Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. All characters go to their respectful owners. I only own this story.
Doubt
It's the day after he's saved the world that it starts.
Telling his parents about everything he's been keeping secret for the past two years is the equivalent of lifting two hundred pounds worth of bricks off of his shoulders. It's such a relief to not have any more unspoken words between them. If he was still Danny Phantom instead of Danny Fenton, he would have floated to the outer reaches of the atmosphere and stayed there watching the stars for days. But he is still a human, and isn't capable of flight at the moment.
There are too many hugs to count once they return home, and if he wasn't as relived as the rest of them that the plan had worked, Danny might have felt smothered with the amount of attention he was receiving. Sam isn't leaving his side, either—not that he wants her to.
Eventually, of course, the exhaustion of the whole saving the world from utter demolition fiasco hits them like a cement wall and it is collectively decided that it would be best to set aside the celebration in favor of some sleep.
The house is relatively silent as the Fentons set about to get ready for bed. There is still a bit of tension in the air that is residue from the previous day, but it is ignored, pushed aside and forgotten with the allure of sleep so tempting and distracting.
Jack and Maddie wave at their two children before retiring to their room, but don't say a word. They haven't spoken since everyone had left. No one has.
Jazz walks with him up the stairs and stops next to him when they reach the door to his room. She smiles kindly, silently saying how proud she is of her little brother without being annoying or embarrassing, and kisses his forehead before turning away and walking down the hallway.
The click of her bedroom door closing echoes quietly in the deserted hallway.
Danny shifts uncomfortably on the spot. He's been crowded by so many people today and bombarded with so many questions that he's not sure what to do with himself now. Only the ringing in his ears breaks the silence, and that just seems to make the lack of chatter and laughter in the background even more noticeable.
He turns to his bedroom door and quietly pushes it open. The hinges don't squeak, and the silence of the house is left unbroken.
His bedroom is just as he left it two days ago—not that it should have changed in any way—but it feels almost foreign to him.
The tidiness of the room—as tidy as a teenage boy's room can be—is not natural anymore. Not to him. Because he knows that this room holds far too many secrets now. There is a spare thermos secured underneath the bed frame and a stash of emergency notes in the desk drawer with various excuses of where he would be going if he had to leave at a moment's notice to fight a ghost.
With all of his secrets revealed, Danny feels like his room should be a mess: filled with ghost hunting weapons thrown haphazardly into the corners and first aid boxes kicked under the bed for later use. The "forgotten" pile of homework should be sitting on the desk, not stuffed into a backpack and under the bed. While Danny knows that it will take a while for things to settle down and for people to adjust to this new sense of "normal," he can't help but want to speed up the process.
Because there's no point in pretending that none of this has happened, right?
There's nothing left to hide. There are no more words left unsaid between him and his parents.
This couldn't have been better, Danny thinks to himself. He's glad this has happened and regrets that he didn't tell them sooner. To think of all the trouble that could have been avoided if he hadn't been so afraid.
Danny pulls his shirt over his head and prepares for bed. He's just as exhausted as the rest of his family—probably even more so since he was the one under all of that stress to save the world. But it was worth it with this outcome. He can finally breathe easily again.
He'd forgotten what that was like.
But thirty minutes later, Danny is staring at his ceiling and still waiting for his body to run out of juice and shut down. Maybe he forgot to unpack his emergency batteries before going to bed.
He sighs and sits up.
Perhaps a cold glass of water will do him some good and distract his brain from pinging hundreds of thoughts a second around his head.
The stillness of the house is even more unnerving as Danny quietly pads down the hallway. He feels as though he is trying to sneak out of the house without his parents knowing, which is a stupid thought, since he has no reason to hide his escape if his parents know where he's going. And it isn't like he's going out, anyway: he's going into the kitchen to get some water. There's nothing suspicious about that.
When he arrives at the top of the stairs, Danny pauses, unsure. The stairs are creaky and terribly noisy when stepped on: they will probably alert his parents of his departure.
No, Danny shakes his head. He is not sneaking. He is not leaving. He is walking downstairs to get a glass of water. Why must he continually remind himself of this? Danny shakes his head again and begins his descent. Despite his reminder that he is not trying to hide anything, he still flinches and hesitates when he hears the top step groan. It takes a few seconds for him to re-remind himself of his non-suspicious goal and continue on down the stairs.
When he rounds the corner to the kitchen, he sees, to his surprise, that his parents are already sitting at the table, hands curled around mugs that appear to be filled with some steaming drink, tea perhaps.
They both look up at him when they hear his feet hitting the tiled floor while he walks towards the sink.
"Oh, Danny," Jack says, surprised. "What are you doing down here so late at night?"
"You should be in bed, sweetie," Maddie agrees.
Danny smiles at them both and pauses on his way to collect a cup from the cupboard before pulling out a chair and sitting down with his parents at the table instead. He can always get a drink later. "I could tell you the same thing," he jokes.
Maddie smiles and Jack laughs. "He's got us there, Mads," he says.
Danny chuckles for a brief moment before refocusing on his parents. "You two can't sleep, either?" he asks.
Maddie shakes her head. "We're too wound up. Just like you," she says.
"We're just so proud of you, son," Jack beams. "Any parent would lose sleep after what you did."
Danny blushes and quickly looks down at the table before either on of his parents notice. He rubs his neck awkwardly. "Anyone would have done it," he mutters. Surely they don't think he deserves praise because he was the only one who was able to do anything. It wasn't anyone else's fault that he was the one with the ghost powers.
"But that's the point, son," Jack continues. "You were the only one who could do anything."
"Saving the world is a lot of responsibility," Maddie continues. "And you're just sixteen. It's the fact that you stepped up to the plate and did what no one else could do that makes us so proud."
This seems to be his cue to look back up, and Danny is greeted with his parents' beaming smiles. They're contagious, and he can't keep one off of his face for long. His face will probably be sore in the morning with how big his grin feels.
Jack stares at him for a few seconds before his face lights up. The smile doesn't fade, though. "Oh! Danny, while we're here, could you explain how—" His voice stops mid-sentence and he shuts his eyes and reaches under the table. "Ow!"
Maddie furrows her brow at her husband and mutters a quick, "Not now." to him before returning her gaze to her son and smiling sweetly. Only now the smile does not look as genuine: it looks pained, forced, uncomfortable.
The mirth is gone from the air: evaporated faster than water in a volcano.
Jack sits up again and paints a smile on his face that matches his wife's.
Now Danny knows that they're both hiding something.
Danny frowns. "What?" he asks. "What do you want to know, Dad?"
Jack's eyes light up and he opens his mouth to respond.
"It's nothing important at the moment, Danny," Maddie interrupts. She shoots a look at her husband, and he shuts his mouth and nods.
"It's nothing, son," he agrees. But Danny knows he's lying. His dad and mom are both biting their tongues in an attempt to keep their mouths shut: the question his dad is forbidden to ask is one to which they both want the answer.
Danny looks between his parents and frowns.
Danny knows he's not the brightest of students—especially with the amount of school he skips—and he can be oblivious sometimes, but he's not stupid. What he lacks in intellect, he makes up for in instinct. And instinct has saved his life on more than one occasion.
He looks at his mother first.
She is sitting stiffly, which means she's probably uncomfortable, and her back is rigid. Her eyes keep darting anxiously to her husband beside her, and she fiddles with her hands—something Danny knows is a nervous tick of hers—when she looks back at her son. She's obviously trying very hard to keep her mouth closed by biting her lower lip and fighting a grimace so that she does not appear troubled by the blatant tension that hangs like a storm cloud in the room. She is failing miserably.
He looks at his father next.
Jack is much more obvious: he is squirming in his seat restlessly and looking everywhere but at his wife and son. He keeps licking his lips, and it looks like he is trying to occupy his mouth so he doesn't blurt anything else out.
A cold stone settles in Danny's stomach as he realizes what's happening: his parents are keeping secrets from him.
He looks down and sighs. He had hoped that they were past secrets now that he had no more to hide. Obviously, he had been wrong. But maybe his parents just need some time to adjust to the fact that their son is different. Maybe they're just reorienting themselves to this understandably bizarre lifestyle.
Danny's never doubted his family before.
It's the day after he's saved the world that it starts.