Hellbreaker, yeah at least he notices things. Must have got that one from his mother, though Jack was the one to see the budding romance between him and Goth.

sammansonrepilica, it will get better.

Aim1107 & SoraCanada, thanks for adding to your alerts.

The next day when the pair of teens came home from school they were surprised to find the Fenton RV in front of the house because Maddie had thought it would take until late that evening to get Sam back. Running the pair burst into the house to find quiet. Before they could take a step his mother appeared from the lab, her clothing dirty from work, her goggles pulled down over her violet eyes.

"Hey, boys," she said, her voice calm and yet Danny knew off the bat that they were about to have a talk. "We need to talk about Sam." Jack appeared behind his wife, but he didn't say a word as the foursome walked to the living room and sat down.

"So," Tucker hinted moments later when the adults across from them failed to start talking. "How is she? What happened?" The red headed mother looked to her dark haired husband before looking at her son and his friend.

"Sam has a bit of a memory issue." It was there, this vague bit of information.

"What kind of issue?" Danny questioned as he leaned forward, that nagging in the back of his mind becoming stronger.

"Well, she thinks that we are her parents and that you are her brother." The teens' mouths fell open. "She seems to have taken a hit in the back of her head, not sure from where, but from the papers that were with her she came from Paris. The officials at Staten Island were told that she was brought over after claiming safety in a church. The priest there found her hiding in the confession booth with blood running down the back of her head and with some minor scratches on her hands."

"Shit," Tucker said as Danny leaned back, the same word echoing in his mind. Sam was back, but her idea of their relationships were all screwed up.

"Now, understand that she still remembers everyone, just not the right way and we can't force her to remember, she has to do it on her own, okay?" The teen males nodded just as the sound of door opening up the stairs echoed down to them. They all looked toward the entranceway as Sam, her outfit from earlier still on, came down. She looked to them with her big amethyst eyes and before any of them could react she was down the stairs and in Danny's arms.

"Hi," Danny managed to say as he pulled her back from him. She looked to him and smiling soft said hello back. She looked to Tucker, her eyes taking him in before hugging him. Pulling back she looked to them all, her gaze knowledgeable and yet they could tell she was still trying to figure stuff out. Maddie stood up, her teal eyes sad as she looked at the girl she had known since she had been a babe. Reaching out she pulled the Goth close and Sam let her as she sighed. Tucker looked to Danny, the males knowing that this was indeed Sam, but she was so different. Her attitude was more mellow and her demeanor was shy.

"She's so polite," the geek whispered. The halfa nodded in response. As soon as Maddie released Sam Danny reached out to grasp her hand and Sam grasped his tightly, but when you looked in her eyes at that moment she looked so confused and lost.

"You want to play a game?" She nodded slowly and without hesitation. "COme on." Tugging her toward the entranceway the trio headed up the stairs while the parents watched with hope. They knew how close the duo had been before she had been taken away and how the trio had bonded. Their hope lay with Danny and the budding affection between the two.

"What game are we going to play?" Sam inquired as the trio entered her room. Sitting her on the bed they watched as she looked around again, her eyes seeming to take in all the details.

"Twenty questions," Tucker muttered as he closed the door. The Goth looked to him, her eyes understanding and for some reason it bothered the geek since he was so used to the upfront female. "First one... what is your name?"

"Samantha."

"Age?" Tucker asked as Danny sat at the computer desk.

"Sixteen." Tucker looked thoughtful and Danny found himself thinking of the movie that he and Sam had watched as a child. Anastasia. She held some of her memories, but not enough to give any of them the full picture. "I don't understand what this is about," she stated as she looked to the halfa.

"Sam, do you find that you are different?" the raven haired male inquired to the shock of the two other teens in the room. Nodding she looked down at her hands. "How?" She proceeded to hold up her hands, the fingers so slender and long. Closing her eyes she imagined what she wanted, the thought making her hands go invisible. "Sam," he said as he reached for her invisible appendages. She opened her eyes and in those amethyst orbs he could see fear and yet there was comfort there, like she knew something but couldn't seem to grasp it.

"I am what the priest called me, right?" Danny threw her a quizzical look so she clarified. "Ghost child. That is what I am..." She faded off as her hands became visible. "It feels right, but nothing else does." Tucker and Danny moved close and when she looked at them they could see she was unsure. "I know I am Samantha, Sam by preference, but I feel that everything is in the wrong spot, like a piece is missing in a slot that would make it all," she paused, "not right, but understandable." Again she paused, but this time she sighed. "I feel that you are not my brother, I had enough time on the trip over here looking at your picture that I know that, but I feel like I have no parents... Like I lost them somehow or maybe... maybe they didn't want me."

"I'm not supposed to tell you what you were before whatever happened in Paris, but I can tell you that you are on the right track. I am not your brother and your parents are horrible people." He grasped her hands. "What do you remember, what happened before you went to the church?"

"Well, I remember waking up in a small room with a single window and hearing two guys talking, well, more like one was really angry and the other was rather apologetic." Danny asked her to elaborate and she did. "The first guy, the one that was upset was yelling at the other guy about being stupid. I listened as they talked about hitting someone, possibly killing them." She looked down at her hands. "I think they were talking about me, but I can't be sure because they said something about her being a meal ticket and I don't think that could be me unless they had a ransom out for me, but what could I be worth and why take me out of the states?"

"Well, those are questions that you will just have to figure out because you know I can't help you." Suddenly the Goth began to cry, her big tears so foreign the halfa who remembered very few times the Goth had actually cried. "Sam, it will be fine. You are already have an idea of what is going on so now you just need your memory just to heal. Give it time."

"I don't have that!" the raven haired girl whispered emotionally. "I need to find out who I am before they find me again!" Danny pulled her close, her shaking form making him angry because his friend had never been like this... girl... That was what she was and now she was acting like one, her former behavior gone, well missing. "I just want it to be like it was before." Just holding her, comforting felt... good...

Wait! This is Sam! She is my best friend not something...

Like a female? But she is. She is a female about to be a woman and being your best friend has nothing to do with that!

But it does! I can't put our friendship on the line just because of some rampant hormones. When his inner voice refused to answer Danny was sure he had made his point. Sam was his friend and just because she was a girl made no difference. Sam pushed away from him, her amethyst eyes landing on Tucker. The geek smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Tucker, I remember us talking about a date or something. Were we dating?"

"Well, we did go on a date, but as for dating... I am not sure if you wanted to or not." She nodded at his honesty. Sam had become more beautiful over the year she had been gone and had filled out in ways that were so obvious. "Would you like to go on a date again?" Danny blinked at what was happening before him as he turned to the other halfa, the female that nodded to the question. "Cool, um, we could go today if you want."

"That sounds like fun. How about the Nasty Burger?" It was happening so fast before the halfa and he found that he didn't like it, but then it came back to him that he was acting jealous and that was not how he wanted to come off to Sam. Taking a deep breath he tried calm himself, but in that same moment the other teens looked to him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am fine, just... a little overwhelmed is all," he stated to which Sam still looked like she didn't know whether to believe him or call him on the bull shit that had come out of his mouth. Tucker looked to him with a look that said just those words, bull shit. Still, he said nothing. All that was left was a little awkward moment between the three.

Present...

"I began to remember little things over the next six or so months and no one ever came to our door looking for me so I figured everything on that front was okay. It was just about Christmas when it all came back to me and when I think back on that day I can't believe I didn't put all of it together before that, but then again I was so busy dating Tucker and not wanting to make him upset that I never voiced my suspicions."

"Little did Danny know but I had crushed on him for a long time, my own conflict of our relationship keeping me quiet. If I had even realized that he liked me like that I would have said something, done something, but I didn't... I regret that one moment. The moment it all came back to me."

Past... (Christmas Eve)

Sam sat snuggled in Tucker's arms, the dark male enjoying Sam's warmth even though he knew by looking at the male halfa just feet from him that it was to be short lived. Tucker had known that Danny had a thing for Sam and even though he had protested that first time he had wanted to date the Goth. Danny had given him the go ahead so the geek had done that. He and Sam hadn't really done anything, sure there had been kisses and hugs, little things, but they had never moved toward the real part of the relationship and both knew it was time to kill what really had never been.

"Hey, um, Tuck," Sam whispered as she looked to her boyfriend.

"Yeah, I know. It was fun while it lasted." She smiled at him and leaning to lay a kiss on his cheek she grabbed her present, the one they were given on the eve of Christmas, and headed upstairs. Danny watched her go, his cerulean orbs following her progress up the stairs and when she was gone he looked to Tucker.

"Why didn't you go up there with her?" the halfa questioned. Tucker smiled.

"Because we are done," he stated nonchalantly. "We never really were to begin with." Danny's brow raised and as much as he wanted to cheer that the pair was broken up he still was unsure as to what had happened. The couple had been close, always talking and cuddling. They had kept the PDA to a min, in fact he had never seen much of that from the start. "Don't go analysing it, dude."

"I d-"

"I know that you like her and you want to be with her. Hell, I have seen it there for longer than the pair of you have and yet neither of you make a move, not that right now she doesn't have a legit reason, but you... You just refuse to step up." Before Danny could make a move to despute that a knock sounded on the door. The sound harsh and loud against the music from the radio. When no one moved the knocking came again, this time more forceful and then a voice that none of them had heard from in a while came through the door.

"Open the fucking door, Fenton!"