Hello, hello!

Show of hands, who's missed me?

Actually, I can't see you raise your hands so it doesn't really matter if you do or not, but feel free to do so anyway! I haven't updated this since July after all.

Admittedly, if you read my other stories it has only been a week since I've written anything. But as someone who has followed authors writing for multiple fandoms, really the only updates I care about are the ones for one specific fandom or another.

Well, that's not entirely true.

The truth is that when I started reading on this site, I only cared about DBZ and then when I was looking on an author's profile for other DBZ stories, I saw another story that caught my eye, one for Danny Phantom. And thus, everything changed.

I could waste a bunch of time and words on the specifics, but my progression through fanfiction is not what anyone is reading this chapter for, now is it?

Now then, last time this stuff happened:

-Danny found out who the Wraith was and why she killed people

-Danny and co. went to save her next victim who happened to be Sam's mom

-Wraith thought she killed her but actually didn't (not that anyone told her)

-Christmas stuff happened!

That's about it for last chapter. If you want the details and cameos and whatever else i put in there, go back and reread it.

Anyway, not too much of the main ghost crew this chapter, it's time to look on the human side of things.


Sam Manson POV, Manson Mansion, December 25th…

Sam stared at the ruins of her family home with so many emotions flowing through her, she honestly wasn't sure what to settle bite of the december air was barely noticeable to her right now.

She was supposed to be goth, it was how she showed her independence to her parents, that she wasn't some doll for them to play dress up with and eventually marry off to some piece of shallow, third generation money.

It was so easy to show everyone doom and gloom, it was another thing to have it become your life.

First, her best friend had died, and it was her fault. So many people told her that she was in no way responsible for what happened. Tucker said he should have been a voice of reason, Jazz said she should have been paying attention to the three of them, the Fenton's blamed themselves, and her parents blamed the Fentons.

But throughout it all, each separate conversation about why it wasn't her fault, her own words, egging Danny on, kept echoing in her head. And every time they echoed she wanted nothing more than to be standing there, yelling at him to not listen to her, that she never meant for anything bad to happen. Nothing bad was supposed to happen. They still had the rest of their lives ahead of them!

Except now one of them didn't.

And now, after months of fighting ghosts that wanted nothing more than to make life in Amity Park a living hell, her house gets burned down, by a ghost. Possibly multiple ghosts if all the devices that she, Tucker and the adult Fentons had pointed at it meant anything.

Not to mention it had been burned down on Christmas, or rather Christmas Eve, but really what was the difference?

Of course she had never celebrated Christmas being Jewish, still though, the entire thing was just salt in the wound.

But beyond her house burning down, was the fact that her mother had been specifically targeted by the ghost that had done this.

She hated her parents, or at least she wanted to hate them. She wanted to loathe them for treating her like a wallflower, for acting like her opinions and thoughts didn't matter. For always telling her to stay away from Danny because his parents were "different", or to keep away from Tucker because he was "weird."

But whatever she thought of them and their opinions, about their lifestyle and actions, they were still her parents, and she had nearly lost one of them. She might have lost the other one if her father hadn't gotten out of the fire.

In an odd twist of fate, her Grandmother had actually been the safest of all them. Ironically, because she was the hospital due to numerous minor problems that she had refused to complain about until they made it nearly impossible for her to function day to day. Honestly if she hadn't been so worried about her, she would have been impressed she had been able to move around for as long as she had.

Sam decided not to think about what would have happened if her grandmother hadn't been practically forced to the hospital to get the problems dealt with before they became serious. If she had been at home during the fire and unable to get out of the house quickly enough…

Sam squeezed her eyes shut and shook herself. She really wished she could stop her mind from wandering to all the "what if's" in her life. There were far too many of them right now. What if her Mom hadn't survived the attack? What if her father hadn't managed to get out of the house? What if ghosts hadn't been attacking the city? What if she had never stupidly told Danny it would be cool to go into the Ghost Portal that killed him?

There was a reason people say that hindsight is twenty/twenty, and that reason was regret.

"-am! Sam!" Tucker's voice cut into her thought process, she straightened and then scowled at him.

"What is it?" She snapped and glared at him, she was not really in the mood to chat right now.

Tucker gave her a look, "Well I was going to ask if you how you were doing, but if you're going to bite my head off…"

Sam bit her tongue before she could give him back a rude response. Really, she hadn't been to snap at him but her current mood made it hard for her to be patient with anyone. To tell the truth she probably would have acted the same way no matter who she had been talking to.

"I'm fine." She muttered even though she was probably the exact opposite of fine right now. She was technically homeless after all, not that it mattered all too much. Most of her parent's money was in the bank so they could probably afford a new house, not to mention the mansion had been insured. She turned away to walk towards the group of vehicles parked in the driveway.

"You don't seem fine." She heard Tucker mutter under his breath before he began to follow her. She forced herself not to respond.

The fact Tucker had stuck by her side in the past several months was both comforting and confusing for Sam. The fact they got along like oil and water was the largest factor in the confusion. She knew that Danny had been the only reason they had known each other growing up, in fact, if she had to guess she would probably have hated Tucker's guts if Danny hadn't roped the trio together.

She wasn't sure if Tucker stayed friends with her out of grief for Danny or if he felt just as lost as she did now. Whatever the case, she didn't want to lose him too.

As they got closer to the loose ring of vehicles in her driveway she took stock of just what was there. An ambulance, obviously, a couple of firetrucks too, the Fenton's Ghost Assault Vehicle was there as well (much to her father's dismay, her mother wasn't in much shape to reply one way or another). Those were what she expected, but there was another vehicle there too, one that she had never seen before.

It was a van, almost entirely white, which just screamed danger to be honest. But what caught her attention were the letters printed on the side of the vehicle. G.I.W., she couldn't help but wonder what it stood for.

There were two men in white suits discussing with the Fentons. Mr. Fenton seemed eager to talk to them but Mrs. Fenton looked skeptical and even a little nervous. That alone was concerning, she didn't know what those guys wanted but they rubbed her the wrong way and her impressions of people were rarely ever wrong.

Deciding not to get involved with the Fentons right now she instead headed towards what was the lesser of two evils in this situation.

Her father.

He practically jumped when she tapped him on the shoulder. He had been staring on the burned out carcass of the house that had been in the family for the last three generations. Sam guessed that he was taking it harder than she was, he cared a lot more about the family image than she did after all. Not to mention the fact that he had grown up there and had been trying to raise her there.

"Dad, uh." She swallowed trying to find the right words for this. Most of her relationship with her parents over the past few years had been her grunting at them and refusing to do what they told her to do. "Are you doing alright?" She asked weakly, honestly she felt like kicking herself, really that was the best she could come up with?

Her father stared at her in surprise as though he hadn't expected any concern from her. She couldn't particularly blame him but she really wanted to talk to him right now, just to make sure he was real, to make sure he wasn't going to disappear. To be honest it made her kind of angry that she felt this way after going to far to prove her individuality to her parents but right now? She wasn't sure how much it was worth to be her own person.

"Alright?" He muttered rhetorically looking thoughtful, he sighed in a way that made him seen broken. "No, not right now. But…" he shook his head and chuckled humorlessly. "Who am I kidding? Things are a mess! It's not like I can just tell you everything is fine and you'll listen to me will you Samantha."

Sam scowled about to say something but her father kept talking. "I don't even know what to make of things anymore, ghosts! Targeting your mother of all people! And after everything with Mom…" He choked up a bit. Sam found herself remembering that while her grandmother was quite possibly the member of the family she was closest to, she was also her father's mother. It was one of those things you knew peripherally but never truly thought about.

"I really don't need to pretend to be a pillar of stability right now do I?" Her father wondered out loud. "Maybe this is a sign, maybe it's time to leave this messed up town."

Sam's eyes went wide. "But we can't just leave!"

"Why not Samantha?" Her father asked, "Despite whatever you might think, you are my daughter and I love you, despite any… oddities." He continued quickly, "And this town is not safe for you or anyone, if other parents are smart they'll be packing up their own families and skipping town. Now that this has happened once, what's to stop it from happening again."

"The Fentons will protect people." Sam replied immediately, inside she was seething, try to talk to her father in a civilized fashion and suddenly he wants to make her leave town.

"They didn't stop this from happening did they? They're two people, they won't be able to protect everyone! Besides they can't even protect their own family, how can they protect anyone else's?" He finished at which point Sam stiffened and clenched her fists.

"Well, at least they don't try and control every aspect of their kids lives!" She snapped, voice raising perhaps more than she meant it too.

"I'm not arguing about this with you Samantha, your mother could have died last night, we could have died last night. And don't you dare try to turn this into an argument about us respecting your opinions. You know that has nothing to do with this." Her father met her glare right back.

Sam growled and stomped off, ignoring her father calling her name. She tries to talk to him and what does he do? Tell her how they were going to control her life even more!

Tucker who had hung back during her "talk" with her father now picked up the pace and followed her again. He wisely kept quiet about that subject, of course that didn't mean he was silent.

"So who do you think the ghosts were this time? The readings are all jumbled and not to mention faint." He grumbled glaring at the device in his hands.

Sam took a few deep breaths trying to calm down. As much as she hated to admit it, her father had a point about the Fentons not being able to be everywhere at once. There were the Ghoskateers of course, but they were all still in training, and she and Tucker had to go to school.

But what other options did they have?

As she approached the Fentons, it was just in time to watch the white van pull out of the driveway. Mr. Fenton went off to do anything between hunting for any remaining ghosts to eating a snack, while Mrs. Fenton was scowling in deep thought.

"What was that all about?" Sam asked as she came up to the older woman.

"An offer I want to refuse but not sure I can afford to." Mrs. Fenton muttered darkly before shaking herself and giving her arms a brief rub, assumedly to help warm them up a bit.

"Any ideas about which ghosts were behind this?" Tucker asked, hoping the more advanced technology at the adult Fentons disposal would be more effective than his practically bootlegged version.

"Unfortunately, no." Mrs. Fenton said angrily, "Ugh, I wish I had stayed up last night and checked the radar like I want but Jack and I had that argument about that idiotic belief of his and then it just got worse and, grr!" She threw her arms up in frustration.

"Are you two okay?" Tucker asked after sharing a brief glance with Sam.

"We're fine." She said quickly, too quickly if Sam were to think about it. But before the subject could be pressed Mr. Fenton returned.

"Hey Sammy, your mom's uhh, come out of shock and she's saying some weird stuff." He said looking a bit confounded.

"Weird how?" Sam asked darkly. Her mother loved being the textbook definition of normal, at least her father tried to act like she was a person, although a poor job of it in her opinion.

"Weird in that she's saying that while a ghost was trying to kill her, another few were the ones that saved her."


And I'm going to end the chapter there.

This almost didn't get done, I literally had almost no time to work on this with everything I've been doing the last couple of days.

But it's done and I can enter the final stretch for season one!

Some of you will hate the next five to ten chapters, others will love it! Some of you won't care less. I don't give a damn! The only things that matters is that I manage to hold your interest!

Also, in case it wasn't obvious this is from Sam's POV so some, if not all, of her opinions are biased. Her father isn't trying to take control of her life as he is trying to save it and she's under enough stress with the events of the past few months on her mind.

So for those of you who are going to say that her thoughts and actions don't make sense, that's the thing about emotions, they're not logical and they're difficult for most people to predict.

Unrelated note, recently this story has been overtaken in favourites by Sealed Away and Village Idiots, I take this as a personal challenge and therefore challenge all of you to put this story back at the number one spot! (It's kinda my favourite and I want people to know it)

Anyway, let's get to the reviews!

Gold Testament: Be patient, there's a lot of story left (but some revelations might be coming up soon[ish depends on how long it takes me to get the chapters out])

Dredd2012: Glad you think so!

ReaperGenesis32: Yeah, I got tired of all the stories where Walker and Danny just absolutely can't get along. They still hate each others guts, but at least they're trying to be civil. And it really depends on the legal system and what evidence they have.

Kimera20: Two months to go! And yeah Wraith is done for good, and well, Danny is working on it.

Unclear expulsion: You're not the first to bring that up. When I get around to editing that one, I'll fix the error.

Basket in Nutcase: Good job calling that! Albeit, a bit late to the show but well done all the same. And yes, nothing like that ever happened. Just a dream.

Umbra . Venator: Thanks!

Feurigge: Maddie and Jack will learn more about how ghosts really work as time goes on. As for Sam, give it a chapter or two.

DP-Observant69: I sent a PM but in the case you didn't get it, I will explain here. I have many stories, I try to update at least one of them every week, this month I've been going over the ones I haven't updated in awhile and hopefully I can keep up the pace (on this one at least). Sometimes I miss a week, you don't have to start worrying I'm dead until I miss two weeks with no explanation. If I abandon a story I'm not going to cop out with a simple AN, I'm going to explain why I've doing so and then give a rundown of the remaining plot so you all don't feel completely robbed.

Well that's all for now folks!

See you next week for an update that has been a Long. Damn. Time. Coming.

SS is coming back!

Until then! Bye!

~FriTik

R&R