Phamily

The Ultimate Betrayal

I don't normally stay up this late unless it was for business, but Daniel was hunting ghosts, and he noticed Danielle was using her ghost powers to steal food. The fact she was also giving it to other kids didn't make it right to him. I know she prefers this kind of life but he waited until he could get her alone to invite her to his house for the weekend. He promised that she wouldn't have to explain anything to his parents, and she met Jasmine a few times, so together I was sure they could come up with something.

They flew back to Fenton Works, changing back to their worn human forms when they got to the door. The lights were out, but the new ghost scanner was up and running. Jack installed it a few days ago and Daniel was having the hardest time using his powers while it was on. He warned Danielle about it on the way over here, but I knew phasing through the door would trigger the scanner, and they were left with two options.

Option one, they could walk up to the front door and hope that their ghost signatures weren't detected while he unlocked the door with his keys. Option two, possibly more dangerous, was to call Jasmine and ask her to turn the alarm off for a few minutes so they could get inside. I can see her lounging on her bed through my hidden camera now. Was that a psychology book she was studying? Why were her parents making her study in the dark? As I was watching this madness, though, Danielle was already at a payphone dialing up the number for Jasmine's phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi Jazz! It's your cousin Dani! I was in the neighborhood and I was hoping to crash at your place for the night, if that's okay."

"Of course you can Dani! Let me turn our alarm off before you get too close to the house. Is Danny with you?"

"Yeah. We ran into each other by accident today. I made him late tonight, didn't I?"

"Yeah, mom and dad are still up and waiting for him."

"Why are the lights off then?"

"That's just how our parents are. And Dad got the electric bill with the ghost scanner on constantly for the first time today. Wait, how close are you two to the house?"

"I could probably see you if you looked outside." I allowed myself a small chuckle as Jasmine looked out the window and waved to Danielle.

"I'll go turn the alarm off then. As soon as I do, you and Danny both have no more then 30 seconds to get in here and change out of your ghost form before the backup generator kicks in."

"Got it."

"And remember to come up with a good excuse for Danny coming home so late."

"I'll leave that one up to Danny."

Within a few minutes, Jasmine had snuck into the lab and found the circuit breaker while Danielle explained the plan to Daniel and they went ghost and waited for the power to go off. As soon as the lights shut down they flew full speed into the house and changed back to their original forms. Standing in the doorway to the living room, though, we're Daniel's parents with armed weapons. Daniel looked at them and felt the color in his face drain. They made it inside, but not before the lights came on to reveal their identities.

"Follow us, Ghosts." Jack said as he pointed an ecto gun at Daniel's head. It made my blood boil. I half expected Madeline to lower her weapon when she saw her son, but to my disappointment, she focused on Danielle instead, never even looking at her own son, which only made me angrier. Suddenly, Jasmine ran into the room and her tone was much more civil than her father's, yet still as firm and aggressive.

"What's going on in here? That's my brother you're pointing a gun at. Put the ecto weapons down. Now!" I could tell by the way her calm voice grew to a scream that she had enough of this with her parents. While Maddie was trying to reason with her that 'ghosts were overshadowing her son and their niece', which on her part was a bit more logical than I expected at this point, even if she was still wrong, but to my surprise, Jasmine flipped her mother onto the coffee table hard enough to shatter it, and shot an ecto-web at her father (who to my surprise had put the gun down) from her bracelet, which I presumed to be a birthday gift from her parents but who knows? It seems that I didn't know Jasmine as well as I thought I had.

"Jazz, what did you do?"

"Doesn't matter Danny. You two need to get out of here, now!" She gave her brother a hug and slipped some money in his pocket. It was almost tear-jerking to watch. "I'll find you, little brother, just go somewhere safe."

"Can you fly, Danny?" It was only then I realized Daniel had been shocked by one of the Fenton's weapons. Even if he could fly, he wouldn't get too far. Then again, he surprised me many times before.

"Yeah, Danielle can help me out, right?"

"Yeah, that's what cousins are for!" She smiled halfheartedly and looked very concerned but tried hiding it. After that they "went ghost" and then flew off where my cameras waited to pick up on them again. Meanwhile, I watched as Jasmine went upstairs and packed her things. I was curious about this, but soon it became obvious. She was leaving to find Daniel. Just as she was leaving, Maddie gained consciousness again and Jack had blundered his way out of the net.

"Where do you think you're going, Jazzy Pants? You were tricked by a ghost to turn on your own parents!" Her answer seemed to have been made with a lot of thought, but impressively, she didn't skip a beat.

"You saw Danny's deepest secret and then rejected him for it by simply believing he's overshadowed. He's both your son, and a ghost, and I don't care if you believe me or not because that was the ultimate betrayal from you two and neither of us can ever trust you again. I have a friend I can stay with for a while until Danny and I figure out what to do next. I'm going to contact a lawyer and make a case that Danny should be under my supervision and away from this house like I've told you I'd do for years!"

She started to make her way out the door, but couldn't stop herself from looking back at them and asking, "How does it feel, exactly, to be so caught up in your work that you drove away your own son, who's been like this since he was fourteen, the same time you built the ghost portal, and causing his "condition" and have your own daughter disown you?" I couldn't even find it in my heart to turn that broken hearted look on Jack's face into my screensaver. Maddie though, I could tell she was crying. For some reason, I felt nothing for her. Not even pity. She had indeed had some fault in this. I paused on Jasmine. I wasn't sure where she was going, but I felt my heart jolting at the idea of this friend she was going to stay with being me.