Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

By the time it was six in the morning, Sam was already sat up in bed, staring at the wall across from her. There was nothing in her eyes as her alarm clock blared from the side table next to her bed, but it felt a hundred miles away. Today was her first day of senior year, but she didn't want to go back to Casper High. She just wanted to stare at the wall and not think; the wall was boring which was better than the thoughts in her head. As she begrudgingly got ready for school, she tried not to think about how she was entering her senior year without her father. His passing was almost two months ago, but sudden and tragic. You never think a car accident could wipe out someone you love until it happens to you. Her mother had been just a shell of a woman ever since; Sam wasn't too far behind herself. Although she and her parents had never been entirely close, Jeremy was still her dad and him being gone meant there was no hope of mending their relationship. You'd think the sudden death would bring Sam and her mother closer, but Pamela was even more distant than before, not being able to fully grasp the death of her husband. Sam understood to a degree, but either way, she was used to dealing with things on her own.

Pam stayed asleep while Sam finished her normal routine which included painting on waterproof eyeliner and mascara. She did her best to bottle up her emotions but the downside was they would just pour out randomly sometimes. Always best to be prepared. On the drive to school, she wondered if the student body would use this tragedy against her or if they'd just leave her alone. Her dark, alternative style was never accepted by her peers, but you'd think they'd get over it by now considering she'd been like this since middle school. Regardless, it had always put her at the bottom of the dog pile and she was often ridiculed, but she didn't care. She liked being different.

Once she walked into the front doors of Casper High, she felt the stares people gave her lingering, already knowing that they were thinking about her dead father. That's my job, she thought to herself, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. She tried not to sleep through homeroom, and when it was time for her first class, she ran by her locker first. She stared into her empty locker as she spaced out for a second, too lost in her head until she felt a presence approach her. She turned her head to see Danny Fenton, a student she'd been going to school with since elementary school. They didn't cross paths much, only sharing a few classes over the years, but whatever interactions they had, he was always nice to her. His hair was blacker than her eyeliner with eyes like blue crystals. He wore a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans while sporting a concerned look on his face. The last time she saw him he was in all black for her father's funeral. Besides the inheritance her family got for an old invention, an inheritance that generations could live on, her father was in the real estate business. Danny's stepfather was actually Jeremy's client at the time of his death, and he, along with Danny, his sister, and mother, attended the funeral.

"Hey," he said simply. Sam adjusted her backpack and closed her locker smoothly with her combat boot.

"Hi," she greeted, although wondering what possessed him to talk to her so suddenly.

"Um," he looked nervous as a hand went to rub the back of his neck. "I just wanted to say I'm really sorry about what happened."

"Thanks," she replied automatically, too used to that sentence by now.

"I know we're not really close, like, at all but I've been through what you're going through, so... if you ever wanted to talk about anything, I'm all ears," he offered. Danny's parents were scientists who studied the paranormal which, in Sam's opinion, was needed considering the constant ghost attacks happening in Amity Park. He was always bullied for his parents' outlandish lifestyle, though the kid didn't deserve any of it. Unfortunately, Danny's father, Jack, was killed in a lab accident over two years ago. A little while after that, his mom married billionaire and long-time friend, Vlad Masters. What set Danny apart from other people was that he never changed. While the student body stopped bothering him now that his mom was a Masters, he always stayed humble and kept to himself. It was something admirable to Sam. She herself kept her family's abundance of wealth a secret from the public, not wanting to be treated any differently because of it. The fact that Danny stayed the same after the huge financial gain showed her what a good kid he was.

"That's really nice of you," she told him, not exactly giving an answer. She was more of a suffer-in-silence kind of person, but if someone was okay with hearing her bitch, she wouldn't be opposed to it.

"So besides the negative stuff, what were the highlights of your summer?" Danny asked as he walked down the hall with her, but she sighed.

"You don't have to be friends with me just because you feel bad," she told him.

"That's not what I'm doing. Well, yes, what you're going through is awful and I figured you'd want someone with shared experience to talk to. But if I didn't want to be your friend, I wouldn't have offered," he explained.

"Then why haven't you tried to talk to me before?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I've only had one friend my entire life. I'm not entirely good at making friends."

"Your friend graduated early, didn't he? Tucker, right?" She asked as she stopped outside her classroom. "So you're looking for a replacement?"

"No. Well, I would like another friend, but not like a replacement. I just... uh... well," he sighed and hung his head down before starting over. "Look, it's our last year. Having a friend would be nice. And I always thought you were cool, but you always seemed to be a lone wolf so I never did anything about it. All I'm saying is if you need someone to talk to, I'm here." Sam studied his face before concluding he was genuine. It's not like he was asking to run away together, he was just looking for friendship. She'd never been the friendship kind of person before, but she supposed she could give it a go.

"Don't be late on the first day, Fenton," she stated before turning into her class. Danny smirked at her response. Although he never took Vlad's last name, people in school would sometimes refer to him as "Masters" which he hated. He liked that Sam wasn't one of those people.

Throughout the day, Sam would notice the occasional whispering when she came around, but this time it wasn't about how weird she was or why she wore what she wore. All things considered, she thought the black shirt, black baggy cargo pants with chains, and combat boots outfit choice she made today was pretty normal for her; she kind of wished that was what people were talking about instead for once. When fifth period came, she was making her way to her classroom when Danny seemed to come out of nowhere and began walking with her.

"What, are you stalking me?" She asked.

"Or we just have the same class," he replied.

"Why would you take a college writing class with Lancer?" He cocked an eyebrow at her question.

"For college," he answered simply, causing Sam to be silent for a moment.

"Yeah, that was a dumb question." She heard him chuckle beside her.

"Has anyone ever told you you're a very defensive person?"

"Well, you don't get this way by having people be nice to you." He fell silent at her answer, knowing all too well what that was like.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." When they arrived at their class, Mr. Lancer was already waiting outside the door. He was a teacher who taught many electives, so chances are you would get him more than once throughout high school. Sam had him once freshman year while Danny seemed to be stuck with him almost every year.

"Danny, would you mind stepping inside? I'd like a word with Sam," Lancer said. Danny glanced at Sam who only nodded before he obeyed and left them alone. "I just want to say, I'm so sorry for your loss. If you need a break or anything, just let me know," he told her, and she released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. A lot of people gave Lancer shit, but he really did care about his students. In fact, he was the only teacher so far to say anything like that to her.

"Thanks, Mr. Lancer," she said with a smile before walking into class and sitting next to Danny who picked a seat by the door.

"You good?" He asked, earning a nod from her. Class started as soon as Lancer came back inside. Halfway through, Sam quickly checked her phone for any notifications, surprised when she had an unread text. As soon as she opened it, she wished she hadn't. Her mother had sent her a family photo from a few years ago, saying how her father was with her for the first day of her senior year, even if she couldn't feel it. Sam quickly locked her phone while she felt tears welling up in her eyes, and usually she could fight them off, but it was the first time she allowed herself to look at a picture of her dad since his passing. She quickly grabbed her backpack and left the classroom, finding the nearest bathroom to retreat to. Danny had noticed her shift in mood, even though she was good at concealing her emotions. After a few minutes, he couldn't concentrate on anything and walked up to Lancer's desk.

"Is it okay if I go check on her?" He asked quietly in a low voice so no one else could hear him. Lancer simply nodded and Danny sped his way down the hall. In the girl's bathroom, Sam made sure it was clear before sitting down against the wall, pulling her knees up to her chest in almost a comforting way. She knew her mom probably had good intentions and was trying to lift her spirits, but it ended up doing the opposite. After a few moments of silently crying, the door to the bathroom cracked open just enough for a little sliver of the hallway to be seen.

"I'm not coming in, I'm just making sure you're okay." It was Danny's voice behind the door, and Sam sniffled before grabbing her backpack and standing. She stepped out of the bathroom to meet Danny in the hallway, and even though her makeup was mostly in place, he knew she had been crying.

"Tell me something. How long until everything feels okay again?" She asked, eyes still puffy from the tears.

"I don't think we'll ever truly be okay. But time does help. It's just the beginning that sucks. I know how it is," he told her as they started to walk down the hall together. "Your daily routine always involved them and now a key component is missing. Even if they weren't in your life daily, you still expect to see them at least a few times a week. Now you're home kind of feels like..."

"A shell?" Sam finished, causing him to look down at her.

"Yeah. Exactly." Danny still had a hard time accepting his dad's passing, and the situation with Vlad made everything worse. He was used to talking to his sister about it, but maybe he was the one who needed someone else to talk to as well. Maybe he and Sam really needed each other. "Can I see your schedule?"

"There's no need. I took a bunch of AP classes so I'm ahead. My last two periods are free so I can even leave if I want," she responded, but his eyes lit up.

"My last period is free. Would you want to hang out for a bit once eighth period is over?" He suggested, and Sam was surprised she wasn't entirely opposed to it. She never trusted people considering how they treated her, but Danny was different. She never had anybody treat her with the kindness Danny showed her, and this was only day one. She wanted to know more about him, and really, how he could stay so nice after everything he had gone through.

"Yeah, I'd like that. What's a better way of building friendship than trauma dumping?" She asked, causing him to chuckle.

"I'm looking forward to it."

Chapter Text

After eighth period was over, the pair met at the front of the school. They found a grassy spot underneath a tree to sit in which they did after plopping their backpacks to the ground. Danny groaned and laid on his back, staring up at the tree's branches.

"Man, I'm exhausted," he said, earning a chuckle from Sam.

"It's only the first day."

"Yeah, well, I don't sleep well. I sleep better when Vlad goes to his castle in Wisconsin which thankfully is pretty often."

"What does he even do there?" Danny sat up and shrugged.

"Honestly, I don't even give a shit. I just enjoy the break from him."

"Sounds like you don't like him," Sam insinuated from his statements. Come to think of it, over the last couple of years, when she did see Danny at school, he would have scratches or bruises on him. She wondered if Vlad had anything to do with it.

"I don't like him. He's been in love with my mom for years and after Dad died, Vlad took advantage of her vulnerability and convinced her she needed him. That me and Jazz needed him. He lovebombed her and," he paused to sigh and shrugged again. "It worked because now she's Mrs. Masters."

"Does your sister feel the same?" Sam asked, causing him to nod.

"Oh, yeah. We both see through his bullshit. But she's away at college so it's just me and my mom mostly."

"Does Vlad... treat you well?" She asked, treading lightly to keep him disarmed.

"He has a love-hate relationship when it comes to me. And I do mean that literally. He either gets along with me or absolutely hates me. Either way, I don't care," he explained as he crawled closer to Sam just to lay down beside her.

"Bipolar central," she commented, making him laugh.

"Yeah, something like that. What about your mom, is she normal?" He asked, making Sam choke on a laugh.

"Oh, no. Not at all. My mom is just a failed clone of Martha Stewart but somehow worse," she answered, making him bust out laughing.

"She can't be that bad."

"She's not bad, she's just completely different from me." Danny fake gasped and pretended to look shocked.

"You're telling me that your mom doesn't dress like she's selling band merchandise at warped tour?" He asked cheekily, causing Sam to squint her eyes at him.

"Is that what I look like?"

"Kind of."

"Good, it's what I was going for." Her response made him chuckle again, and he expected her to be a chill person, but her humor earned her bonus points.

"Speaking of warped tour, what kind of music do you listen to?"

"What do you think I listen to?" He placed a finger on his chin as if he were thinking.

"Probably emo stuff," he answered, making her scoff.

"Oh, all the emo stuff," she confirmed. "I listen to a lot of different music. Just not country because... why would I torture myself like that?" Danny laughed at her statement.

"Why would anyone torture themselves like that?"

"What about you? What are you into?" They talked about their usual interests when it came to music, movies, and TV shows. It turned out they liked a lot of the same things, so there were options for them to bond over. They talked until the buses started to show up, and agreeing to stick to the same routine as today, they said their goodbyes before Danny hopped on his bus and Sam walked to her car in the parking lot.

Once Sam got home, she parked her car in the driveway and made her way inside the house. She stopped as soon as she closed the door, staring into the corridor that seemed empty, even with all its decor. Sighing, she took her shoes off and made her way upstairs. She decided to check on her mom and assumed she would be in her room, but when she got there, Pam was asleep in her bed. Sam leaned against the doorway, realizing her mom still only slept on the left side of the bed, saving the right side for her former husband.

"Damnit," Sam whispered to herself as she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She shook her head as she left her mother's room and escaped into her own. As always, she sat in her bed and stared at the wall. The wall was boring. Sometimes she needed boring.

She realized how hollow she felt inside now that she was home, but noticed that she didn't feel like that when she was talking with Danny. She wondered if she made him feel the same way. For someone who said they weren't a friendship person, she was realizing maybe she only convinced herself of that because she was always alone. Now that Danny was here, she really didn't want him to leave.

Chapter Text

When Sam arrived at school the next day, she wasn't in a terrible mood for once. Of course, sadness and loss would always weigh heavy in the back of her mind, but she was looking forward to not facing it alone anymore. She was at her locker before first class when Danny approached her, lollipop in his mouth as he smiled.

"What's good?" He greeted as he leaned against the locker next to hers.

"Candy at eight in the morning? You're a psychopath," she stated as she closed her locker, also leaning against it.

"You want one? I have a couple more."

"I don't eat candy. I'm vegan," she responded, causing him to look at her like she had three heads.

"I think you're the psychopath," he shot back before gripping the stick of the lollipop and holding it out for her. "You don't want a lick?" She grimaced and swatted his hand away, earning an amused chuckle from him.

"You're a disgusting human being," she told him, turning his chuckle into a laugh. He almost didn't notice another student coming up to them, but when he saw it was Star, his mood dropped to one of annoyance.

"I'll take one of your lollipops, Danny," she said, making a desperate attempt at flirting with him.

"Just ran out," he replied, and Sam tried to hide the smirk she felt growing on her face.

"But I just heard you say-"

"I don't know what to tell you. They must have grew legs and walked away." He popped the candy back into his mouth and shrugged. "Better luck next time." Star looked at Sam with jealousy in her eyes before taking the hint and strutting down the hall. Danny gave Sam a deadpan look before rolling his eyes at the situation.

"Did you just reject Star?" Sam asked as they started to walk to class. Star was one of the most popular girls in school, not to mention pretty cute. She was surprised Danny wouldn't want to go for a girl like her.

"She doesn't want me, just my money. I'm not exactly into that. I'm nobody's sugar daddy," he replied as he gripped the straps of his backpack, his response making Sam choke on a laugh.

"How do you know she doesn't like you?"

"Because she treated me like garbage until my mom married Vlad. After that, I was all of a sudden interesting to her. A lot of people tried to switch up after that. I may have fallen for it once or twice when I was younger, but I want people who want me for me, not my money. That's part of the reason I always stuck with Tucker and kept everybody else out of my inner circle," he explained, and it made Sam like him more and more. That was the exact reason why she hid her wealth from everybody; great minds think alike.

"You let me in. Any particular reason why?" Sam wondered before stopping a few feet away from her classroom. Danny stopped in front of her and sighed.

"Promise you won't get mad if I tell you?" He asked, but he only got a confused look from her.

"Tell me what?" He leaned down a few inches to whisper in her ear.

"I know your family has money," he said quietly, and her eyes widened as he pulled away.

"How did..." she stopped and sighed, realizing his stepfather was her dad's last client. "Vlad?" She guessed, causing him to nod.

"Yeah, they got to talking about more than just business. And I figured, if you don't want people to know it's because you don't want any fake people around. If I was able to hide it, I'd do the same. So we're kind of in the same boat."

"Just another thing to bond over I guess," she said with a lopsided grin. "I'll see you later."

"Sure will."

They reunited once again in fifth period, which went smoothly this time, unlike yesterday, but Sam tried not to think about it. However, she did get distracted when Danny asked to go to the bathroom and was gone almost half the class. He snuck back in at the last twenty minutes while Lancer was writing something on the chalkboard, so when he turned around, it looked like Danny had gotten back sooner. Smart; that was some sneaky stuff that Sam would do. When class was over, she was about to ask Danny if he was okay, but Lancer called out to her as the other students left.

"Sam," he called to her, getting her attention. She walked up to his desk with Danny trailing behind. "Just Sam, Mr. Fenton," Lancer instructed in a monotone voice. Danny held his hands up in defense and walked out, closing the door behind him so they could have privacy.

"What's up, Mr. Lancer?" Sam asked.

"I just wanted to let you know that we got a new counselor today. I highly recommend, if you think you would benefit from it, that you should take it into consideration. She's a young lady, much like yourself, so hopefully that makes you more comfortable. If you have any free periods, I'm sure she'd take you right away." Lancer was yet again the only teacher who seemed to have Sam's best interest in mind. It warmed her cold, dead heart.

"Thanks, Mr. Lancer. I might give that a go." When she exited the classroom, Danny was still outside waiting for her.

"Everything good?" He asked as they started walking.

"Yeah, he suggested I see the new counselor which I might do." He stopped in his tracks, and Sam raised an eyebrow as she stopped with him.

"The counselor?"

"Yeah, she's new."

"Do you... really think that's a good idea?"

"Why not? If I don't like it then I'll just stop going." Danny looked like he was wrestling with something in his mind. His brow was furred and he was biting the inside of his cheek.

"When are you going?"

"Probably eighth period," she answered, causing him to nod.

"Okay. I'll see you after that."

"Okay." He walked in the opposite direction and Sam couldn't help but watch him go before she herself started to head for class. That was weird. He acted like he didn't want her to go. Maybe he just had a thing against counselors, or maybe she was just overthinking. Either way, when the time came after her seventh period class, she was actually nervous. She hadn't really talked to anybody about her dad besides Danny, but even with Danny, it was just surface-level stuff. Nobody knew the deep thoughts in her mind and she herself didn't know how she'd react to them. The counseling office came into view, and she was reaching for the door handle when she was quite literally swept off her feet. She looked up to see who the offender was and almost lost her breath. Phantom, the ghost kid himself, was carrying her. His hair was a gleaming white, his eyes a green emerald shade that glowed, and he wore a black and white jumpsuit. Whenever he tried to defend everyone from the ghost attacks in town, she'd see him from a distance but never got this up close and personal. He brought her to the empty gymnasium where he put her down.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to invade your personal space or anything," he started to say as a hand went to the back of his neck. "I just couldn't let you go in there."

"Why not?"

"Because Ms. Spectra isn't a therapist. She's a ghost that feeds off misery. I've been trying to get rid of her all day," he said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Are you sure she's a ghost?" Sam asked, earning a deadpan look from him.

"She flew at me and attacked me with ectoplasmic energy blasts that came out of her hands. I'm pretty sure that's a ghost," he answered, and Sam sighed.

"Yeah, that was probably a dumb question," she grumbled, getting a crooked smile out of him.

"I'm trying to capture her but I don't want to hurt any of the students."

"Why don't I help you?" She asked, catching him by surprise.

"You want to help me?"

"Well, you've been helping us this whole time. It's about time someone had your back." He uncrossed his arms and almost chuckled to himself.

"I can't risk you getting hurt."

"I won't get hurt. If you don't want the students involved, I can lure her out onto the football field."

"And how are you going to do that?" He asked, and Sam resisted the urge to scoff.

"Watch me." The next thing she knew, she was knocking on the counselor's door and waited impatiently for an answer. When the door opened, she assumed the person behind it was Spectra. Her hair was red and spiked and she wore a red blazer with a skirt to match, but the weirder part to her was the sunglasses she wore while indoors.

"Come on in! You must be Samantha," she said with a cheery tone to her voice, but Sam faked happy enough to know it was phony.

"It's just Sam," Sam replied as she stepped inside the office. There was a single couch in front of Spectra's desk and Sam assumed the position on top of it while Spectra sat behind her desk.

"Sam it is. They warned me about you, you know. Loner, no friends, very closed off, but I think I can open you up." Is that supposed to be a compliment, Sam wondered. But Phantom did say she fed off misery. She was purposely trying to make her feel bad.

"Why would I open up to a stranger so easily?" Sam countered, but Spectra looked at her over her glasses. Her green eyes had a similar glow to Phantom's.

"Well, you're here, aren't you? That's a start." Sam looked around the office, no decor at all except for a single clock on the wall above Spectra's desk.

"Are you sure no one can hear us in here?" Sam asked, keeping an eye on the door.

"Absolutely!"

"I can't really open up if people are around. Is it okay if we walk outside or something?"

"There's a whole open field we can use at our discretion," she reassured Sam who cracked a small smile. Take that, Phantom, she thought.

"Okay." They walked out into the hallway and left through a side door. Sam purposely started walking towards the football field, and she figured she would have to distract Spectra until they got there.

"So when do you remember it all starting?" Spectra asked, leaving Sam to give her fake answers so she couldn't suck the misery out of her.

"Does being born count?" Spectra faked a laugh as they got closer to the center of the field.

"Can you be more specific?"

"Wow, where do I start?" Sam drawled on, looking up in the sky to see Phantom floating above them. "Do you think coming face to face with a ghost is a traumatic experience?" Spectra stopped walking and gave a nervous laugh.

"What ghost?" Sam's innocent look turned into siren eyes as she stared down Spectra.

"You." As soon as she said that, Phantom attacked. He had told her to run under the bleachers afterward so she wouldn't be in the way or get hurt, so that's what she did. She heard them fighting, grunting, and yelling for about fifteen minutes before everything finally went silent. She was about to look out through the bleachers to see what had happened when she felt someone tap her shoulder from behind. She jumped and turned around, seeing Phantom in front of her holding what looked like a thermos.

"Your plan worked. Not bad for a noobie," he teased with a smirk, making her roll her eyes.

"You're welcome," she said before her eyes went to the thermos. "What the hell is that?"

"It's what I use to capture the ghosts. Where do you think they go after a fight?" Sam held her hands up in a defensive manner.

"I don't know anything about anything. I'm just here," she stated, getting a laugh out of him.

"Well, I'm glad you were. You really helped me out today. Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem." He turned to leave but stopped to look over his shoulder.

"What's your name again?"

"Sam."

"Well, Sam, I'll see you around." He smiled at her before flying off, and Sam checked the time to see it was already halfway through eighth period. She decided to start heading to the front of the school to meet Danny. After playing on her phone a bit, Danny exited through the doors of the school and stood by her side.

"Hey, how did counseling go?" He asked as she put her phone away.

"Didn't you hear? She got fired," Sam lied, watching as one of Danny's eyebrows cocked upwards.

"Fired? On the first day?" He asked, causing her to nod.

"That or transferred to a different school. Her office was completely empty." Maybe one day she would tell Danny what actually happened, but at this point, she didn't think he'd believe her. The story itself sounded pretty crazy and she didn't want to scare him off in any way. "Maybe she sensed all the trauma in me and decided to quit while she was ahead." Danny snorted at her statement.

"I have more trauma than you. I'd walk in there and she'd just explode."

"I didn't realize this was a competition," she replied sarcastically as Danny fished a lollipop out of his pocket. He unwrapped it quickly before popping it into his mouth and smirking.

"That's a lot of backtalk from someone who can't even eat candy," he responded snarkily, causing her to roll her eyes as she started walking across the street to get to their spot.

"You're a very annoying individual," she said, getting him to laugh.

"Well, there's no getting rid of me now," he told her with a sly grin. She stopped at the usual tree and smiled at him before looking at the ground.

"Good," she said before sitting down, pulling out an assignment from her backpack to work on. Danny's sly smile turned into a genuine one, thankful she liked hanging out with him as much as he enjoyed hanging out with her.

"Yeah, good," he said before joining her on the grass.

Chapter Text

"Danny, please don't show me another video," Sam complained from under their tree as Danny was about to hold his phone up to her. The past fifteen minutes were spent with him watching dumb videos that he also forced her to watch while she tried to work on assignments.

"You don't like memes?" He asked, earning a sigh from her.

"I'm trying to do my homework."

"Can I show you one more?"

"No."

"Just one more."

"I said no."

"Why not?" Sam dropped her pencil into her lap and stared at Danny with fire in her eyes as he stared back with amusement in his.

"Do it and I'll shove your phone down your throat," she threatened. He didn't say anything but he also didn't fidget with his phone at all. Thinking it was the end of it, she went back to focus on her homework.

"Hey, Sam," Danny called, causing her to look up just for his phone to be in her face yet again. She tossed her notebooks and worksheets aside as she jumped on top of him to try to grab his phone out of his hands. He laughed maniacally as they briefly wrestled around before he was able to successfully roll out of her grasp.

"Why are you like this?" Sam asked rhetorically, making him shrug.

"Trauma," he suggested, causing Sam to roll her eyes as she crawled back to her spot to try to finish her homework. Danny smiled before sitting down next to her but placed his phone away in his pocket. The past couple of weeks were spent with the two getting to know each other more. They were definitely more comfortable and talked on a regular basis. Even though Danny could be annoying sometimes, he was still a new light through the darkness in Sam's life. She usually never relied on anybody before, but Danny had yet to let her down.

"That can't be your excuse for everything," she replied, eyes still on her homework.

"It can and it will," he countered, making her shake her head at him. He chuckled to himself as he stared at her calm face, examining the blemish-free skin that other teenagers would kill to have. He wanted more time with her than just the short hangouts they had during school. As the past few weeks passed, he realized that she was always on his mind. It was almost as if he craved her presence when she wasn't around. "You should come over to my house this weekend," he suggested, causing her to look up from her worksheet.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Vlad just left for Wisconsin last night, so we don't have to deal with him for a week." She was never one to deny getting out of her house, which was more like a tomb now. Everything in it just reminded her of things she could never have back; an escape was much needed.

"Yeah, sounds good," she replied, and Danny was silent for a moment.

"Really? You're not weirded out at all?" He asked, getting her to look up from her assignments and give him her full attention.

"Why would I be?"

"My dad kind of died there," he stated bluntly, but Sam gave him a deadpan look.

"We're not about to have a dead dad contest, are we?" She asked sarcastically, making him smile and shake his head.

"Alright, if it doesn't bother you then I'm all for it. You can even sleep over if you want. Jazz's room is always open."

"Sounds good to me."

That Friday after school, Sam drove herself and Danny to Fenton Works. She parked at the curb and grabbed a small bag from the back seat that had extra clothes and toiletries. When she looked at his building, she was almost surprised that the sign was still up.

"Vlad didn't replace that sign? Shocking," Sam commented, making Danny snort as he reached for his keys in his pocket.

"Oh, he tried. We all refused. Besides, we're still in business," he explained as he opened the front door. Sam looked around, surprised that the outside looked like a normal building but the inside looked like a home. "Mom? You up here?" Danny called out before Maddie walked out of the kitchen to greet them. Sam hadn't seen her since her father's funeral where she was wearing much different attire. Now Maddie sported a blue hazmat suit, one that didn't match her red, short hair, but she was pretty. "You already know Sam," Danny introduced as Sam waved from beside him.

"Hi! How are you?" Maddie greeted, and Sam immediately noticed her friendly demeanor. They talked briefly at the wake where she was very somber, but that was obviously due to the tragic circumstance at hand.

"I'm good, how are you?" Sam asked.

"Well, I certainly can't complain."

"Meet me upstairs?" Danny asked Sam who nodded before ascending up the stairs. She stopped in the hallway, realizing she didn't know which room was what, and was about to go back downstairs to ask Danny, but stopped when she heard the back half of his and his mom's conversation.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Vlad about this. You know how he gets," she heard him say.

"I won't say anything. This stays between you and me," Maddie responded. Sam quietly made her way back into the hallway, wondering what that exchange was about. Her concerns about how Vlad treated Danny only got deeper. Why would he care if Danny had new friends around? It sounded controlling and toxic, among other things. Danny emerged from the stairs and nodded down the hall.

"I'll show you Jazz's room so you can drop your stuff off," he said before leading her to said room. He turned the light on, revealing a decent-sized room with a bed against the wall and a computer desk across from it. The color scheme was purple and pink, and while Sam didn't mind the purple, the pink was off-putting.

"Very pink," she commented as she dropped her backpack down by the bed.

"That's not your favorite color?" Danny joked, earning a playful eye-roll from her while he snickered. "You wanna play video games?"

"Sure." She followed him into his room which was smaller than Jazz's. His bed was against a wall in the middle of the room and he had a TV set up in front of it and a computer desk on the wall by the door. There wasn't much decor around, just the occasional poster and model rocket. As he went to his closet to dig out a two-player game, Sam wondered why his mom was so okay with a girl sleeping over. Was this something that happened often? Why did she even care if it did?

"Call of Duty?" Danny suggested as he held it up and walked over to her.

"That works." He loaded up the disc into his Xbox and sat on the edge of the bed with two controllers, holding one out for her. She joined him and snatched the controller from his hand. "So how many girls have slept over your house?" She wondered, causing Danny to look at her as if he was seeing a human for the first time.

"Do I look like Hugh Heffner to you? Does this place look like the Playboy Bunny Mansion?" He asked, making her chew the inside of her mouth. "You're the first girl."

"Your mom just seemed cool with it. That's the only reason why I was asking."

"Well, we're friends and we're sleeping in separate rooms. It's not that big of a deal. Besides, your mom was cool with it. How do I know this isn't your first sleepover with a guy?" He countered back, but it sounded more judgemental than playful. Was that jealousy she was hearing?

"Dude, my mom is a zombie right now. I could have told her I was having dinner with the homeless man down the street and she wouldn't have batted an eye," Sam responded, her humor making him crack a smile.

"So this is your first, too?"

"I never said that." His head snapped toward her as if she just slapped him.

"What?" She laughed at his reaction while he held his stare on her.

"I'm kidding. Why do you care anyway?"

"I don't," he responded, finally looking away to stare at the TV. Sam resisted the urge to smirk. From that reaction, it sure seemed like he did.

The rest of the night consisted of more games and movies until it started to get late. Around midnight, they went to their separate rooms to try to sleep, but it didn't come easy for Sam. Any time she was alone, the thoughts she tried to keep out of her head came back a hundredfold. No distractions meant facing her emotions, even if she did everything she could to avoid it. She lay awake for a while, tossing and turning until she looked at her phone to see it was one-thirty in the morning. Frustrated, she got out of bed and walked to Danny's room. His light was still on and so was his TV, so she lightly tapped on the door. After a few seconds, he opened the door, clad in sweats and a tanktop. In that moment she realized the scrawny Fenton kid everyone picked on when he was younger was far from scrawny. He wasn't huge like other people on the football team, but he was fit and toned, making it easy to hide with the baggy clothes he wore.

Danny was also staring at her, but not for the same reasons; even if she did look quite adorable in a big black shirt and baggy sweatpants to match. It was the first time he was seeing her without makeup on. Besides going heavy on the eyeliner and mascara, she didn't wear much to begin with, but the harsh makeup hid her naturally soft features that he liked. In fact, he'd probably prefer her without the makeup.

"Can't sleep?" He assumed, making her nod. He left his door open and motioned for her to come inside before he sat back down in his bed. She sat on the empty side, keeping a good distance, even if his toned chest did look inviting.

"What are you doing up?" She asked causing him to shrug.

"Just wrestling with my self-loathing. You know, the usual," he replied, earning a snort from Sam.

"Join the club."

"The dead dad club isn't enough?"

"Apparently not." He chuckled before placing his hands behind his head.

"I'm just catching up on anime."

"Better than lying awake." They talked on and off for a little bit before Sam got silent after a while. When Danny looked over, she had fallen asleep facing him. The only time she looked truly at peace was when she was sleeping. He decided to let her be comfortable for a while before he would take her back to Jazz's room. Every time she moved or flinched he checked to make sure she was okay, but at one point she had rolled from her back to her side with her head landing on his stomach. His breath hitched in his throat at the contact, and even though he enjoyed it, he knew his mom would kill him if she caught them like this. With much regret, he picked Sam up gently and carried her back to Jazz's room. He laid her down on the bed and pulled the blanket up and over her. He watched over her sleeping form for a moment before a blue mist escaped his lips.

"Again?" He asked himself before running into his room. A blue ring appeared around his waist before they started to move up and down his body. His black hair turned white, his blue eyes changed into green glowing orbs, and his attire turned into a black and white hazmat suit. Thanks to a portal accident that happened when he was fourteen, he was somehow turned half ghost. Now the safety of the town relied on his young shoulders on top of everything else he had to deal with.

Chapter Text

By the next week, Danny was the one who became more attached. Obsessive almost. He followed Sam around like a lost puppy, not that she minded. It's not like he was smothering her in any way. If anything, it showed her how willing he was to stick around. The only thing was, he would get into moods where he would want attention like an elementary school kid who only knew how to tease to get a girl's attention. On Wednesday during their fifth-period class, he kept pestering her from his seat next to hers. It didn't matter to him whatever lesson Lancer was trying to teach, he kept whispering Sam's name.

"Sam," he whispered, only to get a glance from her that told him to shut up. After about sixty seconds, he tried again. "Sam," he whispered again, but she ignored him. "Hey, Sam." She finally turned to him, her full attention on that smug face of his.

"What?" She whispered back, clearly annoyed. He only flashed her the middle finger, and if she could jump across his desk and strangle him for wasting her time, she would have. "You're a child," she whispered before turning her attention back to Lancer who was already in front of her with two pink slips.

"And children get detention," Lancer said as he handed her one pink slip and Danny the other right as the bell rang, signaling class was over. Danny quickly packed up his books and tried to escape Sam's wrath, but as soon as he turned into the hallway, his shirt was grabbed from the hem and he was pulled backward.

"You're such a dick," Sam said as she released him.

"Don't be mad. It's just detention," Danny responded as they walked together.

"Who the hell wants to be in detention?"

"Me if it means you're there." His reply only made her roll her eyes.

"You better not start shit while we're there. I'm not trying to make this a regular thing."

"I won't. Honest," he said, and Sam hoped he was telling the truth.

When detention came around, Danny upheld his word. He worked on homework, leaving Sam alone to her own devices. She had already done her assignments during eighth and ninth period, so now she just doodled randomly in a notebook. Danny did leave to go to the bathroom once, but he was only gone for fifteen minutes. It made her realize that when Danny wasn't here or on her mind, her thoughts reverted back to the darkness that always lurked in her head. She already had to fight it during her other classes, but detention was different considering everyone had to sit there in silence. It made her want to avoid ever getting in trouble again so she would never have to endure this for a second time. After what felt like a lifetime in prison, detention was finally over and the pair walked outside of the school, watching the after-school buses line up.

"Never get me detention again," Sam warned him as they stood.

"It wasn't even that bad," he said to try to defend himself.

"I don't care. Me being bored and alone with my thoughts is a situation I actively try to avoid." Danny's cheeky smile faded at her response. He didn't think of that. He was just trying to mess with her, and it worked, but he didn't think of how it would affect her.

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I promise," he told her, actually serious this time.

"Good." Students around them started to gasp, and Danny looked up to see an all too familiar black Cadillac pulling up in the car line. His heart started to beat a little faster as he saw Vlad behind the wheel, already staring at him with his ice-blue eyes.

"I have to go," he said with no life behind the words before darting across the street to the car. Sam watched them pull off, not being able to ignore the gut feeling that there was something very wrong with Vlad.

"Detention, huh?" Vlad asked Danny who had his arms crossed while he looked out the passenger side window.

"It was my fault," he grumbled.

"Was it?"

"Yes," Danny said more sternly as he turned to look at Vlad, "it was."

"Oh, I don't doubt it." Vlad seemed calm on the outside, but Danny knew what was about to happen. That's why when Vlad parked in the driveway of their home, Danny ran out and into the house.

"Mo-" He tried calling out for Maddie, but Vlad flew towards him and grabbed him by the throat.

"What are you doing with the Manson girl?" He asked, his tone switching to a more menacing one as his eyes glowed red.

"We're friends," Danny answered, clawing at Vlad's hands. They were both angry and had put each other in worse positions before, but they couldn't risk using their ghost powers with Maddie in the house.

"What does she know?"

"Nothing."

"Do you plan on telling her what you know?"

"If I do, are you going to murder me like you murdered my father?" Danny asked, his voice just a low growl. Vlad slammed him into the kitchen wall by his throat before finally letting go, making Danny cough as he kneeled on the ground.

"Not you. The girl," he threatened, and Danny immediately flew up to tackle him before throwing him to the floor.

"You don't fucking touch her! You hear me?" He exclaimed, his chest heaving as he stood above Vlad who only started to laugh.

"Oh, you like this girl now?" He asked as he stood before grabbing Danny by the throat again. "How do you think she'll feel about you if she ever finds out what you know?" He hissed, but the sound of footsteps on the basement stairs made him let go immediately, leaving Danny in a coughing fit.

"Are you okay, Danny?" Maddie asked as she closed the door to the basement.

"Just a dry throat is all, dear," Vlad answered for him as he went over to the refrigerator and grabbed a water bottle, holding it out in front of Danny who stared daggers into Vlad before aggressively grabbing it. "Do we have any cough drops?"

"Yeah, I'll get them," Maddie said as she headed for the stairs. As soon as she was out of view, Danny chucked the water bottle as hard as he could at Vlad's chest, who reacted to it like it was just a crumpled-up piece of paper.

"Fuck you. Sam doesn't know anything and I don't plan on telling her any time soon. And unless you want me to tell Mom the truth, you'll leave me and Sam alone. Got it?" Danny threatened, his eyes glowing green as he stared at Vlad who only smirked.

"Using your enemy's weaknesses against them. Maybe you are becoming like me," he said, and Danny tried his best not to punch the smug look off his face.

"I got them!" Maddie called as she walked down the stairs, breaking up the boys' little stare-down. She walked into the kitchen and handed Danny a bag of cough drops. "I'm about to make dinner."

"I'm not hungry," Danny muttered before tossing the bag onto the kitchen counter and walking out the door. He found an alleyway to change into his ghost half in before flying toward Sam's house. He couldn't bear to be near Vlad after that encounter unless he wanted to blow both of their covers just so he could beat the shit out of Vlad. He arrived at Sam's house, hiding between her house and the one next to hers to change back into his human form before knocking on the front door. Sam answered after a few moments, bare-faced and in baggy clothing.

"Hey, you okay?" She asked, not expecting to see him here.

"Yeah, just don't wanna be home," he answered, and she stared at him before nodding and moving out of the way so he could come inside.

"I would ask how you know where I live, but I think I already know the answer to that," she said, assuming he knew from Vlad.

"Yeah, can we go to your room or something?" He asked, making her nod.

"Yeah, sure." She led him up the stairs and down the hall to her room. The light was already on and he looked around the black and red-themed bedroom that had posters of bands and movies mostly. Not to mention it was a huge master bedroom at least three times the size of his. She had a whole stereo system set up for her TV along with a gaming PC against the wall by her window.

"Damn. If I were you, I'd never leave your room," he joked as he turned to her. She was staring at him with her arms crossed, but she wasn't saying anything. "What?"

"What happened?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" She walked up to him and pulled on the back of his blue tie-dye shirt that had some blood on it. He looked over his shoulder and groaned when he saw the blood. "Damnit, I like this shirt," he complained.

"Not to mention..." she placed her hand under his jaw gently to get him to look up, revealing red marks on his neck.

"Okay, I get it," he said as he jerked his head away from her.

"Did Vlad do this?"

"Look, I can handle Vlad," he said as he took his shirt off and held it in his hand before trying to look at the small gash on his back. "Can I borrow a shirt?" He asked, and if he wasn't hurt, Sam wouldn't have been able to keep her eyes off his bare torso.

"Let me clean that before you ruin another top," she said as she pointed to her bathroom. Danny walked in and sat at the edge of the tub while Sam looked in the hall closet for a first aid kit. Once she found it, she joined Danny in the bathroom and sat behind him on the tub. "Does your mom know about this?" Sam asked as she cleaned out the wound.

"No, and she doesn't need to know."

"Why not?"

"It's complicated."

"What if Vlad snaps one day and kills you?" She asked, and he only shook his head. Even though that had already happened with his own father, he couldn't tell her that yet.

"Not gonna happen. Me and Vlad get into it, but in the end, he can't deny that in a weird way I'm like a son to him," Danny said as Sam covered up his cut with a bandage. "Trust me, I'll be fine. I'm out of that house in a year anyway," he said as he stood and walked back into her room. Sam placed the first aid kit under her sink and turned the bathroom light off before stepping beside Danny.

"I won't say anything until you want me to," she told him, even if she didn't like it.

"Thank you. Can I have a shirt now? Or do you just prefer me like this?" He asked, holding his arms out. Sam rolled her eyes to hide the blush creeping into her face as she turned to get him a shirt from her closet.

"Shut up."

Chapter Text

That weekend, Sam decided to have Danny sleepover her house this time around, mainly to get him away from Vlad. Like last time, they drove together to her house right from school. When they entered her house, she shut the door behind her and locked it.

"Make yourself at home," she said before climbing the stairs with Danny trailing behind. "We have, like, seven rooms up here so you can pick whatever." But Danny didn't want to sleep alone. Ever since she fell asleep in his bed that one night, all he wanted was to hold her while he did the same. He wanted to sleep with her, not some guest room. He'd have to find a way around that. For now, he picked the closest room to hers to drop his stuff off at.

"So do I get to meet your mom? You know, without a funeral?" He half-heartedly joked as they went back downstairs.

"She's not here," Sam replied as she went into the kitchen.

"Where'd she go?"

"The Bahamas." She grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge before leaning on the kitchen counter.

"Without you?" Danny asked, and Sam shrugged.

"Well, I have school. And besides, she needs it way more than I do."

"Yeah, true," he said, but the look on his face changed to a devious one. "Tell me you have a liquor cabinet somewhere in this joint." Sam gave him a stern look and placed her water bottle on the counter.

"We are not doing that."

Three hours and three mixed drinks each later, the two were in the basement, or as Sam called it, a casino for kids. It was decked out in the latest arcade games and pinball machines, along with some classic old games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Sam was currently playing Pac-Man while Danny was trying, but failing, to beat her high score on an Adam's Family pinball machine. After losing yet another round, he groaned and made his way over to where Sam was.

"How is it possible to even get over a million points on a pinball machine?" He asked, but Sam shushed him.

"Shut up, I'm in the zone," she told him, eyes too focused on the game in front of her.

"You're a mean drunk."

"I'm not drunk. Tipsy, yes."

"Yeah, same. I'm not drunk but I'm definitely feeling it."

"Ah, shit," she complained as a ghost finally caught up to her and ate her. She turned to Danny with squinted eyes and whacked him in the chest. "You distracted me."

"Or maybe you suck," he teased, but she scoffed.

"Says the person who can't even get close to my score on a pinball machine," she countered before going up the stairs with Danny following.

"Your electric bill must be insane," he said to her, but she looked outside the kitchen window to see the sun was setting. Danny looked out the window that overlooked the backyard and saw something of interest.

"You have a trampoline?" Before Sam could even say anything, he ran out the kitchen door and jumped onto said trampoline. Sam chuckled to herself as she followed him out, stopping by the springs as he jumped. "What are you waiting for, emo kid?" Danny teased before snickering to himself. Sam rolled her eyes and jumped up, but only sat down and watched in amusement as Danny did backflips.

"Where'd you even learn to do that?" She asked.

"Trampoline parks."

"Oh, yeah. Those exist." He stopped jumping and stood with his hands on his hips.

"Get up," he commanded, but Sam shook her head.

"I already know what you're gonna do."

"No, you don't." She sighed and stood, but she knew him well enough to know he was up to no good. She was right because he immediately picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She started to thrash against him, but it was no use. "And his name is John Cena!" He shouted before throwing her down onto the trampoline, making her bounce a few times before finally settling. He jumped on top of her and pinned her down. "One, two, three, match over!" He went on before lying down beside her. He was looking up at the sunset for a moment then turned his head to look at Sam who was already staring at him. "What?"

"I said it once and I'll say it again: you're a very annoying individual," she said, but he only gasped and looked at her with excitement in his eyes.

"Oh, man. You love me," he proclaimed, but she protested immediately.

"Um, no. The opposite actually. I very much hate you."

"Girls only say 'I hate you' to guys that they love."

"Oh, my god. You're drunk. Get away from me," she said as she pushed him away, but it only made him laugh.

"I'm not drunk! Just very buzzed."

"Well, you're cut off," she informed him as she rolled off the trampoline.

"That's fine. I'm not trying to get drunk anyway." He followed her off the trampoline where they both went back inside and played video games in her room for a while. They got lost in the game for a few hours, not stopping until it was one in the morning. Sam sighed and looked over at Danny.

"Sober now?" She asked, causing him to nod.

"Yeah, for a while now."

"Does that mean you're gonna be less annoying?"

"No, probably not," he replied with a smirk.

"Well, as much as I'd love to see that, I'm going to bed now," she said as she powered her PlayStation off.

"You're going to sleep? Can't we watch a movie or something?" Danny asked as he rubbed the back of his neck, almost desperate for physical contact from her.

"What's the point? I would just fall asleep right away."

"I don't care. I'm not tired yet." She shrugged and turned her TV off before nodding toward the door.

"Let's go to the basement then," she told him, making him perk up. Once there, Sam grabbed a couple of blankets from the corner and threw them onto the couch in front of the movie theater screen. "Any particular movie?"

"Anything Marvel would be good."

"Marvel it is." Almost as soon as the movie started, Sam dozed off to sleep next to Danny. Being the impatient person he was, he shifted her gently so he was leaning back with her head against his chest. He couldn't explain it, but this just felt right to him. Sam filled a hole in him he didn't even know he had. He wanted more than friendship with her, but what if Vlad was right? He was still keeping a lot from her, and once she found out, she might never look at him the same. She might not even want anything to do with him again. He was just so afraid to lose her, but the truth had to come out soon. It was just the right thing to do, even if it screwed him in the end.

Chapter Text

When Sam woke up the next morning, she almost forgot where she was. She recognized the basement and remembered she and Danny had come down last night to watch a movie. What she didn't remember, however, was why or how she got into Danny's arms. He was awake and scrolling on his phone while her head was on his chest. His arm was around her shoulders, so it was obvious he was the culprit. She cleared her throat loudly to get his attention, but he looked down at her unstartled.

"What?" He asked as if he didn't have her wrapped around him like a snake.

"First of all, how dare you," she said as she removed his arm and stood up. "And second of all, where do you find the nerve?" She picked up a pillow from the couch and covered his face with it in an attempt to smother him, but he easily took the pillow out of her hands.

"Well, you do love me, so I thought it would be alright," he said with a smirk, referring to one of the conversations they had last night. She only scoffed and threw another pillow at him.

"You're a dick," she said before trudging up the stairs. Did she actually like the cuddles? Yes. Did she like Danny? Yes. But she couldn't have him knowing that. If something were to happen between them, she wouldn't be opposed to it. However, she also preferred to be conscious for it. Once she got to the main level of the house, she went upstairs to use the bathroom, but as she passed the room where Danny's stuff was, something caught her eye. She walked inside and saw something silver and green sticking out of his backpack. Picking it up, she realized it was the thermos Phantom used to capture ghosts. She remembered it vividly even if it was many weeks ago. She spun it around as she examined it fully. Why did Danny have Phantom's thermos?

"Sam?" She heard Danny calling for her from downstairs and quickly stuck the thermos back into his bag. She hurriedly ran into her room and shut the door behind her. His footsteps were on the stairs before there was a knock on her door. "Sam, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad."

"Could've fooled me," she said as she leaned against the door.

"I wasn't trying to do anything, I swear."

"Then what were you trying to do?" He got quiet and she heard him sigh from outside the door.

"You'll make fun of me."

"Try me."

"Um... okay. Uh, there may or may not be something in me that feels comforted when I'm holding you... but I was being selfish and only thinking of myself. I shouldn't have done it without your permission and I'm really sorry." That was what she really wanted to hear. If he had tried to make a move while they were both still awake, she wouldn't have been mad. She would never do anything to him without his blessing and she expected the same respect from him. She slowly opened the door to reveal Danny, looking as meek and concerned as ever.

"Promise you'll never do anything without my permission again?" She asked, getting a nod out of him.

"Yes, I promise... but I'm never going to get permission, am I?" She shrugged and leaned against the doorway.

"Be patient," she told him, getting him to perk up.

"So there's a chance?"

"All I said was be patient," she said as she walked deeper into her room to get to her closet. While he couldn't see her face, she snickered to herself at Danny's desperation. She may have fallen for him first, but now that she knew how he felt and how attached he was, she was the one in control. She didn't want him to go anywhere, and now she knew he wouldn't. Picking out a few pieces of clothing, she turned around to see he was still standing outside her door. "Can I shower now?" She asked, and he started to back away.

"I'll be downstairs. So downstairs, I'll be in the basement. Two floors away," he rambled on nervously, causing Sam to smirk.

"Don't overdo it," she said.

"I'm just gonna stop talking now," he muttered before descending the stairs. She shook her head playfully before closing her door and heading for her bathroom. While in the shower, she still wondered about the mystery that surrounded Phantom's thermos in Danny's possession. The only possible explanation was maybe Phantom used some of the Fenton's inventions for ghost fighting, but she thought if that were true, Danny would have mentioned something about it by now. Even if that were true, it didn't make sense for Danny to have it on him. After she was finished getting dressed, she went back down to the basement where Danny was on the couch still scrolling on his phone. She sat next to him and draped her legs over his, and even though he wasn't expecting it, he had no complaints about it.

"You know what I was thinking about in the shower?" She asked, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Phantom." He was silent for a moment but his face didn't change.

"Please elaborate before this gets gross," he replied, making her giggle.

"I was thinking since your parents would hunt ghosts and all, what they thought about him. Did they like him?" She asked, treading lightly so he wouldn't get defensive in any way.

"No, not at all."

"How come? He's just trying to help us."

"Because they thought all ghosts are evil," he said, no longer looking at her but looking down at her legs to avoid eye contact. "My mom still does." It was one of the main reasons he, along with Vlad, never revealed their ghost half to Maddie. Now that Vlad had everything he ever wanted, he couldn't risk his secret getting out. If it did, he'd lose it all. Sam noticed the shift in his mood, wondering why it mattered what the people around him thought of ghosts.

"I don't think he's evil. In fact, I had a run-in with him a while ago." His gaze moved from her legs to her eyes.

"Did you?"

"Yeah. He was nice. A bit full of himself but that doesn't translate to evil."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"Well, we had just started hanging out. I didn't think you'd believe me."

"Huh." Was the only thing he had to say to that. For someone who ran their mouth a lot, he was being uncharacteristically quiet.

"Have you ever seen him in person?" She asked, and his expressionless face twisted as he started to laugh. "I don't get what's so funny."

"You're funny," he said vaguely as he removed her legs so he could stand. "Can I shower?"

"Knock yourself out," she said before he disappeared upstairs. She couldn't help but feel like Danny's demeanor was particularly avoidant on the subject, only making her more suspicious. For now, she couldn't do much about it. She would try to keep digging, but she'd have to be discrete about it. After the two finished their individual morning routines, they decided to take advantage of a nice day and go mini-golfing. They spent about an hour competing before going inside and playing some arcade games. It wasn't as luxurious as the games Sam had in her basement but nonetheless, it was nostalgic. When they were about to walk out the door to head for the car, Danny nudged Sam.

"I just have to use the bathroom," he told her.

"I'll be outside," she said before walking into the parking lot. She could hear the revving of a motorcycle nearby as she made her way to her car. She sat on the trunk of her car and looked into the blue sky to see a white and black blur fly past, no doubt it was Phantom. It was confirmed when he stopped in the air and doubled back, flying toward her.

"Hey, Sam," he greeted as he floated in front of her.

"You remember me?" She asked, making him chuckle.

"Of course. How can I not?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty memorable," she said in an arrogant tone, making him scoff.

"Alright, don't get ahead of yourself. But anyway, I saw you and hoped that you wouldn't mind helping me again."

"Wow, do I have to do everything?" She joked, and he only sighed before pointing to the parking lot that was next to this one.

"See that guy on the bike? That's a ghost. I need to catch him off guard and the dude is a dog so, would you mind flirting with him?" Sam rolled her eyes as she hopped off her car.

"I guess I'm a call girl all of a sudden," she said as she walked toward the parking lot.

"Make sure when I attack-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill." She walked across the street to said parking lot, seeing a guy with pale blonde hair and green eyes atop of a motorcycle. Turning what she called the alt-girl charm on, she walked over to him.

"That's a really cool bike," she said, and he looked her up and down before smiling.

"Thank you."

"Where'd you get it?"

"I've had it so long it seems like I've had it forever."

"You seem young to be owning a motorcycle for so long." She walked to the front of the bike and leaned on the handlebars, getting closer to his face. "How old are you?" From above, while he stayed invisible, Danny didn't like how much Johnny was enjoying the attention from Sam. It made him want to attack him even harder.

"Nineteen. How old are you?" Johnny asked while he also leaned closer to her.

"Old enough," she replied with a smirk before getting closer to his left ear. "Can I sit on it?" She whispered, and she backed away to see him get flustered.

"Huh?"

"The bike," she clarified with a smug look on her face.

"Damn, why can't she flirt with me like that," Danny muttered to himself as he watched Johnny get off the bike. In that moment, he flew down and tackled him, and Sam walked back to the parking lot where her car was, leaving the boys to their own devices. She noticed Danny hadn't come out of the bathroom yet and found it very convenient that Phantom was here and Danny wasn't. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he was always leaving class and stayed gone for an indefinite amount of time. Everything was slowly making sense, but she needed to test this theory. After a few minutes, Phantom flew back over to her.

"Thanks for your help," he said.

"You know, I should get paid for this," she quipped, making him scoff.

"Yeah, you and me both. I'll see you around, okay?" He said before turning, but Sam called out for him.

"Hey, Danny," she called, causing him to turn back around.

"Yeah, what's..." he stopped mid-sentence as he realized what she did. The smirk on her face told him that she was satisfied she was able to expose him. He knew she was smart, but he didn't think she'd be able to figure out his secret identity so soon. He supposed this would only make things easier considering he didn't have to keep disappearing half the time; or at least he hoped it would make things easier. "Before you say anything, just give me a second," he said before turning invisible and flying back into the arcade bathroom to change into his human half. He walked back outside and got into Sam's car, noticing she was staring at him. "If you want to hear my whole life story, buy me dinner first."

Back at Sam's house, the two were in the basement with scattered empty pizza boxes on the table in front of the movie couch. They were playing a game of air hockey while Danny explained what had happened to him.

"So basically, my parents were building a ghost portal but it didn't work. I decided to go inside and turned it on and next thing I know, I'm half ghost," he said, grunting when Sam sunk a puck into his goal post.

"And your parents never found out?"

"Nope. Just you, Jazz, and Tucker know," he answered as he fished out the puck.

"And Vlad?" Sam guessed, causing Danny to pause.

"That's a whole different situation that would take way too much time to explain," he said, but she shrugged.

"I got time." He sighed and nodded over to the couch where they both sat down.

"What I tell you can not leave this room," he told her sternly, getting a nod from her.

"Yeah, obviously."

"Okay. Well, Vlad is half ghost like me. My dad accidentally caused it in college, so he hated my dad for years but was in love with my mom. I first met Vlad when I was fourteen and we both found out about our ghost halves. He tried to get me to join him, but I wasn't going to do that because Vlad's kind of batshit crazy."

"Noted," she said, but he shook his head.

"No, you don't understand. He's the one who killed my dad." Sam's heart dropped as soon as he said those words.

"What?"

"Vlad would steal the ideas of my parents' inventions, then go back to Wisconsin to make his own version in his own lab. One day, Vlad was in our lab while Dad was working on a ghost-detecting device. I guess it worked because it outed Vlad. He was so worried he was going to tell Mom that he just... got rid of him, making it look like it was an explosion from that invention malfunctioning," he explained, and even though it had been over three years, accepting it never got any easier, especially when he couldn't do anything about it. Sam couldn't imagine how it must have felt to be living with the person responsible for your own father's death. She was absolutely horrified for him.

"I'm so sorry, Danny," she said.

"Yeah, well, now you see why I hate him so much."

"And he told you this?"

"Yeah, I was already verbally suspicious of him before he told me. He snapped one day when we were fighting and said he'd kill me like my father. Then said he'd kill everyone I loved if I told anyone."

"So no one knows? Not even Jazz or Tucker?"

"Nope," he said while shrugging. "They've known he's half ghost, but that's the extent of it. I didn't want to risk him making good on his threats."

"Don't you think your mom has the right to know?"

"It's complicated, Sam. How do I know he won't snap and kill all of us in our sleep if I do that?" He asked, and she sighed and put her head in her hands.

"Jesus..."

"Remember when I said I had more trauma than you?" He joked, getting her to straighten back up.

"Yeah, I get it. You win."

"Sam, I'm putting you in danger by-"

"Shut up, Danny," Sam interrupted, already knowing what he was about to say. "I don't care. The fear of Vlad possibly doing something to me isn't going to keep me away from you."

"I won't be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you," he explained, but Sam shrugged.

"It's my choice. Deal with it." Even though the subject matter wasn't very cheerful, Danny cracked a smile.

"Wow, you really do love me," he said, immediately getting an angry look from Sam, but he held his hands up defensively. "Hey, at least I'm not touching you."

"Yeah, you're not allowed, you pervert," she remarked before she crawled over to his spot and sat up on her knees to hug his head.

"Does this mean-"

"Nope. You still don't have permission," she said before releasing him but kissing the top of his head. She rolled off the couch and looked at Danny who was staring at her with squinted eyes. "What? I said you don't have permission."

"You give very mixed signals."

"Good."

Chapter Text

"Do you think I could pull these off?" Danny asked Sam, picking up a pair of sunglasses from their stand and putting them on. The rims were gold and the small lenses were circular and tinted blue.

"Who are you, Bono?" She asked, but he just gave her a goofy smile.

"For you, baby, I could be," he responded while nodding, earning a disgusted face from Sam as she yanked the glasses off and placed them back where they belonged. They were currently spending a Friday afternoon at their local mall now that the weather was getting colder. It turned out they both liked stores that had mostly skater brands, which meant they were expensive; not that it was really a problem.

"I could buy this whole store," Sam said as she walked over to the wall of hoodies they had.

"So could I," Danny said with a gleam of mischief in his eye.

"Is that a challenge?" Sam asked in a taunting manner. Danny fished out his wallet and pulled out a credit card.

"How much do you think I'll be able to charge on here without Vlad bugging out?" He asked with a smirk.

"Is that a good idea?"

"I can handle Vlad. If he were to kill me for being a little shit, I would have been dead by now," he replied before darting over to the sweatpants. The damage in that store was only two hundred dollars; he could do better than that. The best place for him to spend money was a video game store, so after three games and two new controllers later, the total was now around four hundred dollars.

"You really are a little shit," Sam concluded as they walked around aimlessly, not having a specific target in mind. He only had two bags of stuff, but who would have thought just two bags could be worth so much money?

"It's what I do best," he replied happily.

"Yeah, I can attest to that," she remarked, making him snicker. He felt his phone vibrate from his pocket and he took it out to see who was calling.

"What did I tell you?" He asked Sam, showing her that Vlad was calling. Danny picked up the phone while he swung the bags over his shoulder. "Hello?" There was silence as Vlad talked. "Obviously that was me." More silence as Danny listened, almost smirking now. "Then why did you give me a credit card?" He turned to Sam with an incredulous look. "Emergencies? You're a billionaire. What's the emergency? That you dipped below fifty billion?" Sam thought she could hear Vlad laughing at his wit, which she found strange if they were mortal enemies. "Yeah, yeah. I got it. Bye." He hung up the phone and stuck it back into his front pocket.

"Why do you talk to him like normal if you hate him?" Sam wondered.

"If I talk to him like an actual dad, he softens up. I don't like it, but it gets him off my back. There's still a part of him that wishes I was his actual son," Danny explained, and Sam was actually speechless for a moment.

"That's... really weird." Danny snorted at her response.

"Tell me about it." As they were about to walk out of the mall, Sam grabbed Danny's free hand. He looked at her in surprise, but she acted like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. "Does this mean-"

"Not yet," she replied.

"Goddammit," he muttered before they darted for her car. It had been weeks and he felt as if he were on probation. He wasn't a very patient person, but for Sam, he would be. He threw his bag in the backseat before getting in the passenger side of the car. As soon as he strapped his seatbelt in, Sam leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He completely froze to look at her again, but she just gave him an amused smile. "You know you're killing me, right?"

"Then I'll stop."

"Whoa, slow down. I didn't say that," he replied, making her laugh as she drove off. Once they got back to her house, somewhere Danny seemed to be more than his own home, Sam got changed into baggy clothes to relax. Danny's version of pajamas was a tank top and sweatpants, and even if Sam didn't want to admit it, it was kind of distracting. Sam was in the middle of wiping off her makeup when Danny knocked on her door.

"Come in!" She shouted before she heard the door open. Danny stood outside the bathroom with his hands on his hips. "What?" She asked before turning her attention to the mirror to make sure she got everything off.

"I think I deserve a freebie," he said, and she scoffed as she threw her used makeup wipes in the trash.

"Oh, you do? And what might that be?"

"I am dying to hold you." His response actually warmed her heart and got a light chuckle out of her.

"So a movie and cuddling is your freebie?" She asked.

"Yes. Please? Oh, wait a minute," he got down on both knees and placed his hands together as if he were in prayer. "Please?"

"You don't have to do all that," she laughed out as she made her way to her bed. Before she could even get to the remote, Danny hopped onto her and buried his head in her stomach while he grabbed her around her waist. "Damn, hold on," she chuckled out as she got to the remote.

"I am holding on," he replied.

"Move that way," she instructed as she pointed to the headrest. He sat up and backed up to it, leaving Sam to be able to rest on his chest, which she did as she put on a Marvel movie. Danny's arms wrapped around her shoulders while he rested his head on top of hers. He wasn't even paying attention to the movie for his eyes were closed as he savored the moment. "Hey, Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you getting sick of my shit at all?" He only scoffed.

"I should be asking you that."

"You didn't answer the question."

"I could visit every universe and I guarantee every version of me would still be obsessed with you," he answered as he stroked her hair. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah. It does." All she could think about was how doomed she was. She was in love with him. There was a reason she kept dropping her guard and kept touching on him; she couldn't help it. She wanted him and only him. It's always been him. "I'm gonna go shower," she said, causing him to groan.

"Fine." He released her from his grip, watching as she walked into the bathroom. He sat up and started to scroll through his phone as he impatiently waited for her to get back. After twenty minutes, he actually had his attention on the movie for once until he heard Sam's voice.

"Hey, Danny," she called. He looked up to see her angelic form in the doorway. Her hair was still slightly wet, she was makeup-free, and clad in just an oversized black shirt. As she walked over to him, she was looking at him with an expression he didn't recognize. Sometimes he would catch this look on her face, but it would only last a few seconds. This time, it never left her face, even as she stood right in front of him. He stayed silent as he looked into her eyes, only seeing mischief. "You have permission now."

Before he could even react, she sat directly on top of his lap and dominated his mouth. Her hands went to his hair while his went to her waist, tongues exploring mouths. The loose shirt she wore made everything underneath easily accessible, but he couldn't. This wasn't fair. He was still hiding things from her and it didn't feel right to do this knowing he was lying. He broke away from her mouth and removed her hands from around his neck.

"Sam, I can't," he told her, earning a confused look from her.

"Why not? Don't you love me?" Her response broke his heart and he leaned his forehead against hers.

"Of course, I do. I've been in love with you."

"I lov-"

"Don't say that." He cut her off and gently turned to lay her down on her bed before standing up. "I haven't been honest with you. You might hate me after what I'm about to tell you."

"What do you have to tell me?" He was quiet for a moment before he sighed, knowing this was the beginning of the end.

"I know who killed your dad," he said, but she only shook her head with eyebrows furrowed.

"What are you talking about? My dad died in a car accident." Danny stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down for a moment before finding the courage to look into her eyes.

"It wasn't an accident."

Chapter Text

"You better start making some sense because you're kind of freaking me out," Sam told Danny. He sighed and went over to her computer chair to drag it in front of her before sitting down in it.

"Okay, look," he started, rubbing his eyes out of nervousness. "Vlad was selling one of his properties, right? Your dad was his realtor, so he had the keys to show people the mansion since nobody was living there anyway. Apparently, your dad forgot something there and Vlad happened to be there at the same time. You're..." he sighed as he hung his head down, trying to get the words out without throwing up. He finally lifted his head to tell the rest of the story. "You're dad walked in on Vlad changing into his ghost half. Your dad got scared and left in his car, and five minutes later, Vlad overshadowed a driver and hit your dad head-on. He made sure there were no survivors." Sam was silent, expressionless even. He was expecting some type of reaction, but this wasn't it. He didn't know if the shock had her frozen or if she was just processing everything. She finally took a breath and looked up at him, but her teary eyes looked angry.

"You've known this whole time and never told me?" She asked calmly and slowly, and Danny was actually getting scared at this point considering he'd never seen her like this. He didn't even think he had ever seen her truly angry at all. Annoyed, yes, but somehow, this was worse.

"I had to protect you. If Vlad finds out you know, he'll kill you."

"I don't give a fuck!" There was the explosion he was expecting. She got up out of bed and stepped toward Danny who also stood while moving the chair out of the way. "You've known this whole time that your stepfather murdered my dad and you never told me?"

"Sam, I'm sorry! Believe me, it's been killing me not being able to tell you, but I couldn't risk having you dead because of me!" He tried to explain, but she was only getting angrier as she got closer to his face.

"Was this your plan? Get me to fall in love with you so I could be less mad about it? Tell me how that worked out for you," she went on, staring at him like she wanted him dead.

"I didn't have a plan. I just wanted to be there for you," he answered, but Sam shook her head before turning away.

"Get out," she instructed.

"Sam, please-"

"Get out!" She walked over to her bed and laid down before covering herself with her blankets. As much as Danny didn't want to leave like this, he knew trying to do anything about this situation would just make it worse. Obeying, he gathered his things before turning into his ghost half and flying home. He landed in the alley next to his house to turn back to human before walking inside, seeing his mom and Vlad on the couch in the living room watching some show.

"Hey, Danny. I thought you were sleeping over at Sam's?" Maddie asked, but Danny couldn't even look at her.

"Change of plans," he muttered before climbing the stairs to his room. He threw his backpack down on the floor and sat on the edge of his bed as he stared at the blank TV. He felt like his entire world just shattered. Sam hated him, and he had no idea if this was just until she processed everything or if it was forever. He heard a knock on his door before Vlad stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

"Something the matter, Daniel?" He asked, causing Danny to roll his eyes.

"Oh, you are the last fucking person I want to talk to," he said before he turned his head away from Vlad.

"You seem upset. Did something happen?"

"I'm fine."

"That's why you're pouting in your room like a little girl?" Danny sighed and swiped a hand down his face, trying his best not to choose violence against Vlad. "Trouble in paradise?" He guessed, making Danny scoff.

"Just shut up." Vlad nodded before he walked in front of Danny to look down at him.

"I've never seen you like this. You must really love this girl," he insinuated, but Danny trusted Vlad as far as he could throw him. This wasn't going to be some weird 'father-son' talk. There was always an ulterior motive.

"You don't know anything," Danny informed him, and Vlad only stared at him before sitting down next to him.

"Look, Danny. I understand love. I really do. I know exactly how you feel for this girl," he put a hand on the back of Danny's neck before he started to squeeze it, making him grunt in pain. "Which is why you tell her nothing. I don't care if you have to lie to her your entire life, because that's the only way she'll stay in yours," he threatened before letting him go and standing up to leave. He opened the bedroom door but stopped to look back. "Oh, your mother made meatloaf for dinner if you didn't eat." Danny grabbed the nearest pillow and cocked it back behind him.

"Get the fuck out!" He yelled before throwing it, but it just hit the door as it closed. He fell backward onto his bed as his hands flew to his hair. He hated it here. He hated that this was his life. At least being with Sam was one of the only highlights left in his life, but now he had no idea when she would come back, or if she would even come back at all.

Chapter Text

Danny was miserable the whole weekend. For two days he hoped for a call or a text from Sam, but it never came. He didn't even care if she was contacting him just to curse him out. All he wanted was to hear from her. He expected her to be angry; if it were him, he'd probably react similarly, but he hoped she would come to realize the situation at hand. It's not like he played any part in her father's death. Sure, in a way, he was protecting Vlad, but he had to in order to protect everyone else. It was a situation he didn't want to be a part of in the first place, and he wouldn't have been a part of it if Vlad never told him. He swore Vlad only did it to keep him miserable and on edge, wanting him to know what he was capable of so Danny would never expose him. He hated to admit it, but it was working.

When he went to school that Monday, he made sure to keep his distance from Sam. It killed him to do it, but it was obvious she needed space and he would respect her wishes. He was dreading their shared fifth-period class, but there was no way to avoid it. He purposely showed up at the last second and took his seat beside hers, but he wouldn't dare look at her. He knew if he did, it would just be harder to keep himself away from her. His focus was either straight ahead, down on his notebook or on the clock above Lancer's desk. As soon as the bell rang, signaling class was over, he was the first one out the door.

Despite it being December, he still went to where the two of them used to sit outside before it got cold after eighth period. Even in just jeans and a hoodie, the cold didn't bother him too much; it was just one of the perks of being half-ghost. He was working on homework while he waited for the buses to arrive, enjoying the isolation from the other students after a grueling eight hours with them. After about fifteen minutes, he wouldn't have noticed anyone else out there if they hadn't stood directly over him from his spot on the ground. As he looked up, his heart started to beat faster when he realized it was Sam. She was wearing a black windbreaker jacket with gray jeans and of course, her favorite combat boots.

"Hey," she greeted, causing him to close his notebook.

"Hi," he said back, not sure if she was going to give him a tongue-lashing or tell him she never wanted to see him again. She dropped her backpack to the ground and sat across from him, gaining his full attention.

"I've been thinking a lot over this past weekend and I feel like I may have overreacted," she admitted, but Danny shook his head.

"I'd be pretty pissed off if I was in your situation, too."

"You had nothing to do with it. You were just trying to protect me and everyone else. The only person to be mad at is Vlad." Despite the situation, he was happy that she finally came to him. It had only been three days, but the lack of contact made it feel like two weeks.

"I'm sorry I put you in this position," Danny tried to tell her, but she shook her head.

"I don't care. I met you because of it, so to me, that's worth it. I'm sorry I blew up on you like that."

"It was well deserved. Don't apologize."

"How about we call it even and we both stop apologizing?" Sam suggested, earning a lopsided grin from him.

"I guess that can work." Sam smiled and crawled forward to wrap herself around him while Danny grasped onto her for dear life. It was like nothing else in the world mattered once she was in his arms, and if it were up to him, he'd never let go. She leaned back to see his face before she kissed him.

"You want to hit up the Nasty Burger?" She suggested as she rolled off of him. She grabbed her backpack and stood up while Danny packed up his schoolwork.

"Wait, I need to ask you something," he said. He didn't want to wait any longer. He clearly loved her and he knew she loved him. Not being able to talk to her or see her was torture and he never wanted either of them to feel that way ever again. He tossed his backpack aside as he got down on one knee, making her scoff.

"Oh, god. What is this?" She asked jokingly.

"I was wondering if you'd do me the honor of being my girlfriend? Officially," he added, making Sam roll her eyes.

"You don't have permission," she replied before she started to walk away, leaving Danny shocked and confused before she turned around and jumped on him, causing them both to fall. "Just kidding. Of course, I will."

"You're a little shit too, you know," he said as he helped her up.

"Certified little shit," she responded, earning a laugh from him. When they arrived at the Nasty Burger, they picked a booth in the back to reside in to have their own privacy. Danny got his usual burger and fries while Sam got the only vegan option; a tofu soy melt.

"So, did I miss anything over these last three days?" Sam asked, picking at her sandwich.

"No, not really. Just me pouting a whole lot," he responded, but Sam chuckled.

"My weekend was similar. Nothing to report on that."

"If it makes you feel any better, you're all I thought about this whole time," Danny told her as she sipped her water, watching her as she fought off a smile.

"Yeah. Same here," she said after placing her drink down. Her eyes looked past him as they turned dark, but she tried to act natural. "Vlad's here," she whispered.

"What?" Danny looked behind him as Vlad approached before sighing and crossing his arms. "What are you doing here, Vlad?"

"You didn't come straight home like expected. Your mother was concerned, so I volunteered to check up on you," Vlad answered while Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He hated that he had to share his location with his family. The only time he turned it off was when he was ghost-fighting.

"Clearly, I'm fine," he said, trying to get rid of him but his eyes went to Sam.

"Samantha, it's been quite some time since I last saw you. How are you?" He asked, and while Danny glared at Vlad, Sam pretended not to mind Vlad's presence.

"It's just Sam. I'm okay. How are you, Mr. Masters?" Her alt-girl charm was something she could easily turn on. However, it was harder to do that when you were facing your father's murderer.

"I'm doing well. You know, I've been thinking. Since you're dating my son and all, you should come over for dinner this weekend," Vlad suggested, and Danny's glare deepened. Not only because Vlad called him his son, but he knew exactly what he was doing. Vlad turned to Danny, almost smirking at Danny's discomfort. "I think your mother and I should meet the girl you're so crazy about."

"Absolutely. I'll be there this weekend," Sam replied with a light smile, one Vlad returned. He turned and patted Danny on the shoulder.

"I'll see you at home," Vlad said before leaving, and Danny looked at Sam with a concerned expression as her smile immediately dropped.

"You know he's testing you, right?" Danny asked, making Sam shrug.

"Then let him test me. I'm great at deception."

"Are you sure you're up to that? You don't have to do this," Danny reassured her, but Sam had already made up her mind. She had the right to face the person who ruined her family, even if she couldn't say anything about it. She only agreed so she could collect information. She had to figure out a way to get Danny and his mother out of this situation in the safest way possible. She didn't know if it could be done, but she'd try her damnedest, even if it ended up killing her.

Chapter Text

"You know, you could always bail out of this, right? We could say you're sick and can't make it," Danny suggested as Sam drove them to his house after school was over Friday evening.

"You think I can't handle myself?" She asked as she glanced over at him quickly.

"I didn't say that. I'd just rather not have you be around Vlad."

"I'm a big girl. I know what I'm doing," she reassured him, making him huff. She understood the reason for him being so protective, but she was able to navigate through difficult situations. The goal was to get any information she could to use against Vlad and form some kind of plan to rid everyone of him. She hadn't told Danny, knowing he'd be against it out of fear for her safety, but he wasn't the only one concerned about safety in this relationship. When she pulled up to his house, she parked against the curb, not feeling nervous but determined.

"Just remember-" Danny started to say before they got out of the car, but Sam cut him off before he could finish.

"I know nothing. I got that," she said, patting his face before they exited the car. Once they walked through the door, they could smell food that was already cooking in the kitchen. They walked in to see Maddie at the stove while Vlad sat at the kitchen table.

"Hi, Mrs. Masters," Sam greeted, earning a warm smile from her. "Do you need any help with that?"

"Oh, nonsense," Vlad answered as he stood from his seat. "You're our guest. Daniel, take her to the living room," Vlad instructed, which he surprisingly obeyed since he started to guide her there.

"Thanks for the offer, Sam," Maddie said with a smile, one Sam returned.

"Any time," she responded before walking into the living room and sitting on the couch with Danny. Vlad sat in one of the corner chairs so he was able to face the two. "Is this where I'm getting interviewed?" Sam joked, earning a smirk from Vlad

"Precisely. So you two met at school?" He asked, causing Sam to nod.

"Yeah, we've been going to the same school since we were kids, but we didn't cross paths much," she said.

"How do you do in school?"

"Mostly A's. Some B's here and there," she responded with a light shrug.

"What are you planning to do for college?"

"I want to major in journalism. There are so many false sources and lies out in the world. I want to be the one to get the real information and tell everyone the truth," she answered, and Vlad subconsciously looked at Danny.

"Did you know that about your girlfriend?" He asked, making Danny roll his eyes.

"Obviously. I'm dating her, aren't I?" He replied, but Sam sent him a look.

"Why are you being such a brat? Lighten up," she told him as she lightly nudged his shoulder. Danny had to admit one thing: she was good. If he didn't know any better, it would look like Sam really did have a blank slate when it came to Vlad.

"You remind me of Jasmine," Vlad said to her, prompting Sam to look at Danny.

"Your sister, right?" Danny gave her a look as if he was about to tell her to stop asking dumb questions.

"You haven't met her, correct?"

"I've just passed her in the hallways when she went to Casper. That's the extent of it."

"I think you two would get along," Vlad told her, making Danny snort.

"Yeah, right. It would be like dogs fighting," he remarked before he gasped slightly, a blue mist escaping his mouth right after. He tried not to groan, knowing he had to leave Sam with Vlad, but duty called, and at least his mother was here as a safe haven for Sam. "I'll be right back," he muttered before he ran up the stairs with Sam already having an idea of what was happening. Once Danny left, Vlad took the opportunity to sit on the couch next to Sam but kept an appropriate distance.

"I wanted to ask," he began, trying his best to sound sincere, "how are you and your mother doing after everything?" If Sam hadn't been used to keeping her cool around the student body and her parents, she would have lost it. He was just taunting her at this point for his own amusement. She knew he was doing it on purpose because if he got any reaction that wasn't grief or sorrow, he would know that she knew too much. She only sighed while shrugging and looked down at her lap.

"Mom's doing better. Honestly, I think I only got through everything because of Danny. If I didn't have him, I think I'd be in a deeper hole, you know?" She responded, looking up to study his face. He didn't look suspicious at all, so she took that as a hopeful sign that she was playing her part well.

"Daniel's a good kid," Vlad said, earning a scoff from Sam.

"Yeah, once you get past all that sass," she added, making Vlad chuckle.

"Well, he's a lot like his mother in that way."

"How did you guys all meet anyway?" Sam asked, pretending to look interested in whatever he had to say.

"We were all friends throughout college, but we went our separate ways shortly after that. We all reunited at our college reunion."

"Wait, so you were studying the paranormal too? Why did you stop?" He resisted the eye twitch he felt coming, thinking of the accident that caused his ghost powers and the ecto-acne that left him hospitalized for months.

"I ventured off into business instead. That's where I found my true calling."

"There must be a part of you that misses the paranormal. Do you ever dabble in it anymore?" She asked, and the look on Vlad's face turned quizzical as he stared at her. Sam thought she was in trouble for a second until he cracked a smile.

"You turned the questions around on me," he said with amusement in his voice. "I think you will be a great journalist one day." Sam forced a smile before nodding.

"Thank you."

"Dinner's ready," Maddie said as she peeked into the living room. She started to look around and noticed the absence of her son. "Where's Danny?"

"He should be back down in a minute," Sam answered in an attempt to cover for him, which seemed to work since Maddie went back into the kitchen. Vlad stood and gestured for Sam to go first.

"After you," he said, and with another fake smile, she got up.

"Thanks." As soon as she sat down at the kitchen table, Danny reappeared and sat in the seat next to hers. She tried not to release the breath she was holding. "You okay?" She asked him quietly, making him nod.

To Sam, the evening went off without a hitch. She didn't think she tipped off Vlad at all, but unfortunately, he was very closed off and didn't give her much to work with. At the end of the night, she said her goodbyes to everyone before heading to her own house. As far as he knew, Danny thought it went well, too. His mom liked Sam a lot, and Vlad didn't seem suspicious of her at all. Maybe they were in the clear. It was late at night, and Danny was up playing video games when his door opened. Vlad closed the door behind him but stood in place as he stared at Danny expressionless while Danny stared back.

"What?" He finally asked in an annoyed tone, prompting Vlad to step closer to him.

"She knows about you, doesn't she?" Vlad asked, and Danny sat there, not knowing how he or Sam had insinuated that to him.

"Why do you think that?"

"She didn't seem phased that you were gone for a while. She even covered for you in front of your mother," Vlad answered as he started to walk closer. "You think I didn't notice that?"

"Or I said I'd be right back, then she told Mom the same thing," Danny said in an attempt to cover their tracks, but Vlad wasn't buying it. He walked in front of Danny calmly before pouncing on him and placing him in a headlock.

"She was too concerned when you came back. You told her you're half ghost, didn't you?" Danny used his core strength to throw his upper body downward, causing Vlad to flip forward and land on the bed.

"I said she didn't know anything about you. That's all that matters to you, isn't it?" Danny asked, a hint of resentment in his tone. Vlad floated above the bed and landed in front of Danny.

"It proves that you can't keep your mouth shut."

"She doesn't know anything about you! I only told her about me because I kept disappearing on her, and it was making everything difficult," Danny lied, knowing if Vlad knew she found out on her own, it would only feed further into his paranoia.

"And you just give up your secret that easily?"

"It's my secret and I can tell anyone I want," Danny growled as he looked up at Vlad. Even with growing a few inches over the years, which he had puberty to thank for, he still wasn't as tall as Vlad.

"How can you trust her?"

"You know what, Plasmius?" Danny practically spat, his eyes glowing green. "If you want to fight about this, how about you transform and meet me out back?" He threatened, finally letting the anger get the best of him. He was able to bottle it up for a while, but it always ended with him and Vlad going at it at some point. Danny didn't even care if he won, which most of the time, he didn't. It was just satisfying to blast Vlad in his pompous face. Vlad was silent for a moment before his own eyes started to glow red, signaling he accepted the challenge.

Sam checked the time on her phone to see that it was just after midnight. She sighed as she put it back down on her bed and focused her attention on the show she was watching. Sleep still hadn't come to her yet despite being up since six in the morning. Insomnia was no stranger to her, and if she couldn't sleep, she would just stay up all night, especially if it was the weekend. At least it wasn't as boring as tossing and turning all night, trying to force sleep onto herself, only to get nothing. There was suddenly a knock at her window, but before she could even investigate it, Danny phased through her wall, landing on the floor still in ghost form.

"Sorry to barge in," he said as he got onto his hands and knees while he changed back to human. Sam was about to ask what was going on, but when she approached him, her body filled with shock. His T-shirt revealed scratches and bruises on his arms, and when he finally looked up at her, his face looked like it had been hit with a flying hammer.

"Did Vlad do this?" She asked as she kneeled down at his side.

"Hey, I caused some damage, too. He'll definitely be feeling it in the morning," he told her as he dropped his head again. "Don't worry. I heal fast because of my ghost powers. Most of this will all be gone by tomorrow."

"Come on. Get up," she instructed, but he sighed before groaning.

"I just want to lay down."

"Get into the bathroom so I can clean you up," she said more sternly, making him nod weakly. She helped him to his feet and guided him into the bathroom, where he sat on the edge of the tub. "I need your pants and shirt off."

"Now is not the time to give in to your sexual desires," he tried to joke, but the annoyed look on her face made him sigh. "Tough crowd," he muttered before taking his shirt off, wincing as he did. The scrapes, bruises, and gashes continued onto his chest and some on his legs once he phased off his sweatpants. Sam took out the first aid kit and started to disinfect all his wounds.

"Did Vlad find out I knew?" She asked.

"No. I told him that I let you know I was half ghost since he was suspicious anyway and he got pissed. Then I got pissed and decided to blast him in the face for a while." He grimaced when she patted a cotton ball soaked with hydrogen peroxide over a cut on his left, swollen eye. "Totally worth it, though."

"Vlad needs to be stopped. He can't keep doing this to you. He can't just get away with everything he's done," she said, but Danny snorted.

"This is what Vlad did to me for fun. Imagine if he actually tried. I can't beat him. He has twenty years of experience on me."

"We have to think of something."

"Not tonight, though, okay? I'm exhausted," he said before yawning, watching as Sam covered his open cuts with bandages.

"You're good now," she told him, gathering all the supplies from the first aid kit to place them back in.

"Thanks," he said, getting up and walking over to her bed. She blinked at him before putting the first aid kit back under the sink.

"I take it you're staying the night?" She asked as he plopped onto her bed face down. He muffled something into the blanket, causing Sam to sigh out of frustration and go over to him just to roll him over onto his back. "Huh?"

"Is that okay?" He asked again, getting a playful eye roll from her.

"Yeah, sure." She moved the blanket slightly to get him under the sheets before covering him up again and joining him. "You're not going to put clothes on, are you?" She asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer.

"Keep your hands to yourself, missy," he said as he rolled over to lay on her chest. "You don't have permission," he mumbled out, actually making Sam laugh.

"You're such a little shit."

"Goodnight to you, too."

"I love you," she told him, getting him to look up at her before raising his head slightly to kiss her.

"I love you, too."

"You're still a little shit, though."

"Yeah, I know."

Chapter Text

When Danny woke up the next morning, Sam was nowhere to be seen. He groaned as he sat up, feeling a bit sore, but when he checked over his body, most of his injuries were gone. He stood up and started to take all the bandages off, seeing the wounds underneath were nothing more than minor cuts now. He walked over to the bathroom to throw everything in the trash before he picked his clothes up and examined them, seeing there were some blood spots from when he turned back into his human form once he got here. He wondered if Sam could lend him any clothes so he wouldn't have to wear his desecrated attire. He started to walk over to the bed when Sam entered her room, still in the same shirt and sweats from last night.

"You're up?" She asked as she scratched the back of her head.

"Yeah. I basically fell asleep right away. When did you wake up?" He asked as he sat down at the edge of the bed.

"Oh, I didn't. I've been up all night."

"Why?"

"I had to think. And what helps me think? Coffee. And lots of it. And that's what I did. I feel great," she said as Danny stared at her with a questionable look.

"Thinking about what?"

"We'll get into it later," she said as she waved him off before she walked toward the bathroom. "I have to shower first."

"Can I join?" Danny asked jokingly, expecting an annoyed look or a snarky comeback.

"Yeah. Fuck it," she said, making Danny freeze.

"I was kind of joking."

"And I'm kind of not. Move it or lose it," she responded as she started to run the shower, prompting Danny to sprint inside the bathroom with her; she certainly didn't have to tell him twice. About an hour later, the two were in the kitchen while Sam drank from yet another mug filled with coffee. She had a band shirt and sweats that were too large for her, and she was able to give them to Danny after seeing his clothes were in bad shape.

"So I've been up all night trying to think of a plan to try to get rid of Vlad. I either have a few solutions or no solutions depending on what you have to say about it," she started to say, but she realized Danny wasn't paying attention. He was looking at her, but he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were far away and distant, making her roll her eyes and snap a finger in front of his face to bring him down to earth. "Stop daydreaming about what happened thirty minutes ago. This is some serious shit we're dealing with," she told him, making him nod.

"You're right. What did you come up with while getting dangerously close to a caffeine overdose?" He asked as she yawned.

"Well, how do you think you could beat Vlad in a fight?"

"The only chance I have is if I kill him in his sleep," he responded simply.

"So can't your mom make an invention that could weaken Vlad but code your DNA into it so it can't be used against you?"

"That means I'd have to tell her the truth about everything," he said out loud. Sam stayed silent as she sipped coffee out of her mug. "Wait, you want me to confess to my mom?"

"We need her on our side with this or else this won't work."

"Okay, you need to come down from your caffeine high," he said as he got up and grabbed the near-empty mug from her.

"Danny, she's your mother. She's going to accept your ghost side no matter what," Sam told him as she watched him dump the contents of the mug into the sink before placing it in there. He leaned against the sink, keeping his back toward her.

"That's not what I'm worried about," he muttered before turning around. "I've known the truth about Dad this whole time and never told her. How is she going to forgive me?"

"I forgave you. She's going to know you had no choice in the matter because of Vlad," Sam said as she stood up to wrap her arms around him. "I know it's going to suck. But I think in the end, it's going to be better now that the truth is out there."

"Inventions can take weeks. How is she supposed to act normal around Vlad knowing the truth?"

"Wait until he leaves to go to Wisconsin to tell her. She'll have a few days to prepare herself and get a head start on the new weapon."

"And what happens after that?"

"You guys tell him to get out of your lives. If he can't use his powers in the moment, he can't attack, right?"

"And what about after the moment?" Danny asked as he released her, walking back over to the kitchen table to sit down. "He held a grudge against my dad for twenty years. You really think he won't do the same to us?" Sam sighed and walked back over to her chair, using the back of it to lean on.

"Danny, do you really want Vlad, your dad's murderer, to be your mom's husband and your stepfather forever?" She asked, making him look up at her.

"Obviously not."

"So are you going to be a bitch or are you going to do something about it?" He stared at her like she had three heads while she stared back with nothing behind her eyes. She was sleep-deprived and her head wasn't working right because of it. She made some good points, and it might be the only way to get rid of Vlad, but they should probably discuss it when her brain wasn't loaded with fog. He stood up and walked over to her just to throw her over his shoulder before heading for the stairs. "What are you doing?" She asked as she dangled.

"You need a nap," he responded, shifting her so he could carry her bridal-style while he walked up the stairs.

"Since when are you in charge of me?" She questioned as they entered her room.

"Since you're blood became ninety percent coffee." He laid her in bed before grabbing the TV remote and laying beside her, shifting so he was on his back and she was on his chest. For someone who claimed they weren't tired, she was out the second her head hit his body. He watched her peaceful face while she slept for a moment before softly kissing the top of her head and shifting his attention to the TV. Although Sam looked peaceful, her dreams were littered with thoughts of Vlad. Even if he left Danny's family alone, who's to say he wouldn't wreak havoc on other people? Once Vlad was out of their lives, he was still the world's problem. There had to be a way to get rid of him permanently without doing the painfully obvious that would land them jail time. When she woke up two hours later, she was still in Danny's arms. "Good afternoon," he said to her as she sat up.

"What time is it?" She asked.

"Around one."

"I guess I really did need a nap," she said as she rubbed her eyes. "But it's back to business. Even my dreams wouldn't let this whole thing go."

"Did your dreams happen to give you a solution?" She stared down at the bed before turning to him.

"Would the Fenton Thermos work on Vlad?"

"It should."

"So if he starts to get belligerent, can't we trap him in there?" Danny blinked at her as he considered her words.

"Forever?"

"It's better than killing him. If he can't let losing your mom go, he's going to have to stay stuck inside the thermos forever. I think solitary confinement is a proper punishment for two murders."

"So the plan is to tell my mom everything, then use a new weapon on Vlad to weaken him so we can tell him we're done with him, and if he starts going crazy, we trap him in the thermos forever?" Danny questioned, not understanding how she could walk into a situation he'd been in for over two years, and in not even a few months, she was able to solve it.

"Do you approve?" She asked, earning a smirk from him.

"If solutions to problems come to you in your sleep, maybe you should nap more often." He spent a few more hours with her before he went back to his own house. When he walked in, his mom and Vlad were on the couch in the living room together.

"Hey," he greeted as he walked into the kitchen to throw his keys onto the counter before looking in the fridge for a water bottle.

"Danny," Maddie started to say as she entered the kitchen. "I just wanted to tell you that I've been thinking, and I'm not so sure it's a good idea to have you sleeping over at Sam's," she said, making Danny close the fridge.

"Why?"

"Well, because you're dating. Don't you think it's a little inappropriate?" She said as Vlad entered the kitchen and leaned against the counter while he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm almost eighteen. And her mom is over there, so what's the big deal?"

"I hear her mom is gone a lot," Vlad added, causing Danny to hold back choice words he had for him.

"Did he put you up to this?" Danny asked his mother, knowing Vlad wanted him away from Sam.

"I'm just concerned-" Vlad started to say, but Danny cut him off.

"Well, don't be. You're not my father."

"I'm the closest thing you have to one." Danny stared at Vlad with hate behind his eyes.

"And I wonder whose fault that was," he growled, making Maddie turn to him with a disapproving look.

"Danny, what happened in the lab that day was an accident. And that's not what we're talking about," she said, getting a groan out of Danny, who hung his head back dramatically.

"Look, I know what this is about, so I'm just gonna get it out of the way," he said as he used one of his hands to lean against the fridge. "Sam's been on birth control for her period for years, and I'm not stupid, so if you're concerned about me getting anyone pregnant, don't be. Are we done here now?" He asked, earning silent blinks from his two authority figures, not expecting him to so easily openly admit or talk about things other teenagers found embarrassing or invasive.

"Well, I just think you're spending way too much time with her. You see her at school during the week, then on the weekends you're with each other all the time," Vlad continued, making Danny cross his arms.

"So I'm in trouble for being in love with my girlfriend?"

"You're not in trouble," Maddie told him.

"Look, now that Tucker and Jazz are off at college, I don't have anyone else. The second either of them comes back to visit, I'll dedicate my time to them, but for right now, my main focus is my girlfriend. Alright?" He asked, causing Maddie to sigh.

"I guess that's alright," she said, making Danny nod.

"Good," he said as he walked past both of them, but stopped to look over his shoulder. "Vlad, can you meet me upstairs?" He didn't wait for an answer before going up to his room. He knew Vlad was trying to get him to stay away from Sam. It was one thing for Vlad to say something, but trying to convince his mother to go along with it pissed him off. If it wasn't a problem before, Vlad was surely trying to make it a problem now. The problem himself entered the room while Danny stood by his bed with his arms crossed.

"Don't get my mother involved in your own sick agenda. No one is going to keep me away from Sam," Danny told him in a sinister tone.

"She's not just your mother. She is my wife," Vlad shot back, and Danny didn't hide the grimace that appeared because of those words.

"You made damn sure of that, didn't you?" He growled, causing Vlad to glare at him.

"Daniel-"

"How about you stop pretending to care about me? You can put on your fake act in front of my mom, but when she's not here, just leave me alone," Danny told him before sitting down on his bed and pulling out his phone. The issue was, in Vlad's own weird way, he did care about Danny, but the resentment he felt for Danny not accepting him would take over his emotions. In Vlad's mind, they should all be one big happy family, but Danny's resistance ruined that. He still held on to the hope that they would get there eventually, but ever since Sam entered the picture, things between them were only getting worse. There had to be some way to stop it. He stared at Danny for a moment before heading for the door.

"Get some sleep. In your own bed," he said before walking out and closing the door behind him. Danny rolled his eyes and scoffed to himself.

"Fruitloop."

Chapter Text

The next weekend was welcomed by one of the many snowfalls that had already happened over the winter. It was only January at this point, and there were bound to be more over the next couple of months, but Danny chose this time to do homework. He wasn't a huge fan of the snow, even with the cold not affecting him too much. To him, it was just frozen water making a mess everywhere. There was no fun in that, especially as a teenager. He was almost done with his assignments when his mother knocked on his open door.

"Vlad has to meet with one of the head guys at one of his companies, so can you dig his car out of the driveway, please? He has to go to the airport," she asked, and Danny almost perked up.

"How long will he be gone?"

"He'll be back tomorrow." Her answer made his shoulders droop, disappointed he wasn't getting a long enough break from him.

"Oh. Okay, I'll be right out," he responded before she walked away. He changed out of his sweats and opted for jeans instead so he wouldn't get soaked. He pulled on a hoodie and gray beanie before heading downstairs to slip on snow boots. After grabbing a shovel from the garage, he walked outside to shovel out Vlad's dumbass bougie car. He only shoveled for about ten minutes before getting sick of it. He placed the shovel down and looked around to make sure no one was looking before aiming an ectoblast at the driveway, the heat from it making all the snow instantly melt to water.

"That's cheating, don't you think?" Vlad said to him as he approached in a thick black peacoat and red scarf.

"Yeah, you'd know, wouldn't you? That's how you got your wealth after all," Danny shot back, knowing all Vlad did was overshadow business tycoons to make them sign over their companies to him.

"Think smarter, not harder, my boy," Vlad responded, making Danny roll his eyes.

"That seems like taking the easy way out. But that obviously doesn't matter to you as long as you benefit from it." Vlad took the shovel from him and placed it on one of his shoulders.

"Anyone in my position would have done what I did."

"I wouldn't have."

"Because you're a good kid, Daniel."

"Yeah, and I'm real. I'm not a fraud like you," Danny remarked with a smirk, one Vlad mirrored before sharply turning and hitting the end of the shovel into Danny's face. He grunted as Vlad placed the shovel back down and pretended like it wasn't intentional.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't think you were that close," he snickered, but Danny shoved him before stomping inside the house. He aggressively pulled his shoes, hoodie, and beanie off before throwing them into the closet.

"I hope his plane crashes," he muttered to himself before looking up and realizing his mother was in the living room. "You didn't hear that, did you?" He asked as he walked closer to her, but she wore a look that told him she was on to him.

"I saw you both out there. And I caught your fight last week too, so tell me, just how often do you and Vlad fight, and why haven't you told me?" She asked, crossing her arms. She didn't seem mad, she just seemed concerned that he was struggling and she hadn't noticed. He shrugged and tried to play it off, looking outside the window behind her to make sure Vlad was gone, which he was.

"We just joke around. That's all," he replied, shoving his hands in his pockets, but Maddie wasn't buying it.

"I just watched my husband intentionally hit my son in the head with a shovel. That's not joking around," she said, making Danny sigh as he walked into the kitchen.

"That's just how guys play around, Mom. It's not that serious."

"Your father played around with you plenty and never hurt you," she told him as she followed right behind. "Even as you got older, he was never rough."

"Vlad's different."

"Different how?" Danny was silent, unsure of how to answer that. His mom did just catch them in the act, after all. Well, more like Vlad in the act. On top of that, she knew they'd been arguing, no doubt eavesdropping on them. "You don't like Vlad, do you?" She asked more calmly, already knowing the answer.

"I never did. And he resents me for not accepting him. He'd treat me better if I did, but I never will," he explained, leaning against the kitchen counter as he crossed his arms.

"Does he hurt you?" Maddie asked, making Danny silent again.

"He hurts me and I hurt him back," he admitted, making Maddie groan while her hands went to her face. "It's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal! Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Because I like to beat the shit out of him! He deserves it after everything he's ever done to this family, not to mention Sam's family! He destroyed both our lives and the only thing I can do about it is in the form of violence," he yelled as he snapped, not being able to hold in the resentment now that he was being pressed about it. His eyes started to water as he turned his back to Maddie.

"What are you talking about?" She asked softly, watching as a hand rubbed the back of his neck. "What are you not telling me?" He turned back to her with silent tears running down his face.

"Promise I'll still be your son afterward?"

"Oh, honey," she started as she walked over to hug him, and even with him being a few inches taller than her, he was still her baby. "You and Jazz will always come first to me. No matter what. Here," she said as she started to lead him to the kitchen table. "Sit and tell me." She remained standing, but Danny gestured to one of the kitchen chairs.

"You might want to sit for this."

Sam was spending the snow day in the basement playing the large array of games that resided there. She actually did enjoy the snow, but not when it was this frequent. She played in it the first few times, but now she would rather be in the warmth of her own home. She wasn't expecting to hang out with Danny at all since she knew he had to catch up on schoolwork, so she had been watching movies and playing games online to keep herself occupied. She was in the middle of a pinball game when a disembodied voice interrupted her.

"Hey," Danny said from behind her, making her gasp and turn around.

"What are you doing here?"

"To tell you our plan is in motion," he said as he walked over to the couch.

"Wait, what?" She asked, forgetting her game altogether. "You told your mom everything?"

"Yup."

"And?" She prompted, trying to get more information as she joined him on the couch.

"Well, we shed a lot of tears after I told her about my ghost half, Vlad's ghost half, and Vlad's involvement in Dad's death, but she wasn't mad at me. Actually, totally accepting, which was weird but I'm not complaining," he explained vaguely, but Sam didn't need the details if he didn't want to share them.

"That's great, right?"

"Yeah, the problem is, I think she hates Vlad more than me. It's going to be hard to hide that, so I'll probably stick around my house when he gets back tomorrow and help her through it. You're more than welcome to join. She knows everything about you, too, so I guess we'll all be in this together," he said with a shrug.

"And the invention?"

"Already drawing up blueprints now." Sam leaned forward to hug him tightly, happy that everything worked out with his mom, not that she doubted anything. She knew everything would be okay, but that didn't make the situation easy.

"I'm so happy for you," she told him as they parted.

"And I'm happy for you. We're all gonna get revenge."

"I don't want revenge. I just want Vlad gone."

"Well, I want revenge, so deal with it," he said, earning a chuckle from Sam.

"It's not about revenge. It's about getting rid of Vlad so he can't do any more damage."

"I can't relate. And that's why you're a better person than me," he joked, getting a playful eye-roll from her. "You're going to come over tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, I'll be there," she sighed as she leaned into him. "I love trauma bonding with the Fentons." Her response made him laugh; that was one way to put it.

Chapter Text

The next day, as soon as Sam walked into Fenton Works, she could tell the aura was different. It was sort of comforting to know everyone in the house was now against Vlad, but hiding it was the real challenge. Danny could get away with the smart-ass comments and remarks, considering that's how he treated Vlad normally, but everyone else had to tread lightly. As soon as Maddie saw Sam enter the living room, she rushed up to her to hug her.

"I'm so sorry for what Vlad did," she said as she pulled away, but Sam shook her head.

"This is no one's fault but Vlad's. We all have to lean on each other to get through this," Sam said, peering up at Danny, who was by her side. "Let me and Danny do most of the talking today."

"Yeah, we can do this," Maddie said out loud, almost to herself.

"We all just need to act normal. So I'll continue being a sarcastic bitch, you keep being cheery, and Danny can continue being a snot-nosed little brat," she joked as she looked up at him, but he just shrugged.

"That's pretty on point, actually," he said before moving to sit on the couch.

"I'll be in the lab working on the destabilizer," Maddie said before heading for the basement.

"Vlad won't be suspicious that she's working on an invention, right?" Sam asked as she sat down next to Danny, who gave her a questionable look.

"My mom makes inventions for a living. How is he supposed to know this one is specifically for him?" He asked, making Sam quiet for a moment.

"Yeah, that was probably a dumb question."

"Kind of, but I'll let it slide," Danny said with a lopsided grin before placing an arm around her shoulders. Everything was peaceful for about an hour while they watched TV until Vlad entered through the door. His coat had some snow on it and he immediately took his snow-covered shoes off and put them aside.

"'Sup, fruitloop?" Danny greeted with a snarky tone, getting his attention.

"Hi, Mr. Masters," Sam said once his eyes went to her.

"What a cute little pow-wow," Vlad commented as he took his coat off before hanging it in the closet.

"A shame they didn't delay your flight," Danny went on, shrugging when Vlad gave him a look of disapproval before his lips formed a smirk.

"How's your face?" He asked, referring to the shovel that had impacted Danny too hard yesterday.

"As handsome as ever."

"Don't start with the sass," Sam interjected, earning a cocky smile from Danny.

"Did you finish your assignments from yesterday?" Vlad questioned, making Danny's smile fade.

"Yes, sir, I did," he responded as he turned his attention back to the TV.

"Where's your mother?"

"Basement." Vlad turned in that direction, and as soon as Sam heard the basement door open and shut, she turned to Danny.

"Should you go down there? It's the first time your mom is seeing Vlad after all of this," she said, but Danny shrugged.

"She can handle it."

"You're sure?" He thought for a moment, reflecting on all the pent-up resentment that he himself had for Vlad, even after years of knowing the truth. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours yet for his mother to process everything, and even though he knew his mom was strong, maybe he should be down there for support.

"Stay up here," he instructed Sam as he got up. He descended the basement steps to see Vlad talking to Maddie by one of the lab tables. Danny approached them, making Vlad stop the conversation, but Danny didn't say anything. His mom seemed to be acting like her usual self, but he could see some relief on her face now that he was down here with her.

"Do you need something?" Vlad asked.

"Well, you tried to cock-block me at some point so I thought I'd do it back to you," Danny replied, earning a groan from Maddie.

"Danny, don't be gross," she scolded.

"Don't be disrespectful toward your mother," Vlad interjected.

"I would never disrespect my mother. Technically, I'm disrespecting you," Danny responded to a very unhappy Vlad.

"Danny, fix your attitude," Maddie told him sternly, getting him to smirk.

"Relax. I'm just playing around."

"Then why don't you play around upstairs? I'm a little busy down here," Maddie said before pulling her hood and glasses on while she walked over to the table where the new invention was. Danny took that as a sign that she needed a break from Vlad already, so he tried not to sigh as he shrugged.

"If you insist," he said as he headed for the stairs while Vlad followed after.

"Why don't you boys start dinner?" Maddie asked, blow torch in hand while her eyes stayed on the invention in front of her.

"You got it," Danny said back to her before climbing the steps to the basement door. "Oh, darling!" He called out as he opened the door, peering his head into the living room to see Sam. "Want to help us with dinner?"

"Since when do you cook?" She asked as she joined the boys in the kitchen.

"Cooking isn't exactly Mom's strong suit. Me and Jazz taught ourselves at a young age," he responded as he went to a cabinet to grab a pot and a skillet.

"And you never cooked for me, why?"

"You never asked," he responded with a shrug. Sam turned to Vlad while she shook her head in disapproval.

"Do you cook at all, Mr. Masters?" She asked, earning a snort from Danny.

"Do sandwiches count?" He quipped, prompting Vlad to walk over to him and snatch the skillet out of his hand.

"I can cook a few things," Vlad said, almost in defense of himself.

"I could out-cook you," Danny retorted, almost in a challenging way.

"You absolutely can't."

"Prove it," Danny told him, placing the pot on the stove before gesturing to it.

"Fine, I will," Vlad said before going over to the fridge to pull out vegetables. Danny smirked before grabbing Sam's hand and leading her back to the living room where they sat down on the couch.

"And that's how you get out of making dinner," he said to her, making her giggle. After about an hour, dinner was ready, and Danny was surprised that nothing had caught on fire. It was just rice and vegetables, so he guessed that was too simple to mess up. The four of them were sitting in the kitchen eating, with Danny next to Vlad while his mom and Sam were across from them. Danny prayed Vlad was too self-centered to notice the awkwardness of the situation. Everybody in this room now had a grudge against Vlad, he just hoped it wasn't too obvious.

"How'd your meeting go, dear?" Maddie asked Vlad, trying her best to come off as her usual bubbly self.

"They were changing up the marketing strategy and wanted to make sure everything was approved. Nothing too tedious," he responded. Danny hadn't eaten much and spent most of the time at the table moving food around on his plate with a fork. Sam noticed his distant demeanor and lightly touched her foot to his shin from under the table to get his attention. She only smiled when he looked up at her, making him shoot her one back.

"Oh, is it okay if I go to Sam's tomorrow for Monday Night Raw? I'll be coming home right after," Danny asked Maddie as he raised his glass of water to his lips.

"Is that a wrestling event or what you call a normal Monday with your girlfriend?" Vlad muttered quietly to Danny, who nearly choked on his drink.

"You okay there?" Maddie asked as he tried to resist coughing.

"No, I'm sitting next to a weirdo," Danny answered.

"We're just joking around. Don't be so dramatic," Vlad responded as he nudged Danny with an elbow, earning a look of disgust. "If it's okay with your mother, it's okay with me."

"Just make sure you come home afterward. It is a school night after all," Maddie commented before taking a bite of broccoli.

"Cool," Danny said before going back to pretending like he was interested in what was on his plate.

"You know, Sam," Vlad started to say, making Danny's full attention go to him. Maddie glanced at Sam who looked completely normal, making her wonder how she could keep her cool so easily. "If you or your mother needs it, I know a really great grief counselor that Maddie and Jasmine went to." Sam noticed how he didn't mention Danny going and wondered if that was Danny's own decision or if Vlad left Danny out purposely so there wasn't a possibility he could snitch.

"That's really nice of you to offer, but I don't think I'm that far gone yet," she responded, adding a slight chuckle for authenticity. "Once I get there, though, I'll take that number." Vlad's cell phone started to ring from his pocket, and he fished it out to see it was one of his business partners calling.

"I have to take this," he said before going down to the lab, making almost everyone sigh in relief now that he was gone.

"I feel like I need a cigarette... and I don't even smoke," Sam said as she rubbed her temples with the tips of her fingers.

"Welcome to my life for the past three years," Danny responded dryly as he finally placed his fork down.

"How have you been able to endure this for so long?" Maddie asked, causing Danny to shrug.

"Ghost fighting helps get a lot of anger out."

"We have to keep cool, guys," Sam said as she stood up to place her empty plate in the sink. "This is just temporary. You'll be out of this mess soon enough."

"Are you going to be okay?" Danny asked Maddie, who nodded after a moment of silence.

"It's just temporary," she said to herself, almost in a reassuring way.

As it got later into the night, Sam went back to her own home, leaving Danny and Maddie on their own. For Danny, being around Vlad was something he had already mastered tolerating, despite the violent fights they would get into every so often. Considering it hadn't been very long for Maddie, she found herself struggling. She was trying her best to act normal around Vlad, but all she could think about was what he did to Jack. Not to mention, putting hands on her son frequently behind her back. When it was time for them to go to bed, she just knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. She hadn't even changed out of her hazmat suit by the time Vlad rolled into their bed. She couldn't even fathom sharing a bed with him at this moment.

"You know what, sweetie? I'm not very tired yet. I think I'm going to go work down in the lab until I get sleepy," she told him as she headed toward the door.

"Everything okay?" Vlad asked. Every once in a while, Maddie would spend some nights in the lab, but it didn't happen very often, prompting him to wonder if something was wrong.

"Yeah, just a weird night, I suppose," she said before leaving their room. As soon as she got down to the lab, she sat in one of the chairs and just started to sob. She felt like she had failed as a mother. How could she not realize how Vlad was treating Danny this whole time? How could she let him convince her that he could put the pieces of her life back together while he was behind this tragedy all along? She couldn't even decipher the similarities between Phantom and her own son, only for them to be one of the same. Just how distracted had she become that these obvious things were just slipping past her?

Upstairs, Vlad wasn't entirely convinced of what she said was happening. He knew that something was very off in this house. It first started with Danny and Sam, and now it's starting with Maddie. He decided to investigate and hoped to see Maddie working when he got down to the lab, but instead, she was crying. She heard his footsteps and looked up to see Vlad coming over to her.

"Can you tell me what's really going on?" He asked softly as he placed his hands on her shoulders.

"It's just watching Sam go through all this is reminding me of what we all went through with Jack," Maddie responded, which wasn't technically a lie.

"What can I do to help?"

"Can you send Danny down?"

"Of course." He immediately went upstairs and knocked on Danny's bedroom door, knowing that even though he was supposed to be asleep, he wouldn't be. His door opened a crack, and when he saw it was Vlad, he groaned.

"What?" He asked.

"Your mother's in the basement. She's upset and asked for you specifically," he responded, making Danny look concerned as he opened his door more.

"Upset about what? Did you do something to her?" He questioned, making Vlad give him an exasperated look.

"What? I would never hurt her!"

"Just her kid, right?" Danny asked rhetorically as he pushed past him.

"When he's being a pain in the ass, yes," Vlad answered, making Danny roll his eyes as he went downstairs. Once he entered the basement, Maddie rose out of her chair. There were tears streaking down her face, and he immediately walked over to hug her.

"What's the matter?" He asked, unaware that Vlad was in the room with them but invisible. Now that Maddie knew about Vlad's ghost half and that her crying probably tipped him off, she knew she wouldn't be able to say much out of fear that he could be listening, so she had to keep it vague for the moment.

"I'm just sorry. I'm so sorry," she told him as she held onto him.

"Hey, look at me," he said as he gently pulled away to get her to sit back down on the lab chair. "You're okay, I'm okay, and Jazz is okay. That's all that matters, right?" She nodded as she wiped her tears away. "I'm lucky to have you as a mom. Even when they're home, parents can still be absent."

"Is that what Sam is dealing with?" She asked, making Danny cross his arms.

"Sam is strong. She doesn't necessarily need me to lean on, but the support is appreciated. Everything is going to work out for all of us. Just give it time." The interaction between the two could be seen as sweet, but it only made Vlad furious. He phased up into their shared bedroom, pacing back and forth as he realized that he was compromised. Technically, nothing was said to confirm it, but he was able to piece the signs together. Danny must have told Sam everything first, which had to be why things were getting worse between Vlad and him. Now Maddie was involved, and it had to be Sam's doing. None of this was ever this complicated before she entered the picture, no doubt putting ideas in Danny's head. Vlad was about to lose everything. All those years of keeping secrets and working so hard to get everything he ever wanted were going down the drain, all because of some teenage girl. Now he had nothing left. He didn't have the heart or wherewithal to seriously hurt Maddie or Danny, but scratching another Manson off the list seemed more tempting. Soon, the Manson family would be down to only one.

Chapter Text

When Danny woke up for school the next day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Once he got up to go to the bathroom, he saw his mom's door was closed, assuming she and Vlad were asleep inside. He did his normal morning routine before flying to school and waiting by Sam's locker for her to arrive, which was weird considering she usually got here before him. He assumed that maybe her alarm didn't go off and that she was still sleeping, so he tried giving her a call, but her phone went straight to voicemail. He only got more concerned, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions. It was entirely possible she fell asleep before she got to plug her phone up to her charger. He figured he would give it a couple of hours before he got too worried.

When it was almost eleven o'clock and he still hadn't heard from Sam, that's when he started to panic. It wasn't like her to not show up to school without telling him, all the while her phone was still going to voicemail. He finally retreated to the nearest bathroom to change into his ghost half before flying to her house. He entered her bedroom to see her phone on her nightstand, but when he picked it up, it was clearly turned off.

"Sam?" He called out before going inside her bathroom, but found nothing of importance. He checked the kitchen and basement, along with all the other rooms of the house, but she was nowhere to be seen. Something must have happened, and his gut instinct told him Vlad had everything to do with it. Rushing home, he immediately checked Maddie's bedroom and the living room for any sign of Vlad before going down to the basement where Maddie was. She was confused to see him not only home from school, but in his ghost form.

"Why aren't you in school? Are you okay?" She asked, lifting her hood and taking off her goggles.

"Where's Vlad?" Danny almost demanded.

"I haven't seen him since I woke up. Why?"

"He didn't say where he was going?"

"No, I just woke up and he wasn't here."

"Shit," he grumbled to himself as he looked around the lab. "I think Vlad took Sam. She wasn't at school and when I went to her house, she wasn't there either. Her phone was turned off and left behind, too."

"You think he knows everything now?"

"He must know if he's taking it out on Sam. I bet he took her to his mansion in Wisconsin. We have to leave now," he instructed, getting Maddie to nod.

"We'll take the Emergency Opt Center."

"How close are you to being done with that thing?" Danny asked as he nodded over to the destabilizer on the lab table.

"I just started it a few days ago, honey. I don't know how fast I can get it done."

"We'll bring it with us. We have to go," he commanded, prompting Maddie to collect the unfinished invention before the pair rushed to the Emergency Opt Center, which was the contraption right on top of their building. It held weapons and tools, but most importantly, detached from the roof and turned into a jet. Maddie would be able to work on the destabilizer while they flew to Wisconsin, and Danny didn't have to fly the jet the whole time because there was an autopilot feature. He could have used the opportunity to rest, but his mind was racing too much for that. As soon as the jet took off, he was already pacing back and forth. Maddie noticed and understood his frustrations and anxiety, but she knew him being inside his own head wasn't going to do him any good.

"Do you want to help me?" Maddie asked, getting his attention. Silently, he nodded before going over to the small lab table where his mother was.

When Sam became conscious, she wasn't sure what was going on. It felt like her body was awake, but she couldn't open her eyes. It was almost like being in the dream state where you know you're awake, but all you see is black. She didn't know how long she had been like that until she was finally able to open her eyes. At first, everything was blurry, but when her eyes focused, she could see she was in some kind of lab, but it wasn't Fenton Works. When she looked down, she could see she was strapped onto a lab table that was tilted forward so she could see her surroundings, but her head was still too foggy to do anything about it. The straps lay vertically across her body, with one pinning down her feet, her thighs, her stomach, along with her hands, and her chest. Trying to move in any way made her head hurt, causing her to groan.

"I may have gone a little heavy on the sleeping gas," a voice all too familiar said. Vlad stepped into her line of sight, and she wasn't surprised he was behind all this, but she was almost startled by his appearance. His hair was black and spiked, different than his usual white ponytail. His skin was a tint of blue, and his attire was mostly white and red. She was safe to assume that he was in his ghost form, and yet she wasn't intimidated. "I needed to make sure you would be out for a while."

"Where am I?" She asked groggily.

"Wisconsin."

"Are you going to kill me, Vlad?" He got quiet for a moment while he placed his hands behind his back.

"Yes. I just haven't decided how yet."

"Danny and Maddie would never forgive you."

"That doesn't matter anymore!" He yelled as he floated closer to her. "They were all I had in this world, and you ruined it! Nobody was plotting against me until you came into my family's lives!" He accused, and even though she very well may have been living the last few moments of her life, she wouldn't be biting her tongue.

"They're not your family," she growled, and purely out of anger, he shot an ectoblast at her right shoulder. She cried out as it singed her clothes and burned her skin.

"All I needed was more time! Something I no longer have because of you." She breathed deeply, trying to ignore the stinging pain.

"Danny was never going to forgive you for killing his father. And I'm in the same boat as him," she responded, causing Vlad to float back down to the ground.

"I didn't want to kill Jack. I didn't want to kill your father either, but I had to. I needed to protect my assets."

"But you want to kill me?" He walked closer to her, getting only inches away from her face, but she didn't back down and looked him directly in his red eyes.

"You took everything from me. I had everything I ever wanted-"

"You really think you were going to be able to hide the truth forever?" Sam interrupted, now getting angry at the total lack of self-awareness he had. "You did something horrible and got caught because of your own big mouth, and now you need a scapegoat to avoid blame. If you didn't want anyone to know, you should have never told Danny." Her outburst actually took him by surprise. After all, this was the first time he was seeing who she really was, knowing all their interactions before this were just an act.

"Daniel needed to know what the consequences of betraying me were."

"No, you just needed to keep him in check because the reality was that you were scared. You knew he would eventually betray you, so you had to scare him into silence. That's not very father-like if you ask me," she practically spat, her anger taking over while she thought about how awful Vlad had been treating Danny over the years. That wasn't love. It was control. Vlad only glared at her before he started to walk away.

"Enjoy your last few hours alive," he said before disappearing. Once he was out of the room, Sam looked around for anything she could use to escape. She was too far away from anything to be able to reach or grab something, and when she tried to thrash around to move the table she was on, it wouldn't budge. She sighed and looked at her right shoulder, seeing how Vlad's ectoblast singed through the sleeve of her purple shirt, leaving a hole. She looked at the strap that was right below her injury and realized it was also singed halfway through. Using all her strength, she started to twist her upper body while leaning forward, hoping the strap would break with more pressure. After a few minutes, the strap holding down her upper body completely broke. She was able to slip her hands out from under the second strap, but her lower body was still pinned. She used any flexibility she had to crane her upper body to the right where a lab table was and grabbed anything she could reach. She grabbed something thin and sharp, and realizing it was a scalpel, shrugged as she started to attack the rest of the straps.

"Not exactly a machete, but it will do," she muttered to herself as she worked fast and sloppily, not knowing how much time she had until Vlad came back. When she was finally free, she ransacked the lab, grabbing any small weapon she could be able to carry on foot. She kept the scalpel in her pocket and found a small wrist ray that she immediately equipped herself with. "Cool. Now how the fuck do I get out of here?"

Forty-five minutes had passed and Danny and Maddie still had another half-hour before they entered Wisconsin. Danny had helped with the destabilizer as much as he could before Maddie finally took over. Currently, he was sitting in the co-pilot chair, head in his hands, as he was clearly distressed.

"Everything will be okay, Danny," Maddie told him, getting him to turn so he was facing her.

"Vlad's had her for hours. She could be dead by now," he said as his gaze went to the floor, saying the words but not wanting to believe them. Maddie shook her head at his negativity.

"What are some of the reasons you like Sam?" She asked, the question catching him off guard since it seemed like a pivot on the subject at hand.

"That's a loaded question."

"So tell me."

"Well, she's compassionate and authentic. She gets me and is always making me laugh. She's strong and insanely smart-"

"See, that right there," Maddie interjected. "Strong, independent, and smart are incredible personality traits. They're good for getting yourself out of sticky situations. That's how you know she's okay." Danny sat in silence for a moment, hoping there was some kind of way Sam was able to outsmart Vlad. The possibility made him feel just a smidge better. He stood up and looked at the map on the dashboard and saw they were almost there.

"I'm gonna need you to land this thing somewhere Vlad won't be able to see. I'm going to fly ahead," he told her as he turned his back to her.

"Danny," Maddie called out, getting him to turn around. "Just be careful." He gave her a reassuring smile before flying out of the jet.

Chapter Text

Once Sam opened the door to exit the lab, it led her to a long staircase. When she ascended it and got to the door, she found herself in a long hallway with multiple doors. On the walls were various pictures of Vlad, making her grimace at the sight of narcissism at its finest. The end of the hall led to a cross section that connected three more hallways together, making her sigh.

"And I thought my house was too much," she said to herself, picking a random hallway to go down. She was looking for any staircase that would hopefully lead her to the ground floor, but she had to wonder every hall before finding one. When she ascended the stairs, it only led her to another hallway. "I'm going to lose my mind," she muttered before following the maze of a floor plan that could hopefully lead to salvation. Finally, she reached the ground floor, seeing a big, theatrical door that she hoped would lead to the outside world. Before she could even get to it, Danny flew in at top speed before stopping in his tracks mid-air when he saw his girlfriend.

"Sam?"

"Danny!" He was on his way down to her when she was suddenly grabbed by Vlad, who placed one hand around her throat and the other arm around her torso.

"If you get any closer, she's dead," Vlad warned, causing Danny to stop in the air above them. Vlad phased off Sam's wrist gun and threw it to the side.

"Vlad, will you look at what you're doing?" Danny began to say. "You do realize murder isn't the answer to everything, right?"

"What I did to both of your fathers was a series of unfortunate events. This would be entirely out of pleasure," Vlad hissed as Sam tried to struggle against him, but got nothing out of it.

"What is it going to take to show you none of this was going to work?" Danny questioned as he slowly floated down to the floor. "I am never going to forgive you. I am not like you, nor will I ever be like you. You are not my father. I was never going to join you. With or without Sam, I wasn't going to stay silent forever."

"I could've-"

"Could've what? Given me more beatdowns while threatening everything and everyone you could think of? That wasn't exactly swaying my opinion. Either way, you were going to lose." While Danny talked and slightly distracted Vlad, Sam slowly reached into her pocket and pulled out the scalpel from earlier before quickly stabbing it into Vlad's side. He cried out while backing away, and Danny used the opportunity to fly into him and slam him against the wall across from them. Vlad pushed him away and saw Sam running toward the discarded wrist gun, so he threw an ectoblast in her direction. It hit her in the hip, and the force caused her to slam into the nearest wall, leaving her on the ground motionless.

"Sam!" Danny yelled, about to fly over to her when Vlad tackled him onto the ground. Vlad started to throw punches at Danny's face, landing a few before Danny phased through the floor, then came up from behind Vlad to blast him in the back. Vlad fell forward before forming an ectoplasmic shield around him to block him from the rest of the blasts. He turned invisible and approached Danny before becoming visible again and grabbed him by the throat, thrusting Danny into the floor, leaving tiles cracking underneath him from the impact.

"You really think you can beat me?" Vlad yelled before picking Danny up from the floor and throwing him as hard as he could into the wall next to them. Danny was already in bad shape when he was able to spare a glance down at his body. He was oozing a mixture of blood and ectoplasm in several places, and as much as he was trying to fight back, Vlad's explosive anger was too much for him to handle. Vlad picked Danny up from the front of his hazmat suit and slammed him against the wall, but kept him pinned there. "All those beatings I gave you were me going easy. You're not getting that Vlad today," Vlad continued to say. Danny's ears were ringing and his vision was a bit blurry, but he was mostly coherent.

"Are you going to kill me?" He asked, making Vlad pause.

"No, son. I could never do that. But I can make you regret betraying me." Vlad cocked a hand back fast and punched Danny in his right ribcage, the blow so painful he would have dropped to his knees if Vlad didn't pull him back up. "They're not broken. Just bruised enough for you to be feeling it for the next few days. Unless you want me to actually break something, then you'll stay out of my way," he said before finally letting Danny drop to the floor. He turned around and began to walk toward Sam, and even though Danny felt like he couldn't breathe, he still used all his strength to fly to Vlad to try to stop him.

"Don't touch her!" Danny growled as he tried to place Vlad in a headlock, but Vlad launched Danny over his back, and he hit the ground hard. His ribs were already screaming, and he rolled onto his back before Vlad placed a foot on his injury and applied pressure.

"Don't worry. There are plenty of other fish in the sea," Vlad told him as Danny writhed in pain from underneath him.

"I can't say the same for you," Danny grunted out, still having to get the last word even if it meant he had to pay for it later. Vlad's face twisted in annoyance as he was about to add more pressure, but was interrupted when he got hit with some kind of gas. All of a sudden, he reverted back to his human form. Confused, he tried to summon back his ghost half, but nothing was working.

"Release my son," he heard a voice growling from a few feet away. Vlad looked up to see Maddie holding out the destabilizer along with the Fenton Bazooka. Vlad immediately backed away from Danny who slowly got up and made his way over to his mother while he clutched his side in pain.

"M-maddie?" Vlad questioned, not expecting to see her here in the slightest. Maddie ignored him and looked over at Danny, who shrugged.

"I heal fast. I'll be fine," he told her.

"Go check on Sam," Maddie instructed, and as much as he wanted to, he hesitated.

"I don't want to leave you with him."

"We have at least ten minutes before his powers come back. Besides, he won't do anything to me," she said as she placed the Fenton Bazooka on her shoulder and kept it aimed at Vlad. Danny nodded before rushing over to Sam and checking her for any injuries. She had a burn mark on her right shoulder and one forming on her hip, not to mention she would probably have a concussion when she woke up. He really hoped that was the extent of the damage done.

"This isn't-" Vlad tried to explain, but Maddie cut him off.

"I don't want to hear anything from you, Vlad. You destroyed my family. Danny and Sam are fatherless because of you. You don't even have remorse for what you've done."

"I didn't want to do those things."

"Then you shouldn't have done them." Danny picked Sam up bridal-style before walking over to his mother.

"You're done, Vlad," Danny told him, but Vlad got angry.

"We'll see about that when in a few minutes-" Vlad got cut off when he was sucked into the Fenton Thermos by Maddie who was sick at just the sight of him. Danny almost chuckled at her impatience to get rid of him before they started to walk back to the jet. Once inside, Danny tended to Sam's wounds while she lay in a cot in the back. He had already involuntarily changed back into his human side because of his lack of energy and tended to his own wounds once he was done with Sam. He sighed as he made his way to the cockpit, where he sat in the co-pilot seat next to Maddie.

"I just wanted to say thank you for having my back," Danny told her, making her smile.

"I'll always have your back," she said before turning her attention to the sky. Danny stared at the clouds for a moment before crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm just wondering... did you really love Vlad? I mean, you must have if you married him. I don't know, I guess it was weird to see you with anyone after Dad," he said as a hand went to the back of his neck. Maddie stared out the window for a moment before putting the autopilot on to face him.

"I'll never love anyone like how I loved your father. When he died, a part of me did, too. Having Vlad be there for us felt like a comfort I was missing. Pair that with him telling me how you kids needed a father figure and that he always saw you guys as his kids in a way too made me feel like I was making the right decision for us as a family. If I had known-"

"You couldn't have known," Danny said while shaking his head. "You can't blame yourself. Everything you've ever done has always been for me and Jazz. I just wish I had the courage to tell you guys what was actually going on before we got into this mess in the first place."

"You were in a position you shouldn't have been in. We all were. But it's like you said," Maddie said, sending him a smile, "me, you, and Jazz are okay and that's all that matters." Danny smiled before nodding.

"Right." A soft groan was heard from the cot, and Danny immediately shot up to rush over to Sam who was just waking up. "Hey, how do you feel?"

"Awful," she replied simply as she slowly sat up, sore in different places on her body while her head throbbed. She examined Danny's face, which had cuts and bruises on it, and she noticed he was grabbing the right side of his stomach. "Are you okay?"

"Besides my ribs being almost broken, I'll be fine. Come here." He motioned for her to get out of the cot, which he helped her do before hugging her gently. He placed her arm over his shoulders to help her walk to where Maddie was.

"Thank you for saving me," Sam said, directing it toward the both of them.

"You saved us. It's the least we could do," Maddie responded with a wink, making Sam crack a smile.

"So what happened while I was out?"

"You missed Mom storming in like a badass," Danny said, causing Maddie to scoff.

"You're being dramatic. I just used the destabilizer on Vlad, threatened him with a bazooka, and trapped him in the thermos," Maddie casually said as if it were a normal thing.

"Wow, Mrs. Masters. I didn't think you could get down like that," Sam remarked, making Danny chuckle.

"You know, I'm going to immediately change my name back to Fenton. I don't want anything to do with Vlad," Maddie said.

"What are we going to do about him? I mean, people are going to realize he's missing," Sam asked.

"Just the people at his companies will. I'll overshadow a few people. Make it look like Vlad resigned," Danny replied while shrugging.

"So it's really over?" Danny and Maddie looked at each other before shrugging.

"It should be," Danny responded.

"Cool, because I have a confession. While I was roaming the halls and trying to find a way out of Vlad's, I kind of found some stuff," Sam said before digging into her pockets and pulling out several sets of car keys. She placed them on the jet dashboard in front of Danny and Maddie, who stared at them with blinking eyes.

"Did you... steal the keys to his very expensive cars?" Danny asked as his eyes panned to his girlfriend, who only shrugged.

"Well, it's not like he's going to be using them anymore," she responded as if what she did wasn't a sign of kleptomania. Danny started to laugh while Maddie sighed and shook her head.

"When we get back, I'm going to have to explain to you why stealing is wrong," she said.

"So is trapping somebody in a prison forever, yet here we are," Sam remarked before crouching down to be face to face with the Fenton Thermos that hung off Maddie's belt loop. "Say goodbye to your bougie cars, fucker." Danny choked on a laugh while he and Maddie exchanged looks.

"I think she's concussed," Maddie guessed, making Danny shake his head.

"She's always like this," he insisted.

"No, I'm definitely concussed," Sam interjected as she plopped onto the floor. Danny shook his head and checked the time on the dashboard, seeing it was already five in the afternoon.

"Can Sam stay over tonight? I want to keep an eye on her. Not to mention, I'm pretty traumatized from all of this, and I'd like to be with her while my mind recuperates," Danny added, earning a sigh from his mother.

"Okay. I guess you deserve it after the day we've had," she answered as Danny picked Sam up from the floor to walk her back over to the cot.

"Just get some rest for now. I'll wake you up when we get back to the house," Danny told her as she laid down. She had every intention of telling him she loved him before she fell asleep, but as soon as her head hit the cot, she was met with darkness.

Chapter Text

Once they all arrived back at Fenton Works, Maddie and Danny were able to reattach the Emergency Opt Center securely onto the roof of the building. After that was done, Danny made his way over to Sam, who was still out for the count, and picked her up bridal style. While Danny carried her to his room, Maddie went down to the basement and walked over to one of the cabinets in the back. Among the many different storage options they had, one was a bullet-proof glass container that required an access code to open. It was roughly a nine-by-nine-inch space, a perfect place to keep the Fenton Thermos that held Vlad prisoner in. Danny came up from behind her as she started to close the cabinet doors.

"Does any of this make you feel any better?" He asked her as she turned to him. She sighed and shrugged as she shook her head.

"It won't bring your father back, but I think he can rest easy now that the culprit of his death is gone forever," she told him before she got quiet for a moment, sniffling as her eyes started to water. "I just miss him so much."

"I know," Danny said as he pulled her in for a hug. "I do, too." She squeezed him tightly before pulling away and wiping her eyes.

"How's Sam?" She asked, making Danny shrug.

"Breathing."

"She hasn't woken up?"

"Not since the jet. Why? Should I be concerned?" He asked, worried by the stressed look on his mother's face.

"Her body is probably just exhausted. Keep an eye on her, but I'm sure she'll be fine," she reassured him.

"Yeah, will do." He made his way back to his room, where Sam was still asleep. Being tired himself, he put on a show for background noise before curling up next to her to try to get some rest.

When Sam finally came to, it took her a second to realize where she was. The room was dark with nothing but the TV glow lighting up her surroundings, but she knew she was in Danny's room. Her head hurt, and whatever show was playing was a bit blurry to her, no doubt a symptom of her concussion. Her shoulder and hip ached, but aside from all that, she didn't feel too terrible. She noticed Danny asleep next to her and ran a hand through his hair gently before reaching for the remote to change the show. She changed the channel to wrestling, but it was almost over at this point. Regardless, she would watch whatever was left. All was well until Danny started to stir in his sleep. His face twisted in concern as he softly grunted while his breathing quickened. Assuming he was having some kind of nightmare, Sam placed a hand on his shoulder to gently nudge him awake.

"Danny," she called, his eyes opening and widening when he saw her. He sat up and immediately embraced her in a hug, making sure he was being gentle enough not to exaggerate her injuries. "Are you okay?" She asked, not expecting him to react that way right out of his sleep.

"I'm sorry," he told her as he kept his grip on her.

"For what?"

"Putting you through this." Although it was a nice sentiment, she rolled her eyes and placed her hands on his arms to get him to back up so she could see his face.

"You seem to be forgetting that I made this choice. I knew the consequences and still accepted them. That's not your fault."

"I know. I just..." he paused to press his forehead against hers, "I don't want to lose you. Ever."

"You're not going to," she said as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "If what just happened didn't scare me away, I don't think anything will," she added with a chuckle as she pulled away, seeing a light smile on his face.

"I love you," he told her while he moved his hands from her arms to her hands.

"I love you, too." They heard footsteps out in the hallway before Maddie knocked on the open door to get their attention.

"How are you guys feeling?" She asked as she leaned in the doorway.

"Like I'm on the brink of unconsciousness every second, but besides that, pretty good," Sam answered light-heartedly. Danny shook his head in amusement and choked back a laugh.

"I'm fine, Mom. Don't worry about me," he said.

"I'm glad you two met. I just wish it were under different circumstances," Maddie told them, but Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Why is everyone so glum? We got rid of Vlad! We should be celebrating," Sam exclaimed, causing Danny to point at her.

"I have just the thing. But it requires being outside," he said as he started to get out of bed. Sam and Maddie exchanged glances before following Danny out of the room. The next thing they knew, he was dragging fireworks out from the shed in the backyard and setting them up in the middle of the yard.

"Should I trust you around explosive material?" Sam asked Danny as he lit a brocade firework.

"Nope," he responded simply as he backed up a little, but kept his gaze upward to watch as it exploded in the sky.

"This isn't the fourth of July," Maddie said.

"Getting rid of Vlad is my fourth of July," he retorted as he walked over to the empty container to discard it and set up another firework. He placed a few bottle rockets in a glass bottle before lighting them on the ends and quickly scattering, but when they didn't go off immediately, he started walking towards them. "Why didn't it-" He was cut off when they all exploded at once, creating smoke around him that made it hard to see.

"Danny?" Maddie called out in a panicked tone, concerned after it looked like the fireworks went off on him. He started to cough and tried to wave the smoke away.

"I'm fine," he told her, both she and Sam sighing in relief collectively.

"Jeez, how many times in one day can we all get traumatized?" Sam muttered to Maddie.

"It's too cold for this. Keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't kill himself, will you?" Maddie said to Sam before patting her on the shoulder and going back inside. Danny shrugged at his mother leaving before gathering aerial fireworks and setting them up in a line. He then walked over to where Sam was sitting in the grass and joined her.

"I could also just do this," he said before shooting an ectoblast at one of the fireworks, causing it to shoot up into the air and explode in a red aura. Sam watched until it was completely gone before Danny set off another, this time, green.

"Hey, I had a question," Sam started to say, getting him to pause on the explosives. "Vlad said only your mom and sister went to grief counseling. Did he make you stay out of it?" He wasn't expecting the question, nor did he expect her to pick up on something that was said yesterday after all of this. He pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them.

"No. That was my choice. I just felt like I could have done something to prevent Dad's death. Like it was somehow my fault. Even if I didn't go into detail, I just didn't want to talk about it at all," he explained as he stared at the ground in front of him.

"How could something like that be your fault?"

"I should have seen it coming. I should have been more protective when Vlad was around."

"Danny, do you have psychic abilities I don't know about?" Sam asked redundantly with a deadpan look.

"No..."

"Then you couldn't have seen it coming. Just because you have powers doesn't mean you can save everyone and anyone at the drop of a hat. You were just a kid. You can't control everything." She crossed her arms over her chest and tucked her knees into her chest to stay warm while Danny stayed silent for a moment. He knew she was right, it was just hard to accept something he blamed himself for after all these years. Even though deep down he knew there was nothing he could have done, he knew it was just regret and devastation from the loss that he was still wrestling with. Sam had only been going through what he had for a few months and already carried herself so well. He figured that was the real power.

"All I knew was when I met you, I couldn't let anything happen to you," he told her as he finally locked eyes with her. "I had to protect you the way I couldn't with my dad because... you quickly became one of the most important people in my life. I couldn't lose you. I can't lose you."

"I'm still here, aren't I?" She asked as she extended an arm, inviting him to snuggle up to her, which he did.

"You're just stronger than me. I've only seen you crumble once."

"How about we call it even and say we make each other stronger?" She suggested, causing him to choke on a laugh.

"So... all this time that's passed. Has it helped heal you at all?" He asked, remembering one of their first conversations at the beginning of the school year. She had asked him what could possibly make her feel better again, yet he didn't know her answer was staring her right in the face.

"Yeah, something like that," she said with a light smile before resting her forehead against his. "Now that Vlad's taken care of, what are you going to do?"

"You." His response made her roll her eyes and move her head away from his.

"And you ruined it."

"Would a grand finale of fireworks fix it?"

"No."

"I heard yes." He shot ectoblasts at the remaining fireworks, and they both watched as different colors exploded in the sky. Green, red, white, and blue filled the atmosphere and backyard until it was all over, and their surroundings went dark again. She turned to look at Danny, her light through all the dark matter she had to swim through over the past half-year. No matter what she went through, she knew he was the light at the end of the tunnel that could guide her out. He was her own personal firework as she was to him. Except this one would never go out. It would continue to shine on for life.