Hey guys! My name is Amanda, your diabolically darling author back after a roughly year- long hiatus from Fanfic. This is my first story I've really come up with in that year, be it fanfic or just writing in general. Things get busy, inspiration crumbles, it gets hard, what can I say. I really like my concept for this one though, and hopefully you guys do to. This is my first fanfic for Danny Phantom, my first fanfic for any TV show actually, and I must say it's a lot different from writing for books. It's also my first fic without an OC, which is soooo strange for me.

THANK YOU: Sonochu for helping me get my ideas straight for this story and pre- reading before I posted and giving me some additional feedback!

THANK YOU: to my wonderful boyfriend Matt for listening to me rant for hours to get this one chapter right as well as helping me choose just about every word on this page, dig me out of the holes I kept writing myself into, and reading it multiple times over for me to make sure I had it down as perfect as possible! You really are the best!

So without further ado, here is Prisoners of the Heart.

XOXO Enjoy :D

Prisoners of the Heart

Chapter 1

"I really hate him." Danny muttered to Tucker, crunching his paper cup in his fist as he stared at Sam and Gregor across the Nasty Burger. "He's a goth. He's an ultra recyclo- vegetarian. He's the foreign kid with the stupid accent. He does every fucking little thing right and now he's with her."

"Well dude, they do have more in common than you and her. Maybe you're taking this too personally. He could be good for her. She's happy." the techno- geek responded evenly. He never shifted his eyes from his PDA, merely lifting his arms to keep Danny's spilled soda away from it.

"She was happy before. With us. Me." Danny said, giving up his burning glare after Sam noticed it.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I just don't get it. How does this just happen?"

"How many years have you wasted chasing Paulina? And put off this thing with Sam?" Tucker finally looked up from his PDA to his friend, with minimal pity.

"I... don't know." His face fell as he said the words.

"Exactly. What do you expect from her? Just wait it out. I doubt it'll last all that long."

"You had better be right about that."

It had happened too fast for him to accept. Gregor had been in town a matter of days. Just days. And now Danny never saw Sam. She was always with him. Sam refused to accept his calls, respond to his texts, or just in general be around him if she was with or around Gregor. But the bastard never went away. Gregor was always there, keeping her from him, and he couldn't figure out why- or what exactly Gregor had done to be able to take his place at her side so quickly.

"So what do you think of the test on Thursday?" Tucker asked, changing the subject and turning to his friend.

There was a loud crash in the back of the fast food joint, causing everyone in the place to jump. Hazy smoke filtered through the swinging door and over the order counter as frantic employees ran out, jumping the counter and out the door. A few seconds later three ghosts floated through the smoke and into view, causing the shocked patrons to finally jump to their feet as it all fit together what was happening.

"I'll get back to you on that test." Danny said, looking around to see where he would have a place to hide and switch to his alter- ego.

"Do your thing, man. I'll get people out of here."

Danny looked over his shoulder real quick to see Gregor taking a sharp right at the exit of the Nasty Burger and running until he was out of sight, leaving Sam at their table alone. A ghost followed him and the others out of the building, chasing multiple teens down the street and eventually gone into the neighborhood as well. He stored that into his memory to remember to go after it later, and ducked into the bathroom to change.

Tucker ran up to Sam, no standing alone at the table assessing her surroundings. "Did he really just bail on you?"

"Can't complain about that right now. That's probably better for this situation. Where's Danny?"

"He's looking for some place to go ghost."

Danny phased up through the floor next to his friends, looking at his two opponents. "Did he really just bail on you like that?" he said, glancing back at Sam. He couldn't help feeling a little bit better knowing that one ghost had chased Gregor and the others out of the restaurant; he deserved that for leaving Sam in danger.

"I'm about to bail on you guys if you don't drop it!" she snapped at them. "Just take care of this mess so I can go find him."

Danny laughed and looked at the two ghosts in front of him, watching him playfully. This destruction was just a game to them. "Really Sam? They're just ectopusses. I can't believe Gregor bailed on you in fear of these guys."

Danny began his fight with the ectopusses when they noticed they finally had his attention. Fast frontal assaults, loud shots of ecto- energy, and powerful punches back and forth in the few second window. Tables cracked under either party's weight as they were pushed and tossed around the room. Chairs and windows were destroyed with blasts of ectoplasm.

"Aside from flying debris, these guys are harmless. Gregor needs to man up and stand by your side and protect you, Sam." Danny said, turning his attention from the ectopusses for a moment.

"He's been here for barely a few weeks, what do you expect, Danny?" Sam shot back. "I doubt he noticed I didn't bolt out of here in the chaos!"

"That's exactly my point." Danny muttered, rolling his eyes.

"That's a low blow, even for you, Danny. You know why he responded the way he did. You need to quit being a jerk."

"Right after he does!" Danny's attention left the ectopusses then, and he turned fully to Sam. "If he can be a jerk and leave his girlfriend in danger, then I can be a jerk and give him a hard time about it!"

"First of all, I'm not his girlfriend. Second of all, he wasn't trying to be a jerk, he was scared shitless! And third, none of this gives you the right to be a jerk!" Sam yelled, causing Danny to stop dead in his tracks. Not his girlfriend? Not trying to be a jerk? What?

"Does it matter if he was trying to be a jerk? He Just left you here in the middle of all this!"

"What does that have to do with you at all?!"

"Does that matter?"

"Yes!"

By now Danny and Sam had both forgotten about the ghosts in the place, and Tucker sitting there watching it all- including the ectopusses making a hasty retreat out of the building after their friend. "Hey guys... the ectopusses got away." he interrupted, cautiously tapping them both on the shoulder.

"Great. Just great. Now I'm gonna have to go out and look for them tonight." Danny snapped, looking around the destroyed building.

"Well if you could have just minded your own business they wouldn't have gotten away!" Sam said beneath her breath.

"I'm really just not in the mood for this, Sam." Danny pinched the bridge of his nose to try and reign in his anger. He had blown up at Sam. But she had yelled at him just as much. She just didn't get it. How could she just accept that this guy left her in the middle of so much danger? That's not showing her that he cares. It was being a pussy- footed wimp. She deserved better than that. "I'm out of here."

"Good riddance." Sam said as she walked out to search for Gregor.

Tucker looked back and forth in the opposing directions his friends went, torn between who to follow. Sam didn't understand Danny's perspective. Danny had no right to be a jerk to Sam. "Thanks for just leaving me, guys..." he muttered to himself before walking out alone.

As if having to help hunt ghosts wasn't dramatic enough.

And so concludes the first chapter! If you didn't pick up, this (in my head) cuts off in the middle of Double Cross my Heart in the series (Season 2 Episode 16) and it's going to go off on my own little tangent of a story from there. Gregor is legitimately Gregor (because I know that question WILL come up). It should streamline almost perfectly out of the canon. The only minor tweaks to the characters are their language, because few to no teenagers talk as innocently as they do in the show- it WAS a children's show after all- Gregor being Gregor, and a few connections between pre-existing characters I created. You'll have to read to see.

Thank you all (anyone) for reading, I would so insanely appreciate any reviews, messages, input, critique, etc. from all of you! I take time to respond to every message, review, favorite, and follows that I get, and I love to hear any kind of feedback. I'm looking for some people to bounce ideas with for this, so if anyone is willing to help with that, it'd be awesome. Right now it's just me and my boyfriend Matt cramming our ideas together to make this work and Sonochu pre-reading to make sure I didn't miss anything being the biased- author.

Again, thank you all for reading, and I hope to hear from you! Don't hold back, I've never been so insanely nervous to post something on here- I feel like I might puke! Gah I'm so excited. I can't wait to see how this goes! For the last time, thank you!

XOXO, Amanda