The Line Between Living and Dying

The Opposite of Well-Adjusted

Over the next few days, Dani hid out in her apartment. Her ankle hurt too much to walk and she didn't have to work for the next few weeks anyway so took some mental health days.

Dani was in the middle of watching her tenth Disney movie of the day, eating from a tub of ice cream (which took her a while for her to gather up the courage to do after the drowning fiasco) when someone knocked on her door.

"Come in." Dani hollered, trusting that it was someone she knew wanting inside her apartment.

Unfortunately, it was Michael who walked in. "Really? You don't even answer the door anymore?"

Dani shifted slightly so that she could face her father. "I'm supposed to stay off my foot."

"What happened to your foot?" Michael questioned, sitting down next to his daughter on her couch.

"A tattoo." Dani moved the ice pack resting on her ankle to show her dad. "It still hurts a little to walk but I think that I should be good by tomorrow.

"You got a tattoo? Why?" Michael furrowed his eyebrows.

Dani shrugged. "I was out hoping to get drunk but ran into a guy I met at a bar about a week ago. We got to talking and went on an impromptu date that led us to a tattoo parlor."

"Dani," Michael sighed, "You drowned the other day. No one would blame you if you were freaked out and wanted time to deal. You didn't have to get a tattoo so that you'd have an excuse to stay home."

"That's not why I got it." Dani denied, feeling offended. "I got it because it reminded me of Mom."

"Maybe that's part of it, but you can't deny what happened," Michael said softly. He knew his daughter well and something about her rash decision to get a tattoo didn't sit right with him. "Drowning is traumatic. Even if you are immortal. You don't have to pretend like you're fine."

"But I am fine, Dad." Dani insisted.

"Dani--"

"No." Dani cut Michael off. "I don't want to hear what you have to say anymore." She stood up, placing all her weight on her good foot. "Just go."

Michael begrudgingly stood up. "I have let this go on long enough. When you're ready to talk, you know where to find me." He told his daughter sternly before walking out.

Dani watched her dad leave with a clenched jaw. She couldn't believe that her father was accusing her of deflecting her emotions. She felt that she was dealing with everything perfectly fine.

* * *

The next day, Dani's foot had healed enough that she was able to walk to Jitters for a morning coffee. She breathed in the delicious scent of her favorite coffee shop with a smile, forgetting about the troublesome conversation she had with her father the previous day.

While she waited in line to order, a soft and gentle hand landed on Dani's shoulder. The sudden physical contact scared Dani, making her jump.

"Oh my god, sorry!" Cheyanne failed to stifle her laughter.

"What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?" Dani sighed, hugging her best friend who she hadn't seen for almost a week at that point.

"I didn't mean to." Cheyanne defended, gladly hugging Dani back. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you at S.T.A.R. Labs for days."

"I've been at home."

"Dani, I heard about what happened, but that doesn't mean you should become a recluse," Cheyanne said before Dani could continue talking.

"Okay, first off, I'm not a recluse. I was home because I got a tattoo on my ankle and it was still sore until today and second, why does everybody think I'm terrified of the world?" Dani ranted.

"Because you went through something terrible and since when do you get tattoos?" Cheyanne questioned.

"Since I saw one that reminded me of my mother and I'm fine. I'm not traumatized." Dani insisted.

"Oh, come on Dani. This is classic you behavior." Cheyanne rolled her eyes at her ignorant friend.

"Classic me behavior?" Dani scoffed. "What does that even mean?"

"It means that sometimes you are so afraid of what you're feeling that you mask it with anger and get unnecessarily defensive when someone calls you out on it."

"You know what? I'm not really in the mood for coffee anymore. See ya." Dani walked around Cheyanne, storming out of Jitters.

Cheyanne silently cursed the brunette. She loved Dani to death but sometimes she had a way of testing that love.

"What happened with you two?" Zander walked up to Cheyanne, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Your sister is being a bitch like she always is when she's avoiding emotions." Cheyanne snapped.

"What could she be avoiding now?" Zander took a sip of his coffee.

"You didn't hear?" Cheyanne furrowed her eyebrows. "She drowned the other day. And from what she told Barry, it was pretty traumatic but she's acting like nothing even happened."

"How do you know what she told Barry?"

"He told me so that I knew what I was getting into when he asked me to check up in her. Big mistake." Cheyanne shook her head. "I just wished that there was something we could do to make her get all of that anger out so she can have a good cry or something."

Zander's eyebrows flew up, a brilliant idea forming in his mind. "You know, I have this friend-- a psychologist that sometimes helps out at the precinct with traumatized witnesses and such... She might know what to do about Dani."

"Great." Cheyanne perked up. "Call her." She gestured toward Zander.

"Wh-- right now?" Zander asked.

"Yes right now! Dani needs help now!"

Zander rolled his eyes, begrudgingly digging his phone out of his pocket and dialing his friend. He waited a few seconds for the friend to pick up. A smile spread across his face as he greeted them. "Hey, Victor. How's it going?"

A few seconds passed by of Cheyanne staring at Zander, waiting for him to ask Victor for help. Zander squirmed under her gaze as he waited for his chance to talk.

"That's great," Zander responded to whatever answer he had gotten about Victor's well-being. "Hey, I was wondering if you could do me a favor... yeah, it's, uh, my sister. We kinda need her to have an emotional breakthrough."

Zander talked with Victor for a few more minutes before hanging up.

"Well?" Cheyanne asked expectantly. "What'd he say?"

"He said that he thought a rage room would help." Zander scoffed, thinking their plan was too insane to work. "He wants us to meet him at one across town with Dani tonight."

"A rage room?" Cheyanne furrowed her eyebrows. "What is that?"

"Basically a place where you pay to smash things." Zander chuckled at Cheyanne's perplexed expression. "Yeah, I know. It sounds weird but Victor is good at what he does. I've seen him get some pretty traumatized people to talk about their past and what made them traumatized when no one else could. If anyone can get Dani to talk, it's him."

A/N: I'm back!!! So first off, this chapter is really just a filler/bridge chapter for the next one which both take place in episode 1x06 of The Flash. I'm very excited for the next chapter though. Speaking of which, with all of the school work I've been assigned, I've decided to start an update schedule so I can have enough time to write when the workload gets heavy. So every Sunday there will be an update unless my computer crashes or something.

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and please vote and comment! It's very encouraging and gets me motivated.