Maybe taking Master Danny to the store wasn't such a great idea after all, Erickson thought as he pulled the car up to the grocery store. He needed to get some supplies for the week and decided the young teen should accompany him to get used to being around people. What the butler failed to do was account for the fact that it was Thanksgiving week and every grocery store in America was crowded with people on the same mission as him; get to the good food before it was taken.

Pushing his doubts aside, the butler turned his attention to the teen trying desperately not to hang onto his coat. As the two walked through the store, Master Danny's eyes darted from person to person in mistrust, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. Every so often the boy would get distracted watching someone then almost lose Erickson and have to practically sprint to get back to the man, his one line of safety in the crowded aisles -not that he would say that out loud, if he wanted the man to continue to treat him like normal. The butler would simply keep going about his business to appease the teen.

With long practiced grace, Erickson inserted himself into the deli line just as a woman with a basket full of food and a small child bouncing around her heels pulled up after dashing from a couple aisles away. The woman cursed the butler under her breath, but didn't make any move to yell her clear frustration at the man. Unbeknownst to her, Erickson was hiding a smirk that Master Danny would have noticed if he wasn't so busy scanning his surroundings for threats.

Ten minutes later, the deli counter was in view, much to Master Danny's dismay. Out of the corner of his eye, the butler could see the teen fidgeting, the humming of the meat slicer clearly playing with his nerves. Seven minutes more and Erickson had to turn his attention away from the young halfa to put in his order. For the boy's sake, the butler wanted to get away from the deli as fast as possible.

Another few minutes and the butcher had Erickson's order ready and was handing it over the counter. The man set the meats down in his cart and absentmindedly reached a hand out to lead Master Danny away only to find the boy missing. A blast of panic ran through the man's veins as he stepped out of line and scanned the area, ignoring the sounds of the deli, the murmur of voices, and the giggling of the child nearby. Erickson looked over the displays of breads and the heads of rushing civilians, searching for the raven haired teen he walked in with, all the while regretting taking the boy out of the castle.

The giggling child burst into full laughter behind the butler, the sound momentarily grating on the man's ears since it interrupted his concentration. Once again he ignored the sound and continued his search only to hear another burst of laughter. The normally sweet hearted man turned to send a stern glare to frighten the child into silence, but softened his gaze at the scene he turned to.

Master Daniel was cross legged on the ground in front of the child with an octopus plushy in his hand. The little boy in front of him had his hands over his mouth and his eyes were crinkled at the corners by a wide, but hidden, grin. With a wiggle of the stuffed animal up to the boy's face and a bubbly noise, Danny sent the child into another fit of laughter as he tried to dodge the apparent attack by his own toy. The teen's smile widened like the child's and he let out a soft chuckle.

Instantly Erickson's rapidly beating heart settled. By that time, the little boy's mother was done at the deli and taking him by the hand to finish up their trip to the store. As the mother and son left, the child turned once to wave goodbye to his new friend and Master Danny waved back with one last smile.

Erickson watched the entire interaction thinking, not for the first time, that the teen would heal just fine if given enough time.

"Would you like some tea, mother?"

"Only if it comes with a grandchild or five," Vlad's mother, Gertrude Masters, said curtly. It was Thanksgiving and the woman was over to celebrate with her son, whom she claimed was enough for the holiday despite her constant griping about her daughter not joining them. Vlad's sister, Jessica, avoided their mother like the plague, finding any excuse she could to ditch them for the holidays.

"Mother, I'm not going to magically have children," the billionaire replied as he poured the Russian woman tea anyway. The woman was just bitter about him having 'too much' money for one person; she'd spent the last twenty years nagging her children about starting their own families so they had people to spend their fortunes on, yet her son and daughter remained single and too wrapped up in their businesses to care.

"You're going to die bitter and alone...like me," she added as an after thought.

Vlad raised an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth twitched up. "Oh, so I don't count as a companion, anymore?"

"Not unless you plan on spending every waking moment of the rest of your life with me." Gertrude took a long sip of her tea, relishing the warmth it sent down her still chilled body.

From the entryway of the living room, Danny watched Vlad interact with his mother. The original plan was to hide out in his room for the duration of the night, but curiosity got the better of the young halfa and he found himself sneaking downstairs to meet the woman that raised the infamous Vlad Masters. He once imagined a nasty croon that treated Vlad with an unjust hand that made the man turn out bitter at the world. He also imagined an innocent woman that didn't know how to raise her child and that's why Vlad turned out so morally wrong, because his mother didn't know how to teach him ethics.

"You have two working arms and two working legs! You are plenty capable of getting those cookies yourself," Gertrude exclaimed to Vlad, breaking Danny out of his thoughts after he'd zoned out. Vlad inwardly sighed and his young charge had just enough time to dart behind the wall he was peeking out from, so the elder halfa's mother wouldn't see him.

On his way out, the billionaire made sure his mother wasn't watching him before looking at Danny. "If you know what's good for you, you'll go back to your room." Danny couldn't tell if that was a threat to leave or a warning to not interact with the bitter woman in the next room. Unfortunately, the teen didn't get a chance to ask. The man was already closing the door to the oversized dining room to retrieve cookies for his mother.

Danny watched the door for a few moments, debating the pros and cons of each side of Vlad's threat/warning. On the one hand, staying out of his room would annoy Vlad. On the other hand, a major punishment might be in store for him. Before he could decide, a bony hand grabbed his arm, startling him into nearly slipping on some newly formed ice on his shoe.

Flashes of GIW agents ran through his mind almost forcing the boy into a panic attack. His only saving grace was that the person that grabbed him didn't match the physique of any agent he'd had to encounter. With a few calming breaths, Danny was able to dispel the unwanted images and focus on the elderly woman smiling at him.

"You can call me 'grandma,' dear." Gertrude firmly pulled the young halfa to the couch, sitting him down next to her. "I had a feeling Vladdy was hiding you from me, but a mother knows when her children have babies of their own even if they aren't really theirs."

Danny stared at the woman blankly, trying to form words or even nod his head to the woman to indicate he'd heard her, but his body was frozen (and not because of his ice powers). Regardless, Gertrude kept rambling on about Vlad being secretive about Danny and how the boy shouldn't be peeping into rooms or locked away like he apparently was.

By the time Vlad was back wearing a smirk, Danny understood the meaning behind his earlier words. It was definitely a warning and having to spend the rest of the night with the Masters was his punishment.

"Why would I wanna do that?"

"Just because you have already missed a few months of the new school year does not mean you can simply spend the rest of the year goofing off. Now, read the passage already."

The teen groaned and plopped his head onto the edge of the desk in Vlad's study. The last hour he'd been sitting there with The Ghost Writer working on language arts and history. Vlad finally decided the young halfa needed to go back to learning, but wasn't willing to put Danny in a normal school, not that the boy was going to complain. At least he wouldn't have to deal with tons of strangers and Ghost Writer actually bothered to care about making sure Danny understood the subject even if it took a couple sessions. And Vlad managed to convince Technus to be his teacher for science and math, and both subjects usually entailed the ghost accidentally setting something aflame (not that Vlad knew that) and frantically trying to put it out, which was always an entertaining sight.

A flick of a ruler to the back of his head had Danny sitting up again and glaring at the writing ghost next to him. The ghost replied with a shark toothed smirk. "No sleeping in class, Phantom."

"Why do I even need to know how to analyze literature?"

"If you can analyze literature, you can analyze everything else in the world. Heck, you can control everything else in the world." Danny gave the ghost an unbelieving eyebrow raise. Ghost Writer tried again, "haven't you ever wondered why advertisements get people to buy certain products or shun others? It's because certain kinds of phrases and colors and actions have a special effect on the mind. The same techniques advertisers use are also used by writers to make their readers feel how they want them to -are you even listening to me?"

The ghost stopped mid-rant when he noticed Danny's head leaning against the desk again. Slightly growling at the boy's small attention span, Ghost Writer gripped his ruler and hit the halfa once across his head. The teen yelped and pulled both hands from under the desk to grab the newly throbbing welt, a thunk echoing around the study from under the table. Curious, the Ghost Writer bent down and grabbed the book that fell from the half-phantom's lap.

"Lord of the Flies?" The ghost flipped through the book and smiled at seeing a bookmark nearly halfway into the book. "All right," he tossed it back to Danny who was focused on the slick ice he'd accidentally covered the table with, "have the rest of this read by Wednesday."

It took a couple seconds for the words to process, but when they did Danny gave 'Writer an incredulous look. "Oh come on! You can't turn the stuff I do for fun into homework; that takes the fun outta it!"

Ghost Writer ignored his pupil as he phased into the basement lab to return to his library.

Seeing his face so much on the television was starting to freak Danny out. A couple days ago, an investigator and his team was in Amity Park in hopes that if they went through the town with a fresh mind, they might find some sort of clue as to who was behind the inhabitants' disappearance. Apparently it worked, because now more investigations were up and every mysterious event that happened before that fateful day the town disappeared was under analysis including Danny's kidnapping days before.

Of course he wasn't the only kid that vanished beforehand that they were bringing into the case, but his face got priority because he was the son of Ghost Hunters. At least, that's what he thought. His memory was still fuzzy, but with the help from a box of what seemed to be his belongings in Vlad's room (shh, don't tell Vlad he was in there), he was able to put together some key facts about himself. That aside, Danny had a hard time believing any of those other kidnappings had any real connection to Amity's disappearance, but if it kept the police busy while him and Vlad investigated the real cause of vanishing, he wasn't going to complain.

On the up side, it was getting the attention of other heroes around the world. Not only did they have better resources to unlock answers in the case, but they had powers that could help them handle any superpowered enemy of Danny's that might be behind the disappearance.

"Again, this is the symbol that was found scattered across Amity Park" A crude picture was shown of the wooden door of Danny's house with a burn in it shaped like an orb and bat. The orb part of it was painted a bloody red to make it stand out. The investigators questioned Vlad when they found the mark to make sure it wasn't something that was there before the residents vanished. "It is still in debate if this was simply overlooked the first time around, something added after the police closed the case, or if it is a gang symbol. Anyone that might know anything about this is asked to please call in to the number on the screen."

Danny tuned out the sound of the newswoman, having heard most of the story already. Nothing had particularly changed since the story was first released, so it was mostly still going as a way to give the news stations something to talk about until a more interesting story came along.

Instead, the young halfa was researching the superhero community; he'd heard about laws that were put in place to protect supers, metahumans, aliens, and whatever else they went by when the first round of serious super heroes began popping up. Maybe there was some way those heroes could indirectly help him...

"Dipstick, get outta the car!" Ember ground out as she and Davy tried prying the halfa out of the limousine. The Christmas season was in full throttle which meant lights, santas, and animatronics unleashed upon the streets of Wisconsin. Davy, having the remnants of a four year old's mind in his own head, begged and whined to his brother and caretakers until they all agreed to ride into the nearest city to take in the holiday cheer.

Erickson watched from the driver's seat with a mix of worry and amusement. After Davy convinced the group to go, the butler had to convince them to take him along and let him drive them -nothing more suspicious than a bunch of teens walking into town from the barren street (and he wanted to be within calling distance in case anything went wrong with Master Danny). Obviously Danny was having second thoughts after seeing the massive crowds of people bustling through the streets and stores like festive ants in the snow.

"C'mon, kid, you'll be fine," Johnny added from the sidelines with Kitty. The halfa glanced back and forth from the ghosts in front of him and the bundled people behind them. Hesitantly, Danny stopped struggling and began sliding out of his seat, keeping his eyes on his ghostly friends. Slowly, the others crept away from him just enough so he had room to stand. Ember nudged the door closed behind the halfa and the group stood still, waiting to see how Danny would react. The teen kept a hard grip on his coat sleeves, eyes darting from one joyous group to the next on high alert of threats.

Nearly five minutes went by before Davy deemed his brother safe to interact with once more. He grabbed onto the halfa's arm and lead him in a random direction, animatedly listing all of the sights they would see and games they would play on their holiday expedition. When Danny didn't flinch away from his brother, the other ghosts shrugged off their apprehension and followed the twins, Erickson keeping watch from the limo until they were out of sight.

It wasn't until shops began to close and the crowds started dispersing that the ghostly group returned. Danny, Erickson happily noted, was laughing with the others, no longer looking as if he would fall into a shell at any given moment. He didn't even flinch when a man in a white coat walked by or when some snowballs flew over his head.

Now the butler wouldn't have to scrounge up an excuse for letting Danny out without Vlad's permission -clearly it had done the boy some good.

Over the past month, Davy had completely integrated himself into the day to day routine of the Masters' residence, so much so that Vlad stopped giving the ghost boy a second thought. As long as he was helping Daniel heal, he could stick around. And it helped that the housekeepers didn't question the boy's sudden appearance (that is, in front of Vlad or Erickson) or his ghostly complexion. The general assumption just so happened to be the correct one; Davy is a brother or maybe cousin of Danny's and would be staying for however long Danny would be.

The problem with Vlad's easy acceptance of the ghost boy came around Christmas. Gertrude Masters was making another appearance and expected to see Danny throughout her entire stay. Not a problem except that wherever Danny went, Davy was sure to be by his side and in plain, visible sight.

Vlad was not prepared to explain that to his bitter mother -not that the woman would have a problem with Davy, but it would mean another lashing for Vlad for 'hiding' another child from his mother and the man would have to explain why Davy looks 'practically' dead. Luckily, Vlad was prepared. Science and technology are marvelous tools when it comes to keeping secrets and all it took to replace the presence of a ghost with the presence of a childish teenager was a zap and a high tech bracelet.

"I don't get why that maximus-thingy was necessary," Davy pouted as he fiddled with his newly acquired raven hair and poked at his lively looking skin. "That seriously hurt!"

Vlad smirked at the ghost boy. "I'll admit that wasn't necessary but for my own amusement. Besides, now I won't have to deal with your ghostly tricks while my mother is here."

Davy and Danny stared at the eerily familiar symbol on Ember's door; a crimson, swirling orb with midnight black bat wings.

That morning Davy came bolting out of the Ghost Zone nearly in tears, babbling about the disappearance of all the residential ghosts of the western sector of the Zone. One second they were there, the next second they were gone as if someone had teleported them away. To Danny it sounded impossible, but to Vlad the situation sounded far too similar to what happened that past summer when the residents of Amity Park disappeared.

The similarity piqued his young charge's interest and the elder halfa was forced to follow Danny and Davy into the Ghost Zone lest they vanish as well. Their entire stay Davy fidgeted and kept darting his gaze at every movement he caught from the corner of his eye and every sound that reached them, as if expecting someone to jump out at them. By the time they were heading back to the portal, Vlad was sick of the boy's behavior. He grabbed the boy by the shoulder to stop him mid-flight and turn him around.

"David, what is wrong with you?" In any normal situation, Vlad might dismiss the strange behavior as nervousness about the disappearances, but Davy was no normal boy. There was an inkling in the back of the halfa's mind telling him the boy needed to be questioned, that he knew something that would help them all.

"I-I don't - I mean… " Davy stared at the billionaire, flopping his jaw in an effort to form some sort of explanation. He made the mistake of catching Danny's worried gaze and he knew instantly that it was time to tell them about what he knew about the disappearances. Dejectedly, the young ghost slumped his shoulders and dropped his gaze. "I need to tell you guys something…"

After Davy's confession, things got tense in the Masters' residence. Vlad wouldn't stop sending suspicious glares at Davy, who was trying to get Danny to come back out of his shell while at the same time avoiding everybody in the castle. Danny, meanwhile, had locked himself in his room to try to process all of the new information.

He wracked his brain for memories of the man his brother described in hopes that the answers to all their problems would miraculously appear if he could only remember. Surrounding him were more boxes of his belongings that he dug out of Vlad's closet next to the first box he found months before. Half a dozen photo albums were out and opened to random pages of him with his family and friends. Along with those, there were news articles about his ghost half, certificates of births and deaths, and a bounty of smaller items that he knew should be sentimental but were lacking that much desired feeling.

Danny pulled at his hair, trying to ignore Davy's voice on the other side of his door and concentrate on the items before him. While the information his brother had was helpful, it was still lacking some important details. Who was "Freakshow" trying to target? Why was he doing all of this? Where was he bringing everybody?

The young halfa gave up for the night and flung himself backwards into his pillows. He'd try again in the morning.

Davy's persistence finally won out and Danny reluctantly pried himself from his room. It had been an entire week of awkwardness in the household and Davy could no longer stand it. He was forcing the makeshift family into having a meal together even if it ended in ecto-blasts and yelling. At least then he could say he tried. Actually, to be honest, it was Erickson's persistence that really won out, but Davy wasn't going to admit that anytime soon.

Their first meal together was tense. There was glaring, scowling, avoided eye contact, and a metric crapton of awkwardness. By the end, the three walked away feeling the strain between them was worse than before. The next few meals didn't fair any better. It wasn't until the end of the week when Erickson held them hostage at the table that they made any progress.

"Hold it," the butler's stern voice halted the escape the ghost and half ghosts were trying to make. "Sit back down." When the three made no move and simply stared questioningly at the butler, Erickson repeated his directions more firmly. Reluctantly, they took their seats, Davy with a pout, Danny with nervousness, and Vlad debating if he wanted to object or not. Once seated, Erickson stepped aside to observe from afar, determined to get the make-shift family back to the peaceful state that fell apart when the ghosts disappeared.

Unfortunately, men do not talk about their problems so openly. The silence that followed was thicker than the Lunch Lady's double chocolate pudding, causing Erickson to inwardly sigh and have to resist pinching the bridge of his nose. "I can stay here all night and all morning if I have to; you are not leaving this table until you talk." As an afterthought, he added, "and if you escape this time, next time there will be a ghost shield and locked door to keep you all put.

There was another few minutes of awkward silence before Davy, braving it for them all, finally looked up from his slouched position. His mouth hung slightly open in an attempt to talk, but he had no idea what to say or how to honestly solve their issues. Before he had a chance to utter a word, Vlad spoke up with a glare to the ghost.

"You should have told us sooner," he bit out. "We could have saved so much time and trouble if you had just told us."

Anger suddenly clouded Davy's senses at the accusation and he sat up straighter to meet Vlad's glare with an equally fierce one, his emerald eyes flaring with energy. "How was I supposed to know it was so important? I didn't even know who he was targeting and I especially didn't know that it had anything to do with Danny or Amity Park or the ghosts!"

"Regardless, you should have at least told someone," Vlad retorted. Everything could have been back to normal by now if the teen had at least told his ghostly guardians. They would have relayed the information to Vlad who would be able to expand his investigation sooner.

In a matter of seconds, the two were in a heavy shouting match; hurtful accusations and desperate excuses flew between the young ghost and billionaire. Unbeknownst to them, Danny was creeping lower and lower into his chair, his hands coming up to his ears to try to block out the shouting that was steadily beginning to remind him of his days with the Guys in White. It took all of his willpower to keep his core under control and prevent an ice storm in the dining room.

From the corner of the room, Erickson watched on in mild concern. While he knew this was a much needed "discussion" the family needed to have, he forgot to account for the how brutally it would happen. He could only hope that by the end of the night they would all be in a better position than before.

It wasn't until nearly three in the morning that Erickson released the three. Nobody appreciated being held hostage for so long until later that afternoon. They all awoke after several hours of rest and interacted with one another practically as if nothing had been wrong in the first place.

They were over their rut and ready to truly begin the investigation anew.

"Sorry, but Alicia went missing nearly a year ago, honey. Nobody's got any clue where she is."

"Oh, uh, thanks anyways." Danny hung up the phone and dejectedly plopped his head onto the desk. He'd been trying for the last week to call any family members he could think of (which really means any Vlad could think of since those kinds of memories were still relatively lost to the young halfa). Part of him wanted them to know he was alive and the other part wanted to make sure they were safe. What it really got him was a voice in the back of his head confirming that the disappearances were directly related to him -why else would his entire family, town, and ghostly friends/enemies be gone, now?

"Still nothing?" Davy asked as he turned the TV on in the study. The ghost could only stand watching his brother make failed phone calls for so long. When the screen flickered to life, a news channel was on covering a story about a brief alien invasion in Jump City. The local heroes of the town, the Teen Titans, were being interviewed and making a statement about their promise to protect the city. Davy was about to change the channel when a book hit him in the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that-"

"Shut up for a second, I'm thinking." Danny stared at the newscast intently, a plan formulating in his mind. A while ago he'd talked to some heroes and figured out the level of protection they could provide to the halfa with and without him technically joining a team like the Teen Titans or one of those more secretive ones like the Avengers. Long story short, he found a way to protect him, Davy, and Vlad from the Guys in White if the government agency found/discovered any of them. The downside was that he couldn't really get fast protection if he wasn't near one hero or another, it was more of legal protection instead of some sort of 24/7 guardianship.

In that moment, Vlad waltzed into the room. Davy immediately noticed the man and yelled out, "Vlad, Danny threw a book at my head!"

"Did you deserve it?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"An appropriate one when it concerns you." Vlad answered smoothly before turning his attention to the younger halfa still staring at the television. "Daniel, stop throwing my books." Davy gave an indignant call from the couch about how the man should care about his head not the stupid books.

"Yeah, yeah," Danny waved the billionaire's reprimanding away, "hey, can I live in Jump City?"

Vlad raised an eyebrow at the hybrid. "You want to live there? By yourself?"

Danny hesitated for a moment, almost taking back his request. Being alone still terrified him and being away from the safety Vlad provided honestly terrified him even more now that he thought about it. But he was getting better at getting along with other people and he knew Davy would follow him without a second thought. And even though he'd be across the country from Vlad it would also mean he'd be across the country from the GIW. To make it even better, he'd have the direct protection of five superheroes if the agents did happen to find him.

"Yes."

"All right, then. I'll make the necessary arrangements." And although the man said he'd go along with the plan, the undertone of the statement said him and Danny still had a lot to talk about before any action was taken. Danny didn't care; the young halfa would explain everything to Vlad if it meant he could get closer to another form of protection.

"Besides," Jazz chimed next to Danny, "it's about time you get a change in scenery."

There you go, a longer chapter to make up for the shorter one before!

By the way, since I don't know when exactly I'll get the inspiration/time/motivation to rewrite/write chapters, does anyone want to adopt this? Or do you know any awesome authors that might like to? I don't know, I've been considering it for awhile and wouldn't mind seeing how others do the rest of the story and what twists they might add.

Also! If you're concerned about the superheroes, I'm not doing a full crossover with any of them (though I did consider it when I began writing this fic). There will be mentions of them, but odds are Danny isn't going to have any serious interaction with them at this point. They're really only around for legal/protective reasons (btw I don't own any of them). Maybe I'll do some oneshots later that have Danny and Davy interacting with supers in Jump.

Thanks for reading, if you get a chance leave me a review!