A/N: Sorry, this took a little longer than expected due to much playing with my niece, nephew, and cousin-once-removed during vacation. Yay for cute baby overload! Also, you guys finally get the (mostly) full story about what happened to make Danny leave Amity Park.
Playlist for this chapter: "So Far Away" by Staind, "Photograph" by Nickelback, and "Look Away" by Thousand Foot Krutch.
Enjoy!
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Hotch took over before anyone could panic. "Morgan, Reid, Valerie, which way out is quickest?"
All three thought back. "The left side door," Val replied, pointing. "He would've kept Maddie closest to an escape route since she's the only one he cared about."
The six Amity Parkers (along with Danielle) rolled their eyes at Vlad's predictability. Hotch merely nodded. "Let's go, then."
"Wait."
Everyone turned to look at Danny. He blushed slightly. "W—What about the clones?"
Danielle bit her lip before shaking her head. "We can't get to them, Danny."
Danny turned to her, eyes wide. "B—But we—we could phase them out—"
His clone was blinking back tears as she shook her head again. "W—We can't. I—I tried, and th—that's what started the timer!"
"B—But—"
Reid and Hotch hung back, motioning for the others to leave. Danielle was the last out, whispering, "I'm sorry, Danny," as she left.
Danny glanced over at the two BAU agents. "We—We have to help them!"
"We don't have time," Reid replied, not quite able to look Danny in the eyes. "Plus, we wouldn't be able to get them out without blowing ourselves up."
Danny gaped at them. "So, we're just going to let them die?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Hotch stated as he and Reid each took a side to help Danny hobble out of the room. "There's no way for us to get them out, phasing obviously didn't work, and from what Danielle and Valerie told us, they'd be unable to function on their own. And, they technically don't exist."
"Technically, neither does Dani," the teen hissed back, eyes glowing a bright green.
"Yes," Reid admitted, "but she was given the capability to think and act on her own. The clones could mimic things they heard, but they'd never have the ability to communicate beyond echoing someone."
"But—"
"No time," Hotch interrupted, "we have less than a minute to get out that door." He nodded to the exit, which still stood a long ways off.
Danny bit his lip, pausing mid-step and causing both Hotch and Reid to stop as well. Before they could start to worry, Danny transformed, grabbing the two and flying as fast as he could to the door. They had just gotten out and were heading over to meet up with the group that stood about twenty yards away when the warehouse behind them exploded.
Danny lost his grip on Hotch and Reid as they were pushed forward and thrown to the ground. Luckily, Hotch and Reid only dropped a few feet since Danny had been flying close to the ground, but Danny himself rolled to a stop after his rough, forced landing. He changed back as he sat up, holding his head and arm and wincing again.
Jazz and Sam knelt by Danny immediately, checking him over for any new injuries. He chuckled at their worry, saying, "I'm fine, guys, really." He stared for a moment at the demolished and still burning building. "...He's really gone," he murmured. "After all that, he's… he's gone…." Then, he sighed. "And everyone in Amity Park still believes him."
The five former hostages and two teenage rescuers shared a glance, worried for Danny. Before any of them could comfort him, though, Rossi stated, "C'mon, we should get you all checked into a hospital." He quirked an eyebrow at Danny, who suddenly wouldn't make eye contact. "After all, I'm sure they'll be wondering where their corpse wandered off to."
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It took only a few minutes for the team and hostages to get checked over. Even Valerie and Danielle were in and out.
Danny, however, had been forced to stay overnight for observation. When he tried to complain, Reid simply told him, "That's what you get for stopping your heart while in a hospital."
Garcia had rushed to the hospital as soon as she heard they were there. She spent the first half hour making sure all her G-Men-and-Ladies were okay, and the next hour was devoted to guilting Danny's doctor into allowing visitors in. Once that was accomplished, she happily introduced herself to Danny's friends and family. The two friends, Sam and Tucker, were highly amused when she called herself the Oracle of Quantico, and she cheerfully spent another hour discussing firewalls and counter-hacks with Tucker while the others visited with Danny. Finally, a full two and a half hours after she'd arrived, Garcia went in with Reid to see the half ghost.
The teen, however, had long since lost his patience for being in the hospital. "C'mon, Reid, you know I'm fine! Or, I will be in a week or so. There's no point in me staying here!" He winced and phased a hand into his cast to scratch his arm.
Reid frowned at him. "You know they need to make sure you don't 'die' on them again. And no scratching. You'll have to suffer through like everyone else."
Danny scowled, but didn't argue.
Garcia came up next to him, sitting in the chair beside him. "So, I guess you'll be heading back to Amity Park with your family pretty soon, right?" she asked, grinning sadly at him.
"Um," he wouldn't quite meet their eyes, "actually, I was hoping I'd have a place here for a little while longer."
Reid and Garcia blinked at him in shock. "Wha—B—But I thought you'd want to go home as soon as you could!" Reid stammered. "N—Not that we w—want you to leave, b—but, well, that is your home, even though you're welcome here—"
"Reid."
Reid's rambling stumbled to a stop as he glanced at the chuckling teen.
"Even if I was leaving, I wouldn't just forget you guys. Besides, I talked with my parents, and we all decided it'd be best if I stayed here while they did damage control at home."
"Damage control?" Garcia echoed. "Why would they need to do damage control?"
Danny didn't respond for a moment, instead staring down at his hands. Finally, "B—Before I left," he murmured, "Vlad made sure everyone knew my ghost half had killed my family and friends. Then, he told them I was Danny Phantom."
Reid's brow furrowed. "They can't have believed him. He had no proof!"
"He didn't need any proof, Reid," the teen said flatly.
"No one would believe such a crazy—"
"He forced me to change in front of a camera."
Reid and Garcia stared in shock at Danny as he began explaining why he left Amity Park in the first place.
"He staged the whole thing to make it seem like I was the bad guy. I should've realized what he was doing, he'd done it before, and—" Danny cut himself off with a strangled growl as his hands fisted into the sheets on his bed. Garcia patted his unbroken hand, smiling reassuringly at him.
"He got what was coming to him, Danny," she stated. "I'm not a fan of the blood and guts part of this job, but even I know he had to be stopped by any means. He can't hurt you or your family any more."
It took a moment for Danny to absorb all that, but when he did, he grinned weakly at her. "Thanks, Garcia."
She squeezed his hand. "No problem, my fellow energy drink addict."
Danny sighed, then continued his story. "He leaked the tape to the press. Within an hour, it was on every station, television and radio. Everyone knew, and I tried to hole myself up in the OpCenter to avoid the angry mob that formed outside the house."
"OpCenter?" Reid asked.
"Operations Center," both Garcia and Danny replied before staring at each other in shock.
Danny recovered first. "Hacker thing?"
"Yeah, it's what we call the base of operations. What about you?"
"It's what Mom and Dad call the huge satellite-like thing on our roof. It functions as a second lab, security center, and can turn into a blimp or jet once it disconnects from the house."
"Woah," both agents gaped.
Danny chuckled lightly at their expressions. "Yeah, I've got a weird family. Anyway, I couldn't stay up there and the mob had begun to break into the house when Vlad called a town meeting." At Reid and Garcia's blank stares, he added, "Vlad was the mayor at the time."
The teen had to stop for a moment, gathering his thoughts and courage. He closed his eyes, breathing as deeply as he could manage. Finally, he opened his eyes and sighed again. "He got them all thinking I killed everyone. I couldn't leave the house, I couldn't get to any food, and it eventually got to the point where they were vandalizing the house. I barely got out one night when they tossed a torch into the living room. The couch caught on fire, along with the curtains and part of the carpet. I snuck out before the fire trucks came, but I stayed close enough to make sure they stopped the fire.
"Then, Vlad caught me while I was out."
The two FBI agents were speechless, just watching as Danny finally told the full story of the trauma he'd kept bottled up for two years. "He threatened to kill Sam and Tuck, and at that point, I didn't even know my family was still alive and it was clones that Amity Park thought I'd killed. He told me my friends would die if I stayed there, and since my family was gone and the town all knew and no one trusted me—"
"You didn't see any other choice," Reid finished for Danny, who simply nodded.
Needless to say, the boy was shocked when Garcia grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug. He tensed for a moment before relaxing and letting her coddle him. It only took a few short minutes for him to fall asleep from physical and emotional exhaustion.
Garcia held him for a few more minutes before leaning him back on the bed and tucking him in. She glanced over at Reid, saying only, "He needs to sleep. Anything else can wait until he's out of here."
Reid took one look at the teen before agreeing.
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Danny very happily was allowed to leave the hospital the next day. The doctors made up some excuse for his supposed "death" and let him go with instructions to stay off his sprained ankle for a few weeks and to come back in a month and a half to get his cast taken off. They also gave detailed instructions to Reid on how to care for the cuts and stab wounds on Danny's arm, chest, and back.
All thirteen of the hostages and rescuers were waiting for Reid and Danny when they got back to the FBI office. They had a cake and balloons all set up for a huge party. When Reid asked them all for the reasoning, Jack and Maddie just grinned, saying they wanted to make up for the two years' worth of birthdays and holidays they'd missed. Garcia added that they all deserved a party for a job well done.
The BAU team found themselves just watching as Danny celebrated with his family. They chuckled as the six teens played pranks on each other and the parents continuously hugged or kissed Danny, much to his embarrassment. Hotch and Rossi both grinned when the teens pulled the younger agents into their prank-off, which meant pure mayhem as the agents (Morgan) got competitive. The kids declared war and teamed up against Morgan before deciding that they'd done enough pranking for one day. The exhausted teens collapsed onto a nearby couch, Tucker slinging an arm each around Sam and Danny's shoulders as he teased them and Val, Danielle, and Jazz giggled, squeezing in on the ends.
Maddie and Jack spoke for a few minutes before splitting up, the latter heading back for more cake and the former moving towards the BAU team. She grinned at them all. "Thank you all, so much, for helping Danny during all this mess."
Hotch nodded as the rest smiled at her. "It was no trouble, ma'am."
"Please, Maddie is fine. And if I know my son, I'm sure he didn't mean to be trouble, but trouble followed him anyway." She smiled wryly. "You all spent the past week helping a half-ghost teen save his friends and family from a psychopath. You don't need to sugarcoat things for us." She glanced over at Danny and his friends. "Any of us."
"Is there any particular reason you wanted to talk to us, Maddie?" Rossi asked.
Maddie tore her attention away from the kids and back to the team. "Yes. I'd like to ask you all to watch over Danny for a little while longer."
All but Reid and Garcia were shocked. "We thought he was going back to Amity Park with the rest of you," Morgan said, confused.
"He can't come back just yet." She spared another quick glance at her son. "We have to do some damage control before he can. But I spoke with my brother last night, and he'll be moving to the States soon. He'll take Danny in once he arrives, but until then—"
"Danny can stay with me," Reid declared immediately.
The rest of the team blinked at him before Garcia grinned. "And when you're on a case, he can stick with me!"
Morgan recovered first, shrugging. "Clooney'd like the extra attention when I'm not around." At Maddie's confused look, he added, "Clooney's my dog."
Maddie smiled. "Danny's always wanted a dog. And thank you all, again, for everything you've done to help Danny." She glanced back at Danny as he laughed at something Tucker said. His laugh was different, though, quieter, and she knew it was due to the past two years. But she'd seen him with the team. "You all will be good for him, after all he's been through. If he came back now, as he is, all anyone will notice is how different he is. He needs time to adjust and process everything that's happened. And, he wouldn't tell us what Vlad did to him." Maddie sighed, turning back to the team. "I know it had to be bad, but he's—he doesn't like bringing us into his problems, so he won't let us help him."
"And you think he'll let us help," JJ finished for her.
Maddie sighed, grinning sadly once more. "I can only hope."
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The Fentons, Sam, and Tucker stayed only a few days. Tickets were ordered immediately after the party for the five hostages as well as Valerie and Danielle. After only a day with the clone, the Fentons had fallen in love, deciding to take her in and claim they'd adopted her to anyone who might ask back in Amity Park. Danielle had been overwhelmed at the idea of a real family and spent the past few days getting to really know the Fentons.
But now, the whole group found themselves at the airport, bidding farewell to the seven Amity Parkers. The BAU team hung back as Danny hugged his parents and sister and joked with his friends and clone. Danielle couldn't stop smiling as she nearly tackled her "brother," thanking him for letting her become part of his family.
He grinned at her, simply stating, "Our family, Dani."
She bit back tears as she followed the Fentons and Valerie to the boarding line, waving at him while walking sideways, dragged along by Valerie.
Danny turned to Tuck and Sam, his grin turning a little sad. Their faces mirrored his for only a moment before Tucker tagged him on the arm.
"Quit looking so down, man," he said, smirking at the two. "It's not like we'll never see each other again! Besides, Garcia's got Skype, right?"
Danny chuckled. "Yeah. Thanks, Tuck."
"No problem, man." They bumped fists, then Tuck headed to join the others.
Sam and Danny just shifted nervously for a while before Sam glanced up at him, grinning shyly. "I'll call everyday, Danny, so you'd better pick up."
He smiled back, hugging her. "I'll be waiting by the phone." He pulled away, locking eyes with her. "Stay safe, okay? All of you."
She leaned up to kiss him on the cheek before stating, "You, too, Danny." Then she, too, left for boarding. The group all waved once more before disappearing down the boarding ramp.
Danny raised a hand to his cheek, eyes wide. Reid came over to him, slightly confused.
"You just let her go," he said. "I thought she was your obsession?"
"She is," Danny answered simply. "But her family needs her more than I do right now. I couldn't keep her here when she should be with them." Then, Danny smiled. "Besides, I'll be talking to her each day on the phone or Skype."
Reid grinned at him, and the whole group headed back to their cars.
It wasn't until they'd left that Reid remembered they'd never found out why Maddie and Danny knew Russian.
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A/N: LONGEST CHAPTER YET! Anyways, obviously there will be an epilogue, which will have a lovely lead-in to the sequel. That should be up before the end of the month, depending on what happens with my second vacation/getting ready for school to start again. Yay, school…. Read and review, please!