Bleeding Out in the Backyard
"Mansions are rich and have a lot of security. One day their lead officer shows them a concerning video of Danny Fenton in the back ally behind their home."
A phic phight prompt by DizzlyPuzzled
...
Pamela Manson sipped her tea before blinking at the camera again. It had been a while since she'd paid attention to these security cameras, but she's starting to think that may have been a mistake.
"Honey?" she called into the hall. "Jeremy? Can you come over here?"
"Sure, sweetie!" Jeremy swept into the room, then drew to an abrupt stop at the view on the screen. "Is that Sam's scraggly boyfriend bleeding out in the backyard?"
Pamela opened her mouth to argue that he wasn't her boyfriend if she had anything to say about it before slapping her forehead. "Oh dear, I should call an ambulance! I wouldn't want to get sued by his crazy parents."
"Why is he bleeding out in our backyard?" Jeremy muttered.
"Here, call the cops, dear," Pam said, handing her phone to Jeremy before poking her head out to the hall again and shrieking "Sam! Get down here!"
Pam's phone dinged in Jeremy's hand. He glanced down at it. "Sam says 'what?'"
"Ugh!" Pamela grabbed the phone back from him and called Sam. "Get down here, you ungrateful girl! Your wretched friend is bleeding out in the backyard!"
There was a beat of silence. Jeremy was thankfully pulling out his own phone to call 911 with. "Mom..." Sam answered, "Are you trying to April Fool's prank me? 'Cause this is a really bad way to do it. Or-- wait, Tucker? Are you pretending to be my mom?"
"I am your mother!" Pam screeched. "Get down here before I have to come up and get you!"
Jeremy was speaking with an operator on the other side of the phone, describing the situation. Good.
Sam strode into the room presently with eyeliner half-removed. She takes in the screen, and Pam watches some indeterminate firecracker of emotions smack up onto Sam's face and then right back off. "...I forgot we have security cameras."
"Ugh," Pam rolls her eyes, mentally brushing off the fact that she had also forgotten.
"Okay, so... he's probably doing a prank."
Pam's eyelid twitches. "You can't be serious, Sam. Your father has already called an ambulance."
Sam cursed under her breath. "Uh, lemme go check on him, see what's going on. I'll call you from the yard and tell you what's up."
"Make it quick," Pamela said, gritting her teeth.
Sam dashed off again. Pamela propped herself up on the desk next to the cameras. She noticed she was shaking and tried taking some deep breaths to soothe her nerves. That boy was going to regret this if it really was just a prank.
Pam nearly shrieked when her phone rang, before she managed to fumble it up to her ear and answer.
"Hey! Haha, so! Yeah, it was just a prank!" Sam said, and Pam wondered if she was imagining that strained note in her daughter's voice. "It was just fake blood. Y'know. Uh, he didn't know about the cameras. And he was going to call me down to come see. So, ha, sorry about the ambulance, but you can send them away when they get here. 'Cause he's. He's fine."
Pamela's head drooped down on the desk. "Sam. Samantha."
Sam laughed nervously. "W-what?"
"You're grounded."
"Hey!"
Pam hung up. She gave a long, drawn-out sigh.
"What? So is he fine?" Jeremy asked.
"Yes," Pamela said exhaustedly.
Jeremy frowned at the screen. "He's still sticking to the bit."
Pamela glanced up and watched Sam dragging her friend across the grass, leaving behind an ugly trail of awfully convincing fake blood. She hoped it was water soluble.
"That girl is going to stop hanging out with those awful boys if it's the last thing I make her do."
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Late Night Waiting
Summary: After everyone has been waiting for a couple of nerve-wracking hours, Sam and Tucker finally show up at the police station.
...
Danny wishes he could feel better about having a night off from grounding. But at this point he’s been stuck in the police station for hours and Jazz hasn’t even managed to distract anyone for long enough that he can slip out and figure out what’s going on as Phantom, which would be much more efficient and more likely to solve the actual problem.
Instead, he’s answered the police’s questions about where he saw Sam and Tucker last (at school, like almost every other day since he’s gotten back), and spent the past three hours pacing back and forth in the room they’ve been given to wait in. Sam’s parents are talking quietly together in one corner, Tucker’s parents are sitting silently in the other, and his family is sitting in the middle, talking about which ghost most likely did this and how best to go after them.
The one time Danny had gone to the bathroom to try and slip away, his dad had insisted on coming with him and waiting outside the door. Something about waiting to make sure he’s safe while they don’t know what’s going on.
Give this much longer and Danny’s secret identity might slip down the ranks in priorities.
His brain can’t stop coming up with ways he could have prevented this. Sam and Tucker’s parents called at dinnertime, he should have done some kind of patrol before then. He should have insisted on spending the night with Sam and Tucker, grounding be damned. He should have run out to look for Sam and Tucker the second they called, who cared how worried his parents would be when they saw he was missing again too?
It doesn’t matter, because Sam and Tucker could be hurt. A ghost could have captured them, and he could be contacted any second with some kind of ransom, or threat, or worse. Fuck, worse. If Sam and Tucker don’t make it back he’ll never forgive himself—
“Danny,” Jazz says, cutting into his thoughts. “Come sit down.”
“No thanks I’m good,” Danny says in one breath, spinning around to walk to the other way.
“Danny.” Jazz reaches out and grabs his hand, then pulls him down onto the chair next to her. “Stop catastrophizing. It’s not your fault.”
“But— I could have—”
“Jazz is right, honey,” Mom says, reaching around Jazz to squeeze his hand with a smile. “There isn’t anything you could have done.”
“As much as I loathe to admit it,” Sam’s mother says with an irritated sigh, before her face surprisingly softens. “Your mother’s right. You don’t need to beat yourself up over this, Danny. You couldn’t have helped by doing anything differently.”
She wouldn’t be saying that if she knew, hisses the voice in Danny’s head.
Jazz catches his gaze and gives him a knowing look.
Danny shakes the voice away.
He leans heavily against Jazz’s side and pushes his hands over his face, and Jazz wraps her arms around him. “It’s gonna be okay,” she murmurs. She lowers her voice further. “Worst case scenario, you slip away when all the adults fall asleep and I cover for you.”
Danny nods weakly, then sits back and tries to breathe.
Thankfully, it doesn’t come to that. Because after about four hours of sitting there, when his dad has just fallen asleep across several chairs and Danny is debating trying the bathroom again, the door opens and a police officer pokes appears in the entrance.
“They’re here,” he says, and Danny is rushing for the door before he can get any other words out.
Sam and Tucker are both talking to an officer across the main room of the precinct, and both of them have barely turned and spotted him when Danny reaches them and throws his arms around their shoulders.
“Oh my god holy fuck are you okay,” he says, squeezing them tightly before pulling back and looking them over for injuries. He doesn’t see anything life threatening or anything that looks too badly injured thank god, but he pats them down anyway, gently but firmly, checking for any strange lumps or obvious breaks.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, I— are you okay are you hurt where does it hurt I don’t know why I’m asking that I can’t actually do anything I’m not a doctor, I— are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay,” he says, looking desperately back up at their faces. He finds them both staring at him, at an obvious loss of what to say.
“Young man,” a police officer says before any of them can say anything else. He reaches out and pulls Danny back, away from Sam and Tucker. “Please step back. I understand this is difficult for everyone but we all need to remain calm.”
“Samantha!” comes her mother’s voice, and all of them turn just in time to see her mother rush past the officer to Sam and start doing the exact same injury pat-down that Danny did.
Sam groans in obvious irritation and takes a step back.
“We’re fine,” she says, glaring at her mom. “Honestly. We’re not hurt.”
“Oh thank heavens,” her mother says, pulling Sam back in for a hug, and causing another annoyed groan from Sam.
Danny lets out a sigh, looking down in relief. Now that it’s clear that Sam and Tucker are at least mostly okay, most of the nerves that have been building up around his shoulders relax, and suddenly he just feels exhausted.
He feels a hand on his shoulder, and turns to see Jazz giving him a reassuring smile, which he returns, albeit shakily.
The police finally managed to get everyone to stand back from Sam and Tucker, at least enough that they could continue asking them what happened.
Unfortunately, they’re still close enough to hear everything, meaning Danny’s close enough to hear Sam say, “We got captured by a ghost,” and all of his nerves leap back into his shoulders.
“He didn’t hurt us,” Sam says, waving off the officer’s next question. “Seemed like he just wanted to scare us. He actually got distracted pretty easily, and that’s how we managed to slip away.”
Okay, so probably someone harmless like The Box Ghost if they got away that easily. They probably weren’t in any real danger in a way that Danny was actually 100% necessary to be there for.
…That does not help.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” Danny asks, drawing both of their gazes. They look wary, probably because everyone here is still more than a little on edge. “Ghosts are no joke.”
“You got that right,” Dad says from over his shoulder. “You both are going to have to come back with us tonight to get a full check over from the professionals.”
“No,” Sam says quickly, at the same time her mom says “Absolutely not.”
Probably a smart move, honestly. His parents tended to look for the wrong things, and a lot of their tests tended to be painful in some way. Danny can keep an eye on Sam and Tucker for the next couple days, while trying to not let the guilt eat him alive.
“I’m in agreement there,” Tucker’s mom says, stepping forward. “You two both sound like you’ve had a very long night, you need to go home and get some rest.”
“Absolutely a good idea,” Jazz says, trying to send a knowing look at their parents (of which only time would tell how successful it was). “Sleep is important after an upsetting experience, especially if it’s past midnight.”
“Jazz has a point, honey,” Mom says, putting a reassuring hand on Dad’s shoulder. “Just come by in the next couple days, you two. We’ll make sure nothing’s wrong.”
Danny sighs, dropping his head into his hands. That’s still not going to be helpful, but that’s probably the best they’re going to get from his parents that night.
“Uh, we’ll see,” Sam says, in a tone that means ‘I doubt it,’ and Danny can’t blame her. She turns to her parents. “Can we just go home now?”
“We still have questions,” one of the nearby officers says.
“We already told you everything, and I want to go home and sleep,” Sam says. “It’s been a very long day.”
The officer sighs. “Alright, but we might come find you with follow up questions in the next couple of days.”
“Fine,” Sam snaps, and she grabs her mom’s arm and starts tugging her towards the door. Sam’s dad follows shortly after.
Danny can’t help but laugh a little bit. Sam being just as annoyed with authority as usual is probably a good sign.
“Yeah, I want to go home too,” Tucker says quietly, and starts for the door without any fanfare. Before he leaves, however, he stops in front of Danny. He doesn’t look at him though, instead watching Sam.
Danny turns to watch her too, wondering what Tucker sees. But as soon as Sam walks out the front door and steps out of sight, Tucker turns and wraps his arms around Danny.
Danny gives a sound of surprise, muffled by Tucker’s cheek smushing against his face.
Tucker pulls back a second later. “Sorry,” he mumbles, looking down. “I just… I had to do that.”
Danny just gives him a warm smile in return. “Hey, if you want to talk about it, you can tell me anything,” he says quietly, with what’s hopefully the right level of a joking tone.
Tucker smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. It barely reaches his mouth.
Danny doesn’t push, since that’s a bad idea especially now, and a couple seconds later, Tucker turns back to his parents and nods to the door, and all three of them walk out.
“Alright,” Jazz says, drawing Danny and his parents’ attention. “We should go home too.”
“I agree,” Mom says, as the four of them all start moving towards the door. “It’s been a very long night, and you both still have school in the morning.”
“What?” Danny asks. “Don’t we get to stay home? These are extenuating circumstances and all that!”
“Sam and Tucker are the ones who got captured by ghosts, not you two,” Mom says, raising an eyebrow. “And you can’t afford to miss any more class, Danny.”
Danny grumbles something incomprehensible under his breath, though he’s thinking about how he didn’t get time off when he was kidnapped. It doesn’t matter that it’s entirely his fault for using running away as a cover story, the universe is still being unfair. Especially considering he’s exhausted enough that he feels himself falling asleep on the car ride back.
When he gets home, however, he shakes himself awake, and after telling his parents goodnight, he heads up to his room and transforms.
He opens the window and is about to fly out when the door opens behind him, and he spins around, heart leaping into his throat.
Thankfully, Jazz is the one who stands in the doorway.
“And what exactly makes you think that’s a good idea?” she asks, shutting the door behind her.
Danny lets out a breath of relief and slumps back against the wall. “Don’t do that, Jazz, you’re gonna give me a heart attack.”
“Danny,” Jazz says, crossing her arms. “Patrolling isn’t a good idea right now.”
“Why not? Clearly I should have been patrolling earlier.”
“Well, because you need to sleep for one, and for two, I don’t want you going out there stewing in your own head and making yourself feel even worse.”
Danny looks away, trying to disguise it as a glare. “Sam and Tucker—”
“Are fine. They’re not even a little hurt, and got away themselves without any needed help. You, on the other hand, need rest. Mom already said you’re still going to school tomorrow.”
Danny forces himself to look back at Jazz. “I’m not gonna be able to sleep until I know everyone is safe, Jazz.”
“Everyone is safe, Danny. Your ghost sense would go off or there’d be some kind of news alert if there was something you needed to take care of. And if the news alert was happening Mom and Dad would wake up the whole house rushing off to help with it.”
Danny looks down. She has a point. And he can practically feel himself falling asleep standing here.
“Go to sleep, Danny. There’s nothing else you can do tonight. If tomorrow Sam and Tucker are at school you can talk to them and see if there’s ways you can help, and I’ll help you out there too. But tonight the most helpful thing you can do is get some sleep.”
Danny sighs, and glares more lightheartedly up at Jazz. “I hate it when you’re right,” he says, prefaced with sticking out his tongue.
“You’re gonna hate most of the things I say, then,” Jazz says with a smug smile.
Danny rolls his eyes and shuts the window. He turns back into Danny Fenton and moves over to his dresser to pull some pajamas out, then casts a glance back at Jazz. “Alright, now get out. Neither of us want you here for this part.”
It’s Jazz’s turn to roll her eyes. “Yeah, yeah,” she says, turning to leave. “But hey, I’m really proud of you, you know.”
Danny scoffs despite himself. “I didn’t even do anything tonight.”
“I’m proud of how much you care, you dork,” Jazz says, crossing her arms with a fond smile. “It’s obvious how much Sam and Tucker mean to you, that’s all. And I’m proud of how much you do for them, and everyone.”
“Uh, whatever,” Danny says, looking away and crossing his arms. “You don’t have to get all sappy about it.”
“You can’t stop me from getting all sappy about it,” Jazz says, sounding smug again, and she leaves and shuts the door before Danny can say anything else.
Danny sighs, but he has a slight smile on his face as he changes into pajamas and climbs into bed.
And it’s honestly annoying the level of right that Jazz is, because he falls asleep almost immediately.
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