The next evening Danny and Mr Lancer were dressed in black tuxedos at the theatre waiting for the girls to arrive. Mr Lancer kept pacing back and forth nervously about tonight.

"We don't have anything to be nervous about" Danny said. "She's the princess"

"I know" Mr Lancer said. Danny shook his head and said, "No, no you don't know"

Danny then walked back and forth and then decided to tell him the truth, "I was the boy. The boy who worked in the palace and opened the wall. She's the real thing Lancer"

Mr Lancer stared at him in shock and wide eyes. He then smiled warmly and said, "That means our Sam has found her family"

"We have found the heir to the Russian throne" Mr Lancer said. His smile then dropped when he saw Danny looking down. Mr Lancer knew about his feelings for Sam had grown. "And you…"

"Will walk out of her life forever" Danny cut in. "Besides princesses' don't marry kitchen boys. Look we're going to go through with this as if nothing has changed"

Mr Lancer looked at him seriously and said, "You've got to tell her"

"Tell me what?" Sam asked. Both the boys turned to see her hair was down but there was no pony tail at the top. She had a silver necklace on along with silver earrings and she was wearing a dark blue coat.

Danny stuttered for a second and then said, "How beautiful you look"

"Thank you" She said with a smile and a blush.

He then offered his arm and she accepted and they both walked into the theatre together, Mr Lancer then walked in with Kaiya. After Sam had given her coat to the staff, she walked to the top of the stairs and waited for Danny. Danny just gave them his coat and hat and then looked at Sam, his eyes widened at her beauty. She was wearing a black dress with a sparkling veil flowing from her back and on her arms were black arm length gloves.

Danny shook his head and then went up to the top of the stairs and escorted Sam to their seats in the theatre room. They were in one of the balcony stalls, Mr Lancer sat behind them. As the intro music began to play, Danny pulled out small viewing binoculars and then saw Ida sitting with Kaiya on the other side.

"Look there she is" Danny said quietly as he handed her the binoculars.

Sam looked through them and saw her sitting there wearing a crimson red Russian gown and silver crown on her head.

"Please let her remember me" She whispered.

The lights dimmed and then the ballet began. As the hours went by Sam got nervous more and more and in her nervousness she ripped up her play bill in her lap. Danny then noticed and gently took hold of her hand and whispered, "It's okay. Everything's gonna be fine"

She smiled at him but it still didn't calm her nerves. The ballet then ended and Danny then said, "Come on. I guess it's time"

They both then started heading for Ida's private theatre room. Danny then turned at Sam and said, "Okay wait here Sam and I'll announce you properly"

He was about to go in when Sam stopped him and said, "Danny wait"

He turned back and asked, "Yes?"

"Look we've been through a lot together" She began. Danny smiled started thinking she was gonna say what he hopes she'll say. "And I just wanted to…"

She paused for a second and then said, "Thank you I guess…yes thank you for everything"

Danny was a little disappointed but okay. Sam mentally slapped herself for not confessing her feelings. Danny was about to go in the room when he stopped again, "Sam I…"

"Yes?" Sam asked thinking he was gonna say what she couldn't.

"I…I'm….uh…I wanted to wish you good luck I guess" Danny stuttered and then settled on that. He then shook her hand said, "Good luck"

"Thank you" Sam said though disappointed.

He then opened the door and entered the room, Sam then noticed he didn't close the door properly and decided to listen in.

"Please inform her Majesty the Dowager Empress that I have found her granddaughter the Grand Duchess Samantha" Danny said to Kaiya. Ida heard him and frowned at the sound of that.

Before Kaiya could say anything Ida said as she remained seated in her seat, "You may tell that impertinent young man that I have seen enough Grand Duchess Samantha's to last me a lifetime. Now if you'll excuse me I wish to live out the remainder of my lonely life in peace"

Kaiya closed the curtains and started heading to the door, but Danny just walked in and said, "Your Majesty I intend you no harm. My name is Danny Fenton, I used to work at palace"

Ida scoffed and stood up, "Well that's one I haven't heard I must say"

She then walked into the room but Danny wasn't going to give up. He tried again, "Wait please if you just hear me out…"

"I know what you're after. I've seen it before" Ida said as she pulled a leaver calling for someone. "Men who train young women in the royal ways"

Sam continued to listen in as Danny then pleaded, "But if you're Highness would just listen…"

"Haven't you been listening?" Ida cut him off getting annoyed. "I've had enough! I don't care how much you fashioned this girl to look like her, sound like her or act like her because in the end it never is her"

"But this time it is her" Danny said.

"Danny Fenton? I have heard of you. You're that con man from St Petersburg who was holding auditions to find a Samantha look-a-like"

Sam gasped quietly and covered her mouth in shock. Just hearing that made her believe that everything Danny and Mr Lancer had been telling her was a lie! She was all just part of Danny's con to get the reward money. She then heard Ida shout, "Just how much pain will you inflict on an old man for her money?"

Two men then came in and Ida ordered them, "Please remove this young man at once"

Both the men then started dragging him out of the room. He then shouted, "But she is Samantha!"

The two men then chucked him out and slammed the door in his face. Then Danny turned around and was now facing a really angry Sam.

"That was all a lie wasn't it?" Sam asked her anger growing. "I was just part of your con to get her money?!"

She started walking away. Danny then tried talking to her as he followed her, "Look it may have started out that way but everything is different now, because you really are Samantha…"

"STOP IT! From the very beginning you lied!" Sam said as she pushed him away a bit. "And I not only believed you, I actually…ARGH!"

She then turned back around, but Danny tried once more, "Sam wait! When you spoke of the wall opening and the little boy that was…"

"NO! Just stop it Danny! I don't wanna hear anything I may have said or remembered so you just leave me alone!" Sam demanded.

Danny grabbed her arm to stop her, but she slapped him right in the face and walked off. A few minutes later, Danny stood outside the theatre mentally slapping himself for screwing everything up so badly. He then turned and saw Ida walking out of the theatre and heading towards a car, he then decided to fix things and there was only one way he was gonna do that.

He turned invisible and then waited on the other side of the car where the driver's side was. He then waited until Ida was in the car and then he dropped the invisibility and sat in the driver's seat. He then started the car and started driving at high speed down the road.

"Hobson slow down please" Ida asked trying to not to wobble around.

Danny then showed his face and said, "I'm not Hobson and I won't slow down. Not until you listen"

"How dare you! Stop this car immediately! Stop this car!" Ida demanded but Danny didn't stop and continued driving down the road.

He continued to drive and ignore Ida's demands and then finally reached Kaiya's house where they were staying. Danny stopped the car and then got out, he walked around and opened the passenger and said, "You have to talk to her! Just look at her please!"

"I won't be badgered by you a moment longer" Ida said firmly and kept her head held high.

Danny then pulled the music box out of his pocket and showed it to her, "Do you recognise this?"

Ida's eyes widened at the sight of the music box. She gently took it out of his hands and then asked him completely shocked, "Where did you get this?"

"I know you've been hurt by all those who tried to trick and con you, but it's just possible that she's been lost and alone as you" He said gently.

She furrowed her eyebrows at him and asked, "You'll stop at nothing will you?"

Danny smirked and said, "I'm probably as stubborn as you are"

Inside Sam was packing her suitcase, planning on leaving back for Russia in the morning. She then heard a knock on the door and demanded, "Go away Danny!"

The door opened, Sam sighed and turned around and was about to yell at Danny but then stopped and calmed down when she saw it was Ida Manson.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I-I thought you were…" Sam began to apologise when Ida cut her off, "I know very well who you thought I was"

She then walked up closer to her and asked, "Who exactly are you?"

"I was hoping you could tell me" Sam answered.

"My dear I'm old and I'm tired of being conned and tricked" Ida said.

"I don't want to trick you" Sam said.

Ida then tried asking, "And I suppose the money doesn't interest you either?"

She then turned her back and looked out the window. Sam then said, "I just want to know who I am. Whether or not I belong to a family. Your family"

Ida then turned back around and faced her again. She then said, "You're a very good actress. Best yet in fact but, I had enough"

She then began to walk out of the room, but then Sam smelled a scent coming from her and asked, "Peppermint?"

"It's an oil for my hands" Ida pointed out.

Sam then started remembering something and said, "Yes. I spilled a bottle, the carpet was soaked and it forever smelled of peppermint"

That caused Ida to stop. Ida had remembered Samantha once doing that and none of the other girls that she had seen remembered that, she then sat down on the chair in front of the mirror as Sam giggled and then continued, "Like you. I used to lie there on that rug and I really missed you when you went away to Paris"

She rubbed her head and then Ida gestured for her to come and sit down next to her. Sam sat down and then Ida saw a familiar necklace hanging around her neck. She then asked gesturing at it, "What is that?"

"This?" Sam asked as she held the pendant part in her hand. "I've always had it since before I can remember"

"May I look at it?" Ida asked. Sam nodded and removed it from around her neck and handed it to her.

Ida looked at it and realised it was the exact same necklace she had given to Samantha when she was ten years old. She held her hand on her heart and said, "This was our secret. My Samantha's and mine"

Ida then pulled out the music box from her small handbag and held it out to Sam. Sam then gasped as she remembered, "The music box to sing to…to sleep when you were in Paris"

She held the music box and then grabbed the necklace, she then started humming a familiar tune as she placed the key into the slot and turned it three times. The music box then started playing and Sam began singing a song that she always knew off by heart as more and more memories came flooding back.

SAM

Hear this song and remember

Ida was smiled gently and was on the verge of tears as she started singing. There was only person she ever sung that to.

IDA AND SAM

Soon you'll be home with me

Once upon a December

The music box stopped playing and they both were on the verge of tears. Ida couldn't stop smiling as she exclaimed in joy, "Oh Samantha. My Samantha"

They both then pulled each other into a hug and stayed like that, they had been after all these years finally been reunited at last. Ida had felt like her heart had been made whole again now she was hugging her real granddaughter. Outside Danny nodded knowing he had finally done the right thing and then walked away from the house.

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