Unfortunately, this is not a new fic. I'm individually uploading a small number of the oneshots from Glimpses that I find work well as standalone stories. I am however, in the middle of editing some of my older fics and tidying stuff up, as well as working on some new pieces. ;)

Big Sister
Danny Phantom fanfiction
by The Cinderninja

Jasmine Fenton sighed quietly to herself, holding her knees up to her chest as she sat on her bed in her dark bedroom. She wasn't feeling well. It was stress, she knew that, she just didn't know what to do about it. It was also guilt. She felt guilty. She felt irresponsible. She felt like she was failing in her job as an older sister, and there wasn't anything she could do about it.

When she'd first learned of her brother's ghost powers, all she'd wanted to do was help – that was the right thing to do, wasn't it? She was the older sibling, it was her job to protect him. But he didn't need protecting. He didn't need help – least of all hers. Jazz acknowledge that in trying to help, she'd caused him more trouble than anything.

She just didn't know what to do. Danny didn't need her help, and he definitely didn't want her help. He'd rather if she just stayed out of his business altogether. She wondered – if she hadn't found out the way she did, would Danny have ever told her about his powers? About any of it? Probably not, she realized.

So maybe it was that he didn't trust her. Or maybe it was because he didn't want to drag her into his problems. For once, she didn't really know. She didn't have any of the answers. It wasn't so easy to use her regular analytical approach when it was her own emotions she was struggling with. It confused her.

Glancing over at the alarm clock beside her bed, she groaned when she saw the time – it was well past midnight. She was going to be exhausted in the morning, but still, she couldn't sleep just yet. She had to figure this out. She was the big sister. She had a job to do, a responsibility. She didn't want to fail in her role, but she felt like that was what she was doing. She knew that she was.

Her brother was always out there, putting himself in danger for other people, and there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn't stop him – she wouldn't stop him. What he was doing was the right thing. But he was getting himself hurt out there. Shaking her head, Jazz finally convinced herself to lie down and try and get some sleep. She leaned over and flicked her lamp off, turning over and climbing under her covers.

Only now with the lights off did she notice the flashes of light coming from outside her window. Frowning, she climbed back out of bed and went over to lean against the window sill, brushing orange hair out of her face. Flashes of green lit up the horizon, a regular occurrence in Amity Park. She doubted many people would even lose sleep over it.

Trying to gauge direction and distance, she made the rough guess that the ghost fight was somewhere over the park. Amity Central Park. After a few minutes the fighting died down again, and after a while where nothing more happened she supposed it was over.

She walked away from her window and leaned back against her bedroom wall, sliding into a sitting position on her floor. She waited there a few seconds before realizing that Danny was probably going to need help when he got back. Fighting ghosts was dangerous business, and it didn't matter how skilled you were, you were bound to get hurt if you spent as much time doing it as he did.

So, Jazz pushed her bedroom door open and tiptoed across the hallway into the bathroom. She opened the cupboards under the sink and pulled out a small plastic box – a makeshift first aid kit she'd put together in the nights following her discovery, when she first realized her brother was constantly coming home from ghost fights covered in cuts and bruises. Being a boy – and a teenaged boy at that – he hadn't been taking care of it properly himself.

She closed the door gently behind her and stepped lightly back to the other end of the hall, stopping in front of her brother's bedroom door. She knocked gently with the backs of her knuckles.

"Aah, yeah?" His voice came back, sounding startled and muffled.

"Danny? It's Jazz. Can I come in?"

Her answer came in the form of a frustrated sigh, followed by a resigned "Yeah, go ahead." She could tell by the echo in his voice that he was still in ghost form.

She opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it again behind her. She turned and was met with the sight of Danny sitting on his bed, transforming. A moment later, and it was just her little human brother sitting on his bed, looking over at her tiredly.

"Uh, what did you want?" He asked, sounding confused as Jazz made her way over to sit beside him.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." She answered, frowning.

"Yeah, Jazz. I'm fine." He answered dully. They'd already had this conversation a thousand times. He just wanted to sleep right now. "Is that it?"

"Come on, Danny." she insisted. "You always say you're alright." She held up her little box. "Just let me take a look?"

He frowned, looking annoyed. "No, Jazz – really, it's fine." But she had already flicked his star-shaped nightlight on, throwing silver specks of light against the ceiling and walls as he turned away from her. She gasped when she noticed blood seeping through his tshirt over his shoulder. "Danny-!"

"Jazz, seriously. It's nothing. I can handle this on my own." He snapped, the annoyance in his voice raising as he grabbed her box from her. He turned away from her and pulled his shirt off, tossing it on the floor. He began rummaging through the box until he finally found what he was looking for, and pulled out a roll of gauze. He was still irritated that he had to do this instead of just being allowed to go to bed. He did still have school in the morning. In fact, they both did.

"Jazz, what are you doing still up?" He asked, suddenly realizing that it was far too late for his sister to still be awake. He knew it couldn't have been the fighting that woke her – it had been too far from the house. They would have set off the ghost alarms and caught his parents attention before he caught his sister's that way.

She was silent for a few moments before startling him by asking something completely unexpected. "Danny, am I a good sister?" She asked quietly.

"Huh?" The best answer he could come up with. He turned around and looked at her oddly. Was that what this was all about? "Uh, sure, I guess." He answered, still sounding confused.

She was looking at the floor instead of him, holding her hands together in her lap. "It's just, it's my job to protect you. I'm supposed to be looking out for you. But you don't really need me. Whenever I try to help, I just end up causing more trouble. I mean, I try, but – am I really a good sister? I feel like I'm doing it all wrong."

Danny frowned. Yeah, he pushed her away whenever she tried to help. But that's because she was obnoxious, and didn't know what she was doing. But... he thought they'd already been over all this. He didn't realize it was still bothering her.

"Well, uh... of course you're a good sister, Jazz. I mean... you don't help with the ghosts, yeah, but that's not exactly a normal 'big sister' thing to do."

"I just feel like you don't need me." She said sadly.

Danny never realized that this was what he was doing when he pushed her away. He stopped what he was doing and dropped the gauze pads and tape back into the box. Jazz's box, he realized. "Jazz, just because you can't take on Skulker" or the Box Ghosts he added silently, but didn't say the last part out loud, "doesn't mean you're a bad sister, or that I don't need you." He hesitated. This was awkward.

He didn't talk about... emotions, and weird stuff like that. But this was obviously important to Jazz, so he took a deep breath and steeled himself to figure out what to say without messing this up. "You did this for me, right?" He asked, holding up the box. "I mean, I wouldn't have bothered doing that on my own."

She still didn't look satisfied, but she did look up from the floor at the box in his hands, before raising her eyes to his smiling face. She returned it with a weak smile of her own – it was progress, at least.

"Look, Jazz." Danny sighed. "You don't need you to help me fight ghosts, but that doesn't mean I don't need you. It's not like I'm just a supercool, half-ghost superhero. Like when you help me with my homework, I know I complain but god knows I need it." He smirked slightly when Jazz giggled at that.

It had been her idea to start tutoring him when she finally learned why his grades were slipping so badly. And, okay, it's not that he didn't appreciate the help, he just didn't appreciate the homework. "But don't think that means I'll stop complaining." He added blandly. "And you cover for me with mom and dad." He added. "You do normal big sister stuff." He shrugged.

Jazz smiled wistfully, looking him in the eyes now. "I know. But sometimes I feel like it's not enough."

Danny shook his head. "Jazz, you do help. More then you know. You've always had my back. You've always been my first and biggest supporter. It helps me just knowing that you've always got my back." He emphasized, looking her in the eyes. "I haven't got too many people I can rely on – as a human or a ghost. But I know that you'll be there when I really need you to be. You always have been, y'know?"

Jazz nodded gently. "Well, I guess if that's really worth so much."

"More then you know."

Jazz smiled again. "Alright Danny... thanks for talking." She glanced over at his clock again. "I'm sorry, I've kept you up so late... I should be letting you sleep." She frowned and moved to get up, but before she could, Danny had leaned across from his side of the bed and pulled her into a hug, resting his head on her shoulder.

Jazz was caught off guard by the rare show of affection from him, but grinned and returned it quickly. "I love you Danny. I hope you realize that."

"Love ya too, Jazz."