Danny was running, but he wasn't getting as far as he should have. It was as if the faster he went, the more the world resisted his movement, until he was paralysed… bound… he couldn't get there… He couldn't save them. The mixture of Vlad, Dan and Sylvester Screech floated over him and cackled evilly. "You have failed Daniel! You cannot fight it anymore, you will become me and there's nothing you can do to stop it!" Danny looked over at the Nasty Burger, but it was destroyed, up in flames, they were all gone, he had failed… Danny let out an anguished howl… he was Wulf now. He sprang at the mixed horror above him and his vision was obscured by pink ectoplasm.
Danny awoke with a start, covered in perspiration. He did not sit up. He wasn't sure where he was for a moment… but then the memories of the dream were replaced by the memories of the recent events… Danny blinked groggily, forcibly shoving the memories back; he didn't want to think about them just now. He winced as his head throbbed. Judging by the light in the room, it was morning. Danny was unsure just how long he had been out, but judging by how sore he was, it could only have been that night that he had…
No, he wasn't going to think about it… but how could he not, when his mother's furious face kept crossing his mind just before he thought of the pain she caused him. Danny looked wearily to the window and swallowed the lump in his throat. He heard others moving about in the house… but not the usual thumping steps of his father.
Danny sat bolt upright as he suddenly remembered the phone conversation he had overheard his mother having, Dad was on his way to Vlad's… oh no… Vlad would use the opportunity to kill him… Jack was armed against Ghosts, but he wasn't armed against what he thought was his old friend.
Danny sat up quickly and swung his legs over the bedside. He stood up, but almost immediately sunk back onto the bedside. He grasped his head. The pain was blinding, and his knees shook terribly. He only just discovered how weak his ordeal had left him. But weak or not, he had to stop his father, he would take the specter speeder if necessary… Danny tried to change into Phantom form. Surely he had the energy at least to travel in ghost form… but his rings sparked wearily as they slid up his body, and he felt even this small effort drain him. As soon as he was changed, his head span dangerously, and he reluctantly changed back again. "Oh no…" he moaned, his head in his hands. There was nothing he could do. And he was feeling dizzy again. He had to lie down. He cursed his weakened state and stared morosely at the ceiling. How could things get any worse?
"Danny?" came a soft female voice from the door as it creaked open. Danny tried to sit up again, but only managed to get to his elbows, still holding his throbbing head in one hand. Jazz entered the room, looking at him anxiously, though she seemed to be trying to hide her anxiety with a small grin, which she was trying very hard not to lose. Behind her, Sam and Tucker poked their heads through the door. "Hey" Danny croaked in a very raspy voice, also trying to smile but only managing a grim half grin. Sam, unexpectedly, flew to the bed and threw her arms around Danny, all the while talking frantically. "Oh Danny you're OK, you scared us so much, we couldn't find you, we looked everywhere in the ghost zone and…"
The only response Danny could make was an almost whimpering 'ow…'
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry…" Sam said, releasing him and blushing furiously. Danny smiled very weakly and rubbed his chest, also realizing that his face had flushed red. Jazz came over to him and helped him sit up against his bed-head. The three quickly realized just how energy drained and helpless he was.
"Dude… what HAPPENED to you? Where were you?" Tucker asked in confusion, looking more concerned than ever.
Danny still had a hand to his head. Any movement seemed to set off the throbbing and he waited a bit for it to dull before he tried to answer.
"I was… captured… by this weirdo called Silvester Screech… he kept me hostage in a lab and…" The memories made Danny shudder. "I couldn't transform and escape, I couldn't even use my powers, they had put these cuffs on my neck, wrists and ankles…" remembering these also made him notice the stinging burns were the cuffs had been. He absentmindedly rubbed his neck and found it was bandaged. He looked at the rest of his open injuries to find they were also bandaged. "What did they do to you?" Sam asked shakily, almost nervously. "The cuffs? They shocked me every time I tried to use my powers…"
"No-no, I meant…what did they do to you, the ghosts; did they just, keep you locked up?" She corrected. "Oh…" Danny said, shifting his gaze and lowering the hand from his neck. "They… locked me up… the cell was kinda small… they had Wulf there too for some reason, but I didn't see him, I just heard him… we were…" Danny swallowed hard. He didn't know why it was so hard to tell them what had happened to him… he hated to think about the things they did, to remember what he was put through, it felt almost humiliating now. Danny took a deep breath and realized he was rubbing his inner arm… it had not been bandaged. It was starting to itch as well as ache. Danny looked down at it. His eyebrows shot up a little; it looked like it was bruised black and green. "Oh my gosh, Danny, what happened here?" Jazz said anxiously, noticing the bruise as he did. Before Danny could hide it, she took his arm and held it out. Danny yelped slightly at her touching the cuff burn, which stung even under its bandages. Jazz gasped, "Danny! You've been injected with something… Is that what they did? They did tests on you? Oh Danny…" Jazz wrapped her arms protectively around him, making him wince again, but he didn't have the energy to push her away. He sighed and tried to avoid their gaze. "I was a Lab rat. They did tests on me… something about Screech thinking I was needed as part of his research… I'm not sure what for, but Wulf was a guinea pig too…" Danny glanced up to see his friend's reaction, and on a closer look suddenly realized Sam's eyes were red like his mom's had been. She had been crying over him? Danny's face burned again.
"But, if you had those cuffs on, how did you escape?" Asked Tucker, breaking the heavy silence that had fallen momentarily from Danny revealing what had happened to him. "It's a long story," Danny croaked, his voice getting worse from even this small amount of use. "Maybe you should tell us later, you need rest. Anyway, we need time to make something up to tell Mom and Dad…" Jazz said. "Dad!" Danny exclaimed suddenly, tensing, remembering why his stomach was writhing with dread, "he went to Vlad's alone! We still have to stop him before…"
"Woah! Danny, calm down! It's ok! Dad's already on his way home, Mom called him and he turned around to come back. He was only just at Wisconsin, so your timing was pretty good" Jazz tried to reassure him, holding his shoulders and peering into his face. He was definitely worse than he had ever been after a ghost attack before… but he let out a sigh of relief and collapsed back against the bed head and pillows. He still looked troubled however and stared morosely at his feet. "I feel so useless… the first thing I tried to do was get up so I could go and stop Dad getting to Vlad's, but I… I can't even stand up… I hate being so weak." Danny said very quietly and bitterly.
Tucker couldn't bear to see his best friend so despondent. He had to say something. Tucker put his hand on Danny's shoulder and felt it tense automatically at his touch… a testament to just how much of an effect his torture had had on him. "Dude, you can't be strong all the time. Everybody has their weak moments."
Danny looked up at him, a little surprised, and a smile of gratitude pulled at the corners of his mouth, though his eyes still told of the unspoken pain within him. He couldn't tell them what was eating at him the most… it was not what he had suffered in the ghost zone… it was not his own hopelessness… it was what he had suffered at the hands of his own mother after everything else, when he had finally thought he was safe and had instead found himself at the worst point of the entire ordeal. He had forgiven her, of course he had, but he couldn't stop thinking about it, and it didn't stop wrenching painfully at his insides.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. The others jumped, but Danny swallowed, knowing exactly who was on the other side of the door. Was he really ready to see her? To speak to her? "Come in" he said, his voice shaking, something Jazz noticed acutely.
The door creaked open, and in came Maddie carrying a tray with breakfast and a tentative smile. Danny found she looked so different to when she had as she tortured him that It was easy to push the memories to the back of his mind and think only of how she had cared for him, bandaging his wounds while he was unconscious, laying him so carefully in his bed, accepting without question that he was half-ghost and not freaking out about it. Danny also found it much easier to genuinely smile at his mother when she set down a tray of food in front of him. He had not eaten in at least four days now and he was starving. "Hi sweetie… are you feeling alright now?" she asked softly… almost as if she were a little scared of how he might react. "Yea mom, I'm better. I'm ok sitting down, its just if I stand up or move too fast my head hurts and I get dizzy… but this will help" he said, trying to sound bright. She seemed a little relieved by his reaction, but still had an air of anxiety and worry about her.
Danny tucked into the food, savouring the pancakes with an expression of bliss. "Wow… I guess they didn't feed you anything good in the cells huh?" Sam said with a little smile at Danny's expression. "They didn't feed me at all" Danny shrugged shortly with a mouthful of pancake. "Woah, dude, are you serious? Man id be crying with happiness if I were you, I can't go ONE day without food…" Tucker exclaimed. "Eh, I'm crying on the inside" Danny half joked, though part of him cringed internally for uttering something that was so deeply true.
"Uh… would you three mind, just giving me and Danny some privacy… I need to ask him about some… things…" Maddie said awkwardly. Danny glanced up at her and realized what it was she was worried about discussing in front of them. Though he was also a little scared of what else she might want to discuss that Danny did not want to re-visit. He swallowed an overly large amount of food, which went down painfully, but he ignored it and said, " Don't worry, mom. They know. These three are the only other humans who do… there are a lot more ghosts…"
All four of them stared at him a little shocked. Danny decided a quick and vague explanation was needed to satisfy his friends and sister. "I had to tell Mom. She was the one who found me when I made it back, she managed to get the cuffs off me in the end." He said shortly. He couldn't tell them the real events… it was still too painful for him to even think about, let alone discuss, and it wouldn't be fair on his mother to reveal what she had done… she seemed ready to burst into tears, but she managed to hold it back. "Oh… wow… Mom… you're taking it better than I thought you might…" Jazz said dumbfounded. Maddie's mouth crept up in a small sad smile. "Well of course I am honey… what did you think I would do? You're my children, I love you, no matter what." Danny wanted to reply… but his throat felt tight and he couldn't think of the right words, so he merely smiled at his mother before continuing to eat his breakfast.
"Ssso… what did you want to know?" Sam asked a little awkwardly, thinking Danny's mom would probably want a run down of the details of how Danny became half ghost and what his powers were and how he used them, most of which they could answer for him to let him finish his breakfast and rest his throat.
"Well… for starters, I suppose… how did it happen?" she asked, moving to sit on the end of Danny's bed.
"It happened the day you tested the ghost portal for the first time. It didn't work, but Danny showed it to us when you were gone, cause we nagged him to. I told him to take a look inside it. He suited up, went in, and … as far as we know, he pressed the switch to turn it on that you guys must have forgotten. Danny got-"
"Caught in the initial plasmic field shockwave! Oh my poor baby, why didn't you tell me when it happened!?" Maddie exclaimed, jumping over to Danny's side and throwing her arms around him. Danny's eyes widened in surprise and he let out a muffled yelp of pain through his mouthful of egg on toast. Danny automatically went intangible in reaction to the sudden pain it caused in his head and his mother gasped as her arms closed around slightly distorted air where her son had been moments ago. She jumped back and Danny re-appeared, quickly swallowing his mouthful and rubbing his throbbing head. "Sorry… force of habit" he muttered sheepishly.
"…And when he came out of the ghost portal… he was half ghost… we're not sure exactly how it happened… but that's how Danny Phantom was born, and he's still with us so we're fairly sure the change is permanent." Sam explained. All Maddie could do was nod and resume her seat at the end of Danny's bed. She frowned a little. "I still don't understand… you're the ghost boy… but surely… you're not like him, Danny… he… you… the things Phantom has done… you'd never do that? Attacking people? Committing crimes? Danny, you haven't been abusing your powers have you?" She asked with deep concern and fear. Danny frowned. "No! Of course I haven't! I didn't do any of that on purpose… it's more complicated than that," he said in a voice torn with frustration. It was not directed at her, but it was not doing his already strained voice any good. "Mom, you rely too much on what the media reports", Jazz picked up for Danny. "Danny has a lot of enemies, they always manage to set him up, but Danny's intentions have always been for the greater good. He uses his powers to defend the city from malicious spirits that escape the ghost zone. In all fairness, he's really under-appreciated" Danny's face burned with Jazz's comment. "What sort of powers are we talking about here?" Maddie asked. Tucker was such a geek, he had already brought up all the stats he had on Danny stored in his PDA and he read his list out. "Intangibility, ghost rays, supernatural flexibility, force-fields, overshadowing, ghostly wail, duplication, although that's only worked occasionally, aaand ice powers, which were a recent discovery…" Tucker said matter of factly. Maddie sat with her jaw open and blinked a few times. "Wow… Danny Phantom is more powerful than I realized… how many other ghosts have you found with all these powers?"
Danny set down his mug of coffee a little harder than he intended. "Just one… and I suppose now it's about time you knew." Danny said, his tone hard and cold and face set as he looked at his mother, who was slightly surprised by his expression.
"The Wisconsin ghost, Vlad Plasmius. A.K.A, Vlad MASTERS. I'm not unique. He was a halfa before I was even born…"
Maddie gasped, "Vlad? A… Halfa? As in, half ghost?… how is that possible!?"
"It happened when you guys were in college. The first time you tested the first small scale ghost portal, it didn't just give him ecto-acne and turn his hair white, it changed him the same way it changed me, he's been half ghost all these years, and he's been perfecting his skills by using them to get rich. If you ask me the fact that he has money and power but not the love of his life is what's made him such a crazed up fruit-loop."
Maddie sat and blinked at him for a few moments. "You mean… nooo… he didn't get rich just to try and win me over, did he?"
"Got it in one." Danny replied, spearing the last pit of toast on his fork and gulping it down. " And usually every attempt he's made at trying to win you over has also involved him trying to murder Dad, which inevitably ends up with me fighting him. And you don't even want to know what lengths he's gone to try and win ME over… and replace me… and blackmail me…"
"Well you DO have to give him SOME credit Danny, he did help you out with Pariah Dark, he does have some good in him..."
"Yea, but that was AFTER he RELEASED Pariah in the first place! Anyway, all he did was put the key in casket, I had to do all the actual fighting, AND he took the Ecto-Skeleton if you remember, the thing you later beat me up in?"
"Oh come on Danny You're not still mad about that are you?"
"OK, HOLD IT! WHAT on earth are you two talking about? Vlad black mailing you? The ghost king? The ecto-skeleton?" Maddie looked at them both with her mouth open and an incredulous expression, "you can't be serious?"
Danny and Jazz looked at each other and back to her. "A lot has happened since I got these powers mom… It may be a while before you find out everything that's happened."
"Well…for now, can we stick to Vlad? That might at least let me know what it is I almost sent Jack into…" She said in a worried tone.
Danny bit his lip. He was trying to think of what he should tell her, but the memory of her first reaction to telling her his father was in danger from Vlad kept flashing across his mind. It seemed so strange, that she believed him readily now, but before his transformation, her mind had been set only on how to prove he was a lying ghost… Danny felt a slight constriction in his chest.
"Danny, are you feeling ok?" Jazz asked, peering at him concernedly.
"Danni." He said, snapping out of it.
"Yea, you, you sure you're feeling ok?" Jazz repeated, a little more worried.
"No..." Danny said shaking his head, but he stopped quickly and put a hand to his throbbing head, "Danni as in Danielle… you know, my 'cousin' Danielle," Danny explained. "Oh… you never really explained that one to me…" Jazz replied.
"But you don't have a cousin called Danielle…" Maddie said frowning in confusion.
Danny smiled a little. "No, I know. She just told me she was when we first met. It turns out she's actually a female clone of me, so she's more of a sibling…" Danny stopped to try and let his gaping mother recover from the information. He gave her five seconds, but as she didn't make any comment, he continued bemusedly.
"She was created by Vlad. His fruit Loop-ness has been getting progressively worse. This particular incident involved him spying on me for months to make a clone of me". "But…" Maddie finally interjected, "if he was your enemy, why was he trying to make a clone of you?"
"Ah, see, that's where the REAL craziness comes in. Vlad wanted to clone me, but he would be able to manipulate the clone. It would be his son, because I wouldn't agree to be the son he never had with you, and in perfecting the clone, he could then dispose of me. And i'm sure you could figure out the rest from there… except, he went through a lot of failed experiments before he got a good clone. Danielle was one of those experiments. He couldn't stabilize them because he didn't have a sample of my DNA 'mid-morph'. In the end, his plan failed because Danielle turned on him. The good clone was destroyed, Sam and Tuck managed to save me, and now Danielle is still running around out there somewhere. If she uses her powers too much, she'll destabilize and turn to goo, but I think she's smart enough to avoid that…"
Danny stopped his explanation, as Maddie seemed to be off in her own little world with all the information she had just absorbed. Her eyes were glazed over and staring distantly at the wall over Danny's head.
"Dude, is your mom still with us or what?" Tucker asked. Jazz waved a hand in front of her mother's eyes and Maddie seemed to snap out of it. "So… wow… Vlad is smarter than I thought… all that clone work would have taken him over a year to perfect… and you destroyed it?"
Danny stared at her incredulously. "Uh, yea, because he was trying to clone me so he could kill me and then use his clone to influence you into ditching dad and marrying him, I thought you picked up on that much…"
"No no, it's good, i'm glad you destroyed it… but… you know… thinking about it… I could probably stabilize Danielle, if you could get her here…"
Danny perked up, "you could? Really?"
Maddie smiled with a cool expression, "sweetie, anything Vlad can do, I can do better. Why do you think he liked me so much in college? Plus, i'm really quite interested to meet the female version of my half ghost son…Every mother wonders what their child would be like if they had been the opposite sex."
"Well, I don't think she'll come as much of a shock Mrs. Fenton, She likes everything Danny does…" Tucker said. "Yea, she acts like him, eats like him, has the same lame sense of humor…" Sam added. "Yea, yea, very funny, give it a rest" Danny said rolling his eyes. "Hey, we get wailing privileges for saving you and your twin's behinds" Sam retorted, which Danny had to concede with a sigh. "Save you? What was Vlad doing to you?" Maddie suddenly said, a hint of anger in her voice. Danny was not as concerned about the ordeal as she was. "Well, he kidnapped me from school, then held me captive and had to try and force me to transform so he could get a mid morph sample, because obviously I wasn't going to just oblige easily. He used a machine first, but I overloaded it. He tried to get Danielle to overshadow me and force me, but she turned on him, and then I had to use my ghostly wail to destroy the lab. But once I had, I couldn't use my powers. See, my ghostly wail is really powerful, but it totally drains me, and Danielle couldn't defend me, cause using her powers would destabilize her. It was actually perfect timing that Tucker and Sam crashed down into Vlad's lab and knocked him out."
"Yea, that was why me and Sam ditched school and busted up the specter speeder that time, and then we got back and we were in trouble for saving Danny from a maniac."
Tucker added, feeling a need for justification on the matter, even if Danielle had got them off scot-free.
Unfortunately, he did not get the apology he craved, as a loud sound downstairs announced Jack Fenton's arrival. "HONEEEY, IM BACK!" came his booming voice echoing up the stairs.
Maddie's expression changed slightly, as though she was suddenly a lot more worried at his arrival than relieved. "Would you three mind giving me and Jack some time alone with Danny?" She tried to ask the others casually, but there was something odd in her voice that Jazz couldn't explain. She supposed, as she nodded and ushered Sam and Tucker out (not before Sam threw her arms around Danny in a quick hug before she hurried off, blushing), that Her mother was contemplating how they were going to break the news to her Dad. Jazz hadn't been sure weather Maddie had said anything over the phone or wanted to tell him in person, but she was convinced Maddie would do it face to face. And it seemed, as she passed her father on the stairs, that she was right. As usual, she grinned to herself.
Danny's expression and attitude changed like his mothers the moment the others left the room. What would happen now? Would his mother tell Jack what he was? Doing so would result in him putting together the pieces, he would know what she had done to him, they had talked on the phone about it, he wasn't a complete idiot, he'd know straight away… and what would he say? Danny could just imagine it; he and Maddie would fight. Danny couldn't stand being the cause of his parents having a major row. And even though the time when he thought they were getting divorced was a complete misunderstanding, he was still extremely paranoid… and this was a whole lot more serious than his Dad forgetting their anniversary. He doubted Dad would speak to his mother if he knew she had tortured Danny and threatened to kill him.
Danny began to panic. He looked at his mother's face. She was gazing at the door, looking as nervous as Danny, but something in her expression suggested to Danny that she was steeling herself to telling him… Danny couldn't allow it… he WOULDN'T allow it.
Jack came bounding up the stairs and into Danny's room. "SON! You're alright! I knew you'd fight your way out, no ghost kidnaps a Fenton and gets away with it!" He said jovially as he picked Danny up bodily in a bone-breaking hug. Which Danny would have appreciate it did it not send his head spinning and throbbing. His standard response to such physical contact was no different than it had been about three times already. "Ooww" he breathed, screwing up his eyes against the mixed signals drumming in his head.
"Jack, be careful! He's in a delicate state!" Maddie said anxiously. Jack put Danny back on the bed with surprising gentleness. Danny clutched his spinning throbbing head and tried to steady it, once again cursing internally his weakened state. "Woops… sorry Danny… its just such a relief to have you back, and i'm sure you'll be back to your old self in no time". Jack said grinning confidently. Danny smiled weakly but sincerely. He looked up into his father's face to find a softer expression than usual… and what was more, his eyes were shinning in a way he hadn't seen since… since that time with the reality gauntlet that he'd found out about Danny's powers… but he couldn't possibly know about them now…
"So…" Jack said as he sat down on the end of Danny's bed opposite Maddie, "how DID you get back?"
Danny swallowed. Maddie took a deep breath.
"Honey, you know how… how I had the ghost boy?… And I was questioning him?"
Maddie started shakily. "Yea, you said you were using the specter stinger, But when you said Danny made it back on his own over the phone I assumed you destroyed the ghost kid." Jack answered casually, if not a little disappointed that he hadn't been there for the ghost kid's apparent destruction.
"Well… not exactly… see..."
"The Ghost Kid was helping me!" Danny piped up suddenly. Maddie looked at him, too stunned to say anything, so Danny kept going, despite the fact his father frowned at this new revelation. "Yea, he… he was trapped in the same place I was… and when he escaped, he set others free too… but we all ran different ways, and I managed to get out and hide… it was only when I was sure the guards weren't still searching that I made my way back. I convinced mom to let Phantom go because he helped me escape." Danny said, using the half lie he had told his Mother the previous night. The thought of it made him cringe inwardly, but he put on a fake grin for his dad. His Dad seemed so busy trying to comprehend that the ghost boy was responsible for saving Danny that he wouldn't have noticed if Danny had been pulling any kind of face. "Wow… and here was I thinking that ghost kid… Phantom you say? I thought he was evil… then again… I suppose he did help me that one time the Wisconsin ghost was trying to steal the portal…" Then Jack hung his head and suddenly looked concerned and aggrieved, "though perhaps it would have been best if I HAD let him… this wouldn't have happened." He sighed. Danny had not expected this. He was gaping at his father, and his mother was gaping at him. "I'm sorry Danny… its my fault this happened… I should start dismantling the ghost portal tonight…" he made to stand, not looking at Danny. Danny blinked and tried to find his voice, but his mother got there first, "You're right Jack. We've had trouble with having that portal before… we lived a dream, but the cost has been so high. I'll help you Dear. Danny, you should get some rest, and you won't have to worry about anything like this happening again…"
"NO!" Danny shouted, and both his parents stopped and looked at him, startled. Danny hadn't meant to burst out like that, but he was terrified. He knew his mother might try to tell his father the truth if they were alone… and apart from that, The Ghost portal couldn't be taken down… it just wouldn't be right… Danny wasn't sure why, but it would feel wrong… there were ghosts in there that posed a threat, sure, but there were friends in there too, friends who had helped him out of very tight spots, he couldn't just cut them off. "You can't take it down, it's been your lives work! You barely got to study it properly, there's so much you could discover in there… I don't want o deny you that, just cause I'm such a lousy ghost hunter that I couldn't fight off a couple of crazy specters!" He said, his breathing faster and just a little panicked. Jack blinked. "You're… you're sure you don't want us to take it down? But Danny… what they did to you… look what those damn filthy ghosts did to you!" His Father said, bewildered. Danny's tone became a little pleading, "Not all ghosts are bad! Phantom helped me, and the stuff i'v seen in there… you guys worked so hard to find it, and now you have it, I don't have the right to take that away from you… I just need… to learn how to defend myself… you could teach me to fight ghosts." Danny said. He couldn't quite believe what he was saying. Especially since he was the one who could teach his Dad a thing or two about ghost fighting…
"If it really means that much to you Son… then thank you…" Jack said, his face splitting into a grin as he came over and wrapped his arms around Danny again, this time tears even leaked from the corners of his eyes. His hug was surprisingly tender and Danny barely flinched. "Thanks Dad"
"And don't worry Danny, when you've recovered, I'll teach you all there is to know about ghost fighting. No ghost will even DARE come near jack Fenton's son again!" He let go of Danny and kissed a stunned Maddie on the cheek. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm just going to go grab some breakfast. I haven't eaten in two hours and I'm STARVING!" And with that he clumped his way out of the room and down the stairs.
Maddie closed the door behind him and turned to Danny, who's grin faded.
"Danny… why did you…"
"I had to Mom… it's between you and me. If anyone else finds out, if Dad knows… it'll get complicated, there'll be fights, I don't want to be the cause of all that…" He cut her off quickly, his voice low and strained, cracking again. Maddie went over to the bed. "Danny this isn't your fault! It's my fault, and I should deal with the consequences, and I…" But she couldn't finish their conversation, because Tucker and Sam returned with a pack of playing cards. Maddie bit her lip and ran a hand through Danny's hair. They exchanged a look, and Danny was at least satisfied to know it meant she wouldn't tell Jack the truth… if only for his sake, she would uphold the lie. And the thought of doing so, she had to admit, was a bit of a relief.