A/N: I'll keep it brief, here's a story I've been working on for a while, it'll probably have about three chapters. I'm not done writing it though and I have school so updates won't be daily (sorry about that). Also, sorry if it's not really well written, I just got back to writing fanfics and I fear my writing may be a little rusty.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

"All clear here, what about you Tuck?" Danny asked in his Fenton-phone, on an evening patrol.

"Not a single ghost on my end. Looks like you might actually have time to write that report for English, dude" Tucker replied.

"That's not gonna happen, it's due tomorrow and I didn't even read the book it's about! I'd have to pull an all-nighter"

"Then pull an all-nighter, you can't keep failing these things Danny! Unless you want to do the year over" This time, it was Sam's voice that spoke to Danny through his earpiece.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right" the hybrid answered, discouraged by having to stay awake all night again.

"Tell you what, I'll come over and help you. That way at least you can get some sleep" Sam said, understanding her crush's problems.

"Thanks!" The boy brightened up

"You two enjoy your study date, I'm going home" Tucker teased his friends.

"IT'S NOT A STUDY DATE!"

"IT'S NOT A STUDY DATE!"

"Tucker out." The 'techno geek' said, before turning his Fenton-phone off.

"Alright, we should probably head back if I want this stupid paper over with" Danny told Sam.

"Yeah, I'll meet y- OW!" Sam was interrupted by her own scream. Danny heard a blast in the background.

"Sam! What happened! Are you okay!?" The boy asked in a panic.

First, there was silence. Then Sam started screaming.

"SAM!" Danny exclaimed, as he flew higher in the sky, trying to find her.

She yelled "s-Skulker! Downtown! HURRY!" seemingly scared for her life, which scared Danny more, but not as much as what he heard next.

"Yes. Fly whelp, fly!" Skulker said in Sam's Fenton-phone. Then it went offline.

Danny flew as fast as he could to his crush, but he was quite far. All he could think of on the way was Sam's scream that was still ringing in his ears and ways to destroy Skulker.

~~~ Downtown ~~~

"Alright, we should probably head back if I want this stupid paper over with" Danny told Sam, in a bored tone.

"Yeah, I'll meet y-" Suddenly, Sam got shot in the waist. She let out a shriek as she was knocked back by the shock. She barely registered Danny's calls to her.

Looking down at herself, Sam noticed that she wasn't actually hurt; the blast only hit her specter deflector which deactivated it. It took Sam only a second to realize what this meant and by that time, Skulker was already pulling her to the sky with an iron grip on her arm and an evil laugh.

Seeing the distance between her and the ground get bigger and bigger made Sam scream in fear.

"SAM!" Danny yelled for her, wanting to save her, but not knowing where she was.

"s-Skulker! Downtown! HURRY!" Sam yelled to Danny as she struggled. Skulker ripped the earpiece from Sam, then he told Danny, with a grin "Yes. Fly, whelp, fly!" Then he crushed the Fenton-phone in his fist.

Sam kept struggling, trying to free herself despite the space between her and the ground. Skulker was getting annoyed. "Will you stop struggling!? You should know that you're powerless against me!"

Sam stopped wasting her energy for a second. That's when she remembered her wrist-ray that was on her free hand. Quickly, Sam aimed it at Skulker, but his other hand almost immediately closed around her weapon and wrist. Sam winced and Skulker let go of the arm he'd grabbed first, making her hang from her wrist. The ghost started squeezing with his metal hand, breaking the wrist-ray and hurting Sam in the process. The girl started screaming in pain.

"Okay then, now you're powerless against me!" Skulker said.

"Let go! I get it!" Sam exclaimed, struggling once more. As Skulker's grip tightened, the crushed wrist ray that was stuck between Sam's wrist and Skulker's palm started cutting into her skin and caused her more pain. "DANNY!" She cried for help, tears appearing in her eyes.

In an attempt to get away from him, she kicked Skulker's head. It almost fell off, but the ghost held it in time and a dark frown appeared on his face. He gave a backhanded slap to Sam which caused her to shriek when solid metal collided with soft skin.

"LET! HER! GO!" an outraged Danny screamed, appearing out of nowhere. He shot a small, but powerful blast at Skulker's arm, making him let go of his captive. If any good came out of Sam being a lousy hostage, it would be that Skulker didn't see Danny coming, so he didn't jump into action right away.

Sam started screaming as she fell, but it was short-lived for Danny caught her bridal style only a few seconds later. "Hold on to me" Danny told her, already anticipating his opponent's next move. Sam quickly wrapped her arms around Danny's neck and held her right elbow with her uninjured left hand. To avoid blocking Danny's sight, Sam ducked her head on his chest.

As soon as he could use his hands, Danny turned around and made a shield just in time to block an attack. The rebound of the shield sent Danny flying backwards. The boy took advantage of this to rush to the nearest building.

Danny set Sam down on the roof where she sat against a wall. "Stay down" He instructed softly. Before he got up, Danny got a quick look at Sam's face. There was a nasty bruise on her cheek; she had tears rolling down her cheeks and he could see pain and fear in her eyes. One thought came to his mind I'm gonna destroy Skulker. "I'll be right back" and with that, he went back to the sky. Sam didn't fail to notice the dangerous glint in his blindingly bright eyes.

"Back so soon?" Skulker teased, expecting a witty comeback from Danny. What he hadn't expected was a blast the size of a basket-ball to hit his chest.

"I will tear you APART!" Danny sent blast after blast, punch after punch, nonstop. He was fueled by anger and much more powerful because of it. Skulker was surprised to say the least; he didn't even get the chance to get in one hit.

Soon, Skulker knew that he was beaten, but he didn't understand why the ghost child kept hitting and blasting him instead of trapping him in his dreaded thermos. One look at the halfa's eyes was enough to make the hunter fear for his afterlife.

Danny heard Sam say his name in a small voice and it was enough to make him reconsider. He'd rather let Skulker go with a lesson and take care of Sam than to continue this fight and let Sam deal with her pain alone for one more second.

So when Skulker tried to fly away, Danny got in his face and said in a dangerously low voice: "You can hunt me all you want, I don't care. But don't you ever drag my friends and family into this! You want me. Not them. You get off with a warning this time, but if you ever try something like this again, I won't hesitate to end your afterlife. I hope I've put up enough of a fight to show you that I mean it. Now get out of my sight." As soon as Danny was done, Skulker fled.

The halfa immediately flew back to Sam where he saw her cradling her bloody right wrist and trying to calm herself with deep breaths. Danny changed back to his human form and sat next to her. He rubbed her back to try and comfort her. "So, how much am I gonna regret letting him go?" He said softly.

"Huh?" Sam asked, trying to focus on Danny instead of her wrist to lessen the pain.

"What did he do to you?" Danny inquired, while keeping all emotion contained.

Sam seemed reluctant to talk about it, since she wasn't used to being that close to the action, she was in shock. When Sam didn't answer, Danny added "please Sam, I need to know how badly you're hurt"

Sam looked in Danny's eyes and she could see many things: hurt, worry, guilt, sorrow, helplessness. She sighed and simply said "Take a look" and she faced him.

Danny examined her face carefully as if she'd break at the touch. He saw that her left side seemed completely fine, so he ran circles on her left cheek with his thumb to soothe her while he examined her other cheek. He ran his fingers on her right cheek which made her hiss. "Sorry" he whispered. Taking her chin, he turned her head and saw that it was nothing more than a big bruise.

"That's from when he slapped me" Sam said softly.

"I know... I saw" Danny said, remembering how extremely worried that had made him. She's so fragile compared to those hard metal hands. "Thank goodness it's just a bruise"

After checking Sam's cheek, Danny lost himself in Sam's eyes. She was looking at him with affection and a bit of surprise; Sam wasn't used to seeing this side of Danny since he's usually the one getting hurt. The boy brushed away a stray tear from Sam's cheek and said "Your face is gonna be fine. I mean, not that it's not fine now, it's fine now you're better than fine. It's just a bit banged up. When I say your face is gonna be fine I mean un-banged up. Other than that, your face has always been more than...fine" They both blushed and Sam chuckled at Danny's awkwardness. "Okay, now let me see your wrist"

Sam's smile disappeared "don't touch it" she said "I think it's broken"

"That's why I need to see it" Danny said softly. He took Sam's elbow and gently brought her arm to him. The first thing he did was phase the broken wrist-ray off her arm. The removed pressure soothed her. Danny, then, examined the pieces of the wrist ray that cut into Sam's skin. With a sigh of relief, he stated "the cuts don't look deep and you're not bleeding a lot, it should be safe for me to get the debris out"

So Danny did as he said and phased all the metal scraps out of Sam's arm. Afterwards, he looked at Sam and said "Okay, you should look away, this is gonna be kinda disgusting..."

"What are you gonna do? Will it hurt?" Sam asked, with a bit of fear.

"I would never hurt you Sam. I was just gonna make your arm partially invisible so I can see the bone. You won't feel a thing, I promise. But it is kinda gross."

Being a goth who doesn't mind gore, Sam said with a smile "that sounds pretty cool! I'm not looking away, I wanna see this"

Danny chuckled and said "I should have guessed" He made part of her skin invisible.

"Man, that's disgusting!" She said, yet she kept looking, fascinated. This seemed to distract her completely from the pain.

"I told you so" Danny said while he made more of the tissue under her skin invisible.

"This is so cool, I've never seen the inside of my arm before"

"I hope not!" Danny said with a small laugh. Now her muscles were invisible and he started studying the state of her bones. "Everything looks into place... But you definitely have a fracture. Judging by what happened, your wrist is probably sprained too" (A/N : I have NO IDEA what I'm talking about nor if this diagnosis makes any sense whatsoever. Dammit readers, I'm a writer, not a doctor!)

There was a tense silence after Danny made Sam's arm visible once more. The young halfa couldn't help but feel miserable. He was supposed to protect people, but when it came to the person who mattered the most, he'd failed. Yes, Sam was safe, but she was broken. His Sam was broken when it should have been him.

"I'm so sorry" Danny whispered sadly, looking down.

"Danny, there's nothing to be sorry about. You're the one who saved me, this wasn't your fault" Sam tried to reason softly.

Danny's head snapped up "No, don't you see Sam? This is all my fault! I'm the one Skulker wants. I'm the reason he did this to you. This is my fight and you got hurt because of it. It should have been me."

"Well I'm sorry you didn't get hurt Danny" Sam said dryly "but this isn't that big a deal! You've had way worse than a sprained wrist before and I would have had worse if you hadn't saved me. So you should start giving yourself more credit instead of blaming yourself for everything bad that happens!"

Danny closed his eyes, trying to block out bad yet recent memories. "You're right, but you don't know what it was like" he said miserably, opening his eyes and meeting Sam's concerned gaze "I saw him hurt you... I heard you screaming, but I couldn't do anything about it since I was already flying as fast as I could. It was all so-" Danny stopped himself and took a deep breath to calm his nerves "you say I didn't get hurt, but that's a lie. Hearing you scream, seeing you in pain... That hurts more than any weapon could"

Sam hadn't realized how much Danny was affected by her pain. He looked downright miserable, but Sam couldn't help but realize that she'd felt the same way in the past. Sam brought her good hand on Danny's shoulder and softly said "I do know what it's like, because that's exactly how I feel whenever I see you get hurt"

Their eyes locked for a little while. It never occurred to Danny until now that Sam felt this distraught when he got hurt. It wasn't a nice thought and he vowed that from now on, he'd think twice before being too reckless.

Eventually, Danny broke the silence by returning to the original subject. "You're gonna need a bandage... I'm not really good at patching up others, I should take you to Jazz" Danny said.

"Okay" Sam said, simply.

Danny got up and extended his hand to Sam. "Shall we?" he asked with a small smile. She grabbed his hand and he pulled her to her feet while transforming into his alter-ego.

As Danny picked her up bridal style, Sam said "don't go too fast... or too high"

"Whatever you say" Danny answered. When they took off, Danny felt Sam tense immediately in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck tighter and buried her head in his chest to try and forget that she was in the sky again. Danny knew this was only because she was still shaken up by being closer to the action than usual. He did his best to fly lower and not as fast as usual, but still at a good speed so they wouldn't be flying too long. Danny tightened his hold on Sam to make her feel safer "don't worry, I've got you"

After reassuring her, Danny felt Sam relax considerably, though she was still holding on tight and hiding her face. "If you want us to walk back, just say the word"

Sam stayed still and about a minute later, they landed in Danny's bedroom. Danny changed back and went to get Jazz. Meanwhile, Sam sat down on his bed and calmed her nerves. Flying with Danny is one of the things she loves, but after what she went through she'd rather keep her feet on the ground for a while.

Danny entered Jazz's room to find her sleeping. That's to be expected at 11:43 PM. He didn't hesitate to shake her shoulder to wake her up. "Jazz. Jazz wake up!" He whispered urgently.

"huh? Danny?" She said, half awake. Still lying in her bed and eyes closed, she mumbled "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" Jazz was used to these kinds of wake up calls. She didn't like that she was used to them, since it meant her brother often hurt himself, but she was always glad that he went to her for help.

"um, physically: zero" Danny answered.

Jazz opened her eyes and gave him an annoyed look as if to ask him why he woke her up. When she picked up on the subtle signs of worry on his face, she sat up and gave him her full attention "What's wrong?"

"It's Sam. Skulker attacked her"

That's all Jazz needed to hear. Wide awake, she got out of bed and went straight to Danny's room where she found Sam cradling a bloody wrist with a nasty bruise covering most of the right side of her face. "Oh my gosh, Sam! What happened? Why were you attacked?" Jazz got the first aid kit from Danny's dresser.

"Skulker tried to use me as bait and I put up a fight" Sam answered simply.

Jazz was examining Sam's wrist. "Danny, put some ice on that bruise" Danny did so right away. He sat next to Sam, made his hand cold and pressed it to her face. "Did you only hurt your wrist and face?" Sam nodded "Why is it bleeding?" Sam explained what happened with the wrist ray. No one noticed Danny's eyes flash green.

Jazz cleaned the wound and wrapped it in bandages tightly. "Alright, you'll have to wear this for at least two weeks. But you should still go to the hospital. Or at least the school nurse" Jazz told Sam.

"Two weeks!?" Was Danny's immediate answer.

"Yes, Danny" his sister said "she doesn't have your powers. This kind of injury takes a couple of weeks to heal naturally"

"Thanks Jazz" Sam told Jazz. "Well, I should be getting home now" Sam got up.

"You want me to take you?" Danny offered.

Sam shook her head "no, I don't feel up to flying"

"We could walk"

"You don't have time for that Danny, you still have a report to write for tomorrow" Sam said, with a smirk.

Danny fell back on his bed "oh no... I forgot about that"

"I know I said I'd help, but..." Sam hesitated.

"No, I get it Sam. You need to rest" Danny said. "But you can't walk home by yourself in the middle of the night"

"Come on Sam" Jazz pitched in "I'll drive you home" Sam thanked Jazz "And you, little brother, you better be working on that report when I get back" she gave him a pointed look.

I'm not as confident about this story as I would like, so some reviews would go a long way to helping me see if I'm on the right track.

Sam might seem a little OOC since she's supposed to be a stronger character, but I figured she's never been hurt in a ghost fight or completely helpless to save herself so it makes sense that she'd be a little shaky.

Stay tuned for the rest!

(ps. yes, I made a Big Hero 6 reference)