Chapter 48

Whatever happened to Technus, nobody cared to know or even wonder. The fact that the Specter Speeder was operational again was good enough. Danny had loaded up Sam and the newborn and returned home as soon as possible with intentions of taking Sam to a hospital. But before he even got home Sam told him she didn't want to go to one. After all that happened recently, he complied…reluctantly. So instead he docked the vehicle in the lab. Everyone immediately surrounded the exit wishing to see the new baby, but made way for Sam to get out. She was exhausted, dirty, and not in a very social mood. Her eyes were glazed and she looked ready to sit back down and sleep.

One of the first things she did was hand Faye over to Maddie and let everyone crowd around them. Socialization had clearly been crossed off her to-do list. She really wasn't even supposed to be up right now. She'd already been forced to get up instantly after giving birth and forced to stay awake during the ride home to hold Faye. Those hours were supposed to be spent resting, letting her body recover from all the strain it had undergone. It was also obvious that she was sore. She moved slowly and since Faye had been taken care of and was safe, she headed towards the stairs.

As much as Danny wanted to stay with his newly born daughter, he peeled off from the crowd to help Sam. He picked her up and discovered that she was so tired she wouldn't put up any resistance. She simply let him carry her up two flights of stairs, still not one word of protest, and lay her down on the bed. He quietly pulled the covers over her and gently kissed her forehead. She had already fallen asleep, giving a literal meaning to the phrase "fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow". It only told him that she'd truly reached her limits and couldn't tough it out any further. He would let her sleep for as long as she needed—or until Faye got hungry again. She was strongly against formula and much preferred everything be done naturally. The only reason she consented induction was for Faye's safety, to make sure Sam wouldn't go past a certain time when the baby was considered "overdue", and because Sam's body was small and the doctors were concerned about Faye getting too big. In the end Sam still got a natural birth, despite the extremely unfavorable location.

Danny decided that, since she only wanted to sleep instead of get examined at a hospital, he would force her to go to a hospital only under the condition that she showed anything out of the ordinary, like bleeding. He chose to let everyone believe he had become hemophobic because there was so much blood when he was cutting the twins' umbilical cords. That did contribute but it wasn't the main reason. Even before the twins were born, before Other Ways Rehabilitation Clinic, when Sam was still stuck making terrible choices he couldn't persuade her to stop making, she had cut her wrist much too deep. He still remembered it as though it had happened yesterday. Hearing something heavy fall on the floor. Hearing something break right after. Running up the stairs. Opening the door to his room. Finding her bleeding out. Unconscious. Laying in a spreading pool of her own blood. A stained knife having slid out of her hand. Trying to wake her. Failing. Heart pounding. Flying her to the nearest ER. His shirt, neck, arms, and hands soaked with her blood. Being told she could die any minute. Expecting her to die any minute.

That was the real reason he couldn't stand the sight of blood. Sam's death was all he could think about when he had cleaned up that giant puddle of dark red—the only productive thing he could do while she was being treated at the hospital. As if that wasn't enough she had to have a blood transfusion, and he powered through that to be there with her. So when he cut the twins' umbilical cords and all that blood just splattered onto the hospital floor, it was too much to take. Ever since then, he hadn't been able to handle blood very well. He never let Sam know that this was actually her fault.

Best not to dwell too much on that memory—it still wasn't an easy one to cope with.

He closed the door behind him as he walked out. Seems Junior got out of a bath via nap time. A nap was by far the worst thing to interrupt, although it was also a blessing. Peace was a luxury now and two toddlers did everything in their power to disrupt it. They succeeded. Of course with a newborn constantly needing attention it would be a few more years before quiet time ever presented itself again. On the upside, they knew what they were doing at this point, having had three years of experience dealing with twins. At least this time it was one baby and she wouldn't wake the other two in the dead of night to have them crying as well.

He heard Faye's muffled cries—she wasn't hurt; he knew what babies sounded like when they were hurt. This didn't match that cry. Maybe she was tired, maybe she needed to be changed, maybe she was hungry, maybe she needed to be burped, maybe she wanted to be rocked, maybe she just wanted Sam.

He headed down to the lab only to find Faye being coddled and cooed at. Not surprising since she was this tiny thing that, no matter how much he'd tried to prepare himself for, seemed to have come out of nowhere. It wasn't like he didn't know where she came from—or to get technical, who she came from—but when she was born he didn't exactly stop to admire her. He was so focused on controlling his body to hold out long enough to safely get Faye to Sam that he hardly remembered catching any glimpses of her. But somehow he did remember what she felt like wriggling in his shirt. So small and helpless…it was probably the only thing that pushed his mind past its limits and helped him to not drop her on the dirt.

"Ooohhh, Danny, you did such a great job!" his mother said as she kept one finger ever so gently on Faye's chest as Jazz held her. "She's so beautiful!"

"But I think she wants her parents now," Jazz added. "She didn't start crying until after you left and rocking her didn't help at all."

"She probably wants Sam. And even if she's hungry or something Sam is really into doing things naturally," he explained as he took Faye from his sister. "But Sam needs to rest right now."

"You can try rocking her but if this baby wants Sam she won't stop until she gets Sam," Maddie laughed. "Babies are used to hearing their mother's voice and feeling her heartbeat. Babies don't adapt to change very easily. And if she's anything like you were—"

"Okay, Mom! No need for those stories," he said, trying to rock Faye—it wasn't working.

"Oh! Remember that old job you used to have and you had to leave for a weekend and Dad babysat Danny and Danny wouldn't stop crying until you came back?" Jazz "added".

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, leave out the part where I was like two months old."

She turned to Tucker with this enormous smile and again, "added", "Mom didn't leave Danny alone again for two years."

Tucker cracked up, didn't even try to defend his best friend and brother in spirit… And Tucker's laugh was apparently highly contagious because everyone began laughing after that. But he was two months old, just, in fairness here. LET'S ALL FORGET THAT PART THOUGH.

It was probably so annoying only because Faye clearly had some of his traits—he couldn't think of one other newborn in the world who had creamy, milky hair like hers—and he didn't want her to have that part of his personality. Always needy, always wanting Mommy. Granted he'd grown out of that but still, that must've nightmarish to deal with.

He ignored the laughter and focused on trying to calm his new daughter down. He'd moved from rocking her to lightly bouncing her. One of his concerns would've been the mystery person who brought the blankets, diapers, and towels. But everyone was exhausted, they all just wanted to go home, and even though he wasn't the one who put all that physical strain on his body, he wanted to sleep the day away. Faye was making it obvious that she would not allow this.

In fact, bouncing her seemed to worsen things, and if that wasn't bad enough his phone started ringing again. Of all days to continuously try to call someone…

He held Faye in the crook of his elbow and pulled out his phone with his free hand. Unknown number. If this was a telemarketer...

"Hello?"

"Yes, is this the Fenton residence?" a female voice asked.

"Y—" He didn't get the chance to finish when Faye went from crying to screeching. It was clear that she was either hungry or wanted her mother.

As much as he didn't want to wake Sam, Faye wasn't really giving him the option to let her keep sleeping. He went upstairs. Normally he would've simply phased through the door if he was looking to stay on the quiet side. But he didn't want to risk messing around with a baby that was capable of setting off his ghost sense. For all he knew intangibility could have adverse effects on her. Besides, the door wasn't remotely thick enough to hide this much noise, and as soon as he opened it Sam was already getting out of bed.

"Sorry to wake you up. Faye sort of…well…"

Sam nodded and reached out. "I got her."

"Will you be okay?" he asked as he handed her over. "Want me to stay in the room with you?"

It seemed like an instant before Faye quit her screeching and lowered it down to simple baby grunts.

"Finish your phone call first," she answered.

Right. The phone. As long as neither of the twins—God forbid both of them—woke up, he would have enough silence to actually hear what the other person was saying. It was pretty much now or never.

Just to keep Faye quiet…ish, be phased through the door and prepared to resume this random phone call that came at the worst—no, the second worst, the first being the delivery of a baby—time. But Cole did have his number so he could be alerted if he was needed. Finally someone in Sam's family genuinely wanted to look out for her and be there for her. Someone actually cared about her and considering all that went on with her parents, this was a huge relief and Cole? Cole had every bit of his respect. Cole also had a girlfriend. Perhaps that was the feminine voice on the phone. Perhaps Cole couldn't come to it right now. And maybe Tucker told him about Sam going into labor. In the ghost zone. Alone. With a broken ship. No wonder he would be worried about that.

"Sorry about that. Anyway. Yes, this is the Fenton residence." Hopefully there wasn't a ghost attack somewhere. It had been an exhausting day and drama was far from welcome. He wasn't exactly what one would describe as "refreshed".

Sam didn't want him in the room, his family was still talking down in the lab for some reason, and the twins were still napping—how they managed to sleep through Faye's incessant screaming was unknown but he was oh so thankful they did. He plopped himself down on the couch with a deep sigh.

"Hello?" he said when he heard no reply from the other end.

He heard a bit of shuffling in the background but it was impossible to make out what was going on. Maybe she heard the baby and knew to give him a little time to calm her down. Well he had time—at least a few minutes of it—and if she wanted to talk she would do great to hurry with it.

"DANNY, COULD YOU GET A SPIT-UP CLOTH?" Sam yelled from upstairs, her voice muffled through the door.

"COMING!"

He dragged himself off the couch and practically tipetoed into the twins' room, where he grabbed a small white cloth from a nightstand. Lilith and Junior were both completely knocked out. Maybe that was how they slept through all that noise. He could turn invisible, clone himself, put up shields, walk through almost anything, switch between human and ghost, fly, encase anything in ice, and so much more…but they had something that was so precious he could only wish to be blessed with—the ability to sleep.

He trudged up to his room and phased through the door. He'd been wrong to think Faye wasn't hungry, that she simply wanted her mother. Or maybe he was half right, and it was a combination of both. Incredibly she still refused to be quiet and even as she nursed she kept grunting every now and then.

He walked over to Sam and flattened the cloth out on her shoulder. "There you go. You need anything else? Are you thirsty? Hungry? I can get you something, you can eat up here while I put Faye to sleep."

"I don't need anything. Besides, I think Faye's trying to decide whether to eat or sleep."

"Are you at least going to consider a hospital? I would really appreciate it if you went to one. Both of you."

"I'm not going to a hospital, Danny, and neither is she. She's part ghost and I don't want untrained doctors who think they know all about ghost babies to try working on her. What if they mess up and something happens? She's not like the twins."

"Look, I get the logic in that and I know she's different but I just want you both to be healthy. I'm pretty sure the doctors would work extra hard on Danny Phantom's daughter."

"They can work as hard as they possibly can but they're still only trained for human babies."

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, fine. If you're worried about her being part ghost then what if my parents take a look at her later? My mom, more specifically. She's very well-rounded in ghosts and she's learned a lot of medical ghost stuff ever since she found out I'm Danny Phantom. I mean she did help deliver a ghost baby without any medical supplies. So can you at least do that? For me? Please?"

She rolled tired eyes. "Okay, but only after Faye's asleep. And only if you promise to keep a close eye on them."

"I promise. And just in case, you'll tell me if you think something's wrong?"

She didn't even get the chance to respond before Danny's ghost sense went off. He immediately transformed and flew through the walls, hovering above the house to get the best 360 aerial view. But front to back, side to side, no ghost. Not even a sign of one. Even Johnny and Kitty were still gone, potentially in the ghost zone unaware that he and Sam had already left. This was bittersweet…without the presence of Johnny, Kitty, or any other ghost, there was only one other person that could set off his ghost sense, making it impossible to tell whether there was an actual threat or his own daughter just being near him. Not to mention that over all these years he had conditioned himself to blindly attack whatever set off his ghost sense. It had been a good thing…until now. While all these ghosts knew that mercy didn't exist around the twins, he would have to restrain those violent urges and teach his mind to recognize that there was an exception now, and that he couldn't just charge in unless he knew that it was an unauthorized ghost—the only authorized ones being Johnny and Kitty—and not Faye.

In short this would be extremely frustrating for a long time.

He growled and phased through the roof back into his room.

"Faye is…"

"She's part ghost, we both should've taken this into consideration…" Sam mumbled, more because she was so tired than to actually keep her voice down. "This is going to be really hard for you, huh?"

He resumed his human form and put his arms around her, still mindful not to disturb Faye—she'd finally ceased her crying…not to say the same for all her other baby sounds.

"It's worth it," he said. "We both knew she wouldn't be fully human. I mean, I would've had that hope if I was Fenton at the time and not Phantom but…well, maybe she only got Phantom's looks. She didn't show any ghost powers while you were still pregnant so…" He smiled slyly. "Maybe she just got my negative hair."

Sam let out a short laugh that sort of sounded forced. Still, it put her mind at ease…more or less. She wasn't the only one concerned about Faye inheriting his ghost powers. Everyone was concerned about that. And everyone would continue to be concerned about that for the next few years. If she didn't show any signs of any ghost powers within that time, she probably didn't have any. Hopefully her only inheritance from Phantom was his looks.

He took a deep breath and kissed the top of Sam's head. Once again his phone rang—apparently the person on the other end had hung up. Good news for him, he'd been busy. Bad news? The ringtone was disturbing a baby half-trying to sleep, half-trying to eat. He immediately booked it to answer this call that was quickly becoming one the most unwanted things on the planet.

"Who is this?" he asked, unable to mask the annoyance in his voice.

"I heard a baby cry, right? Is it a baby or a toy? Hard to tell over the phone. Has it been born yet? Does it have ghost powers? Wha—"

"Wait, wait, stop!" It was the same voice from before. "Who are you and how do you know about the baby?" Because despite his efforts to keep it low key, appointments with OBGYNs informed pretty much anyone who saw them there that Sam was pregnant. Compared to the entire world, only a slight fraction of people knew about this new family addition. He'd planned to try to keep this a secret for a while just so Sam could recover and Faye could grow accustomed to the outside world without them both being mobbed by fans and anybody who wished to affirm that there was indeed a new Fenton. Ghosts—minus Kitty and Johnny of course—he would annihilate, but humans? No. Not unless they posed a threat. And they knew it. They knew they could get by with a lot of crap just because they were fully human. They never quite hesitated to use this to their advantage…

"I'm on my way!" the voice exclaimed before hanging up.

It didn't have any echo to it so obviously this was indeed a human. BUT WHO?! It would be driving him nuts but there was nothing he could do except wait for her arrival. It was stupid to ask what his address was when his last name was an enormous neon sign pointing to his house. So yes she would find him easily. But to have his cell number and randomly call him at a horrible time? She either knew him or someone she knew knew him.

Only one way to find out…

A/N

So. Um. Four years. How time flies... I was afraid of dropping this story but I kind of didn't want to—I never did. Honestly I like writing this, just, I have other stories that people seem to like more than this one and it's on fanfiction for a reason. The Boy With the Rings, for instance, is a hit. Whatshisface is a hit. Flowers Will Bloom was a hit (just in case nobody knew, Flowers Will Grow is the sequel to Flowers Will Bloom). This story used to be a hit, and I was so happy being able to excite everyone and entertain everyone. It felt awesome! Now it's like fewer and fewer people care. It's been so long I wonder how it'll do now—not expecting it to do well.

Anyway since it HAS been such a ridiculously long time (but still better than The Incredibles 2), no quota.

Replies, though, certainly:

baby-kitsune9- I had a little too much down time. Plus, I do care what others think... I have ideas for this fic but it ain't easy to get those down. If nobody cares to read it why should I bother to write it? I love to write but... Thank you for your support though. Probably won't believe me but it does mean a lot.

Authora97- I'm not so sure about canon but I did try to align their personalities that way. Glad I was able to make this fic worth your while. :)

Thoughts-of-Nothingness- My plans were indeed to have Danny and Sam grow as parents and in doing so have the relationship with their kids grow too. As for dropping it I never really wanted to, nor do I now. Just feels like this thing was going downhill fast. I hardly expect it to do any better due to the four-year hiatus.

Favorite Daughter Of Hades- You're one of my most loyal readers/reviewers, at least I know a few people still like it, but my motiviation fluttered away like an evil butterfly when people stopped reading and reviewing. I have other hit stories so why continue to work so hard on one that fewer and fewer people like? You know? It's hard. But I never really wanted to drop it.

TripleAAA1183- I'd rather have the five but there used to be like 30-20 encouraging reviews and I was just like, LEZ DO THIS THING. Then they stopped coming. So yeah that was a big downer for me.

ALIKAT131- I'm glad you like it so much. I never wanted to drop it, actually. Just seemed like too many people were starting to dislike it or get bored with it, it dragged me down hard.

AwesomeMan327- I have to disagree with the comment about good chapters and reviews. If that's true then Flowers Will Bloom absolutely sucked. And all the earlier chapters of Flowers Will Grow were an utter disgrace to writing—they got so many reviews. I started it for a few reasons. Traffic was starting to decline too. Reviews are what motivate me the most so when those declined it was a hard hit.

purpledragon6- You reviewed a lot and were pretty passionate at times. Clockwork does indeed have huge plans for Faye. Let's just say...Danny won't like them.

snowprincess23- Do not worry young one. I'm trying to pace it but today Danny and Sam aren't going to escape much drama. You'll see what I mean in the next chapter.

Rex Blackwood- Well this is what happens next—mostly centered around what's going on back home. It's not some big bang rough and tumble chapter but it is sligtly necessary. I just won't be able to cram that stuff all in in later chapters.

SeeminglyHarmless123- Glad you love it. :) Glad you read it and reviewed.

Guest- I didn't want to drop it. Faye and Clockwork play significant roles in Danny's life (and Sam's but in a different way—still a very big way though).

musa maka- I'm continuing. Got ideas. Hope I'll get reviews.

katsincere- It is what I love, but please understand that it's hard to get ideas down into words. I have the ideas. I have to focus on words. I also have a job, a boyfriend, miscellaneous activities, and many distractions and priorities.

Radiant Celestial Aura- I came back to this one. :)

Cindy M 19- I'll write one just because you requested it.

DelusionalGingerWolf- I did finally update. After four years... :(