So, I TOTALLY didn't realize that when I named Elliot, it was also the name of the "Bulgarian exchange student" who almost went out with Sam. It's weird, because it sort of foreshadows the reason why I came up with him in the first place. Ahem Ahem. Anyway...

A pointy part of the branch he was sleeping dug into his shoulder as he shifted, what sounded like a sharp whistle stirred him from his slumber. Then as the fog slowly began to clear, his mind gaining some clarity, he heard it again. Except it wasn't a whistle, it was a scream. He sat up so abruptly the branch creaked under his weight. He strained his ears. There it was again. Sharp and clear and obviously female. His body reacted before he could, illuminating the night as he turned into a ghost. His first thought was that it was his sister, Jazz. He quickly realized that that was impossible, and it felt like he was being punched in the gut as he took to the air and began whizzing past trees and foliage. Leaves caught in his hair, branches scraped at his arms and the night was alive again as the wind whizzed in his ears and crickets chirped their melodies. Maybe it was utterly impossible, and maybe he was wishing on dead stars, but maybe Jazz was alive.

He crashed into a branch in his haste and tumbled into a clearing.

"Jazz?" he whispered so faintly it sounded like a breath of air.

Something caught his eye, the moon glinting on a piece of metal buried in a bush. He realized it was the buckle of a boot. He crawled over to it, not wanting to stand up, and yanked it out. He wasn't surprised to see that it wasn't something Jazz would wear. Someone moaned beyond the bush and he peeked over it to see a slim figure laying on the ground face down. She looked up at him, seemed to realize he was there, and quickly lay her head back down.

"Ow. My leg. I think I broke it," she mumbled into the wet grass. Something seemed to fly out of the bushes and hit her, but it looked like a month to Danny.

"I mean, ow, my leg! I think I broke it!"

He rubbed the back of his neck uncertainly. "You okay?"

She sat up and looked at him, and Danny realized who it was. Sam Manson.

"I broke my leg. Why would I be okay?"

He scowled and reeled backwards. "Excuse me for trying to be polite. What are you doing out here, Sam?"

Crap, she thought, not having thought far ahead enough. Improvise, Sam, improvise.

"I was...hunting. To pay you back, cause uh, y'know – I felt bad about the whole stealing your food thing... then I got attacked by a boar."

"I didn't know they had boar out here," he smirked.

"Well, now you know. Help me up."

He crossed over to wear she was sitting and crouched down beside her.

"Which foot is it? Maybe I can help," he put a hand on her ankle, but she pushed him away.

"No! I mean, uh, just take me home. Valerie will take care of it."

He shrugged, and Sam expected him to help her to her feet and throw her arm around his shoulder, but instead he picked her up bridal style. Then she was looking up at the night sky, the branches steadily growing bigger and bigger.

"Are we flying?" she screeched, pushing him away but he had expected it and held her to him firmly. She looked down and her stomach jumped to her throat. She had never been one to be afraid of heights, but this was something entirely different. She mentally cursed Elliot and his idiot plans and compromised to get him back later.

"Relax," he said, his voice sounding oddly soft. "I won't drop you."

"What if you do?" she asked, panic creeping into her voice. "How do I know you're not just going to drop me to get me off your hands?"

"You don't," was his simple response.

Despite every nerve in her body jumping and burning, she took a deep breath, and forced herself to relax. Ghosts didn't need lights and electricity, they were perfectly fine living in the dark, and for that the stars shone to their full potential every night. Sam never had the time to admire them, being inside most of the time. She thought that the sky looked especially beautiful that night though. Maybe because she was whizzing past them like they were millions of fireflies, clustered and glowing and tangoing around each other. It was breath taking.

She looked up at Danny. His ghostly glow was intensified against the blackness of the sky, and up close, she could see faint streaks of blue mixed in with his neon green. She once again cursed Elliot, faintly this time, not sure if she really meant it or not.

"We're here," he said, landing by the manhole and placing her gently on the ground sooner than she wanted him to. "Wasn't so bad now, was it?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but found that she had forgotten how to. "We need to do that again," she croaked. He didn't respond, instead grabbed her by the waist and dropped into the hole.

"Can you stand?" he asked once they were in the darkness of the underground. The light of the moon managed to filter in through the uncovered hole, dancing on Danny's silver hair as if it were a halo.

"Yeah," she mumbled, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. She suddenly felt queasy. What was she doing? How could she possibly manage to make him fall in love with her, so deeply that he would sacrifice his own life? She was so plain and unfeminine, no one spectacular, not funny or smart. She was just Sam Mansion- previous goth Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian with a knack for sarcasm. Somehow, in that moment, Danny Fenton – geeky, clumsy, awkward Danny Fenton – seemed like he was other worldly. And there she was, about to sign his death certificate.

She wanted to tell him to go back, to run to the woods where he would be safe from her and her friends, but her subconscious did just the opposite. She leaned into him, feeling his burning cool through her jacket, and she yawned.

The candlelight of their hideout jolted her back to reality. Elliot greeted her at the entrance, leaning against the wall.

"You're going to be okay from now on, right? I can't get through the wards."

Sam nodded. "Yeah-" she suddenly looked towards Elliot, who was giving her a look "I mean, no. Stay, please?"

Danny's brows crinkled. He looked confused.

"Tucker, my friend, will wonder where I've gone if-"

"Just stay the night," she said, hopping over to where Elliot was waiting. "Really, none of us mind. You seem like you could use a nice warm bed instead of a tree branch. It's the least I could do."

He laughed awkwardly and crossed his arms, taking a step backwards. "It was no problem, Sam. You don't owe me anything."

"Oh, c'mon," said Elliot, throwing his hands in the air. "Let the girl make some new friends! I'm Elliot, by the way. I don't believe we've met."

"We have," said Danny dryly. He turned human and passed through the entrance, looking around. Sam and Elliot went ahead to where Valerie was sitting, leaving Danny to look at the big cavern that he would call home for a night.

"So, it worked?" said Valerie, sitting up and looking from Elliot to Sam.

"It worked, alright," Elliot said. "Sammy over here is stringing him along like a fish on a hook."

Sam sighed. "I'd prefer it if you didn't have to use that expression. You did throw me out of a tree, after all."

Elliot smirked and plopped down next to Valerie, putting his hands behind his head.

"I told you we had to make it seem real, didn't I?"

"I could have actually broken something."

"But you didn't! That's the beauty of it."

"Whatever, idiot. I mean – Elliot."

"Very funny Sam, very funny."

"Bandage my leg for me, Val? We have to make it seem real."

Valerie laughed and got up from the couch, giving her spot to Sam.

"I'll go get the kit."

Danny looked around, feeling like he was back in the halls of Casper High. While everyone had somewhere to go, someone to talk to, he stood awkwardly by a corner and watched. He suddenly regretted his decision to stay when he heard someone call his name. Dash Baxter and Kwan Park were playing pool with Paulina. Kwan was waving him over while Paulina stared uninterested at the ground. He had to remind himself that he wasn't in school anymore, there was no such thing as "popular". He walked over to where they were standing.

"You ever play pool before, Fenton?" asked Dash.

"Not really, no."

"Well, you're on my team, so I hope you're a quick learner. You're supposed to use this thing," he banged his pool cue on the floor "to get these things," he pointed towards the balls "into that," he nodded his head towards the holes in the four corners of the table. "Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good."

Dash passed him a stick, and they started playing. By the end of the game, Dash and Danny were down to the cue ball. Danny had of course enlisted some help from his ghost powers. Every time Paulina or Kwan managed to sink a ball, he turned his hand intangible and pulled it back out when they weren't looking. He wondered how it was possible that they didn't find anything weird about the fact that the number of their balls didn't seem to go down.

Dash sunk the cue ball and looked at Danny triumphantly.

"Nice work, Fenton."

"So what do we win?" he asked. "Money, food?"

Dash patted him on the shoulder. "You get to relax while Kwan and 'Lina here go find food tomorrow. Every since we stopped, uh, borrowing your catches, we've had to revert back to the old way of finding food. Dumpsters and alleyways."

Danny frowned. "Doesn't sound too appetizing."

"Well, that's life. Unless you want to volunteer," said Kwan. Danny shook his head.

"Lights out," said Paulina, dragging her feet towards one of the bunk beds. "I'm beat."

Eventually, one by one, everyone settled in once the candles were blown out. It was like an automatic response, Danny realized. He lay on the cold stone floor, looking up at blackness before his eyelids and listening to the silence that made his ears wring. He couldn't hear anyone breathing, shuffling, snoring, nothing that signaled he was anywhere but a vast nothingness. He didn't know how much time passed before he heard something.

"Not tired?"

He froze.

"How can you tell? It's pitch black."

It was Sam. "People's breathing always sounds calmer when they're asleep, more rhythmic. Your breathing sounds normal."

"Oh," another moment passed before he knew what to say. "It's the sky. I'm used to looking at the sky when I'm falling asleep. It feels weird, being under a roof."

He heard Sam shift in her bed, probably turning on her side so she could talk to him directly. He sat up. No use pretending he was asleep.

"What happened to your family? I'm sure you had one, I mean, everyone here had a family at one point."

Danny hesitated. He had never talked to anyone but Tucker about what happened, and he didn't know Sam well enough to trust her, but for some reason the words dripped out of his mouth as if he were trying to hold water in the palm of his hand.

"My parents were ghost hunters. They'd been interested in the paranormal since college. Vlad Masters was their colleague and friend. One day, I came home from school, and they weren't home. I found a note from my sister hidden in my sock drawer. One word was scribbled on it, one name. Vlad. I think Plasmius took them because they knew Vlad, I think they're either in prison or-or worse. They took anyone with any relation to him, you know, anyone with any way of figuring out how to rise against Plasmius. I keep imagining my family, cold and hungry and being tortured. And I can't do anything. My parents were the kindest people in the world, never hurt anyone-"

His voice hitched and he didn't think he could explain any more. "I can't do anything."

The silence stretched on, and Danny thought that maybe Sam had fallen asleep again.

"I'm sorry, Danny. If I could do anything, believe me, I would."

Danny shook his head even though she couldn't see him.

"I don't even know if they're alive. I just want some sort of closure, you know? I don't want to keep hoping that maybe one day they'll walk into my life and everything will be okay again. I can't even grieve. Plasmius won't even give me that much."

She saw an opening, a way to wrap Danny around her finger the way Elliot would have wanted, and she took it.

"I think they're alive," she said. "I mean, think about it. They're way too valuable. Ghost hunters who once knew Vlad Masters? He wouldn't kill them, they'd have information."

"Maybe," said Danny, after considering it. "It hardly matters. The type of security they have in their prisons... it's unimaginable. Guards in every corner, at every cell. It would be to go up against an army."

"You don't have to go up against an army if they never detect you as a threat. You could have your family back. We could help you get to Plasmius, Danny. Let us help you."

This time, it was Sam's turn to wonder if Danny had fallen asleep.