#Danny was called in noticed the Rage and knocked her out before taking her to Frostbite

[bluerosefox]

Bellatrix Star

A TaliaxDanny idea that came to me.

Damian, Bruce, and the rest of the bats discover the Talia al Ghul they had been fighting against, the one that cloned her own son, had the clone kill him, plant a control device in him when he broke his spine, etc etc was actually not the real Talia al Ghul.

Turned out Ra's had cloned her and killed the original when she discovered his little plans to take over Damain's body and she confronted him about it. Ra's had to make a clone when after tossing a dead Talia into the pits but never returned (he meant to kill her as a warning, as a "you may be my blood but will not hesitate to end you Talia.") It explains so much to Damian when remembers how out of nowhere his mother changed, her training him changed from harsh to deadly, the soft motherly love she would give him when behind closed doors suddenly stopped, the tales she would spin for him about his father no longer whispered to him for bed.

How this was find out?

Well it's hard to ignore the facts that when your foolish grandfather in his quest for immortality summons an eldritch being known as the Ghost King into the Mortal Realm and uses Damian as a sacrifice while his (not) mother watches emotionless.

When the being appeared, plunging the room from green glowing flames and the glow of the Lazarus Pits into darkness before a cosmos exploded to life, its glowing green eyes snapped open in the stars and stared at them all. Making every single one of them feel small, so very small.

It took a single glance around the room before stopping on the al Ghul's. It's eyes widen before a steel and firm look entered them. Just as quick as the cosmos sprang to life, it suddenly swirled away into a ball, putting them all back into the Lazarus room,and reformed in front of them to a more humanish height and body.

When the body, around the height and build of Batman, was done forming it took a step forward and suddenly as one blinked a man stood in front of them. Or rather floated. Snow white hair that flickered and wisped towards a crown made of fire and ice, glowing green eyes that held none of the madness but all of the power the Lazarus Pits could give. His clothing were tailored made that were tastefully a mixture of black and white with some silvers and greens, clothes fit for a King one would say. The cosmos that once engulfed the room had shifted into a cloak that hanged around his body, on one side more than the other (think like how CW wears his only the hood is down).

This, this was no doubt the Ghost King, he stood tall and regal and made everyone in the room feel the need to look down, to bow ones head for even just a moment. Even Ra's had trouble disobeying the urge to do so.

"Well..." the being said, his voice deep but not as gravely as Batman's was "What an interesting way to meet my In-Laws and Step-Son..."

He has said that as he looked towards the al Ghul's. Damian flinched back with a frown of confusion and disbelief while Ra's looked panicked for a second when the words registered into his mind, meanwhile Talia... looked emotionless and barely even twitched.

"What the fu-?" Someone began only to stop when the King lifted his hand and with a snap of his fingers a green portal appeared, it looked almost like the Lazarus Pits but it felt... cleaner? Less angry?

"My Bellatrix, my warrior star. I believe I've been summoned to your home dimension. And judging by the looks of it your father created a barely functioning Mirror of you and planned on using your son as a sacrifice to me." He spoke out towards the portal before holding his hand out.

A hand appeared from the portal, a slender hand and with green and black painted nails manicure to perfection before someone walked through it as they took hold of the Ghost King's offering hand.

Standing in front of them was another Talia, only this one looked a tad older than the one in the room. She wore clothing that matched the King to a T but even then, as always, Talia looked deadly in it. Beautiful but very deadly. From the heels she wore to the crown upon her head, a crown made of not ice and fire but of stars and black jewels. Her eyes were sharp as she stared at everyone in the room, frown on her painted lips, but her eyes lit with a small soft joy when she saw Damian only for them to turn poisonous when they landed on Ra's and the other Talia nearby.

"I should had know you would had created a Mirror of me instead of admitting to my son you killed me Father." Queen Talia spat out. "The least you could had done was not make my Mirror so cheaply, it doesn't even have a proper soul attached to it."

[captaincravatthecapricious]

After the Circus- Part 3

@janekfan

cw: strained friendships, arguing, fainting, dizziness, trauma, references to Jon's getting covered in lotion, disassociation, food mention, mentions of panic attacks (none in the story), canon typical season three Tim headspace (although he's being less mean!)

After his kidnapping, Jon continues to have a rough time

The next time Jon wakes up, he is actually able to sit up.  He’s alone on the cot.  For a moment, he almost panics, looking for Martin in the darkened room.  

It’s hard to see.  The only light is from the hallway, oozing in because the door isn’t entirely closed.  He doesn’t have his glasses on.  He doesn’t know where those are.  

Does he just have to resign himself blurry vision and the headaches?  Not as if he doesn’t get enough of those.  He sighs.  He can’t even remember when he last had them.  Did he have them when he was kidnapped?  Did he have them when he got back?  

He makes out Martin’s blurry form sitting slumped in front of the cot.  Leaning against it and the wall.  Asleep.  

Guilt pools in the bottom of Jon’s empty stomach.  He doesn’t know what time it is.  But Martin has, presumably, been here for hours.  Jon doesn’t know how many, sliping in and out of lucidity too quickly to get a firm sense on space and time.  Martin should be at home, forgetting all this supernatural shit as often as he can, for as long as he can.  Not worrying about Jon.  Christ, certainly not worrying about Jon constantly since Prentiss.  

All those times Martin dragged him to lunch, or provided tea when he still treated Martin like shit.  

Jon can’t look at him.  

He wishes he could get Martin onto the cot and let him get some proper rest, but even in top health, he couldn’t lift Martin, let alone do it without waking him.  Best to just drape a blanket over him and let him rest.  

Jon… well he needs to get up.  Get to the loo, get a jumper, get some water or food if he can manage it.  He isn’t sure.  There’s still a good chance he’ll just end up on the floor again.  Especially without his cane.  

At least he doesn’t have to worry about Georgie.  He was leaving her place anyhow.  She wouldn’t have expected a call.  Probably.  

Standing isn’t great, but he manages his first two tasks.  Leaning on the wall is the best he can manage, but he makes the way to the break room, drowning in an oversized hoodie.  And finds Tim.  

Tim is on his phone.  He looks… tired.  He’s still wearing that familiar scowl, but it’s softer.  If Jon didn’t know better, he’d say Tim was looking worried.  If Jon didn’t know better, he’d think Tim might be worried about him.  

He’d think about that more, if his vision wasn’t starting to darken.  He takes a rather abrupt seat on the floor, in hopes of staving off another faint.  

Jon, essentially slamming into the floor makes Tim look up.  There is a long moment where he is caught between sitting still and rushing over.  (See if he’s still awake, if he’s hurt himself, if he’s hit his head, get him some salt and a sports drink.  The routine still ingrained.)  But.  He doesn’t know.  

He finds himself half standing, phone halfway on the table, screen still on, game chirping at him angrily as he loses.  

He finds himself hesitating for a long moment, before he walks over to Jon.  Slowly.  

Jon’s conscious, but looks he’s contemplating if he’s going to stay that way.  

Does Tim want to help?  

Does Jon even want his help?

If he touches Jon, will he scream again?  

If Jon screams, will Martin wake up?  

He does care if Martin wakes up.  Martin hasn’t gotten much sleep… in months, but especially not in the last couple days looking after Jon, and making sure Jon got enough water, and any meager amount of sustenance that he can manage.  

Tim wouldn’t stay for Jon, but he is staying for Martin.  

He stands there, looming over Jon.  Jon shrinks away.  Instead of making Tim feel vindicated, he just feels empty.  

He should help Jon.  So Martin doesn’t lose even more sleep making sure Tim doesn’t follow the impulse to yell and kick and argue, or simply run away.  That won’t help anything.  He’s been fighting the impulse to hurt Jon for a while.  But… but he can’t muster that anger, not now.  

Not when Jon’s wearing a jumper that Tim left at Jon’s flat back in Research.  

Not when Jon looks small and tired and sick and beaten.  

And, Tim knows, he’s had his place in this.  Much as he wants to blame the circus…  

And that’s another thing, isn’t it?  

This should bind them together, right?  Even more so than the years of friendship before everything went to shit.  This shared trauma.  Even more so than the worms?  That was a one-and-done day, and yeah, there was stuff leading up to it.  Yeah, it left a hell of a mark.  But it didn’t really change Tim’s life the same way the Circus had.  Yeah, there was pain and pt and permanent scars, but the worms didn’t take Jon for a month, they didn’t kill Sasha and Danny.  

Fuck, he doesn’t know.  It all sucks.  

The Worm trauma should have brought the three of them together (four, if Sasha had made it out, but that wasn’t the worms, now was it?  Well, if not for the worms, maybe she wouldn’t have been taken.  HE DOESN’T KNOW.)  The more Tim thinks about this, the more half finished, nonsense bullshit he thinks up for himself.  

None of what he’s trying to tell himself makes sense, and the confusion and anger sit heavily in his gut as he just stands there, like a moron.  

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.  

He drags his hands through his hair.  Greasy and coated in days old gel.  He needs some sleep.  He needs a shower.  

He should get Jon something to eat.  

“I’m going to touch you, ‘kay?”  

Jon looks too tired to argue.  Good.  He doesn’t think he can deal with Jon’s waffling or guilt or any of that bullshit.  The ‘oh no I’m just grand why am I on the floor? no reason, let me just stalk you it’s fine.’  

Not now, Tim.  

Too tired for proper anger, and even if he wasn’t… Jon looks just pitiful, and the fight that he’s itching for won’t be satisfying if Jon passes out or cries on him.  

Jon mumbles out, “‘kay.”

Good.  

Tim scoops him up, just about effortlessly.  And Tim doesn’t know if that’s the months of pt and vigorous workouts, or that Jon has dropped maybe 5 kilos that he didn’t have to spare.  Or both.  

Tim’s gotten his muscle mass back, maybe even more than he had to start with… all that extra rage funneled into gym time.  Not particularly healthy, but better than drinking himself into a stupor every morning.  Just… you know, most mornings.  As you do.  

The change of position is enough to knock Jon out the rest of the way.  Head lolling against Tim’s chest.  

Something flickers deep in Tim’s chest.  His first impulse is to crush the feeling, but… he doesn’t.  Jon isn’t okay.  Tim isn’t okay.  

He wants his friend from Research back.  

Which… He doesn’t know if that’s possible.  Not with broken trust and hair-trigger tempers.  But, he’s just so tired.  

He dumps Jon on the couch.  Not too gently, but he props his feet up and goes to get him some lucozade and heat up a can of soup.  

Jon’s starting to come around again by the time he gets back.  The soup is… lukewarm at best.  They ought to harass Elias into getting them a better microwave…  In any case, it’s full of salt and it isn’t cold.  So… that’s something.  A little more substance than water and lucozade.  So.  It’s better than nothing.  Try to get Jon up to eating an actual meal, but Martin had pointed out that he isn’t sure when Jon last ate solid food, since he was kidnapped by plastic bastards who apparently don’t really know how humans-or vaguely nonhuman monster bosses work and how often to water or feed them, so they should take it easy on Jon’s system for now.  Which will make it easier on all of them.  

Jon struggles to sit up, and Tim doesn’t know if he wants to help.  Instead he holds the food and drink and …looms.  Jon sits up and tucks his feet up, so the blood doesn’t pool, Tim’s memory supplies.  Not particularly monstrous.  …It’s painfully familiar.  

“Small sips, then a little bit of soup.”

Jon nods, squinting up at him.  

Probably not a good sign that Jon, apparently, couldn’t find the glasses folded on the box next to the cot with another glass of water.  One Martin instructed Tim to keep constantly full.  Should he be worried that Jon is still so out of it?  Maybe?  

But he’s heard what the Circus can do to people, and he doesn’t have any clue what they did to Jon.  All he knows is, Jon is even more shy about touch than he has been.  Not that Tim really noticed.  But… he isn’t blind.  Jon’s been waking up screaming more often than not when someone touches him.  He seems okay when you go slow, or wakes up with Martin holding him, but an unexpected, or sudden, or moving at all hand, starts him into a panic attack.  

How much does Jon even remember of those?  How many has Martin talked him through?  How many did Jon lose consciousness during?  A lot of the last variety.  But he doesn’t know the numbers.  

Jon’s looking dizzy again by the time Martin rushes in.  Tim had just helped ease Jon back down.  Martin is trailing the blanket that Tim had been pretty sure Jon had been draped in last time Tim had actually been in the room and not playing on his phone.  That besotted fool, Jon, must have put it over Martin before getting up.  

“Where is he, Tim!”

“Martin, Martin.  Stay calm, would you?  Keep your voice down.”  Tim is not used to being the one trying to deescalate.  But Jon looks about half asleep.  Barely registers the shouting.  “Relax.  I didn’t hurt him.  Think he got up for the loo or for something, nearly fainted in here.  Got him some soup and everything.”

Martin drops heavily into the nearest chair, with what Tim figures must be a hell of an adrenaline crash.  

“He’s okay, Martin.  Didn’t hurt him.  I… I don’t think I want to hurt him.  Not sure if I did in the past…I sure wasn’t helping.  But I don’t think I do now.”

Martin doesn’t respond.  

“He… he looks so… fragile.  I… miss him.  And I miss you.”  

Tim looks down at Jon, and almost wants to tuck his hair back.  That frizzy and tangled hair that Jon usually keeps… well not neat.  But clean.  It’s been scrubbed within an inch of its life.  It’s dry and sad, and Tim almost …almost wants to fix it.   But he isn’t ready for that.  

Christ, he’s tired.  

He joins Martin at the table, not quite ready to meet Martin’s eye.  Not ready to see what Martin might say in return.  

“I miss you too.”

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children [DP x Batman Crossover] Ch. 2

In which: Danny thinks, Talia is concerned, and we finally see Ra's al Ghul's pride an joy: the Lazarus pit

AO3 | Prologue | 1 | [ 2 ] | 3 |

---

DANNY COUNTS THE DAYS by the hours he is in the monitor room. One hour is all that he is allowed. One hour after a day of learning and fighting, of ‘yes ma’am’ and ‘no sir’ and ‘stand up straighter, boy’ and ‘remember that you have feet.’ Of being handed a sword only to have it knocked out of his hand (pickitup-pickitup-pick-it-up). Of ‘here’s eight plants, only one of them is the antidote to the poison you just ingested, and you better hope you remember the difference because this is the life you live now, Danny.’ This is what you agreed to for some time in front of a few television screen.

One hour. Sixty minutes. Three thousand and six hundred measly fucking seconds was all he got to see his family before he’s ushered back to his room. Dark. Barren. Windowless.

God, when was the last time he saw the stars?

He spent his multitude of ‘one hours’ simply watching. That was all he could do, really. Watch and collect snatches of Amity—of Before. Like torn pieces of an antique photograph, unable to be restored but too precious to throw away.

Talia would call him too sentimental. Danny would love to remind Talia that if it wasn’t for her and her freaky older-than-dirt dad, Danny wouldn’t even need to be fucking sentimental.

Breathe in for four. Hold for seven. Breathe out for eight.

Repeat.

Repeat again.

One more time.

There’s a voice in Danny’s head that sounded too much like Jazz telling him that this kind of behavior was unhealthy. The Jazz in Danny’s head didn’t exactly know why, though they’re both pretty sure that constantly watching your family and friends move on after your death probably isn’t good for one’s sanity. Especially since Danny isn’t really dead.

Well.

Dead-er.

He isn’t—

(family-love-mememe-why aren’t they looking harder-don’t they care-they care-for their own good-what about-happy-no-me-them-me-them).

Truth be told, Danny isn’t angry that everyone in Amity seemed to be getting on with their lives. God, he’s seen how his suppsed-death affected them. He can’t—he won’t be responsible for holding them back from living when he can’t even be sure if he’ll ever be able to return to Amity again.

(He’s seen what happens when someone refuses to move on. Hell, the Zone is full of it. It’s either you obsess with grief…or you try to rip it out of yourself entirely.)

Danny wanted them to live on. Be happy. (With him.)The FentonWorks portal remained under constant vigilance, and since Pariah Dark, most ghosts recognized Amity as his haunt and tended to stay away. With any major threats he could only hope that Clockwork would step in somehow and at least keep it contained. Tucker and Sam were more than capable enough to handle most of his regular rogues gallery, especially if Red Huntress was backing them up too.

Amity…didn’t really need Danny anymore to protect it.

(Family-happy-protectprotectprotect-what?-safe-not safe-not needed).

For all that they tried to find out, Danny, Sam, and Tucker never did manage to figure out what his ghostly obsession was. Sam went out on a limb and said Heroism which…wasn’t quite right but fit the bill well enough.

And what was the point of heroes?

To build a world where they aren’t needed.

------

There was a noticeable shift in her son’s demeanor after he learned of the true nature of his parentage. Though it should be noted that while Talia showed a photograph of her beloved to Daniel, she did not disclose his true identity as to Ra’s al Ghul’s orders. Her father reasoned that it was more advantageous for Daniel to develop a closer connection with the maternal side of his family as opposed to the Waynes—a name that would be more familiar and thus better viewed than the strange people who kidnapped him.

No; ‘Recovered’ would be the most appropriate term. Daniel was her child. Would always be her child, no matter who raised him.

Daniel was…quieter. Somber. His eyes glazed yet sharp—blue eyes bloodshot despite maintaining a regular sleep schedule. Like pit madness with neither the madness nor the pit; simply the look of rage that bubbles beneath the skin, close to boiling over yet never there.

He continued to watch his false family obsessively. Yet…he had taken to watching Talia as well. Quietly. Unobtrusively. Small glances at the corner of his eye. Contemplative looks with furrowed brows whenever he presumed she did not notice. He had even taken to meticulously check his reflection in the mirror; pinching cheeks and turning his face this way and that, cataloguing his features as if to find what parts of him was from her—or perhaps if there was any part of him that ever resembled the paranormal scientists he once called parents.

Even if the physical similarities were not there, the DNA testing—regardless of the anomalies found in Daniel’s genes—was proof enough that he was her son.

“You have been keeping with your diet regimen, yes?” Asked one of the League’s physicians. He pressed his gloved fingers against Daniel’s skin, brushing the ridges of his ribcage. Marring her son’s skin was a large, faint scars. Fractals branching across his torso like the branches of a gruesome tree. “You are still too thin.”

“Fast metabolism,” Daniel mumbled. He is sat on an examination table in their medical wing, black shirt neatly folded beside him. His figure, though not skeletal, per se, was gaunt. His ribs poking from his pallor skin, stomach still concave for a boy who ate double the portions than any other member of the League of Assassins. “I’ve had it since the accident, but it’s never gotten this bad.”

The physician hummed, jotting his notes down along side the results of Danny’s vitals. The exact numbers were unknown to Talia, standing as she was by the door, though she could infer the results from previous physical examinations. (Low blood pressure and core body temperature. Faint pulse, slight tachycardia,) “Do you have any ideas why?”

Daniel’s lips thinned, eyes darting to the side as he always did whenever Phantom was related in anyway. His face was too open; Talia needed to train him out of that. “My…” He took a deep breath. “Ghosts aren’t supposed to stay very long in the Material world. It lacks the ectoplasmic energies that helps them ‘stay alive,’ so to speak. Usually they can supplement some of this by filtering some of the ambient energy in the atmosphere to strengthen themselves—it’s why Amity was such a hotspot for ghosts because of the large concentration of ectoplasm in the atmosphere—but it still isn’t a good long term solution.”

He scratched the back of his head. “Since I’m still somewhat human, I’m able to spend way more time in the Material world and can substitute spending days in the Zone by instead filtering ambient energy and eating.”

The physician made another noise, the tip of his pen tapping against the side of the clipboard. “So I take it then that, as your other half doesn’t have access to this ‘ambient energy’ as you call it, it is forced to take what energy it needs from the calories you’ve consumed, yes?”

“Basically.”

“What will happen if you do not have enough calories to supplement this energy?”

Danny shrugged, a rueful smile on his face. “Dunno. Maybe this time, death will stick.”

Talia narrowed her eyes.

Such a thing will not happen. She had been forced to give up on Daniel once, and then later on she lost her youngest to her beloved. Never again.

This child was hers.

------

“Father, did you not say that the anomalies found in Daniel’s DNA were similar in composition to the Lazarus pit?”

Ra’s al Ghul did not pause in pause in his reading to look up at Talia. The bird shaped magnifying glass held steady above the ancient manuscripts spread across his desk, eyes focused on the words and figures carefully inked onto the page. “Yes.” He set aside the magnifying glass and gently flipped the page. “It is what strengthened my belief of the connection between the Lazarus pit and these spirits.”

Talia straightened. “With your permission I would like to place Daniel into the pit.”

Her fathered looked up, curious. “You forget what the pit does to those who are in good health.”

She placed the results of Daniel’s most recent physical exam on to of his desk. Ra’s sat back in his chair and idly flipped through the folder, reading the contents as if no different to reading the newspaper instead of how his grandson is slowly being starved by his own biology. “Well, well. This would be a problem.”

He closed the folder, a wry grin curling at his lips. “Have him ready for tomorrow. I am curious as to how the pit would affect one already half-dead.”

------

Danny is awoken by Talia sometime the next day. “Come,” she said. “You do not need to change, so come quickly.”

He got off the bed with a silent groan, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with the heel of his palm. “Where are we going?”

“Not far. Somewhere that will help you.”

He snorted. “Letting me go home would help me.”

Talia doesn’t answer, simply waiting for him at the door. Danny groaned, combing away as much of his bedhead with his fingers as he followed her.

For the first time since being dragged to Nanda Parbat, Danny is allowed to venture beyond his small section of the compound.

He didn’t really know what to expect.

Still didn’t stop everything from being so…anticlimactic.

Beyond the steel door, normally kept locked and guarded by two of his shadow guards, was a hallway. Endlessly long with a wide pathway, lit enough by the fluorescent lights overhead but not enough to banish the shadows that clung to the stone walls. The hallway looked empty. ‘Looked’ being the key word, here. Even if he couldn’t see them, Danny would bet on his half-life that the shadows were teeming with life.

Talia led the way through the maze of twists and turns (were they underground?), a couple of shadow guards quietly following behind them.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

Talia looked at him from over her shoulder for a moment, then turned away. “Have you heard of the Lazarus pits?”

“Lazarus? Like the guy who came back to life?” Neither of his parents were really religious. His dad only really Baptist in name because he was born into a Baptist family that, too, wasn’t overly strict in their religion. The only reason why Danny knew of this Lazarus guy was because of Mr. Lancer’s unit on Greco-Roman and Christian allusions.

Talia nodded, turning a corner. “The Lazarus pits are natural pools with restorative properties, capable of rejuvenating the body, healing grievous injuries, and even bringing the dead back to life.”

Danny nearly tripped over his own feet. “What? That’s—” Impossible. He ran up to Talia, wildly gesticulating with his hands. “What’s dead is dead. Resurrecting the dead goes against the natural law of the universe!”

“Well, you seem to be doing fine.”

He frowned, crossing his arms. “That’s different. I’m still dead, even if my entire existence seems like the but end of a Schrodinger’s joke.”

“Be that as it may, what I speak is truth.” She stopped in front of a door and opened it. Then, stepping aside to usher Danny in first. “See of yourself.”

Danny stepped inside, Talia following behind him, and—

Oh.

Before he even saw the pit, he could feel it. A low and steady hum reminiscent of the ghost portal. But…different. Not necessarily fainter but garbled, like hearing someone speak underwater.

The room was a large, open space, with stone walls framed by red wooden pillars. It was dim, lit only by the green glow of the pit that consumed the majority of the space. A square pool of too-clear waters and toxic-looking steam rising from the surface.

The waters felt of the Zone but…not.

“Ah, Daniel.” He nearly jumped out of his own skin. Ra’s al Ghul stepped out of the shadows behind him, hands folded behind his back. The green glow highlighted the sharp contours of his face; the shadows that clung to him only making his visage harsher. “It is good to see you.”

Danny greeted the Demon’s Head with a League salute. “Grandfather.”

The word felt foreign on his tongue despite being in English. To formal for a boy who never really had the chance to interact with his own grandparents. But Danny was told to refer to Ra’s like this, and so he did. (He was only grateful Talia didn’t insist on calling her ‘mother.’)

Ra’s al Ghul was an enigma. Centuries old yet he looked only about a decade older than his mom and dad. (Jack and Maddie Fenton will always be his mom and dad. They raised him. Loved him, in their own eccentric, science-y way. No blood test or adoption or ninja-assassins could change that). Like Danny’s still-unnamed biological father, Ra’s carried himself with theatrical purpose. Comically villainous in his attire and grand gestures, though unlike Vlad, Ra’s had this overwhelmingly intimidating presence that engulfed whatever room he stepped in.

Ra’s was a man that commanded attention as opposed to demanding it. And now, at the focus of the man’s calculating gaze, Danny could not help but stand stiff at attention.

“You’re mother was right,” Ra’s said. Danny barely restrained himself from perking up at that word. “You are wasting away, Daniel.”

Tell me something I don’t know.

“Well, at least you still have that fire in you.”

Danny startled, slapping his hand over his mouth. Shit, he didn’t know he said that out loud. Out of the corner of his eye, Talia suppressed a small smile.

“You have that in common with the Detective,” Ra’s continue, circling Danny like a carrion that spotted its next meal. “That and the rather foolish notion on not properly reporting the extent of your injuries.”

“With all due respect, grandfather, I wasn’t expecting on staying here for this long.”

Ra’s gave him a knowing look. “But something is keeping you here, isn’t it?”

“Keeping my family and friends hostage is a pretty good motivator, apparently.” An insidious thought bubbled in Danny’s mind. But that isn’t all, is it?”

“I have consulted your mother and your physician as to the nature of your condition, and I have decided that the Lazarus pit would be a sufficient way to restore your health.” He gestured to the pool. “It appears that your DNA shares several similarities to the composition to the Lazarus pit.”

Danny crouched at the edge of the pit, hovering his hand above the water’s surface. “It’s because it contains ectoplasm. An impure kind, I think.”

“Will the impurities be harmful to you?”

He pursed his lips. “I don’t think so? My body can filter out the impurities just fine, it’s just that I’ve never encountered thistype of ectoplasm before. It’s so clear and—aqueous, I think is the word.”

There’s a strange glint in Ra’s eyes. Dare Danny say it, it even looked mischievous. It made him uneasy, and just as Danny made a move to step back, Ra’s al Ghul picked him up by the collar of his night shirt—

And threw Danny into the Lazarus Pit.

[everybodyscupoftea]

cross me

pike jj x reader (plus cody and tyler)

in which your boys have your back

based on the song cross me by ed sheeran, chance the rapper, and pnb rock

JJ

JJ hated when you were seeing other guys. It cut into his time with you and in his personal opinion, none of them deserved you, your time, or your affection. He’d watched you go through hell with boys in his frat and in others. He’d seen you crying over them, raging over them, and embarrassed by them (though you shouldn’t have been, they weren’t worth it).

What JJ didn’t know was that you were never really happy with any of them. They were placeholders for the day you managed to work up the courage to ask JJ out. Every guy had something in common with him. The same build, same hair color, same blue eyes, etc. You didn’t even notice it until your roommate set you down and pointed it out.

One afternoon, you were in JJ’s room getting ready for a date. JJ was laid on his bed, hands behind his head, watching you focusing on not getting mascara in your eyeshadow. He laughed at your facial expression, “You look dumb as fuck,” he joked.

“Maybe so, but I look better than you ever could, so I’d hush it if I were you.”

“You’re right,” JJ conceded, content to give you the win, “So, who are you going out with tonight?”

“Some guy in my Calculus class, his name is Danny.”

“Sounds like a douche.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“True, but I know your taste in men.”

He wasn’t wrong. They were normally arrogant assholes, questionable taste for sure, but they kept things interesting at least. Before you could answer, you got a text from the guy coming to pick you up that he was outside the house and you sighed, capping the mascara, “Fuck, he’s here and I’m not ready.”

JJ sat up, “He’s not even coming to the door?”

“Don’t think so, they rarely do.”

He looked really bothered and stood up, “I think I’ll go have a talk with him.”

“JJ,” you warned.

Waving away your concerns, he walked toward the door, “Just want to meet him. If you start dating him, he’s going to be around anyway, may as well get to know him.”

There wasn’t really much you could do to stop him, you weren’t even dressed yet, so you resigned yourself, “Yeah, just don’t scare him away before we even go out once.”

-

JJ walked out the door into the crisp air, hands shoved deep in his pockets, and he regretted not bringing a jacket. He came to a stop at the car parked right in front of the house and knocked on the window until the boy rolled it down, looking confused.

“What’s up, bro, I’m JJ.”

“Um, hey, I’m Danny.”

“You’re here for my girl?”

Danny furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “Your girl?”

“Yeah, you’re taking her out tonight.”

“Oh, um, yeah, guess so. Didn’t know she was seeing someone, sorry.”

“No, we’re not…we aren’t together, she’s my best friend.”

Danny gave him a weird look and crossed his arms, “She’s never mentioned you.”

JJ tensed defensively, “Doesn’t matter if she has or not. Just know, that if you hurt her, in any way, you’ll be answering to me.”

“Bro, chill, it’s not that serious.”

“Bro,” JJ mocked, “it is that serious. You fuck with her and you’re fucking with me, so I’m telling you, don’t.”

Danny rolled his eyes, “Whatever dude, jealousy isn’t a good look.”

“It’s not jealousy, it’s loyalty, and if you can’t spot the difference now, you’re in trouble.”

Before Danny could answer, you came speed walking out the door. JJ whirled around and smiled at you, “Lookin good, bud.”

“Always do,” you joked back.

He walked you around to the passenger’s side of the car and opened the door, shutting it behind you softly while Danny watched, weird look on his face.

“Have fun,” JJ told you, in an almost mocking tone, and you just missed him point two fingers at his eyes and then at Danny. You did notice Danny tense and followed his gaze to JJ who was standing innocently, hands back in his pockets.

“You alright, Danny?”

“Yeah, I’m good. You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” you told him with a grin.

Tyler

Tyler normally didn’t pay attention to petty shit at parties, but there was something about the way the group of boys was talking, glancing at you and your roommate cleaning house at beer pong, every so often. He slid over closer so he could hear.

All he heard was “hot piece of ass” and “bet she gets around” and “Maybank has a claim on her, but I heard he’s not doing much about it.”

Tyler stiffened and asked, “Who are you talking about?”

The boy closest to him jumped, “Oh, no one.”

“I know you’re lying, so I’ll ask again. Who are you talking about?”

The boy stuttered, “Um, it’s not really important. It’s just like, locker room talk, you know?”

Tyler sighed, “Yeah, well we don’t talk about women that way here, so you’d better knock it off or I’ll knock you out.”

“Just as bad as Maybank,” one of the boys on the outskirts of the group mumbled but Tyler heard him.

“Say that again.”

The boy looked uncomfortable, but he squared his shoulders, “I said, just as bad as Maybank.”

Before Tyler could say anything, you and your roommate let out a loud yell, and you said “Get the fuck out of here, how many times do I have to beat y’all before you realize you suck!”

Your roommate pulled you away from the table, sufficiently tipsy and well on your way to drunk, and passed you off to Tyler with a, “Bro she’s getting messy and my boyfriend is picking me up in a few minutes.”

You leaned into him, reaching for his beer. He handed it to you with a chuckle and you drained it, setting the bottle on the table near him.

Tyler wrapped an arm around you, “You good, babe?”

“All good, could use another drink though. You gonna be my partner now?”

“No. But I will keep you company.”

“Fuck yeah,” you cheered, “my best friend.”

You were too focused on Tyler to hear the boy, but Tyler heard the mumbled, “So they pass her around then. How do I get in on that little friend-cest action?”

“Show some fucking respect,” Tyler spat at him, finally having heard enough.

Your eyes widened at his hostile tone, “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head, dismissing it, but one of the boys spoke over him, “What’s it gonna take to- “

Another guy clapped a hand over his mouth and said, “Nope, we’re not doing this, he’s drunk and he’ll regret getting his ass kicked in the morning.”

You blinked up at Tyler, “Is he being a dick?”

“He is.”

“Ah, men.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, but don’t worry, I won’t let them say shit about you.”

You wrapped an arm around his waist and smiled, “My hero. I know you’ve got my back.”

“I do.”

“Now, hero, you down to go get more drinks?”

“Lead the way, I want nothing more than to be your bartender for the night.”

Cody

When you showed up at the house, in tears, the last person you wanted to see was JJ. The girl he’d been seeing had been sending you shit on Instagram, for no goddamn reason other than that she was just fucking mean.

Cody was leaving when you arrived, and he stopped as soon as he caught a glimpse of your face. He put both of his hands on your shoulders, “Bro, what’s wrong.”

“Fucking Brooke is what’s wrong.”

His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think, “Who? Oh, the Phi Mu that JJ’s seeing?”

“That’s the one,” you confirmed.

Cody squeezed your shoulder, “What happened?”

“She’s been harassing me on Instagram and shit. I don’t know, it’s been a long fucking morning and I go on Instagram to see a DM saying none of your friends actually like you, you piece of shit and it was just too much.”

“The fuck?” Cody asked, holding his hand out for your phone.

You handed it to him, and he unlocked it with his thumb, scrolling immediately to your Instagram. As he read, his grip tightened around your phone, and when he tried to hand it back, you pushed it away tiredly, “Keep it honestly, I’m so tired.”

Cody slid it in his pocket and nodded, “No class for me, we’re going to get lunch.”

“No, don’t skip class for me.”

“Attendance isn’t mandatory, trust me, it’ll be fine.”

You sighed and followed him to his truck. Throwing your bag into his back seat, you buckled up, holding your hand out for his phone to plug into the aux. Glancing at him, you asked, “What are you feeling?”

“Not picky.”

“Sad playlist time,” you muttered, scrolling through Cody’s Spotify to find where he’d followed your playlist.

Hitting shuffle, Cigarette Daydreams started playing and you threw your head back as Cody started backing out of the driveway, headed to your favorite burrito place. When he parked, Cody looked over at you, “Honestly, you’re fucking awesome, don’t let these girls get you down, yeah?”

You teared up a little and got out of the car, wiping your eyes. He threw and arm over your shoulder and the two of you walked toward the door. Unfortunately, stepping inside, your eyes immediately found JJ and Brooke sitting in your usual booth.

Cody tensed, “Gonna tell them to fucking move.”

“No,” you told him, “let’s just get it to-go and we’ll go somewhere else. She’s ruining the vibes here now.”

With a laugh, Cody nodded, “Sure, we’ll just ignore them.”

It didn’t work because JJ saw you both and caught your attention as you tried to exit, “Guys, come sit?”

“No,” you told him, pulling Cody behind you.

JJ looked hurt and the girl smirked at you, “Let her go, JJ, it’s fine.”

“Hey,” Cody cut in, “don’t you dare speak to her.”

Eyes widening, JJ looked between the three of you in confusion, “What’s going on?”

“Ask Brooke,” you spat at him and started walking toward the door again.

Cody pointed at her, “I’m telling you, knock that shit off. We’re in college and you’re acting like a high school bully.”

“Need people to fight your battles now?” Brooke called after you.

You didn’t even bother to answer her, just kept walking, not really in the mood to deal with any more of her shit. Faintly, you heard Cody tell JJ, “Your little girlfriend is talking shit. Tell her to knock it off.”

With a slight smile, you pushed the door open, Cody at your heels. Grabbing his hand, you squeezed, “Thanks for the backup.”

“Well, someone’s gotta do it,” he said, squeezing back, “may as well be me.”

[captainjimothycarter]

An AU where Steve is Cap and Peggy is in modern day (no shield or anything for her)

They break up after a petty argument where they're both too stubborn right now to see they're both wrong.

They still very clearly harbor feelings for one another.

Steve was just always late and kept trying to hide he was Cap for her safety.

Peggy thought a) he was cheating on her because the excuses for his bruises and broken bones and exhaustion were weak, b) when she found out he was Cap, she took that he hid it because he didnt want her to be in love with Cap or use Cap like others, etc. and c) she was tired of the lies.

It was a petty, nasty argument during a date when he showed up half dead. She wasnt so petty she didnt help him and call help from his phone, no doubt seeing texts from a Natasha Romanoff, etc.

Its been a few months and okay she misses him BAD. After the Battle of New York, she texts him out of the blue:

Glad to see you're not dead. You did good work out there. - PC

Steve texts almost immediately back.

It was touch and go. Stark almost died. Are you...safe? - SR

I saw. I wasnt worried about him. I was worried about you. - PC

And yes I'm safe. I wasnt in town. I was with Micheal and Daniel. My shop? Not so much. There's a hulk-sized hole in my roof and my flowers are ruined. - PC

You worry about me? - SR

You were...out of town? Right. Yeah. I hope you had a lovely time with your boyfriends. Oh shit, Pegs. I'm so sorry. I'll talk to someone, see if we can fix it. Insurance isnt budging? - SR

Natasha is now glaring at Steve after reading over his shoulder. "Jealousy doesnt look good on you. But I'll call in a few favors. That's the only shop that grows purple roses. If Clint can't get those for his poison dipped arrows, he's going to be upset."

Theres another motivate behind it, Steve knows. Because he still likes her. The arrows and roses have nothing to do with it.

I always worried about you. - PC

I'm not doing this, Steven. I can handle it myself. - PC

So colored her surprise (not) when she shows up the next morning to find Steve Rogers still hurt from the battle wearing plaid and a construction belt, working on her roof. She stares up at him, lips pursed before slamming her office door. Not that it does much good, the wall falls right out.

Steve tries not to look disappointed and upset.

"I don't get it," he says after climbing down from the roof and standing in the wall-less doorway. "Why are you pissed? I'm helping! Natasha already bullied Stark into revamping your shop. You get all the say. I was doing a headstart! Why are you pissed?"

"Because you're a bloody fucking idiot!" She screams at him over the desk, the chair flying back as she stands up. The office is ruined, its again her desk is still standing.

"If Im such an idiot why are you here then? Why arent you with your boyfriends? Where's Mikey and Danny to help you?"

Steve swore she was going to slap him as she stalked forward. Instead she jerked him down to kiss him hard. It stunned them both, her hand still gripping the dust-covered shirt tightly as they parted.

"Micheal is my brother and Daniel is his fiance, Steven!"

Steve blinks, eyelashes clumping together. All he can think about is how beautiful she is and how theres a fleck of sawdust on her nose.

"Oh."

"Damn right oh. I worried about you! You didn't...didnt even call me. I always worry about you."

This time its Steve who kisses. Its hungry and needy. He picks her up with one hand and knocks the things off her desk, laying her on it.

They don't notice the construction crew coming in and instantly leaving.

Nor Natashas sly photo of Steve with Peggys legs around his waist and his pants down.

She later sends it to both and says 'Americas Ass.'

Peggy isnt sure if shes mad at herself for getting back with Steve or happy but she knows one thing as she cuddles into bed with him that night.

Steve needs her. Needs someone to remind him hes human and to watch after himself. To take care of himself.

She needs him. More than she knows. And its not because hes Cap or can lift the heavy water barrels.

She needs him because she loves him, because she reminds her that some things are worth fighting for, that you have to let your guard down some times to let people in.

But she definitely needs him to fix that goddamn Hulk-sized hole in her back garden or she's going to be peeved and no Bruce Banner rage will equal to hers if her Tropical Plants are ruined because aliens invaded New York

[eleanorbloom]

When You’re Ready Ch. 20

Pairing: Bryce Lahela x f! MC (Eleanor Bloom) x Ethan Ramsey.

Word Count: 4.5k

Warnings: Angst, PTSD, anxiety, suicidal thoughts.  Rated M

Taglist @utterlyinevitable @binny1985 @shanzay44 @choicesficwriterscreations  @starrystarrytrouble @lahellacute @lucy-268  @cinnamonspongecake @romewritingshop @freckles-spangledvampire​@mercury84choices​  @curiousconch​

______

Chapter 20. I’ll Stand By You

I'll stand by you

Take me in, into your darkest hour

And I'll never desert you

 Whatever cloud of anxiety and fear had been following her since she got out of the quarantine room, now it seemed in suspension. Right above her head, waiting for the proper moment to come back and shower her with the consequences, with the realizations that inevitably death brings in.

Her family was being like a dome, a bubble protecting her from hurt and pain, and from any damage she could do to herself with her mind. With her thoughts. With the memories, the guilt, the I-should-haves. She could see everything outside, wandering, waiting for any nook to sneak into, but somehow her family managed to catch them before they could reach her.

  No one had doubts that there would be aftermaths, that at some point she’d have to face them, but they wanted to delay it as much as they could.

Bryce had identified the anxiety she felt at the thought of being alone, so now everyone was attentive to not leaving her alone.  

Her mother had identified the guilt was slowly consuming her. It was the sadness in her eyes, her fingers fidgeting distractingly. It was sometimes just a mother's instinct.

But despite all the effort everyone was making, no one could stop what happened inside her head at night. Somehow, she felt like she was in that quarantine room over and over again. The same heavier sensation on her chest. The feeling of being scared and tired. Of wanting to leave. But someone was pleading her to not go, something was pulling her back to the ground.

When Eleanor went to see Rafael the next morning, it made everything worse, even if she was happy that he had survived.

He was fragile, it would take him a long road to recover, and it was all her fault.  Why she had to let him accompany her? Why she had to put him in such danger? Why she ruined his life like that when he had plans? When he wanted to start over?

The only thing she had managed to do was screw his future up. His life.

Verónica knew what was happening. She saw the pain in her eyes, the rage brewing inside her, she saw her knuckles turning white over her knees, her hands grasping the blanket over her tights, the imploring look she gave Rafael while he was speaking. She had seen it so many times. The guilty look. It wasn’t the first time that she was taking responsibility for something that was completely out of her hands. And it wouldn’t be the last time either. But she knew how to handle it. Mothers always know.

 As Verónica knew when she was feeling bad, she also knew the best ways to put her out of her misery, to distract her, to not let her mind sunk in guilty and self-deprecation. “Honey, is that true that Bryce braided your hair?” she asked, while she was combing her hair after returning from Rafael’s room.

She felt the exact moment her body relaxed at the mention of Bryce. Then, she chuckled, and a bright smile rested on her face. “Yes, he did. And I still can’t believe it.”

“I have to say he’s pretty good at it. It barely loosened overnight, and you have amazing waves in your hair now.”

“Heh. Please repeat this in his presence. Or not. He won’t shut up about it for a week.”

“He deserves to be proud of that talent. Well, more than a talent, this is a skill. A very useful skill. Now you don’t have to worry about doing your daughter’s hair all by yourself because he’ll deal with it pretty well. Maybe even better than you.”

Eleanor glanced back at her, flushed, “Mom!”

“Oh, sorry, darling, could be a son too, there’s nothing wrong with boys having long hair.”

“Mamá…”

“Well, maybe you don’t want to have kids, and that’s respectable, sorry for being too intrusive.”

Eleanor giggled, amused, “You really liked him, uh?”

“Is there any other alternative, Ellie? He’s too likable. Too charming. And he’s been an angel with you.  I don’t feel nothing but gratitude towards him.”

“He’s been amazing. Not just now. He has always been this way…”

Suddenly a knock on the door interrupted her, “Can I come in?”

Eleanor looked at the door where Keiki was standing with a mix of shyness and surprise, and for a brief moment, she thought she saw pain flashing her eyes, “Keiki! Yes, come in!”

The girl walked towards her and, in a surprising act, hugged her, “Ella! I’m so happy you’re okay!”

She had never done that before. Hug her and speak to her with such sincerity. The had become close by the weeks, but she never had shown any spontaneous affection towards her, not even to Bryce. “Keiki! Oh! Thank you. And I’m so happy to see you again! I missed you.” She said, her eyes glimmering with emotion at the gesture,

“Me too.”

Eleanor smiled at her and then Keiki looked at Verónica, standing at the other side of the bed. “Oh, let me introduce you to my mom, Verónica. Mom, she’s Bryce’s sister, Keiki.”

“Hi, Mrs. Bloom, nice to meet you.” She said, giving her a brief nod.

"Hello, Keiki, nice to meet you too. I’ve heard so much about you!”

“You have?”

“Oh, yes, Ellie has mentioned you lots of times! She says you're incredibly smart and sass and she loves spending time with you. Must be she misses the role of elder sister.”

Both girls laughed in agreement. Then, Verónica got up from the bed and walked towards the door, “I’ll leave you to it, girls, I’ll call mom.”

“Okay send her and Tata a kiss, please.”

“Sure, honey,”

“How are you feeling?” Keiki asked once Verónica closed the door behind her.

“Still a bit tired, but I can’t complain.”

“Bryce told me Rafael woke up this morning.”

“Yes! And he’s doing fine. Now we are waiting for Danny to wake up. You can go to see him too, I’m sure he will be happy to see you.”

“My volleyball buddy.”

“The biggest treason you could’ve done to you brother.”

“Oh, please. We both know how much he loved kicking my ass that day.”

“Well, yeah.”

Suddenly, Keiki chuckled, “You should’ve seen him yesterday at lunch. Freaking out.”

“Freaking out?”

“Yes, he told me he would meet your parents at night, and he didn’t know what to do, what to say… It was hilarious seeing him freaking out when… he usually doesn’t freak out with anything… Well, if not involves cooking, of course”

“Why didn’t I notice? To me he looked pretty composed when he came back.”

“Well, at home he was rambling, saying he would screw it up, wondering what he would do if they didn’t like him.”

“No way! He was really freaking out! I would’ve never imagined he would be nervous about that, I mean, he’s the King of Smooths.”

They both laughed, “He told me he wasn’t in that situation since he was seventeen, and… well at that moment the situation was very different because our dad was already in jail, so it’s understandable the bad experience.”

“But now nothing of that matters, he’s a very accomplished young man.”

“Now he’s Mister Imaginary Boyfriend.”

Eleanor snorted, “Oh god, he told you?”

“Yeah, he told me every second since he met your parents. He woke me up when he got home and had me until 3 am gushing about it.”

Eleanor and Keiki laughed and kept catching up and laughing for a few hours until the teen decided to visit Kyra and then Rafael, so Eleanor could have some rest.

The following days weren't very much different. Benjamin returned to Detroit, but her parents would stay in the city until she was discharged.

Danny woke up two days later. He’d have to remain in the ICU for a long time, but he’d be fine. Even if Eleanor had seen Sienna happy for Rafael’s and her recovery, just when Danny woke up she was the same Sienna again. With hope in her eyes, with the glimmer that characterized her kind and sweet smile. Her happiness was now complete.

The next day after Danny woke up, she was discharged, just in time to attend Bobby’s funeral.

The dome she’d been in the last three days couldn’t protect her from what was coming. Even if her parents and Bryce tried to convince her that she didn’t have to attend Bobby Gunderson’s memorial, she insisted that she had. That she was fine enough to attend.

Physically yes, she was. But the moment she set a foot in the memorial, Eleanor realized that emotionally, she wasn’t. She would never be.

It was so tangible how the dome started to vanish. How the pain, the guilt, the regrets, everything, was coming to get her.

And the guilt… the guilt soaked her to the bones.

Seeing the pain in the other person is painful. But seeing the mix of gratefulness and envy in the family is hard to manage. Because Eleanor can’t help but think that Bobby’s wife was glad that the rest survived but can’t help but wonder why her husband had to die,  why he was the only one who’s gone, why he was the only unfortunate. Why just him and not Eleanor, or Rafael, or Danny. Why she wasn’t as lucky as Verónica and Robert, who had their family complete.

 And Eleanor can’t blame her.

Why it had to be him when she was the responsible one? The Senator was her patient, she had discovered that Travis was poisoning him, she should’ve informed Ethan, and Banerji, and the police, and not deal with the situation by herself, let alone involve innocent people.

If someone deserved to die, was her. It was her fault what had happened. Mrs. Gunderson didn’t deserve any of the pain and sorrow she was feeling, nor her family.

The rest of the afternoon went in a blur. She lost track of time and space for periods. Sometimes she focused on the conversation she had in front of her, sometimes her mind wandered. Sometimes the guilt was too big she couldn’t think about anything else. Sometimes she couldn’t think about anything.

She wasn’t alone any minute. Whether she was with Bryce, her parents, or her friends, she was wandering through the service and reception like a wave in the middle of the sea, moved by external impulse, and not by her own will.

A couple of hours later, while Bryce and Eleanor were talking to Jackie and Aurora, her parents approached to say goodbye. They gave a grateful hug to her friends and thanked them for the umpteenth time for all they did for their daughter. Then, Eleanor and Bryce led them outside, where the taxi was waiting for them. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay here, sweetheart?”

Robert and Verónica gave her a worried glance. She was paler than when she got out of the hospital, and Verónica could read the haunting in her eyes.

Even if Eleanor knew her mom probably read her, she gave both her parents a reassuring smile, “Yeah, mom, don’t worry, I’ll be staying with Bryce and Keiki so she’ll keep me company while Bryce is working.”

“Okay, but if you need anything, please call us, okay?”

“I promise,”

Robert pulled her into a hug while Verónica did the same with Bryce, “Visit us soon, Sunny. You could stay with us if you’re getting bored here, you know? We will always be happy to have you."

“I’ll keep it in mind, thanks dad,”

“And of course you too, Bryce, visit us soon with Keiki, I’m sure she’d be delighted with the lovely spots that we have in Cincinnati to take pictures of.”

"Thank you, Veronica, we'll plan a trip for sure. Hope you have a safe flight."

Then it was the time for Bryce to say goodbye to Robert, “I know there’s no need, but take care of my Sunny, alright?”

“Of course, Robert. With my life.”

“Please call us if you need anything, if you need help or if something is happening with Ellie. You have our numbers now.”

“I will.”

 *

Hours later, when they arrived home, Eleanor went directly to bed. Her head was bumping and couldn’t handle another word with anyone. Bryce decided to join Keiki in the living room and watch something on the TV. She’d been alone most of the day.

Now that she was out of the hospital, the idea of being alone wasn’t as hard as it was at Edenbrook. She was alone in the room, but there were people near. And Bryce’s room didn’t remind her of the attack, and she didn’t feel like someone would appear from anywhere and would threaten her life again.

In fact, now she was relieved of being alone, at last. Now she could let all her feelings flow.

Her mom had been filling her with questions, comments, and ideas to not let her think about the attack, and even if Eleanor was grateful for the help she had given her, somehow that just had made her accumulate things. Accumulate thoughts, feelings, anger, guilt.

She buried her face in the pillow and cried, anger exploding in her core like a balloon that can’t hold any more air.

She was so mad. With the world. With herself. Above all, with herself.

 She deserved misery, pain. A man had died because of her and her irresponsibility.

She didn’t deserve people worrying about her.

What was her purpose after this? Why had life decided that her life was more worthy than Bobby’s? How could she live with his death on her back? With the suffering Rafael and Danny will have to endure to recover?

It was all her fault.

She didn’t know how much time she cried, but after a while, she started seeing flashes of that horrid night. The night she should’ve died.

At first, it was calm. Bryce was lulling her to sleep. For a moment, everything felt fine. But then it was all darkness and pain, and a voice breaking the silence in the middle of the darkness, pleading. “Please protect her. Don’t take her away. Don’t take her away from me. Please. Please,” she could hear while a tight grip was pulling her by the hand.  

 She was floating in midair, tired, ready to go. Her whole body was aching. But the grip on her hand was like an anchor, it wasn’t letting her go very far. Something kept pulling her to the ground. She didn’t know what or who. It was dark.

But then she saw Bryce’s face over her, his arms around her, and he was sobbing incessantly. Tears spilling down his cheeks and to the window of the hazmat suit, “Please, stay with me, stay with me” he begged, pulling her life like a kite flying away in a storm.

“Bryce…” She tried to whisper, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t move or speak. She was exhausted. But she could see him, she could hear him.

She had never seen him like that. So broken. So… desperate.

It was in sorrow. Desolation. But it wasn’t real, isn’t it? It was just a dream.

“Stay with me, please. Babe, don’t leave me, please. I don’t know what I’d do without you, please.” She could feel the lump in his throat aching with every word. The desperation in his grip, the fear with every inch he pulled her against his chest. She knew it was a dream, but something about it felt so real. So familiar.

“Bryce…” She tried again.

“Please don’t leave me.”

She wanted to go. She was tired. She deserved to die. She was the one who should’ve died.

But Bryce didn’t let her.

“Elle, babe.”

Why didn't he just let her go? Couldn't he see the pain was too much? That she couldn't live with herself after what she did to Bobby?

“Babe… Love, wake up. Wake up.”

And then she opened her eyes and found Bryce, no hazmat suit, no tears, just a concerned look on his face in dim light, “Babe, what happened?”

She looked around, trying to distinguish where she was. It was his room. The lamp on his nightstand was turned on, there was absolute silence in the apartment. Bryce was sitting at the edge of the bed with boxers and a shirt on, his hair disheveled. They both had been sleeping.

“I was… dreaming…”

And as she remembered her dream, rage suddenly started to boil inside her. Unstoppable, unbearable. All the rage and guilt and anger that had been brewing inside her, was unleashed now that she knew it had been him, “Why didn’t you just let me go?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why you held me and begged, and prayed to keep me alive… When I was so tired and I…” Eleanor covered her face with both hands in exasperation, “I… I wanted to go but you didn’t let me, you pulled me to stay with you, but I shouldn’t be here, Bryce… I should be the one... I don’t deserve to be here”

Bryce’s face disfigured at her words and shook his head instantly, “Don’t say that,” his voice was indignant.

"But it's true. I'm responsible for this. Bobby shouldn’t have died. I should have. He didn’t deserve to die, I was the stupid one who thought I could deal with the situation…”

“Elle, you’re not responsible for this, the only one to blame here is Travis. He wanted to kill the Senator, he brought the canister. You just tried to save him.”

“But I… I did it all wrong. I should’ve called the cops, he was dangerous, I put everyone in danger… And an innocent person died.”

“And just for that you think you should’ve died?”

“I-, if there was someone that should’ve paid the price, that was me. Not Bobby, or Raf of Danny. I ruined their lives.”

“No, Eleanor. The only one who should’ve paid the price was Travis, and he paid it with his life. It should’ve been in jail, but he did pay.”

Silence.

Bryce’s words made sense. But that didn’t stop her from feeling all the rage she had inside.

But the rage wasn’t actually towards Bryce, she realized. It was towards herself, for wanting to live, for fighting for her life and succeed, when she didn’t deserve it. Bobby deserved to live. “I don’t know. It’s just that… I can’t stop feeling guilty, all the time, Bryce. When I see Raf, Danny, suffering, when I saw Mrs. Gunderson, her daughter, all his family suffering, I feel terrible. I am responsible for this, and I’m here, alive, safe. I’m the least affected of all. I don’t deserve to be here when I brought so much pain with my actions.”

Bryce gave her a sad look as his eyes started to glimmer, then he laid down beside her and pulled her towards his body, “Babe how could you say that? You deserve to live. What you did not deserve was to die, to die because of some stupid psycho who didn't give a damn about anyone else but his revenge. He's the only one who should've died, and he did. Unfortunately, Bobby died too, but that’s not on you.”

Eleanor shivered at the feeling of his touch, of his comforting and soothing touch. She looked deep into his amber eyes and for a moment, things weren’t as horrible as it seemed. “But how… How can I live after this? What can I do with all this anger I have inside? How I stop feeling anger towards you for… For not letting me go? Towards myself for surviving?”

“I think that’s something you have to figure out with time, babe.  I know this is all dark and horrible right now, but with the proper help, it will get better. Soon you’ll understand that this is not your fault. Just don’t give up.”

Eleanor nodded, and then she nuzzled her face against his chest, his lips brushing her forehead as his arms enveloped her in a tight and warm embrace.

After a few seconds, she couldn't help but whisper, "Was it real?"

“What?”

Eleanor parted from him a few inches so she could see him in the eyes, “What I dreamed? You really said those things and… held my hand… like you were trying to hold me to life?”

Bryce couldn’t hide the conflict in his eyes, how reluctant he felt about responding to her, but after a few seconds, he nodded, “Yes. I didn’t leave your side, and I didn’t let go of your hand for a second. I was scared that you would go if you… If you felt alone.”

 “Would have been that difficult if I had died?”

“How… How can you ask me that, Elle?” His voice broke all of a sudden, as if the last source of strength had crumbled inside him.

“It’s just… you were so desperate. I… I’d never seen you like that. I could have never imagined you could break like that.”

“I broke a lot of times that day, actually, but I didn’t want you to see me like that. I wanted to be strong for you, but at that moment… You were so fragile, so in pain… that the idea of losing you was… too much, more than I could handle…” Bryce sighed and wiped the tears streaming down his cheeks. Eleanor stroke his hair, looking pensive at him.

Then his eyes looked at her for a few seconds, deeply and thoughtfully, like he’d never done before.

It was with a vulnerability that had never seen in him, not even that night at the quarantine room, not even in the shower while she was crying her fears away, not even the night he told her about his parents and Keiki.

It was raw vulnerability, and not by chance or by the circumstances. He was choosing to show himself like that in front of her. He was opening a door that had never been opened. And it was heartbreaking. Her heart ached at the sight of it.

“Eleanor you… You’ve been the only person that has loved me… That has loved me for who I am. That has seen the broken pieces of me, my past, my mistakes and… and even still has kept loving me.” A shiver cursed down her spine as the words reached her ears, just as it happens when a heartbreaking truth is revealed. How? How this could happen? “Even before you said you were in love with me, you loved me like no one else ever did. Without judging, without wavering.” His voice was tremulous, his eyes threatening with tears again, but he looked so, so earnestly at her that for a moment she didn't recognize him. And in fact, she didn’t know him. She was meeting Bryce for the first time. The real Bryce. The Bryce under layers and layers of protection built over the years. The Bryce she always wanted to meet. Where she wanted to dive in.

Her brain couldn’t process such truth. She could’ve never imagined that no one… No one had loved him unconditionally. How? How so many people could miss him?

  “It took me years to come to terms with the fact that I lost my parents. I never did with my sister for some reason, and now she’s here. I always thought I’d be alone my whole life… But everything changed when I met you.  I could trust someone for the first time. I could love someone for the first time. That's why I was so scared at first when you met Keiki. Because it would've been extremely difficult for me to overcome our breakup in case you choose Ethan, or simply because you didn't want me. But then I chose to let you in… And… is it beautiful as it is frightening. The fear of losing you is worse.  I would’ve never overcome it if you’d gone, Eleanor.  That’s why… I was so… desperate. So hopeless, because I don’t know what I’d do if I lose you. You mean too much to me.” He couldn’t go on. The lump in his throat was too painful.

Eleanor pulled him into a hug and kissed his temple, “Bryce, my love… I…” She couldn’t continue either. The truth hurt too much. So she simply held him and pulled him towards her chest, stroking his hair, kissing his temple, letting him know that she was there for him.

 “I’m sorry, it’s just I… I can’t stop thinking about that day, about the moment I found out you were in danger, when I saw you there, scared. When… when you started crying because the pain was too much. I still hear your screams sometimes, and it breaks my heart every time I think what you went through” He shook his head, trying to suppress the memories but he needed to let all out. “And… I can’t stop thinking about the moment I held you in my arms and suddenly you felt so heavy that for a moment I thought you were…” He needed to say it. The word had been eating him alive all those days, and he knew he needed to say it to find some kind of closure, to face this idea with reality. "I thought you were dead."

But the reality was that she wasn’t dead. She was with him.

“I thought you were dead and I…” He held her like clinging to life. Almost like how she clung to him in that quarantine room.

You never know when the roles can be reversed.

For the first time in days, Eleanor felt thankful for being alive. Even if she still felt guilty about Bobby's death, at that moment she realized how much more damage would've done her death. The pain that could've caused her family and friends. The pain that could've inflicted in Bryce. How devastated he would've been. And she didn’t want that. He didn’t want more suffering for Bryce. She wanted her happiness.

So, somehow, somewhere between all that pain, all those fears, all those tears, and late-night confessions, Eleanor found some sense of purpose. A reason to stay alive, to stay positive, a reason to heal.

She knew it wasn’t a definitive solution, that at some point she would find her path again, her own sense of life, but right now, when all was dark and painful, Bryce was pulling her back to life again.

“But I’m here, I’m here my love, I’m with you. And I’ll always be, I promise.”

His love was saving her again.

_____

A/N: This chapter was larger, but I decided last minute to cut it because I honestly didn’t want another chapter with more than 6k. Who knows if I’m going to keep my own promise next chapter haha

Thank you so much for reading! ❤

[sincerlypadfoot]

Drummer Boy (8)

Word Count-1.6K

A/N- This book will be ended in a couple chapters, some of you could guess how it’ll end, some may take it as a shock but I hope that the ending is all worth is in the end 

Send Requests Here

Unsure of how long I had been running for, I fell to the ground in the forest, rain started and tears fell down my face. The sound of rain took my ears and I felt lonely, everything around me was spinning.

I looked up infront of me, letting out a scream in pain, crying, almost not being able to see anything infront of me, I rolled onto my back looking up at the sky which was darking, everything nowadays was dark.

“Danny,” Dumbledore said with a calm tone. “Get up,” He whispered leaning over me. “Everyone knows your here, they’re waiting for you,” his finger pointed to my right, I turned my head looking at Grimmauld place in the clearing, Molly Weasley stood outside looking at me.

“I think I could just lay here for a minute,” I whispered shaking my head. “I think I broke my ankle,” I admitted, looking down at my swollen ankle. “I went back home, to see Draco, I had to do, but I don’t do the dark lords bidding, I promise, I just needed to see my brother,”

“We know,” Sirius said standing on the other side of me. “Dumbledore, he ugh,” Sirius started saying but was cut off.

“We looked into your mind, we had to see if you were really you, but only us two saw,” Dumbledore said shaking his head.

“How did you do that?” I asked without a care in the world. “Legilimency,” I whispered before they could answer.

“Yes, well you were running, we only looked at what we needed to see,” Sirius was now in my view with his hand pointed down at me. “Come on, i’ll bring you inside, i’m sure there is something we can do for that ankle,”

I hesitated, looking at Sirius’ hand, raising my own and helping myself up with my other hand.

“We’ll have to lock you in the room again, you won’t be able to leave until hogwarts,” Dumbledore said causing my skin to itch.

“I don’t wanna talk about it please,” I whimpered looking at Molly who pulled her hands out and brought me into a hug.

“Don’t leave us again okay,” Molly whispered holding me tight. “Now come in side, everyone's sleeping and i’m sure there is something I can do for that ankle of yours,”

“I won’t, I just panicked and i’m sorry,” I whispered leaning on Sirius as the door opened and we walked along the hallway. 

“And we understand that,” Sirius said leaning his head on my head. “Sit, we can do something,” Molly pulled out a chair and I sat down leaning my head back.

“I will see you in a couple days Danniella, there are some things that I will have to do,” Dumbledore said putting his hand on my shoulder, I looked up at him, then watched him walk away and apparted away.

“Where did you go!?” Hermione yelled out running downstairs after seeing me and hugging me. “You said you weren’t gonna leave,”

“Hermione dear, could you go get us a clothes from the bathroom,” Molly asked relaxing I was uncomfortable. “I understand,” She whispered up at me, waving her wand at my leg.

“You know you won’t be able to leave the house,” Sirius said with a frown, tossing his hand on my shoulder. “Come on, I can help you upstairs,”

I nodded my head, without saying anything, following Sirius up stairs, I let out tiny smiles as everyone looked at Sirius and I, but I kept my head down.

“Goodnight Lia, and i’m sorry again for having to look in your mind, did you really not notice?” Sirius asked opening the door to the room I was staying in.

“I don’t remember half the things I did when I ran away from my house,” I said lowly sitting down on my bed and taking out Cedric's wand. “Do you think we’ll ever be together again?” I asked not looking up.

“I believe,” Sirius paused causing me to look up at him. “Everyone finds their way back together eventually,” Sirius shot me a smile then closed the door.

I frowned at his words, falling back on my bed and looking up at the roof, Cedric's wand was tightly gripped in my hand. I closed my eyes, wishing I was anywhere but here.

                                            Five months later

I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, my dominate blonde hair was now a dark shade of black, cut to my shoulders, thanks to Hermione who had insisted that a change had to be a order in my life.

“Your packed right?” I heard the devil herself walk into the girls lavatory looking at me, she appeared in the mirror behind me.

“Yeah i’m packed, i’ve been packed since last week, how are the Weasleys doing with their dad?” I asked turning around and facing her, placing my hands on the sink behind me to hold me up.

“Good they’re all gone, I won’t be able to make it there, I could try but since it’s christmas, but your going aren’t you?” Hermione asked looking at my hair. “You know I didn’t think I was much of a hairdresser, i’m glad you let me cut your hair, you look better,”

“Yeah i’ll be going, since I live with Sirius now it’s where the Weasleys are staying,” I turned back around and finished washing my face. “You should come for a night, i’d think it be good, and I think Ron fancies you,”

Hermione let out a snort and walked over to the sink beside me, looking at herself in the mirror.

“You think Ron fancies me now,” Hermione giggled brushing her hair out with her fingers, not with much luck since it was so bushy.

“Yeah, he looks at you the same way I looked at Cedric, trust me, that boy fancies you,” I turned to Hermione and she turned to me. “We should go and grab our stuff, we don’t want the train to leave without us,”

Hermione and I walked out of the bathroom, people still looking at my hair, since Hermione had only done it last night, not many people outside of the common room saw it.

“Danny,” Draco called out, turning a corner and coming to a hult when seeing me. “Can we talk,”

I looked over at Hermione, who nodded her head, then walked passed me, up the stairs going to the common room.

“I’m not coming back home Draco, i’m sorry, it’ll probably be safer for you to stay on the dark lord's side, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you,” Everything that came out of my mouth was like spitting fire, burning the both of our souls.

“You died your hair, black,” Draco's hand went to my hair, running his hands down to my shoulders. “And cut it, we’re twins, we’re supposed to look the same for a reason,” At that moment, cutting my hair seemed like the worst idea in the world, but fire spit in my soul as well.

“Draco you have no control of life, I really have to go, you stay safe now, don’t be dying on me,” My fists clenched uncontrollably as I walked passed Draco, his hands wrapping around my wrist pulling me back.

“He’s gonna kill you, his planning something bad, i’m warning you now because if you stay with those people any longer, they’ll all be dead because of you,” 

“Draco your hurting me,” I whimpered trying to pull my wrist back but his grip only got tighter. “Draco you let me go this instant!” I cried out pulling back more.

“They’ll all die over you, I heard them, your killing them, come home!” His voice broke with every word that came out of his mouth.

“Let her go Malfoy, or a swear, you’ll have more then the you know who to deal with,” Both our heads turn to the twins who stood in the hallway looking at us.

“Fine, my sister would come home,” Draco spat out letting go of my wrist, I backed away towards the twins, scared of my own brother for a moment. “But go ahead, go to your boyfriends, seems like you’ve gotten over Cedric fast,” The fire in my body flamed and rage consumed me.

“And my brother wouldn’t say a thing like that to me!” I screamed moving closer to him, my hands pushed against his chest, knocking him into the nearest wall. “Sooner or later Draco, you’ll know that your on the wrong side, but you’ll follow in mom and dad's footsteps, because you act for their approval, like the good little pet you are to them,” My words spat out then hands wrapped around me, pulling me away from Draco. 

“Come on Danny, he’s not worth it,” Fred whispered pulling me back, both the twins looked at Draco, Georges fists were clenching, staring Draco down.

“Weasleys, having your hands all over my sister, i’m sure that Cedric would approve of them, oh wait, he’s dead, never coming back!”

I tried running forward but Freds grabbed me, pulling me back furter.

“Draco you leave her alone, we all know your cruel but she’s your sister, your just as heartless as you know who, and i’m sure you’d probably not enjoy the sight of yourself if we let Danny go,” George said, placing his foot infront of him, causing Draco to finish.

He quickly turned around, walking back the way he game from, I stood there shocked, that my own brother would say those words to me, or that the twins stood up for me.

“Come on, we’ll walk you back, i’m sure that the train ride to our home will calm you down,” Fred wrapped his arms around me, rubbing my back as we walked, I stayed silent for a moment, thinking back to Draco, and what I had done to deserve a brother as cruel as him

“You boys need to come with me, Miss Malfoy, i’m sure you can walk down to the dungeons and gather your things yourself,” McGonagall chimed, taking the two boys away from me.

I walked by myself, unsure of what trouble the boys had gotten themselves into this time, but just anxious to grab my stuff and leave the nightmare I was in.

[therisinggear]

Ghost Of a Chance. Chapter 1

A Ghost of a Chance!: The Ghost Queen's Slaughter!  

                                                          ~Amity Park- Three years ago~

The town of Amity Park, a town tied to the paranormal. Ghosts from other dimensions have invaded the living plane of existence time and time again. Most are just relatively normal people. While others are, for lack of a better term Supervillains. Because of the influx of evil ghosts, one young hero fought to keep the peace. 

Danny Fenton was just fourteen when his parents built a very strange machine. The Ghost Portal, It was designed to view a world unseen. During its test run, it failed to activate and it was left to collect dust in its parent's lab. 

One day on a dare from his friends made him put on a Jumpsuit and go inside it. "I still think this is a REALLY bad idea, Sam! Have you ever even seen The Fly?" Danny tells her before he accidentally presses the On button, activating the portal with him inside with the help of this horrifyingly dangerous design flaw. With a bright green glow, Danny's screams in agony. His friend Tucker holds Sam back when she tries to run in and get Danny out. "NO STOP IT'S TOO DANGEROUS!!" Tucker screams at her.  

"LET ME GO TUCKER If We Don't DO ANYTHING DANNY IS GOING TO DIE!!" Sam screams as she kicks Tucker in the stomach. He drops to the floor with the wind knocked out of him. A changed Danny stumbles out, staggered by the experience. His black hair is now snow white and his blue eyes now glowing green. The white/Black jumpsuit had its colors inverted. 

After that Life changing day, Danny gained the abilities of a ghost. While learning his new abilities became a hero. At one point even saved the earth with every ghost he ever fought.                

~Three years Later~

After fighting ghosts for three whole years, Amity Park has had ghosts become an everyday part of life. With Danny becoming a literal symbol of Ghost and Humans working well together, Ghost has been given rights as citizens. Some of Danny's old enemies gave up antagonizing humans and got real jobs. 

Sidney Poindexter got his GED and became an Anti-bully activist. He actively reduced bullying in schools by telling kids how he took his own life because of it.

The Hothead Ember Mclain made it big as a legitimate performer with a record deal. She may even be going platinum soon. 

Hell, even The Box Ghost got a job with FedEx.

One day, Danny was out buying new college prep books when he spotted another one of his old enemies in the coffee shop, looking depressed. Desiree the wishing ghost is waiting for her coffee, dressed in a suit.  She appears worried about something, checking her watch. 

"Oh boy this can't be good."  He mumbled to himself, trying not to draw her attention. He starts to feel sorry when she pays for her coffee. A heartbroken Desiree just stares blankly at her phone. Soon she spots him in the distance and politely waves while grinding her teeth. "Fantastic, My date stands me up and now I have to deal with the Phantom boy!"       

 "Oh man, I'm so going to regret this later." He awkwardly waves back at her before gesturing to her he is leaving. Danny walks away with a sigh of relief. "Talk about awkward running into a former enemy!" Without paying attention he bumps into Desiree. "Ahem!" 

Danny would have jumped in shock if his Ghost Sense didn't already let him know she was right in front of him. Desiree looks down at him with her arms crossed. "What do you want, Phantom?" An enraged scowl on her face before she notices the books in his hand. "Oh, you didn't come for me!" She calms down a bit and even laughs. "Forgive me, I've not been in the best of moods."

Danny laughs, nearly dropping his books. "I was just as surprised to see you, Desiree! I almost went ghost like the old days out of habit." The former adversaries laugh at the whole situation. "So how are you, Desiree? By the get up I'm assuming you've gone legit like a lot of other ghosts."

"Yes I passed the bar exam and I'm now a lawyer." She clarifies with pride written on her face. "I happened to order two coffees and my date decided not to show up, care to join me?" 

Both of them return to the coffee shop and have a friendly conversation, like the hostilities of their past is now gone."Your date sounds like a real dumbass to stand you up. So you chose to be a lawyer? I have to admit I never saw that one coming. The Box Ghost working at FedEx I saw a mile away, but this takes me by surprise." The ghost boy admits to her.

"In the last three years, I've tried many different jobs but being a Lawyer had the most appeal, so I committed to law school. Getting a GED was the First real challenge because the last time I had a formal education was two-thousand years ago. " She points at Danny's books while taking a sip. "So how about you Phantom? You look like you are getting serious in your studies in these peaceful times."

"I want to be an astronaut one day and with the lack of Ghost fighting, I've had more time to study for it. Good riddance too, I never really liked all the non-stop fighting anyway. Like the first time we fought, You kicked my butt big time before I made a wish." 

"I hope one day my wishes can come true," Desiree mumbled to herself with some regret. "The one thing I can never have."

"Your own Kingdom if I remember that gypsy's story right." Danny muses out loud. Desiree shakes her head with a sad look on her face. 

"That was just a superficial legend, not the real story. What I really wish for is something I never had."                        

~Fenton labs~

Four years after Danny got his powers from the ghost portal, the constant battles always took their toll on him every time but he always bounced back. From the Box ghost to the former ghost King, he always came back stronger. However, he might have his hands full this time. His many enemies began the unthinkable. They somehow found a way to make his ability to feel the incoming presence of another ghost useless. Under the command of the new Ghost Queen, they went after his friends and family one by one. 

Wave after wave of the Ghost Queen's minions worn the now eighteen-year-old ghost boy down. Soon he was overpowered by her most fearsome henchmen, Beaten to the point he could not fight back. 

He is on his knees in a Burning laboratory as his two most powerful foes looming above him. The Fright Knight, the spirit of Halloween and an evil older copy of himself from another timeline called  Dark Danny. "Games over kid it's been over before it even began!" His evil parallel self-boast. Dark Danny lifts Danny by the neck, strangling his younger self while charging up a blast in his other hand. Danny is too beaten and bloody to fight back. "Time to DIE!!"     

Danny almost gets blasted through the stomach before the Fright Knight cuts Dark Danny's arm off. "Her Highness the Queen ordered us to bring him to her alive!!" The Knight snarls at his partner. An enraged Dark Danny throws a swing before the Fright Knight has a blast aimed at his head. "And I've been given the freedom to eliminate you if I see fit!"  

Dark Danny stops baring his teeth at the knight and regains his cool. "You know, I liked it better when you served me in my timeline." He drops Danny and reattaches his arm. 

A terrified Danny tries to crawl away but is too gravely injured to get far. "D-Danny?" His sister Jazz is buried under rubble, in tears and reaching out to him as she bleeds out. Dark Danny picks Jazz up off the ground by the hair. A sadistic smirk on his face as he looks down at Danny. "Hello sis, miss me?" Jazz spits blood in his face as a last act of defiance. "Go To Hell!"  

"You're already here Jazz, and you are about to meet the devil herself?" He puts her in an ectoplasmic bubble along with Danny. "Lucky for you, she did say to bring at least one living family member." 

He waves his hand to make a Ghost Portal. 

~Ghost Zone~

The two villains enter it, on the other side is a massive palace in the Ghost Zone. Various ghosts and humans on their knees in the throne room. A ghostly servant blows a horn, "Presenting The new Ghost Queen! Her Highness Queen..." A tall busty woman with an hourglass figure walks down a dark corridor, her red eyes shine in the darkness before she enters the light. Her skin is brown with glowing veins marks all over her arms, veins that change between red blue yellow and green. "...Desiree!"

The (Former) Wishing Ghost sets on her new throne, giving Danny a lustful leer. "Bring him closer and release him." She orders her henchmen, her eyes never leaving the ghost boy. Dark Danny makes his Ecto-Bubble vanish, he kicks his younger counterpart towards the foot of Desiree's throne. The barely conscious Danny can't keep his eyes open as The Ghost Queen gingerly caresses his face. "And I had this grand speech planned and you deliver him to me almost dead!?"

Dark Danny laughs smugly with fangs before a look of rage takes over him. He is looking at his hand as he is being removed from existence in green fire. "We had a deal! I give you what you want, you give me what I want!", He screams. 

Desiree picks Danny up bridal style, her expression is cold as she glares at Dark Danny. "Your results are unsatisfactory, enjoy existing no more." Dark Danny disappears, vanishing within the flames.

~Hours later~

Danny wakes up in a large bed with all his injuries healed. "Where am I?!" He gets out of the bed only to fall on his face, his legs feel like jelly. "Oh great, I'm in enemy territory and I can't walk or go ghost!" Arms wrap around him as a pair of soft lips kissed him on the cheek. He spots the Ring of Rage on her finger. He sees Desiree's new look like she is almost human again. The flaming crown of her head gives him a clue, much to his horror. 

"The numbness will subside in time, but you need to rest," Desiree whispers into his ear, her embrace getting tighter when Danny struggles to get loose. "Desiree, is this really you? What did you do to yourself!?"              

She puts him back in the bed. Danny then remembers Jazz was with him. "Jazz, what did you do to her?!", He shouts at her.

"Healed up and resting in another room. As for what I did to myself..." She puts her right hand up to Danny so he can see the glowing Ring. "...I transcended beyond a ghost or my original humanity, with the power of the former ghost king's ring and crown." 

Danny looks at her with abstract terror. "You took those from him?! Do you have any idea what those can do?! If your not careful you can destroy the whole ghost zone and the earth along with it!"

"Worth the risk, I am making an empire, one where ghosts and Humans can be equals. I'm just about finished all I need now is..." Queen Desiree forces him down onto the bed, She Kisses Danny while holding him down. She moans loudly, forcing her tongue down his thought.      "...a king to rule beside me!~"

All Danny can say is a flat, "W-What the fuck!? Those things are making you crazy!" His eyes were wide with shock and confusion. "What does this have to do with me anyway?!"  

Desiree while still on top smiles warmly, laying next to him.  "It's Very simple Danny.~" Her voice is sweet, yet has an undertone of insanity. "You and I marry then rule a glorious empire as Husband and Wife."

"I'm a little young for you, don't you think? I only just turned eighteen." He asks Desiree with a sliver of fear. 

"TIME OUT!!"  

Time is frozen in place and when it starts Danny is gone. "Oh, no Worries Your of age now. Wait..." The Ghost Queen looks around the room before flinging into a rage. She fires a blast that destroys a wall. "Clockwork!" 

Queen Desiree flies out so fast she makes a sonic boom.   

~Clockwork's Realm~      

Clockwork the master of time opens up a portal in time. A weakened and injured Danny has a Time medallion on him. "If you wish to Save all of the creation, go now!" The normally calm Master of time screams in panic. 

Danny limps into the Time portal and in a flash of light is gone. "DANNY!!!" The Ghost Queen screams blows open the wall. *BOOM!* She conjures skeletal arms to bind Clockwork and depower him. "Clockwork Your queen has questions regarding her consort! Return him to me and I'll show you mercy and even forgive your crimes!" 

"Danny is already gone and you can't get to him. You may be seemingly omnipotent with the power of the Ghost King but even You have no power over time!" Desiree blasts him into oblivion, leaving no trace of Clockwork. With a snap of her finger, The Fright Knight is Summoned. 

"Follow Danny and bring him to me no matter the cost!"

"At once your majesty!" Her knight with his orders enters the portal. 

Queen Desiree descends into maniacal laughter. "I will have you, Danny! Even if I have to rip apart time and space! So I wish it so shall it be!!"

[nocturna-starr]

The Happiest of Birthdays

Prompt: Someone takes Dani to Build a Bear

Prompter: @currentlylurking

Length: 3097

Warnings: None

Today was one of the days Danielle regretted ever being adopted by wealthy parents. Her parents were gone, once again, on another business trip. Usually, that would mean she could travel anywhere in the city she desired, but her parents had increased the bodyguards watching her. The ghost girl couldn’t give the slip to ten bodyguards! She was stuck in the mansion.

It was her birthday, though no one knew. Danielle had claimed she didn’t know the day she was born to hide from Vlad. They were definitely not on talking terms and Danielle was doing everything in her power to avoid him. When she was adopted, her parents decided that her adoption day would be her new birthday.

She couldn’t blame them for missing her birthday. If she called phoned them now, they would be on the next flight home. Danielle couldn’t do that to them; they had spent years trying to get this contract. She would never forgive herself if the company lost a once in a lifetime opportunity because of her.

That was why she chose to spend the day locked in her bedroom and away from prying eyes. She didn’t have to wear anything elegant to impress anyone. She could put on her own sweater and red beanie. Her hair was allowed to be in a ponytail. Danielle could be her old self for a day.

Her old lonely self…

At first, Danielle had tried to occupy herself with the television. You could only watch so many episodes of The Waltons before one became bored to tears. Video games never interested her as much as they did Danny. The only thing left to do was a doodle, and she just didn’t feel inspired.

“May I come in Miss Danielle?” Casey asked, gently knocking on the door.

Danielle cringed. Casey was one of the only people in the household staff that wasn’t afraid to reprimand her for manners. She had already been the victim of a lecture in table manners earlier that morning. If Casey saw her now, the older woman would very well have an aneurism

“I’m sorry Casey but I am in the middle of something important. May you come back at another time?” Danielle hated how small she sounded.

“Very well Miss. Perhaps you could check under your bed for any misplace objects? It would make tidying the room easier.” Casey was also the only person who would order Danielle to do any cleaning up. The girl had tried resisting once, but after the hot sauce event, she just did what the woman wanted.

Danielle sighed but got off her bed then went on her hands and knees. She pulled out dirty clothes and a few books that had made their way down there. Then she noticed an old cardboard box. Originally, Danielle hid it underneath the bed to hide her freakiness from her new parents. She had forgotten she put it down there!

With a little effort, Danielle pulled the box out from beneath. It was heavier than she remembered. Perhaps she was too far out of practice. Delicately, Danielle unfolded the top. Part of her was curious to see what she deemed so important to hold onto from her old life.

The first thing she saw was her Fenton Thermos. The thing seemed to be operational if the full light was still working. Oops. She pulled out her old journal. Flipping through the pages reminded her about how much her handwriting had improved. She smiled when she spotted her favourite old t-shirt. How could she have forgotten it? It was the first gift she had ever received for her birthday…

“Happy Birthday to You!” Phantom and the Red Huntress sang as Phantom presented her with a birthday cake. Danielle beamed at her closest friends.

The three were currently sitting on a picnic bench in Amity Park’s only park. Their only company were the stars above them. Only Dani was in her civilian form. From what she understood, Danny and Valerie were in a tentative truce, neither was comfortable with the other. Still, the clone was touched that they would put their rivalry aside for her.

Both her closest friends stared at her. Dani looked back confused. What did they want her to do? She wasn’t going to grab a piece, there were flaming candles on that cake! The trio stood for a moment before Phantom was hit with a revelation.

“Make a wish,” He told her, green eyes twinkling, “Then blow out the candles!”

Blow out the candles? Wasn’t that unsanitary? Who knew what diseases she could accidentally give to Phantom or the Red Huntress! Still, a tradition was tradition… She closed her eyes and silently thanked the stars for friends like Danny and Valerie. She took a deep breath and blew out all the candles.

“What did you wish for?” the Red Huntress said. Danielle could almost hear the grin in her voice.

“Valerie! Don’t you know it’s against the rules for the Birthday Girl to tell her what she wished! Then it won’t come true!” Danny childishly reprimanded. The three sat in stunned silence, before bursting out laughing.

“You sounded like a four-year-old!” the Red Huntress giggled.

Danny only grinned in response. Dani had never seen her cousin like this before. It was awesome to see him so free and know he was a superhero. She thanked her lucky stars that she managed to live that long.

“In my family,” Valerie began, “It’s tradition to open one gift before cake.” She presented a prettily wrapped box. Phantom pulled out a gift bag from beneath the table. Both looked at her expectantly. They wanted her to choose?

Dani reached for the gift from Phantom. The Red Huntress nodded as if she expected her decision. Carefully, Dani took out all the blue tissue paper. Hidden among the flimsy paper was a t-shirt. It was gray, with the NASA logo on it.

“I heard you liked space.” Danny winked.

She tackled him in a hug, “THANK YOU SO MUCH!”

She always felt a little guilty for liking the exact same things as Danny. She often wondered if he resented her for not finding her own path. The shirt was a reassurance that he was not angry with her, rather he was encouraging her. It meant more than anyone would ever know.

“As sweet as this is, I think it’s time to cut the cake!” Valerie called.

Part of her felt guilty for forgetting Danny’s gift. She still wore one of the various necklaces Valerie gave her. She took off the sweater and put on the NASA t-shirt. It still fit her like a glove. The next time she went to Amity Park she would wear it.

Danielle turned back to see the rest of the contents in the box. She still had the credit card that she stole from Vlad. Did he even realize he was missing it? Danielle highly doubted that the billionaire noticed the few hundred taken every once in a while. Without a second thought, Danielle snapped it in half. Her collection of random Pokémon cards was haphazardly thrown in there. Then Danielle’s eyes caught on a photograph from her fourteenth birthday…

Danny, Dani and Valerie were standing in line for the biggest roller coaster in the entire state of Illinois, ‘The Raging Bull’. She was practically jumping up and down with excitement, and Valerie was keeping herself just as calm. Danny, on the other hand, was looking almost as pale as his hair.

Valerie noticed this and took it as an opportunity to tease the ‘Great Danny Phantom’. “What’s wrong? The hero of Amity Park afraid of heights?”

“I don’t like roller coasters,” Phantom replied, not taking the bait.

Dani barely paid attention to them. It was almost their turn! She could feel her heart flutter in anticipation. Valerie said that going on a roller coaster was just like flying but with no control. The phrasing intrigued Dani, so she begged to go to an amusement park for her birthday. Valerie was willing to grant the wish and guilt a reluctant Phantom to come along.

“Maybe I should get out of line. I don’t think I want to do this.” Phantom decided. Valerie was having none of it.

“Chicken. Look, even Danielle is excited. You’re a ghost! There is nothing you should be afraid of!” Valerie whispered the last part so that only the trio could hear.

“I don’t like roller coasters.” Danny reiterated. He tried to leave the line but the huntress grabbed his arm, “Please Val…”

“It’s our turn!” the birthday girl shrieked. The line pushed them towards the ride. Danny was practically shaking yet couldn’t phase out of Valerie’s grasp without getting some unwanted attention. He tried to convince the girls to sit in the middle, but they dragged him to the front.

“The only way to get the full experience is to sit in the front.” The older girl’s smirk was a bit too malicious. Dani didn’t care. She was finally going on the ride!

The ride was almost everything she hoped for, if only it were a little faster. Valerie was totally right; it was just like flying! She threw her hands up in the air and screamed. She was pretty sure her cuz was screaming profanities beside her. Good thing the screaming was loud enough that the kids behind didn’t hear him.

The ride was over way too quickly. With wobbly legs, she got out of her seat. Danny had to be helped out. She watched Valerie guide Danny to a nearby trash can. Maybe it was a bad idea to pressure him on the ride after all.

She looked away and tried to ignore the sounds of the boy trying to calm his stomach. She noticed a group of people around a kiosk. She wandered over there to see what they were selling.

“Do you want to buy a picture kid?” The guy in the kiosk asked.

“We’ll take three!” Valerie answered behind her.

A while later, Danny had been able to laugh about the event. When his friends found out, they refused to let him live it down. The picture hung proudly in his room, the last time she was there. Valerie was rather fond of the one piece of evidence that Phantom had a weakness.

She tried to figure out why Danny hated that ride. He didn’t seem to have any fear of the other rides. The only answer she got from Danny was “Clowns and Jell-O”. When she asked Sam and Tucker, they told her that it was a really complicated story.

The box still had other treasures she had not yet unearthed. She pulled out a bunch of keys she had put in there. What they were for, she had forgotten. Maybe her diary could remind her? An old bar of chocolate from Dubai was surprisingly intact. Seeing the chocolate made her long to go travelling again. She wondered if chocolate ever went bad…

At the very bottom of the box was a gift for her most birthday a year ago. Its blue button eyes looked up at her. Danielle pulled out the teddy bear she had gotten from Danny and Val.

“Shopping Spree!” Valerie cheered, “With a chauffeur to carry our bags for us! Are you excited or what?”

“Haha. You know I’m just as much a part of this as you.” Danny retorted. For the first time, he and Valerie were in civilian clothes together.

A few months ago, they told each other the truth. Danielle needed to mediate between the two for a while before they calmed down. They were at the point of calming down. It was awesome to finally not have to be careful what she said to her cuz.

“You and I both know that if you had it your way, we would spend all day at the arcade.” The older girl rolled her eyes.

“I think you have me confused with Tucker again.” The teen sighed, “Where do you want to go first, Dani?”

The pressure was all on her. She needed to find a place that both Danny and Valerie would be able to tolerate. She was curious to try the hair and nail salon. Danny wouldn’t enjoy the pampering. The comics shop looked awesome as well. Valerie didn’t seem to be interested in comics. She had no interest in going to the gloomy occult store. Finally, she spotted a store that she hoped everyone could agree on.

“Let’s go there!” She pointed at the brightly coloured store.

She gained two different reactions. Danny was unphased in the slightest, almost excited. Valerie gawked at her, then shook her head. The huntress headed towards Build-a-Bear with the two ghosts following behind her.

It was no surprise that the store was filled with little kids and their parents. The trio earned suspicious glares from some of the parents. Danny sweetly waved at them. He had been treated worse by those very same people before. It must have been downright friendly by now.

She followed her friends to the area filled with unstuffed animals. Her eyes widened. There were so many to choose from! Did she want a cat or a dog, a dragon or a pony? She spotted a plain white bear. Perfect.

Danny had chosen a sky-blue bear. Valerie got one of the black dragons. Once they were finished choosing, they headed over to the stuffing station.

The three friends joined a crowd of kids and their parents. Each of them was given a red heart and instructions not to lose it. Danny was also snuck a scrap of paper with a number on it.

“Okay, we need to wake up the heart. First jump on one foot.” The lady in charge of the area began.

Each step, Danny and Dani followed almost religiously. Valerie was more halfhearted. The instructions became more and more bizarre as they continued. Why did they need to rub their stomachs and stand on one foot? Some of the kids joined Valerie in barely trying. Seeing that she was losing her audience, the staff member decided to end the waking ritual.

“All bears require a wish for them to be brought to life. What do you want most?” the woman’s whisper was barely audible. She was trying way too hard to make it suspenseful.

“I with for ma tof ta grow bac” A little boy said sadly. The children around him snickered.

“I wanna be a pilot!” A girl yelled beside Dani.

“I wish that I could be as cool as Danny Phantom!”

I wanna be a ghostbuster too!”

“I want a pony, but mommy always says no!”

“I have to pee”

“I hope that my friend will go on a date with me!” Danny said just as cheerfully. The glares from before paled to the ones Danny was getting now. Even the lady with the instructions looked mad. Valerie subtly kicked him.

“EWWW!” one of the kids whined.

“You’ll like it when you’re my age.” Danny retorted, “Great. I sound like my dad!”

“I wish for more happy birthdays,” Dani said, hoping to ease the building tension. A few parents nodded, happy to get the attention off of Danny.

Once everyone had finished, they stood quietly in line while the poor worker focused on stuffing each individual bear.

“Hug it. Now is it perfectly stuffed for you?” She asked Dani.

Dani smiled, “Yep.”

“Give me the heart I gave you so, I can finish sewing your friend together.”

Dani watched her finish at lightning speeds. She must have been working there for months, if not years. She looked older than Danny and Valerie, and they were almost eighteen. It made it all the weirder that she gave Danny her number.

“Head over to the clothing section over there to get your bear some clothes. Then head over to the naming station.” The woman instructed. “Hey, cutie!”

Dani started to head over. She turned around to see a clearly uncomfortable Danny trying to avoid conversation. Served him right for bugging the kids! Valerie seemed to agree. She looked like the cat who caught the canary.

There were so many clothes for the bears, it was actually kind of weird. The price tags were just as confusing.  Some of these things cost just as much as the darn bear! She ended stuck between a pink dress and a blue dress. Danny and Valerie joined her.

“The pink one is more in style,” Valerie told her.

“But the pink one is more expensive. I’m afraid I’ll lose it while travelling.” Dani explained

“Then get this! It’s always in style!” Danny sang.

The girls looked to see Danny holding up a white t-shirt with a strawberry in the center. Above it was the phrase “Berry Best” in cursive. Dani giggled at the pun while Valerie looked unimpressed.  Unfortunately, his outburst had attracted a lot of kids.

“I want one!”

“Mr. Date, can you get me one?”

“Mommy! The man won’t let me have that!”

Neither of the trio ended up buying any clothing for the stuffed animals.

The naming station was the most uneventful part of the trip. Danielle secretly named her bear “Snowball”. Neither Danny nor Valerie would tell the names if their new “furry friends”. After paying for the bears, the three exited with their dignity barely staying intact.

“So, where do you want to go next?” Valerie asked.

Dani thought for a moment. They HAD done something everyone would like or at least be the same amount of embarrassed… “Why don’t we go to the salon?”

The only boy in the group frowned in resignation. “I guess you guys can go ahead. I’ll meet you in an hour?”

“I don’t think so, ghost boy. You’re coming with us!” Valerie laughed.

Danny paled.

Danielle started to put the things she pulled out, back where they had been kept. The only exceptions were the t-shirt, picture and the teddy bear. Those she decided would have a permanent spot in her room. She briefly wondered if Danny and Valerie had expected her to show up. They were in college now and knew she had been adopted.

A knock drew her out of her thoughts. She opened the door and saw no one was there except her guards. They gave her quizzical looks. She gave a small awkward wave and shut the door. That was really embarrassing…

She turned to see the two heroes of Amity Park waving at her from the window. She brightened.

[rwbyremnants]

TRIGGER WARNING: Racism and abuse.

NOTE: Merry Christma... well, Boxing Day! Sorry this chapter isn't exactly the most festive it could have been. Hopefully you enjoy it anyway!

=Chapter 9

That early evening, Weiss felt content in her knowledge that she and Yang were on good terms, and that they had already logged some study time to help Yang improve her grades. Things were going well. Now, she only had to solve one other new problem that had presented itself.

“Search me,” Pyrrha sighed as she gently stirred her milkshake with the straw, gazing into the far corner of the malt shop. Weiss had elected to have only a cherry phosphate, not wanting to spoil her dinner since she was eating at home tonight. “I’m an only child.”

“I might as well be,” Weiss admitted. “Whitley is a pill, and a boy anyway, and Winter’s been gone away to college for a couple of years now. Father won’t even tell me if she calls or writes since he’s so disappointed in her career choice.”

“But the WAC is a noble field! I’ve actually been thinking of enlisting myself, if I don’t train for the Olympics…”

Lowering her voice, Weiss whispered, “I think he expects it to turn her into a lesbian. Since the army is ‘men’s work’ to him. Which is pretty ironic, isn’t it? Worried about the wrong daughter.” Then in a more normal tone, she added, “Plus, he wanted her to take over the company reins. I’m not as well-suited, even though I want to - and Whitley is completely useless, the selfish little toad. But it’s too late; she’s even more stubborn than me, and won’t change her mind for anything.”

Pyrrha nodded to herself as Danny And The Juniors came on the jukebox. A few of the kids in the far corner got up and started to dance, even though it always made the elderly man behind the counter roll his eyes. Privately, Weiss thought that if he hated modern music so much, he shouldn’t provide it for the clientele.

“Well… are you sure you want to take over the business?”

“Huh?”

“It’s not set in stone. If you want to do something else with your life, I think you should. We only go around once, don’t we?”

“Thanks,” Weiss snorted as she patted Pyrrha’s hand. “You’re a peach, Pyrrha. But no… I do think I’d like to take over Schnee Communications. Really do something big with it.” She noticed her other hand was tapping the stem of her soda glass, and she smiled. “Did you want to dance?”

“Hm? Dance? Me? To what?”

“To ‘At The Hop’, you dunce,” she giggled.

“With you?” An instant later, she blanched and followed up, “N-not that there’s anything wrong with that! I just m-meant… well, we’re in public, a-and I’m not like you are, a-and-”

“No one cares if two girls dance together, Pyrrha. As long as we don’t start necking in the middle of the malt shop, it’s fine! Besides… maybe we’ll get asked to dance by boys.”

Still flushed, Pyrrha glanced over shoulder at the crowd. “You really think so?”

“I do. And who knows? Might get your mind off a certain Jaune Arc.”

“Shhh!” she hissed, but even while Weiss was giggling she slid out of the booth and grabbed her by the hand, dragging her just far enough from their booth to dance.

Neither of them were very good at it, but at least enough to keep time with the music and avoid knocking anything - or anyone - to the floor. Weiss had to admit she was impressed with Pyrrha’s jitterbugging, and even herself for not falling on her behind even once. She did see out of the corner of her eye that a few of the boys were watching them with slight astonishment, but she made up her mind not to care; if she projected confidence, showed that she didn’t care in the slightest, they would eventually go back to their own dance partners. And she was right; a couple of other girls did the same, and even two boys, laughing at the absurdity. Maybe they would start a trend!

When “All Shook Up” came on next, she couldn’t seem to help herself; she really thought Elvis was the most. Pyrrha took a step back and let Weiss put on a show by herself, mostly just swaying and snapping her fingers. Neither of them minded much, and she got a few cheers when the song ended. Vaguely embarrassed, she curtsied and moved to sit down.

Then someone put in another dime and cued up “Lollipop”. Pyrrha kept dancing, but Weiss decided that it was time to put on a show of a different kind.

“Call my baby lollipop, tell you why,” she belted out in time with the Chordettes, earning her wolf-whistles and thunderous applause from all but the elderly soda jerk. “His kiss is sweeter than an apple pie! And when he does his shaky rockin' dance, man, I haven't got a chance!”

Everyone started singing along with the chorus, and Pyrrha laughed and clapped louder, clearly enjoying herself. Weiss was, too. For some reason, she had always thought it too unseemly to dance in public anytime other than an actual school sock hop. Singing was another matter, but her father expected her to keep her performances to operetta and hymns. As much as she liked popular music, it was discouraged and seen as “pedestrian”, so she had never owned any records of her own.

Finally worn out, the two of them finished off their drinks and then made their way home. If they settled in quickly, they could study for an hour or so before suppertime.

However, as it turned out, life had other plans.

“Weiss!” her father called out as they passed through the living room. “May I speak with you a moment?”

“Yes, Father?”

He glanced pointedly at Pyrrha. “Alone?”

“Sorry,” she whispered to her friend. “I’ll be up in a minute?” Pyrrha nodded, waving at Mr. Schnee as she headed upstairs. He did not deign to acknowledge her.

“Good. Sit.” He motioned to the couch before reclaiming his armchair. Weiss obeyed, sitting primly on the edge of the cushion. “I was hoping you would be able to shed some light on certain information that has come into my possession.”

“Sorry, what information is that?”

“Apparently, you have been consorting with known delinquents.”

As she stared at her father, the bottom dropped out of Weiss's stomach. Someone had seen her with Yang. Who?! They hadn't been very discreet so it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise that they had been caught - and yet it did. She was completely gobsmacked. Still, there was no reason to cop to everything right away; maybe he didn't know very much, and she certainly didn't want to accidentally volunteer information that wasn't necessary to volunteer.

“What?”

“Don't play coy with me,” he went on with a slight sneer that lifted the corner of his mustache. “Whitley saw you sneaking out of the house in the dead of night. What could you have been thinking?”

It was worse than she thought. Of course her father would believe Whitley, that little toad. “W-well, I only went to retrieve a school book I loaned out.”

“To that Chinese girl, hmm?”

“Yes. I'm helping her with math and-”

“You expect me to believe that the only reason you climbed down the side of our home was to retrieve a book? Just what sort of fool do you take me for?”

“The best sort! Wait- I mean, no fool at all, Sir!”

Shaking his head, he crossed his legs and leaned heavily against one elbow. “All the money spent on tutoring, already wasted when you insisted on going to a public school instead of a private academy. Your mother made the inane decision that if it was what you wanted, it was worth the sacrifice. And now look where we are! You’re running around Vale with some kind of… opium fiends on motorbikes!”

“Opium…” Weiss rolled her eyes when she made the connection. “Just because she’s half-Chinese doesn’t mean she’s ever even seen opium, Father. And as far as I know, she hasn’t!”

“Oh, really? You have enough experience with the fruit of the poppy that you can tell the difference?”

It was very difficult for her not to get upset with him. “I’ve literally never spent a moment thinking about her being Chinese. She’s being raised by her mother, who’s from America.”

“Hmph. The fact remains, she is not the sort of friend you ought to be keeping company with. I forbid you to see her anymore.”

“You what?” Blinking up at him, she waited for him to elaborate, or to rescind his edict. He did not. So she burst out, “You can’t do that!”

“I just have.”

“But she’s-” It took quite a lot of effort to suppress some kind of ill-conceived confession of love. “Father, she needs my help in school, a-and we’re good friends! And you won’t tell me I’m not to see her!”

His eyes flashed dangerously. “Watch your tongue, young lady. This is my house, and what I say goes.”

“NO!”

“Excuse me?”

“Not this time!” she snapped, leaping to her feet. She knew this wasn’t a spectacular idea, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself; it was as if the anger pulsing behind her temples was taking over her body, separating her from being able to command it any longer. “All I ever do is what you tell me to! I’m a good student, I practice my singing every day, a-and I’ve even been keeping up with tennis! With Yang! So why… I mean, how can you forbid me to see someone you don’t even know? That isn’t fair!”

She could have predicted he would say “Life isn’t fair” before he even formed the words, and was only further angered to hear him say them after all.

“So what?! That doesn’t mean you have to be unfair along with it!”

Jacques Schnee shot to his feet and snatched up her bicep, jerking her forcibly toward him with an iron grip. His cold eyes stabbed down into her own and her heart stopped beating to see his barely-concealed rage.

“You will stop speaking to me in this manner, and you still stop associating with the Chinese girl. My decision is final. If you continue to disobey me, there will be further consequences. Do I make myself clear?”

“No.”

“Try that again,” he growled, shaking her arm.

She didn’t know why she said it. Her father had already proven he had no interest in what she had to say at all. Perhaps it was the fact that Yang had become a lot more important to her than she ever thought possible, and that connection was too precious to be severed for no reason other than Yang’s race and the fact that she wore a leather jacket. Something within her was glowing white-hot and could not be cooled down until it burned something else.

“Or what? You’re going to hit me? Again? Like you hit mother when you think we’re not looking? Like she hits Whitley when he smarts off? Is that just what this family does? It’s pathetic! You are pathetic!”

His eyes flicked to her scar, and Weiss felt the dark thrill of a very unsatisfying triumph. A rough shove sent her falling against the couch, grasping at the arm to keep from winding up in the floor.

“I knew it was a mistake to entrust my company’s future to a woman. You never see the bigger picture. Whitley may be a low-grade moron, but at least he understands loyalty. All you care about is your sock hops and giggling with the girls - now including some foreign wok-woman. Squandering your potential. There’s too much of your mother in you.”

“I don’t care,” she lied as the tears began. How desperately she wished they wouldn’t.

“You will. When I’m disciplining you until you straighten up and act in a way befitting the Schnee name, you’ll care.” Smoothing the front of his suit, which had barely been disturbed at all by shoving his daughter, he grunted, “Get up and stop that blubbering.”

Weiss obeyed. Back straight, she stared him down, even as her cheeks glistened.

“Better. Now, you will sever all contact with the ruffian girl, and you will focus on your studies. Is that clear?”

“It’s clear.”

“Do you promise to obey me?”

Teeth clenched, she hissed, “Never.” His hand came down hard across her face. “AH!”

“Do you promise to obey me?!”

Furious in a way she didn’t know she could be, Weiss turned and screamed, “NEVER! I’ll never obey! You can slap me, you can kick me, y-you can chop me into pieces and feed me to the birds! I don’t care! I’m never going to let you tell me who I can and can’t be friends with, EVER!”

For a long moment, he regarded her and the angry red throbbing on her cheek. His face was completely impassive, even though he was breathing hard. Then he turned to stare into the unlit fireplace.

“That’s ‘with whom I can and can’t be friends’. Clearly, she’s already having a detrimental effect on your grammar.” The sigh was weary, as if this were nothing more than a tedious board meeting. “Very well. I’ll take care of the matter myself. And don’t think there won’t be further consequences.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

“You’ll see.” Turning back, he glared down at her. “You are dismissed. Go and study. Do something useful for a change.”

After a few seconds of huffing and puffing, Weiss managed to growl out “I hate you!” before she fled from the room and stomped upstairs.

She had fully intended on going to her room. Pyrrha was probably worried about the screaming, if she hadn’t somehow missed all the noise. Halfway there, she changed direction and burst into the drawing room, fists vibrating at her sides.

“MOTHER!”

Willow Schnee was draped over the piano bench, an empty bottle of red wine dangling in her loose grip. This was sadly a standard state of being for the woman; it had been for many years. Weiss had some hazy memories of a glamourous woman who didn’t fall to pieces so often, who could resist the pull of strong spirits. Hazy, distant, and with no impact on the present day.

“Wha…?”

Sinking to her knees beside her, Weiss sniffled and whispered, “He hit me again! H-he promised he wouldn’t, and he did, a-and I… Mommy, I need you to come back! Come back to us!”

The skin between the woman’s perfect eyebrows crinkled as she tried to think her way through the fog of alcohol. “Hm?”

“He slapped me! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“Oh… no, no he didn’t. He said no more… only me.” She groaned and pushed a hand into her face. “Winter, stop the train, Mommy needs to lie down…”

Of course it was useless. Sighing, she took the bottle and set it aside, then managed to heave her mother to her feet and guide her to the chaise lounge under the window. The setting sun was just starting to pinken the sky, and she thought the view might help.

“Please don’t go,” Mrs. Schnee murmured. “I… want to… you were always so sweet, Weiss…”

“At least you got my name right that time,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Leaning down, she pressed her lips into her mother’s pale forehead. She and Winter looked the most alike, and she definitely had their mother’s gentle eyes. But Weiss had her nominal stature and her angelic singing voice, which were nothing to sneeze at. “Mother?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

“Mmm…” Her hand came up to rest on the side of Weiss’s neck. “Love you, too, sweetheart. You’re my little…”

Before she could even finish her sentence, her arm flopped to one side and she began to doze. “Snow Angel,” she finished for her. That was most likely what she had been about to say. Weiss decided to leave her there and simply sneak back out of the room. Compared to that mess, her life was entirely tolerable.

When she regained the safety of her own room, she found Pyrrha twisting the hem of her long poodle skirt in her hands. She looked panicked. Seeing her friend in the doorway, she stood, eyes full of fear as she whispered, “What happened?”

“Nothing.” Edging the door closed, she approached her desk in the corner and rested a hand on her books. “Let’s just… do our homework.”

“Your face…”

“What about it? Am I really that hideous?”

Pyrrha put her hands on her friend’s shoulders and held her fast. “Don’t do that. He… he shouldn’t be allowed to…”

Suddenly, Weiss needed to be alone. She wouldn’t tell Pyrrha to leave, but that didn’t prevent the desire from rising up powerfully within her. The desire to disappear. The desire to be anyone but a Schnee. “Nothing happened. Do you understand?”

“I don’t,” she whispered in a tight voice. “I can’t pretend this away, Weiss.”

“Then try. Try really, really hard.”

Then arms were around her, holding her as close as was possible. Even though she hated herself for it, would have given the entirety of her trust fund away to stem the flow, the tears started pouring forth in earnest. And they didn’t stop for some time.

[kunlunsironfist]

catch your breath || discord

WHO: Danny Rand, Davos, Colleen Wing, with mentions of Ward Meachum WHAT: Davos makes another grab for the Iron Fist --- but it’s not Danny’s Fist he’s after. Danny’s attempts to stop him end less than ideally.  WHERE: The warehouse district in an abandoned Rand-owned building TRIGGER WARNINGS: Kidnapping, violence, alcoholism and relapse (briefly mentioned), suicide ideation, drugs, broken bones, hallucinations... It’s a mess.   WRITTEN WITH:@lastsonofkunlun, @thedragoncolleen (so Dawn²)

DAVOS: He had gotten the bowl from Ward ⁠— Danny’s other brother after ambushing him outside of a bar he had gotten thrown out of. He had heard one of the younger staffers at Rand that Ward had slipped into some old habits and that they’d need to start watching him. And from there? It was easy to track him. Ward was drunk and seeing Davos terrified him. All it took was a command said in a low voice and Ward crumbled. They took a trip to where the bowl was being held, a storage facility that was rented out by the Rand Enterprises. With the bowl in hand, Davos turned towards Ward, thanking him for his cooperation and then telling him to call Danny and tell him exactly what had happened. And then he added, “Tell him we have his whore too.”

 Collecting Colleen was easier. Working at the center added predictability to her schedule. He waited for her just outside the backdoor that she took every night when she was headed home. He had her from behind, a hand over her mouth and before she raised her hands to fight him back, he had a needle in her neck. A sedative. And much like Ward, Colleen didn’t put up much of a fight after a few seconds. When she finally went limp, he let out a sigh. Satisfied that this was almost over. The Hand whore wouldn’t have the Fist anymore and his would be whole again. 

 The Crane Sisters were at the warehouse. The same one that Joy had purchased for him when he first started this ⁠— though now the pathway was marred with the blood of Victor Graves. The man who helped him test his theory of who held the Fist and paid for it with his life. Colleen was on the floor of the warehouse, discarded like trash — unconscious but unrestrained. It wouldn’t be long before she posed no threat at all, and Davos wasn’t concerned about her waking up before Danny showed up. He crossed his arms and leaned against a pillar, another sedative in his hand while he waited.

DANNY: In the week or so since the Reaper’s death, Danny’s couch had become his best friend. People had come by, desperate to help, but Danny had little interest in letting them in. Not now, not with the sound of a man’s last shuddered breaths playing on repeat in his mind. He inhaled shakily, rubbing at his eyes as he leaned back against the couch. When his phone started to ring, he only glanced at the ID before letting it go to voicemail. Ward would understand. 

 Or, maybe not. The second the phone stopped ringing, it started again. Danny sighed, running a hand across his face before picking it up. “Ward, I told you, I’ll come in next week. I just need some time, okay? I’m trying to ---” There was a shaky gasp at the other end of the line that stopped Danny in his tracks, a hitch in his brother’s breath that made him freeze. “Ward?” His voice was much smaller when he spoke again. 

“Danny.” Danny’s heart sunk down to his stomach the moment Ward spoke. He knew that slur to his speech, knew exactly what it meant. It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Lei Kung’s voice rung out from the other end of the room, and Danny’s eyes flickered up to meet his briefly. Anyone would be driven to drink, being forced to suffer through your company. Just look at what you did to Davos.  

Danny’s hand tightened against the phone, and he heard the plastic case creak under his grip. “Where are you?” He asked gently, pulling himself off the couch. “I’ll come get you, we can get you into a program, or --- or call Bethany? Is she still your sponsor? Just stay where you are, okay, I’m on my way.”

“Danny, no.” He stopped halfway to the door, swallowing and getting ready to argue, but then, Ward went on. He must have been fairly shaken or drunker than Danny could tell, because it took several minutes to get the whole story. Davos cornering him outside a bar, forcing him to give up the bowl, telling him to make sure Danny knew. 

Telling him he had Colleen. 

 Ward didn’t know where Davos was, but Danny did. There was only one place he’d go, especially if his goal here was to cause Danny as much pain as possible. It was the last place Danny wanted to go, the last place he wanted to see, but he didn’t have a choice. A few desperate phone calls to Colleen had gone straight to voicemail, and if there was any chance, any possibility at all that Davos actually had her, Danny couldn’t risk it. He needed to go, needed to find her, needed to keep himself from letting down yet another person in his life. And that meant going back to the place where Davos had betrayed him the first time, the place where he’d faced down the Reaper for the final time. The place where he’d killed a man. 

Danny was understandably distracted when he arrived, hands shaking at his side. He walked into the warehouse with his hands clenched tightly into fists at his side, step faltering when he entered the doorway. The first thing he saw was Colleen, slumped in the center of the warehouse. He froze for a moment, watching her closely until he saw her chest rise and fall with a burst of relief so potent it nearly knocked him off his feet. He wanted to run to her, but… Davos would be expecting that. He was probably counting on it.

Turning back to the rest of the warehouse, Danny let his eyes scan the room. “Come out,” he growled, sounding less afraid than he was. It was a ruse Davos would, unfortunately, know him well enough to see through. They’d both had the same trainer, after all. “Your fight is with me, Davos. Not her. If you want to hold someone accountable for what happened to K’un Lun, if you want your vengeance, you take it from me. You want the Iron Fist? I’m right here. Come and get it.” He lit up his Fist as he spoke, holding it up so his brother could see. Maybe rubbing salt in the wound would keep Davos’s attention on him instead of Colleen. Davos’s biggest weakness had always been his anger, after all, and Danny was good at drawing it out.

DAVOS: Colleen was in the center of the room, in plain view of the entrance of the warehouse. Her positioning was by Davos’ choice, so that Danny would storm in through those doors, fueled by anger — by emotions that the Iron Fist wasn’t supposed to give into. Danny Rand was supposed to be a weapon. The Immortal Iron Fist. But Danny Rand? He was nothing more than a man. Weak and easily broken. This tactic with Colleen, he knew it was cheap. But like the sun that had blinded him in their fight, she’d serve the same purpose. 

But when the doors opened, and Davos tipped his head down and listened for his brother’s footsteps, he realized Danny wasn’t approaching. His jaw tightened but when Danny finally spoke. He realized he had rattled him. Not in the way he had wanted but well enough that he could still make an advantage of this. Bringing his head back up, he stared towards the back of the warehouse, still not revealing himself to Danny. 

 “My fight,” Davos snarled, “is with the both of you.” He rounded the corner, the needle in his hand — the smart thing would have been to hide it, but he wanted Danny to know what was about to happen. He wanted to see the recognition in his eyes, wanted to see what Danny put together when he noticed the Crane Sisters just around the corner, setting up the ritual. Everything that Davos allowed to be seen from the entrance was, again, a choice. A visual reminder of what had been done before, he wanted to pull Danny back to that moment when he had tied him up last time. Because when Danny got lost in memories and feelings, that was when he made his biggest mistakes. 

“You are hardly the Iron Fist anymore, Danny.” He paused, clenching the needle tightly in his hand, “You never truly were.” There were only a number of things that Danny was responsible for as the Iron Fist: to destroy the Hand and protect the path. And he had failed on both counts. Midland Circle, he had found, had stomped out most of the Hand, but even that wasn’t Danny. His other hand lit up with the power of the Fist as well, the red glow that Danny had only seen a few times before. “Mine returned while I was on the Raft,” he explained. “Graves was supposed to help me confirm that she still had hers and you...” Davos met Danny’s gaze, finally beginning to close the distance between the two of them. He was getting closer to Danny than he had intended too — just seeing the Fist manifest in Danny again was enough to infuriate him. “You couldn’t destroy the Hand but you destroyed another family. You left behind orphans.” He was talking about Grave’s children, but, the rage he felt? That fire in his veins? That was for himself. For his family.

DANNY: Colleen was the first thing Danny saw, but as Davos spoke, he tore his eyes away from her to search for his brother. Doing so brought the rest of the setup to his attention. The post Davos had restrained him to the last time he’d done something like this, the Crane Sisters off to the side, the bowl he’d asked Ward to get rid of… Danny knew what this was. He knew what happened next. 

It shouldn’t have been a surprise, then, when Davos came into view and Danny caught sight of the syringe in his hand. He should have seen it coming --- he should have seen all of it coming, really. The moment he realized Davos was out of the Raft, he should have expected all of this, but… He’d been distracted. The Reaper got into his head the moment he shot Colleen and, ever since, Danny had been unable to focus on anything else. That was something he and Davos shared, something everyone K’un Lun spat out seemed to suffer from. That single-minded focus was good in a fight, an asset for a weapon, but for a man? It was a downfall every time. 

Forcing his eyes to stay on Davos’s instead of Colleen in the floor or the Crane Sisters in the corner or the syringe in his brother’s hand that left his heart pounding violently against his rib cage, Danny tilted his chin up and tried to pretend he wasn’t afraid. “She’s not the one who kicked your ass in K’un Lun,” he said lowly, trying to bait Davos in any way he could now. If he could hold him off until Colleen woke up, if he could keep that syringe from emptying its contents into his blood until she opened her eyes, they’d be fine. “That was me. So if you want to fight somebody, if you want to make up for that, you can take it up with me.”

His eyes darted down to the syringe briefly as Davos approached, and he couldn’t help but wonder what was in it. Was Davos looking tot knock him out like he had Colleen? Or, if he didn’t know that Danny’s Fist was back and available to take, was he hoping to end things with whatever was in that needle? (Part of Danny wondered, if that was the case, if he could leverage it somehow. If he offered to let Davos end this without a fight, would he let Colleen go relatively unharmed? Davos was lost, but Danny still clung to the hope that his brother was a man of honor, that if he made a promise he’d keep it, even if Danny wasn’t around to see it play out.) 

“Neither were you,” Danny replied quietly, sounding almost mournful about the fact. He’d told Davos back when they arrested him that neither of them had ever been worthy of the Fist, and that was true. Things would have been a lot easier if either of them deserved it, if one of them was a clear-cut hero and the other was an irredeemable villain, but that wasn’t the case. Most days, Danny didn’t even know which of them was wrong. Maybe they both were. It wasn’t something the Fist itself seemed to care about, though. Danny was only mildly surprised when his brother’s Fist began to glow that familiar, sickening red, and he shook his head slightly.

And then Davos mentioned Graves, and Danny froze. He and Colleen had suspected that Davos was behind the Reaper, but to hear it said aloud… To hear him admit to it… It felt like a punch to the gut. Over and over again, Danny found himself clinging to the hope that Davos wasn’t lost entirely. He kept convincing himself that if he was just a little better, Davos could be, too. Danny had Colleen now, he had Ward and Luke and Jessica and Karen and Matt, but for so long, Davos was all he had. Letting go of that wasn’t easy, no matter how many times Davos betrayed him. He was still his brother. He was still the only piece of his life in K’un Lun that Danny had left. “I --- I didn’t mean to,” Danny muttered, spiraling a little. That focus he’d had, that stubborn baiting to draw his brother’s attention to him and him alone was faltering now, and suddenly he became acutely aware of Colleen in the floor and the Crane Sisters in the corner and the syringe in Davos’s hand and Lei Kung by the door. “He was killing people. He was going to kill Colleen. I… I had to.” There was a desperate hitch to his voice that made Lei Kung scoff, and Danny turned to look at him… taking his eyes off Davos in the process.

DAVOS: Danny mentioned their battle in K’un-Lun and Davos clenched his teeth. The accusation that Danny had cheated was on the tip of his tongue, but the words didn’t come. His mother who had barely spoken to him in his room after his father had forced him to yield. The battle was to the death or until one of them yielded and his father forced him out of the fight. Danny Rand did not earn the Iron Fist. He used tricks -- blinded him with the sun -- he didn’t win with strength of character. Davos never understood why his father had done that, why he had forced him -- humiliated him -- why he shamed him the way he had. Death would have been kinder. And yet... they were dead. K’un-Lun was lost the moment Danny was given the privilege of the Iron Fist. 

“Oh, I will Danny,” Davos said lowly, glancing at Colleen’s body before pointing at it. But he stopped, he thought about telling Danny exactly what he had planned. How Colleen wouldn't be leaving with the Fist, and how he’d tear the power out of Danny as well -- but he didn’t. He wanted Danny to feel just as broken as he had when he was slumped in his room, bloodied from their fight. To feel the same sick pooling of dread in his stomach that Davos had felt when Danny had vanished and Davos had thought to follow him and bring him home --- Davos wanted Danny to feel it all until he felt nothing at all. 

And maybe then Danny would be a worthy Iron Fist. 

“You never had what it took to do what needed to be done,” Davos spat out. That had been made abundantly clear in the way that Danny handled the situation with Bakuto and with Colleen. The Iron Fist was supposed to destroy the Hand and instead, Danny had invited one into his bed and refused to kill the other one. At the core of it, Davos had done more in line with the responsibilities of the Iron Fist than Danny ever had. 

His point was only further proven when Danny began to defend the murder he had committed. Danny had been too weak to take on the Hand, too pathetic. But Victor Grave deserved it? That action was somehow defensible to him? “He had a family,” Davos said flatly. Killing Colleen had not been apart of their original plan, Graves was only supposed to gather information, but clearly, something had gone wrong and it had pushed this in a different direction than Davos had anticipated. “You should have let him.” Davos spat out. 

Danny turned his head and Davos didn’t bother looking in the same direction -- there was nothing there. But it provided the opening he needed. Davos lunged forward. Normally, Davos would have aimed right for Danny’s chest. To end this now. But Davos, instead, powered down the Fist, he couldn’t risk killing Danny here when he wasn’t sure if he’d need Danny’s Fist to stabilize his own. He directed his anger and his fist, at Danny’s chest. Hoping to knock the wind out of him and disorient him long enough to inject him.

DANNY: It was a sore spot, that fight in K’un Lun, and Danny knew it. Even in the immediate aftermath of the battle, when Danny had fought the dragon and Davos had promised to act as his second when he took up the mantle of the Iron Fist, he could tell Davos was bothered. There was always a tension there, an anger bubbling just beneath the surface. Part of Danny had assumed ignoring it would make it vanish, but clearly it hadn’t been the case. And his leaving K’un Lun with the Fist had only made things worse. There was no undoing that hurt now, no easing that anger. It was doomed to consume them both, it seemed. 

Danny just hoped they were the only ones doomed by it. His eyes flickered to Colleen’s as Davos did, and he tensed at the words. Davos pointed at her, and Danny’s jaw tightened as he struggled to contain his anger. Davos didn’t want to take the Fist from Danny, it seemed… He was after Colleen’s. “You couldn’t even give her a fair fight,” he said quietly, and his eyes went back to the syringe. “Do I get one? Or do you know there’s no way you can win if you give me the chance?” He was back to goading now, back to desperately trying to keep Davos’s attention on him, even if it was a hopeless task. Davos brought Colleen here because of his hatred for Danny. His problems, once again, put her in danger. That seemed to be the norm for them now. Danny messed up and Colleen suffered, over and over again.

“And you never knew when you were beaten,” Danny shot back. They’d both had weaknesses back in K’un Lun, both had downfalls that made it necessary for Lei Kung to decide the winner of their final fight. Danny was incapable of making that killing blow, especially when the person on the other end of his fist was someone he loved. And Davos was incapable of yielding. A fight where the end results were yield or die became a lot more complicated when one person refused to kill and the other refused to yield, especially when they both refused to lose. 

Danny couldn’t argue with Davos’s point here, not when he knew his brother was right. Victor Graves had a wife. He had children, had people waiting for him at home. They’d be waiting forever now, just like Danny had been in that snow. Just like Davos had been at the gates of K’un Lun. Danny’s hands trembled when Davos spoke again, when he claimed that Danny should have let the Reaper kill Colleen. “I would never let anything happen to her,” he said. “I’d die before that.” And the implication there was clear. If Davos wanted to hurt Colleen now, if he wanted to kill her while she was unconscious on the floor, he was going to have to kill Danny first. And there was a part of Danny, in spite of everything, that still believed his brother wasn’t capable of that. That, after everything, Davos still cared enough for him to pull his punches at the last minute.

Of course, that didn’t mean Davos wouldn’t take advantage of Danny’s distraction. If Danny had been in a better frame of mind, if he wasn’t watching Lei Kung look at him like he was the world’s biggest disappointment, he would have seen it coming. But Davos had rattled him bringing up the Reaper as he had, and Danny didn’t realize the attack was coming until the wind was ripped from his lungs, and he gasped for breath as he stumbled backwards. Surging forward, he made an attempt to retaliate --- but it was clumsy. His mind was reeling and his lungs still hadn’t managed to refill themselves, and it showed in his attack. Lei Kung scoffed from his corner, and Danny wasn’t sure if the ache in his chest was a physical one or a purely psychological thing.

DAVOS: A fair fight? Was that what Danny really cared about? Davos hadn’t been given that opportunity at K’un-Lun, so why should he afford Danny that privilege now? Or did he really believe that his victory was sound? That and Colleen was Hand. They didn’t fight fair. The carnage that had been left on the disturbing path to their lost home was proof of that enough. They didn’t just murder his family, they destroyed his home. Tainted every inch of the sacred city. “You wouldn’t have won in the first place if---” Davos cut himself off but it didn’t matter. Danny had gotten the reaction he wanted. That fire burning in Davos’ veins. That outward frustration that he couldn't hide. Holding back his temper had never been one of his skills. That was the only thing that was on constant display. 

“She’s Hand.” The majority of them might have died at Midland Circle, but just because most of the cult was rooted out didn’t mean it was gone. Colleen was proof of that. Proof of how Danny had failed at the most basic job the Iron Fist was supposed to complete. “The Iron Fist isn’t supposed to give the Hand a chance.” To him, that was all it came down to. Colleen was the enemy, the worst kind, and Danny was supposed to protect K’un-Lun and now that it was gone, Danny had rusted. Turned into nothing but a shell of the weapon he was supposed to be. He didn’t have a purpose, he didn’t know how to apply the Fist in a meaningful way outside of what he had been told. 

And maybe Davos didn’t have those answers either, but at least he knew where he’d start. 

“You don’t deserve the honor of a fair fight,” he said in a low voice. Only pausing when Danny casually referenced how he didn’t know when he was beat. “That should have been the defining moment for my father,” he said. “You were too weak to kill me. I refused to yield because---” Davos was screaming at Danny now and he wasn’t sure when that had happened. But he stopped. Composed himself. Danny didn’t need to know why he didn’t yield. About how death was more honorable than limping out of that room with his mother telling him that he had failed her and their family in the worst sort of way. How he had brought great dishonor on his family. And how having no children, would have been better than having him. “You should have killed me.” His tone changed, it was calmer now. Somehow steady despite all the rage he was still feeling. 

The plan quickly changed. Davos had every intention of letting Danny sleep through the transfer of power from Colleen to himself, but now? Now he wanted to have Danny watch while he took everything from him. He wanted Danny to hear Colleen screaming for it to stop -- and he wanted to hear Danny begging for mercy. Maybe he would kill Colleen --- and then Ward. Leave Danny with nothing in the same way that Danny had left him with nothing. He wanted an even playing field? He wanted to meet as equals? Davos was going to make them equals through force. “No. You won’t,” Davos said, his gaze steady as he looked at Danny. 

As Danny stumbled backward from the blow, Davos threw the syringe and then grabbed Danny by the shirt, looking him in the eyes as his brother gasped for breath. Would he find it? Or would he continue to choke? Davos didn’t wait to find out -- he lit up the Fist again, holding it up so that Danny could see before shoving him on the ground and slamming it in the air in the direction of Danny’s leg, stopping the motion just short of actually touching his leg. He wanted to break it -- not blow it off. “You won’t die first,” he finally clarified before standing up and taking a step back from Danny.

DANNY: Danny knew Davos well enough to know when he was angry, and he was clearly seething now. His heart was pounding, stomach tightening at the memory of the last few times he and his brother had been in a place like this. Danny tied to a post, hazy and confused as Davos approached him almost gently before carving into him and draining him of blood like an animal at a slaughterhouse. Davos holding him by his shirt, pulling him in close so he could see the fury in his eyes before he flung him to the ground like garbage. It was funny --- before that moment, it had never occurred to Danny how much Davos was like Lei Kung. Right now, he could think of little else. Making Davos angry was terrifying, and it wasn’t smart… but it might keep his attention off Colleen just long enough to turn the tides. It might be enough to save her. 

“She’s not,” Danny insisted, gritting his teeth. “Not anymore. She hates them as much as you do. They lied to her, Davos. They twisted her mind when she was a child. It’s not her fault.” And maybe --- maybe it wasn’t Davos’s fault, either. Joy had told him once that what K’un Lun did to its children sounded a lot like abuse, Colleen had claimed he was just as brainwashed as she was. Danny had ten years with his biological family in New York before K’un Lun got a hold of him, but Davos… Davos didn’t even have that. Would he be kinder, Danny wondered, if anyone other than Danny himself had ever bothered to love him? Would they be here now if Priya weren’t so cold, or if Lei Kung weren’t so violent? 

Would they be here now if Danny had been a little better? If he’d found a way to love Davos more, could he alone have been enough?

Davos’s voice was low at first, but Danny felt the burning anger clearly enough to know it was going to grow louder long before it happened. It wasn’t long before Davos was shouting, and Danny wasn’t surprised. This was what he’d been after. “You refused to yield because you were arrogant,” Danny shot back. He didn’t mean it, but he needed Davos angry enough to make him sloppy. He needed him to make a mistake. But then Davos spoke, he said Danny should have killed him, and Danny felt a layer of his own anger melt away, felt grief take its place. “I wouldn’t,” he said softly, taking a hesitant step forward. “I would never do that, Davos. Not to you.” Davos had done terrible things, had hurt Colleen, had involved children in his vendetta, gotten people killed… but he was still Danny’s brother. If there was any chance he could turn this around, any possibility of them all walking out of here, he was going to take it. 

And maybe that was his weakness. Maybe Danny’s inability to let go of anyone he loved was always going to end with him gasping for breath, unable to find anything to hold onto. Maybe wearing his heart on his sleeve would end with it in pieces every time. Davos was moving in closer, and Danny knew he needed to regain his ground before Davos closed the space between them and put him to sleep before he could put up a fight. 

But… Davos wasn’t advancing with the syringe. Danny struggled to track his brother’s movements, brow furrowing as the syringe was tossed aside. Then there were hands on his shirt, holding him up just as they had the last time they’d met like this, when it had been Walker with the syringe and Danny had still been weakened from the ritual. Davos’s Fist entered into Danny’s line of vision and, for a moment, Danny wondered if this was it. If he’d misjudged Davos, if his brother would kill him after all, if he’d experience firsthand exactly what Victor Graves had felt when Danny crushed his chest beneath his knuckles.

Davos’s Fist didn’t swing at his chest, though. Instead, it moved towards his leg, and Danny let out a strangled cry the second he realized what was happening. For a moment, he was there and not there, his mind in two times at once. Months ago, it had been Walker on the ground as Colleen was now, and for a moment, Danny swore he saw a flash of the blonde in Colleen’s place. The rage in Davos’s eyes, though… That was the same. 

And the pain when his brother’s Fist stopped but the momentum of the air surrounding it didn’t? That was the same, too. 

The crack of Danny’s leg echoed through the warehouse, and his strangled scream joined in with the sound, so loud that he almost missed his brother’s next words. It took a moment for them to register through the pain and, desperate, Danny lashed out, attempting to grab Davos’s leg, to trip him up, to stop him. The movements were sloppy, each one sending a new wave of pain washing over him that caused his breath to catch in his throat. “No,” he choked out. ”No.”

DAVOS: He scoffed. Danny truly believed that she could leave that life behind her? That she would ever stop being, at her core, Hand? “Guilty by association.” The Hand’s influence was greater than he had realized at first, finding out that Colleen had friends at the hospital and how the young members were often taught how to get real jobs in the society? The whole city was poisoned and it didn’t even realize it. But Danny... he should have known better. He should have woken up when Colleen betrayed him the first time and yet, here he was, still trying to defend the fact she was more than the Hand. But she never would be. Just as Danny would never be more than a broken version of the Iron Fist. Danny was trying to bargain with facts. But the reality was clear to Davos. 

Danny had chances, opportunities that Davos had dreamed of -- had expected. Things that he had been told he had a right to since birth. And Danny stood before him, bargaining for the life of her. “I didn’t yield because dying for the Iron Fist would have been an honorable death -- and instead you gave me shame,” Davos roared. Danny didn’t understand that, did he? That living this life, on this path? That it had done nothing for Davos except highlighting the worst parts of himself. Looking in the mirror and knowing everything he had worked for was gone -- and that his family was dead? He was nothing. Less than nothing. And then Danny said it again -- that he’d never do that to him, and something about that infuriated him as much as the way he defended Colleen. “Coward,” he said between his teeth. “I would have given you that honor if you had asked for it.” The way Davos said it made it sound like there was honor it what he was saying. That he would have been proud to kill Danny in that fight, if it had come down to it.

Looking at Danny on the ground, the desperate look in his eyes, the way he said ‘no’ as Davos took a step away from him. It reminded him of how it felt to be on the ground. Robbed of the honor of death. Death now, it was a kindness that Davos wasn’t going to afford Danny. Danny wasn’t going to die before Colleen -- but he also wasn’t going to die by his hand either. No, what Davos had in mind for Danny was long term. He would have told Danny that he took no pleasure in this, and last time, he hadn’t. Last time this was about righting a wrong that had been done to him -- and this time... it was so much more. 

Davos wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and pulled his attention away from Danny. The Crane Sisters finally stepped forward and he held out his hand, last time he had them cut into Danny, but this, this was personal. With the sacramental dagger in hand, he pulled up Colleen’s shirt and put the blade against her stomach, pausing only for a moment when he saw a scar there -- like she had been cut before. But all he spared was a few seconds of thought on it, whatever had happened, it didn’t matter. He dug the blade into her stomach -- and she didn’t wake. He didn’t expect her too. The sedative that he had given her was strong enough that he was confident she wouldn't wake until the transfer began. 

The Crane Sisters collected some of Colleen’s blood and began to mix the substance. Davos moved so that his legs pinned her arms to the ground and drank the substance the moment the Crane Sisters were finished. No tattoos this time -- he only needed to connect their chi and the rest? The rest was this. Davos wrapped his hand around her throat and held her in place as he brought his hand up to her forehead. A few shorthand motions later, Davos pressed his thumb to the center of Colleen’s forehead. 

And as expected, her eyes flew open and she screamed. The sound was strangled -- his hand around her neck tightening as she struggled, he could feel her kicking her legs, trying to get away --- as if she hadn’t been sedated in the first place, but Davos’ expression didn’t change. This was ending tonight.

DANNY: Guilty by association. It was the same thing Davos had said when he’d attacked the community center, when Danny had pointed out that there were innocent people, innocent children inside. It was a reminder of just how far gone his brother was. Davos didn’t care that Colleen had been manipulated. He didn’t care that the Hand had gotten into her head, didn’t care that she was a child when they took her in and twisted her to her liking. He wouldn’t see parts of himself in her as Danny did, refused to acknowledge that there weren’t as many differences between the Hand and K’un Lun as they had originally thought and that… It broke Danny’s heart. It pained him. He ached for Davos, for Colleen, and maybe for himself a little, too, because they’d all had so many things ripped away from them. 

But Davos… Davos took that pain and he passed it on to everyone else. He didn’t cope with his emptiness --- he used it to carve into other people, to empty them out. He’d done it to Danny, and now he wanted to do it to Colleen. And Danny couldn’t let him. “She was the Hand’s victim just as much as we were,” he insisted. “Maybe even more. Don’t you get that? She helped me take them down. She killed members of the Hand to save me.” She’d killed her father to save Danny, and he couldn’t even stop his brother from doing all this, from drugging her and dragging her to the warehouse where he’d tortured Danny all those months ago. From getting ready to do it all again now.

Davos was angry, but Danny’s heart broke a little at his words. “I didn’t kill you because you’re my brother,” he said, emphasizing the last word with everything he had. “Because I love you.” He wasn’t sure if the words would give Davos pause or infuriate him more. Had he ever said them before? Had he ever found the courage to tell Davos he loved him? If he had, he didn’t remember it now. “That’s not what you said before,” he said quietly, referring to the conversation they’d had as children, the one Priya had cut short. If you were Iron Fist, Davos, and Daniel were Hand, you would strike him down without hesitation, she’d said, sounding disappointed that there had ever been an alternative in either of their minds. 

Maybe she’d been right. There was no hesitation in Davos’s movements when he struck Danny now, no pause before he moved away. He didn’t seem to regret leaving Danny on the ground, even as Danny gasped and whimpered through the pain. He moved back towards Colleen as if Danny wasn’t there at all, as if he no longer mattered, and Danny let out a strangled cry. He shifted on the ground, gritting his teeth against the pain. 

Shifting so that he was propped on his elbows, his broken leg laying useless behind him, he started the agonizing process of dragging himself over to Davos and Colleen, but it was slow. It was too slow. Davos was already on top of her, already cutting into her, and Danny cried out as if he was the one being sliced open. “Davos, please,” he begged quietly, letting out another pained gasp as he inched forward. “Please don’t do this. Not to her. Kill me. You can kill me, I won’t even --- I won’t stop you. Just leave her alone, please.”

It was useless, of course, Danny was only halfway across the floor when Davos pressed his thumb to Colleen’s forehead and her screams filled the room, and he let out another frustrated cry as he picked up his own pace. He was still moving slowly, he leg radiating pain with each movement, and he knew he’d never make it in time. ”Stop,” he begged. “Just take mine. Take my Fist, kill me, do whatever you need to do, but let her go. If --- If you ever cared about me at all, you’d let her go.”

DAVOS: A victim? Davos looked at Danny with furrowed brows. Did he honestly believe that? That this woman... was a victim of the Hand? His family was a victim of the Hand. They were murderers and Davos couldn’t pretend that this woman had nothing to do with that. Not in the same way that Danny could. How did they know the path was unprotected? How did they pick the perfect time to invade K’un-Lun? Because the Hand knew. And whether that was because of Colleen informing on Danny’s activities or the fact that Danny was haphazardly waving the Fist around in New York City. There was enough fault here for the both of them. “As long as she breathes, brother, the Hand lives.” 

I didn’t kill you because you are my brother. Davos looked at him with disgust. He still called Danny brother, still felt that connection towards him. Familial in a way that was impossible to forget -- but he wouldn’t have let that stop him from doing the honorable thing. And then there were four words that Davos hadn’t heard. From anyone. And for a second, Davos blanked. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say or do -- and these words, they weren’t the ones he wanted to hear from Danny. They were words he longed to hear from his mother mostly, his father? He knew he’d never hear that from him. But hearing it from Danny was like a slap in the face. Davos’ stomach turned and he clenched his jaw tightly. And then... Danny spoke about that conversation that they had that his mother had walked in on. The one that had earned him a whipping. “I have corrected my way of thinking. Something you are clearly incapable of doing.”

Hearing Danny beg for Davos to stop -- it didn’t even reach him. He was looking Colleen in the eyes and she was in pain -- he knew she was because this was what had happened to him the last time. Davos wondered if she’d feel just as empty and broken as he had afterward? Her body fought against him and he understood that too -- but there was an odd moment, when Danny was begging for Danny to take his life instead, to take the Fist from him, where Colleen’s expression changed and it felt... odd. Like she had stopped resisting. There was something in his eyes that confused him even more. Something like relief. Hearing Danny begging for death and Colleen giving up --- and those four words from before. 

Davos looked into her eyes as the light slowly faded from them, the glow vanishing and all that was left was her. He pulled his hand away from her forehead and the other from her neck, and he could see it in her eyes already -- that overwhelming exhaustion that he had felt when she had taken the last of the Fist from him. Her head rolled to the side and as he stood up, he saw her hand moving towards Danny -- like she was trying to reach out to him. And it disgusted him. 

“You are nothing to me,” he said in a whisper. Davos turned towards Danny and looked down at his brother as he held out his hand, waiting for one of the Crane Sisters to put the blade back into his hand. And as his fingers wrapped around the hilt of the weapon, he looked at Danny with an expression that was devoid of all emotion. Was it because he was feeling too much or nothing at all? Davos couldn’t put his finger on it. But looking at Danny, he was filled with rage anew. The Iron Fist didn’t barter the Fist away -- this was shameful. Disgusting. And Davos was going to remedy this. Davos got on the ground next to Danny and looked him in the eyes. “You are not worthy either, Daniel.”

DANNY: There was a sort of steadfastness to Davos’s beliefs, a stubborn inability to give up on them that Danny had once felt for himself. He remembered what Colleen had said back in Bakuto’s compound, when she was trying to convince him not to hate her. Every time someone mentions the Hand, you freak out. You run off to the docks, or to buildings filled with fighters without a second thought. Why? At the time, and for a long time afterwards, he’d thought that was all just Bakuto’s words moving through her, a last desperate effort to convince him to join the Hand, but… Maybe there’d been some truth to it. Danny would never trust the Hand, would never see them as anything but terrible, but thanks to Colleen, he was capable of understanding that not every member of the organization knew the whole truth. Davos wasn’t. Davos was still set in that steadfast belief, the idea that anyone who had ever associated with the Hand wasn’t someone worth saving. You’ve been brainwashed, Colleen had told him, and maybe that was true. Looking at Davos now, at the madness behind his fury, Danny realized that maybe she hadn’t been far off. “It’s not as simple as that,” he insisted desperately, wondering if there was anything he could say. It had taken falling in love with Colleen for Danny to realize the truth. What could he offer his brother to help him realize it now?

He couldn’t even comfort Davos with a reminder of what they were to one another. He said the word brother, and Davos looked at him like he’d insulted him. But there was a moment, a heartbeat after he told Davos he loved him where his brother seemed to freeze. There was a moment where he faltered, where something other than anger flickered across his face. Confusion, maybe, mixed in with grief. Danny wanted to say the words again, wanted to repeat them until Davos put down the knife and listened, but they caught in his throat. He thought of Lei Kung, of the violence with which he’d reacted to the phrase. Neither Danny nor Davos had been taught how to use the words, how to hear them. And that showed when Danny couldn’t bring himself to say them again, when Davos pulled the neutral mask back over his face and spoke of how he’d corrected his thinking in a way that made Danny’s heart sink. “They were wrong,” he said softly, though he wasn’t sure if he was speaking to himself or to Davos or to the still-present figure of Lei Kung standing over them both. “What they taught us was wrong.” 

Nothing he said had any effect on his brother now, none of his words seemed to reach him at all. Davos was set in his plan, Colleen’s screams filling the warehouse and cutting through Danny as sharply as the knife in his brother’s hands. He knew exactly what she was feeling now, had been there himself in this very room. Barely conscious, unaware of anything but the pain. Confused, anxious, desperate… But Colleen didn’t look desperate now. There was something in her face as the process neared its end, something Danny wasn’t sure how to place. She didn’t look broken, the way he’d felt when he lost the Fist. She didn’t look hopeless or afraid. She looked almost… thankful.

Unable to process it, Danny pushed it aside and continued his agonizing trek towards them, though he knew there was nothing to be done. The light of the chi’s transfer was already fading from Colleen’s eyes and into Davos’s, her head already lulling to the side as she fell unconscious from the exhaustion of it. Her hand fell out towards him, and Danny could almost brush his fingers against hers when Davos turned towards him again. 

A pit formed in Danny’s stomach as Davos held out his hand for the knife again, a sinking realization that his brother wasn’t finished. It wasn’t enough to take Colleen’s power --- he wanted Danny’s, too. He wanted to leave Danny just as he had the last time they’d been in this warehouse --- powerless, helpless. Unable to fight, unable to walk. And Danny’s heart pounded violently at the thought of it. You are nothing to me, Davos said, and Danny’s throat tightened. He looked… blank. As if there was nothing there, no trace of the boy Danny had stolen donkey carts with in K’un Lun.

Davos was down next to him then, knife in hand, and Danny… Danny was afraid. He was afraid of his brother in a way he had never been before, not even when he’d been drugged and confused and tied to a post. “Davos…” He said quietly, uncertainly. His eyes darted to Colleen, unconscious on the ground, to the knife in his brother’s hand, still dripping with her blood. Then his eyes darted off to the side, desperate for something to hold on to… and landed on the syringe his brother had discarded before. Still loaded with the drug he’d used on Colleen, the one he’d intended to use on Danny, and within reach. Shifting, Danny kept his movements subtle as he took it into his hand. He was in no shape to outmaneuver Davos through speed or force, but outwitting him through subtlety? Danny had always been capable of that. “What are you going to do?” He asked quietly, distracting Davos from the movements of his hands with the movements of his mouth. “You already have her Fist. Do you really think you’ll be able to take mine, too?” None of them knew how this worked, but Danny was confident one person couldn’t hold the chi of two.

DAVOS: It wasn’t that simple? Davos looked at Danny, baffled by his words. How was it not that simple? Had she not lied to him? Had she not lured Danny into the Hand compound under a ruse? Was it not her sensei that had cut into him as they were fleeing? She might have pressed that button to let them out of the compound, but how much of that was for show and how much of that was real? Davos was willing to bet that the feelings there were next to nonexistent. All Davos could see here is what Colleen had gained and what Danny had lost -- what K’un-Lun lost. Was that all it took for Danny to forgive murder? Manipulation? A little false empathy? Or was it the sex that had tarnished Danny’s judgment? What had made Danny so blind to the truth? “It is,” Davos said definitively. “The Hand is broken right now, wounded. But even the remaining shards can be dangerous if they’re left to regroup.” Davos barely paused before he added. “And she works at a community center... it’s the same as before, Daniel. She’s recruiting.” It was all so easy to see -- how was Danny so blind? 

Looking at Colleen’s unconscious body, Davos thought about what Danny had said. That his parents -- the other monks, their mentors, his family -- that they were wrong. They weren’t. Davos didn’t believe that they were. This was the exact thing he had been warned about. The dark temptations that Danny had given into, his mother had told him that he would be tested if he were ever the Iron Fist. That he would have to strike without hesitation and that any other route would only lead to his own ruin. “No,” he whispered, his eyes falling back on Danny’s broken body. “But you are.” Just because Danny was willing to forget everything they had been taught... didn’t mean that Davos was willing to do the same. This was a stain on the legacy of his home, of K’un-Lun, of his family. And he aimed to remove it completely. Obliterate it. Until the only thing left of the Hand was a stain in the shape of a person -- much like the one that was of Victor Graves just outside. And even that would eventually fade. Just like the memories of Danny and Colleen. 

He was breathless. Shaken by that look in her eyes. Davos had never thought that someone would want to be rid of that power --- and coming from the woman from the Hand? The one who he was certain was manipulating Danny for that very power... it was confusing. Unsettling in a way that made him confused. But he shook it off. This was how she got to Danny -- she distracted him. It had to be. Nothing else made sense anymore. 

When he was on the ground next to Danny, he looked in his eyes. Tried to find the answers -- why did he care so much about this woman? Why had he left K’un-Lun? When did he -- when did Davos stop being his brother? When did they stop being the kids that hid away with discarded scraps of paper left behind from the monks learning how to fold paper dragons? When did they stop being those kids and start being this. Was it that final duel where Danny refused to kill him, where Davos was forced to yield? Or was it after Danny didn’t come home in time to save K’un-Lun? There had been a brief time when he first arrived in New York where he thought that Danny could have just returned to K’un-Lun and everything would have gone back to the way it was.  

But was that realistic? 

Would his father allow Danny to come home without any sort of punishment? 

Maybe it was always going to end like this. 

Danny spoke and Davos refocused his attention on his brother. Looking into his dark eyes for, what he assumed, was going to be the last time. “I am going to try, Daniel,” he replied quietly, looking at the blade in his hand a long time. Thinking about it. Maybe he couldn’t have both -- maybe taking Danny’s Fist would kill him. But... he was okay with that. “I will take it and if my body cannot handle that power, then I will die. And the power of the Iron Fist will die with me. I will be the last,” Davos said finally. Davos looked at Danny with new purpose in his eyes, like if his life was ending now, if he took the Fist with him into the next life, that meant he had accomplished something tonight. Danny would no longer have the chance to taint the legacy. And Davos would have died an honorable death. “One of us will die tonight, Daniel,” he whispered. “But you will not have the Fist much longer. That is a responsibility --- an honor that you do not deserve. And I will relieve you of that.” Davos put the blade against Danny’s shirt and pushed it in slightly, not enough force to actually draw blood yet but the threat was there. There was a subtle hesitance in his movements, his body was whirling from the energy of what he had done to Colleen, and now it was trying to prepare for another dose. Could he do this? Could he take Danny’s fist and survive?

DANNY: In K’un Lun, the world was always set out for them in simple terms. Things were black or white, right or wrong, and there was never any sort of middle ground to speak of. There were only absolutes, only certainties. The monks were good and the Hand was bad. You were a weapon or you were a warrior. You lived or you died. You were with K’un Lun… or you were against them. Danny had believed it all just as adamantly as Davos back then, but when he’d come back to New York, things had shifted. He’d started to realize that the world, the real world wasn’t nearly as clear-cut as they’d been taught. Harold both helped him and hurt him. Ward was both his enemy and his friend. Colleen had been raised by a group of people they’d been taught was entirely corrupted, and yet she was one of the best people he’d ever known. The world didn’t operate in simple terms. It was a messy, complicated place… and Davos didn’t get it. “The Hand is gone, Davos,” Danny said quietly, and he knew how hard that was to accept. He knew exactly how jarring it was to have the thing you’d been fighting all your life suddenly up and vanish, knew what it was like to be staring at something solid one moment only to find your eyes on open sky the next. “It’s over. That fight is over. Colleen isn’t recruiting for them. They don’t exist anymore.” Their leaders were buried under Midland Circle, and their foot soldiers had scattered to find other wars to throw themselves into. All that remained now were the broken pieces --- pieces like Danny and Colleen. Pieces like Davos.

Danny ached for his brother suddenly, and he found himself wishing he had the strength to explain the world as it was. He wished he could open Davos’s eyes the way his eyes had been opened, wished he could make him understand that maybe, just maybe, the man who’d raised them both hadn’t had all the answers. That maybe their family hadn’t been entirely infallible, that maybe some of the things they’d been taught didn’t fit anywhere now that their home was gone. But the look in Davos’s eye as his gaze shifted from Danny to Colleen and back again, the quiet certainty in his voice when he whispered his denial… Danny wasn’t good with words. He couldn’t make Davos understand the things he scarcely understood himself, couldn’t single-handedly open his eyes when it had taken a combination of Colleen and Ward and Joy and Claire and Luke and Jessica and Matt and Karen to help him achieve the realization himself. He couldn’t convince Davos when he had just barely been convinced himself, when he still spent most days teetering between the uncomfortable truth and the simple lies. Danny shook his head in a tiny, desperate motion. “Look what they made us into,” he said. “Look how we turned out.” They’d been happy once, hadn’t they? A couple of kids who relied on each other, children who stirred up mischief and had each other’s backs. Brothers who loved one another. 

And what were they now? A pair of weapons so rusted that they tore themselves apart over and over again. A war that never stopped waging, a never-ending battle that tore apart everything in its path.

The two of them were a bomb full of shrapnel, and every time they went off, innocent people got hurt. People like Colleen, laying just out of reach and looking relieved as Davos pulled the power right out of her. Was that why she looked glad to be rid of it? Was she just happy to finally be out of the middle of their blast zone, elated to be a few feet farther from the explosion? When all this was over, assuming Davos let either of them live, would she really be okay planting herself back within Danny’s blast radius and waiting for someone else to come along and pull out his pin? 

His eyes stayed on Colleen’s until Davos’s face was between them, eyes searching his for something Danny wasn’t sure he’d find. Was he looking for some trace of the memories of what they’d been before they let themselves get twisted into whatever the mess they were now could be called? Was he looking for the boy he’d known in K’un Lun before he went into Shou-Lao’s cave, the one who Priya scolded for his compassion, the one Lei Kung beat for his emotion? At some point, Danny had changed, and he wasn’t sure it was the dragon that had done it. He wasn’t sure it was the Iron Fist, or that last fight between him and Davos. Part of him thought it might have come before all that, that some piece of him had been broken for years and he’d simply never known.

And he wasn’t the only one broken by K’un Lun. He’d always known as much, realized it during their last fight when Davos, refusing to yield, expected Danny to kill him instead. They’d been hollowed out, the both of them. They’d had parts of themselves stripped away until there was scarcely anything left. Danny was trying desperately to find himself again and he realized that Davos was doing the same. But where Danny found himself in the Defenders, Davos found himself in this. In the violence. Looking into his brother’s eyes now, Danny realized how close he had been to becoming this. In those early days, when all he’d wanted was to kill the Hand, or in the moment after he’d realized who was responsible for his parents’ deaths when, more than anything, he’d wanted to end Harold with his own hands. Would he have become like Davos if he’d pulled the trigger instead of Ward? 

And was there a chance he was still capable of this? Would the Reaper’s death be the match that lit that fuse? 

Danny shook his head as Davos spoke, closing his eyes for a moment. One of us will die tonight. There wasn’t a hint of doubt in his words, not a trace of hesitation to his tone. “You would really kill me?” His voice was small, and for a moment, he was a child in K’un Lun again, desperate to hear someone tell him he wasn’t expendable. What if I joined the Hand? Would you kill me? Those children had both been so sure of the answer, but now… Danny felt the soft pressure of the knife against his chest, and he opened his eyes slowly, looking down at it. The blade in Davos’s hand, the subtle hint of hesitation to his movements. Would you kill me? Was he pausing because he was afraid taking on too much power would kill him, or because he didn’t want to kill Danny after all?

Looking back up to Davos, he shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, “that I couldn’t help you. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better brother to you, that I couldn’t stop you from becoming this. I want to do better. I swear I’ll do better.” 

And then, as quickly as he could, he brought up the hand clutching the syringe and jabbed it into Davos’s arm, pushing down on the plunger with a quick, fluid movement.

DAVOS: The Hand wasn’t gone --- Davos could never believe that. Not when K’un-Lun was in ruins. Not when everyone he had ever considered family was dead or -- or now dying. Danny was the last remaining piece of K’un-Lun, the last remaining bit of what he had considered family. And Davos was going to be the one to end it. “As long as people like her--” he pointed at Colleen, “Still live, the Hand will always be present. It is not an idea that you can snuff out by filling it with your own.” Davos stopped suddenly. The look in his eyes changed and it was clear that he wasn’t going to try and convince Danny anymore. His former brother was too far gone. He’d never understand the battle they were facing. Danny was in too deep with the Hand to understand what was happening here.

Danny was so easily convinced that the battle was over, and Davos wondered what that felt like. To be able to turn his back on everything he knew and act like it was over? That things would be fine -- that the battle they had been fighting for centuries was over. What did that feel like? Was there relief in it? Happiness? Sadness? Or was Danny just as lost as Davos felt? If there was no Hand, no K’un-Lun, if it was all truly over -- what was his purpose? Who was Davos without those things? Who was the Iron Fist without those things? And would there ever be another Iron Fist after them? Or was this it? Did the legacy of the Iron Fist -- of K’un-Lun -- of the Hand -- did it die with them? Would that be tonight? 

Look what they made us into. Look how we turned out. Davos tensed. He had only known one life, only known the path he was on -- the one that he had carved out at K’un-Lun -- and thinking that his life could have been different if he hadn’t been born there, or if he had a chance to see the outside world -- that didn’t matter. Wishful thinking would get him nowhere. He’d never hear his father or mother say that they loved him and after Danny took the Iron Fist, Davos had all but accepted that he’d never make them proud either. The only thing he could do was try and honor them in death. So, if he died when he ripped the Fist from Danny’s body, then so be it. “Don’t you dare speak of them like that,” Davos snarled. “Without them, you’d be dead on that mountain. Frozen to death. You’re ungrateful -- you --” Davos took a breath and put a hand over his mouth, stopping himself from falling into a rant about how Danny didn’t deserve the kindness his parents had shown him. “You didn’t deserve them,” he finally whispered. Finding a calm in his rage. 

Davos looked into Danny’s eyes at the question, shaking his head slightly at the question -- as if he was saying that no -- he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. “Without hesitation.” There was firm confidence in his voice, but in his heart? He wasn’t so sure. The blade he held against Danny -- he had hesitated. Tried to think of another solution to this problem that didn’t end with one of them dead. But... if Danny was left with the Fist? If he was left alive then there was a chance this would all repeat again. He had to break Danny, completely this time. 

The apology that Danny whispered was... odd. Davos felt his grip on the blade soften as he tried to process what Danny was saying. After all this... he still thought they’d both walk away from this? He thought they’d ever be brothers again? No -- no this had to be a pathetic attempt to beg for his life. To say that they had a future, that there was a path beyond this moment that included the two of them. But that was impossible. “You---” but the words stalled in his voice when Danny’s hand came down and stabbed him in the arm. He tore his arm out of Danny’s grasp, pushing Danny away violently before pulling the syringe out of his arm. 

“That...” Davos could already feel it -- the dose had been aggressive because Davos hadn’t wanted Danny waking up prematurely. But not looking at the empty syringe on the ground... he realized his mistake. He had been reckless. Foolish. Davos put the heel of his hand on his forehead and shook it violently as he tried to stay awake. Aware. “That was a mistake,” Davos finally mumbled out, his words coming out slurred. Davos backed into a pillar and tried to keep himself upright, but his legs gave out quickly after that. 

He couldn’t lose here. 

He couldn’t. 

Davos fumbled on the ground for his blade, but his vision was already blurring. He slammed his hand onto the top of his head, trying to keep himself awake -- trying to replace the fading feeling in his body with pain so that he could stay awake. The rest of his body started failing, his eyes closed and he found himself lying on his back on the ground. “You should have killed me.” His words were faint, and a few seconds later, his body went slack. 

DANNY: All their lives, Danny and Davos had been weapons with a singular purpose. Everything they trained for, everything they were burned in Danny’s hand, just under the surface, in Davos’s fist as it glowed red. They weren’t warriors, weren’t people. They were things, the both of them, swords sharpened to a point so fine that no one could touch them without coming away bloody. And all their lives, they’d had something to aim for. Even after their fight in K’un Lun, after Danny faced the dragon and Davos found him at the mouth of the cave when it was over, they’d had a united purpose. They’d had something to fight against. With that gone… What was left? What were they? What was the point of a weapon without a target? Danny understood Davos’s need for the battle to continue. He understood why his brother clung so desperately to the idea that the Hand wasn’t gone because he’d been there himself. After Midland Circle, he’d been so lost. He’d needed something to fight, needed something to do, and he hadn’t known how to cope with that. 

It had been Colleen who found him then, Colleen who pulled him back into himself. He glanced to her now, quietly studied her slackened features as she lay unconscious on the floor. “She’s not what you think she is,” he said, looking back to Davos at last. “I’m not, either.” Whatever Davos remembered him being, Danny knew he was no longer it. He also didn’t think he was whatever his brother had built him into up in his head. Something crossed over Davos’s face suddenly, and Danny’s heart clenched painfully in his face because he recognized that expression. He’d seen it etched onto Lei Kung’s face once, when after a thousand lessons on how to push his emotions away, Danny still woke up crying. He’d seen it on Priya’s face when she walked in on Danny’s conversation with Davos, when he said he didn’t know if he could bring himself to kill his enemies. It was the look on Bakuto’s face when he came in to find Danny smashing every computer he could see in the basement of the Hand’s compound, the look on Harold’s face when Danny refused to kill him… It was the expression of someone who’d given up on him. And seeing it on Davos? It hurt more than he’d anticipated.

Davos spoke again and, for a moment, Danny was standing in the rain with Bakuto’s body a few feet away. K’un Lun would have been better off if Chodak and Tashi had never found you. The thought cut just as deep now as the words had then. More, even, because now? Now, Danny knew it was true. “They saved my life,” Danny agreed. “I’m not denying that. They made me who I am, but that doesn’t --- That doesn’t mean they were infallible. That doesn’t mean they were always right. Davos, they --- They beat us. We were little kids, and they beat us.” He remembered his discussion with Colleen. They saved your life and that gives them a pass for all the other horrible shit they did to you? At the time, he’d adamantly denied it, but… Maybe she’d had a point. Maybe the good they’d done couldn’t erase the bad. Maybe someone could save you and still abuse you. He winced at Davos’s words. You didn’t deserve them. He’d said as much to Colleen, insisted that they’d deserved more than him. They hadn’t been the best, but… Danny still abandoned them. He still left them to die. “I know,” he said quietly. “I know I didn’t.”

Without hesitation. Danny flinched at the words as if Davos had struck him. His voice was steady, even. There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in it and, with his eyes squeezed tightly shut, Danny couldn’t tell if that hint of hesitation was still reflected across his brother’s face. He didn’t think it mattered. They’d been taught to push through hesitation, to do away with doubt. If Davos said he’d kill him, Danny was fairly certain he’d do it. He swallowed, throat tightening, and shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. He wanted to call Davos a liar, wanted to deny the claim and insist that he didn’t mean it, but how could he? There was a knife pressed against him, his leg lay useless behind him, and the woman he loved was unconscious on the floor. Davos had proven what he was willing to do, how far he was willing to go. Maybe it was time for Danny to accept that. 

But it wasn’t time for him to let it happen. If it had just been him in that warehouse, he might have felt differently. With the crushing weight of all of it, with the Reaper’s blood staining the ground outside and Davos’s words ringing in his mind, Danny might not have gone for that syringe if Colleen weren’t laying helpless a few feet away. It was a terrible thing to admit, but… If he wasn’t so worried about what his brother would do to Colleen when it was over, Danny might have let Davos end things his way. His chest ached with the realization that Davos was willing to do it at all, and giving up… Giving up was tempting. But it wasn’t an option. It couldn’t be. 

So Danny picked up the syringe and he used it.

He fell backwards as Davos shoved him, a sharp pain shooting through him as the movement jostled his injured leg. Danny let out a hoarse yell as the pain washed over him, clenching his teeth and taking a few gasping breaths around the pain. By the time he opened his eyes again, by the time he looked back at his brother, the drug was already taking effect. That was a mistake, Davos told him, and again, Danny’s mind went back to that night in the rain, to the first time things came to blows between them. There will be consequences for this, brother. And Danny knew. He knew. 

Danny watched as Davos fell to the ground, held his breath as he tried to fight to stay awake. In the end, it was impossible to fight against the drugs. Danny knew that better than anyone. His body started to slacken, and Danny thought he was already unconscious when his voice came again, a quiet whisper between them in the warehouse. Danny shook his head. “I couldn’t,” he said quietly. “You’re my brother.” But Davos was already out. 

For a moment, Danny felt crushingly alone. He hadn’t managed to sit back up after Davos shoved him, his back flat against the warehouse floor, and for a moment, he just… laid there. His leg ached so badly that he felt dizzy, and it was tempting to close his eyes and just let himself float away on it, to join Colleen and Davos in unconsciousness, but he couldn’t. He didn’t know how long the drug keeping Davos would under, and if he woke up before Colleen did, if he found both her and Danny unconscious… He’d made it perfectly clear what he’d do.

Danny drew in a shuddering death, exhaling with something caught halfway between a whimper and a sob and pushed himself forward to close the remaining distance between himself and Colleen. Propping himself up with a pained grunt, he made himself sit up as much as he could before putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a gentle shake. “Colleen,” he said, her name falling from his lips like a prayer. His voice was quiet, as if he was afraid of waking Davos from his drug-induced slumber. “Colleen, please. You need to wake up.” You need to be okay, he added silently, because there was blood on her stomach, and it was still bleeding sluggishly. 

Danny’s mind caught up with that fact, and he maneuvered his uninjured leg to Davos, scooted the discarded knife back towards him between pained gasps. When it was in his hand, he used it to cut through his own shirt, using the material to press against her wound. “Please be okay,” he whispered, giving her another gentle shake. “Please wake up. I can’t --- I can’t do this by myself.”

COLLEEN: All Colleen could remember was Davos, pinning her to the ground and taking the Fist back. All she could remember was his eyes glowing and the burning pain in her veins. But before she had fallen unconscious, she had seen Danny on the ground. Was that real? Or was her mind trying to give her some comfort for her last memories -- because these would be her last? Wouldn’t they. Davos was going to kill her and she was too exhausted, too broken to do anything about it. She had heard his voice too but... that also sounded so distant. Like a dream. A wish. 

But it was also so cruel to wish for him to be there with her. But she wanted the last time she saw Danny to be real. When her eyes closed, there was no peace for her. No lights. Nothing to suggest that she was dead -- and yet, at the same time, the nothingness was worse. Was this it? Was she going to exist for the rest of eternity in a void of emptiness? Colleen didn’t get her life flashing before her eyes. She didn’t get to relive the best moments of her life -- and she didn’t get to say goodbye. When it was all said and done, was this what she deserved? She had killed Bakuto. She had recruited those children into the Hand and they had died because she had guided them down the path of the Hand. 

Nothing she could ever do would make up for all the bodies in her past. For all the blood that ultimately laid at her feet. But then the knife dug deeper into her soul and she heard her name being whispered in Danny’s voice. Like the universe was taunting her. Tormenting her with the one thing -- the one person she left behind to deal with all the misery that had piled up at their doors. I’m sorry, Danny. That’s what she wanted to say -- what she wanted to scream into the void but no matter how she tried, she couldn’t say anything. Couldn’t do anything. She was drifting in a void and all she had now was Danny’s voice pleading with her. You need to wake up. Was this the torment? That she’d be given false hope that she was alive by a specter of Danny? 

Even in death, she wasn’t allowed peace. 

But then she felt something. Colleen’s eyes flew open as she let out a strangled sound of pain. The warehouse ceiling came into focus as Colleen started to gasp for breath. She wasn’t dead? No -- but she was in pain. 

Colleen tried to sit up but the second she moved her stomach, another wave of pain came over her and she was flat on her back again. Who was touching her? Colleen looked around in a panic and when she saw Danny’s face -- she shook her head. He couldn't be here -- Davos was going to -- “Danny,” Colleen’s voice came out as a whimper. “You have to leave -- Davos -- he’s, he--” Colleen reached up and touched his face, but she could barely feel him there. Was he even real? 

She was panicked and scared -- and with each beat of her heart, it hurt more. Colleen ran her thumb across his cheek as she stared into his eyes, trying to decide if what she was seeing and feeling was real or just another cruel joke. Colleen looked down at her stomach -- where the source of all the pain was, and saw Danny’s hand there, applying pressure. “How...” Colleen felt so weak. Her head rolled to the side and she looked at as much of Danny as she could see while her hand slowly dropped from his face. “How bad is it?”

DANNY: For a heartstopping moment, Danny was terrified that Colleen wasn’t going to wake up. That Davos had cut too deep, that that relief in her eyes hadn’t been about losing the Fist but about everything being over. She was breathing, her heart was beating, but her eyes were closed and Danny was petrified. What would he do then? If she didn’t wake up, if he was alone, if he lost her? He wouldn’t know how to cope with that, how to live. He wouldn’t know how to function. 

But then, there was a pained huff of air escaping her lips and her eyelids fluttered, and the relief that washed over him was so heavy that it nearly knocked the air right out of his lungs. Danny shifted, moved his hand from her shoulder down to link their fingers together absentmindedly as she woke. “Hey,” he said quietly as she opened her eyes, and just the sound of Davos’s name on her lips was enough to make him flinch. “It’s okay,” he said softly, nodding over to the wall where Davos was slumped. “He’s… I knocked him out. There was a syringe, and he --- He’s unconscious.” He was stammering, mouth moving faster than his mind and, truth be told, Danny was barely clinging to consciousness himself. His leg ached, and black dots danced around the edge of his vision. Now that the immediate threat was over and his adrenaline was fading, he could feel it more intensely, and it was tempting to just… close his eyes. But they weren’t finished here. Not yet.

Looking back to Colleen, Danny paled at the expression on her face. She was obviously in pain, and there was so much blood. The immediate threat was over, but… Neither of them was really out of the woods. Not yet. “It… It’s not good,” he said quietly, almost as if it hurt him to admit it. It did, in a way. She was on the ground, she was hurt, she was bleeding, and it was his brother who’d put her there. It was his fault. If he’d taken Davos more seriously, if he hadn’t let himself get distracted by the Reaper, if he hadn’t let his grief do the driving, if he hadn’t failed Davos to begin with, none of this would have happened. They could have avoided all of it. 

“He took the Fist,” he continued, realizing he’d been quiet a beat too long. He wasn’t sure if she’d remember what happened or not, wasn’t sure she’d know why they were here. “The --- The ritual. He did the ritual on you. He tried to do it on me, too, but I… I don’t even know if it would have worked. I don’t even know if he would have survived it.” There was the other nagging thought, too, the thing that he wasn’t quite ready to say aloud --- the fact that, whether Davos would have survived the transfer or not, it had been his intention to ensure that Danny wouldn’t. Danny shook his head to chase the thought away, clearing his throat and looking back to Colleen. “Can you get up? Can you move? The Crane Sisters are still here. I have the bowl and…” He trailed off, looking down at the knife he’d used to cut his shirt and staring at it for a moment, remembering how Davos had pressed it against him, prepared to deliver the final blow. Without hesitation, he’d said. The words repeated through Danny’s skull now.

He always was stronger than you, Lei Kung cut in, and Danny glanced up to see him standing next to where Davos was slumped against the wall, back to Danny as he studied his biological son. You should have let him do it, you know. Danny shook his head again, pulling his hand from Colleen’s to rub at his eyes with the palm of his hand. “No,” he said softly, squeezing his eyes shut briefly before looking back down at Colleen. “You have to take it back,” he told her, nodding back over to Davos. “The Fist. I --- I think I know why it was failing, before. He said he got his back in the Raft. When mine came back, it must have destabilized yours, but if you take it back now, it’ll work.” He had no idea if that was true or not but, god, what was the alternative?

COLLEEN: Davos was unconscious. Colleen wished that made her feel better, but all that meant was that he wasn’t going to attack Danny now. The present danger was gone but... when he woke up? Colleen looked into Danny’s eyes again, but it was hard to focus -- it felt like everything was so far away. Even his fingers intertwining with hers felt distant. “Danny,” she murmured his name again, looking at him carefully. It was hard to place his expression, hard for her to get a good read on him while she was trying to stay conscious. But she knew something was wrong -- something must have happened while she was unconscious. “Danny, what did he do to you?” She gripped his hand weakly, she could barely feel him there, but even that faint touch felt good.

Colleen used her other hand to touch her stomach where she was bleeding, feeling the wound for herself breathlessly. The cut that Bakuto had left her with was superficial in comparison, the way Davos had cut into her -- he had done more damage than needed to get what he wanted. Lifting her hand, she looked at the blood on her fingers and let out a shaky breath. “I -- I think...” She closed her eyes again but quickly forced them back open. They needed to get to a hospital and fast -- but just as the words started to form, Danny spoke again.

The Fist.

She winced at the words. She remembered that much -- the burning sensation in her body as it transferred to Davos. She remembered screaming -- and she remembered seeing Danny. Had he watched? Had he heard her? That upset her, knowing that Danny had seen her like that and was seeing her like this now. “He -- he tried to take yours?” Colleen didn’t know the rules of the Iron Fist and knowing how little K’un-Lun had told Danny about the power it held (such as the ability to heal people), she wasn’t sure if Danny knew the full scope of the Fist either. Could Davos hold both? Or would he have been torn apart in the attempt? He had been the first of them to be able to channel the Fist into both hands, so maybe he could. Davos with two Fists was terrifying on its own -- but if he had the chi of two people? What would have happened?

He failed. Colleen had to remember that. Ultimately, Davos had failed. Colleen rotated her body as best she could, hissing in pain as she tried to force herself into a sitting position. “Danny---” Colleen tried to catch her breath, looking at him like he had just knocked the wind out of her lungs. He wanted her to try and take it back? It made sense. It did. Her body was weak and every part of her ached but she could take it back. She should take it back. But the thought of doing this all over again made her hands tremble. How could she tell Danny she didn’t want this? How could she tell him that she felt that rage building inside of her all the time, that she felt like she had to fight? And now that the power was gone -- she felt liberated.

“What are you looking at?” She asked in a whisper. Danny said no and then rubbed his eyes -- did he see something? Colleen was mostly upright now, swaying, but she was up. And aware enough to see Danny’s leg. Her mouth fell open and she reached for him, about to ask him if Davos had done this to him when Danny urged her again about the Fist. Slowly, she shook her head. “No.” Colleen had reasons but she didn’t voice a single one. She didn’t want to argue the pros and cons of each with Danny -- she didn’t want this. Not again. Her shoulders slumped slightly after she spoke. “There has to be another way,” Colleen said in a whisper. “And... and we need to call Misty.” They were far past the part where they needed to ask for forgiveness, Misty was going to show up and tear into both of them for their recklessness -- but Misty was the only other person in town who had dealt with Davos before. Maybe she’d have a plan.

DANNY: In K’un Lun, Danny got good at masking his pain. Pain was a weakness, and showing it? Letting your enemies know that their blows had landed? That was hardly the mark of a good weapon. The pain in his leg was excruciating, but Danny pushed it down with the same desperation with which he pushed down his emotions. He’d had worse, after all. He’d broken bones before, he’d broken his leg before. This was nothing. But… Something must have shown on his face, because Colleen caught it. He looked away at the question, keeping his eyes on the wound he was applying firm pressure to and shaking his head. “It’s nothing,” he said quietly. “I’m fine. I’m just worried about you.” 

It wasn’t entirely untrue. He was worried about Colleen, so much so that he could hardly focus on anything else. Davos hadn’t needed to do as much damage as he had, but… He’d never been particularly good with control. Danny remembered how he’d felt after the ritual, remembered coughing up blood in Ryhno’s hideout and realizing with a sudden certainty that he was going to die there. He pushed the dread that came with that memory away. This was different. He was going to get Colleen help, and she was going to be fine. They were all going to be fine. “Hey, hey, no,” he said desperately when her eyes slipped shut. “Please stay awake, please. I can’t --- I need you to stay awake.”

She winced, and Danny wasn’t sure if it was from the pain she was in now or the memory of what Davos had done or both. A surge of guilt rushed through him, and he looked away again, unable to meet her eyes. He nodded at the question, swallowing and pretending not to notice the tightness of emotion in his throat. “Yeah. He said…” He paused, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment and pushing the emotion down, shoving it into the pit in his stomach just as he’d learned to do in K’un Lun. When he spoke again, it sounded almost robotic, more distant. “He didn’t care if he died. He just wanted to make sure I didn’t keep the Fist. He was going to kill me to take it.” His voice broke a little on the last word, and he cleared his throat to cover it. Pathetic, Lei Kung muttered from where he stood, and Danny did his best not to flinch. 

Colleen moved under his hands, and Danny looked down at her, shaking his head. “Careful,” he muttered, helping her sit up as best he could without jostling his own injuries. His jaw tightened as he tried to keep the pain from showing on his face. It wouldn’t matter in the long run, of course. Eventually, Colleen would realize he was hurt, too. Would she remember those brief moments of consciousness, remember Danny crawling towards her like an insect waiting to be crushed beneath a boot? Would she remember how he’d begged Davos to kill him? Would she remember how he’d failed her? It was selfish, but Danny hoped she wouldn’t. Lei Kung was right… every move he’d made tonight, every attempt he’d made to stop this? It had been pathetic.

What are you looking at? Colleen’s question brought his eyes back to hers, a note of quiet guilt behind them. “Nothing,” he said quietly, shaking his head. “I was just… making sure he’s still asleep.” Her eyes moved to his leg, and Danny tried to shift to block it from her view. The movement sent a jolt of pain through him, and he let out a quiet grunt of pain. The spots dancing in front of his vision got a little bigger, and he shook his head hard to chase them away… just in time to hear Colleen tell him no. “We don’t have to move,” he said quickly, wondering if the pain of her injuries was what was stopping her. “The Crane Sisters can drag him over to us. We’ll do the ritual, and then we can…” But he trailed off, the rest of what she’d said catching up to him. He remembered that relief washing over her face, the moment of elation she’d seemed to experience when she realized she was losing the Fist. 

She doesn’t want the Iron Fist, Lei Kung said, turning to face Danny and walking towards him with his hands clasped together behind his back. And you’ve never been much without it, have you? Tell me, if she has no interest in the Fist, do you truly believe Danny Rand will be enough for her? Danny bit his tongue to keep himself from responding, eyes darting up to the hallucination quickly and staying there for a heartbeat before he tore his gaze away to look back to Colleen. “Okay,” he said quietly. “Call Misty. I’ll do the ritual.”

COLLEEN: He was deflecting. Colleen’s mind might have been flooded with pain -- but Danny’s tone? She’d recognize that anywhere. Like when she came home and they argued and he’d change the subject, normally it was to something that he knew she was interested in, but here? There was nothing for him to deflect to, no way to push this conversation in another direction when she was bleeding out on the floor and Davos was unconscious only a few feet away from them.”Please... please don’t lie to me.” Not here. Not now. She wanted to beg him for at least a small ounce of truth -- but would he listen? Did he think he was protecting her by hiding whatever had happened? (Probably, but she didn’t want to be protected. Not right now.) 

It felt good to close her eyes -- but hearing Danny’s desperate voice telling her to stay awake... she forced her eyes open again. “I’m... I’m awake,” she whispered. Keeping her eyes open felt harder than anything she had done before, each time she blinked her body wanted to keep her eyes closed. It was begging her to rest. But she knew that if she closed her eyes again, there was a good chance that she’d never open them again. She had to keep fighting, no matter how much it hurt. “I’m still here.” 

He was going to kill me to take it. Her stomach flipped as she remembered a flicker of Danny on the floor, crawling towards her and begging for Davos to do to him what he had done to Colleen instead. Was that real? Or had she imagined that? “Danny --- I -- I’m sorry,” she whispered. Colleen had never been a fan of Davos and that hadn’t been a secret, but Davos was important to Danny. They were brothers. She knew how much Davos meant to him... and she also knew what it felt like to be nearly murdered by someone you cared about. Colleen hadn’t realized that Bakuto was willing to kill her until it was too late -- and she remembered how broken she had been immediately after that. 

Danny wasn’t looking at Davos, that much Colleen knew. Davos was on the ground and Danny was looking up. Colleen clenched her teeth as she stabilized herself, but she couldn’t stay upright long. She fell onto her elbows and leaned towards Danny, putting her head on his chest as she caught her breath. “Danny, what did he do to you?” Her voice broke at the end -- because she knew where this was going to lead. Them both in the hospital, Danny undergoing anesthesia again because if Davos did what he did last time, Danny was going to need his leg completely rebuilt. He’d have to do physical therapy again and that nearly broke him last time. And ultimately, it had broken them. 

The Crane Sisters. The bowl. Colleen didn’t want to think about those things. She would be happy to leave Davos on the ground here and forget he ever existed but that would have been reckless and foolish. Colleen looked up at Danny and kept shaking her head -- feeling a small blip of relief when he said okay -- only for it to be immediately replaced with dread. “No,” Colleen said desperately. “Danny -- Danny, no, you can’t.” Colleen brought her hand up and placed it on his shoulder and then slowly moved it to the back of his neck as she put her head back on his chest. “Danny,” she whispered his name again. “You can’t do this. You don’t get to leave me like this.” Colleen couldn’t physically stop him, not if the Crane Sisters were going to help him and not if he was as determined to do this as he seemed. 

Her hand finally dropped away from him and Colleen tried to figure out what to say, how to convince him to stop this madness. But then she remembered being tied to that wheelchair and looking at Bakuto, knowing that he wasn’t going to spare her from death. That he was willing to kill her for what he perceived as an unforgivable betrayal. She remembered that her students -- the kids that she had recruited into the Hand were the ones that were going to do it too, and how quick they were to turn on her. And when she came out of the compound, she swung at Danny and told him to kill her. He must have been feeling the same thing that she had felt that night. Was he stuck on this ritual because he didn’t want Davos to come back later and hurt them again? Or had Davos pushed him so far that he didn’t believe he had anything left. 

Colleen was quiet for too long, and when she finally spoke, her voice trembled. “I thought we were going to stop destroying everything.”

DANNY: Deflecting attention away from his own issues was not a new thing for Danny. It wasn’t a new thing for him to do with Colleen, either. He remembered back in the weeks immediately following Midland Circle, when he didn’t get home until she was waking up. He’d asked her about her own problems, asked her about what she was investigating to keep her from digging too deeply into what he was doing. He’d done it on the plane, too, on the way back to New York when he’d woken from a nightmare and she’d begged him to tell her what was going through his mind. There was guilt in it now, just as there had been then, and he averted his eyes again as she begged him not to lie to her. “I’ll be fine,” he said quietly. Future tense. It was true. Eventually, he’d be fine because he had to be. Because the alternative wasn’t an option. No one kept a weapon around after it had been broken, after all. 

Falling apart… It wasn’t an option. Not now, not while there was still a battle to be won. Davos was unconscious, but he wouldn’t stay that way indefinitely and with Colleen’s Fist in his hand, neither Danny nor Colleen was capable of beating him. Not as they were now. He needed to keep Colleen awake, needed to get the Fist back from Davos, needed to call Misty to take care of the rest. “Good,” he said quietly when she opened her eyes. “Just stay with me. Please, stay with me.”

He nodded as she spoke, trying to shove that emotion down, trying to get rid of it. That grief is a weakness. Banish it. Letting himself feel what had just happened, letting himself think about how willing his brother had been to kill him… It would ruin him. If he let himself feel those things, Danny would choke on them. He couldn’t afford to do that now. He brought the hand not applying pressure to her wound up to his head, ran it across his face with a sigh. He was faintly aware that it left a trail of blood smudged on his forehead, knew that it was Colleen’s blood, but he couldn’t let himself focus on that, either. “It’s okay,” he said, robotic tone firmly back in place. “I’m okay. We just have to focus on getting you out of here.” 

That was Danny’s priority now. Not Lei Kung staring at him in disappointment, not the pain radiating from his injured leg, not even Davos slumped against the wall. Colleen was the most important thing right now. Saving her, making sure she was okay… That was all that mattered. He looked back to her now, heart sinking at the question. She knew the answer. He knew she knew the answer. It was written all over her face, reflected in the horror in her eyes and the pain in her voice. “I was goading him. I thought if I could keep his attention on me, I could stall him. He didn’t ---” He didn’t mean it. The words died on his tongue, because even now, his first instinct was to defend Davos. There was still a part of him that wanted to defend Davos, to claim that it was just his temper getting the best of him. Davos had always been like that, always had a short fuse. “He used the Fist,” he said quietly, but it wasn’t a necessary explanation. Colleen knew that already. Davos had never been particularly conservative when using the Fist.

That was why they couldn’t leave it with him. Colleen didn’t want it, and Danny wasn’t sure he blamed her, but Davos? Davos couldn’t have it. If there was a chance Danny could take it back from him peacefully, a chance he could render his brother relatively harmless, shouldn’t he take it? And if what he’d warned Davos about was the truth, if one person couldn’t contain that amount of power… Would that really be the worst thing? If Danny tried to take the Fist and the power overwhelmed him, if the Iron Fist died in this warehouse tonight with him, would that be so bad? It would mean an end to this vicious cycle. It would mean some semblance of peace for Colleen, for Davos. And that --- That would be worth it. 

But then Colleen spoke, a wild desperation in her tone, her hand on the back of his neck as she pulled them closer together. His chest ached, and he shook his head slightly even as Lei Kung scoffed behind him. What was it Ward said? You’re a cancer, Danny. You aren’t doing her any favors like this. “This is my fault,” he said quietly, something broken in his tone. “All of it. Davos… He’s not wrong to be angry. I abandoned him, I left him alone, and I --- His home is gone because of me. It’s my fault he’s like this, Colleen, and he hurt you, and...” And he’d been willing to go further. Danny was under no illusion as to what Davos would have done when he was finished with him. He’d been prepared to carve the Fist out of Danny and kill him in the process, and when he was finished? He wouldn’t have left Colleen alive. Davos would have killed her for Danny’s mistakes. He would have left her to rot because of what Danny had done.

For a while, there was silence, and Danny was terrified she’d passed out again. But her eyes were open when he glanced up to meet them, and before he could say anything else, before he could ask if she was okay, she spoke again and it was like a punch to the gut. He remembered finding her outside the compound, after Bakuto tried to kill her. Light up your damn Fist and destroy me. It broke his heart then, and he remembered the desperation he’d felt when he pulled her in close. We have to stop destroying everything. 

It was so much easier said than done. 

Danny was quiet for a moment, breath coming out in quiet gasps that had less to do with the pain in his leg than he was willing to admit. “We have to do something,” he said quietly. “He has a Fist, Colleen. And --- And the Raft isn’t an option anymore. If we put him in a regular prison, he’ll break out. He’ll punch through the walls, just like I did at…” He trailed off, realization hitting him suddenly as he looked back to Davos, still unconscious against the wall. Drugged. Harmless. “Birch,” he finished in a whisper, looking back to Colleen. “We could… We could put him in Birch.”

COLLEEN: He said it again and, again, Colleen didn’t believe him. But he did say that he’d be fine, and she knew, at some point in the future that might be true. How long would it take them to get there? Someone else would have called Danny out on it, made him talk about the right now -- make him say exactly what was on his mind and confess what he was hiding. Colleen didn’t. She didn’t have the strength to. She had the worry and the heaviness in her heart. But she couldn’t bring herself to push him again. Not given their current circumstances. Would she forget this? His avoidance? No. But right now she had to pick her battles and do her best to make sure he was fine in the future. “You’ll be fine,” she replied in a whisper. Her words stronger, she was making him a promise. He was going to be fine. And Colleen was going to make sure of that. 

The sound of his voice was in and out, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to keep her eyes open, but she was trying --- and scared of what would happen if her eyes closed. But... at least if she did die, the last thing she would see was Danny. Which was better than what she would have parted with last time. Maybe she’d even have a chance to say goodbye to him. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said breathlessly. “Just... keep talking to me, please.” She didn’t even care what they spoke about, the awful eggplant parmesan he brought over or even just... Danny’s day at Rand. Anything to keep her mind focused. 

But their conversation wasn’t going in a light direction. (Was there ever a chance that any of their conversations wouldn’t be heavy with Victor Graves or Davos or Bakuto?) And when Danny spoke again, his tone changed. It was flat. Distant. And it stung. Colleen looked up at his face and saw the smudge of blood on his face -- but she looked away as soon as she saw it. Thinking about him covered in her blood was enough to make her wish she had passed out earlier. “Us,” Colleen corrected with desperation in her tone again. “We have to focus on getting us out of here.” Maybe he didn’t mean it that way, but it felt like he was distancing himself from her -- from them. And maybe she shouldn’t have been worried about that, but with Davos turning on him so violently -- she was scared what was happening in his head. Scared of what he was hiding. She had never minded his dark places because they reminded her of her own, but when he pulled away like this, when he retreated into them? It was hard to pull him back out. And she was in no condition to do what she usually did, she couldn’t wrap him up in her arms and tell him he was safe -- she was bleeding out and he was on the ground with her just as broken as she was. There was no safety here. Not until help arrived. 

Danny took the blame. Another thing he did often. Maybe Danny did goad him -- maybe he pushed Davos until Davos finally broke but how he reacted to that wasn’t Danny’s fault. Davos was beyond saving for a long time and that wasn’t on Danny. But knowing that he wasn’t going to listen to her right now was frustrating. He was shutting down. Letting what he was telling her to be the absolute truth. “Don’t make excuses for him.” She knew that Danny wanted to -- hell, he was already starting. Was it easy for Danny if he was the villain here? If he was in the wrong? Did that make what Davos did to him -- to her any easier? “We need to get out of here,” she repeated. “You need a cast -- probably a lot more.” There was no hiding the sadness in her tone. 

She could see it in his face, he had already decided what he was going to do -- coming to terms with what that meant. And Colleen, who a few minutes ago was happy to just have a chance to say goodbye before she died, realized she might be saying goodbye to Danny instead. She didn’t know what to say to him if this was going to be it -- all she could do was beg him to reconsider. Would that be enough? Would that sway him? Or was he determined to end this tonight even if it meant his death? Even if it meant leaving her again without asking what she or anyone else needed. Because she needed him more than she wanted Davos gone. She needed him more than she wanted peace. She needed him. She wanted him. And she didn’t want him to throw away his life to save her or anyone else, not when there was another way. 

Buckling down on blaming himself, Colleen wanted to scream. Danny was lucky she didn’t have the energy to do that. “No,” she murmured. “This isn’t your fault,” Colleen repeated. “Davos... he, he had a choice. He made his choice. You can’t... don’t let use yourself as an excuse for what he did.” Colleen shook her head slowly, unsure if there was anything she could say that would change his mind. This was a place where words... they didn’t feel like enough. “Don’t abandon me to atone for him.” Don’t punish me for what Davos did. 

There was silence. And Colleen was scared that Danny’s stance wouldn’t change. But she waited with bated breath. Waiting for the pen to finally drop -- for Danny to make his decision. But then he relented and Colleen took in a deep breath all at once, a sob mixed with relief as she placed her forehead on his chest again. Her body shaking now because she was happy. It was a small victory, but at this point, she would take what she could get. “I know, he can’t -- we can’t let him go.” And there was no place that would be able to hold him. But there had been enough death in their lives in the last few months to last a lifetime. “Birch,” she repeated the name as she looked at Davos’s body. That was where Danny had been drugged -- where Ward had sent Danny back when Danny first arrived in New York City. With all the heavy drugs, Danny hadn’t been able to access the Fist, but Colleen knew he still had nightmares of that place. 

Colleen looked at Danny and then slowly nodded her head. “Okay.” It wasn’t a perfect solution, but maybe it was one they could both live with until they found an alternative. Until there was another super-prison that could hold him (even if he didn’t have the Fist, Colleen would have argued that he’d need something to sedate him, Davos was dangerous). Colleen slowly lowered herself back onto the ground, trying to calm her breathing, trying to push away the throbbing pain in her abdomen that had gone ignored for too long. She pulled out her phone and called Misty. 

“Hey, Misty,” Colleen’s voice was so soft -- she was surprised that Misty could even hear her. “Danny and I... we need some help...”

DANNY: When Colleen said he’d be fine, when she swore he’d be okay… Danny believed her in a way he’d never been able to believe himself. Coming from Colleen, it was a promise. It was something to put his faith in. Danny nodded quietly, feeling just a fraction better. He was still aching, he was still hurt, his brother had still tried to kill him, but… Maybe she was right. Maybe he could still be okay. 

But only if she was, too. If she didn’t make it out of here, if she bled out in a dingy warehouse because of Danny’s mistakes, he’d never forgive himself. Some things weren’t survivable, and that? Losing her? That was one of them. She promised she wasn’t going anywhere, but Danny wasn’t ready to relax yet. (Would he ever be able to relax again at all? The last few months had been one thing after another, one tragedy following the next. Maybe constant vigilance was the way to go here.) He moved his free hand down, linking their fingers again in a desperate attempt to anchor himself to the moment, to her, to anything other than the mess in his head. 

It didn’t do much. His head was still spinning, thoughts still a dark hurricane threatening to drown him. He was trying to keep himself afloat by using Lei Kung’s old techniques, but after everything he and his brother had just argued about, after seeing exactly where their father’s techniques had gotten Davos? Danny worried those old tricks might only make things worse. His eyes flickered back down to Colleen as she spoke, as she insisted that they would both get out of there. “Us,” he repeated with a nod, though his voice was still too flat to really sell it. Getting Colleen out was the priority. If something happened, if Davos woke up angry and vengeful before help arrived, that was where Danny’s focus would lie. In getting her out, no matter the cost.

He didn’t think it would come to that, though. Whatever dosage Davos had put in that syringe had been strong, evidenced by how quickly it put him under. Danny assumed the dosage was similar to the one Colleen had been given. Davos would have wanted him to entirely unable to fight, just as he’d been the last time his brother stole his Fist, and putting him to sleep for the entirety of the procedure? It was a smart move. (Danny wondered if Davos’s plan would have ended the same if he’d gotten the chance to use the drugs on Danny. Would he have killed him in his sleep? Cut his throat before he ever woke up? He shook the thought away violently, unwilling to focus on it now.) “I’m not making excuses,” he said, sounding tired. “I just --- I provoked him. Maybe if I hadn’t…” He trailed off, shaking his head. If he hadn’t provoked Davos, could he have talked him down instead? It had never worked in the past, but maybe he should have given it a shot. Maybe he should have made more of an attempt at peace.

Colleen spoke again, and Danny’s eyes drifted unconsciously to his leg, though he snapped them back up before he could focus on the unnatural angle for too long. If he let himself look at it, odds were he’d go into shock, and he’d be no use to anyone then. “They’re going to want to put me under,” he realized, and suddenly, he felt nauseous. His stomach clenched, and he closed his eyes tightly and grit his teeth. This night, it meant another hospital stay for the both of them. It meant more doctors, more white coats, more I.V.s, more nightmares.

Maybe it doesn’t have to. The thought was dark, and as much as Danny wished he could say it came from Lei Kung, it didn’t. It was his mind, his eyes that darted over to where Davos was slouched in the corner. He could call someone, make sure that Colleen wouldn’t be alone, and then he could have the Crane Sisters prepare the ritual again. He could take the chance, take Davos’s Fist in a way that wouldn’t hurt him, and just… see what happened. Maybe it wouldn’t overwhelm him. Maybe he’d live through it, and even if he didn’t… Maybe it would be okay. 

If not for Colleen speaking up, he might have done it. Her voice drew him back in, her words washed over them. Danny wanted to believe her. He wanted to let himself think that this, all of it, was entirely on Davos, but he couldn’t. He was the one who’d left. And if he accepted that K’un Lun wasn’t what he thought it was, if he let himself agree with Colleen and Joy’s assessments of the abuse he had undergone there, it meant admitting that he’d left Davos to suffer it alone. “I ran away,” he murmured, voice low and quiet and pained. “I left him. He was my brother, and I just…” He trailed off with a shaky exhale. He left Davos in K’un Lun, just like he’d left Colleen in New York. Danny was good at that, it seemed. He was good at leaving. 

But right now? Right now, Colleen was asking him to stay. And after everything he’d done, after everything he’d put her through, how could he deny her that?

So he nodded. He agreed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I won’t --- I don’t know why I suggested it. You were right, it’s too risky. It’s not worth it.” Danny could accept his own death. He’d accepted it years ago, acknowledged the moment he began his training for the Iron Fist that it meant he wouldn’t die old and content in his bed. He wasn’t afraid of dying, but leaving Colleen alone? He couldn’t do that. Not again. She deserved better. 

Of course, if Colleen didn’t want the Fist and Danny couldn’t take it, it meant there was no other place for it to go. They didn’t know how to take it from Davos without giving it to someone else, and there was no one else here. If Danny didn’t take this risk, it meant they were taking one almost as dangerous. It meant they were letting Davos keep his power, even knowing the sort of things he’d do with it. There weren’t a lot of options here, and beyond killing Davos the way he’d asked Danny to just before losing consciousness… Birch was the only idea he had. 

Colleen seemed to agree, and Danny nodded without speaking, trying not to look at Davos. Coward, Lei Kung muttered from his side. Danny couldn’t argue with the assessment. He glanced over as Colleen retrieved her phone, shifting slightly when she spoke. Looking down at his hands, still covered in Colleen’s blood, he tried to tell himself this was the only way. He tried to tell himself Davos would be better off in Birch than dead, that he could still come back from this someday, that this way, he’d at least have a chance. He couldn’t quite manage to convince himself. 

None of the thoughts made him hate himself any less.

[cards-onthetable]

An Elusive Computer Post

Y’all, 99.999% of the time, I exist on my phone and tablet. It’s very rare that I do any Fandom Stuff or social media on my laptop. But tonight, after This Episode, I had to break out the big guns. I need to be able to type as fast as my brain screams words. tl;dr: EVERYTHING IS THE WORST AND I HATE IT. Hey I’ll do a fun little page break so you don’t have to scroll past this whole thing if you don’t want to. How nice of me. 

Erin

OPENING SCENE AND ERIN’S ALREADY YELLING AT PEOPLE. COOL. 

JUST DON’T with this foster parent (allegedly) killing a foster child thing. Foster parents have enough of a negative perception as it is... a foster parent who “cracked” and killed a child in her care certainly won’t help. And I know this won’t turn into a well-done, thoughtful Discourse on the lack of support and resources for foster parents who are caring for children with complex needs. So I hate it. 

I’m so, so, so sad for this child.

Sidenote re: Sam saying “I’ve already got a mom” (explaining why he didn’t call his foster parent “mom”) - okay, BB, one actual sensitive portrayal here, thumbs up. 

Welp Erin’s boss is an asshole but so’s everyone else on this show. What else is new? 

And now Sam is locked out of his new foster home. Another nice tally in the Negative Portrayal column. This is disgusting. His appreciation for his previous foster parent is obvious (this kid’s a ten times better actor than fucking Will “Dead Face” Estes at this point) and I hate this entire concept. At least the show’s portrayal of the child in foster care himself is positive. 

Now Sam’s at Anthony’s house and this is off topic, but for half a second can we appreciate that Sam is also a bajillion times better at apologies than Jamie Reagan? Nice. 

If Anthony becomes Sam’s foster parent I will be SO ANNOYED. One, because I’m sure the show won’t even hint at an accurate process - it’ll be insta-parent, Anthony walks into some caseworker’s office and walks out with physical custody of a child (fun fact: it takes three months or longer to get licensed as a foster parent). Two, because it’s kind of another blow to the reputation of foster parents that this episode is painting - like the only suitable foster parent in a whole city of veteran, trained, experienced FPs is this newbie? This does not taste good. 

This is a cute scene. Rather than Anthony being Sam’s foster parent, how about he becomes his mentor? 

OH. NICE. EXACTLY WHAT I DIDN’T WANT. “I’m going to sign the papers later today. I’m going to foster Sam myself.” Can we please get some follow-up on this, BB? Let’s please see Anthony trying to navigate the waters of parenting a teenager who likely has attachment-related diagnoses and other challenges. Is Anthony going to get trauma-informed care training? Or is he just going to wing it and hope that it’s all magical and swell? Does he have a sensitive, non-snarky bone in his body? I’m on the edge of my seat. (LOL @ Erin being the voice of reason here.)

OH. WHOA WHOA WHOA. “It’s not like I always wanted a son, but one came knocking and I answered the door.” Remember that line above where Sam reminded us that he has a mom? Do you understand why this line made me gag? There’s a fine line you walk as a foster parent, where you’re performing all the duties of parenting this child as if they’re your own - but you have to remember and be sensitive to the fact that they’re not. Kids in foster care are a package deal, yo, they come with a whole other family too. For teenagers this is an especially important Issue. 

This entire storyline was terrible. 0/10. 

Fat Shaming (Frank and co)

Poor Witten, you guys. That is awful and terrible and dangerous that her partner can’t even make it up 4 flights of stairs. “I’m here and you’re fine” - but what if she wasn’t? 

Did Sid Gormley just use the word “fat shaming” and argue that physical fitness does not affect a cop’s ability to do their job? 

Cops who are on the beat should be able to pass a fairly high standard for physical fitness. The end, basically.

Family dinner (tossed in here due to the topic of conversation): Seriously? Henry’s going to talk about it being discrimination to require cops to meet a physical fitness standard that is a pretty basic aspect of their ability to do their job? Nice. 

Oh, magical, Frank has come up with a Compromise that Makes Everybody Happy. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. 

Danny

TBH I hardly noticed this storyline at all. I’m much too busy angrily scribbling all of the examples of Dismissive Jamie on my whiteboard. Oh well, win some lose some. 

Jamko

The way Jamie brushes Eddie off during this whole New Partner Discussion is gross. Refer to yesterday’s Two Pronged Complaint for the details. 

The Biggest Issues: Jamie minimizing Eddie’s experience on the job, and being too protective of her/failing to be an objective boss. Et cetera. 

“wHaT eLsE dOn’T I kNoW?” suck a dick, Jamie Reagan.  

Peep those obviously empty coffee cups that probably have a piece of dry ice at the bottom to make the “steam.” A+. 

I’m going to keep track of how many times “female empowerment” is said in this episode. I’ll keep you updated. 

So this “fraternal organization” that we’ve all been so stressed about Eddie joining is...basically a women’s intramural sports league? LOLOL so I’m super excited to watch Jamie sputter about how Joe died playing softball* and therefore Eddie shouldn’t join. 

LOOK AT EDDIE. She is legitimately excited about the idea of playing softball, dude. That smile is as much personality as we’ve gotten out of her all season. CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH JAMIE “WET BLANKET” REAGAN SNUFF THAT RIGHT OUT. 

This ~date night~ situation is hilarious in a Young Childless Couple way. 

OH, so NOW Jamie’s interested in a legitimate conversation with Eddie, engaged and responding... with questions in a demanding, rude tone? I’m so annoyed at his whole handling of the Eddie’s-new-partner thing.

GOD why is everything a Female Empowerment Thing? Can’t women just... enjoy playing sports? 

OH HERE’S WHERE IT GETS FUN HOLD ONTO YOUR BUTTS 

BAD IDEA

YOU’RE ABOUT TO BECOME A REAGAN

THAT’S A NO-GO

NOW YOU’RE JUST BEING STUBBORN

“No, I’m being astonished that my fiancé is trying to tell me what I can and cannot do” SAME, EDDIE 

I’m so angry that the scene cuts off there. Did they just go about their stupid dinner date with this Tension floating palpably in the air between them? Did Eddie pull out an “I think I’ll sleep at my place tonight” and stalk away in that red? satin? dress? ? I hope she poured his stupid ON TAP IPA (objectively the worst type of beer, btw) down his shirt and walked out. 

I AM SO SAD watching this scene of Eddie backing out of softball. 

“I’m not much of a joiner” is a DUMB RIDICULOUS LINE and Eddie says it TWICE, folks. 

Witten doesn’t bring up Jamie at all - I therefore assume she doesn’t know Eddie’s a Future Reagan (which is a whole other issue, but anyway.) . Witten thinks Eddie’s backing out so as to avoid associating with Witten. So I assume Witten’s intentions with the softball invite were totally pure. IMAGINE THAT! A woman who wants to be friends with another woman, one who she works with and respects and wants to get to know better! With no ulterior motive! Someone please hit Jamie Reagan in the nostril with a dart. 

I like Witten more and more. Can we replace all the Reagan storylines with Witten, Sam, and Old Eddie in dark jeans and a studded jacket?

A LAUNDROMAT? ONE: Shouldn’t Jamie, as A Reagan, have laundry in his building?* TWO: It he didn’t, why wouldn’t they do laundry for free at Frank’s house every week?*

I CAN SMELL THE TENSION and I am legitimately curious how they’ve coexisted between the date and now. How’s that working out, hmm - that “keeping work and home separate” thing? 

“I DIDN’T TELL YOU TO, I ASKED” says Jamie. Shall we go back a few bullet points to when he told her it’s a “no-go”? 

I NEED TO KNOW WHAT ELSE I NEED TO KNOW - Same, Eddie. Do I really need to reiterate how ridiculous this whole thing is - that they’re engaged without dating, and now finding out that maybe there’s a reason people date first, even if they’re best friends, because this is the kind of stuff you work out before you start shopping for your dress.

“Are we talking, or are we just talking smack?” SOME ACCUSATION from the dumbass who said ALL THE THINGS IN THOSE BULLETS UP ABOVE. 

Finally, for once, Eddie is voicing some real and legitimate concerns. Are we going to get any sort of resolution or mature adult discussion of these things? NOPE! 

Did he seriously just tell her to cut it out? I hate him so much. I hope somebody duct tapes him to the front of those washer/dryers and pulls out each individual eyebrow hair with tweezers. 

This laundromat scene just exemplifies so many of the issues I’ve been rage blogging about all damn season. Jamie ultimately brushing off Eddie’s concerns without ever giving her real answers. Not having the respect for her to even take her thoughts into account. Barking orders like he knows it all, and Eddie isn’t capable of making her own decisions. At least this time that’s the actual point of the scene rather than the nasty subtext. 

EDDIE AND DANNY SCENE: I’m actually surprised that this is the first time Joe has been mentioned. Watching the sneak peek I figured Jamie’s main argument against Eddie joining an organization would be that it’s what got his brother killed (being vague, obviously, since Eddie clearly didn’t know the details). Not that it’s improper As A Reagan. I hoped the context of the episode would make me feel a little better about this scene but it just feels even more out of place and poorly/choppily written. I like Eddie and Danny together - I’d like them to interact more. But this didn’t do it for me. Gotta meet that Joe Mention Quota* on the season, I guess. 

FINAL SCENE: in summary, FUCK THIS. 

Sidenote: When is someone going to get suspicious @ how often Eddie gets pulled into Sarge’s office? 

For the record, I anticipated an eye-rolly “Ohhkay, maybe I overreacted...” speech. 

WHAT WE GOT FELL BELOW EVEN THAT VERY LOW BAR. 

Jamie explains himself. Fine, he has a right to do that, and it’s constructive in helping Eddie understand the man she’s about to marry (god don’t even remind me). BUT HE DOES NOT ADMIT ANY WRONGDOING. 

THERE IS NO APOLOGY

THERE IS NO ADMISSION THAT HE MADE MISTAKES in how he spoke to her, ordered her around, and didn’t even stop for eight seconds to listen to what she had to say

THERE IS NOT EVEN THE VERY MINIMAL “I overreacted” type of acknowledgment. 

“So maybe if I forget sometimes, you can remind me” THIS IS GROSS TOO because it essentially puts the burden on Eddie to teach/remind Jamie how to HAVE AN ADULT CONVERSATION AND NOT BE AN ASS. He could AT LEAST take responsibility for his own improvement in the Future. 

Eddie said literally two words in this entire scene. There was no mutual understanding, no real agreement, no genuine Development in their relationship. 

THIS IS NOT A SATISFACTORY RESOLUTION TO THIS CONFLICT. 

This episode is called Rectify but NOTHING HAS BEEN RECTIFIED. 

ALSO, this seems like an awfully Personal conversation to be having in uniform, Sarge. Are they even trying anymore? 

HE JUST THREW A SOFTBALL GLOVE AT HER. Is that supposed to be... sweet? Touching? An admission of guilt/mistake/wrongdoing? TRY AGAIN, BB. NONE OF THE ABOVE. 

WELL. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’re as disgruntled as I am. Seems like plenty of y’all were quite unhappy with this episode as well. I’m enjoying your tweets and sadness. I’ve been the queen of this club for almost a year now. Welcome, make yourselves comfortable, there’s plenty of ice cream in the freezer. Just don’t sit on the far end of the couch. That’s my dog’s favorite spot. 

*These four hilarious lines were taken from two important Outside Sources. Thanks for your contribution, Outside Sources. 

[emerald-eyes-8917]

Mend this Porcelain Heart of Mine

So this is a prompt fill for a wonderful anon who asked for a fic where the reader is coming out of an abusive relationship.

I hope you enjoy this and I do hope you are in a better place, dear friend.

This will be cross-posted as always to AO3 so please feel free to head over and give this a kudos or a comment.

Title: Mend this Porcelain Heart of Mine

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Domestic abuse, emotional abuse, some verbal abuse, and mention of an eating disorder.  Please take care if these are triggers for you.

Broken heart one more time Pick yourself up Why even cry? Broken pieces in your hands Wonder how you'll make it whole

You know you pray This can't be the way You cry, you say Something's got to change And mend this porcelain heart of mine...

There could only be so many cracks in a porcelain figure that cannot be repaired, the pain remaining the same.

It would take just one more slap, one more kick, one more vicious insult for her to shatter into a million pieces.  It had taken hollow words, tearful apologies and countless soft caresses to tape over those broken parts of her, over and over again.

He would go too far one day, when he would not hold back, when he would unleash the strength of his hatred upon her and her life may come to a singular, violent end.

He had beaten her before, when he was not happy with the meals she cooked or if she had been on the phone to friends, or if she passed in front of the television when he was watching sports.  Every little thing she did or said was picked apart until she was almost afraid to breathe for fear of provoking him.

She could never eat in front of him, for she chewed too loud and needed to lose weight anyway, in his mind, so she believed him, often going to bed hungry and skipping meals to try and conform to the ideals of beauty that he wanted.  

He was close to convincing her to quit her job so she could stay at home and he could focus on his own career, that her place was in the home and that she belonged to him and only him.  It had come to a point where she did not even look up while they were out with the constant fear of meeting another man's eyes and be accused of wanting to cheat on him.

He would constantly check her phone, accuse her of deleting messages, and stalk her social media pages to make sure that she would not even like photos or posts from other male friends.

One night, he had pressed her phone so hard against the side of her head that the bones in her ear were thrumming for hours after launching into a tirade about a supposed conversation she had with a colleague from work, his hand yanking sharply at her hair to punctuate his meaning, "You're so fucking sly.  I know your game, you little slut.  You were talking to him again, weren't you?  I know your expressions, you can't hide a goddamn thing from me, you little bitch.  Next time, I won't be so kind.  I'll break every fucking bone in your body, you understand?"

All she could do was whimper, "Yes, Jake."

What followed was a swift backhand and she had fallen to the ground.  "Now stay down there where you belong.  You're nothing without me, and it's about time you realised that."

It would be so easy just to take such things, to accept them as the truth.  It would be so easy to just believe him, that she was nothing, and that she had been flirting with her eyes all the time, that she gave out this vibe that she was going to sleep with every man she came into contact with.  It would be so easy to starve herself, to make herself ill, just to fit into that impossible mould of feminine beauty that did not even exist.  It would be so easy to distrust her own mind that was screaming that he was wrong, that she did everything for him, had given up so much for him and yet it was never enough.

It would be so easy to just let him murder her...

"No one misses you.  No one even looks for you at those fucking parties you like so much.  No one would miss you at work.  Just look at the state of you, with no fucking talent.  I'm the only person who knows what you're worth.  You're nothing without me..."

Nothing... nothing... nothing...

But tonight, when he had lunged at her in a drunken rage, hands reaching for her throat, calling her a cheating whore, that the man whose music she had been listening to was a lowlife bastard with a stupid band and no talent, that the decision flooded to life like a switch being flicked, bringing reason back to her beaten, downtrodden mind.

I don't have to take this...

I can fight this...

I am not nothing...

I have to run...

I have to live...

The momentum of her moving away just out of his reach almost sends her falling backwards, but in a surprising agile move, she had turned away from him immediately, the flight instinct kicking in strongly, knocking over a standing lamp to make an extra obstacle for him to traverse, dashing for the apartment door, having some sense to grab her car keys and phone from the hall table, her hands slick with sweat almost sliding off the door knob.

In a moment of sheer panic, she almost thought she was trapped when his heavy footsteps advanced towards her, but a single turn and she had thrust herself out into the corridor, running as fast as she can for the stairwell, not even daring to look back, his voice echoing after her, "Get the fuck back here!  Get back here, you little bitch!  You're mine!  Get back here, right now!"

She almost trips over her own feet as she descends the four flights to the ground floor, racing with all speed to her car, hands shaking so much that she almost drops the keys, opening the door and sitting in, turning the ignition on.

All the while, she looks in the rearview mirror to check that she hadn't been pursued, the icy fear that he could very well catch her and drag her back inside ever present.

The car engine roars to life and she pulls out rather recklessly out of the complex parking lot, not even paying attention to the speed limit or the direction she was taking until she was certain that he had not followed her.

It is at least ten minutes before she is even calm enough to think clearly, tears streaming down her cheeks, as the next gas station comes into view on the long, deserted road like a welcome beacon.

Slowly, she turns the car into the small parking lot round the back, switching the engine off and sitting still for a long moment where the only sound was her laboured breathing, before she covers her face and gives into the utter despair and shock that she had escaped her abuser with her life.

Her phone lies on the passenger seat, the screen coming to life with messages, one after another, all commanding her to come back, that they could talk, work it out.

But she knew there was no turning back.  If she even set foot in that apartment again, he would either take her in again with more meaningless apologies, or he would wring her neck and leave her for dead.

Never before had she felt so alone, having not confided in any of her friends, having been completely cut off from those she cared for, both in work and in her personal life.  Jake had skilfully weaved a complex web of lies that made her believe that she did not need her friends, that she only needed him.  It had been a devious manipulation from the beginning where she was nonethewiser, having been so in love and hardly believing that a man like Jake would never notice a girl like her.

The man he had accused her of having an affair with the most often, and whose cover album she had been listening to that night had been one of the few friends she had done her utmost to stay in touch with, despite Jake's best efforts to keep them separated.  

If she lost everything else in her life, she could not lose her friendship with Danny.

Sweet, kind, steadfast Danny...

Her thoughts come to a singular focus now on him, and her heart begins to ache painfully, knowing that he was her only hope now.  His kindness and warm caring had been her touchstones through the violence and mental anguish, where she would listen to one of the more quiet tracks from 'Under the Covers', hear his voice and instantly begin to remember how to breathe again.

She had not told him anything about the abuse, or what Jake had been accusing her of pertaining specifically to him, but now she felt that it was time to reach out to Dan, because she needed him so badly.

It was just after nine in the evening as she sat in the gas station parking lot, darting frantic looks as any other car passes by, dialling his number with shaking fingers, listening to the steady ringing sound before he picks up, "Hello?"

All of a sudden, at the sound of his greeting, the gentle cadence of his voice that was a literal godsend, she cannot speak.

"Hello?"

All she can manage is a hitched intake of air.

"Hey... it's you, isn't it?  Are you okay?  What's wrong?"

His name is a rushed exhale, voice cracking and tremulous on those two syllables, "Danny..."

"Yeah, I'm here.  I'm here... tell me what's wrong, you sound... I've never heard you like this, ever."

Vision swimming with tears, she mumbles, "I... I... he tried to... I had to... he wanted to kill me, and I... I couldn't..."

A sharpness rises in his tone, mixed with urgency, "Woah, woah, slow down.  Who wanted to kill you?  What is going on?"

"Jake... he... he wanted to hurt me again... he nearly attacked me, I had to run, I had to get away... and now I'm here in my car and I am so frightened and I just... I just... I don't know what to do... I don't know where to go, I'm just stuck and I can't... I can't..."

Dan's voice becomes quite loud, "Oh my God... are you hurt?  Did you say you're in your car?  Is he still there?  Where are you?"

She manages to breathe quite deeply, doing her utmost to remain calm and not cause him any undue worry, "No, no, I'm fine.  He almost grabbed me and I don't know what he would have done.  I just ran away, got to my car and just drove as fast and as far away as I could.  I'm behind a gas station miles away, he didn't follow me.  I had to leave, he was going to kill me... I can't... I can't... please... please, help me, Danny, please..."

"Slow down, slow down.  Listen, just take a deep breath.  Just breathe, you're okay.  Let me think for a second..."

She can hear Dan's footsteps, as if he was pacing about and she can only imagine how agitated he was and it was all her fault.  She just had to drag him into this, she couldn't have just gone on alone...

She does as he asks, leaning forward until her forehead is resting on the steering wheel, willing her brain to stop firing on all cylinders, to be calm and to let Dan help her rather than become hysterical.

"Where are you?"

On the drive, she had not paid any attention to roadsigns or any landmarks, so she admits quietly, "I don't know, I just kept driving.  A few miles from the apartment, I think?"

"Stay there, let me come to you."

The guilt floods her in a rush, "No, please.  I can't have you coming out in the middle of the night."

"I'm already out the door, so I'm doing this."

She sniffs, wiping her cheek with her sleeve, "Okay..."

"Send me a Google maps or one of those map pin things to let me know where you are.  Don't get out of your car until you see me, okay?"

"Okay, I'll do that."

"I'll be there as soon as I can, sweetheart, okay?  I'm on my way, I'll be right with you.  Stay in your car, I'm on the way."

She can only manage one more 'Okay' before she has to hang up, quickly dropping a location pin on Google maps and sending it to him, clutching her phone tight like a lifeline and praying for him to get to her soon.

Twenty minutes later...

The headlights of an approaching car make her freeze, having been a tightly coiled spring ever since ending the previous phonecall, but as soon as they are switched off and the driver exits, the wild halo of curls and tall, lean figure are unmistakeable.

He steps towards the car, ducking down slightly to peer through the windscreen at her, his eyes wide and his lips mouthing her name.

Her movements are almost in slow motion as she pushes open her own door, stepping out and saying his name with such desperation, "/Danny/..."

She does not make it three steps before he sprints over to her, arms open wide and catches her in a strong, clumsy hug as all her strength fails and she sags against him, clinging on as if her very life depended upon it.

Luckily, they are close to a side wall of the gas station as he leans back and slightly to the left, lowering himself down to the ground, holding her against him, rocking her gently and murmuring her name over and over.

"You're safe... you're safe... no one is going to hurt you... you're safe, sweetheart... I'm here, ssshhhh..."

Her sobs are loud and unrestrained as she buries her face in his chest, pouring out all the pain that she had endured for so long, hands trying to find purchase in the material of his jacket, needing his stability, his comfort, this safe haven.

After several minutes of weeping and having Dan gently stroke down her hair, when she quietens down, she allows Dan to help her to her feet, and she leans against him as they walk to his car.

As they pull up in front of Dan's house, her phone had not stopped vibrating with missed calls and messages, which they both elected to not acknowledge.

He reaches for her phone and decisively switches it off, throwing it rather sharply into the glove compartment and shutting it with a snap that makes her jump.

He immediately looks over at her with a sorrowful expression, "Shit... sorry.  I didn't mean to scare you..."

"No, it's okay."  Her heart thumping loudly in her ears told a different story but she attempts to give him a smile, despite her prickling nerves.

"I just... he wouldn't leave you alone and it pissed me off... sorry..."  Resting his head back against the seat, he breathes slowly, eyes shut.

The silence becomes quite awkward now as she stares downwards, wringing her hands, clenching tightly and untwisting her fingers, feeling utter shame at how low she had come to before realising that she could have just left him.

She hears Dan whisper her name and she looks over with large eyes glimmering with unshed tears, "Let's get inside, okay?"

Nodding, she opens the passenger door, following him with her head bowed, looking back over her shoulder with still some measure of paranoia, that somehow Jake could track her phone or her smell like a bloodhound, that he would find her and drag her back.

She manages to keep all that worry well hidden as Dan leads her into his house with one hand on her back, locking the door and sliding the security chain across.

"There.  No one is getting in here."

She nods, that small measure of relief quite strong.

"Take a seat, make yourself at home."

He gestures to the sitting room and she makes her way to the sofa, sitting on the edge, fiddling with her sleeves, doing her best to breathe steadily, that lingering fear still present despite being in Dan's home where she was safe.

After a few minutes, Dan returns from the kitchen with a plate and a mug in hand, setting them down in front of her on the coffee table.

She glances over, and notices that it is a grilled cheese sandwich cut into four triangles, a knife and fork beside it and the mug is filled with tea.

"There wasn't much in my fridge, I just whipped up what I could, but grilled cheese is always a winner in my book."

Dan sits beside her with a soft smile, tucking one leg under his knee and resting his elbow on the back of the sofa, but still keeping a small space between them.

Instantly, her mind goes into overdrive about calorie content and not being able to exercise to burn the fat, but her exterior is quite calm.  She smiles, saying politely, "Thank you, but I'm not hungry, I'm sorry you went to this trouble."

Dan tips his head to one side, giving her a firm look, "I heard your stomach growl on the way over."

"Still... I'm not hungry."

He was being so kind, but she didn't deserve it.  She had already brought him out in the middle of the night and now she was going to eat his food.  She didn't deserve it...

Dan frowns, "You've had a shock, you have been running on adrenaline all night and you need to keep your strength up."

She is close to snapping at him, restraining herself to say in a tight voice, "I told you that I'm not hungry."

She did not want to have this argument, to make up an excuse that she had no appetite when she was actually starving, that if he had a piece of fruit that she would prefer it instead, having gone without dinner to reach Jake's goal weight to be finally deemed perfect in his eyes.

But she knew deep down that even a healthy choice would fill her with guilt, so low had her self esteem become.

Dan blinks quite fast, his voice cracking, "You look so pale and you're shaking.  Please... why won't you eat?"

"I don't want to be fat."

The words spoken in a rushed whisper hang in the air and the shock on Dan's face cuts deeper than any blade.

He shakes his head several times, saying so softly, "Listen to me... you are not going to be fat.  You need to be healthy and not become ill.  You can't hurt yourself this way..."

Dipping her head, white hot shame coursing through her, she smothers a whimper, knowing that he was right, but she just couldn't bring herself to even look at the sandwich on the plate, the fear of weight gain hanging over her like the sword of Damocles.

There is a clink of cutlery against the plate and she brings herself to look up again, watching as Dan cuts a small section of one of the triangles, putting it on the fork and raising it up between them.

"Please... just one piece?  For me, please?"

His eyes are soulful, full of tears and the fact that he had to beg her to eat was more than she could bear.

Obediently, after much mental anguish, she manages to lean forward, opening her mouth with great reluctance, and he gently feeds her the piece of the sandwich, tilting her chin up with his index finger as he lifts the fork out and away from her mouth.

That simple contact almost made her tremble, but she does not let on.

She chews slowly, feeling the crunchy and soft textures along with the firework explosion of flavour on her tongue as she swallows thickly, the food making its way into her empty stomach and she lets out a contented sigh as Dan visibly brightens with relief.

"Better?"

"Yes... I will eat the rest.  You were right, I am really hungry... I'm sorry for lying..."

"Don't apologise, it's okay.  Just don't make yourself sick."

"I won't.  Thank you..."

Dan nods, standing up and making his way back to the kitchen in order to give her some privacy, for which she was extremely grateful.

Picking up the knife and fork, she cuts the rest of the sandwich up and eats it slowly, despite wanting to cram it all into her mouth, humming in pleasure, almost embarassed at reacting in such a way, since it was only an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich and not a gourmet meal.  

But the fact that Dan had made it, that he had wanted to make her strong again after he being so beaten down, it filled her up with energy and nourishment on so many levels.

She takes several large swallows of tea, not even caring to ask if he had put sugar or skimmed milk in it, only wanting to drink it down.

Feeling warm and pleasantly full, she allows herself to lie down on the sofa with a cushion beneath her head, sense beginning to unwind, sleep creeping into slowly but surely.

She hears Dan's footsteps approaching, and he leans down, saying quietly, "Tired?"

"Yeah..."

"Come on, you can sleep in my bed tonight."

This was too much.  He had rescued her in the middle of nowhere, made her food and now he was offering her his bed.

"Dan..."

"I insist.  My house, my rules.  You deserve a good rest and my bed happens to be super comfortable and comically large."

Not having the strength to argue, she nods in silent agreement, following him to the bedroom, pushing any wayward romantic thoughts from her mind.

"You can borrow a shirt if you want, just so you're not sleeping in your clothes.  I know how uncomfortable that can be sometimes."

"Okay, thank you."

Searching through his drawers, she comes across a 'Rush' band t-shirt that she had admired previously, which had been her first introduction to the band he loved so much, remembering when he had made her a playlist of his favourite songs, which was quite lengthy and had been the greatest solace during Jake's torrent of abuse apart from his own music.

The shirt is like a dress on her and that feeling of safety is increased even more.

There is a quiet knocking at the door, followed by Dan asking through the door, "You okay?"

She hurriedly folds her clothes and goes over the the bed, getting under the covers, and lying on her side, facing the door, calling out, "Yes, I'm fine."

"Is it okay if I come in?"

"Yes."

Dan peeks his head in the door, "You were able to find something?"

She nods, pushing the blankets down a little bit and he chuckles as he recognises the logo, "Good choice."

A pause.

"So... I'll just say goodnight."

Disappointment floods her suddenly, and she inquires quite innocently, "You're not sleeping in here?"

"No, the couch will be fine."

Raising an eyebrow, she raises herself up onto one elbow, "Dan, you are hardly going to fit on that couch.  I know you are tall."

Dan looks aghast, "I'm... tall?  Say it isn't so."

Shaking her head with a smile, she says quite softly, "I've imposed enough on you.  I am not depriving you of this large bed or a good night's sleep.  I'd feel bad..."

Dan huffs a sigh, "Well... I didn't want to... like, make you uncomfortable, and I thought that you maybe wanted to have some space, that's all.  But... you'd like to share the bed?"

Rather than giving him a word answer, she shifts back until there is enough space for him to lie down in front of her, stretching her arm across the mattress and patting the space several times, with no hint of longing or flirtation, only a want for him to sleep comfortably.

Dan gives in with a quiet chuckle, "I'll just get the lights."

Turning over onto her opposite side, her back to him now, she closes her eyes just as the lights are flicked off, listening to the sound of rustling clothing and shoes being discarded, feeling the mattress dip slightly as Dan crawls into bed behind her, lifting the blankets and getting under the covers with her.

Still, she does not move, very aware of her own breathing and pulse thundering in her ears.

"I... I tend to sleep with my shirt off... good old California weather, but I can put something on, if you..."

"No, it's fine... it's pretty warm this time of year."

"Okay.  Well... goodnight."

"Goodnight."

A pause.

She hears Dan say her name once again and she makes a quiet sound of inquiry, "Just one last thing, that I sometimes toss and turn in my sleep, so if I am moving too much, just nudge me and I'll stop."

"Okay."

A pause.

"Dan?"

"Yeah?"

Grateful for the darkness so he cannot see her obvious blushing, she asks shyly, "Can we... I mean... I'd like to hold your hand..."

"My hand?"

"Yeah... just to know that you're there."

Way to sound so pathetic...

"Sure... just let me... I'm just going to move up behind you... and put my arm around you..."

His arm comes around her waist, his hand coming to rest lightly on her belly, the warmth radiating outwards from his palm that makes her shudder pleasantly as he holds her securely against his chest, stretching out so they can easily spoon together.

Tentatively, she covers his hand, sliding her fingers in between his and holding as tight as she could, his fingers curling inwards in response.

Her eyes flutter closed as he presses a light kiss to her hair, just above her temple, his breathing stirring the strands close to her ear, before he begins a gentle humming of a melody that she cannot place, but is not unlike a soft lullaby.

Just let me stay here... let me stay here with you, please... please, just let me stay...

More than anything, she wanted to look into his eyes, to lose herself in them, and tell him everything that she had been too afraid to even express in a phonecall or a text, when her abusive partner had threatened to break her phone if she ever spoke to him.

But Jake wasn't here anymore.  She was with Danny, and all was right in the world.

Carefully turning over in his arms until she is laying on her back, she gazes up at Dan, finding that their faces were much closer together than she had predicted, and his hitched breath gusts against her lips as their eyes meet, even in the dark of the bedroom, she knows without question that he was looking straight at her.

Without even thinking, she inclines her head upwards those last few inches to gently kiss the corner of his mouth, wanting in some small way to thank him for everything he had done tonight that she could not express in mere words.

Before she can move her head back down again, Dan has turned his face more towards her and their lips brush together featherly light, the sensation making her heart knock loudly in her ears while Dan shifts closer, their legs sliding against each other as he presses along the entire length of her body, wrapping her up in his embrace and the tangle of blankets, nuzzling her nose with a quiet murmur, "You're so beautiful..."

Not giving her a chance to reply, he has leaned down for a soft kiss, catching her lower lip and making her back arch with a needy sound, tilting his head and pecking her lips gently once again, dotting kisses across her cheeks and her nose before gently kissing her once more, still so softly.

Not simply content to just lie there, she slowly slides her hand up the side of his neck, weaving her fingers through the soft, thick curls, cupping his cheek and responding with shy eagerness.

When they draw apart from air, Dan lets out a breathless chuckle, "Wow... that was... wow."

She cannot help but giggle at his lack of vocabulary, hardly blaming him as her own mind was still cloudy after such sweet kisses, still playing with his hair while looking up at him with doe eyes.

"You're okay?"

"Yes... more than okay, now."

"Good.  I don't want to rush things, like... you've had a fucking terrible time and you need to be taken care of, and I want to do that for you.  I mean, if that's what you want?"

Swallowing thickly past the lump in her throat, she manages to whisper, "That's all I want.  I just want you..."

Dan appears to be quite moved at this, raising his hands to gently cup her face, holding her in place so they can keep that steady, intense eye contact, "I'm here, if you need me.  Tonight and for as long as you need, okay?  I'll take care of you however you want and nothing is going to change that."

"You promise?"  Her voice cracks with emotion, as Dan leans down to kiss her lips, murmuring, "I promise, baby... I promise..."

Leaning their foreheads together, he says gently, "I think we should sleep now.  You've had a long night."

As much as she wanted to stay up all night with him, she lets out a quiet yawn, rubbing her eyes.  "Okay..."

"I'll be right here beside you, okay, sweetheart?"

"Okay... thank you."

"No problem.  Just rest now.  I've got you and you're safe."

The thought that she loved him crossed her mind, but remained unspoken for now, even as he returned to spooning her, nuzzling his face into her neck after giving her one last kiss goodnight, their hands finding each other and dovetailing together.

This must be what a safe haven felt like: she never thought it could ever exist again for her, but here it was in his arms, loving her back to life.

[fardell24b]

Mysteries of Lawndale - Night of the Coffee House - Part 3

Night of the Coffee House – Part 3

It was quarter past six when the group entered Viv’s videos, and business was raging. There was a large number of customers in the store.

“This is going to be difficult,” Daria said.

 “We could wait until tomorrow before school,” Quinn suggested.

 “That might be best,” Daria decided.

 “OK,” Stacy said.

 “We’ll meet again after school,” Daria directed.

 Everyone nodded.

  Tuesday, October 14th 1997

Daria and Quinn arrived at Viv’s Videos at 7:45. “How may I help you?” the clerk asked.

 “You know of the break-in two nights ago?” Daria asked.

 “Of course,” the clerk said, looking at Daria suspiciously.

 “We’re investigating the incident,” Daria said.

 “I see.”

 Daria turned to Quinn. “We would like to know if your in-store cameras could have seen something,” Quinn said, in a flirtatious way.

 “Right,” the male clerk said. “I’ll be right back.” He  went out the back.

 “Good work, Quinn,” Daria said.

 “I guess I’m joining the Mystery Club after all,” Quinn said.

 “How did you come to this decision?” Daria asked.

 “We’re getting into the middle of everything, like we did in Highland. We’re solving crime,” Quinn answered.

 “That’s true,” Daria conceded.

 “So, I’ll join the club as soon as I get to school,” Quinn said. She then saw the clerk return.

 “It’s going to take a while to check the tapes,” he said.

 “We’ll return after school,” Daria said.

 “Name?”

 “Morgendorffer,” Quinn answered.

 “Got it,” the clerk said.

“Aren’t you coming to school?” Quinn asked Daria as the sisters left the video store.

 “I am, but I’m meeting Officer Peterson at the Court House Cafe.”

 “Oh,” Quinn said. “Have fun!” She picked up her bike from where she had left it, and rode off towards the school.

  Daria arrived at the Court House Cafe at 8:10. She saw Officer Peterson, in plainclothes and her hair loose around her shoulders, at the counter. “So, you’re not on duty today?” Daria asked as she approached.

 “Not until after lunch,” Xanthe answered.

 “I see,” Daria said.

 “But don’t you have to get to school?”

 “Not until nine,” Daria answered.

 “It’s going to be close,” Xanthe pointed out.

 “I know. I can still get there on time, if we’re quick.”

 “Sure, Daria,” Xanthe said. “Would you like a latte?”

 “A simple tea will do,” Daria answered.

 “Sure,” Xanthe said.

  Quinn arrived at the school shortly after 8:15. She had ridden fast, so she got there early. Fortunately she had used ample deodorant so, she was hardly sweating. She locked the bike to the bike rack (hardly occupied at that time of the morning, but she knew it would be full later) and headed towards the office.

 “Ms. Morgendorffer?” the receptionist asked.

 Quinn handed some paperwork over. “Another member for my sister’s club,” she said.

 The receptionist looked over the paperwork. “It’s in order. With you, Daria, Jane Lane, Stacy Rowe, Alecia Nibblett, Corey Bateman and Charles Ruttheimer, that is seven members,” she said. “That’s three more than the Fashion Club.”

 “Yeah, Sandi will be jealous,” Quinn said with laughter.

 “Is that a good thing?”

 “I’m not sure.”

  While her daughters were pursuing the mystery, Helen Morgendorffer was thinking of something. It was just as well that the Mystery Club constituted an extracurricular activity, otherwise she would have talked to Daria about getting one. She may not have been as active as Quinn, but the detective work was taking up a lot of time...

  Daria arrived at school just in time for homeroom. The conversation with Officer Peterson was quite informative.

 “Sorry for the tardiness,” she said as she entered the room.

 “Not late at all, Ms. Morgendorffer,” Claire Defoe said, as she marked Daria on the roll.

 Daria smiled.

 “By the way, Jane says that you’re investigating the Cybercafe break-in,” Defoe said.

 “Yes,” Daria said.

 “It’s good that you’re doing your thing for the community.”

 “Those who broke in are likely to offend again if they aren’t caught.”

 “That is true,” the art teacher said, as Daria went to her seat.

  The Principal of Lawndale High, Angela Li, had taken her head Language Arts teacher’s suggestion of a fundraiser for a new coffee house to heart. As such, she had quickly organised such fundraising.

 Quinn quickly volunteered for the fundraising.

  “You’re doing what?” Daria asked as she and Quinn approached the video store that afternoon.

 “Fundraising, for the new coffee house. I’m selling phone cards.”

 “Well, just to be sure to take notice of what the people are like, and what they reveal about themselves,” Daria said.

 “I know what to do, Daria,” Quinn said.

 Daria nodded, with a smile. Quinn went up to the counter.

 “Order for Morgendorffer?” she asked.

 “Right here,” the clerk handed over a couple of tapes. “We have copied the recordings from Sunday night,” he said.

 “Thanks!” Quinn said. She then handed the tapes to Daria.

 “I’ll take them home and start watching,” Daria said.

 “Sure,” Quinn said.

  Danny Felton heard a knock at his door.

 “Hi! I’m selling long distance phone cards,” a young teen girl said She was dressed in a stylish tracksuit and her hair was done up in two buns above and behind her ears. He could see a bike propped against his letterbox behind her.

 “I just use a credit card,” he responded. He guessed that she came from Lawndale High. He remembered that Ms. Li was sending students on all sorts of fundraising activities.

 “Oh, well, are you really happy with the service?”

 “It’s fine.”

 “I mean, are you really happy?”

 “I don't get you. W-why shouldn't I be?”

 “ I mean, like, are you ever, like, really looking forward to talking to someone, and then you can't hear them because of crackling and static?”

 “Not...” Danny began, but the girl interrupted.

 “I mean, I know that if I were your friend and you were calling me, I'd want to listen to you, not some static. I mean, you have a really nice voice. Your friend should be able to hear it.”

 “They usually, uh...”

 “Just pretend you're calling me.”

 “What?”

 “Really, just try it. My name's Quinn. What's your name?”

 “Danny,” he answered.

 “So, call me, Danny,” Quinn said, imitating a telephone with her hand.

 Feeling silly, Danny imitated the gesture. “Hello? Uh, Quinn?”

 “Danny? Is that you?”

 “Hi! Quinn?”

 “Danny? Is that you?”

 “Hi! Quinn?”

 “Speak up, Danny, I can't hear you.”

 “Hi! Quinn? It's me, Danny.”

 “I've been thinking about you all day. The way your hair falls over your eyes when you laugh. I can't get it out of my head.”

 “Really?”

 “You gotta speak up, Danny. Listen, do you want to come over tonight? My folks went away for the whole weekend.”

 “Yeah! I mean, um, s-sure, Quinn.”

 “Oh, that's okay, Danny, I understand. I'll see if Pete wants to come over.”

 “But I said...”

 “Bye!”

 “Wait!” Danny said.

 “Click!”

 “Click. See what can happen with bad long distance service, Danny?”

 “Whose Pete?” Danny asked.

 “Not important,” Quinn said. “So you want a phone card?”

 “Yes?”

 “Cool!”

  After Quinn had left, Danny looked at the sheet that she had given him alongside the phone card...

 Think Lawndale is filled with mystery?

 You’re not alone.

 Would you like a mystery investigated?

Call Daria: 555-1982

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

Revisiting The REPENTLESS Trilogy As Slayer Bids Thrash Metal Fans Farewell

This week, Slayer headed out on the North American leg of their farewell tour. After playing music for close to 40 years, the kings of thrash metal have decided to wrap it up once and for all (though it’s hard to believe it’s truly over since reunions are all the rage nowadays). The band has always been the center of controversy, exploring themes of Satanism, murder and human violence. The band in its current form is comprised of founding members Tom Araya on bass and Kerry King on lead guitar, with Paul Bostaph on drums and Gary Holt, who took over guitar duties after the passing of Jeff Hanneman in 2013.

In honor of their service, we will be revisiting the Repentless trilogy; three serialized music videos taken from their last album of the same name, which was released in 2015. The ultra-violent videos were directed by BJ McDonnell (who also directed Hatchet III) and star Jason Trost (Hatchet III) in the lead role, alongside Danny Trejo and other notable horror icons. The concept was later adapted into a three-part comic miniseries published by Dark Horse.

    You Against You

  Although it was the second music video to come from the Repentless album, You Against You is meant to be the first chapter of the trilogy. The opening scene zooms out on a bound body stabbed by dozens of knives, inspired by a real-life drug cartel murder. Enter our eye-patched protagonist Wyatt (Jason Trost) who takes a letter from the clutches of the murder victim’s hands. It appears to be a ripped half of photograph of a pregnant woman with a love message and address written on the back. A click of a gun is then heard from the back of Wyatt’s head and that’s when the music comes in. Cut to Slayer, playing among the wreckage of a crashed airplane. Wyatt launches into action, taking on a gang of assassins using the multiple knives from the corpse. For a music video, the fight choreography and special effects are surprisingly top notch. Despite fighting off wave after wave of gunmen, Wyatt is subdued and hogtied by three men in fancy suits, who find the love letter with the address. Wyatt tries to pursue the three men, but is stopped by the police and brought to jail, bringing us to the next chapter.

  Repentless

  The first video to be released off the album. Inside the prison, a guard is making his rounds until he notices a pool of blood coming from an open cell. But before he can call for backup, Wyatt sneaks up and shanks the guard in the neck. Using the guard’s keys, Wyatt opens all the cells on the block, triggering a prison riot. Among the escaped convicts are Danny Trejo and Derek Mears (The Hills Have Eyes II). Slayer plays in the courtyard, protected from the prisoners by a wall of guards in riot gear. Unlike the last chapter, the fighting is messy and chaotic. Heads are smashed against metal bars and throats are slit with makeshift shanks. Carrying the severed head of a fellow convict, a blood-covered Wyatt calmly makes his way back to his cell and slams the bars behind him.

  Pride In Prejudice

  Throughout their career, Slayer has been accused of sympathizing with Nazis. This song was written in response to those accusations, denouncing hate and white supremacy. In this video, Slayer plays in the snowy clearing of a forest, their guitar amps staining the snow with blood. This could be a nod to Norwegian black metal bands, who frequently did video shoots in the woods, some of whom were actually involved in white supremacist activities. The music video opens to Christmas time in a typical American household. A father (played by Bill Moseley) smiles as he watches his children play. But his expression soon changes after receiving news of the prison riot. Meanwhile, Wyatt is sitting in his cell when guards handcuff him and knock him out. He’s transported to a secret neo-Nazi hideout, along with Danny Trejo, where they are brought face to face with the three men in suits from the first chapter. They give Wyatt a knife and instruct him to kill Danny Trejo. When he refuses, the men bring out the pregnant woman (seen in the photograph in Part I) and slit her throat. This sends Wyatt into a psychotic frenzy, stabbing the leader so deep into his gut that he pulls out his intestines. He frees Danny Trejo, who runs upstairs to discover Bill Moseley sitting down for Christmas dinner with his family. The father is killed in front of his children. Luckily the scene cuts away before we see the wife and kids murdered. In the last few scenes, two photographs are revealed; one of Wyatt in uniform with a Swastika behind him, and one of Wyatt holding hands with the pregnant woman. Using this information, the audience can deduce that Wyatt was once part of the neo-Nazi faction, but was disgraced and marked for death for falling in love with a black woman. Holding the body of his dead lover, Wyatt walks out into the unknown.

    Are you seeing Slayer live for the last time? What did you think of the Repentless videos? Leave a comment below and let us know on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and in the Horror Fiends of Nightmare on Film Street Facebook group!

    The post Revisiting The REPENTLESS Trilogy As Slayer Bids Thrash Metal Fans Farewell appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[faithandfairies]

Comparison between OUAT and The Nanny Expanded

The first thing I noticed on The Nanny that reminded me of OUAT was Mr. Sheffield referring to himself as “the ogre that won’t send his daughter to the ball” when he doesn’t want Maggie dating because he doesn’t want her kissing boys. He then continues to refer to himself as an ogre any time he feels his children, particularly Maggie, won’t like his actions/decisions regarding them.

I’ve never heard this expression used anywhere ever. Until this show. So it immediately caught my attention. 

OUAT is full of ogres that want to hurt people. The other thing OUAT is full of, I believe, is symbolism. “It’s a metaphor” is probably a good description of the show.

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As for ogres, Emma even mentions that she might have dated some. 

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Aside from that, both Emma and Henry are confronted with an ogre that wants to kill them on separate occasions. It’s one of the few times Emma doesn’t know how to fight her opponent let alone defeat it and is saved by Snow shooting an arrow in its eye. 

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Emma facing an ogre. There is something very unsettling about this image

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Henry facing an ogre.

I kind of feel like Emma’s confrontation with the ogre parallels Emma facing the snow monster and being saved from it by Regina after it knocks her out. 

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Regina standing up to the snow monster and killing it as Emma is passed out in the dirt and Marian-Zelena looks on

There are instances where Emma and Regina defeat ogre-like creatures together like the Chernabog and the armored snow monster that the Snow Queen sics on them. But I think in most other instances Rumple is the only one who can defeat the actual ogres. He ends up saving Henry when he is faced with one and he also ends the ogre war by killing all of them simply by killing one.There is also the sympathetic ogre story line, where Belle saves an ogre she thinks means no harm and turns against anyone that wants to kill it.

2.There was Mr. Sheffield and Fran slowly falling in love with each other and Niles, the butler, trying to use kitchen-related analogies to make Fran and Mr. Sheffield see that they were in love or at the very least attracted to each other. One in particular stood out. When he compares Fran to the last apple in the basket that he only realized he wanted when Mr. Sheffield sunk his teeth into it. This after Mr. Sheffield wonders why it bothers him that Fran is dating other people. Analogies like this, using apples, have been made on OUAT as well.

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3.Mr. Sheffield being jealous over Fran dating other people when he doesn’t want to move their relationship along. And when Fran confronts him about it he covers it up by saying he’s concerned for the children. Even Niles calls him on it at a later time. On OUAT any time Emma and Regina realize they’re showing care or concern for each other or are downright jealous in the beginning and it feels out of character to them, they say it’s because they’re worried about Henry or doing it for Henry.

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Regina’s jealousy Exhibit A. She ends up blaming it on worrying about Henry. Oh, and this little moment also happens right after Regina’s been passionately talking about the possibility of her and Emma making magic together and Emma flat out rejects her plan in favor of Hook’s. Can’t forget that.

4.The gay episode, Mommy and Mai, on The Nanny.

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Val and Fran on The Nanny. Oh, look, it’s a blonde and a brunette. What do you know. To be fair I don’t think they had any sexual chemistry. But there were certainly a lot of gay references/ hints regardless. 

-In the gay episode we find out Fran and her best friend, Val, adopted a Cambodian baby girl together when they were in High School. Couples’ fights and actual couples’ therapy ensues when the now teenaged girl comes to visit. Fran ends up distraught over her break-up with Val as a result and when she discusses it with her mother her mother assumes that Fran is talking about Mr. Sheffield. There is a LOT of sexual tension between Emma and Regina on OUAT unlike between Val and Fran. And there is also a lot more pointing to a possible past and potential future romantic relationship between the two. Not to mention that they also share a son, that is biologically Emma’s but was adopted by Regina. They also end up fighting a lot over their son.

-On The Nanny there is also Fran’s fear that Mr. Sheffield may be sleeping with her daughter, who is staying at the mansion for a while at that point. She talks about how it couldn’t be since Mr. Sheffield would practically be the girl’s foster father to her mother role. There are a lot of references on OUAT that point to a father figure abusing the trust a young girl put in him.

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She went to him for help. And yet she’s afraid of him. Throughout the show there’s the development: from genuine fear of what he has in store for her...

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to annoyance at his antics. Notice also how she goes from being the picture of pure innocence when she first meets him to eventually being the picture of pure sexiness, seduction and rage. Which she blames on him. On more than one occasion. And he actually takes credit for. On more than one occasion. He literally calls her his version of Frankenstein’s monster and in the Wish!Realm he coaches her back into dressing and acting like the Evil Queen in the span of a few minutes when he believes she’s lost her touch.

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Regina tied up by Rumple in her vault to keep her from helping Emma/saving Emma from him. To get her to help him to hurt Emma instead.

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This happens right around the time Regina is once again trying to save Emma and failing at it because she doesn’t believe in herself and Emma doesn’t believe in her and she simply doesn’t know how to help Emma. Literally the only one who has told her they don’t believe in her at this point is Emma. 

When teaching Emma magic Regina even tells her that Rumple was a bully. We even see Rumple reduce Regina to tears on the show whilst teaching her.

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Decades have past and yet there still seems to be a hint of fear there. And sometimes hate and anger. Another thing I noticed is that The Evil Queen is known for her drag queen make-up, including more often than not lipstick the color of blood. And yet, here, one of the few intimate moments that she looks afraid of Rumple as the Queen, where she’s once again asking him for help, her lipstick is the lightest shade of pink I’ve ever seen on her. It’s almost like a mirror of their first meeting. And I’m not even going to talk about that choker.

-Grandma Yetta keeps calling the butler, Niles, “Neal” in the gay episode on The Nanny, because she’s senile and forgets names. On OUAT Neal is actually the name of the father of Emma and Regina’s son. 

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Neal dying in Emma’s arms as Rumple/Mr. Gold hovers over them. Not so surprisingly we don’t actually know Rumple’s curse first name. Not even Belle, his wife, used it. Ever. She tended to call him by his fairy tale name, Rumple.

Makes me think of how Fran called Maxwell Sheffield Mr. Sheffield for most of the show because it was inappropriate to call him by his first name given their original relationship. When she pretends to be married to him in front of family yet still calls him Mr. Sheffield while doing so even her family calls her on it, commenting “You call your husband Mr. Sheffield?” In fact, the switch to first name basis is a big deal on The Nanny. And at first both Fran and Mr. Sheffield get a perverse sort of satisfaction from it. As if they’re breaking the rules. And even after they’re married they still end up referring to each other as Ms. Fine and Mr. Sheffield when they forget themselves.

But to continue, Neal is also the name of Snow’s baby boy.

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Baby Neal

This also makes me think of how Fran once described Niles as her and Mr. Sheffield’s love child before they ever got together in earnest. The love child that gets to watch his parents fall in love. Niles also once says how it’s always the butler who suffers, I think after one of Fran and Mr. Sheffield’s fights. He’s also the one who suffers most obviously/instantaneously-becomes emotional or excited depending-any time Fran and Mr. Sheffield “split up” or reach a new milestone in their relationship. The first time Fran plans to leave because she’s been proposed to by Danny, her ex-boyfriend, Niles actually cries a good amount. He only cheers up when she makes plans with him to see him often. He also cries happy tears when he finds out that Fran thinks she’s pregnant. And Fran only figures it out when he cries over the tea he’s pouring her and Val, I believe.

Ha, I just realized that the guy Mr. Sheffield almost lost Fran to in earnest was called Danny. Which makes me think of Regina’s Daniel. And the actor who plays Niles is actually called Daniel. Coincidences.

5. Actually, Neal isn’t the only name that comes back on OUAT as that of an important/ recurring character. Mr. Sheffield’s eldest daughter on The Nanny is Maggie, which is short for Margaret. 

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Margaret, The Nanny

I also just remembered that when we meet Maggie she’s this shy, soft spoken, conservative 14-year old girl that pretty much looks like an orphan in her too big tan clothing, with skirts practically reaching to her ankles. It’s with Fran’s influence in her life that her style and self esteem actually improve. They even mention Grace, her little sister’s, improved sense of style due to Fran on the show.

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Mary Margaret, OUAT

Snow’s curse name on OUAT is Mary Margaret.  

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Fran, The Nanny

And considering that The Nanny is actually based off of The Sound of Music, that would make Fran Maria. Which if you think that OUAT used this show as inspiration that would mean somehow Mary Margaret is a combination of Fran and Maggie. When Fran once loses her memory her situation in the family I think it makes her ask whether she once sang on hills sporting a butch haircut.  There’s also Grace. Grace or Gracie is Mr. Sheffield’s youngest daughter. On OUAT Grace is the daughter of Jefferson, The Mad Hatter. A character that appears early on and one of the few child characters to actually recur.

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Grace and her father on OUAT

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Grace on The Nanny

6. Niles, otherwise known as Neal on The Nanny if you ask Yetta, is very invested in Fran and Mr. Sheffield’s future as a couple on The Nanny. He does everything in his power to help them get together romantically, from coaxing Mr. Sheffield into giving Fran her job as The Nanny back any time he fires her to straight up frustratedly clutching Mr. Sheffield’s coat and yelling in his face to get him to act on his feelings for Fran. He does it because he loves them and wants to see them happy but also because Fran becoming Mrs. Sheffield would only work in his favor. No one is as happy as he is when he finds out Fran thinks she’s pregnant. On OUAT Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin, Neal’s father, is also very invested in Snow and Charming’s future (as a couple). Also because that is something that will work in his favor. He’ll get a child out of it, which is what he wants.

7.EDIT

I can’t believe I forgot about this, especially since I made a separate post about it, but The Nanny did an animated Christmas episode with a 28 year curse. Which had C.C., a weather deity, get grumpy for a few days every 28 years and cause a blizzard that kept Santa from delivering his presents. It was actually a metaphor for a menstrual cycle. 

C.C.’s mood also ended up being resolved by her finding true love in the Rain Man. 

The episode also involved Fran briefly taking on the role of a kind of Snow White surrounded by the seven elves, of which Niles was one. And featured an ice palace.

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