Mirror, Mirror
A Danny Phantom FanFiction

It was a calm, perfect day – no darkness, no storms, and most definitely no night. More specifically, it was one of those perfect afternoons where nothing seems to be able to go wrong. Everything makes sense and everything just works.

Maddie Fenton, dressed in her normal blue jumpsuit, was sitting at her 'home office' (otherwise known as her kitchen table), feet up, a manila folder seated in her lap. Two grainy pictures were the objects of her intense scrutiny. One was a half-hearted, amateur attempt at getting a picture of something 'paranormal' for the newspaper, the other was a still from a local security camera. Both needed to be authenticated before they could go out and either make the news or be used in small claims court.

With nobody else in the house, Maddie was enjoying the total silence. Both of her children were at school and her third child (the larger, older one she'd chosen to marry) had been shooed off to the store an hour previously with a list he was, no doubt, ignoring. Locked in her own house and left to her own devices, she'd spread her work out on the kitchen table and settled down to get a lot done.

When the phone suddenly rang, shattering the welcome quiet, Maddie jumped a little in surprise. Then, laughing softly to herself and in no way realizing the importance of the upcoming phone call, she reached over and snagged the phone. Still gazing down at her pictures, she said, "Fentonworks, Maddie speaking."

The male voice on the line had a distinct western drawl, tinged with a lazy, distracted feel. "Hello, Ma'am. I'm calling from the San Francisco Police Department. I'm trying to locate the parent and/or guardian of Daniel Fenton."

Maddie sat up, setting her pictures onto the table to give the phone her complete attention. "I'm Maddie Fenton, Danny's mother."

"My name's Officer Grisby," the man drawled. "A youth matching your son's description was picked up about an hour ago for trespassing on government property. Refused to give any name other than 'Danny.'"

"San Francisco?" Maddie said, confused, as she tried to figure out how many hours (if not days) it would take to travel to that city. "I live in Michigan… that can't be my son."

"Yes, I'm aware of where you live. However, we ran his fingerprints through the system and they match your son's."

Blinking, Maddie took the phone away from her ear to stare at it, as if looking at the phone would help make sense of what the man was saying. "My Danny."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"San Francisco."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"California."

The man sounded a little annoyed as he said, "Yes, Ma'am."

Maddie could feel the backs of her eyes start to hurt. "Danny ate breakfast with me this morning, then went to school. He's not in California."

"Fingerprints don't lie, Ma'am." The man's voice sounded tired of answering all her denials. "We even double checked it against the photo in his records – it's your son sitting in our holding cell. We'll need a parent, guardian, or an adult over the age of twenty-one to come pick him up. The White facility isn't choosing to press charges, so he's free to go."

Maddie looked around her kitchen in disbelief, letting out a deep breath. "I still don't…"

"I know it doesn't seem to make sense, but it is your son. Now, when we can we expect someone?" the man said, obviously tired of keeping up the conversation.

"Um…" She rubbed a hand over her face in frustration. She still had no clue what was going on, but her confusion was quickly morphing into anger. What in the world was Danny doing in California on a school day? She was going to kill that boy when she got her hands on him. "I don't know anyone in California. I'll have to get a plane ticket-"

"HEY MOM!"

"Danny, she's on the phone, don't scream so loud."

"What are you, my mother?"

"Hey, Mrs. Fenton."

Maddie broke off, twisting around to stare at the three figures that had walked in through the back door. As Sam and Tucker raided the fridge for some cans of soda, Danny dropped his latest English test on top of her photos. "B-plus," he stated happily. "Told you."

Maddie just blinked, her bubble of anger bursting into confusion, and watched her son and his two friends tromp into the living room. "Uh…" She stared at the door to the living room, then down at the phone she was still holding. "Officer…"

"Grisby, Ma'am."

"Yes. My son just walked through the door."

This time, the confused silence came from the other side of the phone. "Are you sure, Ma'am?" he said slowly.

Maddie glared at the phone. "Crystal."

"Strange." The officer was silent for a moment, papers rustling in the background. "He matches the fingerprints, the picture, and the description."

"Well, he's obviously not my son. Maybe you should recheck your tests."

"Maybe…" He clicked his tongue. "Well, sorry for the interruption. We'll redo the tests and we'll get back to you. This sure is a strange situation."

"Yes," Maddie said a little waspishly, "it is."

"Have a nice rest of your day, Ma'am." The line clicked.

As the dial tone flooded out of the handset, Maddie shook her head, replaced the phone on the wall, and forgot all about it.

Three days later, the furthest thing from Maddie's mind was the odd phone call from San Francisco. She was busy enjoying her breakfast of toast and jam and reading the Saturday morning newspaper. There really wasn't anything interesting in it, but nobody else was awake yet – it was only nine o'clock – and it was a way to pass the time.

When the phone rang, it was a welcome distraction. "Fentonworks," she said into the phone, lodging it between her ear and her shoulder so her hands would be free, "Maddie speaking."

"Maddie Fenton? Mother of Daniel Fenton?"

"Yes…" Maddie hesitated, reaching up to take the phone in a hand.

"Sorry to bother you so early. My name is Janet; I work for the social services division of the Amity Park Police Department. A juvenile was transferred into my care last night from a different department and I'm doing some follow-up phone calls, double checking some of the facts." The woman laughed a little. "They're not making any sense."

Maddie relaxed a little when she realized nothing was wrong. "How can I help?"

Maddie could hear the grateful smile in the woman's voice when she talked. "It says here you received a call from the San Francisco Police Department a few days ago? About a teenager they thought was your son?"

"Yes." Maddie sank back down in her chair. "He's not my son though – Danny walked in the door as we were talking."

"And Danny doesn't have any identical twins or anything, does he?"

"No, he doesn't." Maddie shook her head. "What is all this about?"

The woman hesitated. "The juvenile that's in my care is the boy from San Francisco. We've run his fingerprints through the system seven times and come up with the same results each time. His fingerprints are an exact match for Daniel Fenton's." There was silence for a second. "Fingerprints aren't duplicated between people – they're unique for every person. The boy we've got here is Daniel Fenton. Are you sure…"

"Yes," Maddie said sharply. "I'm sure that's not my son."

For a few beats, Maddie could hear papers rustling in the background. "I know it's a bit to ask, but would it be possible for you to come in and see him?"

"He's not my son!" Maddie said. "Why would I want to come in and see him?"

The woman sounded frustrated on the phone. "I need to figure out who he is and all the evidence I've got points to him being your son. He's refusing to talk to anyone to explain why he was trying to sneak into the White facility in San Francisco and I thought that maybe, just maybe, you showing up would get something out of him. If nothing else, you could see him and make a visual claim that he'd definitely not your son."

Maddie ran a hand through her hair. She really didn't want to go talk to them, but it would get them to stop calling and thinking that her son was in their custody. "Fine," she said after a moment, sighing.

"Excellent!" the woman said. "I'm here until four o'clock today if you want to stop by. It won't take more than fifteen minutes of your time."

"Excellent," Maddie repeated softly and hung up the phone. Shaking her head slowly, she sat back down at the kitchen table to finish her toast. She tried not to think it, but a thought germinated in her head anyways. Setting her plate in the kitchen sink, she headed upstairs and paused at her son's door. Slowly pushing it open, she glanced in at Danny. This was her son… right?

It was a little after eleven thirty when Maddie pushed open the door leading to the social services office. "Hi," she said to the desk clerk, "I'm looking for a Janet? She wanted me to come in and talk about some boy from San Francisco."

The man behind the desk grinned. He pointed to the door to his left and said, "Go on in. She's waiting for you."

"Thanks," Maddie smiled, hitched her bag up higher on her shoulder, and stepped through the door.

The woman sitting behind the desk looked up, brushing her black hair out of her eyes. "Maddie Fenton?" she asked with a small smile.

Maddie nodded and looked around the room. Her gaze fell on a figure sitting in one of the corners and she froze. Messy black hair, sapphire blue eyes, ragged blue jeans… "Woah," she breathed, her eyes wide. Her son – or some incredibly close copy of her son – was slouched in one of the chairs.

"You see the dilemma," Janet said simply, gesturing towards the sulking boy in the corner. "He matches the picture. He matches the fingerprints. We'd do a DNA test, but we're pretty sure he'd match that too. For all legal intents and purposes, we're looking at Daniel Fenton."

"But… my son is out with his friends…" Maddie said softly, unable to wrench her eyes away from the strange boy.

Janet sighed. "I hate to ask… but can you prove that?"

"Prove?"

"Can you prove that your son is somewhere else and not sitting in front of me." She put her arms up on her desk.

Maddie nodded. "I… can… call him," she said distractedly, not entirely sure what to think. The boy in the chair looked up and met her eyes, flinched, then wrapped his arms tighter around his chest and settled lower in his chair.

"Could you get him to come in? Maybe redo his fingerprints for us? I mean, it's always possible that something just got mixed up in the system during input."

"Yeah." Maddie tore her eyes away from the Danny look-alike to dig through her bag for the cell phone Danny insisted she carry with her.

"You're causing me nothing but headaches, kid," Janet said to the boy in the corner.

The boy shrugged. "You could just let me go."

Maddie closed her eyes, a shiver running down her spine. She would have bet her right kidney if someone asked her if her son was speaking. How was it possible for them to be so close?

"You got a parent or guardian I can call?" Janet asked.

With a sigh, the boy shook his head and went back to moodily staring out the window.

Maddie's fingers finally closed around her cell phone and she took a deep breath. It was time to call her son.

An hour later, Danny was seated in a chair right next to his look-alike, both of them shooting strange looks at each other. Maddie's head was spinning in circles, looking from one to the other. The longer she sat and watched them, the more differences she could see. Physically, they were practically identical; the other Danny was a little skinnier, her Danny a little more tanned.

It was their mannerisms that gave them away. Her Danny was nervously tapping his foot and occasionally rubbing the back of his neck. The other Danny was slouched in his chair and picking at his fingers, his feet hooked around the legs of his chair and, other than his fingers, staying almost perfectly still. Her Danny kept looking up at her to see how she was taking all of this. The other Danny kept looking out the window.

"Well, this is the icing on the cake," Janet said angrily as she walked into the room and dropped two folders on the desk. "You two have the exact same fingerprints. Daniel Fenton, meet Daniel Fenton."

A small smirk touched the lips of the other Danny for a moment before fading away. The two boys exchanged another unreadable look. Her Danny's eyes narrowed slightly.

Janet dropped into her chair and sighed. "Nobody seems to know what to do next. We have two boys in this office… and according to every legal mode of identification, they both belong to you, Maddie."

"I…" Maddie hesitated, shaking her head. "They're not both mine!"

"I know," Janet said sourly. "Bosses words, verbatim: Legal mode of identification. They're both yours. The Amity Park PD 'officially' washes its hands of this."

"But…" Maddie stared at the woman. "But…"

Janet leaned forwards, resting her elbows on her desk. "The case file will stay open and we'll have some people stopping by to see if they can figure out what's going on." She shrugged and sent Maddie a small smile. "If this was a bigger city, we'd have more options. But here, in Amity Park… He's yours."

Maddie looked from one boy to the other, confused and frustrated. "But…"

A knock at the door caught everyone's attention. "Janet?" the clerk said, sending both women a grin. "That man from Chicago is here to see you."

With a grin, Janet pressed her hands against her desk and pushed herself to her feet. "Well, I've got to go. We'll call you to set up some appointments, okay? I'm sure we'll get this figured out."

"But…" Maddie help up her hand as Janet brushed past her and vanished out the door. She stared at the swinging door for a moment, then back to the two boys. "But there's two of them…"

A/N: First off, this is Cordria's exact one-shot--no changes except for the heading. I was inspired to continue this Nova-Shot in particular because of a picture by FeyPhantom. I don't know how to put up a link on this site, but on DeviantArt, it's the first picture to pop up when you type in "Danny Squared." I think it's sort of a fitting image for what I have planned for this story. Anyway, thanks to Cordria for letting me steal this one-shot. You can expect the next chapter to be up soon!