Disclaimer: I don't own DP.
The next morning, Danny felt Jazz shaking him awake.
"Danny, wake up." She ordered him.
"No, Jazz. Go away, I'm tired." Danny responded while swatting her hand away.
"I'll get the Fenton Thermos." She taunted in sing-song voice.
"You wouldn't dare." Danny said disbelievingly.
"Wanna bet?" She asked him, taking out the small container. Now she had his attention.
"Fine, I'll get up." He groaned, dragging himself off the bed. His hair was messy from his mid-night struggling and he looked a little tired from his nightmare.
The two walked down the stairs. Jazz was perky as always, while Danny was still a little groggy.
"Hi, sweetie. Great morning, isn't it?" Maddie greeted perkily.
"Is something wrong, Mom?" Jazz asked worriedly. Her Mom wasn't usually this happy.
"Phantom, what'd you do to her?!" Jack accused.
"Nothing, I swear!" Danny said defensively as he held his arms up in defense.
"Jack, he didn't do anything." Maddie responded.
"Jazz, could you show Phantom where the cereal is?" Maddie asked.
"Sure, Mom." Jazz answered, taking out cereal from the pantry and making some for her and Danny.
The four sat at the table, although it took Danny some time to be persuaded that it was okay for him to sit at the table with the ghost hunters.
Jack was twiddling with some ghost hunting equipment.
"Jack, could you put that away? You might scare Phantom." Maddie scolded.
All three eyes then fell on Danny. He was fast asleep with his head in the cereal bowl.
"Danny?" Jazz asked with a puzzled tone. She lifted his face out of the bowl. He had milk dripping from his face and a few cereal pieces stuck to his cheeks and forehead.
After seeing that he was asleep, she let his head fall back into the cereal bowl. This earned curious looks from the two adults.
"Are you going to wake him up?" Jack asked.
"I'm trying!" Jazz flustered while shaking the sleeping ghost boy. "Okay, time to result to despite measures." She stated. She took a deep breath. "Danny, ghost!" She yelled.
Danny instantly lifted his head from the cereal and moved into a battle position. "Ahhh! Where?!" He demanded.
The scene looked quite funny. He looked like he was about to attack something, but his face still had the cereal and milk attached to it. This caused all three Fentons to laugh. Danny looked confused until he found that he had cereal stuck to his face.
"Danny, you dozed off into your cereal bowl." Jazz informed while still laughing.
Danny picked the cereal pieces off of his milk-covered face. "Thanks for that lovely wakeup call by the way." Danny said sarcastically.
"Sorry, but it was the only way to get you up." Jazz told him, still giggling.
Eventually, all of the laughing died and Danny was able to remove all of his breakfast from his face. Then, something unexpected happened; Skulker returned.
"Hello, Ghost Child." He greeted menacingly.
Jack and Maddie readied themselves with ecto-guns and Jazz held the thermos.
"You really don't know when to give up do you?" Danny asked.
"Skulker never gives up." The mechanical ghost claimed.
"Well, maybe you should start." Danny retorted.
"Why should I when I have you right where I want you?" Skulker asked, drawing closer with a charging blaster.
"And where would that be?" Danny questioned sternly, not flinching at all, but standing strong.
"Backed into a corner, not able to use you powers, and no means of help." His enemy replied.
"I disagree." Maddie spoke up, shooting a blast of ecto-energy toward the ghost.
The blast streamed past and hit it's intended target. In response, Skulker fired a green glob to capture the three figures and pin them to the wall.
"No. You leave them alone!" Danny yelled, charging at the ghost.
"And who's going to make me? With those handcuffs on, you're powerless." Skulker stated in his deep tone.
"I'm never powerless." Danny said angrily while running over to ghost and delivering a strong kick.
Now the self-proclaimed Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter was furious. He rapidly shot blast from his cannon. Danny jumped and managed to dodge them. Then, he got an idea.
"Hey, Skulker! Over here!" Danny taunted with a smirk.
The robotic ghost fired again. Danny smiled devilishly and held up the handcuffs. The blast shot through the material and shattered the restraints to pieces. Danny rubbed his now free wrists.
"Now, we're even." He informed.
Skulker growled and continued to shoot everywhere. Danny dodged the oncoming beams as he flew as fast as he could, straight for his opponent. The teen fired his ghost rays and his his enemy multiple times. Danny then froze the metal suit and zoomed in to knock his head of with a hard punch. The helmed broke away and Danny pulled out a small green ghost.
"I shall return!" The little ghost claimed in a squeaky voice. Danny phased his hand through the ceiling, pulling out a Fenton Thermos and sucked the tiny ghost inside.
Danny flew over to the members of his family and froze the green glob and fired a ghost ray, shattering it into many frozen chunks.
"You guys okay?" Danny aksed, returning to the ground from his floating position. Danny offered his hand to Jazz to help her up, she graciously accepted and Danny heaved her off the floor.
"Yeah, I think so." Jazz replied.
The Fenton parents just gawked. Danny noticed.
"What?" He asked the baffled duo.
No response.
He looked down to see if he changed back or something. Nope, that wasn't it.
"Do I still have cereal on my face or something?" He questioned.
"You…you helped us." Maddie stammered.
"Why is that surpising? I help everyone. It's what I do." Danny answered.
"But we tried to hurt you, over and over." Jack blurted.
"I'm a better ghost than that. I don't hold things against people. If people are in trouble, it doesn't matter who they are or what they did." Danny told them in his heroic tone.
"Guys, you should really give him a second chance. All he wants to do is help." Jazz advised.
"I…uh…we…" Jack stuttered.
"I think what he means is; we're sorry, Phantom." Maddie apologized.
"You have no idea how much that means to me." Danny said thoughtfully, a smile on his face.
Night came all too quickly an deveryone headed off to bed, but Jazz made a quick stop by Danny's temporary room.
"Hey, Danny." She greeted, walking in and sitting on the bed beside him.
"Hi, Jazz." He greeted in return. "What's up?"
"I was just wondering, since Mom and Dad think that you're good now, are you going to tell them?" Jazz questioned.
"No. I don't want to worry them. They saw what kind of fights I get into, how do you think thay'd feel if they knew that the kid that they're watching get thrown around was actually their own son?" Danny asked rhetorically.
"I guess you're right. At least they won't be shooting at you anymore." His sister said optimistically.
"Yeah. Goodnight, Jazz."
"Goodnight, little brother."
Jazz walked out the door. Danny settled down and turned off the lights, falling into a peaceful sleep for the fist time in a while.
Maddie couldn't sleep that night, though. The day's events kept running through her head like a movie. She also couldn't hear any noise from Phantom and couldn't help but wonder if he had flown away now that he had his powers back in his control. Finally, her curiosity got the best of her. She stepped out into the hallway again. She made her way quietly down the the guest bedroom. She cracked open the door once more.
Phantom was in the provided bed, not shivering, tossing, screamng, anything. He was just sleeping peacefully, something that the ghost boy had not done in a long time. He had a calm smile on his lips. It was kind of cute.
Maddie left the room, her curiosity settled. She walked back to her own room and drifted off to sleep.
Danny's Dream
Danny was surrounded by his friends and family. His parents had accepted him. He then went from human to ghost and lifted Sam, taking her flying. The two were soaring close to the clouds. Sam held on tightly to Danny. They landed on the branch of a beautiful tree. The sun was setting, the sky was painted in soft pastels, and everything was perfect. Almost. Danny and Sam moved closer together. They leaned in close, their lipsclearing the distance.
It was so close, but at that moment, Danny woke up. He was wondering why he was dreaming that, but he was also dissapointed that he never got to finish.
He gazed outside the sole window. The moon was still up and the stars were twinkling brightly. A dim glow was cast in his room. After a few more moments, he started to drift off to sleep, but this one wasn't as peaceful.
I know, I didn't torture him too much in this chapter and I gave him a break, but that's why I added that last sentence. For all of you people who keep yelling about the cliffhanger; that's how I know that you'll want to read more.