~Chapter 38~

That night, Sam went so far as to actually kick Danny out of their room, slamming the door in his face as soon as he tried to get in. He did have intangibility but the last thing he wanted to do was make her even angrier at him. The problem was, he would have to go in there anyway whether it made her mad or not. Every time he didn't sleep with his arms around her, she would have night terrors and scream out for him to protect her from the evil nonexistent shadow people that lived in the corner of the room. As sweet as holding her at night sounded, he didn't do it to be sweet or cuddly. He only did it to help her sleep peacefully.

Once she had that spell, he would have to go in the room and calm her down...which sadly could take hours to do. Especially now that she was pregnant, the extra stress could cause strain on the fetus. It probably wasn't the best timing in the world to royally tick her off... There was no actual 'best timing', but she was pregnant. Stress for her was more dangerous than stress for anyone else. Depending on which stage of pregnancy she was in at the time, it could cause a miscarriage, complications with the pregnancy itself and/or birth, or a stillborn. None of them were good, though that really didn't need to be said since it was just that obvious.

It was a good and bad situation during the night. What he had expected never came. Sam didn't wake up screaming for him. It was good news because it signaled the start of her overcoming her fear of darkness, hopefully. It was bad news because she might actually be so mad at him that she had actually forgotten she was even scared of the dark to begin with. Not that it needed to be said but...if someone got just that angry, it was enough to tell him something in itself. There were no words to describe how furious she was. And worse, at him. He might as well go on ahead and tell Tucker to start carving out his tombstone.

It stayed that way in the morning, too. She kept the door closed until the twins woke up, to which she came down to get them. She didn't spare a passing glance at him...

Apparently her cravings were getting a little weirder because her breakfast was a pickle with butter and salt on it. He didn't dare comment on her choice of a rare, unheard of delicacy found only in her imagination. It made his stomach churn just by watching her eat it. At least the orange juice she was having was normal, and not some strange concoction of lemon juice and grape jelly or something. It was the random stuff thrown together that she seemed to like the best so that kind of what could hardly be called a beverage was, as much as he hated to admit it, normal for her. He wondered for a second if it was something she truly thought tasted good or if it was something she felt like she needed to eat. He didn't ask.

He tentatively reached over to tap her should but once again his hand was slapped away. He'd never seen her so angry before... If he said something now, she would only ignore it and act like he didn't even exist. No words could describe just how desperately he was hoping this was one of her more severe mood swings.

And for lunch, the time she usually visited, she didn't come. She also didn't call or text him. It was an awful feeling to know that the girl he was supposed to marry and the one carrying his child would only get infuriated if he tried to explain himself to her.

It went on the same way for about four days before Tucker finally asked the question up front.

"What did you do?" he asked flatly.

"I did what I thought was best," the halfa retorted.

He sniffed and said, "And how'd that go?"

Biting his lip, Danny answered, "Not so good..."

"What happened?"

Deep breath time. Explanation time. "Welp. Only Sam's dad showed up. We talked for a little bit. Everything went semi-smooth at first but hey, there was bound to be some tension and awkwardness..and believe me there was. I still can't believe what she did, but she went off. She told him she was raped and didn't even bother to hint at it. Then Jeremy got into a conversation about bloodlines and me not being the twins' real father, well that really riled her up. I never expected this and honestly, hoped she wouldn't say it, but now he knows she's pregnant by me this time."

"What happened after that?"

"Well, she was so mad at her dad that as soon as I tried to explain myself, she grabbed me and kissed me."

"And that's bad why?"

Danny sighed. "I think I termed it wrong... She grabbed me and forced me into kissing her. But she wasn't kissing me like she normally does, she was so ticked off that she gave this look to her dad. She wanted him to break us up but he never did. She basically threw me back down and everyone went their separate ways."

"Told you it wasn't a good idea," he said, shrugging his victory.

"Look, this hasn't been very fun for me either! She's shunning me! Litera- I mean she is ticked off!"

"I told you this would happen and you were to stubborn to listen. Sometimes Uncle Tucker knows best."

"I can't even touch her anymore, she just slaps me away! You know she won't even look at me? She won't look at me, she won't speak to me, she won't do anything! She avoids me, Tuck!"

"Look, man, you asked for this. I can't get involved in you guys' spats, okay? If I could go talk to her, I would, but she's Sam and we all know how Sam is. She hates you right now, not me, and I want to keep it that way."

"You want her to hate me?"

"No. I just don't want her to hate me," he clarified.

Danny grabbed his friend's shoulders and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Help. Me."

"Well first you might wanna go stake your claim again," he advised, pointing over Danny's shoulder.

The halfa turned around and to see what Tucker meant and found Sam smiling at some guy he'd never seen before. After four days of lacking existence and four days of having the stressful knowledge that her dad knew she was pregnant again, the last thing he needed was some other guy making a move on his Sam. Despite how cold she'd been, she was still his and he still loved her too much to let her go.

He walked over to the pair and hugged Sam from behind, gently wrapping his arms around her waist and making sure her was in clear view of the mystery stranger who dared to flirt with her. He glared at the person and planted little kisses on Sam's neck. She. Was. Taken. Which meant no access permitted to anyone but himself.

Sam sighed in exasperation. "Danny, can you not?"

"I can and I will," he growled, more to the person who for some reason was still lingering around than to her.

"Would you just-?! Let me go!" she complained.

He tightened his hold on her, pressing her against his body, and kissed her temple.

"She's off limits," he said, once more ignoring her demands.

"Wait a minute, are you actually jealous of him?" she snorted.

He held her even tighter and gritted his teeth. "I'm serious, she's mine."

This time she struggled to free herself but, unfortunately, she had nothing on his strength. "How long am I going to have to deal with your stupid male insecurities?!"

The boy just laughed at that comment and finally said, "Why in the world would I come on to her?"

"Oh, so now she's not good enough?" he growled.

Sam stopped squirming and slapped her forehead. This was all one big misunderstanding and Danny was being an idiot again. If he didn't stop now he would only make a complete fool of himself. Not to say that he hadn't already, but it would be nice if he didn't drag her into it.

"She's good enough for you-"

"Yes she's good enough for me!" he shouted. "She's the best girl in the world! And you better respect that she is taken, pal!"

Oh for love of...!

The boy laughed even harder. "Oh, this is too good!"

"Danny, do you even know who you're talking to?" Sam interjected.

"Look, I don't care how popular you are, or if your someone famous or something, Sam is off the market! So you can just scamper along and find a different girl! Don't make any more moves on mine or things will get ugly!"

"I wasn't hitting on her!" the boy laughed out.

"What's so freaking funny?! I'm dead serious!"

"Well I have a girlfriend."

"YOU TWO-TIMING SON OF A-"

"And you're squashing my cousin," he finished.

Danny slowly closed his mouth as blood quickly rushed to his cheeks. And thus, he had once again made a fool of himself. If only he had let her explain, but nooooo, he had to go and convince himself that this guy...her cousin...was hitting on her.

"He's right, you're crushing me, now could you please let me go?" Sam strained.

He released her and she inhaled a deep breath.

"Nice catch, Sam," the boy teased. "I knew he was bad, I didn't know he was this bad."

"Yeah, I got myself the only guy who'll leave red marks on my arms and neck and not even realize he's doing it," she drawled as she straightened out her shirt.

"Bad about what? I'm not bad," the halfa said defensively.

"You're an overprotective nightmare!" Sam snapped.

"I'm not overprotective," he countered. "And even if I was, I have a right to be."

"Right, right, because crushing your precious dove to defend her from another male, despite the fact that that male is her cousin and you got the wrong idea, is definitely not overprotective."

"Wait, dove?" the boy asked.

"That would be his pet name for me."

"But you're a goth..."

"Yes, yes I am. It's a long story that involves me being a makeshift teddy bear for three weeks straight."

"Wait, Sam, hold on there," Danny chimed. "That was not my fault."

She rolled her eyes and said, "I know it's not but you should be glad that you've done stupider things than that incident."

"Like what?!" he scoffed.

"Like just now. You just assumed my cousin was flirting with me and then called him two-timing. On top of that, you acted like I was your property and crushed my bones to prove it."

He shrugged. "You are my property, b-but not in like an item kind of way. But you know, in the game of love and all, I mean...yeah..."

"I get it, I get it, you've claimed me as yours and that's fine but seriously, Danny, you're being a pain in the neck right now and I just don't have the energy to deal with you!" she growled. "And don't forget, you are not off the hook here! I'm still mad at you!"

"Dove, come on-"

"Don't you 'dove' me, you had this coming!"

"Okay. I screwed up. I admit it, I am a complete fool but I never meant to hurt you."

"Then why did you?! Did you really think everything would ride nice and smooth?! You knew as well as I did that the moment I saw my dad, I didn't want to be there. I never wanted to see him again!"

"Yes you did! Yes you did, Sam! I know you did because I was there with you through it all, I know how you were really feeling no matter what you said, and believe it or not I'm sure I'm making this situation worse for myself!"

"Uh, yeah, you are."

"But how much longer are you going to stay mad at me? You've treated me like I'm the plague for the past four days, Sam! You won't even let me sleep with you anymore!"

"Because I couldn't stand you! You knew what you did was wrong, darn you! And I had no idea you were doing all this behind my back and then not even telling me about it as we were walking to the park!"

"That's only because if I'd told you, there was no chance whatsoever of you agreeing to go with me."

"Yeah? And how did that work out? My parents threw me out onto the streets when I was pregnant! Last time I checked parents are supposed to look out for their children, not throw them to the wolves!"

"AT LEAST YOU HAD SOMEONE LOOKING OUT FOR YOU!" he screamed. "I DID EVERYTHING IN MY POWER EVEN WHEN YOU KEPT SHOVING ME AWAY! I COULD'VE LEFT YOU WHERE YOU WERE BUT I DIDN'T! EVERY SINGLE THING YOU DID I GAVE IT MY ALL TO HELP YOU, I STUCK BY YOUR SIDE NO MATTER WHAT AND YES, I GOT FRUSTRATED A LOT WITH YOU! IF YOU THINK YOU FEEL BAD NOW, HOW DO YOU THINK I FELT BACK THEN?! YOU THINK YOUR JACKASS OF A DAD WOULD'VE DONE WHAT I DID?!"

Her lip quivered and she raised a hand as tears began to form on the rims of her eyes. The resounding SMACK! that came next caused huge waves of gasps and an equally huge wave of tension to fall over every other student at Casper High.

She pushed past him and ran off campus.

Meanwhile he couldn't do much more than stand there in shock and slowly raise a hand to his cheek. It was the first time Sam had ever struck him. The only other time was when he was hyperventilating and she was trying to calm him down. But this time wasn't like that time. This time she had actually slapped him. He'd just humiliated her in front of the whole school... He'd just done Paulina's job for her...

"Nice job, Romeo!" someone angrily spat at him.

"Way to make a chick cry!" another person added.

"Take an axe to it why don't you!" someone else chimed.

A/N

I don't know about you guys but...I personally want to strangle Danny.

Okay, just to get this over with, update faster...because I really am dying to get cracking on the next chapter.

Review quota is five hundred thirty-six (536).

Review replies:

guest- I was debating on whether she should tell him that or not for a while. Randomly choiced, she told him.

SuperGeorgia- XD Oh if you thought he was in the dog house before...!

princessbinas- I respect your opinion of Kikyo. Many people feel the same way you do. It can be hard sometimes, depending on the person, but I've never had too much of a problem with it.

beautifullove521- Updated. :)

ShadowDragon357- What is IRL? And yes, it wasn't the best choice (in fact her dad secretly hates Danny even more now), but she didn't think twice about doing it. And now... Hooooo boy, Danny is going to have a LOT of explaining to do now.

jim89- Her dad's logic is pretty stupid but it fits his past actions pretty well. This is turning out to be an explanation of FWB, I'm glad I decided to write a sequel. XD

sammansonrepilica- ;) You'll find out why Sandra came in... Well you never know, I mean... After this, who's to say Danny didn't just ruin it all?

Favorite Daughter Of Hades- You're right, it COULD mean anything. ;) But what...?

Puppets4ever- No, it's fine if you say update soon/immediately/right now/etc. I get it all the time. :P

DO NOT FORGET THE POLL. AND DO NOT FORGET THAT I'LL HAVE TO TAKE IT DOWN EVENTUALLY. In fact, I'm not waiting through the entire 9 months like I did in FWB, if that's what you're thinking. I'm going to do a few time skips here so you better get your votes in while you have the chance.