Hello

Summary: Walking home from Danny's one night, something horrific happens to Sam. Now Danny's left to try to put the pieces of his best friend back together.

Rating: PG-13 for mature themes and language.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. And I don't own Hello, Evanescence does.

Chapter Five

Hello.

Danny was lucky he hadn't fallen asleep flying home. He had sat there for what seemed like an eternity and yet a moment, just watching her sleep. He had always heard that people looked peaceful in their sleep. If that was true, it didn't apply to Sam. He sighed, but then again, so many things didn't.

She had tossed and turned, whimpered and moaned. Danny had never seen a person look so miserable. He had just sat there, feeling more helpless than he ever had in his life. Sam continued to lie there writhing in pain, reaching out to someone who she didn't know was there. Occasionally he would reach out and grasp her small hand in his. She would freeze for a moment and Danny would rub his thumb across her knuckles. She would seem to tense for a moment and then pull her hand away.

But now, he was thoroughly exhausted yet sleep was not going to come. He lay on his bed, reliving it all in his head. How could Dash do this to her? He'd always known that the football player was a creep but this made no sense to him. Sam hadn't hurt any one. Of course he'd never done anything to Dash, but that didn't seem to matter on bit to Dash.

And why hadn't Sam told him? Part of him whispered that he could have asked Sam, which he still hadn't done. But he could have done something. He could've made sure that Dash was never around her. Or stuck with her so he could be the one who was picked on. There were so many things he could have done. He rolled over onto his side. Some super hero he was turning out to be.

He sighed and closed his eyes. Sam knew she could talk to him about anything so why wasn't she? Maybe it was a girl thing. Jazz had always mentioned that maybe Sam needed to hang out with other people so that she had a girl to talk to about more personal stuff. Danny had always laughed and said 'Sam can talk to us about everything, she knows that.'

Maybe, just maybe, Jazz had been right.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Danny pounded harder against the door. "Jazz, if you don't get out of the bathroom, I'm gonna be late!"

Danny mouthed "One Second." as his sister shouted it out at him.

"Seriously, Jazz, I have got to take a shower!" He went back to pounding on the door with every syllable. "I am going to be so incredibly late and Lancer's going to give me a tardy which means I have three which means I'll have detention!"

"Go use Mom and Dad's bathroom," came the muffled reply.

"Because the point of having a bathroom next to my room is so I can use it! Now, get out!" He growled under his breath as he heard the hair dryer come on.

"Fine!" He stormed back to his room mumbling incoherently under his breath. "I thought about taking a shower last night." He slammed his bedroom door behind him. "I thought 'Yes, Danny, this is the perfect idea.'" He yanked open his closet and pulled his normal shirt off the hanger. "There is never any hot water in the morning anyway." He yanked a pair of jeans of a shelf in his closet. Throwing it on his bed he proceeded to dig through his sock drawer trying to find a matching pair. "Then the box ghost decides to invite himself out to the normal world. Does any one want him here? Noooooooo."

He turned around waving both socks in the air to emphasize his point. "I am the box ghost. Beware!" And standing in his doorway, staring at him like he was absolutely insane, was a very concerned Jazz. "What do you want?" It was the first thing that had popped into his head and probably one of the stupidest things he could have said.

She arched an eyebrow. "The bathrooms free." With a quick turn, she was gone. Danny suddenly felt like pounding his head into a wall. He glanced at the clock and bit back the urge to swear. 7:48. Even if the bathroom was free it didn't matter the bus would be here in about four minutes. He threw everything on and darted toward the stairs. "MOM! Have you seen my shoes?"

"Did you try the living room, yet? I thought I saw them next to the couch."

That was good enough for Danny. Yep there was one of them. He slid his foot in not bothering to untie it. Now, he thought, to find the other. He hopped onto the couch and looked behind it. Nope. He fell onto his side and pulled up the bottom of the fabric and peeking at him from the farthest corner was his left shoe.

"Oh no." He jumped to the floor and fished for it. Predictably, it was about two and a half inches out of reach. He grabbed the remote of the couch and fished for it again. He managed to shove it further out of reach. He adjusted his grip on the remote further down. And managed to hit the shoe too hard and lose his grip on the shoe.

"Yes, today is definitely going to be a good day," he bit out, practically seething. He glanced towards the kitchen. He was in direct line of vision from his dad, no going ghost for this one. He concentrated for a moment on making his shoulder go intangible. Shoving his shoulder into the couch, he managed to grab both, shoving them towards the front.

He yanked the shoe on while throwing the remote back on the couch. "I'm leaving to catch the bus!"

His mother poked her head out of the kitchen. "Danny, what about breakfast?" She watched as he jogged over to the closet and yanked out his book bag.

"I'll buy something out of the machines or mooch a granola bar off Sam. She always has something."

"Have fun, Son." His dad hollered.

Danny muttered under his breath. "If the mornings gone this well, I'm sure I will."

Hey, I know it doesn't go much of anywhere but it's going to be more serious from now on so I felt I needed one more light hearted chapter. Sorry, if I'm disappointing anyone, let me know. As always, huge thanks to all my reviewers: morgannia, style, Brittany Miller, RainbowSerenity, Piezo , Nightmare123, Phoenix-lucky number 13, babybeluga2003, Spice of Life, saikyo:the youkai priestess, Dela the Hidden, q.t, and Aeris9919. As always, thanks a ton!