Hi all! Uh... Sorry for the long, unplanned hiatus on this story. My bad... This chapter is a little longer than previous ones, so I hope that helps! Also, I changed my name. It was maythestarsgiveyouhope, now it's therapeuticlobster. Lol. I don't know.

TRIGGER WARNING: Also, I want to warn you all that I do mention suicide in this chapter. It's brief and just a passing thought, but all the same. If you feel any distress, you can call the national suicide hotline at 1-800-273-8255 in the US.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Jack rubbed his hand down his face, trying to clear his mind. He had been watching his son and his friend, Tucker, as they went through each of Jack's and Maddie's research journals. How Jack wished that he could hear what they were saying. He tried analyzing their body language, but he simply did not have the skills that Jazz would. Jack wished he had paid more attention to her when she would talk about her psychology interests. Just another thing to add to his list of regrets… Still, Jack was making an effort to interpret their movements as they spoke with each other. If he had to guess, he would say that they both seemed tense. His son sat with his back against the wall, hunched over the journal. The position let him rest the journal against his knees. Still, Jack noticed that the position also gave him the advantage of seeing everything in his surroundings. His son had never been the observant type; a trait that Maddie frequently teased came from Jack himself. Yet here he was, almost certainly observing his surroundings. Jack began to notice that Danny would tilt his head every now and then. It was almost as if Danny were looking towards a suspicious sound or if Danny thought he saw something out of the corners of his eyes. This child, Jack's child, seemed like he felt he needed to be on guard. But against what…?

Danny had never seemed like he worried about much in life. He was shy but friendly; timid but trusting. Danny would laugh with his friends, and their bond had seemed almost unbreakable to Jack. Honestly, Danny's friendship with Tucker and Sam reminded Jack so much of his own friendships with Vlad and Maddie when they were in college… Before tragedy had ripped them apart. Jack and Maddie had even whispered about how Sam and Danny seemed like they were on the same path that Jack and Maddie had been all those years ago. Jack had purchased a class ring engraved with Sam's name for when Danny was ready to tell her how he felt. Jack had not even told Maddie about the ring. He had grinned when he bought it—Jack could imagine how surprised Danny and Maddie would be when he was finally able to gift it to his son. The ring was now tucked away deep in his nightstand. Sometimes, Jack would pull it out just to look at it. It was Jack's connection to the future his son would never get to have.

Jack sighed. He stretched his neck until it popped, trying to get the thoughts out of his head. Jack needed to focus on the present, not a future that would never be. He focused his eyes on Tucker, who sat at the lab table a few feet away from Danny. That was unusual, too. Tucker had always been right by Danny's side. If Danny was sitting on the floor, so would he. If Tucker had not wanted to sit on the floor, Danny would have moved to sit at the table as well to make sure his friend was comfortable. Danny had always been thoughtful like that. Yet here they were, sitting apart from each other. Was there a strain in their relationship? Jack guessed that there must be. He could not imagine how he would react if Vlad suddenly came back from the dead.

Jack was even more surprised when Tucker left for the night. Those two had always wanted to spend the night as often as possible. Yet here was Tucker, leaving on a Friday night? Why? Was he uncomfortable sleeping when Danny was around? If his son was a ghost, that could make sense… Maybe Danny gave off an aura that Jack simply could not detect through the camera. It was also possible that Tucker's parents expected him home. It would be hard to explain why Tucker was spending the night at his dead best friend's home, but he also could have lied and said he was staying with Sam. There was no way to be sure why Tucker was leaving. What Jack thought was even stranger than Tucker leaving, however, was that Danny seemed to be planning on staying in the lab overnight. He watched as his son pulled together a couple of chairs and laid down on them. His back was still to the wall, and his upper body was upright as he leaned against the back of the chair, but it seemed like he was settling in for the night. So… did this mean ghosts slept?

Jack pushed his chair away from the desk and closed out of the surveillance system. He turned and walked out of his computer room. His mind felt like it was racing, yet Jack could not tell you exactly what was going through his head. It was almost like he was too tired to be anxious, yet no one had let his anxiety know about that. Jack took slow, heavy steps down the stairs and made his way to the room Jack shared with Maddie. He glanced at the microwave clock as he passed by; it was 1:36 in the morning. Jack was not sure exactly how he would explain his recent absence around the house to Maddie. He knew she needed him to be present.

When he made it to their bedroom, he eased himself into the covers and rolled over to kiss Maddie's head. She rolled over when she felt his touch and reached out for him. Jack held her hand. Guilt rolled through him; he had been keeping so much from her. "Maddie," Jack said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I need to tell you something."

"Hmm?" She inquired. "What is it, Jack?"

Jack could tell that she was still mostly asleep. He watched as her lilac eyes blinked slowly at him. Her hair was disheveled. It seemed that she had had another nightmare while he was away. They always left her tossing and turning. He could not bring himself to tell her the truth about their son. "I… I have a therapy appointment scheduled for tomorrow. I'm going to have to get there a little early to fill out some paperwork, so I'm going to be gone for a couple hours tomorrow." The lie slipped through his mouth, surprising him with how easily he said it.

"Oh, Jack," Maddie mumbled. She pulled herself closer to him. "I'm glad. You've seemed so stressed recently. I'm glad you're going to do something for yourself. You've done so much for Jazz and me." She yawned and adjusted herself as she prepared to fall back asleep.

"Thanks, Maddie," Jack muttered. How did he get to be so lucky? His heart clenched, feeling all the guilt come bubbling back up again.

Something told him he would not be getting much sleep tonight.

Danny woke up slowly, blinking his eyes against the fluorescent lights that filled the lab. He probably should have turned them off last night, but he had honestly been too tired to get up once he let himself relax into his makeshift bed. Speaking of which…

Danny groaned as he rolled off of the chairs. His body was aching where he had laid on the gaps between the chairs. Wrong decision, bad decision, Danny thought to himself. He hoped that his quick healing would take of these body aches quickly. He did not want to spend all day reading again. That would be a boring way to spend a Saturday. Trying to focus while also dealing with the body aches would make everything just that much more miserable. He glanced around the lab. He and Tucker had left journals all over the lab. There was no organization, and Danny could not tell which journals had been read and which ones had not. He definitely could not tell which ones Danny had read and which ones Tucker had. When Tucker started helping, Danny had tried to keep his journals separated from Tucker's. He knew Tucker did not understand much about his parents' technology, despite being a certified tech genius on non-ecto-powered machinery. However, Tucker had clearly thought Danny was trying to keep the journals in a neat stack, and he promptly started to put his journals on Danny's stack. Danny did not have the heart to tell him that he was planning on reading all of Tucker's journals as soon as he left.

And so, Danny was left with a relatively large number of research journals strewn around his parents' lab. He sighed. Danny felt like he had made almost no progress yesterday to rebuild his parents' portal. He was quickly losing hope. He tried to convince himself that he was just tired. Clearly, he did not get adequate sleep on a couple of chairs placed in a row. Danny rubbed his chest, trying to soothe the pain he felt there. If he did not know any better, he would say that his core was hurting… But why would that be? He thought that his core should be regaining some of the energy that it had been steadily losing since he came to this timeline. Tucker had come over to help him, and the two of them had spent time together. Sure, Danny had not done anything explicitly to help Tucker. Still, surely some kind of healing should be going on if Tucker was willing to spend such an extended period around him, right?

Danny shook his head, rubbing his hand down his face. Surely, he was just tired. Danny just needed some coffee, and he should probably look into better sleeping arrangements for the future. He had just felt weird about sleeping in his bed. Since it was not technically the same one in his timeline, it kind of felt like sleeping in someone else's bed without permission. Maybe he should just get over it and sleep there anyway tonight. Danny climbed the stairway out of the lab, heading into the family kitchen. It was kind of eerie how everything was still in the same place as it had been before his family moved out. Still, that meant that there was a chance that he could find some coffee to brew. Danny started rifling through the cabinets. The coffee was not in its usual spot, but maybe his parents just kept it somewhere different here.

He looked through the pantry, the cabinets, and even through the fridge, but it seemed like there was no coffee to be found in the old Fenton household. Danny ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. There were still boxes of cereal, granola bars, and even some casseroles in the fridge that looked like they had been there for a questionably long time. How was it possible that there was no coffee?

Oh well, Danny thought. Looks like I'm going to have to get out of the house. Truth be told, he was craving the house blend at his favorite coffee place, the Amity Bean. He would have to be sneaky if he wanted their coffee, however. Not only did he not have cash, but he was supposed to be dead, after all. He might have some money hidden in his room still, but he needed a disguise. Danny turned out of the kitchen and started heading up the stairs to his bedroom. Once he got there, he headed straight towards his closet, refusing to soak in the weirdness of being in his not-room. Danny grabbed a simple black hoodie and pulled open his nightstand drawer. He located his secret wad of cash and thrust it into his hoodie pocket. Then, he headed back out of his room as quickly as he could.

Danny turned himself invisible and intangible right before walking through the front door. It would probably be best if he went unseen as much as possible. He started walking the familiar route to the Amity Bean. Well… familiar enough. Usually, he would fly there, but he did not want to risk the light of his transformation catching anyone's attention once he got to the coffee shop. If he was frank with himself, he was being a lot more conscientious about being as discreet as possible than he was in his own timeline. People in his Amity Park tended to shrug off anything weird that happened, given that ghost attacks had become a pretty regular occurrence. Some flashy lights probably would not even register as odd for most people in his Amity. Here, however, that was perhaps not the case. Jazz would probably tell him he was gaining some critical skills for maintaining his secret back home, and he would shrug her off while knowing that she had a good point. Maybe he should be more careful if he got back home…

Danny froze. When I get home, Danny corrected himself. When, not if. He nodded and continued on his invisible path.

Eventually, Danny found himself in front of the Amity Bean. He phased himself into the building and into the bathrooms. Danny sighed in relief when he realized no one was in there and dropped his invisibility. He pulled up his hood and opened the bathroom door into the main café area. Danny breathed in the smell of the freshly ground coffee beans and allowed a small smile to grace his lips. Allowing himself this little treat brought up his spirits more than he thought it would. Still smiling, he got in line to order.

He waited as the person in front of him ordered, glancing around the café. It was moderately busy, which was probably for the best. It would be easier for him to blend in if there were plenty of people around. Less attention would be on him.

"Sir?" Danny jumped before realizing that the cashier was calling on him to order. He blushed and walked quickly to the register.

"Sorry," Danny apologized.

"No worries!" The cashier smiled. Danny glanced at her name tag; her name was Olivia. Danny let go of a breath he did not realize he was holding when he realized he did not know her. "What can I get for you?"

"Uh, can I just get a large of the house blend, please?"

"Sure, that'll be $1.82," Olivia said, entering the order in. Danny reached into his pocket and pulled out two one-dollar bills. Olivia made the change and handed it back to him, which Danny immediately dropped in the tip jar. "Thanks! Your order will be right up. What's your name?"

"Uh, it's Liam."

The cashier nodded in acknowledgment, and Danny went over to stand by the pickup area. He looked around the café some more while he waited. It was weird doing something so normal while trying so hard not to be noticed. Danny chuckled to himself when he realized that usually he was not noticed even when he was trying to be. That is, when he was Fenton. He thought about whether or not trying not to be noticed would have the opposite effect. That would be ironic, for sure. Huh, Lancer would be proud if he knew I knew what irony is, Danny thought to himself. He supposed he really was learning something in English, despite his sleeping in class and frequent bathroom breaks.

"No way!" A loud voice forced Danny out of his thoughts. He turned towards the sound and felt the blood drain from his face when he made eye contact with Dash, of all people. "Fenturd?!"

"Uh," Danny said intelligently. "No?"

Dash stood up from the table he was sitting at with Kwan, and Danny instinctively stepped back.

Danny swore under his breath and quickly made his way to the exit. He heard chairs moving against the floor and knew that Dash must be standing up to follow him. Danny moved a little faster, shoving the door to the café open. The bell attached to the door jingled pleasantly, a distinct contrast to the fear Danny felt gripping his heart. As soon as he turned the corner around the café, Danny blinked out of visibility. He held his breath as he saw Dash racing out of the café, wildly looking around. The café bell jingled again as Kwan came out, following his friend.

"Dude, you okay?" Danny heard Kwan ask.

"Y-yeah," Dash said. "I just… I could've sworn—"
"I know, man, it freaked me out, too. No way it was him, though."

"Right, yeah," Dash chuckled half-heartedly, clearly still shaken.

Kwan laughed. "I think you gave that dweeb a heart attack, dude, he probably shit his pants!"

Dash chuckled. "Yeah… Yeah, dumb nerd." The insult sounded familiar coming out of the jock's mouth, but the tone did not. All of the heat, all of the rage that usually made up who Dash was, seemed to be absent. It was… It was a little spooky, in Danny's opinion.

Danny closed his eyes and waited until he heard the café's bell chime again, signaling that the two boys had re-entered the café. He let out of ragged breath, his heart beating at about the speed it usually did before he had his accident. That was close, Danny thought. He turned and started walking back to his house, taking care to keep his footsteps quiet when he passed other pedestrians.

It was not until he got back to the lab that he realized he did not have the opportunity to grab his coffee.

Jack gripped the steering wheel to get some blood flowing into his hands. He was nervous. Jack was so, so scared. He had thought he had been worried when he presented his dissertation research to his committee, but he was wrong. He thought he had been nervous on his wedding day, standing in front of a crowd of people as he waited for Maddie to come walking down the aisle. He thought he had been nervous when the doctors pushed him out of the room because the umbilical cord was wrapped around Jazz's neck. He had waited outside the room in what at the time had felt like unbearable fear.

All of the nervousness he had felt in his past paled as he drove towards the ghost of his son.

Jack did not know what to expect. Would Danny still be there? What if he had left or moved on in the time since he left home? What if Danny was aggressive? What if he behaved like he had always thought ghosts would? What if he tried to kill Jack?

What if he did not even remember Jack?

Somehow, that seemed even worse than having to fight the ghost of his son. And yet, that had been one of his and Maddie's most certain theories. They were sure that the trauma of death, and there must be significant trauma at the time of death for a ghost to form, would lead the spirit to not remember their life or their death. Oddly, it would protect the ghost from the pain they experienced up to and including their deaths.

Jack sucked in a deep breath and pursed his lips as he slowly released the air. This was why he had not told Maddie where he was really going today. She should not have to deal with the pain this reunion would almost certainly bring. Jack had told Maddie he was seeing a therapist in Amity Park. He had lied and said that he would be seeing the only therapist in the area who would take their insurance and quickly see him. Maddie had protested, saying that she wanted to do research and find out who the best person in the area was and that waiting to get in would be worth it if they would be sure to help him. She had stopped arguing once Jack told her that he could not wait any longer. His heart had nearly broken when he saw her eyes flood with tears. She bit her lip and nodded, and told him that she would always be there for him. Jack knew what she thought—he knew that she was worried that she was close to losing him. He told her that he would always be there for her. Still, he did not want to blatantly talk about suicide in front of his daughter. Jazz was sitting at the table, pushing her breakfast around on her plate. Jack was already concerned that she had not spoken up at all. Before, she would have been so excited that anyone in their family was going to see someone. She probably had a list of people she looked up to in the area. And yet… She was silent. Jack would not burden her with any worries that might not have occurred to her. Jack would tell Maddie later that he would never even think about leaving her like that.

Anyway, Jack's excuse had bought him about three hours. He drove faster than he usually would to increase the amount of time that he would spend with his son. For him, that was saying something. Jack had always been a fast, somewhat reckless driver, so he really should not have been pushing the family car—a modest sedan—to the limit. He had not driven the RV since the family had moved out of Amity. Jack made it into town in twenty minutes, and he continued to go as quickly as possible until he pulled up in front of his old home. He put the car in park and gazed at the building. It was strange being back here. This place had been built on his and Maddie's dreams, and their time there had ended with their worst nightmare. He walked up to the front door and pulled out his keys, his hands shaking as he struggled to find the right one. Eventually, he found it and was able to open the door.

He pushed the door open, hearing it creak as it moved to allow him in. He was aware of every step he took as he made his way to the lab. The door was open—Jack could hear movement downstairs. That was a good sign, right? That meant there was someone down there. He stepped down onto the top step, and the stair creaked under his weight. The movement stopped—whoever was there knew he was there now. He kept walking down the stairs, trying to keep his speed relatively normal.

"Tucker?" Jack heard the voice call. It was Danny. He knew it was Danny. His voice sounded the same; it was almost like nothing had changed. Jack finished coming down the stairs, pausing at the bottom.

"Did you bring any more food? I haven't eaten today, and I'm starving. Oh, and I should probably tell you about a, um, adventure that I had today," Danny chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. He turned towards the stairs and immediately froze.

"H-hi, Danny," Jack said. His voice caught as he tried to get the simple sentence out. He cleared his throat.

"D-dad?" Danny asked, still standing still. Jack noticed that he was standing stiller than any human should be able to… But was he just imagining it? The word that Danny just used finally registered to Jack.

"You remember me?" He asked.

"Well, yeah…" Danny said quietly.

Jack rushed up to Danny, and Danny yelped as he was suddenly wrapped in the biggest hug that Jack had ever given in his life. "Oh, Danny, oh, Danny…" Jack dissolved into sobs. He wrapped his arms tighter around his son. Jack could feel his warmth. He could feel his son breathing. At that moment, it was like he was back, like his son had never even left.

"Uh, Dad?" Danny said. He coughed, signaling that he could not breathe well. Jack let go of his son and put his hands on his shoulders. He looked his son in the eyes. Tears were streaming out of his eyes.

"Danny, I am so sorry. I am so sorry about everything. I love you, son. I love you so much," Jack tried to pour as much emotion into his words as possible, trying to make his son feel how much love and regret was behind every word. He watched as his son seemed to break a little. Danny's face dropped, and he looked towards the ground.

"Dad, I need to tell you something," Danny began.

"Anything, you can tell me anything, Danny," Jack said. "Nothing could ever change how much I love you. I am here for you, son. You can tell me anything."

"Dad, I—I'm not your son," Danny said.

"Yes, you are, Danny. It doesn't matter to me at all if you've changed in any way. You are still my Danny-boy."

"No, Dad, you don't understand. I'm Danny, but I'm not your Danny. I-I-I mean, Jack Fenton is my father, and I'm his son, but I'm a different Danny. I'm not… I'm not from here. I'm not your Danny…" Danny trailed off, feeling helpless.

"What do you mean, son? I don't understand," Jack said, his brows furrowing together. "Look, I get that everything might feel different right now, but it still doesn't change how I feel about you or who you are."

"No, you're not getting it. It's like… Okay, this is hard to explain." Danny took a deep breath. "I don't know how I got here, but—"

"That's okay!" Jack started nodding enthusiastically. "That's okay, we can figure it out together—"

"Dad!" Danny tried to pull back, but his father clearly did not want to let him go. He knew what he had to say would hurt him, but he could not lie to him. All the same, he felt like his core was getting stabbed, knowing that he was going to say something that would cause pain. "Dad, I'm not Danny, I'm not your Danny. And I don't mean in a ghost way—well, I guess it's kind of in a ghost way, but not exactly—"

"Oh, shit…"

Danny and Jack's heads both snapped towards the stairs. There was Tucker, holding another Nasty Burger bag. His face had all the fear that Danny knew he himself was feeling.

"Uh… Hi there, Mr. Fenton! How have you been? Haha…" Tucker chuckled, the awkward laugh giving way into a more awkward silence.