Time Passages (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

5. Princeton, We Have a Problem

Julia

My fingers ticked on the wall I was leaning against.  Behind the curtain where we were, I could hear the dull mumble of people chatting among themselves, waiting for Stuart to be introduced.  I looked at my watch, growing more antsy by the minute.  Those two should be back by now, I said to myself.  Stu's getting ready to begin!

"Are K and the kid still touring the building?" Stuart asked over his shoulder while he carefully monitored one of his assistants as he set up the projector and made sure the timing of the slides and such were still coherent with his speech.  Stuart was a planner to an almost fanatical degree- a very disciplined, meticulous man, who timed and rehearsed everything, all the way down to the verbal pauses in his speech to ensure there weren't too many, and that they didn't last too long.

"As far as I know.  Nobody's responding to my texts.  Think I'll call Danny, hopefully he didn't put his phone on silent again."  So I dialed my son's number, crossed my fingers.  You better not be playing the Phantom, Danny.  It's not funny right now.

The "Danny Phantom" nickname actually happened well before he ever saw the cartoon. Ever since he was little, Danny had had a nasty habit of just sneaking away and running off all of a sudden to go do whatever it was that had possessed him to do.

Once I lost him in a three-level department store when he was two and a half years old. I turned my back on him for four seconds, and when I looked again, he was gone. I had the half the store staff scouring each floor while I bit my nails with worry and blew through everything I thought might conceal a toddler, until finally, forty-five minutes later, I saw his big black eyes peeping at me from behind one of those mirrored pillars. He ducked away again, and giggled- but he'd been spotted. My heart beating again, I reached around and yanked him into view, unsure whether I was so mad I could kill him, or so relieved that I could die.

But before I could do either one, he cried, "Boo!"

I practically took him by the scruff. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" I shouted, not expecting an answer.

But I got one. "I'm a ghost.  Boo!"

"A ghost...?" I repeated the word incredulously.

"Yah," he nodded, his grin clearly telling me how unfazed he was by my anger. "Scare you?"

"Scare me? SCARE ME? God, I was worried sick! I thought I lost you- What if something happened to you, Danny? Someone could have just- Don't you ever run away and hide from me again, do you understand me? Don't you ever ever ever ever..."

I tried to keep sounding angry, but the sight of his precious smile faltering under my words cut me to the quick.

Softening, I bent toward him and said a little more gently, "Sweetie, if you run away from me, something really bad can happen- and that would make me cry. Do you want Mommy to cry?"

He shook his head. "Nuh-uh."

"Then don't run away from me."

Then he wrapped his little arms around my neck and cooed, "'Kay."

That kid knew what he was doing, and he wasn't even three yet. I cratered.

Scooping him up in my arms, I held the boy close to me and whispered, "I love you, you little monster.... you horrible, wonderful little Danny Phantom."

And here he was now, nine years old, and still living the name.

The cell kept ringing, and I was growing more and more anxious, Mom instincts kicking in at full throttle.  Come on, Daniel-san, pick up.