Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and all related characters are the product of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon studios.

A roaring fire, a brandy snifter, and a comfortable chair…and sitting on the table next to the brandy, a slim and aging book depicting the memories of happier times. He stared into the blaze as though it might reveal the answers he sought, knowing all the while that such Elysian circumstance could only evade him.

He smiled thinly, chuckling at the purple prose his thoughts had devolved into. He was lonely and, as that boy was so fond of reminding him, he was getting old. He had only one desire in his life, and that was for the red-haired spitfire named Maddie Fenton. Even power held little allure for him of late.

He reached over to pick up the old yearbook and flip through to a certain page: the picture of the three of them, before the accident that ruined his life. The page was just a little creased from where Jasmine had bent it to cut her father from the picture. She had only done it in an effort to fool him; an effort that, he was chagrined to say, worked all too well. He bent the page along the creases, forcing Maddie to stand next to him as it should have been.

It was strange; until Jasmine had arrived and done that, it had never really hit him before. Almost all the pictures of the three of them together featured Jack standing between them. Even in the ones that didn't, he was standing behind while Maddie leaned into him. Even then, even before the accident, she had chosen Jack? Was it possible?

No, that couldn't be. It had to be a coincidence.

But…what a coincidence it was…

He realized that he was crushing the pages and, in a sudden fit of sorrow-induced rage, threw the book into the flames. Immediately, he was across the room and dragging it back out again; that was one of the few pictures he had left, and he wasn't about to let it be destroyed. He checked the pages for scorches, but they seemed to have gotten off lightly enough…

His breath caught in his throat as he reached the photograph again. Was it fate's sick sense of humor? The only real damage to the book was a scorch-mark that erased his face from the picture. He returned the book to the flames and watched as it was consumed.