This is a response to Xrai's challenge 'basket'. Hope you like it.
Important: This year, I'm not going to have much time for fanfiction. I'll try, but I probably won't be able to update once a week. There would also probably be no multi chapter fics in the near future.
Disclaimer: I'm still in school. You need time to make Danny Phantom cartoons.
Danny selected a basket, something unusual but nice for her. He was going to visit her again this week. The basket would be the third he gave her. Danny halfa paid the shop owner and left the handicraft shop. Immediately, he headed for an empty alleyway and after making sure no one was looking, he went ghost and flew towards the hospital.
About one month ago, for the first time, a citizen of Amity Park was permanently injured by a ghost attack. Lyn was hit by one of Skulker's missiles and was thrown against a building. She was now paralyzed from the waist down.
Danny visited every week. It was his fault for not doing his duty as a protector properly and the missiles were meant for him, not her, the least he could do was visit her. Before this, Lyn was aiming to be a national gymnast. And now, because of him, her dream could not be realized. No matter what Sam or Tucker said, he still felt guilty. Not even Lyn could make him think otherwise.
When he found out about her basket passion, he searched for baskets for her. She liked interesting designs, so he bought the unusual ones. So far, she liked all the baskets he had bought. He hoped that the latest one would satisfy her as well.
He knocked on the window twice and slipped intangibly into the room.
"Hey." He greeted.
"Hello." The seventeen-year-old greeted.
"What do you think?" Danny asked as he passed the basket to her.
"It's nice. Thanks. But you really don't have to buy me so many baskets." Lyn said as she placed it on the table next to her.
"It's fine." Danny said.
Lyn looked at him.
"I know that look." She said. "It's that guilty it's-my-fault look. Don't feel guilty. It was an accident. It's not your fault. You don't have to keep giving me baskets to make up for it. You're making me feel guilty."
"But…" Danny protested.
Lyn grabbed his chin and looked at him in the eye.
"It. Is. Not. Your. Fault." She said firmly.
"But, your dream… You can't be a gymnast anymore."
"I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I might be dead if you weren't there."
Danny didn't know how to reply that, so he kept silent with his eyes downcast. Lyn sighed.
"There's a limit to what makes you feel guilty and how. Feeling guilty is ok, it keeps us human, but too much over the wrong thing is just stupid." The grip on his chin disappeared.
"We have this talk every time you visit. Must be getting tired of it, huh?" Lyn gave him a small smile.
"At least you're better than my parents. Once you get them started on ghosts, they can go on forever." Danny chuckled.
"Really?"
"They're always ready to talk about their latest inventions. That's good for me because I know what they do if they're used on me."
"You interact with your parents daily?"
"Sort of." Greetings count, right?
"Your parents are still alive?"
"Yeah."
"You're a ghost."
"Yeah?" Half ghost, actually, but no need to be so detailed.
"They hunt ghosts."
"Yeah?" What was she trying to say?
"They don't know you're a ghost?"
Oh crud. He gave too much information.
"Oh, hey, need to fight some ghost. Got to go. Seeyounextweekbye." Danny rushed out of the room. He had forgotten how sharp Lyn was. Some of her deductions were too close for comfort. And she could ask for information without sounding like she's trying to get information and connect it so naturally to their previous topic that he always fell into her trap.
Lyn was dangerous.
She smiled, remembering how flustered Phantom looked before he escaped. He had obviously lied about the needing to fight a ghost part. She wasn't stupid. Phantom was a horrible liar. Anyway, she didn't see that blue smoke that usually left his mouth before he excused himself to fight another ghost.
The seventeen-year-old opened another window on the laptop on her lap and searched for ghost hunters in Amity Park. Giving him the guilt trip seemed really effective. Today's visit brought the most information she had successfully pried from the usually tight-lipped ghost. Now she could finally start her search.
Ever since the second visit, something Phantom let slip told her that he was different from other ghosts. He had human friends, he acted human, he even felt more like a human than a ghost. If she ignored his ghostly features, she would honestly think that she had conversed with a human. Even when Phantom fought other ghosts, there was something different about him.
She looked through the search results. It didn't take her long to find something that could prove her suspicion.
"Danny Fenton."
Blue eyes stared at her.
"Interesting."
She looked forward to his next visit.
See those nice green words? Click it!
Please?
-Poetess
Our little robot is back! She's not talking in ryhmes anymore though. Need to fix that...