A DP ficlet inspired by @wsoupofpain ‘s Substitute Blank AU which I am thinking about all the time, but specifically also her DannyMay piece found here. Also, there’s a playlist associated with the AU now, the decision that i have made.
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Her fingers want to shake as she zips up the suit, but she doesn’t let them. Tucker is watching her suspiciously; she hadn’t wanted him to be here, but he wouldn’t let Danny go alone. She didn’t want Danny here either but the portal was in his basement, so she didn’t have a choice. She doesn’t want them here, but she’s glad they are, because Sam isn’t sure she has the strength to die alone.
Danny is poking at buttons, doing his best to remember how his parents turned the portal on. It’s complicated, and while she doesn’t know what is involved, she does know what comes next. It doesn’t turn on properly. Someone goes inside. Something comes out.
A deep breath. A hand on her Magen David. Responsibility and love and fear all mix inside her. The last few moments she may ever have, with friends who don’t remember her laugh and smile and bad jokes the way she remembers theirs. Her hand tightens on the points. She can be the one to protect them this time. She lets it go, and slides on the gloves.
She understands that she needs more to be able to keep this sustainable. She can’t keep fighting like this, with equipment she doesn’t understand and a body that can’t take a hit. She has to keep the town safe and she can’t bear to ask it of him, and something deep inside her aches for it. The power. The responsibility. She has always been fighting wars she cannot win; but with this she may have a chance.
Sam Manson has thought through every scenario. She is choosing this fully informed and aware of what comes next. Someone has to die inside the portal, and she has decided it will be her. Danny finishes setting the dials and she finishes tying her shoes. Tucker sets his phone down. Her world condenses so that it fits inside Danny’s basement.
There is only this - the hastily-made patch on Danny’s suit, an attempt to make it her own and not his; the bruises and scrapes the suit covers up, accidents and trophies of fighting ghosts with mortal flesh and bone; Daniel Fenton in front of her, alive wholly and completely, because she did not kill him and put the responsibility of the world on his shoulders. He asks her if she’s sure. She says no.
There is only this -
Her footsteps echoing as she steps into the portal.
The hum of the fluorescent lights above her.
Danny and Tucker watching, worried. She loves them.
Her hands want to shake as she reaches for the button.
She doesn’t let them.
