Flight of the Albatross
1
"This is completely unfair," Danny Fenton said as he methodically shredded a piece of paper, letting it drop to the floor like so much confetti.
"It's better than military school, Danny."
"Not by much," he muttered and tossed the last few pieces of paper at one of his two best friends. He was currently perched on Sam Manson's bed—her parents were visiting their corporate offices in Chicago—and worrying over his parents' decision on how to 'reform' him. Somehow, everybody but his two best friends, and on occasion his sister Jazz, thought he was a troubled teen headed for jail.
None of them could know that it was far more likely that Danny wouldn't live to see his seventeenth birthday. Or that the odds of him winding up as a government experiment were even better. Danny wasn't going to wind up in jail. A lab rat, probably, but never jail.
"They think I'm a criminal," he muttered as he snatched up the brochure his mother had given him this morning as his father had told him that he wouldn't be attending Casper High for his junior year. The ultimatum that, if he didn't shape up, his senior year would be in military school stopped any and all protests from Danny.
But he hadn't stayed at home. No, he'd bolted, most likely only confirming their greatest fears: he was a hoodlum.
From the floor on the other side Tucker Foley popped his head up over the bed with a frown. "So are you actually going to go?"
Danny shrugged. "Do I have a choice?"
"You could always run away," Sam offered as she sat down on the bed next to him, tugging the brochure out of his hand and opening it up for a closer look.
Danny laughed at her, an unhappy sound, and she glanced up at him. "Running away is not an option."
"You did it when Freakshow outed you back in freshman year," Tucker pointed out and finally climbed up on the bed with a dusty box in hand. He promptly shoved it at Sam saying, "Next time, you get to dig under there yourself."
"Thanks," she said without her customary sarcasm. The box was old, almost falling apart, and she sat it on her lap gingerly as she opened it. She hadn't seen it since the summer Tucker had referred to, she had only vaguely told the two boys about it after the fact. But it was her emergency kit for Danny, in case he was ever exposed again.
Or in case his parents decided to send him to another country for boarding school.
"It'd be easier if I told them," Danny said on a sigh as he leaned over her shoulder, not noticing how red her face went as he poked a hand into the box and pulled out a couple of envelopes. Sealed envelopes, stuffed thick with whatever Sam had put inside.
"Are you going?" Tucker asked and took an envelope from Danny that had his name written on the front. It was Sam's small, neat handwriting, and he looked at her questioningly.
"Don't open them," she said to Tucker and Danny, both. "Those are for something specific. I just hope we never have to use those." She sighed at their questioning looks and snatched the envelopes back, tucking them back inside the box after she lifted out a smaller one from inside. This one she opened and pulled out a sleek silver cell phone and handed it to Danny.
"It's prepaid," she explained. "Anywhere, anytime, as long as you can pick up a signal. You have to keep in touch with us, you know?"
"You make it sound like I'm going to be on the other side of the world," Danny said softly as he took it, looking away from her quickly as her fingers brushed his.
"You are," she whispered back, snugly putting the lid back on the box.
"Yeah," Danny said darkly. "The bottom of the world."
Quietly Tucker took the box back from Sam and shoved it back under her bed where he'd found it. With a sigh he sat back down on the bed and took his turn examining the piece of paper that had led to the trouble. Ocean Academy, Ltd. Was emblazoned across the top of the first page, and underneath was a picture of a sailing ship cutting through whitecaps mid-ocean. In smaller print at the bottom was School Ships, and Tucker sighed as he flipped it open.
A bunch of bull, Tucker realized as he read it. Maybe not for other kids. Surely there were really some people who needed help, not punishment. But not Danny. At least not for the reasons his parents thought, because he certainly needed help sometimes. Usually medical help. He and Sam always patched Danny up after his ghost battles. That was the real irony of the whole damned situation. Danny's parents were sending him away for the things they saw.
If they had any idea about the things that they didn't see, they'd have tossed him inside a containment field that even Danny Phantom couldn't phase through.
"So maybe telling your parents would be a bad idea," Tucker said out loud as he realized Danny had already though of what would happen if Maddie and Jack Fenton found out the truth about their son. Danny muttered something in response, but it was low enough that Tucker couldn't understand it. Still, it did sound a lot like he was cursing. He probably was.
"Danny?" he asked very suddenly as he flipped to the last page, his eyes going wide. "You do realize this thing says you're going to be gone for ten months, right?"
Danny sighed in frustration. "Yeah. Long enough for Amity Park to turn into ground zero for a massive ghost invasion once they realize I'm gone." He flopped back across Sam's bed, one arm flung across his eyes. "I'm not going to have a home to come back to."
Sam poked him in the side, hard, and glared at him as he winced and moved his arm so that he could look at her. "Thanks a lot, I'm so grateful that you're concerned about your best friends."
"Sam, I didn't mean it like that." Danny sat up and reached a hand out to her, trying to apologize for what he'd said. She slapped his hand away and slid off the bed, pacing across the room to lean on the wall. "Sam," Danny said again, his tone more tired than anything else.
Tucker shot a glance at Sam and shook his head before sticking his nose back into the brochure. She was unhappy, upset. He knew why, at least. And if Danny would stop and think, he'd probably know why, too. Tucker sighed. Two years of hard matchmaking down the drain. If he couldn't understand where the Fenton's were coming from, he'd be angry about it. But he could, and all too easily.
He shook his head as Sam continued to ignore Danny and, he called his best friend ten different kinds of moron silently, Danny let her without an argument, just lying there on the bed. He wasn't that stupid. He couldn't be that stupid. He was going to be gone for almost a year! How could he be fighting with Sam right now?
And he choked on his thoughts as he looked on the back of the brochure where, in Maddie Fenton's neat handwriting, was Danny's class and flight info. "Danny, you're leaving tomorrow."
"What?" Sam's voice was sharp and high, and Tucker shot her a pitying look as he held the paper out to her outstretched hand. She looked at it and then back up at Danny, her eyes dark and shiny as the hurt slipped across her face before she locked it down behind her friendly mask. "You're leaving tomorrow and you didn't tell me?"
If Danny missed the 'me' part, Tucker didn't. No, Sam was still going strong for Danny, even when he was being an ass. That was something at least. Of course, Sam had confessed it all to Tucker after the end of freshman year, while Danny was taking his second summer vacation. With his family that time, instead of with them.
Danny was slower. Much slower. He'd only managed to tell Tucker that he liked Sam the last week of school. Which seemed like years before as he realized that Danny leaving the next day wasn't the only sucky thing about to happen. School started in two weeks. Life sucked.
"Here," Tucker said as he shoved the brochure back at Danny. He got up off the bed and grabbed his PDA where he had left it at Sam's desk. "I'm going to head out. I want to get some stuff done before you have to leave tomorrow. Do you think your parents would let us have a sleepover?"
The last question he directed at both of them, and Danny shrugged while Sam laughed a little. "My parents are out of town. They've been gone for a week. They're not due back until the end of the month."
"God, I wish I had your parents," Danny muttered. "Look, if they say no I'll just sneak out." He smiled widely. "It's not like they can stop me, and they're already sending me away to save me. What's the worst that can happen?"
"Haven't you learned not to say things like that?" Tucker asked. Danny shook his head. "Yeah, whatever. If something bad happens now, I'm blaming you. I'll be back later, alright?"
"Bring something that Sam won't eat?" Danny called after Tucker. He heard a vaguely affirmative reply before the front door slammed form downstairs, and Danny looked back at Sam with a frown. "I didn't want to upset you," he finally said, collapsing back down on her bed.
She followed him crawling up to her pillows and stretching out across them as she watched him where he lay. His eyes were closed and he looked tired. More than tired, she realized guiltily. The shadows under his eyes hinted darkly at bruises, and she wondered if he'd had a black eye or two when he'd woke up that morning.
"You're really going to go?" she asked quietly, wondering if she'd prefer for him to run, or for him to give in.
He rolled to his side, blue eyes dark as he stared back at her. Then he waggled the cell phone she'd given him in front of her. "I have to, Sam. I can't run, and I can't tell them."
"I know," she whispered. "But I don't have to like it."
"Neither do I," he agreed heartily. "Now all I have to do is figure out how to keep Amity Park safe."
Sam tossed a pillow at his head. "Tucker and I can handle it. Jazz'll help."
"Jazz is leaving for Harvard in a couple of weeks."
Sam growled in frustration. "I forgot about that. Btu Danny, seriously. Tucker and I can handle most of what comes through the portal right now. You know we can."
Danny reached out and grabbed her hand, flipping her wrist over and tracing a finger down the bruises that were livid across her pale skin. "You can handle it?" he asked seriously.
"That was Vlad," she protested.
"Yeah. That was Vlad." Danny's eyes darkened even more. Sam was right. Between her and Tucker, and the equipment they could get their hands on, they'd most likely be alright. But Vlad was a different story. "I think I need to pay Vlad a visit," he finally said.
"I don't think that's such a good idea," Sam said carefully. Vlad was a touchy subject with Danny, more so lately than ever before.
"Do you have a better one? Until I can find an alternative, I'm going to have to find a way to keep him in Wisconsin."
"It'll be dangerous," Sam said as she drew her wrist out of his hand.
"Probably. For him." The smile Danny shot her was anything but him.
---
"I tried talking them out of it," Jazz offered as Danny stuffed another pair of jeans into his duffel bag.
"I know."
"It's better than military school," she tried again.
"Already heard that argument, Jazz." Two more pairs of jeans and half a dozen t-shirts were dumped in.
"Danny, I just want to help."
"Then tell them I'm not a fucking criminal," he muttered as he yanked his sock drawer out of the dresser and dumped it into the duffel. He tried shoving it back into its runners and winced when he heard a cracking sound, thinking he'd torn one or both of them out of their places. He wasn't very relieved when he realized the runners were fine. Instead he'd been holding on to the wooden sides of the drawer hard enough to crack them.
"You need to be more careful," Jazz said quietly as she tugged the drawer from his hands and slid it carefully back in. "You can't do things like that down there. You're going to have to be really careful."
"I know, Jazz," Danny said tiredly. "I know. I'm going to be around a bunch of people who don't believe in ghosts, who think I'm two steps or less away from joining a gang, and would happily turn me over to the Guys in White if they even suspected the truth." He paused and thought for a moment. "I don't supposed they wouldn't turn me in if they didn't believe in ghosts?"
Jazz laughed softly. "I just don't want you to take any chances. You're going to be with these people for a long time."
"Right. Almost a year. Mom and Dad would rather get rid of me that try and understand."
Jazz sighed. He was so angry. It only got worse the closer it got to him having to leave. She could only imagine how he would be when he flew down to Florida the next afternoon with no one but their mom for company. She'd hoped, really hoped, that he wouldn't take it out on her. Verbally, she had no fear that he'd hurt her. Or anyone, for that matter, who didn't deserve it. But he was still so angry. And she said so.
"You have every right to be angry, Danny. But you have to remember, they're doing this because they love you. They don't know all the facts and they're making a sound decision on what they do know." It sounded a little stilted, even to Jazz, but it was the best she could do when Danny was in no mood to hear her defend their parents.
"It hurts, Jazz," Danny said as he zipped the duffel bag up, dropping it by his door and not looking at her. "It hurts that they'd think so badly of me. I haven't done anything for them to believe I'm like that."
"But they don't know that," she said gently. "All they see are bruises, bloody clothes. The grades, the skipping classes, the constant tardies. You're hardly ever at home anymore. They really do think that you're involved in something you shouldn't be."
"I am." His voice was amused as he turned back to her. "Do you really think they'd let me keep hunting if they knew?"
"I don't think they'd experiment on you," she said carefully.
"But they'd force me to leave the town unprotected. I can't live with that," he said as he raked a hand through his already messy black hair. "There's enough insanity here without all of these other problems that I take care of."
"Did you know that Mom and Dad have been going to seminars on how to deal with teenage gang members?" she asked, trying to make him understand why they were sending him away.
"I didn't know they had seminars for things like that," he replied absently as he stooped and unzipped the bag, digging out a picture and sitting it back on his desk. When Jazz looked at it curiously he shrugged. "I don't want to lose it or anything. If I'm spending the next ten months on the water, it'll happen."
"They think you're already in a gang."
"Jazz, the only gang that Amity Park has is the A-List. And there's no way in hell I could make it into that."
Jazz laughed. He was right, and she admitted it. "At least you still have your sense of humor, right?"
Danny shrugged. "I talked Mom into letting me stay at Sam's tonight. We're going to have a movie marathon. I think Tucker might be bringing something new."
"He really shouldn't be downloading those things from the internet. It's illegal," she said.
"Can you cover for me?" he asked suddenly, desperately.
"For what? Mom said you could go, right?" Danny nodded and Jazz narrowed her eyes at him. "You're up to something."
"I need to go see Uncle Vlad," and he snarled the name. "I don't want him popping up until I'm back. I need to make sure that he doesn't."
Jazz's mouth hung open, and she said helplessly, "I can't say no, can i?"
Danny shook his head. "You can't. I'll be back in a couple of hours." Without another word two silvery white rings encircled his waist and flew around him, leaving Amity Park's resident ghostly hero in Danny Fenton's place. White hair was combed back but a nervous gloved hand, and glowing green eyes looked at Jazz before he disappeared from sight.
Jazz sighed. He'd kill her if he knew she was the one who suggested the Ocean Academy. But it really was better than military school.
---
"I don't believe that he actually agreed to it," Sam said to Danny as she dropped down on the new and improved couch seating in her family's movie theater. She passed him the bucket of popcorn before swiveling her head to look over the back of it and glare at Tucker. "You'd better be getting your own popcorn," she threatened.
"How come Danny gets to share with you?" Tucker complained as he obediently grabbed another bucket and dumped freshly popped kernels into it.
"Because Danny doesn't smother his popcorn in bacon and cheese."
"But that's the best part!" Tucker explained as he proceeded to coat his popcorn in melted cheddar and crisp bacon bits.
Danny laughed as he popped a few kernels into his mouth. "No, Tucker. That only belongs on fries."
"You're both disgusting," Sam muttered and snagged a handful of popcorn for herself. "How'd you do it?"
"Do what?" Danny asked innocently.
"Danny," Sam warned him as she grabbed a throw pillow and proceeded to smack him in the head with it several times. "Tell me."
He mumbled something as he grabbed another handful of popcorn, shoved it into his mouth and chewed slowly while avoiding looking at Sam. Tucker hopped the back of the couch to slide into the empty space on the other side and shoved his doctored popcorn at Danny. Danny pushed it back with a wrinkle of his nose, and glanced at Sam quickly to see if she was still waiting for an answer.
She was, still staring and beginning to look worried. "Danny? What happened?"
"Nothing. I just talked him into staying away until I got back."
She raised an eyebrow at him. She knew he was lying. He knew he was lying. And the skeptical look on Tucker's face let Danny know that he knew that Danny was lying, too. Danny sighed. It wasn't right, having anyone, much less two anyone's, know him so well. He couldn't lie at all. Well, he could when it came to his feelings about Sam. But that wasn't lying, not technically. That was just very careful denial.
Of course, knowing about the denial made it into a lie. Sort of.
"I told him that if he came anywhere near Amity Park or my family and friends, I'd make him suffer," Danny finally said carefully. He reached for the remote to start the movie, but Sam snatched it away.
"What else?" she said pointedly.
Danny rolled his eyes. "He's alive. Half alive," he amended. "Leave it at that, okay?"
"What'd you do?" Tucker asked, green eyes wide.
Danny shrugged and stared into the bucket of popcorn on his lap. "I tried to ask him nicely. He tried t play his mental chess with me. I checkmated him."
"That isn't an answer," Sam said.
"It's one kind of answer," Danny said shortly. It was the only one he was willing to give. He didn't really want either of them to know what had happened when he'd appeared in Vlad's private lab via his own portal. It hadn't been pretty. In fact, it had been pretty painful. And not just physically.
"Alright," Sam said softly, suddenly afraid of what Danny would say if she pushed it. Tucker didn't ask again, either, and she knew that he felt the tension around Danny, too. Instead she just pressed play and dimmed the lights, then dropped the controller back onto the couch. But even then she could still feel Danny next to her, tense and unhappy, and couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about.
For his part Danny tried to relax, tried to enjoy the movie. But the confrontation with Vlad still weighed heavily on his mind. He didn't really like fighting, but after two years he was bound to improve. Vlad, however, was grown, his powers unchanging, and his strategies still the same. Mostly. He'd pulled something new this time, which was what had sent Danny over the edge.
Pick one, Daniel. You may choose which woman I stay away from. Your mother or Samantha. Your choice.
Even now it still made his blood pound in fury. It wasn't that Vlad had tried to weasel himself into a deal, that he had tried to force Danny to choose between his mother and his best friend. It wasn't even that he'd chosen his mother and Sam, though he might just as easily have said his mom or Jazz. It was that Vlad actually thought that Danny might choose his mother, as always, and try and use Sam as leverage.
But Danny knew that it wasn't that simple. It was that it had been Sam. Period. That Vlad had implied she would be in danger if Danny left Amity Park. And that wasn't something Danny was going to just let go. Not a chance in hell, and if he had his way Vlad would still be feeling the ectoburns Danny had given him well into the next year. Preferably until after Danny had returned, though he doubted he'd be that lucky.
Unknowingly Danny glowered at the screen, completely ignoring what was happening on it as he stayed inside his own thoughts. It had scared him for a moment, but once it was over and done with he couldn't have taken it back even if he'd wanted to. He had made sure that Vlad was alive. He'd even stayed long enough for Vlad to regain consciousness so that he could make Vlad swear to leave his friends and family alone.
But that had taken a long time. A long time in which Danny was faced with the evidence of what he'd done. I didn't kill him, he thought halfway desperately. He was alive. As alive as he was when I got there, and he'll heal. Besides, how many times has he hurt me? More than Danny could remember.
But he'd threatened Sam! Danny closed his eyes and took a deep breath, willing the tension to leave him. At least it had proven a point. That Danny did indeed care about Sam. She was much more than a friend. That was the only good thing about this whole mess; the confusion he'd felt for Sam for more than two years had finally been settled. If he wasn't in love with her, he still did love her, and he cared deeply.
And it was the worst time ever to finally figure it out.
He sighed and finally opened his eyes, letting them track on the action sequences on the screen. It would be wrong of him to tell her right now how he felt. It would be wrong for him to tell her when he was leaving the next day. No, later that day, he realized as he glanced at his watch and realized that it was nearly four in the morning.
They'd made it through two movies before Sam and Tucker had asked about Vlad. They were on the last one that Tucker had brought, and if they survived it they'd have to go to Sam's collection for a new one. But the way Tucker's eyes were beginning to glaze, he was probably going to fall asleep. And Sam wasn't too far behind, Danny realized with a smile as she leaned her head against the couch next to him, breathing very even and eyes only half open.
The remote was between them, and Danny shifted the popcorn to the table on the other side of Sam and moved the remote to the other side of himself. He couldn't tell her, not really. But he could do something.
While Sam was in the half world between sleeping and waking, Danny reached out between them and took her hand in his own. Her eyes slipped closed a little more and she smiled faintly, her fingers soft and smooth in his hand, tightening for a moment before letting go and being content to just sit there in his. No, he couldn't tell her. But he'd tell her when he got back.
There was no way he was going to let her slip through his fingers. He'd rather die.