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It's not until a week later that Danny sees Joyce Byers again. It's in the park at noon when he's walking Roxy, and Joyce is just sitting on a bench eating a sandwich and doing nothing else, so naturally, he approaches the beautiful woman.
"Well, I'll be damned." He says humorously when he's already next to her. Joyce looks startled for a second before realizing who's talking to her and a smile comes to her face.
"Hey there, cowboy!" She jokes and gives him a hearty salute, and Danny's smile grows bigger. Their staring is interrupted by a yelp in between Danny's feet. "Hi, girl!" Joyce gushes at the sight of the pitbull puppy and starts to pet her.
Roxy seems happy with the attention she's getting and she starts to jump and yelp cheerfully, Danny feels like his face is hurting from how much he's smiling.
"What're you doing eating here all alone?" Danny asks when Roxy has finally calmed down a little bit.
"It's my lunchtime!" She answers and holds her sandwich above her head to show it to him. "I'm working at Marvin's General Store." She adds and it's right there that he noticed that she is indeed wearing a button-up with the store's name and logo. "Shouldn't you be working?" She asks him but it doesn't hold any malice and he can clearly see that Joyce is slightly worried.
So Danny does what he does best and laughs it off. "Was having problems with the hip this morning and the boss kinda made me take the day off." He says and points at his aching hip. Joyce looks at him with furrowed eyebrows and she's looking at his hip like it just said something horrible about her and Danny feels strange.
"Shouldn't you be resting then?" She asks finally looking at Danny's eyes but her eyebrows are still crumbled downwards.
Danny feels hypnotized by her big, brown eyes that he almost forgets to answer. "Oh, Nah. Walking helps," He reassures her but Joyce still looks worried. "Really!"
It seems for a second that Joyce won't let it go but Danny really doesn't want to tell her that he takes pills for the pain because it's weird and he's not that old to be taking medication, but Joyce does let it go and she smiles up to him and the sun is shining on her and Danny thinks she's an angel.
It's then that the silence gets interrupted by the ringing of Joyce's watch. "Oh!" She says surprised as she turns off the alarm. "Gotta go. Duty calls!" She jokes and he's already up from her seat. Joyce wraps a hand around Danny's bicep and the touch is so warm that Danny might faint right there. "Have a nice day, Danny. And be careful of that hip." She tells him and she's already off before Danny can thank her.
And it's just at that moment that he realizes that he might be catching feelings for Joyce Byers.
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Danny feels awful. It's still light outside and he feels like his hip is getting stabbed and the pain is unbearable. He can hear the kids in their own room doing their stuff and he finds some sort of comfort in that but the pain is the only thing his mind can focus on, he wishes that he could take another painkiller but he already took one half an hour ago.
He grunts as he changes his posture on the sofa, finding one where his hip is not killing him. The pain that shoots through his body is enough for Danny's breath to stop and he thinks that he might have broken something by just moving but after a couple of minutes, he can move again and decides to just lie on his back.
It's in moments like this that his mind begins to wander into forbidden territory, the pain is too strong to ignore and it reminds him of the crash and now Danny's mind is repeating the accident over and over again and he just hates it so much.
He remembers the car ride, it was nighttime and they both were picking Jasper up from a friend's house. Half of the ride was as usual as always, with Jasper chatting happily and Lillian listening with her body twisted so she could watch her son. It was when they were halfway that a car appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the Moore's. Danny doesn't really remember but the cops told him that the car did a couple of bells turns which ended with the car totally ruined and him hanging from his seat. The only thing he could see was blood and glass and he thanked God when he heard the ambulance sirens. He remembers pleading with the paramedics to check on his son and wife first and he still remembers vividly the way his stomach fell when he didn't get a response.
He remembers that he had to stay at the hospital for a couple of weeks and they had to operate on his hip a couple of times. Those weeks were spent crying and being drugged, so he doesn't really recall anything from his stay at the hospital.
He remembers. And that's the worst of it all.
His wheel of thoughts was interrupted by a shake of his body, and as he opened his eyes, he saw that it was Scott. His older son was staring down at him with his glasses at the tip of his nose and Danny was sure that if Scott moved forward a little bit, they would fall on his face.
"I made dinner." He announces and Danny furrows his brows because, how long has he been resting? but it's not really that important because he just looks at his son and a sense of pride flows through him and he smiles up at Scott and pats his shoulder when he gets up.
"Thanks, kiddo," Danny whispers to the boy, who just beams at him, and leads him to the kitchen, where Marla is already sitting with a plate of veggies and a piece of meat in front of her.
And Danny realizes that whatever happened in the past doesn't matter anymore, because he has his kids there, sitting happily and eating well, and it's the only thing that really matters to him.
an
every time i write danny, my love for him goes 📈📈
anyways, here's some backstory!! plus angsty!danny uwu
hope you all enjoyed it!! please leave a vote and comments, it would mean the world to me!!!
