Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!

Vlad was talking with the Mansons in his study when a butler came in and announced that dinner was ready. The three adults got up and walked over to the dining hall.

"Shouldn't we get the kids?" Mrs. Manson asked as the three of them sat down.

"If they don't come down in fifteen minutes, we'll go up and get them," Vlad replied.

Danny and Sam hadn't come down for dinner because they were, shall we say, otherwise occupied. At about the time the three adults were sitting down at the table, Sam's tongue was busy beating Danny's in a wrestling match. He felt rather than saw her lips curl upward in a triumphant smirk when she won, and responded by pulling her closer to him with his arms, which were conveniently wrapped around her waist. They pushed together and nosed out any stray atoms that dared to linger between them and deepened the kiss even more as the two of them lay on Danny's bed.

"Daniel?" Vlad asked as he opened the door to Danny's room without knocking. Danny and Sam each jumped about a foot in the air and landed on the floor next to the bed, with Danny on top of Sam and straddling her. Vlad entered the room followed by Sam's parents just in time to catch them in this…er…awkward position.

"Uh…sorry…" Danny mumbled as he got off of Sam and helped her up. The two of them smoothed out their rumpled clothes and stood in front of the adults, their faces as red as a pair of tomatoes.

"We were going to tell you that dinner was ready. That is, if you two are done sucking each other's faces off," Mrs. Manson stated. Sam was about to respond caustically, but then she noticed that her mother didn't look angry. Rather, she was wearing a soft smile that gave an aura of contentment. Sam bit back the retort and instead looked at her mother curiously.

"Do you two think that you can handle coming downstairs for a little bit without jumping on top of one another?" Mr. Manson asked. They nodded, the blush still apparent on both of their faces. They laced their fingers together and followed the adults downstairs hand in hand.

Dinner was pretty much a snorefest for the two teens, seeing as all Vlad and Sam's dad wanted to talk about was business. Tired of listening to the prospective future of Dalv Corp., Sam decided to close her eyes and rest her head on Danny's shoulder. Danny propped his chin up on the top of her head and slowly lost the battle he was waging against the forces of sleepiness. The last thing he registered was the scent of Sam's lilac shampoo before his world went black.

Poke

Danny sleepily batted away at the intruder who was trying to wake him up.

Poke

This time, his eyelids quivered for a bit, as he almost awoke, but then they returned to their closed position.

Poke

Finally, Danny opened his eyes and looked at the offender, expecting it to be Sam playing with him. The one person he didn't expect to wake him up by poking him was Vlad Masters, billionaire CEO of Dalv Corp. and powerful evil half-ghost also known as Vlad Plasmius.

"Vlad? What the hell are you doing?" Danny asked disgustedly.

"Well, an ectoblast would probably result in your panicking and blasting the room to shreds out of reflex," the man replied. Danny wondered why Vlad would be so stupid as to mention ectoplasmic energy blasts in front of the Mansons, but then he looked around and noticed that the room was dark; dinner had obviously ended and Sam's parents had gone upstairs to bed. Along with Sam, a fact that served to annoy the younger halfa.

"Sam's gone," he stated.

"Yes, her father carried her upstairs to her room. They really can be caring parents, you know. Once Samantha lowers her guard and lets them into her life, she'll realize that they're not as bad as she thinks."

"You say that now, but you've never seen the ridiculous dresses they've tried to foist on her." Vlad shrugged and stood up from his seat, which had been Sam's during dinner. Danny followed suit and the two of them walked side by side in the hallway as they made their way to the stairwell. Neither of them made any move to start a conversation, so an awkward silence descended on them like a thick fog.

"So…" Vlad finally began. "How far did you get?"

"Excuse me?" Danny asked, a mixture of shock and disgust dominating his facial expression.

"How far did you two get while the three of us were downstairs? Second? Third?"

"First, not that it's any of your business," Danny replied. Vlad allowed the silence to reign for another thirty seconds before shooting Danny a sideways glance.

"And I thought you were a man," he accused.

"Alright, that's it!" Danny shouted as he transformed into his ghost half and started launching orbs of ecto-energy at Vlad, who had also transformed and dodged the blasts just in time. Danny had formed the fifth orb when he paused. All of a sudden, there was a hissing noise and the red orb changed to green. Danny let the orb destabilize and melt down to become green energy that radiated around his hands. Vlad inspected the energy with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm guessing you've given up on the whole evil thing?" he inquired.

"Yeah…" Danny replied distractedly, as his attention was focused on his hands. Vlad changed back to human and walked over to Danny. He put a hand on his shoulder.

"Do you think you're ready to go home now?" Danny tore his gaze away from his hands and looked up at him, simultaneously changing back to human and allowing the energy to dissipate.

"Yeah."

Danny approached Sam at her locker one fine Thursday morning. After the weekend Sam had spent at Vlad's house, Danny had returned to Amity Park. He'd had a long talk with his parents and an even longer talk with Jazz, and his family had decided to generally let him off the hook, seeing as he'd sounded sincere about needing to work things out. Oh yeah, and he was forbidden from leaving his house for anything except school until graduation, but besides that he was home free.

As for school, Maddie had managed to convince Principal Ishiyama that Danny had needed to attend some important family business for the past four months, and the two women had finally worked out a compromise that would allow Danny to return to school: he could come back, provided that he passed a test that would test what he should have learned during the four months. Thank God Vlad had insisted on hiring a tutor.

"Hey, Sam," Danny greeted his girlfriend.

"Hey, Danny. What's up?" Sam asked as she gave Danny a peck on the cheek.

"I ordered a copy of Saw III on DVD some time ago and it came in the mail yesterday. Wanna come by my place and watch it tonight?" Sam gave a soft smile as she fingered the sleeve of Danny's long-sleeved T-shirt.

"I'd love to."

THE END