An Unlikely Alliance

This was written as a series for Phanniemay 2014. There will be at least three parts to it, spanning multiple prompts but one overarching storyline. This first is a meditation on emotional space and the way in which Danny has withdrawn himself from his family's lives after the Portal incident, leaving a huge hole where his old self used to be. The blinding desire to pull her son closer drives Maddie to the wrong conclusion.

This was originally posted as a one-shot, but since I have at least three of these planned I decided to repost it as a short story.

I. Space

x

Maddie had noticed, of course, the way her son had withdrawn seemingly overnight from them. The sudden drop in grades. The exhaustion. The rebellion. The jumpiness. The calls in the middle afternoon from his school asking her if she had taken him home after he had disappeared halfway through third period.

At first she had thought the solution was to spend more time with him. But, it seemed that the more time she tried to spend with him the more he shoved her away. The more she attempted to pull him closer the deeper he dug the boundary between them until it had ceased to be a crevice and had become a canyon.

She knew that Danny was a teenager. And as such it was his job to put as much space between him and them as possible, but it still hurt.

Jack insisted it was normal, but Maddie was convinced that something else was going on with her youngest. Danny had never had straight A's, but he had never failed anything. At the rate he was going he was going to have to repeat Junior year. So what was it that was plaguing him? Drugs? Fighting? Gangs? Danny didn't seem like the kind prone to that kind of deviancy. Anyway, Maddie had already scoured his room. Besides the stolen Fenton Thermos and a stack of uncompleted homework there was no drugs to be found. She had checked everywhere. She had been thorough.

The only thing she had found was an odd blood stain near his bedside table. Under normal circumstances it wouldn't have provoked such a strong visceral reaction in her. But, that tiny incriminating speck of red had troubling implications.

Convinced Danny was caught up in some kind of fight club Maddie had attempted to shadow him for months but he had the uncanny ability to vanish. One minute he would be in his room, the next gone. She even checked in on him in the middle of the night. Maddie couldn't remember the last time she had found him in his bed.

Even in those rare moments when he was there, he was still gone. At dinner he would shovel food into his mouth and excuse himself as quickly as possible, gliding up the stairs and out of his bedroom window. In his wake he left an uneasy empty void.

It was a month or so that Maddie had started to notice it.

The way all of their ghost instruments locked onto Danny and tracked him as he navigated his way around the house. They had plenty of ghost detecting equipment built into the walls. Equipment that neither of their children knew existed. Not that they ever needed to know. All they needed to know was they were safe inside a home that was constantly surveying for ghostly activity.

However, the house seemed to be unnaturally preoccupied with Danny. The instruments perked up and recorded brief snippets of information whenever he passed down the hallway or opened the fridge. Maddie's first reaction was that they were malfunctioning. But, how could every instrument in the entire house malfunction at the same time?

Maddie loved her son more than anything, but she wasn't blinded by emotion. Like any self-respecting scientist she immediately realized Danny was lone variable in all of this. The instruments had started malfunctioning the same time Danny had withdrawn himself from her. Maddie knew it was no coincidence.

Danny was involved with ghosts. More specifically a ghost. And Maddie was positive she knew which one it was.

She had never noticed until she had been two seconds away from blowing his head off (a mere three feet away– the closest she had ever gotten to him!) that his mannerisms, his face, his voice was as familiar as her own.

Her Danny always had a good heart. Easily exploitable. He would fight for a cause if he believed there was justice in it. There was only one ghost that had this whole city torn into sides. Only one ghost that had a fan following. Only one that people claimed was protecting humans; only one that Danny might rally behind.

Just when Phantom had taken over her baby boy's body Maddie wasn't sure. But, she was certain that he had give her son back to her.

She hadn't realized just how far the enemy had infiltrated her own home, but after seeing Phantom's face up close she knew with utter certainty that Phantom had overtaken her child. For just how long had she been talking to Phantom instead of her own son? How long had Phantom pretended to be a part of her family? How many meals had she made for him? How many movies had she watched with him? The thought of how many kisses she had given this demon made Maddie sick.

Whether Danny was willingly possessed or not, she did not care. Phantom would be expelled. If she was right, Danny will have been overshadowed for a solid six months. She wasn't sure if there would be any kind of physical - or mental - repercussions.

Maddie knew she had to tread carefully. Phantom was powerful, and she wasn't entirely certain his claim on Danny was without his permission. She had attempted small scale expulsions, like putting a few drops of anti-ghost serum in his dinner, only to find him sniff it and immediately feign illness to avoid taking a bite.

She had even attempted to lure him through the Catcher, but Danny already knew its purpose and had been getting more and more suspicious of her after the whole serum thing.

Then, this morning, the Guys In White had appeared at her door, viciously knocking it off its hinges. She had answered to the nozzle of one of their highly polished and extremely deadly ecto-weapons. They had demanded she turn Danny in, or else she would be arrested for harboring a fugitive. Of course, they had it all wrong. Danny hadn't done any of those things - at least not on his own volition. After Maddie had told them how her son was possessed they had been eager to help her.

She wanted her son out of Phantom's iron grip and back into her own arms. The GIW wanted Phantom. It was a win-win.

All she needed was Danny back. She longed to jump over the cavern that was the empty space he had left behind.

And so she sat nervously, not sure how to prepare for this type of intervention. Her fingers rapped across her knees as she sat - alone - in the kitchen. Her eyes trailed disinterestedly at her mug of tea that had long grown cold. Deep within the confines of the house she knew the GIW were setting up their own equipment in anticipation. Maddie also knew the instant that Phantom left her son they would capture him and take him back to their government facility. For months she herself had dreamed about capturing Phantom, until she had learned about his connection with her child. All interest in studying Phantom had vanished and had been replaced, instead, with worry.

The GIW could have Phantom, as long as they didn't hurt her baby.

The front door suddenly cracked open as Danny (or Phantom?) crossed the threshold of the house. She listened as he paused, obviously sensing something was off. The house was silent, empty, waiting.

Maddie distantly heard the soft whine of guns powering up from the basement and she frowned. Why would they be powering up guns? They were supposed to extract Phantom from Danny, not shoot him.

They had specifically planned, together, that Maddie would attempt to coax Phantom out of Danny and if that failed they would use the Catcher. There was no reason for guns. Perhaps it was just a precaution. A government thing. You know, red tape.

"Mom?" Danny's voice rang out, confused and cautious as he moved through the living room. "Dad?….Jazz? Hello? …Anyone home?"

"In here, honey." She answered, taking in a deep breath. She was strangely excited, knowing that after tonight she would have not only answers, but her son back.

Danny appeared through the kitchen. He paused, eying her warily, sensing something was off. Maddie took in his tired eyes and his disheveled hair. Was she talking to her Danny? Or Phantom?

"Where's everyone?" He asked her.

"Out." Maddie answered, attempting to keep her voice soothing and calm. "Sit down. We need to talk."

She kicked out the opposing kitchen chair.

tbc...