I do not own Danny Phantom.
The ride home for the Fenton family was in uneasy silence, with the only sound being the hum of the RV's engine and soft thunder picking up in the distance. The sky was dark with rain clouds and already fat drops splashed onto the windshield. A Thunderstorm would hit any second now.
Jack's face was somber. His large hands held tight enough to the steering wheel to turn his knuckles white. He couldn't help but look back at his wife and son in the rearview mirror every few minutes as if he needed to see that they were still there.
Danny laid down in the backseat, his upper body resting in his mother's arms. She held him in a way she hadn't in years. His tremors slowly began to subside as his soul surrendered to it's fate. This mortal coil would once again be it's home. Memories of death and floating untethered began to fade. The boy's skin still felt cold but was slowly warming up. Maddie gently ran her hand up and down the side of his arm in an attempt to help him heat up. His breathing had evened out to a soft, steady rhythm. He appeared to be sleeping peacefully with only a twitch of his mouth or a flutter of his eyelids every once in a while to suggest he was dreaming.
Every now and again Maddie would plant a kiss on the top of his head but she hardly looked down at the boy in her arms. Her eyes were glazed over, lost in thought, an exhausted somber expression similar to her husband's etched on her features.
As the rain began to pour down more heavily, they pulled into their usual parking spot in their home's driveway. Jack got out to open the RV door for Maddie so he could help take Danny inside.
"I gotcha Danny boy." He muttered more to himself than for his son to hear.
As the father gently began to pull Danny out of the vehicle, he felt the rain pouring on his back suddenly stop. He looked beside him to find Jazz smiling worryingly holding a large umbrella over them to keep them dry. Jack gave her a look to let her know he was grateful. They could always rely on Jazz to pick up on all the little things their family needed. Sometimes Jack and Maddie would think she was the better parent than they were, the way she took care of all of them.
As soon as they all entered the front door they were rushed by the worried exclamations of Danny's friends, waiting all this time to see for themselves that the boy was alright. Their eyes were red and puffy, especially Sam's. Clearly they had been crying with worry over Danny's well being and had been waiting with anticipation to know for sure that he would be he would be okay. Jack remembered hearing the goth girl sobbing that this was her fault. He didn't understand what happened to make her think that but from his own experience he could sympathize with the feeling, and hoped she could feel better knowing that Danny wasn't dead.
"Alright, everybody back up and give him some air. Kid's fine. Just needs his rest."
Jack surprised himself with how fine he sounded when he spoke. For most of the day instincts had been carrying him through. All afternoon when he was on the verge of denial, or shutting down, a piece of him that knew he had to stay focused for his son's sake took over.
He carried his son up to his room and tucked him into bed.
"Could we stay until he wakes up?" Sam asked hopefully.
"Sure sweetie, I'm sure Danny would appreciate that." Maddie answered, and the two teens set up a beanbag and Danny's computer chair around the bed, trying to get comfortable as they waited for their friend to awaken.
Not long after Jack, Jazz and Maddie left the room, closing the door behind them, a flash of light could be seen just from under the crack in the door. Maddie passed it off as a large bolt of lightning illuminating the room from the windows. She thought she heard Tucker yell something that was muffled by the sound of crashing thunder, but she only shrugged it off, much too tired to investigate.
The married couple needed some rest of their own. They felt so emotionally drained from the day's events that they could just collapse, when suddenly, Jazz rushed her mother for a tight hug and then immediately did the same for her father. Her arms encircling around him the best she could manage.
Jack and Maddie were taken aback by her sudden show of emotion for a split second. She hadn't clung to her parents like that in years and for a moment she seemed so much younger.
"I'm just… so glad that Danny's okay. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened…"
Her voice was muffled, as she buried her face into her father's side. The sound of Jazz sniffling back some tears was what finally broke Jack out of instinct mode. He was about to overflow as a million thoughts and feelings hit him all at once. He hugged her back but let go when he felt his body start to tremble with emotion.
"M-me too sunshine. Uh, how about you order us a pizza for dinner okay? I-I'll be down in the lab if you need me." He said quickly in a shaky voice that was barely holding it together.
He made his way down the stairs in large quick strides, not looking back. He didn't want Jazz to see him break down. He wanted to be strong for his kids.
The lab was dark, save for the green glow of the portal. It was on and open, functioning just as it was supposed to in all of the Fenton's blueprints. At any other time, Jack would be weeping with joy to find that his life's work, the creation his whole career was leading up to was brought to perfection. At this moment however, that was not reason why he cried.
He couldn't even think about the portal, his mind was racing with an uncountable amount of other thoughts and they would not stop bombarding his psyche like an aluminum bat to the head.
His son died today. Yes, the boy would be fine now, but the image of his youngest child laying lifeless on a metal table was seared into his memory forever and would likely be the subject of all his nightmares for years to come. He was so close to never being able to talk with him again. Never getting to see him smile again. Never see him come home from school and say "Hey dad" ever again. Never get to put his hand on his shoulder and steer him in the direction of the lab to show him the new invention that would finally get him interested in ghost hunting. Never grow up, never graduate, and never get the chance to choose what to do with his adult life.
That is unless Danny died again. Which was not an unheard of scenario to play out this year. Pure luck was the reason he was able to complete the contract for Vlad's life all those years ago. There were so many close calls. He had to do so many terrible things over the course of that year. It truly pushed him to his limits.
And Scratch would push him again. There was no doubt about that. That vile creature would demand Jack and Maddie complete a number of horrendous deeds this year and any mistake, any slip up whatsoever, and the monster would snap his fingers and take back what he had given to Danny. On a whim his boy would be stone cold on the ground before he even knew what hit him.
Jack thought of all the possible scenarios. All the ways things could go wrong. He and Maddie might be asked to do something that could potentially get them killed. They could be made to do something that could land them in prison. Both cases would lead to them being unable to do their work thus leading to their son's death. And what would happen to their family then?
Jack imagined how Jazz would react to being told that the little brother she loved so much died. Or worse, being the one to find him lifeless on the floor. Even worse still, Jazz being delivered the devastating news that something terrible happened to her parents, running to tell Danny and THEN find him lifeless on the floor. The poor girl would be beyond distraught. His daughter could end up an orphan.
All these thoughts swirled around his head and soon Jack began to hyperventilate. His tears would not stop. He sat slouched against the wall, head in his hands trying to regain control.
Suddenly he felt Maddie's hand on his shoulder. He looked up into her sad eyes and knew without needing to exchange a word that she understood. She was going through the exact thing he was. The couple embraced and Jack cried freely into his wife's shoulder. Now it was her turn to be Jack's rock.
The moment was interrupted by the unwanted appearance of Scratch. "Hey." He greeted them jovially. Either he couldn't read the room or he just didn't care. "Gotta job for ya. Get in your car, I'll explain on the way.
"Now?" Maddie asked clearly aggravated. "We JUST got home."
"For the next 365 days, you'll suit up, shut and do whatever I ask you to do, whenever I feel like it. Now, up, up, up, off the floor. We're going for a ride."
Jack and Maddie calmed themselves down enough so as not to raise suspicion for their daughter. They exited the lab to find Jazz sitting on the couch reading a library book. "Hey Princess, we just got a call for a ghost sighting on maple street, we might be back late."
Jazz looked up from her book and gave her parents an incredulous glare like they were making a bad joke.
"You JUST brought Danny home." She stated matter of factly, anger laced in her voice.
"I know-"
"He hasn't even woken up yet!"
"Yeah-"
"And it's raining cats and dogs, and your going to be driving all over the city in your giant metal death trap!"
"It's-"
"- For a ghost, which is probably just some stray cat left out in the rain that someone mistook for something else, because ghosts aren't real!"
"Jazz-"
"What's real is your family, and one member of this family almost died today because of an invention YOU made because of this sick obsession you have with ghosts, and you're telling me you can't even be bothered to stick around long enough to wait until he wakes up so you can ask him if he's okay!?"
Jack needed a moment to close his eyes and take a deep breath to calm himself. He felt her rant hurt him like a swift kick to the gut, but he didn't exactly have a good argument against what she was saying though. From her point of view, they were being completely callous. Of course they wanted to stay home and to see if Danny was okay, but they couldn't say no to Scratch. Not that she knew anything about that.
If they were in her position, they'd be just as upset. They couldn't explain the real situation to her however. They knew Jazz well enough to get a pretty good idea of how she'd react to the truth. It would drive her to want to help. It would put so much unneeded stress and worry on her, and compel her to follow her parents into danger. But this wasn't her contract to fulfill, and if she goes her whole life without ever interacting with that monster Scratch, that'd be great. For the entire family's sake, neither of the Fenton children could find out about what Jack and Maddie were doing.
"Save us some pizza. We'll probably be back late." Was Jack's only response as he grabbed the keys and went for the front door, not wanting to continue this conversation. He could hear Jazz grumbling furiously under her breath at how their ghost obsession was making them ineffective parents. It really hurt to hear.
Maddie followed suit. She was right behind him when she suddenly heard a loud thump from upstairs. She dashed up to knock on Danny's bedroom door to check what it was.
"Danny, are you awake?" She called. Hope came alive in her chest and the thought of seeing her son well and standing distracted her from what she was supposed to be doing.
"Uh, yeah mom! I'm fine! Don't come in!" Her son answered back from behind the locked door in a frantic voice. She heard him whisper something to his friends. Maddie tried to make out what they were saying.
"The portal must have given you gho-"
"Hey!" Scratch snapped from behind her, ripping her attention away from the teen's conversation. She nearly jumped out of her skin, surprised by his sudden appearance. She deeply hated that he could just materialize wherever he wanted.
"We're going! Now! Or how many times do you want this kid to drop today?"
Maddie understood perfectly well.
"Sweetie, your father and I are heading out for a job, we'll be back late, okay? I love you!"
Danny's reply was rushed, "Yeah, love you too mom! Bye!"
In this story Danny and his friends mistakenly believe that the ghost portal directly caused him to develop ghost powers, all the while Jack and Maddie are too busy to notice that he has them. And Scratch, being the sleaze that he is, has no intention of telling them that when he brings people back, they don't exactly come back as normal humans.
I'm trying to write this story in a way that it could potentially fit in with the canon material of the show, without retconning TOO much. Danny still goes on the superhero adventures he does in the show, just with Jack and Maddie occasionally working for Scratch behind the scenes.
See you in the next chapter, where we continue the most stressful day of Jack and Maddie Fenton's lives with their first job.
Feedback is appreciated.