Hey! Yeah, I'm a newbie but don't hold that against me! I'm good at grammar and I want to be a writer when I grow up (completely).

This'd be my first fan fic, but I have done some original stories. That being said, I expect criticism, but flames are a bit over the top. Just let me know (gently) if you don't like something. I'm more likely to fix it then. As a striving author, it's my duty to make my stories the best they can be!...hehe lol.

Yeah…here's the story.

Prologue Part 1

Halfa Born

"And another--What in the Ghost Zone! What is that?!"

"A ghost baby, obviously," I replied, smirking a little as the observant's one eye twitched. The two had come to my "lair" to scold me on my actions concerning an old man on his death bed. I felt that I had enough right to annoy them back.

"That's not what I meant, Clockwork," said he with the twitching eye. Only years (and I mean many years) of practice kept me from smirking further. Of course I knew what he meant. He was talking about the sudden vision we all received when the newly made ghost/newborn baby forming before us began to flicker.

I looked more closely at the forming ghost. Like all ghosts, he (for the vision showed us it was a boy) began as a green cloud of some sort and slowly began to take shape as his soul continued to disconnect from his human body. At the moment he had no defining features, just some silky white hair (color would come later in the process) and a basic newborn-human-baby body structure. His eyes weren't open, instead squeezed shut with a pained expression. Also normal. Being torn from your body was the most painful experience. Most ghosts screamed in pain, but most ghosts had been connected for longer than a few months and were more…attached.

Still, it wasn't too uncommon to have a baby ghost. What was uncommon was how he kept flickering in and out of the ghost spectrum. I knew what this meant and my vision just confirmed that they were going to succeed, for the humans were bringing the newborn back to life.

"He'll become a halfa," the female of the pair stated. I'm sad to say I know the observants so well by now I can tell what gender they are. How distressing.

The first observant growled in annoyance. "We have enough of those already."

A halfa was a soul that had one foot in the living and another in the dead. Or, in other words, a split soul with one half of itself living as a human and the other half walking amongst the dead as a ghost.

They had become more common as humans learned more and more about medicine and revival. For a halfa to be, they have to have died and been brought back to life before their ghost could finish forming, a.k.a when the soul disconnected fully from the body.

The halfas are generally pitied or picked on by the other ghosts because, with half their soul missing, they're terribly weak and continuously feel incomplete. They grow at the same rate as their human counterparts and are more often than not drawn to their human side.

Many saw their human selves as weighing them down and grow resentful of them since the human half doesn't have the problems that the ghost side does. For them to haunt their human selves was expected.

But what I saw and the observants obviously missed was that this halfa would be…different. In time.

I wished to see how these two's lives were going to go. Of course though, the observants would insist I go and stop the humans from unwittingly creating a halfa. They most likely saw it as doing the two a favor. It was time to do some fast talking…of a sort.

"Clockwork--" the male began, drawing himself up.

I didn't let him start. I turned around to my orb/screen and mad the image of the halfa-to-be's human self come in. At the moment, doctors and nurses were rushing about in seeming chaos around the baby's still body. The parents of the boy watched them with wide, tear-filled eyes. The mother was gripping the father's arm so tight her knuckles were white. Tears trickled down her face as the doctors gave another attempt at reviving him, causing the ghost baby to fade for a second again.

"You wish for me to stop the revival," I stated in an almost challenging voice.

There was silence for a moment with the only noise coming from the doctors' and nurses' frantic voices. I presumed the observants were sharing a look. They did that a lot.

"If he lives," the female finally began.

"If he lives, he'll be like all the other halfas we let have a second chance," I finished. Apparently I wasn't just their messenger boy, but also their conscience. What an afterlife. "Or he may start a new trend." I forced myself to keep a straight face so they wouldn't think I put a cryptic message in there. I wanted them to think I was saying that, as a newborn, he wouldn't be as resentful for being a halfa and may pass that attitude on. I was actually hoping that was so, anyway.

They were quiet again. Finally, they said in unison, "Then you will be the ghost's caretaker, Clockwork."

I did something then that I haven't done since I first became who I am now. I gaped at them. Embarrassing. My jaw dropped and everything.

I admit, the new ghost's future intrigued me a great deal and that hasn't happened in a while either, but to raise the boy! That is just insane. What do they think I am? I've never raise a kid. I've never even held a baby before!

"But I--" I tried to begin. Unfortunately, the baby's body chose that moment to start living again which meant…

"WAAHH!" both the human and the newly formed ghost baby cried.

My usually stoic features have by now completely been lost. I winced at the joined vocal chorus. One was bad but two was defining. Especially since they were in perfect synchronization.

The two observants looked at me smugly before both saying over the wailing, "Good luck, Clockwork. You'll be needing it." They left then, leaving me with a floating and wailing ghost baby.

I sighed and turned back to the screen for instructions on what to do. The doctors had just handed the very much alive baby back to his mother. I looked at the baby over my shoulder. Apparently, holding him was a necessity. That shouldn't be too hard.

I floated over to him and awkwardly cradled him in my arms with my right hand holding up his head. I looked back up to see how the mother was holding him to make sure I had it right. A few adjustments had to be made and I had to hold him against me. It's the closest I've been to anyone.

I studied the boy more closely as he began to calm down. He didn't need to eat like his other self. He was most likely crying because of the new feeling of being a ghost. Or he didn't like that he was missing half of himself. Maybe both.

Slowly, he and his human self began to fall asleep as I hesitantly began to rock him back and forth. As time went on, they'd stop copying each other as much as the separation became older.

I studied the baby in my arms in wonder as his face began to take on a peaceful, content look. He did indeed look a bit like a halfa. He had mostly white hair, but the tips were midnight black like his human half's hair. His glow wasn't too bright, but then again, he was a baby ghost so a glow wasn't really expected.

The peaceful look was what really marked him as a halfa, however. Peace was a very rare thing for us ghosts. Usually you only found peace as a ghost when you're ready to move on. You're only held back as a ghost because you can't find that peace. Halfas didn't have that problem since it was the human counterparts that kept them grounded. But they were usually too unhappy with their status to find peace.

I smiled down at the boy. I began to think this wouldn't be so bad.

A few hours later, I wasn't so sure.

Maddie smiled down at her sleeping baby boy. His silky black hair was already a mess and she had a feeling it wouldn't ever be neat unless she made it so. It was a mother's intuition. He was taking in slow deep breaths, his mouth open slightly and a peaceful look on his face.

Like all mothers, Maddie believed he was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

And she had almost lost him.

She brought him up higher and rested her forehead against his. A few tears trickled down her cheeks. She was so very relieved and almost giddy with relief and joy that the doctors had been able to save him.

"Mommy?"

Maddie looked up, another smile on her face as she saw her two-year old daughter Jasmine--Jazz for short. "Hey, Sweetie."

Jazz smiled back and walked confidently to her mother's hospital bed. The nurse who had brought her smiled at Maddie before turning to leave. Jazz crawled onto the bed and peered at her new baby brother. Her face wrinkled a little. "He looks really squishy," she commented.

"Of course, he was just born yesterday. Give him time."

"He's…so tiny."

"That's why he'll need us to protect him."

Jazz looked up at Maddie, eyes wide. "Us…I protect him?"

"Yes, sweetie. He'll need you the most. When he gets older, he won't come to your father or I. He'll go to you when he needs help." Maddie didn't much like that thought, but she knew how teenagers grew distant…

Jazz's eyes got bigger and she beamed at her little brother. She leaned down further and kissed him softly on the forehead. "He can count on me."

"Maddie! I—" Jack came ran into the room excitedly. He quieted down, though, when Jazz put a finger to her lips and shushed him, already stepping up to be her brother's protector.

"He's sweeping," she whispered.

Jack smiled sheepishly and walked over to his wife, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they looked down at their new child. He'd forgotten what he'd been so excited about as he gazed at his son. Already he was planning what they could do together. Ghost hunting, fishing, ghost hunting, eating fudge, ghost hunting, inventing, ghos—

"What's his name again, Mommy?" Jazz asked.

"His name's Daniel, but we'll call him Danny," Maddie replied, smiling down at Danny.

"Danny?" Jazz echoed, testing the name out. As if he were answering, Danny began to stir. His eyes opened and stared back at them curiously. For a millisecond, anyway. His eyes squeezed shut again and tears came out of his eyes as he wailed loudly.

"Wha's wrong wit him?" Jazz asked in alarm, her eyes wide.

"Nothing's wrong, Jazzy," Jack answered. "He just needs some alone time with mommy. C'mon!" He scooped Jazz up and put her on his broad shoulders. Jazz squealed happily and wrapped her arms around her father's head. "They're giving away free fudge down stairs!" With that they ran out of the room, leaving Maddie alone with her son once again.

She looked back down at him. Hearing him now, you'd never think he'd almost died yesterday because he couldn't breathe.

She released another relieved sigh and got ready to stop his crying.

I know. I suck at doing "mushy." I'll get better.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil the story, but it's going to focus on Danny's and Phantom's friendship. I've always liked the idea.

Sorry pitch pearl lovers, but this one's not one of those. I like some of them (sometimes, it's still a little weird), but I have no plan to write one.

This chapter's not much, but then first chapters usually aren't. I've gotten four chapters done and I can assure you, it gets better.

One last thing. I'm sorry if I offended anyone's religion or implying babies shouldn't be saved. Not my intention at all! heh, it just came out that way.

I hope you all like it.

Please leave me a review!