A/N: Alright, as promised, here's the next chapter. Sorry again that the last one was so short! Don't worry, this one is plenty long and should make up for what the previous chapter lacked. Thanks again for the reviews! I feel really touched that you all like it so much!

Chapter Four
Trust

Danny opened his eyes and found himself in his room, tucked warmly into his bed. He looked to his left and noticed Jazz holding his hand, staring out the window. To his right were Tucker and Sam. Tucker's head rested on Danny's legs and Sam was staring at his other hand.

"Danny! You're awake!" Jazz screamed as she noticed his eyes were open. Sam's head popped up and Tucker awoke. Jazz bent over and kissed him on the forehead in delight as she started to cry for joy. "I was afraid we'd lost you."

"We were so worried!" Sam exclaimed as she hugged him. Danny let out gasps of pain from the contact. "Sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright," he managed to mutter.

"Welcome back Danny," Tucker said, squeezing Danny's hand slightly as Danny returned the squeeze.

He tried to shift his weight in the bed, but he found he could barely move without a sharp pain shooting up his body. He grimaced as he returned to his original position. Even lying down still hurt. His entire body ached, both to movement and to touch. His skin felt on fire as white hot pain continued to stab him all over his aching body. Every time he took a breath his chest burned. Every second he felt the sharp sensation of pain. He wished he stayed unconscious, that way he wouldn't have to feel the agony he was suffering through. He constantly felt like he would cry out or scream in anguish, praying that the pain would cease, that he would fall unconscious, that he would die.

"You shouldn't try to move Danny. You just need to rest," his sister advised. Danny just groaned in torment as tears poured from his eyes.

"Man Danny, you've been having a really bad day, what with the goo incident and all," Tucker stated, trying to lighten the mood.

"What goo incident?" Jazz asked protectively.

"Your parents had a new invention that shot out goo that would burn through ghosts' skin, and they told Danny he had to clean it up," Tucker answered.

Jazz and Danny both looked down and fell silent at the mention of their parents.

"Sorry, I didn't mean…" Tucker apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Danny managed to mutter softly..

"Are you hot? Cold? Hungry? Thirsty? Do you need me to get you anything?" Jazz offered, trying to change the subject.

"No, I'm fine thanks."

They all sat in silence, not really knowing what to say.

"Where are they?" Danny asked.

"I don't know, and frankly I don't care," Jazz answered bitterly.

"What happened…after I blacked out? Are they mad?"

"I really wouldn't know. I didn't stay there long enough to find out. I yelled at them for their sheer stupidity and cruelty, and then I ran up here and slammed the door in their face and haven't seen them since," Jazz remarked as tears fell down her face.

Another silence filled the room while Tucker and Sam felt more and more like they didn't want to be there.

They heard a loud blast erupt from the basement and heard a faint "Eureka!"

"I don't believe them!" Jazz yelled as she stood up forcefully. "After what they just did they go back to work? I can't believe this! I thought they were huddled somewhere wallowing in shame and misery for what they did, but they just get back to work like nothing happened! The nerve of them! How can they do this?"

Danny wanted to reply that maybe they needed to keep their minds busy with the only thing they knew how to do, but he didn't really feel like sticking up for them right now. After all, they'd just tortured him. Unknowingly of course, but still, the fact that his parents were the cause of all the horrible pain he experienced, and was still experiencing, stung him deeply.

Jazz continued to rant at the audacity of their parents while Danny continued to think. He was torn on the subject. Obviously they didn't know that when they tortured the Ghost Boy they were in reality torturing him, but none of this would have happened if they didn't want the identity of the Ghost Boy in the first place. He wanted to give his parents the benefit of the doubt, to give them another chance, since they were his parents after all, but he just felt too hurt to defend them. He knew he should be angry at them like Jazz was, but he only felt the pain in his heart.

His own parents had tortured him. It was so hard to grasp. He wished it was all just a dream, that it had never happened, but the constant pain told him it did. And now his parents knew about him, like he'd always feared. All that torture and pain was for naught; they found out anyways. Now what were they going to do, now that they learned of his alter-ego? The thought that had haunted him since he first got his powers crept unwelcome into his mind. What if they didn't accept him? What if they were making a weapon right now that would finish him off now that he was weakened? What if they were angry at him? What if they no longer loved him?

His mind was jumbled with questions he had no answers to. After all that had happened he could still love his parents, but the real question was whether his parents could still love him? Tears of sadness rather than pain fell from his bright blue eyes as he thought of a world without his parents love. These thoughts and feelings were the reasons why he didn't want his parents to find out in the first place. They were so powerful that he didn't falter during the torture and tried so hard to stay in his ghost form. He always hoped they would never know, but a part of him realized that they eventually had to. He couldn't keep it a secret forever. But still, what was going to happen once they did? He didn't want to be forced to live a life without their love, a life without them.

"Danny, are you alright?" Sam asked, seeing the tears streaming down his face.

"What if my parents don't love me anymore? What if all the things I've feared come true? What am I supposed to do? What's going to happen to our family?"

Jazz stopped her ranting and sat back down next to Danny and held his hand. "Danny, I know that everything is really crazy right now. I'm just as mad at them as you are, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. As much as they hate ghosts and enjoy ghost hunting, they'll never stop loving you. When they saw what they did, their faces were full of disbelief. Probably mostly because they found out you were part ghost, but they just couldn't believe what they had done. They looked ashamed, which they never would have looked if they didn't love you."

"Yes, but I'm the Ghost Boy, Public Ghost Enemy Number One in their books!"

"That won't matter to them. You're their son, first and foremost. Everything else comes second.

"Now, all this doesn't change the fact that what they did was horrible, stupid, wrong, and cruel and they deserve every ounce of shame they feel. Well, every ounce they should be feeling at this time, since they decided to get right back to work and act like nothing happened!" Jazz started complaining again as she stood up and started pacing the room angrily, continuing her rant about how heartless her parents were.

"Jazz is right Danny, there isn't anything to worry about," Sam added.

"Yeah, you're parents may be a little obsessive, okay extremely obsessive," Tucker corrected after seeing Danny's look "but that doesn't mean that they aren't good parents. They won't care, trust me."

"Then what are they doing in the lab?"

"I don't know Danny, but you have to trust them," Sam comforted.

"How can I trust them after what they did?" he asked angrily.

"I know it's hard and I know I'd probably be thinking the same thing were I in you position, but you have to remember that they're your parents. I've known them since I was a in Kindergarten, and they don't seem like the kind of people who would want to hurt you."

"Well, they might not seem like the people who want to hurt me, but they did," Danny argued, the pain he felt in his heart expressing itself through his voice.

They fell into silence again. Sam and Tucker didn't know what to say to that, and Jazz wasn't paying attention through her ranting. Danny didn't want to keep talking about this; it was too painful, and it wasn't like he wasn't in enough pain already. He looked at the clock. It was already noon. Normally he'd be hungry by now, but strangely he wasn't. Those electric pulses must have screwed up his stomach, along with the rest of my body he thought bitterly.

"Wow, I can't believe it's already noon," Danny stated, hopefully trying to end the silence with a pleasant topic.

"Noon! Oh my gosh!" Sam cried as she jumped up. "My parents are probably going crazy! I never told them I left! Can I use your phone?"

"Sure," Danny agreed.

"Hey, can I use it after? I want to tell my parents that I'm going to be here the rest of the day." Tucker asked.

"Go ahead." Well, bringing up the time certainly ended the silence between them, though not in the way he had planned. He wanted to keep talking, to keep his mind off the pain. He tried to focus on Jazz's complaints, but he found that they just weren't interesting enough to draw his attention away from the pain. He found that while thinking or talking he didn't feel as much pain, but now that he was silent, the pain was back, hurting each time he took a breath. He considered going ghost so he didn't have to breathe, but he figured that, like the goo, it would probably hurt more in his ghost form. Plus, he didn't think he had enough energy to go ghost anyway.

Sam and Tucker walked to the door and Sam yanked it open to reveal his parents standing outside the door, his father's hand held up like he was just about to knock. Jazz automatically stopped her ranting and turned to face them, her eyes blazing with anger. Danny just looked at them, his face expressionless. He didn't really know how to feel. He was afraid, angry, sad, and happy all at the same time.

Sam and Tucker realized that the telephone sounded really good right now. Anything outside this room sounded really good right now, even the test they were missing in Lancer's class. Sam just pushed her way out the door as Danny's parents moved out of her way. She didn't even spare them a glance. Tucker followed in suit and both of them left the room.

He looked at his parents. He'd never seen the two of them look so uncomfortable before. His dad was shifting his weight to both sides, looking everywhere but at Danny. His mother looked down at her wringing hands, occasionally looking at Danny, but then looked down as if ashamed to have even looked at him. Were they ashamed of him or were they just uncomfortable because of what they did? Or were they uncomfortable about what they were about to do? Were they about to tell him to get out? Were they about to tell him they didn't love him anymore and that they'd still hunt him? Looking at them, he never felt more frightened in his entire life. After finding out about his powers, after all the ghosts he'd fought, after all the close encounters, after being tortured by his parents, nothing scared him as much as right now. The rest of his life, both as a ghost and a human, hung on this single moment, and that petrified him.

Jazz stood in front of the door, in between Danny and their parents. "Don't take another step. You don't belong in here. You've traumatized him enough already."

"Please Jazz, we just brought something for Danny," Maddie begged, tears falling from her eyes as Jack pulled out a little phial of dark green liquid.

"We've been working on it all night," Jack stated quietly. Danny never heard him talk so quiet before, or sound so dejected, not even when he thought Mom would leave him.

"What, torturing him wasn't enough? Now you want to poison him?" Jazz cried angrily, looking at the vial. Even though Danny couldn't see her face, he could tell that although she was trying to keep the tears in, she was bawling. "Couldn't you just wait until he's better before you start hunting him? Give him a chance? He's your son!"

"Dammit Jazz, we don't want to hurt him!" Jack yelled. Danny saw a glimmer of light on his cheek. His dad was crying. Danny had never seen him cry before.

"Well you sure fooled me! I thought the whole torture thing did hurt him."

"This is not the time for sarcasm Jazmine," his mother cried. "We know what we did was wrong! But you won't give us time to explain!"

"What's there to explain? I don't think there's anything in the world you can say to make everything better!"

His parents stayed silent, not fighting her statement.

"No, there isn't," Maddie answered quietly. "That's why we made this. It's ghost energy, it should help him get back what he lost."

"And how do we know that's really what it is?"

"You just have to trust us," Jack answered lamely.

Danny thought back to his earlier conversation with Sam and Tucker. "You just have to trust them…they're your parents" Sam had advised. "They don't seem like the people who would hurt you." He looked at them and saw the tears pouring from their eyes. The amount of tears he'd seen them cry during the past five minutes could probably fill a large glass. Their hazmat suits were soaked from the tears they'd shed. Their eyes were puffy and red and they had large bags under their eyes. They looked like they'd aged ten years overnight. They looked ashamed, embarrassed, broken. He racked his memory and couldn't remember a time when they looked this depressed. If they were going tohurt someone, it would be themselves.

Jazz looked ready to retort but Danny finally found his voice. "Jazz…it's okay." His parents both looked up at Danny when he spoke, making eye contact for the first time. "I trust them."

His mother's face radiated pure joy. She ran past Jazz and swept him into her arms, hugging him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and all the pain, all the emotions he'd been feeling he let out in his tears as he burst out crying into his mom's shoulder. He felt his dad's weight on the other side of his bed and felt his arms around his back. He turned and hugged him tightly, his father now sobbing too. Jazz ran onto the bed and wrapped one arm around both her parents, all of them weeping while encircled in a family hug. Danny's entire body ached and burned from the contact and the pressure from the hug and his face burned as the tears slid down his face, but he didn't care. His parents still loved him, and that was all that mattered.

"What do you think's going on up there?" Tucker asked Sam after he hung up the phone.

"I don't know," Sam answered truthfully.

"I mean, it's not like they're going to hurt him, right?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" he said in shock. He was expecting her to agree with him and thus comfort his nerves. "What about all that stuff you said in Danny's room?"

"Oh come on Tucker! I just made all that up to make Danny feel better. Nothing's going to get solved if he doesn't have the mindset to accept his parents' apology if it comes. If Mr. and Mrs. Fenton don't really want to hurt him, there's no way Danny'd believe them with the attitude he had. This way he'll be more open to them."

"Unless you just told him to trust them while they are in reality trying to kill him."

"Well, that does present a problem."

The two remained silent, not knowing what to expect.

"Maybe we should go up there?" Tucker asked.

"No way. I don't think we should get involved. This is a family issue. Plus, I don't want to see either outcome. I don't want to see Danny's heart get broken if they decide they don't love him and I don't want to see all the gooey love if they still do. Either way it's going to be bad."

The two of them remained silent, thinking about what best to do when they heard a scream from upstairs that greatly resembled Danny. They looked at each other and raced up the stairs.

"I'm sorry Danny! I'm so sorry!" his mother choked out through her tears. Danny responded with a kiss to her forehead.

They hugged for what seemed like forever, until the pain started to catch up with him. He started gasping in pain from so much contact and pressure. The three of them scrambled off the bed and Danny slumped back down on the bed, gasping and choking back cries of pain.

"Sorry, sorry!" his mother apologized.

"Don't…worry about it," Danny muttered through the gasps. "I'll be alright."

His mom sat in Jazz's chair next to Danny and stroked his hair while he waited for the pain to subside.

"I wish there was something we could do for you son," his father stated as he sat down in Sam's old chair.

"Jack, the ghost energy!" Maddie remembered.

"That's right! I forgot all about it!" Jack remarked as he pulled the bottle out of his pocket. The contents started to glow brighter as the phial was brought closer to Danny.

"Why is that stuff glowing brighter near Danny," Jazz asked suspiciously.

"It's reacting with Danny's ghost energy," Jack informed her. He passed the phial to Danny. He took it and uncorked it, ready to drink it.

"Wait!" his mom shouted. "I don't know if you should drink it."

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Jack asked.

"I don't think you should drink it in your…human form," she clarified, feeling awkward at having to specify that her son was human right now, but wasn't always. "It's ghost energy, so it probably should be taken…as a ghost. I don't know what it will do to humans."

"Your mother's right. It's probably not safe," Jack agreed.

"But I don't have enough energy to go ghost," Danny remarked. His parents were surprised to hear how commonly Danny said it, like he was used to saying it all the time. This was going to take some getting used to.

"You have to sweetheart, otherwise I won't let you drink it."

"I'll test it," Jazz offered bravely.

"No!" all three of them yelled at once.

"I'm not going to drink it, I'm just going to taste it," Jazz explained. She had a theory, and if it was right, she'd never even need to bring the stuff towards her face. She walked over to the bed and grabbed the phial as the liquid inside it turned from a bright, glowing green to a dull, dark green as it moved further from Danny. She poured a little onto a plate and handed the vial back to her mother. She looked at Danny, convinced she wanted to do this. She extended her index finger and dipped it into the liquid.

Upon contact, she gasped and dropped the plate on the carpet. Maddie and Jack both ran over to her and looked at her finger. It was red and raw, just like the burns Danny sustained from the goo.

"Give me the plate," Danny commanded.

"No way! If it did this to Jazz I'm not going to give it to you as well! That shows it's not made for humans!"

"But I'm not entirely human," Danny reasoned, feeling really awkward admitting it in front of his parents.

His father brought the plate over to Danny as his mother looked at him in disbelief.

"You're not seriously going to let him, are you?" she asked him.

"He knows what he's doing Maddie," he answered, looking at his son. "You do know what you're doing, right?" he whispered to Danny, out of earshot from his mother. Danny nodded and Jack smiled.

Danny reached his finger into the liquid and immediately felt a burning sensation. He wrenched his hand away and comforted it in his other hand. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as everything else, it was just a little burn, but he still figured that it wouldn't be safe to drink it and expose it to his already sore insides.

"Alright, that's good enough proof for me. Ghost it is then." He sat with his eyes closed, knowing that going ghost was going to hurt and knowing that it would take up a lot of his remaining strength, but he had to do it. Not only because this stuff would make him feel better, but he wanted to make his parents feel better, and showing them that their idea worked was a surefire way to do just that. He concentrated, using his remaining strength to transform. He felt the white rings circle around his waste, and he braced himself for the pain.

As the rings moved up his body, he felt like he was in the torture device all over again. As more of his body turned ghost, more of his body started to hurt. He screamed again, but once the transformation was complete, he stopped screaming and fell back down on his pillow, his eyes shut as he tried to ignore the pain.

"Danny, are you alright?" his mother asked as she rushed back to the side of the bed.

Danny opened his bright, glowing green eyes and looked up at his mom. "Yeah," Danny replied, his voice echoing as Tucker and Sam rushed into the room, surprised to see Danny in his ghost form.

"Danny, why…?" Sam began to ask.

"Don't worry. My parents found a way to help me, but I have to be a ghost to drink it, otherwise it'll do the opposite. And Mom, I knew this was going to happen, so don't look so sad. It was the same thing with the goo…" he stopped. He knew right after he said it that he shouldn't have brought it up.

"Wait, Tucker and Sam know? And what's the goo you're talking about?" his mother questioned.

"They've known since the beginning. And the goo…well do you remember yesterday how you asked me to clean the goo that sprayed all over the living room? Well…that stuff works really well," he replied as he removed his glove with a sharp intake of pain. His mother saw his raw hand and immediately started apologizing.

"Oh Danny! We never should have made you clean that up! Oh, and look what it did to you!"

"You think that's bad, you should see his back," Tucker commented without thinking.

"You got it on your back too?" his mother started fretting as Danny gave Tucker an evil look. "Oh Danny…"

"Mom, it's fine, alright. I'm totally over it now." This was technically the truth. After all, his hand and back still hurt, but just as much as everything else, so he couldn't really tell if it was the goo or the torture.

"Maddie," Jack muttered softly.

"Right, sorry. I suppose you'll be wanting that energy, huh?" She grabbed it off his dresser and brought it towards him. It was shining brighter than before.

"Cheers," Danny remarked as he lifted the glass and then drained it. Everyone stared expectantly at Danny, waiting for something to happen.

Danny looked at his mother and father. "Could I have a soda please? This tastes really nasty."

Both looked overjoyed that it hadn't hurt him. They wouldn't be able to tell whether it helped him or not, but it certainly didn't harm him. They finally did something right.

"Sure thing honey," his mother remarked lovingly as she kissed his icy forehead. "Sweetheart, you're so cold!"

"Yeah, I guess it comes with the territory," Danny remarked as his mother smiled and left to get his soda.

"Dad?"

"Yes son?"

"Do I have to stay in ghost mode or can I go back to normal?" Danny asked, hoping to get out of the form that hurt more.

"Um, I don't see why not…" his father started to answer awkwardly, not really knowing how to answer. He saw the rings form around his son as he turned back to his human form.

His mom returned with his soda and he drank it while everyone gathered chairs around his bed, watching him drink.

"Danny, why didn't you tell us?" his mother asked.

There it was, the question he knew they were going to ask, the question he didn't want to answer.

"Well…I was afraid," he answered after a long silence.

"Afraid of what?" Jack asked.

"Well…that…you wouldn't…um…" He was finding this extremely difficult to explain.

"That we wouldn't love you anymore," his mom finished for him.

"Yeah," Danny admitted, blushing.

"Sweetheart, no matter what happens, no matter what you do, we will always love you."

"So even if you decide to attack the mayor and try to destroy the city and steal things from our lab, we'll still love you," Jack elaborated.

"For the last time, I didn't attack the mayor! I was framed! And I don't purposely try to destroy the city, it just happens. And, since it's my lab too, I really don't steal anything from it," Danny defended.

"Don't worry sweetheart, we believe you. An innocent boy like you could never do anything like that on purpose."

Danny smiled, glad to know that not only would he not have to continue lying to his parents about ghost hunting, but he wouldn't have to worry about fighting his parents anymore either.

"And I'm glad you trusted in Jazz. She's an excellent choice, as are your two friends."

"Yeah…wait a minute, I never told Jazz."

Everyone stared at her as she blushed.

"How long have you known?" Danny asked her.

"Oh, well, since that ghost counselor came to our school. If you remember we were eating lunch and you just ran out, so I followed you and I saw you transform."

"You've known for that long?" Danny asked. Jazz nodded her head.

"Wow, suddenly your new attitude towards me makes tons of sense," Danny contemplated.

"So Danny, how exactly did you become half ghost?" Maddie asked, puzzled. "Not that there's anything wrong with it," she added quickly. "It's just, everything I've ever studied about ghosts shows that it's physically impossible, yet, here you are."

"I must admit I'm a bit intrigued," Jack added.

"As am I," Jazz remarked. "I've been wondering ever since I found out."

"Well, it happened during the lab accident."

"Of course!" his mom exclaimed. "Ever since that lab accident you've been acting funny."

"What exactly happened Danny?" his father asked.

"Well, after you tried the portal and it didn't work, I decided to have a look inside, so I put on one of the suits and went inside the ghost portal. I tripped over a cord and caught myself on a wall and accidentally pushed a button, which somehow activated the Ghost Zone. When I woke up, I was in my ghost form."

"We've never really understood how it happened," Sam clarified. "We just know that it had something to do with the ghost portal being activated and Danny being caught inside it."

"Yes, but being shocked with that large amount of ghost energy should have killed you Danny," his mother remarked.

"Unless it only half killed him, thus resulting in him being only half ghost," Jack pondered.

"Yes, but is that possible?" Maddie asked.

"Well, it has to be, because I'm still here, alive…I think," Danny answered. He never really thought about it that way. If indeed he really did become half ghost, that means he was half killed in the accident. Wow, I'm half dead. I'm half dead. He didn't really know how to react to that information. He felt even more secluded from everyone else. Not only was he only half human, but he was only half alive as well, with ghost powers to boot.

His mother must have noticed his new depressed attitude at the thought of being only half alive. "Of course you're alive," his mother comforted. "Your heart still beats and I know you still crave sleep and food, so you're obviously still alive. Ghost's don't need any of that."

Danny understood what his mom was saying, but it still didn't comfort him. So what if he still got hungry or tired? If he stayed in his ghost form he wouldn't feel hungry or tired, so it didn't really help his situation at all. He still felt alone.

His father, on the other hand, seemed to have figured it out. "The ectoplasmic blast from the ghost portal must have rearranged his molecules, which half killed him, leaving him half ghost," his father reasoned.

"Yes, that would make sense," his mother replied. "So Danny, tell us some stories. We're dying to hear what trouble you've gotten yourself into."

Danny could tell his mother was trying to change the subject, and he felt grateful for it. He pushed the thought out of his mind for the rest of the night as they talked things over, their subjects ranging from stories of dangerous adventures to Danny's awkward first moments to laughs about Fenton ghost hunting inventions that actually work.

"So you mean that Ghost Gabber isn't broken after all?" Jack asked Danny.

"Nope. Although, it's kinda pointless, since all the ghosts I've ever met speak English, so there's really no need for a translator. Well, all but one, but Tucker understood him, so it doesn't really matter. So all but one speak English; there's still no need."

"Yes, but it works."

"Yes."

"Haha! I always knew it did! I never could figure out what was wrong with it. It always seemed right…"

"Yeah," Danny replied while yawning. "I was surprised you just kept thinking they didn't work. I thought for sure one day you would question why they always worked around me but no one else."

"Yes well, we tended to think that…"

"Jack, quiet. Can't you see Danny's tired?" his mom remarked. Sure enough, Danny was tired. He could barely keep his eyes open and he continued to yawn. "We've been talking to him too long. Alright, one person should stay with him, the rest of us should leave and get something to eat and drink, and then probably some sleep as well. I'm sure you all pulled an all-nighter just like we did."

In the end, Tucker offered to stay, since he actually fell asleep twice during the day, once in the morning and again when Sam was arguing with her parents on the phone. Danny continued to argue that it wasn't necessary, but his family wouldn't hear of it. They would all take a shift so there'd always be someone there with him. Secretly, he was thankful, but he also didn't like imposing on them so much. But he knew they would do it regardless of whether he wanted them to or not, so he let it go and quickly drifted off to dreamless sleep.