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September
Tucker couldn’t say for sure when he lost his best friend. It had been a gradual thing that happened over the course of several months. It was slow at first. The very first signs being so subtle that he didn’t even notice.
One day Danny came to school with an undercut patch of pure white in his hair and fingerless gloves (and in hindsight, long sleeves), and of course as his best friend Tucker immediately began making fun of him for it. “Noooo! Danny, this is the slippery slope to going goth. What’s next! Piercings? Eyeliner? I can’t lose my best friend to the dark side!”
Sam was absolutely perky with smugness. “Well I think he looks great. And what’s wrong with goth?”
“Nothing Sam.” Danny started to placate before Tucker interrupted him.
“The optimismy sunshine of his personality will be swallowed by doom and gloom. His happy-go-lucky attitude will be forever lost to despair and sadness.”
They both just rolled their eyes. “I’m not going goth Tuck.”
And that was largely true; Danny did not go goth. But that didn’t stop Tucker's prediction from coming true.
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Tucker was having fun. Danny had dropped a grand total of fourteen things in class and was now banned for life from handling breakable objects. The fodder for making fun of his best friend was just too much.
“I’m never lending you my tech again. You’ll just drop it, Clutzerincess.” They both knew that Tucker was only half joking. He really was worried for his baby.
A strange look passed over Danny’s face, but before Tucker could even tell what it was it was gone. “Yeah, that might be for the best.”
That? That wasn’t how this interaction was supposed to go. Danny was supposed to tease him back about loving his tech too much, or chafe at being called Clutzerincess, or, or, something other than just accept what Tucker said. “Hey, man, you know I’m mostly joking right?”
Another flicker of a hidden expression. “I know. But maybe for now I shouldn’t hold any of your fragile stuff.” Danny finished with a weak smile.
Tucker didn’t know it, but this was the beginning of the end.
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October
“I can’t believe Danny abandoned us like that?!” Sam was seething. They had just gotten detention for the food fight Danny had started. While it had been hilarious to see Dash get a tray full of dirt to the face it was still unfair that the three of them… sorry, the two of them were the ones cleaning it all up.
Tucker nodded along to Sam’s ranting. “Yeah and he’s a jerk. But I want to talk about the ghost who saved you. What was it like?”
Sam shuddered, “It was terrifying, but also cool I guess. I didn’t register that it was trying to save me till afterwards. I thought it was trying to kidnap me like the other one. I mean, it looked like a monster from a nightmare or something.” The ghost in question was certainly scary. The Lunch Lady had at least looked like a human at the start. The other ghost had looked like a cross between a werecat and a snake person. Sharp fangs and claws, long serpentine tail, black and white all over. It looked like a proper monster. It was no wonder Sam was terrified.
“Are you alright though?” asked a new voice. They both turned around to see Danny holding a mop.
Sam frowned. “You have some nerve showing up here Danny.”
Danny shrank into himself and didn’t say anything. Seems like he couldn’t come up with anything to say. Tucker sighed and gestured him towards a spill of spinach sauce. “You can start over there dude. Thanks for coming to help.”
Danny smiled, relieved, and turned to start mopping.
Unfortunately this pattern continued. Danny would ditch them at a moments notice and vanish for minutes to hours, only to show up later with a lame excuse that was clearly a lie. He did this during class in the school day too, and his grades were dropping fast. Sam tried to help him with a purple backed gorilla report but then Danny vanished again and ghosts attacked the zoo. Including the werecat/snake ghost, who Tucker jokingly named Phantom.
Then there was Danny’s disaster of a garage sale, parent teacher conferences, the fall dance, and his odd behavior after getting his new locker.
Every time something happened, whether he was present for it or not, Danny would come up with some kind of lie. Which was sad because Danny was terrible at lying. So Sam and Tucker knew he was hiding something from them. They decided that after he got back from his parents college reunion, they would confront him about it.
November
Tucker didn’t have a way to describe Danny after he got back from his parents reunion. More skittish. More alert. More…more something depressing. It was clear that something had happened, but Danny refused to tell them when they asked. But Sam was stubborn and kept pressing and pressing till Danny screamed at them to just leave him alone and stomped off. They tried to follow but he was gone when they got around the corner.
Danny vanished for a few days after that. His parents were busy and hardly noticed. Heck, Sam and Tucker barely noticed. Only in hindsight would they realize that it had just been the first time.
Danny got back just in time for the Ember fiasco. He and Sam sorta made up, but Tucker could tell that things had changed. When they got a new school counselor they encouraged Danny to attend a session, hoping it would help
It only made things worse. Danny and Sam fought again and didn’t make up till christmas.
March
Danny vanished. For days. His parents set out a manhunt only for Danny to return just in time to receive a passing grade in his home-ec class. Danny and Sam got into another fight when he wouldn’t tell them what happened.
That alone was bad. What was worse was that it happened again a couple weeks later when Circus Gothica was in town. Danny just disappeared off the face of the earth and no one could find him. This time it was weeks before he showed up again. And this time when Danny and Sam fought, she made it clear that there would be no making up. Sam was done.
This was also the first time Danny crawled through Tuckers window in the dead of the night and got into bed with him and just cried. Tucker figured it was about the breakup with Sam and didn’t say much. Only promising that they would be best friends forever.
He didn’t know what else to do.
April through September
Things continued to go downhill. Danny was vanishing all the time, going who knows where. Missing meetups, missing class, missing life. Tucker was worried, but he never pressed. He didn’t want to push Danny away like Sam had. So Tucker was as supportive as he knew how.
This was about the time when Tucker finally noticed that Danny was hiding injuries and he felt awful. Just how often was Danny getting hurt? Was it his parents? Because it couldn’t be Dash, he was spending the summer out of the country. When he asked Danny insisted that it wasn’t his parents. But then who could it be?
More and more often Danny would come through his window in the middle of the night and cry. He wouldn’t say anything and Tucker wouldn’t press. Too scared of losing him just like Sam if he pushed too hard. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t pick up a few pieces. His parents, while supposedly not beating him, had clearly given up on him. Tucker also now suspected Mayor Masters to be behind Danny’s many bruises and injuries. He started relentlessly researching about how to recognize when kids are being abused and how to help. By the end of September he was sure that Mr. Masters was blackmailing Danny somehow, but he had zero proof.
And without proof, there was nothing he could do.
October again
Then the day finally came that Tucker had both been expecting and dreading. He couldn’t explain how he knew that it was coming. It was really just a hunch. But nevertheless, there Danny was on his doorstep with a packed suitcase and an overstuffed backpack.
“Hey Tuck,” Danny said in the most despondent tone he had ever heard. “Can I uh… can I stay here for a bit. Please.”
Tucker didn’t hesitate to pull him into a hug. Danny stiffened at first and he worried that he was injured again, but then Danny was hugging him back. With that same desperation that he held on those precious nights he crawled through his window. Tucker held him until Danny pulled away first, which took a while.
“There’s someone I want you to meet.” Danny said with a mix of excitement and trepidation in his voice. It was only then that Tucker noticed the stroller that was behind the suitcase. A baby stroller. A baby stroller with a baby in it.
“Danny, what’s that,” he asked stupidly.
Danny detached part of the stroller into his arms and looked at the baby fondly. “Tucker, meet Ellie Fenton. My… my daughter.”
“Your daughter,” Tucker said faintly. “You have a daughter!?” he said louder.
Tucker’s mom chose that moment to appear over his shoulder. “Well isn’t she precious.” Then she took the time to really take the scene in; namely the suitcase Danny had with him. “Oh. Oh I see.” She said softly. “Why don’t you two come in.”
With a mumbled thanks, Danny went to grab his suitcase but Tucker made sure to grab it first. “I got you bro,” he said. Danny smiled so faintly that he could barely see it, but it was there. At this point Tucker would take whatever victory he could get.
When they were all sitting in the living room his mom softly asked, “How long have you had her?”
Danny checked his wrist. He actually wore an analogue watch like an old man. “Four hours,” he said finally. “Long enough to go shopping, go home, get kicked out, and walk here. Actually, could I ask a favor? I’ve got more stuff like a crib and clothes back at Fenton works but no way to carry it. Would you mind giving me a ride?”
His mom nodded. “Sure thing honey. Tucker, you move the bed in the guest room to make space for that crib, we’ll be back.”
Tucker took a moment to watch his mom and Danny drive away. And in that moment he knew that things were never going to be the same again. And while he still had him in his life, he knew that in a way, he had lost Danny.