I nearly bawled my eyes out writing this chapter. Thank you all so much for favoriting, alerting, and reviewing this story! I really appreciate everything you guys do, for it encourages me to write more. I'll try to start updating once or twice a week from now on :D


D~a~y~~1~0~6 ~~2

His mother said nothing to him on the thirty minute drive back home. It was a fairly short trip, however it had already felt like eternity to Danny. Now that he could no longer speak, he had to rely on other people to start a conversation for him. Though even then he could only use the slight movement of his head.

The silence was driving him nuts. There was no radio usually jamming, no air conditioning or heat, and even the cruising car seemed awfully quiet. Every vehicle that slipped by theirs was a blur of streaks and colors in his mind, each one looking exactly the same as the other before them. Danny's heart beat loudly against his ears and was the only sound that kept his attention.

Finally, he swallowed a deep breath that hardened the panic clawing at his aching core. When Danny released it in a drawn out sigh, he closed his blue eyes and tried to think of a serene atmosphere. A place where he could easily put his soul into and mingle while his real body stayed in the car. Somewhere far off that only he could imagine, where nobody could touch or judge him.

Maybe a pond would be a nice place. He could see himself standing in the damp morning moss near the edge of a beautifully clear pond. Fog covered most of the landscape and prevented him from seeing the border of hidden birch trees whose prickly branches stuck out from the shifting mist. Red and yellow flowers poked randomly through the ground along with slithers of weeds dancing to a slight cold wind.

Everything was perfect. The only noises evading his mind were the flock of birds chirping, flapping their wings in the air above, and the assortment of crickets or frogs with one last call to their mates. 'If only I could stay here forever." Danny frowned in the day dream as the wonderful image flickered. He couldn't think like that here, it would mess the scenery up.

Instead, he turned to the person staring back at him in the calmly riveting water. The eyes his mother had loved since he was little now looked dark, lost of all happiness. His fourteen year old frame was skinny from not eating healthy enough and he had grown an inch or two in the past three months. Outside he hadn't changed much, however inside rain poured and tested the crumbling flood walls constructed of his emotions.

Danny kneeled right next to the pond and gently graced the cool waters surface with one of his hands. The soothing contact may keep his soul bonded to the bliss of his comforting imagination while he thought. The first day from three months, 106 days ago, was simple to remember. It was a weekend in December and he had woken up with a dully throbbing throat that would amplify in pain with a dry cough.

Teens become sick or ill regularly, so it didn't worry anybody at all. Everyone knew that he would recover quickly and be back to normal by the time school rolled around. They were wrong. Everyone was more then blind to the truth of what was happening to Danny. Even he himself thought the exact same thing ; "I'll be fine."

After a few blurry days of sour cough medicine and restless sleep, his condition only continued to worsen. Danny faintly recalled visiting so many hospitals that he had given up on counting. Every kind of doctor or nurse he saw lied to him constantly. They all said the same lousy excuse "You'll feel better tomorrow" with a cheesy smile that he was ashamed to believe in.

Each passing day his throat burned until he could barely speak anymore. That's when his mom put her foot down and finally took him to an emergency room in Amity Hospital. He stayed there until he wanted to puke at every white object he saw, pinch his nose with each toxic medical fume, and stay outdoors until he felt he was free again.

In the end, after sixteen days wondering plus ninety spent in that confined hospital, he left. Doctors all around the world had set there lives aside to come to Amity Hospital and 'study' Danny. He didn't go a day without hearing how remarkably unique his condition was, that only one person had been known to have it before him. Although he didn't care about that person right then, all he wanted to do was leave.

Danny Fenton had been diagnosed with a condition called Ghost Radiation. GR is an extremely toxic gas that if exposed to for a long period of time will effect a person's voice until he or she no longer has the ability to speak. It all made since in one last final blow. With Danny's counterpart "Phantom", nearly constant contact with other ghosts, and frequent trips into the Ghost Zone he was 99.9% positive to catch the horrible disease.

Apparently there are harmful chemicals ghost naturally give off as an invisible aura. If these are breathed in over a very long period of time, the chemicals slowly erode the voice box and it's nerves. The latter patient that had Danny's exact condition did not feel any throat pain until the last few months either, after that only a numbness was left over. The blue and orange jumpsuits that his parents used to embarrassed him with were lifesavers. It turned out that their terrible taste in loose spandex was the key to saving their own voices from corruption. Danny was so very thankful, for if they had caught GR, he didn't know exactly what he would do.

Abruptly, Danny felt warmth caress his cool right hand and baffle him. He jerked it out of the water, but the comforting feeling stayed. Danny re-opened his tired eyes and found that his mother was gently grasping the hand laying on his stomach. He looked back up at his mother for some kind of sign, that everything would be okay, and instead saw a pair of grieving purple eyes.

She and his dad didn't blame themselves for this, right? Everything was his fault. They have absolutely no idea that their son is a ghost fighting maniac who has risked his life a bunch of times. Not to mention he is their prime target 'Danny Phantom' that his parents believe to be a town raging ghost. They were clueless and Danny really hated that.

'I can't even tell them I'm Danny Phantom anymore. They'll never know the truth." he fought the tears that demanded to be released and spent the rest of the drive looking out the car window. Outside passed a dozen of familiar houses, even a few people, that he knew well. The nice citizens, old buildings or Amity Park's small town community hadn't changed a bit, but Danny had.

Rumors had undoubtedly spread around about his current condition. Everyone would look down on him like a disgusting sewer rat without a place. Even his family acted strange. Had he been gone too long? Danny wasn't exactly sure whether to be angry at their carelessness or let the growing sadness ultimately overwhelm him. It would have been easier to just stay away from them all and retreat back to the glistening pond that made him feel sane.

The car stopped, however Danny's heart raced faster at his mother's next words "Were home, Danny." She then let go of his shivering hand, unbuckled, and got out of the car with her hesitant son following behind. The odd facade of Fenton Works was the same as ever. Aged red brick built the normal resembling large two story house as the humongous green and orange sign stuck out at the main front. What had always made the house different in appearance was the Op-Center, a technologically advanced upper area, with guns and lasers sticking in every possible direction that his parents had personally created.

"Are you ready, dear?" His mother stood awaiting at the front door, hand on the knob.

No, Danny was far from ready. His brain told him to run far away and face it another day while his feet began their slow walk forward. At last he was at his mom's side, and as she opened the door, he could feel himself holding his breath. The gray door swung completely open and revealed the unnaturally dark living room.

Danny walked further in as his mother held the door for him, and when she finally shut it he stood there, waiting for something to happen. All the lights had been turned out, curtains drawn, and he could barely see what was around him. There was a small sniffle, then another, as a man could clearly be heard crying elsewhere in the small room.

Listening closely, he was at last able to pinpoint the weeping near the right corner of the living room. There he could faintly make out the dark outline of the long couch he easily recalled and a heavy set person sitting at the far end of it. His mind threw out only a handful of ideas of who it could be. Was it his dad? Danny wanted to laugh at the thought. Never had he seen his dad crack a single tear in front of him ever before, especially not with the go happy attitude he had always carried.

His mother felt her way onto the couch and softly sat down beside the figure. She put a tender hand on his shaking shoulder while the other embraced his cheek to gently turn it towards her face "Jack," her voice cracked "O-Our son's home. See?" she pointed across the room to Danny "He's right over there."

"No!" His dad jerked his blood shot eyes away from hers as he stress out "No, I can't let him see me like this." Jack's hands fist together against his thighs and he put his head back down to the floor.

"But, dear-"

"You shouldn't have brought him home yet!" Jack yelled back at his shocked wife, though deep inside she ached to cry out also.

Danny's heart instantly felt heavy as quiet tears spilled onto his cheeks. Did his own father...not want him anymore? Was that what he's implying? Did his mother feel the exact same? That must have been why they had been avoiding him for the past couple weeks. Since their son could no longer speak, he would be a heavy burden for them to forcefully hold. Bile rose in the back of his throat as he was instantly filled with nausea. His head pounded fiercely and repeated a never ending loop of his father's very words. Again, he could not help to question himself further and ask 'why' continuously.

Maddie never turned away from Jack as she whispered "Why don't you go up to your room, honey?" her sudden sob nearly breaking off the sentence.

Danny didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted up the stairs hearing his dad mutter "Why, why?" all the way up until he was finally able to shut himself inside his regular old room and lock the door. Even then he could hear their haunting words echo through his head, along with many other questions that would pop up. Why him? Did his parents hate their only son? Should he have come home? Where was Jazz?

He ignored the fact that his room had been cleaned and flopped face down onto the comforters, delicately burying his head into the limp white pillows. Muffled sobs wracked his body and did nothing to relieve a painful tension that just tightened harder around his heart. A single daring thought sent lightening straight through his already broken heart ' Am I even suppose to be here right now?"