Ch.9: 1000 Yesterdays Ago (or Your Tomorrow Will Come)
Collapsing into the chair in front of his desk, Batman released a long sigh. It had been a long week for both the Dark Knight and Bruce Wayne, and this was probably the first time in days that Batman felt like he could just breath. Up until now, it had been a constant race to get things done, to get to all sorts of places in time. It had the Caped Crusader wound up and tense, and to calm down from the constant adrenaline high, Batman decided to get some long overdue research out of the way.
Turning on his large computer, the Dark Knight reclined in his chair a little, soaking up the quiet atmosphere of the cave. Echoing off the walls were the calls of the resident bats, and the computer hummed softly in the background. It was white noise. Often times, Batman forgot the sounds existed at all, but for some reason today, they were soothing.
It was all too soon when the computer booted up, the familiar desktop coming to life on the screen. Batman leaned forward, typing leisurely on the keyboard in front of him. It only took minutes for the Dark Knight to bring up the server Danny had been looking at a week or two ago, the server that belonged specifically to Las Vegas' biggest orphanage. It was easy enough to tap into the files, and carefully, Batman began searching through them, scanning the labels for the name of the teen he believed he knew well. It took longer than Batman had hoped to finally find the name, and it was rather depressing seeing how many names were listed. So many kids had been put into the system, all because a parent or guardian was incapable of meeting the child's needs, they had no interest in raising a kid, they were scumbags that didn't appreciate their children enough, or they were dead. Batman wondered which case Danny fell under, feeling something twist in his gut at the thought.
(Please, out of all the reasons Danny could've been put into the system for, don't let it be that his parents hadn't wanted him or had been terrible people. To think that everything that the boy had become could've been avoided by a simple decision of the parents just seemed cruel.)
After a good ten minutes or so, the Dark Knight finally came across Danny's name, and it took little effort to crack open the seal around it. Apprehensively, Batman began scrolling through the file, reading thoroughly through the extensive timeline locked away inside.
The first thing to pop up was the most recent picture of Danny social services had, which was years old by now. In the photo, Danny looked to be around ten-years-old, and the Dark Knight was taken aback by the sheer misery the child's face was in. There were kids that hated having their picture taken, Batman knew, but Danny looked as if he was going to, honest to God, maul the person taking the photo. His lips were turned into a staunch frown, and his blue eyes were darkened with malice. A small hand clutching a meat-clever would not be out of place in the photo. That was not how a child should look. At all.
Feeling apprehensive by what he would find, Batman scrolled past the intimidating photograph and continued on to what the Dark Knight had originally come for: the information.
The first thing recorded in the file was that Danny had not originally been placed in the state of Nevada's custody. Actually, it was the state of Illinois that had taken Danny from his home. The boy had been born and, for the most part, raised in Amity Park, a small town nestled snugly in Illinois. However, the report gave no reason as to why the boy had been moved such a great distance. Batman hoped it was mentioned somewhere else as his eyes moved further down the page.
The next thing the file had to offer was Danny's birth parents names: Jack and Madeline "Maddie" Fenton. Fortunately, the two had been loving parents and had never lain a hand on their child. For the first few years of Danny's life, he had been a normal, happy child. Unfortunately though, Jack and Maddie had never been truly financially sound, and it had all fallen apart when Danny was four-years-old. This financial ruin had been the reason social services had stepped in, and though the Fenton parents had done their best to correct their mistakes, it was much too late to rebound from. Maddie and Jack were lucky, though. The state of Illinois was kind. They agreed to only foster Danny out, giving the parents the chance to regain custody of their child again. It would undoubtedly take a long time for that to happen, considering how far they had fallen, but it was better than nothing.
It was immediately apparent how the two parents had so totally destroyed their financial stability: Jack and Maddie were both paranormal scientists. (The irony was physically painful.) For a long time, their only source of income had been Maddie's daytime job, but when Danny was three and a half, she quit to focus on the subject she and her husband majored in. It was mere months before that plan crashed and burned, and Maddie had to return to work. However, by then, it was much too late to gain back what they had lost.
It was a shame. After some research, Batman would find that both parents were near geniuses, and it would have been easy for the two of them to major in fields that were worth working for and paid well. However, the Dark Knight knew they had already experienced the consequences of their decisions in the most painstaking way possible. There was no reason to think any worse of them, especially since their second child could've been separated from them as well.
It took a few rereads, but Batman came to terms with the fact that Danny had an older sibling. He had a sister, to be exact, and she was a staggering fifteen years older than he was. Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton's age was the only thing that had kept social services from taking her too. When Danny was four-years-old, Jazz was nineteen. She was legally an adult and had already finished one year of college at Yale, where she had been given a full ride. Jazz aspired to be a psychologist, and most found her more competent than her parents. However, for all her intellect and maturity, there had been nothing Jazz could do to save her baby brother from the state.
It was indeterminable how many times Batman read that section of the report. Oh sure, it had always been a possibility that Danny might have siblings. However, actually having confirmation of such a thing was very different from merely speculating the idea.
Batman wondered if Danny had any clue that he had a sister. He had been very young when he was taken from his home, and for the most part, Jazz had been gone for one of those years. Would he have any memories of her, or would Jazz just be a distant picture Danny could never quite make out?
He would be lying if the Dark Knight said his thoughts didn't disturb him. To avoid continuing his line of thinking, Batman scrolled down, reading the new content. He found that it was more descriptive than the first piece, for it described Danny's time in the custody of the state. It was a fruitless thought, but Batman hoped that he wouldn't find too many displeasing things in the text. The man became disheartened quite quickly.
The files read that, for the first few days of his stay at his new home, Danny had been fine for a kid who had just been taken from his parents. He played with the other kids, complained very little, listened to the adults, and went to preschool like normal. The fact that going home was not an option had not sunk in for the little boy. However, it was on the fourth day that, out of nowhere, little Danny became a depressed recluse. The playful boy refused to engage with others, all but ignored the people in charge of his care, and stopped eating because he 'wasn't hungry.' This sudden change in personality startled many of the volunteers, and one of them finally had the gall to ask him what was wrong. The file quoted Danny as crying as he said, "I'm not going to see Mommy and Daddy ever again."
No one ever found out how this idea squirmed into Danny's head so quickly and so harshly. Many of the adults suspected some of the meaner kids in the orphanage had said something to him, but no one was ever able to prove anything.
The volunteers did all they could to cheer the young boy up, but nothing any of them did could lift Danny's spirits. His weight began to quickly drop, and the boy's dwindling energy caused restlessness amongst the many adults working with the children. The boy had barely been there for a week, but many of the workers and volunteers had begun talking with the group that actually ran the orphanage. They begged with their superiors to allow the Fenton parents to see their child, but it became immediately apparent to Batman that the people in charge at the time were heartless dicks. They denied all the requests, claiming that Danny had to adjust to his new life. If anyone were to try and go around their orders, they were in danger of losing their jobs. The many workers begrudgingly refrained from calling the Fenton parents to come soothe their child.
For the next few weeks, a few of the volunteers banded together to ease Danny's suffering as much as they could. However, much like the boy was now, Danny proved to be very unpredictable. Some days, he seemed to be ok; not great, but better than he had been. Other days, though, Danny would erupt into waterworks, and nothing was capable of calming him. The executives running that specific orphanage claimed it to be Danny 'adjusting.' The volunteers had more…aggressive…descriptions for Danny's emotional state.
(Though having never met them, Batman respected the volunteers greatly for all the work they did with Danny in an attempt to help him.)
Despite it taking much longer than it should've been, Danny's up-and-down moods eventually balanced out. He was not the same kid that had been dropped off at the facility, but at least the volunteers didn't feel as if they had to constantly watch him, should Danny suddenly take a turn for the worst. It was a small time after this that the boy's social worker (who had also been doing her share of work to soothe Danny's dilemma) decided it would be alright for him to be fostered out.
The first couple of homes went without much incident, and Danny stayed with each of them for a year or more. However, the boy had a few weird quirks that greatly exasperated each of the foster parents. For example, the boy became rather interested in computers, finding all sorts of things he should not have been finding at such a young age. Danny's developing hobby would not have been so startling, had the cops not showed up a couple of times because of some of the things Danny did. Also, it seemed that, somewhere along the line, Danny found out that he liked to take all sorts of things apart and put them back together. And it was not endearing when he did it, mostly because he dismantled things that didn't need dismantling. Like the toaster or the lawn mower. Plus, a lot of the time, things did not come together they way they were designed to be built. This resulted in many minor accidents. No one had ever been hurt in any of these accidents, but the older Danny got, the more startling and dangerous the accidents became.
It was around this point in the file's timeline that Batman could see the boy's mean streak starting to manifest. It was startling to see how young Danny was when he started turning into the teen that the Dark Knight knew, but then, the Danny he knew now was young too. It was unfortunate that the boy's childhood had gone to waste. People only got one of those, and Danny had unintentionally thrown away his.
For the most part, the first two homes Danny had were fine, despite the few incidents here and there. However, when the boy was seven and sent to live with the third home, it was obvious things were different with him. He seemed to set out on a quest to make his foster family's life as miserable as possible in the subtlest ways possible. Danny placed viruses on the family's computer repeatedly, took bigger pieces of machinery apart when he found it convenient, and released his snarky attitude upon the world. Danny's teachers frequently called his foster parents in for 'chats.' The foster family had to call the boy's social worker, asking for help with his newfound attitude. However, given the opportunity, Danny jumped at the chance to falsely accuse the mother of abusing him. The investigation that followed the accusation completely uprooted the family, and when it turned out that nothing had actually happened, Danny was reprimanded harshly. However, it didn't seem that he cared. The boy made similar accusations with other families.
When Danny was eight-and-a-half, the boy's social worker refused to foster him out for a time. The boy's behavior was not only troublesome, but it was starting to concern the woman in charge of Danny. During those few months at Amity Park's orphanage, the boy was forced to speak with a shrink. It was no good, though. Danny never opened up, and his behavior never improved. The boy's record made many reluctant to foster or adopt the boy, which increasingly worried Danny's social worker. She loved children and couldn't stand to think of the boy growing up in the orphanage until he turned eighteen, but the woman also realized that fostering or adopting Danny out was becoming a danger to the kind people who applied for custody.
(By this time, Jack and Maddie's financial situation hadn't improved much, so the executives of the orphanage decided to retract their previous agreement. If the Fentons did dig their way out of ruin, then great. They could still regain custody. But if the boy was adopted before then, the Fenton parents would lose their chance completely.)
Around the time Danny was nine-and-a-quarter, the boy's newest foster family found they could not handle the little ball of violent sunshine as they had previously thought. It was the boy's shortest home, as he had only stayed for a messy four months, but the hardest part about it had been that the family lived in Las Vegas. While Danny had traveled before to different states, he had never been so far away from his hometown, and it had been very rough on the boy. The social worker knew that she would never let Danny be fostered out so far away from Amity Park again, but when she had tried to get Danny on the plane to go back home, the boy had surprised her. Just as they were supposed to get on the plane, Danny told his social worker, word for word, "I'm not getting on another damn plane, and you can't make me. You'll just put me on another plane anyway because no one seems to want me, so what's the point?"
In the end, the poor social worker was unable to get Danny boarded in time for their flight, and the woman didn't manage to get him on the plane with her for the next three flights she booked. Danny went through great lengths to make sure they couldn't leave, even going as far as to cut the transmission and brakes in the rental car.
(The file had quotes from the officer that asked Danny why he had done such a thing. If the transmission hadn't been cut and the brakes had been, both the social worker and Danny could've been killed. Danny had, apparently, seemed unconcerned when he answered, "My only target was the transmission. The brakes were an accident." When asked how the boy knew which wires to cut, Danny smirked darkly and replied, "YouTube, of course. You can find anything on that site. It's great for coming up with ideas.")
And that was how Danny came to be in the Las Vegas orphanage. He didn't stay there for long, though. Not long after the boy turned ten, he vanished, sending the entire staff of the orphanage and his social worker into panic. Amber Alerts had been sent out, flyers went up, and Danny's face had been everywhere for awhile. The longer he was gone, though, the more people began to believe he was gone for good. Many gave up and moved on with their lives.
It was really unfortunate that Danny disappeared around that time, too. Batman read that Jazz had attempted to gain custody of her baby brother. However, she had been just days too late. The boy was gone, and no one knew what had happened to him.
Over the following years, though, Danny occasionally popped up a few times a year. He was usually found because he had been arrested; however, now and then, someone who had seen the boy on the news would catch him too. Often times, he was outside the city of Nevada and was shipped back repeatedly. No one was able to keep him contained for long, though. As soon as Danny had been found, he was gone again, and with each time, his absences grew longer. The last documented recapture (for that's what it was) was recorded when Danny had just turned sixteen. It'd been over a year since the teen had been caught, even though Batman knew he had been arrested numerous times since then. It seemed the orphanage was tired of taking him back just as Danny was tired of going back.
The records were coming to an end, but they ended on an interesting note. Though it hadn't been very prominent too much, Danny still went through depressed spells as he got older. However, this was usually hidden by his snarky attitude, so not many caught onto it.
After that last random note, there was nothing else to read. Batman leaned back in his seat as he finished reading, rubbing his sore eyes as he sighed. He felt more enlightened on Danny's situation than he had before, but the Dark Knight felt no closer to understanding Danny. All it had told him was that Danny started out as a child with severe separation anxiety that had grown into a mean, off-putting, slightly apathetic teenager. This did not tell Batman why Danny's morals were so fickle when it came to certain situations.
For some time, Batman lounged in his seat and thought about what to do. He was still as he thought, ideas coming and going as steadily as Danny's moral obligations. However, one crazy, little idea stuck, and while it wouldn't fix anything current, Batman wondered if it might help Danny grow. He debated with himself, but the teen was so up and down, it was impossible to tell if Danny would go along with it at all.
In the end, there was only way to find out. Batman got up and headed for the hanger.
The ebony-haired boy bobbed in his seat to his one of his favorite songs, gnawing on a chicken tender from his dinner as he moved along to the beat. Absently, Danny tapped now and then on his keyboard, his blue eyes flickering amongst his holograms with little interest. It was strange for the teen to be so disconnected from what he declared as his "baby," but then, Danny's beloved creation was giving him a lot of grief lately. Even the most attached of people would find they needed distance in a time such as this.
Finishing up the last of his dinner, Danny turned around to trash the styrofoam container it had come home in. However, he paused before rising from his chair. The teen looked between his visitor and the open window, his expression twisted into exasperation. Danny asked, "Do I have to say it?"
"Hello to you too, Danny." The Dark Knight replied, his voice emotionless and face.
Danny rolled his eyes and got up, quickly passing Batman and trashing the styrofoam in his hands. He continued to the fridge, opening it and looking inside. As he pulled out a dented water bottle, Danny asked, "So, what do you want from me today, Bats, and more importantly, will it allow me to scare someone pants-less?" The teen shot his supervisor one of his dark grins and said, "Please tell me I'm allowed to scare someone pants-less today."
Batman suppressed the urge to roll his eyes as he mumbled, "How I never tire of his everlasting compassion and unselfish love…" His attention focusing on the teen, the Dark Knight continued, "Actually Danny, I'm here on personal business. I wanted to ask you something."
Interest peaked, Danny rubbed his hands together as he slipped past Batman, flopping down in his chair. Leaning back casually, Danny's eyes sparkled innocently as he said, "You came all this way to ask me one, stupid question? Oh, how touching!" The devious grin returned in an instant. "This should be good."
The Dark Knight hesitated for a moment, perking the teen's interest more. There wasn't much that could keep Batman from blurting out what he wanted to say. Danny waited for a few more seconds, feeling impatience growing inside him. The boy opened his mouth, asking, "Bats, what do you-"
"Danny, would you like to meet your biological parents?"
"-want…" The teen trailed off, blinking stupidly at his supervisor. Batman waited patiently for Danny to respond, but the teen wasn't totally sure he had heard the Dark Knight right. It took a moment for him to reply with a broken, "…huh?"
Hiding his sudden remorse for bringing the subject up, Batman repeated his question. "Would you like to meet your biological parents?"
It's like the Dark Knight hadn't spoken at all. The deer-in-a-headlight look stayed securely fit to the boy's face, his shoulders slumped. Danny barely blinked, and when Batman looked closer, he wondered if the boy was even breathing. It was as if time had shattered, leaving Danny trapped forever in the moment.
Batman almost reached forward to land a hand on Danny's shoulder, but the boy suddenly looked to the side, where his least favorite hologram was flashing. Danny spared it a quick glance before looking at the floor, conflicted and still trying to process. His mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again. For a few moments, he went deathly still once more. Danny's blue eyes wouldn't meet the Dark Knight's as his subdued voice asked, "How did you even find them?"
"Your file was very…interesting." Batman said hesitantly.
Danny's face twisted into a dark expression. He mumbled, "I should've known you were going to look at it sooner or later…"
"Someone might as well have since it was obvious you weren't going to." Batman said. His voice was emotionless, but it almost seemed like the comment was meant to be a snap. The boy glared at the Dark Knight silently in reply before looking away, studying the ground instead. Batman said, "Look Danny, no one's making you do anything. If you have no interest in seeing them, then you don't have to. I was just seeing if you wanted to or not."
The teen sighed, rubbing his temples as he wondered what to do. He was torn in a million directions. Part of him knew he should've been happy to hear his parents were alive, but that posed questions as to why they had left him. He was dying to know the answers but was terrified as well. Danny wanted to ask Batman, but he knew the Dark Knight wouldn't answer, wouldn't want to sway the teen's decision.
Hesitantly, Danny asked, "If I say yes, where will you be in all of this?"
If Batman was surprised by the answer, he didn't show it. "I'll be wherever you need me to be."
Despite the storm still raging inside of him, Batman's words gave Danny a small sense of peace. Though the boy was treading in uncharted territory, the Dark Knight was willing to be a rock the teen so desperately needed.
With an apprehensive sigh, Danny got and crossed his arms uncomfortably. His face set into grim determination, the boy said, "Alright. Let's do this."
Batman nodded and turned, walking towards the window. Abnormally silent, Danny followed after him without complaint. The Dark Knight led the boy to the roof, climbing the fire-escape without a problem. Danny found no problems trailing behind, and within minutes, the two were seated comfortably inside the Batplane, rising from the apartment building's rooftop silently.
The ride was silent. Batman found it unnerving and frequently glanced back at his passenger, who remained eerily still and quiet. Danny was always looking out the window, eyes glazed over as he wandered hopelessly in his thoughts. It was unlike the teen, and despite how much the Dark Knight disliked Danny's overbearing personality sometimes, Batman wished the teen would pester with him questions and mockeries. He didn't voice his thoughts, though; it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.
The hours crept by painstakingly slow for the Dark Knight. Danny hardly noticed them, however. He was caught up in all of his unanswered questions that he was jostled when they landed, despite how smooth the descent of the jet was. The boy rubbed his dry, itchy eyes as Batman powered the plane down. Danny began unbuckling his seatbelt as the top of the Batplane opened, the Dark Knight already climbing out of the large contraption. Batman paused as he got out and looked back down at Danny, who stared emotionlessly up at him. The black-clad man asked, "Are you ready?"
"Something like that," Danny answered. Though Batman was unconvinced, he didn't argue the point.
As Danny landed on the rooftop of some sort of facility (he would later see the sign that blazed "Axion Labs"), the white rings erupted around his waist, transforming him into Graveyard once again. Batman nodded at the teen for his thinking ahead and then took off, running towards the edge of the rooftop and shooting his grappling gun to a nearby building. The teen followed behind, flying easily.
Besides the thunder rolling in overhead, the two's journey was relatively quiet. This time, Batman didn't mind it. At least when he was hopping across rooftops, the Dark Knight could pretend he was back in Gotham City, on patrol with any of his partners. However, to his shock, Batman was drawn out of his pretending when the flying, white-haired boy asked, "What city is this?"
Batman glanced at the glowing boy and answered, "This is your hometown, Amity Park."
Danny snorted and rolled his eyes. Dryly, the boy commented, "If this is my home, why haven't I decided to move back, huh?"
The Dark Knight didn't answer.
The pair continued until Batman gestured for Danny to stop, standing on the edge of a rooftop. The teen complied and looked where the Dark Knight was gazing. Danny groaned as he stared at the townhouse across the street. He had been able to see it for quite some time and over a great distance, all because there was an ops-center resting on top of it. From the first glimpse, Danny knew that's exactly where he and his supervisor were headed, but he'd been lying to himself up to this moment.
"Let me guess… That's where my parents live?" Danny asked irritably, receiving a cut nod in reply. The boy sighed but could not shake the feeling that the giant ops-center was the slightest bit familiar somehow.
("Mommy, what's that thing on the roof?" – "It's…a really big spaceship, Danny." – "Really?" – "Of course, Sweetheart!" – "That's so cool!")
For a few minutes, the duo stood atop the townhouse across from where the boy's parents lived. Danny seemed hesitant to leave the rooftop. Batman wanted to say something, maybe assure the boy, but the man didn't want to seem like he was being pushy. The boy had to do this in his own time. Going too soon wouldn't result in anything good.
(But who was to say that now wasn't too soon?)
"If things go south, you're still going to be here, aren't you?" Danny asked, glancing at the Dark Knight from the corner of his eye. His arms were crossed over his chest again, looking rather defensive, as if he felt someone was going to attack him. The teen flinched a little when another roll of thunder rumbled.
Batman nodded again, hoping to soothe the boy with his action. "I might wander around a little, but yes, I'll be here if things don't go as planned."
Danny nodded, but he still wouldn't leave. It worried the Dark Knight, how apprehensive Danny was. He could understand the fear Danny had of finding out the reason his parents had left him so early on in life, but the unsettling thing was that Danny seemed to have come to the conclusion that giving his parents a chance wasn't a good idea. However, Danny needed to give his parents a chance. He needed to have the opportunity to heal and patch up his damaged self.
(But how was Danny supposed to recover when he didn't even know something was wrong?)
Lightning streaked across the sky before a loud BOOM rolled through the area. The duo looked up at the very last moment, just as rain began pouring from the sky. Batman looked away from the sky a second later, but Danny remained staring, transfixed and still lost amongst his thoughts. Being uncharacteristically gentle and light, Batman asked, "Are you ever going to down there?"
Danny snapped out of his musings and shot a glare, despite how soft the Dark Knight's voice had been. With a huff, the teen stepped off the side of the building, floating gently down to the deserted sidewalk below. As his feet hit the pavement, Danny allowed himself to transform back to human, unconcerned if anybody saw him. The teen meandered across the street, the puddles splashing as he walked through them. The rain soaked his hair, soaked his skin, soaked his clothes until they clung desperately to his form. The discomfort didn't even register, though. All the boy could think about was the front door of his parents' home, dread filling his stomach as it continued to get closer. The entrance just kept getting closer and closer and closer-
He was standing in front of the steps. When had he gotten that close to it? Why had his legs brought him this far? Better question, how did his legs bring him this far? They were feeling pretty weak right about now…
The boy climbed the steps to the front stoop and knocked on the door without thinking about it. The overhang kept any more rain from soaking Danny further, but he didn't notice this either. His eyes were locked on the front door as he waited apprehensively for someone to answer. His sensitive ears could hear someone's muffled voice say, "Coming," and their footsteps padding across the floor. They came closer to the door steadily, and Danny could feel his heart pounding throughout his entire body. He could hear his blood rushing as the doorknob jingled, drowning out the sounds of the pouring rain. The door began to open and-
Time stopped.
The teen couldn't breathe as he looked upon the familiar woman's face as she looked him up and down curiously. Danny recognized the bob of orange hair, and he remembered the woman's gentle, violet eyes. The teen remembered the secure way she held herself, and he certainly remembered the soothing aura that hung over her. She was exactly the same person that had left him all those years. The teen studied and remembered everything vividly as the woman's eyes widened upon seeing the teen, her hand flying up to cover her open mouth. She mumbled, "Oh my gosh, it's…"
His breath returned to his lungs. The shock and amazement washed away in a flood, becoming instantly replaced by a look of hurt and despair. The look tore at Maddie as her son brokenly said, "You told me you'd come get me."
"…Danny." Maddie choked, her eyes misting up. She swallowed hard before taking a shaky breath. For a moment, she seemed at a loss of what to do, but then she impulsively reached out, trying to brush some of Danny's dripping hair from his eyes with her fingertips, if only to assure herself it was really her boy standing on her front stoop. However, Danny pulled back as his mother's fingers brushed against his skin, his expression still twisted into a look of forlorn hurt. Maddie's hand retreated, just as hurt by her son's actions as hers were for him but understanding also glistened in her eyes. Danny failed to see his mother's resignation, though.
Studying the welcome mat at his feet, Danny angrily mumbled, "Who else would I be, unless you decided to leave some other kid all alone too?"
Maddie visibly flinched at Danny's words. The boy wanted to feel victorious at the damage he'd managed to inflict- after what she had said to him, Maddie deserved it –but instead of helping him, Maddie's reaction only worsened his already sour mood. Danny was sad and angry and wounded, and he didn't know why he had thought this would help him at all. What was he supposed to gain from all of this? There was nothing to gain, and this fact only led the boy to another question: Why had he been stupid enough to say 'yes?'
The rain continued to pour down behind Danny, and thunder rumbled lowly. Maddie suddenly became hyper-aware of the weather, pulling her thin cardigan around her frame tightly. She couldn't imagine how cold her son was, standing outside in the biting breeze, soaked to the bone as he was. Maddie was surprised Danny wasn't shaking uncontrollably as she moved aside, ushering him indoors. She said, "Come inside, Danny. You must be freezing."
(He really wasn't, Danny wanted to tell her. He was completely numb and had been for the last few minutes. The teen didn't mention this, though, and he wasn't entirely sure why.)
Danny stepped inside the doorway, the drastic change in temperature becoming immediately apparent. Maddie told him that she'd be right back with a towel as she hurriedly wandered off, leaving Danny all alone in the foyer, drenched and dripping.
The moment alone allowed the teen a chance to study the house. The thing that hit him first was the scent lingering in the air, already adding to the welcoming atmosphere embedded into the house. It was a scent Danny could not place exactly but felt familiar, all the same. It smelled like home, he realized. Or, at least, it's what home had smelled like before everything had gone up in flames. Still, as much Danny quietly resented the homey feeling the scent left him, he couldn't deny that it left a hollow feeling aching in his chest, swallowing his heart whole. The teen sighed as his shoulders slumped.
As he tried to ignore the achiness, Danny looked around the living room that the foyer opened up to. The set-up reminded him of Loretta and Chuck's living space. Danny guessed a lot of people did it then, his eyes roaming absently to the wall on his left side. It was covered in framed photos, and the teen's face scrunched up as he studied the pictures behind the glass.
To his surprise, many of the photos were of Danny as an infant and young child. In every one of them, the ebony-haired boy was smiling and laughing, his blue orbs sparkling with joy. Danny was in every normal setting a child should be in: playing at the park, sitting in his parents' lap, rolling on the floor. Looking at the photos left Danny with a weird feeling he didn't know how to describe. How come he couldn't ever recall being as happy as he seemed to be in the photos?
Amongst the many photos of the black-haired child, there was also a girl. There were pictures of her as a child as well, but she was a lot older in the pictures where she was with Danny. Out of all the photos with her in them, Danny found the most intriguing to be the one where she and toddler-Danny were playing on the ground. The pudgy boy was reaching up, tugging the older girl's hair-band from her orange hair. The girl was smiling indulgently at the younger figure, tilting her head towards Danny to allow him better access to her accessory. Her teal eyes were lit with love as she gazed down at the giggling Danny.
It shouldn't have been such a surprise to see the orange-haired girl, but it was anyhow. Danny did remember her vaguely, sitting in her lap and tangling his fingers in her long, soft hair, but he could never remember how they had been related. She had simply been there every now and then, and Danny had loved her every time she had suddenly appeared out of the blue. Even now, when he couldn't remember the girl's name, he loved her, though he couldn't recall a reason as to why.
As Danny studied the picture, taking in every little detail, Maddie reappeared beside him, draping a towel around his shoulders. The teen glanced at her emotionlessly. He took note of the wrinkles he hadn't seen before now, as well as her graying roots. Apparently, time hadn't left her in a standstill like Danny had originally thought. She had aged, just as he had, and for the first time, the teen noticed that he actually stood taller than the petite woman. The dull ache in his chest thrummed harder with these realizations, and Danny couldn't help but hate that he had missed so much.
Maddie plucked the photo Danny had been staring at from the wall, holding it out to him. The teen gave her another expressionless look before hesitantly taking the frame from her fingers, taking in the details even more. Maddie crossed her arms over her chest as Danny studied the picture. With a faint smile on her lips, Maddie said, "That's you when you were two-years-old. Your sister was seventeen at the time."
Danny's head snapped up from the picture, his startled eyes locking with Maddie's calm ones. The woman raised a curious eyebrow at him as he looked back and forth between the photo and his mother, his mouth trying to form words but none coming to mind. Finally, Danny stammered out, "I-I have a sister?"
Her expression dropping, Maddie replied, "Yes. Your sister, Jazz, is fifteen years older than you. She's thirty-two now, is married, and has two kids." The woman took a moment to sigh before adding, "Jazz adored you, Danny. She tried to claim custody over you about eight-years-ago, but you had disappeared, falling completely off the grid. It just about broke her heart."
The teen ducked his head, hiding his clenched jaw. Tears threatened to spill out of his eyes, but Danny blinked rapidly, willing them away. It was a struggle to keep breathing evenly. Hell, it was a struggle to keep breathing at all. Through clenched teeth, Danny mumbled, "She wouldn't have had to do that if you and Dad hadn't decided I wasn't worth it."
Maddie staggered back a step out of horror. The white-knuckled grip Danny had around the picture frame suddenly became obvious, as did the shaking of the boy's shoulders. The woman, breathless and appalled by what her son had implied, said, "Danny, you can't possibly mean that. You can't possibly believe that's what your father and I thought- what we think of you."
"Well, what was else would it be then, huh?!" Danny shouted, glaring at his mother so fiercely and so suddenly that she stumbled back another step. The teen's blue eyes were glistening with unshed, angry tears, and Maddie could positively state that she had never seen someone look at someone with so much disdain. Icicles drove into Maddie's chest as her baby boy said, "You just left me at that place with no explanation, no warning, and left me with a lie, to top it all off! And-and you never visited and-and never called or wrote me a letter or-or anything! You were there one day and gone the next! I didn't know what was going on, and n-no one would tell me! And it didn't matter how much I prayed to God that I'd see you again, you NEVER CAME!"
CRASH!
Maddie's hands flew to her mouth as the picture frame shattered against the ground, glass shards flying all over the floor in front of Danny. They clink-clanked melodically as they rolled and bounced. Tears ran down the boy's face in an angry flood as he pointed at the splintered frame and yelled, "You have the gall to ask me if that's what I think when your actions did that to me?! Hell yes I think it, and I'd love to see you try to convince me otherwise!"
Footsteps boomed in the direction of the staircase on the other side of the room as Maddie fell to the floor on her knees, reaching out to gently brush aside some of the glass. A masculine voiced worriedly asked, "What is going on down here?!"
Danny glared at his father as he suddenly came into view, his eyes alight with spite. Maddie's jaw clenched as she slid the photo out from under the broken pieces of the picture frame and glass. The woman's husband slowed his descent as he saw the scene in front of him and more prominently, the dark look he was receiving from the dripping boy in his foyer. Jack slowly asked, "Mads, what's going on? Is everything alright?"
Her voice choked with barely restrained emotion, Maddie ignored her husband's questions and said, "Come say hello to Danny, Jack. I'm sure he'd love to fire something off on you too."
The teen in question twisted his expression into disgust. There was a sharp, sarcastic edge to his voice as he snapped, "Oh, like you guys don't deserve it."
Snapping her head up to glare at her son, the photo clutched tightly in her hands, Maddie said, "Danny, stop it already. I know what we did was wrong, but at the time, it was the best option we had! Unbeknownst to you, your father and I were dealing with a lot of financial issues. If you think it was easy for us to leave you, then you would be very wrong. You'll never come close to understanding how much it hurt to leave you in that retched place, but at least they gave us the chance to get you back when we got back on our feet."
"And you guys took your sweet, precious time with that, didn't ya?" Danny snapped. He meant to be angry when he said it, but it sounded more sorrowful than infuriated. The tension in his shoulders was draining out, and the boy slumped miserably, his eyes blankly looking at the glass shards he had compared himself to just minutes before. The boy's hot tears suddenly felt cold on his skin, and Danny gave a shaky sigh, the ache in his chest constricting painfully around his dejected heart.
Maddie's fire subsided as suddenly as Danny's. She got up from the ground and attempted to lay a hand on her son's shoulder. He stepped away from her, unable to meet her eyes as he quietly sobbed to himself. Maddie sighed before holding out the picture in her hands, barely slipping it into Danny's line of sight. "We never meant to tear this apart, Danny, and we certainly never meant for it go on for so long."
"You cheated me," Danny wept. His blue eyes lifted again, and though the angry fire was trying its damn hardest to ignite again, the boy's tears kept drowning it out. "and if you think telling me that it wasn't supposed to happen that way- that it wasn't supposed to go on for so long- takes away the hurt, then you'd be wrong. It may have happened a thousand yesterdays ago, but in the end, it still happened. You still lied to me. You still robbed me of a normal childhood. You still cheated me."
From behind, Jack said, "Danny-"
The infuriated fire relit in Danny's eyes, his sorrowful expression quickly reverting back into its previous disdainful one. "Don't! Don't 'oh, Danny' me! Don't you dare!" The towel dropped from the teen's shoulders to the floor as the boy released it, stepping back from his parents and closer to the door. Maddie, unwilling to let her baby boy go after so many years of suffering through his absence, tried to call him back, reaching out and grabbing Danny's arm. He ripped it away, screamed "FUCK YOU," at the top of his lungs, and threw the front door open. He was out of the exit and down the street in a blink of an eye, and though Jack tried to pursue, Danny was fast, crafty, and gifted.
The teen was gone before either parent could register their heart breaking all over again.
The harsh rain stung Danny's face as he sprinted down vaguely familiar streets and dark alleyways. It was easy enough to get lost within them, and Danny very quickly realized that he seemed to be running in circles. The anger that had been fueling his adrenaline evaporated within minutes, leaving the boy feeling panicked and lost. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know where to go, and all Danny wanted was to go home. However, his ride was nowhere to be seen, and the teen hysterically wondered if Batman had decided to leave him behind too, just like Maddie and Jack.
Danny ran through the dark streets until his legs felt like limp noodles and his heart was ready to explode from his chest. His breathing coming out in quick gasps from his mouth, Danny finally allowed himself to slow to a stop under a streetlamp. The teen collapsed onto the bench beside it, holding his heaving chest in a fruitless effort to ease the aching. Through the biting sting of the rain, Danny choked out a heart-wrenching sob, weeping like the child he had never really been.
For a good ten minutes, the boy held himself as he wept, rocking slowly on the edge of the bench. The aching in his heart could have been from all the running, but Danny knew the pain was really from all the years he had been suppressing this breakdown. How many times had he blown off his feelings, assuring himself that none of it really mattered? That all of it would go away in time, only for it to return again and again?
As the boy took a deep, shaky breath and rubbed his eyes, a hand came to rest upon his shoulder. Danny looked up, coming face-to-face with a concerned Dark Knight. For some odd reason, the sight filled the teen with a sense of relief, and he breathed another sigh before he mumbled, "Hi."
"I guess your visit didn't go as planned." Batman said as he meandered around the bench, coming to sit quietly beside the boy. Danny found the action strange but did not discourage it.
Shaking his head, the boy answered, "Not really…"
There was a pause. Batman watched Danny, waiting for him to open up in his own time, and Danny watched the small stream in front of them. It was almost overflowing from all the pouring rain, and it rushed quickly into the distance, where Danny could not see the end. The boy watched the rippling water for a long time. Then he said, "Can I go home now?"
Batman frowned. "Of course, but is there anything you'd like to talk about first?"
"There's nothing anyone could say to fix this, Bats. So no, there's nothing I want to talk about…"