AN: Hi, a plot bunny attacked my brain and I had to stop reading a really good fanfic to get this written! Seriously, I couldn't keep on reading, the words passed me like air as I thought of this only...

I would like to thank you for your ideas, and I have decided to use one of them (so far), Your hint is that you all must go Thank No. 3 (damn you for sending that one anonymously!) for it!

But remember, this story only keeps going if you sent me some of those ideas of yours! I still have only so much plot in me, and My writing phase will be even slower if I wont get any ideas! Just feel the power as anything you succest MIGHT be used on this story! Even the rating may chance, depending on what you want. For once, you readers have the power!

I apologize for not having a beta for this. All typos are mine.


The following morning was something that came dreaded. Vlad felt himself more tired than normal, and with a good reason. He had stayed up all night trying to finish his work, and around five in the morning he had completed it all. He usually did not need much sleep, but two hours just wasn't doing it for him.

He silently considered the thought of setting his alarm clock on snooze and getting ten minutes of extra sleep, or maybe even half an hour.

"I have to wake Daniel." Vladimir groaned and rose up to stand. He almost lost his footing as he still was only somewhat awake, but he managed to straighten himself against the bedpost.

"I hate work. I hate mornings." He knew he over exaggerated, but it had formed to be a habit of sorts: Every morning he'd start by feeling tired and having the same chant.

Vlad quickly made his way to the bathroom to relieve his bladder before he went to get on his clothes. He was glad that he usually didn't require more than ten or fifteen minutes to prepare. Today he seemed to require twenty since his hair just refused to set down. He ended up using a straightener and a comp dipped in water to will his hair to stay put. Vladimir gave a tired smirk at his mirror image as he straightened his tie before he went to wake up his ward.

Vlad knocked on the door, calling Daniels name, but he sighed as he heard no reply. Daniel was always difficult to wake up, it would be a miracle if the boy ever woke up to mere knocking. Vlad opened the door and saw the boy sleeping in the bed. The hologram boy was almost tied to his hologram sheets, and Vlad had to smile at the sight. The child was such a heavy sleeper, and he tended to roll a lot in his sleep. "Daniel, wake up for breakfast." Vlad tried, but only heard a groan from under the sheets. He sighed. Vlad silently walked in to the room as he heard Danny sigh, the other probably thought he had given up. Dream on.

Vlad walked to the end of the bed and snatched the corner of the sheet, not even noticing that he couldn't feel the material in his grasp before he yanked hardly on the sheet. The cover was discarded at the floor as Danny tried to curl in a tight ball to hide from the cold, but Vladimir reached to tickle the boy from the sole of his foot.

"Wakey, wakey, you sleepy head!" Vladimir teased, he knew the other hated it when he baby talked to the other, so he did this only to ire Danny.

"Mm, let me sleep! Five more minutes." Danny mumbled and tried to kick the persistent fingers, but Vlad only rounded the bed and tickled Danny even more from the kid's waist. It was so bizarre, seeing the other laugh and try to tear Vlad's hands off his body, but Vlad could only feel air on his fingertips.

"Please, stop! I'm awake, I'm awake!" Danny begged, and Finally Vlad relented.

"Be down after you get dressed, The breakfast doesn't eat itself." Vlad mumbled as he snatched Danny's pillow from the other just to make sure Danny did not fall asleep again.

"Yeah, see you downstairs in ten." Danny mumbled as he scratched the back of his head, ruffling his hair as Vlad threw the pillow on the chair at the corner of the room before he excited the room to give Danny some room to change.

The breakfast table was already served for them when Vlad entered the dining room. The cooks had made them eggs, bacon, toast, the full English breakfast, and Vlad sat down at his usual place at the end of the table to serve himself some eggs and bacon. He had almost finished his plate when Danny came down to get himself a bowl full of froot loops. For some reason, the boy insisted on having froot loops in the morning, and he refused to have anything else.

The boy still seemed to be half asleep as Vlad noticed the other's eyes drooping. Vlad was afraid that the other might fall asleep on his holographic cereal bowl.

"Well good morning to you too." Vlad said with highly amused voice as he watched the other eat his cereal. Danny seemed to be moving in slow motion, almost missing the spoon as he loaded his mouth for more to chew on. Danny swallowed and tried to look more awake: "Ha, ha. How you manage to be so chipper on the mornings will forever be a mystery to me."

Vlad laughed at that. Danny usually tried to sound sarcastic, but it rarely worked on the older man. "The truth be told: Neither am I really a morning person." Vlad revealed. Danny only shook his head, clearly not agreeing, but too tired to argue.

The breakfast was spent in comfortable silence, but it soon had to be cut short as the clock was nearing eight and Vlad had to get to work. Even Danny was soon to be late for school if he wasn't to hurry.

"I trust you to find you way to school then, the school is about to start." Vlad reminded the other who just now took a glance to the clock.

"Man, you are right, I better go now." Danny sputtered as he took two more spoonfuls of cereal in his mouth and snatched his backpack from the corner of the kitchen where he usually discarded it. Danny had a habit of doing his homework on the dining room table instead of his own room. That way he'd see Vlad the moment he came home. Daniel also vacated the spot so he could get Vlad's attention the moment the other was available to help him on his homework as Vlad had a snack after work.

"I'll see you once I get home, bye!" Danny yelled before he run out of the door. Vlad could only shake his head after he kid before he retrieved his briefcase from his study and got into his car to drive to work.

It wasn't until six o'clock until Vlad got home that evening. The work had been more tiring than usual, and he had almost fallen asleep on his desk due the dullness of it. Usually his work ended at five, but today's conference held him at work until evening.

Vlad opened the front door and was met with darkness and silence. He usually let his staff home before six, so he didn't expect them around, but usually Danny would be home with every known electronic device on with the boy either playing a game console at his room or tinkering his homework at kitchen.

It never was this quiet at his house with Danny around, so of course Vlad was baffled. The hologram boy usually worked as a home guard alarm system: It made his house look like someone was living in it, even if no-one was home. A timer that put on the machines, making the burglars stay away. But not today, today the house was eerily quiet.

Vlad turned on the light switch and entered the room. He didn't expect a mess since a hologram couldn't do much, but seeing the house untouched wasn't what he expected either. Vlad went to take his briefcase up to the study before he went to investigate the hologram core room. The room held all the machinery that kept the hologram alive, and that meant that the hologram could be completely tended from withing the room.

It didn't take Vladimir long to get in to the room. What surprised him was that the hologram was flickering on and off on it's data synchronizer. The synchronizer was a huge machine that downloaded the binary code in the shape of a boy: The clothes, the information, everything. Usually the machine loaded the boy automatically with the real Danny's data, experience and clothing just the way the boy had been the day before to present him to Vlad today. That meant that hologram Danny was always one day late.

Vlad went to examine the machine only to notice that something prevented the hologram from loading any new data on the hologram. The Danny in the hologram was flickering on and off, and it still looked exactly like he had this morning: He wore the exact same clothes, and he still had that backpack on his shoulder.

"Well isn't that odd." Vlad mumbled as he went to view the report from the computer: No failures. Everything seemed to be fine. The machine was running as it should, and nothing seemed to be broken. Vlad searched the screen until he finally noticed a window saying "connection failure" and the man understood that the problem was something as simple as the machine not being able to connect with the real Danny out there. It usually wasn't anything too special, it had happened before. The machine would try again every 30 seconds until it could connect itself, and the hologram would be up and running in no time. There was nothing Vlad could do to speed up the process other than wait it out.

Vlad sighed in disappointment as he dragged himself to his study to do his work.

Vlad didn't pay much thought to the hologram as of yet. The fault had stated itself before: Once when the power had gone out at Vlad's place, once when the machine had been unplugged for some reason, once when the connection was cut from the internet for maintenance, and of course: a time or two when the real Danny had gone for a holiday or something like that. The hologram couldn't update on Danny if the other wasn't at home. Every time Danny was on holiday or staying at his friends the machine couldn't update itself, but usually the machine would have collected information of Danny's upcoming unavailability and come up with an excuse, like field drip at school, to cover up the hologram's absence. The fact that this problem was occurring made Vlad more ease with the matter.

Vlad prepared his briefcase for work tomorrow before he went to check on the hologram boy, seeing if the machine had managed to connect already.

Vlad frowned as there was still no such luck. Maybe that idiot Jack had gotten a sudden idea to take his family out for camping. Vlad didn't know, nor did he care, he just wanted his boy there to ease his nerves. Vlad had not managed to vent his stress at all that day since Danny hadn't been there to play a board game with him. He hadn't even had his relaxing talk with the kid, and Vlad had noticed the difference immediately. It was as if he was carrying a sack of sand on his shoulders, it was weighting on him, and he couldn't get the pressure off.

Even if Danny had not been there for his company, that day Vlad had went up to his balcony to watch stars with the stethoscope he had gotten for Danny before he went to bed.

The next morning Vlad had been almost as tired as the day before, even if he had managed to get a full night's sleep for once. Vlad had seriously considered hitting the snooze button, but decided that he should take a look at Danny first.

The man dressed and made himself ready, but he almost felt himself crumble as he saw Danny's empty bed from the doorway. The hologram still wasn't online.

That morning Vlad ate alone.

The work was more tiring than it had been before. It felt like no amount of black coffee he consumed could be used to salvage the day by bringing more energy to it. Vlad had seemed to go on autopilot. Even his personal secretary had noticed and asked if he had any problems with his personal life and family. Of course Vlad had disagreed, since a hologram barely counted as family, and admitting that the hologram was his personal life would be too pathetic to ever admit out loud.

When Vlad got home at five o'clock he was so beat that he almost slouched on his study chair. Danny still hadn't been waiting for him at the door, so the machine was still offline. That day Vlad found himself tired to do his work, and he decided to go straight to bed to pass off the time and get some rest. He woke up after 14 hours to the ring of his alarm clock. He didn't feel like hitting the snooze that morning, he had rested himself well enough, even if he didn't feel too chipper.

Vlad made a trip by Danny's bed, but the hologram still wasn't there. Vlad was starting to worry of the boy. Why would Jack take his son camping in the middle of the week? Well, the man was an idiot so that much could only be expected of the dimwit.

Vlad tried to work on the papers at the breakfast table before he was expected attend work for that day.

At work Vlad was harboring a thought of leaving the work early that day. He seriously did not have the strength, mind, or the energy to deal with the job of a mayor that day.

"Mister masters, what do you suggest we do about the situation?" His secretary had asked, and Vlad couldn't even fake interest. He hadn't even listened to the question. "What do you think I should do about it?" Vlad tried to counter, looking at the secretary as if he expected it to be obvious.

"You are right, it's obviously the alternative option, I'll fill the forms right away." Vlad only sighed and leaned on his chair until he heard it creak. There was nothing to make his life more dull at the moment.

The rest of the day Vlad stared at the clock above his door, rolling the pen in his fingers and willing the smallest pointer to move faster.

When Vlad once again arrived to a silent home he discarded his briefcase right at the door before he proceeded to the hologram maintenance room, trying to tinker a way to start the machine even for a little while. Vlad did no such thing though, as he froze over the threshold.

"Danny?" Vlad asked as he no longer saw the glowing hologram boy at the synchronizer. Vlad run to the monitor to see that the machine was online and fully functional once again.

Vlad didn't know if to feel glad that the machine was once again working or to feel worried since Danny hadn't been waiting for him at the door.

Vlad didn't care, he was too desperate to see the boy. He ran first to the kitchen to see if Danny was there, working on his homework: He was not. The next stop was was the balcony and then his study, but Danny wasn't there either. The last stop Vlad did was at Danny's room, and he almost dismissed the heap of holographic sheets on the bed as he was about to search elsewhere, but There Danny was: laying on the bed, straight as a board with the sheets thrown over him.

"Danny, my boy, are you okay?" The boy did not move nor make a sound, Vlad was worried. He walked over to the hologram to notice that Danny was covered in bruises and welts, some, Vlad could tell, were burn marks.

"What happened to you?" Vlad plead in worry as he knelt in font of the other's bed as he brushed the hair from Danny's face. "Danny, please wake up." Vlad begged as he laid a kiss on Danny's forehead to express his worry as he rubbed soothing circles on the other's palm. Danny stirred slightly as he forced open his blood shot eyes. It was clear that Danny was tired and feverish. Vlad could see the fever in the other's eyes, they had a feverish shine to it. The kid was a mess. He had dark circles under his eyes, his body was tattered and he was covered in bruises. The other flinched when you touched his torso.

"Vlad?" Danny's voice was so hoarse you almost didn't heard it. It sounded like he had merely breathed out loud the name, and Vlad had to guess what Danny had said.

"Yes, It's me, Vlad, What happened?" Vladimir was filled with worry as he held Danny's hand in his, begging for the other to be okay.

"I Don't-" Danny had no strength to finish the sentence as he had a couch fit, and the kid couched so long that he almost couldn't get a breath between and Vlad had to lift the kid to punch him on the back to get the fit to pass by. Danny nodded as thanks since he tried to swallow down the saliva that formed. Danny managed to hiss out the rest of the sentence: "remember."

Vlad felt so sad and worried for the other but he didn't know a way to help him. This was a hologram, you couldn't just feed medicine to it and expect it to heal faster.

Vlad kissed the hologram's forehead nonetheless, even if he couldn't feel the skin against his lips, only air.

"Shh, rest. Sleep my boy." Vlad lowered Danny to rest on his back and he replaced the sheets on top of the hologram. It didn't take long for The hologram boy to fall asleep. Vlad sat on the floor in silence, deep in though.

A hologram couldn't become sick, something must have happened to Danny. The real Daniel Fenton must have been in deep trouble, and his condition must have been transferred to the hologram.

Vlad couldn't help himself, he'd have to find out what had happened to his Daniel. Vlad didn't even stay long enough to pack the essentials but rushed to the Fenton's home, wanting to hear what that Idiot Jack had to say about this.