Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom

Note: To "Dp-Marvel94" don't worry, Vlad doesn't plan on keeping Jason in the dark forever, he just needs time to figure out how to deal with what happened to Danielle since it still came to him as a huge shock. He already knew things were very bad between her and her parents, but even Vlad never thought they would ACTUALLY reject Danielle so completely like that out of fear or disgust and even threaten her with one of their anti-ghost weapons. Obviously, Vlad has always been concerned it was always going to be a possibility though.

Also, having Jason outright tell Vlad out of desperation that his little sister is half-ghost, hoping Vlad will sympathize and doesn't hate ghosts to the same degree his parents do because he trusts Vlad more than his own parents came as an even bigger shock. Either way, since Vlad's plans to treat Danielle to a surprise getaway trip to his mountain chalet in the Colorado Rockies, have been completely ruined, now he needs to use the time he set aside for something much more important. Such as helping Danielle and making Jack and Maddie regret what they've done more than they probably already do because discovering their daughter is the ghost girl they've been attacking must have come as a huge shock to them too.

They clearly overreacted to finding out the truth like that and thus they were unable to accept it or the part they've been playing in hurting her so much recently, that's a tough pill to swallow, but I don't think they actually hate her. They're just scared of what she represents and the fact that it means they're responsible for turning their own daughter into something they can't even fathom. So right now, since they can't face the guilt, it was easier for Jack and Maddie to just reject all of it, including her...


Chapter 11: A Little Hope Goes A Long Way

(Chapter inspired by Falling To Pieces by Junior Doctor)


Vlad's POV

It wasn't until the sedative finally kicked in that Danielle reverted to her human form and didn't look nearly as wound up in her sleep to the point where I was afraid she was going to wake up at any second, realize where she was, and fly off immediately afterward after realizing she had reflexively come straight to me without thinking while seeking shelter from the only person her parents wouldn't suspect Danielle to travel so far away to find and ask for help from. So needless to say I didn't get any sleep at all that night. I was too worried about Danielle to sleep so I gave up and began to carefully plot my revenge once again. Because make no mistake, I will NOT turn a blind eye to what Jack and Maddie have done just because I have what I want which is Danielle by my side where she'll be safe and under the protection of someone who ACTUALLY gives a damn about her happiness, accepts, and loves her unconditionally. Oh no, they will pay dearly for this!

On that same note, however, I must say I never expected Danielle's brother to be the one to reach out to me like that when Danielle went missing or for him to put so much faith in me just because he noticed how warmly I regarded Danielle during the reunion. Originally, at least in my eyes, Jason came off as rather pushy and selfish just like his parents but perhaps I've misjudged him. Then again, looking back to what I caught a glimpse of right before I approached Danielle when I watched the way she quickly reconciled with her older brother and they exchanged some playful banter, I believe that Jason can be trusted since it's painfully obvious to me now just how loyal he is to his sister. And he did tell me something that could have been potentially dangerous if I had the same obsession with ghosts as his parents, which to be fair I have still been involved with for a very long time, but it's more because they're useful tools to me.

But Danielle is not a tool. In fact, I consider her my equal if anything and she is the first person I've genuinely felt drawn to since I originally fell in love with her mother. Only my feelings for Danielle are purely platonic because she is like a daughter to me in every sense of the word. From the moment she left my castle that day I continued to worry about Danielle's happiness and her safety and when I couldn't stop thinking about her I made a habit of checking in on my little badger whenever humanly possible in secret almost every day just to make sure she was doing alright. I let her retain some privacy of course, but even so, whenever I saw an opportunity to show Danielle that my promise to help her was genuine I did not hesitate to lend her my support.

I am a man of action after all. I do not spout meaningless drivel unless I have to or break my promises when I make them in earnest. If I lie, it is for a reason. If I break a promise, I either never meant it in the first place, break it because I have no other choice, or the other party in question broke theirs first so there was no reason for me to uphold my end anymore. That said, once I've made all of the proper arrangements and taken into account Danielle's feelings on the matter, I think I will risk trusting Jason with the truth about having already found his sister. I will have to apologize for deceiving him, but I'm sure he'll understand my concern given the state she was in when she showed up on my doorstep and the fact that even his call could have been some sort of trap to lure Danielle out of hiding. I wouldn't put it past Danielle's enemies to do something so cruel to exploit her greatest moment of weakness...

Speaking of exploiting weaknesses, I am glad Jason had the foresight to warn me that Jack and Maddie would try to reach out to me asking for my help finding their daughter too, no doubt to 'cure her' of becoming something they find repulsive once they realized the implications of what they've done after and instantly regretting their decision to throw their daughter out into the streets. I held off blocking the number I gave them just to see if they'd bother calling me not long after Jason did, but I was appalled when I heard absolutely nothing from those two until several hours later once morning had officially arrived. And the message they left in my voicemail made me want to vomit because it was so self-serving as if it's DANIELLE'S fault they never realized who she really was!

But going into excruciating detail about all the painful scientific tests they were going to perform while dissecting the next ghost they captured, happily boasting about all of the creative ways their inventions were designed to harm or destroy them, did they really expect Danielle -or any sane person for that matter- to put herself at risk by telling them the truth about being half of something they so clearly despise...? I think not. After that, I had to force myself to delete the message after committing the little information they gave me during their hysterical rant to memory and blocked their number in response when I couldn't stomach the rest because now BOTH of them utterly disgust me.

Even if I wasn't turned half-ghost because of them just like she was, I can't begin to describe the unbridled fury I felt towards Jack and Maddie since they had a lot of nerve to ask me for help as well when I NEVER received any from them from the moment I wound up in that hospital because of the accident with the ghost portal prototype twenty years ago! As far as Jason is concerned though, I can tell his feelings of concern for Danielle come out of a place of pure love, adoration, and compassion for his beloved sister, but those two, while I do believe some part of them hasn't fully rejected her because she's their only daughter, the only reason they're bothering to look for her now is so that they can feel better about themselves and erase their guilt and I will not stand for it! I will NOT let them casually brush aside Danielle's feelings, their sins, or the horrible things they've done to her and to me while pretending like none of it is their fault!

And I will not let them blame Danielle for keeping secrets from them when they've given her no reason to trust their love for her. Especially when she began to feel secretly afraid of them and as if they saw her ghost half as nothing but a monster and a menace to society. Not only that, but they also treated her human counterpart as nothing but a failure, a blemish to the proud name of Fenton, and a burden which made this unfortunate turn of events the perfect excuse for them to cut her loose even if that wasn't a conscious decision on their part. Why those two even bothered to have children when they are so wrapped up in themselves that Jason had to practically raise his sister himself from a young age from the looks of it is beyond me...

Having a child together, let alone several, should not be a decision made lightly just so you can check that off the list once you get married. It is a lifelong commitment because you are responsible for raising not only part of a family, but a person who will remember all the things you've done for them, the ways you've hurt them, and they will carry those feelings with them for the rest of their lives for better or worse and pass it on to their own children one day. Your children are a testament to what sort of person YOU are as well because to a small child you are seen as the center of their entire world and how you treat them will build the foundation of who they ultimately become in the end.

Eventually, as they grow older they will have to decide for themselves if you're still worthy of their time, especially when it's their turn to take care of you. That's the moment when the roles are reversed where you are the one left longing for the chance to spend more time with them only to realize...it's too late. I made that mistake too when I didn't spend enough time with my parents towards the end and then lost them both in one fell swoop. So on that day, I swore to myself that I would not waste a single moment once I married the woman of my dreams and started a family of my own. That's why even though I've made some grave mistakes with Danielle too, for the first time in my life I have a genuine desire to atone for them because Danielle is worth swallowing my selfish pride for.

She means more to me than all of my wealth and power combined. And if I had to throw it all away just so I can finally claim she is my daughter, my family, then I would not hesitate. After all, material possessions are easy to replace, but the unwavering love and trust of another person is not so easily obtained. At least, not without a great deal of time and effort put into building that kind of relationship with someone. But if anyone deserves that kind of love in return after all of the blood, sweat, and tears she's wasted on the wrong people who are not worthy of being considered parents at all, it's my little badger.


Danielle's POV

Where...am I? I thought groggily, still unwilling to open my eyes just yet when I slowly started to remember everything from the past few days. Even so, to tell you the truth I wasn't ready to face reality again and the heartbroken part of me wanted to sink back into the blissful oblivion of a dreamless sleep and possibly never wake up again.

Because being awake, remembering everything I've lost, it hurts too much to the point where my chest felt painfully tight like someone had their hand phased directly into my chest and they were trying to crush my still-beating heart with all their might. Not that there's much left if it to crush honestly now that my worst fear has already become a reality. But the worst part is I can't blame anyone but myself for what happened. I'm the one who made the stupid decision to go down to the lab even though those weird roses made me feel so dizzy because I could hardly breathe down there and I couldn't stay long without eventually starting to hack and cough. It's my fault I went in there without making sure my parents weren't still in there like I usually do...

I wasn't thinking, and because of that I'm...I'm all alone now.

I knew the instant my parents rejected me that I couldn't stay in Amity Park unless I wanted them to capture me so they can try to remove my ghost half like it's some kind of parasite, unaware that doing that would probably kill me for real. Thankfully I've already accepted that I'll always be part ghost whether I want to be or not and the changes I've gone through are irreversible, but at least that's not such a bad thing anymore and I can control my powers much better than before. I've learned so much about myself since the last time I saw Vlad too which is something I was really proud of before all this. Once I decided to create my own happiness instead of expecting anything from my parents and I started taking better care of myself, at least for a while things were going pretty smoothly for once in my life.

However, when my parents brought those Blood Blossom things into the house I could tell something about those odd-looking roses made me feel...off. Especially because normally, after fighting ghosts all day a power nap was all I needed to help me recharge, but then I started waking up feeling almost MORE tired than I was when I first laid down. It eventually got so bad that I began falling asleep in class again and during PE the day before my parents saw me change into my ghost form, I even blacked out right in the middle of class and the school had to call my parents so they could pick me up from school.

After that, they brought me home and at first it seemed like they were actually deeply concerned and acting like real parents for once, but then like clockwork, they started going off on a tangent about how I shouldn't be staying up so late which is why I have a curfew. Pfft, yeah right! What's the point of having one when I hardly have time to DO anything like hang out with Sam and Trish, go out on a date with a nice normal person for a change of pace like my brother can, all because I'm secretly fighting ghosts all the time? Besides, it's kinda hard to sleep in a place where things tend to randomly explode and shake the whole house while they're working on one of their inventions in the middle of the night when 'random inspiration' hits, so even without the ghosts the chances of getting a full night's sleep were slim to none which is hardly my fault.

Thankfully Sam and Trish took pity on me when they came to visit me after school for a bit to make sure I was alright and offered to let me sleep at one of their houses from now on whenever I needed a power nap which is really nice of them. Especially since we knew I wouldn't be able to do anything to get rid of those Blood Blossoms for quite some time without my parents noticing right away. Sam even warned me that according to his research, if you plant them wrong those roses can become poisonous to humans too.

Obviously, I was pretty unnerved when I realized just how much those Blood Blossoms have been messing me up and weakening my ghost powers every time I went home even without this new risk of becoming poisonous to everyone else too, but since my parents had been studying those roses for DAYS, I began to seriously worry about their health too. Although to be fair they at least kept their hazmat suits and safety goggles on while studying those plants until they thought they made sure the roses didn't affect humans, only ghosts. And I guess that was the beginning of the end for me because just when I was seriously considering going along with Sam's idea to 'accidentally' kill all of the Blood Blossoms in the house for all our sake's by mixing together the recipe he gave me for a special weed killer that could safely do that without them becoming poisonous or regrowing, that's when it all went to hell.

I went into the lab and transformed into my ghost half to get it over with as quickly as possible and tiredly forgot just how many Blood Blossoms were currently scattered all over the lab in special planters and my parents saw the whole thing since they were still down there too, pruning the thorns. I didn't even get the chance to explain myself right away before I started screaming in pain when the Blood Blossoms started to glow red and a blood-red mist began to fill the room so in a panic I blasted every planter in the immediate area until finally, I collapsed against the nearest wall, drenched in sweat and trembling from the afterglow of being subjected to so much pain that I nearly began coughing up ectoplasmic blood.

But nothing can compare to the pain I felt when I saw my parents horrified faces twist into a fearful rage and they started screaming at me, telling me to let their daughter go when they thought I was possessed or something. I changed back right after that and tried to explain myself but they only screamed louder and I couldn't get another word in while trying to defend myself. I even apologized for destroying those fucking flowers when they hurt ME but that wasn't good enough for them. My parents...they looked at me like I was some terrifying monster and that's when my mom finally realized that I was in fact telling them the truth and loudly shrieked at me to leave and never come back.

I couldn't move, couldn't think, it was like my entire body went numb and my ears started ringing loudly in my ears. I began getting flashbacks of all the other times my parents have yelled at me and covered my ears, begging them to stop it even though I couldn't hear a word anyone was saying. Time seemed to slow down when out of the edge of my vision I saw my dad reach for a weapon just as mom snatched one from the nearest table and Jason flung himself in front of me, shouting right back in their faces and demanding to know what the hell was wrong with them. What finally snapped me out of it is when I saw dad lunged for my brother to pull him away from me and Jason bellowed that he wasn't going to let them hurt me and he started wailing on our dad.

I knew that was probably going to be my only chance to get away safely without getting into an actual fight with my parents and risking hurting them so while mom's attention was entirely focused on prying Jason off her husband I shot through the roof like a bullet and didn't dare look back. I flew as fast and as hard as I could until Amity Park was nothing but a small speck in the distance before I landed in a nearby field and collapsed onto my hands and knees in the cool grass, trying to come to terms with my new reality. The reality that all of my hard work, all of the pain, all of those sleepless nights fighting ghosts, it was all for nothing...

My parents...didn't love me anymore.

After that I ended up curled up in the grass, crying my eyes out, hugging my knees as I asked myself what I did to deserve this. I've done EVERYTHING my parents asked of me, swallowed every hurtful thing they said because I told myself they still loved me, gave up my freedom to do anything besides ghost hunting to protect them, and for what? To be thrown out? Abandoned? Rejected by the family I thought would never betray me no matter what...?

If things had gotten any worse I was even going to tell my brother the truth about me because I knew I could trust him since he's been there for me all of my life, but from the looks of it, he already knew I was half-ghost and accepted that part of me a long time ago. I'm not sure how he found out, but I could tell Jason still loves me unconditionally all the same which is why he didn't hesitate to step in and protect me from our own parents. But that means my brother...he's all I have left now. As long as there are still people who need me I can't give up, not yet, and that small sliver of hope was the only thing that gave me the strength and courage to dry my tears and sit up, although I still couldn't help but gaze up at the treacherous stars sparkling innocently above the city I once called home while searching for some small comfort besides just knowing my brother hasn't given up on me.

I can't go back there, I realized coldly, pulling myself off of the ground. If I go back, my parents might start looking for me and I can't face them again. And even if they don't I'll never feel safe there with them so close by, but I don't want them to lose Jason too so...I need to leave. I can't expect my friends to take care of me either, because if their parents find out what mom and dad did and how they almost pointed their weapons at me I-

Stepping back when despair started to set in when I thought I had nowhere else to go, I froze when Vlad's words suddenly came to mind and I remember exactly what he told me, 'I know you're disappointed in me and we started off on the wrong foot, not to mention I made some rather foolish mistakes that only put you in a difficult position, but I want you to know that if you ever need help or are faced with something you can't handle my door will always be open to you. I'm a patient man, so take all the time you need to consider my offer to not only train you but to give you a better life here with me. Until then, I'll be eagerly waiting here to welcome you with open arms.'

I've repeated those words so many times in my head since then like a silent prayer whenever I felt like I was about to reach my limit, but this time was different. This time I clung to that promise like a lifeline and without thinking I began flying again in the direction of Vlad's castle all the way in Wisconsin. I didn't stop at all except for once just to make sure I remembered where to go since I've only been there once by sneaking into one of the gas stations I remember getting snacks from on the way to my parent's college reunion -invisibly of course- to check a travel guide which I had no doubt would at least mention Vlad's castle since it's probably considered a point of interest for tourists even if no one is allowed to go inside normally.

Another reason I stopped there is because I also seriously needed a drink so I drank long and deep from the bathroom sink since I was extremely dehydrated from crying so much. I know it sounds silly, but I couldn't bring myself to use the water fountain just outside since people were still out there working and I'm technically a runaway now I think. That's when it suddenly hit me all over again that I don't have ANYTHING left but the clothes on my back so before I could get swept away by those dark thoughts and break down into tears again, I splashed some water in my face and took several deep breaths just like Jason taught me. And then, after I steeled myself for the long trip still ahead of me, I unlocked the bathroom and phased through the roof again to continue making my way to Wisconsin.

I didn't stop again until I reached Vlad's castle and landed clumsily at his doorstep. As you can imagine I couldn't stop myself from crying several times along the way whenever my mind wandered back to what happened between me and my parents, not to mention my entire body ached and I was so tired that I almost wished I'd pass out just to get some rest. I almost nodded off a few times but then my parent's angry faces flashed before my eyes and I jerked out of my depressed trance, forcing myself only to think about reaching Vlad...

Once I actually got there though, I barely had the energy to stand let alone lift my hand to knock. I didn't even register my ghost sense going off when Vlad teleported just inside the other side of the doorway and I jerked in surprise when he unexpectedly opened it seconds later, almost as if he was already expecting someone. But you could tell it clearly wasn't me given how huge his eyes grew the moment ours locked together. That's when it finally occurred to me that I had no idea what to even say to him or how I was supposed to explain my sudden visit. I hadn't planned that far ahead once I got the idea in my head to come here since the only reason I did this is because it gave me something to do besides wallow in my grief.

Besides, after I reached my goal I lost the strength of will to think about anything else anymore and simply let Vlad guide me inside like a lifeless doll where he carefully sat me down on a sofa and draped a blanket around my quivering shoulders when he thought I was cold when the truth is I was so wound up after flying at breakneck speed to get here that every muscle in my body felt like it was on fire, and it hurt like hell. I was too anxious to let my guard down entirely either so I stayed in ghost form the entire time just in case Vlad tried to pull any funny business to keep me from leaving like last time. But then again, even if he did, I didn't have the strength to stop him. And besides, it's not like I care about any of that anymore.

After all, I have nothing left to fight for. I just lost my home, my family, my friends, everything and there is nothing I can do to change that. It's true I still have my brother, but I can't drag him down with me when Jace has been working so hard to get ready for college. The only reason my brother stayed in high school for another extra year is because he wanted to make sure he was there to look out for me just a little longer and get more credits in general. But if Jason has to give up on his dreams too just like I did from the moment I became half-ghost, I...I...!

Just when I felt like I was about to be swallowed up whole by the darkness closing in around my heart to smother me, I suddenly felt Vlad's arms wrap snugly around me, and they were so warm, so gentle, comforting, and secure that I completely lost it and began shamelessly sobbing harder than ever before. For once I was the one who needed help from someone else so when Vlad gave me just that when he silently held me close to reassure me that there's still someone who cares about me I couldn't control myself. I wanted to tell him he was right about everything, to tell Vlad how scared I was, but he told me I didn't have to say anything until I was ready which only made me cry harder. Vlad gave me a CHOICE, and that made me feel like my choice to take a chance and try trusting him again was actually a good one for once.