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ladylynse · 5 years

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Together: [FF | AO3] “We’ll always be together,” Maddie had promised, but then there was the accident, and they weren’t. Until she came back. Warning: Character death.

Written for the 2019 Phic Phight! Largely based off a prompt by @hauntedjoanns (After a freak lab accident, the Fentons bury Maddie. But she comes back.) but also incorporating one of @quishaphantom‘s prompts (Start and end the fic with the same sentence, the first time it's positive and happy. The second time it's chilling and foreboding.). This is about 6.7 K and is set after The Fright Before Christmas.

Now with some awesome fanart by @dannyphandump!

“We’ll always be together. We’re a family, and we’re Fentons. A silly little feud like this isn’t going to break us apart.” Maddie sat down on the foot of Danny’s bed and smiled at him. “You know that, right, sweetie?”

She thought he didn’t want to talk about what had happened at Christmas, when in reality he’d spent half his time with his friends and the rest in the Ghost Zone celebrating the Christmas Truce—and, on a more personal level, the end of the Ghost Writer’s infernal rhymes. Had he been in his room when she’d first knocked and begun talking to him outside of his door, soothing him, trying to coax him into opening it, she might not have this impression. She’d believed his apology when he’d come back with the presents, but considering she and Jack had run out fairly soon afterwards…. Maybe she thought they’d ruined it for him again, since he’d disappeared for so much of the evening.

He wondered how late it actually was.

He probably should’ve come back sooner, spent more of his Christmas with them, but once he’d gone, the food in the Ghost Zone had been unexpectedly good. It had been real, fresh, and surprisingly not contaminated, unlike everything in the Fenton household. But he could make it up to them tomorrow; he was off school for another week and a half, and all he had to do was find out from Jazz which weapons it was safe to pretend to be interested in. Once he asked about those, maybe agreed to go on a quick patrol with his parents and take down an ectopus or something, they’d believe the truth when he told it: that he really didn’t harbour any hard feelings about how they’d acted all these years, not anymore.

“I know, Mom,” he answered dutifully.

“Sometimes we fight; every family does. And, sometimes, things escalate. And sometimes our dinner is contaminated and gains sentience.” Her lips quirked into another smile, and he smiled, too. There had been too many disasters in the past for them to ignore that. “But we’ll handle each problem as it comes, honey. I promise you; nothing like that will ever separate us. You and Jazz are more precious to us than anything else in this world or the Ghost Zone. We love you both. I don’t want you to think anything is going to get in the way of that, or of our love for each other.”

He just nodded. It wasn’t like he could tell her the truth about why he’d run away—well, the whole truth, anyway—or how he’d come to be surrounded by formerly-possessed Christmas trees or where he’d gotten the presents he’d given to them in the end. It was easier if she believed his behaviour was due to the Christmas feud, of how she and Jack had carried on, of how they’d run out in pursuit of ghosts. Honestly, it was rather sweet that she’d come to reassure him. He just didn’t need the reassurance.

“You can talk to us, honey. About anything.”

She suspected there was more to this. If he brushed her off now, she’d find a way to bring it up again. Danny untangled himself from the covers so he could give his mom a proper hug. “I know,” he repeated, “and I love you guys, too. Like I said before, I overreacted earlier, and I’m sorry. It’s not that I didn’t want to talk to you when you came up tonight; I just fell asleep early. I didn’t hear you right away.” The lie fell easily from his lips, and he forced a laugh as he finished with the truth. “It was a long day.”

“I’ll let you get back to sleep, then.” She kissed his cheek before he had a chance to contemplate escape. “Good night, Danny. I love you.”

“Night, Mom. Love you, too.”

XXXXX

Danny woke to wailing alarms, sleepiness falling away as adrenaline filled him. He transformed—

—and four ecto-energy seeking weapons sprang out of the walls to focus on him. He groaned and changed back before they could fire. Who had activated the Fenton Anti-Creep Mode? His ghost sense had never gone off, so it wasn’t like someone had breached the Fenton Ghost Portal again. He grabbed his ecto-gun off the shelf with his model rockets (he refused to sleep with it under his pillow, despite what his parents wanted) but didn’t even bother shoving his feet into slippers before running into the hallway.

His parents’ bedroom door was open. So was Jazz’s. A quick peek inside both rooms proved that they were empty, as was the bathroom, so Danny started down the stairs. He saw Jack pushing Jazz towards the front door, but before he could open his mouth to ask, one of Jack’s hands had grabbed his and was tugging him down the last of the steps.

“What happened?” Danny asked, twisting to look behind him.

His father’s face was unusually grim. “Outside, you two. Mads and I will deal with this.”

“Deal with what? What’s going on?”

“Wait for us across the street,” Jack said, and then he slammed the door in their faces, leaving them standing on the stoop in their pajamas.

Danny looked at Jazz, who shrugged and rubbed her arms. “Ghost?”

He shook his head. “My ghost sense never woke me up.”

“And it always does?”

“Kinda hard to sleep through a sudden freezing sensation.” Truth was, though, he didn’t know that his ghost sense always woke him up. How could he? He’d still be asleep.

“Maybe it’s a drill, then.” But the alarm was still ringing inside, and Jazz didn’t look convinced. Every other family drill they’d had had come with reminders—never trust a ghost, always remember technology may have been infected, never back yourself into a corner, always keep at least one weapon within arm’s reach, that kind of thing—and it seemed unlikely that they’d stop now.

They’d never had a ghost drill in the middle of the night before, either, for all that his parents had threatened it. He watched some of the lights flick on in the neighbouring houses and realized why. More than one disgruntled face looked out the window before turning away and disappearing into darkness, realizing it was just the Fentons. Again.

“This is probably to keep us on our toes,” Jazz said lightly. She took his ecto-gun from him and shoved it into a pocket in her housecoat—hers was already in the other pocket, judging by the bulge—before crouching in front of him. “Come on; climb on. You’re barefoot, and powers or not, I don’t want to find out if you can lose any toes to frostbite.”

Neither did he, so Danny climbed on her back. She hadn’t given him a piggyback ride in years, but she shuffled across the street and waited under the streetlight. As the wind picked up, bringing with it a few flakes of snow, he could feel her shivering beneath her thin housecoat. He wished there was something he could do to help, but with the possible exception of a ghost shield—

“Cold wind,” Jazz commented after a moment, but her voice was high, wrong, and Danny suddenly realized that she wasn’t shivering; she was shaking.

He clutched her tighter, turning them both intangible except for the soles of her feet and slippers, as if it would help them escape from the chest-constricting feeling that was settling over them.

Something was wrong.

Something he couldn’t stop.

Something she couldn’t fix.

“We have to go back in,” Danny whispered. He didn’t know how long it had been. Too long. It must have already been too long. Their parents should have come out to get them ages ago. They should have—

The alarms finally cut off. He flew them both back across the street, past caring that someone might see. If they did, they’d just explain it away, like they explained away everything else. It was just the Fentons, after all. Just the Fentons, steeped in their paranormal studies again, inventing strange things and talking about it to anyone close enough to listen.

Danny didn’t drop their intangibility until they were safely inside. Jazz was running for the basement lab before his feet even hit the kitchen floor, but he wasn’t far behind her.

The door to the lab wasn’t closed like it usually was, like it was supposed to be, but he took the stairs two at a time without stopping to wonder why. The Christmas Truce was no longer in effect, but the ghosts weren’t that cruel; they wouldn’t have planned something for the moment the Truce ended.

And his ghost sense had never gone off.

“Dad?”

Jazz’s voice sounded strangled, as if she had to force herself to speak. As if she were trying not to cry. Danny caught up to her at the bottom of the stairs and finally let himself look around. The emergency lighting was on, softer lights lining the walls and disappearing up the emergency exit tunnel to the backyard, but he didn’t need the usual harsh fluorescence of the lab to know that something had happened here. Broken glass, splattered ecto-samples, scorch marks along the far wall.

A lingering smell of burnt something, acrid and plasticky and maybe a bit acidic.

“What happened?”

There was definitely panic in Jazz’s voice now.

Danny followed her gaze and swallowed as he recognized the black boots sticking out from behind the examination table. The rest was hidden by his father’s hulking form, but—

“Dad.” Jazz’s voice cracked. “How’s Mom?”

Jack’s shoulders shook, and something inside of Danny twisted.

A choked sob was Jazz’s only answer.

Danny couldn’t swallow the lump in his throat back again as the world blurred.

XXXXXXXX

Jack explained it to them later, as much as he could explain it. Maddie had gone down to the lab to tinker with something. A surprise, she’d called it. Wouldn’t tell him the details, but he had a few guesses, none of which mattered now. Something shorted out. Something got knocked off the shelf. The order of events wasn’t entirely clear, but some of their ecto-samples had been released, and not just the standard ectoplasm ones. Danny was pretty sure Jack had mentioned a suspected hallucinogen, though he wasn’t sure which ghost was supposed to be involved in that. Maybe it wasn’t a ghost at all. He hadn’t realized his parents had ever done a scouting mission into the Ghost Zone, let alone collected some of the native flora, but maybe they had. Or maybe that had been part of his mother’s surprise.

Whatever the exact circumstances, Jack hadn’t been able to save her in the end. Something had gone wrong, something Danny couldn’t stop, something Jazz couldn’t fix, and now—

Jazz put a cup of hot chocolate in front of him.

He hadn’t realized she’d gotten up to make something. Hadn’t noticed her leave her spot at the table, hadn’t heard the kettle’s shrill whistle or the clink of the spoon against the cup. She’d made one for each of them.

She’d made three.

It wasn’t enough.

Danny wrapped his hands around his mug, lifting it to his face to breathe in the steam, but it couldn’t warm him, and his stomach twisted after the first sip.

He didn’t drink the rest. Jack never touched his. By the time Jazz finished hers, it must have been ice cold.

They sat in silence, trying to come to terms with everything, until the phone rang. Jazz jumped up to get it, and Jack shot her a grateful look, and then there was too much to do to sit in silence. There was too much to do to think. Contacting all their relatives, breaking the news to Vlad, talking to the funeral home and getting all those preparations in order, writing the obituary and getting it in the paper, picking up Aunt Alicia from the airport, talking to the florist, the bank, the accountant, the lawyer, the insurance company, finding out who needed to know what and by when and which places needed a death certificate and—

None of them were sleeping.

It was a good thing he didn’t need much sleep anyway.

People kept stopping by to bring them food and their condolences, which was just as well, because Danny didn’t think they could eat any of the food in their house anyway. Not that any of them were hungry. They were too tired to be hungry, stuck in cycles of shock and grief as reality started to sink in. But they did try to eat, since it was there.

The ghosts stayed away, though.

Danny thought he might have Vlad to thank for that, but he didn’t ask.

XXXXXX

A lot of people turned up for the funeral.

Danny didn’t know half of them, but they knew him, and they shook his hand or hugged him or touched his shoulder. In hindsight, it made sense; everyone in town knew the Fentons. But it was weird, seeing all these people show up, all these people being sad for someone he wasn’t sure they’d really known. Sometimes people cried instead of trying to talk to him, and he always got tears in his eyes, too. If he let himself think about it, he cried. He tried to distance himself, tried to distract himself, just to get through it.

He couldn’t remember anything anyone said to him at the funeral.

He had a vague recollection of being at the cemetery, of the cold seeping into his bones, of the wisps of snow skittering across the ground at their feet, of the way the artificial turf didn’t quite cover the mound of dirt that had been displaced. He remembered looking up at one point and seeing Valerie standing there with her dad, and he remembered thinking that she knew what this felt like. Unlike Sam and Tucker, she knew.

He remembered wondering if he could ask her how long the pain would last, but he hadn’t known how to ask the question, and there had been too many people at the reception, anyway.

He’d nibbled at the food on the plate Sam had brought for him, but even when she and Tucker had sat with him at a table, talking more to each other than to him, it hadn’t been enough.

Was any of this his fault, even partially? Had she been doing something in response to how he’d been acting? Had she been hoping to surprise him? Had it really been a freak accident or had it been a targeted attack on her because he was Phantom? Would things have been different if she’d known the truth? His mom had always taken more safety precautions in the lab than his dad, and he knew theirs wasn’t exactly the safest profession to begin with, but—

At least he’d told her he loved her. At least he had that. But he hadn’t spent…. He’d left them, left them all, when he shouldn’t have, and she’d thought…. She’d…. If only he’d….

Danny cried himself to sleep that night.

Again.

XXXXXX

When Danny woke, it took him a few seconds to orient himself. He was in his room, of course, in bed, but he couldn’t remember falling asleep. It had been after three in the morning when he’d last looked at the clock and sworn to himself that he wouldn’t look at it again, and—

Bright red numbers informed him that it was half past six. It was still dark outside. The house was quiet. He couldn’t remember dreaming. He wondered dumbly what had woken him.

And then a shiver ran through him, and he coughed, and he realized his grace period was over.

He wasn’t ready for normal, wasn’t ready for any semblance of normal, but the ghosts weren’t going to wait any longer.

Danny grabbed the ecto-gun off the shelf, picked up the thermos he’d started storing next to it, and shuffled his slippers onto his feet.

He didn’t want to fight.

But he didn’t want to lose anyone else, either.

And maybe it would just be the Box Ghost, and Danny could give him some cereal boxes and send him over to Vlad’s to look for more and be done with it. He shouldn’t, considering Vlad had agreed to put up Aunt Alicia and take her back to the airport in the morning, but Vlad would just call Valerie anyway. Frankly, Danny was happy to leave the ghost hunting to Valerie for a while.

Something fell. Shattered, from the sound of it. Maybe it was the Box Ghost after all. Or Technus after the toaster again. Or the Lunch Lady, stocking up on semi-sentient meat. Danny headed downstairs and walked towards the kitchen. He didn’t want to do this, but Jack and Jazz hadn’t been sleeping well, either, and if he could deal with this before either of them woke up—

He crossed over the threshold of the kitchen, blinked, and froze.

It was a cloudy night. Some light from the streetlamps spilled inside, but he didn’t need that to be sure of what he was seeing. Ghosts always had their own glow, however subtle, and it was his ghost sense which had woken him up. Even running on very little sleep, Danny knew there was no mistaking what he saw.

Maddie stood over the shards of her glass mixing bowl, and when she looked up at him, she smiled. “Hi, sweetie,” she called softly.

He took a step back.

“Did I wake you? I just wanted to make some cookies.”

He took another step back.

“Did you want some water? Let me get you some water.”

She glided smoothly over broken glass to the cupboard by the sink, and after a moment’s concentration, she had a glass in her hand and was fighting to grasp the tap, to turn it on and fill a glass of water for him.

He was halfway up the stairs when he heard running water, and he didn’t look back.

XXXXXXX

They didn’t talk about it. There was no screaming, no crying, no denials. No one drew any weapons, either.

Not even Jack.

She’d made sure they didn’t have any weapons left to draw.

None of them had ventured into the lab until her return, but she had, probably that first night. As far as Danny could tell, what she couldn’t destroy, she’d simply tossed into the Ghost Zone. Whether the genetic lock recognized her or whether she simply used her knowledge of it to get around all the protocols, he didn’t know. He did know that she’d deactivated the Fenton Anti-Creep Mode, probably at the same time she’d stolen his dad’s arsenal and swiped his sister’s ecto-gun and thermos.

She hadn’t found his yet, despite watching him carefully behind a too-sharp smile.

She didn’t know he’d hidden them in his bedroom wall that first night.

She still didn’t know he could.

She must have never talked to any of the other ghosts. Not that he thought they’d talk to her, except maybe Plasmius, but Vlad didn’t know or he’d be here. He’d probably come even knowing this wasn’t really Maddie anymore; he’d just be desperate to see her one last time. But he wouldn’t come without knowing, and as far as Danny could tell, the other ghosts were still avoiding the Real World—or at least avoiding his little corner of it.

He’d even tried calling Cujo, to no avail. Either Cujo hadn’t heard him or he couldn’t get through whatever Maddie had reconfigured to keep other ghosts out. There was definitely something. Danny kept hitting a barrier, presumably the Fenton Ghost Shield, every time he tried to phase all the way through an outside wall. Trying to phase through the ground didn’t work, either; whatever it was passed through the earth, too, which might be what was messing with Cujo’s ability to create portals if he had heard Danny’s call.

Intentional trap or not, it meant Danny couldn’t sneak messages out that way. Or any way, really, considering Maddie had destroyed their computer, their phones, and everything else she thought they might ultimately use against her. Since their routines had been so disrupted, no one was going to question this. Even Sam and Tucker had been trying to give him space, sending only the occasional message to check up on him with assurances that he didn’t have to answer right away and promises that they’d be there if he ever wanted to do something, whether that involved talking about what had happened or avoiding the subject at all costs. Not hearing from him for a few days would have been weird before, but not now.

It was…strange. They were all walking on eggshells, trying to adjust, trying to figure out the boundaries without pushing too far. They didn’t know what the consequences would be, not yet, but they still feared them. Feared this. Feared what Maddie had become.

Danny was finally beginning to appreciate some of his parents’ theories on ghosts.

Then again, ghosts were as much a culmination of people’s beliefs around the afterlife, around ghosts, as they were people’s spirits and echoes of their lives.

And Maddie had believed ghosts had obsessions.

She had believed they didn’t feel pain.

She had believed they had no true emotions, merely masks, and that they were expert manipulators.

She had believed they couldn’t be trusted.

Some of that certainly held true now, but he didn’t yet know how much.

Danny lay in his bed with his eyes closed. Not pretending to sleep—she wouldn’t believe that—but content to use it as an excuse to think. She was watching him. He knew that. She was watching him the most closely of all, probably because she’d come to realize she could trust him the least.

Danny wasn’t sure, if it came down to it, if Jack would be able to fight her. She was a ghost, but she was his wife. That might change things, just as knowing he was Phantom might change things, if he ever gave it the chance. It wasn’t quite the same—she was dead, a proper ghost; she had no body, no human side to embrace, not anymore—but for every fear he’d ever had about them finding out, he now found himself thinking that the opposite would happen here. They wouldn’t have attacked him for being Phantom, and Jack wouldn’t attack Maddie now.

Even if he had the opportunity, even knowing what he did, he’d hesitate.

She’d know what to say to make him hesitate.

And then she’d act before he could, and the opportunity would be lost.

Jazz wouldn’t be any better. He could pass a weapon to her without explaining how he still had it, but she was trying to get through to their mom. To talk to her. Remind her of who she really was, not this façade, this shadow. Jazz wouldn’t want to attack until she was convinced it was too late, and if he talked to her about this, she’d just ask for him to give her time.

He wasn’t concerned about keeping his secret from his dad anymore; he just wanted to keep it a secret from his mom. It was the only advantage they had. Telling Jack anything now just ran the risk of Maddie finding out, especially since Jack wasn’t great at subtle.

It would be different if Maddie hadn’t changed. But for all that the ghost of his mother smiled at them and baked batch after batch of cookies, the ghost wasn’t his mom. Not really.

There was a thump across the hall. Jazz. Danny opened his eyes, climbed out of bed, and met her in the hallway. Her eyebrows rose a fraction, and he gave his head a minute shake. It wasn’t safe to talk. Maddie was listening.

Jazz risked reaching for the front door handle, but Danny wasn’t surprised when her hand fell away and she kept pace with him into the living room. The doors in the house weren’t locked, per se, but they wouldn’t open, either. Neither did the windows. No doubt the Fenton Ops Centre was locked down as tightly as the Fenton Ghost Portal—and, presumably, the emergency exit to the backyard.

Jack looked up from his needlework. “You kids all right?” The stitches Danny could see were tiny, tight, but he wasn’t much farther along than he had been last time Danny had looked. Likely as not, he kept picking them out.

“We’re great, Dad,” Jazz chirped, but her eyes told the real story.

They were a family of ghost hunters trapped in their own home by a ghost who had been one of them, who knew their usual tricks. Jazz hadn’t been making any progress with her psychology, Jack seemed at a loss for what to do, Danny wasn’t sure of the best plan of attack and couldn’t discuss it with either of them, and she was afraid.

“Isn’t this wonderful?” Maddie asked, materializing as Danny and Jazz sat down on the sofa. “We need to spend more time together, as a family. We’re better this way.”

It didn’t even sound like her anymore.

Danny had thought, if there were a change, that it would be gradual. Time deteriorated all things, even memories. But this was…. She’d never seemed like herself since she’d come back. Maybe not all of her had come back.

“It’s nice to have quality family time,” Jazz agreed carefully. “Too many people have trouble keeping their lives balanced.”

The smile that had been fixed on Maddie’s face faltered. “Oh, sweetie, don’t worry. We’ll make up for lost time. I promise.”

Jazz swallowed and glanced at Danny. He pretended not to see.

“We’re making do,” Jack said. “We…we still have food we can eat.”

As opposed to food they couldn’t eat, like the Christmas oranges the cookies had infected yesterday. Danny had nearly had to reveal himself then and there, until Jazz had fished the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick out of her closet and, between that and Jack’s golf clubs, they’d turned the oranges into pulp and trapped the remains in jars.

Maddie had been suspiciously absent for the entire incident.

“You haven’t finished my cookies.” Maddie’s tone was light, but she was watching their reactions, frowning slightly at every grimace. Danny wasn’t sure if she was intentionally contaminating every batch or not. He hadn’t figured out what she wanted.

Aside from trapping them all inside, she hadn’t given them a lot of clues. Revenge for what had happened to her? As far as he knew, it had been a freak accident—not even the sort carelessness could cause, like not cleaning the ecto-filter on the portal. Unfinished business? Maybe, except ghost hunting had been the family business, and destroying their weapons so they couldn’t be used against her, while beneficial to her continued existence in the Real World, wasn’t conducive to achieving that goal and moving on. He hoped she didn’t want him and Jazz to take up ghost hunting more wholeheartedly than either of them had, but if that was her goal and the reason she was trying to keep them here….

“Just don’t have much of a sweet tooth lately,” Jazz murmured. None of them had tried their hand at cooking a meal yet, but Danny knew they were running out of gifted casseroles—albeit more because they kept getting contaminated than because they were being eaten. Maddie wasn’t exactly careful in the kitchen anymore, but he knew how hard it could be to learn to control new powers. He doubted it was much easier for her than it had been for him, especially since she was spending all her time in the Real World.

Still, they’d have to act soon. Three days of being a prisoner in his own home, and his skin was constantly crawling.

Cold flooded through him, and Danny shivered. “You’re being awfully quiet, sweetie,” his mother said.

“I was just thinking,” he muttered, not meeting her eyes.

“Aren’t you happy? We’re a family again.”

Danny’s head shot up. Was that all it was? Was that what this was? He wished he could discuss it with Jazz—she’d know in a heartbeat; she probably already had a guess—but all he could do now was search Maddie’s face. She was smiling again, and it was more than her usual mask. Cruelness twisted on the edge of it, and her eyes…. He hadn’t seen them look so cold when she’d been alive, even when she’d been cheerfully informing them that ghosts didn’t feel pain.

Maddie stepped back, but the cold didn’t diminish, some combination of her presence and his ghost sense and who knew what else. “You don’t think we’re a family,” she concluded, and her gaze focused on Jack and Jazz. “Do any of you think we’re still a family?”

Even Danny knew their pause was too long, their assurances too late.

Shadows danced across the drawn curtains as the light in the room pulled away and dimmed. Jazz didn’t even look at him, knowing full well he wasn’t the cause. Her gaze was fixed on Maddie. This was the first time she’d openly displayed any of her new powers, and which ones she had would give them the best clues as to what had happened.

“I’ll just have to prove it to you, then,” she said, and Danny heard a thump from the kitchen. He jumped to his feet, and Jazz screamed, and Jack was looking around for something to use as a weapon—

There was something in here with them, something besides Maddie, but he couldn’t spot it, and he was so cold now that he wasn’t sure he’d have noticed his ghost sense going off. Could Maddie really control light and shadows or was there some sort of mutual agreement between her and a shadow ghost, not unlike what Johnny 13 and Shadow had? But when would she have made one—when could she have made one—and who would make such a deal with her without even telling her who he really was? If they’d planned to double cross her—

“Look out!” Jazz shrieked, and she tackled him. Something exploded overhead, showering them with sparks, and then he could smell smoke, and burning cloth, burning hair, and fire crackled and heat swelled and his eyes were smarting, and Jack was yelling at them to get to the door—

And then there was nothing.

“This is what I’m protecting you from,” Maddie said as Jazz rolled off his back and climbed tentatively to her feet. He sat up but stayed on the floor. His eyes were watering. Smoke and ash still stung his nostrils and hung on his tongue. But the heat was gone, and the earlier cold, and he was more convinced than ever that his ghost sense hadn’t gone off.

Not for someone besides his mother, anyway.

He thought he knew what this was now. He’d met enough ghosts that worked with illusions, or near enough, and if Jack was right about what he thought had happened….

“It’s not safe outside,” she continued. “Not anymore. When I broke through, when I came back…. They followed me. They got out, and now they’re trying to get all of you. I won’t let that happen.”

“I’ll fight—”

“You can’t,” Maddie interrupted, cutting off Jack before he could begin his argument. “Not these ghosts. You’re a terrible shot, honey.”

“Not when it comes to protecting my family,” he replied, lifting his head.

“That’s all I’m doing,” she answered. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. And now I can do it properly. You’ll all stay here, and you’ll stay safe. Now, I’ll bring in those cookies in case anyone decides their sweet tooth is back.”

Danny caught Jazz’s eye as Maddie left the room and risked a tiny nod. He didn’t have a plan, not really, but she’d follow his lead, and Jack would catch on soon enough. They needed to move before things got worse, before Maddie got stronger.

While she was preoccupied in the kitchen, Danny slipped upstairs.

XXXXXX

Danny didn’t know if Maddie had any sort of ghost sense. If she knew of his ghost powers, she certainly hadn’t let on. Then again, he’d barely used his ghost powers since her return. Until now.

He wasn’t as good as Vlad when it came to duplicating himself—he couldn’t hold a duplicate very long in ghost mode, let alone in human form—and he risked giving the game away faster if he tried sending one downstairs as a stand-in. He didn’t need it disappearing mid-sentence. Instead, he’d let Jazz cover for him, like she always had before.

Danny turned invisible the moment he was out of sight, though he stayed tangible until he needed to grab the weapons he’d stowed away. He stayed this way as he flew back to the living room and pressed the thermos into Jazz’s hands. She shifted, subtly pointing to the pillow resting against the arm of the couch, and he slipped it behind that instead as Maddie returned with a plate of chocolate chip cookies that emitted a faint green glow.

Danny steered clear of her as he edged toward Jack, but he needn’t have worried. Maddie stopped in her tracks when she noticed his absence. The room grew colder again.

“Danny just ran to the washroom,” Jazz offered before Maddie asked. Maddie looked in the direction of the upstairs bathroom, frowning slightly. Danny shivered even though he was certain she didn’t know—yet—that he wasn’t actually up there.

Maddie’s lips thinned, and Jazz glanced at Jack before snagging Maddie’s attention again. Danny took the opening for what it was. “Trust me,” he murmured in Jack’s ear as he slipped the ecto-gun into one of the side pockets of his dad’s suit. To Jack’s credit, he jerked but didn’t say anything—maybe because he recognized the familiar weight of what had become forbidden weaponry.

Danny sneaked back upstairs, flushing the toilet and running the tap for good measure, before joining the others in the living room again. Maddie didn’t smile when she saw him. Whether or not she knew the truth, she didn’t believe the lie. She’d be expecting something.

“Are you feeling okay, sweetie?” she asked, half turning towards him.

Danny opened his mouth to repeat his usual lie—I’m fine—when he saw Jack draw the ecto-gun and flip off the safety. Maddie was turning back to him even before it finished powering up, but she surely wasn’t expecting the pillow Jazz threw at her or she’d have phased through it.

The distraction was enough for the ecto-gun’s whine to reach its climax. Jack fired. Danny ducked and shot off an ectoblast for good measure. Maddie had also managed to avoid Jack’s blast, but she hadn’t been anticipating his when she’d thought him unarmed. It caught her in the side and threw her across the room. He rolled and transformed, figuring he’d withstand anything she retaliated with better in ghost mode and not wanting to be in the same spot by the time she recovered enough to send something at him. Just because he hadn’t seen her use a ghost ray, didn’t mean she couldn’t.

When Danny came back up in a crouch, the world was thick with smoke. Turning intangible helped—it was easier to breathe, the smoke didn’t sting anymore, and he couldn’t feel any heat from the flames which had sprung up—but it didn’t give him his sight lines back. Jazz and Jack were lost in choking darkness, and Maddie was far enough away that he couldn’t spot her, either. He knew this couldn’t be real, but he also had no idea how he was supposed to see through an illusion like this.

There wasn’t fire, just as there wasn’t really smoke, so trying to do anything to fight it wouldn’t get him anywhere. He’d do more harm than good. But she could have easily removed herself from view in a world spun of her own illusions, and if he didn’t do something—

The world filled with blinding light, and then everything was dark.

XXXX

Reality snapped back into place when the thermos left Jazz’s hands. “Wh…what…?”

“It seems someone’s been keeping secrets,” Maddie said, tucking the thermos under her arm. Jazz’s eyes darted around the room, her heart sinking when she couldn’t spot her little brother. True, there was a chance he was hiding again and biding his time, but….

But that didn’t seem likely, given that Maddie held the thermos and the ecto-gun Jack had used was in pieces on the carpet. Jack was staring blankly at the remains, and Jazz didn’t know if he was shocked to find out he’d spent the last few days living with two ghosts or if he was still lost in Maddie’s illusions.

That’s what it had to be. It was rare for a ghost not to have some power related to either the means of their death or their obsession, particularly a ghost who could keep their form and interact with the Real World for as long as Maddie had. She didn’t have Spectra’s years of practice, and Jazz doubted she’d opened the Fenton Ghost Portal since coming through it from the other side. It was too risky for her to leave such an obvious hole in their defenses, even if she hadn’t known of Danny’s dual nature or Vlad’s personal portal.

Jazz had tried overriding the security system of the Ops Centre last night. She’d tried crawling out through a vent the night before, thinking it a less obvious choice. But while the air could get through, she could not. And Danny couldn’t have had any luck with anything he had tried, either, or he’d have let her know. Somehow.

And Jack….

Jazz swallowed.

Jack hadn’t hesitated before taking a shot at Maddie at the first opportunity.

She hoped he hadn’t merely been acting on old instincts. If this was an indication that he might not accept Danny—

“We’re supposed to be a family,” Maddie said. Jazz flinched at her sharp tone, but Jack looked over, and Jazz edged closer to her father. She’d have to figure out how to get the thermos back later. She’d have to— “Do you not want to be a family, now that things have changed?”

Jazz knew better than to answer that question. Jack frowned, but he kept quiet, too.

“I’ll admit this was a surprise—” here Maddie tapped her finger on the thermos’s lid “—but it works in our favour, really. Danny will come over sooner or later. I’ll just keep him safe in here until you two have come over to my side.”

“To your side?” Jack growled. “You can’t pretend we’re a family when this is what you do.”

Maddie’s smile was all wrong. “You know exactly which side I mean, honey.”

Jazz’s breath hitched. Maddie might not be able to cut off their air supply, but it wouldn’t be difficult for her to contaminate the rest of their food. She might be able to taint their water, too. She might—

“You’ll see things from my perspective soon enough,” Maddie continued. Her tone made it clear that she didn’t intend to give them a choice. Jazz tried to remember if she still had a Fenton Lipstick sewn into Bearbert or if she’d forgotten to replace it the last time half his stuffing had been ripped out. She’d have to check.

Providing she ever had the opportunity.

With Maddie’s apparent control of illusion, with her ability to bend their perspective of reality, Jazz couldn’t even be sure this much was real.

“We’re family, after all, and I’m going to do what’s best for you. For all of you.” Maddie stroked the thermos before looking up at the two of them. Her eyes held no love for them; they were filled instead with possessiveness, with obsession. Their hardness kept Jazz rooted in place, terrified of what a misstep might mean now that Danny was trapped. “We can be a family of ghosts instead of a family of ghost hunters. I’ll do whatever’s needed to make that happen. Don’t worry. We’ll always be together.”

(see more fics | my phight phics | that fanart for this fic you should see)

#danny phantom #phanfiction #phic phight #phic phight 19 #phigh phight 2019 #danny fenton #maddie fenton #character death #tw death #jazz fenton #jack fenton #dp fanfiction #fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #dp snippet #my phic phight phics

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suggers-got-dingled · 7 years

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ok so I know it's been two whole days and everyone's probably ~~over~~ the buzz by now but I never will be until my dying day and I still have many feelings that keep bursting out in sudden rushes of weeping, smiling emotion every time I think about and look at my photos from the TV choice awards so whilst I'm finally feeling more human yet shattered and still in my bubble of happiness and daze and joy and laughter that seems to treble in potency late at night I'm here to relive the best moments from 4th September 2017 which is now officially declared National Ryan Hawley Day by his number one fan and tv husband Daniel Benedict Miller *deep breath* here we go...

getting off the Leeds to London train to find out Iain, Sally, Charlotte and John were also on it and we were completely oblivious to the fact we were sharing the same enclosed air as soap's best loved cast and most loathed man lmao (honestly we should have known from then on that it was going to be the most momentous day?!????)

seeing Iain once again as he walks past and ignores a group of very bitter robron fans whilst everyone tries their best to hold back with a couple of oooh's here and there, awkward tension that you could literally cut with a knife and comment of the night "can we all hush because he won't give us robron back at all" WHAT IS THIS TUMULTUOUS LIFE I LIVE I HIGH KEY WANTED TO LEAVE EARTH

the same very bitter robron fans forgetting about any foregoing drama, gathering together both in person and online to love and appreciate and support our boys. Meeting fans we'd spoke to for months (even years) for the first time and instantly connecting because of our mutual passion. It was just so pure???? and lovely??? and comfortable???? how happy and delighted and wrapped up in dryan we all were sat on those cold, hard floors cuddling for warmth, bonding and crying over how kind everyone was being as we posted our photos. It was one of - if not my favourite - times in the fandom (aside from the soap awards) and it made me realise why we're all still here on this rollercoaster journey

all being in a designated group waiting in anticipation for Danny and Ryan content as well as their arrival on the red carpet and making the loudest most inhumane noise as soon as the first photo was released, to say all eyes on us was an understatement IT WAS GR8

getting the news of more photos and videos and interviews and articles and reacting together it just made the experience so!! much!! more!!! special!!!

chatting with Kate Oates for a good few minutes and her giving an awkward side eyed chuckle as we tell her we miss her and need her back HONESTLY she is such a babe and I think she just about gets our current despair lmao bless

completely missing Danny and Ryan rolling up looking a solid 12/10 as they dive straight in the door and feeling deflated but also on top of the world (pretty sure my only view was Ryan's blonde locks sticking out from the crowd of heads and I have never felt more fortunate)

deciding to sit round the front in the dark and wait for any signs of the boys whilst contemplating how and why this god damn ceremony won't just start and it ending up being THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DECISION OF ALL DECISIONS

some random man asking if we're waiting for Danny Miller because he sensed 'that vibe' I don't think I've ever related to a passer by so much in my life it was amazing

seeing Danny first (of course, how many times does that boy want to take a cig break outside?!?!) him casually strolling over to us after he'd dealt with the sought attention on the other side whilst we're all must remain cool and collected, must try and not transport my thoughts from my brain to my mouth about how much I want to rip that suit without a tie off him and ruffle his perfect hair

him being the sarciest little shit??? "you travel about you lot don't you" were the very first words to come out of his mouth and I'm just??? thanks Danny for reminding me what a high key mess my life is it's all because of you I hope you know that!!

him saying he'd record Ryan's speech before the knowledge of him winning was actually in (LOL HE SO KNEW AND I'VE NEVER KNOWN SOMEONE BE SUCH AN ENTHUSIASTIC FANGIRL FOR RYAN HAWLEY I WOULD HAVE SOLD MY SOUL TO SEE HIS NERVOUS BEAMING LIL FACE THE MOMENT HIS NAME WAS ANNOUNCED)

Danny saying Ryan said he'd come out to see us later and us being all *insert everybody calm down it's happening gif here*

THE MOMENT WE FOUND OUT RYAN HAD INDEED WON BEST ACTOR AND NOW BOTH OUR BOYS WERE AWARD WINNING ACTORS there were genuine tears of merriment with hands clasped over faces it was a beautiful sight to behold and I've never been as ecstatic

Danny coming out (again) once the show was over and Emmerdale had smashed yet another award show, us applauding from a distance and Danny cheering with us from the other side of the road

us getting told to be quiet by the security for the hundredth time that night

then the biggest blur of the century occurring almost immediately afterwards as Danny tells us he's gonna bring the winning man out to us not even giving us chance to compose ourselves

A WILD RYAN HAWLEY APPEARS WITH THE BIGGEST GRIN ON HIS FACE CLUTCHING HIS SHINY AWARD AND MY LUNGS NEARLY GIVE IN

DANNY FOLLOWS RIGHT BEHIND HIM LOOKING SO UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY AND PROUD OF HIM HE WAS ON THE BIGGEST HIGH AND I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER SEEN HIM LIKE THAT EVEN WHEN HE'S WON HIMSELF, HE HAS SO MUCH SUPPORT AND LOVE FOR HIS CO STARS IT'S SO UPLIFTING

RYAN'S FACE AS HE HEADED TOWARDS TO US WHEN HE TURNED HIS HEAD AND SAW US ALL THERE I'M LITERALLY NEVER GETTING OVER IT him straight away asking us if we'd voted, thanking us for doing so whilst telling us how much winning means to him with his dedicated adorable speech. Him saying he thought John would win and being totally shocked, he genuinely never expected it all and he was so grateful and appreciative as everyone was congratulating him and singing our proud praises WHY IS HE SO FUCKING LIFE RUININGLY LOVEABLE AND ADORABLE AND MODEST HE'S THE CUTEST ANGEL I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT HIS SMILE AND HIS SWEET WORDS

Ryan just melting my heart to mush and reminding me why I hold so much admiration for him I'm just so honoured to have seen him right after his win and so unbelievably pleased we could show him outright the love he deserves and has instead of hearing it from second person IT WAS SO CHILLED AND SO PLEASANT TO SEE RYAN SO RELAXED MEETING US I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER SEEN HIM SO AT EASE AT A TIME WHEN HE ACTUALLY LEAVES HIS HOUSE (the drinks and Danny’s company probably helped)

DANNY JUST STANDING BACK AND LETTING RYAN DO HIS THING AS HE PRACTICALLY PUSHES HIM TOWARDS US EMOTIONAL AWAITING FANS I'm getting flutters in my tummy typing this out why am I like this why do they do this to me like???? what the fuck??? he just started filming randomly after he purposely went inside to bring him out and let him know there's plenty of people who are proud of him??? like he needed to witness him all there with us and he came out with him as backup because he wanted to record the moment we all gave him double the love he gives him on a daily basis I will never ever ever ever recover from this HOW WILL IT SINK IN HELP ME

us being completely unaware that Danny was filming at first and then just being in a state of belief about it, after we found out it was on Instagram and watched it back it was meltdown I tell you I have never been so thankful to be hidden behind a bush LMAO WILL I EVER GET OVER DANNY GLADLY EXPOSING US ALL AND CAPTURING THE FOCUS OF MY FRIEND JADE AND HER LIL CONFUSED WAVE NO I WILL NOT IT MAKES MY LIFE LIKE YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE

Danny getting us into trouble by the security for the third time that night and him just howling about the fact whilst carrying on filming despite the professional demands HE'S JUST WALKING AROUND FILMING HIS KING WHY THEY GOTTA RUIN THE VIBE IDC IF PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING RYAN HAWLEY AND DANNY MILLER ARE WITHIN REACHING DISTANCE IN THE SAME ZONE LET US ENJOY THE EUPHORIA

Danny being a cheeky, playful little shit 2.0 "where's that video going then" "never you mind" *smug smile and wink* "you so knew Ryan had won didn't you that's why you said you'd film the iconic moment for us???" "oh I can’t tell you that can I" *another smug smile and wink* I LOVE HIM WITH ALL MY HEART

A DRYAN PHOTO MY FUCKING DREAM COME TRUE I WAS SHOOKETH TO THE CORE I STILL AM I CAN'T STOP WEEPING OVER IT EVERY TIME I CATCH A GLIMPSE OF MY LOCK SCREEN

explaining what being shooketh is to Danny and hearing that word from the horse's mouth what a weird encounter

ridiculously happy Ryan Hawley holding his award up in every single photo like a proud child receiving their first medal with a school sticker smile IT'S ALL I NEED IN LIFE HE'S SO PRECIOUS

Ryan still finding the time to be the caring dad being concerned about how fans are going to get home, introducing himself with a handshake and reassuring them with a "don't be nervous" I was all awwwww'd out it's just sheer lunacy I can't cope with him

DANNY COMPLAINING ABOUT GIN AND TONIC BEING £20 SAYING RYAN CAN GET THE DRINKS IN SEEN AS HE WON AND DIRECTING HIS NEED TO GET WRECKED IN RYAN'S INFLUENCED AND BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS AURA "let's go get fucked" - that both ends my life and resurrects me every time it crosses my mind p l e a s e

us being all I LOVE ROBRON, hugging and just genuinely being inconsolable after the power duo said bye and headed off to enjoy the party together like there's so many mixed up memories it was that overwhelming and surreal I think I'm still in the midst of a dryan hangover

walking round London at midnight on autopilot and a delusional bubble just going through the motions breathless with no idea where we are or what we're doing, not even looking when crossing the road, nearly getting run over and not even caring because if we died right there and then we'd die at peak levels of happiness

heading back on a 5hr megabus journey just absolutely shook to the core, recapping and waking up from two hours of broken sleep turning to each other and being like OH MY GOD WE ACTUALLY GOT A PICTURE WITH DANNY AND RYAN

I ended up walking through Leeds at gone 6am in the pissing down rain, my onesie and no makeup but it was well worth it to see Emmerdale sweep the board clean and the two men I owe my life to TOGETHER! IN! THE! FLESH! Honestly I wish I could bottle up the moments and the feelings and just dish it out for everyone to experience because literally nothing compared.

I really do have such an overwhelming amount of love for Danny and Ryan and I'm about to cry again like wow they are just too cute I've never seen a friendship so heartwarming, two people being so loving and tender and supportive towards each other in real life whilst being in a constant cycle of snogging, fighting, problem facing, soul consuming and devoting deeply onscreen. I'm still in disbelief I can't even concentrate on reality nothing else matters but them those two married tv husbands and I don't think I'll ever love anyone more. I was just here living a normal, basic life being a normal, basic human being and then dryan came along and changed everything hehehehe the pain. Seriously, Emmerdale has destroyed every particle of my sanity lately but it's times like this when it hits me that there's no denying they own my ass completely EVEN ON MY DEATH BED THE EVENING OF THE 4TH SEPTEMBER 2017 WILL STILL BE THE LAST I SPEAK OF DESPITE THE REST OF MY DIRE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LIFE EVENTS CONTINUING AS I GROW OLD

#long post #dryan #danny miller #ryan hawley #emmerdale #tv choice awards #*#this is dedicated to my anons that i haven't got round to answering yet lmao #it's taken me all night to type up who even am i #will i be sleeping right now???#of course not i'll be reliving it AGAIN #enjoy this absolute mess #i put it in a read more because it's h u g e

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lightsburnbrite · 7 years

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Young & Wild: Part 15/Final

Georgina stood up and stretched, looking out the window at the large white tent that was being put up. With a frown, she pulled on her robe and sighed as she slipped out of the bedroom. Quiet as a mouse, Georgina opened the door one room over and finally smiled as she was greeted by the soft babbling of their nine month old daughter standing up in her crib.

“Good morning my darling Maren.” She lifted her up and kissed her forehead. “Are you ready for some breakfast?”

Georgina continued down the hall with Maren on her hip and poked her head in one last room. Finding it empty, they finally walked downstairs to the kitchen.

“Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!”

As soon as they stepped foot in the kitchen, Georgina knew why the second room was empty.

“Mommy, can I put on my dress now?”

Georgina laughed and shook her head as she put Maren in her highchair. “Nora, it’s not until later. A little before dinner time.”

“But Mommy, it’s so pretty and it twirls!” Nora spun around, her fawn brown ringlets bouncing in all directions, to emphasize her point.

Laughing again, she held out her hands for Nora to take. “I know you are super excited but I’d be very sad if anything happened to it before the wedding.”

Nora cocked her head to the side as she was contemplating what her mother said. “Why are you and Daddy getting married now?”

“This is our anniversary. We’ve actually been married for five years.” Georgina led Nora over to the kitchen table, a cue for her to start thinking about breakfast.

Nora sat down but immediately stood up again. “But I’m four.”

“I know, sweetheart. Daddy and I were married before you were born, we just never had a wedding.” Georgina started putting some yogurt in a bowl for Maren. “But I promised Linny and Daddy promised Nonna that we’d have a wedding so that’s what we’re doing today.”

Walking over to the counter and peeking over the ledge, Nora took a piece of kiwi from the cutting board. “Is that why Linny and Puppa are here?”

“They’d come anyway. All of Daddy’s family is coming too.” Georgina closed her eyes to keep from giggling as Nora entwined herself in her robe. “But Linny is the one who is planning everything, that’s why she seems a little crazy.”

“You’d be a little crazy too if you had to plan an entire wedding with practically no help from the bride!” Linda, already dressed to the nines, walked into the kitchen and had a seat at the table across from Maren.

Georgina playfully rolled her eyes. “This is your thing I had my wedding and was very happy with it.”

Linda threw up her arms in mock exasperation before turing to Nora. “I just don’t know what we’re going to do with her.”

“Well,” Georgina washed and dried her hands while Nora continued to laugh. “You have some time to figure it out. I’m going to see what Danny wants for breakfast.”

When she walked back into their bedroom, she found that Odin and Thor had taken her place in the bed and Daniel was still sleeping soundly. Georgina sat on the edge of the bed and lightly rubbed his stomach.

With a groan, Daniel opened one eye and smiled when he saw that it was Georgina. Taking her hand, he gave it a little tug. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to see you until the wedding.”

“Oh come on.” Georgina rolled her eyes. “That only counts before you get married.”

Reluctantly, Daniel stood but immediately draped himself around Georgina.

Wrapping her arms around his waist, Georgina rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes before breathing deeply.

“You’re a saint, you know that right?” Slipping his hand inside her robe, Daniel thumbed the silk material of her pajamas before rubbing her back.

It took Georgina a minute to respond. The two of them had been busy over the past few days with various things and it felt like she hadn’t even had the time to enjoy his company and she wanted to savor this time. “Why do you say that?”

“I know this, the whole renewing our vows, I know it’s all for Linda and my mother.” He kissed her neck before moving to her lips. “I thinks it’s incredibly sweet. And you’re still the only one I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

Georgina knew she felt the same way but she couldn’t help but to be reminded of a time when she wasn’t sure they would make it to this point.

Nora was eight months old and Georgina was only slightly bitter about the fact that she couldn’t have any caffeine while she was nursing. One morning she was feeling extremely frazzled because Nora hadn’t slept all which means Georgina didn’t either. Normally, Daniel had been more than willing to get up with her, spending hours walking her around the house when she was fussy but lately he was dead to the world when he fell asleep.

Georgina was walking around with a whaling Nora on her hip while she attempted to fix her own breakfast when Daniel came in and pulled three energy drinks out of the pantry and tossed them in his bag before tossing back three or four pills from a prescription bottle. She had watched him do this for the last week and finally, she said something.

“How many of those are you supposed to take?”

Daniel looked back at her and shrugged. “Dunno. A couple?”

“At a time or in a day?” Georgina heard the tone in her voice shift but she couldn’t stop herself at that point. “It seems like you take a lot.”

She saw his expression shift to one of indifference. “I take them when I need them. I’ll see you tonight.”

That conversation continued on over the next few weeks and eventually turned into one of the few arguments they would ever have. Georgina not knowing what the pills were or what taking too many would do to him and Daniel shrugging off her concerns because he didn’t want to miss out on another match. It had obviously become a point of contention between the two of them and Georgina didn’t know if she should continue nagging him about it but she was starting to get concerned.

Georgina contemplated calling her father for advice when Marco and Stephanie showed up at her door.

“Listen,” Stephanie started, “I’m going to watch Nora, you need to go with Marco.”

Going back and forth between two, Georgina instantly knew something was wrong. “What? What is it?”

Marco put his hand on Georgina’s shoulder to guide her outside. “I’ll explain on the way.”

It took every ounce of self control the Georgina had to keep calm. Finally, once they were on the road, Marco nodded.

“Dan was at practice today and he collapsed.” Marco immediately picked up on Georgina’s panic and let his eyes go back and forth between she and the road. “It was more like he passed out. He’s ok but he’s at the hospital for observation.”

Georgina covered her eyes and tried to slow her breathing down but couldn’t stop her mind from creating nightmare scenarios.

While the two of them were being led to Daniel’s bed, Georgina hadn’t realized it but the grip she had on her own forearm left tiny crescent shaped finger nail impressions that lasted for two days afterward. Seeing Daniel, covered in all sorts of sensors with a doctor by his side recording notes off a monitor next to the bed, Georgina wanted to rush to his side. It was Marco’s hand on her shoulder that stopped Georgina from rushing to Daniel’s side.

Once the doctor left, Daniel’s eyes fell to Georgina and he gave a sheepish shrug. “I’m sorry, George.”

“What happened?” Georgina moved to his side, reached out to touch him but hesitated.

“It’s ok, Georgie, I’m not going to break.” Daniel held out his hand instead and laced his fingers in-between hers. “I, uh, I’m not really sure. I don’t remember anything before or after.”

She sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed his hair back into place. “But they have to know why you collapsed, right? I mean…that doesn’t just happen with no cause.”

Daniel closed his eyes and kissed the back of Georgina’s hand before he smirked. “Have I told you how much I love you?”

“Danny!” It was easy to tell that she was getting frustrated with the lack of answers and had he not been sitting in a hospital bed, Georgina would have definitely given him a shove at this point. “What the fuck is going on?”

He held up his hand in apology. “You were right, I did it to myself. The anti-inflammatories made me really groggy so I would try to counteract that.”

“Oh my god, Danny, how could you-” She inhaled deeply but he gave her hand a squeeze, cutting her off.

Sitting up straighter, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in close. “There’s no lasting damage, it was mainly my body protesting. But I’m done, no more pills. And I should have listened to you a lot sooner.”

Daniel was true to his word after that but he couldn’t ignore or hide the toll that it was continuing to take on his body. When he hadn’t come to bed one night, Georgina found him standing next to Nora’s crib.

“Danny? It’s late, don’t you want to-”

Daniel shook his head, but it wasn’t in response to Georgina. “I couldn’t pick her up. Nora wanted me to pick her up today and I couldn’t do it.”

He had always rationalized to himself that he’d know when he was ready to quit. Then and there, Daniel knew that he wanted to be around to enjoy Nora’s childhood. That meant not being at practice all the time or away for a match but it also meant not coming home so exhausted and physically broken that he couldn’t do anything with Nora and Georgina.

“Have you told them we’re looking at property in Marbella?”

Georgina closed her eyes and let her head rest against Daniel’s chest. “No, but it’s not going to be a big deal. I’ve already moved away so moving again isn’t going to make that much difference. Plus Spain is moe their speed than Denmark. If anything, it’s going to be more of an issue for your side.”

“Hmf.” Daniel let out a little laugh. “I know Stef will be excited to visit but you’re probably right about my mother.”

With a sigh, she nestled her forehead against the crook of his shoulder. “Just tell her it’s doctor’s orders. The warmer climate is better for you in the winter. Now we should probably get back to the kitchen before Linda sends out a search party.”

The rest of the day seemed to fly by until everyone was dressed to the nines and celebrating Daniel and Georgina being married for five years. As the evening wound down, Georgina began the process of making sure everything was set before she and Daniel left for Spain. Her father and Linda agreed to watch the girls but Daniel’s parents were on stand by if need be. Truthfully, Daniel and Georgina were looking forward to having the weekend to themselves.

Linda may have insisted that there were several formal pictures with the whole entire family together but it was one of just she, Daniel, and the girls that would stick out to Georgina. One that would come to sit on the mantels of their home in Denmark and their home in Spain. She was holding Maren and Nora stood in front of Daniel, his hand on her shoulder. Both girls wore grey dresses with a satin bodice and tulle skirts and a yellow sash tied at the waist. The grey was carried over to Georgina’s dress and Daniel’s suit as well. Daniel and Georgina were kissing while Maren leaned against her mother and Nora smiled broadly, holding a bouquet of yellow chrysanthemums.

#daniel agger #young & wild

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shakespeareanhoneybadgers · 7 years

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Pack of Orphans, Chapter 2

Fic summary: Orphan Black AU. Gary Schofield's life changes when he witnesses a man who looks exactly like him commit suicide and decides to don his identity. He is soon drawn into a vast network with science and the supernatural competing against each other for answers to a decades old experiment. Ao3.

Rating: M

He couldn't stop staring at Not Lacey as they fled the scene of the crime. Put more make-up on her, change her outfit and she’d look closer to Lace than he did to Danny. But her tells were different; Lacey would be drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, not picking at the material of it.

“I can’t believe he’s dead.”

He glanced up at Belle’s face. She looked as pale as he felt, staring blankly at the road ahead as she put distance between them and the scene. Her head shook slightly.

“I mean, we just saw him this afternoon… Tried to calm him down about Danny not returning any calls, assured him we’d check on him if he didn’t respond soon...” She turned to him, “So does that make you Gary Schofield?”

“Gaz but yeah.” He raked his fingers through his hair, “So what, you just decided to check in and that’s why you witnessed the bloody Rocky Horror Picture Show?”

“I figured Begbie would do something dramatic.” She shook her head incredulously, “Did I know the hitman was going to be there? Of course not, we didn’t even know he was in London.”

“Back?” Gaz echoed, “Hitman? What the fuck is going on?”

“Your guess is as good as any of ours.” They were starting to head out of the heart of the city now, towards the suburbs, “We figure the organization is sending someone after all of you to either terminate the experiment or get rid of the evidence it occurred...both’s possible too I suppose.”

“A fucking experiment?!”

“Please, Gaz, we’ll get you up to speed with what little we know,” she assured him, casting him sympathetic glances when she could spare the attention from the road, “A lot is still speculation… And I think it’ll be better to sit down and talk it out rather than continuing to give you half answers as we speed away from a homicide.”

“Fine.” He turned around in his seat, staring back behind them. He didn’t know if that maniac had a car but damned if he wasn’t at least going to keep an eye out, “...but how the hell do you know Lacey? Is she part of this too?”

Belle sighed, “She’s not… But apparently she didn’t tell you about me.”

They drove on in silence and he watched the buildings climb up the income ladder. By the time Belle pulled into the driveway of a house, it was in the not-even-in-his-dreams price bracket. He followed her up the path to a porch worthy of lazy summer lounging, stepping into a foyer that automatically made him feel like he should be taking off his shoes and avoiding touching anything.

“Nick?”

“We’re in here.” Belle’s voice echoed from nearby. It took all of his Year One manners not to push Belle aside and lead himself into the living room.

Lacey of all people was on the couch, legs crossed and arms spread over the back of it. Drink in hand she was watching a man standing next to a white board who, surprise surprise, looked like a scruffy older version of him. Lacey nearly spilled her drink as she got to her heels.

“Gaz!”

“It’s fine, I’m fine, this is…” He looked down at his clothes, thinking he should’ve made some attempt in the car to at least get his face cleaned up, “...not my blood.”

The new doppleganger hardly paid him any mind, going straight for Belle. They embraced, her hand cradling his head and his splayed across her upper back.

“Nick…”

He pulled away, snapping, “What the hell were you doing?!”

“I was worried about Begbie pulling something...Begbie-esque, and he did. But he was right, it’s not Danny, Danny was the one who was killed by the train.” She gestured to Gaz, “This...is Gary Schofield. Gaz, this is my husband, Dr. Nicholas Rush.”

The other man finally took notice of him, though didn’t seem particularly impressed, “...so you’re Gaz.”

“Aye.”

He contemplated him for a moment longer, “...glad I never went blonde.”

Belle shot him a warning look, before turning to the other woman, “Lacey, you didn’t tell him.” There was no accusation in her voice, just mild surprise.

The room quieted and Gaz felt more than saw Lacey tense, the grip on her glass tightening as her chin tilted up. She rolled her head as though she were working a kink out of her neck before turning to him.

“Yeah so, you know how I’ve told you as long as I’ve known you I don’t care about finding my bio family? Well...she found me.”

Gaz stared at Lacey, feeling like he was looking at a stranger instead of his best friend, “...and you didn’t tell me?”

“You were kind of busy pretending to be a nightclub owner… And I was embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed?”

“Yeah, look at her, Miss I’m-Fucking-A-Rocket-Scientist,” Lacey jerked her head towards her.

“Professor of quantum physics, but close enough,” Belle brushed it off, “And tell me you wouldn’t be curious if you learned you were adopted and, when you went to search for your parents, you found out you had a sister.”

“No, because I’ve never been curious about my parents! They gave me up so clearly they didn’t think much about me.” She finished her drink and plopped back down on the couch, “Anyway it didn’t matter until now, because of this Twilight Zone shite...”

“Of course it mattered,” Gaz muttered, taking a seat beside her, “You matter to me, Lace… Always.”

“This is all very touching,” Nick drawled, “But unfortunately low on the agenda. You two can discuss lies of omission afterwards, but right now we need to patch together what happened at Devine’s joint and what we know so far about why we have all these familiar faces.”

“You’re going to want a drink,” Belle told Gaz, “What would you like?”

“Anything strong,” he said.

Lacey extended her glass and Belle stepped away, “I think you’ve had about enough.”

“I’ll let you know when I’ve had enough,” Lacey growled. Belle wasn’t dissuaded, touching Nick’s shoulder as she passed him by.

Nicholas sized up his audience as she went into the kitchen, playing with the cap on his marker, “...what do you know about cloning?”

Gaz was struck dumb by the question and Lacey shrugged, “They did it to a sheep in the mid-nineties. Everything else comes from sci-fi.”

“Aye, Dolly is the best known case of actual cloning, certainly not the last.” Nick’s eyes stayed on Gaz, trying to read him, “Us, for example… You, me, Devine, Begbie, MacAvoy, countless others. There’s a very good possibility that we’re all copies from one individual.”

“Bull shit,” Gaz spat, “If humans were being cloned we’d know about it. You can’t keep something like that a secret.”

“You’d be surprised,” Belle returned, offering him a glass of whiskey on the rocks, “I mean, Lacey and I are clones.”

“That’s different,” Lacey insisted, “I seriously doubt we grew in a test tube before being tossed.”

“You’re clones in the basic sense,” Nick defended, “Identical DNA, identical fingerprints… Natural cloning with one fertilized egg splitting in two. Given the age ranges between all of us,” he gestured between himself and Gaz, “...it’s very likely we’re of the...lab rat sort of cloning.”

Really it shouldn't be so much of a surprise; it wasn't a half bad explanation, and he didn't have any better theory. But still…

“...we’re older than the sheep, though.”

“Doesn't mean someone wasn't playing mad scientist in the basement.” Rush muttered, crossing his arms, “Truth is none of us know who made us. It was coincidence MacAvoy and Devine even crossed paths.”

“Danny was a little...well, neurotic,” Belle explained, “He enjoyed his conspiracy theories, so seeing someone who looked almost exactly like him gave him all sorts of ideas. Nick wasn’t difficult to find, being a professor...and I think we found Begbie through Danny’s network… And you through your criminal background.”

It was the first time Gaz had seen the disgruntled academic smile, “Public indecency, eh?”

“Fuck off,” Gaz hissed.

“It was rehearsal that the police butted in on with no context,” Lacey insisted, “Anyway, so far there’s...five clones, two of which are dead.”

“That’s where the live headcount stands right now,” he agreed, “The death toll is...significantly higher.”

“Because of this...bloodhound hitman boogeymonster fellow?”

Gaz wasn’t reassured the way they shared a look before the older man answered.

“During our research we found some...unsettling news reports,” he said haltingly, “Family of four brutally murdered… Mother and kids shot, the father… They’ve only found bits and pieces of him.”

“Jesus Christ…” Gaz muttered. Lacey put her head in her hands.

“It’s a similar MO, but the victims are spread over countries,” Belle said, “Murdered loved ones, the majority of the body never found…”

“And when you went to look at their pictures they all looked like versions of the same guy,” Gaz finished. He shoved his hand into his pocket, pulling out Danny’s phone.

“What are you doing?” Nick barked.

“None of your fucking business!” He dialed the number without thinking, holding it to his ear.

It rang and rang and rang until he got the answering machine. He dialed again and it rang and rang and-

“Who is this?”

He had never been so grateful to hear that bastard Larry’s voice, “Nate and Mandy, they alright?”

“Gaz, is that you?”

“ARE NATE AND MANDY ALRIGHT?!”

There was some mild shuffling, “We’re all asleep…or at least Mandy and I were. You on something?”

“Go check on Nate, please! Make sure he’s in his bed!”

“Sleep it off, will ya?” The line went dead.

Gaz tossed the phone to the other side of the couch and jumped to his feet. Lacey was close behind.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” she insisted, grabbing for his arm.

He shook her off, “I need to be sure!”

She grabbed him by both shoulders, “Chill the fuck out.”

“It’s Nate, I’m not going to fucking chill until I know he’s alright!”

“Running over there in the middle of the night is going to make you look insane!”

“Your boy should be fine for now,” Rush said brusquely, “There’s a gap between his killings.”

“Yeah, well, that was before he saw two of us in the same place!”

He tried to push by Lacey but she stood her ground; those heels must give her some advantage, he thought briefly, digging in for leverage or something.

“Tomorrow,” she promised, “You heard Dr. Scientist; nothing will happen tonight. And you’re still covered in blood, which won’t go over well with any of them.”

He looked between Lacey, Belle, and Dr. Rush and realized he wasn’t going fucking anywhere tonight. He eyed the older nerd version of himself.

“...you got anything I can change into, then?”

Their bathroom could’ve been a studio apartment with a tub and toilet, and the shower was…awkward. Set into a corner with two glass walls, he felt like he was giving a bit of a show to whoever felt like coming in. But god did it feel good to get clean; the hot water even pushed Nate out of his mind temporarily.

He should’ve expected how well the clothes would fit, but it was still eerie how it sagged in all the right places. As if they were only a few pounds between them.

Clones… Like he was in some kind of sci-fi movie, an experiment gone wrong. This was too fucking weird for him… Having a guy look exactly like him was bad enough, but there was a whole swarm of them, and a hitman to boot.

He had to convince Lacey that the best thing for them was to grab Nate and run. The scientist and his assistant wife could play the thriller game but Gaz didn’t want any part of it. He wasn’t the tiniest bit curious about any of this.

When he came back to the living room Lacey was the only one there, lying face-up on the couch and swirling the ice around in her glass idly. He leaned on the back of the couch, bending down to look at her.

“You alright?”

Her eyes moved from the ceiling to his face, “Pretty sure I’m still in shock.” She set the glass on the coffee table, propping herself up on her elbows, “…I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Belle. Honestly I just don’t like thinking about it, you know?”

“I know.”

“I mean look at this shit,” she waved her hand around, “It’s ridiculous… I’m sure they earned it but still.”

It was definitely a different lifestyle than they were used to.

“And where’d they go to?”

“I think they’re filling MacAvoy in on everything,” she eyed him, “…they’ve offered to let us stay what’s left of the night here.”

“You think I’m gonna sleep at all after that?”

“It’s a good drive back to Sheffield,” she sighed, “…and really, I don’t like the idea of just you and me against the clone serial killer. They seem like they’ve got a vague clue as to what’s going on, at least.”

That was pretty much the exact opposite of what he wanted… But if he wasn’t going to check on Nate, he might as well stay here.

“...sure,” he mumbled.

First thing tomorrow morning though, they were heading back.

III

The sleepy church on the outskirts of Middlesbrough was completely dark and silent, except for the quiet shuffle of feet across stone. Still dressed in his nightshift he moved towards the altar. He crossed himself and knelt before it, fumbling with the match before striking it and shakily lighting the candles.

“Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name…”

He’d been asleep when the call had come. He had jolted upright and fumbled for the disposable cell phone they had given him, answering before he was capable of more than a garbled noise in greeting.

“Thy Kingdom come; Thy Will be done…”

Begbie’s dead, Rush had announced, and he could hear sweet Belle in the background hissing at him. It was quick, he continued, ignoring her, bullet to the head, didn’t even know what hit him.

As if THAT were supposed to somehow comfort the fact another one of them had fallen victim to the serial killer.

“...on earth as it is in heaven. Give us…”

We’ve got a new one, Gaz. He was pretending to be Danny; had no idea about any of this. Apparently if the hitman didn’t act first Begbie would’ve offed him.

“...give us this day our, our daily bread… and forgive us our trespasses…”

He’s got a son, young-ish we think. You remember what it’s like at first; it’s all you can do just to wrap your head around it.

“...as we...forgive those who trespass against us. And, and lead us not into temptation but...deliver us...deliver us from evil.”

Doesn’t help he got a firsthand look at what we’re dealing with. I think he’s getting out of the shower; Belle, love, you want to get the guest room ready?

“For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours now and forever.”

He looked up to the cross hanging behind the pulpit. Tears came to his eyes as the prayer remained open and as he thought about the last bottle he had on hand down in his quarters. It didn’t seem that long ago he had gone to a liquor store out of town, going to restock his “emergency supply”...and had literally run into Mr. Devine.

“...I’m so scared,” he whispered to it, shaking his head, “I know that everything is according to Your Plan...but I don’t want to die. I know there have been times I’ve thought about it, but I never truly meant it...”

He had been on the road to sobriety before this had happened. Really he had just been looking for comfort of his own after having to give last rites to a long-time parishioner. But now… How could he be expected NOT to drink?

His lip quivered, as the question that had been bothering him since Dr. Rush had theorized that they were clones spilled out.

“...does Begbie even have a soul to pray for? ...do I?”

He stared at the cross but no divine miracle occurred; no angel descended with prophetic words. He didn’t even hear God’s voice inside of him the way he once had when he was called to ministry.

Joseph was feeling the distinct difference between Mother Theresa’s insistence God would not give her more than she could handle...and Paul the Apostle saying God would not let them be tempted more than they could bear.

“...Lord, please protect me...and my brothers. Amen.”

#anyelle fic #NIcholas Rush #Belle #Lacey #Gaz #gary schofield #father macavoy

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