A/N: I hope you're enjoying this story. Here is Chapter 4. And IDNOAC!. Enjoy!

Shadow of a Doubt—Chapter 4—Heartstrings

Sam quickly rushed back into her hotel room and frantically got a towel. Panting heavily while tears ran down her face, she quickly placed the book on the counter and began to dry it off. "Oh, B-Book, are you all r-right?" she stuttered between the chill and the tears. She continued to rub the book dry. "I am so sorry! He was such a jerk just now! He had no right!"

The book shuddered a little itself, but then it suddenly floated upward. Sam couldn't help but pull back from it and gasped as it emitted a brilliant glow once again. But this light was different. She could feel heat emanating from it. The book's reaction was very brief, and then just as quickly it landed back on the counter. Sam touched it. The book was completely dry.

"I-I didn't know you could do that!" she said with awe and then shuddered at how cold she suddenly felt.

It flew open its cover and wrote, "There are still a lot of things you don't know about me. But you, my friend, need to get dry, too!"

"I'm all right," she insisted through gritted teeth. Quickly wiping her tears away, she added, "I'm going to give Danny a piece of my mind."

The Book shook and then wrote, "No! Please don't do that! I am all right. Really."

"But he shouldn't have…" she began, but stopped when the book immediately began to write again.

"Remember, he doesn't know me at all! He thinks of me as a book, Sam, not a living thing! And I thought we agreed that you were going to focus on him now! Give him time. I can…understand…how he feels!"

She looked at it, again amazed at its very human-like qualities. She hesitated. "OK," she finally and slowly said, her voice still ringing with more anger than she thought. "If it makes you happy. But just so you know, I'm still freaking mad! I better not see him for a while or else I might forget what I promised you."

But the Book did not answer her and shut his cover.

Sam bit her lower lip and frowned. She knew she had disappointed him. Her shoulders slumped as she walked away toward the shower.

Both Sam and Danny didn't sleep at all that night; and Tucker didn't fare any better. But thankfully, they were leaving with their respective parents early the next day, and would be too busy to check on each other—or to even think about checking on each other. In fact, with everything that had happened between them, they even forgot all about the Spectre and the scrolls.

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For the next few days Sam avoided Danny, and Danny wasn't in a hurry to see her, either. Tucker was back in the middle, and made the excuse more often than not that he was going to see Valerie, which he was, but not as often as he would have had Sam and Danny been all right with each other.

All three best friends were miserable.

All the while, Danny's depressed mood did not go unnoticed by Jazz. Finally, after giving more than subtle hints to him and letting his tart rebuffs roll off of her, she could not stand it any longer.

She seized the opportunity after school a couple of days later, when their parents were off shopping. She masterfully cornered her little brother in the living room.

"Uh, Danny, a word," she began, moving closer to him.

"I'm not in the mood, Jazz," he huffily replied.

"I know! You haven't been 'in the mood' for days! You need to talk to me about it!" she huffed back, crossing her arms.

He started to go around her, trying to ignore her. But she immediately blocked him.

"Get out of my way, Jazz!" he hissed, attempting to avoid her again.

She frowned, but blocked him again. This was more serious than she thought. She pressed on. "Uh, where have Sam and Tucker been? I haven't seen them for days!"

He glared at her but didn't answer.

A-ha! That was all the answer she needed. This was the problem!

"What happened? I have never seen you so upset! And you're upset with Sam and Tucker?"

He didn't answer her.

"With Tucker?"

He still didn't answer her.

"With Sam?" she continued.

He glared at her and then looked away.

She gasped. "You're upset with Sam! What happened?"

"None of your business, Jazz," he said, moving away from her yet again.

She blocked him again. And this time she was more insistent. "Well, guess what, Danny? You made it my business when all you've done for the past few days is chew me out—and all of it uncalled—for, I must say! You owe me an explanation! Now, what happened between you and Sam? I want to help!"

He sighed in defeat; there was just no escaping her web. But just as he was about to tell her, his ghost sense alerted him. He half-smiled in relief.

She wagged her finger at him while he transformed, "Well, I'm not finished with you, little brother! And don't make the excuse of not being able to get back here as soon as you're finished when you finish doing what you need to finish,….uhm, or something like that!"

He quickly flew off without another word and she anxiously watched him phase through the wall.

Danny didn't realize how much he missed flying. He was in the dumps so much lately; it hadn't even occurred to him that this was one of the best ways to clear his head and think things through. But he had no time for that now. He needed to see what had bothered his ghost sense.

He scanned the horizon and his heart jumped. Coming out of a small portal several feet off the ground was Johnny 13! And he, of course, was on his bike and was accompanied by, of course, his shadow ghost!

Danny quickly soared up to the ghost biker and blasted him off his motorcycle. The ghost, and then his motorcycle, plummeted to the ground. Incensed, the shadow ghost immediately reacted and charged at Danny with his claws.

"Back off, Spectre!" Danny seethed, charging up his ice rays.

But the shadow ghost's reaction was not what the hybrid expected. It halted in mid-attack, screeched in fear, and retreated behind the still-stunned biker. Then, just as quickly, the ebony ghost whispered something to Johnny 13 and the biker ghost's eyes widened.

Before Danny could react, both the biker and his shadow had hopped onto the ghost motorcycle, and in the blink of an eye, sped away.

Danny didn't pursue them. Instead, he hovered, scratching his head, "Didn't expect that!" Then he realized what happened. "Wait, I know! I called him 'Spectre'!" He jolted with another thought. "Spectre! I, uh, we were…the scrolls!"

But then, he quickly melted into depression again. He felt so lonely…. He wanted his friends back! He sighed, and headed back to his room. But unbeknownst to him, his sister had guessed that her brother would do just that and was waiting for him.

"What are you doing in here, Jazz?" Danny sighed.

"We weren't finished yet," she smugly answered, crossing her arms again.

"Uh, correction. You weren't finished. I was way over it. Can you go now?"

She did not answer him, but took an 'I'm-not-going-to-move-until-you-talk-to-me' stance.

He sighed again. He didn't have the energy to fight her. "OK, you win," he uttered. He hesitated slightly and then, looking at the floor, added, "Uhm, Sam and I had a big fight…about a book…"

Jazz stifled an instant snicker, but immediately tried to cover it up with a more serious look. Fortunately, he was still looking down. "Geez, it's hard to believe that they don't fight about the big stuff!" she thought, but said instead, "Oh, I see…and what book...would that be?"

"You know, Jazz, the Book," Danny said, now regretting his decision to tell his sister.

Jazz almost panicked when she wasn't sure what he….and, oh, then she knew! And she quickly said, "Oh! You mean the Book!"

He nodded silently, still looking at the floor.

She paused, truly uncertain on what to say. But she knew she had to say something. "Well, it must have been something very serious for you to be so upset. And is Sam upset, too?"

"We haven't even so much as looked at each other for over four-and-a-half days!" he muttered miserably.

"Oh, this is very serious," his sister thought, but replied, "Uh, what does Tucker say about all this?"

"Don't know. Haven't seen him much either lately," came his reply. He still wasn't looking up.

Jazz bit her lower lip. Then she smiled at her next thought, and said, "Well, you know how much Sam loves to read…"

He finally looked up and his voice grew louder and more irritated, "I KNOW she loves to read!" His eyes flashed green; he wasn't going to hesitate any longer. Unfortunately for his sister, she wasn't quite ready for the barrage.

He stood, his hands fisted at his sides. "Do you think I don't know that?!" he fumed again, "But she has really been going overboard with that book for the past few months! And when I say overboard, I mean to the point that I feel she wants its company more than mine, which I really think is true! and I couldn't take it any longer, so I got mad at her…again, but then Tucker said I was jealous and he was right, and then he agreed that she was going way overboard with the book, and then I went to apologize when I realized I shouldn't be so jealous over a lousy book and I didn't want us to be this upset… again and then she had the book..AGAIN! when I went to apologize and it was raining and then I got mad and threw the book in the rain and we haven't spoken since." With an angry huff, he slouched down on his bed.

Jazz stood speechless, stifling the fleeting thought of regretting that she had butted in. But she quickly recovered and blurted out her sudden idea, "Well, then that's it!"

"What?" he asked, bewildered but anxious to know the answer.

"Tomorrow, you apologize!"

"But I think she should apologize, too!" he answered.

"OK, then, how about a truce?" Jazz next suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"You both agree that this is something you both will need some time to work through, and until you come to an understanding, you simply don't bring up the subject."

"We all ready tried that and look what happened!"

"Well, you try again, but you also really need to try to talk it over and come to that understanding." She sighed when she realized she was asking for a lot. "Why do you two have to be so stubborn? You're both crazy about each other but also too pig-headed sometimes! But I think you're less pig-headed…"

"Gee, thanks, Jazz," he deadpanned.

"You know what I mean, Danny!" she continued, now losing her patience a little. "Sometimes one person has to work harder than the other to get through certain things. And sometimes it's just the opposite."

She looked at him and immediately knew he hadn't a clue as to what she had just said. She sighed and continued, "What I mean is that you are not as hung up on that book as she is and so you're going to have to be the one to work harder to help her come to an understanding about it. Just like she did for you before, you know."

"When?" he asked.

"Well for one, there's the time when you didn't believe she was your best friend after Desiree erased your memory. She worked very hard to get you to understand everything and, of course, it worked! And then there was the time you were under the control of Control Freak…and of course, when you were poisoned, and lots of other times when you were in trouble! She didn't give up... But both of you have to be willing not to give up and also have to be willing to take turns. And, you know, I think you both are willing to do that! It's just that you're both too angry right now to see it. That's what relationships are all about, Danny, especially when you love each other!"

Now he understood. He smiled and gave his sister a great big hug. "Thanks, sis," he softly uttered. "Makes me wonder why some great guy hasn't snatched you up yet!"

Jazz laughed, "Oh, I'm too busy for all that now. Besides, I'm just as stubborn as you are when it comes to arguing! He wouldn't win!"

Danny smiled and turned to leave. And he felt a little of the weight lift off his heart.