Oneshot, season 2-ish? Time period only vaguely set.
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Maddie Fenton measured out the flour and the sugar, mixing them together with a quick stir of the pastry cutter. The other ingredients sat on the counter as she worked, waiting patiently until she needed them. Butter, vanilla, salt, baking powder, each in order.
Making cookies was a nearly daily task for her, something she did to release stress, to take her mind off of things. And it served as a compliment to Jack's stress-eating.
There was a lot of stress in their lives recently. Ghosts publicly declared real. Danny's slow slide from excellence into mediocrity. The sudden demand for working models of their inventions, having to defend their patents in court, and of course the stresses at home with the local ghosts. She and Jack weren't the only competent ghost hunters around but they were the only ones really known. The so-called Red Huntress was an unknown and the idea of relying on Phantom was simply ludicrous.
There had been calls tonight. Calls about nuisance ghosts too small to bother anyone but annoying to the populace. Perfect for study if only she could keep Jack from shooting up the place.
The traps were sitting out in the living room. All they needed was bait.
Maddie lowered her goggles and popped the canister of ectoplasm. She slid a gold-plated spoon into the canister and drew out a large spoonful. It plopped into the cookie dough and tried to crawl out. A second spoonful and then she went to work on it, slicing into it with the pastry cutter. If she could only get it mixed in enough that it wouldn't crawl away before the cookies were cooked...
"Oh, hi Mom."
Maddie glanced up. Her movements with the pastry cutter grew a little harsher. "Hi Danny," she said. "Just making some ghost cookies to bait the traps with. Why don't you head upstairs to do your homework?"
"Already finished it," he said.
Maddie gave him a look that stated clearly that she didn't really believe him. Still, she didn't press. Instead she dumped the chocolate chips into the light green dough and started spooning cookie-sized blobs onto the pan.
Danny looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it. Instead he got a soda out of the fridge and went back upstairs without a word.
Maddie sighed and finished a pan of cookies. She stuffed them in the oven while the dough wiggled under its own power.
With the first batch in the oven she looked into the half-full bowl and the dough waiting for the second batch. Every time she made ghost cookies she had to double the batch. She expected this when making snicker-doodles, just as she expected Jack's resultant stomachache. But who in this house would be stealing ectoplasm tainted cookies?
It was the oddest thing.