10/22/2024: Hi! Hope you liked the last one. We're getting into the meat of it now–the juicy bits, if you will.

10/31/24: Happy Halloween!

Throwing you a curveball in the first few paragraphs.

DxSlover: Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked Taken!

Guest/Mimi: Thank you so much for your review! You're too kind!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

–

Chapter 14: Consequences

–

The trio made their way back to Amity Park. As they neared the city, Danny spoke up. "Where is your son?"

"Last I heard, he's on Barkley Street," Dr. Tanning yelled over the wind.

Danny turned and headed that way, wind whipping his hair. Sam held on, trying to keep her hair out of her face.

He stopped above the street and the doctor pointed to a house. Danny looked at it in confusion.

"Isn't that Dash's house?" Sam asked.

"Dash, yes, that's my son's name," the doctor said.

Danny's head whipped around so fast to look at him that he was sure it was going to hurt later. "Dash Baxter is your son?"

Dr. Tanning nodded. "He has his mother's last name. You know him?"

"We went to school with him. He's a friend," Sam replied. "But I didn't know he thought his father was dead," she added softly.

"Does he know you're a ghost?"

"He does," Danny confirmed.

Dr. Tanning smiled. "That makes this easier then!"

Danny steeled himself, tilting his head in a way that said he was trying to come to terms with this, before descending to the street. He touched down carefully before knocking on the door.

Dr. Tanning was wringing his hands, fretting over seeing his son for the first time in years. Sam placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed for comfort. He gave her a grateful smile.

Danny knocked again, louder. "He's probably asleep. If he doesn't answer, I'll go in and get him."

Almost as soon as he was finished saying that, the door swung open. "Who the hell–Danny?"

"Uhh, hi. I know it's late, but would you mind coming with me?"

The blonde rubbed an eye. "What for? It's the middle of the night, Danny."

Sam brushed past the ghost. "Please, Dash, it's an emergency. We need to get you out of here."

That got the former jock's attention. "Sam? Is this a ghost thing?"

"Yes and you need to come with us."

Dash groaned. "I knew hanging out with you guys was gonna get me in trouble."

"I'm sorry, Dash, we can explain in a bit," Danny said. "Now, I need everyone to hold hands."

"We're not singing Kumbya are we?" Dash asked sarcastically before he spotted the shorter man who had been trying his best to hide.

"Who…Dad?" The sheer shock in his voice made the doctor feel small.

The ghost sighed. "I'm sorry to interrupt the moment, but I have no idea if we were followed. We need to go now," he said imploringly.

Finally, the former jock nodded, grabbing Danny and Sam's hands. Dr Tanning also took a hold of Danny and Sam's free hands.

"The best way to avoid being followed is to teleport. You'll need to hold your breaths." Once they all did as asked, he teleported, the world instantly shifting on its axis.

When they stopped, he heard gasps, as well as some retching.

"Danny! Sam!" Maddie said, surprised and absolutely elated to see them. It was much quicker than expected, but she and Jack had still stayed up just in case, and were now glad they did.

Sam was patting the blonde on the back, the young man trying hard not to lose the contents of his stomach. Dr. Tanning wasn't doing much better.

Jack and Maddie looked around. They weren't expecting more than Sam and Danny. Even so, Jack went over to the balding man and patted him. "You okay, buddy?" The doctor nodded, still coughing.

Maddie pulled both her son and Sam into a tight hug. "I'm so glad you guys made it back. I can't believe he found you so quickly."

'Not quick enough,' Sam thought, but didn't say it out loud. She simply smiled at the redhead. "I hate to ask this, but can you look after these two for a bit? We can explain in the morning."

Maddie nodded and Sam turned to Danny. "We should let Dash and Dr. Tanning talk. I want to see the twins."

The doctor looked at her with bewilderment. "Twins? Do you have kids?"

Danny eyed the man, slightly reluctant to trust him with the information. But seeing as how they got his son, Mira didn't have anything to hold over the man's head anymore. So, he nodded. "We had twins four weeks ago."

The short man seemed overwhelmed for a moment. "Why I…I can't believe–" he pushed up his glasses. "I'm so happy for you both. After what you've both been through, it's the best news yet."

Sam gave him a soft smile. "Thank you, and thank you for looking out for me."

Dr. Tanning gave her a sad look. "You're welcome."

Sam went to Danny then and grabbed his hand. "We'll be back tomorrow," Danny told his parents, before they teleported away.

–

They suddenly appeared in their home, startling Jazz and Tucker who were also awake and waiting to see if Danny would be able to get her tonight. They went to happily greet them, but Sam was done putting up a front and pretending she was okay.

Whatever Jazz was going to say died in her throat when the goth ripped her hand from Danny's and went to stalk off towards the hallway. That was NOT how they expected her to react to being rescued.

The ghost was just as surprised, but recovered fairly quickly. He placed a hand on the goth's shoulder before she could walk away. "Are you okay?"

She rounded on him, face in a sneer. "You can sleep on the couch tonight."

He was taken aback by her sudden hostility. "What did I do? I literally just rescued you from someone who wants to kill you," he said with surprise.

She felt her emotions starting to rise, her hormones taking over. "I don't want to see your face for a while so just stay out here."

"I don't understand why you're angry at me," Danny said, his deep voice full of confusion.

The goth's teary amethyst eyes glared at him, but Danny could see the hurt behind the rage. "Mira," was her one-word response.

The ghost couldn't stop the guilty look that crossed his face when he realized what she meant, a look that told Sam what she already suspected.

She wasn't sure she could trust herself to say the right thing, so she clenched her fists and turned on her heel, stomping away towards the hallway.

Danny didn't want to back down, though. He flew in front of her, blocking her way. "We need to talk about this."

"Move," she ground out, her voice a whisper. Her shaking form betrayed her hurt and anger.

The ghost shook his head. "Not until you tell me what happened with Mira."

"Get out of the way, Danny," the goth spat, voice louder.

"Danny, I think you shou–" Danny's raised hand cut off his sister's warning.

The ghost sighed. "Sam, I want to fix this."

At her limit, Sam's head suddenly snapped up and Danny felt his limbs go numb when he realized her amethyst eyes were glowing. It was then his ghost sense triggered, a warped, twisted feeling that was more powerful than the previous ones. A purple light ignited around her fists. "Leave me alone!" she shouted, hands coming up and shoving Danny.

The ghost fell back and Sam used the opportunity to shove past him and run down the hall to the bedroom. She wanted badly to slam the door, but refrained, knowing the twins were sleeping in there.

Danny looked down at his singed shirt in shock.

"Did she…did she just use ghost powers?!" Tucker asked, thoroughly freaking out.

The ghost put a hand to his chest, feeling the warmth that was still there. "Yes, but how–" It dawned on him. His sense had been dampened while at the warehouse, probably from whatever they were using to mask them. When they got out of range, he thought he felt his sense triggering, but he'd been so distracted by Dash being Dr. Tanning's son and everything else that it didn't truly register. He looked between his sister and brother-in-law. "They're making half ghosts."

"Oh my God…" Tucker ran a hand over his head. "Oh shit."

Jazz shook her head. "But why? That's giving superpowers to their enemy. It doesn't make any sense!"

Danny clenched his burnt shirt, gaze settling on Jazz while Tucker paced in a near panic. "That's the only explanation. When she did that, it triggered my ghost sense. It was that same distorted feeling as the others." He looked around. "I have to talk to her." He moved to go down the hall, but Jazz stopped him.

"Wait! I think you need to give her some time," she said, walking over to him with her hands up.

"But those powers–"

"-will be very dangerous in her emotional state; she's still only a month postpartum. You're a powerful ghost, but it'll still hurt getting hit by an ecto-blast if she can't control it. Also, the twins are in there."

Tucker stopped pacing and raised a brow. "Can't control it? I'm pretty sure, right now, she'd hit him with one on purpose."

The ghost sighed. "He's not wrong."

His sister gestured to the couch. "While she's cooling off, I think we need to have a talk."

Danny internally groaned. He had a feeling he knew exactly where this was going.

The three sat down, Tucker and Jazz on the longer couch with Danny on the loveseat to the side. Jazz put on her best therapist face and looked at her brother. "Okay, so what does Mira have to do with why Sam is angry? I saw the look on your face, so don't try to deny it."

The ghost took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh, an old human habit. "I told you Mira is the Headmaster's daughter and is one of the ones who trained me. Well…it was more than that."

His sister nodded. "Yeah, I got that part from Sam being so pissed and all," she said a bit sarcastically. Her brother suddenly looked so defeated and it made her heart clench.

"When I saw Mira for the first time a few months ago…she managed to corner me and kiss me," he admitted, unable to meet Jazz or Tucker's gaze. "When that happened, all these memories just rushed through my head; things I had forgotten about. Mira said it was because it was getting in the way of my training, so the Headmaster blocked those memories."

When he failed to continue, Jazz patted his leg. "It's okay, dude, just get it out," Tucker said encouragingly.

Danny covered his face with his hands, hunched over his legs. "Please, don't make me say it," he pleaded.

Jazz sighed, trying to remain patient with him. "Sam already knows, so you might as well say it."

He stood suddenly, hands on the back of his head, as he paced. "I slept with Mira," he finally ground out.

"You did what?!" Jazz shouted. "When?!"

Her brother winced, core lurching at the shock and accusation in her tone. "Back while I was in China."

The redhead put her hands out in front of her and took a deep breath to calm herself while Tucker shook his head. "Yeah, but only once, right?" the dark-skinned man asked.

The look on the ghost's face said it all and Tucker paled. "Oh God, man, how bad is it?"

Danny shrugged, running a hand through his hair. "I don't know, honestly. I can say it's more than once…probably a lot more than once, but it's just snippets, fragments of memory," he explained.

"Don't take this the wrong way," Jazz started, "But why the hell would you sleep with her?"

The ghost dropped his hands to his sides in defeat. "Honestly, I don't know. I can't remember."

She watched him a moment, before finally deciding to ask the hard question. "Did you love her?"

Her brother instantly shook his head. "Hell no. I can say that with certainty."

Tucker sighed. "It was really tough for you there. Maybe you just needed an outlet and she was the body that existed at the time," he suggested.

"Maybe," Danny conceded before groaning. "But why? She's freaking insane!"

"You have to give yourself a little leeway, Danny," Jazz said, voice full of concern. "You were in a totally didn't mindset then. The Headmaster had, for lack of a better term, broken you. You were a shell of yourself."

Danny stood there, the pained look on his face making Jazz feel awful. "You're right. I was like the walking dead. I didn't come alive again until I saw Sam in that alley." He went back over to the couch and sat down, elbows on his knees. He felt like the worst person on the planet.

"This had happened while in the service of the Headmaster, so it's not like I cheated on Sam," he said, dropping his head into his hands. He then sighed.

"So why the hell does it feel like I did?"

–

Sam wanted to scream, to throw things, to annihilate everything she could get her hands on, but her twins were in the room and she didn't want to scare them.

One look from Danny was all it took for him to confirm what Mira had said; to confirm that he'd been lying to her for months. All those guilty looks, all those times he was spaced out, he was thinking about her.

Part of her knew this was an overreaction, but the emotions were fresh and raw and her hormones were making it ten times worse. She hissed when she realized her hands were literally on fire and shook them to dispel the energy.

She groaned. She needed to get a hold of herself before she accidentally hurt her children. She also needed to calm down so she could actually hold and feed them.

The goth went over to the bassinets. Aurora was sound asleep, but Jackson was awake. He was calm, simply looking around at the mobile over his bassinet, little hands flexing next to his face. She didn't want to disturb him too much, so instead of picking him up, she leaned over, running her hand softly through his hair, allowing his amethyst eyes and baby smell to calm the raging storm inside. She smiled lightly at him, running her thumb over the white spot in his hair.

There was a gentle knock on the door. "Unless you like your shins, I suggest you go away," she growled, just loud enough to be heard.

There was a pause. Then, "It's me," Tucker said.

Sam sighed heavily, pulling away from her son. "Fine," she said tightly.

The door carefully opened and a nervous Tucker came in, shutting it softly behind him. He watched her a bit tensely, not quite sure what to do with his hands. "So…ghost powers, huh?"

She gave him a deadpan look, and the brief flash of fear that crossed his face sobered her up fairly quickly. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "But yes."

He ran a hand over his head, taking a deep breath and letting it out through his lips in an odd sound. "What was it like?"

She looked at him with a raised brow. "That's not really the question I expected."

He shrugged. "This is both new and familiar territory. We've already had one half ghost, but…I assume your change was different," he ventured cautiously.

Leave it to Tucker to force her to confront feelings she didn't even know she had. Everything had been such a whirlwind that she hadn't really had much time to go over her thoughts on what exactly happened. She returned her gaze to her son, the infant now holding tightly to her finger. "I thought I was going to die," she admitted softly.

Her admission caused her best friend to gain a sad and sympathetic look. He walked to her, putting a hand on the back of her neck and pulling her to him in a tight hug. She hadn't been expecting it and it caused tears to well up in her eyes. She hugged him back with one arm, her other hand still preoccupied with her son.

Finally, she let go of some of the emotions and hid her face in his neck, allowing herself to cry. Despite her bravado, it had been a terrifying ordeal, and for a little bit, had truly believed she was going to die. "I thought they were going to grow up without a mother," she sobbed.

Tucker ran a hand up and down her back. "You knew Danny would find you; you found him."

She pulled back, shaking her head. "Yeah, but after four years. And Mira…she really hates me. She was going to kill me, but someone else stopped her." She sighed. "And he wasn't able to get to me before they did this to me," she added sadly, bringing her hand up and making it go invisible.

He watched her hand fade back in. "You never thought about how convenient it would be to be able to help Danny with his fights?"

Sam reached into the bassinet and picked up her son, then went to sit on the bed. "Of course I have," she finally answered. "But not like this. I never wanted this." She shifted into a comfortable position. "Besides, Danny says it's unnatural and doesn't feel right." She paused before asking her next question. "Did he mention his ghost sense?"

Tucker gave her a solemn look, sitting on the edge of bed. After learning Danny had lied to her for months, he wasn't going to do the same. He nodded. "He said it's warped and distorted like the others. How were you made half ghost?"

She settled Jackson on her chest, absently running a hand over his back as she recounted what happened. When she was done, her eyes held fear and uncertainty. "It was the most painful thing I've ever experienced, and I birthed twins."

Tucker wasn't quite sure what to do or say, so he sat there a moment, biting his lip. Finally, he shifted over to where she was in the bed and stretched out next to her, putting an arm around her and pulling her to him. He kissed her temple. "I can't imagine how scary that was, and I'm really sorry you had to go through it alone. But you're not alone now; you can lean on us."

"I know," she said, leaning into his shoulder. "I'm really grateful I have you, you know. You're the best friend a girl could have."

He smiled, but without mirth. "Well, you might not be grateful after what I have to say next." She raised a brow at him. "Don't be so hard on Danny. He's beating himself up something awful."

He watched the rage resurface in her eyes and put a hand up when they started to glow. "I'm not saying forgive him, at least not until you're ready, but I think the revelation blind sided him and he didn't know how to deal with it himself, let alone tell you."

"We talked about it months ago; before Mira even showed up, he mentioned her and her obsession." She lowered her voice when Jackson started to fuss. "He could have told me then, especially when I specifically asked him that question!"

Tucker shook his head. "He didn't know then. He said it wasn't until she showed up the first time that he remembered. Apparently the Headmaster had blocked his memories of it."

The goth rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Yeah, that's convenient."

"Sam," he said sternly with a look.

Instead of getting mad, Sam took a deep breath and gave him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. But put yourself in my shoes. Do you have any idea what it's like learning that from her? What if it was Jazz? And you learned she had been lying about it for months?"

The dark-skinned man sighed. "I'd be mad. I'm not saying you don't have a right to be mad, you certainly do, I'm just asking that you consider it from his point of view as well. He's really messed up over this."

Sam ran her hand over her son's back again. "What you're saying makes sense, I know it does. But I just…I have this burning rage inside me and I can't get rid of it. Logically I know we weren't together then, but I can't help feeling betrayed."

He watched her, trying to understand her thought process. "Would you still feel betrayed if it had been someone else?"

"No. I really don't think so. There's just something about the fact that it's her, and I can't even place my finger on why, exactly," she replied. Tucker's heart went out to her; he could see she was really struggling with this.

"It's like my hormones are making everything worse or something. I'm in a constant cycle; whenever I think about it I feel betrayed, and then I get angry, and then I get really sad, which leads to me feeling betrayed again, and then angry again," she groaned. "It's like a feedback loop that never ends!"

He pulled her closer, resting his head on hers as she placed it on his shoulder. "Then find somewhere where you can let it out; scream, shout, throw things. Just…be careful with your powers. And try not to break any shins."

"Yes, Dad," she mocked.

–

10/23/2024: Fairly quick on this one, 2 days!

Did I throw ya'll for a loop on Dr. Tanning's son? I don't think we ever got to see Dash's parents in the show, at least, I don't remember that we did. I rewatched it a few months ago, and other than tutoring and a party at his house, I don't think his parents were mentioned. So…here you go. My version of his family. We'll delve more into their relationship next chapter.