Maddie grabbed Danny's wrist, Danny didn't struggle as she led him to the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle.
"Just what were you thinking young man?!" Maddie lectured in that motherly tone of hers, "How can you do this after we brought you back to life! How could you repay such an act by running away like a petulant teen! Do you know how worried we were for you?" She asked incredulously. They were about ten feet away from the GAV and at those careless words Danny planted his feet in the ground, his impassive face becoming angry as he ripped his wrist from her grasp.
"You don't get it do you?" Danny snapped, Maddie looked shocked that he would be angry , in her mind she was the one who was supposed to be angry, not him.
"Get what? What is there to get?" She asked, proving Danny's point about her lack of understanding.
"Exactly!" Danny said with a huff, "Mo- Maddie… when I was a ghost I could help people, I was Danny Phantom for a reason. I could stop ghosts, fight them, keep the people I love safe, hell I even protected the people he hated me. I'm not like the other ghosts, Maddie. Turning me human was a mistake, I am… was, different from them, I…I…" Danny just shook his head, not able to phrase what he wanted, "Like I said last night… you upset a delicate balance…" Danny stared at the ground, Maddie struggled for words and Danny shook his head at her looking up and glaring at her.
"You've messed this up so badly I don't even know where to start to try and fix this. I understand that what you do is to protect your family, but sometimes you only do it for yourself, and I hate that… that you would put your goals in front of the big picture. You have eyes don't you? So why couldn't you see? Why can't you see?" Danny said then he climbed into the GAV and sat in the front seat folding his arms and pouting in a way that was entirely too familiar to Maddie.
Maddie tried to place where she'd seen that particular pout before but ended up shaking off the feeling, teens pouted, even ghosts teens apparently. She ignored the echoes of familiarity and walked around to climb into the driver's seat of the GAV.
Phantom sat, back pointedly turned away from Maddie ignoring her. Maddie noticed he was dressed in her son's clothes, the thought was a little disconcerting if she was honest given their similar height and build. She sighed before starting the RV and driving back home, Phantom staring out the window wistfully as they drove. The drive back to Fenton Work seemed to take longer than normal in the uncomfortable silence between the two, but eventually the familiar building came into sight. Maddie pulled up to the house parking around back.
She climbed out, Phantom following her, still grumbling but otherwise seeming to be have. She thanked the universe for small miracles before letting herself and Phantom into the house through the back door.
"Are you hungry?" Maddie asked awkwardly as they entered the kitchen figuring he'd be hungry.
"Not really" Phantom answered; Maddie didn't know he was still full of pancakes. Phantom moved through the house and sat on the couch, well more flopped onto the couch in that way teenagers did. He grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels.
Maddie turned toward the basement door intending to tell her husband she had found Phantom, even though she'd almost given up looking. If he'd been kidnapped by ghosts and taken to the ghost zone then the chances of finding him were from slim to zero. Maddie had gone to the park to walk around and clear her head, not to search for Phantom at all. She had been surprised to see a curious white haired boy among the kids on the playground. At first Maddie wasn't sure if it was him; a growing number of teenage boys and even girls had been bleaching their hair white in honor of the so-called superhero. She thought it might have been just one of Casper High's many Phantom Phans, it was only when he turned and began walking in her direction that Maddie recognized his face. It was Phantom, just as she was about to give up hope she had found him.
A barking noise from the living room pulled Maddie out of her thoughts and distracted her from the basement door behind which the noises of her husband could be heard.
"Hey Cujo." came Danny's voice from the living room. Maddie smiled, so Danny had come home, she would have a talk with him later about not calling her the night before and spending the night at one of his friends houses. He also needed a lecture about not skipping school as it was past time for his classes to start, but at that moment she just wanted to make sure he was ok. Whether she admitted it or not Phantom's words about not knowing her son was had gotten to her.
However, upon entering the living room she saw no signs of her son with his familiar black hair and crystalline blue eyes, nor had she heard him go upstairs, and once she thought about it, she hadn't even heard him come inside. The door hadn't opened, nor closed, and he certainly hadn't come downstairs. She was certain Danny hadn't been in the room before and there was nowhere he could go. Perhaps she had been hearing things.
Cujo; however, was very content in warming up to Phantom, his stark white hair, even without its silvery glow, was still unnatural and a bit unnerving. Her hand twitched to the ecto-gun in her holster when she saw him, but she knew he was human. She had felt his pulse herself as she drug him to the GAV
Phantom's newly human eyes were sparkling with interest as he smiled down at the dog that had taken residence beside him on the couch. Frowning Maddie wondered if she was mishearing things or if she was just tired when it struck her that Phantom was the one who had called the dog's name, Danny wasn't home, it had just been Phantom. She shrugged and went back to the kitchen to make some breakfast. Then a sudden thought made her freeze, Phantom shouldn't know that dog's name. How did he know that her son, her Danny, had named the dog Cujo? How could he possibly know?
Maddie stepped back and gripped the doorframe she had only made it halfway through before turning and looking at Phantom who was sitting on the couch, slumped back against the pillows and flipping through channels in a way that was so familiar and yet so alien. It was a human action, a very distinctly human action, particularly the boredom in his eyes and the way he scanned the little blue bars while he pressed the buttons in an agitated way.
Another thought distracted Maddie from the strangeness of the former ghost boy knowing the dog's name. Many times during her theorizing while building the Promethean gun, Maddie had come to the hypothesis that most ghosts would have a bit of trouble adjusting to becoming alive again. The things they knew in life, when they were alive, had changed and ghosts lacked the ability to adapt, not to mention the way physics affects ghosts was distinctly different than that of humans.
In support of this hypothesis, Maddie referenced how many things she knew from her childhood had vanished and been replaced by new things. Recently Danny and Jazz had been more tech savvy than she was, at least when it came to the usual technology. Things like iPods, PDAs, MP3 players, there was razor this, high tech that, then smartphones and touch screens, it could get a bit confusing. All she needed to know about technology was technology related to ghost hunting. As far as phones went Maddie preferred simpler things. She remembered the nightmare it was when her two kids had convinced her to get a "smartphone". The blasted thing wouldn't spell out ectogun to save her life, not to mention it was difficult to operate through her gloves.. She spent quite a few days getting over the embarrassment it was when the word ectogun had autocorrect to… something else. Maddie shivered at the memory, she was sure that Danny wouldn't let her live that down that particular humiliation.
Then it struck her that Phantom probably hadn't died that long ago, he had appeared only a year prior and most of the technology that an older ghost would likely be baffled by was something that Phantom had probably seen before his death. She looked him over, wondering how he had died, but that was something to ask at a later date, when they had more rapport.
Putting this out of her mind for now she proceeded to fix pancakes, deciding to make bacon and eggs on the side, having forgotten about informing Jack that Phantom was back. The pancakes were blue for some odd reason but that didn't bother her, it wasn't that abnormal and for all she knew Danny had slipped food coloring into the flour or the milk and she hadn't noticed. He could be quite the practical joker at times.
As she thought about Danny she hoped her son would get home soon, though she knew she'd have to wait till at least 6 pm if Danny was going to follow his usual schedule. Then again,
Danny had been flaky and weird the past year or more, it was a miracle when he got home before curfew, let alone followed any semblance of a schedule.. She hated it when he stayed over at a friend's house and didn't call to let her know where he was, but he was a teenager, he liked his freedom and hated to be micromanaged.
Suddenly the phone rang, the sharp, loud sound made Maddie jump, the pancakes she had been stacking on her plate wobbled as she set down the plate. She dusted off her gloves and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" Maddie asked, jumpy, because no one really called the house phone unless they were looking for Danny or Jazz, anyone looking for Danny or Jazz would be in school or at work by now.
"Hello. We'd ask you to take time out of your day to answer a few questions about Mayor Master's comp-" Maddie hung up the phone. It was just a political survey probably calling for the next election. She was getting too jumpy, she wasn't sure why, probably on edge because of the ghost boy… former ghost boy, sitting in the living room. She glanced toward the living room then set the plate of pancakes, eggs, and bacon down on the table for her husband, retrieving another plate from the counter near the stove and setting it down on the table for herself, a much smaller portion of food on this one.
Madie poked her head down the stairs to the lab and called to her husband that breakfast was ready. Jack Fenton clamored up the steps with all the grace of a bull wearing tights and immediately began eating the pancakes as if he had been starving for days. Maddie turned to the living room once more to check on Phantom, making her way to the threshold that separated the two rooms and focusing on him.
"Are you sure you don't want something to eat?" Maddie asked, "I could just make you some toast." Maddie suggested she wanted him to eat, even if it was something small but Phantom only made a face.
"No thanks, I hate toast anyway." Phantom responded, his bored eyes still watching the TV, though it seemed he wasn't really watching it. Jack looked up from his pancakes to Maddie in the doorframe.
"Why is Danny still home?" Jack asked with a mouth full of food, Maddie held her finger up signaling Jack to wait before responding to Phantom.
"Ok but if you need anything or want anything to eat just let me know." Maddie said kindly. Phantom nodded in acknowledgement but didn't look her way; he was watching some violent movie about corrupt government, Maddie noted that it was a movie Danny seemed to enjoy, what was it called again? She didn't remember exactly, she looked over at the boy. Phantom had one hand on the puppy, Cujo. As the movie played he seemed to be getting more engaged, a spark of interest in his eyes that wasn't there before. Maddie hoped that he would be occupied for a while then made her way back into the kitchen and sat down with her husband, cutting into her own stack of pancakes.
"That was Phantom. Danny should be at school by now. But he stayed over with one of his friends again without telling me." Maddie said, voicing her anger with the boy before taking a bite of her breakfast.
"Huh…" Jack said to himself before swallowing, "Kinda funny how Phantom and Danny both don't like toast… plus Phantom sounds a lot like Danny." He commented idly before stuffing his mouth full of more pancakes. This got Maddie to look up staring at Jack a moment before the phone rang. As Maddie hurried to answer, all thoughts on the similarities between her son and Phantom in the living room were forgotten.
Danny woke up on the couch having fallen asleep on the movie that was playing on one of the movie channels. He was surprised he managed to fall asleep, after all he had been watching one of his favorite movies. Then he remembered it was the one after it that had put him to sleep. It had been some kind of documentary and while it had been initially interesting it had still put him to sleep. The next movie was louder, some sort of spy movie, the louder noise seemed to be what had woken him.
Danny rubbed his eyes, Cujo was breathing softly curled up next to him on the couch. The movie currently on didn't really have much of a plot anyway, just a whole bunch of screaming and running and, there wasn't much point to keep watching. Danny yawned, shutting off the TV, this action jostled Cujo awake who yawned and stretched before he yipped up at Danny happily. Danny looked down at the dog wondering if it was Ghost Dog Cujo and he'd been brought back to life like Danny had.
Back to life… Danny groaned loudly, he had to figure out this whole Phantom being human thing and get himself back to normal. The groan alerted Maddie that he was awake and caused her to come in from the kitchen, where she had been working on some strange new device. Her eyes roved over him, concern evident in her face. Danny wondered why she would show so much concern for him, she didn't know he was Danny Fenton after all, it was probably all about him being her science experiment.
"Are you ok? Are you feeling sick? Or are you hurt somewhere?" Maddie worried he'd destabilize back into ectoplasm. In retrospect, Maddie thought, it would have probably been best to try out the Promethean Gun a few more times and monitor the long term results. She had just been too excited, too ready to see her theories in action.
"Like you care." Phantom snapped at her, looking away. Maddie ignored the jab and was quiet, looking over Phantom and trying to make sure he didn't look too pale or too clammy. She worried that Phantom might melt in front of her one day. Seeing Phantom's defiant expression she decided he wasn't quite ready to melt if he had energy enough to be disrespectful.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Phantom quipped, Maddie was going to admonish him for his tone, but it occurred to her that would probably be a great idea.
"You're right, wait there." She said going downstairs and searching for the camera she used to take pictures of experiments. Phantom's voice drifted down the stairs behind her.
"I was only kidding!" He yelled, sounding exasperated. Maddie found the camera quickly and was trudging back up the stairs to where Phantom was sitting and pouting like a child.
That phrase "like a child" caught her off guard and Maddie drew a breath in. It struck her again that he was just a child, a kid, no older than her son. His habits and mannerisms were that of a teenager too.
Maddie felt choked up for a movement, saddened by the fact that he died so young, yet no one missed him, no one loved him; no one paid attention to his death, somehow, no one knew he was gone. Her breath hitched again as she realized his actual body must be somewhere, somewhere abandoned or hidden was the body of a child which had died over a year ago. His body now was an ectoplasmic construct made flesh, he still had a corpse somewhere. It was quite the depressing thought.
"Do I really look that bad?" Phantom asked, trying to force a smile but feeling uneasy since Maddie was staring at him like an orphan… Danny realized the irony of this. He kind of was an orphan now, an orphan in his own home. He scoffed a little at himself at the thought, and shook his head. Maddie hid her expression behind a mask of professionalism and calm before speaking again.
"I need to take some pictures. It's important to document the process, and it may give us a chance to show off the good this invention can do in the world." Maddie said, pasting on a politician's smile. Danny grumbled and folded his arms.
"Not like I have a choice, just like I didn't have a choice when you decided to turn me human… So yeah, sure, whatever." He said, waving his hand in a dismissive manner. Maddie held the camera up and Phantom immediately stuck out his tongue and began making faces. Maddie lowered the camera and put her free hand on her hip.
"This is serious. No Funny faces." Maddie scolded, giving Phantom the look. Phantom rolled his eyes.
"So was my afterlife but you really didn't care about that did you? You decided to play with it." Phantom accused, anger in his eyes. Maddie gritted her teeth, just when she was starting to see the human him, he always did something that reminded her that he had been a ghost. His snarky attitude from his time as a ghost seemed to have transferred to his new life as a human. Taking a breath she pinched the bridge of her nose like she had done many times when Danny had started taking an attitude with her.
"Look Danny, just let me take the picture and we can be done with this." Maddie said. She heard no answer and was looking away from Phantom at the time not wanting to see whatever fuck you expression he wore. When she looked up she saw him staring at her like she had grown another head and the extra head. Realizing what she said Maddie blushed furiously with anger at her mistake, she couldn't call Phantom Danny, that was her son's name.
"Phantom just let me take the picture." Maddie almost yelled, pulling the camera back up to her eye to snap a picture. Phantom was too far in shock to mess it up, though the oh-shit look on his face wasn't exactly the look she wanted. Maddie resolved to take a few candid shots later when he was distracted. Phantom slowly began to reach his senses again but was still shocked by Maddie calling him Danny.
She called me Danny, does she know? No she can't know otherwise she'd have already tried to fix things wouldn't she? What if she doesn't know how to fix things? Oh god. I have no idea how this is going to work out. Shit! What if she finds out? She'll be with me all the time and I've been pretty careless. I've been pissed and petty and snappy, did she already figure it out?
Danny's thoughts whirled around his mind and he shook his head. No, if his mom had figured it out she would have said something by now. Danny rubbed the back of his neck then quickly put his hand down wondering if his mom had recognized the action as familiar. If she had realized it, she made no comment on it. She was busy frowning at the camera as if trying to figure out some puzzle. Danny panicked, hoping she wasn't thinking about how much he looked like Fenton, though if she hadn't noticed by now, he wasn't sure she ever would. He wondered what would happen if he told her, she might be able to help… but he didn't want to tell her just yet, he wasn't ready. Just about the time Danny's mind was about to go into overdrive as Maddie looked back up at him his stomach saved him from further interrogation from her by letting out an enormous growl. Danny's hand instantly went to his stomach covering it up as if that would muffle the discontented noises it was making.
"Well… it is about lunch time… I suppose we can get into the research later. I'll need to take vitals and blood samples." Maddie frowned, Jack was supposed to be back with the Mexican food already. While Phantom slept they had dropped a vial of ectoplasm that had been cooling in the fridge and all the food in there was rendered inedible. That and she'd been so preoccupied with her invention that she'd forgotten to buy more food for the grocery run. It didn't help that it seemed like Danny and his friends were eating nonstop.
"Hey Mads, I'm home." Jack bustled in with armfuls of groceries and take out. Maddie put on a tight smile that Phantom seemed to notice as his brow furrowed in her direction. Jack, her clueless husband, didn't notice and he handed her several take out boxes before he continued to the kitchen to put away the groceries. He gave his wife a peck on the cheek on his way past, Maddie noticed Phantom cringing away like Danny had done many times. She shook her head, she had to stop making comparisons between the two just because they were the same age. It was going to affect her effectiveness as a scientist.
"Well then let's eat." Maddie said, looking over at Phantom who rolled his eyes at her faux happy attitude and wandered past her into the kitchen. He took a seat at the table and waited for the food to be dispersed, idly playing with his fork while boxes were passed around. Not knowing what Phantom liked, Jack had gotten Danny's usual meal for him. Phantom spent the first few minutes picking at the Chile Relleno, taking small bites, despite the fact he was clearly hungry. It wasn't long before Jack tried to strike up a conversation with him.
"So… Phantom, how did it feel to be an evil ghost?" Jack asked. Maddie mentally face palmed as Phantom's head whipped up to stare at Jack with a mixture of anger and confusion… and something else Maddie couldn't quite place, betrayal maybe.
"I wasn't evil." Phantom said, making sure each word was clear, his left eye twitched a bit as Jack gave out a boisterous laugh.
"Well sure you were! All ghosts are evil, or are you meaning to tell me you don't remember the things you did when you were a ghost." Jack asked with eyes full of humor like the whole thing was a joke now that Phantom was human. The shocked and somewhat hurt look that flickered through Phantom's eyes showed that he did likely remember the incidents Jack was referring to. But that look was replaced by one of determination, as he threw his fork into his take out box with disgust.
"I do remember, but there were circumstances." Phantom hissed through his teeth, his jaw clenched as he folded his arms and glared.
"Circumstances to being evil?" Jack asked, giving another short laugh as if the idea of Phantom being anything other than evil was ludicrous. Maddie put her hand on her husband's forearm to try and calm him down. Jack seemed to be more clueless when it came to reading body language and Phantom prickled at the statement.
"Yes. There were… circumstances." Phantom he growled as he trembled with rage. His face was getting hot and he dug his nails into his arms, causing small semi-circular indents where he gripped deep into the skin. He needed to distract himself from his anger, and pain was a good way to do so. Plus it kept him from expressing his anger in other ways, such as flipping over the table.
"So you have circumstances… What are these circumstances" Jack asked, genuinely curious. but Danny could only hear the laugh from before it felt like his father was mocking him. He hated that they only ever saw him as evil when he was a ghost, he hated that his parents hated his ghost half and it had been the source of many nightmares and sleepless nights.
"I was framed or I was being controlled." Danny said surprised by how level his voice sounded while his insides were shaking with anger.
"Of course." Jack said sardonically, Danny let out a noise that sounded like a growl.
"Jack." Maddie gave as a warning but Danny had stood up suddenly fists shaking, eyes narrowed at his father, but there wasn't just anger there, somewhere behind the anger was fear and pain.
"Believe me the last thing I want to be is evil! You think you've seen me evil?" Danny's voice had begun to show his anger trembling slightly, his voice low, harsh and sharp, "You wouldn't… If I was truly evil this town wouldn't be standing… the world wouldn't be standing. Entire nations would be wiped off the earth. You have not seen me committing truly evil deeds of my own volition. I will never be evil. I promised that to my family a long time ago. I will NOT," Danny palms met the table with a loud crack causing everyone to jump, his eyes bore into Jack's, "Be called evil! I am NOT evil! I WILL NOT BECOME EVIL LIKE HIM!" Danny glared and for a second it looked like his eyes flashed in the light, the acid green glow rising up in response to his anger, but it was just a trick of that light. He was completely human now, there would be no rush of power just below the surface shining in his eyes in response to his rage. Danny trembled with anger as he stared down his father.
The kitchen was deathly quiet as Danny's gaze almost daring Jack to call him evil once more, daring him to challenge what he said. Danny knew he could explain away every single "evil deed" he had done and he waited for the chance to argue his case and let them know he wasn't evil like they thought. Not all ghosts were after all.
"Who is him?" Jack asked instead, throwing Danny off as it was a question he hadn't expected his father to ask. His face paled and his confidence drained away as he backed away from the table, emerald eyes growing wide as the memories surfaced, he couldn't tell his family that the evil one was some sort of alternative future version of himself, not when they thought he was evil already. Not to mention they couldn't possibly understand the circumstances, especially when they didn't realize he was their son.
"N-no one… I-I-I…." Danny turned on his heel and ran up the stairs not caring that he probably had just raised so many more questions, he just had to be alone, to curb his anger… and his fear. Sitting on his bed Danny hung his head between his knees and took a few calming breaths trying to sort out his head.
"Who is him?" his dad had asked. So simple a question… yet I had rattled him so much. He could see it on his parent's faces, the way they feared him as he had grown angry despite him being human. He could see it in the way his mother's hand twitched toward her gun, the way his father's childlike smile had fallen so quickly and his muscles had tensed. Danny stretched out on the bed trying to calm his rapidly beating heart, had he gone too far with his anger? It wasn't as if he had powers to display to intimidate them. He listened to his heart, it was far too loud and suffocated him in its rhythm. His chest was too heavy, crushing him and choking him.
Danny's eyes closed against the sudden realness of the world, the fact that he was human, probably till he died, and that Danny Fenton couldn't exist anymore than Danny Phantom could. It was when the weight of the world came crashing down that Danny used to go out flying. In the times when he realized he could never become an astronaut because of his bad grades and all the ghosts. The times when he realized his altered biology would make it difficult for him to even qualify to be an astronaut at all. The times when he realized he was lucky to have even passed freshman year and was dreading his upcoming year as a sophomore. The times when he realized that he was alone, that the only one who could understand the pressure, the pain, the loneliness of being half ghost was a crazed up cheese head fruitloop who was evil. It was those times he used to go out and fly, leaving his troubles on the ground and using the time to sort out his head. Danny moved his head to the side and looked out the window longing for the sky, the breeze, the freedom of flight. It was all too much again, he looked at his hand and focused.
"Goin' ghost." He mouthed silently but nothing happened. There was no flash of light, no surge of cold power within him. He was powerless, stuck as a human with parents that had no idea that in trying to resurrect a ghost they had managed to vanish their son. He couldn't fix it, there was no way to fix it, it was then that Danny let the tears he'd been holding back to fall. When they fell, they fell hard, he curled into himself sobbing, wailing in pain and frustration even as he tried to muffle his cries in his pillow. He cried and cried, his emotions leaving him with a flood of tears.
He buried his face in his pillow and sobbed, letting out all his frustrations in his muffled screams and sobs. His parents left him alone, and he hated it and yet was grateful for the privacy as he let out the torrent of emotion. He let it out until he had no tears to cry anymore and laid on the bed feeling empty as he stared at the stars on his ceiling and the familiar cracks. When he couldn't cry any more he closed his eyes and hoped that he wouldn't dream if he fell asleep.