Not Quite Human
My Holiday truce gift @wingedflight
Read on A03: here
I used the main prompt of Grey ghost identity reveal, with a bit of the outsider POV of danny being strange mixed in there.
Valerie did her best to suppress a scowl as she tracked Paulina in the mirror as the other girl walked into the bathroom. Her hopes of Paulina just having to use the bathroom or fix her appearance were quickly dashed as she saddled up next to Valerie. Maybe she could just pretend she didn’t notice her. She kept her gaze down and turned off the sink before turning towards the door to leave. It was the end of the day, she wouldn’t have a chance to stop Valerie again at least until Monday.
“Don’t leave just yet Val.” Paulina instructed. She didn’t even give Valerie the dignity of looking at her as she talked. Instead, she kept her eyes to her reflection, adjusting her hair.
Valerie stopped mid-step, it was better to just get whatever she wanted to talk about over with. Otherwise, it would become a common occurrence until she complied. “Don’t call me Val, only my friends get to do that. What do you want Paulina, I thought you couldn’t be seen with a ‘loser’ like me?”
“That’s why we’re in the bathroom, it doesn’t count. And I’m here to talk to you as your friend.” Paulina’s reflection smiled. “You need to drop the Fenton creep.”
That caused Valerie to turn fully towards Paulina. “Excuse me? What gives you any right to judge who I hang out around? Let alone talk about him like that.”
“I heard your dad might be getting his job back.” Her eyes flicked towards Valerie.
“What?” It was the first time Valerie was hearing anything about that. She doubted her dad would keep something like that from her.
“Well, my dad heard it and he told me at least. But if he does end up getting that job back you need to start regrouping your image sooner than later if you want back into our group. Which leads us back to you dropping the creep.” Paulina explained.
Valerie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What makes you think I even want to be friends with you after you all threw me out like last year's fashion line? And Danny’s not a creep. Unlike you, he doesn’t pretend to be nice.”
Paulina laughed. “I know they say love is blind but, really? Wow. You can’t say you don’t see it. He’s just…wrong. Our town is routinely attacked by ghosts and somehow he is the one who acts the least like an actual person.”
Valerie didn't grace her with an answer. She finished drying her hands and stormed out the bathroom. She walked down the halls before stopping and taking a deep breath before rounding the corner where Danny and his friends would be waiting. The three of them were standing around Danny’s locker as he put his textbooks away. They had yet to notice her as she approached them.
“No I literally can’t find any lead on the group trying to do it. At this point I’m going to have to scour the Realms and hope I stumble across them. All I know is that she’s like volcanic related or something.” Danny slammed his locker.
“Guess you have your weekend plans then, need any help?” Tucker asked.
Danny shook his head. “No. Me and Val already have weekend plans, and I am not cancelling them again. It can wait two days.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Valerie asked as she leaned against Danny’s back. He always ran so cold, she once joked corpses were warmer than he was. She only told the joke once however, it put him in a weird mood the rest of the day. But it was a familiar comfort, especially after the conversation she had with Paulina.
Danny jumped, apparently just realizing she was there. “Oh, hey Val. Nothing, important.”
“Aw come on, Sam?” ValIerie asked turning to Sam.
Sam just shook her head with a sigh. “There’s a new Doomed event starting this weekend. The main boss is hidden though so players have to find it.”
“Oh I see.” Valerie didn’t know the first thing about those video games to be honest. Danny had tried multiple times to show her but she felt like she understood even less than when the explanation started. But he enjoyed them so she’d listen to him talk about them even if she didn’t understand a single thing about them. But she appreciated him putting off what seemed like a big thing in the game to spend time with her.
“We are still on for this weekend though, right?” Danny asked with wide eyes aimed towards Valerie.
She couldn’t say no to those eyes even if she wanted to. Not that she wanted to of course. They’d been trying to plan spending a weekend together for months now. It didn’t help that she kept having to make excuses to go and take care of a ghost attack. But she was determined for this weekend to work out. She’d even let go of her grudge, temporarily of course, and let the ghost boy deal with any ghosts that appeared.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Valerie told him giving him a quick kiss.
“Way to rub it in our single faces.” Tucker pouted.
“Speak for yourself, I don’t want to see it in general. Teenage hormones, bleh.” Sam shook her head.
“Not all of can be ethereal romanticless goths Sam. Some of us are human.” Tucker elbowed her.
“Well at least one of us is, and you should try it sometimes it’s neat.” Sam smiled.
“Haha very funny you two.” Danny deadpanned. “See you tomorrow Val!”
“Why don’t I walk you home?” Valerie offered.
“Are you sure? It’s pretty icy out and you live pretty far away to walk.”
Valerie waved him off. “I have work. I’d rather walk you home safely than just sit in the break room until my shift starts.” Not to mention she’d also be patrolling late due to not doing it at all that coming weekend.
“My hero, walking me home.” Danny placed a hand to his chest as the two of them made their way outside.
“You know it.” Valerie shivered as a blast of cold air hit her.
As they walked Danny kept having to slow down to give Valerie time to catch up. She had no clue how he was walking at a normal pace without slipping on the ice, if she didn’t know any better she would say it was like he was gliding across the ice as he walked.
Now that she thought about it more Danny’s motor skills seemed to fluctuate quite a bit. At times, he’d trip over his own feet and was being banned from the science lab for the third time that month. Other times, he moved so fluidly, like when he was weaving in and out of the crowded halls, that she’d swear it was somehow choreographed. She was reading too much into things. That talk with Paulina was messing with her head. No way was she letting some stupid comments effect this weekend.
Thankfully the rest of the day went by quietly. She went straight from her shift at the Nasty Burger, to patrol, then straight home. She only caught glimpses of the ghost boy, seemed like he finally wisened up and learned to stay away from her. About time.
“Dad, I’m home!” She called out into the apartment as she kicked her shoes off.
“Oh, good! How was work?” Her dad poked his head out of his bedroom.
Valerie shrugged. “It was work. People feeling entitled as if they’re getting food from a five-star restaurant and not a crapy fast food joint.”
Her dad made his way to the living room and took a seat on the couch, he patted the spot next to him. “On the topic of work, there’s something I would like to tell you.” Valerie hesitantly sat down next to him. Last time he had to talk to her about work was when he had to tell her he was demoted and they’d have to move out of their house. “What’s going on? I can pick up more hours at work if I need to.”
Her dad shook his head. “No that’s not needed. Not mention you work so much as is.”
That made her feel guilty, a lot of the hours he thought she was working was just a cover for ghost hunting. “Then what did you want to talk about?” “Well, the head of the security team and I have been working on this for a while now and we were able to finally pitch it to the boss. I didn’t want to tell you until I knew for sure because I didn’t want to get your hopes up just to disappoint you. But Axion Labs has now officially partnered up with Fenton Works to create security systems, effective against both humans and ghosts. Which includes me getting my old job back, as well as an increase of pay from what I was being paid before. But you can’t tell anyone yet, it hasn’t been announced yet.” He explained.
So Paulina was right after all. It was good news, great news even but Valerie couldn’t help but frown. She should have known better than to doubt Paulina in that regard. She had always somehow known things before anyone else, and tended to be correct in her assumptions in what was going on around the school. That didn’t mean she was right about Danny though. She probably just thought it made her look bad by proximity because she used to be friends with Valerie, or something.
“Is everything alright?” Her dad asked.
Valerie realized she forgot to respond to him and had just been sitting in silence. “No! I mean yes! Everything’s fine, that’s great news dad!”
“You should be able to quit that job of yours.” He smiled.
“Oh, I’m not sure. I think it’s a good way for me to… practice responsibility. I wouldn’t want to quit just yet.” Valerie didn’t want to lose her cover for ghost hunting. Even if it did mean she had to continue working at the Nasty Burger.
“That’s good to hear that you think so. It’s late though, so I won't hold you from sleep any longer. Goodnight, I love you.” He hugged her.
“I love you too dad.” She hugged him back before heading to her room.
“Your coffee.” Danny handed her a cup of coffee that had steam coming out of the lid. He slid the seat opposing her own. They were starting off their weekend together with a coffee date. It was a nice cozy coffee shop that had just opened up a week ago. Or well it re-opened a week ago after the building was demolished in a ghost attack a few months back.
“I still can’t understand how you can drink ice coffee in this weather.” Valerie shook her head.
“It’s good, freezing temperature be damned. Plus we’re inside, the weather is outside.” Danny pointed out as he took a drink of his coffee.
“I suppose so-Ah hot!” Valerie quickly put her own cup down and put a hand to her mouth. She was pretty sure she’d just burned her tongue.
“Here let me see.” Danny grabbed her coffee and took a small sip .of it before shrugging and handing it back. “Feels fine to me.”
Valerie looked at the offending drink with caution before taking it back and hesitantly taking a sip of it. “It’s cooled down? How?”
“Like you said it’s cold out. Probably just cooled it down a bit.”
Valerie had trouble believing that. Especially from the person who had just pointed out that the weather was not affecting them inside the shop. But it wasn’t like she had any other logical explanation. “Yeah, probably…”
Danny didn’t seem to notice her uncertainty. No matter how much she loved him, she could admit he could be oblivious at times. It was one of the things that made him endearing. It made her glad he didn’t take after his parents when it came to ghost hunting. With his lack of athleticism and obliviousness he would end up a ghost himself. But he had her, so he’d never have to worry about things like that.
“Are you doing okay by the way Danny? You’ve seemed pretty tired lately.” She would have brought it up sooner, but she was so busy herself with school, work, and ghost hunting, that she would have sounded pretty hypocritical if she had said it when her eye bags matched his. Thankfully she got enough sleep the night prior.
“Don’t worry about it, just haven't been getting enough sleep lately.” Danny smiled.
“Oh? Why not? Anything I can help with?” She swore if it was Dash causing him problems again she’d throw the jock into next week.
Danny honestly looked like he was considering it before shaking his head. “Just a research project.”
“I don’t remember anything being assigned?” If she missed another big project she was doomed. Hopefully she had enough time to pull something together.
“No, nothing for school. Just a personal one so to speak. I’ve just come to a dead end at the moment.”
“That sounds fun, what’s it about?”
“Ghost cults.”
“Oh. Well if you can think of anyway I can help let me know, yeah?”
“Of course.”
Danny grabbed them both a second cup of coffee to go before they left. He even took a sip of hers to make sure this one was cool enough to drink. As they stepped outside Valarie was glad the coffee was cooled down enough as the cold hit her face.
They were heading to Danny’s house next to binge-watch a bunch of cheesy rom-com’s. Though getting there seemed like it was going to be a problem. The road and sidewalk on the quickest route to his house were blocked by a bunch of rubble scattered around. It was clear by the splatters of ectoplasm on the rubble that it was from a ghost attack.
She didn’t remember the road blockage when she walked Danny home the day prior so it had to have happened after that. She also didn’t remember fighting a ghost in this part of the city so it must have been one of Phantom’s fights.
Not surprising with how much property damage there was. “Why didn’t you say the road was blocked?”
“I totally forgot.” Danny facepalmed.
“You walked to the coffee shop this way didn’t you?” Valerie didn’t see how he could have missed it.
“Walked this way? Yeah, totally, I was just distracted I guess. We can just climb over it, it’s fine. You shouldn’t be out in the cold longer than needed and back tracking will add another fifteen minutes outside.” Danny had already started heading towards the rubble strewn street.
“Danny wait up, that’s so unsafe for you! Especially with the ice.” Valerie called after him. He was determined apparently and didn’t listen to her warning, meaning she had no choice but to follow.
Climbing around rubble wasn’t easy on a good day, let alone when it was covered in ice and snow. By the time they reached the other side Valerie was out of breath. Danny surely would need to stop to take a moment to catch his breath if Valerie was having so much trouble. She looked over at him only to find him looking perfectly fine. The rise and fall of his chest was basically unnoticeable.
In fact, it was completely unnoticeable, almost as if he wasn’t breathing. She couldn’t even see his breath fog in the cold. Which was impossible, if the trek made Valerie short of breath Danny should have been struggling at least a bit.
Danny seemed to notice her staring. “What?”
Valerie took one more breath before speaking. “How are you not out of breath?”
Then Danny took a deep breath, as if he was remembering he was supposed to be breathing. “I’ve been doing cardio with my mom.”
Valerie decided to drop it. The rest of the walk and day was uneventful. It was dark by the time Valerie declared she should get going home.
“We’re still planning on tomorrow too right?” Danny asked.
“Of course we are. You better not try to get out of it.” Valerie joked, jabbing his chest.
Danny opened his front door with a laugh as they stepped out into the cold together. “Never. I’ll meet you at your apartment.” Danny went to turn back into the house before pausing. “Oh, and tell your dad congrats on the promotion for me.”
“How’d you know about that?” Valerie stopped. She had only learned about it the night prior, and even if Paulina was spreading the information around, Danny’s social circle would have been the last to find out from her.
“Axion is partnering with my parents.” Danny reminded her, pointing up at the giant glowing Fenton Works sign.
“Oh yeah.” Valerie felt bad. It felt like ever since that conversation with Paulina she kept doubting things about Danny. She shouldn't let Paulina’s words get into her head, but the seed of doubt was certainly planted. And a lot of the things Danny did that day only watered it more. There was no actual reason for her to doubt Danny. “See you tomorrow, love you!”
“Love you too!” Danny waved her off. Valerie knew she must have been seeing things at that point. Because she could have sworn his eyes were reflecting in the dark of the night, almost glowing.
She was just out of it today, tomorrow everything would go back to normal. But in the meantime she needed to do at least a short patrol before heading back home. She hadn’t heard of a ghost attack all day or so far into the night and it was strange. Not even just a smaller ghost.
Her good mood from her date was quickly soured as Phantom appeared in her sights just minutes after she started patrolling. Even worse he seemed to be in a good mood. “I thought we agreed to patrol separate areas.”
Phantom looked down at the ground below them before looking back up at her. “Oh hey? But yeah,this is the area I patrol?”
Valerie wouldn’t call it a truce what they had. More of a tentative agreement not to attack each other as long as they left each other alone. It started around the time she and Danny had started dating, it did end up giving her more time for school and other things. Which was the only reason she agreed to it. He was unfortunately right though. They were currently above the area they agreed he’d have patrol in. Why he wanted to be so close to Fenton Works was anyone's guess, maybe because that was where the ghost portal was. “So it is. I was just passing through.”
Phantom shrugged like he didn’t care. “No problem, as long as you don’t shoot me.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “Wasn’t a suggestion. You seem to be in a worse mood than normal around me, something happen?”
“Nothing you’d understand. Or that I’d even want to tell you.” She didn’t need to talk to a ghost of all things about her dating worries.
“Well if I don’t understand it I’d be the perfect person to tell it to.” He had a point. Sadly enough. She couldn’t talk to Danny about it, and the closest other people she could call friends were Sam and Tucker and they were Danny’s friends first and foremost. “Just relationship problems. But I’m pretty sure I’m just overexaggerating things.”
If Valerie didn’t know any better she would have said Phantom looked worried. “Oh? What sort of problems?”
Valerie shook her head. Maybe she was just losing it, all the things about Danny probably had a perfectly rational explanation but she was too far gone to think of any. She couldn’t even think of an irrational explanation was the problem. Nothing seemed to add up.
How could he struggle in gym class just the day prior and then climb over a bunch of rubble with no issue. Not even with no issue but seemingly not needing to breathe? How could he practically glide across ice as he walked, not even looking down to make sure he didn’t slip. How was he able to somehow cool down her coffee enough to make it drinkable when only seconds prior it burnt her. Was there anything else she just failed to notice? What about his cold skin, and his discomfort every time she brought it up. His constantly fluctuating agility. What about the fact she could have sworn he had bruises but the next day they were gone.
Every time she brought anything up he seemed to just brush it off. Surely it couldn’t be all in her head. But what else could it even be?
“Red? Valerie? Hey, you okay? Val!” Phantom was yelling at her.
She snapped out of her thoughts. “What did you just call me?
“Red?”
“No, after that?” ‘Valerie?” Phantom looked her up and down. “Do you want me to fly you home? Are you getting enough sleep, you seem out of it.”
“Well whose fault is that? I have a life and job outside of ghost hunting you know. Not that you’d know about that.” Valerie frowned.
Phantom blinked, opened his mouth before shutting it again. “You won’t have to worry about the job soon enough though at least. With your dad’s new job and all.”
Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “How did you know about that?”
“Shi-I mean I overheard it, while I was leaving the Ghost Zone.” Phantom nodded abruptly. “Well I better get going, see ya later.”
“I hope not.” Valerie grumbled. He was right about one thing though, she probably just needed some sleep. She’d give in this time and head home.
Unfortunately the morning didn’t bring peace of mind. In fact, it did the opposite. Danny never showed up to pick her up from her apartment. She had waited two hours past the time he said he’d be there before deciding to figure up what was going on herself. He wasn’t even responding to her texts.
She was going to get answers. For everything. Before she was just planning on just letting it be, but he didn’t even have the courtesy to text her to let her know he wasn’t going to show up.
It took a few good minutes of rapping on the door of Fenton Works for someone to answer, and it wasn’t the person she was looking for. “Hi Valerie, did you need something?” Jazz Fenton asked.
“I need your brother. He didn’t show up for our date, and didn’t even bother to text. Where is he?” Valerie crossed her arms.
Jazzed looked around with a sigh. “Have you tried Tucker’s?”
“No, I assumed he’d be at his house first.”
Jazz just shrugged. “I don’t know where he is either.” “Thanks anyway.” Valerie turned around and headed towards Tucker’s house.
“No clue where he is, is he at his house?” Tucker said.
“No he’s not, that’s why I’m here!” Valerie felt her eye twitch.
“Sam’s maybe?” Tucker offered but Valerie was already walking away towards Sam’s house.
Valerie didn’t have anything against Sam, but she couldn’t help but feel like she had something against Valerie. A feeling that was reaffirmed when she was facing Sam in her doorway.
“Have you seen Danny anywhere today?” Valerie asked.
Sam shook her head. “Nope. Have you looked at Tucker’s or his house?”
“Clearly I looked there first, and yes I checked Tucker’s!” Valerie threw up her arms.
“Don’t know what to tell you then.” Sam went to close the door, but Valerie put her foot in front of it before she could.
“Do you have something against me?”
“No, not really.”
“Really because it feels like you do. Are you jealous or something?” Valerie challenged.
Sam laughed before stopping. “Oh you’re serious. No, I’m not jealous of you dating him. I couldn’t care less who he chooses to date. As long as they aren’t hurting him.”
“I’m not hurting him, why would I want to do that?” Hurting him was the last thing she’d ever want to do.
“Look, I told you I don’t know where he is. If he doesn’t want to be found he won’t be found. He’s good at disappearing.” Sam laughed like she said something funny.
It took everything within Valerie not to storm off and walk away normally. If no one was going to tell her where Danny was, she’d find him herself. She was very glad the Fenton’s gave her a boo-merang last time she showed interest in their work. It was still faulty, for some reason locking onto Danny more often than ghosts. But that was exactly what she wanted now.
Getting into her ghost hunting gear she took to the sky following where the boo-merang lead. She was more and more unsure as she went, it took her over the forest outside of Amity. Why would Danny be all the way out here? Especially in the middle of winter.
Her anger quickly morphed into fear however as she saw giant plumes of smoke floating into the air in the middle of the forest. Right where the boo-merange was heading. She dove into the newly made clearing. There was ash everywhere, she was glad her helmet had a filtering system otherwise she doubted she’d have been able to breath with how thick the smog was. It didn’t help much with the heat, however.
“You seem sorta hotheaded, why don’t you cool off?” She heard before two ghosts flew past. Phantom and a ghost she hadn’t encountered before.
The ghost looked pretty feminine, her clothes seemed to be made of pure smoke, and her skin looked like cracked rock. Where there should have been hair on her head there was flowing magma. Or was it lava? She didn’t pay enough attention in science class to remember.
Whatever it was and whoever the ghost was she was clearly dangerous just by the amount of damage done to the surrounding forest. If the attack was in the city the damage would be unfeasible.
She watched as the two ghosts fought for a minute, not even sure how she’d attack without staying far enough away not to get burnt. She had a feeling her ecto-guns would only do so much. It didn’t help her peace of mind that Danny was still nowhere to be seen. Not only that but Phantom seemed to be treating this fight like it was a game. Cracking jokes and one-liners as he fought the flaming ghost with a smile. Staying just of reach of the other ghosts attacks, ducking away just in time to avoid a giant ball of fire or a swipe of her arms. Almost like he was taunting her.
Valerie had landed fully at that point. More focused on finding where ever Danny could be than the fight that Phantom, for the most part, seemed to have handled. No matter how much the idea of leaving a fight to him was, getting Danny out of here was more important. It didn’t help that she kept on having to dodge projectiles from the volcanic ghost that missed Phantom. In a strange twist of fate it wasn’t the ghost herself that caught Valerie off guard but a tree that the flames surrounding the area must have cause to fall. She heard a loud creaking sound and looked up just in time to see a tree coming towards her, but not enough time to dodge out of the way.
She must have lost consciousness for a second because the next thing she knew was that she was pinned to the ground her head screaming at her in pain. Or maybe that was her screaming in pain, because it brought on the attention of the two ghosts causing them to both pause and look at her.
She couldn’t hear it, but Phantom mouthed something that almost looked like her name. She watched helplessly as the other ghost started to make her way towards her.
Was this really how she died? In the middle of the forest where no one would know to look. She hoped Phantom had enough humanity left to at least let her dad know what happened to her.
Though looking at him, Phantom had a look on his face Valerie had never seen on him before. Pure rage.
Which didn’t make sense. Valerie would admit she had done and said some awful things to the ghost boy, and seen even worse done. But nothing that made that look of rage appear on his face. It didn’t make sense that he was mad, let alone mad over her of all people getting hurt.
The ghost didn’t get the chance to reach Valarie before Phantom slammed into her causing both of them to crash into the ground. Still within sight of Valerie.
Valerie had fought and seen Phantom fight many times. He always tended to fight differently than other ghosts. But now he seemed human in the way he was attacking. No ecto-blasts or the occasional ice attack in sight. It was all just punches and kicks, he wasn’t even flying anymore as he fought. None of his jokes to be found.
Calling it a fight was almost too generous. What was occurring before Valerie had arrived was a fight. An at least somewhat equal trading of blows. Or even just an attempt of countering. Phantom didn’t give the other ghost a chance one punch after the other over and over not giving her any time to recover before the next hit. It was the last thing Valerie saw before she lost consciousness once more.
As she came to there was a face hovering over her own. Blue eyes and dark messy black hair, with the remnants of the flames behind it almost seemed like he was glowing. “Danny?”
Danny choked out a laugh, or maybe he just inhaled too much smoke. It was more of a laugh of shock. “Yeah, it’s me Val.”
“Wha’are you doing here? Not safe.” Her head hurt. She was no longer pinned down by the tree, apparently. She brought her hand up to her head to be met with Danny’s own hand. She tried to push it away. “Your hand’s cold. Really cold.”
Danny if anything pressed his hand more firmly to her temple. “Yeah, you hit your head pretty bad there. I’m just trying to make it feel a bit better before we get you to a hospital. Sorry for missing our date by the way.”
“It’s fine.” Valerie squinted at him, something about him seemed off but she couldn’t place what it was. She reached up towards his face, it was covered in ash. She tried to brush it away but it sort of just smeared, his hair had some in it too, harder to notice since his hair was dark too. She moved her hand to the top of his head and ruffled his hair to get some of it out.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
“You’re dirty.” Valerie pointed out still trying to brush the soot out. Weirdly enough his hair seemed to be getting lighter. She grabbed at a smaller section of hair and brushed it off with her fingers. Much to Danny’s protests of her needing to stay still.
Except, it wasn’t Danny. She was right his hair was getting lighter. He didn’t look like he was glowing, he was glowing. Looking at his clothes revealed a black and white jumpsuit, still recognizable despite being covered in ash.
Valerie jerked away from Danny’s, or was it Phantom’s, touch. Trying to scramble away from him as best as she could with her injuries. “Val, you need to stay still.” Phantom, Danny, stressed.
“Don’t call that!” Valerie felt dizzy. “I don’t- I don’t understand. Who-what-are you?”
“Fine, I won't call you that. I promise I’ll explain everything. But first we need to get you to the hospital, you’re concussed at best.” He said, reaching towards her.
She just noticed his hand was glowing blue, frost emanating off of it. “What were you doing to me? Were you trying to kill me?”
“What? No!” He shook his hand like he was trying to shoo the frost away, his eyes faded into Phantom’s green color. “Like I said, you hit your head, and probably were overheated. I was trying to cool you down and ice your head.”
“How can I trust you? I don’t even know who you are.”
“Because if you don’t, you won’t make it back to Amity by yourself and I’m not going to be the one to break the news to your dad.”
He was right she didn’t have a choice no matter how she felt about it. She let him pick her up and only panicked slightly when they took to the air. True to his word once he was sure she was in a hospital room safely he left her alone after the hospital staff notified her dad as to where she was.
She had time to think in the hospital, too much time to think with too many questions. Danny had ended up texting her the explanation, whether it was because he knew she would want answers sooner than later or because he was too scared to do it in person she wasn’t sure. But she deleted the text after she read through it a second time, no matter how she felt about him after all of this she wouldn’t put him in danger of someone else finding out on accident because of her.
She did text him back that she understood what he was telling her, but she would need time to think things over. Think everything over. One of the people she arguably hated the most turned out to be loved the most outside of family. It was a concept that took adjusting to, to say the least
At least it saved her from a total freak out for a different reason. All the weirder things she had started to notice about Danny made a lot more sense now. Her internal conundrum wasn’t helped by the fact that he was clearly trying to help her a lot of the time she noticed the ‘strange’ behaviors. She had at least until she was discharged to figure out her thoughts at least.
Once she was released from the hospital, and a bit longer after that she met up with Phantom, or well Danny in his ghost form she supposed, while he was doing a patrol. He kept looking down at her ecto-gun like she was going to pull it on him at any moment. Which was a fair worry she supposed, even if it made her sad to think about.
“I’m not going to shoot you Danny. We’re here to talk right?” Valerie asked.
Danny nodded. “Yeah, we are. If that’s what you want to do that is.”
“I’m the one who asked to meet up.” Valerie reminded him. “I have a few questions before we start talking about the big things.” Danny motioned for her to go on. “Who was that ghost in the forest?”
“Oh, that’s actually an easy question. Cool. It was Vesuvia, Ancient of volcanos, apparently. Some doomsday cultists or something along those lines summoned her here to kick-start the apocalypse. I thought they were ghosts not humans so I was looking in all the wrong spots until it was too late and you got hurt.” Danny frowned. Clearly he was upset about her injuries still despite her being fully healed.
“What happened to the cultists then? Do they go to ghost court or since they’re humans is there like a GIW unit for that?”
Danny snorted. “Ha, no. They died. Burnt to ash, not even bones left. If they do end up as ghosts in the Infinite Realms they’ll probably answer to the Observents but I doubt they will.”
“...Oh.” Valerie supposed his nonchalant attitude towards death made sense. He was a ghost and interacted with other dead people on a constant basis. But it was, unnerving.
“Is that all you wanted to ask about?” Danny asked.
Valerie nodded her head. It wasn’t, but after that answer she was okay with waiting. “I wanted to let you know, that I won’t tell anyone your secret. I also am not planning on breaking up.” She held a finger up at Danny’s hopeful look. “But that doesn’t mean things aren’t going to be different from now on. This is going to take me a while to fully get my head around and after finding out something this big it’s going to take a while for things to feel normal again. I’m not even sure if things will work out between us in the end, but I am willing to try if you are.”
“Of course I am!” Danny all but shouted. “I mean, yes I understand. I’m also willing to try and make it work.” Valerie smiled. “I’m glad. Do you know what this means though?”
Danny tilted his head to the side, something so very Danny Fenton, it was weird to see on Danny Phantom. “What?”
“We can actually patrol together from now on.” Valerie laughed. Danny lit up after she said that. “First one to defeat five ghosts wins!” She called out before taking off.
“Oh you’re on!” He called after her.
Things certainly would be different. But Valerie didn’t think that was a bad thing.
