Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

It's been a while since I've had a good night's sleep, heck it's been a while since I've slept more that a half hour or so a night. I don't need nearly as much sleep as everyone else, but I still need more than I've been getting. The ghosts have kept me so busy that at this point I don't even bother sleeping most nights. In between ghost fighting and school I haven't had time for anything else. I see Sam and Tucker sometimes during school and when we hunt ghosts but lately I've been hunting on my own. I can't stand it when they get hurt during a fight. If I have any free time in between fights I do my homework, but more often than not it ends up not getting done.

It's been three years since the accident with the portal, I'm seventeen now and a Junior in high school. My appearance is almost the same except for my longer hair, I let it grow out a little. It helps to cover up some of the bruises and cuts I get, as do the long sleeve shirts I wear with my jeans most of the time. It seems everyone just assumed the change in appearance was because I was growing up and changing.

In school I try to pay attention for as long as I can during class but I usually wind up falling asleep or having to leave because of ghosts. I have so many detentions at this point I have almost up until the end of the year booked solid for after school. After my detentions I have to go straight home because my grades are in the toilet and I keep getting in trouble for not being home before curfew.

My parents have told me time and time again that they're worried about me. They've been called into so many conferences with my teachers that they can't not notice my behavior. I shrug it off, act like I don't care, because maybe if they think I don't care they'll stop making such a big deal out of it. They won't stop though and I know it, Jazz knows it too. That's why she makes sure I'm not hurt too bad. Most mornings she comes into my room with a first aid kit. It's the same routine, she'll ask me if I'm hurt and I'll say no, then she'll force me into telling her where I'm hurt. Then she'll try and get me to tell mom and dad as she "analyzes" my mind. As soon as she's done I force her out of my room and get ready for the day. Jazz is the only one I haven't pushed away yet, mostly because she refuses to let me do so. I can hear mom crying sometimes on nights when I'm actually home.

I feel bad about pushing everyone away, but it's best for their safety. Plus, mom and dad would probably hate me if they knew.

Either Vlad was hiring the ghosts to attack me or they've all just been really bored lately. The first option makes a lot more sense because the ghosts that have been around all day are all of the more powerful ghosts or some of the lackeys Vlad usually sends. I haven't seen the Box Ghost all day but Skulker's showed up twice. On top of that, Technis and The Lunch Lady were both causing trouble during school and Mr. Lancer gave me a detention, which I was late for because Skulker stopped me on my way to the classroom. By the time I got there I was more desperate to hide the gash on my side I had earned just a few minutes ago.

I had just made it out of detention and was on my way home when the Box Ghost made his daily appearance. There was a truck driver unloading boxes for the vending machines right outside the school, when Box Ghost started to cause the boxes to rise from where they were neatly stacked. The guy didn't get scared he just stood there annoyed, he must be used to this by now. I sighed and grabbed the thermos, not even bothering to go ghost I walked over to where he was giving the irritated driver a long speech about boxes. I uncapped the thermos and sucked him into it.

The man turned and eyed the device in my hands, "You the ghost hunters kid?" I nodded and hung my head, "Well thanks kid, he's been following me around all day, makes getting any work done a hassle."

"No problem," I smiled and continued on my way home stopping to transform in an alley so I would get there faster.

I was right by my house when my ghost sense went off. Sighing I looked around for whatever might be causing it. I heard a scream below me and saw Skulker for the third time today. I was already exhausted, why couldn't they just let me rest.

"Okay Skulker, lets do this."

"No banter from the halfa today, is it too much for the ghost child to take?"

"No, I just don't feel like wasting any good one-liners on you again today."

"Well then whelp, prepare to be captured."

"You haven't been able to so far what makes this time different?"

Skulker smiled, "This time I have weapons specially designed for you."

I frowned as a series of darts came flying at me, I turned intangible and missed most of them. One however stuck into my shoulder and I reached up to pull it out. I began to feel even more tired and I began falling my powers slowly diminishing. As I reached the ground I fumbled through my backpack for some kind of weapon, desperate to by myself some time. Before I could find one however a blue ray shot over my head hitting Skulker square in the chest. He backed up and went to attack again, but he was hit at least three times by the blue ray. He grew angry as his suit began to spark, "This isn't over ghost child, and you know it." He flew away leaving me here on the ground.

I turned around to thank who I was guessing was Jazz, my head spun and my vision blurred as my head turned, but I managed to make out the figure, mom. She stood over me with an ectogun pointed at me, "Stay where you are ghost. What are you doing with my sons backpack? Where is he?" I tried to come up with an answer but my words turned to mush, I was losing consciousness quickly. "Talk now ghost or else."

I struggled to get out a few words, "Can't, talk... shot with... dart." My hands slipped and I was now lying on the ground struggling to move. I knew I was going to completely pass out right in front of mom, crud. "Please, don't... hurt me... get Jazz." Mom lowered the gun a little and frowned.

"How do you know my daughter's name ghost?"

Answering was no use, whatever the dart had injected into me was going to knock me out. I struggled to stay alert but it was no use, as I closed my eyes a familiar sensation washed over me. I heard a gasp come from my mom and knew she had seen me transform.

I watched as Phantom struggled to keep his eyes open, he looked terrified, but I wasn't entirely sure this was not just a ploy so he could get away. When he asked for Jazz I was confused his voice sounded desperate and he looked to be in pain. Also, how did he know who Jazz was? I voiced my question but before he could answer he closed his eyes and passed out. I moved closer but before I could see what was wrong white rings appeared around the middle of his body. They moved up and down his body changing him. Once they disappeared I stood looking a my own son. He had scratches covering his arms and he looked hurt, I gasped. I dropped my gun and rushed over next to Danny. What is going on.

I scooped him up and carried him inside. Laying him down on the couch I called out, "Jazz, come down here quickly I need you."

Looking at my hands I saw blood mixed with ectoplasm, he was bleeding. I searched for where he was bleeding and found a large gash. "Mom what did you need." She walked into the living room and froze as she saw Danny, "What happened?"

"Jazz I need you to go get a first aid kit, then we're going to have a long talk, understand." She nodded and ran off to get a kit. I held my hand against Danny's side trying to get the bleeding to stop. I heard Jazz come back downstairs and turned to see her carrying a large first aid kit. I moved to take the kit from her but she shook her head.

"Let me, I've bandaged him up before," why would she have had to do that. "Please mom, I'll explain in a minute."

I nodded and watched as she cleaned the would on his side, placed gauze over it, then taped it. After that she checked and made sure any of his other cuts were cleaned and if necessary bandaged. He was covered in bruises and cuts, I don't know how I didn't notice before.

"Mom?" I turned to face Jazz, "Look I need to know how much you know."

"I saw him, well he was," I stumbled around looking for the right words, "There were white rings, one second Phantom was on the ground in front of me, the next it was Danny. I don't understand, his blood has ectoplasm in it. Jazzy, what is going on?"

"I wish Danny was awake to tell you all of this but it doesn't look like he's getting up any time soon and you already know I guess. Mom, Danny is half-ghost, the shock from the portal nearly killed him but the ectoplasm fused with his DNA."

"So he's Danny Phantom?" Jazz nodded, "How could he have done all of the terrible things he's done?"

Jazz frowned, "That's the thing mom he hasn't done any of that, he was set up."

He hasn't done anything and I've been going around talking about how he's an abomination. All those times I claimed if I ever caught Phantom I would rip him apart molecule by molecule and run all those tests on him. He probably thought I would never listen to him. "He must hate me, is that why he's been avoiding me and everyone else?"

"No, he started avoiding everyone and not letting anyone help him after Sam got hurt. He didn't say anything, but I think he thought it was his fault. He doesn't want to be the cause of any one else getting hurt. He doesn't hate you he thinks you hate him."

I looked down at my little boy laying bruised and cut. His breaths were shallow and uneven, I sat down on the coffee table in front of him and reached out and took his hand in both of mine. "Sweetie I love you so much, I could never hate you." I knew he probably couldn't hear me but I knew I needed to say it, even if I would be repeating it for a while. His hand was freezing and I could just faintly feel a pulse. In fact his pulse felt way too slow and his temperature too cold. "Jazz could you get the thermometer."

She looked like she was about to tell me something but stopped herself. She handed it to me and I waited for it to tell me it was ready. I heard the small beep and pulled the thermometer out of Danny's mouth, 91.4. That couldn't be right, "Jazz I, how is it this low, is he okay?"

"Mom, he's fine, his temperature is a little lower than normal but that's just his powers kicking in to help him heal. Don't worry, he'll be okay."

"You said you've bandaged him before and you knew. How long has this been going on?" I gestured to Danny's injured state.

"It's only gotten this bad over the last year or so right before he turned seventeen. I've been trying to talk to him about it, but I'm lucky to even get a few words out of him. I piece together the little snippets as I get them, speaking of which do you know who attacked him?"

"It was Skulker, why?"

"Who it is makes a big difference. I'm going to go make coffee, would you like some?"

I nodded, it was going to be a long night.

I felt comfortable, my side was bandaged and from what I could tell I was laying on my own couch. That wasn't right, mom found me outside, she saw me transform. Why am I not down in the lab or in a cage? I tried to sit up only to have a pair of shaking hands hold me down. I opened my eyes, "Mom?" She was smiling at me, it was a grateful smile.

"Oh thank goodness Danny, I was so worried. Oh, your eyes." What about my eyes? Were they the glowing green? She didn't seem angry, maybe she didn't see me transform. And that's a ridiculous thought, I was in my human form. So why wasn't she upset? My head hurt like crazy, I held my hands to my head but as I moved my side felt like it was on fire. I winced, "Are you okay?"

Mom seemed worried, "Yeah I will be," I looked down, "How much do you know?"

"I know enough to tell you that I will love you so much no matter what and you should know that." She grabbed my chin and tilted my head up at her. "Now, Jazz told me you were half ghost but I need you to explain to me how this happened."

"The accident in the lab, years ago, it was a lot worse than I let you and Dad think. You forgot to press the on switch so when I leaned up against it inside the portal, it turned on while I was inside. I don't know exactly what happened but the shock should have killed me, it technically half killed me. I'm what's known as a halfa, half human, half ghost. I can switch between my different halves. I'm Danny Phantom."

"Oh sweetie, how could I not have noticed. A shock like that would have hurt so much."

"It hurt a lot, but I was more focused on the fact that I was half-ghost and falling through things every few minutes."

"You can use your, uh, powers while you're not Danny Phantom?"

"Yeah, for the first few months I would wake up under my bed or hovering above it. Also in school I kept falling through the seats or dropping stuff because I went intangible without noticing it."

"So is part of that your eyes glowing right now?"

I closed my eyes shut tight and shook my head, "No that's a side effect from the Ice Powers healing me."

Mom seemed to accept most of what I was telling her, "So that also explains why you got in trouble so much freshman year but these past two years?"

"I keep having to leave to fight the ghosts, most of them nowadays are after me. I'm pretty sure they're being hired to try and capture me."

"So that's where you are at four in the morning, off fighting ghosts?" I nodded, "Oh, Danny, if you had only told me, your father and I could have helped you."

"By between tearing me apart molecule by molecule?" The question was cruel but I had no other way of saying it.

"Daniel Fenton, I promise you that, that will never happen. I will never do anything to hurt you ever. Anything I said in the past, forget it." I noticed my fingers running over my arm, I sighed.

"That's hard to do." Pulling back my sleeve I ran my hand over a large scar that stood out compared to the others on my wrist.

"What happened to your wrist?" Mom seemed worried about me, which was kind of ironic.

I sat in silence not wanting to speak what I was thinking. Would she be mad? "That's the one cut he never let me bandage." I turned and saw Jazz standing in the doorway with a tray. "I made you some soup, you need to eat, no arguing."

I nodded, there really was no point in arguing with Jazz. I accepted the tray but didn't start eating. "Danny, what is that cut from?"

I looked up at her, she was seriously worried about me, "You were so excited, you had just finished making your new weapon. That really cool looking one with blades at each end. I have to say, you were great with it. It worked just how it should have by the way, the only reason it didn't was because I'm half-human."

"You mean, I did that? I am so sorry, I didn't know. Sweetie, please forgive me." Mom looked horrified with herself.

"I forgive you." I glanced down at my wrist again, I don't know if I really forgave her but I had to try to make things better between us.

I moved the spoon around in the bowl, "When was the last time you ate Danny? I want the truth this time."

I looked at Jazz who was glaring at me, "I don't know, yesterday I think."

"Young man, eat now!" Mom lecturing me to eat, that hasn't happened in a while.

Smiling I picked up the spoon and began eating the soup. The warm liquid felt good running down my throat. Jazz brought out two cups of coffee for her and Mom. "What time is it?"

I continued eating, "11:00, why?" Oh crud, the ghosts were probably terrorizing the town. I tried to push the tray off my lap and get up. "Danny stop what are you doing?"

"It's late, the ghosts are probably attacking. I have to stop them." Once again mom held me down. I struggled to get up, I needed to make sure the town was safe. I stopped trying to sit up when a shooting pain ran through my body, followed by a dizziness. My head fell back into the pillow I was laying against. My vision blurred and I felt ten times more tired than I had just a minute ago. "Jazz, tell her, I have to stop the ghosts, someone might get hurt."

"I shut the portal down for tonight, no ghosts are coming through any time soon." Jazz sat next to mom but a little farther away. I usually didn't like when people were as close to me as mom, but for some reason now it felt okay. Jazz leaned forward to speak to me, "And yes little brother, someone might get hurt, mainly you. You need to rest and you need to stop fighting it."

"I think the portal is going to be shut down for a few days, I don't want you feeling the need to go after any ghosts. If there are any still causing trouble your father and I will take care of them."

That made me feel a little better, at least until she mentioned dad. "Where is he?"

"Driving around looking for, well, you so it happens."

"Which half?"

"Your ghost half Danny." Oh wonderful, he was going to come home looking for my ghost half and he was going to find it. Mom must have noticed how upset I was because she grabbed my hand again. "Sweetie don't worry about your father, if you want I'll talk to him."

I wish I could let her tell him but I definitely needed to do this. "No mom that's okay, it's something I need to do. Just," I stopped, what if he hated me, what if he tried to hurt my ghost half. "What if he hates me."

My mom looked at me, "I promise you, he will not hate you. This is going to take some getting used to but believe me, he will not hate you. We both love you so much, nothing will change that."

Thank you for reading! Please review, whether it be bad or good.

This is my first Danny Phantom fanfic, I've been holding onto this one for a while and thought I'd post it. If you are subscribed to my author alerts for Unrecognizable Faces, I'm sorry I haven't updated lately. My reasons should be on my profile.