A/N: Tucker is awesome. That is why this chapter is written mostly from his point of view (except for Danny's brief flashback). I also made it more humorous than usual, mostly because Tucker is funny, but also because I wanted to lighten the mood a bit. This also kind of delves into Tucler's psyche in certain parts, especially when concerning girls. But don't worry, there's still DxS moments; it's just not solely about them this time. Oh, and this is also my longest chapter yet by about 700 words without the A/N or disclaimer, so I'm quite proud of it.

Thanks once again to my wonderful reviewers: RandomObsessivePsychoFangirl, lynn138, RyuuMahou, CharmedNightSkye, kpfan72491, Snea, gothangel12345, Tara, DarkMoon1301, Beyonce's Angel925, too-morbid-for-words05, cutereviewgirl, Save danny69, Majestic Moon, bluename, theoneandonlydarkpowderpuff, Fairly Odd Phantom Fan, Writer's-BlockDP, PrincessKimikokitty, katiesparks, Rishi-Rishi, karmatic.luv, AirGirl Phantom, Conny14Sam, white artemis, lovingoxford321, Tech-Man, Megatha, jessicajason, Danneh-'n-Sam-4eva, XxXAmethyst TearsXxX, rage.entertains.the.masses (awesome name, by the way), FredandGeorgetwinsoftheC.O.C.A., and cottongirl619.

I actually have a little favor to ask of you reviewers. If you don't like anything, could you tell me? Or if you have any suggestions or ideas? All of those are welcome. I'd like to thank theoneandonlydarkpowderpuff for the comment on chapter six; it was the only one I'd received so faar that was critical. I'm not asking for flamers, only for constructive criticism. Thanks in advance!

Oh, and also, if you want to know when stuff is coming out, check my profile for information. I usually give a rough estimate of when the next chapters or stories will be out.

Disclaimer: I am the sole owner of everything Danny Phantom related. Oh, wait, no. Tere I go, pretending to be Butch Hartman again. I actually own nothing.

Chapter Seven

Tucker drummed his fingers on the cold wood of his kitchen counter. Where are they? he wondered. Danny and Sam still hadn't shown up. They'd called him a little over an hour ago and said that they'd be over in a couple of minutes but, lo and behold, Tucker had yet to see either of them. Of course, that just left Tucker to his own devices, imagining what they could possibly be doing that would keep them this long...Oh. Oh god. OH GOD! Of course, being Tucker and possessing Tucker's eternally perverted mind, he assumed the "worst" immediately.

Shaking his head to clear his mind of such wrong thoughts...and images...Tucker began to think, not something he often sat down to do. He had always known that Danny and Sam were meant for each other; always had been. Even if they didn't know it yet. That's why Tucker fancied himself the matchmaker of the group and constantly tried to push the two together. But what about Tucker? He hadn't had the luxury of growing up with his soulmate. Or, at least, not to his knowledge. Instead, he'd flitted around in high school chasing every girl in sight, being turned down by nearly every girl in Casper High at one point or another.

And college...well, college was different, but not in a good way. He'd managed to tone down his I-will-chase-anything-wearing-a-skirt attitude, but that hadn't helped him get dates. It hadn't helped him meet anyone special. In his two yearas of college, he'd been on two dates. Maybe. If following a girl into a club and then dancing with her after she'd been drunk for an hour counts. And he was fairly certain that it didn't. But, hey, at least he wasn't obsessive anymore.

It wasn't like he was lonely or anything. He had friends. Not just Sam and Danny anymore, either, but friends that actually attended MIT with him. Granted, they were all the social pariahs, but they managed to make a pretty good group to hang out with as long as the conversation was steered away from LAN parties. No, he wasn't lonely at all. He just...female companionship was not something easily replaced by the company of other techno geeks.

Speaking of which, where was his baby? Tucker looked around the room, but could see no sign of his one true love, the one thing that he knew he could always depend upon fully: his PDA. Hmm, I wonder where I put her...Tucker rose from the bar stool he had been sitting on to better scavenge for his lost love.

Okay, now he was beginning to worry. He'd been searching a full 15 minutes, which is about 14 minutes longer than it usually takes, and still no sign of her. He had no idea where she could be and it was freaking him out. "Oh no, what if something horrible happened to her?" he murmured worriedly, frantically turning over the cushions on his couch. Nope, no PDA there. Crap, crap, crap, where is she?

He barely registered the sound of his house phone ringing. He glared at it distainfully. "I'm in the middle of something, bother me later," he hissed as though the person on the other line could magically hear him. And with that, he continued his search.

A half hour later, the doorbell rang. Tucker, short one PDA, gloomily walked to the door. "Hey, Tuck," Sam chirped cheerily. Tucker gazed at her warily; since when did Sam do cheery? Or chirp, for that matter? "What's wrong?" she asked upon seeing his crestfallen face.

Tucker sighed. How could they possibly understand? "Oh, it's nothing, really."

Danny raised an eyebrow; he had just walked over from his Mustang. "Well, whatever it is that's bugging you, I'm sure that this'll cheer you up," he said, reaching in his pocket. Tucker merely stared. Nothing could bring him out of this bout of depression except...

Tucker's eyes widened as his glum look disappeared from his face, quickly replaced by a look of sheer joy. "MY BABY! MY PRECIOUS BABY!" he cired, nearly tackling Danny to get to his beloved PDA. Hugging it with a near maniacal grin on his face, he glanced at Danny and Sam who were giving him weird looks. Clearing his throat as he regained his composure, he smirked at his two friends and asked, "So why is it that you guys are two hours late in getting here?"

Sam scowled as Danny blushed a bright red. "You perv, it was nothing like that," she huffed irritatedly. "Danny was attacked by Youngblood and it took awhile to clean him up. He had some pretty nasty gashes. We called here earlier," she said with a pointed look at Tucker, "but no one answered."

A small, almost undetectable smile appeared on Dany's face. Well, that's not quite all that happened...

He hissed as the rubbing alcohol came in contact with his wound. "Nnnnh, Sam, that hurts," he whined softly from his position on the floor. While it was true that she was better than he was at such procedures, it still hurt.

"Oh, stop whining, you big baby," Sam said, sounding irritated, but only a little bit. She continued to dab carefully at the open wound on Danny's chest. For some reason, it kept leaking ectoplasm despite the fact that Danny had transformed back into his human side. Usually it turned to blood once he became human. There had been a few cases where he'd continued to bleed ectoplasm, but they were few and far between. I wonder what it is that causes that, he thought vacantly.

Closing his eyes, he silently willed the pain to go away. It wasn't exactly working, though, which became frustrating. He swallowed his yelp at the gauze now wrapped around his entire torso. Damn, even soft bandages were hurting him! I am pathetic, he decided miserably.

"There, all done!" Sam said as she tucked the remaining gauze back into her first aid kit, which she promptly put back in her suitcase. He noticed her pause as she reached in, pulling out a small rectangular piece of technology. "Hmm, Tucker's PDA must have fallen in while I was at his house." She snorted. "I bet he's going crazy without his baby at his side," she snickered.

Danny started to laugh, but pain shot through his sides at his attempt. Sam noticed him wince as he lay himself down on the floor gently. "Hey, it doesn't hurt that bad, does it?" she queried, bringing her hand down to the tops of the bandages. Danny shivered at the skin-to-skin contact. After all this time, she still had the power to make him quake at the fingertips. Sam seemed to notice this, quickly withdrawing her fingers as a small blush appeared on her face. After a few moments of silence, she grinned and said, "Want me to kiss it and make it all better?"

Usually, Danny would have gone wide-eyes at the request, probably phase out of something, and just kind of stare at her. Today, however, he was feeling adventurous. Bringing his hand up slowly to the back of her head, he gently brought her head down to meet his lips. He couldn't exactly sit up or roll to his side in his condition, nor could he have her on top of him, but he'd be damned if he let that get in his way. Sam put her hands out on either side of him to steady herself over above him while he leaned up against the wall a bit to get a more comfortable angle. Slowly, but not too slowly, the kiss became deeper, more passionate. Sam's hand found its way in his hair and Danny's arms snaked around her waist.

Sam moved from Danny's lips to his neck. He could barely contain himself as she nipped at his pulse, letting out a low moan of satisfaction. Taking her chin in his hand, he captured her lips again in a slightly more desperate way, holding her as though he never wanted to let her go. Because he didn't. He could have stayed that way with her for the rest of his life and be perfectly happy. Minus the pain from his wounds, of course.

After about a half hour or so of that, Sam reluctantly broke apart. Her hair was a bit messed up, falling in her face, and her lips were swollen, making her absolutely adorable in Danny's eyes, though he would never dare to say those words aloud in front of her. "We," her voice was breathless, "should probably call Tucker. He's probably wondering where we are by now."

"Aw, can't we just stay here?" Danny pouted. He used his patented puppy dog face, the one he knew no one could resist. Especially not Sam.

Using her common sense, Sam simply turned away so that the pout had no effect. Damn. "No, we really do need to get going. Here, I'll call him. You go get changed. Your clothes reek of ectoplasm."

Danny was brought out of his thoughts by Tucker's discontented sigh. "Sorry about that, I was looking for my ba-I mean my PDA." Danny raised an eyebrow. Tucker really was going to end up marrying his technology one day, wasn't he?

Tucker cleared his throat embarrassedly. "So, um, what have you guys been up to?" Please, just answer something that my poor, delicate, not-perverted mind can hear without having nightmares.

"Well...we've been getting used to living together," Danny replied hesitantly. It made it sound like he and Sam were actually, well, living together. "Hey, do you have any of your special hot chocolate?"

Tucker smirked. Ever since they were ten years old, Tucker had been known for his special "Tuck Chocolate." Not that he could ever get anyone else to call it that. Either way, his hot chocolate was the best that any of the trio of friends had had before or since. "Sure, I actually have a couple of cups of the stuff brewing as we speak." He graciously ushered them in, taking special care to place his baby in his driect line of vision. Otherwise, who knows what would happen to her?

He watched as Sam and Danny sat on his couch, putting some awkward space between them. He grinned as he saw them both set their hands in that empty space, neither jumping away and blushing as they would so often do. Instead, they kept their hands on top of each other, quietly smiling to themselves and to each other.

Ha, he always knew his hot chocolate was magic. That's what had managed to bring these two clueless lovebirds to his house yesterday, after all. Well, that's not why Sam was there, but Danny had come in from the cold specifically for that reason; Danny hadn't even known that Sam was home. And now look at them. His eyes widened as his brain kicked into gear. If it could do that for them...what could it do for me?

The possibilities, as he saw it, were endless. He'd just need to find the right girl, give her some of his hot chocolate...He shook his head. What was he thinking? His hot chocolate wasn't magic. Please. He knew all the ingredients that he put in there and knew that not one thing used in that hot chocolate was magical in the least bit. It couldn't help him. Ridiculous to think it would.

"Tuck?" Tucker jumped. "Are you okay?" Ah, there was Danny, being the concerned friend. He must have been making a face or something to have them notice.

"Ah, yeah, Danny, I'm fine." Danny didn't look convinced, but he didn't press his friend any further. Tucker readied the hot chocolate and, after quickly burning himself on the hot cups, gave them to his friends. Danny, of course, downed his in a record 4 seconds. Sam had never been that big of a chocolate fan, but, hey, his hot chocolate was magic, so it didn't really matter. She sipped hers slowly, as slowly as she drank her tea from the day before.

Danny looked hungrily in her direction, making Tucker's eyebrows disappear into his beret (he'd grown attached to it during high school and couldn't bear to part with it). Either that's Sam he's eyeing or her hot chocolate...

"Saaaam?" he whined prettily. Oh boy, this would be fun. "Can I have your hot chocolate?"

Sam gave him a look. He'd done this same routine every time that they both had hot chocolate; he was always the first to finish and she was always the last, so he always tried to stel hers in an attempt to quell his insatiable thirst for the drink. It was something Tucker had grown to look forward to; a little taste of normalcy in their increasingly weird lives. "No."

"But you don't even liiike chocolate!"

"I like this, though, so no."

"Pleeeeeeeease?" Danny put on his best pout face, his eyes going wide and his bottom lip quivering slightly. Tucker had to hand it to him, the boy had talent.

But so did Sam. She simply closed her eyes so that she would not be affected by him and took a nice long swig of hot chocolate from her cup. Danny's look changed quickly from cute puppy dog pout to indignation. When Sam opened her eyes again, she simply smirked and stuck her tongue out at him as she placed the mug on the coffee table before them.

"Well if you won't give it to me willingly," Danny hissed playfully, "then I shall have to...TAKE IT BY FORCE!" Danny's finger's wiggled slightly, gaining speed with every passing second. Then, in his piece de resistance, he smirked and went invisible.

Sam's eyes widened; she knew she was in for it. "No fair!" she cried, mere seonds before she started convulsing with laughter. "AHAHA DANNY NOOOO!" she squealed, looking like she was having a seizure as invisible hands continued tickling her. Tucker grinned; it was worth it.

Seeing that the actual mug of hot chocolate was left forgotten by the lovebirds, Tucker quickly breezed past them and grabbed the cup for himself, downing it quickly before either of his friends took notice. After all, he hadn't made enough for three cups.

Placing the mug down with a contented sigh, he noticed something strange. The laughter had stopped. And Sam was gone. Oh, no, this can only mean one thing...

"YAAAAAAAAH!" yelled an invisible Sam as she pounced on Tucker, pinning him to the ground by sitting on top of him. Becoming visible again, she smirked down at him, noting his fear-stricken face. "So you thought you could steal my hot chocolate and get away with it, eh?" she asked. "Well, I'm not happy about that. And neither is someone else..."

Tucker watched in horror as his baby floated up off of the counter and into mid air. He knew who was controlling it, it was quite obvious. "Danny," he said, his voice stern but quaking, "Put. The PDA. Down."

Danny grinned evilly as he became visible again. "Hmm," he said, sroking his chin in false contemplation. "What should we do with it, Sam? Burn it? Fry it? Make it invisible forever? Or my personal favorite, PDA fricasse?"

"Ooh, Danny, I like the way you think," Sam purred. Ew, Tucker so did not want to hear this. Any of it. No fricasse, no purring. Just...ew. "Fricasse sounds good to me."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Tucker wailed as loudly as he could manage, what with Sam sitting on his lungs. "Do anything you want with me, but do NOT hurt my baby!"

Sam and Danny both gave him a weird look. "Wow, Tuck," Sam deadpanned, "You really are going to end up marrying your technology someday, aren't you?"

"The computer'll be his best man," Danny said, a grin appearing on his face. "That hurts, Tuck. That hurts."

Tucker growled under his breath. "You're GONNA be hurting if you don't give me back my baby!"

Danny sighed. "Fine." He walked over to Tucker and Sam, graciously offering her his arm to help her up. Tucker followed suit without Danny's help, holding his hand out impatiently. With another over-the-top sigh, he placed the PDA back in Tucker's hands, who immediately put it in his pocket. "There. Happy now?"

Tucker responded with a happy purr-like sound as he caressed his baby. "More than you'll ever know," he chirped in a strange singsong voice.

"Right."