AN/: Hey guys sorry for the delay, me and two of my friends got in to a traffic accident, I was driving, and no this child does not have a license reason being, she still can't reverse right XD But anyway I swerved to avoid this douche bag who went speeding over the double bump and when I turned, me and the girls ended up ramming into a taxi. This is the first time I have ever crashed and it got bad.

I think this is like my what, 6th accident in total? I really should not be on the road, in general, like jeez everything thing on wheels is trying to kill me.

The girls are OK, and the driver is fine, insurance is a pain, but so is everything else for a seventeen year old.

So without further a due, adue, ado? Someone seriously show me how to spell that

Anyway Enjoy and Review

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom

Core exhaustion

Part 2 of Babysitting

"Clockwork"

"Mnh?"

"Clockwork"

"Hmm?" Came the sleepy reply.

Nocturne rolled his eyes at the Time Master in his lap.

"Come on get up"

"Ngh, don't want to *yawn* day off 'member?"

"I remember, but you still need to get up"

"It's too *yawn* early, lemme sleep, for *yawn* like an hourr"

And... he was gone.

"Fine", sighed Nocturne, "but only an hour"

He received no response from the sleeping Ghost in his lap.

"Honestly, what am I going to do with you?"

"Clockwork"

"Hmm, wha?" The Temporal Ghost sat up rubbing his eyes.

"Ah, looks like you're a little more coherent this time"

The Time Master raised a brow.

"You don't remember, do you?"

"Remember what?"

"Never mind, Nisevicta does tend to debilitate beings when it drains them, speaking of, considering you had less than favourable amounts of energy, your lucky you didn't reach core exhaustion"

The Dream weaver looked thoughtful for a moment, then he placed his hand on his friend's forehead and frowned.

"Hmm, going back to this morning, core exhaustion would explain it"

"I feel fine, though"

"Mm, for now, you're slightly warm, the fever should develop soon"

"Ugh, this is just great! Core exhaustion of all things, this should be fun!" Exclaimed the soon to be suffering ghost.

"Well, at least it's not a bad case, it's not a light one, but it's not bad, it could be worse"

"Rating?"

"On a scale from 1-10? Eh, I'd give it a six...point five"

"Great"

"Look on the bright sid-"

"What? That it's not a full seven?"

"Well, up until that fever pops out, then it will be"

"Ugh!"

"So what is core exhaustion exactly? I mean I can piece together from the name but what are like the symptoms n stuff?"

"Well dear, it's what happens when a ghost's core is overwhelmed, too much energy is drawn from it too quickly and it can't replenish itself, so it slows down everything in order to regain the lost energy, basically the equivalent to a human cold but without the mucus, usually happens when a ghost overworks themselves or when they go to an energy draining dimension, when they're already low on energy!"

"Thanks Nocturne", the Time Master rolled his eyes at his friend, then he turned his attention to his youngest charge, who was standing in front of the couch he was on.

"Where's Daniel? I thought that he would be accompanying you Danielle"

"Yeah, he's coming, he just didn't want to get out of bed this morning", said Dani with a shrug.

"Neither did he" piped Nocturne gesturing to the purple cloaked ghost.

Clockwork growled.

Dani giggled.

"So...um how long will that last?"

"Hmm, not sure Phantom, let me check"

"How do you check that? Asked Danny curiously.

"Like this, "replied Nocturne as he stepped forward to Clockwork with his palm up, Dani who was sitting next to him, felt Clockwork tense up and Nocturne noticed. "I need to check Clockwork", the ghost in question simply nodded, it was small and quick, but it was a nod nonetheless.

With permission given, Nocturne placed his hand on Clockwork's case and a light emitted from it, after a few seconds Clockwork jerked up and let out a hiss of pain. The movement caused Nocturne to stop and Dani to jump.

The Time Master had his head back and his eyes squeezed shut in obvious pain. Nocturne put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, you doing ok?"

Clockwork exhaled and nodded slightly.

"yeah".

He then looked to Dani and in a blink, she found herself with a lap full of Time Master, she couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh please, the pain is gone, stop being so dramatic" Nocturne shook his head at his friend.

"Core exhaustion is not fun, let me dramatic if I want too" huffed out Clockwork.

Dani began playing with his hair and he looked up at her.

"Hey"

"Hey yourself" she smirked.

Clockwork chuckled.

"So, it doesn't hurt anymore?"

"No, the pain is sharp, but brief, I'm fine"

"Oh, ok good" a relived sigh escaped her lips.

She looked down at the Ghost in her lap, his eyes were closed, and she smirked.

"So, are you just being 'dramatic' or you just like it when I play with your hair?"

One eye opened.

"Both"

"Pfft, dude, you're like-"

"If you say cat Daniel, I will throw one of these couch pillows at you, I swear!"

Danny raised his hands in mock surrender and climbed onto the couch with Dani and Clockwork.

Since Dani had Clockwork's head in her lap, Danny took the incentive and placed Clockwork's legs on his lap.

And so the Master of Time lay "sprawled" on top of his charges, but in all honesty he could not give a damn, he was quite comfortable and the Phantoms were enjoying it.

Dani would make strange, but gentle, designs in his hair and show them to Danny, who would try and fail to stifle his laughter all while tapping to a beat on his legs, strange as it sounded, it was quite relaxing, even Nocturne was amused.

"So dramatic"

"You're just jealous, the Phantoms love me more"

Nocturne simply stuck his tongue out in retaliation.

They laughed, until Dani piped up.

"Hey, where's Dan?"

"In his room, ignoring the world", commented Clockwork, " 's kinda something I want to do right now"

The Phantoms raised their brows at the Time Master in their laps. Nocturne understood.

"Headache started?"

A nod.

"I'll go get the ice"

When Nocturne was gone, Dani looked down at Clockwork with worry.

"It's not because the braids are too tight, right?"

"No, remember core exhaustion is like a cold"

"So it's a fever then?" Asked Danny.

"It's a headache until I start complaining about the heat"

"Well, you won't have to worry about that", smirked Danny.

"Yeah," piped Dani, "you have us, the prose of having ice cored ghosts as you charges!"

The then let a small burst of frost cover the Temporal ghost's hair and legs.

"Hey, I can hear the sound louder!" Danny beamed as he tapped the frost and the small 'tnk' resounded.

Clockwork simply chuckled.

"Now, now", said Nocturne as he walked back in, "don't let him get used to that, I don't think you can keep that up for a whole week"

"Oh yeah, but hey you never told us how you knew it would be a whole week" stated Danny with a curios tilt.

"His core child, a ghost's core can tell you many things, the type, the powers, the strength and the amount of energy"

"Cool"

"Indeed dear, but there's a catch, only family, friends, lovers or mates can touch another's core, but with the case of core exhaustion, it can cause pain, depending on how bad the case is, the less time it takes for it to hurt, the worse the case"

Dani gaped.

"What's the worst case scenario then? A month?"

"Two months should be the extreme Daniel and three days is the least I believe"

"So you don't have it that bad right?"

"No Danielle, it's more of an annoyance than anything"

"Mhm, wait till the third day, when nausea hits"

"Ugh, that's going to be hell, especially with you, since you oh so enjoy feeding people"

"You love me and you know it"

"Unfortunately"

"You mean quite fortunately"

Clockwork rolled his eyes and the Phantoms laughed at the two Master's display.

The Time Master had eventually fallen asleep on the laps of his charges, after an hour Clockwork's fever had risen and Dani and Danny made sure to keep the sleeping ghost as cool as possible.

"Hey Nocturne", asked Danny, "how long will he stay like this?

"A few days, the fever only started today after all, it should break by the third day"

Dani spoke this time.

"But isn't that when the nausea kicks in?"

"Yes, but that only lasts two days, see the fever is three, the nausea is two, that's five days out of the seven, day six is just restlessness, in his case he gets fidgety, day seven, I call that knock out day"

"Why?" Was the simultaneous question from the Phantoms.

"Because you can't wake him up for the hell of it on the last day, day eight he'll be slightly groggy but fine on the most part, and he'll be perfectly fine the next day"

"Wow, sounds like you'll be busy for a while"

"Yes but, it's the things you do, hmm?"

With that Nocturne brushed a stray lock off Clockwork's face.

"I'll go make us some lunch"

The Phantoms watched the Dream weaver leave with a small smile on their faces.

They really are close.

The Phantoms managed to slip out from under their mentor with out rousing him and went to eat the lunch the Dream ghost made.

Dani, being the thoughtful sprite she was, knocked gently on Dan's room door. Hearing no response she peeked in only to see that the paradox...was asleep!

The clone quietly closed the door and retreated into the kitchen. A few minutes later she returned to the eldest Phantom's room with a platter and a sticky note, placing it gently on his nightstand then leaving the room once more.

Passing back again to the kitchen, Dani asked for a cold glass of water, which Nocturne handed to her, she thanked him and was about leave when Danny, who was still at the table with his third plate of food, gave her a questioning glance, she simply shook her head and floated down to the Time Screen room.

Dani placed the glass on a near by coffee table then turned to the sleeping Time Master.

She really didn't want to wake him, he looked quite peaceful despite the fever plaguing him, but he'd have to eat something gain back his energy.

"Clockwork"

He stirred but did not wake, so she decided to shake him a bit.

The second her skin touched his shoulder, it jerked back, the movement was strange, as if it were shying away from her touch.

Her touch! Being a halfa, her body temperature was lower than a humans but higher than most ghosts.

The heat from her hands bothered him, Clockwork didn't like anything that was named heat when he had a fever, Nocturne told them about it when Danny asked if their ice powers would eventually bother him.

Realizing this, Dani quickly coated a layer of frost on her palms before attempting to wake the Time ghost.

"Clockwork"

He stirred.

"Clockwork"

Crimson eyes blearily opened.

"Danielle?" His voice was thick, cracked and laced with overall exhaustion.

"Hey, I got you some cold water", said the tiny Phantom gently as she held the glass out to him.

He blinked, once...twice before sitting up.

Dani gave him the glass and helped him drink it slowly.

"Well look who it is, nice of you to join us here Clock"

The Time ghost rolled his eyes

"Had to get a wake up call" he gestured to Dani behind him.

Said Phantom smiled and waved.

Everyone in the room laughed.

After Clockwork's lunch and Danny's fifth plate, the time Master ended right back on the Phantoms' laps.

They made sure to keep the Temporal ghost cool as he drifted in and out of awareness due to his fever.

At the end of the day, when Clockwork was in bed, sans cloak and tunic, 'because he was melting' and the Phantoms had left for home, Nocturne could only shake his head, looks like he was still on Babysitting duty.

Bonus:

When Dan Phantom, revenger of realms awoke, at something-thirty in the after-evening, he was quite surprised to smell the aroma of food in his room.

He knew very well he didn't take any food up with him last night, so the smell confused him, that is until he saw the plater and the sticky note attached to it.

Dear Dan, Clockwork says you might be ignoring the world today, so you do that, but remember, just because you can ignore the world, doesn't mean you have to do it on an empty stomach. ;)

~Dani.

The Phantom genuinely laughed.

"This fucking kid, if Clockwork isn't mothering me, she is".

Dan shook his head.

"I guess it's not so bad, having someone care for you"

He then bit into the somehow still warm food.

"Huh, this is a good sandwich"

AN/: And that's that, 14 pages.

More Babysitting Nocturne for everyone, I didn't really get any requests so I continued it, and as for the Dan part, why not, and no I didn't make a mistake with the timing "something-30" just happens to be the time I usually wake up and "after-evening" is the greeting I use around 3 ish o'clock XD.

Anyway yall know the deal, ask your questions, send your ideas and requests and I'm a write them.

Love yall! ^-^