Chapter 3

"Desiree!" Emily yelled before she even quite knew what she was doing. A second later, Desiree came through the wall, floating lazily a few inches from the ceiling.

"You called?" she asked in an evil voice, a smirk forming on her face. She knew why Emily had called. A second later, the smirk faded and she spluttered in surprise as she was pinned against the wall of lockers by one of Emily's hands, glowing with ectoplasm and shaking slightly with anger and effort. Well, at least my ghost powers still work in this universe...world...whatever it is. The thought didn't comfort her much. A few feet away, Tucker was still comforting Danny, still unaware of anything unusual going on.

"You foul...evil...you..." Emily growled into Desiree's ear. A minute later, she was shouting, even though she didn't realize she was doing it. Often, the CP made her have trouble controlling the volume of her voice, especially when she was angry. And that was definitely now. Thank god no one could hear her.

"How could you have done this to me? Do you want to torture me or something? Sam is one of my best friends! Bring her back, you hear me! BRING HER BACK!" Desiree looked slightly nonplussed for a minute before she regained her composure-and her smirk.

"I can't do that." Desiree said simply. Emily was so mad, she could practically feel the steam coming out of her ears. She longed to beat Desiree to a pulp, but a ghost couldn't exactly be beat up, and with her luck, Emily would be more beat up than Desiree by the end.

"Well why the hell not!" she yelled at top volume. Desiree just gave another little smirk and seemed about to say something, but was interrupted by a terrified scream coming from somewhere down the hall.

"GHOST!" Whoever had yelled had obviously spotted Desiree, flattened against a bank of lockers by an apparently invisible force. It must look pretty strange. If she hadn't been so angry and panicked, Emily might have laughed. Out of the corner of her eye, Emily saw Danny, so hunched with misery a few minutes before, spring into action. He dashed into a nearby boys bathroom and a minute later flew out of it. Danny hovered a few feet above the ground, looking angrily at Desiree.

"Desiree!" he spat. Emily let go of Desiree, afraid that if she didn't let go, she would be sucked into the thermos with the meddling wish-granting ghost. She watched on with great interest, grateful that she was invisible. "What are you doing here?" Danny continued as he crossed his arms over his chest. For a minute, Emily saw a flicker of the old Danny, the old smile, the old personality. But then it was gone, and it was replaced with a hunched ball of angst and misery. This was not the Danny she knew.

"You know what, I don't care. Just get in the thermos." Danny fumbled with the top of the thermos and drew Desiree in. Far from being angry at being sucked into a thermos again, Desiree looked almost...pleased. She gave one of those mysterious smiles, the ones that never amounted to anything good. Right before she disappeared into the thermos, Desiree looked straight where Emily was standing, gave a wink and a little flick of her finger. Emily felt a strange sensation come over her as Danny capped the thermos, and then it was gone.

Suddenly, Danny seemed to spot Emily, just standing there. "What are you doing here?" he demanded angrily. "Get to class where you belong!" Emily was scared of this new Danny. She didn't know this boy. This Danny was a cold and hostile stranger to her.

"You...you can see me?" she asked in confusion. She had thought she was invisible. Why is it that whenever she was sure of something, it turned on her?

"Yeah, I can see you!" Danny yelled. "What do you think, you're invisible or something? Why are you even paying attention to a geek like me? Go hang out with the popular crowd, where you belong!" He thinks I'm the other Emily! Emily realized with a sinking feeling. She moved towards him tentatively, not quite sure what she was doing.

"Please." she said, reaching out towards him feebly. Danny recoiled, and the gesture of hatred brought tears to her eyes. The real Danny would never do that to me. "I know your secret." she said desperately. This one sentence had a profound effect on the boy. He lowered his hand, which had been glowing with a not yet released ectoplasmic blast and stared at her in disbelief.

"You...know my secret?" This time it was Danny's turn to be confused. Emily took another tentative step towards him, and this time he didn't back away.

"Yes. I'm Emily Link-from another timeline."

A half hour later, Danny and Emily were walking along the still-empty hallway, and Emily was finishing up her story.

"So let me get this straight," began Danny. "In another universe, you have this...disease-"

"Disability." cut in Emily. She hated it when people mistook CP for a disease.

"-disability, whatever, anyway, you have this disability and you met Sam and Tucker and me when you were in the hospital for leg surgery the same time Sam had pneumonia."

"Yeah." Emily confirmed. Danny gave a small nod to assure himself of the facts and continued.

"And not only do you have ghost powers, you also have healing powers which you used to heal Sam when she was in the ICU. And the four of us became best friends-and we became sort of...boyfriend and girlfriend?" Danny ended this last sentence with a questioning tone.

"Yeah." Emily said again. Danny looked her straight in the eyes.

"Do you know how hard this is to swallow?" Emily managed a small smile.

"I can imagine." she said softly. After a long while of staring at Emily, which made her distinctly uncomfortable, Danny spoke again.

"OK, I trust you. But what do you want me to do about it?"

"Help me to get back to my own timeline." Emily answered quietly. She had to fight to hold back tears. All she wanted to do was be back in her own timeline already!

"Why should I help you?" Danny sounded distrustful again. Emily had an answer ready to that one. She stared right into his dazzling blue eyes and spoke confidently.

"Because in my timeline...Sam's still alive." Danny considered this for a long while. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision.

"OK, I'll help you. But we'll have to tell Tucker."

A/N: OK, I worked long and hard on this chapter for a friend who couldn't wait to see what happened. Please review for my hard work! Come on people, I know you're out there! Please review!