6/27/24. This chapter contains one of the moments we've all been waiting for.
I have also officially started posting this story! (You can now see where I was and what I've been writing since I started posting)
3,000 hits! Wooo! Though I do wish there was a few more reviews so I could determine if people actually like this story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom! I do own a really awesome Ram 1500 EcoDiesel LOL. It's my 'mom' vehicle.
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Chapter 20: I Didn't Need it, it Needed Me
–
It was mid morning when the group found themselves at the park sitting at a picnic table. Danny was next to Sam with Jazz and Tucker across from them. DJ had been left at the hotel.
Jazz had called Jack and Maddie late last night to discuss meeting with them.
Danny's leg was bouncing in anticipation and nervousness. He couldn't believe they were here already. He pulled off his sunglasses and ran a hand down his face, accidentally partially dislodging his ball cap, before fixing it back in place.
The others were engaged in lighthearted conversation, trying to get Danny involved to help ease his anxiety. He occasionally responded, but he couldn't join in with their laughter.
Danny couldn't even describe how nervous he was. He was only just getting used to seeing black bangs instead of white, and now he was suddenly thrust headfirst into a meeting he didn't think he'd get. He felt selfish. He shouldn't be doing this. He could be signing his parents death certificates.
He began to breathe heavily. He felt a hand on his arm hold him in place, Sam instinctively knowing the half ghost was about to bolt. "I-I can't do this," he stuttered.
Jazz, sitting across from him, ran a hand over his forehead, moving his forever unruly bangs to the side under the hat. "You have to, Danny. For their sake."
His breaths did not calm. His piercing sapphire blue eyes met hers. "For their sake?" he started. "I could be killing them."
Tucker exchanged glances with Jazz. "We know. And without telling them why they're coming, we expressed that doing so would be very dangerous for them."
Danny's shocked expression met Tucker's gaze at his words. "You told them?"
"We already discussed this; we didn't tell them about you," Sam clarified next to him, giving his arm a squeeze. "Only that what they would find could put them in serious danger, and only to come if they feel it's worth it."
Danny groaned. "What about Chase?"
Jazz's teal eyes teared up a bit. "That ship has sailed, Danny. He was in danger the moment we went to Beijing, we just didn't know it then. Our parents left him with Tucker's family until this is all resolved. But we'll still get to see him like we did yesterday."
His breaths came faster, his skin going cold and clammy. "I should've left you guys a while ago. No, I should've never come to you in that hotel. You all could die because of me," his pleading eyes met his sister's sad ones. "Your son shouldn't grow up without parents."
This time, Jazz took a hold of her brother's hand. "We have complete faith in you. You won't let anything happen to us."
He shook off her hand, leaning back, anger starting to override his fear. "I can't promise that. Don't put that on me," his deep voice growled. "This isn't hunting some third rate ghost. This is a paramilitary group with special ops training that won't stop unless they're dead."
Sam sighed. "Then why did you agree to this in the first place?"
"Because I'm selfish," he answered. "And I'm a horrible person for that." He sank lower in his seat.
Tucker opened his mouth to interject his own opinion when he heard their names being called. He looked over Danny and Sam's shoulder to see the Fenton's walking over, decked out in full hazmat suits, weapons belts full and ready.
Their voices made Danny freeze. He squeezed his eyes shut, now regretting ever coming, but it was too late to back out now.
Jazz, Sam and Tucker stood from the picnic table, waving and smiling wide. "Mom! Dad!" Jazz said excitedly.
"Oh my goodness, you guys, look at you!" Maddie said enthusiastically, giving each a hug in turn. "It's so good to see you!"
There was a chorus of "You, too!"
Jack clapped Tucker on the back, causing the dark-skinned young man to cough. "How was the business trip?"
Tucker cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah…about that…"
They continued exchanging pleasantries while Danny was unable to move from his spot. His heart ached with wanting to see them, and fear at seeing them. He wanted so bad to envelope them in a hug, but also to run. The conflict within him burned his very soul with indecision. Then he felt a light pat, Sam's hand on his arm, in an attempt to get him to stand.
He swallowed hard, balling his fists, before opening his eyes and charging ahead, standing and sliding out from the bench. He pulled his hat off and slowly turned around.
His heart nearly stopped at seeing his parents. They looked relatively the same, aside from his father having a little more gray. Sadness, elation, fear and love all crawled their way around his insides, as if they were adjoining fingers on a hand, and that hand was creeping its way around his intestines in a desperate bid to grip his heart.
The pleasantries died down and Maddie took notice of the very tall man standing a little behind Jazz, Sam and Tucker. "Oh! Who's your frie…" she trailed off.
The man was tall and muscular, with broad shoulders, a beard and a strongly defined jawline. But what caught her attention were those clear blue eyes and unruly black hair. Her heart leapt to her throat and she bit back a sob, hand coming to her mouth.
Jack placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maddie?"
The dam finally broke loose. "My boy…my baby boy," she said before running to her son and wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, barely able to reach him on her tip-toes.
Danny wasn't sure what to do at first. He wasn't sure they would recognize him as he had changed a lot in four years. But as he felt his mother's warm embrace and tears soaking his shirt, he felt his own tears begin to fall, and he leaned down, fully enveloping his mother with his strong arms.
Jack stepped forward. "Danny? Is that you, Danny-boy?"
When his son's watery eyes locked with his, Jack knew the answer and he joined the pair, wrapping an arm around his wife and one around his son. The trio stayed locked in that embrace for several minutes, hot tears spilling down their cheeks, each unable to form words.
Jazz, Sam and Tucker watched from the sidelines, tears falling down their own cheeks at the reunion. They knew it would be hard for Danny–putting his parents in danger–but they also knew this was what he needed most.
–
The six were all piled in on the benches of the picnic table, Danny between his parents, with Jazz, Sam and Tucker across from them. Maddie had yet to let go of her youngest child, arm still latched onto his.
"Never thought I'd see the day you were taller than me, kiddo. And that voice," Jack whistled. "My small teen son is suddenly a man!" he said with a hint of pride.
Danny chuckled lightly, hand covering his mother's. "The voice takes some getting used to," he said in his deep baritone.
Maddie couldn't keep the adoring look off her face. Her baby boy was really here and alive. She sniffed back more tears before turning to her daughter and son-in-law. "Was this the business trip you mentioned?"
Tucker smiled sheepishly. "Yeah. I didn't want to get your hopes up in case it wasn't him, so we just said it was a business trip."
"How did you find each other?" she asked, looking between the three young adults across from her.
"It was Sam who found him," Jazz spoke up.
"I saw a video from Beijing. Something about it…I just knew it was him," Sam started. She explained to the Fenton's her trip, the weeks of searching she'd done, finding Danny, calling Jazz and Tucker. At this point the married couple interjected as well in the story, filling in details or adding anything they felt was relevant. They left out the bad parts of course, like what Danny was doing when Sam found him, the incident in the hotel, and others they felt weren't pertinent. They also left certain things out that Danny could better explain, like the Headmaster and what, exactly, he'd been doing for four years.
"That's quite a story," Jack said when they were finished. "All that really happened?"
Sam nodded while Tucker said, "Yeah."
A few moments of silence followed before Danny asked, "How long have you known I'm Phantom?"
Maddie absently rubbed his arm. "They told us not too long after you disappeared. We were already putting two-and-two together, as Phantom disappeared at the same time you did, so it didn't really shock us when they told us."
Jack swallowed hard. "Is that why you were taken?" he asked.
His son nodded. "I was taken by a paramilitary group led by a woman called the Headmaster. Somehow, she knew who, and what, I was. She targeted me specifically for being half ghost."
His mother sighed. "Of all the people I thought who would've taken you, that's the last thing I could think of," she said, voice thick with emotion.
Jack shrugged. "Well, at one point, we did harass the GIW because we thought they might have you."
Danny turned to look at his father. "You really did that?"
The older man nodded, a smile on his face. "Yeah, we really annoyed the heck outta them. Was a bit sketchy there for a bit. Maddie got kind of violent and we almost ended up in custody," he explained with a chuckle at the memory.
"Mom," Danny said with a hint of admonishment. "You can't go to government facilities and wave around your weapons."
The red-headed woman patted Danny's arm. "I would've done anything to get you back, even if it meant prison."
Danny suddenly got quiet. The rest of them instantly felt the mood shift and several shifted uncomfortably in their seats. When Danny spoke again, it was with an authority and command that, while Jazz, Sam and Tucker had heard it, shocked his parents. His deep voice only served to add to it.
"Sam said they explained the seriousness of what might happen if you showed up today. Do you understand the danger you've put yourselves in?" Danny did not say it with any malice or accusation, only with the weight that someone with a command would say.
Jack leaned away from Danny a bit to get a better view of his son. He looked him over, brow furrowed. "You speak and carry yourself as if you're military," he stated.
Danny debated his words, but ultimately chose not to sugarcoat them. "I have special ops training; the kind very few survive. The Headmaster is a former Marine Raider. Some of my trainer's were former Special RECON, Navy Seals, and Army Rangers. I spent the first two years undergoing this training, and the last two carrying out orders."
"What kind of orders?"
"The kind you don't need to know," he said darkly, leaving no room for argument.
Maddie, who had still been rubbing her son's arm, froze. She had seen it already in his eyes, but it was beginning to dawn on her that this man was not her son, at least, not the one she knew.
"Danny," Jazz said warningly.
He glared at her, for once not backing down in the face of his sister. "I was selfish in agreeing to this," he started. "They need to understand the gravity of the situation we're in."
His sister glared hard. "There's no need to speak to them that way. We're your family, not part of your military."
The hybrid sighed. "That's kind of the point. The only one here with any real training is me. We're up against an army of special ops men who cannot even feel pain." He leaned forward. "Tell me, Jazz, have you ever killed someone?"
The question caught them all off guard, but especially his parents. Maddie tugged on his arm. "Come now, Danny. That's not really necessary, is it?"
Her son squared his shoulders. "It is exactly what is necessary to stop them. They do not feel pain. They will not stop unless they are dead. Unless you are willing to take their lives in order to save your own, you shouldn't have come."
A dead silence pervaded the picnic table now. Jazz was annoyed and angry at her brother for his harsh words, but part of her understood his need for their parents to understand the entire situation. Sam was highly uncomfortable, and could only stare at the table. Tucker gently reached for his wife's hand and held it firmly. Jack cleared his throat, mind barely able to process the horror this meeting had become.
Maddie's brain worked overtime, thought after thought stumbling over each other. Her son, her baby boy, was not the innocent teen-turned-unlikely-hero any longer. He was a hardened man who had obviously seen atrocities; perhaps had even committed atrocities. There was darkness, a deep void, hidden beneath the surface of his gaze.
After several agonizing minutes, she finally spoke. "We may not have fully realized the danger we may face when deciding to come here. But I, for one, am glad I did." She turned to face Danny, her son turning his head to catch her eyes. "Do I want to take someone's life? Of course not. But I just got you back. Whatever you've been through, you didn't deserve. What you deserve is freedom. I will die for that if I must."
"I'm not asking you to die," Danny said instantly. "What I am asking is that you do whatever it takes to stay alive. The Headmaster is cunning, strong, and has weapons you can't comprehend. I will be the only one to face her. I will make sure you all are safe from her. If anyone is going to die to ensure that happens, it's me."
There was a chorus of protests around the table all at once. They stopped when Danny lifted a hand. "I don't plan on dying. But I won't lie and say it's not the most likely outcome." He took a breath. "Besides, with what I've done, the world will not weep for my loss," he added softly.
Sam restrained herself. She really could've slapped him at that moment. "Dammit, Danny, the world may not care, but we do!"
Jack shook his head. "Son, whatever you've done, it can't be that bad."
Danny steeled his nerves, briefly closing his eyes as he took a slow deep breath. Finally, "You want to know what my orders were so badly? Those murders over in Asia? All the ones with the holes burned through them? I did that," he admitted quietly.
He hadn't exactly planned to reveal that…and had said he wouldn't just minutes ago. But his parents were as naive as he had once been, and perhaps they needed to understand the monster their son had become. Maybe then they would choose to leave and they wouldn't be in danger from the Headmaster.
Maddie almost let go of her son's arm. Almost. The shock that gripped her was immense, and she could tell from Jack's silence that he was just as flabbergasted, if not more. She hated herself for the fear that gripped her and forced herself to keep a hold of his arm so as to not make him think she hated him.
No, she didn't hate him. But she did now fear him, just a little.
Jazz, realizing her parents were struggling very hard with this information, intervened. "Danny, you were under orders."
Her brother scoffed. "Does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? I murdered those people. What they did, who they were, didn't matter. They deserved a trial, not execution." He glared at his sister. "The news reported, what? Thirty murders? Trust me, there was far more than that. I'm probably the world's most prolific serial killer."
"Danny, stop!" This time, it was Sam. She stared at the half ghost incredulously. "What are you trying to prove? Are you trying to push us away?"
"Would it stop all of you from throwing yourselves into harm's way for me?"
"Of course not, dude," Tucker answered, getting nods of agreement from Sam and Jazz.
Maddie spoke up meekly. "You guys knew this?"
Danny answered, keeping his eyes ahead, not wanting to make eye contact with his mother. "They watched me kill a man. Sam saw me kill two. I murdered someone when she found me."
Sam looked distressed before getting angry. "No. You will not succeed in pushing us away. I know you are a good person at heart. Or have you forgotten I've seen the pain and regret?"
Her lover glared at her, but Sam was never one to back down. "I've spent every night with you for weeks. You may have hidden when you were sick from me, but you can't hide the nightmares!"
Danny stood now, towering over her. "How dare you use that against me?!" His deep voice boomed, drawing unwanted attention from others in the park.
Sam stood this time, too. "You can't intimidate me, Danny. Nothing you can do will make me run or back down," she said scathingly. "I'm not using it against you, I'm trying to make a point!"
"Both of you need to calm down!" Jazz admonished. "Others are starting to pay attention!"
"I won't stand here and be insulted," Danny hissed before leaving the picnic table and stalking off.
His parents were stunned. "What…what happened to my son?" Jack asked softly, voice cracking with emotion.
Sam growled in frustration. "He doesn't get to walk away in the middle of this." She followed after him, the rest hearing her mutter: "I'll freaking kick his ass."
Jazz sighed. "Mom, Dad…I'm so sorry about the way this turned out."
Maddie pulled her gaze from her retreating son and turned to her daughter. "She's really not afraid of him, is she?"
Jazz glanced at Tucker before taking a really good look at her mother. She could see the raw emotion in Maddie's eyes. "No, but you are, aren't you?"
Jack reached for his wife's hand and squeezed it as she responded. "I'm so ashamed…but I think I am. Just a little." A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek.
Tucker took a breath before licking his lips. "Look, I know what it looks like, and I know what he's trying to do, but he really isn't this monster he's trying to make himself out to be."
His wife nodded. "Since we found him and he started opening up, it's obvious that what he's done haunts him. But you also have to understand what he went through. He didn't become like this overnight, and he didn't become like this willingly. He killed all those people because the Headmaster said she'd kill all of us if he didn't," she explained, trying desperately for her mom to understand that her son wasn't some sort of demon.
–
Sam caught up with the angry hybrid and grabbed his arm. He ripped it from her grip and turned around, advancing on her and using his height to stand above her.
Once again, she refused to back down and met him head on, standing mere inches from him, even though it forced her to look up. They received wary glances from people around them at the intimating display.
They were like fire and ice, she was burning mad and he was frigid cold. In fact, Sam could feel a subtle drop in temperature near him.
They could clash with the best of them; have knock-down, drag-out fights, but still come out the other side intact. It had happened once or twice when they were teens, the first incident with Desiree being one of them. But Danny didn't have much of a temper back then, and would often concede to Sam, who did have a temper. But he sure did now, and it matched Sam's in intensity.
"Why won't you ever back down?" the hybrid growled.
"I told you, Danny," she started, voice dripping with anger, "I'm not afraid of you, and you can't intimidate me. You would never hurt me."
He scoffed. "I guess you conveniently forgot the part where I killed you?"
"Don't go there."
"Why?! Because it puts a hole in that happy-ever-after outlook you have on me? Because it proves you wrong?"
Danny paused when tears started to fall down her face. He was briefly confused because it contradicted the absolute fury in her eyes. He had never seen her so angry that she cried. The sight tempered his own ire.
"I understand your need for your parents to understand the situation we're in, but did you have to do that to them?" she asked, voice lower.
"Do what to them?" His voice was softer now, as well.
She took a deep breath before angrily rubbing the tears off her face. "You shattered their perception of you. Do you want them to be afraid of you?"
He sobered some at her question. "If that's what it takes. They should run far from me. Maybe then they'll be safe."
"Is that what this is?" she asked, arms up in frustration. "You doing whatever it takes to keep them safe?"
Danny looked down then, his eyes betraying his fear and sorrow. The goth closed her eyes and clenched her jaw in frustration. When she opened them again, she grabbed his hands to get him to look at her. "You have got to stop going nuclear every time you're afraid of something," she pleaded, amethyst eyes imploring sapphire.
She expected him to get angry and deny it, as was his usual reaction when someone mentioned him being afraid, but instead he seemed to deflate.
Truth was he couldn't get angry about showing his fears to Sam, not anymore. No matter what happened or what words were exchanged, she was his rock, his safe place, his… home. With her, he'd always have a safe place to land.
He closed his eyes, leaning down until his forehead met hers. "I'm sorry," he said.
She closed her eyes as well. "I know. But don't tell me that, tell your parents."
–
Maddie observed the young couple with furrowed brows. They'd seemed so angry at each other. She truly thought they might have it out with their fists. "Are they always like that?"
Tucker nodded. "Yup! At each other's throats, ready to rumble, then they make out," he answered with a shrug.
He had the decency to blush when his in-laws turned to stare at him.
"So, they're really together?" Jack asked.
Jazz sighed. "While my husband was a bit crude about it, yes. They've been together for a little while now, almost a month. It's been good for both of them. They might both have tempers, and scream and shout at each other, but Sam always gets through to him. I think she knows him better than he knows himself."
The four of them looked up as Danny and Sam rejoined them then, though they stood back and didn't take seats.
Danny fidgeted nervously before finally, "I'm sorry. I was…trying to make you leave so then maybe…you wouldn't get caught up in this mess."
Jack smiled lightly. "So, you were lying?" he asked, hopeful that maybe what he said, and what Jazz said, hadn't been true.
"No."
"Oh." Jack deflated a bit.
The hybrid swallowed thickly. "Everything I said is true. I've done…awful things. And before this is over, I'll likely do more awful things. But I don't…I don't want to be that person," he said softly.
Sam intertwined her fingers with his. "You are not that person."
He squeezed her hand like a lifeline, tears brimming his eyes. "You have to understand," he stated softly, "I'm not your little boy anymore–I can't be; not if I'm going to keep you all alive." He squared his shoulders, standing a little taller, but still feeling for all the world like he was drowning. "I will kill again. I don't care how many I have to kill, if it means you stay alive, I'll take down every single one of them." He took a deep breath. "Just…please don't be scared of me."
His parents immediately stood, Maddie looking concerned when it seemed her son shied away from them as they drew closer. But she didn't back down.
His mother walked right up to him, grabbed his free hand, and placed a delicate kiss on his bearded cheek, before pulling away and giving him a smile. Jack placed a supportive hand on Maddie's shoulder, giving his son his own smile.
And somehow, Danny thought things just might be okay.
–
6/30/24. Three days, but I did actually have most of this written already. I do feel like this chapter ran away with itself…I don't truly feel like I wrangled it back in, but hopefully I didn't throw y'all too much for a loop.
