15. Silence

He would have called it luck if Danny hadn't known exactly why the GiW weren't staking out Sam's house. It'd been at least two years, probably three since the last time they'd talked. Not much less since he'd last seen her on graduation day. He'd fucked that whole friendship up, but it had been for the best. Better to say goodbye and never see her again then to watch her get used over and over again against him. And yet here he was, crouched invisibly less than ten feet from her door as he glanced around, careful to keep the tiny figure next to him hidden from watching eyes.

It was the tiny figure that had him in this mess to begin with, the boy and the Guys in White. How they'd ever figured out who he was Danny would never know—the Reality Gauntlet should have ensured his safety. But the best he'd come up with was that they'd cloned him without knowing who they were cloning. That realization had only come very recently; it had sent Danny on a rampage through the government run lab until there was little left but unidentifiable debris and a smoking crater.

But they knew who he was, and he could never take the boy to his family, or even Tucker. Valerie was probably a worse option than the GiW; she still hated Danny Phantom with a passion. All he needed was for her to get her hands on a little clone of him. He snorted quietly—he had clones at the wazoo. First Danni, then Derrick. Next thing he knew there's be a Darcy or a Darrell or a Dana running around with the same DNA.

He'd been watching for an hour now, and Derrick was asleep where he sat on the ground curled against Danny's side. Without a second thought Danny let the invisibility drop and scooped the sleeping child up. He headed for the door with a resolute look on his face. It was a shame that it was so early; his Sam had never been a morning person and he wasn't sure if she would be too angry to help him or not. A tiny voice in his head raked him over the coals for that, and Danny did let that thought go with a sigh. Sam wasn't a bad person; she wouldn't endanger a child's life because she hated him.

But she'd sure as hell take her anger out on Danny.

He could live with that, had to because he was at the door and knocking firmly. The sound echoed through the house and he glanced around through the early dawn light to see if anyone else was awake and aware enough to notice the strange man knocking on their neighbor's door with a sleeping child in his arms. There was no one, but the thought quickly fled Danny's mind as he heard footsteps inside the house.

He knew that she hadn't even looked to see who it was, only opened the door in sleepy reflex. But the shock on her face when her lavender eyes lit on him woke her up like nothing else, and Danny blinked once to bite back the sudden desire to just touch her. He had more important things to worry about than a case of hormones that had never gone away; he had a sleeping child in his arms whose life depended on him, and now her.

"Hi," he said softly before she could do more than gape at him. "I know you said you never wanted to see me again, but I have a problem. A big problem, and I need your help."

Danny thought she might have refused him outright if Derrick hadn't shifted in his arms at that exact moment, blue eyes blinking sleepily up at him as Danny brushed some dark hair from the boy's face. "Are we there yet, Daddy?"

The surprise on Sam's face was perfectly clear, and Danny dropped his eyes from hers knowing that his last safe haven was gone now. The odds of getting her to listen to him try and explain were slim, and that didn't mean that Danny even had an explanation for Derrick's obvious belief that Danny was his father. It was true in a way, insofar as much that it was his DNA that had created the boy, and even Danni. But still, Derrick had never met Danny before he stormed the lab sixteen hours earlier.

He turned, shoulders slumping as he wondered how to explain to Derrick that they had to go somewhere else. And then he felt a hand on his elbow. Sam, always Sam, worried eyes looking up at him as she frowned and shook her head.

"Don't leave," she said quietly. "I'll help you, Danny. I've always helped you."