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Title: MakeDamnSure (SongShot) p.1
Rating: M
Summary: Tucker has always believed that the only way that Sam and Danny will finally admit they care is by trapping them together for an extended period of time. And he manages to trap them, however unintentionally.
Author's Notes: MakeDamnSure is by Taking Back Sunday from the album Louder Now.

For Megan, my twisted little muse. Scissor shaped across the bed really is a hot line, isn’t it? Now I suggest you read some of the stuff I write before I start making you the Mary Sue…

MakeDamnSure p.1

You've got this new head filled up with smoke
I've got my veins all tangled close
To the jukebox bars you frequent
The safest place to hide

“Explain to me again why we’re taking your car?”

Danny laughed at Sam’s annoyance. “Because your car is still in New York; you flew in to Amity, remember?”

She grumbled something that sounded fairly uncharitable, and Danny cocked an eyebrow at her as he moved around a slow moving truck on the interstate. “That, and I’d never fit into your little bucket on wheels.”

“It’s an environmentally safe hybrid,” she said stiffly. “And your car is a gas guzzling hunk of metal.”

Danny pressed on the accelerator again, moving towards the sunset and passing another car. “Your little whatsit wouldn’t hold me. It’s not designed for people taller than five foot seven.” Sam only shrugged while glancing at Danny out of the corner of her eye. It was true, Danny would have had trouble folding nearly six and a half feet into her little car, much less for a road trip from Illinois to California.

“And,” Danny said, shattering her thoughts. “This is a perfectly restored ’67 Chevelle. It rocks.”

Sam chuckled. It had been a point of much annoyance when, for Danny’s sixteenth birthday all those years ago, his father had given him an old car that was falling apart and in need of more TLC than a single person was capable of. But it turned out that Jack Fenton was pretty handy under the hood, and apparently, so was Danny. They’d had the car up and running inside of a month, and Danny had spent his spare time until just after high school graduation restoring the Chevelle into nearly perfect condition, right down to some shiny rims Sam had given him as a graduation present.

But his parents had given him something that made it look so much cooler: a gift certificate to a local custom paint shop. And Danny had gone with total customization, from a glossy flat black base color, to the silver pinstripe down the sides and the center of the hood, both swarmed about with loops of thin color in neon blue and green.

Sam had wondered if it was on purpose, but when Danny had made her crawl beneath the rear bumper she’d nearly cracked her head shooting out and laughing. There, beneath the frame, where no one could see it, Danny had taken it upon himself to paint his Danny Phantom emblem. The colors of his car were definitely not coincidence.

“Okay,” she admitted finally. “It rocks. And I know you tried to make it more environmentally friendly. Your dad told me,” she explained when Danny shot her a curious glance before pasting his eyes back on the road.

They drove in silence for a long time, until the sun was well past the horizon and Danny yawned once, declining Sam’s offer to drive. “There’s an exit another few miles up. Hotel.”

“Mm,” she murmured in agreement. “Danny? Why are we road tripping instead of flying?”

He shrugged and she laughed. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. You said you wanted to catch up.”

And I, he thought very quietly, just wanted to spend time with you.

“So let’s catch up,” she said. “Are you seeing anyone?”

He shook his head but didn’t say anything.

“Are you passing your classes?

He nodded.

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s hard to catch up when you refuse to say anything.”

Danny laughed, wondering if it sounded as forced as it felt. “Okay. Long or short version?”

“What’s the difference?” she asked cautiously.

“The long version includes dorm parties where I lock my door so people don’t decorate my room in vomit.”

She made a gagging sound. “Short version, please.”

“Not dating anyone, too busy with classes and I’m just not interested in any of the girls at school. Passing, have a three-two, so hey, I’m doing better than in high school.” He paused and saw the exit cut through the bright swathe of headlights like a river of dark pavement. The Chevelle slowed and Danny veered to the right, pulling off into a tiny little interstate town with a single hotel that looked like it had seen better days.

“And the ghosts?” Sam asked as she looked the hotel they were going to stay at over. She wanted to take the question back and ask why they hadn’t stopped at Springfield, but she didn’t.

“They mostly leave me alone now,” was the short reply she got.

“They would,” she murmured as she Chevelle came to a stop in front of the office. She was silent as Danny got out and went inside, and Sam watched him as he moved. So sure of himself, with a confidence that he’d never had in high school. Twenty-one, nearly twenty-two, and a veteran of so many battles. And the one that made the ghosts afraid to go anywhere near him, or do anything that might bring his unwanted attentions.

He’d been nineteen, and home for the summer, wanting to spend it in his own home and his own bed than in the tiny dorms of UI-Amity Park, where he was now a senior by credit count. Sam’s vigorous pushing had made him take AP classes in his junior and senior years giving him enough credits to enroll as a sophomore after graduation. Vlad had made an attempt at Danny and Maddie. She closed her eyes as she pictured Danny’s horrified face when Vlad Plasmius had walked through his front door and taken his mother.

The battle that had followed hadn’t been pretty. Not for Plasmius, and not for Danny’s family. He’d been able to keep his secret, or at least they thought. His parents didn’t treat him differently after that, not exactly, but they certainly watched him more carefully. Like they were afraid he might do the same thing he’d done to Plasmius.

He’d used his Ghostly Wail.

He’d used it and it had shredded the other hybrid to nothing. And if anyone thought it was odd that Vladimir Masters went missing the very next day, no one had said anything about it. There were still years to go before he was declared legally dead, and he was according to Clockwork, something that had plagued Danny for a long time until Sam and Tucker had forced it down his throat that it had been necessary, and Vlad brought it on himself.

But the real kicker of it was that, once Vlad was finally declared dead, his will would be executed and his estate divided among his two inheritors. Danny, and his mother. Vlad’s last ditch effort to get Maddie’s love, to control Danny’s life through guilt.

Danny already had plans to raze the castle in Wisconsin and the cabin in Colorado to the ground. He had plans to sell the land, and then he had plans to take what Sam knew to be a staggering amount of money, and start using it to further ghost research, and hopefully getting the humans to admit that not all ghosts were evil. Maybe eventually he’d be able to prove that Danny Phantom was one of the good guys.

At least he could live comfortably while he was doing it.

A knock at the window startled her, and she saw Danny smirking as she opened the door and got out. “They have two rooms left, I got them both, alright?”

She nodded and climbed back in, and by the time they had parked and Danny had carried her bag for her (and she wished she had the nerve to ask for a ride herself) she was already feeling half asleep. With a hug for her best friend, and a kiss that she pressed against his cheek without thinking, she closed the door quietly and found herself falling into sleep much faster than she would have thought.

---

For his part, Danny was able to push aside the way his mind wanted to sleep. Sam was still jetlagged, and he knew she was sound asleep. He’d poked his head through the wall and into her room to check before flying up through the roof to float peacefully above the tiny town. He could see it, and the flash of headlights as they cut through the darkness on the interstate. Cars on their way to somewhere, just like he and Sam were.

It was spring break, and they were road tripping, of all things, to California and CalTech. And Tucker, who’d asked if they could come out for some sort of awards ceremony. Tucker had outpaced the both of them at his own university. But Danny had figured that would happen when he was doing nothing but working with the technology Tucker so loved.

He’d earned his Bachelor’s before Christmas, and he’d enrolled in some courses to work on a Master’s in some strangely named field of research. All Danny knew was that it had to do with nanobots and applied applications to them concerning computers and quantum physics. And he was lucky he knew that much. But the research team he was working with had made some breakthrough, and Tucker had had a hand in it, and he was being recognized for his hard work.

And so his best friends were going to celebrate for and with him.

Danny sighed as he drifted a little higher, feeling the chilly sensation as a cloud misted over and around him. It was a lot easier to fly up here than to be trapped in a car with Sam for hours on end. Answering her questions. He needed to avoid the questions that involved him dating other women. It didn’t happen. He’d dated Valerie for what, a day in freshman year of high school? And that enforced thing when Kitty overshadowed Paulina.

There’d been a single date with a random girl in senior year, and he’d gone out on two dates in the last three and a half years. Which was sad because most of the guys in his dorm could pull two dates in a weekend, with two different girls, and sometimes two dates in the same night. But Danny just wasn’t interested in dating.

Because every time he did, he found himself comparing the girl to Sam. And no one could ever measure up to her. She was beautiful, funny, smart. Her sarcasm was something he treasured, and the way she changed for no one but herself. It was why he loved her so damned much.

It was why, he admitted as he phased back into his hotel room and changed back to human to drop onto the bed, this little road trip was killing him. Being so close to her, and not being able to do anything about it. It was as close to hell as Danny ever wanted to come. It would only be worse when she finally did find someone, and he had to watch it knowing he had no right to say a word.

A long night spent with your most obvious weakness
You start shaking at the thought
You are everything I want
'Cause you are everything I'm not

“This is your fault, Danny,” Sam muttered as he babied the car off of I-40 at a measly thirty miles an hour.

He ignored her as he coasted down the ramp and then veered onto the street and into the exit’s excuse for a town. There were a handful of stores, and in the distance he could see a cluster of houses. And a block away was a mechanic’s shop that Danny’s precious Chevelle desperately needed. He coasted as much as he could before daring to press the gas again and coaxing the car into the parking lot before putting it in park and lifting the e-brake.

“This is so your fault,” Sam muttered again.

“It’s not my fault, I take care of my car.” Without another word Danny climbed out and went inside the shop as Sam followed suit, but chose to lean against the trunk and wait for Danny to come back out. Come out he did, with a short greasy looking man in tow. She rolled her eyes as the hood was popped and propped open, and Danny proceeded to get his hands greasy with the mechanic.

Eventually, though, he turned his attention to her and waggled a beckoning finger at her. “I told you it wasn’t my fault,” he said smugly as the mechanic straighten and wiped his hands on a rag that was dangling from his coverall.

“Eyeah, ‘s the water pump. Shoulda been recalled, ‘as a manufacturer’s defect. Nuttin’ ya could do about it,” and Sam grimaced.

“How long to fix it?”

“Oh, a day or two to order the part, get it in. Classic’s is tricky, you gotta have to be particular wit’ the parts.” The little man snorted once. “’Nother day to get it in. So, two, mebbe three days, and yer on yer way.”

“There’s a motel up the road,” Danny said quietly as he detached his car key from his keychain and handed it over to the mechanic. “We’re going to grab a room at the motel. If it gets fixed any faster, give us a call?”

A nod of his head and the little man was gone back into the shop, and Danny was pulling the trunk release and gathering the two suitcases he and Sam had brought. He shouldered them easily as Sam fell into step beside Danny as they began trudging their way along the dusty road to the motel.

“So we’re stuck in this little nowhere town in Oklahoma,” Sam finally said.

Danny shrugged. “We’ll call Tucker and tell him. He’ll understand. Besides,” he added with a pointed glance. “Tucker always liked my car.”

“I like your car, too, Danny. Really, I do.” A smile lit her face. “Oh look, they have an old fashioned drive-in.”

Danny chuckled. “Maybe we’ll see what they’re playing later, huh?”

“I’ll meet you at the motel, okay?” Sam said, her eyes dancing. “I want to see what they’re playing.”

She was gone in a flash, and Danny rolled his eyes as he kept on.

---

She was fairly breathless when she finally showed up, and Danny was sitting outside the motel wondering if Sam was going to kill him or not. Because it was his car, and that made it his fault, manufacturer’s defect or not. “They’re playing tons of classics,” she laughed out. “We have to go see some.”

He gave her a wan smile. “I got us a room,” Danny said without preamble, and the smile turned a little sickly. “Sam, you’re not going to like this. They only had one room to rent out.”

Her smile flickered for a moment but she shrugged. “So we share a room. No biggie, we shared a tub when we were three.”

They both flushed at that memory, and Danny cleared his throat. “It, uh, only has one bed.” And when she flushed brilliant red Danny felt heat rushing across his own cheeks. “I can take the floor.”

Sam shook her head. “No. No, you don’t have to do that. We’re both adults, we can share a bed.”

It was a decent enough motel for a small town, the room itself wasn’t decked out in bad seventies colors like most small places were. It looked like it had been decorated by the older woman who had rented him the room in the first place, and Danny sighed as he dropped the two suitcases at the foot of the bed. The bed. The large, king sized bed.

It had a pale green bedspread that looked like it was laundered regularly, and when Sam whipped it down he saw creamy sheets and pillow cases. Four pillows, there would be no fight for them. The walls were painted, not papered, and the ivory color was shades darker than the sheets. No painted trim, either. Medium colored baseboards that accented the headboard.

There was a dresser, low to the ground with a television on it, though Danny didn’t care if it got cable or not. He’d never been very into television, preferring video games, and he’d actually learned the pleasure of reading from Sam during high school. He had several books with him that he was dying to get in to, if only to distract himself from the slim girl who was rifling through her suitcase like nothing was wrong.

There was good length of counter next to the sink, and Danny was relieved to see half a dozen large, fluffy towels folded neatly. There were several smaller ones, and even some hand towels and wash clothes. Lined up neatly next to this were small bottles of various liquids that Danny assumed to be the usual suspects: shampoo, conditioner, lotion. It was the kind of thing Tucker always snagged and took home with him. Not that he ever used them outside of the motel room, but it was something he did.

“I’m, uh, going to grab a shower, okay?” Danny mumbled as he tugged out a fresh pair of jeans, clean boxers and socks. He caught the faint nod of Sam’s head as she opened the drawer of the nightstand and pulled the channel guide out, and then Danny was closing the bathroom door behind him and leaning against it.

“This,” he said quietly to himself. “Has bad idea written all over it.”

He managed to keep his thoughts to himself during the short but pleasantly hot shower, and his only complaint was that the shower head was set for normal sized people and, at six foot four and a half, Danny had to duck his head to wash his hair. Surprisingly the stocked shampoo was pleasant to smell. It wasn’t overtly feminine, which was a usual gripe among males while traveling. But it wasn’t plain enough to be brushed off. More like a faint sweet musk that was tinged with a hint of something floral.

He liked it. And he made the mental note to cajole the manufacturer out of the landlord before they drove on.

He hit his head on the doorknob while bent over to towel his hair off, but other than that he was fine, squeaky clean when he stepped out of the bathroom, a billow of wet steam following him as he draped his towel over a chair that was positioned in the corner. In fact, he was fine all the way up until he turned to the bed to see Sam sliding off of it and gathering up a change of clothes for herself.

She’d taken her stockings off, and Danny had seen her legs before. Back when they were kids and he was a lovesick ball of hormones and she hadn’t been… She hadn’t been as developed as she was now. Sam had blossomed late, he knew it. Everyone knew it, because sometime between sixteen and seventeen, Sam had stopped going to the beach, the water park with them. The angles that she’d had had become curves, and Danny had missed seeing them because she’d been too self conscious.

But he could see them now. The way her plain black skirt skimmed over creamy thighs, the strip of pale skin that showed between her shirt and the skirt. And the long length of leg that made him wonder what it would feel like to have them wrapped around him as he moved above her, made him wonder what it would be like to have her whimpering his name as he loved her.

Made him wonder if he was insane for thinking those kinds of things about Sam.

And then she disappeared into the bathroom and Danny could only wonder how, exactly, bad idea had gone to worse. Possibly worst.

---

It had startled her when Danny had come out of the bathroom, half dressed and still wet. His hair had been dripping little drops of water onto his shoulders, and Sam had nearly swallowed her tongue as she watched the water slide down his body. Ghost fighting certainly hadn’t hurt him. He had a few scars, but mostly had walked away from the majority of his fights unscathed. She’d always said he had an exceptionally hard head. She loved being proved right.

But knowing something was different from seeing it. Sure, Danny had definitely shown promise the last time she’d seen him half dressed. Right before the summer of blossoming, as her mother liked to call it in her more insane moments. That was when Sam had quit going places where she would have to wear bathing suits knowing, as she did, that shoving the fact that she was a girl, and an attractive one at that, down Danny and Tucker’s throats would have changed the dynamic of the whole friendship.

She figured she could sacrifice playing in the water for that. It was worth it.

But he hadn’t had the physique that she saw now. Chiseled arms that were usually covered with loose sleeves. She could see the muscles of his forearms rippling as he tossed the towel across the chair, the tensing of his bicep as he ran a hand through his still wet hair before turning to her. The way the drops of water played off his chest, the smooth expanse of skin that she so desperately wanted to taste.

Defined abdomen, and his back. Oh, his back. It was her favorite part of the body, and especially his. The broad definition of his shoulders, the smooth slope from neck down. The lines of muscle that ran down and moved fluidly as he did, right down to the narrow waist and his pale blue boxers, darker blue jeans, that hung loosely enough that she hoped they would fall off.

Yes, she loved his back next, right after his eyes. He looked so surprised when he saw her. Sam flushed and ducked her head as she finished gathering her things and brushed past him into the bathroom, wondering what she’d been thinking when she’d said they could share the bed. On one hand it was such a great idea. It might make something happen. But on the other…

She was still tense and dancing around the worry when she came out of the bathroom. She’d managed to find the one thing that wouldn’t embarrass either of them, a pair of old pajama pants that she’d swiped from her father, and a tank top that read ‘Good Girl’ with horns poking out on either side. Truth be told, Sam preferred sleeping in silk at the very least, though clothes were completely optional. She had that luxury; she had her own apartment even while at school. No roommates to worry about.

There was food waiting for her, and Danny, no longer shirtless, giving her a faint smile. “I got us some food. Pizza place. Veggie.”

She smiled and laughed when her stomach growled. “That actually sounds great. But we need to call Tuck.”

“Already did it,” Danny said as he passed her a paper plate and a handful of napkins, then flipped the television on. “There’s a cheesy horror flick on. Interested?”

Later, after the pizza was gone and Sam was huddled into pillows as she was torn between fear and laughter at the terrible movie, she wondered why she’d worried. It was Danny, after all. If he hadn’t bought a clue in all these years, he wasn’t going to.

And we lay, we lay together just not
Too close, too close (How close is close enough?)
We lay, we lay together just not
Too close, too close

Usually he hated to wake up. A morning person Danny had never pretended to be, or even attempted to try. No, he was firmly of the opinion that mornings were for slamming the snooze button, or sleeping for as long as possible because the alarm was never set. He liked those kinds of mornings. Waking up somewhere towards noon and finding the nearest IHOP to satisfy his breakfast cravings.

The only time that IHOP was better was at two in the morning. And those times were usually after late night ghost fighting when one of those endless pots of coffee was required while patching each other up in a booth hidden from the front doors. Or for teasing Tucker mercilessly after he’d dropped the thermos. Again.

But this morning was turning out a little different than he’d expected. Awake on his own and the glowing red light of the clock told him it wasn’t quite eight, and warm. Very warm, and snuggled close to a slim body that shouldn’t have been there. He wondered, in the hazy moments before his brain caught up with him, if he’d actually brought a girl home with him. And then wondered at the familiar shape to her.

And then his brain was wide awake as he remembered the night before and realized that it was Sam he was curled up with, against, and that if she woke up before he managed to get a safe distance away she’d have the surprise of her life poking her in the back.

She was lying on her side, one arm slung out across the bed to dangle off the edge, and he was pressed against her back without so much as a breath between them. One of his legs had worked between hers so that, as he held her with arm, one of her legs was looped over it. He could feel the soft skin of her stomach beneath his hand, where her tank top had ridden up, and the gentle rise of her chest let him know she was still completely asleep.

A blessing, that.

Working his way back from her was easier said that done. She nearly woke up when he managed to slip his leg from between hers, and her eyes had nearly opened when he squirmed to the edge of the bed, leaving her back cold for a moment until Danny snugged the blanket down along it. He watched her for a moment longer before realizing that, once she was awake, he was going to have a serious problem explaining to her why he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

Without a second though, Danny grabbed the jeans he had shucked off the night before, and his shirt, and beat a hasty retreat to the shower, and some very icy water.

It was too bad that the cold shower was completely worthless. The way her lavender eyes followed him when he stepped back into the room was enough to undo twenty minutes of freezing work.

---

“There really is nothing to do here,” Sam muttered as she sat down on a bench that was in front of the local farmer’s market. Family owned and run, and charming on top of all that. But she was bored out of her mind. The drive-in was showing promise, there was supposed to be a Bogart trilogy playing that night, and she was sure she remembered Casablanca being billed.

But she was bored.

The bench creaked as Danny sat down next to her and wrapped a companionable arm around her. “I told you I could fly us to a bigger town,” he reminded her, his tone not far from begging.

She snorted. “You don’t need to advertise, Danny. If anyone here was at all smart, they’d figure out that you’re Danny Phantom.”

“That’s a big if,” he drawled.

Sam wanted so badly to disagree with him, but somehow she couldn’t. It was a nice town, if too small, and the residents were good people. Hard working. Loyal. The whole spiel designed to politely tell someone they’re not the brightest crayon in the box. But it was true. They were awfully damned simple, and Sam wondered if anyone had stayed in school past eighth or ninth grade.

She didn’t say anything, of course, and never would. But she missed the urban life. Of course, Amity Park could be called urban compared to this little town.

“Why don’t we see about finding something to eat? I heard that the diner makes eggplant parmesan,” Danny offered. “And if we waste enough time there, we can go straight to those movies you want to see so badly.”

Sam shrugged. “And how do you plan on wasting time?”

“You could tell me about your life in New York. The fast lane and all that,” he said with a mischievous twinkle to his eyes.

She arched an eyebrow. “Because studying and going to school is the fast lane.”

He shrugged and turned from her, and when he spoke again she couldn’t see his face. “You could always tell me how things are going with your perfect boyfriend.”

Sam frowned. “He wasn’t perfect. He was an ass.”

Danny turned back to her, surprised. “You guys were serious, I thought.”

Sam shook her head and pulled herself to her feet. “He wanted to be serious. I didn’t. So he got serious with someone else.”

“Oh, Sam.” Strong arms wrapped around her from behind, and Sam sighed as she relaxed into them.

“Don’t worry about it, Danny,” she murmured. “He wasn’t worth it, and I didn’t really care about him.”

“You dated him for eight months,” Danny reminded her as he tucked her under his arm and started them walking towards the little diner he’d found. “That sounds serious.”

She laughed merrily as they darted across the street, hurrying despite the lack of traffic. “I saw him maybe twice a month. Besides,” she tossed out flippantly when Danny held the door open for her. “It’s hard to get serious about one guy when you’re in love with someone else.”

Danny stopped dead in his tracks, and Sam turned back at him with a quick smile. “Coming?” she asked, and Danny nodded.

She was in love with someone. And god, how he wished it was him.

I just wanna break you down so badly
Well I trip over everything you say
I just wanna break you down so badly
In the worst way

They’d stayed up till the wee hours the night before, the Bogart marathon hadn’t cut off until nearly one in the morning, and they’d been fairly well out on their feet when they’d finally stumbled their way back to the rented room. She’d told Danny to grab his shower first, and when she’d finished with hers he’d been sound asleep in the bed, though she knew he must have tried to stay awake. There was a book lying open on his chest.

She’d dog-eared the page and sat it on the nightstand before sliding in next to him. Funny, how he seemed so close, but was still so far out of reach.

Of course, out of reach was debatable considering the position Sam found herself in when she woke the next morning. She didn’t like being up early, and nearly ten was still too early for her thin nocturnal blood. But to wake up and find herself wrapped around Danny… it was something she was enjoying far too much.

He was sprawled down the center of the bed on his back, and she nearly ruined it all by laughing him awake as she wondered whether it was her hormones that had sent her snuggling into him, or self defense from the lack of bed space. For a single person, he sure took up a lot of space. But she didn’t mind. Not when her head was resting on his chest, his heart was beating steadily beneath her ear. She was tucked firmly against him, and she could feel his breath on her hair from where his chin was tucked at the top of her head. One hand was tangled in her hair, and the contented feeling that washed over her made her want to close her eyes and just go back to sleep.

His other hand was beneath her shirt, hot on her bare skin and so close to indecency that it wasn’t funny. And her leg was tossed across his waist as she capitalized on such a wonderfully warm, living body pillow. She needed to move, needed to get up. Needed to get a cold shower or find some other way of relieving the sexual tension that suddenly had her nerves strung taut.

So she eased back, trying to untangle herself from his body without waking him. God only knows what he’d say, what he’d do, if he realized that he’d had her all over him. Worse if he ever figured out that she really, truly, desperately wanted to be all over him. And what would his reaction be if she ever told him she’d been in love with him since high school? Better to sneak away and not wreck the friendship. Better to be safe, because she didn’t want to lose him.

But wow, what an eye opener when, as she carefully, quietly slid her leg down his body so that she wasn’t draped across him anymore, she realized that Danny was quite aware of a feminine body pressed against him. Awake or not, Danny’s body at least appreciated her. The laugh that threatened to spill froze in her throat when she even breathing paused for a moment, and he started to roll. Closer to her.

Sam nearly squeaked as one strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer, and she knew she must have made an entertaining picture as her jaw dropped when Danny snuggled his head against her, murmuring something that she couldn’t quite hear, but sounded so much like her name that she couldn’t think. And then again.

“Don’t go, Sam.”

Murmured and definitely more asleep than awake, and Sam couldn’t stop herself from darting away from him and heading straight for the bathroom.

---

She was acting odd when she finally woke him up, and Danny yawned as he glanced at the clock. He groaned. It was after eleven and he’d missed the phone call to Tucker. He’d promised they’d check in daily so he’d know whether or not they’d be finding an alternative form of transportation. Not the Danny planned on leaving his beloved Chevelle behind, but neither of them wanted to miss Tucker’s moment of triumph.

“I called Tucker,” she said as she pulled the blanket back from over his shoulders and tugged at his arm. “Come on, let’s go.”

Danny sat up, more than a little wary at the way she was acting and the tenseness along her body. “What’s the big rush?” Then his face brightened. “Is it fixed?”

Sam rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No, it’s not fixed. I’ve been up long enough to have been there and back. Tomorrow. He said that it would be ready tomorrow morning, and then we can leave this hole in the wall town and get back to somewhere with actual life.”

Danny arched a brow. “You’re too tense, Sammy.”

She scowled and hit him in the shoulder. “Don’t call me that. I just want to get out of here. I want to be able to do something other than be trapped. And I really, really, really want—“

She stopped and Danny looked at her inquiringly, but Sam shook her head. “Just get up, alright? I’m hungry and my mood tends to go downhill when I skip a meal. ”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment as Sam turned away and stood, pacing to the far side of the small motel room. He only made sure that when she finally was in the mood to turn back, that he wasn’t there and that the shower was already running.

My inarticulate store bought hangover hobby kit
It talks, it says, "You, oh, you are so cool"
Scissor shaped across the bed
You are red, violent red

“They’re playing Breakfast at Tiffany’s tonight,” Sam said as she twined a long thin stand of spaghetti around her fork as she looked up at Danny from beneath her lashes. She chuckled when he sent her a look that clearly said, I have no idea what you’re talking about.

“Audrey Hepburn? It’s a classic,” and she smiled at his faint frown.

“And classic means that it wasn’t made in the last decade,” he replied as he poked at his own food, a mostly eaten steak that was a little too far on the done side. “Sam, I’m all about classics, but don’t they have anything new?”

“They don’t have anything more recent than the sixties, Danny. I checked. Do you want to go or not?”

And when he didn’t answer immediately she sighed. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll go by myself. I dragged you to that marathon last night.”

“No.”

Danny’s voice was a little louder than she expected it, and Sam’s eyes flew up to the intense blue of his. “No, Sam,” he said, this time a little more gently. “I don’t want you to go by yourself. I want to go with you.”

The words behind it spoke volumes to him, and he could only wish that she knew what he was thinking. He loved spending time with her, and classic movies weren’t so bad. Especially not when it meant he spent hours contently with Sam only inches away, sometimes even managing to wrap an arm around because she looked cold. But sometimes a guy really wanted some blood and guts.

It was the best way to have Sam snuggled into his side for an entire movie, instead of having to wait for the chilled hours of the late night to drive her there.

He smiled at her perplexed expression as he laid his fork down. “I always want to spend time with you,” he said quietly before picking up his soda and drinking to hide the sudden way his face wanted to redden, then was forced to sit the glass down and tug his hand back to be laid in his lap as he realized that the unexpected admission had made it, had made both of his hands, shake enough to be seen. The nerves of finally trying to tell your best friend that you were in love with her.

And therein lay the reason why Danny had suggested a road trip. Not that he’d thought for even a moment that they’d break down in the middle of nowhere. But really, it wasn’t so bad since he was stuck with her. And that was exactly how he wanted it.

For a moment as he looked across the table at Sam, Danny wondered if he should regret that he’d said it the way he had, or even said it at all. But the faint blush that spread across her cheeks as she looked back at him, her mouth open in surprise but curving ever so slightly into a smile… That made Danny wonder why he’d waited so long to try and say anything. Because she looked so beautiful like that, so shy and pretty, that it made his heart ache.

“I’m glad you do,” she finally said as she laid her fork down and pushed her plate back.

Danny nodded towards the door with his head. “You want to get out of here and find a good patch of grass?”

The laughter in her eyes had him flagging down their waitress and paying her quickly, before Sam could even begin to want to pull out her own purse and try and pay for any or all of it. Then Danny had her by the hand and was headed down the single main street of the town toward the drive-in and pulling her closer against him, all the while holding on to her hand.

---

“I still don’t get how they walked out where the masks without getting caught. Someone had to have seen them,” Danny said as he settled back against the tree that they’d chosen to tuck themselves beneath for the movie. “I mean, come on. No one would get away with that now.”

Sam chuckled against his shoulder. “Don’t break your brain. It’s just a movie.”

“Yeah, but come on,” he muttered with pretend annoyance as he tried to find a way to wrap his arms around her without freaking her out. Well, too much. He was more than a little sure that even the slightest change in their relationship might make her wary. Hell, it made him wary, and he was the one trying to find a way to do it.

“I’ve always liked this movie,” she said softly. “The romance, the almost surreal way it plays out.”

“The happy ending,” Danny added as he looked down at her for a moment.

“Yeah. The happy ending. They don’t happen so much in real life, you know?”

Danny sighed. There wasn’t much he could say when the subject of her parents’ divorce came up. Even Sam herself had admitted that her parents were far happier apart than together. The syrupy happiness they’d forced on everyone (except for Danny, whom they both despised) until Sam’s senior year and a month before graduation had turned into absolutely nothing between them. Danny still had a hard time believing that the Manson’s had managed to drag everyone into the farce, had managed to make everyone think that they were alright.

Even Sam hadn’t known until the very end and the night that the quietly done divorce had been finalized and her father had sat her down to explain it to her. With his bags packed and stacked by the door.

It was poorly done, both Danny and Tucker had agreed on that. It had been the two of them that Sam had turned to and she hadn’t stepped foot back into her house for weeks after that. Not when she could bunk at one house or the other. But the mess had made a lasting impression on Sam. There’s been a long time, almost a year, where she’d absolutely refused have anything to do with the opposite sex except for Danny and Tucker.

It had been a worry and a relief all in one.

“There are happy endings, Sam,” he said quietly, falling back on his one tried and true piece of proof. “My mom and dad are still together and going strong.”

“It could be a show,” she muttered darkly.

Danny choked back a laugh as he closed his eyes and shook his head. “Did I ever tell you exactly why I moved out?”

“To hide your ghostly identity?” she said making it a question as she tilted her face to look up at him. “Okay, no you didn’t.”

“Let’s just say that I wanted some peace and quiet,” he said quietly as he closed his eyes. “Mom is, um, vocal.”

There was silence for a moment and then, “Oh my god. Didn’t need to know that.”

Danny only chuckled. “Actually, Sammy, I think you did. Happy endings do happen. You just have to fight for them.”

She didn’t say anything, only gave a half hearted shrug that Danny felt as he slipped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her a little closer to him. The warmth that had surrounded him for most of the evening was fading as he watched Sam. It bothered Danny so much that something that had happened years ago would still hurt her so much. Or maybe it was because she was in love with someone, something that made Danny decidedly unhappy. It wouldn’t be him.

But she would dwell on it, the belief that happy endings didn’t exist, the fact that she was in love with someone. The thoughts of it never working… That would explain why she spent so much time with someone she didn’t really want to be with.

Danny sighed and Sam shifted closer, laying her head against his shoulder and, much to Danny’s surprise, snuggling in. “Cold?” he asked.

“A little,” she admitted.

Danny smiled and leaned away from her, shrugging his jacket off to wrap around her. And the surprise came again as she willingly let him and then pressed herself against his side again. What made it even better was, when he slipped his arm back around her shoulders, she slid her arm across his stomach to hold on to him, letting the jacket drape them both. And he couldn’t help it. He let his free hand drop to hers, fingers brushing the soft skin of her hand and caressing it absently.

But what surprised Danny the most, was that Sam didn’t stop him. Didn’t even try to. If anything, she snuggled a little closer, a movement that made a smile paste itself across Danny’s face. He wondered if she knew, but at that moment, he didn’t really care.

“Hey, Sam?”

“Hm?” It was a soft, comfortable sound. A sound that he wanted to hear more, just like she was.

He smiled and barely turned his head so that, if he wanted, he could press a kiss to her hair if he wanted. And he wanted. But he didn’t.

“You want to get out of here?” She shifted in his arm to peer up at him. “Movie’s almost over. We could get ice cream or something.”

She smiled, and Danny was gratified by the genuine warmth of it. “Yeah. I think I’d like that.”

Description
Title: MakeDamnSure (SongShot) p.1
Rating: M
Summary: Tucker has always believed that the only way that Sam and Danny will finally admit they care is by trapping them together for an extended period of time. And he manages to trap them, however unintentionally.
Author's Notes: MakeDamnSure is by Taking Back Sunday from the album Louder Now.

For Megan, my twisted little muse. Scissor shaped across the bed really is a hot line, isn’t it? Now I suggest you read some of the stuff I write before I start making you the Mary Sue…

MakeDamnSure p.1

You've got this new head filled up with smoke
I've got my veins all tangled close
To the jukebox bars you frequent
The safest place to hide

“Explain to me again why we’re taking your car?”

Danny laughed at Sam’s annoyance. “Because your car is still in New York; you flew in to Amity, remember?”

She grumbled something that sounded fairly uncharitable, and Danny cocked an eyebrow at her as he moved around a slow moving truck on the interstate. “That, and I’d never fit into your little bucket on wheels.”

“It’s an environmentally safe hybrid,” she said stiffly. “And your car is a gas guzzling hunk of metal.”

Danny pressed on the accelerator again, moving towards the sunset and passing another car. “Your little whatsit wouldn’t hold me. It’s not designed for people taller than five foot seven.” Sam only shrugged while glancing at Danny out of the corner of her eye. It was true, Danny would have had trouble folding nearly six and a half feet into her little car, much less for a road trip from Illinois to California.

“And,” Danny said, shattering her thoughts. “This is a perfectly restored ’67 Chevelle. It rocks.”

Sam chuckled. It had been a point of much annoyance when, for Danny’s sixteenth birthday all those years ago, his father had given him an old car that was falling apart and in need of more TLC than a single person was capable of. But it turned out that Jack Fenton was pretty handy under the hood, and apparently, so was Danny. They’d had the car up and running inside of a month, and Danny had spent his spare time until just after high school graduation restoring the Chevelle into nearly perfect condition, right down to some shiny rims Sam had given him as a graduation present.

But his parents had given him something that made it look so much cooler: a gift certificate to a local custom paint shop. And Danny had gone with total customization, from a glossy flat black base color, to the silver pinstripe down the sides and the center of the hood, both swarmed about with loops of thin color in neon blue and green.

Sam had wondered if it was on purpose, but when Danny had made her crawl beneath the rear bumper she’d nearly cracked her head shooting out and laughing. There, beneath the frame, where no one could see it, Danny had taken it upon himself to paint his Danny Phantom emblem. The colors of his car were definitely not coincidence.

“Okay,” she admitted finally. “It rocks. And I know you tried to make it more environmentally friendly. Your dad told me,” she explained when Danny shot her a curious glance before pasting his eyes back on the road.

They drove in silence for a long time, until the sun was well past the horizon and Danny yawned once, declining Sam’s offer to drive. “There’s an exit another few miles up. Hotel.”

“Mm,” she murmured in agreement. “Danny? Why are we road tripping instead of flying?”

He shrugged and she laughed. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. You said you wanted to catch up.”

And I, he thought very quietly, just wanted to spend time with you.

“So let’s catch up,” she said. “Are you seeing anyone?”

He shook his head but didn’t say anything.

“Are you passing your classes?

He nodded.

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s hard to catch up when you refuse to say anything.”

Danny laughed, wondering if it sounded as forced as it felt. “Okay. Long or short version?”

“What’s the difference?” she asked cautiously.

“The long version includes dorm parties where I lock my door so people don’t decorate my room in vomit.”

She made a gagging sound. “Short version, please.”

“Not dating anyone, too busy with classes and I’m just not interested in any of the girls at school. Passing, have a three-two, so hey, I’m doing better than in high school.” He paused and saw the exit cut through the bright swathe of headlights like a river of dark pavement. The Chevelle slowed and Danny veered to the right, pulling off into a tiny little interstate town with a single hotel that looked like it had seen better days.

“And the ghosts?” Sam asked as she looked the hotel they were going to stay at over. She wanted to take the question back and ask why they hadn’t stopped at Springfield, but she didn’t.

“They mostly leave me alone now,” was the short reply she got.

“They would,” she murmured as she Chevelle came to a stop in front of the office. She was silent as Danny got out and went inside, and Sam watched him as he moved. So sure of himself, with a confidence that he’d never had in high school. Twenty-one, nearly twenty-two, and a veteran of so many battles. And the one that made the ghosts afraid to go anywhere near him, or do anything that might bring his unwanted attentions.

He’d been nineteen, and home for the summer, wanting to spend it in his own home and his own bed than in the tiny dorms of UI-Amity Park, where he was now a senior by credit count. Sam’s vigorous pushing had made him take AP classes in his junior and senior years giving him enough credits to enroll as a sophomore after graduation. Vlad had made an attempt at Danny and Maddie. She closed her eyes as she pictured Danny’s horrified face when Vlad Plasmius had walked through his front door and taken his mother.

The battle that had followed hadn’t been pretty. Not for Plasmius, and not for Danny’s family. He’d been able to keep his secret, or at least they thought. His parents didn’t treat him differently after that, not exactly, but they certainly watched him more carefully. Like they were afraid he might do the same thing he’d done to Plasmius.

He’d used his Ghostly Wail.

He’d used it and it had shredded the other hybrid to nothing. And if anyone thought it was odd that Vladimir Masters went missing the very next day, no one had said anything about it. There were still years to go before he was declared legally dead, and he was according to Clockwork, something that had plagued Danny for a long time until Sam and Tucker had forced it down his throat that it had been necessary, and Vlad brought it on himself.

But the real kicker of it was that, once Vlad was finally declared dead, his will would be executed and his estate divided among his two inheritors. Danny, and his mother. Vlad’s last ditch effort to get Maddie’s love, to control Danny’s life through guilt.

Danny already had plans to raze the castle in Wisconsin and the cabin in Colorado to the ground. He had plans to sell the land, and then he had plans to take what Sam knew to be a staggering amount of money, and start using it to further ghost research, and hopefully getting the humans to admit that not all ghosts were evil. Maybe eventually he’d be able to prove that Danny Phantom was one of the good guys.

At least he could live comfortably while he was doing it.

A knock at the window startled her, and she saw Danny smirking as she opened the door and got out. “They have two rooms left, I got them both, alright?”

She nodded and climbed back in, and by the time they had parked and Danny had carried her bag for her (and she wished she had the nerve to ask for a ride herself) she was already feeling half asleep. With a hug for her best friend, and a kiss that she pressed against his cheek without thinking, she closed the door quietly and found herself falling into sleep much faster than she would have thought.

---

For his part, Danny was able to push aside the way his mind wanted to sleep. Sam was still jetlagged, and he knew she was sound asleep. He’d poked his head through the wall and into her room to check before flying up through the roof to float peacefully above the tiny town. He could see it, and the flash of headlights as they cut through the darkness on the interstate. Cars on their way to somewhere, just like he and Sam were.

It was spring break, and they were road tripping, of all things, to California and CalTech. And Tucker, who’d asked if they could come out for some sort of awards ceremony. Tucker had outpaced the both of them at his own university. But Danny had figured that would happen when he was doing nothing but working with the technology Tucker so loved.

He’d earned his Bachelor’s before Christmas, and he’d enrolled in some courses to work on a Master’s in some strangely named field of research. All Danny knew was that it had to do with nanobots and applied applications to them concerning computers and quantum physics. And he was lucky he knew that much. But the research team he was working with had made some breakthrough, and Tucker had had a hand in it, and he was being recognized for his hard work.

And so his best friends were going to celebrate for and with him.

Danny sighed as he drifted a little higher, feeling the chilly sensation as a cloud misted over and around him. It was a lot easier to fly up here than to be trapped in a car with Sam for hours on end. Answering her questions. He needed to avoid the questions that involved him dating other women. It didn’t happen. He’d dated Valerie for what, a day in freshman year of high school? And that enforced thing when Kitty overshadowed Paulina.

There’d been a single date with a random girl in senior year, and he’d gone out on two dates in the last three and a half years. Which was sad because most of the guys in his dorm could pull two dates in a weekend, with two different girls, and sometimes two dates in the same night. But Danny just wasn’t interested in dating.

Because every time he did, he found himself comparing the girl to Sam. And no one could ever measure up to her. She was beautiful, funny, smart. Her sarcasm was something he treasured, and the way she changed for no one but herself. It was why he loved her so damned much.

It was why, he admitted as he phased back into his hotel room and changed back to human to drop onto the bed, this little road trip was killing him. Being so close to her, and not being able to do anything about it. It was as close to hell as Danny ever wanted to come. It would only be worse when she finally did find someone, and he had to watch it knowing he had no right to say a word.

A long night spent with your most obvious weakness
You start shaking at the thought
You are everything I want
'Cause you are everything I'm not

“This is your fault, Danny,” Sam muttered as he babied the car off of I-40 at a measly thirty miles an hour.

He ignored her as he coasted down the ramp and then veered onto the street and into the exit’s excuse for a town. There were a handful of stores, and in the distance he could see a cluster of houses. And a block away was a mechanic’s shop that Danny’s precious Chevelle desperately needed. He coasted as much as he could before daring to press the gas again and coaxing the car into the parking lot before putting it in park and lifting the e-brake.

“This is so your fault,” Sam muttered again.

“It’s not my fault, I take care of my car.” Without another word Danny climbed out and went inside the shop as Sam followed suit, but chose to lean against the trunk and wait for Danny to come back out. Come out he did, with a short greasy looking man in tow. She rolled her eyes as the hood was popped and propped open, and Danny proceeded to get his hands greasy with the mechanic.

Eventually, though, he turned his attention to her and waggled a beckoning finger at her. “I told you it wasn’t my fault,” he said smugly as the mechanic straighten and wiped his hands on a rag that was dangling from his coverall.

“Eyeah, ‘s the water pump. Shoulda been recalled, ‘as a manufacturer’s defect. Nuttin’ ya could do about it,” and Sam grimaced.

“How long to fix it?”

“Oh, a day or two to order the part, get it in. Classic’s is tricky, you gotta have to be particular wit’ the parts.” The little man snorted once. “’Nother day to get it in. So, two, mebbe three days, and yer on yer way.”

“There’s a motel up the road,” Danny said quietly as he detached his car key from his keychain and handed it over to the mechanic. “We’re going to grab a room at the motel. If it gets fixed any faster, give us a call?”

A nod of his head and the little man was gone back into the shop, and Danny was pulling the trunk release and gathering the two suitcases he and Sam had brought. He shouldered them easily as Sam fell into step beside Danny as they began trudging their way along the dusty road to the motel.

“So we’re stuck in this little nowhere town in Oklahoma,” Sam finally said.

Danny shrugged. “We’ll call Tucker and tell him. He’ll understand. Besides,” he added with a pointed glance. “Tucker always liked my car.”

“I like your car, too, Danny. Really, I do.” A smile lit her face. “Oh look, they have an old fashioned drive-in.”

Danny chuckled. “Maybe we’ll see what they’re playing later, huh?”

“I’ll meet you at the motel, okay?” Sam said, her eyes dancing. “I want to see what they’re playing.”

She was gone in a flash, and Danny rolled his eyes as he kept on.

---

She was fairly breathless when she finally showed up, and Danny was sitting outside the motel wondering if Sam was going to kill him or not. Because it was his car, and that made it his fault, manufacturer’s defect or not. “They’re playing tons of classics,” she laughed out. “We have to go see some.”

He gave her a wan smile. “I got us a room,” Danny said without preamble, and the smile turned a little sickly. “Sam, you’re not going to like this. They only had one room to rent out.”

Her smile flickered for a moment but she shrugged. “So we share a room. No biggie, we shared a tub when we were three.”

They both flushed at that memory, and Danny cleared his throat. “It, uh, only has one bed.” And when she flushed brilliant red Danny felt heat rushing across his own cheeks. “I can take the floor.”

Sam shook her head. “No. No, you don’t have to do that. We’re both adults, we can share a bed.”

It was a decent enough motel for a small town, the room itself wasn’t decked out in bad seventies colors like most small places were. It looked like it had been decorated by the older woman who had rented him the room in the first place, and Danny sighed as he dropped the two suitcases at the foot of the bed. The bed. The large, king sized bed.

It had a pale green bedspread that looked like it was laundered regularly, and when Sam whipped it down he saw creamy sheets and pillow cases. Four pillows, there would be no fight for them. The walls were painted, not papered, and the ivory color was shades darker than the sheets. No painted trim, either. Medium colored baseboards that accented the headboard.

There was a dresser, low to the ground with a television on it, though Danny didn’t care if it got cable or not. He’d never been very into television, preferring video games, and he’d actually learned the pleasure of reading from Sam during high school. He had several books with him that he was dying to get in to, if only to distract himself from the slim girl who was rifling through her suitcase like nothing was wrong.

There was good length of counter next to the sink, and Danny was relieved to see half a dozen large, fluffy towels folded neatly. There were several smaller ones, and even some hand towels and wash clothes. Lined up neatly next to this were small bottles of various liquids that Danny assumed to be the usual suspects: shampoo, conditioner, lotion. It was the kind of thing Tucker always snagged and took home with him. Not that he ever used them outside of the motel room, but it was something he did.

“I’m, uh, going to grab a shower, okay?” Danny mumbled as he tugged out a fresh pair of jeans, clean boxers and socks. He caught the faint nod of Sam’s head as she opened the drawer of the nightstand and pulled the channel guide out, and then Danny was closing the bathroom door behind him and leaning against it.

“This,” he said quietly to himself. “Has bad idea written all over it.”

He managed to keep his thoughts to himself during the short but pleasantly hot shower, and his only complaint was that the shower head was set for normal sized people and, at six foot four and a half, Danny had to duck his head to wash his hair. Surprisingly the stocked shampoo was pleasant to smell. It wasn’t overtly feminine, which was a usual gripe among males while traveling. But it wasn’t plain enough to be brushed off. More like a faint sweet musk that was tinged with a hint of something floral.

He liked it. And he made the mental note to cajole the manufacturer out of the landlord before they drove on.

He hit his head on the doorknob while bent over to towel his hair off, but other than that he was fine, squeaky clean when he stepped out of the bathroom, a billow of wet steam following him as he draped his towel over a chair that was positioned in the corner. In fact, he was fine all the way up until he turned to the bed to see Sam sliding off of it and gathering up a change of clothes for herself.

She’d taken her stockings off, and Danny had seen her legs before. Back when they were kids and he was a lovesick ball of hormones and she hadn’t been… She hadn’t been as developed as she was now. Sam had blossomed late, he knew it. Everyone knew it, because sometime between sixteen and seventeen, Sam had stopped going to the beach, the water park with them. The angles that she’d had had become curves, and Danny had missed seeing them because she’d been too self conscious.

But he could see them now. The way her plain black skirt skimmed over creamy thighs, the strip of pale skin that showed between her shirt and the skirt. And the long length of leg that made him wonder what it would feel like to have them wrapped around him as he moved above her, made him wonder what it would be like to have her whimpering his name as he loved her.

Made him wonder if he was insane for thinking those kinds of things about Sam.

And then she disappeared into the bathroom and Danny could only wonder how, exactly, bad idea had gone to worse. Possibly worst.

---

It had startled her when Danny had come out of the bathroom, half dressed and still wet. His hair had been dripping little drops of water onto his shoulders, and Sam had nearly swallowed her tongue as she watched the water slide down his body. Ghost fighting certainly hadn’t hurt him. He had a few scars, but mostly had walked away from the majority of his fights unscathed. She’d always said he had an exceptionally hard head. She loved being proved right.

But knowing something was different from seeing it. Sure, Danny had definitely shown promise the last time she’d seen him half dressed. Right before the summer of blossoming, as her mother liked to call it in her more insane moments. That was when Sam had quit going places where she would have to wear bathing suits knowing, as she did, that shoving the fact that she was a girl, and an attractive one at that, down Danny and Tucker’s throats would have changed the dynamic of the whole friendship.

She figured she could sacrifice playing in the water for that. It was worth it.

But he hadn’t had the physique that she saw now. Chiseled arms that were usually covered with loose sleeves. She could see the muscles of his forearms rippling as he tossed the towel across the chair, the tensing of his bicep as he ran a hand through his still wet hair before turning to her. The way the drops of water played off his chest, the smooth expanse of skin that she so desperately wanted to taste.

Defined abdomen, and his back. Oh, his back. It was her favorite part of the body, and especially his. The broad definition of his shoulders, the smooth slope from neck down. The lines of muscle that ran down and moved fluidly as he did, right down to the narrow waist and his pale blue boxers, darker blue jeans, that hung loosely enough that she hoped they would fall off.

Yes, she loved his back next, right after his eyes. He looked so surprised when he saw her. Sam flushed and ducked her head as she finished gathering her things and brushed past him into the bathroom, wondering what she’d been thinking when she’d said they could share the bed. On one hand it was such a great idea. It might make something happen. But on the other…

She was still tense and dancing around the worry when she came out of the bathroom. She’d managed to find the one thing that wouldn’t embarrass either of them, a pair of old pajama pants that she’d swiped from her father, and a tank top that read ‘Good Girl’ with horns poking out on either side. Truth be told, Sam preferred sleeping in silk at the very least, though clothes were completely optional. She had that luxury; she had her own apartment even while at school. No roommates to worry about.

There was food waiting for her, and Danny, no longer shirtless, giving her a faint smile. “I got us some food. Pizza place. Veggie.”

She smiled and laughed when her stomach growled. “That actually sounds great. But we need to call Tuck.”

“Already did it,” Danny said as he passed her a paper plate and a handful of napkins, then flipped the television on. “There’s a cheesy horror flick on. Interested?”

Later, after the pizza was gone and Sam was huddled into pillows as she was torn between fear and laughter at the terrible movie, she wondered why she’d worried. It was Danny, after all. If he hadn’t bought a clue in all these years, he wasn’t going to.

And we lay, we lay together just not
Too close, too close (How close is close enough?)
We lay, we lay together just not
Too close, too close

Usually he hated to wake up. A morning person Danny had never pretended to be, or even attempted to try. No, he was firmly of the opinion that mornings were for slamming the snooze button, or sleeping for as long as possible because the alarm was never set. He liked those kinds of mornings. Waking up somewhere towards noon and finding the nearest IHOP to satisfy his breakfast cravings.

The only time that IHOP was better was at two in the morning. And those times were usually after late night ghost fighting when one of those endless pots of coffee was required while patching each other up in a booth hidden from the front doors. Or for teasing Tucker mercilessly after he’d dropped the thermos. Again.

But this morning was turning out a little different than he’d expected. Awake on his own and the glowing red light of the clock told him it wasn’t quite eight, and warm. Very warm, and snuggled close to a slim body that shouldn’t have been there. He wondered, in the hazy moments before his brain caught up with him, if he’d actually brought a girl home with him. And then wondered at the familiar shape to her.

And then his brain was wide awake as he remembered the night before and realized that it was Sam he was curled up with, against, and that if she woke up before he managed to get a safe distance away she’d have the surprise of her life poking her in the back.

She was lying on her side, one arm slung out across the bed to dangle off the edge, and he was pressed against her back without so much as a breath between them. One of his legs had worked between hers so that, as he held her with arm, one of her legs was looped over it. He could feel the soft skin of her stomach beneath his hand, where her tank top had ridden up, and the gentle rise of her chest let him know she was still completely asleep.

A blessing, that.

Working his way back from her was easier said that done. She nearly woke up when he managed to slip his leg from between hers, and her eyes had nearly opened when he squirmed to the edge of the bed, leaving her back cold for a moment until Danny snugged the blanket down along it. He watched her for a moment longer before realizing that, once she was awake, he was going to have a serious problem explaining to her why he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

Without a second though, Danny grabbed the jeans he had shucked off the night before, and his shirt, and beat a hasty retreat to the shower, and some very icy water.

It was too bad that the cold shower was completely worthless. The way her lavender eyes followed him when he stepped back into the room was enough to undo twenty minutes of freezing work.

---

“There really is nothing to do here,” Sam muttered as she sat down on a bench that was in front of the local farmer’s market. Family owned and run, and charming on top of all that. But she was bored out of her mind. The drive-in was showing promise, there was supposed to be a Bogart trilogy playing that night, and she was sure she remembered Casablanca being billed.

But she was bored.

The bench creaked as Danny sat down next to her and wrapped a companionable arm around her. “I told you I could fly us to a bigger town,” he reminded her, his tone not far from begging.

She snorted. “You don’t need to advertise, Danny. If anyone here was at all smart, they’d figure out that you’re Danny Phantom.”

“That’s a big if,” he drawled.

Sam wanted so badly to disagree with him, but somehow she couldn’t. It was a nice town, if too small, and the residents were good people. Hard working. Loyal. The whole spiel designed to politely tell someone they’re not the brightest crayon in the box. But it was true. They were awfully damned simple, and Sam wondered if anyone had stayed in school past eighth or ninth grade.

She didn’t say anything, of course, and never would. But she missed the urban life. Of course, Amity Park could be called urban compared to this little town.

“Why don’t we see about finding something to eat? I heard that the diner makes eggplant parmesan,” Danny offered. “And if we waste enough time there, we can go straight to those movies you want to see so badly.”

Sam shrugged. “And how do you plan on wasting time?”

“You could tell me about your life in New York. The fast lane and all that,” he said with a mischievous twinkle to his eyes.

She arched an eyebrow. “Because studying and going to school is the fast lane.”

He shrugged and turned from her, and when he spoke again she couldn’t see his face. “You could always tell me how things are going with your perfect boyfriend.”

Sam frowned. “He wasn’t perfect. He was an ass.”

Danny turned back to her, surprised. “You guys were serious, I thought.”

Sam shook her head and pulled herself to her feet. “He wanted to be serious. I didn’t. So he got serious with someone else.”

“Oh, Sam.” Strong arms wrapped around her from behind, and Sam sighed as she relaxed into them.

“Don’t worry about it, Danny,” she murmured. “He wasn’t worth it, and I didn’t really care about him.”

“You dated him for eight months,” Danny reminded her as he tucked her under his arm and started them walking towards the little diner he’d found. “That sounds serious.”

She laughed merrily as they darted across the street, hurrying despite the lack of traffic. “I saw him maybe twice a month. Besides,” she tossed out flippantly when Danny held the door open for her. “It’s hard to get serious about one guy when you’re in love with someone else.”

Danny stopped dead in his tracks, and Sam turned back at him with a quick smile. “Coming?” she asked, and Danny nodded.

She was in love with someone. And god, how he wished it was him.

I just wanna break you down so badly
Well I trip over everything you say
I just wanna break you down so badly
In the worst way

They’d stayed up till the wee hours the night before, the Bogart marathon hadn’t cut off until nearly one in the morning, and they’d been fairly well out on their feet when they’d finally stumbled their way back to the rented room. She’d told Danny to grab his shower first, and when she’d finished with hers he’d been sound asleep in the bed, though she knew he must have tried to stay awake. There was a book lying open on his chest.

She’d dog-eared the page and sat it on the nightstand before sliding in next to him. Funny, how he seemed so close, but was still so far out of reach.

Of course, out of reach was debatable considering the position Sam found herself in when she woke the next morning. She didn’t like being up early, and nearly ten was still too early for her thin nocturnal blood. But to wake up and find herself wrapped around Danny… it was something she was enjoying far too much.

He was sprawled down the center of the bed on his back, and she nearly ruined it all by laughing him awake as she wondered whether it was her hormones that had sent her snuggling into him, or self defense from the lack of bed space. For a single person, he sure took up a lot of space. But she didn’t mind. Not when her head was resting on his chest, his heart was beating steadily beneath her ear. She was tucked firmly against him, and she could feel his breath on her hair from where his chin was tucked at the top of her head. One hand was tangled in her hair, and the contented feeling that washed over her made her want to close her eyes and just go back to sleep.

His other hand was beneath her shirt, hot on her bare skin and so close to indecency that it wasn’t funny. And her leg was tossed across his waist as she capitalized on such a wonderfully warm, living body pillow. She needed to move, needed to get up. Needed to get a cold shower or find some other way of relieving the sexual tension that suddenly had her nerves strung taut.

So she eased back, trying to untangle herself from his body without waking him. God only knows what he’d say, what he’d do, if he realized that he’d had her all over him. Worse if he ever figured out that she really, truly, desperately wanted to be all over him. And what would his reaction be if she ever told him she’d been in love with him since high school? Better to sneak away and not wreck the friendship. Better to be safe, because she didn’t want to lose him.

But wow, what an eye opener when, as she carefully, quietly slid her leg down his body so that she wasn’t draped across him anymore, she realized that Danny was quite aware of a feminine body pressed against him. Awake or not, Danny’s body at least appreciated her. The laugh that threatened to spill froze in her throat when she even breathing paused for a moment, and he started to roll. Closer to her.

Sam nearly squeaked as one strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer, and she knew she must have made an entertaining picture as her jaw dropped when Danny snuggled his head against her, murmuring something that she couldn’t quite hear, but sounded so much like her name that she couldn’t think. And then again.

“Don’t go, Sam.”

Murmured and definitely more asleep than awake, and Sam couldn’t stop herself from darting away from him and heading straight for the bathroom.

---

She was acting odd when she finally woke him up, and Danny yawned as he glanced at the clock. He groaned. It was after eleven and he’d missed the phone call to Tucker. He’d promised they’d check in daily so he’d know whether or not they’d be finding an alternative form of transportation. Not the Danny planned on leaving his beloved Chevelle behind, but neither of them wanted to miss Tucker’s moment of triumph.

“I called Tucker,” she said as she pulled the blanket back from over his shoulders and tugged at his arm. “Come on, let’s go.”

Danny sat up, more than a little wary at the way she was acting and the tenseness along her body. “What’s the big rush?” Then his face brightened. “Is it fixed?”

Sam rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No, it’s not fixed. I’ve been up long enough to have been there and back. Tomorrow. He said that it would be ready tomorrow morning, and then we can leave this hole in the wall town and get back to somewhere with actual life.”

Danny arched a brow. “You’re too tense, Sammy.”

She scowled and hit him in the shoulder. “Don’t call me that. I just want to get out of here. I want to be able to do something other than be trapped. And I really, really, really want—“

She stopped and Danny looked at her inquiringly, but Sam shook her head. “Just get up, alright? I’m hungry and my mood tends to go downhill when I skip a meal. ”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment as Sam turned away and stood, pacing to the far side of the small motel room. He only made sure that when she finally was in the mood to turn back, that he wasn’t there and that the shower was already running.

My inarticulate store bought hangover hobby kit
It talks, it says, "You, oh, you are so cool"
Scissor shaped across the bed
You are red, violent red

“They’re playing Breakfast at Tiffany’s tonight,” Sam said as she twined a long thin stand of spaghetti around her fork as she looked up at Danny from beneath her lashes. She chuckled when he sent her a look that clearly said, I have no idea what you’re talking about.

“Audrey Hepburn? It’s a classic,” and she smiled at his faint frown.

“And classic means that it wasn’t made in the last decade,” he replied as he poked at his own food, a mostly eaten steak that was a little too far on the done side. “Sam, I’m all about classics, but don’t they have anything new?”

“They don’t have anything more recent than the sixties, Danny. I checked. Do you want to go or not?”

And when he didn’t answer immediately she sighed. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll go by myself. I dragged you to that marathon last night.”

“No.”

Danny’s voice was a little louder than she expected it, and Sam’s eyes flew up to the intense blue of his. “No, Sam,” he said, this time a little more gently. “I don’t want you to go by yourself. I want to go with you.”

The words behind it spoke volumes to him, and he could only wish that she knew what he was thinking. He loved spending time with her, and classic movies weren’t so bad. Especially not when it meant he spent hours contently with Sam only inches away, sometimes even managing to wrap an arm around because she looked cold. But sometimes a guy really wanted some blood and guts.

It was the best way to have Sam snuggled into his side for an entire movie, instead of having to wait for the chilled hours of the late night to drive her there.

He smiled at her perplexed expression as he laid his fork down. “I always want to spend time with you,” he said quietly before picking up his soda and drinking to hide the sudden way his face wanted to redden, then was forced to sit the glass down and tug his hand back to be laid in his lap as he realized that the unexpected admission had made it, had made both of his hands, shake enough to be seen. The nerves of finally trying to tell your best friend that you were in love with her.

And therein lay the reason why Danny had suggested a road trip. Not that he’d thought for even a moment that they’d break down in the middle of nowhere. But really, it wasn’t so bad since he was stuck with her. And that was exactly how he wanted it.

For a moment as he looked across the table at Sam, Danny wondered if he should regret that he’d said it the way he had, or even said it at all. But the faint blush that spread across her cheeks as she looked back at him, her mouth open in surprise but curving ever so slightly into a smile… That made Danny wonder why he’d waited so long to try and say anything. Because she looked so beautiful like that, so shy and pretty, that it made his heart ache.

“I’m glad you do,” she finally said as she laid her fork down and pushed her plate back.

Danny nodded towards the door with his head. “You want to get out of here and find a good patch of grass?”

The laughter in her eyes had him flagging down their waitress and paying her quickly, before Sam could even begin to want to pull out her own purse and try and pay for any or all of it. Then Danny had her by the hand and was headed down the single main street of the town toward the drive-in and pulling her closer against him, all the while holding on to her hand.

---

“I still don’t get how they walked out where the masks without getting caught. Someone had to have seen them,” Danny said as he settled back against the tree that they’d chosen to tuck themselves beneath for the movie. “I mean, come on. No one would get away with that now.”

Sam chuckled against his shoulder. “Don’t break your brain. It’s just a movie.”

“Yeah, but come on,” he muttered with pretend annoyance as he tried to find a way to wrap his arms around her without freaking her out. Well, too much. He was more than a little sure that even the slightest change in their relationship might make her wary. Hell, it made him wary, and he was the one trying to find a way to do it.

“I’ve always liked this movie,” she said softly. “The romance, the almost surreal way it plays out.”

“The happy ending,” Danny added as he looked down at her for a moment.

“Yeah. The happy ending. They don’t happen so much in real life, you know?”

Danny sighed. There wasn’t much he could say when the subject of her parents’ divorce came up. Even Sam herself had admitted that her parents were far happier apart than together. The syrupy happiness they’d forced on everyone (except for Danny, whom they both despised) until Sam’s senior year and a month before graduation had turned into absolutely nothing between them. Danny still had a hard time believing that the Manson’s had managed to drag everyone into the farce, had managed to make everyone think that they were alright.

Even Sam hadn’t known until the very end and the night that the quietly done divorce had been finalized and her father had sat her down to explain it to her. With his bags packed and stacked by the door.

It was poorly done, both Danny and Tucker had agreed on that. It had been the two of them that Sam had turned to and she hadn’t stepped foot back into her house for weeks after that. Not when she could bunk at one house or the other. But the mess had made a lasting impression on Sam. There’s been a long time, almost a year, where she’d absolutely refused have anything to do with the opposite sex except for Danny and Tucker.

It had been a worry and a relief all in one.

“There are happy endings, Sam,” he said quietly, falling back on his one tried and true piece of proof. “My mom and dad are still together and going strong.”

“It could be a show,” she muttered darkly.

Danny choked back a laugh as he closed his eyes and shook his head. “Did I ever tell you exactly why I moved out?”

“To hide your ghostly identity?” she said making it a question as she tilted her face to look up at him. “Okay, no you didn’t.”

“Let’s just say that I wanted some peace and quiet,” he said quietly as he closed his eyes. “Mom is, um, vocal.”

There was silence for a moment and then, “Oh my god. Didn’t need to know that.”

Danny only chuckled. “Actually, Sammy, I think you did. Happy endings do happen. You just have to fight for them.”

She didn’t say anything, only gave a half hearted shrug that Danny felt as he slipped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her a little closer to him. The warmth that had surrounded him for most of the evening was fading as he watched Sam. It bothered Danny so much that something that had happened years ago would still hurt her so much. Or maybe it was because she was in love with someone, something that made Danny decidedly unhappy. It wouldn’t be him.

But she would dwell on it, the belief that happy endings didn’t exist, the fact that she was in love with someone. The thoughts of it never working… That would explain why she spent so much time with someone she didn’t really want to be with.

Danny sighed and Sam shifted closer, laying her head against his shoulder and, much to Danny’s surprise, snuggling in. “Cold?” he asked.

“A little,” she admitted.

Danny smiled and leaned away from her, shrugging his jacket off to wrap around her. And the surprise came again as she willingly let him and then pressed herself against his side again. What made it even better was, when he slipped his arm back around her shoulders, she slid her arm across his stomach to hold on to him, letting the jacket drape them both. And he couldn’t help it. He let his free hand drop to hers, fingers brushing the soft skin of her hand and caressing it absently.

But what surprised Danny the most, was that Sam didn’t stop him. Didn’t even try to. If anything, she snuggled a little closer, a movement that made a smile paste itself across Danny’s face. He wondered if she knew, but at that moment, he didn’t really care.

“Hey, Sam?”

“Hm?” It was a soft, comfortable sound. A sound that he wanted to hear more, just like she was.

He smiled and barely turned his head so that, if he wanted, he could press a kiss to her hair if he wanted. And he wanted. But he didn’t.

“You want to get out of here?” She shifted in his arm to peer up at him. “Movie’s almost over. We could get ice cream or something.”

She smiled, and Danny was gratified by the genuine warmth of it. “Yeah. I think I’d like that.”