Okay, chapter three! Thank you, everyone. I love all the feedback, I really appreciate it. On with the story. Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, all rights go to Butch Hartman.

The shock wore off slowly. Danielle was his daughter. He's a dad. How? As he stared at the young girl sitting just mere feet from him and Sam, he had to wash away a fear of rejection and abandonment from her head. He might not have known what the heck he was doing though. One thing's for sure though. He wasn't Vlad.

I'm gonna be better for her. She deserves that much at least. The how part was the troubling question though.

While the silence in the room was heavy, it gave Danny a chance to focus on Danielle. Her eyes were empty, laced with tiredness, and bloodshot from tears along with her dampened cheeks. Her midnight colored hair was unkempt. Unwashed with grease that could have been there for months. Her light blue sweatshirt was becoming too tight to fit her filling figure, a couple of holes littered throughout. How was she still alive? How could he let her go through all of this alone?

Before he was able to break the silence, she leapt from the couch, transformed, and flew out the door. He heard his mom say, "Go after her," when he was already halfway out the door. She was fast but since she was still weak from destabilizing he was barely able to catch up to her. Grabbing her by the shoulder before she was just out of his reach, he pulled her to his chest, slowing down his speed before stopping altogether.

"Let me go." She struggled against his hold. "No." He replied while he kept a safe grip around her waist. "Now tell me why you just abruptly left like that?" Her struggles ceased, but she avoided his gaze.

" 'Cause. I could see the look in your eyes... in everyone's. I'm sure you don't want the responsibilities of taking care of a fourteen-year-old. It's better if I just leave before you feel like you have to take care of me." His head swirled at this. She viewed herself so low and some of that was his fault. If he had been there, at least as a cousin, then maybe it wouldn't be so bad; however, he knew it was that fruit loop's fault too. He never felt so much anger towards his archenemy until now. He's lucky he's in space.

"Danielle, just because the situation isn't easy doesn't mean that we're gonna throw you out onto the streets. You're family, and family sticks together. This isn't going to be easy. I'm only sixteen; I don't exactly know how to be a parent, especially to someone two years younger than me. But if you're willing to meet me halfway, then I'm right there with you." Loosening his grip on her waist, he brought her head to his shoulder in a hug, which she returned in reply.

"What about Sam, and the rest of your family?" She asked, her words muffled in his neck.

He pulled his head away from the hug to answer her. "Our family already accepts you. Sam, Tucker and I have been in so many crazy situations, it's almost second nature. While this is a little situation is a bit more complex, it doesn't mean we can't adjust. We all will, including Sam." She gave a jerk of a nod, and in response, he gave a whisper of a smile. Letting go of the younger halfa, he looked in the direction of home.

"Ready to go?"

Smiling, she says, "Yeah. Let's go da- Danny." He caught her mix up but let it go for now. They weren't ready for those titles yet. As they shot off, Danny knew one thing for sure:

They'd get there, eventually.

Once back home both halfa's turn into their human form, and were greeted by Tucker, Sam, and Jazz. "Where are mom and dad?" He asked them.

Tucker was the one to answer this time. "The lab. We watched a couple more videos. You're gonna want to sit down for this."

Before he did though, he turned to Sam. "How are you doing in all of this?"

In all of the craziness, Sam hadn't really been able to voice her thoughts, too absorbed in her thoughts to say anything. "We'll talk later. All of us." The latter part was directed at Dani.

The young girl gulped, while there wasn't any anger to Sam's words, she was still worried about being accepted by her. She was her mother, after all, and while Danny was pretty easy to read, Sam wasn't... and that terrified her.

"For now, we have some information that you need to know. We found out how the fruit loop got a hold on my DNA. Apparently, he broke into my house late at night and stole a hairbrush and some clothing for a sample." Danny's eyes briefly lit up with green energy from anger. Maybe I could take a trip to space this weekend.

"Also why the ecto-dejecto only lasted for so long." Jazz continues on. "It's like giving blood to a human; it works to give her strength, but it only lasts for so long when you're not treating the correct problem. What she needs is... well..." She trailed off.

"A mid-morph sample." Danny finished. Putting his head in his hands, he tried to rub his headache away. He wasn't going to let Dani die. That's what would happen if she didn't eventually get a sample of his morph DNA. Fighting ghosts took too much of a toll on her body. The Ecto-Dejecto might not always be there when they need it, and the mid-morph DNA was a permanent solution. Not on his life or afterlife would he ever let something happen to her again if he had the power to change it.

"That's why mom and dad are in the lab. They're trying to find a less painful way to extract a sample from you."

Dani cut in. "Maybe we shouldn't do this. Remember how bad it was when Vlad tried to take it from you? You could've died. We can just keep on using the ecto-dejecto until we find a completely painless way for me to be complete."

Danny could tell she was thinking a million things all at once with the worry that had fallen on her face. She didn't want people to hate her because of the pain he'd have to go through for her. She didn't want to be a burden.

Jazz put a comforting hand on her shoulder, forcing her to meet her gaze. "Dani, the ecto-dejecto might not always work. Vlad didn't care if he killed Danny, or what pain he would cause him. Our parents are going to do it as quickly and as painlessly as they can. It'll be over, and no one and I mean no one in this household will blame you. Understand?"

Wiping a tear from her eye, she gave a quick nod, threw her arms around Jazz's neck, and whispered a thank you.

"Now come on, you look like you haven't eaten in days, I'll cook you something up. Mom and dad should be up any minute." Just as she finished her sentence, they came in the kitchen.

"We've found a way to build an exact replica of Vlad's machine that will take a sample of your mid-morph DNA Danny, but it's gonna take a few days to get the parts and assemble," Maddie explained.

"Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, you don't know how much this means to me," Danielle says.

Jack picked the girl up effortlessly and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. "We're family kiddo, call me gramps!" She gave a slight chuckle as he released her and set her back on the ground. He bounces back from earth-shattering news easily. I've never been so lucky. "Okay, gramps."

Days later, as promised, the machine was done. Everyone was gathered in the lab, including Valerie.

"So how's this supposed to work exactly?" The red huntress asked.

"Simply enough, Danny goes in, we have to restrain him, he gets a few shocks, which will make him instinctively change into his ghost form; however, because of the pain level going through him, it won't allow him to go completely ghost. While in his mid-morph stage, we quickly, with a needle, take a sample of his DNA from his core and that's it." Looking to Danny, Maddie continued.

"You can't resist this. The more you resist the more we'll have to turn up the electricity. You have to against every bone in your body and let this happen. I don't want to turn it up higher than I have to. It's going to be painful as is."

Danny scoffed a little. "I've handled electricity before mom. Remember, Vlad tried this before?" He noticed his mom flinched at this. Her eyes were downcast. She blinked for a few minutes, trying to get that horrible thought out of her head. He knew she felt guilty for not be able to protect him from the crazed fruit loop. If only she understood it wasn't her fault.

"I know, but please, take this seriously. I want to get through this with as little pain to you as possible."

Sighing, he relented. He turns his attention to Dani and Sam. "I don't think you should see this. How about you go upstairs and read some comics or something." He knew it was no use, those two were more stubborn than Skulker when he and Ember had a fight and wanted to hunt him, but he had to try though.

"No," Both girls say in unison.

"You're doing this for me, Danny. I should have to stay and watch." Sam continued, "And we've been through everything together, I'm not gonna leave you just because your hero-complex is getting in the way." A playful smirk appears on her lips and was so contagious that he couldn't help but give one of his own.

Tucker opened his mouth to say something, but Danny quickly cut him off. "No offense dude, but we don't need a jinxing moment." The techno-geek shrugged in agreement.

"Wait." They all turned to Maddie. The ghost hunter grabbed a needle and went over to Sam. "Now that I'm thinking about it, we should get a sample from Sam to make sure Danielle's ghost half and human have are equally balanced DNA. With a nod of consent from Sam, she stuck the needle in her arm, drawing a small amount of blood from her. "There." Putting the blood into a test tube, she laid to the side to use it later.

"Okay, I'm ready." Danny said.

Sam watches from the sidelines. Something she hated doing but knew had to be done. They strapped him in the steel chamber, powering it up. She could tell that worry seeped into Danny's mind, but he puts on a brave face for everyone. Even for her. But she still caught a glimmer of anxiety that flashed in his eyes. As the electrical shock was administered, he cried out in pain as those two glowing circles appeared around his waist.

Instinctively, she grabbed Dani, pulling her towards her chest to try to shield her away from the painful event that was unfolding. A reflex, almost. She didn't even realize what she was doing until the cries of pain from Danny subsided and Jack happily yelled, "we got it!" and the young girl pulled away from the embrace. Neither one voiced their thoughts on the embrace. I'll have time to think about it later, right now Danny is the main focus here.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Danielle asked as Maddie, Tucker, and Jack went to help Danny out of the chamber and upstairs.

"He's going to be just fine Dani, he's been through worse." Jazz said, comforted her.

"Okay." She agreed but didn't sound so confident.

Sam nodded in agreement. They have been through worse. They'd figure this one out.

Once Danny was upstairs and in bed for the night, Maddie came to sit next to Danielle, who was trying to get her mind off of everything by reading a book. Everyone had long since left.

Maddie's eyes narrowed at her, "It's getting late." She checked the clock mounted on the wall near the kitchen. 10:30.

"Yeah." She agreed and returns to her book.

In a blink, her book was out of her hands. She looks to Maddie in surprise.

"There's a guest bedroom next to Danny's. March your butt up there and get to bed. You have a long day ahead of you as well; it's going to take a lot out of you when we put the sample in you tomorrow. Also, Jazz should have some old pjs stored away that could fit well for now." She was about to protest, but the glare she received told her to shut her mouth. With a sigh of frustration, she climbed the stairs to the bedrooms. Were grandparents always this hard to deal with?

She honestly couldn't wait to find out.

Thank you again BrownTyto, for the suggestion of also adding Sam's blood into the mix to help stabilize her, while I didn't go into detail about it, I definitely wanted it in there, because it needed to be emphasized, that while the focus is on Dani getting the morph DNA from Dani, Sam stills plays a huge part in being Dani's mother. Also, I wanted to show a moment between the two while Danny was in the chamber, which is why it was as simple as getting a blood sample.

Edit 1-21-18: Thanks to my beta reader silente faery for fixing up the chapter! Until next time 3