A/N: Now, it's that time again! And time to see what's happening with Sarah and Derek! And without further ado, IDNOAC and here is Chapter 27. Enjoy!

TrueHeart—Chapter 27—Contradictory Events

Sarah froze in the midst of her efforts to pry a larger hole in her cage. She heard the creaking of an opening door!

"Hurry, Sarah, we must feign being unconscious!" her husband desperately whispered.

The two animals immediately shot downward, hugging the floor of their respective cages as soon as Derek had said that. They closed their eyes and tried to control their quivering, fearful that their captors had indeed returned; and, more dreadfully, would discover what they were doing.

And they had every right to be afraid, for it was Spectra! She was just arriving from her rendezvous with Bertrand and the fiasco he had made of administering the rejuvenating dose to her. She stomped in, not paying particular heed to whom or what she might disturb in her path. Why hadn't Bertrand warned her about the concentrated pheromone concoction's needing to be in aerosol before letting her waste it all?

But, of course, she had not remembered that her very first dose when Bertrand had first shown her the machine was given in aerosol.

She grumbled at the thought, but then she gritted her teeth. It didn't matter! Now, she could possibly be stuck in her 'aged state' indefinitely! The thought made her ill and she wanted to lie down.

But as she past through the room containing her unwitting 'guests', she glanced toward them inside their cages. "This is still all their fault!" she angrily mumbled under her breath, seeing in the darkened room that they were still out for the count. She didn't know that they were faking their condition, and that they had heard her. And she was so upset that she didn't notice that the bird cage's bars were awry. Not that she would. The bars that had been weakened were very close to the bottom of the cage, and were not in the shadow ghost's line of vision. Spectra continued onward to her room and lay down.

In the meantime, the animal couple waited several minutes before getting back up. Sarah went right to work again. She knew that her task would now take even longer since she had to work slower and more quietly. As she toiled, every once in a while she would freeze whenever she heard a creak or other odd noise. Sometimes, her husband would hiss in warning if he had heard something first. Still, through the painfully slow work, she prayed that they would not be found out before she could finish.

But it looked like that that was not meant to be right now.

They heard Spectra's door suddenly swing violently open not thirty minutes later, and she charged out, having been unable to get the rest she needed. She was in a very foul mood to say the least.

Sarah instinctually pushed some of her bedding through the hole to make it look natural. But just as she finished—yet before either of the ghost animals could react and feign being unconscious again—the shadow ghost saw them and narrowed her baggy eyes in anger. She growled evilly under her acid breath, "Looks like I was much nicer than you both deserved the last time I vented my frustration! Don't you think for one moment that you're out of this! I expect compensation from both of you for your incompetence! And you can begin with this!" She ended that statement with another purple ectoplasmic blow to both of the poor defenseless creatures.

Sarah and Derek again screamed in excruciating pain from her heartless attack and fell senseless once more. The only 'good' thing that resulted from this assault was that Spectra was too upset to see the small hole in Sarah's cage.

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In the meantime, after obtaining the desirable pheromone sample from Valerie, Bertrand had decided not to go back right away to Spectra's lair. He was still not only upset with her, but he was also now exhausted after all he had gone through at the Far Frozen. And he hadn't even been able to rest before he had to go out and get these precious samples. He quietly grumbled with his irritation, silently daring Spectra to make him change his mind. He headed to his own lair with his decision. And Spectra could wait, and wait until morning.

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Finally, Saturday lazily rose and before long, it was just about mid-morning. The sun was shining, its rays reflecting off small mirror-like patches of the ice that littered the cold streets; and all was tranquil until Tucker's cell phone rang…

Tucker groaned in response, groping blindly for the little phone as it happily sung its little tune. After getting it and barely answering the person on the other end, he broke the connection and then turned it off. He groaned again, turning to his other side before pressing his pillow over his head as he attempted once more to snuff the world out.

But after only a few minutes, Tucker decided that it was no use trying to sleep anymore and dragged himself out of bed. But he was definitely not awake, either, and certainly not in the best of moods. He headed downstairs; and even though he could feel the bacon in the air, today, he really didn't care. He wasn't at all hungry.

When he got downstairs, he wondered why he even got out of bed. He turned back around and headed upstairs again. But when he got to his room, he didn't feel like lying back down. Grumbling, he headed back downstairs.

But just as he was at the bottom of his stairs, he stopped. He also didn't want to talk to anyone, or even try to pretend that he wanted to talk to anyone. He turned right around and went back up again. When he got to his room, however, he was determined to stay put for a while. He sloppily plopped on top of his bed and stared baggy-eyed at the blank ceiling. He had no doubt that this day would be just as empty.

The alarm clock screamed at Valerie and she slammed it off and immediately pulled the covers back over her. Didn't that stupid machine know she hadn't slept during most of the night? But then, her hazy mind remembered why her alarm clock had been so rude. She had to work—her regular work, that is—at the Nasty Burger today.

She groaned and pulled the covers off her face. She opened her eyes and moaned with how blurry her vision now was. Her eyes felt so heavy and unfocused, it was as if her eyes had fallen right into the bags she knew were under them. She slowly got herself out of bed but her vision hadn't improved much when she did. She sighed, now dreading to go to work. She hoped that she would be able to tell the difference between their fish filet and hamburger, since they had always looked the same to her when she was awake.

She immediately showered and got dressed. After peaking into her father's room and seeing that he was still asleep, she headed downstairs. She made a quick breakfast, and then headed to work. But she still felt so weak—and depressed. Even the crisp cold air and the newly fallen snow didn't help make her feel any more alert—or better. She just knew by how awful she felt both physically and mentally that today was doomed.

Danny and Sam were also up, but had their own plans today. They had invited Tucker to come along with them a while ago way before everything that had happened since the party. But when Danny had called him this morning, Tucker had sounded awful. Even though Tucker hadn't told his friend about his very restless night, Danny could tell that it had not been a good one. So, Tucker had told Danny he would rather not go with them. Danny had understood, but was still worried about his friend.

Once Danny had gotten a hold of Sam and told her about Tucker, she, too, grew worried. At first, since they were now concerned about Tucker, they couldn't decide whether to go after all. But then, they both finally agreed that going through their original plans would help take their mind off of things. So, they decided to meet with each other just the same.

As they walked gloved-hand-in-gloved-hand along the snowy sidewalk toward their destination, Sam finally turned to her boyfriend. Yawning a little and then seeing her breath when she did, she grumbled, "Did we have to get up this early?"

He smirked and wryly said, "Well, ten-thirty is a little early, I know, but we also agreed that we needed plenty of time to try to find that original underground park that's supposed to be under Central Park. I thought you were excited to go look for it after you told me about it when you were researching parks for that lame project at school."

"Yeah, I was, but that's because it was after one in the afternoon when I read about it—when I was awake and when it—and I—made some sense!" she quipped back.

He chuckled before replying, "Well, if you rather, we can just chill and come back later."

"Looks like 'chilling' is covered nicely right now," she smirked as she momentarily let go of his hand and rubbed her gloved hands to get warm. "And the way I feel right now, 'coming back later' will mean coming back in the spring—late spring!"

"But if you rather not," he again suggested, chuckling slightly.

"No, let's go ahead with it. We both thought it would be good to keep things off of our minds right now, and I do need to finish the stupid research. Besides, I'm already up and can't get any more frozen."

He chuckled again. "OK, Sam!" He then wrapped his arm around her and they continued to walk towards the park.

As soon as they got there, Danny looked for a place to morph. A large nearby snowbank volunteered for the job and he quickly went behind it and changed into his alter ego. Turning invisible and intangible right away, he phased to the other side of the snowbank where Sam was still waiting.

"Ready?" he whispered to her ear.

She squelched her pleased smile, and raising her hand up to nothing, wryly replied, "As always."

In the next instant, she, too had vanished and become intangible when he had touched her hand. Then, without any hesitation, he wrapped his other arm around her waist.

The chill she got from his touch wasn't like the cold, unpleasant day at all. It had lasted only a moment, however, before they were phasing right through the ground in search of the elusive old underground park.

As they slowly descended, it actually seemed to be getting warmer to Sam. And it wasn't just because of the warmth from Danny's ectoplasmic energy orb or his arm. It was much simpler than that. The layers of rock and dirt acted as insulators in and of themselves, keeping the subterranean nearly the same temperature year round.

The couple scanned the surrounding open pockets for any hints of a forgotten park that might pop out, but all they found was dirt and rock intermixed with occasional cobblestones, or crushed piles of concrete-like material.

After a few minutes of searching, they realized that their research had definitely come up very short of their expectations. Not needing any cue, Danny then quickened their descent until they came upon a small cavern. When they reached it, they rematerialized.

"Sorry, Sam, looks like it was all a bust," Danny sympathetically said. "I could go get a couple of samples of stuff that did look obviously man-made if you want."

"Thanks, Danny. That would be a great idea. Then, I could do research on the kind of materials they had used. That at least should make Lancer happy."

"So you think you got him figured out, huh? Hope it's not contagious!" he chuckled before saying, "Just give me a sec, OK?"

He bolted upward while she watched him phase out of sight—with the light.

"Duh! Didn't think of that, did you?" she grumbled to herself as she suddenly felt the pressure of the total darkness.

Usually the dark never bothered her. But for some reason, now that her surroundings totally abounded with it, she suddenly felt uneasy—and alone. She frowned at herself for being so silly. Danny would be back before she knew it. And, besides, she liked to be alone. Still, when she knew she wouldn't be able to see her own hand in front of her face even if she tried, she couldn't help but feel…empty. It was a very unnerving feeling, especially now, when she was suddenly aware that the minutes were ticking by at a snail's pace. Where was Danny?

She was tempted to move, but couldn't make herself for some disturbing reason. Again, in some ways, she suddenly felt as if she were frozen here, as if she were lost in a black, hopeless sea of….utter abandonment. She shivered a little. But then, she suddenly grew very irritated with herself for letting her imagination run wild like that. She had never felt this way before! Nothing was wrong! Still, she also had to admit that she would not want to feel that kind of wildness ever again.

She was still in the mist of mentally admonishing herself when a bright green light suddenly illuminated the area.

"Sam, are you all right?" Danny said as he quickly placed the collected items on the floor and flew over to her, having noticed her somewhat ashen face.

"Yeah, sure, why wouldn't I be?" she said with a weak smile. "I'm just glad you're back, that's all!" she added, before reaching out for him.

He didn't hesitate to oblige her and they fully embraced.

Sam let go a little and then reached again for him and gave him a warm kiss.

She was very glad he was back.

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Bertrand was in his laboratory when he heard the loud banging on his door of his lair. He knew from the sound of it exactly who belonged to that banging.

"Come in, Penelope," he called as he quickly turned toward the lab's door, grabbing something off the counter as he did.

She immediately barged in, grumbling under her breath as she headed to where she knew he would be. He had better have a great explanation as to why he hadn't returned to her lair. How dare he expect her to actually look for him in the condition she was in!

He ran up to the entrance to his lab and stopped in anticipation. As soon as Spectra came over the threshold, however, Bertrand surprised her with spraying a large dose of the pheromone mist over her before whipping out a mirror.

Spectra's scowl instantly melded into a beautiful smirk as her wrinkles—and anger—slid right off her face.

"Beautiful as ever," he purred to her as she looked into the mirror. "I'd say this was pretty quality stuff I was able to obtain." He pointed to two small bottles which held more of the deep plum concoction.

Spectra resisted the urge to compliment him. Instead, she said with slight irritation, "As only it should after all that suffering you put me through! I hardly had any sleep!" But then she let a smile escape her as she admired herself. "But this 'great explanation' more than made up for it!"

Bertrand smiled and said, "And there'll be more to come, I promise! I was able to get you a few days worth of pheromones for now, but I just know the heftier doses are in the works. But I have to get more containers." He suddenly frowned a little in worry. "And I have to make up more of the masking formula. I was just about to go get some more of the plant and some containers when you arrived. And I sure hope we get this all over with soon, Penelope. I hadn't planned to go back to Pandora's maze for those plants. But since we used up the last batch, I'll have to."

"Well, then, what are you waiting for? I don't want any juicy samples getting dried up because you weren't there to collect them!" she flippantly replied, still looking at herself in the mirror. She was obviously not at all concerned about his worry over facing the Minotaur again.

"Right away, Penelope," he said with a sigh before floating closer to her. But he added with a flicker of anticipation, "And I hope you were pleased with this dose?" He closed the gap between them, offering her a warm smile as he did.

This time, she looked up at his remark. But when she saw his face, she didn't like it. Irritated, she waved him away and he frowned.

With a slight huff, he quickly left his lair and headed to get more of the bottles needed to hold more of their future precious commodities.

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The rest of the weekend was an exhausted blur for Tucker and Valerie. They hadn't gotten any more rest—in mind, heart or body. Then, finally, it was Monday…and school.

Danny and Sam walked toward to their usual meeting point with Tucker, only to find…no Tucker waiting for them like he usually would be. But then, they saw Valerie slowly approaching them from the other side, looking every bit the wreck.

"What happened to her? Got run over by a truck?" Sam said under her breath to her boyfriend.

Danny frowned a little with concern, and remembering Friday night, replied under his breath as well, "Yeah, I'd say from the way we treated her on Friday, she got run over by our truck."

"OK, I get it," Sam responded in a slightly irritated hush. "But let's just get this over with, then!"

"Yeah, but make it look good, OK, Sam?"

"Just for you," she replied as dryly as the desert at mid-day. But she put on as much of a smile as she could muster, but it still didn't look sincere.

Danny's smile wasn't any better, but it looked more embarrassed than anything else.

But way before they were within earshot of Valerie, Danny's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Danny?" the very depressed-sounding voice said over the phone.

"Tucker? Is that you?" Danny asked, suddenly getting worried when he hadn't recognized his friend's voice at first. In fact, his concern for how obviously low his friend sounded was so great that Danny had also unconsciously stopped walking.

Sam immediately stopped as well and looked silently on, creasing her brow in concern.

"Are you alright?" Danny continued with more apprehension in his voice. But realizing his lame words, he cringed, and sheepishly added, "Oh, yeah, Sorry! Standard question!" But then, the half-ghost suddenly remembered that he hadn't seen his upset friend all weekend—but not because he had wanted it that way, of course! So, in reality, Danny didn't really know how Tucker was doing. Now, the blue-eyed teen could not help but be worried-a lot.

But either Tucker didn't hear him or didn't want to answer his friend as he replied, "I don't really want to talk about it right now. But could you tell Valerie I'll see her later at school? I'm not ready yet and I haven't been able to talk to her yet."

"But we all can wait for you, and…"

"NO!" Tucker abruptly yelled into Danny's ear.

Danny jumped at the barrage, and instinctively pulled the phone away.

"I really can't talk to her now, either! I'll be out in a minute. Just tell her to go," came the tense command.

"OK! Whatever, dude. See you in a minute," Danny replied, now more troubled, and irritated.

He hung up his phone. Just as he looked to Sam, he shrugged and shook his head in worry to Sam, but didn't say anything for now. Instead, he resumed his walk toward Valerie.

Sam, of course, knew that something was not right, but she kept quiet as she started right after him.

Sam easily caught up with her boyfriend. When the couple was close enough to Valerie, Danny slowed down and stammered, "U-Uhm, hey, Valerie. Tucker said he's running late and he'll meet up with us at school, OK? And, uhm, I forgot something at home, and so, see you there later, too?"

Valerie barely uttered an "OK", but she didn't question him and turned quickly around and headed to school.

Right after Valerie turned around, Danny immediately stopped, watched after Valerie for a few moments, and then resumed his walk towards the three friends' usual meeting place.

This time, Sam said, "Hey, what gives?"

"Looks like Tucker wasn't able to talk to Valerie all weekend and didn't want to do it now."

"Oh," the girl replied, scrunching her face a little with apprehension.

Finally, Tucker came out, well, really, more like crawled out. He was very disheveled, and looked beat.

"Tucker!" Sam accidentally blurted out in disbelief. She immediately covered her mouth with her hand to gag herself from saying any more that would make him feel worse than he already looked.

But Tucker hadn't noticed her outburst, and mumbled, "Thanks, Danny, for, you know. And thanks for waiting for me, guys."

His two best friends just nodded in acknowledgement. But, all of the sudden, all three were uncomfortable and upset again. Though they were now just with themselves, just like old times, they walked the rest of the way to school miserable, and in silence.