Lol guys remember when I said I'd have another chapter up in a month or two?


Chapter 9: Suspicious Behavior

Danny slowly began to regain consciousness. He soon became aware of the way his muscles ached and gave a soft groan. Without opening his eyes, he raised a hand to scrub his face and felt a slight tug at his arm, almost like something was pulling at his skin.

"Danny?" Danielle's voice said from beside him.

He finally pealed open his eyes. When a plain white tiled ceiling met his gaze, he realized with a start that he wasn't in his room. This was like the second time in only a few months that he found himself waking up in an alien place. He hoped it wouldn't become a trend.

He shot up and looked around. He was surrounded by the quintessential hospital equipment, heart monitor, IV stand, and bland modern art on the walls. He felt the tugging again as he moved around more and raised his arm to see an IV in the inside of his elbow.

"Yay, you're awake," Danielle deadpanned. She was seated to the left of is hospital bed.

"Why am I in the hospital?" he asked.

"Hold on, I need to text Sam and Tucker and tell them you're finally awake," she said.

Danny gave her an annoyed look, and, not waiting for her to finish her text, he asked. "How long have I been out? Also, where is everyone?"

Danielle's only response was to hold up a finger for him to wait. Danny huffed and sat back, crossing his arms like a pouty child.

His twin finally responded with, "Four days."

Danny frowned. "What?"

"You've been out for four days," she managed to say with a completely straight face.

Danny bolted upright. "Four days?!" The heart monitor's beeps sped up. "I've been out for four days?!"

"Nah, I'm just kidding. You've only been out for a few hours," Danielle answered with a smirk. "Tucker told me to tell you that."

Danny huffed and ran a hand over his face. "Text him back and tell him he's an ass—and so are you. You never answered my other questions."

Danielle rolled her eyes. "Demanding, much?" she muttered.

"Danielle!" Danny said incredulously.

"Alright fine. You fainted like a ninny in front Mom and Dad, so of course they freaked out and brought you here," Danielle answered. "Right now, they're in the cafeteria and Jazz went to the bathroom. This is the first time I've gotten you alone. I was starting to worry that we wouldn't be able to make up a cover story before you had to talk to someone else."

Danny frowned. "Mom and Dad? They were in the basement?"

"You don't remember?" she said with a frown.

"It was getting all kinda fuzzy towards the end, you know, before I fainted like a ninny," Danny said dryly.

"Whatever," his twin said, rolling her eyes. "Apparently, they went down there when they got a ping on their new invention—the one they showed us this morning, but I don't think they saw anything, otherwise they would have taken you to the lab. By the way, what happened to the ghost?"

Danny rubbed a hand over his face. Like he said, the last few minutes of the fight with the ghost was mostly a blur because he was already crashing, but he was pretty sure he had somehow gotten the Fenton Thermos to work. "I think I got the thermos to work, but I dropped it and it rolled under something."

"Okay, that's good, at least that's one less thing to worry about," Danielle said.

"Speaking of things to worry about, do you know if the doctors have found anything…weird about me?" Danny asked cautiously.

Danielle shook her head. "I don't think so. Just that your temperature was a little lower than average and that your blood pressure had bottomed out, which is actually why they think you passed out. Dr. Matthews, the doctor overseeing you, is withholding a solid diagnosis, but kinda thinks that you might have had a panic attack and went into some kind of…dissociative fudge state 'cause they can't really find anything else wrong with you."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean they couldn't find anything wrong with me? The Lunch Lady treated me like a rag doll and nearly strangled me."

Danielle gave him an unreadable look and shrugged. "You didn't even have any bruises."

Danny swallowed a little thickly. He didn't know how to feel about that. While it was cool and all to have X-Men powers, it only made him feel more like a freak. Was he even human anymore?

He suddenly remembered the large scar on his back. He didn't like thinking about it and certainly didn't like looking at it (though he didn't really get much of a chance to since it was on his back), but one day last week he had decided to look at it again out of some morbid curiosity and it had been gone like it had never existed in the first place.

Danny leaned back in the bed, tilting his head back to stare sightlessly up at the ceiling. He let out a long breath.

"What about the cover story thing?" he asked, sounding tired.

"Oh, yeah, right, we need one," Danielle said, stating the obvious.

"You don't say," Danny deadpanned. "This is just great. I'm a terrible liar."

"Well, we can piggy back on what the doctor thinks," Danielle suggested. "Maybe you could say you freaked out because you were afraid of getting in trouble."

Danny pursed his lips. "Sounds pretty flimsy, sis. Also, that does make me sound like a ninny."

"What are you talking about! Having a panic attack is nothing to be ashamed of or to laugh about!" Danielle scolded, putting her hands on her hips dramatically.

Danny narrowed his eyes at her. "You've been spending too much time around Jazz."

As if summoned by her name, Jazz suddenly walked in. She paused for a second in the door, startled to see Danny was awake, then, without a word, rushed forward and enveloped him in a hug. "We were so worried about you," she mumbled into his shoulder.

Danny gently pushed her away. "It's okay. I'm fine."

"What happened? Why were you down in the school basement of all places?" Jazz asked, her eyes looking a little misty.

Danny fidgeted. "I, um, I guess I ran down there by accident. I-I don't know it was kinda blurry. I might have panicked when I found out we were going to get into trouble for the food fight in the cafeteria."

Jazz pursed her lips in an unsure expression. "I know I should be mad at you for pretty much destroying the cafeteria, but I'm just glad you're okay."

She straightened, pulling out the wrinkles in her shirt. "I should probably go get Mom and Dad and tell them you're awake," she continued.

Once Jazz had left the room, Danny sighed and put a hand over his face. "Is this what it's going to be like from now on?" he muttered.

"How what's going to be like?" Danielle asked.

"Lying—to everyone. I'm not even good at lying," he said, his hand still covering his face.

Danielle put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, it'll get easier."

Danny made a face and turned to her. "What? Lying?"

She nodded her head innocently. "Yeah."

He rolled his eyes. "Well, gee, thanks, that makes me feel so much better, sis," he said, his words dripping with sarcasm.

Danielle smirked and patted his shoulder before withdrawing her hand. "You're welcome, bro."


"Have you ever had a panic attack before?" Jazz asked as Danny was getting out of the car.

"No," Danny stressed before shutting the door in her face.

There was a small cry of protest from Danielle. She had already begun to scoot over to exit from his side.

Danny came around the back of his mom's car only to once again be confronted by Jazz. "This could be a sign of an underlying mental illness, like a panic disorder, or an anxiety disorder, or—"

"Jazz, I'm fine!" he almost shouted.

"Danny, this isn't like you to get to get in trouble at school. Are you sure your telling us the whole truth?" Danny's mom said, joining in the interrogation as she got out of the car as well.

Danny almost rolled his eyes at her. For all he knew she probably thought a ghost had possessed him to wreak havoc on the school's cafeteria.

"Can we at least get inside before you guys start this again?" Danny whined.

"Danny, this could be serious!" Jack said. He got out of the car and leaned on the top of it. "There could have been a ghos—"

Danny didn't even let his father finish the word 'ghost'. "I already told you! I didn't see any ghost! I just started the food fight in the cafeteria because I was being a dumbass, not because the devil made me do it!" he practically yelled.

"Language, young man," Maddie said sternly.

Danny bit his tongue before he said something else he might regret. "Whatever, can you just open the door?" he grumbled.

Maddie sighed and climbed up the steps past Danny. As soon as she disengaged the lock, Danny shoved past her through the door, pointedly ignoring the incredulous look she sent him.

"Danny, what has gotten into you all of a sudden?" she asked.

"I dunno," Danny said, pausing at the foot of the stairs. "Teen angst? Hormones? Doesn't matter. It's not like you care anyway."

Danny felt a small prick of guilt at the hurt look she gave him, but it was gone as soon as she said, "Daniel James Fenton, you're grounded! Go to your room!"

"I'm already going to my room!" he shot back.

"Then go faster!"

Danny growled and stomped the rest of the way to his room. He slammed the door as hard as he could, making the whole house shake.


Danielle watched in bewilderment as her mother stormed into the basement, likely to smash some failed inventions or to furiously work over some other ones to get out her anger. Jack followed timidly behind.

Jazz started to head for the stairs, and Danielle could see it in her eyes that her intent was to go talk to Danny. Catching her older sister's arm, she said bluntly, "Don't go up there. You'll only make it worse."

Jazz turned to Danielle, face twisted into a mask of worry. "Did I do this? Maybe if I'd just laid off the questions…"

"No, Jazz, this isn't your fault," Danielle said. She could see that Jazz didn't believe her. "Well…maybe it is a little, but at least you weren't asking Danny if he was possessed or something."

Jazz shook her head and let her gaze drop to the floor. "I wish he talked to me like he does to you. He used to…it just seems like recently he's been drifting away from almost everyone." She looked back up to Danielle, meeting her eyes. "Do you think it has to do with the ghost stuff? Mom and Dad have been on about that nonstop since Christmas. It could drive anyone insane."

"You're probably right," Danielle said. She wasn't exactly lying, just sort of tiptoeing around the truth.

Jazz sighed. "I love Mom and Dad, but sometimes they make it really hard for me to like them."

Danielle gave her a sad smile. "I know what you mean."

There was a small pause until Jazz asked, "Are you going to go talk to him?"

Danielle glanced upstairs in the direction of her brother's room. "You think I should?" she asked.

"I think someone should."

Danielle nodded. "Okay, then I will."

Jazz gave her a halfhearted smile and a nod. "Just tell him when you go up to talk to him that I…I just care about him, and I want to know that he's okay. We all do. Even Mom and Dad in their own messed up way."

"He already knows that, I'm sure," Danielle said.

Jazz pursed her lips. "I'm sure he does too, when he's not compromised like this. People tend to forget others care about them when they're emotionally distressed, you know?"

"I guess you're right," Danielle said, her mouth twisting into mild grimace. "I'll be sure to remind him then."

Jazz smiled again. This time it almost reached her eyes.

Danielle parted from her sister and climbed the stairs to her twin's room. She deliberated for a second before knocking on his door. "Go away," came the muffled reply.

Opening the door a crack and sticking her head through, she saw Danny laying face down in his bed, spreadeagled. He was the picture of defeat.

"It's me, doofus," she said in a small voice.

Danny's only response was to lift his head and give her a halfhearted glare before plopping his face back down into the pillow.

Danielle walked over and sat down lightly at the foot of his bed. "You know they just care about you, right? Even Mom and Dad in their own weird way."

"I know," Danny groaned into the pillow. He said something else that Danielle didn't quite catch.

"What was that?" she asked.

Danny huffed and turned his head. "I said, that's what makes it worse."

Danielle bit her lip and turned away. "It's not like we haven't lied to them before," she said quietly.

"This is different, Danielle," Danny said, sitting up and turning to her. "This isn't like hiding a black eye that Dash gave me. We could have died. Hell, maybe we did in a way."

Danielle didn't know what to say to that. She knew that they both weren't letting on to just how much the accident had effected them, but she was surprised that Danny was so torn over not telling their parents.

Silence lapsed between them. Finally, Danielle drew in a long breath, letting it out in a slow exhale, and said, "If you want to tell them, fine. I'm not going to try to stop you anymore."

She tried not to think about how Dan would feel if Danny actually did go to their parents. He'd probably be pissed, but he'd just have to get over it. She couldn't stand seeing her twin hurting like this anymore.

"No…I'm not going to tell them," he grumbled.

"You don't have to stay silent just because of me. I promise I won't hold it against you, no matter what," Danielle said earnestly.

Danny sighed and ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in odd places. "The truth of the matter is, I'm not sure I'm ready to tell them yet either, especially after what happened today."

Danielle tilted her head to one side. "What do you mean?"

"Now that I think about it, taking out the Lunch Lady felt…good in a way," Danny said thoughtfully, "like I did something for once in my life that was actually worthwhile. Maybe this is what I'm meant to do."

Danielle snorted. "You've been reading way too many comics," she said with a smirk.

Danny chuckled and kicked her lightly. "Shut up."

There was a small pause until Danny suddenly exclaimed, "Oh!" He slapped a hand over his forehead and sat back.

"What is it?"

"That reminds me! The Lunch Lady is still in the Fenton Thermos sitting in the school basement," he said. "What if someone finds it? We better go get it first."

Danielle's eyebrows shot up. "You mean like right now?"

Danny jumped out of his bed. "Yeah, why not?"

Danielle frowned. There was an excitement in her brother's voice that was in stark contrast with the somber tone he had use just seconds ago. His mood hand seemingly just taken an impossible one-eighty. "Danny are you sure you—"

In a bright flash without any warning he suddenly changed into his ghost form. "Yeah, I'm sure. Now come on!" he said grabbing her hand.

Danielle yelped as he dragged her along, phasing them through his bedroom window.


It was around midnight when their mom finally went to bed. Danny listened at the door to her retreating footsteps down the hall. He waited another half hour before he pulled the Fenton Thermos out from under his bed and started to make his way to the lab.

He tiptoed down the stairs praying that his powers didn't make him trip or fall through the floor. Finally, he stood in front of the closed doors of the portal, wondering how he was going to get the Lunch Lady into the portal without causing himself too much injury. Maybe pressing eject would be enough to fling her back into the Ghost Zone and he could race to the close door button before she could get out again.

Danny drew in a deep breath. "Okay," he muttered to himself.

He went up to the panel beside the portal. His hand hovered over the "open" button a second before he mustered enough courage to go through with the action. As the doors rolled open, he powered up in case anything went wrong, like say if some ectopuses were taking a stroll near the portal and decided they were feeling adventurous and went through it.

Danny popped the cap off the thermos and aimed the opening at the portal. As soon as he pressed eject, a banshee scream and a bright beam of light burst from the muzzle and shot into the portal, only becoming slightly muffled as it passed the "event horizon". Danny rushed for the close button all the while the screams steadily getting louder again, signaling that the Lunch Lady was hurrying to get back through the portal. Danny slammed his hand into the button and the doors began to roll close at an agonizingly slow pace. They finally shut with a soft thud. Only another second later another thud sounded at the doors. Danny gave a soft chuckle as an image of the Lunch Lady flattened against the doors like a Loony Toons character came to mind. Unfortunately, the levity didn't do much to lessen the tremble in his hands.

He changed back into his human form and gave himself a second to breath before he set himself on his second task. He looked around the lab for the Fenton Finder and grabbed it off one of the workbenches when he found it. The schematics for it were right next to it, saving him a few minutes of having to look for it, as well.

He hoped Mom and Dad wouldn't notice it missing, or if they did, that they would think it was just another thing they had accidentally misplaced.


"I just don't know where it could have gone!" Maddie said over the breakfast table. "I've scoured the lab, looking in every nook and cranny! It's like it just up and disappeared!"

"Maybe it was a ghost!" Jack said pounding his fist on the table.

The twins shared a glance.

Maddie made a helpless gesture. "Maybe, but unlikely. I doubt a ghost would understand what it was—and we always keep the portal doors closed!"

"Maybe it was the grimlins," Danielle said with a snicker.

Their mom gave her an unamused look. "That's not funny."

"You know, I'm not surprised you lost something," Jazz piped up. "With the state of disarray you always keep the lab in, it's no wonder something went missing."

"But I was sure I left in on the bench up against the northern wall—or was it the southern wall?" Maddie said frowning at the table.

"You see?" Jazz said smugly. For once Danny was grateful Jazz was being a know-it-all.

"I-I don't know," their mother said, leaning her head into her hand. "It just seems so strange because even the schematics are missing."

"Maybe it's not that bad," Jack said placing his hands on her shoulders. "That thing didn't seemed to really work anyway."

Maddie let out a deep sigh. "I still don't want to give up the search. We could still salvage the materials even if it didn't work."

"Great," Jazz said without any real enthusiasm. "You do that and we'll be getting to school." She glanced at the twins. "Go finish getting ready."


Most of the day had gone by without being called to the office. This only seemed to add to the already high stress levels in the group. It would have been merciful for Mr. Lancer to have simply called them to the office during the earlier periods, but instead he let them stew. By sixth period they all felt like they were going to explode.

Somehow they had all landed in Mr. Lancer's sixth period English I class. It was a small school in a small midwestern town, so it wasn't too terribly surprising or unlikely, but it was rather unfortunate in this case.

Surprisingly, Mr. Lancer didn't give them any funny looks or call on them at all. He acted as if it was a normal class period, and the events of yesterday hadn't even happened. It was only until the last five minutes of class that he announced, "I would like for the Fentons and Mr. Foley to stay after the bell rings please."

Danny felt his stomach drop into his feet and he instinctively hunched his shoulders.

"Uh-oh, Fenturd's in trouble," Dash taunted from a few seats back.

"Would you like to join them, Mr. Baxter?" Lancer said with venom Danny hadn't heard the teacher use on the football player before.

"No, sir," Dash grumbled.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the bell rang. While the rest of the class stormed out, the four friends stayed in their seats.

Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow. "Miss Manson, I don't believe I asked you to stay behind."

"I'm just as much a part of this as they are," she intoned.

The teacher folded his arms. "Is that so?"

"Yes, I participated in the food fight just as much as they did. I should get detention too."

"Sam, what are you doing?" Danny hissed.

"No, no, Mr. Fenton, don't interrupt. Besides we have plenty of time. I don't have a class this period, and I can write you all notes," Lancer said calmly.

"She really had nothing to do with it. It was all us," Danny said.

"Danny," she said, in a voice hardly above a growl, "stop." He wilted under her intense gaze.

Mr. Lancer looked between all four of them before he spoke again. "I don't really know what is going on, but I have a feeling it goes much deeper than just the little lunch debacle yesterday. I also get the feeling none of you are going to share with me what this is really about." He paused as if thinking over his next words carefully. "Since this has already been such a hassle and Mr. Fenton actually had to go to the hospital, I'm going to go easy on you and give you four only one day of detention. Tomorrow after school, report for detention in the library. Mrs. Robinson will be the teacher on duty."


"So then he—" Danielle paused, looking up when her twin entered her bedroom.

"Danielle, I think your computer's got some kind of virus. You better do a scan quick," Danny quipped.

Dan on the other end of the Skype chat raised a finger to the camera.

"Danny, I finally got my Skype set up," she said excitedly, ignoring his jab. "I was just telling Dan about how you fought a ghost."

Danny puffed his chest out slightly. "Did you tell him how heroic I was?"

"She told me you fainted like a pussy," Dan deadpanned.

"I said ninny, not pussy," Danielle corrected.

"Danielle!" Danny whined. "How could you!"

His twin held her hand to her chest and gave a dramatic gasp. "Would you want me to lie, dear brother? That would be…unthinkable…"

Danny gave her a flat look. He directed his attention to the computer screen where Dan was watching the interaction with a small smirk. "What about you, Dan? Anything interesting?" he asked, managing to make the question sound snide.

Dan sat back in his chair and absently inspected his nails. "Nah, nothing too interesting, though I did almost destroy the fountain yesterday."

"Mm, great," Danny muttered.

Danielle groaned and rolled her eyes. "Even miles apart, you two can be catty towards each other."

Dan looked up from his nails with a frown. "Men don't get 'catty' with each other," he stated matter-of-factly.

"What men? I don't see any men around here?" Danielle snarked.

"Hey!" the two brothers said almost in unison. Danielle chuckled.

She turned her attention back to her twin. "So Danny, what did you come in here for originally?" she asked.

"I-well, I was thinking maybe we should practice the whole…ghost powers thing," he stuttered. "Mom and Dad left to go take care of errands and the lab is empty. Have you ever actually tried to go ghost?"

Danielle pursed her lips and turned away.

"Of course she has, dipshit," Dan said.

Danny sent him a glare. "I didn't ask you."

"I have tried, and I can't," she said interrupting Dan before he could offer a rebuttal.

"Are you sure?" Danny said, a small part of him disappointed. He didn't know why. Having a ghost half made him feel like a freak, and he certainly wouldn't wish that on his sister.

She nodded. "Yeah. You've said for you it kinda just…happens, but no matter how hard I think about it…nothing."

"Well, maybe it'll just take time for you," Danny tried. "You were hit with a lot less ectoplasm. Maybe it just takes time to…set?"

Danielle gained a thoughtful look. "Maybe…."

"Well, until you get your full ghost side, you can't be in our club," Dan said.

"What?" Danielle said, rounding on him.

He shrugged lazily. "You can't be in the creepy ghost kid club. Sorry, I don't make the rules," he said, keeping a straight face, except for the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.