Ta-da! A new chapter is here for you! Now Sam has to officially meet Danny's family, without the weapons and the net.

Enjoy!

Chapter 36

Meeting the Family

Sam saw the coral house with a submarine on the rooftop. This was Danny's house?

Danny saw Sam's bewilderment. "I know my house looks pretty weird but the inside is normal…mostly," he assured her.

"Why is there a submarine on the roof?" Sam asked.

"I don't know how it got there. It's been there since Jazz was born," said Danny. Sam nodded.

The two of them swam up to the front door and Danny opened it. "Mom! Dad! I'm home!" he announced.

A merman with an orange tail and matching fins on his head, arms, and down his back swam down from the second floor. His hair was black with a hint of white and his eyes were midnight blue. Sam immediately recognized him as the Protective Oaf from her mermaid book.

"Hey, Danny-Boy!" the orange merman greeted. He laid his eyes on Sam and recognized her from Danny's grotto. "And this is must be the human girl Danny was always talking about." Sam waved nervously. "Sorry about the net from before."

"Uh, it's okay," Sam murmured. He looked a lot bigger in person. His size really scared her.

"Speaking of which, did you bring more of that fudge stuff? I really love that stuff," said Jack. What the book said was true: he was obsessed with the cocoa bean.

"Uh, sorry, I didn't," said Sam. Jack groaned in a child-like manner.

Danny cleared his throat. "Uh, Dad, this is my girlfriend, Sam Manson. Sam, this is my dad, Jack," he introduced.

"N-Nice to meet to meet you," Sam said nervously. She held out her hand and Jack shook it, causing Sam to shake all over.

Jack looked Sam over and noticed the changes in her appearance. "Well, what do you know! She's coming along great! I'm looking forward to how she'll turn out."

Sam tried to smile. "Uh…thank you," she replied.

Jazz then swam down from the second floor. "Dad, you're scaring her," she scolded. She then noticed Sam. "Hi, Sam. I'm Jazz, remember?"

Sam shook Jazz's hand. "Nice to see you again," she said.

Jazz then turned to her father. "Dad, how about you go get Mom while Sam gets comfortable?" she asked Jack.

Jack nodded and swam to the basement.

Danny noticed Sam's discomfort and became concerned. "Are you okay? I know my dad can be intimidating but he's a really nice guy once you get to know him," he assured her.

Sam sighed. "It's kind of hard to when he tried to catch me in a butterfly net."

Danny lowered his head in shame. Jazz decided to come to his rescue. "Don't worry about my dad. He tends to be protective of his family. When he first saw you, he thought you were a threat and that was why he attacked you. It's just part of his nature," she explained.

Sam then remembered that the Protective Oaf was protective of his mate and offspring despite his clumsy nature. "I guess that makes sense," she said. "How come you're not freaking out about me being here? I read in a book that your breed tends to be overprotective."

Jazz smirked. "I've been looking after my brother his whole life. I'll admit that I was a little skeptical when I first met you but after seeing how much Danny talks about you, I'm willing to give you a chance."

Danny's face turned pink. "Jazz! You're embarrassing me again," he groaned.

Jazz gave the Phantom a hug. "I'm just doing my job as a big sister," she said.

Sam chuckled. 'I guess Jazz is okay. I think I can give her a chance.'

Maddie then came up from the basement. Sam stared at the Rational Fighter. Her aqua blue tail matched her fin-ears and arms. Maddie's eyes were a different shade of purple from Sam's.

"Hi, Mom," Danny said cautiously. If his mother so much as lay a finger on Sam…

"Hello, Danny," Maddie greeted. She swam over to her black-tailed son and kissed his cheek.

"Mom, I know you've already met her but this is my girlfriend, Sam Manson," Danny introduced.

Sam silently gulped and held out her hand. "Nice to meet you," she said nervously.

Maddie shook Sam's hand, taking note of the girl's appearance. "I see you look different since the last time I saw you," Maddie noted.

"Uh, yeah, they started appearing in January," said Sam.

Maddie nodded. "Danny, Jazz, Jack, could you give…Sam and me some time alone to talk?" she asked. Danny gave his mother a warning glare, thinking she was going to do something to Sam. "Don't look at me like that, young man! I just want to talk to her," she scolded.

Danny then turned to Sam. "I'll be in the other room if you need me," he told her. He kissed her forehead and followed his father and his sister to the basement.

Maddie then turned to the young Goth. If Sam weren't underwater, she'd be sweating profusely; she was so nervous.

"Now Sam, I would like to talk to you about being with my son," Maddie started. "I know that there's no changing his mind when it comes to you." Sam nodded. "What I want to know is how you two first met."

Now Sam understood. Maddie wanted to learn more about Sam before deciding whether she liked the Goth or not.

"Um, well…I first met him eleven years ago," Sam started. "I was walking on the beach when I saw him tangled up in a fishing net."

"So that's what he was up to that day," Maddie muttered to herself.

"Well, when I saw that he was in trouble, I ran towards him to help him out and I tripped and fell on some broken glass. I took a piece of it and I cut a hole in the net to let him out," Sam continued. "He saw that my foot was hurt and he healed it. He was quite fascinated with me."

Maddie nodded. "Yes. Danny's always been fascinated with things that are different. After what happened on the surface when he was a child, his fascination intensified. He learned more and more about the surface world. I tried to discourage him but he wouldn't listen."

"Maybe that was after what happened with his first encounter with Vlad," Sam recalled.

That got Maddie's attention. "He's met Vlad before? Vlad Masters?" she asked.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. He's a friend of my dad's from their college days. My family was visiting his beach manor when I met Danny. When I saw Danny a second time, Vlad tried to capture him. I tried to stop Vlad from taking Danny away. While he was distracted with me, Danny took that opportunity to escape. Vlad was anything but happy with me…"

~0~0~0~

Vlad dragged Sam back to the house by her forearm. Sam struggled to free herself from Vlad's grip but he refused to let go.

"Let me go!" the ten-year-old cried.

"You've crossed the line for the last time, girl," Vlad growled. "I knew letting you play on my private beach was a foolish decision."

"Scaring Danny away was a dumber decision!" Sam retorted.

Vlad opened the slide door and dragged Sam into the house.

Pamela came into the room and saw the situation at hand. "Vlad? What's the meaning of this?" she asked.

"Your daughter has been freeing my specimens I've caught for research," Vlad explained. "I cannot – will not – tolerate this kind of behavior!"

Pamela glared at her daughter. "Sammy, why did you do that? How could you do such a thing?"

Sam glared back at her mother. "Mom, he was hurting my new friend! I couldn't let him do that!" she exclaimed.

Pamela lifted an eyebrow. "A new friend?"

"She's talking about a certain fish she saw in the water. I had a variety of fish caught in my net," Vlad lied. "I caught her letting them go."

"No, I wasn't!" Sam cried.

Pamela put her hands on her hips. "Samantha Elizabeth Manson, you know better than that. Go up to your room and think about what you've done," she said sternly.

Sam stared at her mother in disbelief. Her eyes began to water. "YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME!" she yelled. "MR. MASTERS IS A LIAR-LIAR-PANTS-ON-FIRE!" She broke free from Vlad's grip and ran up to her room. She slammed her door shut and locked it. She then jumped on her bed and buried her face into a pillow and cried her amethyst eyes out.

~0~0~0~

"I couldn't tell my mom that my new friend was a merman," Sam explained. "She wouldn't have believed me anyway."

Maddie stared in awe after listening to Sam's story. This girl was willing to keep their existence a secret?

"After that, I was no longer allowed to go with my parents to Vlad's manor until recently," Sam continued. "Vlad invited me and my friends to his manor where he tried to capture Danny again and I think you know the rest of the story."

Maddie nodded. That filled in a few blanks about her son's whereabouts. Sam sounded like she was telling the truth about her involvement with Danny but Maddie was still a little skeptical about putting her guard down around this girl.

"And you've kept his existence a secret ever since?" Maddie inquired.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. If I told anyone they'd probably never believe me anyway, so I kept the whole thing to myself," she said. "For over a decade, I was convinced that Danny hated me for what happened. It tore me up inside. I hated Vlad for using me to lure Danny out of hiding."

Despite the fact that her motherly instincts were screaming at her to not believe Sam, Maddie reluctantly decided to give Sam the benefit of the doubt.

"Well, as much as I don't want to admit it – and I really don't want to admit it – I guess I can give this whole thing a try," Maddie sighed. Sam took that as a sign of approval…hopefully.

"YES!"

Both women turned and Danny burst out of the basement, swam up to his mother, and tackled her into a tight hug. Maddie should have known he'd be eavesdropping on them by listening through the door.

"Thank you so much, Mom!" he exclaimed gratefully. "You have no idea how much this means to me!"

"You're welcome, sweetie," Maddie gagged. "Could you please let me go now?"

Danny let go of his mother and swam over to Sam who received a grateful kiss from him.

"NOT in front of me," Maddie said through gritted teeth. She didn't like the idea but she'd tolerate it (to an extent) if it made her son happy.

Danny parted the kiss and smiled cheekily. "Sorry. Got carried away," he said humbly.

Jack and Jazz came up from the basement. Both were happy that Maddie (kind of) approved of Sam.

"I'm really glad you've found someone, little brother," Jazz praised, ruffling her brother's white hair. He responded by irritably swatting her webbed hand away. He hated it when she did that.

Jack then got excited. "Now that I think about it, Sam can easily get the fudge stuff for us," he said excitedly. "I like her already!"

Sam rolled her eyes in good humor. She had a feeling that she was going to like Jack a lot.

Someone banging on the door loudly interrupted the conversation.

"DANNY! DANNY, OPEN UP! IT'S SID AND TUCKER! LET US IN!" Tucker's voice screamed.

Jazz swam over to the front door and Tucker and Sidney charged through, not noticing that they shoved her to the floor.

Danny was rather ticked off that his two friends interrupted such an important visit. "Tucker, unless that TV you found is now working underwater, I can't hang out with you today," he said irritably.

"It's not that and I still haven't gotten it to work yet," said Tucker. "Sid here might have gotten you and Sam in trouble."

"How was I supposed to know that it was him?" Sid defended. "You guys never showed me what he looked like!"

"What are you two talking about?" asked Sam.

Sidney took a deep breath and explained rather hastily what happened between him and Plasmius.

"So Vlad knows?" Sam asked for clarity. Sidney nodded grimly. Sam tightened her grip on Danny's arm.

"And you willingly told him about me and Sam?" Danny asked, his temper slowly rising.

"From the way he spoke of you, I assumed that you knew each other," Sidney defended.

Maddie then stepped in. "Hold on! What are you kids talking about?" she asked.

The four kids looked at Maddie and exchanged glances with each other.

Danny then turned to his mother. "Mom, Vlad never wanted to expose us to the humans when he was in college," he admitted. "He wanted to become one of us so he could be with you."

Maddie's eyes widened. "What? He did?" she asked. She sat down in a chair as she took this information in. "So, when he took a blood sample from Jack…"

"He wanted a DNA sample so he could become a merman through science," Danny finished.

"That was why Vladdie poked me with that needle?" Jack asked in shock. The kids nodded grimly. Jack smacked himself in the forehead. "Oh, crud. I should have known."

"He didn't tell anyone," said Tucker. "You had no idea so don't blame yourself, Mr. Fenton."

"Yeah, but when you and Mom got married, Vlad decided to put his experiment to the test early and he had to be hospitalized," Danny continued. "When he got out, he was now a Manmade Hybrid."

Danny's family gasped.

"A Manmade Hybrid?" Jack repeated.

"Those creatures are considered an abomination!" Jazz exclaimed.

"They're as dangerous as Dark Phantom himself," Maddie noted.

"Well this guy is probably just as dangerous," Danny said. "He's after me because I'm an outcast like him and outcasts should stick together. He's still after Mom too. He figured that if Mom saw how he turned out when he changed, she'd leave Dad and be with him."

Maddie's jaw dropped. "I'd never stoop so low. I don't care if he grows a third eye and becomes covered in hair. I'd never leave Jack."

"And now he's recruited the Guys in White to find Danny and capture him," Sam finished.

"Who are the Guys in White?" asked Jazz.

"A group of government agents who hunt down supernatural creatures, such as you guys," Sam explained.

"What should we do?" asked Sidney.

Sam opened her mouth to answer but realized that she had no idea what their next step should be.

"Maybe we should keep a low profile," Tucker suggested. "That's all I can think of."

Maddie sighed. "I guess that's our only option," she said in defeat. She was already beginning to have second thoughts about Danny's relationship with Sam.

"Well, we'll keep our eyes peeled and Sam should head back to the surface," said Jack.

"What about me? I have to go back to Leviathan soon," said Sidney.

"We'll talk to your uncle about this," said Jazz.

Danny took Sam's hand and guided her out of the house with Tucker following close behind.

Things are going to heat up soon! Vlad is going to make a move on our heroes soon! Dun, dun, duuuuun!

I've been thinking: should I make a sequel to this once I'm done with it?