Author's Notes: I still don't own Danny Phantom.

I feel like this story is kind of bogging down, or at least not moving like I'd like it to. It's so hard to tell from inside the story. Anyway, here it is.

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She pulled her hands from his as she jumped to her feet, forgetting the injury to her ankle and cursing when she brought her weight down on it. She seemed to turn the anger she should have directed at the pain in her joint on him.

"You know, that worked when I was a stupid teenager. It doesn't fly now." She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a cell phone. Yanking the phone open, she punched a single button somewhat harder than necessary. "Yeah, it's me. It's a go." She slammed the phone shut and looked down at Danny, who was gaping up at her from his position sitting on the floor. He seemed to snap out of it as he stood.

"Sam, I don't want to..."

"I don't care what you want. It's not always about what you want. You don't get to decide what I..."

The doorbell rang, interrupting them again. A grateful Danny hurried over and hauled the door open. A tall, dark-skinned young man wearing wire-rimmed glasses and dressed in khakis and a polo shirt stood on the other side seeming a little surprised at the hasty response.

Sam limped to stand behind Danny and grinned. "How did you get here so fast?"

Tucker Foley stepped into the small apartment without bothering to wait for an invitation from its owner and bent down to scoop the much smaller Sam into a warm hug. Danny couldn't conceal his growing irritation, and--if he was willing to admit it to himself--jealousy any longer. "If you two are through with your touching little reunion, do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"I called Tucker to come, but I thought he was still in..." "...Florida. But when she called me yesterday I just took a flight out here. I figured it would be faster if you needed me."

Nice. They were finishing each other's sentences now. Danny felt a pang of...something when he thought about the years that they'd been in touch with each other, sharing their lives without him. Sam gave him a semi-smile. "After I talked to Jazz and she told me what was going on here, I called Tuck. I told him about the dreams and we both thought, I mean, it was a slim chance but that there might have been a connection. I told him we might need his help."

Tucker, meanwhile, had opened the soft case he was carrying and was rifling through it. "You'll be glad you did when you see what I've got here."

Tucker had so far lived the life Danny knew he would. Offered a job by a prestigious tech firm before he had even finished college, Tucker was now designing gear in their lab headquarters in Florida while simultaneously studying for his doctorate. His employers footed the bill while paying him well for his work. Danny looked over the piece of shiny equipment in front of him, and Sam sighed as her cell phone rang.

"Yes? This is Sam Manson. What is it? You...are you sure? Why? It doesn't make...yes, yes. I understand." She eyed Danny and Tucker. "I'll have to call you back." She hung up the phone and looked like she might toss it out the window. "What is it," Tucker asked with what Danny felt was far too much concern in his voice.

"Oh, it's not anything I can't deal with." She folded her arms in front of her in a posture Danny remembered all too well. "The foundation that backed my company wants to call in their loans. Immediately. They want me at a meeting first thing in the morning to discuss it. They say if I'm not there, they'll have no choice."

Danny jumped on this bit of news like a drowning man grasping a life preserver. "Well, that's that then. It was really good to see you, and we'll have to keep in touch now. I can go get your car from the school for you if you wait here." If he could just get the pair of them gone. Then maybe this lump in his chest would dissolve and he could go back to grading poorly-spelled papers and fending off doe eyes from the girls in his class. And fighting ghosts alone.

This time she did throw the phone. It bounced on the beige carpet and landed a few feet away. "You really can't be that thick, Danny. If they pull the loan, they pull it. If the company goes under, it goes under." She limped to the futon and sat. "Stop looking at me like that."

Tucker cleared his throat. "Have you guys had dinner? I'm guessing you haven't had dinner. It's like nearly eight o'clock and I'm starving. Why don't I go get some takeout and I'll be back in a few." He left without waiting for a response. This all felt so familiar, Tucker slipping out to leave Sam arguing with him. Of course in the past it had always been with some comment about leaving the lovebirds alone.

"Sam, I thought this company was your dream. You've worked so hard for it. Even if I did want you here, I couldn't let you lose it on my account." He sat down next to her and resisted the urge to stare into her eyes until he forgot about ghosts, energy bars and anything that didn't involve kissing her.

"You don't know what my dreams are, Danny. You never did." Her voice was so quiet he hardly heard her. She was looking down at her hands in her lap. "You took my dreams away from me. So if you want to get rid of me, don't make excuses. But don't think it's going to be easy, either."

Danny stared at her for a full five minutes, stunned. He took her dreams away? What the hell was she talking about? He tried to ask her but found his voice cracking. He settled for standing up and pacing the small room. Unfortunately his legs were long and the room was small, so it didn't take many steps. "Sam, I want you to go home. Just please...don't argue with me and don't take it personally. I can handle this myself." He felt an old guilt slip onto his shoulders like a familiar well-worn coat. Pushing her away had become second nature during their last year of school, but it had never gotten any easier.

Of all the things she could have said, it was the one word he dreaded the most. "No."

"What do you mean, no? Didn't you hear what I..."

"Amity Park is my home, Danny. In case you've forgotten. And you won't make me leave it this time." He could have sworn he hearda barely audible "Or you."

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He smiled as he read the article for the fifth time. The headline jumped out at him. "Young Entrepreneur Challenges Natural Foods Status Quo." The tiny article on the last page of the Seattle Times business section praised a woman who started a small busines selling natural, recycled and vegetarian products when she hadn't been able to find a pair of decent non-leather boots.

He glanced out the window of his small dorm room, watching the snow from a late winter storm swirl in the air as he tried to imagine her life. She was doing something he knew she'd enjoy. She was living Life. The Life with a capital L that he'd dreamed for her. He looked again at the envelope the newspaper had come in. No return address. Typed label. It didn't seem like Sam to have sent it, but it had a Seattle postmark. It must have been. She'd stopped sending letters two years ago, but maybe she still thought of him, wanted to share her success.

He read through the article again, then slipped the paper into his desk drawer. Lately he'd been having regrets, wondering if he'd been wrong to work so hard to push Sam and Tucker away. Now he knew he'd done the right thing. It didn't make things any less lonely, though, he thought as he slipped on his coat and hurried out the door for his first class.