A rather Chaos Dragon-esque piece, seeing as to the fact that she browbeated me into coauthoring it with her. I am back for good, at least for the next year and a half without school. I just so happen to be playing catch-up at the moment.

Paper

This is the man, her conscience mocked. This is the man that you fell in love with. The man that you've spent half your life waiting for, for all the good that it's done you. The plain blue paper was almost innocent as she stared at it in her hand. As good an idea as it had been Sam was regretting her need to see him, the need to just be near him, all of it suddenly undone by the plain little paper.

And he had made no attempt to hide it from her sight. Whether that was a small mercy in itself, Sam had yet to decide. He couldn't have been ignorant as to the way that she felt about him. He simply couldn't. Not from the heated glances he knew that she was stealing in his direction. The pathetic way her fingers skimmed his skin whenever they made contact, in needful, lingering touches, nor the multitude of awkward conversations between them when she had had no choice but to let her voice trail off, for fear of uttering something truly incriminating.

No. Danny had to be aware. He had simply made no attempt to hide the news from her. Sam only wished that he had chosen a gentler form of rebuke.

To think, she'd nearly thought he might have understood. That he might have returned what she gave. She shook her head, eyes closing as her fingers clenched on the certificate before Sam dropped it as though it had burned her. She wanted nothing more than to be gone from there, far away from the small dorm room where she waited for him to return.

The very least he could've done was to invite her to the wedding. He owed her that much, at least. After all they had been through together, even if he refused to regard it as anything more than platonic. Did Tucker know, she wondered dully to herself, and for an instant, shame prickled at her insides as she contemplated the possibilities. Of course Tucker knew. Why else would he have encouraged her to take this trip down to see Danny? They had wanted her to find out this way, the two of them. It had all been carefully prearranged so the coward known as Daniel Fenton would not have to face her himself with the news.

If anyone had been around to see her cry, she might have tried to stop it. As it was she could barely believe it, the rest of her seemed to be so numb. She wasn't crying, not really, because Sam Manson didn't cry. Sometimes she got teary eyed, but never did she cry. Excepting that she couldn't deny the fact that her face was wet, her eyes were starting to ache as she held the worst of it back, that she was really, truly crying.

Which made it the worst possible moment for Danny to decide to make an entrance.

"S-Sam?" he stuttered, eyes widening, countenance visibly overcome by surprise by her very presence in his dorm, when she was supposed to be miles away at the other side of the country, the halfa's astonishment magnifying tenfold when he realised that Sam was crying. "What are you doing here?" the half ghost questioned, his query sounding rougher than expected as it left his lips before he realised that he was bristling, a protective, possessive rage overcoming him. God help the bastard that had made her cry.

"Care explaining to me what this is?" she demanded, her voice taking on a shrill, almost hysterical quality.

It was then that Danny finally noticed the crumpled blue sheet, held in Sam's hand with a vice like grip, inwardly swearing as his very blood froze in his veins. "It's not what you think," he pleaded. "I can explain."

It's not what you think. Her face fell as she understood he was only planning to give her a by wrote excuse, just like any other man with half a brain would have. "You don't have to explain anything, Danny," she said, not knowing how much her voice told him. "Least of all to me."

She dropped the marriage certificate, delicate blue fluttering a bit as it hit the desk, then stooped to grab up her duffel. If she hurried she might be able to make a return flight without having to wait. God knows she had the money to do it. This once, Sam wasn't going to begrudge herself the use of it. She swallowed once before glancing up at his blue eyes, then away, afraid of what she might see.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come," she told him. She pushed past before he could stop her, only pausing for a moment to whisper a broken, "Congratulations," before bolting for the stairwell.

"No," he growled, upon her in an instance, grabbing her wrist with reflexes honed by a thousand deadly encounters. She had almost forgotten what he was capable of. "Don't go. I'm not finished with you yet."

"But I am," she replied coldly, head held high in an almost regal fashion as she admonished him. "Unless you'd care to explain to me who the hell Henrietta Rice is, because you've somehow failed to mention her to me once."

"Sammy," his voice was meek, pleading, all hot blood leaving him. "Henrietta Rice doesn't exist. It's Dani. She was sick of running. She wanted a real life, and this was the only way I knew how to give it to her. I owed her that much, at least."

He's not married. Sam's head was spinning in a whirlwind of emotions, profound relief intermingled with annoyance and anger at herself for assuming the worst of Danny.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" she finally managed, reproach evident in her tone, her gaze unwillingly wandering to the cursed certificate lying abandoned on the floor, still unable to meet his blue eyes.

"I was going to tell you the next time I saw you," the halfa choked a laugh. "I just wasn't expecting it to be right now."

"I'm sorry," she apologised, fighting to keep herself from flushing with shame. "It was wrong of me to assume. You're right. This is the least of what Dani deserves. I was being stupid and childish."

"Apology accepted," Danny grinned broadly, the first genuine smile that Sam had seen from him since their reunion. "And for the record," the halfa laughed. "I probably would've freaked out more than you did just now if I found out that you were married without my knowledge."

"I've missed you so much," she confessed, drawing the dark haired man into a tight embrace, his scent making her feel safe and at home for the first time in months. "I had to come and see you."

"I've missed you too," he murmured, stroking her hair. Abruptly he pulled back, a glint of amusement in his eyes. "Now, if it isn't too much of an affliction on your morals, would you accompany this married man to dinner?"