:: unknown ::

"Can you believe it, Vladdie?" Jack didn't even wait until they got past the front door. "Berkhauser's pass in the last game broke record air time! That man is a machine!"

"I favor the trick plays myself," Vlad said, all sleazy smiles as he motioned them inside his stupidly over the top castle. "He is absolutely devious and that's one quality I admire in a player."

"He can devious all day, with an arm like that!" Jack clapped Vlad on the back and they went in together, making a beeline for the plush viewing room with its giant HD TV screen. "Now this is how you watch football! Is that wings I smell?"

Danny slouched in after them, his face cemented in a stubborn scowl, eyes fixed on Vlad like a particularly vindictive cat checking out a rat. Vlad would probably put that metaphor backwards. He liked to pretend he always had the upper hand. Danny touched the miniature blowtorch in his pocket and hid a grin.

"Not this time Vladdie," He muttered under his breath. "I'm ready for all your tricks."

::12 minutes::

Maddie rarely made snap decisions; she liked to think things through, analyze and consider her options. She liked to know that she was making the right choice. She didn't have that luxury now.

They had… she glanced at the clock. She'd noted the time as she set up the defibrillator, maybe a minute after he'd changed forms. Two minutes? It had read 10:41. He'd just transformed again. It was 10:55. Fifteen minutes between, maybe. She couldn't be sure.

"Are the cycles consistent?" Leaving Danny's side, Maddie strode to her worktable, rummaging through the tools there and sorting out what she needed.

"I think so. It was hard to keep track." Danny sounded exhausted. He didn't get up from the floor where she'd left him. The air smelled sour with sweat and blood.

Maddie looked around the room; there: A table at the back— one with built in restraints, which she could just see under all the invention debris, piled there, along with a few empty soda cans. With a sweep of her arm she shoved all of it onto the floor. It crashed and clattered into the shadows.

"Mom?" Danny was nervous now. "What are you doing?"

There wasn't time; if he went human again this wouldn't work. She had to move fast.

"Sweetie." Maddie knelt; she took Danny by both shoulders, and tried not to flinch at how cold he felt. She looked him directly in the eyes. "Do you trust me?"

Danny's eyes got wide. He nodded slowly.

"Good." She pulled him into a hug, then slid her arm tight around his throat in a choke-hold. He jerked, struggled, and went limp.

:: 9 minutes ::

Maddie injected the paralysis serum, hating herself for it even though it was completely necessary. That chokehold would only keep him under for a few minutes. If he thrashed while she handled some vital part of his insides, she could kill him. And he'd want to thrash. Danny wouldn't be able to move, or even speak after a while, but the serum did nothing for pain.

Ghosts didn't feel pain. It was hardly necessary.

That theory was a lot harder to believe when your teenage son lay there on your own lab table. Maddie didn't wait for the serum to take full effect; she couldn't. They only had minutes before the device reactivated.

"I'm so sorry, Danny," she said, glancing at him. His eyes were still shut; sweat stood in beads on his alien, glowing skin. His aura flickered and warped like a bad fluorescent bulb. He was still out, but not for long. A shudder ran through her and she tore her eyes from his face. She wouldn't look at him. She couldn't, if she was really going through with this.

She grasped the zipper of the jumpsuit and yanked it down, exposing Danny to his waist. Pale greenish-white skin became visible. Lean and hairless, a teenager's chest. A boy's chest. Maddie shook her head and grasped for blessedly abstract terms like thorax, sternum, pectoral muscles. As if it were a cadaver from biology class in college. Picking up a scalpel and taking a deep, slow breath, she cut him, smoothly and quickly, from the jugular notch to the xiphoid process.

She was prepared for the scream—felt the shocked hitch of Danny's chest before it began—but that didn't mean it shook her any less. Tears started in her eyes and she blinked them away furiously as she continued the cut, carefully pulling away a layer of skin and muscles that twitched in her hands. The left side of the rib cage lay exposed under a gleaming layer of green tissue, sternum and rib a startling, charcoal black. Bright green oozed up and obscured her view; she wiped it away.

Danny's cry subsided to a soft, high whine; the paralysis was taking effect. She shut out the sound, closed off every part of her mind except the technical, and picked up the saw.

:: unknown ::

The big projector screen flickered out and the theater lights came on. Jack grinned and stretched, leaning back in the plush red armchair and downing the last of his beer. The Packers hadn't won— against the Patriots there wasn't much of a chance, honestly— but they'd sure put up a brave fight.

"Vladster, you sure know how to have a party. Even if it's just the three of us."

"I think you mean the two of us," Vlad corrected with a sardonic smile, pointing to Danny's empty seat. A cold pile of wings still sat on the armrest.

"Never could get Dany into the ole pigskin," Jack shook his head. "That kid wouldn't know a linebacker from a tight end. But he sure knows his ghosts! Better than I do sometimes."

"I can't imagine," Vlad said dryly.

"Still...he doesn't usually leave food half-eaten. And definitely not coke." Jack poked the mostly-full glass and frowned. Danny was more of a caffeine fiend than even Maddie. Not even boring old football would make him leave behind a perfectly good soda. "You have any idea where he might be, Vladdie? Wouldn't want him getting lost forever in this swanky setup of yours."

Vlad stared at him for a long minute. "Actually, Jack? I think I might." He got up, removed his jersey and lay it neatly over the back of the chair. Of course he had his full-on three piece suit underneath. Vlad was something else, Jack thought with a grin.

Vlad led the way down a hall, around a corner, and through a narrow passageway. He pressed his thumbprint into the wall and a seam opened up, sliding apart to reveal a hidden elevator.

Jack whistled. "Nice! Guess it's not a castle without a hidden passageway."

Vlad only smiled and gestured to the glossy silver interior. "After you."

tbc...

A/N:

I jynxed myself by saying the words "regular update" didn't I? Jack suddenly invited himself to the plot party and since this is a crazy out-of-order story that meant rethinking the entire chapter structure. I think I've got it now, though! And woof, someone get Danny a tylenol. Poor kid.

Oh, and before you ask, yes I'm ignoring the "Danny reverts when he passes out" thing. We'll say whatever's making him transform is also holding him in that state. Because plot convenience. ;)

Thanks for the reviews guys! You know they keep me smiling. :D

-Hj