Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom

Note: Warning, slightly bloody/gory scenes ahead while Vlad treats Dani's arm!

Chapter 10: Mended

Vlad's POV

When I heard Danielle making a racket in the middle of the night, I pretended I was still asleep since I figured she was probably feeling restless and just needed some time to herself to collect her thoughts. That's how I idiotically assumed that she wouldn't do something as reckless as wandering off alone into the woods. After awhile when the chalet almost seemed too quiet now, I began to suspect something was wrong so I casually got out of bed and began searching for her.

Again I tried not to let fear get the best of me, however, once it became clear that Danielle was nowhere to be found inside the chalet I took my search outside and still found nothing. That is when panic started to set in. And fearing I finally scared Danielle off for good, I teleported all over the immediate area before setting off in the direction my ghost sense led me only to find Danielle was under attack!

I knew there were ghosts in this forest, it was part of why I chose the location for research on what could lead to an animal becoming one, but for them all to converge on Danielle was troubling enough and I had a feeling she'd be hard pressed to win a fight against so many while emotionally distressed. Still, I had to protect her so I showed them no mercy and even brought out my 'pet project' into the fray prematurely.

It was the ghost of a wolf I managed to tame through years of careful training once I realized that its ghostly 'obsession' was to protect its alpha to the death which is how it died in the first place. Thus, it made this the perfect guard dog for me once I convinced it that I was their new alpha ghost since it was obviously shunned by the pack of living wolves it tried to integrate itself with before I found it.

I made quick work of those rabid monstrosities after sending a duplicate ahead of me once I spotted Danielle to defend her no matter the cost while I fought the other ghosts personally along with my other duplicates and the ghost wolf I brought with me. Don't get me wrong, inside I was fuming because if it hadn't been for my quick thinking, I never would have found Danielle in time and I could have lost her forever! I didn't want that! I couldn't bear the thought of losing her.

I can't even begin to describe the immense relief I felt after finding Danielle unharmed. All I wanted to do was smother her with hugs and kisses to let her know just how happy I was to see her still alive. Sadly, that feeling was short-lived when I discovered that Danielle had been injured after all and was losing blood fast.

When I glanced at the injury my duplicate pointed out, I saw there were three deep lacerations on her right arm, the same arm they had lifted her up into the tree with which explained the ectoplasmic blood on its hand. And since Danielle didn't even realize she was in shock she couldn't feel any pain, so to avoid any more complications I avoided making it too obvious that something was wrong...

We needed to treat the wound quickly before her regenerative powers closed the wound too quickly and prevented me from properly disinfecting it so after justifiably scolding her for running off like that I teleported us both back to the chalet. I could tell she was rapidly becoming delirious from blood-loss so when I looked into her eyes the pupils were palpitating ever so slightly. Moments later, I noticed she had a head injury as well and unfortunately I was unable to stop Danielle from reaching up to touch her head when she felt the ectoplasmic blood trailing down her cheek... Danielle's must have scrapped her head on a rock when she fell earlier. I thought worriedly as I caught her before she collapsed.

Without hesitation I drew her close to support Danielle in a strong but gentle embrace and did what I could to keep her calm since the last thing we needed was for her to go running off again. She was growing faint from exhaustion as well so I phased us through the floor then created another duplicate to return the ghost wolf to its cage and then silently gave it instructions to gather what I needed to treat Danielle's wounds.

The wolf watched us curiously, smelling the blood, but since it saw me save her from those other ghosts I hoped it was smart enough to realize that Danielle was part of my 'pack' and thus part of theirs since I am its alpha. Returning to the task at hand, after she fainted I decided to lay her down and use on a normal sedative this time that I carefully injected into her other arm to make the treatment easier on both of us. Because honestly, seeing such a horrific wound on my little badger like this made my blood boil and I wanted nothing more than to venture back out into the forest to hunt down and destroy each and every one of those ghosts.

After that, as much as I hated to do it, I was forced to reopen the three gashes on her arm and inwardly shuttered upon noticing those claws had nearly torn it down all the way down to the bone. The gashes started just below the wrist with the first claw mark across her hand, the second right beside it, but the worse of all was the third one where the claw snagged across Danielle's flesh and tore open a long laceration across the middle of her forearm.

I quickly set to work disinfecting the wound, silently berating myself for exposing her to such vile creatures which I realized to my dismay that this made me no better than those neglectful parents of hers and their damned ghost portal spewing ectoplasmic monstrosities all over Amity Park. I deeply regretted putting her through so much pain, both when we first met, and now. But what else could I do?

I've never had anyone in my life I wanted to protect this badly before. We may not be related by blood, but I loved everything about Danielle from her laughter, smile, drive, cleverness, to her woefully underestimated potential and intelligence. And any flaws she had were strictly due to her upbringing and the folly of youth which made them inconsequential to me. All that mattered to me was her safety and happiness.

That at least, was something Maddie and I still agreed on if nothing else.

As I was tidying up after cleaning and bandaging her arm, I was hardly surprised when the normal sedatives wore off more quickly than they should have and Danielle opened her eyes, dazed. She blinked a few times before groaning and trying to sit up by bracing her arms up on the table, but it still hurt so Danielle gave up and laid back down on the examination table, which was good news anyway since I didn't want her to try and move too fast.

"Where...am I? What happened...?" Danielle asked weakly, her blue eyes dull and half-laden to the point where they threatened to close again.

"One of those ghostly beasts you stumbled upon during your 'walk' injured you rather badly I'm afraid. You lost a lot of blood then went into shock and became delirious so I brought you back to the chalet for treatment," I explained briskly, not betraying any emotion in my voice or posture yet since I wanted to measure Danielle's response first.

She didn't respond right away and when I noticed her eyes had closed I thought Danielle was about to fall asleep again, but that's when she lifted her uninjured arm to rest over her closed eyes and sighed heavily, "I don't know which is worse...the fact that I had to fight ghosts all the way out here too, or the fact that I had to be rescued by you. But Vlad, I...really just wanted to get some air. I was still mad about you tricking me and I...goddamn it!"

Clenching her fists and whimpering when doing so irritated the wound on her arm, Danielle scoffed bitterly, "I just can't do anything right can I? I never know what you're thinking. Hell, I don't even know what I was thinking. Or maybe I wasn't thinking at all and figured this is my punishment for being selfish about wanting to take a short break from all the ghost hunting!"

"Danielle, stop," I frowned as I gently but firmly unfurled her fist. "You're going to hurt yourself even more if you do that."

"Sorry," Danielle muttered, relaxing her grip, but she still seemed to be on the verge of tears.

Still holding Danielle's bandaged hand gently, I stroked the top with my thumb and told her sincerely, "Don't be, I'm just glad you're safe, little badger. When I realized you weren't in the chalet anymore I was afraid you had run away from me for good after I lost my temper earlier this afternoon. You did absolutely nothing wrong. And you had every right to be upset with me, but none of that matters anymore. What matters is that I got to you in time to save you from those creatures."

Rolling over on her side, although the examination table was probably terribly uncomfortable for her, Danielle lowered the arm she had over her eyes and folded her hand over mine which was resting on her injured hand. Then, she looked up at me tiredly, smiling ever so slightly as she nodded, and said. "I'm glad you finally kept your promise, Vlad."

Smiling in return, with my free hand as well, I leaned over and brushed her hair back so I could kiss Danielle's brow and whispered softly, "That's right. And I will continue to keep that promise as long as you live, my dear. I told you, I will always, always be there for you when you need me. That, will never be a lie."

Danielle's POV

"Yeah, I told you I'm fine. Vlad stopped them in time I was just disappointed, no one tried to hurt me. I never would have gotten on the plane if I noticed the people in charge of the flight were acting weird, but everything seemed totally fine so I didn't suspect anything until the police showed up when we landed. They fooled us all," I lied to mom over the phone the next morning after we finished breakfast since I decided to go ahead and stay with Vlad for my mini vacation as planned...

I'm just glad I actually had a choice this time around.

I was worried mom was going to ruin my mood with the usual 'I told you so' lecture bullshit, but thankfully Vlad had my back on this and assured my parents I was perfectly safe and had finally calmed down after the whole supposed would-be kidnapping. Either way, once that was settled Vlad gave me the gift basket he had planned to give me when I first got here to cheer me up a bit. And since there were lots of snacks in there, it gave me something to nibble on while we planned out the rest of our day together.

Thankfully my arm was fully healed by then, well, apart from still feeling a bit stiff but Vlad assured me I'd be back to normal soon enough. But the weirdest part of all this was I wasn't mad at him anymore because despite being attacked by those ghosts, at least Vlad attacked them and not me unlike my parents who usually shoot at both parties instead, making my job twice as hard...

So to make things easier on both of us, I made up my mind to pretend this was just a normal vacation with Vlad. Well, ok let's face it, this was never going to be a normal visit because Vlad and I have ghost powers so as another way to make up for before he treated me to a free lesson on how to make my ghost shield unleash a blast if anyone got too close to me in a quick burst which was definitely going to come in handy later on. After that we some normal things together too.

Surprisingly, as soon as I stopped thinking about all the bad stuff that happened between us before, I actually had a pretty good time with Vlad. I even told him a bit more about why I wanted to become an astronaut. And this time I didn't skimp on the details, which felt great.

It's like I was finally allowed to be myself for once. What made it really special though is Vlad eagerly wanted to listen to everything I had to say. He wasn't doing it out of pity or cause he had to, but because he was genuinely interested in what my other goals in life are.

In return, Vlad told me more about himself since my parents kept interrupting too much during the reunion. It turns out his parents passed when he was 18 but they were pretty normal if very strict people when it came to manners. His father was especially strict, but Vlad deeply admired him and his devotion to their family which is part of the reason he dreamt of one day becoming a parent himself. They had left him their life savings though which helped him pay for college.

That's where he met my parents and the three of them became fast friends after they asked if he was alright after some other students finished bullying him by knocking down his books. I remember thinking really, even when you have to pay for school there are still jerks who are immature enough to bully people like that? It made me wonder if the bullies at my school would ever change and if I managed to even get into college, I definitely hoped it would be one FAR away from anyone I knew to avoid the backlash of being from a family of ghost hunters.

I noticed Vlad held back a lot of details about his love-life but I convinced him to at least tell me since I really did want to know why he used to be so obsessed with my mom. I also wanted to know if my mom was any fun back in the day or if she was always such a stick in the mud. In response I was surprised to hear that mom was quite the rebel back then since she used to go looking for ghosts in old abandoned houses all the time. And once time, during a sleepover, she snapped a Ouija board in half with a karate kick when it nearly summoned an actual ghost in their dorm room which I gotta admit, sounded pretty badass.

As for my dad, it sounded like he's always been the same childish goofball his whole life, but at least back then he had two partners in crime to study ghosts with instead of one. At least, until the accident that turned Vlad half ghost. I didn't ask Vlad for any details about it, but it was still nice hearing about what it was like when he was still friends with my parents before they got all crazy and started hating ghosts with every fiber of their being.

That's when I had an odd thought while Vlad and I were walking around his private lake nearby, I asked, "Hey Vlad, do you ever wonder if maybe...the reason my parents hate ghosts is because of how dangerous they are and how the ecto-energy blast from their proto-portal hurt you? Maybe, in a way, they felt guilty about that but took it the wrong way and blamed the ghost energy itself that infected you and not the fact that your group experiment literally blew up in your face. I mean, it's possible, right...?"

I collided with Vlad when he stopped suddenly, and without looking at me he explained coldly, "You think I haven't already thought of that? Because I have as a matter of fact. For years I searched for a valid excuse to justify their abandonment, but then I realized it all boils down to one thing, Danielle. Make no mistake, it's clear to me now that both Jack and Maddie care more about themselves and their research than their own children or anyone else. Why else would they foolishly make a fully functioning portal in their home KNOWING how dangerous it is after one nearly killed me?

"A portal, I might add, that wound up harming and turning their own daughter half-ghost without their knowledge? If either of them cared about me at all, they would have at least come to visit me in the hospital and given what little information they had to the doctors to help search for a cure even if there wasn't one. But they didn't, and that speaks volumes of their true feelings on the matter. And now I know...that even your mother felt no such remorse for her negligence."

"Sorry, I guess I shouldn't have asked..." I sighed, resting an arm on his shoulder then teasing. "If it makes you feel any better, at least I'm starting to see you as less of bad ghost so I'd say that's progress."

After that, we both noticed that the sun was already setting on us and since we were still a ways off from the chalet an idea popped into my head so feeling a bit playful, I transformed, glided around to face him, then booped Vlad on the nose and laughed, "Hey Vlad, wanna race back?"

Grinning wolfishly at me in return, Vlad nodded and transformed too. "You're on, little badger. But don't think I'll go easy on you."

And just like that, our little vacation soon came to an end.

Once I had everything packed up and ready to go, this time, Vlad promised to drive me to the airport himself and that this time his private would have a human pilot since he put the other one on probation. But I was surprised when I came out to let him know I was ready and Vlad gently held my hands and smiled at me sadly as he confessed. "Danielle, while I'm sad to see you go again, I want you to know I had a wonderful time. I hope you did too. However, since I deeply regret hurting you with my lie about winning that contest I'd like to promise you something. For you next birthday, I would like to take you to the Kennedy Space Center for real, so please, do not hesitate to let me know when you would like to do so and I will arrange everything for you and anyone else you wish to invite along."

As a spur of the moment thing, I pulled my hands away from him and hugged Vlad to shut him up and laughed, "Geez Vlad, didn't I say we could call it even now? But if you insist then ok, I'll do that, but on one condition. No more extra surprises, got it?"

"As long as I'm still allowed to buy you some presents, then yes, we have a deal," Vlad smiled, hugging me back warmly.

Growing serious though Vlad pulled back and added, "Danielle, no matter how long it takes for me to make this dream of mine a reality, I want to become a bigger part of your life from now on. I want to be there for you as both a mentor and a guardian but I know I can't always be there to protect you the way I'd like to. However, you're a strong capable young woman so I believe in your capabilities.

"That said, if anyone tries to hurt you again, I'll destroy them. Can you accept that? I know your tried and true method is to catch ghosts and release them back into the Ghost Zone, but my dear, I'm concerned that is only going to work for so long. So I urge you to make sure you take fighting them much more seriously from now on before they start to assume you just don't have what it takes to take down anyone who poses a real threat. Therefore, please promise me you'll be careful either way."

"You worry too much, fruitloop. I'll be fine! Besides, what happened in the woods was a fluke I swear! I'm a lot stronger then I was when we first met." I scoffed, dramatically rolling my eyes at him. "Next time we see each other, I'm definitely going to show off more of what I can really do so you'd better be ready for it!"

"I look forward to it," Vlad nodded, resting his cheek on top of my head as he sighed, "As much as it pains me to let you go again, seeing you smile and getting the chance to get to know you better was well worth all the trouble. And I hope you'll continue to smile no matter what hardships come your way. But most of all, I hope you realize now just how much I love you, Danielle. And from now on I will do my best not to let you down again, I promise."

Smiling warmly, I nodded, "Yeah, I'm counting on you V-man."