Chapter Text
The Fenton GAV screeched to a stop, leaving long, dark tire marks on the road. It careened around the corner at such reckless speeds that no one saw it coming until it slammed into Phantom. Jack poked his head out of the window and whooped as he thrust his fist in the air. “Oh yeah! We got ‘im Mads! Told ya that Fenton Ram-O-Rama battering ram was a good addition to this baby!”
Tucker and Sam stared at Danny’s unmoving body, their faces pure masks of horror. “Get up Danny. C’mon, get up Danny,” Tucker pleaded under his breath, but his ghostly body still didn’t move.
Sam took a step towards Danny, but Tucker grabbed her arm and gestured towards the Fentons as they stepped out of the GAV. Jack held two overly-large ghost weapons in his hands with another slung around his shoulder, while Maddie sported a more sensible blaster and a Fenton thermos. “We have to distract them. We can’t let them get to Danny.”
“But shouldn’t one of us check on Danny?” Sam asked, but even as she said it she noticed Dash running as fast as he could towards Danny. He skidded to a stop and dropped down to his knees to check on him. “Oh no, no we can’t let him do that.”
“Sam! Come on!” Tucker urged. “We’ll figure it out later!” He pulled Sam over towards the Fentons and ran right into their path.
Maddie stopped short as soon as she saw Danny’s friends…without Danny. “Sam! Tucker! What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in school?” she asked suspiciously as she raised an eyebrow.
“We…got sent on an errand!” Tucker lied smoothly. “We had to grab something for class. But then these ghosts attacked and–”
“Ghosts? You mean more than one?” Jack asked as he looked around the street for another ghost.
“Yeah, this giant bear ghost,” Sam added as she caught on. “We tried to run away, but it got Danny and–”
“What do you mean it got Danny?” Maddie shrieked as she dropped her weapons and grabbed Sam’s shoulders. “Sam, where’s Danny?”
As Tucker and Sam weaved a fake story about Danny being bear-napped to get the Fenton parents off Phantom’s trail, Dash tried his best to help Phantom–Fenton. He immediately placed a hand near his mouth to check for breathing, but he couldn’t feel anything. He pulled out his cellphone and placed it near his mouth, looking for a wisp of a breath, but nothing.
“Oh God, he’s not breathing,” Dash panicked aloud as he fumbled with what to do next. His eyes hovered over Danny’s glowing form when realization struck him and he hit his forehead with his palm. “Idiot, of course he’s not breathing! He’s a ghost! C’mon focus Baxter, focus.”
He couldn’t try to help him here. He remembered what Danny said about his parents not knowing and he couldn’t risk letting them get to him. He needed to move him and get him somewhere else. He ran a hand along Danny’s spine to check for breaks. When he didn’t feel anything, he shifted Danny slightly in an effort to pick him up. He heard a groan and took that as a good sign before he hefted him into his arms and ran off down the street. He kept running down random streets until he thought he got far enough away to lose them before he ducked into an alley between two shops. He set Danny down as gently as he could manage and tried to shake him awake. “Come on Phantom, wake up. Wake up.”
“Phantom!”
The shout jerked Danny into awareness. He instantly regretted it as his entire body flared with hot, white pain. The sharp agony barraged him from all sides. It consumed him and drowned out anything else around him. His head spun around and around and around to the point where he thought he might be sick. He closed his eyes as the siren call of the dark blackness of unconsciousness serenaded him with promises of numbness. That had to be better than this. Anything had to be better than this.
“No no, Phantom, stay with me!” the same voice yelled. Two strong hands lifted him back up into a sitting position. More pain raced through him and he choked out a cry. It unfortunately brought him back again and forced the world into greater clarity. He expected to see his friends or Jazz but instead he saw–
“...Dash?” he mumbled out. “What are you…what happened?” Stringing those words together took so much effort. The sheer agony of everything clouded out his thoughts and made thinking so incredibly difficult.
“I don’t know if you took a blow to the head, so you have to stay awake,” Dash instructed. “You were fighting a ghost and then–”
A gray shape slammed into his side. He flew through the air and crashed into the pavement with a loud crunch.
Danny blinked his eyes a couple times and looked at Dash who had stopped talking. He didn’t even hear the rest of what he said. “I’m…what? I didn’t–I don’t think I heard all that,” he said slowly as he tried to pull words through the molasses inside his brain.
If Dash felt annoyed at having to repeat himself, he didn’t show it. “Your parents hit you with a car.”
The gray shape. The GAV. The indescribable speeds his father drove at. The hit that threw him through the air. “Of course they did,” he groaned.
He managed to slump into a position that only mostly hurt. Every bone in his body throbbed with the echoes of pain, but they didn’t scream and blossom anew with fresh torment so long as he didn’t move. Thank god he didn’t have to breathe right now. “Are they here?” he asked after a moment.
Dash shook his head. “No, I think your friends stepped in. I grabbed you and got you out of there as quick as I could.”
Immediately the warmth of relief spread through his chest. He didn’t think he could evade his parents right now and he felt grateful he wouldn’t have to thanks to Dash’s quick thinking. “...Thanks,” he muttered. Much as he hated to admit it, Dash had actually helped him out and gave Sam and Tucker a chance to distract his parents. He owed him one, as weird as that felt to admit. He shuddered to think what Dash would ask as payment for this. More text messages? Joining him on a hunt? Somehow thinking about that made the pain feel even worse.
“Yeah man, of course,” Dash replied with a nod.
In an effort to not make him even more indebted to Dash, he tried to stand. He needed to find Tucker or Sam or get home or something so he could figure out why he was still in such blinding amounts of pain. He used his arm to push himself off the ground and immediately yelped in pain as his arm gave out and planted him into the ground. He fought hard against blacking out again as the searing pain consumed him. Tears poured down his face as he cradled his arm. He hated to admit that he cried in front of Dash of all people as he sobbed in agony. He waited for the tease or the laugh or something to come from Dash, but he only felt his hands gently guide him into a sitting position again.
“You really shouldn’t move,” Dash advised. “I think you dislocated your shoulder. You may have even broken it.”
Danny leaned against the wall and took deep breaths as he tried to ride out the pain. He didn’t really need to breathe, but the cool air seemed to help. The wall also felt surprisingly cool to the touch even though he felt like his body was on fire, and he took solace in that grounding sensation. “Great,” he grimaced through gritted teeth.
“I think you cracked a couple ribs too,” Dash added as he gestured to the lower ribs on the same side as his shoulder.
Danny tried to wave a dismissive hand with his uninjured arm, but it came across as barely a gesture. “Yeah, when aren’t they cracked? I can handle those.” Cracked ribs healed and broke themselves again all the time. The shoulder though…that was going to cause a problem, and it would be even harder to hide.
“I didn’t get a chance to look over anything else,” Dash admitted. “You hit the ground hard though. I don’t know if you hit your head.”
Danny closed his eyes as he tried not to feel overwhelmed. A head injury…would make sense. Something made it hard for him to process thoughts. Everything still felt too fast and at the same time too slow. He struggled to hold onto any thought other than the excruciating pain that shot through him. Maybe the pain alone and the shock could explain it, but he couldn’t rule out a concussion. “It’ll be fine,” he said, not sure if he was trying to reassure himself or Dash. “I heal fast. It’ll be fine.”
“You really should go to a doctor,” Dash suggested.
Despite the fog and the pain and the panic still gripping around his heart, Danny managed to level a disbelieving glare at Dash. “Dash, I can’t go to the hospital. I’m a ghost.”
“Well yeah, but not always,” Dash tried to reason.
He tried not to get frustrated, because he knew Dash didn’t know, but he didn’t have the capacity to explain this right now. God, where were Tucker and Sam? “I still have signs as a human. Ectoplasm. My core. Those don’t go away. A doctor would see them.”
Dash screwed his face up in thought. Was he trying to understand that concept or trying to problem-solve their situation? “Okay, okay that makes sense. Then I’ll do it.”
Danny raised an eyebrow. “Do what Dash?”
“I’ll fix it.”
He shook his head. “No no, I’m fine.” Absolutely not. He wasn’t going to let Dash give him some spotty medical aid because he wanted to be useful. “I just need to get home.” He tried to stand just using his legs and the wall for support, but his legs felt like jelly and he barely lifted his bum off the floor before he fell down again.
“No Fe–Phantom,” Dash corrected as he cast a quick glance down the hallway. Even if they couldn’t see anyone, he felt grateful that Dash was still trying to keep his identity secret. “I can do this. Come on, you can trust me.”
Danny leveled a glare. “Trust you?” Dash was the last person he trusted for anything.
A flicker of pain crossed over Dash’s face, but he clearly pushed it aside as he leaned closer. “I know I haven’t been someone you can trust. I know I haven’t earned any of this. But you can trust me now. I promise.”
Danny still eyed him warily. The only thing he could ever trust from Dash was a reliable shove in the locker or to be there at the absolute worst moment to rub his embarrassment into him further. On the list of people he would go to for anything , he fell below Vlad, and that was saying a lot. At least he knew Vlad meant well in his heart. Even if that favor came with a price, he at least knew what that price would be. With Dash, he had no idea what this would cost him later even if it did turn out.
But at the same time, hadn’t Dash already proven himself? He could have run. He could have abandoned him. But instead he took him away from his parents and watched over him. He touched him gently and seemed genuinely concerned about his well-being. He hadn’t made fun of him for crying or being in pain or not putting on a brave face. Maybe it was the head injury or the pain messing with his thoughts, but Dash had been there for him.
Dash must have sensed Danny’s indecision because he pushed on. “I told you I wanted to make things up to you. You said you’d believe it when you see it. Well how can you believe it if you never let me show it?”
He sighed as he rested his head back against the wall. How many times had he asked his parents to give Phantom a second chance? Or Valerie? Or the public? How many times had he asked for a second chance from his friends because he did something stupid? How many times had he given a ghost a second chance? And now Dash wanted one. Could he really say that as a bully Dash was completely irredeemable? Fundamentally he really didn’t like the idea that someone couldn’t be redeemed, and yet he’d set himself up in his mind that once a bully, Dash couldn’t be anything but a bully. It didn’t negate all the years of harm that he did and it wouldn’t make up for it, but if Dash wanted to try to come back from that, could he really get in the way of that attempt?
“...Fine,” Danny agreed. He thought he’d feel a stab of regret as soon as he agreed to it, but he surprisingly felt lighter, like he’d let go of some ill will he’d been harboring in his heart by giving this kid who’d made his life a living terror a chance.
Dash smiled wide as his face brightened. “You won’t regret this.” He pulled off his sweater and handed it to Danny. “I need you to bite this.”
…Or maybe he did regret it. “Bite it? Seriously Dash?” What kind of suggestion was that?
“I have to pop your shoulder back into place,” he explained. “Then we can see if it’s actually broken. It’s gonna hurt, so you bite this to muffle the screams.”
Right, dislocated shoulder. He’d seen this in movies before. It would hurt but it had to be done. He could see the logic in that, much as he hated the idea of experiencing more pain. “I thought the goal of your new redemption arc was to stop hurting me,” he joked weakly as he took the sweater with his good arm.
Dash rolled his eyes and positioned Danny so he had better access to his shoulder. He stayed surprisingly gentle, which Danny didn’t expect. He had always been so forceful and bold and brash that these kind movements felt so out of place.
“How do you even know how to do this?” Danny asked, both out of curiosity and as a way to delay the inevitable.
“I want to go into sports medicine: taking care of athletes and stuff. My dad got me into a summer program where I got to shadow a guy in soccer and I saw all kinds of crazy things,” Dash explained.
“So have you done this before?” If he had, he really should have led with that and it would have been a lot easier to trust him.
“Well…no. But I did see it done. I know what I’m doing,” Dash emphasized again, probably because he could sense Danny’s hesitation. “Are you ready?”
“No,” Danny admitted. He took in a big breath and let it out slowly. “But do it anyway.”
Dash grabbed Danny’s elbow and shoulder and pressed him into the wall. He bit his lip and hesitated for a moment before he pushed. He didn’t falter and he didn’t hesitate. He was quick and the whole process took maybe a couple seconds. To Danny it felt like an eternity. The bone of his arm grinded against the bone of his shoulder. It pulled and strained the muscles in directions they weren’t meant to go. His arm felt numb, like it had been disconnected somehow. His nerves burned. His muscles screamed. His bone throbbed. His entire perception of the world boiled down to his shoulder as the bone popped back into his arm.
He slumped against the wall partly in Dash’s arms. His head swam again in pain. This time when the blackness threatened to consume him, he gave himself over to it. Anything to escape the pain.
He shifted against something soft as awareness slowly filled his senses. Pain immediately chased that awareness. His shoulder burned and ached and he almost wished he could throw himself back into that darkness so he couldn’t feel it anymore. Unfortunately the pain blocked him from hiding in that sweet respite and he opened his eyes. Familiar sights surrounded him: his model spaceships, his poster of the constellations, his glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling. He was in his bedroom?
“Hey, you’re awake.”
Danny frowned because of all the voices he expected to hear, he never would have guessed that it would belong to Dash. “...Dash? Why are you in my bedroom?” Even saying it felt wrong, like a paradox he couldn’t speak or it would unravel the very core of the universe.
“Keeping watch,” he said simply, like that could explain everything. It didn’t, and left so many more questions. How did he even get here? How long had he been out? Why was Dash sitting on his bed like a concerned friend? “He’s awake!” he called out of the room.
Danny frowned as he reached up to feel his head. Did he actually suffer some kind of head injury and now he was in some alternate reality where absolutely nothing made sense? He noticed his scalp felt warm to the touch and he realized he’d transformed back to his human form. He must have really passed out this time.
Jazz threw herself into the room, her face filled with relief at seeing Danny awake. “Oh thank god, I was starting to get worried.”
“Wait, Jazz? How are you here?” Danny asked. Wasn’t she supposed to be at school? How did she even know he’d be in need of her help?
“I called her,” Dash replied. “After you passed out and turned back into Fenton I didn’t know what else to do, so I called Jazz to pick us up.”
“Wait you…called her?” Danny questioned further as he struggled to fit the pieces together in a way that made sense.
Dash shrugged. “Well yeah. You told me she already knew, so I figured it’d be safe. And I had her number from when she tutored me.”
Right right, he’d forgotten about that. Or rather, he’d purposefully tried to forget about that.
“He was right to call. Passing out twice after a possible head injury is reason to be concerned,” Jazz added as she walked over to his bed to check on his shoulder. He finally noticed his shoulder had been wrapped up in some medical tape. He cast a glance over to the side of his bed where his first aid kit sat open and now depleted of various medical supplies.
“Uh, it was technically only once,” he defended, though he didn’t know why that felt like something he needed to argue. “I stayed as a ghost the first time.”
“Oh, well that changes…nothing,” Jazz deadpanned. “You still passed out. And even though you don’t have many brain cells left to damage—“
“Hey!” Danny protested.
“—you need to keep all the ones you do still have,” she finished, but with a teasing tone.
Dash stifled a smile in his elbow, but quickly forced his face back into its serious frown. Did Dash not understand the self-deprecating jokes that he and his sister engaged in? Maybe that just wasn’t for him? Or did he feel bad for laughing because he didn’t know how it would be perceived? It gave him pause to see further evidence that Dash was trying to change, and it still felt weird to see.
“Dash you did a good job with this wrap,” Jazz complimented. “I can’t say I’ve ever set a shoulder, but this looks good.”
“Wait you did this?” he asked Dash. He had just assumed his sister did it since she typically took the lead on first aid.
Dash shrugged. “It’s just part of setting it.”
“It’s better than I could have done. You might be able to get by skipping the doctor.” Jazz mentioned.
Danny shook his head vehemently. “No doctors Jazz.”
“I know, I know, but if Dash wasn’t here to help with this, we would have had to go to the doctor,” she insisted. “So really you owe him.”
Hearing Jazz echo the thoughts he kept trying to ignore made them ring even louder in his head. He’d never tell her this because it would go to her head, but he always trusted her opinions on things, so much so that whenever he gave voice to his conscience, it always sounded like Jazz. If she agreed with that nagging voice that he owed Dash, he knew she was right. “I know,” he finally sighed. “I do owe you one,” he said as he tried to regard Dash with as much genuine gratitude as he could.
Dash shook his head. “No you don’t.”
“No, pretty sure I do,” Danny repeated as he gestured towards his arm. “I don’t know how I would have made it off the street without you.”
“No really, you don’t owe me anything,” Dash insisted. “I’ve been a real jerk to you in the past, and that means I’m in the red, not you.”
The room grew awkwardly silent. Danny fiddled with the edge of his medical wrap while Dash traced the constellation designs on Danny’s bedsheet. Jazz must have noticed the tonal shift (because of course she did) and she slowly backed up to the door. “I’m going to give you a chance to talk,” she decided. He didn’t miss the knowing smile that crept onto her face as she closed the door.
If Jazz thought that leaving them alone to talk would fix the awkward silence, then she really needed to read more psychology books. He shifted awkwardly in his bed. The silence felt deafening as it pounded in his ears. Or maybe that was the concussion. But the pressure of the silence closed in around him, reminding him of all the things he needed to discuss but just couldn’t seem to find the words.
Finally he broke because he just couldn’t take it anymore. He opened his mouth and expected some lame joke or statement about the weather or something to come out, but not an actual coherent thought. “I have to ask, what changed? Obviously you found out I’m Phantom, but what really changed?”
Dash shrugged but refused to meet Danny’s curious gaze. “I dunno, I just…started thinking. About us. About what happened.”
“You mean with the teddy bear?” Danny asked as he raised an irritated eyebrow. That dumb teddy bear caused him so much grief over his school life, and he hadn’t even stolen it either!
“Well yeah, that and just how it got to where it did. A lot of it I don’t even remember. I was a dumb kid. But I just remember feeling powerful, you know?” He looked up at Danny, trying to gauge if he could understand his perspective.
And really, Danny did know. He’d heard the siren song of what he could do with his power. He knew how hard it could be to turn those thoughts away. Sometimes he was better at doing that than others. But he had Jazz and the conscience she drilled into him to help keep that at bay. He had Tucker and Sam who kept him in check. Did Dash have any of those things when he felt that tempting urge? He honestly didn’t know.
So Danny nodded slightly, and it seemed to be the gateway to get Dash to open up a bit more. He relaxed a bit on the bed as he shuffled his feet on the floor. “People laughed and I guess that made me feel important. Cool. And by the time someone told me it was wrong, I just didn’t care anymore.”
He stopped himself and held up a hand. “That sounds like an excuse. I’m not here to make excuses. It was wrong, and I know that. But you want to know what actually changed? I realized you were actually a cool person under all that loser. Phantom is that cool person, but if I didn’t see that, what else didn’t I see? And maybe I should give people more of a chance because other ‘losers’ might also be cool people inside too.”
He was pretty sure Dash still called him a loser, but he decided to let it slide. He couldn’t expect too much of him too quickly. Besides, was he actually witnessing Dash learn empathy for the first time? It seemed shocking that it took him until high school to understand the concept, but maybe it was better late than never?
“You know…that happens to me with ghosts,” Danny admitted. Jazz always told him that if he wanted to get a little in a conversation, he needed to give a little. “I assume they’re bad, and sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they help me out later. I’m not saying it’s the same, but I’m saying I get it.”
Dash shook his head. “I don’t need you to get it. I’m not trying to make you see things my way or forgive me or anything. But you wanted to know what changed and…that’s it. And now I just want to make it up to you. I want to be different.”
Danny looked down at his bedding as he fiddled with the comforter. He appreciated that Dash wanted to change. He really did. How long had he been hoping that Dash would suddenly decide that he didn’t want to be a bully anymore? He could honestly say he thought about it every time he wiggled his way out of his locker. And now that Dash finally wanted to make good on that hope and really change…he didn’t know how to react. Did he praise him? Did he forgive him? Did he just let bygones be bygones? He wished he could be the kind of person who just let it all go, but he didn’t know if he could do that.
He knew he needed to give him a second chance and an opportunity to prove himself. He’d really stepped up today and showed that he could be trusted. If Dash wanted a second chance to turn things around, he’d give it to him, but he didn’t know if he could give Dash everything that he wanted. There was too much of a history there and too much of a past. Just because someone wanted to change seemingly overnight didn’t mean he could do the same. He needed more time, and hopefully Dash could respect that without setting him back through all the progress he’d already made.
“I’m glad to hear that Dash,” he replied with a small, honest smile. “That’s a good thing. And I want to help you with that, I do, but this…this doesn’t make us best friends or anything. Like we’re not gonna start hanging out.” It felt harsh to say, especially after Dash had been so open, but he needed to set his boundaries. He could support his journey without having to go to the movies with him or eat lunch with him.
Dash shook his head and waved one of his hands in dismissal. “No, that’s fine. I’ve got my own friends and football and stuff. I just wanted to make things up to you. Help when I can.”
Okay, well that made him feel slightly better that he wouldn’t have to put up with social hangouts with him, but at the same time, trying to account for yet another person on ghost hunts stressed him out. He already knew he couldn’t tell Tucker or Sam to stay away from a ghost fight after everything they’d done, and by now they had a pretty good idea how to hold their own. Jazz started out wanting to be there for ghost hunts, but he managed to have a heart-to-heart with her about how much having another person there to protect stressed him out and she showed up to the actual fights less and less. He really didn’t want to have to take care of Dash too and show him the ropes. He actually felt like Dash could pick it up quick being so naturally athletic, but he just didn’t want to invest the time into training him.
“You know I can’t let you come with us to every ghost fight, right?” Danny mentioned. Dash’s shoulders sagged, and Danny knew he’d finally gotten at the core of what this discussion really entailed. “I know it probably looks cool from the outside and all, but it’ll draw too much attention. People ignore the three of us. We’re not popular and people forget about us, and that works in our favor. People will notice the star quarterback.”
Dash sighed but he nodded in resignation. “No, I get it.”
“But look, that doesn’t mean you can’t help. You can help keep the heat off of us. We can let you in on some of the excuse plans. Honestly, we were kinda running out of them.” They’d used almost every plan on every teacher by now, and really they were just hoping that enough time had passed that they could try the same trick on the same teacher (except Lancer - nothing got past Lancer twice; it barely got past him the first time).
Dash brightened up at actually being given a job and he nodded his head enthusiastically. “Yeah! Yeah I can do that! I come up with a lot of football plays, so I can work out a whole series of coordinated excuses for you!”
…Okay, that would actually be really helpful. He’d mostly suggested it as a way to make him feel like he was being useful but that…that was actually useful. Hard as it was to believe, this was actually working out better than he originally thought it would. “That would be great. Really helpful,” Danny agreed, and Dash preened under the praise. “And the first aid was really helpful too, so if it’s ever something I can’t handle, it would sure be nice to have someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“I bet I could take a first aid class too! Get even more training!” Dash suggested. He turned on the bed to truly face Danny and he could see the resolution in his shoulders. Man, was this how he got before football games? It was kind of intense to see the way his body just radiated with excitement and drive. It was almost exhausting to look at.
“I mean, if you want to,” Danny hedged. He didn’t want him to get too crazy about this. “And look, maybe we can call you in now and then too, like we do with Jazz. Not all the time,” he was quick to add as he saw Dash’s eyes grow wide. “But when we need you.”
“So like an Honorary Team Phantom?” Dash asked as he leaned forward, his face full of boyish anticipation.
“...Sure.” Dash’s eyes shined with so much hope Danny really couldn’t shoot him down, not after he’d been a surprisingly good sport about all this. Yeah that was maybe pushing a bit far, but it was a concession he could give…for now. And hey, maybe having something he could take away if Dash got too out of hand could be a worthwhile way to keep him in check and help guide him on his path of redemption.
Dash balled his hands into fists and punched the air with determination. “Yes! I won’t let you down, I promise! I’ll be the best Honorary Team Phantom member that there is!”
If this was what it felt like being on a sports team, then he felt grateful that he didn’t make it onto the middle school football or baseball teams. He really didn’t know if he could take all this aggressive goal-setting and celebration. Hopefully he’d calm down, but he had a feeling with a pang of regret that he probably wouldn’t. But if aggressive jock energy was the major downside to getting escape plans and free first aid…he really couldn’t be too upset with how this negotiation turned out. Tucker and Sam would hate it though.
“Oh by the way, what happened to Tucker and Sam?” Danny asked. It felt strange that they weren’t here yet to check on him.
“Oh, they were off distracting your parents,” Dash said off-hand.
“Do they know what happened to me?”
“...No. I don’t have their numbers.”
“Right.” Danny winced as he finally thought to check his phone and noticed a bunch of messages asking if he was okay, where he was, and if Dash had taken him away somewhere to exact revenge on him or stick him in some Phantom shrine. That last one pulled a slight chuckle out of him, which he instantly regretted as it pushed on his broken ribs. He typed a quick response that he was safe at home and immediately they messaged they were on their way. “Alright, they’re on their way.”
“Which means I should probably go,” Dash offered.
“You don’t have to,” Danny mentioned. Yeah he didn’t really enjoy Dash’s company, but he’d done a lot for him today and the least he could do was not chase him away.
Dash shook his head. “Nah, I should probably head back to school. Got football practice later. Besides, the way your girlfriend glares at me kinda freaks me out.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Danny groaned. How many times did he need to remind people of that?
“Uh-huh,” Dash chuckled. “Whatever you say.” He stood up from the bed and gave him a respectful nod. “Get better, ‘kay?”
“Yeah, I will. And Dash? …Thanks.” He didn’t really know what he was thanking him for: the first aid care, still keeping his secret, the offers for help that he gave, respecting his boundaries when he did lay them out - really it probably encompassed all of it.
Dash seemed to get it because he gave him a soft smile. “Thanks for giving me a chance.” He waved goodbye and headed out the bedroom door. He could hear muffled conversation that got quieter as they moved further away, which must have meant that Jazz decided to escort him downstairs. Of course she would, she’d want the gossip on what took place in that room. Come to think of it, she’d had an entire car ride to talk to Dash before he woke up…
He felt dumb for only now realizing that she probably guided Dash through what to say. Looking back, he could see Jazz’s guiding hand on the whole thing. He wanted to be angry at her for interfering like that, but honestly…he couldn’t be too mad about it. He felt a lot lighter and more at peace. Yeah things with Dash weren’t perfect, and he didn’t think they ever would be, but he didn’t feel the burden hanging over him anymore. He finally felt like he’d found peace in a war ten years in the making, and that relief washed over him like a warm blanket.
He knew it wouldn’t be without its challenges. He knew Dash would probably say something dumb or insensitive because he was still learning. He knew he’d probably lose his temper at Dash being around too much. He knew his friends would hate Dash being around more. But he could really see this being a good thing in the end, and if he could say that the time he spent on Dash made him treat other people differently going forward - well he’d count that as a win.
He settled back in his bed, content to rest until Tucker and Sam got here. He knew better than to close his eyes because Jazz would freak out that he fell asleep, but despite the pain that ravaged his chest and shoulder, he stared at the ceiling feeling content.
His phone buzzed in his hand and he looked at his phone expecting some kind of update from Tucker or Sam.
“So what happens when you suck a ghost in a thermos?”
For the first time, Danny didn’t groan seeing Dash’s text. He chuckled lightly and typed out an actual, thoughtful response this time. After everything he’d done, he’d earned some real answers, and honestly, he didn’t mind.