Ch 6:

They'd been sitting in the belly of the plane for over a good hour before anyone spoke.

"Are we there yet?"

Danny and Chris both glared at Daisy.

"What?"

"Daze, do you think for a minute that you could NOT be such a blonde?" Chris rolled his eyes. "Arriving in Wisconsin is not something we should be looking forward to."

"Well I'm bored."

Chris groaned, resting his face in his hands.

Daisy turned to Danny. "You'd think for a multi-billionaire, he'd be able to afford to pass us a couple of magazines for the flight."

Danny gave her a cold look, then got up, moving to the far side of the shield. He was angry and embarrassed. He hadn't meant to cry in front of them.

"You could be a little more sensitive, Daisy." Chris chastised his partner in a whisper. "The kid's gone through a lot, he doesn't need hearing you complain about dumb stuff."

Danny didn't waste any breath telling them that he could hear them both. It was like an extra twist of the knife that they should pretend to give the slightest damn about him. He was just a paycheck to them. Even if Haunting had thrown away the rest of his pay and possibly his career and life to try to stop Plasmius…

It was less confusing if he could be angry with them and pretend that they had set the whole thing up. When they had figured the alleyway meeting was a trap, he certainly hadn't expected anything like this.

Vlad was his father? That didn't make any sense. Vlad wanted to be his father, he knew that already. But that was mainly because Vlad wanted to date his mom and was interested in the fact that they were both half-ghosts… Of course in a way, it sort of seemed right that the only two half-ghosts in the world should be father and son…

Danny shook that thought out of his head. He was no psychology major like Jazz (was Jazz even his sister instead of half-sister?), but Vlad's actions before this, trying to clone him, trying to get him to renounce Jack as his father, throwing him to the ghost hunters in order to make his dad look bad to him… it hurt his head to try to figure out Vlad's reasoning behind I all. He wished Sam or Jazz was there to figure it out.

Vlad was his father? His archenemy had turned out to be his father? He fought the thoughts back. It had to be a trick. The detectives must have faked the tests somehow. He slightly remembered catching a crime show that talked about DNA testing... or maybe it was one of the boring biology lectures by Lancer that Danny had actually paid a bit of attention to, but he somehow remembered someone explaining the tests like Haunting had.

"The tests don't lie," Haunting's words played over and over again in his head.

His mother never touched Vlad, and never would. It was the only thought that kept him from completely letting himself believe it.

Plus he hated Vlad.

Danny lay down on his side and tried to sleep, but it refused to come and relieve his tired mind.

Danny had been quiet for a while. I figured he'd gone to sleep. It was probably for the best. I couldn't figure out what was going on in the kid's head. He was angry, he was scared, and he was completely in denial.

Daisy was fast asleep. I rolled her head gently off my lap and massaged my legs. I got up as silently as possible so not to disturb either of them. The pins and needles had just nearly faded from my legs when the door to the plane's underbelly opened and Vlad Masters, having returned to his human form, strode in.

"What do you want now, Masters?" I asked him in a low voice.

"I just wanted to check in on the lil Badger."

"What badger?" I panicked a little. I've always hated badgers.

"That's just a nickname I have for young Daniel." He growled.

"Oh… that's kinda creepy, you know that, right?"

Masters didn't dignify that with a response. He just walked over to the side of the shield where Danny had curled up on the floor.

"Mr. Haunting, have you ever wanted something that everyone told you that you couldn't have?"

"What are you getting at?"

Masters stared at Danny for a moment, and I saw a flash of something softer in his eyes.

"Maddie, Daniel, the Packers… no one would let me have them." Masters curled his hands into fists. "They should all have been mine, if not for that idiot, Jack Fenton…"

"Wait, Fenton wouldn't let you have the Packers?"

"Well, actually that last one was the city of Green Bay, but Jack has taken everything else from me."

I just stood there listening to him, here was someone who had all the money he could ever want, someone who obviously had all the brains, wits, and talent he could ever need, and yet he was driving after a woman and her son… and a football team.

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because, my boy, you actually managed to impress me. I was watching you the whole time. The slight of hand your assistant made to collect Jack's blood, your... disguises when you collected Daniel's, even when you fought me tonight, all were well beyond my expectations. I'm giving you a second chance. I could use someone like you on my payroll."

He was a smooth one. Flattery, a sob story, and the subtle bribe all almost had me going, but I still couldn't shake off the chill he gave me when he spoke. He was just plain creepy.

"Thanks, but you still kidnapped all of us."

"I wouldn't have had to take such extreme measures if you'd done as I told you," he smirked.

"There is something so incredibly wrong with you if you think that gives you justification."

"I always said he was a crazed up fruit loop, but no one ever listens to the kid." I was surprised to see Danny sitting up, fully awake.

"Ah yes, the famous teenage wit," Masters smirked, "Just how many times are you going to use that line?"

"It works for you." Danny retorted. I have to admit, it was a weak comeback.

"I'm sure in time you'll reevaluate your estimation of me, Son."

Danny fumed at Masters, still refusing to accept that title coming from Masters' mouth.

"Re-e-whatsie?" Daisy sat up, looking at Masters in confusion. "Chris, what did he say?"

"He said that the kid would change his mind in time."

"Oh." She looked at Masters, rubbing a little sleep out of her eyes, "Why can't you just use plain English, man?"

"My dear, how exactly did someone of your brainpower get into the private detective business in the first place?" Masters groaned.

"Good looks and charm now go away, I need my happy sleep."

"Don't you mean beauty sleep?"

"No, I stopped taking that after the sun reflected off my hair and blinded some guy."

I couldn't hold back the chuckle. I caught Danny giving me an odd look and I explained, "In joke, kid. Don't worry about it."

"Well, as interesting as this is, I just came in to tell you that we'll be arriving in a few hours." Masters waved his hand in a dismissive fashion.

"Good, then there's still some time for an in-flight movie!"

Masters ignored Daisy's request, who grumbled and curled back up on the floor.

Danny sat back down in his corner of the floor. I stood there, uncertain for a moment.

"Kid?"

Danny ignored me.

I lowered myself down next to him.

"Danny? What's wrong?" As if I didn't have a pretty darn good idea already.

"As if you didn't know," Danny grumbled at me.

"Well, let's say I have a pretty good idea, but I'm wondering how you're dealing with it. It can't be easy."

"Who do you think you are, my sister?" Danny yelled at me, waving his arms up in the air. "You think that after all you've done, you can just come over an make it alright by pretending to care?"

"Not pretending, and I don't presume to think that it will make it all right, but sometimes talking helps."

"That's what Jazz would say."

"She's a smart girl… and her grades prove that."

"You have her grades? How long have you been spying on us, really?"

"Just a couple of weeks. And it was Masters who sent us most of the information."

"Figures."

"Yeah." Okay, that was a dead end.

"I'd just…"

"Just what?" he groaned.

"I'd just like to make it up to you, Danny. I thought I was doing the right thing by telling you, and I never realized that Masters was… Well, I didn't even know he was on this side of the country."

Danny rested his head on his arms, propped up by his knees.

"Vlad's been after me for nearly a year. Traps, tricks, bounties, the clone thing… which by the way, was really creepy."

"Clones!"

"Don't ask."

"I'm not sure I want to. But look, Danny, just know this, I never really trusted Masters. I've got you're back, okay?"

Danny didn't answer for a moment.

"You know, I really like your dad."

He gave me a confused look.

"Jack Fenton, I mean. He's a pretty cool guy. It must have been pretty wild growing up with a guy like that."

"You have no idea."

"Well, a small one." I rubbed my shoulder, a phantom pain springing up at the thought of the overzealous ghost hunter.

I got a chuckle from him. That was a little better.

"I just can't imagine Vlad as my father… Actually what is worse is that I can. And it's not a good image."

"Yeah?"

"The way he treats people, he uses every last one. He pretends to be my dad's friend, but that's just to steal his ghost inventions. He pretends to be nice around my sister and me when we're in front of Mom and Dad, but that's just because he wants to steal Mom away… How can that guy possibly be my real father?"

"You don't want him to be?"

"I don't know… And that's the worst thing." Danny sunk his face lower into his arms.

"So you feel guilty?"

"Now you're really sounding like Jazz."

"Sorry." I gave him my gentlest smile.

"You know, being that Vlad is the snake he is, don't lose hope. If you don't want to accept him as your father, then don't."

"But the tests?"

"Tests, shmests," I waved it off, "they may tell you a lot, sure, like who gave birth, who you're related to, whether or not you are actually descended from a line of Russian czars, but they don't tell you who you are, what you're worth, or what you can do." I raised an eyebrow at the half-ghost, half-freshman. "And they don't tell you who your father is. You've been calling Jack Fenton your dad this whole time, and I'm willing to say that he's the father you'd stick with, thick and thin, the only father that really matters."

Danny smiled a bit at me. "That was really sappy."

"Yes, yes it was. But it's the truth, right?"

"Okay." Danny lifted his head out of his arms and pointed at me, "But I'm holding you to that promise that you'll get me out of this."

I lifted my two fingers before me. "Scout's honor."

"We're you ever actually a boy scout?"

"Nope, couldn't afford the fees."

Daisy woke up, the sun was peering slightly through a porthole of types, and shining directly in her eyes. The two guys were dozing on the other side of the domed shield. She rolled over, only to feel something in her pocket stick into her hip.

Groaning, she pulled it out. Her eyes widened as she realized the Fenton Utility Weapon had been in her pocket the entire time. She stuck it back into her pocket. It would definitely come in handy later. Maddie really needed to market those things.