It was cold underneath the blankets of her bed. No matter how much Danielle tried to curl up underneath all the sheets or bundle herself up to the pillows beneath her head, the cold always seemed to find her in her sleep.
There were no more nightmares to haunt her at night, but something else set in keeping her restless each day: being alone with her own thoughts, mind, and memories.
Danielle tossed and turned trying to figure out what position in bed would help her fall asleep faster or get rid of the cold, but nothing worked. She fluffed her pillow, flipped it, grabbed one extra blanket, two, three. She even went as far as moving to sleep on the couch, and when that didn't work, she finally settled onto the floor where she would toss and turn until the sun shone through the windows of her shared apartment.
This particular night, Danielle finally felt warmth underneath her bundle of blankets. She was just starting to sleep that night when a voice beckoned her back to consciousness.
"Wake up, Danielle," it whispered. "you have to wake up..."
Danielle began to stir, slowly lifting her heavy eyelids to see who was speaking. As her eyes began to adjust to the darkness of the room, she caught sight of a silhouette standing at her bedside, the moonlight coming in from her room window casting a dark shadow onto her.
Still half-asleep, Danielle still couldn't see who it was. Then, the figure spoke again. "Danielle, wake up," it said in a authoritive tone. A tone that sounded all too familiar to the teenage girl as she began to sit up, narrowed her eyes to get a better look of who it was.
That was when the figure took a step forward, revealing it's dark features: it's sharp pointed nose, it's dark brown hair – just like Danielle's old locks, it's emerald green eyes, and it's soft smile. The figure spoke again as Danielle's heart fell, "It's time to wake up, Danielle." Alisson...
It was her mother standing before her, just a foot away. Alive. Breathing. Smiling. Speaking. Here and now- NO!
This wasn't real. It couldn't have been real, Danielle knew that because her mother, that Allisson, was dead. Buried six feet underground in an unmarked grave at the edge of some cemetery in Zilina, Slovakia where Danielle and Jack had marked their parents' graves before they learned she was alive.
There was no way she was alive now. There was no way. She was dead. Alisson Harper was dead. Danielle Harper's mother was dead. The Silencer was dead. Her father was dead. Her friends were dead. Her family was dead. They were all dead! How was she alive?! She didn't deserve to be!
"You're dead," Danielle screamed, jolting upright and pushing her arms in the direction of where her mother stood, exerting her powers to push her away.
In real time, Danielle jolted upright in her bed from where she had been sleeping, pushing her powers into nothing. Where her mother once stood, only white curtains swung about from where Danielle had pushed.
It was dream... It was just a sick and disgusting dream. Her mom was dead, as was everyone else she had lost.
She began shaking and sobbing silently as she wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked herself back and forth on her bed until the sun came up a few hours later.
When she got ready that morning, she tried not to think about her nightmare or what it could have meant or why it had happened. She pushed it all aside like she did most of her problems that had to due with Alisson. It was all she could do to numb the pain she felt. After the burning most of her things, she figured that it was better to just forget about it all rather dwell on all the bad things... even if it cost her her sleep.
"You look exhausted," Peter told Danielle as they walked side by side across the football field towards school.
Danielle shook her head. "I'm not that tired..." she began to trail off when a yawn overcame her. She frowned when it subsided as if to scold her own body for being so drained.
Peter chuckled, "Seriously, when did you go to sleep?"
Danielle shrugged. "Ten... maybe eleven?" Peter gave her a look that told Danielle that he wasn't convinced. "I'm not that tired. It's just an early morning," she defended herself.
"Okay. Just don't fall asleep in class like you did on the train," he remarked.
Danielle furrowed her eyebrows and turned to him. "I didn't fall asleep on the subway."
Peter nodded in response, "Yeah, you did. Three times. I had to catch you one of the times after you almost collapsed."
Danielle frowned, she didn't remember this. Then again, she didn't remember most of her morning either. Everything just seemed to pass by in a blurry motion as if she were there, but only looking at the world through a stained glass a couple of miles away. "I'm not going to fall asleep in class," she assured him as another yawn broke through her lips.
Peter laughed just as they reached the school entrance. "See you later," he told her before walking towards his class down the hall. Danielle could only spare him a wave over her shoulder as she headed for her Algebra class.
Mr. Cobbwell waved at her as she entered and made her way to her desk beside Michelle. Danielle set her backpack down beside her desk and slid onto her chai, taking out her pencil and turning her full attention to the front of the class where Mr. Cobbwell was beginning to give his lesson. Within minutes of his explanation on finding the equation of a Parabola, Danielle felt her eyelids beginning to fall and her blinks getting longer.
Meanwhile, the teenage girl beside her began to hear a soft snoring noise coming from beside her. When Michelle turned her head, she was a bit surprised to see Danielle asleep with her hand propped beneath her chin holding her head up. Her mouth was open slightly and a piece of her hair was stuck to the edge of her lips.
Michelle looked around the room to see if anyone else noticed Danielle sleeping yet. Thankfully no one had, and Michelle took her chance to tap her friend's arm slightly. No reaction. "Psst," Michelle hissed. Nothing. Her eyes darted around the classroom once more before she quickly pushed Danielle's arm out from under her head.
Danielle's face slammed right onto the desk with a loud bang, waking her right up. Her head snapped to attention just as Mr. Cobbwell turned away from the board. His eyes immediately landed on Danielle who looked slightly put of whack from having just woken up. "Miss West," he called out to her. "Is everything alright?"
Danielle, still not entirely sure what was going on, simply smiled and nodded. "Mhmm," she hummed.
Mr. Cobbwell seemed to buy it seeing as he turned back around t the board and continued on with his lesson. "Alright, now take out your textbooks and turn to Page 244..."
Danielle blocked out her teacher's instructions as she began to pull out the Tesoro she kept in her bag. While doing so, she noticed Michelle sitting across frm her with a small smirk playing on her lips as she mockingly gestured to the edge of her mouth. Danielle quickly moved to wipe away the place Michelle was gesturing to on her own face where drool had fallen during her nap. She glowered back at her friend as she turned her head to the front of class and continued to read her book that had nothing to do with Algebra.
The rest of the day went by slowly. Danielle managed to stay awake through Journalism, Gym, and English by constantly reminded herself of how much it hurt when her face met the counter of her desk when Michelle had knocked her arm out form under her head; she was surprised a bruise or knot hadn't form on her face yet.
When lunch came around, she sat with Peter, Ned, and Michelle again like she had been these past few days. Liz, Cindy, and Sally were still giving her the silent treatment and Danielle wasn't completely mentally prepared for that confrontation just yet.
But, she didn't mind sitting with Peter, Ned, and Michelle. It was fun and carefree. Sure, like most days, Danielle would sort of sit back and give her two cents every once and a while during conversation, but she really enjoyed the company of the two boys and moody girl.
Today, however, Danielle seemed to be the center of attention at the lunch table. Of course, she wasn't aware of it because she was asleep.
Her head was propped up on her arm again like it had in Algebra and Peter and Ned couldn't help but worry. This had to be about the fifth time Peter had caughten her asleep just that day. First on the subway, three times during gym, one time beside her locker, and now during lunch. Peter began to wonder if this was healthy for her – or anyone for that matter.
Ned chuckled nervously as he poked her arm. "Danielle," he whispered. "Danielle." Still no response. "Should we even try to wake her up? Maybe she's so tired because she didn't get any sleep last night," he suggested.
"Probably," Peter replied. "But if we don't wake her up now, she probably won't make it through the rest of the day..."
Ned pursed his lips and turned back to Danille. He attempted to wake her u again, this time throwing a French fry off his lunch tray to try and wake her. "Danielle," he hissed. The fry bounced off her cheek and fell onto the table, and still she slept.
Down the table, a few feet away, Michelle rolled her eyes as she watched frm a distance, peeking just above the top of her open book to watch the two nerds attempt to wake up the sleeping beauty. Looks like she just had to do everything herself. Michelle then closed her hard-cover book and slammed it onto the table, shaking it and creating a loud noise.
Danielle was startled awake, her eyes snapping open and her hands clutching at the edge of the table. When she looked up at the three mildly amused faces of her friends looking back at her, she realized she had fallen asleep... yet again.
"Sorry," she apologized through a yawn as she rubbed her eyes.
"It's fine," Ned assured her. "We were actually having a fun time watching you sleep. Did you know you snore?"
Peter elbowed his friend slightly in the ribs to which Ned responded with a muffled 'ow'. "Hey, Elle, maybe you should head to the nurse's office and take a quick nap. It seems like you kind of need it," he told Danielle.
Danielle shook her head. "M'fine," she yawned again, picking up a forkful of fruit on her tray to try and eat.
"Elle-"
"Peter," she matched his tone, her big brown eyes looking up to meet his almost pleadingly a she repeated, "I'm fine."
Peter frowned and reluctantly gave up trying to convince Danielle otherwise. Him and Ned began to continued their lunch when a small snore overtook the girl across from them. When they looked up, they found Danielle's eyes closed, forkful of food halfway to her mouth and her head slowly starting to fall forward onto her tray. Peter quickly reached out and caught her head in his hand and pulled the tray out from under her with his other.
"Woah," Ned chuckled. "Nice save."
Peter couldn't respond as he concentrated on slowly setting Danielle's head onto the lunch table gently and sliding the lunch tray away frm her as she slept once again. He let out a sigh of relief and sat back down in his seat once he knew she was sound asleep.
Beside him, Ned took full advantage of the situation and took a chicken nugget from off Danielle's discarded lunch tray. Peter gave his best friend a look of disbelief. "Dude," he scolded lightly.
"What? It's not like she's gonna eat it or anything," Ned defended himself, grabbing another chicken nugget and popping it in his mouth.
After the lunch bell rang, Danielle was up and at 'em. She continued the day like a walkin zombie, slowly dragging her feet through the halls with her eyelids hanging low, half paying attention to anything going on around her. Surprisingly, she hadn't fallen asleep at all up the rest of the day until soccer practice came along after school.
The loud whistle rang out in Danielle's ears as Ashley called out to the team, "Scrimmage begins!"
Since being absent for two weeks, there were a lot of plays Danielle had missed out on for the game. Thankfully, Betty, Maggie, and Amber offered to teach her so she could catch up. After days on end of practicing, Danielle finally was caught up on all the plays she missed, but that didn't mean she was any good at them. She was two weeks out of practice and was pretty sure she gained a few pounds and got an extra left foot over her break.
By the end of warm up laps and excercises, Danielle was already drenched in sweat and out of breath when usually she would be pumped and filled with adrenaline. Now, all she wanted to do was lie down in the middle of the field and bask in the fresh April air. Sadly though, she had to work twice as hard due to her absence and she didn't blame the girls for making her work so hard. She abandoned them, her team. She had broken a bond and she had to regain their trust, and the only way to do that was sweat her ass off and lose al that weight she gained over her break.
During scrimmage, the team of girls was broken up into two groups. Five ere on the red team and five were on the blue team while Ashley and Coach Wilson stood on the sidelines regulating. On Danielle's team, she had Betty, Malory, Maggie, and Jean as the goalkeeper. On the second team was Daisy, Courtney, Heather, Amber, and Max as their goalkeeper.
The scrimmage started out with a slow-pace back and forth game with Daisy constantly stealing it from Maggie and Betty stewing it back only to miss a goal blocked by Max and having the ball be turned back over to Heather. That's when the pace picked up with more rushed passes and faster sprints across the field to score goals.
Danielle was doing fairly well with her few power naps she had taken throughout the day, passing it back and forth but never really taking a shot at the goal net. But by the end of the scrimmage, nearing the end of practice, Danielle took a risky shot at pushing her exhausted limbs to drive her towards the goal with the ball in sight. She was running, she was running, she was running... and then something caught her eye.
It was a woman sitting in the stands. She had long, brown hair, pale skin, and those unmistakable green eyes. It was her Mom.
Back in her bedroom, Danielle knew that when she saw her mom it was a dream. But here, now, on the soccer field with the rest of her team while she was fully awake? There was no way she was dreaming, she could feel the sun beating down on her, the grass catching beneath her cleats, the ball hitting her foot, and the coolness of the Spring breeze. She was awake, Danielle was sure of it, but it wasn't possible that Alisson Harper was alive and standing up in the field stands-
"Danielle!"
Danielle suddenly realized she was still kicking the ball down the field and quickly snapped back to reality to try and kick the soccer ball into the net. But as soon as she drew back her leg, her cleat got caught beneath her and twisted her ankle. A cry of pain rose from the back of her throat as she fell onto the grass.
Danielle rolled onto her back and slowly sat up, wincing as she clutched at her hurt ankle. But that wasn't where her mind was as her eyes drifted back towards the stands where she had seen her mother's ghostly figure standing just a split second ago, only to find it empty. She was gone...
"West," Maggie shouted as she ran over to check up on Danielle, the other girls rushing off the field as instructed by an oncoming Ashley. "You okay?"
Danielle dropped her gaze from the stands to check her leg. It was a bit swollen and red, but she figured it would heal within a few days. "Uh, yeah. It's not that bad."
Ashley bent down beside her as Coach Wilson walked over. "Let me see," she said, moving her hand to press down on where her ankle was the most swollen and red. Danielle let out a hiss of pain and flinched back.
"'Not that bad' my ass, West," the Coach scolded her. "Take a break. And somebody get her a ice pack from the locker room!"
"I can take her!" Danielle looked up to see Betty Brant running over. She was slightly surprised to see Betty stepping up to help when there was still fifteen minutes left of practice, and Danielle knew how much she loved showing off during practice.
Ashley and Maggie exchanged glances before they both stood up, Betty holding a hand out to help Danielle up. Danielle grabbed on tight to the blonde's hand and groaned as she was pulled to her feet. She focused all her weight onto her strong ankle while Betty threw Danielle's arm over her shoulder and helped carry the rest of the weight walking off the field and to the locker room.
"You okay? You fell pretty badly," Betty remarked once they were by themselves at the edge of the field, the rest of the girls going about their scrimmage like nothing happened.
Danielle was slightly thrown off by Betty's question. It wasn't like she didn't want her to be pleasant and civil, it was just uncommon of Betty. She was always so... overly animated, as if she was just being nice for show. But here, while she was helping her off the field, Danielle felt as though Betty might've actually been sincere about the worry and concern she was showing. "Uh, yeah," she finally answered. "I guess I just ran at the ball the wrong way."
Betty shrugged as they entered the locker room. "I'm not sure how. You had a clear shot, and you're usually really good when it comes to your goal scoring kicks," she joked, recalling the first game they had played together when Danielle had passed the ball to Betty who scored the winning goal. It was the night just before... everything...
Danielle shook away her bad thoughts as Betty helped lower Danielle onto a bench. "It was like you saw a ghost or something," Betty had continued to talk.
Danielle shrugged. She practically had saw a ghost, but maybe that was all it was, her exhaustion just playing games on her. "I just got distracted," Danielle muttered.
Betty only shook her head, walking off for a moment before returning with a single pack of ice. She held it out to Danielle who gladly took it.
She placed it on her ankle and winced when the cold, cool pack hit her skin. That was definitely going to take maybe a few days to heal, she could already feel the swelling going down.
"Thanks," Danielle said to Betty.
"No problem," she replied. A long, pregnant pause set in amongst the two girls before Betty spoke again. "So... I've noticed you've gotten the hint about Liz, Cindy, and Sally kind of being upset with you." Danielle lifted her head to listen as Betty continued. "I mean, I would think you noticed. You started sitting with Parker and Leeds, which is cool."
Danielle frowned. "I understand why they're upset with me... I ignored them for two weeks. It's no one's fault but my own," she muttered, bowing her head and focusing on the way the condensation on the pack of ice trickled down the side of the pack and fell onto her skin.
"Well, I feel like you should at least get the chance to explain yourself to them before they completely block you out," Betty said, sounding slightly aggravated.
Danielle blinked in surprise. Was Betty Brant actually mad at her friends for ignoring her? Huh, that was new, Danielle noted mentally.
Betty noticed the slightly surprised look Danielle had given her and rolled her eyes. "Look," she began, taking a seat on the wood bench beside her injured teammate. "I know, I was probably a bit... rough around the edges when we first started out, but then I realized after these past few weeks that you're just like me, and everyone else here; you're human.
"And I feel like Liz, Cindy, and Sally forgot that when you went radio silence," Betty explained. "I remember during my eight grade year, my grandfather passed away. We were super close to say the least and it took a pretty heavy toll on me... I missed a week of school and ignored all my friends for a month – even during school." Danielle felt like a small piece of the heavy weight she was carrying on her back was being lifted by Betty's speech. Not because their little rivalry was over, but because someone finally understood.
"I don't know what's going on with you, but I get the gist of it," she continued. "You're a normal person and sometimes we all just need a break. I hope you get better, and I'm really sorry you're going through what you are."
Danielle had to bite her cheek and blink back tears as she nodded. "Thank you," she murmured.
Betty smiled. "No problem."
After soccer practice, Danielle had to painfully get changed back into her normal clothes before attempting to limp out of sight from the thee departing girls. There was no way she was going to suffer walking to the subway and then another two blocks to her apartment, so she just teleported behind the bleachers instead, reappearing in the apartment living room.
She slowly limped her way to the kitchen where Sharon stood beside the counter sipping out of a glass of white wine. The blonde woman jumped slightly at the sudden sight of Danielle, nearly dropping her wine glass as she gasped. "God..." she groaned once she regained composure. "You scared me half to death."
Danielle grimaced, "Sorry."
"How was school and practice?" Sharon asked as she watched Danielle attempt to conceal her limp as she walked towards the living room, setting down her backpack onto the ground, making faces with each step she took.
"Uh, yeah, it was good," Danielle muttered.
"Really?" Sharon raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you limping?"
Danielle froze.
Don't move, she told herself, stay still and maybe she might drop the topic. Because if she didn't drop the topic that would lead to Danielle have to explain how she fell, why she fell, how she was seeing her mother's face everywhere, the fact that it could just be her exhaustion, then having to explain her restless nights and the fact that she's restless because she's seeing her mother's face in her nightmares– it would really just be better if she dropped the subject. Please drop the subject...
"I can still see you no matter how still you move..." Sharon muttered from the kitchen.
Dangit, Danielle mentally cursed herself.
"Now, answer the question," Sharon pressed on, setting down her glass of wine and making her way over to examine the wound on Danielle's ankle as she say down at the kitchen counter bar stool. "How did you hurt your ankle?"
Danielle shrugged nonchalantly. "I lost focus..."
Sharon looked up at Danielle with a questioning look in her eye. "You lost focus?" She nodded. "Alright," she finally sighed, releasing Danielle's ankle to go back to her wine glass. "I'll let it slide, but only because I had a long day at work," she exclaimed as she took yet another sip of her wine.
Danielle chuckled. She always enjoyed how casual Sharon was when it came to their odd guardian-slash-somewhat-foster-child relationship. It was like she was the cool aunt rather the hard working legal guardian.
The teenage girl spun around on her stool to get a better look at the wine on the counter, "Chardonnay?" She asked. "Was it a serial murderer or fallen agent?"
Sharon frowned, glancing down at the wine spinning in her glass. Danielle knew that whenever Sharon came home with a bottle of wine open there was always an incident at work. Red wine meant either someone got fired or there was an intense shoot out, while white wine meant either they worked a serial murderer case or a fellow CIA agent lost their life on the job that day. "Serial murderer," Sharon finally answered. "He killed teenage boys... twelve of them in Turkey before moving on to Greece. It was terrible."
"At least you caught him before he could kill anyone else," Danielle offered her sympathy.
Sharon shrugged. "Yeah, but I couldn't save the other fifteen boys he killed..."
"You didn't save them," Danielle replied. "But you saved the other hundreds of boys he would have killed if you and the CIA hadn't caught him when you had." Sharon lifted her head at that and Danielle offered her a small smile. "You're a hero."
Sharon glanced down at her glass of wine, trying to hide her smile from Danielle's words. She finally let out a heavy sigh before pouring out the glass of wine and walking over to Danielle to ruffle her hair. "And you, Miss Danielle Harper, are a blessing."
Danielle gave her a sheepish smile.
"Now go take a bath, you reek," Sharon said, abruptly breaking the moment and sending Danielle on a giggling spree.
That night after having dinner with Sharon and laying down for bed, Danielle found herself staring up at the ceiling. Despite being able to nap all day, she couldn't even get a lick of sleep in her bed. The images of her mother's figure everywhere always popped into her mind, keeping Danielle from wanting to even close her eyes let alone sleep.
The following morning, Danielle got up, got dressed, and headed out for school. She could already feel her eyelids falling halfway to the subway stop. Once she was aboard, she immediately found Peter standing in the cros beside the pole they always stood at.
He saw her as soon as she walked in. Besides her usual attire, today she sported two purple bags under her eyes and Peter could already tell today was going t be yet another day of power naps. "Good morning," he greets her cheerfully.
She managed a smile and replied, "'Morning." She tried to stifle a yawn, but finally succumbed to it, latching onto the pole and resting her head on it.
Peter quickly shook her shoulder to keep her awake. "Hey, I got you something."
"Hm?" Danielle opened one eye to look at Peter and furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed he was holding a small espresso cup out to her. "Coffee?" She asked, starting to stand up straight to get a better look.
Peter chuckled as he held out the cup of coffee towards her. "Yeah. I remember you hated your last coffee I saw you drinking, so I asked the barista guy to add a bunch of stuff to give it a good taste. So, hopefully it tastes better so you can stay awake. But if you don't want it, that's okay, I could always just give it to Ned if you don't-"
"Peter," Danielle cut him off swiftly, taking the cup of coffee from him. "Thank you." She smiled before taking a long drink. It burnt her mouth slightly, but the caffeine was already kicking in. "Wow."
"Feeling better already?"
"Yep," she replied happily, a large grin on her face. "Thanks, Peter."
"You're welcome, Elle."
A/N: SORRY FOR THE LATE CHAPTER!
Also, BIG NEWS! If you read The Chaos In Stars by theamazingspoiderman and you love this story, you're in luck because we have written a crossover series of one shots with Jack, Danielle, and her character Amelia all in one story. Go check it out on her profile, it's great, we put our hearts into it and there is more to come! Hope you guys like it.
Chapter song is Leaving The Lights On by Etham Basden.
Also, in a completely unrelated note. Have you guys heard about the Halsey/G-Eazy break up? Like, my heart can not handle this. They got me mourning a relationship I wasn't even in. I've legit listened to Without Me like 57 times just today from being so heartbroken. D:
Reviews:
intata: You're welcome. Thank you for the constructive criticism and helping me realize I should slow this story down a bit. I know, I love Thir weird little friendship too. I honestly had it planned to where MJ found out first, but I don't know if they plan on having MJ find out about Peter in Far From Home and having that be apart of the plot. Plus, I feel like if she knew before Homecoming MJ would totally figure out Peter was Spider-Man too so that probably won't happen. True, Danielle is a reckless child and can't keep too big of secrets for this long, though I feel like she's doing pretty alright so far. Yeah, I don't really wanna rush their relationship. It's a super slow burn and they probably won't get together actually until after Homecoming because I'm trying to build their relationship as complex as possible without rushing into anything. Glad you're enjoying this so far, thanks for reading!
Bookworm18: Sorry for the emotional rollercoaster, hope you don't get whiplash. Steve really does need to get back involved... }:). The main reason I wrote in Quintin is for 1. Danielle to have a weird pet that would help break her from her shell. And 2. Cause a shit ton of trouble. XOXO.
Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:
Danielle: Wanna see a picture of my cock?
Michelle: Fuck no.
Danielle: *shows picture of Quintin*
Danielle: Picture of my cock.
Michelle: That's a chicken, motherfucker.
