Mindless Behavior

Chapter Eight:

Johnny's POV:

After Danny left, I turned to Danielle, who was clinging to Youngblood and crying. Let me say it how it is; I'd never disliked Youngblood. He was annoying when he was being a child, but when he'd grow up, he'd really grown up. I figured he was good for Danielle and she was probably good for him.

At the moment, though, that was the least of my concern. The marks on Youngblood's neck were disappearing, but Danielle had a nice sized bruise forming on her arm.

"Danielle, sweetheart, let's get home, okay?" I said.

She nodded and looked up at Youngblood. "You can come, too," I said to him.

He nodded and the three of us went back to the lair. Kitty was waiting anxiously when we walked in. The first thing she noticed was the bruise on Danielle. "What happened?" she gasped.

"It's a long story and I'll explain later," I said. "Why don't you get some ice for the swelling?"

Kitty nodded and went to the kitchen, coming back with an icepack. She handed it to Danielle, who pressed it against her arm. She then grabbed my elbow and dragged me down the hall to our bedroom, shutting the door behind us.

"What happened?"

I sighed and explained what happened with Danny.

"Oh, my gosh," she said. "Do you know where he went?"

"No idea," I said.

"Johnny, we need to find him."

"I know, but you should have seen him Kitty. He completely flipped out on her and Youngblood."

"You still need to find him and talk to him."

"I'm going to let him calm down first," I said.

"That's probably a good idea," Kitty admitted.

"I'm going to go check on Danielle," I told her, walking out of the room.

In the living room, I found Danielle lying on the sofa. Youngblood stood next to her, stroking her hair. She was fast asleep. "I should probably go, but please have her call me whenever she can," Youngblood said, offering me his hand.

"Of course," I said, shaking his hand.

With that, he leaned down to kiss her forehead, then let himself out. I picked up the icepack that had slipped to the floor, then I covered Danielle with a blanket that had been draped over the back of the couch. I walked into the kitchen and put the icepack back into the freezer, startled when Kitty walked up behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist.

"Johnny, I'm really worried. I think you need to go check on him."

I sighed, "Alright. I'll try to go find him."

Kitty's POV:

After Johnny left, I went into the living room. Danielle was still asleep on the sofa. I sat down in the recliner and turned on the television, leaving the volume low. Johnny was still gone when Danielle woke up. She sat up and looked around drowsily.

"Where's Youngblood?" she asked.

"He went home," I told her gently.

She sat there for a moment, then everything seemed to come rushing back to her. "Where's my dad?"

"Johnny went to look for him."

"He's mad at me," she said, her eyes filling with tears.

"He isn't mad at you, Danielle, he's just upset."

"He pushed me down," she pointed out quietly.

"He was angry with the situation, not with you. That's all," I told her.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded, "Danny loves you, and nothing you could do would ever make him stop loving you."

She got up and walked over to hug me. I hugged her back, happy that she was finally back to being our little girl, like before.

Johnny's POV:

It took forever to find Danny. I had underestimated him; when he didn't want to be found, it was nearly impossible to find him. I finally found him on an island in the most vacant part of the zone. He was blasting chunks of rocks off the canyon walls.

"Danny!" I said, just loudly enough to get his attention. I didn't want to startle him and get myself blasted in the process.

He whipped around and glared at me. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Danny, calm down. I'm only here to talk to you."

"You want to talk?" he asked. "Let's talk about the fact that I completely lost control of myself. My eyes were red. I shoved Danielle hard enough that I left a bruise. I could have destroyed Youngblood."

"But you didn't," I pointed out.

"The only reason I didn't was because you pointed out that my eyes were red. Nothing else could have made me stop. I knew that I'd hurt Danielle, but I still couldn't stop myself. I'm dangerous, Johnny!"

"You need to control yourself better, but you aren't dangerous. You would have never hurt Danielle."

"You do not know that. And I did hurt her! I wasn't in control of anything I did. What if I hadn't of just shoved her, what if I'd blasted her? I don't know how I would have lived with myself. She's the most important thing in my world and I could have destroyed her in an instant without even caring." He eyes filled with tears, but he blinked them away. I was relieved to see that they were still his usual neon green.

"You just have to remember that when you get upset."

"How will I be able to?" he nearly whispered. "I had nothing in my mind but wanting to destroy Youngblood. And that didn't even help the situation. I still don't know what happened between the two of them and I'm still pissed about it." His eyes flashed red for only a second.

"Danny," I said warningly.

He took a deep breath, "I don't want Danielle to get hurt, Johnny. Not by me. Not by anyone. I don't want him to hurt her."

"I know Youngblood better than you, Danny. He wouldn't hurt her and I know he wouldn't let anything happen to her. He's a good kid. And Danielle swears that he only kissed her. That was it. Nothing happened between them. He may not always seem like it, but I know he respects you. Nearly everyone in here, myself included, respects you. And a lot us would never let anything happen to Danielle."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I know she was out of control for awhile there, but you've been entirely overprotective. It's okay to let her come in here on her own, it's okay to let her start school. It's okay to let her see Youngblood. There are a lot of us who wouldn't let anything happen to her, you know that. If you got worried, you could call me or Kitty and we'd be looking for her in a heartbeat."

He rubbed the back of his neck and sat down on a rock. "You're better at this," he said.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You're better at being a father, being her father. You didn't freak out on her and hurt her."

"You are her father, and everyone loses control sometimes. It's alright. You just need to control it."

"I'm afraid I'm turning into my alternate self."

"You're not," I assured him. "And Danielle is scared. She wants her father. You want to be a good father, don't you?"

He nodded, "Of course I do."

I continued, "Then you need to go talk to her and be there for her. She needs you."

"You're right," he agreed, standing up. "Let's go."

Danny's POV:

Johnny had a point and, even though a lot of the time I would never admit it, he was smarter than I gave him credit for.

When we got back to the lair, I walked in, finding Danielle and Kitty in the living room. Danielle looked up at me. I walked over to her and pulled her into my arms, sitting down with her on my lap. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart," I murmured, stroking her hair. "I'm sorry I hurt you and I'm sorry I scared you. I will never let that happen again."

I held onto her. I knew that, right now, I needed her way more than she needed me. I kissed the top of her head. "Can you forgive me?" I asked.

She looked up at me and nodded. "I love you, Daddy," she said.

"I love you, too," I told her. And with that, I knew that because of her, I was strong enough to continue being a hero, to continue being good and not evil. I knew that I loved her, more than anything else in my universe. As long as I had her, everything was going to be fine.

A/N: So sorry for the crappy ending. I've got three other stories I need to work on, but only one that has been posted so far. I'll be working on "Hurting You, Killing Me," next week, for those of you wondering. Until then, I'm going to work on a cross over of "Repo! The Genetic Opera" and "Danny Phantom." Thanks.

-Kelci Lynn