Ok everyone, here it is, the second last chapter of paying the price. This chapter is just kind of a filler, but i promise that next chapter Maddie and jack are going to get the chewing out they really deserve.
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny phantom, because if i did I'd make the animation less blocky styled and more realistic looking. Also, I'd fire Butch Hartman for writing that piece of shit he called a series finally.
Danny shot through the air at speeds that would make a Ferrari look like a snail. He had to get back to Danielle, she was his responsibility and he had let her fall into his parent's hands. Some father he was. Not that Dani knew Danny thought of himself as her father, even though he technically is.
Danny shook his head clear of those thoughts as the Fenton works building came into view. He flew down and phased though the front door, though the house, and down to the lab, not even bothering to return to human form as he frantically scanned the lab, praying that he wasn't too late to save her. Finally his eyes rested on a small cube of blue energy in the corner of the room with a tiny black and white bundle in it.
"Danielle," he said. Sprinting across the room and kneeling down beside the cube.
Danielle lifted her head slowly, like it was taking the most of her energy just to do that simple task. She saw him and smiled weakly at him. She looked awful to say the least, Danny could see burn marks all along her jumpsuit and mid drift, she had swollen bruises on her face, and she had a look in her eyes that Danny knew all too well, it was the look he had whenever he was in pain.
Guilt and anger tore through Danny. One part of him wanted to do nothing more than get Dani out of that cube and hold her in his lap, while the other part just wanted to go back to the park and completely incinerate his parents for being so prejudice to be able to doing this to a thirteen year old girl. He of course, chose to do what any sensible father figure would do.
"Don't worry Dani; I'll get you out of there." He said. Dani smiled weakly as Danny scrambled around the lab until he found the controls and flicked the switch off. Running to her side again, this time without the energy blocking him, he pulled Danielle into his lap.
"Water," It came out as barely a whisper, but Danny heard it loud and clear. He floated them up to the kitchen and placed her in one of the chairs by the table while he got out a glass and fixed her a drink.
He handed it to her and she drank it down greedily. "Ah, thanks Danny, my throat was killing me."
"What happened to you Dani?" Danny said, cutting straight to the point.
Danielle sighed as she put down her glass. "I figured you'd ask that, well I just decided to pop in for a visit is all." Danny's gaze didn't stray from her. "Ok, ok, your parents brought me here against my will, they took me back here and... and." She choked on the last few words, trying to suppress the sobs that were coming on.
"They tortured you." Danny's voice was soft on the outside, but on the inside pure rage was boiling in the pit of his stomach. Dani just nodded her head. She didn't trust her voice to speak right now without cracking horribly. "Well, you won't have to worry about them anymore; I'm going to make sure that they'll never even see you again." Danny said, wrapping his arms around his female counterpart. "Tell me what happened."
"Well," Dani said after a small moment of silence. "I was on the lower side of town, trying to see if I could steal some food for my next meal when your mom caught me. I bolted, but ended up running into your dad and getting a massive shock from this weird belt he was wearing."
"The spectre-deflector," He said out loud, unintentionally interrupting her.
"Ya, and when your mom made a grab for me, her spectre-deflector shocked me too, only she held out longer so it wasn't just a one second shock. When they heard me scream, they figured I was over shadowed and forced me into their R.V, brought me back here and decided that the best way to force the ghost out of me was to shock me with ecto-energy." Danny felt his Danielle cringe and shiver in fear as she recalled the painful things they had done to her.
"Don't worry Dani, I'll protect you." He said, tightening their embrace. "Keep going."
Danielle took in a shaky breath before continuing. "After a few shocks, the ecto-energy finally managed to endues my ghost half, but after that happened they saw your logo on my jump-suit and 'figured out'" Dani made sure to put extra emphasis on the falseness on 'figure out'. "That I'd converted some poor human girl's body into ecto-plasm and was overshadowing her. So then they stole some of my ecto-plasm and shocked me for another hour. It was so painful I couldn't stop screaming, even when my throat was raw, they locked me up in that cube thing and a few hours later you showed up to rescue me." Dani's tears ran down her cheeks.
Danielle turned around in her seat to see her original close to tears. She was about to say something, but he cut her off. "Oh god Dani, I'm so sorry, I should have been there to protect you."
"No, I'm sorry Danny; I shouldn't have come, but I just wanted to see you again so badly. I guess it was a stupid idea to come back here." Danielle hung her head low.
"It wasn't a stupid idea; in fact I was hoping you would visit soon. "Danny said. Danielle's head snapped up so fast, it was a miracle that she didn't get whiplash.
"Really," Dani's eyes were beginning to well up with tears again.
Danny laughed a little at how cute she looked. "Dani in case you haven't noticed: I care about a lot, in fact one day I was planning on finding you and bringing back here so you could live with me. That is, if you want to live with me." Tears started streaming down Danielle's cheeks all over again.
Danielle broke Danny's embrace and he thought he had stepped over the line, until Dani turned around and flung her arms around his neck. "Of course I'd want to live with you, you're the only family I have." She said, burying her head into the crook of his neck. "But how can I live with you, and not get discovered by your parent, because as dumb as Vlad said your dad was, your mom is still an expert ghost hunter."
"You just let me worry about that, why don't you go have a nice hot shower, it's probably been ages since you've had a proper wash." He said. She stuck out her tongue before running out of the kitchen. As soon as she was gone Danny reverted back to his human form and pulled out his cell phone, he needed to talk to Sam.
"Danny, where have you been? I was starting to get worried that your parents had actually caught you."
"Sam, I'm at my house, but there's a problem and I need some advice." Danny quickly explained what had happened between his parents and what Dani had told him. "I just don't think I can keep living with them, if they could put Danielle though torture like that just because they thought she was overshadowed, then how do you think they'd take the news that their son is a ghost?"
"I see your point."
"Ya, but the real problem is; where am I going to go? I can't rent out an apartment because I'm too young, maybe I can find some abandoned house that Dani and I could haunt." Danny said, thinking out loud.
"Um... well' Danny you could, that is, um... if you wanted to," Sam was very nervous about something.
"Sam calm down," Danny said. After a few deep breaths Sam continued, this time without tripping over her own words. .
"You both could come live with me, the mansion is defiantly big enough to hold both of you two and I'm rich so money won't be a problem."
"You're forgetting one tiny detail Sam, how are we possible going to convince your parents, who hate me by the way, to let me and Danielle stay at your house." There was a pause before Danny heard Sam sigh heavily from the other end. "Sam, is everything ok?"
"No," Sam replied. "Danny, there's something I need to tell you, just pack your stuff and head over to my house." And before Danny could say anything back, the phone went dead in his hand.
Danny was understandably concerned about his new girlfriend, she had sounded just a little bitter when she said she needed to tell him something. Deciding that he'd deal with whatever Sam wanted to tell him, he trudged upstairs and saw Danielle exiting the bathroom; her cheeks were still flushed red from the hot water and she was smiling dreamily.
"Enjoy your shower, my little princess?" he said in a teasing tone.
Dani quirked an eyebrow at her original, but smiled. "You're little princess?" She giggled. "You're such a dad." Danielle's stomach for an unknown reason, felt like it was tying itself into knots when she finished her sentence.
"W-well," Danny said a little quietly, his own stomach was going through something much worse than his clone's. Danielle watched her original and tilted her head to the side a bit, not understanding why he was acting nervous. Seeing this, Danny continued even more nervous than before, "Well a dad is a male who contributes to the D.N.A of another life form, so... ya." He said, not sure what else he could say.
"Oh," She said as her brain slowly connected the dots. Like her original, she wasn't sure what to say either. "So, then you really are my dad." Danny nodded shyly. Danielle stayed quiet while she processed the information. Did Danny think of her as a daughter? Did she think of him as a father? He always acted so overprotective whenever she was around. He loved her more than the fruit-loop ever had. There was only one way to find out. "So, um... what do I call you then?" She asked, her heart was beating so hard if sounded like thunder in her ears.
"Well, it's up to you, because I'm happy with whatever you're happy with." He said, kneeling in front of her and mustered up the best calm smile he could.
Dani was silent for what seemed like forever to Danny, but in one second he was on the floor with Danielle on top of him shouting daddy in his ears over and over again. Danny laughed and eventually managed to calm down his new daughter and for a minute they just lay there, enjoying each other's presence. It was Danny who eventually broke this comfortable silence.
"Well, let's get packing, shall we?" He pulled himself to his feet and then turned around to help his daughter up.
"Packing? What are you packing for?" She said, fallowing him as he began walking down the hall.
"We're leaving to find a new home." Was his only answer, making Danielle almost fall over in shock.
"What do you mean we're leaving to find a new home? This is your home; you can't just leave it, what about your parents? You can't just leave them either." Danielle shouted.
"Yes I can." He said, turning around. "They tortured you, a thirteen year old girl; just to get at a ghost they thought was overshadowing you. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let you live in a house that has dangerous ghost hunting weapons in it and prejudice bastards like Maddie and Jack." Danielle felt slightly unnerved by the fact that Danny had called his parents bastards and used their first names instead of mom and dad. "Now come on, I want to be out of here before they get back from the hospital."
"Hospital?" Dani said in horror, suddenly wondering what had happened before he had arrived to rescue her. Danny just looked at her with solemn eyes and bent down to kiss her forehead.
"Go into the shed that's around the back and look for a box that says: Jazz's old clothes. They should fit you nicely until we get you some proper clothes." And with that, Danny sent her off and hurried into his own room.
He opened up his closet and pulled out a few suitcases he always kept stashed in there, just in case he needed to leave in a hurry. His daughter came back up the stairs with the box of clothes. As quickly and neatly as possible, Danny unpacked the clothes and put them in the suitcase.
"Ok Danielle, now that that's done, do you have to go to the bathroom?"
Danny I'm thirteen, just because you're my dad now doesn't mean that I need you to baby me." She put her hands on her hips looking crossed.
"Alright then, go grab some movies, just in case we manage to get a D.V.D player in our new home." He said.
Danny grabbed the handles of two of his suitcases and brought them to the front steps. He left the door open as he went back to his room to get the other suitcase. When he got back he saw that Dani had already had a few movie's picked out, which just so happened to be Danny's favourite as well. He chuckled at how alike they were and grabbed the last suitcase. As he walked out onto the front step, he saw Jack was standing only a couple of feet away with an ecto-gun in hand.
"Danny," he herd Maddie say as she slowly climbed out of the R.V, wincing from the pain that her broken ribs gave her. "What's going on? What are you doing with all of those suitcases?" Danny only stared at the ghost hunters with a hard glare.
He turned back and called out. "Dani, hurry up, Maddie and Jack are here." He knew they would have questions, questions that he didn't want to answer.
"Coming" Dani's voice came from his room and not a second later his daughter was rushing down the staircase, but froze when she saw Maddie and Jack.
"Son, what's going on?" Jack repeated in a more demanding tone.
Danny glared at him, before replying. "I'm leaving,"
DUN DUN DUHHHHH!
(No clue what so ever if I spelt the right word or if I'm just making myself look like an ass)