Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom

Note: To "GiselleVera" it's ok, it's not like you could have known what was happening since it was a mix of drama on Discord, Tumblr, and in my personal life. I was hurt and shouldn't have let what happened get to me so much, and I was having a really hard time, but I'm glad I decided to do some damage control by re-posting a revised version of this. Thank goodness for keeping backups of all the chapters I wrote before, right? Also ugh, parts of this are hitting a little close to home about betrayal and people not believing in you but I'll try to push through it. Hopefully it'll be cathartic for me.

Chapter 2: Tension

Danielle's POV

The next morning we ended up having breakfast with Vlad since he insisted on getting to know my brother and I better before we ran out of time since the reunion started sometime around noon. I still felt a little on edge after what happened last night since those ghosts were probably still up to something. The rest of my injuries had long since healed up, but as a result I was exhausted from using so much extra energy so when I stifled a yawn, Vlad, who had been holding the door open for us as we entered his dining room, stopped me by placing a hand on my shoulder and asked if I was alright.

I smiled at him since it was nice to actually have someone notice when I'm worn out or not feeling well besides my brother and replied with a nod, "Yeah, I'm ok. I'm just not used to getting up so early that's all. I get why we had to but I would have preferred to sleep in."

"That's a relief. I was concerned you had another nightmare but I'm glad you managed to get back to sleep," Vlad nodded in approval, letting go of my shoulder and politely closing the door behind us.

I ended up sitting on the other side of Vlad while my parents and Jason chose to sit on the other side of the table. And I know this is going to sound stupid, but it made them feel so far away, like we weren't even on the same planet anymore. That made me really sad for some reason so I sighed and began digging into the pancakes stacked on my plate, not really that worried about my manners until I noticed Vlad staring at me.

I pretended not to notice, but I could feel my cheeks burning as I unconsciously started to eat much slower and take smaller bites. Is he that worried about me...?

"Um, Mr. Masters? I'm really ok you know," I blurted out while my mom was distracted because she was busy scolding dad and telling him not to eat so fast since he nearly choked after stuffing a whole pancake into his mouth.

Coughing into his fist, Vlad replied, "I'm sorry for staring, Danielle. And please, call me Vlad. At any rate, I was actually thinking about what you told me last night and was wondering how to best broach the subject without concerning your parents too much. Sleep deprivation can become a serious problem if not addressed right away."

It's nothing new sadly, I thought to myself, but when I opened my mouth to reply, mom heard at least the last half of that and asked, "Dani, is something wrong sweetheart? What's Vlad talking about?"

Visibly tensing since my gut reaction is to deny everything, Vlad was quicker with his response and waved his hand dismissively as he explained, "There's no need for concern Maddie, Danielle told me a little about what's been troubling her lately which seems to be giving her nightmares and if it's not too impertinent of me to say, you really should try trusting your daughter more. The strain of trying to meet your high expectations have been weighing heavily on her mind, resulting in many sleepless nights where it becomes even more difficult to focus on her studies. I'm sure if you give her a bit more room to breathe, her grades will begin to improve in no time at all. Isn't that right, Danielle?"

I blinked since Vlad was actually right about a lot of that even though there was ghost fighting too, but what surprised me the most was how he was...defending me. I was really taken aback by that. I didn't think he'd care so much about my education when I hardly knew the guy. Still, the vote of confidence in Vlad's voice made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so I gave him a small appreciative smile. My good mood totally crashed and burned though when mom unexpectedly frowned and told him-

"That's no excuse for bad grades, Vlad. If that really were the case then it sounds like more of a time management issue. I agree that she should make sure to get plenty of sleep, but if studying with her friends isn't helping and they're just goofing off then maybe Danielle should consider asking someone to be her tutor. Jason already offered to but she refused."

When she said that, my hands curled into fists and after rushing to my feet I blurted out, "I already have to live with Mr. A+, so why should I have to ask him to tutor me too?! I already feel like and idiot compared to him at school which is something you and everyone else just love to remind me of! Vlad's right, I AM trying though! I'm trying really hard! Isn't that enough for you?"

"Danielle, sit down and lower your voice," mom scolded, but I stood my ground, furious.

After that, while still eating dad chimed in and said off-handedly, "Dani, listen to your mother. Besides, it's not just your grades. You're always shirking your chores too..."

I could feel a hard lump forming in my throat from the sudden urge to scream at them, but it was only because Vlad was there that I didn't. I already felt humiliated enough and bitterly continued, "I'm only human, dad. I can't be expected to do everything around the house and study at the same time! Besides, when's the last time you guys made Jason do any chores, huh? Oh, that's right, never! Because he's the prodigal son and needs all the free time in the world to do whatever he wants like it's some given right for being smarter than me! You don't even give me the time of day unless I do something wrong!"

"Hey, don't drag me into this," Jason frowned, but at the same time, he looked worried because of my outburst and tried to defuse the situation with his shrink-babble. "I think everyone needs to calm down and take a deep breath before they say something they'll regret-"

Unable to hold back anymore, my shoulder started to shake and before I could think better of it, I shouted, "The only thing I regret was being born into this family!"

After that, I angrily swiped the tears out of my eyes and ran out of the dining room, slamming the door behind me. My vision was blurry and I had no idea where I was going at first, but I didn't care, I needed to get out of there before I accidentally triggered my ghost powers or did say anything else I'd regret. Deep down I knew I didn't mean that last part, I love my family more than anything, but sometimes...it felt like they either cared too much about something or didn't care enough.

And lately, it felt like they didn't care about me at all and treated me more like a burden than a daughter. Either way, somehow I managed to make it back to the guest room Vlad gave me and flung myself onto the bed, hugging the pillow close to my chest as I curled up in a tight ball as I cried my eyes out. All alone in the world with no one on my side.

Or so I thought.

In the end, no one bothered to check on me. Not even Vlad. Or maybe they were more worried about the reunion, I dunno. Either way, I knew I'd get an earful from my parents if I didn't at least show up to the damn thing so I took a quick shower and got dressed in the midnight blue gown they made me pack...

It's actually the same one I wore to my first school dance when I tried to ask Paul to go with me since it was one of those weird ones where the girl asks the guy to go. But then that whole thing with the ghost dragon happened when I couldn't get back this armband with this big old dragon eye on it and he put it on Sam and it was just a huge disaster. I'm just lucky this dress didn't get torn to shreds from fighting that ghost prince.

Still, I would have much rather faced that dragon again then show my face at this stupid party. In fact, I didn't want to be there at all. I sighed heavily while doing my makeup while trying to hide the fact that my eyes were still red and puffy from crying so much earlier. The shower helped a bit but my eyes felt gritty.

Oh well. As long as I survived tonight too, I'll call that a win. I thought, trying to make the most of it and just get this nightmare over with.

For obvious reasons I wasn't in the mood for dancing once I made my way to the ballroom. Besides, who would I even dance with anyway...? Everyone there was really old and the few other fellow teens I saw who had been dragged to this too seemed content to play on their phones and lurk in the furthest darkest corner they could find...

Meanwhile, all I had was a crappy hand-me-down phone which mom had taken anyway since they didn't want me talking to my friends when this trip was, in a lot of ways, more of a punishment. And apart from hearing dad's story about the accident Vlad had during their college days, my parents have barely spoken to me at all during this trip which I thought was the whole point. They were more interested in catching up with their old friend Vladdy than dealing with me. So what was even the point of making me come here they're just going to ignore me more than usual?

Jason was no better since he ended up ditching the party entirely to watch these old football documentaries playing in Vlad's mini-theater. Because of course HE's allowed to ditch, no questions asked, but I can't. After Jason told me he wasn't coming I glared daggers in his general direction as I left, and once I saw mom and dad I walked over to them so they'd see with their own eyes that I at least bothered to show up. Like I said, if I didn't they'd assume I never came at all and would probably ground me for disobeying once we got home, which they were probably going to do anyway after I yelled at them at breakfast this morning.

I wasn't even surprised when neither of them so much as mentioned my outburst and pretended like nothing ever happened while introducing me to another old friend of theirs who turned out to be this hot-shot reporter lady named Harriet Chin. I winced when dad made the 'hairy chin' joke at her expense and groaned, resisting the urge to run my hands down my face and smudge my make up. Thankfully I was spared having to endure the embarrassment any further when dad heard one of his favorite songs start playing and dragged mom out to the dance floor, leaving me alone with Harriet.

She felt just as sorry as I did too that I had to witness such a horrific display since dad really is an awful dancer. Mom taught me how to waltz, but that's about it. And I couldn't imagine them playing any slow music at an event like this.

But oh how wrong I was.

As soon as Harriet wandered off after complimenting my dress, I found an unoccupied seat and settled down, bored out of my mind and wishing I could just leave. But there was a wall of people blocking the doorway so I highly doubted I could slip away that easily even if I resorted to using my ghost powers. I sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time, my arms folded on the table in front of me since I stopped caring about my posture ages ago. It wasn't like I had anyone left to impress since I hadn't seen Vlad since the reunion started.

That soon changed when I felt his hand rest on my shoulder and when I looked up, sure enough, there he was. "There you are Danielle, I've been looking all over for you. I'm terribly sorry I couldn't come sooner. As you can imagine I was expected to meet and greet the other guests first since I'm the one hosting the reunion this year and sadly I couldn't get away sooner."

Vlad's smile became a little warmer as he complimented softly, "By the way, you look absolutely ravishing, my dear."

I smiled sadly in return and muttered a quick thank you before sighing again, not sure what else to say to him. That's when, to my surprise, a slow song started playing and everyone began to gather in the middle of the room to sway to the music. I could even see my parents way off on the other side of the room holding each other close. Again, seeing them so...content after what I said earlier made it feel like they really didn't care about my feelings at all and I felt my eyes start to water. But then, Vlad suddenly reached for my hand, smiling as he bowed slightly, and then asked me to dance with him.

I couldn't believe my ears and just stared at him dumbly before nodding almost automatically, letting Vlad graciously guide me to the dance floor like I was a princess in a fairytale. It felt like I was literally walking on air and like we weighed nothing at all since it was so easy to follow his movements. Then again Vlad's probably danced with hundreds of women so this is nothing new.

Still, I was a bit tense since I was afraid of stepping on his feet so I kept my eyes on our feet. I don't know why but his hands felt so warm, almost comforting. He had this powerful yet gentle aura that put me at ease so eventually my shoulders relaxed, and I finally looked up at his face again, following his lead like it was the most natural thing to do.

It wasn't until Vlad started talking that I became anxious again when he said, "Danielle, I've been meaning to talk to you. Once this dance is over would you mind waiting for me in my lab? It's the second door on the right upstairs. I promise I won't be long."

Pulling away from him slightly, sensing a lecture coming on I cut him off and frowned, "Look, I appreciate that you tried to help me this morning, but I don't want to-"

"Danielle," Vlad began in a low but serious tone a voice that made me clamp my mouth shut.

Once he was sure I wouldn't interrupt him again, Vlad looked me right in the eyes after sparing a glance in my parent's direction and explained, "I understand your hesitation, but I'm afraid it's about something more serious. And I don't want your parents to overhear us and cause a scene if I so much as mention it out here in the open. You know how your father gets. At the mere mention of ghosts, he can't contain himself."

I suddenly froze, all the color draining from my face.

"What-what do you mean ghosts? We both know there's no such thing, right?" I laughed nervously, my eyes darting around as if looking for an escape route. "I mean yeah I heard you guys studied them in college, but seriously Mr. Mast -I mean Vlad- you don't actually believe in all that nonsense do you?"

Closing his eyes as the song ended and we slowed to a halt, Vlad leaned in and whispered quietly, "That remains to be seen."

Unable to see any way of avoiding the subject, I argued defensively, "What makes you think I know anything? Sure my parents are ghost hunters, but that doesn't mean I believe in any of it. My brother doesn't either. That's half the reason he suggested we come here, so we could go on a normal family outing."

I felt like a cornered animal when Vlad put his hand to the small of my back and carefully guided me away from the dance floor again just to make sure we were well completely out of earshot then continued, "Now Danielle, I don't wish to alarm you, but the truth is you didn't just suffer a nightmare last night. You likely have no memory of this, but were attacked and I found you lying unconscious on the floor. I didn't want to believe it at first either, but I saw what appeared to be three ghostly-green vultures fleeing the scene in a terrible hurry and rushed to your side as soon as I saw you were hurt.

"I feared the worse, but thankfully your injuries were mostly superficial. So I brought you back to your room and hoped to talk to you about it after breakfast. But sadly you clearly weren't up for such a serious discussion at the time. Truth be told, when you and your family first came her I was only joking about the ghost of the Dairy King haunting this place, however, when I saw those other ghosts with my own eyes and realized what had happened, I began to worry for your safety. Especially after finding you in such a state."

"I wasn't...that's not..." I began, feeling lightheaded, wondering what else Vlad might have seen.

Noticing that I was about to start hyperventilating, Vlad glanced behind us to make sure no one saw us leave and shut the door behind us as he led me to the nearest empty room. Once we were alone it was a little easier to breathe, but at the same time I was still freaking out.

This couldn't be happening! How much did Vlad really see? How much did he know? I had no idea, and that scared me so much I couldn't stand it! I barely noticed Vlad's attempts to soothe my frazzled nerves by rubbing small circles on my back. Clearly he had hadn't expected this explosive reaction.

Today couldn't possibly get any worse, could it?