Author's note: Intimate fluff warning! T-rated chapter.
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom was created by Butch Hartman and thus falls under his copy write. I hold no claims to the cartoon. This story line was inspired by Frodo01228's story The Unborn so credit goes to her for the originality of the plot.
Ten days…it has been ten days since they were imprisoned in this hellhole. Sam crosses the day out before slumping to the stone floor, calendar in hand. She pulls her knees up and sighs, staring at the red "x's". She had made the calendar after only five days. Clocks are everywhere and both help keep some sense of time. With no windows to see the sun, days bleed together with ease. Simple things like the calendar and setting alarms to signal times of the day help immensely.
Sam sets the paper in her lap and stares at the cabinets in front of her. She wishes they could give her answers.
Danny hadn't even broached the subject of getting out of here to her. Sure she'd be stewing about the subject but every time she thought of something, it just lead right back to complying with Vlad. Using Danny's ghost powers wouldn't work. Even with all of them holding on to Danny there would still be a delay before their whole bodies were intangible to allow an escape without the bracelets shocking them. She had mentioned only Danny going intangible and him carrying the rest of them out after the shock but he shot that down with a harsh "no" before walking away. There was also the option of trying to hack the bracelets, but Tucker had no desire to find the signal with a make-shift device with no guarantees it'll work. He also didn't know if by simply hacking the signal would set them off. Danny tried to argue that the remote Vlad had was on that signal and therefore could be hacked easily and more then likely allow him to jam the frequency at the least. Tucker refused, unwilling to risk his friends for it.
Any manual escape is out of the question. Danny had begun climbing the ladder by the couch a few days ago to test the boundries. He made it half way up before the bracelet had given a warning by chirping. He immediately dropped down and hasn't even sat on the far side of the couch since.
Sam had also thought seriously about complying. Every time she thought about it though, her heart ached at the idea of giving up her own baby. She couldn't, she just couldn't give up her own flesh and blood to a man who would exploit him or her for their powers inherited by Danny. Ready or not ready to a mother, she knew she couldn't do it.
"Sam?"
Sam looks up to see Danny in the archway to the kitchen. His hair is disheveled and his eyes are still drooping with sleep. The red and black basketball shorts sit low on his hips and a white tank top is a wrinkled mess hanging off one shoulder. He yawns and slides down next to Sam on the floor. Danny had never been one to be a morning person.
"Morning sunshine." Sam says sarcastically. Danny grunts a reply. She rolls her eyes before looking back at the now crumpled paper in her hands.
'This is cruel…' Sam thinks. 'Tucker is trapped here and he has nothing to do with this and all because Danny and I are too stubborn to go with the inevitable. We're just torturing ourselves and him by not complying.'
"Danny?" Sam mumbles, finally ready to talk to him about everything.
"Hm?" He looks over at her with a more wide-awake look.
"I think we should talk about everything…" Sam looks away. "Neither one of us has even mentioned it, it's like we're ignoring it and hoping it'll go away…but it wont. I think the only way out of this is doing what he wants…"
Now Danny looks away. He had been brewing over the same thing for a few days now. He had come to the conclusion that the only out was giving Vlad what he wants but he had no desire to tell that to Sam. As much as he wants to get out he would he ask or push her into doing that. Not from the one girl who trusted him more then he thought humanly possible, who would leap into battles with him without a second thought to help defend him and who would never leave his side and has proven that time and time again whether it was when he was drooling over some girl or he had screwed up and hurt her. No, he'd never ask something like that from her. Even though he's desperate, desperate to have his powers back, see his family, his town, sleep in his own bed, he physically couldn't bring himself to do it. Hell, he's not even sure he can do it at all. Having sex just to comply with demands? As cliché as it is, he wants his first time to be romantic and for love, because he wants to be that close with someone. Doing the previous just seems…wrong.
"I can't Sam…" Danny looks down, his shaggy black hair covering his eyes.
Sam looks up at him. "Can't talk about it?" She's a little frustrated at that.
"No, not that…I just can't do that to you, just to comply with demands. I want my first time with you to be for other reasons."
Sam freezes at that, a little taken aback at that response. She hadn't expected anything like that. More like his nervous and unsure responses he usually gave when given a tough subject. "Then think of it this way," Sam puts her hand on his shoulder in reassurance, "you're doing it with your best friend, not some person you don't know. You're doing what's best and what you know is the answer. Sure it wont be what we both want and a little rushed, but it would happen at some point. Besides, it makes me feel better knowing you're struggling with this as much as I am." Sam blushes a bit at that.
At that moment Danny looks at her. "I don't want to give up my own kid either Sam, that's the hardest thing for me. I don't want my own child raised by anyone other then me and you, especially not by a man who will exploit him or her."
"Neither do I." Sam doesn't break eye contact.
"I'll fight to protect both of you, Vlad will never have either one of you." Danny makes a gentle fist and brings it under Sam's chin. He pulls her slowly towards him and tilts his head. Sam's eyes flutter shut just as his lips brush against hers. It's a light kiss, that of a ghost. The contact is brief but both feel electrified by it. Danny retreats slightly before looking back at her. Sam opens her eyes and smiles. A question from both seems to be asked in the silence and a silent answer is given.
Pulling her chin back towards him, Danny's lips claim hers. No longer soft and brief, but full and passionate. After years of practice with their fake-out make-outs, they had perfected kissing, but this kiss was unlike any before. This kiss was pure emotion and a demonstration of how much they care for each other, not a hasty lip-lock to give an excuse for their presence in some strange location and their answer for having not seen a phantom. No, this kiss was just for each other.
Danny ghosts his tongue over he lower lip, tentatively asking if she'll let the kiss deepen. Sam parts her lips and Danny's tongue quickly takes the opportunity to claim another part of her. Brushing his tongue against hers, both shiver at the contact. Danny extends his arm to rest his hand between Sam's shoulder blades. He pulls gently and Sam get's the message. Move in closer. She scoots so their hips are touching. Danny brings his hand up to cup her cheek and jaw, his fingers brushing her skin with feather light touches that send goose bumps across her skin. Sam raises her arms and wraps them around his neck, pulling herself up and closer to him. She presses her chest against his so no space exists between them. Danny shudders at the feeling of her breasts pressed against him. In both their thin cotton tops little is left to the imagination of what hides bellow. Danny brings his other hand down to Sam's waist to pull her to his lap, still deep into the kiss. Sam pulls back for a second before trying something new. She brushes her tongue over his lower lip before kissing it and sucking gently on it. Danny moans. Content with her new seat of power Sam sits up a little to-
"Morning lovebirds."
Sam and Danny quickly separate and scoot a foot apart. Theirs eyes are wide reflecting deer in the headlights.
"Bit early for that isn't it?" Tucker walks over to the fridge to pull out a carton of orange juice.
Sam and Danny glance at each other before blushing and looking away.
"What's for breakfast?" Tucker opens the cabinet, oblivious to his friends' discomfort.
Sam sighs and get's up from the floor. "How about some of the organic grown oatmeal? It's good for you and didn't kill anyone unlike your precious bacon." She shoots a glare at him.
"HEY! Do not dis the delicious bacon! Bacon is a staple food for man!" Tucker glares back at Sam.
"Really? Because shoving a bunch of poor pigs into a muddy pen filled with their own leavings with limited space and over feeding them only to slaughter them is right?" Sam puts her hands on her waist.
Danny doesn't hear much of the argument, he just watches with a smile, grateful for the moment of normalcy.
o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Sam looks up into his eyes with a smile. His soft, human blue eyes meant that her Danny was klutzy, nerdy, her best friend and now her partner, her lover. She loved his green eyes too though. Those meant he was strong, heroic, her protector.
He dips his head slightly, giving a chaste kiss to her forehead. Their embrace is tender, loving, a moment just for the two of them where the world just melts away.
"I love you Danny," Sam mumbles into his chest.
"I love you too Sam." Danny squeezes her closer.
It sounds so natural between them, as though they'd been together for years. In some ways they have been though. Years as friends had built those levels of understanding between one another, the respect and knowing every intimate detail. All those aspects part of a romantic relationship already, they had just lacked that spark of passion that had grown from a repressed attraction. Sam almost laughs at how their stubbornness had kept them from this.
"TIME'S UP!"
Sam and Danny freeze at the instant recognition of the voice.
They look over and see Vlad, a wicked grin on his face and the remote in his hand. Danny immediately moves his body in front of Sam's. He glares daggers at the suave looking man in front of him even though he knows there's nothing he can do to protect her.
Sam peeks around Danny's left shoulder. Vlad looks directly at her, as if feeling her eyes on him.
"I've given you two plenty of time and you've yet to comply. Let's see if I can sway you two…" Vlad looks down at the menacing little box. He pushes a button and the world is filled with ear splitting screams.
Danny collapses onto the ground, writing in pain. His fists are balled up so tight his palms begin to bleed from where his nails dig in. Sam can also smell the acrid stench of burnt skin from where the ankle bracelet buzzes with electricity. Tears stream down his cheeks as every nerve screams in pain, begging for he torture to stop.
"STOP!" Sam cries out. Twin tears run down her cheeks. "Please just stop, I'll do anything!" Her heart feels like it's breaking. She knows it's her fault for him being in this pain and there's nothing she can do. All she can do is stand there and watch.
Vlad just laughs.
Sam cries out, hoping someone out there will make everything go away, to make everything stop and go back in time.
Sam wakes up screaming.
She shoots up in the bed, tears running down her cheeks. Her chest rises and falls in rapid succession, still panicked about the very real dream. She can still hear Danny's heart wrenching screams ringing in her ears.
Danny wakes up not a half second after Sam does. His arms are still loosely wrapped around his waist from the position they had fallen asleep in.
"Sam?" He sits up and pulls her to his chest. He crosses his legs around her so she's curled up in his lap with one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders. She's shaking violently and he can feel tears dripping down onto his shirt. "Shh, Sam it's ok, it was just a nightmare." He whispers in a lone tone. He rocks her gently, trying anything to calm her down. He has no clue what exactly the dream was about, but being enough to bring the hardcore goth down to shaking and crying it had to have been something huge.
Danny hears the door creak open. He looks up and sees Tucker poking his head into the room. He gives him a thumbs-up to show that they're ok. Tucker gives him a small smile in return before closing the door again.
Danny looks down at Sam once the door closes. She's quiet now. She's still shaking, but at least she's stopped her crying.
"Sam?" He whispers, trying to get her attention. She seems to be off in her own world. "Sam?" He says a little louder.
Sam looks up at him. Her eyes are red and puffy with rivets of tears still streaming down her cheeks. "I'm sorry." She mumbles.
Danny pulls her back to his chest. Her head rests in the crook of his neck and he can feel the residual tears dampening the shoulder of his shirt now. "Don't be Sam, it was just a nightma-"
"No it wasn't." Sam interrupts in a deadpan tone.
"What do you mean? What was it then?"
Sam shudders once in his arms before telling him about the dream. A few stray tears make their way down her cheeks and into the fabric of Danny's shirt during the retelling but for the most part Sam makes it through without any trouble. She ends with "We need to do what he's asking for, soon."
Danny stiffens. "It wasn't real Sam, just a nightmare. There's no need to rush things."
"It was real enough to me." Sam's look is now very serious. "I'm not going to let you be hurt and quite frankly, I want to get the hell out of here. We'll figure the rest out after we get out of here."
Danny's now extremely nervous. Unsure of what else to say, he moves the hand that had been resting on her shoulder to cup her cheek. "If that's what you want and you're sure, then I'm ready." He kisses her chastely on the lips. Instantly Sam calms down in his arms. "Everything will be ok Sam."
She isn't so sure about that.
Author's Note: Lemon in the next chapter :D please, PLEASE let me know how I did with the intimate scene though, I've never written that before and I need criticism so I get the lemon right for you guys! Thanks so much!
Love, MiLou