beforehand

holy shit.. the stats on this thing are 1087 hits, 9 favourites, and 14 alerts! that's the most recognition my work has ever gotten XD even stories that i had on her for four years straight didn't meet these stats (before i deleted them XD) thank you so much to all who enjoy this!

shoutouts

Pieling - thanks a bunch, hope to keep you interested.

crazyvi - i tryy, pray writer's block won't get me!

gabriella phantom - your review made me laugh XD glad to keep you coming back

Chaos inducer - I've never written a story that was so well-liked before, either, so you're helping me, too! So you're welcome and thank you. Don't worry about reviewing every chapter, I'm just glad that you're staying with me so far. I know what you mean about the "thinking" issue, I feel the same way about myself. Yeah, I guess I felt bad about making Ember a softy so I had her turn around and be a total bitch. Everyone seemed to enjoy the dominance twist, and with all the positive reviews I'm really begining to feel stronger as a writer. I had written a whole different episode with the clothing switch but we won't even go there. I'm glad you enjoy Jazz's discovery as well. I've never had so many aspects of my work appreciated! You don't know how much your reviews (and everyone elses) mean to me. I hope I can return the favour sometime in the near future!

Bunny Bubble - -gives lots of hugs and takes lolipop- sanku muches! (it's my way of saying thank you very much)

disclaimer

danny phantom is not mine... and if it was... it'd be illegal for viewing by minors :-)

Silent Departure

Chapter 7 - Thought Trains and Treatises ((Danny Fenton's POV))

More worried about the Phantom's condition than possibly having just revealed our secret, I kneel by his side and lay his head in my lap. I touch the scratches on his face (which are still glowing bright green as they had when he's come in) and look up at my friends.

"Come to my room," Jazz says. "I stole some stuff from the lab in case you ever got hurt by a ghost."

"Wow," Tucker says to my sister as I lift the phantom and carry him out. "You really think ahead."

"Since I learned of Danny's powers, I made sure to do what I could to help him... and when fighting by his side didn't work, I stuck to preparing for the worst." Jazz explains as we all enter her room. I lay my counterpart on her bed and sigh softly. He looks so pretty when he sleeps... I touch the scratches again. My poor baby...

Jazz moves my hand to take a sample from the Phantom's injury, then places my hand as it was. I glance at my friends to find them watching Jazz, then lean down to plant a soft kiss on the phantom's lips.

((Sam's POV))

Knowing that covering his mouth won't work, I distract Tucker by stealing his PDA.

"Hey!" he whines, trying to get it back. Danny's eyes snap open and he sits up innocently, glancing back to see if he's been caught. I avert my gaze to Tucker, and Danny emits a sigh of relief.

"Guys, please!" Jazz snaps, and Tucker pouts.

"I only wanted to know if we could use this thing in any way," I lie, handing the assistant back to it's owner.

"You could have just asked," Tucker holds it possessively, then baby-talks to it and cradles it as if it were a child. He and I both know what we saw, but Danny will tell us when he's ready. Hopefully, I tell myself, it's just an act of despiration to restore his other half. It's false hope, and I know it. The constant splitting, the switching outfits, the calling him 'love', the kiss... Danny and Danny are together and there's no denying it. Danny's probably not even a vir...

"I got it!" Jazz exclaims. "It's some sort of ectoplasmic poison... nothing too critical, and with a little help I should be able to whip up an antidote."

"What help do you need?" Danny asks eagerly.

"You stay here, baby bro," she says. "He needs you by his side."

Danny nods understandably.

"What about us?" Tucker and I ask.

"Sam, I need you to do a little shopping," Jazz scribbles something down and hands it to me. "This is a list of things I need for the antidote. Tucker will stay here and help me analyze the poison for further information." she hands me money and a cell phone. "We'll contact you if something comes up. Otherwise, go straight there and back."

I nod and leave without question or complaint.

((Tucker's POV))

I watch Sam leave, then scan the substance Jazz took from the phantom's injury. Using my PDA, I manage to look into the molecular structure of the poison to determine how strong the antidote will need to be. Jazz takes vigorous notes, while Danny sits on the bed, focusing solely on the phantom. Stroking his cheek, finger-combing his hair, laying down and cuddling to him. He's lovesick and it's so nauseatingly obvious that I almost want to pull him from the room and play Twenty Questions. Every now and then, Jazz glances at them. She knows, too. She has to. I only wounder how she knows and how much she knows. If he didn't tell us, then he certainly best not have told her. He wouldn't, though. He didn't tell her when be became half ghost, so why tell her when he fell in love with that half? Why...

"Tucker, pay attention!" Jazz snaps. I notice that my PDA is beeping. It discovered that, while the power must be new to Ember, since the effects of the poison aren't that critical, they can become dangerous if evident in his system for more than three hours. While we don't know when exactly he was attacked, we do know it was after I gave him my copy of the Fenton Thermos (which I personally prefer to call the Foley Thermos), and it's been about an hour since that time. Judging the time it should take Sam to get to the store, find and purchase the ingredients, and return to Fenton Works, Jazz and I agree that she should be back twenty minutes from now, at the most. Having written down estimated antidote recepies and the possible side effect of using too much or too little of each ingredient, Jazz now consults me to help her narrow it down to the two most-likely-to-work-safely choices. By the time we accomplish this, as well as argue over which one would be the better initial mixture, Danny is fast asleep, and Sam returns with everything Jazz requested.

"You didn't make any guesses or substitutions, right?" the older girl asks.

"Everything is exactly as you wrote," Sam replies. In somewhat of a scolding tone, she adds, "I wouldn't want anything to go wrong."

"Neither would I," Jazz responds with an attitude of her own. Maybe Danny has the right idea... I'll never understang girls anyway.

((Jazz's POV))

I measure each ingredient as carefully as I can, making sure that if one is not exact, I can balance it with another. Once the antidote is complete, I check once more to make sure it's properly mixed, and then have Tucker analyze it in comparison to the data of the poison to determin the speed and likeliness of it being successful. Pleased with the answer her provides, I step towards the phantom, onlu to realize that I never found out if the cure should be swallowed or poured directly onto the affected area.

"I'd assume that since the poison was put in by attack and not ingested in the first place that it would make more sense to mix the solution directly with the problem area," Sam suggests.

"Sounds reasonable to me," Tucker says, then shrugs. "You're the scientist, Jazz. I'm just the techno geek."

"Well then look it up!" I demand a little louder than I'd intended to, consiquently waking my little brother.

"Jazz...?" he asks groggily.

"Sorry, Danny..." I say sincerely. "I got annoyed at your friend."

"Yeah, they can be annoying," Danny laughs softly.

"Hey, we're doing this as a favor to you, dude," Tucker says.

"Calm down, Tuck, he's just kidding," Sam rolls her eyes. For some reason I'm not sure if I should believe her, but Tucker seems to.

"Yeah, yeah... I can't find anything on ectoplasmic injuries but using some of what Sam said as keywords, her idea seems to make sense."

"You better be right," I warn, approaching the phantom and pouring some of the antidote onto the scratches. They emit a hissing sound and my brother sits up quickly, looking concerned.

"What did you do?" he asks, his voice and expression now frantic and accusing.

"It's supposed to make him better!" I assure, and the wounds suddenly close up, leaving no trace of ever having existed. "...See...?"
My brother glares. "If that poison is still in his body, I will never forgive you."

"Maybe you should have him drink it, too?" Tucker suggests.

"No way in Hell!" my brother grabs the phantom and holds him possessively. "He's a ghost! Ectoplasmic energy! That stuff will eat up his insides!"

"Danny, I..."

"NO!" he cries, holding his lover close. "I won't let you hurt him anymore."

"She wasn't hurting him, she was trying to help!" Sam snaps. Danny glares at her through tear-filled eyes. "You need to get over yourself... we all know what's really going on here."

"Then you should really know that I would do anything for him," Danny near growls. "I..."

The phantom stirrs, then opens his eyes slowly. "Daniel...?"

"I'm here, love," Danny cradles the ghost boy. "It's okay... I'm here..."

The phantom groans softly and looks around. "There are other people in here..." he whispers cautiously.

"I know," Danny smiles. "They know."

"They... know?"

Danny nods. "They know... they helped you..." he looks at us. "I'm sorry... I was scared..."

I crawl over and sit next to him on my bed, and Sam and Tucker follow suit. None of us need to apologize, Danny knows he's forgiven. Without us needing to ask, he begins to tell the story of the day their relationship started, obviously sugar-coating the x-rated memories. Once he can sit up on his own, the phantom pulls from my brother's embrace. They go on to tell about their times together between that day and this one, sometimes arguing over what really happened, but never a smile leaving either of them.

While there's no way to tell if the antidote worked yet, it's nice to see my baby brother so happy. I make note to keep an eye on the phantom during our chat, but he seems healthy enough. As it's a school night, Sam and Tucker leave when it starts to get dark. I advise the Dannys to merge before they're caught by Mom and Dad, but they decide it would be more fun to shower together and then go to bed and merge in the morning.