It was supposed to be the perfect night.

Sam felt like she was floating. It was senior prom night, and she was going with the sweetest, most wonderful, and all around best boy in town: her boyfriend, Danny Fenton. Her hair was done, her makeup was done, and her dress was absolutely gorgeous. It was a short black halter dress that suited her Goth style perfectly. She had abandoned her usual black combat boots in favor of sexy black high heels that laced all the way up her ankle. She looked perfect. With one last glance in the mirror, she settled herself down on the couch to wait for her date.

Danny was supposed to pick her up at 8:00. At 8:15 she got up and started pacing. "It's okay." she reassured herself. "He's probably just running late. Traffic, or something."

At 8:30 she started to become concerned. What if something had happened to him? Unbidden images of Danny lying in a hospital bed, or even worse, broken and bleeding in the gutter came into her mind. She checked her phone in case he had texted or called her and she hadn't noticed. He hadn't.

At 8:45 she couldn't stand it any longer and called him. His phone rang once, twice, three times, four times. Eventually his voicemail picked up. She hung up without leaving a message.

Next she tried calling Tucker. He, at least, picked up his phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Tuck. Um, have you heard from Danny recently?" Sam asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. The hand holding the phone was shaking so badly she had to fight not to drop the phone.

"Danny?" Tucker asked, sounding flustered. "No, no I haven't. Um, listen Sam, I really gotta go but I'll talk to you-" There was a sound in the background of hormonal teenage girl squealing and the line went dead. Sam rolled her eyes. The girls at Casper High had finally noticed that Tucker wasn't exactly the scrawny, beret-wearing techno-geek that he used to be, and they had pounced on him with ruthless abandon. Sam and Danny were lucky if they could even see him once a week, he was so busy with dates. Of course, all his dates were carefully programmed into his brand new PDA. Tucker hadn't completely abandoned his old ways.

She checked the clock on her phone. It was nine o'clock. With a sigh, she draped a black shawl over her shoulders and went outside to get some fresh air. She sat down heavily on the front porch, letting her mind wander.

All of a sudden, the familiar sound of a ghost fight brought her out of her daydreams. Looking up, she saw ectoblasts of all different colors criss-crossing the air. And if she strained her eyes, she could just make out the form of Danny Phantom, his black and silver jumpsuit blending in against the slowly darkening sky. With a furious snarl, she jumped up and ran back inside, slamming the door behind.

"Sammykins?" her mother said, puzzled, as her daughter flew past her. "What's wrong, dear?" Sam didn't answer, just pounded up the stairs to her room.

Once she was in her room with the door locked, she clutched a pillow to her chest and started sobbing. She didn't know how long she had sat there crying before there was a knock at the door.

"Sam? Sam, can I come in?" It was Danny. With a hiss that sounded more animal than human, she leaped up and put her mouth against the door.

"No, you may not come in, you worthless piece of shit." she breathed softly. There was a clicking sound-Danny was trying the knob.

"The door's locked, genius." she growled. "And if you even think about phasing in-" She didn't have time to finish her threat before Danny Phantom was standing in her room. With a cry of fury, Sam launched a pillow at him. He dodged the pillow easily and held up his hands in surrender.

"Sam, Sam, calm down!" With a flash of light and a blink of an eye, Danny Phantom had morphed into Danny Fenton, who was wearing a rumpled tux and looked appropriately sheepish.

"I got my hair done!" Sam screeched. "I bought a new dress! I made the most effort I've ever made in my life to look beautiful! For you! And you freaking stood me up to go ghost hunting!"

"Sam, listen to me." Danny pleaded. "I had to...there was an emergency...it wasn't my fault!"

"Oh yeah? Then whose fault was it?" Sam asked. Any sane person would have run upon hearing Sam's deadly tone of voice. But, then again, Danny was never quite sane.

"Was it Technus? Or Skulker? Or maybe even the stupid Box Ghost?" Sam continued. "I'll tell you what, Danny Phantom, it was no one's fault! No one's fault, but your own."

"Sam-" Danny started, but was cut off once again.

"You want to know why it was all your fault? Because, Danny, you had a choice. You could have let the ghost hunting go for one night, to be a normal teenage boy taking his girlfriend to senior prom. You could have been Danny Fenton, for one night. But no. Instead you showed me that ghosts are more important to you than me, your living, breathing girlfriend. Thanks, Danny. Thanks a lot." Sam turned her back to Danny in a futile attempt to hide the angry tears that were now coursing down her face.

"Go, Danny." she mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear. "Go, and don't come back. I don't want to speak to you ever again." Quietly, Danny left the room, and as soon as Sam was assured that he wasn't coming back, she buried her face in her pillow and sobbed some more.

She didn't know how long it had been; it could've been minutes, or hours, or only seconds. All she knew was that a noise at the window snapped her out of her tantrum. Sam bolted up and narrowed her eyes at the window, clearly daring whatever had interrupted her to sound again. Presently, a small pebble hit the window, followed by another and another. Sam opened the window just as another pebble flew up and hit her smack in the forehead.

"You'll pay for that, Fenton!" she roared, shaking her fist.

"Oops...sorry, Sam!" Somehow the sight of his face, filled with remorse and childish hope, and out of punching range, calmed her down. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself.

"You can...you can come up now...you know, if you still want to..." she trailed off. Before she even had time to blink, he was in her room again.

"Sam...I'm so sorry..." Danny started, but she cut him off with a slow, deep kiss.

"Woah." was all Danny managed. She grinned.

"I'm the one who should be sorry, I know you have your ghost hunting duties. I shouldn't have gone all anal on you." Danny nodded.

"Well, I can't argue with that." he said, and she smacked him playfully.

"Just out of curiosity...who was this big emergency ghost you were fighting?" she asked. Danny fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Well..."

"What?" she prodded.

"Well...Sam, please don't take this the wrong way...but...it was sort of...you."

A/N: Well, that only took me...how many months? And this has suddenly turned into a full-blown story?! Nooo...it was supposed to be a one-shot...I don't have time for this! Review please!