(July 2022 Edit: If you get a notification for an updated chapter, my bad. I wanted to make a couple of edits to this chapter to set up the next arc a little better. Sorry if you're disappointed! I know I've been AFK, but I promise it is for good reasons. The next arc will start real soon! I promise!)
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Welcome to the final installment of the Dancing With Dragons arc! I'm so glad to be done with this one, thank you everyone for your comments and favorites and for seeing me through this one.
I'll be making most of my author's notes at the bottom of this chapter to answer any potential questions you might have. This is the LONGEST update so far at 5,000+ words!
As always, thank you so much for reading and especially for reviewing! It keeps me going!
I hope to have the beginning of the next arc ready for you soon.
(CHAPTER WARNINGS: Foul language, mentions of abuse)
-Song
Sam took her mother shopping but also her grandmother, the only person who was in her corner when she wanted to wear black and purple instead of pink and white. It had been a fight, but the dress was worth it.
Saturday evening, Tucker showed up on her doorstep with a corsage and a hesitant smile. When she opened the door to greet him, his jaw dropped.
Sam wore an off-the-shoulder black and purple gown with a lace-up corset and black lace sleeves. Around her throat was a black ribbon choker necklace, and her hair was tied half-up into two, raven-black space buns.
"Wow," Sam said first. "You really clean up well."
Tucker blushed, but it was hidden in the dim light of the autumn evening. He wore black trousers, a white shirt, and black bow tie, but his black blazer was shimmering with metallic green floral patterns that you could almost just miss if you weren't looking. It matched his eyes.
As she looked at him, he tapped his shiny dress shoes nervously on the blacktop.
"You don't have to sound so surprised," he joked. "My Uncle Ray is a tailor and he wouldn't let me wear something basic."
"I think it suits you really well," she said, her compliment genuine.
"Here," he said, stepping up the stairs to meet her. He held out the corsage and she held out her wrist.
"You didn't have to-"
"Gotta get the full experience," he said with an unreadable look. He slipped it over her pale, slender hand and it rested gently at her pulse point. "It's our last homecoming after all."
Sam had a sudden realization.
"Oh, I don't have a boutonniere for you."
Tucker shrugged and pulled away. "No biggie, I didn't think you would-"
But Sam stepped back into the Manson foyer and went over to a flower bouquet. She snapped a fresh white rosebud off its stem and, using a pin from her hair, skewered it.
"It might clash with your very nice blazer," she said as she pinned a hole through his jacket, "but at least no one can say I didn't get you one."
Tucker's cheeks reddened even more as Sam's fingers wound their way into the inside of his jacket and brushed against his white shirt. He worried she would feel his heartbeat speed up, but Sam didn't notice.
Once she was done she stepped back and surveyed him. The white rose looked good on a green and black background. Then she sighed, as if remembering something.
"We don't match." She gestured between their outfits, she a purple goth, and he a green nerd.
Tucker cleared his throat. "Have we ever?"
Sam smiled. "I suppose you're right."
Besides, no one was going to be looking at them. All of Casper High would be too busy staring at Paulina and Danny, the true strange couple of the evening.
"Anyway, we'd better get going. Henson's on a schedule tonight. He's playing backgammon at a friend's." She turned and grabbed a black jacket off the coat rack, draping it over her shoulders. Then she closed and locked the door.
They headed around the back of the brownstone through a small alleyway to the garage where Henson met them with a stern expression. He gave Tucker what could only be described as the "behave yourself, young man," look, to which Tucker gulped and nodded.
Henson was intense for an older guy. Sam said it had something to do with Henson's background as a driver for the mafia, but Tucker and Danny didn't believe her one bit. Still, they owed the man their lives for picking them up at all hours of the night when ghost hunting. Not to mention the butler had never even asked why they were out so late or covered in goo or mystery meat.
Maybe he had lived his whole life learning "not to talk" about his client's affairs.
"What about your parents?" Tucker asked suddenly. Henson held the door open and Sam paused as she was about to get into the backseat.
"What about them?"
Tucker shrugged and gestured for her to get in. "I just figured they'd wanna get pics or something."
Sam threw back her head and laughed. "My mother doesn't want this dress memorialized. She said she doesn't want to see me wear it ever again after tonight."
"But you will." Tucker buckled into the seat next to her and was breathlessly aware how her soft dress pressed up against his leg in the small space.
"Of course I will. Maybe I'll wear it to Sunday dinner."
Henson got into the driver's seat and started the car as Tucker laughed.
"By the way, I never showed you what I found," Sam said as they pulled out of the drive.
"About?"
Sam leaned close and Tucker's pulse quickened. "The you-know-what?"
"W-what did you find?" he asked.
Sam pulled out her phone and gave him the highlighted bits of the article she'd recorded from her research. He read through it, his face changing from curious to sad, to shocked.
"She… died like that?"
"Mhm." Sam took her phone back and stared at the article again. "It's just so… unfair. I understand why she was so unhappy when Danny met her, but I thought… you know, I thought ghosts weren't supposed to be sad anymore."
If Tucker knew the answers to the great mysteries of the universe, he would've told her all of them, just to take that crushed look away from her face. He held her hand instead, and she looked up surprised.
"It's okay," he told her. He didn't know what else to say.
.
.
.
Danny had been both terrified and excited to pick up Paulina for the dance. He was still hoping that maybe Paulina would be amiable and give back the necklace once he explained.
Although, her dad didn't like him at all, or his family. Then again, Danny supposed that he wouldn't need to. Who was he kidding? He'd picked her up in the Fenton RV, the only car his family had available. It was either that or his bicycle.
There was no way he was getting a second date.
They entered the gymnasium fashionably late to the couple hundred stares and whistles of Casper High students, still unbelieving that Paulina had chosen to spend her final homecoming with Danny Fenton. She laughed and waved. Danny flushed awkwardly. The music was loud and students were already dancing. Punch and food were stacked in a corner at a buffet table. In another corner, Dash and Kwan were standing with Star, arms crossed, like they were ready to turn Danny into hamburger the moment he messed up.
Danny turned away from the crowd to ask Paulina to go somewhere quieter where they could talk, but he stopped short.
She had just taken off her puffy white coat, revealing her salmon pink gown stacked with chiffon and accompanied by long, silk gloves. Nestled in the crook of her throat, was the dragon ghost's emerald. It was strange of her to wear it because the gold and green clashed horribly with her pink dress. Even Danny, who knew nothing about fashion, could tell that much.
She caught him staring.
"Sam said that you had intended to give this to me," Paulina said without any remorse. "It's so beautiful, thank you so much."
Danny could hardly tell what her play was here. Did she think he was too stupid to understand her meaning? Had she really stolen the necklace like Sam had said - just to be vindictive?
Why else wear it, then flaunt it in his face?
Danny took her hand and pulled her into a dark spot, away from the other students. They stood close and she batted her eyelashes at him, but he could tell there was something mean in her expression.
"Look, Paulina, I don't understand what's going on between you and Sam-"
"Between me and Sam? You're kidding right?"
Danny looked bewildered. Her fake smile dripped with venom.
"I don't understand why you would give another girl jewelry after you invited me to the homecoming dance."
"I didn't-"
"You seriously let my attention go to your head. Just because I came with you tonight doesn't mean you're not still on the bottom of the food chain."
"Paulina…"
"Save it. This was fun, Fenton, but I think I'll go be with my friends for the night. Thanks for driving me. Consider yourself dumped."
"Wait-" he cried, not knowing what else to do but to grasp her hand and keep her from stalking away. "That necklace is… it's my mom's okay? Give it back."
"No. Don't touch me," she hissed, wrenching her hand away and beelining for the girl's restroom where Danny couldn't follow.
He jumped when Tucker appeared next to him.
"There you are! Why did you get here so late?" he yelled over the music.
"Paulina's dad gave me the third-degree for like twenty minutes, that's why."
"Where is Paulina going?"
"The bathroom. She thinks I two-timed her with Sam and she's pissed. Now she's never giving back that necklace."
"What!?" Tucker cried. "She has to!"
"What do you want me to do, Tuck, wrench it off of her neck in front of everyone?"
Tucker shook his head. "No, you're right, you can't do that. That would look insane."
"Where's Sam?"
Tucker spun around, his eyes wide. "Dude, I swear she was just here a second ago…"
.
.
.
It was rare that the girl's bathroom was empty on homecoming night.
Usually, it was full of girls doing their makeup, or fixing their dresses and zippers. Some gossiped about couples or smoked out the narrow window in the stall nearest to the wall. There was a faint brownish tint to the pink paint over there.
Instead, Paulina stood alone in front of one of the three mirrors, her eyes tearing up over the sink. She tore off a silk pink glove in order to wipe away the mascara with her bare hand.
"It's smudged," she said to her own reflection, her voice cracking. She forgot to bring her makeup with her. "Fuck."
"It looks fine," came a familiar voice from behind her. "A little racoon-ish, maybe."
Sam Manson stood in the bathroom doorway wearing a vampire queen getup. It infuriated Paulina to see that it fit her perfectly, that it looked expensive; that she looked so confident.
"Get away from me, freak," Paulina said, but her heart wasn't in the insult. Instead, she felt weak and miserable.
Sam slowly approached her, hands out in surrender.
"Look, I know you think Danny gave me that necklace to hurt you, but he didn't. The truth is…" Sam hesitated.
Paulina, too hurt to argue anymore, and sensing juicy gossip, waited.
Well, Sam definitely couldn't tell her the real truth. How could she tell her that the necklace was a ghostly amulet that came out of the 'other side' on the neck of a dragon? No, she would have to come up with something else. Something believable.
"The truth is, Danny has had a crush on you forever. Of course he has, I mean look at you."
Paulina sniffed. She finally turned around from the sink to look at Sam properly. "Yeah?"
"The reason Danny leant me the necklace was because it was green." The wheels in Sam's head started turning really fast. "Tucker… his jacket has green in it and I wanted something to match. I would've worn green too," she gestured down to her dress, "but I didn't have the necklace and so…"
"Wait," Paulina said, putting a hand in the air to silence Sam. "You wanted to wear the necklace for Foley?"
Sam resisted the urge to cringe at the implication that she had feelings for Tucker. No doubt that would be the rumor for the rest of the year.
She switched tactics. "Yeah, pretty embarrassing right? Came to homecoming with one of my best friends instead of a boyfriend. I'll die a virgin. I'm a total loser."
"You really are," Paulina said, rolling her eyes at Sam's sarcasm.
Paulina felt like an idiot. How could she have gotten worked up over Danny Fenton? How had she let this hurt her pride when he was so far beneath her? Especially since it all turned out to be a stupid misunderstanding.
Not that she would ever admit to any of it.
"Here," she said, taking the necklace off and helpfully clasping it around Sam's neck next to her black ribbon choker. "Take the stupid thing I don't care about it anymore. It's heavy and it makes me feel weird."
Sam was startled by Paulina's gesture, but she was just happy to get the necklace back. It clasped into place without much effort and hung thickly at her throat. And wow, it was heavy. Also overly extravagant. In the mirror, it looked absurd on her. It would look absurd on anyone.
"Wait, what do you mean it makes you feel weird?"
Paulina took a deep breath. It was like coming up for air.
"I don't know. Like no one cares about me or what I have to say. That boys don't like me." Paulina narrowed her eyes. "If you repeat that to anyone I'll kill you."
"I won't. But...why would it-?"
Out of nowhere, a sharp pain shot behind Sam's eyes. In her head, thoughts about the ghost princess flashed through her; about how she had been so betrayed, so unhappy. How unloved she felt as she stood with a smile for her arranged marriage portrait to be painted. How unfair it all was that she should die for her brother's crimes.
In less than a second, Sam felt like she understood princess Dorothea. She Understood everything. The amulet wasn't a prized family heirloom. It was a collar that you put on a purebred hound.
A chain.
Suddenly, Sam started to feel sick. Like, really sick.
Paulina wasn't paying much attention. She fixed her makeup with her hands to remove smudging and then slipped her glove back on. "I'll be sure to let everyone know that you and Foley are in love by Monday for my trouble. Hope that's not too awkward for you."
Sam could hardly hear her. Her pulse was ringing in her ears. She stumbled forward to the sink and gripped it hard, her black-painted fingernails digging into the porcelain.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Paulina asked. Sam wasn't rising to the bait of her insults and it annoyed her.
"All I wanted," Sam groaned into the sink, her head lowered as though she were going to puke, "was to be left alone…"
"What?"
"All I wanted…" she murmured again. The words were not Sam's own, coming completely unbidden into her mouth as she spoke them.
Her hair stood on end, her skin prickled as though it was trying to run away from her. She felt a wave of unbelievable unfairness wash over her. Of being trapped by her family's expectations, helpless, and desperately unhappy.
Then the feeling became dangerously angry.
"Hey, seriously Manson, are you going to barf-?"
Sam finally looked up into the mirror, and she jerked backward. Her eyes had gone from their rare, Elizabeth Taylor purple, to a disturbing sunset red.
Paulina gasped and, without warning, fainted completely from shock.
.
.
.
"I saw her leave for the bathroom," Grey Griffin said, pressing closer to Tucker so he could hear her over the loud music. "Both of them, Paulina and Sam. Why?"
"Sam's my date," Tucker said pointedly, leaning away from her. Grey Griffin's face fell quickly. "Paulina is Danny's."
"Well," she said, tossing her hair, "good luck finding them, then." Grey nodded her farewell, though it wasn't a friendly one, and left to hang out with other friends from the eSports club.
"I told you she was into you," Danny reminded Tucker. "You totally just blew it."
"I told you that she wasn't my type."
"One of these days you'll have to tell me who your type is. I was under the impression that it was just 'girls'." Danny said with a mischievous smile. Tucker rolled his eyes as they approached the girl's bathroom. "Cover me."
Tucker pretended to lean against a trash can as Danny ducked behind it. A quick flash of light went unnoticed in the bright, neon disco that was a Casper High homecoming. When Tucker turned around, Danny was gone, no doubt having phased through the bathroom wall.
What he hadn't expected was to feel arms on his shoulders and then the yanking of himself through that same wall all at once.
"Wha-!?"
It was like his stomach dropped out from beneath him, his body going cold. Then, in a flash, it was over, and Tucker tumbled to the girl's bathroom floor in shock. Danny stood over Tucker in his ghost form, eyes green and worried, gloved hands on his hips.
"D-did you-?"
"Yeah, I did. I wasn't sure I could but I had to try. I'm freaking out."
"Dude. That was the wackiest thing I've ever felt. It was freezing like…" Tucker's words died in his throat as he realized what Danny meant.
On the floor was Paulina, collapsed and unconscious. There was no amulet around her neck, and Sam was nowhere in sight.
"Something," Danny said slowly, his voice low, "is very wrong."
"I mean, unless Sam decided to finally clock Paulina in the face, you got that right. Can you sense anything? A ghost at all?"
Danny wasn't sure. Nothing had happened yet. No signal that something was nearby. He stooped down to help Paulina up, to wake her, but she was out cold.
"What about Sam? What if she's in danger?"
"We can't leave Paulina here on the floor, Tucker."
Tucker looked skeptical. "Don't you think it would be better if other girls found her passed out on the floor and not two guys who randomly come out of the girl's bathroom?"
Danny hesitated, Paulina's limp head in his hands. The idea of laying her back down on the dirty bathroom floor was abhorrent, even if Paulina had been cruel to them.
Then Danny shivered, and his breath started to show.
"Oh no," he said. "There it is."
"Nearby?" Tucker asked.
"Has to be."
Danny scooped Paulina all the way up into his arms, bridal style. He'd expected that carrying an unconscious person, complete dead weight, would be really difficult, but he realized she weighed nothing at all. Maybe he was half-dead, but superpowers were still superpowers, and super strength was pretty cool.
"Be right back. Don't get caught in here," Danny said, and then he and Paulina were gone. Tucker could only assume they had phased through the wall.
Several agonizing seconds later, Danny returned.
"Your turn."
"What did you do with her?"
Danny took Tucker's arm and they turned invisible once more. Tucker went cold again as they phased through the wall and back into the crowded, loud gymnasium.
"Over there," Danny yelled over the music. Tucker turned his head to see Paulina slumped in a chair at one of the tables, her head in her arms as though she had fallen asleep. "Someone else will help her. Come on."
They remained invisible for as long as Danny could stand it before they emerged out of the gymnasium doors and into the parking lot. Danny's breath ghosted in front of them as he panted with the effort of using his powers.
"This way," he said.
"It's so weird that you can just use your breath like a compass."
"It's not really my breath, more like a feeling. A 'ghost sense.' The breath is just a signal to warn me."
"Well it better be a strong signal and get us to Sam before something happens. I'm not ready to fight a real life dragon."
They ran around the side of the school and to the back alongside the tennis courts and the football field. Tucker narrowed his eyes, scanning for ghostly creatures or bad omens. Instead, he saw what looked to be a person in the center of the football field, illuminated by bright stadium lights.
"Is that-?"
"Sam!" Danny started flying. Tucker followed quickly behind.
As they approached, they could tell something was off. She was wearing the amulet to start with, and she was muttering something to herself. When she looked up at them, Tucker almost tripped and fell over. Her eyes were a bright, scarlet red.
"Sam!?" Tucker called but she didn't register it. She began to pace. When she turned away from them, Danny gasped.
"Oh my God, what's happening to her!?" Tucker cried, staring at the small, bat-like, scaly webbed wings that were protruding out from her exposed shoulder blades in her backless dress. On her face, small lines that turned out to be blueish scales began to emerge on her skin.
"She-she's changing into… it looks like…" Danny was dumbstruck.
"A dragon," Tucker finished. "A real one."
Sam shivered and shook, still pacing around the football field as though she were in a trance, looking for something, speaking, to someone who wasn't there; the dewy coolness of the evening dampened her gown.
"The ball," she muttered as the boys grew closer. "I was… I wanted to go…"
Even her posture was strange, like she was someone else entirely. She held herself with her chin high, her steps dainty and quick. She lifted her skirts away from her shoes as she walked with the sort of courtly dignity that a queen would use in a fantasy movie. When she finally saw them, her blood-red eyes stared through them and then looked away quickly.
"Did my brother send you?" she asked, her voice small and afraid. "Please, I didn't mean to leave the castle-"
"Sam…" Danny said carefully. "You are still Sam, right?"
She stopped when he said her name, but he noted with growing horror that her skin was turning a pale blue. Over one eyebrow, a green horn began sticking its way out of her head.
"Danny?" Sam asked carefully, her eyes wide and searching. "Where are you?"
"Here," he said softly, reaching out to her, but too afraid to touch her skin in case it hurt. She finally looked at him, really looked.
"She wants to leave," Sam moaned, her red eyes blinking quickly. "She does but she c-can't."
Her lip trembled. Tears started falling.
"Sam," Danny said, stepping forward, his gloved hand extended, "let me take it off-"
"She can't," Sam sobbed, backing away and cowering into herself, protecting the amulet, and shaking as though she thought he would hit her. "She's stuck there, she's stuck and she can't!"
She was Sam, Tucker knew, but she also wasn't. The anguish and misery? The fear and despair wracking her with shakes? That was all Dorothea's; the princess Sam had told him about in the car, the one who died young and unloved.
"Danny, she's talking about the dragon ghost. Her name's Dorthea. It's a lot to explain, but she's… I don't know if she's channeling her or something but we have to get that thing off of her."
"I get what you mean," Danny said, understanding dawning on him. He could almost taste it, the same eerie, draconic energy he'd faced in the basement days ago. It was coming off of Sam in waves and it felt so impossible and yet…
Somehow, the amulet was taking Sam over - possessing her with its memories like a cursed object in a horror movie. Maybe it was a cursed object, because it was certainly horrifying.
And Danny's hands shook because had no idea what to do.
"Why," Tucker interrupted, his voice cracking with anguish at the sight of Sam looking so sorrowful, so sick and afraid. "Why can't she leave, Sam?"
Danny gave him a panicked look, but Tucker nodded his head at Sam. He didn't know what else to do, how else to get through to her.
How else to distract her.
Sam's red eyes zeroed in on Tucker, tearful and unblinking. He held her gaze, even though it terrified him.
"She can't get away. She can't leave," Sam whispered through her now pointed fangs.
"Why, Sam?'
Sam still didn't blink. Her hands fell away from the amulet.
"Because he won't let her."
Danny lunged for the necklace, snapping it off of Sam's throat and throwing it to the ground. It bounced harmlessly off the grass. Her eyes stayed wide and frozen, but his "ghost sense" finally switched off. The presence was gone, as though it had never been there.
He thought his powers only detected ghosts, but maybe it was so much more than that.
Within moments, Sam's skin began to return to its normal color. The horns faded, the scales disappeared, and Sam - the real one and only Sam - closed her eyes and collapsed onto the wet grass.
.
.
.
When Sam roused back to consciousness a few minutes later, laying between Tucker and a ghostly Danny on the football field ground, she blinked up at them, confused.
"What? What's wrong?" she asked them. Tucker looked like he was about to cry. "Are you okay?"
"Me? Am I okay?" Tucker barked out a shaky laugh. "Yeah, I'm okay Sam."
Sam blinked, and she realized there were tears on her cheeks. She jumped when Danny reached out with shaking hands and touched her face, turning her chin to the side so he could see her eyes.
"Purple," was all he said. Sam vaguely remembered them being a different color for a split second in the girl's bathroom. A sunset red.
"Paulina?" she asked.
"She's fine. She probably won't remember anything."
"We hope," Tucker added.
Sam swallowed and wiped the mysterious tears from her cheeks. Their expressions were starting to make her anxious.
"W-what about me? Am I fine?"
Danny gasped out something like a laugh but sounded more like a strangled cough. "I mean, yeah if you feel okay? I think you're okay."
"I feel fine. Just… cold."
Danny's heart skipped a beat. "How cold? What kind of cold?"
"Not ghostly cold. Like, wet and cold." Sam cleared her throat, pushing his hand gently away from her face. "Can I get off the grass, please?"
"Yeah, come here," Tucker said, grabbing one of her hands while Danny grabbed the other.
They hoisted her to her feet, and she felt herself sway unsteadily on them. Danny's hands were around her waist in a second, his unusual strength holding her up without any effort.
"Thanks," she said. "Are you sure everything's okay?"
Tucker stared down at the amulet on the grass. When he picked it up, Sam instinctively jumped out of Danny's grip with a yelp, as though Tucker had just picked up a venomous snake.
Danny and Tucker stared at her, and she shook in her high-heeled shoes.
"I-I don't know what that was," she said, her purple eyes wide and startled. "I just… I didn't want it to touch me."
Danny gave Tucker a look. "That's fair."
"Are you guys going to tell me what happened?"
Tucker shook his head. "Not tonight. Seriously."
"When?"
"Tomorrow over breakfast," Danny finished. "Probably."
.
.
.
Danny shoved the amulet into his locker and slammed the door shut. Sam and Tucker hissed for him to keep quiet, or else Lancer would find them in the halls. He didn't care, but he transformed back into his human form just to be safe.
"Guys," he said. "Let's just go home, please? This night was a disaster."
"No," Sam cried, "we have to dance. It's the last homecoming of our high school careers!"
"Yeah, and besides, that thing will be thrown back to the "other side" in like an hour anyway," Tucker agreed.
Danny gave Tucker an incredulous look. It made sense that Sam wanted to dance. She didn't remember anything. Tucker on the other hand…
"After everything that happened tonight, you want me to keep this thing lying around?"
Sam pulled on Danny's hand and away from the locker.
"Come on, Danny," she said. "Please?"
"Yeah Danny," Tucker said in a whining tone, "I say we dance, throw that thing back into hell, go to the Nasty Burger, and pass out in a booth with a big basket of fries."
Danny was outnumbered. He sighed, running his hands through his already mussed black hair. "You guys are going to be the… never mind."
"Aw, and I was going to make a 'you're already dead' joke and everything," Tucker said.
Their entrance to the gym went totally unnoticed. Most students had left already for burgers and shakes at the Nasty Burger which hosted an after-party every year. The DJ was still playing popular songs, but only about fifty students were left on the dance floor. Sam raced ahead of them in her gothic princess dress, the irony of which was not lost on either of the boys, and began to dance like an idiot by herself. Her smile was wide and she beckoned them to dance, too.
After seeing her so terrified, so sad, Tucker and Danny couldn't help themselves. They joined in and, though they were exhausted, and a little shell-shocked from what had happened, it was actually almost fun. Especially now that she was laughing, mostly because it turned out that they all danced like idiots.
When the final slow song played, Danny asked her to dance with him. Tucker was standing off on the sidelines, checking his phone for Uber drivers who might be nearby.
Sam took Danny's hand with some nervousness, her pulse quickening. As he led her in a basic sway on the dancefloor, she asked softly, "Are you really not going to tell me what happend?"
"We will," he told her, avoiding her purple eyes. "I just think we should get some sleep first."
He wanted to make sure that she slept tonight because he sure as hell wasn't going to.
Sam didn't like secrets between the three of them, but sleep did sound pretty good. She felt heavy, like a truck had run her over but hadn't left a scratch.
"Okay," she finally agreed. "I can live with that."
"Okay," he said, and he pulled her into a hug.
Sam's eyes went wide for a second, her heartbeat speeding up at his sudden affection, but then she closed them, and hugged him back. They swayed like that for a few more moments, and she could feel his strong pulse through the corset of her dress.
"I'm okay," she reassured him. "Everything's alright now. Are you?"
Danny sighed against her, holding her tight as if she would blow away on the north wind.
"Yeah. Everything's alright now."
Tucker was able to secure the Uber so Sam texted Henson that he could take the night off. At Danny's they all stood in front of the Fenton portal together and, with a wind-up and a strong, healthy throw from Danny, the amulet sailed through the portal and back into a dark-green haze of mystery.
"See you never," Tucker said as Danny shut down the portal.
"Yeah, don't come back here," Sam agreed. "I don't ever want to have a heart-to-heart with Paulina Sanchez ever again."
They started heading upstairs back to their Uber driver who waited to take them to the Nasty Burger.
"By the way, what happened between the two of you in the bathroom?" Danny asked. "What did she say?"
Sam smirked at them. She could keep secrets, too.
"I'll tell you over breakfast. Maybe."
Wow, that was a lot to write all in one chapter, but I was so pumped to get to the finale and resolution!
Once again, I hope you all liked this arc, and stay tuned for the next one! I estimate that the next post will be in April.
A couple of notes and hopefully answers to any questions:
- I decided against a dragon fight in this episode for two reasons:
A: I'm setting up a future arc that I think you can all guess at regarding Dorothea.
B: I wanted to bring a little more horror and eeriness to Gothica, not just action and fighting. The OG show was for kids and teens, and I totally get that, but I want Gothica to explore death, spookiness, scary ghosts, possession, and the mysteries of the universe. I'll try to keep it mostly PG-13, so any scarier chapters will have warnings.
- I know that Danny was supposed to learn how to overshadow someone in this "episode" in the original show, but I think is still too soon for that. So far he can fly, phase through walls, turn himself and others invisible, and now also phase someone else through a wall. Since, in the show, he could barely keep his own pants up, I thought it was too soon to learn how to possess people.
- This fic is a DannyXSam canon fic, but I've always liked the possibility between Tucker and Sam that this episode provided. I feel like deep connections among friends and crushes in shows are passed over for action, so I wanted to showcase a little bit more possibility in my version of the fic.
- Paulina is petty but I wanted to make her a little more three-dimensional. Next on the list of bullies to tackle three-dimensionally is Dash, but that's for a later arc.