Leaning back in her chair, Maddie Fenton stretched with a small smile on her face. Everything was going accordingly – the new device that Jack had invented just needed a few tweaks to fit her taste, and it would be done. The Fenton Ghost Grabber was designed specifically to expel Ghosts from people who were possessed. She shifted once more in her seat and picked up a small screwdriver to shift a few wires when what sounded like a frantic elephant come stomping down the stairs. She smiled to herself and stood; the thumping elephant just so happened to be her 18 year old son who was muttering to himself while fidgeting with a tie.

She ground down the urge to absolutely smother her son in affection for looking so grown up, but smothering him was against the rules now – his rules, anyway. It was now down to a kiss on the cheek or a brief hug. Or, if he was really upset, he'd slump down in the sofa next to her and just sit cuddled up to her. The moment she put her arm around him, however, he'd shift. Maddie frowned when she heard her son utter one of the few curse words she'd put off limits before ripping the blue tie off altogether.

"Do you need some help, Danny?" She asked, walking out from the kitchen.

He sighed dejectedly; "Yeah. I mean, it's a stupid tie! How hard can it be to get a tie on? Stupid piece of-"

"Danny!" By now, Maddie had picked up the tie and began wrapping it around his neck, and under the collar of his black button down shirt. He flinched when she yelled, and didn't say anything else while she continued to maneuver the silky piece of material into a knot that could easily come undone. When she'd finished, she'd pushed it up just tight enough so it looked smart, but Danny wouldn't be tugging at it every two minutes.

She stepped back and admired her work. Danny had grown at least a couple of inches in the year, taking his height up to a graceful six foot two. She smiled brightly; "You look very adult Danny. Going anywhere special?" she asked crossing her arms.

Instantly his left hand went to his black trouser pocket and Maddie quirked an eyebrow. However, he gave her a goofy grin – and without realizing it, she'd forgotten about whatever was in his pocket – and laughed. "Yeah; Sam and I are going to the really nice French place up on third. You know the place Dad took you for your wedding anniversary last year?"

Maddie nodded with a wistful smile on her face; "Yes. It's a very beautiful place. I'm sure Sam will love it. But don't you ruin things!" she scolded playfully while he groaned, "That means no French, and no groping."

"MOM!"

"Well, you're old enough now to be into that sort of thing. All I'm saying is don't do anything that will ruin the night for your girlfriend. A woman scorned isn't something to be taken lightly."

"Mom…I won't ruin the night for Sam."

"No French?"

"No French."

"No groping?"

He turned a vivid red; "Mom-!"

"Promise?"

"…Promise."

"Good, now uncross your fingers."

After she sent Danny off with a small kiss on his cheek and watched him leave. Her son was growing up to fast, and she realized she'd missed most of it. She stood near the front door for a while, thinking about how quickly he'd matured in a fine young man. She snapped out of her small reverie however, when her husband came thundering past yelling 'Fudge awaits!' She smiled to herself and followed him into the kitchen where he was digging through the cabinets. She wordlessly reached into a cupboard on the other side of the kitchen and pulled out a small packet.

Like a dog, Jack heard the sound and took it from his wife's outstretched hand. "Thank you, honey!" he yelled loudly before dashing back out. "Hey, Mads! There's a Ghost special on tonight! You wanna watch?!"

She laughed at her husband; he could still be so easily be excited about anything that was Ghostly. She picked up her tool kit and the Fenton Ghost Grabber before heading out of the kitchen. "I'll work on this tonight, Honey. But if you tape it we can both watch it together."

"That's why I love you! Always thinking ahead!" he said happily, setting up the VCR.

She smiled at him lovingly before heading downstairs to their lab. Over the years, they'd put in extensions that made room for a larger work and containment bay. Currently, a small red glob that would take shape whenever someone was in the room was rolling around in the containment chamber. Maddie looked over to it as the monitors went off, indicating it was changing. It had taken the form of a small tree. It would've been perfect if it wasn't complete dark red. It would stay like that for the rest of the night, and so, she let the computers gather information on it instead.

Her work bench was situated just behind Jack's, and was considerably cleaner and well kept. Jack liked to experiment with chemicals in his inventions, and as a result, his work bench was covered in burn marks and there was even a small hole where radioactively charged ectoplasm had leaked through. She shook her head dismissively at her thoughts and settled down to work on the Ghost Grabber.

As time went by, she occasionally looked up at the monitors to see what the red glob was doing, but it still remained in the shape of a tree. Every now and again, upstairs Jack would laugh and call the TV a liar and tell it to get its facts straight, but that was the only noise in the four hours she continued to work through.

However, around eleven that night a Ghost sensor went off, making her jump and aim her weapon at the Ghost portal. She waited for several moments as the alarms continued to go off, and eventually, she let her stance go. She shook her head – the system was probably reacting to the red glob in the containment chamber that had slowly edged its way over to the glass wall. She groaned and turned off the alarm, eventually going back to her bench to work on their invention. After settling down, she went to reach for a small pick and noticed it was gone. She leant over in her chair and looked under her table, and when she sat back upright she nearly jumped out of her skin.

Phantom hovered nervously near her; "Hi."

"Just you…you must've been the one that set off the alarm," she said to herself quietly while standing again. "Don't do that again."

"Do what?"

"Scare me!"

"Oh…sorry."

She sighed and walked out from behind her work bench and over to where the main control panels for the detectors were; "So what can I owe this visit to?" she asked him.

He floated next to her and laughed sheepishly. "I just wanted to drop by…and…talk?"

She stopped and looked at him suspiciously, but then remembered their encounter a few weeks ago in the park and smiled warmly at him. "That's fine. Whatever you want to talk about is A-Okay with me. However…there was something bothering me about last time that I want to tell you," she said, standing fully to face him.

He looked skittish – "Yeah?"

A loud slap echoed through the lab as Maddie backhanded him across his face. He floated, stunned, as the sting began to kick in. A red mark began to appear on his pale skin that contrasted with his white hair. "What was that for?!"

"For swearing in the park."

"Oh. That hurt, you know," he whined peevishly.

"Good. No swearing from now on. If I catch you again I'll wash your mouth out with Ecto-removal."

She saw him wince and took that as a small victory on her part. She continued across the lab with him floating close by. She turned the detectors back on and keyed in his ectosignature so the alarm wouldn't go off while he was in the lab. Once she was done, she turned back around to face him, "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"Uh…" He turned a brilliant shade of scarlet and Maddie remembered her own son turning the same shade of red a few hours before. She quirked an eyebrow and donned a small smile on her face as he continued to stutter through his sentence – it was barely coherent and there weren't enough whole words to call it one…

"Phantom…Calm down," she said while crossing her arms.

"Ah, right."

"Now, tell me what's wrong."

"I-Uh… I sort of follow your son around, making sure he doesn't get into trouble-" she scowled at him and he put his arms up defensively "- it's not like I stalk him or anything…but, uh, he went with his girlfriend Sam to this really nice place and I went to make sure nobody interrupted their night and he…sort of…"

She frowned, recalling what she'd told her son not to do that night; "He what?"

"heproposedtohisgirlfriendandshesaidyesandnowhedoesn'tknowwhattodosohesentmebecausehetrustsyou!" he rushed.

"Woah! Calm down, and say that a little slower, okay?" she asked, trying to sound calm and relaxed. She watched as Phantom cleared his throat and went bright red. She had to stop herself from laughing, of course. It wasn't every day that a Ghost was embarrassed.

"Your son, Danny, proposed to his girlfriend, Samantha, who said yes, and now he doesn't know what to do because I haven't…done…anything like that before. And I decided to come here because…I-He trusts you the most."

"He did what?!"

He flinched, but Maddie didn't mean to scare him. She grasped her head – she had to sit down; she felt extraordinarily light headed. Phantom was above her, stuttering, saying he was sorry, and scolding himself for not easing her into it. Suddenly, the image of Danny fidgeting with something in his pocket flashed in front of her eyes and it all made sense. All anger faded from her system and she felt a burst of joy.

Her son had picked someone to marry – already – that she approved of.

"Phantom?"

"I'm so sorry! Please don't kill him!"

"I won't kill him Phantom…Does he know you're here?" she asked. She smiled when he shook his head. "Good."

Giving her an odd glance, Maddie stood again, feeling not so light headed and grabbed Phantom's hands. No sooner than he'd asked what she was doing, she began jumping up and down and squealing like a teenage girl, swinging Phantom around as she did so. Of course, Phantom, who was on the receiving end of her little celebratory dance, began smiling like and idiot. At least she's happy for me…

When Maddie had calmed herself down, she instantly began running through everything that had to be done for a wedding while Phantom hovered nearby. She was running through what the cake should look like when the second part of Phantom's question finally got through to her conscious mind; Doesn't know what to do because I haven't…done…anything like that before.

"Phantom?" Maddie, asked, suddenly feeling her blood run cold.

"Yeah?"

"What did you mean by 'haven't done anything like that before'?"

He came to a complete stop in the air rather than before when he swayed with the air currents that went through the lab. He paled and Maddie realized what he meant. So many emotions were going through her right now, and she didn't know which one to settle on for the first time…for the first time since her Jazz had left for college. Was her son really wanting to…? Looking up at Phantom who seemed to be choking on his words gave her all the affirmation that she needed. "Phantom…?"

"I-I…"

"Calm down."

"I AM CALM!"

"Don't you yell at me! I'm trying to help!" she yelled back.

"You're going to help?" he asked, now looking up at her while hovering upside down at a 45 degree angle. "Really?"

"Of course. I won't abandon my son when he asks for you to ask me for help. I am a little upset though that he didn't tell me he was going to ask Sam to marry him. What's done is done now. Does he know that you came to me?"

"Sort of… But not really."

"Good. It'll make it a little less embarrassing then. For him, at least."

Phantom's eyes widened and Maddie would've given anything to know what the young Ghost was thinking at that time, because he looked ready to pass out. However, she got over that and took a seat behind her work bench, and invited him to sit on the other side. For the next half hour, Maddie decided to add to her file on Phantom that he was capable of much more than they'd imagined, including blanking out (Maddie was getting to what he should tell Danny about his responsibilities were so Sam wouldn't get pregnant when Phantom's eyes suddenly closed and he fell forward, almost as if passing out…)

Finally, although Maddie finished and Phantom looked ready to kill himself –

If a Ghost could, that is.

"Remember to tell Danny everything, Phantom. If I end up with grandchildren in the next nine months, I'm coming after you."

He numbly nodded, "I understand."

"Good. Now that Danny's been taken care of, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Ye-No! I mean…kind of…not really."

She smiled at him and refused to coo at how cute he looked flustered. She understood why half the girls at Casper High were after him now. He was handsome, just like her son. The only thing was her son – she thought with pride – was taken.

"Well, I'm sure that can wait until another day," she said, "For now, you have to go tell Danny what I've just told you. And no skipping details!"

He made a gagging noise and nodded; "You can trust me."

"Can I?"

It was a joke, but the look on Phantom's face was pure hurt. Maddie frowned and wondered why he'd be so upset by what she'd just said. He looked down towards the ground and rubbed his elbow sheepishly; "I'll be going now."

"Phantom. I'm sorry. I do trust you, you know?"

He looked at her with a sad smile; "I know."

She continued to frown as he hovered backwards. She frantically searched his face for something that would give away why he looked so torn, and after finding nothing, Maddie did the only thing she could to when reassuring someone. She reached out and snatched his hand from midair and pulled him into an embrace. Unlike last time, where he flinched, he remained impassive to her.

"Phantom. I trust you. I want to thank you as well," she said.

"For what?" he replied in a monotone.

"For looking after my son when I can't. I know I said that I couldn't trust you around my children, but I do. Thank you for being there for him when I can't. I'm sorry if what I said hurt you."

He didn't say anything, but he returned her hug gingerly.

"Tell him I'd accept it no matter what."

"Accept what?"

"I will accept whatever he chooses to do in his life."

"Th-… I will."

"You remind me so much of my son, Phantom. I think I'm getting rather attached to you." She laughed as he chuckled. "Tell him I love him, will you? And I can't wait to tell him how proud I am!"

She thought she heard him mutter 'you have no idea how much…', but even if she did the rest of his sentence trailed off into nothing but a small breath. He pulled away and gave her a happy smile before floating up through the roof after saying goodbye.

She waved back, and even after she was gone, she continued to look up at the ceiling. Several moments past and she let out a long sigh. Phantom was like her son, and the more time she spent with the ethereal being, the more she became attached to him. It is rather easy, though, she decided walking over to the containment chamber, and he is exactly like Danny.

He is exactly…like Danny?

Phantom is Danny?!

Now that was an unsettling thought. She knew Phantom was half Ghost, but what the other half was still unanswered. Was it possible for a human to be half Ghost? She shook her head, ashamed at her own thoughts. If Danny was anything other than…Danny, she'd would've known by now.

She peered through the glass of the chamber to find the red glob had still kept its' shape of a tree. Deciding to call it a night, she turned the monitors onto night mode and left the lab lights on for night. She knew that if insomnia struck tonight – which it would – she'd be down in the lab for a few more hours, either way.

As she walked up the stairs, she put the final monitor onto night mode, and if she'd looked back at the red glob, she would've seen it take the form of a miniature Danny and mimic his transformation to become Phantom.

A big Thank You! To everyone who reviewed and to those who simply added me to their favorites list. (Remove the spaces and you should be right!):

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Or, if you're not internet savy, I'll just send you the picture.

-Crystal Remnant