Chapter 7

Danny followed his mother inside their temporary home as the sun hung low in the sky, giving the unfamiliar furniture an orange glow.

"Shoot, I forgot we haven't gone grocery shopping," Maddie said as she flicked on the living room lights.

"I wanted to go out for a fly around town anyway," Danny admitted, shutting the door behind himself. He pulled the key card, passport, and keys from his pocket to put on the table by the door and added, "I could pick us up something."

"You sure you won't get seen?" Maddie asked, turning as she dropped the book bag in a kitchen chair.

"I'll be fine," Danny said, turning invisible to prove his point. Returning to the light spectrum he asked, "What'cha want?"

"Chinese?" Maddie suggested. "Pork lo mein."

Danny nodded his head, about to feel for his ghost core to change when Maddie said, "Hang on." He turned his attention back to her as she stepped over to him with her credit card in her hand. "Take this. NASA's reimbursing us."

Danny took the card and put it in his pocket as he asked, "Does that mean I can get some dumplings too?"

Maddie opened her mouth, as if about to deny him, only to pause. She smiled and instead said, "Sure. Just don't take too long."

"No problem," Danny said, letting the lights change him to Phantom. He floated up into the air, bending a knee, as he let out a laugh. "I'm hungry too." He turned invisible and floated through the ceiling, passing an empty attic before making it out into the twilight sky. He floated above the tree line, not remembering them passing any food on the way in. He turned north, avoiding the large fire ball just below the horizon, and could make out the start of light pollution bouncing against the sky.

Heading towards it, he checked the ground below himself and used the streets to help him remember where the red roofed house sat. He thought back, trying to remember if he had had his ghost powers the last trip he had taken where his family stayed in a hotel or something similar, but realized the closest would've been at Vlad's for his parent's college reunion. He didn't really count that, since he didn't leave the mansion.

His phone let out a buzz, getting him to remember the device he had turned to vibrate. He pulled it out of his pocket and turned it visible to see he had missed a few calls, but Sam's call was the most important. Flicking it open he returned it to being invisible and put it to his ear. "Hey Sam."

"Hey Danny, how'd your first day go?" Sam's voice asked with a layer of static as his phone fought with the long distance.

"Had a CAT scan, any other tests I can have that are abbreviated CAT?" Danny asked with a laugh. He got close enough to what looked like a main road and asked, "Hey, can you get to your computer?"

"Sure, what do you need? Remember, I'm not Tucker."

"I just need you to look up if there's Chinese food around me," Danny admitted, realizing the road he had been following spat him out in the middle of the main road.

"You're gonna have to give me street names," Sam pointed out. "All I know is you're in Sandusky."

"Hang on." Danny flew down to the intersection at the end of his street, floating in front of a light, and said, "I'm on West 220 Street and Lorain Road."

"And you're looking for Chinese?"

"Mom wants lo mein." Danny floated back to rest in a lounged position above the night traffic as he looked around at the shops he could see from the light. "Hey, there's a cute little ice cream place here," he said as he took in the small building.

A laugh came from the phone's speaker, getting Danny to quickly ask, "What?"

"Nothing. You're adorable, Danny," Sam said, making Danny's face feel hot. "There's a Chinese place just next to you. Go east from that light and it's in the shopping center with the Giant Eagle. You'll probably see the Blockbuster before the grocery store."

Danny flew in the direction she said to, noticing the video store first. He flew along the sidewalk into the shopping center and found the Chinese restaurant she was leading him to. "Thanks Sam," Danny offered as he flew up and around the strangely shaped shopping center. Dropping to the ground in a corner in the back, he gave a glance around himself before changing back to Fenton and becoming visible once more. "Hey, I've gotta question," Danny started as he headed towards the end by the gas station at the light.

Sam let out a sound, it almost lost under the phone's static.

"Do you keep a diary?"

"Not really," Sam admitted. "With our lives, I probably should but I never felt like I could write it all down, you know. Even thought about doing one on my laptop, but, well, I've hung around Tucker long enough to know that's not safe either."

"Says the one who has hacked into my laptop," Danny retorted with a laugh. A moment passed as he rounded the corner to start seeing the side of the strangely unmarked end part of the shopping center before he said, "Jazz thought I should start keeping one. She gave me a notebook to start one up while I was here."

"It might be good for you," Sam offered. "Your sister's a try-hard sometimes, but she knows what's best."

"As long as she's not fighting ghosts," Danny said.

"She's gotten a lot better," Sam pointed out. "Sure, I put her right above your dad and the new Bug and Ghost Pest Exterminators, but she used to be next to your dad."

"Speaking of, any ghosts?" Danny asked, stepping up onto the sidewalk as the street side of the building came into view. He rounded the corner and followed the sidewalk under an awning as he took in the area.

"Not really," Sam threw off. "I found a ghost snake that was kinda cute, Valerie caught a hippo."

"Normal one, right?" Danny checked, remembering the last ghost hippo he had seen was part bison.

"Yeah, normal." Sam paused a moment before adding, "Eldeah did really well around the house. Mom's not happy but when is she ever? She's back in the Ghost Zone now – Eldeah, not my mom."

Danny let out a laugh, already imagining Pamela Manson in the Ghost Zone.

"Oh, and Tucker took a look at Valerie's suit," Sam offered. "He reprogrammed her version of the Fenton Thermos to just hold onto the ghosts so she could decide where the ghost went after she caught it. Her suit's amazing by the way. I didn't realize she had as much control over it as she does."

"Let her know she can train with me if she wants," Danny said. His mind thought back to almost a month ago when he last saw her put on her suit. Lowering his voice as he passed a couple leaving a shop he added, "Sam, I think she's got ecto-energy in her."

"Well, her suit was from Technus, right?" Not waiting for a response, Sam said, "The suit grows on her as well, and not like the Fenton Peeler does."

"I was next to her when her suit activated and it almost got my ghost sense up," Danny admitted, stopping Sam. "I've never had something with just ecto-contamination do that."

"What, like it was forming but never released?" Sam asked.

"I guess?" Danny shrugged, knowing she couldn't see as he gave a glance to the Blockbuster as he passed. "But the feeling was quick. Like once her suit was formed, it stopped acting like a ghost was near or something."

"Weird."

Danny walked in silence, rounding the corner with his phone still at his ear as a group of teens came up from the parking lot to the store he was about to pass. He paused, letting them pass him, before continuing down the sidewalk.

Sam let out a snicker before saying, "Hey, there's a Danny-Boy Pizza close to you."

"I hate that song," Danny grumbled, a part of him wishing his father didn't call him that.

"Have you ever thought about going by your full name?" Sam asked.

"What do you think, Samantha?" Danny asked with a pointed smile at saying her full name.

"With everything I've been doing this summer, more people are calling me by that name," Sam admitted. "It's still too American Girl for me."

Danny let out a laugh, remembering when he had found out her parents had named her after the American Girl Doll. He checked the shops as he passed them only to turn at the bend and find the Chinese restaurant. "Hey, I've gotta go order dinner." He smiled as he came to a stop beside a brick pillar and admitted, "I miss you."

"I miss you, too."

Danny flicked close the phone and shoved it in his pocket as he turned to go inside the small shop. Stepping inside, a part of him wanted to believe he had stepped into the Chinese restaurant back in Amity Park, but instead of it being a girl younger than himself at the register it was an older man. He put in the order for his mom's lo mein and his treat of dumplings before adding his beef chow mein fun. He paid for their food and was told it would take about fifteen minutes, getting him to turn around and find a seat in the empty restaurant. As he sat down in a lone chair by the door his phone gave out another buzz. He shifted so he could pull his phone from his pocket and flicked it open.

"Yeah?"

"Any luck?" Maddie's voice asked, her voice also carrying the same static.

"Yeah, I'm waiting on it now," Danny said. "How come there's still static? I thought you said it'd be fine to call my friends, but you're just down the street."

"The phone's still trying to use their normal towers," Maddie explained. "We're 812 numbers so the phone doesn't think it's long distance, but it kinda is."

"Weird."

"You know a lot about all of Vlad's stuff, don't you?" Maddie asked, showing the reason she had called.

"I guess."

"Do you know who Alexander Trevathan might be?"

"Alexander…" Danny pulled a face as he turned to look out the store front. "Name doesn't sound familiar. Who is it?"

"I don't know, but an Alexander and Tracy Trevathan are going to be the new owners of a lot of properties." Maddie paused a moment before she let out a sound that almost got lost to the static.

"What?"

"You're old enough," Maddie said more to herself. "Apparently Vlad had an illegitimate child."

"With Vlad?" Danny asked, internally cringing. "And that's who Alexander is?"

Maddie made a sound of confirmation as papers flipped in the background. "Axion Labs go to Damon and Valerie. We, specifically me and you, receive any and all ghost related technology and anything ecto powered that Vlad did outside of Axion Labs, Jazz receives the library, and all remaining properties go to Alexander as well as the title of Dairy King. There's a list that goes into extreme detail but that's the gist of it all."

"Well, whoever he is, hope he likes cheese," Danny joked only for his mind to catch hold of something. "Wait, you said he was Vlad's kid, right?" Danny checked, half stalling for time as his mind fought against the ideas.

"Yes."

"Does it say how old he is?"

"Hang on, I saw everyone's birthday somewhere," Maddie said as she dug through papers.

Danny watched as a group of three teens walked pass the Chinese restaurant, the taller one laughing as the girl turned towards the window to hide her blush from her friends, a pout on her face.

"Here it is, Alexander was born September fifth, nineteen ninety-two," Maddie informed. "He's two years younger than you."

"So he did keep his family line going," Danny said, remembering a comment his mother had made. "But he also kept his other self going as well. That was well pass the accident."

"Oh, would that…" Maddie stopped herself before asking, "Could that be turned into a hereditary thing?"

"It will for my kids," Danny retorted.

"Your kids?"

"Lo mein, chow mein fun, dumplings," the older man called out as he pulled a plastic bag onto the counter to put the stabled paper bag into.

"Hang on, dinner's ready," Danny said as he jumped to his feet.

"Get chopsticks and duck sauce," Maddie's voice called out as he lowered the phone.

"Can I get some duck sauce and two sets of chopsticks?" Danny asked, holding up two fingers. The old man nodded his head and put the requested items in the plastic bag, giving Danny a polite bow.

Danny took the bag's handles, wishing he had listened to Sam about learning basic phrases in other languages, and offered, "Thank you." He turned to leave and put the phone back to his ear, noticing the sun had completely set now. "Hey, I'm on my way home now," he said, only realizing after he had opened his mouth she had been saying something about ecto-contamination. "Sorry," he tried, not sure if she was talking to only herself or someone else. Though who else would she be talking to, Danny thought.

"No," Maddie said, dismissing his apology. "Fly safe."

Danny smiled at her new phrase for him as he headed back for the back of the strip mall. "Will do."

AN: I spent a day researching my memories against google and couldn't find anything but I remember, back in high school, on the phone with my boyfriend at the time. He was down with his father two states away but had the same area code on his cell as I did (shoot, he paid for both of our cells because he was scared of my mother, me having no way of calling for help). Whenever we'd talk while he was down there, there would be this awfully thick static in the call and I vaguely remember it being because the phone still tried to act like it was in the area even though it wasn't. Of course we don't have that problem now. My fiancé's phone's a west coast number while we live on the east coast and no one would know unless they paid attention to the area code. A lot change with technology in 20 years.