Thanks again to everybody for reviewing and making me enjoy what I'm doing. I apologize if the author notes made the story hard to follow last time. I'll put stuff like that at the end from now on. Don't have much else to say today except for enjoy . . .
After hors d'oeuvres in the "sitting room" the group filed into the dining room. All in all Sam couldn't complain. It turned out that there were plenty of safe subjects for them to discuss. Sure they were lacking in any real substance, "nice curtains" and "odd weather we're having, aren't we?" and stuff like that, but they weren't causing arguments and that's what mattered.
Of course, there had been the awkward part when her parents tried to politely ask about how Danny was doing with his "job" as defender of the city from all things ghostly. But Danny had acted like it was no big deal and answered back just as politely.
Now all she had to do was hope nothing came up during dinner. Luckily, their dining room table was so unnecessarily huge that it was difficult for there to be just one conversation. Soon her mom had struck up a separate conversation with Maddie and her dad with Jack, so she and Danny were on their own. Just the way she liked it.
"So you never said what happened with Walker's guys," she suddenly said as she pushed her salad around on her plate. The dumb butterflies were still there, wreaking havoc so she wasn't very hungry. Danny looked up at her from across the table, then down at their parents chatting away at the other end of the table. He didn't like talking about fighting ghosts in front of her parents, no matter how much she insisted it didn't matter.
"Well, you know, just told them to stay outta town and quit bothering everybody," he replied casually.
Sam shot him her oh-please-you-know-that's-not-what-I-meant look.
Danny rolled his eyes. "Yes," he answered her unspoken question, "I used . . . force, you know." He was still sneaking glances at her parents.
"So they're in the thermos?" she pressed onward with the topic.
"They were, but I put them back in the ghost zone," he said, finally returning his full attention to his salad. He opened his mouth to stick in a bite, but that pesky blue mist trickled out instead.
"Smooth move," Walker's voice easily floated over every conversation in the room.
Sam's panicked eyes met Danny's. "Crud," they both said at the same time.
Everyone's attention turned to the stark white ghost in the pin-striped suit now standing at the head of the table, closest to Danny and Sam.
"You returned my officers to the ghost zone where they reported back to me that you would not come quietly," Walker continued in that funny condescending way he has of talking. He leaned over the table to get in Danny's face. "Now you'll come extra quietly cuz you'll be unconscious for the whole trip."
Danny was matching Walker's gaze with an equal amount of disdain, but he cocked his head to the side so he could see Sam.
"You may have been on to something with that whole 'Walker will come after you himself' thing," Danny said casually.
"Lucky guess," Sam couldn't help but join in his this-ghost-is-so-not-a-threat act, even though she was worried. The butterflies were doing cartwheels off the lining of her stomach.
Danny continued to look unimpressed. "Look Walker, I'd love to play cops and robbers with you, but I'm kinda in the middle of something important," he spat in Walker's face. He felt the eyes of everyone in the room on him. His parents still weren't used to seeing him sass ghosts and if it weren't for the fact that he had forbidden them from bringing ghost weapons to the dinner, they might have already been leaping into action at his side.
"Yah, I see," Walker purred, "dinner with the girlfriend's family, how nice. Too bad I DON'T CARE!" Before Danny could even think of transforming, Walker whipped out what looked like a soda can and popped the top. A thick pink gas billowed out and filled the room.
Then, everything went black.
Sorry, it's short but the last chapter was pretty long so it evens out. Plus I might post the 4th chapter later tonight. Oh, cops and robbers, that's an old game like hide 'n go seek I guess. I hope that reference wasn't too old. Anyways, hope you all are having as much fun as me!