Disclaimer: I don't own DP.
Thanks to starwater09, Invader Johnny, Above the Winter Moonlight, Guest, Crystalmoon39, Puppy von Wolfenstein, Margot-Eve, Zone Robotnik, Trish, Avaritia, Africanvintage, Dareeen, Guest, Silverstone007, and JoojooBrother for reviewing last time! Sorry I wasn't able to respond directly to all of you. The last few months have been crazy, but I treasure your thoughts, support, and all the delightful ideas you gave me. I also really appreciate the well-wishes.
Shot Summary: A universe crossover between Aftermath and Dan's Secret VALentine Plans. Clockwork temporarily takes the Ghost King Dan Phantom and Queen Valerie Gray's baby and places him in the hands of a Dan and Val from another universe. Parental crises abound.
Chapter warnings: Some brief sexual content.
Deliverance
Shot 35: When Worlds Collide Part 2
Kwan had grown calloused to surprises. After surviving the massacres of Dan Phantom, watching Valerie Gray rise to lead the world against Phantom, and then discovering that Valerie's boyfriend from "out of town" was actually Phantom in disguise, he believed that nothing would ever catch him off guard again.
But here he was, blinking at a computer screen in surprise.
The blood that the disguised Phantom had demanded he analyze was most certainly Valerie Gray's, but it contained microchimeric cells—cells that were not her own because they did not match her DNA. Rather, they were cells of a male, and when Kwan further isolated the cell, he discovered the DNA patterns were a combination of Valerie Gray's and the ENA of one Dan Phantom.
"Fetal cells," he breathed.
But that made no sense to him. For one, the Valerie Gray he knew had not been pregnant. And then secondly, Phantom had said the blood was from a sick woman who had just recently given birth.
Kwan felt a headache coming on.
"What is going on?" he muttered, rubbing at his temples as he stared at the results. The blood was real. The results were real. He began to think the disguised Dan Phantom who had approached him was somehow from the future. And that was simply disturbing, because it suggested and that upon Valerie becoming sick from childbirth in the future, Kwan himself in the future was either not available or dead.
Chills stormed up his spine. Then he squeezed his eyes shut and muttered under his breath, "I can't think about this. I just can't. I don't wanna know."
And so he focused on the task at hand, which was to identify the sickness in the blood. As expected, he found toxins indicating sepsis. He began pulling out in concern heavy antibiotics matched to the toxins, as well as a portable IV. Whoever this Valerie was, she was very, very sick.
Maybe even dying.
That in and of itself inspired Kwan to work a bit faster. Not only was Valerie Kwan's friend, but Phantom cared for very little beyond Valerie Gray. Likely, the ghost would initiate another apocalypse if the woman were to die.
While Kwan pondered on the strangeness of a psychotic killer growing a heart for anyone, he failed to notice the portal that appeared behind him. The air twisted and darkened into a swirl, and from out of the depths of the warp came the sweeping robes and majestic air that was Clockwork
The powerful ghost stepped into the infirmary of the Amity Park resistance building, his red eyes staring about in a bored sort of curiosity. "Do you ever tire of these four white walls?" Clockwork asked airily, his voice a deep but soft boom.
Kwan yelped in sudden fear, nearly dropping several glass beakers onto the floor in a wild attempt to wheel around. "What the—?" He pressed his back to the counter as he came face-to-face with a blue-skinned, red eyed ghost—this time, a ghost that was not Dan Phantom.
"Hello," the mysterious ghost said. He looked excessively old, as if he'd lived multiple lifetimes, and something about him seemed to emanate an ancient energy. Kwan found himself in awe of the ghost, more so than he'd ever been in Dan Phantom's presence. "You have been an invaluable ally."
"Uh, ally?" Kwan stuttered, readjusting his glasses to stare slack-jawed at the ghost. "How did—how did you get past the Shield? Who are you? What do you want?"
"My name is Clockwork," the ghost said, his voice tinged with a dry sense of amusement. "I am the Master of Time."
"M-Master of Time?" Kwan held onto the counter behind him with a nervous laugh. The title sounded familiar and dangerously powerful. "Oh. Well. If that's all."
"Yes." His red eyes looked to the counter. "I am here to obtain medication of great importance."
The doctor blinked. "…Medication? You mean for the Valerie of the future?"
Clockwork tilted his head, and his old face split with a half-smile. "Not for this world, if you wish to know." He held out his hand. "But I fear precious time is ticking away."
Kwan nodded quickly and handed the antibiotics over, the bottles of which seemed small compared to Clockwork's large hand. Then he pulled out a portable IV and gave that to Clockwork as well. "She's probably dehydrated by now. And you need to tell her," he pressed, "that she's got her baby's ENA in her bloodstream. Not a lot, but just a little. She might be more sensitive to ghost power or her child's abilities as a result."
Clockwork nodded. "As always, your medical expertise is accurate. She will receive this information at the proper time."
"Okay," Kwan breathed. "Okay, great." Something in his face looked tense and worried. "Don't let her die. I don't know why I'm not there with her, but—"
"—Do not fear," the ghost said. "In this world, you are. And you always will be."
Within the universe where Ghost King Phantom reigned, there was a tense silence in the air. The entire castle seemed to hold its breath in anticipation for the death of its new Queen and the dreaded return of its King.
Clockwork slipped into the dimension as easily as he left the previous one, a time portal opening up into a dark room owned by one Valerie Gray. The curtains were shut, blocking most of the green light from the Ghost Zone. A tray of food had been left on a table, forgotten for hours. He knelt beside the bed of the Queen, eyeing the woman with great pity. "Queen Valerie Gray," he called to her. "My name is Clockwork. I am here to speak with you."
She moaned in pain at the feeling of even the air shifting around her, her teal eyes opening with a glassy nothingness behind them. For a time, she stared at the ghost's face dully, and then she breathed out, eyes widening, "Jax." Alarm overwhelmed her. Her arms locked in a strange way to force herself up. "J-Jax—"
"—Your son is safe," Clockwork said, pressing his cool palm against her shoulder. She collapsed back down without struggle, her eyes still wide and half-coherent. "You will be safe as well, soon. I am here to help you."
She dully watched him, her cracked lips opening a bit. "Jax?" she asked again, voice hardly a raspy whisper. Unbidden tears bubbled in her eyes, and for a second, some kind of cognition came over her. She weakly grabbed onto Clockwork's wrist. "Gone. I c-can't—feel—"
Something in Clockwork's face softened. "He could not stay here," he said. For as much hatred and anger Valerie carried, she had an unusually strong bond with her child—perhaps even to the point of knowing its location. The old time ghost respected that. "I've sent him to a safe place while your illness runs its course."
Her tears streaked down her face. "Where?" she demanded, now understanding that her baby was not with her—that something was wrong. The hallucinatory effects of her illness were making it hard to focus. Maybe this strange, old ghost standing at the side of her bed was not real.
Clockwork leaned over and gently pressed his cold fingers against her sweating temple. "I shall give you an image."
And her feverish eyes began to widen, and her grip upon his wrist began to loosen. A hazy picture, like a dream, entered her mind in a pleasant way. It was an image of herself, worriedly hovering over the baby Jax. They were on a normal bed, her body clothed in strangely familiar pajamas, her stomach tight as if she'd never given birth.
"In another world," Clockwork explained softly, "Valerie Gray remains the Defense Commander of Amity Park. She will care for the child for the next two days."
On the bed, the ill Valerie's cracked lips opened in awe at the sight of herself, the happy giggle from the baby and the sound of rock music wafting up in the haze of the image. Tears came to her eyes again. The walls looked reminiscent of the Amity Park resistance building that had been destroyed. She gazed up at Clockwork. "Safe," she breathed, voice a broken sound, "f-from Phantom?"
"From the Phantom of this world, yes. But the Phantom of the other world is…different."
And then a new image twisted in her mind: the baby being cradled by a man with blue eyes and black hair tied in a low, messy ponytail. His face was almost peaceful. For one wild moment, she thought she was staring at Daniel Fenton (it was a splitting image of the illusion Dan had used on her earlier)—but then his features bled into blue skin and red eyes, his hair flickering up to white.
The Phantom of the image turned to the Other-Valerie beside him, who wore jeans and a baggy shirt, and he held out his free hand to her. She hesitated for a moment, and then she grabbed on. The ghost softly clasped his fingers over hers.
Valerie's feverish eyes narrowed in confusion. The Other-Valerie seemed so willing to touch and be touched by this Other-Phantom. An odd pang tore through her at that.
"Your son will be well cared for," Clockwork explained softly. "Do not fear for him, but rest."
She gazed up at the powerful ghost, her heart squeezing hard. Unbidden tears streaked down her face. "C-can't," she whispered. Her shaking hands swept over the swell of her stomach, which she knew was empty of life. "M-my baby—"
"—Is fine."
"I can't l-lose him," she begged, voice breaking in exhaustion. Her feverish eyes closed, more tears slipping down her face. "All I g-got."
Clockwork's face twitched in pain, and he backed away. "You will have more than just your son, in the fullness of time," he said. "But for now, know that he will return to you."
Then he raised his hand, and with his power blasted open the doors open. A surprised and guilty-looking Dora floated awkwardly against the wall, as if she had been eavesdropping.
Clockwork couldn't have cared less. He pulled from the folds of his robes the antibiotics and small IV. "Dora," he greeted mildly. "The Queen is in need of your assistance."
In another universe, a truck stormed through the dark tunnels of the underground transport system, the fluorescent lights blurring by in waves. Valerie had stolen the military truck in hopes of escaping to another city where no one would recognize her—or ask about the baby currently in her possession.
"We did get everything, right?" Valerie said, face still a bit tight with shock. Her knuckles were almost bloodless from the strength with which she gripped the steering wheel. "The formula, the blankets, my credit card…?"
"We did not leave anything of importance behind," a baritone voice said in dry amusement. It was the third time Valerie had asked such a question.
The stressed woman looked over at the passenger seat beside her, where an infamously disguised ghost cradled a small infant, stroking its back through the swaddle of blankets. The child's fingers had grabbed onto a lock of the man's long, black hair, its heavy cheek leaning tiredly against the crook of Dan's neck.
The image was still somewhat a shock to her system. Dan tolerating a baby—much less one latched onto him like a monkey—seemed impossible. "Is he…doing okay?"
"He is almost asleep," Dan murmured, looking up at her. His false-blue eyes were almost soft, but a dark smile tilted his lips as his gaze swept over her. "Is that concern I hear from you?"
She turned her attention back to the road, her face tinging with a blush. "No," she said defensively.
Dan's smirk stretched wider. "I believe it is."
"It's not," she huffed. "I've just never had to babysit before beyond that stupid, high school flour sack. And I don't want some alternate version of myself coming to kill me because I didn't do something right."
The thought made the ghost's smirk twitch into a genuine smile. "Ah, the flour sack. Yes, let's avoid injuring our child and inspiring the wrath of a Valerie from another universe."
"…You don't even like children," she muttered in suspicion.
"I don't like other people's children," he corrected, looking down as the baby exhaled softly against his chest. "But this one is mine." The protective rumble of his voice seemed to finally lull the baby to sleep. "All mine."
Valerie fell silent at that, her hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. For a time, she said nothing. Some part of her felt an odd warmth at the thought of Dan cuddling a baby that was half hers. Then she said, swallowing down her attraction to him, "Eden is a small city about 100 miles away. Carved from out the cliff sides. We should be safe there."
The disguised ghost seemed intrigued. "You humans dared to name a city Eden? And you would take me to this place?"
"You know the deal," she warned, giving a bit of an apprehensive look at Dan. "One violent move, and I won't let you touch me ever again."
His nose turned up, and his lips fell in a frown. "You ruin my fun," he accused. "I have a hankering to destroy any city that would call itself Eden under my reign. It's obviously begging to fall."
"Then suck it up," Valerie snapped, not in the mood for his homicidal tendencies. "We're just going there so we don't get recognized for the next two days."
"Why have I not heard of Eden before?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Some refugees created cloaking technology to hide from you, so they've never really needed my help. Don't you dare make me regret going on a road trip with you. No violence. None. Ever."
The ghost grumbled at her, baring his human teeth as if they were his usual fangs. He despised the lock-hold Valerie continued to have over his destructive instincts. Her blackmail was lethal and effective. Damn his attraction to her.
She noticed his increasingly unpleasant expression, and she added dryly, "Think about it this way. If I ever need to escape my duties as a Defense Commander and all that paperwork, we can run away to Eden."
The unhappy frown on his face froze. And then something sneaky glinted from his eyes. "And do…what, exactly?"
She huffed. "I don't know, indulge your bacon habit."
His lips twitched. "Can I make suggestions?"
"No." Her face blushed, and she swallowed hard, suddenly feeling nervous to be trapped in a moving metal box with him. She knew exactly what he was thinking, and it had to do with beds and sheets and nakedness. Her body tingled at the thought.
Dan pouted, sighing. The baby lying against his chest twitched a bit at the movement. "You are a very cruel woman. Teasing me with such reckless abandon. Denying the love you secretly hold for our child."
"It's not really ours," she muttered. "And I don't love it."
His eyes narrowed at her. His hands covered the baby more protectively. "Blasphemy," he admonished her.
"What?"
"You must love it at some instinctive level," Dan argued. "It is half of your blood and half of mine. Our heir."
The baby's bleary, blue eyes opened. Its neck was craned, and its eyes stared out at Valerie, simply watching her.
Valerie grimaced, looking sideways in apprehension. "It's staring at me," she complained. "Are you making it do that?"
"Jax is a sentient being," Dan snapped. "He is intelligent enough to know the face of the woman who bore him. Is this how you will act for the remainder of our time?"
"I told you, I never wanted kids. I'm not parent material," the woman said, voice strained.
His nostrils flared in displeasure. "No, I suppose you're not," he said, sniffing and gently adjusting the baby in his arms so that its little body rested in the crook of his arm. "You could not even handle a flour sack."
Valerie fell silent again, keeping her eyes tensely on the road. Her spark of anger began to ignite. He was baiting her. She knew it. She set her jaw hard, her fingers tightening on the steering wheel until every line in her body was tense.
"If you weren't holding that kid right now," she threatened, trailing off into a mutter. "I'd shove you out of this Jeep."
His eyes hardened against her. And then he turned his face away to watch the metal panels of the underground tunnel storm by, the fluorescent lights a dim flicker. "I would have preferred to fly anyway."
"Well, too bad. It's part of our cover, and that kid was half-frozen when you flew the first time."
Dan's lip curled in a snarl, but then he said nothing. It was almost as if the fight bled out of him at the mention of the baby freezing. The warm air from the heater and the rumble of the road was keeping Jax in a lulled state, which was decidedly better than the pained whines and shivers he'd faced while being flown across the world in below-freezing weather.
He felt the baby squirm in his arms a bit. Small, chubby fingers dug into the soft material of his shirt, and Jax cooed, unraveling some of his blankets. He pulled on the lock of Dan's hair in his free hand.
The ghost flinched, his face twisting in a wince, and he instinctively wrapped his hands around the baby to pull it away from him. "Do not do that."
But then Jax's happy expression faulted, his big, blue eyes widening as if he'd been hurt. It was the first time his father had ever pushed him away. And then his eyes began to water, and a muted cry quivered his lips.
Valerie looked over at him, her sharp eyes tightening in fear. She pushed a button on the steering wheel and turned on the radio. Soft sounds of classical music began to waft from the Jeep's speakers. The unhappy Jax paused for a minute, still being held out while Dan tried to crane his neck to pull his hair from the infant's death grip. When it didn't work, Dan narrowed his eyes at the baby and turned the lock of his hair intangible. It slipped through the baby's hand.
Jax blinked at having lost the feeling of soft hair, and then his face began to twist again in unhappiness. Valerie quickly continued to flip through radio channels.
"Come on, come on," she muttered, half-terrified that she was about to suffer the sound of a screaming baby. "There's gotta be one around…"
"One what?" Dan snapped, now eyeing the baby with a strange admiration and suspicion. Its grip was inhumanly strong.
The baby whined louder, its toothless gums showing as it opened its mouth to cry.
And then Valerie landed on the radio station she wanted, and the sound of classic rock n' roll replaced the static. She turned up the volume. A steady, drumming beat pulsed between the three of them. The sound of familiar guitar riffs and rough voices in harmony picked up.
Jax stopped crying, his eyes widening again in some kind of awe. His balled fists loosened, and the tension in his body relaxed. And then he began to smile again through his tears. He slapped his fingers against Dan's strong wrists, his movements disjointed and joyful—entirely as if he'd forgotten his previous troubles.
Dan stared at this odd child in his hands. "This music is rotting your brain."
"It's saving my ears," Valerie cut in. She saw Dan eye the radio in great disapproval, and she warned, "Don't you dare."
"This filth is infringing on the intelligence of our child," the ghost stressed, now pulling the baby back toward him to cradle it, as if to protect it from the sounds of the rock n' roll song. "Turn it off."
Valerie rolled her eyes, "It's not that bad."
"It is catastrophic," Dan hissed. The baby laughed happily, its arms waving in the air. "You might be permanently altering his destiny from a fearsome ruler to the guitarist of a mediocre garage band."
"Jax is a sentient being," the woman said snidely, throwing Dan's own words back at him. "He's intelligent enough to have his own personality."
The ghost glared at her, looking disgruntled and then betrayed as he looked down at the squirming baby in his arms. "You are a traitor," he accused his son. "Submitting yourself to such ridiculous antics. No son of mine would like classic rock n' roll."
Jax giggled and continued to squirm a bit, slowly growing used to the sound of music. Although the joy never left his face, he leaned his cheek against Dan's chest. The vibration of his father's power core—surely, this was his father despite his different appearance—was as familiar as the beat of his mother's heart. Between the music and nonviolent arguments around him, it was the most peace he'd ever known.
With a begrudging love, Dan wrapped the unraveled blanket around the tiny body. "I suppose there are worse things than music," he muttered. "You might actually like humans, or something as equally disturbing."
"Oh, come on," Valerie moaned. "What the hell do you call me, then? The kid's half-human."
"You're the exception to the rule—not the standard."
"You basically just told him to hate half of himself."
"And you're the one who introduced him to that horrid music. A pity it wasn't destroyed forever."
"So it's okay for him to hate half of himself because he likes music?" Her voice strained in irritation.
Dan's hackles began to rise. "If you put it that way, why do you care if he hates his humanity? You don't even like children."
The woman snapped, "Because I don't want a child of mine from any universe to grow up to be like you."
That made Dan pause. His false-blue eyes blinked at her in surprise for a second or two, and then every line in his body steeled with a smoldering offense. "So then you are ashamed of me and by proxy the other half of our son. Is that it?"
Valerie pushed the brake of the Jeep until they came to a stop in the middle of the tunnel. Then she turned to face him fully. The darkness between them hid some of him from her, even though she knew his abilities allowed him to see her clearly. "I'm not ashamed of that kid for what he is," she said. Her raspy voice was hard. "I'm ashamed of what you've done and what you're telling him to think. God forbid that maybe the kid has more of a soul than you do."
Dan's lip curled in a snarl. "Do not fling your morality at me."
"And why the hell do you think I'm here right now?" she retaliated, narrowing her eyes. "I don't know how this Other-You acts in Jax's world, but I'm not gonna let you twist that kid's thoughts."
"I would not have my heir befriend the weak or sing their songs," Dan growled, his illusion growing dangerously close to breaking. His hair began to flicker up at the edges, his eyes growing purple as the blood-red of his irises strained against the blue.
The baby in his arms began to notice that its father was irritated. He could hear that his mother's voice had twisted with anger as well. Jax's small face fell again, some kind of deep-inset anxiety coming over him. He wanted the sound of the music and the harmony to return, along with the lilt of his parent's voices dancing around each other. Instead, the atmosphere had dropped with a too-familiar cold. He raised his small arms with a pained whine.
"And why do you care if the kid likes humans or music?" Valerie snapped, eyes hardening to steel. "He's going away in two days. He's not your heir—not really. He's never going to take over your empires because he's not yours."
The truth burned harder than if Valerie had slapped him in the face. His fingers tightened around the child with an odd protectiveness as Clockwork's threat came back to him. "No," he hissed quickly. "That is a lie. I shall see this child again. He is mine." Something in his voice did not sound sane. "All mine."
Valerie gave him a hard look, then turned away. She shifted the Jeep back into drive with a little more force than was necessary. The baby in Dan's arms still whined with discontent, eyes wide in confusion, only able to pick up the swirl of dark emotions between his parents.
The woman said, voice halted, "Why are you so attached to him, anyway? You didn't even know he existed a day ago."
Dan did not answer for a long time. His face darkened with unnatural shadows, a turmoil of emotions setting his strong jaw. He ran his fingers down the baby's cheek to quiet its fears. "Because," he said roughly, "this child is of us. And he would outlive your own miserable lifespan."
The reminder of her mortality made her hands tighten on the steering wheel, and his odd logic—that his attachment to such a child was because it was half of her—struck a deep chord in her. She felt warm and cold at the same time.
"Maybe it's better," she said with a strained voice, "that he has to leave. If he's half-human, then that means you'd watch him die too."
"Ah, but he is half-ghost as well. A piece of him would continue on, if he wished it."
They fell silent at that, and they stayed that way.
The tunnel began to turn upward as they ascended from the depths of the transportation system and into the territory that was the city of Eden. They passed several signs indicating the city limits. Dan watched in great curiosity, soaking in the sight. Sensors triggered as their Jeep passed over the roads, and Valerie turned off onto a side road with a dead end.
The disguised ghost turned to Valerie. "Do you intend to crash us?" he asked mildly.
"Yes," she said, voice dry. But as she spoke, the walls unlatched and lit up in a spectacle of fluorescent arrows. Just as they had in Amity Park, the walls opened, and the dark skies of Eden dampened the light in the tunnel.
They drove up the ramp and onto the main roads on top of the earth. High, stone cliffs surged against the midnight black. A few gatekeepers stood at attention as their Jeep sped past.
Dan instinctively held the baby closer as he looked about, leaning forward to stare out the windshield. "I do not recall these cliffs," he murmured in awe. "How far have we traveled?"
"Not that far," she said. "But like I said—cloaking technology."
The ghost looked almost as if he did not believe her. "Do they have anti-ghost equipment here?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Eden's defense strategy is covert existence. It's why I'm bringing you here and not some place like Jasper."
Against his will, Dan found himself again surprised at human innovation. For ten years, he'd flown over these cliffs and seen nothing but hills. But now, as he cradled this child of his from another world, he was surrounded by the quiet lights of a new city—small windows and balconies carved out of the cliff side. It seemed the human race had molded itself into every nook and cranny, marrying its homes into the stone.
"Fascinating," he hummed. Truly, it would take him quite some time to tear down such walls with bare strength. Amity Park was fragile and sophisticated with its technology—but Eden was oddly simple and natural.
"There's a hotel by the lake," Valerie told him, eyeing him curiously. "We should be able to get a room there—providing you can keep your skin on."
"My illusion, yes. But I cannot guarantee the same for my clothes," he declared, still looking out the window in interest. The innuendo rolled off him so naturally that he did not even turn to see Valerie's face fault.
In short order, the two found themselves in room 2289 of Eden Resorts—a hotel embedded into the cliffs by the lake. Valerie dropped her backpack of clothes and supplies in relief to the carpeted floor, shutting the heavy door behind them. "Well," she said, "this is it. Home for the next two days."
Dan still held the baby in his arms, who had fallen asleep at some point between the front desk and the elevator ride up. The disguised ghost looked about with discerning eyes. The hotel was far more plush than the Amity Park resistance building—its walls a deep red with fluffy, white bedding and silver lights—but he simply sniffed. "It will do," he declared with natural derision. "Still hardly fit for a ruler, but better than that hole you deem a resistance."
She rolled her eyes and pulled off her ball cap, tossing it onto a side table. "It's not that bad." The clock on the wall said 11:00 p.m., and she yawned. Her eyes were bagged with tiredness, the stress of recent events wearing hard on her. Now that the adrenaline of discovering Jax and seeing Dan again had worn off, she was exhausted. "We've got enough supplies to last the night, right?"
The disguised Ravager of Worlds glanced at the dark bag hanging from his arm, which contained the baby formula and diapers and various other odds and ends. "I believe so."
"Good." And then Valerie collapsed onto the big, white bed, sighing as she buried her face into a clean pillow.
Dan's face twisted in irritation again as he adjusted the sleeping baby in his arms, waking Jax up in the process of trying to get the bag off his shoulder. "Valerie dear," he called to her darkly. "In case you haven't noticed, it is not yet time to sleep."
"Ngh?" she moaned, not moving an inch.
"There is no place here to set down Jax."
Valerie's voice was muffled. "Just hold him. You're good at that."
He face-faulted. "You intend that I alone must care for and hold him? Do not be ridiculous. Where is your sense of maternal instinct?" The baby whined a bit, its face in a pout from being woken up and jostled in Dan's arms. "I cannot hold him forever and expect him to sleep through it."
Valerie turned her head, her curls flinging over her face. "Then just hold still," she said petulantly. "Or put him on the bed or something."
His face darkened. "He is an infant. He cannot sleep on that bed."
"Why not?"
"You might crush him on accident or suffocate him with blankets."
Her voice was dry, "Oh my god. Then just…put him in a dresser drawer or something."
He stared at her, face twisted in half-amusement. "…You would stuff our child into a dresser drawer?"
"I didn't say shut it and forget about him," she moaned, turning over. Her baggy t-shirt wrapped around her body in a twist. "But you got any better ideas at 11:00 at night?"
Dan sniffed at first, feeling affronted on Jax's behalf. And then it hit him that the idea of a drawer as a baby crib was not entirely awful. It was small and would not allow the child to roll around. He gazed at the heavy dresser drawer and paused. Then he moved forward and placed the wiggling, whining Jax on top of Valerie's stomach. "Hold him for a second."
Valerie's face immediately tightened into panic, and she wrapped her hands around the baby, awkwardly attempting to sit up. "Uh, it's been a second," her voice strained.
The baby's feet kicked in surprise as he twisted about in his blankets, only to find himself staring up at one Valerie Gray. He blinked at her. Then a great joy stretched his lips into a toothless smile, a gurgle of excitement escaping him. He recognized his mother. He felt a wholeness being in her arms again.
Valerie managed only a panicked, painful smile. "Okay, you can take him back now. Any time."
"Why are you uncomfortable with him?" Dan muttered while he effortlessly pulled a drawer from the dresser, setting it down on the floor. "He is but an infant."
"Yeah?" she challenged, face twisting in panic as the baby nuzzled into her, his mouth brushing against her shirt in an instinctive search for his mother's milk. "He thinks my boobs are a restaurant, for one."
A genuine bark of laughter rumbled from Dan as he turned around, eyeing the helpless Valerie as she tried to hold the baby away from herself. "Can you blame him?" he teased. "In his world, they are."
Her face blushed in horror, the red of her cheeks creeping down her neck and up to her ears. "That is not funny."
"Perhaps not, but your embarrassment is," he quipped, pulling an extra blanket from out of the black bag and lining the dresser drawer. "Why do you blush at what is a natural order?"
Her voice tightened, even as she tentatively readjusted the baby in her arms. "Because it's not natural to me, okay? I'm not a mom. I don't like kids. I've never even been around kids, and here you are, pretending like I should suddenly be mother of the year and totally fine with being used like a cow. What are you expecting?"
The odd tones in Valerie's voice caught his attention, and he looked back at her, eyes darkening. "Your depictions of motherhood inspire me," he said dryly. "I do hope the Valerie of Jax's world is not so callous against him as you are."
"Callous?" she echoed, looking frazzled as one of Jax's small hands waved in the air, grabbing for one of her loose ringlet locks. "I'm holding him, aren't I?"
"Yes, for only the second time," he shot back. "You've complained the entire trip and have made me do all the work. Again. I have a terrible suspicion that you are truly not jesting and actually despise this child."
She fell silent at that, full lips in a pout. Jax looked up at her, noticing that his mother was unhappy and that she needed to be happy. He wanted her to look down at him and smile. He grabbed onto her shirt, pulling at the thick fabric in interest.
"I don't hate him," she muttered, hesitant. "I just don't…associate good things with moms."
He raised a brow. "For what reason?"
She said slowly, voice strained. "Well, my mom never really wanted me, and she wasn't…nice." Her hands tightened around the baby, every line in her body tense.
Dan stared at her in dark interest, taking in the vulnerable line of her mouth. It was strange to think of Valerie as a child herself, even stranger to think of her as unwanted. He found himself almost fascinated by the thought. "I always thought your mother died."
Valerie's voice hardened. "She did to me." She looked down at the baby in her arms, an odd pain in her face. "Maybe she really is dead by now."
The disguised ghost sniffed. "My mother is quite dead, and I killed her—but that is not related to my perception of Jax."
"Because you're fucked up," she hissed. "I have no idea why you think anything that you do."
His lips twitched up in a dark smile. "Compartmentalization, dear Valerie. It's a mental exercise. You should try it."
After attempting to change Jax's diaper with only questionable success, and after being teased by Dan for her fear over a dirty diaper, Valerie gave up. She disappeared into the bathroom in a huff. She changed out of her day clothes and into pajamas pants and another oversized t-shirt, then prepared for bed. By the time she came out of the bathroom, her hair was combed, but her face was still tight with displeasure. "I ain't never doing that again," she moaned. "It wasn't even a normal diaper—it was just a bunch of cloth and pins. What the hell kind of world did this kid come from?"
"Probably a more environmentally friendly one," Dan suggested airily, still attempting to fix the modern diaper around Jax more comfortably. The baby gurgled a bit, squirming on the bed in discomfort at the cold air on his legs. "If it is any consolation, I do believe those pins are of pure gold."
"That doesn't make me feel better." Valerie ran a hand through her hair, trying to pull out the tangles. "And don't even pretend that you care about the environment." A blush was permanently stuck on her face. Sharing a hotel room with a disguised Dan had made her exceptionally paranoid that he'd just phase through the bathroom door while she was changing. It seemed like something he would do.
"Honestly, Valerie. I think you just need to bond with our son."
"No, I don't."
That response inspired mischief in Dan. He turned to the bathroom door, eyes lighting with an idea. "Well, then. I shall assist your bonding with Jax by leaving you two alone."
"What?" she demanded, eyes narrowing.
He unceremoniously set Jax down on the bed next to Valerie. "I'm going to bathe," he declared, "and you shall have to watch this child without me."
Valerie quickly grabbed onto his jacket sleeve. "Don't you dare leave me here," she hissed in panic. "I don't know what the hell I'm doing."
Dan gave her a mocking, pouty face. "Then learn," he challenged her. And before she could say anything in return, he dematerialized entirely, her hand now grasping at nothing. The next thing she knew, the bathroom door had clicked shut, and the shower turned on. A sort of merry, baritone hum echoed—as if he were broadcasting his sadistic pleasure at her fear.
"Oh, that is low," she muttered, turning back to the baby with great hesitance. It had been surprised at the loss of its father's arm, only to become curious at the soft material of the bed around him and the warm heat emanating from Valerie herself. His big, blue eyes stared up at her with some sort of expectation that she would pick him up. "And what are you looking at, huh? You think this is funny—all some kind of game?"
The baby's disjointed hands raised up, fingers grasping for her only to fall down.
"Aren't you supposed to be asleep by now?" she asked him, voice strained. "It's almost midnight. Babies should be asleep by midnight. I should be asleep by midnight."
Jax ran his tongue out along the edge of his lips as he reached for the image of his mother again. His actions afforded him the look of great determination, as if nothing had ever stopped him from being with Valerie.
Valerie's full lips flattened in rising guilt as she continued to deny the child, frozen in place.
The baby began to whine, its arms tiring out. Determination fell to frustration, then a sense of hopelessness—as if his mother were truly not there. He lay on his back on the bed, staring up at her in some kind of resigned wonder, his eyes bubbling with tears.
That did it.
She uncrossed her arms with a guilty moan, reaching for him awkwardly. "Why do you want to be held anyway?" she complained to him. "I'm probably gonna hurt you."
The instant her hands scooted beneath him, an excitement unlike any other came over him. He blinked hard, his watery eyes widening. A noise of happiness came from him, his mouth stretching wide as his little limbs wiggled about in joy.
Valerie looked caught between almost smiling and frowning in great anxiety. "Can't you hold still?"
And to her surprise, the baby immediately obeyed her. Jax stared up at her in muted awe, struggling to contain his excitement at being held again by her. He even forgave that she'd allowed some of his blankets to unravel and that she seemed to fidget with him a bit.
And she remained that way for some time, staring down at this baby that in some world came from her body and carried her own genes. And he stared back up at her, content with simply her attention.
"I guess I can't be too bad from your world," she said, voice softening in exhaustion, "if you like me so much. But you probably just like me over there cause I'm a food source."
The baby watched her lips move, his thin eyebrows furrowing as if he were attempting to decipher her meaning.
"Was she even happy when she found out about you?" Valerie asked. She seemed oddly vulnerable and out of place. "Did she want to be a mom, or were you some kind of crazy surprise?" It was difficult to reconcile the existence of this baby with the reality of its conception. That in some world, she and Dan—the Ravager of Worlds and most hated, powerful being on the planet—had sex and made a baby. "You don't freak her out with weird powers, do you?"
Jax blinked, and then he closed his eyes, the vibration of his mother's voice and the beat of her heart lulling him into a state of total relaxation. He seemed to melt into her arms, nuzzling against her in full trust.
That sparked something in the wiring of Valerie's brain: fear. It made her cling tighter in fear of dropping him. "Don't trust me, kid," she said tiredly, voice straining a bit. "Everyone always lets you down."
The baby made a hum of a noise—as if he were waving off her statement. And with all the contentment in the world, he began to fall asleep on her. He was warm in her arms, his curling black hair in a twist atop his head.
She watched him apprehensively. This was a life in her arms too small to fend for itself and not even capable of telling her what he needed. Would he wake up and start crying again? Would he dirty his diaper while she was holding him? How did parents deal with this? She could feel his heart beat and his tiny breaths, expanding his small belly in and out, and it was terrifying to her.
So she sat there, frozen, cradling Jax tightly in the only way she knew how and praying that nothing bad happened.
A bit later, she heard the water to the shower shut off. She half-hoped that Dan would open the door after a few minutes, but then she heard the hair dryer kick in, and she rolled her eyes in disappointment. "Oh my god," she muttered in fear. "Now he's just milking it."
That damn ghost—he knew exactly how she felt, and here he was, being his typical, sadistic-bastard self. Valerie huffed, narrowing her eyes at the bathroom. Two could play at that game. If Jax were falling asleep, then she could at least put him to bed. She tried to scoot herself off the bed without waking up the baby and succeeded. Then, very carefully, she leaned down and placed Jax atop the soft blankets lining the dresser drawer on the floor. The baby's head tilted to the side, his little mouth slack with deep sleep. She pulled back apprehensively, then sighed in relief when Jax did not wake up.
Dan emerged from the steamy bathroom around that time, his blow-dried hair loose down his bare shoulders. Valerie swallowed hard at the sight of him, damning that she found him attractive and that he had absolutely no qualms with flaunting himself half-naked before her.
"You packed my sleep pants," he mused, tying the front with absentminded happiness. "You remembered how much I hate chafing in jeans."
"I wasn't about to let you walk around naked." She crossed her arms.
His eyes slid sideways in dark merriment. "Would that be so terrible?"
Valerie turned away and laid down on the bed, rolling her eyes to hide a blush. Sometimes, it was best to just divert. "The kid's finally asleep, and I'm going to bed, so don't wreck anything," she declared, stretching out. Then she purposely closed her eyes, trying to relax her muscles and sink into the comforter.
Dan leaned down onto the bed beside her, his knees dipping into the mattress. His loose, dark hair slipped down his shoulder and tickled her face as he leaned in, then collapsed against her in a sigh. He wrapped a muscled arm around her stomach and pressed in against her.
Her face burned in a blush as she leaned her head sideways to stare at him, her stomach tight with a nervous flutter. He stared back in the silence, their lips inches away.
For one moment, Valerie dared to think that he'd kiss her.
And then Dan's soft, cool breath brushed against her face. "I have contemplated our deal," he murmured. "A way to adjust my reign while complying with your moral demands."
She blinked at the change in subject. Her face flamed up, and her heart began to speed as if he had kissed her. This was Dan Phantom, lying beside her on a bed and compromising destruction for her love. She swallowed hard. "And what are you thinking?"
His arm around her waist moved a bit, his fingers gripping into her hips as he raised up. He nuzzled his nose against her hair and whispered, "I shall become the Ghost King."
She paused, blinking. "What?" she whispered back, turning her face toward his. Their lips were inches away again.
"You know the legends of Pariah Dark?" he murmured.
Her eyebrows furrowed. "Well, yeah, but I thought—"
"—They are not legends." Something in his eyes was dark, despite the softness of his touch. "And I have the power now to challenge Pariah Dark for the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire."
Valerie did not dare to grow hopeful. "And what does that mean?" she demanded.
"It means," he said, giving her a sideways look. "I would be distracted enough to turn a blind eye to this miserable world. The human insects would thrive. And I would take total control of the Ghost Zone, unleashing my will upon it instead." He added, "You would benefit from this arrangement, as I would have the power to control the movements of the ghost population. Think about it. No more ghost attacks on your little cities."
It sounded attractive. Suspicion still narrowed her eyes. "You wouldn't attack Amity Park with even more forces?"
His face twitched in irritation. "The Amity Park of my past…is not the same as it is today. Now it's just a rag tag collection of human insects displaced from other cities."
"So then what? You'd just go around terrorizing your own kind instead of mine?"
"Something like that," he murmured.
Her face twisted. Amity Park had become allies with a few ghosts. She'd come to understand that most of them were just harmless nuisances and tricksters—many of which just wanted to be left alone. She pulled away from Dan, her full lips pulling into a grimace.
His face faulted, eyes tightening at her reaction. "What?"
She sighed and sat up, her curls falling down her shoulders. "So all of this just means you're going to go and be a monster…somewhere else."
"I cannot change what I am," he said, voice straining as he sat up as well. "The destruction, the power—it helps." Hard blue eyes stared back at her. "What do you not understand about this. You are the Red Huntress. You revile ghosts. Surely, you would think this deal of mine to be favorable."
Valerie huffed, looking away. "If you act like a jerk to a whole dimension, it's gonna send refugees to my world. That'll create a lot more problems for me. And what is it with you and wanting to make everyone miserable, huh? Why can't you do something constructive with your power?"
His lip curled in a snarl. "As if dominating your enemies and suppressing my desire to annihilate humanity is not constructive? Listen to yourself. I've offered you the entire Human World, and still you act as if I have killed your father."
She snapped, "You cut off his arm and slashed his eye."
"He was an obstacle in my way," Dan sniffed petulantly. "And that was before I knew he could be so agreeable to my alter ego."
The human woman groaned and hid her face in her hands. From between her fingers, she peeked out and saw the sleeping baby Jax, almost in awe that he was still asleep. Then she ran her hands through her ringlet curls and looked back at Dan. "If you wanna become the Ghost King, that's your business. But I can't just let you torture people for fun."
For a time, it seemed they were at an impasse. Then a new idea hit him, and his hair seemed to flicker up at the ends in delight. He leaned in and murmured, "Then become my Queen. Attempt to limit me. Challenge my rule. It would be our games all over again—"
"—Whoa, whoa, back up." A spark of panic grew in her. She narrowed her eyes. "Queen? Like, Queen of the Ghost Zone, Ghost Queen?"
"Well, yes."
She gave him an eyeful of wild confusion and surprise. "…What? You do realize Kings and Queens are usually actual couples, right? That get married?"
His lips stretched wide. "That is the idea."
"So you're basically asking me to marry you, so I can keep you in line myself?"
"It is brilliant," he congratulated himself.
"It's a horrible idea," she argued, stress coming over her. "I'm a human being. A defense commander, with an arch enemy that goes by the name of Dan Phantom." Her voice broke. "I can't…even if I wanted to, I can't be with you like that." She reached out to touch his face, her fingertips caressing down his sharp jaw and the patch of dark hair on his chin. "I can only be with you if you pretend to be D."
He grabbed onto her hand, his long fingers covering hers. "That is the brilliance of it," he said. "I would demand Valerie Gray as the only one worthy of the title of Queen, and in return I would no longer attack the Human World. People would be in awe of you for sacrificing your well-being for their greater good."
Her face twisted in disbelief. "And D?"
"We'd create a story that he died in Australia of health complications," he said easily. "Or simply that he is dead, if you prefer to avoid a lie."
Valerie pulled away, looking uncomfortable. "This is crazy," she said, blushing hard. "Absolutely insane. One, you're talking about an actual marriage, which is a whole level of weird. Two, how would it work? I'd be a public face as your wife instead of as a commander, which makes me look ridiculous. And three, even if we figured out the first two things, I'd still have to hate you in public—or everyone would think I betrayed them just to get in bed with you."
His red eyes were calculating. "We have time to work out the bugs," he murmured. And then he leaned in and whispered, "It is not betrayal if it keeps them alive. Perhaps they would rejoice at Queen Valerie the Ghost Slayer."
"And Queens never have as much power as kings," Valerie said flatly, crossing her arms.
"You could change that," he tempted, brushing his nose and forehead against hers. Her skin was burning warm against him. He could hear her heart skip a beat. "I would be disappointed if you did not fight for equal standing."
He raised his hand to stroke her arm with the back of his knuckles, and the intimate, feather-light touch left goosebumps down her skin. She pulled back only a second to eye him, feeling hesitant and vulnerable. "You sound actually serious about this."
"I am." There was a heavy weight in his voice as he watched her.
Valerie swallowed hard as the seconds ticked by. "Do you know what this could cost?" Then she lightly touched his left side, her fingers ghosting over the heavy scars. Even in the soft light of the room, she could see the darkened patches and raised patterns that wound up his shoulder. It was rare to touch him so—to be so candid with bare skin. The permanent scars were a reminder of what Dan had already paid to be with her.
Dan's handsome face tightened with pleasure. His scars were hypersensitive, amplifying Valerie's touch and sending sparks down his body. "Hmm," he breathed, eyes darkening with desire as he stared at her straight. His muscles tightened. "You cruel woman. Teasing me like this."
"You know you like it," she mocked softly.
"And you should know that by tormenting me…" he murmured, leaning in. He brushed his lips against hers, only to pull away, "You torment yourself."
Her entire spine tingled with his touch, and she swallowed hard. Her brain muddled with the realization that they were not in Amity Park. She was not Valerie Gray the Red Huntress here. He was not Phantom here. They were simply refugees in Eden.
He leaned in to kiss her solidly. His long fingers cupped her face, and he stretched her mouth open with his own.
Valerie threaded her fingers into his silky, dark hair, easing into his kiss. He was familiar to her now, but his every action made her heart race. His fingers trailed down her neck, then down her back, gripping her solidly. As their kiss deepened, he leaned her back until she lay beneath him, his legs straddling hers.
She broke from their kiss, breathless and hypersensitive to the bed beneath her. "What are we doing," she breathed, staring up at him in a daze.
His lips remained only inches above hers, his cool breath hitched unevenly. "I believe," he said, "we're touching each other." And to make a point, his free hand trailed down the side of her body. It sent fire everywhere, pooling uncomfortably so between her legs.
She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting against herself. "M-maybe we shouldn't," she whispered. "J-Jax is—"
"—Asleep and unaware," he murmured to her. Her baggy t-shirt bunched up under his fingers as he felt the swell of her waist. Her breath began to grow short as she felt his cool hand sink up against her bare skin, rising over her ribs, as if to count each one.
Then intensity of his gaze as he did so inspired a blush over her body, heating her face with a fluttering anxiety and excitement that his hand would not stop. That this was all real. As if to prove it to herself, she unlocked her fingers from his hair and ran her hands down his side, feeling the scars from weeks past and the very real lines of Dan's body.
She watched his jaw tighten in desire, his muscles twitching beneath her hands. There was a level of vulnerability in him that made her bolder, and a glint of satisfaction sparked from her eyes as her hands swept lower, stroking down his back to the hem of his pants.
"You tease," Dan moaned to her, voice rough in desire. His hand began to sneak up higher beneath her shirt, dragging it up to reveal her slim belly to the air. His eyes never left hers as his cold fingers caressed over the swell of her bare breast.
She inhaled sharply, her face turning a beet red as she stared up at him, eyes wide and vulnerable. "Y-you're the t-tease," she breathed, hands tightening on his back. Tingles and goose-bumps radiated through her body at his touch.
The man nearly moaned at her softness and the way her chest heaved against his hand with her every breath. "It's mutual," he said roughly, voice tight. Every neuron in his brain was rewiring to focus solely on the woman beneath him—
And then he leaned down, crushing his lips against hers. His fingers squeezed in on her skin. On instinct alone, she arched up against his touch, her mouth opening to his with a moan. Some part of her came undone in realization that she wanted this. Him.
But at the sound of her odd moan, Jax's eyes snapped open.
The baby blinked, eyebrows furrowing. He began to hiccup, then whine in confusion, the sound of his mother's voice seemingly in pain—so familiar—striking deep into hardwired synapses.
The two on the bed suddenly froze, Dan still groping her beneath her shirt, her hands still settled into the waistline of his sleep pants. Neither moved in hopes the crying would stop.
But then Jax's cry shot up a decibel, the sound of his small voice piercing enough to make them both wince. It ruined the moment entirely. Dan pulled away with great reluctance, his hand ghosting down Valerie's stomach in something akin to mourning. Then he turned to the dresser drawer on the floor and narrowed his eyes at the offending child. "We were in the middle of something here."
Jax began to cry so hard that his small face turned red, his little arms waving up in a disjointed terror. Tears streaked down his cheeks in a flood.
Dan looked somewhat taken aback, as if he were betrayed. He glanced over at Valerie, who seemed as wide-eyed and head-spun as he did.
"Don't look at me," she said, voice tight, fumbling to pull her shirt down as she sat up, her face still red.
The ghost rolled his eyes and scooted off the bed, kneeling down beside Jax's little makeshift bed. He peered in curiously. "What is wrong with you," he murmured. The baby reached for him with disjointed hands, and so he swept the baby up into his arms, concerned. The baby clung to his father like a monkey, calming down only slightly until he caught sight of his mother standing up. Her image reignited something within him. Jax began to cry again, his small arms detaching to reach out to her.
Valerie blinked in surprise. "We gotta shut him up, or we're gonna start getting complaints."
"Then you hold him," Dan said, voice short in irritation at her. It bothered him that she did not see their son in pain and instead saw only a sound liability for other human beings. For that, she certainly deserved to have Jax screaming in her ear.
"Wait, what?"
"You're going to hold him," he declared, transferring the baby over into her arms. The baby whined hard, enough to make them both wince again. Dan stepped back, eying Valerie's awkward and frazzled hold, then readjusted her arms a bit.
The baby immediately clung to Valerie. She winced at the way his small fingers dug into her shirt and skin. "This kid's got nails," she said, face twisting in displeasure. His entire body was quivering in fear, blue eyes wide with some kind of anxiety. "What the hell's wrong with him? Does he just need to eat or something?"
"No," Dan murmured, staring at his son. "This is fear."
"How the hell do you know that?" she moaned, trying to hold the wiggling baby tighter to keep from dropping him.
"Just look at him." The disguised ghost tilted his head, watching the child as it tried to burrow itself into Valerie. Its cries had toned down into whines, its face still wet with tears and snot. Some part of Dan grew jealous at the thought that the baby sought Valerie's comfort more than it sought him.
Valerie felt the baby's tears soak into her shirt, and she looked up helplessly at Dan. "What's he so afraid of? Did he have a nightmare or something?"
"He was sleeping peacefully before," Dan said, voice halted. He pushed off the edge of the bed and reached for her. But the instant he did so, bright red power pulsed into the air, circling Valerie and the child and crackling against Dan as a barrier.
The disguised ghost gasped in pain, and even as he snatched away his hand, his illusion burned away up to his shoulder, revealing welted, blue skin. Half of his hair flickered up and bled almost gray.
Valerie stared at him, wide-eyed from behind the red-sparking barrier, black lightning buzzing along the edges. "Oh my god," she breathed. She held tight to the baby, half-ready to activate her battle suit. "It's coming from Jax." She glanced around in paranoia at the red barrier around her. "How do I stop it without hurting him?"
Dan gave her a bit of a wide-eyed look, even as his hair recolored as black, and his blue skin smoothed away into human flesh once more. He did not know how well a newborn would understand power. Maybe Jax was not even cognitively aware of what he was doing. Attempting to break the barrier and overpower him would make things worse.
It hit him suddenly that the reaction was instinctive, protective. Jax had begun to cry just after Valerie had opened her mouth with that whimper. And now Jax was clinging hard to Valerie, as if to protect her. The man stood there in deep consternation, feeling oddly cold. Perhaps...Jax had perceived that his father was attacking his mother?
He began to back away slowly, testing if Jax would instinctively feel the lessening of his power core. Valerie watched him in confusion as the baby calmed the farther away Dan moved.
And for some time, Dan and Valerie stood in separation, Jax's barrier humming between them. The baby eventually closed his watery eyes, relaxing into Valerie's arms, which were more confident around him. Having affirmed the strong, steady beat of his mother's heart, the barrier began to weaken, then flicker and die.
Valerie looked exhausted by then, looking half-ready to collapse. "I don't get it," she whispered. "What's he trying to do? There's nothing around to hurt him."
"No." An odd, hard line pained Dan's mouth. The disguised ghost looked almost betrayed. "It's not about him. He perceived me as a threat to you."
Valerie blushed a little, feeling awkward with the memory of how intimately Dan had touched her, and how even now, the very thought of it made her body ache for him. "You weren't hurting me."
"He doesn't know that." But it bothered Dan to imagine why Jax would exhibit any cognitive need to protect Valerie from him. His reaction seemed to indicate a learned behavior.
Valerie pressed her lips tightly together, feeling frustrated and embarrassed. "I told you we shouldn't have done anything," she complained. "He's probably scarred for life, and the other versions of us are gonna be pissed."
Dan looked down at the baby in Valerie's arms, and he murmured darkly, "Then let them be pissed. I have a feeling they scarred him first."
A/N: O_o
Well, the last few months have been one wild ride, ladies and gentlemen. My sister is getting a divorce because my brother-in-law has become quite the mean alcoholic, my job is literally killing me, my grandparents are hospitalized for sudden health problems, and my parents might be losing their job. I now live with my sister in a new location to help her pay bills, and my hair is falling out from all my stress. It took me two weeks just to get internet because the internet provider is an idiot. Oh, and my laptop keyboard is dying, which means the rest of my old laptop is probably not far behind. I can't even. I'm just waiting for something else to go wrong. (Although I did get a dog, so there's that.)
About the only stable things in my life right now are my 12-hour work shifts and my stories. So, in an attempt to find normalcy, here I am, writing incredibly odd/long Dark Gray updates such as this one. I hope you still all enjoyed it. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, so I'm totally up for ideas.
Please leave a review with your thoughts, questions, or ideas. Thanks!
