Chapter Text
It was amazing how quickly your entire life, perspective and feelings could change in a matter of days. Things were still awkward; it took some, okay, a lot of getting used to. Such as stopping the habit of jumping up with an ectogun every time his personal beeper went off. Now he knew that it was most likely Danny being too lazy to walk down the stairs to grab something or him floating up near the ceilings to dust a spiderweb or to look out the top windows to assess the weather.
But right now, the ghost powers came in incredibly handy, since Danny could just go ghost and move all the furniture into the kitchen and garage himself in only ten minutes.
"Ready?" Jack asked.
"Ready!" Danny chirped with a smile.
Jack grinned in return. It felt so good to truly hear his voice again. His tongue had fully healed first, and it gave him back his voice with some limits. But seeing Danny physically smile without any of those wires and hearing him speak clearly...it was such a relief to have him here and alright. That was all he and Maddie had cared about, and the conversation they needed was continuously put on hold in favor of Danny's health.
There were still some noticeable scarring too, but the most visible one was covered up by Sam's choker. A style change chalked up by most to their relationship. He wore her choker, she wore the class ring.
"So, carpet's easy. Take us no time to tear it up and replace," Jack explained. Danny nodded. "What's gonna get us is the cleaning. You make that cleaning mix like I told you to?"
Danny nodded, jerking a thumb to the kitchen.
"Yeah, on the kitchen counter," he replied. "I'll get it when we're done." Jack hummed, pleased.
"Alright. We'll tear up the carpets, paint, clean, lay the new carpets, then put everything back," Jack repeated their game plan as he handed Danny one of the knives, a push up button razor knife. It sounded simple enough, especially with the furniture already moved, and knowing that Danny could quickly put it all back within minutes with super strength.
"Mom's gonna love the new paint color," Danny commented.
"I hope so," Jack replied. "I want that part to be a surprise."
As it turned out, the ectoplasm just never quite fully came out of the carpet. It caused the carpet to harden and feel rough, despite two sessions with a carpet shampooer and hours of scrubbing. The couch was left with some permanent stains too that nobody could get washed out, not even Danny.
But Jack hadn't replaced the carpet since they moved in when Maddie was still pregnant with Danny and that couch was older than Jazz, and so now? Now just felt like a good time for a little redecorating. He and Maddie had picked out a new carpet, a new couch, and a new mattress for Danny to replace the old blood soaked one. Maddie and Jazz took the couch and mattress with them to toss out on their way to Jazz's chosen college, doing the final paperwork and orientation for where Jazz would soon be for the next four years. And right after the girls had left, Jack had picked up the new paint color he knew Maddie was eyeing as they were looking through carpets. Hopefully it'd make for a nice, late anniversary gift for the both of them.
Now with the ladies gone for the weekend once more, Jack figured this was an even better bonding chance than his previous plan. The circumstances weren't ideal but…
Danny flicked the knive's blades up and down, watching the blade curiously. Jack lightly frowned.
"Careful, it's sharp," he warned him. Danny glanced up at him with a smile. Part of Jack would never get used to seeing the massive gaps from where teeth had to be removed. But at least he was here.
"I'll be careful!" Danny replied. He gestured to the hallway. "I'll start there," he offered.
"Alright, just don't cut yourself. Actually," Jack cut himself off as he began to dig through his tool bag. He produced a pair of thick gloves, and he handed them to Danny. "Wear these." Danny made a face, but he didn't complain. He slipped them on. "Let me know if you need help or run into troubles."
"Kay!" Danny chirped, and he turned to disappear around the corner. Soon, Jack could hear the carpet being cut into and ripped from the floor tacks.
Jack began to make quick work of the living room's carpet. He cut it into sections to make it easier to roll up, using tape to keep it together until they could later toss it. Half the living room was up within a half hour, the rolls lazily placed in the newly empty spot for now. Jack took a moment to catch his breath. He was definitely too old and out of shape for this.
"Danny? How you doing?" he called out. He stepped to the hallway, and his stomach flopped. While the carpet had seemed clean of all the ectoplasm (assuming you weren't walking on it with bare feet), the floor beneath it was still covered in green.
"Doing good!" he replied. Danny was on his knees halfway up the stairs, pulling up carpet. As opposed to rolling the carpet up, Danny was instead cutting it into strips that he stacked off to the side of the hallway.
"Alright, I got about half the living room," Jack told him. He wiped some sweat off his forehead. "I'm going to start moving some of this carpet out to the RV so we can just dump it off on our way to get lunch."
"Can we get Chinese?" Danny asked.
"Yeah," Jack agreed. Now that the idea was planted, he began to crave his usual order. "That sounds good." He glanced at the clock. "Let's try to get this done by eleven."
"Cool!"
Jack picked up some of the carpet, slowly making his way out of the house and to the RV. On his fourth trip, he noticed a cop car pulling up on the street. He watched it for a moment before returning inside without a second thought.
He stared at what was left of the living room, sighing heavily. Jack was much too old to do this kind of renovation. But the secrets they were covering up was too much to justify hiring somebody to do this for them. It had to be done.
Knock knock knock.
Danny froze upon seeing the officer standing in the now open doorway. The face was too familiar, and he stared. He slipped his box cutter into his back pocket as he stood up, coming down the stairs.
"Gregor?" he asked, unable to mask his shock, pulling the gloves off. "When did you-I thought you were part of the Guys in White."
"Uh, technically Elliot. Or Officer Gregor." The ex-agent stared at Danny curiously. It took a moment for Danny to remember that Fenton wasn't supposed to know this. Fenton hadn't spoken to him since the break-up involving Sam nearly two years ago, or even seen him since he had graduated shortly after that break-up from Casper High. And while he knew it was Gregor who leaked everything, Danny had dumbly never thought to think that he had left the GIW, or that he had probably been fired. Jack quickly came back to the hallway to also stare in confusion. "But not anymore. It wasn't a good fit for me."
"What's the problem?" Jack wondered, though he and Danny already had a strong guess.
"We got a call claiming domestic violence against a child," Officer Gregor explained. Danny exhaled hard. Of course. Officer Gregor glanced at the bare floors, then at Danny. "Just seems like some renovation though. Mind if I take a look around?"
"No, go right ahead," Jack agreed, gesturing to welcome him further in. The officer gave a nod, and he stepped inside. Danny stood silently off to the side, nervously rubbing at his upper arm.
While he couldn't make out what was being said specifically, he could hear the idle police chatter coming from Officer Gregor's radio. This was far from the first visit from the city, from both CPS and police. They had multiple accusations of child abuse or neglect ever since Danny had been discharged from the hospital. Especially when Danny was immediately enrolled in online homeschooling after that weekend too. The reports were all "anonymous" calls of concern, but the Fentons all knew it was Vlad based on the language and accusations. Most of the CPS workers or police officers would come by, glance around, see that Danny's room was full of normal teenage stuff and that Danny himself looked well fed (as one could on an all liquid diet with a wired shut jaw), happy, no injuries (thank you strict doctor's orders and quick ghost powered healing), and reported being happy, and leave while noting that the call was obviously mistaken in some way.
But it was the first time he saw Officer Gregor respond to the call, and Danny knew he was observant. And the source of the mystery of why the GIW just...let him go. He knew it was him specifically. It had been all over the news the same night he got home, that Agent G specifically had dropped the charges and released the information himself to the media. It was also something he and Auntie Liz (Ohmer) had talked about before, both trying to figure out why he did any of this. Reporters and local talks shows were obsessed with the why too, for nearly a full week, offering dozens of theories and giving their own opinions on it. And nobody within Team Phantom or FentonWorks or his new aunties could agree on a reasoning. The GIW had found a new charge to slap onto Phantom within that week, but dropped it after the immediate and intense public backlash and talk of an investigation to review what exactly the GIW had been doing.
The policeman pulled out an incredibly familiar notebook, similar to the one Danny had seen before but in a distinctly different color, and he began to write down on it.
"What's this?"
Danny's heart froze briefly as he turned his attention to what "this" was. Officer Gregor was pointing to all the green stains on the flooring, once hidden by carpet. Oh. That. That was easy to explain away.
"Ectoplasm," Jack replied. "We've spilled quite a few samples over the years." He let out a fake chuckle. "Not to mention the ghosts coming to us sometimes, cause of the portal."
"Oh I can only imagine," Officer Gregor chuckled. He took a few steps forward, and he glanced into the kitchen before writing down more stuff. What the hell was he even taking notes on? It was unnerving.
Officer Gregor stepped into another room, and Jack followed him, and Danny followed Jack. The officer was looking around, jotting more on that notebook. Danny pretended to glance out the window into the backyard, in hopes he could sneak a peak at what Officer Gregor was writing down. He couldn't make out anything.
"May I look upstairs?"
Jack glanced at Danny. Upstairs was definitely more...telling than downstairs. It wasn't the first time the request was made, but they both knew that Officer Gregor was far more observant than average. But it was fine. The old, blood soaked mattress was long gone, and anything else that had Danny's human blood had been deep cleaned or tossed long ago.
"Go ahead," Jack agreed. Officer Gregor smiled, giving a polite nod, and he made his way up the stairs.
"You guys encounter a lot of ghosts," he commented, eyeing all the exposed green on the half-bare stairs.
"Ghost hunting's not a very clean profession, but somebody's gotta do it," Jack explained. "We're going to scrub it before we put some new carpeting down." He let out a fake chuckle. "Not looking forward to that."
"Yeah, I can understand that," Officer Gregor replied. "Getting ectoplasm out of white is a pain in the ass."
"Have you ever tried adding salt to your laundry detergent?" Danny spoke up. The officer gave a curious hum, glancing back at him as they reached the top of the stairs. "Salt's a natural ectoplasmic repellent. Doesn't work super well against ghosts themselves, but it helps remove ectoplasmic remains and stains from the home, including in your laundry. Sea salt, specifically, not table salt. Adding a bit of baking powder too, and scrubbing with a magic eraser gets it out really well."
"Really?" Officer Gregor questioned. "I'd have to try that, I still have some white clothes stained from working with the GIW. They have their own cleaner service, but they kinda suck, and they're so strict about that uniform being white."
As they spoke, he glanced in the various open rooms, jotting more notes. Danny glanced at his dad, and they met eyes. Both of them desperately wanted to ask why he wasn't with the Guys in White anymore. What made it "not a good fit" for him. Did he leave by choice? Was he fired? But neither dared to bring it up.
"Yeah, if you're sink scrubbing, about a cup of baking powder, a cup of sea salt, mixed with laundry detergent and water, mix it super well," Danny instructed. "It should be a slightly watery paste, then scrub at stains with a magic eraser, and it comes out super well. No bleach needed."
"You guys really do know your stuff," Officer Gregor shot them a brief smile before writing more notes, glancing into the final room. Danny's room.
Officer Gregor stepped inside, studying it carefully. He went to the dirty laundry basket, checking a few of the shirts. Danny tensed despite knowing that every shirt was blood free. After that, he pulled his covers back, and he jotted notes. He checked the floor, bookshelves and desk, and the closet too. Every check was followed with a quick written note.
"Years of practice, trial and error," Jack finally replied. He ruffled Danny's hair. "Danny's the one who perfected the cleaning mix. It's that Fenton touch." Danny grinned in pride, and Officer Gregor squinted a bit at Danny.
"Are you okay?" he asked. Danny stared back blankly. "Your mouth." Danny subconsciously put a hand up to cover his mouth, feeling his cheeks flush a bit. He still forgot that he no longer had a complete smile.
"He was in a bad car crash," Jack explained. He wrapped a comforting arm around Danny as he fed the officer the lie the family had agreed upon. "Drunk driver."
"Y-yeah," Danny slowly agreed. "Knocked a lot of my teeth out."
"I'm so sorry." The officer truly did sound it, even though Danny didn't like the way that he was looking at him, with mild suspicion.
Danny hoped that he didn't assume that his parents gave him that injury. They had managed to fake documents to explain Fenton getting medical care. Or even worse: the ex-agent beginning to make a Fenton and Phantom connection. If anybody could make that connection...it would be him. Officer Gregor took a step towards him.
"Open your mouth," he requested. Danny felt a nervous sweat hit him, but he did as asked. Officer Gregor gently grabbed his chin, peering inside his mouth. He hummed in approval, and he let go to write something down in his notebook.
"What are you writing?" Danny couldn't help but finally ask.
"I was making note that you had an injury, but it very clearly seems that you got medical attention," Officer Gregor explained. He jerked his head back at Danny's room. "And no signs of blood or violence within the home. I noticed that you've been getting an unusually high amount of reports for this address. I wanted to double check. But seems like there's nothing going on here. Against you, I mean." He shot Danny a smile, and Danny returned it, though keeping his lips firmly together.
"Nope, I'm perfectly fine," the teen replied. "I actually have an appointment soon to discuss dentures or possibly implants, assuming everything's properly healed up enough. I use my girlfriend's family dentist. You know, Sam? She's been helping me receive the best medical care possible. Cause she loves me." He couldn't help it. He had to rub it in. The policeman flinched some as he was forced to remember the past, but didn't comment on it.
"When's your appointment?" Officer Gregor asked.
"Uh," Danny paused to pull his phone out, scrolling to check. "Next Tuesday at 10, with Dr. Roll." The policeman nodded, making note of that before slipping his notebook back into his pocket, to the Fentons' relief.
"Everything seems perfectly fine to me. No idea why we get all the calls here," he finally announced. Jack and Danny both let out a soft exhale of relief. "Think it might just be a concerned neighbor who fears the worst, or some bad rumors." More like a fruitloop was trying to weasel a way to get Danny in his custody. "I know you and the Mrs are also ectobiologists, so if this is all just some ghosts making noises during experiments that the neighbors are simply mistaking for the living, I highly suggest getting your lab soundproofed. Or if it's related to renovations, keep it down after nine, or I'll have to come back."
"We will," Jack promised. "Soundproofing is a good idea. We've been working with some new specimens lately." They weren't, but Officer Gregor's assumption was a perfect fit to go along with. "I'll walk you out." The officer nodded, and the pair began to walk down the stairs. Jack glanced up at his son. "Danny?"
"I gotta pee, then I'm gonna finish ripping up the stairs," he replied. Jack nodded, and Danny slipped into the bathroom.
He shut the door, and he stared at the mirror. He opened his mouth, staring at the inside. Nearly all the bottom teeth on his left side, half of the top row, and two in front. Gone. Three were thankfully spared, able to be kept but with strongly noticeable cracks and chips, but he still lost ten teeth in the end. A third of his mouth. No wonder Officer Gregor had immediately noticed.
Danny closed his mouth, and he tried to smile, but it quickly dropped. It was so...noticeable to everybody, the new first thing people pointed out anymore. So he just simply didn't smile, or he kept his lips shut tight. Even as Phantom. The public had definitely noticed the change, though his accident and hospital stay was luckily (and somehow) kept a secret, and Phantom was always too far away to have the average person the biggest clue: missing teeth. With Sam's help, they had faked Fenton's records by claiming her family's personal doctor treated Fenton for the sake of CPS and police, and later their dentist began to do the follow up treatments. Once Dr. Carrington, or Auntie Jane, had removed the wires, obviously.
He smiled, forcing himself to not show teeth. That was...better? That closed smile felt so off. It just wasn't the same anymore, as before. It felt ugly and wrong, and he couldn't wait to see the dentist for dentures or implants. The teen couldn't quite place why it suddenly seemed disgusting and fake to him. Maybe it was the combination of the teeth and the surgical scar? The one that was, thankfully, a thin line that was mostly under his jaw, out of immediate sight.
Could be those two and the horrible scar on his neck that was barely covered by Sam's favorite choker. Not that it mattered that much as to how visible it was. He had two distinct lines that came from under the choker, one that stopped at the collarbone, and the other that he knew went all the way down. Almost as if it was drawing attention.
Perhaps it was just all of it combined with the visible weight loss. The liquid diet he had to following his mouth being wired shut was absolutely miserable once the thrill of getting any milkshake he wanted wore off. And it wore off quick. Danny had never cherished a meal more than the first one after the wires were cut away. Jazz's homemade chicken noodle soup that she made just for him to celebrate the occasion. But even then, his mouth had still hurt, and it felt so weird to eat normally again. He had nothing to chew with on the left side of his mouth.
His eyes watered up, and he forced a deep breath. He turned the light off, exiting the bathroom. Best to not worry about it right now. His dad really wanted to finish this project before his mom and Jazz got back. Amity Park had definitely missed Phantom during his absence. Danny had also found that he actually really loved online homeschool. He could sleep in until nine, and without bullies or other classmates, he could move as fast or as slow as he needed, and after the wires were removed, take his ghost hunting breaks with no penalty. He still had some homework to do for his English and MyMathLab due soon. He had plans with Sam and Tuck to play video games when they were done with school Monday, and so he wanted to get everything done.
Summer was quickly coming, meaning Jazz was going away to college soon. She was starting that summer, and so when the school year ended, they'd be moving her into her dorm. Only four days after that, Tucker's parents were taking him on a cruise. Shortly after Tucker was scheduled to leave, Sam's family was going to Europe to visit extended family. When Jazz's summer class was over, the Fentons were all gonna go to the beach for a week on their own vacation. Before that, Danny had already planned to spend much of his summer in online homeschool while petsitting/housesitting for his aunties as they took their much deserved vacation with his new sorts-cousin. Plus, at some point, he still had an incredibly long conversation that was way overdue. And probably the fruitloop, and the usual ghost hunting. Phantom's break from fights was bitterly short, and now the ghosts were eager to return to the normal. Oh well. Some things in life just never quite changed.