by Liaranne
Summary: A DP Mother's Day ficlet. I hope you enjoy it. A plot bunny bit and rewarded me with this sweet little vignette, which with a bit of tweaking came out to exactly 1,000 words.
Rated: G
To Mom – for all you do, thanks. I love you.
Maddie Fenton sat on the loveseat in her living room, an old book of photographs sprawled across her lap. Jack was away – he was away, driving Jazz on a two-day trip for a college visit. Danny had left the house right after school that afternoon to meet up with his friends. That was about three o'clock.
It was now 11:45.
Danny had not been late before – just… this time, something felt wrong. Maddie turned another page in the album, but, lost in the moment, did not look at them. Not until one loose photograph spilled out of the book, off her lap and onto the floor.
Maddie sniffed, wiping the corners of her eyes with a tissue as she placed the album gently on the coffee table. She bent down to pick up the photograph, and was about to set it on top of the book, but something in it caught her attention.
She was lost in sapphire eyes. Slowly, very slowly, a smile lit her face.
And a proximity alarm blared throughout the Fenton household, bathing Maddie's tear-streaked face in a cruel crimson glow.
Ghosts…Maddie sprang into action, zipping up the hood of her characteristic blue suit, and grabbing her Fenton Bazooka, leaped out the front door…
To barrel into her son.
"Ow!" said Danny Fenton, as he tumbled down the steps.
"Danny!" Maddie said, relief coloring her words. "Are you ok? Where's the ghost! And do you know how late you are, young man?"
"Uh… I'm fine Mom, you just missed the ghost, I'm sorry I'm late – and I thought you turned that alarm off," he replied, a tad dazed from his spill.
"Oh, drat. Oh, your father turned it on before he took Jazz. He said it was fixed – we got it to stop blaring after you left for school – and he wants us safe, you know. Now, come inside and give me your excuse and then get straight to bed young man and I'll deal with you in the morning."
Danny sighed inwardly, wishing that just once that he could tell his mother the real reason she was late.
He made his excuses, and did go to bed. The proximity alarm would not stop blaring, so Maddie finally turned it off, much to Danny's relief. The shrill noise bothered him more than it seemed to bother anyone else in the family – though whether that was due to his abilities or simply a guilty conscience was debatable.
It was two minutes before midnight when Maddie slipped back into the couch. She reached for the album to put it away, and gave a sad little smile at the picture, taken in the hospital, of an hour-old baby in his mother's arms, his sapphire eyes shining as she beamed with weary pride.
Maddie put the book of photographs away, back onto the shelf, and went back upstairs.
She peeked into her son's room. He was soundly asleep, curled up beneath the sheets. His wild hair flung everywhere across the pillow as she studied his form in the light that spilled through the doorway from the hall. She could just barely make out the slow rise and fall of his chest – so shallow that if she did not know better, she would have sworn that he was not breathing at all.
She slipped out of the doorway and turned the hall light out, to take herself off to a restless night of tossing and turning.
It was almost three in the morning when she heard screaming.
She burst into Danny's room.
"No! NO! You can't do this!" he screamed, thrashing with his covers like they were an invisible enemy.
"Danny! Danny, wake up, it's a nightmare!" Maddie said, again bathed in the light from the hallway, which she had turned on as she went past.
"NO! I WON'T LET YOU!" he bellowed, and sat bolt upright.
If Maddie had not known any better, she might have believed that her son's eyes were glowing green as she looked right at them in the dark. It was probably just the light from the hall that distorted her vision.
"Danny, it's ok, it's all right," she soothed him, "It was just a nightmare."
She took him, and wrapped him in her arms, his head against her chest.
"Mom?" Danny managed to reply in his tired daze. "Mom? I dreamed that…" he caught himself before he said anything more, anything incriminating, and shivered at his nightmare.
"I know. You just had a nightmare, sweetie. It's all right, it was just a dream."
"Yeah. It was just a dream," he mimicried, his voice devoid of emotion. "Thanks, Mom," he added, with sincere love. "Thank you so much."
"It was nothing, dear. Now, will you be ok?"
He nodded, knowing that it was a lie, and watched as she left.
"No, Mom. It's not all right," his murmur was soft in the dark as the hall light flicked off, soft and sad. "It's not all right," he repeated, his voice turning to determination, "But I swear that I won't let it happen. Not while I'm alive."
And his eyes glowed green.
"Hi, sweetie," a twenty-something Maddie Fenton said to the little boy she held in her arms, "Hi there. I'm your Mom."
He turned to her, his teeny little mouth working, tiny beady eyes squinched shut under the thick wet mass of dark hair that stuck to his head beneath the knit baby cap, his chubby arms the only other thing visible through the thick swaths of blue blanket.
"I love you," she whispered.
He opened his eyes, finally, and looked at her for the first time.
Maddie Fenton gasped, lost in wonder. Her son's eyes were beautiful. They were fragile, innocent, those baby blues, but she could tell, deep within, that they held an awe-inspiring future.
"I'm your Mom," she repeated in whispered wonder to those strong and fragile eyes. "I'm your Mom, Danny, and I'll protect you until the end of time."