Today, when Danny entered Sam's room, it was not his son who was having breakfast, but his wife. Sam put down the plate of mush she was attempting to eat and grimaced at him.
"Hospital food's vile. But feels good knowing that I won't be barfing it back up in a couple of minutes."
"Luckily, I managed to sneak something past the nurses standing guard outside," he said, holding out a corn muffin.
"Oh, Danny! Food! Real food! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"It's okay, Sam, relax and eat it already." But he needn't have bothered reminding her; only crumbs remained in Sam's open palm by the time he had finished his sentence.
"Hungry, are we?"
"See, that's why I took the time to explain the whole, 'hospital food's vile' thing."
"Next time I'll try to bring something a little more substantial. Now, how's our son doing today?"
"Harry's been really well. He still sleeps most of the day, but he barely cried at all since you left."
"Good, I'm glad to hear it." Suddenly, Danny's ghost sense went off. He couldn't help but notice a needle-thin wisp of colorless steam come out of Harry's nose. "Don't they realize that this is kind of a personal time for me?" he asked as he stood up to go ghost and simultaneously extend his consciousness around until he could pinpoint the direction of the specter. Once again, his actions proved superfluous, as the spectral visitor came to him in the form of the Box Ghost, who phased down through the ceiling. "You again?" he asked. "You really can't ever leave me alone, can you?"
"I am the Box Ghost, and we have come for you, halfa!" Danny noticed that he looked different, more powerful. He wasn't as built as in the alternate version of the future, or missing his hand and eye, but he was composed of more muscle than fat. However, based on his introductory speech, he seemed to be the same bumbling nuisance of a ghost that he always had been, muscles or no muscles.
"Hold on, we? Since when are you as powerful as Plasmius and I in that you're able to make duplicates of yourself."
"They are not duplicates, but family. See for yourself. And fear me!" he added as an afterthought. As he said it, a small, blue, ebony-haired ghost girl phased through the ceiling above him and came to a halt floating three inches above the floor to his right. She had red eyes and two black pigtails that jutted out on either end of her blue cap. She wore blue overalls and a pink-checkered shirt underneath, as well as a pair of yellow rubber gloves. Danny had seen her once before, when Clockwork had intervened to prevent him from cheating on the CAT.
"Box Lunch?" the hybrid asked suspiciously.
"That's right!" The ghost girl answered. "I am Box Lunch. The daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady!"
"Speaking of, where is she?" Box Lunch's eyes began to water and she nervously looked at her father.
"Ghosts…are different from humans," he explained. "We are not composed of living energy as you are, so we cannot create new life without some sort of energy sacrifice of our own. Our kind cannot reproduce without eliminating our own spirit…. My Lunch Lady…passed on once our daughter was born to us. She gave up her energy and faded away into nothingess so that Box Lunch could come into existence. This is why there are not many ghost children in the Ghost Zone-not many ghosts are willing to give up their afterlife to bring something new into being."
"That's terrible," Sam muttered sadly.
"Yeah, is there anything I can do? Can I give up some of my own energy to revive her?"
"We thank you for the offer, halfa, but this is not possible. We have come because we have a request of you of a different sort."
"What kind of request?"
"I would like you to be the ghostfather of my daughter."
"The whatfather?"
"The ghostfather. The position is virtually the same as that of your human godfather, except that circumstances may require you to come to the Ghost Zone every once in a while to make sure that everything's all right."
"You do realize that I'm the most wanted ghost in the Ghost Zone, right? If I go in at any time when there's no truce in effect, I'm more-dead meat."
"Ah, but if you traverse our Zone on ghostfatherly duties, you are exempt from Walker's rules." Danny thought about this. He realized that, after what had happened to the Lunch Lady, he felt as if he owed it to the Box Ghost to accept the request. Even if he had to go into the Ghost Zone every once in a while, it couldn't possibly be that often, and even then the excursions wouldn't have to last long. Besides, he was free from Walker's laws while in the Ghost Zone anyway on these errands.
"I accept," he said. As soon as he said it, Box Lunch was surrounded by an aura of blinding white light. When it disappeared, Danny's flying DP symbol appeared on the front of the ghost girl's hat.
"Thank you, Phantom! We are forever in your debt! Beware!" With his signature battle cry, the Box Ghost and his daughter became intangible and flew away, most likely to the Fenton Portal. Just to make sure, though, Danny followed them with a tendril of his consciousness and only retracted it once they reached the portal.
"Why did you accept?" Sam asked angrily.
"A few reasons. One, I felt bad about what happened to the Lunch Lady-"
"But that's no reason to become her daughter's ghostfather!"
"Two," Danny plowed on, "maybe her and the Box Ghost will finally start leaving me alone now that we're somewhat related." He paused to grimace for a second. "Geez, I never considered being related to the Box Ghost. Yikes."
"Well, there's nothing you can do about it now," Sam said smugly.
"Yeah, I suppose. Now, aren't you supposed to be getting out of the hospital today?"
"Once you step out of the room, a nurse that's standing outside will wheel me into another room where they'll perform a few more tests on Harry and I. Once they're done, we can go."
"Did you notice his ghost sense go off?"
"Yeah, I saw that. Isn't it cute?"
"Yeah, he's adorable. Absolutely adorable." He wrapped an arm around Sam's shoulder and watched his newborn son for a minute before a thought struck him. "I wonder if he'll exhibit any more ghost powers anytime soon."
"Well, the ghost sense is really passive-you can't control it, it just happens. The rest of your powers don't activate unless you want them to, so it should be the same with Harry. His ghost sense will go off, but he probably won't be able to go intangible or invisible, and he definitely won't be able to access his ghost form, until he wills it to happen. Which will hopefully be under your tutelage."
"How wouldn't it be under my tutelage?"
"If he suddenly makes his hand intangible while sitting in English or something."
"Oh. Good point. Now, I'm not going to delay your incarceration here any longer than absolutely necessary, so if you'll excuse me for a moment," he stepped out of the room and allowed the nurse to bring Sam and Harry into the larger examination room.
To those of you who've asked me in your reviews, no I'm not sure how long I plan on going with this. I'm really having a lot of fun with it, so I'll keep going for as long as I feel like. I realize that this latest chapter was on the short side, but I wanted to get it over with before finally bringing the lovebirds and their little bundle of joy back to their apartment. As we speak I'm working on chap. 19, and I'll try to make it longer. Kay?
SAVE DANNY PHANTOM!