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Jazz walked out of the Chinese take-out place a few blocks from Fentonworks, clutching a bag in her hand. Dinner for her and Danny while their parents were on a date night, after the first portal test failed.
She unlocked her car and sat down, carefully putting down the food. The teenager then started the car and put it in drive. She smiled subtly, looking forward to a delicious dinner- one that wouldn’t accidentally come to life- and an evening to catch up on research. Not for school for once but psychology reading for her own enjoyment. Hopefully, it would be quiet. Yes, Danny would be home but he would probably hide out in his bedroom with his headphones on. And her parents would be out of the house, not welding and hammering in the basement as they had before the past few months.
Turning a corner, she frowned. They would probably be back at it tomorrow, trying to open a portal to the ghost zone. Jazz shook her head. Why did they insist on studying and trying to prove things that don’t exist? Really? Ghosts and the Ghost Zone obviously didn’t exist so why wouldn’t they use their skills to actually study something with substance? Or just get normal jobs? But they would never give it up.
But….then again, they had looked so defeated this afternoon. Jazz remembered the disappointed look on her father’s face when he plugged the ‘portal’ in the tunnel only sparked. It was slightly unsettling, seeing the normally boisterous and joyous man so downtrodden. The depression was why Danny suggested and she supported the idea that they get out of the house and take their mind off of their failure.
Jazz’s lips turned down ever so slightly. Hopefully the two would feel better and though she doubted it, use that failure to turn in other directions instead of hyper fixating on a fruitless endeavor.
With that, Jazz turned another corner and the house came into view. She raised an eyebrow. The RV was still in the driveway. Hadn’t Mom and Dad left right before her? She pulled into the wide driveway, carefully pulling up beside her other vehicle. Grabbing the food, she got out of the car, locked it, and walked around the RV. Coming around the front, she spotted her dad in the driver’s seat.
The girl raised an eyebrow as Jack rolled down the window. “Jazz!”
She walked to the RV door. “Dad, I thought you and Mom were going out?”
The man nodded. “Yep. Just forgot my wallet. Your Mom went to get it.” He frowned. “She’s been inside for 15 minutes.”
Jazz’s brow furrowed. “We should go see what’s keeping her, then.”
Jack nodded and opened the door. “Let’s go, Jazzy.”
The teenage girl resisted the urge to roll her eyes but just stepped back, letting her Dad get out of the car and walk past her. The man opened the door and Jazz followed, carrying the food.
“Maddie?” “Mom?” The two called, crossing the threshold.
Instantly, Jazz froze, dread balling in her gut. The sound of weeping rang through the house.
“Maddie!” In front of the girl, her father shouted. She blinked and the man took off running. “Maddie!”
Before Jazz’s mind could catch up, Jack was running through the open door to the lab. As he pounded down the steps, she snapped into action. “Mom!”
The red head took off across the living room and kitchen and through the lab door. “Mom!”
Still calling, she ran down the stairs and then stopped in her tracks, slightly dazed. She shivered, standing numbly in the cold lab. The room buzzed with subtle electricity. Passively Jazz realized she’d dropped the chinese food at some point.
Her mother knelt on the floor, her father in front of her. His large hands gripped arms. “Maddie! Maddie! What happened?”
Large ugly tears fell down Maddie’s face and she just shook her head, her words choked by her sobs. Jazz’s blood ran cold. Something was wrong, so wrong. She’d never seen her strong, put together mother anywhere near this distraught.
Still on the floor, Jack repeated. “Maddie. What’s wrong?”
“Da...Da….he…..he….” She blubbered, snot dripping down her face.
Eyes widening with panic, Jack shook her, a little too hard. “Maddie! Please!”
“Da..Da…ee” Maddie whimpered, her breath just quickening.
Jazz felt her knees locking, her mind racing. What happened?! What happened?! Suddenly, she felt like the air was sucked out of the room. Where….was Danny? He’d been upstairs, when she’d left. And if Mom was weeping uncontrollably….
“Da..Da...ee...mmy….Da” Her mom cried painfully.
In Jazz’s mind, something clicked. “Where’s Danny?”
At the teens' voice, both parents’ fixed eyes on her. Maddie’s eyes widened. Her lip trembled painfully and somehow her sobs grew louder. Dread growing in her gut, the sound spurred Jazz into action.
In the blink of an eye, Jazz moved and threw herself onto the floor at her parents’ feet. “Mom, where’s Danny?” She begged.
Maddie looked down, avoiding her eyes. “He..he…”
No! No! No! Her baby brother...where….? “Where’s Danny?!” The girl demanded.
Beside Jazz, Jack reacted. “Maddie, where’s our son?”
Glancing at her husband, Maddie shakily raised a hand. Jazz’s eyes trailed to where she was pointing. The floor? The red head’s eyes fell on nothing. He wasn’t there, on the floor so where? Then she looked up, shivering. She was actually pointing to….blast doors covering their stupid ‘portal.’
Jazz’s draw dropped. “He...he locked himself in the tunnel?” Body ripe with tension, she hopped to her feet. “Then why don’t you just open the doors?!”
Maddie shook her head. “No...the...the portal.”
The girl clenched her jaw. “I don’t care about your portal! Where’s my brother?!”
The woman’s breath started quickening. “Inside...he..he was inside. It...it started.”
“What are you talking about?” The girl demanded.
Still on the floor, Jack quickly looked between his wife and his daughter, his face growing increasingly pale. “The...the portal...it started?”
“I don’t care…” Jazz started.
“Danny...he was inside?” Jack interrupted. Maddie nodded, pinching her eyes shut. “Madds. Please. Tell me he wasn’t.”
Maddie shook her head furiously. “No.”
Jack gripped her arms again. “Maddie. Tell me our son wasn’t in the portal when it opened.”
She shook again. “Jack. He’s...he’s….”
The man shook his head, hands shaking. “No. Maddie. No. He’s not…”
Jazz stared at the exchange, her panic and fear increasingly growing with her confusion. He was in the portal….the portal that doesn’t work. But...but… it started? She couldn’t make sense of it. It couldn’t...It didn’t….
“Mom, what happened to Danny?” She finally asked, voice wavering.
“He’s d….” Maddie tried to force out the word, but covered her mouth.
Jack clenched his fists, seeming to understand. “He’s...he’s dead.”
Jazz’s heart stopped. “Dead.” She barely whispered. “What do you mean dead?”
“He...the portal..” Maddie managed the words.
Anger reignited in Jazz’s gut, making her hair rise. “Shut up about the portal! What do you mean Danny’s de….?” The words choked in her throat and she shook her head.
No! No! No! This wasn’t true! This was some sick joke! She glanced at the blast doors that had been open earlier. The freaking portal didn’t work. It didn’t. It couldn’t because ghosts and the ghost zone weren’t real. Danny had probably hurt himself and was unconscious on the other side of that door.
Jazz jogged towards the doors, stopping in front. She shivered again, a subtle vibration running through her; why was it so cold down here? “Danny!” Jazz called. Maybe her brother could hear her. “I’ll get you out.” Her mother’s cries increased in volume. “How do I get this thing open?”
“Jazz. Stop.” Jack called behind her, voice wavering.
“Stop?!” She pointed to the doors, hands shaking. “Danny’s through those doors! He’s probably hurt, unconscious because of your stupid invention!” She took a few steps towards the control panel to the right of the tunnel. “Which control…?”
Her father’s hand appeared on her shoulder and the girl whipped around, startled. “Dad?” When had he moved from the floor?
“Jazz.” His face fell as he shook his head. “There’s...there’s nothing we can do.”
Eyes watering, the girl trembled with anger. “Yes, there is! We can help him!”
“No, we can’t.” Jack looked down, voice tight but quiet.
“Yes! We can.” She turned away, taking another step towards the panel. A large hand wrapped around her wrist, holding her in place. She tensed.
“Jazz. Don’t.” The man’s lip trembled.
“Dad.” Jazz pulled but his grip remained steady. “Let me go.”
“Jazz. Please.” He begged, desperate.
She just pulled harder, heart pounding. “Let me go! I need to help Danny!” The girl tugged, mind racing. This was wrong. Her parents weren’t making any sense! Why weren’t they trying to help?
“You can’t help him.” Jack’s eyes glistened with tears.
“Yes, I can! He just through those doors!” The girl pushed against his chest with her free hand.
“Jazz.” The man’s voice tightened, trembling ever so slightly with anger.
“It’s your freakin’ obsession that hurt him! Why won’t you even try?!” She glared, tears threatening to spill. Her hands shook. “Just let me help my brother!”
“He’s dead!” Jack’s voice cut sharply, the words falling like heavy rocks.
Jazz blinked for a moment, her father’s certainty startling her. But he couldn’t be right. Dread balled in her stomach as she swallowed. “No. He’s going to be okay.”
“No Jazz.” Jack’s voice fell, the anger leaching from his form. “He’s not. The portal...it k..killed-”
“No!” The girl's voice shook. “There isn’t a stupid portal! It didn’t work so he’s fine!”
Her father’s grip on her arm loosened but the man shifted so both arms were gripping Jazz’s arms. “Jazz, the portal worked.” At the heartbroken tone, Jazz looked up, meeting the man’s watery blue eyes.
The girl bit her lip, dread deepening. She felt herself trembling as she glanced at the closed doors. “No. It couldn’t.”
Jack shook his head. “The portal opened. Can’t you feel it?”
Jazz felt goosebumps rising on her arms as the cold brushed by her again. She shook, a sense of wrongness rising. No it had been there since she walked downstairs. Of course it had! Her brother’d been hurt! But….there was more, wasn’t there? Something buzzed into and through her, a vibration, a shifting in the air that hadn't been there when Mom and Dad tried to start the portal earlier.
“No.” Jazz lied, looking down.
“Jazz….” Her dad started.
In his loosened grip, the girl pulled away stumbling backward. “No. This is wrong.” The air hummed with something….ominous. Something horrific just at the edge of her perception. “This can’t be happening!”
This air seemed to drain out of the room, the world turning upside down. The humming increased, bearing down on her (or maybe she was more aware). She wanted to run, to hide but was frozen. This was a nightmare, a horrible cruel horrific joke.
Her mother cried behind her. Her father stared at her with watery eyes, all vibrancy drained from his face. “Jazz….I’m sorry.”
His voice sounded broken and Jazz saw him shiver. The cold seeped into her veins, chilling her. Turning everything to ice. She wanted to throw up.
The portal...it.. it couldn't be. It wasn't real because ghosts weren't real. But why.. her instincts screamed, the dread crawling through her guts like so many worms. Why did the lab feel like death?
“No. No. No.” Jazz shook her head, stumbling away from the doors. Her hands covered her mouth. “No...the portal..it.” A tear leaked out of her eye. “It...Danny...he’s…”
The portal was real. It was real. And Danny had been in it. And it felt like cold and electricity, and death. Her hands clenched. “Danny’s…..he’s...he’s dead.”
Jack fixed his gaze down, shoulders low. Tears streamed down his face as he nodded.
Something in Jazz broke, a cacophony of emotions crowding her heart. Sorrow clawed up her throat, drowning the terror. “No. No. Danny.” She whined through her tears.
Her mom pushed herself to her feet. “ 'm...sorry. Sorry.”
Both parents stumbled forward to hug the girl. Two pairs of arms wrapped around her, the two and the teenager crying. Maddie muttered apologies into her shoulder while Jack cried, the normally verbose man out of words.
“No.” Jazz shook her head. “No. No. He...he can’t be. He’s not…” Shaking, the girl denied. It couldn’t be true. Her baby brother couldn’t be gone. But the chill of the portal, the feeling of death, pulled at her.
Her knees shook as Jazz pulled herself out of her parents’s arms. “No. Danny’s...Where is he?”
Maddie paled, blinking at her with one arm still around her husband. “He...I…”
“He’s not...Danny’s not...dead. I won’t believe it until I see his...his bo...his...body” She forced out the word, shivering. Her stomach flopped. “Where...where is he? I have to see him.”
Face pale with guilt, her mom’s face darted to the closed doors. She said nothing but Jazz understood.
“He’s still on the other side of those doors.” Jazz said, a hint of anger flickering through the sorrow.
Another heart beat and she was again stumbling towards the lever to open the doors. She paused, shivering as her brother’s face, bloodless with glassly unblinking eyes flashed through her mind. If he was...if he had….Her stomach flopped, dread resurging. If her parents were right and Danny was...gone, she’d...she’d have to face….that. Her hands shook….but she needed to see. Jazz reached for the lever.
“Wait!” Two voices called behind her before she pulled.
Jazz whipped around to face her parents. Her mother looked increasingly pale, mouth opening and closing “We..we can’t just leave him in there!”
Jack lumbered forward. “Jazz. Wait.”
“No.” She snapped, eyes watering. “We...Danny. We have to find him, even if...if...We can’t leave him.”
She reached forward, only for her father to step between her and the lever, stopping her again. “It’s dangerous.” He spoke softly.
“Dangerous.” Jazz scoffed, anger threatening to overtake the sorrow. “I know. It...the portal..it..ki-” No. She wouldn’t say it, not until she saw Danny herself. She bit her lip. “Please! We have to find him!”
A large, surprisingly gentle hand appeared on her arm. “We will.” Jack looked at her with watery, sincere eyes. He swallowed. “I’ll...I’ll go in.”
“Dad. I can..” Jazz started before Maddie cut her off.
“Jack! No! We can’t!” Her face was pale, eyes wide with….fear(?).
“Mads. I know it’s dangerous. But...we can’t just leave Danny.” Jack said.
Maddie shook her head. “No. The ghost...it might still be there.”
“Ghost?” “Ghost!” Jack and Jazz both said, though the tones were different. The father was curious though concerned.
But Jazz was indignant. “There’s no ghost!”
“But..but I saw him..it...I touched it.” Maddie’s brow wrinkled in guilt. “It was...he was...Danny.”
“Maddie, you’re not making any sense.” Jack argued.
Her rambling just increased. “I made it go away. So...he..he wouldn't forget and hurt someone. But...he...Danny remembered but..he...he died..he was a ghost.”
“Mom! This is crazy. I don't care about any freaking ghosts!” Jazz balled her fists.
Jack’s jaw dropped, his reaction more calm. “I don’t know what you think you saw, baby…”
The woman wasn’t listening. “It thought I was its Mom but I made him leave. I locked him in the portal.”
“Mom!” Jazz yelled. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“I had to protect us.” Maddie’s hands were shaking. “We can’t open the doors.”
“Maddie!” “Mom!” Jack and Jazz both yelled.
The man let go of Jazz’s arm to grab his wife’s. “Maddie. We have to go inside the portal.”
A tear fell down Maddie’s face. “The ghost. It might come back.”
“I don’t know what you saw but we can’t leave Danny in there!” The man demanded.
The woman’s lip trembled. “No. Danny’s gone.”
Jack’s expression tensed, desperate anger covering his sorrow. “But we have to...to bury our son!”
Jazz startled, heartbreak at the statement overtaking the angry confusion. Bury….no..
“But...the ghost..” Her mom whispered, eyes down cast.
“No!” The man shook her, not too gently. “I don’t care if there was a ghost! We’re not leaving our son’s body in the portal!”
The stiff anger of the statement gave Jazz pause, anxiety balling in her gut at her mother’s strange behavior and their argument.
Then Maddie surprised her. “Okay.” The woman looked down. “You can...you can…” A brief flash of relief passed through Jazz until another sob broke free from her mother’s throat.
Not acting to comfort her, Jack stepped away. Jazz watched numbly as he walked to the closet and pulled an orange hazmat suit on over his clothes. Her previous anger leached away, morphing into a terrible anxiety as she glanced at the closed doors. Behind them……. she shivered again, the image of her brother burned and glass eyed assaulted her mind without her permission. He was….he was in there. And he was…..dead. Or maybe not. Maybe by some miracle, this was all a mistake. They’d open the doors and he’d be there, terrified but ready to hug them and promise he was okay.
But the doubt choked out the denial, the impossible hope, as her father stood in front of the portal doors holding a ball of rope.
Slowly, he took a deep breath. “Jazz. Maddie. It’ll tie this around me. If I tug on the rope pull me back.”
Jazz swallowed and nodded, glancing at her still silent mother. The woman glanced up, still looking frightened and guilty, giving a slight nodd.
Accepting the nods, Jack tied the rope around himself and onto one of the heavy metal panels. He fastened a gas mask over his face. With a quick tilt of the head from her dad, Jazz positioned herself at the lever.
Jack took another deep breath, the sound echoing loudly through his mouth. “I’m going to count down from ten. Then open the door, Jazz.”
“Ten. Nine.” The words were muffled as Jazz shook out her hands.
“Eight. Seven.” Maddie grabbed a weapon off the table.
“Six. Five.” Jazz wrapped her hands around the lever.
“Four. Three.” Maddie cocked the gun towards the doors.
“Two.” Jazz took a breath, bracing herself though her heart pounded in her chest.
“One.” Jazz pulled the lever and the doors slid open with a clang.
Before Jack could take a step, something black and white flew out of the portal in a burr of motion. Jazz screamed as it slammed into her dad. Oh god what was that?!
“No.” She distantly heard her mom whisper with dread. “No. No.”
The glowing thing was attacking Dad. Wait...no. It was...a boy…. A glowing boy. He was clinging to Jack and crying.
“Dad.” A soft male voice whispered tiredly.
Jazz’s heart stopped. She...she knew that voice. “Danny?” She could hardly dare to ask to hope.
Maddie stared in horror down at the floor. “No. I can’t….I can’t...Not again.”
Glowing tears fell onto Jack’s hazmat suit as he remained frozen on the floor.
The teenage girl also remained frozen, her mind stuttering. He...Danny...how… A sense of wrongness prickled her mind. Why was he glowing? And….
Jazz’s thoughts evaporated as a white light appeared around the boy’s waist. The light spread and her jaw dropped. Wherever this light touched, the black suit (was that a hazmat suit like her parents’?) became a white shirt and blue jeans. His white booths became tennis shoes. And as the light passed over his head, it darkened the white hair into black leaving…
“Danny?” Jazz’s voice rose in disbelief at the human-looking form of her brother.
Across from her, Maddie’s weapon slammed to the floor. “No. It’s not...No.”
Jack stared up at the passed out boy in his arms, his eyes widening. He looked between his wife and his daughter, voice filled with awe. “He’s breathing.”
“No.” Maddie stumbled back. “It’s a trick. He...he’s a ghost. He’s….no…”
Jazz ignored the panicked ramble, her body finally unfreezing. As Jack struggled to sit up with the unconscious boy in his arms, the girl threw herself to his feet. “Danny?” She begged, hopefully. The boy didn’t respond, eyes pinched closed though his long bangs ruffled with his slow breaths. Hands shaking, Jazz reached for his neck, feeling his pulse. “He’s...he’s alive.”
“No. He can’t be. I saw him… He died.” Maddie continued rambling.
At Jazz’s declaration, Jack ripped off the gas mask. He pulled off his gloves and gently placed large fingers on the boy’s neck. He closed his eyes, feeling. Then his mouth turned up in a disbelieving smile. “Maddie. He has a pulse. He’s alive.”
“No!” Maddie was trembling. “I saw him. He was a ghost!”
Jack turned to her blinking. “I...I saw too. But...he’s alive Madds!”
“He can’t be.” Her voice wavered, heartbroken.
Jazz shook her head, too caught up in her elation at Danny being alive to wonder at her Mom’s reaction. “Mom, come feel his pulse.”
The woman glanced between her three family members faces. After a too long pause, she approached. With shaking legs, she fell to her knees beside her husband. Cautiously, she reached for Danny’s neck. Jazz studied her face as the woman felt for his pulse, her pained disbelief morphing into wide eyed hope. “He...He has a pulse.” Maddie’s eyes meet her husbands. “Ghosts can’t….they can’t….”
Jack took her hand, lips turning up in a watery smile. “Maddie. It’s Danny. He’s alive.”
Her wide eyes glanced between her husband and her son. A shaking hand reached towards the boy’s face. “Danny?”
His face twitched moving away from her. The woman moved back like she was burned.
Meanwhile Jack’s arms wrapped around the boy, ruffling his hair. “Danny-boy.”
Tears leaked from his eyes as Jazz cried too, but this time happy tears. From the side, she wrapped one arm around her brother and one around her father. Her brother was alive ( But he’d flown out of the portal as a ghost? ) She ignored the question, her heart swelling with happiness at having a breathing Danny in her arms.
Jazz and Jack whispered soft, loving comfort to Danny, or maybe themselves while Maddie stared numbly, silent tears streaming down her face. A more clear headed Jazz would have been startled by her mother’s reaction. They stayed like that for several minutes until Danny’s eyes blinked open.
He met his father’s eyes. “Dad?”
Jazz’s head popped up to meet his. “Danny!”
The boy turned to meet his sister’s teal eyes. “Jazz?”
“Little brother.” She squeezed his shoulder. “You’re okay.”
He just nodded, snuggling into his father’s hug, while Jazz ruffled his hair.
Until Maddie quietly ventured. “Danny?”
His eyes popped to his mom’s and his breath hitched. Reflectively turning intangible, the boy pulled out of Jack and Jazz’s arms. Jazz shrieked in alarm as he crawled away, stopping at the edge of the still open portal.
“Mom! It’s me!” The boy held his hands in front of me. He looked up as his head brushed the portal and his breathing increased. “Please! Don’t make me go back in there.”
Jazz’s jaw dropped as Maddie's trembled with shame. “Danny...I’m sorry.” She choked the words out through renewed tears.
The boy didn’t hear, still panting. “I promise it’s me, Danny!” His fearful eyes finally feel on his bare hands. He turned them over and back, looking at his palms. “My gloves….where…” He choked on the words, his hands moving to pull some black hair into his line of sight. “I’m….I’m me again.” A shaking hand landed on his chest. “My heart..I’m...I’m alive.”
Jazz’s mind churned in response to his panicked reaction. Slowly she crawled forward at the same time Jack moved forward. “Danny. It’s okay. You’re okay.”
Chest heaving he looked at his hands and then flinched. “Please! It’s me. Don’t make me leave!”
Jazz locked back seeing her mother frozen mid-step, a heartbroken and guilty look on her face. She stepped back. “Danny. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
The teenage girl’s gaze locked on the woman, her mind finally catching up to her mom’s behavior. She gritted her teeth. “What did you do?”
Danny answered. “She threw me in the portal!”
“What?!” Jazz and Jack said at the same time.
The woman shook her head. “You...you were a ghost. I thought you were dead. I was protecting us.” Her chest started heaving. “But...you...you...Danny. Oh god what have I done?” She covered her mouth. “I could've… You could’ve….” She looked to Jazz and Jack. “If you hadn’t come down here, opened the doors…”
Horror boiled in Jazz’s gut, imagining her brother lost in another dimension, their family crying over an empty coffin thinking he was dead.
Danny fixed narrow eyes on her. “You tried to lock me in the Ghost Zone. That place…” He shivered. “I can’t go back.”
Rage burned through Jazz’s vein, fighting with her concern for her brother. But the need to comfort Danny won out. She shuffled forward to wrap him in a hug. “You never have to. You’re home. You’re safe.”
Though he was still stiff, probably glancing distrustfully at their mother, he accepted the hug.
Behind the girl, she heard her mom crying, muttering apologies. Their dad’s frantic but surprisingly soft voice buzzed behind her, probably demanding answers but Jazz ignored that too. Instead she slowly urged Danny to his feet helping him stand and walking away from the portal, still in an awkward embrace.
Maddie’s blubbering explanation and Jack’s now angry demands increased in volume. Something clattered off the table as the woman frantically ran away. “What have I done? What have I done?” A frantic plea on her lips.
Seconds later the bathroom door slammed and the sound of retching could be heard. Just after Jack appeared beside Jazz. The girl stepped back, stepping towards the lever and closing the portal doors. As they slide shut, Danny let out a breath, visibly relaxing. His dad placed a gentle hand on his face.
“Kiddo.” The man's eyes were wide and teary. “I’m so sorry.”
The boy sniffled, having started crying during the hug. “It’s….” His voice cut off, not knowing what to say.
So Jack put an arm around his son. “Let go upstairs and get you some dinner.” Then he frowned, looking him up and down. “Are you hurt? Any bruises, burns?”
Danny shook his head. “I don’t think so….but earlier, I was a….” His arm flickering invisible cut off the statement. Then his voice rose, startled. “What’s happening to me?”
Jazz stared at the display of….invisibility (?), in shock, her mouth opening and closing. Then as Danny’s arm returned to visibility, Jack put a comforting arm on the boy’s shoulder. “We’ll figure it out son.” Though he clearly tried to sound confident, his voice carried an undertone of fear (hopefully not off Danny but for him).
Jazz nodded, relaxing as she saw Danny also nod acceptingly. Then the boy swallowed, eyes widening with fear again. “And Mom?”
Jack’s face hardened. “She knows she messed up.” His tone betrayed his own anger at the woman. Then his eyes softened, focusing on Danny. “You don’t have to talk to her until you’re ready.”
Danny nodded, voice showing a complicated mix of emotions. “Okay.”
Putting an arm around his son, the dad then smiled softly, trying to be comforting. “We'll figure everything out, together. I've got you, son.”
Danny gave a curious glance towards the lab bathroom where his mom was still crying before letting his dad lead him upstairs.
Jazz trailed behind, eyes also falling on the bathroom. Goosebumps prickled at the soft sound of crying. Some many questions and emotions bobbed in her head. What happened to Danny? How had he been a ghost earlier? What had their mom done to him? And why?! She shivered anger mounting before the sound of crying prickled at her heart again. She remembered Danny’s tears, his fear. Would their family ever be okay again? She watched her dad, rubbing her brother’s back as he opened the door to the kitchen. Hopefully, their dad was right and everything would work out.