Earth, New York City, Avengers Tower

Dana's Pov

Dana didn't know too much of what was going on, which was partially her own fault because she had been paying more attention to her dad and how he was tense and nearly winced every time that Frigga said something to him. All she really knew of the situation was that they would be going to a place that was closer to what her dad said was home.

It wasn't home, though. Her dad said that her mom was at their home and she wanted to meet her mom, not more strangers.

"Here we are, kiddo." Her dad said after the rainbow lights faded from her eyes and she could see what was around her now.

Woah! They were really high up from the ground. She knew she had been back at Frigga's home but that was different. She had been behind a little wall that kept her from falling off the edge. Here, though, there was nothing to keep her from falling.

But there was also nothing to keep her from seeing everything beyond the floor she stood on and the building it was attached to. The sky was dark and there weren't that many clouds so the lights coming from the many, many buildings shone brighter than she'd ever seen. There were too many buildings, too many lights, to count them all with just the numbers that she knew.

And despite it being night time, the time that her dad said was when people normally went to sleep, there were lots of people awake. Noise rose up from the ground to meet her ears in a way that made her pause. Unfamiliar sounds mixed in with the voices of people whose languages she didn't always know the words of or at least recognise. Some sounded kind of like Spanish, some sounded a bit closer to some Esperanto words she knew. Others had Latin parts to them.

"C'mon Dana, time to head on inside. We can come back out here later if you want." Her dad's voice was soothing against everything else she was hearing. It was a lot for her brain to handle just with super hearing and being far away from it. Dana was glad to take a break from it and followed her dad inside with the guy that they had traveled with that smelled like Frigga.

Sam's Pov

Sam had learned many things about ghosts from what Jazz had been able to explain about them. First and foremost being that yes, they were beings and creatures of the dead. Yes, people could and did die, becoming ghosts for one reason or another instead of passing on into Eternity. However that didn't mean all ghosts were the spirits of the dead, as they are able to have children on their own. From what Jazz had learned though, that was the only way a non-dead ghost could exist.

Clockwork had likened it to being given a second chance at life, for those who died.

This apparently explained why Jazz's shadow acted weird. Being in a state between fully alive and fully dead, a state between human and ghost, was going to have an affect. Jazz's shadow, the smell she gave off that normally wasn't all that detectable unless she used her powers, her much, much slower resting heart beat, the subtle glow. All of those things she could list off the top of her head, and other things that she couldn't, were side effects of what Jazz was now.

Another thing Sam had learned was about the Zone itself. The Ghost Zone was not a different dimension, but a different planet whose atmosphere was altered to look like the swirling dimly lit skies it does, centuries ago. They could no longer see their sun, their moons, the ring system or the stars and constellations of their sky.

From Jazz's account, Clockwork had looked sad and a little distant as he explained this part of his world. Sam thought Danny would have been sad to, being the astronomy nerd he is.

Or maybe was.

Would he have second memories like Jazz did? Would he remember a different her? What would he think of her now? Would he be so different, from the possible memories and whatever he'd gone through these past few months, that Sam wouldn't even know him? Before he'd went missing he had been acting strange, although Jazz and Tucker had both tried to assure her that could have been for any number of reasons. Such as suddenly finding himself completely human and alive after however long of being half dead.

She really wanted to believe them.

Now she was staying at the Avengers tower, her trip there having been extended. First so that she could help with getting Loki's lips unsown, and again after the news that Danny was alive and would be here soon came to them all.

Everyone since then had been rushing around. Always working on one thing or another. Some people were getting a guest bedroom ready with two beds because oh God, one of them truly was alive. Her daughter, as hard and awkward as that pill still was to swallow.

The Avengers had unanimously agreed that it would be a few days before Danny and Dana, her name was Dana, would be able to go back to Amity Park with her. Sam figured it had been both the health concerns that were still present even with the Asgardian healers and the nutrient rich foods, and the watch on missing persons cases. The GIW had yet to show themselves and the one they had caught was found dead yesterday. Having no other leads to follow and no other crisis or villain popping up out of the woodwork had her on edge.

Sam was beginning to think it had everyone on edge. Even Loki who, admittedly, was probably just wondering when the other shoe was going to drop regarding the Avengers sans Thor. She'd seen Clint Barton, Hawkeye, give him skeptical looks every now and then, and Bruce Banner, the Hulk, determinedly ignored the mischief maker's presence.

Now all there was left to do was wait, which is what she was doing now. Sitting around idly had never been her thing. She and Tucker both had to find some way of occupying their minds or else they'd try to get up and move around and do something instead.

So Sam found herself a book or two detailing different ideas on folkloric and paranormal creatures. This wasn't the first one she'd read and memorized, but now she had more than just passive interest guiding her in pursuit of this knowledge. Jazz, again, had been helpful in the information department. This time though on what she had known in the Other Time. A list of things from her personality to a few of her habits because Jazz was observant even then, to the things she knew.

Tucker, Sam thought as she flicked through the larger of her two books, every so often checking her phone for text message updates, had taken to doing the same. Looking through the things that he'd done and read up about to better help out his best friend in that timeline, and bulldozing his way through things like college level math equations and learning how to code.

Such as the medical and paranormal topics she found herself devouring alongside the both of them teaching themselves more about wilderness survival and just survival in general. It wasn't something that they were experts on, but Tucker could be considered a genius with his codes. It helped that they now had contact with people who were taking a bit of a liking to them enough that, should the two teens need it, would help them out if they asked.

It was during this unusually quiet time spent reading while the other tower residents were either off doing their own things that they did every morning, that the quiet was interrupted by the mad giggling of a little girl.

Oh, and the tackle hug that threw her back into the couch with barely enough time to close her book.

"Dana, sweetheart, she was reading a book. There are better ways to get her attention."

Oh dear Lord, they were both here? Now? From the cool, small body that was now pressing against her side and the the voice she'd just heard, speaking through laughter of his own, they must be. Danny was back. Dana was here.

"But she is here. You said she would be at home, and that home was not here."

"That is what I had thought, yes."

"Sit over here with us." Sam faintly registered that they were having a conversation and that she'd set her book down on the coffee table in front of her.

"Danny?" She noticed that his eyes, bright icy blue that she remembered, snapped to meet hers as she spoke, "Get over here."

"Yes ma'am." He replied, joking, smiling, and sat on her other side, "You're not...you know, overwhelmed?"

Oh she was overwhelmed alright. She still didn't know whether she should be crying in relief because he was back, hugging him, or whether or not she should kiss him silly. Maybe she'd settle with a combination of the three.

"Hey, hey. Shh, I'm here now." She was crying now, wasn't she? They'd picked up on it, surely. Jazz had been like a bloodhound in that sense, picking up people's emotions and being able to tell someone a dozen different things from smell alone.

"I...are you overwhelmed?" She forced out the words despite her throat closing in on itself and her voice sounding ridiculous to her own ears, "You went through who even knows what, and then there's...Dana, yeah, and then there's the, the fifty, fifty-four others. I visited that place, they cleared it out, watching over it, making sure it was safe. I had to know. A-and then you were on a different planet and now you're here. It hasn't even been half a year, Danny. Are you sure you're okay?"

It had been close though. It had been enough. Nearly five months and half the school year was over. He'd missed Christmas, missed her and Tucker's birthdays, missed Thanksgiving and New Years. He'd missed enough and they'd had to go through those holidays without him. No one had done anything for Halloween. Sam had only known after it had come and gone.

"I'm not...I won't lie. I don't know. I'm keeping myself together right now, though." Danny murmured, holding her as she held Dana who by now had crawled onto her lap, hugging her and trying to give her own comfort. Dana only looked, God, Sam couldn't tell. Six years old maybe, if she had to guess. Somewhere around there, physically.

How was she even handling this? How old was she, really?

"Don't you ever. Ever! Scare me like that again. People thought you were dead! You were labeled dead. There was a funeral."

"Eh, well they aren't exactly wr...uh, sorry. Too soon for the dead jokes?" Her glare gave him his answer, "Right. Sorry. I...M...Mom and Dad, are they okay? Are they, did they think I was dead? Do they, still? Did, or uh, does Jazz? Tuck...right, of course he wouldn't."

"Jazz never stopped hoping. Neither did your parents, by the way. Oh yeah, popular thought is that you're a mutant. Superpowered person, basically. Some kind of genetic thing. Your parents, despite that idea being wrong, mind you, are accepting of that. Chances are they'll accept you no matter what you are or are capable of. Said it themselves I think. It was on the news."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Manson, but is Mr. Fenton not, in fact, a mutant?" Jarvis asked, catching them all unaware. Sam had nearly forgotten about the AI. The AI that had just overheard their conversation and could at this moment be telling the rest of the Avengers, or showing them, the part of said conversation that he was now asking about.

Danny and Dana both flinched a little. Sam nearly cursed.

They had some explaining to do, it seems.