Gravitational Phantoms

Chapter Eight

"Hey, watcha watching there?" A voice asked, and somebody leaned over the back of the chair. "Ooh, the first Dead Teacher. Oh, hey Danny! Nice to see you feeling a little better."
Danny looked up, straight into Wendy's eyes. She grinned.
"My shift is over, so I figured that I would come see what these little nutjobs have been up to." She rubbed the top of Dipper and Mabel's heads.
"We were just making fun of bad movies together," Mabel explained.
"Before we forget," Dipper said. "You need to change Danny's bandages."
"Why can't Stan or Ford do it?" The redhead asked.
"They're both busy."
Wendy sighed. "Fine, but you have to get the supplies."
Mabel led Danny to the bathroom, and had him sit on the floor while she rooted through the cabinets under the sink. Wendy sat beside the young hybrid, with Dipper next to her. When Mabel finally produced the bandages, she was also brandishing a pair of scissors that gleamed in the light. Danny flinched away.
"It's okay," Wendy reassured him. "It's just to cut off the knot I made."
Danny backed up as far as he could, spine pressed against the wall of the bathtub. He was shaking visibly.
"I don't-hurt-please-I can't-I don't want to-," he stammered, trying to form a coherent sentence.
"It won't hurt," Mabel said quietly.
"Don't worry, Phantom," Agent X spat. "This won't hurt."
The saw broke through Danny's rib, and he screamed in agony. There were hands reaching into his body, fingers probing through his organs.
His back arched in pain, and Danny wished that he would die.
Wendy gently set her hand on Danny's arm, removing it when he curled away.
"You don't have to watch," Dipper told him. "It'll just take a second."
Danny shivered and coward away, eyes flickering neon green. Dipper's own eyes went wide with excitement for a moment, before he decided that now was not the time to ask about the Halfa's iris color.
Wendy carefully hooked her fingers underneath the hem of Danny's shirt, and by extension the sweater on top of it. The hybrid froze in terror.
"It's all right," Wendy whispered. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to take your shirt off. Is that okay? Nothing is going to hurt you, I promise."
"P-promise?" Danny whimpered. "Yes."
The ghost boy relaxed slightly, and allowed the redhead to remove his shirt. He stiffened again when Wendy took the scissors from Mabel and brought them closer to his skin. Danny let out a small squeak of fright, but he didn't make a move to escape, even when the older girl snipped the blades against the knotted white cloth.
Wendy slowly unwound his bandages, taking the fresh ones from Dipper and re-wrapping the Halfa's torso. When it was done, Mabel grinned.
"See? All done!"
Dipper studied Danny's face for a second. Why had he calmed down when Wendy had promised not to hurt him? There must have been a story behind that. Maybe when Danny was better he could ask.
Mabel helped the teenager to his feet.
"Come on," she said. "Let's go finish our movie."
The brunette led Danny from the room, leaving Dipper and Wendy alone in the bathroom. The two packed the medical supplies away in comfortable silence.
"Does Danny know that we know about him being a Halfa?" Wendy asked.
"I don't think so. The last people that found out are probably the ones that cut him open," the male twin answered.
"We should tell him soon. It might make him feel a little bit better about trusting us."
"But it might actually do the opposite," Dipper pointed out. "If we tell somebody else, they might try to hurt him. One wrong word to the wrong person and bam," he mimed an explosion with his hand. "His whole life could be over."
"True," Wendy agreed. "Do you think we should go save him from your sister?"
"It's probably in our best interests. We don't need her corrupting him."
As it turned out, they did sort of need to hold an intervention. Mabel was draped across Danny's back, chattering on about something random while the hybrid listened in confusion. The twelve-year-old seemed oblivious to the fact that her friend was completely lost in the one-sided conversation.
Dipper laughed. "What are you even talking about?"
His sister beamed. "I was just telling Danny about how I won Waddles at the fair!"
Dipper gaped at her. "Um, are you sure that that's a good idea?"
"Don't worry," Mabel assured him. "I didn't say anything about Blendin."
Wendy gave him a look out of the corner of her eye. "Blendin?"
"Uh, nothing! Blendin is just this weird guy that we met."
Danny frowned. These people had a lot of secrets, even though they were so nice. And didn't they trust Wendy? Why wouldn't they tell her who this Blendin guy was?
And how was Mabel so heavy?
Danny tried to push her off, but the kid clung to him like a mussel. Or a starfish.
Somebody marched into the room. Danny looked up and leaned away slightly. He didn't like people to be too high above him. Especially when they were probably stronger than they looked.
"Dipper, there's a person here to see you," Stan announced.
"Who?" The brunet asked, puzzled.
"Northwest," Stan grumbled. "Don't ask me why. She's just lucky I haven't decided to throw her out yet."
Dipper glanced at Danny.
"Are you ready to meet another person? She might insult you, we're still working on manners to people that aren't rich."
"H-how old is sh-she?"
"Dipper and I's age," Mabel spoke up. "Her name's Pacifica. Pacifica Northwest. Her whole entire family is a bunch of jerks. She used to be one, but only because her parents made her treat everyone like dirt."
"Yeah, and she's waiting outside like some kind of lost puppy." Stan said. "Either let her in or tell her to go away. I vote go away."
Wendy raised her hand. "I second the motion."
"Come on, she's not that terrible. Well, not anymore." said Dipper.
"Only because she totally has a crush on you!" Mabel sang. Her brother blushed scarlet.
"Oh, come on. That's not true," he protested.
"She loves you! Love love love love!" Mabel bounced off of Danny's back and pointed at her brother.
"Seriously?" Dipper huffed.
"I have to agree with Dipper on this one," Stan said. "There is no way on earth that anyone would have a crush on any of that." He pointed at his great-nephew.
"Thank you! Wait a minute," he glared as the rest of what Stan had said sunk in.
"Yeah, you're way too much of a nerd," a new voice said. Danny's head snapped up.
There was a girl with golden blond hair and blue eyes standing in the doorway. She wore nice clothes and had shoes that looked like the kind a person who spent most of their time at a party would wear. Her voice kind of sounded like a stereotypical valley girl's, and one of her hands was on her hip. All in all, she looked like the anti-Sam.
Soos stuck his head around the edge of the doorframe.
"Uh, Pacifica was just standing outside the door, so I let her in. Should I have done that?"