This was one of my very first ideas in the DP fandom. It's probably a little rusty because of that, it's about 15 years old, before I'd watched the whole series, and before I'd come up with my concrete opinions on where AP is located and so on. But still good. Feel Free to adopt.

Destiny, Rewritten

When Danny's 15, something happens that has something to do with Clockwork and it actually goes down a route of life that he had never envisioned. Maybe him waking up, as though from nightmare, and freaking, then realizing it wasn't real, it didn't happen. But then not being so sure, when he realizes he's not alone and Clockwork is there.

"It really happens, doesn't it?" and Clockwork agrees, it does happen, unless Danny does something to stop it from happening.

(The alternate reality is that because of his pulled ties between ghost fighting, friends, family, and the danger, he begins to lose control, can't keep it together. Something terrible happens. Maybe he starts seeing Sam, and she gets in the way of a battle. On accident, of course, but still she gets killed. Danny sees it all happen, can't stop it, and then it's too late. So, Danny Phantom disappears after that, and then Danny Fenton starts to disappear, buried under the guilt, the responsibility, and when he can't cope... He'd rather be dead, because it's just too hard to do it all. Especially with the knowledge that he was responsible for Sam's death, someone he cares about deeply, and one of his best friends.)

So Danny stops it from happening.

By leaving.

He leaves Amity Park. Hell, he leaves the state and he goes to somewhere else. Some college town? Decent size, northeast, but absolutely has to have a college so he can run into Sam on accident. Thinking Philadelphia, UPenn. Danny is now 19, will be 20 sometime in the next 3 months. He's a student and has enough credit hours to make him a junior.

Sam is, ironically enough, a sophomore because she took classes at the community college in Amity Park before deciding to go elsewhere, who has just started. Semester has been in session for maybe two weeks before they meet, at Danny's job. He works at a little café type place, family owned, and is under an assumed dame. Daniel Spencer, maybe. She's there with a friend, two new friends, both female, one who's a sophomore, and who happens to have a class with Danny. An elective class, creative writing or something, so that we have an inside to Danny's notebook and Sam can find out why Danny left and why he's so afraid to have friends or be friends with her despite how close they used to be.

So the girls and Sam sit down and order, and the order is passed off to Danny because a shift just ended, and he just started. It's how he pays for things above and beyond the scholarship and grant he has that mostly pay for school, books and rent. The rest is made up by his job, which sucks but pays the bills. He heads over to finish them up, since the bill was already requested, and he gives it over.

And is shocked to see Sam sitting there, smiling up at him.

And he almost freaks when recognition dawns on him, and she tries to make him talk to her. "Danny, oh my god, I found you!" Not much is shared with the other girls right then, and when it is shared it's later and Danny is already full of Cover Blown™. He refuses to interact, saying he doesn't know who she is, and she must have him mistaken for someone else. But there's fishiness, because the sophomore knows that he goes by Daniel.

He manages to get them to pay and gives them their change and heads back into the kitchen to hide until Sam leaves. Sam, however, questions the owner, and then leaves after he demurs about Danny, too. But the owner asks Danny questions, because Sam has implied that Danny is not who he says he is. So, Danny ends up losing his job, though he's not fired. He has to walk because he's scared that they'll check and find out that he's not exactly truthful. (He goes back later to get all of the info they have on him, in ghost mode.)

Sam was waiting outside, down the block, and sees Danny exit. Also sees him head down an alley before he sees her, and hurries to follow. Danny is in ghost mode when she gets there, and she calls to him to wait, and he sighs, defeated look on his face, and stops before he leaves. She asks him why he acted that way, why he lied, why he's pretending to be somebody else. He doesn't answer, and she presses.

Danny gets annoyed and tells her that she just cost him his job, and if he's very unlucky, she's going to cost him his life if she keeps pushing. Then he does leave.

(Danny has changed a lot physically and metaphysically. His hair is still black, and a bit longer now, though as shaggy as it ever was. Eyes are still that piercing blue. His body has filled out some from the lean look he had. Still lean, but there's definition, and his shoulders are much broader. A tribute to dad, I expect. He's tall, too, probably 6'2". His powers have changed and grown, too. He's got enough under his belt that he managed to get rid of Vlad, so there's definite increase. He doesn't say he's going ghost anymore, barely even thinks it as he shifts now, and he can actually phase large objects for short periods of time. Even large groups of people. This will come in handy. He can also use the Ghost Zone to travel the real world. Open a portal to the Ghost Zone, hop in, then back out in another city, state, or even country.)

They run into each other on campus next, and it's a real shock to her, because she had no idea that he even wanted to go to college, much less had managed to get in to one. And he tries the avoidance thing again. Just gets this look on his face before slipping past her and disappearing down a hallway. Literally, since he's gone ghost to get away. And this time the sophomore girl is there, and they start working together.

Sam confesses some of it. Not that he's part ghost, and not what his real name is. But that she knew him when she was younger, and that one day just after his 15th birthday he disappeared. And that his family and friends had worried and tried to find him, but nothing had turned up and, while they hadn't given up or forgotten, their hopes were dimming. There'd only been three communications since he'd left. A letter the day they found he was gone telling them not to worry or try and find him. It was better this way, safer this way, he couldn't have it on his conscience. But no one knew what 'it' was. A postcard from California on his 16th birthday that he was alive and well. And another from Wisconsin when he turned 18, saying they really didn't have to worry anymore.

And then she confesses to one other, a letter this time, mailed from right in Amity Park, on HER 16th birthday. Dear Sam, I know you and Tucker won't understand why I did this. Sometimes I'm not even sure myself. Just please, trust me, this is the best way, the only way to keep everyone safe. To keep you safe. I've thought about you a lot since I left, and I know I did the right thing. All I can say to you is that something really bad was going to happen if I stayed. I miss you. Love, Danny. And a little something in the envelope that she almost missed. A thin silver band that fit her finger like it had been made for her. The band was engraved with a bit of Celtic knot work, and she wore it always. Shows it to the girl at this point.

She leaves out how the way he signed it made her feel, because she was more than half in love with him when they were 14 and 15, and is still fairly gone on him. She also refrains from mentioning that she and Tucker at least knew that he was alive and okay because of worldwide Danny Phantom sightings. Danny uses the conduits in the Ghost Zone to go to places he's heard have real problems. Not just fighting ghosts locally anymore.

(Sam has changed a bit too. She's relaxed a lot, not diehard goth, though she still wears black a great deal. Jeans and skirts, yes, sneakers and boots. Usually a dark colored shirt in the blues and greens or plain black. She has a bohemian-style sweater in black that she usually has with her no matter what. Her hair has grown, she keeps it almost waist length now. Usually in a braid or a ponytail, sometimes in a messy bun. And she's still minimalist with the make-up. All in all, she's still Sam.)

So, they end up being forced to talk, somewhat. Danny has no choice because she's making a stink, and he's afraid she'll destroy his new life. He certainly doesn't want to have to explain how Danny Fenton was the one attending school on Daniel Spencer's scholarship. No matter that he keeps a 3.8 GPA. So, he talks to her, and she has an idea that he saw something about the future, like the episode where he saw he went evil. So, she ends up telling him that no matter what he saw, it couldn't happen anymore, he already changed the future.

Which leads to them sort of hanging out. Then sort of dating. Then sort of kissing. Or rather making out. And then the sort of confession that she called Tucker. He's angry and hurt and shifts to ghost and leaves. Pissed really. The only reason Sam confessed when she did was because she was nervous about Danny's reaction if Tucker were to just show up. And she was right to be worried; Tucker shows up to Sam's little apartment and finds just Sam, and she has to tell Tucker that Danny didn't take it very well.

Tucker starts to console her, thinking that she told Danny how in love with him she was and had been for ages, and Sam says no, she didn't tell him that. Not yet. And Danny is right behind him them in ghost form. He shifts back to human and scares the bejesus out of them. Sam immediately freaks and gets defensive. "How long have you been there?"

"Not long. I just got here," he lies smoothly, having heard the entire confession of love. And Tucker clocks him. Then hugs him hard, saying he deserved and, and god it's good to see him in the skin.

(Tucker's still a nerd. He's at MIT himself and doing very well.)

[Side note: paranormal sciences have a lot more attention since Danny left home. And the leaders in it are his parents, because they threw themselves into work after he disappeared. The curious thing is that Danny is taking a course schedule heavy on paranormal stuff and biology type things. Partly he's looking to understand himself better, as a ghost hybrid and all. It's let him do crazy things with his powers and all. And partly because it teaches him about the enemy. That's the core of his life, still ghost fighting. But his electives are heavy in music and writing. Especially the writing, because if it's for a creative writing class, no one will think the things he writes down are true.]

Friend stuff, then Danny leaves. Tucker is bunking with Sam for the long weekend, and Danny has to go to work. He got a new job as a cook in a bar. Works nights, part time, and gets tips, so the pay's as good as before, but with a few less hours. They hang, study, catch up, work on convincing Danny to tell his parents, go see them or have them come see him, and then Sunday afternoon Tucker leaves to go to the airport. Danny has sat on the fact that Sam is in love with him all weekend, wanting to do something about, not sure what, then decides to hell with it. He'll go for it. He's going with Tucker to the airport, so on the way out he stoops to press a kiss to Sam's cheek (Tucker knows they're sort of dating) and says softly to her before rushing Tucker out the door, while she's still in utter shock, "I love you, too." As he says it he rubs a finger over the ring she wears, on her left hand, the third finger, right where a wedding band would belong, and gives her a meaningful look.

So, he takes Tucker, still not confessing why he'd left, just telling Tucker he'd be up to see him sometime soon, and he'd think about his parents. We move into the relationship blossoming, and them freely being able to admit that they love each other. Then one day Sam's friend who's in Danny's writing class shows up, kind of worried, and very upset. She has a thick well-worn notebook in her hand and tells Sam that Danny had left it in class before he rushed out to another class.

She'd grabbed it, and hadn't really meant to pry, but had read the first page. And then more, in growing worry and horror, because while it seems to be a work of fiction, there are things that don't add up. It's written almost from first person, and it's about being a ghost and saving people. And there's this dream with a girl named Sam who sounds just like the Sam she knows, and the girl died. And then he woke up from the dream to someone telling him he can change it, and isn't it odd that it seems so real? Because the guy in the notebook sent letters and stuff…

Sam, however, is feeling even worse, because she knows what it is, and knows now why Danny left. Sam now has a terrible choice to make. The girl has to be told, but Sam won't go behind Danny's back. So, she asks the girl to stay while she reads through it, saying it's important, and she'll explain it later. Which she does, when Danny phases into Sam's apartment and scares the shit out of the girl. Danny is pissed that Sam didn't warn him, and then Sam holds up the notebook from where it lay on her lap.

And Danny goes deathly pale.

Because if Sam has read it, she knows everything. The dream, the fact that it wasn't just a dream, it was a visit of the future. How he feels, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The battles he fought with himself against despair, loneliness and the fear that he would still seek the escape of suicide. And the sometime desire to want to. But just as bad, the things he's done besides that. He's killed. Bad people summoning ghosts, using them for evil. Dark magicians. Because he no longer fights just against ghosts, but against the ways they escape, other than coming through naturally occurring portals.

The girl, naturally, has figured it out, and gasps, "Oh my god, you're Danny Phantom."

Danny doesn't even bother trying to deny it, just admits defeat, and Sam starts smoothing it over, gaining the promise that none of it will ever be revealed. Because the girl isn't just a classmate, she's a very good friend of Sam's. And then Sam finds a way to usher her on her way home or to class or wherever, because she needs to talk to Danny alone, and she thinks he might just need to talk period. He's carried a lot on his shoulders for almost five years, now, and she knows from the notebook that loneliness is one of his biggest fears.

So, they talk, and she assures Danny that she holds no blame for him now that she knows everything. And why didn't he just tell her in the first place? Now, when they'd regained each other, or even back then when he was terrified enough to just run? And he doesn't have much of an explanation other than fear. How could he tell her that he'd seen her death, and it was his fault? This leads to sex, I'm sure. Their first time, both of them, and it can be a good thing.

Danny's 20th birthday is in a week or so and in the morning, she convinces Danny to contact his parents. If he's too afraid to go see them, why not ask them to come see him? He doesn't have to tell them he's a student, where he lives. Nothing. Just make it a public meeting so that he keeps his anonymity. And Danny plans to take that route. But at the last second changes his mind, right as he picks up the phone and dials the number and his mom answers it.

"Hello?" she says, and when he hears her voice he realizes that Sam's right, the past is the past and that future is in the past. He's past it, it won't happen anymore, he's not a 15-year-old struggling anymore, he's a grown man who's able to do what he has to, and still have something left, that something he didn't have as a child because he was only a child. And he says, "Mom, it's me. Danny."

There is a tear-filled conversation that follows, in which he says he can't answer all of their questions, not on the phone. They're questions better suited to being asked in person, and will they please come visit him? "It's the middle of the semester, and I can't afford to miss classes. Not when finals are so soon." His parents are relieved that he's getting an education, and arrangements are made for him to meet them at the airport the next day.

Danny takes Sam through the Ghost Zone to get to the airport, and she realizes how much more powerful he's become, because he's not even the least bit concerned about the Ghost Zone anymore, and he uses his powers with a careless ease that is nothing like the kid he was. The parents get off the plane, see Danny and think for a moment he looks familiar, and then his mom realizes it's Danny. Now there's really tears, gruff manly hugs between father and son, and more tears as he clings to his parents.

Between that and a sort of explanation he gets them home. A cab this time, because they don't know that he's Danny Phantom. And that explanation isn't long in coming, because the second he gets them settled into his apartment and the questions come, he asks them to just hang on a second, he has something important to tell them. They glance at Sam, but she doesn't give a hint, and Maddie is thinking that maybe Danny is going to tell her he's marrying Sam.

Of course that's not it, and they're both in for a shock when Danny goes ghost. But it gives them the chance to realize that he didn't just run away. And then the real explanations come, by way of the notebook. He holds it out to them, says that he started it not long after he left, and they should read the first few pages. And then there aren't any more questions about why he left, they understand completely, because what is inside is something that would make an adult lose their focus, much less a teenager.

There are some explanations, and then it's decided that they should all get some rest, reconvene in the morning. Maddie and Jack are reluctant to leave, but they've decided that a hotel would be the best thing. The apartment isn't very spacious, and they know they'd rather give Danny his privacy. He's their son, but he's not the son they knew. Sam spends the night, maybe more than just sleeping. Probably. Definitely.

And the next day the shit hits the fan. Sam isn't concerned about missing any classes, she can make them up I guess. Danny however, is fanatic, and attends his biochemistry lab the next morning. Then they meet the parents for lunch, and more talk ensues. About Danny, how he survived, school, how Sam and Danny met again. This time they can be candid, because the secret about Danny is out, and it doesn't matter anymore why they can't say everything.

Unfortunately, before lunch is over, it happens, and Danny senses a ghost. He discretely excuses himself and goes ghost, then heads up through the roof looking for whatever it is that set his ghost sense off. And it's there. Something big, something bad. A specific occurrence of ghost that makes him suddenly terrified, the ghost he saw five years before in a dream that wields ectoplasmic bolts of energy with deadly precision.

And he fights it with a vengeance, and a purpose, because he's terrified of losing Sam, especially now. But fate, destiny, whatever you will call it was already written from the second they met in that little shop, and the fight draws the attention of people in the area. Including restaurant patrons. Sam and his parents are drawn out, and they want to help but no better. Sam only has a little niggling feeling that makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up straight as she watches from the sidewalk, and then it's too late.

She has a split second to see the bolt of glowing red energy heading toward her, and then it strikes, and she crumples to the ground. Danny screams her name, tries to go to her, but is blocked by the ghost who, in turn, mocks him mercilessly. Maybe if he could have gone to her right then, he could have saved her, but when he sees the specter of her standing there next to her own body, he knows it's already too late, and it breaks something inside of him.

The fight resumes, and Danny ends up not just sending the ghost back, but utterly destroying it. And then when he gets to Sam, it's too late even to speak to her ghost. It's left, moved on or gone to the Ghost Zone. Whichever, it's not there anymore. Her body, however, is alive.

In the hospital Danny makes the decision that begins the end. Her body is definitely alive, but she's brain dead. Danny knows this already and knows that her body can be kept alive for a long time while her spirit has already left. So, he makes the choice to try and go after it. He tells his parents he loves them very much, and he's sorry he screwed things up. He'd been trying to avoid this very thing, and they'll find out from the notebook eventually the things he's not explaining.

Then he goes ghost and opens a portal to the Ghost Zone. Once there he uses some type of ghost sense to try and track her, see if she's there, or see if she's already gone past where he can go, though he knows he'll try anyway. But he feels her, and he follows the trail of her unerringly. And when he finds her, he finds her with Clockwork, who is holding her, not allowing her to go on, but not allowing her to go back.

Debate ensues, and Clockwork tells Danny that destiny is written and not always mutable. That this outcome was inevitable, and Danny asks him why would he give the warning if the same thing was only going to happen. And Clockwork tells Danny that it was better to change it a little, to put it off for a time, and allow Danny the slice of happiness with Sam, rather than never knowing. Because it was the never knowing that pushed him over the edge, never knowing what could have happened with him and Sam, never knowing if he could have changed what had happened.

And his answers are here: he could have had happiness, and he couldn't change her death.

So, Danny makes Clockwork an offer. A demand, really. Take the powers, take everything, just give her back. And Clockwork asks him if he could really go through the rest of his life knowing he gave them up, especially in times when he would want to use them for the greater good. Could he watch people suffer, die even, knowing that he had traded the very things that would have saved them? Danny can't answer, and says, "Then take me instead. I'll die without her; I'm not strong enough to lose her again." And Clockwork takes him up on his offer.

Sam has been silent until this, and begins fighting as Clockwork waves a hand at Danny, and he suddenly shimmers into a true ghost. Sam stops trying to fight, numb and afraid and her heart is breaking. "No," she whispers, and Clockwork lets her go, and she goes to Danny. But she can't touch him. She can tell he's different now, and she starts to cry in earnest, and Danny looks like he's close to it himself. "I couldn't just let you die, Sam," he says softly, reaching a hand out to touch her face, and closing his eyes as it passes right through her. "I know," she whispers back. "I know, Danny."

He asks her to tell his parents that he's sorry, and then Clockwork instructs them that it's time for both of them to move on. Her back to her body and the human realm, and him to the afterlife. Sam looks a bit defiant at this, Danny resigned, and Clockwork impassive. And it's done. We'll follow Sam back, her fading into the real world and her own body as she sees Danny start to disappear in the other realm. She wakes screaming and crying, and it's viewed as a miracle. But the parents know, and Sam doesn't even have to say anything more than, "He made his choice." And they know he chose her, rather than him, and then she curls up on her side and just cries.

Life is attempted to resume, and Danny's parents go about closing up his apartment, dealing with the loose ends of his sudden death. And they go home. Sam stays, goes to school. Tries to find solace in the notebook, that his parents left with her, because littered throughout it is the way he feels about her, his love for her. And then one cold, lonely, dark and long night, she wakes to something she never expected in a million years.

Danny.

She thinks it's a dream at first, but when she hears him say her name she realizes she's awake and reaches a hand out to him. She expects it to go right through him, but it doesn't, and she sucks in a breath. "Did you know that there are ghosts besides the ones we fought?" he asks her, his voice echoing through the room. He's wearing the same clothes he wore that day when he died, still has the same bruising and scratches from the fight, and she shakes her head.

"There are," he says with a smile as he sits down on the bed in a collapsing motion, like he's exhausted. "And they granted me a wish." He presses his forehead to hers while her arms clutch at him, holding him tightly. "You're alive?" she asks. "You're really alive?" He nods and kisses her. "Apparently, they're all suckers for a good love story." She laughs. Close that chapter on that.

And on to what will most likely be the last. Danny and Sam Fenton showing up at his parents' house, and the parents answering the door. Much shock, much surprise, much relief. And the long overdue explanation: "I gave my life for hers." He shrugs. "It was a noble and stupid thing to do. But it gave me a second chance." And the further explanation as a memory from talking to Sam, that Clockwork had rearranged the time line, not just to give them the chance to have that time together, but to give him the chance to earn his life back.

If things had played out the way they had, Danny would have killed himself months after Sam died. But by changing that and allowing them to grow up and fall in love, and have those precious months together, Danny had a reason to sacrifice himself for her, and to get that chance to come back. He's still part ghost, still has to fight, but now he has his family and friends and his love.