Chapter Text
Danny was pulling out the last of his clothes from his closet when a large crash from the ops center.
“I FOUND IT!!!” His Dad shouted, practically shaking the house in his enthusiasm as he rushed around. Danny laughed, but otherwise didn’t pay him much mind as he continued to pack his things.
He looked up at a knock on his door, only to see his mom leaning on the doorframe watching him pack. Her eyes wet, though she proudly held back her tears.
“Hey big guy, how’s the packing going?” His mom asked.
“Pretty good, almost done with my clothes. I swear I don’t remember owning this much black, but I’m pretty sure that was Sam’s doing.” He leaned back as he surveyed his room. His mom laughed.
“She never was one to hold back. Your father should be down with your paperwork once he escapes whatever caused that crash.” She folded her arms around her as she looked at her little boy, though he wasn’t so little any more. At 18 years old he nearly rivaled his father in height, though she suspected that the ectoplasm has some play in that.
She was so proud of him, in only a week's time he would be studying at the best engineering school in the country. He had worked so hard to get where he was today, long nights studying, longer days fighting ghosts, (though she’s certain some of those were longer than they should have been, thanks to a certain watch fanatic) all leading to the young man he is today.
“Awesome, gotta have my social if I wanna get a job on campus. Last thing I wanna do is ask Uncle Vlad for help.” He cringed. “He may have gotten ALOT better since starting therapy, but that doesn’t make him any less of a fruit loop.”
“At least he’s trying to reign things in. That’s more than any of us hoped for considering his obsession.” She smiled. “Do you mind coming downstairs for a minute? There’s something your father and I would like to talk to you about.”
Danny looked over at her, really looked at her. If he didn’t know any better, he would say his mom was almost worried. He set down his clothes and immediately went over to her.
“Is everything okay? I know you were worried about the ghost getting out of control while I’m gone, but I promise that’s all taken care of.”
“Nothing like that sweetheart, just something we’ve been meaning to talk to you about. Why don’t you head downstairs while I help your father?” She suggested with a soft smile.
“Okay… Are you sure everythings okay?” Danny asked.
“I’m sure, I’ll meet you downstairs.” She turned around and began to head to the ops center. Danny’s eyes followed her as she went. It had been two years since they found out he was a halfa, and despite there being a few rough patches while they all adjusted, his parents had fully accepted him. The last time he saw his mom like that was after a long talk about what exactly it meant to be a halfa, when she had to come to terms with his death.
Danny took a deep breath, settling himself, before heading down the stairs. He bypassed the living room to grab some coffee and ectoplasm (it was fresh, Clockwork must have stopped by). Grabbing a tray, he made his way back with the drinks just as his parents were coming down the stairs. His dad was carrying a dusty box, presumably containing his legal documents.
Danny took a seat on the couch as his parents took a seat across from him dropping the dusty box on the table. Luckily he was able to save the drinks from the cloud of dust.
Setting down the tray he reached over to open the box, before he could open it though his mother stopped him.
“Sweetie, before you look through these papers, there’s something your father and I need to tell you.” She looked to his pouting father, taking his hand for support.
“Mom, whatever it is, you can tell me. It can’t possibly be that bad.” Danny smiled at his parents, hoping to put them at ease.
His mom squeezed his dad’s hand before taking a deep breath.
In….Out…Squeeze.
“About a year after Jazz was born, we decided to try for another child. We wanted to make our family a little bigger and give Jazz a friend for life.” Deep breath, there was an audible shake to it. “We tried for months for a baby with no luck. We tried, but!” She stopped.
His dad laid a comforting hand around her, pulling her close. He turned to Danny, taking over.
“Unfortunately, there were some complications. Turns out, the radiation from our experiments had some detrimental side-effects. One such effect was infertility, on both sides. Neither of us were capable of reproduction anymore.”
Danny stood suddenly, his eyes wide. He immediately began to pace back and forth.
“What…what exactly are you saying?” He froze, spinning to face them. “Please tell me I’m not a clone, Please!!”
His mom choked out a laugh. She gave her son a soft smile.
“Not a clone, I promise.”
“Oh thank the Ancients!” He exclaimed as he dropped back down to the couch.
“We may be mad scientists, but we’re not that mad sweetie.” She huffed before taking a deep calming breath. “Despite everything, we were determined. So we moved on to other options.” She leaned over, opening the top of the box, she began rummaging through the papers.
“There was a bit of a waiting list, and we had to take what felt like a thousand tests before we could qualify. But eventually a social worker reached out.” She grabbed a file and pulled it out, placing it on the table. There was a name at the top.
D.Grayson.
“There was a young couple, the Graysons, that had decided to give up their son for adoption. A few weeks later we brought you home”
Danny hesitantly reached for the folder. His mom nudged it forward.
Opening the file, there was a picture of a young couple, the woman was heavily pregnant and the man…He looked like a near carbon copy of the face Danny saw in the mirror (when he was alive of course).
“So I’m adopted.” Danny took a deep breath. “Cool, cool. I’m fine, this is fine.” He said, gripping the sides of the file.
“Yes.” his dad confirmed. “This doesn’t change anything of course, you’re still our son! Blood be damned!”
“Jack! Language!” She scolded with a grin, smacking his arm.
“What? He’s going to college, I’m sure he’ll hear much worse.”
Danny chuckled.
“You’re right. It doesn’t matter.” He said, though his eyes drifted back to the picture.
His mom placed a gentle hand on the file, pulling it down.
“It’s okay to be curious, sweetie. Do you have any questions?”
“Do you..” He paused. “Do you know why… why they gave me up?”
“Sure do!” His dad shouted with his typical enthusiasm. “We reached out as soon as we could when we got the news. Truth is, they didn’t have much choice.” He started rummaging around the box. “See, your other folks were acrobats in a circus.”
He pulled out a stack of slightly crumpled papers.
“Apparently things weren’t going well with the circus, in fact things were terrible. According to them, things were so bad there was talk of things shutting down, and so they made a decision. See, they knew that they couldn’t provide you with a stable life with how things were. They didn’t have any prospects either, so they didn’t know when things would be stable again.”
He gave his son a wide grin.
“They didn’t wanna give you up, but they decided it would be for the best.” He handed his son the stack of papers.
“We decided to try to keep in contact. In case anything came up, y’know: medical history, major accomplishments, first tooth. The important stuff!” He grinned.
“The Graysons used to send us letters all the time, but around your 14th birthday they just…stopped.” His mom explained. “We didn’t want to push, and to be honest we got so caught up with the ghost portal that we didn’t really try.”
Danny smirked. “I think we can all agree ghosts invading can be pretty distracting.”
“Right you are, Danno! Speaking of! I just did some upgrades on the Speeder that-” his mom elbowed him in the side.
“I think that can wait until later, don’t you?” She stated, much to his chagrin. “I think for now, there are a few things in those letters that Danny should look over, DON’T YOU?” she stressed, arching a brow with a grin.
“Hmmm?” His dad looked at her, pondering for a moment, then another, then another, and just as it seemed it might take him another moment he popped up with an excited grin. He thumped his fist in his hand. “OH! Right you are Maddie!”
Danny and his mom gave each other a look before bursting out laughing. His dad pouted.
“Hmpf, well if I’m not gonna be blathering about ghosts, I’m gonna go finish making Danny’s ecto-fudge to take to school.” He declared, slapping his legs as he stood and headed to the kitchen.
“Before I get into these…Who’s telling Jazz?” Danny asked, still chuckling.
“About that…” His mom said, suddenly incredibly interested in the curtains.
“Seriously? When?” He deadpanned.
“In our defense, she figured it out! And it wasn’t too long ago. Only about a year, she was looking through her baby pictures and put two and two together when she couldn’t find any pictures of me pregnant.”
Danny snorted, “She asked when you were gonna tell me and you folded didn’t you?” His mom groaned.
“One of these days that trick’s gonna stop working.” She declared, though it seemed to lack confidence. She stood, taking her drink. “I’ll leave you to read through those. There are some things in there that should come straight from the source. If you need anything, let me know sweetie.” She said as she walked around the table to give him a kiss on the head. “We love you, and if being a ghost can’t change that nothing will, especially not this.”
“I know mom, thanks.” he said with a smile.
His mom turned to leave the room and Danny reached over to grab his ectoplasm, taking a long gulp before looking back at the stack of letters.
“No point in stalling.” He sighed, grabbing the first few letters, marked around the time he was born. He got comfortable on the couch and began to read.
The letters started out fairly hesitant. Never giving up too much information about themselves. Of course, that didn’t last very long as his parents have no boundaries and don’t hesitate to break through everyone else's.
Soon enough he was getting real updates, apparently two years after he was born they managed to change companies. They joined a thriving troupe and even made a real name for themselves. Between well wishes and enthusiastic thanks for pictures, they would talk about where they were. They seemed to always be on the move.
About 4 years into the letters though, their stories got a little more vague. Less detailed, like they were distracted by something. The mystery didn’t last long though, because when he reached a letter dated March 20th, 1999 Danny received his second shock in one day.
“I HAVE A BROTHER?!?!?!”