A/N: Had this one for a while. Don't know what to do with it. You tell me. Ah yes, probably a sequel to 'Breaking the Rules'.

Happy new year!


6. Break Away

The endless green of the ghost zone swirled by them, familiar and unfamiliar patterns giving them direction, Danny's crude map lying on the dashboard of the Specter Speeder. Sam clutched the controls tightly, looking at the different dials, trying to gauge if they could do something that would make the thing go even faster. The Fenton portal was still a half hour away, anything could happen during that time, though they seemed to have left Walker's goons behind them.

The silence in the vehicle was oppressive, and Sam glanced at the battered figure sitting beside her, trying, but failing, to think of something to say. She averted her eyes quickly when she saw him looking at her, knowing her avoidance of him must hurt him. Instead, she tightened her grip on the controls, her knuckles going white. They just had to get out of there.

"Sam."

She started, and jerked her head sideways, looking directly into his blue eyes. This time, she didn't look away, although she almost couldn't stand to look at the bruises, the cuts, the broken teeth, and least of all, the look in his eyes. She had hardly recognized him when they rescued him from Walker's prison, breaking him out of his special made ghost hybrid cell, of which he could not phase out, ghost or human. It had been dark in there, and at first she had thought their informer – the Box Ghost of all ghosts – had been wrong, he wasn't there. Disappointment had washed over her, and she had been about to signal to Tucker to check the other cells, when a soft noise had alerted her.

He had been sitting in the corner, curled into a ball, his arms over his head and his face turned away from her, shrinking away from the beam of her flashlight. She had rushed forward and had touched him, and he had whimpered. It had taken some doing to get him to look at her, let alone get him to come with them. She had spoken to him softly, trying to get through to him, the old Danny, not this battered, frightened wreck, while a shocked Tucker had been standing in the doorway, fidgeting, silently motioning to Sam to hurry up.

They had fought their way out of the prison, dragging Danny with them, setting some other ghosts free in the process to create a general mayhem to keep Walker and his goons busy. And now it seemed like they had shaken them off.

"I'm alright," Danny said.

Sam flinched, and Tucker turned in his seat in the back to stare at him.

"Dude," he said, "Do you have any idea what you look like?"

Danny shrugged and winced.

"Like I got hit by a truck?"

"Close."

"Good. Because that's gonna be the story."

Tucker was shaking his head, and Sam felt a distinct need to gawk at her injured friend. He had gone from a shivering wreck back into the Danny they knew in less than half an hour, slowly relaxing his fists, calming down little by little, putting the whole ordeal of the past three days behind him.

"How can you be so calm!" she burst out, "You at what he did to you!"

Danny blinked at her, seemingly surprised, and for a moment a strange light shone in his eyes.

"I'll obliterate him later."

She looked at him, trying to penetrate his mind, trying to see the real Danny. She realized that what he was showing them wasn't him. It frightened her. What had they rescued?

"Hey Danny," Tucker said, interrupting her thoughts, "Which rule did you break this time?"

Danny started laughing, and then moaning, clutching his chest.

"Ouch. I think I broke a rib," he groaned, "I mean, he broke my rib."

He shook his head. "You're not gonna believe this one. New rule. Halfas are forbidden."

He laughed again, eyes twinkling with mirth. "Guess I have to keep on breaking this rule then."

Tucker laughed too, but Sam didn't. She kept staring at Danny until he stopped laughing and stared back a her, obviously realizing that she saw through his deception. He leaned forward and placed a bloody hand on her arm.

"Don't worry about it," he said, but of course she did.