I was still panicking when Danny arrived.

"What's going on?" He demanded as he burst through my balcony doors. "Is everything all right?"

"I … I had a nightmare and I thought that I was still in the cell and," I heaved for breath and tried to suppress my tears, "And I'm home alone and I don't want to be alone anymore."

"Hey, it's okay. You're free, remember? And you never have to go back there again. You never have to see either of them again. They are sealed away. You're safe, I promise."

"I don't feel safe," I admitted. I drew my legs up to my chest, and curled into a ball, the bulk of my body resting against my headboard.

Danny slowly made his way toward me, before he gingerly sat on the edge of the bed. "But you are. Nothing like that will ever happen again."

"But I'm scared it will!" I cried.

"I know, I know," Danny soothed, "and I wish I could say something to heal your wounds, I wish I could. But … there's not. I can't do anything else than just be here and promise I'll protect you."

"Then don't leave," I begged, my emotions finally seizing me. I burst into tears and fell into him, his arms wrapping around me like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Just don't go."

"I promise I won't," he swore to me, cradling me close to him. He ran his hands over my hair, trying to calm me. "I'll be here as long as you want me to be. I'm not going anywhere."

And though I believed him, though the logical side of my brain said there was no danger to be found tonight, I still could not be calmed.

(-.-)

I rose with the dawn, feeling completely unrested. I felt stiff all over, and my face felt grimy from tears. I ground the heels of my hands into my eyes, trying to prompt myself to wake up, but I couldn't. Instead, I blinked, looking around my faintly lit room. My eyes snagged on my armchair, where Danny was coiled, his head resting on the arm. I stared at him, remembering my panic of the night, and how he had come to my side.

I slipped out of bed, grabbing a sweatshirt off the floor. I pulled it on to fight off the chill of the house, and then I grabbed my throw blanket from the end of my bed. Slowly I approached Danny. I stood by his head for a minute, studying his face. I could clearly see the scars left by Vlad's attack while we were in the cell. The bottom of his face, where his facial hair would grow, was a different colour from the rest of his skin. I could see several pale lines under his eyes from Vlad's blows.

I opened the blanket, and tossed it over his body. The moment the fabric touched him, however, Danny shot upward, clutching at the blanket as if it were attacked him. He clenched the blanket with both fists, his hands glowing green. He stared at the blanket, as if he were processing what it was, and then he slowly released it.

"I'm sorry," I blurted immediately. I was such a dunce. I should have realized that he would have reacted that way; the same way I now did when something startled me. I was just lucky that he hadn't grabbed me; he would have shattered bones, or worse, with his glowing hands.

"I was just surprised," Danny answered me slowly. He was still looking blankly at the blanket, as if he still wasn't processing that there was, in fact, a blanket.

"I know. I'm sorry," I repeated. "The same thing happens to me and I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry I scared you."

Danny reached his hand up, his cold fingers running along the underside of my arm until he finally reached my hand.

"Sit with me?"

I nodded, and allowed him to tug me into his lap. I curled myself around him. My back was against one of the arms, my knees tucked underneath his arm. I leaned into him, my head going onto his shoulder. He spread the blanket over us, and I touched the place on the blanket where he had grabbed it with his powers; it was singed.

"Oops," Danny muttered.

I chuckled slightly, and then I kissed him on the cheek. He moved his arm so that it was around my shoulders, and squeezed me into him. I was feeling drowsy, and I knew that he was probably tired as well. Still, I made my request.

"Sing to me?" I asked him.

He kissed the top of my head. "What do you want to hear?"

"Surprise me," I urged, and then I snuggled into him.

Danny hummed for a moment, before he switched the tune and began to sing to me.

"I won't talk, I won't breathe, I won't move till you finally see, that you belong with me."

I didn't know the song, but I liked the way that it sounded when he sang it. I liked how soft and husky his voice was.

"You might think I don't look, but deep inside, in the corner of my mind, I'm attached to you. I'm weak, it's true. 'Cause I'm afraid to know the answer. Do you want me too? 'Cause my heart keeps falling faster."

Danny moved closer to my ear, his voice dropping to nothing more than a whisper as he sang the chorus for the first time, as if he desperately needed me to hear the words.

"I've waited all my life, to cross this line, to the only thing that's true. So I will not hide, it's time to try, anything to be with you. All my life I've waited; this is true."

My heart skipped a beat at the words. The tone that he sang to me in revealed how in love with me he still was, and I felt my throat close up with the knowledge. I knew I liked him; I knew that he meant a lot to me. But the person I had fallen in love with so many months ago was not the same person that I was sitting with. I was not the same person that he had known months ago either. We had to relearn each other, and maybe then, just maybe, we could fall in love again.

"You don't know what you do, every time you walk into the room, I'm afraid to move. I'm weak, it's true. I'm scared to know the ending. Do you see me too? Do you even know you met me?"

I smiled at that part. He, Phantom, had always inspired me to believe that I could silence a room just by walking into it. I had never bought into it. As for the latter part of the verse, I would never be able to deny that I had met him – I had known that from our very first conversation. And, to answer the first question asked in the verse, yes; I did see him. After all that we had been through the previous year, through the convoluted relationship full of lies, I felt as if I was finally seeing him clearly for the first time.

"I've waited all my life, to cross this line, to the only thing that's true. So I will not hide, it's time to try anything to be with you. All my life I've waited; this is true."

He pressed me closer into him, and I burrowed into him further, as close as I could get. I could feel the vibrating in his chest as he finished his song.

"I know when I go, I'll be on my way to you; the way that's true. I've waited all my life, to cross this line, to the only thing that's true. So I will not hide, it's time to try anything to be with you. All my life I've waited; this is true."

He hummed a few bars beyond the end of the song, and then he kissed the top of my head. I relaxed and closed my eyes, letting myself drift off to sleep.

(-.-)

There was a tinkling noise occurring in my bedroom. Blearily I opened my eyes to the morning once more. I yawned and stretched, the noise never ceasing all the while. As I squirmed, Danny slowly woke up. He jerked upright and ended up hitting his forehead off my shoulder blade. We both winced.

"What is that noise?" He groaned.

I was about to answer 'I don't know' but then I realized that I did know. "My cell phone. It's my mother's ringtone."

Danny stretched out his arm, his palm facing toward my cell phone.

I stared down at his hand. I knew that I was tired, and that was clouding my thinking, but I still could not comprehend what he was trying to do. Finally, I had to ask, "What are you doing?"

"I'm using the force to get your phone," he explained, as if it should have been obvious.

I sighed and untangled my legs from his arm.

"No, no," Danny said, catching my legs and bringing them back to where they were. "I'll get it."

He vanished from underneath of me. I fell into the chair, unprepared for the lack of body now beneath me. He reappeared by my nightstand and then, in a flash, he was underneath of my again, lifting me up and onto his lap. He handed me my phone which, by this time, was no longer ringing. I had a missed call from Mother, and several texts demanding to know why I hadn't answered the phone. I called her back and lifted the device to my ear.

"Samantha!" Mother gasped, picking up at the first ring. "I was getting worried."

"It just didn't wake me," I explained. Danny moved his thumb across my ankle and I jumped at the ticklish sensation. I swatted at his hand, and shook my head.

He grinned, unapologetic.

"I see. I was just calling to check in on you and tell you that we'll be home in, oh, it'll be fifteen to twenty minutes now." Mother informed me. "Please set out plates and such for breakfast."

"Okay," I agreed. "I'll see you soon."

"I'm so excited!" Mother shrieked. "I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too," I told her. "See you soon."

"Bye!" Mother exclaimed into the phone, and then we hung up.

"I heard," Danny said before I could open my mouth. "I'll leave in a minute."

"Thank you for coming over last night." I turned my head so that our foreheads were resting against each other; his light blue eyes becoming blurry due to how close I was to them. "I know I didn't make a lot of sense and that I was really out of it."

"I'll always come when you need me," Danny guaranteed me. He brushed his hands over my back. "You ought to know that."

"I think I do," I replied.

I moved my head slightly to the side, and pressed my lips to his. He grabbed me tightly against him and kissed me until I was breathless; until my heart was hammering; until I fully understood the expression 'weak in the knees'.

"You have to go," I finally said, although it came out as more than a whimper. I didn't want him to go, and he knew that. I didn't think he wanted to go either.

"Can I see you later?" Danny asked.

"Text me," I dodged the question, unsure of whether or not I would be able to, although I knew that I wanted to.

"I will."

He kissed me again, and then he left.

As soon as I felt my room warm up due to his absence, I bounced from the armchair to my feet. Mother and Dad would be home soon. I pulled on yoga pants and then I headed down the stairs. I had just finished setting the table when I heard a car. I peeked out the window to see Mother heading in, the breakfast bags in hand, while Dad followed behind her with the suitcases.

I stayed there in the window. I let my eyes wander the snowy yard, and I took a deep breath. I had been through a lot in the past few months. I had been changed by my experiences, and I knew that I had a lot of healing left to do. I knew that I hadn't been the only one hurt by the past few months: my family and my friends had been changed in my absence; had been altered by the pain that my disappearance had caused. But I had friends and family who cared about me. All of the people that I loved, and that loved me in return, were happy and safe. I had grown together with my parents. I had Leslie, Tara, Tucker, and Jazz – the best friends I could have asked for – by my side. And then there was Danny; our history together with painful and complicated, but I honestly believed that he would make me happier than anyone else could have.

The front door cracked open.

"Sammy, we're home!" Mother cried.

I still had to heal, but when it came down to it, I was happy.

I really was.

Sorry guys, I switched time zones again. The song is True by Ryan Cabrera.

I don't own anything recognizable. Thanks to my betas: Forever Sky!

~TLL~