AN-This is a drabble, a complete work, and there will be no sequel. I am trying to write something else, and this was going to be a part of that but doesn't fit anymore. Hopefully I'll get that story figured out, but this exists in the meantime

The harsh silence was broken only by the staccato of cutlery hitting the plate. Jazz could feel the pressure in the air building like before a storm, and there was only one person the lightning would strike. She was taking slow, deliberate bites of her lasagna, and chewing more thoroughly than any noodle deserved as she waited for the tension to break.

She knew Danny could feel it too. For the first time in weeks he was shoveling food into his mouth instead of pushing it around on his plate. When he needed air he'd peak at hers, and Jazz could almost reach out and touch the desperate gratitude he radiated as he noted how much food she had left.

"Done!" Danny announced, his plate clean for the first time since his parents discovered the truth about Phantom. "I'm going to go upstairs and work on homework." He pushed himself out of his chair.

He was halfway to his feet when Maddie's voice cracked like a whip.

"Sit."

Danny sank back down into his seat. "What's up?" he asked with a strangled smile, his voice cracking.

"Your father and I have something we wish to discuss with you." The tone left no room for doubt that Danny was in trouble.

"Oh. Okay." Danny flashed another shakey smile. "If it's about my English paper, I got an A."

Maddie didn't answer him and instead turned to her daughter with a sincere smile. "Jazz sweety, could you go up stairs? We need to talk to your brother."

"I'm still eating," Jazz pointed to the large serving of lasagna that she had barely touched.

"That's okay. You can take it with you to your room."

Jazz met her mother's smile with a jutted chin. "It's lasagna. If I spill it will leave a stain. I'm going to eat at the table."

Jazz watched as her mother's smile twisted into something fake. The corners of her eyes wrinkled and her mouth thinned into a bloodless line. "Jazz," there was a knife edge under the sweet tone, "there is something we need to discuss with your brother."

"Yeah Jazzarino," Jack chimed in. "You don't need to be here for this."

"I need to finish my dinner." With that Jazz took another small, slow bite. She could feel her parents' stares, their own meals forgotten, as she chewed and chewed and chewed. She finally swallowed the noodle paste, before taking another small, slow bite.

"For fuck's sake, Jasmine," Maddie snapped, "It's noodles, not jerky."

Jazz wanted to take a long, steadying breath. She wanted to throw the plate at the wall, to grab her brother and run with him until he was somewhere safe, like Sam's, or Canada, or the Moon. Instead, she chewed. And she chewed. And she chewed. She swallowed. And then she took another small bite.

Danny sat still as a statue through the exchange, his eyes glued firmly on his plate. Dark fringes of hair hung in his face, hiding his expression but his shoulders were up by his ears. Jazz knew Danny was focusing as hard as he could to not turn invisible. That would only make things worse.

"Fine," Jack snorted.

"Now Jack," Maddie chided, "we should really wait to discuss this in private."

Jack plowed ahead, ignoring his wife. "Danny." The boy in question shrunk further into his chair. "Phantom was spotted on the Ghost Watch this morning."

Danny started to shake. "I was attacked on my way to school."

Maddie frowned. "You promised us you wouldn't transform into that… thing anymore."

"I was attacked on my way to school," Danny whispered.

"Yeah, mom," Jazz jumped in. "If Danny hadn't transformed he would have been seriously hurt. You don't want Danny to get hurt, do you?"

Jack and Maddie shared a look, and Maddie reached out to put a comforting hand on Jazz. The touch gave Jazz goosebumps. "Of course not, sweety. But Danny's sick, and with every transformation we risk permanent side effects."

"The last thing we want is for your brother to turn into a ghost. As it is, we're going to have to spend the whole night checking for side effects." Jack sighed. "We'll need to do blood tests, get a few tissue samples and monitor him throughout the night."

If Jazz had super strength, the fork in her hand would be bending. She set it down, forcing her hand to relax. "Danny has homework. If you keep testing him like this, he's going to start failing again."

"Which is why we are pulling him from school." Jack's chest puffed the way it did when he'd had a brilliant idea for an invention. "Think of it. We can keep him under a ghost shield twenty-four seven. He won't get attacked anymore, so he won't need to transform. We'll be able to run even more tests so we'll be able to fix him that much sooner."

"You can't!" Jazz protested. "Danny is a developing boy! It is very important that he is exposed to a high amount of social interaction. And with his grades back on track, pulling him from school could severely compromise Danny's future."

"Jazz," Maddie snapped. "If Danny finishes turning into that monster, he won't have a future. And with him home we can more closely monitor his condition."

Jazz slammed her hands on the table, standing up. "You mean experiment on him!"

"We are not experimenting on him! We are helping him. Danny is sick, Jazz, and ignoring this isn't going to make him any better! It you had just told us when you found out, if Danny had told us when it happened, we wouldn't be here!"

Jazz bit her tongue, swallowing back her own accusations. If Jack and Maddie had paid any attention to Danny, if they hadn't been so obsessive about ghosts, if they hadn't built their stupid fucking portal in the basement. If they could just accept that this is who Danny was now. But screaming out things her parents were beyond listening to wouldn't help Danny. Jazz straightened her shoulders and stood to her full height. "Let Danny go."

Jack frowned quizzically. "Jazz, school is dangerous for Danny. We can't let him keep going."

"Let Danny go. You let Danny go, you give him to someone who will take care of him, or so help me I will take him from you and you will never see him again."

Maddie rolled her eyes. "Quit being so dramatic, Jazz. You're a minor with no job. And next year will be crucial to your future. You aren't in a position to "take" Danny anywhere. Besides, he needs treatment. No one else on the planet is more suited to taking care of Danny's illness than us. He can go back to school once we've cured him."

Jazz stared at her parents, studying their faces. She could see the obsessive ghost hunters, could see the loving people who had raised her, and she could see the space between those two things and the hardness there that was crushing Danny. Jack and Maddie were going to grind away at Jazz's little brother until they had cleansed him of Phantom, even if it meant there would be nothing left. This family would kill Danny.

And looking at her brother, huddled in his chair, Danny knew it too.

She let out a breath. "Okay." She nodded to herself. "Okay."

"Glad you see it our way, sweetie." Maddie and Jack both gave her great big smiles.

Jazz was going to tear this family apart.