Danny groaned.
It was boring in here! Daddy left for WORK again.
Of course. But Danny rarely got to see him!
He left, everyday....EVERYDAY...for so many hours. And when he got home, Danny had to go to BED.
And Daddy was too tired to actually play with him!
Danny wearily sighed, plopping his crayons on the floor of his room. He was tired of coloring....tired of watching TV.
He wanted to DO something! Something fun....something exciting....
....maybe something with Dad. There was always excitement THERE.
Danny phased into his phantom form with a small smile.
Well.....Alfred was busy dusting the piano and changing the many candlesticks in the house. He wouldn't notice if Danny....peeked around.
In Dad's study.
Danny silently phased through the ground, still grinning.
Wow. This was gonna be a lot of fun.
Dad had been acting rather strange the past few days. Danny wondered why.
Weird....perhaps he was overworked. Though that was a little bit hard for him to believe.....that Dad could be overwhelmed in any sense of the word.
As Danny silently glided through the rooms, his eyes scanned the green and gold room.
Ah! There she was!
Danny cautiously came closer to the silky woodframe.
He let out a quiet sigh as he stared at the pretty woman with violet eyes and eighties hairdo.
Mother.
Vlad had told Danny that Maddie had died years and years ago, when Danny was born. So there were never any pictures of the three together.
Vlad described her as a sweet, spirited woman with a personality like Danny's.
How different would life be if she were still here? Maybe Dad wouldn't work so hard....or so long.
Danny sighed. He always gotten the terrible suspicion that perhaps HE had been the cause of his mother's death.....after all, she had died two weeks after Danny had been born
May Fifth.
But Vlad always insisted that it had simply been an accident. Danny quickly looked around.
No Alfreds or Vlads here.....
Danny quickly scooted over to a large book that had been nearby. Too bad he wasn't that great at reading yet. He could barely make out the golden, elegantly scripted words.
Class of 1989
Daddy never let Danny go through his items. Intrigued, Danny opened the heavy book.
Wow.....these cream pages were thick.
Danny stopped at a hopeful looking passage, squinting at the somewhat faded picture beside it.
Ooh...wait a second....
That was Daddy....wow, he looked a bit younger....there was Mommy, who was wearing purple leggings with a slightly off shoulder shoulder, and a large smile on her face. Danny
smiled. She didn't need makeup to look nice.
And....who was that?
A man, with a careless smile on his face, was making a peace sign at the cameraman. Danny frowned.
Wow....he was....interesting.
With his slightly mussed up raven hair, smile and some facial expressions.....
He actually...looked the smallest bit...like Danny! The halfling ran his hand through his hair onto his face.
Who WAS the orange wearing, fudge carrying dude? Wow.....that was a lot of fudge.
Lots and Lots of fudge.
Danny jumped up, the torn photo now in his hands.
Daddy probably knew who the man was! The hybrid grinned.
He would just go find Daddy, and-
Oh. There was a sinking in his stomach.
Daddy.
He was still at work! Aw, darn it....he would have to wait for evening.
....or DID he?
Danny knew where Daddy's office was....City Hall. Feeling pleased that he had agreed to undergo such a brave journey, the young child quickly glided through the walls, passing
Alfred on the way. The ghost sent him a slightly pitying glance.
Poor Alfred....he would be very surprised when the two of them came home together that night!
And Danny phased out back, to their backyard. His spirits soared as he rose into the air, a big grin on his face.
This should prove to be fun!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whoa!
Danny shook violently as a strong gale sent him spinning, desperately trying to regain balance.
Easy......easy there....
Still clutching the photo, Danny was off, rising slightly in and out between the rooftops.
Boy....there was quite a crosswind blowing. Danny struggled to remain on his current level, not daring to fly any higher.
This....may be harder then expected.
_____________________
"Tibs?"
"Hmmm? Yes, sir?"
Vlad's office assistant looked up from the immense pile of photocopied bills Vlad had wanted esculated into the public.
"I just got that doctrine you wanted finished, sir, and I-"
"Be quiet," barked Vlad, taking another sip of his coffee and shuddering. "I said I wanted French vanilla, not German LeCree!"
"Yes sir, sorry sir." Tibs hurried over and began to refill the nearby coffee pot. Vlad watched him with a raised eyebrow.
Tibs was a fluttery, nervous young chap of twenty six, but he could take orders.
"Tibs!" he barked, crossing his arms with distaste as Tibs jumped.
"For heaven's sakes, I'm not concerned with that right now. I want to speak to you."
Vlad resisted the urge to roll his eyes with difficulty as Tibs stood nervously in front of his redwood desk.
"Y-Yes sir?"
Vlad eyed him.
"You....have a family, do you not?"
Tibs jumped. That was obviously not the question he'd been expecting.
"....I-I do indeed, sir. It's my wife, me and my two children, Abigail and William."
Vlad sipped coffee, deciding for the minute not to question its taste.
"....how....exactly...do you manage?"
Tibs blinked, looking taken aback.
"Why, wonderfully, sir. This is a good town on the whole....besides the plagues from ghosts we've become quite accustomed to....with all due respect, sir." he added quickly.
"My wife works as a Children's librarian on the weekends, and is a stay at home mom weekdays. My children are happy, beautiful ones. I have this job four days a week....so, yes,
we make out quite well, sir."
Tibs seemed to think he had said too much, and he flushed as he bent to hurriedly stack in the photocopies in their separate folders.
Vlad watched him. Tibs was embarassed, but he seemed to light up whenever the talk-which very rarely-came to his wife and kids.
"...I asked.....because..."
Well, he could tell Tibs. As if he would tell anyone else.
"...I'm....a new.....father. I recently.....adopted. From a different country," he added quickly. He didn't want anyone looking up any files.
Tibs looked up so quickly, he bumped his head on the drawers.
"I....oh, my! Congratulations, sir! Congratulations!"
And Tibs hurriedly shook a very surprised Vlad's hand. Tibs blushed and stepped back.
"Forgive me, sir. But....you'll find that one of the greatest loves that can be found on this earth is between a father and....." Tibs paused.
"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, did you adopt a little boy or girl? And....from which coun-"
SMASH.
From somewhere outside, a deafening BANG echoed, like a serrated edge. Tibs jumped and Vlad scowled as he crossed over to the window, opening it with a loud CLANK.
"For heaven's sakes, will you keep it-?!"
Tibs scratched his head as Vlad let out a horrified gasp.
Tibs was shoved aside as the mayor sprinted past him, out into the hall.
What was all....? Tibs made his way over to the window. As he curiously looked out, he had to clap his hands to his mouth.
"Dear Gods above....."
Yes!
He'd made it! The tip of the whitewashed city hall was now in distance!
But despite Danny's struggles, he'd kept dropping altitude, again....and again....
"Auughh!"
Danny hit the ground, rolling as he did so.
"Aaaaah!"
Danny put a hand on his head, moaning.
Ouch....
Well, he had made it. Too bad he'd fallen on the concrete instead of grass....
But, as Danny yanked around, the little ghost found that was more then too bad.
As a car let out a screeching honk before skidding on the road.....and smashing into the young boy.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"DANIEL! DANNY!
DANNY!"
Crowds of murmuring people were beginning to come closer, shooting apphrensive glances at each other.
The driver was now standing from his opened door, looking thunderstruck.
"I.....I didn't....I.....I-I mean..."
"Oh, who cares. Just some widdle ghost that just got-"
BAM.
A magenta ball of engery blasted into the man's side, knocking him twenty feet backwards.
People's frantic exclaimations were turning into screams of terror as a gaunt figure lowered his smoking, gloved hand in the air, crimson eyes ablaze.
And his expression could've burned a hole through winter metal.
"Oh.....Daniel.....please....beallrightbeallrightbeallrightpleasebealright....."
The ghost carefully pulled Danny close, biting his lip as he did so.
Don't let him be dead, don't let him be dead, please, Oh God, Don't let him be dead....
Silence, except for Vlad's rapid heartbeat. Several seconds rolled by.
And flickering eyelids revealed a pair of sleepy, baby blue orbs.
Vlad's own indigo filled with tears, even as his front became stained.
"Oh....Danny, sweetie, you'll be alright. Just..."
Vlad shot off, heart still keeping rapid pace.
".....just hang on!"
Danny whimpered.
The photograph slipped from his limp fingers onto the ground below.
---------------
Vlad didn't know what to do first-do a cartwheel and dance with merriment, or go into conniptions about Danny's condition.
He sort of did both as he flew back home that day, Danny's small frame motionless
Danny had a broken wrist, bruises on forty two percent of his body, a small crack in his skull, and he'd lost blood.
But the child was alive.
Blessedly alive.
Alfred had had a panic attack when he finally discovered Danny was gone. As of right of now, he was still fussing over the young Master, who was sleeping peacefully in his four
poster. Vlad angrily sent him away.
Danny needed to be moved back to the lab....
As Danny slept, he writhed on the gurney. Vlad silently watched, a heavy toll on his heart as he sighed.
Just like before....though he was now in no life threatening condition.
But he was still plagued by nightmares....very well. Time he ended this.
Perhaps...if he eliminated the major call....
After carefully applying a wet cloth on his forehead, Vlad's entire frame twitched as his fists tightened, and fangs sank into his lip.
The nightmare would end for Danny. And for him.
By severing any links to Danny's outside family.
He would never hurt Maddie...the thought was unthinkable!
Jazz...he did not particulary care.
But Jack.....the one who had caused Danny's wounds in the first place....
In a way, his rage was irrational. Jack had not caused THESE wounds.
But he would've gotten to this task sooner or later.
He would murder Jack Fenton for twenty years of loneliness.
And revenge. For him...
....and Daniel Masters.