...Last chapter, everyone! Aww...so fluffy...and it's kind of long...lol but you guys will like it...I hope oo;
-this was written at five am till six am- dude I can't believe I wrote this whole story in six hours! Oh well...just enjoy...
-doesn't feel like doing the disclaimer thing but probably should-
Disclaimer: I am not Butch Hartman. I wish I was, but I am not. Everyone but Dani is owned by him. ALL HAIL BUTCH HARTMAN!
Dani and Sam both watched as the sun slowly set. Sam's stomach was all but calm; she felt as if butterflies were having a meeting in her stomach. She groaned and clutched her stomach. Dani got her a glass of water.
"Thanks," Sam mumbled as she sipped the water.
"What are we going to do for the next three hours?" Dani asked as she opened up a book. Sam cracked a smile.
"You read. I'll be very angst-ridden and sit here brooding about my 'lost love'. Sound like a deal?"
Dani snorted and buried her nose in her newest book—a book about a kid who turned into a vampire to save his friend. She really liked the series—she had already read the first and second one and had gotten the third, fourth and fifth ones from the library earlier that day while she was at school. She quickly scanned the pages of the third book, losing herself in the plot line.
Before she knew it (and nearly two books later), Sam's fingers brushed across Dani's shoulder. "Dani…it's five minutes until twelve," Sam breathed. Dani jumped and ran out the door, her mother in hot pursuit.
The two huddled next to each other. It was nearing summer, but it was still cold at twelve in the morning. Sam's body hummed with excitement. Dani's hummed with curiosity.
Who is this guy my mother thinks about nonstop?
How is the one person I care for as much as Dani?
Five minutes passed…and then ten…and fifteen. Dani began to feel disappointed when Sam looked over at one of the trees. Her heart leapt into her throat wildly. She tried to stop it, but couldn't—her heart knew she was finally going to see Danny once more.
A shimmering image floated away from the tree, softly floating towards Dani and Sam. Dani's mouth dropped open as she watched the human-looking figure glide towards them. Sam held her breath as she picked out all the details that so obviously belonged to Danny. The white hair; the soft anatomy; the…the wings?
Sam's mouth fell open as she stared at the new image of the one man she ever truly loved. Huge, feathery wings were spread out across his back, the white plumage only matching the intensity of his white hair.
The wings were the most beautiful Sam and Dani had ever seen. They sang with reassurance and happiness; they killed anger and depression. They made your heart lift out of your chest with love for all of life. They made you feel as if you didn't know what sadness, or anger, or jealousy was. They made you feel loved, and they made you feel as if you were in love.
Sam tore her eyes away and looked into the face she only saw in pictures and dreams. He was now close; almost close enough to touch. But Sam wouldn't have reached out to touch him; he looked too perfect…and fragile to touch.
He stopped right in front of them, his heavenly face pulled into a sad smile. His wings folded and unfolded upon his back, but never moving him. His eyes were still the same shade of unearthly green; his costume still the same black one with the white "D" and the silver boots, belt, and gloves. But somehow his beauty was intensified. Maybe it was because instead of a green glow, Danny was now glowing white. Sam didn't know, but didn't really care.
"Hi, Sam," Danny said in his same voice. But just like every other part of him, the beauty of his voice was somehow magnified one thousand fold. His voice was velvet even though it had really only gone through the changes that puberty would eventually have given him. "She's beautiful." He meant Dani.
Dani blushed and her hand raced up to her necklace. Danny smiled at her, his eyes softening with love for her even though she wasn't his.
"She's exactly like you," Danny told Sam. Sam nodded, tears flowing from her eyes with happiness. "I knew when I sent that package she'd love the necklace. But tell me…which one of you guys figured out my anagrams and puzzles?"
"Dani," Sam told Danny. "She's a genius. She reads constantly. She just figured it out earlier today, to be truthful." Danny laughed. Once more…it was exactly the same, yet so different.
"I thought she would have deciphered it. I've been watching you, Dani," Danny said in his smooth voice. "Your mother too. You have a very special mother, you know that, don't you?"
Dani nodded. "Yeah, but she's always depressed! She just got happy today." Sam punched Dani's arm playfully, a bit upset she had told Danny that. Danny looked genuinely concerned.
"Sam, I told you not to worry about me!" Danny tatted. "I've been fine. Look at me. You can tell, can't you?" Sam nodded. "What made you suddenly happy, though? If you just figured out the message…"
"I told my husband to take the boot," Sam explained. Danny smiled, happy for her.
"Good for you. I knew you hated him. It'll be good for you without him. You would just have been held back by him more if he had stayed." Sam nodded in agreement.
"But…what happened to you, Danny? I mean…the wings?" Danny chuckled and reached a hand back to finger his wings.
"What, you don't like them?"
"No, I love them!" Sam gushed. "But…you never had them before!"
Danny nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's true. Dani, I never had wings. I don't think any ghost has wings." He paused and stared at Sam, waiting for her response. Sam reacted just as he had thought (and hoped); she blinked and stared at him.
"…if…if you're not a ghost…what are you?" Sam asked slowly.
"I'm an angel," Danny told her. Sam's mouth dropped open. "It's a rare occasion that a ghost turns into an angel. All angels live forever, and there are only, at the most, two hundred of us. The only ghosts that ever make it to being an angel are the good ghosts." Danny's face glowed with happiness.
"A…angel," Sam repeated wearily. "A…angel."
Danny nodded. "I was the first ever half human, half ghost to ever make it. Apparently, most of the half human's in the history of ghosts go evil. I was the only exception; I used my powers for good.
"Only ghosts that helped the humans got, and get, to be angels. Most ghosts don't even know about us—we forever lurk on the outskirts of humanity, pushing people to see the good in life and see the good in other things. You're not normally aloud to work on the people you once knew, but you guys are an exception…anyway, I'm an 'angel' because I helped everyone in Amity Park when they needed me the most—even when they all hated me."
Sam smiled at his explanation, nodding, knowing everything he said was true. But something he had said stopped her dead in her tracks.
"What do you mean, 'we're an exception'?"
Danny looked down briefly, half sad, half happy. Sam doubted if he would ever look anything negative fully ever again. Dani was awestruck; Danny was everything Sam's journal had said and more. Maybe it was the wings, but he seemed so…perfect. Dani understood why Sam had blabbered on and on about how much she loved him.
"Well…you see…" Danny struggled, "Dani…has been on very close tabs with about half the angels since she was born."
Sam blinked. "Why?"
Dani stared at Danny, not really understand where the conversation was going.
"Well…Sam, don't freak out, but…they kind of want her to become a halfa like I was—they can see her heart and soul, and she seems to be like me; we all think she won't go crazy. We're hoping that maybe one day…maybe even almost immediately after she masters her powers…we can have her become an angel. We need more angels because, well, there's going to be an outbreak of halfa's soon." Danny stared at Dani sheepishly.
Dani's face was set into a blank mask. Sam, on the other hand, stared at Danny. "An outbreak of halfa's? How?"
"The ghost hunters are going to create the DNA of ghosts," Danny explained. "They're going to pick up random kids—ages fifteen to twenty—off the street and give them a shot that will supposedly turn them into ghosts, but rather halfa's. There's going to be at least four hundred of them walking around before they realize that they're about to create an apocalypse." Danny stared at Sam intently, his soft green eyes boring into her.
"If its okay with her, let her come and help us," Danny pleaded.
"But…can't you just stop it?"
"No," Danny said sadly. "That's the horror of it. It's destined to happen some time in the near future, and there's nothing we can do to stop it." Danny sighed, but it was more a sigh of "oh well we knew this was coming" rather than sadness.
Sam was a turmoil. She didn't want to lose Dani—one person she loved was enough!—but she didn't want the world to end…and if she were going to help…and especially if she were going to be with Danny…
"Dani, is it okay with you?"
"Yeah!" Dani exclaimed immediately. "It sounds kind of cool!" Sam took a deep breath and stared at Danny, a smug smirk playing on her lips.
"Okay, Then fine. But I have two things to say."
"Go on."
"I'll only let her go on two conditions," Sam said. "Number one; she has to live with me until you guys think the time is right for her to become an angel—and you have to visit me every day."
"That might be impossible," Danny told Sam. Sam smiled and held up a hand. "Let me finish. Number two; you make me into a halfa too."
Danny blinked at her, and so did Dani. "What?" Danny asked after a few moments of confused silence. Sam smirked at his surprise, and looked down at her daughter's mask of surprise also.
"Either let Dani live with me until the last minute, and you come to visit constantly, or you turn me into a halfa also."
Danny's face lit up in a bright smile. "That would be a nice twist," Danny agreed. "Hmm…I'll need to test you to see if you're able to become an angel—if there's even the slightest bit of doubt that you might not make it…"
"I understand," Sam said automatically. Danny walked up to her, his smile widening. Suddenly he went opaque and he stepped right through Sam.
Sam froze; she could feel Danny probing through her heart and her brain, feeling for anything that would make her evil or something of the sort. Sam didn't care about Danny probing her; he knew everything about her already. Nothing besides having Dani and marrying Malik had really changed since he died.
Danny stepped out of her, solidifying almost immediately afterwards, his face alight with luminous and spreading happiness. "You're clean," he told Sam happily.
"Do you have to test me?" Dani asked after Sam had finished cheering. Danny shook his head.
"No, we already have. While you were sleeping."
"Oh."
Danny smiled and laced his fingers into Sam's, just as they would have if Danny got an extra year…or maybe even less to live. It was like Sam and Danny were fourteen years old again, and madly in love. They were now thirty, but they still loved each other with a pounding heart.
"Come on," Danny told Dani and Sam. "We've got to get you guys changed into halfa's."
Sam's heart sung with happiness as Danny held her hand and held Dani's hand. Slowly he flew up, using his wings to the bare minimum as he headed towards the sky. Sam knew, no matter what happened next, that she would soon be with the one person she had missed all her life. The one person that never failed to be in her dreams. The one person she thought about every moment of her day…even when she was thinking about something else.
Danny accepted Dani as his own child immediately. It was probably because she looked so much like both of them, but Sam had the feeling it was because somehow she was Danny's daughter.
Sam didn't know how that was possible, but that little fact didn't matter. The only thing that mattered to her now was that she was going to be with the two people she loved the most…forever.