Disclaimer: Still don't own Danny Phantom, but I do own this fanfic!

Author's Note: This chapter is not just long, but also definitely different. It's very choppy and chaotic, but it's written that way for a reason, so please bear with me. It's the best I can do to express all of the emotions in this chapter. Fun fact: This chapter was also a bonus chapter, as I never intended to write this until just about a month ago, when it pretty much jumped from my head. I have left it almost untouched, except for some crucial editing.

-- Also, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do NOT skip the long author's paragraph at the end of this chapter (where the boring "Please Reviews!" and happy smiley faces usually are). PLEASE read it. It is very important!

Chapter Eight

It was only eight in the morning when someone rapped on our door. "Miss Manson?" It was Jessica, the new assistant nurse.

"Yeah?" I was barely awake, I'd only been out of bed for a half hour, not even bothering to go down for breakfast. "What is it?"

"You've got a visitor waiting. Can you be down in ten minutes?"

Kates smiled from her bed in the corner. "Must be Danny."

I grinned back. It had to be. Who else would visit me? "Yeah, Jessica. I'll be down in ten."

--DP--

The Visitor's Center was not unfamiliar to me. We'd all seen it, although personally, I'd hardly been in it. I just knew that inside waited Ms. Gimmel, the visitor supervisior and wannabe-pyschologist. None of us knew if she even had her PhD, or if that certificate in her office was a fake. Either way, she always tried to psycho-analyze us. Gross. I just hoped she wouldn't scare Danny off.

In any case, it was weird to be out so early. I often forgot how large the grounds were, I almost never went to east side, where the stone buildings lurked. Nobody was outside. I waved to about three people, including a janitor, before I got to the Visitor's Center.

At least hanging out with Danny will help me shake this weird feeling, I thought, as I opened the door and peeked in. I could only see the backs of the chairs, where I assumed Danny was sitting, but as soon as I stepped into the room, I knew something was wrong. Immediately after the door closed behind me, two people stood up from their seats and turned around. And I found myself directly facing two people - neither with black hair. One was blond, the other had red hair.

I scrambled backward, trying for the door. I didn't care who saw me. Forget their feelings. I found the door handle and pushed...the door had locked behind me.

"Miss Manson, won't you sit down?" Ms. Gimmel materialized in the corner of the room, stepping forward. "You have visitors here to see you."

Trapped. "You're not Danny," I whispered, backing up even more, until the only thing holding me up was the door.

"Pardon?" She continued advancing, the two stone statues in the middle of the room looking on.

"There has to be some mistake," I said, shaking my head. "I should go now."

By now she had reached me, curling a hand around my arm and pulling me forward. "Don't be shy. Won't you say hello?"

"I'd rather not."

"Don't make this hard, sweetie. You don't want anyone to lose their visiting rights, do you?" She hissed. I knew exactly who she was hinting at - the one visitor I didn't mind. She knew I understood, she could see it in my eyes, she could feel it in the way my arm went limp under her grasp. "Now, say hello, and then sit down."

"Hi," I grunted, shaking my arm free and plopping down into a chair, avoiding their eyes.

The blond-haired woman about swooned. "Oh, Samantha, it's been so long...we're so sorry about that, by the way, but you know how things go. It's just," she started to dab at her eyes, "we came here today, on this special day, to...talk about the past."

No. No. No, no, no, no, no! I could sit here and play nice for a few hours, but...there was no past to discuss. This had to be going against everything, right? They couldn't just bring up anything, could they? The hospital had to have rules about this. I wasn't ready. Talking about what brought me in could only make me worse. In my desperation, I turned toward Ms. Gimmel.

"Your nurses say that you're getting on so well, Samantha, you might be able to go home sooner than later." I was amazed Ms. Gimmel could keep her professional image while lying so badly. "We just need to resolve one little issue. Samantha, your parents are here to help you discuss exactly what happened on," she stopped, consulting a large yellow notepad on her desk, "May 14, 2001? We believe talking about it will be the best therapy. Do you remember what happened on that day?"

In my mind's eye, I imagined the check my parents had written out to the hospital. Was it enough for a new wing? Maybe. And then I imagined myself living in that new wing for the rest of my life, sans any visits from Danny. I imagined my parents coming to find me, week after week. I knew what I had to do. I nodded.

"You remember? Could you describe what happened, please?"

It couldn't be a good thing that I felt like I was on trial. I sat up straighter in my chair, pretending to be the guilty suspect trying not to get tripped by tricky questions. "It was spring. We...we went on vacation. We went to a lake. I played in the water every day until it was time to leave," I said, closing my eyes to see it better. I hadn't thought of it in so long. I hadn't thought of those last days, the way it felt in that water, to be free and floating. To be free. For the last time.

"And after that?"

This was the hard part. My eyes snapped open to see my parents staring intensely at me. "The next day, we had to leave. We packed up our bags," I said softly. "We were ready to return home."

I was flooded with sensations, memories shaken from a box, playing out of order. The water, sparkling and winking at me as we left. Drying out my bathing suit. The first day we arrived. Our last meal there, breakfast, before we settled in for a long drive. Talking, laughing. Resolving that the last day would be the best. Our last night there. A campfire. Scorched marshmallows. Good nights' sleeps to the lullaby of nature. The box emptied, displaying no memory that dated later than my last glimpse of the cabin. No memories of the drive home. I didn't need those, those would be forever etched into my brain.

Back in the present, I sighed, knowing exactly that the hardest memories to recall were the ones my parents were after. With one last blink, I snapped my eyes closed, letting the engraved memories burn bright in the darkness of my mind. It was almost like a short movie that I watched with shut eyelids. Scene after scene played until it became unbearable. My head felt close to caving in, and finally, the movie stopped.

I stood up and pointed, my finger unwavering and level between my parents' heads. I wagged it back and forth while I spat out sentences, a short prose that told it all, that condemned them. "She drove. He sat up there, talking. Distracting her. She lost control. He isn't innocent. They're guilty. They killed someone."

My mother flinched, grabbing my arm and pulling it down. "It wasn't like that."

"Tell the truth," my father demanded...and thoughts pulled straight from the past floated into my head...

"Tell the truth...tell the truth..." My mother, in the corner, sobbing. "The truth." My father screaming in the hallway. He's crying too. I can hear them both, all the way from inside my room.

They gave me my own room. It's white. That's my favorite color. I tell the doctor this and he smiles.

My dad's outside. I can see him now through the doorway. He's doing his fast walk, up and down the hall. He does this a lot at home. It means I'm not supposed to talk to him. It means he's working.

I sank down into my chair, crying, feeling useless and worthless. Couldn't they leave me alone? Couldn't they let me get better? No, I had to think about it. The memories came flying back, the movie resuming, slapping me in the face with picture after picture. Pieces of that day like the rubble of a crash.

The wind. The steering wheel, left, left, LEFT. Left to the bridge, left to the water below. The click of a seatbelt, the door opening.

"Sam," my mother's gentle voice, speaking to me like she used to. Soft. "Who's driving?" Just like always, she knows exactly what I'm seeing. She knows what I'm remembering.

Screaming. Hands pulling a body back into the car. Strong hands. Another delicate pair forward to the steering wheel, turning it right. Right, right to the road, right to the road back home to Grammy.

"Who do you see, Sam?"

I see a truck. A truck heading for us. A body shielding mine. Another leaning across the front seat, desperate to click shut a seatbelt...but...They're late, too late...

Crunch.

"Who was driving?" Even softer. You could wonder how I could hate this woman, this gentle, loving woman. You could wonder, but I don't have to.

A body, the driver's body, flies from the front seat. My grandfather's body.

Not for the first time, I wondered, If his plan had gone right, if he had thrown himself into the water, what would have happened to us? Did he plan for my parents and me to die that day, too?

I collapsed, falling off my chair. That day, my mother saved me. I escaped from the crash with only a cut. Unlike my grandfather, I lived to walk out of the hospital.

That day, my mother saved me from an extended hospital stay. Within a few months, she had me committed.

Sadly, this story will have to come to an end soon. I only have plans for a few more chapters - I have two written out, but I'm still deciding whether or not to write in another bonus chapter. It certainly would be fun, and I'll probably ask your opinions on that later.

In the meantime, I am going to have to prepare for my next story. I have two stories that have been locked up in my brain for quite awhile now, one was even the reason that I made this account...almost three years ago. So, I wanted to know (without giving too much away), which one you guys would be most interested in reading next. I have two videos on YouTube, one for each story, and I will put up a poll on my profile soon. You can find the links for the videos on my profile.

As the videos only supply a vague (or in some cases, very vague) backdrop for the stories, I will also prepare a short sneak peek for each story. These will be small excerpts that don't actually appear in either story, but are close to one of them. These will be posted on my blog, which can be found through the "Homepage" link on my profile.

If anyone is confused, please message me, or leave a review asking your question. I'm trying to explain this as best as I can, but I don't always explain everything well enough, so I'm very aware that some people will be confused, which is totally okay. Don't be afraid to ask, and thanks for reading my long, boring note. I really hope you vote in my poll, because I need some feedback. Thanks again!