~Chapter 19~
The next day at school was awkward. Normally Danny talked to Tucker about everything, but since Tucker didn't know much of what happened with Sam, it would be too hard to explain things. And worse, he would have to face Sam at lunch today, which was already coming up fast. To top that, he was tired. If Sam came, she would be tired. And sometimes she was moody when she was tired. He would be too tired to handle her if she decided to go off on someone...even if that someone was him.
"Danny? Hello?" Tucker said, snapping his fingers in front of his friend's face.
Broken from his trance, that halfa slowly looked up at him. "Hm?"
"What happened to you last night? You look horrible," he said.
"Mmm..." Danny yawned. "Just...you know. The government hates me."
"Why are they always so hard on you anyway? It's not like you're a criminal."
The halfbreed shrugged. "Mmm-mmm-mmm." The throat's equivalent of, "I don't know."
"Dude, are you okay?"
"Mmm-mmm-mmm..." Danny lowered his head to the table and no sooner than he did, the bell rang, signalling the much-dreaded lunchtime.
The bell helped wake him up, but the thought that Sam could be visiting was almost horrifying. It slapped him awake. Well, mostly awake. Part of his brain had shut down for the day and refused to start cranking its gears again. After everything that happened last night, things would get so tense... He wasn't sure he would be able to talk to her. Not because he didn't want to-okay part of him really, really didn't want to-but because she thought he looked at her scars instead of her. All he had ever seen was her, not some stupid injury. The only reason he cared so much about them back in her cutting days was because she was hurting herself and he was letting her. He needed to see the damage. But once she was admitted into Other Ways, he'd stopped worrying about them. Now he never even thought of them...except for last night, when she'd shown him her wrist.
He sat down but didn't eat. He could only watch the usual direction Sam came from. And his fear came true within a matter of minutes. There she was, not willing to let go of seeing her friend and boyfriend at lunch. Only, he wasn't sure if she wanted to see him right now, or Tucker. Tucker would make a lot more sense. He highly doubted either of them would want to face each other right now. It would be a very tense atmosphere...
"Hey, Sam!" Tucker greeted, waving at her. He had yet to know about the 'lover's quarrel', if that could qualify, last night.
Sam came up as usual, not saying a word until she sat down. She seemed to ignore Tucker's greeting and turned to Danny, nudging him gently with her elbow. He simply kept his eyes down and stared at his food, all the while listening closely to what was going on around him. Now came the tense atmosphere part of it. Neither of the two talked, and even Tucker seemed to be pulled into the awkward dimension they'd created.
It was Sam who finally broke the silence. "Danny..."
But he refused to answer, he didn't so much as look at her. He couldn't look at her. After last night, one wrong move on his part could tick her off. And after last night, one wrong move on her part could tick him off. Tucker was probably deciding it was best to stay out of whatever was going on, because he wasn't talking at all. Instead he looked nervously at them both, his eyes darting from one person to another.
"Danny," she tried again, only to receive the same response.
He turned his head slightly in the direction opposite of the goth.
"Come on, Danny," she pleaded. "Let's just talk about this."
This time it became fairly easy to talk, but still not easy to look at her. "Talk about what? There isn't much to say."
She put her hands up in defense. "You took it the wrong way, I-"
"Took it the wrong way?" he repeated, his eyes widening. "I took it the wrong way? How? How did I take it the wrong way? I mean, I never once looked at you that way!"
"You're overreacting," she said firmly. "I didn't mean it like that."
His head shot up. "Oh, I'm overreacting now?"
"You overreacted last night! You wouldn't even let me explain myself!"
"Because there's nothing to explain!" he countered. "I know you meant what you said, and no, I didn't 'take it the wrong way'! You don't think I got what you were trying to say? Because I did! And honestly, I think it's horrible that you would assume-"
"I didn't assume anything, Danny!" she retorted. "I-"
"Then why did you ask me that?! What happened to trusting me?! What happened to not doubting me?! I never looked at your body, I only ever looked at you! And you call me clueless!"
"Uhhh, I think I'll just leave you two alone for awhile," Tucker chuckled nervously, slowly backing away from the table.
Neither of them paid any attention.
"You know," Danny continued, "I never cared about your scars except for the time you were cutting. But after Other Ways... I mean, didn't you ever realize how I came to see you as often as I could? If all I cared about was your skin, I would never have kept visiting you like I did! I. Cared. About. You."
She groaned. "I know, I get that. B-"
"If you know then why'd you ask me something like that?! You told me, through that one question, that when I looked at you I only saw scars. Nothing more. And I don't see your scars, Sam! I mean, physically I do-"
"Wait a minute, physically? You physically see my scars. Not my eyes, not my hands, no! My scars! How lovely!" she yelled, throwing her hands up.
"You know what I mean," he growled. "Why would you think that about me, Sam?! Why would you think I'm some guy who only cares about appearances?!"
Her eyebrows furrowed. "So my looks aren't good enough? Nice, thanks for that little notice."
"Hey, don't turn this back on me! I'm not the one who sat there and said 'Even after everything we've been through together, I just wanna let you know that I think you still look at my scars!'! Why would you think that?! I'm not like that! I never have been! I never will be! And even after you saw my notebook, even after you saw all those drawings, how could you say that?!"
Before she could utter a single word, the halfa turned to look at her, straight in the eyes. He pulled one of her hands up. "Violet eyes. Soft hands." He let her hand go to gently wrap his arms around her neck, resting his forehead on hers. "Beautiful personality." He kissed her forehead and looked back down at her. "As well as a beautiful body."
She looked away, blushing. "You are still the biggest liar on the planet."
"Am I?" he asked. "Because in my eyes, it's telling the truth."
"Then your eyes are wrong."
He smiled. "Then could you check them?" His arms slid down from around her neck and repositioned themselves around her waist. "Listen, I've been meaning to tell you something for a long time now. Meet me after school, and make sure someone's willing to watch the twins for awhile."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because I let two babies roam the house all day long."
He kissed her forehead again and let his lips linger there for awhile before spotting a Mosquito. This time, though, he didn't mind them watching. Neither he or Sam was talking, so no information had a possibility of being revealed. Well...except one piece that he knew Sam would like him to give out. The Mosquito was near enough to hear this.
"You'll always be my dove. You know that, right?" he mumbled against her forehead.
She almost nodded but remembered Danny's lips still on her forehead and instead said, "I know."
"I'm going to start calling you that in public now. That okay?"
She closed her eyes. "Mmm-hmm."
This was how things were supposed to be. This was how things should've been when he came home last night. It should never have ended like it did. At least now he managed to work things out with Sam.
He pulled his head back and glared directly at the Mosquito. It was a girl, and they say it was only the female mosquitoes that sucked blood. So she must be one of the blood-suckers. No mosquito bites for her today, sorry. He still glared, only breaking his gaze when-and this was both surprising and unsurprising-Paulina walked up from behind the couple.
Sam growled in anger as she saw the girl. Danny's back was to her; he didn't know yet. However, when he heard the goth growl, he turned around. Lovely. Very lovely. However, looking back on their conversation from awhile back, he had only said not to speak to Sam like she did. He never said anything about staying away from anyone, and he never said she couldn't speak to Sam. So long as Paulina stayed in her place, she was tolerated.
The one good thing about all this was that Danny was the one controlling the situation. Sam let him do what he wanted with everyone, including herself. At home, she held power, but when situations like this arose, he was in charge and she would obey him. And that factor was good for Danny, since he knew how to handle these scenarios. He also needed to hold Sam back sometimes to make sure nothing physical happened. Because Sam had wrath. A lot of wrath. And she wasn't afraid to dish it out. Especially on people she hated. Especially on Paulina.
"Paulina," he greeted stiffly.
"Hello, Danny. Hello, Sam." She was obviously being careful, not wanting to arouse any problems with the halfa.
"You need to tell your groupies to stop spying on us," he said.
Sam gritted her teeth and clenched the side of his shirt, just like she had the last time this happened. It wasn't good for the Latina, considering Sam's distress triggered a kind of protective instinct in Danny. He assumed it had something to do with her actions and emotions after her first rape. He didn't want Sam to go through anything else, so...he got protective.
A look of discomfort took over Paulina's expression. She kept looking down at his shirt, right at his chest, and jerked back a little. She started biting her nails, which was something he'd never seen her do before.
"Hey, is something wrong?" Danny asked, becoming a little worried. Despite Sam's hatred for this girl, he knew something was wrong. He hoped Sam knew this too, otherwise she was going to lash out and start something.
Looking away, she weakly pointed to his chest. He absentmindedly rubbed a hand over it until he felt something wet. He gripped his shirt, forgetting that he had been cut with that scalpel. Apparently it went a lot deeper than he thought, because he had to force himself not to hiss in pain. He reluctantly looked down. This wasn't a cut. This was an open gash. Of course...the door had nearly slammed him down. It was so forceful and sudden that the scalpel almost slipped from his mouth. That must've been the precise time when it dug into him. Somewhere in that time frame, he had pushed the blade into himself and actually sliced it down his body. He was too focused on getting out of the rope that he didn't notice it at all. And when Sam pointed it out to him, he thought it was simply a cut. He didn't know it was this bad. He was a ghost at the time this happened so...there was a possibility that his blood could be mixed with ectoplasm.
He cast an 'oh crap' glance at Sam and she immediately relinquished his shirt, peering around him to see what the big deal was. She gasped when she saw his chest. He was still bleeding; he blood was still spreading across his clothing.
She grabbed him and pulled him away from the school. The movement was painful for him, she could tell, but there was no way he could go around school bleeding like this. A little blood was one thing; it could be passed off as a small injury. But this kind of bleeding was far too much to be passed off as a 'minor' or 'simple' injury. There was a gaping hole in him that they'd forgotten about last night, and now it had reopened. So...Paulina actually did something beneficial for once.
Once he was completely off campus, she asked how he could've missed that.
"I don't know!" he replied. "I didn't feel it until Paulina started getting upset."
The goth wanted to grimace at that she-devil's name, but refrained from doing so for Danny's sake. "We need to get you to the house fast. Do you have enough energy to fly us there? I can patch you up and we can pretend none of this ever happened."
He took a deep breath and nodded. "Just...no more peroxide..."
She rolled her eyes. "It needs to be cleaned one way or another. Now let's go before someone else sees you this way."
He nodded again and picked her up. With her all-clear, he transformed and lifted the both of them into the sky, where he quickly made his way back.
As he landed, the goth noticed that his black jumpsuit was leaking green. Ectoplasm. The more ectoplasm he bled, the more greenish his human blood would look.
"Change back, quick!" she ordered.
He did as told and let her drag him inside, effectively avoiding all family members.
First thing he said once he was inside and up in his room... "Please don't do this to me..." His tone was childish. He was begging her. His voice was soft. His hopes of getting pity from her were going to be shattered.
She took off his shirt and forced him to stay still. "Try to relax, it'll all be over soon."
He clutched the edge of his bed as he was whimpering, unwilling to go through this again. But still, he sat up straight, tried to oblige, and tried not to think of the horrid burning that was soon to befall him. He closed his eyes, still trying to look dignified. He didn't.
"Okay, Danny. This is just water. It's nice and cool, so it won't hurt."
Oh thank goodness...
"Please...don't use the peroxide..." he whispered to her.
"You're being such a baby right now," she muttered back as she took a damp cloth and held it on his wound. "I went through labor with twins and you're complaining over a little peroxide."
"I'm a male!" he countered. "I can't go through labor!"
"Exactly. It's the most painful thing I've ever experienced, now be quiet and just go with it."
He mumbled something incomprehensible to himself and made sure to keep his eyes shut tightly, attempting to brace himself for the sear of the forsaken peroxide and the demon of a cotton ball.
The damp cloth and its soothing coolness was removed...and it was soon to be replaced by pure evil.
He started to squirm a little as he heard the bottle of peroxide swish around.
"Wake the twins up and you're as good as dead," she warned.
Any second now...any...second...AAAAHHHH!
He tensed and involuntarily wiggled, slowly scooting away and making it harder for Sam to pour the stuff on his chest.
"Will you stop that?!" she hissed. "You act like I'm torturing you to death!"
He took a deep breath and shut his eyes. Thankfully none of the blood had clotted yet so the fibers of the cotton ball had nothing to cling to or tear off. But it was collecting peroxide and smearing it into the wound. IT HURT!
"Okay, this is where 'Baby Blue' comes into play. Stop. Moving," she said.
He tried to keep still but the cotton ball just kept going deeper...!
"Daniel!" she whisper-yelled.
He started grinding his teeth and tried to think of something else. His whole body was tense with the harsh burning sensation on his chest, but he was trying to revert back to 'Danny'. He didn't like being called his real name for a reason. He was just hoping she wouldn't use his middle name. That name meant 'I will kill you if you don't do what I say!' It wasn't exactly a good name. And thankfully it wasn't used very often anymore. But Sam was tired today, and it was probably best just to shut up and go with the flow.
"Okay. Good boy. I'm done," she said as though she'd accomplished some seemingly-impossible task. "Now go get a new shirt. Lunch shouldn't be over yet, so you still have time to get back to school before anyone notices."
He cracked one eye open, just to make sure she wasn't pulling his leg. She was putting that accursed bottle away as well as the bag of cotton balls. Oh sweet relief...
He got up, his injury no longer bleeding thanks to...when did she put on a bunch of bandages? He didn't even feel that. Well...no wonder she had him sitting upright. She wouldn't be able to put those on if he was laying down. A tiny splotch of red was showing through, but it wasn't spreading. He quickly went to his closet, remembering school, and fished out a new shirt. As he turned around, he tripped over something.
He didn't know what it was, and at first hardly cared what it was, until he turned around to put it back up.
A/N
HATE ME! GO ON, HATE ME FOR THIS CLIFFIE! *sigh* I am so evil, aren't I? :3 I hope you enjoyed this chapter though. And sorry I couldn't update sooner. I'm trying to help out a friend with her story. Anyhoo, don't wanna keep you waiting, so on with everything else!
Please DO NOT forget to vote on the polls. I am aware that only one poll at a time can be shown on my profile, so I will change them out every other day. For now it's on Poll 2, so please hurry and vote! I need an answer to take the lead because I have THREE TIES right now! If this isn't resolved soon, I'll have to make a new poll with only those three choices, and you guys will only be able to vote for one. So I'm begging you to vote!
New review thingermabobber shall be two hundred seventy-six (276).
Review replies:
Favorite Daughter of Hades- I did put both the polls up but apparently only one can be shown and voted for.
sammansonrepilica- I wanted to make a realistic scene, because I kept getting this nagging feeling that the whole thing was starting to decline. So I decided to try to stay with the storyline; it felt like it was veering off. Also, I did throw in some time skips because I can't count down every single day of the twins' lives, and I refer to them as toddlers because they can walk now and can respond to questions with a 'yes' and 'no'. So I viewed them as both babies and toddlers, like something in between.
TheNinjaKitty13- lol I didn't mea for that line to be funny but I'm glad you liked it. XP Yeah, no one saw the fight coming. ;3 Yahoo! My story rocks! :D
I'm. Only. Human. Dude- She doesn't think that, she was asking if he ever forgave her but it didn't come out the right way. But yeah, I agree, they would definitely not be together if that was all he saw.
HeroAce- XD You have a weird sense of collector's items, huh? Like...I dunno, government agent glasses? lol Yeah, you felt right then. I mean, no one can have a fight like that and not feel weird about it the next day.
Looka'sMagicHell- lol If only there were such things as chill pills. Well, it's more like Danny's mad at Sam. They love each other but that doesn't mean things like this won't happen, where one of them gets angry at the other for whatever reason.
ChristinCC- Action...? What kind of action? (just to clarify a suspicion I have)
Inuyuke- Oh it's fine. Sorry for updating late. XD Geez, poor Danny!
PlasticPencils- Yeah, you voted. By the way, YOU caused the ties from your votes and I couldn't believe it. Of all people, my best friend...!
Thunber- That's fine. I can't say WHEN these polls' answers will appear, that'd be against the story code. But I'll make sure I take into account that there is another vote for 'yes'.
I would like to announce that one of the three tie options is TRIPLETS. XD You guys are so mean! I mean, poor Sam here, she's just like... Seriously, I didn't think that option would get so many votes! However, I don't want bias, so any polls I put up are blind. I just wanted to say this thing about the triplets because I still can't believe it! lol!