Bonjour, mes chers! Liking the regular updates? I know I am! It's nice to have a schedule. With that, here's this week's chapter! Don't forget I post the advanced chapters on my Patr(e)on on this day too, if you want to pledge a dollar a month (or more if you want) and get access to them. Today I'm posting three - in an hour or so. They still need proof reading!

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Chapter Fifty Six

::

Phasing into the bedroom that was still, even now, a bright garish pink that only a little girl could love, Danny changed back to his human form in mid-air and let himself fall onto the bed. A few seconds of silence and Danny frowned. It was kind of annoying that Jazz didn't even look up or flinch. Honestly. Try to scare a sibling and what did it get him? "You could at least fake being startled."

"Oh, no. A ghost." Now, that was just mean. At least Jazz seemed amused by it all. "Ready for the end of spring break then, little brother?" Ugh.

"Don't even." Danny had been enjoying his spring break, especially after… Especially after everything that had happened before it. It had been nice to get away from his problems, from Amity Park, from America. His mates really did do everything in extremes. Maybe next time they could just hit up an amusement park or two.

"I take it that you had a good spring break, then," Jazz laughed, folding up a set of sweaters and oh, right. Her college had spring break this week, too. "Mine was fine, before you try to guilty ask anything. I spent most of it with Clockwork catching up on homework."

"The Master of Time at your beck and call and you catch up on homework." Danny tsked, and, yeah, wow, he wished he could be more upset at how alike he and Jazz were at times. "History?"

"An essay on where our current political climate will take us," Jazz winked and oh, yeah, Danny really had learned it all from her. "I'm going to get a 97."

"Hey! He never tells me what grades I'll get!" Danny was almost offended. Almost. "Just because he's your mate doesn't mean you get to abuse that power, Jazz."

"Oh my god." Jazz turned and stared at him with wide eyes and looked to be shaking from where she was trying not to laugh. "Oh my- I don't even want to start to hear that from you and 'Mr. Riter.'"

"Wha- Hey! I-" Oh, nope, aha, Danny just remembered his 'detention.' He so abused that power. Quite happily- Dammit. She had a point. "Truce?"

"Truce. Now tell me the family friendly parts of your vacation. Have fun?" Oh, he very much had fun. "I said family friendly, Danny."

"I didn't say anything yet!" Clearing his throat and avoiding her look for a moment, Danny finally glanced back with a small, shy smile. "It was great, Jazz. I thought I'd never get to go to France with them and actually see where they grew up. I even got to visit their moms."

"I'm glad." Jazz folded a hideous fuzzy thing that Danny was certain had been a gag gift from their parents. Then again, it did look warm. "And how is…"

"Everything?" Danny fell back to lay on the bed, bottom half hanging off uncomfortably and neck tilting as his head brushed against the wall. It was cramped and straining his neck, but he didn't move. It was too familiar a pose and too familiar a ceiling filled with yellow butterflies and pink flowers. "It's… It's good, Jazz."

And it was. For the first time in a long time things were good. Spectra was gone, Danny was recovering, Andrew and Randy and him had fully accepted one another and their relationship, Vlad was seeing a therapist- Vlad. He was getting help. It was… It was good. Not perfect, not great, not amazing, but good.

Pushing himself to sit up after listening to Jazz quietly fold and tuck things away, Danny gave her a curious look, "Didn't Clockwork tell you what happened?"

"Briefly." Jazz wasn't look at him, instead folding and refolding an old Christmas sweater that Danny had gotten her the other year. "Just the overview so I knew you were alright. I didn't want to pry, you know. He mentioned how he kept you safe in the Citadel for a while until you ran into Spectra."

"Oh. Yeah. That." Yeah, that. He… He still couldn't remember what had happened in the Citadel very well. He knew that he had talked to Clockwork about the future and that he had seen what was coming- Or had even that been a dream? He… Clockwork told him about his time powers and how he had them because Clockwork had been on the other side of the portal to trigger his change that day when he was fourteen, but- God, it was all so jumbled. He couldn't remember what was a memory, what was a dream, and what had only been his imagination.

"Yeah, that," Jazz agreed softly, finally staring at the sweater and clutching it to her chest tightly. "I couldn't… I wasn't able to do anything."

"Jazz- Oh, Jazz, no, you weren't-" Jeez. And people said Danny had the hero-complex. Floating up, Danny flew over to her side before tackling her in as big and tight a hug as he could manage. He knew his expression was pained when she hugged him back even tighter. "I shut everybody out, Jazz. How were you supposed to know-"

"But I did! I knew how bad you were taking it all! That day I cut your hair I should have run after you!" That day he had seen how closely he resembled Dan and panicked. The day he had run away and fought with Randy and it had all led to fire and heartbreak. "I could have stopped this-"

"Everything is as it should be." Oh. Huh. For once, the words didn't taste like ash in his mouth. They… They were right. "It had to happen, Jazzy." Instead of the old name calming her, Danny winced as he heard a sob torn out of his big sister's throat. That really was it, though, wasn't it? Jazz was his big sister. She was the one he had always gone to when they were younger and then they had grown up and secrets had started building and god, why did no one tell him growing up was so goddamn difficult. "'S okay, Jazzy."

Danny buried his face against Jazz's shoulder, hiding a few of his own tears as the woman broke down in his arms. While it was uncomfortable and he had the urge to fly away as quick as possible, this was good for them- Ugh, he was turning into as big a sap as Randy.

Giving it ten or so minutes of letting them be horribly emotional, Danny finally cleared his throat, shifting his weight around. "I mean, I know I'm strong, but you're not all that light-" Okay, yeah, the punch to his side was kind of deserved, but fucking ow. "Hey, someone had to break up the awkward sibling bonding moment."

"You do have a lot of practice," Jazz laughed, the sound watery and rough and still so amazing to hear. "Okay- Okay, tell me everything you can. I want to hear it all."

"That's going to take a while, you know. Don't you have packing to do?"

"It can wait." Oh. Oh, well, that… That was nice, actually. Spending time with Jazz sounded perfect right about now. "Now, start from as far back as you can."

"Okay- Okay. So, uh, it's when Andrew was still subbing for Lancer in English, actually. That's when Spectra first showed up."

::

"Then I kind of maybe accidentally burned down the building-"

"You burned down a building in France because it's where those two were trained to kill?"

"Dude! What if some firefighter guy came over and saw you flying- It's not like you all were in Amity Park!"

"I was justified! Andrew was even cheering me on!" Trying not to laugh as he defended himself, Danny watched as Sam held in laughter herself and Tucker dramatically threw himself backwards. The beanbag chair didn't do a very good job of keeping him from hitting his head on the floor, which meant Sam's laughter was no longer being held in.

"Okay, first of all, fuck you, Sam. Second of all, I'm glad you three had a honeymoon week or whatever, but setting a building on fire seems to be going to extremes, buddy."

"It was justified," Danny whined, long and loud as he was bodily pulled into Sam's lap. He didn't fight it, only slumping back against her chest and settling down. After their last few years, they found they had grown much more tactile when sometimes it was the only way to make sure the other was still there. Those threeway rumors were still fucking hilarious.

"You know," Sam hummed, playing with his hair and oh, that was nice. "You didn't deny that honeymoon comment." Like a bolt of lightning, Danny realized his mistake had just cost him his life. "So, Danny dearest-"

"La, la, la, not listening!" Tucker actually went so far as to stuff his fingers in his ears, shaking his head. "I don't want to hear about how my best friend got fucked all week!" Danny really, really wanted to defend himself. He couldn't, but he wanted to.

"Oh, you're just jealous because he's getting fucked by two people and you aren't," Sam taunted, Danny sighing and slumping down more. There was no getting away now that Sam had shoved rock salt into that gaping wound.

"How dare you!" Oh, wow, Tucker was getting better. That screech was almost as offended as Andrew's!

Letting the two argue over his head, Danny settled back and gave a quiet sigh. Spectra had been wrong about almost all of it, but she had been right in how Danny felt the need to lay claim to one world or another. It had been too long since he had been with his best friends around him and the two lightly teasing one another-

"Motherfucker!"

"Bastard!"

"Cocksucker!"

"Oh, you fucking wish!"

Don't laugh, Danny, don't laugh. Okay, he figured he was allowed to laugh a little as the insults just went from there and got more and more outlandish. He could tell they were trying to make him laugh, though, so he didn't feel too bad.

Damn. It really was good to be home again.

::

"You're updating the ghost files?" Floating over Jack's shoulder, Danny curiously looked at the data banks that Maddie was rapidly typing information into. It looked like Jazz had copied all their notes into the 'official' Fenton database.

"We figured it was about time," Jack nodded, not even looking to notice as Danny wrapped his arms around Jack's shoulders and let himself hang there. It reminded him of when he was a little kid and he used to do that all the time. "Catching up with Sam and Tuck?"

"Yeah, thought I'd check in on them before heading into the Zone." Danny watched Maddie click around on the screen, marveling a little at just how much information they had collected on ghosts over the years.

"Just be sure to be back in time for school." Ah, moms would be moms. "I might not mind you spending the night every now and then with those two boys, but they need to remember your education comes first!"

"Mom, Andy would literally shove me in a Fenton thermos if he had to in order to get me to school on time." Sad thing was? That was probably true. "Don't worry, I'll be back either tonight or tomorrow." Probably tomorrow.

Maddie gave him a look as if she knew just how much time he spent staying over at their lairs before she sighed and waved him off, "Be safe. And I do mean be safe." Wha- Oh, god, no.

"Mom, please." Danny complained, moving to drop down and wrap her up in a hug and kiss her cheek, lowering his voice. "I'm okay, now."

"I know." Pretending to not see or hear the tears, Danny kissed her cheek again before launching himself towards the portal. He couldn't stop his grin as soon as he was in, the world wrapping around him like- Like home. It was so- God, it was so great to be back and know he was safe in this place again.

Idly deciding on where to go, Danny thought over- Oh, no, that was much better. Grinning, Danny shot off towards a place he knew the way to as well as he did Vidya, not stopping until a miniature castle came into view. Honestly, Randy was so dramatic.

"Hey, Liz." Doors opening, Danny darted in at once, feeling a sense of utter peace and safety as the doors closed shut on him. Pressing his hands up against the wall, he leaned in close with a wide smile. "Sorry I haven't been by in a while." It had been weeks since he had been to Liz. "But hey, hey, listen, some pretty awesome stuff has been happening!"

A melody of a tune fluttered into range of his hearing, a sound that reminded him of Andrew playing a song on the piano when he was in a particularly good mood. It carried a sense of warmth and safety and love and like a parent welcoming home a child. It… "Liz?" The tune changed fluidly and warmly, a cautious questioning. "I can hear you."

Music swelled and filled his head and Danny couldn't stop himself from tearing up because fuck- Fuck. It had really- Randy was really- God, he knew he and Andrew would always be, but to now have assurance that it was all of them- Wait. "Oh, those saps." Vidya sounded like Randy plucking the strings of a violin and Liz sounded like Andrew throwing himself into the piano. Years of death and separation and they had always thought of the other and now they thought of him just as much and…

"Let me get settled first, okay, Liz? I have a lot to catch you up on." It was going to be them for the rest of eternity. God. He had never knew knowing an answer could feel so right. "Starting with why I haven't visited in a while. Know of a ghost named Spectra?"