AN: So I know it's been a while, but I've been getting over a nasty cold that refuses to leave me be. Sorry bout that.

Disclaimer: I will probably never own Danny Phantom, not at this rate.

Character: Sam(main), Danny/Jazz/Tucker(background)

Opening Line: "The accident wasn't her fault."

The accident wasn't her fault. They were sure to remind her constantly. It wasn't her fault.

Jazz laid the blame on her parents. That they'd built such a dangerous machine on a whim in their own home was bad enough, but leaving the lab unattended so that three teens could easily slip in and out? She was amazed that something worse hadn't happened, that they hadn't accidentally blown themselves sky high. She knew their insane obsession with ghosts would cause something catastrophic one day, and they were lucky that things had turned out as well as they had.

It wasn't her fault that Jack and Maddie Fenton seemed to have no common sense when it came to their profession.

Tucker laid the blame on their curiosity. They were teenagers, he told her, it was in their nature to poke around and find trouble. It wasn't really their fault that they hadn't expected to find so much trouble. And really, what had the elder Fentons expected, leaving the door unlocked like they did? They never even blinked at the sight of the four in the lab anymore, taking their presence for granted and letting them do as they pleased. And there was a small, dark corner of his mind. One he would never admit to having, that whispered of Danny's guilt as well. Sam hadn't forced him into anything, he could've said no, could've grown a backbone instead of bending to the whims of a pretty girl.

It wasn't her fault that the Fentons were careless and that Danny bended so easily to peer pressure.

Danny, of course, laid the blame on himself. He consoled her, saying that he shouldn't have bowed so easily to her suggestion. She hadn't dragged him kicking and screaming into the portal, he'd made the decision to put on the jumpsuit and climb inside. He'd been the one to foolishly lean on the switch without bothering to look first. He'd been the one begging them afterward to not say a word to anyone, to keep it to themselves. Besides, he said, a grin breaking out, look how much good had come out of it. How many people were protected from the frequent ghost attacks now that Phantom was around to guard the city. How many opinions they'd been able to sway after the Pariah Incident, hopefully getting people to consider the idea of benign or even friendly ghosts.

It wasn't her fault that he was afraid to stick up for himself, even against his best friends.

They all consoled her and assured her of her innocence. But they didn't understand.

They didn't live with the guilt day in and day out, the initial fear that she'd accidentally killed her friend, the later terror after seeing him come back from fights scratched and bruised and broken nearly in half. It didn't eat them up inside the way it did her, because they were all so dead set on being flippant about it, as if they were just kids playing pretend on a sunny day.

They refused to acknowledge the fact that what they were doing, what Danny was doing, was stupid, and dangerous, and they were all in way over their heads. She thought Tucker might have opened his eyes after the Pariah Incident, when they heard just what exactly that battle suit would do to Danny, but he'd reverted to the same joking geek, closing his mind against the horrible possibility, probability, of his best friend's death.

But they couldn't just back out now, they were in too deep. Valerie was incredible, but she was just one human girl. Even with Vlad's "donations" she wasn't able to fight the ghosts on equal terms like Danny could. His parents had made it their life's work to hunt down ghosts, but that didn't mean that Jack wasn't still a bumbler, and Maddie would never work alone.

So she sucked it up, put on a brave face, and saved the guilt and the self-hatred for the privacy of her bedroom, because Danny needed her to be strong.

But they couldn't ever tell her the accident wasn't her fault. Because it was.

...Yeah, Sam may have gotten more emo than I wanted her to here, but if it were me, I know I'd have a complex about basically half-killing my best friend/crush. I'm just saying. Also I'd like to give credit to Elisabeth Hill for helping me with Tucker, who refused to pitch his two cents in.

Hope you enjoyed, and please review~!