Through Her Eyes

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Danny Phantom or anything related to the show. Yep, still belongs to Butch Hartman. Nope don't own the song either, That's Dream Theatre's; it's called "Through Her Eyes" (funny coincidence there isn't it :P)

A/N: Hiya, me again, yes it is yet ANOTHER songfic, no I am not ashamed. Yes I love the song, no I couldn't leave it alone once the plot bunny bit me (rude little things, damn traps don't work, waste of money.) The first part of the fic takes place when Jack is 16 (don't know how long ago that will be) and the second part is in the present day, the transition will be marked for your convenience.

As always, 'Blah' are thoughts "Blah" is speaking and Blah are song words. Enjoy.

She never really had a chance
On that fateful moonlit night

"Kate, look out behind you!" Jack Fenton screamed at his girlfriend. She turned just in time to witness the bolt of pure energy before it struck her square in the chest. She screamed as the intensity of the heat burned strait through her flimsy t-shirt. The force of the blow knocked her flying. When she hit the wall, she slid down it and landed in a silent, crumpled heap at the bottom.

"NOOO!" Jack screamed as ran to her side fearing the worst. The night had started out so well. He had picked her up at eight and they had gone out for a meal, when they had finished they had caught a late movie and now they had just been walking together through the park under the moon light. That was when it had all gone wrong. An eerie fog had crept it's way around their feet and the temperature had dropped dramatically. They had stopped to try and determine what was happening. That was when he had caught sight of it. It had appeared out of thin air behind Kate and raised it's arms. A large ball of light had formed between his palms and before Jack could do anything, he had fired.

Sacrificed without a fight
A victim of her circumstance

Jack reached her side and began to shake her, calling her name, desperate for her to respond. She never did and deep down Jack knew that she never would. She had passed on and there was nothing he could do for her now.

A maniacal laugh drew his gaze upward once again. He looked up in time to see it disappear and somewhere in his grief stricken mind a thought registered. 'That was a ghost'. A ghost with snow white hair and glowing green eyes.

Now that I've become aware
And I've exposed this tragedy
A sadness grows inside of me
It all seems so unfair

He could do nothing to go after the monster now, so he turned his attention back to his girlfriend Kate. She still hadn't moved so he gathered her into his arms and wept, and screamed and called her name. He cursed the entity whose fault it was for her death and swore his vengeance on it. His screams drew some people who were still loitering around and an ambulance was called. When it arrived the paramedics tried to take Kate from him but he refused and demanded to take her to the ambulance himself. He rode with her to the hospital and was there when her parents arrived. He tried to explain but he couldn't so he ended up just going home and crying in his room, muttering between sobs about how unfair life was.

I'm learning all about my life
By looking through her eyes

It took him weeks to even begin to get over Kate's death but he knew he had to keep going for her. She wouldn't have wanted him to moap about, she was the kind of person who preferred action to inaction. And if anyone should know that, he should. They had been dating for a year and he thought she might have been the one. Jack had always been an imaginative boy but he had been busy recently with school and Kate so his talents had been somewhat repressed. Now, he channelled all of his love and grief into inventing. He joined a science club where he met a wonderful woman named Maddie who seemed to share his passion for ghost hunting.

Just beyond the churchyard gates
Where the grass is overgrown
I saw the writing on her stone
I felt like I would suffocate

During his time at school, he often went to the church to visit Kate's grave, it was an old graveyard, not very well kept. The grass was often longer than was standard for most public places, but it wasn't as if the residents minded at all. He would come to this exact spot every Sunday, leave his flowers on her grave, and chat to her about his latest invention and anything else that had happened over the past week. She was the first to know when he stopped seeing Maddie as a friend with similar interest, and started to see her as a beautiful potential girlfriend, with similar interests.

"In loving memory of our child
So innocent eyes open wide"

Those were the words inscribed on her gravestone. He had come so often he felt they were carved into his soul. Her parents had chosen the inscription and it matched her perfectly. She had always been a happy-go-lucky girl, acted as if nothing in the world bothered her. She had always lived her life according to a philosophy she had picked up somewhere, "live every day as if it's your last, because one day it will be". That one phrase encapsulated her personality perfectly. She had possessed the innocence of a child and looked at the word through a child's eyes. Always the first one to laugh, and the last to cry. Jack had fallen badly for her because of it, not because she happened to be beautiful, but because she was so full of life.

I felt so empty as I cried
Like part of me had died

And every week, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how long he talked to her, every week, he cried. He would break down and cry as if his heart was breaking anew. He wept for her and his deep love for her that he had never been able to express to her face. When she had died, it was as if a piece of his heart had died with her.

I'm learning all about my life
By looking through her eyes

Since she had died Jack had found himself regressing maturity wise, he was laughing more, looking at the world with wonder and excitement. From the point of view of a child, just like Kate always had. He had adopted her philosophy and had asked Maddie out as soon as he felt he had moved on enough. He spent more time studying and working on his solid B minuses. He poured his energy and spare time into making gadgets he could use to hunt, and if necessary destroy, ghosts. He had never forgotten his vow to Kate. He would have his revenge, if the ghost ever showed up again.

And as her image wondered through my head
I wept just like a baby as I lay awake in bed

He would sometime lie awake in bed at night and just think of her, even after a year it still hurt to think of her, it still broke his heart to recall what happened to her on that night, but now he had Maddie and she was working to heal his broken heart.

And I know what it's like to loose someone you love
And this felt just the same

He had only felt pain like this once before, when his grandfather had died of cancer. He had wept for days but this kind of pain was more intense, it stabbed at his heart like a dagger of ice. Chilling his very bones. But eventually he had moved on. He had gotten over his grandpa and he was slowly getting over Kate.

She wasn't given any choice
Desperation stole her voice

He often thought of that night when he was alone. How unfair it was that Kate hadn't even had the chance to do anything but scream as her life was cruelly snatched from her. She hadn't been given a choice in the matter, but then again, who ever got the choice where death was concerned? Even now, twenty years after he had left high school, he often thought of her. His coping strategy now was the same as it was back then, invent, build, create, keep his hands busy so his mind didn't have the chance to dwell on the grief in his past.

I've been given so much more in life
I've got a son, I've got a wife

He thought how lucky he was. He had met his beautiful wife, had two beautiful, intelligent children and invented so many ghost-hunting gadgets he had more than enough money to put them both through college. But there was still one thing he didn't have. As hard as he tried, as many times as he built and tweaked the Fenton portal, as long as he stared at it, as many times as he went fishing in it, he could never find Kate. She had been his motivation for building it and he had been so disappointed when it hadn't worked. When he had come down the next morning to start work on something else he had dreamed up during the night he had been so overjoyed to see it working that he hadn't bothered to find out why or how it was working, and over the weeks, it had just slipped his mind to find out.

I had to suffer one last time
To grieve for her and say goodbye
Relive the anguish of my past
To find out who I was at last

One sunny, Sunday morning Jack Fenton decided to face his demons. He couldn't move on with his life without finding his closure. He walked to the graveyard, past the gates, over the overgrown path until he found it. The spot he used to come and stand at every Sunday and tell Kate what he had been up to. Once again he laid the bouquet of roses on her grave, stepped back and began to tell her about the last twenty years of his life.

"Hey Kate, it's me again. I'm sorry I haven't been up to visit up in a while, but I've been busy. I have a family now, two beautiful kids. My daughter Jazz reminds me a lot of you. The do-gooder, always trying to save the world. My son, Danny, he's a great kid. He has some great friends. Always there for him. Needs a good kick up the backside to get him to study, but a good kid none the less. I love them so much Kate. I know you would too. I miss you Kate. You were my first real love, you know that, I loved you back then and still do. You changed me you know, your innocence, your happy smile, couldn't help but rub off. I saw the ghost again. The one with the white hair, and the green eyes. I haven't managed to catch him yet, but when I do…I swear I will avenge you and I'm not giving up on finding you. I'm sure I will, one day"

While he was talking tears had begun to fall, unchecked, down his cheeks. He barely noticed them. After all of this time, the grief was still there. Dulled with time, but still very much alive inside of him.

The door has opened wide
I'm turning with the tide
Looking through her eyes.

"Thank you Kate. Because of you, I finally know who I am. I hope you're happy wherever you are. Just remember, I love you and I will find you again. Goodbye."

When he finished he felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart. He could stand tall again, the grief seamed to seep out of him as the last of his tears fell on her grave. He smiled, passed a large gloved hand over his face to disperse any lingering tears, turned and left, promising to visit more often, and swearing to take down that ghost he kept seeing. The one with the snow white hair and glowing green eyes.

The end?

So, what so you think? This was intended to be a one-shot but with the way it seams to have turned itself out it almost begs to be continued. I'm not sure if I will, need to listen to some more songs, see if I can't get some inspiration going for a possible chapter 2. Don't expect one but if one does turn up, consider it a nice surprise. I apologise in advance if I disappear for a while soon but my exams are looming closer and I really need to start revising.

If anyone can think of any ideas for a continuation then feel free to tell me. Like I said, I don't know if I will continue, but it might be interesting to see where the story takes itself.

Thanks for reading.