Anonymous review replies:

Guest: Here's the update :D Thanks~

AJ: Thanks a lot. :3 And here be the update

TooLazyToLogIn: It's not heavily so, but I do consider it slightly DxS. It's more of a "great trusting friendship" relationship here though, rather than a romantic one.

Yay chapter 2 :D This one more focuses on Danny than on Sam like chapter 1, so that's where we shall begin our next chapter! Danny's POV, third person.

,.~*~.,

Danny always arrived at work at eight-o'-clock sharp. He never failed to arrive at this time, every day. The meticulous schedule was so ingrained into his head that his body worked off of it. 7:00 AM, wake up. 7:10, shower. 7:20, get dressed and ready to go. 7:30, watch the news. 7:40, leave. 7:55, pick up breakfast. 8:00, arrive at work. Ever since he started working at the base, he had run on this ordered schedule.

Danny entered his office, a bag of fast-food breakfast in one hand and an iced latte in the other. He shut the door with one foot and turned around. His eyes popped wide open. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

Sam was in Danny's chair, slowly spinning herself around. "Thought I'd tidy things up a bit," she said.

Danny grunted and flicked his light on. "Well, no wonder everything looks different," he said, sounding annoyed. "Care to show me where all of my stuff is so I can work?"

Sam perched a bobbleheaded black cat figurine on top of Danny's computer monitor and stood up. "I labeled the drawers, too. You should find everything easy," she said.

Danny marched up to his desk and set down his breakfast, pausing to violently knock the cat off his monitor and replace it with his drink. "If you think my office was messy, you should see my house," the young man muttered, sitting down in his chair and digging into the paper bag which held his breakfast.

He pulled out a wrapped sausage-and-cheese biscuit, unwrapped it, and took a bite. While eating that, he removed the rest of his breakfast: another sausage biscuit and a hotcakes meal.

"Don't tell me you eat this every morning," Sam said, a bit disgusted.

"I shake it up sometimes," Danny mumbled. He picked up the other sausage biscuit. "You want any?"

"No thanks, I'm a vegetarian," Sam said. "Plus, grease makes me a bit queasy."

"Never affected me," Danny said, spinning around and turning on his computer. "Unless it's too greasy, like Nasty Burger's pizza. The cheese is like slimy rubber, it's disgusting." He took another bite of the sausage biscuit, then turned on his monitor. "To work we go, Sam. Your name is Sam, right?"

"Yeah," said Sam.

"Just checking my memory," said Danny, polishing off the biscuit. He crumpled the wrapper and tossed it back.

"No wonder I found five thousand of those on the floor," Sam said, crossing her arms.

"You want to assist me?" Danny asked. "Pick it up and throw it away for me."

Sam picked it up all right. And she definitely threw it. It smacked the side of Danny's face. "Agh!" the man exclaimed.

"By 'assist', I don't mean to be your personal cleaning maid," Sam said.

Danny growled softly and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "All right then, smarty-pants," he said. "I'll find you something to do." He unwrapped his second biscuit.

Sam smirked. "Ah!" Danny suddenly spun around to face Sam, the latter of whom was a bit startled. "What do you know about the half-ghosts?" he asked, an excited madness now twinkling in his pale blue eyes.

"I... read about them once," Sam admitted. "Anomalies that almost nobody knows about, and that some consider a scientific impossibility. Apparently, you're the biggest expert on them anyone's ever found." Danny nodded, sipping on his iced latte. Sam continued. "Anyway, I was wondering... how do half-ghosts form?"

"Well," Danny began. He swallowed the bite of biscuit in his mouth. "You know how a ghost is an imprint, right?"

"Yep," said Sam.

"Well, a halfa's not entirely like that. A halfa is created much like a ghost, in a case of extreme fear, anger, or pain, and a large amount of nearby ectoplasm, and usually a strong power source. Basically, the adrenaline produced from the fear or the anger fuses with the ectoplasm and basically rewrites the DNA. Instead of the imprint being created outside the body, the ghost imprints itself inside the new halfa. The victim isn't dead, and he isn't half dead. He's just... half ghost."

Sam must have looked bewildered, for Danny scoffed and said, "I don't see how you don't get that." he ate the rest of his second biscuit and grabbed his hotcakes meal. "Not that I'm surprised or anything. I shouldn't be; you're only..." He cut himself off, as if he was about to say something potentially harmful. He opened the box and began eating.

Sam's brain was beginning to piece together all the information Danny had given her. "So, instead of the imprint being shocked outward to fuse with the ectoplasm, the ectoplasm infuses into the DNA and manifests itself there."

Danny paused in his chewing. He swallowed, looking surprised and a bit impressed. "Yeah. Yeah, it is like that," he said. "Couldn't have explained it any simpler myself."

Sam was intelligent, Danny had to give her that. She had a bit of an attitude, but then again, so did he. Yet somehow they seemed to be getting along. He almost liked her. Don't get too close, he reminded himself. That'll only bring you heartache in the end.

,.~*~.,

A few hours passed. Danny was now silently working on his weapon. Sam was going through some of Danny's folders and organizing them, as Danny had told her to do. She was growing tired with the tedious work, of course, and asked her acquaintance if she could go out for a walk around the rest of the base.

"All right," the young man answered. "Just don't go near the Boss's office."

"Why not?" asked Sam.

"Because... no one's ever allowed to just see the Boss. You can only go there if he calls you. Your closest link to the Boss is Cal. He tells the workers when the Boss wants to see them. Told me a few times." Danny began playing with his necktie- a nervous habit, Sam deduced.

"So you've seen this 'Boss'?" asked Sam.

Danny smirked in a sort of mischievous way. "I never said I actually went," he said. "Who cares about some guy who never leaves his office to speak to his own employees? As far as we know, Cal is the real guy in charge, and the Boss is just a big jerk who does nothing but sound cool with a title."

Sam nodded and left the office, closing the door behind her. She nodded to a uniformed woman passing by, then headed out into the open.

,.~*~.,

With his assistant gone, Danny dropped his tools and allowed his tense muscles to relax. Human company always put him on edge; too many walls needed to be put up. He shielded himself from the world for a good reason, or so he told himself. He never told anyone anything any more than what was necessary for the moment. Always the facts.

The man leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes, basking in the silence. Then he began to think.

For the first time since he had begun working at the base, he grew curious about the Boss. He had taken it in stride at first, but now he wasn't so sure it was all part of the big operation. What am I thinking? he debated with himself. Of course it's normal for this operation...

He shook off the thoughts and sat back up, opening his eyes. OK, so maybe it was a little suspicious, he decided. But it was probably nothing. He had been working at the base for five years and nothing had ever gone awry. There was nothing to worry about.

Then again, Danny almost never set foot outside his office during work hours.

,.~*~.,

That seemed like a decent enough chapter. XD Hope you enjoyed it~

P.S., the bit about the rubbery, extra greasy cheese on the pizza... That was inspired by a true story. Most terrible pizza ever. Bleh.