A/N: So, in the last chapter, I said it was the Addlesons that found Danny. I've changed this; it was the Lefevres. So there's that edit. Also, I've added a sketch sheet of Danny to my deviantart, as well as a better sketch of Ghost Writer. One of these days, I WILL do traditional artwork of them. I don't like my digital work so much. L Anyway, links are on my profile. Enjoy!

Chapter #6: John Lefevre

"So this is how you do it. How you sing about events you shouldn't know happened," John Lefevre muses, stroking his white beard.

"You can't move on until after your wake, so why not?" Phantom smiles, sitting across from the ghostly patriarch of the Lefevre family. The house is empty, with all other inhabitants out and about, planning the funeral or working.

"I suppose I agree," he nods, leaning forward, "So what kind of stories do you want?"

"Anything you want, whatever had the most impact on you. Anything that taught you something you want your children to remember…" he's vaguely aware of his other half at the factory, moving an assistant – the latest one, they never last long – out of the way as his parents test some sort of firearm.

He's told them to take those types of tests outside.

His other half repeats it.

"Well…" Mr. Lefevre begins, "As for what I want to tell Ben…I never want him to forget his soft heart. That it isn't a weakness. I remember this one time, when he found a little baby bat that had fallen from the eaves of the house. It was soaked to the bone, couldn't quite fly," he laughs, "Ben carried it inside, wrapped it in a towel, and sat with it by the fireplace. He nursed and nursed it, but…it didn't make it. He was devastated, he cried his nine-year-old eyes out. Sabrina teased him about it, but I thought it was a good thing, being able to cry. I don't want him to lose that gentleness."

"Are you okay?" Worried brown eyes scan his face, "Danny? You need to eat. Please?"

"I'm not hungry, Ben," Danny replies, huddled against the wall.

"I'm not leaving until you eat," he sits stubbornly on the floor, a childish pout on his face that's unfitting for a sixteen-year-old boy.

"Get lost, Ben. Just leave it on the table. I'll get to it when I'm hungry."

"You're thin as a rail, Danny. You've been missing for three weeks. You nearly froze to death in that water. Just start with the crackers, and then maybe you'll want the soup…"

"I said I'm not hungry!"

"…Please, Danny. You're…you're like a cousin to me. Our parents have been friends for years. Mrs. Fenton's so scared that you're going to waste away that she's in tears," he sniffs, "If you can't eat for yourself…can you eat for us, please?"

Blue eyes bore into watering brown, and Danny sighs, "Fine."

"Yeah," Phantom laughs softly, "That sounds exactly like Ben."

John raises an eyebrow, "You know him?"

"Somewhat. I hear a lot, you see," he replies, "So that's your message for Ben. What about Sabrina or Miles?"

He snorts, "Sabrina needs to stop complaining about becoming an old maid and just stop insisting that she's going to marry some well-to-do Baron of some kind. I love the girl to death, but if she doesn't want to get married, she doesn't have to. If she does, she needs to stop searching so high above her class. There aren't enough nobles to go around. You know who she should end up with? Jackson Millson. He went to medical school through the military. Not a brain surgeon, but he's pretty good to have recently shown up in this little town. Brilliant man, well-enough-off. I'll bet an academic like Sabrina would do well with him. Then again, when does she ever listen to me?"

"Perhaps Ben can invite him to the wake and she can…bump into him," Phantom smiles, scribbling further in his notebook.

"He should," John nods, "She's always been a bit…abrasive, though. I hope he has enough of a spine to deal with her."

"How in the world did she become a teacher?"

"No idea," he laughs, "Now, as for Miles…He has a tendency to forget that he isn't the only member of the family. He needs to rely on his siblings, on his wife and children. I'm worried he'll work himself in the shop too hard because he doesn't want to let me down. He won't. If the shop falls, it falls. If it succeeds, it succeeds. If he decides he wants to shut it down and do something else, he can. He's a little too proud. He needs to remember that a name is just a name."

Phantom nods absently, noting his words on the paper. His other half turns a valve closed on one of his parents' devices before they even turn it on. He can see that disaster from a mile away.

"Then again, you know a lot of this, don't you, Danny?"

"I don't–" he begins to answer, cutting himself off.

John Lefevre smirks at him from across the table, "You don't look too different, once you get past the hair and eye colors," he comments, "It was your comments about Ben that gave you away. Is this why…?" he swallows, "Why you refused to see a doctor when…?"

"Yeah," he allows himself to phase back to Danny, "I'm not…" he struggles, "…I still have a heartbeat, John. It's slow, but it's there."

"I remember the day you went missing," he whispers, "Ben cried, he was so scared. Sabrina wouldn't admit that it shook her up too. Miles was overseas at the time. We all thought Maddie was going to kill herself, so we took up shifts to watch her; the three of us, your dad, and Damien Grey. That was a long three weeks, Danny."

"Tell me about it," Danny hisses, his fingers clenching.

"I figured my kids could use some time to clear their heads, so I took them out in a boat to fish – that's when we saw a pale shape washed up on the shore. We beached the canoe to check it out, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Sabrina screamed. She cried when she looked at you, thin as one of our fishing poles, covered in scars and cuts. Ben ran over to you and started trying to find your pulse, trying to get you to breathe – and you nearly cut his throat when you woke up. The look in your eyes…you looked…" he swallows, "…hunted."

Danny remains silent, his fingers fisting around the armrests, which creak in protest.

"I'm not going to ask," John shakes his head, "I'm sorry I reminded you."

"It had an impact on you," Danny replies quietly, "Which is what I asked for," he allows the cold in his chest to rise again, the calm of Phantom blanketing his thoughts.

You are strong. You are respected. You are not prey.