Hello, you are reading part three of a series. This story might stand alone, but I doubt it. If you want to understand it completely please read Just Like Dear Old Dad and Mum's The Word.

This starts out slow but it will pick up!

Standard disclaimer applies. Which means I do not have any claim on the characters I'm writing. I do not own them, nor did I create them, much to my dismay.

Summary: Our friends must fight for their lives against their worst enemies. Will Danny be a casualty of this war?

Sticking Together

Sam sat up gasping and in a sweat. She looked around the room. It was unfamiliar and heightened her nightmare. She was in a sleeping bag on the floor. What floor? Where? She crawled over to the nearest thing to hide under, still in the grip of her nightmare. She could hear small keening noises as she rocked back and forth, but didn't have the awareness to realize the sounds were coming from her. The door open and a figure entered the room. It was him! He was coming for her. She had to hide. She huddled tighter into space under the desk and began to cry.

"Sam?" Danny asked as he knelt down and looked under the desk. Her distress was obvious. He just wasn't sure what caused it. "Sam it's me Danny are you all right?" He thought about reaching under the desk and pulling her out, but was afraid that he might hurt her, so instead he took a deep breath and crawled in with her. He put his arms around her and pulled her close.

"It's okay Sam. You're safe here. I won't let anything happen to you."

"Danny?" Sam whispered and cuddled into his embrace. "Don't let him out Danny," she said urgently. Danny could feel the wetness of her tears as she buried her face into his neck.

"Who?" Danny asked as he patted her back.

"Dan." Sam sobbed. "Don't let him get me." Danny's heart constricted painfully as his mind was rushed with thoughts of his evil counterpart. He cuddled her until she drifted into a restful sleep. He felt so bad, as though all her nightmares were his fault. He couldn't blame her from having them either. He closed his eyes as he leaned against the wall and fell asleep.

"Danny!" Jazz hissed as she kicked at his feet. Danny opened his eyes blearily and became aware of Sam still sleeping, practically curled up in his lap, and Jazz standing over him, looking exasperated. Danny eased away from her and stood. His whole body felt cramped and achy.

"What happened?" she asked as she pointed down to Sam who was still sleeping. Danny lead Jazz out of the room. They stood in the hall for a moment, looking around then Danny pulled her into his room.

"Nightmare," Danny said tiredly. "Bad nightmare."

"Why didn't I wake up?" Jazz asked keeping her voice hushed. Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Sam's been through a life and death situation and then under the influence of a ghost All that and having to deal with the whole evil Dan issue. You should have woken me up. I could have helped. " Jazz said then shivered. She'd been through a lot too. Not nearly as much as Sam, but she could certainly understand the nightmares. There was a soft knock on the door. Danny opened it to find Sam standing there, still looking sleepy.

"Are you two going to stand there talking about me all day or are we going to get ready for school?" she asked dryly.

"School!" Jazz said and rushed out of the room. Sam smiled a little as she watched her go.

"Did you sleep all right?" Sam asked.

Danny gave her a sheepish smile. "Not really," he answered. "I'm really worried about you Sam I.."

"Stop!" Sam said as she held up both her hands. "I'm not a baby Danny. I hate that you're all talking about me like I am. I can rescue myself very well thank you!"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "I know Sam, but…"

"No!" Sam said as she shook her head. "You're not going to start leaving me out of things because of some weird need to protect me or because I'm your girlfriend. You never had to before and you don't have to now."

"Okay," Danny agreed. He knew better than to argue with Sam. She gave him a narrowed eyed glare then smiled slightly and kissed him on the cheek.

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Tucker had already arrived and was sitting at the table looking skeptically at something Maddie placed in front of him, which she called, "Eggs, scrambled" but to Tucker it looked more like cooked ectoplasam, scrambled.

Danny, Sam and Jazz all entered the kitchen and almost turned and left when they saw the green on Tucker's plate. But Maddie had already turned around. "Oatmeal for Sam," she said placing a bowl on the table with substance which looked and smelled just like oatmeal inside.

"Can I have oatmeal too?" everyone asked in unison then looked at each other. Maddie gave them all irritated looks.

"You realize," Tucker said as he moved his "eggs" around his plate. "That we are entering today at a serious disadvantage."

"Liability?" Jazz asked.

"I hate that word." Danny said as he swiped a bite of Sam's oatmeal she smacked his hand and he gave her puppy dog eyes. Sam smiled and ruffled his hair. He grabbed her hand and kissed it. Sam grinned and moved her bowl of oatmeal toward him. They smiled at each other a little while longer until they realized Jazz, Tucker and Maddie were strangely silent. They looked away from each other to find Jazz and Tucker leaning their heads on their hands with their elbows on the table and smiling at them. Maddie was grinning too. Both blushed.

"Ooohh!" Jack said as he entered the room oblivious to the embarrassed lovebirds and the teasing spies. "Ectoeggs! Yum" He swiped Tucker's plate and sat down. Tucker gave him a relieved look.

"You were saying something about a liability?" Danny reminded Tucker.

"Oh yeah!" Tucker said. "The thermos. We won't have one today. We only had two and well, they're rather occupied as the moment."

"Fenton Thermos," Jack said. "Hmmmm yes." He shoved a fork full of ectoeggs into his mouth then reached down and threw something at Danny.

"Hey!" Danny said in surprise as he caught it. "Another Fenton Thermos?"

Jack turned his attention away from his eggs for a moment an looked at Danny. "Uhh No!" he said as he grabbed the thermos away from his son. "Wrong one." He handed Danny an alternate thermos then opened the one he took back from Danny. He smiled grandly then put the lid on quickly and looked at Maddie, who kept her back to him. He grinned at his son and gave him the thumbs up sign.

Maddie turned around and sniffed the air for a moment. "Do I smell coffee?" she asked. Then looked straight at Jack. "You don't have coffee do you? You know I've been trying to get you to cut back on the caffeine!"

"But Maddie," Jack whined. "It's decaf!"

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"Your father makes me seriously nervous," Tucker said as they walked from the house. "Are you sure the thermoses with Vlad and Dark Dan are safe with him?"

"Not really," Danny said as he grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Mom will watch out for them," Jazz said as she caught up with the trio. Danny gave her an annoyed look and she smiled.

"It's not like the thermoses would be any safer if we carried them with us all day," Sam said thoughtfully.

"Dad is already working on a permanent container," Jazz said. "All he needs is a ghost to test it on."

Danny tried not to look scared. "Either he's thinking it's going to be me or…" he paled. "Listen guys," he said as he looked around then went ghost. "I really need to check on something. I'll see you at school!" Then he was gone.

"What no kiss good bye?" Sam yelled after him. She looked at Tucker who was smirking. "Shut up!" she said then smacked his arm.

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Danny flew into the lab and stopped. The canisters were still sitting in the containment field and Jack Fenton was sitting at his work space fiddling with some wires and talking to himself.

"Green is mean." He said. "Green is mean. Yellow is mellow. The yellow wire connects here and the green wire connects there. The red wire is for fire. No fire. No fire! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Danny snorted to himself and did his best to keep from laughing. His father was very strange. Danny was just about to materialize when his mother came down the stairs.

"I've been thinking," She said as she stopped and looked at the canisters. "If we increased the resonance on the outer layer then perhaps it will make the thermos stronger."

"Or break it up all together," Jack said as he looked up from his work. "Think we should try?"

"No," Maddie said. "I've been reading some of Vlad's notes. He has a shield which works on both humans and ghosts. I think we need to get one up and running ourselves. We need protection…just in case."

"Just in case what?" Jack asked.

"Just in case we can't figure out how to keep these two villains contained permanently," Maddie said then walked over to Jack and watched him work.

Danny didn't have time to stay any longer and watch. He felt pretty comfortable that they weren't going to mess with the thermos. He left the house and zoomed to school. He caught up with Sam and Tucker just as they closed their lockers.

"Everything ok?" Sam asked. Danny nodded.

"Dude," Tucker said. "It's not going to help anything to be so paranoid. Just relax." Danny looked at him for a moment then nodded his head. They all had to separate for their first classes so they prepared to say good by until lunch.

Danny was able to at least walk Sam to her class. "I'll see you at lunch," She said. "Quit stressing!" She then turned and walked into her class and came face to face with none other than Dash Baxter.

"So," Dash said as he leaned against the wall. "You and your loser boyfriend going to be at the dance tonight? Showing up so we can humiliate him? You really could hang with the cool kids Manson. Why do you insist on being a geek?"

"Why do you insist on being such a jerk?" Sam asked. Anger flickered in Dash's eyes. Sam moved to walk by him.

"Why don't you just ditch the geek and go to the dance with me tonight?" he asked. Sam shot him a look which would have killed if by chance looks could kill. She sat down at her desk and tried to take notes as the teacher lectured, but her mind wandered.

How easy would it be for her to just walk away? She could be normal again, not that she ever considered herself normal or wanted to be, but she could be normal for her. She could turn her back on all the ghosts and ghost fighting and the craziness that went along with it. She'd defiantly no longer be a target for ghosts. She and Tucker were only targets by association with Danny. But turning her back on Danny would be unthinkable. Tears started to sting her eyes and she rested her head on her hand as she drew squiggles on her notebook instead of notes. She just needed a break from all the ghost madness. Hopefully the dance would provide that break, that is if she could keep Danny's mind off of the two villains now residing in Fenton Thermoses at his house. She felt something hit her head and looked up to find Dash throwing paper clips at her. Great, on top of everything today was the day Dash decided to take his harassment up a notch, that meant keeping him away from Danny.

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"Nice jewelry," Tucker said as they met and walked down the hall together. Sam gave him a confused look and he reached over and pulled a paper clip out of her hair. Sam sighed as she looked at the little piece of metal.

"Dash," She said under her breath.

Tucker shook his head as he pulled another paper clip from Sam's hair. "He's giving you a hard time?"

"Yeah," Sam answered. "We need to keep him away from Danny if at all possible. You know if he's harassing me that…" Suddenly they heard loud voices the sound of someone being pounded up against a locker. They were expecting to see Danny against the wall and Dash being the threat, but this time the roles were mind bogglingly reversed. Sam and Tucker stood for a moment then broke out of their daze and ran forward to stop Danny from pounding Dash's head through the lockers.

"Danny stop!" Sam ordered as she grabbed Danny who was angry beyond reason. Tucker looked around for Lancer. A crowd had begun to form and people were whispering.

"Yeah do like your little Gothy girl says and let me go Fentino," Dash said from his position against the wall, acting as if he had total control of the situation. Sam knew it was an act for the crowd. "You sure are a touchy little girl today. Got your period or something?" Danny growled something unintelligible and slammed Dash against the locker again.

Sam felt a frisson of fear go through her at the sight of Danny's anger. Tucker courageously stepped between Danny and Dash. He put his hand on Danny's chest and pushed him back.

"It's not worth it man," he said to Danny. "This is Dash Baxter, Danny. Not our worst enemy."

"Oh I am your worst enemy Fen Ton," Dash laughed. Now that he was free. He looked over at Sam for a second and smirked. "You're lucky your skank girl and little techno geek friend here came to rescue you, or you'd get a butt kicking right about now." Danny leveled his glowing green gaze at Dash, but Dash had already started his escape, brushing past Sam in the process pinching her on the….

"Hey!" Sam squeaked. "Keep your hands to yourself you creep!" she said then immediately wished she kept quiet as Danny ripped himself from Tucker's grasp and lunged for Dash. Luckily Sam stepped between them and Dash was able to escape, laughing as he ran down the hall.

"Danny stop!" Sam yelled as she forced Danny to look at her. "Stop!" His glowing green gaze met hers. "There are worse things than Dash Bastard," she whispered. "He's not worth it."

"Dash Bastard?" Tucker said then laughed. Danny said nothing as his glowing green gaze locked with Sam's eyes. She could still feel the tension in his body as she held on to him. She could tell he was still ready to fight.

"You're really scaring me Danny," she whispered and with that all the fight and rage went out of Danny and he looked away and apologized.

"What did Dash say to make you so mad," Tucker asked.

"It doesn't matter," Danny said as he kept his eyes to the ground. "You're right he's not our worst enemy. Tucker and Sam looked at each other questioningly.

"Maybe we should just go to lunch," Tucker suggested.

"Yeah," Sam agreed as they lead Danny away to the cafeteria, where Paulina awaited them. Paulina and thankfully, Valerie.

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I know I said I wasn't going to put up a new story until after the new year, but I've been inspired and am far enough ahead and mapped out enough on this story that I don't fear the "don't disappoint people" rush. In fact I am feeling the need for review and the truth be told I am kinda liking this story an want to see if my instincts about it are right. I am going to wait a few days for a few reviews to post Chapter 2. If I get enough pleas to update I might sooner so..REVIEW!