Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

"Danny?" Maddie asked distractedly, holding out a hand. "Can you hand me the screwdriver?"

Danny looked up from his homework with a quick, "Sure thing, mom," as he reached beside him and handed over the screwdriver. Maddie grabbed it with a smile as he turned back to his book, on occasion she still felt overwhelmed sometimes with sheer gratitude that they could sit together like this.

Danny had taken to being down in the lab with them more often than before, no longer watching them with cautious eyes and tense shoulders. She hadn't even realized how uncomfortable he had been until he relaxed and now… She realized that she was unused to this relaxed and happy version of her son.

Maddie still felt a twinge of pain and guilt when she thought about it; her own son had been scared of her. She would do anything in her power to fix that. To make things right.

Now she glanced over at him where he sat at the table, relaxed in one of the chairs next to her, calmly working on his homework while occasionally exchanging words with her or weighing in on what she worked on. Jazz was upstairs as she worked for her college applications, and they had all just eaten dinner together in the kitchen. They had talked and laughed, and not said a word about ghosts the whole time. She hadn't fully realized how much she missed her family.

Maddie turned back to the device in her hand with the screwdriver ready. They had just finished another round of cataloging all the small natural portals around town, but more were popping up all the time, faster than they could get to them. Currently they were all working on a new system that could predict where and when new portals would form; Tucker was writing the software, Jack was in the back of the lab making the new—frankly humongous—satellite dish capable of scanning the whole town, and Maddie was currently working on a new prototype for it—a job that proved to be much easier with Danny's help.

And hadn't that been another big surprise? Danny was much more knowledgeable about their inventions and technology and engineering in general than either she or Jack had suspected and he was proving to be a great asset in their work. Maddie had the creeping suspicion that it had come about as a necessary defense to be able to understand and disable their inventions while keeping his identity a secret, but there was no denying the interest in Danny's eyes as he helped them tinker with something. He loved it, and however he had gained the knowledge, they could all bond over it now.

A silver lining and all that.

Suspiciously, she had also noticed a sharp decrease in the number of inventions that malfunctioned and broke down, but she had quickly come to terms with the fact that if a few broken inventions and some failed projects was the price they had had to unknowingly pay for their son to remain safe and with them, then she was glad to have paid it.

They settled back into comfortable silence, only broken by Maddie's metallic tinkering and Danny's pen on paper, as well as the occasional sound coming from Jack's welding in the back of the lab. If she closed her eyes for a second, she could almost pretend that nothing had changed at all; that the clock had turned back to before the whole accident with the portal and that her little baby boy was still—

Maddie opened her eyes and sought out the portal without really meaning to. It still stood where it always had been since they started building it, what felt like a lifetime ago, all cold steel and intricate wiring. So many hours of work, of research, of dedication.

God, she wanted to destroy it so badly. Turn it off, smash it into little pieces, tear the wiring out, and blast it to nothing. Destroy it, just like it had destroyed so much without them even noticing.

A year ago she would be horrified by the mere thought; all those countless hours of work gone to waste, but… But she found that she didn't care. She simply wanted it gone and far, far, away from her family.

Realistically, she knew destroying it wouldn't change things—wouldn't take them back to the time before—where everything was easier and her children were safe. That it wouldn't solve anything, not really, but that didn't stop the wave of regret and hate that welled up inside of her every time her eyes landed on the damned thing.

She tore her eyes away from the machine and forced herself to focus back on the device in her hands as she blinked hard.

They hadn't even known that they were supposed to mourn.

There was nothing she could do to change the past, all she really could do was to try and fix things here and now, be the safety net that her children had been lacking for such a long time. And right now, that meant trying to solve the problem with the increasing appearance and size of the natural portals. If she could do this and take some of the weight of Danny's and Jazz's shoulders, then that was what she would do.

Suddenly, she was pulled from her thoughts by Danny's breath hitching and Maddie looked up in time to see his breath escape his mouth in a visible mist, clouding in front of his face.

"That's your ghost sense!" she exclaimed with wide eyes. It was still equal parts exciting and disconcerting to see such a blatant display of ghostliness from her son, but thankfully it came as less of a shock every time.

"Yeah," Danny said as he stood up with a sigh, already stretching his back and taking a step towards the stairs.

Maddie held out a hand to stop him. "Wait. Let me and your dad handle it, alright?" A lot of smaller ghosts, like blobs, and animal ghosts had been showing up lately and they had talked about her and Jack taking the brunt of the ghost hunting so that Danny, Jazz and their friends could focus on school.

And school was of course a part of it, but a bigger part—at least for Maddie—was the desperate need she felt to protect him, no matter how late she was. She didn't want him to lose any more of his childhood because of their mistakes. Now that they knew what was truly going on, they could go back to how things were.

It didn't help that the whole situation was their fault and she refused to let Danny take responsibility, jeopardizing his health and his education, for a mistake she and Jack had made.

It was easier with Jazz; she was currently submitting applications to several prestigious colleges after they had managed to convince her that she shouldn't put her own goals on hold any more than she already had. It had been a hard conversation, of course, but Jazz had seen reason in the end. Hopefully Danny would really follow her example and actually plan for his own future as they had told her he would.

She was also thankful to Sam and Tucker for being by his side, since she and Jack hadn't exactly been… Well… And she was proud of them all for what they had managed to accomplish by themselves, but that didn't mean that it was easy to look Sam and Tucker's parents in the eye after this whole mess.

No, she and Jack would take care of this ghost.

Maddie smiled as she patted the chair next to her. "Come on, sit back down." Danny sent her a hesitant look and she pressed on while getting up herself, placing the screwdriver beside the battery for the prototype. "You focus on your homework."

His shoulders slumped as he whined, "But mooom. What if it's someone really strong this time? I can't really tell ghosts apart with just my ghost sense."

She understood that all this time with so much responsibility—with him, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker feeling that everything landed on their shoulders—that it was hard for them to sit back and let it go. To trust them to take care of it. Even so, she suspected that it might be something more than a simple feeling of responsibility. At least for Danny.

They hadn't really talked about whether this was part of his obsession or not, or if he even had an obsession like the other ghosts. This was yet another area where they didn't want to pry too much and risk causing even more harm with their lack of knowledge. But regardless of the reason behind it; this was good practice for him.

She walked past him and patted his shoulder, "We will be just fine." She turned towards the back of the lab and shouted, "Jack!" and was greeted by a loud thump and a muffled swear before her husband pulled himself out of the casing that would become the satellite. Danny opened his mouth as if to argue further, but was interrupted by Jack shouting, "Yes, love?!"

"There's a ghost!" Maddie called back.

Those simple words had their usual, immediate, effect and he came running over with shining eyes as he dusted his hands off on his dirty pants-legs. "Again? Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Danny was still standing, looking torn; relief and stress warring for dominance on his face. "I—I can just go with you and see who or what it is...?"

Jack shook his head with a no-nonsense expression, gently guiding Danny back onto his chair. "You stay here, son. We'll call if we need help."

Danny gave a hesitant nod and Maddie made a mental note to actually see if he had gotten any homework done when they came back or if he had sneaked out after them. Again.

She knew that Danny hadn't fully trusted them in the beginning; wanting to come with them to make sure they didn't hurt any ghost without reason. But lately, she suspected it had more to do with him not wanting her and Jack to get hurt. He really did have such a kind and caring heart.

She placed a light kiss on his furrowed brow. "We'll be back before you know it."

He wiped the spot she had kissed and turned his frown towards her. "And you'll tell me if you need help?"

"Yes, honey. We will."

They found the ghost three streets over, standing by an intersection and staring at the few passing cars that drove by. It looked like an older lady with clothes reminiscent of the black and white silent films she and Jack had used to watch in uni. If Maddie had to guess, she would bet on early 20th century.

One thing she was certain of; she had never seen this particular ghost before.

Maddie walked up with a disarming smile and her hand far away from the gun at her hip. Just think of her as a human, you can do this. "Hello? Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Yes?" The ghost turned slowly around, eyes lingering on a passing car. Then it seemed to register her and Jack and its eyes widened as it took them in. "Oh, good day."

It still felt slightly weird to talk to ghosts as if they were people—at least other ghosts than Danny—but they would still do it, for Danny, and because it was the right thing to do. It was just hard to rework their whole approach to ghosts on such short notice. Maddie just had to remind herself sometimes to relax and keep the smile on her face, and to her relief she found that it came quite naturally. It became easier all the time. "Hello. It's… nice to meet you?"

The ghost nodded with a hesitant smile in return. "Likewise."

Jack stepped up next to Maddie, asking in as soft a voice as Maddie knew he was capable of, "If you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

The old lady looked startled by him at first, which, admittedly, most people did when they first got eye to eye with Jack. Maddie sometimes forgot just how big he was. But then the ghost seemed to relax and slowly said, "My name is…Margaret, I think."

"It's nice to meet you Margaret," Jack said with a smile which Margaret returned.

"The pleasure is all mine. Now, if you do not mind yourself, who are you?"

Maddie had noticed that a lot of ghosts seemed to relax at the mention of Phantom's name, so she smiled and said, "I'm Maddie, and this is Jack. We are… friends of Phantom's."

It—Maddie stopped herself—She lit up at Maddie's words. "Oh, Mr. Phantom. He is such a nice young man!"

She felt pride swell in her chest and the smile came unbidden this time. "He is."

"He asked us to make sure that you're okay," Jack continued, still making an effort to lower his voice to a more tolerable volume. "How did you get here?"

As they talked, Maddie used their scanner to try and find any remnants of a portal, but she came up empty.

"I—" Margaret hesitated, frowned, and cast another quick glance around her. "I am not quite sure."

"Alright, that's okay," Jack reassured her. "Do you remember anything that happened before you ended up here?"

Margaret frowned in thought. Just as expressive as a regular human. "No I… Well, there was this light, I think. It was very bright, you understand, but only for a second. And then I was… here."

A natural portal then. And if her confusion was anything to go by, then she didn't seem to have planned on coming here. The ghosts that had come through the natural portals had so far mainly been blobs or animals, not full-on humanoids. They had theorized that the portals tended to be too small and unstable to let anything bigger through. Did this mean that the portals were increasing in size? Becoming more stable?

Regardless, this particular portal didn't seem to have stuck around for long after Margaret accidentally stumbled through it. Maddie lowered the scanner and focused back on the old lady in front of her; she needed their help right now and if they were supposed to treat the ghosts like humans, then that would have to be their priority.

"Do you know where this is?" Margaret asked as she turned back to stare at the road. "It all seems so very… Familiar, but different at the same time. Are these… automobiles?

Maddie followed her gaze to one of the cars rumbling down the road and simply said, "Yes, they are."

Margaret looked back at Maddie and Jack with wide eyes. "So this is the future then?"

Maddie hesitated, exchanging a look with Jack, but he seemed just as out of his depth as she did. She ended up shrugging and trying to give a reassuring smile. "I suppose in a way it is."

Margaret stared at them silently for a few more seconds before turning her head back towards the road, eyes tracking the few cars that zipped by.

Maddie took a step closer so that she stood right next to her before asking softly, "Do you want us to help you get home?"

Margaret turned to look at her again, and this time the wonder was accompanied by something that looked an awful lot like hope. "You can do that?"

Maddie didn't hesitate to offer a, "Yes."

"Oh. Then I think… I think I would like that very much. Thank you so much. I'm not… supposed to be here, I don't think." Another car raced down the road and Margaret flinched slightly as her eyes jumped to track it. "No, not at all."

"We're sorry to hear that," Jack said as he also came up to stand next to them.

Margaret heaved a sigh and turned back to face them, a sad smile on her face. "That is alright, dearie." Then she looked back at Maddie and gave her a pained smile. "You know, you remind me of my daughter. She was always very kind and—" she broke off, paused and then the hopeful look came back, but this time it was mixed with distress. "Oh, since we are in the future then I bet she must be a fine woman by now… Isn't that something."

Maddie looked at her old-fashioned clothes and very much doubted that her daughter was even still alive, but she kept that to himself as she said, "I'm sure she's doing wonderfully," and then decided to get the conversation back on track before the nice old lady in front of them got it into her head that she wanted to go and look for said daughter. The last thing they needed was a grieving and lost ghost on their hands. "We need you to get into this device for a short moment." Ghosts have feelings, she reminded herself. "Is that… Is that okay with you?"

Margaret's eyes landed on the thermos that Maddie held in her hand. "I can fit in there?" she asked in a wondrous tone of voice.

Maddie nodded.

"And it will take me home?"

"Yes."

"The future is amazing." Margaret straightened out her coat and gave Maddie a short nod, but as she raised the thermos she seemed to pause. Maddie waited patiently and Margaret hesitantly said, "If you meet my daughter, please tell her I said hello. And that…" Her voice choked up, but she pressed on, "That I miss her. Terribly."

Maddie swallowed and refused to look away from the ghost's eyes; the wetness noticeable even through the red shine in them. "We will." Losing a child, it was… Something they could understand.

Jack nodded and his own voice was slightly choked up as he said, "It was nice meeting you Margaret."

Margaret gave a short nod and then Maddie pressed the button and aimed the thermos. It had never felt this peaceful to capture a ghost before.

"Well, then…" Jack looked at the thermos in Maddie's hands with a slight frown.

Maddie let out a long breath and relaxed her shoulders as she also stared down at the device. "Yeah…"

"Shall we head back?"

There was the sudden sound of a phone going off; a sound that had become more familiar lately since their views had changed and people seemed more comfortable calling them for help with ghosts. And considering the increasing number of ghosts appearing in town it was both a blessing and a curse.

Maddie fished the phone out of her pocket and accepted the call with a professional, "You've reached Fentonworks, this is Maddie Fenton speaking. How can I help you?"

"Hello, Maddie! Nice to talk to you! This is Linda, you know Mickey's mother, and I hate to bother you but, well… There's a ghost. I think it's some sort of… cat maybe? Or possibly a skunk?"

Another ghost? Already? She was grateful she and Jack had managed to convince Danny to stay home; he wouldn't have been able to get any of his homework done otherwise.

"Alright." Maddie clipped the thermos to her hip and gestured Jack towards the car. "At your place?"

"Yes! In the kitchen as a matter of fact. Dangerously close to the china." Linda paused for a second and then continued with a distracted, "Maybe I should try and get it—"

"Linda, stay away from the ghost. We'll be right over, okay?"

They got in the car and started driving

"Okay, okay, yeah, you're right," Linda agreed and Maddie let out a breath in relief. "Oh, right! I wanted to thank you two. It feels nice knowing someone out there can help with things like this now."

"I—I'm glad to hear it, Linda." Maddie didn't know what to say to that. That she was sorry it took them this long to realize the truth? That she was happy that they had finally come around? Or that they shouldn't get thanked for basic decency? "I'll see you in a minute."

But Linda seemed to have gotten distracted again as she exclaimed, "Oh, I think it might want the cereal! What if it's hungry, the poor thing? Maybe I should just—"

There was the sudden sound of a crash and a short scream, Maddie gestured for Jack to speed up. "Linda? Linda, you okay?!"

"I—I'm fine," Linda's slightly strained voice came over the receiver. "It's definitely a skunk though!" She said with a laugh that bordered on hysteria and trailed off into coughing.

"We'll be right over. Just please try and stay at a safe distance."

"I—Yes, yes. I think that's a good idea."

Maddie hung up and leaned back in her seat with a sigh.

Jack slammed the door open with a happy, "Jazz! Danny! We're back!"

Danny had moved up to the kitchen table and Maddie was pleased to see that he seemed to have come quite far on his homework.

He looked up and gave them a smile, even as she saw him quickly look them over for any injuries. "Welcome home. You took a while, everything okay?"

Maddie nodded as she unstrapped her gun and placed it on the counter in the hallway—they had a strict no-walking-around-with-weapons-in-the-house-except-in-emergencies-rule. "We're just fine. And yes, it took longer than planned. We had three encounters today!" There had been one more call after the visit at Linda's; an ectopus that had scared some tourists in the park, but had proved to be an easy catch as soon as they had managed to find it hiding underneath the slide in the playground.

Danny blinked in surprise. "Three? That's a lot."

"Three!" Jack agreed as he came up next to her and put down his own weapons as well. "And, one of them wasn't even an animal ghost! Can you believe it? It was a nice old lady named Margaret."

"Oh, okay. Since you didn't call me I'm guessing it went well?" Did you fight them? Went unsaid.

Maddie still smiled. "It went well."

"That's good. I just—I'm sorry, but what's that smell?" Danny wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Is it you guys?"

Jack jumped in with a happy, "It was a skunk! A ghost skunk!"

Danny gave a short and incredulous laugh. "Right. Sure, why not?"

Maddie smiled. "Don't worry, we managed to get it into the thermos without too much trouble."

Jack barked out a laugh. "Poor Linda will have to scrub out her whole kitchen though! I don't think that smell will ever completely come out!"

"Yes, well," Maddie gave a wry smile, "I guess it's a good thing we managed to get it before it escaped the room, then. But I can't imagine it's particularly pleasant for poor Margaret to be in the thermos together with it." She remembered what Danny had said about how unpleasant it was to be cooped up in the thermos for too long and took a step towards the lab. "We should go let her out."

Danny beamed at her with a smile that radiated joy as he followed her. "I'm proud of you guys."

And those simple words shouldn't hit her as hard as they did, and just for a second Maddie allowed herself to relax; to believe that everything was alright. But of course, that was the moment she noticed Danny's canines poking out unnaturally far between his smiling lips and she felt her own smile freeze on her face.

They—They weren't supposed to look like that, were they?

To her dismay she found that she didn't have the answer. She tore her eyes away from where they had locked onto his teeth as the usual thoughts started circling in her head again; what did she really know? Maybe they had been like that for years. She couldn't really claim to have been paying attention, now could she? Better not mention it and risk making Danny feel even less seen than he already did, no matter how true it was. They were working on it. If he didn't mention it, then she would have to accept that. She had to be patient. It was fine. It was fine.

As they walked down the stairs to the lab, Jack broke through Maddie's spiraling thoughts with a question directed toward Danny. "Will she be okay if we just release her back in the Ghost Zone through the portal?"

"Yes?" Danny frowned over his shoulder at him. "Why wouldn't she be?"

"Well, we haven't really had to deal with a human before, and I thought that maybe she wouldn't know where she was."

Danny's frown stayed on his face as he turned forward again, taking the last few steps down into the lab and stopping in front of the portal before turning back to face Jack and Maddie. She saw him take a deep breath before saying, "I'm glad you've started to see ghosts more as humans and treating them better, but… You know, they aren't reallyhumans, right?"

"We know." Jack heaved a sigh and Maddie heard her own grief echoed in the sound. "We know, it's just… hard to balance."

Danny looked almost pained as he said, "Things can be non-human and still worthy of respect."

Like me, Maddie heard. "Oh, honey, of course they are." And she did all she could to infuse those words with as much love as possible. To make him believe her when she said she knew and she accepted him and it was all okay. Even if—Even if it might be a while until she and Jack fully accepted that Danny wasn't strictly human anymore. Her own son. Their little baby. She forced the thoughts back down and placed a loose hand on his arm, trying to reassure him and hoping that her pain didn't shine through too much.

He searched her and Jack's eyes silently for a few seconds before giving a slow nod and a smile that broke the tension that had fallen over the room, giving them an underserved out with a, "Well, no time to waste, right? Let's let them out."

He opened the portal before either of them had the time to comment, and what was there to say, really? They just had to be patient and listen and show their support. And hopefully, with time, the acceptance would come. She clung to that reassurance with bloody fingertips. It would.

Maddie walked up with the thermos and followed his lead, releasing the ghosts into the swirling green of the other dimension.

As he closed the portal up, face bathed in the green swirling light of it, Danny asked, "There's been even more ghosts popping up lately, right? And more portals." It wasn't really a question, they all knew it was true and Danny was long past trying to seem less intelligent than he was.

Even so, Maddie nodded with a simple, "Yes."

"Maybe we should put up some posters or something? If more ghosts might show up, then we should inform people on what's going on."

Straight to problem solving. Maddie was so very proud.

Jack beamed next to her. "That's a great idea, son!"

"Yes," Maddie agreed with a nod. "We can start working on that right now."

Danny crossed his arms with a disapproving look on his face. "You guys are already so busy with your project with Tucker. Me and Jazz can deal with a few posters. Besides, I think Sam would love to help as well. She's been complaining of having to spend too much time at home lately."

Maddie hesitated. She didn't want Danny's friends to get involved any more than they had to, but it was true that they already were very busy. Besides, she could see that the inactivity was tearing at Danny's patience, having something specific to do, that didn't include fighting ghosts, would do him some good.

"Alright. But keep to the bigger streets. No going looking for trouble, okay?"

Danny looked like he wanted to argue, but after a second he deflated with a grumpy, "Okay." Maddie foolishly thought that might have been the end of it, but then he continued with, "But shouldn't we investigate why the portals are popping up? What if someone is behind it? What if it gets worse?"

Now it was Maddie's turn to hesitate. It would be very useful to know, and of course she was also scared that it seemed to be getting worse and they had no idea how to stop it, but that didn't mean that Danny had to be the one looking into it.

"That's true…" Maddie hedged, thinking about the weeks of increasing natural portals that they observed before they started working on cataloging them. "But hopefully we shouldn't be in any real hurry? I don't think this is anything new."

"What do you mean?" Danny asked with a puzzled frown.

"Well… It seems like the portals might have been increasing all this time, even if we didn't notice until recently."

The frown turned into a look of slight panic. "'All this time', since when?"

That was a good question, wasn't it? When did it all start? They had registered the increasing number of natural portals for several weeks, if not months, now—that much they knew. But natural portals in Amity had been around sporadically for much longer than that, hadn't they? But they had been a very rare sight until… until… "The portal." She took a steadying breath. "Since we turned on the portal, right?"

Jack looked at her with wide eyes; his expression eerily similar to what it had been the days after finding out Danny's secret. "How could we not have noticed something like this earlier?"

Maddie's thoughts jumped to the single ghost they dealt with last weekend, the two they dealt with yesterday, and the three today. She frowned as she thought out loud, "Maybe… Maybe the increase is exponential? But then… "

"Then maybe it's a bit more time sensitive than we thought," Jack finished for her and she nodded her agreement.

That would be bad. Really bad.

And it was all because of them and their carelessness. Again.

Why did all new revelations come with a side of guilt and regret nowadays?

They should have seen this coming. How could they have ever thought that punching a hole in reality would go without complications?

"Do you think us placing it here might have been a mistake?" Jack asked in a low and pained voice.

Danny furrowed his brows in confusion as he looked to his father. "The portal? What does that have to do with…?"

Maddie mourned the inkling of respect their son might still harbor towards them that would no doubt vanish after this new revelation. But they owed him the truth—they had to work together to solve this—so she took a deep breath, steeled herself, and said, "The veil was already pretty thin and then we tore it open with this…"

"Oh." Danny breathed out, then his eyes widened as what she said truly sank in. "Wait. Do you think it's falling apart?!"

Maddie truly wished that they lived in a reality where his question was more far-fetched than it was. The increasing number of natural portals and their increasing size and stability indicated that the veil was tearing in more places, and they couldn't write off a possible total collapse. The realization rendered her speechless as the full implications of what they were discussing dawned on her. There was no way around it; a total collapse of the veil between the human realm and the Ghost Zone would... It would risk the whole world.

Her eyes landed on the portal again. Their magnum opus. The fruit of so many years of hard labor.

And the end to one of the most important people in their lives.

It had brought them all so much pain and suffering. If they shut it down, was it possible that it would all just go away? Go back to how it used to be?

They would lose years of work and a direct line to the Ghost Zone, and with it the possibility of immeasurable knowledge.

But how could they allow it to remain turned on after what it had caused? What it risked causing?

Her gaze jumped back to Danny, to the way his wide and worried eyes were fixed on the portal that had—That had killed him.

How could he be in the same room as it? How could they allow him to have to endure that? Even if nothing else was on the line; didn't they owe it to him to shut it down?

"Should we—" She hesitated, sent another look at the cursed machine and continued with a stronger voice, "Should we shut it down?" She knew it wouldn't be that simple, not really, but she didn't care. She wanted it off.

But instead of the relief she was expecting, she saw Danny freeze at her words; his eyes fixed on the wall in front of him and all expression drained from his face. Regret instantly flooded her as she realized that somehow, however unintentionally, she had caused him more pain.

Jack raised a hand in Danny's direction before letting it fall back down. "Danny? You okay?"

He blinked a few times before slowly turning to look at him. "Yes. Why wouldn't I be?" He followed it up with a forced smile that only served to make her more worried.

"Are you…" Maddie searched for the appropriate word, reminding herself not to be too pushy—that he would tell them things when he was ready and that she needed to allow that—and eventually landed on a halting, "Sure?"

Instead of answering her question he continued to stare at her blankly and then asked, voice devoid of emotion, "You're just gonna turn it off?"

"The portal?" Maddie asked, trying to make sense of his reaction. "Is that a problem for you? Oh! Do you need to get to the Ghost Zone? Would it be bad for you if we shut it down?" She couldn't believe she hadn't thought about that! How could she still be so blind and careless, after everything?

Danny shook his head, stopped, gave a slow nod, stopped again. "No, or I don't know. Yes?" He seemed confused himself, barely present.

"Then we can't risk it," Jack said and Maddie was grateful for the assuredness with which he said it; it made it easier to ignore the panic she felt at leaving the thing on for even a second longer. But he was right. Of course he was; they couldn't risk causing any more harm to Danny than they already had. Not if they weren't absolutely certain that it was the last and only solution.

But Jack's statement seemed to shake Danny out of whatever stupor he had fallen into as he shook his head and snapped his gaze back into focus to give him an indignant look. "What? No. That doesn't matter. Ghosts are getting transported against their will by the portals, people might get hurt! And you just said the veil might be breaking apart!"

"Well, we can't just turn it off if it might hurt you!" Jack emphasized his words with a frustrated wave of his hand.

Maddie heard herself speak before she made the conscious decision to do so, "And besides, shutting it down might make everything worse. At least there's no guarantee that it will make things better," but as she heard herself say the words she knew them to be true; however much she hated to admit it, the damage was more than likely already done.

Confusion warred with panic on Danny's face. "Why would it…?"

"Well…" She exchanged a glance and a wince with Jack. "We did punch a hole in reality. It's not so easy to just patch it up again."

"But, then… what should we do?" And he sounded truly agitated by now. Maddie ached to sooth his worry; to promise that it would all be okay. But she couldn't do that, could she? She couldn't lie any more.

Jack stepped in with an impressively collected, "At least we shouldn't make any decision without researching it first to make sure nothing else goes wrong."

At his words, Maddie's eyes once again sought out the portal, standing looming in the back of the lab. How could they ever be sure that they had checked and double checked everything? That everything was perfectly safe? They had thought they had done it before they tried to turn the damned portal on, and look how that had turned out.

Danny took off pacing in front of them, hands twitching at his sides. "But that could take ages! What if someone gets hurt? We need to fix this!"

"Honey, maybe this doesn't have a quick fix or a clear answ—"

He stopped in his tracks and cut her off with a quiet, "I can ask Clockwork."

"Clockwork?" Jack asked with a frown, clearly trying to follow his son's train of thoughts and failing. "Isn't that the time ghost you talked about? Who knows the future?"

"Yes," Danny nodded as he took a step towards the portal. "Yes, he is. He should know what the right thing to do is. Hopefully he'll tell me, but it's worth a shot."

"Wait." Maddie said and Danny stopped mid-step before turning to face her. She bit her lip as she swallowed down the instinctual rebuttal that they couldn't trust the words of a cursed ghost. Instead she looked him in the eye and asked, "Do you trust him?"

Danny hesitated a split second before nodding. "I—I do."

Maddie returned the nod slowly. That had to be enough. And besides, it couldn't hurt, could it? She would also like some more guidance in this decision; there weren't exactly a lot of examples of similar things happening that they could learn from. Answers from a being who literally knew the future did sound awfully tempting. And besides, time might very well be of the essence. "Sure, we can ask him—"

"Thank you!" Danny exclaimed as he ran over to the portal and opened it in one smooth motion.

But Maddie wasn't known for being slow to react and she had spun on her heel, taken a few quick steps, and slammed a hand down on the close button before he had the time to dive through. "Absolutely not young man! It's way too late and you have school in the morning." She softened a bit. "You can go after school tomorrow, alright? One more day will hardly matter." And it would give them some time to do some research of their own before they consulted this mystery ghost. It was to make sure it was all as safe as possible, she told herself.

Danny stared at the now closed portal with a look of betrayal on his face; but then he slumped in defeat. "Yeah, alright."

Jack had a fond smile on his face as he said, "Make sure to ask this Clockwork if shutting the portal down will be safe for you as well, alright?"

"Yeah, sure." Now he mostly sounded exasperated with their worry. That was fine. They were still his parents. And it was so easy in these moments to forget how powerful he truly was—to forget the fact that if he really wanted to go against them, there wasn't a lot they could do to stop him. It was a miracle that he still listened to anything they said; still acted as if they had any power over him at all. Still acted like their son.

She was so grateful it hurt for the fact that Danny had let them in, that he trusted them with all of him again like he hadn't for a very long time.

She would do anything to not mess things up again.

Maddie ruffled his hair with a smile, silently marveling at the fact that she had to reach up slightly to do it. He had grown up so much. "And please tell us if any ghosts come up during school tomorrow. You've already missed two classes this week and we don't want you missing anymore."

Danny gave a quiet groan as he stepped away from her, but Maddie was pleased to see a small smile on his face as he muttered out another, "Sure," before he trudged up the stairs. After a few seconds they heard him call down a slightly muffled, "Night!"

"Right, then," she said with a sigh as she turned back to face Jack who wore a matching expression of grim determination. "Where do we start?"

Hopefully, they would be able to put the whole mess with the portal behind them soon enough. Right now it was time to do some investigating of their own.