Howdy!

Oh man, I love that being from Texas gives me the ability to pull off that word.

Howdy y'all.

I've actually had to stop myself from putting "y'all" in my dialogue.

WINNING.

Aw...my laptop is about to die.

Sad day.

ANYWAYS.

This chapter is weird. Really weird.

It's not so much creepy as it is weird.

Mostly because it's got an interesting little twist at the end. Yay. I love twists (:

I don't own Danny Phantom, duhhhhh.

Relatives

Chapter Five: The Connection

August 13, 2011

Sam woke early the next morning. Sleep was tugging at her eyelids, pressing heavily against her muscles. She groaned. It was still early, she could tell by the degree of light filtering through her window. She must have only gotten a few hours of sleep. A quiet knock sounded at her door, which slowly eased open, revealing Zane. "Good morning, Samantha. Breakfast is prepared downstairs, if you would be so kind as to join us."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Zane, you can call me Sam. Please call me Sam. Okay?"

But Zane was already gone. Sam sighed and rolled out of bed, stretching when she was on her feet. She shuffled down the hall, glancing into Danny and Tucker's room as she went. It was empty; they were already downstairs.

"Morning, Sam." Danny called when she appeared on the staircase. She smiled at him. He had saved her a seat between himself and Tucker; her plate was already made.

"Danny, you didn't have to make my plate," She said quietly when she eased into her chair.

"I didn't. It was already made when Tuck and I got down here," Tucker nodded, his mouth full of bacon and eggs. Sam grimaced at him before lowering her gaze to her toast. They ate in silence, shooting quick glances up at Zane, Nela, and Kyler. They were watching the teens in silence, their plates empty.

"Aren't...aren't you going to eat?" Sam asked, pointing to the dishes of food on the table between them. Zane shook his head.

"We don't eat breakfast." He said. When Sam attempted to question him further, he feigned deafness.

"That was really weird," Sam said after breakfast. She, Danny, and Tucker were in the boys' room; Sam and Tucker were lying on Tucker's bed, while Danny gathered the blankets Tucker had thrown off the bed up from the floor. "They were just...staring at us. And what's with them making my plate before every meal?"

"I don't know. But have you noticed that the limo driver hasn't shown up with the rest of our luggage yet?" Tucker asked. "He made it seem like he'd be here a few hours after us, but he never even showed up!"

"Oh my gosh, I forgot about that!" Sam said, sitting up and staring at Tucker. "I hope nothing bad happened to him..."

"I'm sure he's fine," Danny said, patting her lightly on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I bet he'll be here later on. Don't worry." He flashed her a crooked grin. Sam couldn't help but smile back at him. That same sense of safety that had stolen over her the night before was back at the sight of his smile.

"I drank way too much orange juice at breakfast..." Tucker whined. "I have to potty." He shoved Sam backwards as he jumped off the bed, running out of the room before she could sit up.

"Little punk," Sam growled as Danny pulled her up. He laughed and settled on the bed beside her.

"So...listen...about what happened earlier..." Danny started.

"Ah, actually, I wanted to wait to talk about this until Tucker came back," Sam said, gazing at him apologetically. He blinked, obviously confused.

"Oh! Oh, no, not that. I meant...when you were on the couch with me. I'm really sorry I pushed you off, you just caught me off-guard is all..."

"It's cool Danny, really. I wasn't expecting it either." Sam smiled at him.

"How did that even happen?"

"Well, I was trying to wake you up, and you grabbed me and pulled me down on the couch with you."

"Wait...I pulled you down with me? Seriously?" He laughed, a deep blush crept onto his cheeks. "Well that's embarrassing..." A vivid image of the Sam from his dream suddenly came to him, making his blush deepen even more.

"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad you finally woke up!" Sam shoved him lightly on the shoulder. "But hey, I was thinking about it last night, why couldn't you phaze through the wall between the bathroom and my room?"

"I was thinking about that, too. Maybe it's just my powers acting up?"

Sam stared at Danny. He...sounds exactly like my thought-conversation last night. "That...that could be it...but it doesn't seem likely. Your powers haven't acted this weird since you got your ice powers..."

"Maybe...maybe my powers are just...acting up?"

"But...what if...that creepy girl..."

"'Comes back? What if she hurts me?'" Danny finished. His eyes were wide as he stared at her. "Have we...already had this conversation?"

"I...I don't know..." Sam whispered. They continued staring at each other.

"Am I interrupting something?" Tucker snickered from the doorway. They jumped and looked away from each other. Tucker was leaning against the doorframe, his eyebrows raised knowingly.

"Not even, Tuck," Danny rolled his eyes. He glanced back at Sam. "Sam and I...were just...talking,"

"Mm-hmm. Sure you were. What about?" Tucker said, jumping onto the couch Danny slept on.

"What happened last night," Sam said, who was watching Danny. Danny nodded. Tucker raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Why I was in here at 3 in the morning."

"Oh, right. I forgot about that." Tucker yawned pointedly. "So?"

"Someone was in my room last night. Someone I'd never seen before."

"No way! What did they look like?"

"She was -"

"Wait, it was a girl? Was she hot? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tucker!" Danny shouted indignantly. "That's not funny!"

"She looked like she was about our age. She was blonde -" Sam rolled her eyes at Tucker's low groan, "- and really pretty. But she had fangs." Tucker's eyes widened. "She...well...she was looking like she was about to take a bite out of me."

"And she didn't say anything." Danny said.

"So...what did she want?" Tucker asked.

"To scare the shit out of me?" Sam shrugged. "I have no idea. She just stared at me like a creep. And when I fell off the bed, she disappeared. It was weird."

"Something is definitely going on here," Danny murmured. He was watching Sam closely. "I don't know what to think of it."

"Maybe I was just dreaming it?" Sam said quietly. "Maybe it was all in my head?"

"I don't think so, Sam. I saw how freaked out you were last night, that was definitely not in your head. You don't react to dreams like that. It was real."

Sam smiled appreciatively at him. She knew it had not been a dream, even though deep down she wished it had been. Her heart thumped anxiously in her chest at the thought of the girl's piercing green eyes boring into hers.

I won't let her hurt you. I won't let anything hurt you. I'll protect you with my life, Sam. I promise.

Danny nodded slightly, watching Sam closely. Sam gasped, staring up at him.

If you can hear me...tell Tucker his beret is stupid.

Danny grinned. "Hey Tucker, your beret is really stupid."

"Hey!"

Sam's eyes widened.

Well this just got very interesting.

You can say that again.

Well that's the end of that.

Didja see that one coming?

Bet you didn't.

I was actually thinking about making that a story on its' own. But it came in handy here.

We'll get back to the creepy next chapter. I promise.

You should review. Just post gibberish, really. I love you if you post gibberish.

Also some nice words are appreciated (:

Flames are not. :P

Thank you for reading this little story (: I hope you stick through to the end! :D

I love you!

- Tori