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Danny stared at Dash. Dash stared back. For a few seconds neither of them moved.
“You’re Phantom,” Dash stuttered out.
An ectoblast landed next to Danny’s foot. An echoing screech sounded from the entrance of the alley. As horrifying as this reveal was, he did not have time to deal with it.
Danny flew over to Dash and grabbed him by the shoulder, lifting him slightly and hiding them behind a dumpster.
“Look,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure the ghost wasn’t already there, “I know this is a shock, but you need to get out of here.”
“But Phantom, you’re Fenton,” Dash said. The sound of something hard and sharp against metal screeched from only a few feet away.
“We’ll talk later, just–” There was a rush of air as the dumpster lifted. There was a rush of cold air. Danny felt Dash tense in his grip. They didn’t have time for this.
“Sorry,” he blurted out before phasing Dash through the wall of the nearest building. He thought there might have been an arcade on the other side. Dash would be fine. And hopefully Danny could track him down before he spilled his secret.
In the meantime, well – Danny stared at the nine foot tall ice creature in front of him. It had destroyed half a playground. People had been hurt. Kids had been hurt. He needed to deal with this now.
It took a swing at his face, Danny dodged and lobbed an ectoblast at it which barely did anything. The fight was on.
That had taken longer than Danny had wanted. Almost half an hour by the time Danny had managed to get it in the thermos. That was bad even by his normal standards. The fact it had lasted that long just after Dash found out, well, Danny was maybe panicking a little.
Realistically, he could have gone anywhere, but Danny could at least hope Dash had decided to just hide in the building he had shoved him into. After all, shelter in place was the recommendation for most ghost fights, even if people usually ended up running anyway. Maybe Dash had actually followed the recommendation
Danny phased through the front door of what was definitely an arcade. It was closed and the doors were locked, which was almost certainly for the best.
“Dash?” he called as he touched down even as he very consciously decided to remain Phantom. Dash respected Phantom, he didn’t respect Fenton. Danny wasn’t sure how that might change.
There was what might have been a whimper from further in the building. Danny might be lucky. Dash might still be there. “Dash?” he called again, “Are you here?”
This time what could only be described as a moan echoed back. The hairs on the back of Danny’s neck stood on end. Dash was dramatic, but not that dramatic, and usually there were words. Danny started towards the sounds.
“Dash?” he called, nervousness seeping into his voice, “Are you okay?”
The next sound was definitely a sob. Danny took off running. Something was very wrong.
As he rounded the corner, Danny’s heart stopped even as he breathed a sigh of relief. Dash was leaning against a wall near the back of the arcade, right next to one of the turned off machines. He was fine. With his head down like that, it almost looked like he’d dozed off. He must have been waiting.
“Hey,” Danny said, forcing calm into his voice “You had me worried there, thanks for waiting.” Danny put his hand on the back of his neck in nervous habit. “Look, we need to talk. I know we don’t have the best history, but I’m sure we can sort this out.” Danny hoped at least.
Dash looked up and Danny froze. Dash’s eyes were cloudy and his face had a sheen of sweat that didn’t match the cool air of the arcade. Danny took a step closer and Dash flinched back. As he did so, he let out a yelp of pain and his arm jerked unnaturally.
Danny’s eyes widened. Dash wasn’t leaning against the wall, he was trapped in it. His left elbow and forearm suddenly cut off like a video game character clipping. Danny winced in sympathy.
When he’d first gotten his powers, Danny had gotten stuck in so many places. One of his feet would go through the floor or his arm would go through whatever he was leaning on and it sucked, especially those first few times when it took him a few minutes to get out. It must have absolutely sucked for Dash to be stuck like that for almost a half hour, especially since it looked like his position was putting strain on his shoulder.
Danny grimaced. At least fixing it should be simple.
“Hey Dash,” Danny said, hoping to avoid startling him again, “I’m going to come over and help get your arm out, okay?”
Dash’s glassy eyes cleared for a second, “Phantom?” he asked, voice slurring.
Danny nodded as he walked forward. “Yeah,” he confirmed, “It’s me, I’ll, uh, buy you something from Nasty Burger to make up for this.”
“It hurts,” Dash whimpered, his voice still slurred. He must have really wrenched his shoulder.
Danny put his hand on the wall. It was sticky. He grimaced. Apparently nowhere was safe from that in arcades.
Danny grabbed Dash’s wrist in one hand and used the other to make the wall intangible. Dash howled. Danny dropped both Dash’s arm and the wall like they were on fire. There was something very, very wrong.
Danny felt at the wall again. Still sticky. He looked at his hand. Bright red stood out starkly against the white of his glove. Danny looked at Dash’s face, his glassy eyes and waxy skin. Dash wasn’t just in pain because he was stuck in an awkward position.
He was in pain because his arm was merged with the wall.
Danny felt the urge to vomit and forcibly swallowed it down. His own panic could wait. Dash needed help now.
Danny took a deep breath, ignoring the way that he could now smell the copper from the blood on the wall. Had that always been there, or was it just from Danny trying to get Dash out. No, he could think about that later, now he had to focus.
What was the first thing you were supposed to do in an emergency? Call 911. Okay, Danny could do that. But, he needed to get Dash out, too.
He thought for a second, he was sure he could do that, faster than any firefighter or EMT, he just didn’t know if could do it safely. Phasing Dash the rest of the way through the wall was out. He didn’t know what would happen if he tried or if he could just grab the merged piece, but he suspected the wall was keeping a lot of Dash’s blood in place. He couldn’t risk it.
He might be able to destroy the wall around Dash, but he wasn’t sure if his ectoblasts would be controlled enough right now to make sure no debris went flying.
Maybe he did need to wait; he at least needed to call 911.
“Dash,” he said, “I’m so sorry–” he paused, that was not what he needed to focus on, “I’m going to call 911, but I’m going to transform first. There’s going to be a bright light.” Danny hesitated. What if Dash hadn’t actually seen him the first time? Would this be revealing his secret? It didn’t matter. Danny caused this, now he had to fix it. “Please don’t panic,” he finished.
In a matter of seconds, Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton again. He looked to Dash for a reaction. Dash kept staring ahead with glassy eyes. That wasn’t good.
Danny dialed 911.
“Hello, this is 911, what’s your emergency?” the calm voice on the other end of the line asked.
“Someone got shoved through a wall during a ghost fight,” he started, voice shaking.
“Okay,” the 911 operator responded, still calm, “Where are you?”
Danny rattled off the address.
“Is there any head trauma or other obvious injury?”
Danny froze. She didn’t understand. Of course she didn’t, it had taken Danny trying to free Dash for him to understand. “No, but,” he hesitated. Saying it would make it real, “Part of his arm is still in the wall. He’s stuck. I think his arm is merged.” There, he’d said it. It was real.
There was a sharp intake of breath on the other side of the line. “Okay,” she said, “We’re dispatching firefighters and paramedics to your location. Is your friend conscious?”
Danny almost protested that Dash wasn’t his friend, but that didn’t matter. “Kind of?” he said, glancing at Dash, “He’s not responsive, but his eyes are open.”
“Okay,” the 911 operator said, her voice still mostly calm, “I want you to stay with him. Stay on the line.”
The next several minutes passed in a blur. The firefighters arrived within minutes. Apparently they had already been nearby, dealing with other ghost fight related chaos.
It took another couple of minutes to get Dash out, but the firefighters sawed through the wall with urgency. A stretcher was ready as soon as they were done.
Less than 15 minutes after Danny had made the call, Dash was being loaded into an ambulance. Danny was allowed to sit in the front of the ambulance on the way to the hospital, his back rigid the whole time.
The paramedics rushed Dash through the doors to the emergency room as soon as they arrived and Danny was left in the waiting room, anxiety settling in his gut. Whatever happened now, Danny would have to wait.
Twenty minutes after getting there, Danny was still waiting in the emergency room lobby. He’d managed to get Dash’s parents' contact information from Valerie to give to the nurses. He’d also messaged Jazz to let her know where he was, that he was fine, but he was with a classmate. A ghost fight had gone wrong. He couldn’t bring himself to say more than that, especially over text.
He’d already said it once. He couldn’t write it down.
Thirty minutes after getting to the hospital, Danny was giving a statement to the police.
He’d been in the alley with Dash, when he’d seen him shoved through the wall of the arcade by one of the ghosts. Danny had kept hidden for the rest of the fight. He hadn’t seen Dash afterwards, so he’d gone into the arcade to check to see if he was still there. That’s when he’d found Dash with his arm like that and called 911.
It was sanitized, but mostly true. He left out any details about Phantom.
Dash could tell it was Phantom who shoved him through the wall. Dash probably would tell them. Dash would probably give away Danny’s secret too.
Danny wouldn’t say anything though. He could keep himself safe for at least a few more hours, until Dash woke up.
Danny stayed in the waiting room. He should be running. He still stayed.
Forty minutes after getting to the hospital, Dash’s parents showed up.
Danny could hear a nurse explaining that Dash was in emergency surgery. Something bad had happened. They were taken back behind the counter for more of an explanation. When they came back out, both of their faces were gray. Mrs. Baxter was crying.
They approached Danny and he tensed.
“I’m told you’re the one who found my son?” Mr. Baxter asked, voice gruff.
Danny nodded, his heart in his throat.
The man put a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he said, his voice creaking.
Danny managed to get out an “Of course” before looking away.
Mr. Baxter nodded and went to sit down with his wife.
Danny felt bile rising in his throat. How could he let the Baxters thank him? They should hate him. He’d done something terrible to their son. He should tell them what he did. He should apologize.
In order to do that, he would have to reveal himself as Phantom.
Danny didn’t say anything. He just kept waiting. A few more hours of safety couldn’t hurt.
A few minutes later, Dash’s parents were called back to go to a second waiting room for surgeries. He’d lost his chance to tell them anyway.
An hour and a half after getting to the hospital, Danny’s phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.
He’d missed his meetup with Sam and Tucker. They were worried. It would be so simple to let them know where he was. Just a couple words.
If he told them where he was they would have questions. He would have to tell them what happened, what he did. What he’d done to Dash.
Danny had phased Sam and Tucker through a wall, a door, or even the floor hundreds of times. It could have been one of them. It could have so, so easily been them.
Danny let his phone keep buzzing.
Two hours after getting to the hospital, Jazz walked through the doors.
Danny wasn’t actually sure what to do about that.
She was here and now he had to tell her what happened. Only, he couldn’t tell her because they were in the hospital waiting room and he had to keep his secret. Only, Dash already knew, so his secret was out as soon as he woke up.
There was still a chance Dash might not tell anyone.
Danny had hurt Dash. Dash was vindictive at the best of times. Of course he would spill Danny’s secret.
Danny deserved it.
Jazz must have seen something on his face, because she swept across the room to hug him.
Danny hugged her back. He didn’t feel like there was much else he could do.
“Do you want to go home?” she asked.
Danny shrugged.
Jazz sat down next to him, not saying anything, and Danny relaxed slightly. He tensed again when he felt someone else approach.
“It might be better for you to come back tomorrow, dear,” someone, the receptionist, said kindly, “Even if your friend gets out of surgery soon, he’s not going to be up for visitors tonight.”
Danny nodded stiffly. He didn’t get up. Even if Dash wasn’t going to be out of surgery, Danny should stay. It was his fault he was here. He needed to take responsibility for that.
The receptionist shifted and Danny glanced up. Her face was kind, but her hands were on her hips and there was an impatient twitch to her brow. “I’m serious,” she said, “You should go home. Sleep. Your friend will be here in the morning. I’ll even make sure to tell the morning shift you’ll be visiting.”
Danny didn’t flinch when Jazz moved her hand to his shoulder. “Danny,” she said, “We need to go home. Mom and dad are going to be worried if we’re out much longer.”
Danny did flinch at that. He would be lucky if his parents weren’t hunting him down tomorrow after Dash spilled the beans.
He nodded anyway and stood to leave. Jazz’s eyebrows knit as she followed him out the door.
“What happened?” she asked as soon as they were safely alone in her car.
Danny broke. He wasn’t going to cry. He couldn’t cry yet, not until she knew, until he confessed.
He told her the whole thing. That Dash knew. That he had shoved him through a wall without thinking about it just to get him out of the way. That he didn’t know that regular people fused with objects when he stopped phasing when they were in them. How he couldn’t even get Dash out himself and had to call the fire department. How he’d never even thought about how phasing someone through something could hurt them, but that didn’t matter. He’d hurt Dash and now Dash was going to tell everyone his secret and he deserved it.
When he was done Jazz hugged him again. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, “I’m so, so sorry.”
Danny hugged her back, gripping tighter than he meant to. He’d phased her through things before too. It could have been her.
Back at FentonWorks, Danny needed to come up with a plan. He was going to be exposed, possibly as soon as Dash woke up. He needed to be ready.
He might deserve it, but Danny wasn’t going to allow himself to get caught. He wouldn’t let his parents tear him apart molecule by molecule or the Guys in White dissect him. He… well he just couldn’t. He didn’t want to die, actually die. He’d done something terrible, but he didn’t want to die.
He’d need to run away. He could shelter in the Ghost Zone for a bit, maybe with Dora or Frostbite. He could even turn himself over to Walker if he was feeling really guilty. He wasn’t sure he was ready for that either. Maybe just being outed and forced to go on the run was enough.
Surely, surely, that was enough. It might have been the right thing to ask Dash what he wanted, but Dash could be vindictive and Danny wasn’t sure what he’d do if Dash said he deserved to be torn apart.
He did need to see Dash though. He needed to apologize. To explain. Then he needed to run.
Jazz was going to be devastated. So were Sam and Tucker. Danny didn’t even want to think about what his parents were going to feel. This was going to suck so bad.
But Dash, his arm fused with a wall, could have been any of them. Danny had phased Tucker and Sam through things hundreds of times. He’d pushed Jazz through things. He’d even phased his dad through a ceiling or wall once or twice.
He couldn’t focus on that. Danny started packing.
He needed to get ready to run. Then he needed to avoid Jazz for the rest of the night so she couldn’t psychoanalyze him. In the morning, he’d head to the hospital to visit Dash. Hopefully he’d at least get to apologize before he got chased out. After that, he’d head for the Ghost Zone. It was a plan. Simple.
Morning came far too quickly and not quickly enough. Danny hadn’t slept. Every time he tried, his mind decided to replay every time he’d ever phased someone through a solid object and everything that could have meant. So, instead of sleeping, he charted a course through the Ghost Zone and tried making alternate plans in case his parents managed to lock him out of the house before he could reach the portal. Vlad’s portal was probably his best bet.
After he’d exhausted anything productive he could do, Danny ended up flying to the hospital. He arrived just as the early morning gray was giving into the first rays of sunlight. He didn’t bother going in as a human. Instead, he found the window of Dash’s hospital room and hovered outside, invisible.
It was probably creepy behavior, but Danny didn’t know what else to do.
Inside the hospital room, Dash rested in his bed. Both his parents were there with him. In a hospital gown with both his parents sitting at his bedside, Dash looked fragile. As yesterday had proved, he was fragile.
Danny waited an hour or two until both Dash’s parents had left before entering the room. He still didn’t bother going through the main entrance as a human. He didn’t know if Dash had already woken up and told someone.
He changed back into a human before taking a seat at Dash’s bedside anyway. It didn’t hurt to be careful. Dash probably would prefer to see Fenton over Phantom, too, even if he knew they were the same person now.
A lump caught in Danny’s throat as he looked over Dash from where he was seated. There was a bandage around the upper half of Dash’s arm. The lower half was gone.
“I’m sorry,” Danny choked out, “I didn’t know that would happen. It’s not an excuse, but I’m sorry.”
There was silence, then, “I haven’t told anyone.”
Danny inhaled sharply. He hadn’t known Dash was awake. Then he processed the words. “Why?” he asked, baffled.
“You’re Phantom,” Dash said simply, “You help people. If I told and someone decided to hunt you down, you couldn’t help anyone.” Dash wasn’t looking at him. Danny wasn’t sure if he could move.
“I hurt you,” Danny said, trying not to let his voice crack.
“Did you mean to?” Dash mumbled. Danny took another sharp inhale. The question wasn’t a hypothetical.
“No,” he said, probably a little more forcefully than he needed to, “I didn’t know that could happen–” Danny closed his eyes and breathed out slowly “–I’ve phased Sam and Tucker through things a million times. It’s a miracle this hasn’t happened before.”
Dash snorted, a bite in his voice, “So, what? Are you glad it was me instead of them?”
“What!? No!” Danny immediately denied, even as a sick sort of guilt swirled in his gut that maybe he was glad it had been Dash instead of Sam or Jazz or Tucker.
Dash’s breath hitched. “Sorry,” he said, “That was–” his jaw tightened, “–I know it was an accident.”
Danny nodded. “It was. I wouldn’t blame you if you told someone, though. I still hurt you.”
Dash glared at him out of the corner of his eye. “I’m not going to tell anyone,” he insisted, then took a breath, “This just sucks. This really, really sucks.”
Danny swallowed. “Yeah, it really does.”
Dash went back to staring at the ceiling. “So, what now?”
Danny took a shuddering breath as he ran his hands over his jeans in nervousness. “I don’t know,” he admitted.
Dash kept staring at the ceiling. “Oh.”
There were footsteps coming down the hall and Danny tensed. “I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but I’m going to do everything I can do to help. I promise,” he blurted out.
The footsteps drew closer. “I’ll come back in the normal way,” Danny promised before turning invisible and flying back out the window. When he looked back, he saw Dash’s mom had entered the room. As she leaned over to hug her son, Danny decided that he’d watched enough and flew down to the hospital entrance to go in the normal way.
Dash was right. This sucked. This really, really sucked, but Danny was going to do everything he could to make up for it. He just needed to figure out what he could do.