A/N: Hey everyone; so I know it's been a while, but school's really been kicking my ass! Thanks so much for all of your understanding, and I know this update is a little uneventful but I feel like I need to give you guys something. This is only half the chapter, but I hope you guys like it anyway. Low key mysterious...

Chapter 3: Supplementary

"Danny! Wake up! Danny!"

It took a few moments for him to register the familiar-and alarmingly concerned-voice in his ears, but Danny groaned in half-hearted response. He cracked an eye open, and after a brief adjustment, he saw who had woken him. "Jazz?" he said hoarsely.

"Oh my god! Danny, you're okay!" his sister exclaimed, pulling him into a smothering embrace. "I didn't know what to think! Mom and Dad asked me to get you up and there was all the blood-I mean, the ectoplasm, but it's all over you and I just thought what if you were hurt and-"

"What...what are you talking about?" Danny interrupted, a look of clear confusion casting over his features.

"Oh Danny, please tell me you weren't hurt!"

"No Jazz, I'm fine I-"

Danny broke off, and finally he saw what his sister had been referring too. His bedsheets were covered in dried green stains that glowed slightly in the early morning dimness. There was ectoplasm everywhere...

It's all over you. That's what Jazz had just said. "What the hell?" he said aloud. He looked back up to his sister. "I swear I...don't know what happened. I mean...maybe there was a ghost in the middle of the night? I must have been too tired to remember."

"So then...is that...I mean is that all yours?" Jazz asked, gesturing vaguely to the greenish patches that soaked the bedcovers.

"I dunno...I guess it must be," Danny replied. "But I feel fine, I promise."

In fact, he felt better than fine. He hadn't felt this good for weeks. The sickness that had incapacitated him yesterday was gone, and despite his apparent skirmish during the night, he had energy. Now that in itself was astonishing.

There was a knock on Danny's bedroom door, and it began to creak open. "I got it," Jazz said quickly, zipping out into the doorway to come face-to-face with their mother. "Hey, mom! Danny's okay, he just forgot to put his alarm on."

"Oh, I see," said Maddie, though she didn't seem a hundred percent convinced; Danny could hear the tinge of doubt in her voice. "Jazz, Danny wasn't feeling so well yesterday. Can you tell him I think he should stay home?"

"Sure thing, mom!" Jazz replied.

"Okay, honey. Love you."

"Love you too mom!" Jazz said.

As Maddie retreated down the stairs, Jazz peered back into Danny's room. "Mom wants you to stay home, and if you fought a ghost in the middle of the night last night, I agree with her. I'll pick up your homework for you. And you'd better try to do it."

Danny nodded, offering his sister a weak smile. "Okay," he said.

"Good," said Jazz. "And if you're feeling better later you should try and get your sheets washed before mom and dad see."

Danny nodded again, and Jazz gave him a quick goodbye; she was probably going to be late to school now. He looked back to the stains of ectoplasm; he might as well clean everything up now so he didn't have to worry about it later. Besides, his parents would likely be in the basement all day anyway, as usual.

As Danny pulled the cover off his pillow, the faint smell of ectoplasm lingered, mingled with the week-old fading odor of laundry detergent, and Danny began to remember; there had been a ghost last night, making noise down in the lab. He remembered phasing down into the lab, finding the low-level ghost down there...then nothing. He must have defeated it, he just couldn't have imagined himself getting so injured over an easy specter like that. Danny had a bad feeling, weighing in the pit of his stomach, like something was just wrong. Very wrong. He silently hoped it wasn't related to Vlad's surprise visit the day before, but something told him he wasn't lucky enough.

After tossing his sheets into the washing machine and cleaning himself up a bit, Danny ventured down into the lab, where his parents were busy scrubbing something sticky, neon green and glowing, from the tile floor. It was a startling amount of ectoplasm, even for them; it seemed he just couldn't escape the sight or the smell of it. A faint growl bubbled in his stomach. "Hey mom, dad," he said hesitantly.

Jack and Maddie Fenton immediately stopped what they were doing, looking up at their son with concerned expressions and green-splattered jumpsuits. "Hey, Dann-O!" Jack exclaimed. "How are you feeling? Your mother told me you weren't so hot yesterday."

"Oh…um, I'm okay," Danny said, but admittedly he was beginning to regret coming down to the lab. The smell of ectoplasm was making him feel a little dizzy, and he backed up the stairs a little. "I just…wanted to thank mom for letting me stay home."

Maddie smiled. "Of course honey. Now just lie down and wait a few minutes and I'll make us some breakfast, how's that?"

Danny nodded; he was starving. "Okay mom, sounds good."

Once his parents finished cleaning up, Maddie started cooking up some eggs and popped some bread in the toaster; any other day she may have brought out the bacon, but with her little boy unwell she thought that would be something best saved for another time. As the smell of her cooking drifted through the ground floor, Danny felt a sharp pang twist in his gut; he was at the table before he was even called.

"Thanks mom," Danny said with a smile.

His mother smiled back at him, and for now the both of them were unaware what consequences such a gesture of kindness could have. "You're welcome sweetie."