I do not own Danny Phantom.

If there was one personality flaw Jack Fenton could own up to, it was that he was pretty oblivious. It took a while for him to read between the lines or to just notice things that stared at him blankly in the face. This trait was one that he had always felt his wife made up for. Even if he didn't reach the correct conclusion, he could always rely on her to pull him aside and explain bluntly what was going on. Of course, this required her to not be oblivious to the truth as well. Typically when neither of them had reached the correct conclusion he could consolidate himself by saying that it wasn't obvious. If the keen eyes of his wife missed it then there had been no outward evidence to get to that conclusion.

Except there was.

Honestly he was surprised he had figured it out before Maddie. Under any other circumstances, he would have been preening like a peacock because he figured it out first. Considering what the truth was though… he wasn't sure if that was the right reaction.

It started when he had taken Danny to get a physical at his doctor's office. For some reason, he had lost a significant amount of weight even though he had a normal amount of fat on him. For now he was told to drink weight gain shakes to see if that would help. Another thing that was odd was his heart rate. The doctor had checked it three times as well as had two nurses double check. His pulse was in the 70s. Testing his heart rate and temperature showed that they too were dangerously low. This led to him being rushed to the hospital only to be released a week later after it was deemed that nothing was wrong with him. Seeing as he was virtually fine, neither he nor Maddie were too concerned. He was still alive and didn't seem to have any issues functioning.

A few weeks had passed and Jack's blood blossoms he was growing in the backyard were finally ready to harvest. He put some in a vase on the kitchen table, some in the fridge to use for cooking, and the rest down in the lab to get their extract. At first he found it weird that whenever Danny walked into the kitchen he began to cough like crazy. His throat was sounding pretty raw by the time the flowers began to decay. Even weirder was when Jack made blood blossom sandwiches for lunch one Sunday Danny took one bite before spitting it out. Blood splattered where the chewed blossom landed and Jack had never been more worried for the health of his son in his entire life. It was deemed an allergic reaction to the flower so, like a good parent, Jack tossed out all the flowers in the house and decided not to grow the blossoms anymore. In the back of his mind, he had been a little suspicious of his son being possessed by a ghost, but Jazz managed to convince him that violently attacking his son with a Fenton Blaster was not the way to treat someone experiencing a severe allergic reaction.

More odd occurrences happened over the span of several months. In the end, Jack wasn't sure what led to him figuring out what was going on with his son. Phantom accidentally calling him "Dad?" Danny calling him "Jack" for some reason? Danny and Phantom looking eerily similar? His son's friends and Jazz frequently being seen chatting it up with Phantom? Phantom using Fenton tech? Ghost hunting inventions going off and targeting Danny? Honestly, it was anyone's guess. All Jack knew is that one day he was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee while his wife was out grocery shopping when it all seemed to make sense. His son was Phantom. He knew for a fact his son was still alive so that meant he was a hybrid mix of both human and ghost. Immediately his mind went to the portal accident and he could not believe he didn't think of it sooner. He couldn't believe Maddie hadn't realized it yet either. She was supposed to be the observant one, not him. Then again the conclusion was one that they had deemed impossible right from the start of their careers. What else had they been wrong about? Was there something that prevented them from seeing what was right in front of them all this time? There had to be. They may not have always been the most attentive parents in the world, but that didn't excuse them not being able to recognize their own son.

It was then that his mind presented the question "Why didn't Danny say something?" This was answered by memories of him and his wife shooting at Phantom and promising to dissect him before completely obliterating him. Jack could see why that might end up giving his son the impression that he couldn't tell them about this. He would be reluctant too. No... he would be terrified of his own parents were he in Danny's shoes. Instantly his mood dropped. Was his son afraid of him? Is that why he never said anything about his ghostly alter ego?

Danny walked into the kitchen seemingly to get a snack. Looking at him it was blatantly obvious that there was a connection between Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom. Even the names sounded the same. Fenton. Phantom.

"I am a horrible father." Jack said before he could stop himself.

Danny turned to him in alarm and confusion.

"What? No, you aren't."

"Yes, I am. I didn't notice until now that you were the ghost kid. And because of the way I am with ghosts and especially how I treat Phantom you felt you couldn't tell me."

The Twinkie Danny had been eating before Jack's outburst slipped out of his hand. Jack watched it fall and sighed forlornly.

"And now I've made you waste a perfectly good Twinkie."