Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry, for those who didn't see my profile, I've been on hiatus. I'm not officially taking that off yet because I have a lot going on now. Thanks to everyone who's still here! It's been a crazy, challenging year, but I've made it =D Sorry for not replying to reviews last chapter, especially to all you wonderful people who added an offer to beta to your fabulous reviews. I totally appreciate it and will keep it in mind, but right now, with my schedule, I'm holding off on a beta. My non-schedule and semi-hiatus wouldn't be fair to you. Thanks, though! Here's chapter ten - wow!- and thanks for sticking with me!

Previously: Jack dies, Maddie and Danny move to Jump where Danny starts school and Maddie gets a job at STAR Labs, Danny makes friends and has an altercation with Vlad.

Mention of alcohol and drugs

Waiting for school to end was agonizing. Without ghost attacks to distract him, Danny had too much time to think and he had too much he didn't want to think about. His wrist twinged every time he moved it, a constant reminder of how stupid he'd been.

He'd talked to Sam and Tucker last night on IM. He'd asked Tucker if he could look up 'Ryder', but the word alone wasn't enough to find anything that could help Danny. When he'd admitted he'd read it when going through Vlad's papers, Sam had gone on about how 'Mr. Masters' had been 'really nice' and how it wasn't a good idea to 'violate his privacy'. Danny hadn't really said anything about that. They still didn't know Vlad was a halfa, so he couldn't explain why he'd thought he had a good reason to look through his papers or tell them about the pictures. How was he supposed to try and explain it? 'Oh, yeah, and, by the way, someone knows Vlad's a halfa and they might know I'm one. Yeah, Vlad's a halfa and I've known for over a year, but I didn't think you needed to know because I didn't expect him to show back up. Surprise!' They'd be hurt that he didn't tell them when it happened or they'd think he was keeping something from them. He wasn't trying to hide anything, it just hadn't come up. He'd changed the subject and they'd talked about what Dash was doing without Danny around to target and Lancer's newest 'connect with the students' project. He'd actually logged off early because he just felt off. He hadn't been able to sleep too well.

He hadn't expected his wrist to still be sore and stiff today. It probably had to do with the whole 'heal fast, hurt more' thing Vlad had told him about, but he didn't know why it affected this. It wasn't like Vlad had actually hurt him or done anything that needed healing or anything. He was just probably overreacting. Psychological symptoms or something Jazz would know all about.

He tried to distract himself by thinking of other things, but there wasn't anything good he really wanted to think about. He still felt unsure about what had happened with Ryan. The other boy had apologized and that helped, but Danny felt guilty about still wanting to be friends with the other teen. He didn't want to lose any of the few friendships he had here and Ryan wasn't a bad guy when he wasn't being a jerk. Danny just felt bad about not wanting to end the friendship.

Jace caught him after math, double checking about that party again. Danny hadn't asked Mom. He didn't think there was any chance of her saying yes, so he hadn't even tried. He'd started to tell him there was a change of plans and he couldn't, picking up his backpack, when his wrist throbbed again, sparking a prickle of anger and indignation. Mom hadn't come home before Danny had fallen asleep at one that morning and in the morning, she'd been distracted and in a hurry. He'd called her after Vlad had taken him home and told her she didn't have to pick him up that day or Friday. She'd quickly thanked him for letting her know and told him she'd be home late before hanging up. She hadn't asked why. Danny wouldn't have told her, but he'd expected her to ask. That morning, too, he'd done his best to hide the slight pain in his wrist and, like he'd hoped, she hadn't noticed anything. It had bugged him. He hadn't wanted her to notice, but shouldn't she have noticed anyway? She was his mom. She'd never noticed him hurt before though. He didn't know why it bothered him so much this time, but his irritation had him telling Jace 'yes' before he realized it. The other boy quickly gave him a reminder of which stop he needed to be at at eleven. Jace and Amina would meet Danny and take him to the house the party was at. Danny doubted Amina shared her boyfriend's enthusiasm, but it seemed like she hadn't said anything about it to Jace. Maybe Danny was just overly paranoid.

After school, he hadn't been thinking and had waited for about five minutes before he'd realized that Vlad wasn't coming. Instead of going home, he'd gone to the cliff. He'd dropped his backpack and just sat there until the sun turned the sky red and the ocean orange. At first, he'd tried doing homework. It hadn't happened. The seagulls and waves had stopped him from being able to concentrate, so he'd just watched and let his mind go blank. Before he knew it, it was sunset and he had to hurry home so Mom wouldn't worry. He shouldn't have rushed - she wasn't there. None of his friends had been online, so it had been a relief when ten-thirty had finally come and he'd climbed down the fire escape, grabbing a hoodie despite the heat, and headed for the train station.

It was less crowded so late at night, but still well-lit with a small crowd. Somehow, it still managed to be eerie. How, exactly, Danny wasn't sure, especially considering he'd been in the Ghost Zone. The ride left Danny feeling jumpy and unsettled, but he pushed it off when he disembarked at Greenwood. Nothing was going to happen. He probably should have told someone where he was going, but it was too late for that now. It didn't matter. Nothing was going to happen.

"Danny!"

Jace stood at the edge of the light from the platform, his arm around Amina. He wore an infectious grin that Danny returned, while her face was carefully blank.

"This is tons earlier than we normally show, but I wasn't sure if you'd been to a party before. Earlier, it's not so full in case they don't have real parties in Illinois." Jace said, never losing his grin.

"I've been to plenty of parties." In reality, the only big party Danny had been to was one Dash had thrown that he hadn't stayed at more than a few minutes, but he wasn't going to say that.

Somehow, Jace's smile spread wider. "Awesome. Ready?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned around and started striding down the street, his hand shifting to hold Amina's. Danny walked a bit faster to walk next to the two of them. "So was your mom cool with you going out this late?"

Danny paused before he replied, "Yeah. Sort of. She doesn't exactly know." He rubbed the back of his neck.

Jace laughed loudly. "Same with my parents. I go to my room and turn on my stereo and they think I'm there all night. They never bother to check." He looked at Amina like he was waiting for her to add something, but she didn't say anything. The taller teen's smile disappeared for a moment and he glanced over at Danny, but the grin was back so quickly it almost felt like Danny had imagined its absence. "We're almost there. The party's just around the corner."

When they did turn the corner, Danny could tell which house they were going to right away. The door was open, spilling yellow light onto the lawn, and a few people stood right by it. Jace led the way right in. Danny frowned. This didn't look anything like the party Dash had had. Where was everyone?

"Down here." Jace directed, heading down a set of stairs to the left. After a pause, Danny followed.

He shouldn't have hesitated. Jace was already off the stairs and somewhere in the room by the time Danny set foot on the top step. The first thing the teen noticed as he descended was the prevalent smell of smoke. There was a bit of what he recognized as cigarette smoke, but there was something else too, a little more stale and sweet. Almost heavy, it settled in his nose and throat unpleasantly. The room wasn't overly crowded, but it was definitely full. Bass pumped through the room, a deep counterpoint to bursts of loud conversation and laughter. Quickly, Danny scanned the room to see Jace and Amina across the room, the girl laughing and the boy with a cup in hand. The edges of the room were full, so Danny had no choice but to weave his way through the middle of the shifting crowd. Underneath the smell of smoke, there was something else thicker in the crowd, a different kind of cloying sweet. Someone shoved a plastic cup in Danny's hand and he took it reflexively to keep it from dropping. He looked around, but couldn't see who handed it to him so he just kept going.

After a minute, Danny reached Jace who shot him another enthusiastic smile. "I thought I lost you, man. I was about to go looking for ya. Whatcha drinking?"

Now away from the close proximity of the crowd, Danny glanced down into the cup to see some golden-orange liquid. "I'm not sure."

"Woah." Jace plucked the cup from Danny's hand and leaned over to drop it in a trash can, smile gone. "You never take a drink you didn't see poured. Come on, it's common sense, like not leaving your drink unattended. I thought you said you'd been to parties?"

"I have," deflected Danny.

"Yeah." Jace looked him for a second before taking a drink from his cup and then leaning over to kiss Amina who was laughing again. Danny hadn't heard her laugh before. It kind of bothered him how frightened and subdued she acted around him. Had he done something wrong?

He looked away uncomfortably as the guys who'd been talking to Jace, boys Danny recognized as being on the basketball team, hooted and whistled at the continued kiss. Instead, he looked around the room. There were people who were making out in corners, a couple people were yelling at each other, and there were a lot of people who were drunk or high or something, stumbling around and laughing. He stumbled slightly as someone bumped into him, forcing himself to not immediately slip into a defensive pose. He was getting tense here, with so many unfamiliar people here in a strange place. Setting his hand on the wall to steady himself, the teen felt his wrist give another little twinge and his resolve to stay for a while renewed.

It got a little more enjoyable once Jace and Amina were done talking with their friends and Amina moved to talk to some purple-haired girl while Jace turned to Danny."So, whasha think?" Jace slurred with a grin.

Danny paused before answering, "Are you drunk?"

Jace's smile widened. "Prololby."

"Doesn't that mess with your head?" Danny knew it was probably a stupid question, but his parent's lectures about the damaging chemicals in alcohol were playing annoyingly in his head.

"Don' div a gam." Jace beamed. Then his smile faded and he became more serious. "Don' touch mugs, dran. Those things eff y'up."

Danny snorted. "Sure. I'll stay far away from mugs. Don't worry."

"Good." Jace nodded. "Tha's good. Kill people."

"What?" The teen wasn't sure if this was regular drunken ramblings or something was really wrong. He hadn't had much experience with drunk people.

"Tha's wha' they do. Eff y'up an' kill ya." The other boy nodded.

"He's telling you not to do drugs," Issued a cool voice from behind Danny. It took a moment, but he placed it as Amina's just before she stepped into his sight. "That's what he's saying kill people." Her eyes studied him warily before she turned away to walk closer to Jace.

The boy looped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. "Hey, Mina. Ya come from?"

"I came with you, you idiot." Her voice was surprisingly tender. "We can go."

"Nah, we jus' go'dere." He kissed her and she leaned away.

"You're already drunk this early."

"Nah. … Okay, okay, okay, maybe a li'l."

"I know."

The blond started tugging at the chain around his neck, pulling into view the heavy ring on it and holding it up to show Danny. "Y'see? Toldja. Toldja."

"Is he going to be okay?" Danny looked between the two with concern.

Amina glanced at him, that odd look still in her eyes. "He'll be fine. I've got him."

"Eff you up." Jace nodded somberly. "Tha's wha' they do."

"Are you sure?" Danny asked.

"I've got him." She turned her back to Danny. Alright, then.

"Well, I guess I'll see you at school on Monday."

"Goodbye."

Well. Okay. After a moment of hesitation, Danny turned and left, weaving his way through the now larger crowd and outside where it had cooled off somewhat. It was definitely cooler outside than inside. To be perfectly honest, Danny was feeling a little unsettled. Whatever Jace had been talking about had been weird and Danny still wasn't sure what it had been about. Why had he suddenly started in on an anti-drug spiel? Maybe it was just because he'd been drunk and there wasn't any more reason than that.

Alone, Danny started the walk back to the train station. It was just as eerie, maybe more, at midnight. He was one of very few people on the train. At his stop, he was tempted to just transform and fly home, but that was too dangerous, even at midnight. Besides, the streets weren't empty. Cars weren't constant, but there were more than plenty around and lots of people on the street. There was no way he wouldn't be seen if he transformed. Human, he headed down the street for the long walk home, flipping up his hood for the illusion of privacy. It limited his vision, but it wasn't like anything was going to happen at this time of night on a Friday. Even villians had date night, right?

With the rarely absent smog overhead, Danny couldn't see the night sky. He contented himself with going through the constellations in his head, lost in thought. He only had a moment of warning as something white flashed towards him and he had to throw himself backwards. Turning the momentum into a back handspring – he guessed all that training with Vlad was helping with something – Danny landed in a crouch and looked up, wincing slightly at the twinge in his wrist. His transformation was interrupted before it started by the sound of footsteps. He froze. The delay allowed him to actually see what had attacked him and it wasn't anyone he'd expected. He… didn't actually know what it was. The thing was extremely tall and completely white except for black markings on its face that looked almost like some sort of mask.

"Hey dude!" The voice was higher pitched and raspy. "Are you- woah!"

Danny didn't have time to look at the owner of the voice as the monster tried to smash him again. He tensed, ready to jump to the side and be completely human to his audience. Before he could move, something green slammed into him from the side, knocking him aside. Green. A ghost? Why hadn't Danny's ghost sense gone off? Then the… goat?... changed into a kid in a purple suit.

"Are you okay?" Now Danny recognized him as one of the Teen Titans. So then was this the monster Mom had been talking about on Sam's birthday?

"I don't even know how I did that. Woah." Danny supplied lamely. He looked past the green teen to see the rest of the team attempting to face the monster and not doing well.

"Dude, they said it wouldn't attack humans!"

Danny felt cold. "What?"

The other boy, who had also been looking at the monster, looked back to Danny. "You're not an alien, right?"

"No, I'm not a ghost!" Danny rushed before he heard the rest of the sentence.

The boy blinked. "What?"

Danny paused. "What did you say?"

"I asked if you were an alien."

"Oh." Danny rubbed the back of his neck through his hoodie. "That's what I mean. No, I'm not an alien. Uh… In Illinois, ghost is another term for alien?"

"Really? Dude!" The other teen gushed.

"Beast Boy!" Another boy barked from where they had driven the monster back.

"Seeya later!" The teen – Beast Boy apparently – transformed into some sort of bird and flew to the group before shifting into a rhino to ram the monster.

He knocked it back into a wall and the monster staggered before turning. It began to lope away on all fours but a black wall ripped up the pavement in front of it. The thing turned and began to run another direction. Right back at Danny.

For a moment, Danny didn't realize there was something hostile moving towards him and he needed to get out of the way. He sat there and observed it, trying to figure out what it was. It wasn't a ghost. Was it an alien? Then the yells of alarm from the Teen Titans penetrated his mind and his eyes widened. He needed to move. He shoved himself to his feet and arms wrapped under his and around his chest. His feet left the ground.

At first he tensed, ready to fight, then looked up to see one of the girls in the Teen Titans carrying him upward. It was weird being carried instead of flying himself. It made him feel out of control and not in a good way.

"Are you uninjured?" She looked at him as she set him down, out of the way of the pursuing Titans and the fleeing monster. The redhead had a distant frown on her face.

"I'm fine."

She nodded and took off again, clearly concerned for her team. The Titans and quarry soon were around the corner and out of sight.

This was the last time Danny assumed villains in Jump City took time off. He stood there for a moment more, debating whether he should help them. Ultimately, he decided against it. With his luck, they'd just attack him too. He just needed to get home, hopefully without any more trouble.

It was a few long minutes until he climbed up the fire escape and slid into his permanently unlocked window. He pulled off his hoodie and pushed his bangs back. He'd felt like he was melting in that. Tossing the hoodie into the corner of the room, Danny started to pull off his shirt and froze. There was a key in the lock of the front door. Quickly, the teen yanked the shirt off and leapt into the bed, tugging the blankets to his neck with another wrist ache in case Mom came in to check on him. The front door opened and he heard Mom come in, footsteps accompanying her.

"So the problem is with ensuring the new amino acids bond to the norepinephrine and get through the barrier in the right area before that?"

Danny scowled at the sound of Vlad's voice. What was he doing here? It was after midnight.

"We've made it compatible with the specific receptors we want, so that's our biggest challenge right now." Mom sounded tired but enthusiastic.

It was some science thing that Danny wasn't understanding. He knew what amino acids were, of course, but the rest was just nonsense. He tuned out the science talk, glowering at his unmarked but still irritated wrist. Vlad just needed to stay away from them. Yeah, he'd helped, but they didn't need him anymore. Mom didn't need him around anymore.

They stayed up talking about their science stuff until after one when Vlad left and Mom went to bed. It took Danny a lot longer to fall asleep.

I hope you liked it and it was worth the wait. Please let me know what you thought - it's been awhile since I wrote.

If you were wondering what kept me away, here you go: I got a job, wrote a 300k+ first draft with a friend in 3 months, got eaten by this job, wrote more original stuff, got absolutely destroyed by said job, and then went on vacation for three weeks. Then my computer broke. Crazy and challenging year.

Hope you enjoyed!