Chapter Four: Get Help Wes, You Freaking Psycho

Danny walked down the hallway, keeping his books close to his chest as he tried to listen to what the students around him were talking about (the perks of having ghost hearing). A conversation between two girls from his Physics class captured his attention.

"Didn't you hear? Phantom's lost his marbles!"

"The ghost kid?"

"No you idiot. Weston from the basketball team! He's trying to convince everyone that the son of the ghost hunters is a ghost so he can draw attention away from himself."

"Sounds pretty smart to me. I mean, by harassing someone else, nobody thinks twice about you."

"Did you hear the bit about trying to convince everyone that the ghost hunters' son is a ghost?"

"What, Fenton? That dork?"

Danny lightly chuckled to himself. What a relief. It'd been two days since Wes started telling anyone with half a head that Danny was Phantom, and one day since he started bringing in charts to support his claims. Thankfully, everyone thought Wes was too nuts to actually consider the truth in what he was saying. For the time being, he decided against confronting Wes about how he discovered his secret. It's not like there was any harm in letting Wes tell everyone that he was Danny Phantom; there was no way anyone would ever believe him. If someone told Danny that one of his classmates was a dead superhero, he wouldn't believe them either. Besides, Danny confronting Wes would only make people suspicious.

On the bright side, Sam, despite her over-protective behavior lately, didn't take it as bad as Danny thought she would. He, Sam, and Tucker had all been standing near Danny's locker when Wes appeared out of nowhere. He was in the company of both Kwan and Star who looked like they were about to die of laughter. To them, Wes was their dancing monkey.

"Come on," Wes said, gesturing towards where Danny and his friends where trying to blend into the lockers, "it must be Fenton, it's so obvious!"

Star snorted while Kwan doubles over laughing. "Heh, whatever you say, PHANTOM!" Kwan collects himself before dramatically throwing a crumpled up wanted poster of Phantom from a few months prior at Wes's face.

Sam, slightly on edge, leans over to Danny, "Aren't you gonna stop him? He's kinda spilling your secret..."

Danny, seemingly unaffected by this, shrugs, "Nah. If everyone thinks he's Phantom no one gives me a second look."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Danny," Tucker says.

"Of course I do. I mean, everyone thinks Wes is delusional. Nobody's going to stand around and think there could be any truth to what he's saying."

"But what if someone does?" Sam asks. "What about Valerie?"

Tucker snorted, "Valerie's smart. But, her mind is not ready to connect Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom yet."

"She knows about halfas. I mean, she's even met Elle!" Sam hissed.

"True..." Danny thought, "but it's not like I can tell Wes to stop telling people I'm Phantom. If I did that, it would attract even more attention to me. People might actually start getting suspicious."

"You're right," Tucker said. "And besides, what's the worst that could-"

"NO!" Danny and Sam screamed simultaneously.

"Tucker, we have three rules." Sam said, "What are they again?"

Tucker sighed, "One: Not saying the word 'wish' under any circumstances. Two: Avoiding the topic of ghosts around Danny's parents unless necessary. Three: Never asking what's the worst that could happen."

"Good," Sam said. "Break the rules again, and I break your precious Marilyn."

Tucker flinched, clutching his PDA (AKA Marilyn), "Not my baby!"

Wes was having no luck in convincing the student body that Fenton was Phantom. Everybody assumed that he was just trying to draw attention away from himself, so they didn't even consider anything he was saying. It was starting to drive him crazy! It was all Fenton's fault! He could just tell everyone that he was Phantom, but instead he let Wes just look like a fool. That fucking hypocrite. He was going to expose Danny... and he wouldn't stop until everyone in this town knew the truth.

In the past two days, Wes had gotten no more than six hours asleep altogether. In his room, he printed out picture after picture of Danny, comparing his human form to his ghost form. He made charts recording the times of ghost attacks compared to Fenton's bathrooms breaks (he maybe stole the bathroom records from the front office). He also did extensive research on ghosts that could disguise themselves as humans, and after determining that Fenton didn't fit the criteria, he figured that he must be some kind of ghost-human hybrid. He had found a useful article written by some doctor in Wisconsin about twenty years ago that suggested the existence of hybrids. However, not long after its initial publication the author had been admitted to a mental institution.

He had presented his evidence to anyone he could get to listen, and yet, nobody believed him. Hell, most people were starting to call him insane. One girl even suggested that he talk to Jazz Fenton, Casper High's own psychology expert. Wes thinks the girl meant well, but he knew it was just a nice way of saying, 'Get help, you fucking psycho.' Besides, was he really supposed to go to Fenton's sister and tell her he thought her brother was Danny Phantom?

Yeah, Wes didn't think so.

On Friday afternoon, Wes was more determined than ever to get actual physical evidence that Fenton and Phantom were the same, so somehow, he found himself tailing Danny, Sam, and Tucker on their way home from school. Wes grasped his Polaroid; he was ready for this.

"Ugh!" Sam let out a groan, "I can't believe that freaking Weston kid today. He tried asking me if I was 'aware of your deceased state of being'. It took everything I had not to sucker-punch him right there."

Danny snorted, "So did you tell him about my deadness?"

Tucker laughed with Danny. "So, what'd you actually tell him?"

Sam crossed her arms, "I told him that I was aware, that he needed serious help for unhealthy delusions and that he might need to talk to a shrink."

"Maybe we can hook him up with Spectra?" Tucker suggested.

"Nah, what's the point of making the kid go crazier? According to what Jazz told me, it'll only make him more determined. I say we let him think he's crazy, but not too much, that way he'll give up on his own terms," Sam explained, as if she was mimicking Jazz from memory. "He has to accept that he's wrong and too much frustration will have the opposite effect from what we've seen so far."

"But what if we can't convince him he's crazy?" Tucker asked.

"I don't really want to pretend like he's crazy, because it makes me feel a little guilty, but I'll do what I have to for my secret," Danny sighed. "I'm just relieved that no one's believed him, yet."

"I wouldn't feel guilty or anything, Danny," Tucker reassure earnestly. "If he wanted to reveal you, he should've confronted you first before telling everyone else."

"For now, I just say we keep our distance." Sam declared, with a demeanor clear of pity. "We – you," she corrected, "don't owe him anything. He's doing it to himself."

"I wouldn't say that..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, "but I get what you mean. I don't trust him, so I'll do my best to play dumb and lead him in the other direction. In addition, there's also the chance that someone else will catch on and this'll become an even bigger mess!"

"Well, everyone's dumb, so hopefully we won't have to worry about that." Somehow it was amazing how Sam managed to sound both cynical and optimistic at the same time.

"Do you think you'll ever have to tell him?" Tucker said changed the subject. "I mean, if he still knows your secret and stops trying to tell the entire school."

"In that case, I don't think I even can tell him until he stops trying to tell everyone my secret. Until he does that, I'm sticking with the plan. Who knows? If he stops being a lunatic, he could be an ally. If."

The three had arrived in front of the Nasty Burger. Wes still lingered somewhere behind them, his camera ready for something amazing to happen. Even though he was trailing them, there was an autumn wind blowing their words away. He couldn't exactly hear everything they were talking about, but from what he could gather, it was about him.

"From what I've seen, he'll have to take some serious chill-pills to stop being a lunatic. Anyway, I say we discuss this after we get some grub," Tucker's stomach audibly growled. "I'm starving."

"Then you're paying," Sam laughed, before the three of them disappeared inside the restaurant.

Wes stayed up until around 6:00 a.m. collecting evidence, since it was the weekend. He crashed somewhere around 6:30, sprawled out on his bed, surrounded by various pictures of Danny, colored pencils, and an empty can of Orange Crush soda. Afterwards, he slept until three in the afternoon when his Dad came barging into his room.

"Wes, I've let you sleep all day, but you should start trying to wake up by now! You have about an hour before you need to get ready so we can leave on time for Vlad's dinner party!"

Vlad's dinner party? What? Oh right... that. In the past few days, Wes had completely forgotten about Mr. Masters latest party. Wes usually managed to get out of them a few days before by telling his Dad he had some kind of basketball thing... but in the chaos in the past week Wes had neglected to make an excuse. Knowing Walter, there was absolutely no way Wes would be able to wriggle out of it this time. Just great. Four hours of staying in a 500 ft radius of Vlad Masters, rich bastard extraordinaire. And it was at the worst timing too; Wes was positive that he was close to getting some actual evidence on Danny! It was only a matter of time!

By 5:30 p.m. both Wes and Walter were dressed in nice suits and ready to leave for Vlad's mansion. An actual limo arrived in front of their apartment, courtesy of Vlad. Honestly, Wes was tempted to defile the limo in some fashion, and probably would've if it hadn't been for his father sitting next to him.

Wes remembered the first time he met Vlad Masters. He'd been in the fourth grade and his Dad decided to finally bring him along to Vlad's annual Christmas party. Wes had been excited at first, because it combined two things he loved: Christmas and parties. It was kind of devastating when he realized that he was the youngest person there and that it wasn't much of a party. It was mostly just old guys talking and drinking 'grown up drinks'. After about an hour into the event, Walter had dragged Wes to go meet his boss.

"He's a very generous man," Walter had said. "So be polite."

Wes had awkwardly looked up from his feet to match eye contact with the maliciously grinning man in front of him. He had long white hair and chilling blue eyes that seemed to pierce the soul. Wes shivered, there was something scary about this man.

"Ah..." Vlad held out his hand for Wes to shake it, "you must be young Wesley. I've heard so much about you. I hope that one day you grow to be as successful as your father here."

"It's just Wes," he corrected, letting go of Vlad's hand. He unconsciously rubbed it; Vlad's skin had been unnaturally cold. Not to mention that his voice itself was unnerving.

"Of course... So you're in the fourth grade now? You live in Amity Park like your father?"

"Where else would I live? I'm ten, I can't live alone."

"Yes, yes, it's just I have some very old colleagues in Amity. Though, I haven't spoken to them in about fifteen years. Funny how time flies by..."

"I don't know. Tonight seems really slow," Wes said.

Vlad smirked, "The mindset of youth. Oh how I miss it. Anyway, it was a pleasure meeting you Wesle – sorry, Wes, but your father and I have some business stuff we need to discuss..."

Over the years, Wes tried to avoid any alone time with Vlad. There was just something off about that man, and it had nothing to do with his wealth. Hell, he somehow even managed everyone in his hometown to vote for him as mayor in a matter of days. Maybe he sold he soul to the devil or something, Wes thought bitterly. Because that would explain a lot.

The limo finally pulled up to Vlad's mansion. Wes followed his father out of the vehicle with dread. All he had to do was survive one night. That was it, one night in a house with Vlad Masters. How hard could it be, right?

* I like to imagine that when Vlad first became a halfa, somebody in the hospital would notice something off about him. So I gave the impression that the aforementioned doctor had found something out about Vlad's condition and published an article contemplating hybrids. Vlad probably overshadowed him, made him do some questionable actions, and forced him into a mental institution. Even though he has the ability to do worse, I don't think he would be able to mercilessly kill someone at that point in his life.

Also, sorry I haven't been replying to reviews. I really haven't had the time to do much due to end of the year testing.