/2, Part 1

Chapter Ten: Fetch Fenton

When Danny stumbled down the stairs in the morning, it was only with much yawning and rubbing at the too soft, too dark skin around his eyes. Still half-asleep, he turned and walked down the corridor beside the stairs, coming into the gigantic living room, which was also a kitchen, which was also a dining room. He collapsed into a seat at the table with a groan.

"MORNING, FETCH!" A man shouted from behind him.

Danny yelped and jerked around to face the sudden noise, wincing as he clutched at his pounding head. He scowled at the tall man behind him, cursing the universe for giving such a skinny man such a big voice. "Morning, Uncle Bruno," he muttered with a glare.

"And how will you be breaking your fast this fine morning, Wraith?" the man continued, apparently oblivious to Danny's case of early-morning grouchies. "We have bacon and eggs; pancakes; sausage; peppers with eggs; and all of the above again, cooked vegan-style." The brown-haired man grinned boisterously.

"Toast, please." Danny slumped forward onto his hands in a poor attempt to keep out the light.

"For Gods sake, Dad, let him wake up first. Good morning, all," a much more subdued voice said from the direction of the doorway. Danny turned and saw the boy from the previous night holding a little blond boy.

"Is Mommy awake?" the little boy asked sleepily.

"Yes, she's reading in our bedroom. Would you like to take her some breakfast with Brutus?" the man, Uncle Bruno, asked in a much gentler tone. Although the words seemed to be directed at the little boy, he looked at the older boy questioningly.

"Yeah!" the child exclaimed, and the older boy nodded.

"What do you think Mommy would like for breakfast, Jamie?" the older boy asked the younger. He moved to set the little boy down, but the little boy grabbed onto his black hair. "Ow! Jamie, I have to put you down to get Mom's breakfast!"

"No, up!" Jamie yelled, clinging even more tightly to the older boy, Brutus', hair.

"Oh, for- Dad, will you fix the food? We'll just bring it in, I guess."

The girl from the night before walked in and began loading one of the plates with vegan food without even nodding at any of the other people in the kitchen. Jazz trailed in behind her, stopping with a start when she saw Danny. "Danny? What are you doing up so early?"

Danny looked at the clock, which proudly declared, "6:38". He groaned and buried his face in his hands. "I couldn't sleep," he grumbled. "I figured I'd just get and early start." Hoping to change the topic before Jazz started psychoanalyzing him, he asked, "Where's Tucker? Isn't he usually an early riser?"

"Playing on his GameBoy upstairs," Jazz said. "Danny, why-"

"Actually, I'm now downstairs. I smelled meat and coffee." Tucker said cheerfully, walking over and setting down next to Danny. "Gimme bacon and sausage: no vegetarianism here!"

"Yuck," said the blond girl, wrinkling her nose, "do you have any idea how unhealthy that junk is for you?" She had sat down across from where Tucker now was sitting.

"Hardly! It makes me strong and- oh, hey, Danny, I wanted to ask you something!" Tucker turned to Danny in the middle of his sentence, with a surprised look on his face. "I can't believe I almost forgot. What's with the weird nickname?"

"Huh?" Danny stared at him blankly. Nickname? "I don't know what you mean."

"You know, Catch or whatever-it-was."

"Catch? …Oh, Fetch!" Danny eyes lit up in understanding. "That's just what people called me when I was little," he said, glancing away from Tucker when he heard heavy footsteps at the doorway.

Tucker's eyes glittered mischievously. "I sense an embarrassing baby story…" he trailed off meaningfully, and waited for a response. He waited. He waited. He waited. He waited. "Well?" he finally burst out, when Jack Fenton had come into the room, filled a plate with food, and sat down at the end of the table.

"Well what?" Danny asked, turning to his friend. Brutus and Jamie came back into the room just then, and there was a short period where the kitchen was chaotic from the attempted gathering of food for a small child.

When it was a bit quieter, Tucker asked, "Why do they call you Fetch? Did people used to throw things for you to fetch or something?" He suddenly got a picture of a young Danny wearing dog-ears and chasing a stick. [1

Jack snickered, "Yeah, but that's not why we called him Fetch."

Danny turned pink. "Dad! I was, like, three when I would catch junk-"

"So why were you called Fetch, then?" Tucker repeated, trying to keep them on track. He had already turned on the voice-recorder on his ultra-high-tech PDA. "Come on, give me blackmail material," he begged Jack.

"It's not a big deal," Danny muttered. "It's just… um… well, when I was born, you see, I was kind of… a bit…"

"He was as see-through as a little phantom, all cute and flimsly!" Jack declared, roaring with laughter ("The word's 'flimsy', Dad," Jazz interjected). "And so I said, 'this boy's so see-through, he's not even like a phantom- he's like a phantom's fetch'! So after that, we all called him Fetch. Almost named him that, too," he added, thoughtfully, "but his mother wouldn't allow it. Said he'd get picked on."

Tucker snickered, but still looked confused. "What's a phantom's fetch?" he asked.

"A fetch is another word for doppelganger, wraith, or double," Uncle Bruno said, seeming to believe this was a complete explanation, but Tucker still looked blank.

"Ghost-story time!" Jack yelled gleefully.

Bruno sighed. "No ghost story," he said, "Jamie's scared of them. A Fetch is, in the simplest definition, an apparition sent in the image of a living person to warn that living person of his or her impending death, and to 'fetch' their spirit back to the afterlife."

Tucker paused, "Oh. That's a rather morbid nickname."

"Yeah, well, at least he wasn't named Jacqueline Sacajawea," said the blond girl. "Or James Bartleby. Or Sophocles Joseph. Or Brutus Jonathon. All 'J's, and all with a weird first or middle name. Honestly? Fetch is better."

"Your middle name is Sacajawea?" Danny asked, startled. "I didn't know that. I mean, I knew it started with 'S', but I assumed it was Susanna or Sarah or something…"

"I'm James Bartleby!" shouted little Jamie. "It's a big name for a big little boy!"

"I actually like that one," said Danny. "It has a nice ring to it."

"Yeah, well, you're nuts too." Jacqueline muttered with a scowl. "Of course," she added nastily, "who wouldn't be if they'd had what happened to you happen to them. Only a little older than Jamie, weren't you, when your-"

"Jacqueline Sacajawea Fenton, you close your mouth and go to your room this instant!" Bruno bellowed, "How dare you speak to our guests that way! Give Danny an apology, right now!"

"Sorry," she muttered, not meaning it. She turned and stomped up the stairs.

"I'm sorry about that, Dah-nee," said Bruno quietly, pronouncing Danny's name with the same strange lilt as Brutus had used. "She's awful in the mornings. I don't mean to excuse her behavior, but she really is better most of the time…"

"It's fine," Danny replied very softly, studying the tabletop.

Bruno seemed as if he was going to say something else, but apparently thought better of it; even Tucker held his questions, for fear of being yelled at in that huge voice. Danny finished his meal in silence, then said, still very softly, "I'm going to go try and sleep some more, okay? I'll see you all later."

[1 Tucker's remark and mental image are dedicated to Dark Angel Kisses.

A/N: possessed obsession mentioned that she (?) was having trouble understanding the upstairs layout. So, I bring you:

http:// katherinecat. deviantart. com/ art/ Friendship- House- 75429339

Remove the spaces to go to the upstairs floorplan! I'll add the first floor later, too.

Next chapter: PHANTOM. Probably.