A/N: Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction ;) Your questions always make me reconsider the ideas that I have for the next chapter(s)... I had a really hard time thinking up a title for this chapter and I finally came up with just 'Sam', because it then bears some relationship with the next chapter.
No Dark Phantom in this story. Valerie... I'll try to squeeze her in later somewhere too. Maybe.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

Sam

"Wha...what? You...you remember?" Danny stuttered.

Tucker´s mouth hung open. He stared at Danny, who took a step back and quickly glanced up and down the hallway, students hurrying past him to their classes as the bell sounded. The hallway was filled with the loud bangs of lockers being slammed shut, students calling out to each other to wait up and a lot of pushing and shoving. In that ruckus, nobody paid them any attention.

Sam nodded. "Just now. During that... kiss. I remember Plasmius taking you," she said, "He... hurt you."

The hallways were emptying now, doors of classrooms closing behind the last one entering. Danny grabbed Sam and Tucker and pushed them into a nearby empty classroom. He carefully closed the door behind them and proceeded to close the blinds on the door's window as well.

"We´ll be late," Tucker squeaked.

"We´ve got detention anyway," Danny shrugged, quickly scanning the classroom for any problems. Tucker realized he always did that.

"I don´t!" he complained.

Danny turned to him. "So, go to the nurse´s office and tell her you´re sick."

"Detention´s good."

Danny turned back to Sam. He seemed to have regained his composure and looked at her intently, as if trying to read her mind.

"What do you remember?" he asked.

Sam sat down on a desk, placing her feet on a chair and stared at the white board on the wall. There were formulas and equations written on it, obviously whoever had taught the last class here had neglected to wipe it clean.

"Everything, I guess. You being zapped by your parent´s portal. You fighting all those ghosts. You... getting hurt all the time." She looked down. "What did Plasmius do to you?"

"You don´t want to know," Danny said bleakly.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Tucker interrupted, "What are you talking about? Who is Plasmius? How can you be Danny Phantom, he's a ghost!"

Danny turned to him, tiredly. "In a nutshell, at the beginning of Freshman year I stepped into my parents ghost portal, it turned on and it... changed me. You were there. I am a half ghost and we've been fighting ghosts together. Vlad Plasmius is... was... Vlad Masters. He was a half ghost too, he's been trying to get me to join him. And six months ago he succeeded."

"Man, that's just... how did you... dude, what about your parents?"

"They don't know."

"They don't know? How can they not know? They're ghost hunters!"

"That's exactly why I couldn't tell them! Although they're gonna find out pretty soon..."

"What?" Sam tore her eyes from the windows and the scenery outside, which she had been staring at, "How?"

Danny sat down on another desk across from her and sighed.

"The DNA test, remember. They sent it off to some lab and I don't know if it's gonna show my ghostly DNA, or what they'd do about it."

Sam shook her head. "Why did you agree to do it then? But I don't think you'll have to worry, they'll accept you. They're not like my parents after all."

"Look, my mom suggested it and I couldn't say no could I? I had to act like it was a very good idea, because it will prove to my dad I am their son and that my mom is not crazy and I'm not some straggler trying to get into their lives. But when they find out what I am while they're not sure of me, who knows how they'll react."

Tucker hadn't really been listening to his friends, lost in thought. Now that he thought about it, there were a lot of similarities between the ghost boy and Danny. In fact, if you ignored the obvious white hair and green eyes, they looked exactly the same. He wondered why nobody ever saw that. And then the name, that really was a dead giveaway.

"Phantom, Fenton. Duh." he muttered to himself and turned his attention back to the couple in front of him.

"So why didn't you tell us?" Sam asked, looking at Danny.

"What?"

She sighed exasperated. "Why so secretive! Why didn't you tell us, your best friends. You knew you could trust us!"

"Oh, that."

Tucker felt like he was watching a tennis match, standing between them while they were arguing. Sam looked hurt and Danny shrugged, looking out of the window. Whatever he saw must have been very interesting, because he kept staring at it for a long time, a stony expression on his face. Tucker was about to remind them that it was getting very late when he suddenly looked down at his feet and started talking.

"Every time I tried to tell somebody who I was, they got angry, like I was some sort of crook or villain. I only just managed to get through to you guys I was your friend. I... didn't want to complicate things."

"Complicate things... how could they get more complicated! How do you think we felt when we found out somebody has been messing with our heads! Start talking Danny, we need to know!"

Danny jumped up, his eyes flashing that familiar green again, a sign he was angry Tucker realized. But Sam was angry too. She had been walking on egg shells around Danny the entire time, unsure of their friendship and her patience was wearing thin. Danny clenched his teeth.

"Look," he said, "I don't know anything about how your memories were wiped. Stop bugging me about it!"

"But you knew why! You knew who was responsible! You should have told us everything!"

"Told you what? That the past six months have been hell? That I tried so hard to get back to my family and friends I almost got myself killed? That it hurts, the way you all look at me like I'm some kind of... alien from outer space? I didn't need the extra bonus of being looked at as if I'm a freak!"

Danny was almost shouting now, his voice hoarse.

"Is that what you think we think about you? After all we've been through together?"

Sam could shout too.

Tucker glanced at the clock in the front of the classroom and flinched when he saw they had already missed ten minutes of their class. Then he sighed and sat down on a table as well. He'd better try to divert their attention before they started a shouting match and said things they would regret.

"So... did you find anything in the office?" He asked.

Danny was panting as he was glaring at Sam, who glared right back at him. Upon hearing Tucker's voice he seemed to deflate and he leaned back against the desk he had been sitting on earlier.

"No," he said, "We didn't have time."

"You had time for a make out," Tucker pointed out, grinning.

"Will you cut that out, it was fake alright," Danny said, rubbing his eyes.

Tucker couldn't help but notice Sam flinch at that and he wondered if Danny knew what he was doing to her. "Clueless," he thought to himself and he was sure now that he had thought that about him before. It was like looking at something at the corner of your eyes, knowing something is there, but when you look at it directly it's gone. Sam's anger seemed to have subsided too and she was looking at Danny now with something akin to pity in her eyes.

"You can stop now, you know," She said to Danny.

"Stop what?"

"Stop pretending you´re OK. I know you´re not."

"What would you have me do, break down and cry?"

"It´d be a start."

Danny felt a lump in his throat and he knew that if he didn´t get out of there fast he would break down and cry. He was saved by a blue mist evaporating from his mouth, signifying a nearby ghost. He straightened, looked directly at Tucker and concentrated. Tucker stared at the two white rings that formed around Danny´s waist, one traveling upwards, the other down. The familiar form of the ghost boy appeared, the black jump suit, white gloves, white hair and intense glowing green eyes. But somehow, he wasn´t all that surprised. Somewhere, he had known.

Danny turned to Sam.

"Go to class. I'll be back as soon as I can." he said and took off through the ceiling. Sam shrugged and did as he said, taking Tucker with her.

They saw him again in the last period and afterwards they went to Mr Lancer for their detention. They didn't speak to each other until the overweight teacher had let them go and they were on their way to Danny's house.

"Alright," Tucker said to Sam, "So your memory came back because he kissed you? There is no way I'm gonna kiss him to get my memory back!"

Danny laughed at that, feeling happy. His mood had improved considerably after capturing the Box Ghost.

"I don't think it works that way," he said, amused.

Sam shook her head. "It was like the memory was still there, I just couldn't connect to it anymore," she said, stopping in front of Danny's house, "And I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Danny asked.

"For yelling at you."

"Don't be. And I'm sorry too."

"No no, you couldn't help yourself, I should have known better..."

"But I should have told you what was going on and..."

"Will you guys just quit that," Tucker said, "Let's get inside. I think I smell cookies."

They entered the house and Danny grabbed Sam's hand, pulling her into the kitchen, where his mother and Jazz were sitting at the table. Jazz had a huge pile of books in front of her and his mother was holding a mug of coffee while looking at some device which had wires sticking out. Danny recognized it as the Fenton Ghost Finder. His mother was probably thinking it was broke again, since it always pointed at him. Or at least, he hoped that was what she was thinking.

"Mom!" Danny exclaimed as they looked up at him, "Sam remembers!"

Maddie almost dropped her mug and stared at them.

"How did that happen?" she asked.

Danny blushed and started rubbing the back of his neck, while Tucker started laughing.

"They kissed," he grinned and was rewarded with a smack on the head from Sam. "Well, you did!"

Jazz got up, grabbed her books and Danny and pushed him into the living room.

"We'll have to get to the bottom of this," she said and pointed at the couch, "Sit!"

Reluctantly, Danny sat down.

"Why were you kissing her?"

"It wasn't really a kiss. It was a fake out make out! We were snooping in the office, we wanted to see if we could find some old report cards from me and we were caught."

"And so you kissed her?"

Danny's face went even redder. "She started it," he muttered.

Sam stepped in. "We needed to give them an explanation of why we were there. It's not like we haven't done that before."

Tucker was shaking his head. "For a fake kiss it sure looked real though, you were all over her!"

Danny glared at him. "I was not!"

"Were too!"

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

"Children," Maddie said, standing in the doorway.

Jazz looked up from the notebook she had been writing in.

"So Sam," she said, "What was it like?" She looked at Sam's red face. "Not the kiss! I mean, how did it come back to you?"

"I...," Sam stopped. She couldn't tell them about the fight with Skulker, with Danny's mother in the room. "I mean, it just happened. It was all there, like it was never gone, like I suddenly could connect to it again."

"Do you remember the day he disappeared?" Maddie asked, "He was with you that day..."

"Yes... no. I mean, yes we were together, but I don't know why he disappeared."

"Alright," Jazz said, "So it's still there. You just needed a strong emotional impulse to get to it again. That means we should all be able to do that somehow..."

"I'm not kissing him," Tucker yelled.

Maddie sighed. "Tucker, that wouldn't work for you!"

"Oh."

They all looked at Danny.

"You... you have to find a way to get to us," Jazz said, "You should know what it is that will make us remember you."

He sat silent for a while, trying to think of something, anything, that could be considered an emotional impulse for Jazz, Tucker or his father.

"I could go fishing with dad at Lake Eerie," he said hesitantly.

Maddie clapped her hands. "Excellent idea!" she said happily, "Do some father-son bonding! He loves that."

Another idea popped up in Danny´s head. He grinned at Tucker.

"I´ll have to think a bit for the others," he said happily. Everything would work out, he could feel it.

Sam nudged Danny. "What? Oh, yeah, lets go up to my room and eh... do some homework," he said.

"Wait," his mother said, "I have more good news!"

She was waiving the letter she was holding and smiled at her son. Danny looked at her, then at the letter and paled, recognizing the logo on it.

"The result of the DNA test came today," she continued, apparently oblivious of her son's discomfort, "It says, ehm, let me see, dear Mrs and Mrs Fenton, in answer to your request, bla bla bla, '...no doubt that samples X1 and X2', that's us, 'have a parental relationship to sample C1, however...' well, you get it. So we've proved it! This will make things so much easier."

Danny, who had been listening with growing dread of what she was going to say, grinned in relief. Obviously they hadn't detected his weirdness. But then his mother continued.

"The only thing that is really strange is that your sample seems to have been contaminated with something and they could not determine what it was. They could still do the test though, but I'm afraid that maybe you were contaminated by something in the lab, so we are going to limit the time you and Jazz can spend there. And I'd like a blood sample, to see if I can find something."

Danny's eyes shot worriedly to Sam and then back to his mother.

"Ehm, later mom, come on, let's go up," he squeaked and practically ran to the stairs.

As he passed Jazz she grabbed his arm, grinning. "Some kiss!" she hissed to him.

Grumbling to himself Danny took his friends up the stairs and into his room. Danny looked at Sam.

"What did you not want to talk about downstairs?" He asked.

Sam flopped on his bed. "I remembered the night Plasmius took you, when you kissed me. There was this other ghost there, a woman with blond hair, very creepy and she... touched me. That´s when I forgot."

Danny frowned. "There was another ghost there, with all the demons, but I don´t recall her doing anything."

"You were on the ground, having something else on your mind."

Tucker cut in. "What do you mean by demons," he asked.

Sam quickly relayed the events of that night to Tucker. Danny walked to the window and peered outside, watching the cars go by. He opened the window and breathed in the cool air, trying to calm himself. He knew he would have to talk about it some time, but he kept postponing it, always finding an excuse. He looked at the wristbands. He had grown dependent on them, as if by hiding the scars, he could hide the rest of him as well.

They had gone quiet behind him and he turned, to see them looking at him questionably. He walked back and sat on the bed, next to Sam.

"There were demons in the park last week," he said, "I had to fight them twice. They are very hard to defeat, the first time my mom actually helped me. The second time there were only four. I can handle four."

Sam gasped. "You mom helped you? Does she..."

Danny shook his head.

"We sat down and talked for a bit afterwards. She didn´t try to shoot me, which was nice for a change."

Sam watched him. He was working up courage to do something, so she sat very still, hoping Tucker would keep his mouth shut too. Finally he started tugging at his wristbands and took them off. She tried not to stare at the ugly scars.

"Vlad used those demons to train me. I don´t know where he got them from. But now they are showing up here and that worries me."

He was telling her something else, she could feel it.

"How... how did he train you?" she asked and grabbed his hand. He stiffened but didn´t pull back.

"He made me fight them, destroy them. I had no choice. They would tear me apart. They did, on occasion."

Sam held her breath. He was telling them a little bit of what he had gone through. Which he had been refusing to do to anyone for the past two weeks. She squeezed his hand.

"He wanted me to be his pawn, his perfect son. To ´rule the world together´. Pretty funny when you think of it."

"Hilarious," Sam said.

She was afraid to ask the next question, but Tucker wasn't.

"How did you get away," he asked.

Danny started to sweat and scratched his wrists, not looking them in the eyes.

"Those wristbands were tuned in to my ectoplasmic signature. I had to change it and even then it was... painful."

"You can´t change your ectoplasmic signature," Sam exclaimed.

"Yes you can. It changes you though. You´re not the same afterwards."

She felt a cold feeling of dread come over her. She knew exactly what he meant by 'not the same'.

"I think I managed to change back. Mostly. It took a while though. That´s why I ran away from that foster home back in Madison. I couldn´t risk hurting any more people."