It had been a month, now.

Danny didn't seem to sleep. Whenever Vlad saw him, he also saw the dark circles under Danny's red-rimmed eyes. He saw the gauntness in Danny's face. Now it was six in the morning, and Vlad came down to the kitchen to watch Danny watch the sun rise through the large floor-to-ceiling windows of his manor.

Vlad grimaced and continued his way silently through the kitchen. He poured himself coffee and glanced sideways at Danny. The boy's stare was vacant and glazed over.

He leaned against the counter and watched Danny silently, sipping his drink. He couldn't really blame the boy for this reaction - the news of Maddie's death had struck Vlad particularly hard, himself. But he couldn't fathom how Danny felt, having lost five loved ones in one fell swoop.

Still. All things considered, Danny wasn't taking this well at all.

"Did you sleep?"

Slowly, dully, Danny turned his head to stare at Vlad. "No," he croaked. An awkward moment passed as Danny continued staring. Vlad frowned and fished for something to say.

"Will you... do anything today?"

Danny turned away and slumped over the table, head in his arms. His shoulders started to heave, slowly and gently at first, but then harder, and Vlad began to hear the muffled sounds of crying.

Disturbed, he left in silence.

--

Vlad retreated to his lab to finish the coffee. He didn't know how to handle Danny - he hadn't since Danny arrived, shell-shocked and hurting from the loss of his friends and family. He especially didn't know how to handle a crying Danny. Unfortunately, crying was a lot of what Danny did now. For the first two days Vlad had seen Danny try to keep up a brave face, but no man could handle losing everything and stay collected. They had been talking about something completely mundane - Vlad no longer even remembered the subject of the conversation - when Danny lost it. He had broken down in sobs without warning, leaving a terrified and bewildered Vlad to support the half-collapsed, hysterical Danny.

Since then Danny had suffered his attacks of grief quietly, hiding his face or curling into a ball when he cried. Vlad couldn't stand it. There was no talking to the boy, for one thing. No matter what you said to him, he stared past you, like an animal. He didn't meet your gaze, he didn't pay attention. He was on autopilot, really. It made for awkward conversation. And the aura of despair that surrounded Danny put off Vlad. It was an eerie and depressing reminder that Maddie was dead, too - something Vlad himself cried over.

But what Vlad felt simply didn't compare to Danny's pain. Vlad hadn't even truly lost Maddie to the freak explosion, anyway - he'd lost her years ago to that imbecile, Jack. Really, the explosion only confirmed what he'd feared and felt all along, anyway - that Maddie was never to be his.

Instead he got her son.

Vlad didn't know what to make of that - what to make of Danny. He felt the remnants of hatred that he had felt for Danny as a nemesis standing in the way of winning Maddie; he felt the intense desire for a protégé, an urge to take the halfa under his wing and raise him in his image; and then he felt a third, uncomfortable, confusing thing that almost felt like what an uncle would feel for a nephew. Almost, but not quite - it reminded him of the way he had loved Maddie and how he'd wanted a life and family with her.

He had Danny now. Not Maddie, but Danny.

He wanted to make the most of it. For the first time, Vlad had a companion. He felt himself quickly growing attached to Danny in that sense. He needed Danny to fill the lonely void he felt. And now that they were both alone together ... Well, Vlad wanted them to find solace in each other.

But Danny found solace in nothing. He was too young, too inexperienced - he had never had to lose something before. He couldn't escape the grief and he couldn't escape the past.

Vlad worried for him, now.

There had to be a way to snap Danny out of it. Vlad could understand grief, he could understand misery and the way both of those things could persist for months. But, Vlad believed, they shouldn't dominate a body the way they dominated Danny. Danny now knew nothing in his life but grief and loss. It seemed like all Danny knew how to do was cry and stay up at night, haunted by the coulda woulda shoulda's of his life.

Vlad shook his head and shuddered. Suddenly it felt claustrophobic to be down here. Thinking of Danny - and thus, thinking about his dead loved ones - made him think of graves and being in a grave, an uncomfortable thought. He put his mug down and went ghost, flying up, up through the floors of his mansion and out into the grey dawn sky.

He sucked in a breath. Refreshing.

He flew high and let the chill morning air rise gooseflesh over his arms. His thoughts went to Danny again.

There had to be a way to snap Danny out of this, there had to be a way to get Danny to at least talk, to make the whole mansion feel less on-edge, there had to be --

...Well, maybe there was.

Feeling a somewhat stupid plan come on, Vlad dived back down toward the house.

--

Danny was staring and lost in his own mind when he felt a pair of strong hands firmly grasp him by the shoulders and pull him up, up, up. Intangible, they whooshed through the walls at disorienting speeds, finally bursting out into the morning sky. Danny looked up against the wind raging past his face and saw that it was, of course, Vlad. The pair continued rocketing upwards, and with each increase in altitude, Danny felt the shock and confusion slip away, replaced by anger. He opened his mouth and sucked in a breath to yell, and at that precise moment, Vlad let go.

Danny went from rocketing up into the sky far too fast to falling from it at the same speed. The breath he'd taken in escaped him in a scream, and distantly, far away, he heard Vlad yell,

"Go ghost!"

Ghost. Ghost. Go ghost...

White rings of light erupted from Danny's middle and passed over his body. He felt himself grow lighter with the blessing of flight and flipped over in mid-air, halting his descent. Danny stared at the ground below - too close for comfort - then threw his gaze upward towards Vlad.

Rage erupted suddenly and violently. He grit his teeth and propelled himself forward, up towards the sun and Vlad silhouetted before it. His hands curled into fists, Danny shot for Vlad. Only sharply backing up saved Vlad and his face from a wicked collision with Danny's fists.

The ghost child flipped around and dove for Vlad, again. The older halfa went intangible at the last second and silently watched Danny shoot through him. A sudden, wild scream behind him alerted Vlad to Danny's frustration; as the scream grew louder, Vlad whirled and caught Danny's fists in his own. Momentum slammed Danny into Vlad, who used it to whip Danny around and away from himself, avoiding Danny's kicks.

Danny caught himself in mid-air, and floated, still. He locked stares with the maddeningly calm Vlad and screamed "What the hell is your problem?!" With no response from Vlad, Danny continued. "My friends and family are dead, you jerk! And you pull some stunt like this...?" Without waiting for an answer, he shot forward again, fists curled and extended before him.

Vlad caught Danny by the arms and held him still, even as Danny immediately began to struggle. Vlad hesitated a second, then yelled, "You can't just mope around forever!"

"Says who?!" Danny snarled.

Vlad grimaced. "Would your mother have wanted you to act this way? Or your friends?"

Danny's voice rose. "I don't know! They're dead! "

Vlad bared his teeth. "Don't give me that, you little badger!" He threw Danny down. The halfa sank maybe six feet before he came to a halt, and when he did he immediately shot plasma rays at Vlad. A simple shield blocked them easily enough, but Danny didn't stop, futile though his actions were. Hurling the rays like baseballs, he shot one after another at Vlad, growing angrier as they bounced fruitlessly off. Danny began screaming, each word accentuated by the effort he put behind the rays.

"WHY

DO

YOU

EVEN

CARE?"

His patience wearing thin, Vlad roared back, "I don't know!" He knew it was a lie, but 'I don't know' was easier than explaining the truth.

Danny screamed wordlessly. He rushed Vlad, and as he did, and as his fist finally connected with Plasmius's jaw, he realized that that felt really, really good. He spun around, his foot flying out and catching Vlad in the ribs, who doubled over as the wind rushed from his lungs.

Oh yeah. This felt good.

But suddenly there were Sam and Tucker in his mind, in his memories, and without warning he found himself remembering all the times they'd faced Vlad together, and to Danny's unbearable humiliation, he began to cry. Here. In front of Vlad. Of all times, and of all places, it had to be here, just as he was beginning to win this stupid fight.

Stupid indeed.

The rage dropped out of him and Danny felt empty. He stopped his assault on Vlad, and slowly, Vlad righted himself, warily watching Danny. But Danny did nothing to further the violence – beginning to once again wallow in days past, Danny simply started to sink through the air, holding his head in his hands and bringing his head between his knees.

Sam… Tucker…

He closed his eyes tight.

Oh god, no no no no, I don't want to see this again…!

His chest heaved. His eyes burned with unshed tears. His world seemed to close in around him as his ears rang with the remembered voices of his friends and family, as he saw Sam smile on the back of his eyelids, as his mother hugged him. Danny felt himself slipping into that horrible, awful place again when he felt a firm but gentle grip on his shoulder. He heard a voice he knew, gentler than usual, say through the darkness, "Come now, Daniel. You have to let go, someday."

Danny uncurled. He opened his eyes.

Vlad floated silently beside him, his hand on Danny's shoulder. Danny, feeling empty and vulnerable and exhausted, did nothing at Vlad's touch but tremble.

Vlad's grip grew firmer, and with Vlad guiding Danny, they returned together to the mansion.

--

Vlad left the halfa alone for the rest of the day. He felt generally uncomfortable about how Danny had reacted, even though he'd known, at the time, that whatever reaction he'd have gotten out of Danny would have been an unpleasant one. But the sudden, violent rage, and the quick regression to grief-spurred depression – that all bothered Vlad. Sure, he'd wanted to snap Danny out of his funk, but… Well, this all just gave him more things to worry about.

Relaxing in a windowside chair in his master bedroom, Vlad watched the sun set as his mind roved over thoughts of Danny. He found that he cared for Danny more than he would have admit in days gone by – and as a person, too. Danny was more than an enemy, now, or a project, a protégé. Vlad was seeing him as a person, as Maddie's son – the son he could have had with Maddie had things gone differently. But, no, describing the cause of his feelings for Danny as just the blood ties to the woman he loved wasn't quite right. He cared for Danny as his own individual self, even if Vlad couldn't exactly pinpoint why.

He shrugged to himself absentmindedly. He had to suppose that it had more to do with being Danny's impromptu caretaker for more than a month, now. It was the result of human contact paired with Vlad's dogging loneliness.

...Yeah.

There was a knock at the door.

Vlad started, but quickly reclaimed his composure. "Come in, Daniel."

The door opened hesitantly. Danny stood at the threshold, hesitant. Vlad crooked his fingers in a 'come hither' gesture and, even more hesitantly, Danny did so. He crossed the room and stood in front of Vlad who looked up at him, both mildly confused and enthused. He was happy that Danny was no staining his table with tears, but uncertain as to what was going on.

Sheepishly, Danny rubbed the back of his neck and averted his bloodshot gaze. "I… I wanted to say that I'm sorry, Mr. Masters."

Vlad crooked an eyebrow at the formality. Danny saw it, shrugged, and muttered, "Vlad. Whatever."

Vlad let it pass. "Sorry for what?"

Danny sucked in a breath through his teeth, straightening and tensing his shoulders. "I don't know, I just. I guess I'm sorry for.. for moping so much, I mean. I mean.. you took me in when you really didn't have to, and despite all the fights, and just, everything." His eyes flickered up momentarily to catch Vlad's somber gaze. A sheepish grin flickered for a second. "I'm sorry for kicking your butt earlier."

Vlad smirked for a second, but it quickly dropped. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Daniel. It's understandable for someone to be so depressed as you were in your situation." There was more he wanted to say – he could feel the words bubbling up and pushing through to the forefront of his mind. But he balked at it and the feeling of vulnerability they instilled.

I just wish there was more I could've done.

But the ghost child began speaking, interrupting his thoughts and saving him from his internal struggle by making it moot. "Thanks, Vlad. I…" He shrugged, as if he didn't know what words to put his feelings. He shrugged again, finishing with emphasis, "…Thanks."

They stood awkwardly, each staring at the other and unsure of what to say or do. It was Danny that at last jerked out of his reverie, shrugging for a third time and again rubbing the back of his neck. "Well uh, I guess I'll.. see you tomorrow?" He started edging for the door.

"Indeed, Daniel."

He watched the boy leave and close the door behind him, then settled back in his chair for further contemplation of his situation.

--