Summary: Valerie deals with the aftermath of what happened at the police precinct.
Characters: Valerie, Kwan, and Elle
Written: May 2015
Note: This is set after chapter 56 of Spectacular Specter.

Chapter 56.5

Valerie was exhausted. Her friends dropped by to give their condolences, and to be honest, she was surprised to see some of the A List could take time away from obsessing about themselves to care about someone else. Paulina practically squeezed out every last ounce of oxygen from her lungs when she hugged Valerie. Star was tamer with her hug but still surprising since Valerie was certain the blonde cheerleader hated her. Dash merely gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. After hearing about the attack at the police precinct, they wanted to come check on her and see how she was doing. Valerie almost thought they would never leave.

Something warm touched her cheek, and Valerie jumped, sitting up a bit straighter in the plastic hospital chair. She looked up then breathed out a sigh, the tension melting out of her. "Thanks, Kwan," she said as she accepted the paper cup with warm coffee in it. Being from the hospital, she wasn't expecting it to be good, but she welcomed it after the long hours of being there.

Kwan sat down beside her with his own cup. "How are you doing?"

"Exhausted." Valerie sat back, leaning her head against the wall.

She wanted to put it all out of her mind, but she couldn't erase the memory of seeing her father crash through the wall of his office. How she was keeping things together and not simply breaking down, she wasn't sure. She wanted to cry her eyes out because being at the hospital reminded her too much of when she would come to visit her mother. Her father had always been the strong one, enveloping Valerie in his arms and letting her cry into his shoulder. Now, in the hospital bed, he looked smaller and more fragile, and Valerie hated seeing him like that. The doctor had to amputate his arm because the damage was too bad.

But now was the most painful part: the waiting. Her father was in a coma, and the doctors weren't sure when or if he would wake up again.

"They might not show it all the time, but I think they do care," Kwan said then took a sip from his coffee. From the way his face twisted, Valerie guessed it tasted poorly. "I'll try not to stay too long and exhaust you even further."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "You're okay." She smiled lightly before it faded away. "Hey, I-" She blinked when she saw the flash of someone at the door, but before she could see who it was, the person had ducked back out of the room. Then a knocked sounded at the doorway. "Come in?" Valerie said, her brow creasing as she and Kwan stared at the doorway.

"Sorry!" Elle stepped in, her cheeks a bright pink as she scratched at one cheek with a finger. "I was about to burst in here then realized that would be rude."

"Don't worry about it." Valerie shook her head as she stood. "Oh! This is my friend Kwan." She gestured to him as he got up and held out a hand to Elle.

"Nice to meet you," Elle greeted, shaking his hand. "I'm Elle."

Valerie leaned toward Kwan and put hand to the side of her mouth. "She's the daughter of Vlad Masters," she explained in a poor stage whisper.

"The attack was all over the news. My dad seemed pretty upset when he heard your dad was in the hospital." Elle chewed on her lip. "Is he going to be all right?"

"It's kind of a waiting game for now." Valerie frowned as she glanced to her father. "Hey," she turned to Elle and tapped her arm with a fist, "how is everything going with that thing you showed me?" It felt nice to have an excuse to turn the conversation away from her father's health. She couldn't do anything to help her father get better, and her frustration about that fact kept growing the more people asked about her father.

"I haven't really gotten the chance to talk with Danny yet," Elle admitted with a sigh.

"You know Danny Fenton?" Kwan's eyebrow rose in surprise.

"Yeah," Elle answered defensively, like she was preparing to fight anything bad the man might say about her friend.

"Hey, that's cool." Kwan held his hands up. "Danny's all right. I guess it's just surprising to hear about his friends outside of the other two."

"Well, there was that guy," Valerie reminded.

"Totally dating." Folding his arms, Kwan nodded firmly.

"Who exactly is this guy?" Elle folded her arms with a disapproving frown. "You mentioned him last time too."

Valerie shrugged. "Danny completely denies they're dating. And we aren't exactly friends, so I doubt he would tell us the guy's name if we asked."

Elle snapped her fingers. "I'll have to pester him about it next time I see him."

"Oh, hey!" Valerie grinned as she turned and poked at her friend's arm. "Kwan's pretty smart. Maybe he could help you out too."

"What exactly would I be helping with?" Kwan asked cautiously.

"Oh, it's nothing big." Elle shrugged. "My dad's just been obsessed with studying something lately, so I wanted to learn a little more about it. He always talks about me taking over the company one day, but then he has stuff he never tells me. He works on it in his private lab, so I don't think anyone at the company even knows what he's working on."

"Secret projects? Well, you've caught my attention." A friendly smile spread onto Kwan's face. He always enjoyed a mystery, and he was good at solving things.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that sometime."

"Yeah, anytime. I'll give you my number."

Elle nodded, and they got out their phones to exchange numbers. Afterward, she turned to Valerie. "I just wanted to stop by and checking on how you're doing. I don't want to be a bother though, so I should," she pointed toward the door with a thumb, "probably get out of your hair."

"You don't have to rush off." The other A Listers could be could be draining, though it did come as a shock that they didn't keep trying to turn the conversation back on themselves. But Elle seemed pretty down to earth and easy to talk to, so Valerie didn't mind if she stayed longer. For a little while, she could pretend her father wasn't in a coma.

Elle shook her head. "I kind of disappeared without saying anything to my dad, so I should probably get back before he decides that's an excuse to ground me or something."

"Oh, okay," Valerie responded, deflating a little.

"It was nice to meet you," Kwan said as they exchanged goodbyes. Then with a wave, Elle disappeared out the door. Kwan glanced at Valerie with a slight smirk curling upon his face. "You know the daughter of Vlad Masters?"

"We only met once," Valerie explained. "It was at the Christmas party. But you know, there is something I want you to help me with."

"Am I going to hate this?" Kwan frowned, already grimacing in preparation.

"It's about what happened to my dad." Valerie worried her lower lip for a moment before continuing. "I saw Phantom there."

Kwan stared at her for a good long moment. "You can't think that Phantom had anything to do with this."

"Do you have a better explanation?" Valerie snapped, her green eyes narrowing dangerously. "My dad flies through the wall and Phantom is standing there in the hole left by him. How else would you explain what happened?"

"I-" Conflict played in Kwan's aqua green eyes. "I don't know. But Phantom always tried to help people. No matter what that dumb newscaster says. Phantom's not a bad guy. And how would he even have done that? Phantom could drag something through a solid wall. But we've never heard of him blasting someone through a wall like what happened with your dad. It just doesn't sound like Phantom."

"Well, I need to find out answers. So are you going to help me with doing that or not?"

Kwan sighed in defeat. "All right. I'll help."

YumiStar: Vlad could probably use some parenting tips. D:

Tetractys: Dan and Skulker definitely do not like each other. XD

xXRainbowCleoXx: Two badass girls who are also adorable together? Sounds like good shipping material to me. 8D

Tetractys: Danny is usually never happy with anything Vlad does. XD;; Hm, Elle does have lots of insecurities. But she probably acted like Valerie and Danny and did her best to avoid talking with Spectra. The woman was just too pushy. XD;;