There is a slight fluffage alert applicable to this chapter. I hope it's not found to be too riske. I did a great deal of thought and modification of the certain fluffy parts. I simply couldn't exclude them or change the situation. Two people who care about each other are going to express it in certain ways, it wouldn't be realistic for them not to. Skip the fluff if you want…it is less fluffier after the XxXxX separation.

Chapter Three

Sam woke up slowly and feeling remarkably refreshed. She cuddled into the warm arms around her and listened for a moment to the steady heartbeat beneath her ear. Sam sighed contentedly and opened her eyes to…darkness. She sat up in confusion then turned and looked at her alarm clock. The bright red numbers told her it was 9:53.

"Danny," She said only slightly alarmed. So they missed the dance. Big deal. What worried her is that Danny's parents were probably freaking out at this moment. She shook him and he groaned.

"Too tired," He said.

"We've been sleeping for 8 hours!" Sam said as she pinched at him. She was so relieved to wake up and find him back in human form. She'd thought that the threat of the Phantom shedding his human half was gone, but from what she'd seen today, she feared the reverse was true, they had more to worry about than ever.

"What time is it?" Danny said groggily.

"9:56," answered Sam. Danny didn't act surprised. "Everyone is probably worried ."

"I talked to Tucker," Danny told her lazily as he pulled her back down beside him and tucked her head under his chin.

"When?" Sam asked feeling amused at Danny cuddling her.

"I don't know," Danny answered. "He called on your cell phone."

"My cell?" Sam asked in alarm then pulled away and went searching for it in her pocket.

"It's over there," Danny said as he gestured to the night stand. "I turned it off. We were both too tired to be disturbed."

"You're going to be so grounded," Sam warned.

"At this point I so don't care," Danny told her then pulled her close and held her. Sam pulled away and looked at Danny for a moment. She could vaguely make out his blue eyes in the darkness. She relaxed and he looked back at her questioningly.

"Nothing is wrong," She told him as she stroked the side of his face. "I was just making sure."

"Making sure I am me?" Danny asked. Sam smiled sheepishly and he pulled her back down and kissed her.

"We really need to be getting back to your house," Sam said. "I don't want your parents to start forbidding us to see each other or anything.

"I'm sorry Sam," he said feeling bad for wanting to from hide his fears by drowning himself in her. He still wanted to. He still wanted to hold her and kiss her and forget everything else. She sat up and leaned against him. Danny leaned back.

"Your dad is probably going to kill one of us!" She replied as she rubbed his shoulders.

"Me," Danny said softly. "I'm the responsible party here. I'm the one who ran away from school making you worry. I'm the one who had an opportunity to wake you and didn't. I'm the one who hung up on Tucker."

Sam laughed, "You hung up on Tucker?" Danny nodded and Sam smiled and kissed his neck. He shivered and she smiled. She stood and stretched. Then turned on the light. Both she and Danny blinked for awhile, trying to adjust to the brightness. "I'm just going to gather a few more things together," she said. "And if you don't mind I'm going to take a shower. Showering at your house is….dangerous."

"What?" Danny said in mock offense. "You don't like the Fenton High Power Shower?"

"I like my skin on my body," Sam said as she walked into the bathroom.

"So do I," Danny called teasingly. Sam looked over her shoulder and smiled.

Danny walked around Sam's room. He did feel better. He actually didn't want to go into how he was feeling at the moment, but his thoughts of Sam in the shower just on the other side of the wall convinced him that he was really was human after all. He smiled wryly. Sam was hard to resist. He smiled rather goofily then picked up the phone to call home.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"It's 11:30!" Jazz screamed as Danny, Sam, Jack and Maddie sat at the kitchen table. "What exactly were you thinking?"

"That I was tired," Danny answered. "I just needed to rest." He looked at Sam who nodded.

"We fell asleep." Sam said. She was feeling pretty awake now though. She actually felt more alert and together since she had made several resolutions in the shower. The first being that she and Danny needed a little distance in their relationship and the other that she'd do what she could to keep the pressure off of him. He seemed so tormented by the darker aspects of himself. She smiled, the darker aspects weren't always all bad.

Jack opened his mouth to say something, but Maddie put her hand on his shoulder, which was a subtle signal to be quiet, that for the sake of his health he'd learned to listen to. He sighed and Maddie smiled.

"Next time," Maddie began. "Let us know where you are Sweetie. We were extremely worried about you. Besides, weren't you supposed to go to a dance? Didn't you stand up Tucker?"

"Trust me Mom," Danny said. "Tucker was glad that we weren't at the dance."

"So what are we going to do with Vlad and the others" Jazz asked as she changed the subject. "I vote for shooting them off into space."

Jack's eyes lit up. "Hey that's not a bad idea Jazz!" he said excitedly. "We could…"

"No!" Danny said. "I don't think that's an option." Maddie placed a salad in front of Sam and then a greenish looking…thing in front of Danny. She instructed both of them to eat. Danny looked longingly at Sam's normal looking salad.

"Mom," he said. "I think I'm going to become a vegetarian." Everyone laughed but Sam, who became excited and began talking about how cool and earth conscious vegetarianism is.

"Okay," Jazz interrupted her. "Not to burst your bubble Sam, but Danny is a carnivore. He couldn't go without some sort of meat without going insane." Danny shrugged and Sam sighed.

"So what about the thermoses?" Danny asked. "I'd like to go through the portal and see if I can find Clockwork. I'm sure he has some clue as to what needs to be done."

With that, everyone headed down to the basement. Danny changed to his ghost form then stood in front of the portal. He looked at Sam a moment. "I won't be gone long," he promised.

"Oh pulleeezze," Jazz said. "Just kiss her and get it over with." Sam blushed and Maddie and Jack looked away. Jack whistling as he looked up at the ceiling and rocked on his heels with his hand behind his back and Maddie was humming pretending to clean off one of the work stations with a cloth.

"Blech," Sam said her eyes sparkling with humor. "I don't want to kiss a ghost. Yuck." Danny advanced on her with a very predatory look in his green glowing eyes. He grabbed her and kissed her cheek. She giggled and kissed his cheek back. Danny winked at Sam and she winked back.

"Oh give me a break!" Jazz said in exasperation. "You two are pathetic." Danny and Sam laughed then Danny turned and flew through the portal, leaving Sam standing there feeling bereft and at a loss as what to do next.

Jazz grabbed her arm. "Come with me," she said. "We need to talk."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Danny flew through the Ghost Zone, unsure how to find Clockwork. Was he even in the Ghost Zone. He said he existed outside of time. He had to be watching. He had to know Danny was looking for him. Danny caught a glimps of light from the corner of his eye. He turned to see a large corridor. He hesitated for a moment then went through.

Clockwork stood waiting for Danny. He smiled slightly as the ghost boy came rushing through the portal. "I need your help." Danny said breathlessly as he came to a stop in front of the entity.

Clockwork motioned for Danny to follow. "You are worried about your darker side," he said. "You think because it overcame you once, that it will overcome you again. But you must remember young Danny that it didn't overcome you without help. Plasmius had a hand in Dark Dan's creation. He is a part of that entity as well."

"Yes, but doesn't everything lead to that final outcome?" Danny asked. "Me wanting to be rid of the Phantom of it's darker side of me and seeking to separate from it which…"

"No no!" Clockwork laughed. "Your fears are quite without foundation. How can you be forgetting so much? The Phantom in you isn't evil! It is what you mold it to be. It is good or bad or happy or sad, amplified. If you chose to be evil. It will be evil times ten. If you chose to be filled with goodness, so it shall be goodness times ten. But I must caution you that humans have many facets to their personality. No one is entirely one thing or another, even Vlad himself. Even he has traces of goodness in his make up."

"But I have felt such anger…" Danny started.

"And you think humans do not feel anger? Do you think anger is wrong? Do you think it is not justified to feel the rush of rage when justice has been abused or a loved one wronged?" Clockwork turned to Danny and shook his head. "It isn't anger you need to overcome, but fear."

"Fear?" Danny asked.

"The great disabler," Clockwork answered. "Fear can make you doubt your choices and yourself. Fear can cause you to stumble and lose your footing. Fear causes pain. Anger is the result of pain. Anger caused by fear is most unreasonable."

Danny thought for a moment then smiled slightly. He felt much better now. It was his choice alone whether or not he was good or evil, it wasn't something which would simply overcome him without warning. That the darker feelings he'd been having were just that, darker feelings, amplified. He understood now better than before. Vlad and even Dash could harass him all they wished, but as long as he desired it to be so, he would stay Danny Fenton, good guy...okay mostly good guy.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Jazz closed the door to her room behind herself then turned to Sam. "Okay time to spill the beans," she said. "What's going on?"

Sam sat on her sleeping bag on the floor and took a deep breath. What did Jazz want her to spill the beans about? About her relationship with Danny? About what she herself was going through? About what Danny was going through? Well it wasn't like Danny had talked to Sam about his feelings and fears, but she knew him well enough to know what was bothering him the most.

"What do you mean? With Danny and I?" Sam asked.

Jazz flopped down on her bed and looked at Sam for a moment. "I mean everything," Jazz clarified. "Starting with you. How are you doing? Nightmares?"

"I'm actually feeling better than I was," Sam answered warily. She knew she could trust Jazz, but Jazz could be bossy and annoying, plus she wouldn't with hold information if she deemed it important to spill it. Sam weighed her options. Who else did she have to talk to about things like her relationship with Danny? Okay other than Tucker?

"What happened this afternoon?" Jazz asked as she half leaned forward on the bed. "I mean you came to me frantically looking for Danny. Apparently you found him but…ummm then what?" she trailed off and looked at Sam meaningfully.

Sam's eyes widened. What did Jazz think happened? Sam felt heat rush across her face. "I found him asleep," Sam answered. "He'd had a really bad day. He got into a bad fight with Dash."

"Yeah I heard about that," Jazz said. "He must have really snapped."

Sam shook her head and continued. "He says he flunked a Vocabulary test and is getting a D in Geography…"

"And his two worst enemies are downstairs in the lab under the watchful eye of our crazy parents," Jazz finished. Sam took a deep breath and nodded. "So you found him and consoled him," Jazz said then smiled knowingly.

Sam covered her face with one hand. "No." She answered. "Well yes but…I found him asleep."

"And you woke him up?" Jazz prodded.

"Not really," Sam answered. "He told me he was tired. I was tired too. So I fell asleep. Next thing I know I was waking up at it was night. We slept for 8 hours."

"We were pretty worried," Jazz said coolly as she sat and reached for a jar of fingernail polish from her nightstand drawer. "Is that all that happened?"

"Yes," Sam said as she watched Jazz starting to paint her toenails pink. "We woke up. I took a shower and came here. Why are you giving me the third degree?"

Jazz gave Sam an exasperated look. "I'm not giving you the third degree. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on in your head, and Danny's."

"I don't know what's going on in Danny's head," Sam said feeling exasperated herself. "He's not really talking to me about stuff like that."

"But he should be!" Jazz said in annoyance as she jabbed the fingernail brush in the bottle. "Why does he insist on keeping everything in?" She sighed heavily.

Sam shrugged and smiled slightly because she understood something Jazz didn't. "He's a boy," Sam told her. "They don't like to talk about their feelings much."

"What about you?" Jazz asked. "I mean you're not a boy. So lets talk about your feelings." Sam sighed and remembered something Danny said about amateur psychoanalysis. She considered for a moment, telling Jazz to bug off, but the pain lingering in her heart stopped her. She'd been trying to ignore it, to push it inside, but now that an outlet for expression had presented itself, the pain bubbled to the surface, demanding to be acknowledged.

Sam looked away from Jazz hoping that Danny's sister didn't see the tears rising in her eyes. The truth was she was scared. Who wouldn't be? But what exactly was she scared of?

"I'm scared I'm going to lose him." Sam admitted softly as she looked down at her hands.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Jazz said her eyes flashing at amusement at the fact that Sam was insecure. "Danny loves you. He has for a very long time. He…"

"That's not what I mean," Sam interrupted. She sighed and looked up at Jazz. "I mean I might lose him to himself, to his ghost half." She told Jazz about the incident with Dash and what he was like talking to Valerie. She told her that when she found him asleep he hadn't even changed back to human form.

"I think I'm going to lose him. If not to Vlad or his future evil self, then to his present self." Sam finished what she was saying and looked up at Jazz. She expected the older girl to be staring at her, but instead Jazz was laying on her back looking up at the ceiling, wiggling her toes in the air.

"So," Sam continued. "I've decided the best thing is to distance myself from him. He's doing the same I can tell. That way it won't hurt so bad. You know?"

Jazz finally rolled over and looked at Sam. "You're stupid. Both of you!"

"Stupid?" Sam asked incredulously. "How is protecting myself being stupid?

"Because you're just willing to give him up without a fight! Just going to walk away like a scared little girl." Jazz shook her head disbelievingly.

Sam smiled wryly. "I kinda am a scared little girl Jazz."

Jazz sighed. "Lau Tzu said, 'Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.' I'd think that if you truly loved Danny that you would find that courage inside you."

"Who is Lau Tzu," Sam asked as she tried to change the subject.

"He's the founder of Taoism," Jazz answered. "And don't try to change the subject on me."

"I think Danny needs your love Sam. I know he has Mom, Dad and me. He even has Tucker. But you are there for him in a way none of us can be. He trusts you deeper than anyone. I've known that for a long time." Jazz looked uncomfortable for a moment then a mischievous grin spread across her face.

Jazz surveyed her freshly painted toenails as she considered spilling what she knew about the feelings Danny carried for Sam and a few particulars she knew about. "Well…anyway," She continued deciding that she couldn't spill all the personal effects of Danny's heart out without a great deal of guilt. "Don't abandon him Sam. Not now when he needs you."

Sam stood and walked over to the window. "So I have little choice. I either distance myself and hurt him, which means losing him. Or I commit myself whole heartedly and risk losing him and myself. I don't like either option."

"The things which take the most courage and involve the most risk are the things most worth risking your life for." Jazz told her.

"Who said that?" Sam asked.

"I did." Jazz answered.

"Okay," Sam said. "I won't give up, but if something bad happens. I'm blaming you." Jazz frowned and looked worriedly at her pink toes.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Down in the basement. beneath the light of the containment shield, one of the thermoses began to shake and rattle. The lid of the container moved a fraction of an inch, then a fraction of an inch more. The thermos rocked and rocked and finally fell to the floor and opened. Laughter filled the room then the portal opened. One thermos was left standing on the table, the sound of the empty fallen container echoed in the silence of the lab. The silence didn't last long as a screaming alarm went off alerting the Fenton household that their security had been breeched.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was my worry about certain aspects that detained this chapter from being posted. Now that we are over that hill….expect quicker updates!