Family Ghosts

Disclaimer: If you recognize it then I don't own it.

A/N: For Whumptober 2023 #17 "You're the lump in my throat and the knot in my chest."

Touch Aversion | "Leave me alone."

Danny needed to get away. He had just gotten in from a trying battle of fighting off ghosts and just wanted food and sleep and his sister Jazz was fussing at him trying to get access to any hidden injuries. He brushed her off and headed downstairs. His parents were loudly fighting in the kitchen about who was at fault over a failed ghost experiment. Jazz seeing him wince at the noise of the fight, set her laser sights on stopping their parents from making an unstable environment for Danny's development or some other kind of psychobabble she liked to sprout out all the time supposedly on his behalf. Everything was just too much, all around him, the smells, sounds, and even his family were like a physical force crushing him. He had just come home but he couldn't stay. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think beyond the thought of escape. He just needed a minute away, a moment alone, then he would be fine again. First, he needed to make a clean getaway without anyone noticing that he was gone.

He had just settled into a quiet secluded area behind an overgrown bush he'd found in the park when he heard his sister coming after him. "Danny! Stop, come back."

What little peace he had gained in his short solitary moment shattered. He huddled tighter into himself, contorting his body into a ball of agony. He ignored his older sister calling out his name, refusing to turn towards her from where his head rested against his bent knees, as she finally found his hiding spot. "Just go away." He mumbled tiredly. He just wanted to eat and sleep, not hide out in the park and have an inevitable heart-to-heart with his sister.

"Danny, are you okay?" She sat next to him and touched his arm, trying to comfort him.

"Don't touch me." He hissed out, yanking his arm out of the crushing grasp. His skin felt like it was on fire at the slightest touch. His sister's grip was agony, even with her smaller more delicate hands he couldn't stand her light touch, any touch hurt.

She pulled back as if he had burned her. "Sorry," She apologized quietly, sounding sad, "I'm just trying to help."

"I don't need your help. I don't need help from anyone," He couldn't keep the rage from coloring his voice. He couldn't stand the hurt-kicked puppy sound in her voice, his guilt quickly turned to anger. He knew she was just trying to help, she always was, but he just wanted to be left alone and she always butted in where she wasn't wanted. She never respected his wishes, just assumed she knew what was best for him no matter what he thought about it.

"You can't ignore your issues, they won't just magically disappear if you do," Danny could detect a hint of anger in her voice as well as she rose to match her brother's energy. She tried to always act so grown up and tell Danny what to do but she was still a kid too. She didn't know everything, she wasn't perfect either even though she acted like she was.

"Worked for me so far."

"Oh yes, because you are just the picture of good mental health."

"I'm fine." Danny growled, "Leave me alone."

"Only on one condition, little brother."

"I think I'm going to regret this but whatever gets your annoying face to disappear faster. What condition?" He gritted out from behind clenched teeth. The sooner she said her peace the sooner she would leave. He just wanted to be alone. He didn't know why that was so hard for her to understand. She spent so much of her own time alone, reading, studying, or even exercising. She always seemed to enjoy it. Why couldn't she just give him one moment to himself?

"Hey! I'm not going to disappear just because nobody wants to listen to me."

"Welcome to my world," Danny grumbled. Even before he turned half ghost he felt kind of invisible. Jazz was smart and perfect, everybody loved her. She would always be seen.

"I just want you to listen to me for a second, really listen. I understand more than you could ever know about what you're going through. Not the ghost stuff, of course, but the rest of it." Her anger drained away as she got that soft sadness back, "You may not believe me but I've been through some rough patches too. Thinking I wasn't good enough and that I never would be enough. That nobody ever saw the real me. The world around me was just too much so I hid from it. I disappeared into literary worlds, to escape from it all."

"I'm fine," Danny persisted weakly. He'd never really thought about what kind of challenges his older sister might face. She never talked about her struggles, she always seemed so in control of her life. Could she really have had many of the same thoughts and insecurities he did?

"That's what I thought, too." She reached for him again and he let her rest her hand on his, it felt nice this time. "I love our parents, I really do, but I didn't really have anyone to provide me any guidance when I was younger so I had to grow up fast and figure it out on my own. That's why I get so crazy sometimes about being there for you. I never wanted you to feel alone and worthless like I did. I guess I didn't do a very good job at that."

"You always told me I could talk to you about anything, but who did you have to talk to?"

She shrugged, no longer meeting his eyes as she tried to hide the tears gathering in her own. "I thought if I just studied hard and did my best everything would be okay."

"Did that work?"

"Sometimes." She lost the battle against her tears as they slowly slid down her cheeks, "But this isn't about me, it's about you, Danny. How can I help you?"

Danny sat in stunned silence for a moment. Jazz had been so alone, at least he had Sam and Tucker to turn to, his sister didn't seem to have anyone. She struggled all by herself for so long that now she refused to leave her younger brother to the same fate. Even though his skin still prickled slightly he pulled her tight against his side into a bone-crushing desperate hug. She sat frozen in his grasp, hardly daring to breathe.

"What if from now on we help each other?"

"I'd like that," She hid her wet face in her brother's dark shirt as she let herself cry in the arms of someone who really saw her and cared about her struggles that she had kept so well hidden for such a long time.