Special Thanks to: BadCatGirl, mickXfan, Kradeiz, Nonasuki-chan, M.Bersback, Sapphire Wolf Master, Aki-sama, blindyourears, acosta perez jose ramiro, WingsOfMorphius (Thanx for letting me know about the ban), Invader Johnny.
A/N: Jazz has always been a favorite character of mine, but she's so hard to write for. I wanted to get her reactions and personality down accurately.
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"What did I tell you about late night ghost fighi- Oh My God!" Jazz's eyes went wide at the sight of Ember being carried Danny's arms.
"D-Danny?... Ember!!?..." Danny threw Ember on the couch and rushed over to Jazz and clapped his hand over her mouth. "Jazz!" He whispered harshly, the last thing he needed was for his parents to wake-up and make this whole situation even more complicated. After several tense seconds, Danny didn't here any activity upstairs and let out a sigh of relief.
"Mmpphh…nnnnnyyy."
"What?... Oh right." Danny took his hand off his sister's mouth. She looked over his shoulder at Ember, lying curled up on the couch, then back at him.
"Danny, what's going on? Why did you drag Ember into our Living room!"
"I didn't drag her, I carried her." This only made Jazz glare at him harshly.
"That's not what I asked!"
"I found her in an alley, and keep your voice down!"
"An alley?" she asked, her curiosity peaked.
"She was sick; I think she's got some kind of ghost flu?" He looked back over at Ember and noticed her shifting uncomfortably on the couch, she seemed to look worse then when he'd found her; he walked over to her and felt her arm, she was even warmer now.
"Ghost-Flu?... Danny did it ever occur to you she might be faking it!"
"I don't think she is. Plus, I've seen her on stage and she's not that good at putting on a performance."
"Danny! This is serious-"
"I know it is! She could hardly walk when I saw her; I wasn't going to leave her like that, it wouldn't have been right. I'm getting her up to the ops center and I need your help to find out what to do." Without waiting for her response he was once again lifted Ember up into his arms and made his way up to the Ops center.
Reluctantly, Jazz followed him. Partly because he was her brother and she needed to look out for him, also because she wasn't quite sure what he should have done; this situation conflicted with the blast ghost; dissect ghost, or catch-and-release ghost, policy the Fenton household used for ghost hunting.
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Lying on an old army cot – which stuck out horribly in the high-tech atmosphere of the Ops center – Ember lay curled up and shivering under a blanket; Danny sat next to her watching and waiting. Jazz was busy going over an analysis of Ember's immune system, but at 1:00 am her brain was not at its usually peak and she was becoming increasingly frustrated; her hair was disheveled and there were bags under her eyes.
Danny would also be tired if it weren't for all the thoughts running through his head as he starred down at the deceased rocker; thoughts he'd rather not share with his sister just yet, seeing as how she was already convinced he was loosing his mind.
'Who was she when she was alive? Why was she lashing out on the world as a ghost?' These unFenton-like thoughts were ones his sister usually occupied herself with, mainly to differentiate herself from their parents. He'd always taken after his mom and dad, blasting ghosts left and right without ever thinking much about them.
'She was probably really into music before she died and that became her obsession.' He entertained the thought of her being just another student at Casper High; imagining how strange it'd be to see her walking down the hallways, seeing her in class, eating lunch in the cafeteria.
'She'd be a year or two older than me' he smiled. 'Probably wouldn't get along with Jazz; but her and Sam?… maybe her and me?'
He'd never pictured her as being so human.
"Are you done starring at her yet?" Jazz asked, suddenly standing right next to him.
"What?! No! I mean, I wasn't- "
"You know, this attraction to unobtainable women is something you're going to have to eventually get over." She said bluntly.
"Unobtainable women?"
She started counting off on her fingers. "Let's see: Paulina hardly acknowledged you, Valerie wanted to kill you, and you've been clueless to the dozens of girls at school who actually like you…."
"Dozens?"
"…Personally I blame myself and mom, having so many successful women in a household can have a profound psychologically effect on-"
"Jazz! This reeaallly isn't something I want to talk about right now, or ever. What did you find out?" He let the aggravation slide out of his voice, as he tried clearing his head for what Jazz had found out. 'Dozens?'
"Nothing really, she's got the ghost equivalent of a flu. It's serious but obviously won't kill her, and she's going through the worst of it now. My recommendation…" She walked over to the Ops Center fridge and grabbed a small container next to the emergency ham. She handed him the container, which he recognized immediately. "… is some good'ol homemade chicken soup."
"That's not so bad, we'll just keep her here for a day or two until she gets better and then she can go back to the ghost zone." Danny said trying to ignore the skeptical look on Jazz's face.
"Assuming she doesn't freak out and start tearing this place apart, plus mom and dad come through here everyday, we can't keep her in the ops center."
"Well… Then she'll stay in my room." Danny said flatly, not giving his sister the opportunity to protest before scooping Ember up again (this time wrapped in the blanket) and leaving the Ops Center to sneak into his room. Jazz just watched her little brother leave, rubbing the sides of her head out of both frustration and exhaustion.
"This could all go very wrong, very easily."
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Ember tried remembering if this was how it'd felt like when she'd died; her body nothing more then a shell, her mind struggling to form a coherent thought. Her dreams seemed like nothing more then a chaotic mess, filled with images from her life both before and after death.
The image of a dark room belonging to a teenage girl came into focus. Its walls were covered in posters displaying iconic photos of some of the greatest musicians of the twentieth-century, many of whom represented the rock-god elite in the eyes of the unkempt red-haired girl who lay in bed; a black, glossy, electric guitar lying across her chest.
The girl would strum several cords, slowly building a steady rhythm before she'd break into a coughing fit; effectively destroying what might have become her first hit single, something she always hoped was just around the corner.
"Amber, Lizzy's here!" a voice bellowed from downstairs. Ember slid her guitar off the bed before the door opened revealing her mother escorting a short brunette inside.
"Hey Ember, workin' on our number one?" The girl said waiting until Ember's mother had left before sitting next to her.
"Yeah." the girl groaned "I call it 'Sick for as long as I can remember'."
"Cheer up, maybe you'll feel better in time for school; then we can go back to working on the band and you can see everyone from school again." The girl said hopefully.
"Why would I want to?" Ember said bitterly, "none of them have come to see me all summer." She scooted herself up in bed, "I bet they don't even remember my name."
"Of course they do; though I don't think they ever warmed up to your stage name, or mine." Liz smiled at her friend, who managed a smile.
"Then they won't get tickets to any EmberFizzy concerts when we make it big." Ember said confidently. Liz just starred at her for a moment before smiling, then shifted uncomfortably before clearing her throat.
"Jamie wants to call it Dystopia." She said blankly. "She's part of the band now, her and Ashley."
"WHAT!? YOU LET THOSE TWO IN- "
"There good singers" Liz said pleading with her friend. "We needed to practice with vocals and work on some songs."
"Work on some songs!? We came up with tons of songs; we practiced everyday right up until the day the doctor said I should stay home!"
"…'The day the doctor said I should stay home', you make it seem like it's been a week! You've been sick since May and its September now! We don't remember the songs or practices anymore." Liz said desperately.
"YOU DON"T REMEMBER ME ANYMORE!" The red-head screamed. "Out've sight, out've mind! You never would have let Jamie and Ashley in before, but now that I'm gone you don't care! You don't even remember how much Jamie and I hated each other!"
"She doesn't even remember you anymore Ember! Things just change! The world can't be put on hold every time you get sick again!" Liz screamed. Ember starred at her, frozen. She bit her lip when it started to shaking, she could feel her eyes watering up.
"Get out've here..." She said quietly, Liz looked at her regretfully.
"Ember, I'm- "
"GO AWAY! Get out've here rocker wannabe! Baby-Pop! Dipstick!" But Liz had already ran out and most of Ember's insults had been distorted by her own sobs. She rolled back over into bed and buried her head in her pillow. All the anger and hurt that was running through her had no place to go; screaming at her best friend had not helped in the least.
Her mother came up a short while later with a bowl of chicken soup, guessing what had happened between her and Lizzy, and hoping to provide support. She could hear her daughter in her room playing on her guitar, her voice sounded raspy and faint.
'…You will remember my name!... Ember one thi-"
"Amber can I come in? I brought some soup" She opened the door and saw her daughter scribbling something in her notebook while her guitar rested across her bed.
"You shouldn't be stressing yourself while you're sick" she put the soup on her daughter's nightstand. Her daughter looked up from her journal and flashed her mom a small smile; her eyes were puffy and red, in sharp contrast to her pale skin.
"Thanks mom, I'll get some sleep in a minute I just wanna finish working on this soon"
"Alright but don't forget the soup" She closed the door behind herself.
'She tried her best' Ember thought, 'I got worse over the next two days then…' She had trouble thinking of it. After everything she'd seen, everything she'd remembered, her death had never felt as real as it did now.
Just as she began falling into despair, Ember's senses were overwhelmed by the smell of her mother's soup. Seconds later she could taste it in her mouth, its warmth spreading throughout her body while filling her with a feeling of contentment. She felt secure, as if she was once again in bed being watched over by her mom.
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While Amity Park was just beginning to wake up on a bright Tuesday morning, Danny Fenton had only just fallen asleep; the powerful ghost who'd been in his care for the night had slept soundly. Danny had managed to give her the soup Jazz had left him, she seemed to become semi-conscious the moment the warm soup neared her face. By 4:30am his body had given into exhaustion and he now lay asleep with his back against the wall.
When Ember woke up a short while later; coming to grips with her past was allot easier then trying to understand what she was seeing. The sight of Danny's exhausted form and the empty bowl of soup was enough to get her to pause instead of making a break for the portal.
'You gotta be kidding me; he brought me into his room and fed me soup? I was so sick he could've just put me out've my misery, especially after everything I've done to this stupid town.'
Under normal circumstances, the vulnerable Halfa would've seemed a tempting target; but not anymore. After everything she'd seen in her memories, she felt like she'd regained a part of her humanity. How could she ever fight him again after this? She didn't feel like an evil ghost anymore, she saw Danny as she would see him if she were alive again.
She walked over to him unsteadily - still feeling a little sick - and pushed his long black hair away from his eyes; smiling as she looked into his face.
"I'll be seeing you again Danny, and maybe you'll get to see another side of me too."
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Well that's all folks! Love to hear what you thought, so please Read & Review.
A/N: I thought it'd be interesting if ghosts weren't as connected with there past lives anymore after they died, not really remembering anything except there obsession. It gave me the opportunity to come up with a back-story for her.
P.S. Seeing as her name is Ember McClain I figured she'd have Irish ancestry and would probably have been a red-head. Also, since no one is named Ember I assumed it'd be a nick-name for Amber.