Daniel yawned, rubbing his bleary eyes. Blinking as he stared at his math work, that was the only class that seemed to zap his energy and took forever to complete it. He dropped his head onto the desk with a soft thud, his raven hair sprawling out around him. His gaze fell on the locks in his view, he desperately needed a haircut, his hair had gotten much more unruly.
"Danny." A harsh voice called before his door burst open. Jumping, the teen turned quickly to be meet with the head of the house. Jack's face was hard, his jaw tense as he handed Danny the phone. "It's Petunia." Daniel furrowed his eyebrow before he realize who Jack was talking about.
"Hey." Danny mumbled, turning his back to the head of the house.
"Hey Danny." Smith's cheer voice came through the phone. An odd form of hope fluttered into Danny's chest, Smith had to have good news... why else would she be so happy? "I've got great news!" Even though Danny didn't know what the news was he could still feel the bubble of excitement inside his chest, a smile tugged at his lips. Daniel took a deep breath, he couldn't get his hopes up.
"What is it?" Danny stopped himself from asking about his dad. If his dad wasn't in the news, he didn't want to risk turning the mood down.
"We found someone who would take you in while we investigated!" Smith cheered, the smile pulling at Danny's lips once more. He took a glance over his shoulder, eyes landing on Jack who still stood waiting. He can't wait to be out of here, he knew without a doubt that Jack hated his guts. This was a win-win for them both. "Given it might be a tad weird for the both of you, he was willing to take you in."
"He being?" Danny asked, a tendril of anxiety curled tightly around his heart. It couldn't be right? Yea, maybe they had gotten closer earlier, but would he really be willing to Danny in?
"Your teacher, William Lancer." The agent spoke, the joyous tone she used showed she didn't realize the affects her words were having on the teen. "Anderson had just gotten off with him, he says he can pick you up from the home after school."
The phone slipped from Danny's hand, hitting the desk beneath him with a loud noise. In his panic, he didn't hear Jack cursing at him for possibly breaking the phone. His hearted hammered against his rib cage, his blood felt like ice in his veins, and his breathing laboured as he tried to process the information he just heard. He'll be living with Lancer. Lancer, he same man who caused all this and seemed so intent on keeping an eye on him.
His fear spiked higher when he registered a real, potential issue. Lancer might find out he's Phantom, if Lancer kept his eyes on him enough. Danny's hand clenched at his chest, the trepidation swirling with him increased when he started feeling like he was choking.
"DANNY" The loud shout focused his eyes immediately, his eyes meeting Jack's slightly worried face which was overtaken by annoyance. "Breathe kid, calm down." The shock was clear on Jack's face, and if Danny was being honest he was shocked too, when the teen's breathing even out slowly, his tight grip on the arm of his chair loosened. Jack gave a nod, holding out the phone which Daniel pressed to his ear once more.
"-Danny? Is everything okay? If there is a problem we can find-"
"No, no." Danny cut in, shaking his head. "It-It just shocked me, I'm sorry. It's okay."
A hiss escaped his lips as he pressed a hand to the cut across his thigh. His eyes traveled to the Fenton Thermos that laid a few feet away from him. He had just taken done the Box Ghost... but the ghost had been able to hurt him. His vibrant emerald eyes glared at the steadily healing cut, his mind racing to figure out why this was harder. Was he that distracted, or did the Box Ghost get stronger?
Sighing, he shook his head. This is ridiculous, he was just out of it with all the stress and the fact that aside from Clockwork Danny hasn't seen a ghost in the last days until now. However, something good came out of this fight... well aside from Danny releasing some aggression. He now knew that his healing wasn't a mess, no instead it was something that Skulker, Vlad, and Technus were doing that stunted his healing to a normal rate.
Turning invisible, Danny took to the sky. He was running a tad bit late to meeting with Sam and Tucker. Landing behind the Nasty burger, he glanced at his phone and released a relieved sigh. He's only seven minutes late, it could be a lot worse. Shifting back to Fenton, he made his way into the fast food place. His mind didn't register what the people were whispering about, or the sad and worried looks that his friends had until he sat down.
"What?" Danny's eyebrows furrowed, face contorting into confusion. "What happened?"
"Danny..." Sam trailed, her eyes moving up to glare at the whispering kids who stared at the trio. " Your dad is in jail." The fry Danny swiped from Sam's plate dropped from his hand, eyes widening.
"What!" He hissed, his words earning a few stares from the kids who were still lingering. Smith or Anderson didn't tell me anything!"
"Seriously dude?" Tucker's confusion and evident anger showed. "They rush you to a meeting with Vlad but they can't tell you that your dad was on the news for being arrested a two hours ago?"
"Two hours!" Danny growled, his hands fisting and his eyes flashed for the briefest of moments. "I just got off the phone with Smith half an hour ago. She tells me I'll be living with Lancer, but not that my dad was arrested." His voice expressed his anger and hints of betrayal from all this. He couldn't believe Smith wouldn't tell him this, it was more important than Lancer.
"Wait, you're living with Lancer!" Tucker cried, whispers began to flutter around the room. Danny's head fell into the table, mostly to hide his eyes that he knew were flashing. "Dude!"
"It's bound to be better than Jack and Emily's place." Daniel mumbled into the table, he felt the anger draining out of him slowly. Don't doubt him, he's still extremely pissed off but now wasn't the time.
"You have to tell us what it's like." Sam shifted the focus onto Lancer when she noticed Danny pushing his anger to the side. "Are you going there tonight?"
"Nope, tomorrow after school he'll be picking me up from the home." Danny shook his head. "Guys, I blew up on him, what if it's awkward?" Danny decided he wasn't going to tell them about his breakdown in Lancer's office, or how Lancer was willing to give him advice and try to help in the ways he could.
"It'll be okay." Sam spoke, she realized she'd been saying that a lot lately. "He willingly is taking you in, I doubt it will be that awkward"
"Yea man." Tucker nodded, taking a bite from a fry. "He can't be holding grudges if he'll take you in." Danny nodded, from the conversation drifted to trivial things and school talk. Even when Danny made comments and laughed at Tucker's jokes he wasn't really there. Both his friends noticed, their worry for his mental health increased, but they both knew he needed them, they couldn't start up things. Danny had to much things going on.
"No." Danny shook his head. "If you want me to cooperate with anymore things, you'll take me to see my dad." His glare stayed on Smith's regretful features.
"Danny, I don't know-"
"I told you, Vlad gave me that bruise with a pair of gauntlets he has. Just check his house." Daniel growled, forcing himself to stay seated. "I'll take fifteen minutes even! Just let me talk to him!" Daniel's anger suddenly shifted to sadness as he dropped his head.
"I'll take you." Anderson stood, ignoring the shocked look Smith gave him. "We could head over now." The look Anderson gave Smith had the woman sigh in defeat, retreating into her office.
"Thank you." Danny offered a small smile, following Anderson to the car. After a pause, he spoke again. "Do you believe me?"
"About your dad not causing that bruise?" Anderson asked, his eyes still focused on the road. However he saw the nod from the corner of his eye. "I do, I am ninety-nine percent sure that Mr. Fenton didn't hurt you. That one percent is that he could have but not intentionally."
Danny just nodded, leaning his head against the window. His gaze focused on the scenery changing in front of his eyes. So lost in thought he didn't noticed Anderson making the phone call to prep his dad, or when they arrived until the car shut off.
"It's a window, phone meeting." Anderson spoke. "If we find the gauntlets in Masters' mansion than you'll most likely be able to hug him soon." Danny nodded eagerly, however he couldn't stop the tears that pricked at his eyes when he saw his dad. The grey jumpsuit added to the realness of all this, Jack's hair was messy and he had a five o'clock shadow. The sad look he had dissipated when he saw Danny, a grin spreading on his worn face.
"I'm so sorry" Was the first thing that left Danny's lips when he held the phone to his ear. "I should have... I don't know, I should have prevented this. I-"
"Danny." Jack cut in, the softness of his voice shocked Danny. He couldn't remember the last time he saw his dad so relaxed. A somber look was held in Jack's eyes regardless of the smile still on his lips. "I should be the one apologizing. I never noticed, I looked over everything."
"But I knew Vlad was going to call you out..." Danny swallowed around the lump in his throat. "I should have said something, I was just-"
"You were scared." Jack shook his head, not going to let his son take all the blame. "I get it, I don't blame you. How's your mum and Jazz?" Jack quickly shifted the conversation. Even if his dad wasn't being his childish self, Danny still felt like this was the same dad that has always been there.
"They wouldn't let me see them." Danny answered, sniffling softly. "But they set a meeting up for Saturday... Have you?"
"Not yet." Jack smiled, which faltered slightly when it looked over his son's shoulder. "I love you Danny."
"I love you too Dad" Danny managed out before Anderson retrieved him. The fifteen minutes went by so fast, he didn't even seem like they talked for long. Daniel didn't put up a massive fight when it came to leaving, he's heart was to heavy with all the grief he has left his family to deal with. His mind wondered to his threat against Vlad... He could out Vlad, that would end all credibility Vlad had.
He shook his head, barely registering getting back in the car. His gaze stayed on the moving images before him. He couldn't tell the world about Vlad, not yet. Yes, maybe Danny Phantom did have the whole student body behind him, but many of the adults still viewed him as a menace. Not to mention the Guys In White would most likely never stop hunting him, even if the whole of Amity Park was supporting him.
"You alright?" Anderson asked, his eyes flickering from the road to Danny then back.
"Yea..." Danny nodded.
"I know it was probably a shock seeing your father like that, but if he didn't do anything then He'll be free soon enough." Anderson reassured. "We are working on the search warrant for the mansion already." Danny flashed the older man a thankful smile, he was more than relief he had choose to his the gauntlets in Vlad's mansion before he'd dealt with the Box Ghost.
Regardless of how much people thought the young teen was clueless, he wasn't so clueless that he forgot to wipe the gauntlets of any prints. Knowing any lawyer Vlad could hire, if there were any prints of his dad, it would be used against them.
Daniel yawned, his eyes trained on the wide moon above him while a song fluttered through his earbuds. The swings creaked softly into the night air, the soft sound of them broke through the music only seeming to calm the young halfa. He knew that if Jack or Emily decided to mention to Anderson or Smith about his late night disappearance then he would be in for a lecture. But he doubted either of them cared enough too.
The sound of the swing beside him being occupied didn't gauge a reaction from the teen at all. Mostly because Danny had caught the red Letterman jacket and blonde hair in the corner of his eyes. He turned his gaze to the jock beside him, pocketing his earbuds, he gave the other teen a smile.
"Hey Dash" Danny nodded , turning his gaze back to the stars.
"What are you doing out?"
"Just needed to clear my head." Daniel mumbled, running a hand through his messy locks. "You?"
"Same." The silence that hung between the two was nowhere near awkward, but a tension did build until Dash decided to finally speak. "Did your dad ever actually?"
"Oh god no." Danny groaned, dropping his head to look at the floor. "Vlad's just pissed off that I ratted on him, so he's trying to get my dad in trouble. It'll blow over though." Dash nodded, his eyes stayed glued to the tree line before them.
"He's trying to get you to retract your statement?" Dash broke the silence once more, Danny realized that Dash had been trying to figure out Vlad's intention. "Are you?"
"No, that frootloop deserves this." Danny shook his head, his ebony hair fell in front of his cobalt eyes. "My dad didn't do anything, it'll all be cleared."
The duo went back into a silence. This time no tension built, both teens already said all they needed too. Danny choose not to ponder too much on why he trusted Dash enough to talk to him about it. Maybe it's the fact that Dash has some sort of idea on what he was going through. Even if it wasn't necessarily child abuse in the context he was saying it was, Dash did know how it felt to be hurt almost daily by enemies.
A smile slipped onto Danny's lips as he returned his gaze to the stars in time to catch a shooting star. Even with all the heartache, and lies that all this was stringing from him, he couldn't help but feel grateful, maybe even happy, that he had seen this new side of Dash and even Lancer. Maybe all this could end well, maybe he didn't need to take Clockwork up on his offer.
AN: Yay! I did it. I aimed for the chapter to be 2,500 or more and I made it to 2,645.
I actually really like writing this story because it's like I'm reading it along with you guys. If that makes sense... When I type this my fingers just move, I type any idea that pops into mind that seems good. So, I'm not even expecting half the stuff I write per update.
Except a few things. I have a few set things that will be occurring in the next few chapters that are crucial for the plot. I can't wait to finish this.
I'm still surprised that this all started off as a one shot, and then it turned into a little plot bunny and has just been growing in momentum.
I hope you all liked this update, Please Review and let me know what you thought.