Chapter 7: Our Lives Would've Only Just Begun
The police station loomed over Danny, a haunting reminder of how his life had changed. It was here that everything had gone wrong, that people had finally figured out that he was a ghost. Or, well. Close enough to one, anyway.
And now he was back, so they could "figure out what to do next", as detective Payton had put it.
He hoped, sincerely, that he could get through this discussion without having to reveal that he was only half ghost. He wanted to continue his life, as far as that was possible. If they tried to send him away, or keep him away from human society, he would have to tell them about his dual nature.
But that was risky. Sure, they might be fine with it. Or they might call the GIW, have him taken as a study subject and science experiment.
That wasn't something he wanted to risk, so he hoped that they would continue to treat him as a human. Humanely, at least.
Danny stiffened minutely as a hand landed on his shoulders, but immediately relaxed again as he recognized the grip as his dad's. The man shot him a reassuring smile.
And so Danny took a deep breath, straightened himself out in a fairly hopeless attempt at gripping the courage he held as Phantom, and entered the police station. His parents and Jazz trailed after him.
The woman at the desk raised a doubtful eyebrow at him when he asked to speak with detective Payton about the case with the dead teenager, but informed the detective regardless. Moments later, Payton himself appeared, a pleased smile on his face when he saw Danny together with the rest of his family, and waved them in.
They entered the same conference room that Danny had been in with Sam and Tucker, just the day before, where the rest of Payton's team were waiting. Officer Carver had a dubious expression on her face, but it softened when she saw Danny.
The group took a few moments to settle down. Payton stood by the head on the table, and Danny and his family sat down on the opposite side of the police.
"So, I see that you've managed to…" he paused, clearly casting for the right words to use, "to resolve the issues that came up during our last meeting. Is everything alright between the four of you now?"
Danny opened his mouth to answer, but his mother gripped his shoulder and answered while he was distracted. "Yes. We… acted before we knew the whole situation. But thankfully Jazz managed to get through our thick heads, and Danny…" she trailed off, uncertainly.
Danny, in answer, patted her hand. "And I know they meant well. It's all fine now, but thank you, detective Payton, officer Carver." He nodded at both of them, and Carver smiled in clear relief.
"I'm glad to hear so. I assume you're here to discuss the future, then?" Payton asked.
"Uh, yeah," Danny confirmed. "Last time, you mentioned that you wanted to tell my parents, and then we would discuss my future plans. Obviously, telling my parents didn't quite work out as planned." He shrugged. "But we're here now. So, what's next?"
"Well, as I said last time, you can't pretend to be alive forever, no matter how well you can blend in." Danny felt panic start bubbling up, and it must've shown on his face, because Payton was quick to continue. "But, you haven't caused any problems, and haven't raised any suspicions so far. You pointed out, last time, that you felt you were too young to be dead yet. So, we're willing to settle on a compromise of sorts."
Jazz hummed, a hint of suspicion in the sound. "What kind of compromise?"
Payton raised an eyebrow at her interjection, but apparently recognized her protective behavior from the interviews, as he quickly settled back in a more neutral expression. "We will hold off on officially announcing the victim as Daniel Fenton until he graduates from high school. We will still go through the case, of course, and finish up the paperwork and such. But the public won't know anything about the victim until after your graduation."
"Yeah, right." Danny snorted. "The public is already wild with rumors and such, especially the school. Even if you don't tell anyone anything, they might still figure it out." He shrugged then, settling further back in his chair. "But I guess that sounds alright."
"Are there any further details to this… deal? Anything Danny is, or is not, allowed to do?" Maddie pressed.
"He has to put genuine effort in graduating, of course. He can't just put it off so we won't declare him dead." Payton stopped as Danny squawked in indignation, but he was quickly quietened by Jazz. Satisfied that he wouldn't get interrupted again, Payton continued.
"And he can't get a job. The job market is already rough, especially for teenagers with no experience. We don't need ghosts stealing jobs from living teenagers who might genuinely need the money."
Danny rolled his eyes. "And I guess I don't need money because I don't have to pay for food, or something along those lines?" Then he sighed, slumping in on himself. "But I guess I see your point."
"What about after graduation?" Jazz asked, leaning forward. "You'll declare him dead, but what is Danny supposed to do at that point? Will he still be allowed to attend college, or get a job at FentonWorks, or something? Or will he only be allowed to haunt around as an ordinary ghost all day?"
Detective Payton snorted, a somewhat incredulous expression his face. "If he can get himself accepted into college despite being dead, I see no reason to stop him from furthering his education. As for getting a job at FentonWorks..." He shrugged. "Well, you'll have to either figure out a way to pay him when he's legally dead, or you can figure out an alternative form of payment among yourselves. I don't particularly care."
Danny frowned, considering his options. "So I can continue doing what I've always done until graduation, and then I'm free to do whatever? As long as, y'know, the officials don't mind me being legally dead?"
"Yes, Mr. Fenton. As long as you don't terrorize the city as most ghosts are fond of doing, you're free to continue your high school education. After graduation, we would like to talk with you again to figure out your future plans."
Danny nodded. "Yeah, that sounds fair. I guess I'm okay with all of that, especially considering the alternatives."
"Of course, you'll still have to talk with your school. We've already contacted them to let them know about the situation, to make sure they were okay with having a ghost as a student, but you still need to talk with them to… make the final arrangements."
"Ugh," Danny groaned. "And let me guess, that needs to happen right now?"
"That would be best, yes." Payton's words were emotionless, but the twinkle of amusement in his eyes was unmistakable.
Danny sighed, but pushed himself out of his chair. "Fine, let's get that over with as well, then."
"Wait, hang on." Doctor Beckett waved him back into his seat again. "There's something else we need to discuss."
"Like what?" Danny asked as he sat down again. He cocked an eyebrow at the woman, and saw his parents and Jazz frown in confusion as well.
The doctor set a rather unimpressed stare on him. "Like the body down in the morgue, perhaps?"
Danny flushed in embarrassment, shoulders crawling upwards. "Oh. Right. Um. I don't particularly care about it." He turned to look at his parents, grimacing a little. "What, uh. What do you guys wanna do with it?"
His parents looked like they were caught off-guard rather badly. Jazz wasn't faring much better.
"I… suppose we can't bury it," his mom eventually managed, still looking rather uncomfortable with the topic. "We can't risk anybody coming across it before Danny's… death… is common knowledge."
"So…" Danny cleared his throat. "Cremation, then? I mean, the body is already mostly burnt anyway, right?"
"That's pretty morbid, kid," Carver muttered. Danny only offered her a shrug in return.
Payton stood up, laying his hands on the table in front of him. "We'll take care of the paperwork, then. The four of you should get going."
"Right." Danny stood up, frowning a little. He wasn't looking forward to another meeting about how he different he was now.
"Well, Mr. Fenton, I must admit that this is quite a... unique situation."
Principal Ishiyama's gaze was inspecting and calculating, but not as cold as Danny had expected. Mr. Lancer, sitting right next to her, wore a far more neutral expression.
She sighed, finally taking her eyes off of Danny, who sagged in relief. His parents were right behind him, offering their support, but there was only so much comfort they could bring.
"I will say that we've never had a ghost as a student, and we've never considered it either. We've already accepted your continued attendance, of course. But we will have to make arrangement for your… skills."
Danny frowned, a flicker of annoyance finding its way through his trepidation. "Why? I haven't used them to hurt anyone before. And you've never attempted to discourage other students from using their 'skills', as you called them. In fact, the faculty gladly ignores the bullying done by the members of the football team, as long as they continue to play well."
"Regardless, Mr. Fenton, surely you can't deny that you pose a greater danger to other students than members of the football team?" Principal Ishiyama narrowed her eyes at him, and Danny gladly returned the glare.
"Sure, I could. But I don't. Despite Dash's constant bullying, shoving me into my locker, and who knows what else he's done in the past two years." Danny rolled his eyes, taking his gaze off of the principal again. "If anything, Dash and the other jocks have caused far more pain and trouble than I have."
"Wait, hold on," Maddie interrupted, turning to look at Danny. "Are you telling me that these past two years you've been getting bullied, and you didn't even tell anyone?"
Danny blushed, drawing his shoulders up to his ears. "I-" Then he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yes. I've tried telling the teachers, in the beginning, but they never did anything because," he turned to look Mr. Lancer right in the eye, "they're 'star footballers' and thus 'exempt from scorn'." He made sure to sound as scornful as he felt, the quoted words sharp.
This, apparently, awakened Maddie's strongest maternal instincts, and she glared down Mr. Lancer with a look that would probably bring Pariah Dark to his knees. She kept it up for what felt like an eternity, as everyone else sat in silence, glad that they weren't the target of Maddie's fury.
"And you're telling me-" Maddie said, as she finally took her eyes off of Lancer to look at Danny. "- that all this time, you could have fought back, but you didn't."
Danny shrugged, still rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, I pulled a prank or two on him. But I stopped doing that a while ago too, and I never did anything as bad as what he does to me."
Maddie kept her eyes locked on him for a little longer, apparently trying to decide if he was telling the truth. Eventually she was satisfied, as she turned to set her gaze on principal Ishiyama. "So, as you can see, we don't need to do anything to stop Danny from using his 'special gifts' in the school. Besides, if you're afraid of him going malevolent and hurting another student, well," she shrugged, "I'm sure Phantom will stop him, no?"
Mr. Lancer frowned but clearly didn't dare to speak up after Maddie's earlier fury. Principal Ishiyama had no such qualms. "I thought the two of you were against Phantom?"
"Turns out we were wrong about him!" Jack boomed, jumping into the conversation. "We were going off of unfortunate events and biased observations. But Danny-boy introduced us, and now we've been able to determine that Phantom is trying to do the right thing after all!"
"Really?" Lancer cast a studying look at Danny, who frowned at him. "He knows Phantom well enough to introduce you?"
Danny, still frowning, rolled his eyes and slumped further into his chair. "I mean, yeah. Phantom kind of protects the town from ghosts, so he needs to keep an eye on every ghost in town. Plus, ghost containment devices like the Fenton Thermos don't just spontaneously appear in the Ghost Zone, you know?"
Principal Ishiyama cleared her throat, drawing the attention back to her. "Well, as interesting as this is, we're going off topic. I suppose that you and your family raise an excellent point about the misuse of your abilities. However, if you misuse them in any way, shape, or form in this school, be it to prank other students, to bully others, or to cheat, we will discuss this again."
She shifted, folding her hands in her lap. "Which brings me to my second point. For almost your entire high school career, your grades have been extremely poor. But in middle school, and even at the start of freshman year, your grades were excellent, as we've come to expect from your family." She scrunched her eyebrows together, clearly grappling for the right words to say. "We now know that your grades dipped when- after your… accident. Which leads us to wonder… Mr. Fenton, is it possible that becoming a ghost has had an impact on your… ability to do school work?"
"Are you seriously implying that becoming a ghost has made me less intelligent?" Danny glared at her, indignation rising high. He could feel the cold burning sensation of ectoplasm bubbling up, and he knew his eyes must've been glowing by now, but he didn't care enough to stop them from doing so.
Ishiyama was clearly startled by the display, however, and quickly put up her hands as if to calm him. "No, no, nothing of the sort, Mr. Fenton." Danny allowed himself to calm a little, the glow leaving his eyes again. The principal clearly took this as a sign to continue. "There are all kinds of ways that this could've impacted your… ability to do well in school. Perhaps you're more easily distracted now, or maybe it's harder to retain information…" she was clearly casting for more ideas, trying to calm Danny down further.
"Daniel," Mr. Lancer interrupted. "She didn't mean to make any insinuations about your intelligence levels. But you've gone through a potentially traumatic experience, and one that has altered the way your body, and possibly your mind, works. And you can't deny that both your attendance levels and your grades have dropped. We just want to know if your accident is, in fact, related to this, and if we can help in any way."
"I… suppose it kind of is?" Danny said, uncertainly. Yes, his struggles with school were linked to his accident, but not because he had become a ghost, but because he fought them. But he couldn't tell them that. Maybe, though… Maybe he could twist the truth a little.
"I just..." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, finally relenting from his glaring. "I just kind of… need to leave sometimes? When everything, uh..."
"When everything becomes too much," Jazz cut in, laying her hands on Danny's shoulders in a clear sign of support. "Danny, as a ghost, is more sensitive to emotional disturbances. And as you might imagine, high schools are full of turbulent emotions, which can act distracting or become too overwhelming." She spoke with an air of certainty, a feeling of professionalism and knowledge exuding from her. Danny couldn't thank her enough for everything she did to save his ass.
His mom had clearly caught on to what Jazz was going for, as she nodded along. "Yes, exactly. Even in the house or the library, where Danny might work on his homework, sudden heavy emotions can be distracting or keep him from completing his work. I'm afraid that nothing can be done to help against it, besides being more lenient."
Principal Ishiyama hummed, thoughtfully. "I suppose we can be a little more lenient on Mr. Fenton, if he can prove that he is trying. I will not let this develop into some shoddy excuse for him to get out of punishment."
"So if I promise to try my best you'll go easy on me?" Danny quirked a questioning eyebrow at the two faculty members.
Mr. Lancer sighed. "Well, we'll try, at least. We can't be too obvious about it, unless you want the entire school to figure it out."
Yeah, Danny definitely didn't want that to happen. He nodded eagerly.
"Sounds good. So when the break ends I can just go back to how things were? But the teachers will be a little easier on me?"
"Yes, Mr. Fenton. And as long as you continue as you've been doing for the past 2 years, you'll be free to stay until graduation." Ishiyama's voice was flat with exhaustion, and quite honestly, Danny's couldn't blame her. The whole day had been exhausting for him as well, and he could imagine that dealing with an easily-angered teenager with ghost powers wasn't easy either. Although he still wasn't convinced that she hadn't meant the earlier insinuation that ghosts were less intelligent than humans.
"Is that everything that we needed to discuss, then?" Maddie had clearly run out of patience as well. Her earlier anger over the bullying thing was probably still lingering. The principal nodded, and waved them out of her office.
Oh, shoot. He was going to have to talk about the bullying as well, wasn't he?
Couldn't this day just end already?
Title from "String Theory" by Les Friction. We've officially reached the completely new part of Disinterred - all the previous chapters were, to some degree, based on Unearthed or Buried, but from here on out it's uncharted territory! How exciting! I really am very excited about the new stuff - and worried but that's just my standard state of being tbh.
I'm also still not 100% sure when characters should be added to the character list. I'll add some that will become more important in the next few chapters, but if you think any of the others should be added too, let me know! I'm... not used to having minor characters.
Also I'm working on a spin-off one-shot for Disinterred which is, well, an AU. If I ever come up with an ending I'll post it, so if Disinterred is suddenly part of a series, well, that'll be it. Since it's AU for Disinterred it won't be required reading but, well, if you enjoy Disinterred you'll probably like Dead Ringer as well. Although my team of cops have somehow found their way into that one as well...
Next week: Chapter 8 - Fool The Whole World