I live! Sorry for the wait. Life sucks that way. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy the new chapter.


Ch. 9: Troubles

The first thing she noticed was that she wasn't in her room.

It was too cold, too dark, it smelled different, and the usual hum of machinery from the lab was replaced with a steady beeping. Groaning, she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. Drab green walls, small windows, TV set up in the corner and couches against the far wall. She had been in the hospital enough times to know where she was. She tried to push away the itchy blankets wrapped around her, but a pale hand from the shadows stopped her. "I would stay down if I were you."

The electrocardiogram spiked as she jumped in surprise, the cool voice sending shivers down her spine. Her guest smirked and placed a firm hand on her shoulder, the chill of his skin seeping in through the hospital robe she wore told her he wasn't human despite his normal appearance. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"My name doesn't matter and telling you my plan wouldn't help me in any way so.... I'm not going to tell you." The smug voice grated against her already sensitive nerves. She tried to pry herself out from under his hand but he held her fast. Her blue eyes flashed over to the call button on the side of the bed. It exploded before she could even move to touch it. Her gaze was brought back to her guest as he tsked. "Be a good girl and don't move, Jazz. I really don't want to hurt you."

"Then why are you here? Where's Danny? Where are my parents?" The stranger didn't answer and fear welled up in her. "What have you done with them?!"

"I haven't done anything to your family, at least not yet. I have some questions to ask you, and that will decide what happens to them." That damn smirk was back and Jazz struggled to break out of the boy's grasp.

"Leave them al..." The intruder's other hand lashed out and across her cheek as her voice rose to a scream. She was left gritting her teeth against the pain and praying someone would have heard her and was sending help. Her job had never been field work after the episode with Vlad. If it came down to it, she wouldn't be able to handle herself without some kind of weapon. She wasn't her mother.

The hand came back and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look into the boy's pale eyes. "I suggest you don't do that. We wouldn't want anyone running into something they have no right being a part of. People tend to get hurt that way, don't they Jazz?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" The stranger released her with a rough shove and stalked in front of her bed, anger rolling off him in waves so tangible the redhead shivered in fear. This man was deadly. "What do you want from me?!"

"I want to know why you were driving around the abandoned district! I want to know what you saw, what you heard!" He was in front of her again, face dangerously close to her own.

"What? I wasn't near there! I was at home. I..." The power infused hand punched a hole straight through the pillow and mattress near her head.

"Don't. Lie. To. Me. Tell me what you were doing down there!"

"I...I don't know! I was at home!" Despite herself, tears trickled form her eyes. She didn't know why she was at the hospital. She didn't know what had happened. She didn't know what he wanted. She didn't know! The complete confusion and hopelessness struck at her core and no amount of psychology classes could help contain the natural reaction to those feelings.

Her guest left her bedside again with a whispered scream of frustration and he continued his pacing at the foot of her bed. As she tried to push the covers back and wipe away her tears, he glared at her and she stopped moving. The savage animosity that had been directed at her made her stay were she was, too afraid to have that hostility directed at her again.

He stopped mid-step to stare at her, his mouth pulled into a grin. If she thought his silence was frightening, the man's laughter was worse. The chuckling didn't stop but it contained so little happiness that it reminded her of an asylum patient. "That little brat. Of course he would do that." He rounded the bed and held her head between two freezing palms.

It was a complete invasion of herself. One moment everything was fine, the next her mind was being torn apart at the intruder's will. Precious childhood memories and her deepest secrets were ripped to pieces and tossed aside as the foreign mind dug deeper into her. She felt warm liquid run down her nose and over her lip to drip onto the clean sheets. Her guest seemed to have found what he wanted and closed in on the dark memory. A voice was screaming and there were people running outside her room.

The door to the hallway burst open and a nurse and doctor rushed into the room. Jazz bolted up in her bed, tossing aside sheets to cradle her head between her legs. Blood gushed from her nose but it went unheeded. Fingers were prodding her and voices asking her questions but she ignored them. Couldn't they see her mind was being destroyed? Medicine was administered with a sharp prick and the pain slowly disappeared. She was left gasping for breath and covered in cold sweat.

"Are you alright, dear?" The doctor leaned over her, a sweet smile on her face. Jazz nodded numbly, trying to take in her surroundings. "Shhh. It was just a bad dream." The man was gone. The bed didn't have a hole in it and the call button was back. All signs of her visitor were gone except the feeling of his hands on her head and even that was fading with the pain. There was no way that had been a dream.

But she could remember.

The memory the intruder had gone after, had left in her mind as he hastily left, was fresh and vibrant in her mind. It was as if a shroud had been pulled away and everything left bare. The strange call, the little boy at the hotel, the Guys in White, then... her head throbbed as she tried to recollect what had happened. It was there, just under the surface. Either way, she needed to tell Danny and her parents.

"Are my parents here?" They were most likely to be in the building, especially if she was here. Also, keeping Danny in one place had been enough of a challenge before he got ghost powers and had only gotten worse after that. She would have better luck finding her parents and then contacting her brother through them. The doctor frowned, a sad look passing over her dark eyes.

"Yes. They are with Dr. Kelly." The obvious vagueness in her statement caught the psychologist- hopeful's attention.

"What's wrong?" The doctor seemed to be unable to decide whether or not to tell her, biting her lip in hesitation.

"Everything will be fine, but you're brother came in a few hours ago and..." The covers were thrown off before the woman could finish her explanation. The redhead bolted for the door, ignoring the calls for her to come back and rest and how she shouldn't be running around yet. Things obviously weren't fine if Danny had been with Dr. Kelly for a few hours. Her little brother couldn't stand to have his "patch-ups" last more than a few minutes and if her parents were worried enough to be down there....

"Danny!"


For once, his large bulk was being put to good use. After all, the door to Dr. Kelly's office-turned-lab was only so big.

"Mr. Fenton, please move aside. We're not here to cause trouble. We are only here to do our job." The SWAT officer was tired and obviously wasn't in the mood to deal with this right now, but he didn't care. There was no way he was letting them through this door.

"If you weren't going to do anything, you wouldn't be here. You can forget about hurting my son!" His loud voice boomed through the large halls and several people stopped to see what the commotion was about.

"My team and I were ordered to watch over the criminal known as Danny Phantom and make sure he doesn't threaten anyone else in this hospital. We have no intention of harming him. We're just following our orders." Jack's face flushed red in anger and he towered over the officer.

"My son isn't a criminal! He's hero. We wouldn't even be here if it weren't for him. I'm not letting you hurt him!" The door swung open behind him and Dr. Kelly slipped out from behind the giant scientist. Somehow, his calm stature seemed more imposing than Jack's or the SWAT team's as he glared at all of them.

"Gentlemen, can we please keep it down? Our patients need as much rest as possible and you are all making that nearly impossible with your bickering." The doctor turned toward the SWAT team and glared at the leader. "Daniel is in no condition to sit up let alone cause any problems. I understand why you're here, but this is excessive. His mother has already agreed to let you in if the rest of your team stays out here. Will that work?" The leader nodded, but the doctor's stern gaze didn't leave him. "I promise if you do anything to ruin his condition even further, I will personally escort you off the premises." The team leader nodded after a moment of debate. Dr. Kelly nodded in agreement and turned to Jack. "Jack?" The large scientist took a moment before nodding, keeping his suspicious eyes on the SWAT men. The trio entered the room, blinking their eyes at the sudden darkness. "Please be quiet. He shouldn't wake up right now, but I don't want to chance it."

The usually clean office was littered with bandages and smelled strongly of blood and antiseptics. Maddie sat beside the examination table, tightly gripping her son's limp hand. Jack walked up to her and kissed her lightly on the head. She smiled wearily back up at him and grabbed his hand with her free one. "He hasn't woken up yet. Dr. Kelly says he just used up all his energy but..."

The orange-attired man nodded in understanding. Just the fact that the doctor had had to spend so long tending to his boy spoke more than anything else. He couldn't even remember the last time Danny had seriously needed to go to the hospital. Whatever change his ghost powers had made to his body, they had sped up Danny's natural healing by almost three-fold. But now, the rate had dropped back down to the average and that scared him more than anything. Something was wrong with his boy and he had no idea what to do to help him.

Maddie's lavender gaze zeroed in on the SWAT leader who had just slipped into the room. Jack silently squeezed her hand for comfort. The officer noticed the hostile gaze and nodded politely at her. "Thank you for allowing me in, ma'am. We aren't here to cause trouble, only prevent it." Maddie's eyes narrowed and Jack couldn't almost hear her thoughts. It seemed like overkill to send an entire SWAT team just to babysit after all. Trusting his wife to watch the federal agent, the man slid over to where Danny lay, his heart clenching at the sight of his son's broken body.

Jack was suddenly hit by how young and scrawny his son really was, two adjectives he hadn't used to describe his son since the big revealing. His clothing was torn and covered in dust and blood. It looked like he was ready for an Egyptian burial with the amount of bandages that covered him. From the skin that the doctor had yet to mend, cuts that ranged anywhere from just simple abrasions to deep gashes covered his bruised skin. Even his skin looked paler than usual, which was almost a feat in itself. Biting his lip to keep back tears, the large scientist gently rubbed his son's cheek, glaring at the bandage over the three cuts that had started it all.

Dr. Kelly moved next to him and began to work on the teen's unbandaged arm. The silent SWAT member stood by the door, watching the doctor work with trained eyes. Maddie leaned back in her seat and sighed heavily. "I talked to Tucker." Her voice broke the silence in the room and everyone looked toward her, but her eyes were on her son. "He said Danny wasn't himself, like he was possessed." Jack gripped her shoulder as she shivered. "But his powers should keep him from being overshadowed. None of this makes sense!"

"Maddie, it's been a long day. Why don't you go lay down? We'll tell you if anything happens." Dr. Kelly didn't look up from his work as he spoke calmly to the blue-clad woman. "You won't find the answer when you're so tired and stressed. Just go to the front desk and talk to the assistant there. She'll make sure you're comfortable. Alright? You've done all you can tonight." The Fenton matriarch looked like she wanted to argue, but exhaustion made her see the logic behind the man's words. She nodded and left with one last glance at her son and warning glare at the SWAT man. "You should go too, Jack."

"I'm not leaving Danny." The fierce whisper was so passionate and unmoving it ended the discussion. The overweight man's gaze returned to his son. "You don't have any idea why he attacked that man? He would never do that. Not Danny. Something has to be wrong with him!" The doctor looked up and sighed.

"I have some ideas, none of them good. I'll test them out later, after we've all had some sleep. We're not doing him any good wearing ourselves down. The best we can do is let him rest and hope he wakes up and pray that I'm wrong."


The investigator was doing his best to look intimidating but Sam had gone up against the evil king of ghosts and his army of undead warriors, some fat, grumpy cop wasn't going to scare her anytime soon. It didn't help that these stupid officers were keeping her from helping Danny. Tucker had hurriedly told her what had happened before he was dragged off for questioning. It was her turn and she refused to give them anything. Now, she was stuck in a glaring match with this stupid police officer.

"I told you. I don't know anything. Danny wouldn't do that."

"Well, he did. We're just trying to figure this out and the fastest way we can do that is by figuring out what happened. Now, has Mr. Fenton been acting strange lately?" The goth rolled her eyes. As opposed to what? He was a teen superhero with ghost powers. Was he supposed to act normal?

"No. Can I go now?" The officer didn't answer but shuffled through a stack of papers. He pulled a folder of photos of the scene out and showed them to her.

"Agent Carson's throat is severely bruised. Any more pressure and it would have caved in. No human has that kind of strength. The ground was also peppered with ectoplasmic burns. And from what the witnesses have told us, there is no question if it was Mr. Fenton or not. Now, were there any hostilities between Agent Carson and Mr. Fenton?"

"Tons. The Guys in White don't seem to understand that Danny isn't a lab rat or that he can do their job ten times better than they can. But then again, no one who lives in Amity doesn't have 'hostilities' toward the Guys. If you're looking for a motive, everyone in town has one." The teen smirked as the man winced. The unanimous hatred for the federal agents wasn't something to be proud about, but it was undeniable after all the trouble they had caused in the past.

"..." The flat glare she gave him stopped him in tracks.

"Look. Yes, Danny has superpowers. Yes, he beats ghosts to a pulp on a regular basis. Yes, he doesn't like the Guys in White. He doesn't hurt people though. That's why he's fighting! So people don't get hurt! Why would he hurt the people he's tried so hard to protect? Something happened out there. I don't know what it was, but Danny wasn't himself. I'm sure you got that out of Tucker already. That's all I have to say. If you're looking for evidence against him, you'll have to look somewhere else. As far as I'm concerned, this is just another attempt to make Danny look like the bad guy!" The poor man was almost cowering under her tirade, but she didn't care. Let him suffer for keeping her away from her boyfriend, especially when he needed her most. Maybe the harsh goth exterior had its uses after all. "Are we done?" With a sigh and a glance toward the one-way glass panel, he nodded.

"Very well, Ms. Manson. You're free to go. Expect us to keep in touch, though." The door buzzed to signal she could leave and she nodded.

"Of course." Tucker was waiting for her in the front lobby and jogged to catch up with her as she stomped down the front steps.

"That was quick."

"There wasn't anything for me to say. They wanted dirt on Danny to explain it and I couldn't give them anything worthwhile. I doubt they wanted to know that he's failing English or kept a secret stash of candy under the floorboards at camp. They were looking for serious skeletons." Tucker hummed in agreement, stretching out stiff muscles. "Any word from the Fentons?"

"His mom called a few minutes after I got out. She said that Dr. Kelly was patching him up and that he hasn't woken up yet. The government also sent a SWAT team to watch over him." He sighed in annoyance. "I'll have Katherine try and get rid of them, but it won't be easy. After what he did... This is bad, Sam. He just seemed to completely lose it. It was almost like..." The young mayor let the implication fall short. He didn't need to finish though. They both knew what an out-of-control Danny was like.

Sirens broke through their conversation and five police cruisers pulled out of the department and sped down the road. The teens shared a look before they took off after them.