#i'll upload the next one this wednesday btw so the schedule isn't gonna change

[darks-ink]

Disinterred CH.4

Chapter 4: And There Will Be Nowhere I Can Run

Even if (if!) his parents accepted him… What then? Even if the police wouldn’t kick him out because Phantom hadn’t kicked him out, they still saw him as a ghost! And ghosts… ghosts didn’t go to school. They didn’t get jobs. They didn’t get to live.

(the full summary, previous chapters, author notes, content warning, and the links to AO3 and FFnet can be found here)

The ride back to FentonWorks was quite possibly the worst car ride Danny had ever experienced. The driving itself was fine, nothing like the driving he was used to.

No, it was the knowledge of what was to come that tainted the drive over.

He felt like he was heading towards the gallows, ice-cold dread pooling inside him. And the slowly rising guilt he felt over lying to the cops wasn’t helping, either.

It had been for their own sake, mostly. The truth was just so… so unbelievable, so ridiculous. He doubted that they would have believed him if he had told them the truth. No, it was better to play along. And clearly Sam and Tucker agreed, as they had followed along with the lies as well. He just hoped that it wouldn’t come back to bite him.

Which, more than likely, it would. He wasn’t sure how, yet, but he knew how these things tended to go. Ever since the Accident things just kept going wrong.

And, honestly. Everything about this situation was begging for things to go wrong. There was no positive outcome to this whole mess, not really. Even if, from here on out, everything went perfectly… It still wouldn’t be good. His parents would know, at least partly.

And the police thought him dead. Even if (if!) his parents accepted him… What then? Even if the police wouldn’t kick him out because Phantom hadn’t kicked him out, they still saw him as a ghost! And ghosts… ghosts didn’t go to school. They didn’t get jobs.

They didn’t get to live.

So Danny didn’t think it likely that the police would let him carry on with his life, either. Unless he admitted the truth to them.

Which probably would just get him in even more of a mess.

So, yeah. The combined force of his dread and his guilt was starting to get overwhelming.

Danny tried to focus on calming himself down. He took a deep, if somewhat shaky, breath. Tried to clear his thoughts, to stay in the present.

Calm down Fenton, he bit at himself. You’ve faced off against ghosts like Pariah Dark, but you’re scared of your own parents? They love you, they’ll accept you, and it’ll be fine. They don’t even know you’re Phantom! They have no reason to hate you!

Despite his own assurances, and those of the cops accompanying him, Danny still felt danger loom over him. He was sure his parents would accept him, ghost or not. They had done so before, in other timelines. When his dark alternate future attacked, and with Freakshow. Hell, even his weird alternate-timeline parents that didn’t even know him accepted him!

But… His parents were volatile. Quick to react to danger. The upcoming conversation had to be handled carefully, the news broken gently. If he had been given more time, he would have called Jazz, so she could try to disarm their parents. At the very least, she could have acted like a protective barrier.

Unfortunately everything had happened so quickly that he hadn’t had a chance to contact her. The whole thing at the police station had been so overwhelming that he hadn’t really thought of what was going to happen, not until he sat down in the car. Well, not until they started driving and he finally got a chance to work through everything that had happened.

And that had allowed the reality of the upcoming conversation to settle in, which had led to his current situation of… well, everything. He just hoped that the officers knew what they were doing. The Fentons and their hostile reactions to ghosts were known throughout all of Amity Park, so surely detective Payton would know to handle the conversation with care. Right?

He was broken out of his introspection when the bright neon sign of FentonWorks came into sight. They had reached his home, simultaneously all too soon, and not soon enough.

Danny followed the cops to the front door, still trying to cork up his overworked emotions. He was so occupied that he didn’t even listen to the conversation between the police and his parents. Didn’t think about how this must look to them; him being led inside by two cops.

If he had, he would’ve seen their expressions. Their worry, their fear, their uncertainty. But he didn’t.

When they were allowed in Danny simply trailed after them, into the living room, where he slumped into a chair.

He heard detective Payton clear his throat and snapped out of his thoughts, cringing slightly at the worried expressions on his parents’ faces. Luckily he was saved from trying to explain himself by detective Payton, who drew the attention back to himself by starting to talk.

“So, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. As you know, we recently found the body of a dead teenager in the woods near Amity Park.”

His mom frowned, glancing between the officer and Danny. “Yes. But how is this related to Danny?”

“Well, we successfully identified the body-” Oh no, nope. Too brash. They needed to break this to his parents with more care. “-and we’ve received statements confirming it,” the man just kept talking, completely oblivious to Danny’s panicking. He tried to catch Payton’s attention, but only succeeded in catching officer Carver’s before Payton uttered the damning words.

“The body belongs to your son, Daniel Fenton.”

Danny froze up. His fingers dug into the armrests of the chair with almost enough force to tear them, as he anxiously gazed at his parents. His mental cursing fell silent, the overwhelming dread finally washing away, taking all his other emotions with it until he just felt numb.

The expressions on his parents’ faces hardened. Their hands shifted to reach towards the anti-ghost weapons they carried, and yep, this was going exactly as he feared. But he stayed still, frozen in place. He could see, from the corner of his eye, that the two cops were silently communicating. But he ignored it in favor of watching his parents.

The moment was broken when his mother swung up an ecto-gun, which was swiftly knocked aside by officer Carver.

The shot just barely missed Danny, so close that he could feel the pulsing energy whiz by. He panicked and went intangible on instinct, driven by years of ghost hunting, and fell through the chair.

He hadn’t intended to show off his ghost powers, not yet… But he guessed that he had no choice anymore.

“A dirty ghost replaced our son! Some filthy piece of ectoplasm killed our Danny and replaced him!”

He hit the floor behind the chair, crouching to use it as cover. The roaring voice of his dad was loud, but Danny barely heard it. The sound of his blood rushing muted everything else. The thudding of his heart was overpowering.

“Please calm down! We assure you that no ghost killed your son-”

He ignored the shouting match between the cops and his parents momentarily to focus on himself. He could feel adrenaline bubbling up. His core released ghostly energy into his body in answer, and he was struggling to stop himself from transforming. Could barely stop the brilliant white sparks from forming.

“And how can you be so sure?! It’s been pretending to be our son for lord knows how long, how do you know it didn’t lie about-”

He blocked out the rest of his mom’s yelling as he pulled the energy back into himself as much as possible. He managed to restrain the urge to transform, but he was fairly sure that his eyes were glowing green nonetheless. If the cops saw they would probably ask him about it… but it was better than a full-out shift.

Finally, he allowed himself to focus back on the events happening. His parents were still shouting, but he had heard them slinging insults at Phantom enough to tune it out. A rather sad thought, really. But he would work with whatever he had, at least for the moment.

Danny hesitated, uncertain of what he should do next. He knew that if he had come on his own, he would have fled, but the cops likely wouldn’t take that well. They might have believed him, and Sam and Tucker, when they told the story about his accident, but still. Ghosts were suspicious, and a ghost that ran from police intervention… That was just asking for trouble, really.

He bit his lip, uncertain, before deciding that he had to somehow inform the cops that he wasn’t sticking around for this any longer. Surely they would understand that he wouldn’t stay? The situation had become too volatile, and he didn’t want to get shot. That was okay, right?

Glancing around the chair, Danny managed to catch the eye of detective Payton. He jerked his head towards the door and blinked out of sight for a short moment, trying to communicate his intentions to the man without alerting his parents.

Thankfully, Payton understood what Danny meant. Or well, Danny thought he did, because the man nodded almost imperceptibly. He did seem a little thrown off, but Danny wasn’t sure what had caught the man off-guard; the volatile reaction from his parents, the sudden change in eye-color, or the display of his ghost powers?

That last one, probably. Almost everyone who knew about his ghostly abilities was thrown off when he used them in human form. Apparently it was unnerving to see someone so human do things only ghosts could do. He never really thought about it like that. From the start, the lines had been blurred. He couldn’t count how many times he had almost gotten caught because his powers activated in human form.

Danny took Payton’s nod as the dismissal it probably was and turned himself invisible. He lingered for another moment, watching the chaos in the living room.

His parents and the police were in the middle of a heated discussion. Neither side could convince the other, or so it seemed. Danny knew with certainty that the police wouldn’t be able to convince his parents. Jazz would have to take care of it when she came home.

He turned himself intangible and launched himself at the nearest wall, phasing through it.

Once outside, Danny looked around to make sure no one could see him, before releasing his invisibility and intangibility. He leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths to calm down again. He had to stop and think for a moment, figure out what to do next.

Feeling marginally calmer, he checked if he still had his phone on him. Thankfully he did, and he shot a quick text in his group chat with Sam and Tucker, asking if he could stay over at one of their houses. He was sure that they would accept, if they could. They had been there during the conversation at the police station, after all, and knew that Danny was going to reveal (part of) his secret to his parents.

He stuffed his phone back into his pocket before either of his friends could answer, though. He could feel his emotions threatening to overwhelm him again. To some degree he was used to his parents talking bad about ghosts, about Phantom. But now they were talking about him. Actual Danny Fenton him.

And it hurt. Even if they meant well. If they only wanted to protect him. It still hurt.

His core released even more ghostly energy in response to his fluctuating emotions, and Danny groaned.

No, it was better if he went on patrol first. He had to blow off some steam, vent away some of this adrenaline and energy.

He let go of the reins on his ghostly core, letting the cold power flood over him. The crackling blue-white energy circled him, and once it faded away, Danny Phantom was left standing where Danny Fenton had been.

Danny glanced back at the house, his house, before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. Instead he turned himself invisible once more, then launched off into the air. He regained his visibility again somewhere in the clouds, speeding away from the alley where he had been.

After a short bout of flying and an unusually vicious fight against the Box Ghost, Danny settled on a random rooftop. He pulled out his phone, grimacing at the mass of messages from both of his friends. Apparently they had gotten worried.

Maybe he shouldn’t have send a message asking to stay over at their places before going quiet. Whoops.

He sat down on the edge of the roof, legs hanging down. Then he texted back an apology, explaining that he had to go relieve some tension.

As always, his friends were more than understanding. Within moments, Sam offered up her place for Danny to stay.

‘my parents hate yours,’ she texted. ‘no way that the Fentons will come looking for you’

He had to admit that her reasoning was sound. Unfortunately, there was a bigger problem with that idea.

‘true,’ he send back. ‘but your parents also hate me.’

Sam started typing something back, but Tucker interfered before she got her message done. ‘besides, he’s always welcome to come over for dinner at my place. my mom would love to have him.’

‘fine’ was what Sam ended up texting back. She must’ve deleted her previous text when she received Tucker’s. ‘but i’m coming over too.’

Danny was glad to hear it. He still wasn’t feeling great, even after venting some of his emotions on the Box Ghost. But his friends… They always found a way to make things better.

And he could really use that right now.

‘tuck, can you let your parents know that i’ll stay for dinner? i don’t think that it’ll be safe to come home by dinnertime.’ A sad message to send, but the sad truth. He wasn’t sure when Jazz would come home, but he highly doubted that she could get his parents to change their mind that quickly.

‘will do,’ Tucker replied. ‘come over soon, ok?’

‘i’ll fly another lap around amity and then i’ll be there.’ Danny waited another moment as Sam finished up her message.

‘i’m on my way now. see you soon danny.’

He smiled at the support of his friends, even if he wasn’t quite feeling it. Not yet. But that would come, once he got over there. He was sure of it.

First he needed to release some more frustration. And flying… Flying had always been his favorite power. There was something freeing about being up in the sky.

Danny stuffed his phone back into one of the pockets of his jumpsuit and got up. He balanced on the edge of the building for a moment before letting himself fall.

His flight took over before he hit the ground and he zipped away.

Not much later, Danny rung the bell of the Foley household. Mrs. Foley let him in with a smile, and he quickly made his way over to Tucker’s room, where both of his friends were already waiting.

Danny listlessly dragged himself over to a nearby beanbag. He sunk into the seat with a groan, burying his head in his hands. The dread he had been feeling ever since leaving the police station had not only returned, but had also smoothly transitioned back into panic. He was starting to feel worn out from the emotionally heavy day.

“So, what happened? Because we just kind of assumed that things went wrong, but you haven’t told us anything yet.”

Danny groaned again, acknowledging that Sam had spoken but delaying his need to answer for a moment longer. Eventually he dragged his hands off of his face, however, so he could properly answer her question.

“Well, long story short, that’s pretty much what happened. Payton and Carver came with me, they decided to tell my parents themselves, but my parents flipped out. And since they were trying to shoot me I left.” He shrugged, trying to somehow wordlessly express the mess of emotions he was feeling.

Thankfully his friends were adept both at reading his emotional state and at dealing with said emotional state. Tucker rolled over on his bed to look at him, and Sam moved her chair closer to him so she could lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Danny, calm down. Things might seem like a mess right now, but everything will be fine,” Sam assured him. Danny felt his warring emotions settle down, and he smiled hesitantly at Sam.

“Yeah dude, you’ve got the police on your side and everything! And even if they can’t get through to your parents, Jazz can deal with them when she gets home.”

“I guess so.” Danny sighed. “I’m just worried about this whole thing. Even if things get figured out with my parents, I can’t just go back to how things were. I mean, the police think that I’m dead.”

“Danny, we’ll figure something out, I promise. We can always tell them about you being Phantom, that should warm them up to you a little more.” Sam smiled at him, a warm and comforting gesture that didn’t suit her goth nature.

“But-”

“Dude, don’t,” Tucker interrupted. “You’ve done so much for this city. You’re allowed to benefit from it for once.”

“I- I guess.” Danny offered them an apologetic smile. “Sorry for freaking out so much on you guys, it’s just...”

“It’s been a long few days, we know,” Sam soothed him, now rubbing his shoulder with the hand that still laid there. “We’ll deal with it, like we deal with everything.”

Tucker rolled to the side of the bed, slinging his feet down to settle them on the floor. “And you know what you need? A hearty Foley family dinner!”

Danny laughed, eyes crinkling with amusement. “Yeah, alright. Are we still on for patrol afterwards?”

“Please, can’t you just not worry for like, a second?” Seeing that Danny was about to protest, Sam continued speaking. “We’ll go on patrol, like always. But the city won’t burn down just because you’re taking an evening for yourself, okay?”

He sighed but didn’t protest. If Sam had her mind made up about something, it was almost impossible to go against her, and he didn’t have the energy for it right now. Instead he dropped his head backwards, flattening himself into the beanbag, and pressed his hands against his eyes.

Everything will be fine, he mentally reprimanded himself. Don’t worry so much. You’ve dealt with things way worse than this, and you’ve always come out on top. This is no different.

But for some reason, the assurances felt hollow, and did little to hold back the ever-present dread.

#danny phantom #dp fanfiction #dp fanfic #phanfiction #phanfic #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #hey look i posted a bonus chapter after all! #i'll upload the next one this wednesday btw so the schedule isn't gonna change #next up is chapter 5: I'm Still Here But Not Completely #dark writes #disinterred #haha whoops i forgot to use my actual writing tags on this