Chapter 4

Thank you all so much, thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, faved and followed, and especially thank you to tumblr user scrollingdown for letting me write for this au. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised at all of the reviews telling me to update. I mean I updated a week ago and I've gotten like, 6 reviews telling me to update, it's amazing. Thank you all for liking this enough to make me feel late, I love it. Anyway, I hope you've all had a good week and enjoy chapter 4.

I couldn't move. Like, at all. You know when you're home alone, and you're just sitting in bed, ready to go to sleep, all the lights are out, and all of a sudden you hear your door squeak, and you just freeze entirely and you can just barely feel your own heartbeat and everything gets clearer and louder and you can barely move? It's a little like that.

I can feel every single muscle contract in my heart. I feel like I'm breathing too much and my hands are getting gross and sweaty.

I tried to speak, to respond, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was "S-s-so, I-I'm…" Dad nodded, looking down at the ground. When he raised his eyes to meet mine, they were filled with tears.

"I'm so," he gasped for breath, shuddering against the sobs that racked his body, "so, sorry, Danny, but-" he cut himself off and buried his head in his hands, weeping. Mom rubbed his back, trying to comfort him, tears running down her face.

A thought tore through my mind like wildfire.

The child will be yours, so long as he is human.

No.

Shit.

Fuck, no. My parents- I'm not human anymore they're- oh, god. They're gonna have to give me up. I'm gonna have to- god.

I'm a weapon, and they're going to have to hand me over to the government. I don't want to, I want to stay here with my family and friends and go to school, become an astronaut and just- just live.

I can't- I can't do this, I don't want to- shit.

I'll never be able to become an astronaut, I probably won't even be able to graduate. I'll be government property or something and they'll be too busy making me hunt down ghosts to let me go to school.

But, you know, they might not. They might just let me carry on as usual and maybe only bother me sometimes?

But what about that Vlad guy? The bio-dad who rejected me because of my full-human status and basically assaulted Mom. Would he be interested in me now too? I mean- I'd never actually met the man, but he's my biological father. I can't help but wonder a bit what he's like. Apparently, he's a massive jerk, but I still want to meet him. But then again, why would I want to, the guy basically left me to the wolves. I could've died and he wouldn't have batted an eye. I don't know him, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt a little.

My head spun with all of the new information. The world around me got blurry and my stomach churned. White spots danced across my vision and grew, spreading across everything, drowning it in a milky white abyss. It faded to gray, I vaguely heard someone yell, then it changed to black, and I knew no more.

-X-

Danny's body swayed where he sat and slumped forward into his knees. Maddie gasped and pulled him up, leaning him against the back of the couch. "Danny! Danny? Danny, are you alright? Danny?" she grabbed his face and patted his cheeks. His eyes were shut tight and his face utterly blank. She took off her gloves and held two fingers below his nose, and held her other hand to his neck, checking for a pulse and breathing.

She sighed in relief when she found both. Gently, she rested his head back against the cushions. "H-he's fainted." she wiped away her tears and ran a hand through Danny's perpetually messy hair.

Jack let out a breath, calming himself and rubbing away his tears. "He's taking this better than I expected." Maddie chuckled.

"What did you expect?"

"A lot more yelling and screaming. Maybe some door slamming." Jack smiled at Maddie, trying to cheer her up. Maddie smirked back and stood up.

"We should bring him up to his room. He's had a hard day."

Jack laughed, "I think that's an understatement, Mads." he hefted himself off the couch, careful not to let Danny fall. "I'll carry him up. Go make sure his bed's ready."

She nodded and flitted up the stairs, two steps at a time. Jack turned to his son and slid an arm under his legs and head, he lifted with his legs and carried the boy up to his room.

Maddie waited by Danny's bed, covers neatly pulled back and pillows fluffed. Jack carefully set Danny down in his bed. Jack tugged off Danny's shoes and Maddie yanked off his socks, knowing how much he hated sleeping with them. She smoothed the blankets over her son and sat down on the bed beside him, stroking his face lovingly.

"What are we gonna do, Jack? We have to report this, if we don't-" Maddie's voice broke.

"-We'll be locked up, I know." Jack nodded solemnly " But we can't just tell them. They might take him away, we might never see him again." He held back a sob and collapsed beside his wife.

"And Agent O comes around to visit on his birthday, that's in a few months. There's no way we can hide this from him."

"But we could get a few months. We could claim that we didn't know, that he was hiding it from us."
"Why would he do that?"
"He's already done it, Jack. His fangs came out with blood when he attacked that ghost. That means he ripped them out before and they were still growing back in. He already tried to hide it from us."

"Why?" Jack held his head in his hands, rubbing his temples and messing up his neatly trimmed hair. "Why would he do that?"

"Because he was scared. He was scared of what was happening to him and he didn't want to come to us because he was trying to be brave." Maddie cleaned her face from the tears still streaming down and went back to rubbing Danny's face.

Jack nodded. "We could hide it for a few months. Besides, maybe O won't notice anything." Jack rubbed Maddie's shoulders, working all of the knots and kinks out. "There's always a chance."

Maddie sighed and set her shoulders, a determined look growing on her face.

"We need to test a few things. See what caused the development and if the transformation is complete." Jack grinned at her." Oh, we need to give him another 'Talk'." Jack started, his smile sliding off his face like it was melting.

"No. I did it last time, I'm not doing it again. The first time was traumatic enough for the both of us. No thanks."

"Fine, I'll do it."
"You can't do it, you're his mom!"

"I know plenty about man parts, thank you very much. Either way, this isn't even about all of that. He's got a new digestive system and eventually he'll get ghost powers. We can't leave him in the dark about that, Jack." Maddie said in a scolding voice.

Jack was blushing furiously "Ok, do it. Geez." He glanced down at Danny, his forehead furrowing in concern. "We should let him rest." He stood up and held his hand out to help Maddie up. She took it and hugged him.

"Why did this have to happen?" she whispered the question into his ear.

"I don't know, Maddie. I don't know."

-X-

My eyes opened slowly and groggily. I saw the clean white sheets, each individual strand of thread glowing brightly in the morning sun that filtered in through my window. I looked up at my alarm clock to see the time.

"NOON?!" I jolted up in bed and whipped the blankets off of me. I froze when I saw the little note by my clock. Messy, cursive handwriting. Mom wrote it.

Danny-

Just come downstairs and eat when you're ready. We made pancakes and eggs for breakfast. We need to talk. We can do that while you eat.

Love,

Mom

A glass of water was set right next to the note, filled up and ready to drink. I took a few swigs and slid off my bed. I was still wearing the same clothes I had been yesterday. Why?

And then it hit me like a freight train.

The whole cannibalistic half ghost thing.

Right.

My mind once again was swarmed with thoughts about what could happen to me. What probably would happen to me.

I stood up, rolling off of my bed and catching myself on the cold floor. I wandered over to my closet and tugged on some hopefully clean clothes. I smoothed out my hair and slowly turned around.

The door, white and tall, and a little bit banged up. That door was the only thing standing between and the consequences of…of whatever this is. I had no idea what would happen to me once I stepped out that door. If I stayed in here, I would be safe from everything until my parents decided to come and check on me instead of letting me come to them. I had no idea what they would do, I mean, if they didn't turn me in they'd get in trouble. That's what the judge said. They'd be locked away and god knows what would happen to me. But if they turned me in, nothing would happen to them and I'd still be sent off to who-knows-where.

I took a deep, shaking breath and took a step towards the door. The floorboard underneath my foot shrieked at the sudden weight, but I pressed on. Before I knew it, the stiff metal of the doorknob was in my grip and I was twisting it, painfully slowly.

The door squeaked open and light from the hallway rushed in, bathing my face in bright sunlight. I looked back at my room. I figured it might be the last time I saw it. Gulping, I turned back to the bright hallway and strode out, each footstep less and less confident than the last.