Author's Note: So the semester work load, prior to a few weeks ago, was like a monkey on my back...until it morphed into King Kong and stole me up the nearest tower until I finished all required tests and projects. Then I got sick. I haven't thrown up in years...and hope not to throw up again for many, many more years. -_- Ewwuurgh.

So anyway, here's the next chapter! Woo! And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I really wish this were more season appropriate. My apologies ahead of time...^^; Seriously though, hahhhh, it's a lovely time of year, IMO. :)

Er, also...Shout Outs! I haven't done this in eons!

Thank you to Extant, Super-Berry, E-Dantes, Jiece18, Anthiena, Just ME, and YumeTakato for reviewing! You guys rock! :D

Chapter Thirty-One

Handwritten Letters

Three days had passed since the kidnapping crisis. During that time Nathaniel had embraced his new found control over flight, and had also phased out twice.

Thankfully, he had yet to turn invisible or throw an ecto blast.

Even so, Danny was staying in Sam's bedroom around the clock. His altruistic plan to stay nearby (on Sam's roof) had quickly proved impossible. Nathaniel was a halfa through and through, and without the playpen or wrist band available Danny was the only person who could contain him. Keeping a close enough eye on the kid also meant Danny had been foregoing sleep- but then letting Nathaniel float through the wall, even once, wasn't an option.

Nathaniel, ironically, had been very quiet and well behaved, and practically indistinguishable from any other human kid...for several hours the morning after his kidnapping, anyway. Then any lasting clinginess had quickly disappeared, and he had led Danny (the best playmate ever!) on multiple flights around Sam's room.

Nathaniel was learning to control his powers scarily fast. Danny tried not to think of what life could be like when the kid reached his terrible twos. He probably would be throwing ecto blasts by then.

Danny had gotten better at certain ghostly abilities himself, specifically at splitting his form, and had been using the skill to put in convincing appearances at home. But holding onto two bodies simultaneously and doing much of anything with either- like holding a conversation- was still very trying, so his double avoided things like walking and talking. Danny needed his focus on Nathaniel.

At the moment Danny was sitting on Sam's bed, with Nathaniel in his lap. Sam sat a few feet away, carefully opening a box with a 'VP' insignia on the top. It had just arrived, and likely contained the promised replacements for the playpen and wrist band. This meant Danny would, hopefully, have the option to fly back home for a few hours of sleep, once the new equipment was set up.

No one had questioned using the replacements. After seeing Vlad covered in his own blood- of both the human and ghostly variety- it was clear that he was protective of Nathaniel in his own screwball way. Besides, he had also been heading back toward the Fenton portal that night. It appeared that Vlad had no plans to secret Nathaniel away somewhere, after all.

Not for a while, anyway.

Sam, having opened the box, set it down beside her on the bed. She picked up a folded, plain piece of copier paper from inside. It had to be a message from the cheese head himself, so she scooted closer to Danny in order to read it with him.

Nathaniel, very curious, paid close attention to what she held, and made to reach for the paper. He didn't try too hard, though, able to sense the grownups' mood. They were observant and quiet right now, so he would be too. For such a young child, he was very good at observing.

Sam unfolded the paper to reveal a short letter in somewhat messy handwriting.

Danny's whole body went rigid.

That writing…!

The temptation hit Danny hard to grab the letter away from Sam and tear it to pieces, burn it, destroy it. Instead he skimmed it frantically, terrified of reading something dangerously, sinisterly private, at which point he would snatch it away, never mind what Sam might think…

"Sam,

About the new item- it's a portable ghost shield. Just stick it in a wall socket in your room, make sure the light goes on, and turn the knob to adjust the shield size. The shield is shaped like a bubble, but if it hits a wall, it will conform to it. It's practically invisible, so only you guys and maybe my parents should be able to pick it out, probably.

If the power in your house goes out, the shield should last about two hours- just make sure the green button on top is depressed, because otherwise it will turn off when it isn't plugged in. About that, this is portable, meaning you can take it with you in an emergency so you're always inside an active ghost barrier. Just remember it will run out of juice. If that happens, the wall socket should charge the back-up unit to full power in about half an hour.

So to sum up, just have Danny walk through the walls in ghost mode a few times to make sure the shield's working right, and it's covering the whole room. And if you can, keep it plugged in all the time. As for the other stuff, Vlad says it works the same as before."

The phrase 'my parents' stuck in Danny's mind. It felt like a four letter word, offensive and vulgar. And it dashed any remote hope of Sam not recognizing the handwriting.

But there was nothing else. Nothing dangerous.

Still, Danny's nerves, calm only moments ago, were now raw. Seeing that handwriting…

My handwriting.

What was Sam thinking, as she read…?

Danny found he couldn't even look in her direction, and stared down at the letter instead. That scrap of paper had thrown him back months in time, to when his guilt had been overwhelming, when he couldn't be near Sam because there just couldn't be any way she could stand to be near him...

It was an incredible struggle, to bring himself back. To put things in perspective and understand that he...he had worked this out already, damn it.

No. Damn you.

Dan's face wouldn't leave his mind's eye. And he was smiling, smirking at him...

It was one thing, for Danny to move forward from Clockwork's horrifying words. It was another to think of Dan telling everyone, maybe in a letter like this...

"Well…that will be useful." Sam's voice filtered through, and Danny started slightly. He managed to tear the frown away just as she looked up at him. He swallowed, and tried for a smile. It wouldn't come.

She was grinning slightly. "And you'll sleep better at night." That was a joke- a jab at his midnight vigils up on the roof, before Nathaniel got kidnapped. The last few days, of course, Danny hadn't slept at all.

"Yeah." He only gave Sam a brief glance, before looking down at Nathaniel instead. He just...felt painfully shy right now. He was aware that they were both on her bed, with that letter between them. Danny made himself focus on Nathan's left hand, currently held in his own. It was so tiny.

He wanted to ask Sam about the letter. Did it upset her? But the words stuck in his throat. He didn't feel he had the right, as those thoughts from months ago tried to push him down...and that feeling keeping his eyes down wasn't shyness. It was that guilt he'd worked so hard to let go of...

Sam poked him in the arm, playfully. Her voice was a little too bright. "You definitely need to catch some zees, Danny."

I'm making her worry.

That made Danny react, and he finally met her eyes, managing to raise his eyebrows and give her a genuine half smile. "Yeah. I guess this is what I've been waiting for..." He couldn't keep the uncertainty from his voice.

Then his temper flared. Maybe that's because it was freaking Dan Phantom who sent this…

Of course, he knew that whether Dan was a current danger, and whether or not Vlad had seemingly turned a new page...Spectra and Bertrand were a legitimate worry. Vlad probably hadn't "taken care" of them permanently in his fight over Nathaniel. Danny actually hoped Vlad didn't kill them just because...that was a frightening thought. But mostly, it struck him as unlikely. Stronger ghosts were hard to kill: after the nuke hit, you'd have two things. Cockroaches and Spectra.

It would probably be hard to tell the difference.

Sam broke into his thoughts again. "Let's install this thing. Watching you walk into invisible walls is always entertaining." She was already up, ghost shield in hand.

Danny's brows drew together for a moment. Then he remembered. Dan had suggested that in the letter.

"Yeah, oodles of fun…" My older self probably finds it hilarious too.

Sam had to know who the letter was from, but her lighthearted reaction was so off putting. She shouldn't trust something that came in the mail from him. Danny just...couldn't say so out loud. His throat wouldn't work when he tried.

Danny hesitated for a moment, then stood up, shifting Nathaniel so that he straddled his hip. He watched, silent, as Sam crouched down near a wall socket to plug in the ghost shield, which immediately lit up. It looked like a night light, and even had a plasticky Casper-esque ghost shielding the bulb.

Danny was sure Vlad's insignia could be found somewhere on it, not to mention a tracking device. Maybe it even had a hidden camera, and Vlad could see Danny's grimace right now.

Which would mean Dan could see it too.

The thought was like a lightning bolt, and Danny was instantly furious. He tamped down on the feeling immediately, gritting his teeth. Dan watching Sam in her bedroom?

Danny took a deep breath, employing monumental self-control, and shoved the thought away. There was no way in hell he could let Sam know what he was thinking, not when she had been using this equipment since Idaho.

Besides, she made a point of always being decent before she came out of the bathroom- probably since he was around so much.

Danny's thoughts stuttered as he felt a cold wave of energy move briefly through him. The shield. It left his skin tingling slightly. Nathaniel let out a tiny exclamation, having felt it too, and shifted in his arms. Danny quickly walked over to Sam, to hand him over to her.

He nearly said something when he reached her, nearly argued against the safety of using this device.

But the previous thought resurfaced: Sam had been relying on Vlad's help for months now. Knowing that Dan had a hand in it didn't change that. And Sam had just read a letter in Danny's handwriting, for crying out loud, yet was still setting up this new gadget, no questions asked.

For a crazy second Danny thought Sam might really be confused, and think the letter was from him, and not from his older psycho double.

"Danny?" She was staring up at him, still crouched by the wall socket, probably wondering why he was standing just behind her staring off into space.

He wiped the distressed look off his face.

"Here…," then he cleared his throat, lightened his tone, "you'd better take Nathaniel."

Sam turned completely around, sitting down Indian style as she did, and set Nathaniel in her lap. Nathan was still curious about what was going on, so immediately twisted around to face out toward Danny. He stared up at him, looking rather serious. Sam looked up too, and grinned again.

"Maybe I should call Tucker over, he likes to see you run into walls too…"

Danny crossed his arms, grinning back, while not quite catching her eyes. "Who said I was staying visible for this?" With that he blinked out of sight, going ghost in the process. He dropped the grin, and a glower descended.

Sam obviously knew who the letter was from. But he just...wouldn't think about that right now. Get out of my head, you cretin.

He turned around and started walking, hands held out in front of him. As he did so, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Nathaniel had turned to look at the bedroom door, probably expecting someone to be there.

Smart kid. Danny always disappeared when family showed up, after all.

Woah…

"Found it." Danny's fingertips tingled from the brief contact. The shield didn't hurt, but it wasn't pleasant either. The sensation helped, for an instant, to remove the face of his enemy from his mind. "It's definitely a ghost barrier." Whatever else it might be. "Nathan's going to hate this…"

Nathaniel hadn't tried to phase through anything so far, other than Danny. But brushing up against the shield in ghost mode, phased out or not, wouldn't feel so great. And the shield had to cover the floor, of course, to be effective. Danny thought he could feel a hint of that energy coming up through his shoes.

He reached down to double check…yep. "Don't let him go barefoot in here, Sam…at least if he's not wearing the wrist band."

"Oh…! Right." He heard Sam shift slightly, probably pulling Nathaniel further into her lap.

Nathaniel probably wouldn't like the reappearance of the wrist band, either. His commentary, over the last few days, had often run something like this:

...o...

"Dandan…?" Nathaniel was floating near the ceiling. "Heehee!"

Danny followed him up.

"See?" Nathan executed a surprisingly good mid-air turn, to get away, and Danny just missed catching him (on purpose). "No! Mismeeeehee!"

Nathaniel had a new favorite phrase, just for Danny. "Too swow!"

...o...

That had been... that was earlier today. Danny blinked slowly, as the world went slightly blurry at the edges.

Sorry kiddo. Hate to let you down, but I need sleep.

But the thought of leaving twisted in his gut, and the anxiety he felt while reading Dan's letter rose again, threatening to envelope him. His hands dropped, clenched at his sides.

Could he really trust this to work right? To be nothing more than a ghost shield? Yet the last few days had made clear just how hard life would be without Vlad's help…without...the thought made his stomach turn to lead...his evil older self's...help...

Danny's thoughts went hazy as a wave of fatigue hit him. Then they scattered away, leaving all the fear and worry, burying him…

And he was suddenly swimming in a confusing montage of events from the last several days, their combined undertow dragging him further down…

The image of Dan dozing by Vlad's bed came to him; then he saw Vlad in the Ghost Zone, covered in blood; then Dan, holding Nathaniel; Sam, stunning in that dark, beautiful dress; Jazz at the restaurant, yelling that Dan had sent for his help…

A room filled with the smell of blood. Too much blood. Intense fear. Vlad's pinched, drained face.

Then that dark place blurred…

Danny was sitting in a chair by Vlad's bed. He was leaning back with his feet propped up on another chair, a copy of Business Weekly open in his hands. But he wasn't reading, wasn't even looking at it. His thoughts were on Vlad, and the last few days. He allowed himself to feel happy, grateful to be sitting here watching over the Cheese Head, instead of attending his funeral.

And he kept thinking of that strange encounter a few days ago, when his younger self had shown up. Had he realized just how close Vlad had come to…

"...oohh, Earth to Danny…?"

Danny stumbled, then caught himself.

He was…he was standing. In Sam's bedroom…in front of the ghost barrier. Still invisible.

Not me.

That was…him.

Not me.

"Sorry…zoned out." He spoke too soon. His voice was hardly more than a frightened whisper.

What happened?

Sam didn't answer for a very long moment. Then she snorted. "Either that, or you chose a really weird time to ponder the meaning of the universe."

She wasn't going to ask. But he…he needed to pull it together, now, before Sam changed her mind. Danny struggled to push down his dread. The images were almost gone, like a dream…but the thoughts and emotions lingered, intimate yet alien. After a long moment, he finally forced himself to reach out with a trembling hand, to find the edge of the shield again. He barely ghosted along it with his fingers.

Danny swallowed, and closed his eyes. They snapped open almost instantly, when the fear rose of what he might see with them closed. He stared at the faint glimmer the barrier gave off in front of him instead.

He forced his voice steady. "Okay…keep going, slowly…"

The next half hour was trial and error, as they got the shield to sit against every wall, the floor, and the ceiling. It really did conform, its bubble shape flattening out as it found the right kind of surface. For whatever reason it seemed to move through objects sitting in the room- presumably it had been programmed, somehow, to recognize a real wall when it hit one.

Danny forced himself to focus, obsessively, on how incredible the engineering behind that had to be.

The shield could also cover the bathroom, though that meant keeping the bathroom door open, since the shield perceived the closed door as a wall. Conversely, the window could be opened. The shield would form a bulb which bulged about two feet out at the open window's center, as far as they could tell.

Sam did get to see Danny walk into the thing once, before everything was said and done.

"Awesome." Sam was sitting on the bed again, with Nathaniel cuddled up beside her. Nathan had been mostly quiet, only adding his baby-speak opinion occasionally, and laughing when Sam did. She had made this about as fun as it could be for him.

Danny, thoughts having turned muzzy after going human again, slowly wandered back to the bed, and let himself fall face down on it a few feet away from Sam and Nathaniel. Slowly, he turned his head so that he wasn't breathing into the coverlet, though he hardly had the energy at the moment. Now was the first time in three days he didn't have to be ready to move, should Nathaniel spontaneously go ghost, and, as if knowing this, his body was trying to shut down.

Danny's mind, just now, was thankfully blank. If he wasn't so completely drained, it would have been a nice feeling. He watched, blearily, with his eyes barely cracked open, as Nathaniel pulled away from Sam to crawl over. Once there, Nathan kept going, climbing up onto Danny's shoulders, then scooching this way and that, until he finally sat with a leg resting on either side of Danny's neck.

Then two little hands tugged lightly on Danny's available ear, and a bright, high pitched voice piped up.

"Wha's up?"

Danny closed his eyes as Nathaniel bounced up and down a little on his shoulders. Not me, kiddo.

"Muh." A grunt was all he could manage. He opened his eyes a little wider, as he noticed Sam looking at them.

Click.

Danny blinked at the flash of light, just noticing the camera in Sam's hands.

He raised a drowsy eyebrow, and the thought percolated through: where did that even come from?

He got out a muffled comment. "Blckmel?"

Sam raised a not so innocent eyebrow, as if to say "maybe." Then she grinned, and laughed. "Nope." Her smile turned a little shy. "You guys are just…cute."

Danny raised both eyebrows at that, and Sam blushed slightly. "Hey! Even I have the urge, very rarely, to take…cute pictures…sometimes..."

Danny shifted slightly, so his mouth was completely free from the coverlet. "Blackmail…for Nathan."

"Danny!" Then Sam pursed her lips, reconsidering. "Maybe when he's a teenager."

Half a moment ticked by, followed by a snort from Sam.

Then they were both laughing. It died down pretty fast. Danny hadn't slept in days, after all.

"I can't believe you took that seriously." Danny was completely limp, Nathan still laughing from the joke he didn't get, on top of Danny's shoulders.

"You thought of it…" Sam leaned back, taking her weight on the palms of her hands, elbows locked. Her grin slowly drifted to a smile, and she let her head rest sideways, against her right shoulder. She sighed.

"You should go home and get some sleep." Sam paused, her head coming back up like she was going to sneeze, then yawned wide. Danny's eyelids fluttered just watching her.

"Dnno. Here seems pretty comftrble." Nathaniel gave another tug at Danny's ear. "Hey. Ease up, kiddo. I like my ears on my head." Danny impulsively reached over his head, pulling Nathaniel onto the bed next to him, then rolled himself over so he was on his back, and pulled the toddler back onto his chest, propping him up. Nathaniel giggled and laughed, happy to face Danny head on.

"You little rug rat." Danny tugged lightly at Nathaniel's ears, grinning impishly, then let his hands fall down again, as the momentary surge of energy deserted him.

A painful wave of depression replaced it. It came out the blue, catching Danny at his most defenseless, and he had to rest an arm over his face, to cover the agony there.

A minute ago I was laughing…

But it was always like that lately, especially when he was tired. Too happy one moment…he'd swing the other way fast, violently.

Nathaniel leaned forward to get his attention back the best way possible, by grabbing and poking at his face. Nathan was still oblivious. Danny hoped Sam was too.

"Seepy-head!" Danny reached up to blindly ruffle Nathan's hair, his face twisting more as he did so.

He didn't even know why.

A dozen things crowded in his mind, as an answer to that question. Oh, there were reasons. Reasons, reasons, reasons…starting with a ghost who sent a letter in his hand, laid claim to his parents…who had fathered this beautiful child with Sam.

A spike of misery hit Danny, and before he knew it he had clenched his fists in pain, as if he'd taken a physical blow right to the face.

And the image of Vlad sleeping came to him again, as he himself had sat with a magazine he'd never read before set open on his knees…

How the hell did I know that was Business Weekly, anyway?

THAT WASN'T ME!

He gasped quietly to himself, thoughts scattered, suddenly terrified and lost. He couldn't do this, he couldn't do this, with Nathan and Sam right here…he couldn't melt down in front of them…!

He struggled with the fear, instant by instant, but as he got it cornered a subtle fury took its place. And the confusion was still there, his thoughts still scattered.

They jumped to Jazz, at the restaurant a few nights ago, when she had come explaining Nathaniel's disappearance, and to tell him that Dan was already searching in the Ghost Zone.

And she had urged him to jump in and help, hurry, Spectra is so dangerous…

Spectra, hell!

What the hell about Dan, Jazz?

Danny absolutely knew her attitude didn't make sense. He knew something was going on. Jazz had been communicating with him.

How could she have all that worry about ghosts he himself could beat around the block, and none about the guy who had attacked Sam, had tried to kill them all a few years ago? Danny had felt guilty for yelling at Jazz that night, but right now he felt justified. He felt like yelling some more.

What did he tell you, Jazz?

"Daaannnnnnnnnny?" Nathaniel's voice had gone from playfully insistent to slightly worried.

Guilt Danny hadn't felt a moment ago belatedly hit him. It drew him back, made him sane again, and the red hot anger was temporarily doused.

He forced himself to relax, and slowly, slowly let his arms drop so that he wasn't blocking Nathaniel's view of his face any more. But he couldn't make himself meet the kid's eyes just yet. He needed to get better control first.

Danny's brows knit together.

The bastard was living with Vlad, of all people! Psycho and fruit loop, scheming!

Danny sat up suddenly, carrying Nathaniel with him, and tucked the kid under his chin, hiding his bitter scowl from sight. He sighed slowly, trying to expel the anger as he did so.

It took Danny a while to slow his breathing down again, but he did it. He also put conscious effort into making sure he didn't clench anything, other than his jaw, since he held a small, trusting child in his arms.

Danny belatedly realized that Sam hadn't said anything in quite a while. He glanced at her sidelong, shame coloring his cheeks. No good. She seemed too still, and observant. He forced himself to turn to face her, embarrassed and a little afraid of what she had to be thinking. He was being completely erratic…

Sam was watching him, her face strangely expressionless. It was a mask, probably hiding distress, worry; whatever had likely been there a moment before he had looked at her.

Danny glanced down at the bedspread, feeling tired, and guilty. She shouldn't have to worry about him going crazy on her.

He finally spoke, voice a little desperate, searching for words. "Sam…I'm…"

"Stop." Sam gave him a small, tired smile, and held her arms out for Nathaniel. "You need sleep, Danny." Her eyes bored into his. "Take a break. For at least for a few hours. Then…play some video games. Eat something I didn't have to smuggle up to you. And don't worry about me or Nathan. Don't worry about anything. Okay?"

Danny swallowed, a slight lump in his throat. It was hard to do that. And he'd been about to apologize to her, when he'd promised not to do that, either. Part of him still wanted to finish that apology.

"I…okay." He gave her a shaky smile. "I'm not promising anyth…"

"Yes you are!" Sam glared at him, exasperation showing through. "Go home, already. You've done enough for one decade, Mr. Superhero."

Danny blushed, then gave her a cheeky grin. "Yes ma'am."

Sam smirked, eyes narrowed slightly. Then her expression changed completely. She was excited and happy and afraid…and before he knew what to think she was moving closer and leaning up, until their faces were so close...and suddenly their lips met.

He watched as she drew back, her cheeks bright pink. It had only been a peck, but still…

"We…never got to finish our date." Sam was grinning, and shyly avoided his gaze. She held her arms up for Nathaniel again, and Danny handed him over, wide-eyed.

Sam finally looked back up, eyes sparkling, a soft smile still on her lips. "Get some sleep, Danny." Her smile widened. "Before you start hallucinating ghost attacks."

Danny snorted softly, surprised when he did. But it was funny.

And Sam had just kissed him. On the lips.

And somehow, for this instant, his dark thoughts were gone. He was in the here and now. And…maybe things weren't so bad...

He grinned. "Yeah. You know what? I think you're right. It's time I got some sleep." Except he felt strangely energized right now.

Danny stood up, still grinning, and took one of Nathaniel's hands, shaking it gently. "Bye-bye little man. Take care of your mom." He glanced up, into Sam's eyes, and a small thrill of joy went through him. She was still blushing. Then he stood up straight, gave her a mock salute, and turned to fly…

"Er, wait!"

Danny stopped mid jump, caught by surprise. Then he got it.

They spoke simultaneously: "Ghost shield." Danny's palm hit his forehead.

He snuck out the bedroom door instead.

Apparently replacements from Vlad had finally arrived, because Danny was now home, and refreshed from a long overdue nap. He was also standing in Jasmine's bedroom doorway, with that look on his face. The one that said he wasn't there for a nice brotherly chat about the weather forecast.

This was not a good thing.

"Okay Jazz, no more stalling. You took a shower, brushed you teeth, did all the other stuff you do at night...so unless you're planning to run out and get a perm, it's time for us to talk."

Sorry Danny, I do have to get a perm...

Jazz doubted there were any hair stylists available right now. And Mom and Dad had been asleep for over an hour, so the privacy excuse wouldn't work either.

She sighed, and turned her swivel chair away from the computer and fully toward Danny. She adopted a pleasant smile.

"Okay, I'm ready to talk." Whoops. Freudian slip. But who knew, maybe she was totally wrong about why Danny was bumming around in her doorway?

He stepped further in, and closed the door behind him. Jazz suppressed a sigh.

Then Danny glanced away, looking a little guilty. "Look…I'm sorry I yelled at you the other night, outside the restaurant. I shouldn't have." He caught her eye, and crossed his arms. "But I still need an explanation." He frowned. "First of all, why, at that point, would you assume he was trying to help?"

"The Box Ghost…"

"I don't care about the Box Ghost. And don't tell me you were going to say that's why you thought Dan was trying to help, Jazz. Since when does the Box Ghost know who's trust worthy?"

Jazz's jaw snapped shut. There went that tangent. "You're right." She crossed her arms, looking down at the floor.

This was going to be hard. She was still reeling with what had been revealed to her in the Ghost Zone two nights ago. It was all just…so…

There wasn't a word. Frightening? Outlandish? Deep down, the skeptic in her still held that none of it was necessarily true.

But then she'd blown off her parents' theories about ghosts for most of her life too.

In any case, telling Danny everything she had learned was absolutely not an option. They just…were not ready for that conversation. Jazz needed more time to sort out her thoughts, and Danny…he didn't need to know she knew.

Besides, he would see her visit to Clockwork as a betrayal. Whatever else she told him, she couldn't tell him about that. But there were a few secrets she had been keeping, and there wasn't any reason not to tell him, now.

Jazz finally caught Danny's eyes. His look was so searching it made her think of mind reading. He probably wished he could.

"Danny…I need to show you something, I guess." Jazz sighed in pained resignation as she went to her purse, mildly embarrassed that it was partly an act, that she was hamming it up. The letter from Dan felt…strangely reasonable now. Nothing to be scared of anymore.

"Here." She pulled the envelope out, and turned to hand it to Danny. She would need to tell him about that phone call, too. "Sit down, Danny. It's a long letter."

Jazz watched as he pulled out the scrap of newspaper with a picture of Vlad and Dan on it. He stared for a long moment, then took out the letter, simultaneously walking over to sit on the edge of her bed.

Several minutes passed in silence as he read it. Jazz caught herself holding her breath at least twice, as she watched him and tried to guess what part of the letter he was on.

The letter had a lot in it. Dan had talked about living with Vlad, and becoming a business man- an honest one. With a human disguise, and a different name; Dimitri Mihailov. Or had that been in the newspaper scrap only?

He had talked about giving Sam a bank account, so she could do good for the world with the money he put there. Though he eventually would use it, if she never did. And he said how he loved them all…well, the whole thing had been about that. And about how sorry he was. And…how they didn't need to worry any more.

Jazz had a hard time guessing where Danny was in it, but as he read his hands started to tremble, just a little, and the grimace he had adopted early on grew worse.

Jazz spoke when she was sure he had read the whole thing more than once.

"I…wanted to give you time. You didn't need to worry about this, after everything…" She petered off, and looked down at her knees. His silence made her nervous. "If it's worth anything, Tucker wanted to tell you immediately…"

"Tucker knows?" Jazz glanced up, but Danny didn't meet her eyes. He looked shell shocked.

"I just…needed someone else to know. He really wanted to tell you, Danny. I basically twisted his wrist so he wouldn't."

"Twisted his wrist?" His voice sounded dead.

"Really hard. And begged. Pitifully."

Jazz heard him snort. She looked up, in time to see Danny look back down at the letter, then away from it, toward the floor. He looked strangely forlorn.

They both sat for a while. She had had hours to digest that letter, after all. He deserved at least a few more minutes to think.

And something made her hesitate. That nervous feeling asked her to wait, and to let Danny talk more when he was ready.

Jazz's thoughts wandered as the silence grew. She hadn't seen much of Danny over the last few days, since her visit to Clockwork. That was lucky, as she had desperately needed that time for herself. But now, as he sat in front of her, she found herself studying him, his face, his expressions. His tone when he spoke.

Small things were jumping out at her.

Their frown was just the same, his and Dan's. Somewhere in between a full blown scowl and a worried look, like…the opposite of a half smile. That expression had been on both their facesthe night Nathaniel went missing.

Except Dan had been more, yet also less, desperate than Danny. It was as though he really knew the devastation it would cause if Nathaniel were to die. Yet that same experience somehow gave him the ability to temper his emotions, and focus himself better.

Actually, Dan had shared something with Sam: a steely determination to get it right, at all costs.

Danny had been panicking. Dan had moved beyond panic.

"You know, I'm not even surprised." Jazz started violently at the sound of Danny's voice. She looked up, blinking, her heart racing.

Danny blinked back at her once. "What were you thinking about just now?"

Jazz ran a hand over her hair. "I wasn't…I was zoning out." She grinned at him sheepishly. "I actually think I forgot you were here." Oh, she was such a liar.

"Are you sure you're getting enough sleep Jazz…?" Jazz kept grinning, and Danny finally smiled too. Then his smile wavered, and fell away completely. His eyes became darker, sadder again. It was painful to watch.

"I'm sorry I lied, Danny. I just…"

"I know." He sounded sad, and very young. He was still a kid to her, just a teenager, and he'd just caught his big sister in a big lie. The betrayal in his voice wasn't something she could mistake. That little kid in him desperately needed someone to depend on, someone who wouldn't lie to him.

Jazz got up, and came over to sit next to Danny on the bed. She put her arms around him in a sideways embrace, and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry Danny." She blinked rapidly, thinking of all the things he'd been through, the things Clockwork had told him that he kept hidden from everyone.

Danny let out a slow sigh. "It's…okay." His arm came up to circle around her shoulders, a heavy, welcome warmth. He had grown big. "It's okay."

She let out a shuddering sigh, and a tear escaped. "I…have something else to tell you. It won't make you very happy, though."

There was a pause where he tensed, then relaxed. Another quiet sigh. "Go ahead."

"Someone called me on the phone last semester. We didn't…talk about anything much. Mostly he let me talk, actually. About school. I…" She swallowed, fear closing her throat.

This came so close to the heart of things, it terrified her. What she had learned still felt alien, surreal, and made her skin crawl.

She dragged the words out. "I…thought he was you. He…he pretended to be you." Jazz looked up at him. "Danny…I couldn't tell."

She could see he was angry. She went on, feeling flustered, embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I thought I would know, and just be able to tell if it was him, but I couldn't…"

"How did you find out, then?" Accusation. He blamed her for not knowing the difference.

"I put it together when the letter came a few weeks ago. And…I realized…"

"You realized…? What?" His voice was part growl.

But she needed to say this.

"I realized he is…he's more than just…a ghost."

Danny's arm dropped away, and after a long moment Jazz risked another glance at his face. It was hard, his jaw clenched. He was staring adamantly at the wall.

"He's not you. But he's still, he's almost like…" She couldn't finish, and ended up not getting the chance in any case.

Danny stood straight up. "Like what? What? Like family? Like your brother?"

Then he strode to the door, opened it, stepped out, and slammed it behind him, not looking back at her once.

Author's Note: Please review! *cough* Anyone else think the ghost shield light socket thingy is suspiciously cute? :P