Today is supposed to be a favorite AU. I maintain my mythology is canon compliant so instead I wrote a new one. Shades of this AU has actually been running around my head for months now. I finally have an excuse...

An AU

Jack came home, his arms full of takeout Chinese. It had been a long day at the lab washing glassware and feeding rats. Certainly not what he'd been expecting when he jumped right into graduate school after getting his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. But what with the portal accident and the inquiry he'd been expelled from the program and left to fend for himself with a boat-load of student loans, a dead best friend, and another friend who was rapidly becoming something more. Speaking of, it was Thursday so he expected her to be in the undergrad lab trying to keep the remedial students from blowing themselves up. Hopefully she'd be home before midnight this time.

The key in the lock, the door opened. And Jack went dead still. There was someone sitting on his couch. No one was supposed to be here. "Who are you?" he demanded.

An icy blue eye looked up from beneath long white hair. A big black coat did nothing to hide how thin, how ragged the intruder's form really was. That eye went wide with recognition. "Jack?"

The bag of takeout dropped to the floor. He knew that voice... "No. It can't be, you're dead," he whispered. "They told us you were dead!"

The intruder took a deep breath and stood up, turning to face Jack. "I figured they did," he said. "But they were wrong. I escaped, Jack. And I'm not going back there."

"Vlad..."

The intruder, his best friend, his dead best friend, smiled.

"Do you have any idea what we went through?!" Jack demanded. "They expelled me! And Maddie's whole first year she wasn't even allowed to apply for grants! We owe so many people so much money and I had to take two jobs to even make a dent in it! I have been working my ass off to support us both and where the hell have you been?!"

Vlad stepped back, fear plain on his face. Then his eyes flashed red for a moment and the fear faded, blending into something harder. His hands went to the buttons on his shirt and pulled them open one by one.

Jack's eyes went wide. His rant died as his friend revealed the unmistakable scars of an autopsy.

"Don't you dare claim to have it worse than I did," Vlad growled, his eyes flashing red again. "This was just the start of it."

"I'm sorry," Jack whispered.

Vlad sighed and closed his shirt, blocking the annoyed red scars from sight. "So you and Madeline are still together?" he asked.

"Yeah."

Vlad nodded and fell back onto the couch. Jack bent down and picked up the bag of takeout, bringing it to the coffee table. He handed Vlad a carton of something random and a plastic fork. Vlad accepted it, gazing almost wistfully at what looked like kung pow something. "I missed you both," he whispered. "No matter how bad it got I missed you both so much. Even when I blamed you for what... happened to me. I had to see you both again." His gaze turned to Jack as the big man sat shoveling something sweet and sour into his open mouth. "You and Madeline are all I have left, Jack. I couldn't let go of that. No matter how much I wanted to."

Jack swallowed heavily and leaned against his bony friend. "Eat something, you look like the walking dead," he said.

There was something about the wry look Vlad gave him that seemed odd. But Jack didn't want to think about it. All that mattered was his friend was back.

-00000-

Maddie came home to hear the sounds of laughter and the television through her door. She didn't think they were expecting company. She sighed; she expected Jack would be cognizant enough to know that Thursdays she just wanted to take a shower and fall into bed. Now she had to deal with people over...

When she opened the door her eyes went wide. "Vlad?"

Two pairs of blue eyes turned to focus on her. Jack smiled sheepishly. "Look who I found?" he asked.

Maddie crept up to their wayward friend, unsure if he was really there. She reached out to touch his big black coat, was amazed to find him solid. The past three years came back to her in a rush and she slapped him as hard as she could. While he reeled she enveloped him in a hug. "Don't you ever do anything like that to us again!" she shrieked. "They told us you were dead! That we'd killed you! Do you have any idea how that feels?!"

Vlad blinked, not able to do much more than that. She was furious, she was holding onto him for dear life. He relaxed, going with it as he wrapped his arms around her and held her as she broke, as the tears fell to soak his shirt.

"There's... something I need to tell you both," Vlad said. "That you both need to know. But no one else can know."

She pulled away from him, holding him at arm's length. Jack came up and clamped a hand on his shoulder. "We're here for you, Vladdy, whatever you need," he said.

Vlad took a deep breath and nodded. "Reports of my death were... not entirely inaccurate," he admitted. He put a hand on the coffee table and concentrated, letting it fall through. He looked up at the both of them with red eyes. "I'm not the same... anymore."

"You... really died?" Maddie asked.

"I'm not sure," Vlad said. "I just know..." He summoned his power, let it envelop him. Black rings appeared around his waist, sucking the light from around him as he shed his human guise for something less... alive. His black coat turned white, almost too white to be a mere lab coat. His hair darkened to a pitch black that almost shone. But the worst part were the eyes, red eyes that shone from skin shaded the very blue of asphyxiation. Vlad looked down at his own black-gloved hands. "I just know I'm not human anymore."

Red eyes turned on them, eyes that despite their color conveyed an incredible sadness. Jack reached out for Vlad, not knowing what to do. Eventually he let his hand fall and then grabbed his friend, pulling him into a crushing hug.

Vlad's red eyes went wide before they clamped shut and he held on to Jack for dear life. He felt Maddie's gentle hands on his hair, her arms entwining around them both. These were his friends. He should have known they'd accept him. He should never have doubted.

He'd be okay.

-00000-

"I'm telling you, this is the perfect place to test our equipment!" Jack crowed.

Vlad and Maddie stood around as Jack set up the stuff. The house certainly looked haunted, empty and abandoned. A fine layer of dust coated the corners. Dry rot had taken some of the ceiling, giving them a view into the attic and the bat colony above. Vlad paced the entire house, his mind open listening for someone, anyone who might be here. He sighed as he completed a circuit.

"Jack, there's no one here," Vlad said.

"Well of course not, that's another reason I picked the place," Jack said.

"No, I mean, there are no ghosts here."

"You're just saying that, Vladdy. Now help me get the wires connected."

Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Jack! The only remotely ghost-like creature on this property is me. There's nothing else. Not even a danged cold spot."

Maddie glared at Jack. Jack looked confused.

"I can... I don't know, I can sense ghosts. And this place is dead. Not like dead people dead, like Faraday cage dead. You picked a ghost-less house to test our ghost equipment on."

Jack pouted. "But I wanted it to work..."

Maddie kept glaring. "I have an 8AM class I have to TA, you know," she warned. "Can we please go home now so I can get some sleep?"

"Okay..." Jack pouted as he started packing up the equipment.

Vlad looked out the window. Suddenly he shuddered and his breath spilled forth hot, fogging the glass. "Wait," he said. "Don't take it down yet."

"But you said-"

Vlad hissed for silence and let himself transform. He faded from visibility and phased through the window.

Jack looked from where his friend had stood down to the machinery going wild at the aftermath. It didn't matter how many times he saw that it was still a little strange.

Outside, Vlad flew toward that sense, seeking out its cause. He found it lurking in a house packed up to move. Boxes were stacked through the rooms. The ghost was shifting boxes around, unpacking and repacking them. Vlad floated in the corner, waiting for it to notice him. It finished unpacking a box and lifted it into the air. Vlad's pointed ears twitched before he found that box trying to pack him away.

"I am the box ghoooost!"

Vlad extracted himself from the box and grabbed the blue-skinned ghost before him. "You're coming with me," he snapped.

"Never! The box ghost cannot be contained!"

Vlad sighed and dragged the ghost through the wall and across the street to the so-called 'haunted' house on the block. Floating boxes packed with things followed as the box ghost called upon its 'minions'.

Inside, Jack's machines started going wild again. He looked up to see Vlad fly through the wall, a ghost in his clutches. Two human jaws dropped, their eyes going wide.

Maybe this night wasn't a waste after all.

Two year old Danny flapped his arms as he tried to stay afloat. The wind was all around him and the night sky shone with darkness as he kept his eyes clamped shut, trying with all his might to keep afloat and not fall. But it was so hard…

He faltered but he didn't fall far. Black-gloved hands plucked him out of the sky and held him close to a white-clothed chest. Danny's big green eyes looked up into shining red ones. He wrapped tiny arms around his uncle Vlad's neck and hugged him, giggling. "Didya see? Didya see? I flew!"

On the ground Jack watched as his son and his best friend cavorted around the sky. His Maddie stood next to him, her equipment powered up as she searched the area for other ghostly contacts.

"So I have a half ghost son," Jack mused. "I wonder how that happened."

Maddie blushed.

"No, it's fine. I've known about you and Vlad for awhile now." Jack smiled. "Danny has Vlad's human eyes." He watched as his son tried again, letting go of Vlad to float in the air next to him. His black and white feety pajamas glowed faintly against the white cloak that Vlad wore, the former lab coat that over the years had begun losing its previous form, morphing into something akin to a red-lined cloak. "But his ghost eyes look more like yours." Jack sighed. "At least Jazz is mine, right?"

"Jazz looks like your mother," Maddie said. "And she's human."

"True." Jack embraced her from behind and laid his head on her shoulder. He watched the indicator flash as something flew across the edge of her radar range. One reason they'd moved to Amity Park, the multitude of ghost sightings made their research so much easier. With the barrier between the two worlds so thin here Vlad even said they might be able to restart their portal project out here, perhaps with less soul-flensing results.

"I wonder," Jack mused. "I mean, I know you've thought about it. But… I wonder what Vlad would think about it."

"About what, dear?" Maddie asked. Another blip appeared in range and hovered there. It seemed to be watching.

"Maybe asking Vlad to join us. I mean, really join us."

Maddie's eyebrows went high and she bit her lip, the possibilities hitting her like a brick wall. It was a very intriguing possibility…

The blip began approaching, speeding up. Jack noticed it. "Vlad, we got incoming!" he shouted. Very quickly his arms were filled with a squirming toddler and Vlad was back in the air leading whatever this was away. The lure of Amity Park was also its greatest drawback. The ghosts who infested this town were numerous but they were also vengeful and rather powerful.

-00000-

Five year old Danny crept into his parent's bedroom. Silent and invisible he snuck up to the side of the big bed and pulled on the closest hand to try and wake them up. A groan could barely be heard over the sound of his daddy snoring. Danny pulled again.

"What is it sweetie," mumbled a voice, his mommy.

"I wanna drink of water," Danny whispered.

"Mmm, you do it," she mumbled. Danny could hear the sound of someone getting kicked. Another sleepy groan came from the bed while his daddy kept snoring.

"I'm up, I'm up," groaned another voice, his papa.

Danny went visible and grabbed his papa's hand. He liked his papa. He was half ghost just like he was. And his sister Jazz was a girl just like mommy was. Danny led his papa down to the kitchen. "Papa, Mommy has Jazz and you have me, when's Daddy gonna have a kid just like him?"

Vlad yawned in the darkness. He let his eyes shine red; it was easier than turning on the light and waking everyone up. "That's up your daddy, don't you think?" he asked. "Do you want another brother or sister?"

"I dunno," Danny said. "Is Daddy lonely?"

"Now why would he be lonely?" Vlad asked. "He has you and me and Mommy and Jazz. Most families don't have that many." He grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it from the sink.

"I know," Danny said. "I was just thinkin'. Some of the kids at school think it's bad that I got two daddies and a mommy."

Vlad put the glass of water on the table and pulled his son into a hug. "Oh Danny, my boy," he purred. "Don't listen to anything they say. Your daddy isn't lonely with us. The kids at school just don't understand that your daddy and mommy and me can love each other so very much."

Vlad picked up Danny and took him and the glass of water to the living room. "People make fun of what they don't understand, Danny," he said as he dropped into an armchair and pulled Danny into his lap. "And they don't understand our family. But what matters most is that we know we love each other very much."

"But they get really mean about it."

Vlad gave a shaky sigh. "I know," he whispered. "But when they get mean like that I want you to come tell me. When people hurt you they're supposed to be punished otherwise they won't learn. Maybe you and I can teach them."

Danny shook his head. "I'm not supposed to use my powers outside the house unless it's really dark and everyone comes. You and Daddy said so."

Vlad smiled. "I think, my boy, it's time to teach you how to use your powers without getting caught. Then you'll be able to see what Mommy and Daddy and Papa all do at night when there's thunder and the wind gets funny."

Danny's eyes went wide and he nodded. His papa gave him his glass of water and sent him off to bed.

Vlad purred into the darkness before returning to bed. Two sleepy pairs of arms wrapped around him and pulled him into a tangle embrace. But despite their comfort he couldn't go back to sleep. Not now.