The first thing that registered when she woke up is that her back hurt. Like, really hurt. She must've fallen asleep in a weird position. She wasn't exactly in her twenties anymore, per se, she should know better than to fall asleep half-sprawled over the armrest of the couch.
Then slowly, it clicked. She'd fallen asleep on the couch, sobbing into her own arm, far too emotionally spent to move into a more comfortable position. Because Danny had disappeared into thin air, running from her. Because she'd overstepped her boundaries. Because he was afraid of her. Because he was a ghost.
And it was all her fault.
When she had fallen asleep (coward) Jazz had declared she was going to look for him. Accused Maddie of not doing her job as the parent. The rage in Jazz's eyes had been restrained, hidden behind her mask of duty and rationality - making it much more lethal.
While it was tempting to stay crumpled on the couch forever, ignoring the horrifying scenario that had snaked its way into her family without Maddie ever suspecting anything, she had to get up. It was inevitable. She was never going to be ready for this confrontation (you're denying the truth) but she had to do it sometime. And the longer she waited, the further each of her family members drifted away.
The first thing she would do is check if Jazz had returned yet. She wasn't sure where Jazz had gone, but she had said if she wasn't back by morning to call Sam and Tucker… who probably also knew about this entire situation. That revelation in itself stung a bit too; Danny trusted his friends who he met in middle school with the secret of his hybrid nature more than his own mother.
Looking at the time, Maddie concluded that it was well past sunrise: 9:04 a.m. Normally Jack would already be in the lab, bumbling around with that large grin of his, but he was still bedridden with fever. She wished that she had him as support, but she couldn't drag him into this right now. She wouldn't even know what to say, and what worse news could you hear when you're sick besides the fact that your son isdead?
If Jazz was back, she'd probably be in her room by now. You need to go upstairs, stop distracting yourself.
Maddie forced herself to take the first few steps up the staircase, slowly ascending with anticipation. By the time she had reached the top of the stairs, she felt her stomach drop with a combo of relief and guilt. Her mind lagged a few seconds, failing to process the sight before her. Danny was leaning against the doorframe to the bathroom, arms crossed, clearly impatient. Physically, he showed no signs that anything had occurred the night before, but Maddie could read the discomfort in his body language. He was on edge, cautious.
He glared at the bathroom door. "Hurry up, Ja-"
Cutting off suddenly, Danny met Maddie's eyes on him, and suddenly the space between them was suffocating again; all the tension from last night was revived in a single glance.
"M - Mom," he uttered, eyes darting between hers and the door beside him.
Any preparation she should've had for this moment would have been useless. Maddie was dumbstruck, rendered unable to wrack her brain for any appropriate response. She just… allowed herself to slip into a blank slate, staring stupidly at her son. Her obviously terrified son. Those anxious blue eyes… so different from the petrifying green she had seen… yet still the same. He looks so scared of her and it's her fault for creating the circumstances that turned him into this hybrid thing and then she tried to blame him for being what she made him into - a freak, a ghost - and now he's scared more than anything she's going to experiment on him and it's even more messed up since a part of her still wants to experiment on him.
A third voice broke Maddie from her guilty stupor. "Mom? You're awake?" Jazz's voice was different than it had been last night. Today it was calm and scripted, unlike the defensive, accusatory voice from only hours before.
Maddie didn't expect her owned voice to sound so strained when she spoke, "Yeah. Woke up just now."
There was a clicking noise, something being shoved in a drawer, and the door to the bathroom opened. Jazz was donning a green sweater with navy sweats today, hair as silky as usual. Refined, business-like posture.
"Good," Jazz chirped. "I think we should all talk over breakfast this morning. I can make pancakes if you're not in the mood to, Mom," she offered,
Maddie and Danny's replies were instantaneous, uncannily in sync: "I'm not hungry."
Danny raised a brow at his mother's identical reply, but didn't say much. Jazz, not deterred, gave another artificial smile, "Alright, we can all talk in the living room, then."
There was a pause.
"What about Dad?" Danny asked. "Should we… clue him in…?"
Maddie was about to answer when Jazz beat her to it, "He's sick. I think we should hold out on telling him until he gets better. That way we can resolve the current situation first, too."
Maddie had a feeling she was the current situation.
"I still have to go to the bathroom," Danny added. "Since someone took so long."
"My hair takes a long time to shampoo," Jazz shrugged. "Not my fault you didn't want to use Mom and Dad's shower."
For a moment, Maddie thought there might've been a blush on his face, but it receded quickly. "Whatever," Danny scoffed, pushing his way past Jazz into the bathroom.
"Guess it's just me and you," Jazz turned to Maddie once the door was closed. Maddie nodded and they walked to the living room wordlessly.
Jazz sat on the couch while Maddie took a seat in the loveseat opposite of Jazz. There was still an awkward tension hanging over them, and Maddie had no intention of busting that bubble yet. So, instead she allowed Jazz to take the reins the conversation again. Her daughter seemed much more prepared for this anyway; Maddie had no idea how she was doing it.
"So," Jazz tested the waters, "I found Danny in the Ghost Zone last night. I brought him back in the Specter Speeder. We're both alright."
Out of everything, that was the last thing Maddie expected to hear from her daughter. They… both of her children had just simply gone into another dimension without so much as any precaution or regard to the consequences? So many things could have happened - ghosts could have killed both Danny and Jazz and Maddie would never know! The Ghost Zone is the enemy's home territory, humans aren't suited to survive in there!
"That was incredibly dangerous," Maddie lectured. "We don't know what's in there! What were you two thinking?"
"You and Dad don't, but Danny does," Jazz shrugged. "He goes in there all the time. Besides, I imagine that Danny wasn't thinking much when he went in there since he was in flight or fight mode still."
Right… The Ghost Zone was suited for humans… and Danny wasn't one anymore. She had pushed him into running away and that was the first place he fled to in order to feel safe. With each new realization, Maddie gathered a less coherent picture of how innately screwed up their family was.
"Oh, I suppose… that's…"
"We know how to stay safe, Mom," Jazz reassured. "I haven't been in the Ghost Zone many times, but I know not what to do, at least."
Not knowing how to respond, Maddie fell back into silence. Jazz didn't attempt to elicit more conversation from her mother, but Maddie could tell that the cogs in her head were turning, thinking of ways to get her to talk. It was approximately five more minutes (an eternity) before she heard the bathroom door open upstairs and the quiet cadence of footsteps down the stairs. Maddie numbly zoned out, avoiding acknowledging Danny's arrival. He entered the living room much more nervous than earlier and sat beside Jazz.
The silence dragged on for a few more seconds until Jazz coughed, evidently frustrated. "So… how do you feel about Danny being half-ghost, Mom?"
Danny glared at his sister, softly hissing, "A little blunt, don't you think?"
"No one else was saying it," Jazz pointed out. They both turned to Maddie, who was doing her best not to make eye contact.
Of course she'd been expecting something along the lines of that question, but she failed to find the appropriate words. How was she supposed to explain to her children how she felt about this awful, awful secret when she didn't even know herself?
Keeping her gaze trained steadily on the carpet fibers, Maddie pushed herself to speak, "I feel awful that my invention has caused you so much pain, ruined your life and now you have to deal with being this. Something… something unknown. And earlier when I couldn't even see that you were yourself, not overshadowed, that was honest to God terrifying. I don't want you to hurt, Danny." And I hate being the one that has hurt you.
"You don't really have to feel bad about that," Danny's voice wasn't as fearful, but it was still wary. "I don't dislike the way I am now."
She shook her head. He was only content with himself because he had accepted that there was no other way for him to be anymore. And in so, he wasn't acknowledging the severity of how tainted he was. "I know that it's hard to hear, but because you're a ghost the nature inside of you must be malicious, obsessive-"
"Inhuman? Freakish?" Danny suggested. Jazz shot him a look, taking his hand and squeezing it. Maddie couldn't bring herself to finish her thought.
Danny didn't look mad, but his voice was unsteady nonetheless. "I've been afraid of those things for a long time. Afraid of the day I'd see that in myself, too far gone to care, but I'm still me. Yeah sure, I might be a ghost, maybe a little obsessive at best, but I know that I'm a good person. Not all ghosts act like the inhuman beasts you perceive them to be, and no matter how much of a ghost I am, I'll always be myself first."
Maddie was desperate. Even if Danny was okay with being a ghost, wasn't being human still preferable? She had to get him to see that. "But don't you want to be normal, human, alive? Why are you content with the darkness inside of you?"
Without missing a beat, Jazz countered, "Isn't battling your own darkness the essence of being a human being?"
"Well, yes," Maddie conceded, "but isn't it still better to be human? To be like everyone else?"
"Besides a few powers, how is being a hybrid so different than being human?" Danny challenged.
"... I don't know. That's why I want to know - why I want to… to check-"
But of course, last time she tried to check Danny had ran off and disappeared. But he wasn't giving her much to go off of; how was she supposed to know what being a hybrid entailed when he didn't tell her much?
He sighed, "Mom-"
"I know you're not comfortable with that. I understand that… now," she bit her lip. "But - but you have to throw me a bone here. Give me a basis to understand what you are."
Danny finally let go of Jazz's hand and soothed the back of his neck. Maddie recognized that movement as one of his nervous ticks. "Well," he pondered, thinking hard, "my heartbeat is slow but it's still there. I have to breath, eat, sleep. My body temperature runs about 85F. Whenever I bleed in this form I bleed red with green mixed in. And I have basic ghost powers."
That was a lot to digest. He was still alive, still had a heartbeat and body temperature but they were abnormal. He still needed to intake energy, rest, and respire as well - which were foolhardy indications of being alive. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed that he was on the fine line between being both dead and alive; it was fascinating yet ultimately confusing. That, and there was still something he said that piqued her interest. Something off...
Addressing his slip up, Maddie asked, "... what do you mean 'in this form'?"
Danny froze like a deer caught in headlights and for a moment she doubted that he did need to breathe; it seemed like his breath completely stopped in his throat. "I-..."
Presumably understanding the reason for her brother's petrication, Jazz stepped in. "Danny is still a hybrid, and as a result of his dual DNA, he has a more ghostly form that slightly alters his external appearance. He doesn't transform much though," she added quickly.
Danny nodded numbly at her explanation and Jazz gulped.
"So you can look like a ghost too?" Maddie tried to imagine Danny appearing as a full-ghost and illustrated a mental image of how he appeared last night, just deader. Translucent skin, floating hair, blue lips… and those green eyes. The picture disturbed her and she shuddered, almost wanting to pound it out of her brain by smacking herself.
"Yeah," he answered. He didn't elaborate more.
That added another degree of how inherently inhuman Danny must be, to be able to willfully look dead - yet he was still content with that aspect of himself? She still couldn't comprehend how much internal turmoil he must've gone through to accept what she'd done to him.
"And you're still okay with… this?" She couldn't mask the disbelief in her tone.
"I still feel like myself, even though I'm not human I've accepted this part of me," he admitted. "It was hard at first but now I don't know how I'd live without being part ghost."
Live without being part ghost, how ironic.
"So... are you okay with this mom?" Jazz followed up. "Do you still want to remove Danny's ghost side?"
Feeling the pressure that this question posed, she ran a hand through her hair in a hopeless attempt to distract from the stress. "Personally, it'll take me some getting used to. I… I'm not sure if I'm okay with the idea that there's a part of you that's unpredictable, but... if you're okay with it, that's what matters. I still want… I still want to run some tests though, make sure that you're correct about what you've told me, that you're not at risk of dropping dead at any minute."
Danny cringed. "I still don't know if I can say yes to that."
"I mean…" Jazz said, "it's not like she's doing it out of morbid curiosity, Danny. I know your fears, your... past experiences… but Mom wants to help you, and since none of us are belittling you as a lab rat, I think it may be worth it to get a better idea of your biology."
He shook his head, "I - I can't. Tests are… experimentation… is something I can't do."
She was hoping he would understand her concern, but apparently this fear ran deeper than she initially perceived. (He hadbelieved he was in a nightmare last night, an intrusive thought nagged, a recurring nightmare where you experiment and torture him. How can you be so insensitive about his obvious phobia?)
"Danny," she did her best to tread carefully, to explain why these tests were crucial, "it's important to me to understand that you're okay. You trust me that I wouldn't hurt you, right?"
Danny paled, "I do, but… it's still something I can't do. I'm not comfortable with it. I know we established that I'm a ghost… but it doesn't feel nice to be treated like a specimen."
He really did have a disturbing idea of what 'tests' Maddie would be running. But supposing her past declarations of what she'd like to do with ghosts in the lab… that reaction wasn't unwarranted.
"It won't be like that, Danny," she reassured. "I'd never treat you like that. It'll be like a doctor's appointment."
"It's just hard…" he placed his head in his hands. "That's a big fear of mine and I've had bad experiences." Jazz stiffened next to him and Maddie sensed that there was more to that 'bad experience' than he was letting on. "But I… guess I can… agree to some tests, not all of them. And I can walk out whenever I want," Danny set his conditions.
"That's fine, I suppose," she nodded. She was genuinely surprised that he was agreeing. "But what experience are you talking about?" she questioned. "Has someone already tried to…?"
He spoke faster than he thought, "It was just another ghost," he decided. "All the other ghosts know about what I am and one of them just wanted to compare me to him. I got out of it mainly unscathed, but it wasn't fun, for sure."
His words took a moment to process. "The ghosts know that you're… a hybrid?" Parental concern gripped Maddie. She hadn't realized that Danny was involved with other ghosts enough for them to pick up on the fact that he was a half-ghost. She could picture that other ghosts would be jealous of his physiology: having access to ghost powers while still being alive. "Have any of them come after you because of that?"
There was recognition in his express. He didn't have to say anything for Maddie to know that the answer was yes. Other ghosts did come after him because he was a hybrid. It was explain some things, the occasional injuries he sported that he attested to 'clumsiness'. Horror dawned on Maddie and she realized that it was too late to wish that Danny wouldn't be hurt by this situation, he'd already been hurt in so many ways and she was just late to the party. No one had clued her in and she felt slightly betrayed.
"Not gonna push it," Jazz intervened, "buuut this would be a good time to segue into that other thing." She gave Danny a pointed look and he glared back.
A different sort of acknowledge became visible in Danny's expression. He leaned closer to Jazz, but Maddie could still hear what he was saying. "We just established peace and now you're trying to make Mom hate me again?" he hissed.
Jazz rolled her eyes, unimpressed. "All I'm saying is the longer you don't tell her, the worse the eventual explosion is going to be."
Maddie picked up on what this was fairly quickly: they had another secret.
"What are you talking about? There's more?"
"Well, you see, Mom," Danny started nervously. The tone of his voice was more on edge than it had been all morning, which worried her immensely. "Jazz mentioned that I have another form where I look more ghost-like?" Where was he going with this? "You kinda already know what I look like in that form."
She pieced what he was saying together,
"What are you saying? That you go around town as a ghost?" then a scarier realization hit her. "Have I… tried to hunt you before?"
"Uh, yeah. A lot," he fidgeted in his seat. "I'm sorta Phantom? And I try to protect the town?" he voice came out strained and squeaky, suggesting it was physically painful to say.
Honestly, with all of the new revelations she'd already had, she'd lost her ability to be shocked by the one she'd had last night. The fact that Danny was Phantom oddly didn't leave as much of a horrifying impact than the fact that he was a ghost. Even though she should be freaking out, she wasn't. Maybe she was still in denial? She'd been in denial all morning, maybe this was just an extension of that. But when she thought about it, it felt right. It pieced everything together and made sense that Danny was Phantom. Because why not? Why not another gigantic secret on top of the one she'd already learned?
All those times that she ranted about capturing Phantom and Danny would look so uncomfortable he'd leave the room, a pensive look masked with boredom. All those times she accused Phantom of kidnapping the mayor, property damage, theft, endangerment, and a specific time she swore to hunt Phantom for endangering Danny for 'stealing his face'... Danny had heard all of those threats. And he would quietly suggest otherwise, that Phantom was trying to do well and that maybe his crimes were just misunderstandings. And she'd chide him for supporting an evil ghost, that he didn't understand that Phantom's hero charade was only that: a charade.
Consequently, there were the times when Phantom felt far too much like a person that she retaliated by convincing herself he was a master manipulator. Floating smugly in city hall, shooting and her and Jack and then looking stricken with horror after realizing what he'd done. Looking small and terrified inside of that metal ghost's net, thrashing to escape his captor. (She'd been so jealous then, she'd wanted to be that captor.) A online video of Phantom with his fans, playfully cracking jokes like a teenager who had forgotten that he wasn't one of the living anymore.
Offering himself to Jack when a bounty was placed on his head, knowing that Jack was depressed because he couldn't adequately capture a ghost. Calls from Mr. Lancer that Danny had ran out in the middle of class, calls from Sam and Tucker frantically asking if Danny was home. Those nights that Danny wouldn't be in his room, but Phantom would be in the sky. And she'd always force herself to wait to hunt Phantom until Danny was home, but by that time Phantom would disappear.
Dark eyebrows, roughly the same height, messy hair that never seemed to stay down. Blue but green eyes, white but black hair. They really were… the same.
"Okay," she nodded. It all made sense, and it wasn't like she could argue.
Danny and Jazz shared a pointed look. Danny breathed out slowly, skepticism lingering in the atmosphere of the room.
"Okay? Just… 'okay'?"
Jazz couldn't keep herself from butting in, "Mom, you understood what he meant right? That he's Danny Phantom?"
Maddie was tempted to laugh, but restrained herself. That wouldn't look good on her part. "Yeah, at this point, what else can surprise me, though?"
She observed Danny, who was gaping like a fish. It was really odd, that she could see some of Phantom's features in him now. Like something had been peeled back and an entirely new personality traits were visible. It was half a minute later she realized she'd been staring for a while, and she averted her gaze. That action probably hadn't left the impression that she was accepting him. Because she was trying to.
"True, I guess?" his voice cracked. "So - uh, are you mad? I know it looks like I've done a lot of stuff…."
Now that he brought it up, she wasn't exactly angry, but mainly concerned. Danny always tried to tell her Phantom was doing good, but those attempts didn't erase his poor actions. "Well you sort of have done stuff," she crossed her arms. "You kidnapped the mayor. And stole all that jewelry and-"
"Danny doesn't have a good relationship with the press," Jazz interrupted. "Both of those incidents were framed." That wasn't much, but it explained some things.
Danny took his explanation from there, "After I got my powers ghosts started attacking. That was back when I was still learning to control myself… trying to figure out what to tell you…. After the first few ghosts, I just knew that I had to do it, since nobody else was. I think since my core was still developing, that's also when my obsession," he admitted bitterly, "became about protecting people. And so the ghosts figured out pretty quickly I was half human and most of them don't care, besides trying to throw me off of them so they can do what they want in the human world."
This entire other life Danny led really was on another plane than her own. He said he was okay with his life, but she couldn't still understand how he could be. She already knew it, but she felt like she needed to emphasize the fact that it was happening, "So you do fight ghosts."
He shifted awkwardly, "I mean… I know how to deal with them now."
He was constantly in danger, going from moment to the next waiting for his next fight, avoiding ghosts and also ghost hunters. Her…. She turned him into a hybrid and hunted him. What kind of mother was she? How could she be so ignorant? This was the true hazard of having her child being a ghost, dealing with her own guilt. This is why she had been in so much denial. She couldn't let this continue. Sure, she couldn't change that Danny was a ghost, probably forever - but she could stop his ghost hunting. Take that burden away from him. Pull him out of the fray, because what would she do when a ghost or another hunter finally succeeded in hurting him? Where could they go from there?
She voiced her concern. "I don't want you to anymore. Fight ghosts."
He responded without hesitation, "I can't do that either. Protecting this city isn't only my obsession, it's my duty. Who else would protect the town next time we're invaded? No offense Mom, but no one else can do what I do."
"But it's not safe for you," she argued. She knew that her protest was probably in vain, she was trying to negotiate Danny's obsession, something that ghost's responded poorly to.
"I know the risks, and I can sacrifice a little of my well being if it means everyone else is alive," he countered predictably.
"Not to mention," Jazz added "but being Phantom allows Danny to maintain his obsession healthily. I've read your notes about when ghosts are depraved from their obsession - would you want that to happen to Danny? In a way this is improving his health."
In her observation, ghosts depraved from their specific fixation rapidly grew ill, depressed, stressed, and violent. After a few days, some ghosts would dissolve completely without anything to pursue. The thought of that happening to Danny was worrisome… but that didn't excuse the fact that he was still getting physically hurt. There was also his lack of daily coordination and suffering grades that now had a attributable source.
"That aside," she leaned forward in her seat, "as your mother, I can't just allow you to run into danger every day."
His face darkened, "So you'd rather Amity Park be overrun by ghosts?"
"No! Of course not." This conversation was going nowhere. "But you come first."
Danny looked taken aback, as if he had forgotten that she's supposed to care for him, does care for him. Just when it felt like Danny was going to respond, Jazz took the floor.
"May I offer a compromise?" she suggested. "A way for Danny to fulfill his obsession, keep the town safe, and have less risk of hurting himself?"
Maddie was open for any scenario where Danny was less likely to get hurt at this point. "I'll hear it."
Danny on the other hand… "I don't think that's possible, Jazz. I haven't exactly had the best luck so far with doing that."
Jazz ignored his doubt and turned to Maddie instead. "You and Dad - once we tell Dad of course - can provide tech support for Danny, assist in ghost hunting, and give him a curfew so he doesn't wake up to fight the Box Ghost five times a night."
Danny deflated at the jab about the Box Ghost but didn't speak up.
"You think that'd help?" Maddie asked.
"Well," Jazz contemplated, taking a moment to poke Danny in the shoulder, "I know that Danny is usually safer when he has a team of people to back him up. He hates it though since he's always afraid we'll get hurt too."
If Maddie hadn't been paying apt attention, she would've missed the flash of green in Danny's eyes. "And you will, that's an awful idea! A curfew won't stop my ghost sense."
Jazz looked at him, not bothering to filter the exasperation in her tone, "Then Mom and Dad will make something to temporarily disable your ghost sense while you sleep."
Maddie backtracked for a moment A 'ghost sense', like another power of his? She'd dabbled in enough technology to disable specific ghost powers, so it probably wouldn't be difficult to calibrate it to Danny based off the results of the tests he agreed to do. Anything to help him get more sleep and avoid danger. "Yeah," she confirmed, "I can do that."
Danny still wasn't convinced, "What if there's a powerful ghost and I'm too asleep to stop it?"
It was noble that he cared so much about the welfare of the town, but at this point he was refusing to accept that they were willing to support him. "Then we'll calibrate our ghost sensors to alert the entire house if a ghost over a certain power level breaks through the portal," Maddie supplied.
"You guys could still get hurt though!" Danny still protested.
Maddie glared, "And if you continue the way you're going, so will you."
He fell silent, trying to find a logical argument to combat her words. Eventually, he sighed and gave in. "I guess we could give it a try. I don't like the idea of a curfew though, and if you don't show up in time to stop the threat, I won't hesitate to cut school to fight ghosts. Otherwise… I agree. Compromise?" he offered weakly.
Maddie smiled for the first time that day, feeling a vague sense of ease. She was still terrified about everything she'd learned, but at least Danny was open to try to be more cautious. "Compromise."