Imaginary

Summary: Everything has a consequence now Sam has to learn to live with hers. All Danny can do is hope it doesn't kill her.

Rating: PG-13 for mature themes and language.

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

Chapter Seven

And watch my purple skies fly over me.

Danny was there every morning as soon as visitor hours started. Tucker would be in and out. Tuck still didn't know Sam was pregnant. Danny had just told him Sam's dad had snapped. Which was technically true. He was getting really good at the 'technically true' thing.

Sam was remembering bits and pieces. Random faces from school. Different sorts of things the three of them had done together. But nothing major, and nothing really recent. It was on the third day that they started talking about discharging her. Sam had taken to the blood transfusion, her cuts were healing and she could get up and walk around on her own.

That was the day the world had come crashing down around them. Sam and Danny had been in her room, laughing about what kind of programming they put on hospital cable. They both turned towards the door as it creaked open. There stood a man in a suit with Danny's mom standing behind him. The contrast looked strange.

"You're Miss Manson?" he questioned already going to the table in the corner that Sam had the flowers he and Tuck had brought her on it. He moved them over to the corner and began pulling papers from his briefcase.

"Yeah. Anything I can help you with?" Sam asked glancing over at Danny. She looked scared. Lawyers had never meant anything good in Sam's life. The last time they were around it was when her parents filed for divorce during the summer between third and fourth grade. From the look she sent him she obviously remembered that much.

He tapped the pages against the table. "You're parents are giving up being your legal guardians."

Danny's jaw dropped. Of all the things he had been thinking this could mean, that was probably last on his list. "What?"

"They blatantly refuse to be Samantha's legal guardians. I can understand why. From what they said you made up an elaborate lie about being raped and then verbally attacked them? Then when your father reached out to touch you backed over a chair and fell into the bookcase then tried to run away."

Sam looked desperately at Danny. She looked like a tapped little animal. With the cuts and her still puffy eye it gave Sam a distinct tortured look that scared even him. "I—" She stopped for a moment and hung her head. "I don't know."

Maddie stepped over and put a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Sam's memory is still a little fuzzy."

The lawyer looked back and fourth between Danny and his mom. He focused on Danny. "And the nature of your relationship to Samantha is—?"

Danny looked him right in the eye and the lawyer looked at him as if he was pond scum. "Her best friend," he stated. "Since Preschool."

"I see." He scribbled some notes on a piece of legal paper. Sam looked terrified. He reached over and took her hand. He smiled at her and squeezed her hand gently. She squeezed back as hard as she could, tears welled up in her eyes and her lip started to quiver. She quickly bit down on it and swallowed. It was in that moment that Danny realized there was nothing he could do to make this easier on her.

He could pretend as much as he wanted this was still going to be near impossible. Sam still had to do this on her own no matter how much he tried to be there for her. "Is there any way Samantha can stay with us?" Maddie asked softly. Danny looked up at his mom.

The lawyer didn't even look up from his paperwork. "The Manson's are currently looking for a foster home, preferably more than an hour away from Amnity Park."

Maddie asked patiently again. "That doesn't answer my question. Is there any possible way for Sam to stay with us."

"You would have to get approval of the parents, which I highly doubt you can." Danny almost snapped at the way he talked as if there entire family was lower than dirt.

"Both of them?" Danny asked quickly.

"You need two of her guardians, yes." He folded up some papers. "Well, I've talked to the doctor and have checked up on Miss Manson's condition. I have to be going now. I would start saying goodbye to people within the next week, Samantha." He nodded to Sam and she nodded rather mechanically back, still fighting tears. He walked out.

Danny immediately hopped up in his chair and sat down on the bed and pulled Sam into a hug as the tears started to come. "I won't let them take you, Sam. I promise." She buried her face in the crook of his neck. She clung to him. Danny rubbed her back as she cried. The door closed quietly and he peeked over his shoulder to see that his mom was gone.

"What are we going to do?" she choked out.

"I dunno, Sam. But I'll think of something." She clutched the back of his T-shirt in her fist as she sobbed into his shoulder. She looked so helpless, at only barely fifteen this was more than either of them should have to deal with. "We'll get through this."

Sam looked up with what was become her trademark hollow-eyed look. "I hope you're right," she breathed.

Another Chapter. I'm sorry this one took me so long to get out. I had to work last night. Still quicker than a lot of other stories. Oh well, thanks to my wonderful reviewers: Shadow Sakura, Dragon Blade5 x3, Silverflare07, Weeble Wobble Chic, Ryo's destiny, GhostieLo x2, Wiggle Lizard x 5, Annie, IceSugarHigh, Spice Of Life, audi katia, PyroDragon, Moody Maud, morgannia, RainbowSerenity, KittenGoMoo, Red Jack Malicious, Akiko, The Good Girl, JulieGhost, autumngold, RavenForever, Samster The Hamster, AngelicxDeath, Kagome51, and Lady-Ashanya. Rock on, my friends!