Author's Note: This is kind of a filler chapter. I normally would've added another section onto this to make it longer, but I'm opting to leave it this way. ^^ But this whole fic is definitely a rough draft that desperately needs rewriting but is never going to get it...
(after being) Condemned
The following morning, Danny wanted nothing more than to sleep the entire day. The narcotic painkiller he had taken before bed after he had failed over and over trying to duplicate was still settling over his clouded head quite nicely. A whole week of insomniac restlessness finally being relieved at last.
But then his mother was shaking his shoulder. Danny groggily opened his eyes to look at her, trying his best to not look drugged up on hydrocodone he had illegally obtained from Sam.
"Danny, sweetie, it's almost nine."
Maddie combed her fingers through his hair. Danny shifted his position but did not sit up.
"I know it's Saturday," Maddie continued, "but I'm making a big breakfast for all of us. So get dressed and come downstairs, okay?"
Danny moaned and slurred some sort of response but he quite honestly had no idea what he was saying.
"Come on. No more sleeping." Maddie patted his shoulder. "I want you to eat with us. Be down in twenty minutes."
Danny watched her leave the room before curling up again and closing his eyes. Just another hour or two, that was all he wanted.
But he couldn't disobey his mom.
He forced himself into a sitting position, groaning through the horrible heaviness in his head as he stood and blinked away the temporary vision loss and dizziness. He just needed to wake up. His mind just needed time to adjust and pull through the grogginess brought on by the narcotic, and then he'd be fine.
Hot water from the shower was enough to stimulate his muscles into a state of normal alert. After dressing and massaging his face in an attempt to get some blood flowing to his cheeks for an energized glow, he made his way downstairs and entered the kitchen. The smell of pancakes pummeled his nose and assaulted his stomach.
"Danny, there you are!" Maddie moved from the stove top and placed a kiss on his head. "Ooh, your hair's wet. Did you just shower?"
"Mmm hmm."
"Well, go ahead and sit down. There's some eggs and bacon on the table already."
As Danny approached the table where Jazz and Jack were already seated, the greasy smell of bacon did not fare much better against his nostrils and insides. But even more unsettling was his father, who was staring down at his plate and eating heartily but, oddly, not saying a word. The TV was set to the news channel like it always was during breakfast, but the older man wasn't watching it intently like he usually did.
Danny pulled out his chair. Jack lifted his head to look at him but remained quiet. Jazz also looked at Danny, her expression appearing somewhat sad and unsure. His previous conversations with both his father and sister had not been particularly favorable, and Danny was sorely reminded of that now.
He slowly lowered himself in his chair and quietly scooped some eggs onto his plate. He kept his eyes averted, pretending he didn't even notice his father or sister at all.
No one spoke at all for some time. All that could be heard was the sizzling of cooking pancake batter behind them while Maddie hummed to herself at the stove.
"Did you sleep well, Danny?" asked Jazz at last, a bite of egg held in her cheek.
Both Danny and Jack snapped their attentions to her. Jack wore a betrayed glare, as if he couldn't believe that Jazz would dare to greet Danny.
"Yeah, fine," said Danny carefully, focusing on making sure his words did not slur due to any lingerings effects of the narcotic. "Um... Did you?"
"Yeah. I slept okay."
She gave him a small smile, hesitant and unsure. Danny returned the smile. Jack glanced between them but still remained quiet.
Jazz stretched her arms behind her and looked out the kitchen window. "Mmm, it looks like a nice day today. Maybe I'll do some studying outside. That sounds fun."
Danny playfully rolled his eyes. "Only you would think studying outside could somehow make it fun."
"Hey, studying is fun," insisted Jazz. "You could join me if you want. Then I could prove it to you."
"No," said Jack gruffly, stabbing into his eggs with his fork. "Danny has to do all of his homework and studying in the living room where we can keep an eye on him. He's grounded, remember?"
Danny and Jazz fell silent, the short sibling bonding after their small spat the night before ending sharply. Jazz glanced at Danny with furrowed brows, but Danny only shrugged and looked down at his eggs, picking up a forkful that he forced himself to place in his mouth. Gooey and soggy and tasteless and he really wished he didn't have to swallow it but his mom was counting on him to eat.
He gulped hard, the bite hitting painfully against his esophagus.
Maddie finally joined the rest of the family at the table, setting a plate of pancakes down. "I made tons, so please, eat until you're uncomfortable."
Danny waited for his father's normal quip, Can do! or I don't know any other way to eat, Mads! But Jack continued his very uncharacteristic silence and only placed a couple of the pancakes onto his plate.
Jazz was also quiet again as she poured syrup over her freshly buttered flapjacks.
Ache and fatigue settled at the front of Danny's head, a weight that begged to be set down but he somehow managed to keep his head up anyway.
Escaping all this by retreating back into his room for another drug-induced nap sounded really great right now.
"Oh, hey." Maddie's attention was on the TV behind Jack. She grinned cheekily. "Jazz, it's your lover boy."
All eyes turned to the screen. Old video footage of Danny Phantom was being shown. Jazz's eyes dilated as she choked on her orange juice. Danny stared at her with a confused grimace.
But out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jack scowling.
"Mom!" shrieked Jazz. "Don't say things like that! He is not my—" She glanced at Danny, her face suddenly looking sunburnt. "I mean, I am not—just don't say things like that in front of Danny, jeez!"
"Oh, Danny's not going to tease you for having a crush on the ghost boy, are you, Danny?" Maddie gently touched his shoulder. "Not like you're the only girl in town who does."
Amidst Jazz's sputtering and protesting, Danny could feel his own face turning red. He looked down at his plate to hide it.
"I wonder what they're saying about him?" asked Maddie curiously. "Can you turn it up, Jack?"
Jack practically punched the buttons on the remote. The local news reporter Tiffany Snow was addressing the camera in her ever-bubbly voice.
"All of Amity Park has been watching the skies for a glimpse of the ghost boy, but he's been noticeably absent the past couple nights." Tiffany Snow cocked her head and smiled brightly. "Ghosts have been up to their usual shenanigans in our town, even going so far as to tear down a couple power lines last night. And we are all wondering why our resident ghost hero, Danny Phantom, has not been around to stop them?"
"Is no one even considering that maybe Phantom tore down those power lines?" griped Jack. He stabbed hard at a bite, the tongs poking straight through and clanging against the plate. "Or that maybe he's staging these 'shenanigans' so that he can show off his supposed 'heroics'?"
Danny kept his head low and quietly slipped manageable bites of pancake into his mouth. His dad was still obviously irritated with him as his son and also still very much hated his ghost half. Great. Now how was he supposed to act around Jack? Avoid him? Ignore him? Or should he maybe try to apologize and pretend that he had changed his mind and that yes, all ghosts were bad including Phantom and that Phantom most of all needed to be eliminated?
He just really wanted things to go back to normal. He didn't want to feel so uncomfortable around his own father anymore. Maybe pretending to side with his dad would make everything okay again.
He could sense Jazz looking at him. He moved only his eyes to meet hers. She blushed and quickly turned her head to Jack.
"I really don't think Phantom would ever do anything like that, Dad," said Jazz.
Jack gave her a stern scowl. "Oh, really? And what makes you think that?"
"Well, because—I mean, we've never—no one has ever caught Phantom on video ever staging his heroics or causing any unprovoked damage or mischief himself. Don't you think someone would've caught him on video by now?"
Maddie smirked and swiveled her head smugly. "You really do like him, don't you, Jazz?"
Jazz banged her fist on the table. "Mom! No, I don't!" She briefly glanced at Danny, who could not even bring himself to meet her gaze this time. "That's just—ugh, no way!" she further insisted.
"Why do you keep defending him so much, then?" Maddie teased.
"No one is defending him," said Jack very seriously. "Ghosts are dangerous. Phantom is dangerous. Neither of you kids are allowed to have anything to do with him."
Danny and Jazz both said nothing.
"We're just having fun, Jack," reassured Maddie. "The kids know to stay away from ghosts. Right, you two?"
"Yeah," said Jazz quietly.
Danny gave a small nod, chewing the current bite in his mouth slowly as an excuse to not say anything.
This was definitely one of the most awkward and uncomfortable mealtime discussions he had ever experienced.
For the remainder of the day, Danny worked on his homework in the living room while the rest of the Fenton family did what they normally did on Saturday. Jack and Maddie mostly worked in the basement while Jazz kept her brother company in the living room reading her own books.
"Danny, I just want you to know that I do not have a crush on you," whispered Jazz from the sofa once their parents had disappeared into their lab at last.
Danny stiffened and kept his back turned to her from his makeshift desk. "I wasn't even going to bring that up again," he muttered.
"I was just trying to stick up for you, and Mom thought it meant that I'm in love with your ghost side." Jazz exhaled loudly. "So much for that, huh? Defending you never gets me anywhere."
Danny said nothing, only frowned down at the textbook open in front of him.
Maybe it was a waste of time trying to defend himself. Maybe he just needed to give up and accept that his parents were always going to view him as an enemy, that his mom was always going to want to torture him, that his dad was always going to want to destroy him.
He began to read, to really study, to lose himself in his homework because he just didn't want to think about his parents' vendetta against him anymore.
But every time Jack came upstairs, Danny involuntarily tensed and pretended to be completely absorbed in his work, too absorbed to even notice the older man's presence at all.
Jack certainly wasn't being mean or rude to him, but Danny could definitely sense that he was not happy with him. He only ever bellowed a greeting if Jazz was also in the living room. When Jazz went outside to study in the sunlight, Jack never said a word at all, ignoring Danny completely.
And so he did the only thing he could think to do, the only thing he could do. His homework. All of it.
Maddie made him a sandwich for lunch and brought it to his desk, placing a kiss on his head like she always did. He hyper-focused on getting that into his stomach somehow, another welcome distraction. He only wished it didn't taste so bland.
Dinner was as awkward and uncomfortable an affair as breakfast that morning. Danny obediently cleared his plate just to get his mom off his back, but he was otherwise withdrawn and only spoke when he was spoken to. More importantly, he consciously worked to never once make eye contact with his father.
"You feeling okay, Danny?" Maddie soothingly rubbed his back. "You're so quiet."
Danny gave her an appreciative smile. "I'm fine," he insisted enthusiastically. "Just tired from doing nothing but homework all day, you know?"
"Yeah, well, I guess this means you'll think twice before breaking our rules again, won't you?" said Jack brusquely.
"Jack," murmured Maddie with disapproval.
Danny kept his eyes down. "I wasn't complaining," he said quietly. "I was just...explaining why I'm tired." He lifted his head to look at his mother, only at her, aimed to somehow convince her she didn't need to worry about him. "But this has been good for me, I think. I got a lot of studying done, and a lot of things make more sense to me. I'm feeling good about the assignments I completed. I think I can raise my grades a little."
Maddie smiled and smoothed back a couple locks of his hair. "That's wonderful, sweetie."
Jack said nothing at all.
After dinner, Danny helped his mother and sister with the dishes while Jack disappeared somewhere, probably the basement lab again. Danny washed each dish that could not fit in the dishwasher in something of a trance, warm soapy suds reaching up to his elbows. He handed each cleaned dish to Jazz, who dried them and put them away.
"Thanks, kids," said Maddie as she sprayed and wiped down the counters. "Do you two want to watch a movie tonight? We could order something off Amazon."
"Yeah, I have a whole list of movies I've been wanting to see." Jazz took out her phone and began scrolling through something on her screen.
Danny rinsed the soap off his arms before switching off the faucet. "Um, actually, I'm really tired." He looked down into the sink. "Would it be all right if I went to bed early?"
Maddie's brow creased. "Are you feeling sick?"
"No, it's just... It's been a long week, and I'm exhausted. I think maybe I need to catch up on my sleep for once."
Maddie moved up to him and placed her gloved hands on the side of his face, studying him intently. "Okay, sweetheart. Get some good sleep tonight. You're looking a little pale."
Danny nodded and headed out of the kitchen into the living room and toward the stairs, glancing around for Jack.
But Jack was nowhere to be seen. Danny quickly ran up the stairs, relieved that he wouldn't have to see his father for the rest of the night.
Dressed and ready for bed, Danny lay under his covers in the darkness of his room. So tired, so drowsy, and yet his mind was buzzing too quickly to let him sleep.
He glanced at the wall behind him in which his opioids were kept.
Maybe he could take another hydrocodone tablet tonight. He needed it. He deserved it. Plus, he was feeling a little sore from trying to get the hang of duplication the night before. All of that constant tearing and splitting of his cells.
And then whatever happened between him and his father the next day, well, that was later. This was now.
Beyond the safety of his walls, outside of their neighborhood, he could only hope that ghosts weren't causing too much of a problem without him around to stop them.