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It didn't take long for news to spread. Danny Fenton's parents had been arrested, Danny and Jazz were missing, and Sam and Tucker who had also been missing mysteriously reappeared without their third cohort. Mr. Lancer was comforting himself with the fact that Batman and Superman themselves had promised that Danny and Jazz were safe, because if they hadn't, he'd be pretty worried that they were… well, best not to dwell on that.
Tucker and Sam weren't talking about their own disappearance and they had no comments about where Danny and Jazz were. They slipped right back into their routine like everything was normal. Lancer knew that it wasn't, could see that they missed Danny like he was one of their limbs, but whatever had happened it was for the better.
So it really shouldn't have been the surprise that it was when he checked the newspapers a couple of weeks later, "Great Gatsby!"
There, on the front page of the news, was none other than Bruce Wayne. That in itself wasn't terribly uncommon; the man was always doing something to make the news for better or for worse. No, what had caught Lancer's attention was seeing none other than Danny Fenton standing next to Bruce Wayne, the older man's hand resting on Danny's shoulder in a familiar way. It took Lancer a good minute to take his eyes away from the picture and look at the headline of the article.
Newest Wayne Takes Center Stage.
Lancer's brow furrowed a bit at that. Had Danny been adopted by Bruce Wayne? How had he even…? With a small shake of his head, Lancer began to read the article. There was a lot of fluff and nonsense in there, going on about the newest Wayne child and his likes and dislikes (some of which Lancer was pretty sure weren't even true; he'd known Danny enough years at this point to have a pretty good idea of what the boy was in to). It wasn't until about halfway through the article that Lancer got the answer to his question.
"…Long lost son."
That implied that Danny was biologically related to Wayne. That the Fentons weren't his biological parents. Had they adopted? Lancer tried to remember a time where Madeline Fenton was pregnant but came up blank. He'd lived in the town all his life, but he hadn't been too familiar with the Fentons until their children became his students. It was entirely possible that they had adopted Danny, but then how in the world did Danny end up in their care to begin with if he had Bruce Wayne as a father?
Lancer put the paper down, grabbing his cup of coffee and taking a sip as he contemplated this. The Justice League must have been told that Danny was adopted and went looking for any living family. It was possible that Wayne had knocked someone up and they never told him. Or that they had told him and he had paid them off. Wayne had been a very different person 18 years ago. That was long before he'd adopted his first child.
It was with that thought that Lancer found himself stepping into the hallway of the school. It was still pretty early in the morning so there were only a few students milling about; those with 0 periods and those who came early to finish project last minute in the library. But there were two other students that had the tendency to be early and they were who Lancer was looking for.
"Foley, Manson."
Tucker and Sam both turned away from their lockers to look at Lancer. Sam was already frowning at him and Tucker looked nervous.
"Mr. Lancer?" Tucker asked, closing his locker.
"I'm assuming you saw this morning's paper," Lancer asked and got two nods of agreement, "Do you know if… is… is Danny safe with Wayne?"
Tucker and Sam both relaxed a bit and Sam gave a nod, "Danny's in good hands. Jazz too, for that matter."
"What happened to Jazz?"
"She found her birth family too and is reconnecting with them," Tucker replied, "Happy ending all around."
Lancer nodded a bit, relaxing, "That's good to hear."
There was an awkward pause where no one seemed to know what to say before Lancer cleared his throat, "Carry on."
With that he turned and headed for his office. It seemed like Sam and Tucker weren't surprised that Danny and Jazz weren't the Fenton's kids, so they must have found out a while ago. Perhaps around the same time that they went to the Justice League. Which reminded him…
"Foley, Manson, one more thing."
The teens paused and turned to look at Lancer, looking hesitant.
"Phantom. Did he…?"
The teens relaxed again and Sam spoke up, "He's with the Justice League."
Lancer felt himself relax again and offered a small smile, "Excellent."
~~~~~~~~
Danny made a face as Tim slid the newspaper in front of him. The last time he had made the news (not counting the times he made the news as Phantom) had been for the purple back gorilla incident. He wasn't looking forward to having his face in the newspaper all the time. Tim offered him a small smile in response to Danny's less than thrilled face.
"You get used to it."
Danny scoffed at that, "Maybe you get used to it. I'm not going to be enjoying this in the least."
"I didn't say you were going to enjoy it," Tim grinned a bit and then shrugged, "It comes with being a Wayne, though. It'll wear off after a while as long as you keep your head down. People will think you're boring once they figure out there's no story to tell."
"But there is a story to tell," Danny countered.
"For now," Tim agreed, "But not forever. It'll take a few months, probably, but once they stop trying to figure out who your mom is and gossiping about the Fentons, you'll be in the clear."
There was a 'ping!' and Danny absently reached into his pocket and pulled out his new phone. Tim, Barbara, and Bruce had all been aghast when they'd seen his old phone. He'd told them that it had been modified to have reception in the Ghost Zone so he'd been allowed to keep the thing for the moment, but only as a backup phone. Tim had picked out a top of the line phone for him and added all kinds of useful Bat tech onto it in places that Danny hadn't even realized existed. His crash course on smart phones had been long.
Danny gave a huff of a laugh as he looked at the message on his phone, "My old Vice Principal cornered Sam and Tucker this morning to ask about Bruce and Phantom."
Tim raised an eyebrow, "Why?"
"He was worried," Danny answered as he swiped a reply on his phone, "I guess Sam and Tucker have been tight lipped about what happened."
"So your entire town just learned that you're actually a Wayne and that your parents have been arrested?"
"Basically."
There was another 'ping!' and Danny's brow furrowed as he realized it was a message on his Facebook. He'd barely even remembered that he had the thing most of the time. The only reason it was even on his new phone was because Tim had transferred everything over from his old phone (something that had taken hours and a lot of swearing from Tim).
He opened the message and raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"What is it?" Tim asked, sipping his coffee.
"Old classmate reaching out wanting to hang out. Which, if you knew her, you'd know was an insane thing to ask."
"Gold digger?" Tim guessed and Danny gave a small shrug.
"Not necessarily; her family has their own money but she did specifically go on a date with me because she thought it would make Sam jealous so…"
Tim winced in response, "Oh. One of those."
"Yeah," Danny agreed, flipping back to the group chat with Sam and Tucker and sending a screenshot of the message from Paulina, "Bet she regrets being the absolute worst to me all these years now."
Tim snorted, getting to his feet and grabbing his own phone, "B figure out when you're starting school yet?"
"Next week," Danny answered almost absently as he read Sam's incredulous text in response to the screenshot, "At Gotham High?"
"Yeah, that's the same school that Damian is attending. You have a couple of years on him so you likely won't share classes, but he can show you around at the very least."
"Yeah, because Damian seems the type to be accommodating."
Not that Danny had anything against Damian, but he'd had pretty limited interactions with the other. There was something… almost other about Damian that made Danny's ghost sense act up a bit and he wanted to ask about it but he was assuming that it wasn't a very nice story. He had the same feeling around Jason and it didn't take too much of a genius to figure out that Jason and Jason Todd were the same person and find out what happened to him.
"He won't stand for you making a fool of yourself," Tim replied, "He'll make sure that you don't get lost or do anything that makes the Waynes look bad."
"Comforting," Danny drawled, getting to his own feet and smiling a bit at the GIF that Tucker sent, "Not gonna lie, I didn't do well as the popular kid at my school. Did much better as the loser who got bullied."
Tim gave a small hum, "You'll be fine. We'll keep you in check."
"Again, comforting," Danny said, putting his phone in his pocket, "Shouldn't you be at work anyway?"
"Yeah," Tim agreed with a small sigh, "But I was giving the reporters time to leave the front of the WE building before I went."
"Reporters? For what?" Danny asked, brow furrowing a bit.
Tim paused and looked at Danny pointedly. Danny sputtered.
"What? Why would they be there?"
"Because they know they can find Bruce there. There's going to be a lot of reporters who are going to be very upset that they didn't get to break the news about the newest Wayne."
Danny gave a sigh, "Maybe I shouldn't have gone with Wayne."
Tim shot him a sympathetic smile, "You'll get used to it."
~~~~~~~~~
"Bruce."
Bruce didn't even pause or look up from the file he was looking over, "Selina."
He heard her move from the window to sit on his desk in front of him. He waited another moment before finally looking up at the woman. He raised an eyebrow in silent question.
"…the boy. Our son…" she started, faltering a bit and looking away from the questioning gaze on Bruce's face.
"Danny," Bruce corrected and Selina swallowed harshly.
"Danny," she repeated quietly before finally looking back at Bruce, "You've taken him in."
"I have," Bruce agreed, "He was in a precarious situation with his adoptive parents. He needed a safe place."
"What kind of situation?"
Bruce paused, glancing around his office before looking back at Selina pointedly. She hesitated before giving a small nod and getting to her feet, "I see. And he's alright now?"
"Yes, he's doing just fine. Getting ready to start school in Gotham so he can graduate and will probably attend Gotham U in the fall."
"…I'd like to meet him."
"Selina-"
"I don't. I know. I'm not in a place where he could stay with me and I could take care of him. I'm not that person and we both know that but I… I want to meet him. And he can decide how much he does or doesn't see if me after that."
"Why the change of heart?"
Selina bit her lip, looking out the window toward the Gotham skyline before a long moment before turning back to Bruce, "I saw his picture and I just…"
Bruce couldn't help but soften a bit. He could understand. Danny might not be looking like the sickly child that had shown up on his doorstep a couple of weeks ago, but he certainly wasn't the picture of health yet either. Physically he had finished healing and Alfred was doing everything he could to put some weight back on the boy, but Danny burned through calories faster than Bruce's other kids. Probably because he wasn't entirely human, so there had been a learning curve.
"I'll talk to him," Bruce responded, "But I'm not going to force him to see you."
Selina nodded a bit, looking back out the window, "That's all I ask."
Bruce gave a sigh and picked the folder back up. By the time he glanced back over, she was gone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"My mom?" Danny echoed, brow furrowed, "But you said-"
"I did. When I spoke to her last, she had no intentions of meeting you," Bruce agreed, looking hesitant, "But I guess she saw you in the newspaper and now she wants to meet you."
"Yeah, her and everyone else in the world," Danny responded flippantly, flopping back into the chair across from Bruce's desk, "Do you have any idea how many messages I've gotten across all kinds of social media since this morning?"
"I could venture a guess," Bruce admitted, "I told her that the choice was yours. You don't have to decide right now. Think on it. And even if you do decide to meet her, it doesn't mean you have to keep seeing her afterwards."
"Right," Danny murmured, staring at the ceiling for a moment, "I'll think about it."
"In the meantime," Bruce said and Danny sat up a bit to look at him, "Oracle and Jazz came up with a cover story for Phantom involving the Justice League."
Danny frowned a bit, "Cover story?"
"They came up with the idea that you, Jazz, Tucker, and Sam took Phantom to the Justice League for help after he was captured by the Fentons. That was what lead to the Fentons being arrested and their arrest lead to you being placed with your birth family."
"Makes sense," Danny said with a small shrug, "So what's the catch?"
"Well in order for that cover story to work, I think Phantom is going to have to meet the Justice League, don't you?"
"Wait, like, go to the Watchtower?" Danny asked, sitting up fully.
Bruce gave a smile and a nod, watching as Danny jumped to his feet, immediately transforming into Phantom.
"Let's go!"