TIS THE SEASON OF NO MORE FINALS! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK YESSSSSSSSSSSS! *cries out of relief*

Yes, I am back! No more finals! No more homework! Just me sitting in a cat snuggie while writing fanfiction and watching youtubers (two of which are SO gay for each other I can't even describe it *cough* Dan and Phil *cough*)

In celebration of no more school, I have written this new chapter which I have been WAITING to write for a while so yay again!

First off, shoutout to everyone who wished me luck on finals and everyone who aid who they wanted to find out. Just wait and see kittens, just wait and see…

QUESTION TIME!

Aurea Winter: #1. Yes, I think this adds character to Ember and Jazz and explains (somewhat) about how Ember died. (this will be revealed later on) but yes, they are together. #2. That's for you to decide. #3. It's not so much as he's impartial, but just that it is difficult for him to understand fully what is going on. He still has his hatred for ghosts, but is seeing that Maddie is reflecting what he thought the ghosts would be like. If anything he is confused, and not till the end will his choice be clear (mostly). #4. I'll try not to! I really want to upload soon, it just depends on school and studying and other responsibilities. (uhhhh...it just so asdfghjkl *curls into ball of anxiety and stress*)

END OF QUESTION TIME!

But seriously guys, I am so happy with the support and encouragement you give me to keep writing. I wanted to write this anyways, but I didn't think anyone would care, much less read and like it. Yet you have proved me wrong, this story has 138 followers and 116 favorites right now, and while that is not the most on the site, I am genuinely happy that so many people like it and keep coming back to it. So thank you.

Sappy time over, you can read now. But before you read, disclaimer! I don't own Danny Phantom, now you can all sleep peacefully tonight...hopefully. Also WARNING. This chapter may contain slightly darker themes that while they might not be so easy to spot, it doesn't take Einstein to figure it out. Anyways, read at your own risk and the more you know. Any questions about what goes on you can just PM me them or ask in the review.

NOW WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? READ DAMN IT!

Chapter 18

Danny's nose scrunched in discomfort as his stitches itched. He would of thought to have Sam remove them before the feast, yet with the quick turn-around and drama beforehand, the thought slipped his mind, and everyone else too. He guessed it was a good thing, they weren't questioning him about it anymore, and with no more questions about it, that meant it was no longer a primary subject on his classmate's minds.

The same couldn't be said for Danny.

As soon as the feast ended, the famous four (or infamous in some regards), along with Dani left the room. Tucker was still trying to figure out what was wrong with Sharon, that being his main priority, with Dani becoming quite sleepy with the excitement of the day now wearing off. Tucker hugged the girl before going to work on his precious PDA, and Valerie doing the same saying she was going to help Tucker out and parting ways. Once Dani was put to bed in a more child-like version of Danny's (which just meant more toys and books scattered around the room). Dani instantly changed into her sleepwear and crawled into the large, silk bed. Sam kissed her forehead and Danny doing the same along with tucking her in before leaving with his girlfriend.

Once back in Danny's room, Danny once again felt the lingering itch of the stitches in his chest and remembered that they were still there.

Thus causing the current predicament.

"Ah fuck these itch." Danny said in discomfort.

Sam rolled her eyes and she picked through the medical kit on a table nearby. "You've said that fifteen times already."

"It's true though."

"I still would've thought you would get used to them by now."

"So would I."

Sam finished digging up everything she need to remove the stitches. She picked up a bowl of water beside her and held it out to her boyfriend. "Do you mind heating this up?"

Danny formed an ectoblast in his hand and held it out to her. She let the bowl hover over it before setting it aside. "Thank you," she said putting a pair of surgical scissors and tweezers into the now boiling water. She picked up some tissues and rubbing alcohol and set it beside a small towel.

"I hate that stuff you know?"

Sam smiled innocently. "What do you mean?"

Danny pointed at the bottle of rubbing alcohol. "That shit. It burns! I don't see why I can just go without it."

"Danny, your body is still as prone to infections just as any other body, naturally fast healing or not."

Danny sighed. "Alright, just get it over with."

Sam rolled her eyes again. "Again, would of thought you would get used to it by now."

"Again, so would I."

Danny had already taken off his chiton and was currently lying on the bed. After winching once Sam cleaned the now-healed wound and then her making the final preparations, Danny relaxed and let Sam do what she did best that didn't include kicking ass and (in the words of Danny himself) be a complete goddess.

Sam picked up the now sterilized tweezers and scissors, and began to remove the stitches. They were both quiet for a while, not much to talk about when having someone take out stitches from their boyfriend's chest.

About half way through, Danny, who was staring at the ceiling, spoke his voice somber, wanting to ask a question that had been plaguing his mind. "Hey Sam?"

"Yeah Danny?" Sam asked, not looking up.

"Do...do you ever regret telling me to go into the portal?"

At hearing this Sam stopped, mid cut. Her eyes widened and Danny thought he saw her blink back tears. Before he could say anything else, she answered.

"No. You...you know me. I'm not one to regret a lot of things, but...this is...different." Sam took a deep breath and continued. "Danny, think about it. What we have done, and been able to do, has changed everything. We've grown, we've developed, we've learned, and much more than what would have been. It's...a complicated subject, and I actually still feel really guilty about it, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't think there was a better choice." Sam looked up at Danny, and he could see tears clouding her eyes.

"Sam-"

"I-I don't want to hear any bullshit about how cool you thought the portal was anyways or how I'm not responsible, but I feel I am. If I hadn't said that you're parents wouldn't be chasing you, you would be doing even better in school, might even have more friends, and wouldn't be...half dead. I don't regret this, it was the best in the long run when it came to everyone I think, but I feel guilty...for what I did...to you."

Danny, still laying down, making sure not to risk his stitches, and laid his hand on her's which was now resting on the bed. Sam looked slightly surprised at the contact, yet didn't try to remove her hand.

Danny took a deep breath as well, yet mostly for his nerves instead of a need for air. "Sam, don't do this for yourself. You and I know I wouldn't have it another way. You know my life was already shitty at the seams, and honestly, I'm happy with this."

Sam cut in. "But what about our dreams? We had dreams we wanted to accomplish, like your dreams of being an astronaut. Or what about how our minds are so corrupt that it's to the point where Tucker, who is still afraid of hospitals, is no longer worried when injured in a fight!"

Danny tightened his grip on Sam's hand. Her voice had started to get louder at every word and he could feel her emotions raging. The remainder of his touch seemed to bring her back to the realm of the dead. "Sam, it is true we've had to sacrifice a lot for what we do, but we gave them up willingly. I wouldn't just abandon wanting to be an astronaut if I didn't think there was a purpose, and that doesn't mean I haven't been able to see the stars in person anyways. Or like how Valerie willingly chose to be our friend instead of siding with the A-listers and everyone else in town. Or how Tucker willingly went into a hospital to help save you after that ghost bug incident a few years back. We've all come to terms about what we need to do, and yes, we have sacrificed our innocence as well, but in the sake of making sure that no one has to sacrifice theirs before they need to and to make sure no one meets their fate before their time."

It was in this moment that Sam understood. She was known for her darker side and how her love for the environment caused a ghost (whose love for meat could rival Tucker's) to haunt the school after she changed the menu. Sam, however, was known by her friends as a girl who was her outer-exterior, yet something more. She was still human, despite her ghost-like powers that were an after-effect of Undergrowth. No one at school, besides her friends, knew about her rich upbrings and her restrictive parents. No one besides them knew of how we suffered from depressive episodes in Junior year, or how she cried when she saw a small child get injured during a fight with Vlad and was carted away in an ambulance afterwards. She remembered this, and was scared. They all were, really, and knew the consequences of what could go wrong. They understood their fear, just as she understood what Danny was talking about.

She felt as if she cheated death, and in a way she did, all four of them did. Valerie risked her safety originally trying to capture Danny and bring justice, before risking herself again in a way where the enemy wasn't going to catch her if she fell. Tucker escaped the cold clutch through his brain, and how he managed to weave around firewalls and codes, despite the shots he took on the battlefields. She, herself, had the powers of the dead, despite not being dead, her own body retained the power to such a level that her very genetic code was broken and put together to be able to harness it.

Danny wasn't so lucky though.

He cheated death by being dead. His 'half-life' was preventing life from taking him back, and death from playing anymore into his fate. His fate was sealed, the literal walking dead, and with how he 'died' makes it so there was a chance he would never be fully dead, despite age. Danny knew this, and he was never one to cover such dark subjects that people would think she would be into. They dealt with the dead everyday. They knew the dead more than the living. They knew what happened when people meet their fate, and made sure no one did before they had to. Dying before one was meant to was what they tried to prevent in the first place, like how Danny stopped a man from jumping off a bridge two years back, or how Tucker managed to stopped a convicted man, who was innocent, from being sent to death-row.

Sam realized Danny meant the experiences with death they encountered; it was as if it was the Kübler-Ross scale; the denial at the beginning, the anger of how they were treated and how they saw themselves, how they practically begged at times for things to go back to normal (whatever that had been), the depression with how they knew in the end they couldn't save everyone or themselves, and now the acceptance of their fate. Sam felt guilty for telling Danny to go into the portal in the first place, and in a way, was performing the cycle in her own way.

She needed to grasp it had been done, needed to accept that things had changed, that Danny, despite still being Danny, was different. But...this difference was good, and she understood that her guilt was justified, but she needed to move on. She had no reason to grieve, she needed to stop acting like she did.

Sam's eyes welled even more and tears began to flow down her cheeks. At first Danny thought she was sad, but a smile crossed her face as she went to hug him. He held her tightly in his arms and could feel the salty tears hit his bare shoulder. "Thank you…" Sam whispered to him.

"What for?"

"...Everything. For helping everyone, for helping me. I-I...thank you."

Danny thought that was enough words to show how she felt, and continued to embrace her. He wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but he didn't mind. Eventually she lifted her head, and it was like they was eight again on the swing set, talking about whatever came to mind before sneaking back home. They were more than lovers, they were best friends, and at the end of the day, the four of them, Danny and Sam included, were friends.

And nothing would change that.

Sam eventually finished taking out Danny's stitches, then cleaned off the area once more. It was late, technically being about eleven in the human realm, and with a long day the next day was something to keep in mind. Sam's own room was next door, and she easily could've phased over, but the fatigue of the day was wearing down on her, and her lonely room wouldn't do justice.

After she got into one of Danny's spare shirts that came to her knees, she crawled in beside him and they began to drift off. Sam's thoughts had calmed down, but she felt, within the small amount of time, that things have changed. They were different that before, different dreams, different goals, different mindsets, so one.

And she was alright with that.

Tucker. Was. Tired.

Honestly with everything going on, it wasn't too hard to understand why, with the feast ending about an hour ago and his want to try and get Sharon back to her original self. Seriously? It was more important than just getting a signal and connecting Jazz, but also to get information about the human realm. As 'heroes' they had a ob to do when it came to Amity's citizens, and in a way, the world. However, he couldn't do any of that if he didn't get Sharon properly running.

Valerie had shown up a few minutes later, and decided to keep him company and setting parts aside so he didn't end up overwhelming himself in his technology. Despite the amount of patience and skill Tucker possessed for this task, the result was more of a lack of one.

"Tucker, do you think we should call it a night? It's getting late and we do have to wake up early." Valerie said, her tone was soft, the one she only used when she wanted to sleep.

Tucker shook his head. "I can't! I have to fix Sharon and so far I don't even know what's causing the problem! No, I need to stay up and do this, you can go to sleep Val. No worries, I'll go to bed when I'm done." Tucker said, exasperated. He continued to unscrew something from the back of his PDA.

Valerie sighed. "It's been an hour and a half, I think that's good enough for now."

"No! No no. It's not. I need to do this."

Valerie could see dark circles under his eyes despite his dark skin color. His glasses rested on the crook of his nose, and it was a wonder how they were not falling of his face. His hair was out of it's usual red beret, making it fall in a messy style, but not like how Danny's was, his was the kind brought on by nerves on end and lack of sleep, not purposely.

In a way it was kind of sad.

Valerie rested a hand of Ticker's shoulder. He tensed under her touch before relaxing again. "I'm sorry Val," He said, not looking up.

"You have nothing to feel sorry for. You're just tired, and frankly, so am I. Some sleep will do us good." She said.

Tucker finally looked up at his girlfriend and smiled, a small one, but genuine. "Alright, I think I got a good amount done for tonight anyways. I can finish cleaning it out and fix it tomorrow."

Valerie smiled back. "Good, now for tonight you are going to put Sharon on the table and get some sleep."

Tucker nodded and Valerie stood up, signalling she was leaving the room to go to her own. As Tucker put his PDA on the table, something...strange...caught his eyes.

Now Tucker knew every single little part of his precious PDA, everything down to a molecular level basically. This, however, this was not supposed to be there. Tucker squinted his eyes and carefully reached for it, then wedged it out from it's hiding place between two pieces. It was a small, very small, piece of grey metal. It must of gotten lodged in there when we crashed…

Then it struck him, he was able to fix his PDA and contact Jazz again, all he needed to do was put everything in, and better yet, if this tiny piece of (what he suspected to be the Speeder from when they crashed) then it might hold information about who caused them to crash.

Tucker's eyes went wide. "Hey Val?"

Valerie twisted around from her place at the door. "Yeah?"

Tucker turned as well and held the small piece up in his hand. Valerie knew that he wouldn't be showing her this for no reason, but couldn't help being confused. "Um…"

"This is what was jamming the signal." He said, eyes wide with excitement.

Valerie's face mimicked his own, and she rushed forward. "I knew you could do it!" She said.

"Didn't you say for me to stop?"

"I said to get some sleep, not that you couldn't do this."

Tucker shrugged in approval. "Now all I need to do is put everything back in, which I can do in ten minutes give or take, and analyze this."

"Analyze?"

Tucker held up the piece again. "Think about it, when my PDA got jammed, it was after the crashed, meaning that it happened during the crash. If I'm not mistaken, this is part of the Speeder and might be able to give some information on how we crashed, or who caused it."

Valerie smiled brightly. "You're right. If this is a part of the Speeder, then we can put it into your suit's analyzer and figure it out."

"Please Val, I'm always right." Tucker said, his excited look now a more cocky one.

Valerie rolled her eyes and flicked his head, resulting in an 'ouch' from the boy.

"Save the smug for later. Let's wait to fix the PDA till the morning and analyze this then. That way we know what we're doing and aren't half-asleep."

Tucker nodded. "Fair enough." He said, taking the small piece in his hand and putting it into a small container on the table nearby.

"Well," Val said, "That was great and all, but right now my bed is calling me and I am wanting to answer that call."

Tuck laughed. "Same," He replied standing up. He walked over to her and kissed her forehead before kissing her lips. "Night."

Val smiled. "Night." And with that, left the room.

Tucker sat on the bed, took off his glasses and set them nearby then blew out the candle next to him, immediately drifting off into sleep.

Valerie was a different story.

Her room was only the next one over, a small walk really, yet once she exited the room, Star appeared around the corner.

At first Valerie was confused about why Star was in that corridor, especially being that the guest rooms were a few halls back. She thought the girl was lost, which was understandable, it was a large place, yet the solum and almost knowing look is what really confused the dark skinned girl.

Star spotted Valerie and stopped right in front of her. Her posture was rigid, almost fearful in a way, her breathing was as if she was trying to calm herself down. Her blue eyes were clouded, not with tears though, but with something else.

Star tried to stand up taller as she stood in front of her old friend. Valerie was just about to ask what was wrong when the girl blurted out two small, yet powerful, words.

"I know."

HOLY SHIT! OMG! WHAT COULD THAT MEAN! AHHHHHH! Haha actually I know what they mean, but do you? lol Good luck figuring it out. Anyways, I am soooo glad this chapter is over (yay!) I have been waiting to write it for a while, as you know, and with NO MORE SCHOOL for a few weeks means that I have more time to write...hopefully.

Anyways, QUESTIONS!

1. What do you think Star was talking about?

2. Why did Danny ask Sam that?

3. What do you think Danny was talking about?
4. Who do you think caused the Speeder to crash? (no one is right yet so I'm a keep asking)

5. What is the importance of the swing set?

Review with your answers and don't forget to ask me your own questions! I am happy too answer them!

Well, see you soon! (...hopefully) FESTIVE PEACE!

~Kitty ='u'=