"How could you!?" Sam's voice drips with disbelief and barely regulated rage. "How could you keep it a secret!? We're a team, remember? You're supposed to tell us things like that!"
"I never kept it a secret! You just… assumed some things and I never corrected you!" Danny shoots back, immediately feeling like he should have bitten his tongue. He really should have.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" Sam's rage gets out, uncontrolled. "You let us assume! You were the one who called her a cousin and never corrected yourself! You're the one who lied to us!" She hisses out, nearly spitting venom. Danny, defensively, goes ghost. All his instincts screaming at him that he'll get hurt.
"Dani is… She might be my clone, but—"
"Might!?"
"Well, is—"
"I can't believe you! You're still trying! Still trying to lie!"
"I'm not!" The accusation burns. He's not. He's not a liar, not like Vlad. He was just too busy with literally everything to tell them.
"Yet you're making excuses."
"It's not the same."
"It is." Sam looks ready to murder him, ready to strangle him. He's not ready for his second death.
"Look, Sam, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking straight, I was just trying to protect her." He hopes it's the right path to take.
"From who exactly!? From us!?" she seethes out, and he loses hope in this path being the correct one. "Danny, do you hear yourself!?"
"Do you hear yourself!?" he snaps back, and nearly instantly regrets it when Sam's eyes burn with even more anger. "You're just… throwing accusations at me."
"It's not an accusation when I'm stating the truth."
"But you're not!" Danny puts a hand in his hair, yanking, trying to ground himself. He feels a headache coming. "You're just saying what you think happened, instead of letting me explain!"
"What is there to explain!? You lied to us. That's what happened. Because you never told us the truth Danny. Do you understand that?" her tone becomes softer, and he dares to look into her eyes.
She's hurt, he realises. He hurt her. He hurt her by not saying the truth immediately.
Her emotions reach out to him, like they do to all ghosts, and he blanches at the sheer hurt in them.
He flees.