Author's Note: I own nothing.

17 Disagreement

Silence rang through the morgue for a moment before Angelica burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry." She stifled her laughter. "You want me to believe that my daughter's best friend is dead and has been for a while."

"The facts fit Angie!" Kyle argued.

"And she knew." Dev added tapping his chin.

"Knew what?" Angelica asked.

"That I'm the cop assigned to Phantom. I was chasing a lead, the old stories that you thought might be about Phantom?" Kyle nodded to Dev. "I went to look at the old journal the Fentons had, not much there honestly. We'll go into that later, but I talked to Dani, Fenton I mean, and she overheard that I was looking for Phantom. She dropped a glass. Cut her hand." Angelica threw her hands in the air.

"Dani Fenton is one of the clumsiest children I've ever met! She's literately got a lifelong ban from handling anything fragile at school. That doesn't prove anything." Angelica said finally rising from her chair.

"There's more though!" Kyle said pulling a familiar book out of his pocket. "This is the book that Dani Fenton recommended to Dev herself." He flipped it open to a bookmarked page and began to read aloud. " 'On the subject of ectoplasm it is my recommendation that one avoid direct contact with the substance. Though it can be boiled to remove impurities and then becomes safe to handle; in its original form, either direct from the realm the ghosts call home, or from a ghost themselves it is akin to a mildly strong acid to the human skin.' " Angelica shook her head.

"That's not possible Dani had ectoplasm in her blood. If that's true then she should be dead!"

"Unless she's already dead!" Kyle argued. Dev stepped between them.

"Ok both of you need to calm down." He said and Angelica shook her head at them.

"This is insane. She has a pulse I took it myself! She can't be dead!" That tripped them up. Kyle frowned.

"Explain the evidence then Angie." He demanded lowly. "Everyone who has any kind of knowledge about ectoplasm agrees that it's toxic, if Dani had it in her system, she can't be alive."

"She can't be dead either! Ghosts don't eat! Ghosts don't have pulses! Ghosts don't sleep! I have seen Dani do all of those things multiple times since Phantom showed up! She physically can't be dead!" Angelica was yelling. Dev put a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe there's something we're missing. We need to talk to an expert." He reasoned and Angelica threw her hands in the air.

"You want to call the Fentons in on this! Are you kidding me! Can you imagine what they might do to her if they thought for a moment that she was Phantom! They attacked Jazz when they thought she was possessed! They've been talking about dissecting Phantom since she showed up! What do you think they'd do if they found out she was living her afterlife under their roof!" Angelica snapped. Dev froze.

"They attacked Jazz?" He asked lowly. Angelica let out a low breath.

"Trapped her in a net, she told Dani about it. I overheard Dani telling Tanya. They didn't actually hurt her. But they might hurt Dani if they thought she was Phantom." Angelica explained sounding defeated.

"Is there any concrete evidence of this?" Dev asked and Angelica shook her head.

"Nothing solid enough to press charges. I've looked. Jazz would probably say it didn't happen if you asked. It was ages ago, almost a year I think. I've been trying to keep an eye on Jazz and Dani since but it's hard. Jazz and Tanya aren't that close. But I swear some days I think Dani spends more days at my house than hers. She's got enough problems without people accusing her of being dead." Angelica said shaking her head.

"We're not accusing anyone of anything. We're just trying to put the facts together. Honestly I think Phantom's been helpful when she's not being framed for things." Angelica raised an eyebrow at that. Dev nodded, took a swig of his coffee and explained everything Phantom had told him when she'd come to visit him in his office. Angelica shook her head.

"Even if she's not Dani Fenton I feel kind of bad for Phantom." Kyle said flopping down in his chair. Dev and Angelica nodded.

"To be fair though I wasn't thinking about talking to the Fentons when I said experts." The other two turned to Dev frowning.

"Who were you thinking of?" Kyle asked.

"Well, no ones more of an expert on Phantom than Phantom herself. If we can talk to her maybe we can find out the truth."

"And if Kyle's crazy theory is right, what then? What's the endgame here?" Angelica asked and Kyle turned in his chair.

"Yeah, I am a bit curious about that myself. I'm just here cause I like mysteries and this one's pretty deep. What are you gonna do if I'm right Dev?" Kyle asked and Dev shook his head.

"I don't know yet. But we need to talk to Phantom. She's the only one who has all the answers here."

Dani had been grounded over the weekend, left to clean up the mess from the party and restock the weapons and jumpsuits that had been used by the other teens. Most of them popped by to return them during that weekend and Dani was surprised when they all offered to help with the clean up. Most of the A-Listers remained absent, but Kwan and Star both showed up and offered their assistance. Star was more interested in talking about the Red Hunter than actually helping Dani with the cleaning but with Kwan's help she managed to rewire and re-hang the light fixture in the living room that had fallen when the pirate ship first attacked. And she didn't even need to use her powers to do it. Her parents were busy rebuilding and reinstalling the ghost shield.

"So Dani, do you know who the Hunter is?" Star asked and Dani shrugged.

"Nope." She lied as she finished screwing the light fixture into place. Kwan laughed.

"He seems really interested in getting to know you!" Kwan said from where he was holding the ladder. Dani glanced down at him.

"What?"

"He was flirting with you Fenton!" Star said from the couch.

"N… No. He wasn't. Was he?" She asked hopping down the ladder. Kwan snorted.

"I wish I had half the skill of flirting that he does. Maybe the mask helps." Kwan said and Star rolled her eyes.

"Yeah me too. We gotta run but we'll see you tomorrow at school." Star said dragging Kwan behind her. He waved as they left. Dani shook her head, she was beginning to wonder if things would be different at school tomorrow. She'd always been a bit of a nerd, invisible to her classmates long before she died. But something about this visit told her things may be about to change. She shook her head. There was no way Vince was interested in her. She folded the ladder back up and put it back in its place. Was it too much to ask for things to go back to some semblance of normal?