Chapter One—A Knock on the Door

Dani felt as though her strength was evaporating. She didn't know what was plaguing her body, but she felt it terribly throughout herself. She flew downward, toward the streets of Amity Park. With barely enough strength left in her to keep flying, she landed clumsily on her knees. Gasping painfully, she stood up. FentonWorks loomed high above her head, casting its shadow over her tired, aching body. Danny's house. I hope he's home. I really hope he agrees to help me.

Pulling her leaden feet, Dani stumbled up the steps. Lifting and arm awkwardly, she knocked. Shaking and shivering, Danielle waited slightly impatient for the door to open and to meet her fate.

What if they don't answer? What if they do answer, and they turn me away. What if...? Stop thinking like this! This is Danny you're talking about! Of course he'll help. He has to.

It felt like an eternity. Precious seconds ticked by as Dani waited for the door to open. Come on, come on... It felt like years, but it was actually probably just a minute or two until they appeared.

Jack and Maddie Fenton looked down upon Danielle and sighed. "Who're you?" asked Jack. "Another Phantom fan, coming to see Danny? He's not home right now."

Dani felt her consciousness begin to sleep. Danny wasn't home. Her head was spinning with dizziness. He had to be there! Her life depended on it! But the parents were already closing the door on her, trying to ignore her. Without thinking first, Dani threw her hand out and caught the side of the door. The movement made her vision blur. She was dying, and she knew it.

"What the—!" cried Maddie. Dani looked up at the blurred figures before her.

"Help me..." she croaked in plea. But the dizziness and sickness plaguing her body were too much, and she unwillingly gave way to the startling blackness.

Danny Fenton was in his bedroom, sitting on the floor and organizing his homework. Sam Manson, his loving girlfriend, was sprawled across the back of his bed, arms dangling over his back-board. "We should do this more often," she said, staring down at his work. "Really, Danny, it's important to keep yourself organized." Danny glared up at her.

"And you would know how?"

Sam tsked. "Uh, duh, Danny. I organize my stuff all the time, and look at how well I do." Danny sighed and glared down at his schoolwork.

"Yeah, but you're not mobbed on a daily basis when you go to school."

"Oh, just ignore them." Sam smiled at his grimace.

"How can I? Paulina sticks her hands in places I'd rather she didn't, and Dash can't leave me alone anymore. The crowds mob me and I can't walk to do anything."

"So you're popular? Isn't that what you wanted from the start?"

Danny shook his head. "Not in this way." Sam smiled at him ruefully.

"You see. Popularity is just a myth until you're a ghost boy. That's why I wanted to stay away from those people in the first place."

"Who knew you were right, back then, Sam." Danny commented, then realized his mistake at his girlfriend's scowl. "Uh...other than you?"

Just then, his parents began talking furtively and loudly from downstairs. "I've never been happier to have someone appear at the door," Danny commented to himself.

"Yeah, you should probably work on that," Sam said darkly. But then she smiled and kissed his cheek. "Want to...go downstairs and check to see who's here? After all, it might be Tucker."

Tucker Foley was Danny's best friend. They hadn't seen much of the teenager since he had become mayor of Amity Park. He didn't even go to school anymore. Danny missed Tucker's easy, comic-relief friendship more than he missed his anonymous days. Without Tucker there, Danny felt like nothing was ever really funny.

"I seriously doubt that it's Tucker, but okay?" The couple walked, hand-in-hand, down the steps and into the Fenton's big, spacious living room. His parents were in the doorway, hovering over an unconscious form. Rushing forward, Danny pushed through his parents to stare in fearful dismay at Danielle Masters/Danielle Fenton. His little clone.

"Danielle!" he cried out in shock and he scooped his "cousin" into his arms and pulled her into the Fenton's house. He placed her on their couch. "Someone call nine one one! Someone help!" He felt her forehead, expecting a fever. What he got sickened his gut. She was icy cold. He snapped his hand back and stared at her, gasping.

"Danielle?" Danny's mother said. "Danny, do you know this girl?"

Danny stared at his parents, still wanting to keep everything he knew a secret. But his parents knew of his and Vlad's ghost powers. What reason to keep Danielle's identity a secret. But still...he looked at Sam for support.

"Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, this is Danielle...uh, Masters? Fenton?" She looked at Danny with a question on her face.

Danny shook his head. "I'm not sure, really. It depends on what she wants to be called, but I'm sure she won't want to be called Danielle Masters."

Jack rose to his feet and stared down at her. "Masters? As in Vlad Masters?" His face darkened as Danny and Sam nodded. "She's a relative of Vlad's?"

"Not really," Sam said.

"Vlad sorta...has this thing for me and for mom," Danny explained. Jack looked at Maddie with a sad expression.

"He said something about you up in space, Maddie," Jack admitted. Danny felt surprised. He never knew the stuff that Jack had hidden from the family. Maybe there was more to his father than Jack let on.

"He wanted a son badly, and he wanted to be married to Maddie. But he was in no way going to have me or mom."

"You're damn right he wasn't!" Maddie cried out. She wrapped her arms around one of Jacks big thickset upper arms. "I love Jack, and my kids. No creepy fruit-loop lonesome is going to take them away from me." Jack smiled at his wife. "I love you too," he murmured. Grimacing, Danny moved on quick.

"When Vlad realized that he couldn't be my father, he tried to make clones of me. He kidnapped me for my DNA, but it didn't work. I still refused, and things went..." He searched for words that could describe the horrible incident that had created Danielle. Finally, he settled with, "...things went wrong." He indicated Dani on the couch.

Gasping, Jack and Maddie peered at the unconscious girl. "Are you saying that this young girl is your clone?"

"Welcome to the life of a teenage ghost-boy," Sam said wryly. Jack stared at her for a moment before turning back to the girl.

"But he didn't get your DNA, how could he?"

Danny shook his head. "She was unstable for a while before I stabilized her. She was falling apart, melting."

Jack stared at his wife as she moved around her son to examine the young clone. Poking at her awkwardly, Maddie said, "So...is she half ghost too?"

Danny looked at Sam, who stared back. After a moment of staring at each other in question, Sam decided to tell the truth. "Yes, she is." Jack and Maddie looked at each other. Danny was almost unsure what his parents were thinking.

"What's wrong with her?" Jack finally asked. "You said that she was...melting...?"

"That was some time ago," Danny said. "I stabilized her before she could melt."

Looking at the girl again, Maddie commented, "How did you do that?"

"Actually, I could ask you the same thing. Some time ago, you created a chemical liquid ecto-thinger that was supposed to weaken ghosts, but it instead made them stronger. I used that on Dani. Ever since, she's been stable, and fine."

Scratching his head, Jack added, "I've been wondering where that ecto-thinger got to."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Maddie asked, impatient. Danny tsked and glowered at her.

"You didn't even know I had ghost powers! How was I supposed to tell you about her. 'Oh hey mom. How was my day? Good, I was just kidnapped by a man you think is your friend and cloned. Nothing new, as you can tell.'" He finished his sentence with a sort of emphasis that seemed to hint that there was more to his life than he could ever tell his parents. Sighing, Maddie stood up,

"You could have told us about your ghost powers and Vlad's, you know. We would have trusted you no matter what."

"I know, it's just..." he left the sentence unfinished. Jazz came rushing into the room.

"I just called 911. They're on their way. You know, Danny, I never knew you had a clone before."

Danny shook his head. "You're not the only one. But Dani looks to be in bad shape. Maybe the stabilizer isn't working as well as we thought."

"Do you think we need to make a stabilizer?" Maddie asked her son. He shrugged.

"I don't know. I can't be sure of anything until Dani wakes up."

"Maybe she just needs medication," suggested Sam. Everyone in the house looked at her as though she were a talking rabbit. "Seriously, guys? Think about it: she was out, in the cold all winter, alone with no health care or food. She's bound to have something."

"You're right," Danny said, trying to convince himself that Sam was correct. "Maybe this has nothing to do with her un-stabilized beginning."

But he still wasn't sure.

Danielle blinked open her eyes. Everything was still blurry. She still felt dizzy. But slowly, her vision came into focus and the dizziness faded.

Am I alive? Does it matter? I was already half dead to begin with.

Sucking air through her teeth, Dani blinked the weariness from her eyes and focused her vision upward. There was a white ceiling over her head, and bright lights were flushing down from circuits in the ceiling. Taking a deep breath, Dani tried to get a sense of where she was. There was a fresh, vented tension in the air and she knew she was inside. The smell of antiseptic also lead her to that conclusion.

Antiseptic? Where am I? Sitting up a little, she looked around. She was on a bed with a railing on one side, but not the other. An IV drip was pushed into her arm, and she felt a bitter taste in her mouth. Looking around the room, she realized that she was in a hospital bed. The tv was on in the corner, and Jack and Maddie Fenton were leaning in their chairs, sleeping. Jazz was lying on the other bed in the room, also asleep. But Danny, the guy Danielle had come to see in the first place, was awake and staring at her from a chair.

"Danny!" she whispered hoarsely. He sat forward on his chair.

"Are you okay?" he asked instantly. Dani nodded, then shook her head.

"I don't know. I was ill, so I came to find you."

Danny nodded. "So I see. Why me? What do I have to offer?"

Dani smiled at him. "Parents."

Danny's eyes widened at her answer. "I mean, what can we do to help you? Why didn't you go to a hospital?"

"Because..." Dani had to really think to find her answer. "Because I wasn't sure if I was sick from something having to do with my ghost powers, or something having to do with my human half. I'm like you, being half ghost and all. So I thought that maybe you'd know. Being a clone..." her cousin winced "...doesn't help either."

"Well," said Danny, sitting back. "It wasn't your ghost half. You had a normal illness, that affected your normal side."

Dani felt confused. "My ghost half wasn't in trouble at all?"

"Not really," Danny said. "But it did do something. It brought your temperature down a couple notches, which worried and confused the nurses and doctors, but, who cares. You also were very dizzy, and you probably had a headache?"

She nodded, then she gasped. "Do they know?"

"Know what?"

"About my powers! About my being a clone!"

"The hospital staff? No. My parents? Yes."

"Aww, Danny!" she whined. "I didn't want anybody to know who or what I am!"

"Part of keeping a secret, is not showing up on my front porch and asking for me. Of course they were suspicious, and it was the only way to convince them to let you live!"

"Let me live? Why wouldn't they...?"

"They thought you were a stranger. What were they supposed to do? They wanted to call your parents, and they had to be told that you don't have any." A stab of pain crossed through Danielle, but it had nothing to do with whatever was plaguing her.

"Well, did they kill it?"

Danny made a face, and Danielle had to add, "The disease, or whatever?"

A nurse walked in with a cup or water and some medicine. "You just had a bad case of GRD caused by Nonulcer Dyspepsia. You basically had a bad stomach ache, didn't you?" She handed the child a small, white pill. Dani hesitate. "Titrilac," the nurse said. "Mylanta for Children. It'll cure you up in no time, along with some resting."

Dani nodded and swallowed the pill. She actually hadn't understood most of what the nurse had said, but she went with it anyway. She looked at Danny, but all he said was, "It's called: indigestion."

"Indigestion? But doesn't that go away after a while?"

"Not where you're standing," the woman said. "You weren't eating properly, and exerting way too much energy. More than you were taking in. And you had a hernia. That would also be a good cause for pain. Heartburn, indigestion, a hernia...you're lucky you didn't get an ucler from all this. Are you stressed?"

Dani thought about her mistake of a life, flying alone, and never having one place to stay in too long. Although she rather enjoyed her nomadic existence, she didn't feel the point anymore. She nodded. "That'll do it up good," the nurse added. She pushed her beautiful red hair out of her face. "Take those pills, and, uh, wake up your parents, young lady. You'll be released soon."

Danielle sighed in happiness as the nurse left. "I'll be leaving soon, then?"

"Oh no you won't!" said the voice from behind. Dani winced and turned to stare in dismay at Jasmine Fenton, this sister she had never met. "You need rest, Dani, and you're gonna be in pain for a while. For a few days, you need to be as still as possible so your hernia won't come back."

Groaning to herself, Dani looked at Jazz. She was actually kind of pretty. She had bright copper hair pulled from her face with a blue headband. She was wearing a black shirt, and jeans. She was a petite young woman who's intellect showed in the way she held her head. She had a deep, soprano voice, that made Danielle think Jazz was full of herself when it came to her brains. Dani had never met Jazz before, but she knew Jazz was smart.

"You can't keep me here," Dani said. But Jazz just lifted her head higher.

"Yes I can."

"Yeah, how?"

Just then, there was the sound of movement behind her and Danielle turned to see Mr. and Mrs. Fenton staring at her. "You're awake," Maddie said. Jack narrowed his eyes at her and added,

"And alive. Two good things in one day."

Dani stared at them in horror. "You can't keep me here!" Dani said, turning to face Jazz. "You're not my mom!"

"No," Danny admitted, standing. "But we are family." And as Dani stared around at the faces of the Fentons, she felt a twist in her stomach. She was trapped.

So...I don't like the way this turned out at all, but I'm posting it anyway. To much talking, if you ask me. I also don't like the way Danny just tells them without thinking about how Danielle would feel about them knowing, but I needed to have more flaws in their personallities as so they weren't too mary-sueish. It won't last long. The story will probably get better over time, because I don't seem to have any of that anymore. :( And if you're interested, you can find and a good fanfiction called: Life as a Phantom. It's on my favorites. That's my recomondation if you want a good fanfiction of Danielle Phantom to read. More coming up later on DaniPhan17's profile!