Disclaimer: Still don't own Danny Phantom. If I did, it would never have been canceled and would air daily! :D

Author's Note: Wow. I don't know where to start. Not updating for as long as I did - unforgivable. I allow you, dear readers, to pelt me with day-old loaves of bread. Just please, put down the bread long enough to write the chapter. If anyone is actually interested in hearing excuses and exactly where all of my time is disappearing to...just message me or email me or something, because if I wrote it all here, you would never get to finish the story. And there is only ONE more chapter left after this, sadly.

PLEASE READ THIS: Everyone who skips notes before the story (and everyone else), READ THIS! Please don't skip this, since I'm about to tell you exactly what happened in the last chapter, so you're not confused. When I was writing it, I wanted it to be...confusing, to put it poorly. I didn't want it to be crystal clear what happened, which I see now, was not the best idea. Basically what happened is when Sam was a child, she was very close to her grandparents, almost more so than she was to her parents, because her parents were always busy, although they still loved her. One night, on the way home from a family vacation, her grandfather attempted suicide. He, for unspecified reasons, was very unhappy with his life, although Sam didn't know it, and tried to drive the car off the road and jump out of the car, off the bridge they were driving on, and into the water below. Just in time, Sam's father pulled him back into the car as Sam's mother grabbed the wheel. However, as the car was swerving, they realized that a truck was headed straight for it. At the last minute, the car was able to pass the truck with only a small side collision. Sam's mother shielded Sam, saving her, but her father was unable to fasten her grandfather's seatbelt in time, and her grandfather flew through the windshield and died. Sam, however, couldn't bear to handle the trauma of her beloved grandfather trying to kill himself (especially as his preferred method would have killed Sam's parents as well as Sam) and so she repressed the memory and replaced it with a fake memory. She could bear the thought that her parents, who she was not as close to, were the real criminals. So in her mind, she believed that her parents were at fault. Later, after her parents realized the toll that the trauma had taken on young Sam - who by this point refused her parents in all entirety - had her admitted to a mental hospital.

-- Also, if you want to have a say in what DP story I write next...PLEASE VOTE IN THE POLL! It's still there, it hasn't gone anywhere!

Chapter Nine

I ran away. It sounds childish like that, the concept of leaving when things get rough, but that's not what I did. I left because if I had to take any more of that life, a life without light, something would happen. I could feel the tension building with each growing second, so just before the alarm went off, I disappeared. I couldn't have orchestrated it better. At night, in bed, I slipped off my pajamas, changing into street clothes that my mom had sent me a year ago to wear on holiday leaves. Then the next day, during breakfast, I pleaded sick, and since they still thought I was mourning for Kate, there wasn't even a guard standing by me. I was free to slip out the window.

I ran as far from the hospital as I could, grabbed a bike, and peddled away for hours, before finally stopping at a diner. I'd even taken my money stash, but I knew I couldn't get far. Patients were only allowed to have fifty dollars of pocket change per year, to spend on birthdays and holidays, and that would never stand a chance at feeding me for more than two weeks.

"One lemonade please, and a hamburger," I asked the waiter, unsure how to order. I'd never ordered from a nice sit-down restaurant like this. The only time I had been to restaurants was when I was younger, and then my parents had ordered for me.

"Fries or coleslaw?"

"Fries, please." If only Kates could see her girl now. She would be proud.

"Ma'am," the waiter looked amused, "the gentleman in the corner would like to pick up your check, so it's all settled."

I flushed, thinking of Kates. Her romantic ways had rubbed off on me, and so I thought that the man would be a little older than me, handsome, and that he too would blush when our eyes met. He'd feed me some romantic goop, like, "The least I could do was buy you a dinner, since your heart's not for sale", and we'd fall in love.

"It's alright to look ma'am, he isn't looking." The waiter sure was having a good time.

Subtly, I snuck a look around the diner. There was only a lonesome man in the corner, stabbing his soda with the straw. "That's him?" I asked, coldly.

The waiter nodded. At least I'd knocked that idiot grin off his face.

I grabbed my food and lemonade, strutted across the diner, and slid into the booth opposite the man, or, should I say, boy. "Danny, what do you think you're doing here? I'm not going back."

"That's fine. I'm not here to bring you back."

"Because you don't know what it's like, with...wait, what?! You mean, you're not..."

Danny shook his head, staring back down into the dark depths of his soda. "It's your decision, Sam. No one could force you."

"So they didn't send you to come find me?"

"They interrogated me alright, if that's what you mean," Danny muttered, and I felt bad for dragging him into this. "They knew I was good friends with you, and tried to trick me into telling where you'd gone. But I didn't know, because you didn't tell me."

"Danny," I started to say, but then stopped when he looked up. I didn't have any words to say to him after all.

"Don't feel bad," he said, "it was better I didn't know. I didn't have to lie to your scary nurses, after all."

"True," I said, attempting a laugh. "And she's not just scary, she's so horrifying she could make a ghost quiver in his pants!"

Danny gave me a weird look. "Yeah," he laughed, but it was almost absent. I guessed he was just thinking. About what, I don't know.

"I just...I don't know what to do now," I confided. "I'd like to go back - it's my only home, but I can't, because it's so...so not the same place without Kates. I feel like such an outsider, you don't even know."

"No."

His voice was so firm, but I didn't have a clue what he was talking about. "Excuse me?"

"No," he repeated, "I do know what it's like to be an outsider." He dug around in his pocket, and stuck a tip on the table. "Come with me."

"Where are we going?"

Danny looked around. "Back here." He pulled me behind a dumpster.

Kates would definitely get a kick out of this. Behind a dumpster, late at night, sounds romantic right? No? Well, probably the closest I'd ever get anyway.

But Danny didn't kiss me. "Is anyone coming?"

"No..."

"Do you promise not to get freaked out?"

"Danny, what's going on?!"

And then, Danny looked me straight in the eyes. He took a deep breath, and suddenly two glowing silver ovals ran up and down his body. Danny was gone. In his place was...the ghost. My ghost.

"Danny?"

"They call me Danny Phantom when I look like this. Actually, they call me Invis-o-bill. But they should call me Danny Phantom. I just could never get the name to stick...Sam? Sam, are you okay?"

"So, you've been Danny...Phantom all along? So I've been drawing you? Oh my God." I swear I turned maybe five shades of red and two shades of purple.

"Yeah, but don't be embarrassed! I think it's cool," Danny said quickly, trying to make feel better but not succeeding at all. "So, are you going to go back now?"

"I'm your first."

He looked confused. Well, Danny wore a confused look roughly three times a day, but this was the most confused I'd ever seen him, and the most vigorous I'd ever seen him blush. "My first...um, what exactly are you, um, my first, uh, of?"

"The first person you ever told."

"Well, yeah. The guys at school, they'd never understand. I'd show them, and they'd go running to tell the news."

"The news? C'mon, Danny, that's just...the news wouldn't exploit you."

"Not exploit, but...there's this great feeling I get to do all of this stuff, to save people, but I don't want people to know it's me. It would change things. I don't want thanks." Danny looked at the ground as he spoke, and at his hands, as if in wonder that he really did save people.

"So why did you tell me if you want to keep it such a secret?"

"Because you're my friend, my best friend, and I know you wouldn't tell. Right?"

"Nope," I said, grinning. The whole time that I had been away from the hospital, I had been focused on feeling like a normal person, and suddenly I felt the most normal talking to Danny next to a dumpster. Okay, so I felt a little bit like a little kid swearing to 'cross my heart and hope to die', but I felt normal, not like a fragile person prone to tantrums and crazy spells.

"Not even if you got mad at me?"

"No, never. I'd die before I told."

"Not even if something happened to me?"

"Not even if you died." I paused. "Hey, Danny, could something happen?"

"I don't know, maybe," Danny said, stopping for a second to look at me. "How'd you know you were the first person I told?"

"Because, Danny, if you'd told someone, you'd know that it's a big deal. You can't just say it and be done! And you can't get away with changing the topic that fast to something like me going back."

He grinned like a little kid with a secret stash of lollipops. "So...you want to see exactly what I can do as a ghost?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

That night, Danny took me back to the hospital. We flew into the room and in the morning, I lied. I said I'd been wandering the grounds at night. Angie covered for me, but gave me the look. I never told her the truth. I never told anyone how Danny flew me around the city that night, how he took me to see the outside world, and how I felt like I belonged there.

I'll never forget the last thing I ever said to Danny. I asked him if he'd be okay flying home that night. It was late.

He said yes, but I never saw Danny again. I never saw the ghost either.

There you go. We have one chapter left, and I wish I could promise to update soon...but it's up to you. It's simple, really: If I get 10 reviews or 5 more votes in my poll, I'll update. If you don't...maybe I'll take pity on you and update the day before Christmas. ;D But back to that one chapter left thing...that might change, too, depending on YOU.

After the next chapter, I'll give you a choice about whether or not there should be a special chapter at the end in Danny's POV. Just start thinking about if you'd like to see that...

But please, review. And vote in the poll on my profile! I still have sneak peaks to the two candidates duking it out for which will be the next DP story, and there are links to the sneak peaks and trailers for both on my profile. Just, go to my profile. It's a great place, I swear.

Again, sorry for the late update, and I'll update again when you give me some feedback!