and...I'M BACK!!

Enjoy the filler/set-up for the next chapter. Hopefully things will begin to move at a faster pace now. So read, review.

Disclaimer: I don't own DP and it's characters. I do own Daemyn, Fitter, and Kendra. Back off.

The next morning I woke up exhausted. Well, in truth I never went to sleep. See, I was still worrying about me disappearing. The image of Mom's haunted eyes plagued my mind throughout the night, forcing me to check every inch of my body to make sure nothing had happened.

What if it happened to me? What if I disappeared?

And what happens if I didn't return?

These thoughts raced through my mind as I truged down the stairs to the kitchen. As I pulled out a chair to sit on, I checked my hands to make sure they were still intact.

Fitter walked into the room and stared at me. "Daemyn, dude. You don't look like you slept a bit." She took the seat next to me, waiting for an anwer. Her gray eyes searched mine, making me shift in my chair. How come I'm not nervous when Kendra does that?

Said girl entered the room at that moment. "G'morning." She headed straight for the pantry and helped herself to a bowl of cereal. She took the seat across from me. "Um, Daemyn, no offense, but you could scare the dead with that face."

Next thing I knew, Dad stood behind me. "Hey Daemyn, Tucker and I are-BOY! What happened to your face?" He kneeled next to me and gently outlined the dark circles upon my face with his weathered hands.

Did I really look THAT tired? "Nothing's wrong Dad. I just didn't sleep well."

Uncle Tucker laughed loudly in the other room. "Right Dae, that's what Danny used to tell his parents after a long night of ghost-hunting."

Great. Now Dad probably thought I was hiding some "ghost powers" from him. That would lead to an interrogation. And provoking me to see if I would transform. After hours of this, Dad would be disappointed in me AGAIN because we couldn't be the Dad-Son tag team. He would sulk for the rest of the day while trying to hide it from me.

"Daemyn, you don't have-"

"NO DAD! I DON'T!" I shouted, suprising even myself with the volume of the shout. I winced and quieted. "I'm just...worried about Mom."

A cloud fell over the room and everyone's eyes shifted away from me. Dad looked...well, he suddenly looked alsmost as tired as I felt. His eyes, usually radiating life, now seemed to be a dulled grey. "Me too, Daemyn. I'm worried too."

An awkward silence ensued. Fitter figeted and Kendra focused on her cereal. I felt the guilt and depression sink in again and I slouched further down in my chair. Yesterday had been the worst day of my life, last night had been the worst night of my life, and here I go making it another gloomy day. Maybe I needed to sit down and have one of those "talks" Aunt Jazz has been bugging me about.

I was trying to recall her number when Dad left the room and headed to the basement. Uncle Tucker started after him, but mid-step he changed his mind.

"I'll go check on Sam..."

Fitter, Kendra and I didn't move for a few minutes. I guess we were all just trying to take in the situation. My mom, I mean, my Mom sick. Or something like it. And she was disappearing. None of us could come up with any logical reason, and that made it harder.

Without speaking, both of the girls rose and wrapped their arms around me. Normally, I would back away and give some sarcastic quip, but not today. I let their warm embrace soothe me, and a moment later I felt myself relax. We could get through this. Nothing could stop us. Not when we were together.

[Switching to Third Person

Danny frowned sadly as he stood before the Ghost Portal. The eerie green glow cast the only light on the cold lab. Should he enter?

Of course he should. That's where his answers lay. That's where he could find out how to save Sam from whatever was happening to her.

But were they answers he wanted to hear?

He ran his hands through his white-hair. What would happen if Clockwork told him Sam wasn't supposed to...live? Could he handle that?

With tears forming at the edge of his vision, Danny floated into the mysterious realm before him.

Clockwork sighed as he watched the halfa fly determinely towards his lair. He had forseen this, of course, but the confrontation would not make him the least bit happier. He would have to tell the man something neither of them wanted to hear. But he had to. A mistake had been made years earlier; a mistake that needed to be fixed. Whatever it took to make the change, that's what would have to happen.

He changed from an older ghost to a picture-perfect form of a young child. Within ten minutes, two hearts would be shattered and the timeline would be set in a new direction.

After all, that was the way things were meant to be.