Chapter 1
"Mom I'm fine."
How many times had Danny said that to me? At first I believed him; I mean he was a teenager. Changes are perfectly normal for someone his age, but something kept trying to tell me it was something more.
He never wanted to be around me any more, he was always running off, and his grades were the lowest they've ever been! Danny was never a genius like Jazz, but still, this wasn't like him and I knew it; I just didn't want to admit that something was going on that Danny hadn't told me about.
I had always been suspicious of something, but the night I went into his room after he had gone to sleep was when I knew something wasn't right.
When he was younger he wouldn't get into bed unless I was there to tuck him in. I always knew that those days would end, but I never dreamed that he would come home and try his hardest to avoid me. He even got Sam and Tucker to distract me.
At first I didn't realize anything but when Tucker asked about our ghost hunting equipment, I knew something was fishy. The second those two left, I went up to Danny's room to see what was going on. When I opened the door he was sound asleep, every thing seemed fine. That is, until he rolled over.
The last thing any mother wants to see is their baby hurt; can you even picture my horror that when he rolled over, his covers moved just enough for me to see a dark stain on his sheets and his leg gashed open. I could tell I only saw the lesser part of the damage. But even then just standing there felt like an eternity, my throat closed, tears blurred everything. It took me awhile to walk up to him to see just how badly he was hurt.
I'm still not sure if that was a good decision.
When I pulled back the covers, it was like a horror movie, he had a gash going from the back of his knee curving around his calf until it touched his ankle. It wouldn't have been as bad if a knife would have done it, but the fact that it was probably a mace, or something like it, made the injury a lot worse, and twenty times more horrific. I could tell that what ever beat him up wasn't playing around.
My first thought was, "What did this to him?" I couldn't hold back my tears any longer. I tried my hardest not to wake him up, he'd been through enough today. He didn't need to see me crying.
As I looked for more damage, I found that his leg was the worst of it, but it wasn't the last of it. He had scrapes and bruises everywhere, some were brand- new, while others were weeks old.
I'm not sure how long I stood in Danny's room trying my best to bandage him up. My mind just kept trying to figure out how in the world he got all of this, I knew he wasn't a swan; but there is no way that he could get all of this, just from falling.
The more I thought of it, the more I noticed that ever since the accident in the lab, in stead of just being clumsy, it was more like he was trying to hide something. My mind wouldn't stop replaying all of the times that he came in late, and all I could think about was why he would disobey me and how much trouble he was in, instead of seeing the limp in his leg that he covered up almost flawlessly, or how you could just barely see a bruise form at the edge of his sleeve.
After I finished patching him up, I went down to the kitchen and when I finally turned on the lights I noticed that I had gotten Danny's blood on me. That made me want to start to cry all over again.
After I had gotten another jumpsuit on I got some coffee in the desperate attempt to calm down. Every thing I had just seen didn't match up.
Danny was a good kid.
Good kids don't come home looking like they just came back from a war.
Danny always loved to be around me.
He waited until he thought I wasn't looking until he came through the front door.
After that thought ran through my mind it was like I blanked. I couldn't grasp the concept that my little boy didn't want me any more. It tore me to pieces.
Right then I looked over at our living room table and I noticed a picture of Danny and I in the park having a great time. Back then all that mattered was that I was there.
I tried to compare the happy, smiling boy in the picture to the secretive, moody teen upstairs. All I would come up with is that something was happening to him.
The worst feeling though, was that I might be too late, and what ever was happening to my boy was out of my control, and all I could do is watch and hope Danny could handle it.
I didn't know a third of what I know now, but I still worry, I still come into his room and try my best to take care of his cuts without him noticing, though I'm pretty sure he assumes that Jazz is doing it; mostly because he and his sister have become very close. She even lies for him now, she used to be just as skeptical as I was, but then she started to get secretive too. Now all it takes is a glance from Danny and Jazz makes up a completely logical, believable lie.
Part of me wants to march right up to Danny and Jazz and demand that they tell me exactly what is going on, but the other part is telling me that they are both smart kids, and Jazz would never keep a secret from me that she didn't have to.
That thought scared me even more.
I know that they have a reason for what they do; they talk about it when they think that I'm not there or I'm not listening. Though I haven't got much out of what I hear, I do know that according to Jazz, if some one named Dan came into the picture, she'd tell Jack and I the "secret" if Danny didn't first.
When I herd that, I knew that this "Dan" person wasn't one to mess with, and if I heard correctly he was, "taken care of" by Danny. But there is a chance that he could get "out" if someone named Clock Work couldn't hold him.
My hope is that it will all just go away and Danny will be that bright, happy, playful boy that he used to be. But deep down I know that this is just the beginning. Danny has changed and it's not just puberty, this is something big.
