A/N: Hey guys! So sorry this chapter took sooooo long to put up...I've been working on it ever slowly and here it is! It's a lot longer than the other chapters, but clearly still not long enough to make up for the extremely long wait :(

However, I hope you all understand. Classes started and I'm going to be working slowly. I'll try to make the chapters longer though to make up for it :)

Thanks guys!

High Tension: Who Am I Really?

Chapter 20

Empathy

It took Sam and Tucker almost half an hour to walk all the way to Danny's house. The ghost-kid didn't live very far, but scuttling wasn't entirely the most efficient way to travel. Half-way Tucker regained enough composure to be able to walk on his own, but the pain in his face (and the swelling) seemed to grow worse. He wouldn't be surprised if the Fentons decided to quarantine him along with Danny when they finally got there.

"Can you climb the steps?" Sam murmured as they reached the overly tall house due to the OP center sitting on the roof. Tucker nodded. Walking was hard enough, but lifting his feet up a few inches couldn't be much harder. At least, he hoped not. Still, he reached out for Sam's shoulder just in case.

Sam reached for the doorbell and hesitated. This was it. Some time within the next few minutes, her fate would be decided. Either Danny would shoo her away and pretend she never existed - or worse, pretend she was dead to him - or let her in and forgive her. No, simply letting her in would be enough. Maybe they could never be friends again, but it would be enough to just not be shunned. If she became the ghost, that would be much worse…

Tucker watched her linger. She had done well up until this point. She hadn't wavered and never once pause to wonder again if things would turn out well. He had tried to lift her spirits by telling her that there's a very good chance Danny would forgive her - he loved her, after all, though of course only he and the rest of the school knew it - but what if he was wrong? Sure, Tucker had been rejected and punched by plenty of girls, but he'd never actually had his heart broken. Whatever happened between Danny and Sam must have gotten pretty close to that, from what little he could get out of her. Betrayal, she had said, but that was all. Just the word alone, muttered with the utmost self-disgust, portrayed every emotion from that moment in time he was still in the dark about. If Danny didn't forgive her…

He didn't even want to think about.

Then Sam took a deep breath, eyes closed, and let it out. She opened her eyes again, an indescribable fury held within the amethyst orbs, and Moved her hand forward to ring the door bell.

To their surprise, however, the door opened before she had a chance to push the button. Tucker almost fell backwards as Sam jumped, shaking his hand off the shoulder he was using for support. Sam turned just in time to catch him though, saving him from another bout of pain. "Whoa!" she murmured, and sighed once Tucker regained his balance. Well, not sure how to feel about this…summed up all my courage, and the door opens on its own. What?

"You guys got here!" said a voice. Sam and Tucker turned to look at Jazz, then blinked. She hair was up in a ponytail with locks falling out. Near her hair line, sweat wet the roots of her ginger hair. Her cheeks were red and the under arms of her black spaghetti strap shirt were wet too. Yet, she let off an unmistakably sweet scent, evident upon embracing the two teens on her doorstep. "I'm so glad!" She released them, a smile on her face as she tugged subconsciously at the face mask around her neck. But her eyes looked weary. In just half an hour, it seemed she had aged. Then again, she had looked pretty bad before too.

"Why are you…?" Sam started, then Jazz's jaw dropped.

"Oh my gosh! Sorry, do I smell bad?" All of a sudden she seemed completely disgusted with herself. Sam and Tucker shook their heads. She sighed. "Danny's disease has a weird side-effect. His temperature was at all time high this morning, but now it's at an all time low…Mom and dad turned up the heat in the basement to try to get him warmed up. I was just about to go outside to get some fresh air. It gets pretty humid down there, so they moved all their stuff to kitchen and can't keep an eye on him. Right now we switched shifts so I could take a break."

Sam and Tucker listened to her explanation. Weird. Well, not really. Danny had ice powers, so it would kind of make sense why his body was chilling down - it had happened before when he was just discovering those powers - but the only reason he had been so cold then was because he couldn't figure out how to release the icy energy from his body. What was this illness doing to him, really? She contemplated this in silence as Jazz continued to take in the cool breeze. Then she sighed. "Mom and dad said not to let anyone else down there, but…do you guys want to see him?"

Sam almost visibly flinched. She had been completely ready to do this before she rang the doorbell, but somehow the pause in the middle between having the door opened and now actually going down to see him was once again nerve-racking. Could she really do it? "Yes."

Jazz nodded and moved aside so they could walk past her. "I'll let mom and dad know you're here and then get the suits from the OP center. For now, you can sit down and enjoy the temperature…" Sam managed a smile and Tucker chuckled a little. A minute or two later, Jazz came back, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton in suit. "Hey, kids," Mrs. Fenton said, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow. Apparently the kitchen had received a bit of a temperature boost as well. Jack said nothing, only grinned a little and waved. Both, though, looked immensely tired, just like Jazz. This was not only taking a toll on Danny, it was definitely taking a toll on them too. Mrs. Fenton even looked like she had been crying.

Jazz murmured that she'd be right back, and Sam stood up from the couch she and Tucker had sat down on to greet the Fentons. Tucker, though, found himself without enough energy to even attempt to stand. "Hi," Sam said quietly. "How's…Danny?" She was almost afraid to ask, not wanting to spark any kind of emotional reaction. Maddie and Jack shared a glance, and then looked away.

"Danny is…well, he'll pull through," Maddie said, trying to smile. "He's a strong boy!" said Jack, but even his smile was short-lived, him adding with a note of - what was it? tired hope? desperation? pride…? -, "He's fighting…"

There was an awkward moment of silence and then Maddie turned to look at Tucker. Something changed about her face just then, then she ran to Tucker's side and muttered, "Oh my goodness, what happened to you!"

Tucker tried to laugh, but it came out a little choked. What was that? Sam wondered. It looked…very familiar. "He got…in a fight," Sam said. She didn't want to let on the fact that he was protecting her from Dash. She didn't even want to think about it, actually. Tucker got hurt because she was being weak, how wonderful. Just what she needed…

"And you walked all the way here!" Maddie gasped, she shook her head, assessing the damage. "Jack, can you get me the first aid kit from the lab?"

Jack nodded, then started for the lab, slowly. Maddie took note and sighed. "Actually, Sam, could you be a dear? It's okay, Jack…" Unlike her, Jack hadn't been taking to the whole situation very well. It was if his whole heart had suddenly crumbled and now the only energy he had left was either used up breathing and lugging his big body around or performing experiment after failing experiment on samples of Danny's blood. He just didn't have Maddie's will, stubborn as he may be when it comes to hunting ghosts. Well, this is what Sam could figure, anyway. She knew the Fentons well, but she wondering if maybe there was another reason why Jack felt so down. As reasonable as her hypothesis was, she simply couldn't fathom how this man's great, boisterous attitude could be taken down completely in a matter of a few hours. She nodded.

"Thank you, dear, it's in the farthest cabinet to the right, the only one that's…clean, I guess. You can miss it."

Sam nodded again, then made her way to the door in the kitchen. She knew why it was closed. The heat from inside, seeping through the cracks around the door, made itself evident as soon as she stepped into the kitchen. She sighed. She could hear Maddie mumbling something as she checked out Tucker's wound; she could even hear tiny replies of pain coming from her friend.

Her hand reached for the warm door knob, then paused for a second. On the kitchen table were test tubes, gloves, jackets, face masks, microscopes, and various little pieces of equipment like pipets, syringes, and glass rods and beakers. No doubt the liquids inside those beakers were various mixes of chemicals, mixed and mismatched in hopes of creating some sort of cure. Sam could even swear that a couple of them were glowing, no doubt due to any form of ectoplasm held within the solution.

She turned back to the door. Maddie had sent her to get the first-aid kit, that's all. She just needed to go in and out. Danny might even be asleep, so what did she have to worry about? It almost hadn't donned on her before that the only reason she was here was because Tucker had talked her out of her rut back at Casper High. Otherwise, she'd probably be in her room, forever wondering what her and Danny's friendship would end up as by the end of this whole ordeal. But now, here was the moment of truth. If Danny was awake, then she'd find out exactly how he felt right now. As much as she wished Tucker could be by her side, she also couldn't help but feel that it would be better if she and Danny were alone. That way neither would have to hide anything from each other; they wouldn't be afraid to say out loud everything that was on their minds.

She took a deep breath and put her hand around the door knob. This is it.

With one twist, the door opened. Immediately, a gush of warm air pushed her hair backwards and mad her skin feel tingly. The Lab looked just as it always had, except for a couple of new machines that looked a lot like a heart monitor and IV as well as a hospital bed with a body on it, a bunch of blankets covering the shivering, curled up form, a vain attempt to warm him up. She gulped.

Danny seemed to be asleep, but she wasn't sure. He had his back turned to her. From what she could tell, he was simply shivering, not moving in any other way, or even speaking.

She stood there for a little bit, waiting to see if he gave off any other reaction to hearing someone come into the room. When nothing happened, she almost let out a sigh of relief. Yes, at least now she wouldn't have to deal with her supposed "moment of truth," but she was just leaving it for later, which isn't too much better. Shaking her head, she looked back up and around the lab, searching for the cabinet that held the first-aid kit. She almost giggled when she realized what Maddie had meant by "clean." The lab itself had about four cabinets, two on each side of the portal. The "cleanest" one referred to the only one that didn't have some form of ghostly glow on it, the glow produced by none other than glow-in-the-dark stickers of various ghosts of different shapes and sizes, alight in the slightly darkened section of the lab; the lab itself was only dimly lit, probably so that Danny could try to sleep. Unfortunately, said ghost stickers had streaks of black and brown from the damaged metal of the cabinets. Apparently someone had decided to use them as targets. Sam figured Maddie must have drawn the line at the cabinet with medical supplies in it.

She started her way across the room to said cabinet, careful not to make too much noise. Once there, she looked back at Danny. She stilled couldn't see his face too clearly, she realized, wiping a bit of sweat from her forehead. He had pulled the blanket high up so that it covered almost half of his face. The half she could see, mainly his eyes and nose, made for a distorted image. He was clearly in some sort of pain, his brows furrowed downward in the middle and his eyes visible shut tight. She could even hear him grinding his teeth every once in awhile, the sound more apparent now that she was on this side of the room. She sighed, turning back to the cabinet, and opened the door. As she moved some of the stuff inside around - towels, tape, bottles of water, and other emergency items - she wondered if there was anything she could do to make Danny feel better. She was no scientist or doctor and really didn't know what was even wrong with him, but if only there was something she could do for him, she'd do it, for sure. Finally, her hand came in contact with the white first-aid box with a red cross on it. She grabbed the small handle and pulled it out, opening it to make sure it had everything Maddie would need as she walked back towards the stairs.

"Gauze, peroxide, tape…" she murmured as she went.

"Sam."

"Hm?" she mumbled, still walking and wiping more sweat from her brow, then she froze. From behind her - she was only a few feet from the stairs that led up to the kitchen - she heard the slight rustle of sheets and fabric and the creaking of the cot as the once curled up, shivering form sat up.

"What are you doing here?" His voice was soft, barely audibly, and made her skin crawl the way it sounded raspy and dry. If one were to take a guess about his condition just by hearing his voice, though, it'd be impossible to tell that he was sick. The only piece of information she could gather from his otherwise clear, dry voice was that he was either in dire need of water, or was very upset in some way. Upon turning and gazing at his downcast face, she ruled out the former. Not a single bead of sweat lined his brow. It was as if they were in a room that was a mere 70 degrees, not 110, from what the thermostat where the doorway said when she came in.

Sam wanted to speak, to say something, explain, apologize, anything, but the words wouldn't come, only her lips parted stupidly.

Danny wasn't even looking at her. He was sitting up on the cot, slightly hunched over, hands neatly folded on his blanketed lap, hair hanging over his pale face, hiding his eyes. He didn't move, didn't even look like he was fully awake; Sam wondered vaguely if maybe he was sleep talking. But then, how would he know it was her there?

"Well?" he growled suddenly, startling her. She hadn't realized that her hands had been trembling. The sudden jolt from the sound of his voice made her drop the box in her hand, the tiny items inside scattering as it hit the floor and simultaneously opened.

"Sorry, I was just…" she started, a knot in her throat. Goddammit, Sam! Pull yourself together! Her breathing started to speed as quickly as her thoughts spun; her knees nearly buckled beneath her and she felt like she was about to throw up. "I was just…Tucker and I came…Jazz told us you were sick, I…"

She took a deep breath. She had come this far, but she was screwing everything up! God, why can't you get anything right? she chastised. Her hands clenched into fists at her side and her shoulders pulled up as she tried her hardest not to cry.

"If all you came here to do was mumble, then just go home, Sam, just go home to…to him," Danny whispered. It hurt to say it, just as much as it hurt the night before, but this was it. This was her last chance to ask him for help, her last chance to prove to him that this wasn't what she really wanted…

Silence.

A minute or two went by, all he could hear was quiet sniffling. He sighed silently. It was true. How could he have been so blind? He had seen the evidence with his own two eyes, and now he understood quite clearly that this was what she wanted. He had tried to pull her away, bring her with him, to safety, but she fought back, fought back in a way that could only mean that this was what she wanted. Last night he thought maybe it was just her being stubborn, but now, now he was sure he understood. He had endeavored to be even more stubborn than her, but now he understood that it was time to give up. The Sam that he knew was gone. Who would have known…

He was completely done worrying about her.

"Danny…" she finally pleaded, voice on the verge of breaking and tears brimming her eyes.

The ghost boy simply brought a hand up to his hair, brushed a few locks away and sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I just can't do this any more Sam. Juan's waiting for you, just go."

"But…"

"GO, Sam!"

She wanted to run to him, plead, beg for him to forgive her, to not let it end this way, to give her another chance, to tell him that she was doing this all to protect him. But before she could say another word, he laid back down on the cot, his back turned to her, and pulled the sheets over his head.

"I don't want to see you again…" he whispered. Sam started to sob, fighting with all her might to stop the tears in their tracks, wiping them furiously, to no avail.

"Sam, I brought the masks. Did you find the first-aid kit?" Came a voice from above the stairs, muffled by the door. It was Jazz.

"I'm sorry…" she murmured at least, sniffling. The door opened and light flooded her.

"Sam?" Jazz asked, concerned. Even from above the stairs, she could see the bandages and little bottles and swabs from inside the first-aid kit scattered around the floor before the Goth girl. Was she hurt? Before she could said another word, though, Sam ran past her and into the kitchen. Jazz looked after her, shocked. "Sam!" she called out again, louder this time. She heard her mom and dad try to ask Sam what happened, but their only answer was the sound of the front door opening and closing and Tucker trying to get up to go after her. Jazz heard the door open again a few minutes later. So, Maddie and Jack couldn't stop him.

"Danny…" Jazz murmured, turning back to her little brother; it didn't even look like he had budged since she went for a break earlier. Judging from the fact he didn't reply to her, she guessed he was just going to ignore her for now. Slowly, she began to pick up the items on the floor and the box they belonged in, placing them carefully so that everything would fit again. When she was done, she stood and started back up towards the door, glancing at Danny just one more time before she walked out. He curled up a little tighter, aware of the fact that she was getting further away.

If there's one thing that her mom and dad had somewhat figure out, it was the fact that the illness and heightened his "sixth sense," as they put it. For some reason, it made his perception of the energy floating around a whole lot more acute. To Jazz, who knew about his ghost powers, it basically meant that his ghost sense was currently extremely sensitive even to the energy in humans. Believe it or not, humans do have ectoplasmic energy too. That saying, that every day you die a little more? Well, it's true. Except, it's in the form of the amount of ectoplasmic energy you have flowing through you. The only odd thing, though, was that Danny was also aware of something else: emotions. Funny thing about ghosts, one of the reasons they don't constantly wage war on each other the way humans do is because they have a strong sense of empathy. In other words, they can actually feel what each other is feeling. For this same reason, though, they also don't like working together too often and live alone in their lairs, the floating doors in the Ghost Zone. These lairs block out the waves from the other ghosts and allow the resident to think calmly. Danny, unfortunately, doesn't live in a lair. So he has to deal with all of these emotions, especially the ones of despair that his family was feeling, especially mom and dad. And now, apparently, he had also felt Sam's.

Jazz sighed. Whatever just happened, Danny felt whatever Sam was feeling too. She turned back towards the door, opened it, and stepped out. Just as she was about to close it again, her hypothesis was confirmed by the soft sobbing from underneath the sheets down below.

-Moments before-

As soon as Tucker heard Jazz call out Sam's name and saw Sam run out of the kitchen, his heart sank. Danny must have woken up and seen her and, nonetheless, rejected her apology. There was simply no other way to put it. He had tried to build up her hope that things would once again return to the way they used to be and Danny would forgive her, and just like that, she was cast aside…

How could Danny do that? Tucker knew the guy was stubborn and pig-headed, but to Sam? Just what happened the night before? He hated being left out of the loop! Especially now that he realized maybe the damage was far greater than he thought previously. Whatever did happened, it had broken the ghost kid's spirit; big time. And not even Sam could repair it.

"Sam," he had tried to call, but the girl only glanced at him and kept going, tears streaming down her face. Maddie and Jack tried to call out to her too, but they were only answered by the front door opening and closing.

Wait… Tucker thought, something dawning on him. The only place she can go to after this is… His eyes widened as he thought this, a sudden rush of adrenaline coursing through his body, almost, if not more so, as much as when Jazz told them about Danny's condition, allowing him the energy he needed to get up from the couch and shuffle quickly to the door after her.

"Wait, Tucker, you're still hurt," Maddie murmured softly, watching the boy go, but knew she was helpless in the situation. Danny and Jazz may think that she was clueless, but she wasn't that much. Would any mother really not notice that there was something strange happening to her child? No, like any mother, different as their family may be from other "normal" families, she was a concerned parent before a ghost hunter, and she had definitely noticed the drama going on here. Something happened between Danny and Sam and now Tucker, the glue in the situation, had to take his role seriously. She knew her son; he wasn't perfect, but he'd never hurt his best friend, not purposely. There was a key element missing here, she just wasn't sure what it was or what was getting in the way of it, but she trusted the trio to figure it out. If they truly needed help, they knew where she was. Until then, though, there was another mystery still left to solve.

For one thing, why did said son, said darling boy, seem to contain such a high level of ectoplasm in his blood, so infused into his molecules, it was almost as if it was a part of him.

My baby, she thought quietly to herself, meeting the eyes of her husband, what have we done to you?

As soon as Tucker got outside, the first thing he did was try to call out to the girl almost all the way down the block already. He tried to make it down the steps of the porch as quickly as he could, but tripped and fell half-way. He had been keeping his eyes on the girl, focusing only on trying to shout as loud as he could - a failed effort - and had not been watching his step. His body fell with a relatively soft thud. Thankfully he had been at the bottom step so it didn't hurt as much as it would have otherwise. However, he could have done without the sharp pain shooting through his arm now from how awkwardly his elbow connected with the concrete.

But he tried desperately to keep going. "Sam!" he tried to shout out again, but it only came out as a croak. He pushed himself up onto his knees, using the rail on the side of the porch steps as a support, and was about to stand up, when the girl he'd been chasing after stopped walking.

She was all the way at the end of the unusually long block, right at the corner, there was no way she could have heard him. So then, why…?

His heart stopped.

The sobbing girl took a step backwards. She was looking down the other end of the block at something - or someone - that Tucker couldn't see. For a moment, even he was held I suspense. He had one knee on the ground still, one pulled up, and both hands were on the rail, his body in the middle of pulling him to his feet. Then, he saw him.

From behind the bushes of the house on the corner of the street came out a teenage boy, about their age. He had short brown hair, untreated an d laying in a neat disarray on his head, wore a t-shirt and jeans, nothing really out of the ordinary about him. But then why was Sam backing up away from him, as if she was frightened?

Tucker didn't need even two guesses. It completely dawned on him that that otherwise harmless looking boy must be Juan. The adrenaline pumped through his blood again and he started to heave himself up, managing to get on his feet and hugging his now injured arm close to his side. "Sam, don't," he murmured, then stopped again.

His Goth friend had been standing in front of the new boy, gaze slightly downcast, hugging her arms, shoulders trembling as she continued to sob. Then Juan did something inexplicable. With a swift movement of his arm, a motion so elegant Tucker could only stare in awe, he wrapped said arm around Sam's waist and pulled her body close to his. Her face was buried in his chest, her shoulders stilled trembled, he brought his face close to the side of her own and whispered something Tucker was too far away to hear, all he could was his lips moving. Then, he parted from Sam just a bit, gazed at her for a little while, a hand on her cheek as he wiped away her tears, and-

Tucker's eyes widened. Sam stood still for a second, her face turned away, then her balance caught up with her, and she stumbled a step before dropping to her knees on the ground, a hand on the cheek Juan had just be touching. The clap from the force of his palm connecting with Sam's face was loud enough for Tucker to hear it, it echoed in the driveways and spaces between buildings. He was surprised Sam hadn't tumbled as soon as he'd connected, frail as she was in these circumstances.

Tucker took a step forward, trying with all his might to get to Sam. Maybe he wasn't able to do anything when Dash hurt her, but maybe this time, he could at least show this guy that she wasn't alone. This was against Sam's plan; the whole reason she even told him about it was because she was sure that Juan would never find out. Now how would she be able to hide it? If Juan turned around and saw him, what would Sam do?

Gradually, Tucker slowed down his pace. If Juan saw him, it would only make things worse for Sam. It would only make her worry. Instead of continuing to stand there, he shuffled behind some bushes on the edge of Danny's neighbor's lawn and watched. He cursed beneath his breath at what he had just been reduced to. Danny!

He wished he could do something more, but he only watched now as Juan snarled something towards Sam, his face contorted with fury. Then, he reached a hand out for her to grab. Sam turned to look at him, as if unsure of what this meant. She took his hand, and he pulled her up. He said something to her, but she made no reaction. Tucker frowned. Juan seemed almost calm now, reserved, as if nothing had just happened, as if their relationship was not a strange or dangerous one.

The two teens turned to go now, their backs to Tucker. Juan put a protective arm around Sam's shoulders, and looked at her, turning his head just enough so that Tucker could make out his face. He looked analytical, his eyes downcast. Just as they started to walk, he half buried his nose into Sam's hair and smiled. What happened next sent chills down Tucker's spine. Juan's downcast eyes suddenly met his own and that little smile now took up an entirely new meaning.

He knew I was here the entire time…

Bonus:

Why? Why did she have to come here? Why now?

Danny waited until his sister was done picking up the tiny items Sam had dropped onto the floor. He hadn't expected her to come here, not after what she'd done to him, but that's not saying he was about to change his mind.

He didn't regret his decision…He couldn't. Just like what she had done to him, what he had just done to her was irreversible. Nothing could ever make this better…

And her pain.

He had heard his parents mumbling about it before. When they found out about how sick he was and how it was because of his being "exposed to so many ghosts from their research," he started to cry. At first, they didn't understand why. Maddie only cried with him. Then it was Jack, surprisingly enough, that figured it out. It was a side project of his. More than wanting to hunt ghosts, you see, he was in absolute awe of them. The way they seemed to know where each other was at all times, the way that, if by chance, they had to work together, they could come together beautifully, the way that seemed to know what each other was thinking… Yes, the increase of ectoplasm in Danny's blood had given him this temporary power: ecto-empathy. And now, feeling the despair of his parents, he could do nothing but break down and cry with them. Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined that this would happen to him because of their carelessness…

And now Danny felt what Sam did. And that's how he knew he had hurt her because what he felt now from her was exactly what he had felt the night before on her doorstep.

He heard Jazz reach the stairs and he curled up. He could feel her gaze, feel her confusion, it made him uneasy. This illness only made him feel extremely cold, so that part he didn't mind. With all the heat in the lab, he almost felt comfortable, but these emotions…he wished they would go away.

As soon as he heard the lab door open and jazz exit, he allowed a soft whimper escape his throat.

Sam…

E/N: Sam...was rejected...

I'm not quite sure what to say other than this story is almost complete. Not sure if I've said this before, but the end will be shocking ;P

Love you guys!