"Don't judge my life story by the chapter you walked in on."
- - -
Note: Yes we are doing another time skip. Why? Because I can. Take it away Clocky!
- - -
Danny lay panting on the ground as his duplicate got the ever half-living ectoplasm beat out of him. "Note to self, do not call Vlad up at 3 am just to ask if he bought the Packers yet." The boy groaned. Vlad was particularly merciless in the training because of it and even though Danny liked the challenge he could only keep up for so long. It had been nearly a year now, since he'd been free, two since he'd seen his family, three since he'd gained his powers and half died. Vlad kept him updated on how they were doing and even offered to take him to visit them when Danny learned Jazz, Tucker and even his father were still trying to find the lab to get him out. But Danny declined. He wanted to be stronger before he went to see them. He wanted to be something they could be proud of, that they wouldn't reject or fear. He wanted to be able to protect them. Which lead to the daily ass kicking from both Vlad and Frostbite. Neither of them seemed to have wanted to at first but Danny wore them down. He was good at that.
He groaned as he felt his duplicate dissipate, send the experience and a portion of the pain back to him. He lay flat on the ground and stopped his breath. Maybe if Vlad thought he was fully dead he'd leave him be. "Come on little badger, you still have fifteen minutes of training."
"I don't see how you smacking me around like a Discount Danny Ragdoll is training." Danny grumbled sitting up. "I think my bruises have bruises."
"You aren't always going to have the luxury of people stopping for you to summon a duplicate, or give you a time out. People can be ruthless, so I must be ruthless." Vlad answered.
"And what a swell job you are doing." Danny said cheerfully wincing as he stood. The injuries were already healing, that was a skill he'd trained during his time in the lab, since they never actually stitched him up. They just timed how quickly he'd heal. Which eventually became quite fast as his body learned it needed to be. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt. And some big injuries still hurt even after they healed, since the nerves didn't quite keep up with his healing factor.
Vlad smirked and swung a fist at Danny who thankfully realised it was happening soon enough to dodge it. "Good, but not fast enough. When an enemy is stronger than you, you have to read their moves, know what they are going to do before they do it. Then use the knowledge to your advantage." This was something Danny had heard many times before. But he wasn't all knowing like Clockwork and as much as he's progressed, a year really isn't much time to learn such a thing as reading a person to know whether they will try to smash your face with their left hand or their right hand. No matter how powerful or ruthless his teachers.
Danny glanced at the clock on the bench nearby, since they were fighting in Vlad's mansion. It didn't seem to be moving. He squinted and dodged another swing. It definitely wasn't moving. He glanced outside a window and noticed a bird stopped in mid flight. "For the love of... Clockwork." He called. Vlad paused, Danny had been subconsciously dodging him without even paying attention. He shook his head as the familiar blue ghost made himself visible.
"I was wondering when you'd notice." Clockwork said in his usual monotone voice.
"How long have you been messing with our time?" Vlad asked noticing the bird.
"About an hour. The training was set to finish about forty minutes ago." Clockwork sounded amused. Danny felt like this was pay back for having drawn on the ghost's face while he had been meditating earlier.
"Ugh, no wonder I'm tired." Vlad growled.
"You?! I'm feeling like a walking bruise." Danny huffed.
"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."