"We just destroyed that guy in a matter of minutes!" Sam exclaimed, eyes glued to the laptop screen that displayed her and Tucker's gameplay of their favorite online game, Doom. Her phone was balanced against her computer screen so her and Tucker could video chat at the same time, making it easier to communicate. "I would give you a high five, but I physically can't," she continued, causing Tucker to wave a hand in dismissal.

"Not necessary, but I appreciate the gesture," he told her.

"Wanna keep going?" She asked, but he yawned and rubbed his eyes, and Sam guessed he was about to call it quits.

"It's one in the morning, so I'm gonna tap out. We can play again tomorrow, though," he said, giving her the response she expected.

"Heard on that. Text me tomorrow,"

"Count on it." He mocked saluted her before he ended their call, leaving Sam to play alone, which she didn't mind. Alone is how she first started and ended up becoming one of the most powerful characters in the game, so it was no problem for her at all. She hadn't been playing long when she got another video chat call, something she wasn't expecting. She thought it would be Tucker again, maybe changing his mind about playing another game, but it was Danny's ID that was flashing on her screen. Raising an eyebrow, she answered the call, hoping it wasn't any sort of emergency. Her phone revealed Danny, still in the same place she saw him earlier that day; in bed.

"Hey, is everything okay?" She asked him, causing him to nod in response.

"Yeah, I just can't sleep. Tucker said you would be up, so I hope you don't mind me calling," he started to say, but Sam shook her head.

"I don't mind at all. I need the company since Tucker ditched me in Doom. Want to take his place?"

"I can't. I'd probably throw up, which I've been doing all night anyway, but no need to make it worse."

"You're vomiting now? It sounds like you're just getting worse," she said with a cringe, causing Danny to sigh.

"I'll be okay. It will just take time."

"I wish there was a way I could help," Danny flipped over in his bed so he was lying on his stomach, stretching out his arm to keep his phone in front of him.

"Just... keep talking to me. It keeps my mind off the fact that I'm suffering." There was a slight pout on his face, and Sam found herself chuckling at him.

"Are you trying to make me feel bad so I can keep showering you with attention?" She teased amusingly, causing a small smile to spread across his face.

"Why? Is it working?" Sam scoffed and shook her head before closing out Doom and shutting her laptop closed.

"What can I say? You got me," she told him, getting up from her computer desk and making her way to her bed. "If it makes you feel any better, this one time when I was sick, I ended up throwing up all over my butler's shoes." She finished as she sat cross-legged on her bed. At first, he seemed to laugh, but stopped suddenly and raised an eyebrow.

"Did you say butler?" He asked, and her face paled at the realization that she had revealed too much. She didn't want anyone to know about her family's financial status, not even Tucker knew the full extent of it yet, and here she was blabbering about it to someone that wasn't very close to her, even if she was trying to change that.

"I definitely didn't mean to," she muttered, trying not to slap herself in the face for being so careless. Danny knew her parents had money from Tucker, but obviously, he didn't know the half of it. He could tell by her reaction that she shared something she shouldn't have, so he tried to make it better with a deal.

"Was I not supposed to know that? I could tell you something you're not supposed to know in return," he suggested, but Sam shook her head.

"I'm not really about invading people's privacy."

"It's not invading if I'm the one telling you," she was still going to deny his request, but he decided not to wait for her response and tell her anyway. "I'm not really sick, I'm just on a new treatment. They tend to have bad side effects." Of course, Sam already knew that because of Tucker, but she didn't want to expose him and have Danny be upset with him, so she acted like it was the first time she was hearing about it.

"What do you mean?"

"My parents try to create new cures for what I have, but they usually just give me bad side effects."

"None of them have worked so far?" She asked him, but he only shook his head. "Aren't you tired of them by now?" His gaze went from her to something off-screen, as if he was afraid to make eye contact.

"It's complicated." Was his answer, one that he gave her a lot. She wasn't going to push him, though. The last thing she wanted was to be abrasive.

"You're probably going crazy locked in your room. Don't you miss leaving the house?" She asked, and Danny rolled over onto his side.

"It's not like I've been locked inside my house for five years even though I'm sure that's the way Tucker made it sound. As long as I was with either of my parents, I was allowed to go out with them as long as it wasn't too long. Especially with Jazz. They trusted her so much that I could go almost anywhere with her, but after she left for college it stopped. She's thousands of miles away now and Mom and Dad are always busy in the lab. Even when they do go out, they don't tell me they're leaving."

"You can't go out with Tucker?" She asked, but Danny paused as if carefully choosing what he wanted to say.

"They love Tucker, but I don't know. Maybe they know we would get into nothing but trouble together," he added with a small chuckle, causing Sam to laugh as well.

"Oh, for sure. You and Tucker are really a couple of rule breakers," she said sarcastically, causing Danny to laugh.

"For real! We used to get in so much trouble in middle school. The only reason Tucker never got detention in high school is because I wasn't there with him. Add me to the equation and I guarantee detention would be a weekly thing."

"How long have you guys been friends for?" She asked out of curiosity.

"Twelve consecutive years."

"Damn, that's a marriage right there," she said, causing Danny to laugh.

"Yeah, it's definitely been a while." His mood seemed happier than before, but he suddenly closed his eyes and turned his head away, although Sam could still see a grimace on his face.

"You should try to sleep, Danny. Rest is the best medicine, you know,"

"Yeah, yeah," he suddenly heard a knock on his door, and he decided to wrap the conversation up, knowing it was one of his parents. "I gotta go. I'll probably talk to you tomorrow," he told her.

"Okay. Sleep tight." He hung up his phone and tossed it over onto his nightstand before letting the person at the door know they could come in. Maddie walked in with a bottle of water, closing the door behind her.

"Was that Jazz you were talking to?" She asked him, placing the water bottle on his table next to his phone.

"Yeah, she's doing okay," he lied, pulling the blanket up towards himself. "What are you still doing up?"

"Dad and I just finished in the lab. I wanted to check on you and see how you were doing," Danny groaned as he rolled onto his back.

"Not good. I've been vomiting for hours now. Just let death take me," he said, causing Maddie to scoff at his dramatics.

"You'll be okay," she said, taking a glove off her right hand to feel his forehead. "Hmm, you still have a fever."

"If I keep getting worse, I'm calling it quits. I hate being sick, especially with the flu," he told her, and he noticed the disappointment in her eyes.

"Are you sure you don't want to hold out for another few days? Maybe it will start to adjust,"

"That's what all the other ones were supposed to do, but they didn't. Mom, I feel like I'm getting the life drained out of me. I can't hold on much longer." She sighed, but she wasn't going to put him through any more pain when he was begging for a way out.

"It's your choice, Danny. Just hold on as long as you can, okay?" He only sighed and nodded as she looked around his room. There were tissues and empty water bottles everywhere, and she knew Danny wasn't going to be able to clean it in the state he was in, so she slipped her glove back on and decided to tidy everything up since it was the one room Sam wasn't allowed to go in. Speaking of, Danny decided now was the perfect excuse to ask for a way out of his room while she was here working.

"Hey, Mom. Do you think I can come out of my room when Sam is here? I've been cooped up in here for days, I need to escape." Maddie almost dropped the empty water bottles she was holding as she whipped around to look at him.

"Danny, you know how important concealing your powers are. If anyone finds out, they could report you to the government or worse!" He tried not to roll his eyes at the response he had already gotten hundreds of times before.

"She's not going to find out," Well, not yet, he thought to himself, but what Maddie didn't know wouldn't hurt her, right? She only scoffed and turned back around to pick up more garbage, this time aggressively throwing everything into the small garbage pale next to his bed.

"Your emotions take over your powers. What if you get nervous or get angry? You have your father's temper, you know," she continued, only making Danny more annoyed.

"Does it look like I'm having temper tantrums all the time? No. I've had these powers for four years and I can handle them." Maddie didn't stop cleaning, but she was shaking her head silently, and he couldn't tell if it was in disbelief or disapproval. "All I'm asking is to be able to roam around my own house. Especially after this. If I'm confined inside my room any longer, I'm going to lose my sanity. Please, Mom?" She sighed as she picked up the last few tissues and dropped them into his garbage can. Once she did, she stood by his bed with one hand on her hip, looking down on him sternly.

"Fine, but tread carefully. If you feel like your emotions might get the best of you for some reason, go in your room or come down to the lab," she agreed reluctantly. If Danny wasn't so sick he would've jumped in excitement. Now he could talk to Sam whenever she was over as long as both his parents were down in the lab.

"Of course. Thanks, Mom. I'm going to try to sleep now," he replied as he rolled over onto his left side.

"Okay." Maddie let her stare linger on him a little longer than needed. All she wanted was to protect him, even if he was old enough to do it on his own, but she couldn't help it. It was a mother's job to love and protect her children at all times, and she wouldn't be able to live with herself if something ever happened to him. "I love you," she said as she passed by his bed.

"Love you, too," he muttered back, lacking the energy to even keep his eyes open. She stood in the doorway for a moment to look back at him before turning the lights off and shutting the door quietly behind her. Sighing to herself, she walked down the hallway to her room where Jack was already in bed watching TV with the volume down low.

"How's our boy?" He asked her as she crossed the threshold of their room.

"Miserable." She responded before sitting down on the edge of the bed on Jack's side. Questioning her own decisions, she placed her head in her hands and let out a breath. "Are we doing the right thing?" She asked out loud almost subconsciously, referring to what they were putting Danny through.

"Of course," Jack said in reassurance, placing a hand on her shoulder. "The world isn't ready for his kind yet. They barely accept ghosts as it is. If we want him to have a normal life, this is what we have to do." Maddie placed her own hand over his before giving him a light smile.

"Right," she patted his hand before she rose from the bed, "just let me get ready for bed." She crossed their room to get to the bathroom before closing the door behind her. Although they thought their conversation was private, Danny couldn't help but float invisibly outside their door, hearing every word that was said. The thing was, they weren't wrong about anything they commented on. People either hated ghosts or they ran away from them screaming. The government, on the other hand, would probably be the only ones that would want to get their hands on him, but only to dissect him or experiment on him. That thought alone was enough to make him physically shudder. Jazz always thought on the positive side, telling him people would accept him if he really tried, but that wasn't the way the world worked. His shoulders slumped in defeat as he floated back to his room, not knowing who or what to believe.


I am SO sorry I haven't updated literally anything for the past couple of months. My life has kind of been a shit-show but I'M BACK AND MEDICATED BABYYYY

I'm still writing this story as I go, so I'll still be updating randomly, but HOPEFULLY you won't have to wait another 3 months for another chapter ^^'

Chloee0x0: You know I can't resist lol

Invader Johnny: Yeah, hopefully Sam can get to Danny and help him figure out what he wants

Guest: Yeah, maybe with Sam's help they can figure everything out together

Fan12: THEY ARE

Tay1019411: Thanks so much!

Purplerox: LMAO saaaaame

MidnightWriter44678: Thanks a lot!

sammansonrepilica: Thanks fam!

sonicatemnaruto: Gracias!