Danny laughed as he clinked his glass to Tucker's, a smile on his face.
"Happy spring break!" they cheered as he turned to clink his glass against Sam's and then he slammed the shot back. Sam made a face as the alcohol burned down her throat.
"I don't understand why you guys enjoy the shots." Sam said. "I think I'll stick to my mixed drinks and wine.
"My ghost half keeps me from getting drunk too quickly, shots are the best way for me to actually feel a buzz." Danny said with a shrug.
"I just feel cool." Tucker said with a laugh.
"You don't look cool after you've had a few shots, you look like a mess." Sam teased, a smirk on her face.
"You've already got enough blackmail on me from getting drunk before, you don't need more, I'm going to limit myself this time." Tucker said. Danny raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? You're going to limit yourself? Really? That's what you said last time and I ended up having to fly you home. You vomited on me. It was disgusting." He said making a face.
"I mean it this time!" Tucker protested.
"Suuuuure." Sam said, drawing out the vowels before glancing around the bar. "Holy Shit, is that Paulina?" She said looking at the bartender behind the counter.
"Huh… it certainly looks like her… how did she end up as a bartender?" Tucker frowned.
"Hmm… maybe her daddy finally cut her off? Danny said as he raised an eyebrow.
"Ha! Fat chance, that man adores and spoils her so much." Sam shook her head.
"Maybe she's having an identity crisis." Tucker mused while sipping his beer.
"Maybe." Danny said with a shrug before looking down at his old fashioned and taking a sip.
"I guess it doesn't matter too much in the end." Sam shrugged. "But it is a little interesting to see where our classmates are now."
"I really don't care." Danny shrugged. "We weren't exactly friends with most of them, and the ones we did know better were only because they were constantly bullying us. I couldn't care less what happened to them." He shrugged.
"Whoa… someone is a grumpy gus." Tucker said. Danny rolled his eyes.
"I have more important things to worry about than whatever those people are doing." He said, he paused as a wisp of cold air left his mouth and he sighed. "Oh joy, a ghost." He said sarcastically.
"Do you need any help?" Sam asked as Danny slid from the bar top.
"Dunno, if I do I'll let you know." He said, slipping a Fenton Phone into his ear and heading out of the bar to go find whichever ghost was responsible for interrupting his night out this time.
Danny awoke with a gasp as his alarm began to beep. He groaned and held his head, he felt like he had barely gotten any sleep and he frowned, glaring at the time on the clock, maybe he could recharge for a few minutes by the portal. He sighed, he had spent too long baking cookies and talking, he made plans to meet again, this time in the Ghost Zone, before he had finally headed home. He had left some of the cookies on the counter for Sam, then packaged the rest to distribute among friends and family. He had basically dropped onto the bed and passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Danny groaned and hauled himself out of bed, getting dressed and lazily fixing his hair before grabbing his bag and trudging down the stairs. He dropped his bag near the front door before he sleepily made his way to the kitchen. He paused then frowned, he had forgotten to eat his apple the day before and he frowned, concentrating on bringing it back. The apple appeared in a flash of light and Danny smiled to himself.
"Still cool." He mumbled before heading to the lab, phasing through the door and walking in a daze down the stairs. He took a bite of the apple as he got to the bottom, grabbing his usual chair and pulling it up to the portal, taking a deep breath as he felt the ambient energy seep into him. He took another bite of the apple and looked into the portal, why did his parents have it open at this time of day? Usually he'd have to open it himself, his parents were usually teaching classes in the morning.
"Danny?" his mom asked, making him jump, her brow furrowing as she exchanged looks with Jack.
"How'd ya get down here son? The door is locked." Jack asked with curiosity, there was an edge of excitement and nervousness to his voice.
"Oh… I didn't notice." Danny said. "I just… wanted to recharge a bit by the portal." He shrugged, rubbing his eyes and then taking another bite of apple. "I didn't sleep well." He explained with a small smile, looking back to the portal and reaching his hand out toward it, like humans did with a fire to feel the warmth of the flame when cold.
"Is that apple glowing?" Maddie asked with a frown, Danny frowned and looked down at the apple in his hand, in the dim light of the portal it indeed looked like it was glowing.
"Hmmm… I guess it is." He said with a nod. "Must be a ghost apple afterall." He mumbled to himself and took another bite, looking back up to the portal and drawing out energy from the portal, his body glowing softly in the low light the longer he sat in front of it.
"Danny?" Maddie asked softly, approaching and putting a hand on his shoulder. Danny startled and looked up, smiling at his mom.
"Yeah mom?" He asked. Maddie hesitated before speaking.
"You… you doing okay?" she worried, though suspicion was behind her eyes.
"Yeah… late night… didn't sleep much… why?" He asked his brow furrowing before he took another bite of apple.
"Where did you get a ghost apple?" Maddie asked, taking the apple from him.
"Hey! I was eating that!" He protested, reaching out to take it back, but Maddie kept it out of his reach, putting a hand to his forehead.
"Danny… you're cold." She frowned. "You shouldn't be eating this." she said, tossing the apple to Jack who caught it and examined it with great interest. Danny frowned, before yawning and rubbing his eyes, still not completely awake yet.
"Cold… I don't feel the cold anymore, not since the accident, remember?" He frowned at his mom. Maddie winced, taking off her gloves and putting a hand to Danny's forehead again, surprised by how cold he was, she then slid her fingers under Danny's chin and to his throat, feeling his neck for a pulse. Her anxiety increased when she felt how slow his heart was beating.
"Jack, I think Danny needs a doctor." Maddie said as she turned to Jack with panic on her face. Danny blinked and shook his head.
"I can't go to the doctor." He frowned and waved her off, "I'm fine mom, just a bit sleepy."
"Danny!" Maddie said sternly.
"Mom!" Danny said dramatically in return. "I'm fine!" He insisted.
"Danny, your heart rate is dangerously low, I don't even know how you're still conscious, no wonder you're so tired." Maddie frowned.
"Mads… perhaps this has to do with the portal accident… the ecto-contamination may have more side effects than we realized." Jack said as he glanced over at Danny, recalling the conversation from the night before.
"I'm fine… My heart rate is always low, as is my temperature. I'm fine, mom. It's just how I've been since the portal accident. I guess you never noticed before now. I'm already waking up more, I should go get some breakfast since you confiscated mine." He said frowning at the apple that Jack was cutting into slices to examine under the microscope. Maddie looked between Danny and Jack, her brow still furrowed and then shook her head.
"No, we need to run some tests, even if you feel fine, your temperature and heart rate aren't normal, if you don't want to go to the hospital then at least let your father and I run some tests. He might be right, about you having ecto-contamination." she frowned.
"What about school?" Danny frowned. "I have a test today. Why don't you just take some blood samples and if I feel bad at school I'll call, or Jazz will." He tried to compromise. Maddie frowned, he already was looking more alert and alive, but that didn't mean that she was reassured about his health.
"I can write a note to excuse you, you can take the test another day, we should really figure this out Danny. It's not healthy." She said as she moved to a cabinet to gather instruments to draw his blood.
"Ugh… I'm perfectly healthy, for me." He grumbled quietly and sighed, folding himself back into the chair and focusing on gathering the ambient energy. He already felt better, more energized and alert, he had nearly forgotten he was back in the past between baking with Pat and the dream of drinking with Sam and Tucker on spring break. He hadn't said anything too incriminating yet though. He frowned and sighed, he had seen the look in his mother's eyes, there was no changing her mind once she was set on something.
She probably wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong if he hadn't come down to the basement in the first place. She hadn't noticed anything really amiss with him in his first life for three years, it was almost comical that she had noticed something already, then again, he wasn't fully trying to hide his powers, and he had already talked to both of his parents about how oblivious and neglectful they had been since the portal opened. Not to mention he'd talked a bit about how he'd changed since the accident. He sighed and glanced at his father who looked up from the apple as he felt Danny's eyes on him.
"This apple is made of ectoplasm Danny… what… what did it taste like?" He asked with a frown. "Surely it tasted strange."
"It tasted like a normal apple to me… but… I'm… not normal anymore." he sighed and shrugged. "I don't think a normal human should be eating that apple, I don't recommend trying it Dad."
Maddie set some medical equipment on a different lab table and frowned as she looked over at Danny.
"What do you mean by that sweetie?" She asked as she beckoned him over to sit with her.
"It's hard to explain." He sighed and shook his head as he approached the table where his mom was, sitting in the chair she gestured too. She took out a needle and Danny shuddered, avoiding looking it, staring over at his Dad who was poking at the apple slices which were slowly dissolving into ectoplasmic goo.
"Can you try, I'm getting worried about you." Maddie said softly as she prepared to take some blood samples from Danny's arm.
"Don't be, I'm fine." Danny sighed, keeping his eyes locked on what Jack was doing with the apple, he couldn't look down at the needle in his arm, not now. It sent him back to worse days, hospitals and more distressing, the dissection tables. He suppressed a shudder. Even though it hasn't happened to this body yet, he still remembered it in his core. The temperature of the room dropped by a few degrees, as did the coldness of his skin. The change caused Maddie to startle slightly, pulling back with the first vial of blood and staring at Danny with fear and worry.
"You okay son?" Jack asked, looking up from his work after feeling the change in the room.
"I just… I don't like needles." He said with a wince. "I guess… with the way I am now… the ambient ecto-energy must have responded to my emotions."
"Another Ghostly symptom?" Jack asked, Maddie frowned realizing what he meant and looked at Danny, pausing as she took the second vial of blood.
"Yeah." He said with a small nod. Maddie nodded and finished up the second vial, setting it to the side before starting the third.
"It might take some time to set up a meeting, but we really should discuss this with Vlad." Maddie said as she looked over at Jack.
"Right! Vladdie should know! Maybe he'll even give us some help, he can compare his labs to Danny's from his accident." Jack said happily. Danny scoffed and made a face, unable to keep his distaste from surfacing. Maddie frowned and looked down at Danny. She had finished drawing blood and slid the needle from his arm, pressing a piece of gauze into the crook of his elbow to stop the bleeding.
"Something wrong?" She asked. Danny shook his head and shrugged, taking over holding the gauze while his mom grabbed the coban to wrap up the tiny wound. Danny knew it would heal in the next few seconds, but let her wrap the self adhesive bandage around his arm anyway.
"I don't like you discussing me like some kind of experiment." He frowned and shook his head looking away from both of them.
"Oh… sweetie, of course we didn't mean it that way." Maddie said, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"You guys have been talking about finding and dissecting ghosts for ages. Of course I'm going to be nervous when you talk about me like an experiment… especially when I've been… not completely human since the accident." He admitted, he looked down at his hands and sighed before burying his face in his hands.
"Danny? Whatever is going on with you, we'll figure it out, we can run you through decontamination procedures and get rid of any ecto-contamination." Maddie reassured him. Danny sighed heavily and shook his head, dragging his hands down his face with a grown.
"You can't fix this with decontamination procedures. This… the portal accident changed me on a molecular level… Besides I'm still myself… just… with some ghostly side effects. I've even met some other ghosts, and they aren't as bad as you've said they are." He frowned and looked over at his mom with a half smile. "They just need to be reminded of their humanity so they don't lose themselves. I'm not going to turn into a malevolent spirit just because I've got ghostly traits." Maddie frowned and Danny worried that maybe he had revealed too much. He had planned to ease into the reveal and change their minds slowly, but things were progressing faster than intended. Perhaps if he shared a little more, he could rest a little easier in the future.
"You've seen a ghost? Why didn't you tell us!?" Maddie said.
"Um… because she looked like someone's grandma, and I really didn't like the idea of you pulling her apart molecule by molecule." Danny said with a frown. "Plus, she didn't do anything bad, she was just upset the menu changed, we talked about it and things calmed down, she was really sweet actually, she didn't hurt anyone, or even scare anyone."
"Hmmm… that doesn't really make sense." Jack said as he approached, having finished with the ghost apple, the goo now in a container to be analyzed later. "According to our research ghosts have a tendency to be malevolent and feed off the emotions and life force of humans."
"Well… I'm not saying that all ghosts are good, I'm just saying that they aren't all evil." Danny shook his head. "They're like humans, a mixture of both, your data pool is skewed because most of the ghosts that cross over have a tendency toward malevolence. Plus they have this tendency toward the extremes of emotions the longer they've been around, especially if they don't have something to ground them… though that seems to be mostly when they crossover, something changes. Again, not to say that all ghosts are peaceful as long as they stay in the infinite realms, Ghosts are just as emotionally complicated as humans, they used to be human after all."
"Hmm… how'd you figure all this out?" Jack asked, his eyes alight with excitement.
"I literally just talked to the ghost." He said with a shrug. "It was a lot more informative of what ghost society is like in the ghost zone than your theories. I mean, if you wanted to talk to her I could see if she would be willing to visit… that is if I ever see her again." he said with a shrug.
"You… you just walked up to a ghost and started talking to it?" Maddie asked incredulously. "How did you even know where to find a ghost!?"
"Well… kind of… ever since the accident I can kind of sense when ghosts are nearby, there have been a few weak animal-like ghosts that I've encountered since the portal opened. I kind of sensed her presence in the lunch room and went to investigate, she was upset the menu changed so we ended up talking." he said.
"You… you have a built-in ghost detector?" Jack asked, his eyes widening with excitement. "How convenient! The Fenton Finder is still on the fritz… we fixed it but it still keeps saying there's a ghost in the house."
"Oh…" Maddie said realization dawning as she looked at Danny. "It's you… the ghost it's picking up is you."
"I mean… probably." Danny said with a shrug. "I… I generate my own ectoplasmic signature now… It doesn't hurt me though, this whole ghost thing. I'm feeling perfectly fine, I keep saying half human or not entirely human… but if you'd like you can think of it as human with perks." He said with a reassuring smile. Maddie and Jack considered this before Maddie sighed and shook her head.
"If you're certain you feel fine, but still… I'd like to run some tests and make sure, we should probably keep an eye on you… I'd still like to come up with a plan to get rid of these ghostly side effects in case it does become harmful." She said, frowning as she took the blood samples in her hands.
"Mom… this is who I am, this isn't something you can 'fix' or get rid of." He said with a sigh. "I know you worry about me, but I'm fine, if I'm not fine I'll let you know. I promise."
"Maddie, he's a Fenton, he's going to be fine. Let's trust him, maybe limit tests to once a month. He's our kid, plus, he's already learned more about ghosts in the last month than we have in the past twenty years. Clearly, he's a Fenton." Jack said, beaming at Danny with a smile, clearly proud that his son was interested in ghosts at all, even if the boy had become a bit ghostly in the process.
"I appreciate the vote of confidence Dad." Danny said with a smile.
"Clearly I am out voted." Maddie said with a small sigh as she organized the vials of blood she collected from Danny, slotting one of them into a centrifuge while Danny exchanged a look with his dad.
"Mom. I don't want to be poked and prodded at, like some kind of experiment." he said. "I think Dad's compromise is reasonable." His put his hand over the coban wrap and shivered slightly, fighting off memories of being strapped to a table, sedated with an anti ecto poison while being slowly cut open and examined. He'd only been fifteen. He swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat and looked away. That was another thing he'd make sure never happened to him again, even if he had to dismantle the GIW completely.
"Danny… are you feeling okay." Jack asked, putting his hand on Danny's shoulder. Danny flinched away, before blinking away the cloud of his past.
"Yes… sorry… just… worried what might happen to me… if anyone outside the family knew what… what I am." He said softly looking down at his shoes.
"And what are you?" Maddie asked, concern painted across her face as she studied Danny.
"I… someone who exists on the boundary of life and death… a foot on each side." He said softly. "I'm both human… and ghost…" He admitted softly, the words left him like the last bit of air leaving a balloon that had been about to pop, surprisingly he felt a sense of relief as he spoke, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Whatever happened now would happen, whether they accepted him, tried to cure him, or kill him, he was past the point of no return.
Jack and Maddie exchanged looks and Danny sighed, closing his eyes, waiting for them to react, for them to explode with anger or panic, denial or questions, waiting for his life to become chaos.
"So… you're liminal?" Maddie said softly, awe in her voice, he frowned and opened his eyes looking up at her.
"What?" Danny asked.
"Liminal… like an in-between,the word is usually used for places, but we theorized that humans and ghosts have the potential to exist in an in-between state… though it is most obvious in comatose patients whose bodies are alive, yet have a spirit form. We also theorized that people with psychic powers are liminal in a sense, people who have experienced death too. Not to mention those who can use astral projection, but also ghosts who can masquerade as humans… liminals." Maddie said.
"Or at least that's what we've taken to calling it… though we suspect it comes in degrees, some more on one side than the other. Though we never truly considered what it would mean for someone to be truly in the middle… the closest to that would likely be astral projection or the coma state." She rambled as she thought of it. "Still the body is unconscious when the person's ghost roams free… truly liminal… truly in-between… interesting…"
"Liminal?" Danny blinked, he hadn't remembered that word, he thought maybe someone called him that once… but Halfa was the term that had stuck. "That… is a much better description than halfa." He said with a laugh.
"Halfa? Halfa what?" Jack frowned then his eyes widened. "Ohhhhh, half a human, half a ghost. Ha ha!" He said with a beaming smile as if he had figured out the punchline to a particularly complex joke or riddle.
"So you… you theorized something like me could exist… then why… why didn't you figure it out sooner!?" Danny asked, jumping to his feet, his eyes flashed green for a moment as he thought back to his first life, to all the fights with his parents, to them ignoring his ghostly symptoms when he was human and ignoring his humanity when he was a ghost. If they had theorized that something like him existed before, then why did it take so long for them to know about him in the first place.
"Well… technically we theorized it with Vlad, but… that's because he became liminal himself after the portal accident, at least while he was in a coma, his ghost visited us, even though his body was still on life support in the hospital." Maddie said.
"Vlad did? But… He… that makes no sense." Danny frowned and rubbed his temples, trying to untangle the future past in his mind. Why hadn't his parents told him about this in his first life? Or maybe they had but he hadn't been paying attention, or it was one of those times before the portal accident, he couldn't remember. If they knew Vlad was like him… then again it seemed Vlad didn't tell them the full story either.
"We'll try and set up a meeting with him now that we know about this, I'm sure his experiences will be helpful to you Danny-boy. Plus it's been ages since we visited Vladdie, I think you were four the last time we saw him, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't remember." Jack said as he clamped his hand down on Danny's shoulder.
"I… We went to visit Vlad in Wisconsin when I was four?" He asked with a frown, he definitely didn't remember that, but was that a result of him being so young, or something to do with his time travel. He tried to remember if they had mentioned visiting Vlad before in his first life, but it hadn't really come up before. Then again it wasn't surprising that things were different. He hadn't explained his powers to his parents the first time this soon after the portal accident, by the time he'd revealed himself to his parents in the future Vlad had been exposed to them with some help from Jazz. Consulting Vlad about his powers wouldn't have ever come up in conversation before.
He was also surprised that his parents knew anything about Vlad having a ghost half, but they didn't seem to know the full story, perhaps they had never considered that Danny was involved with this… liminal thing since Danny was never in a coma. He picked at the coban wrap around his arm, his brow furrowing.
"Danny?" Maddie frowned and took his hand, bringing him back from his thoughts.
"Hmmm… what?" Danny frowned as he looked up at his parents.
"What do you think?" Maddie asked.
"About what?" Danny's brow furrowed, clearly he had missed a question somewhere.
"Well, Vlad is having our college reunion in his castle, it'll be in a month and a half, we can go there early and ask some questions, in the meantime we can send him some samples, he was always more interested in the question of liminality than we were, mostly because of his experience with the proto-portal." Maddie said.
"No!" Danny said before coughing and shaking his head. "I mean… yes, I'll go with you, but… I don't feel comfortable with you guys sending my blood and bits off without me knowing who this guy is. I get that you guys trust him and all but… I don't know him." Danny said, quickly covering his disgust with concern.
"That's fair." Jack nodded. "You're going to love Vladdie, he's your godfather after all." Danny shuddered and shook his head looking away as his father began to talk about how great a guy Vlad was and how excited he was to be seeing him again.
Danny sighed and took a seat in front of the portal again, letting the energy seep into him, he leeched it from the air itself as he thought. It would be a month and a half, but he had to go to the reunion, he had to protect Dad from Vlad's evil schemes. Vlad may actually kill Jack if Danny didn't go with them. He grit his teeth with anger, Vlad had always run away when Danny faced an enemy, he was a manipulative coward who only picked on those weaker than him. Danny hadn't grown any fonder of him over the years, even if he and Vlad had a tentative truce going before Danny had died. Danny wondered if Vlad had killed him in the future, but immediately dismissed that idea, Vlad didn't have the guts to kill him, nor did he have the skill.
Danny frowned as he looked into the portal, the cool waves coming off of it were soothing and he took a breath and smiled to himself. Well, if Vlad was going to try anything, Danny would be there to stop him, and to expose Vlad to his parents. More than half of his future's past problems had seemed to be due to Vlad in one way or another. He was going to nip this in the bud this time. Vlad wasn't going to fuck around with his family and friends this go around, he would thwart every plan every scheme no matter what.