Author's Note: I own nothing.

15 Plots and Police

Dani trudged through the woods behind her mother, being sure to keep a good distance between them. They had been tricked into parachuting out of the private plane the Dalv group had sent to take them to Florida, over the Rocky Mountains. Their pilot had been a ghost, Dani was beginning to doubt that the Dalv group even actually existed. For some reason Maddie had a machete in her boot, specifically made of a metal that she'd doused in ectoplasm to hunt ghosts but she didn't have a cell phone on her. Apparently it had been in her bag, just like Dani's, both of which had been left in the plane. Dani dodged a pat on the shoulder from her mother. She was keen on not being touched right now. Maddie Fenton had gained a new accessory, a belt that seemed to form some kind of personal ghost shield. Every time Dani so much as brushed against her mother she received a large electric shock and she wasn't keen on that. Maddie frowned.

"Dani I know this isn't ideal." Maddie tried to reassure her but Dani scoffed.

"What's not ideal? The fact that we got flown to the wrong place by 'Air Evil Plot'? Or the fact that we're tromping through the woods at the end of November dressed for Florida?" There was snow on the ground, Dani knew she should be cold, she still wasn't though. Had to be her ghost powers, after all she was wearing sandals and shorts with her regular t-shirt, she should probably be shivering. Maddie was fine in her jumpsuit, those things kept body temperature regulated. Maddie frowned, chopping through a bush in their path, they had yet to see any sign of life, even animal. That didn't surprise Dani much, though she wondered why her mother hadn't commented on the lack of even birds. Most animals avoided Dani since her accident, with the exception of cats and ravens. Sam's theory was that the legends surrounding these animals, as harbingers of death, had some merit.

"We'll be fine Dani, I didn't leave everything on the plane." She said patting the pouches on her belt. "Besides the Rocky's aren't exactly uninhabited. We're bound to run across someone who can help us get back to civilization. And if not we can rough it in the woods!" She cut through a bush and stopped, Dani peeked around her. There was a ski chalet, large and well cared for, there were lights on in several of the windows. "Or we could stay at this ritzy mountain chalet! I'm flexible." Maddie said in a mater of fact tone. Dani rolled her eyes. An intricately carved V at the top of the entranceway had caught Dani's eye and she had a sneaking suspicion who was behind all of this and a gnawing worry in her gut about what might be happening at home. The whir of an engine caught their attention and a snowmobile rounded a corner of the chalet and the driver pulled off his helmet a surprised look on his face. Dani on the other hand was completely unsurprised to find Vlad Masters there.

"Why Maddie and Dani Fenton! What on Earth are you doing here?" The false surprise in his voice couldn't have been more obvious to Dani who resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but only just.

"Vlad! Oh am I glad to see you! You will not believe the day we've had!" Maddie said rushing forward as Vlad dismounted the snow mobile. He grinned over Maddie's shoulder as she embraced him.

"Oh please you two must tell me everything, inside please you both look half frozen." He regarded Dani a little confused and pulled off his jacket swinging it around Maddie's shoulders. "Come in come in." He ushered Maddie and Dani ahead of him, pausing at the bottom of the stairs. He pulled out his phone and tapped a button.

"They're here, kill Jack." He muttered into the phone. Maddie turned frowning.

"What was that?" She asked as Dani looked down at Vlad, her eyes flashing green, out of her mother's view. He smiled up at them.

"Flapjacks, I was wondering if we should order Flapjacks!" He patted Dani on the shoulder as Maddie made it all the way inside. "Good to see you Little Badger." Dani growled under her breath as she stomped into the house after Vlad and her mother.

Angelica frowned at Kyle. It was much later in the day and they had convened for dinner at a local diner, Rita's to talk about their little project. That project was of course discovering the past identity of Dani Phantom, who she had been before she died. Kyle took a sip of his coke.

"Relax Angie." He said dipping his fry in ketchup. Angelica rolled her eyes at Kyle as someone stepped up to the booth. Kyle grinned hopping out of his seat, pulling the newcomer into a hug.

"Dev!" He turned to Angelica. "Angie, this is Devlin Wulfric, he's one of the newer officers at the Amity Police department. Dev this is Angelica Foley, one of the head nurses at Amity Hospital."

"Yeah, I'm still the newbie. I've only been there two years." He deadpanned. "Please call me Dev." He reached out and shook her hand. Angelica laughed as Dev took the seat next to Kyle. Where Kyle was stocky and pale Dev was lean and dark. His short crop of dark hair was set well back from a pair of intelligent brown eyes.

"Yeah, but you'll be the newbie on the force until someone new turns up." Kyle teased. Dev rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, which is why I get all the shit assignments." He lamented and Angelica raised an eyebrow. "They've got me on the lookout for public ghost enemy number one. The ghost girl." Dev explained, flagging down the waitress and ordered a coffee. Angelica eyed Kyle who grinned.

"She calls herself Phantom." Angelica said mater-of-factly. Dev turned to her slowly, pure shock on his face.

"You've talked to the ghost girl?" He asked, almost whispering it.

"Yeah, she dropped off a patient in my in my office, a few days ago." Angelica said sipping her coke. Dev turned to Kyle.

"So this is why you invited me to dinner."

"Yes it is, and we had a thought." Kyle began and Dev held up a hand for him to pause and turned back to Angelica.

"You realize this makes you the only person to have one on one contact with the ghost girl, right?" Angelica nodded. Dev pulled a notebook from his pocket. "I need you to tell me everything that happened, exactly what was said. And I need the name of the patient she brought in."

"I can't give you the patients name. But I can reach out to her and see if she'd like to give a statement." Dev nodded pulling a pen out of a different pocket. He nodded.

"Right doctor patient confidentiality. That's fine if you can reach out to her and if she'll give a statement that would be perfect. But I need to know what you saw." Angelica nodded and recounted as much as she could remember from her encounter with the teen Phantom.

"And she said, 'Call me Phantom, Dani Phantom.'" Dev was furiously writing in his notebook.

"A first and last name, jesus that's helpful." He said shaking his head. "Did she say anything else?"

"No, just disappeared. And I don't know if that's what her name was… before."

"No, but it's a starting point. And that's a lot more than I had before." Dev pointed out. Kyle nodded.

"And you have more help. I've been combing through the morgue records since we talked last, Angie. But I haven't found anything yet. Like I said not many white haired teens come across my table." Kyle said shaking his head and taking a bite of his burger.

"What if she didn't look like that when she was alive?" Dev questioned, tapping his pen on the table.

"How do you mean?" Angelica asked, picking at her dinner. Dev shook his head as the waitress returned. He ordered a cheeseburger and once the waitress had left he turned back to Angelica.

"We've been getting weird fucking calls to the station for months now. A meat monster at the school, cotton candy avalanches at the fair, a shadow creature terrorizing the water park. And the non stop calls the week of the invasion, green men in prison guard uniforms all over town." He shook his head.

"And? What does any of that have to do with what Phantom looked like before?" Kyle asked.

"Well I wouldn't exactly say that meat monsters and shadow things are gonna come across your table either." Dev pointed out and Angelica nodded.

"He has a good point Kyle."

"I see your point, and raise you this." Kyle began, pointing a ketchup covered fry at her. "Phantom is the most human appearing ghost we've seen so far. Who's to say she wouldn't have come across my table?"

"Who's to say she would have? Even if she looks like she used to she could literally be from anywhere. Who's to say that when she was alive she even lived, much less died in Amity?" Dev shot back. Angelica frowned.

"We don't know enough about ghosts to draw any conclusions. But unfortunately Maddie's out of town for the weekend with her daughter Dani." Angelica pointed out. Dev raised an eyebrow.

"The Fenton's have a daughter named Dani?" He asked incredulous.

"Yeah, not like Danielle is an uncommon name. Plus she's you know alive. Sort of takes her out of the running in our list of suspects." Angelica said shrugging. Dev nodded.

"You have a point. What about Jack, the husband? Technically he's the towns go to on ghosts." Dev asked and Angelica shook her head.

"No, trust me, you want to go to Maddie. She's the most logical of the two. I can give you her number to call once she get's back."

"That'd be great." At that moment Dev's food arrived and he began to dig in. As he did he made an excellent point.

"You know realistically, as realistically as we can be given that we're talking about ghosts, but realistically this might all be for nothing. There have been legends about ghosts for centuries. If she's one of those what are we supposed to do? Arrest her for dying? Not like we could hold her."

"Yeah, that's true, I'm still not sure why the department didn't just hand the case to the Fenton's." Kyle frowned at Dev.

"Cause the mayor doesn't remember jack shit about that meeting. He doesn't even remember calling the meeting in the first place. But he can't exactly deny he did it since it's all on video. I think he's hoping it will all blow over before the next election day." He shrugged. "But in all technicality they're deputized to deal with the ghosts." Dev said shaking his head. Angelica shook her head slightly. That was the last thing the Fenton's needed, another project to distract from their kids.