-gets pelted with rotten vegetables- Sorry about the delay here! –sweatdrops- What can I say, I get distracted easily! Kekeke...-runs and hides- Plus, the site was being a butt, but what else is new?

Err, lessee, I have quite an A/N after the chapter so...I think I'll leave everything else til the end. Enjoy!

Chapter Eight

Over the next few weeks, I settled into a routine that honestly had me wondering what was in Amity Park's water. I would get up, go to school, eat from the vegetarian menu (or lack thereof) at lunch, and meet Jazz after school. She'd drive us back to her house and we'd either do our homework or do our best to avoid Jack and Maddie when they were testing out one of their latest advancements in ghost-hunting technology. I'd usually go home for dinner unless my parents were in a bad mood.

Once thing I noticed as the days wore on was that Jazz seemed more and more relieved every day that I didn't ask about Danny. I understood that she was probably still grieving over him, but it was a bit odd that she didn't even seem to think about him all that much. Had I been a normal person, I would've been worried, but of course I am far from normal.

It was kind of awkward trying not to mention Danny when he was floating three feet from my head half the time I was over at Jazz's...plus, she didn't know that I was flying over town with her ghost-hunting dead brother practically every night.

Yes, Danny and I going on ghost patrol became a nightly event. It was actually very convenient; I was learning a lot about him and that would be extremely helpful when I finally figured out what was keeping him earth-bound, because I knew that no matter what, he was a ghost that needed to get to the other side.

What surprised me though, as time wore on, that he actually seemed interested in getting to know me. For some reason, this surprised me more than the fact that he was a ghost hunter. Briefly I wondered if it was just because he knew I was loaded and just liked me for my money, but I quickly squashed that idea. Danny was a ghost for crying out loud—what use would he have for wads of cash? Haunting the middle-class?

I was still pondering this on a normal Wednesday night. Tucker had been indefinitely grounded off the computer for two weeks for flunking every class except his computer course—but it didn't stop him from sneaking to instant message me with his PDA every chance he got. But if his message to me from about an hour ago was indication, he wasn't going to be on the computer or have his PDA for those two weeks.

I shook my head and resumed my random thinking--thinking, of course, about Danny. I couldn't help it! He honestly intrigued me, and I was determined to get to the bottom of why he was still earth-bound, since he didn't seem to have any clue. So obviously a girl who had been around ghosts her whole life—like me—would be able to figure it out.

...Eventually.

I sprawled out on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I let out a sigh and closed my eyes, just basking in the loveliness of nothing to do...no evil ghosts to catch...my homework was done (thanks to Jazz's help)...and heck, it was even quiet for once without the computer constantly dinging from Tucker's messages. My eyes slowly fell shut, really resting for what felt like the first time in ages.

--

I awoke to the familiar feeling of my skin prickling and the hairs on my neck standing up on end. I slowly blinked the sleep out of my eyes—well, as much as I could—before two hands came from behind me and covered my eyes. "Don't even try to get away!"

"Hey Danny," I greeted, attempting to fling his hands off my face, but he turned them intangible at the last second so that I ended up slapping myself.

He grinned. "Quit hitting yourself, Sam. That can't be good for you."

I groaned and swatted at the air, letting out a huge yawn. "What time is it?"

"Quarter to eight."

My eyes widened. "Darn it...I slept a really long time. I hope I'll be able to fall asleep at night at all."

Danny quirked an eyebrow. "Sam, you're a Goth. You're not supposed to sleep at night."

"Oh, shut up." I yawned again and flopped back onto my pillows. "What are you doing here, anyway? You usually don't show up for ghost patrol for another hour or so."

Some emotion flitted through those green orbs, but it was gone before I could decipher it. "Well...I was bored. I haven't seen you all day except when I was making faces at you behind Jazz."

I smiled. "Yeah, and did you see that I was making faces back? I honestly wonder why she doesn't think I'm a complete loon yet."

He gave a half-shrug, not quite looking at me. "Eh, she must think you're pretty normal compared to our parents. Well, compared to Dad, at least. He's the looniest of them all."

"No kidding," I agreed. After one of the ghost detectors the Fenton's had installed in their house went off went I went inside one day, Jack was now convinced that I was being haunted, so he tested out whatever new advancement in ghost-hunting technology he had created that day on me. It was extremely awkward since Danny was floating a foot from me half the time, laughing at his father trying the little patience I had.

Danny smiled, and I knew he was thinking of the same moment. How I knew, I didn't know...oh great, now I'm even confusing myself. I shook my head, clearing my mind. "So anyway...you came here an hour early because you were bored?"

"Yeah..." he trailed off, raising an eyebrow as if he was expecting a sarcastic reply from me. Instead I just burst out laughing, and his expression became miffed. "Hey! Why are you laughing at me!"

I clutched my stomach, shaking my head again. "Nothing. Never mind. Hey, how about we get going on this patrol early? Maybe we'll catch a ghost by surprise or something."

A pause. It was silent for so long, I would've thought Danny had gone invisible and left the room, had I not been staring straight at him. "Danny?"

"Huh?" He shook his head, that annoying tuft of hair falling in front of his face. "Sorry...thinking too much, I guess."

"This may be a reflection of my years of experience with ghosts..." I started. "But...you're a ghost. What do you have to think about?"

Danny narrowed his eyes, the green irises glowing dangerously. "In case you haven't noticed, Sam, I'm different. If it wasn't for me, you probably would've suffocated under a huge pile of meat."

"Well geez," I scoffed, gritting my teeth. "It was only a question. No need to get so grouchy about it."

"I..." He huffed a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck, a gesture I quickly realized that he performed when he was feeling nervous or sheepish. "Sorry, Sam. It's just..."

"Just what?"

He sighed again. "Never mind. C'mon, let's go."

"So soon?"

"Hey, you're the one who suggested it."

"True." I frowned, not used to having my sarcasm shot back at me. "Okay then...let's go."

--

Patrol? Psssh. Danny and I had been flying around—well, over—town, keeping an eye out for any ghosts, but had basically been goofing off the whole time. We were now sitting on a big grassy hill that overlooked the park, just out of sight of the blinding street lamps. We had been laughing for long that after a while, I forgot what exactly we were cracking up about. Oh well, it was probably about Tucker.

I finally caught my breath after a bit and leaned back up on my hands, smiling up at the night sky. I could feel Danny's eyes on me, but didn't mention it.

"Sam?" he asked, after a long stretch of silence.

"Yeah?"

"How...well, I guess when exactly did you realize that you could see ghosts?"

I blinked, taken aback by the sudden question, but more so the serious tone his voice held. I glanced at him, only my eyes moving, and he was still staring at me, unconsciously picking at the grass.

"Well..." I began, pretending to think about it, but it was kind of silly—I remembered everything about the moment I knew I truly wasn't like everybody else.

"Sorry," Danny blurted out, rubbing the back of his neck. I raised an eyebrow. "I mean, uh...sorry if it was too personal of a question or something..."

I finally looked at him, biting my lip to hold in my laughter. "No, no, it's not a personal question or anything...it's just that no one's ever asked me that before."

He just stared.

"Well, okay, it wasn't like anybody knew they could ask me or something, since nobody but Tucker knows and all the ghosts were out to kill me first, ask questions never...although now that I think about it, not even Tucker's asked me that before."

"Really?"

"Mhmm."

"Well, that's kind of weird...but then again, so is he."

I laughed out loud this time. "Yeah, he is...man I wish he could see you. You guys would get along sooo well."

Danny's eyes flickered with sadness, but it quickly passed. "So anyway...are you going to answer me?"

"Yeah, yeah." I smiled, tilting my head in thought. "Well, it was when I was about four years old, maybe close to five. My mother was parading me around at some child beauty pageant, forcing me to wear this awful, poofy, happy-peppy pink dress, covered with all these lame little bows."

"You, wearing pink? No way!"

"Shut up." I stuck my tongue out at him. "As I was saying, I was in this stupid pageant, and my mom's backstage with me, schmoozing with one of the judges. I was waiting in the wings, right before the talent portion, and I was supposed to do this weird little tap dance that was supposedly so 'adorable'."

Danny was grinning now. "Somehow I can't picture it...you wearing pink and looking adorable at the same time. Nuh-uh."

I narrowed my eyes. "I guess you don't want to hear the rest of the story, hmm?"

He pouted, and I have to admit (though I knew I would take it to the grave), it made him look more adorable than I have ever looked when I was five and in a poofy pink dress. "Sorry!"

"That's more like it." I raised my eyebrow again. "So anyway, a before I was set to go out, my grandmother appears next to me and laughs, saying how my mother was subjecting me to cruel and unusual punishment."

"So? Why didn't she just tell your mother that herself?"

"She probably would've except...my grandmother had died the year before."

"Oh." Then comprehension dawned on that pale, ghostly face of his. "Ohhhhhhhh!"

Dense as a doorknob, Danny was. "So I'm standing there, talking to the spirit of my grandmother, and she's telling me to go break the other girls' legs and stuff, when my mother appears, pushing me out on stage since I hadn't walked out there when I called, and she walks right through Grandma. I noticed nobody else seemed to see there was an old woman randomly backstage, and I realized nobody else could see her. Grandma winked at me and disappeared, and there I was, suddenly on stage expected to tap dance for all the country-club parents."

"Did you?"

"I was so in shock from seeing Grandma, I just looked at where she had been standing, floating, whatever she'd been doing, and then back at the audience before I screamed, 'I SEE DEAD PEOPLE!' at the top of my lungs and leaped off the stage and ran outta there."

"No way!" Danny's mouth was hanging open, but when I nodded, he immediately burst into laughter and laughed himself intangible, falling through the ground before his hand stuck up and I yanked him back to earth. "That is priceless!"

"And the best part is that it happened waaay before the movie came out, so really...that just makes it all funnier."

After he had calmed down some (but was still grinning like an idiot), he asked, "And your mom didn't suspect anything?"

"Nah. To this day she thinks I did it just because I didn't want to perform and honestly, that's fine with me." I hugged my knees to my chest. "I knew there was something weird about me when I started seeing more and more ghosts, and Grandma came back and explained what I was supposed to be doing—help them to the 'other side'." I made air quotes with my fingers. "So...now that's what I do."

"Why'd you tell Tucker, if you couldn't even tell your own parents?"

I smiled. "Because when I think about it...Tucker's all I've got." I sighed. "He's helped me out like you wouldn't believe, and we've been friends for so long, I think it would've been harder for him to believe I was lying."

"At least now you don't just have him."

I glanced over at Danny. "What?"

"Now you've also got me."

I blinked, my mouth hanging open a bit, until he stood up, offering a gloved hand to me. I gave him a small smile and took it as he made us intangible and started off towards my house.

"Yeah..." I finally whispered, halfway towards our destination. He knew what I was talking about. "I do."

--

Awww...-falls over-

Okay, here's the kinda-long A/N: One thing I've been distracted with is my new writing journal! ;D It's on Livejournal, and there's a link in my profile. I'd be interested to know if anyone's on it and if they'd like to friend me (mwhahaha), because I've been thinking about putting this fic up there. If I do, it would probably be updated faster than this site, just to get all the HTML junk out of the way. xP So let me know!

As always, much love and thanks to the awesome people who reviewed last chapter: SilverstarsEbonyskies, dPhantoMfreak, passing4insane, Sweeteen19, conan98002, Free-Desert-Wind, divinedragon7, shadowedstar213, Sasia, dArkliTe-sPirit, emotigone crazy, look for the girl with the ..., cutereviewgirl, Black January, and Amathys.

Aaand I've decided to finally do some reviewer replies to some stuff you guys have been asking/saying...yay!

dPhantoMfreak – I'm glad you love this story:D I don't know about 'original' since I'm borrowing the basic idea from 'The Mediator', but thanks anyway. ;D And I think that no matter what kind of AU or whatever, Tucker would play matchmaker! He's cool like that, muhahaha.

passing4insane – Yes, Danny is a full ghost in this fic. It was still the ghost portal's fault though XD

Free-Desert-Wind – Thanks so much for the awesome review! It totally made my week :D I'm glad you're enjoying this so much, even though I am, indeed a messy typist XD

shadowedstar213 – Pssh, I'll be leading that angry mob! Mwhahaha.

cutereviewgirl – Well, like I've said, this is AU, so nobody really knows whether ghosts are evil or not—or if they're real. And after Danny, not even Sam's all the sure anymore. It's not like the show where everybody can actually see the ghosts; so hardly anybody even believes in them. As for Danny 'moving on', well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see ;)

Okeydokey, I think that's it for now...as always, be awesome and review! Review like the wind! Well okay, maybe not like the wind, but you get cake? Mmm, cake.