Gravel crunched under the tyres as they pulled into a parking space. H could already see Jack down by the water, the ever-present orange jumpsuit bright against the grass. Maddie was near him, her titian hair burning in the sunlight as she unfurled a picnic rug in the air and gently laid it on the ground.

H still wasn't sure he could have a civil meal with the two of them without saying something churlish, but the agents had promised Danny that they'd at least try.

They were almost a week late with this whole dinner thing anyway. Every time they'd tried to have a meal since Danny got shot, things had fallen through. There had been ghost attacks and school assignments and shenanigans every single day, and none of their planned outings had ended up happening. He could only hope that things went smoothly today — if that stupid metal hunter turned up one more time screaming about skinning Danny, H thought he might just lose it.

Things would be fine. He watched the Fentons for a moment longer and tried to quell the fluttering in his gut.

Despite the constant invisible threat, it wasn't the ghosts that he was worried about.

The agents got out of the car, and H grabbed a stack of pizzas from the back. J tucked a blanket underneath his arm, and the pair headed over to Danny's parents.

Maddie saw them first and waved in greeting. H waved back awkwardly while trying not to drop the pizza boxes.

It felt weird. Only last week they'd sat in that tiny, stuffy room while Danny screamed his lungs out, but now they were meeting for a picnic by the lake. H desperately wanted to be friendly with these people, for Danny's sake, but his pulse fluttered in his ears at the thought of calmly sharing a meal with people who were so oblivious that they'd taken a year to notice that their son was dead.

Jack noticed his wife's wave and raised his hand too. His smile was so big that it seemed to dominate his entire face, and H realised why Maddie's wave had felt so wrong; her lips were pressed together in a grim frown.

"Oh boy," J murmured.

"Keep it civil," he responded through clenched teeth, trying not to let a forced smile falter. "We're here for Danny."

"Right."

H's cheeks were starting to hurt from the strength of his smile as they reached the Fentons, and he laid down the pizza boxes with a flourish. A mosquito buzzed past his ear, and he flinched away. This place had seemed so beautiful when he lay in the grass watching shooting stars, but now in the late afternoon sunlight, the field by the lake was unexpectedly drab. Perhaps it had more to do with the reason for their gathering than the actual environment, but as the mosquito whined persistently around his head, H resigned himself to a miserable dinner.

"Where's Danny?" J asked, smoothing out the blanket on the least bumpy patch of ground.

Maddie frowned, tugging at the hem of her floral blouse. She held herself with a perfectly straight back, shoulders stiff and out of place. "I thought he was coming with you?"

Jack shrugged. "Ah, teenagers. He'll be here soon enough. Should we start on the pizzas?"

"I'll call him," J said, settling down in the middle of the blanket so that there was no chance of his suit touching the ground. H rolled his eyes and barely resisted kicking dirt at his germaphobic partner.

"No need." Danny shimmered into visibility on the edge of their camp, hands shoved in his pockets and shoulders hunched in a red plaid button-down shirt. His typically tousled hair had been combed into something that resembled a proper hairstyle, and H caught the faint scent of cheap cologne on the breeze.

The poor kid was trying so hard, and H watched the Fentons out of the corner of his eye.

"Danny!" Maddie started, hands up and reaching for an embrace, but she caught herself before she could touch him.

He sidestepped at her sudden movement, but his brow knitted in a frown as her expression crumpled. "Hey," he tried, running his hands over his shirt in an attempt to mask the dodge. "Uh, you're not wearing your jumpsuit?"

Her fists clenched as she visibly swallowed. "I thought… No ghost hunting for our first dinner together, right?"

"Right." He took a step closer again. "You always wear it though, and Dad's still in his."

"Hey," Jack interjected, his tone playfully indignant, "you've seen the rash I get from normal clothes!"

Danny held up his hands in surrender. "I know," he laughed, and as humour peppered through the tension, the knot in H's gut began to unclench.

"You're more important than my ghost hunting gear," Maddie murmured.

That was… shattering. H felt like his entire perception of her broke into fragments. Maddie Fenton, who never went anywhere without at least half a dozen weapons, had come unarmed simply because she wanted to… what? Show Danny she wasn't afraid of him? Gain his trust so she could get him alone and do what she liked down in her lab? Manipulate him into leaving the safety of his new apartment?

Or was she trying, in her own clumsy way, to show her son that she really did care about him?

Danny's gaze shot back to her. "Oh," he said, and for a moment the only sound was frogs singing in the nearby reeds. From the way his eye darted over her plain civilian outfit, he was likely wondering the same things as H.

H clapped a hand to his shoulder when the silence stretched into awkwardness. "Come on, the pizza's getting cold."

Danny laughed and picked at the cuff of H's sleeve. "Dude, what happened to your suits?"

J rolled his eyes. "Danielle," he grumbled, but the effect was ruined by the grin that stretched across his cheeks.

Understanding bloomed on Danny's face and he snorted. "Oh, damn, I thought she only did that to her agents!"

"She phased red socks into every single washing machine in the laundry room." J spread his pale pink arms for further emphasis. "Now all of my work clothes are like this."

Danny laughed and nudged the empty space beside him. "Well, it's not too bright, so it could've been worse?"

Giggles bubbled out of thin air, and the tiny pre-teen culprit fizzed into the visible spectrum as she lost grip of her invisibility. "Oh man, you guys look great!" she cackled, doubling over and wrapping her arms around her stomach. "So worth it!"

J leapt to his feet and pointed dramatically at her. "I'll have you know that you've caused every single agent to violate our code of cleanliness!" he cried, but the shout was light and fun, with the edge of humour that a parent used when mock scolding their child.

"Nah," Danielle shot back, "you look way better now. Guys in Pink. You totally rock it."

"You little gremlin," Danny chided, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

"Danny?" Maddie's voice was faint, and she stepped closer to the two halfas, face completely blank. H had no clue what she planned to do and he tensed, ready to throw hands if he needed to. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, since she was a grandmaster martial artist and would kick him into the sun, but the sudden unplanned appearance of another halfa might be too much for her to take right now.

He wondered why Danny had brought her, but then the boy levelled those big blue eyes at his mother and Maddie went still.

"Mum, Dad." He cleared his throat and squeezed Danielle closer. "I… You guys wanted to try to make things better and I… I didn't want there to be any more secrets between us. So, um… This is Danielle. She's… like me."

The girl shrank into his side, her wide, pleading eyes mirroring Danny's. They could have been copies of each other, if not for the obvious height and gender differences. The Fentons would have to be blind not to see that.

H remembered with a sinking in his chest that they were unobservant enough to not realise they were shooting their son, but surely they couldn't be this thick.

Maddie's mouth fell open, and a pause swelled between them. H tensed, ready to jump to the halfas' defence, in whatever way they required… when the woman sagged, the harsh angle of her jaw smoothing out, like melting ice losing its sharp edge. "Hi, Sweetheart," she breathed.

Jack barked a laugh and heaved to his feet. "Well, she's obviously a Fenton! Hello, kiddo!"

Danielle chanced a small smile, and H's heart flipped. Oh, hell. She was just so vulnerable, and just like Danny, and H wasn't even assigned to her, but he already knew he'd do anything to keep her safe and happy.

"Hi," she said. "I'm Dani, with an i."

Maddie let out a long, shaky breath. "Why don't you have some pizza with us, Dani with an i?"

Danielle's face lit up, literally. Her eyes flashed a brief green with her enthusiasm, and her blush glowed for a heartbeat before fading back to a more normal hue. "Really?" she chirped. "Thanks! I've never had pizza before, I've always wondered what it's like!" She slipped out of Danny's grasp and plopped down on the rug next to J, grabbing one of the boxes and opening the lid with a ceremonial flourish. They all smiled as she breathed in the scent with an exaggerated breath, oohing in appreciation before working a piece free from its cheesy confines.

She raised it to her lips, closed her eyes, and took her first-ever bite of pepperoni pizza.

H was torn between watching the bliss that spread across her face and keeping an eye on Danny. He glanced to the side but the Fentons were all watching raptly as the tiny girl battled with strings of cheese that stuck to her chin.

"Good?" J teased as she shoved a second bite into her mouth.

"Mmph," she moaned. "Pizza now, talk later."

Danny laughed, and it was enough to convince H that it was okay to sit down. The Fentons needed space if they were going to make this work, and if H had to pretend that he wasn't eavesdropping, then he could do that easily enough. He grabbed a slice for himself and watched out of the corner of his eye as Danny drifted closer to his parents.

"Thanks," he murmured, so lowly that H barely heard him. "She hasn't let me out of her sight since she found out I got hurt."

Jack clapped a hand against his son's shoulder. "She's a Fenton," he repeated, as though that explained everything.

The words hung between them for a moment, and then all stiffness shucked away from Danny's shoulders. He sniffed, wiped his nose on his sleeve, and launched himself into his shocked father's arms. "I'm sorry," Danny blurted, the words muffled as he pressed his face into orange hazmat. "I should have told you guys everything, and I can see you're trying, but I didn't even give you a chance, and I'm so sorry!"

Jack stood there for a moment, frozen, and H had the horrible fleeting thought that he was going to push him away. Danny's soft sobbing cut through the air, and then with a tenderness utterly contrary to the overwhelming enthusiasm that he was known for, Jack engulfed his son in a hug.

"I'm sorry, too," he croaked, and buried his tears in Danny's hair. "It's not your fault, son."

Danny heaved another gasping sob, worming his arm out of the hug and reaching blindly for his mother.

She stood there, staring at the offered hand, and H suddenly didn't want to see how she reacted to this peace offering. She was so beyond undeserving that the thought of sweeping aside the past year of Danny's pain curdled in H's gut, but the alternative, of her rejecting Danny's outreached hand, was too shattering to even consider.

For a terrible, eternal moment, nobody moved. Maddie blinked blankly, as though she'd been slapped in the face, but then the hardness in her brow softened and she took her son's hand. He pulled her in, and she ducked under the circle of Jack's arms and melted into a group embrace.

H looked away, scowling at Danielle when he caught her staring. "Don't you dare ruin it," he hissed, and she poked her tongue out and grabbed another slice.

"I'm sorry, Sweetie," Maddie wailed somewhere behind him, and H took a careful bite of pizza.

J raised his eyebrows over his glasses, and H raised and lowered one shoulder in a noncommittal shrug. The Fentons held their embrace for a minute longer before breaking apart, and H peeked again to glimpse tears on all of their faces and a softness in their postures that had been absent until now.

Danny sniffed and wiped his sleeve over his face before sinking to sit on his parents' picnic rug. "So, what pizzas do we have here?" His voice was nasal and slightly wobbly, and H clapped a hand on his shoulder and shoved him a box of hot pepperoni.

Maddie and Jack sat down on either side of their son, knees and shoulders bumping as they got comfortable. Jack passed around plastic cups and bottles of soda, and the group settled into something akin to a comfortable conversation as Danielle regaled them with the story of the red socks in the laundry.

They stayed there until the sun dipped low and the first stars peered through the watery wash of twilight. The interaction still wasn't perfect, with occasional awkward pauses and sideways glances, but overall H had to admit that dinner had been a success. He tried not to feel too jealous, even if Danny sat sandwiched between his parents and leaned against his father when he wrapped an arm around him. He had no reason to begrudge the Fentons this moment with their son. Danny was safe right now, and sure, their relationship wasn't going to fix itself over a hug or two and some cheap pizza, but it was the first step in the right direction.

They were all sitting out here together, like some weird mixed-up family, and if Danny was this willing to fix things then H would have to sit back and let him do it. He still didn't think the Fentons deserved such an easy chance, but healing had to start somewhere, and as Maddie fiddled yet again with the hem of her very-distinctly-not-hazmat blouse, he reminded himself that Danny wasn't the only one making an effort here.

Danny launched into a dramatic recount of his first real fight as Phantom, and H took a sip of his drink and tried to be content. They could make this work. It wouldn't be easy, and he was sure that there'd be bumps in the road, but if healing began with a casual dinner by the lake then he wasn't about to argue.

H would just have to share. Maybe Danny would slowly reconnect with the people who gave him life, but H knew he'd always have a special place in his heart for the agents who'd saved him.

The Fentons began to prattle on about Thanksgiving dinner in a couple of months, and if the agents would like to come, but H was only half listening. There was nothing wrong with Danny having four parents. H eyed the beat-up RV over in the parking lot and shook his head in amusement. It was a blessing, really, that the agents had stepped in when they did. Maybe by the time Danny turned sixteen next year, they'd be able to buy him a decent car and some real driving lessons, because H would die and go to hell before he let Jack Fenton, the worst driver in all of Amity Park, try to teach Danny how to steer a car.

H chewed contemplatively on another slice of pizza. Maybe, if they could get past their differences, these social gatherings could actually improve things for everyone involved.

The food disappeared at a leisurely rate, crickets sang in the grass, and the aching tension bled away from H's bones.

Danny caught his eye when H finally began to fold up the blankets and collect empty pizza boxes. Everyone else was down by the water chattering about frogs, looking for their spawn and explaining to a fascinated Danielle how their life cycle worked. It was a quiet, precious moment, and H would always cherish that Danny chose to sidle up next to him. They stood side by side, breathing together in the soft evening air.

"Can you see Venus yet?" Danny asked, green constellations of freckles lighting up across his cheeks like a minuscule, luminescent star map.

H tilted his head back and found the morning and evening star glimmering in the gloom. The world sank into silence, and for a single, precious moment, his soul filled with peace. "Found it."

Danny leaned against his side. "Yeah," he breathed, and H got the fleeting, calming sense that everything was finally going to get better. "Looks like you did."