Danny was used to being interrupted by ghosts on a daily basis, and generally, it really annoyed him. However, this one was more like one of those 'saved-by-the-bell' occurrences, because Jazz wasn't about to stop nailing him with questions. Though he had been saved by the bell in that moment, the fact that the fight was taking place in a ghost-hunting family's house and he was now in his ghoulish form, made things far less simple.
The ghost he was fighting was a run-of-the-mill square one octopus-looking specter. He had fought these types of ghosts as long as he had been Danny Phantom though it felt much longer. He pulled his thermos out and sucked it in. Thinking he was done, he hooked the thermos right back on his belt, but yelped as someone punched him from behind. He fell to the ground and realized from the sizzling on the back of his neck that he had been shot with an ecto-gun. Not only that, but this ecto-gun was far more effective than it had been a year ago. It actually hurt.
He turned around to see a furious Jazz, confidently carrying a gun and pointing it directly at him. "Okay Phantom. It's time to face your doom." The gun whirred to action and, just as she was about to blast Danny, he sunk through the floor, down to the lab, where he transformed back to his human form and emptied the ghost back into the Ghost Zone.
"Phantom was just here!" Jazz screamed to her parents.
"WHAT?!" Their parents yelled at the top of their lungs.
"Did you get him? What did he say?"
"No and he didn't say anything."
Danny took a deep breath in. Back to the normal swing of things I guess, he thought to himself.
"Wait a minute… Where's Danny? He just left his room when the ghost attack happened…"
"Oh no! Did that evil ghost take him?" The mom shrieked.
"I - I don't know…"
Crap, I better go to the front door and pretend I was on a walk…
He flew up to the front door and knocked. The door flew open. Jazz had a wild expression on her face. "DANNY! How'd you get out of the house before Phantom attacked?!"
"Phantom was here?"
Jazz eyed him suspiciously. How had he not seen Phantom? Then she noticed something odd. "Danny…Oh my God, you are bleeding." She touched his seared neck and blood came back on her hand. She stared at it. "Um…" Jazz's breath caught in her throat. She shook her head a little, and then looked back up at Danny. "Come on, let's go to the bathroom, and clean this up."
Danny hated himself for not trying to cover that up. He could've spent a few minutes hiding that wound. Jazz would recognize it as the wound she gave to Phantom… He shouldn't have come back. Jazz being a ghost-hunter now made it impossible to keep things from her…
She got out cleaning supplies and patted a cotton pad on the back of Danny's neck. He didn't wince. Not once. What made him so tough? "Dan…um…"
"Please never call me Dan."
"Okay...Sorry. Danny, how did you get this wound? It's fresh, and it - " is already healing?!
"Fell over like the total klutz I am," he chuckled. "Some things never change, huh?"
Jazz laughed half-heartedly, knowing he must be lying because there was no way anyone could get a burn like that from falling over…and on the back of the neck too... "I guess so." She cleaned the wound the rest of the way, ignoring the fact that it had almost healed half way - maybe she thought it had looked worse than it actually was… "Anyway…we were talking earlier, and I really think you need to open up to someone."
"I have…"
"To family."
Danny turned around after Jazz covered the burn. "This is exactly why I haven't been here. You are so insistent that I tell you everything, and, while I get that you are trying to help me, I don't need any help."
"You clearly do. Why else would you leave your own family with not even a simple goodbye?" Jazz crossed her arms. "Where the hell have you been this past year?"
"Please give it a rest."
Jazz shrugged. She would never get through his thick skull. She knew he was private and was a compulsive liar, but it never bothered her so much until now. And how couldn't it? He left his family without saying anything… Despite how happy and normal they seemed, it broke them. But the worst part of it was: he didn't give any reasons for his disappearance. And his friends Sam and Tucker knew where he was but not his own family? How did that make any sense? It hurt Jazz to see her brother so easily trust his friends over her, his only sister. She ignored it in high school, but now they were basically adults. Why couldn't he tell her everything?
"You're never gonna trust me enough to tell me the truth, are you?"
Danny just gave her a blank expression.
She shook her head and said, "Typical," then she went to her room and sat on her bed. She found herself asking the same question she had been asking herself since the lab accident. Why won't he let me in?
She realized she still had the pad she had used to clean Danny's wound and scoffed at herself. Then she looked closer at the blood on the cotton and realized there was a greenish tint to it…almost like… "Ectoplasm…" Jazz's breath caught in her throat. What could that mean?
"Danny-" Jazz started to say, walking into her younger brother's room with the cotton pad and realizing he wasn't there. The window, however, was wide open, letting a slight breeze in. Though it wasn't cold, Jazz shivered and felt sick to her stomach. She walked slowly to the window and looked down then tilted her head up towards the bright moon. She saw a flicker of something pass in front of the moon and was convinced it was that evil ghost boy. What she didn't know: Where was Danny?
Danny needed to fly to clear his mind and let go of his worries which he had a lot of at the moment. Being home made him exceptionally tense. And Jazz was smart. She would figure out what was going on with him sooner or later. It was surprising that she still hadn't made the connection. Danny wished he would've told her before he did the unspeakable. Maybe things would be different now…
He called up Sam and Tucker who were expecting to hear from him sooner than later. "Danny! What's been going on?" Tucker shouted on the other end.
"Well, Jazz is onto me."
"Oh no… What happened?" Sam asked.
"She blasted Danny Phantom in the back of the neck, then I stupidly came back home before it healed and she saw it and cleaned it up for me."
"Crap…I bet she saw it starting to heal too," Tucker added. "What did you say happen?"
"I said I fell…But seriously, who falls and injures themselves like that?"
"If Jazz finds out, it isn't the end of the world -" Sam started.
"Uh, yes it is!"
"It's better than literally anyone else finding out. She knows you almost as well as we know you."
"But, in her eyes, Phantom is a villain."
"The real question is: Would finding out that you are Phantom change her opinion about you or Phantom?" Tucker pointed out.
"Yeah, I don't want to stay to find out."
"If you explain yourself to her, I'm sure she will believe you," Sam said.
"It's not like I'm staying anyway. I don't need to tell her anything. I just wish she would stop pestering me," he explained, quietly landing on top of a building.
"How long are you going to stay?" Sam asked a few moments later.
"Not sure. A few days probably, definitely no more than a week."
Sam frowned, but she didn't say anything back. Instead, Tucker answered, saying something like 'okay, whatever, we will come by tomorrow' and hanging up.
She exchanged sad glances with Tucker. Life had become pretty dull since he left and stopped being Danny Phantom… And, being the biggest supporters of, now, one of the most hated former heroes known to man had been tough on them. As mayor, Tucker had a hard time discussing the deaths of all those people while still siding with his friend because he knew the truth. There had been a lot of anger towards him on how he dealt with that issue. And people knew Sam and the ghost boy were close - at least it was a rumor and was, in fact, true - so they figured she was on his side as well. The town had kind of grown to hate them just like they had Danny Phantom for doing what he did. The thing that bothered them was that Danny Fenton's reputation remained unscathed so at least he still had a part of himself to hang on to. They were known to be good acquaintances with Phantom, while Danny was never even seen in the same room as that ghost. So, though their reputations were more heavily affected by this attack, Danny was the one that wanted to hide away from society, not them. Part of Sam and Tucker understood that being controlled to murder those people was what made Danny so freaked out and scared to face society, yet another part of them wished he would just get over it.
The next morning, Jazz immediately went to Danny's room to find his window closed and his bed made as if he hadn't even slept the night. This made Jazz nervous: Did Danny leave overnight? Seeing the foreign book on his table and a small duffel comforted her a bit, but not quite enough.
"JAZZY COME DOWNSTAIRS! DANNY IS MAKING ME - I MEAN US - PANCAKES!" Jack yelled.
Jazz would never get used to her dad's outbursts. They still made her jump. So Danny is still here. Jazz smiled, thanking God that she hadn't made him run away again. She walked downstairs and smelled a mixture of chocolate chips, strawberries, blueberries, maple syrup, and pancake batter. Sure enough, to Jazz's surprise as she entered the kitchen, Danny was making pancakes. Flipping them as if he did it every day.
"Where did you learn to do this?" Their mom asked.
"Oh! Um, heh… a …friend taught me," he answered. It was weird for him because he had somewhat made friends with some of his ghost enemies after he had saved the world. The Lunch Lady had taught him how to make some things, much to his dismay, and it had actually become a useful skill. That being said, it still felt weird to think of her as a friend…
Jazz shrugged. How obscure can he get?
"Good morning hun," Maddie hugged Jazz.
"Good morning," she hugged her back then went to go hug Danny, who put the spatula down and hugged her back. Jack came in and the whole family hugged.
This feels good. This feels right. Back with the family again. Breakfast on a Saturday morning -
"Breaking news! The town's worst fears have come true as the ghost that goes by the name Danny Phantom was spotted last night, flying over the streets of Amity Park. Little is known of why he is back and what he wants with our city but leading experts say they are going to find out and make sure he doesn't hurt anyone ever again," Lance Thunder announced on live television.
Danny internally moaned. How could I have been so careless?
"He really is back! Do you know what this means?!" Maddie shrieked.
"It means we actually have a chance to get rid of him for good!" Jazz grinned.
"By ripping him molecule by molecule!" Jack added.
Danny silently turned back to the pancakes and flipped them again to make them darker on top. Jazz noticed his immediate discomfort and avoidance of the situation. Maybe he left Amity to get away from this ghost business…Maybe it upset him…
"Okay, so who's first?" Danny put three pancakes on a plate.
"Oooh!" Jack took the plate. "Thanks Danny-boy!"
"Maple syrup is in the microwave."
Jazz observed Danny's mannerisms closely to the point where he felt her numbing stare at his back. He was used to it by now, but it still bothered him enough to make him turn around with a look that read cut-it-out-or-i-will-wail-at-you or, in Jazz's eyes, cut-it-out-or-else.
She got the hint and went to the table with their parents. Then a thought occurred to her: Danny arrived moments before Phantom. Why did they both come back at the same time? Another thought occurred to her: she wounded Phantom on the back of his neck and Danny had a similar - possibly identical - wound minutes after, that, started healing before Jazz's eyes. Not to mention the green-tinted blood from his wound... Jazz shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the table.
"Is something bothering you?" Her mom asked sweetly.
Jazz realized she was slouched over the table and fixed her posture then shook her head. "No, um, I was just thinking about one of the patients at the Amity Park Psychiatric Center that Dr. Madison was seeing." That's right. Talk about your internship. That usually changes the subject because your parents aren't very interested in it, Jazz told herself.
"Oh! So what about them?" She was trying to seem interested.
"Um…doctor-patient confidentiality," she said quickly.
Danny came with the next batch of pancakes - these had strawberries in them - and put them in front of his mom. "Thanks sweetie."
He went back in the kitchen. The doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Jazz said.
Opening the door, she was surprised to see Sam and Tucker, almost as if it were old times. "Hey you guys."
"Hi Jazz. Danny said he came back into town and we wanted to drop by and just say hi to everyone," Sam said.
"Yeah, of course. Um…first, I have a question."
"Yeah?"
"You guys are close with Danny -"
They nodded.
"Where was he this past year?"
"No idea," Sam told her.
"Yeah, he told us as much as he told you," Tucker added.
I highly doubt that… "Well, the first thing he told me when I asked was the Ghost Zone. It's just like him to make a joke out of something serious." She thought she may have seen a questioning look when she mentioned the Ghost Zone but it lasted for less than a millisecond and instantly, his friends were laughing. "It isn't funny. This is serious. I'm afraid he could be getting involved with some pretty bad people."
"He isn't. Jazz, if it was bad, don't you think we'd tell you?" Sam pointed out.
Just then, Jazz had a flashback to high school around Spirit Week, when the ghost boy had first saved her:
("I mean haven't you noticed how gloomy and negative he's been lately?" Jazz had said.
"Uh, Jazz, we're Danny's friends. That means we keep his secrets from you," Tucker replied.)
They are hiding something… And somehow, it has something to do with my brother andPhantom. "Sure…well, you guys come in and make yourselves at home. Danny is making breakfast."