Replay
A Danny Phantom Fanfiction by Cordria
Sam opened the door to see Tucker standing on her front step and staring at her with an annoyed look on his face. "Tag, you're it," he muttered.
She had barely enough time to be confused before Danny shimmered into view behind Tucker. The hybrid knew better than to show up at her house in ghost form, so that meant- "Again?"
"Yes." Tucker scowled and stalked past her, headed up to her room.
Danny floated in behind him, grinning. "Tucker's mad at me."
"Not mad!" Tucker called from the steps. "Frustrated. Exasperated. Mildly irritated. Not mad."
Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. "If my parents catch a ghost around here, they'll flip." Danny faded away, becoming nothing more than a cold spot that followed her up the stairs. She pushed open the door to her room to see Tucker already lying on the bed. "Video didn't work this time?"
The boy held up a clearly broken cell phone.
"Ah," Sam said. "What happened?"
Danny appeared again, green eyes bright as he settled in the air with his legs crossed neatly under him. "Technus was attacking Axion Labs." He smiled and stretched his arms over his head, letting his spine pop. "He's not now."
"And what happened to the watch your parents made for you?"
Sam had to hold back a smirk when Danny looked down at his wrist with an almost comical look of confusion. A small, green watch circled his wrist. He fiddled with it, turning it around his wrist, before looking up at them. "I… Why do I have a watch?"
Tucker groaned and put an arm over his eyes.
Danny glanced at him in confusion, but Sam grabbed a nearby book and tossed it at Tucker's stomach. "Be nice," she snapped. "He can't help it."
"Oh, he can help it," Tucker muttered. "He's just too Danny to stop when the timer goes off."
"What can't I help?" Danny asked, looking from Sam to Tucker and back.
Sam wiggled the mouse of her computer and settled down at the desk, digging through files. "Come here." She felt Danny drift over to hover near her shoulder. A quick glance confirmed that Danny was well within her personal bubble, elbows were on his knees and his chin propped up on his hands. "What are you?"
"A ghost," was the quick reply.
"So when did you die?" Sam said, finding the folder and clicking through the files, searching for just the right now.
"Four months ago."
Sam pulled up the video, paused it before it could get going, and sat back in her chair. "You sure about that?"
Danny nodded, arching a bewildered eyebrow. "I'd know if know if I were dead or alive, Sam."
"Watch." Sam clicked 'play' on the computer screen. A video Sam and Tucker had seen dozens of times started to play.
Danny watched closely. "I've seen this before," he said, eyebrows knitting together as images of a hospital and his parents appeared on the screen. "Sam, I don't have amnesia - I don't need to rewatch my life."
"Watch," Tucker and Sam said in bizarre unison.
With a skeptical look, Danny turned his focus back on the screen. The video took careful pains to describe the ghost invasion four months ago when Danny Phantom had nearly died.
Nearly being the key word.
Danny drifted down towards the floor as the video showed him getting better and surviving his wounds. "But…" The Danny on the screen was human, and then turned into a ghost, then back to a human. "Yeah," he said, "I was a halfa before, but…"
"You still are," Sam said, going for gentle. But this being the dozenth-and-some time they'd explained this concept recently, her tone bordered on annoyed. "You got hit in the head. It makes you forget you're human if you stay in ghost form for too long."
His green eyes narrowed. "I…"
"Thus the watch," Tucker interrupted. "It's got a timer on it. You're supposed to return to your human form if it goes off." He removed his arm from over his eyes long enough to send a scathing glare in Danny's direction. "You didn't. Again."
"I do this a lot?" Danny asked. Then he glanced back at the video. "Yeah, I guess if I've seen this video before…"
"You just forget," Tucker finished. "I know." He rolled to his feet and walked over to them. "Can you turn human now so we can go back to our weekend of video games and movies and leave Sam here to ponder the wonders of… whatever it is her parents are making her do?"
"My parents are okay with this?" Danny looked at Sam. A small video clip of Danny and his parents was playing on the screen. "I mean, with me being a ghost?"
Sam tried to keep the smile down. There were only so many times she could go through a 'revelation' with Danny before it started to get funny – and they had passed that point. "Yes, Danny, they are."
"Oh." He waited a beat longer, staring down at the watch on his wrist. "And I'm not a ghost."
"Nope," Sam said. "You're half a ghost."
With a wrinkle of his nose, Danny sighed and set his feet on the ground. "So I guess I do kind of have amnesia."
"Kinda," Sam said, patting his arm sympathetically.
"How do I do this turning human thing?"
Tucker leaned over Sam's shoulder and stopped the video. "Not a clue," he said with a pleasant grin. "You just said it was warm and heavy and tingly." He sent Sam a pleading look.
Rolling her eyes, Sam closed out of the video – which was about to cut to a clip of Danny trying to explain how to turn human. "You'll be fine," Sam said. "Go play video games with Tucker and you'll figure it out."
"What if I don't?" Danny asked.
"Your parents have a gadget or two that can turn you human if you get too hungry," Tucker said, throwing an arm around Danny's shoulders. "The inventions look like theyreally hurt, though, so I'd try to figure it out on your own."
Danny looked suitably nervous as Tucker led him from the room. "I helped you make that video but nobody thought to put in there how to turn human again?"
Tucker chuckled. "That's a great idea! Once you figure it out, we'll record it and add it to the video."
Just before the door clipped closed, Sam heard Danny's skeptical voice ask, "How manytimes have you recorded it?"
Sam snorted and spun around in her chair. Danny's parents would freak later when they found out Danny had disobeyed the watch again. But, for now, she'd let Tucker have his fun. Danny always figured out how to return to his human form before too long.
