Valerie's phone rang roughly five minutes after she and Vlad had reached the alley. Valerie was pretty sure it was the one Jazz had come through, seeing as it was the only one nearby, and Jazz had said she'd come from the alley, and she'd pointed in this direction, so this had to be it. Of course, it didn't look any different than the last time Valerie had been in it—sometime last week when she'd needed to activate her ghost hunting gear before chasing down Phantom—but that didn't mean she wasn't missing something.

"Jasmine again?" Vlad asked as Valerie looked at her phone.

Valerie shook her head. "Tucker," she said as she flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Tucker?" Vlad repeated. "Oh, cheese logs. I thought we'd be the next ones to find something."

Valerie waved him off. "Hello?" Then, after a few seconds when she apparently received no response, Valerie continued, "Tucker? Are you there? Did you figure something out? Tuck?"

"Meet us at school," Tucker finally replied.

"What's going on? What did you guys find out?"

"Just hurry," was all Tucker said, and then the line went dead.

"Tucker said to meet them at the school," Valerie reported. "And to hurry. He didn't say why."

"Probably had the same idea I did," Vlad said sourly. "Very well. We'd best go."

"I'll call Jazz and tell her we'll pick them up. They're on the way. It'll be faster."

Vlad closed his eyes, then opened them and smiled at her. "Of course. Excellent thinking," he said, even though he didn't sound particularly happy about the idea. Valerie figured it was because of Mr. Fenton. For all that Danny's dad seemed to be Vlad's biggest supporter, Vlad seemed to find Jack more annoying than useful. On the campaign trail, at least. But since Vlad had won by a landslide, Valerie figured Jack hadn't done anything particularly bad. The worst he'd done was embarrass Danny—and probably Jazz, too.

It didn't take long to relay the message to Jazz, who had just talked to Sam. She wasn't sure what Sam and Tucker had found, either, but she and Jack had been intending to grab her car and head to the school. When Valerie had offered to give them a lift at Vlad's expense, Jazz had laughed and accepted. She'd said her father would be delighted, and from the tone of her voice, Valerie suspected she knew just how much that would annoy Vlad. Just what did Jazz and Danny have against him, anyway? It wasn't like he was the bad guy.

It didn't matter. It wasn't really her business, anyway.

It wasn't long before the four of them were at the school. Jazz had chattered to Valerie about all the things Sam and Tucker might have figured out on the way, and Jack was still talking to Vlad about ghosts and protecting Amity Park and suggesting more measures that Vlad could implement as mayor, but thankfully, Vlad ignored him. Valerie had heard a few of Jack's suggestions, and she preferred things the way they were. The one time she had been upset with Vlad was when he had implemented a long list of protocols that had made the life of every teenager in Amity Park miserable. She'd already moved to Elmerton by then, of course, but she still went to Casper High, and she'd lost her job at the Nasty Burger until the protocols had been repealed.

They found Sam and Tucker in the auditorium. "What's going on?" Valerie asked when they got there. "What did you figure out?"

"How to build a bridge," Tucker said, and the others quieted at his words, listening.

"We have to use our emotions," Sam continued. "We need to focus them, and, um…." She trailed off, looking at Tucker.

"I think it's just an emotional thing," Tucker said. "The bridge isn't physical. It's just something that can break into the reality that Danny and Mrs. Fenton are in and give them a way to get out."

"But they won't know where it is," Jazz pointed out.

"I think that as long as they have a stable path, it doesn't matter," Tucker said. "I mean, emotions are flexible, right? It ought to turn up wherever they are in time."

"But they won't know about it," Jazz said.

"Neither did you," Sam reminded her, "and you just crossed an unstable bridge that degraded the second you got back. But speaking of time, we really do need to hurry. We've got until midnight, for them."

Jack checked his watch. "It's eight."

Sam shook her head. "Past eight," she corrected. "You've been here for a while now. If your watch would've kept time, Jazz's would read the same."

"She's right," Jazz said. "We might not have a lot of time. Come on, let's just sit down and start sorting this out. If we're building a bridge from our emotions, we'll have to stop hiding them from each other."

Valerie smirked and looked over at Sam and Tucker. "So that's why Danny keeps saying Jazz is going to be a psychologist."

"She's been worse than this," Sam said bluntly. "But she's right." Sam dropped down to the floor, beside Jazz, and Tucker and Valerie joined her. Jack came next, and then Vlad, though he was clearly reluctant.

Valerie figured that after so many years of schooling his emotions to be such a great businessman, Vlad might have a bit of trouble admitting just how worried he was about the two remaining Fentons. She somehow doubted you could be family friends for that long without having such a strong connection. And that sort of connection was just what they needed.

That's what friendship was, wasn't it? Connections? Bridges between people? Bonds that tied them together? That's what they needed now, more than anything. That's how they could put things right.

Danny finished telling his mother—again—what he knew. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. He was hoping that, between the two of them, they could figure this out.

"There's one thing I don't understand," Maddie finally said. "If this wishing holds true for everyone except for you, why wasn't I taken to Danny when I wished it?"

Danny opened his mouth, hoping to come up with a good excuse. Anything was better than having her realize the truth. "Um, maybe you aren't affected, either, for some reason?"

"That's a fairly easy theory to test," Maddie said. "I wi—"

"Or maybe," Danny interrupted quickly, "it was because, um, Danny was in transit at that moment? Between here and back in the real world?"

Maddie shook her head. "He was the first one to disappear. You did find his cell phone, after all."

"He might've dropped it," Danny suggested, though the excuse sounded weak even to his ears.

Maddie sighed. "He's not as absentminded as he used to be. And he's not as clumsy, either. Where did you find it again?"

"Uh, um, well…." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "Near your house?" He cringed at the look on his mother's face. "I was scoping all of Amity Park, so I was kind of in the neighbourhood. It was the first out-of-place thing I found." He really, really hoped Maddie didn't call his bluff now. He had been scoping Amity Park, yes, and looking for signs of life, but he'd had his cell phone until he'd dropped it and his dad had picked it up after Jazz had disappeared.

"So you picked it up because it looked out of place?"

"I was going to return it once I found out for sure whose it was."

"But why?"

"Because someone lost it," Danny said slowly, not sure what she was getting at, "and returning it is the right thing to do."

Silence.

Then, "You honestly believe that?"

Coming from his mother, that was a surprising question. She'd drilled that into him and Jazz since they were little. "Yeah."

"But ghosts don't have morals."

Oh. That explained it. "Okay, I'll admit some of them really don't seem like they do," Danny allowed, "but I do. Not all ghosts are evil, you know."

A chuckle. "You've done some pretty bad things in the past, Phantom. Not everyone is going to forgive and forget those incidents as easily as others."

"I can explain. I can explain all of them. The mayor thing? I was framed by another ghost, Walker. He runs the jail in the Ghost Zone. This part of the Ghost Zone, at least. I don't know how many others there are. And the robberies weren't really my fault, either. I was being controlled. And Christmas wasn't, well…." He trailed off. "I mean, I'll admit I've done a few stupid things that are my own fault, but nothing that bad, and I can guarantee that I've learned more than a few lessons."

Maddie looked unconvinced, but at least she didn't challenge him—and he'd managed to suitably distract her from the whole wishing thing, which was a plus. "You still fight us."

"I defend myself," Danny corrected, "until I can get away. Today aside, have I hurt any of you? I haven't even hit the Red Huntress, and she tracks me down a lot more often than you two do." He sighed. "If I'd wanted to escape," he said, pointing at the Ecto-Entrapper, "I could've blasted that thing to bits. You wanted to know what it does? It causes confusion, but it's temporary. It just sort of fogs your brain, like you haven't slept in days, and it takes you longer to work everything out, so you've got a slower reaction time. But it doesn't last very long."

"Then why didn't you escape if you could?"

"Because I didn't need to. I just wanted to talk, without having you pointing weapons at me. And we are." He started fiddling with his hands again. "But I figured you might want to know that that invention doesn't work. It's new, right? I haven't seen it before. But if you tried it on a really powerful ghost, it wouldn't do much to slow it down. It probably wouldn't even keep Plasmius in one place for five minutes."

Not to mention, he was allergic to it. Or something. Whatever effect it was supposed to have, it had gotten him stuck in his ghost form. He realized that now. Whatever mix of chemicals was in that thing had drawn out his ghost half and made it stick—like it was supposed to, apparently. And that had only been, what, two doses of it? He couldn't remember. But since it still hadn't worn off—and probably wouldn't for a while longer, since Maddie had used it again—he didn't want to risk having his parents try to use it on a regular basis in case he got caught in a situation like this again.

He needed this one to go into the failed inventions box, not back to the drawing board.

"Why tell me?" Maddie asked. "Isn't it to your advantage if we try to use a faulty weapon?"

"I don't want you to get hurt," Danny answered honestly. He wrinkled his nose then and added, "Besides, it makes me sneeze."

For the first time in his presence, Maddie actually laughed. It was real laughter, not just the hysterics of before. "You remind me of my son."

The smile that had been growing on Danny's face froze and faltered. "I…I do?"

"He gets that same look on his face," Maddie explained, still smiling to herself.

Danny didn't know what to say to that, so he didn't say anything at all. He had a bad feeling that if he did try saying anything, it would just make the situation worse. It was far better to just keep a smile plastered on his face and be glad that she hadn't started shooting at him again. Yet.

"Do you really think they're safe, Phantom?" Maddie asked after a moment. "Danny and Jazz and Jack and everyone else?"

Danny nodded. "I'm pretty sure that whoever did this wanted to make my life miserable, not theirs."

"Your afterlife, you mean," Maddie corrected absently. "But then who was your enemy in this? I never saw you battling anyone."

Danny stared at her blankly. He couldn't believe she couldn't see it. But then again, this was the most civil conversation he'd ever had with his mother when he was Danny Phantom. She wasn't used to seeing things like this.

"It was you," he said eventually, once it became painfully clear that she was still waiting for an answer. "You and Jack. You were hunting me. I was supposed to fight you."

Maddie looked troubled by that news. "But you didn't. Not until…. Not until I forced you to." Danny didn't bother confirming that, and after a few seconds, she added, "But why us? You said yourself that the Red Huntress hunts you more often. Why not her?"

Because you're my family. But Danny couldn't say it. Instead, he just said, "I don't know. You have more experience than she does. That might be why." He traced a few circles on the floor with one finger, then added, "And the Red Huntress and I have called truces before when things have gotten bad. We've worked together to defeat a common enemy. Whoever set this up probably knew that and figured we'd do it again."

"And that wasn't going to happen with us," Maddie realized.

Danny looked up at his mother, peering at her between strands of snow white hair. "You usually shoot first and ask questions never." He straightened up a bit and met her gaze again. "What changed? I've been trying to get you to talk without shooting me for, I dunno, hours now. Why'd you finally listen to me? Even after you pulled out the Ecto-Entrapper, you still had a weapon trained on me. I figured you were going to blast me then and there."

Maddie frowned. "I never told you the name of the Ecto-Entrapper."

Oops. "Um, I sort of overheard Jack talking about it earlier, when I thought I might have to fight the Box Ghost. I figured this was probably it." He waved that off. "It doesn't matter. My question still stands. What changed?"

Maddie was quiet for a moment. "I realized you were telling the truth. When you said you'd tried to get into the Ghost Zone five times, I mean. Jack and I had been tracking you, and you dropped off the radar five times."

Oh. Well, that explained it. "That means I'm still fair game if we get out of this, doesn't it?"

The corners of Maddie's lips twitched. "I'm a scientist. I need to study something if I expect to get answers."

As if asking questions never got her answers…. But Danny didn't bother saying that. He hadn't really expected anything else. That's how it was with Valerie, after all. A truce until the bad time was over, and once everything was back to normal, the hunt was back on, because that was normal.

He could deal with that, though. Even if it would've been nice to get his family off his back. And a lot easier if he ever ended up in a situation where he had to tell them his secret, or they figured it out, or something. But as it was, well, yeah, this was okay for now. His dad's aim was still horrendous, and maybe if his mother was ever tracking him down on her own, he could suggest a quick conversation rather than a quick battle.

Anything to save him from being strapped to that table again.

"It's a funny thing, Phantom," Maddie commented. "I didn't think I'd see the day when a ghost would tell me the truth. The whole truth, at any rate."

Well, the whole half of the whole truth, anyway. "Just because I'm a ghost, it doesn't mean that every word out of my mouth is a lie."

"Ghosts lie to save themselves and to trick us," Maddie said simply. "It's part of their devious nature."

"Gee, thanks," Danny said sarcastically. "But did it ever occur to you that you might be wrong? I'm not evil at my core, Maddie. I'm trying to be good. I just, I dunno, I thought that maybe, because you finally agreed to talk to me, that you might've…." He trailed off. "Well, that you might've seen a bit more of my true nature instead of only what you assume is my true nature, since I'm a ghost." His mother looked surprised, maybe because he'd challenged her, and he took the time to form a bit more ice in his hand and offered it to her instead, just to change the subject. "How's your head?"

She looked doubtfully at the ice in his hand and then took it. "Better than it would have been," she admitted, pulling a Fenton Handkerchief out of her pocket in which to wrap the ice before holding it to her head.

Now she was avoiding his gaze, and it was a moment before Danny realized why. She was having second thoughts about the whole 'all ghosts were evil' thing. He wasn't sure if it was temporary or not—probably was, until she gathered more evidence—but if he could even get her to admit that he wasn't evil, then that would be a definite improvement.

Then again, considering it was his mom, maybe he should settle for 'not evil at the moment' or 'not always evil' or something. His parents were pretty stuck in their ways. Not that he could really blame them. They hadn't met too many of the good ghosts, or if they had, it had just been on off-days. But considering that they hadn't even seen a ghost until they'd gotten the Fenton Ghost Portal up and running—thanks to him—well, maybe he could sort of understand where they were coming from. A bit. But it was just ignorance on their part, really, which was funny, because they were scientists and inventors and were supposed to be studying stuff to learn.

Except, well, that's what they were doing. That's what his mom had tried with him in the lab. It just didn't bother her because she didn't think, she didn't know, she didn't realize that a ghost wasn't only what she thought it was. Well, he was pretty sure a few were just ghosts and always had been, but there were definitely others who had once been human. Or, in Cujo's case, dogs. But they still had feelings, and not just anger and a thirst for vengeance and stuff like that.

"I suppose," Maddie said at length, "that I'd always thought you had already shown your true colours."

"You're thinking about the time with the mayor, aren't you? I'm telling you, I was framed."

"Perhaps." Maddie finally looked back at him. "But with only your word to go on, I'll never really know." She stopped for a moment, then said, "With humans, when they're put in difficult situations, in trying circumstances, that's when their true nature surfaces. The devious ones, the helpful ones, the self-serving or the sacrificing, and everything in between."

"And with ghosts?" Danny prompted when she didn't say anything for a while.

"I don't know. If they all tried to model humans as closely as you, I'd say we could see their true colours if they were ever faced with a similar situation."

"So you're admitting that you don't think I'm evil through and through?"

Maddie didn't say anything for a moment. Then, "You attacked me."

Oh, great. She was going back to that. He lost control for one minute, and—

But maybe she wasn't far off the mark, if he thought about Dan. Maybe it was only his human half that kept him from going evil. Maybe— No, no, no, he wasn't going to think like that. He was good. He hadn't chosen that path. And half the evil that made up Dan came from Vlad, anyway. "Not intentionally. It was self defence, sort of. Like a kind of instinct that kicked in."

Maddie gave him a small smile. "And then you helped me," she added quietly. "You're of two natures, Phantom. That's what I've realized."

Danny stared at her. That was…a bit more accurate of an assessment than he'd expected her to come up with. Not that she knew that, of course. But still. It was weird. Maybe his mother was more intuitive than he'd thought; for all that she hadn't realized that there was a ghost living under the roof of her house, she couldn't have come up with a better way to describe him without knowing the truth.

"Thanks," he finally said. It was better than her thinking he was completely evil. It was an improvement; he wasn't going to try to go one better yet. If that were even possible without her knowing his secret, it would definitely take time.

"But I have to say," Maddie continued, "I do wish that the two of us were safely back home."

And before Danny could open his mouth to warn his mom, to tell her to stop, she was gone.

A/N: So, we're just down to Danny now. It took me a while, didn't it? Sorry about that. Anyway, many thanks to everyone who had been taking the time to read and review.