Author's Note: I took way too long with this chapter and I have no excuse for it.
(after being) Condemned
The unmasked - Part two
Danny paused at the base of the lab stairs and hovered, assessing the situation. Jack had his gun trained on a hulking mass of a ghost, a monstrous entity for which Danny could not even determine a terrestrial resemblance. Where had it come from?
Didn't matter. It couldn't stay here.
The ghost took a swipe at Jack's face with its huge hand. Jack held up his ecto-gun to parry the blow. With a low but shrill cry, the ghost grabbed the gun and wrenched it out of Jack's hands. Jack's jaw dropped as the ghost now held the gun. It hollered triumphantly.
Jack looked around wildly and made a quick dash for another ecto-gun lying on a counter. The ghost stretched out an arm and wrapped it several times around his leg, forcing Jack's heavy body to the ground with a hard thud.
The ghost cackled and kept a tight hold on Jack's leg, turning him over onto his back. It aimed the ecto-gun at Jack's face, charging it to full power, enough shock to stop any human's heart.
Danny launched a precisely concentrated ecto-ray at the gun, smartly knocking it out of the ghost's grip and against the floor where it skidded into a wall. The ghost and Jack both turned in his direction.
"You," Jack snarled.
Danny gave him only a glance before plunging himself into the ghost, ramming a hard elbow infused with ghostly energy into its middle. The ghost slammed into a lab containment device, shattering glass and denting metal.
"Hey, that's expensive," yelled Jack, pulling himself up into a sitting position.
Danny rolled his eyes. So like his dad to criticize him even when he was saving his life.
The ghost sent a hard focused punch in his direction. Danny threw himself back in a flip only for the ghost to come at him again with breakneck speed. Danny continued moving backward as he either blocked or avoided each blow, knowing exactly where he was headed. The Fenton Thermoses were always kept in the same cabinet.
His back hit the counter. He turned quickly and opened the cabinet, grabbing a Thermos and jumping out of the way just as the ghost threw another punch. It hit the counter instead, causing a section of it to crack.
Danny pulled the lid off the Thermos and aimed it squarely at the ghost. The ghost's fierce eyes switched to panic as it shrieked and attempted to get out of the way, but there was no escaping the beam of energized light once Danny pressed the button. The ghost's body elongated and then shrank into the confines of the device. Danny replaced the cap and exhaled. The chill of his ghost sense ceased its shocks to his system.
He held the Thermos to his chest for a few moments, then set it down carefully on the counter behind him. A shuffle across the lab caught his ears. Jack stood not too far from him, staring at him, his hand held up beside a wall.
No. Not just a wall. A large button.
Jack's eyes narrowed. Danny's widened.
He knew exactly which button that was.
Jack slammed it hard. The lab filled with green light as the ghost shield activated and permeated the walls, ceiling, and floor. Danny looked at the glow of the shield blocking the stairs leading out of the lab.
Jack walked toward him holding an ecto-gun. Danny had no idea where he had even gotten it. Perhaps the same gun Danny had knocked out of the ghost's grasp earlier?
"You think you can just barge into my lab uninvited, Phantom?" asked Jack with a harsh bite.
Danny leaned back against the counter as Jack came closer, his hands gripping at its edge. "I—uh—"
"What are you doing here?" Jack stopped a short distance away from him, the gun held in his arms but not aimed. "What do you think gives you the right to be here?"
"I just—" Danny frantically fought his mind for a story. "I saw you were in trouble, so I—"
"Really? And how did you just happen to see that? Were you somehow already in my house? Were you spying on me?"
"What? No! Of course not—"
"Have you been spying on my family?"
"No, never—"
"Then how did you even know there was a ghost here at all?"
Danny let go of the counter and attempted to keep himself steady as he straightened. "Look, I just saved your life."
"I don't need you to save me, Phantom," spat Jack. "I don't need you to be a hero for me. I don't want you to be a hero for me. I could've handled that myself. I don't need you. I don't ever want you around."
Danny lowered his head, his eyes focused on nothing.
I don't ever want you around, Danny.
Danny clenched his fists. "I didn't mean—I only wanted to—"
"I'm never going to change my mind about you. Don't bother trying."
Danny kept his head down. He could see his father on the upper periphery of his vision shifting the gun in his hands, aiming it at him.
"But now that you're here," said Jack, "I'm not letting you go."
They stood apart from each other in silence for some time, staring each other down.
Ghost and man coming to their high noon.
Jack's gun charged with a high-pitched whir. Danny sprang into the air, a blast from the gun destroying the counter that had been behind him.
Jack aimed the gun up at him and fired more concentrated beams. Danny wove around all of them, glancing up at the holes in the ceiling as Jack paused to recharge.
"That's how you want to do this, huh?" Jack moved to a control panel and keyed in some configuration. The ghost shield surrounding the lab shrank, forcing Danny into a smaller space so that he could no longer fly high enough to avoid Jack.
Jack continued throwing several more blasts in his direction. Danny's dodges became less and less accurate, some shots only narrowly missing him, others singeing his suit, a few charring sections of his skin.
How was he going to—
What was he going to—
He couldn't escape. He couldn't leave. And he couldn't reveal who he really was. It didn't matter who he was. Danny or Phantom, human or ghost, his dad didn't want him either way.
Another shot grazed his arm, then another drilled into his shoulder. Danny cried out and fell to the floor, holding a hand to his aching shoulder. Ectoplasm oozed through his fingers.
Jack walked up to him, pointing his gun to his head where he knelt and nursed his wound. "I have no interest in keeping you alive, Phantom. My wife does, sure, but she's not here. She might yell at me for being so careless with you, but I'll just tell her it was an accident."
Danny stared into the barrel of the gun as it glowed a vibrant magenta. This was it, this was all, this was the end of his life, his existence.
My God, he's really going to kill me.
The gun sputtered, crackled, sparked. Its magenta light blinked out into darkness. Jack snarled and pulled it back toward his chest, hitting it a few times. "Damn it, I thought this was fully charged."
Danny choked on a sob and rose to his feet, staggered away. Where? Nowhere. He couldn't phase out through the ghost shield. But he had to get away somehow. He had to figure this out somehow because he was Danny Phantom and he couldn't just give up and let his dad kill him.
His dad wanted to kill him his dad wanted to kill him his dad wanted to—
He couldn't see. The afterimage from the light within Jack's ecto-gun was burned hard on his retinas in a large green splotch directly in the center of his vision. Everywhere he looked, everything was blocked. He blindly reached one arm out, the other arm incapacitated by the wound in his shoulder.
Jack's huge hand roughly grabbed his outstretched arm. Danny immediately turned himself over into intangibility.
"You're really gonna be a coward now, Phantom?" demanded Jack.
Danny tried to blink away the bright afterimage that continued to blot out his vision. His wounded shoulder spasmed, disarming his concentration to stay intangible. Jack grabbed his arm again and managed to pull him a couple feet across the lab before Danny was able to regain enough focus to slip away.
"Why won't you fight me?" asked Jack.
Danny shook his head. "I—I don't want—"
"Why are you so pathetic? I wasn't expecting this from you."
Why are you such a disappointment, Danny? Why can't you just do what I want you to do? Why can't you be what I want you to be?
He still couldn't see anything. Nothing but this green light, could only see around it, anything he tried to look at directly was hidden from him. Dizzying. Hot. Another shock of pain in his shoulder disabled his intangibility.
He had to find a way to shut off this ghost shield. That was his only way to escape. Where was the control panel again? Oh, God, no, it was outside of the ghost shield now. He couldn't reach it. This was it, he was going to die—
A section of a thick metal frame appeared at the edge of his vision. Danny blearily looked right at it, trying to make sense of what it was, what larger structure it belonged to.
The portal to the Ghost Zone.
Yes, yes, there was his escape, if he could just activate it and throw himself through to the other side—
Jack's hand clamped hard onto his blown shoulder. Danny cried out as the pain radiated through his arm and upper chest, blocking all communication with his molecules, all commands to turn intangible. Jack squeezed tight, shocking all sorts of light and color into his vision as his head filled with all manner of vertigo.
He was falling. Forward or backward, he wasn't sure. He only knew his balance was completely gone.
But then something caught him. Someone.
Jack wrapped a single arm around him, pinning his arms to his side. Danny blinked and shook his head, regathering his wits. The portal was still ahead, he just had to slip out of his dad's grasp using intangibility and then he had to bolt for it. He could see well enough now, he could do it—
Jack jammed something into his neck, a needle stabbing through the fabric of his suit and right above his collarbone. Danny yelped and twisted in Jack's tight grip. Jack removed the needle and threw him into an observation table, knocking the wind right out of his lungs as he collapsed to the floor.
Danny pressed a hand to his now throbbing neck. He raised his head to look up at Jack.
Jack smirked and triumphantly held up an empty syringe.
No, please, tell him it wasn't—
"Fenton Solidifier," said Jack. "I told you my wife invented this specifically for you, didn't I?"
Jack paused for some time, long enough that Danny wondered if he was supposed to respond. But he kept quiet, still down on his knees.
"All so she can keep you powerless without the use of expensive machinery or devices. All so she can freely do anything and everything she wants to any and every part of you."
Jack's grip on the syringe tightened. It cracked and shattered in his glove.
"Now you can't evade me anymore, Phantom." Jack tossed the shards aside. They clinked against the floor. "No more turning intangible or using any of your powers. Now you have to fight me."
Danny groaned and reached up to place a shaky hand on the observation table. He pressed against it and pushed himself to stand. "I don't want to fight you," he gasped.
"Oh, I'm sure you don't. You're nothing without your powers. You know you stand no chance against me now."
Danny tried to send a small amount of ectoplasmic flow to his palm. But nothing emerged. Powerless, nothing to even the playing field.
"And I won't go easy on you," said Jack. "This ends tonight, Phantom. My wife is obsessed with you, my daughter has a crush on you, my son keeps defending you. No more. You won't corrupt my family anymore after tonight."
The energy being exchanged between their stares was hot with a charge Danny could almost swear he felt flickering on his skin. Jack glared at him with ferocious intensity. Danny could only return a poignant sadness.
There's no convincing you otherwise, is there?
Time slowed as Jack's fist sailed toward Danny, restarted as he ducked and stumbled a couple steps away. Another punch grazed the side of his head, hairs standing on end and vibrating with the close contact.
A third punch popped the side of Danny's face. Blistering sparks blinked in his eyes as the pain permeated throughout his whole head and neck.
He could see another punch coming his way. Straight for his face. Straight for him—
He had to do something—
Or he was going to die—
This huge man with three times his strength and size was going to beat him to death if he didn't—
DO something—
STOP this assailant—
Now—
Danny moved his head out of the way of Jack's rushing fist and bent his arm, sending his own fist upward in an uppercut to Jack's chin. Jack's head was thrown with the force. He took a step back and rubbed his chin.
But to Danny's surprise, Jack smiled.
"So you can fight without your powers," remarked Jack. "That was a pretty solid punch, Phantom."
Jack gripped his chin and moved his jaw side to side, his jaw joints clicking in response. Danny stared at him, noted his expression, his reaction. Danny had put all of his strength into that punch, and his dad barely seemed fazed at all.
His heart beat in his temples, his breath dried out his throat. Jack was already coming at him with another punch. He jumped out of the way and caught sight of the portal again.
That was still it. That was still his only chance to get out of this without revealing his secret. His only chance to get out of this alive.
Because even if he did tell his dad who he really was, he had no way to prove it without the power to change back.
Because even if he did somehow convince his dad he was his son, his dad would probably still kill him for what he had dared to become.
Danny raised his arms to block his face, his wounded shoulder crying only a little as adrenaline pumped hard through his body and ignited his nerves. Jack came at him from all angles, no pausing, no holding back, bruising Danny's arms. Danny dodged strategically, edged toward the portal.
A few more steps, a little closer, then he could break into a sprint and switch on the portal and get out of here and maybe never come back and—
Jack's hand gripped at the hair on the back of his head, whipping and snapping him into a halt. Danny struggled to break free, but his dad's fingers only tangled in his hair further, painfully twisting the locks against his scalp.
Oh, God, his mom had been insisting he cut his hair the past few months; why hadn't he listened?
Jack whirled him around, didn't speak, didn't even grunt, only kept a firm hold on the back of his head and smashed his face into the nearest table once, twice, three times. Ectoplasm gushed down his face and into his mouth and he had no idea where it was coming from.
Jack slammed him a final time into the table before tossing him aside against the activated ghost shield. A quick jolt of pain shot through Danny's entire body before he fell to the floor, his limbs twitching.
Jack's boots moved closer to him. Danny weakly propped himself up on his bruised forearm. The left side of his face throbbed as ectoplasm continued to drip down his aching upper jaw and off his chin.
Danny did his best to raise his pounding head, his watery eyes. He could see out of only one, the left eye screwed shut.
"You're so weak without your powers," said Jack. "I don't even need a gun to kill you like this. I could easily snap you in half right now. Crush your neck. Pop off your arms."
Danny dizzily tried to shut the corresponding images out of his head. Jack pressed his boot into Danny's chest, forcing him to lie on his back.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you."
Jack's boot pressed harder. Danny's breaths were shallow against the weight.
He couldn't fight anymore. Even if he had the energy, he could never surpass or even match his dad's strength.
His dad only had to apply all his weight to crush Danny's ribs and lungs until he suffocated.
And maybe that was exactly what he should do.
"I can't," said Danny, realizing one of his front upper teeth was loose. Pain surged through his jaw as he continued to speak. "I can't give you a reason why you shouldn't kill me. You probably should just kill me. I don't think I should be here anymore."
Jack's expression softened into confusion, surprise. The weight of his boot eased.
"I've been nothing but a disappointment to you." The words scraped raw his aching vocal cords. "I always have been. I tried but I was never what you wanted."
He wasn't even sure if Jack could hear him, understand him. But Jack hadn't been hearing and understanding him for so long, so it probably wouldn't make any difference if his words were intelligible.
"I'm useless and I fuck up everything. There's no reason for me to keep existing. Maybe you all really would be better off without me. Your wife could return to her normal research without obsessing over me. Your daughter could live her own life without worrying about what I'm doing, without trying to protect me all the time. And your son—"
Ectoplasm oozed from around his loose tooth and dripped down his throat. He tried to imagine nonexistence, simply ceasing to be. No more stress, no more bullies, no more failing classes. No more fighting ghosts, no more hurting his friends and family. No more disappointing anyone.
"Your son would definitely be better off without me around," sighed Danny. "I've only made his life hell."
Jack pulled back his boot entirely from Danny's chest, but Danny remained lying on the floor, choking on his own saliva and ectoplasm, swallowing what he could. Jack stared down at him but said nothing, made no movement. Who was he in this moment? Still his father? Or someone else, his murderer, his executioner? Who did Danny want him to be?
Danny turned his head to look at the fabric of his suit covering his arm, the wound in his shoulder from his father's ecto-gun. "I thought I could help him. I thought I could make him better. Not so useless and disappointing. I thought I could help him be good at just one thing for once. I thought I could give him some purpose in life. Some reason to be here, some reason to make his existence worth it so he's not just a waste of space, a waste of everyone's time."
I should shoot you, Phantom. Shooting you might be better.
All I care about is getting you out of the picture, Phantom.
You're a sickness, Phantom.
If I get rid of you, maybe my family will be cured, Phantom.
I can't believe I let you get away, Phantom.
I want to destroy you, Phantom. I want you to be gone, Phantom.
An affliction. A disease. A disorder.
Your teachers keep e-mailing us, Danny.
You were late to class again today, Danny.
Why are you acting like this, Danny?
I haven't done anything to hurt you, Danny.
You can't keep doing this to me, Danny.
Stop lying to me, Danny
What is wrong with you, Danny?
His dad didn't want him. In either form.
Perhaps he really did need to just leave. To be taken out. Destroyed. Eliminated. Maybe his dad could finally breathe easy knowing he didn't have to worry about both his hated ghost and useless son anymore.
If he couldn't please his dad alive, maybe he could dead.
"I don't want to wait anymore." He sucked in more air. His body refused to breathe on its own. "That's what I've been doing since Wednesday night. Just waiting for you to yell at me. Just waiting for you to hurt me. Trying to stay out of trouble but only making you angrier. Trying you to keep you out with denial. Trying to drown you out with painkillers. But this always had to happen. There was no way I could outrun you forever."
Still on his back, he swallowed and pulled in a deep breath, attempted to open his airway to strengthen his speech that had been breaking with tremulous frustration.
"So just kill me already. Because I don't want to keep living like this."
Who was wrong? Who was right? It didn't matter. Jack was the one in control. He'd just have to realize his mistake later.
Or not.
Did Danny even want Jack to know who he really was? Or would it be better if his father remained blissfully unaware, happy to have finally destroyed Phantom even if he had no idea where his son went?
"But can you answer me one question before you kill me?"
Jack did not nod but did not shake his head either.
"Do you love your son?" asked Danny in an unintended whisper. "If he were to...somehow be gone forever, would you miss him?"
He just wanted to know. This one final request. He wanted to know once and for all if his dad actually did like him. He had no reason to lie to a stranger, to lie to Phantom.
If his dad did say he loved him, it'd be a comfort before he died.
And if he didn't, well, at least Danny would know for sure his death could make his dad happy in every way.
He stared up at Jack as he waited for an answer, looked into aged blue eyes that focused right back on him.
Eyes that always reminded him just how much of a disappointment he was. How ashamed he should be.
Danny swiftly turned his face away.
Just let me make you happy for once. I don't want to make you angry anymore.
Nothing was said for some time.
And then Danny could sense Jack moving.
Danny tentatively turned his head to look up at Jack. Jack's face was directed toward him but his eyes seemed blurred. He lowered himself to his knees beside Danny. Danny kept his position on his back, in too much pain to move even if he tried.
Right above him. Jack's expression was no longer cold and menacing. No, now he seemed to be…
Surely Danny was imagining this?
Jack looked horrified. Dazed. Pale. As if he had seen something even more terrifying than a ghost.
"Of course I would miss you," Jack murmured. "Of course I would."
Jack placed a hand under Danny's head. Danny flinched, his shoulder roared with pain.
"Danny."
Danny blinked at the sound of his name. He had subconsciously convinced himself he'd never hear it again.
"Danny."
He met Jack's eyes. Jack's face was lined, grey.
"Danny." Jack took his hand and gripped it hard. "Danny. Why did you let me do this to you, Danny?"
Danny searched his heart, his soul for an answer. The right answer. The answer that would make everything better and would make his father happy and would end this.
An answer that didn't exist.
"I thought it was what you wanted," admitted Danny with a voice shaking so much even he barely understood himself.
Jack's eyes shut as he held Danny's hand up to his forehead and covered his face. His other hand held the back of Danny's head. Danny tensed but stayed still as his father held him in silence.
His father's breaths were deep and hard, filled with such agony and suffering. Pain so terrible that it would never subside on its own if it were ignored.
Danny wanted to make it subside. He wanted to rescue his father.
He attempted to lift himself into a sitting position but yelped when his injured shoulder forced him back down. Jack uncovered his face, appearing alarmed.
"I'm sorry," Danny gasped out in a strained whisper, the s sound whistling around his loose tooth. "I'm so sorry, Dad."
Jack moved his hand to Danny's back and helped him into a sitting position. "Sorry for what?"
"For—for—" Danny moaned and clutched at his shoulder.
"Here. Let me—"
Jack effortlessly scooped Danny into his arms, one arm supporting his back and the other his knees. Danny laid his head against Jack's chest. He couldn't even remember the last time his father had picked him up, certainly not since he was a small child.
He couldn't decide if this felt good or not but he was in too much pain to resist. Physical and emotional, all of it was too much.
Jack set Danny down in a chair. Danny leaned back and closed his eyes, opened them again when he heard the sound of the ghost shield shutting off. He could escape now, he could leave, he could go up the stairs and run away for real this time.
Jack returned with a needled syringe. "It's the cancelling agent. Could you—?"
Danny nodded and unzipped his suit, lowering a sleeve to bare his upper arm. Jack rubbed his skin with alcohol before inserting the needle. Danny hardly reacted, wasn't even sure he felt it. What was a little more pain now?
Jack stepped back. Danny waited until he felt his molecules sparking with their normal energy. He didn't even need to send the command to change back, too broken to willfully maintain his ghost form any longer.
His eye and upper jaw throbbed with new intensity, blood from his shoulder soaked his shirt. Parts of his skin that were burned by blasts from Jack's ecto-gun prickled. His arms discolored from defending against Jack's punches.
"Oh, God, it really is you," said Jack. "Oh, God, Maddie's gonna kill me. Oh, God—"
Jack walked away, muttering to himself as he opened drawers and cabinets and then returned with a first aid kit. He ripped Danny's sleeve and bandaged his wounded shoulder, rubbed a wet towel over his face and neck to clean away all the dried blood.
So gentle but so uncomfortable coming from his father. Danny was afraid to move or even acknowledge the contact, unsure if this was even real, unsure if some disturbance could set Jack off again.
Jack placed his hands on the sides of Danny's head and stared at him intently. "How quickly do you think all this could heal if you switched back to ghost form?"
Danny creased his brow. "I—I don't know."
"You have supernatural healing abilities like other ghosts, right?"
"Yes, but—"
"So how long do you think it would take? Before your mom gets home? Can you make it go faster? Do you have control over it?"
"I—uh, I've never tried. How bad is it?"
Jack grabbed a mirror from one of the lab's drawers and handed it to Danny. Danny held it and winced at the sight of the many broken vessels reddening and purpling the left side of his face, swelling his eye shut, splitting open his upper lip.
Danny lowered the mirror and fought back pressure behind his eyes because he was going to have to give his father an answer he wouldn't like. "I can't heal this. Even in my ghost form, this would take days to heal."
Jack groaned. "You've got to be kidding me. I can't let Maddie see you like this."
Danny trembled as Jack snatched the mirror from him. "I'm sorry."
Jack was now pacing the floor. Danny had to apologize, couldn't make his dad angry, had to explain this shortcoming before he changed his mind and pointed another ecto-gun in his face.
"I mean, maybe it'd be quicker if I was transformed twenty-four-seven for a while, but I've never had to heal anything quite this bad. At least, not on my face. Usually I can just cover up anything on my face with Jazz's make-up—"
Jack turned back to him sharply. "Jazz's make-up? Does Jazz know about this, too?"
Danny hesitated. "Uh—well—"
"Are you telling me Jazz knew about this and didn't tell us?" Jack's voice rose. "That both of you kept this a secret from us together?"
"We didn't mean—I mean—"
"I don't believe this. I just can't believe—"
Jack cursed in a distressed, throaty growl. Danny stiffened and looked down at the floor, restrained the urge to turn invisible.
"How did this happen?" Jack leaned against a counter and scanned the ravaged lab. "Why did this happen? This is impossible."
Danny said nothing. His father didn't seem to want any actual answers to these questions, at least not the answers he could give, not the answers Jack wanted to hear.
Danny held his arms and wondered to himself, yes, how did all this happen and why couldn't he have just been what his dad wanted?
Beyond the lab, upstairs, the sound of the front door opening and shutting. Danny and Jack froze.
"Danny? Jack?" Maddie called. "Where are you two?"
Neither answered.
"Boys? Are you home?"
"Maybe they went out?" offered Jazz's voice. "Maybe Dad wanted more fudge?"
"But the Fenton RV is still parked outside. Danny, Jack? Are you here?"
Jack's head dropped to his chest. Danny's stomach churned.
"I could phase through the ceiling," said Danny. "I could go up to my room. I could go into ghost form, try to heal as much as I can for a couple hours. You could just say I'm taking a nap or something—"
"No, Danny. You're not supposed to be taking naps or even in your room alone at all, remember? You're grounded. And besides, I was supposed to be helping you with physics."
"Then we—we could—"
"No." Jack sighed. "We can't hide this from your mom." He placed a hand on Danny's back and guided him to stand. "We have to tell her."
Danny's upper chest twinged. He didn't want his mom to know. He didn't want his dad to know. He wanted to reverse all of this. He wanted to lie again.
"Jack? Danny?" called Maddie's voice from the top of the stairs as she opened the lab door. "Are you two down there?"
"Yes," answered Jack. "Yes, we're both here. We're coming up."
"What are you doing down there?"
"Ah—just hang on, we'll be up."
Jack led the way out of the lab. Danny folded his arms against himself and kept his head down, attempted to cover his injured shoulder with the ripped fabric of his shirt but gave up. Every step hurt so much but he had to keep going.
Because his dad said so.
Upstairs in the living room, Jack was large enough for Danny to hide behind. He only wished he could stay out of sight.
"Finally." Maddie held up her phone. "I have a list of cars here for us to go over. Quite a few good deals, but we're not sure—"
Jack stepped to the side, allowing Danny to be seen fully. Danny raised his head but kept his folded arms pressed to his body.
Maddie did not move or speak for a moment. Jazz gasped and covered her mouth.
"Danny!" Maddie rushed up to him and placed her hands on his arms. "What happened to your face? And your shoulder? And your arms, they're all red." She shook him. "How did this happen?"
Danny tried to stop his shivering, tried to keep his words clear and not slurred as they whispered past his loose tooth. "Um—well, we—I mean, I, um—I was—"
He glanced at Jack. Jack returned his glance but said nothing.
"It's—what happened was—" Danny drew a harsh breath. "I—"
"Danny."
Danny looked at Jack again.
"I'll take care of this, Danny," said Jack quietly.
Maddie's mouth curved in a stern frown. "Jack?" Her tone was dark. "Who did this to Danny?"
"Maddie, just let me finish speaking before you say anything—"
"Jack. Answer me."
Jack blew out a long breath through his nose. "I… It was me. I did it."
Maddie gripped Danny's arms so hard he could feel her nails through her gloves. "What?"
"Maddie—"
"You—it was you—you beat up our son?"
"Listen—"
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I didn't know it was him!"
Maddie scoffed. "What do you mean you didn't know it was him? What the fuck does that mean, Jack?"
"He was—he didn't look like himself! He was in—in—ghost form!"
"Ghost form? What are you talking about?" yelled Maddie. "Are you seriously trying to justify beating up our son?"
"He's telling the truth, Mom," said Danny weakly.
"Danny, please, just let me handle this," said Jack.
Danny looked at the floor. On the upper edge of his vision, he could see Jazz's mouth hanging open.
"Maddie, I...really don't know how to say this." The muscles in Jack's face strained. "Danny, our son...is a ghost. Not just any ghost either, but…" He exhaled sharply. "He's Danny Phantom."
There was a hard silence.
"What?" Maddie stared at Jack, glanced at Danny briefly. "That's impossible. What do you mean?"
"I mean—look, I know. It is impossible, but it's true."
"No." Maddie shook her head many times. "No. You're not getting away with what you've done here, Jack."
"Maddie, I saw him. He even changed back right in front of me."
"No. No. No!"
"Yes!" shouted Jack. "Even Jazz knew. Right, Jazz?" Jack held his hand out to her, his expression hardening. "You knew and didn't tell us for some reason, right? Even though you should've. Even though both of you should've!"
Jazz shrank back and only sputtered in reply.
"No, Jack." Maddie's voice was loud but weak. "No. I don't know what you think you're doing, but this isn't going to work." She studied Danny hard. "I'm not going to believe this. Our son is not Danny Phan—" She panted and clutched at her chest. "I mean, he's not… He's not… He can't be…"
Her eyes unfocused, her face whitened. Danny's heart thrummed with longing to take all of this back somehow.
"It's true, Mom," said Danny quietly. "Remember the accident I had in the ghost portal? The beginning of freshman year?"
Maddie's eyes widened but she did not nod. But oh yes, he could tell she remembered very well.
"I'm sorry, Mom." Danny fought through his closing throat. "I'm so sorry. I should've told you and Dad right when it happened, but—I—I don't know why I didn't. I guess I was just—I was afraid you'd be mad and then it all got so complicated and—"
"No," said Maddie hoarsely. "You wouldn't do that to me, Danny. You would've told me. You can't be—you can't be—it's not true—"
Danny gently took her hand in his. He held it up between them and gazed into her eyes, eyes that begged him to tell her what she wanted to hear.
If only.
He willed his hand to turn intangible and pulled it through hers, their cells mingling and overlapping before separating again.
Maddie stared at her hand. She gaped and stepped back, her hand covering her mouth, looking as if he had just completely betrayed her. Danny stopped himself from trying to comfort her, to embrace her and assure her that everything was okay.
Because everything was definitely not okay.
"I was cleaning up in the lab, organizing some things," said Jack, bringing Maddie's attention back to him. "I dropped a Fenton Thermos and accidentally released the ghost inside. And of course it started attacking me. And then Danny showed up in his ghost form to—to help me, I guess." Jack shut his eyes and huffed. "I didn't recognize him at all. I… I just saw him as Phantom. And…"
He looked at Danny. Danny pretended he didn't notice.
"I wasn't going to let him escape," murmured Jack.
Maddie sniffled. "What were you even doing in the lab? You were supposed to be helping Danny with physics."
"I know—"
"That was the whole point of me and Jazz going out to look for a car together, so you could concentrate on helping Danny."
"Maddie, yes, I know, but—"
"You were supposed to help him, not beat him!"
Danny hunched over. His parents were fighting again, fighting because of him again. All his fault, all his fault.
"I don't expect you to forgive me for this," said Jack. "But I really didn't know—"
"This can't—I can't. This is too much." Maddie threaded her fingers through her hair and paced the floor. "First Jazz tells me Danny's been taking opioids, and now I'm finding out he's—he's—"
Danny felt blood leave his face.
"What?" Jack's voice was harsh. "Opioids? What are you talking about?"
"I was going to talk to you about it privately," said Maddie. "And then we were going to have a talk with Danny about it after dinner."
"But where has he even been getting them?"
Danny glared at Jazz, his face and neck rewarming. "You told her?"
All eyes turned to Jazz. She took a small step back before strengthening her stance.
"Of course I told her," said Jazz, rubbing her arm.
"Why? Why would you tell her?" yelled Danny, not even sure why he was so angry because it wasn't like things weren't already the worst they could possibly be.
"Why? You know why!" snapped Jazz. "Because I knew you were going to hide your pills from me while we were gone!"
"Hide them?" Jack rounded on Danny. "Is that why you were trying to go upstairs by yourself? Because you wanted to hide drugs?"
Danny lowered his head. "I—well—"
"Okay, shut up," cried Maddie. "Everyone just—shut up."
Maddie collapsed onto the sofa. She propped her elbows on her thighs and pressed her palms to her forehead. Her breaths varied, some quiet and small, others loud and shaky.
Danny pretended to be interested in the frayed edges of his ripped sleeve. This wasn't the way he wanted his parents to discover his secret. He had always known this moment would one day come—no way he could be smart enough to keep it from them forever—but this was not the reveal he had envisioned.
He could sense Jack staring at him. Danny met his eyes briefly before turning away.
"Danny."
Danny looked at Maddie. She held her arms out to him.
"Danny. Come here. Please."
Danny didn't want to. He wanted to disappear, fly somewhere far away and sleep for a long, long time.
But of course he obeyed.
He walked to the sofa and shot a quick glare at Jazz, who maintained a stoic expression. Maddie wrapped her arms around him when he sat down and pressed her forehead against the side of his face. Danny did not return the affection, simply let her hold him.
Across the room, Jack ran a hand down his face, tugging at his aged skin.
"I love you, Danny," whispered Maddie. "We all love you. So much."
Danny did not reply.
"Okay." Maddie placed gentle fingers against Danny's chin and guided him to look at her. "We have a lot to talk about this week." She looked at Jack and Jazz. "All of us together. I'm going to call the school tomorrow and tell them Danny's sick." She paused, shook her head. "No, I'll tell them we're all going on a trip. A family emergency." She pulled out her phone. "I'm going to look at some hotels, see what I can get for tomorrow night and the rest of the week."
"Wait." Jazz quirked a brow. "You're pulling us out of school?"
"Yes." Maddie scrolled through her phone. "Like I said, we all need to talk."
"But why do we need to miss school?"
"Because we can't let anyone see Danny like this, Jazz."
Jazz blinked a few times rapidly. "What, so you're just going to cover it up?"
"Do you want Dad to go to prison, Jazz?"
Maddie's words echoed around the living room. Jazz's fierce glare softened into uncertainty. Jack stared at the floor blankly with wide eyes. Danny's body stiffened, his shoulder aching with new pain.
"Do you want Danny to be taken away?" Maddie held a hand out toward Jazz. "Do you want to be taken away? Because that's what will happen if anyone sees Danny like this."
Jack groaned. "Maddie, maybe we should talk about this more—"
"No," shouted Maddie. "No, I'm not letting our family break apart over this. You didn't know it was him. We didn't know it was him. I didn't know it was him. That's—that's not our fault." Tears began streaming down her face. "How were we supposed to know? This is supposed to be impossible. All these months, I had no idea the ghost I was chasing and shooting at was—I mean, it's not my—I wouldn't have if I had known—"
Maddie sobbed and buried her face in her hands. Jack placed an arm against the nearest wall, his head falling to his chest.
Danny could only watch their suffering.
Why had he let this happen?
He had to do something to help, something to rescue both of them.
"But we can't—" Jazz wildly shook her head, her long hair splaying all across her shoulders. "We can't just hide this. We can't just pretend—"
"Jazz," said Danny quietly but boldly. "We can hide this. We can pretend."
Maddie continued crying. Jack's forehead creased. Jazz's lips parted.
Danny knew he wasn't good at many things. He couldn't play sports. He struggled with studying and passing tests. He was terrible at socializing and making good first impressions.
But hiding and pretending and lying? He knew exactly how to do that. So much so that he actually sometimes felt uncomfortable being honest these days.
"We've been covering up my ghost powers for a year and a half," said Danny. "What's another cover-up at this point? What's one more lie? What's another fake phone call to the school telling them we won't be attending for a few days?"
Maddie and Jack looked confused but did not say anything.
"That—what I did was different," said Jazz. "It was only a couple classes, and we weren't covering anything like this up."
Danny shrugged. "At this point, the lies are all the same to me."
Jazz's bottom lip trembled but her eyes were hard. "You're so bad at doing what's best for you."
"It's not just me now," said Danny. "It's all of us."
Maddie brushed his arm with her fingers. Jack's eyelids fluttered.
Jazz threw her hands in the air and stomped up the stairs. No one went after her. No one called for her to come back.
Maddie stood from the couch while dialing a number on her phone. She walked to the kitchen and began speaking to someone about their hotel's immediate availability. Danny fell back against the sofa, every ache in his body making itself known.
Jack looked at him from across the room but continued to keep his distance. Danny looked right back at him, at this man who almost killed him.
How did his father view him now? A ghost who nearly destroyed his family? Or his son who did the same thing?
Perhaps both.
(Stayed tuned for this same ending from Jack's point of view!)