Danny's parents were both geniuses in their own respect. Danny's father could produce groundbreaking technology out of scraps of metal and a semi-functional power source, while his mother had single handedly pushed the field of ecto-biology into the spotlight as a legitimate field of research. They were, without a doubt, two of the smartest people Danny knew.
So when the trio arrived at Jazz's car and Danny began his usual transfer process out of his wheelchair—but this time with the help of his parents—of course all hell broke loose.
Jack ordered Danny to stand only seconds before ripping his wheelchair out from under him. By some miracle, Danny managed not to fall flat on his face. He leaned on the hood of the car, watching as Maddie bemoaned Jack while rushing to undo the clasps on his walker even though Danny tried to reassure her that he was fine if she would help him into the car no he didn't need the walker if she would just help him.
Done with Maddie's worrying, Danny launched himself off the car and onto her arm, nearly taking both of them down in the process.
"Daniel, I just can't believe you! We're not even off the hospital's property yet!" Maddie scolded him as she and Danny secured themselves in their seats. She looked as if she couldn't decide whether to be horrified or amused.
Danny, on the other hand, was in stitches.
"Daniel James!"
He choked down a second wave of laughter. "Sorry, you're right. I should have...should have waited till we were in our—uh, driveway to do that."
"No! You could have been hurt!"
Jack slammed his door shut. "Don't give him a hard time, Mads. Everything turned out fine! Nobody was hurt!"
"Jack, your son almost just went headfirst into the pavement."
"To-may-to, to-mah-to." Jack twisted around to wink at Danny. "Besides, it's Danno's first day out. Let him have a little fun!"
Maddie shook her head and leaned back in her seat. "You boys are going to be the death of me, I swear."
"You're so dramatic," Danny quipped.
"I'm your mother. I'm allowed to be dramatic."
"Sure, Mom."
Jack pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the road. "And we're off, gang! Goodbye, hospital!"
Danny rolled his eyes. After all, he would be back tomorrow for PT.
"I know the past few weeks have been hard, but...I'm glad you went here," said Maddie, giving the hospital one final glance. "The staff seemed so kind."
"Oh. Yeah. It was fine," Danny said.
Those words felt familiar—usually only used to brush off whoever was talking—but for once in his life, Danny meant them.
It was fine. For every painful memory he was forced to recount, all the hours of therapy he endured, Danny felt...okay. Well, not okay, but far better than he did a month ago. As much as he despised losing his ghost half, inpatient was good for him. It forced him to deal with his trauma in ways he would never have done before. And now, he would never have to go back there.
The worst was behind him.
"You look so much better too. Healthier. You don't look all skin and bones anymore," Maddie added.
Danny's feet were suddenly very interesting to him. "Thanks."
"I know the hospital said...they said some things. About mealtimes."
Danny felt his cheeks heat up.
She continued, "They said it was common in teens in your...position. Your father and I were told to stay on top of you during mealtimes and to make sure you eat. So I just wanted to warn you that we'll be much more observant than you're used to."
"It's fine. I know." Danny picked at his cuticles. Of course the hospital ratted him out.
"But, as your mother said, you look a lot better. Do you feel any better?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, I feel fine."
Jack bobbed his head. "You know, you gotta stay in tip-top shape if you want to get back out there and fight ghosts!"
A hint of a smile appeared on Danny's lips. "Yeah. You're right."
"Get healthy enough and then we'll be able to take that chip out of you so you can—"
"I thought we were taking it out as soon as we got home," Danny cut in, tapping his legs with his fingers.
Maddie's eyes shot over to Jack.
"I—I, the hospital...they told me when I got out. That's what you—you said."
"Danny, I know, but we...we don't know the long-term damage on your ghost half yet," Maddie said.
"There was no long-term damage."
Jack and Maddie exchanged loaded glances.
"Son…" Jack paused. "Do you understand why the Guys in White...at the end…"
Danny's chest burned. "They wanted my core for energy."
Jack nodded slowly. "Right. So they...removed part of your core—"
Danny flinched. "I don't see why this is relevant."
"Danno..."
No, fuck this. He was told—promised—that his ghost half would be returned to him in full once he was released from inpatient. And now his parents wanted to bring up...that?
"It grows back. You told me that cores replenish what they lose all the time," Danny argued.
Maddie's fingers shook as she wiped her eyes.
"In small amounts, normally yes, the core does replenish what it loses," Jack said.
"Okay, so my core is fine."
"We don't know that," Maddie said, her voice quivering.
"The core self-heals, true, but we've never seen so much energy taken from it before at once. We don't know what that does to it long-term. On top of that, your core was extremely strained from being forced into an active state for a month. It would be like drinking only Red Bull for a month straight. Just a few cans here and there is no big deal, but drinking so much every day that you can't sleep will seriously affect your health. So not only was your core already in a fragile place from never being able to go dormant, but then an entire section of it was extracted," Jack explained.
Danny crossed his arms and glared out the window.
"Right now, the chip is sending electrical pulses to your core to withhold a specific amount of ectoplasm. Meaning, only a small amount of ectoplasm actually escapes from your core every day. Much less than usual. This is why your healing factor as well as general sensory input have been unaffected. And, because we as your parents wanted to play it safe, you may have noticed that small parts of you are still probably able to go invisible and intangible."
Danny didn't know this. He stared down at his finger, willing it to go invisible. Sure enough, after a beat pause, his finger flickered out of visibility.
"Even though this was hospital policy for you to wear it, your mother and I were actually going to put the chip in you anyways. Because we didn't develop it for the hospital."
Well...that caught him off guard.
"Huh?"
"Danny, weren't you wondering how we managed to create a perfectly functional chip just in time for your stay?" Maddie asked.
No, he hadn't thought about it. In fact, Danny never even questioned how in the world Jazz of all people showed up at the hospital with the flawless power-cancellation system specifically designed for Danny's physiology while he and his parents were checking into inpatient. But now that he was thinking about it, it did seem weirdly convenient. And odd. And not at all physically possible.
Danny's stomach twisted. "Why did you make it then?"
"Because your core was damaged. And we needed a way for it to heal itself," Jack said.
Danny's hand flew to his chest. It prickled at his touch. "What do you mean?"
Maddie's eyes didn't waver from the front window as she explained, "After the doctors at the main hospital stabilized you, we brought a scanner in to make sure your ghost side was okay. And when we scanned you, we noticed your core looked bruised. That, and with your injuries…"
"It wasn't hard to put two and two together, Danno."
"Okay? It's probably healed by now!"
Another pause.
"We'll have to scan you to find out," Maddie said.
"So scan me when we get home."
"It's not our small hand-scanner, you know. It's a big piece of equipment. We'd have to do it in the lab."
His arm twitched, wanting to move to his hair. That was fine with Danny. Whatever. So what? Take him to the lab. He was fine.
Around all that ghost-hunting equipment.
His mom's collection of biology knives and scalpels.
Their ghost-containment unit.
The vials of ectoplasm.
"Why can't you just take my word for it?" Danny whined. Not that he was scared, though. He wasn't scared of the lab.
Not even a little bit.
"Because we're your parents," Maddie said.
"But I feel fine!"
"Danny, I'm sorry, but this isn't up for discussion."
Danny huffed. His parents didn't get it. He needed his ghost half. He had been too distracted at first to notice what was missing, but more recently he'd started to feel an...an itch in his chest. Every time he tried to reach out and scratch it, something blocked him.
He had ignored it for so long, able to keep looking forward thanks to the promise that his ghost half would be returned to him in full after he got out of inpatient. But now that that hope had been ripped away from him, the itch in his chest burned with a newfound desperation.
Danny lifted his hands from their position on his legs. He gripped his hair, his chest tight. "Mom, I can't...I need…you—you can't…"
Jack glanced behind him. "I know this is hard. But we can talk about it when we get home, okay?"
"But I...I need—"
"I know, Danno. And you will. Soon."
No. This wasn't good enough. His parents weren't listening. He needed Phantom. His parents couldn't just load him up with loose promises. "When? When is soon?"
"Whenever we can figure this all out, okay?"
"No. That's not—it's not…" Danny huffed.
"Danny—"
"I—I'll go. The lab. I'll do it. Please, I just...I need..." Desperation leaked into his tone. He leaned forward, his eyes glued to the back of Maddie's head.
"I'll go into the lab."
She didn't turn around.
The car slowed as it approached a red stoplight. Jack thrummed his fingers on the steering wheel and tilted his head from side to side, as if contemplating his response.
"I'll do—I'll do it. When we...we get home," Danny reiterated.
Maddie shot Jack another alarmed glance.
"Danny," Jack started, his voice slow and deliberate. "It's not that we don't trust you, it's just...your mother and I, well, we're not too sure how comfortable we are with you going into the lab right now."
"Why?"
The light turned green, and Jack slowly accelerated across the intersection. "We wanted to save this for when we got home, but...there's a lot of dangerous things in the lab. Things that could hurt you. And until we safety-proof the lab, we don't want you going down there."
"So? The house has—has always been like that."
"Yes, and you're extremely lucky you haven't been hurt before this," Maddie said.
Before he could stop himself, Danny grumbled, "Aside from the portal."
His parents froze in their seats, neither tearing their gaze off the road. Jack's knuckles turned white on the steering wheel and the color drained from Maddie's face, leaving her cheeks ashen and forehead gray.
Guilt swept through Danny in a wave. He immediately tried to save face with a lame "sorry."
"No, it's…" Maddie tried.
"We haven't been able to really talk about the ghost stuff yet, just the three of us," Jack said. "There's a lot we need to talk about."
Danny loosened his grip on his hair. He dropped his arms until his fingers were resting back on his legs. "I know. I just...I need...I feel weird. Since the chip. My body doesn't feel—feel right. It was fine at first but...it's...it's not comfortable anymore. I can't...I don't know how much longer…"
Jack nodded. "I know, Danno. But let's talk about it tonight, okay?"
"Yeah." Danny let out a shaky breath. "Okay. Deal."
The remainder of the car ride was silent, save for the occasional comment about a new restaurant or news from family and friends.
Danny leaned his head against the cool window and watched as buildings passed by. Despite being gone so long, everything seemed the same. The library still had its usual crowd of people hovering outside for the free WiFi, new mothers still pushed their babies down sidewalks in covered strollers, and young professionals still hunkered down in cafés working on nailing that next meeting as usual. Danny had changed so much—his entire life had been uprooted and stepped on—but Amity Park was still just Amity Park.
The car slowed and turned into a familiar driveway.
Fenton Works stood tall in all its glory. It, like the rest of Amity Park, remained unchanged since Danny had seen it last. The hideous Ops Center superglued to the top of the house still stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the homes on their block. And the neon sign…
Danny couldn't look at that atrocity for longer than a few seconds without risking death via embarrassment.
One thing was different, however. As Danny settled into his wheelchair and started for his front door, he noticed something very different about their entryway.
There was a ramp where the stairs should've been.
Something...unsettling churned in Danny's gut. Surely he wasn't going to be in a wheelchair for that much longer. A ramp was nice, but he could probably go up the stairs if he really tried, couldn't he? He hadn't yet attempted stairs—there were none at the hospital—but he could probably do it if he really focused.
So there was no need for a ramp.
Right?
"Surprise!" Jack said, slapping Danny on the shoulder from behind and making him flinch. "We don't want anything to keep you from hanging out with your friends and enjoying your teenage years, Danno. Especially not something as silly as a front door!"
Right. That was right. Danny was being silly by overreacting to this whole thing. It was just a stupid ramp after all, it wasn't like anything serious happened.
And besides, this ramp probably cost a lot of money to build. His parents didn't have to spend their money on something like this.
They could have just removed the chip from your neck, though, a small voice in the back of his mind whispered. Maybe they like you like this. Easy to control. Human.
Maybe they'll never give you your ghost half back.
Danny shook those poisonous thoughts from his mind and started his way up the ramp. It was convenient, he had to admit. And it promised a stress-free way of entering and exiting his house every day.
He crossed the threshold—noting a mini ramp on the front door—and all but sagged in relief as he saw the inside of the living room.
It was identical to when he'd left.
The couch seemed as fluffy and worn as ever. There was still a small pile of newspapers and crochet materials on the coffee table. His mother's Science Weekly magazine decorated one of the armchairs. The walls next to the lab door still had vague scorch marks tattooed into the paint.
Danny was finally home.
Or—hold on .
"What's…what's that? " Danny asked, pointing to a large metal square folded against the wall next to the stairs.
"That's your stairlift!" Jack said. He walked towards the metal square and pressed a button. The lift whirled to life and slowly unfurled until it touched the ground.
"My...stairlift?"
"Your father built it," said Maddie. "Don't worry, I've tested it every step of the way. It's perfectly safe."
"And perfectly functional." Jack beamed down at the metal slate. "See, you press that button and it'll open so you can just roll right up on the platform. And then you can lower the handle, and you get this switch. Flip the switch up to go up the stairs, down to go down the stairs, and put it in neutral to stop. This red button is also another brake button because your mother insisted on it—"
"All the online forums said to have an emergency brake, Jack!"
"—but I digress! It's very easy and safe. And when you're not using your wheelchair, you can lower this little doohickey and out pops a nice padded seat and you can sit down here and it'll take you up the stairs just the same!"
Danny rested his hands on the wheelchair, unsure if he wanted to get closer to the stairlift or stay as far away from it as possible. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate his parents' nice gesture, he just didn't understand why they felt the need to do this when he could've easily flown up the stairs.
He must have remained silent for too long because Maddie turned to him with an anxious expression. "I know you're apprehensive about this, but I promise it's very common for people with spinal injuries to have them in their homes."
She probably was right. But that wasn't the issue here.
"I just...I don't understand why—why you won't let me...let me...fly."
"Danno…"
"Danny, you just got home—"
"Yes, exactly! I—I'm home. Surprise!" He threw his hands up. "I'm here! I'm no longer a...a threat to—to myself!"
Maddie looked as if someone slapped her across the face. "We never thought you were!"
There were so many things Danny could say as a response. So many things that would escalate the situation.
But, just as he felt the fire light itself in his chest, he squashed it.
It wasn't worth getting into now. He just got home, and if his parents felt they couldn't trust him, they'd just send him back to inpatient with a note attached explaining how he was still a danger to himself and others, still too emotionally explosive, still too unstable.
So instead he wheeled himself over to the couch and said, "I'm tired. I'm gonna take a nap."
"Danny…"
"No. It's fine. I get it."
His mother deflated. "I know this isn't easy to talk about."
"It's fine."
"We'll get through this."
"I'm fine."
Maddie's and Jack's eyes met, and a silent conversation passed between the two of them. One Danny wasn't privy to.
Danny ignored them and focused on transferring to the couch. He settled in the worn cushions, embracing their familiar comfort. His eyes drifted shut as the tension drained from his body.
"I'm fine, I swear," he said, grabbing a throw blanket from the top of the couch. It was one of Jazz's sheep blankets that Danny had claimed as his personal napping blanket somewhere down the line.
"Okay," Maddie said, though her voice sounded anything but. "We'll be down in the lab. Holler if you need us, okay?"
"Sure."
He kept his eyes closed, listening as their footsteps moved away from him. A beeping followed by the swishing of the lab doors opening, shuffling feet, and the lab doors closing were Danny's indication that he was alone at last.
The last bit of tension in his neck was released as he sank deeper into the soft cushions.
Everything was like before. He was napping on the couch, his parents were in the lab, and Jazz was off being studious.
He was back.
(Finally.)
The ringing of the doorbell jolted Danny awake. He bolted up, heart racing, as his drunk eyes flickered around the room for the source of the noise.
"I'll get it!" Maddie strode past him.
Wait…Mom? What was she doing here?
Danny's hands tugged at his bangs.
He was home. That was right, he was home. He'd been released from the hospital that morning and now he was home.
He felt his shoulders relax, and he collapsed back into the couch, pulling the blanket up from where it had fallen on his waist.
He was home.
That was the doorbell.
So then who was at the door?
The irrational thoughts wormed their way throughout his brain before he had a chance to put up his defensive walls. Thoughts of the Guys in White returning for seconds, complete with a signed warrant dissolving any legal protection his parents had managed to place over Danny's head. Maybe he was safe in the hospital—after all, even criminals were entitled to hospital stays—but now that he was out of the hospital? Were his parents and their lawyers enough to protect him?
Was he going to be taken away again?
He had just begun to unconsciously itch the back of his neck—where he knew the chip was located—when he heard the front door slam.
Danny's heart stopped.
This was it. He was going to be taken away again.
He couldn't do it. Not a second time.
Maybe they would just finish him off this time. Rip his core from his body right here on his living room couch and leave his family alone.
But they weren't so merciful the first time, were they? When they sliced him open on the metal table while he was conscious? Forcing him to watch, arms strapped down beside him, as they cut through his skin, his ribs, his muscles. Forcing him to feel as their warm, latex-covered hands poked and prodded at his core, his very essence for being. Forcing him to endure their smirks and smiles as their hungry eyes explored his insides as if he were nothing but a mutated lab animal just begging to be torn apart, all in the name of science.
What made him think they wouldn't do that again?
The blanket was too constricting. The pillows pressing against his arms were too hot. He didn't want to be in this deathtrap any longer. He needed out. He needed—
His body hit something hard.
His chest was engulfed in fire.
"Danny?"
Danny's eyes snapped into focus. Suddenly, he was all too aware of his situation. Maddie stood tall above him, armed with two boxes of pizza. And here he was, first day back from the hospital, spread-eagle on his living room floor, gasping for air as if his lungs had just caved in.
Maddie all but threw the pizza boxes on the coffee table. "Oh my goodness, Danny. Are you alright? What happened?"
"Sorry," Danny wheezed. He clawed at his chest, which was already beginning to settle into a prickly simmer.
"What happened?"
Strong arms heaved him off the floor and onto the couch. He took a few deep breaths, filling his lungs with as much air as he could.
"Sorry."
"Danny..." His mother picked up the boxes of pizza. "Please don't try to walk without your walker, alright? Even on the carpet, it's still a long way down."
"Right...sorry. I won't...do it again."
She stood there staring at him for a moment longer. Her lips were tight, eyebrows furrowed in an expression of concern. A piece of her brown hair fell from its tucked position behind her ears, but she made no move to reposition it as she examined him.
Danny squirmed and averted his gaze. Shame gnawed at his stomach.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah." Danny tried to throw her a crooked smile. "It was my fault. I got...over—overconfident. Tried to stand without help. Figured...figured I'd just—just fall on the couch. Or something. If I failed."
"Oh honey." Maddie's expression melted into pity.
Danny didn't know if that was worse.
"I know it's frustrating. But just be patient, alright? You'll get there soon enough."
"Yeah."
"Now come on, it's dinner time. I'll go get your father and Jazz, you head over to the kitchen. Are you going to be alright? Or do you want your wheelchair?"
Danny shook his head. "No, that's fine. I'm fine. Don't worry."
"Okay, but please be more careful. We only just got you back," Maddie said as she crossed the living room to the lab door.
A pang of guilt hit Danny. What was he thinking? Trying to stand, to run away, like he really could? If only he weren't so impulsive and needy.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
He watched as Maddie walked through the threshold into the lab, pizza boxes in hand. That was smart, Danny noted. Everyone knew the only way to get Jack Fenton away from his work was with food.
The sliding door shut behind Maddie, leaving Danny alone in the living room.
Good.
Now he could begin the momentous task of lifting his body from the soft couch, balancing between the carpet and his walker, and making his way to the kitchen. Something that three months ago would have been so easy he wouldn't have had to wait to do until he was alone, if only to save himself from the distressed stares from his family as he struggled across the floor.
What a fucking joke he was.
Danny trying to walk wasn't a pretty sight, not like all the movies of people taking their "miraculous" first steps from a wheelchair seemed to show. He pulled his body up, dragged his toes across the carpet, prayed his foot would land straight, and repeated the process with the next leg. It was jarring and uncomfortable on the best days and downright humiliating on the worst.
But he was improving. That's what he kept reminding himself as he trekked across the living room and into the kitchen. That he was getting better at this.
He didn't need four rubber stoppers on the bottom of his walker anymore. He could use the kind with two wheels and only two rubber stoppers on it.
See, Danny? Improvement.
Danny pulled a chair out from the kitchen table just as Jazz entered the kitchen.
"Hey Danny! Welcome back!" Jazz beamed.
"Hey."
She opened a cabinet. "You want water or juice?"
"Water's fine."
"Alright."
"Hey Jazzy!" Jack waltzed into the kitchen a moment later with Maddie in tow.
"Hi! Oh, they were out of lemons at the grocery store. But I can go back tomorrow and see if they've restocked." She turned to Danny, her eyes bright. "I ran into some of your classmates today too! They were asking about you, Danny. They all can't wait for you to return!"
Danny looked down at the table, his face tight. Since when did anyone care about him at Casper High? Other than Sam and Tucker and maybe Valerie—depending on how she still felt about him—Danny couldn't recall anyone who ever cared about his existence.
Danny Fenton was a loser, a freak. He was nothing. Nobody cared about him as anything other than a punching bag, and he assumed that's how it always would be.
But then there was something that Miguel had told him that morning, something that he'd forgotten about until now. Something that didn't seem right.
"So many people fought for you, and you have so many people back home waiting for you. Your friends and family. All your classmates..."
How did Miguel know about any of Danny's classmates?
And besides, who in the hell would fight for Danny Fenton?
Maddie set the pizza boxes down on the counter. "I hope you don't mind the take-out. I wanted to make a big home-cooked dinner but I wasn't sure what you'd want and—"
"It's fine," Danny said quickly. He looked down and realized his legs were trembling. Walking across the carpet in his living room had taken far more out of him than he predicted. He slid down in his chair, trying not to allow his face to betray how relieved he was to be off his feet.
"It's pepperoni. Your favorite!" she added.
He nodded. Right, pepperoni pizza was his favorite kind of pizza.
He got pizza once in inpatient. A local construction company had come to the hospital armed with T-shirts, fabric markers, and several boxes of pre-approved cheese pizza.
There had been one worker in particular that Danny talked to for the majority of the hour. It was a younger employee, one whose nonchalant "hey" had won over Danny's trust immediately. They sat in silence for a few minutes, switching off between coloring and munching on their slices of pizza, before the employee casually asked him what his preferred toppings were. Only moments later, the conversation devolved into a heated debate over which chain in the city made the superior pizza.
It had been such a silly debate. But it was exactly the senseless talk that Danny needed to feel normal again. Just one random engineer to come to the hospital, sit down next to Danny, and ask about his pizza preferences as if he weren't an overpowered half-ghost that had just been used as the government's personal toy.
"How many slices do you want? One or two?" Jazz asked, opening the pizza box and peering inside.
The smell of grease, cheese, and something else wafted into the air.
Danny frowned, his hand freezing over the table. He inhaled the odd scent again and pinched his eyebrows together.
Something wasn't right. He couldn't put his finger on it, but...no, that was impossible.
This was pizza. Not that other thing. Danny liked pizza.
"Hello? Earth to Danny!"
Danny glanced up to see Jazz waving her hand at him.
"There he is! One slice or two?"
He opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. His mouth was too dry. What was going on with him?
His eyes glazed over to the pizza boxes, and the smell intensified.
No, no, no. This was wrong. This was all wrong.
"Danny?"
"One," he heard himself saying. "One's fine."
In the distance, he saw Jazz plop a gooey slice onto a plate and place it in front of him.
Oh god. The evil scent was right in front of him. The processed meat was right there just inches from his body. It was right there.
He felt sick.
"Alright, first family dinner!" Jack said, sitting down beside Danny. He nudged Danny's arm. "What do you think? You know, we just slaved away over this home-cooked meal. It's truly five-star quality!"
He couldn't move. He sat frozen in his seat, watching as the red circles emitted the exact smell that had plagued him for so long in the facility.
"Come on, Dad! Stop being obnoxious!"
"Aw, lighten up a little, Jazzy! It's Danno's first day back, let us have a little fun!"
He couldn't breathe. The odor travelled like slime down his esophagus. It filled his lungs and stomach with its horrifying stench, choking him with its bare fingers.
"Yes, exactly. It's his first day back! Do you know how fragile the teenage mind is during periods of transition? Danny needs all the stability he can get!"
"Jack, honey, how many slices do you want?"
"Give me two to start, and I'm sure I'll grab more! You know, I haven't eaten since breakfast. I'm starving!"
He couldn't think. It was everywhere. He couldn't escape.
"This is from the place downtown, right? The one off Saint Paul's street?"
"Of course, Jazz! What kind of mother would I be if I settled for anything less?"
The smell was so overpowering.
"You know, I don't know how they do it. They get the crusts just perfect every time. I've tried a lot of pizza places in Amity Park—"
"Oh, we know."
"—and no one does it like this place does."
It was exactly like before. It was the same odor.
No, Fenton. Stop. It's different. This isn't Operative O. This is your parents, idiot. They didn't...they wouldn't…
But that's what he'd thought last time, right? That no one would actually be so cruel as to do that.
Stop it.
"Danny, aren't you going to eat your pizza? You must be hungry. You haven't eaten in a while."
The haze clouding Danny's vision dissipated, and he turned his head up to see Maddie's focus trained on him. She held a partially eaten pizza slice up with one hand, the other tapping lightly on the table.
His eyes lowered to his plate where his own untouched slice of pizza lay.
"Oh."
When had they started eating?
He took a deep breath and forced his hand over to his slice. His fingers touched the crust, and he fought the knee-jerk reaction to pull his hand back into his chest. The slabs of meat seemed to glower at him from atop their cheesy domain.
Don't think about it.
His hands were shaking. He hadn't even realized until now, but his hands were definitely shaking.
Was he sure he was only paralyzed from the waist down? His arms weren't working properly either. And his hands felt cold like his legs. Maybe his spine was fractured in multiple places. Maybe he needed to go back to the—
No.
He could do this. He needed to or else his mother would tell his psychologist that he wasn't eating and they would force him to drink those disgusting protein shakes again.
He could do this.
He slowly raised the pizza slice up to his mouth, holding his breath as he did so.
It didn't help. The pepperoni slices were still too nauseating. Their particles drenched the air, seeping into his skin and infecting his mind. It was too much, it was too much.
He bit down on the pizza.
The pepperoni detonated in his mouth, and in a blast of light, he was transported back to the putrid white cell where the stench of processed meat draped the air.
It was in his mouth. Oh god, it was in his mouth.
"Whoa, son!"
"Danny!"
He was drowning. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe. It was everywhere, on his skin, his clothes. Oh no, oh no. He didn't want it. Please, he didn't want it.
"Danny!"
His brain broke the surface of the crashing waves and suddenly he was back at the kitchen table, gripping his hair like it was his lifeline. He felt his head lower, and he saw the evil slice of pizza smeared on his lap.
"Sorry."
His voice sounded weak to his own ears.
"Oh, Danno…" Jack leaned over and plucked the pizza from Danny's lap.
Danny swallowed. His throat felt tight.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Danny?" Maddie prodded gently. "Can you tell us what happened?"
Danny stared at the sauce covering his lap.
He thought he liked pepperoni pizza. He always had. Always.
But now the smell was overwhelming and it reminded him of being there and he didn't understand why he couldn't get it out of his head why couldn't he just burn that memory from his mind completely and never have to bring it up to anyone why was it coming back now of all times when he was just trying to have a relaxing first night home with his family he didn't want it he didn't—
He felt a gentle hand squeeze his shoulder and he swiveled his head to see the unwavering blue eyes of his father.
"Danno...son," Jack said, his thumb rubbing circles on Danny's shoulder. "It's going to be alright."
Tears stung at the back of his eyes. He blinked, forcing them away.
He was not crying over this.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Maddie repeated.
No, he couldn't.
He couldn't tell anyone.
Ever.
He shook his head, looking up at Maddie with a glassy, tortured expression that betrayed everything he felt inside him.
"Oh, honey." Maddie wrapped her arms around him as she pulled him close to her chest.
His arms hung limp at his sides. He was still too frozen, still choking on the thick air, still fighting the thick tears that threatened to spill down his cheeks. But he was safe. He was safe and protected.
He was home.
"We can't make all this disappear. But we can help you through it tonight if you'll let us."
Danny tightened his fists and squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't want to say anything related to that. But the smell was still heavy. Still overpowering. He still saw glimpses of white and green through his closed eyes.
"The pepperoni," he forced out.
Maddie didn't prod further. She simply tightened her hold on his trembling body as he tried not to break down in her arms.
He was vaguely aware of Jack sliding out from the seat next to him, but he didn't question it. He didn't have the mental energy to worry about what his dad was doing.
He felt something wet touch his head, followed by a quiet sniff.
"Sorry," Danny said.
"No, Danny, it's not…" Maddie's broken voice resonated from above him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry this happened to you. And I'm sorry we couldn't stop it sooner."
It wasn't her fault. There was nothing they could have done. It was Danny—all Danny—throughout everything. He was the one to go into the portal. He was the one to develop his obsession. He was the one whose identity was exposed. His parents had nothing to do with his decisions, his mistakes. They were innocent.
Maddie gave him one last squeeze before pulling away. She turned around quickly, ducking her head out of sight and rubbing her eyes. She moved towards the sink and grabbed a fistful of paper towels.
"Jazz?" she asked. "Can you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich please?"
Danny looked back down at his lap.
He was such a mess.
Footsteps sounded next to him and he shifted to see an outstretched hand filled with damp paper towels. He grabbed the paper towels and began wiping the remnants of the pizza off of his lap.
"I'll be right back," Maddie said.
She exited the room, leaving him alone with Jazz. Danny refused to turn Jazz's way. He sat there, head down, fully concentrated on scraping every last morsel of pizza sauce from his sweatpants as if the sauce were causing him all this pain. If he could only get the sauce off his pants, he would be whole again.
Jazz must have gotten the message because she didn't try to talk to him either.
Jack returned moments later, pizza boxes in one hand and a suspicious-looking garbage bag in the other. Setting the pizza boxes on the counter, he went over to the table and began throwing the used paper plates in the garbage.
"It's a bit cramped in here. Let's move to the living room. What do you say, TV dinner? Just like old times?" Maddie asked, appearing from the doorway. She offered him his wheelchair.
Danny nodded and, with some effort, stood. He needed to get out of the smell anyway. His head felt too heavy around it.
He drifted to the living room as his parents and sister bustled around behind him. He should have felt guilty about this, too. About the fact that they all were cleaning up after his mistakes. But he couldn't help the sheer relief that ran through his body as he escaped the smell. Not that it was completely gone—it had branded his skin, it felt like—but in the living room, he could also smell the vase full of flowers and the fresh air from the windows that had mysteriously opened.
Danny had just finished wrapping his body with a fuzzy throw-blanket on the couch when his family finally joined him. They sat down around him, holding plates full of cheese-only pizza with suspiciously shaped circles torn off from the top of the slices, as if nothing were wrong. As if Danny hadn't just had a panic attack over processed meat in the kitchen.
As if this were a normal night.
"Here." Jazz handed him a paper plate with a sandwich on it. "I couldn't remember if you liked blueberry or strawberry jelly better, so I put blueberry on one half and strawberry on the other half."
Danny felt his lips twitch up. "Because asking was...was too hard?"
"Just eat your sandwich."
"Alright, Fentons!" Jack plopped down on his favorite armchair and picked up the remote. "First movie night in a while! What do we feel like watching?"
The remainder of dinner was calm, save Jack's enthusiastic science commentary during the cheesy eighties sci-fi movie they ended up choosing.
Danny's stomach felt like lead, but by the time the movie was over, he was surprised to look down at his plate and see that his sandwich was completely gone. He must have eaten the whole thing and not even realized it. He told Jazz the sandwich tasted perfect when she asked, but he didn't know what it tasted like. He couldn't remember.
Maybe that was for the better.
After all, the slight twang of pepperoni was still on his tongue and the corners of his brain were still tugging him back there and every time he saw the shadow of a tree move outside a window he thought it was Operative O coming to drag him to the facility where he belonged.
As he got ready for bed, he wondered if he should tell someone about what happened to him. Anyone. Maybe his therapist? Wasn't that what she was being paid to do?
But he couldn't. It was as if the Guys in White put a spell on him that prevented him from even whispering about it. He knew he would only get sick all over the therapist's carpet if he tried to tell her.
And after everything he'd been through—hell, he was torn open like a dead frog—why was this the thing that was suffocating him?
Because this was proof that you're not human.
And you don't deserve to be treated like one.
You're disgusting.
Oooo Danno's a lil shaky around red meat it seems...hmmm...I wonder why that may be? What a real mystery ;)
Huge shoutout to imekitty for being the world's best beta reader ever!
Next chapter is already a little under halfway written so I'll get that out to you guys soon!