"What are you doing here?" The first words that left Twelve's lips when he regained consciousness were laced with bitter hatred and traces of pain. His world was spinning and even though the cool cloth Sam placed on his forehead helped to keep him grounded, he still wanted them to leave and let him float away.

"We're here to help you," Tucker's soft voice said as Danny and Sam exchanged glances. So far, their bespectacled friend was the only one who would speak to him. Danny seemed pissed at being here, and Sam was concerned, but trying to keep the peace between Danny and their three-person group. "You're not exactly looking like a piece of sunshine, dude."

"I don't want to look like a piece of sunshine, Tucker." Twelve grumbled, forcing himself to sit up and swallowing back the subsequent bile that rushed into his mouth. "I just want to die."

The three other people turned to look at him, Danny's eyes narrowed while Sam and Tucker exchanged a concerned glance. "You want to…. Die?" Sam asked quietly, stepping forward and reaching for the cloth on Twelve's forehead. Twelve batted her hand away with a glare, in no mood to be coddled. Sam recoiled with a slightly hurt look on her face. He felt a pang of girl, because she was, after all, just trying to help him. He quickly pushed the feeling away. He had no time for remorse.

"Yeah, I want to die," Twelve repeated himself, looking around for his bottle of pills. "So I'd greatly appreciate it if you three just went on your way. What happens to me is of no concern of yours."

"Maybe not," Danny spoke up for the first time, pushing himself off of this position on the wall and stalking over to the bed, staring his clone down with obvious anger, "but a kind lady named Mrs. Goom was nice enough to tell us your daily route, and she seemed quite concerned for you. I know you've not been here long, but she seemed quite fond of you." Sam put a hand on Danny's shoulder when his voice didn't drop its icy chill, sending him a warning glance.

"Twelve," Sam said, pushing Danny back slightly so he wouldn't do something he'd regret, "we're trying to help you." She seemed concerned for real and Twelve kept his glare on the wall, trying not to fall for her act.

"You don't want to help me. I'm a clone. I'm not even the real deal, he is." Twelve waved his hand at Danny, "if anything, you'd want me to disappear because I'm something he hates, some abnormality that Vlad cooked up to fulfill some sort of sick desire to have you as a son."

Danny brought his hand to his face, rubbing his eyes with exasperation. "Yes," he growled, and when he opened his eyes to look at Twelve again, they were glowing their ghostly green, "I do hate clones, but that doesn't mean I want you to die or disappear or anything of the sort." He snorted, his eyes dimming back to blue. "I have a clone I tolerate, but I don't know where she is right now."

"That's something I never got," Tucker interjected, his brow furrowed in thought. "How is Dani your clone, and yet female?"

"Tucker," Sam growled a warning, shooting him a look and Twelve almost smiled at the look on the man's face.

However, it did get Danny smiling, diffusing some of the tension that had built up in the room. "Look, Twelve. I'm sorry for how I acted when you first flew into my room, but you caught me off guard." Danny grabbed a chair, spinning it around so he could sit backwards on it, crossing his arms over the backrest and leaning his chin on his arms, significantly lessening his threatening stance.

Twelve relaxed a little when Danny sat down, though he was still on high alert. "And when I'm caught off guard, I react rather….violently." Danny said almost sheepishly. "So…yeah, I'm sorry."

Twelve stared at him before shaking his head. "Whatever." He pulled the sheets off of himself, standing up, swaying a little as his head spun. "I'm still not leaving here." He didn't quite understand what the trio wanted from him. He wasn't going to be leaving his hotel room, or his new town. He liked his little routine and it kept food in his belly and a roof over his head. He studied Danny's facial changes, knowing that Danny didn't like the idea of him staying here.

"Why not?" Sam asked carefully, sitting on the bed next to Tucker. "We don't necessarily want to bring you to Vlad's, but you should be in a more secure location than this." She looked around the place, wrinkling her nose.

"It's dry, it's warm, and I have a bed. What more can I want?" Twelve asked, starting to nonchalantly open the few drawers in his room, looking for his pills.

"Well, for one, we'd get you off of your addiction." Danny said with a glare. The gaze was returned full force by Twelve, who snorted and slammed the drawer he was looking through closed. "We'd also get you into a clean town; maybe find a job for you. We could even stabilize you."

At this, Twelve looked over at his ectoplasm soaked bed and felt the tingling of his powers, knowing they wouldn't be stable for long. He heaved a sigh before turning a suspicious look at Danny. "How would you stabilize me?"

Danny pulled out a needle, presenting the goopy green liquid and turning it around in his grip. "We'd do it with this. Dani and I figured out the stabilizing formula after she almost died." He looked at the needle for a moment before looking back at Twelve.

"But you really need to prove to me that you're going to change, Twelve. No more drugs and you'd better straighten up and fly straight."

Twelve snorted, shrugging on his coat. "I have rounds to make." He grumbled, glaring at the needle in Danny's hand. He didn't need it, he could figure out his stability problems on his own.

Danny, Sam and Tucker watched as Twelve left the room. They didn't feel it necessary to follow him, as he wouldn't be willing to listen to anything they had to say at this point.

"I don't like this," Sam voiced, biting on the inside of her cheek as she glanced worriedly at the door. "I mean, I know he's a clone and all…"

Tucker took off his glasses, cleaning the lenses with a frown on his face as he contemplated it, "Just because he's a clone doesn't mean we can just leave him for dead you know."

"I know that!" Sam snapped, giving her friend a deadly glare, "That wasn't what I was referring to, at all." She muttered, glaring out the window.

"Look, guys, we just want to get him back on his feet right? I mean, he barely even looks like me anymore anyway."

"I know, he looks kind of hot," Sam blushed, appreciating the slightly "darker" look Twelve had adopted. Danny quickly covered his hurt look and regained his composure.

"Yes, well… hot or not, I just want to get his damn melting problem off my conscious." Danny muttered, putting the capped needle back in his pocket. "And then we can just forget about this stupid fiasco, and go back to normal ghost hunting. Really, do you guys know how much of a headache I'm going to have when the clone I left to hold down the fort merges with me again?"

Tucker shook his head, "We know, Danny, it's the same thing that happens each time you send one to class while you skip. You can stop complaining, we get it."

Danny pouted and Sam sighed, "This isn't getting us any closer to helping Twelve, guys."

Danny paused, thinking about this. "If he's named Twelve, are there eleven more?" He frowned, wondering.

"Probably not," Tucker mused, "Normally it takes Vlad a while to get a semi-stable clone, so the others have probably just melted away and fused into Twelve to get him to where he is."

Sam shuddered, not wanting to think about this as she kicked her feet, still sitting on the bed. "There's nothing much we can do today, guys, he's just going to avoid and ignore us if we try to get close again. I doubt he's ever going to turn himself around, he's too deeply into this rut."

"That's fine," Danny said with a grin, his eyes flashing green. "I'll be able to get close, give him the shot, and get out. He might not even notice me, if my luck's any good."

"So why didn't you just do that originally?" Tucker asked, wrinkling his nose, "And why drag us along? I'm missing the release of the new Nasty Burger for you, dude."

Danny chuckled at Tucker's priorities, leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed, a small half-smile on his face, "Well, you two were the ones who begged me to find him and help him, and you're the one that pinpointed his location somehow," Danny said looking at Tucker, "and begged me to let you tag along because you were bored at home." Danny turned his eyes to Sam with a smirk, "And you," he added, "Wanted to come along because you didn't want to miss any action, and your parents were bugging you about that awesome new rich boy who moved in next door."

Sam blushed and Danny laughed, he enjoyed flustering his friends, it made the days easier to get through.

"Now, let's go find somewhere to eat, and we'll get back to Twelve tomorrow morning."

A/N:

This chapter is kind of just filler as I tried to think of where I'm bringing this story...

I think I have an idea, now, of what's going to happen next and how it's going to end.