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Jazz presses her foot down till the pedal hits the floor. The GAV’s engine roaring with exertion. She was going too fast.
She was going too fast.
Jazz didn’t let up even as she took the turn too hard. Wheels popping off one side, tilting precariously from the speed. With a hard jerk, the wheels reconnected, landing with a bang and a groan. She bounces painfully on the seat, pendant hitting hard against her chest. An artifact from who knows where, a last resort of sorts, Danny had said when he had given it to her. A siren blares off in the distance. She shouldn’t have stopped, she’s run out of time.
She shouldn’t have stopped, now she was late. So late.
Another turn too hard, the GAV almost tips fully before Jazz knocks the vehicle the other way to miss the lamp post. She bounces as the suspension makes an explosive pop that sends the GAV lurching sideways. She just had to get past the town line before –
She should have planned better, why didn’t she plan better? Danny was going to be so disappointed if she didn’t make it in time. She could see the Welcome to Amity Park sign on the next hill-
Something big and on fire crashes into the road beside her with enough force to send the GAV into the next lane. Jazz leans over smashing a fist on the radar, why couldn’t her parent’s make something useful? Useful like a-
Her fist connects with the radio as it starts spitting static, why didn’t she let her dad upgrade it before? Why-
There’s the Leaving Amity Park sign, she’s almost out-
Something in the road, what is that?
A flash of green, and suddenly he’s there. Standing in the road.
Oh a deer, wait shit, she hits the brakes, jerking the wheel-
She jerks the wheel, tires squealing as she tries to avoid-
Knowing she can’t-
She grabs the pendant.
She covers her face.
Jazz crashes.
Jazz crashes.
—
Jazz wakes up smelling cleaning detergent. It takes a moment for her vision to clear enough to register the white ceiling and the soft white lights. A metal track snakes along with curtains pushed to the wall.
Ah. Hospital then.
That’s, well.
It’s certainly better than the alternative but it doesn’t make any sense.
She takes a slow deep breath in, feeling her ribs strain with the effort. Bruised, possibly broken. She wiggles her fingers and toes, all working and accounted for. Some stiffness on her right arm but manageable. A specific type of numbness on her right leg. Possibly a bruised bone.
Jazz sits up. Her dad is passed out in the chair next to her, under the window. An empty chair beside him. At the foot of the bed is a small, boxy tv, playing an old rerun from the 80s. It’s a nondescript room as far as hospital rooms go, but there’s something that doesn’t feel quite right.
Wait.
Her dad.
He’s there in the room with her.
Sleeping.
Jazz rubs her eyes and yup he’s still there, snoring quietly.
There’s less gray in his hair than she remembers, an ease in his slumped shoulders that she can’t remember being there for years.
“...Dad?” her voice cracks.
Jack wakes with a noise, a soft low rumble. He rubs his neck, head tilting out of the awkward angle from sleeping in such a small chair. He looks around slowly before landing on her.
“Jazz,” he says at almost a whisper before he erupts in energy and joy, relief in every line, shouting loudly, “Jazz! You’re awake!”
“Dad?” she repeats, somewhat louder.
Jack moves as if he’s about to engulf her in a great hug and she flinches. Arm moving to her tender side. He settles to lean heavily on the railing of the bed and cupping her cheek in his palm.
Jazz feels her throat tighten, he looks so young.
“You scared us half to death,” he says.
“I-” her voice cracks again. She swallows, reaching up to squeeze his hand, “I’m sorry dad.”
The door to the room opens, a quiet “Oh” drawing their attention over.
Maddie stands in the doorway, a large bag slung over her shoulder. She stands wordlessly in the doorway, mouth open in a small O-shape. Danny leans somewhat over her shoulder to peer into the room.
Jazz pulls back from her dad with a small wince.
The bag hits the floor with a thump, Maddie rushing over.
“Jazz, sweetheart, you’re awake! How are you feeling?” Maddie asks, reaching out to gently brush Jazz’s hair back. Her breath catches as she realizes, her hair is long again, like it hasn’t been since she was in school.
“Like…” her gaze flits to Danny who has stopped to pick up the bag, struggling not to tip the drinks.
She swallows, “Like I had the worst trip to the Nightmare Realm.”
None of them react.
Maddie cups Jazz’s face in both of her hands to peer carefully into Jazz’s eyes. “It’s going to be okay sweetheart, whatever nightmares you had, they’re not real. Just dreams.”
Jazz studies her mom’s face, taking in the smooth face and worried expression. She counts the differences from the last time she saw her. The things she had grown accustomed to seeing.
She nods, reaching up to squeeze Maddie’s wrists before pulling away. “Yeah, it was just dreams,” her voice cracks around the lump in her throat. She coughs, “Can I have something to drink?”
“Of course, Danny, honey? Could you?” Maddie says, without turning around.
Danny sighs, giving up on picking up the bag, and instead pushing it out of the way with his foot.
Maddie starts fussing with the bed sheet, looking over all of the medical machinery.
“How are you really feeling, Jazzi-pants?” Jack asks, taking one of her hands.
Jazz shrugs one shoulder, idly tracking Danny out of the corner of her eye as he gets water from the little sink. Hunched over, head down, not really looking at her.
No.
He’s not looking at anyone.
She files that away for later, focusing a bit more on her dad, “I’m okay, for the rough approximation of the word.”
“That’s my Jazzerincess,” jack smiles, nudging her shoulder with his fist, “A proper Fenton, nothing like a-”
“Jack,” Maddie says with warning. Danny curls up smaller behind them.
Jazz fights the flare of protection that blooms in her chest. There’s something distinctly wrong here but she doesn’t know how much or why so she can’t act.
Not yet.
“What-” she stops to clear her throat, the dryness being more of a bother now, “What exactly happened? I don’t- I can’t seem to remember?”
Her parents’ expressions shift to something between concern and pity.
“What can you remember?” Maddie asks.
Jazz shrugs, leaning forward to take the offered cup from Danny. He ducks away to hover in the corner.
“You were in a car accident,” Jack says, moving to place a hand on her back in support.
“It’s a miracle you were even found, that late at night,” Maddie says, she does something to the bed so it rises up so Jazz can sit back against the pillows.
Jazz says nothing, sipping lightly at the water.
“She knocked over the Welcome sign, Mads, you’d have to blind to miss that,” Jack says.
Maddie glares, “At that time of night? She shouldn’t have been on the road to begin with.”
“Okay…” Jazz says, “But what happened?”
“You hit a deer and the Welcome to Beacon Hills sign with enough force to total your car and destroy the sign,” Danny pipes up.
“I hit both?” Jazz says, her eyes go wide.
“Considering the body was still on the hood of the car? Yeah,” Danny rolls his eyes.
“Danny,” Maddie chides, making Danny duck down.
“No, thank you Danny, for telling me, that…I- it must have been really big," Jazz cuts in. She rubs the side of her head, frowning, "Sorry, I still can't quite remember anything."
"It's okay sweetie, you don't need to remember," Maddie says, reaching out to squeeze Jazz’s shoulder.
She flinches, pulling away.
Maddie’s hand drops to the railing.
“Sorry,” Jazz murmurs, attempting to pull her knees up, but stops to wince.
The earlier numbness of her leg has turned into a piercing throb.
“Jazzipants! What’s wrong?” Jack asks, hands coming up and hovering.
She takes a deep breath through her nose, pushing through the pain and easing her leg into a better position. “I’m okay, I’m okay.”
“Jazz?” Maddie’s voice is full of concern.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m okay, just pulled on the stitches,” she says, smiling.
Maddie frowns, studying her face.
Jack leans forward to cup her cheek, pulling her attention back to him. “Don’t you dare scare us again like that.”
Jazz swallows.
“I don’t- I can’t- ”
She nods, already reaching up to grab his wrist, “I promise, I’ll be careful.”
“Maybe, no more lessons with you?” Danny pipes up.
Jack barks a laugh, “No, maybe not if she was driving as fast as I do.”
Maddie sighs, putting a hand to her face, looking on with exasperated fondness.
It was going to be okay.
Jazz smiles, looking over her family.
She was going to make it okay.
It was going to be different this time.
Her gaze lands on her little brother.
She was going to be a better sister.
—
Maybe she should have given more credit to Danny.
—
Jazz stands in front of the gaping maw of the defunct portal.
Jack and Maddie had put a hold on work for it with her accident.
But they had started working on it again.
A week after what would have been Danny’s Death Day.
A week and two days from his 14th birthday.
That she missed.
Apparently.
Not that she remembers herself. She’s just been able to gather enough to fill in the big picture.
She was in an alternate timeline, or dimension, either as both were viable at the moment. However in this version, other Jazz, had promised to watch the meteor shower with Danny for his birthday but lost track of time in the town over on a date.
Supposedly.
She can’t imagine any version of herself on a date.
“Jazz?” Danny’s voice echoes across the lab.
She turns, sees him at the bottom step.
Alone, no Sam or Tucker. But of course, they had just moved to Amity Park a few months ago. They hadn’t even started classes here. Were barely enrolled at Casper High. Her school transcripts were a mess. And that wasn’t even considering Danny’s.
“What are you doing?” Danny asks, having walked closer. His gaze glances down, to her leg, “You shouldn’t be down here.”
“I’m fine,” Jazz says. She holds out her arm, leaning towards him.
Thankfully, he closes the distance, slotting himself under her arm. Giving her a loose side hug, mindful of her bruised ribs. Ancients, she keeps forgetting how small he was- is.
Is now.
Her Danny was so tall, taking so much after their dad. This Danny is still the smallest thing ever.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it last week,” she says, for the millionth time since she found out.
“It’s okay, I know you tried,” he says, leaning his head on her shoulder. “It would be worse if-”
He stops.
“I think overall, I gave you the actual worst birthday present this year,” she says, giving a squeeze.
“Not nearly as bad as the year I gave you worms as a gift by putting them in your cake,” he says, forced cheer.
“That was you?!” she exclaims, pulling back to look at him.
His shit eating grin comforting in a way that the past week hasn’t.
She feels the buzzing vibration under her skin settle. She doesn’t know what happened in her timeline, dimension, whatever it may be.
But this smile.
She was going to protect it.
The way she couldn’t before.
Because she knew she could now.
Jazz lets him go to cup his face, squeezing his cheeks, still round with the last remnants of baby fat. She knew that will fall away in the next year, knew how he was going to shoot up in just a few short years.
“Jazz,” he whines, trying to pull away.
Swallowing back the lump in her throat. Of what she’s lost, she presses a kiss to his forehead. Before his spluttering can really get going, she cuts him off.
“No matter what happens, I will always protect you and will always have your back.”
Danny blinks his big blue eyes. Crease forming between his eyebrows.
“What’s going on Jazz?”
“I’m going to make sure that you’re safe.”
“O…kay? So why down here? Does this have something to do with you wearing the spare hazmat suit?”
“Something like that, why don’t you go upstairs?”
“Jazz, what are you planning?”
“What I should have done a long time ago,” she says, stepping back.
“What?”
“Go upstairs, Danny.”
“No, I won’t.”
“Please?”
“I’m not leaving you alone to do something stupid.”
“It’s not stupid,” Jazz says, “At least, no more stupid than our hairbrained parents.”
She steps into the portal, looking up at the gadgetry of the inside.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Danny asks from the other side.
“Why don’t you look at the schematics on the table and tell me where the ‘on switch’ is?”
Confused, he turns to the table behind and starts sliding the papers around. She steps further into the tunnel, mindful of her steps of the exposed wiring. Sees the little dip in the floor and the wire poked up.
Following the line up, is the panel.
The small green and red buttons feel like they’re glaring up at her.
She traces the panel with her hand.
How something so small could change so much.
“Wait, Jazz,” Danny’s voice feels like it’s forever away. She looks over. He stands on the far side of the table looking up at her in horror. “If this is right, Dad put the on switch-”
Jazz smiles at him.
“Jazz, no don’t-”
“It’s going to be okay,” she says, dropping her hand on the switch.
It clicks under her palm, and a whirr builds up behind her.
—
She really should have given more credit to Danny.
Dying and coming back?
It hurt.