Danny Phantom: Clockwork Apprentice.

Reunions.

"Hmm, well next time, perhaps, keep your markers on paper, Daniel." Clockwork offered. Danny grinned, so it was pay back. Naturally this meant a prank war. Naturally.

"If I'm running forty minutes late then I have to hustle." Vlad said dropping the fighting stance he'd been in the whole time.

"What for? I though we were just gonna watch movies with Desiree tonight." Danny said sounding disappointed.

"No that's tomorrow. Tonight I'm hosting a reunion." Vlad sighed. "I invited everyone."

"Everyone?" Danny asked uneasily. The fact he'd gotten days mixed up didn't bother him. He found that being with Clockwork meant time wasn't a very fluid thing. Luckily for the most part he could keep up, but sometimes he found himself missing a day, or having an extra one.

"Your parents received invitations as well. But Madeline declined." Vlad admitted. He didn't seem upset by it. About three months into training with Vlad the elder halfa had told him everything. About how he became a halfa, how he'd become rich, how he had wanted to kill Jack in revenge for stealing his youth and his love. And how slowly, with Danny's help, he'd let it go and forgiven Jack, given up on Maddie and decided to live an honest life. That didn't mean he'd give the money and everything back though. He wasn't that good.

"So... Dad will be there." Danny said looking torn.

"He will. And I hear Jasmine will be as well." Vlad said softly. Danny nodded and turned away.

"I'm ready to go to the tower." He said. Vlad visibly deflated. He'd hoped to get Danny to reunite with his father and sister.

"I'm afraid not Daniel. You'll be staying here. I have business in ancient Egypt to attend to." Clockwork explained before disappearing.

"I feel like he just likes to mess with me sometimes." Danny sighed putting his hand in his hoodie pockets. He found and pulled a note from his left pocket and read it. Vlad took the note out of curiosity when Danny groaned. He couldn't help but chuckle. In messy cursive writing that was written like the person didn't have much time, were three words that were in clockwork's handwriting.

Only sometimes, Daniel.
- - -

"Daniel stop messing with the tie." Vlad scolded.

"It feels like its trying to choke the half-life out of me." Danny complained fidgeting with the red piece of neck constricting fancy cloth.

"You're just nervous." Vlad sighed, straightening and loosening the tie. "Now stop touching it. You look fine."

"I look like I'm going to a business meeting not seeing my father after two years." Danny huffed. But he noticed Vlad was tense too. "Did you tell them?"

"Tell them that I've been seeing their family member, whom they've been looking to find, for two years? No I left that part out of the 'you should come early so we can catch up' part of the conversation." Vlad admitted. Danny grimaced.

"You've successfully ensured this will be awkward." Danny sighed.

"Thank me later." Vlad muttered. "They should be here soon." He looked down at Danny and rolled his eyes when he realised the boy was messing around with his tie again. He sighed in defeat. "If you want you can go change."

"Yessss, thank Clockwork." Danny whooped as he practically ripped off the tie, hung it from Vlad's head and flew upstairs. Vlad chuckled and pulled the tie away from his hair. And he heard the sound of car doors closing. He opened the front door and looked at the pair walking towards him. Jasmine looked a lot like her mother, apparently that was something she didn't like hearing however. Jack hadn't really seemed to have changed at all since they'd last seen each other face to face. And that was some 20 odd years ago.

"Jack, Jasmine. I'm so glad you could make it. There was something very important I wanted to tell you. Come in side." He said cheerfully.

"What's with the green and yellow, surely you could have afforded a decorator." Jasmine said wrinkling her nose.

"I'm rather fond of the Packers. It's a football team." Vlad chuckled.

"It's good to see you V-Man." Jack said in the loud and proud voice Vlad remembered even from back then.

"It's good to see you too Jack." Vlad said genuinely happy. "But there's something important I have to tell you. There's more than just catching up with me that needs to be done. I haven't been honest with you this last year."

"You're sounding like a villain in a movie." Jasmine pointed out.

"Right well, I don't bring bad news actually. Its good news. See, you don't need to search for Daniel anymore." Vlad said deciding to get it over with.

"You found him?!" Jazz asked excitedly.

"I didn't, a companion of mine did. I've been seeing Daniel for almost a year now." Vlad admitted.

"Well then why didn't you tell us right away?!" Jazz asked, obviously angry. Jack was just stunned into silence. Not a common occurrence.

"Because I asked him not to." Came a voice from the stairs. The three turned towards the voice and two pairs of eyes brimmed with tears. There stood Danny, in light blue jeans, a red and white shirt and a red hoodie. Same messy black hair and bright blue eyes. He was a little taller, still stick thin, but perhaps with a little more muscle.

"Danny..." Jack said in an unusually low voice. Danny shifted nervously.

"I just... I wasn't ready. I'm still not. Not really." Danny mumbled. The man walked towards his son, Jazz wanted to fling herself at him but managed to control herself. She stood next to Vlad with her hand over her mouth and tears of joy in her eyes. Jack finally reached Danny and he knelt down to his son's height.

"Danny, please know, if I had been there I'd have never let Madeline do that to you." Jack said, pain in his voice. Danny's solid image of the cheerful fudge loving man who could never use an inside voice wavered as he saw the sad man before him. "You're my son. I don't care if you are a ghost, a human or even something else. I love you."

"We love you." Jazz said having given up being conservative, she was now beside her father. "We never stopped looking."

It was Danny's turn to cry. He'd known they were looking, that they cared, but he'd been so separated from his feelings that he'd had close to no reaction to the knowledge. But now, faced with his family, he was crying. "I never stopped missing you." He managed to say. Why crying made your throat hurt he didn't know.

Jack pulled his son and daughter into a hug, not even stopping to worry about how Danny was so corporeal despite being a ghost. Since Madeline hadn't known Danny was only half ghost neither had Jack or Jazz, they hadn't spoken to Sam since that day and Tucker had become a mute shortly after because he refused to say a word until Danny was found. Vlad stood off to the side awkwardly until Danny looked up and gave a sort of strangled sobbing laugh.

"Come on Vlad. Family group hug." The boy called. Jack and Jazz shifted and called him over too and Vlad had to fight with every shred of pride he had not to cry along with them as he walked over.
- - -

A figure watched the four with a hint of disgust. "Enjoy it while it lasts you Abominations."