Saving Sam: Chapter 8

The nurse woke Danny to the sound of bustling footsteps and hurried, last-minute conversations. "Go on over to the cafeteria if you want something, but come right back here. Your parents should be here in ten minutes." The nurse grabbed a file from off her desk and walked to the door. He sat up and stretched, and the nurse paused in the doorway. "You know, we have a special services counselor on campus if you need to talk about something. There's help available if you need it."

"Okay," he said, and she left him alone. He stood up and stretched, displacing some of the patches on his abdomen. He took a look at himself in a hand mirror on her desk and was happy to see that he'd been bandaged or given antibiotic ointment. At least he wouldn't die of an infection. He hurried out the door and up to the cafeteria to find Tucker.

Danny spotted Tucker in the lunch line and got in it several people behind him. "Tucker!"

Tucker looked around and found Danny.

"Meet me outside on the bench."

Tucker nodded. "We have to talk."

"I know." Danny waited, watching Tucker order and head outside. Danny's turn came up, and the lunch lady shoved a Styrofoam tray at him with limp fries, a vacuum-sealed peanut-butter cookie, and a dried, wrinkled hamburger that crouched in the corner like a fat, rabid gerbil. Danny was hungry enough that it looked and smelled like heaven itself. He cleared his throat. "Uh, can I have two?"

The lunch lady glanced up. "Eh?"

"Can I have another lunch?"

She shrugged and gave him another tray. Danny walked over to the cashier, and the student working it totaled it up. He dug in his pocket and his eyes bugged out. He checked his other pocket. The cashier stared at him impatiently and repeated the price. Danny turned to the kid behind him. "Do you-"

"No." Danny checked his back pockets, clumsily stacking his trays on the register table.

The cashier rolled his eyes. "Why would you even get in line if you don't have any money?"

"I forgot. Can I give you an IOU?"

"You and every other deadbeat in here. C'mon," he said, holding out his hands. "Hand 'em over."

"Can't I just-"

"Thanks." The cashier grabbed Danny's lunches and threw them in a nearby trash can. "Next."

Danny stuttered a moment. "You just-"

"Next," the cashier repeated with a warning look.

The kid behind Danny gave him a shove. "Move it."

Danny walked out of line, angry and very hungry. He walked outside, and Tucker waved. Danny returned it and held up a finger. One more thing. He walked around the building and suited up when nobody was looking. He darted back in the lunchroom, invisible, and grabbed two lunches. The lunch lady jumped and gave a little gasp as two trays began to float away, and several students stumbled backwards. He picked up a couple of chocolate milks from the coolers and went back outside, changing back to normal and joining Tucker.

"Did you steal those lunches?" Tucker asked.

"Mmm-hm." Danny had his face full of burger. Tucker watched him eat for a moment, looking him over.

"When was the last time you ate?" Danny shrugged. "How about sleep?"

Danny swallowed. "I got about three hours during school."

"Did you get in another fight?"

"Nope. Hit a wall flying," he said around a massive bite of the second burger.

Tucker gave him a worried look. "You need to slow down."

"I'm really hungry."

"Not about that, about all this, whatever this is." Tucker leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. Danny listened with only half an ear, focusing the bulk of his attention on lunch. "I worry about Sam too. I was up late looking for her after you left." Danny glanced up. Tucker did look a little on the tired side. "I went home and called her in missing to the police and got them to say they'd look into it." He looked across at Danny and shook his head. "I'm starting to worry about you too. You're a lot worse than you were yesterday. What happened? Did he do something to you?"

Danny shrugged. "Sort of."

"Well, what was it?" Tucker sighed. "I know you like Sam-" Danny glanced up defensively. "But draining yourself isn't going to help her. She's probably somewhere unpleasant, but she's tough. She can hold up."

Danny shook his head, eyes wide. "No, it's not like that. He's draining her. She has no time. I don't have time; I shouldn't even be here goofing around when-"

"Stop." Tucker commanded. Danny shut up. "Tell me what's happening, starting from yesterday when you and Mr. Sassy and Ugly left."

Danny sighed, and he ate more slowly as he talked. "Sam's in big trouble, Tucker. That thing we were talking to-"

"The ghost yesterday. It wanted a hostage exchange."

"Right. Its name is Alex, and it's not what it seems. You saw it when we were talking to it, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Didn't look too bad. Unusual aura, big mouth and too much confidence, maybe a good fighter, but nothing else, right?"

"I didn't get much of a look at it, but yeah, okay. So?"

"So it's a lot more than that, Tucker. It has these eyes..." Danny stumbled for words. "These eyes that see right into you and make you feel like there's nothing else, only these big, black, empty eyes and no hope or good things." Tucker was looking at him oddly, and Danny grunted in frustration. "I can't explain it very well."

"No, but I get the idea. So what did it want?"

"It-" Something caught his eye, and Danny glanced behind Tucker through the lunch windows and saw the nurse talking to the lunch lady. "We have to move somewhere, now. The nurse is after me."

They stood up and walked quickly around the front of the lunchroom and around behind the building. Danny led Tucker to the same corner he had used for the lunch escapade and grabbed his arm, turning both of them turned invisible. "Isn't there a cafe a couple blocks over?" he asked. Tucker nodded.

They walked around and through the school, passing Danny's parents' car on the sidewalk, and continued through intersections, cars, and pedestrians. They rematerialized in an apartment doorway next to the cafe.

Tucker grinned. "That was fun."

Danny nodded, letting himself smile. "Yeah, it's not too bad." In the cafe, Tucker ordered a soda, and Danny got a bottle of milk and a candy bar. The woman at the counter, an officious, wrinkled waitress, looked down her nose at them.

"Shouldn't you two be in school?"

Tucker shook his head, paying. "We have an open campus. We get to leave for lunch."

"Really?"

"No," Danny said, grabbing their goods off the counter. She gave them a snooty, dirty look, and they both snickered and went outside.

"So, what else did he want?" Tucker asked again, once they were both seated and comfortable on the cafe's plastic chairs.

"He said he wanted to know what was wrong with him. He wants-"

"Wait a minute. He wants to know what's wrong with him?" Tucker asked. Danny nodded. "What does that have to do with us?"

"Remember when I had just finished fighting those jerks-"

"Uh-huh..."

"And I saw my breath when I came back to talk to you-"

"Yeah..."

"And you said something about my sister being a psychologist instead of a medical doctor?"

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"No kidding. He wants to talk to Jazz."

"Jeez Danny, I'm really sorry. That was extremely stupid."

Danny shrugged. "We had no idea who was listening. Let me tell you about the rest of it. He says he won't hurt her but that if I don't deliver, he'll kill me and everyone who knows me, including the family, if he finds them. He gave me three days."

Tucker was silent for a moment. Neither of them touched their food. "He's bluffing," Tucker said.

Danny shook his head.

"Well, we still have two days to look for her, and we can use Jazz as a last resort."

"Sam doesn't have two days, Tucker."

Tucker glanced up, indignant. "Why not? She's pretty tough, and we can probably find her before-"

"No, we can't. I've looked through half the city. Nothing. And I called her..." he drifted off, shaking his head.

"And?" Tucker prompted.

"Well, she was a mess. I think I might have bought her some time, but I don't know how much or if it was even enough..." He wasn't being clear, and Tucker was giving him a skeptical look. "What I mean is, she's falling apart. I told you about those eyes, and he's using them on her and I don't know what's going to happen to her if we don't get to her soon."

"I don't know what you mean, but if you're sure, I'll trust you. Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Alright." Tucker leaned back in his chair. "Then we have to talk to Jazz."

Danny didn't say anything for a minute. Jazz was his sister. He admired her intelligence and academic prowess. Kids at school respected her for who she was; she didn't need any kind of special powers to make her exceptional. Besides, she trusted him, and he trusted her. He had nearly told her about his powers on more than one occasion.

"She's my sister," he mumbled. "Isn't there something else we can do? Something we missed?"

"Danny, if you're sure of all the things you told me, the next thing to do is to talk to Jazz."

"Alright," he mumbled.

"What are you going to tell her?"

"I don't know." He stood and tossed his garbage in a can. "Let's go. We can wait at her car. I know where she parks."

Tucker followed Danny back to school. Neither of them spoke. They circled around it, passing around the back lot. The brick building, which for several months had instructed Danny, Tucker, and Sam, for better or for worse, stood facing away from them. A muffled hubbub escaped from its windows as kids got impatient, the bell about to ring. Teachers tried to keep them seated, quiet, and orderly, but the last few minutes were usually sacrificed to idle chattering and joking. On their way around back to the parking lot, Tucker and Danny slowed to listen to the hubbub in which they had so often taken part. Tucker looked down to stare at the pavement. Danny twitched.

They came to the lot, a neatly paved rectangle of tar capable of holding about sixty cars. Danny and Tucker wound their way towards Jazz's car, a small, two-door affair. Danny leaned up against it, crossed his arms, and waited, watching the school thoughtfully. Tucker stood a few feet away. After a nervous glance at Danny, he pulled out his palm pilot and loaded a game. Several moments later, the school bell rang. There was a moment of calm before the storm, but in a moment the school erupted, pouring forth the next generation in swearing, laughing, and arguing torrents. Some stopped to talk in the front, others drifted towards the parking lot, and yet another group of kids rushed to their buses. Tucker watched the traffic back up on the street as kids sauntered across, mindless of the crosswalk and the drivers' dirty looks. Earlier in the year, Tucker remembered, there had been much more honking, gesturing, and shouting, all of which had delighted the targets. By now the drivers, mostly freshman parents, had learned that nothing they did would move the herd any faster and had either decided to put up with it or introduced their children to the bus system. Tucker found the thought encouraging.

Danny remained pensive. He stared away over the top of the school, watching a wispy cloud amble lazily across the sky.

Jazz appeared at the back door after a quarter of an hour. She waved back to someone inside, then allowed the door to close and walked quickly over to the lot. Danny watched her, and Tucker glanced over at Danny. He wore an expression of thoughtful despair, with sunken eyes shining out from a drooping face. Jazz stopped and checked her bag for something, rummaging inside it for a moment, smiled, and continued. She spotted Danny and waved to him. Danny sat up a little straighter and raised his hand in acknowledgement. She walked over to meet them.

"Hey, do you guys need a ride?"

"No thanks." Danny opened his mouth, closed it, and shuffled his feet a bit. "I, ah, need to ask you for a favor."

"Sure. What is it?" She took a closer look at him, noticing his somber expression, the bruises, and a patch of cotton on his arm. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine," he said. "I need you to talk to somebody for me. I mean, they want to talk to you." Danny looked over to Tucker, who gave him an encouraging nod. "There's a kid, a, um..." How old had the ghost looked? Nineteen? Ninety? "...senior, who wants to talk to you about some problems he has."

Jazz looked at her little brother critically. His face was drawn up in a pleading, self-abasing grimace. Deep dark circles were etched beneath his worried, sad eyes. She'd known her brother to be furious, distraught, frustrated, and disappointed, but the countenance he now presented made everything before seem histrionic, and it surprised and scared her. She knew about his secret life, and if what he was talking about had anything to do with it, she knew that she had to be very careful. She realized that he was asking her for a favor he wanted her to refuse.

"I don't know," she said, testing the ground. "I'm pretty busy with school right now."

"Oh." Danny looked at the ground. Tucker cleared his throat. "Well, it's kind of important for him, and me too," he looked up desperately. "If you could do it."

"Danny." He met her eyes. Jazz continued, trying to be as delicate as possible. "I know you're not at home a lot, and I think you might be mixed up in some bad business." He fidgeted and shifted his weight. "If this is serious, I need to know what you're doing before I get into it."

Danny's voice broke. "I'm sorry Jazz, I can't tell you all that's going on but I need you to do this one thing for me." He stopped a moment before continuing in a low voice, speaking more to himself than to her. "I'm juggling people here. I have to keep everything going, and I don't know this will end. I'll... I'll pay for it myself if I have to, but I'm going to protect others, and right now to do that I have to involve you or I won't be able to save anyone." Danny looked up at Jazz. "I'm sorry."

Jazz returned his pleading gaze with one of uncertainty. She wasn't sure that he was still thinking rationally. His speech and his physical appearance certainly seemed to suggest that. She glanced over at Tucker for a second opinion. Tucker inclined his head towards Danny and gave a little shrug.

"Have you told Mom and Dad? You know, they've been checking around for you-"

"-in between their stupid experiments-" Danny flared.

"-since the day before yesterday," Jazz finished, peeved.

"They can't know about this. The fewer who know, the fewer I risk."

Jazz tried again. "They might even be able to invent something-"

"Not with this one."

"And time is important here too," Tucker put in, speaking for the first time.

Jazz looked over at them both again and counted two where there should have been three. She had heard quite a bit of yelling last night, not a little of it concerning the third musketeer. "Is this about Sam?"

Danny hesitated. "Yes."

"Well what's-"

"Sam's kind of a touchy subject right now, Jazz," Tucker interrupted.

"Okay," she said, considering it. "And all I would have to do is talk to it."

"Yeah, but don't say 'it.' Say 'he.' He told me not to warn you and if he finds out that I've told you... bad things might happen. His name is Alex," Danny added as an afterthought.

She leaned against the car next to him. She thought about his sunken, desperate expression, his secrecy, and about the inherently risky things he insisted on doing regularly. She shouldn't touch this business with a ten-foot pole. She looked at another angle of it, though: even though he had been an annoyance when they were both younger, even though he wasn't exceptionally clever or wise, he was essentially a good, ethical guy. And he was her little brother who needed her help.

"Alright, I'll do it." Danny breathed a sigh, part shame and part relief. "When?" she asked.

"I don't know yet. I have to talk to him."

"Alright, but are you going to be okay?"

Danny looked out at her from those sunken eyes gave her a twisted, strained smile that aroused her deepest fears as an aspiring psychologist. "Yes." She didn't move. "Really. Tuck and I have things to do. You can go and I'll get back to you about it." She glanced over at Tucker again.

He wasn't comfortable either, but he nodded for her to go. "I'll watch out for him."

Jazz waited a moment longer, wavering between her good sense and their right to privacy. "Alright," she said finally. She walked around to the driver's door and got in. "I want you to check in with me by eight tonight, at least," she said. "And I'll be at home if you need anything at all." Jazz started the car and drove away, turning onto the congested roadway.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Tucker grabbed Danny's shoulders. "You need to get it together, right here, right now." He'd never seen Danny look like that. Danny was a strong, healthy, good-hearted and heroic friend. Danny did not grin like a death's head.

"I just sold out my sister for my girlfriend."

"I don't care if you were Adolph Hitler's second cousin. Get it together."

Danny felt like he was floating away. Just like Sam must be... He snapped alert and tried to pull himself out of the rising darkness, a curtain that seemed to shatter his crystal reason and seal about his brain. He couldn't escape it. He really had sold out his sister for his girlfriend. He had sold a loved one to a predator in exchange for someone who might be just a passing infatuation-

He stopped. If there was one thing he knew, it was that Sam meant the world and more to him. But still, he had sold her out, no, he had sold Jazz out-

Tucker shook him again and called his name. Danny focused all his attention on Tucker's grip. It was a strong, grasping hold, spawned from a panicked anger. He felt tiny muscles in Tucker's hand adjust and readjust as his grip softened. Tucker had the uncalloused fingers of a typist, and they were cold against Danny's collarbone.

Danny realized that a breeze was blowing, and it left him chilled. Uncomfortably so. He concentrated on the sensation of being cold. He had never really thought about it before, but when he considered it, the cold didn't seem too bad at all. It was unpleasant, but it was also interesting. It was an annoying, nipping sensation, like having an aggressive beagle about one's ankles. He realized that Tucker had let go of him.

"How are you doing?"

Danny heaved a sigh. "Better." Tucker saw a little, genuine smile from the Danny he knew. "Let's go do whatever it is we were going to do next."

"Are you sure? We could go relax for a half hour or so, you know, just kind of hang out, see if we can get you away from the brink of insanity. That sort of thing."

"Sorry Tucker. Sam's still in trouble, and I've still got to help her out."

"You can't help her if you put yourself out of commission."

"But if I don't help her soon I may not be able to help her at all." Danny looked at the sky, watching clouds and pulling together his memory. "So, next we should talk to good ole' Alex?"

"Yep." Tucker thought Danny seemed too relaxed. He wished that Danny would just pick one neurosis and stick with it.

"Hmm..." Danny looked over at Tucker. "I have to go by myself."

"Why?" Tucker demanded.

"He wants me to meet him at his place. It's got chemical fumes in it that would kill you."

"I'll wear a gas mask."

"No you won't. I can get there faster if I go by myself, and he would probably just as soon kill you as look at you."

"I'll risk it." Danny began to protest, but Tucker cut him off. "You've been doing way too much on your own, and now it's my turn to help you out." Danny frowned at him. Tucker was happy to see him getting worked up about something. "If you don't take me, I'll run after you and call out that Alex ghost myself."

Danny looked at him. Tucker looked a sincere challenge back. "Okay," Danny relented. "We'll swing by my house for stuff, see if we can get you something." He thought a moment. "I'll fly us both over. It's faster, and my parents won't see us if we're invisible."

"Are you strong enough for that? You're still pretty beat up."

"Sure, I can do it."

Hearing the confidence in his voice, Tucker believed that Danny could indeed do it. "Ready when you are."

Danny transformed and grabbed Tucker's wrist for the second time that day. Tucker felt himself become weightless as they rose into the air, Danny towing him along. They accelerated toward the suburbs, and Tucker felt the wind roaring right on through him, and buildings stood up like Tetris blocks below. Too soon they arrived at the Fenton residence. They drifted through the topsoil and into the lab below. Danny put a finger to his lips, and Tucker nodded. Both of Danny's parents were in the lab.

His father was bent over a little remote-control, making some fine adjustments with a needle-thin probe. His workstation was littered with bits of metal, bolts, thin curls of scrap metal, and drops of ectoplasm. His mother worked at a drafting table, meticulously drawing a scale model for some nascent invention. Neither spoke, and both wore distracted, worried expressions when they looked up from their work. Danny winced.

He looked around the lab. Nothing was flashing or beeping, yet. He pointed out a metal storage cupboard on the opposite wall, then up. Tucker looked confused, but he nodded for Danny to do it anyway. Danny pulled them both back into the wall, up and over the ceiling of the lab. They emerged from the opposite wall next to the cupboard. He reached in and pulled out a gas mask then flew back up to the sidewalk and rematerialized. "See if this fits."

---

Jazz saw them outside on her way home and pulled over half a block down, rolling down her window. She watched Tucker fit something black over his face-a gas mask-and nod to Danny. Danny said something to him that she couldn't hear, then did his little disappearing trick for a moment and returned with one of the heavy lead radiation vests her parents sometimes used. He gave it to Tucker, who examined it before putting it on awkwardly under his shirt.

"That's just great," she muttered.

Danny said something, but Tucker shook his head and insisted on something else. She saw Danny make a slight rolling motion with his head, and she smiled, familiar enough with the look to know that he was also rolling his eyes and trying to convey the obvious logic of whatever he was trying to sell. It didn't look to her like Tucker was buying it. He disappeared again as Tucker started to dart off, but something stopped him, and Tucker struggled with something behind him. Jazz raised her eyebrows. He'd never pulled that one on her before. Tucker was trying to defend his backpack, but after a couple seconds he stopped struggling and merely stood and fumed. Jazz smiled. Whatever they had been arguing about, Danny's posture had looked much better than back at school, and that was good. An argument showed assertiveness, which was also good. Of course, she considered, Danny was also arming Tucker like a storm trooper, and that was decidedly bad.

Presently Danny returned again. Tucker said something with a sour expression. Danny shrugged and talked some more, then he grabbed Tucker and they both disappeared. She waited a few minutes, and when they didn't reappear she started the car and pulled the rest of the way up the block to find a spot nearer to the house, thoughtfully considering the disposition of her brother. Danny was obviously starting to sink, but he must have found something he could hold onto that would keep him afloat. She remembered his earlier expression at school and shuddered. She jumped out of the car and walked to the front door, anxious. Whatever he was now holding onto, she hoped that he was holding on tight.

A/N: Thanks much, once again, to all my reviewers: Mrs. Granger-Weasley, Sakura Scout, autumngold, and cheerin4danny. Stay tuned. Chapter 9 will debut in a couple days!
Yes, Danny isn't healing because of the psychological stress. I won't expound on it here, but I'll be posting a note in my profile that relates to this point. I suggest that all authors and inquisitive readers take a look at it, since it'll reveal a "secret" writing strategy of mine as well as give notice of a challenge that will test your skills in literary analysis. All smart people-even those of you too modest to admit it-go check it out!