A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I had it written and ready to post when I decided I wanted to change it and add another scene. Hopefully you guys can forgive me, but for those of you who've been reading A Secret Uncovered (ASU), you should appreciate the addition!

Then, of course, as fate would have it , the time I try to spend writing it gets monopolized by schoolwork. Three words:I hate college. The average amount of sleep I got per night this week was four hours, the rest of the time was spent on homework. So, needless to say I didn't have enough time to write it. But, as of 5pm, I officially finished my essay on how reality can only be experienced through imagination (now you can get a sense of why it took me so long) which sigified the end of my week of death. So, as a celebration, I bring you the chapter! Enjoy!

Oh, and thanks to all my reviewers! You guys rock!

Chapter Three
Choices Made

Danny flew them back into his room, phasing them through the wall again. He dropped them on the bed as he continued to float in the air.

"Wow," Tucker remarked, a look of pure delight and awe on his face. "That…was amazing. That was probably the best thing I have ever done in my life!"

"I have to admit, that was pretty amazing," Sam admitted. Ten minutes after their near encounter with the floor Sam finally opened her eyes and found that she really enjoyed it. She just had to keep her eyes looking straight ahead or up so she wouldn't know how far up they were flying. But still, it was something she could definitely grow to learn, and she knew Danny was feeling the same way, judging by the fact that he was still floating. She had a feeling this was going to be something very common from now on.

Danny was thinking along the same lines. He was just considering flying Sam and Tucker to their respective houses and then spending the rest of the night flying over the town when he glanced at himself in the mirror.

"My legs are gone! Where are my legs?" he started questioning. Below his belt billowed a smoky black ghost tail where his legs should have been.

"Wow, you really must be part ghost then Danny," Tucker commented.

"I wonder if it happened while you were flying," Sam suggested.

Danny thought hard and his legs appeared. "Oh thank goodness. This is going to take some getting used to," Danny remarked.

"Yeah, but we're here for you Danny," Tucker comforted.

"No matter how many weird ghost side effects you develop," Sam added smiling.

"Thanks guys," Danny thanked as they wrapped themselves in a group hug, until Danny fell through them as he accidentally went intangible. He stood up, becoming solid again, smiling. "I guess there's another emotion I'll have to watch out for, happiness." They all smiled.

For the next half hour Danny practiced controlling his powers, still leaving Tucker and Sam in awe every time he managed to turn invisible or intangible. He could easily turn into his human/ghost form at will and could become invisible or intangible whenever he wished to. Of course, there were times when he would fall through the floor or the wall when he didn't mean to.

Danny was in the process of trying to turn the entire bed intangible with him when suddenly he turned tangible and fell to the floor, unconscious. Then the two rings formed and he turned back into his human self.

"Danny? Danny, what happened?" Sam yelled to him.

Danny opened his eyes, staring at Tucker and Sam. He started to get up and realized that he felt a lot heavier. He looked at his body and noticed that he wasn't in his ghost form.

"What happened? When did I change back?" he asked.

"You sort of just knocked out and then when you were on the floor you just turned back," Tucker explained.

"Uh, I'm so tired," Danny complained as he pushed himself up and fell into his bed.

"I think you've used too much energy Danny," Sam explained. "You didn't have enough energy to stay awake any longer, so you fainted. And I guess when you faint you turn back to human."

"That's a good thing to know then," Danny remarked.

"Danny! Danny! Come and see! It's working! It's working!" his father's voice called from downstairs. "The Fenton portal, it's working!"

Sam and Tucker looked at Danny. "You should tell them," Sam suggested.

"No way. There's no way I'm telling them that I'm half ghost. They'll turn me into a lab rat! My parents are always talking about how they want to catch a ghost and do all these experiments on it; that's why they built the portal in the first place!"

"But who says they'll use you? You're their son, they have to accept you. I mean, aren't there other ghosts out there for them to use?" Tucker asked.

"No. Ghost's don't exist," Danny stated bluntly and slightly automatically. "Wait, I can't say that anymore can I? I'm living proof that they do."

"So does that mean that there are other ghosts out there?" Sam asked.

"Right now, I wouldn't doubt it," Danny replied.

"So you're not going to tell them?" Tucker asked.

"No," Danny stated firmly.

"But what if they can help you?" Sam suggested.

"They can't help me. They'll think that being half ghost is some kind of a disease and they'd try to expunge it out of me. I mean, whenever anyone in this house gets a cold they think that it's ghost energy that's doing it, so they hook you up to all this machinery in the lab and won't let you leave for days. If that's their solution to the common cold, I don't want to know their solution for ghost powers."

"But Danny…" Sam continued.

"No. I'm not going to tell them. What if it pulls the family apart? What if they don't accept me? What if they start doing all these experiments on me? Our family will be ruined, all because of me. I don't want to risk it. Besides, how hard can it be to hide ghost powers?" he asked as he fell through the bed. He rose, smiling sheepishly.

Sam and Tucker left while Danny went back down into the basement that changed his life forever. He saw the green glow of the ghost zone and all the memories of the accident flashed back to him. His parents were standing by the ghost portal, examining it, trying to figure out how it remarkably turned on. Danny took a deep breath and walked over towards them.

Sam and Tucker had decided that he should tell his parents about the accident, minus the part about becoming half ghost and obtaining ghost powers. That way they'd know how the portal turned on, and that if he started acting strange and secretive, it would be because of the accident, which Danny figured was technically the truth.

They also agreed that no one, including Jazz, needed to know about Danny's new state of being. He was to keep it a secret from everyone, which Danny didn't think would be too hard. His ghost self and his human self looked different enough, so he figured that if he wanted to fly around the town, no one would ever know it was him. What was the point of having ghost powers if you never got to use them?

He walked over to his parents, getting closer to the Ghost Zone. He didn't like it, the way it glowed eerily. For some reason he could tell that having this portal was not a good thing, no matter how much his parents believed otherwise.

"Danny my boy! You've come to see it! Look, it works! Isn't it magnificent?" his father bellowed with pride. He glanced at Danny with a proud smile and then turned back to the ghost portal.

"Dad, have you been crying?" Danny asked, noticing his father's slightly red and puffy eyes.

"Oh your father and I are just so happy. After the failure yesterday we never thought that we'd get it to work, and now all of a sudden it's started working! It's a dream come true!" his mother expressed, not looking his way either, her attention on the ghost portal as well.

"I just wish I knew why it started working," his father stated puzzled, still examining a device that Danny figured read the status of the portal.

"Mom, Dad, I need to tell you something.'

"What is it honey?" his mother asked, her attention still on the ghost portal.

"I know how the ghost portal turned on."

"That's nice," his father said blankly, clearly not paying attention.

"That's wonderful dear," his mother stated. "Wait…what did you say?" she asked, finally turning towards him.

"I know how the ghost portal turned on." This time his father turned around as well.

"Honey, how do you know?" his mother asked slowly.

"Well, yesterday you were so sad, I wanted to help you. So today Tucker, Sam, and I went down here and started looking at the ghost portal. I went inside it and well…I found an on button."

"We forgot to turn the portal on? Suffering spooks, how can we be so stupid!" his father complained.

"Please tell me you unplugged it before pushing the on button," his mother demanded. Then her eyes widened as she saw Danny's face. "You didn't? You just pushed the on button while still in the portal?" she asked rushing over to Danny, his father rushing over as well.

"I-I didn't know what would happen. I pushed it and then there was all this green light. I started running out, but I got hit with some of the blast on the way out. I got knocked out and Tucker and Sam brought me up to my room."

"You could have died! Oh honey, are you alright?" his mother asked as she kneeled next to him.

"I'm fine," he lied.

"Oh you feel cold to the touch and you're shaking. Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"No!" Danny yelled rather quickly. "I…I don't really need to go to the hospital. I'm fine."

"No you're not, you're a brick of ice, and you're shivering. Come on, let's get you upstairs and then I'll bring you some hot soup."

"Mom, it's fine. I don't need anything, honest. I'm just feeling a little wary of the portal, that's all."

"Oh, of course. Let's get you away from there. You're probably having flashbacks of the accident just looking at it!"

"Danny," his father knelt down in front of him before they headed upstairs "I just wanted to say thank you, for getting the portal up. I'm sorry you had to get hurt."

"No problem Dad."

"Come on dear," his mother demanded as she led Danny upstairs. "To think what would have happened if you didn't make it out. The ghost energy released from the portal would have killed you! It's a good thing you weren't in there."

"Yeah, a really good thing," he added as his hand went intangible.

Maddie forced Danny onto the couch and placed a blanket over him while turning on the television.

"We just need to occupy your mind, get it off that traumatizing experience. Do you need anything? Something to eat, drink?"

"No Mom, I'm fine."

"What's wrong? Is Danny sick?" Jazz asked as she walked in the door, back from her daily visit to the library.

"The Fenton Ghost Portal is working!" Jack bellowed.

"Okay… and this just started to work because…" Jazz stated, not sure what to think.

"Because your brother decided to take a look into the portal and found the on button," Maddie added sheepishly.

"So that whole time all you forgot to do was press the on button!" Jazz yelled in frustration as Jack and Maddie simply nodded. "I knew it! I knew it was something insignificant like that! All that time I spent worrying over how to cheer you up again and all just because you forgot to turn it on! I think I missed a question on my anatomy test because I couldn't get your state of depression out of my head!"

"Jazz dear, this isn't the time. You see, Danny turned the portal on while inside the portal."

Jazz gazed open mouthed at her entire family. She didn't think she could ever find a family that lacked so much common sense.

"What were you thinking? All of you! Danny, why did you do that! You could have been seriously injured! You could have been killed! And Mom, Dad, why would you even put the on button inside the portal? Of all the stupid things you've ever done, this has got to be one of the stupidest!"

"Well, when we first decided to do that it was under the impression that once the portal was activated there'd be no way to turn the portal off because the on/off button would be on the other side of the portal. We were planning on turning on the button and then plugging it in, thus sparing us from having to be inside the portal," Maddie explained.

Jazz ignored her parent's explanation of their failed logic as she knelt next to Danny. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah Jazz, I'm fine," he comforted as he smiled. She smiled back and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"I'm glad you're alright. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Thanks Jazz."

"Alright, now we're going to go into the kitchen and talk about common sense and how the little bit that you have needs to be used in the lab," Jazz lectured as she dragged her parents into the kitchen.

Danny smiled as he thought about the situation. That's Jazz for you, forever the real parent of the family he thought in amusement.

Danny shivered as he pulled the covers closer to him. In truth he wasn't feeling that great. He felt extremely cold and exhausted and he had a major headache. Overall, he just felt achy and unpleasant, like he did when he got the beginnings of the flu, only minus all the regular symptoms. He figured they were just pains from the accident. Being hit with all that ghost energy did hurt horribly, and he was sure that all the changes his body had undergone to make himself half ghost probably accounted for the overall crappy feeling. Still, that didn't make him feel any better.

Not only did his body ache, but his heart as well. He didn't know how much lying to his family would hurt. His parents he could manage, since it was for a good reason, but it broke his heart to lie to Jazz. She was relying on the fact that he was all right, which he clearly wasn't. He and his sister may not get along and she may be extremely bossy and nosy at times, but he still loved her deeply. They'd never had any big secrets from each other and were usually pretty open with each other, since they were the only normal ones in the family.

But now, he was lying to her about something big, something that probably will change his life, or afterlife, forever. He felt like ripping his heart out to stop it from hurting. The way she looked when he told her he was all right, the way she seemed so comforted by his comments, it just broke his heart to realize that they all really didn't mean anything. They were all based off a lie, a lie created by him. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe it wasn't the truth that would tear them apart, but the lies.

Danny allowed his thoughts to surround him as he drifted into a welcome sleep. Soon, much sooner than he would have liked, he was awoken by his father's loud booming voice as he emerged from the kitchen with Maddie and Jazz. Obviously Jazz had just finished her lecture and had set the hopefully more knowledgeable couple into the world.

"Alright everyone, get dressed. We're going out to Olive Garden to celebrate the opening of the Fenton Ghost Portal and the prospect of further ghost experimentation and research!" Jack bellowed proudly.

Alright, maybe the truth would hurt more.

The four of them walked into the restaurant. Jack was striding proudly in the lead while Maddie and Jazz walked behind him. Danny dragged in the back, trying to keep up but feeling utterly exhausted. He felt completely drained of energy, but he didn't want anyone to know. He said he was fine and he didn't want to ruin the dinner for everyone. They hardly went out and when they did it usually was a joyous occasion for everyone, and he didn't want to ruin it, especially when he couldn't tell them the truth of why he felt so bad. He figured that if they didn't ask, he couldn't lie, and things would be better overall. But in order for them not to ask, he had to appear to be fine, which was turning out to be harder than he thought.

They sat down at their table and ordered and received their drinks. Danny tried to partake in the usual Straw Wars like he usually did when they went out to eat, but he just couldn't find the energy to get excited about it like usual.

"Danny, are you all right?" Jazz asked as Danny was pelted with another straw wrapper from Jack.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired," he responded as he received a worried look from Jazz. She knew something was up, he could tell. Whenever they went out to eat he would do anything to avoid getting hit with the straw weapon. He even fell out of his chair once when he leaned over too far to avoid a wrapper. Now, he was just taking them and had only shot two half hearted ones in retaliation.

Finally the food arrived, signaling the end of the Straw Wars. Everyone happily started eating his or her warm and creamy Italian pasta. Danny wasn't really that hungry, and he figured it probably had something to do with the fact that he'd spent most of the day as a ghost that didn't need to eat, but Jazz was still looking up at him every few seconds, making sure he was all right, and now his mother was too. So, he ate, although with great reluctance.

As he brought yet another forkful of pasta to his mouth, he felt the tingle in his hand. He heard the fork drop to his plate as it fell through his now intangible hand. He quickly dropped his hand, passing it through the table and keeping it hidden.

Jazz looked at her brother curiously. She looked up after she heard the fork drop and could swear that she saw his hand pass through the table. She quickly dismissed the thought. He probably just moved his hand under the table so quickly that it just seemed like it went through the table. She knew something was up though, judging by the fact that Danny's face was a mask of terror, his eyes darting around the restaurant.

"Danny, are you okay?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah sweetie, why did you drop your fork?" his mother asked, now staring at him.

"Oh, um, the fork just, uh, slipped out of my hand. Um, I have to go to the bathroom." He got up quickly and practically ran to the bathroom, hoping no one saw his intangible hand. He ran into a stall and leaned against the door. He looked at his hand and sighed. That was far too close. He really needed to learn how to control these abilities, and soon. Otherwise his parents would find out, and he would end up on a lab table while his insides were being placed in test tubes for analysis.

He sighed and stared at his hand, concentrating on turning it tangible. He stared until his eyes dried out and his hand was still the same blue, opaque tint. He shut his eyes and leaned his head back on the door, waiting for his eyes to moisten before he tried again. He opened his eyes and looked at his hand, trying everything to get it to turn back to normal. He tried imagining it as tangible, imagined it stopping when it hit a wall, not continuing through it, imagined it the same pale skin color as his other hand, imagined it actually having bones and muscles, imagined it being anything other than intangible, but to no luck. It was still intangible and he couldn't change it back.

Now he was starting to feel extremely tired and drained, as well as awkward. He didn't know how many people had gone through the bathroom while he was still trying to figure out how to fix his hand. It was slightly uncomfortable to still be in the stall the entire time someone uses the bathroom, knowing that his stall door was probably getting some strange looks, especially when there was a line. The first ones in line would go in, go out, and then the next people would go and on down the line, and all the while he was still monopolizing the handicapped stall.

He'd taken to pacing in what little space he had, trying to think of what to do, trying to keep calm and not freak out. He'd been in the bathroom for almost five minutes by this point and he was sure his parents were worried about him. Jazz already thought something was wrong, and now he wouldn't come out of the bathroom.

Again he stared angrily at his hand, willing it to turn tangible, but to no avail. He figured it probably had something to do with his lack of energy which was steadily decreasing by the minute, but he didn't really care. Knowing why he couldn't change it back wasn't going to fix it, only knowing how would.

Fed up, Danny went ghost, hoping it would fix his hand in the transformation, but it didn't. He sighed and started floating in the air. At least he could stop standing up, that was a plus. For a few more minutes he tried to concentrate but finally gave up. He figured his hand had to go back to normal eventually, and it obviously wanted to make his life difficult by doing it in its own time, so he decided to just wait it out, hoping for the best. Not to mention that he couldn't concentrate anymore because his head hurt so much. He was so tired that he thought he would fall asleep in the air.

Finally he felt the tingle and noticed his hand was back to normal. He cheered, much to the shock of the people in the bathroom with him, and he changed back into his human form, his arm still tangible. He ran out of the bathroom and into the restaurant to join his family.

"Danny, what took you so long? You were in there for about ten minutes!"

"Oh, well…" Danny thought, trying to think of an excuse that didn't involve the embarrassing topic of diarrhea or constipation.

"Danny, come here," his mother instructed as he obeyed promptly. She placed her hand on his forehead and gasped. "Danny, you're ice cold, more so than before! And your eyes…" Danny's heart skipped a beat. They couldn't be green, not now. "…they've lost that sparkle. They look dead. And your skin is all pale and clammy. Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

Danny figured he should just admit it. He was feeling extremely tired and just wanted to drop to the floor and sleep for eternity. "Actually…"

"Of course he's not Mom! Look at him! We need to go home so he can rest! I knew this was a bad idea! He had just been through a terrible accident and should have been at home recuperating, not going out to dinner to celebrate the accident."

Maddie nodded and flagged down the waitress, explaining the situation and requesting the check. They returned home and Danny walked upstairs to his room leaning on Jazz for support. He had barely enough energy to keep his eyes open, let alone walk or even crawl to his bedroom.

The second he hit his bed he fell fast asleep, not thinking about anything other than the soft feel of the pillow against his face and the warmth of the covers surrounding him.

A/N: So as promised, a lot longer. It's actually double the original length, so I guess your patience gets rewarded in the end.