Okay, so I'm finding another 3-4 Chapters is a good way to go, but I'm not entirely sure since Sam is nearly 3 months into her pregnancy and I don't want to rush it too much. I already know what to do to end this story I just don't want to rush it and make it seem like I'm just getting this out of the way so I can do other things.
I want to end this story, but not with a rush but with a nice, smooth climax. And I don't think 3-4 Chapters will do. Let's just say I plan to have this story completed before it hits 35 Chapters ;)
So anyways, thanks for your continuous feedback and on with Chapter 27 of Forgetful Love! ^^
DP (C) Butch Hartman
It was evening, Maddie had called Danny down to dinner several times that it took her around 10 minutes of calling out to him for her to go upstairs and see what was going on. When she walked in she saw Danny lying on his bed facing away from the door, she wanted to inspect him to see if he was asleep, but signs of him moving around proved that he was awake.
She felt as if something had been bothering him, she had an idea of what it was but knew what to say if that issue were to arise, just in case of that situation, she called Jack upstairs. She heard a load moan from her husband due to the fact that it was dinner time and he was in the middle of eating but not long later he was joined with Maddie at the frame of the door of Danny's bedroom.
"Son, what is it?" Jack asked, resting a hand on Maddie's shoulder.
They both heard a loud sigh come from Danny, they were concerned and worried for why he was acting this way, but in the back of their heads they had a firm grip of the situation if it were to get out of hand. He rolled over to see his parents standing at the edge of his doorway. He had a lot of time to think about this but to him he thought it wasn't enough.
"We need to talk." He stated simply, to keep his thoughts running and figure out exactly what he was going to say.
Maddie and Jack looked at each other in worry before they both approached Danny still lying on his bed facing away from them. Danny turned to see that Maddie had made herself comfortable on his bed and was going to lay a hand on his back but then he turned so that he was facing the ceiling.
"What is it dear?" Maddie asked, leaning in closer to him.
He sighed once again, and then sat up while looking down at himself. "Look, you guys know that I've made a huge mistake, right?" He asked, looking up slightly.
The firmness in their minds took control over what Maddie and Jack would say next, as what Danny just said made them both automatically feel strict, protective, and firm.
"Yes, and we agreed that you're never ever allowed to see her again. I don't care if you two were best friends, and I don't even care that you were in a relationship. But doing that to her is crossing the line." Jack explained, standing over his son with his arms crossed.
"Your father's right, Danny. We all know accidents happen but this was a big one that we don't want to see from you or anyone else in this family ever again." Maddie implied, resting a hand on one of Danny's shoulders and looking straight into his baby blue eyes.
Danny brushed his mother's hand off his shoulder as he proceeded to get off his bed with an expression of frustration.
"You just don't get it do you? I'm eighteen! I should be able to make my own decisions!"
Jack narrowed his eyebrows; he didn't appreciate this sort of attitude from Danny. "Son, you need to know that you live under our roof for a reason. That reason is to look after you and be wary of the decisions you make."
"Exactly, and I know that you can leave but we're not providing you with any funds to do so. And I am certainly not accepting Sam's money for you to move out!" Maddie stated firmly, getting off the bed to approach her son.
Danny grunted and ruffled his hands through his hair in anger and frustration, his parents were just not seeing the point he was trying to get across.
"Look, accidents happen! We can't stop them from happening, and you should know that not all accidents have bad consequences in the end!" Danny explained, shouting in anger.
Both Jack and Maddie knew that Danny was right, but still on firm ground, they responded aggressively, giving further points to support their side of the argument.
"Making those sort of accidents in your life does not qualify you to leave this house and live your own life! You need to learn from them and make things better." Maddie exclaimed with hand gestures.
"Forget about Sam, her family has enough money to let that kid be in their own mansion. You don't have to support her, find someone new or something else to do in your time."
"How about pursuing your career as an astronaut?" Maddie suggested, pointing to one of the posters on the wall of the space shuttle.
Danny looked up at the poster, knowing that his grades were nowhere near as good enough to get him into anything like that; he closed his eyes in regret for not being able to get the grades he wanted due to all his ghost fighting. It made him question if he was going to end up like a bus boy. He knew ghost fighting wasn't going to earn him money and he certainly wouldn't risk his reputation to do so.
"That's not going to happen; I may as well just do nothing with my life. That's how I hear what you're explaining to me." He replied, feeling heavier inside.
He felt like his parents were controlling his life when he knew that they couldn't with everything they didn't know about him. This made him feel conflicted inside, unsure of whether to tell them about his ghost powers, but then surges of worry and the most likely outcome of that happening played with his mind and made him close his eyes tightly in frustration.
"Danny, we're only doing what is best for you. And we both know that you can do better than this." Maddie explained, in a more sincere tone.
"Why can't you be more like Jazz? That's why we let her go because we trusted her with the decisions she made in life." Jack added, wishing that his son would be successful just like Jazz was.
This made Danny feel angrier towards his parents, with the words Jack just said made Danny feel like they didn't trust him to make his own choices. Danny glared at his parents before storming over to his window and wanting to just leave and forget everything that's happened, but something stopped him. He didn't know what was stopping him, but he turned around and faced the truth.
"You don't trust me to make my own decisions?" He asked, already knowing it was true.
Maddie realised what Jack had just said, it seemed to her that Danny took it as them not trusting him anymore after what he has done. Although this was true, she never did want to tell him that reason.
"We're not saying that, we're saying that you should be more careful with your decisions." She explained, giving a guilty but yet sincere expression.
"Do you think it was my decision to knock Sam up? Do you think I wanted that to happen!?" He shouted, pointing out towards the window.
Maddie and Jack looked at each other, realising that Danny never wanted for Sam to have a child but yet he was on the opposite side of disagreement than they and Sam's parents were. It confused them, and made them raise questions as to why Danny thought this way.
"Well, it seemed like it. And why are you against this? You seemed happy earlier to have a child with Sam." Maddie stated, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
Danny sighed in frustration, pacing back and forth in confusion and the strong sense of conflict within his own mind.
"I do want to have children with her! It's just that the timing is all wrong! And I do regret knocking her up but now I support her because we're both now grown adults ready to make our own decisions!" Danny explained in deep emotion, hoping that those words would get through to them.
Maddie gave a saddened expression as she saw the pain in her son's eyes. She could tell that he never intended this to happen but it did and now he has accepted what has happened and continues to support. Unfortunately, her firm accusations stood their ground.
"Then why did you do it in the first place!?"
"Especially that it was under my roof!" Jack added, pointing towards the ceiling.
Danny buried his face in his hands for a moment, wanting to shut down and forget everything. "Can't you two just understand that accidents happen and that you can't avoid them? All you can do is learn from them and support them if you have to so that you can turn those accidents into something positive." He explained, lowering his tone in voice, giving a more sincere and sympathetic expression.
There was no reply, they thought long and hard about what Danny had just explained to them. It was true what he said; the only true way to avoid accidents it to learn and understand them, even support them to make things better.
A loud sigh came from Maddie, as she began to feel guilty and regretful for what she said to Danny. It seemed to her that Danny had made a wrong decision which lead to an accident but now he was supporting that accident to turn it into something positive.
"Jack...I think he has a point."
"A very strong one indeed, Maddie." Jack agreed, looking saddened and guilty for what he said.
Danny's eyes slightly widened in surprise; had he gotten through to them? He thought. From the sincere expressions and from what they just said to each other, it appeared so. He waited for a response, he watched his parents as they turned towards him slowly with their heads hanging low for a small moment before looking up at Danny.
"Come down for dinner, sweetie. We can talk more about this downstairs." Maddie suggested, gesturing towards the door with a gentle smile.
He felt confused, he wasn't sure now whether he had gotten though to them or not. So he decided to go downstairs and have dinner with them while discussing the rest of the situation.
There was a long moment of silence as they ate their still slightly warm food, but with Maddie constantly looking over at Danny in deep thought of what she and Jack should do about him now distracted Danny and made him grow frustrated and confused as to whether why they hadn't said anything.
"I thought we were finishing this off." Danny implied, after swallowing a mouthful of his dinner and resting the fork on the edge of the plate.
Jack was near the end of his meal, not wanting it to get any colder; he held a finger up indicating that he needed just a little more time to finish his food before he would get into any explanation. Maddie sighed, knowing that she would be the dominant one in this side of the situation.
"We understand you, Danny. We all make accidents happen, and there's nothing we can do to stop them." She explained.
There was a short pause, and then Danny replied. "So...? What does that mean for me then?" He asked, before taking another forkful of food.
Maddie waited for Jack to finish eating so they could make the decision together. As soon as Jack had finished eating, he and Maddie whispered a few things to each other while Danny was excused from the quiet conversation by continuing to finish his meal.
After a few whispers that were very hard for Danny to make out, Maddie cleared her throat indicating that she wanted Danny's attention.
"You can still see Sam and you can move out." Maddie stated simply, with her arms folded over the table in front of her plate.
Danny felt a smile creeping over his face, he couldn't believe what he was hearing, but he smile began to fade as soon as Jack said the word 'but'.
"But you can move out as soon as you are at least working part time and know exactly what you're going to be doing with your life as well as Sam's." Jack added, pointing a finger at him firmly.
He took it as a good enough for now answer to his problem, his smile returned with a sense of happiness returning too. Danny was so glad that his parents understood him now, but knew that he wasn't totally off the hook just yet. He knew that it would take some time for him to find a part time job to give him some money, but he knew that planning out his future with Sam was going to turn out great in the end.
About a week later, Danny, Tucker and Sam had met up several times to help Danny look for a suitable job that could help pay the house he would rent. Sam had suggested that she pay most of it, being eighteen she is allowed to access as much money as she wanted from her parents. Tucker suggested that he stay with him in his college dorm, all Danny had to do was wait until Tucker was in college.
"Now I appreciate your help Tuck, but I want to be around Sam and the kids from the very beginning till the end. So I want to find a place with her that is money manageable for the both of us." Danny implied, cuddling Sam closer and rubbing her stomach, making her cuddle up to him even closer.
"I know you do, but I just don't think a part time job is going to be enough. You should just let Sam pay for everything." He suggested.
"I don't want Sam doing all the work." Danny stated, looking over to her. "She's doing enough work already."
This made Sam's heart melt, she loved that Danny wanted to keep the responsibilities even, but mostly outweighed on him because of how much he cared for her. At the moment he wasn't outweighing his responsibilities, so she found it very sweet for Danny to take the share of responsibility for her, especially when she was carrying two unborn children of his inside her.
Tucker hummed to himself in thought of how else Danny could earn extra money to not have Sam pay as much as everything. "How about you use your ghost powers to get money?"
Danny and Sam glared at Tucker, thinking that he meant stealing. Tucker quickly realised what he just said and corrected himself.
"I mean uh... you know...selling merchandise of yourself? Having people come up to you for a hug or something but they have to pay?" He suggested, feeling guilty about what he said before.
Danny thought about it for a moment, he felt like using his ghostly heroic status for money was wrong and the cheap way out of it. So giving a negative look on his suggestion, he shook his head.
"Sorry Tucker, but I think I'll stick with a part time job for now."
The three of them looked through several newspapers, and knowing all too well that Danny didn't want to work at the Nasty Burger in fear that he would get bullied again, he decided to expand on where he could work. He even considered outside of Amity Park if that were the case.
"Outside of town?" Sam asked, once Danny mentioned it to them.
"Yeah, I mean I could just fly there and then turn human again before going in." Danny explained, assuring them that his secret identity would be kept safe.
"I know but, I'd rather you stay in town where you're closer to us." Sam said, giving a saddened look, not wanting him to have to leave town several days a week just to pay the rent.
Danny sighed, knowing Sam would say something like that. He just wanted a part time job that would pay him enough to get through the week. He didn't want Sam to pitch in her money as well to pay things; he wanted to do all he could to pay for everything as much as he could.
"You're right. I guess I'll just take a job in that electrical store a few blocks away from my house." He answered, pointing down the road towards the electrical store.
"You could do that, I might be able to get discounts whenever I come." Tucker said with a smile of glee.
"No, Tuck. I'd get fired for that." Danny replied with a smirk.
So, Danny decided to take the job at the electrical store. He had an interview with them and at first he grew extremely worried, but then he got the job due to his great knowledge in electrical equipment from his parents' ghost hunting gadgets.
This had carried on for many weeks; it was well into Sam's fourth month of pregnancy that she began to show. And Danny and Sam had decided to now look for a house together.
Had a little trouble budging this chapter out, at first I didn't know what to write about beyond Danny's argument with his parents but I figured it out in the end. ^^ So, I still don't know how many more chapters to go till the end but it should be less than 5 at this point. I don't want to stretch it out too much that it becomes boring.
So, next Chapter seems to be all about Danny and Sam finding a house. But remember, both Danny's and Sam's parents haven't agreed to everything now have they? Find out soon in Chapter 28! :D