A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this second chapter up. School is finally out, so I should have a little more frequent updates. :)

I do NOT own anything in relation to Danny Phantom or Final Fantasy VII. I wish I did.

Danny was kind of busy when his phone started to ring. After all he was in the middle of fixing his dying car. There were a few loose bolts this time, but he knew as soon as he fixed them, something else would go wrong with it. So, needless to say, he was a little peeved when his phone started ringing.

He'd hit his head on the bumper, surprised as he was that someone actually called him. Tucker had stopped calling once he got a job with Microsoft, and Sam was off being…well….Sam. Who's to say she'd pursued her Painting career, or if she'd left that ass of a husband yet. He could only hope, after all. So when his phone started ringing, and he'd hit his head on the bumper, he scrambled out from under the Nissan and over to his work bench where his cell phone was playing the Victory tune from Final Fantasy VII. That game was the shit.

After it'd played the tune twice, he finally had wiped off his greasy hands on an already greasy towel and was answering the phone. Of course, the caller ID didn't recognize the number, so he wearily put it to his ear.

"Hello? Hellllloooo? Who is this?" the other side of the line was silent for a few seconds, and then he heard a collective intake of breath before he heard a female voice whimper: "Danny." With just his name being spoken, he could tell so much about the person. It was Sam. She had gone through something that obviously had hurt her a lot. The pain in her voice told him that much.

"Sam!! Hey. What's wrong?" He rubbed his greasy hand through his jet black hair, then frowning; he wiped it on his white tee shirt. Danny heard a collective sigh again from the young woman, then just gently a small sob. It sent his senses on pins and needles. Something was VERY wrong.

"Gerard….cheated on me, Danny. He left this morning. I'm left the house and our daughter. He's going to be putting money into my account so I can pay the bills. But still…. He was so distant for a while. I thought something was up… but I didn't think….you know….that he would have done something like that. His secretary is pregnant, you know…." She was rambling, but he put through it, just listening.

"Well… I can stay with you guys for a while if you'd like. I'm on Emotional Leave, just so's you know." He didn't remember if he'd told her that he'd gone into the Detective work. He'd been on the Force for a while now, but he wasn't on it when they'd been in college. Unlike Tucker, Sam and Danny had been full time students. And after college, they'd lost touch. Of course, he still hadn't lost his love of being an Astronaut… he was considering taking training even now.

"What are you doing?" So he hadn't told her. It was just as well. He didn't know what she did. He could tell she was overtly interested in the topic; probably to avert her attention.

"Uhhh. I'm a detective now. Ya know, like Dick Tracy….?" He laughed softly at this, and so did she. It was so wonderful to hear her laugh.

"So why are you on Emotional Leave?" That was the question he DIDN'T want her asking. If he could have avoided it, he probably would have, but he had to tell her that little tidbit of information.

"Oh… uh…. Well…. I snapped during a case. It was kind of weird. Just went crazy." He pulled at his shirt slightly, nervous as ever. His blue eyes darted around the room, and he temporarily turned invisible, holding up his pants. His shirt fell down around his feet. And yes, Danny was still ripped from his years of supernatural crime fighting. He still could transform whenever, but the world didn't really need his help anymore, so he just did detective work now.

"Oh… well… I guess you can come over to stay for a while. Nothin' like catching up after your husband cheats on you…." Her voice had retained its tiredness. And he heard a commotion on the other end and then her voice again. "Well. Michelle is still at school. She'll be home around 3:30 or so. You can come by at anytime."

After that, they said their goodbyes, and Danny went back to fixing his car with renewed vigor. He'd need it to pack all the things he was bound to pack. It wasn't like he was moving in, but the visitation limit had been left open for interpretation. He planed on staying till he could go back to work. After he'd made sure his car was in working order, he went back inside his simple suburban home.

The house had two bedrooms and one bathroom. The rooms were small compared to what he had in college, but he wasn't going to complain. He'd shared his college room with Tucker, so it wasn't like he'd had the whole room to himself anyway. The living room was split into a dinning room. He had a mediocre television set, with a ratty old couch serving as the seating arrangement. The table was some kind of wood, and so were the chairs. There were a few pictures of him, Tucker, and Sam, or him with Jazz, Jack, and Maddie. There were no paintings or abstract photos. Just pictures of him and his friends and family. The basic color scheme of the entire house was black, grey, and white.

Danny went into the bathroom, pulling off his blue jeans first, then his boxers. It was time for a shower. He turned from looking at the mirror briefly to behind him where the tub/shower was. He turned the dial all the way over to the heat. His muscles were all tensed up. Gingerly, he stepped under the stream of water. Immediately, he could tell how tense he was. And it was only 10:00. That could only mean that the day was going to get a lot worse…