The funeral wasn't the hard part.

Holding Sam while she cried wasn't the hard part. Seeing Tucker's parents look shell shocked and horrified, that wasn't hard. Not compared to life after that. Life without Tucker. Part of him was missing. Part of his day was gone. Things weren't right anymore, weren't complete without his best friend beside him. Everything from playing video games to eating lunch felt wrong. Every single thing he did felt off kilter and incomplete and they always would. Walking down the street even felt weird without the familiar form beside him, that cheerful voice going on about nerdy things, those green eyes alight with never ending thoughts. That was the hard part. The hard part was living life knowing something was wrong that would never ever be set right again.

Andrew sort of filled a void. He wasn't anything like Tucker. He wasn't a replacement Tucker. But he was a friend, someone to talk to and confide in and whine at. It was a shred of normalcy that he clung to with desperation. And yes, Andrew was all over the place morally and personality wise, wildly inconsistant, a terrible person to rely on. Danny was aware of that. He just didn't have any other options anymore. Anyone was better than total loneliness and nothingness. He needed someone in his life that was a friend, even a bad influence. A bad influence was still better than nothing. That bad influence was there for him when he called at two AM plagued by nightmares and needed more pills. The bad influence got ahold of test answers that salvaged Danny's Science grade. He wasn't perfect, far from it, but who wasn't? At least he was trying to help. That was more than anyone else was doing.

"You should call your sugar daddy," Andrew told him when he told him about Vlad. "Go hang out with him for a place. Detox, talk about your feelings, all that shit. It'll be good for you."

"He's not my sugar daddy. He's a perv who's in love with my mom. That's creepy," he said with a sigh. "Though I'm sure you have some one liner about it stored up."

"One liners, pills and advice are all I bring to the table. Well, that and my dashing good looks." Andrew grinned, wrapping an arm around Danny's shoulders. "Seriously, though, think about it. A break from all the bullshit of school. No more drama or cliques or rumors. Just a mansion and a man who you can play like a fiddle just by crying."

"You really don't know Vlad." Danny smirked weakly. "I'm pretty sure he's got some secret evil intent behind this."

"Just because someone has it out for you doesn't mean you can't take advantage of them. It's never stopped me. Danny, you need to just keep in mind that at any moment, you can destroy his reputation with allegations, true or otherwise." Andrew grinned evilly. "If all else fails, you call me, I requisition a ride from somewhere, plant something illegal in his house and then the cops show up. He can't do anything to you that I can't outdo in a heartbeat."

"You scare me."

"Thank you," he replied with a bow of his head. "I do my best. Now, are you going to call him or what? You need to go somewhere that doesn't remind you of Tucker. I don't think he ever spent a lot of time with old Vladdy boy, right?"

Danny looked directly at him. "Why are you talking me into this?"

"I'm trying to save you from the depths of high school insanity. In a better world, I would have options besides shipping you off to the mayor's den of luxury, but," he shrugged lightly, "You have to make do with what you're given. Come on. You have the rest of the school year to march through Hell barefoot. A brief reprieve won't kill you."

"...if this goes wrong, I blame you."

"Ha! I knew I could change your mind! Now come on, let's go crash over at Duan's place - we need to celebrate and I know for a fact he has some schapps stored up. Things are looking up!" He pulled Danny forward, still smiling. His joy was infectious and his eyes were alight with mischief. It was easy to give himself over to Andrew's plotting and let himself be dragged into more bad behavior, because his only other option was sitting around at home missing Tucker and dying inside.

Schnapps seemed like the responsible thing to do by comparison.

When Danny called Vlad, he had the good sense to wait until he'd sobered up significantly.

If anyone knew, they wouldn't understand. There were lots of girls out there with a saving-people-thing, with the need to try and save men with problems. Those relationships blew up rather quickly. The conflict between a condescending self proclaimed hero and a broken person trying to stay afloat always ended badly. Even if they got the guy off the drug, it was over forever fairly rapidly. Rescue romances only worked in movies and books. In reality people couldn't live with the incredible inequality and shame inherent in such relationships. Even in friendships, things like this couldn't work. So in the name of keeping the peace, Danny waited until he was sober to make the degrading, humiliating phone call to his former enemy.

"School lets out after this week for Christmas break. Jazz can't make it home this year," he said tiredly into the phone, fiddling with a pencil while looking at his undone homework. "If things go marginally good I might stay with you for the holidays. Can't be any worse than things are here."

"I'm sure it's not all terrible, Daniel. Your mother seems very concerned about you. You could try talking to her." Typical Vlad. Even in nice mood, he was focused on Maddie.

"I would if she wasn't preoccupied doing damage control with Dad. He's not taking the new wave of paranormal investigators well." He leaned his head against the wall of his room, listening to shouting from downstairs. "I'm so tired of all this."

"Your father can be quite... passionate in his debate. Perhaps it's for the best you take a break from his zeal," Vlad said, carefully trying to avoid slamming Jack Fenton's good name in front of his son. I'm trying to get him to trust me. I should not talk about what a pathetic parent Jack is being, for the little badger's own sake. "I'm sure he'll calm down a bit with time. This isn't the first time his field of study has seen a spike in activity."

"Yeah, he'll calm down and go back to being embarrassing and obsessive." Danny wasn't so much angry as just through dealing with this. "Great. Whatever. I'll see you after school on Friday, Vlad."

Danny hung up and threw his cell phone on his bed, sinking into his desk chair to set about trying to salvage his grades. It was a futile effort, but it gave him something to focus on besides his father railing against the evils of all the new paranormal investigators. He could hear the man's rant about Seth Winters being an unscientific disgrace through the floor. His blue eyes flickered over to his coat, where he kept his stash. Well, part of it. It was best not to keep all of it in one place. He didn't want the one thing getting him through the day taken away due to poor planning. But no matter where he put it, the siren song of its effects were present. He could go over and take some and let the arguing and the homework and the suffocating loneliness drift away. And he could breathe, just for one day...

It was beginning to take more to get the same effect. That wasn't a good sign. Andrew was worried. The dealer being worried really wasn't a good sign. Danny was sure that he was really starting to spiral downward into the territory of having a true problem. He was kind of scared. Unfortunately, he was more tired than he was scared. He wanted more than anything to have a break from all of this, to slip away from the world for just a little while, so he wouldn't have to worry about everything and try to keep so many balls in the air at once. He stared at his coat for a long time, contemplatively.

Then he got up and took two pills out. He soothed his conscious by saying it was just this once and he wouldn't keep up this kind of dosage every day. He didn't have a problem, he was in control. He wasn't an addict.

All this was forgotten before the newfound quiet took him off to sleep.

Danny was still grieving.

Vlad wasn't sure how to handle that kind of emotional state, but he could tell by Danny's behavior that he hadn't recovered from the loss of his best friend yet. He hadn't even begun to. He was too busy trying to play hero and keep his grades up and take his parent's changing behavior in stride. He looked exhausted. Something was deeply wrong and Vlad didn't know what it was. All he knew was that if someone didn't step in and keep Danny from going off the deep end, he was going to lose it eventually. This was Vlad's chance to make up for everything, by being a soft place to fall, a person to grieve with, somehow. He didn't know where to start, but he was going to try his best. He would not let Danny's life be ruined because Jack Fenton couldn't get off his ass and parent for five seconds of his life. It was far from too late to turn things around and if no one else wanted to help, fine. Vlad could run everything by himself. He always had. That was what he did - he kept things going through sheer determination and wit. If he could build a business empire, he could surely handle the daunting task of cheering someone up. He wasn't in the least bit intimidated by Danny's new personality, he told himself as he led Danny through the mansion.

"I picked out a room for you, I hope you don't mind," Vlad said with his usual mask of confidence and poise. "Of course, we can always change that later. But first I thought you might like an early dinner, since the drive over was rather lengthy. Is that alright?" Say something, anything. Stop being so quiet. This isn't like you.

Danny shrugged. I really don't give a crap. "It's fine," he said tonelessly.

"How's school going?" Vlad asked, searching his mind for age-appropriate, non-hero related topics. It was unwise to bring up Danny Phantom and the stress therein on a vacation dedicated to getting Danny back on his feet. It also left Vlad with no idea how to proceed in a conversation with a teenager.

Terrible. My dad will kill me when he sees my grades. I think I bombed my Math test and I may have done more homework in the limo than at home in weeks, Danny thought, but didn't say out loud. Instead, he just shrugged again. "It's alright."

"Daniel... your mother told me about your grades," he said carefully, watching Danny's face for a reaction. "I happen to know it's not alright."

The lack of response was worse than a negative one. He almost wanted Danny to yell at him and tell him it was none of his business. Where was that old fire, that passion, the normal gambit of teenage emotions and defiance? Where was Danny? This was really not how he'd pictured this visit going. He'd known something was wrong, of course - of course Daniel was going to be withdrawn with what had happened, and it was expected for him not to trust Vlad, but this was something else. This was too apathetic, too dead when he normally would've at least made a quip or a joke. Something was really wrong. Vlad would've given anything to at least get a glare from him.

"Going ghost and going to school was hellish even when I had friends to help me. Now..." his bright blue eyes had a dull, far away look. "I'm doing my best," he said defensively, eyes flickering towards Vlad briefly. For a second there was some of his old vitrol back.

"I know you are," Vlad replied, watching with fascination as Danny rubbed at the side of his head as if experiencing a headache. He decided to switch topics in an attempt to keep the boy out of his depression, however temporarily. "Why are you wearing your jacket indoors? Aren't you hot?"

"Not really," he replied, a bit too fast, with practiced and forced nonchalance. "I'm fine."

Vlad quit walking and put a hand on his shoulder. "No, you're not. But you will be." He locked eyes with a dubious looking teen. "I promise. Not to sound trite and cliche, but it gets better."

Danny shut his eyes. "I don't want to do this right now." He paused, rephrasing it in his head so it made sense. "I mean, can we stay away from all the heavy stuff and just... just be normal for a little bit, Vlad?"

He let his hand drop. "Alright. Whatever you need, Daniel."

Danny met his eyes briefly. "Thank you," he said, and the words carried a world of meaning beyond Vlad's ability to explain. But they didn't pause to discuss it.

Dinner was waiting.