Once the final tests were complete, Sam and Harry were free to go home. Danny led his wife and son out of the air-conditioned hospital and into the outside world. This being mid-august in the middle of a heat wave, the outside temperature was in the triple digits. The abrupt change in temperature and humidity caused little Harry to begin gasping for air, though he remained asleep. Danny and Sam looked at him worriedly, and rushed over to the car so that they could turn on the air conditioning. Danny flicked on the fans while Sam buckled Harry into the car seat, and the couple got into the car and closed the doors. Unfortunately, as those of you who have just gotten into a car while it's extremely hot out already know, the car was burning hot and the air that came out of the fan was also rather warm.
"Danny, it's not cooling down fast enough. Can't you do something?" Sam asked.
"There's one thing. Going Ghost!" Danny shouted, as he became Danny Phantom in a flash of white light. He touched Harry's forehead with his now-freezing palm, and the baby immediately began to calm down. Soon enough, the coldness that emanated from his ghostly form had cooled the car down sufficiently.
"O-okay, D-danny, I th-think y-you've d-done it," Sam said, her teeth chattering.
"Right, sorry," the halfa answered as he reverted to his human form, turned off the now-unnecessary air conditioner, and drove out of the hospital.
Once they arrived back at their apartment, the proud parents tucked their newborn child into his crib and turned on the baby monitor. They then ambled over to the couch and collapsed onto it.
"I'm exhausted," said Sam.
"I don't blame you. I'd like to just lay down and sleep for the next year or so, but I've watched enough TV to know that that's not going to be possible."
"Why not?" As if on cue, Harry began crying. "I'll get it," Sam said, and went over to the bawling child. It turned out that his diaper was dirty. She ineptly changed the diaper and tossed the old one into the bin, and went back over to the couch.
"As I was saying before," Danny continued, "I'm sure that we'll be getting pretty good at that over the next couple of years." Sam groaned.
Danny was pretty accurate in assuming that the first few days of parenthood would turn out exactly the way everyone made it out to be-a lot of sleepless nights and dirty diapers. It was a good thing that he and Sam were pretty quick on the uptake; they quickly learned how to determine whether Harry was hungry, needed to be changed or burped, or was just plain lonely. They would usually alternate in caring for him, unless of course he was hungry. Danny wasn't about to try and remedy that situation. There were times when Danny and Sam thought that taking care of little Harry was too much to bear, and they wouldn't be able to handle the responsibilities for more than a little while. However, every night they would look down at Harry's sleeping form, and all of their insecurities would be swept away by his tiny breath. He was the cutest little thing either of them had ever set eyes on, and every time they watched him they would promise each other that they would do anything to protect him and take care of his needs. They would always leave his room in a state of calm, only to be replaced by a harried worry whenever they reentered it. So passed the first five days of parenthood.
The eighth day of Harry's life on earth dawned warm and humid. Danny drove his family over to Sam's parents' house and parked the car on the end of a line that stretched down to the end of the road.
"I wonder if your parents hyped today up enough?" he asked sarcastically.
"No, I think they could have spread the news a little more," she returned, her voice dripping with an equal amount of sarcasm. "There are a few people in Iceland who haven't heard about today."
"You're right, your parents should be ashamed of themselves, keeping those poor people in the dark like that." He turned off the car, got out, and took Harry out of his car seat. He carried the baby and Sam walked by his side across the walkway. She rang the doorbell and Sam's mother answered.
"Oh, look who it is!" She exclaimed, nearly fainting from excitement. "The guests of honor have arrived!" she swept the family into the mansion and they were greeted by hundreds and hundreds of people they didn't know. They got a quick glimpse of Tucker and Valerie, as well as Danny's parents, but they were quickly swept away by the sheer magnitude of the crowd.
"This is almost as bad as at Vlad's wedding," Sam muttered to Danny.
"Tell me about it," he answered. Finally, the guests parted to allow the parents bring their child into the room where the ceremony would be taking place. The mohel made his speech about the importance of the event and Danny and Sam recited the appropriate blessings. Danny handed Harry off to Tucker, who had seemingly materialized out of the crowd. Tucker sat in the assigned chair and laid Harry on his back. The baby lay on Tucker's lap as the mohel said his blessing and brought the scalpel down in a place that made all of the men in the room groan in sympathetic agony. When the deed was done, he put a drop of wine on the foreskin-less child's tongue and allowed the celebration to begin. The guest of honor was put back in a diaper and paraded around by Tucker, who noticed that when Sam's parents came to take another picture, his godson's face twitched. So this is what they were talking about, he thought. There was food and dancing, and everyone had a great time. Right before it was time for everyone to go, someone made a realization that he brought before the rest of the group.
"Where did the parents go?" he asked. Everyone looked around and, sure enough, Danny and Sam were nowhere to be found. This prompted a massive search of the mansion, and it was Jazz who finally found the proud parents. She giggled and called everyone else, who came running down to the first floor where, behind a thick curtain, sat Danny and Sam. They had pulled up two chairs and were sitting in them, their heads leaning against one another, fast asleep. Everybody said, "Awww…" and took pictures with their flash cameras, which woke the couple up immediately.
"You two were out cold," Sam's father informed a groggy Danny and Sam.
"That was kinda the idea. Now if you'll excuse us," Sam said and dragged Danny by the hand up to her old room. The crowd laughed hysterically and continued to party. Valerie took Harry from Tucker, whose arms were getting tired, and the two brought the baby over to Danny's parents.
"I don't believe it," Jack said, his lower lip quivering, "Our little boy is already a man. They grow up so fast, don't they, Maddie?"
"Jack, that talk isn't for another thirteen years," Maddie admonished.
"Oh yeah…so what are we celebrating today?" Maddie told him, and he stood there, shocked.
"What? So that's why all of the guys groaned all at the same time?"
"That's pretty much it, Dad," Jazz answered.
"Ouch…well, there's a buffet table that has 'Jack Fenton' written all over it, so if you'll excuse me," he dashed off in a beeline for the buffet table, knocking about twenty people over in the process, only to come right back. "Oh yeah, before I forget, give this to Danny and Sam when they wake up, will you?" he requested, handing Tucker a small white box. After making the drop-off, he ran back to the table and knocked over the same twenty people who were just getting up off the ground from after his first rampage, and began stuffing his face with bagels.
"Well, he certainly took the knowledge well," Valerie commented.
"Yeah, from now on, whenever we need to give him bad news, we'll make sure that there's food nearby," Jazz said to the chuckles of the rest of the group. They watched him scarf down first one bagel, then another, then another…
"Talk about cramming," Tucker noted.
"Hey, that's my line!" Jazz accused.
"What?"
"Oh…nothing." Tucker arched an eyebrow, then followed Jack's path to the food table. An awkward silence ensued.
"So…" Valerie said, trying to break the silence. "Did Danny tell you two about what happened when Sam's parents came to visit them in the hospital?"
"No, what happened?" Maddie asked. Valerie related to them the story of Harry's facial twitch and feigned tantrum, and by the end of it Jazz and Maddie were in hysterics.
"That's…so…funny…" Jazz gasped.
"Yeah…talk about…the Fenton fighting spirit!" Maddie added.
"That's pretty much what Danny said," Valerie informed them.
"Speaking of which, it looks like him and Sam are having kind of a rough first few days, wouldn't you say?" Jazz asked.
"It's always difficult at first," Maddie said sagely, then added, "at least Harry doesn't appear to have colic like you did, Jazz. I swear there were times I had to forcibly prevent Jack from throwing you out the window, you were so annoying." Jazz blanched and Valerie burst out laughing. All of a sudden, a wisp of steam came out of Harry's nose, gaining the attention of the rest of the Fenton family, as well as Tucker and Valerie.
"Although I don't think I've ever heard of that happening before," Maddie noted. Suddenly, there was a large rumbling noise and an enormous blue dragon ghost emerged out of the wall to the left of the party.
"I have to go!" It shouted.
"Yeah, you'd better get out of here, ghost!" Valerie threatened, pulling an ecto-grenade launcher out of a holster as she carefully placed a still-sleeping Harry on the nearest table. In response, the dragon reared its head back and roared. Jack and Maddie each pulled a pair of ectoguns out of hidden folds in their suits, and the green bursts of energy that were emitted from them were soon complemented by a pink ray from Valerie's gun. The draconian specter was repulsed and weakened by the shots, thus leaving her vulnerable. Valerie took advantage of this to pull a Fenton Thermos out of a carabineer on her belt and suck the ghost into it.
"Maybe we should go now," Valerie suggested.
"Good point. The fact that there was a ghost indicates that the Fenton Portal might be left open and allowing more specters to come into our dimension. Jack and I should make sure that the portal's closed and then go on patrol to see if any other ghosts have escaped."
"And I can finally catch a ghost!" Jack shouted.
"I just hope that that mass of ectoplasmic slime, Phantom, stays out of our way this time," Maddie growled. Tucker and Valerie shot each other nervous glances.
"I'll go wake Danny and Sam and tell them what happened," Tucker volunteered and picked Harry up.
"Yeah, I'll come too," Valerie agreed. Tucker led the way to Sam's childhood room and opened the door to reveal Danny and Sam, who were passed out in each other's arms. In one fluid motion, Tucker brought a PDA out of his pocket, aimed it, and took a picture.
"You know, you don't have to take pictures of them for proof anymore; all of the bets are done for."
"Sorry…old habits," Tucker said. He placed Harry in-between the lovers and snapped another picture. "You have to admit, though, they make a really cute couple."
"Yeah, and Harry is really photogenic."
"At least when it isn't Sam's parents trying to take the picture." The two chuckled a bit at the slowly-getting-old joke. They watched as Sam and Danny each subconsciously wrapped a protective arm over their son. The couple held hands and watched the family sleep for what felt like an eternity.
"I really want to start a family with you, Valerie," Tucker said, breaking the silence.
"And I you, Tucker. Really, I do. But we should wait until after you finish school."
"I know. It sucks, though, having to wait so long."
"It won't be so bad. We have each other, right? And besides, after you finish graduate school, you'll be able to get a good enough job to support a bigger family if we decide to have more than one."
"You're right. If it wasn't for your dad's connections, I don't know how Danny and Sam would be able to make ends meet."
"They'd have to turn to her parents. I'm sure that they'd be more than willing to support them."
"But they wouldn't resort to that. Neither of them like Sam's parents enough to willingly go into their debt like that."
"One of them should've continued at school."
"I know. There's no way Danny can ever be an astronaut now."
"Yeah, and while the hookup my dad gave Danny should let them go by comfortably, I don't know if they'll be able to make ends meet when their second is born."
"You mean you know that they'll have another?"
"Knowing those two? Definitely."
"What about Sam's job?"
"I have a feeling that she's going to quit now to take care of Harry."
"Nah, Sam wouldn't give up her independence like that."
"The old Sam, maybe. But the Danny and Sam we know are a little more mature than the ones that we went to high school with and more capable of making decisions that have a more positive impact on the world around them, especially when the world around them consists of their own flesh and blood."
"Or so we'd hope."
"Or so we'd hope. C'mon, we should probably wake them up."
Well, I promised a longer chapter, and did I deliver or what?