Danny found his cousin Dani at soccer practice after school. He waved to her when he got the chance, and sat in the bleachers waiting for practice to be over.

She emerged from the locker room and back to the bleachers with Danny after a few minutes and punched his shoulder. "Thanks for coming! Took you long enough to show up!"

He sighed. "I know. I've just been feeling pretty crappy lately."

Dani frowned. "I'm really sorry, Danny." She leaned her head on his shoulder. She hadn't seen him since the funeral and knew what was probably on his mind.

"I just didn't know who else would understand," he said quietly.

Dani scoffed. "There is one other person…." She felt Danny tense underneath her and she recoiled. "Sorry."

He merely shook his head and then patted hers, ruffling her already-messy ponytail. "If he was good for one thing, it was that he gave me you."

Dani smiled up at him and then hugged him, burying her face into his shoulder.

"So how's living with Frostbite going? Getting chilly in the Ghost Zone at all?"

She smirked and shoved him. "Thank you for setting that up. He's a big teddy bear… pretty literally. But he's been helping me hone my ice powers too! See?" She help up the palm of her hand and formed a little crystal, holding it out to Danny. "Could you give it to Sam for me?"

Danny gingerly picked it up between his index finger and thumb, putting his chin in his other hand and propping his elbow on his knee. "That's the problem, I guess."

"Been thinking about her again?" she asked, tilting her head.

"Well…." He started, but trailed off.

"Well what?" Dani pushed.

"Valerie and I broke up a few days ago-"

"Finally…." Dani drawled. Danny narrowed his eyes at her and she pursed her lips. "Look, it wasn't gonna last with her trying to kill us."

"Not the point," he said, lowering his voice.

"I didn't like you with her anyway, with you having to be more secretive – than usual-" she added at his skeptical look, "and stuff. Besides, Sam is the one for you. Always has been."

Danny quirked an eyebrow at her. "Yeah? Not with how much we've been fighting."

"Well Valerie obviously couldn't stick it out through the shitty times with you," she said matter-of-factly. "Sam's been with you through it all, secret and all. You love her."

"I can't be with someone that knows," Danny said quickly. He stared at the crystal in his hand and wrapped his hand around it tightly. "It's not safe. And too much of a burden besides that."

"That's not true," she said, her voice rising.

"How would you know?"

Dani swallowed. "I mean, most of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone know…. And they don't spill your secret."

"Yeah, because I'd kick them into the thermos for eternity." Danny froze for a moment before turning to Dani, his eyes wide. "You're dating a ghost?!"

She chuckled nervously the same way he knew himself to do. She rubbed the back of her neck. "It's no one crazy…."

"Danielle…."

"Okay, dad," she dragged out. "It's Youngblood."

"The kid?" Danny's eyebrows both raised.

"He's not a kid!" she snapped. "He died when he was around my age, 16. He's just pretty small and couldn't let go of the whole 'I just wanna stay young forever' thing because of how he died. But he's really sweet, and he's come to Frostbite's island a few times-"

"He's dangerous." Danny said dryly.

"He's confused," Dani answered back. "He doesn't know what he wants and I'm okay with that. He doesn't wanna hurt anybody, he just wants to have fun."

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. "And all of those times he's terrorized the town?"

"He's sorry about that, by the way," she pointed out. "Though he thought it was funny that he got you so frustrated back then."

He narrowed his eyes at her when she smirked.

She waved him off. "Look, Frostbite doesn't seem to mind, and it gives me a chance to actually date someone that knows my secret."

Ah, Danny thought. Now it makes sense. "Dani, you don't need someone to know who you are to date them."

"That is the stupidest fricken' advice I've ever heard." she said flatly. "You don't believe that, do you?"

Finally, he sighed and looked down at the crystal again. "I don't know anymore."

"Danny," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "if you love her, you can make it work."

"I don't think I can. I really fucked up this time."

"Yeah, I heard."

Danny turned to her.

She shrugged. "Tucker's a washwoman, what can I say?"

Danny groaned and looked away. "What else did he tell you?"

"He said that you guys communicate horribly."

"Gee, thanks."

"No, really! He said that you thought you guys did the do, and Sam said you didn't and so it's making everything a lot worse. But you won't listen to reason."

Danny gaped at her for a minute and then smiled. "Wait-wait-wait! Back up. …So I didn't do that with her?"

Dani face-palmed. "No, you big dummy."

He sighed and put his face in his hands. "I'm such an idiot."

"Maybe you shouldn't drink like that again."

Danny narrowed his eyes again. "What else did Tucker tell you?"

"Let's see…." she started to count on her fingers. "Sam found you drunk on the sidewalk, she went on a date with Wes – that you ruined – then you two argued about something neither one of you understood, and now you're here."

"You're pretty nosy for a high school kid."

"It's my job as your little cousin – to annoy, that is." She smirked at him.

"Well just mind your business, alright?" he said. "I'd like to be more in the loop about Youngblood too, okay?"

"That's hypocritical," she pointed out. "Would you like me to go into detail about teenage love?" she asked flatly.

"Not what I meant." he said.

She paused for a moment. "His name is Riley, by the way."

Danny raised an eyebrow at her.

"He really is sweet. He takes me all around the Ghost Zone on trips, he tells me about whatever I don't understand about the Ghost Zone, and he listens to me when I talk about school or Vlad or the whole double life thing. He really cares and makes it really easy to talk to him," she finished.

Danny watched her as she slowly lit up with the way she spoke about him, getting more and more animated as she got excited. He wondered to himself if he did that when he spoke about Sam.

Dani looked to him expectantly.

Danny sighed. "If he treats you well and makes you happy… that's what matters most, I guess."

She beamed. "Isn't that what Sam does for you?"

Sam rolled over in her bed, waking up from her restless nap.

Her eyes widened when she came face-to-face with a green puppy.

He immediately licked her face and she sat up, pushing him down from her head and holding him out at arm's length.

"Remind me why I thought this was a good idea again?" she asked herself.

Cujo's tongue lolled out of his mouth, drooling on her lap as he wagged his tail.

"This is why I'm a cat person."

She set him down in front of her lap and she rubbed her face with her hands, groaning. She felt like absolute garbage.

She threw her legs over the side of the bed and slipped on purple spider slippers as Cujo spun circles around her legs. She smiled at him, at least enjoying the company.

Wearing an oversized black T-shirt, she walked down the hall to the kitchen and looked in the fridge. She spied the cardboard container, picking it up and opening the lid to find broccoli lo mein. At least he remembered to get me something too.

She brought the carton to the counter, pouring the contents onto a plate and heating it in the microwave for a minute. She said down at the kitchen table, pushing aside the mess Danny and Tucker had left her. She couldn't think about it now; she'd get to it later.

Cujo sat at her feet and wagged his tail against her leg, watching her expectantly.

"You're insane if you think you're getting my broccoli," she said.

Cujo whined and laid down, putting his face between his paws.

Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. One noodle." She dropped a single strand onto the floor in front of him, making him jump up and slurp it down.

As Sam put another broccoli in her mouth with the fork, she startled when she saw a figure phase through the roof. She relaxed when she saw that it was just Danny, and he looked at her sheepishly.

"Hey…. Sorry, I didn't mean to scared you," he added when he saw her expression. "You're usually fine with me doing that." Then it occurred to him what was wrong and he winced. "Sorry… I can just go," he said, pointing to the door. "I was gonna come clean up the mess we made and maybe take Cujo home…."

Sam just let Danny ramble, watching him dryly. She hated to admit that she was kind of enjoying watching him flounder. But she finally nodded to the dishes in front of her, and Danny visibly eased.

They kept to the comfortable silence while Sam ate and Danny cleaned up. He eventually noticed that Sam was feeding Cujo noodles here and there as he was drying the dishes.

He smirked. "So… does this mean you're a dog person now?"

Sam glared for a moment before dropping Cujo another noodle. "Not yet…." she said and then paused. "I appreciate you washing the dishes too. You didn't have to do that."

"I think I did," he said quietly. He shook his head. "You're welcome."

They sat quietly again as Danny finished the drying the dishes. Sam put her leftovers away and the dishes in the sink which Danny took and began washing as well. She allowed him a small smile before turning away.

"Sam, I wanna talk about what happened."

She rolled her eyes. "I think we already covered that."

"No, really," he said, putting away the last dish. She turned to him fully, and he eyes were serious. "I know I was an idiot. That much has been said. But I think I misunderstood what was going on with us." He looked down and scuffed his sneaker on the tile.

Sam folded her arms across her chest and waited. She didn't want to sit there and listen to his bullshit again, but she wasn't going to push him to admit something either.

Danny heard the silence and looked up at Sam. He ran a hand through his hair and walked over to the chair across from her, putting his hands in his lap. "I thought… I thought I hurt you," he said plainly.

Sam quirked an eyebrow. "No shit," she said flatly.

"No, no…." he backtracked. "I mean… I thought we… I… when I was drunk and wasn't thinking straight… I woke up in your bed, and I thought I'd-"

"Stop!" Sam practically yelled, holding up both of her hands in front of her. "No! No… we didn't do anything like that. I took you in so you could sleep it off. You wandered into my room and fell asleep. I had an early morning so I just laid down next to you and slept there instead of the couch. That's all."

"I know," Danny said, wincing at the memory of Dani. "At least, now I do. I needed some advice and talked to Dani, who found out from Tucker-"

"I'm going… to strangle him," Sam hissed through clenched teeth.

"Almost exactly what I said," Danny replied with a chuckle.

Sam's shoulders eased at the sound of Danny's laugh. With a knot in her stomach, she realized how much she'd missed that sound.

Danny cleared his throat. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh…. I just… I'm really glad that's how it went down. But I am really sorry we got there in the first place. You were right… about everything."

Sam watched Danny begin to unravel, and she hadn't the faintest idea how to stop him.

He spread his hands out on the table. "You were right about Valerie, hunting alone, the… accident," he said begrudgingly before swallowing and continuing, "and you would have said the same thing about the drinking. And that's why I didn't come to you. I didn't want to admit I was wrong. I didn't want to admit that I'd let myself get to this point. That all of this… it's my fault."

"Danny…" Sam tried, but he held up his hand.

"Please don't," he said calmly. "This is the part where you get to say you told me so."

Sam grimaced. Did she trust him again? No. Definitely not. But she missed him. And admitting what he was doing was wrong was a good first step. She reached her hands across the table and took each of his larger ones in her own. His head snapped up to look at her, but she kept her gaze focused on their hands, rubbing the back of his with her thumbs. "I'm proud of you," she said quietly. "I'm still worried about you… but I've missed you."

Danny let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "I've missed you too," he said, squeezing her hands gently in return.

"Stay," she heard herself say."

Danny's eyes widened slightly. "Stay?"

"Yeah," Sam said quickly, "stay here so I can keep an eye on you. And I think you could use the company."

"What about my mom? I have to go home."

Sam shook her head. "I don't think you're in any condition to help her right now, and I don't think your situation would do her any good either."

Danny winced.

"But we can go there for dinner and stuff and maybe help around the house a bit. But I think you're not going to be good influences on each other right now." she conceded.

Danny nodded. "No, you're right," he agreed, then chuckled again, "as usual."

Sam smiled with him. Then she looked down and remembered that they were still holding hands. She pursed her lips and reluctantly pulled her hands away. Danny pulled his back quickly too. That was a bridge they'd have to wait to cross until Danny was back to somewhat normal.

"So…" Danny started, "did you hear Dani has a boyfriend?"

[A/N 10-1-18]: Yes, I will be continuing my stories to the end. No, I am not done writing, and no, I will not apologize for delays in chapters anymore. I hope you enjoy the ride with me, regardless!