ask if you would be kind enough to watch Dakota for about an hour?" Danny opened his mouth to answer, but Loretta interrupted him, holding out her hand to stop the words in his throat, so she could hurry out, "See, Chuck just texted and asked if I'd meet him at the bar across the street, and I'd love to see him. You'll get paid, of course, and it won't be very long, and Dakota's already put down for the night. So, what do you say?" She clasped her hands in front of her and gave a nervous smile. No doubt, she'd burst into tears if the teen didn't say yes.
Danny understood that, though. From what he knew, Chuck and Loretta had been together since the start of their college careers and had accidentally gotten pregnant the middle of last year – a long time away from when either would be graduating. Yet, they'd decided to keep their little girl, and though they'd been struggling to make ends meet since, somehow the couple had managed to balance school, jobs, the kid, and remain madly in love all the while, even though their quality time had taken a dramatic hit. Thus, when they got a chance to be together, it usually ended up with Danny babysitting. Not he minded that much anymore.
Danny laughed and shrugged. "Sure, Lorrie. I'll head over to the apartment once I grab a laptop."
Loretta shrieked, jumped up and down for a second, then grabbed Danny up in a big hug, still screaming. Danny winced and, once released, stuck his pinkie in his ear, trying to free himself of the ringing. If Lorrie noticed his hearing damage, she didn't comment, only pecked his cheek and began jogging down the hall. She called over her shoulder, "Thanks, Danny! If Koda wakes up, all her stuff is in its usual place, and we've got snacks in the pantry! Chuckle will be back in a little bit! Bye, and thank you again!"
With that, Loretta disappeared through the stairwell doorway.
Danny waved once to the empty hallway and muttered, "Bye to you too," with a roll of his eyes. Just as he said, he ducked back into his apartment, grabbed a laptop, and headed over the apartment just to the right of his. Slipping into the dark apartment, he closed the door and locked it behind him, then headed for nursery.
He found it easy by the sailboat nightlight casting shadows all across the room. He peeked into the crib in the middle room as he entered, whispering, "Hey twerp," to the dark silhouette that lay inside it. He cracked a smile at the stuffed toy the baby girl clutched in her hand – a little lamb she never seemed to be without.
"You really love that thing, don't you, Koda?" he asked.
Surprise of surprises, the baby didn't answer.
Danny chuckled and moved to the rocking chair in the corner of the room, making himself cozy. He opened his laptop, turning the brightness down as it awoke, and logged in. He resumed his usual stalking of IMs and public forums while also running a diagnostic on his system in the background, as he'd told his friends. He wondered if he'd be able to find the problem and whether or not he could patch it. If he could, he could get out of Las Vegas and go somewhere new where the Bat couldn't find him, as much as it would kill him. He'd grown to love Sin City and all its distasteful self-indulgence. But if it meant becoming unstuck from under the Dark Knight's thumb, he guessed leaving would be his best choice – you know, should he get the opportunity.
However, before his program could run its course, Danny found himself interrupted when the baby began to stir. Danny perked up, eyes going wide as he closed the screen of his laptop and went still. The rustle of bedsheets continued to sound, and was that a gurgle? That sounded like a gurgle.
Shit, Danny mouthed. Though he often babysat for Dakota, it didn't mean she was usually awake for those moments. The boy glanced to the table beside him and spotted the familiar shape of a wooden music box Loretta and Chuck kept in here. He picked it up with gentle precision, found the key on the bottom, and wound it until it would wind no more.
As soon as the knob had been released, the soft lilt of pins on a steel comb filled with the quiet room, the soft whir of the disc spinning around, underlining the tune. Two swans popped up from inside of it, and in a slow circle, they swam.
Danny set the little box back on its table and glanced at the crib. Dakota stirred for a little while longer, but lulled by the familiar lullaby, she soon drifted back to a still sleep.
Placing a hand over his aching chest, Danny breathed a relieved sigh. He slowly cracked his computer back open, the light flooding the room once more. He logged into it, ready to check his diagnostic when–
BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP.
"FUCK."
With a speed Danny had never demonstrated before, he slammed his laptop closed again, slapped a hand over his mouth, and whipped his head back and forth, searching for a window to throw his laptop out of, except, right, that would cause even more noise. His entire body stiffened, forcing him to be the stillest he'd ever been, and looked back towards the crib, his eyes as wide as a deer in headlights.
Dakota stirred again, sounding oddly like a bear rising from hibernation. Danny quickly snatched the music box up again, cranked the key again, then slid off the chair and placed it on the floor closer to the crib. He waited on his belly for her reaction, hands over his head, seeming very much like a scared box turtle on the side of the road waiting for his inevitable demise.
Lucky for him, after rolling on her back for a few moments, the lullaby lulled the baby back to sleep for the second time. Danny released the breath he'd been holding and turned his eyes to the ceiling. To whatever God laid in the sky above it, he mouthed, Thank you.
Carefully, Danny pulled his laptop back to him and gently opened it back up, turning off the sound before it could land him back in the same situation. He found a notification for '5 Missed Calls' waiting for him.
Glaring at the screen, Danny didn't even pay attention to that fact no number had been attached to the note and, taking a pair of old earbuds out from his jacket pocket, pressed the button to return the call, ready to give the caller the biggest ass-chewing of their life. How dare they call him when he was with a child? A baby at that, one he had no idea what to do with, should she wake up? (Never mind, the other person couldn't possibly know he'd been babysitting.)
As soon as the other person on the other end of the line answered, Danny hissed, "Are you trying to get me killed?" It was only after did he register who laid at the other end of the line. Regret came immediately. He let his head fall into his hands, his shoulders slumping. "Ah, fuck. Why'd it have to be you?"
"Nice to talk to you too, Danny," Batman greeted with a hint of exasperation already creeping in his voice. "I do have to ask, though – what exactly are you doing that will get you killed? I know it wasn't in the agreement, but I can't let you go throwing yourself in dangerous situations without knowing what you can and can't handle."
"I can handle myself just fine with whatever life throws at me, thank you," Danny snapped. He glanced at the crib above him, his cheeks burning red at the situation he'd been caught in. He tried to play it cool as he logged Batman's contact info into his computer and turned his disguise generator off, allowing the Grim Reaper-like figure to flicker off. He whispered, "Besides, it's none of your business. What did you want?"
Even through all the rubber of his mask, Danny could still see the quirk of Batman's eyebrow. "Danny, where are you? And why are you whispering?"
"Nowhere illegal, and whispering? I'm not whispering. You're whispering. Can we just get back to whatever you want, so I can get back to doing what I want?" he snapped. He pulled up the Dark-Net, his fingers ready to fly across the keyboard. "C'mon. I haven't got all night."
The slits of Batman's white lenses narrowed, but after a moment of thinking, he let his questions go. "Think you can track a guy down for me?"
Danny scoffed. "I'm offended. Who's the guy? I bet you I can find him in under five minutes. Let me at him, Bats."
"I need you to find Two-Face. He broke out of Gotham three and a half hours ago and has since fled the city. Think he'll be on the Dark-Net by now?"
Smirking, Danny began pecking away at his computer keys. He started zooming through different tabs, following a trail of links and code. "Yup. Lucky us. Two Face is a pretty active user on the Dark-Net – something he likes to broadcast. I wouldn't be surprised if he's already snagged a computer and hopped on, looking for new bastards to hire." Danny rifled through his list of users known to be stationed in Gotham, most of whom were just lowly thugs-for-hire. He filtered them down to ones who'd ever had contact with any of Two-Face's accounts and started sifting through recent IM messages. In a matter of minutes, he copy-and-pasted half a dozen messages into a message of his own. "I was right. Two-Face already hired six guys, all of whom had a different address to report to within the next half hour. I'm sending you names and addresses now."
"List them to me here." Batman said.
Danny quirked an eyebrow but did as he requested, whispering the addresses to Batman even as he pressed 'send' on his message.
As Danny finished his list, Batman smirked. He said, "Color me impressed. I'll give you credit where credit is due; your tracking skills are incredible."
Without meaning to, Danny began to beam but shook it off, refusing to give into the validation he so loved to hear from anybody who would give it. He got right back to business, schooling his expression into neutrality, even while knowing Batman had enough time to catch his smile. "Thanks. Just sent them over to you in a message now, so you can go ahead and get on your way."
"Thank you, but that wasn't necessary. Nightwing and Robin have already checked out two of the five addresses." Batman's smirk grew the tiniest bit.
Danny's face dropped. "Excuse me?"
"This was a test, Danny, and you passed with flying colors. I'm so proud," Batman said, his voice dripping sarcasm.
A spark of anger awoke in Danny's chest, lighting into a burning fire that spilled into his veins, washing through his whole body. Trembling took over Danny's limbs, and his expression twisted into something monstrous. Fists clenching, Danny began to mutter, "You motherfu–"
A low gurgle from the crib.
Danny blanched, shrinking as if hiding would help his case. He looked towards the music box in front of him, wondering why its trance no longer held the baby, but oh sweet baby Jesus, it'd run its course. It sat quiet and still, mocking the teen.
"Danny? What's the matter?"
The boy kept his eyes locked on the crib. He listened with growing terror as Dakota began to make little sounds, like she was about to start crying.
On the screen, Batman leaned forward, studying something in the background of the video-feed. Danny wondered when he'd notice the birds flying across the wall.
The Dark Knight asked in an astonished voice, "Are you babysitting?"
"Shut up. I thought you told me to get a job," Danny hissed, wincing as his mean tone pierced the quiet of the bedroom and scaring the infant into crying. He groaned long and loud, facepalmed, then pointed at Batman. "This is your fault. Fuck you and all you stand for, prick." Without a second thought, Danny pressed the disconnect button. He closed his laptop, pushed it to the side, and got up.
He first grabbed the music box and wound it tight, its quiet melody filling the space again. He then went to the crib, where he picked up Dakota like a sack of potatoes. He walked around the room with her, bobbing her like he'd seen on TV and shushing her. "Hey, it's ok, Koda. It's ok. Please don't cry. Please, please don't cry. Shhh. It's ok."
As if the universe hated him, which it probably did, Dakota began screaming. Panicking, Danny walked through everything that could possibly be the issue that Loretta had mentioned the first time he'd babysat – a needed diaper change, hunger, a thread caught around her limbs from her jammies – but he came up with nothing, and Dakota kept on screaming until Danny was ready to cry himself.
Worn out from his days-long escapades, Danny sat down in the rocking chair, wound the music box again with one hand, and began rocking him and the baby back and forth. That's when Dakota finally began to calm – Danny's movements evening out in a manner that soothed her as opposed to the erratic up-and-down motion he'd been throwing her in. With a few minutes in that chair and the music box still playing, Dakota finally fell back asleep a few minutes later.
Danny about cried with relief when the last of Dakota's cries finally trickled off, but for fear of waking her again, he didn't immediately place her back in her crib. He waited a few more rounds of the music box song before he dared to stand, tiptoeing to the crib and placing her back inside, making sure to place her stuffed lamb back within her reach.
Crisis averted, Danny slumped. He tried to remember the last time he slept but couldn't recall when it had been. Shrugging it off, he picked his laptop up from the ground and placed it on the rocking chair. He picked up the music box, laid down on the floor by the crib, wound it tight again, and then rolled onto his stomach. Exhaustion weighed heavy on his eyes. He closed them, telling himself he only meant to rest them for a few minutes. In those next few minutes, he was out himself.
For the next hour, infant and teen slept restfully side-by-side, so deep within dreamland that neither stirred when the sound of the apartment's front door and shuffling feet rang out. The footsteps wandered around the other rooms for a few minutes before making their way to the nursery, where a tall man with light brown hair entered the room, shoulders slumped but smile content.
"Hey, Danny. I'm back," Chuck whispered into the dark. He looked around for the boy and looked twice at the rocking chair, where he could usually find Danny. Yet, only his laptop sat there, closed and abandoned.
His heartbeat picking up a tick, Chuck slipped into the room. "Danny?" he whispered. He walked to Dakota's crib, where he found his daughter sleeping peacefully, and then walked around to the other side of the room, where he jumped as he almost tripped over the sleeping boy's sprawled out form.
Cursing under his breath, Chuck stumbled back, grabbing at his chest, heart racing. He took a few deep, steadying breaths, shook his head, and smiled. He grabbed a blanket from the dresser behind him and unfolding it, laid it across Danny's body. Danny shifted at that, but only rolled over and caught himself in a burrito, where he seemed content to keep sleeping. Chuck laughed under his breath, patted Danny's shoulder, and whispered, "Night, little dude."
The boy hummed something in his sleep that sounded like a reply, but Chuck couldn't be sure. He waved, rose, and after kissing his daughter's forehead, left the room to let both children continue to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night.