That's not True-
The next morning, Danny and Sam dropped their children off at school on their way to work. Though they had been able to fall asleep relatively easily the night before, after being woken up by their memories, both of the twins still seemed visibly shaken.
"Bye guys, love you," their mom called out behind them as the two got out of the car.
"Love you too," they called back in unison.
They were silent as they walked through the entry to the school.
"Are you still thinking about the dream?" Grayson asked his sister, she nodded, though she hadn't needed to, he already knew the answer.
"By Lizzie," he said as they passed her classroom first.
"By Gray-gray," she teased back, going into her classroom before he could respond.
Lizzie hung up her backpack going to sit at her desk. She was early, earlier than any other student in her class. Mrs. Peterson, who had quietly been reading a book behind her desk, took notice of the young girl's punctuality.
"Hey Lizzie," she said, making conversation with the girl. She hadn't expected her to converse back. With most kindergartens, at least, at this time of the morning, they would say hi, and the conversation would be over.
"Hi Mrs. Peterson," the dark-haired girl replied, smiling at her teacher and catching the thirty-three year old woman off guard.
"Did you sleep well last night?" she asked, noticing a light dark circle beneath the girl's eyes.
"Kinda," Lizzie shrugged, "I had a bad dream," Lizzie's eyebrows pulled together, thinking about the dream.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Mrs. Peterson broached.
"No," Lizzie shook her head.
"Okay then," Mrs. Peterson smiled, "I saw you yesterday, making lots of friends and including Missy in a lot of things. That was really sweet, and I think it meant a lot to her."
"Thanks," Lizzie grinned, looking through the contents of her desk.
Well, the conversation was effectively over, but it was more than what Mrs. Peterson had expected to get out of the girl.
Slowly, but surely, the room began to fill with kids, and, once again, Missy was the last one to enter the room before class started.
Sure, she was still playing shy, but when she caught Lizzie's warm smile, she brightened up a little.
"Guess what?" Lizzie beamed, "My mom said that you could come over to my house tonight for hotdogs."
Missy smiled.
'Still not talking much,' Lizzie thought, 'well we'll fix that eventually.'
That afternoon, Grayson, Lizzie and Missy walked home together.
'What is wrong with Grayson?' Lizzie wondered about her brother who had been uncharacteristically quiet, despite her prodding for conversation, 'He hasn't said anything to me since this morning?'
"Mommy!" she called as they walked through the front door, "We're home!" The smell of cooking hotdogs had already filled the house, despite the early afternoon hour.
"Mmm…" Missy smiled taking a deep breath of smell of the forbidden yet beloved food.
"Hey guys," Sam said, coming from the kitchen around the corner, "…Is this your friend?" Sam's slight hesitation was unnoticed by her children and by Missy.
Of course, Sam knew who the girl was, even if she hadn't seen her in Paulina's tow on the first day of school, the bright hair and eyes certainly gave her away.
"Mom, this is Missy," Lizzie introduced her friend, "Missy, this is my mom."
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Fenton," Missy said in a quiet, shy, voice, and, with more words than Lizzie had ever heard her string together.
Sam smiled, putting her bias about the girl's mother aside.
"It's nice to meet you too, Missy. Lizzie tells me that you like hotdogs," she said.
Missy nodded eagerly.
"But my mommy never lets me eat them," she said finally.
"Hmm...I'll bet," Sam muttered under her breath, low enough, that only Lizzie and Grayson caught her words. Normally Sam would respect another parent's decisions about what their child can and cannot eat. But this was Paulina's daughter, which meant that she had no issues, whatsoever, defying her 'fear-of-fat-and-carbs' wishes.
"Well, dinner will be ready soon. Do you guys have any homework?" the kindergarteners shook their heads.
"Well, then," Sam smiled, "Why don't you go play in your bedrooms or in the playroom."
"Come on," Lizzie tugged at Missy, "Let's go put your stuff in my room."
Sam chuckled at her daughter's slightly abrasive tendencies, which, reminded her a lot of herself. Though judging by how closed-off and shy Missy seemed to be, a little of her daughters pushing may not be an altogether bad thing.
Lizzie's room was a light purple, but with various other shades, greens and blues, and yellows decorating the space as well. In a collection on her dresser were various pictures in homemade frames that she had made at her and Grayson's fourth birthday party. Pictures of her and Grayson together, pictures of their parents and them with their parents, pictures of them with their grandparents and Aunts. There was even a picture taken from her parent's wedding, with her in a lavender dress, sitting on Phantom's lap. Which, she hadn't realized until yesterday, that they picture she found so unique above the others, was just another picture of her with her dad.
"You know Danny Phantom?" Missy asked, astounded. But behind her astonishment, was a little bit of hurt that Lizzie, being as intuitive as she was, couldn't help but notice. However, she did not immediately remark on her friend's dejected undertones.
"Yeah, do you?" Lizzie pressed, keeping a vague angle to her question, knowing that she wasn't supposed to say anything about her dad's secret or her own.
"Not really," Missy sighed.
"What's wrong?" Lizzie decided to ask.
"Well…it's just that…my whole life, my mom told me about my dad and stuff and how he couldn't come and visit me…but…he can visit you. And the newspaper said that he had a new family, a ghost family…" it took Lizzie a few seconds to process what she was saying.
She was saying that Phantom was her dad! That Lizzie's dad was her dad!
Lizzie wanted to exclaim that it wasn't true, but she knew that she would be breaking the rules her parents had set for her about their secret (and, although she was usually okay with breaking their rules, her dad had seemed far too serious about it the night before). So, instead, Lizzie kept her mental freak-out to herself.
Thankfully, the dad in question popped his head in the room to announce that dinner was ready.
Missy stood up, happy to go get some hotdogs. She looked at her friend who still sat on her bed.
"Go ahead, I'll meet you in a sec," she tried to smile encouragingly. Missy shrugged, walking passed Danny and to the kitchen.
Danny noticed his daughter's distress.
"What's wrong honey?" he wondered, sitting on her bed next to her.
"Missy says you're her dad!" Lizzie cried, "But I know that can't be true so why would she say it!"
Danny was quiet for a second. He had feared something like this would happen. The real Phantom kids becoming friends with the girl Paulina had successfully convinced was also Phantom's kid.
"Because, sweetheart," Danny sighed, "That's what her mom told her."
"But why?" Lizzie asked.
"Because, in high school, her mom had been kind of obsessed with me, so, when she had Missy she decided to tell people that I was her father. Which, I can assure you, I'm not," he rubbed his daughter's back.
"So she doesn't have a dad?" Lizzie inferred.
"Well she does, but he doesn't know that he's her dad, and she doesn't know that he's her dad. So no, honey, she doesn't have a dad in her life. This is probably why it has been so easy for her to believe that I was her dad," he told her.
"So what should I do?" Lizzie asked.
"Nothing," Danny replied, "You should just let her keep believing what she has been told."
"But it's not true!" Lizzie exclaimed, hot tears welling in her eyes and beginning to spill over. Danny used his thumb to wipe the tears off of her face.
"I know honey. But, if you told her the truth, it could hurt her really badly," he sighed.
"What do you mean?" Lizzie asked, the truth was supposed to be a good thing, wasn't it.
"Honey, I know Missy's mom, so I know that she probably doesn't have a very good life at home. Believing that I'm her dad, has probably given her some hope, even if it is fake. I mean, who wouldn't want me as their dad, I've done a pretty good job, right?" he joked, making Lizzie laugh, "And, if you tell her, then all she will have is a mom who doesn't care about her and who lied to her, and a dad that she will never get to know, understand?"
Lizzie nodded, "I think so."
"Good, now go eat hotdogs with your friend before Grayson steals them all," he said standing up. Lizzie grinned at him, bouncing off down the hall.
Danny grinned to himself, another crisis (in the eyes of a five-year-old) averted, well, for now, at least. He was sure that this issue would come back up, especially, when they both got a little bit older, with a slightly better understanding.
He wondered what Paulina had told her, or what she had said about how Phantom had a new family, which had been printed on all of the papers. Or, if she had even told her about that at all, maybe she had just let Missy figure it out on her own.
'Sure,' Danny thought, 'our family is messed up. There is no doubt about that, half-ghosts and clones and ghost-hunters, and an evil half-ghost psychopath after all of us. But, Missy's family may be even more dysfunctional. I mean, her mom doesn't give a crap about her, and she has lied to her about me being her father all these years without even giving a thought to how Missy might be affected if she ever finds out the truth. But, who cares about her daughters feelings so long as people continue to think she slept with Phantom, right? It makes me sick."
Danny walked into the kitchen, seeing Missy seated between my kids in the extra chair we always had at the table.
Danny chuckled lightly to himself, thinking that she would probably be a permanent fixture in their house without a real family to go home to.
'Just like Sam had been at my house,' he smirked to himself.
Okay, I know these last couple chapters have been kind of a four-shot instead of a one-shot, but I really don't do one-shots much, I prefer longer stories (despite the amount of work they are to keep up with). The rest of these one-shots, should actually be one-shots, although they will still, obviously remain connected to each other. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.