Author's Note: I own nothing.

18 Hiding From Problems

Dani hated when she was right. Things at school had changed because of the incident with the Pirate Ship. Dani still wasn't exactly popular. But there was an air of respect to the way many of her classmates talked to her that Monday that had certainly never been there before. Most of these people had never even acknowledged her existence before. It was throwing her off a bit. She wasn't used to getting this much attention. She was most surprised when Paulina approached her at lunch. Paulina never spoke to her directly unless it was to make fun of her. But this time she was holding two bags. Dani raised an eyebrow at her as she set the bags down in front of her. She peeked inside the first one and glanced at Paulina. The jumpsuit was in that bag, the ghost fighting weapons laid carefully on top of it. The second bag was from a local makeup shop.

"Papa thought it was probably a good idea to get you a thank you gift for that whole thing last week. Don't get used to it." She said and turned to Sam. "I'm starting a Phantom Fan Club at school, do you want in?" She asked and Tanya choked on her sandwich. Dani stared at Paulina, who was staunchly ignoring her. Sam seemed to have inhaled his water wrong.

"No time after school. Sorry." He choked out between coughs. Paulina nodded slightly and headed back to her table. Dani and Tanya turned to Sam, both with raised eyebrows.

"Why did Paulina want you to join her Phantom Fan Club?" Tanya asked. Sam sighed pulling out a notebook.

"She may have seen some of my doodles and drawn conclusions." He said flipping open the notebook and showing it to the others. It had several different drawings of versions of Phantom's logo, the one that now rested on Dani's costume was circled. Opposite that was a drawing of the costume Phantom now wore. Dani's eyes glimmered with amusement as she handed the notebook back to Sam.

"I knew you did something to my costume." She teased picking her fork back up. Tanya peeked into the bag Paulina had left behind.

"Damn!" She said pulling a small tub out of the bag. "This shit looks expensive." She said and handed it to Dani, digging in the bag to see what else was there.

" 'Corrective under eye cream, melts away even the most stubborn of under eye circles. For best results apply before bed.' Only Paulina could give a gift and still insult someone." Dani said reading off the back of the tub. Tanya laughed and Sam rolled his eyes. Tanya pulled a bottle of perfume out of the bag as well.

"Oh, fancy!" She exclaimed and handed it to Dani.

" 'Glorious Morning.'" Dani read off the box. " 'Subtle notes of morning glories and citrus.'" Dani shook her head. "Probably never gonna use those." At that moment Vincent appeared in the cafeteria and raced to their table.

"Hide me." He begged. Sam snorted and Vince shot him a dirty look before slipping under the table. And just in time too. Tetslaff came barreling in through the doors and frowned around. She was clearly looking for someone, if Dani had to guess she was probably looking for Vince. She passed their table by and Dani glanced down.

"You good?" She asked and a sigh came from under the table.

"She's mad that I quit football." The answer was quiet from under the table. Tanya shook her head standing to toss her tray. Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head at Dani. He didn't approve of her friendship with Vince. He slipped off too. Once both of them were gone Dani glanced around and slipped under the table too.

"That bad huh?" She asked as Vince scooted over to make room for her.

"Yeah. She wants me to rejoin but I just don't have time with my job." He explained. "She keeps trying to convince me and it's getting annoying." He glanced at the bag Dani had dragged under the table with her and raised an eyebrow. "Didn't realize you shopped at that place. It's stupid expensive." Dani shook her head.

"I don't it's a gift. From Paulina of all people." Dani laughed and Vince raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, why?" He was a better liar than she'd ever given him credit for. Dani shook her head.

"I don't know if you've heard about that whole thing that went down the other day, with the pirate ship?" She asked, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, my dad was there, I didn't hear about it until after. I thought I heard you were there, something about getting tossed off the ship?"

"Twice actually. It's a little embarrassing. Got caught both times, once by the Red Hunter and once by that ghost girl, Phantom. I think that's what her name is, that's what Paulina calls her anyway." Dani ran a hand through her hair. Vince gave her a light smile.

"Well I'm glad you're ok." He said with a small grin. "Wanna go over our book reports while we're down here?" Dani laughed and nodded.

"Why not?"

The one thing Dev hadn't counted on when he'd suggested that they talk to Phantom was how difficult it would be to find the ghost girl. It was a couple of days later now, and no one had seen her, not a whisper all weekend. Angelica remained staunchly skeptical of the whole situation. Apparently Dani had been grounded all weekend, at least according to Angelica's daughter. Kyle thought this added more credence to his theory since Fenton had been grounded at about the same time Phantom vanished. Dev was reviewing the files he had on Phantom when the Captain stuck his head into the room.

"Wulfric."

"Yes Captain?"

"Need you to go down to the school, something weird going down."

"Weird how? Weird like I need to talk to some kids about the dangers of drug use or weird like I need to get the Fenton weapons?" He asked and the Captain leaned against the doorframe.

"Probably the second one. Apparently one of the kids at Casper is hosting a Phantom Fan club meeting." He explained. Dev glanced up at him.

"You're shitting me."

"I am not. Apparently she helped them save their parents, this kid, Paulina Sanchez, claims Phantom's saved her multiple times and a bunch of the kids are agreeing with her."

"And you want me to what, break it up?"

"I want you to see if Phantom shows up. I don't know if she would but. Make sure things don't get out of hand." He clarified and Dev nodded.

"Alright I'll see what I can do." He said standing from his desk. He headed out. The meeting was happening on the front lawn of the school. A small group of teens was gathered there. He recognized a few of them. Paulina Sanchez was at the head of the group with a blond boy Dev was pretty sure was on the football team. They seemed to be going around the group handing out what looked like t-shirts. There were only about six kids there. Out of the corner of his eye Dev spotted a familiar head of black hair. Well he was already here, why not?

"Dani!" She turned and frowned. She wasn't alone, and it wasn't her usual entourage either. Dev actually didn't recognize this kid. He was tall, taller than Dani by a good five inches, with close cropped curly hair and green eyes. Dani raised an eyebrow at him but waited as he got out of his car and headed up to her and her friend.

"Officer Wulfric. What can I help you with?" Dani asked. Now that he was really looking for it he noticed a calculating look in her eyes.

"I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute, alone please." Dani glanced at her friend and he raised an eyebrow.

"We can meet up at your house." He suggested and Dani shook her head.

"This shouldn't take more than a minute." She assured and Dev raised an eyebrow at her. But she followed him to his car and after a moments hesitation got in. It was her turn to raise an eyebrow at him. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Do you know Phantom?" He asked. He'd already found that directness was best with Phantom, and if Kyle was right it should be best with Fenton too. Something flashed through her eyes, panic maybe. But she simply tilted her head at him.

"And if I did? Are you going to arrest me?"

"No." She hadn't answered the way he'd been expecting. There was a slight quaver in her voice but a little bit of nervousness didn't prove anything. She was the daughter of ghost hunters, and if her parents thought she was hanging out with ghosts, well Angelica had already brought up the dangers of that to him.

"Why are you asking?"

"Because I want to talk to her. Just talk. I have some questions I think only she can answer. But she doesn't exactly have a phone number."

"If she did talk to you, what would you talk about?"

"I think she's been handed the short end of a stick no kid should have. I want to see if I can make her… afterlife easier." Dev's hesitation in using the word afterlife was a familiar one. Phantom had the same hesitation every time she used it. She used it to replace the word life more often than not but there was always a hesitation before she did, as if she wasn't used to it. "I want to know why she's here. I want to know what she wants." Dani hesitated.

"And if she just wants to help?" The question surprised him. He hadn't been sure which side of the Phantom debate Dani had been on. He knew where her parents stood in regards to the ghostly teen but he'd never managed to get a straight answer out of either Dani or Jazz.

"Then we really need to talk. Just. If you see her. Let her know I want to talk." It was a gamble. He knew that. But there was curiosity in Dani's eyes. She reached for the door and frowned, hesitating again.

"Did it occur to you that maybe she has enemies that would be dangerous to you if they knew you were looking for her?" Before Dev could answer Dani had opened the door and slipped out of the car, off to where her friend was waiting. He watched them go, sitting in his car. What had she meant, what enemies? He knew that the other ghosts were a problem but Phantom normally had them well in hand. What was Dani afraid of? Was she afraid of him finding out? He shook his head. Now he had more research to do. He laid his head on his steering wheel for a moment trying to calm a rising headache. He sighed, glancing back at the meeting of the Phantom Fan Club, the real reason he was supposed to be out here. They were just sitting around talking. He shook his head, glancing back down the street Dani and her friend had taken. Something told him Phantom wasn't going to be showing up.