Notes:

Thank you for your kind reviews. Guess that means I owe you another chapter, right? 'Kay... here it goes. Hope you like it.

Chapter 3: Don't you miss it?

Sam is awfully quiet. Maybe I shouldn't have told her the whole story about the dream I had of my alter ego. This must be too weird for her.

Well, sure Danny... How would you react if you were told that you were just another player in a crazy made-up world?

The thing is, not all of it was completely fake... the feelings, the relationship I shared with my friends and family... hell, even the way others looked at me. It was all the same. I just changed a few details.

All my fears were there. All my dreams. All my doubts. That's why there was a ghost named Desiree willing to make the strangest things come true. That's why I had to come up with a dark side of me. That's why even Spectra was so effective in my mental scenario.

I sigh, trying to dismiss these thoughts. I look at the wide-eyed Sam as she probably tries to let it all sink in.

I expect any reaction: sympathy, anger, sadness... anything.

Well, except this...

"You thought that ghosts were real?" Sam asked in a disbelieving tone and Danny nods.

She remains serious for a second but then, her face changes in an instant as she bursts into laughter.

"That was the most bizarre dream I've ever heard about!"

I'm confused at this point. Sam's not even trying to feel sorry for me or anything? I sure didn't see that reaction coming.

Oh... c'mon, Danny. You can laugh. Lighten up. She just confirmed that it was all just nonsense, that you can now live a regular life and worry about unimportant things like homework, dates, and such. Why can't you just enjoy the moment? She's just trying to bring your feet to the ground, to make you feel like you're the same old Danny who would crack at any silly joke she or Tucker came up with.

Don't you miss it? Laughing and fooling around with your friends? Feeling like you belong somewhere and that you're not just in between worlds? Being laid-back? A goofball? Don't you miss any of that?

Danny stared for another second at his friend, who was just laughing her head off.

The sound of her laughter. Her carefree laughter. When was it the last time you heard it?

A smile began to form on his lips. Then a chuckle escaped from his throat. A second later, he joined Sam in her hysterical fit.

Perhaps on different circumstances, he would've felt hurt at Sam's response, but he was in fact feeling stupid after telling her such a tall tale.

After trying to control herself, Sam now spoke. "Seriously, though... it must be weird to wake up after thinking all of it was real."

"Yeah... and imagine my surprise when I found out my arch-nemesis was my doctor!"

They again burst into laughter.

"Daniel Fenton!" Nurse Bertha came into the room with a scolding look. "You do remember you're inside a hospital, don't you?"

Both teens froze and nodded. Bertha eyed them once again and then turned to walk out of the room, oblivious to the silent snickers behind her back.

"Oh, Danny. I really missed you," Sam said as she held her friend's hand.

"Well... If I had known I was sleeping this whole time, I would probably say the same thing".

They shared a look and a few seconds later they began to laugh again.

Yeah... I missed it...

"Wow... this town hasn't changed a bit," Danny said amused as he watched the city from inside his parents' car. Amazingly enough, they didn't have the Assault Vehicle anymore. They had a normal SUV.

Jack looked at his son from the rear-view mirror. "The town itself hasn't changed much, but you sure won't recognize our house anymore".

That's where they were heading after Dr. Masters allowed Danny to leave the hospital. The teenager only spent a couple of days more at the medical center after he woke up. One of the main reasons was because he told the doctor he was having a rough time trying to sleep at night. Vlad told his parents that it would be better to let him feel at home. After all, Danny had spent a whole year hospitalized.

"What's so different about our home?" Danny asked intrigued. However, instead of getting a spoken reply, he got a visual answer: their house was the same, in essence, except for the missing 'FentonWorks' sign and basically all the equipment that used to cover the exterior of their home. And that was just from the outside.

Once the awestruck Danny and his family made it into the house, the first thing he did was to rush to the lab downstairs, ignoring completely the 'Welcome Home!' banner that hung in the living room along with a few decorations and some hidden guests who had been waiting to surprise the boy.

I have to see it for myself...

When he reached his destination downstairs, he found nothing but scattered boxes all over the place. No portal (at least not anymore), no inventions, no Specter Speeder... nothing.

The visitors waited for Danny to return. Maddie frowned when she saw her son leave, so she followed him. When she was finally downstairs, she saw him staring at the wall. Maddie placed a hand on his shoulder as soon as she reached him. "Oh, honey, I know it's hard to come face to face with the last place you saw before you slipped into a coma, but I can assure you that I won't let anything harm you again as long as I'm alive".

Danny just stood there, frozen at the sight of what used to be the lab.

I never thought I would see this place like this. It's so... empty.

He sighed and faced his mother. "I'm still trying to unscramble a few things in my mind".

"Take your time, sweetie. Don't stress yourself," Maddie replied with a warm smile. "We have people waiting upstairs to see you, but you were in such a hurry that you didn't even notice. Do you want me to send them home so you can rest?"

Danny stared at the side of the wall where the Fenton Ghost Portal once was. He then shook his head. "No... I'll be fine."

Mother and son then headed back to the living room where Danny could now see who the guests were: Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Dash, Paulina, Kwan, Star, and a few other classmates.

Huh? I obviously know why Sam and Tucker are here, but if things are different from what I dreamed, there's no way Valerie would still be my friend. Not to mention how unlikely it is for the others to be here. Specially Dash.

"Danny!" Tucker exclaimed as he embraced his friend. A tear crept down from his cheek as he continued hugging the blue-eyed boy.

Ok... They're going to break my ribs one of these days...

"Hey, Tuck... It's great to see you too," Danny replied warmly. His friend released him from his grip and Danny grinned sheepishly when he met the gaze of the others. "Hi... uh... sorry for rushing like that..."

"Don't worry, Fenton," Dash said. "We get it."

Dash? Being nice to me? Ok... this is seriously something weird. With capital 'W'.

The jock then walked towards Danny and sighed. "Listen... I want to apologize for being a jerk with you. I... used to tease you a lot and did some mean stuff to you. But when we heard about your coma, I felt guilty about it".

Kwan then interrupted. "Hey, Dash. Remember when you thought that you were the one who sent Fenton to the hospital after you shoved him into his locker the day of the accident?"

Yeah... I remember he did that a couple of hours before I decided to go into the portal...

Dash shot a look at his friend. He then picked a muffin from the coffee table and smashed it on Kwan's head. "No, but I do remember how to do that". He then turned to face Danny again. "Anyway... sorry, Fen-toad," he finished, punching slightly the boy in the arm.

Ok... that definitely sounded more like Dash... but why the sudden change of heart? Oh, right... it wasn't all of the sudden. He thought things over for a year.

Geez, Fenton. Not everything is just black and white... there are also a few shades of gray.

And speaking of Gray...

Valerie was the next one to talk to him. She looked at Danny with a shy look on her face. "Hey, uhm... I just wanted to say, thanks".

Wait...

Rewind...

Huh?

The girl sighed and spoke loud enough so that only Danny could hear. "My dad was fired a few months ago after an accident he caused. He got a few scratches from the incident so we went to the hospital to make sure nothing was broken. I really wanted to talk to someone about all of it. I was walking around the place while a nurse checked my dad and that's when I saw you. I had forgotten you were there. I decided to visit you one day and figured you wouldn't mind listening to any of my issues." She then whispered to his ear, "it's not like my so-called friends would ever understand, right?"

Danny nodded slowly. "So, you just started talking to me while I was asleep?"

Valerie blushed. "I didn't know who I could run to. I just wanted to pour my feelings out to someone I knew who wouldn't judge me".

Danny smiled at her. "I think I picked some of it in my dreams."

"Really?" she exclaimed raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "And if you want to, you know... talk to someone who will listen and talk back, you can count on me. Again," he added, smiling sheepishly.

She gave him a peck on the cheek and then took a seat next to Paulina and Star, who were just ignoring Valerie. Apparently, they had rejected her as they had done in Danny's delusion.

So some of the events I remember from my dream were in part true. Huh... Maybe I was able to hear the things people told me while I was asleep.

"What was that all about?" Sam asked Danny as she and Tucker approached their friend.

"Apparently, she used to talk to me while I was in coma. Did you know about that?"

"No," Sam and Tucker replied at the same time.

"You think she might have been the one who messed with your brains?" Tucker asked, trying to stop a smile from showing.

"What?" Realization hit Danny. "Sam! Did you tell him?"

She grinned sheepishly. "I might have told him an adventure of yours... or two..."

It's not like I wasn't going to tell him. But I wanted to be the one to do it.

Who cares? You didn't tell him but he knows anyway... So?

"So, Tuck... what do you think?" Danny asked with a sly smile.

"I think you read too many comic books. Speaking of which... I still might have a few of the ones you let me borrow before this whole thing," Tucker replied.

"Don't worry. You can keep them."

"Really? I thought you used to love them."

"Hey... I lived as a super hero for a year, right? Nothing can beat that," Danny explained with a smirk.

"Nice to see you're not obsessed with the whole thing being real," Tucker said raising an eyebrow.

Well, kinda... I mean... for crying out loud, it was a whole year! How can you just let that slip? I'm still adjusting. I'm still confused.

Instead of that, he replied something else. "Nah... I'm fine. I get it. It was all fake. No need to dwell on that, right?"

Right?

It's strange to be up in my room again... well... after all that happened. Mom didn't even let the dust pile up on my things. Everything it's in its right place.

Today's little surprise party was not that bad. I actually had a great time with everyone. Not just with my two best friends. But with the jocks, cheerleaders, geeks, and everyone else who decided to drop by. And none of that didn't seem to matter. The labels, I mean.

I was no longer Danny Fenton the loser, the whelp, the geek, the freak...

Nor I had to worry about being Danny Phantom... the halfa, the public enemy, the spook, the prey.

It was just me. A regular fifteen year-old hanging out with other kids my age. And for the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged with all of them. We weren't divided by our social status or anything, except for Valerie and Paulina. But even they were able to have a good time without wanting to slit each other's throats.

That's just what bugs me. This is too good to be real. Sure, I'm not going to say that all the ghost hunting thing was normal, but at least it was to me after a while. THIS new life is what I have to get used to. I bet that even if I see a ghost right now, I won't freak out as much as I would have a year ago.

So here I am. Again in my room. Alone. Trying to sleep once more. Feeling my bed sheets as I cover myself. Listening to the faint wind blow outside. Watching the moon through my closed window.

Waiting for all of this to make me feel like I'm really alive.

I just feel so lost right now. I accept the truth and embrace it for a while, but then I remember what it was like to be different.

But think about it, Danny... this is all you ever wanted. You longed for this to happen. To somehow become a normal boy again. With dreams and desires. With goals and ambitions. Don't you miss being that? Just an average kid?

I did miss looking at my parents directly in the eye, having nothing to hide.

Or listening to my friends laugh as if nothing else in the world mattered.

Or feeling safe, like nothing would come out to scare or hurt me.

I did miss not having to worry about an arch nemesis or all those annoying ghosts I had to fight.

I missed being just Daniel Fenton.

But somehow, it's just not enough. It's not what I thought it would be. I feel so empty. Like I gave up something that truly belonged to me.

Sure, I've got what I want, but I can hardly stand it. It just doesn't feel right.

And you know what? This won't feel real unless you dismiss those dreams about being everyone's hero. You know that, Fenton.

Yeah. I know that. I know this won't stop unless I give up on my imaginary world.

Unless I give up on Danny Phantom.