Setting: Several years after Phantom Planet. Assumed from that episode that even though the world knows Danny Phantom and accepts him, only that group of strangers and his parents saw him turn back into Danny Fenton. So there are rumors, but his identity is still pretty safe. Correct if wrong, will just make it a total AU then.

Chapter 1:

Jazz turned down the radio a few notches as she turned a corner, not liking the overplayed song that came on. She had used to like it, but hearing it over and over every time she got into a car for the past week ending up making the girl detest it. Still, she couldn't help but bop her head at the beat.

She kept an eye out at the buildings. Danny's apartment Jazz had been to many times before, but it didn't make it any easier to find by aesthetics. Every complex on the street was practically identical.

Fake brick red the buildings were, with an even amount of windows on each side. Two bushes out in front, though some were not in the best of health and others overgrown. Who gardened these things anyway? Each complex had a certain distance apart from each other to form a small side street, but from lack of use they became more similar to open alleys. Very dark in them at night, not a place the girl would like to meet anyone.

The sidewalk cement cracked and bundled up together like an accordion years ago; a hazard for anyone wanting to actually walk on it but a blessing for the kids who needed a few ramps to do tricks on. Jazz observed some teenager wipe out on his skateboard as she passed by. He looked as if it wasn't the first time, so she didn't make an effort to stop and help.

Needless to say, her brother chose the place for a different reason than the looks. It was close to Jazz and Fenton Works, along with his and Tucker's colleges. Roommates that didn't want the dorms and needed a place only a best friend could share without killing each other. Tucker was paranoid that his precious electronics would be stolen by his roommate, or move one of the cords on the floor. The nicely labeled cords. Yes he was mayor, yes he could live somewhere nicer, yes he didn't even need to go to college, but he did. A few years into that business made the boy realize politics weren't really his thing, and was planning on getting out next election and getting a career dealing with what he loved instead.

Danny just needed fewer questions. Dorm mates asked too many and saw too much. Jazz sighed when she remembered his first year, and the phone calls; he had learned the hard way that lesson. Rooming with Tucker was an ideal solution.

She refocused her attention to the buildings. "Fourth one on the right, fourth one on the right," Jazz recounted aloud, slowing the car a little. She passed a complex that faded to pink faster than the others, one with completely dead shrubbery, and one that was roped off with police tape, with various cars gathered around. The girl tried to avert her eyes from whatever scene it was and maneuvered around the stopped vehicles; it was rude to stare.

One had childen's toys discarded all over the place, another had the children, fighting each other dramatically with sticks and a fake sword. The place after that she didn't recognize. Or the next one.

At the stop sign in front of a four-way, Jazz knew she had passed it. Again. Red hair swished back and forth as she craned her head in all directions, seeing if she could spot the missed building. The girl backed into an empty driveway past the four-way and turned her car around. "Maybe it was the fourth one on the left, which would be on the right now."

Back past the children and their toys on the left, past some dog on a leash that wasn't allowed here on the right.

Her heart sank. As she approached the building, the correct one, now on the left, it was easy to see why she had missed it. The car slowed to a crawl. An ambulance and two police cars were up ahead. Something dropped in Jazz's stomach.

It was the taped-off building.

She parallel parked a safe distance from the commotion and got out of her car. Slamming the door shut was a shaking hand, which she rested on the vehicle afterward. The other went to rub the girl's forehead therapeutically. "Danny, what did you do?" was the million dollar question.

An officer stopped Jazz as she got too close to the tape. It was a thin-lipped woman with a glint in her eyes and a butch haircut. "You're not allowed any farther."

"I need to get in," Jazz told the officer. Her eyes then followed a gurney being pulled slowly and steadily to the ambulance. A body bag was resting on top. Her heart might as well stopped. That is, until one of the paramedics, new to the job she reasoned, slipped on the disturbed sidewalk and accidentally pulled on the bag's zipper as he fell. A black toe peeked out, as if to get fresh air. That wasn't her brother.

"I can't let you in, sorry," the woman reclaimed the redhead's attention. "Why are you here, a witness?"

"Uh, no. I'm actually here to visit my uh," the building in front of them seemed to loom ominously with every word Jazz spoke, "brother. He lives here."

The officer's face immediately softened; the glint disappeared. "Oh." She was suddenly speaking in a friendlier, almost comforting tone. "I'm sorry. It's too dangerous for civilians to go in right now; they haven't deemed the area safe yet. We're having a hard enough time getting our own in there to see what happened." The girl noticed the paramedics she was distracted by were wearing masks. "I'm sorry," the woman repeated.

"What happened?" Jazz asked steadily. Did it involve ghosts? Did she want to know? Truly?

"From what I've heard, an underground gas leak. CO. No one knew it was there." The woman gestured to her face, "Obviously, I haven't been in there," she wasn't wearing a mask, "but that's what it seems to be."

"I see." The world became a little hazy. Questions she wanted to ask rose like water to the top of her mind, flooding, overflowing, but couldn't release. Did a ghost break the pipeline? Did Danny take his work home again? How many bodies? How many people died because of it?

And more importantly, Danny and Tucker. Are they...?

The woman again refocused Jazz's attention. She had noticeably spaced out. "I'm going to need your name."

"Jasmine Fenton." She could hardly look at the officer; the building was engulfing her.

"And you said one of the tenants was your brother, yes?"

"Is. Daniel Fenton. He is my brother," she corrected.

"Alright," the officer said, and whipped out a notepad to write the information down. The handwriting was sharp, like the rest of her. When she wasn't trying to be sympathetic.

Jazz hardly paid attention to the next questions asked. Her eyes wandered. They couldn't look at the building. Anywhere but the building. She took in the details of the alley instead. Counting the bricks. Until she noticed a faint glow from behind some of the junk stored in there, and a movement of snow-white hair. "I have to go," she told the officer.

The woman probably tried to see what she was looking at, but wasn't nearly as observant and let her go. That place wasn't off-limits anyway, so it wasn't her problem.

Jazz started to walk away. A hand grabbed her sleeve. She turned; it was the officer again, holding out a small piece of paper. "My card," she told the girl with those thin lips. "Just in case. We'll try to contact you if we get any more information, but just in case." The woman sure did like to repeat things.

She quickly looked to make sure the glow didn't disappear, then took the card and put it in her pocket. "Thank you, Officer."

She then walked as fast as she could to the alley without attracting attention.

Since no one had much of a reason to use the side street, the apartment residents began putting junk there. Old boxes, broken furniture, a few garbage cans for the lazy who didn't want to walk all the way to the end of the street to deposit their trash in the big one. Soon, not only did no one want to take the side street, no one could. The space allotted for a car became too small. And for a half-ghost wanting to avoid the authorities, it was the perfect place to hide until his sister showed up.

"Danny?" Jazz whispered, "You there?" She didn't want to scare him. A trauma like the one next to them was enough to shake even him, and she knew she had to proceed cautiously. Learning psychology at an early age had its benefits. "I'm alone, don't worry. The police didn't follow me." She walked to where the glowing was most noticeable and looked behind a refrigerator box.

Luckily, it was indeed Danny Phantom sitting there, legs close to his chest, back to the fake brick, and not some other ghost. She didn't bring the thermos for that sort of occasion, which would have made the situation end badly.

The boy's hair was over his face, almost smushed between his legs and chest, the familiar glowing green eyes unable to see.

She noticed that if he had gotten in a fight in the building, he had long since healed; no physical wounds she could see. There was only the mental. The emotional. Those she was better at dealing with.

The ghost's posture shifted slightly at her presence. "Hi," he said into his suit.

"I'm glad you waited for me," Jazz told him. Even though it was morning, the alley was still relatively dark, throwing shadows on the siblings. She glanced back at the crime scene with its marked tape and people milling about. It wasn't long until a film crew got whiff, not to mention some of the officers started looking more outside, as they couldn't all go in. Only a matter of time before they checked between the buildings. "We should go soon, though. Can you stand?"

Obviously he could, but the question was not literal. What the girl really wanted to know was if her brother was ready to stand, able to start moving forward away from the apartment.

"I guess."

She hated when he was like this, so... unresponsive. It hadn't been this bad before, she could tell. The closest to now was when he and Jack got into their first fight after their parents found out, and by mere instinct, her father whipped out an ecto gun and aimed it at his half-and-half son. He didn't mean to do so, and wasn't intent in the slightest to shoot Danny, and they both knew that, but it shook him up for a while.

Hopefully, this would take just a while as well.

"Danny," she said softly, "look at me." She gently touched his knees, gesturing for them to unfold. "It's not your fault. Whatever happened, it'll be OK in the end. It always is."

"It doesn't feel OK," he murmured, but cooperatively put his legs down so she could at least see a little of his face.

"Then it's not the end yet." She smiled. He gave a small one to the floor as well.

"That is so cheesy."

Jazz lifted his chin a little with her finger. Gentle and slow seemed to be the best method with him for now. "Well, it worked, didn't it?"

Danny finally looked at her, and it took all of the girl's self control not flinch back or embrace him in a crushing hug. The ghost looked exhausted, like he needed a good rest with a soft pillow. His eyes were unnaturally brighter and at the same time duller than usual, if possible. His face wore agony under that little smile and his body shimmered with less control of transparency.

"Can you stand?" she asked again. The officers were really looking at the alley now; they had maybe a few minutes. "We should get going," she said with a hint of urgency. Her brother took notice of the same scene and nodded. Unsteadily, he used the wall to help himself up, legs shaking.

Without warning, he turned invisible. "What are you doing?" Instead of responding, Jazz felt a hand move her head in the oncoming direction. The officer from earlier was walking towards them.

"Hello Jasmine," the woman took it upon herself to use first name basis after only speaking with her for a few minutes. "Everything all right?"

"I'll be in the car," came a cold whisper in the girl's ear, and then the temperature rose noticeably. He was fast.

She was quick to distract the woman from noticing anything. A natural ability, as she had been doing it for years. "Hello Officer. Everything's fine." Don't notice the temperature please, or that sudden wind. It's nothing, I assure you.

"What are you doing in here?" The woman's voice was consoling, but the glint had returned to her eyes in suspicion. "Girls shouldn't hang out in dark places unarmed, even if it is early in the morning."

"I was just," Jazz paused, searching around for a legitimate reason. "I was just looking for signs of my brother." Well, it wasn't technically a lie.

The officer's glint immediately disappeared. "Ah, alright. I understand." She adjusted her posture a little uncomfortably. "I think you should go home now, though. We need to check this area out as well."

"I will. Thank you for the concern, ma'am." The girl tried to walk as if her brother was not in the car, invisibly waiting for her.

She gave another sigh, this time of relief, once in the driver's seat with the vehicle started. Danny reappeared, and she pulled away from the scene, just in time to see a news van take her spot. Eager little parasites.

The ghost had returned to a similar position as in the side street, only this time with his face lying against the backseat cushions. She thought she had made some progress, but it was apparently a wrong assumption. "Danny," Jazz addressed him, "please sit up, you'll hit your head lying like that."

He mumbled a response between his folded legs.

"I couldn't hear you," she said, trying to sound as nice as possible but still exert authority; she couldn't just let him mope when he wants, especially when it could lead to him getting harmed if she took a sharp turn. "Could you please sit up and tell me that again?"

He did as told, like a puppet, and sat up into a slouching position in the backseat. "I said it doesn't matter."

"Sure it does, your brain is a very important organ and needs to be protected." A stoplight changed to red and Jazz braked. She took the opportunity and turned to look at him. "Speaking of important organs, put your seat belt on."

"No."

A deep breath in, a deep breath out. This was most definitely not the time to snap at him, but he was testing her. "Danny, you need to put it on. Just because you are in ghost form does not mean you can't get hurt from a car accident." The girl pointed a finger at her brother. "Which is what we are going to get in if you make come back there."

"Green light," he stated.

A car horn behind them agreed with him. Jazz went back to driving. Annoyed, she did not speak, and her brother wasn't one to fill the conversation when in one of his moods. It was silent. A click came from the back as the seat belt snapped into place at one point, and she couldn't help but smile.

Only when they passed a few recognizable landmarks did Danny break the quiet. "Where are we going?"

"Mom and Dad's."

"No!" The sudden response and sheer volume of the ghost's response was enough to make her swerve. He leaned forward in the seat. "No," he repeated, much softer the second time, "please, not yet." It sounded so defeated coming from him.

Jazz tried to reason behind her brother's outburst. "They're not going to punish you, Danny. I'm sure the apartment, whatever happened there, wasn't your fault."

He slumped back into his seat. "It's... not that. I just," he paused, "I just can't face them yet."

Understandable with the levels of stress the boy was dealing with. "I'll take the long way then, how about that?"

Danny didn't say anything. He rubbed his gloved hands over his face and tried to curl up again, only to have the effort thwarted by the seat belt. She was surprised to hear him choke back a sob. "Danny?"

"I need to tell you something."

The redhead hesitated before answering. "Is this something that can't wait for Mom and Dad?" He really needed a parent at the moment, something she could not pretend to be.

The tone of his voice was flat and final. "Jazz, I think I'm dead."

Without warning, she changed lanes and turned into the Nasty Burger parking lot without a turn signal, cutting someone off. It still hadn't converted to a twenty-four hour shift like its fast food rivals, so the place was deserted this early in the morning. Jazz parked the car and undid her seat belt before climbing into the backseat.

She embraced the ghost tightly, as if he blow away. "What happened?" The girl's eyes began to water. "Danny, what happened?"

Starting a fanfiction at the end of summer doesn't come off as a really bright idea to Borrow.
See how long this story lasts?

There won't be a long wait for chapter two, if reader is interested. Wrote half before posting this.