You'll notice, that the first three pages of this new fic are the same as the drabbles, Dark and Hero (if you read them), but after that, it's something new. This of course is a TxJ fic, as I am totally enamored with the couple...obviously. There will be DxS thrown in for good measure for those who need the DxSness. I realize TxJ is not very popular and don't expect a lot of backing for this story, therefore, if you read and like it, let me know...please. And if some how I convert you to loving TxJ...then w00t!!

Stuck

Jazz was a perfectionist. She knew she was smart. She knew she was going to be successful. She had her future planned to the smallest detail, yet allowed for variables so not to upset the delicate balance of her life.

Her plans were like intricate calculations, carefully measured and tested in theory. There were few surprises, few things to throw her off balance. She liked life that way. Predictable and sane, different than her parents. More than anything, she wanted to be different than her parents.

Jazz was also a Fenton, with which came little strange personality quirks and obsessions. She felt that hers were reasonable. She was intellectual and reasonable, and then Danny happened, or more specifically Danny's accident in the ghost portal which gave him ghost powers.

She prided herself on her quick thinking and adaptability, yes she frowned on her parent's ghost hunting craziness, but she cared about her brother more, and through him, learned that several of her parent's hypothesizes were flakier than she'd first thought.

Ghosts were smarter, quicker, more dangerous than anything they could imagine. The world those ghosts came from was strange and frightening.

Everything she had believed as firm fact, that her parents were insane and she wasn't, was tipped on its side. She learned that it wasn't just people, but the world itself was unstable!

She put aside her sensibilities. She put aside her distaste of the ghost hunting insanity which ran in her blood, and she embraced it. She adjusted her interests, though only slightly, so she could be of use to her brother. Practicing self defense, always being on alert, studying and studying and feeling very insecure.

The truth was, Danny didn't need her. Oh yes occasionally she was good for hiding his secret, coming to the rescue with plausible explanations, but he didn't need her. He had Tucker and Sam and she was in the way. She was a silent partner of Team Phantom, forced to be content to watch from the sidelines with an increasingly troubled heart.

She was alone. She loved books, but they didn't love her back. She loved her parents but they had a very tenuous grasp on reality. She loved her brother, but he didn't need her to interfere with his life, and so Jazz was alone.

Somehow, the things which had mattered most to her, getting out of Amity Park, away from her parents ghost obsession, and having a normal life of her own, became unimportant.

Jazz had prided herself on being well adjusted, and she didn't know how to readjust. She would think that she was back on track and then there would be a ghost attack, or she would walk in on her brother and his friends during study sessions and the feelings of being unsettled and lonely would shroud her in darkness.

And so, she often found herself sitting in the dark, in her room. Crying her eyes out. She was…alone, but not as alone as she would like to have thought, and her life was about to change.

Tucker adjusted his glasses, patted the PDA in his left pocket and made sure his IPod was firmly in place as he started up the stairs to Danny's room. He was in a good mood, well he was always in a good mood. He had very little to complain about and really, Tucker didn't allow much to get him down. He lived his life on the sunny side of the street.

Sam said his heart was filled with helium, and it was true to an extent, it was hard to bring Tucker down, and keep him there, but the sounds he heard while passing Jazz's room, put a rock on his light heart.

Jazz's light sobbing was something he'd been hearing more of in the last few months and he was worried. Danny shrugged it off, saying, "She's a girl! She's my sister! She's an alien." Sam shrugged it off, saying, "Yeah some girls cry I guess."

Danny's excuse for failing to realize something was wrong with Jazz was pure cluelessness. He saw his sister as unshakable and figured she was probably indulging in some new sort of therapy. He told Tucker that Jazz was strong, well adjusted, happy, not to worry.

Sam was simply at a loss. When Tucker brought the situation to her attention she got angry, but the truth was she didn't know how to approach Jazz. Sam wouldn't have appreciated people meddling in her affairs, therefore she considered it common courtesy to let Jazz deal with whatever her problem was, as she saw fit.

Tucker was troubled. It wasn't as though he always heard her crying, but the fact that he had, on several occasions heard her heart broken sobs, or caught her tear stained face as she ran from the bathroom to her room, or emerged from the Casper High library looking pale and sad, weighed down his mirthful heart and made his time at Danny's house uncomfortable because all he could think of, was she was hurting, and no one bothered to see if she was okay, they just assumed, because she was Jazz that she was fine.

So, Tucker stood outside Jazz's bedroom door debating on his next move. He had to do something. He couldn't let things go on any longer, and so he built up his courage and he knocked. The crying stopped and there was silence.

"Who is it?" came Jazz's voice, soft and uncertain.

Tucker swallowed hard then squeaked. He had to clear his throat so he could answer firmly, "It's Tucker. Can I…Can I come in?" He was met with silence. He grabbed his hat off his head and clutched it has he waited. Just as he was sure she wasn't going to answer, the door opened and he looked into the clear and beautiful red rimed eyes of Jazz Fenton.

"What do you need?" she asked softly.

Tucker was stunned. He was like a rabbit staring up at the hawk who was about to swoop down and eat him. "I-I-I," he stammered. "I heard you crying and um, are you okay?"

Jazz lowered her eyes to the floor and she shrugged her shoulder. "I didn't know anyone could hear. I'm sorry. Did I disturb you?" Tucker gave her a strange look and shook his head.

Jazz looked up at him and the look of disbelief on his face. "I'll try to be more quiet in the future." She started to close the door and Tucker stopped her.

"No," he said loudly and she gave him a startled look. "You didn't disturb me, well, yeah you did, but not like that." He took a deep breath. "Are you okay?"

Jazz bit her lip as she looked at Tucker thoughtfully. He continued to hold her gaze unflinchingly, but she could practically see him shaking in fear. She smiled slightly. "I will be," she finally answered.

Tucker closed his eyes. "D-do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Jazz asked and suddenly Tucker felt stupid and small as he dared to open his eyes and look at her. Who did he think he was, attempting to comfort this beautiful, sophisticated and strong creature? He felt like nothing before her, like the joke people often made of him.

"What's bothering you," Tucker answered as he flicked his gaze from her face to the floor, preparing for rejection or derision filled laughter.

Jazz looked at him thoughtfully for a moment then stepped back and opened her bedroom door.

Tucker blinked up at her in surprise then moved a few steps into Jazz's room. He smiled slightly. He'd seen the inside of Jazz's bedroom on rare occasions. It was pink and girly and well Tucker didn't have any sisters, he didn't have any siblings at all, unless you counted Sam, and she couldn't be called a girly girl. It seemed very Jazz like. He liked it, not that he'd want to live in a pinky frilly room, but it was nice all the same.

Jazz smiled wryly as she motioned for him to sit at her desk, then sat on the edge of her bed and looked at him. She pulled a few tissues from the box on her nightstand and wiped her face, not without a few feelings of embarrassment then looked down at her hands and fiddled with the tissues, she figured she should be assertive and begin the conversation, but then she decided that Tucker was the one knocking on her door, she wanted him to break the silence first.

Tucker watched the fall of hair over Jazz's face. Her usual headband was missing and she was in a slight bit of disarray. Jazz was never in disarray, even when she was involved in a ghost fight, she always remained unruffled. He looked around her room thoughtfully. It was extremely neat and orderly, but something about it was sterile and unlived in, and he wondered what had come over him that made him knock on her door. She was way out of his league in every way shape and form.

"Ummm," he started, realizing that she was waiting for him to talk. "So I heard you crying and wanted to make sure you're all right."

Jazz smiled as she kept her eyes down on her fingers. "I'm fine, Tucker," she lied sweetly. "I do appreciate your concern. It's very nice of you to come in here and…"

"Liar," Tucker interrupted. "You're lying." Jazz gave him a stunned look and opened her mouth she closed it as Tucker continued. "I've been watching you for like the past two months and you're not fine."

Jazz sighed. "Trust me," she said. "I'm fine. Really."

"So why have you been crying?" Tucker asked then swallowed hard. "Boy problems?" Jazz grinned at him and his skin darkened in a blush.

"No," she answered. "I haven't been having boy problems. Mostly because there are no boys for me to have problems with. I've just been feeling socially isolated, and really Tucker, it's not particularly easy to bring people into my social circle."

"Why?" Tucker asked as he looked at Jazz in bewilderment. He saw her as popular. She was well liked and active at school. How could she possibly be lonely?

Jazz took a deep breath. "Tucker look at my parents. They're insane."

"So are mine," Tucker told her. She smiled at him and he smiled in return, Tucker thought Jazz's smile was amazing, though he did his best to stomp down the warm feelings bubbling up from his heart for her. Crushing on Jazz was ridiculous.

"Tucker," Jazz said as she laughed cheerfully. "You're parents are normal. Perfectly normal. There is no way they can compare to mine." Tucker shrugged and she continued to smile.

"Yeah, but Sam and I don't care," he said. "We like your parents."

"And you know Danny's secret," she pointed out and Tucker frowned. "I can't have people coming in and out of my life. Protecting Danny is very important to me and anyone who's close to me for long…well…unless their idiots like my parents, they're going to put two and two together…"

Tucker sighed and shrugged one shoulder. "You're smart, I'm sure you could figure something out."

Jazz shook her head. "Anyone worth being friends with would be sharp enough to figure it out."

Tucker raised his eyebrows and was about to say something in response when Jazz interrupted. "That sounded really snobbish didn't it?"

"Kinda," Tucker admitted and Jazz sighed she looked at Tucker for a bit.

"I'm fine," she finally told him. "I've been a little sad lately, but really I'm good. I am well adjusted and balance, and I'll work things out. I've just lost my footing a little and have had trouble getting back on an even keel, but I'm certain that once I figure out how to balance Danny's secret, my parent's craziness, and my change in perspective, that I'll be just fine."

"Okay," Tucker said but made no attempt to stand. He just sat there and looked at her, leaving Jazz feeling a little odd since she considered herself equal to any situation. Somehow she didn't see how she could work around this. What more did Tuck want.

"You know," Tucker finally said. "You can hang around with us."

Jazz shook her head violently. "No way," she said. "Danny would be miserable and I would be miserable. I love him, don't get me wrong, but Danny and I can only be in the room together so long before we start getting on each other's nerves. It's a psychological response to the fact that we're siblings."

"Okay," Tucker replied then looked around the room nervously. "You could always, you know, hang out with me." Jazz smiled and he started to feel like a little bug. He didn't mind what people thought of him most of the time, but for some reason, Jazz's opinion mattered.

"It's so sweet of you to offer," Jazz began, but Tucker said something which completely trumped her opposition to the idea.

He cleared his throat and said quickly, "Besides if we're hanging out together, that leaves Danny and Sam alone with each other more often, and then maybe they'll admit that they're in love, finally."

Jazz took a deep breath. "Okay," she agreed. "We can hang out sometimes."

Tucker suddenly felt like she was doing him a favor instead of things being the other way around. He smiled nervously. "So want to go to the movies or something?"

"Uh," Jazz said uncertainly then turned and looked at the calendar on the wall behind her, as if to consult her busy schedule. The truth was, she was caught a little off guard and thought that Tucker's offer to hang out was nothing more than a social pleasantry.

"It's not like a date or anything," Tucker, who misread her hesitation as turning him down for a date, began. "Just a movie among friends."

Jazz did her best to hid the blush rising up in her cheeks by smiling. "I didn't think it was a date, Tucker," she laughed, and he felt like a bug once again.

"Okay," Jazz said as she stood. "Movies it is. What are we going to see?"

"Attack of the Killer Zombies From Mars Four," Tucker told her then smiled as she grimaced.

"Sounds awesome," she said as she walked to the door. Tucker narrowed his eyes at her in amusement then started out of her room before pausing. She looked at him inquisitively for a moment.

"I-I umm," he said as he pointed down the hall. Jazz's eyes clouded and he sighed. "I was gonna tell Danny and Sam, but.." he shrugged. "Forget it. Let's go." Jazz smiled again, wondering exactly what was going on, and if going to the movies with Tucker was the wisest course of action.