Danny had to say, the best part of his parents knowing about him being Phantom, other than him receiving their love and support, of course, was their insistence on him being healthy. Gone were the days of shovelling down dry sugary cereal in fear that opening the fridge for mild would lead to a food attack. In their place were balanced meals- homecooked by his dad based on the tests they performed to see what Danny's body needed.
This morning, breakfast for Danny consisted of four scrambled eggs, a bowl of whole-grain oatmeal with honey, and a glass of orange juice spiked with a teaspoon of pure ectoplasm.
Between the nutritious food and the increased training, Danny was starting to build muscle. With his baggy t-shirts and jeans, nobody at school seemed to notice though. Although he gained muscle he still had the bony frame of a boy a week shy of fourteen.
Or was he technically fourteen already? He might be.
"Hey Mom," Danny said after swallowing a bite of scrambled eggs.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"You know how you said we celebrate my birthday on the day Dad brought me home? We don't know when it really is do we?"
"Well, judging by how big you were when I found you it could be any day now," Jack interjected from the stove as he tossed the pancake he was making for himself in the air.
"Well if it could be any day between now and the day we usually celebrate it," Danny paused to take a sip of his orange juice. "Then shouldn't we celebrate it every day between now and then just to be sure we don't miss the actual day?"
Maddie gave Danny a blank look and Danny couldn't help the slight "hmph" of a chuckle that escaped through his nose.
"That's a great idea Dann-o!" Jack said. "We'll have steak to celebrate tonight!"
"We already had steak planned for tonight's menu," Jazz finally looked up from the book she'd brought to the table with her.
"But now it's a celebratory steak! We'll celebrate the possibility that it's Danny's birthday and we'll celebrate him finishing his math final!"
Danny smiled a big toothy grin.
"And to stay in the celebrating mood," Maddie said, "We'll run extra drills tonight! To celebrate of course."
Danny's smile slipped a bit but even the threat of more drills couldn't make it fully drop. How could he be so lucky to have his parents?
Jazz finished her oatmeal and shoved her book into her backpack.
"Do any of you ever look at the clock?" She asked.
Three heads swiveled to the clock on the wall.
7:25 AM
"Be in my car in five minutes if you want a ride to school." Jazz said as she went outside to start her car.
"I still can't believe Vlad gave her a car."
Speaking of Vlad, the conversation Jazz and Danny had with their parents about the Fruitloop would be a source of joy for him for the rest of his half-life. Even two weeks after it Danny could still clearly hear his dad say "Well I know he's been in love with me since college but I never would have thought that his obsession with me would transfer over to you!"
No one had the heart to tell Jack that it wasn't him Vlad Masters was in love with.
Not that they needed to, the conversation achieved its purpose and everywhere the Fenton kids frequented got scoped for bugs by Maddie's thorough eye, and every listening and recording device they found was smashed to pieces by Jack's large hand.
Danny almost wished he hadn't of found so many on his own just so that he could watch his dad smash more of them into a pile of dust.
"I assure you the car is completely safe sweety," Maddie said. "The only things added to it now are Fenton protection devices."
"Old Vladdie won't be able to get passed the Vehicular Fenton Shield!" Jack added.
Danny swallowed the last of his juice and started to gather his dishes to take to the sink before his dad grabbed them out of his hand.
"You go on to school," Jack said. "I'll take care of this."
"Thanks, Dad," Danny said leaning into a tight side hug. Jack ruffled Danny's hair with his free hand
"Hey!"
Maddie came over and patted his hair back down. She gave him a peck on his forehead.
"Good luck with your test," she said. "Remember we're proud of you."
"Just do your best!"
"Thanks, guys!" Danny said as he hefted his backpack over his shoulder. "See you tonight. Love you!"
"Love you too!" Jack and Maddie shouted as Danny ran out the door without a glance back.
The mood dropped in the kitchen as soon as Jazz's car pulled out of the driveway.
"I'm worried about him, Jack," Maddie wrung her hands.
"He'll do fine on his math test," Jack assured her. "Our boy's smart!"
"That's not what I'm worried about."
"I know."
Jack walked over and pulled Maddie into a hug, lowering his chin to rest it on her head.
"I'll call the Ghost Intervention Ward back and make sure that they know we no longer work for the government. They'll just have to find other ecto scientists and leave us alone."
Jack ran his hand through the back of Maddie's hair as she sniffed back tears.
"You just keep working on running Danny's DNA through different databases and let me handle the GIW," Jack pulled back and lifted Maddie's chin with one finger. "Who can say no to me after all?"
Maddie smiled and stood on her tiptoes. "I know I can't," she said as she placed a kiss on Jack's lips.
"Everything will be fine," Jack assured her.
Maddie nodded and the two went their separate ways, Maddie to the lab and Jack to the small office upstairs.
~Line Break~
Danny gave one more look over his math test to make sure he didn't make any stupid mistakes. He knew he hadn't but he also knew from experience that you could never be too careful when it comes to checking your equations. Or checking to make sure the on switch is on the outside of the portal to a different realm- not that he was still upset about that.
Danny flipped over to the last page of his answer sheet and gave a small nod once he reached the bottom.
It was his best schoolwork in ages if he did say so himself. Amazing how well a person could do when they were being supported. And weren't being actively threatened. He'd have to give Val a thank you card for taking his ghost shift while he took his test.
Danny set his pencil down and looked up. He met Mr. Falluca's eyes.
"Are you finished, Mr. Fenton?" Mr. Falluca asked.
"Yes," Danny said. "Sir," he added on. No need to make the man about to grade the test that would determine whether or not he'd get held back a grade angry. Not that Mr. Falluca would find anything to take off points on anyways.
Mr. Falluca held out his hand and Danny passed over his test page and his answer sheet.
"You're free to go," Mr. Falluca said.
"Thanks!" Danny practically skipped out of the test room and to the library.
He waited outside the library for Jazz. He'd walked into one of her tutoring sessions with Dash before and Dash chucked him in a locker the next day for "looking down on him," whatever Dash meant. Granted, Danny had also pointed out that Dash was a head taller than him so Danny physically couldn't look down on him which didn't help him out of the situation whatsoever.
Danny pulled out his old ecto Ecto-infused Blackberry phone and powered it back on. Fifty-seven missed messages from his group text with Sam and Tucker.
Danny held down the button to scroll back up to the top of the conversation, scrolling past gifs that probably looked fine on Sam and Tuck's smartphones but looked like garbage on his.
Danny skimmed the messages. Sam didn't want to go to a gala happening in two months in Gotham and Tucker made fun of her about it until Sam called Tuck's mom and got him roped into going with her.
Danny chuckled. Served Tucker right for thinking he'd win an argument against Sam. He really couldn't leave the two of them alone for an hour to take a test without them benign at each other's throats. He'd hate to see the state of Gotham once the two of them had to spend a weekend together there. They'd probably both be labeled as rogues by the end of the weekend.
Well, better them than him. He hated all the rich people functions Vlad had dragged him to before the Fenton's Vlad ban. Granted it had only been two events and neither seemed to be nearly as fancy as the one Sam was dragging Tucker to but still.
Danny heard movement on the other side of the library door and shoved his phone in his pocket and went invisible just in time for Jazz and Dash to open the doors.
"Remember to go over the study guide we put together before our session next week," Jazz said.
Dash nodded, thanked Jazz, and left.
"It cracks me up that you're taller than him," Danny said.
"You think your life is hard? I'm a high school senior wearing size 13 Nikes. Men's size 13 Nikes. Beat that," Jazz said with a straight face .
Danny snorted and turned visible again.
"My death couldn't even compare to the challenges you face," Danny said. "Maybe you could join the Justice League. Tall Girl, saving people everywhere from mental instability."
"You make me mentally unstable, little brother," Jazz said.
"That's my primary goal in life, tall sister," Danny shot back.
That earned him a playful, but kind of hard, swat on the back of his head.
"Oww," Danny whined. "You're gonna give me a concussion."
"You'll recover," Jazz said. "How'd the test go?"
"Piece of cake!" Danny said. "Do you think Dad'll make me a cake for my birthday? I want a chocolate one with a galaxy on the top of it. An accurate one."
Jazz rolled her eyes and started walking off.
"Hey!" Danny ran after her. "Wait up!"
The ride home was filled with chatter, playful ribbing, and many threats from Jazz that she was going to make Danny walk home.
"How could you threaten me on what may or may not be my birthday?" Danny asked, hand over his chest. " Next you'll make me nothing but burnt toast on my death day. I expected this type of treatment from my rogues but not from you. Not from my own kin. Is it because I'm adopted?"
"Yes."
Danny feigned a gasp.
"You know Jazz?" Danny continued after his moment of drama. "It's kind of weird that I know the day I died and not the day I was born. It's the opposite for most people. Now that I know that I don't think anything can surprise me-"
Danny's chatter came to a sudden stop when a loud "BOOM" shook the ground.
Jazz slammed on her brakes as black smoke rose from the direction they were heading- the direction of their house.
Danny's phone pinged and he felt himself grab it and look without thinking about it.
Mom: GIW. Go to Gotham. Love you baby.
Then an even louder explosion went off. This one left cracks in the pavement and green light shot up from where the smoke still rose.
Danny saw Jazz look at her phone out of the corner of his eye.
Rings ran up and down Danny's body. Before he could shoot through the car and to Fenton-Works Jazz said "No," in a broken voice.
Then Danny felt himself being sucked into a thermos and his world turned dark.