Gravitational Phantoms: After the Storm

Chapter Twenty Three (Recovery (Part Four)

I don't know how to dedicate chapters... But this chapter is dedicated to taykatherine!

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Dani sat on the edge of the couch, wearing a newer set of clothes similar to what she had been wearing before. The only difference was that these ones actually fit, and were far cleaner than her old ones.

"Are you sure that it's okay if I sleep down here?" The ghost girl asked her "cousin" and his friend.

Mabel nodded, fluffing up a pillow. "Yep. Unless you want to sleep up in the attic with us, there's no other room with a bed or a couch in it that you can sleep in. I mean, there's the couch outside, but this is better."

"Okay, but only if you're positive." Dani watched as Mabel did something complicated with a blanket to fold it. Danny seemed to be attempting something similar, with less successful results.

Mabel leaned back a bit on her heels to admire her blanket and sheet handiwork. "There! That should do it. We have an extra toothbrush if you need it."

Dani nodded. It had been way too long since she last brushed her teeth, and she could feel a gross film growling over her teeth with her tongue. "Yes, please."

Mabel smiled and grabbed her hand, pulling her up the stairs and leaving Danny behind with a small shout of, "Go to sleep!"

The thirteen year old girl knocked on the bathroom door. "Dippingsauce? You almost done in there?"

Dipper pushed the door open from the inside. "Yes, actually."

He squeezed past them and slipped into the attic room. Dani frowned slightly down the hall after him before she noticed that there was a door not far from the one that led to the place where the twins said that they slept.

"What's in that room?" She asked, pointing to the door.

Mabel looked at it, her smile fading as a shadow crossed her face. "Nothing. Just-just a storage closet."

Dani immediately noticed that she was lying, but didn't say anything.

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Dani sat bolt upright on her makeshift bed as a scream ripped through the house.

She stayed still for a moment and listened, before springing out of the chair/bed when it came again.

It sounded like someone was being murdered.

It sounded like... Danny.

Dani let the transformation happen, bright white ring encircling her waist and inverting the colors of her hair and eyes. Her feet lifted off of the floor, and the cold trickle of intangibility sank through her.

She floated up through the floor silently so as not to alarm whatever was attacking-there!

Wait a minute. Nothing was attacking Danny, although her sort-of cousin was thrashing and crying out on the bed, limbs tangled in the sheets.

A nightmare.

Just as Dani was alighting on the ground so that she could try to wake him up, the door opened.

The man from before, the one who went down behind the vending machine-Ford, that's right, his name was Ford-stood there, still wearing his trech coat.

As the Halfa watched, he started to loudly call Danny's name along with some other things, reassurances that he was okay, that he had escaped, that nobody could hurt him now.

But he didn't actually physically touch the ghost boy at all, and Dani soon saw why.

Danny shot awake with a yell, eyes and palms glowing with neon green energy. He twisted frantically, trying to escape from someone invisible to everyone but him.

That was when Ford moved, carefully setting his hands on his shoulders and murmuring quietly to Danny.

"You're okay," he said softly, like he was talking to an injured animal that wasn't used to human contact. "You'll be alright. They aren't here. They can't get you now. It's safe here. Nothing can get through the wards without permission. It'll be okay, Danny. I promise, you'll be alright."

Dani crept forward hesitantly, moving even slower when Danny's head snapped around to look at her. "It's just me," she said, still unused to the idea that he wouldn't recognize her. "I came up when I heard the shouting."

Ford nodded to her. "Come closer, it will probably help."

The ghost girl obeyed, gently patting Danny's hand.

"Hey," she began. "Um, are you okay? I didn't mean to sca-startle you. I just thought that you were in trouble, 'cause I heard some screaming..."

She trailed off uncertainly. Danny looked her up and down with green-speckled blue eyes.

"Dani?"

She nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Can I see your eyes?"

The question caught the female Halfa off-guard, and she blinked slowly before looking over at Ford in confusion.

"Uh... Okay," she agreed at the man's nod of approval.

Danny cupped her cheeks and tilted her face, staring deep into her glowing green irises in a way that was, quite frankly, really weird and creepy. After about thirty seconds, he let go-and immediately crushed her ribs in a poweful hug.

"You're real," he mumbled into her hair. "I thought that you weren't real, but you are."

"Er, yep," Dani agreed awkwardly, squirming a bit. "I'm real."

"And you're not in any danger of destabilization or dissolving into goop or anything like that anymore, right?" Danny asked.

His clone wondered if he had genuinely forgotten the answers to all of these questions. "No, I won't destabilize. Promise. You made sure of that."

"What about Vlad? Did he follow you?"

Dani stiffened. "I-I don't know," she admitted. "But I don't think so. Unless..."

Unless he sent Skulker. Unless he's watching us right now. Unless he hasn't quite given up on having you as his son. Unless he still wants to destroy me.

Ford gave her the Look that usually only an adult can give, the kind that says You're Going To Tell Me What Is Going On Right Now. The only person that had ever given her that look before and not meant it in a bad way was Danny, and that had been when he found her reading on his bed.

It put Dani on the defensive.

"He followed you?" Danny's grip on the front of her two-piece hazmat suit (what was the purpose of that, anyways?) tightened before going slack.

That was when Dani noticed the bandages peeking out from under his shirt. Instinctively, she reached out to touch them, only for her genetic (almost) identical to flinch back and move his arms to cover them-to protect them.

"What happened?" Dani breathed.

Danny twisted his upper body around, and Dani noticed just how glazed over and unfocused his eyes were. "Is Vlad coming? I can't let him-!"

"No," Ford said calmly, although it was clearly a mask. "No, he isn't. You're safe here, and so are the twins. So is Dani. If something tries to get through the wards around the house without me knowing about it somehow, Dipper or Mabel will be able to take care of it."

Dani pulled back and leaned against the wall.

Vlad was coming, wasn't he? She'd doomed them both.