An- Welcome to chapter two! Thanks everyone for their reviews from last chapter. I totally appreciated them! So I'm just going to let you all know that yes, this chapter came out fairly quick, but don't expect it all the time; chances are there will be large gaps between updates as time goes on. Right now I've been on a writing spurt for this, but my life is going to start to get busy soon. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this story contains a whole bunch of DxS and some TxV (though not sure how much). Do enjoy!

Chapter Two

Danny blinked in confusion, wondering if he had heard the ghost right. Ember was in fact standing there in front of him, looking annoyed as usual. She was leaning against the lockers, arms crossed over her chest and making no move to attack him.

Which did shock him into pausing. While Ember wasn't one of the ghosts who tried to kill him frequently, she always did enjoying kicking the crap out of him whenever she got the chance.

"Excuse me if I don't believe you," his voice was sarcastic and he was still prepared for battle, assuming that the minute he relaxed she'd be blasting him with a power chord from that damn guitar she always had with her.

"Argh, are all you humans this paranoid nowadays or is it just you?"

"Ember," Danny's voice was point blank and blunt, "in the past three years you've tried to take over the world with your music four times. Excuse me for not trusting you."

"Geez, a girl makes a few bad moves and you hold it against her. Besides, it was only three times; the whole thing with Kitty and Spectra was just a few girls blowing off some steam. No biggie."

"I'm sure all the guys in Amity Park would disagree," his voice was dry as he crossed his arms.

"Whatever dipstick," Ember's voice was flippant, "now, do you want to know why I'm here or not?"

Danny lost some hostility. She hadn't attacked yet, so he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, for the moment anyway.

"I'm listening."

"Who knows I'm a ghost?" Ember's question threw him off guard.

"What?"

"Who knows I'm a ghost? It's not exactly common knowledge, unless you went and blabbed."

"Um, my friends and I know," Danny answered, thinking, "and so does my sister and mom after your whole 'girls' night out' incident. As far as I know, most people still think you're just a washed up pop star."

Danny couldn't help but throw in the jibe, and Ember's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Watch it kid, or I might change my mind about only being here to talk."

Danny knew the threat was a real one and that Ember could cause a lot of pain and damage if she really wanted to. So pissing her off wouldn't be one of his smarter ideas.

"Fine. Now why are you asking me these questions?"

"So I was talking to my agent yesterday," at Danny's surprised look, Ember rolled her eyes, "of course I have a human agent; the Ghost Zone isn't exactly full of recording companies. So I obviously need human contacts.

"Anyway, I decided that it was about time to consider a comeback tour- relax and don't give me that look; I don't want to take over the world. I just miss playing in front of a live audience. Literally. Then my agent tells me some guy had come around asking questions about me, saying that he was a reporter.

"That was no big deal because reporters come in all of the time, usually from all those 'where are they now' TV specials. She said he acted really weird for a reporter, but asked the standard questions; where am I now, what am I doing, any plans to start up again, all that jazz. Normally I wouldn't care, but he asked one question no one has ever asked before; he asked if I was related to an Amber Lynn Mclainen."

Danny was staring at the ghost in confusion. Why should Ember think this was important enough to seek him out? Or better yet, why would he care that some reporter was asking about her?

"This is important because…"

"Because that's my name moron," Ember now just sounded fed up with him, "or at least it was when I was alive. What? Did you think I was lucky enough to be named Ember by my mother? Please, I had to change my name to something cool when I began to make it big. Besides," an amused glint entered her eyes, "Ember's so much easier to remember than boring old Amber, and that it the whole point...remembering my name."

Okay, he could see why that particular question would cause her to be suspicious. By connecting Ember to a dead girl, to herself, would up the chances of her being exposed as a ghost.

"It could be a coincidence," Danny pointed out, even though he had given up believing in coincidences a long time ago, "I mean, maybe someone from your, err, family noticed a resemblance?"

"Amber Mclainen was an eighteen year old nobody from a backwater town," Ember snapped, her hair flaring up as her voice took on a hard edge and dangerous tone, "no one cared about, or remembered her when she was alive, let alone twenty years after she died."

Danny instinctively took a step backwards; he had never heard Ember this angry before, even when he was foiling her plans.

In the past he had briefly wondered about how the ghosts he fought had died, and what caused them to become ghosts in the first place. Yet he never gave it much thought because frankly, he was usually too busy fighting them. Danny knew Sam put quite a bit of thought into it, especially about why they had their particular obsessions. But as much as she would have liked, Danny would never ask for details. In the ghost world, that was just considered very bad manners.

But hearing the rage in Ember's voice as she spoke about her former self made him want to know. He suddenly did want to understand why Ember got power when someone said her name.

Though Danny figured that if he asked her when she was this furious, Ember would probably kill him.

"Okay," Danny's voice was low in an attempt to diffuse her temper, "I get it. Someone connecting you to yourself is a big thing, and it probably shouldn't have been an easy thing. Especially when, according to most of the world, you're still alive."

"So that's why," both Ember's hair and voice were back to normal, "I need to know if you or any of your little sidekicks have told anyone I'm dead."

"I haven't told anyone," Danny replied, "and I don't think any of the others have, not even my mom. None of us have had reason to."

Ember didn't look like she exactly liked that answer, because then the question was up in the air over how this person was getting their information. I mean, who leapt to the conclusion that someone was a ghost?

Well, besides his parents.

"Well if someone went and figured all that out on their own you might want to be a bit more careful than usual dipstick."

"Is that a threat Ember?" Danny asked with raised eyebrows.

"Nope, just a warning. If someone can figure out I'm the ghost of a girl who died twenty years ago, do you think it'll be so hard to find out your secret? As loathe as I am to say it, you're probably more popular than I am, and unmasking you would make an even better story I mean, Danny Fenton to Danny Phantom? Not a huge jump, and certainly not your most creative moment."

Danny scowled at her, but understood the potential gravity of the situation. It was true, what she was saying; it was much easier to connect the dots between Fenton and Phantom opposed to digging up Ember's past.

"Thanks," Danny was honestly grateful she had let him know what was going on, "I'll look into it, but maybe you should reschedule that non-taking over the world comeback tour for a little longer."

Ember didn't look thrilled at the prospect, but nodded grudgingly.

"Fine. Oh hey, I wanted to ask you. Like my new look? Your bride of Dracula gave me a few ideas for my new attire. Tell her I said thanks."

For the first time since this encounter began, Danny noticed what Ember was wearing. She had on an outfit that looked almost exactly like what Sam had worn in freshman year; the same style skirt only it lacked the green stripes and instead had blue. There were no stockings but there were combat boots, and her shirt was black but instead of a purple dot there was a blue skull and cross bones. Ember had gone Sam-esque Goth.

"Yeah…she'll probably want to kill you all over again if you get her look to go all mainstream."

"Well you sure know how to pick your girlfriends Halfa. Most girls would die for me to rip off their look and make them fashion idols."

"Yeah, Sam's not like other girls," Danny smiled affectionately, but remembered to add, "and she's not my girlfriend."

"Whatever you say dipstick, whatever you say."

Danny fidgeted under her knowing voice, but made no further move to argue against the point.

"Well see you around kid, I've got things to do," Ember spoke up, "I'll send you some tickets when I hit the road again. Just don't let that dorky friend of yours anywhere near a mike."

"Don't worry," Danny couldn't help but snicker at the memory of Tucker singing that God awful song up on stage, "if you're not taking over the world, Tuck won't get to sing."

"Whatever," Ember said before she phased through a wall.

Danny fell out of ghost mode and made his way back to English, thinking over what Ember had told him.

Who could be the one digging up the information on her? And better yet, why? Sure Ember was still pretty popular, but no one was asking these questions when she was on the cover of every magazine. Why would someone be asking these questions now? What had set them off and ultimately made them make the connection between Ember and Amber.

The only reason Danny could think of was that someone had found out Ember was a ghost, or at least suspected it, and went from there. Now where would they have gotten that information?

Could they have gotten my ghost files? Danny stopped suddenly when the idea came to him, Because that's the only place I can think about that the information would be available. Unless someone else has files just like I do. I mean, I have a ton of information, and Ember is in there. Nothing about her life or death, but once you knew she was a ghost all it would take was some sound detective skills to find out the rest.

That raised another issue. If they were getting the information from him, it made two new problems; one, why were they looking into his files? Granted they could have just decided to check out the Fentons, knowing they'd have the information on ghosts in general and found the info on Ember. Two, there was quite a bit of information on him in those files…information that could give him away in an instant.

Or was Danny just being completely paranoid, as usual?

He'd have to ask Tucker to his magic later and see if his computer had been hacked into just to make sure. In his life it was always better to be safe than sorry.

Just as Danny reached the classroom door, the shrill sound of the bell cut through the silent halls. A moment after that Danny had to jump aside to avoid the students that came stampeding out of the classroom.

He groaned; between sleeping and talking to Ember, he missed the entire class.

Damn.

"Hey man," Tucker spoke as he came out of the room, handing Danny his stuff, "what took so long?"

"Ember showed up," Danny said and then proceeded to tell his friend the whole story.

"Dude that's nuts," Tucker exclaimed as Danny finished.

"Tell me about it," Danny replied dryly, "so can you come over after school to check out my computer or not?"

"Can't," Tucker replied, "at least not until later. I work until eight."

For the past year Tucker had been working at the electronics store in the mall as the guy you went to when you had technology questions. Despite the fact he actually had to work and couldn't wear that ugly beret (which, even after his style had changed over the years, was still almost always on his head), Tucker loved showing off his techno geek knowledge…and all the discounts on PDAs.

Tucker wasn't the only one who had gotten a part time job; Sam had been working at the Skulk and Lurk (last year they let her back in) for a few months. When Tucker had asked why the hell she wanted a minimum wage job when she didn't need the money, Sam had replied that she was sick and tired of spending money that she hadn't earned. Tucker called her insane, but Danny was proud of her resolve to earn things herself. He wasn't surprised in the least, but was still proud of her.

He on the other hand, was still unemployed. After much consideration, Danny decided that he'd end up getting fired for skipping out all the time, just like he had to do at school. It's not like he could just ignore a ghost attack and keep working. So he helped his parents out in the lap, despite the obvious danger, and they paid him on commission. He needed to get money somehow.

"Fine," Danny replied, "Tomorrow then? This is probably something we shouldn't take lightly. It could turn out bad."

"For sure," Tucker agreed, and then changed the subject, "so you had a fight with Sam?"

Danny rolled his eyes. Leave it to Tucker to be more concerned with his fight with Sam than the possibility of his secret getting out.

"Yeah," he sighed at the memory, "I made a joke about her newest protest."

Tucker visibly winced "Smooth. Real smooth. You know she's touchy about all that stuff."

"It was a joke!" Danny replied indigently, "I didn't mean it. Hell, if she were to ask me to go with her and hold a stupid sign, I would! If it's important to her, than it matters to me. And you make fun of her protests all the time, and even if she gets mad she never freaks out at you like she did me!"

"You're different man," Tucker informed him, "Sure I'm her best friend, but you're her best friend plus. Sam and I disagreeing is inevitable, but you two don't fight very much. Besides, she thinks not caring in what she believes in is a way of not caring about her."

"Of course I care about her!" Danny cried in surprise, causing some of the students walking the halls around them to stare, "…I mean, she's my best friend after all…"

The cover up was lame, and he knew Tucker wouldn't believe him. Tucker never believed his objections anymore…not that Danny could even fool himself anymore.

He knew he was in love with Sam and he had admitted it to himself a while ago. He was pretty sure he had realized it when that idiot Elliot/Gregor had come along, but he knew he had had 'more than friends' feelings about her before that.

Danny had yet to admit this fact out loud though. Sure he had vague conversations with both Jazz and Tucker about his feelings, but he had never come out and said 'I'm in love with Sam'. Especially to her.

Danny was told time and time again that she liked him, and despite the title and popular belief, he wasn't as clueless as people thought. He knew Sam had feelings for him, but he couldn't believe they were nearly as strong as his were. Otherwise she would have done something; Sam wasn't the kind of girl who sat back and did nothing when she wanted something. So if she wasn't willing to take the chance than neither would he.

Besides, if Sam were ever to find out some of the things he ended up thinking about her, she'd kill him.

"Denial," Tucker sighed, "total denial."

Danny didn't exactly argue.

"I'll go over right after school and beg forgiveness. Besides, it's always good to have her perspective on any problems," Tucker looked offended, "not that I don't need your valuable insight."

Danny managed to say that with a straight face.

"That's the idea!" Tucker cried and slapped him on the back joyfully.

Danny yelped in pain, Tucker's hand hitting one of the burns from last night. They still hurt like a bitch.

"Sorry!" Tucker apologized in horror, "What did I hit?"

"Val's new gun left burn marks instead of bruises," Danny explained grimly.

"So I'm going to guess she's still pissed about her job."

"Yep," Danny sighed as the bell rang again and they entered their next class, "and I'm going to have to do something about that. I'll give you more details later."

l.l.l.l.l

The minute the final bell rang and Tucker left for the mall, Danny entered the boy's locker room and went ghost. He flew up and phased out of the school, staying invisible as he took off towards Sam's house.

He was nervous to see her, wondering how pissed she would be. Hopefully her day alone would give her enough time to calm down and let him beg for forgiveness. When her house came into view Danny slowed down and moved towards her window. He stopped short when he was hovering just in front of it and rapped his knuckles against the glass.

After accidentally phasing in on her a few times when she was in various states of undress, Danny took to knocking before entering her room. The only saving grace was that he had been invisible at the time and thus Sam had no idea that he had seen her practically naked.

That would have made things way awkward.

It had been awkward when he couldn't look at her without blushing or without an explanation for a few days.

"Sam?" he called in when no one answered his knocks, "You there?" he heard someone moving around, "I'm coming in."

He phased in and found himself standing in the middle of Sam's dark room. Sam herself was sitting cross legged on her bed with a book open on the bed in front of her.

"I missed you at school," Danny started hesitantly when she didn't so much as look up at him, "I mean, Tucker and I missed you."

"What do you want Danny?" her voice had a hard tint to it as she finally turned her amethyst eyes up to look at him.

He almost ran away again as he squirmed under the glare she was giving him.

"I'm sorry that I upset you Sam," Danny came to stand at the edge of her bed.

"I'm sure you are," was Sam's stiff reply, and then, "do you mind turning back? You're making the room cold."

Danny did what he was asked and shuffled his feet nervously, trying to figure out how he would go about this.

"Look," he began, "I was a jerk to make fun of you. I should be more respectful to you and your causes and will help you in any way I can."

He sighed when he got it out and she continued to stare at him.

"You rehearsed that didn't you?"

"Since lunch," Danny replied sheepishly.

"Since lunch and that's all you came up with? You're not creative are you."

Danny probably would have felt a little offended had Sam not been smiling by the time she was finished. He sighed an inward sigh of relief before he answered.

"You know, you're the second person to say that to me today."

"Really?" Sam's curiosity was peaked and she gestured for him to sit down beside her, "Do tell."

"Well Ember stopped by school today-" Danny began, but was cut off in worry.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"No, well kinda. But that was from last night."

That was the wrong thing to say, because Sam automatically demanded to see what was wrong. His protests fell on deaf ears and after a minute of arguing, Danny knew that it was no use. He pulled the shirt he was wearing up over his head and let her examine his back.

"They're not as bad as last night," Danny offered her, but Sam ignored him and studied the ugly red burn that covered his lower back.

It felt kind of weird having his shirt off, but only because that was something he tried to avoid lately. Not only had three years of ghost hunting done well for his physique, it also left scars. Some of them could be easily be explained, like he fell into something, while others would be harder to lie about. He had also had to start wearing long sleeves shirts lately because, thanks to one of Skulker's last attacks; there were scars up and down his forearms. It looked like he was a cutter, and that would cause way too many questions. Hopefully they would fade enough by summer that he wouldn't have to suffer through heat stroke.

"What happened?"

"Valerie," was Danny's blunt reply before he gave Sam all the details.

Sam was chewing on her lower lip, and Danny could see the worry in her eyes. It made him smile a bit, knowing she cared so much.

"You should have come back here," Sam informed him after minutes of silence, "you should have put something on that burn, and it's not like Jazz is there to patch you up."

Jazz was in her second year of university, majoring in psychology of course, and was an hour away. She had given up Ivy League in order to stay close. At first she had decided to attend Amity U and stay at home, but Danny had convinced her that she would never forgive herself is she didn't at least get somewhat away. So Jazz moved, but stayed close enough that she could be there in case there was an emergency. It made Danny's life harder with her being gone, especially when it came to lying to his parents, but he was thrilled she got the opportunity.

Though Danny knew he would always feel guilty that Jazz had given up her Ivy League dreams for him.

"Umm Sam," Danny reminded her, "I ran out of here in fear of my life last night."

"Oh," Sam replied after a moment, remembering that, "let me get the kit."

"It'll be healed soon," Danny tried to stop her, but Sam was already on her feet and moving across the room. When she reached her dresser, Sam pulled open the third drawer, dug through the sweaters that were inside and fished out a specially equipped first aid kit.

"Putting on some burn ointment won't hurt," Sam informed him as she returned and climbed back on the bed, "now turn around."

Danny did as he was told, and hissed in pain when the cloth caked in ointment made contact with his skin.

"Sorry," Sam said as she continued to apply it. After a moment, "about last night too."

Danny stayed quiet, knowing that Sam would only open up if she wanted to, if he didn't push her.

"It's just…" she started again, and there was real emotion in her voice, "my parents left again. A sudden business trip was their excuse. We…we were supposed to have plans tomorrow night; Amity U's music department is having an orchestra concert. Classical music is something we all enjoy…I even agreed to wear a dress with a dash of colour. And they left…"

For the past while Sam had been attempting to get closer to her parents. She wanted a relationship with them, and the way to do that was to actually spend time together. She was trying to get them to accept her for who she was, but Sam had grown up enough to realize two things; A. She had to accept her parents for who they were just like she wanted them to accept her, and B. she had come to understand that comprise didn't mean the same thing as throwing away her ideals.

Danny wanted to curse the Mansons but kept all his nasty words inside. Sam didn't need to hear them right now. Apparently Sam was putting more effort into the relationship building than they were.

"I'm sorry Sam," he told her softly, sincerely, "can you get your Nan to go with you? I know it's not the same, but still…"

"She's gone for the week," Sam's voice was sad and yet amused, "her and a bunch of girls from her bridge club went to Vegas for a poker tournament."

Danny chuckled at the image. The funniest thing was that he could easily picture it. He loved Sam's grandma, and she was the only other one in the Manson family that liked him.

But Danny hated how utterly miserable Sam sounded, and knew he had to figure out a way to cheer her up.

"Well think of it this way," Danny told her, "at least you don't have to worry about your parents bursting in and seeing us on your bed with you rubbing cream on my half naked body."

He was rewarded with a snort.

"You sure give yourself a lot of credit, Halfa."

Danny smiled despite the sarcasm. Now this was the Sam he knew and loved.

"You wound me Sam."

Then the pressure was off of his back and he felt Sam get off of the bed.

"Done," she announced as she returned the kit to its rightful spot.

"Thanks Sam," he told her as he replaced his shirt.

He was so amazed at how comfortable he still was with her, especially now that he knew he loved her. In the past he had been reduced to a bumbling fool when he liked a girl, but with Sam everything was the same. God knows that if he had been sitting on a bed in an empty house with his shirt off and being touched during the times he liked Paullina or Val, he would have phased through the floor by now.

Not that this whole situation didn't get under his skin, especially the whole Sam touching him part. He just handled it better.

"So Ember at school?" Sam asked when she turned back to him.

"How about I tell you about it over at the Nasty Burger?" Danny suggested, figuring that getting her out of this big, empty house would make her feel better, "I'll even buy you a nice fresh salad."

"Danny Fenton this is the twenty first century and I can buy my own salad. I am a working woman after all."

"Well Ms. Career," Danny smirked, "you can buy me lunch next time. Now come on."

"Fine," Sam sighed dramatically, "just let me put on some real clothes. Meet me downstairs."

Danny nodded and then with a grin phased through the floor. He heard Sam yell something about being a show off and his grin only grew wider.

At times like these he really enjoyed having ghost powers.

He waited at the front door and five minutes later Sam bounded down the stairs. He watched her rush down and couldn't help but be amazed at how much they had all grown up, especially her.

She had grown taller over the past year, though the top of her head only reached Danny's chin since he had his own growth spurt. Along with up she had grown curvier; she was still petite, but you would never look at her and think she was a push over. Sam had grown her hair out and normally wore it flowing down her back opposed to up in a half pony tail. She was still a Goth of course, but just a little different kind of Goth. She let her tastes expand when she came to the conclusion that not wearing something because it was ungoth was the same as not wearing something because it was unpopular. Now there was a selection of dark greens, navy blues and blood reds in her sea of black and purple. Pink would still never happen though. Not to mention her tastes had come to enjoy clothes that were a bit more feminine.

At the moment she was wearing a black and purple lace up corset top that was covered with a violet zip up sweater and a pair of black jeans. One thing that hadn't changed though; she still wore the same beat up combat boots.

"I'm ready," Sam announced when she reached him.

"Fly or walk?"

"Walk," Sam decided after a moment, "if it's this warm in October I'm going to enjoy as much of it as I can."

"After you Ms. Manson."

Sam just scoffed and rolled her eyes, and Danny laughed.

At the moment, he had forgotten all about the somewhat unnerving news Ember had given him.

l.l.l.l.l

"It's a simple yes or no answer; can the information be confirmed or not?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

"No sir. We can't completely confirm the information provided."

There was a sigh from the man on the end of the line.

"Fine. What are you inclined to believe given the information you've gathered?"

This time there was no pause.

"Sir, we are ready to conclude that the subject, Ember McLain, is indeed a ghost. We just need to gather evidence."

The man nodded and digested what he was told.

"Very good. You have three days to conclude your investigation. After that time you will put all information you have gathered into a file and report to me. Then you will be given your next subject. That is all."

"Yes sir."

l.l.l.l.l

An- First off, I don't think that there is such thing as Amity University. Think of that part as creative licence. So as you may have noticed, this chapter wasn't exactly over flowing with action. It was more of a chapter that let you catch up with what has been going on with the characters. The next chapter will be like that too, and possibly the one after that will be similar. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and be sure to leave a review. Peace, love & Rainbows everyone!