By the time Danny made it home, it was almost three o'clock in the morning. He had stayed at Kara's talking about anything and everything. On a more serious level, Kara had talked him through some techniques that could help with getting through bouts of depression. They also talked about mindless things such as what do muggle kids do when they go to Hogwarts and they have braces? Obviously there aren't any dentists in the wizarding world so do wizards get their teeth magicked straight? Is that a job that one needs to be trained in or is it a simple spell? And do those kids who attend Hogwarts who go in with braces have them removed in the Wizarding World? Many questions were made about the subject and they were seriously considering writing to J.K Rowling to get an answer.

Danny hadn't felt so light in such a long time. After he got everything off his chest and had a good long cry, a wave a peace came over him. It was the strangest thing. Did he still feel that some of the things he said were true? Of course. He didn't think his problems would be solved after one conversation. But just talking about everything made him feel so much better and Danny was glad he found someone he could talk to. It's strange, because he found talking to someone that he knew for all of two days easier than talking to his parents or his sister or his best friends. Even though Kara had known about him and admired him, she hadn't actually known him. They were strangers. And maybe that was why Danny felt like he could talk to her. Because she didn't know him personally and therefore didn't have many expectations of him. Because of that, he didn't care too much what she thought of him. He wasn't scared of her judgement because just as much as he was learning about her, she was learning of him. It made her easy to talk to- to be around. And that made Danny happy.

Danny took his time walking up stairs from the lab. He wanted to savor the feeling of happiness that had washed over him. Honestly, he was a little weary of going to bed. It was already pretty late and the sooner he went to bed the sooner he'd have to get up to go to school. He didn't want to school. Danny stupidly felt like the longer he stayed awake the more time he'd have till he had to go. It was stupid because whether he was awake or sleep between now and when he had to get up, it was the same amount of time in between. But Danny didn't let that stop him from pretending that wasn't true.

When Danny reached his room, he was curious as to why the door was slightly opened. Cautiously, he pushed the door open so he could see into the room. Danny was relieved to find his mom lying in his bed, fast asleep. Quietly he walked over to her and kneeled by the bed to gently shake her shoulder.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Danny whispered as soon as she opened her eyes.

"Oh, Danny!" His mom said sounding relieved. She sat up so fast that Danny hardly had time to process that he was being pulled into a hug. "We were so worried. Jazz called and she said she was extremely worried about you and that she thought that something was wrong- that we should check up on you. We came home as fast as we could," His mom said letting him out of her tight hug to look him in the eye. She kept a tight grip on his shoulders. "And you weren't here. All your homework was laid out on the table, but we couldn't find you anywhere. We tried calling your cell phone, but we found your phone on your bed," his mom said as she picked up his phone from under his pillow, handing it to him. He placed it on his bedside table. "And we called Sam and Tucker," his mom continued, wiping a tear from her eye. "Sam said the two of you had a fight at school and Tucker said he hadn't spoken to you since you went to go map those doors over a week ago. Nobody knew where you were," she said as more tears escaped her eyes. "We thought something had happened," and his mom's voice broke. She quickly scooped Danny back up into a hug and he rested his cheek on her shoulder, just letting her cry.

How could Danny have been so dumb as to think Jazz wouldn't have called his parents? It was just another thing to add to the ever-growing list of: how much stupider could Danny Fenton be?

"Mom, I'm so sorry," Danny said softly, wiping a tear from his mom's cheek. "I didn't mean to scare you guys. I just went to visit Kara. I didn't mean to stay in the Ghost Zone that long but it's hard to keep track of time there. The only reason I even knew what time it was when I got back was cause of the clock I keep in the lab. I'm so so sorry." His mom pulled back to look him in the eyes again.

"Who's Kara?" She sniffled.

"The girl that was here the other day. That's Kara. I was visiting her," Danny replied, searching his mom's face for a reaction.

After a few beats of silence his mom asked if she was his girlfriend. "I mean, it's really none of my business, but I can't help but wonder. She was asleep in your bed." Danny was about to tell his mom that she was wrong and that they were in fact not dating when a very serious look came over her face. "If the two of you are having sex," his mom said, and Danny reeled backwards.

"No, no. Mom you've got the wrong idea-" His mom cut him off.

"Now, Danny, I know it's embarrassing to talk to your parents about this kind of thing, but I need to know that you're being safe. I mean, I'm not quite sure if diseases can be transferred between ghosts and such- that field hasn't really been looked into. Or if female ghosts could even get pregnant. Then again the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady did have a ghost child…And now that I've mentioned it maybe we ought to do some research," His mom mumbled to herself. "Oh, I know!" His mom said, her voice suddenly bright and cheery, "How would you and Kara like to be our test subjects for how disease is spread, or not spread, through sexual intercourse between ghosts, or half-ghosts in your case. Also, if we could set up an interview with the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady to talk to them about how their daughter was conceived, it would be very helpful." His mom looked at him expectantly and Danny had to fight the urge to go and race back through the Fenton Portal and into the Ghost Zone.

"Mom, for the last time, Kara and I are not dating," Danny insisted, ignoring the last part of her request.

His mom just blinked at him. "Well, that doesn't mean that you can't be having sex," his mom said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Standing up, Danny gently pulled his mom off the bed. He started walking her towards the door as she tried to convince him of the importance of such research. More and more ghosts are taking up residence in the human world after all. "Love you, mom. Goodnight," Danny said as he gently shoved her out of his room and shut and locked the door.

"Okay, sweetie," his mom called out. "I love you too. But don't think this conversation is over. I will be talking to your father about this." Danny stood by his door till he was sure his mom was gone. He couldn't help the small smile that made its way across his face. As mortifying as that was, he loves to see his mom talk about her passion. Sure it had started out as ghost hunting, but it's involved into something else, granted, it was out of necessity. But her work has proven very useful to both the human and ghost community. And as much as Danny hated it admit it, his mom did have a point. There was no information about ghost's relationship to sex. And Danny had no idea what would happen if he got a girl pregnant- ghost or human. Would they have a half-ghost half-human child? Or would the child be completely ghost or human depending on the mother? And how did the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady have a child? Danny paused then shook his head before he could think too much about it. He didn't wanna know.

Danny stripped himself of his clothes and lied down in bed. As soon as he was tucked warmly under the covers, the time really hit him. It was almost four in the morning. And damn it, he had school in a couple hours. Danny closed his eyes, hoping that for once, sleep would come easy to him. And for once, it actually did.

Soon enough it was Friday again. If you had told Danny on Monday that the week would have gone by so quickly, he would have laughed in your face. Ever since his conversation with Kara, however, he had been in a much better mood all around. He wasn't snapping at people or glaring at people who smiled at him. From Tuesday on, he smiled at everyone who looked his way, whether they were smiling at him or not. He started participating more in class, much to the shock of his teachers. And not only that, Danny even went and took pictures with some underclassmen who he remembered had asked him for pictures before. And the kicker was that they didn't approach him for the picture, Danny approached them. It was this out of character behavior that Sam eventually approached him for.

"Hey, Danny," Sam said. It was lunch time and Danny had just sat down and unwrapped his sandwich.

"Oh, uh, hey Sam." Sam looked surprised- probably because Danny had not ignored her, not that he blamed her. He hadn't exactly been the best friend to her the past couple of weeks. "Wanna sit?" Danny asked, and gestured to the bench across from him. She just nodded and took a seat.

Before Sam got the chance to say anything, Danny spoke. "I'm sorry I've been acting like such a jerk lately. I just haven't been in a good place mentally," Danny said, watching Sam play with her salad. "I know it's not really an excuse, but-"

"It's okay," Sam said, looking up from her salad. "Maybe I haven't been the most understanding." Danny just nodded. "I didn't really think about how all this attention impacted you. Everyone got on so well with their new roles after Phantom Planet happened and I just expected that you had too."

"To be fair, I thought I was doing well with everything too. Then everything I did, as Fenton or Phantom, slowly started to become a show. Everyone was watching what I was doing in a way that they hadn't before. It was okay at first, but eventually it became too much. People put too much responsibility on me. I would have been fine if I had to do that same things that I always had done, but once people found out, everyone came to me for every little thing. I felt like I couldn't say no to anyone because if I did then rumors would be spread about what a terrible person I am," Danny sighed. "I didn't want that."

"Thank goodness for Tuck, huh?" Sam said.

Danny chuckled. "Yeah, thank goodness for Tuck. He really saved my ass. If it wasn't for him telling people that I should only be called when there is a major ghost related emergency, then I'd probably be mowing someone's lawn right now."

"Yeah, he really did save your ass," Sam laughed.

Sobering up, she asked Danny how he's really been feeling this week. She pointed out his odd behavior and informed him that the kids he had taken pictures with had uploaded the pictures to Myspace and that they were circulating around the web. "Also, after that conversation in the lab, I realized that you were right. You, me, and Tucker only ever hang out together when we're working. And don't get me wrong, I'm proud of all the work we've done and I'm very passionate about it. But things have changed. I guess it happened so gradually that I didn't really notice till you pointed it out."

"I love the work we do too, and I'm sorry that I don't pitch in much with projects anymore, by the way. It started to feel like actual work and I hated that," Danny looked down at his food. "As for my behavior this week…let's just say that I found someone to talk to."

Sam raised her eyebrows at that. "Someone to talk to, huh? Do tell."

"It's not like that," Danny insisted. "Why do I have to keep telling people that? And how do you know I didn't mean a therapist or something?" Danny asked.

Sam smirked. "Cause you're blushing." Suddenly Danny could feel how red his face was and he felt his face get even redder when Sam started laughing.

"Shut up! It is so not like that," Danny yelled indignantly. "We've only met like three times."

"So why is this mystery person someone you can talk to?" Sam asked, finally taking a bite of her salad.

"I don't know." Danny shrugged and thought it over. "I guess she's just easy to talk to. We're both struggling with depression so in a way she kind of knows what I'm going through. We spent over twelve hours together yesterday. We talked, we laughed…we cried." Sam lower her fork with a pained look on her face. "We just connected. I don't know how to explain it," Danny said as he picked up his sandwich, trying to brush off the seriousness of the topic they had turned to.

"You've been depressed?" Sam asked, her eyebrows drawing up in concern. "Shit, Danny. I'm sorry I didn't notice before. I'm one of your best friends, I should be able to notice these things," Sam said, berating herself.

Danny shook his head. "It's okay, don't worry about. Honestly, I didn't even realize I was depressed till Kara pointed it out. Don't beat yourself up," Danny tried to reassure her.

"So," Same said.

"So?" Danny prompted.

"Tell me about Kara," Sam said, with a sly smile on her face. Danny rolled his eyes but went ahead and told Sam what she wanted to know. He ended up talking about her all the way till the bell rang. And he still had much more to tell.