I adopted this story from Cordria, since I commented on the chapter and she offered that I could continue it. This first chapter is the original as written by Cordria. The rest is a continuation of Star Shot #53. Don't be surprised by the complete change in writing style. I had Cordria read everything first and she liked it so I'm posting it as I wrote it with small edits for typos and whatnot.

Don't forget. This is the original chapter as written by Cordria. But if you want to see the original in all its glory, I recommend going to read it on her own account.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom or the plotline of Ghostly Love. That honor belongs to Cordria.

Ghostly Love

Chapter 1

The door creaked open, jerking Maddie Fenton out of her quiet musings. Three ghosts stomped into the small room—a lithe, white-haired figure suspended unconsciously between two larger ghosts—and came up to the cage door. With some dark mutterings and more than a little swearing, the two larger ghosts managed to yank open the cage and toss Phantom into the cage. They slammed the door shut and stormed out of the room, laughing and punching each other's arms.

Sam was at Phantom's side before he had even rolled to a complete stop. She knelt down next to him and ran her hands over his face, whispering to him. Eyes closed, Phantom didn't appear to hear her at all. Maddie shook her head in vague surprise—she knew that most of the girls had some sort of crush on the ghost, but she hadn't figured a girl as solidly grounded as Sam would fall as well. Didn't she realize how dangerous the ghost was? What if he woke up and reacted before he figured out that it was a human girl kneeling over him?

Maddie pushed herself to her feet and glanced over at her husband. Jack was flickering glances at the girl and the ghost boy, a confused look on his face. "Sam," she said softly. Taking a few steps, Maddie put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Sam."

"He'll be fine," Sam said sharply.

"Sam, he's dangerous. You should get away from him."

The girl looked up at her, violet eyes sparkling. "Danny's not dangerous! He's a hero!"

Maddie bit back a sigh and tried to make her expression understanding. "Yes, but he's unpredictable. He might hurt you and not realize it until it's too late."

Sam looked back down at Phantom. "He wouldn't ever hurt me," she whispered forcefully.

"Not on purpose." Maddie pulled the girl to her feet. "Let him wake up before you get too close."

Sam shook her head, jerking her arm out of Maddie's grasp. "No. I'm not leaving him."

Maddie opened her mouth to argue some more, but Phantom groaned at that moment. His head rolled to the side a few times, then his electric eyes flew open and he jerked to a sitting position. Maddie stumbled back a few steps as he scanned the small cell, his gaze flickering from person to person for a quiet heartbeat. Then he moaned and collapsed back down onto the ground, his hand coming up to massage his head as his eyes closed again. "What hit me," he muttered.

Sending one last glare in Maddie's direction, Sam dropped back down into a crouch. "We got kidnapped."

Phantom murmured something that sounded strangely like "Again?" and his eyes drifted open. "Any idea who it was?"

Sam shook her head. "You okay?" At Phantom's annoyed look, she grinned and said, "Sorry, standard question."

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Phantom pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Good," Sam said, her eyes narrowing. "Then I won't feel so sorry for this." Her hand came back and clenched into a fist.

Maddie watched in horror as Sam punched the ghost in the shoulder. Didn't she realize how dangerous that ghost was? Maddie took a reflexive step forwards to grab the girl, but Phantom moved faster than her. His eyes flared and he leaned forwards, his nose inches from Sam's. "What was that for?" he snapped.

Maddie froze, unwilling to break the impossible tension that existed between the girl and the ghost. With the intense energy that was zapping through him, there was no doubt at all in her mind that he could destroy Sam without a second thought.

"That," Sam hissed back, her violet eyes gazing into his without fear, "was for ignoring everything we've been working on for a month!"

"What?" Maddie whispered as Phantom said the same thing, only a lot louder. Maddie shook her head dazedly and turned her gaze to Jack for a second, looking for some sort of support. Sam and Phantom had been working together for at least a month? Jack was still staring at the two of them in confusion. Didn't she realize how dangerous the ghost was?

"What?" Sam parroted, her hand coming up to poke Phantom's chest. "Thinking, Danny. Planning. Seeing an obvious trap when it slaps you in the face."

Phantom's eyes lost quite a bit of their glow. He looked a little hurt, maybe. Maddie slid over to Jack and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"What did you think this was going to be, huh? They kidnapped me—I was bait," Sam continued harshly.

Shaking his head slowly, Phantom looked a little lost as he tried to come up with a come-back. Maddie slipped down into crouch next to Jack and watched the impossible scene unfold before her. Sam, a human girl, was absolutely destroying the powerful ghost boy and he wasn't even fighting back.

"What were you thinking?" Sam asked, her eyes glowing almost as fiercely as the ghost's were.

"I..." Phantom's mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out anymore. A look of surprised confusion was filling his face.

"Well?" Sam poked him one last time.

"I couldn't," the boy said softly, pulling away from her and putting some distance between them for the first time.

"You couldn't," Sam scoffed, "why not?"

Phantom shook his head sourly and pushed himself to his feet. Sam was on her feet a split second behind him, repeating her question. "Why not, Danny?"

"I couldn't," he whispered, turning away from her and pacing away from them all.

Sam dogged him, touching his shoulder. "Why not?"

Maddie shivered at the morose and painful look on his face when he turned back to face Sam. For a second, Phantom stood still, staring straight at the girl, but then he focused down on his feet and muttered something impossibly quiet.

"What?" Even though Sam was the one that said it, Maddie found herself leaning forwards in anticipation of the answer. Most of her brain was screaming at her that this was an incredibly dangerous spirit with his back pressed against a wall, but part of her was wondering at

his answer. What could have kept such a powerful ghost from stopping and thinking before racing into what was (in hindsight) obviously a trap?

Phantom shuffled his feet. "I couldn't think," he said, softly but clearly, "because they had you." His eyes came up to meet hers. "I couldn't stop; I had to do something..."

Blinking in surprise, Sam took a small step backwards. "You stopped and thought before you rescued Tucker last week."

Maddie could feel her stomach twisting as she gazed at the tortured expression on Phantom's face. A revelation was sparkling in her mind that completely wiped out the worry about Tucker getting kidnapped last week. This thing that had Phantom so worked up—it was something special. Something between a girl and a boy...

"That was different," Phantom murmured.

Sam was watching him, confusion twisting her features. "What do you mean?" she asked quietly.

The ghost shook his head. Maddie's heart skipped a beat. She knew very well what the ghost boy meant by his cryptic words. She knew exactly what it was that he had realized under Sam's punishing questioning. Now there was only the question about what she was going to do about it.

There was no way that a ghost could be allowed to fall in love with a human.

So that's the first chapter as written by Cordria! The next will be taken up by me and will be VERY short. After that, the length will gradually pick up. So, please REVIEW!