Chapter two up and redone! Enjoy.

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If Danny had thought he could never feel worse then he had on the streets of New York, he had been horribly mistaken. Out there, he'd almost numbed to both the physical and emotional pain, but now his conscience weighed so heavily with guilt, he wondered why the plane he currently sat in had been able to take off. The phrase "Weight of the World" suddenly had a whole new meaning to it.

"One thing's for sure," he muttered to himself. "He even thinks about mentioning separating my human and ghost halves, and I'll be outta there so fast he'll wonder when I got sonic speed."

He couldn't help but sigh as the world passed by below, and the few wisps of clouds streamed by just outside. Here he was, flying to the one place he never thought he would visit for more than a few minutes ever, let alone go to live. But, of course, that was before... He leaned forward, head in hands.

"Is something wrong?" Danny looked up suddenly, startled as the stewardess came over to him with a tray of food. He couldn't help but stare at the tray hungrily. First class definitely had it's advantages. Forcing his eyes away from the tantalizing food, Danny returned his gaze to the older woman who studied him with a worried expression, obviously awaiting an answer to her question. 'Let's see.' he thought to himself sarcastically, 'I've been quite literally kicked out and away from anyone and anything I've ever known, ended up trying to help people who don't want to be helped, I've just been homeless and starving for over two months, and now I've agreed to work for my mortal enemy.'

"No," he forced a smile in place of a sigh, "I'm just fine." She didn't look convinced, but let the subject drop and handed him the plate of food. He didn't need telling twice. Licking his lips hungrily, he quickly began to gobble the food before him. The stewardess' worried look deepened, but she shook her head and walked down the aisle, waiting on the other people on the plane. When she returned, Danny had cleaned every last crumb off of the plate, and was staring out of the window again, looking a bit on the sick side. He didn't look at her as she quietly took the tray and utensils away.

Danny swallowed and put a hand on his stomach, feeling more than a little queasy. Too much food on a normally empty stomach, he reasoned, kicking himself for being that stupid...but he'd been so hungry. The food reminded of...

NO! he shot up in his seat and clamped his hands over his eyes, willing his thoughts to go in another direction. Now that he could suddenly feel guilt again, it seemed to bring every other pain back. All the hurt and disbelief he'd been ignoring for months...

Despite his best efforts, the memories crept into the corner of his mind. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, wishing for everything to go away, but to no avail. Finally, and for the first time in almost three months, he stopped trying to fight them, knowing he didn't have the strength anymore.

oOo

"Stupid Skulker," Danny grumbled, rubbing a sore neck as he phased through the front door at 2:17 am, and quietly sneaked up the stairs. He'd long since figured out how to avoid the squeaks in the floorboards without even using his ghost powers, and easily slid silently past his parents room and closed door.

Yawning, he tried not to think about the test in Lancer's class the next day on English Literature...again. Sometimes he wondered if they really were just repeating every author and subject with different names just to confuse him, or if it was a conspiracy against all high-school teens.

Suppressing a groan, he opened his door, and froze.

"There you are!" his mother exclaimed and stopped pacing over all the clothes he'd neglected to pick up earlier that day. "Where have you been?!" She rushed over to him, throwing her arms around his neck. "You had me worried sick!"

"I—I was...uh..." his mind raced, trying desperately to come up with yet another excuse. Nothing plausible enough passed through his mind for several minutes, so he just stood there stuttering and looking ashamed, until Maddie shook her head.

"You were out with Sam, weren't you?"

"No," Danny replied immediately.

"Valerie then?"

"No!" He started to get apprehensive. Why was it whenever he had problems, everyone automatically assumed it was the girls in his life causing all the problems?

"Then where were you?" she repeated more firmly and folded her arms, refusing to take her eyes off of him..

Again, his mind seemed to go blank. Maybe the whole "out with a girl idea" would have been better. "I was—um...I-I can't tell you that." He finally finished lamely, his eyes dropping to look at his feet, too embarrassed and ashamed to say anything else.

"Well," his mother started, and he cringed. He knew that tone; cold and disappointed. He hated when she did that. It wasn't' like his conscience really needed her guilt trips. "Until you can tell me," she continued after a frustrated pause, "You're grounded...from everything. No friends, no computer, no television. School, and home. I don't care if it takes until tomorrow, or until you turn 30," she turned and walked calmly out of the room. "And don't sneak out again, please," she said from the door, "You almost gave me a heart attack, and next time, the punishment will be more severe." Danny just stared after her. More severe? How could it be more severe short of a beating? Of course, he'd never been beaten in his life. Spanked a few times when he was little, but not beat. He sat on his bed, glowering at his room. Here he was saving the city, and he gets grounded? Now he probably wouldn't even be able to actually fight ghosts if the lock-down would be as tight as he thought it would be. Life was so not fair!

'But they would understand, if you just told them,' a voice in his head chided.

'Would they?' he asked back. 'It doesn't matter how much they love me, they would still see me as a freak. That's the way everyone else sees me.'

He closed his eyes and flopped onto his back out of exhaustion and frustration.

'They've accepted you before,' that stupid voice continued. 'You know they'll accept you now.'

'And then what?'

A pause as realization suddenly seemed to dawn on him for the first time that he could remember without someone else's help. 'You're afraid to tell them because you don't know what will happen?' he blinked up at the ceiling. As he lay there, too tired to get undressed, an ironic question crossed his arguing mind. What would Jazz say if she knew he was fighting with himself? Would she panic and insist she see a shrink? Or would she congratulate him for analyzing his own situation without her help?

"I could always just ignore them and fight ghosts anyways," he muttered aloud, but he knew that wouldn't do much good. It would only get him scheduled with councilors or someone that could explain his changes in behavior over the last few months, which would only cut into his ghost-hunting and school work even more.

'I've been hanging out around Jazz too much,' he sighed to himself. 'Maybe I should tell them,' he looked around at the darkened room full of rockets and space pictures. What was the worst that could happen? He already knew from the Freakshow incident that they would accept him, but then what would they do? Would they just let things go on the way they had been? He doubted it. The thought of his parents "driving" after him, and talking on cell phones as they made ghost hunting a family effort came to him, and he couldn't suppress a shudder.

'But then, they could help me out with school,' he nodded, continuing his argument. No more problems with homework, maybe even no more curfew.

No more lies.

Why did that idea suddenly seem so appealing? Not having to worry about explaining himself and remembering everything he'd said to keep the cover. No more secrets. No more hiding whenever they showed up. And he could tell them. That's why he'd erased their memories before. He'd wanted to be the one to let them know. He wanted to be able to apologize for all of the lies and the problems he'd caused. He didn't want them to "find out" through some random mistake.

'How long can I hide this from them?' he asked himself. It wasn't an unfamiliar question, he'd asked himself at least a million times before...but before, it had always seemed like he didn't have to hurry. He still didn't see the need to, but his parents could find out about him tomorrow...or the next day, or the next.

His jaw set in determination. "I've been hiding this for long enough," he said to himself. "Tomorrow, I'm gonna tell 'em. I'm gonna tell them I''m half ghost."

With that statement, he suddenly felt like a million pounds had been lifted off of his shoulders. Sleep came almost immediately after that, and he fell into a restful dream.

He didn't see the figure floating several feet outside his half-open bedroom window, and was too far away to pick him up with his ghost sense. A smile crossed her lips, and she turned off the listening device that had been planted in the half-ghosts room.

"Baby bro," she whispered into a communicator, "I think we may have just hit the jackpot."

OoO

"Would you like to see a movie?" Danny pulled himself out of the brief flashback to glance tiredly up at the stewardess, who had come back and was holding out a box of small tapes for Danny to see.

"Thanks," he smiled and looked back out the window, "but no thanks."

The woman shook her head at him. "Is there anything I can do for you. Something I can help you with?"

"I wish," Danny muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"No," he couldn't bring himself to turn around. "I appreciate it, more than you know, but there is really nothing you can do for me." The red-head nodded, tucked the box under her arm and walked down the aisle again. "There's nothing anyone can do for me," Danny muttered to himself dejectedly. "Nothing."