"Did you steal them?" Maddie demanded. "Have you been swiping anything else from the Fenton inventory?" The thought made her skin crawl. What exactly was this ghost's obsession anyway?

Phantom writhed against the restraints, giving her a scandalized glare as the flush on his face turned several shades greener. "Are you nuts?! Who would want Jack Fenton's face plastered all over their...their stuff! You know?"

"Then why are you wearing them?"

He squirmed. "It's not like I have a choice! They kinda came with the jumpsuit..."

"Are you saying they formed out of your psyche?" That was an idea about ten times as disturbing. She backed away slowly, reaching for the tools on the counter.

"Yes! No! What?!"

Maddie snatched up an electroprod and flicked it on. A spark jumped from the device and sizzled on Phantom's exposed chest. The ghost yelped.

"Get that thing away from me!"

"Answer me clearly, ghost! Why are you wearing the Fenton Briefs?"

"I can't help it if I died in the weirdest, most embarrassing pair of underwear that ever existed!" he burst out.

Phantom froze. All the color drained out of his face, leaving him starkly pale in contrast to his earlier blush.

Maddie frowned down at him, trying to puzzle out that statement. "You what?"

The ghost fidgeted, fingers tapping against the handcuffs in a nervous beat. He licked his lips and glanced at her sideways. "...I died in them."

Maddie stared at Phantom; he had to be lying. Those briefs were custom printed and shipped directly to their house. There was only one living boy who had access to the Fenton inventory. The only one who would ever have the opportunity to wear a pair of Fenton Briefs would have been...

Maddie laughed.

It was such an absurd idea. Funny, even. Danny, Phantom? Maddie blinked, only half aware of the electroprod dropping to her side. Danny Phantom. Danny Fenton. Their names were so close. She'd never even thought of it before. It was coincidence, of course. Wasn't it?

"You're not saying..." Coincidence or not, it somehow frightened her. Her son? Danny? Died?

Phantom sighed, staring up at the ceiling. "Remember how freshman year of high school there was an accident in the lab? You know, with the ghost portal? Remember how after that your son refused to wear anything with Dad's face on it ever again?"

"Yes, but..." Danny Fenton. Her son. Phantom. The similarities were clicking into place with blinding speed. It just couldn't... but it had to be. What other explanation was there?

"Now you know why."

"Danny never liked the Fenton Briefs," Maddie said blankly, grasping for something—anything—to prove him wrong, to shore her mind up against all the suspicions—no, the realizations—that had come pouring in. It just made too much sense.

"It was laundry week," Phantom muttered. "And you can't wear boxers with jumpsuits, you know that. They get all bunchy."

Maddie shook her head, gripping the device tighter. "He wouldn't. He'd never..." She looked this ghost—this ghost that looked suddenly much more familiar—sternly in the eye. "Danny never wore them."

"He—no," Phantom swallowed visibly. "I. I did, Mom. Once"

Maddie shook her head, backing away until she bumped into the table. A tray of instruments clattered to the floor, scattering razor-edged scalpels and sharp steel probes across the lab flor. They were there for the sole purpose of examining, analyzing, dissecting the ghost before her. The one who was dead. The one who was...who wasn't. He couldn't be.

Maddie felt numb. The words wouldn't leave her throat. "Danny said...he said he'd never be caught dead in them."

Phantom—Danny—let his head drop back onto the table with a weak laugh. "Well, darn."

A/N:

PoT is being beta read, leaving me stir-crazy and impulsively poking at WIPs.

So here it is! a brief (hehe) followup for the previous chapter. Credit goes to OwlCat92 for talking me into writing this out.

-Hj