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Danny had thought they had moved beyond this, but despite last week's talk and revelation—and the subsequent freak out and family therapy hosted by Jazz that had followed—he still found himself on the wrong end of his parents' weapons. Admittedly, they were pointed nowhere near him, but still. They were raised and he was clearly the target.
"Stop!" Jack screamed, nowhere near at his regular volume, and then he hesitated and cast Maddie an unsure look before he continued, "You–you fiend!"
And Danny did stop, frozen with a mixture of confusion and old instinctual fear from where he was hovering next to Tucker and Sam. His friends had tensed up as well, clearly just as confused as he was about what was going on.
"Fiend? Really?" Sam asked with raised eyebrows and what almost sounded like a laugh in her voice.
"Danny?" Tucker hissed out of the corner of his mouth with a weary look at Maddie and Jack's weapons.
Sam pursed her lips and sent his parents a calculating look as she asked, "Didn't you..?"
"That's right! Ghost!" Maddie stepped up next to her husband as she raised her own gun, aimed at the wall a good distance away from where Danny was hovering.
Danny gave a startled laugh, unsure what was going on. "What? What are you guys doing?"
A small kernel of dread took up residence in his stomach. Afraid that he had somehow not managed to get through to them after all. That all their acceptance had been fake. That they were back to square one, only this time he had nowhere to hide.
But they hadn't been anything but understanding since the reveal, and they weren't usually ones for being sneaky and for deception. If they hadn't accepted him, Danny was fairly certain that he would have known by now. So, something else must be going on.
Maddie sent Tucker and Sam a very pointed look, and topped it off with a very unsubtle nod t before loudly saying, "Silence!" Before promptly flinching and whispering, in a voice that could still be heard where the three of them stood, "Sorry, honey."
"Y–yeah!" Jack stepped in; one finger pointed right at Danny's confused face. "Don't talk to us like we know each other! We have no idea who you are! Or who you—who you were! Or–or anything!"
Sam leaned over towards Tucker and Danny and whispered, "This is bizarre."
Danny was inclined to agree. He frowned as he tilted his head at his parents. "So… Do I have to run away, or what's the deal here?"
"Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, what's going on?" Tucker asked, before leaning in and asking in a much lower tone of voice, "Is someone watching us?"
Instead of answering, Maddie grabbed Tucker's arm and pulled him behind her. "Watch out! I'll–I'll protect you from the very dangerous ghost. Now get out of here, Phantom!"
Jack motioned for Sam to join him but she just crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "You should watch out for the–the–the ghost! Yeah, the ghost, especially this ghost, is dangerous. Which we know even though we don't know him. It! We don't know it. Of course, cause why should we? Were ghost hunters."
"That's enough, dear!" Maddie hissed at him and Jack finally stopped his rambling with another look cast in Tucker and Sam's direction.
Wait.
Were they—were they trying to protect his secret? From his best friends?
But hadn't he told them…?
Danny slapped a hand over his face. He hadn't. He had told them about being a ghost, sure, but he couldn't remember mentioning the involvement of his best friends. To his defense, he had been very focused on getting the bare basics down before he got shot, so he might have left some parts out.
He dragged the hand down his face with a groan. "Please stop. This is painful to watch."
Maddie shook her head, eyes earnest. "But honey! We can't just–"
Danny cut her off with a smile. "It's okay. I get it now. I messed up." He gestured to Sam and Tucker, "They know. They have known from the beginning."
He punctuated the statement by flying down to stand next to Sam and Tucker, placing a hand on both of their shoulders to demonstrate just how much they knew.
"Oh…" Maddie trailed off as her arm lowered and the gun in her hand was redirected to pointing at the ground instead.
Jack gave a booming laugh that was loud enough to startle all them. "We just didn't want to give away your secret!"
"And that's very nice of you!" Danny hurried to assure them. And it really was. "It's just—"
"You didn't tell them about us?!" Tucker asked with incredulity and offense clear in his voice.
Danny slapped a hand over his friend's mouth and kept on talking, "But you guys have got to work on your acting if you're gonna do this again."
"Yeah," Sam nodded, "You guys really can't lie to save your life."
Maddie looked scandalized as she scoffed and said, "Of course we can!"
Danny laughed, feeling the last of the tension leave him. "You really can't. Just—maybe we should try to avoid each other when we're out in public?"
Maddie and Jack exchanged another glance and Jack looked almost guilty as he amended, "...Maybe that's for the best."
Sam hit Danny on the shoulder as she turned to continue the walk that had been so suddenly interrupted by his parents' arrival. "Well, come on then fiend. Let's go attack that homework."
"That is not becoming a new nickname!" Danny complained as he followed her.
Tucker snorted as he joined them. "Silence, ghost!"
"Stop it!"
"See you later, honey!" Maddie called after them. "Dinner's at six!"
"Mom! I'm in costume!" Danny whisper-shouted, thankful that the street was empty and that no one was out to see or hear this.
"Oh, right!" She covered her mouth with a hand and whispered, "Sorry." She didn't look sorry.
"Good luck!" Jack screamed.
Danny shook his head with a groan as Sam and Tucker snickered at his side.
Parents.
Maybe telling them had been a mistake after all.