Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Danny felt way more intimidated by the simulation than he'd hoped, and he was pretty sure he looked it. He got the customary "good job"s and "nice one"s he suspected everyone did as he stepped out of the way, already replaying his run in his head and wincing internally at how he could've done better. 

His mom, however, blew even the instructors away, her violet eyes sharp with concentration as she focused exclusively on the readings in front of her. She made a couple of attempts to pause and listen to the instructors, but that seemed to try her patience quickly and before long she was entirely engrossed in the task in front of her. No surprise there. Danny watched her simulation run with unsurprised awe even as self-criticism continued to churn in the back of his mind at his own turn.

Vlad’s simulation was, oddly and yet somehow unsurprisingly, uneventful; the billionaire accepted instruction calmly and completed his run with no sense of rush or importance.

Jazz might have done well were it not for the fact that she was far too busy asking unrelated questions to pay full attention to the simulation itself. 

The next simulation, though... this one had Danny almost giddy with excitement.

He sprinted to the center of the room where a short wall and glass window separated them from a deep round recessed circle below, and yet another cockpit sat at the edge of the circle, connected to a central point by a long arm, clearly meant to rotate in the circle at high speed.

“Is this one a requirement?” Jazz asked skeptically. 

“You know you’re going to experience G-force on the flight, right?” Danny asked her.

“Yeah… once,” she replied.

“We do require anyone participating in the actual flight go through all of the training courses,” the instructor said. “You’ll also each get a short medical evaluation first to ensure it's safe for you to do the exercise and the flight itself.” 

“Does the evaluation include a mental and emotional assessment? Doesn’t mental fortitude come into play with these types of high-physical stress trainings?” Jazz asked further.

The instructor paused, seemingly caught off guard by the bizarre question and struggling to compose himself enough to answer, but Vlad saved him from the trouble, waving a hand and dismissively as he casually replied, “Please pay her no mind—her academic goals don’t extend to the cosmos.”

“I just don’t think it’s very wise to not include a psychological evaluation as part of the checkup,” Jazz complained. “You never know what that kind of physical stress might do to a fragile psyche.”

“If you don’t want to do it, Jazz, you don’t have to plead insanity,” Danny teased. “I think they’d just let you skip it.”

“There will be no skipping any trainings unless you don’t plan on going on the flight,” Maddie declared. With that argument settled, she then turned to the instructor concernedly. "My son has an injury to his collarbone. It's fairly recent. Is he going to be able to participate?"

Danny's eyes flicked to her with betrayed outrage at her mentioning it; he had fully planned not to say a word. He could grin and bear it through the whole weekend if that meant he could do all of the trainings and the flight.

The instructor opened his mouth to answer, then seemed to freeze briefly, like he was suddenly out of it before replying with a warm, reassuring smile that looked far too familiar. "Of course, that shouldn't have a bearing on his ability to participate. We'll evaluate of course to be sure, but I wouldn't worry, my dear."

Danny's brow twitched at the last two words from the instructor and cast a side glance at Vlad, who offered him the exact same warm smile.

“Right this way, Ms. Fenton,” the man said, tone returning to its unfamiliar professionalism as he guided her away. 

After Maddie’s checkup, she was led into the chamber below and buckled into the g-force simulator. She looked up at them from through the glass and gave a confident, bright smile and thumbs up as the machine started to build up speed and spin. 

Danny, Jazz, and Vlad stood on the edge of the viewing platform to watch, Jazz looking on with a grimace before eventually deciding she didn't want to watch and get dizzy before she even had her turn and stepping away to get some water. Danny, however, remained enraptured with the process, watching every step of the simulation eagerly. He had never been so excited for anything in his whole life, and the desire to impress the instructors in this particular exercise was making his efforts to look at ease and comfortable that much more difficult. He knew this was something he could impress with. He flew every day without problems. It was probably the power he was the best at. His spectral weightlessness could make this a breeze if he could just transform for the simulation.  

“How many G’s can most people take?” Danny asked the instructor when he returned, his eyes never leaving his mom as the machine began winding slowly around the room. 

“It’s about 5 G’s for the average person,” the man replied. “But for your actual flight tomorrow, you shouldn’t experience anything more than 3. This exercise is mostly for the experience, but also to make sure you can meet the threshold you’ll actually go through on the flight.” 

“Got it..." Danny said with a nod, struggling to keep his fingers from drumming with impatient agitation on the bar separating them from the observation window. "But how fast can it go?” Danny asked, only barely masking a mischievous smirk. 

The instructor seemed to mistake the intention of the question, stating reassuringly, “We never go over 3 G’s for civilians, so don’t worry!” 

Danny frowned with disappointment, turning his attention back to his now rapidly spinning mother as the instructor stepped away to prepare for the next run. 

Vlad sidled up next to him, watching her with the corner of his lip turned upwards, an easy, relaxed expression on him. 

Danny glanced sidelong at him, having almost completely forgotten he was there in the midst of his rapidly spinning thoughts. Plans of impressing the instructors, of blowing them away with how easily he handled the simulation and how they would hopefully see what a natural he was, suddenly soured with the presence of Vlad's smug face. Danny couldn't imagine why he had that look. He was acting like he had made some grand move, but the sight of the expression turned Danny's mind away from his excitement and nervousness towards a sense of uneasy paranoia.

He slumped a little, his excitement, with no real outlet, shifting into tense anxiety as his mind had to switch gears from planning to impress to re-examining the whole day around what Vlad might be up to. Danny muttered under his breath, "So is my shoulder actually gonna hold up for this or are you baiting me into hurting myself for some reason?"

Vlad just chuckled, unconcerned with Danny's suspicion. "You'll be just fine, Little Badger. I could hardly explain to the staff here that you have supernatural durability, now could I?"

He wasn't sure if he believed that, but... he really wanted to try this simulation. He really, desperately wanted to try it and if it hurt him a little...well, he was used to getting hurt doing things way less fun. Besides, he just couldn't imagine what grand scheme or goal Vlad was accomplishing with any of this. There wouldn't be a real point in letting Danny hurt himself here. He already had them living with him in Wisconsin. But that was exactly it. He already had them living with him in Wisconsin. Why do this NASA trip at all? None of this had to do with his mom. Space bored her. Everything here were things Danny liked, and Vlad wasn't stupid enough to think Danny could be bribed by this. If anything, Vlad owed him this, at the bare minimum.

He worked his jaw, fingers tensing over the railing, his whole body stiff from his earlier anticipation for taking his turn now occupied with having to deal with whatever Vlad thought he was accomplishing today and his newfound uncertainty for how Danny's injured shoulder might play into it. Still, he did want to try the simulation, and he knew he could grit his teeth and bare it if Vlad tried anything there, so he didn't push on that particular issue, instead prodding, "Is that how you get everything you do? Just...overshadow whoever's nearby?" 

"Not everything," Vlad replied. "Financial incentives are an excellent supplement to what my powers can't do. You're reaping the benefits of both today."

Danny bristled, eyes flashing with irritation and fists clenching tightly as a wave of guilt turned his face hot, tangling itself with the paranoia, excitement, and agitation already present. "I didn't ask you to," Danny snapped quietly, not wanting to cause a scene, but not quite being able to keep himself in check. The idea that he in any way condoned Vlad running around overshadowing and bribing people because it benefited Danny was ridiculous. Just because he was participating didn't mean he wanted Vlad to do this. What was he supposed to do? Keep snapping at his mom and sister every time they tried to do something fun and nice for him? Was he supposed to sit in the car and refuse to do the weekend to prove a point to Vlad?

Was this what Vlad was trying to do with today? To twist him up into knots with something he loved just to ruin it with how he got it? 

"It's not much of a gift if you ask for it," Vlad said, glancing at him with a smirk, but all of a sudden, he dropped the expression entirely, almost seeming to get...taller. Before Danny could really even process the sudden shift, Vlad deftly reached out, grabbing Danny by the upper arm of his right side. Danny tried to jerk back to evade the grip, but as usual, Vlad was freakishly fast even in his human form. Snatching Danny's upper arm securely, Vlad quickly and discreetly lifted him up before Danny could sink any further. "Calm down," he demanded quietly, casting a glance around to make sure no one was watching. 

Finally realizing the "height" Vlad had abruptly gained was him slipping through the floor, Danny's eyes went wide with panic and he looked, too, to see if Jazz had noticed, but Vlad had already blocked Danny from view of anyone who might be paying attention, holding him just above the floor and instructing furtively, "Relax."

"What are you doing?" Danny growled accusingly under his breath. Despite not being fully tangible, he still tried to shrug out of Vlad's grip even as his feet remained stubbornly intangible, growing more frustrated and panicked by the second. "Let go."

"So you can fall through the floor?" Vlad replied incredulously, shaking his head with impatient dismissal as he once again cast a watchful glance around to ensure they remained unseen. "I haven't done anything to you. You worked yourself up too much. You need to relax." Vlad instructed again more firmly. "Take three slow, deep breaths."

Danny shot him an incredulous glare, but his legs were still trying to phase through the floor, so with a reluctant sigh, he closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on getting his legs to touch solid ground again. The inhales were short and impatient, mind preoccupied with the knowledge that anyone could walk by and see him standing in the floor. He breathed a few times, taking a second or two to inhale then letting it out in a rush past his lips, but still, he could feel his legs swimming through the floor like water. "It's not doing anything!" He hissed.

"Well, I'd imagine not since all you're doing is angrily huffing and puffing," Vlad replied sarcastically, but the older hybrid seemed to catch himself in the middle of the jab, grimacing slightly at his own irritated impatience before taking a moment to take his own deep, centering breath before instructing again in a cool, patient tone. "You have to relax, Little Badger. Listen to what I'm telling you. Take three real breaths. Count to four while breathing in, hold it for seven seconds, then release it slowly for eight seconds. Focus on your lungs."

"You want me to do yoga right now?" Danny mocked petulantly, but despite his complete incredulity, he was starting to panic that if he couldn't get this fixed before his turn in the simulation...Vlad would have to do something drastic to keep his accident from being noticed. He wasn't sure what he'd do, but that was somehow worse, so with frustrated reluctance, Danny closed his eyes and tried to do as instructed. He felt his lungs fill with air as he took one deep, full breath, feeling utterly stupid and ridiculous for it on top of the already embarrassing situation that Vlad just had to be there to witness. He held on to it, feeling the air sit in his chest as anxiety continued to rampage in the back of his mind. Relax. Breathe. He let it out slowly, pausing his embarrassed and outraged internal monologue to count down to eight. He took in another deep breath. Breathe. Yeah, right. He held it in. Just relax. Breathe. He let it out, pausing to count down once again. Another inhale. This was so stupid. Like that was gonna make a-

As he held the third breath, he felt it. His feet jittered as they felt solid floor beneath them before he realized what had happened and he finally planted them, settled and firm. His eyes popped open in surprise as the problem that normally took a lot longer to fix was, all too easily, just fixed. 

"There we are," Vlad said with a pleased smile, releasing Danny's arm and letting him stand on his own. He cast another subtle glance around to ensure they weren't seen before flashing Danny another grin. "Better that happened now than on your turn down there, hm?" He nodded his head towards the bottom of the simulator, where Maddie was still spinning at a speed so fast she was just a blur.  

Danny looked down at his feet, then at Vlad. "But... what... why did that work? I didn't do anything." 

"Tangibility is a lot like breathing," Vlad replied, returning his attention to Maddie's simulation as though nothing had happened at all. "It's automatic for the most part, but, occasionally, you can forget. Like when you hold your breath when you're nervous. Or, in what I imagine was likely the case for you a moment ago, you get too excited. Intentional breathing can be used as both a literal and figurative grounding method."

Danny's brow furrowed in confusion, blinking a few times as he tried to understand. No, that didn't make sense... He'd been in fights before without randomly going intangible. Wouldn't he have lost control then? Sure, he had that incident when he first got here when he started phasing through the floor of his room at Vlad's estate, and those couple of times back home early on, but those were because he'd been mad, not because he was... excited.

He shook his head confusedly, then shrugged his arms out with renewed agitation. "Why would that be a thing? I'm not doing anything to be tangible. You're not doing anything to be tangible. I'm not trying to transform or something. That makes no sense."

Vlad's smile widened even further. "If you're curious, I'd be more than happy to teach you..." 

Danny rolled his eyes up to Vlad to give him a glare, but it lacked the usual bite. He wanted to snap back with some snarky comment, but he was losing the momentum to muster it as what just happened started replaying in his mind. The explanation didn't make sense to him but...it did work. For some stupid, bizarre reason, just a quick little breathing exercise had completely counteracted an issue that usually took him way more stress and drama to fix. His brow furrowed slightly, feeling his chest rise and fall in a steady, intentional rhythm, feeling his breaths fill his lungs, his feet planted and firm. Just a few deep breaths. That was it. 

His mind flashed back to countless times he'd almost been caught because of some stupid malfunction with his powers. How many times he'd gotten hurt because his abilities wouldn't do what he wanted or needed them to do. All those times...could he have just...breathed through it? How many other problems was he having with his powers that had some simple solution to them like that, and he just didn't know? The thought plagued his mind on a loop as he watched Maddie finish her simulation.

As anyone might have expected, she got up to the full 3G’s permitted and was only slightly dizzy when staff helped her get unstrapped and step out of the cockpit. Danny watched her be led back up to them, his excitement slowly building back up again as he stared down at the now-empty simulator. 

“Alright, kids, it’s really not that bad,” she informed them as she rejoined them on the observation level, still a little breathless, although it seemed to be a mix of both fatigue and excitement. "Danny, do you want to go next?"

The invitation instantly washed away any of his earlier reservations, the thoughts of what Vlad might be plotting, how much he's struggled at managing his powers alone, all gone in an instant at the promise of getting on that simulator.

“You know I do!” Danny announced and didn’t bother waiting for anyone to object. No one did, of course; Jazz was still trying to come up with reasons why she shouldn’t have to go and Vlad was, in his typical fashion, acting like he was above it all. 

Danny rushed off to complete his health checkup. It was basic things mostly, heart rate, blood pressure, but when it got to range of motion, the instructor flashed him a familiar grin and stated smugly, "All clear, Little Badger." Almost immediately afterward, the instructor's voice and behavior seemed to go back to normal without the man really seeming to notice the blip at all. As the instructor took him down to the cockpit and settled him into the seat, he gave Danny tips on how to breathe through the test and showed him a button located near the hand-grip.

“Just press this if you need us to stop,” the man instructed. “And don’t worry, we’ll be monitoring everything from above.”

“And if I want it to go faster?” Danny asked mischievously.

The technician chuckled, finally catching on to what Danny was asking. “Sorry, kid. No more than 3 G’s.”

Danny frowned with disappointment, but his energy picked up again as the technician left and the heavy sound of machinery winding up had him gripping the handles harder. 

It started rotating around the circular track casually, no faster than a merry-go-round, then rapidly started picking up speed, going from a roller coaster on its downward plunge to a ghostly chase through an open sky. Danny’s hair whipped past his face and he hooted excitedly, his voice lost somewhere behind or in front of him.

He couldn’t see how fast he was going, but knew he must be nearing the max as he started feeling a persistent pressure push him into the back of the seat, making it a little harder to get a full breath. 

The room around him was a messy blur of white and Danny wondered if he looked much the same from the outside. He figured, if that was the case, a little ghostly assistance shouldn’t be noticed. He spent a moment focusing his core to a single point, but in all honesty, he wasn’t very good at fine ghostly motor skills, and he felt more than saw a little sparkle of white as his core confusedly released pockets of spectral energy into his fingers, his chest, and somewhere near his feet before fizzling out. 

It probably wasn’t the best time to be experimenting, in hindsight. But, predictably, without the assistance of spectral weightlessness, the pressure started to turn his stomach upside down, and the feeling of wanting to hurl started building at nearly the same speed as the machine itself. 

His ego was saved just in time; the machine started to wind down, and pressure turned into a relaxed breeze until finally resting into stillness. 

The technician came down and unbuckled him.

“Was that fast enough?” he asked playfully.

“Do you have a bucket?” Danny asked.

Maddie watched with a wide, beaming smile as Danny was strapped into the simulator, and it somehow grew impossibly wider as, as he turned into a blur of color, she could just hear him hoot out in joy, a sound she realized suddenly she hadn't heard in at least a year. 

He had gotten only a little nauseous afterwards, but managed to step out of the faux cockpit on his own and within only a few minutes had completely bounced back. She was impressed he'd managed to get the full 3 G's permitted, but at a glance at Vlad, felt a little foolish to be surprised. Vlad didn't look in the least bit like he had been expecting anything less.

Danny practically ran back up to the observation deck, the adrenaline rush clearly only adding to his enthusiasm and excitement. As soon as he returned, he immediately began badgering and encouraging Jazz stop her worrying and take her turn, assuring her of how much fun it was. 

Despite the aura of joy surrounding him, it clearly did little to settle Jazz's unease at the whole thing, but to her credit, she didn't refuse. She continued to argue with the instructors about the risks they may have overlooked, but as she sat in the faux cockpit, nervously biting her lower lip, she did take a moment to look up at the observation window to give Danny a shaky thumbs up.

Her run was slightly shorter.

Jazz had just reached 2 G’s before she’d pressed the emergency stop button. After being escorted back up to the viewing room, she’d been provided a bucket to sit with, and she stayed with it hugged against her chest for the remainder of the exercise. The instructors assured Maddie and Jazz both that nausea was perfectly normal, and as long as it passed in the next half hour, she was still clear to proceed with the rest of the exercises.

Vlad’s run was similarly as smooth as hers; which didn’t surprise her. He, too, was a trained pilot. She did wonder - if the technicians had been willing to bend the rules a little bit - which one of the two of them would get sick first? She posed the question to Vlad later as they headed to their next exercise.

“We ought to conduct an experiment,” he decided with an amused chuckle. “And make it a bit more interesting with a wager…” 

She smirked competitively. “What did you have in mind?”

“The winner…” he began, tilting his head thoughtfully, “takes the other on an evening out, to the place of their choosing.” 

Maddie’s mouth opened and closed, stalling as a catch in her throat battled with the blush that wanted to spread over her cheeks. 

She quickly composed herself, tilting her head in a half shrug as she chided gently, and a little regretfully. "Vlad, you know I can't."

He looked at her, letting a silence settle that bore a weight Maddie could almost feel before quirking his brow and giving her a playful, yet challenging smirk. "Can't you?" 

She stared back, momentarily stunned by the intensity of the moment, of the way her stomach fluttered with butterflies in a way she hadn't felt in...she couldn't even remember the last time she felt that off-balance. She opened her mouth to reject him again, to make her usual excuse, to remind Vlad that she is still married, but she struggled to get her voice to come out. 

Vlad watched her for a second with a knowing look in his eyes, but he didn't press it further, instead shrugging off the charged atmosphere with his usual casualness that was somehow both disarming and difficult to tear one's eyes from. "It's a bit of an unfair wager anyway," he said, but added with a mischievous grin sent her way, "We both know I'd win." 

Maddie stared at him for a second, feeling more than seeing that behind that teasing smirk, the invitation remained perpetually extended to her, daring her to acknowledge the glint in his eye, the smile he seemed to save just for her. It made her nervous in a way she thought she had gotten too mature to feel anymore, and it took her a second of awkwardly smirking back, of quietly laughing to hide the catch in her throat, to finally address the playful banter while still skirting the underlying invitation. "We both know you'd try." 

His smirk grew, eyes flashing with a competitiveness that Maddie forgot they both shared, but she could still see it there, in the sparkle of his eyes when he looked at her. The offer was waiting for her.

They both knew. He'd keep trying.

The final training exercise involved an instructor preparing them for a zero gravity flight. The instructions themselves were fairly basic and, to Maddie anyway, common sense, and she found her mind straying from the lecture. The butterflies were still doing dances in her stomach, but now that the moment had passed, little waves of guilt, nerves, and anger (blended in with a little more guilt) kept distracting her. 

Despite her best efforts to think of anything else, despite trying to compartmentalize things, Jack just kept coming to her mind unbidden. It bothered her how difficult compartmentalizing had gotten recently. It felt like her mind was a river whose sediment had been suddenly disturbed, agitating the usual crystalline water of her focus. What should have been an easy rejection now felt confusing, filling her with a sense of guilt, of disappointment, of uncertainty and doubt with her own decisions and thought processes. It wasn't just that Jack had left her uncertain of her own ability to evaluate her relationships, of what her status currently is and what she wants to do, but it was also that Vlad felt different than how she remembered him. He'd been so stiff and full of himself in college, and some of that was still true, but when did he get so...generous? Not monetarily - it's hardly generous to give away money you wouldn't notice was missing - but in his time, his attention, in the way he spoke to her, the way he spoke about Danny. Things Jack never did, even at his best.

For the first time, she felt silly for rejecting him.

Jack was gone, so... why was she saying no? 

She was greatly relieved when it was finally time to board the Cessna, giving her mind a chance to restart and focus on something more active. They were dressed in flight gear and provided helmets and comms, and the crew assisted them in strapping into their seats. The instructor did a good job of keeping up the excitement while they waited to reach the right altitude, sharing personal stories of the various exciting, and sometimes harrowing flights he had himself experienced. 

Danny seemed enraptured.

Jazz seemed judgemental. 

But Maddie found herself taking turns with Vlad trying to one-up each other’s stories. 

She had been managing Jack's insecurities and shortcomings for so long, she had almost forgotten how much fun it was to flex her competitive muscles, to compete against someone who not only wasn't intimidated, but was willing to match her energy. 

“Alright, here comes our first maneuver,” the instructor announced. “We’re going to keep you seat-belted for this first one so you can get an idea of what it feels like. It’s going to last about 15 seconds, so take your time and get used to the feeling and we’ll unbuckle for the rest of the maneuvers. Okay, ready? Three… two… one…”

The Cessna tilted and a raucous of excited laughter filled the cabin as everyone’s arms rose off their laps. Even Jazz, who had undoubtedly spent the day creating psychological profiles of the kind of maniacs who would put themselves through something like this, had a huge grin on her face as she waved her arms through the air.

Danny, however, after the first few seconds, looked frustrated and impatient. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought the mischievous way his eyes scanned everyone in the cabin that he was looking for an opening to unbuckle himself. 

The fifteen seconds passed quickly and gravity returned to them, feeling much heavier than it had a moment ago.

“Good job, everybody,” the instructor encouraged. “Now let’s go ahead and unbuckle for the next maneuver.”

Danny was out of his seat faster than she thought should’ve been possible, bouncing on his heels like he intended to fly away on his own. 

“Here comes the next one. Everyone ready? In three… two… one…”

Her feet left the floor; not as quickly or sharply as she had been expecting, but she definitely couldn’t say she was standing anymore. She pulled her legs up, delighted in the freedom she suddenly felt. She looked over at Vlad, surprised to see him a bit stiff, simply floating where he had started and not making much of an effort to indulge in the sensation. Although nothing in his expression would suggest it, she wondered if maybe he was nervous. 

She looked over at Danny, expecting to see him taking advantage of being freed from the confines of his seat, but instead, he had his hands on Jazz as she flailed about like a fish out of water, trying both to steady her and calm her down. 

“How am I supposed to stay steady like this?” she complained in a high, strained voice. 

“You don’t!” Danny replied with a laugh as he watched her flap about helplessly. “That’s the whole point."

“It’s not funny! I just need to anchor myself. How do I–Danny, how do I move closer to the seat?” she complained even more desperately, trying unsuccessfully to land.

“Come on, Jazz, just float! You're on the ground all the rest of the time!” Danny compelled encouragingly. “You’ll literally never be more free than you are now! Look!” He flipped in the air and seemed to swim towards her in a way that even the instructor seemed surprised about. “Just relax!”

Maddie did a double-take as Danny easily demonstrated to Jazz how to float, the movement catching her eye and niggling at the back of her mind, but she wasn't entirely sure why. She shrugged it off after a moment, chalking it up to being just as impressed as the instructor was.

“I’ll relax when I can hold onto something,” Jazz insisted. 

“And back to gravity, in three… get your feet under you everyone… two… one,” the instructor said, and gravity returned to them. Jazz immediately retreated to her seat, clinging to the seat-belt like a lifeline. 

“Good job, everybody. Danny, you’re a natural!” the instructor complimented. “Mr. Masters, feel free to move around a little more. This next time, we’ll practice using the walls to get around the cabin.”

As instructed, they used the next maneuver to practice kicking off the walls to get to the other side of the cabin. Well, almost everyone did. Jazz resolutely refused, continuing to cling to her seat even as her lower half started rising over it. The instructor had to help her right herself before gravity returned to make sure she didn’t fall on her head. 

Everyone else took to the exercise quite well. Maddie once again found herself both impressed and oddly fixated on Danny as he casually and easily bounced around the cabin. The way he moved make it look like it was second nature to him and she struggled to tear her eyes away from it to engage in her own experience.  

Vlad seemed to have also relaxed a bit, passing back and forth slowly, but steadily. As she passed next to him in the opposite direction, she cheekily commented, “I see you're all talk and no bite.” 

His eyes sparked competitively and during the next maneuver, they began competing, although neither seemed entirely sure in what way. They kicked off the walls and flipped and maneuvered at each other with a fierce playfully that once again gave her stomach unfamiliar butterflies–at least up until Danny kept running into them.

“Whoops! Sorry, heh, I guess I got a little carried away,” he said the first time. 

“Ah! I’m just not paying attention!” he admitted apologetically the second time.

“Jeez, we’ve gotta stop meeting like this,” he joked the third time. 

“Okay, I don’t think that was me this time,” he said the fourth time.

The instructor decided the fourth time Danny ran body-first into Vlad to finally intervene; the last two maneuvers they were only allowed to do flips in place. Maddie had watched as Danny flung himself in what looked like accidents, but she found herself wondering about it as the flight ended. He had been doing remarkably well in the beginning of the simulation. Maybe he just got tired. Maybe those first few minutes had been a fluke of incredible luck.

But for seeming to have no control over where he ended up as he tossed himself around the cabin with energetic enthusiasm, he somehow managed to run into Vlad every single time.  

Danny tried not to dwell on it. It helped that right after the zero gravity flight was the dinner with Bob Behnken, but it had been a little difficult to brush off the embarrassment having to sabotage Vlad had left behind. He had really wanted to impress the instructor. The flight had been exactly the place to show off what he could do and, of course, Vlad had somehow found a way to ruin it. He didn’t know if it would’ve helped later on or not, but now he hoped the instructor never remembered him. 

Stupid Vlad. 

The dinner was great, though. He got to ask a bunch of questions from Bob Behnken, who didn't seem to mind his awkward delivery or the way he rushed through some of the questions in his eagerness; “What do you think got you hired?” “How much math do they really care about, anyway?” “There’s not a height requirement, right?”

Bob (he let him call him Bob!) was courteous about answering his questions and even answered some of his unspoken ones as well, giving Danny several different paths that could lead to working at NASA. 

“There’s really not one way that’s right,” Bob had told him, “It’s a collection of experiences and knowledge that really gets you in. So learn as much as you can and experience as much as you can.”

One of those was going to be super easy. 

By the time they got to the hotel (which was way more like a fancy apartment, with four interconnected rooms that led to the living room, a full kitchen, connected dining room, and an enormous balcony) everyone was ready to call it a night. It had been a long day of fun, but it seemed gravity was working overtime now that they’d spent a decent time without it. 

Despite everyone's exhaustion, Jazz insisted that Danny open his gifts. 

"You're going to be way too distracted tomorrow for them," she insisted, already gathering two neatly wrapped packages and setting them down on the coffee table in the "living room" of the hotel. 

Maddie and Vlad seemed to agree, wandering off to their bags to get the gifts they brought as well. Danny watched the two, mentally preparing himself for what he already knew Vlad was going to give him, but he wasn't sure what his mom would. He watched her dig through her bag, shaking his head wryly to himself as he noticed a ghost scanner and the thermos amongst the items she brought. 

Once the presents were gathered, Danny sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the coffee table, feeling awkward with his family and Vlad sitting around staring at him, but he put on a mask of relaxed excitement. It wasn't Jazz or his mom's fault this was weird, and he wanted them to have a good time, even if that meant Vlad got to, as well. 

No one seemed to expect any particular order, so Danny grabbed for Vlad's gift. He'd rather just get this part of things out of the way so he can enjoy the rest of the celebration in peace. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't wrapped; just placed in a neat paper bag with tissue paper coming out the top. Danny discarded them and pulled out the small box, opening it up to reveal the sleek black watch Vlad had already shown him. As he pulled it out and pretended to inspect it like he'd never seen it before, there was a bitter part of him that was grateful he'd been warned about this ahead of time. He definitely would have had suspicion written all over his face if he didn't already know what it was.

"Wow, it's nice, Vlad," Danny said, keeping his tone light enough to sound grateful and subdued enough to sound nonchalant about it. As much as he hated acting grateful towards Vlad in any way, he also didn't want his mom to think much about the watch. He had already taken some risks accessing Vlad's laptop to contact Sam and Tucker. The last thing he needed to make things more complicated was his mom getting suspicious of Vlad. He could swallow his disdain for Vlad and this supposed gift if that meant he didn't have to worry about what his mom was doing. 

Fortunately, she seemed both impressed and disinterested, leaning forward to look at the watch face but not engaging much more than being excited for him.

Jazz, however, seemed like she wanted one of her own, slipping off her seat to walk over and get a closer look. "That is nice! Look at how smooth it is! Does it have multiple time zones? What all does it do?" she asked, reaching down and holding onto it with Danny.

He tensed just slightly, unintentionally casting a glance at Vlad to see if it was a problem that Jazz was inspecting it with such bizarre excitement, but Vlad didn't seem bothered by it, instead answering her questions patiently. "It does have multiple time zones, including yours in New York, Jasmine. It has health tracking features as well, Daniel. You should find it to be a helpful tool now that you're doing football practice regularly." 

Danny grimaced internally, wondering how much the health tracking features were for him or for Vlad, or if they were even a real thing. He wasn't too keen on playing around with the watch; part of him was worried if it was possible to accidentally shock himself with it. But Jazz seemed interested and Vlad wasn't objecting to her looking at it or trying to divert her attention, so he showed her the digital interface and let her press a few buttons.

"You'll have to show me all the settings once you get it set up," Jazz told him as her fingers drifted over and down the smooth band of the watch. Danny watched her, wincing to himself with renewed worry that she'd see it had no visible way to unclasp it once it closed, but once again, she didn't seem to notice. Finally, her interest died down and she stepped away, and with it, Danny cast a glance at Vlad. It was a quick, brief look, barely a blip, but he hoped it conveyed his utter contempt for the older hybrid as Danny slipped the watch on, feeling the band seal perfectly closed around his wrist. He pretended to admire it for a second more before moving on, relieved that at least that part of things was over. 

The next one he grabbed was his mom's. He wasn't sure what she'd get him, and although he'd been prepared to be grateful no matter what it was, he wasn't prepared for the pang of guilt he felt as he opened up the brand new phone. It wasn't used or an older model. It was a brand new one. To replace a phone that wasn't actually broken; just unusable. And worse, this Vlad was probably going to make this one just as useless. 

He quickly got a hold of himself, masking the guilt as surprise as he pulled out the phone and examined it excitedly. "Whoa! This is one of the new ones!" he exclaimed, eagerly starting it up. 

"Do you like it?" she asked, a little anxiousness bleeding through her tone. "If you want another color or a different brand or-"

"Mom, it's great," Danny quickly interjected reassuringly. It didn't matter that it wouldn't work. He'd have to figure out how to convince her that this solved his problem. And maybe it would. It had obviously been bothering her that he couldn't text with Sam and Tucker. Maybe if he leveraged this right, he could get Vlad to cave. Even just limited communication with his friends would be enough. And if he could get Vlad to back off on that front, it would be the first real sign that Vlad could be manipulated right back. "Truly, this is awesome. Thank you."

She smiled with visible relief as she watched him boot it up and mess with the settings for a second before Jazz playfully interrupted, "Come on, Danny, do that later! You still have mine to open!"

Danny set aside the phone and looked at the two remaining gifts on the coffee table, picking up the larger of the two and asking Jazz curiously, "You got me two?" 

"Well, no. The smaller one is from me. The bigger one is from Sam and Tucker," she explained. "Since I knew what they were getting you so I thought I would, you know, collaborate."

Danny's eyes widened with excitement. "Really?"

Vlad's brow rose with surprise, leaning forward slightly in his seat.

"Yeah, they mailed it to me for some reason," Jazz said, scrunching her face with confused amusement. "But it's fine. I didn't mind bringing it, and plus, I got to get you some complimentary gifts."

Danny snatched the larger box closer, ripping wildly at the paper and the tape keeping the box closed. Finally, he tossed aside the internal tissue paper and looked with wide-eyed interest at the handheld console within. "Is this a Switch?!"

Jazz's smile brightened. "Happy birthday!" she exclaimed as he pulled it out to examine it. 

Danny inspected the Switch with both excitement and confused scrutiny. Yeah, he'd always wanted one, that was true, but he had expected something more... useful. Maybe that had been naively optimistic of him, but after the chat they'd had the other night, he had gotten his hopes up. They probably just couldn't do much for the gift itself. Vlad was already eyeing the Switch suspiciously, reminding Danny that Vlad was going to diligent about anything that had to do with his friends. 

He hoped he at least got to play on it once before Vlad confiscated it. 

"The next one is from me," Jazz urged excitedly, wringing her hands together a little uncertainly. "I don't know a lot about this stuff and sort of had to guess in the store, but I tried to go with what you'd like and what's popular right now."

Danny gave her a little reassuring smile despite not knowing what it was yet, only to find it was bafflingly and hilariously bad, and Danny had to fight to suppress the hysterical laugh that nearly bubbled up at the sight of it.

"The guy told me retro is really in right now," Jazz added nervously.

Danny pulled out the side-scroller video game, an amused grin on his face as he continued to stifle laughter as he looked at the cover; even that couldn't have been more than 8 pixels. The game play itself looked like a cheap Mario knock-off, based on the back of the box. It looked so out-dated, and was so hilariously unfamiliar, that he quickly checked to see if the brand new Switch would even be able to play it, but oddly enough, the entire game was downloadable. Under normal circumstances, he would have teased her for the choice, but at a glance at her face, at the anxious hope that she had gotten it right, he let his grin grow wider with feigned enthusiasm. "This is awesome, Jazz! I never thought I'd get to play this!"

Jazz's concern gradually melted into relief at his response, and stepped closer to point to the back of the box. "The store clerk said it's got a... um... what did he call it... an advanced achievement system, I think. He said that was its big draw for gamers."

Danny nodded along, letting her parrot what the game store clerk had told her about the game. He resisted the urge to ask who in their right mind had sold this to her and - god forbid - that she'd spent a lot of money on it. He didn't want to spoil the thought behind it. Besides, if Vlad didn't confiscate it, it was better than nothing. He would whatever he could get to stave off the boredom; anything that didn't have to do with the schoolwork Vlad was drowning him in. 

As the evening wore down with a fancy dinner and even a birthday cake, exhaustion finally became too insistent for any of them to ignore. 

For Danny though, he realized with an internal groan that even rest came with unexpected landmines. He hadn’t thought that picking which room he slept in would have such high stakes, but after the way his mom and Vlad had been acting during the cesna flight, he realized he was going to have to be a lot more proactive in keeping Vlad away from her.

“I mean, don’t you guys want to catch up a little before bed?” Danny asked Jazz and his mom, trying to sound innocent about it. He couldn’t act like it mattered that much to him, because, really, it shouldn’t, and if it weren’t for the worryingly quiet billionaire next to him, it would never have even crossed his mind before. 

“I don’t think I’m going to be awake for much longer,” Maddie admitted tiredly. “I don’t really care either way. As long as the room has a bed.”

“I won't, either, but it might be nice to get ready in the morning together,” Jazz suggested to her mom. “I’ll take the room next to yours.”

Danny breathed an internal sigh of relief, glad that he could still rely on Jazz to argue unknowingly on his behalf. 

He expected Vlad to make some sort of play to get the room next to Maddie’s, but to Danny's surprise, he stayed out of the decision entirely and amiably went along with the outcome, taking his bags to the room next to Danny’s.

Danny hated it when Vlad got polite and quiet like that. It always meant that, no matter what, he was winning somehow.

Both pairs of rooms had a shared bathroom between them (the biggest reason Danny decided to be finicky about the room selection), and Vlad decided that was just perfect, opening the door between the two rooms and entering Danny's with the same entitlement as he did back at Vlad's mansion.

“Good day, Little Badger?” Vlad asked as he stepped towards the bed that Danny had collapsed into.

“Yeah, mostly,” Danny replied from where he lay, eyes closed to try to block out Vlad's presence, his right hand flopped out above his head, the new Plasmius Maximus watch secured tightly around the wrist while his left arm was tucked in slightly to his chest. It was pretty sore after the day's activities, throbbing slightly, but it not too bad. He could take another day of throbbing and pain. “There was this really old guy in our tour group that kept perving on my mom, though. If he’s not there tomorrow, it’ll be a perfect weekend.” 

“She seemed to be enjoying it.”

“In your dreams.”

“Oh, so you felt compelled to throw yourself between us for some other reason?” Vlad inquired, quirking a brow snidely. 

“You know how clumsy I am,” Danny replied dismissively. He was fully prepared to keep ignoring him, but suddenly a shiver ran up his spine at a sudden, familiar chill. His eyes opened in confusion, and he was about to look around for the source only to find Vlad reaching towards him. He stiffened, but Vlad reached past him, picking up the switch and turning it over in his hands.

"Let’s just hope the recruiters at NASA never find out," Vlad replied, holding the switch off to the side just as Skulker turned visible. 

Danny's eyes widened in shocked confusion and he instantly sat up, whole body tensing in preparation for...for a fight? He couldn't fight Skulker here. His mom was just in the other room, and - true to her nature - she'd brought some of her ghost hunting stuff. What was Vlad thinking?!

Skulker sneered at Danny as he took the switch from Vlad's hand, turning his attention to the older hybrid as he asked. "Is this the welp's? I can dispose of this for you. It would be my pleasure." 

"No," Vlad replied sharply. "This is a gift from Daniel's friends. I want you to take it and inspect it thoroughly in my lab."

Skulker quirked a brow, letting out a maliciously amused grunt. "The one in glasses is clever, I suppose...for a human."

"Daniel's friends have an unfortunate habit of trying to meddle," Vlad began, casting Danny a pointed, sideways glance, "And while I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt that they were simply providing Daniel here with a thoughtful gift, there's no harm in being cautious. I'd like you to ensure it hasn't been tampered with."

Skulker narrowed his eyes at the device, a wide grin spreading across his face, but whatever thought had crossed the hunter ghost's mind was quickly rejected as Vlad interjected, "Without destroying it."

Skulker's smile vanished into a disappointed scowl, but he didn't argue. "Fine. I'll have a look at it," the ghost grumbled. He then looked at Danny, sneering contemptuously. "I'll find whatever your friends did with this, pup. Mark my words."

Danny rolled his eyes, but Skulker vanished before he could deliver a proper parting shot. With it seemingly being just the two of them again, Danny promptly decided to ignore Vlad and laid back on the bed, picking up the phone his mom got for him and trying to set it up.

Vlad watched him for a second, an amused smirk on his face. "A rather pointless use of your energy, wouldn't you agree?"

Danny shrugged. "I hope not. I think Mom would be pretty disappointed if this phone stopped working, too. She might even get kind of suspicious, now that I think about it..." he said, rolling his eyes towards the older hybrid with unsubtle exaggeration. 

Vlad stared him down, eyes sharpening with just a hint of irritation, but the look quickly smoothed out into one of passive unconcernedness. "Or further proof of your clumsiness," he countered, but, after a pause, smirked to himself and said, "We can discuss it later. For now, on the subject of clumsiness, you need to be much more cautious with your powers.”

"It was an accident," Danny griped immediately, prickling at the mention of his momentarily lapse in tangibility. 

"Not that," Vlad replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.  

Danny's brows rose in slight surprise. He didn't think anyone would be able to see him trying to use his powers during the G-Force simulator. But he was feeling petty and wanted to irritate, so he turned his focus back to the phone he was setting up and replied with mock innocence, “Whatever do you mean, Vlad?” 

“Refining your abilities to do something as precise as affecting only one aspect of them while in human form takes hundreds of hours of practice,” Vlad continued. “The fact that you even tried after the out of control attempt you made of flight during practice with me is either incredibly unwise or worryingly unintelligent."

Danny continued to feign ignorance, trying to ignore him, but the jab about his intelligence made his jaw clench.

"We can work on it when we get home,” Vlad decided. 

“Oh, you’re moving to Amity Park?” Danny winced internally. He hadn't meant to react, but calling Vlad's mansion home just stroke the wrong chord on the wrong day.

Vlad rolled his eyes, but it was more like Danny had said something silly, which backfired into irritating Danny even more. 

“No powers tomorrow, Daniel. Not until we practice,” Vlad told him, then stepped away from the bed and into his own adjacent room. “Bathroom is all yours.” 

Danny waited until Vlad had shut his own door before getting up to get ready for bed. As he brushed his teeth, he decided practice was a good idea. He needed way, way more practice. But doing it with Vlad? Danny would rather careen out of control for months on his own. 

The next morning, Vlad and the Fentons were treated to a high-end breakfast delivered to their suite, but the anticipation made the breakfast a blur. To Maddie's surprise, Danny had woken up before her, quiet with excitement he didn't yet have an outlet for. He impatiently finished his meal and agitatedly got ready like he was going to be receiving some prestigious award. Finally, the shuttle came to pick them up and brought them to an enormous site with evenly spaced out hangars surrounding the launch site. They were dressed in their flight gear, provided ear phones and were given one last lecture on safety and awareness. 

Maddie glanced at Danny, his face tense, but excitement gleamed behind his eyes as his gaze locked on to their rocket.

She hoped he was able to listen to the instructions, but in case he wasn’t, she decided to pay attention for him. She could always fill him in later if he needed it, although with how well he had taken to the training, she doubted he would need it.

When the lecture finished, they were finally allowed to board. 12 seats lined the mid-sized cabin in a circle, each with two small circular windows through which you could stare out, one directly next to the seat, and one slightly above. The two pilots assisted them into their seats, ensuring every seat belt was properly locked and pulled tight before going to their own seats across from them. 

Maddie and Vlad decided that morning to take a seat next to one of the kids, in case either of them got nervous, they could coach them through it. Deciding it was more likely that Jazz would need help, Maddie had her sit between her and Vlad, while Danny sat on her other side. As she settled in, Maddie looked out the window at the tarmac, her own excitement building, then glanced again at Danny to check on him. His face was set in an odd kind of determination. Her heart swelled. 

The noise of initial liftoff began to drown out the shuttle. The cabin jolted, a little “eep!” coming from Jazz’s comm as the shuttle lifted off and began its ascent.

“Easy, we’re about to make a sharp climb,” one of the pilots announced. “Brace yourselves.”

The cabin climbed, hard and fast, and as it rose, it jittered and bounced. Maddie looked out the window, the familiar sight of distant buildings and nearby clouds filling the view. She glanced at Jazz behind her; she looked frightened, but alright. Vlad had reached over and reminded her to focus on her breathing and to relax–it was just turbulence. Nothing to be worried about. 

Maddie looked over at Danny again, and although he was turned away from her to look out the window, she could still see a big grin spreading across his face. 

The sky outside slowly started fading from a soft blue to a deep, dark blue, then eased into a thick, stark blackness, and even the clouds looked far away. Maddie looked down at her seat as one of the end straps of her seat belt started rising from her chest and she felt her feet lift up weightlessly from the floor. 

The pilots started unbuckling from the front and the first to float towards them announced, “Welcome to space.” 

Maddie checked out her two windows, lost in the vast blackness that greeted her on the other side. It was stunning and eerie, an all-consuming something and nothing at once. As she unbuckled, she looked over at Danny.

Danny’s side had a perfect view of the planet they had left behind; a black sea washing onto the blue shore of the earth below, vast and small, softly glowing with life. Danny’s head was turned from her, eyes glued to the scenery below, expression nearly blank as he soaked in the view. The only movement he made was a slight tremble in his shoulders that struck Maddie familiarly. 

She pushed off her seat, floating closer to his window to join him and get a better look herself.

When she got close, he seemed to jolt out of his reverie, quickly swiping at an eye and ducking his head to unbuckle. She paused at the response, touched at first that he had been so moved by the view, but the feeling got buried underneath an incessant inkling of deja-vu.

Tensing for a reason she wasn’t even quite sure of, she leaned forward a little as she approached to get a better look at his face, checking to make sure he was alright...inspecting him.

She wasn’t sure if he was aware of her focus. Regardless, he buried a sniffle into a cough, wiped the other eye quickly, and then kicked out of the seat and away before she could really get a good look, diving backward and into the air like it was the most natural thing in the world. 

The window forgotten, Maddie’s breath hitched and she watched, wide-eyed, breathless, as her son corkscrewed in the air, as easily as swimming through calm waters, to a window on the roof. He stared out, once again losing himself in the view, the weightlessness merely an afterthought to what lay outside the cabin’s walls. Another wave of deja-vu hit her, stronger this time, making her chest clench like something had scared her, but she couldn't quite grasp what yet. 

“Danny!” Jazz called, clinging to a chair arm with one hand and the other spinning frantically as she tried to anchor herself. “How are you doing that?”

Hesitantly, he turned away from his window, and Maddie saw a redness on the edges of his eyes. So he had been crying before at the window. But now he was smiling with a mirth and mischievousness that she hadn't seen on him before...

Or had she? She couldn’t picture it, but it was familiar. Where had she seen that smile? 

He chuckled. “Relax, Jazz. Just flow with it,” he told her, kicking away from the wall and floating towards her on his back like he was tubing down a river, an easy, relaxed smile keeping the corners of his mouth upturned. He flipped when he reached the end of the cabin; the gesture playful, showing off in a way that was inviting rather than smug. He found another window he could occupy alone and, crossing his legs, he sat, floating at the glass, eyes soaking up the glow from the earth.

Maddie’s jaw dropped open as, just a moment, what she saw wasn't the bright, baby blue she always saw, but an iridescent, eerie green. 

Maddie’s hands reached behind her for the wall, trying to ground herself as her mind reeled, staring at her boy with wide-eyed alarm. She couldn’t unsee it; his raven black hair suddenly looked snow-white, his skin a little darker, and his baby blues... she couldn't stop seeing them as green…

“Maddie?” a voice said next to her urgently. 

She looked into Vlad’s face, aware of how she must look, but unable to pull herself together. 

Vlad’s expression went from concerned to alarmed immediately. “Maddie, dear, what’s the matter?” 

“I’m fine,” she breathed.

“Ms. Fenton?” one of the pilots asked, coming to her and looking at her hard in the eyes. She knew he must be checking to see if her pupils had dilated; she wondered if they had. She wondered if her pulse was as fast as it felt. 

“Deep breaths, Ms. Fenton,” the pilot instructed, voice calm and steady, further anchoring her, reminding her where she was; too far away from her equipment, from certainty. 

“Mom?” 

Maddie resisted the jolt of panic that gripped her; she could hear it now. How had she never–

“Are you okay?” Danny asked; he was worried now.

She looked at him and then looked away quickly when all she could see was green. 

“Mom?” Jazz was there now, too.

Jack had accused Jazz of being a ghost once. He had been wrong.

He'd suspected the wrong one. 

Maddie tried to look at the boy floating above her again; she needed to analyze him, but her mind wouldn’t let her, heart aching as worries overshadowed every attempt at logic. If she was right…

Oh, god , was her baby…?

“Maddie,” Vlad said, voice hard, but gentle and it derailed the frenetic wave of thoughts wreaking havoc. She looked up at him, meeting his eyes and finding calm there. “Take a moment. Breathe.”

She inhaled purposefully, focusing on the anchor that Vlad was providing. 

“Ms. Fenton, can you focus on me?” the pilot asked.

Feeling more in control of herself, she nodded. 

“Follow my hand for a moment, Ms. Fenton. Good. The other way… good. Deep breaths. There you go. Let’s get away from the window. I’m gonna grab your arm, but it’s just to move–”

“I’m fine,” Maddie said, firm because it was true. She was alright now. 

“Just take it easy. It can be overwhelming being out here,” the pilot encouraged. “Take a few moments and some deep breaths and don’t rush yourself.”

“Thank you,” Maddie told him, trying not to let slip her irritation. She needed this man to go away. 

“I’m sure she just needs a moment,” Vlad agreed, placing a hand on Maddie’s shoulder; she felt both anchored and trapped by it. She needed space; she had to think. This wasn’t the time.

“Thank you, Vlad,” she told him, sliding his hand off of her and pulling herself towards a seat, then to the two teens still hovering anxiously. “I’m alright, kids. Just give me a second, okay?”

Jazz and Danny exchanged uncertain looks. Jazz gestured for him, muttered something into his ear, gave a certain nod, and only then did Danny twist around and float off to stare out another of the windows. 

“Will you be alright?” Vlad asked her, still hovering nearby, too focused on her.

Maddie nodded. She wasn’t sure. 

They were only there for an hour, but that hour dragged for an eternity. She was trapped; all that was available to her was to think . 

For once, she was sick of thinking. 

Both Jazz and Danny came by once or twice to check on her. Jazz had decided that Maddie must have developed a phobia. 

“That can happen as you get older,” she’d told her mother certainly. 

Danny was less obtuse, asking if she was okay every now and then, voice soft like he was concerned if he spoke too loud he might shatter the calm she had reached. 

“I’m alright,” she told him, then, careful to keep her gaze neutral, “Are you having fun?”

“Yeah, mom, this…” he stopped, the words escaping him as he looked out of the window again. “This is amazing.” 

“Better than stargazing?” she asked him. 

“Way better!” he agreed obliviously.

She smiled, a calmness she did not feel keeping her features steady. “Go have fun, sweetie.”

After a few minutes, the kids had been able to move on from their worry over her and relax into the trip. Forgotten, she could watch. Uninterrupted.

The more she observed him weave through the chairs boastfully, flip and spin and dance mischievously around the cabin, cockily grinning as he outpaced even the pilots, the clearer she could see the rest; she could even picture a spectral tail slithering in his wake. 

She just didn’t understand when. Or how. Or what, exactly, she was looking at. Was Danny still… was he still there? Did he have any idea? Certain thoughts, she refused to entertain. Not here. Not until she could get more data. 

At long last, the flight was finished. They landed without incident, and one of the ground crew greeted them. Danny, still jazzed from the trip, regaled the crewman about every moment, the latter listening patiently. They were provided a link to download photos from the trip. Maddie asked that they be sent to her. 

On the flight home, Danny and Jazz excitedly chatting on the other end of the jet, Maddie remained quiet, her mind still buzzing with thought. Vlad brought her a cup of tea and sat in the seat across from her. 

“I’m surprised,” he said.

She blinked at him. “Surprised?” 

He grinned. “I didn’t think anything could rattle you. Who would’ve guessed just a few hundred feet would make such an impression?” 

She gave him a dry frown, but resisted correcting him. Until she had confirmation, she didn’t intend on speaking about this to anyone , much less Vlad; she wasn’t sure he would understand anymore. It had been so long ago that they had shared an interest in the paranormal. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked gently. 

She rubbed her arm, deciding on a partial truth. “I’m a little embarrassed, but… I… I didn’t think anything could rattle me, either.”

He smiled, sympathetic. “Well, you did accomplish what you had hoped. Daniel seemed to have had an excellent time.”

She nodded in agreement, glancing at the kids. He looked like her boy now, laughing, joking, arguing with his sister. It looked just as natural...

She tried not to think about the scanner in her bag. It wasn’t the place. 

The time and place didn’t come until hours later. On the way home, they stopped by the airport in New York, dropping Jazz off there, since she had only been able to spend the weekend with them. Both Maddie and Vlad had suggested she spend the week, but Jazz had told them she just had too much to do. At the time, Maddie had been disappointed; now she was relieved. It wasn’t until after they had landed in Wisconsin that Maddie found her moment. Vlad’s limo had picked them up at the and driven them back to the estate in a quiet that thankfully due to the eventful weekend she could mask as fatigue. Near the end of the drive, Vlad had gotten a business call that had distracted him, and once they'd parked, he’d stepped out to gain some privacy for the conversation (despite it already being in Japanese), leaving the collection of his bags to the chauffeur. 

Maddie decided she couldn’t wait anymore. It was a good enough opportunity. 

Neither she or Danny was very comfortable with the chauffeur carrying all of the luggage, so while the chauffeur collected Vlad’s and carried it inside, Maddie and Danny went to grab their own bags. 

“So you had a good time?” she asked him after briefly, discreetly digging through her duffel for what she needed. She sidled close, one hand tucked slightly behind her as they collected their bags from the trunk. 

Danny looked up at her, yawning from the jet-lag. “It was amazing, mom… did you?” 

“It was enlightening,” she replied, then opened up her arms to him. “I’m so glad you had a good time.”

He looked slightly uncomfortable by the sudden display of affection, but accepted the hug, letting her squeeze him tight. She held him close, using her free hand to hold his head to her chest under the guise of smoothing down his hair while she discreetly scanned him. She mentally counted until the scanner had had enough time, then pulled away, subtly hiding it behind her again while her free hand slid down his hair and shoulder to his arm, giving it a gentle squeeze to distract him.

He smiled, genuinely, if a little flustered. “Thanks,” he said, awkwardly, then yawned again, a little more pointedly, “I’m uh… probably just gonna turn in. Goodnight, mom.” He finished gathering his things and headed towards the mansion.

She let him go ahead, giving herself some distance from him to sneak a look at the scanner in her hand.  

100%

Maddie let out a long, shuddering gasp at the green digital numbers staring back at her, her hand coming up to her mouth as her brows pinched upwards. Her head raised sharply as Danny walked away, watching him step into the mansion like he was a stranger. 

Her hands shook, her chest tight and breathing shallow, as her gaze drifted from roof, back down to those glowing green numbers.