Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Danny Phantom.

Note (6/7/2020): Ok real talk for a second, for all of you fellow users I just want you to be careful and keep an eye out for a troll that's been leaving guest reviews saying vile things and misleading people to random fanfictions they didn't even write in various fandoms to attack them. This happened to me with a story on my other fanfiction profile with more mature-themed fanfics but it's still a problem that needs to be addressed. So please spread the word to your friends and if you get one of these reviews don't let them trick you into going after someone they're posing as, just delete it and move on. And if you can please warn the person who was being targeted that this is happening in case they're unaware of it.

P.S. On a slightly happier note I'd like to thank "lena smith 106" for your review and yeah, sadly poor Danny has a lot of serious trauma to get over thanks to Dan but he'll be ok! Vlad's going to do everything in his power to make sure Danny feels safe and secure again eventually, especially now that he doesn't have to hide from the rest of the world as a normal person anymore so he can start doing normal things to distract himself again like going to school and making new friends. It's still going to take time though, like a lot of things in this story.

Chapter 1: Self-Reflection

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."
~ Nelson Mandela

Valerie's POV

It felt strange going from being stuck in Fenton Works to coming home to this dump of an apartment once dad was given a clean bill of health and we were allowed to. And it wasn't because it was as cramped and run down as always, which I still hated by the way, it was one of those strange feelings you get when your life has changed in a huge way but it's bizarre when you look around and everything else doesn't seem unaffected by it at all. Plus, to be fair I was still kinda in shock when dad told me the other reason why Danny insisted on coming to see us right as we left the hospital...

Turns out it's because Danny personally asked Vlad to help us finally get out of this hell-hole as his way of apologizing for putting our lives in danger by his evil future self. Danny told us that he felt like just apologizing for the trouble he's caused wasn't enough this time and he didn't want to leave things like this or for us to have to keep working so hard just to get by anymore like he used to. At least in a manner of speaking.

For the life of me, I couldn't wrap my head around why Danny was going out of his way to help us even though he was the one who was still in pretty bad shape thanks of the physical and mental trauma Dan put him through. Danny was the one going through the bigger life changes so I told him he should be more worried about himself for once. And even though I'm really concerned about Danny living with a creep like Vlad at the same time I realize that's probably another reason why Danny decided to leave Amity Park and stop fighting ghosts...

Just like this apartment, his house, this town, all of it was a reminder of all the pain and suffering he put up with to make sure we could keep living somewhat normal lives here. And sadly, I know that I've caused Danny a lot of problems too both as a ghost hunter and as someone who used to bully him at school. I've been doing a lot of thinking since the last time I talked to Danny and he knows I'm not mad at him anymore for lying to me this whole time, but there's still this horrible guilt twisting in the pit of my stomach whenever I think about all the mistakes I've made with him that makes it hard to look Danny in the eye sometimes.

After finally hearing the whole story about how Danny became half-ghost and the fear he had to live with not only of constantly being attacked by ghosts but also being attacked by his own parents and me at the same time, its no wonder Danny was always petrified by the idea that he'd hurt us with his ghost powers one day. But we were the ones hurting him though! We were too blinded by our pride and a deep hatred for ghosts and refused to see the good Danny was doing before when he was flying around as Phantom.

I still can't even begin to imagine having to constantly live with that kind of fear of being discovered by his ghost-hunting parents and seriously injured or worse before they realized who they were actually attacking. And that's exactly what started all this when Danny was shot by a new anti-ghost weapon they made that ended up seriously injuring both sides of himself. True, I was keeping my ghost hunting a secret from my dad too but it wasn't like I was afraid of being literally obliterated by him because of it. The most my dad could do to me was take away my weapons and hunting gear then ground me, which he did after Danny snitched on me to keep me from going after the Ghost King alone and getting myself killed.

My ghost-hunting has never been an actual matter of life and death for me like it was for Danny, and it's BECAUSE of Danny that I'm still standing here. He's saved my life and everyone else's in town probably more times than I can count and all I've ever done is cause him grief. Well, I can't afford to be that person anymore, especially now that Danny is leaving to finally move on from all of this and heal emotionally which he couldn't do here.

If I'm being honest though I'm not really sure how Vlad's supposed to help make his life any easier except dumping all of Danny's ghost-hunting work on his parents and my dad. And even though I know Vlad tricked me into becoming a ghost hunter too I'm not sure yet if I'm ready to put in the towel just yet. Unfortunately, my battle suit was still damaged from our battle with Dan even when I finally managed to get it to appear so unless I found a way to repair it I was pretty much benched for good whether I liked it or not.

So really, I might not even have a choice in the matter.

Now that I think about it, maybe its time for me to get used to the idea and take a page out of Danny's book and just try to start over, I thought to myself, Dad suggested the same thing so I think the first thing I'll do is get rid of all of my ghost hunting notes, those newspaper clippings, the wanted posters, pretty much anything tied to Danny Phantom. He's...not my enemy anymore. He never should have been to begin with...

Looking at all the ghost stuff littered around every inch of my bedroom after I finished dinner with dad before he headed to bed for the night all it did was remind me of what an idiot I was for not seeing through Vlad's lies sooner. Maybe if I'd known I could have actually helped Danny hunt ghosts instead of giving him a hard time. Or at least I would have left him alone since I still liked him as Danny Fenton.

I made some pretty decent progress tidying up my room when something slipped out of the pile of papers I was carrying over to the shredder next to my computer. It was my dad's from when he tried taking on a second job like I did only his was working at a post office like I joked about once whenever he wasn't busy working as a normal security guard at Axion Labs instead of the Head of Security he used to be. Setting the pile of papers down for a second I picked up what fell and saw that it was-

"This is...from one of my dates with Danny," I whispered, looking at the pictures I'd taken with Danny in one of those photo booths at the mall...

Danny looked so carefree in these and oddly enough, so did I. This was from before I got my upgraded battle suit somehow after the original was destroyed by...Danny. But that was an accident, I know that now, he must've known I wasn't in there when he blew it up. And yet I couldn't help but feel this crushing weight on my chest knowing that all along Danny was protecting me from whoever WAS controlling my suit at the time, and even when he DID attack me it was only to defend himself.

I know for a fact now that Danny would never dream of hurting me.

During all of our fights since I became a ghost hunter, Danny was constantly pointing me in the direction of the real enemy, trying to get me to let up on him, but I never listened and neither did his parents. Still, Danny has always tried very hard not to hurt any of us too seriously while he was defending himself from our attacks. He cared more about our safety than his own. And even now that hasn't changed at all.

Even though Danny was almost killed and Dan wanted to twist his ghost into a version more powerful than ever before to do who knows what, he wanted to keep us safe no matter the cost to him personally. So how can I possibly justify the way I treated Danny when he's the most selfless person I know that was all too willing to die for us even though we hurt and humiliated him so many times? I mean even at school we didn't exactly start off as friends, in fact, I thought Danny was a total loser just like everyone else did because of his crazy ghost hunting parents and weirdo friends but then he showed me how thoughtful and caring he is and I-

"Danny...I'm so sorry I did so many awful things to you before. And I can't believe I had the nerve to complain about how hard MY life was when yours is way more stressful! How can I make it up to you? And is that even possible anymore now that you're leaving Amity Park and it might be years before I see you again?" I asked myself as I stared down at his smiling face in the photograph in my hand.

Looking back at all of our encounters now that I know the truth about Danny and how much he's suffered this whole time, it made it feel like everything I've done up til now has been completely pointless. Vlad was just using me, he didn't believe in my skills, I was just a pawn in his twisted game to get Danny on his side somehow! And the worst part is that maybe Dan was right about what he said about me too and I really was just a selfish brat playing hero like I always accused Danny of!

All I cared about at first was revenge and teaching every ghost I came across a painful lesson and to show them what a bad idea it was to mess with me or my family. At least that's how I felt up until Danny slowly started to change my way of seeing things as a ghost hunter because now I had someone else to protect too that I cared about and realized he wasn't the only one so after that I started actually trying to go out of my way to protect people when I was out hunting so they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire.

It happened before I even noticed how much being around Danny was affecting me and how much he taught me about being a better person. He was very kind to me even though I used to be such a jerk to him and his friends and Danny had my back a few times at school when I was having my own fair share of issues avoiding people I didn't like. That's why I started liking him as more than just a friend, and its why I gave up my chance to be with Danny officially to keep him safe when really...all I did was hurt him.

Not only did I hurt his feelings, but I've literally attacked him so many times too so even then I wasn't keeping Danny safe at all. I was putting him in even more danger than ever before with my new weapons. And I never knew, not until now when I found out the truth about Danny in the worst way possible short of accidentally killing him myself and seeing him turn human right in front of me, covered in blood-

God, it made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it!

"What am I supposed to do with my life now!? Without ghost hunting, I'm just another nobody and even if I could keep doing it I still can't help Danny at all! Damn it!" I yelled angrily, whirling around to hit my punching bag with the photo strip now all crumpled up in my fist. I instantly regretted it because my dad came rushing in a minute later demanding to know if I was ok or if a ghost was attacking us.

"No, I'm not ok! None of this is ok!" I blurted out, unable to hold back anymore as I stubbornly wiped a few tears out of my eyes. "How can Danny smile at me like that and say he still wants to be my friend I've almost killed him without knowing it? When he's the one I should have been helping instead of trying to shoot his brains out! I hate knowing that when all of this started, Danny was right all along about none of this being his fault. He's the victim, not the problem! He was never the problem to begin with!"

Resting my one hand against the punching bag while clenching the now-ruined photo strip in the other, I continued through clenched teeth, "We didn't end up in this crappy apartment because of Danny Phantom and you didn't lose your job because of him either. All this time we've been blaming the wrong person! I just...I feel so stupid about how I made his life even more miserable and Vlad was the one making me do all his dirty work! I know you told me not to overthink all this but I can't help it! I don't deserve a friend like Danny or any of his kindness or consideration, not after everything I did to him...after how selfish I've been..."

"Valerie," my dad began quietly, placing a hand on my shoulder while doing his best to console me, "It's alright. You don't have to figure out your feelings about what we've learned about Vlad Masters or Danny all at once. These things take time. Besides, we both made mistakes when it comes to Danny Fenton so you're not in this alone. If I can I'd to do something to help him too especially since he spoke to Mr. Masters on our behalf to not only help us get our lives back on track again but with a few other things at work since I'll be keeping a close eye on Danny's folks from here on out to help keep them in line.

"Sweetie, the important thing is that we try to learn from our mistakes and don't let them dictate how we live the rest of our lives. To put it simply, both of us need to move on and look to the future. Because thanks to Danny, we still have one and his own isn't quite so bleak anymore if that evil ghost came from a future where he lost everything, including his friends and family all at once and it sent him spiraling down a very dark path. But he did his best for our sake and his own to make sure that would never happen so that has to count for something, right?"

"I guess," I replied in a monotone, totally unconvinced that it would be that easy.

Either way, I couldn't bring myself to talk about it anymore so I sighed and told him, "Anyway I'm sorry about scaring you like that dad, I shouldn't have yelled. I guess I'm just tired and have a lot on my mind right now so I let my emotions get the better of me. I'm fine though so can we talk about the whole apartment thing again in the morning? I don't think I can handle any more serious talk tonight, especially when we just barely got out of the hospital and can finally look forward to sleeping in our own beds again."

"Sure thing honey," he nodded sympathetically, gently kissing my cheek before heading back to the door to go back to his room now that he knew my yelling was a false alarm.

And with his hand still loosely holding the handle, my dad added thoughtfully, "Goodnight Valerie. And you really don't have to worry about how Danny feels about you or how things used to be before we knew just how difficult his life has been up until now. Like I said before, he's a good kid. And frankly, if Danny can forgive someone as someone like Vlad Masters, who from what I understand has done much worse things to him, you have nothing to worry about. Besides, I'm sure there's still a lot Danny blames himself for too. It's just another part of growing up...and being human."