So, I continued this from Enlightenment, aka ch 15.
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Enlightenment 2
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Danny lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He knew it was only a matter of time. His parents were, well, eccentric, but they weren't stupid. They'd put two and two together before too long.
Maybe he should do something rather that just… lying here. Waiting. Passive.
Like his homework. He always complained about not having enough time to do his homework, yet here he was, wasting time contemplating the secrets of the ceiling.
Resolved to be productive, Danny sat up and reached for his homework.
He was, of course, interrupted by a knock on his door.
"Danny? Sweetheart? Can we come in?"
He let his hand fall back into his lap. Typical.
"Sure," said Danny.
The door creaked open, and his parents filed in, both uncharacteristically grim.
Oh. Yep. It was time. They had found out.
Danny took a shaky breath. "So," he said, smiling. Because a smile meant he was at ease, right? "What's up?"
"We were wondering," said Maddie, "if we could talk to you about your accident with the portal."
Danny forced down what would have been a nervous and suspicious laugh. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Is it about those experiments you've been running recently? The ones with the books from the Ghost Zone?" The books that Danny understood far better than his parents, because he could read the languages they were written in. All of them.
Because, with the exception of the one written in Irish and Latin, they were written by half-ghosts.
He'd been so excited, when he first saw them. He'd tried to sneak down to lab whenever his parents hadn't been there to flip through the books. Knowing that Vlad wasn't the first half-ghost was a massive weight off his chest. He didn't have to worry that he would slowly be corrupted and turn evil, like Vlad did.
But then he'd realized what Jack and Maddie's near-obsessive research on the subject of half-ghosts meant for him, and that weight had piled right back on.
"Yes," said Maddie. "It is. We were wondering, did you ever experience any…" she paused, clearly unsure how to phrase her question, "side effects?"
Danny chewed on his lip. "What happens," he said, "if I say yes?"
"We'll try to figure out why," said Jack.
"What if I know why?" asked Danny. "What if… I'm okay with it, and I don't want you to try to fix me?"
"What do you mean?" asked Maddie, her voice trembling.
"I mean… I mean I know that half-ghosts are possible. I mean, I…" he faltered.
"You mean, you are one," said Maddie.
"Yeah," said Danny, watching both his parents warily, ready to flick invisible and phase through the floor at a moment's notice.
"So," said Maddie, "so, what is it like? What- What happened to you, Danny?"
"It's," said Danny, swallowing, "not bad. I feel mostly the same," he decided to hold off on explaining his more ghostly impulses, "I just have, you know, some ghost powers."
Said ghost powers decided to kick in at that moment, picking up on his nerves. His outline wavered before Danny got hold of himself again.
Maddie nodded, once, tightly. "Your grades?"
Danny made a face. "You're not thinking that this damaged my brain or anything, are you?" He decided to wait to mention his core, his ghostly brain, floating in his chest, and that he was pretty sure he was smarter than he had been before. "The only reason my grades are down is because the ghosts like to come fight me, and I can't do that in class."
"Of course not," said Maddie, faintly. "Do you- The book, it said halfas-"
"That's a bit of a slur, honestly," said Danny.
"Half-ghosts, then, that they often have a… alternate form."
"Yeah," said Danny, answering the unspoken question. "I do. But I don't- I don't think we're… ready for that, yet."
"Danny-"
"You still think all ghosts are evil."
"You just said they attack you during school."
"Not most of them! You don't ever even see most of them," said Danny. He pulled his legs up onto his bed and hugged his knees.
"You're right," said Maddie.
"What?" said Jack.
"You're right, Danny," she said, more firmly. "That you're… that this happened to you, it shows that some of our theories need to be adjusted, and…" she trailed off, then took a step closer to Danny. She put a hand on his shoulder, and he didn't flinch. "We want you to know, we love you, no matter what. Whether you're completely human, or half-ghost, or if you look… unusual when you're a ghost or… anything. We love you."
"That's right, Danno," said Jack, softly. "You'll always be our son, even if you're huge and green and have teeth-"
"Aaaand that's enough, Jack," said Maddie. "If you- If you want to talk about this, Danny, we'll be downstairs, okay? Whenever you want."
"Okay," said Danny.
It took a long time to work up the courage to go down.