~Chapter 22~

A year. A whole year. It had passed by with flying colors and Danny couldn't believe the twins were three years old now. He had been there this whole time, watching them as they grew up, helping them grow up...but...it was so hard. Already three... They were walking, talking, understanding pretty much everything they heard. They spoke properly, unlike when they were babies. Potty training was still in progress, but...what happened to the days when they wore diapers instead of big girl and big boy potty training underwear...? The stench was gone, that was a good thing, but this was proving that the twins were needing their parents less and less as they grew older. What would happen during the teenage years, when they were capable of taking care of themselves? The only thing they would need from their parents at that point would be the driving aspect. And after they got their licenses... What would he do without them? And when Lilith got married, would he even be able to move his legs enough to walk her down the isle? And what would he say to Junior when he got married? What was he supposed to do, pat him on the back and say congrats on your new wife?

They were only three now, and he savored every moment, but they were still growing up. He didn't want them to grow up. Not yet at least. He wanted to be able to stay in the days when they would beg him for horsey rides and get super excited over a chocolate chip cookie. He didn't want that to go away...

"Danny!"

He drew a quick, sharp breath and jumped, nearly falling off the edge of the bed. Thankfully it was Sam. Unfortunately he could've died from the impact of the startle. Nobody ever really bothered him when he got deep into thought like that, but nicely done, Sam. You almost killed your boyfriend.

"Dove, you almost gave me a heart attack!" he yelled.

She smiled and pulled him off the bed. "Well if you're gonna have a heart attack, could you wait until I show you a surprise?"

He smirked. "I'll see if I can keep my heart beating. What's the surprise? Wait, Lilith didn't move on to calling me 'Dad' yet, did she? Because that's not a surprise, that's torture."

She laughed playfully. "No, she didn't. You've got awhile before that happens. Come on, I have something for you!"

"What is it?"

"Come on, Danny!" she exclaimed, grabbing his hand and yanking him forward toward the door.

She was...oddly excited. He honestly wasn't used to seeing her this way. Sure, she got really happy and sure, she got really affectionate...but she was never this smiley or hyper. Okay so maybe she wasn't hyper, but she was the next best thing, that's for sure. This was something big, this was definitely something big. And she said it was a surprise, and that she had something for him, so basically she was like this over a surprise for him. It was a big deal, it was his surprise...and...now what? What was it? It was something she clearly thought he'd love. He probably would, because it made her so happy if for nothing else.

She was actually panting as he let her drag him out the door to their house and all the way down the street. She wanted to be alone with him for this, he realized. Something big was gonna happen... Something big was definitely gonna happen... If she wanted to be completely alone...? And she'd fought ghosts with him enough to know her way around Amity Park, so she knew precisely where she was going. Question now was, where was she going? The way she was headed, it would turn right into the middle of the city and she would be able to go any which direction she wanted. So...he really wasn't able to figure out where she wanted to go. And that was pretty new considering he knew this place like the back of his palm.

She didn't head right to the middle of the city though. She turned left just before she hit that intersection. It only confused him more, and by now he could guarantee that confusing him was her purpose for dragging him around everywhere.

And after an hour, she stopped near the edge of the city, as far away from the house as possible without actually leaving Amity. Sam pulled him in an alleyway between two brick apartment complexes. It was surprisingly clean.

"Okay," Danny started, "what's going on, where's that surprise you were talking about?"

Sam waited for the next several minutes to catch her breath, during which time Danny took the chance to catch up on his own breath.

When she was done, she replied, "Close your eyes."

Being the obedient boyfriend he was, he closed his eyes. Being the curious boyfriend that he was, he listened closely to what she was doing. He couldn't make it out though. It sounded like she was holding a bunch of leaves in her hands. Maybe it was leaves. Maybe it was some kind of medicinal ghost plant that she'd found in the ghost zone. Yes, the ghost zone. She would go into the ghost zone whether he wanted her to or not, so long as someone acted as babysitter for the time being.

"Open them!" she squealed, her joy reaching his heart and filling him with excitement.

He opened his eyes to find two pieces of paper shoved in his face, nearly touching his nose. Excitement gone, confusion back. He took them and looked at the first one, quickly looking up at Sam first to make sure she was mentally stable. She seemed okay...just really excited... He lowered his eyes and examined the first paper. It was Lilith's birth certificate, he noticed. As he scanned over it, his eyes widened drastically. He had to say it aloud to truly register that it was there.

"Lilith Brooke Fenton."

And the next paper was Junior's birth certificate.

"Daniel Junior Fenton."

They had his last name!

"They have my last name!"

This was awesome!

"This is awesome!"

Clutching the papers tightly in one hand, he applied a bone-crushing hug to Sam.

How'd she do that?!

"How'd you do that?!" he squealed.

Although still excited, she calmed down. Probably from the lack of oxygen. "I'm eighteen and I have legal guardianship. I got their last names changed. Lilith and Junior are legally Fentons now."

"Wait..." He drew away from her. "What about your birth certificate? Won't they find it a little weird to know their mother is a Manson and their father is a Fenton?"

She slyly smirked. "Why don't we get to that later?"

Later...? Later how? What was she talking about?

"Did you change your last name too?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. I'm still Manson. I only got their names changed."

What? Then how...? This had something to do with whole 'later' thing, didn't it? She didn't get...her name...changed... It was stupid to ask why, there was a reason behind it! She had seen his notebook and all that was in it. She knew he wanted a future with her. So basically...she knew he wanted to marry her. And if she said yes, if he married her, then her last name would be changed to Fenton. And marriage...that would come later. Later...just like she said. She had said yes even before he'd proposed. That was... Wow... He didn't know whether to be excited or stunned. There was no negative emotion here, and no neutral ones. It was all positive. But he was definitely speechless.

It didn't mean he was motionless though.

He bent his head down to kiss her. He'd grown taller than her, starting his growth spurts when he was fifteen, the same age that he found out she was pregnant, that he was going to be a dad, that he was going to be a dad to twins. He turned sixteen two months after they were born, during which time they both noticed he was getting taller than her. And he kept having growth spurts up until last year. He had stopped growing after that, having reached the height of six feet, three inches. The boy was tall. His dad wasn't even that tall. But his maternal grandfather was that tall, meaning he'd actually gotten the gene from his mother.

She grew as well, but not all that much. She was now around five feet, six inches. Needless to say, she was considerably shorter than Danny. She got the gene from her grandmother, or so she assumed. Her grandma was an inch above that height, so it stood to reason that she got it from her grandma.

She noticed, as she opened her eyes, that he was on the verge of tears. She figured he would be happy; she had no idea it would make him this happy. She wondered if he knew he was about to cry. Probably not. But...then again, he might. She had shown her tears only to him, perhaps he would share his tears only with her. He was sensitive, even if he wouldn't admit it. He was susceptible to strong emotions, just like everyone else, but he could show it much differently. If he was angry his eyes would glow a harsh green. If he was sad he would slump over and become lethargic. If he was happy, like he was now, he would perk up and if he was super happy, again like he was now, he would cry, or at least refrain from crying. And right now it looked like he was overflowing!

She felt his hands wrap around her waist as he pulled her closer. In turn, she slowly moved her arms around his neck. Her thumb mindlessly rubbed the back of his neck and she could feel him tense up. He didn't do anything beyond that though, he didn't jerk away. But his mouth started to move away from her lips, planting tiny pecks on her jawline.

She smiled from the tickling feeling it brought, but before he could reach her neck, she grabbed his arms and pushed him off her. Not hard, and not far, but just enough so he could actually look her in the eye. A hurt expression flashed across his face, followed by an equally guilty one.

"Oh, geez...Sam, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Tell me something," she interrupted. It was probably for the better if he didn't finish his sentence anyway. He would've just embarrassed himself.

He looked away for a moment before nodding his head. "Alright."

She turned his head so that he had to look at her. "Do you remember the night I got drunk?"

He nodded again and shifted uncomfortably. "Hard to forget."

"I remember you telling me what I did, and you said I did stuff that made me look, and I quote, 'hot- uh, drunk.' What exactly did I do to make myself look 'hot- uh drunk'?"

He blushed a very bright red and wanted so badly to look away from her right now. He couldn't, though, because she would force his eyes back to hers.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, that was obviously just a slip-up, everyone does it," he said, forcing a small laugh afterward.

"Slip-ups are one thing, but you're a guy, and according to what you said, I did a lot of things. Although honestly I'm still debating on whether to believe some of them or not."

"You...you just did some stuff. I-I don't even remember!" He cracked a weak smile.

"I'm not dropping this until you tell me. Would you rather sit here for the next hour or would you rather get it over with?" She smirked, knowing he would choose option number two. Well, hopefully. He could still be unpredictable at times, and this could be one of those times.

"Does it have to be now...?" he groaned.

"After almost kissing my neck, yes." Another smirk.

"That's what makes it awkward, and I didn't mean to go that far! I don't know what came over me, I just-"

"Danny..." she warned.

He sighed heavily. "Are you sure you want to know? Because keep in mind, I can't be held responsible for what you did."

"Tell me," she bluntly answered.

He sighed again. "The very first thing you did was come stumbling through the door saying you were in love with some guy you met at a party. You saw me and asked me if I wanted to have some 'fun'. You didn't even remember my name, I think you called me Mark. Yeah, Mark and some other name. What was it, Ken? Yeah. Yeah, you called me Mark and Ken."

"And calling you two different names made me look 'hot- uh, drunk'?"

"No, but it was frustrating. I corrected you both times and you still didn't call me Danny."

"I was drunk."

"Which is why it was frustrating."

"And did I really ask you if you wanted to have 'fun', or are you making that up?" She raised an eyebrow and eyed him.

He held his hands up defensively. "No! I'm not making it up, I swear! That was one of the embarrassing parts!"

"One of? So there's more, apparently."

Lots more, yeah. And how amazing was it that he had to tell her... He put his hands down.

"Well..." He took a breath, remembering all that had happened on that...erm...eventful...night. "I remember being confused as to why you'd been drinking, but I knew asking you wasn't going to help. And while I was lost in thought, you came up to me and ran a hand across my chest."

By now, she, too, was blushing. Part of her wanted to remember what happened on that night so she could look through her memories and see for herself, but another part of her was glad she didn't.

"You told me I looked 'awfully sexy' and I begged you to stop. Being drunk, you sorta didn't listen. You kept trying to seduce me." And truthfully, it was hard to resist.

"How?" she questioned.

"Okay...I won't lie, what you did made you look really cute."

"Danny, quit cutting out the details."

He ran a hand through his hair and continued, "You kept giggling and the way you smiled at me was just...I don't know how to describe it. It sparked something, that's for sure. You kept grabbing onto my shirt and hung off me. I didn't really know what to do at that point and you wouldn't let go of me. You suddenly kissed me and I was frozen there, I didn't know how to react. Then you took your shirt off and threw across the room. I, uh...I may or may not have fainted after that. Next thing I knew, you were on top of me. Thankfully you passed out before anything else happened. I picked you up and brought you upstairs to rest. And before you say anything, I SWEAR I didn't do anything!"

Well that was uncomfortable. And it was the second time he'd told her she took off her shirt. Maybe that was true, maybe it wasn't. She was a little fuzzy on some of what he said. Even drunk, taking off her shirt just didn't sound like something she would do. And she didn't think anything happened that night. Well, on his part at least. On hers, however, there would have been something happening had she not passed out. And the fact that Danny managed to hold off for so long helped a ton to prevent something she would've deeply regretted. He was there for her. He had always been there for her...even if he didn't realize it.

That night she got drunk, he could've taken full advantage of her. He didn't. The way it sounded, he tried to stay away from her and make her stop. He was a guy and she understood that the situation could've been tempting, especially with all she'd done. But he acted more like a person with common sense and good intentions than a hormonal male seeking sex from a dazed female. And she had, on that night, tried to get him to have sex with her. Maybe he didn't actually think about it, but something told her he knew that wasn't what she wanted.

...What would he have done if he thought she did want that? It was an interesting thought...

"So, Danny, can I ask you one last question?"

He looked scared, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "You have to believe me, Sam, I didn't do anything! I swear, I promise, I'm telling you the truth! Nothing else happened, I didn't do anything!"

"Danny, it's fine, stop rambling! I know you didn't do anything. I wouldn't believe you if you said you did do something," she clarified. "Deep down, you knew I didn't want to sleep with you. What would you have done if you thought I did? That's my question."

A/N

:3 Poor Danny. I brought up this scene because I can imagine how Sam felt about not knowing every little thing she did that night. I would feel the same way if I was in her shoes. Best. Cliffie. Ever. XD I love making people hate me over cliffhangers. ;D It brings me joy. So bring in the love. :D

I'm sorry this chapter was mostly dialogue... :( I wanted to put in more detail but all the detail was in the words of Danny and Sam (their attitudes, voices, and feelings)

I can't BELIEVE you guys went over 294! You actually went past to 304! :'D Thank you so much... And to think that I'd repay you with a cliffie that'll make you pull your hair out...or maybe even resort to the wall... :') You guys rock, feel free to give yourselves a pat on the back.

New review quota is three hundred fifteen (315) reviews.

Review replies (DEFINITELY earned 'em):

LittleBoomBoom- :3 It was! I smiled the whole time I was writing it.

Guest- Thanks. :D I meant for it to be one of those triumphant scenes but it turned out to be humorous so I didn't change it and left it be. I was actually considering taking it out but I figured, what the hay.

ShadowDragon357- Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. :)

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Looka'sMagicHell- lol 'Upgraded' to Daddy? XD Well, never heard it phrased that way before, but alrighty then. :3 Cute! Couldn't help but put in the 'I love Daddy!' part. I HAD to make Sam call him so he could hear that!

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