A/N: Hello everyone. Welcome back. Obviously those of you who just read Heart of a Hero haven't noticed any interruptions, but I've been on a bit of a break to recharge my batteries on writing. The good news is, I think I'm there, I just have to actually buckle down and do it again. The bad news is, Heart of a Hero chapters take me so long to write, I'll probably miss an upload or two while I get back into it. Consider this your payback for getting chapters while Sphinx Club didn't. Beyond that, this chapter deviates pretty hard from the source material of the episode, and is largely character focused rather than action. Hope you enjoy regardless! Beyond this, I would like to shout-out "Heart of a Hero: Downtown Magic" by Penumbral_Writer on AO3 which is a story that uses Heart of a Hero in its canon! It's not canon to this story, but I've been working with its author to keep things largely consistent. Beyond that, on with the chapter! Remember to review!
"Alright, with the unfortunate case of Alligator Pox your Home Economics teacher Mrs. Gardner has come down with, I will be filling in as your instructor for the next few weeks." Mr. Barkin said as his booming voice filled the Home Ec room. Danny watched Ron shake in his seat, which was a bit odd. Ron was far and away the best of anyone in Home Ec, it seemed he had all the right skills to go full househusband. "This week, we're going to go practical." Barkin opened a closet, pulling out what appear to be baby dolls.
"Oh, are we going to be helping out at a day care or something?" One of the girls in the class asked.
"No, congratulations. Today you become parents. For the next week, you are to treat these dolls as though they are actual infants. Each of these dolls is programmed with the needs of a real child. They need fed, they need changed, and they need to be burped and taken care of. They have sensors for various things that a regular child would be sensitive to, such as pressure, temperature, and noise. They also record how long a child is left unattended when needs are not taken care of." Barkin said, looking over the class. "If I was in charge of this assignment fully, I would have each of you be single parents to understand the hardships, unfortunately due to budgetary restrictions we do not have enough dolls for everyone, so you will be paired parents. For this ONE instance, I will not be assigning partners, but it is a PAIR activity, no tripling. Pick wisely, a supportive partner is important in raising a child. Once you have your pair, come up here and let me know who you've partnered up with and allow me to activate your child. I'll also be handing you the user manual for the baby. While these need fed, you are NOT to use actual food. They come with a special bottle that 'feeds' them. They only have one, so make sure you don't lose it."
Sammy immediately grabbed Danny. "Well, looks like I get to have your first kid after all." She said with a smirk as she held onto his arm.
"Looks like you lucked out picking Home Ec with me." Danny said, smiling at her. "Guess we're parenting for a week."
"Good practice for when I'm Mrs. Fenton." Sammy said, putting on a faux dreamy voice. "Me and you and our little Curie, all happy and together.
"Curie?" Danny raised his eyebrow.
"Like Marie Curie, the famous physicist." Sammy said, shooting him a grin.
"I'm aware, although I think if we would name our daughter after her, I'd want to go with Marie to not have her get picked on as much. Plus Marie is kinda close to Maddie, like my mom." Danny said, smiling at her.
"I can deal with that." Sammy said. "Go let Barkin know we're partnering up, and bring my little Marie to me."
Danny chuckled as he made his way to the front of the classroom, picking up one of the dolls that had red hair. "Well Marie, looks like you take after your mom, your aunt, and your grandma."
Everyone made their way to Fentonworks after school, holding their 'newborns'. "Can't believe you get to have a kid with Danny this week. It's so unfair." Star said as she watched Sammy gently cradle the baby doll.
"No, what's unfair is that those four got to have their actual significant others as partners." Sam said gesturing to Danny and Sammy, as well as Tucker and Valerie.
"Could be worse, you've got Ron, who is like, the best with kids." Kim said, looking over at her best friend who was happily bouncing the baby doll on his knee as it made noises that sounded happy. "We did babysitting jobs together for over a year before the superhero stuff came in. Ron was WAY better at it than I ever was."
"It'll turn out okay I think." Valerie said, holding their child. "We're a bit young for kids, but… well it'll only be a few years before we need to really consider it."
"No thanks. No kids until I'm 30 and even then it's a maybe." Sam said, rolling her eyes with a bit of discuss.
"I'd want to graduate first I think… but I don't think I'd mind too much after that." Star said, looking at Marie with soft eyes. "Wish Danny would have picked a blonde baby though."
"Star, my mother is a red-head, my sister's a red-head, and Kim and Sammy are both red-heads. I think the odds of me not having a red-headed kid are pretty low." Danny chuckled. "Your mom is a red-head too."
"Dye job, her actual hair is blonde like mine, but I see the point." Star said, moving over to sit beside Sammy. "What would you name our kid, Danny?"
"Not sure. Sammy wanted to call this one Curie after Marie Curie, I suggested Marie instead since it's a more normal first name, and is kind of like Maddie after Mom." Danny said, taking his turn to hold the baby. It started crying after a few moments. "Well, since I'm going to hope they didn't program these things to have favorite parents, I'm guessing it's either feeding or changing time. Sammy, in the manual does it say how changing works before I go trying to feel for wetness?"
Sammy flipped through the manual. "Changing is handled by communication between the doll and the diaper. If the diaper needs changed, when you take it off there should be an indicator light. Green if clean, red if dirty. Simply pulling the diaper away from the doll will reset it."
Danny laid the doll down on the table undoing the diaper and checking the indicator light. "Green, so not a dirty diaper." Danny said as he quickly redid the diaper. "Hungry maybe? Guess we'll need to figure out a feeding schedule." he grabbed the bottle and put it to the doll's mouth as he lifted it up gently holding it as it fed.
"Every three hours it looks like. So eight times a day." Sammy called out. Tucker and Sam groaned at that.
"What about my sleep? I need a solid eight hours to look this good." Tucker said exasperatedly.
"One of the things you lose when parenting a newborn." Danny said, shrugging. "Admittedly, I don't have any experience with this. No younger cousins or anything."
"Same here, nothing." Sammy called out.
"I'm an only child too, but it's not like I haven't been around babies before. Babysat one when Dad went on a date with its Mom." Valerie called out as her doll started crying as well, she took to feeding it.
"I didn't know Damon started dating again." Star said, looking to Valerie.
"This was like a year ago. It was just the one date, I don't think he was really as ready to get back out there as he thought he was." Valerie said, shrugging.
"How did you feel about it?" Tucker asked, looking to his girlfriend.
"I want Dad to be happy, as long as whoever comes in doesn't try to replace Mom, I'm happy. It's not like I'm a little kid anymore. It's also been a few years since Mom died… I don't expect Dad to stay single forever." Valerie explained, a determined look on her face. "I also know Dad always wanted another kid. Mom couldn't have any more after me… so it wouldn't surprise me if Dad either starts dating some woman with kids of her own to fulfill that desire for a bigger family, or decides to have another one of his own with someone. Maybe both. Dad's only 35, he's still got plenty of time left to have another kid and still be young enough that it's not strange."
"God that is kind of weird that our parents are probably still young enough to have other kids." Tucker said, shivering a bit.
"Well, mine and Danny's are at the tail end of that." Kim said, looking over at the picture of Jack and Maddie on the wall. "Physically capable, but they'd be getting close to pushing 60 by the time any kid would be our age. They had us a bit later than your parents had you guys."
"Wonder why, from what Danny has told us, Jack and Maddie were already 'together' by the time they were 20." Tucker said, thinking for a second.
"They were working on their doctorates, Mom wasn't in a hurry to try to juggle a baby and a doctoral thesis. Jazz wasn't even born until over a year after they graduated." Danny said, grabbing a photo album and showing the dates from Jack and Maddie's graduation to Jazz's birth. "I imagine Kim's parents were the same."
Kim nodded. "Mom waited a bit longer to get settled in at a hospital, that's why I'm your age and not Jazz's. Dad's older than mom by a couple years, so he was already pretty well established by then himself."
"Yeah, Mom and Dad are both 45, If I remember right your Dad's 48 isn't he?" Danny asked.
"49, his birthday was in March." Kim corrected.
"Right, right." Danny said as he pulled the bottle from Marie's mouth, putting her on his shoulder to 'burp' her. "Here's hoping they didn't put in an actual 'burp' function and just have it make a noise."
"Manual says it's just a noise. We haven't put any fluid in her anyway, so she wouldn't have anything to push out." Sammy said, leaning back into the couch.
"Why are you calling it a her? It's a doll." Sam said as she watched Ron feed their doll.
"Because, for the next week I get to pretend Danny and I have a baby and I'm feeding off all that means." Sammy said, smiling at her boyfriend. "Star, Kim, and I get to see how good of a dad Danny's going to be, and have our own fantasies about our actual kids. Speaking of that… can Ember have kids?"
Danny paused for a second, thinking. "I don't know. Might be a question for Kitty, she probably knows."
"Why would Kitty know?" Valerie asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Kitty's the one who has done all the research on what being a ghost is for her, Johnny, and Ember. Despite her looks, she's a bit of a bookworm." Danny said, pulling out his phone. "I'll text her and Ember, see if they'll come. Johnny'll probably tag along too."
"I guess that's a question in and of itself though, if you did have kids, would they have your powers Danny?" Ron asked, curious.
"Not sure. Currently my ability to have kids at all is a big question mark." Danny said, looking between Star, Kim, and Sammy.
"Why's that?" Star asked, raising an eyebrow.
"From what the ghosts have said, I don't have ghost powers, I AM half-ghost. Since I'm half one species and half another, it's possible that I might be sterile, like a mule." Danny explained. "Although Vlad seems to think it's possible for me to have them, and he would be the expert."
"Did he tell you that?" Kim asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, when he was like 'join me as my son' and all that, he claimed that his age was the primary concern for not having a kid of his own. Made no mention of an inability to have them." Danny said, shrugging.
"His age? He's the same age as your parents, they're still capable of having kids." Tucker asked.
"It was more about being able to enjoy the legacy. By the time his kid would be old enough to be an adult and take over his companies or whatever, Vlad would be pushing 70. He wasn't thrilled about that. Not to mention, he wouldn't 'sully himself' with anyone less than my mom." Danny said, shivering at the last bit.
"You think Vlad's a 45 year old virgin?" Tucker asked.
"Probably not a virgin, but definitely wouldn't consider having kids with anyone else. He's obsessed and crazy, but he's also a billionaire." Danny said, shrugging. "His craziness is also knowledge to us and not to many others."
"He's handsome too." Sammy said, before everyone glanced at her oddly. "What, I know he's crazy, but it doesn't discount it. Dash is handsome and I wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole."
Danny shrugged. "I wouldn't really get it, I guess."
"I AM into guys and I don't really see it." Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Him or Dash, blegh." She added, making a gagging motion.
"Well, you have years of build-up for hating Dash and rich people, might be coloring your opinions a bit." Tucker said, shrugging as Valerie handed him their child. "What do you want me to do with this?"
"Act like a parent. If you think I'm doing all the work you've got another thing coming." Valerie said with a glare. "If you think I'm taking care of Harper all on my own." She dragged her thumb across her neck.
"Not you too, why'd you name it?" Sam asked, dumbfounded.
"Just because Tucker and I aren't as lovey dovey as Danny and the others are, doesn't mean I don't want to have my own little fantasies about a family." Valerie said, rolling her eyes. "Tucker's an idiot, but he's MY idiot, and as of now front runner for Mr. Grey."
"You'd make him take your name?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Either that or we're hyphenating. I'm not giving up my last name." Valerie said defiantly.
Everyone else had gone home for the evening, Valerie forcing Tucker to take Harper for the first night, and Ron happily taking his and Sam's doll, who he was calling Hannah, back to his place. Danny volunteered to take the first night with Marie, so he was currently holding the doll as he waited in the lab.
"Not like you to tell me to come to the human world, babypop, what's up?" Ember said as she stepped through the portal, taking a glance at the swaddled infant in Danny's arms. "Blondie, Cheerleader, and Spygal weren't pregnant, and as much as I think you're a catch, you definitely don't strike me as a casanova. What's with the baby?"
"School assignment, it's a doll that replicates an actual baby's needs and functions. It did bring up some questions though that I figured would be good to get some answers for, thus why I needed you and Kitty. Did Johnny come?" Danny asked, laying the baby down on a pillow he was using as a makeshift bed. The instructions were unclear on if the pressure sensors would react poorly to the doll being on a hard surface, so they were erring on the side of caution.
"Nope, just me and Ember. Johnny's trying to clean up the garage." Kitty said, looking over. "So did you name the baby?"
"Sammy did, that's Marie, after Marie Curie." Danny said. "She's my partner for the project."
"Blondie seems the more motherly one." Ember said, looking over at the doll with a strange expression.
"Probably, but she didn't take Home Ec, said she didn't need it really." Danny said with a shrug.
"Regardless, what did you need to know Babypop? I guess this is a ghost question if you needed Kitty here." Ember said, plopping down into one of the office chairs that filled the lab.
"Yeah, the other girls were wondering if ghosts had kids, and then the extra question of if it was possible for me to have them with you." Danny explained as he took his own seat.
"First question is a definite yes. Lots of ghost couples have had kids, and those kids are actually usually stronger than their parents. It's really rare though, most ghosts are so caught up in their own obsessions that real romance can't really bloom, among some other issues." Kitty said, happily explaining.
"Other issues?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Those of us who were human can't have kids with ghosts who were never human. Johnny and I are both humans who became ghosts, so we'd be fine, but I couldn't have one with Skulker, who has only ever been a ghost." Kitty explained. "Not that I'd ever even think about it with Skulker, blegh."
"Sam had the same reaction to Dash earlier." Danny said with a chuckle.
"It's also just… hard for ghosts to conceive. Johnny and I tried a few times over the years, we thought it might just be an us problem, but Ghost Writer said that it's pretty difficult across the board." Kitty said. "I don't think Johnny and I are actually ready to be parents anyway, so it might be for the best it didn't work out. We've got a lot of growing to do, and we're only recently starting to realize it."
"Growing? I thought you guys don't age." Danny asked.
"Physically we don't have to, we'll look and act how we perceive ourselves. For Johnny and Kitty, they're still those 18 year olds who got hit by that truck, until they perceive themselves growing up, they'll stay like that as they have for 20 odd years." Ember said, gesturing to them. "That's why I still saw myself as 18 for 40 years, I never had context to grow up, although with you around I think it'll start happening."
"What do you mean by that?" Danny asked, now somewhat confused.
"You're giving us context to grow up. You're aging, getting new experiences. We'll probably mentally be about the same until you turn 18, but once you start getting older, and we spend time around you, we'll subconsciously start matching you, our minds and forms will start putting us in the context around us. That's why it was so easy for me to change my form to look more like a 15 year old to match Blondie, Cheerleader, and Spygal. I'm able to build my context for how old I should look around them. As they age, I'll probably be constantly matching them." Ember explained.
"So, Spectra could just.. Have her youth if she could have the context for it?" Danny asked, now somewhat confused by the concept.
"Yes, but she'll never be able to. Spectra at her core knows she is an adult, and her form reflects that. Her self image is as a woman in her mid/late 50s, even if she wants to be a twenty-something again. Probably the only way she'd manage it would be for her to make an actual connection with someone who is in their 20s or whatever and let her mind mirror her. She won't do that though, because Spectra's a bitch and no one likes her." Ember said, rolling her eyes a bit.
"Yeah, pretty much only Walker likes Spectra." Kitty confirmed. "They have like a… thing. It makes everyone uncomfortable."
"Great, the two ghosts I fight who actively hate me make goo-goo eyes at each other." Danny said with a sigh. "How does that relationship WORK anyway?"
"You know how a lot of girls are like 'I can fix him' when they find like a bad boy or something?" Kitty asked. "She sees Walker and is like 'I can make him worse'. No one in the ghost zone really LIKES Walker, Spectra and his cronies excluded, but he's not one to actively torture. Beat you if you step out of line, but not do it for his own enjoyment. Spectra wants him to."
"Here's hoping they'll never team up." Danny said with a shudder.
"If they ever do, I'll make sure Johnny lends a hand. No one deserves that." Kitty said, easing Danny's worries a bit.
"You'll have me too, Babypop." Ember said. "Gotta keep you around for my kids after all." She added, taking a glance over to the doll on the desk.
"You'd want kids, assuming we can have them? Still not sure how half-ghost works with that." Danny said, looking at her with a small amount of shock.
"Probably eventually. I know when I was alive I wanted kids, dying took that away from me, but I've had time. Probably once I'm mentally an adult, I'll be more ready and interested, although I wouldn't expect that for like… a decade assuming I'm matching you." Ember said with a shrug.
"Ooh! What would you name your kids? I wanna know! Maybe I should see if I can spend some time talking Johnny into it, our kids could be playmates!" Kitty said, clapping her hands together.
"Gosh… I guess I'm not really sure. Amber… she had wanted Daniel and Michael, but those aren't particularly good ghost names, since our kids would be ghosts, and I don't think Babypop is looking for a Danny Jr." Ember said with a chuckle. "Blaze and Rocket maybe?"
"Definitely no Danny Jrs." Danny said, shaking his head and making an X with his hands. "I'm not totally against Blaze, although maybe say Blair is his actual name and Blaze is a nickname. Rocket… I'm not quite so sure about. Rocky would be a normal-ish name that could have that as a nickname, but I'm not thrilled on it as a name either."
"I'm not set on those anyway, assuming we manage at all, we've got plenty of time to think about it. Why would you care about them having normal names though? They're ghosts." Ember asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, if ghosts grow from context, I'd want them to HAVE context, that would mean eventually going to school, and I'd like to maybe see if they could go to a human school like I do." Danny said, shrugging. "A lot of parents wish their kids would stay small forever, but… I don't think letting them be kids forever would be healthy for them, or us."
"Weirdly thoughtful of you Babypop. What'd you do with my boyfriend?" Ember said, grabbing his head and 'rattling' his skull.
"Come on, quit it!" Danny said with a chuckle as he pulled out of Ember's grip. "The assignment just got me thinking about what a future means if all of this multiple partners thing works out. I've got four girls who have all expressed interest in having kids, even if it's pretty far out of our sight for now, it's something everyone mentioned as a future goal. That means I'm likely to have four kids if each of you have one, not to mention the likelihood for Kim to have twins. What does that look like for us ten or twenty years down the line?"
"It looks like whatever we want it to, Babypop." Ember said with a smile.
The following day, Tucker and Valerie were sat down at the food court at the mall, the baby doll set up on the table between them. "Feeding is in about 15 minutes I think." Tucker said, checking his PDA for the timing. "If only a real baby was this easy to schedule."
"Well, they can be, with some variance." Valerie said with a shrug as she rifled through her purse for the bottle they had to use. "A feeding schedule like we're doing can normally be pretty consistent, barring maybe supplementing it with a snack or something when they're a little older. Routines are good for babies, I think it's supposed to help them get an understanding of time or something."
"I wouldn't know, I guess." Tucker said with a shrug. "I did some research online, but… I dunno, kids seem really difficult. They take up so much time and effort and… is it worth it?"
"Depends on the person I guess." Valerie said setting the bottle on the table as she found it. "Dad always says no matter how much I get on his nerves sometimes, he'd never trade me for anything. I'm sure your parents have told you something similar."
"Sometimes, other times they just wish they had a normal child. That usually happens after homeland security pops up." Tucker said with a shrug.
"That happened? That happened more than once?" Valerie asked, dumbfounded.
"I hacked into the Pentagon to see if I could once. The answer was yes I could. Homeland Security didn't like that I did it, but when I was able to show that I hadn't DONE anything with the information, and let them know how to patch the hole I found, they let me off. After that I guess I'm just on a watch list." Tucker said with a shrug.
"I feel like I should be concerned." Valerie said, eyeing Tucker. "Why'd you never bring this up before?"
"Never came up." Tucker responded, before taking a sip of his drink. "You just kind of tune out the tech stuff, so even if I had mentioned it you probably wouldn't have really heard it."
"I guess you aren't wrong about that." Valerie said, her face falling a little bit at that. She wondered if it made her a bad girlfriend that she did just kind of zone out when Tucker talked about the stuff he was really passionate about. "Does… that bother you?"
"Not really." Tucker said, smiling at her. "I get that a lot of it goes over your head, not that you aren't smart, just that you aren't as deep in the weeds as I am about that stuff. I figure you'd do the same thing if Danny talked Ghost Equipment, or Star talked about competitive Ice Skating."
"Yeah, but… we're together. Hell, right now we're raising a kid together." Valerie said, pointing at the doll she'd named Harper. "Even if it is fake… it's us trying out being a family. I should be better than that. You don't zone me out."
"Valerie, be real for a second. Do you ever think you would really be interested in tech stuff like I am? Not just the basics of phone gadgets or the equipment we use for ghost stuff. Do you think you would ever genuinely want to sit down and discuss the benefits of coding in Python vs. Ruby?" Tucker asked.
"No… not really." Valerie said, looking down.
"I'll never feel that way about the fashion stuff you do, or any number of hobbies you may have. That's fine. It's normal. We don't have to be 100% on everything in each other's lives to be happy together. I'm fine with you zoning out when I talk about tech stuff, because sometimes I'm not actually talking TO you about it, I'm saying it out loud to work through problems, and having something that stares back at me. We usually call it rubber duckying, but I think you're nicer to look at." Tucker said with a goofy grin. "I know I talk and ramble a lot. I'd be concerned if you actively listened to every single thing I say, because there's just a lot of it."
"So do you ever zone me out?" Valerie asked. "I've never noticed you doing it."
"Yes and no. There's a lot of times you'll talk about like, fashion or something like that. I'll listen to what you say, but I don't really absorb any of it. I'll just turn off my critical listening and just kind of exist." Tucker said, shrugging. "It's not that I don't care, it's just that there isn't any input I can really give. Sometimes you just need to talk, that's it."
"Do you think that's a healthy way for us to be?" Valerie asked, hearing the baby start crying as feeding time approached, she cradled it and pressed the bottle to its lips, letting it eat.
"Probably. I've been friends with Danny and Sam for years and we all do this. Sam will go on about vegetarianism or meat being murder and I'll just let her go. Danny will go on about some astronomy concept and I'll just let him rock. I'm sure they tune out the high level tech stuff like you do too, although Danny probably holds on as long as I'm talking about something involving a mechanical device, as opposed to just a piece of software." Tucker said, shooting her a smile. "Even if it's not, if it doesn't bother me that you tune me out sometimes, and it doesn't bother you that I do the same, then it's fine. We're happy, that's what matters."
"Where is this weird sagely guy all the time?" Valerie asked with an eyebrow raised. "Normally all you talk about is tech, meat, and making out with me."
"Those are my primary interests, but I do actively care about making our relationship work. You're not the only one finding enjoyment in pretending to be a parent for a little bit." Tucker said with a smile. "Although I'll fully admit I've got no clue what I'm doing in that regard."
"You set reminders for her feeding schedule, and you watch it like a hawk. That goes pretty far in my book." Valerie said, taking Harper over her shoulder and letting her burp. "You're tackling parenting in the way you know how, which is preparation and scheduling. That's apparently how Dad was when my Mom was pregnant."
"So you're comparing me to your dad?" Tucker asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Dad's been awesome to me my entire life. I guess I just hoped that I'd find a guy who was like him in some ways, so that I'd feel safe and loved like he makes me feel, just you know, romantic as opposed to familial." Valerie said wistfully.
"How am I doing on that part then?" Tucker asked, jokingly.
"Seven out of ten. You're getting better though." Valerie added, sticking her tongue out at him.
At Bueno Nacho, Ron and Sam sat with The Doll as Sam dubbed it; although to Ron it was little Hannah. "Alright, feeding time is done, another one in three hours." Ron said, checking off a box on a small notepad he had. "This isn't as hard as I was worried it was going to be. I figured Barkin would give me one that like, shot lasers from its eyes at me."
"You think he hates you that much?" Sam asked with a quirked eyebrow. She was really doing everything she could to ignore the doll. She was doing her part for the assignment, not wanting to just coast on the grade for Ron's hard work, but she REALLY didn't like it.
Ron shivered for a moment as Rufus played with the doll a bit, making it let out happy sounds. "Yeah, yeah I do. I don't know WHY Barkin hates me, but he always has. As it is though, this assignment is pretty good. I'm glad we got partnered up for it."
"Why me? Don't pretend like I've been any actual help here. You're apparently super-dad, and I loathe this thing with a passion." Sam said as she glared at the doll. "Not exactly on track to be mom of the year."
"Well, you're my friend for one. If it had been Bonnie I got partnered up with I'd be doing all the work and dealing with her attitude the entire time. You're putting a lot of the baby stuff on me, but you ARE helping, and I don't mind the baby stuff. Besides, you're the only one in the friend group who gets it." Ron said, his voice fading off a bit. Rufus turned and looked at him with a supportive look, before turning back to Hannah.
"Gets what?" Sam asked, her face a little confused.
"Well, you and Danny were kind of like me and Kim, I guess just backwards." Ron said as he started to take a bit of his Naco.
"Childhood friends? Yeah, I get it, but like… so were Star and Valerie, or Me and Tucker, or Danny and Tucker. That's not exclusively a me thing." Sam said, struggling to find what would set her apart from the others in that regard.
"You liked Danny though. Just like I liked… or like Kim." Ron said, sighing as he set the food down. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell her that."
"You and Kim?" Sam asked, honestly a little shocked.
"I'm not sure when it happened, really. I always knew Kim was a pretty girl, she always had been. Just at some point, she went from pretty girl who was my friend, to pretty girl I wanted to be my girlfriend. By the point I realized that though, there were supervillains and high school coming up, I figured I'd just wait, let the chips fall where they would. We hung out every Friday on the regular, so in my mind I could just pretend those were dates. I didn't NEED to hold her hand or kiss her to be happy, and while I might have been happier with those things, they weren't necessary. I was fine being just the friend for the time being. High school came and we met you guys, and then all of a sudden we had more buds, that was exciting! Maybe if I had to worry less about being one of Kim's only friends, I could work on moving up!" Ron said, his tone a little melancholic.
"Kim Possible had issues making friends?" Sam questioned. It seemed so improbable to her, Kim was a cheerleader, a star student, traditionally attractive with normal girl hobbies. Everything Sam didn't consider herself, how had that caused her issues in the friend department?
"Like you wouldn't believe. I'm not really sure how it started, probably my fault, but she and Bonnie did NOT get along, never have. They've been at each other's throats since first grade at least. That rivalry effectively would have split the girls in the class down the middle. You could be friends with Kim, or you could be friends with Bonnie, not both. The only person who ever made that kind of work was Tara, but she's the exception because she literally gets along with everyone. Kim really internalized the 'anything is possible for a Possible' motto, and ended up being like, a super-student. Answering all the questions in class, getting good grades, showing everyone up in sports, not because she was trying to show off, but just because she was GOOD at them. Kim's never thought she was better than anyone, but she ended up getting put on this pedestal by teachers and stuff. That isolated her away from everyone else." Ron said as he sighed a bit. "I probably didn't help much, I'm not exactly Mr. Cool Guy, but Kim would never abandon me or anything like that. That pretty much made it 'hang with Bonnie and all the cool kids, or hang with Kim and the loser'. You can imagine what most people chose."
"You're not a loser, Ron." Sam said, her tone a bit more warm than it had been before.
"I mean, I kind of am, but I'm okay with that." Ron said, smiling. "I've got tons of good friends now, between you, Kim, Danny, Tucker, Star, Valerie, Sammy, Alex, Clover, Wade… plus just the other people I hang out with in home ec or whatever, I've even got Rufus!" The mole rat raised his fist in the air with a "Booyah!" at that. "I've got friends now, lots of them, I help save the world, I'm a literal superhero. Honestly, it's almost everything I could have dreamed of when I was a kid."
Sam looked on at Ron, seeing him in a new light for the first time, and feeling upset at herself for how she had thought of him before. Ron has always seemed… goofy to say the least. He was the comic relief, the sidekick who existed only to cheer someone up when they were down, but in this moment Sam saw deeper than that. Sam saw the hero who was in totally over his head and still managed to get up and go on a mission whenever it was needed. Sam saw the friend who watched someone swoop in and steal a woman he might have been in love with and bear it with a smile. Sam saw someone who she had judged far too harshly. Sam saw, for the first time, her friend, Ron Stoppable.
Turning in their children at the end of the week was an odd affair. While many individuals, Sam included, felt no compassion for the dolls at all, several had developed quite the attachment.
"I don't want to give up Marie!" Sammy called out as Danny attempted to take the doll back up to the front of the class. "I had one week to be Mrs. Fenton, it wasn't ENOUGH."
"Come on, Sammy. Surely you aren't going to miss waking up in the middle of the night to change a diaper or do a feeding?" Danny said, trying to reason with her. He understood the reluctance actually, he too felt attachment to the doll, it was… nice to pretend.
"Not really, but… I'll miss the moments when I was just rocking her, getting lost in the moment and thinking that THIS was our baby. That we'd brought a little life into the world. That maybe we'd be raising the next little superhero together." Sammy said, still holding Marie to her chest.
"You think our kid would be a Hero?" Danny asked.
"They'd probably have your ghost genetics, plus my Spy gene." Sammy said, holding her. "They'd have genetic predispositions to be stronger, smarter, and have greater stamina, not to mention any powers they'd receive from you. Plus… well you talked a bit about how even before you got your powers you were super strong like your dad. Mr. Fenton is a behemoth of a man with strength that isn't just explained by his size. You're probably hero material on your own… without the powers."
"Aw… well… it still doesn't mean we can keep the doll Sammy." Danny said, flustered as he tried to put those pieces together. He'd boasted to Vlad about the Fenton strength before, at the time it was largely a bluff, but it WAS true. Danny even before his accident was able to outlift a good deal of the football team without training, if he had trained… he'd probably be outperforming Dash and Kwan easily. If Danny was as big as his Dad with the same proportional strength? He probably wouldn't NEED ghost powers to lift a car up, or at least get the back wheels a couple inches off the ground.
"But… what if this is the only time we get to do this?" Sammy asked. "What if… you're sterile or i'm infertile or any other number of things? I… I didn't really KNOW it before now but… I want to be a mother someday. I want to have a little family. I want that with YOU, Danny."
"I want that too, but Sammy, that's going to be years down the line. Leaving out the fact that we're 15, we also have to think about our jobs. Do you think WOOHP will let you work while pregnant? Do you think you could go off and be a super spy and leave a child at home? We lucked out that you didn't get a call this week, and I just fight ghosts here in town. What about when that doesn't happen?" Danny posited. He didn't want to discourage her dreams, honestly everything she said sounded so good to him too, but… he had to be realistic about it. Their hero work as it stood… there wouldn't really be room for a child, not without some changes.
"Then we have Star… or Sam, or Tucker, or Valerie, or your parents or mine. It's not just US Danny… we have a team. We have a family, not just us, but those around us." Sammy said, smiling at him. "Star isn't a hero like we are, but do you think she'd complain about taking care of your kids while you go off to save the world?"
"No… I guess she wouldn't." Danny said, as he took a moment to think about his future. Off in that distance, he saw Fenton Works 10 or so years in the future. Star sat in the living room, surrounded by a bunch of kids, most with red hair, but a few with blonde or black, and one that floated in the air as she read through a story book. Danny, Kim, and Sammy stepped through the door, the tiredness of a world saving mission clear in their faces, but coming in and seeing the swarm of children coming to meet their dad and moms put the extra pep in their step. Ember emerged from downstairs, holding a ghost infant of her own. It was… everything Danny could dream of. "We still have to give up the doll though, Sammy."
"Her name is Marie." Sammy said.
"No, Marie is the little red-headed girl we'll meet in a few years… assuming we keep that name. This is a doll who let us hold Marie a little early. This isn't goodbye, this is just an 'until next time'." Danny said, as he eased the doll out of Sammy's arms.
"Promise?" Sammy asked, her eyes watering as the doll left her arms.
"Promise." Danny affirmed, giving her a kiss before returning the doll to Barkin.
As grades were handed out, none of them really cared. They'd done well, even if Sam only passed because of Househusbando Macho Ron, but they'd all learned far more than just childcare over this past week.