Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Danny Phantom.

Note (8/23/2020): Wow, I'm really laying it on thick that Vlad isn't messing around when it comes to Danny. No one hurts his little badger anymore and gets away with it! That being said I promise I'm not actually hating on Sam even though it might seem like it. All this stuff I'm doing is supposed to help her grow as a person later on. The same goes for Tucker even though I'm trying to write him out to be a lot more understanding since he's known Danny the longest. But at the same time, he also knows how Sam feels since they're both in the same boat on a lot of these issues which means he deserves his fair share of the blame too.

Chapter 15: We're Friends, Aren't We?

"Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over."

~ Gloria Naylor

3rd Person POV

As expected the paperwork took most of the following morning to fill out and in the end, Vlad Masters decided to exclude Tucker from his little vendetta against Sam as far as bothering to file a restraining order against him too just to see how she would respond to. In all likelihood she would accuse him of 'sucking up' to the billionaire and Sam would end up pushing him away as well, thus ending up all alone because she's too stubborn to admit to her own mistakes. If not then Tucker would still have to decide between siding with her side of the argument or with his childhood friend Danny who try as they might to deny it is the real victim in all this.

Even so, Vlad still wanted Sam to suffer the consequences of her actions the most...

He even decided to take it a step further to instill the possible fear of her losing everything she has just to have a small taste of what Danny experienced by buying stocks in her parents side businesses, which as everyone knows could always go south if there's ever an...accident on their end reducing the stocks value. Sam's family may be sitting pretty since her grandfather was an inventor and created an innovative method to package toothpicks and other products in cellophane in mass quantities, but her parents didn't really do much themselves aside from going to lavish parties to create new business connections since they relied so heavily on their inheritance.

Technically speaking, every penny they owned legally belonged to her grandmother Ida, only daughter of Izzy Manson and mother to Jeremy Manson whom they've been taking care of since before Sam was born. Of course, Vlad wasn't planning on actually going through the trouble of putting her family in the poor house -tempting as it was- because the mere threat of that becoming a reality at any time should put Sam in her place. And not even Vlad was sinister enough to overshadow a frail old woman just to make her disinherit her son and granddaughter...

But the most tragic part in all this is that Vlad knew for a fact that no matter how much he tried to play nice with Danny's friends, Sam made it perfectly clear that nothing he did would ever prove to her that Vlad isn't the same man he once was. That's why Vlad decided it wasn't worth the trouble of pretending otherwise anymore that he cared in the least about Danny's friends if this is how they're going to treat him. Sam obviously wanted Vlad to stay the villain so that she had someone to blame for Danny's decision to leave them all behind. She refused to accept that he had limitations, weaknesses, and simply wasn't strong enough to fight to stay by their side anymore.

Not once has Sam been held accountable for her actions or for forcing her own agendas onto Danny and pushing him to his breaking point. But after today this would all change. In truth, Vlad also wanted to indirectly reveal to someone in her school how filthy rich her family is and let the rumor spread like wildfire, in which case she would quickly realize that they were her only 'real friends' since no one else in their right mind would put up with even an ounce of that loathsome attitude of hers. No one else would bother trying to get to know more about her as a person or about her opinions and views, all they would care about would be looking for ways to easily cozy up the bratty little rich girl who thinks she's better than all the other 'pathetic sheep' so she'll show some appreciation with expensive gifts or bragging rights.

She would see one of her worst fears come to life of being exposed and relentlessly pursued by these equally egotistic teenagers. That being said, however, as satisfying as this was all to imagine Vlad knew better than to overdo his revenge schemes like he has in the past because Danny would accuse him of falling back into his old habits of making it his life's mission to ruin the life of someone he utterly despised. And Danny wasn't wrong about that. Either way, Vlad did go through with at least the first part and the second was more of a warning that the next time this happens...he would figuratively destroy Samantha Manson and everything she stood for.

Once the deed was done, Vlad immediately traded places with Danny's parents at the hospital and arranged for his transfer to a more sophisticated one in Wisconsin. At least on paper. But the truth is Vlad planned to secretly move Danny onto one of his private jets.

Danny being in a hospital at all was more for appearances than anything since Vlad was the one personally monitoring his condition very closely like he had in the past since he knew his biology the best and how to treat his ghost half. Danny's parents tried to offer their help as well but Vlad refused, because for one thing, he knew far more than they did about what it means to be half-ghost so their knowledge was utterly inadequate in that regard and secondly he didn't want to risk them tampering with something they didn't understand and accidentally making his condition worse...

It wasn't anything personal this time around though and Vlad openly admitted he was just relieved that for the most part their son's condition was stable and it gave them an excuse to leave Amity Park immediately. The only problem was that Danny's powerful display in Axion Labs was still very unsettling and weakened him to the point where even if he wanted to he wouldn't have the energy to move for quite some time, let alone regain consciousness.

As such, as unfortunate as it may be Danny was in no condition to bid his friends and family goodbye like they planned to. Then again, as far as Vlad is concerned at this point, the only people who deserved to were his older sister, surprisingly his parents, and young Valerie Gray. They were the only ones who had proven themselves to actually care enough to turn words into action and earned that privilege. And perhaps Valerie would have some choice words to say to Sam and Tucker who had lost the right to see their 'friend' Danny again. But the question is, could they really call themselves his friends when it's their fault Danny felt chased off by the people he cares about once again...?

Valerie's POV

Later that same morning in Casper High...

"I'm surprised at you Valerie..." Principal Ishiyama began with a disappointed frown. "It's unlike you to pick a fight with anyone like this. This is highly inappropriate behavior. Care to explain what happened?"

"There's nothing to explain, she started it!" Sam spat venomously, pointing at me accusingly. "Valerie walked up to me and said me she wanted to talk but when I told her to back off she slapped me and started yelling for no reason!"

"No reason?! Oh I have every reason to be mad at you for what you did last night Sam! Don't try to deny it! " I yelled back, standing from my chair. "You know as well as I do how stressed out Danny is from everything that he's been through the past several months and then you had the NERVE to call him selfish for asking you for one small favor before he leaves and he ended up having a total meltdown and passed out! And now he's in the HOSPITAL in a coma for all I know! And it's all because YOU couldn't get over yourself long enough to see how hard he's been trying to keep it together!"

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Sam asked when my words finally sank in and she turn a shade paler when I mentioned Danny was in the hospital thanks to her.

Before I could answer that the principle threatened, "That's quite enough you two! One more word out of you and I'll have you both suspended!" and after that she pointed at my chair and told me to sit down.

Not wanting to get into any more trouble this morning that I already have I reluctantly obeyed and sat down. Then, after folded her hands in front of her and looked at the two of us while we continued glowering in silence once it was clear we weren't going to interrupt her again she leaned back slightly and sighed, "Now then, back to the topic at hand. Since this is only your first offense Valerie and I would hate to put this mishap on your permanent record I'm going to look the other way just this once and you two will be helping the gym teacher Mrs. Tetslaff clean the storage room together from top to bottom. Furthermore, neither of you will be allowed to attend the school dance coming up next weekend either."

I was tempted to tell her I didn't care about the dance anyway since there was no one I was interested in going with anymore but since Sam and I mutually agreed that we didn't want the principle coming up with an even worse punishment for us I kept those thoughts to myself. I was a bit surprised though when she turned to Sam and told her to wait here a bit longer since her parents actually called the school earlier while we were too busy fighting to hear the announcement. They probably wanted to tell her about Danny being in the hospital since Sam's one of his best friends, which I find hard to believe anymore.

She doesn't act like one, that's for sure.

Speaking of which, I'll admit that I shouldn't have gotten so carried away and let my anger control me when I confronted Sam earlier. But when she was acting all evasive and then shrugged me off with some snide remark I finally lost my patience and slapped her across the face because I couldn't stand her giving me the cold shoulder anymore when Danny has been trying so hard to get us to tolerate and maybe even start to understand each other. And honestly, she was being much more of a jerk to me about all this than I EVER was even when I hinted at wanting to be closer to Danny if she wasn't going to.

As for Tucker, to give him some credit he did try to stop us from fighting. But in the heat of the moment, Sam and I rounded on him and told him to butt out. And while I was distracted, Sam's the one who actually lunged at me after I slapped her and started pulling my hair and all that. And believe it or not, it took a LOT of self-control for me not to reflexively whip out my karate moves to defend myself because I knew I could have seriously hurt Sam which isn't what I wanted to do at all. Fighting isn't going to change what happened to Danny or the fact that he's leaving us all behind for his own good.

And the reason I wanted to tell Sam exactly what her careless words did to Danny is because seeing him in so much pain and anguish really scared me. My dad was there and saw the exact moment that Danny's ghost powers went completely out of control and he just fell apart. I don't understand what happened to him, but what I do know is that what Sam and Tucker needed to take responsibility for hurting just like the rest of us. Danny deserves that much consideration after how many times he's saved our lives on a daily basis.

I still couldn't get what I saw out of my head either. The way Danny's eyes were glowing solid green like he was possessed and the helpless look on Vlad's face when he tried to get him to snap out of it, it was painful to watch. And ok I agree with Sam on a few things since I know Vlad can be a jerk sometimes too and he has clearly done some pretty awful things to Danny in the past that I don't know about, but at least he's owned up to most of it. You know, unlike SOME people I could mention.

Standing up again to leave now that I had permission, without looking at Sam I told her under my breath, "For the record, I'm sorry for losing my temper and slapping you, but I'm not sorry for telling you off. It's one thing if you don't care if you hurt my feelings, I could care less about that, but I won't forgive you for doing that to Danny when he's going through a lot of bad things right now. He deserves better than this from his best friends."

Sam looked away from me guiltily but didn't respond so in the meantime I started heading to my next class with the hall pass the principle gave me in hand. All things considered, at least we managed to avoid getting detention and the principal didn't call my dad since he has enough to worry about right now. After what happened yesterday though Vlad was gracious enough to give him the day off once they finished covering up what really happened in Axion Labs with Danny. Although, I couldn't help but wonder why Sam's parents weren't waiting until after school to tell her about Danny like I assume Tucker's parents were since Danny's parents must've called them too to tell them the bad news.

Catching up to Tucker in the hallway on our way to class since Sam was still stuck in the principle's office, I tried to wave him down because I wanted to apologize for snapping at him during my fight with Sam. But he just muttered that it was fine and tried to walk off again.

I could tell he didn't mean it though so I kept following after him until Tucker got fed up and groaned, "No offense Valerie but could you please just leave me alone? I really don't want to have to deal with any more drama today and risk the chance that you might get mad again and bite my head off. By the way, are girls always this terrifying when they cat fight or am I missing something here?"

Hurt that he would think I wanted to pick a fight with him too I stopped and huffed, "Look I'm sorry ok? You might not believe this but I wasn't actually planning on slapping Sam like that. I was just really pissed off when she refused to listen to me that I couldn't control myself. I've been feeling really on edge lately but I shouldn't have taken it out on you guys. Besides, this isn't about me and Sam. It's about Danny. You guys really hurt his feelings..."

"I know," Tucker admitted quietly before finally turning around to look at me, "But here's the thing. The sad truth is that we're still angry at ourselves for not being there for Danny when he needed us most. And to make matters worse, we never even realized how much Danny wasn't telling us about how he really feels. It's like we don't even know what we are to him anymore. I mean do you have any idea how much it sucks knowing he relies on his former arch-enemy and an ex-bully, again no offense, more than his BEST FRIENDS?

"Plus we knew about Dan, we met the guy and he tried to kill us too, but Danny never told us how much our first encounter with him was literally haunting his nightmares until that psychopath showed up again and started literally messing with his head! And last night Danny kept going on and on about how scared you were when Dan was torturing your dad, but honestly, you seem ok as far as I can tell. So honestly I don't know why Danny was yelling about all those things last night. I don't know what he's so upset about!"

"Tucker," I began bluntly, leaning against the nearest locker and crossing my arms while giving him a meaningful look, "Did it ever cross your mind that Danny wasn't actually talking about me at all?"

He blinked in confusion and asked what I meant so I explained somberly, "It's true that I was scared out of my mind when I couldn't help my dad and shocked when I found out Danny's secret in the worst way possible through the evil creep, but Danny had much more to be afraid of than I did. I couldn't move because I was tired and hurt but he didn't have any control over his body. Most of the time Danny could barely even think straight! And that whole time, Dan was telling him our suffering was all his fault so he'd blame himself for everything, including being the one who would destroy the world because he was going to become just like him. I can't even begin to know what that must've felt like. To be a prisoner in your own body..."

Pushing myself off the locker again I finished with, "If there's one thing I know about Danny is that he's selfless to a fault and it tears him apart when other people get hurt because of him or when he feels like nothing but a burden because he cares too much what other people think of him. Especially the people he cares about.

"It doesn't help that Danny's so used to everyone dismissing and shutting him down just like his parents used to so up until now he's given up on even trying to ask for help with anything. It must've taken Danny a long time to find the courage to be even a little selfish because he's seen what sort of monster he could become if he goes too far or stops caring. Danny wanted to believe that maybe this time you'd finally help him out a little so it wasn't all on him. That's why it cut him to the core last night when you two made it seem like he was asking for something unreasonable like THE WORLD on a silver platter or for YOU to die for him. Think about that for a second," I frowned, glancing down the hall when I noticed a couple of people turning the corner.

Not caring how it might look and when I felt Tucker flinch slightly, I hugged him and whispered in his ear, "I really hope there's still a chance for you two to set things right with Danny because as much as it hurts that's what he needs. He needs us to BE his friends, not his enemies. I know that better than anyone because like you said that's exactly what I used to be. So please, don't make the same mistake I did."