Danny was used to having problems appear back to back, one right after the other. Today didn't start off too bad however, and he was able to handle some budding issues before they got too far. It wasn't all that hard, starting with his parents possible breakthrough in ghost science. They had been off on some ghost related business for a bit, so all he had to do was go to the basement and turn off the power.
Danny was easily able to unlock all of the test cages- regardless of how smart his parents are, they made more than their share of mistakes (possibly more than they should if Danny was being fully truthful). When they go through long periods work binges, they do the one thing that always comes back to haunt them- they forget to save their progress. It might seem ridiculous to start seeing as saving your work is the most obvious and most known part of being able to protect your progress, but the Fentons are known to forget a great swath of things when they become too invested in work. The power kill was enough to erase a massive amount information.
Don't get him wrong, he hates messing with his parents like this. However, he knows that it wouldn't end well if the world found out too much about ghosts. Danny knew what fear could and would do and if the world at large knew about ghost's existence, it wouldn't be pretty in the least. And sadly his parents aren't ones to keep these things to themselves once discovered; he would know.
Aside from that one possible issue of his parents, Danny had little things he dealt with on a daily basis- chores, homework, little spats between ghosts, and possible ghost attacks. It finally settled for the day as it seemed, and the teen had two hours to kill before he is supposed to go to Sam's to work on the paper- which was unusual.
Danny wasn't used to having a lot of free time, if any, ever since the accident. He was even caught up on the work due the following day. He could use this time to catch up in his sleep- he can only go so long without enough sleep… even with being a half dead, his living half needed sleep to be able to function, which thus influenced his ghost half's performance. When the halfa tried to sleep, of course his mind didn't want to quiet down enough for him to be able to. It's not like the teen wasn't used to stressing when he should/would be able to sleep, but he wasn't used to stressing about the living outside of ghost attacks.
Sam Winchester was the one that his thoughts had zeroed in on. Danny didn't know the taller teen for too long, but he couldn't help the thoughts and feelings that swirled through him every time the younger Winchester was around or mentioned. It wasn't bad and he didn't hate having the other around. It was quite the opposite actually.
Danny found himself wishing they could spend time together more often, rather than in school or the few times he was able to find free time to meet up. However, he could feel a shift in the friendship. It had happened the night Sam showed up at his home unannounced, not that the raven hair teen had minded. It had happened not long before Dean showed up to collect his brother.
Danny could pinpoint it, it was a significant shift. The way Sam had paused, eyes burrowing into Danny before he dropped his gaze. The hangout went from relaxed to fidgety and awkward, not physically but in thought. Danny could tell the taller had been thinking hard about something, seemingly keen on keeping eye contact to a minimum as if he didn't want Danny to know what he was thinking.
With a groan, Danny flipped into his stomach and buried his head into his pillow. He shouldn't be wasting time thinking about this, but he couldn't help but feel like he messed up somewhere along the line. The thought alone was enough to bring the teen's spirit down. Regardless, he knew that Sam wasn't going to be around for long, but he felt terrible whenever he thought of the teen leaving his life.
Sam was the first friend he's had since the moves of his best friends, and the only person that really paid him any mind. It was going to be weird without the Winchester around, falling back into his lonely ways until he can finally leave Amity. Knowing his luck, he'd be alone even after then. Things never really looked up for Danny, usually ending with the rug being tugged out from under him. Which was possibly why he's taken to floating and hesitation when faced with something good- a fact pointed out by Tucker and his Sam.
Shaking himself, Danny didn't want to keep overthinking when he had some place to be in... forty minutes now. He'll head out soon, but for now he'll just lie down and rest for a moment. His eyelids slid closed, his lack of sleep finally catching up with him and making the teen so much more tired than he was a second ago. Sleep, that would be the best way to spend this time...
Danny groaned when the familiar shiver ran through him. He pulled himself into a sitting position, attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes and awaken enough to be able to handle whatever situation it was this time. Another shiver ran down his spine, and he finally was able to pull himself out of bed. Twenty-five minutes had passed, yet the moment of silence had felt much shorter. Regardless, he needed to end this so he can head to the motel.
Why did things like this have to happen to him, he was getting tired of lady luck deciding to turn her back on him. Especially the times when a little luck would be most appreciated. Of course with Danny, he doesn't get any. Yet another sigh had left the teen as he rested against the damp walls behind the hotel. His shirt and jacket resting in a pile on a crate as he clumsily wrapped gauze around his torso, trying hard to not make it too tight this time.
He would have happily take box ghost twenty times, over Skulker with upgrades. The hardest part was whenever any upgrade that the ghost gained actually slowed his healing. These wounds wouldn't have been a big deal, had his heal rate not been slashed in half. Nonetheless, Danny didn't have too much time to wallow or really focus on the wounds and pain. He was already seventeen minutes late and counting.
Pushing his pain aside and thanking his large pain tolerance, he shrugged on his shirt and jacket, doing a quick sweep of the area after he settled. All visible signs of the fight that had just taken place was hidden from view, as long as he kept his sleeves down and face empty of discomfort, he would be fine. His main worry was how the gauze seemed to sit just a bit to loose, he wasn't sure if that was better then tight but he didn't have time to figure it out.
With a soft wince, Danny shrugged his bag onto his bruised shoulder. Quickly making his way towards the motel room the brothers stayed in, he made sure to keep the pains that arose from every bump or strain on bruised and injured area out of his actions. Alone or not, he'd rather not reveal his injuries. All he needed was to be able to handle this until he could go to his parents basement and work up a serum to reverse the effects. He kept a relaxed smile on his lips once he knocked, greeting Sam when the door was finally opened.
"Hey, I'm sorry I'm late." Danny apologized, resisting the urge to do his nervous tick. The less pain, the easier to hide. "My parents wanted my help on a quick thing, which became longer, and I left later than I expected." Danny explained, entering the room and nodding to Dean.
"It's okay." Sam smiled, settling at the table where his stuff was already spread out. "You're not that late." Danny nodded, taking his seat across from Sam. Working to take out his own supplies, along with a book he found on wendigos. He didn't need Sam knowing he knew most of these facts off the top of his head. He kept his teeth pressing into the inside of his cheek when he wasn't talking. Movements only jerking the fresh injuries, if he had an hour to rest he'd have been able to handle this much better.
After about half an hour of working diligently with Sam, going over facts and figuring out the plot of the short story, Dean spoke up. "I'm going to go grab some food, don't work too hard while I'm gone." Dean smirked making his way out the door before pausing and turning to the duo. "Also, don't open the door for anyone." He warned before leaving and locking the door. Danny couldn't remember when it started, but the older Winchester always parted with the rule before he left them alone.
"How do you feel about the idea of a freshly turned Wendigo?" Sam asked, breaking the smaller teen from his thoughts. "We could do one where the Wendigo still has some humanity and maybe works to be better rather than solely eating to eat when he finds a person?"
"That'll actually be interesting." Danny nodded, looking down at the book opened in front of him. "We could make the person a female, most stories about wendigo focus on the male sides."
"Sounds good." Sam acknowledged, hands typing quickly on his laptop. Danny glanced up, feeling a bit bad that Sam was doing most of the typing but too sore to really want to move his arms all that much. "Can you read over this while I take a bathroom break?" Sam asked, sliding the laptop over to Danny. The teen nodded, getting to reading as Sam made his way to the bathroom.
As much as Danny really wanted to focus on the words in front of him, his mind wandering to the fact that the odd heaviness still hung over the two. When Dean was here, it was much less noticeable. When the eldest of the three left, the heaviness became much clearer. With a sigh, Danny refocused, eyes scanning the words on the page. He was pretty surprised by the detail in the writing, in gave him a feeling of real non-fiction rather than fiction.
"Danny." The shocked tone, cause the smaller teen to turn quickly. Confused eyes met shocked and concerned ones. Danny didn't even recall hearing Sam finish up in the bathroom, much less come out. "Are you okay?"
"Yea, why?" Danny asked, confused as to why Sam was suddenly so concerned.
"You're... You're bleeding." Sam answered, moving towards to teen. He lightly touched the back of Danny's jacket, pulling a wince from the other. With an apologetic look, his hand pulled back to reveal the light dusting of red coating the once clean fingertips. Danny felt his blood freeze over, fear filling him. He had been trying so hard to keep the brothers' from noticing anything, he forgot that he'd have to change the dressing as well.
"I-It's nothing." Danny quickly shook his head, tugging on the sleeves on his jacket. "I'm okay Sam, it's just... a flesh wound?" Danny knew those words not even close to being confident enough to convince the taller teen. Danny noticed the sudden shift in the other's demeanor. Going from concerned, confused, and somewhat angry, to understanding and sadness.
"I won't ask..." Sam trailed, glancing down at his hand before seeming to make up his mind. "Only if you let me properly take care of it." Sam concluded, his voice leaving no room for argument. Danny swallowed, before nodding.
"Yea, okay..." Danny agreed. "You don't have to, I'll be fine though."
"I want to." Sam admitted. "Besides, with the amount of mechanic accidents my dad and brother have, I know a few things about first aid." Danny winced at the mention of the older brother, he knew Dean probably wouldn't be as relaxed about the situation as Sam was being, of which he was thankful for.
"Can we please keep this from Dean?" Danny asked, tensing when he heard the lock click and door open.
"Keep what from me?" Dean's voice filtered through, confusion filling his face when he took in how close the two where before his eyes landed on Sam's hands. He dropped the bag of food onto the bed before his features hardened. His tone taking a more demanding bite. "Whose hurt, how bad, and why." The questions came out more like commands than questions.
"I-" Danny paused, glancing at Sam.
"Danny is." Sam answered, giving Danny yet another apologetic look, yet unwilling to lie to his brother. "I don't know how bad or why, but I just got him to let me help take care of it."
"Make that both of us." Dean grumbled before turning all of his attention on the smallest in the room. "Unlike Sammy over there, I'm gonna need an explanation but that can wait until after we clean you up."
Danny nodded, slowly working on taking off his jacket and shirt with Dean moved to grab a seemingly hefty first aid kit. He's mind working a mile a minute to try and come up with some kind of reasonable excuse to why he is bleeding, where the four large cuts across his back and wrapped to his torso came from, or even how to explain away to bruises.
The looks the Winchesters gave when he peeled away his shirt was enough to scare him, and he wasn't even the one who did this. He needed help taking off the bandages, his back hurting way too much. In the end, Dean had to cut the soaked-through bandages off the halfa's back. As his mottled, bloody skin was revealed, the brothers' face seem to melt at the same time, eyes hardening with anger as their eyes swept over the various bruises and slowly leaking cuts.
Impending doom was crashing around his ears and Danny really doesn't think he can lie his way out of this one.