A/N: Hello fans!

So, I've decided to give Young Justice a break and get back into the DP fandom for a little while. Hooray! I'm super excited; this was my first fandom EVER and still my favorite on the site (though YJ is a close, close second). If any of you were following my first DP fanfic, 'A Matter of Time', then you will have noticed that that piece was taken down. Don't panic; it'll be back up after a little bit as the second installment of a trilogy called 'The Hereafter.' This story is the first installment in that trilogy. The third installment will be called 'Lazarus', and if you know your Biblical history then that might be a little bit of a spoiler... or so you think.

Anyways, as I have said I am super excited about this trilogy and I will try to update once or twice a week but I apologize in advance if I have to skip a week every now and then. Y'know, life happens, and stuff :)

I hope you enjoy! Rated T for character death (sort of- better safe than sorry!)

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any characters associated with Nickelodeon. However, Christina Hughes, Tucker's girlfriend, is my OC.

I can't believe we're actually going through with this.

It's been exactly one month since the day Danny died. His family's still a wreck; his parents had no clue, no warning that something like this could happen. They were working on a cure, and they were close. It felt wrong to tell them that they wouldn't need to work on it anymore. I remember the look in Maddie's eyes when the truth finally sunk in. It's a memory I will carry to my grave, knowing that I said the words that shattered a mother's heart and stole her son away from her.

Jazz still can't look her parents in the eye. She was there when it happened, and she blames herself. I won't say that she shouldn't, because that's not entirely true, but I still hate to see her this way, see how this tragedy is taking its toll on her. Gone is the chirpy, motivated, lovingly overprotective 'big sister'. Now she can barely drag herself out of bed in the morning; she's a shell of her former self, irrevocably convinced that her brother's death was her fault alone. She needs real help, but it's hard to be there for her when sometimes I can't even stop myself from blaming her a little, too.

Sam worries me the most. She took Danny's last promise to heart, and refuses to listen to reason. Making that promise to her the night he died kept Sam alive then, but now it's proving to cause more harm than good. She thinks about nothing else, can't wait for death to come knocking at her door next because she's convinced that they'll be reunited on the other side. I've had to stop her, twice, from taking her own life, and they were both close calls. I tried to tell her that Danny would have tried to find us, contact us by now, and the fact that he hasn't clearly suggests that he's moved on. We don't really know much about the afterlife, or why there are ghosts, and I've told Sam that it's dangerous to assume anything—but as I said, she will not see reason. "He promised me," is all she will say. Every day she gets closer and closer to breaking, and if she reaches that point I don't think I'll be able to help her.

That's why I came up with my plan. I doubt it will produce results, but I'm desperate. I know Danny wouldn't want to see Sam like this, so close to ending her life because of him—that's why he made her that promise, a promise he didn't know if he could even keep.

Part of me knows I should let him go. He's gone, we're here; shouldn't we let him rest in peace? Holding on to him so tightly, like Sam does, is unhealthy. But the other part of me wants this plan to succeed. I want to find him—not just for Sam's sake, but for his. Finding him will mean that he's keeping his promise. He'll still have his honor, and I won't forever have to live my life knowing that the last words my best friend spoke were a lie.

I can't believe we're really going to go through with this. But I hope we find him.

Tucker's hands hovered over the keyboard as he stared at that last line for a moment, lost in his own thoughts. Then, with a deep sigh, he saved the document in the 'Journal' folder and closed the laptop with a soft click.

"How's the autobiography coming?" Christina asked jokingly, coming into the dining room with two plates stacked high with pancakes. They smelled wonderful; Tucker breathed deeply as she placed one of the plates in front of him and sat down with the other one.

"Have I told you yet how incredible you are?" he moaned blissfully around a mouthful of delicious pancake.

She laughed. "I'm not sure if you're in love with me, or with my pancakes."

Tucker swallowed and gave her a mock-serious look. "Oh, I'm definitely in love… with your pancakes."

She feigned outrage, slapping him playfully on the shoulder. He pretended to flinch.

"I'm kidding," he said.

"I know."

He smiled, a brief, faltering smile that faded all too quickly. Christina noticed every time, how a smile never stayed on his face for long and his laugh still sounded empty and hollow. She hadn't known Danny very well at all, but she knew that he had been Tucker's best friend for years and could only imagine how much it still hurt to know that he was gone, for good. She had a feeling that a lot of Tucker's journal entries just now were about Danny Fenton.

She also had a feeling that Tucker was hiding something from her. It had been going on for a while now, and she knew that the journal on his computer would tell her what she wanted to know; now it was just a matter of getting up the courage to look. She wasn't sure she wanted to know badly enough to go around him and invade his privacy like that, but she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't tell her if she asked, and the more she thought about it, the more she desperately wanted to know what he was up to. It had something to do with Danny, and she suspected it also had something to do with Sam, a person she knew almost nothing about. Tucker had brought Sam to their house twice in the past month, insisting that she sleep on their couch. Christina never found out why, and both times Sam was gone again before they woke up in the morning. The next few days after each of these incidents, Tucker had seemed more worried and upset than usual, but became strangely deaf if Christina tried to ask about it.

He was trying to protect her, she knew. There were some things in his past, some things left behind in Amity Park, that he didn't want her to be a part of. She'd been fine with it at first, but no more. Last month she'd caught a glimpse into the hidden part of his life, and now it wouldn't stop nagging at her, eating at her, always there in the back of her mind—a mystery. She'd had her first glimpse, and now she needed to find out the rest of the story.

Today, she decided. She was going to read Tucker's journal and find out the truth.

A/N: as a parting note, may I just add that review alerts in my inbox make me happier than chocolate ice cream? Which, if you know me at all, makes me pretty darned happy. Reviews = Love!