Conclusion.

Danny had been staring at the ceiling of the daylight-flooded room for nearly two minutes before realizing where he was.

It felt like it had all gone by too quick, or maybe it had dragged on forever. A faded and fuzzy memory of laying on cold concrete came to mind, and he tried to pick through the details of the image to remember exactly what happened. Unable to grasp the reminiscence of the previous events, he simply let it go and let his blue gaze travel the room.

A dull soreness plagued his body, and tiredness weighed him down, but it felt nowhere near the level it had been the previous night, which now felt more like an unpleasant memory now that his wound had significantly stopped hurting.

What had happened last night though?

The alley, his parents...

He was Phantom.

Danny bit his lip nervously and raised a hand to his face. No white glove, just a human hand. He had changed back.

When had he changed back?

The boy gingerly lowered his hand to his left side, feeling bandages under his touch and putting pressure on the wound caused a sharp sting of pain. He pulled his arm away, laying both hands on top of his chest.

This was the living room, and it was morning. He wasn't sure what time though, he hadn't been aware of the time all night. Outside the window, he could make out pieces of bright blue obscured by straggly white-gray clouds. The rain had stopped, leaving residual raindrops still clinging to the windowpanes.

He tried to sit up, gently and slowly doing so as it hurt to move too much. Wincing, he managed to set himself into a more upright position, gazing around the room once again.

He heard something shifting in the kitchen, and he saw his mom poke her head into the room. She gave him a small smile but Danny could see the rather troubled look in her expression, still.

She came into the room, looking a bit dazed as she did, and quietly sat down on the couch near him. She placed a hand gently on his arm, still smilin, "How're you feeling sweetie?" she asked softly, not taking her eyes off him.

Danny shifted a bit under her gaze, his hand grazing the bandages again, which he could see in the light that blood had soaked through a little. He nodded, "Y-yeah, fine..." he mumbled, self-consciously pulling the blankets over his body to hide the wound.

Maddie only nodded, giving a sad look at her hand that was now resting on the couch next to her. She looked like she was considering what to say next, but Danny spoke for her, "M-Mom...did..." he paused, looking away from her, "Was...I in an alley...last night...?"

He didn't look at her, but could sense her probably frowning with thought. He heard steps coming down the stairs, heralding his father who paused when their gazes met.

The two parents exchanged nervous glances before meeting each other halfway, directly facing Danny on the couch.

Still not having his question answered, Danny restated it to them, "Mom, Dad, I was outside last night, wasn't I...?"

They didn't answer him, and after a seemingly long pause, Danny lowered his head and looked away, "You know...don't you...?"

He knew, he just knew that's what had happened. It was obvious, he had been found and as Phantom and awoken and Fenton, luckily not wasted by his parents' weaponry at the time. But what must they think? Were they looking at him like his parents would look at their son,

Or were they looking at him like his parents would look at a freak?

A freak who was half a loathsome creature to the two, and half their beloved son.

"Son..."

Danny raised his head a little, still not meeting their gazes.

"Danny..."

He sighed silently and looked up toward them in time to see his mother close in and wrap her arms around him, gently as to not aggravate the injury. He blinked, somewhat confused and looked toward his father, who was smiling at him.

"I...don't understand..." Danny muttered, adverting his gaze from them, "I'm...I'm that awful Phantom ghost, and...and I lied to you..." he shook his head, "I would have kept lying too..."

He felt his mother's embrace tighten, "Of course you would have..." he was shocked to hear the sob in it, once again, "We hunted you. We hurt you. And you...you never really did anything wrong...but we never listened..."

Danny blinked, staring blankly at the ground.

Was this really happening?

In every scenario in his mind in the past, he imagined the news of his secret going over rather poorly, as to be expected. He imagined being scorned, turned away, and disapproved of. Or he imagined being rushed at with machines and dissection devices intended for experiments or some method of removing his ghost self. Or even just being blasted on the spot. No respectable Fenton keeps a filthy ghost under their roof! He imagined them saying. He shuddered at how much he believed it would happen.

But it wasn't.

It wasn't happening.

They weren't aiming a gun at his head, they weren't shunning him, they weren't strapping him down and preparing to experiment on him.

He was in his mother's arms. She was crying, his parents were apologizing.

He felt himself begin shaking.

They're sorry?

They're sorry...

They're not blasting me...

They're sorry...

He felt his own arms wrap around his mother's body, burying his face in her shoulder, "I'm sorry guys..." he murmured into it, "I'm sorry..."

"Don't be, son..." Jack said, "All this time all we could talk about were all the ways we could obliterate ghosts, no wonder you kept this to yourself." The man sighed, and straightened up a little bit with a small smile, "But to think, my son, a ghost hunter just like his old man!"

Danny was at a loss for words, still disbelieving that this was happening. Of all the dreadful things he thought would happen during the ordeal in the rainy alley, nothing quite felt more rejuvenating than this...

His mother pulled away, drawing her fingers gently through his ruffled hair. Danny gave her a small smile.

"Say, uh...son." Jack began, looking a bit unsure, "Could you maybe...show us how you...turn into that ghost half of yours?"

Danny paused, looking a bit worriedly at his parents, "You...want me to change?"

Maddie stood up, standing next to Jack and tried to send him a reassuring smile. Jack awkwardly scratched the back of his head, "Well uh, I guess if you can't now...I just wanted to get a new, fresh look at you...since you aren't...well..." he cleared his throat, looking a bit flustered with his words.

Danny chuckled a little, and rose to his feet slowly. His mother tensed, as if she expected him to feel pain from the movement on his injury, but relaxed when she decided he was steady.

Danny looked away somewhat bashfully, murmuring under his breath, "Going ghost..." before a halo appeared around his waist, just like it had the previous night. It split, one halo racing up and the other racing down, revealing the same white-haired, black-suited ghost from the night before. Phantom. Danny Phantom.

His parents watched, frozen as their son transformed into the being they had hounded and harassed so many time...It really was him. Phantom and Danny had always been the same person.

Danny watched his mother draw close again, slowly, as if taking in his image for the first time. She reached out a hand to touch his face gently, and Danny gave her a small, shy and awkward smile. He heard his mom sigh softly, "Why have I never seen it before...? My boy..."

She suddenly leaned forward to hug him, "I'm so sorry Danny...We're sorry..." she cried, holding him in practically an iron grip. His father approached as well, embracing his ghostly son and wife.

Jazz came down the stairs, yawning quietly into her hand. She had managed to get at least a few hours of sleep, and had realized with one look at her clock that she had overslept, a rare occurrence for her. The time had read as 10:52AM, much later than she had anticipated wanting to awaken.

The redhead treaded down the stairs, wondering briefly if her parents had awoken yet and if Danny had regained consciousness. She hardly had to wonder long, as she turned her head and saw three figures held in mutual embrace in the living room. Her parents and her ghost brother, all joined in a deep and loving embrace.

Jazz smiled, glad that things had finally seemed to play out in a peaceful way, without her interference. Although, she still pictured having to remind her parents to keep the ghost inventions away from Danny now, and remember what he was doing every time he missed curfew.

Things were definitely looking up.

And she was glad.

Yeeahhh it's done~

I didn't think i would manage typing an entire five-chaptered story over two days though, but I guess I was really motivated.

ugh i hope the ending wasn't too cheesy, but i just felt it needed to end on a happy note.

Well then...

Reviews and such much appreciated, and thanks for reading my little story. ^^

-RG