Author's note: Thank you for the interest! I truly had no plans to continue this when I first decided to finish and turn it into a one-shot, but I also knew that there was potential to continue it which is why I offered the possibility. I got a very generous number of responses, so I decided to give it a go! However, this is different from my usual work because I will not be writing it in advance. This is something I've never done before, never thought I would do, but I am going to just write each part and upload as I get them done. For that reason, I won't have a regular upload schedule, and this fic certainly won't be very polished. I can't even guarantee that it will be good since I haven't planned it thoroughly. :b I hope it will be enough to appease all who are interested in seeing this continued. ^^
This resulting continuation is a gift for your kind reviews. Thank you!
(after being) Disparaged
Sunlight, and for a moment, everything was well and ordinary. The memory of what happened during the early hours of the morning returned quickly, but even with only a couple hours of sleep, Danny was able to reflect on it more coherently now.
He had tossed and turned for a long time, the bruise on his head and the injection site on his neck preventing him from getting comfortable, thoughts of what had happened refusing to let him sleep. Worry, doubt, mistrust, paranoia. What would happen now? Would his mother hate his ghostly identity more than ever? What if she trapped him like that again?
Was it time for him to finally tell her the truth? Or would that only give her the advantage she wanted to finally have him at her mercy?
Groggily, he swung his legs over the side of his bed and sat there for some time. So tired, so exhausted, but he had to somehow pull off this morning. He had to see his mother again at breakfast, and he absolutely had to keep it together so that she wouldn't be too suspicious and question him. He had done a very poor job of interacting with her just six hours earlier; he couldn't act like that again.
A shower sounded divine. He could surely just rinse all of this away, and then he'd be renewed, restored, and able to take on anything.
Heat far up. So much steam that he could see nothing. There was nothing beyond this cloud. Weightless and relaxed and—
The soreness in his arm. A powerfully dull ache that he could feel with each movement. From when Jazz had to—
Stop. Calm down. This felt good now, this soothing heat. Mollifying and softening and—
The bruise on the back of his head. He could feel it as he massaged shampoo into his hair. She had hit him with her ecto-gun. He could not recall what she had said when she hit him, but he knew it was in response to something he said first, something that made her—
Enough. Block it. Ignore it. Mask it. An invisible trip to the medicine cabinet in the kitchen since he still wasn't dressed. Eight hundred milligrams of ibuprofen.
Back in his room, he observed the injection sites on his arm and on the back of his neck. They had swelled considerably in the past few hours, large patches of deep red inflammation that were hot to the touch. He had to hide them, could not let his mother see them. He could not possibly explain them to her. It wasn't cool enough for him to get away with wearing a jacket, but a loose shirt with sleeves that stopped just above his elbows hid the site on his arm well. As for the one on the back of his neck, well, he would just have to pull at the front of his collar to keep it hidden whenever his mother was behind him.
He looked at himself in his mirror, practiced his smile. He did feel considerably better. He had simply been weak before, was actually now quite embarrassed by how poorly he had handled the situation just hours before. His head was clearer now, and he could do this. It would all be fine.
Downstairs, his family was already seated and enjoying breakfast. He was almost always the last one downstairs. Nothing suspicious about him being the last one this time either. He was off to a good, normal start.
Maddie placed a bowl of hot cereal before him. She seemed chipper as usual. Normal. Danny gave her his most genuine smile, and she smiled back.
So far, so good.
Normal breakfast conversation. Danny listened to the other members of his family talking. He was actually getting through this. He was actually pulling this—
"Danny? You've been quiet. You okay?" Maddie suddenly asked.
Danny froze. He had been so focused on everything being "normal" that he had forgotten that he usually joined in the morning conversations over breakfast. He had so far said absolutely nothing to anyone, not even a "good morning."
"Yes!" he said. Too enthusiastic. Reel it in. "Yeah, just fine. Just, um…tired."
"Well, you were up awfully late last night." A tease, a joke. Maddie was trying to relieve tension.
Danny didn't want to reply to this. He tried to chuckle, but it wouldn't come out. "Right, yeah," he finally managed with a forced smile. He didn't want to talk about it, had hoped that she wouldn't mention it. But did he really expect her to not bring it up?
Maddie became serious, but there was also discomfort and apology in her tone now. "We do need to discuss what happened last night. You know that, right?"
Danny nodded.
"But not now, of course," said Jack quickly.
"No, no. After school," confirmed Maddie. "We'll talk about it later this afternoon and decide where to go from there. Okay?"
"Yes," said Danny simply.
"That means no hanging out with Sam and Tucker. Come straight home."
"I understand."
Maddie looked at him curiously. "You do?"
Suspicion. He was blowing this.
"No fight at all?" Maddie leaned back in her chair thoughtfully.
Oh, right. He was usually not quite so compliant when he was in trouble. Like any regular teen, he would usually bicker, defend himself, or at least try to find a compromise.
But it was too late now. He would raise even more suspicion if he changed his reaction now.
She was so good at trapping him.
"I just recognize that what I did was irresponsible," said Danny. Wait, was that the right word? Irresponsible? Or was disrespectful the right word? Wait, what was he trying to describe again? What had been his excuse, the alibi he had invented? Temperature increasing, the heat from his injections traveling through him. Why was she looking at him so expectantly? Ah, because of the way he had ended his sentence with a slight rise in pitch, as if he had more to say. She was waiting for him to say more, but he had already lost his train of thought. Say something, say something! Anything! Well, not anything, but something that makes sense! Be normal! "And I really am sorry," he frantically blurted.
Maddie studied him, so intently that Danny was sure she could see right through him. She wasn't buying this. She was a genius, after all, certainly smarter than him. He could never fool her, couldn't possibly—
But then Maddie relinquished her stare and started clearing the table. Danny breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're being quite mature about this, Danny," said Maddie. "Thank you for that."
She ran an affectionate hand through his hair. Danny winced as she brushed his bruised area.
"What?" Maddie had noticed his reaction. Great. Why couldn't he get this right?
"What?" Danny echoed in an admittedly pitiful attempt to dismiss the issue.
"Is there something…?"
Maddie went to feel the back of his head again, but Danny quickly stood before she could get the chance.
"Do you want help with the dishes?" He grabbed his bowl and headed for the sink, moved away from her, pulled at the front of his collar to hide the puncture at the base of his neck.
"Danny, you're acting very strangely," said Maddie.
Danny kept his back to her so that she couldn't see his anxiety in his face. Damn it. How was he going to fix this?
"Mom, you're just going to make him more uncomfortable," Jazz finally piped up. "It's normal for a teen or even an adult to act differently when he knows he's in trouble. Just let him have his space until this afternoon, okay?"
Jazz was saving him, just as she had saved him before with the cancelling agent. Danny prayed that Maddie would accept the offered explanation. He was still at the sink rinsing the same dishes over and over, too afraid to turn around and see his mother holding yet another gun to his head.
"Jazz, could you please take Danny home with you today right after school?" Maddie finally asked.
"Sure thing," said Jazz.
And that was all, the end of that. He had failed miserably, but Jazz had given him a lifeline. He could redeem himself, could try again that afternoon.
In Jazz's car, Danny stared out the window as the scenery rushed by.
"How are you feeling?" asked Jazz.
"Drowsy," said Danny. "I wish I could go back to sleep."
"You know what I mean."
Danny looked at his sister. She only glanced at him before returning her eyes to the road.
"I'm fine."
"You don't seem fine."
"I need to stop thinking about it." Yes, that was it. He had to lock this away. He had to stop being so sensitive. "It wasn't really that big a deal anyway. I mean, honestly, it's not like she was actually trying to hurt me. I shouldn't be so shaken over this."
"Danny, that's dangerous," warned Jazz.
"What is?"
"It's not healthy to ignore it. You should allow yourself to process it."
"Jazz, I don't want your psychotherapy, okay?"
Jazz did not reply. Danny could sense that he had hurt her feelings. His tone had been more snappish than he intended.
"I'm sorry," said Danny quietly. "I really do appreciate what you've done for me." He kept his eyes forward. "But I just want to forget about it. I'll just take whatever punishment Mom and Dad give me, and then I can put all of this out of my mind and pretend it never happened."
"You know it can't be that simple."
He knew that. Of course he knew that.
But he would just have to take any resulting hurdles as they came.
(Satisfying so far for all of you who wanted more?)