Chapter 8- the truth… Wow.

Could people really have ghost powers? I needed to think, but I was tired of doing that. And yet, I had to.

"Jack? Did you use the homing chip yet?" She asked, still skimming an article, and tossing it in the positive pile. I blinked. No, I still hadn't used the homing chip yet.

"Well, no," I confessed. She looked up, blinking.

"Well then use it!" She hastened. I searched my pocket for the device that controlled the homing chip, and after a few minutes, I found it. Hey, It's a big pocket. As I took the device out, I took a deep breath, and pressed the 'on' button. In seconds, a flashing red light appeared on the town map.

"Honey…" I addressed Maddie, still studying the screen. "The ghost boy is in our kitchen, searching through our cupboards." Her eyes widened.

"Well, then lets go!" She said quickly, but still in a confused trance. We got up, and started running, still confused to a maximum level. What was the Ghost Boy's business searching through our kitchen cupboards? The library was a short walk away from our house. In fact, it was only two blocks. And when you're walking, it takes about five minutes. When you're running, three minutes; when you're sprinting, one minute. We started jogging, but since we figured it probably wasn't going to take that long for Phantom to do what he wants, and leave, we thought it best to start sprinting. When we burst into the kitchen however, we found Danny, sitting at the table, with some cookies, looking up at us.

"Um… hi?" He said, with a quizzical expression. I looked down at the tracking monitor. It showed a beeping, red dot, just where my son was sitting. Did Phantom give the tracking device to Danny?

"Um… Danny? Have you seen the Ghost Boy lately?" I asked calmly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Not since…" He hesitated, as if in deep concentration. "Not since the school attack," He recalled. "Why?"

"Well, He seems to have given you something," I said sheepishly.

"What do you mean? I haven't seen him since the attack!" He said, a little too quickly for comfort. I walked around to the back of Danny, while he exchanged looks with his mother. Then I saw it; the little tracking device on the back of his neck.

"How did he get it off? How does it stick?" I wondered out loud. That little thing was made to attach to a ghost like crazy glue. Only a human could get it off of the ghost. Also, I built it so it could not stick to humans. It would just slide right off the skin. I went upstairs to the bedroom to think again, leaving a weirded-out Danny behind as Maddie rushed after me.

"What is it?" My wife asked, entering the room.

"The tracking device was on the back of his neck," I stated in the dismay of my thoughts.

"But that's impossible. The device doesn't stick to human beings." She reasoned.

"I know," I replied. Then my mind came to something. a vivid, different something that was so Alien to me that I shivered in its wake.

"Honey?" Maddie tried to snap me back to life.

"Maddie…" I started. "Do you think… Our son may be… Half Ghost?" I stumbled over the thought of it.

"Sweetie, That's sil…" She cut herself off, paling. "Ya- Ya think?" She asked, with a worried expression.

"Well, it would explain everything from the very beginning, wouldn't it.

How Phantom brought me home, but there were no witnesses of Danny, How Phantom uses Fenton equipment so often, How they have the same voices…"I listed. Maddie continued.

"How Danny always shows up with bruises, how he can do so many tricks so easily."

"How they have the same structure, and hairstyle… It just makes sense." I finished. And before thinking, the next few words escaped my lips in a tone of a yell.

"DANNY! Come up here please!" Oh, boy, had I done it! What were we going to say now? Maddie stared at me wide eyed. Soon enough we hear feet climbing up the stairs. I bowed my head in shame, the guilt all rushing to me now. I never paid any attention to my kids. Maybe if I had, I would have noticed this a long time ago. The doorknob turned, and a face came peaking in. I looked up.

"I didn't do it!" He said quickly. I couldn't help but give a small smile. But something was different about Danny. I saw something else. But it wasn't him, as much something in him. I couldn't tell what it was, but I knew, somehow, that whatever it was, it was about to change.

"No. We did," Maddie said. "We thought of something; a theory. We need to test it. All we need you to say is true, or false." He looked at her, confusion in his eye. "Are you… the Ghost Boy?" His face changed rapidly. You could feel his heart pound, as his expression turned to panic. It was like that for a good minute before he calmed down. He bowed his head, and closed his eyes.

"True," He whispered, softly, but audible. We both looked at him. We looked at him with blank faces. But I could see it now. That thing inside him had changed, but for the better. Whatever it was, it looked stronger. I knew what would have to happen. I smiled.

"Well, Why didn't ya tell us!" I boomed. He looked up, the confusion in his eyes came back to him.

"What?" He asked.

"I said, why didn't you tell us!" I stated, cheerfully. I put my hand on his shoulder, and then pulled him into a tight hug. Maddie was still sitting on the bed, blankly. She sat there for another few seconds before a big smile spread across her face. She ran up, and joined the hug. We had to get the doubt out of our minds.

A few moments later, we pulled away from the hug. And you could see in Danny's face, that it would, in good time, be time for questioning, but right now, we needed to give him all the support we could. I kept my arm around him, and turned him around toward the door. "What do you say we talk this over in the kitchen over some Hot Chocolate?" I said, as we started down the hall. He smiled up at me, a new twinkle in his eye. I smiled back. "So, What kind of neat powers do you have?" I asked. He started to explain. I listened intently. There was a smell of change in the air that day. I from that day on, I became much more loving of a father. I tried to learn all I could about my son, and my daughter. Someday, maybe I'll have grand kids. Ghosts are a huge part of this family. They seem to bring us into the strangest bonding experiences. But, I learned that day, that that is the only thing ghosts could ever be. And when I went to bed at night, right before I went to sleep. I didn't think of ripping ghosts limb from limb anymore. I thought of this:

My daughter ran to me, her big, blue eyes aglow. Her backpack drooped to her ankles.

"Daddy!" She said playfully. "Daddy! Where's my little brother!" I picked her up lovingly, and kissed her on her forehead in the same place where her hair used to swirl.

"We have to go to the hospital and see him!" I told her, bopping her on the nose gently with my finger. She giggled and got in her car seat. Hugging her Bearbert Einstein. We got to the room with hast, and gently opened the door. Maddie looked up from her bead, a Baby cradled in her arms. My daughter rushed over with no hesitation.

"Awww! He's s so CUTE!" She said, pulling back the blanket from the infant's face. I walked up, and looked at my new baby boy. His already raven hair was swirled on his forehead. I picked him up carefully, cradling him.

"That's my boy," I whispered, softly. "That's my precious baby boy." I swayed slowly back and forth, and right before I handed him back to his mother, I kissed him right in the middle of that little black swirl.

The End

Well, that's the end. Thank you for sticking with me to the end! I hope you enjoyed it! R&R! PLEEEAAASSSSSEEEE!