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Danny was laying down, staring up at the ceiling when Ilyukhina walked in.
“You know there’s an unoccupied couch two doors over.” She said, in lew of greeting as she stood over him.
He may have shoved everything off the table so he could be horizontal and have a moment. Was it comfortable? Not really, no. His legs dangled at the end because quite honestly, he was over 6ft and if the conference room wasn’t constantly occupied by Stratt and other bigwigs, he’d have claimed that table in the name of the Infinite Realms or something.
He grimaced at the thought of laying on the couch in question. “Nah, I… suggest never sitting on that thing.” He raised his non- compression gloved hand. “One, that couch would also not fit me,” he raised another finger, “Two, a couple scientists think they’re slick and are absolutely exhibitionists. Don’t…” he shuddered, “did not want to see that.”
Ilyukhina scrunched her nose. “DuBois and Shapero?” She guessed, “Yep, they think they’re sneaky. I’ve… caught them a few times in a supply closet.”
“Aren’t they supposed to like,” Danny waved his hand in the air, “ya know, be training or something like that?”
“Something like that, yea.” She said, gently poking Danny’s shoulder. “Doesn’t explain why you’re on table like a cadaver.”
Danny stared at her wide eyed. No. She couldn’t know. Could she? It's been weeks and he’s been so careful-. “A-what?”
“That’s the right word?” She asked, tilting her head, “Uh, corpse on table. A cadaver?”
Danny cleared his throat as he expertly rolled off the table, landing on his feet. “No, yep, that’s the correct term.”
“Are… you okay?” Ilyukhina asked, searching Danny’s eyes. “When did you last sleep?”
Danny winced as his left hand seized up again. He tried to hide it, by playing off any means to hide it under the table, but Ilyukhina was at his side as she held out her own hand.
“May I?”
Danny bowed his head as he lifted his left hand to hers. “Nerve damage. Happened when I was an idiot teenager.” He explained, as she frowned, gently massaging his hand through the compression glove. “It acts up whenever there’s a, uh, storm coming.”
“Mm,” she glanced up at him, “how far a radius?”
He shrugged. “Bad days? About… 32 kilometers. Better days? more like 8.”
She whistled as her hand gently pulled at his fingers. “That’s—“
“It was… 17 years ago.” He sucked in breath as his fingers began to slowly release themselves. The pins and needles sensation almost never went fully away unless… Unless he transformed… “Lab accident.”
She turn a sharp eye on him. “What?”
He tried to give her a smile, but her fingers were getting dangerously close to his palm. “Parents were, uh, not exactly great at lab safety.”
Her grip tightened and he yelped.
“Oh, fuck, Fenton—“
Danny had his hand to his shoulder as he focused on the breathing exercises the nurses had taught him. “I’m—“
Breathe in through the nose.
Hold.
Out through the mouth.
He mentally counted 5 cycles before he could trust his voice to speak again. “My fault.” He managed, “Forgot to tell you to… avoid my palm.”
When Danny finally braved opening his eyes, Ilyukhina was staring at him with worry. “Do we need to get you the good stuff?”
Danny shook his head. No matter how much he took, living pain meds never seemed to affect him anymore. “Ibprophen, acetaminophen, opioids, uh,” he massaged his arm through the compression sleeve, “don’t work on me anymore.” He gave her half a shrug, “Think my body built up a tolerance." Or his ghostly metabolism burned through it so fast that his body didn’t have time for it to take effect. “Do… we have any heat packs by any chance?”
Jazz might have something otherwise. She always came prepared for, like, everything. If it wasn’t in her bookbag, it was in her car’s glove compartment, or in one of the hidden pockets she sewed in her clothes when she started helping him with nightly patrols.
Ilyukhina nodded. “Of course,” she went out the door, paused and beckoned him, “c’mon, I’m not allowing you to work til we get the pain I caused, managed.”
Danny felt himself slouch over his arm as he followed her through the labyrinth that was the Stratt Vat. He ignored the stares as they walked by several cubbies and stations as everyone did their part to stop the astrophage. Production for astrophage, funny enough, was still underway, so they couldn’t just throw astrophage at itself to find a solution. They contained too much energy for that. Too bad he couldn’t just punch astrophage like he did with most of his problems.
Danny stopped in his tracks as his breath turned frosty. Speaking of punching.
Ilyukhina paused as she turned around. “Fenton? We’re nearly there.”
He was on high alert, looking everywhere but her.
“Fenton?” She snapped her fingers in front of his face.
Danny blinked. “Oh,” he cleared his throat. He used to be better at hiding that… “right, sorry. I thought I heard-“
“Fenton.” A voice called from down the corridor.
Danny turned towards the voice. He didn’t recognize the suit. It was probably one of the security folks he’s caught glimpses of since the Peeler incident. “Uh, yeah?”
“You’re needed in the conference room.”
Danny and Ilyuhkina shared looks. “Um, what’s uh, happening?”
The suit raised a brow. “Ask your sister.”
“Jazz?” oh great, what’d Jazz do? Did she call an emergency meeting just for them cause she accidentally unleashed something from a thermos and needed help catching it without revealing to the whole carrier that ‘ghosts exist!’.
The suit shook their head. “No, not the doc.”
Not Jazz? Then who—
Danny’s eyes widened as he bolted past the suit, ignoring the yelps and shouts of the suit and Ilyuhkina.
What was she doing here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?!
Once Danny slid to a stop at the conference room he was full of so many clashing emotions he wasn’t positive which one would win out until his eyes met his clone’s, Dani. Dani was here.
She had her feet up on the table, tilting it back, the front legs high in the air as she balanced. She’d grown a lot since the last time they crossed paths. Her black hair was braided this time and bound into a low bun. She was wearing his massive black NASA hoodie that went missing (so, that’s where that went) the last time he’d seen her.
He… couldn’t remember the last time—.
“Di.” He said, swallowing unspoken words. I missed you. I’m glad you’re okay. I’m glad you’re alive.
Dani pushed off the table until she rolled backwards out of her chair and dead sprinted at him. “Dy!”
He grunted and winced as he caught her. They struggled, both trying and failing to be the first to spin the other in the air.
A very familiar, very powerful voice cleared her throat. Danny had Dani in a chokehold (which did nothing) and was about to— well he forgot what his plan was as soon as his boss, the most powerful woman in the world, who the aircraft carrier was nicknamed after, gave a neutral eyebrow raise. Ah, right. There were more people in the room.
Jazz had her clipboard and was smiling fondly at them while Dr. Grace beside her seemed… whistful… melancholic…
Before Danny could even acknowledge it though, his clone had started to gnaw and drool all over his arm. “Hey! What are you twelve?!”
“You’re only older by twelve seconds, dipshit!” She retorted, and wiggled her way out of the chokehold.
“It’s twelve minutes and you know it! We were both there!” Danny said, exasperated as he shook Dani’s drool off his arm.
“And it is twelve seconds from trying my patience." Stratt said, cutting whatever else the twins were going to banter. She stared at Danny. “As lovely as this family reunion is…”
Oh, Stratt was being extra sarcastic today. He glanced at Jazz. Whenever she hung around Stratt, he noticed his boss drizzling more sarcasm into her words.
“I didn’t tell Dani our location,” Jazz said, picking up where Stratt had left off. “I assured her that you hadn’t either, that our sister likes to… ‘pop in’ sometimes.”
Ah. Yep. This was going to be tougher to sell…
Jazz coming to his rescue and using the Booo-merang to find him was one thing. Dani possibly having Wulf or Cujo to tear through the Infinite Realms to find them…
Dr. Grace raised his hand. He was holding a twizzler. “Wait, back up,” he said while twirling the twizzler, “you’re both named Danny?”
“Danny with a Y.” Danny said.
“And I’m Dani with an I.” Dani said with added jazz hands as she leaned hard against her brother.
Danny dug in his heels and leaned into her so she wouldn’t tip him. She gave him an indignant huff.
“Huh,” said Dr. Grace.
Jazz patted his shoulder. “Oh, it was worse to try and tattle on them growing up, til-“
“Juvie!” Dani chimed in gleefully. She hadn’t had a chance to use juvie as an excuse for anything in over a decade.
“That’s when she started dyeing the eyebrows.” Danny added, pointing at his own. While Dani had so far managed to keep her hair from pre-maturely turning silvery… her brows had long ago changed to white.
Stratt was, unsurprisingly, massaging the bridge of her nose. “I have… multiple questions, one of which being, do you have any other family members I should be aware of who might be making plans of arriving unannounced?"
Jazz and Danny exchanged glances. He wasn’t a ‘family member’ per say… Dani meanwhile was ignoring whatever sibling telepathy going on and was eyeing the twizzler Dr. Grace was using it as a fidget toy.
“You gonna eat that?” She asked, leaning on the table and propping her elbow on it. “I’ll arm wrestle you for it.”
“Dani, no.” Her older siblings said in unison.
She huffed and gestured that she was watching Dr. Grace as she walked back to her turned over chair. He just sat back watching her amused.
“There is… one person that comes to mind.” Jazz said slowly, as she steered the conversation back on track.
“And I can’t speak for Jazz, but I don’t want to speak his name. It’s like he always knows when someone is talking about him.” Danny grimaced. It wouldn’t put it past him if the billionaire had tech and ghost spies watching them right now.
Dani frowned as she righted her chair. “Who are—“ her eyes widened as it dawned on her, “OH, Uncle Cheesehead.”
“Uncle Cheesehead,” Danny nodded, “He’s more of a Fruit-loop, but-“ he shrugged, “I digress.”
Jazz sighed. “He’s… not related to us,” she said, glancing at Dani who was staring at her chair, trying to hide her very complex emotions running through her. “But he’s a uh, an old college friend of Dad’s.”
Stratt frowned at her computer. “Masters?” Her eyes shifted as she was reading an article.
The Fenton siblings flinched. “Yeah,” Danny’s voice cracked as he spoke up, “him.” Danny had a gut feeling that Stratt was reading about the accident… The hospitalization… Very few articles had both his dad and Vlad’s names written together. If not that article then the one about the proto-portal his parents and Vlad were building on campus for their tiny club that they had formed.
By the time Vlad came into Danny’s life (well more like Danny was dragged into Vlad’s) Vlad had been harboring a grudge for over 20 years, with many of them stuck in the hospital, dying and surviving a slow painful, agonizing death, clinging onto the emotions that made the billionaire he was today. At least… he’d gotten somewhat better since their first meeting.
“Who’s Ma-“ Dr. Grace was cut off by Jazz’s reactive hand.
“Sorry,” Jazz laughed, nervously, realizing she had just covered Dr. Grace’s mouth as she pulled her hand away. “We, uh—”
“Again,” Danny filled in, giving Dr. Grace a strained smile, “we don’t like speaking his name. It’s like a—“
“Curse.” Dani filled in, once again back in her chair. She didn’t seem to want to prop her legs up. “Sorta Beetlejuice logic.”
Jazz stared at her puzzled. “When did you see—“
“While I was touring NYC with Ember couple years ago.” Dani said with a shrug, “Got cheap tickets cause they were trying to fill seats.”
“New York City,” Dr. Grace sat up. “As in Broadway?”
Dani grinned. “Yup!” She said, adding extra emphasis to the P. “Ember seemed to enjoy it.”
Danny sighed. “Let me guess, her favorite song was ‘Say My Name’?”
Dani gave a fake gasp. “How did you know?”
Danny rolled his eyes. He expected Stratt to speak up or do her usual disinterested cough to get whatever derailed back on track, but one glance told him that while she was still in the room, her mind was calculating some equation she usually asked Dr. Grace to work out. Danny glanced between Stratt, currently the most powerful person in the world, and her right hand man, Dr. Grace.
If Vlad ever found either of them…
“Wait here, I’ll be right back,” Danny said before bolting out of the room, leaving everyone except Stratt shouting in his wake. He was doing a lot of that today.
Danny skidded down a corridor as he mentally mapped his hiding spots. The ship’s walls were too thin to do his usual, hide objects by phasing through them through the wall trick. So, Danny had to get crafty, especially when there were always eyes on him. He made the mistake briefly thinking nobody would find a thermos he stashed behind some piping, until one of the carrier’s engineers that helped maintain the Stratt Vat found it while fixing a steam issue.
He dodged a couple folks in white lab coats discussing some equation Danny didn’t have the context for, as he entered the room he most frequented. Ilyukhina was biting through some duct tape as Danny scanned the scrap and junk they had to dig from.
“Fenton,” Ilyukhina stated, “what’d happen with your sister?”
“My twin made a surprise visit.” Danny said absently as he was looking for two very specific- ah ha! His hands held up two sleek silver bracelets. They were still clunky in design, but way more stylish and a total upgrade from their old belt design.
“You,” she was frowning, he could sense it in her voice, “have a twin?”
Danny glanced at her. “Yes?”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
And now Danny was avoiding her gaze. Maybe he’d need to make a third Specter Deflector for her… “Well, she tends to be a uh, ‘free spirit’.” He said, fully intending the pun she wouldn’t catch. “We don’t see much of each other anymore, but when she wants to see me and Jazz, she has ways of finding us.”
“Like that boomerang?” Ilyukhina asked, quirking a smile.
“Uh, well,” he winced at the memory, “her method is different from Jazz’s.” He glanced at the bracelets then at Ilyukhina.
No. He’d need to do something that wouldn’t get in her way. Ilyukhina used her hands that required precision. A chunky silver bracelet would obscure progress… but a belt…
He shook his head. “I’ll uh… be back. Still technically in a meeting.”
She raised a brow. “Please don’t tell me-“
“Oh, no yea, she’s in there too.”
Her shoulders fell. “Fenton…”
“Yep, yeah, heading back now.” He winced as he waved at her before bolting back to the corridor. He was nearly at the conference room when he remembered.
He never did get a heat pack. Oops? Well, at least his arm had settled a bit.
When Danny re-entered, Dani had her feet propped up on the table, Jazz’s chair was beside Stratt’s as they discussed something, and Dr. Grace had paused his digging through the stack of papers in his lap to smile up at Danny.
“You’re fast.” Dr. Grace said, stating the obvious.
Stratt, of all things, snorted at that statement. “He is, despite his medical history.” She gave the smallest of smiles, “It took you, what? A minute to be packed and lock up?”
“Heh, well, living in Amity will get you prepared for pretty much anything.” he shrugged, “Talking about… the Fruit-loop reminded me of something.” He held up the two bracelets.
Jazz froze as she stared at the bracelets mouth agaped. “Danny, are you sure?” She asked, tearing her eyes away from the bracelets to search his eyes. “We could always use something else.”
Danny shook his head as everyone else stared at the bracelets in confusion.
“Handcuffs?” Dr. Grace asked, throughoutly puzzled until Danny held one out to him, “Oh, chunky bracelet?” He adjusted his glasses to look properly through them as he held the bracelet. “Wait… how-?”
“It’s an upgraded Specter Deflector.” Danny explained as he held the other one out to Stratt, “I uh, know you don’t exactly believe in the supernatural…”
Stratt raised a brow as she glanced at the Fenton siblings before looking over at Dr. Grace. “What do you see?” She asked him.
“Small circuitry…” Dr. Grace was hunched over the bracelet, turning it around in his hand, “how the hell is this thing running? I don’t see where you could put batteries.”
Danny cleared his throat. “The uh, same thing that powers the Specter Speeder in the hanger.”
Stratt frowned. “And what does this do?” She asked, hands clasped on the table.
And here comes the hardest sell of his afterlife. “It will prevent any ecto-entities from overshadowing your body and using you like a meat puppet.” The words stumbled out of his mouth before he could think too hard about what he was saying.
His sisters of course stared at him wide eyed as he of all people spoke about the taboo. Team Phantom made a pack almost two decades ago, right before Jazz was set to go off to college, to never acknowledge or speak about the paranormal outside of Amity Park unless it was life or afterlife on the line. Dani, for the most part, did whatever she wanted. She was a nomad, and had fun starting up new ghost stories in her travels. Of course, that was before cameras in phones became popular and just as good as photography cameras.
It was best for everyone involved if the knowledge of ghosts and the Infinite Realms stayed in Amity Park. If the government, the actual government, caught wind that “ecto-entities” could easily wipe entire towns off the map and leave nothing but rubble…
So, Danny knew what he had to do. He had to stop the ghosts from coming through, and to make absolutely certain that Vlad did not stand an inkling of a chance of getting his capitalistic hands on the world while they were in a crisis.
Jazz opened and closed her mouth, at a total loss for words. Dani glanced at the bracelets Danny had made and frowned. “Broski,” she said, cutting through the silence like a knife, “did you seriously have to use the term meat puppet?” She asked, wrinkling her nose.
“Yea,” Dr. Grace rubbed his eyes, “also, ‘ecto-entities’?”
Stratt silently held out her hand. Danny blinked at her. She raised her brow. Without a word, he placed it in her hand. She stared at it, and then at him.
Oh. Oh.
Danny picked it up and pressed the small clasp hidden on the side. It opened. He met Stratts’ eyes. With a single nod, he put it around her wrist. There was a faint hum only he, and possibly Dani, could hear as it activated. He, thankfully, moved his hands in time before it could shock him, but the neon green sparks that nearly kissed his hands made Stratt stare at the bracelet a little too long for Danny’s liking.
“Grace,” she said, finally tearing her gaze away from the bracelet, “Mr. Fenton has intended for you to also wear this bracelet as a means of security. I suggest you put it on.”
Dr. Grace, to his credit, hadn’t stopped rotating or analysing the bracelet since it was put in his hands. “Huh?” He blinked as he looked up at Stratt.
She sighed, clearly exasperated. “Put the damn bracelet on.”
Dr. Grace glanced at the bracelet then at Stratt. “Wait, how’d you-”
Danny took pity on the scientist, and held out his hand. One look at Dr. Grace’s face told Danny that the leading scientist in astrophage had gotten even less sleep than Danny had during freshman year of high school. The bags had bags had bags waiting in baggage claim.
“Here,” Danny said, pointing out the same button he showed Stratt before pressing it. The bracelet opened. “It won’t hurt you.” But it will hurt me…
Dr. Grace stared at the open bracelet. “Are you…sure?” He frowned as he glanced at the others. “What about your sisters?”
“Don’t need it!” Dani called, still kicked back on her chair, staring up at the ceiling with a bored look on her face. “I can punch them so hard they’ll feel it in their core.” She said, emphasizing by punching her own hand.
Jazz sighed as she set down the clipboard. “Right, he wasn’t on the deck was he?”
Stratt shook her head as she examined her wrist with the silver bracelet. “Mmm, no he wasn’t. I will allow a demonstration as long as you don’t shoot anything in here. Your aim is horrible.”
Danny snorted as his hands hovered around Dr. Grace’s wrist. “It used to be worse than Dad’s. She’s a danger at darts.”
Jazz rolled her eyes as she held up the handheld device of the Fenton Peeler. With a press of a button, the silver metal grew up her body until she was covered head to toe, complete with visor helmet. She lifted the helmet up and grinned at Dr. Grace. “I’m more dangerous with the creep stick to be honest.”
Dr. Grace’s jaw hung open for a couple seconds as his brain was absolutely buffering with what he just witnessed. “O-okay,” he cleared his throat as he met Danny’s eyes, “remind me to uh, never piss off your sisters.”
Danny shrugged as he leaned over. “I’ll protect you.” He said with a wink, and clasped the Specter Deflector around Dr. Grace’s wrist.
Danny winced, feeling a little extra buzz to his fingers as he quickly pulled away. He shook his hand a little as he took a large step back. “So, uh, just…keep those on. If you need help removing them, Jazz knows where the release clasp is.”
Jazz powered down the Peeler and tucked it away. “Hand acting up?” She asked, hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes.
Danny instinctively rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand. “Wh-hat? Nah.” He chuckled, “I’m fine Jazz, really.”
Stratt was back to typing on her computer. “So,” she glanced up from the screen, “Ms. Fenton will have a trial period.”
“Huh?” Danny glanced at his clone then back at Stratt, “what?”
Dani pumped her fists. “Awe hell yea!”
Jazz was the one to take pity the quickest. “While you were gone, Dani agreed to a trial period of being Eva’s translator.”
Dani shrugged. “You know how me and languages are.” The half ghost perk: knowing languages of the dead without needing to beat your head in with a dictionary. “So when Stratt and Twizzlers are in meetings upon meetings with assholes who think language barriers can trick them into agreeing to bullshit, I’ll be there to call the assholes out.”
“Twi—“ Danny turned to Dr. Grace who he suddenly realized, lacked the twizzler, “oh, she swindled it out of you when you weren’t looking, didn't she?”
Dr. Grace shrugged as he pulled a new twizzler out of his jacket. “The one I had earlier, yeah.”
Dani nearly fell out of her chair. “Wha—hey!”
Stratt closed her eyes and took a deep slow breath. “It’s a trial period.” She said mostly to herself. Jazz patted her shoulder.
Dani grinned. “I dunno boss lady, I tend to grow on people like mold on blue cheese.”
Dr. Grace frowned. “But the blue in blue cheese is mold.”
Dani snapped her fingers and finger gunned at him. “Exactly.”
Danny rolled his eyes. His left hand twitched. He instinctively grabbed his pulsepoint and started massaging it with his thumb. Both Jazz and Stratt glanced at his wrist and then at him. Oh, great. There were two of them.
Stratt cleared her throat. “Thank you for the bracelet.” She held up her hand before he could try and correct her, “How is the testing going?”
Ah, he’d been hoping she’d ‘forgotten’. He resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck. It helped that his hand decided to spasm in pain. He winced. Storm was getting closer. “Uh, before we get to that. We’re not expecting any deliveries or like… nobody is out flying right now are they?”
Stratt’s gaze once again was on her laptop screen. “There are a couple about to fly out… why?”
“Ground them.” Danny hissed as his hand seized up. He held his hand against his chest as he squeezed his eyes shut. He’s had worse pain before. He fought the Ghost King for Infinite Realms sake!
Circle breathing. Just. Focus.
He felt a presence near him as he continued to focus on just his breath that he didn’t need. Two actually. Both whispering to each other.
“Let him breathe.” Jazz whispered. “We can’t do anything.”
“What do you mean we can’t do anything? He’s clearly in-” that was… Dr. Grace’s voice.
“I know.” Jazz’s voice was a little harsher, “It comes in waves. Has been like this since we were teens.”
Danny slowly opened his eyes. The room’s light was harsher than before. Brighter. Stratt was still seated in her chair. Dani was half way out of hers when she met her template’s eyes.
“I’m…” Danny cleared his throat as he took a quick glance behind him. Jazz stood between him and Dr. Grace, both of whom had stopped whatever argument they were having to stare at him. “Fine.” He turned towards Stratt’s waiting gaze. “Big storm is, uh, getting closer. Has been for a while actually.”
Stratt steepled her fingers. “Oh?”
Danny nodded slowly. “Felt it, uh, earlier. Been able to tell since, my uh, accident.”
Stratt’s eyes briefly glanced at her screen before looking back at him. “How accurate would you say?”
Danny half shrugged. “Like…” he massaged his arm. The compression glove and sleeve covered most of the Lichtenberg scarring. If he had known it was going to be a bad day he would’ve worn longer sleeves. “…approximately 16 kilometers northwest.”
Stratt seemed… impressed? It was difficult to exactly read her expression through the pain as she almost immediately schooled it. “And how bad would you say this storm was?”
He gave a half shrug. “Considering this is one of my more bad days? Bad. Like nobody should be on the deck if they can help it bad.”
She nodded slowly. “Any news of the testing?”
“Ilyukhina and I have a couple ideas, but can’t attempt it yet due to being in line for astrophage like eeeeveryone else.”
“I am…working on a solution for the astrophage production.” She said, glancing at Dr. Grace. “In the meantime, get that pain under control. That is an order. Dismissed.”
Danny nodded. “Yes boss.”
Dr. Grace did attempt to get his attention, but Jazz, ever the observant, grabbed Dr. Grace’s wrist and shook her head. “He’s gonna get a heat pack.” She whispered before grinning at Danny, “Oh, and stop sleeping on tables.”
Danny paused in the doorway. He groaned. How’d she know? “No promises!” He called back.
“Bye Nerd!” Dani called out.
Danny snorted as he shook his head. “Yeah, yeah.”
“So, a twin sister.” Ilyukhina said as Danny readjusted the heat packs.
He had to secretly expel some ice while he waited on the microwave for the heatpacks. The downsides of being an ice core ghost… heat packs rarely lasted longer than 5 minutes if he didn’t try to adjust his temperature.
“Yep.” Danny said, popping the P.
“And you’re both Danny?”
“Daniel and Danielle. We fought over who got to keep it despite me being born first.” He rolled his eyes as he watched Ilyukhina work. “She went by Ellie for a little while, but decided everyone was being misogynist and demanded to also be called Dani. So, she’s Dani with an I, and I’m Danny with a Y.”
Ilyukhina paused her work as she looked at him. “Why would your parents…”
He raised a brow. “They weren’t expecting twins. Due to the uh…nature of their work, they didn’t get an ultrasound and wanted the gender to be a surprise.” He sighed, “Our middle names are basically the same too.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh,” Danny tugged at the heat pack, “James is mine. Wanna guess what hers is?”
Ilyukhina hummed. “Jacqueline?”
“Nope,” he said, popping the P, “Jemma.”
“If I ever meet your parents—”
“Don’t,” Danny coughed, “don’t speak that into existence. Please.” He loved his parents dearly, but he did not want to imagine the kind of chaos they’d bring to the Stratt Vat. He could imagine the Ops Center just…flying over the Pacific Ocean trying to find ghost ships or ghost whales. He shuddered. There were multiple fishing trips Dad dragged him along when they went fishing in Lake Eerie (You’re Safe From Spells Now That You’re At Lake Eerie!) or when the family ‘won a cruise’ (thanks Vlad) that entered the Bermuda Triangle.
She smiled. “Okay, fine.” Her gaze glanced at his arm. “How’s it feeling?”
“Better.” And it was. The heat was doing the trick. It probably also helped that the Stratt Vat had changed courses. He had a gut feeling his chronic nerve pain was going to be extra scrutinized now. Greaaaat. He sighed. That was a problem for future Danny.
There was a knock on the door frame. Ilyukhina and Danny turned. “Uh, knock knock?” Dr. Grace cleared his throat as he shrunk in himself. His glasses were only hanging onto one ear. “Hope I’m not like… interrupting anything.”
Ilyukhina smiled. “Oh, hey Grace. Fenton’s been telling me about how he has a twin sister.”
“Yeah,” he chuckled, not leaving the doorway, “I met her. She’s uh—”
“A lot?” Danny guessed with a grin, “You get used to her, and I suggest pretty fast since she learned you have a candy stash.”
Dr. Grace scratched the stubble on his chin. “Yeaaaah, I have no doubt about that.”
Ilyukhina leaned against the table as her gaze clocked the Specter Deflector on Dr. Grace’s wrist. She looked at Danny and grinned a grin that Danny did not like in the slightest. “So, Grace,” she said, schooling her face, “Stratt need anything?”
Dr. Grace blinked. “Huh? Oh, uh, no, I was just uh…” he adjusted his glasses and put them on top of his head. “Just wanted to make sure you were okay is, uh, all…”
Danny adjusted his arm under the heat pads as he was trying his damndest to not let his ice core lower the room’s temp by a couple degrees. “Oh, uh,” he half shrugged nonchalantly, “better yeah. Nerves aren’t rebelling as hard as they were earlier.”
Grace’s face was at war with itself as he seemed to fight what to say next. The man had questions, that much was clear, but Danny wasn’t going to help ask them. He had an idea as to at least a handful, and no way in Pandora’s Box was he going to open that can of worms.
Ilyukhina though… she had a can opener and was absolutely stabbing her way through the tin. “Got some questions, Grace?” She asked coyly. Oh, so she was ready to kill Danny, just like his sisters, great fantastic.
“Uh,” Grace coughed, “just a few?”
“Liiiiiike?”
“Um, uh,” Grace was looking everywhere but at Danny. “Whats your favorite candy?”
Oh. Huh. That’s not what Danny was expecting.
“Black licorice,” Ilyukhina said, her voice sounding a little too disappointed, “And not that American sweet stuff. I mean actual black licorice.”
“I’m more of a sour guy myself.” Danny said, staring at the heat pad, before flipping the thing over and relaxed, still sensing the heat from it. “The more sour the better honestly. Sour Patch Kids are a good substitute, but I could always go for a warhead.”
An unopened bag of sour skittles slid across the table and gently tapped against his hand. Danny stared at the candy for a moment before his eyes darted up to Grace’s.
Ilyukhina sighed dramatically. “You have candy for him and yet not me, I am wounded!” She said, as she faked a knife stabbing her heart.
“S-sorry,” Grace’s glasses were somehow dangling under his chin. “Unfortunately, Ilyukhina the only licorice I have on my is the sugary American kind, but I’ll uh, talk to Carl about going on another candy run soon.”
She shook her head. “Is fine. But you owe me two bags now that I know it’s coming.”
Grace chuckled. “Of course.”
“Thanks,” Danny said at last, “haven’t had them before, but I’ve been meaning to try them.”
Grace smiled softly. “Yeah, um, hope you uh, like them. Glad you’re feeling better.” He waved and ran into the doorframe as he turned around. “Haha who put this wall here—”
Ilyukhina slowly turned to Danny as Grace made his not so graceful exit. “Soooooo, what else happened in that meeting?” She asked as that predatory grin returned to her face.
Danny felt ice forming in his closed hands as a small puff of steam left his lips. “Well, nothing really, but my twin is now Stratt’s temporary translator. We’ll see how long that will last.”
She pouted a little, clearly not expecting that response, but it was the truth. “What languages does she know?”
“A lot,” he said, a little saddened that he’d have to make the trek back to the closest microwave to reheat the heating pads. “More than me, that’s for certain. She knows most of the major ones and some dead ones too. Dani travelled a lot in her twenties. Backpacking, some sailing, loooot of flying.”
All truthful. Danny knew a good handful, but he was only truly confident in English, Esperanto, and Ghostspeak. He understood a lot more, could even read in most languages, but speaking them. If he was in the Infinite Realms soaking in and actively communicating with other ghosts? Zero issue. As soon as he left for the world of the living? It’s like his brain was scrambled in all the wrong ways.
He could still retain some syntax, but his speech would be stilted and full of old slang nobody had used in the same sense decades, sometimes even centuries. Dani, meanwhile, constantly travelled the globe, fully submerging herself in the culture and people of wherever she decided to stop for a few months. She survived off the kindness of others, and a whole lot of trading. Not to mention the amount of “fetch quests” she’d done in the Infinite Realms when her wanderlust couldn’t be scratched by the living.
“She’s possibly overqualified, but uh,” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, “she also has a tendency to weeeell, how do I put this…” he tapped his fingers on the table, “She doesn’t do well with authority. Never had before or after juvie honestly.”
“Juvie?”
“Oh, juvenile detention center. She did some stuff that I’m not legally allowed to discuss, but she’s been out for like over a decade so it's whatever.”
Ilyukhina whistled. “…that’s still not the craziest thing you’ve said today.” She eased back and folded her arms over her chest, “Still… does not explain why Dr. Grace sought you out.” Her lips quirked a smirk as Danny immediately stood up.
“Oh, I should probably, uh, reheat these!” He said a little too quickly as he scooped up the heatpads and rushed for the door.
“Fentoooon,” she called after him.
He sighed and turned around, only for the bag of sour skittles to smack him square in the face and land in his arms.
“You forgot your candyyyyy.” Ilyukhina sang as she laughed.
He rolled his eyes, turning back around to hide his fond smile. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming right back.”
“Good! And while you’re out hunt for more duct tape! Someone keeps poaching ours!”