Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wes was the first and only person to figure out that Danny was Phantom without seeing him transform between the two with his own eyes. The first time Danny learned this, when Wes had loudly announced his discovery to the entire quad, he'd felt sick to his stomach. He was so utterly terrified in that moment Wes exposed his secret that he genuinely thought he might throw up from worry.

For a brief moment, Danny had been paralyzed with fear, panicking, and then the laughter had started. Basically everyone in the quad who didn't already know Wes was right had started laughing. They hadn't believed him. They had teased and berated him for coming up with such a stupid theory. None of them had believed a single word, and Danny breathed a sigh of relief, his queasiness slowly fading. 

That wasn't the end of it though, because Wes was determined, and confident in his theory, and he kept trying, again and again, to expose Danny's identity to the school and to the world. No one ever believed him. Some jokingly accused Wes himself of being Phantom and making up the theory to cover his tracks, much to the amusement of everyone else, who laughed heartily at Wes' offended gasps.

Slowly, the anxiety stopped rising into Danny's throat whenever Wes started to speak, and it actually became funny. Danny started to laugh and tease alongside the others.

It became all the more fun when Wes finally confirmed with his own eyes that his theory was true. Danny had to transform to fight Skulker, and the only one around was Wes, so he just did. He'd turned to Wes with a shit-eating grin and said, "No one will ever believe you." Then he'd taken off to deal with Skulker while Wes cussed him out from the Nasty Burger parking lot.

After that, Danny began to take great pleasure in antagonizing Wes, and screwing with him as much as possible. He was secure in the knowledge that, no matter how hard Wes tried to convince people, they would never believe his theory. Wes had developed a reputation as being a crackpot conspiracy theorist by that point. He could say something as veritably true as 'the sky is blue and grass is green,' and people would argue with him. Meanwhile, Danny was having the time of his half-life goading reactions out of Wes.

That had lasted a few months.

Then the anti-ecto acts were passed.

The G.I.W. came to Casper High School to give a presentation at a school-wide assembly on exactly what the anti-ecto acts entailed, and what the citizens of Amity Park could do the uphold the law and keep humanity safe from the ghost threat. Danny's heart dropped into his stomach as he listened to their speech.

"Since the passing of the anti-ecto acts," Operative O said in a cold, hard voice, "ecto-entities like ghosts are rightly classified as non-sentient beings. They do not experience emotions like fear, pain, anger, or joy."

With his enhanced hearing, Danny could hear Wes scoff on the other side of the auditorium. "That's ridiculous," he muttered, only to be shushed by the people sitting next to him. The G.I.W. ghost informational assembly had been long-awaited by most of the student body. And not just because they got out of classes for the first half of the day.

"What exactly is an ecto-entity?" Operative K posed the question as a segue. "An ecto-entity is defined as any creature or object that is composed of ectoplasm, produces ectoplasm, or requires ectoplasm to survive or to function. Here are some examples of ecto-entities that you may recognize." He pointed a small remote at the projector screen that had been set up behind the operatives.

"This ecto-entity calls itself the Box Ghost," Operative O said as an image of Boxy flashed up on the screen. "It is a class two ecto-entity, meaning that it looks and acts like a human. However, you must remember that ghosts are not like humans. Don't be fooled by their outward appearance and behaviors. Rather than emotions, desires, or logic, ghosts are driven by obsessions. These obsessions vary from one ecto-entity to another."

"That's only partly true," Wes started to say, only to be shushed again. Danny wrapped his arms around himself and silently wished for the presentation to be over soon.

Operative K clicked the remote again and a grainy image of Vlad's vultures appeared on the screen. "These are class three ecto-entities. They look like animals, but are able to mimic the sapience of humans. Do not be fooled into thinking that they are intelligent. Parrots can speak too, but that doesn't put them on the same intellectual level as human beings."

"If it did, they would have to pay taxes," Operative O added seriously while his partner switched to the next image. "And parrots do not pay taxes." The assembled Caper High student body wisely didn't laugh.

The next image was of an ectopus, cowering in the corner of a transparent ghost catching device. Danny's heart throbbed seeing it so afraid and he bit back a whimper. "This is what is commonly referred to as an ectopus," O continued. "It is a class four ecto entity. Animal in both appearance, and ability to mimic behaviors."

The presentation continued, showing the students each classification of ecto-entities. From class five, intelligent blob ghosts like Skulker; to class six, the more animalistic blob ghosts; to class seven, ectoplasmic technology. Finally, they circled back to class one. Operative K clicked the remote and a picture of Danny Phantom appeared on the screen. Danny could feel his heart stop. He wanted nothing more than to be anywhere but in that auditorium. Fighting Pariah Dark again would have been preferable. Fighting an angry Clockwork would have been preferable.

"You may think class one ecto-entities are indistinguishable from class two, but you would be wrong," Operative O said. "Rather than their appearance and ability to mimic human behavior, class one ecto-entities are characterized by the incredible power they wield. This particular ghost is the G.I.W.'s number one most wanted, but it's not the only class one out there. You may remember this ghost, that abducted your town into the ghost zone not long ago." Operative K switched to a picture of Pariah Dark.

"Or this ghost, that threw the world into a global climate crisis," K said before switching again to a picture of Vortex. They went on to show pictures of Fight Knight, Plasmius, Nocturn, Undergrowth—literal Ancients, ghosts with world-ending power, that they'd classed Danny with, and his stomach churned with dread. He was just a kid. He wasn't a god, or a king, or a force of nature. He was just fourteen.

"They're giving Fenton way too much credit putting him on the same level as those guys," Wes said, and the girl sitting next to him finally snapped at him to shut the hell up.

"Will you give your stupid conspiracy theory a rest for five goddamn minutes," she whisper-yelled at him. "I'm trying to pay attention."

"If you see a class one ghost, do not attempt to fight it," Operative O told the students as K switched to an informational slide with a big red phone number on it. "Run the other way, and call this number to alert the G.I.W. of the threat. Let the professionals handle it."

The presentation didn't end there. 

The G.I.W. operatives went on to explain that ghosts didn't have any vital points, so the only way to take them down was to do mass damage, and not precise damage. They described the functions of ecto-guns and ghost capture devices, many of which had been designed by Fenton Works, which had a weapons contract with the G.I.W. Then they explained what kinds of experiments they performed using the ghosts that were captured.

Even the sanitized-for-high-schoolers version of their ghost experiments made Danny feel sick, and tremble with fear. He wanted to turn intangible and sink right into the floor to escape. Of course, if he did that he would be exposed as an ecto-entity and the G.I.W. would declare open season on him... again. 

For the last part of their presentation, the operatives gave a demonstration of how to use Fenton Wrist Rays, which they then proceeded to hand out to every single student at the end of the assembly. Anti-ghost weapons couldn't hurt humans, after all, so there were no safety concerns with giving them to high schoolers. And Fenton Wrist Rays retracted into an easily transportable and non-obtrusive bracelet which instantly became all the rage at Casper High.

Danny refused the wrist ray Operative O tried to give him, saying he already had one at home. Recognizing him as the Fenton's son, O just nodded and continued to arm Danny's classmates against him. He ditched school the rest of the day and flew out to the observatory to help himself calm down. Once school was over, Sam and Tucker joined him. They knew exactly where he'd be—sitting on the edge of the domed roof on the cliff side of the building, where no one could see him.

"Danny!" Sam called out to him, and he reluctantly flew down to the ground and turned human again. "You know, it's not all that bad, really," she told him, try to reassure him about the days events.

"How is everyone at school being given the means to kill me not that bad?"

"They only have the weapons to kill you," Tucker pointed out. "If you'd stuck around long enough to see everybody try 'em out you'd see that they severely lack the skills."

"Their aim was pretty terrible," Sam agreed. "But more importantly, everyone at school loves Phantom, no matter what the Guys in White say. If anything, they'll use the wrist rays to try and help you fight other ghosts. They won't try to hurt you, or turn you over to the suits."

"Wes might," Danny argued. "He hates me and he's obsessed with exposing me."

"No, he won't," she said. "He doesn't hate you, and he doesn't want you gone. He just wants people to know he's right because he's a selfish dick."

"Sam's right." Tucker nodded. "Wes is all bark and no bite. He might yell all the time about you being Phantom, but nobody ever believes him, and I don't think he'd do anything to actually hurt you."

"Nobody at school believes him. The Guys in White are another story. They're already suspicious of me."

"Danny, we can handle the Guys in White." Sam put a hand on his shoulder, grounding and comforting him all at once. "We've done it before and we'll do it again. We always come through, right?"

"Yeah, have a little more faith in your team!" Tucker prodded, elbowing Danny lightly and coaxing a smile out of him. "Now come on, let's go home. It's way cold up here." 

"Alright," Danny relented. "And, uh, thanks guys."

Chapter Text

Much to Danny's relief, everything continued on more or less as normal. His classmates didn't shoot ecto-blasts him while he walked down the halls, the G.I.W. didn't raid his house to abduct him for experimentation, and no matter what had been said at that presentation, the school's generally positive opinion of Phantom had remained intact, just like Sam had said it would.

The only thing that really changed was that most of the student body started wearing Fenton Wrist Rays to school. Some of the girls customized them by painting them with nail polish or gluing rhinestones to them. One girl even soldered tiny loops onto hers so she could attach charms to it. They were an accessory more than a weapon, now, and Danny found his worry subsiding.

Another thing that didn't change was Wes Weston. "I'm telling you people! Look at this!" He held up a picture of Danny with photoshopped white hair and green eyes. "Tell me he doesn't look like Phantom! You can't!"

"Yeah, and I bet if you photoshopped white hair on a picture of yourself, you'd look like Phantom too," one of the cheerleaders heckled.

"You know, there's a really easy way to prove if he's Phantom or not," an upperclassman pointed out, holding up his wrist to show off the silver bracelet there in demonstration. "These ray things don't hurt humans, right? If you really wanna prove he's Phantom, you can just give him a little zap, and see what happens."

Wes looked at the upperclassman, mouth agape in horror. "I'm not gonna shoot him!" he said, aghast at the very idea. Wes didn't even wear his wrist ray to school, and tended to scoff at the assertion that ghosts were all that dangerous at all. "I wanna prove he's Phantom not put him in the hospital."

"Uh-huh, sure." The junior scoffed and shook his head. "Sounds to me like you just don't want us all to see how wrong actually you are."

"Harmless or not, you know we're not allowed to shoot those things at each other," Sam interrupted harshly. "Unless you want detention, I suggest you put a sock in it. Come on Danny."

He followed her to their usual lunch table with Tucker right behind him. 

"I guess you guys were right about Wes not wanting to hurt me," Danny noted as they took their seats. "He may be an asshole, but it's nice to know he has some standards." Just as Danny was about to take a bite of his sandwich he felt his ghost sense go off and his breath misted in front of him. He put his food down with a deep, deep sigh. "I gotta ghost. If I'm not back by the time class starts, take notes for me, okay?"

"You got it, dude," Tucker said. "Do what you gotta do."

Danny sprinted to the bathroom to transform and then took off to deal with Cujo, who'd apparently decided to terrorize a pick-up game of catch on the football field by chasing the ball and tackling the players. Thankfully, Danny would definitely be able to take care of it before Valerie caught wind, but it gave him a bit of a scare when he got there and saw that one of players had activated their wrist ray and was trying to shoot Cujo.

"Stop that! Don't hurt him!" Danny shouted, firing a warning shot in front of the guy's feet to make him back off. "He's just trying to play with you. He doesn't know any better. Cujo! Come!" Cujo turned to look at Danny and happily trotted over to him, tongue lolling. "Good boy." Danny knelt to scratch Cujo behind the ears.

The little dog hadn't even gotten too excited and grown to the size of a shed, and yet these kids had tried to shoot him anyway. Thank the Ancients that they respected Phantom enough to stop when he told them to.

"Is he... friendly?" asked the guy who'd shot at Cujo, cautiously deactivating his wrist ray.

"Oh yeah," Danny assured. "And he's actually well-trained, too, but if he gets over-excited, well, he becomes a bigger problem. He's still friendly, but he's just a dog, and he doesn't know his own strength sometimes."

"Can I pet him?"

"Sure," Danny said. "He won't mind." The student let Cujo sniff his hand before stroking the dog's head.

"Ha," he was clearly amazed that he was able to do something like this at all, and his mouth fell open in awe. "Woah, he feels so weird, like if water could hold a shape."

"You mean like ice?" scoffed one of the other guys he'd been playing catch with.

"No, man! I can't describe it. You gotta feel it for yourself."

Skeptically, the other guy came closer and did the same as the first, cautiously stroking the dog's fur. Cujo rolled over to let them pet his belly, basking in the attention. "Oh, wow that does feel weird."

"I know, right?!"

"Sorry to cut this short, but I really need to get Cujo out of here before Valerie finds him, because she kind of blames him for ruining her life."

"Why's that?"

"Because he kind of accidentally ruined her life," Danny answered with a shrug scooping the dog up. Cujo wriggled for a moment, getting comfortable in Danny's arms before popping his head up, excited for the flight. The nearby students all said goodbye to both Phantom and Cujo. The two who'd been brave enough to pet him thanked Phantom for that opportunity.

Flying home with the ghost dog in his arms to usher him through the Fenton Portal, Danny grinned with relief, and hope. It seemed like the students of Casper High were more inclined to trust Phantom over the government. Maybe he could even convince them that what they were learning about ghosts was wrong, that ghosts could think and feel just like humans did.

After sneakily dropping Cujo off in the Ghost Zone, Danny flew back to school, but a newspaper vending machine stopped him in his tracks. The front page headline read "Phantom menace poisoning the minds of our schoolchildren!" It was an article about how Phantom was supposedly brainwashing the local youth into liking and trusting him. It warned parents to remind their children that all ghosts were evil, and dangerous, even if they appeared to act otherwise.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Danny flew the rest of the way back invisibly.

All Danny's hopes were dashed in short order as the situation grew steadily worse. The school installed ghost detector alarms that would wail anytime Danny got within six feet of them in his human form, which of course had Wes chomping at the bit to scream, "Fenton is Phantom! He keeps setting off the ghost detectors! If that's not proof, I don't know what is!"

"Danny got ecto-contaminated from one of our parents experiments a while ago," Jazz said calmly as she passed them in the hall. "If he was a ghost he would activate them from much further away."

"Yeah, what she said," Danny agreed. That, at least, was true. When he turned into Phantom, any ghost detector within thirty feet of him went off. His human form suppressed his ecto-signature enough to sow doubt in Wes' theory.

Danny's parents started giving speeches in the park about "ghost safety" that basically consisted of them spewing vitriolic ghost hate for an hour straight, and teaching ordinary people how to kill ghosts. They made Danny come to their first speech. When it was over he locked himself in his room until the morning, skipping dinner because he felt too nauseated to eat anything. 

Eventually, the propaganda started to work, and even some people at school started to believe that ghosts were evil. There were still others who disagreed, some because they wanted to believe in their ghostly hero and others simply to spite their parents, as teenagers were wont to do.

The worst was when the government gave approval for the G.I.W. to start doing anti-ghost patrols in Amity Park. Danny tried to go out as Phantom less, by the Ancients he tried, but despite their improved training, the G.I.W. just couldn't hold up to certain stronger ghosts, and they weren't immune to overshadowing either. Besides that, Danny had to protect the ghosts too.

It was one thing to let the G.I.W. chase them off, but they tried to capture ghosts for experimentation as much as possible, which Danny couldn't let fly. He wasn't about to let even his worst enemies go through anything like that. Then there were the ghosts that specifically targeted Danny, like Skulker, and forced him to transform and fight, disregarding the danger to both of them. Taking all that into consideration, try though he did, Danny actually ended up as Phantom even more often than before.

With so much more being piled onto his plate, Wes' continued campaign to expose Danny's secret stopped being funny again, and became annoying, and eventually, Danny was forced to wonder why. Why was Wes still so determined to expose him?

Surely he wasn't completely blind to everything going on. He had to know that there were laws in place that stripped Danny of all his rights as a human being, just because he had ectoplasm in him. He must have heard about all the vile things Danny's own parents said about Phantom during their "ghost safety" speeches. And there was absolutely no way the G.I.W. patrols could've escaped Wes' notice.

So why? What had Danny ever done to Wes that he would risk exposing—no, that he would do everything in his power to expose Danny to all of that? Sure, Danny had messed with him a little, had teased him, but so what? He'd never done anything to Wes that put him at risk of being dissected. What had Danny done to deserve all this?

Danny had feared Wes once, then laughed at him, then vaguely disliked him, but now Danny had grown to actually hate the guy. He resented Wes for continuing his potentially deadly efforts against Danny as the stakes rose ever higher.

Then the unthinkable happened. The G.I.W caught up to Phantom, shot him out of the sky. Danny took two shots to the back, one to the side, and one to the leg before was able to give them the slip by turning intangible and traveling underground.

It was spring break. Sam's family had dragged her into some fancy retreat that they wouldn't let her worm her way out of. Jazz was touring out-of-state colleges with their mom, and they wouldn't be back until the following afternoon. Tucker had gone to his family reunion. Danny had assured them that he would be okay. He'd promised he'd be careful.

And now he was bleeding out. Ectoplasm and flecks of blood soaked his jumpsuit, and he was sure he'd broken several bones when he'd fallen out of the sky and hit the ground hard. He couldn't go home, not in this condition. The house's ghost defenses would finish him off in an instant. He could go to his friend's places, but there would be no one there to help him, and he couldn't properly treat the wounds on his back by himself. He needed help. He needed someone who knew, who wouldn't hand him over to his parents or the Guys in White.

And he needed them fast because he could tell he was about to pass out, and he couldn't risk someone finding him unconscious and calling the G.I.W. on him. There was only one option available to him. Reluctantly, he flew west, huge drips of ectoplasm falling rapidly from his open wounds, splattering on the street below. The ecto-blasts had singed his skin too badly, preventing him from healing as fast as he normally did. The edges of his vision started to blacken as he flew sluggishly, awkwardly through the air, barely avoiding another anti-ghost patrol.

Finally, he reached his destination.

His only chance.

He landed heavily on the fire escape with a loud clang. The second his feet hit the metal, his knees buckled and he blacked out momentarily, unable to go any further. So there he was, helpless and injured, outside the bedroom window of none other than Wes fucking Weston, desperately hoping he hadn't just made a huge mistake.

Chapter Text

Danny was desperately clinging to consciousness when Wes' window slid open and the redhead poked his head out with a yawn. "Can whoever is making a racket at three in the goddamn morning kindly shut the hell up!?" he shouted. He started to pull his head back in and Danny, worried that Wes might not notice him, choked out his name.

"Wes," he said weakly, but it was enough to catch his attention.

The moment those green eyes landed on Danny they widened with utter horror. He looked like he might be sick. "Fenton?" 

"little... help?"

"Fuck! Yeah, okay, gimme a sec!"

Wes disappeared into his room, and Danny heard rustling like fabric. A moment later, Wes returned and climbed out onto the fire escape. Mindful of his wounds, he hoisted Danny up and got him through the window. He laid Danny on his mattress, which he'd completely stripped. Blankets, pillows and sheets were wadded up on the floor.

"I'll be right back, I gotta get the first-aid kit."

Danny didn't have the strength to respond, but now that he was safely out of danger where the G.I.W. wouldn't find him he could feel his healing kicking in. Without flying and hiding using up his energy, he was already beginning to recover somewhat. He laid back and tried to focus his eyes, taking in his surroundings. Wes' room had light blue walls. Unsurprisingly, one of them had a cork board covered in pictures of Danny, articles about Phantom, evidence that the two were linked, that they were the same. If the G.I.W. started doing home raids and saw that, Danny would be screwed.

There were stickers on the ceiling, old and peeling, some with neon colors and unicorns, skateboard stickers, a rainbow flag, price tags from fruit, a bumper sticker that said "My other car is a Maserati! Ha ha just kidding! I'm dirt poor," and another one that said, "baby on board," with a picture of a baby wearing a backwards baseball cap riding a skateboard. Danny might've laughed if he thought he could do it without choking on ectoplasm.

"I found it!" Wes returned with a red metal box and some towels. He stopped in the middle of his room staring at Danny. "Uh... so does the jumpsuit, like, come off?" he asked.

Danny let out a weak huff of laughter. "You've already got me... in your bed and now... you wanna get my clothes off, too?" he asked teasingly, the words slurring together slightly. "Don't you think... you're moving a little fast?"

"Very funny," Wes said flatly, rolling his eyes. Although, the joke seemed to shake him out of his terror somewhat, which was good. That, or he was really good at compartmentalizing. "At least you're not too badly injured for sarcasm. Now if you could phase off that butt-ugly jumpsuit so I can stop you from oozing all over my mattress, I'd appreciate it."

"Grab it and pull," Danny told him. Wes gripped the front of the jumpsuit and tugged while Danny made himself intangible so it could slip right off, leaving Danny laying there in ectoplasm soaked briefs on Wes' bed. Just that much exertion however was too much for him, and white rings of light flickered around his middle. Wes gasped when he finally saw the extent of the damage.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked breathlessly.

"Was helping some... blob ghosts," Danny answered. "The Guys 'n White caught up to me... on their patrol."

"They did this to you? Why?"

"'Cause they want me dead," Danny answered, scowling. "You were at that assembly a while back; you've... you've seen the propaganda posters. Did you think they were... running a catch-and-release program? A rescue shelter?" Wes got to work on Danny's leg first, mopping up the ectoplasm there with a towel so he could get to the wound.

"I didn't think they'd do this," he said quietly.

"What did I ever do to you?" Danny asked. He didn't want to piss off the person helping him, but he couldn't stop himself from asking. "What made you start this... beef with me?"

"I care about the truth. I think it's important."

"More important than my life?"

"What life? You're a ghost."

"I'm not a normal ghost," Danny said. "I thought you, of all people, would've... figured that out by now." Wes didn't respond, just opened up an alcohol wipe and started cleaning the wound on Danny's leg.

Danny didn't flinch even once while Wes patched his leg up, disinfecting and pressing gauze over the wound and wrapping it in bandages. He did so very calmly, his hands surprisingly steady, like he'd had a lot of practice. 

"I wasn't thinking about what would happen afterwards," Wes admitted as he finished securing the bandage. "I just wanted people to believe me."

"I don't think you were thinking at all," Danny said as Wes propped him up to clean the wounds on his back. "I mean, fuck, one of your theories is that... I'm like this because my parents experimented on me. I'm pretty sure everyone... in town has heard them threaten to rip me apart molecule by molecule.... What do you think would happen to me if they found out?"

"Okay, but that theory was low on the list," Wes defended, "and the more likely theory was that they were in on it and hunting you was a cover."

"They shoot at me any time they see me!" He tried to turn to glare at Wes, only to get a smack on the head.

"Quit moving!" Wes snapped. "I gotta disinfect." Danny clenched his teeth as he felt the sting of alcohol in the wounds on his back.

"How d'you know how to do this, anyway?" Now that the worst of the bleeding, from his leg, was stemmed, Danny was recovering even faster. His body could regenerate blood and ectoplasm without immediately losing it. He was able to speak more or less clearly now, and he didn't feel like he was about to pass out.

"Kyle skateboards, and he's an idiot," Wes answered. "I used to, too, but not so much anymore. He still bribes me sometimes to patch him up before Dad finds out he's injured, so that he won't get grounded for being reckless."

"Who's Kyle?"

"My twin brother."

"You have a brother?" Danny's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He had thought he knew Wes, after all the time they'd spent antagonizing each other, but he was realizing that he didn't really know anything about Wes outside of his constant insistence on outing Danny as a ghost. "How come I've never seen him around?"

"I have two brothers, actually," Wes told him. "And you probably have seen him around. You just didn't realize because we're not identical. The other one's off at college in New York."

"Are you the older twin, or the younger twin?"

"What does it matter? We're twins."

"So the younger twin, then." Wes smacked his head again.

"Maybe stop being such a dick when I'm patching up your nasty ass ghost injuries, yeah?" Soft gauze pressed against on of the wounds on his back and Wes started wrapping bandages again. Halfway down, Wes put down more gauze for the second wound and kept wrapping. "Why did you come to me, anyway? Something happen to your actual friends?"

"They're both out of town for spring break," Danny responded. "Trust me, you were not my first choice. I wouldn't've come here at all if I wasn't completely desperate." Wes scoffed and finished bandaging the wounds on Danny's back, repositioning him to get better access to the last wound, on his side.

He cleaned it up in silence, and as he was applying disinfectant, he asked, in an uncertain voice, "Do you get hurt like this a lot?"

"I don't know about 'a lot'," Danny said, although Jazz's voice in his head told him often that if it happened more than once in his life, that would probably be considered a lot to most people. "It's been known to happen."

"How?"

"G.I.W. patrols, ghost fights, my mom's aim is actually pretty good, and sometimes I don't dodge fast enough," Danny said with a shrug, then winced at the way the movement tugged on his injuries.

"I told you not to move," Wes scolded, then, in a softer voice he asked, "Your parents have done this to you before?"

"Do you think I keep my identity a secret for my own entertainment?" Danny asked. "Most of the ghosts I fight know who I am already. They're obviously not the ones I'm worried about."

Wes finished disinfecting and pulled out another wad of gauze. "Fuck." Wes breathed out emphatically.

"What? Outta bandages?"

"No, it's just... this is making me realize just how much of an asshole I've been," he said, starting to wrap up the last wound. "I mean, I knew that I was being an asshole, honestly, but I didn't think it was this bad. It was what I had to do to get the truth out there."

"I guess maybe I should've called you out earlier, huh," Danny said. "In my defense, you were smart enough to figure out who I was, I thought you'd be smart enough to realize why I hid it in the first place. Seriously. Again, my parents shoot at me all the time."

"I thought it was an act!" Danny snorted. "Anyway, I guess," Wes glanced over at his conspiracy board. "I guess it's probably time to take that down, huh?"

"Wait... you mean you're actually giving up?" Danny couldn't help turning around to face Wes in his surprise, and cringed when it irritated his wounds. "Gah!"

"I told you to stay still!" Wes griped again, having to unwrap and re-wrap a section of bandages to keep them tight. "And no, I'm not giving up. One day, I'm personally gonna make sure everyone knows you're Phantom. But I never actually wanted you to get hurt, so... I'm revising my method."

"What's that mean?"

"It means my three step plan to expose you is more like a twenty-step plan now," Wes said with a sigh. "First, I gotta get the Guys in White out of here, then prove ghosts are sentient, and convince the government to repeal the anti-ecto acts, then convince the paranormal science community at large that ghosts aren't inherently evil, and eventually, when it's safe, I'm definitely gonna convince everyone you're Phantom."

Danny chuckled, then grunted in pain. "I'll tell you what, Wes," he said. "If you can change the world to that level, I'll show everyone I'm Phantom and prove it to them for you."

Tying off the last bandage, Wes nodded. "Deal," he said. "For now though, go to the bathroom and clean the rest of that gunk off you. I'll let you borrow some pajamas. It's the door at the end of the hall. Try not to get your bandages wet."

"Thanks, Wes," Danny said as the red-head handed him a gray t-shirt and some plaid pajama pants.

"Don't thank me yet," Wes said. "You're sleeping on the bed, on your stomach, and you don't get bedding."

"Why'd you strip your bedding anyway?"

"You think I'm gonna subject my poor dad to ectoplasm-stained sheets?" Wes scoffed. "No way. I'd be doing everyone's laundry for a month. I'm just gonna buy new towels to replace these ones." He waved the towels he'd used to absorb the blood and ectoplasm from Danny's skin. They'd once been a pale gray, but now they were sickly green and brown with drying fluids.

"Right, of course." Danny stepped out of Wes' room and into the hall, smiling.

Hearing about normal problems like that was kind of refreshing. When Danny didn't want to do chores, it was because they were dangerous for him, like cleaning his parents' lab. When his parents were mad at him, they threatened to dissect him, not to make him to the laundry. In comparison, Wes' problems sounded so trivial, and yet, Danny could still relate. He didn't like doing laundry either.

Chapter Text

Danny used a damp washcloth the clean off what was left of the blood and ectoplasm from his skin before changing, first from ghost to human, and then, once he was back in his own clean clothes, into the pajamas. When he returned to the bedroom, Wes was gone.

Danny didn't really wonder where Wes had gone because he didn't really care. He was completely wiped from everything that had happened that night, and he just wanted to get some sleep. Crossing the room, he flopped face down onto the bare bed. Without any kind of sheet or comforter, the mattress was lumpy and not very comfortable. Danny hardly noticed.

He adjusted himself so he was laying near the edge to make it easier to breathe and was just about to drift off when his arm slipped off the mattress and brushed against something hard. Not wanting to open his eyes, Danny felt around blindly until his fingers closed around something flat and solid wedged between the mattress and the bed frame. It was a close race, but his curiosity one out over his exhaustion and he pushed himself into a sitting position to see what it was.

In his hands, Danny held some kind of journal. At first, he thought it was Wes' diary, and that he should put it back because even if it was Wes, Danny wasn't enough of a jerk to read someone's diary; then he considered the far more likely possibility that it was filled with Wes' evidence of Danny's dual identity, and he should check it out, for his safety. What Danny actually found when he opened the journal was the last thing he would have ever expected.

Birds.

Each page had a photograph of a bird, along with some writing, in Wes' own hand, about what the bird was, and where and when he had seen it. Danny stared at the pages in absolute shock as he flipped through them. Danny almost laughed out loud when he read a clearly very excited entry about a bird called the Red Knot which was apparently endangered in Illinois, but that Wes had spotted out at Lake Eerie over the summer.

"Sorry, it took longer than I thought to wash all that shit off my hands. They still smell like rubbing alcohol," Wes said as he came in. "Make yourself comf—why do you have that?" he interrupted himself when he saw what Danny was holding. He stomped over and snatched the journal out of Danny's hands, snapping it shut.

"You have a bird watching journal?" Danny asked incredulously.

Wes opened his desk drawer, tossed the journal haphazardly inside, and slammed it shut again. "I like bird watching. Is that a crime?"

"No it's just," Danny laughed at the absurdity of it all, "Between basketball and obsessively stalking me and trying to expose me as Phantom, I didn't think you had time for–" he snorted, and brought a hand up to his mouth to cover the amused smile there–"bird watching." He couldn't hold it in anymore, Danny burst out laughing, interspersed with winces as the action irritated his injuries.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Wes said, crossing his arms with a scowl. "I have a life outside of you, you know. You think I got binoculars with adjustable magnification just to watch you? Don't flatter yourself."

"Ouch! But, seriously, bird watching?"

"It's peaceful and relaxing!"

"You're such a nerd!"

"Well what do you do when you have free time?" Wes demanded indignantly. "Let me guess, you spend your time playing video games, right?"

"You mean a normal hobby that most teenagers engage in?" Danny pointed out. "Yeah, I do."

"You'll rot your brain."

"Whatever, nerd!"

"Shut up." Wes pouted. "You just got shot four times. Shouldn't you be resting or something? Go to fucking sleep." He crouched down to lay out his bedding on the floor.

"When do you even find time do go bird watching?" Danny asked laughingly.

"I thought I told you to go to sleep!"

"Alright, alright!" Danny laid down again and Wes got up to switch the light off before climbing into his makeshift bed on the floor. For a while, Danny stayed quiet, but he just couldn't help himself. "What's the rarest bird you've ever seen?"

"Shut up!" Wes groaned and whacked Danny with a pillow.

"Fine!" That lasted all of seven seconds. "But what is it?"

Wes sighed, but Danny could hear the smile in his voice when he finally answered. "I saw an island scrub Jay once, when my family took a vacation to Santa Cruz a couple summers ago. They're so pretty, and they're like, one of the rarest birds in the states; it was pretty awesome. They literally only live on Santa Cruz Island and nowhere else, because they're non-migratory. I spent the whole trip looking for one. Kyle and Easton spent the whole trip making fun of me for it."

Danny laughed again. "Nerd."

"If you don't wanna know, don't fucking ask!" Wes whacked him with a pillow again and he sputtered momentarily. "Go to sleep already."

"How did you even get into bird watching?" Danny asked. "That's not a normal hobby for a kid to have." Wes sighed again.

"If you're just gonna call me a nerd again, I'm not gonna tell you."

"I promise I won't call you a nerd." 

Wes didn't answer right away, probably not trusting the promise, but just when Danny thought he'd decided to just go to sleep he answered.

"My mom's a flight attendant, so when I was little I used to watch the sky all the time and keep an eye out for planes, try to guess which one she was on, you know?" he explained. "Turns out, when you watch the sky all day, you end up seeing a some cool-looking birds, so when I was seven or eight, I asked for a camera for my birthday so I could take pictures of them, and it sort of spiraled from there."

"That's... kinda sweet, actually," Danny said.

"Whatever."

"You know, I do like video games, but actually, I'm also really into astronomy," Danny said.

"And you called me a nerd."

"Hey, bird watching is way nerdier than stargazing," Danny defended. "I mean ask literally anyone. Stargazing is, like, romantic and crap, bird watching is full-on nerdy."

"Sure, space geek," Wes said. "What's your favorite dwarf planet?"

"Haumea," Danny answered immediately, without even having to think about it.

"Knowing any dwarf planet besides Pluto is well into full-on nerd territory."

"Haumea spins so fast that gravity makes it oblong instead of round; tell me that's not cool!"

"Okay, it's a little cool, but you're still a nerd. Go to sleep."

They ended up staying a little later, swapping fun facts about birds and space, eventually falling asleep at almost five in the morning. Thankfully, spring break afforded them the opportunity to sleep in as long as they wanted. When they eventually woke up, Danny didn't leave Wes' place right away.

Wes brought him a sandwich for breakfast/lunch, and helped him change his bandages. Although, it unsettled Wes to see the difference in blood composition between Danny's two forms. It would be a couple more days before the wounds fully closed, but the bleeding had stopped. As long as Danny was still healing, his ecto-signature would be stronger, even in his human form, which meant going home was a no-go.

"What do you mean your house will attack you?" Wes asked, horrified.

"My parents have a very sophisticated anti-ghost security system," Danny explained. "I can pass through in my human form well enough as long as I don't use any of my powers, but if I so much as have my ghost sense go off, it activates and I have a dozen anti-ghost weapons in my face. It'll definitely target me with my enhanced healing working, but I can't exactly turn that off."

"Alright, fair enough," Wes said. "But you can't stay here. My dad's not that observant, but Kyle will definitely notice if you stay any longer, and neither of us wants that, trust me."

"That's fine," Danny said. "Tucker's house is empty right now, and I know where they keep the spare key. I'll camp out there for a few days. And, uh, once I can get into my house again, I'll bring you some of my parents' Fenton Detergent that'll work on ectoplasm stains so you don't have to buy new towels."

"Good, because I couldn't really afford to anyway," Wes said, his shoulders slumping in relief. "I'll come check on you at Tucker's, just in case."

"You will?" Danny asked, surprised.

"Of course," Wes said. "I won't be able to sleep if I don't know you're okay, not after, you know, everything." Ah, so he felt guilty. Alright, that made sense.

"Okay, well... thanks," Danny said, face splitting into a smile, "for, you know, everything." He started to climb out onto the fire escape, ready to leave.

"Yeah, no problem."

"And good luck with the bird watching," Danny tacked on as he transformed into Phantom and jumped off the fire escape.

"Oh, fuck off!" Wes shouted, running to the window to flip the ghost off while he laughed, turning invisible to keep the patrols off is tail as he made a beeline for Tucker's place to lay low.

Chapter Text

Much to both boys' surprise, Wes and Danny bonded during the remaining days of spring break. Even after Danny was fully healed and could go home, they hung out together. Wes even helped him in a ghost fight once or twice. When Sam and Tucker got back from their respective trips, they were dumbfounded.

"Danny, this is definitely just another ploy to gather evidence that you're Phantom," Sam pointed out. "I know you're not the brightest bulb, but even you have to see that."

"First of all, rude. And second of all, I showed up on his fire escape, bleeding out, and he patched me up," Danny told her. He'd already told her twice before. "I really don't think he's all that eager to expose me anymore. For now, at least."

"And how long is that gonna last?" Tucker asked. "How do you know he'll still feel that way tomorrow? Or next week?"

"I rarely ever say this, but Tucker's right," Sam said, crossing her arms. "Your parents and the Guys in White have created a propaganda machine that's constantly pumping out new anti-ghost sentiments. Wes may have resisted so far, but for how much longer?"

"Will you two just trust me?" Danny pleaded. "Ever since he figured out I'm Phantom, Wes has learned a lot more about ghosts than your average Amity Parker. He knows as well as we do that the Guys in White are lying about ghosts being non-sentient. And you're right, he still wants people to know I'm Phantom, but you were also right a couple months ago when you said he didn't want me to get hurt. Do you remember that?" 

"We do trust you, Danny," Tucker said. "We just don't understand why you'd trust Wes, unless you're like, being overshadowed, or you lost your mind or something."

"Is that it?" Sam asked. "Have you gone completely insane? Next thing you're gonna tell us is that you've started thinking of Vlad as a father figure."

"Ew," Danny cringed. "It's nothing like that. I just think maybe we misjudged Wes a little bit."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Sam scoffed.

"Great, 'cause he's having lunch with us on Monday, when school starts back up again."

"WHAT?"

Sam and Tucker were none too pleased when Wes joined them in the cafeteria, just like Danny had said he would. But he didn't go on his usual tangent about Danny's secret identity, and, "How am I the only one seeing this? Wake up!" Even when Danny openly mentioned something that happened while fighting ghosts as Phantom, Wes kept it confined to their table.

He did ask a lot of questions about ghosts, though, and every time Danny answered them, Sam and Tucker would give him a look like he'd just sold Fenton Works for a handful of beans.

"What are you doing?" Sam hissed in his ear. "He's going to use this information to expose you!"

"Eventually, maybe, but relax," Danny muttered back. "He's changing his tack, okay? He wants to prove ghosts are sentient first and get the anti-ecto acts repealed."

"Oh, sure, that's a totally attainable goal for a high school student." She rolled her eyes. "Do you really believe he's going to do that?"

"I don't know, but he seems to," Danny told her with a shrug.

"I know you guys are talking about me," Wes said. "If you won't say it to my face, don't say it at all. Put up or shut up."

"Sam says she has no faith in you," Danny told him, and she gasped and punched him in the shoulder. "Ow!"

"That's fair," Wes said. "She's gonna eat those words, though."

"I'd like to see you make me!" she sneered.

"I'd like to see that, too," Tucker piped up cheerfully. "It's always fun to watch Sam eat her words. Those words better be vegan, am I right?"

Danny laughed before saying, "actually, I think words are technically an animal product, since they come from humans. Guess Sam may have to go off her diet." The two of them busted up while Sam scowled, and Wes looked confused for a moment before chuckling awkwardly, just so he wouldn't be left out.

Wes continued to spend more time with the three of them. He could often be found taking notes on things they said about ghosts for his new conspiracy theory about the G.I.W. covering up the fact that ghosts are sentient in order to enact the legal genocide of an intelligent species.

"What are you doing hanging out with that loser so often?" Dash asked derisively as he caught the ball Wes sent his way and passed it to Josh. Wes had just told him that he was meeting Danny and his friends once basketball practice was over. Dash faked a gag for dramatic effect.

"Lay off, dude, I'm gathering evidence," Wes said. The whole school still thought Wes was obsessed with his 'Fenton is Phantom' theory, and he didn't have enough evidence to start spreading his new theory yet, so he used that as his cover. It was harder than he thought to prove that ghosts were genuinely sentient when the commonly held belief was that they were pretending to be sentient, for God only knew what reason. "If I spend time around them, they'll eventually slip up and give me everything I need."

"Dude, you're off your nut if you're still trying to prove your stupid theory," Dash said with a snort. "He's not Phantom. Just admit you're crushing on him and stop making excuses."

"I am not crushing on Danny Fenton!" Wes snapped, insulted by the insinuation, one that was made far too often for Wes' liking. "Fenton's a complete dumbass, a liar, and an asshole. I'm gay, not stupid. I would never be attracted to someone like that."

"Uh-huh, sure." Dash clearly didn't believe it. Wes just sighed and stopped arguing, knowing it would be useless if he did. Nobody ever believed anything Wes said, so that was hardly new. It was annoying though. 

When basketball practice ended, he headed to Fenton's house. Sam, Danny, and Tucker were all going to teach Wes how to play Doomed, which promised to be an... interesting experience.

Wes had never really played any video games before. He'd tried out a few at an arcade once, years ago. Kyle got to pick where they had their party on odd numbered years, so they went to one for their eleventh birthday. Wes hadn't lasted more than five minutes on any of the games there, and it ranked among the worst birthday parties he'd ever had for the pure frustration. He got back at Kyle for their twelfth though, when Wes got to choose the place and they had their birthday party at a bird sanctuary.

He knocked on the door when he arrived, and Danny answered it and immediately ushered Wes up to his room before his parents could intercept and trap Wes in a one-sided conversation about ghosts. Well, actually, with Wes there might've been some audience participation.

After an hour, Wes had made a character and approximately nine thousand derisive comments about video games, but he hadn't even managed to beat the first level. The other three were extremely amused.

"I told you I'm not good at video games," he reminded them, having to shout to be heard over their uproarious laughter as he repeatedly ran his character into a wall... again. "I told you all, like, a dozen times, but you insisted!" Even Sam had, which had surprised Wes, because she didn't seem like the gamer type. "I don't have the finger reflexes and shit."

"You spend all day behind a camera!" Tucker pointed out, panting with laughter. "How do you not have finger reflexes?"

"It's different reflexes!" 

"You know what, Wes, maybe you should stick to bird watching," Danny said, patting his shoulder with fake sympathy.

"I didn't want to play in the first pla—"

"Bird watching?!" Tucker shouted, interrupting him. "You're shitting me right now."

"No, I saw his bird watching journal," Danny said. "It's intensely nerdy." Wes shot to his feet to chew him out for exposing his shameful secret, but whatever he said, it couldn't be heard over Sam's witch-like cackle.

In the end, Wes couldn't help getting dragged in, and started laughing himself. Even as he said, "Fuck you guys," he was smiling.

They took a break from gaming when Danny's parents left to check out a ghostly disturbance that Tucker had called in a fake tip about. The four of them headed downstairs to the lab to give Wes a tour.

"If he's going to hang out with us, he needs to at least know how the ghost portal works," Danny insisted, though Sam and Tucker grumbled complaints the whole way down the stairs. "Let me show you." Danny gave him a demonstration of how he returned ghosts from the thermos into the Ghost Zone, and how to know when the portal was just closed, and when it was actually sealed.

"This is pretty cool, actually," Wes said. He'd heard about the portal, of course, the Doctors Fenton could hardly shut up about it, but looking at it was a different story, "seeing another dimension."

Danny snorted. "Careful, Wes," he warned lightly. "That's the same thing I said, right before I died in it." Wes stopped cold.

"You what?"

"Oh... I guess I forgot that for all your yelling, you don't actually know how I became half ghost, do you?" Danny's smiled turned pained. "Yeah. The portal didn't work at first, and Sam and Tucker convinced me to check out the inside. It uh... kinda turned on while I was in there and...." Danny trailed off for a moment, swallowing and furrowing his eyebrows, as though he was remembering something deeply unpleasant. "Well, short version is it kinda killed me, kinda didn't, and that's why I am the way that I am."

"Just so you know, Wes," Sam said darkly, "It's super rude to ask a ghost how they died."

"It's okay, Sam," Danny told her, pulling himself together. "I'm the one who brought it up."

Wes refrained from making a biting comment about how he wasn't the one who'd goaded Danny to his death to begin with. It seemed like it would be in poor taste, given the setting and present company. Danny clearly didn't like thinking about it. Instead, Wes pointed out a huge object against one wall, covered in a tarp, and asked what it was. 

Danny jumped on the subject change and tore the tarp away to reveal the Specter Speeder, and told Wes all about how it worked. "Maybe some other time, we'll take you with us on one of our trips into the Ghost Zone," Danny offered.

"Really? That would be awesome!"

Sam and Tucker groaned. They still weren't fully on board with Wes spending more time around them, and it wasn't like Wes wanted to get all buddy-buddy with them either. If anyone brought it up, he'd tell them the same thing he told Dash. He was gathering evidence against them, nothing more. They were all annoying, anyway.

Wes left when it was starting to get dark out. All told, despite monumentally sucking at Doomed, he'd gathered a lot of good information on ghosts and ectology when he was in the lab, and he could definitely use it to support his theory. As soon as he stepped off the front porch, something grabbed him out of nowhere, and he was flying away.

"What the?!" Wes struggled, but it was no use. He looked up to see his kidnapper, the ghost of some kind of medieval nobleman or something, wearing fine purple and black robes and a bitter expression on his blue face. "Fan-fucking-tastic." Wes pouted and crossed his arms. Of course something like this would happen. This is what he got for befriending Danny Fenton. 

Chapter Text

The ghost took Wes to the the medieval history section of Amity Park museum, where he bound Wes to the rack in the exhibit on medieval torture devices. It wasn't enough to put Wes on an actual torture rack, though, no, because then, the ghosts started to monologue. 

"Do you know who I am, friend of Phantom?" the ghost asked, but Wes knew the start of an evil monologue when he heard one and he wasn't dumb enough to interrupt by trying to answer the rhetorical question. "I am Prince Aragon, rightful ruler of the Medieval Realm. Your friend Phantom, and his friend Sam, my would-be bride, were the ones responsible for influencing my foolhardy sister to betray me, and now they shall pay."

Well, at least Wes knew who to blame for the ghosts currently talking his ear off. If Sam still refused to trust him after this, he was going to revolt.

"They poisoned Isadora's mind with their twenty-first century ideas," the prince spat. "They made her think she was worthy of my throne, my crown, my amulet! They'll come to regret it, now that I've taken away something precious to them. The ghost boy will return my amulet to me so that I may reclaim my kingdom, or you will pay the ultimate price."

"Woah, time out!" Wes requested, shaking his head—the only thing he could move while on the rack. "You know Phantom is half human?"

"Of course," the prince scoffed. "The halfa is well known throughout the realms."

"You're fucking kidding me," Wes scowled. What a sick joke this had to be. He'd been trying to convince humans that half-ghosts were real and Danny was one for months, only now to learn that the ghosts knew the whole damn time. "Unbelievable."

"I don't see what you find so difficult to believe." Aragon looked down his nose at Wes like he was something the prince had had his servants scrape off the bottom of his shoe. "The ghost boy will soon see the ransom letter my loyal archer left at his abode. In the meantime, we will wait."

"So... did you just grab me because you saw me leaving Fenton's house?" Wes asked. "He has a sister you know; what if I'd been one of her friends instead? I mean, I was there with Danny, but I'm pretty sure Sam hates my guts and will not care what you do with me."

"Silence!"

"I'm just saying, you could've thought this plan through a little better," Wes told him. Aragon raised a hand in warning and Wes clammed up. Stupid Fenton. Stupid Manson. Stupid Foley, too, while he was at it, because when one of them were involved, they all were.

"This plan is foolproof," Aragon insisted, "which is essential, because Phantom and his fellows are certainly fools. I will have my amulet back, and once my power is restored, I will become the great dragon I was born and died to be, and lay waste to this feeble mortal realm before returning to my kingdom to face my mutinous sister and make her regret ever standing up to me." 

Wes knew better than to speak up, but he couldn't help thinking that, despite his claims otherwise, this Aragon creep really didn't sound like the victim here. Honestly, Wes just felt bad for his sister, whoever she was, far having to live with him for who knew how long. And Manson, who... wait, what did he mean when he said 'would-be bride' before?

"Hold on, were you planning on marrying Sam Manson?" Wes asked, vaguely disgusted. "Why?"

"She was selected by the halfa wretch as the most suitable human bride for a glorious ghostly monarch such as myself, and I needed a queen," Prince Aragon responded. "I'll be answering no more questions from you, cur. One more word, and I'll rip out your tongue." Wes snapped his mouth shut, pressing his lips together in a thin line. He very much wanted to keep his tongue, thank you. "Your friends should be here any minute."

Wes waited silently for nearly twenty minutes after that. Being kidnapped, as it turned out, was very boring. Eventually, though, Fenton and his friends crashed into the museum.

"Sorry we're late," Danny said. "The note on the arrow that got shot through my window just said to come to the most medieval place in Amity Park, and Tucker thought it was the castle hole at the miniature golf course." 

"That's a joke, right?" Wes asked flatly.

"In my defense, I didn't know Amity Park had a history museum!" Tucker said. "Seriously, how long has this been here?"

"Amity Park Museum was established 1939, but this wing was added in 1952 to accommodate growing attendance and a greater number of exhibits," Sam read off a plaque on the wall. "So about seventy years, Tuck."

"Enough rabble!" Aragon shouted, silencing the teens, "Give me my amulet or your friend will face the fiery inferno!"

Danny wasted no time in firing off a ghost ray at Aragon, throwing him into the wall. "How about you amuLET Wes go, and we take you back to your dungeon to rot?" Wes groaned at the pun. Aragon was already getting back up. "Get Wes free! I'll deal with this asshole!" An arrow whizzed passed Danny's head and he turned to see an archer behind him. "Okay, maybe be quick about it, because I don't know how long I can handle both these guys at once."

Wes could practically hear Kyle's voice in his head snickering out a 'that's what she said' through his shit-eating grin, but Wes tastefully refrained from speaking the joke into being. Kyle was ten times the menace Phantom had ever been. Once Sam and Tucker got his hands free, Wes urged them to help Danny, assuring them that he could unbind himself the rest of the way. As soon as he was off the rack, Wes crawled under the din of the battle above him to his backpack, which Aragon had cast to the side when they arrived.

Trying not to get hit by the ecto-blasts, arrows, and other medieval weapons that were getting thrown around, he fished around in his backpack for the wrist ray he'd literally never used before. It was buried at the bottom, under books, pencils, and numerous crumpled papers, but once he got it out and on his wrist he activated it. As soon as he turned to join the fray, he watched Danny sucking Aragon into the Fenton Thermos. Too little too late, he supposed.

"Damn," Wes grumbled, deactivating his wrist ray. "I really wanted to shoot that royal bastard in his disgusting face." Danny laughed.

"Don't worry, I got plenty of hits in for you," he assured. "You good on your way home or do you want an escort? You know, to make sure you don't get kidnapped again?" 

"I think I'll be okay," Wes said, rolling his eyes at what he assumed was some kind of barb about him not being able to handle himself. "Ghosts aren't exactly known for kidnapping people on the regular."

"Well... if that's—if you're sure then—"

"What Danny means to say is that he'd feel better if you let him walk you home," Sam said. "You'll have to excuse him, he's gets anxious about this kinda thing."

"Oh, because he's obsessed with protecting everyone and blames himself for me being kidnapped because it was kinda his fault?" Wes guessed.

"Bingo," Tucker shot a finger gun Wes' way and winked.

"Guys!" Danny complained. "You don't have to call me out like that!"

"Yeah, alright." Wes shrugged and grabbed his backpack off the ground. "I don't mind if you wanna walk me home." Danny brightened, and changed back to human form before they all left the museum and Sam and Tucker split off to head to their respective homes.

"Thank the Ancients we were able to just fight Aragon," Danny said after a few minutes. "I was worried he might have you in some kind of magical trap or something that would only open with the amulet."

"Yeah, that would've been bad," Wes agreed. "You didn't hear him monologuing at me, but he was totally planning to destroy the whole town if he got it, so it's good you didn't give it to him."

"I couldn't have, even if I wanted to," Danny admitted. "I have no idea where his amulet even is. It might be buried in my closet somewhere, or at my locker at school, or in my parents lab, or somewhere in the Ghost Zone, like, I genuinely don't remember what I did with it at all." Wes snorted and burst into a laugh.

"Some hero you are," he teased. "Can't even keep track of your shit."

"I actually think I may have given it back to his sister," Danny said thoughtfully. "I should ask her when I go to drop him off in her dungeon. I should probably know the location of the magic amulet that can turn its wearer into a dragon."

"Yeah, probably," Wes agreed. "You're not just gonna set him loose back in the Ghost Zone, like you usually do?"

"No, he's a criminal, even in the Ghost Zone. He abused his sister and the citizens of the Medieval Realm for sixteen-hundred years. He doesn't get to just fly free after that. He still has fifteen-hundred and ninety-nine years left on his sentence."

"Huh... okay then." Wes nodded in consideration. That seemed like a suitable sentence. Aragon was really annoying. "He deserves it." 

"Totally."

They reached the door of Wes' apartment building and said their goodbyes. Danny waited outside until he saw the light in Wes' bedroom turn on, just to be safe.

A little while later, Wes remembered what else he'd learned from Aragon, and he got the chance to complain to Danny about how unfair it was that literally all the ghosts knew who he was but no humans ever believed it, and the rest of them laughed in his face. One good thing did come out of getting kidnapped by an evil ghost prince, and that was that Sam and Tucker were less guarded around him. It seemed like being personally targeted by a ghost was some sort of rite of passage to become Danny's friend, and Wes had passed.

In any case, he'd been more or less accepted into their little clique now, and being around them without Sam and Tucker scrutinizing his every word and smothering him with their suspicions presented Wes with tons of opportunities to study ghosts, and to gather evidence that they weren't what the G.I.W. and the Fentons claimed they were.

It wasn't enough yet. Probably wouldn't be for a while. But one day, Wes would prove that ghosts were sentient. One day, Wes would get those genocidal anti-ecto acts repealed. He'd get the G.I.W. disbanded. He'd change the world's entire understanding of ghosts, one way or another. And then—then he would show everyone that Danny Fenton had truly been Danny Phantom the entire time!