A/N: Okay, okay... I'm done trying to call this a one-shot. From now on, I'm calling it "A series of loosely-connected one-shots to be written and updated at sporadic times but all dealing on the family themes that are prevlant in DP". Okay?

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed!

The Sister's Brother

He struggled back to his feet, wiping the blood from his split lip off of his chin, panting slightly, and collapsed back onto his knees.

"Why are you hurting him!" a young voice shouted, confused and hurt.

The enemy, the ghost, turned from the boy to stare at the girl before him, the girl who had been on the tire swing just a few moments before.

"Why are you hurting my brother?" she yelled again, her words angry, and she clenched her fists and glared at the spirit before her.

The ghost, a giant green gorilla with a fanged grin, snarled at her, and charged.

"NO!" the boy yelled, and struggled back to his feet. "Kimberly, RUN!"

The dark-skinned eight-year-old stared at the charging beast in bewildered surprise, no longer sure of what to do, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

The boy realized that he would not make it in time. The ghost would hurt his sister. He fell again, exhausted, glasses tumbling off his face and onto the bare earth, and wondered why he had tried to take this guy down on his own.

Kimberly.

It was because of Kimberly. His sister. His sister, who was about to be run down before his eyes because he had to be a good brother and take her to the playground for a few minutes, because he had to be embarrassed and not call his friends for help when he saw the ghost, like he should have done, and all he could do was look up from the ground as a glowing green gorilla ran her down.

Swoop!

She was gone, before his eyes, and the ghost charged into nothing but air.

"Hey, Kong! Guess what? You aren't king any more!" a voice shouted as a swirling blue light engulfed the gorilla.

A voice that was all too familiar.

"Hey, man. You okay?" the same voice asked.

The boy picked his glasses up and put them back on his face, and took his red baseball cap off his head, banged the dust out, and adjusted it back into its accustomed position.

"Yeah, Danny. I'm okay. Nothing's broken."

His words were short.

"Okay, well, I'm just going to try to find this girl's family and get her home. She's scared out of her wits. I guess she got lost when the ghost showed up."

Tucker looked up at his best friend, whose green eyes were treating this sort of like it was business as usual. The girl was nowhere in sight.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay, Tucker? That looks like a nasty cut, there."

He ignored the voice, looking back behind his friend, to focus on a tree just a few feet away. She was in it, in the second lowest branch, holding on, about eight feet off the ground.

"Just get her out of the tree before she falls, man," he said.

Danny looked at Tucker. This was not like his friend at all. The techno-geek's eyes were still stuck fast to the girl on the tree.

When Danny did not answer, Tucker took matters into his own hands and walked over to the tree.

Her eyes were squeezed tight, and she was holding onto the tree for the sake of life itself.

"Kim?" the boy's voice called her. "Kimmie? Are you okay?"

He hoisted himself up onto the first branch, carefully. The tree shook, and the girl clung harder. Her eyes were closed.

"Kim, it's just me. Okay? It's just me, sis."

"T- er," Danny caught himself, "Um… sir? What's going on?"

"She's my sister. Kimberly. You've heard my mom go off on her, haven't you?" was the reply from the red-capped boy, bitterness seeping into his tone.

He turned back to the girl before his friend could respond.

"Hey, Kim. It's okay. For real. See? I'm right here. Come on down," the bitterness had gone, melted into kindness like a single snowflake in July.

The dark girl shook her head some more.

Tucker knew what he had to do, even if he did not really want to.

He turned to Danny.

"A little help, here? You put her up there."

"No problem." Danny Phantom flew up, and deftly lifted the girl out of the tree.

She screamed until he set her back onto the ground, where she fell, gasping.

"Kimber?" Tucker rushed over, "Kim, it's okay. It's okay."

Danny stood there, feeling like an unnecessary wheel in this conversation, too surprised to do anything about it.

This was Kimberly. Tucker's sister. Tucker's younger sister who went to the special school on that scholarship, even though she was something like eight or nine years old. The one Tucker's mom talked about a lot, especially to adults.

The one Tucker was jealous of.

But here he was, cradling her as she threw up her lunch, holding her head, reassuring her that everything was all right, that she was safe, she was on the ground, see? Nothing bad was going to happen to her, not while he was there. Not while he was there. No, he was here, and everything would be safe.

"Hey, what's the square root of 1296?" Tucker asked the girl in his arms.

"Thirty six," came the reply, with a giggle.

"See, there's that girl I know. There's my girl." He brushed the hair out of her face.

Then, he looked up at his best friend, embarrassed.

Danny was looking at him in something akin to shock.

"She's scared of heights," Tucker explained. "She almost fell from the roof of our house when she was little. It's a long story."

Danny nodded. "I better get going, I guess… She'll be okay?"

"Yeah, man. I'll get her home. Hey… thanks."

"Yeah. Well, I'll see you."

Danny Phantom flew off into the evening air.

Late that night, in a household in Amity Park, a door creaked open.

"No… no! I won't let it happen. I WON'T!"

She could hear his muffled screams, his fears, his dreams shouted into his pillow.

She slunk into his room, leaving the door open, causing the light from the hall to flow onto his bedroom floor in front of his bed.

Light shone from the window as well; it was open, a breeze ruffling the curtains, the occasional sound of a car passing by drifting in from the street below with the undertones of the loud party three blocks over a consistent drone. The liquid gold from the streetlamp spilled onto the wall, splashing onto a mirror to reflect onto the bed, bathing the contorted, dreaming face and messy black hair.

"No… no. Nooo…"

She walked over to him, he was so tense, and his fists were clenched in fear.

She remembered how he used to dream of the monsters in his closet. How he screamed at night, often waking their mother, but also waking her.

But then came the night that he did not scream. Or perhaps he did, and no one had awoken. She had felt something in her room, heard a small voice call her name.

The explanation that he had had a bad dream, and could she maybe get him a drink of water? The not asking, like she wanted to, why he did not go to mom, but to her, and getting up, and getting him the water, and finding him curled up in her bed, snuggled against her favorite teddy bear, back and sound asleep.

But now she walked over too him. He was too big, too proud, to come and ask for water now. So as he woke up with a scream, she sat on his bed, and cradled his head in her arms, and told him that it would be okay, that she was here, and that it was safe.

"… Jazz?" the small voice asked.

"Yeah, Danny?"

"Would you… just maybe… get me a drink of water?"

Her face quirked into half of a smile. "Sure, just don't fall asleep with Mr. Wilkens, again."

He gave a small chuckle – he did remember.

"I won't. I promise."

She smiled, and left, and returned to find him sleeping.

So she left the glass of water on his nightstand, in a patch of gold from the streetlamp, next to the clock that was a few minutes faster than hers with its digital red letters, and she covered him up, and ruffled his hair, and turned to go back to her room.

She lingered at the door, a moment, looking at her brother, and she smiled.

Dreams would come and dreams would go.

Fears would turn and tremble.

But the sister's brother would still be here.

They would look out for each other. No matter what monsters stalked their dreams, no matter what their fears, because that is what they do.

They laugh and love, tease, taunt, cry, tug, and always seem to fight.

But in the end, they turn out friends, and everything comes 'round right.

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