Chapter 5:
Danny POV-
"Twins?!" Tucker exclaimed, "Dude, you have got to be kidding me!"
"Um…no," I stated.
"Wow! You guys are going to have your hands full," he asked.
"How about you babysit for us," I smirked. Sam elbowed me in the side, giving me a look.
"I don't want their first words to be PDA and meat," she noted, playfully.
"Haha, don't forget 'Tucker Foley, that's TF, as in too fine,'" I joked, making Sam and I crack up. Tucker shrugged, not denying it, as he flopped on my bed.
"How much sooner are you going to show?" Tucker asked.
"Most sources say between five and six weeks with twins, compared to the twelve weeks of a regular pregnancy. I'm already four weeks so I should start showing soon," she sighed.
I put my hand on her arm and gave her an encouraging smile. She smiled back at me, but I could tell her mind was somewhere else.
I was having a hard time focusing too. Sure I've seen the movies, but it's different when it's actually happening to you. It's funny; I have the responsibility of protecting everyone in town from ghosts practically 24/7, but never before had I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders like it is now.
If I'm feeling like this, I can't imagine how Sam is feeling right now. She not only has to face the responsibility, but she has to face the eviction by her parents, a lot sooner now, and, she has to live with the physical weight and stress of pregnancy for eight more months.
I looked over at her. She was staring at her hands which were neatly folded in her lap, with a sort of tired, dazed expression.
In a way, I wish that this had never happened, and I feel such guilt over the fact that it did, and I was partially the cause. Of course, I know that there's nothing that we can do about it now, but that doesn't stop me from wishing we could change things.
"Dinner!" I heard my mom call from downstairs, and the three of us stood up, leaving my room and going down into the dining room.
We sat at the table. This was a usual occurrence for us considering how Sam and Tucker practically live at my house sometimes.
My mom made lasagna, with a small tray of vegetarian lasagna for Sam. I wasn't very hungry, and judging by the way Sam was pushing around the food on her plate, taking only a few small bites, I could tell that she wasn't either.
"So, how was school?" my mom asked to no one in particular.
"Fine," the three of us said in unison, although because Tucker's mouth was full of lasagna it came out like "Finumph." My mom pursed her lips, obviously not buying it, then she turned her suspicious glare on me and Sam.
"Is everything all right with you two? You seem awfully quiet tonight," she noticed.
I looked up to meet my mom's concerned gaze.
"Nothing's wrong mom…there's just a lot going on just, that's all," I lied. My mom still didn't believe it, I could tell by the look on her face, but she didn't press me for any more details.
"Well…you'll never believe what I heard that the pharmacy today!" my mom exclaimed, changing the subject.
"What?" Jazz supplied, trying to continue the conversation when the rest of us had said nothing. I took a sip of my drink.
"I heard that Danny Phantom was in there buying pregnancy tests of all things! How unbelievable! I swear, if he has gone around violating the women of this town…" she shook her head, and I spewed Dr. Pepper on the table, while Sam choked on the vegetarian lasagna she had in her mouth.
"You see?" she gestured to us, "That was my same reaction. This ghost has no boundaries. He thinks he can just get away with acting human and fooling all of the rest of town."
"What if he did get someone pregnant and they have half-ghost babies?" Jazz questioned and Sam and I cast her a pointed glare, while Tucker began quietly giggling. Sam kicked him under the table and I smirked when he winced at the pain.
"Well, assuming that is actually possible, we will have to take extra precautions with these children. Half of their genetic makeup would be that of an evil ghost, so we have no idea what they are capable of. I suppose the first thing we would have to do is get the mother to either completely cut the connection the baby would have with its father. Or, they might have to leave town, possibly into the ghost zone," my mom suggested.
I had guessed it. This meant that I would have to have a constant eye on my twins, just to make sure that their powers are never going off around my parents. I glanced at Sam who was giving me the same knowing, concerned look.
"Mom, did you ever think that maybe Phantom isn't a danger to the town? He is a teenager, maybe he's just misunderstood," Jazz suggested.
As was to be expected, my mom scoffed.
"Honey, it's nice of you to always see the good in people, but Phantom isn't a person, he's a ghost. They don't abide by the same moral code that governs humans. They have no humanity at all," she told her.
"But what if you're wrong?" Jazz protested, "You've said yourself that Phantom is a different kind of ghost, one that you've never seen before, so how can put the same stereotypes on him that you put on other ghosts? And plus, it's normal for teenage boys to act out, some boys at our school just got in trouble for spray painting buildings downtown. I think Phantom is governed by the same basic driving need for attention; he just has a different way of showing it. Also, he can't be all bad; he saves the town all the time."
"But think of all the more times these actions have also put the town in danger. Let's face it, whatever the case may be, we do not know enough about him to know that he, or any offspring he manages to create, are not a threat. And because he has shown the strength of his abilities and his tendency to be a threat, we have no choice but to classify him as such," my mom had effectively backed Jazz into a corner. Jazz couldn't say anything else without getting too close to my secret for comfort, so instead she just sat back in her chair, frustrated, her lips in a tight line.
"Why are you suddenly so defensive over Phantom all of a sudden?" my mom asked, the suspicious edge creeping back into her voice.
"I'm not," Jazz answered, of course, defensively, which only deepened my mom's suspicions.
"You haven't been hanging out with that ghost, have you?" my mom accused.
"No!" Jazz lied, but, unfortunately, neither Jazz nor I inherited the gene to be able to lie convincingly.
"Jasmine Fenton! Have you been fraternizing with that ghost boy!?" my mom demanded.
"Did he touch you?! I will rip that ghost apart molecule by molecule!" my dad threatened, pulling a gun that he had been tinkering with out from under the table. It lit up and vibrated loudly as he turned it on.
"Jazz," my mom said, lowering her voice to a more serious, and dangerously threatening tone, "Did Phantom get you pregnant?"
"Eww, no mom!" Jazz wrinkled her nose, "I've talked with him before that's all, I promise."
Everyone else at the table seemed to be frozen. I heard my dad power down the gun with disappointment.
"Hmm…" my mom considered the truth of Jazz's response, "I believe you sweetie, but I think that we should test it out just in case." She pulled a small rectangular shaped device out of the pocket on her jumpsuit.
"Whoa! Whoa! What is that?" Jazz cringed away from the device.
"Don't worry honey, it won't hurt you, it just measures the amount of ectoplasmic energy in your body," my mom explained, pointing the device at Jazz and pressing a button.
"Hmm…3.2," my mom studied the results, "Good, that's not a significant reading, probably just a trace amount. Only a little higher than usual, but I'm sure it's only from living in this house and coming into contact with our inventions."
I heard Jazz breathe a sigh of relief. Thankfully, my mom hadn't noticed, but I could see that the gears in her head were still turning. She looked at Sam.
'Oh shit!' I thought, knowing what was going to happen and the reading my mom would get as she slowly moved the device in Sam's direction.
I had to do something, or my mom would know that Sam was pregnant with "Phantom's baby" and, just might do something rash, like strap her to an operating table and remove the twins to experiment on them.
Before my mom could press the button, I knocked my glass of Dr. Pepper onto the floor where it spilled and shattered with a loud crash.
"Danny!" she exclaimed, rushing over to clean up the soda and broken glass.
"Sorry, I don't know what happened!" I told her, giving Sam a smile while my mom was distracted.
Sam smiled back with gratitude.
"Jack would you get the Fenton Shop-Vac?! Danny, don't get up, there is broken glass everywhere!"
She had successfully forgotten her previous task.
Crisis averted.
For now.