A Theory and a Promise
Written by Princess Kiela S.

Disclaimer:

All "Danny Phantom" characters and ideas are copyright to Butch Hartman. I am not Butch Hartman, and, therefore, I do not own any of the characters or ideas pertaining to "Danny Phantom," much to my disappointment. I do, however, own this fanfiction. I would thank you not to steal anything.

Summary:
Jack and Maddie Fenton have a theory about what is wrong with their son.

Double lines indicate the beginning or end of the chapter.

A single line indicates a scene change, a time lapse, or both during the chapter.

Speech inside "these things" indicates spoken words.

I hope you enjoy this fanfiction. Please leave a review for me when you're done reading!

A Theory and a Promise:

They have a theory about what is wrong with their son.

It had taken them a while, but when every single ghost sensing invention they had built since the lab accident reacted to Danny during the test runs, they were all but forced to pay attention.

They had enough circumstantial evidence. He was shiftier lately, dodging their questions, no matter how simple, about his day. He was thinner, too, and strange bruises would appear on his skin one day, and be gone by the next.

Whenever Maddie remembered that fight she had gotten into with the ghost boy at City Hall a few months previous she winced internally, now knowing what would have happened if Jack hadn't forgotten to charge the Fenton Bazooka.

It had taken them a very long time, but they had finally figured out that their son was possessed. And that the ghost controlling him was none other that Amity Park's Public Enemy Number One, Inviso-Bill.

They had taken to spying on him, whenever they could, between fighting the other ghosts. But it seemed that the spirit who had taken over their son was so good at what he did that even Jazz hadn't noticed something was wrong. In any case, it was difficult to catch him at a time when he wasn't acting quite right, when he had slipped up even the tiniest amount, showing that he wasn't really Danny after all.

They had seen this happen enough times, though, to know that their slowly growing fears were well founded, and recently the ghost boy had been slipping up more and more often. The had decided to corner him, and free their son from his control with the Fenton Xtractor, but they hadn't any other choice but to wait for a time when their daughter would be occupied with a thought intensive assignment in her room, so that they could get Inviso-Bill alone.

They had been pressed against the wall next to the door to Danny's room, attempting to prepare themselves for what was going to happen next- they loved their son, and he would undoubtedly be hurt in the process of extracting the ghost overshadowing him- when they heard a pair of soft voices conversing. Glancing at each other in alarm, thinking that there might be another spirit in there with Inviso-Bill, Maddie and Jack shuffled closer to the origin of the sound, framing both sides of the closed wooden panel that blocked their entry.

Then it occurred to them that the second voice belonged to Jazz. Fear bloomed unexpectedly in both parents' minds; what if the reason their daughter hadn't mentioned, or even seemed to notice, that Danny was possessed was because she was being controlled herself?

"You know that I'm here for you anytime, if you want to talk about things, don't you Danny?" Jazz was asking quietly.

"Yeah, I know. I. . . . It's just that. . . . Oh, never mind. Thanks, Jazz. That really means a lot."

"Oh, Danny. Why can't you just say what's been on your mind? It'll help to talk about it." There was silence for a long time.

"You know the biggest part of it already."

"Ghost problems?" Jack perked up, hoping for any information he could get his hands on.

"No. . . . Not really. Nothing different, anyway." They could practically hear the frown their daughter was giving him at that answer.

"What, then?"

"You already know what I am, Jazz. You already know that I'm half ghost." Jack and Maddie exchanged shocked, borderline horrified looks, inching a bit closer to the closed door.

"Well. . . . I don't think it would hurt if you took a break from fighting the other ghosts for a little while. . . ."

"It's not that. They can't really hurt me, since I'm already-" Danny broke of suddenly, and sighed, sounding slightly frustrated, but mostly he just sounded very, very tired. "The accident. . . . It turned me into a Halfa, but I only figured out what that means a few days ago. What it really means. Half ghost, half human. . . . I'm only fifteen, Jazz, and I'm already half dead."

There wasn't really anything someone could say to that.

"Sometimes," Danny continued, voice strangely far away, "I catch myself thinking things that scare me. Like when Dash bullies me. I know I can crush him. . . . So easily. And. . . ." Another sigh. "I used to use my powers to get a little payback. Just small things, like going invisible and tripping him, maybe making him drop his lunch tray. But. . . . Sometimes I catch myself wanting to hit him with an ectoplasm blast, something big that would show him who's really the stronger of the two of us.

Half human, half ghost. It seems like I could belong both here and in the Ghost Zone, but. . . . I don't belong anywhere. I'm hunted and persecuted for being what I am, no matter where I am." Maddie couldn't take it anymore, and burst into the room. She swept the startled boy out of the air above his bed and into her arms, and then proceeded to hug him as hard as she could.

"Not here, in our home. Never here. Oh, Sweetie, you should have told us," she murmured into his white hair. Danny tensed, just for a moment, and then relaxed so completely that for a heartbeat she was afraid he had disappeared on her.

"M-Mom?" Glowing green eyes looked up at her, wide with shock, disbelief, and there, at the very bottom of his soul, was an endless well of pain. Jack was at their side, suddenly, pulling Jazz along with him, and they all squished together for a long overdue Fenton Family Group Hug.

"We love you, Danny!" Jack exclaimed, managing to sound both totally serious and crazily eccentric at the same time.

"And nothing is going to change that," Maddie added, ruffling Danny's hair simply because she knew he didn't like it when she did that. Sure enough, he frowned, and swatted at her hand.

Now that she knew who she was looking at, Maddie could see the need to be loved on his slightly phosphorescent face, and it made her stomach twist with guilt. A quickly exchanged glance with Jazz told her what she had had begun to suspect the instant she had heard the words 'half ghost' spring from the boy's mouth; Danny had feared rejection, or, worse, that he would be turned into an experiment. Thankfully, with the reassurance that this would not be the case, that look was slowly fading.

Maddie and Jack's eyes met, and together they made a silent promise: They would never see that hunger for love on their son's face again.

No matter what it took.