Sam dragged Danny up the steps, his weight heavy from his arm on her shoulders. She grunted, "Geez, Danny, you're a stick; how the heck do you weigh so much?"

He gave a tired chuckle as she turned the knob and opened the door, his black hair hanging in front of his eyes that she knew were heavy with exhaustion and probably pain; one was turning blue from a bruise and the other had a nasty cut underneath it that spread down to his chin. "It's puuuuuure muscle," he drawled.

She gave a snort and dragged him inside, leaning him up against the wall and closing the door behind her. It clicked shut at the same moment she heard a small gasp behind her.

Startled, she whirled, and saw Maddie Fenton standing in the living room, a hand to her mouth and the other hung frozen behind her shoulder from ripping her mask and goggles off. An experiment lay abandoned mid-dissection on the table, its workings open for the world to see. Sam glanced at the clock. 4:23 AM. What was Danny's mom doing working so late into the night? She looked back to Danny and his beat up appearance and grimaced.

This had happened many times before in the past year and a half since he'd gotten his powers; Danny coming home late to a still awake mom with an obvious beating from a ghost (or two, or seven) on his body like art on a canvas, and him always refusing to answer her questions. Of course, Sam hadn't ever actually been present when it had occurred, but she'd heard that the first time had erupted in a heated conversation full of hurt and confusion; so she stood frozen like a deer in the headlights, watching Danny for his choice of action, waiting to see if a bomb would explode and a defense needed to be made.

Danny, unaware of her cautious eyes, stretched calmly and stood upright. He gave an innocent smile at his mom that read, "Hi. Please don't kill me?" He slung his backpack off his shoulders as he took tired steps forward, legs shaking from an effort to stand, and reached inside to grab something. Sam watched with a small wonder as his mom relaxed her stance and met her son halfway, returning his tired grin with one full of a somber and tender love - one saddened with an understanding that it wouldn't get any answers for her son's pain anytime soon.

Danny, having found what he was groping around for in his black hole of a bag, pulled out an unassuming piece of paper and held it out for his mom, his weary grin still present. "I passed."

Maddie grabbed the report card and put her hand to her mouth again, tears welling in her eyes. She gave a short laugh, trying not to cry, and wrapped her son in a firm hug. Danny, who had grown in the past eighteen months and was now a few inches taller than his mother, hugged back with a fatigued and slightly hunched back, his arms rubbing up and down and overlapping his mom's skinny frame.

Tears of relieved pride and never-ending worry slowly leaked from Maddie's eyes, and without letting go she whispered, "Danny, are you alright?" The question was more than concern for the bruises, burns and cuts draping her son's limbs and face; it was full of unasked and unanswered distress for his entire well-being, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Maddie wanted to know if her son was in need of help, and willing to explain everything and accept her offer to give it.

Sam stood forgotten and frozen, feeling like an intruder as she witnessed this private scene unfold. She watched Danny give a wobbly smile at that question, eyes scrunching and a tear leaking out, the pain evident on his face as he waited for control before answering the loaded question. Sam knew he wanted to tell her, that it broke him to hurt his own mother like this with the secrets. But it was a price he was willing to pay, because he needed his mom safe physically and emotionally. Telling her would only put her in danger and cause scars in her conscious for having hunted and hurt her son unknowingly for the past year and a half; for hunt him and hurt him she had, and forgave her he did. Sam found herself showing a tight smile, holding back her own tears for Danny's pain and love. He was such a momma's boy.

Danny softly whispered into his mother's red hair, his voice thick with exhaustion and a hidden pain, "Rough night." And then he squeezed his mom one last time, waved Sam goodnight, and walked up the stairs to his room.

Both females stood at the base of the steps, watching as his heavy-laden shoulders ascended for a brief rest before taking on his weight once more, and then again every day for the rest of his existence. Because if there was anyone worth fighting the world for, it were those very two women who were at the base of his.

A/N: Because there's something that just tugs on your heartstrings when you see a boy in the process of becoming a man hug his mom in compassion and love after a rough night of being a hero while finding out who he is as a human being all at the same time. Shamelessly inspired by the scene in The Amazing Spiderman at the end where Peter gives his aunt her carton of eggs, hugs her and says, "Rough night."