~Chapter 23~

He could only stare at her for the longest of times, trying to think of something that would get him out of this. What would he have done? What would he have done?! He had a ton of hormones going haywire back then, he'd barely been able to control himself! He...he probably would've...well... He probably would've given in... She was right about one thing though: he knew she didn't really want that. She was just drunk, she had no idea what she was doing.

"Baby Blue?" she teased, dragging out 'Blue' in a singsong voice. Then, in a much more serious tone, "It's alright, Danny, no matter what you say, I won't get mad or upset with you."

"I...um...I would've..." He wracked his brain for something, anything, that would help him. But he couldn't find anything and only made himself look stupid by fumbling around, stuttering and rambling nonsense. "I-I...just...you know...and...I would...er, no, I...um...um...uhhhhh..." Brain fry.

"Danny, I'm your girlfriend of three years and the mother of your kids." She no longer called them just 'her kids' unless a Mosquito spoke directly to her asking about the twins, in which case she would say something along to lines of, 'Why should I tell you anything about my child?'. But aside from situations like that, she always referred to the twins as his kids as well. She spoke to him as though he was the biological father, as though she had absolutely no problem saying 'your children' instead of 'the children' or 'her children'. And honestly, he might as well have been their biological father, the way he treated them, and she had no problem calling him their father...because that's who he was.

She continued before he had a chance to reply with more 'um's and 'uh's. "And if my memory serves me right, you actually wanted another baby."

"Uh...y-yeah, but that...that was just a spur of the moment kind of thing! And you said it was creepy anyw-"

"No it wasn't. Well, I mean, it's still sort of creepy considering taking care of twins is hard enough, but it definitely wasn't a spur of the moment. You put a whole lot of thought into that notebook and whatever four-year-old drew in it."

"First of all, ouch. Second of all, I didn't even want you to see that stuff... The only reason I showed you is because you thought I was cheating."

"Well I did see it and let me tell you right now, Danny...if you ever want to marry me, you need to be honest."

He let out a breath, leaned against the wall, and looked at the ground. Everyone would rather have the truth but this was Sam. His Sam. And she was backing him into the tightest corner in the world. Right now she wasn't asking for brutal honesty, right now she was demanding brutal honesty. She wanted a very straightforward answer, short, simple, and to the point. She wouldn't take kindly to him trying to sugar-coat it or drag it out. And she would strangle him if he tried to get off topic by throwing in a bunch of unnecessary details. Plus, after what she said, about refusing to marry him if he didn't be open with her...it scared him. She wouldn't like the answer...but...

He sighed. Keeping her was more important than any level of embarrassment. "If that was what you wanted..." He hung his head in shame. "...then yes, I probably would've had sex with you..."

She shrugged casually. "Okay."

His head shot up and he couldn't help but wonder if she was plotting revenge or something. She didn't look like she was. All she did was stand there and stare at him. Not glare, just stare. It was as though she really didn't care that he had just said what he did. Now he would be the one having nightmares.

"W-What?" he stuttered.

She shrugged again. "I said it's okay. I wanted an honest answer and I got one." She looked towards the horizon. "It's almost nighttime and your parents have probably already put the twins to bed. We should go home now."

He nodded and transformed, afraid that he might make things worse if he said something and she took it the wrong way. He picked her up and took off into the starting-to-get-starry sky. The ride home was unbearable. It was awkward, tense, and ultimately nerve-wracking. The halfa didn't know what Sam was thinking or how she felt... He really didn't know anything. If her little drunk night had happened before he started loving her, then he wouldn't have to have answered 'yes'. Guys messed up all the time but this...this was just... He gulped. This was bad. He messed up really bad this time... And this time he didn't know if he could ever make amends. Hopefully...hopefully she would forgive him. Hopefully she would find it in her heart to forgive Baby Blue. Or right now, Girly Green.

Why she chose to call him that, he would never know.

He turned them both intangible and phased through the glass window. The crib was no longer in their room; it had been moved to the guest room at Jazz's insistence. She had been ranting on about the children's need for a little more independence as they grew older. It took a few weeks for Sam to finally give in. It took two months for Danny to reluctantly say yes. Sometimes, though, he couldn't bear to be away from them for too long, so he made himself a pallet and slept in their room. He liked knowing they were okay and with his ghost powers, being in the room with them was comforting. They were safe with him.

He set the goth down and waited for whatever was coming to him. It would be bad, no doubt. Why didn't just turn invisible and scamper off back there, before he had to answer her? Now he was trapped in the same room with a girlfriend who was undoubtedly furious with him. She wasn't showing it at the moment but he knew she was fuming on the inside. He shouldn't have said anything. He should've risk facing a different kind of wrath. Her anger would be turned to his silence, not his thoughts of how sexy she was when she was drunk. She wanted him to answer her and he did, but now he was wishing he hadn't. After this was over, he would go beg Desiree to wipe Sam's memory. Unless Desiree, being another female, would take Sam's side and... He shuddered. Boys would be boys. Period. But girls...girls could be anything. That was more than enough to scare him.

Sam could be the sweetest, most loving person in the world at times. But she could be the darkest, most terrifying creature of the night at other times.

Right now all he could do was wait, watching her furrow her eyebrows in deep thought. She was probably deciding what she would do to him. Probably something...horrible and unimaginable. He kinda deserved whatever he got though... Chances were, he would've slept with Sam if she really did want him to. Being male was no excuse for thinking that way.

And it felt terrible! Of all people, and of all times, he chose to let his hormones buzz around inside him over Sam. His Sam. While she was drunk! In love or not, that would be more than enough to make any girl think badly of him. And any other girl could think badly of him, except for Jazz, his mom, and Danielle, but not Sam. He didn't want Sam to think so lowly of him, but right now she did. So all that said, he deserved what was coming.

She seemed to have decided and looked up at him. There was an entire slew of emotions in her eyes and he couldn't pick any of them out. Scary...very scary. So scary that he was tempted to run out of the room and lock the door behind him, at least until she calmed down.

He mentally told himself to suck it up and act like a man.

In order to do that, he closed his eyes and waited.

He felt Sam put a hand on each of his shoulders and back him up against a wall. Hey...wasn't this the wall that the bed was touching...? Oh man...was she gonna try to suffocate him with a pillow? No, he had to keep his eyes closed. He couldn't make eye contact, that might aggravate her even more. Last thing he wanted to do at this point was aggravate her. Potentially fatal mistake, that one. Of course, he had already made a potentially fatal mistake years ago, on the night Sam was drunk. And then he TOLD HER! What was wrong with him, why couldn't he just be a good boy for once?

He felt something press up against his lips but still refused to open his eyes. Was that...? Was she kissing him? No. She wouldn't be kissing him, not right now. If anything she was preparing to strangle him. This was not going to be a fun night for Danny.

She lowered herself back down. He'd almost forgotten that she was much shorter than him. She had probably been on her toes trying to kiss him. Or getting ready to release her wrath. Because Sam had wrath. A lot of wrath. He didn't want to be a victim of it. Nothing happened, didn't that count for anything?!

"Danny, it's not easy kissing someone the size of a basketball player, you have to work with me here," she said.

No anger. No disgust. No offense. Nothing. Nothing at all. He didn't do anything! Why was she doing this to him?! He was a good boy!

He obeyed, determined to stay as much on her good side as possible, and bent his head down.

"You know, you can open your eyes."

He wanted to but couldn't.

"Well...I guess that's optional," she mumbled.

She pressed herself up against him and put her lips back over his. He didn't have to open his eyes to know that this was easier for her. There was something weird though. Normally she would wrap her arms around his neck when she kissed him. Her hands gripped his forearms. Not his wrist, not his biceps, not his shoulders, not anywhere else. She had them smack in the middle of his forearms. That was unusual for any girl, he assumed. He had seen other couples kiss before and the girl almost always had her hands in one of three places: the face, the shoulders, or around the neck. But Sam...? What was going on with her, what was she doing? Or a better question, what was she plotting?

She kept her lips locked onto his as her hands moved gently down his arms, until she reached his gloves. There, she began to tug at them, almost as if she was asking permission to take them off. Why would she want to take off his gloves? Wait...she was planning on doing something to his hands, wasn't she? She had to be! Why else would she want to take off his gloves?! People would be laughing their heads off if they knew how scared he was of his girlfriend right now...

He reminded himself to get back in her good books and reached around her to take off his gloves. If anyone was breaking the kiss it was going to be her. If he was eventually able to open his eyes he would do so. And whatever she wanted, he would do it. Just so long as it let him off the hook. The hook that he probably would never be off of, but it was definitely worth a shot.

She allowed the faintest of smiles and moved her hands up to his shoulders. There. That was better. That was a good sign. Maybe it meant she was- Wait. Why in the world would she want him to take off his gloves before forgiving him? It made zero sense!

Her lips quickly moved from his, and landed on his neck. One hand stayed firmly on his shoulder while the other one ran across his chest. He opened his eyes but didn't move. Danny was picking up some signals but...she might be doing something else. He didn't want to do anything that made her uncomfortable. He also didn't know if she knew what she was doing. Well, sure, she knew exactly what movements she was making, but he could be wrong about her intentions.

When he told her about what she did when she was drunk...um...she was mirroring it now. Suddenly kissing him, running a hand across his chest, hanging off him... The only thing she was missing was-

"C'mon, Mark, wanna have some fun?"

-that.

Just to be sure... "I-It's Danny."

"You look awfully sexy right now."

Strong signals...but at least she didn't call him-

"Ken."

Oh dang.

He looked at her. Her head was still buried in his neck. Somehow she had managed to move some of his hair, letting strands of white obstruct half his vision. She didn't sound mad, and that had to be the worst part. Truth be told, he didn't know whether she was actually ready for this. He didn't want it to be something she would later regret. But he knew even back before she started hurting herself that she would be ready again one day. He just never expected it to be this day. Or maybe she wasn't ready for it. Maybe this was just because he told her about her drunken actions.

"Sam...um...a-are you sure you're ready for something like...y-you know...this?" he asked.

She pulled her head back and looked him in the eye. "Why else would I ask you what I did when I was drunk?"

"I just don't want you to do anything you'll regret..." he mumbled, realizing now that when she'd asked him about that, she'd wanted to know what turned him on.

She laughed. "I won't regret this!" Turning serious, she continued, "You've done a lot for me and the kids. If I can trust you with my life, I can trust you with anything."

"What about the whole 'premarital sex' thing? I thought you were against it. You were saving yourself for someone special," he said.

She rolled her eyes and moved over to his backpack on the other side of the room. She unzipped it and rummaged around, eventually pulling out a notebook. As she came back and shoved it in his hands, he realized that this was his notebook about their future. Or at least the future he wanted with her. She turned the pages for him until she reached the two wedding rings. She tapped at them.

"You are someone special, Danny. How many other fifteen-year-olds would take on the role of a father to twins that weren't his? And even if they did, how many of them would stay with the mother no matter what she did? And if that happened, how many of them would treat those twins as if they were his all along?"

He looked at her.

"You're the only one who would do that," she finished.

He kept quiet, only blinking, expecting her to say something else.

And she did have more to say. "Do you remember, at the beginning of my pregnancy, when I hated the thought of a baby?"

He nodded.

"I didn't want them, but you did. Even after finding out I was pregnant with twins, you acted like it was the most natural thing in the world. You acted like you didn't care how many there were."

He nodded again. "Yeah, because I didn't care. I was actually looking forward to it. The only problem was that you didn't want them. I was afraid you wouldn't love them. I thought you would give them away once they were born and I would never see them again. So...I didn't really know what to do. I wouldn't have cared if they were quintuplets, I still would've wanted them. I was really excited about twins, actually, but I acted like it was nothing so you wouldn't feel pressured. Back then, they weren't mine, they were yours, so it was all up to you on what to do with them. I was hoping you'd keep them." He smiled. "I'm glad you did."

"I'm glad I did too. No one else would've done what you did."

He shrugged. "Well...I didn't really do that much."

"Biggest liar on the planet," she whispered in his ear.

He snapped his head around. "I'm not a liar!"

"You saved my life, which means you also saved the twins' lives. And on more than one occasion," she replied.

"When?"

She cleared her throat, preparing to give him the answers he probably wasn't expecting, or had forgotten about. "You gave me a place to live when my parents kicked me out. When that man grabbed me and held a knife to my throat, you got me away. And let's not forget about the time I would've bled to death if you weren't there."

He winced at the memory of opening that door to find her unconscious and bleeding. It was one of his worst memories, and he had regretted going down to fix some veggies. He shouldn't have left her alone, especially when he knew she had a hangover. Not a big one, but enough to depress her. She was depressed about her rape, the babies, and getting drunk to begin with. Her hangover had probably strengthened all that, so that would've been six times the sadness she normally felt. He shouldn't have left her alone like that.

"You've done a lot, and now that I'm ready, I can finally give something back." She smirked. "Girly Green."

They were emerald, they were glowing emerald. They weren't 'girly green'. Plus, he was a boy, not a girl. To say the 'green' part of it was fine but to put 'girly' at the beginning? Come on! That was just...embarrassing. It wasn't like she owed him anything but at least she was willing to make up for those terrible cracks about his eyes.

"So," he started, "if I do this..." He leaned over and pecked her neck, lingering around for bit, waiting patiently for a response.

"So if you do that and stay there, that white fur on your head gets all in my face," she said.

"You mean my negative hair?"

She laughed as he rubbed the top of his head against her cheek. "Oh, gross! It's getting in my mouth!" She spat out little strands of his hair.

He moved his head away from her face. "Oh, you love my hair! But don't worry, it understands. Everybody loves the hair."

"Yeah, I'm sure," she played sarcastically. "All the ladies swoon over it."

"Danny Phantom has all the women longing to stroke his amazing hair." He cupped his hands above his hair, making it look like he had a halo.

"I don't care how amazing your hair is, I better be the only one allowed to touch it," she shot back.

He wrapped his arms around her. "You know you're dying to touch it."

She rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. "It's my greater goal in life."

"How thou hath wounded me, my love!" he responded to her sarcasm. He dropped his head onto her shoulder, as if he'd just died.

To humor him, she scratched the back of his neck. "Get off me."

"I thought you wanted me on you," he mumbled into her ear.

"Not when you're playing dead," she retorted. "And aside from that comment you just made, you haven't done anything."

He smirked. Not yet, he hadn't.

A/N

What took so long? Hm, fair question. OVERFLOW of ideas! I couldn't cram them all into one chapter. Anyway, I stopped there because I don't feel very comfortable writing that kind of stuff. You'll see why this is important though. Danny will undergo a personality change next chapter, so be prepared for that. And that chapter after that will bring out a new side of him that we haven't seen yet. Although to be fair, I put in plenty of foreshadowing (dating back to the original FWB [I'm rewriting it, which is why I say 'original']).

The chapter after next wasn't my idea. :) I honestly think it's genius, and I couldn't resist using it. Before any of you say something, I DO have permission. Although I'm the one who will write it out, the actual credit (because that chapter wouldn't exist without her) goes to Favorite Daughter Of Hades. :) So you can thank her for a very good chapter coming up.

Review quota, there isn't one. :( Long wait and I'm sorry, so there's no quota. Review at your own will.

Review replies, however, will be here:

BooksAreMyVideogames- :3 Awww!

sammansonrepilica- Wow, never seen someone say they liked a cliffie. :P

ALIKAT131- Thanks. :) I try on them. How's my writing inspiring to you? :/ I personally don't like it (another reason I'm rewriting FWB). Well now, I can't tell you whether Sam's parents come back in. The poll, however is now up because the answers to poll 2 have been finalized. Only poll now is poll 1. Still a chance to vote on that.

Favorite Daughter Of Hades- :3 You rock, and I've been planning out the outline for that particular chapter.

Inuyuke- Nice theory. :) I might actually change what people think it is... And yeah, the two newest (legal) Fentons! :D

ChristinCC- I know, so cute! ^.^ Thanks!

I'm. Only. Human. Dude. - Me too. But now you know the reason she asked.

LittleBoomBoom- I know, I couldn't help putting that in! :P Aw, thanks. :)

HeroAce- :/ No, no time skip. Obviously there will be time skips in this story but not yet. The twins are three, they won't know what he's talking about. Although I do plan on making him ramble on about ghosts in the future. :) And did anyone notice that he's the only person in the family (aside from the twins of course) who still doesn't know Sam was raped?

TheNinjaKitty13- Thanks! :D

La Reyna Phantasma- Well then I have allowed romantic action in this chapter. :) Best of both worlds.

Sdgcat- I will. I promised I would finish this story.

Poll 2 for FWG has officially been taken down. Answers have been finalized. You still have a chance to vote on poll 1 so if you haven't done that yet, I urge you to.