~Chapter 10~

Danny drew a sharp breath as he felt the peroxide dripping into his freshly-made wound. It was a deep cut, one that would heal without stitches but needed treatment nonetheless.

"Okay, just keep still and try not to tense up," Sam instructed.

He took another breath and braced himself. The cotton ball had never felt so evil before... It ran smoothly but painfully across the edges of the cut, spreading the peroxide even deeper into it. He stifled a yelp, but accidentally replaced it with a low whine.

He hung his head and let Sam work on his back. Normally he wouldn't have let her see him without a shirt on, but after the fight with Skulker, the cut was too painful and staved off any embarrassment from being shirtless. For now, the only thing he could do was put his hands against the wall, hang his head, and stand still while Sam tried to patch him up. It hurt!

He felt the cotton ball's fibers catch little pieces of clotting blood and pull them off. The cleaning of the wound hurt worse than actually getting the wound. What was so wrong with letting the darn thing heal naturally, without the aid of burning peroxide and sharp cotton balls?

"Danny, don't tense up," Sam repeated, this time in a more demanding tone.

"Sorry, it hurts!" he moaned.

"Oh please, you fight ghosts all the time, you can deal with a little piece of cotton," she said.

He sighed heavily. He wasn't going to win this one. He never seemed to win arguments against Sam. It was impossible, she always wrapped it around in such a way that he couldn't think of a comeback. Hopefully Lilith wouldn't be a mini-Sam. He didn't know what he would do if his daughter turned out to be another Sam. Not that there was anything wrong with Sam, but...oh wow. What if Lilith started acting as weird as her mother?! She was just a baby right now, but what if she started giving him strange smiles and walking past him like Sam kept doing?

He banged his fist against the wall when more peroxide was poured onto the cut.

"It's not fun for me either. You're oozing a cocktail of blood and ectoplasm. It's kinda gross," she said.

"I was hit mid-morph, it's not my fault," he retorted.

"I'm not saying it is."

He felt a wet cloth being rubbed around the cut. The dampness was soothing, but the cloth itself was attacking his skin. It was bittersweet.

"I wouldn't put a shirt on after this," she told him as she put on a large square band-aid. She pressed on it a little to make sure it would hold firm. "It might rip this thing off."

She smoothed out the edges and stood back. "Okay, all done."

He sighed in relief and stood up straight. The burning sensation had faded fast, and the evil cotton ball was gone. But still being shirtless? What was he supposed to do, walk around with no shirt in front of his parents, his sister, Sam, and the twins? It was embarrassing! Plus, his parents would wonder what the big band-aid was for. What was he supposed to tell them? He would have to stay in his room until it was okay to put his shirt back on. If Jazz came in, it would still be embarrassing, but not as bad since she already knew he was half ghost and since she was his sister. But Sam...it was probably even more embarrassing. She was his girlfriend, and here he was shirtless in front of her.

"Danny, what's wrong?" she asked sweetly.

He shrugged and sat on his bed. "Nothing."

He heard a disbelieving grunt. She was a mother. And if there was one thing he'd learned from life, it was that mothers just knew. They seemed to have this weird power, almost like telepathy. He sighed. A telepathic girlfriend.

A hand tugged on his shoulder and pulled him around. A small black-haired girl smiled at him. There it was again...there was the smile... He loved it when she smiled but this was freaking him out. What did he do to deserve this kind of torture? She wrote in her diary for hours, wouldn't tell him what was going on, and worse, she kept looking at him all sweet and loving, gave him a quick kiss, and plum walked away! He swore, he swore this was punishment for something. It had to be! Why would she do something this cruel?!

She wrapped both arms around his neck and kissed him. He expected it to be a very rapid, short-lived kiss, but it was lingering and lasted for at least a full thirty seconds. He smiled and almost started to tear up. Was it finally over...? Did she just forgive him as of now? He felt himself melt. Please oh please don't let this be a trick. He really hoped he wasn't dreaming right now. But if he was, it was one heck of a dream.

"Wait, what?" Tucker asked in confusion.

Danny opened his locker and sorted out his books as his friend leaned against the locker beside him. "Sam. She keeps looking at me all weird."

Tucker perked an eyebrow. "It's Sam. Everything she does is weird."

The halfa's books slid out of his locker and landed loudly on the floor. He began picking them up and said, "Not this weird. She'll kiss me and walk right by me, like nothing even happened."

Tucker smiled one of those sly, 'I-know-what's-going-on-now' smiles. "Go on."

Danny sighed. "When she was fixing me up after a fight with Skulker, she up and kissed me. But a real kiss, not one of those little somethings she's been giving me."

"Where'd you get hurt at?"

Danny pointed to the spot that was still bandaged up. "Right in between my back and shoulder blade."

"Oh...so...you had to take off your shirt," he replied suggestively, as if implying something that the halfa was unable to decipher.

"Well, yeah. It was the only way she could reach the cut."

A chuckle. "And Sam had her hands on you."

"Uh, yeah. That's kinda how it works when you drown something in peroxide and attack it with a cotton ball." Danny flinched at the thought of having to go through that again.

"And you wonder why your nickname is Clueless 1..." Tucker muttered. "Listen, Danny, do you have even the slightest hint as to what's going on here?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking you about this," he replied.

"Dude, it's not that hard. The smiles, the little kisses... She's flirting with you, she's trying to tell you something. Then you're shirtless in front of her, she's got her hands all over you... Are you starting to get it now?"

Danny shook his head. He had stopped picking up his books to look intently at his friend. "No clue."

"Okay, let me break it down baby step by baby step. That's a step for each of your twins. Ghost fighting is exercise. Exercise does what?"

Danny looked up toward the ceiling. "Makes you stronger?"

"Yes. And when you get stronger, what happens to your muscles?"

"They get bigger."

"And which gender notices how big a guys muscles are?"

"Girls."

"And Sam is a girl, so..."

He gasped. "So...Sam thinks I'm tough?"

"Uh...yeah, but when she looks at your muscles..." Tucker motioned for his friend to finish the sentence.

"She..." His voice trailed off as he thought for the right words. "...notices them?"

The techno-geek might as well have hit his face against a brick wall. "Sam saw you shirtless. She likes that. Your girlfriend thinks you're hot."

"Wait a minute, me? I'm hot? Sam thinks I'm hot?" he stuttered. "But why won't she-"

"Ah-ah-ah!" Tucker shook his finger. "I don't speak girl, but if Sam is really doing what you say she's doing, she might even think you're sexy."

And cue the ripe tomato. Either Tucker was really really crazy, or he was really really right. "M-Me? Are you sure?"

Tucker nodded his head. "A hundred percent, dude. A hundred percent."

Danny didn't know if being sexy was a good thing or a bad thing. She wasn't punishing him, she was becoming more attracted to him. He must not have realized how much muscle mass he'd gained from fighting, catching, and chasing ghosts all the time. And Tucker was right, girls were the first to notice the slightest change in physical appearance. And since he was around her all the time... Oh man...and he'd taken his shirt off right in front of her, too! What the heck was wrong with him?! How did he not see this coming?! All this time he thought...augh! It was so obvious! And it took Tucker to explain all this to him, and that was just sad.

Well...what was he supposed to do now? It was great to know Sam thought he was so attractive. And come to think of it, the other girls in school had been less harsh on him than usual...which confirmed it. But after everything Sam had gone through, he wasn't sure if being attractive was a good thing. It wasn't like he'd intentionally been trying to whip his body into shape. He hadn't been trying to impress anyone with larger muscles. But apparently it just happened and one way or another, it paid off. Whether it was for better or worse, he didn't know.

Paulina walked past him, sparing him a suggestive glance. She waved at him and said, "Hey, Danny!" She didn't call him a loser for once and she was talking to him. Two years ago he would've leapt ten feet in the air with joy, thinking about how absolutely lucky he was to have finally caught the attention of his biggest crush. But now...he saw how right Sam had been about her. She really was shallow if all she saw in a boy was his body. Sam didn't look at that, not before now at least. Sam liked him even when he was a loser, even when he looked like a string bean. He didn't want Paulina anymore. There was only one girl he would ever look at and that was Sam. No other girl seemed to be worth his time anymore.

"Have girls been flirting with me this whole time?" he asked, having finally picked up the last of his books.

"Yeah, pretty much. You were just too oblivious to notice," Tucker answered.

The halfa shoved his books back into his locker only to realize he still needed one of those textbooks. "That's probably because I already have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, and you let her see all that embarrassing stuff in your notebook," Tucker teased.

He pulled out the needed textbook and closed his locker. "She said she was fine with it. Besides, I was thinking of asking her to marry me when we got older."

The two friends began walking to Tucker's locker, where he had yet to gather his own things. "Why not now?"

"Wait, what? That's stupid!"

Tucker cracked a smile. "Not really. Think about it. You guys live together and have two kids. You even sleep in the same room. All you're missing is a ring, Danny."

He was right. Their life was set up almost exactly like a married couple's life. Living together, sleeping together, raising kids together. The only thing left out was the ceremony. They were pretty young, but ever since the twins had come into the picture, they had matured so much. Now they were thinking and acting like adults...in most ways. Apparently Sam's girl hormones were kicking in. Not that he didn't like her looks, but he'd always been so modest about his that it seemed almost unbelievable. It felt more like someone was playing an embarrassing prank on him than the truth.

And...what was he supposed to do with Sam? He'd never had a girl like his body before. And he was sick and tired of those tiny little bird-pecks she kept giving him. She didn't need to be flirtatious with him, he was already her boyfriend. And hopefully, his future wife.

A/N

So does anyone get what's actually happening with Sam now? And will Danny ask her to marry him now or wait? :3 Meh heh heh. An indirect cliffie. Nice, right?

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll try to update again by Christmas since the next chapter will be a special one. ;) But remember, I throw in twists, so if you're so sure Danny's gonna ask Sam to marry him in the next chapter...you may want to rethink that.

Okay, so, there will be a review quota this time and that number will be (pulled outta nowhere here) one hundred and forty-seven (147) reviews.

And to speed things up so I can get this thing updated (I hate waiting, don't you?), I gladly present your review replies:

Inuyuke- lol You might be right. :) And sorry. I knew it was wrong, but I noticed that I'd been doing that since the beginning of FWB and I thought it might be weird to suddenly change it. But it'll probably be for the best. Thanks for pointing it out, though. :)

ShadowDragon357- You might be right. I gotta say, I'm loving this so much! Everyone's got their own ideas and all, and it's just so fun to read them. :)

TheNinjaKitty13- I'm a girl and I don't understand it half the time. XD Yeah, while I was writing that out, I thought it would be fun for Danny to think about dealing with two Sams in the future.

Looka'sMagicHell- Hey, no slowing down here! :D ...Plus I'm under threat by a friend. I was smiling while I was writing it. So cute 'n fluffy... I honestly hope I marry someone like him.

smallvillephantom14- Well, his nickname IS Clueless 1...

BrittneyluvsChrist- Thanks, and well...maybe you'll find out. *WINK WINK* ;)

halofreak1990- It was a chapter, but I got really sick and couldn't bring myself to finish it. I felt like I'd kept everyone waiting long enough, so I went ahead and posted it.

Codiak- Well you got more. Yes, more. :)