A/N: I'm sorry it took a long time, but with the combined stress of a constant homework workload, studying for my upcoming finals week, and not to mention a little writer's block, it was a little hard. So here's your other answer to another cliffhanger.

I see got a question regarding the reason for the title of this story, so I tried answering that by incorporating that into the chapter. I may still have second thoughts, though (changing the title, that is).

Just so everyone knows, italics are Danny's thoughts.

I await your reviews...here's your next chapter.

Chapter 7 - The Visitor

Racing down the boulevard at 80 mph wasn't something Jazz was expecting to do anytime before she turned 18.

But with one of Danny's friends hurt at the hospital (and her parents out of sight), she was willing to make an exception. But something that really surprised her was that Danny was urging her to speed up when the light changed to amber. Luckily there were no cops around.

They arrived at the hospital gates in about three minutes.

"Danny," Jazz said, "Who's hur-"

He didn't give her any time to finish. He sprinted out of there before she could say another word.

"Oh, don't wait for me!" she yelled after him in sarcasm. "I'll just catch up!"

Literally bursting through the doors, Danny frantically looked for the person who made the call.

He was sitting in the lobby, waiting patiently, his face buried into his hands

Walking up to him, the teen gave him a slight smile of encouragement.

"How is she doing?"

The adult looked up to see who it was. When it was confirmed, he returned the smile, but in a sad way. "How are you doing, Danny? Did you get my message?"

"Hello," said Danny. "Yes, I did. I'm sorry to hear about her. How is she?"

"Let me show you," he said, leading the way down the corridor.

000000000000000000000000000000

Turning corridor after corridor, the adult continued speaking.

"Thank you for coming, Danny. I knew I could count on you. You are, after all, her best friend. She's been asking for you."

"For me? What happened to her?"

"We spent a few hours in the ICU (A/N: That's intensive care unit, for all non-medical people out there), but now it seems that she's getting better. She's been moved to her own room on the medical floor. So I'm guessing it must have been some sort of shock to her system. But as for exactly what happened, she won't tell me. I just found her collapsed on the street. It's as if she's trying to keep something from me. But for some reason, she's been asking for you, specifically. I don't know why, but I expect it had to be urgent, that's why I gave you that call."

Danny gulped. He knew this couldn't be good.

"Well, here we are," he said, stopping in front of a room.

The adult opened the door.

"Hey, someone's here to see you," he said, motioning Danny to come inside.

"Thanks, Dad," said a voice inside.

Danny peered into the room. It contained a very glum-looking Valerie sitting upright on her bed.

Sitting upright without any aid? It retrospect, she seemed OK. Danny had no idea why she'd be in the ICU in the first place, but from the look on her face, she'd seen better days. Cuts and bruises from the Spectra attack two weeks ago were broken open again, and bleeding.

All right, so seeming all right wasn't exactly the best choice of words.

"I'll leave you two alone," said Mr. Gray, closing the door.

"Thanks," said Valerie, slightly smiling. Danny almost felt pity. Her smile was so weak...so full of trust...

But now it was just them. Valerie shifted her eyes in his direction.

"Listen, Danny, I just want to thank you for coming," she said.

"No prob," he said in response. But the mere thought about his friends finding out that he was here gave him a sickness to his stomach. And this was especially in Jazz's case, who brought him here in the first place. He should have just flown.

Why did he come here? He had promised to avoid her. Did it take her getting hurt to suddenly fly back in her direction? Was this visit basically for pity?

And another prominent question popped into his head. Would this friendship with Valerie now have to be a secret? It didn't seem like he would be living up to his promises back when he was in the nurse's office.

Though he knew it would be a lot harder for a time, Valerie was his friend, whether or not she was an enemy. Plus he kind of knew about her own secret when he met her 10 year-older character during the time he had to get away from his evil side...

She liked him...

Was this the reason they remained friends? Just because he knew about it?

Or was it the fact that he kind of liked her back? Or just wanted another friend?

All senses of confusion and twisted logic poured into Danny's head as he thought about his current situation.

It was just like the time Kitty took over Paulina's body to make Johnny 13 jealous...this friendship completed another paradox that he experienced before...a four-sided triangle.

Paulina hated Danny Fenton, but adored Danny Phantom. Valerie despised Danny Phantom, but liked Danny Fenton.

And Sam...she was always shady about this topic...though she was his best friend, she had shown signs, especially during the times with Ember and Desiree. Other than his sister, she was one of the first girls he had learned to trust...which was the reason they were friends...

And another thought...a line, in fact, that she had said to him two weeks ago...

"Just be careful...I know you'll make the right decision..."

That was during the time of the hug in the nurse's office...his decision about Valerie...

This pretty much sealed it...what was he doing here? Sneaking away from his sister to see someone that was really an enemy?

To come here...this wasn't a good decision...it was a decision based on panic and jumping to conclusions...

He could leave right now. He could just drop in to say hello, and then be on his way...

But it never happened. Suddenly, a scream pierced his mind, breaking off all train of thought.

His mind and eyes shifting back to the real world, he saw that Valerie had stood up, attempting to walk towards him. But her legs buckled and she was falling towards the ground, screaming...

Quickly retreating to her aid, he stopped her from falling and supported her on his shoulder.

"Ugh," she said. "Maybe I should wait until I'm stronger...thanks, Danny."

"You're welcome," he said, helping her sit back down.

But his mind wasn't approving.

"What are you still doing here?"

I just helped her from falling...

"You shouldn't be here...you should not have taken that call...what are you doing with one of your arms around her?"

Supporting her so she can stand, you idiot!

"IDIOT? I'm you!"

Listen, let me call the shots right now, OK? We can leave later...right now I just have to help her...

"Fine...your call...but what are you going to do when Jazz finds out where you are, or if Valerie finds out WHO you are?"

"SHUT UP!"

"What are you talking about, Fenton?" asked Valerie incredulously. "I'm not saying anything to you!"

"Huh?" said Danny, lost. Then everything shoved back into place.

Crap. He did it...again.

Arguing with his own mind, and then saying the next phrase out loud. Why was the phrase he yelled always "shut up?"

He tried apologizing. "I'm sorry, Valerie...I don't know what happened..."

She only stared back at him with curious eyes. Then she started laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked.

"Nothing..." she said, now trying to suppress it. "I just thought that was funny, that's all..."

"Now she thinks you're funny. Good job, dummy...she's now closer to you..."

As much as he hated to hear that half, he knew that it was somewhat correct. As much as he liked Valerie before, he knew that he had to be a lot more careful.

"Listen, Danny," she said, "Please sit down. I wanted to talk to you. I have something to say."

Danny crossed over to her and sat down on her bed.

"What's wrong?"

"I have a secret. Something I've been meaning to say ever since we became friends."

His heart took a leap. A secret? What secret?

"It involves the reason I'm here right now."

The familiar perspiration beads formed on his head once again, although it was a cold room.

Valerie's voice quavered. "I...I..."

Closing his eyes, Danny felt a great urge to run from the room. "Oh god...this can't be happening..."

"I'm a ghost hunter. I got hurt...that's the reason I'm here."

Danny's eyes shot open again as he stared directly at her in astonishment.

She shared her secret about her being a ghost hunter?

It all happened in less than a second. He was first confused, upset, then...

...happy?

Happy that it wasn't the secret he thought it was going to be?

There were a million different things he wanted to say, do, or feel after she said that.

But there was only one correct way to do this to avoid her from being suspicious.

Wow, this was getting harder.

He chose to keep the astonished face, the eye contact, and a question with a mixture of curiousity and indifference.

"You're a what?"

Valerie smiled and looked down at the ground. "Heh, I knew that you would say something like that. After all...your parents are a pair of ghost hunters. I seriously had to get this off my chest."

Actually, including himself in the room, that would make the total four, in his book.

He continued his fake act of surprise, however, complete with a whistle and another question.

"Who else knows?"

Valerie's fists tightened. "My father knows...and he knows..."

"I would expect you father, but he? Who's he?" he asked, knowing that asking something like that was likely start an eruption.

"Danny Phantom knows who I am. During the Pariah Dark thing, he ripped off my mask and exposed me to my father. All I was trying to do was my own part in helping save the town. That fuc...I mean, freaking jerk ruined my life...ever since I first met him."

Great... he thought. Maybe ripping off her mask wasn't the best idea. This is probably the reason she hates me so much now.

"You got that right." said the other half of his head, the side greatly wishing to leave.

Danny ignored it, and asked another question. "How long have you been a ghost hunter?"

Valerie went through a long story, starting with the ghost dog incident and how Danny Phantom was part of it. He thought it was a little interesting, but also very irritating, to hear the story from another point of view. It was a series of misconceptions and misinterpretations. He felt like it was being with the media.

"That dumb ghost kid," she said. "I'd do anything right now to catch him. But I don't know anything about him, and it's driving me insane."

"You're really asking for this, aren't you?"

"But then a great person helped me," she said. "He knew what I was going through, I am so glad Vlad Masters is constantly there for me..."

"WHAT?"

That name...why did she come around to saying that?

Vlad, his archnemesis, viewed through her eyes as a great person?

He winced, and bit his finger to keep himself from exploding, from telling her that he was just using her to destroy him.

Valerie suddenly stopped, as she looked at Danny with inquisition. "What's wrong?"

It was hard for him to come up with words, let alone suppress his anger at the same time.

"I...can't believe it...the billionaire...he's helping you?"

"I didn't know it at first, but then he showed up at your house, and he told me everything. He was a good friend of your dad's, huh? I can't see the reason why not...I mean, he's a joker!"

"Yeah, a Joker like a nemesis to Batman..." said the other Danny.

Shut it!

"But that's something else," she said. "I don't want to get off topic."

"So...is this Danny Phantom...he fought you, and this is the reason you're here, because you've been beaten so badly?" he asked.

Danny, of course, knew the answer was no, but he had another purpose...to find out who the culprit was.

"No," said Valerie. "But it was just as worse as if it were Danny Phantom fighting me. That's why I asked you here."

"Why would it be worse?" he asked. "It sounds like he's your number one target."

"Well, this one surprised me," she said. "It was a woman ghost this time...she called herself Spectra...hmm...why does that name sound so familiar?...kind of like that shrink that mysteriously disappeared after Spirit Week..."

"Spectra?" asked Danny, trying his best to pretend he didn't know anything. "What did she do?"

"She told me she had some bad news for me...that you weren't my friend anymore...that you were in contact with that ghost kid, and since he knew of your friendship with me, he told you to double-think your friendship with me since he isn't exactly so fond of me. I didn't know whether or not he told you if I was a ghost hunter...that's why I decided to tell you to start with."

Danny continued to blink.

"Anyway, I knew that you couldn't do that...you're not that kind of person...but she kept harping on it, and harping on it...and the next thing I know, I'm glowing green, and she grabs me...I could almost swear something about her changed, but I never saw it...I passed out, and now here I am, devoid of strength."

And soon, the two halves in Danny's head started to merge together again. He suddenly felt some type of spark in his legs...

"All alone out there, I felt so miserable, so helpless, because today you seemed to be ignoring me...I just have to ask, Danny...are you...still...my friend? Are these lies?"

His voice trembled. "W-why do you ask?"

She scooted closer to him. "Because I have to know something else."

His palms started sweating. "W-what would that b-be?"

Was his worst nightmare was about to come true? He should have just left right when he found out she was OK...

"I have to know. Do you like Sam, or me?

"Oh, God..."

This wasn't happening...wait, no this couldn't be happening! She couldn't be...why was she asking this question now?

"Wh-what did you say?" he asked, slowly backing away.

"Just what I said. Do you like that goth geek Sam, or me?"

Now he was more in a rage than scared. She dared called his best friend a name? His best friend?

His voice was almost mechanical. "I...you...she..."

He had to get out of here. It was much too dangerous here.

With a flash of movement, he suddenly stood up and backed towards the door, upset and scared.

Valerie looked at him in confusion. She knew she had just said something wrong...

Did she ever! Danny had no control of his words, as they poured out of his mouth with all the emotion he had bottled up within him.

"You! Why are you asking me this? What kind of person are you, huh? Making me choose between friends, then ridiculing them? Maybe Sa-, I mean, Danny Phantom is right! Moving this fast towards me? Making me feel pity just because you've been hurt? You are...are...well, you...you're something else!"

Valerie was aghast. "But Danny, I didn't mean it to be that way..."

"What way did you mean then? Why did you..." His hands flew up to his head. "Actually, no, don't explain."

Valerie remained her silence as her own emotions continued building inside her. The emotions that she did not want to experience...the ones she had when she was alone...

"Danny...I'm sorry...I shouldn't have called Sam a -"

"Little late for that, arent you?" he said, groping for the exit.

"Sorry, but, I...I have to go." Danny finished, backing out of the room and awkwardly turning the knob. "I have...to think about...augh, all of this...I can't believe you..."

Think about all of this? What kind of excuse was that?

It didn't matter. Danny left the room and started sprinting down the hall in a blind mix of turmoil and panic.

Sam, Tucker, and his sister had been right all along. Valerie, a friend...this friendship was way too dangerous. What had he been thinking?

Quickly sprinting into a bathroom, he leapt towards the sink and splashed his face with cold water.

He looked at himself. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was as pale as if he had turned ghost right now. His complexion, reflected on the shiny glass of the mirror, wore an expression that matched the same fearful one that he woke up with that one night.

Letting his humanity slip behind the shadows, he turned into Danny Phantom...his greatest secret...

His life as a half-ghost...this was him. He was staring at him. If Valerie found out about him, he wouldn't be staring at himself right now.

But as much he didn't want to say it, he sort of felt sorry for Valerie. She was the one who paid for being his friend in the first place, having fed Spectra all of her misery...

But then he also hated her because of the things she said...

And then he thought of the horrifying thought about how worse he would have felt if it was his sister, Tucker, or Sam in her place...

But he couldn't feel misery right now...she could be anywhere.

Spectra was right...the holidays may be a time, with falling snow, to have a fun time with good friends, but the representation of that happiness could become a symbolized glooming rainstorm if anything bad, or stressful, were to happen. And ironically, a lot of that happened around this time, whether it was something as farcical as getting angry about losing a parking space at a crowded parking lot, not getting the present wanted, or even feeling rejected.

This was human nature...and Spectra, once a human herself, knew that following stress that may lead to misery...

All she had to do was follow one teen stressing about the next thing they had to do...then she would absorb the misery, following one person after the next...everyone had it.

It was a perfect plan. He wondered why it never occurred to him.

So what were these dreams all about? She said it was a "ghost thing."

Did she somehow have anything to do with them? Is this what she did to everybody?

Or every ghost?

"Hey, what are you doing in here?" asked a voice.

Danny looked towards the door. It was a janitor. At first it seemed unusual why he would ask all of this, but then he noticed two things.

First, the sign outside read, "Patients Only." Second, he was in ghost mode.

Before the janitor could alert any security, he turned intangible and dropped through the floor.

Floating down to the first floor, he found Jazz sitting silently by herself, reading from a magazine. Mr. Gray was nowhere to be found.

Hiding behind a tall potted plant, he turned back into Danny Fenton and walked up to her.

"So how's Valerie?" she asked, without looking up.

So she knew who it was.

Plus she sounded angry. But she had a reason to. He left her without telling her who it was in the first place, and then abandoned her down here.

"I'm so sorry, Jazz," he said.

"You're lucky that Sam and Tucker aren't here." she said, looking up from his magazine. "Why couldn't you just tell me that it was Valerie you were going to see?"

"I should have...you're right..."

"You should have told me," repeated Jazz.

"I was panicking...I'm sorry...but you were right about her..."

Jazz's anger melted a bit as she walked up to him. "Right about what?"

"She depises Danny Phantom, and I can't continue with that. Things are getting so much harder..."

She was about to say something, but then lowered her frustration and quickly turned it into a smile.

Jazz then hugged him, her usual way of saying that an apology was accepted.

"I know...you made a mistake...I could shove this into your face about this, but right now, I can already see that you've already figured this out on your own."

Danny felt a bit better, feeling comfort from his sister.

"C'mon, Danny," said Jazz. "Let's go home."

Home...the place he never felt he'd be so happy to be, especially with a pair of ghost hunters as his parents.

Together, they left the hospital, her arm around his shoulder.

"So I guess I was right about my prediction from earlier," he thought once he was sure his mind was no longer split. "Valerie is a lot different. But what I just did...was this really the correct way to deal with this?"

That was what Valerie was thinking, with tears in her eyes, as she watched their car leave the parking lot into the night, just as it started to snow once again...

But behind those watery green eyes stood another emotion...the mood she had always felt when she fought ghosts...

She hated Danny for taking the side against her. But even more than ever, she detested Danny Phantom. He took her friend away and swayed him to his point of view. Once she was out of here, she would stop at nothing to destroy his future.

Her hand tightening into a fist, she knew that there was no turning back.

End of Chapter 7...

You guys know the drill. Please send me some reviews, and I'll do my best to try and finish Chapter 8 within the usual time frame I said from earlier.