Disclaimer: I do not own 'Danny Phantom' or any of the characters, concepts etc. Those are owned by Butch Hartman/Nickelodeon, I believe. I make no claim to anything in this story, it is a perspective with hypothetical scenarios added in.

As it Should Be

Ch3: Tighter Bonds

Sunday had been hell for Danny, not knowing what was going on with his parents. Jazz kept him updated when she could but that just made the lack of information all the more obvious; still it was better that nothing. Sam and Tucker had done everything in their power to keep him distracted and optimistic, but every hour that passed only added to Danny's growing concern.

Then Sunday had passed and around came Monday. It was unanimously decided that it would be best to go to school, in order to keep up a semblance of normality and to distract Danny from the current situation (plus it had hundreds of witnesses who all adored Phantom, just in case the Fenton's tried something).

Sam and Tucker took care of the one ghost who showed up so that Danny didn't have to risk revealing his position to any ectoplasm trackers that his parents might be using and he effectively spent the whole day more distracted than usual, even if he was actually managing to stay awake. Danny had spent most of his free time checking his phone in the vain hope that staring at it may induce Jazz to call and give him some sort of news.

So imagine his surprise when the trio left the school and found Jazz waiting for them out the front in her car.

"Hop in you three, Mom and Dad want to talk to Danny, but you two are part of the deal as far as I'm concerned."

None of them needed to be told twice. They all quickly slung their bags off their shoulders and held them in their laps as they slid into the car.

"I thought you said you'd call if anything changed?" Danny questioned, more than a little disoriented by everything at the moment.

"I would have; but knowing you, you would have transformed in the middle of the Cafeteria to get home as quickly as possible. I figured it would be more prudent to pick you up from school," Jazz replied as she turned down the street that led to FentonWorks.

Danny didn't reply but his light blush and awkward neck-rubbing confirmed her theory.

Soon enough, they had arrived at the house and piled out of the car. As they approached the door it was silently decided between Sam, Tucker and Jazz that Danny would stay in between the three of them at all times until they were absolutely sure he would be safe. No one let Danny in on this decision so he was a bit miffed when he found himself blocked by Sam and Jazz to his front and Tucker to his rear, but he was too anxious to complain at the moment. With one last comforting glance back towards her brother, Jazz stepped through the door and into the Living Room.

And what she found was her parents sitting as awkwardly and stiffly on the couch as the four teens had two days ago.

Everyone took up roughly the same positions as they had on that fateful Saturday evening and soon a tense silence settled in the room.

"So, what did you want to say to Danny?" Sam ground out, her voice taking on a dangerous edge. She had been doing her best to keep her anger at the elder Fenton's treatment of Danny over the weekend in check for his sake; but she figured that after this, it wouldn't matter one way or the other.

The tone of her voice made Jack and Maddie look at her in surprise, before it morphed into a sad smile. They knew Sam was anything but a meek young woman; she had been Danny's best friend since 2nd grade and had been such a presence in their lives that they practically viewed her as another daughter (and eagerly hoped that she might actually become one, in the near-ish future), so they thought they knew her quite well, but they had never expected that she could be so fiercely protective of their son. But it had become clear in the past two days that the same could also be said for Tucker and Jazz. Danny protected the town, and they protected Danny, because his parents weren't. It warmed their hearts to know that Danny had people that cared for him so deeply, even though it pained them to accept that they didn't fit into that category… at least, not yet.

"We… we want to- no, we need to apologise…for everything," Maddie began, her face reflecting the forlorn tone of her voice.

"Danny, what we did to you is… unforgivable. And it doesn't matter that we didn't know who you were; we're your parents, we should have known. We thought that you'd enjoy some independence when you started growing up, like Jazz; but we took that too far and ignored you and everything that was happening in your life," Jack continued, his deep voice low with emotion.

"Wait, you're not mad that I didn't tell you earlier?" Danny asked nervously, with the slightest hint of hope colouring his voice.

"Of course not darling, in fact, I think it's the only part that we do understand about all of this. We're just upset with ourselves that we made you feel that you couldn't come to us about this," Maddie replied, with a somewhat strained half-smile. It didn't do much to lift the mood in the room, but it didn't hurt.

"And because of that, we are both proud and ashamed that you stepped up to help your brother, Jazz. Proud because you were there for him when he needed you most, and ashamed at ourselves that you had to be the one to do it, because we weren't. We know that you might never be able to trust us again, or even stand being in the same room as us, and we would deserve that; just know that we couldn't have raised a better daughter," Jack said, managing to lock eyes with his daughter long enough to convey the depth of their pride in her.

"Sam, Tucker… we can't thank you enough, for everything you've done for Danny. Thank you for sticking with him through all of this, and thank you for being the family to him that we weren't. Over the years we had come to view you like our own children, the way you stuck so closely to Danny, but now we know just how simplistic our view was. You are his family now, not us; we don't deserve that honour anymore," Maddie said as she fixed her gaze on the two young adults in front of her. They stared open mouthed at the woman in surprise, because there was no doubting the sincerity and solemnity in her voice.

"And Danny… your father and I, we are just so, so sorry, about all of this. About the Portal, about hunting you, about ignoring everything going on in your life and piling on more and more responsibilities when you were already shouldering far more than you ever should have had to. I don't know if you four can find it in yourselves to forgive us after everything we've done to you, to Danny; but if you can, we want to help and we want to learn."

"But if you can't forgive us, then we understand as well. Danny, you're nearly eighteen and if you want, we can find a way to support you if you wish to move out immediately; the research funds, perhaps. Whatever you decide, we'll support you," Maddie said as tears began to run in small rivulets down her cheeks, not voicing the implied 'because we haven't supported you so far' at the end.

Danny kept his head bowed as he thought about what they said. They were offering him freedom and independence, no strings attached. If he said so, he could be out of this crazy family and never have to look back.

But that's not what he wanted.

Despite what they said, he had never stopped considering his parents as family. They were eccentric and kind of obsessive, but he couldn't ask for better parents, if only because they were his. It wasn't like they had left him on his own to navigate through life, they just missed the stuff he was actively trying to hide from them; he had to take some of the blame for that.

With a quick to each of his friends and sister, who all confirmed with a slight nod, Danny looked his parents in their eyes and smiled.

"Mom, Dad, welcome to Team Phantom."

[AN: And that's a wrap, I hope you enjoyed it!

As per usual, reviews are greatly appreciated and if you have any questions, just ask and I'll do my best to answer them.

Thanks for reading! /AN]