A/N: Yeah, I know. I'm late. Again.

Disclaimed.

…...Recap

"She was born a princess."

Valerie's eyes widened in shock and a little bit of denial. It was just too strange, even by her standards.

…

"There's one more thing – well more than one but the other stuff can wait. Your dad joined the secret service."

Whatever reaction to that statement Danny was expecting, laughter certainly wasn't it. Valerie covered her mouth in an attempt to stifle her laughter, but it did little good as she bent over with the force of her mirth. The irony!

"Uh, Valerie?" Danny asked, hopelessly confused. I didn't break her, did I? He seriously considered it as a possibility.

The girl just raised a hand to tell him she needed a minute as she gasped for breath. Of all the things he told her, the fact that she had told exactly the right person about Vlad's plots was just too much.

It took a minute for her to regain her composure, but when she did, she almost collapsed into another fit of giggles at the look on Danny's face.

"Mind telling me what's so funny?" Danny asked, baffled.

"Nothing, I'm just beginning to really like irony." She smiled back at him, her eyes still laughing at the situation.

"O-kay?"

She barely managed to hold back a snort of laughter at his expression.

… End Recap

"He's in the park."

Jack looked up from his pacing to look up at his daughter in surprise. The redhead just rolled her eyes.

"Your pacing is very distracting while I'm trying to read. If you need to talk to Danny that badly, he's at the south side of the park," Jazz explained. "He should be done with his talk with Valerie by now anyway."

…

Dash scowled. He'd been trying to find Fenturd for an hour with no luck. It was bad enough that he had to follow him to figure out what was going on in the first place. Now, he couldn't find him. He'd even gotten up extra early on a Saturday to stake out FentonWorks. The star-quarterback had managed to see when the loser left his home and started to follow him, but either Fentoe-nail was onto him or he was really paranoid because he'd managed to lose Dash within minutes of leaving his house. Dash slouched against the wall of the alley he was waiting in bored. After losing track of his favorite punching bag, he'd decided that his best bet was to return to FentonWorks.

It had been an hour. Dash groaned, tired of waiting. This was stupid anyway. Who cared what secret some loser had. He was just about to go home and play his new video game when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Instantly alert, he looked back at the door to FentonWorks. It was just Mr. Fenton leaving the house.

Dash did a double-take.

It was Jack Fenton leaving the house in a gray business suit. It was Jack Fenton leaving the house in something that wasn't an orange hazmat suit! Dash was so shocked that he almost didn't see which direction the loser's dad was going. Quickly shaking out of his stupor, Dash started to follow him. This was so weird!

Jack turned out to be much easier to track than his son, much to Dash's relief. It took only a few minutes before the older man turned into the park. It probably had nothing to do with Danny, but Dash was going crazy with curiosity. Even if he didn't find out what Danny and Mr. Gray had been talking about that day, maybe he could at least see why Mr. Fenton was wearing such odd – or rather normal – clothing for a change.

Once they reached the south side of the park, Mr. Fenton began to slow down and look more closely at his surroundings. At first, Dash was afraid that he had been caught but then he breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that this was where Mr. Fenton was going. The older man was probably looking for something specific – probably ghost-related.

Dash bit his lip though. If it was ghost-related like he thought, then why wasn't the ghost-hunter in his usual jumpsuit? The blonde shook his head, scowling. Why was he even trying to make sense of a Fenton? Of two Fentons? Only people from out of town did that! Especially, the Fenton men.

Still, figuring out what they were doing wasn't the same as trying to make sense of it, and Dash was sick of being interested in the secrets of a loser.

Finally, Mr. Fenton seemed to spot what he was looking for, because he stumbled through some bushes into a clearing. Dash waited a minute before moving closer so that he could spy on him and grinned smugly to himself for being smart enough to follow Mr. Fenton instead of waiting around FentonWorks. He was proud of himself because Mr. Fenton had led him to Danny. Dash hid behind a bulky tree and settled in to eavesdrop.

…

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Danny asked, a bit startled. Luckily, he'd just been sitting around thinking about everything that had happened over the past month, but he was still surprised to see his Dad.

"Looking for you, son. I wanted to talk to you about somethin'."

"Uh, sure. What's up?" Danny said, giving his father his full attention. Surely whatever subject he brought up would be more pleasant than the turn his thoughts had taken. His talk with Valerie had made him wonder once again about Danielle and if she was alright. After all, the last time he'd seen her he and Valerie had just rescued her from Vlad. The thoughts had spiraled from there.

"Well," Jack began, grunting as he sat down on the ground next to his son. This monkey suit was really uncomfortable! "your mom and I are gonna be gone for a few days…"

"Yeah," Danny prompted. It really wasn't like his dad to hesitate. But then, it really wasn't like his dad to willingly don normal clothing either. This whole situation was a mess. Jazz had hardly said a word about psychology since they'd learned the truth, and their mom had been more agitated than either teen had ever seen her.

Jack took a quick breath to steady his resolve. He could back out of it easily enough. He could probably bring up some trivial detail about behaving for Will while they were away (or at the very least going easy on the poor guy) but he knew that he couldn't. This was something he had to do.

"Danny, while we were in Bairdan…while we were in Bairdan, I found out your Uncle Gary had left his journal for me – to help out." Danny's eyebrows rose in surprise and he smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Thing is, he also left me a letter and… Danny, it said that he knew." Jack stopped here, not sure how to continue.

Danny's smile faded in confusion. "Knew what?"

What was he getting at? What did any of this have to do with him?

"Knew whatever it was you were gettin' up to here. Whatever it is that gets you out of class and makes you miss curfew. He said…" At this Jack pulled the journal out of his jacket pocket. "Danny, the note said he wrote it in here."

Throughout his dad's explanation, Danny's eyes widened in panic and he tried desperately to stop himself from hyperventilating. He knew? Uncle Gary knew? Did his dad? Did his mom know? It took a moment before common sense managed to work its way through the whirlwind of emotions that were assaulting him but eventually it did. Garrett was halfway around the world. He was probably wrong. Still, despite the fright his dad's words had given him, Danny couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the thought. A fresh wave of guilt and loss washed over the teen as the realization settled in that his uncle died not knowing the truth.

"Hav-" Danny cleared his throat when it cracked on the word. "Have you read it?"

Jack looked at his son appraisingly. The apprehension on Danny's face was unsettling, but the small spark of hope that was almost hidden beneath it was a comfort. Whatever this secret was it was big, at least to Danny, but it wasn't necessarily bad. Not if Danny almost seemed to want the truth known.

"No."

Danny was shocked. He knew his parents were worried about him. They'd made that abundantly clear every time he missed curfew or they got a call from the school about some problem or another. So, why hadn't his dad read the journal? Why hadn't he taken the chance when it was given to him?

"Danny-boy, I wanna know. Really want to know what's goin' on with ya," Jack almost pleaded, "but I want you to be the one who tells me. I-I want you to trust me, son."

With this said, Jack handed Danny the journal. "It's your choice to make."

Danny tentatively reached out and took the offered book, more touched than he could say.

"Thanks, Dad."

Jack started to get up, the temptation to scour the journal for answers now safely out of his reach.

"Dad."

Jack looked back down at his son.

"It's not about trust," Danny said, silently begging his dad to understand. It was more that he just wasn't ready to tell anyone.

Jack beamed, thrilled to hear that. Danny looked down at the journal once more before shoving it into his pocket and walking home with his dad. Neither one was aware that they had on very confused and annoyed spectator.

Dash scowled. Following them was supposed to answer his questions, not make more!

…

A/N: What did you think of Dash's perspective of all this? Did you like Jack's solution to his problem with the journal? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!