I'm sorry this has been a while. Hyperfixations are a B. I'm going to post what I have and hopefully, that will rekindle enough for me to finish this.

{Life Lessons, Part 2}

"Regretting your life choices yet?" Sam asked as Danny scowled down at the still crying sack of flour.

"I've been a parent all of one day and I'm probably already down to a C-."

"Life could be worse. You could be that guy," Sam said, pointing to where the Nasty Burger's mascot was being terrorized by a bunch of kids.

"Oooh! Nasty Nat! Let's get a family photo with him."

"You're taking this way too seriously," Sam said as Tucker pushed her and Danny towards the mascot.

Sam glared off the kids while Tucker asked for a photo, which Danny took for them.

"You want me to take one of you? Family photos help boost your grade."

"Not without Val here," Danny said, passing Sam the camera and rocking his still crying sack. "I don't want to give Tetslaff the wrong idea."

"The wrong idea being the fact Valerie stuck you with all the work?" Sam asked.

"We talked about it. She has a job, Sam."

"So she says." When Danny shot her a look, she said, "Right, sorry. Giving her a chance."

Danny sighed and looked down at the sack. "I don't think I'm cut out to be a dad."

"Try supporting its top more." Danny looked up at the muffled voice to see Nasty Nat standing near him. He gestured awkwardly at Danny's arms.

Danny shifted his arms so its head was held up by his elbow and it started to quiet down. "Wow, uh, thanks, dude."

The mascot nodded and waddled off.

Just in time as the trio's ghost senses went off.

"Beware!"

As one, they groaned and shouted, "Not it!"

"We should really learn that that's not going to work anymore," Tucker chuckled.

"I'll go," Sam sighed and headed towards the back of the restaurant. "You two can manage the sacks."

"You sure you're not sticking Tucker with all the work?"

She turned around to walk backward and pointed at Tucker. "That'd be a good burn if it wasn't for the fact he actually likes this stupid assignment."

Danny chuckled and rocked the baby, smiling as she finally quieted down.

Then the explosions started. They looked up to see Sam fighting Valerie.

"Oh no," Danny said. "Tuck, can you watch the kid for me?"

"Only because I don't want Sam to get killed. Go stop your baby mama."

"Sam's right, you are taking this too seriously," Danny said, handing over his sack.

He started to run off, but an explosion in front of him threw him back.

"Danny!"

He looked up with wide eyes to see the Nasty Burger sign falling.

Valerie grabbed him and pulled him out of the way just as Sam swooped down to hide Tucker's intangibility.

"You okay?" the ghost hunter asked.

"Yeah, maybe be a little more careful with the missiles next time," he said, shifting so he could kneel on her board.

"Sorry. The ghost kid was in one of their slow moods so I wanted to try and take them out before they could pick up speed. Besides, I'm only on a five-minute break." Val set down behind the Nasty Burger and Danny hopped down so she could fold up her board. She pulled down her mask and looked him over. "Where's the baby?"

"Tucker has her. I was, uh, about to go to the bathroom so I asked him to watch her."

"Alright. You sure you're okay?"

He smiled and set his hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine, really."

She smiled back.

"Valerie?"

"Oh crud, that's my boss," she whispered and retracted her suit.

He glanced at her uniform. "You work at the Nasty Burger?"

"Tell anyone and I end you," she hissed as she stuffed her guns into her backpack.

"I won't. But why the secrecy? What do you do?"

"None of your business," she said, elbowing him playfully. She looked down at him as she stood up straight and there was mischief in her eyes. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "Have fun with the kid, honey. I'm headed off to work."

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth.

"Well now, this is unexpected."

The two spun around to see Skulker floating behind them, a gun charging. Neither could react before it fired.

Danny groaned and sat up. "What hit me?"

"That would be me."

The half-ghost scowled and turned to see Skulker standing over him. His breath caught as he noticed the cage bars between him and Skulker. He looked around to see he was in a steel cage that was glowing dark blue. And he wasn't alone.

"What's with the cage? I thought you wanted our pelts. And why's Valerie here?" Danny growled, getting to his feet and marching towards him.

"There's been a change of plans. You should be grateful. I had planned to have one of you fight to the death with the huntress, but knowing she is your mate makes you far more appealing for my collection. The pelts of your other sides will have to do."

Danny gaped at the hunter ghost. "Okay, first of all, no one is ever going to be grateful to be in a cage, you creep. Second, Val is my friend, none of us would have killed her. Third, please tell me you mean mate in the British sense, because if Johnny and Kitty have been telling people I'm dating Val I'm going to kick their butts. Forth, gross dude."

Skulker just smirked at him. "You cannot hide your relationship from me, ghost child. I heard you speaking about your child with your mate."

Danny hit his head on the bars. "We're fifteen. We don't have a kid. Our school just makes sophomores partner up to take care of a flour sack. Teach us responsibility and stuff. We were joking about the assignment because we got paired up. Val and I are just friends."

Skulker eyed him for a moment, then frowned. "Really?"

"Yes!"

"Teenagers," Skulker growled, running a hand over his face.

"Sorry to inconvenience you. Now if you could just let us go."

Skulker snorted and turned to leave. "Welcome to your new home."

Danny glared at his back and tried to push his hands through the bars.

"And before you get any ideas, that cage was made with you halfas in mind. No phasing through it for humans or ghosts."

"You know Sam and Tucker are going to come to get us!" Danny yelled as the ghost moved out of sight.

Skulker didn't respond.

"Stupid frog." Danny turned to the bars and tried to summon the energy for an ectoblast, to no avail.

After trying and failing to use the rest of his powers, he sat down next to Valerie.

"I'm going to tear that stupid ghost apart, then put him back together so I can take him apart a second time!"

Danny stared at the ceiling, not bothering to respond as it was the one hundred and thirty-seventh time Valerie had said those words, or at least that's how many times she'd said it since he'd decided that counting would at least give him something to do.

And Sam thought zoos were bad. At least they gave the animals something to do.

They also gave them food.

"Hey Frogger, you do realize humans need food and stuff to survive right?" Danny yelled, cutting over Valerie's one hundred and thirty-eighth rendition of her threats. "Also, do the words animal enrichment mean anything to you?"

"Don't call us animals," she huffed.

"Technically humans are still a type of animal. And I'll call us whatever I have to to get something to eat. I know you feel the same." If Danny - who could partially sustain himself on the zone's ambient ectoplasm even while in human form and had just eaten when he'd been grabbed - was hungry, then Valerie - who was fully human and likely didn't have a chance to grab something after school with her job - had to be starving.

"I won't give in to a ghost."

"Meh, I prefer to show rebellion through stupid nicknames and punny taunts rather than by denying myself the basic necessities."

"You're being far too calm about this," she huffed, moving to stand over him.

He shrugged. "Panicking never helps and I already did the anger thing before you woke up so I'm mostly just bored now."

"So you're content to spend the rest of your life here?"

"You say that like it will be a long time, which it won't because Skulker doesn't seem inclined to feed or water us." When she met his joke with a glare, he sat up. "We've already established neither of us has the skills or equipment to pick the lock or bend the bars, so escape's not happening. Skulker wants to keep us, which is very creepy, but at least means we aren't going to die. So all we can do is wait out our rescue."

"You think someone will rescue us?" Valerie asked, sitting next to him.

Danny pulled out his phone. "It's been fifteen hours since we were grabbed. Skulker can be sneaky, but someone still might have seen him bringing us to the portal. And even if no one human saw us, invisibility doesn't work in the zone. We were definitely seen and gossip is crazy in the zone. Doppelgänger will hear about this soon enough."

"So?" she snorted. "We're Red Huntress and a Fenton. Why would they help us?"

"The ghosts might not know that," Danny said, thinking quickly. "All Doppelgänger would probably hear is that two humans from their territory got taken."

"I guess that makes sense." She laid down and Danny followed suit.

He stared up at the ceiling, then his lips twitched up. "Want to know what I'm really worried about?"

She hummed.

"Is getting kidnapped by a ghost a good enough excuse in Tetslaff's book for not taking care of the baby?"

There was a beat of silence then she laughed. "Oh my god! She'll probably make us redo it from the very start!"

"I mean, I left her with a responsible sitter. That should count for something."

"Tucker, responsible?"

"I mean, he's working with Sam. She'll kick his butt if he goes off the rails."

"That makes more sense."

Valerie eyed the food the ghost had thrown into their cage suspiciously. Her stomach felt like it was eating itself, but…

"How do you even know it's safe?" she asked, looking over at Danny, who was halfway through his own Mighty Meaty Cheesy Melt.

"Like I said, he doesn't want us dead, so it's not poisoned. And there's no ectoplasm in it. Even if there was, that whole eat of the dead, become of the dead thing only applies to specific ghost fruits, which aren't on here because he clearly stole it from the Nasty Burger and, again, no ectoplasm."

"How do you know there's no ectoplasm?"

"Ectoplasm has this strong citrusy taste that can't be covered up with anything but mounds of relish, and there's no relish on the burger."

"Ho-How do you know that?"

"My parents aren't as careful with pure ectoplasm as they probably should be."

"That's…"

"I know. Sam and Tucker refuse to eat over anymore unless it's takeout and we bring it straight to my room. Really though, the food's fine. Nothing weird in it, promise."

"I don't know if I can trust you to know what's weird anymore," Valerie said, but grabbed her burger anyways.

Val closed her eyes as she sunk further into the water. "I don't know if I should be impressed or concerned that you literally annoyed a ghost into giving us a bathroom."

"Grateful?" Danny suggested from the other side of the curtain that hid the toilet and bath from the rest of the cage. "It's a gift, really."

Danny snickered at Valerie's glare.

"If I had my weapons…"

"Calm down, Val. They're not doing any harm."

"They won't GET OFF!"

"They like you," he chuckled and plucked off one of the blob ghosts.

He wasn't sure how, but his usual swarm had found them and were now drifting about the cage. Some had attached themselves to the top like bats. Others had burrowed into their blanket nest. A few had made a home inside his jacket or atop his hair. A lot had decided Valerie was a very nice spot to sleep and had latched onto her.

The ghost in his hand vibrated, almost like it was purring except it sounded more musical.

"I'm going to smash them!"

"How does your phone even still have power?" Valerie asked as they watched Thor cut Thanos's head off.

They were cuddled close in their nest of blankets with Valerie's head on his shoulder so they could both see the small screen.

"Tucker upgraded it so it would run on ectoplasm for convenience's sake."

"Ectoplasm is convenient?" she chuckled, idly scratching one of the blobs curled up in her lap.

"It is in my house."

Valerie gave the beast sitting on the other side of the cage a death glare.

"Yap!"

"You are so lucky I don't have any weapons."

Cujo rolled over onto his back and wagged his tail.

"Danny, make him leave with your annoying powers!"

The boy just reached over and rubbed the dog's belly.

Valerie was tossing the rubber ball Skulker had given Danny - and by given, she meant the ghost had thrown it at his head after four hours of constant complaining of being bored - for Blobert to fetch when a soft sound reached her, almost like someone was shushing someone else.

"Hello?"

There was quiet for a moment, then a blue-purple flash came from around the corner. A second later Doppelgänger poked their two heads out, smiling. "Valerie!"

"Yep. You here for the show or are you actually going to help us?"

They scowled and looked at each other. "Can't we just leave her here? We'd never hear the end of it if we did. She's the ghost hunter, let her figure her own way out."

"I can hear you, you know."

"We know," they chirped.

Valerie sat up. "Listen here, you little -"

She cut off as she was reminded that Danny had been laying with his head on her stomach by a soft whine. She looked down to see him blinking up at her, his head now in her lap.

"Wha's goin' on?" he yawned.

"Ghost kid's here. They're arguing with themself about if they're going to help us or not."

Danny stared at her, processing, then sat up and glared at the ghost kid, who raised their hands with guilty smiles.

"We were only kidding." They flew over to the cage and looked it over.

"It's ghost and human-proof," Danny told them.

"How're we supposed to open it then? It's got a manual lock. We need to stop living in the digital age for once. Shut up."

"They're always like this," Valerie whispered to Danny as he chuckled at their antics. "I don't know if it's a ghost thing or if they're just messed up in the head."

"We think aloud, jerk," they snapped as one came forward and pulled a pair of bobby pins out.

Danny moved closer as they knelt next to the cage's door. "You know how to pick a lock?"

They smiled at him and pushed up their goggles to give him a wink before they squinted down at the lock and started fiddling with it.

Valerie was surprised their eyes were yellow. She'd assumed they'd be green like their goggles.

"That's a lot of blobs," they said, the one not picking the lock looking over the cage.

"Just over three dozen and they all have names," Danny said cheerfully.

"They're just random pun names based around the word blob," Valerie chuckled.

"Blobbington. Blobby. Blobin. Blo-"

"We get it," the ghosts snorted, cutting Danny off.

It took a few moments, but then the ghost kid was floating back and the door swung open.

"Freedom!" Danny cheered as they left the cage. He turned to the blobs and made shooing motions. "Alright, you lot, back home with you."

The swarm made sad ringing sounds, but flew off in various directions.

Meanwhile, the ghost kid that had picked the lock fixed their goggles back into place and put away the pins as the other passed Valerie her backpack and pointed at the wall across from them. "Go straight that way. We'll meet you on the other side."

"You want us to go through the wall."

"Humans can be intangible in the ghost zone. Just try, you'll see," they said before heading back the way they came.

Danny walked up to the wall and stuck his arm through. "They're right."

"I guess that's what Skulker meant by human proof," she said as she followed him over and tried it for herself. "He must have done something to the cage so we wouldn't slip right through."

"Guess so. Ladies first?"

She rolled her eyes and stuck her head through to make sure no one was on the other side. They continued like that until they reached a wall that only had a void on the other side. She put on her suit and they jumped through. She summoned her board before they could fall too far, then looked around.

"We should leave now while we have the chance."

"Great idea. Which way do you think the portal is?" Doppelgänger asked with a snort as they flew up.

She sent them a glare.

"Thanks for the help," Danny said, setting his hand on her shoulder. "Can you show us the way out?"

They turned to her, crossing their arms.

She crossed her own arms and stared back.

"Can we please save this for after we're far away from the ghost who locked us in a cage for eight days?"

"We're not the ones who got locked up," Doppelgänger reminded them.

"Maybe so, but you are the ones who are going to be stuck in a thermos for an hour if you don't knock it off," he said. "Can we just agree to a truce until we get out of here? Please?"

"Fine," they said and one held out their hand.

Valerie shook it. "For now. Get us out of this ghost zone, and we'll see how long it lasts."