Yup! YET ANOTHER DannyxSam. Because they're like a pwnsome couple.

I hope you guys like this. I'm not entirely sure how long this is gonna be, but I hope at least more than two chappys. Haha...I'm not sure how many ideas I can choke out for this one story before I die. Heheh! Well, this was written at two AM so leave me alone if it's completely poo. ; But I hope it's not. Okay now I'm blabbering.

Disclaimer: -makes cooing noises at Dan, Danny, Sam, and Vlad plushies- -Butch comes and starts to make cooing noises with me and I get scared of an adult male cooing at plushies so I run away-

She brushed away his hair from his face, gently running her fingers against his feverish flesh. "I'm so sorry," she choked out.

His smile warmed her heart and made her feel as if she wasn't responsible, but her heart screamed at her that she was to blame for his unnecessary and inevitable death. "Don't worry," he said in the weak voice that only belongs to the dying. "Just protect Amity Park from ghosts…and my parents…for me, okay?"

She nodded, tears raining down on his costume, seeping slowly though the material. "Anything," she sobbed silently.

His smile remained plastered on his face as his eyes clouded over in the final stages of death. "…Sam?" he whispered. Sam knelt closer, holding his head in her weary hands. "I…I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered back as she watched his eyes fade to the blank expression of death.

—An hour before—

"Samantha, sweetheart! Danny called for you!" Sam's mother called from the bottom of the stairs. She had said Danny's name with renounced bitterness, causing Sam to flinch. She had never really quite forgiven Danny.

Running down the steps, she let herself fall from the fourth-to-last step all the way down to the last one. Her landing reverberated around the apartment, causing her father to frown at her and her grandmother to give her the thumbs up.

She entered the kitchen in a flourish of movement and picked up the cordless phone. "Hello?" she spoke into it.

"Hello, indeed, Samantha," Vlad's cool voice said into the receiver. Sam stopped dead in her tracks, her foot resting gently on the middle step. Her mouth dropped open in disbelief, his voice flooding her mind and creating a block that not even her frantic thoughts could penetrate.

"How did you get my number?" she managed after a few seconds. It was the only thing she could get out of her throat as she sat down wearily on the steps. Vlad laughed, causing Sam to nearly moan in frustration.

"You shouldn't be worrying about that," Vlad scoffed. "You should be more worried about why I'm calling. Honestly, Samantha, didn't they ever teach you that in school? If someone you don't like calls, you either hang up or don't pick up."

"But…my mom said you were Danny…," Sam faltered. Vlad laughed again, his voice sounding throaty and hoarse in Sam's ears.

"How easy it is to manipulate a teenager's voice," he said in a perfect imitation of Danny's voice. Sam froze, wondering how many conversations she had had with Vlad instead of Danny. Vlad's voice came back on the phone, swirling around Sam until she thought she was choking. "Samantha, we have something very important to discuss."

"…why did you call me?" Sam asked, choking back a sob of fear.

"I have instructions for you," Vlad told her coolly. "If you don't follow them, I will personally kill you and Danny."

"Danny can beat you," Sam spat at him angrily. "Danny's better at fighting than you." She was surprised at her sudden burst of courage—Vlad however, merely chuckled with spite and cockiness.

"No, I don't believe Danny can beat me and my…little guest," Vlad said in a tone more evil than normal. Sam shuddered.

"Who's your 'little guest'?" she whispered into the phone.

"You'll find out," Vlad told her reassuringly. "Now, I want you to take Danny to the mall—but make sure you take him to the back alleyway to the right. Don't bring Tucker. Just bring Danny."

"What if I don't?" Sam asked stiffly.

"Then I'll kill you," Vlad said in his simplest voice. Sam moaned into the phone. "I'll see you soon. Oh…and don't tell Danny about me calling you," he added before Sam heard the bleak emptiness of the dial tone.

Standing up, Sam numbly punched in the numbers to Danny's house.

"Hello?" Danny said into the phone. Sam wanted to scream into the phone and tell him everything Vlad had said—but something about his remarks stopped her. She knew he was serious.

"Uhm…hello?" Danny asked again. Sam realized she had been silent for a couple of moments, so she responded.

"Hey, Danny," she said in what she hoped was a confident voice. "Do you want to go to the mall with me?"

Danny hesitated briefly, and then asked, rather hastily, "Is Tuck coming?"

"I'd prefer him not to," Sam said in a breathless tone.

"Uhm…okay. I'll meet you in the parking lot, then," Danny told her. Sam choked back another attempt to tell him not to come and responded weakly.

"Okay, see you there," she told him.

He hung up the phone, and so did Sam. She slowly walked it back to the kitchen, hung up the phone, and went to grab her coat.

"I'm going out," she called to the house. No one responded, but she didn't care. She opened the door and let in the chilling December air, quickly closing it so she wouldn't get yelled at.

She buttoned up her coat to stop herself from freezing to death as she jumped off the steps and started running towards the mall.

She couldn't believe she was doing this. She didn't even know if she was going to put Danny—and her—lives in danger. All she knew was that Vlad had threatened to kill her and Danny if she didn't come, with Danny, and she was acting the cowardly lion and obeying him.

But what else could one do when the enemy threatened lives?

She saw the mall, from a distance, and let her breath catch in her throat; she hoped to God Almighty that something would happen to stop Danny from coming—but she knew nothing would stop him. He would come, and Vlad and his "little guest" would attack, or what ever they planned to do.

As she drew nearer, she saw Danny's silhouette against the harsh lighting of the mall. God had not answered her prayers; Danny was waiting for her, his shoulders slouched from the chill, hands dug deep into his pockets. Sam wanted to cry just from the fact of seeing him, but knew if she did her tears would be frozen to her cheeks, never to reach their destination of to the ground.

Danny saw her and waved. "Hey, Sam," he said in a small voice. He poorly hid his relief. "For a second I thought you ditched me…"

"I would never have ditched you," Sam responded truthfully. Danny smiled at her, his eyes sparkling. He pulled his hands from his pockets and held out a hand for Sam to grab.

"Sharing body heat," he mumbled. Sam just wanted to cry. Here she was, leading him to Vlad and a "friend"…and he thought it was a date. How ironic…and depressing. She took his hand, fighting back the wave of tears that wanted to spill all over.

As they came closer to mall, she decided how she was going to lure him. Wanting to tackle him and take him to a movie instead, she called out, "hey…is there a cat over there?"

Danny turned to where her fingers were pointing, and actually looked mildly interested. "Where?"

"Over there," Sam responded, tugging on his hand. She dragged him into the depths of the alleyway, the darkness totally surrounding them.

"Sam, I don't see a cat," Danny told her, perplexed. "Actually, I can't see anything."

Sam started to pull away from the alleyway, overcoming her cowardliness at the last moment. But she was too late.

Two ectoplasmic rays shot from the distance of no where, both just as unexpected as the voice that rang through the huge alleyway. Both ectoplasmic rays hit Danny square in the chest, catching him by complete surprise.

"Hello, Danny," the cool voice that had haunted them for that horrible day only a bit ago said. The matured voice of Danny. Sam stopped dead in her tracks as Danny fell to the ground, stunned by the ectoplasmic rays.

Dan Phantom's face loomed in the darkness, only illuminated by the faint glow that all ghosts have. Sam moaned as she saw his smooth, unyielding, cocky smile.