I bet you clicked on the link expecting a mistake. After all, I've never updated three times in one month. I'll let you in on something - it's real! This Halloween, I'm giving you a treat instead of a trick. Don't get used to this, though! After all, next month is NaNoWriMo and I don't know if I'll be updating this at all. Maybe. We'll see. Happy Halloween and enjoy!

Important: highly offensive comments in the second segment. They are not my personal views and I do not endorse these views or comments.


"You cook?"

Vlad turned to look at him from over his shoulder. "Why the tone of surprise, Daniel?"

Shrugging, Danny replied, "I just figured you'd have Colonel Sanders cooking for you or something."

Mom laughed. "Honey, Colonel Sanders is dead." She turned to ask Vlad for the third time if he needed help as Danny quietly snorted. He knew that. He'd honestly expected a ghost to be the chef instead of Vlad actually doing it himself. Then again, maybe Vlad usually had some ghost there to do that, for all Danny knew. For the third time, Vlad turned down Mom's help and assured her that there wasn't too much to be done.

Danny still felt a little uncomfortable here with Vlad, but it had gotten a lot easier than it had originally been when Vlad had come after Dad died. He wasn't on edge anymore, he just wasn't quite relaxed around the man. He'd actually learned a lot more about Dad in the past two weeks because of Vlad being around. They'd been talking about their college days a ton, so Danny had gotten to hear a bunch of stories. Dad had had a lot of connections and always had a way to get them in somewhere or out of some trouble. Honestly, Danny hadn't expected that, but it made sense. Dad had always had access to things and never had problems with the law. People might have thought he and Mom were crazy, but they'd never actually done anything about it that Danny could remember. He'd never really noticed that until now.

Vlad paused to take a sip of wine before he poured two cans of tomato sauce and some water into the skillet. He picked the wooden spoon back up and mixed it in as it began to bubble. "Maddie—" he glanced at her, then turned back to the stove— "Have you read the Agilent Technologies research on reverse-phase, liquid chromatographic prefractionation of the proteins in human serum to enhance spectrometry identification?"

Danny blinked. He hadn't understood a single word of that.

Next to him, sitting on a barstool and leaning on the counter, Mom shook her head. "I wasn't aware they'd published that. I am behind, though."

"It wasn't published in any journal yet, just online so far," Vlad replied, his tone reassuring, "You aren't very behind. Anyway, they decided to—" And that was enough for Danny to listen to. He didn't understand any of it. Vlad explained whatever it was and Mom seemed extremely interested.

"I'm going to go sit down," Danny muttered. The spaghetti would be done too quickly to watch TV or do anything. Vlad heard him and interrupted himself to ask if he'd take the French bread to the table. Danny nodded.

"Would you mind setting the table, honey?" Mom added.

"Yeah." Danny picked up the foil bagged loaf in one hand and a stack of plates in the other. There was a doorway connecting the dining room and the kitchen so he'd be able to use both hands.

"Thanks." Mom smiled at him before she crossed her legs and turned back to her conversation with Vlad. Danny paused to look at them. Something about this seemed weird, but he wasn't sure what it was. Maybe it was because Vlad had lost the coat, vest, and tie and he still wasn't used to seeing Mom in normal clothes. That was probably it.


Ryan and the other guy, Jace, were allowed back in school on Monday. Danny wouldn't have known because it was a 'B' day, and he didn't see Ryan those days, but Jace was in Danny's World Civilizations class. The teen had a healing black eye and played with a large ring on a chain around his neck all period. Ryan, the next day, didn't look too much better. He had a bruise on his jaw and was already in homeroom when Danny came in. Danny dropped his backpack on the ground and then dropped into his seat.

"Hey!" Ryan still sounded as cheerful as ever.

"Hey," Danny returned, pulling out the 'Getting to Know You' worksheet for English he was supposed to have done over the weekend and quickly scribbling in answers. Luckily, nothing was too in-depth and he was finished by the end of homeroom. Mr. Tyrann had gone off on another of his rants and Danny hadn't bothered to pay any attention. He'd finished the double-sided paper as the bell rung and he stuffed it into his bag. He didn't have a good excuse for not having it done that weekend, other than laziness.

Ryan had already left the classroom and when Danny got to the doorway there was a line of people standing in front of it. Confused, he made his way through to a circular opening in the middle of the crowd just in time to see Jace take a step closer to Ryan, fists clenched. He couldn't believe they were fighting again, after just getting back from being suspended. He didn't know what the first fight had been about, but this one seemed like it had the potential to be pretty serious. Jace looked livid and Ryan was grinning, but it was a different kind of smile from the ones Danny had seen. It was cruel.

"What, you don't like hearing that about your little Mosquito?" Ryan mocked.

Jace's face twisted. "Shut up!" He shoved Ryan backwards, hard. Ryan laughed.

"Maybe she'll hang herself with her turban," he sneered and Danny's eyes widened. He stepped forward, into the circle as Ryan shoved Jace back.

"Woah, that's not okay." He wasn't sure why Ryan would say something like that. He took another step so he was right in front of Ryan so he wouldn't keep talking. He turned to face Jace just in time to get clobbered in the face. He staggered slightly sideways. Reflex from his ghost fights kicked in, his arm pulled his fist back, and he turned to hit Jace hard across the face. The force knocked the blond back and sideways and Danny froze. He hadn't meant to do that. It had just been instinct.

"Break it up," Mr. Tyrann roared, pushing his way into the crowd. He grabbed Danny and Jace. "Move along!" He shouted to the crowd, then turned to the captive teens. "As for you two - we're going to the office."

Danny, eyes wide, shook his head. "This is a misunderstanding. I wasn't—"

"I'm sure," Mr. Tyrann cut him off. "Come on."


Danny wasn't sure whose smart idea it was to seat people who had just been fighting next to each other. He was in the chair by the door along the office wall and Jace sat next to him. The receptionist's desk was empty. He wasn't sure where she had gone – maybe to get phone numbers to call Mom and Jace's parents. Crap, they were going to call Mom. He knew that Casper High had called his parents before for stupid things, like the food fight that wasn't his fault or grades, but never for an actual fight. He ran a hand through his hair, his chest tight. He'd asked them not to, he'd told them that it was a misunderstanding, even Jace had told them Danny hadn't been fighting, but nothing they said could change their minds.

Danny sat straight in the chair, his leg bouncing. He watched Jace out of the corner of his eye as the blond moved. The teen just reached up and prodded his cheek where Danny had hit him. Danny winced in sympathy and at the thought of his own probably forming bruise. The blond grimaced.

"Ever think of trying out for the hockey team?" Jace smiled wryly. Danny turned to look at him incredulously. "Nice right. Hockey's mostly fighting," Jace defended, hands held up. The band around Danny's chest tightened and he burst out laughing. The other teen's lips twitched, then he was laughing too. Danny didn't know why he was laughing, it just seemed like that was all he could do right then, as he worried about how Mom would react without Dad there and everything going on and he just laughed harder.

After a moment, he calmed down and stopped laughing, though he was still breathing hard.

Jace leaned back to sprawl in his chair and his fingers gripped the heavy ring resting just below his collarbone. "Just so you know, I wasn't aiming for you."

Danny nodded. "I didn't think you were. "

They were quiet for a moment.

"Is Ryan usually like that?" He'd seemed pretty nice to Danny, but he knew probably better than most that people could have more than one side.

Jace shook his head. "Not to most people. He hates my girlfriend because she lives with her aunt and uncle and they're Muslim. To everyone else, he's this nice guy, but he's a real jerk when he gets around her or talks about her."

Danny's eyebrows raised. "Is that what he meant when he said those things?"

Jace's fingers tightened around the ring. "Yeah. He's an idiot." Danny wasn't sure what to say and they sat in silence for another minute. "Are your parents gonna be pissed?" Jace spoke up, nodding to Danny's bouncing leg.

Danny stilled his leg and shook his head. "No. Well, yeah, but that's not… I'm not worried about how angry Mom's going to be. This is the first time she's had to come to the school since…" How was he supposed to say this? He hadn't had to actually tell anyone who didn't already know yet, and he felt numb emptiness, still raw, inside him. "Well, my dad passed away about a month and a half ago," He explained. It was a lot easier to get the words out than he thought it would be. Once he'd started to say it, it had just tumbled out.

Jace nodded. "I get it. My brother died two years ago. The first time my parents got called down because of me, they were terrified I was going to end up just like him." His thumb rubbed the red jewel on the ring as he smiled reminiscently. "They threw an absolute fit. My mom was crying and my dad was yelling. Now, they barely bother to show up."

"Aren't you worried about getting expelled?" Two fights by the second week of school couldn't be a good record.

Jace shook his head. "They don't expel kids here. They found out if they expel kids for bad behavior, the crime rate goes up. Turns out they were getting recruited by some villain's school." He shrugged. "They just suspend now. The only thing I'm worried about is getting kicked out of sports. Ryan'll get kicked off the teams for it too, so he'll probably cool it with the comments."

The office door opened and a dark haired woman with a thin face came in. She looked tired. The door to the principal's office also opened.

"Thank you for coming, Mrs. Savage. Please come in, both of you." The principal opened the door wider and stepped to the side.

"Come on, Jason." The woman looked at Jace before heading for the office.

Jace stood. "So, I'm Jace."

"I'm Danny," he replied.

The other teen nodded. "See you around."

"Jason!" The woman snapped, standing in the doorway. Jace grinned at Danny and walked into the office, the door closing behind them.

Mom came in about three minutes later, looking pale. Her eyes were wide as she swept in the door, quickly looking around until she finally turned and saw Danny. She immediately knelt in front of him, examining his face.

"Honey, are you alright? I got a call from the office saying something about a fight, are you hurt?

Danny shook his head. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" At his nod, Mom stood up slowly and folded her arms. "What in the world were you thinking, Daniel Fenton? You could have been hurt! Why? Was it for attention? Are you feeling neglected now that Vlad and I spend so much time together?" Danny blinked. Wait, what? She thought this was her fault? "Do I-"

"No!" He cut her off. "No, this has nothing to do with that! It was a misunderstanding! I wasn't even fighting."

Mom lifted an eyebrow. "You weren't?"

"No! Ryan and Jace were… Well, actually Ryan said something and Jace got angry and I stepped in between them. I was trying to stop it! Jace was trying to get Ryan but he got me instead because I was in the middle and I accidently hit him back." Mom didn't look reassured. "It wasn't a fight or anything. It was just all an accident. And… and this isn't helping at all, is it?" Danny ended lamely.

"How do you 'accidently' his someone?" No, his rambling hadn't helped anything. He shrugged sheepishly.

The principal's door opened and Jace and Ms. Savage walked out. Ms. Savage was scowling while Jace's face was blank. The blond grinned as he saw Danny, though, and nodded to him before he left the office. Danny turned to look at the principal who strode out of the office and over to Mom.

"Hello!" The man greeted Mom, holding his hand out. Danny watched them shake hands. For some reason, Mom didn't look like she was holding on as firmly as she usually did. Danny was probably seeing things, though. "I'm Mr. Franklin."

"Maddie Fenton," Mom replied.

Mr. Franklin gestured to the still open door. "Would you mind discussing this in my office?"

"Of course."

There were three maroon, cushioned seats in front of the desk. Danny sat in the one nearest the door and Mom took the middle chair. Mr. Franklin closed the door and settled himself behind his chair.

"Ms. Fenton, has your son told you of what happened this morning?" He was completely serious now, the grin from earlier gone.

Mom shook her head slowly. "He said something about a misunderstanding? I'm sorry, Danny doesn't usually get in fights."

Mr. Franklin nodded. "Mr. Savage said the same thing. Now, because of the circumstances and the fact that this is your son's first infraction, I am willing to give some leeway. However, your son did hit Mr. Savage back and we have a zero tolerance policy here at Jump City Central. Your son will be suspended the rest of the week." Danny crossed his arms. He was sitting right there.

Mom frowned, still pale. "I understand. I'm so sorry, Mr. Franklin. Danny really knows better." The teen slouched in the chair, staring at the front of the desk.

"I also want him to start seeing our guidance counselor once a week. Reacting with anger could be a sign of a more serious problem, in light of your situation, and it's best to get things figured out before problems can grow."

Danny glanced up to see Mom nodding. "I understand. He will definitely be doing that."

"Alright. Mr. Fenton—" He turned his gaze to the principal — "You seem like a good kid. I hope this is the last time I have to see you in here." Danny nodded. There wasn't much else for him to do. He meant it, though. Of course he didn't like getting into trouble. It just seemed to happen. "Good. Starting next week, every Wednesday after school you'll have an appointment with our counselor. Yours will be Penelope Spectre. She's actually also new this year, so you should have something in common." The man stood, Danny quickly mirroring him and Mom doing the same, though a bit slower. "Thank you for coming, Ms. Fenton." He opened the door and once again shook Mom's hand.

They left the school building and Danny glanced at Mom. She was still moving a little slower than normal and looked pale.

"Are you okay?"

Mom didn't answer as she led the way to the car. They left the parking lot and entered traffic in silence. After a couple minutes, Danny spoke up again.

"I'm sorry."

Mom sighed. "Honey…" She sighed again. "I don't know what to do with you. You've never fought with anyone before." Danny managed to hold back a snort.

"I'm sorry, Mom," he replied instead.

"Me too." Shame flooded through the teen and he flushed, turning to look out the window. He hadn't thought that he could feel guilty so fast from just a couple words. "I… I just don't know what to do without your father. He might understand this, but I don't." Danny closed his eyes. The rest of the drive was spent in silence.

Mom dropped him off in front of the apartment and went to park the car. After hesitating, Danny went inside and up the stairs to the apartment. He set his backpack on the floor in his room by his desk and sat in the chair. He wasn't sure what he'd do the rest of the week. He heard Mom come in and the apartment door shut. The faucet in the kitchen turned on and then the bathroom door slammed. Frowning, Danny leaned to look into the hall. Quietly, he got up and turned the water off. On his way back to his room, he paused outside the bathroom at what he heard. Unsure of what to do, he continued on to his room. He couldn't remember Mom ever being sick before. It'd been a long time since he'd had the flu, and all he could remember was he had crackers (which they didn't have) and apple juice (which only Jazz drank, so they never bought any) when he stopped throwing up. Returning to the kitchen, he filled a glass with cool water and left it outside the bathroom door. Closing his bedroom door part of the way, Danny turned his computer on.

He wasn't sure how long it was until his door swung open. Mom stood there, the glass half empty in her hand, looking even paler than she had earlier. Danny immediately pushed his chair back to face her. "Thanks for the water, honey." She smiled tiredly.

"How are you feeling?" He studied her with concern.

"I'm fine, sweetie," she replied. Danny knew that wasn't true, especially as her face twisted. "Could you do something for me?" She asked quickly. At his nod, she continued, "Will you please call Vlad and tell him I can't do dinner tonight?"

"Uh, yeah." That had been news to Danny, but it wasn't his business. Mom and Vlad did seem to be around each other a lot more now, though. Mom smiled weakly at him, then it turned into a grimace and she swiftly disappeared from the doorway.

Danny winced in sympathy as he heard her throwing up in the bathroom again. He started to reach for his phone, but realized he didn't know Vlad's number. He found Mom's phone in the kitchen, on the table. He took it back into his room to make the call.

"Hello, Maddie," Vlad's tone was cheery, "How are you?"

Danny wasn't exactly sure what to say. "Uhm, hi."

"Daniel?" He sounded surprised. "Don't you have school now? Is everything alright?"

Deciding to ignore the question about school, the teen replied, "Mom wanted me to tell you she can't meet for dinner."

There was a slight pause on the other line. "Ah. Alright."

"She's sick," Danny added. He should have been enjoying the disappointment he'd heard in Vlad's voice, but he just couldn't do it.

"I'll be there soon. Goodbye, Daniel."

"Wait—" Danny protested, but it was too late. He sighed. Great.

Mom was still in the bathroom by the time Vlad arrived, so Danny didn't have a chance to tell her. The man put a box of Saltines, a jug of apple juice, and a two-liter of Sprite on the table. Danny watched him from by the door.

"I didn't tell you she had the flu."

Vlad nodded absently. "Maddie would only ask you to cancel for you if she couldn't do it herself. She wasn't losing her voice when we spoke earlier, so it had to be something sudden." He went down the hall to the bathroom door and Danny followed, ready to interfere. Knocking, Vlad called, "Maddie?"

They waited outside for a second until the door cracked open and Mom peered out. She frowned. "I don't want you to see me like this."

"I'm your friend, Maddie. I don't care what you look like," Vlad replied. Danny glanced at him. After a moment, she stepped back from the door and Vlad entered. He shut the door behind him as Danny took a step forward, intending to follow them. He stood there awkwardly as they began to talk, able to hear everything. The fire escape was the only place he couldn't hear everything in this apartment.

Speaking of which, Danny headed into his room and out the window. The sound of traffic and the rest of the city around him cancelled out what was being said inside. The street was relatively busy, for a Tuesday morning. Not too much foot traffic yet. Danny knew as it got closer to noon, the sidewalk would fill up almost as much as the street. He shifted to see if he could catch a glimpse of anything out of the ordinary, but there wasn't anything. Sometimes he'd gotten lucky and had been able to see a fight. They were always cool and it was weird watching other people fight. Their styles were very different from Danny's. It was good to see the fights for another reason, though. It reminded him of why else he shouldn't use his powers. If he got dragged into that power struggle, it would be just like back in Amity. If they found out about Mom, they would also probably go after her. Living villains didn't act the same as ghosts. They were more unpredictable and Danny was happy staying out of it. He missed flying in particular, but it was getting easier.

A tap on the window had Danny's head snapping up to see who was in his room. Vlad stood there and the teen closed his eyes and sighed through his nose before climbing back in. He leaned against the windowsill. "What?"

The man looked slightly torn. "Your mother doesn't want anyone to catch what she has, so she's asked me to take you back to my office with me. She wants to have you do some work too, so your suspension isn't just a vacation." At those words, Vlad looked stern and Danny mentally rolled his eyes.

He felt like arguing, but he'd go with it. "Whatever." Vlad frowned, but didn't say anything. He led the way out, after they both said goodbye to Mom.

Vlad only spoke to the teen again when they were in the car. Danny sat in the passenger seat, knees together, arms crossed, and turned toward the window.

"What was the fight about?"

Danny scowled. "Nothing." He didn't want to be interrogated by Vlad.

"Daniel, you need to refrain from such activity. I wouldn't have known you were in a fight if Maddie hadn't told me. Your face is unmarked."

A little surprised, Danny tried to glance inconspicuously into the side mirror. Vlad was right. He hadn't bruised. That didn't mean Danny wanted to hear this lecture. He didn't want to hear Vlad tell him what he already knew. Vlad tried for another few minutes to give 'advice', then gave up talking as Danny didn't respond.

Vlad pulled into his driveway and Danny glanced up, frowning.

"I thought we were going to your office."

Vlad paused as he got out of the car and looked down at Danny. "This is my office right now. I haven't yet seen the need for a new location for any of my businesses here yet, so I do all my work from my study." He finished climbing out and unlocked his mail box to collect his mail. After locking it again, the man unlocked the house and entered, Danny behind him.

The study was on the first floor. Vlad directed Danny to start scanning old files to back them up in the computer. It was a little boring, but it wasn't terrible. About an hour later, Vlad pulled Danny away from the task to sort through that day's mail. Danny piled them into junk, business, bills, and personal. Within a couple minutes he was down to the last envelope. Strangely, it wasn't marked. There was no address, recipient or return.

"Hey, Vlad." The teen waited until Vlad looked up to hold out the blank, slightly thick envelope. "This was in there."

Frowning thoughtfully, Vlad took the envelope and turned it over. "That's a locked box," he muttered softly, though Danny still easily caught it. "So how did this get in here?" Picking up a silver letter opener, he slit it open and pushed the sides of the envelope to peer in. Immediately, the man's eyes widened and he slammed the envelope, intangibly, into his desk. He pulled his hand up, eyes dark. Glancing up, he finally seemed to realize Danny was still there and watching him. "I'll teach you how to ward compartments against humans later this week," he commented, shuffling around some papers. He dropped a pen into a drawer and stood up, crossing the room to where his suit coat was hung up. "Let's get lunch."

"What was in there?" Danny asked, glancing from Vlad to the desk.

Vlad paused, then took his coat from the hook. "Nothing you would find interesting." He shook it out gently, ridding it of any wrinkles it might have gotten while hanging.

"So you wouldn't care if I tried out the warding and got it out?" Maybe Vlad would explain if Danny challenged him. It had worked on other people before.

Instead of launching into a complicated explanation that would explain exactly why it was interesting to Vlad and not to Danny as Danny had expected, the man stopped what he was doing and turned around to look at Danny. "Never go through my study, Daniel." The tone was cold and Vlad's face was blank. Then his eyes narrowed. "I will know if you ever do." He pulled on his coat and looked down to straighten it over his vest. When he looked back up, he was smiling, if a little cooler than before. "What do you feel like for lunch?"


Yay, it's a longer chapter, too! Well, let me know what you think. Personally, I don't love it but I think that's partly because I've written the whole thing in the past twelve days. I usually don't publish first drafts, but hey, why not. I also wanted to put the entire week in here, but I wanted to update and go to bed ^^' I think it might work better this way, though. Let me know! Oh, and the article they talk about is called 'Reversed-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Prefractionation of Immunodepleted Human Serum Proteins to Enhance Mass Spectrometry Identification of Lower-Abundant Proteins' and if you understand that, you have my respect. I'm not that scientifically-learnt. That's why they don't talk in depth about it. I barely understood any of the article. I couldn't get past the intro.

What did you like, what didn't you like, any feedback is happily welcome! Happy Halloween! =D Be safe tonight!

Next time:

Vlad works with Danny and it's back to school. There's a familiar face.