Uh, Hey guys! *Ducks head and hides* I'm so sorry I haven't updated since Novemeber! But a few of you know what's been going on. I had a horrible mental health thingy. I was diagnosed with severe depression and severe social anxiety. And then I later on during the months I was trying to get better got so low that I almost took my own life. It's been a shit show, let me tell you. (But that will be at the end of this chapter, if you want you can read what happened, but this is the super duper rushed version).

Thank you all for your support of this story so far! I love having you guys as the fans of my story!

Heads up for this chapter if you are uncomfortable with mentions of self-harm and/ or suicide I suggest only reading the first and third section and completely skipping the third section. If you don't want to try, you can PM me and I can send you a bullet point summary of the important things of this chapter.

Also! Some Sexy time (Like it kinda just jumped at me lol) is on the way in this chapter – if you are uncomfortable with this, then skip after The trio have gone up to bed until the third section.

Hope you guys enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or the song 'Don't Play' by Halsey

Yeah, don't even try

Can't fuck up my vibe

Double cuppin' in the rid

Motherfucker, don't play with me

I Walk the Line: Truth Will Set You Free

Word count: 19,464

7/10/17

October 17th, 2014

Friday

Danny's Door

9:00 p.m.

"Wait, what?" Ellie gasped, looking between Sam and Danny, who held eyes in shock.

Danny nodded and held out the paper, turning away from Sam to look at Ellie. "It's written here, well, typed out here." Ellie reached for the papers with slightly shaking hands and slowly went over what the report read.

Sam and Danny's minds were practically blank. The only phrases that were swiftly moving through their minds were: 'Ellie's my daughter. I have a daughter. A daughter. With Danny/ Sam. Holy shit.' It kept repeating over and over and over as they tried to come to terms with this new information.

"I can't believe it." Tucker whispered, looking down at his computer where he searched for Ellie's lab report and found the proof of the experiment of using Sam's DNA beside Danny's DNA. "I'm actually an uncle. For real."

"You've always been my real uncle." Ellie stated absently, still looking over the paper.

"Yeah, but now it's official." He couldn't keep the smile off his face and reached over to wrap Ellie in a side hug.

"What does this mean, though? What does this mean for me?" Her voice could barely reach above the shocked whisper, but she looked up at Tucker with deep concern and fear. "Is this why I'm actually a girl? Does… does this… change everything?"

"It means that you don't have to worry about Vlad in the way we have been. Well, sort of." Tucker squeezed her upper arm where his hand was wrapped around it.

She continued to sit there in stunned silence, looking up at him, but Tucker didn't have much else to say, and for once in his life he decided it would be best to keep quiet and let everything advance on their own. At least for Ellie's sake.

"I can't believe it." Danny looked away from his locked gaze with Sam, but kept their hands intertwined. "I mean," He looked steadily at the paper in Ellie's hands. "I always had that idle thought that, technically I was your dad. Way more than Vlad. But now it's not even the fact that you were cloned, now it's in front of me. And," He looked up from the paper to look, into Ellie's fearful blue eyes, "and now, I'm so, so relieved that I am."

"Really?" She sat up a little straighter in Tucker's arm, a hopeful air surrounded her once again.

Danny smiled softly, "Of course." A blush quickly rose to his cheeks, "For some time now, if I'm honest here," he rubbed the back of his neck. "I've thought of you in the way of a daughter."

Tucker pulled his arm away from around her, as Ellie literally flew at Danny and tackled him into a hug as they sat on the floor. Danny had to release Sam's hand to catch himself from falling over as he caught Ellie with the other, and firmly wrapped his arm around her back as she clung to him. Once steady, he wrapped his other arm around her, and she buried her face into the side of his neck.

"Me too." Ellie choked out, "I thought it was just me. And… and…" She breathed in trying to get under control, "I thought, for like a split second, that… that… that you…" She breathed shakily again, "you didn't see me that way, especially after I chose to follow under grandma Ida's idea, instead of being… being a Fenton."

Danny shook his head and rubbed her back. "Oh, El." His deep voice reverberated between them, "I love you. And your choice to not become a Fenton is okay with me. Better actually. I'd be too overprotective. Way more than I am now. I think that your choice was the best one, and you'll get to figure out who you really are without the past of Vlad's wants, weighing you down."

Ellie let out a cynical laugh. "But aren't I technically a Fenton?" She kept her tight hold around him, but turned so that her words were no longer muffled in his skin.

"Well, yeah, but you're also technically a Manson." His eyes snapped up instantly to Sam's lilac ones. Her eyes were still wide as though a deer stuck in headlights.

'Danny, I…' She had no idea what to say. This was something totally new. She had no idea how to handle this.

Danny could feel Sam's feelings easily flowing through their link. Her uncertainty. Her fear. Her violation. Her insecurity to be motherly. Her love for Ellie. Her rage at Vlad. And most importantly, her panic.

'It's okay, Sam. Breathe. Like you do with me. In.' He breathed in slowly through his nose and saw her do the same. He slowly counted to ten before telling her to breathe out through her mouth. Danny noticed Sam calming marginally well along with both Ellie – who continued to hug him so tightly he felt as though his bones would break and Tucker, who Danny figured needed to calm down from his excitement.

"Do we all feel calmer now?" Danny questioned quietly after the tenth repetition. Ellie nodded into his neck while Sam and Tucker agreed aloud.

"I'm really sorry, Sam." Ellie turned her head on Danny's shoulder to look at the person who was essentially her mother.

Her eyes narrowed in confusion, "Why are you sorry?"

"That your DNA is inside of me." She sniffled.

Sam shook her head and moved closer to her, "This isn't your fault, Ellie. This is all Vlad's fault. No matter what any of that says, do not be sorry for who you are. DNA doesn't define you. I mean," She took a shaky breath to steel her rising panic, "look at the three of us. Tucker may have certain characteristics that he shares with his parents, but there's so much more. His love of technology is the big one, but also his light-hearted joking, the ability to keep us all together, the ability to never know when to keep his mouth shut."

"Hey!" He protested, though a smile was steady on his face.

"Well, it's true." Danny chuckled, the sound reverberated nicely around Ellie, making her immediately feel warmer and more comfortable and focused again on what Sam was saying.

"That's what makes him, him. He's not exactly like his parents, he's him. And well, Danny's pretty obvious, but his ability to have found his sense of purpose in this world, his hero complex, the love he has for all of us, the way he stands up for what he believes and most definitely his love for NASA. So different from his parents, even if a few of his characteristics are similar."

When Sam didn't continue right away, Ellie asked, "And what about you?"

"Me? Well, for one I'm a vegan, which is totally opposite of my parents. My focus of not guiding myself under the normal stereotypical influence. I'm a force to be reckoned with, I have passion in all that I do, but my heart always seems to win out in the end."

"Knew you were good under there somewhere." Tucker teased.

"Eh," She shrugged, "As long as word doesn't get out. I think we can survive with that knowledge."

Ellie chuckled, "Yeah, all that doesn't sound like your parents."

"Exactly. DNA doesn't define you. It only ties you to those two people." Sam came to the realization that she knew what kind of connection they could keep. "And I know you've never had a mom figure before, and I've never tried being a mom before, but…"

"Except to us." She heard Tucker whisper in Danny's ear, but she ignored the comment.

"You don't have to!" Ellie jerked up straight in Danny's arms, not letting Sam continue. She shrank back into herself, having realized her interruption.

"No, you go ahead." Sam nodded in her direction.

"Uh, well you don't have to try to be a mom. I don't really even know what it's like to have a mom."

"Think in the way Jazz treats Danny." Sam suggested.

"Oh!" She nodded, now understanding. "But that's okay. Can we just, just stay the way we are? You know, like sisters?"

Sam nodded quickly and the tight ball of fear in her chest released only by a tiny sliver. Ellie beamed and quickly moved off Danny and into Sam's arms. Though she wasn't comfortable with human contact at the moment, she swallowed down her protest and gave comfort to Ellie.

"She definitely got the Fenton hug gene." Danny chuckled.

"You know…" Tucker whispered and snickered, "If they're theoretically sisters, that means you're theoretically in love with your daughter."

Danny turned his eyes towards Tucker, giving him his, 'seriously' look. "Sometimes, I really, really want to understand how your brain works, just so I can fix it."

Tucker threw his head back and laughed, "You wish you had my brain." Danny rolled his eyes and pushed Tucker over onto the carpet.

Sam and Ellie ignored the boys, "We'll just continue how we have been, okay?" Sam gently moved Ellie away in the hug so they were only touching each other's shoulder.

"I'd like that." Ellie agreed, then pulled away from Sam entirely, serving her need to refrain too much physical contact at the moment. "I like how we are now."

"Me too." Sam side smiled, settling her hands in her lap. "Just because what that paper says is true, it's about the connections you make with people and our connection is doing good for us."

Ellie smiled in return, then moved to sit next to Sam instead of in front of her, like she had been earlier, to make a complete circle once more. "Soooo, new question. How did he do this? Like how did he make me out of both sets of DNA?"

"Let's look it up." Danny reached for the folder with Ellie's basic information on the front. The first page he flipped to was basic information about him and the following page was basic information about Sam. However, the third page began the detailed description of what was titled: CLONE 203.

"So basically," Danny began as he started to read through it, "Vlad took both of my DNA strands, then took Sam's DNA that he had gotten. A piece of her hair. He took X from Sam and the Y from both of mine to create, you, El. He wanted to see how it differed from a male clone, to distinguish whether or not it would help stabilize better. That's the best way to explain it without all of the technical jargon.

"He goes down further to explain that you automatically worked better than all the clones and you were actually able to transform without melting, unlike all of the other's before. He wrote that he was unsure of why you had stabilized while the others had not. Including clones 173, 174, 175, 176 and lastly 178."

"You mean, 177." Sam stated.

Danny shook his head, "No, 178. That's what this says. Those clones did not stabilize half as well as Ellie, except for Clone 178 even though they all had," his eyes widened, "mid-morph DNA."

"What!" They all exclaimed as Danny read off the information.

"Tucker, do you have information on these failed clones?"

"I should." He quickly snatched up his computer and searched the files he had specifically for those clone's numbers. "Okay, so…" he was happy to note that he had all of the clone's information. "I have the failed clone's information. Which ones do you want to look at first?"

"178."

Tucker opened the documents and was confronted with a similar page to Ellie's. "Okay, it says here that the DNA used was Danny's and mixed with a small amount of Sam's and the mid-morph DNA is marked as 'yes'. Let's see if there's more information on it." He scrolled down to the next page where a detailed information was on how Vlad performed the experiment. His nerves were running high as he skimmed through the beginning of the report, looking for the word 'mid-morph'. He reached the first focus on it halfway down the page and his nerves went straight into overdrive and almost felt as though he was going to either throw-up.

"Uh…"

"What?" Danny asked.

"Why do you look like you're going to pass out?" Sam looked him over in deep concern.

"The mid-morph DNA he used wasn't yours. It was his." Tucker looked up at the group with fear in his eyes.

"What?" Danny growled, his eyes flashed to green.

"It says it right here." Tucker tried to swallow the lump rising in his throat. "He used his own mid-morph DNA to stabilize the clone. But this one destabilized right away." He scrolled to find the last of the report. "It says here that this was the last time he would use his own mid-morph DNA and continue to try and get your own."

"And that's all of the clones listed?" Sam questioned, her fists so tight her knuckles had gone white.

"Let me check." He pulled up each of the clone's files from 173 to 176 and read through them quickly. "They each say the same thing as 178. Though the levels implemented through each DNA sequence is a bit different. And Sam's DNA wasn't used on any of them. It was Valerie's."

Everyone gasped in shock.

"Are you fucking kidding me!" Sam couldn't believe what she was hearing. First they find out Vlad used her own DNA in the clones. Now they learn that Valerie's was used as well! Sam wondered just how messed up Vlad really was.

"I mean, Vlad's always been nuts. But this…" Ellie didn't have any more words, she only shook her head.

Danny's anger only continued to grow. He did his best to keep it from flooding into his and Sam's link. It was hard as he could feel her own shock and anger flow through him. His eyes were blazing green and he focused his energy into forming an ice crystal in his hands. "He's insane. We need to put a stop to this. He's trying to play God." He shook his head and the ice crystal grew larger in his hands. "Each clone had a mind of some sort. Had a motive. They may have only been barely sentient for all we know, but Vlad essentially killed them." He sighed sadly, "This isn't right. This is so much worse than we thought it was." He could only shake his head again.

"I wonder if Valerie knows…" Tucker wondered aloud as he read through a few of the reports. Though it seemed that whatever little thing Vlad tried to do to stabilize them longer, it never seemed to work. The longest surviving clone out of them all only lasted a few days. Barely.

"If she did, Vlad would have been dead by now." Sam gritted. "No way would she let this go."

"I'll say. Her temper rivals even Danny's." Ellie shook her head.

"You know it's interesting what you said about Danny's temper." Tucker squinted at the screen as he looked at each tab of document he had pulled up for Clones' 173, 174, 175, 176 and 178.

"What's interesting?" Danny looked at him quizzically.

"Well, on each of the reports it says that their tempers were high; the ones that survived past the first hour. They were each demanding and fierce and destroyed whatever Vlad had them do."

"Well, that sounds pretty normal considering that mix of DNA is similar to Dan's." Sam spat.

"True. And it's even more interesting about clone 178 because it mentions that they were the least aggressive, and he wrote," he leaned in further to make sure he was reading the information correctly, "He wrote, that the Clone was still aggressive, but was not as bad as its' predecessors, especially Clone 177.

"Wait a second." Danny looked up from the ice crystal, that had grown to the size of a volleyball, to look at Tucker, hearing his own thoughts echoed in Sam's mind. "177? What information is there on 177? Why wasn't that clone included in the same mid-morph DNA group if the clone that was made after it was?"

"I don't know. But we can find out." Tucker quickly moved the clone's documents #173-6 and 178 to the left side of his screen and opened the file for Clone 177. As he skimmed over the document the information left him horror struck. "Vlad fucked up. I seriously hope this clone doesn't exist anymore." Tucker's eyes were wide and his fingers rested over his mouth in shock.

The group moved to sit around Tucker so they could all read the report.

"He used his own ghost DNA and his mid-morph DNA to try and get the perfect clone." Danny read barely above a whisper. "He made Dan in this universe. He actually made him"

"Danny," Sam cautioned and reached out a hand, not only physically but mentally.

He brushed both away, he didn't deserve it. "Is it alive? Please tell me that that clone destabilized." He reached for Tucker's touch pad, but Tucker smacked Danny's hand away.

"I thought that it only happened in that alternate time line?" Ellie asked in confusion. She knew all about Dan. But that was all she knew. She didn't understand how a clone that was built similar could cause this much mayhem between the group, if it had destabilized anyway.

"Yes, he did only exist in that timeline, but Clockwork has told us that sometimes little instances get through that are subtle markers to that timeline. Like Clone 177 or a while back,"

"Just tell me if Clone 177 destabilized." Danny pushed, cutting off Sam's explanation.

Tucker scrolled further down towards the end of the document. "It says here that Clone 177 lasted five days. Vlad was in the process of trying to kill him when he destabilized on his own on the fifth day."

Danny let out a relieved sigh, though he still felt as though he could throw up with the knowledge that his alternate self was made again. "Thank the gods. I'm so sick and tired of having to clean up his messes." The ice crystal grew an inch bigger. "And this would have been the icing on the cake. What does he think he's doing?! That clone could have ended up so much worse. And he has no idea. No idea what they could have done. No idea." Danny shook his head as he continued to rant, "He could have been killed, and by his own stupidity none-the-less. And that clone lasted five days. I mean what damage was done? He was mostly ghost, so we know that their morals of humanity were barely there, which begs the question of what made Vlad try one last time after 177 to use his own mid-morph DNA in 178?

"I know he's a scientist – among his other titles – but that right there just seems like he wants to commit suicide, though I guess not intentionally. Not that he deserves death anyway, but making that clone, I just can't believe that it actually happened. We have to make sure nothing like this happens again. I can't let him ruin what we have. I'll do whatever I can to make sure he doesn't exist again."

Tucker's and Sam's minds instantly went to the 4th alternate timeline they had to fix where Danny committed suicide to prevent his grief from overcoming him and leaving the temptation of Dan too close. Though they had been killed during the school shooting, they were the ones that Clockwork had gotten to go back and prevent the shooters – Seniors who had had enough of people not listening to them at the school (they were practically insane) - and Sam and Tucker had been shown by Clockwork the moment before Danny pulled the trigger. It was something none of them ever wanted to experience again.

Danny of course saw what Sam had been thinking through their link and jumped to a defense between her and Tucker. "That's not going to happen again. We've already gotten Clockwork on the plan to tell us if anyone of us has any one future possibility of that. But I won't be making that mistake again. I promise. But I also won't let this kind of crap happen again."

Sam nodded, feeling his certainty, while Tucker gripped his shoulder in understanding. Ellie was a bit confused, however,

"What are you going on about?"

"That's definitely a story for another time." Danny interjected before Tucker could begin the story.

"But…" Ellie furrowed her eyebrows.

"Later, El." Danny sighed, however Sam decided to jump in, despite Danny's aversion to the topic.

"You know, you should be told about our… alternate selves."

"Sam!" Danny protested loudly; his eyes widened and hands went out in his 'are you serious' look.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Really, Danny. Now's as good a time as any. Even more so, because of this new information."

"Yes, I agree that she should know about that, however right now with everything we've just learned I think we can take a break on this type of new information."

"No, it's okay!" Ellie tried to jump in, but Tucker gently motioned for her to stay out of it for the moment. He wasn't sure how this was going to play out.

"If not now, then when?" Sam demanded. "There's a perfectly good excuse for us to explain what's gone on to her. And explain why this clone is such a big deal."

"You're right, but not right now." He insisted, and the ice ball grew slightly larger, but Sam kept her eyes locked on Danny's bright green ones.

"And why not?" Sam cocked her head inquisitively and arched an eyebrow. She was trying to get a feel on him, but he had locked down his side of the link, which made her suspicious of where Danny was going with this whole thing.

"Can we just let this go?"

"No. You keep pushing and pushing away from this stuff. And not wanting to tell Ellie just shows that you've been doing just that again."

"I did not say that I didn't want to tell her. I just don't think now is the best time." He insisted.

"Then when is the best time, Danny?"

"Come on, Danny. At least tell her about the fourth timeline." Tucker jumped in to help Sam.

"Can we stop talking like I'm not here!" Ellie threw her arms up in annoyance.

"Look." Danny closed his eyes and sighed. "We can discuss alternate timelines all we want tomorrow or any other day." He sighed once more and met Ellie's eyes across their small circle, "But right now I want to find out whether or not Vlad made any documents pertaining to you, and any other legal things we might come across."

Sam crossed her arms but knew Danny's logic was sound, though she didn't like how he got there. She really wanted him to change his mind. She felt as though he was hiding behind the excuse to find out about documents that they practically already knew weren't there and had probably been burned.

"Okay." Ellie conceded and pulled over her file that had ended up in the middle of the floor, giving Danny a slight glare by narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips slightly, before looking down at the papers in her hands.

The look shocked Danny so much that he could finally place that glare to who he knew it belonged to. The control on his wall to Sam slipped and her anger, confusion and worry flooded through him and he knew she could hear his most recent thought.

'Damn, you're right. She does look like me when she does that.' Sam was only slightly relieved that his wall had slipped. But she felt a bit calmer knowing he was listening to her again, even if by accident. 'You know, panicking about speaking to someone about what you almost did means you're not dealing with it.'

'Sam.' He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. From the other side, he saw Tucker roll his eyes before picking up his computer and settle it in front of himself to work through the electronic documents.

'Seriously. I can feel how panicked you are. Even if you've only let a little show through the link. And you weren't like that before, which means that you panicked when you thought of telling her.'

'I really don't want to talk about this right now.' He insisted.

'You can't escape your problems Danny. I thought you'd've learned that by now.'

A serious of images flashed suddenly through Sam's mind, having come from Danny: Their homecoming dance from their freshman year, Danny standing in the middle of Dash's living room dressed in a gaudy outfit and the others dressed as 'losers' of Casper High, Valerie firing weapons at him, playing Doomed on Lancer's computer, the Haunted house competition with Dash, splitting himself in two, Dan, the Ghostwriter, Vlad, Ellie, Danny sitting in the room of the mansion his parents owned for practically two seconds playing video games.

'I don't…'

'Danny.'

"I'm going to go on patrol." Danny abruptly stood up from the carpet, still holding his ice crystal. His walls secured once more.

"Want me to come with you?" Ellie asked, though a bit hopeful, she kept a straight face.

"No, that's okay. If I need any back up, I'll call."

"Since you're going, can you stop by my house and get my overnight bag?"

"Yeah." Danny said to Sam without looking at her.

"Can you get me clothes, too?" Ellie asked next.

"Sure. What do you want?"

"Uh, a pair of sweats and one of those new Nightmerica t-shirts, Sam got me."

"Alright." Danny nodded and quickly transformed into Phantom. "I'll be back." He flew a few inches off the ground, still holding the ice crystal, then flew out the door and into the Ghost Zone, the door effectively closing behind him.

"Well, since Mr. Snippy is gone. I'm going to go burn off energy in the gym. Ellie if you wanna join me, I'll spar with you. And I'll tell you about our alternate selves." Sam got up and stretched her arms above her head.

"But Danny said…"

"Danny's being a little bitch about the whole thing." Tucker rolled his eyes. "This is important for you to know, just as much as it's important for Jazz to know."

Ellie grinned mischievously, and Sam was instantly reminded of herself when she got a devious plan – she'd seen the look enough times shown back at her through hers and Danny's link, she could easily see it on Ellie's face. "Let's go spar then." She set her manila file folder on the ground and stood up. "You coming Tucker?"

He nodded, "Yeah. But I'll leave the fighting to you two and just stay on my laptop." He chuckled and began gathering up the items he was going to bring downstairs.

"I'll wait till you're down there to begin the story. Why don't we get changed?" Sam suggested.

Ellie looked down at her jeans and t-shirt. "You sure?"

"Yeah. It's just regular sparring and I think we'll be able to get more frustration out if we're not restricted by certain articles of clothing at the moment." Sam side smiled and headed for the stairs.

"Sounds reasonable." Ellie agreed and followed her up. "You have something I can wear, since I didn't bring a bag of clothes with me?"

"Yeah, I brought a couple of things." Sam reassured her.

They quickly changed into sweatpants and t-shirts before heading downstairs. Tucker was already set up on the edge of the mat down in the basement and had a Dumpty Humpty playlist playing through the speakers of his computer.

"Ooh! Good workout music. Speaking of, I seriously need to update my IPod. It's so outdated it's not even funny."

"We'll make sure to hook yours up to my computer when we get back to Amity tomorrow morning." Sam said as she began a quick warm-up.

"Awesome!" Ellie beamed and quickly fell into Sam's lead of high knees and toy soldiers among other acts to warm the body without stretching. "So," She finally got the courage to pursue their previous conversation, "What did you want to tell me about this alternate timeline?"

"Timelines." Sam emphasized.

"Wait." Ellie paused in her warm-up and looked at Sam with wide eyes. "There's more than one?"

"Yep! Four others actually." Tucker answered instead, "We can be pretty messed up. But we think we've got this timeline going pretty well, so far." He smiled.

"Don't jinx us, Bad Luck Tuck." Sam narrowed her eyes at him trying to keep her tone playful, but it came out clipped instead.

He held his hands up in defense, clearly seen over his computer, "I'm just saying is all..."

"Yeah," Sam rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest, "Yeah, that's what you say and then we typically have to deal with something biting us in the ass."

Tucker pushed his glasses back up onto his face, "If you're going to be that snippy about it, why don't you go join Danny."

Sam sighed, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "Sorry." She breathed out before opening her eyes and looked him in the eyes, "I didn't mean to start that. At least not like that."

"I know." Tucker breathed in deeply and let it out slowly, "But you know what happens when you don't control your tone." Sam looked away from him, a sour look on her face.

"I know." She grumbled to herself then turned to look at Ellie. "Alright, whatever, let's just start, I gotta get this energy out somehow."

"What about the timelines?" Ellie asked in concern, but stood in a ready position as Sam slid into hers.

"I'll start us off." Tucker said and put his computer down to the side of him.

"You ready?" Sam asked. Ellie nodded and Sam made the first move, beginning their spar.

"The one that Danny didn't want to tell you about right now was the fourth timeline we experienced. It happened towards the end of the middle of last semester. Me, Sam and Jazz had been in the school while Danny was off fighting Vlad.

"It had been during World History, second hour, when the school fire alarms had blared. We hadn't known at the time what was going on. And had been surprised when the alarms had stopped suddenly after going off. But it was only a few minutes later when we heard the first gun shots ring out." Tucker visibly shivered at the memory. "Our teacher, Miss Reylon, this was only her second year at the school, she told us to go back to the classroom seeing as we had left at the sound of the fire alarm. We, among the other students in the hallways ran back to our classrooms.

"Except we… we weren't fast enough. At the stairs that led back up to our classroom on the third floor stood, Tony Smith with an assault rifle in his hands and it was pointed towards us. He told us to make our way back through the hallway, calmly, towards the gym. He told us that if anyone tried to run he'd shoot us down like dogs. Miss Reylon tried to reason with him. Told him if he stood down now, that she would do her best to make sure he would get help. Which of course set him off, seeing as he was already messed up. He raised his rifle easily and shot her in the head."

Ellie gasped and stopped in the sparring, covering her mouth with her hands to stare at Tucker with wide, shocked eyes. Sam stumbled trying not to hit Ellie when their pattern halted but, Tucker continued as though he hadn't heard her, almost lost in the trance of the horrible alternate memory.

"She hit the ground hard. Then…Tony, he…uh… Tony asked:

"'Anymore stupid people wanna try and help me?'

"I could tell there were a few people including Sam that wanted to say something but they kept their mouths shut. He told us to get moving and we walked slowly to the gym. Traveling through the hallways there were a few bodies laid out of doorways and few lined the lockers. When we passed the front classrooms near the office you could see into the doors and you could only see dead bodies. Later we would learn that those had been classrooms filled with Senior students.

"When we reached the gym all of the underclassmen were sitting up in the bleachers with most of the Junior class. But the Senior class – what was left – was lined up on the basketball court. Jazz had been sat down under the basketball hoop closest to the doors to the hallway. Three others stood in the middle of the basketball court with an assortment of guns that I can't really remember. But two were definitely machine guns. But the one person who stuck out the most was Caleb Minor. He was known to be in one of the gangs that runs around Everton.

"Mine and Sam's class was one of the last ones to enter the gym, so we sat on the first row of bleachers. No teachers were among us. After which the worst began. Caleb was clearly the one calling the shots, his friends followed easily. He began calling certain seniors forward to the middle of the gym. Few went easily. Well, not easily but they didn't fight it. The first one to fight Caleb's orders had been a girl named Emmeline and Tony shot her on spot. I remember Caleb's voice echoing amongst the cries of everyone, asking if anyone else wanted to fight him. Emmeline's boyfriend tried to, but was shot as well.

"I remember feeling as if my blood had frozen while I sat there watching what was going on. Me and Sam were holding hands, I remember my hand had been numb at that time.

"Caleb however wasn't done and brought everyone forward that he wanted. No one else fought. The last person he brought forward was Jazz. But he didn't allow her to sit with the rest of them. Caleb gripped the upper part of her arm and dragged her in front of them all. Me and Sam wanted to get up and help Jazz, but the other two of Caleb's lackey's – both seniors – were pointing guns at all of us on the bleachers.

"'You're the reason we're all in this mess, Jazz.' Caleb had told her loud enough that everyone of us could hear. She only stared up at him in slight terror and shook her head. 'Don't you think they deserve to know the reason they're going to die?' he demanded and forced her towards the middle of the basketball court.

"I remember her pleading with him. That she could still help him. You see, Caleb was seeing the school psychiatrist for personal issues at home. Jazz had taken to helping out in the counselor's office and she was always around during Caleb's sessions. She had told him to open up to his parents about why he participates in the Gang violence. He had been quite excited to do it, from what Jazz had said. But apparently, it hadn't gone over so well. He told her:

"'You're going to watch as I kill everyone who ever made fun of me for what I do. For what I've had to go through. And then you'll be last. But I want them to know that you're the reason for their deaths. You killed them. And you're going to watch'.

"After that he opened fire on all of them with Tony. It was brutal. I won't give you those details. But there were a few students in the stands who protested loudly, standing up and yelling for their siblings or cousins or their friends. They were shot down as well.

"Then Caleb forced Jazz to her knees. The whole time she was pleading with him that they could fix things. That there was still time to make things right. But Caleb wouldn't hear it. He murdered her, too.

"Of course me and Sam didn't sit quietly when this happened. We screamed out that she was only trying to help. That there were people out there to help him. But before the words barely left our mouths he, himself, had aimed and fired at us. All I remember about that is blinding white hot pain and then nothing."

"But!" Ellie interrupted, now seated on the floor, "But something had to have forced the change! What…how did… how did you guys change what happened?!"

"Well, that wasn't all that actually happened." Tucker told her sadly.

"Oh… ke-keep going." She urged, hair standing on end.

"In the same timeline, before we all awoke with different memories of what happened Danny found out what had happened. During this entire ordeal, he had been fighting Vlad down by the warehouse district. When he had gotten back to the school he was presented with the aftermath of the shooting. When he found out what had happened to all of us, he… he went to his dark side. He ripped into Caleb and Tony and the other two seniors that had helped in the shooting as well as the three other people part of Caleb's gang that had helped stage off the police. Danny just… he just lost himself and killed them all for what they did.

"Then he broke down and ended up revealing himself to everyone. I'm not going to detail anything about that, either. It was after the funerals that Danny molded himself a bullet mixed with gun powder and blood blossom. He hoped that the blood blossom would keep his ghost self from trying to revive itself. It ended up working actually. Or as far as we know.

"Clockwork had decided to intervene shortly – a split second – after this action had occurred so we only have his word, actually. You see Clockwork hadn't intervened earlier because he had been positive that if the choice came to it, Danny would never kill himself. But Danny's determination to make sure Dan never happens was too strong. He would do whatever he could to make sure Dan didn't happen. Of course at the time this happened, he hadn't really learned yet, how it would all transpire. But still it happened.

"Of course Clockwork went back in time before the whole thing went down. Before school that day began and told us what was going to happen. Since we knew what was going to happen, we were able to make a plan ourselves. A few people were killed, including Miss Reylon, however Clockwork informed us that no matter what it had been their time to move on. But that didn't make us feel any better. We were able to call the police and get something going before things had gotten even worse and because Danny didn't go and fight Vlad that morning – knowing what would happen if he did – he was able to overshadow Caleb and Tony and the others and incapacitate them. And everything turned out relatively okay in the end."

Tucker finally ended and looked up from where he had been staring at the floor to see Ellie staring at him in the same position as earlier. Sam had shifted though, still needing to work out her frustration, she had moved to one of punching bags, where she continued her exercises with wrapped hands.

"Sooooo," Ellie spoke slowly after a full minute of silence, "Danny didn't want to tell me about this timeline because he was so distraught that he killed himself?"

"Yes." Sam answered, and punched the bag a bit harder than before.

"That's just fucking stupid! I can't believe that actually happened. Oh my gods! Are you guys okay? I mean, what am I saying, of course you're not okay, but I mean. Is aunt Jazz alright? Like, just… just… holy crap." She put her head in her hands and stared at the floor.

"It's a lot to take in." Tucker amended. He moved from his spot to sit next to her and wrapped an arm around the back of her shoulders. "We're a lot better now than before. Jazz of course, took it the hardest. It took a long time for her to come to terms with the fact that she couldn't save Caleb. Even though she wanted to. She spoke to CrystalRose of the Far Frozen a lot over what happened. It really helped her to talk to someone of a warrior race about the events."

Ellie nodded in understanding, "I'm sure. They're really good ghosts. But how did she remember? Didn't she have different memories too?"

"We asked to have our previous memories restored. It was a bit messy at first, on trying to distinguish both memories, but I'm not sorry that I have them again. Mnemosyne, a friend of Pandora's, helped us out. I think she's come to expect us from time to time now."

"Wow." She looked over at him and Tucker gave her a small smile. "Just wow."

"You going to be okay there, Ellie?" Sam questioned and threw a side kicked at the bag.

Ellie nodded again, though Sam couldn't see. "Yeah. A lot to take in I guess. I just never thought about there being more than one alternate timeline. And now there's five and this one sounds so horribly messed up and it's just amazing to think that in some other timeline, I wouldn't have any of you guys anymore. Which," She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, "is kind of selfish thinking, but it's so weird to think about because you're here. Like really here, right now. Is that weird?"

Sam stopped in her ministrations and wiped the sweat from her brow with her T-Shirt. "Weird is part of our everyday lives. But no it's not weird compared to normal standards."

"Okay." Ellie nodded and leaned further into Tucker's hold.

She sat there for a long while going over the information she had been given. It was becoming weirdly easy for her to think that there was an alternate version of their world out there, an alternate timeline, where all of them were gone. It was hard for her to wrap her mind around the idea of Danny, Sam, Tucker and Jazz being dead; hard to imagine in any timeline. But viewing it as an entirely separate section of time it become slightly easier to bear.

But all in all, she was glad that they had told her. Now that she understood what had happened only 8 months ago she understood why Danny had freaked out so much when they had discovered clone 177. She couldn't understand though why he hadn't wanted to tell her about the horrible… situation, but she didn't see him as any less – which she figured was part of his aversion to explaining it to her – if anything she admired his strength in his actions. She didn't like the fact that he killed himself. She didn't like it at all, but his reasoning to make sure, really sure, that his evil self didn't have a chance to resurrect again held something to be admired because she knew she could never do that. Ellie knew that if she had been in Danny's shoes that she could never do that; have that sort of strength to put a 'maybe' in front of his life.

"Did that happen again?"

"Which part?" Sam asked from beside her. She had sat down a few minutes ago, having decided she had gotten out her frustrations.

"The suicide."

"No." Both Sam and Tucker answered, shaking their heads.

Ellie sighed with relief. "Good." She nodded to herself, "Good. So, do I get to hear about the others?"

"Well that was quick." Sam chuckled, though a tad darkly. Hearing Tucker tell the entire story had hit her harder then she thought it would. It was different then having sessions with Jazz. It was hearing the entire thing over again. In one setting. And she could kind of see why Danny hadn't wanted to talk about it tonight. But she was actually happy that they had told Ellie. Getting it out into the open once again reminded her of what could happen. What Danny himself was capable of. And what they had to cherish. Each time there was a horrible happenstance it was Clockwork who would come in and save them. And she reminded herself each time that at some point Clockwork won't come in and give them a do over.

"I figured a way to deal with it. It happened, yet it's not happening right now. Therefore I move on from it and deal with what's next."

"That's very mature of you." Tucker commented and dropped the arm from around her shoulders.

"Well, it was either keep remembering constantly about Vlad or move on from it in my everyday life." Ellie shrugged.

Sam wanted to mention that it didn't seem to be helping her out with her dreams and nightmares; but she decided to keep her mouth shut. They could focus on that problem at a later time. Or well, Jazz could.

"So you're ready to hear the next one?"

"I think so."

"You think so?" Sam arched a brow.

"I know so." Ellie rephrased quickly.

"Because we don't have to start on it right now." Tucker reassured. "We can wait. I know that that timeline can be pretty intense."

"No, I know." She tried to reassure. "But I wanna hear about the others."

"Okay, only if you're sure." Sam said.

"I am. Really." She encouraged.

Sam nodded and looked to Tucker who locked eyes with her. She could tell that Tucker wanted her to begin the story, which she did without complaint seeing as he was the one to actually tell the last story and it took a lot out of a person.

"This is about the second timeline. And in this one, Danny was killed by the Observants. Well, the Observants had gotten someone, that wasn't Clockwork, to do their dirty work."

"Seriously!" Ellie couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"Seriously." Sam nodded, "They were so sure that he would turn into Dan again, because they had watched the fourth timeline actually. They were too terrified that he would turn dark once again. So, instead of listening to Clockwork like they should have, they sent someone out to do their bidding.

"At the time we thought we could overcome the assassin that was sent. They were intense. I'm not sure how else to explain it, but even though Danny had more powers, this assassin was skilled in a fight. We figured they were some sort of ghost fighter when they were alive because of their skills in defeating Danny. Or at least they had trained as a real assassin when they were alive. Me and Tucker had been placed in some type of containment bubble the instant he had shown up. Which was out of nowhere, so we were already at a disadvantage when he appeared when we were out on patrol.

"It was terrifying to watch, and the fight lasted for a long time. I'm not sure how long, but it seemed to get over quicker than how long it actually lasted. Me and Tucker didn't take what happened too well."

"Well, that's to be expected." Ellie commented.

"True." Sam shrugged half-heartedly. "But after burying him, we went to work on finding that assassin. Which was actually after having a breakdown at Clockwork's, because we couldn't understand how he could let this happen. He only told us that things would right themselves out. Which only pissed us off even more. Anyway, it took some time, but we were finally able to track him down. And he easily told us that the Observants were responsible."

"Okay, Sam's leaving out the funniest part." Tucker smiled over at Sam who only narrowed her eyes at him.

"I did not."

"Yes you did!" Tucker laughed. "You see," he turned to look at Ellie, "when we had found the door to this assassin ghost, we were packing. I mean seriously packing. So we don't even knock when we get there, just bust down the door – Sam style – opening it easily. We had expected a fight, but instead we found the assassin sitting on some old khaki colored recliner and watching TV. Our guns were ready as we stood there, but the assassin only spoke in a low voice. 'I knew you'd be here sooner or later'. Which of course freaked me out, but Sam kept pushing me into the room.

"I asked them how they knew that we were coming, when they abruptly turned the recliner around, a gun rested on their lap. I admit that I screeched like a terrified little girl, but they waved us both off. They said that everyone knows how tight our group is. And many ghosts know of us, so when They saw that we were with Danny, they immediately knew that we had to be incapacitated. After which I asked why they killed Danny. That we had never seen them before now, so why come to Amity Park and do what they did? The Assassin told us that they were told by the Observants to kill Danny. We of course didn't take that information very well."

Sam picked up now on the story, "After we ranted for about an hour we both came to the conclusion that the Observants needed to pay for what they did. They were doing things without taking all of the facts into consideration. We decided to put a stop to them.

"The assassin helped us out on specific weaponry that he had. It was better than traveling back to Fenton Works and taking Fenton weapons into the fight. We essentially went on a killing spree in the Tower of the Observants. It was bloody and intense, but afterwards we felt a little more at ease." Sam sighed. "But we didn't exactly stop there."

"Exactly, any ghost that we hadn't made friends with, we didn't exactly take it easy on them." Tucker continued. "We stayed at home, but we didn't really focus on school anymore or the rest of our lives. We focused on making sure no one got hurt from ghosts again. We killed ghosts all the time now. We almost essentially turned into a scarier version of the Guys in White. We didn't hurt the ghosts we knew but anyone else, if they hurt anyone in Amity Park, they were dead. Easily."

"So, what happened? How did everything get set right again?"

"Actually this one was all Clockwork." Sam chuckled a bit darkly. "We hadn't gone to see him, so he came to see us. Or well, sent for us. And he explained that by continuing down this path the only end was destruction. Not only our own, but the order of balance. Still not sure what balance he wants to keep, seeing as he mentions that multiple times during our other timelines. But anyway, he told us that he could set the time back and he would show the Observants what would happen. Apparently, it worked.

"We didn't have to watch Danny be killed and we didn't go on some kamikaze rampage through the Observants Tower. It was weird reliving that month. With all of the different memories. But after it passed everything sort of became normal once again. At least until the next big disaster."

Sam looked down at Ellie to see her staring at her and Tucker with an opened mouth and eyes wide. She chuckled at the shocked look on her face, "Didn't quite expect all that did ya?"

"Like seriously? I don't even have words! Like… what!" Ellie looked at them in disbelief.

"Yep! Didn't think me and Sam could become crazy ghost hunting people, did you?" Tucker laughed, having thrown an arm around Sam's shoulders.

"Well, I mean I guess it kinda crossed my mind, but not like that!" Ellie's mouth stayed open, in surprise.

"We did." They had both dealt with their actions and were able to speak about the second timeline with more ease than any of the other timelines. "Not that it really improved much later." He muttered to Sam lowly. She elbowed him in his side.

"Okay, so you went kinda crazy. But didn't you say that Clockwork said when you went to see him after Danny had been killed, that everything was going to right itself in the end?"

Sam and Tucker shared a glance, that had Ellie on edge, "Right. Well…" Tucker began and dropped his arm from around Sam.

"Sometimes, if you haven't noticed, Clockwork can be wrong." Sam finished for Tucker. "He figured after our stunt with the Observants that we'd go back to living like normal. Ish. That was one of the paths he saw. Of course we didn't take the path he expected which led to the whole intervention thing by him."

"Whoa."

"I mean, he's a ghost too. Yeah, he can control time and what not and he's super powerful, but it doesn't make him any less of a ghost and he makes mistakes. Plus he figured that Jazz would be able to pull us out of our stupors." Tucker shrugged.

"Jazz!" Ellie gasped and looked back and forth between them, "What happened to Aunt Jazz during this timeline?"

"Jazz, was trying to get everything dealt with. She was dealing with Maddie and Jack. Making the funeral arrangements and what not and dealing with what happened herself. We kinda, left her to pick up the pieces when we went after the Observants." Sam picked under her nails, still feeling a touch of guilt for doing that. "Sometimes she would help us patrol, but mainly she just made sure that we were living. Even if we were pretty much zoned out the entire time."

"That was really mean of you guys to do."

A roll of guilt shredded through both of them. "We know." Tucker amended. "It was also when we were still letting her into the group. So we weren't really friends with her yet. She was just Danny's sister at the time. So we didn't feel so bad when it all went on. But afterwards we made sure to improve our friendships with her. Now it'd be weird if we weren't close to her."

"She's practically like the sister I never asked for." Sam smiled.

"Hmm," Tucker pursed the side of his lips, "I wouldn't go that far. You're more my sister than she is."

Sam turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at him. He instantly felt as though she could see through him, though he wasn't sure what she was looking for. She opened her mouth to say something but Ellie beat her to it.

"So if that's the second timeline, what's the third timeline?"

"You sure you wanna hear the rest of them?" Tucker asked, thankful for the redirection as Sam turned to look away from him.

"Yeah. I mean, I know the other ones. And there's only two more. Might as well get it over with now, you know? Like pulling off a band-aid."

"Damn, she definitely belongs to you." Tucker smirked at Sam. She only rolled her eyes.

"I'll tell mine and then you'll tell yours?" She asked him.

"Sounds like a plan, Sam." He pointed finger guns at her and clicked his tongue. "See what I did there?"

She held her palm up towards him, "Stop. You'll get worse then Danny." She rolled her eyes then heaved in a heavy sigh before beginning, "Alright so, in the third alternate timeline. It was myself that turned dark and…"

"Whoa," Ellie held her hands up for Sam to stop, "Okay, so the only time a new timeline happens is when one of you goes evil or dark or whatever?" she arched an eyebrow.

"Pretty much." Tucker nodded in response. It was pretty fucked up though, he admitted to himself.

"Fun." Ellie deadpanned.

"Hey, if you don't want to hear the rest, we don't have to go into it." Sam reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"No!" She instantly perked up. "No, I really want to hear them. I just wanted to make sure I was following along correctly."

Sam nodded in understanding and pulled her arm back. "Okay, then. Now, as I was saying, when I went dark I let Undergrowth gain control over me."

"But…" Ellie quickly snapped her jaw shut when Sam tilted her head slightly and pressed the side of her mouth in a tight line giving her, her 'really?' look. "Yep, got it. I'll shut up."

Sam breathed out another sigh, "It was interesting in how everything got cleaned up. Still not quite sure how it all happened but that's really not the point. Anyway, basically, Vlad had had enough. He focused his energy on killing Danny. Said he'd find another way to make the perfect half-ghost son and he was taking Maddie no matter what.

"It basically sucked. Vlad when he's actually trying to kill you is terrifying. He never actually held back in previous fights, but he didn't fight as dirty as he could. And he can fight dirty. That's how we lost. Tucker… Tucker had been killed first."

Tucker jumped in quickly to give his small side to the story, "Let me tell you, I will never forget that experience." The word 'experience' sounded weird considering the context of what they were talking about, but he didn't know how else to describe it. He was here now. And alive. "He was ruthless and any chance he had, he took it." He shuddered, as his mind flashed to another time where his body was being burned from too many ectoplasm shots to the chest.

"So he just, what, forgot his humanity and went on a rampage?"

Sam shook her head, "No, he decided we were enough of a nuisance to not keep around anymore." She shrugged, "Though, that's from my understanding. I honestly couldn't tell you what happened. So, after Tucker was killed, as expected Danny went a bit crazy and rash making it easier for Vlad to get in his hits. I tried my god damned best to get Vlad's attention away from Danny, but he was determined to finish him off before he did me in. Of course, I knew I wasn't going to last much longer in my physical state and had to figure out some way to knockout Vlad.

"Most of what happened is fairly blurry in my memory. Only a few things really stick out the most you know? Obviously one of them was when Tucker died. Another was when I used the Plasmius Maximus on Vlad. He had had it with him and used it on Danny, which sequentially lead to his own death. Okay, wait I got ahead of myself." Sam held up her index finger to pause in her story telling.

"Vlad had pulled out the Plasmius Maximus – which is such a stupid name – to cripple Danny. So when Vlad used it on him, we still had weapons in my back pack. But that didn't help our case. But after Vlad hit Danny with the Plasmius Maximus he kinda just left it on the roof that they had been fighting over. Danny knew he had to get to the ground cause otherwise Vlad would have thrown him off the roof, that he had landed on. But it really didn't help him in the end. I'm not sure what happened exactly because I was making my way up through the apartment complex when Vlad killed Danny.

"I remember seeing him standing over Danny, very clearly. However, my actions following are pretty blurred. But what I figured out was that I was able to subdue Vlad by using the Plasmius Maximus and then since he never seemed to learn how to fight in his human form, at least beyond the basics and without ghost powers, was able to effectively defeat him and put him in a coma. Essentially."

"Whoa." Ellie looked at Sam with wide eyes. "And you don't remember doing it?"

Sam's nose scrunched up quickly before her features returned to normal. "Well, I remember it, but it's like I hit fast forward on the TV and I only catch bits and pieces." She raised her hand and turned it slightly side to side in a so-so motion.

"So, what happened after that? Cause right now, nothing that you've done really screams; Dark." Ellie urged.

"After the whole thing with Vlad, it was a bit crazy for a while. The city and the country found out about Danny and Vlad. Including Valerie. When we had the funerals, she came but afterwards she confronted me about what was being said in the news and in the local gossip. This was one of the times she hadn't taken the information very well. She was pretty pissed and believed that Phantom had taken over Danny. I actually had hoped that she would have taken it better. To keep a certain connection with someone. But even Valerie wasn't around anymore, not that us as a group hung out with her much at the time. And I didn't talk with her either. But it was somebody I knew that I could become friends with. Especially after all that happened.

"With no one else to really turn to, I ended up fairly depressed. But I didn't stop fighting ghosts. Which is kind of how this all came about. One day, probably about a month or so after the whole ordeal Undergrowth attacked Amity Park. And if I had been in a better mind set at the time it would have been easier to evade him. But I let him in my head and was put under his control. I know that the things I did while under his control were not good and I'm severely happy that Clockwork intervened and started things back to before Vlad attacked us.

"I'm not sure how it all happened, but he was able to have Lethe, from the Greek section of the Zone, come in and sort of have Vlad forget that he wanted to kill us all at least for the reasons that he was going to. But that's all I really know about it. Honestly, it's not as bad as we've had before. But it still sucked."

Sam took in a deep breath and let it out with a huff.

"I know that this wasn't made up, but seriously it almost sounds like it was." Ellie shook her head, "I can't believe you got Lethe to give Vlad amnesia."

"We didn't, Clockwork did." Sam reminded.

"Right, right. So… do you remember being under Undergrowth's influence? Like what happened and stuff?"

Sam shook her head. "Not much actually. There were times that I seemed to come out of it, but when I did it was similar to an out of body experience, so, really those are the only memories I have from that time."

"And you didn't ask, uh… what was her name again?"

"Mnemosyne."

"Right." She nodded, "Didn't you ask her to help you remember?"

Sam shook her head, eyes locked on her hands, "I already had enough of what I had done. I knew allowing myself to be under Undergrowth's control wasn't an ideal answer to my situation and even though I know I did horrible things while under his control, I know enough that it's going to stick with me forever."

"At least you had the influence of Undergrowth to get you to do some of those worst things." Tucker grumbled to himself causing Ellie to look over at him questionably.

"He's talking about his own timeline." Sam answered for him, looking back up from her hands to them both.

Ellie understood and addressed Tucker, "But what do you mean by what you said? Did… did you not… like, have…I have no idea what I'm trying to ask." She admitted.

"I think it'll be easier if I just start from the beginning." Tucker amended.

"It happened this past summer. Mid-June to be more precise." Sam informed before Tucker began.

"Right. Exactly." He nervously fidgeted with his fingers. "So, me and my family left for a vacation to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins down in Texas. We were only going to be there for a week and a half. Danny and Sam were still up here in Amity Park, so I checked the news every day to make sure everything was going okay. To make sure that they were doing okay while I was away. And they were. Everything was pretty normal actually, ghosts were still attacking every day, at their usual times. It was normal news, until it wasn't.

"The explosion of Fenton Works not only made headline news, but national news. The Fenton's are big name scientists after all."

"An explosion?" Ellie asked quietly, looking between them apprehensively.

"Yes." Tucker nodded, grimacing. "It wasn't the Fenton's fault. It was the GIW's. Of course, it took me a few weeks to figure it out. The thing is, is that it had taken out half the block. My parents took care of Danny, Jazz, Maddie and Jack's funerals while the Manson's obviously took care of Sam's. However, because so many perished in the explosion there was a wake for all that had been close to the people who had been killed.

"It was hard, being alone like that. I didn't know what to do with myself for the first few days after the funerals. So, I threw myself into trying to figure out what had actually happened. Because even though the police and said it had been ghost related and brushed it off, I knew something was amiss when the GIW had shown up, snooping around the site.

"I investigated the GIW. They didn't have a facility that they were working out of, so it was a bit difficult to find them at first, but once I did, it wasn't that hard to keep track of where the Guys in White moved around to – which they did every few days. It took what seemed forever, but I finally came across what they had had Maddie and Jack working on. They had given them ectoranium and wanted to know the affects it had with blood blossoms and ectoplasm. Separately and together. 2 parts ectoranium, 3 parts blood blossoms and 2 parts ectoplasm, created the massive explosion.

"I didn't take that information too well." Tucker shrugged and pulled in a deep breath. Sam reached over, placing a hand on his knee and he laced his fingers with hers for reassurance.

"I went after who had been head of the GIW at the time. A completely different person than who's in charge now. I went after them – I wasn't in a right state of mind at the time but I killed them for what they did to them. To the innocent people who had perished. For only thinking of killing ghosts and using the Fenton's to get what they wanted no matter the cost."

Silence reverberated through the basement for a moment before Ellie asked,

"How did everything change? What did Clockwork do?"

"I went to him."

"What! He just let it all happen?" Ellie looked back and forth between the older teens in shock once more.

"Kind of." He admitted. "He told me it was 'in the cards' or something. Like it was all supposed to happen this way. Honestly, I was just overly happy to have everybody back. Haven't exactly spoken about it all since."

"Well, that's just stupid." Ellie grumbled and folded her arms across her chest.

"Like I said, Clockwork can be wrong." Sam squeezed Tucker's hand before letting go and leaned back on them instead.

"But he sees like, all outcomes, or possible outcomes. Why didn't he just tell you guys that this might be where you're heading?"

"Because he wants us to 'find our own path'." Tucker used finger quotes while Sam rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time.

"Which doesn't quite make sense if he keeps stopping us and resetting time." Sam mused aloud.

"Exactly!" Ellie agreed instantly.

"Maybe we should have another talk with him about what he needs to tell us."

"Probably." Sam agreed with Tucker. "Because we really don't need to have another timeline get fucked up. We've been through this shit enough. Either let it play out or give us enough warning so we can fix it before it becomes an issue."

Tucker and Ellie nodded in agreement. Silence eased through the gym, thoughts running a muck in each person's mind. It was broken up a few times by Ellie asking a few things about what they had told her. Just reaffirming that it all had actually happened to help her understand how crazy things have gotten.

October 18th, 2014

Friday night / Saturday morning

Danny's Door

12:20 a.m.

When Danny returned to his Door he was hoping to find everybody asleep. He knew by looking through the link that Sam wasn't because her wall was still secured tightly in place, but he had hoped that she was in her room or something. Instead he found both Sam and Tucker seated in the kitchen drinking steaming cups of tea.

"Where's Ellie?" he asked quietly once he was fully in the kitchen.

"In bed." Sam answered.

Danny nodded in regard to her statement and went to the stove to heat water for his own tea he now wanted. It was silent in the kitchen. He could practically feel Tucker's annoyance along with Sam's in his mind. He let out a loud sigh. Now that he'd had time to cool off he could recognize that he had been a bit unreasonable about the whole thing. He knew he should have stayed and explained to Ellie about that timeline or any of the other timelines. But he left that to Sam and Tucker and that wasn't something he had wanted to burden them with. Especially with him not there as emotional support for themselves and Ellie's confusion on the topics.

Time always hurt his brain.

He waited till he had settled down in the open chair at the island next to Tucker, across from Sam, with his tea ready to go before he opened the can of worms.

"So I know that you're kinda still mad at me. And I'm sorry. For pushing against you guys about telling Ellie. And I'm sorry that I left you alone to do it. I'm also sorry that I was such a jerk and let my emotions get the better of me."

He waited for them to say anything, for Sam to open up her mind to him once again. But they both continued to sit there in silence, staring into their mugs. They glanced at each other once or twice and Danny knew he was either forgiven or about to deal with a new round of torture. It wasn't as weird as most people say it is when others supposedly 'speak silently' to one another, but it does get annoying when he's not also in on the silent conversation with them.

"And?" Tucker asked taking a sip of his tea, both hands wrapped firmly around the warm cup.

Danny arched his brows and looked back and forth between his best friends. He settled for looking at Tucker. "And what?"

Sam huffed a little and shifted to cross her legs, not that he could see her legs very well but he saw her knee come up and rest over the other leg and the hint of her barefoot peeked out from the tables edge. Though it was an odd thought that popped into his head, he couldn't help but notice how pretty Sam's feet looked. There wasn't anything special about them but the way they looked made them seem overly beautiful especially with her deep purple nail polish.

"And, how about you either apologizing or acknowledging that you ran away again. You run away when it got to hard or to close and yeah you're back after blowing off some steam, but that wasn't the best situation to go and do that in." Sam's knuckles turned white from gripping her 'Baddest Witch in Town' mug of tea.

He sighed heavily and reached up to scratch the back of his neck. He knew he shouldn't have gone off like he had. Especially since Sam knew how often he'd run from specific things – though sometimes not running in the actual sense of the word. But he had needed to cool down otherwise he was going to say something he was going to regret, not only to Sam who he'd been arguing with but Ellie and Tucker. Sure, Sam and Tucker could have handled it, they were all good at handling each other, but Ellie wasn't.

He told Sam and Tucker exactly that. After which Sam dropped the wall on her side of the link and Danny could finally relax with the connection open again.

"It's not that we minded telling Ellie about the timelines, but dude are you not dealing with what happened? Because if that's what's going on maybe we should look into something else to help." Tucker looked over at him with so much concern in his eyes, Danny's resolve almost dropped.

"No, no I mean, I have dealt with it, but it's… it's kind of always a thought in the back of my mind." He shrugged and red rushed into his cheeks.

"About killing yourself." Tucker stated bluntly.

"No!" Danny quickly tried to reassure though he knew he couldn't exactly because it was something he was always dealing with. "I mean, like what if something like before would happen? I don't want to be even close to turning into that. It would be better. I'm not afraid of dying. I mean," a ghost of a chuckle left his lips, too melancholy to sound normal, "I'm already half dead. It wouldn't be much of a jump."

Sam took a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly before speaking; Danny could tell he was about to get hit with something huge. She leaned forward on her elbows to get closer to Danny and look him in the eyes.

"I know that we play a game of what-ifs in our lives. I know that we'll never actually know for certain about our futures. I also know that Clockwork won't always be there to get us out of binds. We'll have to make our bed and lie in it. And I mean, I get it. I understand that you sometimes pull back when things get too hard or too close to something uncomfortable. I get it. But, this has been something going on for a long time now. Almost a year has passed and I know that you and Jazz talked. I know that we've talked. And we thought," she gestured between her and Tucker, "that you were dealing better with what happened."

"I was. I… I am." Danny jumped to reassure her. And he had thought about it. But as a last resort option if it came to Dan being a reality. He pressed that focus into her, positive that his idea was a good one.

Sam pursed her lips on the side, he could instantly tell and not because her mind was screaming it at him, but because he saw the aggravation on her face and in her eyes and the way her jaw set and the focus on keeping her breathing steady – that she did not see his idea as a "good" idea.

"Dude." Tucker turned his body to face Danny full on, "I know you've said it before, but that's not exactly the best way to go about that."

"That's why I said it was a last resort."

"But that's the thing," Sam grabbed his attention again, "I believe you, but then I also don't believe you."

"But…"

"Me either."

Danny looked back and forth between both of his best friends as they glared him down. "But seriously, I'm fine guys. Really, I just didn't want to discuss it tonight. I was tired and focused on Ellie, not me." They didn't let up on their silent glaring, so he consented to what they wanted, "Would it make you both happier if I brought it up to Jazz again?"

"Yes." Their voices were resound and final.

He closed his eyes and sighed before easing them open once more. "Okay. Okay, I'll bring it up."

Though Tucker would like to keep pushing on that subject, he knew Danny well enough that he knew it wouldn't do any good and decided to move on from that to the current 'crisis' in their life. "Soooo, you guys are parents."

Sam turned her sharp gaze from Danny to Tucker. "I swear to God, Tuck if you make a suggestive joke…"

He pointed his index finger at her. "Hey, it's not fair to inflict any kind of harm for me being me."

"Tucker." Danny groaned.

"You guys know I have trouble with tension." He rolled his eyes.

"We know." Sam answered, "you don't need to apologize for it, if that's what you're thinking."

"It's just a lot." Danny sighed.

"See!" Tucker tried to amend, "you two will already be great parents; you're already on the same page."

Danny and Sam smiled at him, though rolled their eyes at his comment. Both were thankful for Tucker's continued support and character to help carry them at the times they needed it the most.

Though the mood had risen for a slight moment it quickly fell back into its previous sourness. The information they had discovered weighed down on each of them heavily similar to a low heavy snow cloud preparing to break into a blizzard.

"I hate him." Sam growled, glaring holes once more into the counter in front of her tea. "I know we've always joked that he's messed up – especially after learning about him beginning to clone Danny. And I've known he always was at least a little messed up but now… now he needs to be admitted to a psych ward. Or killed. Either or."

"We'd have to figure out a way to make sure he doesn't escape in the psych ward." Tucker huffed and rested his head in his hand. "Killing him would just be easier. And would be less hassle for everybody else too."

Danny's smooth and deep baritone cut through the kitchen making both Sam and Tucker eye him a bit warily when his eyes flashed red quickly, "Death is too easy. He doesn't deserve to die. There's a living breathing little girl upstairs. He needs to suffer with the consequences of messing with us and more importantly with innocent people and ghosts."

A pregnant pause permeated the air until Tucker spoke up, "What about keeping him with the Observants? They suck, but they're able to keep the high powered ghosts contained."

Sam shook her head. "No way. If we'd do that we need to figure out if the Ancients can put together his cell or something since they did so well with Pariah Darks. That is, if they still exist."

"But first we have to defeat him. And we've tried to get him to stop his actions before, but what we're talking about is to finally put an end to all of this. And we can do that, but we need to plan. We need to figure out the best and worst ways to take him down. We need to go over everything we can to make sure when we go after him it's the last time." Danny's eyes glowed fiercely, but a hint of determination colored his voice instead of the deep hatred, which calmed the tenseness in both Sam and Tucker.

"Maybe we can get Valerie to help, considering all that Vlad's done to her." Sam suggested.

"I can ask her." Tucker volunteered quickly.

Sam and Danny shared a quick knowing look at the tense atmosphere dissipate almost completely. "Why so eager Tuck?" Danny smirked, eyes shifted to a humorous green.

"Someone's crush getting a little too out of hand?" Sam waggled her eyebrows at the same time.

"No!" Tucker cried indignantly. "No, I don't… what? No." He shook his head.

Sam and Danny shared another knowing look. "He's in denial again." Danny said.

"Which is sad 'cause I'm pretty positive that she likes him."

"No she doesn't." Tucker huffed.

"Okay, whatever you say, Tuck." Sam chuckled.

"What, just 'cause you both are in a relationship now you're experts on who likes who?"

"Yes." They both answered cheekily.

"Ugh." Tucker groaned.

"Nope save that for Valerie." Danny smirked. Sam laughed loudly and Tucker reached over to hit Danny on the shoulder causing him to laugh and his eyes returned to their normal blue.

"Okay, that's it. I'm going to bed. Night nerds." He saluted before jumping off the stool type chair and made his way out of the kitchen.

"Aw, he's like us." Danny smirked at Sam.

"Except for the fact he's admitted out loud he has a crush. But then he goes back to denying it. I swear I'm gonna get whiplash from him and this." Sam got up from the table, grabbing hers and Danny's cups and placed them in the sink. "But I think he had the right idea to head on up to bed." In her acknowledgement, she let out a big yawn.

"I'll agree to that." Danny caught her yawn and stretched his arms high above his head.

They turned the kitchen lights off, walked up the stairs, gave the other a quick good-night kiss before heading off to their own rooms. Danny had just turned off his lights and crawled into bed, when Sam opened the door to his room asking if she could come in silently.

He sat up at once, "Of course. What's up?" he expected her to turn on the light, but instead she padded over to him in her bare feet and told him to scooch over before snuggling down in the bed with him.

"What's up?" He questioned again, wrapping on arm under Sam, causing her to move and rest her head on his chest, her arm came across his body and began trailing a finger over one of the smaller scars he had on his arm. She didn't answer his question though, so he let her raging thoughts flow through his mind and waited for her to bring up the topic she actually wanted to discuss.

Her mind kept going back to Ellie however and he knew where she was going in her thoughts, even though she never breached the topic.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, fingers twirling in the ends of her hair. He let that feeling spread through him and opened it up to her.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for in regards to this." She grumbled lowly.

"Maybe not," he was able to admit, "But if I had never let you and Tucker into this, so much of what just happened could have been avoided. So, I'm sorry that because of me, yet again, you're suffering."

She shook her head, rubbing her face against his shirt. "When are you going to get it through your thick skull that you didn't drag us into this. We've made our own choices about all of this. And if none of this happened we wouldn't have had Ellie. She wouldn't even exist and I know you love her too much to not have her here."

Danny sighed, twirling his hand through her hair even more. "True. I just hate the way it happened. She should have been ours, you know? Not his. We should have had the chance to raise her. As a normal baby and not made through a test tube. To have the chance to grow up normally."

Sam rubbed calming circles on his arm as his tone grew harsher, she could sense his fatherly feelings through their link and it made her warm all over. "I'm glad that she has a good father figure in her life now. And I'm happy that grandma is stepping up as a great mother figure for her. I just… I know I can't be that for her. I don't think I'd be able to be the best for her." She admitted; her voice small.

She actually wanted to step up and fill that role. She was her biological mom. But she didn't know how to be a mom. She wasn't ready for that role. Sure some people her age were able to step up to the plate, especially the teen moms and she applauded them for taking charge and being a mom, being that role model for their child. But they had months to prepare for that role. She had only found out a few hours ago. And her child – which was still super weird to think about – was a lot older. Was already in her teen years. She didn't have that time. And it terrified her.

"It's okay, Sam." He sent reassurances towards her through their link, calming her down. "I think she's just happy to have you in her life. Like for me, I kind of already see her as my daughter, you know? Like I already feel like her dad. And it works for us. So, whatever you both need I think will work no matter what and Ellie's just happy with what you two share because you're still in her life."

Sam shifted on his chest, careful where she moved so as to not elbow him or push on him wrong, and moved to where she could look at his face, her eyes adjusted just enough to make out his feature. "You know, I'm still not quite happy with you from before. But I'm going to kiss you anyway."

She could hear his confusion loud and clear but surrendered to her lips deciding to focus on it later.

Their lips moved together slowly, easily. Almost too innocent in their actions, leaning into the other, moving slightly to get a better vantage point. However, after a minute or two of innocent kissing, Sam decided to deepen the kiss. She moved further over his body, accidentally kneeing him in the side.

"Sorry." She whispered against his lips after he let out a hiss at the hard contact. Then continued her ministrations, one hand now entwined with his, one on his chest and she was settled with her legs on either side of him, resting on his lower stomach.

'It's okay.' He responded through their link, sending reassurance and a flash of lust through them, Sam moaned at the feeling, touching his own mind with her thoughts of him and how the thought of him – his good heart and actions, made her want him. The thought of a future with him, no matter what, that made her want to kiss him senseless.

She could feel his happiness and smugness over making her feel that way, when he wasn't even trying. Danny untangled his hand from her hair and ran it slowly down her back, bunched the bottom of her shirt together in his hand, before letting go and disappearing underneath to rest it on her waist, a flush of heat rushed through her body, even though his fingers were chilled. However, he continued to be the perfect gentleman in their predicament. She definitely didn't want that; not right now. Didn't matter what they had argued about an hour or so ago. She wanted him to reach up and touch her.

Her demand was sharp through their minds and Danny groaned at her thought, he bumped back against her mind asking if she was sure, his hand squeezed her side tightly.

'Yes.' She thought back, moving back a little, to move his hand up more herself and finally settling over him more so he knew what she was going for without having to think it. They both groaned as they came in contact with one another and Danny's hand moved father than she thought it would to her left breast, bunching up her T-shirt even further.

Sam sighed into the kiss, a tension finally being relieved in her body at the contact. She shifted, rubbing harsher against him, eliciting a moan and squeeze to her breast.

A flash of Sam naked and on top of Danny, riding him, crossed through their minds and Danny froze, breaking from the kiss. His eyes were wide in slight fear and cheeks turned deep red.

"Shit, sorry. That… that wasn't supposed to happen." He stumbled over his words.

Sam rolled her eyes, squeezed his hand and sent reassuring thoughts back to him. "It's okay. Remember we kinda knew this was coming. Besides," She shrugged and sat up over top of him, pulling his arm with her and therefore his whole body. "That means I can do this." She smirked and sent him an image of him taking her breast into his mouth while she grinded down on him.

He groaned, hips stuttering to move against her, both groaned at the friction their clothed sexes created.

"Gods, Sam." He growled taking her mouth once more. Sam encouragingly followed, moving her tongue with his and his left hand moved against her breast while the other unwound from her fingers and gripped her ass to help drive her deeper against him.

She laughed airily, elated and used her now free hands to pull his shirt over his head, marveling in the now free skin as he took to kissing her neck. She rocked down into his hips flashing her image through their link once more.

"Damn, Sam." He breathed against her neck, nipping it slightly, "You're trying to end me aren't you?"

She breathed a laugh through her nose and ran her finger tips between the sliver of space between them.

"Maybe." His body shuddered and pulled away from her neck, stilling his hands as well. She looked at him in concern. "Is… is that okay?" she had let herself use her body's desires to keep going but she hadn't thought about Danny not being okay with it. She had just assumed he would be.

The silence lasted too long, the link teetering open and closed.

"You know, I'm not going to last long like this." He finally whispered and Sam breathed easier.

She pulled a hand from his body to cup his cheek, looking him in the eyes, "I'm okay with this if you are."

"Oh, I am most definitely okay with it." He nodded. "I just… know it's kind of fast… you know considering, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay with, uh, well," he glanced away, face reddening even further. "you know."

"Orgasming?" She smiled devilishly. "I'm not a flower Danny."

He chuckled, gaze locking back on hers once more, pupils blown a little too wide and his hands moved to grip her waist tightly. "That I do know." He stole a quick kiss, moving fast enough to cause themselves to rub against the other roughly, relieving their building tension; a low moan broke from his lips and a deep sigh from Sam's. "I just wanted to make sure you were ready for this too." His lips whispered the words against hers.

Sam nodded, moved her hands from his body to the ends of her sleep shirt. "I am. Obviously not for, you know, actual sex, but this, this is perfect." She winked and yanked the material over her head and tossed the shirt to the side of the bed.

Danny's attention diverted from her eyes, down to her breasts then back up just as quickly.

"Well?" She asked, hands wrapped around his neck loosely, while his own dug into her hips and she knew she had him. "Are you going to touch them or are they going to sit there all alone?"

Danny decided the best course of action was to avoid talking and dropped his head, while moving a hand up to lift her right breast higher and wrapped his lips around her perky, rose colored nipple.

A low keen fell from Sam's mouth; his tongue twirled around the bud and Sam's fingers dug into the back of his shoulders, then ground down into him.

Another elicit moan echoed around the room. Danny unlatched his mouth from Sam's breast and pulled her down with him as he let himself fall into the bed once more. She used her knees to keep her balance, hands now stuck under Danny's cool body. She barely registered their new position when his mouth latched to the skin at the top of her other breast, biting into the soft tissue and dragged his hips up to rut against hers in quick succession.

"Ah, Danny!" She groaned, head dropping down, hitting his harshly but both ignored the quick shot of pain, her hair fell around her face. "Shit, that feels good." She moaned again, meeting him on is thrust up, once, twice. Again.

"Fu-uh-uck" Danny panted and his head pushed back into the pillows. Sam chuckled through her panting breath. "Don't stop. I think I'm close, Sam."

"Good," She growled and pulled him up for a deep kiss, teeth clashed and it was messy, barely registering as they rutted against the other.

He pulled away, keening loudly. "Sa-aa-am. Fuck."

His hips stuttered out of time with hers, before his body locked up, a deep long groan fell from his lips, but kept his eyes locked with Sam's. Being mentally linked, and feeling the rush of Danny's euphoria while cumming, helped in Sam's own orgasm pull through her quicker than normal; only a few seconds after his own and she pushed her lips back into his.

"Danny. Holy shit." She panted against him.

His eyes had fallen shut after hers had finished and she settled her full weight on him. His arms moved from her ass to wrap around her body and kissed her forehead. "That was great."

"Mhmm." Sam murmured, taking the opportunity to leave light, open mouthed kisses along his chest.

The silence pertained a few minutes longer, both now resting and Sam's hand looped with Danny's that had wrapped around near her shoulders.

"I love you."

"Love you, too." He responded tiredly. He knew he needed to get up and clean himself and change clothes, but it was nice to be able to cuddle together after what they did.

Sam had the same ideas and huffed in annoyance. "As much as I love this, I feel really gross. I'm going to take a quick shower."

"Okay." Danny amended.

"Do you have boxers I can borrow?"

"Mhmm. In my bag." He gestured to said bag on the floor by his closet door.

They laid there a moment longer, before Sam lifted her head to look at him in the eyes, but he kept them closed. "You have to let me go so I can get up."

"No." he grumbled, "You're too warm."

"If you don't clean yourself I'm not sleeping in here."

"Unless I make you." He smirked.

"Do you really wanna try that out?"

Blue eyes snapped open to meet purple ones, "Uh… probably not." He released her.

Sam chuckled and patted his cheek. "That's what I thought."

Danny let her go and she rolled off the bed, moving towards his closet where he kept his bag, grabbing a pair of boxers, before heading off to the bathroom. Danny gave her, her privacy and when she was finished Danny took his turn. They kept themselves in silence, even in their minds, which was odd considering who they were but each time they looked at the other or lightly touched the other's mind, they blushed red but smiles rose to their lips.

When Danny had joined her back in bed Sam spoke up, rolling on her side to face him. Danny scooted closer till he was a hair-breath away from her.

"So, maybe we should talk about what we should limit?" She asked a bit hesitantly.

Danny nodded, feeling a bit nervous too. He realized – quite late actually – what just transpired between them and what it meant. He had been so caught up in Sam, and besides acknowledging that this was a huge step, it hadn't quite settled until Sam spoke up.

"Probably a good idea. So…" his cheeks were warm, but he held her gaze, he was not going to be some pre-teen child about talking about sex. Especially not with his girlfriend.

"So…" Sam echoed.

They weren't sure what really sparked it, but they both broke out into a fit of laughter. Loud and obnoxious, stiches forming in their sides and tears in the corner of their eyes. Their laughter continued on for a few minutes before subsiding; Danny left with a light, easy smile on his lips and Sam with calm features and bright eyes.

"You think we'll be good just winging it?" Sam questioned finally.

Danny shrugged as best as he could, "That's basically our life anyway."

Sam rolled her eyes and moved to lay partly on his cool body. "True. We'll just see what happens then. And if something comes up and we're not ready – either of us – we speak up." She turned to throw a glare at him, difficult from her position, but not impossible, "No matter what."

His smile pulled to the side, the barest hint of teeth peeking through, "Of course, Sammy."

"Hey, watch it with that."

"Oh, Sammy-kins doesn't like…" he didn't get to finish his sentence as a pillow interrupted him.

A small pillow fight, and Tucker and Ellie coming in to figure out what was going on – having heard the yelling and screaming from their own rooms – everyone ended up bunking in Danny's bed. Sam and Danny knew they did need to sit down and have a good communication tryst but for now things were settled and okay.

October 18th, 2014

Saturday

Rosie's

8:40 p.m.

"I just can't figure out how your cousin hates me already. We just met!"

Sam wanted to roll her eyes as Danny's laughter echoed in through their link. "She takes a bit. She's had a hard life; she doesn't let people in easily. It took a while for her to consider me a friend."

"Well, yeah." He tapped his fingers against her back and glanced over to the group a bit away from them, dancing – or trying to – as a group of three. "But she seems to like Danny and Tucker really well, so don't get me started! She was buddy, buddy with them straight away."

Sam had to control her facial expressions so as to not let on how hilarious that statement was. That morning they – her and Ellie – had been caught coming into the house too late because her parents decided to use their ghost shield that they demanded to have since Sam's 'incident'. They easily covered up what really happened and Ellie's presence by Grandma Ida's quick thinking. What Sam found so funny about the situation was Ellie's well-hidden sarcasm behind a sweet smile, cute words and her parents' belief in child innocence. It was a sight to behold.

Her mother was immediately on top of the idea of welcoming Ellie into their home. She wanted to get a room set up as quickly as possible for her. Jeremy almost cried with happiness at having something for a connection with his cousin and talked about wanting to tell Ellie about all the crazy stuff that they had gotten into.

Of course what shocked Sam even more and was practically a laughable occurrence in itself was the fact that her parents – after finding out about 'Ellie's' past – asked her to take her out shopping to get a new wardrobe. With Charlie of course who had showed up around 11 am to get in some time with Sam before the big celebration dinner. It was the most fun Sam had had shopping since she bought her first dark outfit. And though Charlie had to tag along it wasn't half bad; they at least didn't have to carry all the bags.

"Look, I wouldn't be so torn up if she likes you or not…"

"But if she's your family, your second cousin… or, third? Second?

"Second."

"Then I'll have to see her at functions the rest of my life and if she hates me that much I don't know how I'm gonna face her."

"Like a man."

Laughter rang from the trio and Sam smiled wide when Danny cheered her on.

Charlie rolled his eyes, "Ha ha, real funny. But seriously, I don't know what I did to piss her off so much."

Sam sighed and stopped their dancing. "How about this: you get a quick drink and when you come back I'll have her dance with you and you can ask her yourself."

"Or I could keep dancing with you." He smiled suggestively, letting his tone drop a few octaves, his hand moved to her lower back. A growl sounded through her mind.

"No." her tone made it clear she wasn't interested and moved out of his hold, "You're very upset about this and I'd like to see it solved. So, go over and get a drink and then we'll get this all settled.

He sighed and closed his eyes for a second before reopening them. "Fine. But if this falls apart I blame you." He tried to play off his nerves.

Sam simply shrugged and began making her way over to the group, "Okay. No skin off my nose."

She didn't stay long enough to see or hear his response. She couldn't wait to see Ellie dance with him. It'd be a thing for T.V. however as she approached the crazy trio, Danny and Ellie quickly left, not even bothered enough to spare her a glance or an explanation through the link. Though Tucker's happy smile had turned into a devious smirk leading her to the conclusion something of the 'no good' nature was about to happen.

"You have to tell me what happens." Tucker said as soon as she was close enough.

"And what is about to happen?" She inquired, both aloud and mentally.

'You'll see.'

"You'll see."

She groaned in annoyance and pulled Tucker into a dancing position. "You both suck."

He gasped, a scandalized look appeared on his features, "Who told you?! Look, I know it's a shock but me and Danny are very in love Sammy-kins. We we're waiting till we announced our engagement to tell you. Figured it would lessen the blow a bit."

She deliberately stepped on his toes during their spin, causing him to squeal. "See, that's why everyone thinks you and Danny are gay together."

"Jeez, you know that makes more sense. Though I guess the better response to us sucking would be: 'Your dick', but it's a bit too late now." His smile widen in triumph and Sam couldn't help but chuckle.

"Metaphorically."

"Uh, duh!" though he looked at her questioningly, "Unless you're hiding one I don't know about. Do I need to be worried about Danny? Does he really want it up…ow!" He rubbed his shoulder where she had hit him.

"Fucking hell, Tuck, we're in public."

He chuckled, "Never stopped us before."

"Yes, well I actually like this place."

"Okay, okay. So, uh, Ellie's coming back out here. You think it's a good idea to leave them both alone?"

She glanced over to see a sulking Ellie making her way back over to them and Charlie and Danny looking as though they could burn holes in the walls. Though Danny probably could, but that wasn't the point.

"Probably not. But I'm gonna be entertained with whatever happens."

Danny smirked to himself at hearing Sam's words and thoughts. He sat there listening through Sam as Ellie told them how he'd made her leave even though she had wanted to stay and give Charlie a piece of her mind.

'Tell her that if she'd done that, I'd never get a chance.'

'I was going to let her at him actually. But you kind of beat me to the punch.'

'I know.' He smirked and met Sam's eyes from across the room. She gestured to Tucker and Ellie to begin dancing so as to not draw Charlie to attention that she was looking at Danny.

'Just don't get into a physical fight.' She grunted in annoyance, 'I honestly don't want this night to end with him in the hospital.'

Danny could only laugh, and struggled to keep a straight face on the outside. 'Who me? Never.'

"She sure is something isn't she." Charlie stated beside him pulling him away from Sam's thoughts.

"You have no idea." Danny could only respond with because even though Charlie was referring to the girl he saw on the dance floor, Danny was filled with images of the young woman he's grown to love through the years and everything she's stood for. Charlie barely knew how actually incredible she truly was. Danny was happy to feel her light embarrassment over his quick thoughts of her, and to see the light coating of pink on her cheeks, so different from her enthused and worn out blush.

Charlie let out a sigh and turned fully to face him, Danny only continued to watch his family out on the floor. "Look, I know that you two used to be a thing and all, so do you have any, like, tips on how to woo her? Each time I try she just shoots me down. I just can't figure out what she wants."

"She's already told you what she wants."

"Actually, I'm fairly certain she hasn't, otherwise I wouldn't be asking her ex about it. Which reminds me actually, if you guys were a couple – even for a short time – why do you both still hang out with each other?"

Danny rolled his eyes and turned just enough to face Charlie. "First, all Sam wants is to be left alone to live the life she wants. That's it. And if you could give her that then I'd gladly help if it was her decision; but it's not. So, you'll never be able to achieve that goal. That is unless you call off this whole arranged marriage. And second, I'm still around because she's still my best friend. Nothing changes that."

"I've given her that, though." He huffed in annoyance. Danny couldn't believe how mindless he was being. "I told her we could be friends first and I'm letting her dictate our time together – how is that not what she wants? Speaking of which, don't you think your presence is hindering her ability to open up to me? I don't think it's smart for you to keep hanging around Sam."

"Excuse me?" He furrowed his brows.

"Well, considering you were her boyfriend at one point and if I remember correctly, it was only for a short time and very recently, I don't think Sam is able to move on correctly, especially after what you said how she just wants to 'live her own life', and let me let her do that – which I am. I think the reason she's so held back from me, is because you're still around."

Danny instantly felt his temper rise and though Sam was right there sending him calming thoughts and words when he spoke it was with a bite. "Like I said before, Sam is one of my best friends. That didn't just go away because of a break up. I'm around until Sam doesn't want me around. I'm not going to lie. I love her. And if she wants me to stay out of her life, then I'll go, but that time hasn't come. And considering you're trying to get me to leave, you're not following in the path Sam wants to lead – again, like I said. This is about what she wants. Not about what I want and especially not what you want."

Charlie shifted and folded his fingers together atop the table. "You say you love her, but if you did as much as you've implied, then you should step aside and let her and I be happy together instead of forcing yourself on her presence. Since you both have been friends for so long, I can see how she wouldn't want to let that go, but you should be the one to separate yourself from her. Give her a chance to breathe and begin a real relationship with me."

"You're kidding me, right?"

"No," Charlie looked at him a bit confused, "of course not. I'm quite positive Sam will grow to love me, especially compared to you. I am the better choice after all."

"The better choice."

"Of course." Charlie shifted to a more comfortable position, his posture straight and confident as he spoke his next words. "You are the son of two quite remarkable scientists and though that insinuates that you're of high intellect, there's the matter where the 'crazy' comes out in your family since they use their great intellect for hunting ghosts. Also, you are from a middle-class family. You wouldn't have the means of taking care of Sam who's grown up in this lavish life style and there's no going back from that. I know for a fact that she gives – hell her family gives – money to many charities and Sam is involved in those events, do you think if she were with you that she'd be able to continue those donations or heading those divisions. I'd be able to provide that for her. Provide her the life that suites her. The life she deserves."

The happy smirk that sat on his face told Danny that he thought he'd won their argument. Danny could only roll his eyes. If he honestly had any actual idea on who Sam really was.

"Right. Because you know exactly what's best for Sam and what she deserves."

"Well, it's not all…"

"Because I can tell you right now that Sam doesn't need anyone to take care of her. She can hold her own just fine. Hell, she's so independent that it's hard to get nice things done sometimes for her because that's not how she sees them. So, no, Sam doesn't need anyone to promise things for her. What she wants and needs is someone to stand with her."

"Of course I'll be there with her. But there's no need for her to worry about working if I'm able to take care of her. To give her everything."

"That kind of thinking is only going to put you further on her bad side. Which doesn't really matter to me, but if you want to get to know the real Sam, maybe you should show some decency and listen to her. Actually listen. And understand. Then maybe she could consider you a friend – which coming from Sam is a hard love to earn. But the way you talk, she'll never be yours. She's her own person and can make her own decisions, and can make her own decisions, but dude you're the one making this hard on yourself. Not me."

Charlie sighed loudly and shifted once more and Danny could see his hands tightening as his knuckles turned slightly white as they strained against the skin.

"Alright, I'm just going to lay it out here because clearly you're not understanding what I'm trying to get at. I want you to stop hanging around Sam. I mean clearly I can't help it when you guys are at school, but I don't want you interacting with her outside of that environment."

He glared Danny down to the best of his ability, which would have made Danny uncomfortable or bow down to his commands if he was any other person. But Charlie's glare didn't even compare to the Box Ghost's. So instead of being put in his place, Danny openly laughed.

"No. Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Excuse me? But I happen to be Sam's recent fucking boyfriend and future husband and as I hold that title I'm exercising the right to tell you to stop hanging around Sam."

It became harder to control himself as his temper rose and he shook his head at what was being said to him. "You're not Sam's anything. And there's no way in hell I'm going to just stop hanging out with my best friend because some prick who think he knows everything told me to."

Charlie glowered. "You seriously might want to rethink what you just said. You seriously don't wanna be on my bad side."

"Why not? You're already on mine." He flashed one of his threatening smiles towards him, loving the way Charlie flinched just in the slightest.

"You do know I have a lot of money and anything that might happen could easily be covered up?"

Danny smirked. "Are you threatening me?"

"Just stating obvious facts." His own answering smirk led Danny to believe he'd won over their argument.

"Damn, I guess you got me there."

Charlie's facial features instantly changed, "Great!" He clapped his hands and rubbed them together happily. "I knew you'd see reason. Now, I know it'll take some time…"

"Hold up," Danny held up a hand to stop Charlie in his ideas, "did you actually think I was for real?"

"Uh,"

"Because the answer is no. I was being sarcastic. I'm not going to be swayed by your itty-bitty baby threats. So, you have money. Big whoop. You don't scare me."

Charlie looked inquisitively at him. "You know, Sam's mentioned that your sister is in college at Washington University; an incredibly prestigious university. What would you say if I told you I'd pay for the rest of her schooling, including graduate school if you decided to heed what I say?"

Danny could only laugh once more.

Charlie changed his tactic, "Fine, then how about I just make your life a living hell?"

"You have no idea how much of a hell I'm already in. I could make you disappear like that." Though it was cliché Danny snapped his fingers in Charlie's face. "And no one would know what happened to you. No evidence, no nothing. Lost to the wind. I could actually put you in hell if you'd like. Because believe me, I've seen it and you'd fit right in."

Danny barred his teeth and let his eyes flash, slow enough to be caught by Charlie but quick enough to make it seem as though it had never happened. Charlie's breath caught in his throat, and he cleared it quickly, trying to seem as though he wasn't frightened though, Danny felt the slight waves coming off of him and breathed it in. Sam's continuous presence in his head helped make sure he didn't take it too far, but by the gods did he want to take it and feed off it.

"Are you threatening me? Do you even understand how much money I have? I could bury you."

"It's a shit ton. That much is clear. And I'm only returning the favor. Like I said, you're clearly on my bad side, don't dig yourself an even deeper hole. So, what I'm trying to clarify is: if you touch Sam – you're gone. If you kiss her without her consent – you're dead. You try to use blackmail against any of my family or her to try to bow to your bidding – you disappear. You so much as look at her wrong. You. Are. Dead. Do I make myself clear?"

Danny was only met with silence and a stunned a fear filled face in front of him. "Good. If you don't mind I wasn't done dancing with my best friend." He rose from the table and left a still gaping Charlie at the table.

October 18th, 2014

Saturday

Rosie's

9:05 p.m.

Alright guys! How'd you like the chapter? I know it was a huge one, but I felt bad for not updating so I made sure to squeeze it full of stuff ;)

Let me know what you thought in the comments! Good or bad! But please only constructive criticism if it's bad :) This was also the first time i've ever posted or really written anything this steamy, so I hope it read well!

Not sure when I'll update again, but this story will never be abandoned! I'm super busy with work – practically working 60 hour weeks, so I'm pretty busy lol

I will be uploading this story to Ao3! I sort of have it on there already, but I'm going to take it down and start over, kind of? Like re-upload it. So if you follow this story on there, just be aware of what's going to happen.

Also, Voltron has completely sucked me in! I love Lance, he's been like my guiding beacon since the show came out! I just love him! So expect some Klance, Voltron fics to pop up on here and Ao3. I've kinda shifted to Ao3? I like it a lot more sometimes. But I'm still on here, so I'll be posting in both places. My name is the same there as it is here.

Thank you all for your continued support! Let me know what you think!

Okay, so what happened:

I've been feeling pretty depressed for I guess a little over a year and a half now. And it all kinda blew up in my face last fall (2016) when my grades slipped and I was put back on academic probation and my mom got super pissed off at me, and I finally admitted I really really needed help.

I'm now on medicine and have been since January for my depression and anxiety and I go to therapy twice a month. It didn't start like that, I mean I was going once a week for the longest time! But that's what I needed.

Anyway, some shit went down in April and I was doing way better in school and what not and I was feeling better – or so I thought – and my mom got on my case about my grades (even though I was doing really good!) and I couldn't stop crying and I thought it would just be better to no longer be here. Thankfully I have some REALLY REALLY amazing friends and I knew I needed to call them to get me to calm down. So I stayed with one of my friends that lives close to me for a while.

Things have gotten a lot better. Sometimes things get bad on some days – bad days happen – but I keep pushing and whenever I feel bad again I always call my friends. I have a great support system with them! I love them soooo much!

Thank you guys for always being here and reading my story! I'll do my best to get the next chapter out before mid-August!