Chapter Nine: Tatters and Patches

Sam slowly opened her eyes, blinking at the sudden light. She was in her bed, and it was still dark out, but her lights were on at full blast. She sat up, clutching at her comforter. Danny? What had happened to Danny. . ? Or was it just a dream. . ?

"Sam! You're awake! Finally! It's been, like, three days." Sam snapped her head in the direction of Tucker's voice.

"Three days?" she whispered. "Tell me you're exaggerating."

"He's not." Sam's heart leaped with joy as a figure detached itself from the shadows. She gazed at Danny with happiness.

"You're okay!" She leaped out of bed and hugged Danny as hard as she could. He laughed and looked at her with joy, then reached for the dresser. He lifted up a hand mirror and held it up to her.

"Take a look." he said solemnly. Sam did, and blinked in confusion.

"How in the world did I get a silver stripe in my hair?" She fingered it softly, and Danny drew her hand away.

"Tucker, do you think you could give us a moment?" Tucker nodded slightly and walked out of the room. Danny turned his attention back to Sam. "Do you remember any of what happened?"

Sam thought hard. "I remember you opening the locket and throwing myself in front of you. What happened?" Danny sighed.

"Apparently, you died. Everybody came back and Joanna disappeared. Rhiannon remembered what had happened between her and Joanna and then remembered how to bring you back to life. She did it and. . ." Danny let his voice fade out, and tweaked her new silver stripe. "She went on to the next life, I guess."

"Oh." Sam looked at her feet in silence. "Danny? Did you like her?" Sam's voice was small.

Danny was taken by surprise. "Like her? Um, well, she was a friend for saving our butts so many times, but. . . Not in the way you mean, Sam."

"Do you like me?" She looked up at him with hopeful eyes, and he smiled.

"Yes, I do believe I do." Danny drew her close, and their lips met in the perfect first real kiss.

Outside the window, there was a slight rustle in the leaves as something silver flashed from the limb. An owl hooted in annoyance before spreading it's wings and leaping into the sky. No one noticed the happy little chuckle that seemed to come out of no where as a silver blur leaped after the owl. It flew for a moment, followed by a slightly more golden flash.

"I knew they were the ones, Ron." came a faint whisper, only if you were listening hard enough.

"Shall we go then, Rhi? I've waited a long time for this." came another one. The two colors combined, and were then lost in the luminescence of the moon.

Danny inched his way down into the basement, where he knew his dad would be sitting. For the past week, Jack had been slightly moody and not quite as ghost obsessed as usual. Danny assumed that it had something to do with his worst fear, which he still hadn't heard about. Jazz had said that their dad had been muttering about how ghosts were real, of course, and Maddie would never leave him for a freaky rich dude like Vlad.

"You're lurking, Danny. Ghosts like to lurk, and I would appreciate it if my own son wouldn't." Jack's voice was flat, but his eyes twinkled slightly as Danny approached him.

"Oh, um, hi, dad. I have a couple of questions. . ."

"About ghosts?"

"Well, yeah, pretty much. It's about a cursed object. . ." Danny fidgeted the locket in his pocket as Jack's face lit up.

"Cursed objects. . . Cursed by a ghost?"

"Um, yes."

"Did you try destroying it?" Danny shook his head after a moments thought.

"I think that would let the ghost inside it out and that would be bad. Hypothetically, of course."

"Right. Well then, hypothetically," Here Jack winked. "You could encase it in cement and either sink it into the depths of the ocean or send it off into space. Basically just put it in something no one wants and put it somewhere no one wants to go.Or keep it as a lovely souvenir, but I don't think you would want that."

"Right, thanks dad." Danny turned to go, but hesitated for a moment. "Hey dad?"

"Yes son?"

"Do you really think that all ghosts are evil? Like, for example, Inviso-Bill. Are you sure that his actions are evil by intent, not accidental destruction of the town?" Jack was surprised by the question. Could it be possible that some ghosts were good and that Public Ghost Enemy #1 wasn't really bad at all?

"I guess it's possible. I've never really considered that before, son. I'll have to look into that. . ." Jack turned to a pile of papers and began leafing through it. Danny turned silently and walked upstairs.

"Now where am I going to get cement?" he wondered aloud.

It was three weeks later, and the school had been all fixed up. Therefore, all the students were back in school, and not happy about it.

"Gees, Danny. Couldn't you have 'accidentally' destroyed the entire thing?" Tucker whined as they sat at their normal table. Danny and Sam laughed as one, stopped to glance at one another, and then laughed again. Tucker rolled his eyes. "Well, at least you've finally admitted that you're made for each other."

"Hey, Fentina! Heads up!" Dash yelled from across the cafeteria. A pile of mashed potatoes slammed into Danny's head, and he sighed.

"Back to normal, oh joy." he muttered, wiping them off. Sam smiled faintly, then frowned.

"What did you do with Joanna's locket?" she asked. Danny shot her a look.

"Quiet, not that loud. I told you, I put it in one of my parents' barrels of ectoplasmic waste and they put it in the ghost zone. Believe me, no one will be getting anywhere near that that thing for at least a millennium. Now, back to the problem at hand. . ." Danny disappeared for a moment, and then the others heard a scream from across the lunchroom. Dash's tray had just flipped over, spilling everything and a cup of soup on Dash's prized jacket. Danny reappeared a moment later, laughing uncontrollably. Jazz, who just happened to be walking by at that exact moment, rolled her eyes.

"Ah, sweet normalcy." she mused, then shook her head and laughed. "At least as close to it as my family will ever get!"

Danny shut down his computer and sighed. For once, his homework was finished before midnight, and there were no ghosts around to bother him. He leaned back down onto the bed with a thump and thought about Rhiannon's riddle.

"Secrets." he whispered. "Yeah, they hurt like hell." He rolled over with another sigh and propped himself up on his elbows. "But that doesn't mean that they need to be told." He let himself fall flat on his stomach and crossed his arms, an annoyed glance crossing his features before he sighed yet again and rolled off the bed.

"I hate consciences." he muttered, walking down to the living room. His parents were sitting on the couch, holding hands.

"Hi Danny." Maddie said brightly. He smiled in return and looked at the windows. The shades were drawn, for some odd reason. He turned back to them and saw their smiles falter. "Danny? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong." Danny said lightly, almost turning to head back upstairs. But he caught sight of Jazz standing at the top of the flight, and her questioning gaze. Oh, for the love of. . .

"Are you sure, hon? Because you can talk with us if you need to." Jack's voice. Danny glanced back upstairs and saw Jazz flash a thumbs up and disappear inside her own room. He sighed and looked at his parents.

"Mom? Dad? Actually, there's been something I've been meaning to talk with you about. . ." As he said this, Danny let the twin blue-white rings rush out and begin to spark the transformation that had changed his life forever.

And that is the end. Thank you all for sticking with this story through the months where I didn't update and always reviewing with happy bits that made me like my story as much as I hope you did. Um, I'll be putting some more up reletivly soon, possibly in Teen Titans, but I'm not sure yet...

Until we meet again!

Grey R. North