Ghosts Don't Exist

Chapter 5: A Dress In Patches

Danny and Tim sat beside one another on Danny's hospital bed. Tim was feeding Danny as he held a tablet showing a shopping site. A number of little girl dresses littered the screen and Danny was loving it. How could you not love such lovely dresses?

A young girl in black clothes was smiling at Danny but that's all he could see. Her nose and up were blurred out. Her hair was pulled back in a short ponytail. He blushed when her smile widened. Even with little evidence of who she was, Danny felt very close to her. She was familiar in a way that made him happy. She held a present out to him wrapped in princess wrapping paper and had a red ribbon tied on the top. "Go on, open it, " she said, her voiced echoed. Danny started ripping it open and was greeted with a bright blue silk dress. It had ruffles making it bounce which Danny loved in any dress he wore. It had a big silver ribbon that tied around the waist and popped its bow in the back. The sleeves popped and had grey lace with fake flowers sone to them. Flowers of faded pink and yellow were sone to the end that bopped. He couldn't help but smile. He started crying.

He had seen this dress in a store window downtown. He had asked his parents to get it for him but it was 800 dollars and they couldn't afford it.

"Wait! There's more to it." —— said and a slightly taller boy held a proud smile. His nose and up were also blurred. He wore purple braces and was missing a tooth. He held a present out, though slightly smaller, wrapped in bright yellow and purple wrapping paper. Danny eagerly ripped the paper apart and quickly took the top off.

A short tan round hat sat inside. White lace with a flower design wrapped around tied into a big playful like bow. Small fabric Bluebells were stitched to it. A pair of polished black dress shoes sat neatly beside one another. "My mom had bought the hat from a thrift store and when she heard that --- was getting you a dress, she decorated it for you," he said. Danny wiped his eyes as tears streamed. He had been asking for this dress for weeks on end. Danny looked up as --- mother and her nose up were blurred, but that smile expressed unacceptance.

Danny knew --- mother did not approve of him wearing girl clothing or owning girl accessories. Though, she had got him that dress out of --- constant whining. It was a pretty dress, she'd give him that, he knew fashion when he saw it.

"Thank you."

Danny remembered that dress, he wore it the day of the... he couldn't remember but he was scared of it. The dress was burned around the rim and had holes in it. The hat was scorched only leaving a fabric Bluebell being slowly eaten by a flame. He really liked that dress, he wore it at least once a week. Sure, Dash had put in his schedule "9:00 am bully Danny for his dress" for his Monday mornings.

Dash... that name was oddly familiar. It left him slightly uncomfortable, annoyed, embarrassed, and unsafe. He was thought of in great detail: Bleach blonde hair, a strongly featured face, wore a faded nice dark blue jacket, and new sneakers. He wore a shining smile that Danny never was given personally, he got giggles and snickers (not the candy). However, those bright blue charming eyes were popping, that's what he always noticed when he'd be greeted by Dash.

"Oh, look at this one, it's really pretty!" Tim said showing Danny the tablet. Danny was torn from his thoughts and he looked over at the tablet to see a bright yellow dress. It had Sunflowers printed onto it and a slightly darker yellow silk ribbon tied around the waist. It was a wonderful looking dress and he loved it. Short frills peeked from the bottom and had faded Sunflowers printed on them, but it was obvious that they wanted full attention on the yellow layer. A small optional straw tightly woven hat seemed appropriate to him. It had a dark yellow ribbon tied around the semi-circle. It was eye catching.

"I like this one," he whispered. Tim smiled softly and ruffled Danny's hair. Danny wasn't like other kids. Or more specifically, boys.

Danny liked dresses, Tim was fine with that, he's was more worried about how Damian would act. Damian was forced into a dress when he was little and concluded that he hated dresses. He had built himself on gender roles.

Men wore pants and women wore skirts.

Then again, Damian knew of no man or boy who chose to dress himself in women's clothing. The only person that Tim could think of that knew any cross dressing people were Joker and Kid Flash. Granted, Kid Flash knew a lot of people considering his friendly nature.

Bruce was taking things rather well. He had gone online and ordered a dozen dresses of different sizes, colors, styles, etc. They would be here today since they were from Wayne Enterprises and he owned the company.

"There are different colors!" Danny said excitedly, pressing different font colors, some made him gasp, and he smiled happily. "Oh, look when you change the color to blue, Bluebells are on it instead of Sunflowers. Can I get this one?" he asked showing the tablet's screen to Tim. Tim looked at Danny's face and he chuckled. Danny was beaming with excitement and his tapping foot said he was trying to contain it. The flickering between blue and green eyes, his injured leg faded between appearance and disappearance, and his fingers had small strings and green plasma swirl around them. "Sure Danny," he said and clicked the add to cart icon. Danny squealed and accidentally changed to his ghost form, he didn't seem to notice though.

Tim did, he hadn't seen Danny in his ghost form, but Bruce and Pennyworth constantly talked about it. He couldn't help but admire Danny's changed features. A black hazmat suit that was tight around the body than baggy as one would expect. He wore grey boots that looked tight around his calves, and a pair of grey gloves that seemed comfortable. White hair, snow-white hair. It was messy and dirty as was the rest of him but Danny probably didn't know what water looked like any longer.

Bruce had investigated the research facility after the workers left in a rush having been found. There were no bathrooms open to the abused, or any water-related objects. He found files meant to be hidden in a locked filing cabinet. There was a note sloppily written and reading 'I grabbed these for Batman. You need to see these. Please, their gonna kill me for this. They don't know they're here.' Danny was one of their favorites, they loved his genes and his advanced healing. They would repeatedly take his organs out and watch them regrow, they'd take blood and attempt to inject it into other people, they would study his magical ability and their lasting effects, etc. His first experiment was shock therapy. In an attempt to get him to forget about who he used to be, they shocked him for two hours. Bruce was surprised to see Danny alive and somewhat sane after that. There were tapes of experiments, recordings of conversations with Danny, and photos of results. Bruce was absolutely pissed when he got back. Danny was in his care now and he wasn't leaving anytime soon. Tim had to agree with Bruce even though Bruce refused to let Tim look at the photos, listening to the recordings, or watch the tapes. Pennyworth had come upon the photo while cleaning the Batcave and he also looked pissed. It took a lot to set him off so Tim knew those were some bad photos. Still, his curiosity didn't cease.

Danny yawned and he leaned on Tim. Two rings appeared changing Danny back to his human form and he looked tired. "Tim..." he said. Tim looked down. "Hm?" he hummed pulling the blanket over Danny. "I wonder what you look like in a dress. I bet you'd be pretty too." Danny said and fell asleep. Tim chuckled and ran his fingers through Danny's hair.

Jeez, this kid.