A/N Hello everyone, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I'll be pretty busy for the next week so after this there probably won't be another chapter posted for at least a week. In the meantime I hope you all enjoy this next chapter, I appreciate all the support, and enjoy the holiday.

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On paper it would seem like she was being asked such a simple question, and at the end of the day it still was. But with so much emotion in the air right now answering a simple yes or no question felt as difficult as trying to lift a mountain. Danny had just asked Ember the most difficult question anyone had ever asked her in her entire existence, and it was only five words.

"Ember, is it all true?"

She knew exactly what he wanted to know despite him being so vague about it, but finding the strength to give him the answer was proving to be impossible. It was a very clear yes answer and she even found herself wanting to say it, but for whatever reason her voice wasn't working. How could she call herself a singer if she couldn't even find her voice to answer a simple yes or no question?

Danny on the other hand was shaking in anticipation waiting for her answer. He was pretty convinced the answer was yes, but waiting to actually hear her say it practically had him pulling his hair out. At the same time he couldn't resist noticing how vulnerable Ember was looking during all this.

'She looks so different than last night,' Danny thought to himself. 'I wouldn't have thought she could be like this. She looks so...beautiful. Wait why am I focusing on that? I shouldn't be focusing on her...beautiful eyes. Argh, stop.'

Finally summoning up all her will power Ember tried to shake off her emotions and look like her usual tough self before she answered.

"Yes, it's all true," said Ember looking into Danny's eyes and saw that once she answered his face looked so sympathetic. "What's it to you dipstick, why would you care about any of this anyway?" Ember said trying to make herself sound hardcore again.

Danny realized her sudden attitude change from the more fragile looking one she had when he snuck up on her. It was clear that she was probably going to try to play this cool now that they had acknowledged each other. But he didn't want to go that route, he wanted to let her know that he understood her now and that he wanted to be supportive of her.

"Ember, what you went through, I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve that, nobody deserves to go through anything like that," said Danny sincerely as he moved himself a little closer to her in the tree.

"Don't get any ideas now, this changes nothing between us you got that," said Ember holding up a fist. But even as she said it she felt more like she was trying to convince herself more than Danny. Also she was having trouble avoiding looking into his deep green eyes that were showing so much emotion for her right now.

'No, I can't let myself fall for this, I promised myself I'd never let myself fall for a boy acting nice to me again,' thought Ember bracing as if Danny was about to attack her. 'Even if he does look so cute right now.' Ember was gritting her teeth as she thought this trying to force her thoughts not to go there, but was unsuccessful. Instead she just crouched a bit and raised her fists.

"Ember please, we don't have to fight, I don't want to," said Danny holding his hands up to show that he meant her no harm. "I know you must have seen what I did. You could have attacked me at any time during all of this. Why didn't you?" Danny asked giving his head a little shake.

Ember was now frowning, but it wasn't at Danny, it was at the world. How is it that the world could mock her like this. For so long she dreamed of someone noticing and caring about her. And now that it was actually happening it had to be from the very last person she ever would have expected. And to rub it in even more, he seemed to be completely sincere about it all, and it was working.

"Don't let it go to your head, I just wanted to wait until you were away from all these resting souls. I am a ghost after all and it doesn't seem right to fight over a bunch of dead bodies," said Ember trying to invent an excuse on the spot. She knew it sounded ridiculous but it was all she could think of in the moment.

Danny could tell she was trying to keep her tough exterior up and it made him feel even more sympathetic towards her. Those barriers must have been up for so long and now that someone was trying to bring them down she was resisting really hard. He slowly kept floating towards her until he was just within arms reach. Thankfully Ember wasn't attacking him or trying to push him away.

"You don't have to be lonely anymore if you don't want to be," said Danny gently raising his hand. "I don't know what happened that night when you had your date with that Michael guy, but I can be here for you now if you'll let me." As Danny finished talking he gently put his hand on Ember's shoulder to further show that he wanted to help her.

Ember's eyes narrowed a bit as Danny touched her and she winced. Outside of fighting this was the first time anyone had touched her in longer than she could remember. Also hearing Danny mention her date with Michael brought another flood of flashbacks to her mind.

"No, no no no, not that, stay out of my head," said Ember closing her eyes and trying to force herself not to think about that night. She couldn't handle this anymore right now. Danny was being so nice and sincere, something she wasn't used to, and she was remembering the worse night of her existence. It was too much to take. Pushing Danny's hand off of her she turned away and took off into the sky, fighting back more tears.

"EMBER, WAIT, PLEASE," Danny called out to her as he took off in pursuit. He didn't want this to go down this way with Ember flying off and pushing all her feelings down. He could tell she'd been doing that long enough and he wanted to help her so she wouldn't have to do that anymore.

Ember actually hadn't taken off all that fast so Danny got in front of her pretty quickly. She barely even got over the fence of the cemetery before Danny was now in front of her, putting both of his hands gently on her shoulders. She tensed up from his touch and gripped both of her biceps as she looked down, determined to not look into Danny's eyes again and be drawn in by them.

"You don't have to run, I want to be here for you so you don't have to do this alone anymore," said Danny softly as he gently moved to bring Ember into a hug.

Ember's eyes opened wide as Danny gently embraced her. Her whole body tensed up and froze. He felt so...warm and nurturing.

'Why is he doing this, just last night we were trading insults and punches, now he's hugging me. It feels, so, nice,' thought Ember resisting the urge to hug him back.

She was still fighting within herself on what to do. Her enemy was right here, she could blast him so easily. But he was being so amazing to her and making her feel things that she had never knew she could. Clenching her fists she very lightly pounded his chest as her face fell onto his shoulder. Danny just wrapped his arms slightly more around her back and leaned his face against the side of her head. Thankfully her flaming hair wasn't actually burning him as he touched it.

'Where was all this when I was human?' Ember kept thinking to herself as she gave in on looking into Danny's eyes again. 'Wow, his eyes are so green, just like mine. I don't know how I didn't notice how cute he is last night.'

Ember let Danny hold her for several moments before they pulled back just a bit, Danny's hands now resting on her shoulders as they looked into each other's eyes. She was about to throw her arms around him and return the hug, but before she could they both heard a loud vroom approaching from over the hill.

Turning to the side of each other a green ecto ray had suddenly been shot towards them without warning. Neither of them really had time to think about reacting. Danny just acted on instinct and pushed Ember out of the way. But before he could dodge the ecto ray hit him and sent him flying away from the spot.

As Ember regained her composure from being shoved away she saw Danny get hit by the ray and looked in the direction he was blasted. All of a sudden she was having a whole new feeling she never imagined she would have. She was actually concerned whether or not he was ok. But before she could call out to him a loudspeaker was calling out to her instead.

"EMBER, YOU MAY HAVE CAUGHT US WITH OUR GUARD DOWN EARLIER, BUT NOW WE'RE HERE AND WE WON'T LET YOU DO ANYTHING TO HURT DANNY," said Sam from inside the Specter Speeder while Tucker was driving.

Suddenly all of Ember's emotions and feelings of confliction vanished on the spot as she realized who had just shot at her and Danny. Those two friends of Danny's and unlike earlier this time they were ready to throw down. Also her feelings had been replaced by pure rage. She had actually been giving into the moment that Danny and she were having, and just like fate always does to her, it was blasted away, literally this time. Fire was in her eyes as she looked at the flying speeder.

"Oh so you actually want to go, well I'm good with that you puny sidesticks," said Ember pulling her guitar to her front and striking a chord, sending her own blast towards the two with a vengeance.

Seeing the blast coming Tucker steered the Specter Speeder away from it. Dodging two more blasts with his maneuvering Sam opened the dome and they both jumped out. Both of them were wearing a specter deflector and now had wrist rays to attack with.

"Where did Danny go, did we hit him by accident?" asked Tucker looking around for his best friend and not seeing him.

"Crud, they were fighting so close together we couldn't get a proper shot at her," said Sam looking for Danny all over but he was nowhere in sight.

That was when Ember realized what they had been doing. They had seen her and Danny in the air but assumed they were fighting and in the middle of a struggle.

Meanwhile Danny had landed hard on the ground quite a ways away and was now rubbing his head from the blast.

"Oh man, that one definitely didn't tickle," Danny said to himself trying to rub the migraine from his brain. The lingering effects of the cram study session from earlier that afternoon certainly weren't helping in that regard.

With a shake of his head and crack of his neck Danny stretched his arms and legs a bit while getting to his feet. After a moment he remembered what had happened and instantly became very worried.

"Oh no, I gotta get back there before someone gets hurt. Sam and Tucker don't know that Ember wasn't attacking me," said Danny quickly taking off into the air, flying as fast as he could back to the conflict.

Ember was quite enraged that the sidesticks had stormed in and fired at her. But the odd thing was she wasn't so much mad at the fact that they had fired at her, it was the fact that they had interrupted whatever was going on between her and Danny at the moment. She was still very conflicted on what her feelings were about this whole day, but she had actually gotten to a point moments ago where she wanted to see them through and talk it out with Danny. But right before that could happen these two showed up and now she was furious about it.

"Couldn't you idiots have waited just a while longer to show up, I was a little busy with something," said Ember striking her guitar and sending two ecto fists at Sam and Tucker.

Rolling to the side to dodge the fists Sam and Tucker both raised their wrist bands to return fire.

"Yeah we noticed, but unfortunately for you Danny isn't a one man army. He actually has friends to help him, unlike you who can only get someone's attention by brainwashing them," said Sam glaring at the rock diva.

Hearing the goth's words had Ember turning red with anger. What Sam thought was a simple witty jab was actually received as a building sized insult that reminded Ember of her lonely days when all she wanted was for people to realize she existed. It also didn't help that just moments ago Danny and her seemed to be having a real moment that was completely free will.

"You BITCH, I'll show you how much pain I can cause by myself," screamed Ember flying right at Sam with fire in her eyes. Lifting her guitar she was prepared to smash it right over the goth's head like Pete Townshend has been doing on stage for decades.

Sam kept firing her wrist launcher at Ember who kept dodging as she closed in. Tucker was also shooting but couldn't land a clean hit. Just as Ember was bringing he guitar down with all her strength Sam used her impressive athletic ability to roll out of the way at the very last second. Ember ended up swinging her guitar so hard into the ground that chunks of Earth came flying up like an explosion. Tucker was quite amazed at the destruction a guitar could cause.

"Wow, what exactly is that thing made of?" he asked lowering his arm in disbelief. Neither Ember nor Sam seemed to hear his question.

Quickly looking in the direction Sam had rolled, Ember raised her guitar again for another swing, but Sam dodged this one too. Staying up close Sam aimed her wrist band right into Ember's face from point blank range about to fire. Ember, on instinct, reached to grab her wrist but paid for it immediately. Thanks to Sam's specter deflector Ember was suddenly feeling pain shoot throughout her whole body.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH," Ember shouted in agony before she could let go to stop the shocking feeling. Now partially subdued from the shock Sam pointed her wrist band right into Ember's face again and fired.

"Gotcha hothead," said Sam with a smirk as Ember was blasted back and slid face first into the dirt.

Even more furious now Ember picked herself back up and rose off the ground and into the air, her hair raging out of control. Switching the knob on her guitar she was ready to send another wide range attack at the sidesticks, but focusing mostly on Sam.

"Tucker, the thermos, now," said Sam looking over at Tucker who was pulling the Fenton thermos from behind him, ready to catch the rock diva in it.

Danny was just now at that moment flying back into the action and saw what was about to happen. Seeing Sam blast Ember and Tucker about to suck her into the thermos had him panicking. With everything he had learned about Ember this afternoon and the breakthrough they were moments away from having together before his friends showed up, there was no way he could let this happen. It would erase all the potential progress he had made on helping Ember and only set her against everyone even further.

"WAIT, STOP," screamed Danny speeding towards Ember as fast as possible, wanting to defuse this whole situation before it crossed the point of no return.

Sam, Tucker, and Ember all heard him call out and turned to see him flying towards them. Tucker however had already been in the process of opening and firing the thermos and before he could stop himself, he'd pushed the button to send the suction beam right towards Ember.

Danny saw that she was about to get captured and was rushing towards her like there was no tomorrow. Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion and nobody seemed capable of moving as they all looked at Danny.

Both Sam and Tucker's eyes shot open as wide as they could possibly go as they saw what Danny did next. While charging right at Ember he flew right into her, grabbing her in midflight to get her out of the path of the suction beam. Ember gasped as Danny grabbed her and felt her emotions once again soaring at what he was doing. The dipstick was actually trying his absolute hardest to save her. Her mind was racing with a million thoughts a second on this and why he would possibly do this for her. As he grabbed her, her arms instinctively went around him in response, feeling like she was being saved by a knight in shining armor. But unfortunately it did not quite work out. Before Danny could completely get himself out of the suction beam's path his leg was hit. He was quickly engulfed by the power of the thermos which caused him to let go of Ember. As she fell back to the ground she looked up just in time to see Danny's eyes looking right at her. Though no words were said it was clear what his eyes were saying.

"I'm sorry"

Danny was then sucked right into his own thermos and everyone was completely frozen in place. Tucker's hands were shaking with the thermos, Sam's mouth was hanging open, and Ember was having a whirlwind of emotions once again. Danny Phantom had actually saved her from getting blasted, and also from getting captured. He put himself in harms way to protect her, Ember McLain, of all people, twice. None of this made any sense, and yet he had done just that. Nobody had once in her entire existence protected her from harm like that, and now the one she considered her enemy had done it twice in a matter of minutes.

"He, he saved me," Ember whispered to herself.

"Oh man, Danny, are you okay in there?" Tucker said to the thermos looking inside the still open top.

"Crap, we gotta get him out of there, what the hell was he thinking?" Sam asked rushing over to Tucker and looking inside as well before looking at Ember.

Ember had still barely moved and was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Danny had saved her and what that meant to her.

"Is he okay in there?" Ember asked not sure what else to say.

"Don't worry, Tucker will get him out, and in the meantime I'll take care of you," said Sam raising her wrist band again.

Ember was so conflicted. She didn't want to just run, she wanted to make sure Danny was okay and finish talking to him. But at the same time Sam was still wanting to fight and Ember was way too confused to keep going. She had to get out of here and process all of this. She was way too confused at the moment to form a proper thought in her head.

Standing up with her guitar and with one last look at the thermos where Danny was now being held, Ember twisted with a whirlwind of flames surrounding her. Right on the spot she vanished and teleported herself back to the ghost zone and her realm.

As the whirlwind of flames vanished Sam lowered her wrist band since Ember had fled the scene.

"Ugh, she's gone. Well that's one problem dealt with. Come on Tucker get him out of there," said Sam looking at Tucker trying to shake Danny out like he was pouring soup.

"I'm trying but he isn't coming out," said Tucker clearly not thinking as clearly as he normally would since it was his friend that was stuck this time and not a rogue ghost.

Sam smacked her open palm against her forehead at how dumb Tucker looked right now.

"Tucker, what are you doing? We've seen how Danny ejects ghosts from here. Just push this release button," said Sam in a very obvious sounding tone as she annoyingly used her fully extended finger to push the proper button.

Right then the word release appeared on the display screen and out shot Danny from the thermos, landing face first into the grass and earning a dirt facial.

"Ugh, oh man, so that's what it feels like to be stuck in that thing. Suddenly I feel kinda bad for the ghosts we trap in there," said Danny suddenly feeling extremely stiff in his whole body.

"Dude, what were you thinking? Why did you jump in to push Ember out of the way of the thermos blast?" said Tucker dramatically gesturing with his hands as Danny got to his feet. "We had her beat and she wasn't exactly playing gentle with us."

"Yeah Danny, that was a new level of stupid to try to knock her out of the way. In what universe did you think that was a good idea?" asked Sam frowning at her best friend for making what could possibly be the dumbest move she'd ever seen.

Danny stood up rubbing his arm with an extremely nervous look on his face. He did not think his actions though at all. The only thing that had been on his mind was saving Ember. He did not give a single thought to what would happen following that action and now he was in a world of trouble because of it.

"I...umm, well it...just seemed like the right thing to do in the moment," said Danny slowly as his eyes were looking in all different directions, everywhere besides his friends.

Sam cocked an eyebrow at the way Danny was stuttering and how he looked so nervous. This is so unlike him whenever they fight ghosts. Usually he's a complete free spirit that loves talking smack and making witty remarks. But right now he sounded like a stuttering idiot. In fact he was sounding pretty similar to the way he talked whenever he would try to speak to Paulina.

"Um, by any chance did Ember put you under some kind of spell again? Like something that has you caring about her and wanting to protect her?" asked Sam remembering last night and how Ember's power had made Danny act not at all like himself.

Danny started mentally kicking himself at Sam's suggestion, feeling so stupid that he didn't think of that himself earlier. That would actually be the perfect cover while he figured out what was going on with his thoughts for Ember.

"Oh, yeah that must be it," said Danny trying to sound convincing. "I don't really...remember much of the last hour but I think she did possibly do that to me. And, um, getting sucked into the thermos must have made it wear off." Danny put crossed his arms and gave a cheery looking smile to try to sell it, not sure how convincing the whole thing sounded. Thankfully Tucker seemed to buy it as he was now smiling a bit.

"Well in that case you're welcome dude, I've always got your back when you need it," said Tucker spinning the thermos on his finger like a basketball.

"Well thankfully Ember seems to be gone, probably used that teleporting power of hers to flee back to the ghost zone," said Danny not exactly thrilled that she had fled. Before all this chaos he felt like he was getting through to her. Now he just wanted to find her again and make sure she was okay. He couldn't get her beautiful smile out of the front of his mind.

'Ahhh, again? Why am I thinking of her beautiful smile? I just wanted to see if I could help her,' Danny thought to himself, though his mind couldn't seem to shake the image of Ember's smile and pretty green eyes. 'Huh, her eyes too, what gives?'

Sam isn't as convinced and gives Danny a questionable look. But at the same time she isn't really sure what more to ask him on the subject, and as she looked at her watch she realized that she doesn't have the time to press the matter.

"We better hurry back to Amity Park, we only have ten minutes until all of us will be in for a long weekend of staying in our rooms," said Sam as the three of them quickly jumped into the specter speeder.

'Maybe I better just keep a close eye on him for a bit and make sure he doesn't do anything else out of the ordinary,' Sam thought to herself as Tucker started the engines and took off.

Danny didn't say a single word the whole ride back as he still couldn't shake the image of Amberline and Ember from his mind. A small smile crept onto his face as he their image was at the front of his mind.

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Appearing in a whirlwind of flames in her realm, Ember had made it out of the jam before she got captured inside that thermos for the second time in as many days. She did not enjoy her first trip into that thermos one bit and was not exactly eager of the thought of being stuck in it while Danny was as well.

"Ahhhh, I called him Danny again, what is wrong with me?" said Ember falling face first onto her bed and grabbing her hair.

While pounding her fists and face into the cushion she kept replaying the events of the last couple hours over and over in her head. Finding Danny at the house, all the amazing and sweet things he said, how he seemed to actually care for her and feel sympathetic towards her rather than mocking her over everything he found. And lastly the most incredible thing anyone has ever done for her, reuniting her body with her old guitar. Every last bit of it made her feel a wave of happy thoughts and emotions and she couldn't bring herself to hate him over it.

"He hugged me, he actually hugged me and said he was there for me," Ember said to herself with another punch into her bed. "I can't believe I'm letting myself get worked up over this. I'm Ember McLain, I'm a hardcore rocker, I don't let myself get all worked up over what a boy does for me. So why can't I stop wanting to see him again?" Ember shouted to the room.

Standing up and pacing around the room she tried with all her might to process all these thoughts and what they could mean. Did all this mean that she actually liked all of this and maybe even...liked Danny? Her mind trailed back to earlier when she was being hugged by him and when she was thinking he was cute. His smile certainly wasn't the worse looking thing she'd ever seen before.

"No, no no no I can't be thinking things like this," said Ember putting her back to the wall. "I'm supposed to be wanting world domination and making the whole world cheer for me. Not fawning over a boy actually paying attention to me for the first time ever, even if he is cute. AHHHHHHHHH. I need to sleep this off. I'll forget all about it once I get a good nights sleep."

With that Ember quickly forced herself to get into bed and fall asleep, fully intent on forgetting the events of tonight and moving on in the morning. Surely that's how everything would go right?

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A/N Thank you everyone for reading. Loving the high number of views, also all of you that favorite and follow the story, as always that means so much to me. Please remember to leave a review, knowing your opinions helps me make this story better.