The Law of Averages

Chapter 46

Dan was at a golf course.

Thwack!

He wasn't entirely sure why.

Thwack!

But, he had a suspicion.

Thwack!

Abby felt like hitting something.

Thwack!

"—out of my sight for thirty seconds—drafted by a lunatic!—could have been killed if—!!"

The aforementioned girl was viciously mauling a patch of green turf with her club, muttering a constant stream of curses under her breath.

"Stupid Danny making me worry!"

Thwack! Iron met earth, and earth lost. Great clods of dirt spiraled through the air alongside a tiny white orb, both victims to Abby's ferocious strength.

Dan watched, with a mixture of amusement and dread, as Abby exhausted herself by whaling on the landscape. Most of her swings missed their mark entirely, simply cleaving into the ground and sending debris scattering across the pretty green. Finally, after reducing what he suspected was a very expensive piece of land to rubble, she turned around, shoulders heaving.

Only to catch sight of Dan's presence and flush bright red.

"Your club looks a bit bent, Abs," Dan pointed out, motioning towards the iron in her hand. The impractical amount of abuse it had been subjected to had curled the poor thing into a banana shape.

She side-eyed the now worthless chunk of metal, before quickly hiding it behind her back. It was quite possibly the least effective form of concealment that Dan had ever witnessed, and he couldn't help but grin at the action.

Abby's face burned even hotter. "It's supposed to look like that."

"Uh huh." Dan nodded obligingly.

Abby stared at him for a moment longer, as the gears in her mind visibly turned. Something seemed to snap in place, and a furious expression appeared on her face. She shifted quickly, keeping the club firmly behind herself while jabbing an accusatory finger in Dan's direction. "You—!"

"Me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You!" she repeated, stomping forward. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"What, just now?" Dan glanced down at his appearance with concern. He was wearing the same style as usual, a collared shirt and comfortable jeans. Hell, Abby was the one who picked this set out. "I don't think I'm that scary."

"Yesterday!" Abby shouted, her voice just shy of shrill. "You fought a criminal yesterday! You could've been killed!"

Dan held up his hands defensively. "It was just a ride along. It should've been perfectly safe."

"You almost got kidnapped!" Abby continued to lambaste him. "The officer responsible for you was kidnapped!

"AND I FOUND OUT ABOUT IT THROUGH A TEXT MESSAGE AT ONE IN THE MORNING!"

He flinched at the hurt in her tone. That... hadn't been Dan's best idea. In his defense, last night was little more than a haze of bleary thoughts in his memory. He had been utterly wiped out by the end, and his text to Abby had been the result. Dan was still getting used to having a close friend, someone who was interested in him, invested in his welfare. He hadn't experienced such a thing since his parents had passed, years ago, and his rust clearly showed.

"I'm sorry," he told her contritely. "I was tired, and sore, and a little excited, and I wanted to tell you what happened the second that I got my head on straight."

In retrospect, he should've just texted her that he was home safe, and that he'd talk to her in the morning. His long, rambling message, talking about bombs and fights and kidnappings, and ending with "I'm going to sleep," had probably been a nightmare to read, especially since she'd been awake enough to respond shortly after he sent it.

He'd thought nothing of it, even this morning, as her own message had been a simple meeting request that had brought him to this golf course. That, and a wish for him to get a good night's rest. Dan hadn't thought to read any deeper into it, much to his peril.

Abby arrived in front of him, brandishing her banana club.

"If you ever do something that cruel to me again," she whispered, her voice wavering between relief and fury, "I'll—"

She paused, searching for a suitable punishment, while Daniel awaited his fate with a bowed head.

Abby blinked, a metaphorical light bulb appearing over her head.

"I'll tell grandmother!" she said triumphantly, poking Dan's belly with her club.

He paled at that, eyes bulging outward, and he grabbed Abby firmly by the shoulders. "I am so sorry, Abby. Really, truly sorry. I wasn't thinking at all. It will never happen again!"

She sniffed, the sound too wet to be mocking , and asked, "And the next time you get into a life-threatening situation?"

"I'll call you," Dan replied earnestly. "Immediately after. During, even!"

She huffed, a sharp, broken sound, and chided, "That's not necessary, Danny. You don't always have to tell me things. I can't demand that from you. Just... if you do tell me something that will make me worry, make it a conversation, okay? Not a— a note or an email or a text message. I have to be able to look at you. To make sure you're safe."

Abby wiped her eyes with her sleeve, then patted Dan on the shoulder. "Have some concern for the people that care about you, okay? Have you bothered to tell Mr. Mercury?"

Dan grimaced at the reminder. "No. I haven't visited his station since I left. I don't know if his experiments are safe, and I'm not sure if I'd trust his reassurance."

"That's your decision," Abby replied, her voice regaining some of its vigor, "but I'd want to know what you are up to, if I were him. At least let him know that you're using what he taught you."

Dan smiled wryly. "I'd have to email him. You just finished telling me not to do that."

"I was talking about for me," Abby replied, her good cheer returning as rapidly as it had left. She bounced on her heels. "Don't you think he'd like to hear from you?"

Dan shrugged. It was hard to say, really. His parting from Marcus had been amicable, if abrupt. Dan still felt a lingering sense of... betrayal? Anger? Disappointment. The man was playing with things beyond his understanding, and could have put Dan at risk in the process. Marcus did not practice what he preached. Not when it mattered.

Then again, few did.

"I'll think about it," Dan decided. He looked to Abby, his expression softening. "Are we okay?"

She sighed, but smiled. It was a fragile thing, but a smile nonetheless. "We're okay, Danny. Please don't do that again."

"I won't," he swore.

"Good." She took a deep breath, then met his eyes. "Okay, let's catch up."

They did. Dan spent the next thirty minutes describing, in excruciating detail, his little police adventure. Abby kept calm throughout the explanation, merely commenting here and there on small details. It was relieving for Dan, in all honesty, to unload his thoughts like this. He valued Abby's opinion, and trusted her more than just about anyone. A better second opinion he could not find.

"I think you're rushing into this academy thing," Abby told him once he'd finished.

That wasn't exactly what Dan had hoped to hear, but fine. "Why's that?"

"Well..." She paused, a conflicted expression passing over her face.

"Just tell me," Dan insisted. "You won't hurt my feelings. Promise."

"I think you're overreacting to your guilt at indirectly causing a kidnapping," Abby said in a rush.

Dan blinked. Slowly.

"That's— Um. Not. The case?" Probably. He wasn't exactly over the whole kidnapping issue, but he'd been searching for a path forward for a while now.

"Really?" Abby asked nervously. "Because it seemed like you were happy just training on your own. This decision is really sudden, Danny."

That was a fair point, but the reason was not what Abby assumed.

"Passivity is a trap," Dan said slowly, trying to assemble the jumbled thoughts he'd been plagued with of late. "That's what I learned yesterday. I could see myself living a leisurely life, improving myself at my own pace, helping out at a disaster every few months and feeling like I'm making a difference. A peaceful life, by and large, and a leisurely one."

Abby frowned at the idyllic future he'd described. "I don't see anything wrong with that, Danny."

"There isn't anything wrong with it, Abs," Dan replied. "Kudos to anyone willing to help out, in any way, large or small. It's just not for me."

He held up a hand, stalling her response.

"I don't want to be the guy who pats himself on the back for doing his good deed for the day. I don't want to be the guy who rests on his laurels, bringing up past charity to feel better about himself. I spent most of my adult life lying to myself about who I am and what I was doing with my life. I won't do it anymore."

He scratched the back of his head, offering up half a shrug.

"Beyond that, I want to be more proactive with my time. Ito was right. Waiting around for the next disaster to happen is no way to live."

Abby sighed. "Any sort of search and rescue will involve waiting around for disasters to happen. That's literally the job."

"You know what I mean," Dan replied with a laugh. "I just want a job where I help people each day. I'm not sold on the APD yet, but the training will be valuable."

"I still think you're going in too extreme a direction," Abby said frankly. She ran a gentle hand along his arm. "I think the Danny in front of me is fine as he is. You don't need to prove anything to anyone."

"Not anyone," Dan said, patting her hand with his own, "just myself. I don't need to change the world to be satisfied, but I'd like to believe that I can make a difference in my own small way. Until I find something more impactful, this is what I'm going with."

"Fine." Abby huffed, spinning away from Dan and tossing her bent golf club off to the side. She walked several paces before turning back to him. "If you're going to insist on being all noble and heroic, then I'm going to insist on stepping up your personal training."

Dan took a hesitant step backwards. "O~kay. Am I going to regret this?"

"Oh yes," Abby cackled gleefully. "I'm going to work you until you drop from exhaustion! Until your muscles rebel! Until you cry for mercy!"

"Um."

"Your power too!" she crowed. "You'll train it until its use becomes second nature! You can't dodge bullets? No! You can't dodge bullets, yet!"

"Er."

"And fighting!" Abby interrupted loudly, stabbing her finger forward. "You think you're hot shit because you beat up a single, unprepared criminal? Hah! I was taught how to fight by Anastasia Summers! Grandma trusts me to wander the streets without a dozen bodyguards flanking me! I'm gonna beat the crap out of you until your instincts are perfect!"

She punctuated the final word by exploding forward, fist cocked behind her and blurring across the ground at speeds just shy of HOLYFUCK!

He flinched involuntarily, eyes slamming shut even as he willed himself elsewhere. He landed awkwardly on broken turf, having failed to enter t-space in his sheer panic. His eyes opened just in time to duck under a colossal roundhouse from Abby. The gust of air that followed her blow felt like an entirely separate strike.

He stumbled backwards, stammering, "I don't think this is a good place to spar, Abs!"

"I rented the whole place for the next hour," Abby shouted, pressing her advantage with a flying kick straight out of a Hollywood film.

Dan yelped, flailing for some kind of defense, but tripped on loose debris. The clumsy act saved him, as Abby soared over his head and landed a good fifteen feet away. She skid along once immaculate grass, leaving large trenches in her wake. Before her momentum even stalled, she spun on her heels, bent her knees, and rocketed towards Dan once more, with grace most Olympians would envy.

At which point, Dan opted out of an asskicking.

He dropped into t-space, remaining in that dark abyss just long enough to calm himself, before reappearing a good hundred meters away from his previous location.

"Come take your beating like a man!" Abby shrieked at him, waving a (not at all) dainty fist.

"Gotta catch me to beat me up!" Dan shouted right back, sticking his tongue out provokingly.

Abby roared something unintelligible, and sprinted in his direction. Each angry step tore rivets in the grass, causing a storm of dirt to trail after her like she was the fucking Roadrunner. She closed the distance alarmingly fast, violence in her eyes and murder on her lips.

Dan screamed in a manly fashion, and teleported himself further away. Abby's enraged bellow told him that this act would not go unpunished.

He flashed her a smile and a jaunty wave. He'd pay for it later, he knew. But this was just too much fun.

Dan felt relaxed again, even as his closest friend in the world tried to bludgeon him unconscious.

All was right with the world.