Daring to Dream

Dreaming

Thanks to who reviewed, and who was that? No one!!!

When I wrote this sentence I had just posted chapter nine

Madison led him out of the door "I have no idea what's going to happen to anyone. Not now that I'm out of the picture."

"But you're not," Danny protested "You're a ghost; you can come back with me."

"Not all ghosts stay in the ghost zone, I have less than an hour left before I fade away."

"Less than an hour," Danny repeated hollowly "Then who's going to help me?"

"You don't need help," Madison pointed out, "Just get close to Sam, you're the one who has to protect her." Already she was looking transparent and not quite there. "Don't say anything, not yet," Danny opened his mouth but she glared at him and he shut it again. "We are heroes Danny Phantom, what we do is the future." With that she vanished like an extinguished candle, her screams still lingering in the air as he watched his future self grinning, free and ready to destroy him. The room filled with water and Danny felt like he was going to drown…

Danny sat straight up in bed, panting, for a moment he thought that sweat had drenched his sheets but then he realised Jazz was standing next to him holding an empty bucket. "You were screaming," she said, as if it was something he'd done wrong.

"It was nothing," Danny panted, pulling himself up and grabbing a towel "It was just a dream."

"A pretty serious dream if you're going to yell 'How can I help her?' like you were just then." Danny didn't say anything. "Was it a memory," Jazz tenderly wiped his forehead.

"Jazz, you're not my mother."

"Sorry, it's just; this is the third time this has happened." Danny glared at her.

"If I drown in my sleep so help me I will haunt you."

"Tell me about it."

"No."

"Please."

"Didn't I just say no?" Jazz walked out of the room and turned as if she had something to say but no one spoke. Danny stripped his bed and settled on the floor for the third night in a row."

Sam was dead, lying there, dead in front of him. He didn't know who had killed her, or why. Why? Maybe to spite him, he was obsessed with her, he knew that now. Was he the only one? Why couldn't he protect her? Hold her, be the comfort she needed. Dan was laughing, Dan, why was he haunting him, why was he…

Danny woke, realisation hitting him like an ecto-plasmic bolt, Dan Phantom.

Sam entered and looked around "Who were you talking to?" Madison didn't say anything, "There's someone here to see you…" A young woman pushed her way past, she was an alarming site, she was bruised and there were circles under her eyes. Blood was streaked with dirt all over her face and her clothes were ragged and so filthy you couldn't tell what colour they had been originally. Sam felt a strong sense of foreboding as the newcomer smiled hollowly.

"Hello Madison, "she said and shot her.

It was Sam's turn to wake, screaming, again. Her world was spinning out of control and whenever she tried to stabilise it Danny's face came into her mind, and she would lose it again. How could one guy have such an effect on her, a guy she'd seen barely three times. Sam had managed to hold the world at arms length for so long she had forgotten what compassion was. Compassion, pity, that made her think of Phantom, he had flipped her world up from the moment she'd met him.

A crash came from outside Valerie's house and Sam heard yelling, it sounded like the very ghost she had been so preoccupied with. She stood and followed the noise, there was something she wanted to say.

Phantom started as he saw Sam, she looked so vunerable, wrapping a black jacket around herself to keep out the cold. He sucked the Box Ghost into the thermos and stood at a careful distance. "Can I talk to you?" She asked quietly, looking at her feet.

"Yes," he drifted a bit closer.

"Do you remember when we first met, at that store, I said I didn't need your pity."

"Yes," he drifted a bit closer. She looked like she was about to cry.

"I was wrong, so, so, wrong."

"Meaning," closer, almost close enough to touch.

"I need your pity; I need every thing you've got." Phantom tentatively reached out and touched her shoulder; he smiled for the first time in days.

"Good answer. Do you know the last thing Madison ever said to me, before she vanished from the Ghost Zone?" Sam shook her head and sniffled. "'We are heroes Danny Phantom, what we do is the future.'" He looked at her gently and repeated "What we do is the future."

Do you have any idea how tempting it is to end this right here? But I'm not going to, I still need to throw Sam off a cliff… I mean… kidding, actually, although it is a good idea, 'dashing rescuer'

I did quote Madison through Sam consciously there, you'll find out later why, also, I extended it a bit because of the flashback/dreams

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