Behold, the return of jerky Danny (I guess he's mad at me…I wonder why). A/N and pleading and begging and crying for reviews to follow.

Chapter Six

It was in the wee hours of morning when Danny experienced one of the most upsetting moments in his life, and that was saying a lot .

A freezing cold hand was touching his cheek a familiar voice whispering his name. Danny's eyes popped open and a gasp of blue escaped from his mouth. He sat up trying to get away from the creature on his bed as he switched on the light before going ghost.

"Whoa!" Sam said as he pushed at her. "I was just trying to get you to wake up. Don't kill me."

"Sam?" Danny asked as he blinked and tried to adjust his eyes to the light and clear them of sleep.

Sam smiled and reached forward again and touched his cheek. "Yeah?" She answered as she leaned toward him as though she was having difficulty hearing him.

"What are you doing here?" Danny asked.

Sam blinked her eyes and looked around Danny's room. "I don't know," She answered. She then smiled and drew closer. "I think I'm dreaming."

"No," Danny said as he shook his head. "I think I'm dreaming. This is my dream."

Sam snorted. "Not every dream you have is yours," she countered. "This is my dream!"

Danny shook his head. "My room. My bed. My subconscious. My dream."

"As if!" Sam said in exasperation. "Just because it's in your room and all doesn't mean it's your dream. This is my dream." She smiled slightly and Danny shifted uncomfortably because Sam was sitting on his legs.

"All right," Danny growled. "Let's not fight about whose dream this is okay?"

"Fine," Sam said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"So, since you're the one in my room," Danny started. "What are you doing here?"

Sam gave him an amused look then answered, "I don't know. This is supposed to be your dream!"

"I thought you said…" Danny started then narrowed his eyes at his best friend. "Okay this is really weird."

Sam laughed then scratched her wrist. "Stupid watch," she said. "It's been hurting like you wouldn't believe." She took it off and threw it across the room with a look of disgust then turned back to Danny and smiled again.

"What's the funny smile for?" Danny asked.

"I've missed you," she answered then moved forward and placed her arms around him. Danny sighed heavily then returned the embrace.

"No matter what happens," Sam whispered in his ear. "I won't leave you. I promise."

"Okay," Danny said as he held the block of ice which was his best friend in his arms. He was beginning to feel very scared. He pulled away from her and attempted to look in her eyes, but they were closed. He examined her face, she was more pale than usual, in fact her skin had taken on a definite blue tinge. His heart squeezed painfully. Was he dreaming or was he awake?

Sam finally opened her eyes and looked at Danny. He fought the urge to push her away as he looked fearfully into the green depths.

"Wow," Sam said as she looked at him. "Do you always glow like that in your human form?"

"Glow?" Danny asked worriedly.

"It's like a rainbow radiating all around you," Sam said in awe. "It's incredible. Why have I never seen it before?" Tears began to prickle at Danny's eyes and he grabbed Sam and pulled her into his arms.

"You can move on if you need to," he whispered he could feel himself shaking.

"To where?" Sam asked in confusion.

"To more peaceful places," Danny replied. "You don't have to stay with me."

"I'm never more at peace than I am when I'm with you," she said as she laid her head on Danny shoulder. "I love you. I'm not afraid to tell you anymore."

"I know," Danny answered as he closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "And I love you too."

"Forever," Sam whispered on a strangely ghostly sigh.

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"Danny" Jazz said as she shook her brother awake. "Mom says you can't sleep all day."

Danny opened his eyes blearily and looked at his sister who was looking up at him in concern. She touched the dry salty trail which had run down his face and frowned.

"Been having nightmares?" she asked as she brushed her fingers across his pillow, which was still damp with tears."

Danny shook his head as he sat up. He looked around the room in confusion then reached for his messenger on the nightstand. There were no new messages. He wiped his eyes and looked at Jazz for a moment.

"Yeah," he finally answered as he took a deep relieved breath. "Only nightmares."

"Maybe it was your subconscious trying to tell you something," Jazz started.

Danny put up his hand and closed his eyes tight. "Really Jazz just shut up already!" He looked at the hurt look on his sister's face. "I just don't need this right now okay?"

"But," Jazz started.

"No!" Danny growled. "For someone who is trying go guard my sanity, you are really driving me crazy." He looked into his sister's hurt eyes. Her shoulders drooped and she stood and walked to the door.

"Don't sleep all day okay?" was all she said as she left, closing the door behind her. Danny let out a large sigh and flopped back on his bed. He looked at the messenger in his hands. Then typed to Tucker.

"Tuck. Are you around? Are you busy?"

A reply came rather quickly. "Yes!" Tucker answered. "I'm talking to a girl!"

"Sorry to bug you," Danny wrote. "But before I leave you. Did you have any weird dreams last night? Have you heard from Sam?"

"No and No and sorry to be rude but good bye," was Tucker's reply.

Danny growled under his breath as he fidgeted with indecision. Finally he typed out the following message to Sam and hit send, "Sam, Deborah or Mrs. Manson…whoever. I'm just messaging to check on Sam. Can you let me know she's o.k?"

No immediate answer came. Danny sat and looked at the messenger for over twenty minutes before he growled and placed it on the nightstand then got dressed. When he came back from the bathroom there was a message.

"Danny, Deborah here. Had some complications yesterday afternoon. Sam's fine. She's resting comfortably. No worries here. She'll want to talk to you later I'm sure.

Danny let out a deep breath and typed a quick thank you to the nurse then went downstairs.

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Valerie looked at Danny and frowned. She was tired of this friendship thing. The more she spent time with him, the more she realized how much she liked him. He was funny, sweet and cute. She stared at him until he looked over at her.

"Hi," he said and blinked at her.

"Hi," Valerie replied. "What are you thinking about? You look seriously upset."

Danny smiled. "It's nothing," he answered. "I just had a really bad dream last night."

Valerie nodded her head in understanding. She looked around the near empty theater for a moment. She and Danny had been seeing each other on a friendly basis for the last three weeks. It was long enough for her to decide that she didn't care about the Sam issue one way or another.

Danny's attention was back on the movie, which Valerie decided wasn't as good as watching Danny watch the movie. He looked at her a moment then smiled then blushed at the intensity of her attention.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

Valerie thought for a moment. "Yeah," she answered. "In fact. There is." She didn't wait for Danny to say another word. Her philosophy was strike while the opponent was off guard. It was the only way to succeed in battle, and she definitely felt like she was fighting a battle. She moved forward and kissed him.

Alarm bells went off in Danny's mind. He knew Valerie better than she realized and he could tell by the look on her face that she was about to do something. He was very surprised when instead of a ecto-blast, she kissed him. Very surprise and yet oh so pleased.

So it was, in the near empty dark theater Danny experienced his first real make out session. Yes, Sam had kissed him. Once, but that was to protect him from Valerie, and this was hardly the same as a fake out make out. Now as he sat with his arms around the beautiful ghost hunter, he banished away all thoughts of Sam.

"Wow," Valerie said as she ended the kiss with Danny. He smiled back at her and wondered what he should say next.

"I thought we were just friends," he finally said as he regarded her with wide eyes.

"To hell with that!" Valerie announced. "I don't want to just be your friend. To hell with ghosts and ghost hunting."

"You'll stop ghost hunting?" Danny said in shock trying to suppress a smile.

"Hell no!" Valerie said. "I'm just not going to let it stop me from having what I want." Her eyelids hooded. "And I want you!"

Danny blinked at Valerie for a moment then opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was slipped his mind as Valerie struck again and involved him in a very intense make out session.

The new couple made plans. Talked about their future, and about feelings. Valerie admitted that she never stopped liking him. Danny admitted that he always liked her too. The little secret seed of hurt he'd felt over her rejection of him over ghost hunting seemed to melt away. His anger at being different, about his ghost side, about everything was thrown out the window. He was happy. Everything was normal! He embraced the feeling with joy. Normal. This was exactly what he wanted.

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It came to be that Danny was so caught up in his new relationship that it completely slipped his mind that he hadn't heard from either of his friends. It took at least three days for him to even notice the blinking messenger sitting on his nightstand.

Danny slapped his hand to his forehead and groaned. How was he going to explain this to Tucker and Sam? He'd had his moments where he was very careless with them, but he thought he'd out grown it. He picked up the messenger and cued up the first of fifty messages.

"Fifty," he said in dismay. "Oh man I'm toast."

"Danny," Tucker here the first read. "Are you there?"

Danny shook his head, at least Tucker wouldn't be too upset with him. The next message was again from Tucker asking if Danny was available. And the next and the next and the next.

"Danny?" said the next message. "Are you there? Have you heard about Sam?" Danny frowned and began to feel weak and ill.

"Danny why are you not answering me? I know your upset about what happened but you need to talk to me." Danny frowned. He quickly paged through all the messages. They were all from Tucker.

The last few were highly disturbing. "I need you to messenger me. Over seas calls are too expensive. My mom would kill me. Come on Danny. She may have suffered a set back, but she's not dead! Come on! It's okay."

"What the hell?" Danny growled. He wanted to kick himself. He was right. He was shallow and rotten and horrible. He was a horrible friend. He squeezed his eyes shut tight for a moment.

"Tuck," he typed quickly. "Tucker you there?"

"Finally!" came an almost immediate reply. "Where have you been? I've been worried as hell!"

"I'm sorry," Danny said he thought for a moment then closed his eyes and thought up a reasonable explanation. "I lost the messenger."

"Dude!" Tucker wrote. "You're close to being toast you know that?"

"Yeah," Danny said feeling horribly ashamed. "What's going on?"

"Well I assume you've been in contact with Sam," Tucker wrote. Danny didn't reply.

"You have been in contact with Sam right?" Tucker asked.

"No," Danny answered honestly.

"What the hell have you been doing?" Tucker questioned. "Seriously have you been bogged down with ghosts? I didn't think even that would keep you for worrying about Sam and checking on her at the least!"

Danny took a deep breath. He may as well be honest. "I've been with Val," He answered. "Things have gotten really serious between us and I guess I forgot."

"You are the biggest jerk I know Danny!" Tuck replied. "We came so close to losing Sam and you've been off making kissy faces with Val? Great. Just Great."

"What do you mean almost lost Sam?" Danny typed.

"You know what?" came Tucker's reply. "I'm not going to tell you one damn thing. You don't deserve to know. You're a careless jerk!"

"I'm sorry," Danny typed.

"Not good enough," Tucker replied. "I'm not talking to you right now. You can just…go soak your head or something!"

Danny was just about to type something to Sam, to find out what happened but one more message popped up. It was from Tucker.

"Don't you dare message her! I'll tell her your messenger broke or something. You don't deserve to talk to her!"

"Tucker," Danny typed back. "Don't be unreasonable." He waited. There was no reply. He thought for a moment.

"Hey! This is Danny," he wrote. "I'm just checking on Sam." Instead of hitting send. He put the messenger down on the bed then covered his face with his hand. Tucker was right. He was a jerk.

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Danny went ghost and flew out of the house. He left his unsent message sitting on the bed. He had to leave. Strangely, he found himself at Sam's house. In Sam's room.

He walked around for awhile before he stopped at her dressing table. He sat down and looked at his ghostly form in the mirror. He could see a dozen different necklaces draped on the side of the mirror. It was one in particular which caught his eye.

On a delicate gold chain Sam had threaded a gold ring. He untangled it from the mass of other chains and frowned. He closed his eyes for a moment then tilted the ring so he could read the inside, he smiled wistfully as he read out loud. "Wes." Turned the ring over and read what the ring truly said.

"Sam." He sighed as his palm closed over the ring. He shook his head then put the ring back where he found it. His gaze fell to the pictures tacked to the edge of the mirror. Some went back as far as ninth grade a few were recent. There were a few of just Danny and Tucker. Several of Jazz and himself. There were only a few of all three of them together and only one of just Sam and Danny.

Danny looked at the clock and sighed then back as the pictures. He was supposed to meet Valerie at the Nasty Burger in ten minutes. He took a deep breath and walked to the window. Then flew away.

He landed in the park, changed to human form and walked slowly to the Nasty Burger. He didn't even notice passing Dash and Kwan. Both boys broke into whispers as Danny walked by.

Valerie was waiting as Danny walked through the doors. She smiled in a way that set his pulse to racing. He sat down beside her and let out a deep breath.

"I thought you were going to be late," She teased.

"Nope," Danny replied. "Here on time." He unconsciously patted the messenger in his pocket. Valerie didn't miss the gesture.

"How are Tuck and Sam?" she asked.

Danny took a deep breath and pondered what he should tell her. "Mad," he answered. "Really. Really mad."

"So you told them about us?" Valerie asked.

"Yeah," Danny replied absently then shook his head. "No I mean no. They're not mad at me for that."

"Then why?" Valerie questioned beginning to feel fierce and protective of the relationship she now had with Danny. She wasn't going to let the say so of his friends mess everything up.

"I forgot about them," He said sadly. Valerie bit her lip to try to keep from smiling. That was something she wasn't expecting to hear.

"For how long?" Valerie asked as she twined her fingers with Danny's. She was thrilled. She was able to make him forget all about Sam…and Tucker. He was hers. She kept her head down to hide the smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.

"Three days," Danny answered. "But that's not the whole story."

"Three days?" Valerie said as she shook her head. "What's the big deal? It's not like anything major happened. It's just three days. You have a life too Danny. Everything is supposed to stop and revolve around them? Sheesh."

"Something bad happened," Danny told Valerie and she stopped and frowned. "But the thing is Tuck won't tell me what it was, just called it a set back."

"Sam?" Valerie asked. Grrr the Goth girl was too good. It's almost as if she sensed she was going to lose Danny and just had to make the most dramatic move possible.

"You shouldn't feel bad Danny," Valerie said as she put her arm around him. "It's not like you could have known."

"I would have known if I'd been keeping up to date like I was supposed to," Danny replied. "You don't understand Val. Tucker and Sam are like everything to me. I owe them more than I could ever make you understand."

Valerie sighed. "And so what am I to you? Nothing? I mean is it so bad to put me above them? Besides they're your true friends like you say, they'll understand."

Danny shook his head and covered his face with his hand. "I've screwed up with them more times than I can count. This time I failed them when it really counts. I failed Sam!"

Valerie put her hand on Danny's face and looked into his eyes. "If need be," she said. "I'll speak to them for you. The blame is mine. I'm the one stealing all your attention. Don't worry about it. Okay?"

Danny stared into Valerie's eyes for a few moments then closed his own. It was sweet of Valerie to want to try to smooth things over, but he had no excuses. There was no excuse. Period.

His messenger began beeping and he jumped as he retrieved it from his pocket. He looked guilty at Val then read the message.

"Did you really lose your messenger?" the message from Sam read. Danny looked at Valerie.

"Who is this?" Danny typed.

"It's Sam dummy," came the reply. "And yes dork head it's me. I'm not going to flirt with you because I'm pretty mad at you and Tuck right now."

"Why?" Danny answered as he looked warily at Valerie who was reading the messenger over his shoulder.

"For lying damn it!" Sam came back slowly and most of the words were misspelled. "What's been going on? Deborah says you've been messaging me every day. Today I feel good enough to type myself and Tuck tells me the reason I haven't heard from you is because you lost your messenger."

"Looks like someone's in trouble," Val laughed. "But is it Tucker or Deborah? Who's Deborah?"

"Sam's nurse," Danny replied.

"Oh!" Valerie said then winced. "Not good."

"I wonder why Deborah didn't message me though," Danny said. "I mean she could have."

Valerie shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe she felt bad enough for lying to Sam that she didn't want to stir things up anymore than she had already."

"Tuck doesn't know what he's talking about," Danny typed quickly. "I've not been answering his text messages…" He paused trying to look for a good reason.

"Because he started ignoring you first," Val provided. Danny looked at Valerie for a moment.

"Because he'd ignored me several times, so I just decided to teach him a lesson." Danny finished typing.

"Well," Sam replied. "That's a relief. I thought maybe you'd got eaten by a ghost or something and he was trying to hide it from me."

Danny chuckled to himself then typed. "Were you sick?"

"Yeah," Sam answered. "Just a little set back. Deborah says I was knocking on heaven's door, but I'm fine now. Feeling much better than I was before."

"What happened?" Danny asked. Valerie frowned as she grabbed her soda and took a worried drink. She could feel the tension in Danny's body, he was practically leaning away from her.

"Something blocked the shunt draining liquid from my head blocked everything and the liquid built up and bam!"

"Great," Danny said. "But you're all better."

"Next to new," Sam replied.

"Good. That was scary," Danny typed.

"More so for me than you," Sam said. "I had a crazy dream the night it happened. I dreamed I came to see you and we had a fight about whose dream we were in and….well it was funny."

The messenger slipped from Danny's hand and skidded under the table. Valerie took a look at his face then retrieved the device. She read it before handing it back to him. He looked completely stunned. Valerie frowned. The message wasn't that profound. Danny blinked a few times then thanked Valerie for getting the messenger for him. He looked down at the message and opened his mouth then closed it.

"Where are you?" Sam asked. "Home?"

"No," answered Danny. "I'm at the Nasty Burger."

"With Valerie," Valerie prompted.

"I can't tell her yet," Danny told Valerie. "Trust me. She'll flip when she finds out."

"Why?" Valerie asked. "It's not like she has or ever has had any claim on you."

"It's complicated," Danny answered. "Trust me."

"I'm going to call," Sam messaged. "8:30 your time. Be there!"

"I will be," Danny promised then looked at the clock. He had a couple of hours.

Valerie folded her arms across her chest and looked at Danny as he signed off with Sam. He was smiling now. Looking much more relaxed. She supposed she could understand why. She just felt she was in major competition with Sam and had just been struck a major blow.

"See," Valerie said. "I told you it was going to be all right."

"Yeah," Danny said as he smiled at her and tucked the little messaging device back into his pocket. "You're right."

"Of course I am," Valerie said then kissed his cheek. "And soon you'll learn that Valerie is always, always right."

Danny raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. "Is that true?"

"Hell yes," She answered then laughed and cuddled into his arm. He hugged her tight and kissed her quickly, which made all the little worries fly away. Sam might have his mind but Valerie had the rest, he was here with her not Sam. She kissed him again, and she wasn't going to give him up. No way. Not this time.

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So the pairing has started –kneels in penitence- forgive me oh mighty and benevolent Osco.

Do you see which way this is going? Are you sure? Positive? Could it be that I decided to go both DxV and DxS? Hmmmm? And yes there will still be action/adventure!

So how about a review? Tell me you love me. Tell me something, otherwise I'll think you don't care and I will spend the rest of the night crying , wailing and sobbing and generally causing chaos. You don't want that for me do you? Besides I look really bad after I cry. My eyes turn all red, and instead of grey they're all aqua and my nose (which is big) turns red and swells up and fills with snot and I get stuffed up and have to blow my nose a lot. It's not a pretty site. Save me! Review.