A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! I'm glad those of you who have been reading A Secret Uncovered liked the addition so much!

Here's the next chapter where Danny's back at school. Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Four
Welcome Back

Danny felt a cold stick being inserted in between his lips. His eyes shot open and he jumped up in shock. He looked around and noticed his sister sitting beside the bed, looking quite shaken.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're awake," she stated as she grabbed the dropped thermometer off the bed. "I'm just going to check your temperature."

Danny nodded and felt the cold stick between his lips again, but this time with permission and the knowledge that it was going to happen. They sat in awkward silence as the thermometer deprived Danny of the ability to talk for the time being. Finally the thermometer beeped and Jazz removed it from his mouth, looking puzzled at the results.

"Danny, how are you feeling?" she asked as she continued to look at the thermometer.

"I feel fine. I feel totally refreshed."

"Well, that could be because it's four in the afternoon, the next day," she answered, lifting her eyes up and smiling.

"Four in the afternoon! That means I've been asleep for…"

"Twenty one hours," Jazz supplied as she drew her attention to the thermometer again.

"Twenty one hours," Danny repeated in shock. He must have been more tired than he thought. What would make him sleep so long?

Then he remembered the accident, and the night before, and how horrible he felt. Was it all just a horrible dream? Was he now just waking up from the accident and wasn't a ghost after all? He noticed that his sister was still looking at the thermometer, shaking it around like it was broken. He directed his attention to his hand and imagined it intangible. He gasped as his hand turned the clear blue color and fell through the covers.

Jazz looked up, just as he shoved his hand back under, trying to get it to return to it's normal, tangible state.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing, nothing. I was just…remembering what happened yesterday. I thought it was all just a dream…and now I just realized that it wasn't." That was somewhat true.

Jazz smiled warmly at him. "Yeah, it did happen. Now, I need to check your temperature again. Obviously you moved last time or something because it says your temperature is seven degrees below normal, which definitely can't be right."

Danny opened his mouth again and allowed Jazz to take his temperature. After it beeped, she removed it and checked it again, only to find that it read the same answer as before. She took his temperature two more times and with two different thermometers before finally giving up.

"I don't understand. By all accounts you should be suffering hypothermia, or at least be dead. Are you sure you're feeling all right?" she asked worriedly as she placed a hand on his forehead before drawing it back quickly and placing both her hands on his cheeks and then around his neck.

"I'm feeling fine," he answered as she continued to feel his body temperature.

"Danny, your skin is ice cold to the touch! Are you cold at all?"

"No."

She looked at him in worry. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Jazz, I told you, I'm fine. I think I just needed some sleep."

"Well, I think we should call a doctor…"

"No!" Danny answered quickly and sharply, which caught Jazz's attention. "I mean, you know how Mom and Dad get around doctors. I don't know if that would be such a good idea. Plus, I'm feeling fine."

"Alright, well I think you should stay in bed, at least until your temperature rises back to normal. I'm going to run out to the store and buy some more trustworthy thermometers. Mom and Dad are in the basement, so just shout if you need anything."

"Alright, I will."

Jazz took one last look at the thermometer before placing it on the bedside table and walking out of the room, shutting the door on her way out.

Danny breathed a sigh of relief. He sure hoped his temperature would rise soon (if it did at all) so Jazz would get off his case. She always got so worried about this kind of stuff.

He shook himself out of these thoughts and turned instead to yesterday's events. It was around this time yesterday that he had gone in the portal. He had been a ghost for almost twenty four hours. He had been dead for twenty four hours.

Half dead he corrected himself. I'm only half dead, which isn't really that much better.

Again he shook himself out of his thoughts. They were too depressing, and thinking about being half dead wasn't going to change the fact that he was.

Danny got out of bed and stood in front of a full length mirror. He concentrated and watched in awe as the white rings formed around his waist and moved up and down his body, changing his appearance.

"Cool," he admired aloud as he watched the transformation. He gazed at the ghostly version of himself, trying to familiarize himself with his new appearance. He concentrated again and the white rings appeared again, changing him back to human.

He continued to change in front of the mirror, awestruck at the sight and thought that something like this could actually be happening, and to him of all people.

Then he decided to try invisibility again, and gasped as he saw himself vanish from sight in front of the mirror. He knew that he was looking at the mirror, and yet, he couldn't see his reflection inside it. He became visible again and returned to his bed, incase his parents decided to suddenly make a visit upstairs. As he sat down in his bed he accidentally turned intangible and fell not only through the bed, but through the floor as well. He ended up on the floor of the living room with a grunt and started to stand up when he heard his father scream something about ghosts and their pounding steps up the stairs. He quickly tried to turn invisible and found that he could only go intangible. In a panic he quickly jumped up, intent on running as fast as he could away from the room when he noticed that he was floating.

I guess I can fly when I'm intangible he thought. Sweet! He used this to his advantage and flew up through the ceiling and into his bed where he regained tangibility.

"Wow, that was close," he said aloud. "I really need to learn to get used to these, before I go out in public and make a freak of myself."

Fortunately for Danny, he had a while to get used to his powers before he had to tackle going out in public. His parents and sister felt that he should stay home from school until his temperature rose back to normal, but after a week it never happened. It was close to normal now, but just slightly below. His parents were worried that the portal had permanently altered his temperature, but unfortunately for Danny, that wasn't the only thing the portal had altered. As the week progressed, not only did Danny find that even though he now had control of his powers he was still accidentally going invisible or falling through solid objects, but he had also gotten a lot stronger. He also felt really cold a lot and he would see blue steam rise out of his mouth every so often. He didn't know what that meant, but there was no way to know whether it was normal or not. He didn't even think he was normal anymore.

During the week, Danny started thinking about his new powers, and what he would do with them. He excitedly thought about all the new possibilities that were open to him. He wouldn't have to ride the bus to school anymore, he could just fly there, invisible of course. He thought of all the mean tricks he could do to Dash when he shoved him into his locker, of trips into the girl's locker room, of sneaking off when he was grounded. But somehow, he felt guilty, like there was something missing, like there was something more that he needed to do with his powers.

A thought struck him while he was watching Superman while everyone was at school. Clark Kent used his amazing powers to stop crime and save the city, was that what he was supposed to do? Save the city from crime? He thought about it, but it didn't really sound too appealing. There wasn't much crime in Amity, so there wouldn't really be that much for him to do. He ran this theory by Tucker and Sam, and they weren't so sure about the idea. They mentioned the police, and how they pretty much had everything under control. They suggested that if he happened to be around when there was a crime, then he should definitely stop it, but he shouldn't bother his time trying to look for crime. He needed to concentrate on school and finding out exactly what was going on.

Finally his parents pronounced him fit to go back to school after they couldn't find a solution. To them, Danny looked fine. Sure he would act a little jumpy and strange at times and would run off for the weirdest reasons, but they figured that was just psychological trauma from the accident. Jazz offered to take him to a shrink, but Danny screamed no and threatened to run away to Tucker's if they did, so they just accepted that Danny wanted to work through it himself and that if he needed help, they would be there for him.

That Monday, Danny walked to the bus stop, feeling like he'd just come back from some form of break. He hadn't been to school in so long it felt weird to walk to the bus stop. He stopped by Sam's house and she looked excited to see Danny heading off to school.

"So your parents finally let you go to school?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. My temperature is still low, but they can't quite figure out why, so they just gave up. It's actually a relief really. They wanted to do all these tests on me and expunge me of ghost energy. Given the circumstances, I don't think that would be such a great idea."

"Probably not."

"Thankfully Jazz convinced them not to and said that it would probably only make my 'psychological trauma' worse."

"Well we all knew that Jazz's psychological obsession had to come in handy sometime."

They walked to the stop and met up with Tucker.

"Hey, welcome back! It's been lonely here without you!" Sam gave him an evil look. "I mean, it hasn't been the same without you here," he corrected.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually glad to go back to school. You can only take so much of being bedridden."

"I hear you."

Once Danny reached the school, he was bombarded by students all asking about his health and wishing for a recount of the accident. For the first time in his life, Danny was actually popular. His parents' reputation for having wacky and possibly dangerous inventions in the basement had been developed well before Danny entered the first grade, so all the kids knew what kind of stuff could possibly happen down in that lab. Everyone was glad that Danny was okay, even though he didn't know half of the people who expressed their joy to see him alive. In addition to people continuing to greet him, almost everyone wanted to know exactly what happened. He didn't know quite how many times he'd told the story. Remarkably enough, he didn't exaggerate like most do when telling a horrific story, but it was definitely more eventful than the one he told his parents, but still nowhere close to the real thing. During lunch he held a large captive audience, all begging to hear what had happened. Tucker and Sam got to share in the fame as well, since they were there with him, but as Sam said, she had been going through the torture all week because she, Tucker, and Jazz were the only ones who could update them on Danny's condition.

Most of his classes were uneventful. He had a few moments where his hand would go intangible and his pencil would fall through it, or his leg would suddenly go invisible, but he expected that to happen. In Biology, however, he received a surprise.

"Good afternoon class," Mr. Lancer welcomed. "Today we're going to start our project on DNA. I know you all have been looking forward to it. Mr. Fenton, you do not need to disrupt Ms. Manson at this time, I will fill you in on the way to the lab." Danny had just leaned over to ask Sam what was going on.

"Sorry Mr. Lancer," Danny apologized.

"That's quite all right. Now, if you would all follow me to the lab. Mr. Fenton, please walk with me and I'll explain the project." Danny gave Tucker and Sam a look clearly indicating that he'd rather hear it from them and the rushed up to Mr. Lancer. "First, I wanted to state how glad I am that you're better and that it's good to see you sitting in your desk. We all feared the worst."

"Thanks Mr. Lancer."

"Now, for the past week we've been learning about DNA. In order to get a closer look, a DNA research facility has kindly loaned us their DNA research material for our use on this project. We're going to take a drop of blood from ourselves and examine the DNA makeup using the research material. You may not understand what we're analyzing and frankly I don't want to cover a weeks worth of DNA lessons for you, but I think this project is too fascinating to not allow you to take part in it. Therefore, Mr. Foley and Ms. Manson are allowed to help you as much as they wish, as is your sister. If you have any further questions, just feel free to come and talk to me."

"Thanks Mr. Lancer, I will."

"Welcome back." Mr. Lancer started walking into the lab and then turned back to face Danny. "Oh, and Mr. Fenton, I'd like to speak with you after school about everything you've missed, if that's alright with you."

"It shouldn't be a problem."

They walked into the lab and Danny saw many different machines all around the lab. Five people in lab coats were walking around the machines, checking them to make sure they were operating smoothly.

"Everyone please take a seat in the classroom area," Mr. Lancer instructed. "First, I would like to thank Masterson DNA Lab for their kind gesture to allow us to use these machines. Now, please understand that these machines are extremely expensive, so please take care when using them. You don't need a lab tech near you at all times, but if you find a problem they are here to answer your questions. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Yaman who will instruct you on how to use the machines."

For the better part of the hour Mr. Yaman went over some of the most boring information Danny had ever heard. He started zoning out as he started talking about things he couldn't even begin to understand. Something about how the machines could get close enough to the DNA to examine the separate chains of protein and ambiguous stuff like that. Finally they were allowed to go to the machines.

"Alright, we won't have much time to do anything really exciting today," Mr. Lancer began "so let's just get a drop of blood and look at the DNA under the microscope for today. Now remember to be careful when working with blood. You only need to prick your finger and let a drop of blood fall on the slide. Then bandage your finger up quickly so no more blood falls. We don't want a mess, or an AIDS infestation."

Danny, Sam, and Tucker grabbed what the technicians called the "pricker" and pricked their fingers so a small drop of blood emerged onto their finger. The smeared their blood on a slide and then bandaged their fingers. They slid their samples under the microscope and started doing exactly what the technicians had told them. Finally Tucker found a DNA strand in his blood.

"Hey, I found one. Sweet! That's really my DNA, that's awesome!" Danny and Sam ran over to his slide to look at it.

"That's awesome Tucker. Hey, can you find mine?" Danny asked.

"Sure," he agreed and started looking at Danny's. "Well, that's why you can't find it; you're looking in the totally wrong spot. You're supposed to focus in on a blood cell first, and then delve into the nucleus because that's where the DNA is located."

"Well I'm sorry Mr. I-Was-Here-All-Week-So-I-Know-What-I'm-Doing."

"Wow, Danny. You've got to see this."

Danny peered into his microscope and saw a chain of his DNA. "Wow, this is awesome. It's amazing that this little strand makes up everything in my body."

"No, not that. Compare it with mine."

"Tucker, of course they're going to look different. No two people have the same DNA."

"Danny, look closer. There's something really different."

Danny studied Tucker's DNA closely, and then looked at his own. He zoomed in a little and noticed that parts of his DNA were glowing green. "Okay, that's just weird."

"Let me see," Sam insisted. She pressed her face up to the microscope, her purple eyes gazing at the DNA sample. "Danny, this is amazing! This could very well be the reason you have ghost powers. The ghost portal must have affected your genes, giving you powers."

"Well, I definitely can't hand this in to Mr. Lancer. I doubt many people's DNA glows green."

"We'll figure that out later," Sam comforted. "Right now, I want to know what your DNA looks like when you're a ghost."

"Well, I'm not going to go ghost right in the middle of the lab with a bunch of students."

"Alright kids, class will be over in five minutes, so please rinse off your slides and place them in the sterilization bucket near the sink. Don't worry if you weren't able to find anything today. We will be in here everyday for the next week and the lab will be open for you to use after school and during lunch. A lab technician will always be next door in the office in case you need any help. You will also be required to log in indicating the times you were at the lab so if anything is broken, we'll have some way to track down who broke it, so again, be careful. Class dismissed."

"That's perfect. We'll come after I'm done talking with Lancer after school and see what's going on with my whacked up DNA," Danny planned, his eyes turning green.

"Danny, your eyes just flashed green," Tucker noticed.

"Really? Weird. This is going to take some getting used to."

A/N: Yay for genetics! Sorry, one of my plans for after college is to be a genetic researcher (either that or a patent lawyer or a doctor...though doctor is winning at the moment...) so needless to say I'm fascinated by DNA, so what better way to describe Danny's ghost powers than through DNA? Anywho, hope you liked it!