Shane and I were sitting at the head of my bed, next to each other on the covers with a mini DVD player on a pillow resting on our laps. We both laugh tiredly as we watch a funny and familiar scene on the tiny screen.

"Oh much gosh I remember every single line on this thing," Shane laughs as I eat some popcorn from my hold.

"I know right?" I agree fully. Amongst other things we've been doing that we haven't done in years, watching this old cartoon together is one of them. It's late into the afternoon now, and we thought that we could conclude it with watching something.

Unconsciously I rest my head down on Shane's shoulder, but my head jumps last minute after realizing what I'd just done. "Sorry. Sorry I, guess I'm getting a little tired."

"Oh. Sorry, I should probably let you sleep-"

"No wait," I say before Shane can close the DVD player. It's not really that I wanted to keep the cartoon on. I, wanted to talk to him about something. I exhale and think before I speak. "Before I completely knock out unwillingly, I need to ask... why did you bring all this stuff with you?"

"What do you mean? Your house has like nothing in it. We had to do something to keep ourselves occupied."

"No I mean, like, yeah all this is fun and all but... but all this? Our old games? Our old stories? Our old movies?" I shrugged. "Why all this nostalgic stuff?"

Shane looked caught, and defeated he shut the DVD player off finally. The sounds coming out of the side are silent, and its just the two of us in tension once more. "I dunno. I... guess I just really wanted to make sure you stayed in bed... Make you you stayed happy enough not to want to leave and train, and get more sick."

I laugh a little. "Yeah cause I would've totally snuck out of here at the tiniest hint of boredom." Shane smiles a little too. "But, yeah... it was fun." I want to say something else too. "But what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Did you have a better time here than you would have smoking?" I ask sincerely, avoiding his gaze. I felt embarrassed to ask. Embarrassed to show my concern for his well-being. But, in reality, I really hoped that it was better for him here. If Shane did have problems, he shouldn't have to resort to smoking to forget about them. He should be able to turn to me, and Nett, so that we could help him have fun and forget.

After what seemed like an eternity, Shane finally answered. "I guess I did." Looking at each other, we exchanged small smiles.

And the next thing I did was totally unexpected. With him sitting right next to me, I threw my arms around him from the side, burring the side of my face in his shoulder. "I know I still can't tell you what to do, but please don't smoke." Shane didn't say anything, but I made sure to have all the seriousness and sincerity I was feeling evident in my voice. "For some reason... I don't like the idea of you literally loosing yourself, even if it was to forget your problems. I... can't imagine seeing you in the same state my mom was."

"I'm not addicted to the thing."

"Yet," I say so quietly he can barely hear me. I only tighten my grip around him. "But... still... please don't do it anymore?" My voice sounded so little and frail. I felt horrible for sounding like that. "I wasn't going to tell you, because I thought you'd laugh at me, but... I cried last night." I felt a sudden shift in Shane. Like his head must have jumped. "I felt like I wasn't a good enough friend to you, and maybe because of that... you resorted to smoking..."

But, Shane lifted his hands from underneath my arms, holding my arms arms in a gentle hold as he rested his head sideways on top of mine. I feel him exhale before saying, "I'm sorry for making you worry," he says gently, running one of his hands through my hair. "And despite how much we argue and not get along... I never wanted to make you cry."

And for a while, we just stay like that. Sitting in my bed in silence. I still feel somewhat sick, but I didn't have as much coughing fits today as yesterday at least. I thank Shane for that, maybe. But right now, it's just me, and him, and me telling him everything I never would say out loud.

And then it was over.

The door slammed open with Nett once again bursting in unannounced. "YO WASSAP!"

Shane and I instinctively jumped away form each other, resulting in us accidentally bumping heads. We each held where we got hit before openly glaring at the Folly who just walked in.

Nett stares before apologetically scratching his head. "Um... heh. My bad. I ruined the moment."

"You ruined nothing," Shane said cooly, his old personality returning once more. "What are you doing here, Folly?"

"I could be asking you the same thing," Nett smiles, moving his eyebrows in a suggestive manner that makes me churn inside. "But alas, I think I know the answer to that."

"What do you want, Nett," Shane and I both ask again simultaneously.

"Ah just dropping by actually," Nett replies with a casual shrug that makes me want to punch him. "My Dad said he was coming over to talk with your Mom again and I thought I'd drop by to check up on you. But it turns out that position was already filled in by lover-boy over here."

"I have a girlfriend, you know."

"Could've fooled me."

Both boys glare at each other with such intensified stares that I feel nervous just sitting there.

Luckily we hear another knock on my door, cutting the said tension. Nett answers since he's right next to it, and much to our surprise we find Tucker Folly standing outside it. "Uh, hi Dad. What's up?"

"Can we talk?" he asks seriously. "All of us?" He looks to Shane and me by my bed, and somehow I sense all of us getting the same weird sick feeling. The feeling of getting caught for something.

Mr. Folly comes in and sits on a chair at my desk, while Shane sits back down on the edge of my bed next to me. Nett leans casually against the wall nearby, and we all face his father. "So what do you want to talk to us about?" Nett asks first.

"It's about Wendy," Tucker replies, and suddenly I feel myself drinking down a little. I remember yesterday overhearing Tucker and my Mom talking, about me and possibly my own dad. But a wash of assurance comes over when I feel something warm take my hand. Shane had taken my hand secretly, to comfort me. He squeezes mine and I squeeze it back in thanks and in comfort.

"What about me?" I finally say.

"Your mom and I have been talking," Tucker says, leaning over a little in the chair. Oh no, he's going to talk about me and my dad. "And now I'm here to talk to you about ghosts." Or not. Oh I so was not expecting that.

"Ghosts," Nett says with a 'really?' kind of tone. He barely hides a laugh and I look to him. He's convincing enough as it is. He's trying to cover for me in front of his Dad. "Dad do you hear yourself? Ghosts?"

"I want to talk to you three about this because as the Mayor of this town I have something to attend to, and I need your guys' help."

"What do we look like the CSI?" Nett says back. I am so surprised. Out of the three of us I think Nett is the best actor. "Don't you have workers to help you with your 'secret political agendas' or whatever?"

"I just said 'ghosts', Nett. Does that sound like political agenda to you?"

"Well, no," Nett frowns.

Tucker leans back in his chair once more. "Yesterday I caught sight of something suspicious out in Amity Park. Something like a ghost dragon." Oh crap. "Sounds familiar?"

"No," Shane and Nett say as casually as possible, but I can see the sweat developing at the sides of their hair. It was me. Tucker saw ME. Well hopefully he doesn't know its me but still! What the heck is talking to us about this for?

"Anyway, my sources tell me that its loose again in the city and a few agents and I have to go find it." There's another ghost dragon out there?

"Wait, no offense Dad but, you're the mayor. You're no secret government agent what are you doing all this for? Let the professionals handle it. You might get hurt," Nett says with some concern in his voice.

Tucker than gives us a sly confident smile. "I am one of the professionals. I just happen to be mayor too, kid." Suddenly I recall a time I actually did speak with Tucker. Alone. It was in his house and in that mini ghost hunting lab. I wasn't Wendy Manson though at the time. I was a ghost girl, looking to a ghost expert for help.

And now here's the ghost expert, looking for one of our ghosts.

"So what are we supposed to do about this?" I speak up, somewhat worried.

"Your mom CAN NOT know anything about what's going on here," Tucker says in a quieter, harsher tone. He leans more forward. "I don't know if you know this Wendy but you mom is extremely... loathsome of ghosts at the moment." It's hard not to notice sometimes. "If she knew there was a ghost out there and that I was going after it, I don't know what'll happen." I think I do. "So whatever happens, you three can not let Sam see the dragon much less know that it exists are we clear?"

"That should be easy. We just keep her in the house busy," Shane says.

Suddenly Tucker's phone began to ring. He took it out of his pocket, pressing a button and the entire screen comes to color. "Mayor Folly. What's up?"

"Sir we've come into sighting with the ghost dragon," said the voice on the other end. It was so quiet in the room so it was impossible not to hear the conversation. "We apologize but there are news casters everywhere. What do we do?"

"So much for secrecy," Tucker mutters after a silent curse. "At the moment make sure your top priority is public safety. Make sure none of the civilians are hurt and please try to control the media."

"Yes sir but, what about the dragon?"

"I'll handle it alone."

"I'm sending you the coordinates of the dragon's location."

"Thanks" Tucker hangs up, and sees the guys' and my worried expressions. "Don't worry. You guys will be just fine if you stay here." It's not our safety exactly that we're concerned with at the moment. "Remember, your mom," Tucker smiles to me.

I nod convincingly. "We'll keep her busy."

"Thanks. Gotta go." And with that Tucker runs out of the room, and once he's out of earshot, Nett, Shane, and I turn to each other with the exact same thoughts and concerns in mind.

"We are sooooo screwed," Nett states blantly and seriously.

"No kidding. What do we do?" Shane panics.

"We go after him?" I say as if it weren't obvious. But instead I'm received by two bewildered expressions. "What?" I asked somewhat annoyed.

"What do you mean we go after him? You're sick, we need to watch your mom, and my DAD is out there!" Nett says up close to my face.

"Yeah and that DRAGON is our Danny!" I mock in a similar tone. They give me the same questioning looks. "Isn't it obvious? Shane told me you guys left the amulet at Danny's. It must be him."

"Well how did he turn into a dragon?"

"I dunno. He must've worn it and got angry or something," I say. I can't think of a reasonable explanation at the moment but I know undoubtedly that its Danny. "And I know you guys are going to say no but the three of us have to go after it."

"Okay. Sure. Let's go after the dragon in public. How do you suppose we go about that?" Nett says, expecting a miraculous answer.

"First my Mom," I mention, sitting up a little. "I think we have some sleeping pills in the bathroom cabinet downstairs."

Nett and Shane look to me with the widest eyes and the most intense stare. "What did you just say?" Nett asked as if I'd just said the ultimate curse word.

"What? It won't harm her or anything. And we won't have to worry about her this way."

"I guess we don't have much of a choice at the moment," Shane says doubtfully.

"I can not believe what I am hearing," Nett groans, ruffling his hair. "And what about my dad? What if he sees us?"

"Well he's just going to have to... not to," I manage out, jumping out of bed.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a sec," Shane hurries, coming over and sitting me back down. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm getting up to go get Danny what else?"

"No you're not. You're still sick. Now lay down. Folly and I will handle this."

"No. I'm going with you guys and there's nothing you guys can do about it."

"You have to admit Shane, if we're gonna do this it needs to be all three of us," Nett says. "And I really don't wanna do this. I mean hello we're drugging her mother. I really don't want to do this but if I am I at least want her around." Pause. "Did I mention I really don't want to do this?"

Shane finally takes his hands of my shoulders, giving me a stern look that I fully understand.

"And if we get caught?" Nett mentions one more time.

"We just don't, okay?"

"What do we say if my dad sees us?"

"You say nothing," Shane answers in the same tone as me.

Nett turns back and forth between a confident me and a laid back Shane. Back and forth and back and forth his head turns. After a short while he sighs extremely loudly and hands his head. "We're just winging it aren't we?"

"Looks like the genius finally caught on," Shane comments as Nett glares once again.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Once the deed is done, my mom is out like a light on the couch. A half-empty glass of water sits on the coffee table, and the three of us quietly sneak out the front door. Its no use going ghost because there're too many people outside that could see me.

With Nett's mediocre hand-made ghost detector, re-made from the broken Fenton Locator back in the labs, we manage to find the ghost dragon out in the park. We see crowds of people running everywhere, away from the site of loud crashes and roars.

"Well, at least we know Nett's thing works," I say as I look at the contraption in my hand.

"I wonder what got him so angry in the first place to make him become a dragon," Shane adds curiously. I wonder, too. I don't picture Danny ever really loosing control of his emotions.

"Well, we're bound to find out soon hopefully. Let's go." I run ahead and the guys follow. We reach a wide opening of grass, and a shadow zooms over us. Turning up we see a large, pale glowing dragon. And the amulet I recognize is around his neck. .

"It is Danny..." I say out loud.

"Look out!" I didn't seem to notice Danny firing an attack at us. Nett jumped out of the way and Shane had to pull me down as well behind a trash can. Hiding safely, Shane turns my head towards him. "Manson what's the matter with you? I knew you weren't well enough yet you-"

"No I'm fine. It's just-" Danny roars again, and a green fireball inflames a tree nearby. "It's just, I can't believe this is Danny." I can somewhat understand the pain he's going through. When I was a dragon, all I can faintly remember is anger, sadness, regret, all negative feelings immersed into one thought process - all turning to violence. "We have to return him back to normal."

"Well, to do that we need to get that amulet off him," Shane says, vaguely pointing at Danny's neck as he flies up. "That's how we managed to revert you."

Shane's phone rings and he quickly takes it out to answer. A video screen comes on of Nett's face. "What's the game-plan?" Nett asks in a slightly panicked voice. A small explosions sounds off from his background.

"You think you can fire another aero-dynamic thing at his neck again like you did with Manson?" Shane says to his phone.

We see Nett feel his pants pockets for something. At least I think that's what he's doing. "No. The phone I have not is so not aero-dynamic this time." Huh? "Can't Wendy just go ghost and hit the amulet off? You know, now that she can fly outside in midair without hyperventalating?"

"Too risky. She might get caught of someone comes along," Shane mentions. "Can't we just throw rocks at his neck or something?"

"Oh yeah like a pebble is going to knock off the giant amulet from the giant dragon," Nett remarks with the ultimate sarcasm.

"I can just go ghost from a hiding place and shoot ghost rays at him," I mention hessitantly.

"You can barely hit the broad side of a stadium with your aim," Shane says, making me glare.

Ignoring him once more. "Just trust me. And at least my ghost rays won't hurt Danny as much. You and Nett just have to distract him so he can stay in one spot and not fly all over the place."

"Just please don't hit us while you're trying to hit him," Nett speaks from Shane's phone. "Because if Shane or I get hit that is really going to suck."

"You're not going to get hit," I clarify with some offense as I hang Shane's phone up for him. I take Shane's head under my hand. "You trust me right?"

I fail to acknowledge the faint blush on Shane's face. I mistake it for nervousness of the mission. "Okay. Good luck."

As Shane runs off onto clear view of Danny, I see a nearby tree and climb up it, hiding in its leaves. I'm free to go ghost and I'm free to fire. Now if only I can aim right...

"Yo Danny! Down here!" Nett calls, waving his arms as he jumps sideways. "Your mother listened to hip hop!"

Shane made a face and stopped in his tracks. "What kind of insult is that?"

"Dude hip hop sucks."

Before Shane can roll his eyes, Danny prepares to fire anther fireball. The two resort to jumping and dodging again, and the process repeats while I wait to get a clear shot. I only manage out at least four - all missing or not doing anything.

A few minutes into the battle, Nett trips and skids a little on the grass. He turns over and we see Danny overing above him. He's too far away from Shane or me for us to do anything. "Oh boy..." Nett exhales, unable to move out of fear as Danny prepares to attack. "Suddenly getting hit with one of Wendy's ghost rays sounds pretty okay."

"Nett!" Nett is pulled out of the way before the attack can hit. But it's neither me or Shane. The two of us watch from afar unable to do anything, because the person who saved Nett was his father.

Tucker rests on the ground next to his son, and Nett gives him the most surprising look. "Dad? What are you doing here?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Another roar comes up and Tucker pulls them to their feet. "Move!" I watch as the father and son hide in a bush, out of harms way. With that I fire more ghost rays far distance, hoping that they at least come three feet close to Danny. Only Shane is left to distract him now.

Meanwhile with Nett and Tucker, both were out of breath and hiding behind a bush. "You kow you're grounded when we get out of this," Tucker mentions with a slight glare.

"I can understand that," Nett nods with a nervous grin.

"You know, if you planned on fighting this dragon you guys are so going about this the wrong way," Tucker says, surprising Nett.

"Don't you just knock off the amulet?"

"That's one way. If you want to revert the dragon you have to be able to reach them inside, too. Mentally. It's more difficult, but whoever this amulet transformed, they sure seem to know what they're doing with all these ghost powers."

"Heheh, yeah," Nett sweats. "Wait how do you know this, Dad?"

"Lets just say I fought this type of ghost before." The two duck and are barely out of the way. "It's still no fun."

Since Nett's with Tucker now, its up to Shane and me, which generally isn't any easier. I'm up in a tree and Shane's running around like a maniac. This is pointless. At this rate Shane, Nett, or Tucker could wind up getting hurt. I have to draw Danny out somewhere else.

And so, I fly out of the tree as fast a I can so as not to be seen. I fly straight up to Danny's face. "Wanna catch me, Danny?" I pull the bottom of my eye down and stuck out my tongue and pull the side of my mouth. "Here's how I respect your authority!"

This seems to catch angry Danny's attention well enough. With that, I fly off, and he follows the bait.

Tucker covers his son with his arm, but had managed to hear my call and lifts his head. He sees the familiar ghost girl from long ago, the same one helping save his son and Shane from Technus's evil video game. And now here again. Did I just hear her call him Danny...?

Down below us, Shane manages to catch me flying off with the dragon right on my tail. He glares up at us as we disappear beyond some trees. "Idiot, you can't face him by yourself." And with that he runs after us as well.

After leading Danny off to somewhere relatively safer, I engaged in battle with my master. My mentor. It hurt to fight against someone like Danny, because we knew him so well. But, he would want me to restrain him. To defeat and save him. "Danny stop! It's me, Wendy!"

I fly out of the way as I combat against the dragon. I produce my own shields as well, but they only continue to break on me, never reflecting. Well, I never did get enough training for that. Only by the fourth attempt at a reflective shield does it work. Danny's own fireball attack flies back towards him, and it finally manages to do some damage.

"I did it!" I grin, quite happy with myself. With the upper hand, I fly straight towards Danny and start attacking him with inflamed ghost kicks. For a while things seem to be going my way, and I think I'm able to remove the amulet without much trouble. But at the last minute Danny swats me away with his claw, and it does more damage than his fireball would.

I fly dozens of feet back, and I slide along the grass, a long line of brown dirt made in front of where I landed. The damage done forces me back into my human form, and Danny flies to where I am. He lands infront of me, so his entire shadow engulfs me.

I can see his eyes so clearly from here, and all I can see is pain. So much pain, that it causes me to cry seeing him like this. He makes another roar, and I can tell that I can't do anything to calm his rage. "Danny..."

"Danny no!" Shane runs practically faster than I can fly. He falls beside me, in front of me, and faces Danny with his arms protectively around me as he holds me up against him. "Danny I'm warning you! Do NOT hurt Wendy!"

"Shane? What are you doing? How did you find me get out of here."

"Don't do it, Danny!" Shane says in the most demanding voice. Danny's preparing to attack, and I'm sure its the end for both of us. "Remember who she is! She's your FRIEND! Your STUDENT! She's CRYING, Danny! CRYING! Do you see her?" I've never heard such passion on Shane's voice before. His cries... they make me ache inside for some reason. "Remember who you are!"

It seems too late, and I burry my head in Shane's chest, and he hugs me tighter than he's ever hugged me before. Only when we realize a light beyond our closed eyes to we understand that the dragon has disappeared.

I open my eyes and I see the dragon shrinking. Morphing back into what was once Danny. He lies on the grass in the distance, and Shane and I gape. We force ourselves up and try to run to him. Shane has to help me limp, because I can't support myself. But we both want to reach Danny as fast as we can.

When we do, he's laying on the ground with scratches all over him, from me. I feel the guilt wash over automatically. Shane and I fall to sitting position, staring at him. I am afraid to touch him when I extend my arm, and I take it back. "Oh Danny..."

"Shane!" Nett calls out, and in the distance he sees us on the grass field. Tucker is right behind him, but Nett runs away, leaving his father for his friends.

Tucker stops for a moment to see where his son is running to, and he sees why. He smiles at the finding of Shane, but he notices me as well, not thinking I was with them. He recalls the ghost girl, and he makes the curious connection. Tucker wonders for a moment, but shrugs it off. Can't be.

"Guys!" Nett runs up to us and is out of breath that he collapses on the other side of Danny. "What happened? Are you guys okay?"

"We are," Shane says, saying we as in me and him.

"But Danny," I say worriedly. Only then do I force myself to remove the Cursed amulet from around his neck.

As if to make matters worse, Tucker comes along as well There is nothing we can do to hide all this. "Kids are you-" He stops, seeing us all gathered around the ghost. He just stares, and we await for him to question us. Only, he doesn't all he says is: "Danny?"

And that word alone is enough to shatter my thoughts into a million more questions.

Luckily those questions are put to a halt, because a loud and painful bang echoes through the air. Tucker collapses, and behind him is Nett standing with his arms extended up while holding a large rectangular contraption. Did he... just knock his father out?

"Um..." Shane stares at the unconscious mayor before us.

"New phone," Nett says, lowering the pad in his arms. That's a phone? "It's a newer model. More bulkier than a normal phone but, it came in handy." He presses the giant monitor, and sees it make a satic sound before blacking out. "Well, there goes another phone for the sake of another ghost mission."

"Dude that's not a phone. That's a dinner plate," I say to him.

"Whatever at least Dad's out cold," he reminds us.

"Guys..." We look down at Danny. He's just barely keeping his eye open.

"Danny?" I desperate grasp his hand in both of mine. "Danny are you alright?"

"I'm fine but..." I see him become intangible. Blinking intangible from vision to invisible. I almost drop his hand. "My ghost form - I'm unstable out here. I'm not supposed to be outside." He's supposed to remain under FentonWorks...

This is why we've never seen him outside. This is why he can't go out. He really can't. He's bound to FentonWorks. But, why? Other ghosts can fly outside. Why can't he?

"Quickly, you have the Fenton Thermos, don't you?" Danny barely says.

"Yeah right here," Shane replies, removing it from his bag.

"Take me back to FentonWorks using the Thermos. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to," he grunts a little, "to stay out here..."

Desperately I nod, and Shane prepares to suck Danny into the thermos. I hold onto Danny's hand tightly until his form disappears into the safety of the thermos, and he is no longer here with us.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A few days pass since then, and things are finally back to decently-normal. School resumes and I am no longer ill (YES). I can finally focus on my classes, argue with Shane and Crissy, geek out with Nett, and all that stuff.

Tucker doesn't appear to remember a thing, or so we think at least. Nett says his dad is still suspicious. And unknown to us, Tucker actually managed to catch a Fenton Thermos in his sons book bag during breakfast, but for some odd yet thankful reason, he's decided to leave us in our privacy until the time was right.

As for Danny, he's well enough again. No more risk of fading out of existence. And we reassume training, too. I can now produce reflective shields on command after a long sequence of training exercises and practice.

"Hey Danny?" I ask during a five minute break. I'm back in my human form, and Danny hands me a bottle of water. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go for it."

I tinker with the cap of the bottle first. "Remember a few days ago? During the whole, dragon incident?"

Danny's face changes a little, but only a little. "What about it? Something bothering you?"

"Not really bothering," I reword. "Just... what got you so angry in the first place that the amulet turned you into a dragon? I mean, I can't really picture you... getting angry really."

Danny sits down, and I sit next to him. "It's not really that I got angry. Just.. overwhelmed, I suppose." I can see he has trouble explaining this, and I wonder whether I should've asked or not. "I went to see Spectra last week for some help."

Huh? "With what?"

"She has this ability to help ghosts remember their lives as humans," Danny tells me, and it intrigues me. Did he?

"Did you?" I ask.

"Yeah."

"And?" I was a little excited to hear about his life, so I didn't expect to hear his kind of answer.

"It seemed alright. A good life. A wife and a decent lifestyle. But... I had a flashback too. Of how I died, I think." My heart sank when he told me that. "And the worst part of it all is that, I don't even know if it was. There was this girl with me in a car. I don't know if she was my wife or not. Maybe. I don't know if she's dead too or not."

"Is that why you turned into a dragon?"

"Sort of," Danny says, trying to remember more of the flashback-vision. "The last thing I remember seeing was, something or someone, causing my car to just... go crazy. Its like... I was attacked or something."

"That's awful." I wonder how it must feel, to find out that I died by murder, and by something so vague and mysterious. Only now do I have such a close understanding of Danny's life. His carefree mindset because he has nothing to worry about. Nothing to remember to worry about. "I found out something too last week."

"Hm? What about?" Danny asks, eager to change the subject to me it would seem.

I smile a little at his concern. "When I turned into a dragon... I guess I sort of had the same reason. I wasn't angry. I was just... frustrated or overwhelmed, like you."

"What got you so high-strung?"

"My mom," I admit guiltily. My Mom could never make me upset. Yet... "She was talking about my dad. She hasn't really told me a lot about him, so I don't really know anything. But, she knows something, and she's been keeping something from me and she won't tell me what it is or why."

"Well you mother must have her reasons."

"I know. But... she also said that my dad was killed," I admit, pulling up my legs to hug them. My water bottle hangs loosely from my fingers. "All this time I thought he must've died in some freak accident or some illness but... killed? I mean it just so... wrong." I feel Danny's arm come over my shoulders, to pull me in and comfort me. "And... I think I heard something about how she's trying to protect me... from the same thing that hurt my dad..."

He holds me with his one arm even tighter, and unconsciously I watch Shane and Nett play some game of catch across the lab. "I'm sure she's doing her best to protect you anyway," Danny assures me. "And when the time is right, you'll find out the truth."

"I hope so," I sigh, looking up at him. "Sorry for turning the whole conversation around to me all of a sudden, Danny."

"It's alright," Danny smiles. "We all need an outlet."

When he says that, I can't help but stare at Shane, blissfully unaware of our thoughts. "Yeah..."

Aha! I updated! YESH!

Anyway thank you everyone for the reviews last chapter. And with summer here, I can write more stuff without delay for once.

And just because I actually got to work ahead of time, I've already started on the next chapter. Sooo, uh, here's a preview I guess of what you guys have to look forward to. More stuff about Danny, mwahahahaha:

"I think I saw Jazz," Shane says.

"... Jazz?" Nett asks again. "Mrs. Aliah? As in, our hot English Teacher Jazz?"

"I think. But not really Jazz. Just a picture of her."

"What's a picure of Jazz doing at FentonWorks? You sure its her, man?"

"I don't know! And the weird part is that it looks like a younger her."

"Can't be her."