Graves, ch5.p1
masterpost pls no editing or concrit, most all of this was written while taken out at the knees by a big pressure change
It’s amusing, honestly, how everyone turns to look at Danny at once. It’s like being stared at by a bunch of sleep pigeons.
“Oh, and, like, all of the missing staff were ghosts, so they were, you know, already dead. Can’t say they weren’t murdered in the first place though, but no one, like, killed them again.”
“I didn't hear you,” the man that Danny doesn't know says.
“I'm quiet,” Danny answers with a shrug. Quiet like the dead.
“We were just…,” Bruce Wayne starts with a truly constipated look on his face.
“Looking into me,” Danny finishes. “I get it. Kid shows up mysteriously, your kid comes back from the dead, and then the whole Ghost Investigation Ward being a thing…”
Dick shifts awkwardly in his seat. “How much did you hear?”
“Started with the missing staff,” Danny answers because he doesn’t see a reason not to be honest about this. “I didn't really hear anything before I got to the door. I guess that's what solid old walls get you.”
“And solid old manners will get you a drink,” Alfred interrupts. “Would you like some juice, Master Danny?”
Danny blinks at Alfred. He’s not sure what to do with the basic question when he was readying himself for an interrogation. “I, um, I guess some orange juice?”
“Easily done,” Alfred says. The kitchen is quiet as Alfred calmly grabs a glass, fills it, and sets it down in an open spot on the table.
Guess he's sitting.
Danny works to keep the frown off his face as he takes the seat. He sips at his juice (which is really, really good) as he waits.
It's Mr. Wayne who starts. “Is the person that you get the notes from a ghost?”
Danny blinks. That's not where he was expecting them to start. “Um, yeah, it is. He’s called Clockwork.”
Dick pipes up next. “So, with what you said about school and all, you've met a number of ghosts?”
Danny grips his glass. It's cool in his hands. “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, Amity Park is the most haunted city in America and my parents study ghosts. And ghosts are real.”
“Of course they,” Mr. Wayne says easily. It makes Danny squirm. “Oh, this is Clark Kent, a family friend and reporter. He helped pull up the information that we found.”
That makes a lot of sense. But a reporter… “You won't write about this, right? Like, about Clockwork or that I know ghosts?”
Clark smiles in a way that makes Danny want to trust him. “I won't. I'm not here in any official way. I'm just a friend of the family, who cares deeply about Jason.”
“Jason!” Danny sits up straighter. “He was starting to wake up. I guess I thought, like, he might need meds or food…”
“A good idea,” Alfred soothes. “Master Bruce, if you would follow me.”
“Absolutely.”
Danny keeps sipping at his juice as they leave. Going back to Jason would have been better, but he wasn't invited, so…
“Have you always lived in Missouri?” Mr. Kent asks, breaking the quiet.
“Yeah.”
Mr. Kent nods. “How do you like it? I grew up in Kansas myself.”
“Oh,” Danny swipes some condensation off the glass. “Bet you’ve heard lots of jokes about Missouri then.”
“Some,” Mr. Kent agrees with crooked little smile. “But I’ve also heard lots of jokes about Kansas when I moved to Metropolis. My partner actually still calls me Smallville when she wants to poke at me.”
“I’m pretty sure from Lois that teasing names are a term of endearment,” Dick says.
Mr. Kent chuckles. “You’re not wrong. She’s got her own way about her for… just about everything.”
“And you wouldn’t have it any other way,” someone says from the kitchen door.
“No I wouldn’t,” Mr. Kent says with a smile as he turns. “Hello, Babs.”
Danny twists to look and has a moment when he’s sure that he’s been found out by Jazz. Except Jazz doesn’t wear her hair like that anymore and, well, isn’t in a wheelchair. Trying not to stare at the red hair, Danny pulls his attention back to his juice.
Ancients he misses Jazz. It hasn’t been the same since she went to college. The house is just… lonely. It was easier to ignore how much their parents just weren’t present when he had her. It was easier for it to feel like a home.
“Hi, you must be Danny,” this Babs says.
When he looks up, Danny’s surprised to find her already at the table next to him. “I, um, yeah. Hi.”
“Hi, I’m Babs,” she says. “I’m a close friend of the family. They let me know last night that Jason was bac, and I’m here to hug him so much.”
Danny turns the glass between his fingers. The condensation is cold dots against his fingers. “Dick already started on that.”
“Dick really likes hugging,” Babs agrees. “There’s really no escaping it.”
“Who would want to? My hugs are the best,” Dick says.
“The best at suffocating,” Babs shot back with a little smile.
“They used to date,” Mr. Kent supplies, which really explains a lot.
“Oh,” Danny mouths back with a little nod.
“How are things at the paper?” Babs asks, ignoring the whole exchange.
“Good,” Mr. Kent answers easily. He goes into some story about people with names that Danny doesn’t know. Dick gets up from the table, and a moment later there’s a steaming cup of coffee in front of Babs. Danny sips at his juice.
“What about you, Danny?”
Danny jerks back. “Sorry, what?”
Babs smiles gently at him. “Do you have a favorite subject? At school or on your own.”
“Oh, um, yeah. I like astronomy a lot. I used to want to be an astronaut.”
She gives a little hum. “But not anymore?”
“Pretty sure I’d flunk out for a long of reasons,” Danny mumbles. He didn’t want to even think of all the reasons right then. Usually when he talked to Jazz these days she was on him to get his grades up so that he could get into college and he was trying, but it was hard when there was just so much going on.
“Well, there’s still plenty of ways to work with the stars down here on earth,” Mr. Kent says with that same smile that makes Danny want to trust him. “And more and more ways to be up there, what with the Justice League.”
Danny tamps down on the hysterical laugh that thought brings. How long had he wished that the Justice League would notice what was going on in Amity Park? That they would see how hard he was trying and all the good he was going and offer to mentor him a little? To give him someone to learn from that wasn’t trying to kill him or use him. He plays with his empty glass instead of saying any of that and gives a little shrug.
The silence and worried looks being exchanged over Danny’s head is broken by the kitchen door swinging open and Jason loudly declaring, “Not so dead boy here!”
Bruce, who’s carrying Jason, sighs and just presses a quick kiss to Jason’s forehead. “Do you want to try walking to the table?”
Jason thinks on that with a serious expression before he nods. Bruce sets Jason carefully down, and hovers, with hands ready to catch, the whole way to the table. Babs snags him for a hug and some whispered words as soon as he’s close and he leans heavily into into her hold for a moment. Both of their eyes are shinny with unshead tears as they pull away.
While Babs was obviously expected, Mr. Kent Jason regards with some confusion. “Uncle Clark?”
“Your dad called me to help with research,” he explains, which only turns Jason’s confused look on his father.
Bruce just ruffles Jason’s sleep tousled curls. “Where do you want to sit, chum?”
“With Danny. Bench seat,” Jason says.
“Guess I’m scooting down then!” Dick says cheerfully.
Danny let’s Jason slide in first (to be closer to his huggy brother) and moved in after. He takes his empty glass with him, because he doesn’t know what to do with it otherwise. As soon as they’re all settled, Jason slumps against Danny’s shoulder with a wide yawn.
“Morning,” Danny says softly.
“Morning,” Jason huffs. “Left me to wolves.”
Danny bites back a smile. “Your dad and Alfred are wolves?”
Jason nods. Some of his curls tip over his forehead. Danny pushes them back carefully. “Wolves with medicine and poking and tests.”
“Ah. Well, you gotta get walking then. I can’t carry you downstairs when you start to wake up by myself,” Danny explains.
Jason nods again with another yawn. “Stork. Stick stork.”
Danny sputters. “I am not!”
“Are too.”
“Well you’re short.”
“But mighty.”
“Sure.”
“Am too,” Jason insists. “Will show you, when less broken.”
“Hey, you aren’t broken,” Danny says firmly. “You’ve just got some healing to do. You just need time and help, okay?”
“You’ll help?”
“I… I mean, yeah. I have to go back home in a few days, but I’ll stay as long as I can. Like, maybe I can stay until Saturday? And I’ll give you my number before I leave,” Danny says, completely unaware of the concerned and determined looks that they adults in the room have.
Danny might not be aware of it, but he’s just given them a count down.
