#not aging

He hadn't really noticed, back in Amity Park. Sure, okay, he knew he was a bit delayed after Tucker shot up. Sam had come first, of course, teasing them both about their heights until Tucker finally passed her and Danny... Didn't. 

But the teasing stopped. Looking back, he thinks there might have been a jab the DAY they found their heights the same, but after that? Nothing. As if the minute Danny was waiting for puberty alone the joke was over. It wasn't funny anymore. It was just sad. 

He'd noticed, of course, that he was the shortest person in their graduating class, but not in the entire school. Frankly, he spent most of his time studiously focused on keeping his grades up, not comparing himself to his classmates (he'd given that up sophomore year when he realized it just took too much energy). So maybe he was avoiding the subject, was slightly in denial, but it wasn't exactly jumping out in his face, either. 

In college, whenever a high school tour passes by, juniors and seniors talking excitedly, Danny can't help but notice he's smaller than every single one.

Winter Break after Danny's first semester in college, he waited until everyone in his family was asleep, then snuck downstairs and pressed his back against the kitchen door frame. 

He didn't stand on his tiptoes, or stretch his back and neck as far as they'd go. He just stood up straight, his heels against the wall, and then reached his hand over his head, marking his height against the wall with his fingertips. When he stepped away and looked at it, there it was, right against the indentation in the wood where his mom had scratched the same line for Danny 15, 16, 17, and then given up... 

He looks down the wall at the marks there, Jazz in red, Danny in black. The red marks start out far apart, then gradually come together before stopping, roughly an inch above "Jazz, 2x2", where his parents had marked their prediction for her adult height on her second birthday. 

The black marks start out roughly the same as his sister, though slightly above. But they don't smooth out like Jazz's do. Instead they stop, dead, half a centimeter above Danny, 14. 

He has to take a step back to see the next black mark at Danny, 2x2. It's not his dad's height, but it's up there, the promised growth spurt that never came. It's more than a foot over his head. 

It's not the height that bothers him. He's been fighting ghosts long enough to know that size mostly doesn't matter. Plus, he's always been small, so he's used to it. It's just that… Nobody wants to be friends with a fourteen-year-old. When he goes out with Sam and Tucker, people assume he's her younger brother. And when it's just him and Tucker, they get side-eyed.

"So, I'm not growing."

Jazz gives him a sad smile, and nods, like she's been waiting for this moment for a while. "You want to talk about it?" Scratch that, she's definitely been waiting for this.

He shakes his head. "I'm dealing, I just... For a while I thought maybe I was just delayed, or slow, but… It's been 5 years and… What do you think is wrong with me?"

Jazz sighs. "You're not going to like my answer."

"What, that I'm perfect just the way I am?" He stares her down, raising one eyebrow, daring her to say it.

"No." She stares right back. "I think you should see a doctor."

"Wow. No wonder you're premed. That never even occurred to me." 

"You know you get mean when you're defensive, right?"

Sometimes, Danny misses the days when Jazz would just take the hint and leave him alone. "And you know why I can't do that."

"I can write up a confidentiality agreement--"

"Which will help him understand half-ghost biology how, exactly?"

"Have you asked Frostbite?"

"Yeah, he doesn't see the problem. To him, staying the same is normal. He'd probably think there was something wrong with me if I did grow."

"You could ask Vlad."

"Vlad is clearly over forty, Jazz. He doesn't have this problem."

There's silence for over a minute both of them thinking the same thing.

"You could tell mom and--"

"Bye Jazz!" He disappears before she even finishes her sentence.

The bouncer takes one look at him and laughs. "Nice try. Come again in 5 years." He doesn't even look at Danny's ID. 

"Look, its my birthday--"

"You'll need a few more before you can come in here."

"My twenty-FIRST birthday--"

The man snorts. 

"You can see my ID--"

"It's not hard to get a fake ID, kid."

"Okay, but it isn't fake I'm just little."

"Kid, you're not getting in."

He's fed up even though he could just go ghost and go in the back, provided nobody inside cares enough to kick him out. He opens his mouth to argue but Sam gets there first.

"He's got an aging disorder, asshole, he can't help it. You want to see a birth certificate?"

They haven't talked about it, haven't mentioned it, but it's clear Sam's either done her research or Danny's secrets have made her very good at bullshitting on the fly. Except… He kind of does have a disorder, so maybe she's just telling the truth…

"Nice try--"

"I will sue your ass and I will win--"

"Sam!" Danny's not sure if you can sue a bouncer for doing his job, even if this is the first bar they've been carded at all semester. He's realizing that this is his life now; even if they convince this one guy, the next time he tries will be the same and… Well, spending the evening being reminded he isn't growing is not how he really wants to spend his birthday. 

"Let's just do something else, watch a movie or something." It's not like he was going to get drunk anyways; he tends to lose control of his powers and start crying on his friends shoulders, talking about how much he loves them. 

"No!" Sam, as always, refuses to give up. "It's not fair! You've--" 

"And when has my life ever been fair, Sam?" He's not trying to be bitter; it's just a fact. "Come on, it's my birthday, I don't even feel like a drink anymore."

"But then he'll win."

"Yeah, well, maybe I'm getting better at picking my battles."

He isn't; his ghost sense goes off at 8 and he spends the rest of his birthday chasing after Johnny

He does get an official diagnosis when he graduates. They call it Syndrome X, a fancy way of saying they don't know what it is, but he isn't crazy. He takes it to job interviews after the first company thinks he's playing a joke, and even though it's basically a non-answer, for some reason his parents basically accept it and stop looking for answers. The Ghost Zone is more interesting to them anyways, and they've got no idea it might actually be the same question. 

Even with an explanation, it's still awkward in the workplace. His coworkers are already mostly older than him, but his… problem makes the ten year gap look more like twenty. 

It also doesn't help that they call him 'immature' when he misses work without notice, and then he gets angry, and… yeah.

Long story short, he goes through eight jobs before he finally gets fired from the Nasty Burger.

In college, it hadn't mattered as much if he missed classes, as long as he read the book and knew enough people to copy notes from, but in the real world it doesn't matter how well you can do something if you don't show up at the time you're supposed to do it. The gaps in his resume are widening, and any recommendation he may ask for is sure to include "tends not to show up" somewhere on it.

"So, uh, Danny, you're out of college now, right?" Michael says it in a way that suggests he's trying too hard to be normal, but can't quite think of what normal is supposed to look like. 

"Yeah, I finished last year. You're in graduate school for chemistry, right?" Danny pretends he doesn't notice the way Michael keeps glancing between his girlfriend and Danny. He's trying to be subtle about it, which Danny appreciates.

"Uh…" The question catches up with his brain, and Danny can see the way his face lights up. "Biochemistry, technically. There's a lot of bioinformatics as  well-- we're trying to model the forces involved in maintaining the structure of different cyclic polymers--" He goes into explaining his research, which goes way over Danny's head, but he can see why Jazz likes him. He projects his emotions, the way their dad does, but so far seems to be less clumsy and significantly more reliable. He's awkward, but, well, so is Jazz.

They're both such nerds.

"Sorry, I'm not sure how much of that makes sense. I'm so used to using scientific language-- not that you don’t know scientific language, just that it's specific to my area, I mean, my little sister doesn't understand any of what I'm saying, and-- not that your age has anything-- or, no, I mean--"

"Michael!" Jazz snaps at him.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to! Sorry! I just!"

Danny laughs, because it's funny, and he's not being malicious. Danny's certainly put his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion himself. "Dude, it's okay. Just relax. Jazz isn't going to break up with you over one mistake."

The way he glances at Jazz says he was told the exact opposite, but Danny's okay with playing the good cop for now. So far Michael doesn't seem dangerous, and Danny's gonna check for overshadowing when he leaves for home, after dinner.

Following him home is slightly less creepy than it could be, given the fact that Jazz had asked him to, but Danny doesn’t feel fully off the hook for it. Especially considering he was already planning the same exact thing.

It gets easier. Somebody informs the Amity Park Police department that Danny technically needs to eat and he gets put on the pay roll. He's not sure if he'll ever need a retirement plan, but he's got one anyways, just in case his body starts breaking down even though it never technically finished building itself up.

His friends… Settle down. Fun gradually changes from dancing and going out to dinner dates and staying in. Sam proposes to a man she met while traveling with Green Peace, and it takes Tucker slightly longer, but Amanda gets a ring a few years later.

Michael proposes to Jazz, and after the first time Danny shows him what he can do with his powers, Michael never forgets to treat Danny as an equal ever again.

And then Abby is born.

It's so strange to watch her grow. She shoots up from a baby to a toddler in what feels like no time at all. She's smart and happy, and Jazz seems to have taught her daughter through some kind of magical osmosis, as Abby seems to know more words than Danny does by the time she's three.

He does a lot of baby-sitting. 

Jazz and Michael bought a house in the city nearby Amity, with Tucker halfway across the country, and Sam halfway across the world. Danny’s job has odd and irregular hours, so he's basically the perfect candidate. Plus, the teen next door is always willing to take Abby for a few hours in case of a ghostly emergency. 

When they go out somewhere, which is rarely, Danny starts just nodding when people ask if she's his little sister. ---- "Really, Danny? How old are you?" 

Danny rolls his eyes. "Fine. I get it. We got carried away."

"I'm serious, Danny. How old?"

He glares, "Forty-two. What's your point?" He sees her point. He just… Doesn't feel forty-two. He feels fourteen. Which is weird, because he felt twenty when he was twenty, even if only Sam, Tucker and Jazz ever really treated him like it. 

"Is this some kind of… midlife crisis?"

Danny shrugs. A midlife implies halfway to the end, and… Danny's not sure there is one of those. He's not even sure he's technically living, really, he'd just… forgotten. Forgotten he wasn't fourteen and in high school and should have better things to do than play pranks on the people who were.

It's a whole lot easier to get carried away being 'the cool uncle' when you look the same age as your niece.

"You're cleaning this up."

"You're not the boss of me." The words are out of his mouth as he's barely thought to say them, and wow, this is awkward.

"Well, clearly you aren't because you don't seem to have developed the self-control--"

"You're acting like mom."

"And you're acting like a child!"

He feels himself flinch, and Jazz looks like she regrets it, but she doesn't back down. 

Danny looks away first.

"I have to go to this meeting, so can you pick up Johnathan from his piano lesson?"

Danny nods, and as Jazz starts to walk away he starts to pick up feathers.

The authorities say it was bound to happen sooner or later, that the pipes were way behind on inspection, that no one should ever have had that much electricity running through those wires.

He and Jazz go to the funeral, hug their Aunt Alicia, and put what left of the condemned FentonWorks up for sale.

To Danny, it starts to feel like the beginning of the end.

"You're not wearing that to Thanksgiving." Her tone is that of a disapproving mother, even if Abigail's oldest is only five. 

"I put you in diapers, young lady, I can wear whatever I want."

"I don't like hospitals."

"It's not a hospital."

"Then why does it have nursing in the title?"

"It doesn't. It has retirement in the title."

Tucker hesitates, takes a breath, like he’s debating whether he’ll win this if he keeps arguing.

"… You'll visit me, right?"

"Of course! I'll come as often as possible. Drag your grandkids with me."

"Drag Sam along too, okay?"

"I'll… See what I can do." 

The trio slowly fell out of contact after Sam moved to somewhere in Sweden. They haven't talked in nearly ten years.

"You know, when I was your age…" Jazz has a look in her eye, like nostalgia, and Danny doesn't think he's ever been more terrified in his entire life. She doesn't have any dementia symptoms, but it runs in the family, and-- "They locked me up in this place."

It takes him a second to process what she said and then she's cackling like an old crone, and Danny starts laughing too. "So, what, two years ago, then?" Michael laughs along with them, doing some math on his phone, nodding. "To the day."

Michael is 84 years old when he dies from old age. Technically it's something more specific, and Jazz or her children would know, but Danny doesn't really care how he died, so much that he's there one day and the next… gone. He tries to pretend he doesn't know his sister is headed that way as well. 

"You know, when I was your age--" 

Danny manages a smile, tries to pretend she hasn’t made this joke before, that the things she mentions didn't happen, three, four, ten years ago. He tries to laugh with her, he really does, but it just isn't that funny.

Jazz's funeral is a large affair. At 97, she doesn't have many friends left, but she's got old patients, colleagues, students. She's survived by 2 children, five grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. The oldest is fourteen.

Danny doesn't think any of them know who he really is. 

They know him, of course-- he's been "Uncle Danny" to three generations, even if he's spread too thin between nine of them, and he'll know their kids even less. They really barely know Jazz, just visited her for a few hours every couple years, and let her call them by their parents' names, which you can hardly blame her for. There are nine of them.

The mother of the seven-year-old keeps having to cover his mouth during the ceremony.

Abby and Johnathan both come up and speak. About their mother. About her love, her strength. About her work as a doctor, and her care for her patients.

They talk about things they'll miss, pieces of advice she'd given them, how much better the world was when she was in it, and--

Abruptly, Danny realizes that no one in this room even met his sister before she was thirty, and Abby had been a newborn baby at the time. 

They know Jazz the teacher, the doctor, the mother. They know Jasmine McAllister, but they've never even met Jazz Fenton. Maybe never even heard of her. They simply know the old woman, forgetting names in a hospital bed.

A part of him wants to stand up and speak, wants to tell the world about how she'd protected him, how she was the best and most amazing and most annoying older sister, how she'd told him for years she was going to be a neurosurgeon and then she did it. How she could do anything she put her mind to. How she'd lived so long and so full, and--

He can't speak. He's choking on his own tears, as the casket is gently laid in the ground, and he sees some of the strangers looking at him, wondering why he's there, why he cares. What a fourteen-year-old boy is doing sobbing at a funeral like he's just lost a sibling.

The casket hits the bottom.

Danny can't bring himself to stand, to walk with her children and throw flowers on her grave.

In another fifty years who besides Danny will even remember her? Who she was, how she lived? Nobody might even be left to remember how she died… And who will remember Abby? Or Johnathan? Or Tucker or Sam? Is this his life? Is this what he's supposed to become? Just a long list of other lives, stopped cold when the people they belonged to left Danny behind?

If this is his eternity, how many ghosts will he have to carry? And for how long? Parents come and collect their children. The nursing home staff collect their charges. Family by family, Jazz's funeral party leaves.

No one comes to collect Danny.

It's not that they forgot him, it's simply that no one knew to. The people who know who he is lay a hand on his shoulder, offer their condolences, and leave him to grieve. To them, he is their babysitter, their confidant, their childhood hero. He's never wanted their help and certainly doesn't need it. He is no one's son and no one's father, and no one's responsibility. 

But he doesn't feel ninety-five and an adult and someone who knows what they should do next. He doesn't feel like a hero, like an uncle, like a man. He feels like a lonely, forgotten, fourteen-year-old boy.

In the end, nobody remembers the child who stepped into that portal.