Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Danny Phantom, I'm a big fan and was feeling nostalgic.

Chapter 6: If Given A Chance

(Chapter inspired by Promise Of A Lifetime by Kutless)

Vlad's POV

I knew Daniel was going to be confused when he awoke and very much on edge so things went about as well as I expected them to. However a few things happened which I did not anticipate; such as Daniel actually having enough strength to transform at all, even if he was unable to hold it for very long. That, and in his fevered state Daniel told me something I doubt he ever would have normally. And hearing it made me realize just how little I knew about him personally. For instance, what were his dreams for the future outside of ghost hunting? His dreams and aspirations? His doubts? And most importantly, what were his fears aside from the obvious ones...?

It truly pained me to see Daniel like that, quivering in pain, with his usually clear blue eyes staring up at me with unadulterated terror as he cornered himself in a feeble effort to escape. Not that Daniel was my prisoner, this time it was more that I wasn't about to let him go wandering off in his condition even if I had to resort to desperate measures such as sedating him again. Because as of right now I couldn't risk shorting out his ghost powers with the Plasmius Maximus since Daniel still needed them to help heal his wounds. Although when he foolishly attempted to fly off I was sorely tempted to do just that since his behavior bordered on hysteria and I didn't want him hurting himself like he almost did a few hours earlier.

In fact for a moment I honestly wondered if Daniel was hallucinating due to his abnormally high fever and saw me as this mysterious 'him.' I stood corrected though when Daniel called me by name and fearfully demanded to know where he was. There was something about the way he said it that made me suspect Daniel was afraid of being somewhere oddly specific. Of course, dismissing that notion for now I calmly allayed him of that fear by explaining we were still in Amity Park, for now at least...

How long that would remain true, I couldn't say because I may have to move him before too long to a more secure location just in case Daniel's parents or his two little friends come sniffing about. As for the latter, considering that they knew Daniel's secret those two were unlikely to tell them where he was even if they did figure out he was with me because it would cause a problem for him. Then again they were bound to find out soon anyway once Jasmine told them since her parents had enlisted my aid in finding their son.

Honestly I was more concerned about those three actually trying to 'rescue' Daniel from me once they discovered he was already here which in retrospect would place him in even greater danger of being discovered by his parents. I had a few different options, none of which I cared for but they were necessary to ensure that there weren't any complications while Daniel was recovering. It was a simple matter of making them realize that things were better this way and that really...what could they possibly do to help him with this?

Daniel's older sister was still a junior in high school herself whereas Tucker Folley and Samantha Manson were both freshmen, there was no way for either of them to hide Daniel indefinitely unless he started living in some hovel which I would NOT allow. We had our differences but I wasn't so heartless that I could bear the idea of my little badger living on the streets. Aside from myself there were no proper adult figures in his life who could help him. And even if there were they wouldn't be equipped to provide the care Daniel needed because he was no longer entirely human but actually a half-ghost hybrid...

Speaking of which I would have to correct Daniel's earlier assumption that we are both half dead. True, we are half-ghost but not in that sense. It's more that our DNA was infused with all of the standard traits of a ghost to a molecular level. For while our ghost signatures were unique because of our hybrid status there are hardly any distinguishable differences aside from that from any other ghost and the fact that we can change forms at will into one that primarily uses ecto-energy and not just human sustenance to fuel our bodies. To put it simply, our bodies are infused with and self-generate their own ecto-energy like any other ghost. And that energy included our body's ability to heal both our human and ghost forms using that energy to quicken the process. But this time, Daniel wasn't injured by any normal weapon or even ghost energy, he'd been shot by his parents with a weapon designed to incapacitate a FULL ghost so even with his ghost regenerative powers restored it would be some time before he healed fully.

Especially with that terrible fever weakening him.

My heart skipped a beat when while we were talking Daniel fell silent before answering my question about his accident and passed out in my arms. He was breathing heavily again, clearly overwhelmed so I carefully picked him back up and tucked Daniel into bed again, re-hooking him up to the heart monitor and then giving him another dose of morphine for the pain. Looking down at his pale feverish face a renewed sense of urgency returned and I knew that time was of the essence.

If I was going to make a decision it had to be now, for his sake...

Once it was a more reasonable hour to make the calls I needed to I canceled all of my mayoral appointments for the rest of the week to take care of something of a personal nature -which was ironically the truth- and after entrusting the day to day matters to my secretary, doing the same with my own businesses, I returned my attention to personally taking care of Daniel. I was worried because since our brief discussion early this morning he had yet to regain consciousness again. What's worse is that his fever was still burning dangerously high as well. It had to be this high because of more then just his infected injury; clearly part of his poor condition was being caused by stress and there was only so much I could do to heal his body when his mind was in turmoil.

It was to be expected though due to the fact that not only had Daniel been betrayed by and was forced to flee from his own parents, but now he was in the care of someone Daniel likely still saw as someone untrustworthy and dare I say dangerous. I've given him no reason to think otherwise which was my own fault. I could only hope that by telling him the truth and being more gentle with him that Daniel would warm up to the idea of me actually wanting to help him this time, no strings attached.

Speaking of which, my darling cat Maddie managed to sneak past me while I was replacing the cold water I was using to keep Daniel cool and wipe off the sweat and apparently she decided to adopt him and was currently curled up on his chest, purring. I was tempted to remove her when Daniel unconsciously lifted his arm again and reached for her then rested a hand over the welcome source of warmth over his heart and that simple action, along with feeling the vibration of her purring, seemed to sooth him if only a little so his body began to relax again. Well, if she wasn't doing any harm I suppose it was alright to let her stay. In fact I praised Maddie for being such a good girl and told her I'd give her some of her favorite wet food later as a reward, to which she only purred louder in response and leaned into my hand before I pulled away to move onto the next task.

Since he couldn't eat and I didn't want to resort to a feeding tube unless Daniel's condition resulted in him lapsing into a temporary coma I added another iv with nutrients, both ghostly and human in the hopes of it helping him fight off this infection. I of course had given him another dose of the antidote as well but the effects of that metal were still extremely potent and it could only do so much until I knew more. I was starting to think that Daniel actually didn't know much about the weapon they used on him because if he had, surely Daniel would have tried harder to dodge it. Then again, Daniel was very sleep deprived anyway the last time we fought so his reaction time would have been slow even if he did know...

Either way, that condition I placed on helping him through was really just an excuse. This situation was the most serious one Daniel had been involved with in awhile and I had nothing to gain from leaving him to his fate. On the contrary, if I lost him because his parents were so close-minded about ghosts that they accidentally killed their son, I would very likely take that final step over the line that I've been avoiding since I met Daniel because I would lose any chance of him coming to me willingly if I had killed his father. After all, there were plenty of other ways to destroy a person, reputation included, just like I sorely wished Daniel would do to stop that jock at school from bullying him.

Daniel was smarter then anyone gave him credit for, I've seen it for myself through our many battles. Admittedly there were some where I purposefully held back so as not to hurt him too badly but there were a few times when Daniel had truly defeated me by using his powers in ways I never could have dreamed of. He had so much potential and it was being wasted and ignored by the two people who should have been helping it flourish, meaning his parents. They were always praising Jasmine yet all but ignored Daniel unless he did something wrong which frankly was unfair to him.

Neither of them understood how hard it was to be a teenager in this day and age and even I sometimes cannot fathom it, though I've had similar experiences, they weren't the SAME ones. All three of us, Jack, Maddie, and myself were born to a different generation of people that grew up with a different set of standards. It was foolish to expect that the struggles Daniel had to contend with were the same when they barely even knew what he was doing at school half the time aside from when he was being unjustly punished due to a ghost attack or being framed by that jock, Dash Baxter...

Out of curiosity I did a background check on him once before and of course his grades were barely passing too just like Daniel's yet clearly their peers chose to ignore it because he was a football star at their school so there wasn't a single instance of detention on HIS personal record. That at least was a cliché that had yet to change in the social pyramid, that cheerleaders and jocks were always at the very top and the popularity ratings dropped from there. My guess was that poor Daniel wasn't even on the pyramid since his parents were known ghost hunters which labeled him an outcast even from those in the bottom-most tier.

Regardless, Daniel's schooling was the least of my concerns since his parents were bound to inform the principle and the vice principle that he was missing at least if nothing else. It was only the first day so perhaps they might not tell them at all and tell them there was a family emergency and left it at that for now so as not to cause a scene. I was confident that Maddie at least would take charge and do what needed to be done until I 'found' their son. After all, even if I wasn't the mayor I had more then enough resources to do so.

For now it was Daniel's health I was most concerned with.

"I really hope I don't have to threaten you again to get you to wake up little badger," I said quietly as I replaced the damp cloth on his brow after dabbing his face with it.

My hand shook slightly when I pulled it away from his face and recalled what Daniel told me about his accident that I NEVER would have guessed. I just assumed the Fenton Ghost Portal was more stable then the proto-portal that resulted in my mutation. I could remember the pain I felt like it only happened yesterday but...what Daniel described was far worse. My deterioration had been slow, gradual, the pain ripping through me in random fluctuations when my powers flared. But most of the pain I felt was due to the ghostly infection on my face because of the ecto-acne. With Daniel, he felt the pain all at once in a single horrifying instant.

It wasn't just one part of his body that was effected with the initial blast, Daniel felt it everywhere, and it made me sick to my stomach to think that his parents had exposed their children to something so dangerous. Honestly, why didn't they keep their laboratory locked like I did? It was such a simple solution and could have spared Daniel so much suffering. Then again, if that hadn't happened I never would have met Daniel the way I did and discovered to my delight that I was no longer alone in the world. There was another like me that a part of me wishes could have blamed his parents for the accident so he would've been more willing to take me up on my offer that day to join me. Yet, Daniel wouldn't have been the same boy I've come to care for if he was as resentful as I was. Even seeing him resentful towards me made me uneasy and it wasn't what I wanted for him. All I wanted was him by my side, safe, free to be himself, and most of all loved and appreciated in a way that his parents clearly are incapable of even now.

And yes, sadly, that includes my beloved Maddie...

"Oh Daniel," I sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed as I gently cupped his too-warm cheek and lamented, "Why didn't you come to me sooner? If I had known things were so hard I wouldn't have made them harder then they already were. Through every battle I was merely testing you, teaching you, urging you to improve to match me yet it was never my intention to push you beyond your limits. Dear boy I do know and understand that you're only fourteen. No one your age should have to shoulder the burden of keeping an entire town safe almost by yourself when you weren't even safe under your own roof. It's too much to expect of one so young, someone so...special. You deserve better, and I am willing to give you that and more if only you would choose to stay here with me. I could become your new family Daniel, a better one, I can provide everything you need or could ever want. All I ask is that you give me that chance..."