Chapter Six: A Man Trapped Inside a Ghost

Danny froze, surprised to see Aubrey standing at the door with Sam. He went red at the realization that she had seen his outburst, immediately grateful he hadn't led with something more incriminating.

"Danny, what's wrong?" Sam asked, worry coloring her voice. She entered the apartment, her eyes sweeping him up and down as if she feared he was injured. "What are you doing at home already?" He peered over her, at Aubrey who stood still in the doorway, looking unsure of if she should come in or not.

"Alone, please." He pleaded softly to Sam, imploring with his eyes.

"It's fine, I can go." Aubrey called out, taking the hint. "I'll see you later Sam. I had a good day." She reached in, hanging Sam's key on the wall and shutting the door behind her.

"Danny, what's going on?" Sam repeated. He started pacing, his hand anxiously raking through his hair.

"It was going fine, it was all going so well." He muttered. "I really screwed up."

"Are you hurt?" Sam asked, grabbing his arm. Danny shook his head.

"Is someone else hurt?" She asked, confused.

"No, no, that's the problem!" He said, aware that he wasn't making any sense. He tried to take a breath and calm down, but his thoughts were racing a million miles a minute. "I think I might have blown my secret."

"What?!" Sam exclaimed. "How? Did someone see you change?"

"No, no. I mean, the ghost thing is probably not the conclusion anyone came to, but they know I'm not normal."

"Who?" Sam asked, looking more confused by the minute.

"Frank and his guys. Oh God, I don't know what to do." Danny added in a whisper.

"Is this why he was calling me?" Sam asked, looking at her phone.

"He called?" Danny asked, heart sinking.

"Yes, but I haven't answered yet, so I need you to calm down and explain to me what exactly happened." Sam said, holding up her arms in an 'easy' gesture.

"The day started out normal." Danny said, closing his eyes. "I was introduced to everyone, shown around. They were so nice to me." He said. "We drove to the property, some big office building that was having windows installed today."

"And?" Sam gently prodded him.

"Frank had me hauling materials up and down the stairs, nothing crazy since I was new. They showed me some tools and how to use them. I watched how they put the windows in. They had a pulley system for the glass panes because they were huge and heavy and…" Danny trailed off, the memory turning over and over in his mind. Eyes staring at him, accusatory and knowing. He swallowed. "It was my lunch break. I was on the ground, talking to Frank. He was asking me about how the day was going so far. One of the cables in the pulley system snapped and sent a panel falling from several stories up. There was a guy standing below it, I don't know, I didn't think at all, I just acted…"

Sam gazed at him, understanding.

"You caught it." Sam said.

"Yes." He breathed. "I caught it."

"How heavy was it?" Sam asked, seemingly afraid to know the answer.

"I don't know exactly." Danny answered miserably. "Enough to have crushed him."

"Oh, Danny…" Sam said, reaching for his arm. "You saved his life, you didn't do anything wrong."

"Sam, they were staring at me." He said. "Everyone. Even the guy I saved. He was seconds away from being crushed, and all he could do was stare at me like I was a freak."

"What did you say?" Sam asked, eyes wide with concern.

"I didn't say anything, I panicked. I left." He said. "I ran off and then I flew back. Oh man, I left your car behind, I'm so sorry." Danny collapsed into the couch, putting his face in his hands. "I don't know what to do." He whispered. Sam sat next to him, clasping her hands together.

"Let's just take a moment, we don't need to jump to conclusions." She said. "I'm sure everyone was just shocked because someone almost died. I don't think they would immediately leap to thinking you're…" She trailed off, searching for the word. Danny peered at her through his fingers.

"Not human?" He suggested tiredly. Sam frowned, deep in thought.

"No, no I doubt that's what they thought. A lot of people have adrenaline rushes, right? Maybe they just chalk it up to a miracle."

"Except I ran off, like I was guilty of something." 'Stupid!', he thought. Running away was probably the dumbest option. He wished he was cool-headed like Sam, maybe he could have come up with an excuse. Or at least acted surprised by his feat of super-human strength.

"You were shocked too, you could have just been freaked out." Sam said. "It's not impossible. Mothers lift cars to save their kids, the world is full of unexplainable stuff."

"You didn't see their faces." Danny muttered, remembering the awful feeling of being seen. All at once, his human mask had slipped and people had seen a glimpse of what was underneath. A sharp buzz interrupted their discussion, Sam's phone vibrating in her lap. She picked it up.

"It's Frank." Sam informed him. "I'm going to answer, just let me hear what he has to say." Sam stood up, walking to the kitchen. "Hello, Frank? What's going on?" She asked, shooting Danny a nervous glance. He felt sick, imagining all the horrible things Frank was telling her.

"Yes, yes he's here with me." Sam said, eyeing Danny. She started pacing around the kitchen island. "Yes he's okay, I think he took a cab back or something. He's a little freaked out right now." Sam paused, listening to whatever Frank was saying on the other side of the line. "Mmhm." She hummed.

"What's he saying?" Danny mouthed. Sam held up a hand to tell him to wait.

"And Mike's okay?" Sam asked. A pause. She sighed in relief. "That's good to hear. The whole thing is so scary, I can't imagine how he's feeling right now…yes…okay, I'll tell him. Thank you." She breathed. "Frank, I appreciate you calling. I'm sorry I didn't pick up sooner. Take care." Sam hung up, setting her phone down on the counter.

"Well?" Danny asked, his insides twisted with anxiety.

"He wanted to make sure you were home with me." Sam said, crossing her arms. Danny could see that she was trying to remain calm for his sake. "They were worried about you, Frank saw that you left the car behind." Sam hesitated, considering her words carefully. "Frank says he doesn't understand what happened exactly, but he wanted you to know that he's grateful that you were there. He told me to let you know that it's okay if you need to cool off, let yourself relax."

Danny stared at her blankly.

"That's all he had to say?" He asked in disbelief. "He didn't demand an explanation?"

"No, he was mostly worried about you." Sam said, moving to touch his shoulder. "Your reaction scared them more than anything." Danny considered this, mind racing.

"Is Mike okay?" He asked quietly, realizing he didn't know what happened to him after he fled the scene. The man had almost been crushed to death, that was probably traumatizing all on its own.

"Yes, his wife is with him at the hospital right now. They're double-checking that he's okay, Frank is there too so they can file a report. It looks like it was a freak accident, some kind of random equipment failure. No one's fault, really." Sam said.

"A report?" He asked, his chest heavy with dread.

"He won't tell." Sam assured him. "The story is that the glass almost hit him, but he moved out of the way in time." Danny absorbed this, struggling to understand.

"Why is he covering for me?" He asked, confused. A group of about ten men had just seen him do the impossible, and no one was going to say anything about it?

"Because he's a good guy." Sam said softly. "He saw your reaction, he saw how scared you looked. He promised he won't get you involved."

"What do I do now?" Danny asked, unsure if the question was directed to Sam, himself, or no one at all really. Surely Frank or the other guys would want answers eventually. The initial shock would wear off, the paperwork would get filed, and then all there would be left to do is wonder how exactly some random kid had stopped hundreds of pounds of glass from crushing the man standing underneath its path. He had only just started today, none of them had any reason to trust or even like him. Frank was supposed to pay him under the table, his circumstances were already strange and shady enough as it was.

"I don't know." Sam admitted. "But I don't think you need to worry anymore. This will pass, everyone will move on." Danny could hear the implicit message underneath her words, that he should simply move on too. He felt a spark of anger ignite, feeling judged for his reaction. This wasn't no big deal, not for him. How could he move on from knowing that it took less than a day for him to expose himself as a freak?

"I can't go back." Danny said stubbornly. "I can't stand the idea of them looking at me like that again."

"Danny…" Sam sighed. His anger faded, replaced by shame. He was disappointing her again.

"I couldn't even go twenty-four hours pretending to be normal." He said sadly. He hadn't even realized until this moment how desperately he had wanted this to work out, how important it had been to prove that he could do this for her, for himself. Sam sat next to him, placing her hand over his knee.

"It was just really shitty luck." Sam insisted. "And you saved someone's life. Do you not realize that what you did was a good thing?"

"It doesn't feel good." He refuted. Just bad luck, huh? The whole thing felt like an omen, a sign from the universe itself that he was screwed. Doomed to be reminded that no matter how much he tried to pretend, he wasn't normal. That he was always one slip-up, one stupid mistake from exposing himself as a fraud to everyone around him.

"I'm sorry things went badly today." Sam said, laying her head on his shoulder. He leaned into her, grateful for her touch. Her presence was grounding, comforting. "But you shouldn't catastrophize. Don't give up everything you're working for just because of one day."

Danny considered what she was saying, understanding that she was trying to make him feel better. But it wasn't that simple, was it? What was he working for exactly? A lie, a facade. To pretend he was something that he was not. Being trapped in Amity Park had been hell, so indescribably lonely and hopeless. But he could be himself there. He didn't have to deny his nature, didn't have to hide the thing that pulsed just below his skin. There were days that he felt like even Sam didn't know the extent to which he hid himself away.

He looked down at where his hands rested in his lap. They were covered in scars, from ghost fights, from crawling out of the collapsed rubble of his home, from the portal itself. Hands that were strong enough to do what he had done today. Strong enough to have crushed Mike himself, if he chose to. And he would have to spend the rest of his life pretending that this was not the case, reining in his strength, reminding himself to never slip and show what he could do with them. If anyone ever asked about the silvery scars that adorned his hands, he would have to lie and say they came from something other than surviving for nearly a decade by himself.

"I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing here, anyway." Danny admitted. "What was the point of it all?" He knew how pathetic it sounded, how self-pitying he was being. He supposed that he could have been dead, really dead. Just like everyone else he had grown up with. But then maybe he wouldn't feel so guilty, that he had been given a second chance and kept messing it up. What could he possibly do with this sad excuse for a life? Even his body was non-committal, heart sometimes beating and sometimes not, like the jury was still out on if he should be alive or not.

"Danny…" Sam said, sounding devastated. He closed his eyes, ashamed of his confession. She had done so much for him. "What are you saying?"

"It doesn't matter." He shrugged. There were words he couldn't say, a horrible admission that he couldn't bring himself to make. So many things that he had never told her, lessons he had learned the hard way in Amity. A scar on his chest, surgical and perfect that he could never bring himself to explain to her. And others that were not left by ghosts, of his own doing. He had once told her that he was very hard to kill. "I'm so glad I found you again." He said quietly. Because what else could he hold on to? What else was left?

"I'm glad I found you again too." Sam whispered tearfully. "That I have you back."

Did she though?

Sam was on the phone, ordering pizza for dinner. She had cheerfully informed him that she was going to rent some movies, something stupid and silly that they could laugh at. Danny had smiled at her and told her that was a great idea, that maybe it would help. But he knew it wouldn't. Not right now at least. Unfortunately, he knew himself well enough to know that he would just have to ride out this wave of misery. He had good days, he had bad ones. He often felt like his emotions washed over him, overwhelming and unstoppable as the tide. It had been so since this accident. If it was a symptom of what he had gone through, or a result of being ghostly- or some combination of both- he didn't know.

It was more for Sam's sake really that he put on a good show. He hated how she looked at him, like he was as delicate as glass. He hated the way worry pulled at her face, how she could spend a few hours with Aubrey and come home practically glowing, just to immediately look crestfallen when she noticed his mood. He sucked all the warmth out of this apartment, literally and figuratively. He was haunted and haunting. No one liked living with a ghost in the house.

And here he was, still wallowing in his misery. Danny sighed through his nose, mentally slapping himself for spinning his wheels like this. He had been dealt these cards, he needed to accept it already. A wonderful, amazing girl who loved him despite it all was somehow inexplicably loyal to him. He couldn't imagine his younger self would be capable of conceiving the depth of that kind of commitment. Would his fourteen year old self, freshly orphaned and changed, have been able to dream that someone could care for him like this?

So he could suck it up, eat some crappy delivery, and pretend to be amused by some dumb movie because it was the only way his friend could think to comfort him right now. He turned on his side in their bed, eyeing the incriminating shopping bag on the floor. The logo was for a formal menswear store, one he recognized from walking through the Amity Park mall and dreaming about prom. Would he have kept chasing after girls like Paulina by his Senior year? Or would he have finally wised up and asked Sam to go with him? He hoped it was the latter, somewhere in another lifetime where things had gone right.

A soft knock at the door had him bolting upright.

"Danny?" Sam called. She opened the door. "Pizza will be here in twenty minutes."

"Okay." He said. Her eyes drifted to the bag, realizing that he had been looking at it.

"Oh, I'm sorry-" She began, blushing. "I shouldn't have-"

"I'll go." Danny said. She looked taken aback.

"Really?" He nodded.

"Yeah, I think it would be good for us both." He said, half-lying. It wouldn't do anything for him to go, but he knew it meant a lot to her. And really, that's all that ever mattered. He should have said yes sooner. Her face lit up and she gave him a small smile.

"Thank you." She acknowledged, and he knew that she could tell he was only saying yes for her. The thought of actually getting on a plane and going back to Illinois filled him with dread, but he could do it if that's what Sam wanted. "I'll RSVP right now." She said, leaving the room.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Danny murmured to himself. It sounded like torture to wear a suit and parade himself around in it. And how many people would be there? The whole thing sounded exhausting. At least there shouldn't be any attention on him, he'd just be some nobody in a sea of bodies there. It wouldn't be the same type of exhausting as being grilled by Aubrey. He could let Sam mingle, receive her recognition, and stand in the background the whole time.

Danny rose from the bed, poking around inside the bag. The suit was a dark grey and the material was smooth and silky on his fingertips. He didn't know anything about clothing, but the suit seemed fashionable enough. He let go, letting the fabric slide back into the bag. Sam had good taste, she'd make sure he was dressed appropriately. Part of him was a bit annoyed that she had purchased it before he agreed to go, but to be fair he had been vague about his decision. Was he always such a people pleaser? Danny tried to think back, remembering the days before. He didn't think he had ever liked confrontation much. Sam was the opposite, she would simply push ahead and say her piece no matter the consequences. It was an admirable trait he thought, one he wished he had.

Danny left the bedroom, gently closing the door behind him. After today's events, he felt more conscious than ever of his strength. What if he pulled too hard, just a touch more force than absolutely necessary? Worse, what if he hurt Sam by accident? Humans were fragile and breakable in a way he was not. He banished the thought, deciding that he was being paranoid and no good could come of thinking like this. His obsessive nature was punishing, forcing these kinds of irrational thoughts to the forefront of his mind. In Amity, it had become his sole purpose to protect Sam. He still felt on edge, even though they were no longer there. Part of him still worried, half-expecting some sort of threat to reveal itself if he let his guard down for even a moment.

But of course, the most dangerous thing in their proximity was himself. There were no real ghosts anymore, just flickers of energy, small and weak spirits. The shadows that moved in the corner of his eye were all that remained. And so there was no reason to think like this, to worry so neurotically. It was not simple to re-hardwire his brain though, to ignore the survival instincts he had developed in Amity. They had kept him alive for the better part of a decade, and it was strange to not need them anymore.

Danny walked into the kitchen, joining Sam and sitting in one of the stools at the island. She looked nervous, picking at the chipped polish on her ring finger. He recognized the nervous tic, having seen her do it in Amity.

"You look like there's something you want to say." He prompted, meeting her eyes. Sam was usually so confident and self-assured. It was not often that he could see her visibly wrestling with something like this. She took a deep breath.

"Before we go to the gala, I do need to tell you something." She began, eyeing him as if she were afraid of how he would react. Did he really instill that kind of concern into her? The thought made him sad, filling him with shame as he remembered the way he had reacted when she first confronted him about the portal in Amity. It made his stomach churn to think of how he had lost his temper, the fear that had flashed in her eyes.

"Okay, go ahead." He said calmly, trying his hardest to look at ease. She wrung her hands together.

"My mom and I got into a fight a couple of days ago, after therapy." Sam said. Danny frowned, realizing where this confession was going.

"It was about me, wasn't it?" He asked quietly. Sam nodded.

"Yes." She answered simply.

"Was it bad?" He asked, afraid to know the answer. But he didn't need to ask, really. He had seen how upset she was coming back from therapy. He had noticed the way her eyes kept darting to her phone.

"Yes, it was pretty bad. We're not exactly speaking right now."

"What did they say about me?" He asked, somewhat masochistically. Sam gave him a worried look.

"That doesn't really ma-"

"I want to know." He pressed stubbornly. It was only fair that she tell him this.

"They don't trust you, and they're scared. They won't acknowledge it, but they know that you're not exactly…the same as you used to be." Sam said, choosing her words carefully.

"That's one way to put it." Danny muttered. It was always obvious of course, he creeped them out. 'Rightfully so.' He thought.

"And they were spying on my therapy sessions, so I said I wasn't going to go anymore." Sam admitted. Danny frowned, suddenly angry on her behalf.

"That's so wrong." He said, trying to imagine what that type of betrayal would feel like. "I'm sorry, Sam." She shrugged.

"It's not that big of a deal, really. I never really did anything but lie to Dr. Yorke anyway. All they would have heard would have been their own story parroted back to them."

"It was still wrong and you deserve to be upset about it." He insisted. Ever since he had known Sam, her parents had been controlling and nosy. But this? It was a great violation of trust.

"The main reason I'm telling you all this though…" Sam pressed on. "Is because I gave them an ultimatum. They received an invitation to the gala too, and so I told them that if they wanted to maintain a relationship with me that they would have to come. They will have to look you in the eyes and acknowledge you and accept you as a part of my life." She finished, watching for his reaction. Danny tried to process this information, brain sputtering and failing.

"You told them that it's me or them?" He asked, unsure of if he heard her quite right.

"Yes." Sam said, holding his gaze.

"But they're your parents…" He said, bewildered. Sam nodded.

"Yes, but you're my best friend and you saved my life. It's an easy choice." She assured him.

"Sam, this is not the kind of thing that you can easily walk back…" Danny insisted. What was she thinking? He couldn't believe that she would potentially destroy her relationship with her parents for him. She had only just recently gotten them back!

"Well, it's not like this is a one-way street." Sam said angrily. "It's ultimately their decision. Either they want me in their lives, or they don't. Simple as that."

"Sam, they're not exactly crazy for being suspicious of me." Danny said calmly, trying to reason with her. They'd had this argument before, but it was true. As much as she didn't want to acknowledge it, they had good reason to not like him.

"They can respect me enough to trust me to make my own decisions and they can respect you enough to actually meet you face-to-face before deciding that they know what your true character is." She stubbornly insisted. Man, she really did see the world in such strong, rigid terms of right and wrong.

"Maybe I don't want to have a relationship with them." Danny gently suggested. He had been terrified of her parents as a thirteen year old boy, perfectly aware of the fact that they did not approve of him. That was before his parents' invention had destroyed Amity and turned him into a half-ghost. Why would he want to win their approval now? They may not know every detail of the situation, but that was honestly preferable to them knowing exactly all the things that were wrong with him.

"I'm not going to put up with them speaking about you the way that they do." Sam said, looking away. Danny felt horrible, seeing the way her shoulders shook. He could tell that she was holding back tears, too proud to let him see. He knew that her relationship with them was complicated long before he entered the picture, but he couldn't help the stab of guilt that went through him. His presence certainly wasn't helping the situation.

"I don't mind." Danny said, with a half-hearted shrug. Nothing they could possibly say would be worse than what he already felt about himself. It definitely couldn't top the things his own parents had said to him in Amity, the things that they had done to him. He rubbed his chest, unconsciously tracing the scar that was hidden under his shirt.

"I do." Sam said miserably. Danny understood, he really did. If his parents had constantly said ugly things about Sam growing up, he would have been distraught too. But it was just unavoidable that their aversion to him made sense, that it was only logical for them to be afraid of him.

"Do you think they'll show up at the gala?" Danny asked hesitantly.

"If they love me more than they hate you, then yes." Sam said. "And then they'll see what a great guy you are." She said. It seemed a bit naive to him.

"Yeah." He said. "I guess we'll see." He was unsure of how else to respond to that. He was saved from giving a more adequate response by the sound of their doorbell ringing. Sam subtly wiped her face, turning to meet his eyes.

"I'll get it." She said, standing up. He watched as she walked to the door, opening it to pay for their pizza. She gave a generous tip, saying thank you and shutting the door. The aroma drifting from the pizza boxes was admittedly delicious, and Danny felt his stomach rumble. Sam set the boxes down, one small vegan pizza for herself and a large supreme for him.

"What are we watching tonight?" He asked, wanting to change the subject. It might break Sam's heart, but he quietly hoped that her parents didn't show. He didn't want to think about how a potential confrontation with them would pan out.

"21 Jump Street." Sam said, looking relieved to be done with the conversation too. "Aubrey said it was funny." Danny nodded, thinking of all the movies he had missed out on while he was stuck in Amity. Tucker, Sam, and him used to stay up way too late and marathon movies all the time. It had been much simpler back then. But maybe for tonight he could pretend this was the same, try to recapture that feeling. It had been a pretty shit day.

"I'm excited." Danny said, mustering as much fake enthusiasm as he could. Sam gave him a small smile, holding out a plate for him.

"Me too." She said, just barely more convincing than his own attempt. "Eat up."