A/N: I apologize that it hasn't taken me this long to get this out. School started, and that has taken up my life. I should have the next one out relatively quickly, but since I don't have it written yet, I don't have a time table. I'm hoping for the best at the moment.

Huge thanks to my wonderful beta's, IceDragon19 and Pheek, for being awesome.

If you recognize it, I don't own it.

When Tucker woke back up it was to almost-silence. His body ached from the burns and bruises, but he shoved it to the back of his mind, thinking back to the last time they'd attempted to go against the elder half-ghost. It had not ended well for any of them, and drove home the idea that they could not go into these altercations half-cocked anymore. There wasn't a single one of them that had made it out unscathed. This was nothing, not in comparison to what they had faced before.

Pursing his lips as he pushed himself up on aching arms, he looked around him in a ritual they had all taken up at one point. Maddie was sitting next to Dani, hand carding through her hair while she slept. A turn of his head brought his best friends into view, wrapped around each other. While they are all tense, even in sleep, they are not primed for danger. Seeing all of them safe, he let relief to wash over his mind. While he remembered them all being there when he went to sleep, it wouldn't have been the first time one of them had disappeared while they were unaware.

There are no snores filling the air, and the only thing breaking the silence is the quiet breathing of the people around him. He wonders how long each of them has been asleep and then immediately discounts the question. He can't see Danny's or Sam's face, but he knows there is still tension in their expressions. Dani is still mostly covered in half-healed cuts and bruises, making her skin a myriad of colors it shouldn't be. The most surprising is Maddie, even though when he thinks about it there is nothing abnormal at all in her state. Dark, bruise-like half-moons rest below bloodshot eyes and, while there is no injury marring her skin her expression is still drawn in pain. Only the extreme silence allows him to pick up that her breathing stutters.

"Maddie," he croaked, his throat dry and scratchy with sleep. He cleared his throat to try again when she turned to face him, and he instantly thought of her daughter's eyes. Jazz had the same look in her eyes when she'd been reminded of the world's cruelty and prejudice. Despite the change in color, the pain and anger are almost identical.

She tries to smile at him and almost succeeds. He doesn't see the point; it doesn't reach her eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Danny's mother asks, her eyes on him while she strokes Dani's hand.

Looking at the crimson lines and yellow-green splotches on Dani's skin, all of his pain suddenly seems so insignificant. His pain is nowhere near hers, but if there's one thing that being part of this family had taught him it was this. He had been asked how he felt, not how he felt in comparison to someone else. Neither he nor Sam learned his that easily.

"I'm gonna hurt for a while. The burns will probably last about a week and a half to two, but I should be able to move just fine. It's mostly bruising." He knew what an injury like this would do to him and his fighting. He would be down for a few hours and then he'd be back, burns covered and thermos smoking. That's how they worked.

Maddie nodded jerkily, her eyes never leaving his face. Her voice was supposed to be light, but there was still a heavy tone in her words. "I'm not used to teens knowing more about first aid than I am."

Not having anything to say to that, Tucker just nodded. They had needed to learn first aid fairly quickly, so they had. It was just another oddity in their lives that they had never questioned.

"How is she?" Tucker asked, eyes flicking between Dani and Maddie. He could see the signs of physical pain, but he knew better than most that the physical was the least harmful to a person.

Maddie looked at him for a moment, her eyes still holding that dark, disappointed look that had to run in the family, but eventually spoke. "She's slept pretty soundly since I've been with her. I'm hoping she sleeps a bit longer; she needs all the rest she can get."

It was then that he noticed it. Since her other hand was tangled with her pseudo-daughters, her free one came up to sweep the red hair out of her face, something clutched in her clenched fingers.

Not taking his eyes off the pale object, he replied. "She needs it more than any of us."

Maddie hadn't fooled herself into thinking she could hide the note from Tucker or Dani, but she hadn't thought he would notice it this quickly. His eyes trained on her hand, and the note clutched there, proved her wrong. She knew she hadn't the skill or the right to withhold the message, but it was still hard to wrap her mind around giving her son's friend something that she knew would upset him. She knew these children—had grown even closer to them in the past two months than she thought possible—and she knew there was only one way forward here, whether she liked it or not.

Unfolding the parchment-like paper, she got up and handed him the note, never taking her eyes off his face or her hand off Dani.

His eyes traveled over the paper once, twice, and a third time before he looked back up at her, eyes aflame. He opened his mouth, his lips forming words that he wouldn't put to sound, and then slumped, letting the note float to rest on the table beside him. Despite the pain in his muscles, he was as tense as a bowstring. There was anger etched on his face, but they both knew there was no way to release it.

"I can't believe him. I thought I'd wrapped my head around just how he works, and now the monster's gone and done something not even I can comprehend." Despite the words, his tone was dead. Maddie had to remind herself that this was a teen that had seen some of the worst life had to offer, and still struggled to understand just what his words meant. In his eyes, this piece of paper wasn't just the salt in a gaping word she had understood it to be, it was something a hundred times worse.

Maddie had nothing to say to this. She had been hit with shock after shock after she had discovered her son was half ghost, not least of which was that Vlad was out to harm her family. While she knew that this behavior was not the elder halfa's norm, she also had no idea what the normal for their enemy actually was. She had been dealing with this as if this had been a gradually escalating battle, not something that had obliterated every preconceived line in the sand.

And now he was taunting them with it, as if it were a game. Suddenly, the reactions, tone and hardened features of the teens made much more sense.

"Has Danny seen it?" Tucker questioned. She could see the apprehension on the younger fighter's face, but there was something else there too, an odd trace of anticipation. Beneath the anger and fear, he had the same want to see Vlad taken down that they'd all shared.

Maddie nodded, and almost missed the sudden flash of surprise before Tucker schooled his features into something else. The look made her think though, and immediately his surprise made sense. Had this been any less serious, any less dire, Danny would have gone on a warpath even Sam couldn't have stopped him from.

"Does Dani know?" This question was asked with a completely different set of emotions. Tension was thrumming through his muscles as he anticipated the fear this would invoke. They'd been doing so well by her, but this would almost surely ruin what progress they'd made. She'd come to them for her safety, only for Vlad to toy with them. It was something that made Maddie hope Danny would leave even a piece of the monster, if only for her to finish him herself.

Again, Maddie just shook her head, but this time it was accompanied by a response. "She hasn't woken up since then, and I won't wake her just to give her this."

Tucker just nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with red-haired woman. The last thing Dani needed was to be brought out of the only decent sleep she'd gotten to face a panic-attack.

"I've never known Vlad to wait this long." Tucker didn't look at Maddie, but he didn't have to notice the change in her. Not only had she gone from mostly relaxed to tense as a bowstring, the look on her face was full of concern bordering on fear.

"What do you mean?" Her words were even, but he wasn't fooled. Her son's voice was just as level before he had to face something life-threatening.

Sitting back against his arms, he picked up the note again, thinking about his words. He didn't want to worry her needlessly, but this was a situation where it was much better to be over prepared than otherwise. "This isn't the first time we've faced Vlad, and it also isn't the first time we've had a conflict that stretched over multiple meetings. If you look back on all our previous fights… he's never waited this long before coming back to fight us again, especially since he isn't badly injured."

"He's toying with us," Maddie concluded, her voice strong but her eyes far away. Tucker didn't know what she could see, but he would have bet his next PDA that it was an imagined previous altercation, one where Vlad wasn't toying around.

Tucker just sighed, eyes roaming over the words once more, before replying, "Unless there is something we're missing, it would seem so."

Maddie was quiet for a moment, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. There was a concern etched into her expression that filled him with joy and stomped on his soul all at the same time. The fact that she cared about her half-ghost son, and the clone he considered a little sister, was more than they had ever hoped for. She cared about her children, even the ones tied to her through unconventional means, and that was a fact that brought a smile to his face more often than not. On the other hand, she was beyond concerned for them and fully willing to throw herself into the path of danger for any of them, which was what they had tried for years to avoid. They were thrilled she was there for them, but they had gone so long trying to keep their families out of danger that it was both frightening and disconcerting when they had to face it.

"What do we do?" Danny's mom said, the tone of her voice telling Tuck this wasn't the first time she'd asked this, and this was the closest he had ever come to seeing this woman anything but the pillar of strength they knew her as.

Leaning forward so that he was resting his arms on his knees, he shook his head, "We wait. I don't know how much Danny talked to you about this, but we can't take the bait."

Hearing that for the second time in as many hours, Maddie just nodded. She was both afraid of and desperately searching for why they were so sure of this.

"It makes me nervous." Tucker didn't seem to know he had said that out loud, but she had heard him clearly in the silence. She didn't mention that it did the same to her.

Looking between the child lying on the cot beside her and the teen so caught up in his own thoughts, she wondered if that was exactly why Vlad was doing this.

It was several hours later before they were all awake an aware. In those hours they had all gained enough rest to at least function, something that they knew would be crucial, but none of them would ever claim it had been good rest. There was too much pain, too much tension, for any of them to be able to relax enough to truly sleep. While it wasn't spoken about, they could all see it in the deep half-moons under their eyes.

Dani was the last of the group to slip into awareness, something they were all happy about. The fact that she had woken naturally and without nightmares was cause for celebration in their minds, even though no one brought the idea up. They all knew she needed the rest more than they did, and were more than happy to let her have her sleep.

Despite all of them being awake, the silence hadn't been broken. Quiet breathing and small movements were the only sounds in the large room, and none of them knew how to address the elephant in the room. All the older teens shared glances with each other and then looked at Maddie, sighing at the slight shrug and shake of her head. This nonverbal conversation would never go unnoticed by the youngest fighter in the room, and she soon pointed that out.

"What are you hiding?" she asked, her voice neither angry nor accusatory. She knew them well enough to see that, whatever it was, it was important, and they wouldn't lie to her.

Whatever the answers they gave, she hadn't been prepared for this. Sam visibly flinched, her hands clenching into fists, while Tucker just closed his eyes, his sigh as violent as if she had knocked the wind from him. Danny was the one who surprised her though, his eyes never meeting hers as he moved to stand in front of her, bracing himself for what he was about to tell her. He opened his mouth but no sound came out, and she swallowed, telling herself it wasn't as bad as she imagined it was.

When Danny finally looked her in the eyes, the reassurance seemed feeble at best.

"I want you to know that, no matter what, we will protect you. There is nothing in the worlds that will prevent me from doing that. He will not get you again." He stated vehemently, his eyes burning into hers. Even if she hadn't heard the overwhelming emotion in his voice, she knew he was speaking the truth. There wasn't a safer place in the world for her than where she was.

She nodded, clearing her throat before whispering, "I know."

The silence was total, none of them able to think of anything to say to help. They had all known the rest of this conversation was going to be hard, and none of them had looked forward to having it. Danny soon ploughed on, his voice as calm as he could make it in the circumstances. "My ghost sense went off, not something unheard of around here."

The joke fell flat, and the attempt at the much-needed levity failed.

"There wasn't any one we knew out there. There wasn't any one. I flew out with Sam to check from the air and the whole town was more peaceful that it's been in years. I—" he stopped, shaking his head. There was no need for her to worry about him right now. "Sam and I came back down after a bit. I have no idea what prompted it, but I came back through the front door."

Any other person wouldn't have questioned the idea of them going back in through the front door, but they all knew that there was nothing normal about them. Despite the slight confusion on her face, Dani just nodded.

"We found this, stuck in the door." Danny voice was tense, and they could all see the creases in the paper where he had gripped it too tight.

Dani's hand shook as she reached out to take the note, as that was obviously what it was. Steadying her breathing, she reminded herself of where she was. She couldn't be safer than where she was now. That was the only thing that allowed her to take the paper with any semblance of calm.

Unfolding the thick paper, any sense of calm vanished. Eyes roaming over the words, she felt her breathing stutter. The paper blurred, but whether it was from tears or trembling she wasn't sure. Despite the fact that she wasn't able to decipher the words on the page, they had burned their way right into her brain.

X Uncle Vlad

When the first tear slipped down her cheek, she found herself wrapped completely in a strong set of arms, a gentle hand wiping the salt water from her eyes. She couldn't prevent her trembling any more than she could the sun rising, but Danny never had any intention of letting this truly get to her, whispering, "He can't get you here, Dani. You're safe."

She heard the words, and while she appreciated them, there was nothing that could soothe away the hurt the note brought up. Once upon a time, this man had been her father and she thought she had loved him like one. Once, she would have given her life along with all the rest of her fellow clones for him. Once upon a time, she had felt safe.

She'd known the minute Danny had started laying into some of the clones that Vlad had used her and her siblings. She'd realized very soon after that notion hit that he'd know this would happen to them and his only reaction was to play her like a pawn in a chess game, caring for her only long enough to see her sacrificed. It had hurt then like it hurt now, sharp and dark and cold. At the time, she hadn't known what love felt like, and the darkness had almost overwhelmed her, but now it hurt like only the darkness can, heavy and oppressive. She wondered why it still hurt like it did, why she still even cared, and then realized that answer was just as much of a problem as the pain was. She'd once wanted to call the monster Dad. She used to think he was her only shot at family, at love.

She was loved now. She knew that. She loved every person in the house more than she'd thought possible, and they loved her irrevocably. She had two sisters, a brother, Maddie, and Danny; she knew that she could not have asked for more from these people.

To think she had once wanted the man as family. The betrayal hurt just as much as the cuts and broken bones.

She let out a gale-like breath leaned back, barely wincing when the tattered skin of her back came into contact with Danny's chest. He was her family now, and she had known for a long time that he and his family was all she really needed. No pain could take this from her, and she knew there would be nothing in the worlds that could tear them away from her. Letting that thought sink in, she let herself read the note again.

At first she had to push back the massive urge to hyperventilate; just the thought of Vlad knowing where she almost made her lose what little she had in her stomach. The fear was definitely there, and it was strong, but if there was one thing she had learned over the years it was that she needed to fight this. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on her heartbeat, on the cool heat coming from Danny, on the shallow breathing of the occupants of the room. She was safe here. They would protect her.

She knew this was the most likely possibility when she had left. She had been aware of that. Besides Danny, the only other place she could go was the Far Frozen and maybe to Clockwork's Tower, and Vlad had only known about the other halfa. She had risked more than just herself in coming here, but she had no better options.

He was right. She couldn't hide from him. It was ludicrous to think she had.

Danny's arm reached around her until his hand rested on the paper, his fingers grasping the note right above hers. She let him take it, and watched as he folded it before sitting it beside her. She couldn't see the writing anymore, but the words were etched into her mind.

"I led him to you." The words were out before she had even thought them, and she couldn't do anything to take them back.

Danny tensed before he wrapped his arms around her, his chin resting on the top of her head. "I'm glad you did."

Both half-ghosts could hear the other three's breathing, but none of them seemed inclined to speak at the moment. Dani almost wanted to shake her head at them. They were something else, entirely; she would give them that. Even counting that fact and the love they all shared for each of their team, for her, she couldn't think of any reason why someone would be glad to have had the monster led right to their front door.

She cocked her head to the side, and blue eyes that were just like his own stared up at him with a question in their gaze.

He met her look, eyes as warm as they were pained. "You needed me, Dani, and no matter what battles I have to fight, no matter who I have to face, nothing and no one will take me away from you when you need me."

Tears welled in the younger ghost's eyes as she launched herself at Danny, regardless to the half-cast and bandages that covered barely day-old injuries. There were no words to describe what she was feeling, and despite the fear that had permeated her heart at the sight of the note, it couldn't even touch the warm feeling sweeping through her that told her all was right in the world.

The note lay mostly forgotten beside them as Danny once more wrapped her in his arms, their family surrounding them.

No matter what was coming, they had each other, and that was all they could have ever hoped for.

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