Ok, here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for. Enjoy :)

Chapter 10

Sarah quickly removed her rather thick glasses, rubbed her eyes, and then replaced them. Still, he was there.

"Uhhhh…." was all she could say.

'I had guessed, but never thought it could really be true. It CAN'T be true! How?'

he had tried to become invisible when Sarah did the glasses thing, but his body seemed to be thinking otherwise, as he his attempt to do so failed. After all, he had come here with a mission. No, this wasn't how he had planned to go about it, but he knew what had to be done.

"Sarah?" he rather squeaked out. Indeed, he was shocked too.

To his surprise, it was Sam who answered first.

"Wait? What is going on here? Grandma?"

But she still couldn't answer. Somehow she had just gone stiff.

'This is impossible! Danny—sort of—here? Now? And at THAT AGE?'

Before either of them could say anything more, Sarah fell backwards in her chair, completely passed out.

When Sarah came to, she found herself lying on Sam's bed, out of her chair, Danny's green eyes gazing down at her.

"Ah!"

"Grandma?! Are you okay?" It was Sam's voice that finally got Sarah out of her trance.

"Sam…? Is that you, honey? I must still be dreaming. You're here, and that's normal, but how can—?"

"Grandma, what is—"

Before she could finish, Danny cut her off.

"Sarah. You're not dreaming. It's me. Danny."

He had finally managed to let it all out. Everything that had been building up since he realized the relationship had all come down to this moment.

"Danny? But… how?"

She had finally sat up, which meant that Danny was now sitting across from her, still looking straight into her eyes. Next to her, Sam was seated on the edge of the bed, utter confusion on her face.

'I wish he'd stop that. It's really intimidating. Those aren't even the eyes I remember.'

"It's a very long story, believe me." Now that she knew it was him, he let out a small smile.

'I knew she'd never truly forget. I didn't.'

"I do, I think," Sarah replied firmly.

"Wait! Hold on. What is going on here?" Sam had finally absorbed their conversation enough to get the idea that somewhere along the line, someone had forgotten to mention something to her.

"Sam, I wanted to tell you. And I was actually going to before Sarah showed up today…" Danny began.

"Wait? Sarah? You know her name? You've never even met until today…"

"No, Sam. We've met before…" Danny continued, turning back to Sarah for support; sadly, she wasn't much help. Apparently this all still seemed suspicious to her too.

Things in Sam's mind began to click. The looks her Grandma had been giving her during those news stories. The similar tastes in music. The scattered reaction Danny had had when she told him her name.

"When? How? What?" were the only words that came out of Sam's mouth, and Danny knew he had to start at the beginning.

"We dated. Fifty years ago. When I was still alive," he said bluntly and without any enthusiasm.

"Well that didn't go very well."

Danny was now sitting on the edge of the bed, Sarah was in her chair. After learning the truth, Sam had gotten up and stormed out, not wanting to hear another word.

After a few short minutes of silence, Danny finally broke.

"Sarah, talk to me.

She turned to him and squinted. Finally she opened her mouth only to say, "I don't know. This can't be real."

"Believe me, I know. When I was first resurrected, I had no memory of anything except where I was from."

"Resurrected?" So then… you're alive?"

'I saw that coming. Hmmmm, what do I say? Yes, I am alive, but I'm really not. I'm a ghost. Sort of The ghosts people see in movies are nothing like what I am. I am more than that. Or part of me is, otherwise these memories wouldn't exist. Right? And then there's apparently a prophecy about me being of both realms?'

These were all very good questions Danny found himself asking, but had never found an answer to.

"No Sarah, I'm not alive. Not really. I'm a ghost." He sighed, admitting the reality of his existence.

"So you did die that night?" she asked.

"Yes."

"How?"

He'd been expecting that one too, but once again he was unsure how to answer. He remembered how he had died, the one thing all ghosts remember, but until recently he hadn't remembered the details. But all the rescues he'd been doing had finally allowed the memories to come back. However, saying it out loud would only make it real, and he wasn't sure he was ready for that.

But he had to be. For her sake.

"That night, the night before graduation."

"Yeah, I remember. You were at my place and my parents made you leave early, and you made fun of me and my curfew."

Sarah was old, but memories like this never left.

Danny stayed silent; he didn't remember the details the way she had.

"You never called."

"What?"

"You were supposed to call me later when you got home."

She really did remember those small details.

"Sorry, I didn't call, but I had a good reason. I stopped that night, to get you flowers. We were together, more than friends, but we had never really reached that level of a real couple and I was going away soon, and you were staying behind. I just wanted you to know before I left…"

To Danny's surprise, things were coming back very clearly now. When he first remembered that night, his death, and her, he only remembered bits and pieces. Now, however, he was remembering everything exactly as it happened. Funny how things worked out that way.

"Danny…"

"Shh, I'm on a roll; let me finish. I walked by a local shop on my way home, advertising discount flowers, and it made me realize how I felt."

'How did you feel?' But before she could say that out loud, he continued.

"I was at the register when the robber showed up. He demanded the money and the clerk refused. Any other robber would have pulled out a gun, but this guy had a bomb."

He heard a faint gasp come from Sarah.

"He threw it. And in no time flat the whole store was on fire. It was late enough that it was a pretty empty store, but still the shock and flames hit me and I passed out before I could even begin running. I never made it out and by the time the firemen came, it was too late. I was gone. "

Sarah sat and listened. Thinking back, she did remember reports on a fire of unknown causes at the grocery store, but the reporter said all victims were unidentifiable. Danny, her Danny, had been one of them. How had she, let alone his family, never put the pieces together?

They both just sat in silence for a few moments, absorbing what had just been said. Finally, it was Sarah who broke the silence this time.

"Why flowers? Why were you coming back to my place after we had seen each other so recently?"

"I realized something that night when I left. Knowing we wouldn't have a lot of time left to make things happen."

'Oh, I hope this isn't what I think it is! After all these years, I may finally know…'

At that moment, Sam had decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. Standing outside the door, she was about to knock when she heard it.

"Sarah, I was in love with you."

They sat in silence for a little while, unaware of the fact that Sam was outside.

'Love? Danny? MY Danny was in LOVE with my GRANDMA? So does that make all of this, our relationship, a lie?'

Sarah was the one to break the silence this time.

"Danny, that night, after you didn't call, I was really worried about you. And then you didn't show up at school. I was heartbroken. I have been ever since."

"I know. And I'm sorry. I knew that it could have waited. There would have been plenty of opportunities for what I had planned. "

"You had no way of knowing what would happen, though. It was unexpected."

"But still, I left you, defenseless, way too early."

If there was anything that Danny had begun to feel lately, it was remorse for leaving Sarah all those years ago.

"I moved on... I met another man, and had amazing children, and Samantha too!" Sarah perked up. If there was one good thing that had come from all this mess, it was Sam.

"You did, and I'm glad. I never would have wanted you unhappy."

This was becoming very weird for Danny. The warmth he had felt during his recent conversation with Sam was coming back as he told his story. And his story? Danny hadn't been able to remember this much since he came back, so why did he suddenly know what had happened, and how to feel about it? It was as if someone else was feeding the memories to him.

Sam, on the other hand, was still dead silent, simply from shock. She had known that Danny wasn't from her time — he was a ghost, after all — but she had never expected THIS.

"I still was, though. I did move on, and I still went to community college like I had decided, but I barely had the energy to care. After losing you, there wasn't any real reason to. I guess maybe I was in love too."

Her glasses had begun to fog up, which only meant tears. For the first time in a long time, she was crying. She had wished for this day, the chance to see Danny again, several times after his death, but had never expected it to happen. Now, though, after having moved on and raised a family, she wasn't sure she wanted it. Tom had always tried to help her forget the horrors of her past, and she had finally done so, only to have them return.

"Tom always tried his best to help me through this. Since the day we met, he knew I was troubled, and knew he'd have a lot of work on his hands, but he never complained. He was my rock when I had hit the bottom, and for awhile we prospered. But I never forgot you, Danny, never!"

"I wish I could say the same," Danny commented quietly.

"Hmm?"

"When Clockwork, the time ghost, resurrected me, I couldn't remember anything. I didn't even know my own name."

"Then how did you just remember all that?"

"I don't know. I mean, I was resurrected for the sole purpose of fixing Jack and Maddie's portal. They had everything right, but Clockwork knew it wouldn't work unless they sent a ghost through. So that's why I'm here. They wanted someone who knew the town, and there were no ghosts in the Ghost Zone who were qualified."

"So they found you?"

"Apparently, every human who dies is sent to a sort of ghost-graveyard. Their souls still exist, just not their bodies. It took some work, but Clockwork finally cracked the code to resurrection. Every other ghost until now has either been formed in the zone from loose ectoplasm, or appeared right after their death. But not me. You're looking at the first ghost to ever be brought back from the dead."

"And all so they'd have someone who knew the town be the one to fix the portal? That sounds like a lot of work."

"Well, from what I was told, it would be rather difficult to make it back, so they wanted someone who wouldn't cause trouble, in case there was no way of getting back to the ghost zone. You would not believe how devious most ghosts are. Obviously, once I was brought back, I had a lot to learn."

"If you didn't remember, how would it matter whether or not you came back? You wouldn't have remembered anyway."

Sarah was growing very confused, very fast.

"I was getting there. Clockwork, the Master of Time as he's called, was able to pull up memories from my life and show them all to me. Just the simple ones: mostly of my family, the town. How I died. Only really a few of you…"

Danny actually felt ashamed of that.

"All that work, to make a portal work?"

"I've been getting this feeling lately there was more to it."

"So if he had to show you your own memories, how did you remember all this stuff you just told me?"

The feeling that someone else was feeding him information hit again as he tried to find an answer to Sarah's questions.

'Does Clockwork know more than he let on? Is it possible that my human memories return the longer I'm here?'

Danny finally decided to settle on a rather pathetic answer.

"You know, I can't answer all your questions. I know you expect answers, but sometimes I just can't supply them, okay?"

He was beginning to get a bit annoyed. He had expected questions, but never really thought about how to answer them.

Sarah just looked away, a little put out, before finally saying, "Sorry, it's just been SO long and I just… hoped."

"It's ok. But you do realize that I'm a GHOST right? I'm here, but I'm also not. What we once had, that can never be. We both moved on…"

It was silent for awhile, both of them lost in their thoughts of each other and the past.

Finally, Sarah broke the silence. "Well, maybe we should see if Sam is ok." DDDDDDDD

At the sound of this, Sam quickly ran back down the stairs and out of the house.

'Danny and my grandma. Fifty years ago. Ghost zone, Clockwork. Memories. Love.'

It was the last thought that got to Sam the most. Love. They had loved each other once, something she thought she had found. But now, after all she heard, Sam began to wonder if it was all just false emotions.

"It's about time you found her."

Staring at his domed screen, staff in hand, the ghost smirked.

"I should have told you about all the memories I stole, but I didn't want you rushing into things. I've been trying to save them for the perfect moment, but you've made it so hard with the girl."

He quickly became older before adding, "The girl. What to do about the girl? She's becoming a nuisance, but ever so essential to the prophecy."

Turning to float away, he took one last peek at the ghost child and elderly woman sitting on the bed.

"I guess time will tell"

A/N - What could Clockwork be up to? *Evil grin*

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Things are about to get more intense.

~Lisa