Alright guys, this is my first Danny Phantom fanfic! :) This idea has been floating in my head since November but work and class have kept me from posting, I hope you all enjoy.
Just when he thought things were going his way, life decided that it wasn't satisfied with the young boy being content.
"We are what?!" Flashbacks of the last two failed Fenton family vacations flashed through his mind as he looked at the woman disbelievingly.
"Camping. It's only for the weekend and it will give us time to reconnect. It'll be fun," Coaxed his mother, dressed in her typical blue hazmat suit. "Your father and sister are going to tour a university two states over, so it's either sit around here or get out and enjoy nature!" Yeah, I remember the last 'mother-son' trip we took, we ended up bailing out of a plane over the middle of nowhere and into the hands of a certain crazed up fruit-loop he thought darkly. "Besides Danny, what could go wrong? It's just a simple camping trip!" she smiled as she looked up from her bag.
"Great," he muttered under his breath, "you probably just jinxed us, you are as bad as Tuck".
"What was that sweetie?"
"Oh, just said 'Great, I'll go pack!" He turned from the living room and walked upstairs to his room. Nearly a year of ghost fighting and maintaining a secret identity had made it easy for the raven-haired teen to slip lies past his family and friends.
He guessed in a way it was good for him and his mother to get out of town for the extended weekend. He honestly hadn't had anything planned, both Sam and Tucker were going to events out of town; Sam to New York for some fancy gala her parents were attending, and Tucker had persuaded his parents to take him to a technology symposium in Chicago.
At first he worried about going with his mom, not because if a ghost attacked them, he knew his mom was more than apt to protect them and he could 'help' if needed, he was worried a ghost would attack Amity Park while 'Team Phantom' and the more-able Fenton's were away. Thankfully, Valerie was staying in town, and she could handle almost anything that was thrown her way.
He sighed, "Maybe things will be fine. I need a small break anyways" as he started to pack.
Jack burst into the living room carrying supplied from the lab. "Hey Mads! Did Danny agree to go camping?"
She look up at her orange-clad husband "It took some persuading, but he is going" Maddie smiled, however the smile didn't reach her eyes.
"It'll be fun, don't worry"
"I know…but Jack, what if I can't figure out what is going on with him? You should have been there, before he would have jumped on the opportunity to go camping, to leave town even for a day. But now he acted like it was a huge deal if he left as if everything would fall apart if he left even for a minute. I'm worried about him, what if he needs more help than we can provide?" Maddie sighed. Jack went over to his wife and placed one of his oversized hands on her shoulder.
"He's a Fenton, he'll be fine, and even if something is wrong, we can handle it." He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, but she paid no attention to him, wrapped in her thoughts.
"Jack, he's skipping class, his grades suddenly plummeted, he is constantly tired, depressed, and he comes home late almost every night. I know he is being bullied by some of the other kids at school, but Danny assured us everything was fine that it wasn't anything he couldn't handle, but he comes home sometimes with huge bruises and cuts that he tries to cover!"
Tears formed in her eyes as she recalled two weeks ago when he was trying to sneak in past curfew…again. She had caught him walking upstairs and confronted him. Of course he made some excuse as to why he was arriving nearly 45 minutes past curfew, stating that he got distracted by a new video game that Tucker had and time had slipped past him. That's when she saw it, he was obviously trying to hide it by pulling his shirt sleeve lower and turning the left side of his body away from her, but it was all in vain, she caught a glimpse of the large bruise that spread just under the hem of his ringer tee sleeve. If she wasn't mistaken, a rather deep looking gash ran right next to it. He made some excuse about not being hungry and he'd be in his room getting ready for bed.
She brushed the occurrence off, thinking it must have been a trick of her eyes in the dim light, surely he would have said something or acted in some sort of pain. Maddie finished what she was working on and headed upstairs herself to get ready for bed, she stopped by Danny's room to make sure everything was ok, but when she knocked on the door and no one answered she had gone into his room, only to find he wasn't there. A haphazardly packed first aid kit was barely visible, sticking out from under his bed. Disregarded bandage wrappings, which had disguised but not well enough, jutted out of the trashcan by his desk. But perhaps the most disturbing find of the scene, other than her missing son, was the blood drops scattered on the floor near his bed. So it WASN'T a trick of my eyes earlier! She thought to herself.
She had thought about calling for her husband and searching the entire house-and town-if needed, for her missing son. He was obviously injured if he needed the contents of that first aid kit, what if he needed more urgent medical care? She shivered as a sudden cold chill overtook her, passing by her in the hallway. Her ghost hunting side picked up on it, but quickly dismissed it as a breeze. She figured if it were a ghost, the sensors would pick up on it and sound the ecto alarms. Moments later, the shower turned on down the hall; interesting, she thought, I could've sworn the door was open and no one was in there just a moment ago.
She turned and went to her room and finished getting ready for bed, by the time she was done she could hear Danny walking to his room and closing his door. At least he's ok…for now. I'll confront him tomorrow at breakfast and find out who did this to him. No one hurts my baby boy.
The next morning though, she found that the spot on Danny's arm was gone, not a trace of the bruise that she could've sworn she had seen the night before. At first she had been relieved, but then a darker thought pushed its way into her mind, sparked by the images of the blood and bandages from the waste basket. What if he was harming himself like some of the kids his age do? What if this was something she wasn't equipped to handle? That's why she concocted this plan to get to the bottom of her son's troubles.
"Mads? Maddie? Are you with me?" Jack's voice boomed and shook her out of her thoughts.
"Yeah Jack, sorry." Maddie gave a sad smile. "There is something wrong with him, but I'm determined to find out. He needs us."
Alright, so I should have the next chapter up here within the next week or so! Please review and help me make this story as great as it can be!
