Just a few days after the accident, Danny's parents are arrested for child endangerment. Danny and Jazz are separated in the system. Jazz gets taken in by her uncle, Vlad who works at Axium Labs, but Danny is adopted by a rich couple who own a castle in Wisconsin. While alone, Danny discovers his new-found ghost powers and has to figure them out on his own.
Trigger warnings: Blood (technically ectoplasm. No human blood), several major character deaths, addiction, anxiety.
I'll be honest, this is kinda a horror fic. I tried to keep it PG-13, though. All the blood is ectoplasm, so read at your own risk.
The Accident
Rather than studying in the school library that day, Jazz opted to head home. Her parents said that they would be out ghost hunting, so she figured that it was best to go home and look after Danny, ensuring that he and his two friends didn't get into any trouble. As she locked up her car and headed inside, a sudden boom rocked the house.
"Woah!" she exclaimed, dropping her keys and catching herself on the wall.
"Danny!" two voices called.
Danny? It came from the basement.
Jazz instantly stood back up and rushed towards the stairs and stormed into the basement lab. Sam and Tucker were kneeling on the floor next to someone on their knees, one hand to his head. He had white hair and a black jumpsuit, and he looked rather a lot like…
"Danny," Sam breathed, raising her hand, "are you okay?" She motioned to touch him, only for her hand to slide right through his shoulder.
"Danny?" Jazz exclaimed, making Tucker and Sam jump.
"Jazz…" Tucker muttered. "We don't know what happened. He-he went into the portal to check it out, and…"
Jazz bolted towards him and got down on her knees. "Danny?" she said, her voice trembling terribly.
The boy groaned and removed his hand from his head, looking up at Jazz with bleary, green eyes. "Jazz…" he breathed.
A white ring flashed into existence around his waist and split lengthwise in half. The two rings traveled apart until they passed his head and feet, changing his hair to black, his eyes to blue, and his jumpsuit to white.
Then he dropped.
Tucker and Sam both called for him, shaking his limbs to try and get him to respond, but he wouldn't. His eyes remained closed, his face blank and calm.
Jazz instantly pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911. "911, what is your emergency?" the operator stated.
"It's my brother!" Jazz shouted, her calm-inducing shock completely giving way to panic. "There was some kind of accident, and he's unconscious!"
"Okay, ma'am. What's your location?"
Jazz gave the address. "It has a giant neon sign that says 'Fenton Works' on it. Can't miss it."
"Okay. Calm your breathing, miss. You can't help him if you pass out. Now, is your brother breathing?" the operator asked.
Jazz looked to Sam and Tucker that were still trying to get Danny to respond. "Is he breathing?"
Sam leaned down and put her ear to his chest. After a second, she looked back up and nodded. "It's shallow and struggling, but yeah."
Jazz relayed the information to the operator. "Is he bleeding at all?" they continued.
"No," Jazz breathed, shaking her head. "There's no marks on him at all." The sound of sirens reached her ears through the walls of the lab. "I hear sirens. Is that them?"
"Yes," the operator said. "Just hang in there. They're about a block away."
"Okay. We're downstairs in the basement. The door's unlocked," Jazz explained.
It wasn't much longer until the ambulance arrived. A pair of paramedics rushed into the lab with a stretcher and bags of equipment. "Stand back, kids," one of them said, ushering Tucker and Sam away from Danny. The two younger teens ran up to Jazz as the paramedics started their work on Danny.
Jazz didn't know what to do. Normally, she had all the answers, but she didn't have a clue what to do.
"Put him on the stretcher," the same paramedic ordered.
His partner readied the stretcher, and together, they lifted Danny on top of it. They took Danny out of the lab and up the stairs.
"We gotta follow them," Sam said, rushing after them.
"I gotta call mom and dad," Jazz whispered as she followed Sam.
The three of them jumped into her car, and Jazz started it up as the ambulance peeled off, sirens blaring. Once she was safely out of the driveway, she pulled out her phone, speed-dialing her dad. She put the phone to her ear, pleading that he would pick up, but the phone rang out. Jazz groaned in frustration and ended the call to redial. On the third try, her dad finally picked up. "What is it, Jazz," Jack greeted, though it was clear he was frustrated.
"It's Danny!" she shouted. "He had some kind of accident in the lab. We're following the ambulance to the hospital. Meet us there."
She didn't wait for his response and hung up. She knew she was following too close, but she couldn't risk getting separated from the ambulance.
They couldn't get to the hospital fast enough, but when they did, she found the closest parking spot possible and turned the key. She jumped out of the car, and Sam and Tucker followed. Jazz didn't even bother to lock the car as she stormed into the hospital just in time to see Danny being wheeled in, an oxygen mask on his face and a paramedic on top of him as he repeatedly pumped his chest.
Jazz put a hand to her mouth, sudden dizziness and nausea overtaking her.