Chapter Eleven

A Visit Home

Author's Introduction

Sadly, Dannika is going through a rough time, right now… And the near future doesn't appear much brighter… So, for those of you who would like to give the poor girl a hug, I'd like to direct you to this page, thank you: marqua90210 . deviantart #/d54tgef (no spaces. You can fast forward through the boring drawing process… It's rather lengthy and unentertaining… Just skip to the end if you want – the finished product!)

Anyhoooo, here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

Disclaimer

Danny Phantom, and all related characters, belong to Nickelodeon

Dannika Fenton, and all related OC's, belong to me.

"Mom! I'm home!" Nick's call echoed through the hallway as the trio stumbled into the house. It was a simple, three bedroom, two bathroom, two-story house with a little dark hallway for an entryway. "I brought friends!"

"Okay, sweetie! I'll be out in a minute!" The accented call came from further down the hall, on the other side of a door.

Nick glanced at the girls, before sighing. "Come on, I'll show you the entertainment room," he muttered, throwing his backpack in a basket by the doorway and heading down the hall. Dannika and Tiffany followed. It was strange, being in Nick's house. The boy rarely talked about his home life, and, looking around, Dannika couldn't figure out why he'd never invited them over before. His house wasn't enormous – not like a mansion or anything – but it was rather large for just being a house. On the first floor alone, the trio passed by three bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a living room and two bathrooms, before ascending into the basement.

The girl's jaws dropped with amazement as they left the stairwell behind.

"Dude!" Tiffany gasped, staring at the room before them. The entire basement was one enormous room beneath the house filled with various games. Four flat screen TV's – 40" for movies, 52" for playstation, and two 65" for the Wii and Xbox Kinnect. In addition, there was an air hockey table, foosball table, and mini fridge filled with refreshments. "You're loaded!" Tiffany accused, rounding on the boy.

Nick shook his head, slumping into a beanbag chair. "Nah. We didn't buy all this in one fell swoop. This is what's accumulated over at least ten years. My mom likes to show off as much as she can. She'll probably be down here soon with snacks…"

"Uh-huh…" Tiffany muttered, taking a few steps forward. She was still gazing around the room in awe, trying to take in every corner, every square inch of space. "And… Why haven't you had any parties?"

"I have," Nick said. "Before I met you guys. I used to have parties all the time."

"When you popular…" Tiffany added, pouting.

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "When I was popular…" He avoided meeting Tiffany's gaze, his eyes scoring the far wall instead.

Dannika glanced at Tiffany. Her friend was staring at Nick. She simply could not understand his disdain for popularity. Sighing, Tiffany shook her head, falling into a beanbag chair across from the boy. "I'll never understand you…" she muttered.

Dannika shuffled forward, glancing around nervously. Slowly, she sank to her knees on the floor, looking between her two friends. An uneasy silence had fallen, and the girl wasn't sure how to break it. Luckily for her, she didn't have to. At that moment, a dark skinned woman with long, silky, dark hair sauntered into the room with a tray full of deviled eggs. She was adorned in a beautiful silk evening gown and a red butterfly barrette holding part of her hair up in a messy bun. "Who-o's hungry?" her child-like voice rang out. Her eyes opened to reveal bright, turquoise jewels smiling cheerfully at the trio. "Oh!" she gasped, seeing the two girls. "Oh… I thought – "

"That it was the guys?" Nick finished his mother's sentence. "Nah… Still don't really talk to them outside of football, Ma." The boy sat up and gestured to each of the girls in turn. "This is Tiffany Foley and Dannika Fenton," he introduced respectively.

The woman's face brightened at the names. "Ms. Fenton!" she purred. "I didn't know you were friend's with Danny's girl, Nickie!"

Dannika shrunk away from the attention, but Tiffany was indignant. "And the Mayor's girl!" Mrs. Jealousy rang out, trying to pull some of that attention her way.

"Yes, yes, Ms. Foley, too," Mrs. Baxter waved the comment away. She swooped forward, settling down beside Dannika and setting the tray in the middle of the floor. "I heard about your loss, Dannika, sweetie. It must be so painful to have to go through all that! And with your father being out of town so much!" The woman tsked, shaking her head sadly. "Those rotten Mansons just had to add to your drama by taking you away, poor thing!"

"Umm… I'm okay… Really…" Dannika stammered, trying to scoot away from the woman without her noticing. "It's not that big a deal, Mrs. Baxter – "

"Paulina."

"What?"

"Call me Paulina, sweetie. Mrs. Baxter is far too… Average!" Paulina decided.

"O-ka-ay… Paulina…" Dannika corrected herself, a little freaked out.

Paulina looked around the group cheerily before rising to her feet. "Well, I'd better leave you three be!" she decided. "If you need anything, just holler!" With that, she was gone, gliding up the stairs and leaving the three to their devices.

"What's with her?" Tiffany grumbled, once more pouting on the beanbag chair.

Nick shrugged. "She's a fashion designer and obsessed with Danny Phantom. As far as I can tell, she's been obsessed with him since she was in High School."

Well, I guess that explains why Nick wants me to use my powers so badly, instead of trying to get rid of them… Dannika thought absently.

About an hour later, the three were clustered around the Xbox TV playing Left for Dead, the deviled eggs nearly completely gone and soda cans littering the floor.

"I got a tank! Got a tank over here!" Tiffany shouted, pounding away at the controller.

"Hang on, I'm coming!" Nick yelled back, the joystick on his control doing 360's.

Dannika watched from the corner, not interested in playing any games. Her mind had left the room a while ago and traveled down the road to her own house. What was happening there? Had her father left to get rid of those ghosts in France yet? What was Danielle doing? Her mother? Her Grandmother? Were they renovating the house so she and her brother could return? The girl couldn't take it anymore. She had to know what was going on and why her family hadn't contacted her yet!

Dannika rose to her feet, glancing around the room. "Guys," she muttered. "I'm going to take a little flight. I'll be right back…"

"No! I'm down! I'm down! I'm down!" Nick yelled. "What's tha – Yeah, yeah! Sure!"

"I'm coming! Just hang on!" Tiffany was yelling.

Dannika smiled sadly at her friends. They were having so much fun… Is this what would become of them if she just disappeared from their lives? They never had this much fun with her… Would fighting ghosts by her side be as much fun as slaughtering zombies in that game? Dannika shook her head, transforming into Phantom and flying out through the wall.

It took about ten minutes to get from Nick's house to Fenton Works. Once there, Dannika hesitated outside the door. Part of her wanted to turn back human and knock – talk to her family and be a part of it once more. But she couldn't. She couldn't face them right now. Silently, she phased through the wall, flying invisibly through the house. Before she went to see how anyone was doing, there were a few things she wanted to grab – her makeup, for starters. As she flew down the hallway, she passed by her parents' room, a few drops of conversation catching her attention.

" – should go see them before you leave in the morning." It was her mother's voice. Dannika slowed down, hovering just outside the door.

"No, I shouldn't… Dannika hates me…" The lower, gruffer voice belonged to Danny.

"She doesn't hate you!" Sam objected.

"Did you see the way she looked at me? She thinks I'm a monster…"

"She just doesn't understand," Sam consoled. "She's scared, and she misses her father – the father she once had, not the father that's never around." There was silence, then, "Jake misses you, too."

"Jake hates all things related to ghosts," Danny objected.

"Why do you say such things? If you go around constantly claiming your children hate you, the only thing that will come of it is them actually hating you!"

"Jake's mother was killed by ghosts," Danny snapped. "He's never wanted anything to do with them! Hell, when we first brought him into this family, he didn't even believe ghosts existed! We scared him nearly every night, Sam!"

"He's past all that, Danny! He's been living with us for ten years now!"

"And when has he ever shown an interest in ghosts in that time? When has he ever even hinted that he wasn't afraid of them?"

"Danny – "

"How did he act when that ghost attacked Fenton Works? Tell me that?"

Silence.

"Tell me, Sam!"

"He ran. He ran to get Dannika. She was his only concern. He got her and then he hid with her."

"He ran and hid! The boy's still terrified of them!"

Dannika wasn't entirely sure what her parents were talking about. She'd never asked what had happened to Jake's parents. The thought had never crossed her mind. Was he really afraid of ghosts? Her mind raced back to the various conversations she had had with her brother, to everything he'd said about ghosts. There was the attack at school… Jake had come by and sat with her on the bus. What had he said to her? Were you scared? Yes, that was it. Had he been scared, then? It's a highly dangerous job, he'd said. Was there something else he hadn't been saying?

"Danny…" Sam sighed. "How can you expect them to look up to you if you never give them something to look up to? Just think about it. They really do adore you."

He thought they hated him. It was true, Dannika didn't really look up to her father, but hate? No, she didn't hate him. If she hated him, she wouldn't be about to try and help save his name. She wouldn't get so upset about it when people started bad mouthing him. No. Dannika didn't hate her father, she just wanted a normal family. A normal life.

Silently, she floated down the hall and to the bathroom where she retrieved the makeup that had been left behind. Slipping it into her pocket, she backtracked, flying down into the basement where Danielle was hard at work outlining various plans.

"Do you ever take a break?" Dannika asked, stepping into visibility.

Danielle jumped at the sound of the girl's voice, her hand going to her heart in fright. "You scared me!" she gasped.

"Yeah, well, you didn't answer my question," Dannika retorted.

Danielle laughed, shaking her head. "My whole life has been a break up until about five years ago. Then I started paying attention to your father's life – trying to keep him safe."

Dannika shook her head, walking up to the table. "So what's your plan? You do know a ghost is bound to show up in town pretty soon. It's part of the 'test.'" The girl turned her head as she tried to cipher the notes Danielle had been working on.

"Well," Danielle said, scooping the papers into a pile and storing them away in a box. "I was hoping you'd take care of this ghost. That is, if you feel up to it. If you'd rather not, get some more training in first – "

"I'll do it," Dannika interrupted. "Better to get this started as soon as possible, right?"

Danielle nodded thoughtfully. "Alright. So, you'll take care of that. Anything else you need?"

"Training." Dannika suggested sarcastically.

Danielle hung her head, sighing. "With the Mansons taking you away, that makes training difficult. I'm still trying to figure out a way we can schedule that."

Dannika propped herself up on the desk, crossing her legs one atop the other. "Well," she mused, "I managed to sneak away tonight. Our schedule before was I get, what, an hour of training in every day after school? We can still probably squeeze that in. I'll just sneak off down here after school. No one would notice. I hardly ever show my face in that house, anyway."

Danielle nodded, distracted. "Yeah… Sounds good…" she muttered. The woman was shuffling through some old boxes, a notebook in hand. "If that's all, I'm a little busy here…"

Dannika sighed, getting to her feet. "I guess I'll see you Monday after school, then…"

"Uh-huh…"

Dannika watched her cousin a moment, reluctant to leave. But the inevitable was near. She couldn't stay here forever… Who knew when Paulina would head back down to check on Nick and Tiffany. If she came down more than once, how long could the two keep her at bay if she noticed Dannika's absence? Silently, Dannika phased through the wall and flew back to Nick's house.

Author's Notes

The battle's almost here! Sorry, you guys are probably getting a bit bored by now… But do not fear! Next chapter will have more excitement and will be the start of yet more twists! (which means the lemons of life will be attacking Dannika again! Yay!)

Comments are loved!