Chapter 09

They stayed up the entire night to keep watch over Jack. When Pamela Manson passed the open doorway of Jack's room, Phantom pointed her out in a quiet whisper. Vlad eyed the woman, sizing her up as an assassin. She looked far to prim and proper for the usual hit men that Vlad saw from time to time. Her auburn hair, cut short, curled under at the chin without a single hair out of place. Vlad wrinkled his nose when he noted the string of pearls about her neck and the diamonds hanging from her earrings that he was almost certain were real. Phantom informed him that Sam's father was the heir to a great fortunate, but Pamela wouldn't need to marry wealthy with the money she made from hits.

Vlad glanced sideways at Phantom during a lull in the early morning. If she got pregnant, Pamela might have decided to retire as a hit man to raise her daughter. Marrying wealthy meant she could hide her money without anyone questioning how she made her living prior to the marriage. If she did in fact retire, her hatred for Jack must have driven her into accepting the job.

They pretended like they weren't on to her, deciding that it would be best to keep her thinking that she was in the clear still and could plan another attempt on Jack's life. They would be ready for whatever she did. Phantom wasn't much in the mood for talking. When he wasn't whispering facts about Pamela Manson to Vlad, Phantom paced about the room, chewing on his thumbnail. It wasn't that same anxious worry about the poison killing his father like when Vlad first arrived at the hospital. This time, Phantom's eyes held a calculating look in them. He was thinking about everything he knew regarding the hit men and their attacks. He tried to connect them, look for patterns, but more importantly he was searching for a way to uncover their employer's identity. Finding out whom wanted Jack Fenton dead would be a great help to the ghost, and Vlad wished he could give the man the answer he wanted.

"Well, it seems you're in perfect health," Doctor Walder announced after running through a check up on Jack.

"Of course!" Jack grinned widely as he patted a hand on his broad chest. "Mom always told me I was as healthy as an ox." Thankfully, Pamela Manson wasn't the nurse that joined Doctor Walder as they examined Jack. Isabella from the desk smiled shyly at Vlad as she held out the chart for Doctor Walder. Pamela Manson likely decided that it was best to wait for an opportunity when Jack didn't have two alert guards to watch over her target.

"We have a few papers that need to be signed before you can be released, Mr. Fenton," Doctor Walder said, flipping through some of the pages on the chart before turning his brown eyes onto his patient.

"I can sign for them," Phantom said, pushing away from the wall. "Uh, why don't you help Jack get dressed, Vlad?"

When their eyes met, Vlad could immediately read that look of trust in Phantom's green eyes. Before last night, Phantom wouldn't have trusted his father alone with Vlad, a suspected hit man, but he did now. Vlad didn't know why that filled him with a small swell of pride. He nodded, and a smile pulled at Phantom's mouth before he turned to follow the doctor and nurse from the hospital room. Vlad closed the door after them, allowing for some privacy for his old friend.

"I won't tell."

"What?" Vlad twisted around at the voice.

Jack wasn't wearing his usual jolly face, and the seriousness in his expression unsettled Vlad. "I won't tell Maddie. That you came here to kill me."

"I would never-"

"Vlad," Jack cut off the protest with a narrowing of his eyes and firmness in his voice. "You know I'm not a complete idiot, even though I act like it a lot of the time." He pushed the thin cover of the bed down as he threw his legs over the edge of the bed. "I knew there was some other reason for why you came here. You haven't spoken to me in over twenty years. Obviously, you came to Amity Park for a different reason than to visit me." He pushed himself to his feet, almost gave a sway, but kept his balance. The poison weakened him somewhat but couldn't keep him down for long. "I don't know what exactly it was that I did to make you hate me, but I'm sorry for whatever it was. Maddie doesn't need to know anything about this."

Vlad appreciated that. He really did because no matter what horrible things he did in his life, he didn't want Maddie to see him as a terrible person. "Jack," Vlad sighed as he walked over to the closet in the room to get the man's jumpsuit, "who wants you dead so badly?" Frowning, he turned to his old friend and held out the jumpsuit to him. "Who did you piss off?"

Jack shook his head then stopped, holding a hand to his head. "I have no idea." He shrugged as he took the jumpsuit. It was a small struggle to get the man back into it, and Vlad was forced to help him before he toppled over from loss of balance. After he was dressed, flimsy hospital gown tossed over the bed, Jack rested a hand upon his shoulder, and Vlad thought for a moment the man needed to catch his balance. "I'm really glad you're here." Jack squeezed his hand about Vlad's shoulder. "Even if it was for a bad reason, I'm glad we had this chance to hang out again. Made me think about our college days." A smile pulled across his face.

"Okay. Everything is filled out and the doctor said we're cleared to go," Phantom announced when he entered the room again.

"Excellent!" Jack said, back to his usual cheerful self. "Let's head to the car."

"Car?" Vlad repeated, and the other two turned their gazes onto him. "In case you missed it, I didn't exactly arrive at your house with a car in the first place." He folded his arms over his chest as he frowned at them. "How were you expecting me to bring a car?"

"You could have brought the Fenton Assault- Er, RV," Jack suggested.

"I'm thinking I'm lucky that I didn't take it." Vlad already saw the Fenton Assault Vehicle in action when he was trailing Jack previously to see if there was a time that he could kill Jack while Maddie wasn't present. He didn't like the looks of that thing, especially with all the added ghost hunting tech built into it.

"Then we'll call a cab," Phantom suggested. "Unless you want to walk back to Fenton Works while I fly Jack home." His green eyes pierced into Vlad, who realized at once what the ghost was doing. A test. Phantom wanted to see if when presented with another chance to make his escape, Vlad would take it. He gained the trust of the ghost, but Phantom needed to be certain his trust wasn't completely misplaced. After all, Vlad came here as a hit man.

"A cab should suffice." Vlad pulled out a cell phone to make the call to cab company and have them send a car to pick them up at the hospital.

Jack threw an arm around Vlad's shoulders as they left the hospital room with Phantom in the lead. "Have you been keeping up with the ghost research we did in college?" he asked, hugging Vlad close. Even though Vlad and Phantom watched Jack work on his inventions, the topic of the research they did back in college didn't come up in conversation, almost like it was taboo to bring it up until now.

Vlad shook his head. "Not since - No." He frowned, deciding to avoid mentioning the accident to Jack. He still felt bitterness over it, and maybe it was time to start letting some of that bitterness go. "I've been... busy... with my job." He didn't bother much with inventing weapons to combat ghosts when he had powers now to do the job. The only thing he continued work on since the accident was building his own working Portal into the Ghost Zone.

"Oh." Jack's smile faltered with the reminder of what Vlad's job was exactly. "That's a shame." They reached the lobby of the hospital and headed for the exit. Vlad cautiously glanced about for any sign of Pamela Manson, but the woman would be crazy to try attacking now with the number of witnessing in the lobby. Unless she tried to attack from the shadows, but there were too many people around that would risk an innocent person getting in the way. "Those were good times. I miss them," Jack continued as they stepped outside. "You, me, Maddie." He smiled fondly as he reminisced about their college days. "Good times."

Vlad nodded, feeling a pang in his chest. They were good times, and like Jack, he missed them too. Why did he spend so long away from his old friends? He was really beginning to forget the reason for his anger at Jack. The Portal blew up in his face, gave him ecto acne, and more importantly gave him ghost powers. He blamed Jack for the accident, cursed his name when he learned about Jack marrying Maddie, but they were happy together. He spent the past twenty-four years in self-induced misery, blaming everything wrong in his life on someone else.

They ended up having to wait ten minutes before the cab arrived. They piled in, Jack crammed into one side while Vlad was stuck between father and son. Silence filled the whole ride back to Fenton Works. Phantom remained tense and alert beside him. Placing a hand over one of the ghost's hands only helped a little in calming Phantom. Vlad vowed mentally that he would find his employer and stop them. Phantom didn't need to go through this, didn't need to suffer the constant worry of his father's life being at risk, especially when he died at such a young age.

The giant sign reading Fenton Works loomed in the distance as they neared the Fenton home. Vlad still thought it looked like an eyesore, and he decorated his castle with the Green Bay Packers paraphernalia, though he didn't get to enjoy that home much. The cab reached the house and parked right outside. When the driver asked for his money, both Jack and Danny turned their heads to the middle to where Vlad sat between them. With a grumble, Vlad pulled out his wallet and paid the man, who had gross greasy looking hands at which Vlad wrinkled his nose in disgust. Once they climbed out of the cab, they headed up to the front door. Jack unlocked the door, throwing it open wide for the other two men to enter his home first.

"Jack!" Maddie's voice still brought up those old feelings in Vlad of which he doubted he would ever completely rid himself. She rushed forward, ignoring Vlad and Phantom as she hugged her husband. It was a scene that pinched at Vlad's chest, but Maddie was happy. He thought, perhaps, he could give her up when he knew that the one she was with made her happy, even if it caused him some pain to see. "I was so worried when I came home and no one was here!" She wore a teal jumpsuit, and next to Jack, they looked like a perfect pair.

"How was your visit with Alicia?" Jack asked with a nervous laugh.

"It was fine." Maddie placed her hands on his hips as she glared up at her husband. "Though it turns out Alicia wasn't sick at all." Jack's gaze drifted toward Vlad, who glanced away and caught Phantom staring at him curiously. "And don't you dare try to change the topic," Maddie continued, pointing a finger in Jack's face to draw his attention back to her. "Where were you?" Despite the anger, worry clung to her voice, and if he could see her face, Vlad didn't doubt that tears would be gathering in her eyes as fears for the worst danced through her mind.

"It-" Jack sighed, hanging his head. "It was just a little incident. I ate something that was poisoned. But," he added quickly before his wife could start on an angry tirade, "thanks to Phantom's quick thinking, he got me to the hospital in time for them to administer an antidote and save me."

Maddie twisted around, her violet gaze landing on the ghost. Hesitation wrapped around her like a blanket before she stepped toward Phantom. "Thank you," she said, a hint of strain in her voice as a smile barely made it onto her face. It was difficult for her to thank a being that she spent so much of her life researching ways to eradicate from the real world. But she couldn't ignore that this ghost, this very strange ghost that she had no idea belonged to her son, saved her husband's life. She may not know or understand the reasons behind his actions, but she could be grateful that Phantom acted to keep her husband alive. Then she turned her gaze onto Vlad and smiled with much more ease. "Vlad! You should have told us you would be in town!" She stepped over to him and drew him into a hug. "We should have a big dinner tonight to celebrate this little reunion."

"That sounds wonderful," Vlad told her before he turned to give Jack a stern glare. "And no fudge for you."

"Aw!" Jack whined as he closed the door with a pout on his face.

"Unless Phantom helps me make some." Vlad glanced toward Phantom who blinked at the comment before it seemed to register in his head why Vlad would make that statement. Phantom nodded, a smile actually making it onto his face.

sohrem666: Thanks! 8D Yay twists!

jelloshots99: I was trying to think of someone that would be so unlikely that people wouldn't think of that person being the assassin. Then it hit me. Pamela Manson. XD;; She was perfect for the role. And it was easy to find a way to explain her.

midnight: I'd like to say that through the years of Danny and Sam knowing each other there plenty of incidents where Jack and Maddie caused destruction to the Manson home. XD;; But canon tells us that Danny and Tucker never even saw her house until Attack of the Killer Garage Sale. D:

coopt98: O: No no no! *pets Jack* He's depressed about Danny, but he's not going to do that!

Sammi: Unpredictable assassin? Check! 8D;;;