A/N: Sorry it's taken so long, folks. I've ben busy at work, being it's Toys-R-Us and the season, it's been hell. Besides the fact that I'm in the electronics department, but enough of that. Here's the next chapter and hopefully I won't take so long for the next one. Hope you all had a Happy Turkey Day and have a good Christmas Season!

Chapter Ten: Guardian Angel In Black

"You two idiots really have to get yourselves together. Not to mention grow a brain," Desire rubbed his temples in frustration, "It's been two weeks and you two haven't even touched her."

"Not true, we have touched her. Held her, pinned her a few times…" the shorter one piped up as he threw ice toward his taller partner to put on his aching crotch.

"I don't mean just physical touching, I meant to touch her in a way to break her," Desire looked back at them and with a wave of his hand relieved the pain from the man's groin, "I've done nearly all the damage to her by acting like I'm Phantom. Her moral and grip of reality is unstable, no thanks to you two."

"We've roughed her up a bit since she's gotten here," the tall one threw the bag of ice back at his partner.

"She's not like the other women and girls in here, you moron," Desire spat and floated in mid air, "She's the kind of woman who doesn't mind if her face will be bruised or cut if she still has her pride and innocence. We can beat her to the point of near death and she wouldn't care as long as she has everything that she holds dear."

"Than what do you want us to do, Desire?" the short one threw his hands up in the air, "I'm tired of going in there and coming out frustrated, empty handed and most of the time beaten. I never knew a woman to have such a good left hook."

"I'm going to help you this time," Desire sighed, "I just wish I didn't have to do everything around here for you two incompetent fools."

"You're actually going to join us?" one said, slightly interested in the idea.

"No, I'm not going to help that much," he charged his hands a bit and the glowing light shot from his hands and into the two men, "It will get some getting used to, but this does make you faster. With any luck, this will be just enough for you two to get her down and … do what you two do the best."

One of the men shook his arms and smiled, "Whew! What a rush. Maybe we should check it out, huh?"

"Sounds like an idea," the other smiled, "Let's go visit Miss Spitfire."

Desire rolled his eyes as his two puppets walked out of the room that they were using for sleeping quarters. He sighed in frustration and felt the pounding in his head begin again. He looked to his side and floated toward a table that had some alcohol. Being a ghost, he didn't have to worry about becoming drunk, and he did enjoy the taste of the human drink. He wondered if in the other times that he had visited in this world had the invention of beer or if it was primarily an item of this one time period.

As he floated, he thought he heard the pounding becoming louder and it wasn't coming from his head. It was coming from the roof. A crash had sounded above his room from the windows and glass in the storage room above being broken to bits. He stopped and looked at the ceiling of the room.

"Looks like we have a visitor," he growled and was about to fly out of the room when the ceiling was blasted in by a thick, green ecto-blast. He was thrown to the floor and slid into a bookcase at the side of the room, "A very annoying, thorn in the side kind of visitor."

"Yeah, and I have a few choice names for you too, Desire," Danny flew in from the ceiling, both of his fists and eyes glowing bright green, "Where's Sam?"

"Why do you think I have your little friend?" he chuckled and stood up in front of the young man.

Danny rushed forward and pushed Desire against the wall in a choke hold a couple of feet off of the ground. He stared Desire in the eyes and snarled, "Don't play dumb with me, Desire. Both of us are smart enough to know you have her here. Who else would have the sick enough mind to rape the most important person to me? You've sunk to the lowest level anyone would ever get to."

"I'm only using my enemy's weakness against them," Desire choked out from under Danny's gloved hand. After gripping at the young halfa's hand he knew that he wasn't going to break free by just clawing at him. He brought up his hand and blasted Danny in the gut, sending him flying to the other side of the room and through the thin wall.

Danny shot up from the rubble and flew back into the room after Desire, "You sound just like Vlad."

"Sounds like a man I need to meet," Desire rubbed at his neck and jumped out of the way from Danny's blast.

"You two are evil enough to keep each other company," Danny charged for another blast and yelled at Desire, "Where's Sam?"

Desire blasted back at Danny, but missed, "As you said, she should be getting raped just about now."

Danny stopped in mid air and looked at Desire with his glowing fist in front of him, "Tell me where."

"Come now, Daniel. Where would be the fun in that?" Desire chuckled, "I have to tell you… you did pick quite a woman to fall in love with. She's a fighter. All this time and I believe twelve attempts by my associates and she survived this long. But this time they have speed and should be able to take her."

"Where!" Danny screamed and aimed directly in his chest.

"Why even try to threaten me? I can't die. I never lived," Desire whispered.

"Than no one will ever miss you," Danny fired a powerful blast at the specter and Desire flew through the wall of the room, out of the hospital and in and back out of Amity Park city limits. Danny stared at the horizon line that Desire had disappeared behind and knew that he would be back. He wasn't going to leave that easy.

"No! Let go of me!" a scream filled the hallways of the hospital and Danny snapped his head toward the noise.

"Sam…"

Danny flew down the hallways, peeking into countless rooms becoming more frustrated with every passing moment. He finally stopped in one of the hallways, closed his eyes and focused on Sam. He finally felt himself flying to the ground level. His feet hit the ground and led him through walls, around corners and finally right outside one of the many rooms. He felt himself transforming back into his normal human self and he opened his eyes. In front of him, two men were holding his best friend on the ground, trying to rip her pants from her body.

Anger boiled in his body. His eyes were glowing a bright green, even though he was only in his human form. He didn't need to go ghost to beat both of the men to bloody pulps of human flesh. He could do that with his bare hands with the way he was feeling at the moment. They were not going to get away with this. Desire's influence or not, they were the ones that were going to pay at the moment.

"Get away from her!" he screamed and walked into the room.

The two men looked up from their soon to be victim and stared in confusion at the young man in front of them. They looked at one another and smirked. It was the same boy that was with her earlier on the same day they took her. Sam looked up and saw Danny walking through the doorway. It looked like Danny, it sounded like Danny… could he finally be here? Or was it another game to create the ultimate humiliation for her?

"Just go home, kid," the tall one stood up and began to walk toward Danny. The shorter one held on to Sam and twisted her arms a bit to tell her not to run.

"Don't tell me what to do when it concerns my best friend," Danny growled and pushed the man out of his way. The man stumbled a bit, surprised at the strength that the boy had. He shook his head and grabbed Danny's arm to turn him back around.

"Now hold on there," he started until Danny turned around and punched the guy right in the mouth, sending him flying to the floor. He looked at the man for a few minutes, waiting for him to get up and then continued on.

"Now, hold on, sonny," the short one said and let go of Sam. She crawled away from the man and pushed against a wall to the side as Danny continued to approach the man, "We were just doing what we were told to do."

"And enjoying it too," Danny snarled and raised his fist to hit the man.

"No, no!" the short man tried to move to tackle Danny, but Danny was able to punch him first. He hit him in the gut and felt the man lift off the ground a couple of inches. He hit him another time in the gut and then once more in the right eye. The short man fell to the ground as well and looked up at the boy, "Fine, take her. Take her."

Danny watched him as he crawled over to his unconscious friend. Danny began to turn and run at them when he saw the short one begin to pull his friend out the door. He wanted to punish them more and he didn't want them to get away. He picked up speed and almost caught up to them until the short one was able to shut the door on him and lock the security devices in place.

"Shouldn't have given them that head start," Danny kicked the wall and turned around to see Sam still pushed up against the wall, gripping at her partially torn shirt and pants.

"Sam…" he breathed and took a few steps toward her. Something was off and he could feel it, but didn't think that much of it.

"You've learned a new trick," she said in a small, shaky voice that wasn't like Sam at all. Was that fear he detected?

"True, I usually don't fight out of ghost mode, but it's nothing you haven't seen before," he stopped a few feet away from her when he saw a slightly swollen lip and a few dozen bruises, "God, what did they do to you?"

As he reached out to her, she flinched and scooted away to the side, since she couldn't go backwards anymore, "Still playing the game are we?"

"Are you afraid of me?" he asked and pulled his hand back, hurt.

"What do you think, Desire? You think that beating up your cronies and shaping yourself like Danny is going to make me drop my defenses?" she spat at him, stopping just half an inch short of his sneakers, "You can copy his voice. It doesn't surprise me that you can copy his appearance too."

Danny looked at Sam and took a shaky breath, 'She's doesn't believe it's me. Damn you, Desire! What did you do to her?'

"Aren't you disappointed you can't play with me anymore?" Sam sneered and stood up, using the wall as a support, "You can't trick me."

"I know, you're too smart for tricks, Sam. Always have been," Danny nodded and held a hand to his chest. It hurt so much. He never knew that it would. He never knew it would hurt so much to have Sam not trust him, "Tucker and I could never trick you on April Fool's. You always got us first."

Sam's face faltered for a moment. She took a deep breath and Danny could see a small tear run down the side of her face, "Did you read that from my mind as well?"

"No, I lived it," Danny said and stood still as he watched Sam battle reality with fiction, "Please Sam."

"What else do you know about me?"

"Everything, Sam," Danny took a tentative step forward, "You can't be best friends with someone for fourteen years and not know them."

"Stop!" she held out her hand and he froze in his position, "Just stop torturing me like this! You know how much he means to me. Okay, I'm broken. You've won. I want to believe that you are Danny… so much… but I… I…"

Her tears were starting to overflow and she couldn't stop from choking on them a bit. Danny closed his eyes and turned his head off to the side, "Just trust me."

"I can't…" she said slowly and watched as Danny dropped to his knees. Her own heart was being torn in half. What if this was the real Danny? What was she doing to him? She's telling her best friend that she didn't trust or care for him anymore.

"What do I need to do to help you believe?" he lifted his head and looked at her, "Tell me! What do I need to do? You want me to fly to the moon and come back? You want me to transform and blow this whole building up? You want me to get Jazz to vouch for me? What, Sam? Please tell me what to do…"

Sam cringed at his words. What was she doing? More tears came and she looked at what she thought was her best friend, "I don't know. He knows everything that's going on. How can I trust what I hear and see?"

"Because you once said that there was only one place where you can feel safe," he dropped his head, "And I want to be that place again."

"Danny…" she whispered and cried out in frustration, dropping to her knees.

Danny clenched his fists and hugged himself in some kind of attempt to think of a plan. He felt something in his pocket and pulled out a single, white tulip. He had picked so many in the past week. He just picked this one the day before. He looked up at Sam who was now on her knees, crying into her hands. He stood up, slowly and walked toward Sam. She didn't seem to hear him or see him coming toward her and he stopped when he was right in front of her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered and her head popped up to see a single white tulip in front of her face with Danny standing behind it. Her breath hitched in her throat and she could only stare at the flower, "You can take it, you know. It's for you. I picked it."

Sam reached out cautiously and took the flower from the young man in front of her. Suddenly she was violently thrown into her own past. It was fourteen years ago. She was only three years old in a small sundress, sitting on the ground crying. A small boy came up to her holding a flower and apologized to her.

"Why?" she heard herself ask.

When she looked back at the older Danny she saw the same little boy that she met on that playground so long ago.

The little boy tilted his head to the side and rubbed the back of his head with his still chubby hands.

"I'm sorry for falling on you," he looked away in embarrassment, "From the mon'ey bars. I not holding on hard."

"How'd you know it was my favorite?"

"I had a feeling…like I just knew."

Sam found herself back in the present on the metal floor of her prison. She held the flower tightly to her chest and her eyes finally fluttered open from her flashback. She looked up, still thinking she was going to find that little boy smiling awkwardly at her, instead she saw the young man that he had grown to be. And the one she had fallen in love with.

"Thank you… Danny…" she whispered and stood up. She took a couple of small steps toward him and finally let go of all her doubt. She threw herself into him and hugged him around the neck. She buried her face into the crook of his neck and began to cry full heartedly. She almost pushed her best friend away because of a stupid fear. She almost lost the most important thing in her life.

"You forgive me?" he asked as he hugged her around the waist and pushed his face into her hair on the top of her head.

"There's nothing to forgive, Danny. I'm the one that should be sorry and should be apologizing," she smiled against his neck, "Just get me out of here."

"Just hold on," he said and transformed into Danny Phantom and picked her up to carry her bridal style. He phased through the wall to the outside and began to fly home.

She finally found herself in her safe zone once again and felt herself finally falling into a restful, peaceful sleep. She looked up at her rescuer, her best friend and the love of her life and smiled softly before drifting off into sleep, "I didn't know that angels wore black…"

Danny smirked and looked at Sam sleeping in his arms, "Neither did I, until I met you."

Jazz was getting some more of the disinfectant out of the medicine cabinet when she heard the back kitchen door being kicked open. She grabbed the bottle and a few dozen bandages and ran out to the kitchen where her brother was closing the door… with Sam asleep in his arms.

"Sam!" she yelled and ran over to her brother, "Is she okay?"

"She fell asleep," Danny said gently and walked toward the guest room, "Which I doubt she has been doing much of these days."

"Where are you going?"

"Up to her room, to get her to a bed," he continued to whisper, "She has some pretty bad bruising. Her jaw doesn't look so good, either. I need you to look at her."

Jazz nodded and went back into the bathroom to get some more supplies and more bandaging.

Danny quietly laid her on her bed and covered her with one of the fleece blankets from the end of the bed. She stirred a little and began to breath heavily. She jumped a bit and her eyes flew open.

"Shhh," Danny touched her shoulder and pushed her back into the bed, "It's okay, Sam. You're home. Don't worry, I'm here."

Sam took a few deep breaths and settled back into the pillows, "Thank God, it wasn't a dream."

Danny smiled and the two of them just stared at one another. She looked away a few times and them smiled as big as she could with a swollen jaw. She finally settled her eyes on the while tulip she was still holding in her hands.

"How did you know that was going to bring me back to reality?"

"I didn't really," Danny said and looked at the flower as well, "It was just something I had to try. I would have tried absolutely everything to get you back."

After a few moments Jazz tapped on the door.

"Hey Sam. It's such a relief to see you," she smiled and came to sit on the other side of the bed. She set a bowl of disinfectants, medication and bandages off to the side of the bed.

"Hey Jazz," she nodded her head and looked at Danny, "I can kinda see where this is going."

"I'll be right outside the door," he stood up, "Did you want anything to eat, drink?"

"You have no idea," Sam said and heard her stomach begin to growl.

"I'll get you some salads and soup," Danny leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. He then turned and walked out the door and toward the kitchen.

"Now, let me take a look at you, huh?" Jazz began to took out an ice pack she had, "Starting with that jaw."

"Better you than a stranger," Sam looked at the woman in front of her, "I couldn't tell them what had happened while I was there. You… you're like a sister. I can tell you anything."

"Good to hear," Jazz genuinely smiled and hugged Sam lightly, "Now… tell me where it hurts."

After an hour or so Jazz came out from her room, closing the door softly behind her and found Danny sitting across the hall. He was clenching his teeth and was staring at the floor at Jazz's feet.

"How's she doing?" he nearly growled.

"She's sleeping again," she said softly.

"What the Hell happened to her, Jazz?" he finally looked up at her and she never knew her little brother's eyes to hold so much anger, so much hate. He took a deep breath and turned away from her knowing he wasn't going to get an answer from her by staring her down. Besides, she hadn't done anything to deserve the way he was feeling at the moment.

Jazz sighed and collapsed against the wall by the door, sliding to the floor outside the guest room, "Exactly that, Danny. She's been through Hell. And you just happen to be her guardian angel."