I made a face, knowing exactly who was standing behind me.

"Walker, I know I said I wouldn't visit so much but it's really not me doubting your abilities at all. I promise. I just … need to know. I don't think you understand how far his crimes really went."

"Hm," Walker rumbled and I turned my head slightly, sneaking a glance at the white figure. "I am staying behind."

"I don't understand," I admitted.

"The ghosts are coming and going. I know that you have something to do with that."

I inclined my head. Why tell Walker what he already knew? And I didn't want to make him mad. Yeah, something was binding us together but, alternatively, he'd spent a good amount of time hunting me around. Not as much time as, say, Skulker, but a decent amount of time. There was only his internal code, which wasn't always consistent, that was keeping me on the outside of a cell now rather than the inside.

"But, there will always be new ghosts. There will always be the need for a jail and a jailor. I have a job to do and I won't leave it behind."

"Well, things wouldn't be the same without you."

Things weren't the same without a lot of them but the difference between Walker and the Box Ghost was that Walker was useful. He could be helpful.

"There will always be the need for a jailor," Walker repeated, "the same as there will always be the need for a protector."

Was Walker giving me fucking life advice? It seemed a little bullshitty but I honestly didn't think that Walker was the bullshit type. He was blunt. A little too blunt.

"There will always be villains, too," I said, staring at the Fenton thermos. "But there's no need for them."

"Rule breakers will get punished."

An eternity staring at Elliot probably was a punishment, I acknowledged, but it wasn't a big enough one. I still felt the rage building within me. I could be a villain. I could cross that line. But I knew enough to know that I would never fucking come back over it and that kept me in line more than anything else.

"What if the punishment doesn't fit the crime?"

"There's always the next life."

Was he joking? I couldn't fucking tell.

"Do you think halfas can come back as ghosts?" I asked. There were probably better ghosts to ask, people with more knowledge and authority, but they weren't here anymore. They were gone too.

"Does it matter? Your contraption there holds ghosts too."

Vlad was going to die in there. Was that the same as slitting his throat? No. It was worse. I knew it was fucking worse. I didn't need to ask Walker's opinion on that at all. I knew it wasn't right of me to push it out of my mind but I did. I wasn't ready to think of the consequences of that, even though consequences were all Jazz lectured me about when I was fourteen and fifteen. By the time I was sixteen, she'd mostly given up after watching me get myself in and out of trouble in a routine.

"I guess not." I sighed. "Well, thanks, Walker. See you tomorrow?"

"Try and take a day off," Walker advised. "Every once in a while."

I wanted to tell him I already had a dad and didn't need another one but I didn't think we were at the joking stage yet. The fact that we might reach a joking stage one day was something that I'd never considered would happen with Walker. Yet, here we were.

"Sundays. I'll take Sundays off."

Walker glared at me. He didn't know the days of the week. He probably barely knew day from night.

"I'll be back tomorrow but I'll try to take your advice."

"Children," Walker snorted to himself as I walked away.

I floated through the Ghost Zone and made a split-second decision to not leave via the Fenton portal but, instead, Vlad's portal. I emerged into his stony basement but it was empty. Of course, why would people be here with no Vlad? There was no point. I floated aimlessly through the walls, ghost hunting equipment staring back at me. I should take it, I thought. Before the police found it. Before the ghosts discovered it. Before it fell into the wrong hands. I knew that if I left it alone, the wrong person would get a hold of it because that was just the way that the fucking world worked.

Me: hey what are you doing

Tucker: Just at home. Why?

Me: can you grab your parents car and meet me somewhere?

Tucker: Yeah. Where?

Me: Vlad's.

Tucker: Why?

Me: I'll explain everything when you get here?

Tucker: fine. But I like that place less than hospitals

Me: Liar

With Tucker on his way, I texted Jazz.

Jazz: no. mom and dad are out. Groceries I think. They won't be gone that long. Why?

Me: I need to know where to store Vlad's stuff

With that, my sister called me.

"Vlad's what?"

"Vlad's ghost hunting stuff," I said. "I can't just leave it laying around and, yeah, he was evil but they're called evil geniuses for a reason. There might be some stuff that we can use. We're going to want to poke around at it but it's not like we can hide it in the lab."

"We'd need somewhere that we could lock it up," Jazz said. "And we don't have that. Why not just leave it at Vlad's?"

"The police have been poking around. I can't let them figure out that it's paranormal related because then what kind of direction will that investigation take?"

"It's not like the police have ever figured it out before."

"Jazz, find me somewhere else."

"We can rent a storage locker," she said. "It won't be the best place but it'll do until we figure something else out."

"With what money?"

"You need your own lab."

"Yeah, like that's going to happen," I scoffed.

"Okay, well, there's a place online where it's fifty bucks for the first month. We have fifty bucks, Danny, and that does give us a month."

"Okay, okay," I agreed. "Get the storage locker."

"You could always move into the lab," Jazz said. "Tell Mom and Dad that you invented something on your own. It's not like we haven't done it before."

"We, not me."

"Maybe that's what you go to school for," Jazz suggested.

"Jazz, I just got out of a hole in Vlad's basement. Leave me alone about school."

"For now," Jazz agreed. "Okay, I'll send you the address for the storage locker."

"Thanks. I'll bring Tucker back to the house for you."

Jazz laughed. "You can bring him back for you."

"You can play with him for an hour but I've got custody tonight."

"When do I get custody for a night?"

"When I'm not sleeping in the next fucking room!" I said.

"It's not like you haven't had sex before, Danny. It's a natural thing and –"

"You have had sex?!" I shrieked. "Okay, bye, I need to bleach my brain before I look at him again."

"Bye, Danny," Jazz said and I could tell that she was rolling her eyes at me.

I stuck my phone in my pocket and let Tucker into the garage.

"Do you think anyone saw you drive in?" I asked.

"Probably not. I don't think anyone was watching."

"Okay, let's load up the important stuff."

"What happens to the unimportant stuff?"

"Um, well, an electrical fire in an unoccupied house probably won't be that suspicious, right?" I asked.

"If you say so. Do you know how to set a fire that doesn't look like arson?"

"We're going to find out."

I let Tucker into the basement. As we walked, we passed the cell and Tucker stopped.

"Danny –"

The chains were still lying, cut open on the floor.

"Don't. Yes, it is, but don't."

"It's so small."

"Yeah."

Tucker fell silent after that and we just systematically went about clearing out the rooms. I kept most of the papers, stealing fancy briefcases from Vlad's upper floors as we went. I had to take most of the prototypes because I didn't trust them to burn properly. When the car was all loaded, I dug out my wallet.

"You have twenty bucks on you?" I asked Tuck.

"Yeah, why?"

I sent him the address Jazz had given me. "Rent a storage locker under Jazz's name. Sign up for just one month. I'll pay you back later."

"You can buy the Nasty Burger next time."

"Sure," I said.

"Don't set yourself on … flames."

I smirked. "I will do my very best."

"We all know how that goes for you," Tucker muttered and I chose to ignore him.

He pulled away and I crept back inside of the house. Honestly, I didn't really know what I was doing but the benefit of being a ghost was that I could pop in and out of walls, manipulate things from the inside out. It wasn't hard to get a fire started. I make sure that it grew in the basement and had worked its way upstairs before I abandoned the mansion completely, secure in the knowledge that it was going to turn to ash. I hoped that I had done my job properly and that they could find anything suspicious at all but I wouldn't know until the firetrucks came in.

I headed home. Jazz and Tucker were cuddled up on the couch, watching a movie.

"How'd the storage locker go?"

"Easy. They looked sketchy."

"Great."

I took one of the other chairs in the room and settled down to watch the comedy with them. Since the only people I ever really talked to were in the room with me, I was surprised when my phone chimed.

Sam: Hi.

Sam!? Holy shit. I glanced over at Jazz and Tucker but I didn't want to disturb them quite yet. I wrote back, making sure she knew how hesitant I was.

Me: … Hi …

Sam: uh I think I made a mistake before

That was so vague. Mistake? What kind of mistake?

Me: what do you mean

Sam: I think we should talk

Me: about what?

I'd fucking talk about tulips all day if that was what Sam wanted to discuss.

Sam: Idk … about all kinds of things, I guess.

Sam: I just think we should stay in each other's lives

I couldn't help myself then.

"Sam wants to talk to me!" I announced to the room.

"Sam?" Jazz repeated.

"She wants to be in my life," I said, all kinds of hopeful, while texting her back 'really?'. I had to know she meant it and that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me.

Sam: Yeah. I probably seem kinda flaky, saying one thing and then changing my mind days later but I really mean it this time.

"Danny," Tucker said, "what about all of the things you were saying before?"

"She wants to talk to me, Tuck. I can't ignore her. I just can't." I texted her back a smile face, too distracted by the looks on Jazz's and Tucker's face. "What?"

"Are you sure this is the best thing for you?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, you and Sam have been through a lot. I thought you were going to let her go," Jazz replied.

"Because I thought that was what she wanted and what she needed. If it's what she wants and what she needs, then I'll still do it. But if she wants me, Jazz, then I'm going to step up and I'm going to be a man. A real one. I'm going to treat her the way that she should be treated, you know, respect and flowers and romance and everything I didn't do the first time. I'm going to make it about her because the last time, it was about me. I want her. Since the moment I met her, no matter how I fought against it, I wanted her."

Sam: but I need you to promise me something

Me: anything

Sam: no more lies. Not one.

Like I hadn't learnt my lesson.

Me: no, never. You won't hear anything but the truth from me

Sam: good, because I have something to talk to you about.

Me: uh oh …

Literally, it could be anything.

"We're behind you, Danny," Jazz said, "but we're not going to pretend like we don't like Sam."

"Oh, you're a 'we' now?" I asked, cocking my eyebrows. "One whole brain between the two of you?"

"Mostly Jazz's brain," Tucker agreed.

Sam: why paullina?

Sam: I need to understand that

Me: okay

Well, fuck. I should have seen it coming but I really didn't.

"I'm going upstairs," I announced.

"Here if you need it," Jazz chimed after me.

I floated through the ceiling into my bedroom. If it was an explanation Sam wanted, it was an explanation Sam would get.

Danny: I thought that being popular would make me happy, and paullina represented that life to me. She was always the pretty, well-known girl and she seemed to have it so good. That's what I wanted. When she finally noticed me I was so fucking happy because it meant that I was finally winning the game of high school rather than not even being on the board. And she was still with dash at the time so I got to steal her from him … in a sense, I guess I knew they were still fucking. But to me she was a prize, a representation of what I thought I always wanted.

Danny: I mean I was wrong and it took me too long to realize that the popular life isn't what I wanted and that it wasn't right but at the time I was even dumber than I am now

Me: do you miss her

Had I ever? Even when we had first broken up? The fact that she'd had been so horrible to Jazz was like pulling a curtain away from the front of my eyes. After seeing that, there was no unseeing it. I'd known she was bitchy but it had never occurred to me just how fucked up she was before that. There was no going back.

Danny: not even a little. She was horrible to people that I cared about and she helped me be horrible to the people I cared about. Im not going to blame all my behaviour on her 'cause im a grown ass boy who makes my own decisions but I don't know. Its hard to explain now…

Me: I think I get it.

Danny: why did you ask anyway?

Me: I was just curious, I guess. I was thinking about, you know, the first time we met when you were still technically with her

Danny: … dangerous thoughts

What else was there to say to that? It was hard to look back now because I couldn't separate the events. The Paullina stuff, the hurting Sam, the good stuff. It all boiled down to the way Sam had looked at me when I told her the truth.

Sam: I guess so but idk understanding is never a bad thing? I was trying to figure out what you were thinking the entire time

Me: I wasn't. trust me

Sam: a tall order.

Danny: eh, we'll get there

Sam: :-)

She smiled at me! Well, it was a fucking emoji, but who gave a shit? Sam smiled at me!

It felt like a victory.

So, on tumblr I'm: we are all of legend now (with dashes between every word). If you want to find my replies to anon reviews, add backslash tagged backslash anon dash replies. If you want to see anything I post about Superman or the Reflections Universe, go to my tumblr URL and add backslash tagged backslash reflections dash universe. Punctuation is spelled out due to Fanfiction's restrictions. If you're having any trouble accessing the tumblr content please send me a pm and I can format it for you in a different way.

~TLL~