WEDNESDAY 1 PM
"So you saw her in the gardens last?" Danny asked. He and Tucker made their way down the twisting halls, mostly with Danny leading the charge.
"I think she went that way, but I wasn't paying much attention. I was still really mad." Tuck huffed.
"What'd you guys fight about?" Danny asked softly. Tucker remained silent for a moment.
"Can we talk about it later? I just wanna find her first." He looked guilty.
"Absolutely!" Danny exclaimed.
"Take however long you need. Wherever it is it's between you guys, and if you don't want to tell me I get it." Danny spun around briefly to face Tucker.
"But I'm still here if you do want to talk it through, ok?"
"Thanks." Tucker's face took on a slight red hue. His gaze darted downwards. Danny suddenly realized he'd never let go of Tucker's hand. He suddenly pulled away as though burned.
Suddenly Tucker had a light bulb moment.
"What do you say to a shortcut?"
"Sure?" Danny wasn't sure exactly what Tucker meant.
"Go human," Tuck instructed. Danny did as he was told. He made sure to remember that the floor was solid.
"Take us up!" Tucker pointed at the ceiling.
"Ah, okay!" He got it now. Danny set a hand on Tucker's shoulder and together they rose. Danny accidentally breathed in a lungful of dust when they phased straight through a rather upset ghost rat. Tucker just scooped out a hand and grabbed up the creature from where it squealed. The three of them surfaced on the next floor up.
"Aw, a cutie!" Tucker cooed. He held the rat in his cupped hands. The creature promptly bit him and then scurried off, phasing through the wall as though there were an invisible mouse hole. Tucker shook his hand off in the air.
"Rude!" He shouted at the rat that was long gone.
Danny managed to cough up the last bit of dust.
"I hope ghost rabies isn't a thing,"
"Rats don't get rabies." Tucker said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I dunno," Danny's nose wrinkled as he watched where the thing had disappeared. It'd better not come back. Tucker offered Danny a hand up.
They continued down the hall until they reached Sam's room. Tucker pressed an ear to the door.
"I don't hear anything," He remarked.
"Let me try," Danny could just barely hear what might've been talking. Maybe Sam was watching something?
"I can tell something's going on in there, it's real quiet though." Danny explained.
Tucker stepped up and knocked on the door.
"One sec!" Sam's muffled voice came from the other side. There was a bit more talking, then the door opened.
The figure looming in the doorway had not been the one Danny and Tucker were expecting. Danny was taken aback and Tucker wore a similarly stuck expression. Danny switched to ghost form, and ice crackled in his hands. Tucker took a step back.
"What are you doing?" Danny shouted.
"Where's Sam?" Tucker added. Undergrowth looked offended.
"Come in!" Sam's voice rang out. Tucker pushed past Undergrowth and ran into the room. Undergrowth rolled his eyes and went in after him. Danny felt that something about all this was fishy, and didn't let down his guard.
"What's going on here?" Danny asked. He didn't take an eye off of Undergrowth. What was he doing with Sam? He didn't think she'd ever even want to come near him, after the last time. And what was Undergrowth even doing here? Why would Dora invite him? Or did he just show up uninvited?
Undergrowth saw Danny's glare and crossed his arms haughtily. Tucker left them to their staring match and went to meet up with Sam.
"I simply wanted to apologize." Undergrowth said through gritted teeth. 'Does he have teeth?'
"It's a bit late. It's been almost a year since you took over my haunt and mind-controlled everyone in it." Danny did not try to hide his bitterness. (Andrew had been the one to explain the haunt thing to him, how Danny's 'claim' over Amity Park had just invited challengers to fight him over it. It certainly didn't help his guilty conscience. But ghosts would've stuck around anyway, since the city was flooded with ectoplasm.)
"I wasn't in my right mind." Said Undergrowth.
"You of all people should know what I'm talking about."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Danny bristled.
"Everyone's heard of what happened with Freakshow. It's the only time the halfa boy scout ever did anything fun." Undergrowth smirked.
Danny's blood ran cold and boiled at the exact same time.
"I didn't have a choice, what's your excuse?"
"Having your home dissolve around you can do that to a person." It was like a switch had been flipped, Undergrowth's aura went from stiff to threatening.
"And you're gonna fix that, right?" This certainly wasn't the confrontation Danny had expected when he came looking for Sam, but he wasn't gonna back down either.
"That's the entire reason I'm here!" Danny gestured to the room.
"I'm here to pick up after the mess Pariah Dark left behind, and it would be a lot easier to learn how without you kidnapping my friend!"
"I did not steal her! She is already mine."
"What-"
Sam cut Danny off.
"Stop it!" She shouted. Danny followed the sound of her voice and saw him in her side room. Danny shot one last look at Undergrowth before rushing to Sam's side.
"Ice?" Tucker asked. That was when Danny saw Sam's swollen ankle, covered in what looked like stripes of rope burn. His core swelled with energy- 'did Undergrowth do this?!' Then he comprehended Tucker's request. Both his friends were looking at him with worry.
Danny touched her leg very lightly so as not to disturb the site of the injury. He put all of his anxious energy into creating a layer of frost across Sam's ankle. A small flurry began to flake from his hands, the energy attempting to pour out now that he'd let some of it out. But he bottled it up, and shoved it back down.
"What happened?" Danny asked, trying to appear calm. But he was anything but, and Sam and Tucker probably saw right through him.
Sam looked upset, and glanced at Tucker. Right, he said they had a fight…
"Tucker was being unreasonable, so I took a walk in the gardens."
"I was not-"
"Let her speak." Undergrowth interrupted. Tucker looked at him with wide eyes. Danny bristled at Undergrowth's attitude.
"We ran into each other there. It was a… rocky, start. But he can be amicable." Sam spoke as if she wasn't talking about the ghost who had mind controlled her along with the rest of the town, then tried to murder everyone.
"The Ghost Zone falling apart has been driving him crazy, because he'd connected to all the plants. But because of all this King business he's been able to feel more like himself." Sam explained. Undergrowth nodded in confirmation.
"As it turns out, during the whole Amity Park incident, he messed up." Now Sam looked a bit more uncomfortable. What kind of mistake?
"He accidentally, like, imprinted on me somehow? But it's cool, turns out I can still kinda use the powers he gave me during the whole thing." A grin spread across Sam's face.
"And he offered to teach me how to use it, and we can do it here. In the gardens, I mean. Not my room. That'd be strange." A hopeful look crossed her face and she looked at Danny.
"So now I have a reason to stay here. I don't even need to go home. I can stick around and help you." Sam sounded like she'd made up her mind. Danny's core sang at the admittance but any glee was quickly washed away, what about Sam's human life?
"Sam, you have to go home at some point! Your parents will be expecting you."
"It'd probably take them a week to even notice I was gone." Sam said bitterly.
"You know-" There was a sudden knock at the door. No one else made any motion to move, so Danny went for it. He raked a hand down the side of his face. How could he fix this? He didn't even know whose side he was supposed to be on. And throw Undergrowth's whole business into the pot? This was just a mess.
Speaking of messes,
"Just what do you think you're doing?" A very miffed Briar stood outside.
"You abandoned Ghostwriter, and didn't even bother to show up on time for your etiquette lesson!" Briar's clothes seemed to whip around them in an invisible wind, and the pink streaks in her hair seemed to be glowing. Oh, he'd messed up.
"Nobody could find Sam, so I had to help! Funny story, turns out she was in her room the… whole... time…" Danny trailed off. Briar was glowering. Not to future self, don't mess with someone Obsessed with scheduling.
"Well if she was found there is no more reason for you to play the wag from your lessons." Briar grabbed Danny's lapel and began to drag him down the hallway. He tried to pull back but Briar had a tight grip. And he didn't want to get even more on their bad side. But he couldn't help but resent them for dragging him away from Sam and Tucker.
WEDNESDAY 10 PM
Danny just barely managed to drop his ghost form before he fell on his bed with the strength of a limp noodle. His 'ghost history' lesson had dragged on even longer today because his schedule had been sent back by leaving to find Sam. Instead of being done at 7, things wrapped up around 9. He didn't regret abandoning his lesson with Ghostwriter, his friends came first, but the glares from his other teachers made him ever-so-slightly scornful. Eclipse (his teacher for all things ghostly history) had ranted to him about priorities.
Speaking of Sam, she looked up from where she sat further up the bed, leaning against the headboard and with a book in her lap. Tucker was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room with his PDA in his hands, and paid Danny no mind. They were largely used to his theatrics at this point. But Danny did take note that they had separated themselves. He really wished he could have stuck around. He had no clue where they'd ended off, if they had made up or still hated each other's guts. Metaphorically.
"Rough day?" Asked Sam. Danny grabbed a pillow and screamed into it. Rather self-explanatory.
"I feel like jello." Danny's voice was still muffled from the pillow.
"Why's that?"
Danny turned his head so he could breathe.
"Athena wanted to see just how many constructs I could have going all at once. I managed twenty-three before I felt like I was going to pass out. I made it to thirty before I actually passed out." Danny shook out one of his hands.
Danny went to say more, but was interrupted by Tucker's screech of agony.
"What the-" Sam started.
"My PDA is dead," Tucker sniffled.
"And so is my battery pack, so I can't recharge it." He turned teary eyes on Sam and Danny.
"Can I borrow one of yours?" He asked hopefully.
"My battery pack is dead too. My phone has 37 percent left." Sam replied. She did not sound impressed.
"I didn't bring one." Admitted Danny. Honestly, he hadn't had time to be on his phone recently. The most he used it for was to check the time in the middle of the night, and the other day he had shown Ghostwriter some of Humpty Dumpty's songs. It was getting a bit low on charge, though.
Tucker made a pained sound.
"It's only Wednesday," He complained.
"Well what can we do about it? Sneak into one of our homes and go charge it?" Sam laughed at the idea. But there were cogs turning in Danny's head.
"Y'know, I should probably take the Specter Speeder home before my parents find out we took it," Danny threw it out there. He could do this for them,at least. And maybe it would give them more of a chance to talk?
"Would you?" Tucker begged. He was already shoving all of his gadgets and their respective chargers into his bookbag.
"I really don't think it's a good idea, Danny." Sam chimed in.
"I'll be back before Briar even knows I'm gone." Danny started to look around for his shoes. Sam didn't look convinced.
"I could use some fresh air, too. I'd love a midnight flight." That made Sam relent.
"Fine, but I need either you or Tuck to go get my bag from my room." Sam winced. She tested her ankle.
"I don't think I could get it myself if I wanted to."
"On it," Tucker darted out of Danny's room. Huh? Was he trying to do something nice for Sam because he'd been in the wrong, or did he want to get away from her?
As Tucker left, Clockwork's speech came back to Danny. Specifically, what he had said about Danny's relationship with Sam and Tucker. What was so wrong with loving them, and spending time with them, and relying on them? They'd already reassured Danny they were willing to stick through this with him to the end.
'But when will it end?' The thought snuck its way into Danny's brain. It had a point.
Would it just be easier if he distanced them now? They had human lives to get back to. He was going to be stuck here, for the most part. The thing with Undergrowth wouldn't last forever, and he wasn't even sure how to process that yet- let alone how it would affect Sam's life.
Suddenly the room around them felt a lot bigger.
"Danny?" Sam broke him from his reverie. She looked him in the eye.
"Be careful, in case somebody's home." Sam warned.
"I will be." Danny assured her.