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Title: MakeDamnSure (SongShot) p.3
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.3

I'm gonna make damn sure that you can't ever leave
No, you won't ever get too far from me
You won't ever get too far from me
I'll make damn sure that you can't ever leave

Vegas was a blast.

When they got there the strip was already lit for the night—it came earlier in the desert where the world was below sea level—and Danny and Sam found themselves arguing over where to stay. Danny wanted to go to Caesar’s Palace, he’d already heard Sam rave about how awesome it was when her Grams took her as a graduation present. Sam wanted to try the MGM Grand, because she’d already been to Caesar’s and it was old school now. In the end they compromised, though they never agreed to.

Danny was the first to lay eyes on it: tall, towering, with brilliantly reflective windows colored gold. He stopped Sam in the middle of her sentence and dragged her face around to see what he was looking at and said, “There. We’re staying there.”

She laughed at him. “And why there?”

“Because the windows tell me we’ll win in the casino,” he answered with all seriousness.

“The windows are talking to you?” she snickered behind a hand as she started to look at the hotel next to it. And then she saw the name of Danny’s dream casino and a smile split her face. “Oh, Danny, you’re right. We’re staying there.”

The valet was well done, and Danny tipped him as he deserved, but there were several other people waiting and Danny sighed as he realized that it would be a few before someone got to their bags. But Sam just smiled and laid a hand on his arm as she arched a dark brow at him. “No, Danny. We won’t have to wait. Watch, and see how it’s done.”

Two second later a porter walked past them and Sam sent him a beaming smile and instructed him to take their bags to check in. Then she said, “And tell them that Samantha Manson is here, of the Long Island Manson’s.”

The check in was gratuitously fast with the fawning manager jumping them in front of another couple and a party of too many to be counted. They ended up with a suite on the thirty-ninth floor that had been reserved by someone else and, try as Danny might to feel guilty, he just couldn’t, because the second they walked in it was like heaven in Vegas.

“So,” he said after the bags had been delivered and the bellboy tipped and gone. “The Long Island Manson’s?”

She only smiled lazily at him. “Did you really think that we got all of our money from deli toothpicks?”

Without a word further Sam only took Danny’s duffel and hers and upended them in the middle of the floor before sorting her way through the clothes. With a frown she ended up just piling them up and then searching the kitchenette for a phone. That done she made a call and Danny just watched as she worked quickly and quietly.

“You know, Sam,” he said when she was done issuing her orders disguised as requests over the phone. “For someone who doesn’t flaunt her money much, you certainly know how to use it.”

She stuck her tongue out. “Danny, Paris Hilton has nothing on me. Come on, let’s go grab a shower.”

“All of our clothes are dirty and in a pile in the middle of the floor.”

“And they’ll be gone when we get out,” she answered in a singsong as she made her way to the larger of the two rooms and peered in, pleased.

Danny frowned. “What did you do, Sam?”

She smiled cagily. “There was a reason why I refused to do laundry at Tucker’s. I hate doing my own laundry. Now we’re paying someone else to do it.”

He chuckled. “And we’re going to stay here until said laundry is done?”

She shook her head. “What’s the use of playing the princess if I don’t drop a couple grand on a new outfit or two?” She grinned. “You always wanted to see me in a dress, Danny. Well, tonight you get to. And I get to see you in something other than a t-shirt and jeans.”

He was at a loss for words at her declaration.

“Now,” she said, and her tone turned impish. “Are you coming? Because I need someone to scrub my back.”

---

The self conscious way he felt disappeared after the first hour of wandering the Mandalay with Sam at his side. She had, sneaky little thing that she was, ensured that their clothes were taken to be cleaned while they were in the shower. And, as promised, she’d dropped a couple grand on new clothes. For the both of them. And while dressing up wasn’t something Danny did very often, he’d dropped his complaints the second Sam had emerged from the bathroom and ordered him to take her out.

She’d used the hair dryer that came with the room to dry her hair after the shower they’d shared. It was dark and shiny and he already knew exactly what it smelled like. He would, since he’d been the one to wash it for her. She’d pulled it back into a clip so that it gathered loosely at the nape of her neck leaving nothing but her bangs to swing around her eyes and make her look almost exotic and mysterious, but Danny could already see where strands were working themselves steadily loose.

Before the night was over he’d have the clip in his pocket. That he knew, too, because before the night was over he was going to have run his hands through her hair so many times that she’d get sick of fixing it.

The dress was slim, a fitted black sheathe that he couldn’t figure out, for the life of him, how it was put on. It left too much pale leg free for his imagination for all that it covered the rest of her so wonderfully. Bare arms and a tiny little strap that slipped up one shoulder, around the back of her neck, and down the other. She wore diamonds at her ears, another at her throat, and her high school ring on her right hand. Next to no makeup; as far as Danny cared she looked best in nothing at all.

He’d told her that once and he supposed she remembered because all he could tell she was wearing was a bit of eyeliner and some lip gloss.

But it was really the heels that did him in and made him not care about anything else. The black heels that were strapped to her foot by a dozen thin straps and made her lips inches closer to his. For that alone he loved them, but the fact that they only made her legs look longer helped. And the way she walked—he’d never seen her in anything but her boots, sneakers, and a pair of sandals at the beach. Flats, all of them, and they did nothing for the woman’s hips like the heels did.

The best (or worst; he’d yet to decide) part was that she knew it. And she took great pains to walk in front of him, or position herself just so if she leaned against anything. Or to Tucker herself right up under his arm because with the heels her head rested higher on his shoulder and if he turned his head just so his lips were very nearly on hers.

It was devilish. He loved it.

He was sure that the dress cost more than he wanted to know. He was already trying to figure out how to pay her back for the shirt and pants she’d gotten for him. He wouldn’t have worn them if he’d had anything else to wear, not after seeing the price tags. After all, who in their right mind spent eight hundred dollars on a pair of plain black pants? Sam, apparently, so he wore them, and the blue shirt she’d gotten, too. She’d been overly thoughtful. The outfit was complete, right down to an undershirt and boxers, and there was no way in hell Danny was ever telling Tucker how thoroughly Sam had gotten to him.

But the outfit looked alright. She said that the shirt matched his eyes. He didn’t care if it didn’t or didn’t because right after she said Sam let him kiss all off her lip gloss off of her.

They toured the shops, glanced around the restaurants, and Sam was firm as she steered him away from the casino. “I want to go look at something first, Danny,” she insisted. “It’s the only reason why we’re staying here and not at the MGM.”

He rolled his eyes. “I could have talked you into this.”

“Oh, sure. Because you’re so smooth, right, Danny?” she said with a snicker as she dragged him around another corner and into the beginning of an oversized fish tank.

“Whoa, what’s this?” Danny asked her as he glanced through the glass at the brightly colored fish.

“An aquarium.” Sam shook her head. “What does it look like?”

He took a startled step back. “It looks like trouble,” he said as his eyes followed a dark, dangerous lithesome shape swimming less than three feet from him. “That’s a shark, Sam. That’s a really big shark.”

She laughed at him. Laughed. Of all things she laughed. He scowled at her and she slid an arm around his waist. “The Mandalay has a shark reef, Danny. I’ve heard about it from some friends. I wanted to see it.”

“You’ve seen it. Can we go?”

She laughed at him again and his scowl deepened. “Are you afraid of the sharks behind the glass? They can’t get to you. It’s inches thick and nobody is about to break it.”

“Sam, I’m the king of bad luck. I’m jinxed. I don’t like sharks, and when the imp of the perverse puts two and two together I’m going to end up swimming in there somehow.” The sad thing was that Danny was perfectly serious.

She just smiled at him. “One time through it, okay? I promise I’ll protect you.”

How could he do anything but give in?

---

“It wouldn’t have been this much fun if we’d gone in with the high rollers,” Sam said over the shouting as they crowded in with the other members of the audience. They’d finally made it to the casino and someone had started a streak at one of the craps tables. In an effort to teach Danny the game Sam had dragged him over and attempted to be heard over the crowd.

She would have been better off trying to go ghost. It was impossible to be heard at less than a shout every time the dice hit the felt.

Danny already dragged her through the slots (he lost twenty there) and amid the blackjack tables (that had been closer to fifty) and she’d tried to get him away from the roulette wheels (that had been more than fifty, but less than the three hundred he still had in his wallet). And now, much to her chagrin, Sam realized that crowding Danny at a craps table probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

“I want to try,” he nearly yelled in her ear, and Sam winced. The damage was already done.

There was nothing to do but to follow Danny as he worked his way in to take the place of one of the players who’d either lost enough to call it quits, or won enough. He slid in and Sam snagged his wallet from his pocket and counted out a hundred to cash for chips. In short order she had him set up and three turns later the dealer was pushing the dice at Danny.

She picked them up and laid them in his hands. “Listen to me, Danny. It’s a hundred in. you get one shot. Roll a seven or an eleven. Okay?”

He shifted. “It’s more complicated than that, isn’t it?”

“Not for you, it isn’t,” she smiled. “You just roll the dice, I’ll take care of the rest.”

It had to pure luck. He didn’t have a clue how to play, he sucked a gambling period, but somehow, and Sam never could figure it out, rolled a seven. She watched in pleased surprise as the dealer stacked three chips next to the original one, and then the dice were back in Danny’s hand as Sam stared at the now four hundred dollars worth of chips, still trying to figure it out.

“So, seven or eleven, right?” Danny asked with a smirk.

She leaned closer and flushed at the cat calls from around them as she was sure the crowd thought she promising wild sexual acts if he rolled another winner. “Did you use your powers?”

He shook his head as he pulled back. “Nope. Just rolled the dice. Betcha I can’t do it again.”

It had to have been that certainty that he wouldn’t, Sam thought. The next roll was a seven, and more chips joined the small stack. She stopped him before he rolled again and ordered the chips moved. An eleven, this time, and Sam smirked a little as she realized that Danny was now the one with the streak. Another move of the chips, and a seven. The dealer traded nearly all of the chips in before Danny rolled again. It was another seven.

Another seven, an eleven, and Sam didn’t really want to even think about what would happen if Danny rolled badly. But the dealer was looking at Danny and her, waiting to see if the chips were hopscotched across the board again. Danny looked at her and she bit her lip and shook her head. “Let it ride,” she said softly enough that the dealer leaned forward to catch the instruction.

She turned to Danny. “No pressure, but do it again.”

He grinned at her and pulled her close, nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck. “Anything for you, Sam.”

She closed her eyes as the dice fell again and waited in the almost hush to find out if Danny’d done it again. It was still quiet, too quiet, and Sam wondered how she was going to explain to him what the chip values he’d just lost were worth. Except that then there was a whisper from the crowd, and there was the sound of chips dancing against the felt, and Sam found herself opening her eyes to see that the single hundred dollar chip Danny had started with had multiplied exponentially.

“Again?” Danny asked, and Sam shook her head at him and signaled the dealer that they were out.

“No, Danny. Not a chance in hell,” she said, still in a surprised shock. “You don’t know what you just did, do you, Danny?”

He shook his head. “I won?”

She chuckled and pointed at the dealer who was waving one of the Mandalay’s security guards over and handing him a small satchel with Danny’s chips in it. “We follow him,” she said and dragged Danny along as she muttered, “Cash out,” to the guard.

As they walked she slipped her arm in his. “Alright, you started with your chip. One chip, worth a hundred dollars, right?”

He nodded as they stopped at a closed door and were ushered in. “And now I’ve got a bunch of chips in crazy colors. I did good.”

She laughed. “You did very good, Danny. Now watch as they count your winnings.”

There was one stack that Danny recognized. “Okay, those are all hundred dollar chips. Right?”

“Yeah,” Sam said as she pointed at the next stack. “And these are worth five hundred. And these are worth a thousand.”

Danny blinked. “I did really good.” His voice was a little tight as he realized exactly what he’d done.

“Call it beginner’s luck,” she said as the last of the chips were stacked and counted. With a glance for permission she fingered one of the chips in the smallest stack of three. “These are worth five thousand, Danny. You didn’t have to go play with the high rollers to be one.”

It was worth the look on his face when he got the official looking check.

---

Forty-seven thousand dollars. It was more than Danny had made in the last three years at his job. Not that he worked full time, or even really got paid all that well. But still, he would have had to work another four or five years there to make that much. And he’d done it in a single night with Sam at his side. It was probably one of the best things that had ever happened to him, outside of the things that involved Sam.

He had, at his absolute and utter insistence, treated her to a very late dinner at one of the restaurants next to the reef, where they could watch the sharks swimming languidly through the aquarium. Sam had been beautiful and sweet and had charmed the recipe for the eggplant parmesan out of the chef. Danny had watched the sharks carefully while he considered the fish on the menu. He’d stuck with steak in an attempt not to poke at fate.

After that he’d kissed her and played with her hair in the shadow of the reed until she let him tuck the clip away, and then he’d kissed her some more until he convinced her that the bed in their suite was more interesting than anything else the Mandalay could offer them at four in the morning. It was, and it was hours until Danny let her drop into a sated and exhausted sleep next to him, with his arms wrapped around her and his face buried in her hair at the nape of her neck.

He was too awake to sleep, somehow still energized from the rush that was Vegas. He’d offered to split the winnings with her, but Sam had just laughed and told that it had been his cash that started the streak. That was where he’d brought up food and demanded that he pay. But even with that money spent, the entirety of the check was still locked in the safe in the closet, waiting for him to take it home and add it to his account.

And the thoughts that check gave him…

There was enough there, added to his savings, and despite the money he’d taken out for the trip, to do what he’d been saving up for. There was a house on the west side of Amity that had come on the market his first year in college. The price had been outrageous, but it was sold within a matter of days. Less than three months later it had come back on the market.

It had gone through the same cycle three times before the for sale sign finally stayed up. And Danny had investigated.

It turned out that the house was haunted, and that the haunting had driven the price down by more than half. And now, if it was still on the market when he got him, Danny had enough to make an offer. Sure, he’d have to apply for a loan from his bank. But there wouldn’t be a problem with that. He’d made sure of that when he’d started to seriously think about trying to make an offer months before.

The money was the only thing that had kept him from doing it. He wanted to be able to put enough down to keep the monthly mortgage low. And now he could. And maybe, he thought as he pulled Sam a little closer, he could talk her into it, too, make her an offer that was too good to refuse. A home, his heart, a life together.

The sun had long since risen when Danny’s mind finally slowed enough to let him sleep. Less than an hour later the phone was ringing and Danny was fumbling to answer it before it woke Sam. It was the wakeup call they’d asked for, and Danny groaned and rubbed his eyes as he peered at the clock and realized how little sleep he’d actually gotten.

“Sam,” he muttered as he shook her shoulder. “It’s time to wake up. They called. We need to get on the road.”

She whimpered and burrowed her face into the pillow. “Five more minutes?” she asked, mostly asleep, and Danny sighed.

“We have to get up. We have to go. Come on, Sam,” he insisted as he tried to get her up and out of the bed.

She just wrapped herself around him and snuggled close. “No we don’t. We can make it up later,” she murmured as she dragged him back down to the bed and held him close.

It took Danny all of two minutes to relent and give in, forgetting the wakeup call and curling himself back around her until sleep found him again. But she was less than friendly when she woke up later. Much, much later. It was nearly five o’clock and the sun was only hours from setting, and her eyes were so very angry as she ripped the thick comforter off of him and tossed it on the floor as she seethed with annoyance.

“Danny, get up,” she ordered. “We missed our wakeup call. We’re running way behind. And why are you so tired? Didn’t you get any sleep? What were you doing instead of sleeping?”

Danny tried not to laugh. He really did. The laugh got him a pillow in the face, but he was still wildly amused as he made his way to the bathroom for a quick shower before they hit the road. She was so angry because he’d let them both sleep, and how could he ever tell her he’d missed hours because he was contemplating buying a house and asking her to live with him. Forever.

But he wouldn’t mind getting woken up by her every morning.

No, you won't ever get too far from me
You won't ever get too far from me
You won't ever get too far from me (ever get too far)
You won't ever get too far...

She’d fallen asleep sometime after Grand Junction and before they hit Denver. The lights didn’t even disturb her as he slipped through the sleeping city and found his way to I-25, and from there to I-76. It would merge into 80; then he could follow that through Nebraska and Iowa straight on into Illinois. He’d have to reroute and Chicago to take them back up to Amity Park, but that wouldn’t be so bad. All he’d have to do is convince her to let them keep driving on until they were home.

He’d rather spend his last night with her sleeping next to him in his own bed, in his own apartment, instead of some strange and unfamiliar hotel in the middle of Chicago two hours from home.

He made it to the Colorado border and passed them into Kansas without disturbing her, but by the time he’d made it halfway through the state he was dying to hear something other than the purr of the Chevelle’s engine, the sounds of tires moving across the road beneath them. Even the need to concentrate on the road was undercut by the silence around him, and Danny slowed the car down to the regular speed limit as he carefully and quietly reach past his sleeping Sam and let the glove box drop open so that he could reach in and grab a random cassette out.

He made sure to close it as quietly as he’d opened it before he saw what he’d grabbed, but he wasn’t worried. There wasn’t a single scrap of music in that glove box that he didn’t already love. But out of all of his cassettes, Danny could easily say that the Eagles tape in his hand was probably the most well played.

It was on the B side, and Danny listened in silence as he drove steadily on towards Topeka and the Missouri border. The sun was just beginning to show the first signs of rising as the tape flipped to the A side, and Danny sighed a little as Sam shifted in her sleep so that she was leaning more to the side and trying to slip off of the seat that she’d leaned back so many hours before when she realized that she wasn’t going to stay awake.

And as the song wound down Danny found himself with a still asleep Sam using his leg as a pillow as she tried to curl herself up on the front seat. She didn’t look tired anymore, he mused as he glanced down at her. Her hair was streaked like inky strands across her face, and her breathing was slow and steady.

“I was standing all alone against the world outside; you were searching for a place to hide.”

Danny bit his tongue with a faint grin as he found himself opening his mouth to start singing along. It wasn’t his favorite song on the tape; he still thought Desperado was totally rocked live and that the remake outshone the original like the sun when compared to a candle. But it didn’t mean that he didn’t know every word to every song, and it certainly didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy singing along.

But he didn’t want to wake Sam. She looked so peaceful asleep, and as much as he enjoyed sleeping beside her, this was different. She seemed so much more vulnerable for some reason. Maybe it was just the fact that she trusted him enough to sleep while he drove. Maybe it was the way she had finally wormed her way around so that she could touch him. That was something, surely.

Barring the one occasion it had happened at the zoo while on gorilla watch (and God, he hoped that Sam had burned the picture) Tucker had always kept to his sleeping bag, his side of the car, his patch of grass, even when completely zoned out to the world.

So it had to mean something. It had to mean that Tucker was completely and utterly right. Or at least that she cared for him as much as he did for her. Except that that was an oxymoron and completely redundant, because it was the same thing. He smiled down at Sam as he thought that. Well, at least he could prove to her that he really did pay attention in class now. She’d be proud.

“Don’t you worry, sometimes you just gotta let it ride. The world is changing right before your eyes.”

He bit his lip and unconsciously eased his foot off of the accelerator a little, letting the needle drop from ninety-five to eighty. It wasn’t the first time he’d listened, actually listened to the words of the song. But it was the first time he’d really listened to them while Sam was with him, and now that they were… intimate seemed so passé, but he couldn’t say that they were together.

Neither of them had spoken about a relationship. He’d been too afraid to broach the subject, even if he didn’t know why she refused to mention it. Maybe lovers was the best word for them. He could surely ease her from the thought of lovers to beloved, if he did it carefully enough.

Or maybe he could just let things go the way they were and trust in fate or destiny or some higher power to make things turn out the way he wanted. Everything had changed since they’d started this trip. Not that it hadn’t changed years before when he was just a child realizing he was in love with his best friend. That had been a hell of a change to realize at fifteen.

Now he was twenty-one, an adult, out on his own, and the knowledge how helplessly and hopelessly in love with her he was still scared the life out of Danny. She changed everything, just by being.

Without a thought he reached down to brush the hair form her face and eyes, slowing more and smiling as she blinked sleepily up at him. “Morning,” he said softly, barely loud enough to be heard over the radio.

She smiled a little at him. “Is it morning already?”

He nodded and lifted his hand to point at the dawning sun where it painted the sky before them in pinks and purples and misty silvers. “Just about; the sun started rising a bit ago.”

She yawned but didn’t move to sit up or even return to her side of the front seat. “You let me sleep all night.”

“You were tired,” he said as he dropped his hand back down to smooth his fingers down her shoulder and then lay it on her side. He smiled as he felt her hand find his and twine their fingers together.

“Wake me up when you want to trade, okay?”

He didn’t answer, just let the song play on and lull her back to even breathing and restful slumber. Once he was sure she was gone again, he wedged his knee against the steering wheel and reached across it with his now free hand to turn the music up a little, loathe to wake her by tugging his hand from hers.

“I would you die for you, climb the highest mountain. Baby, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do.”

This time Danny just sang softly along, content with his arm resting on her side, her hand clasped firmly in his.

---

“Danny, we don’t need gas,” Sam said, exasperated as he trundled the Chevelle down an off ramp that wasn’t on the map. “We got gas before we left Chicago, and we only left an hour ago. You can’t empty a perfectly good gas tank in an hour, not even driving your parents’ GAV.”

“I’m thirsty,” he said with a smirk as they drove past a gas station complete with convenience store.

“Danny.”

“Sam,” he said back with equal gravity, though he couldn’t mimic the annoyance she’d used.

She only glared at him as he sped along the road as quickly as he could. It dead ended on a stretch of sandy beach and the dark lapping waters of Lake Michigan. Still silent she followed him until she was leaning against the hood of the Chevelle next to him as he watched the water growing darker as the sun set behind them.

“I wasn’t sure if we could get here before sunset,” he said suddenly, startling her from the silence. “I knew we were going to hit traffic the second we made it to St. Louis. And I knew we’d have to stop to see the Arch. I wanted a picture of it, too,” and he flashed her a grin. “And I knew we’d hit even more traffic in Chicago. Weekday, middle of the afternoon. Don’t have to be a genius to figure that out.”

“So why?” she asked, not even sure what she was asking. Maybe she was asking why he’d been so intent on getting to Chicago and turning northward, homeward. Maybe she was asking why it mattered. Somehow, she thought she was asking why it was so important for them to be there, right there, right then, at sunset.

He looked down at her and turned so that he was leaning with his hip. His eyes were dark, but she knew the look on his face. It was the face he’d worn so often when they were kids, the face she thought she’d never have to see again after the morning they left their little sanctuary in Oklahoma. A face that was want and longing and love and fear and a million other things all at once that made her heart ache as he smiled and reached for her.

His lips were gentle on hers, as gentle as the first kiss they’d shared in the middle of nowhere. His hands were at her waist, pulling her insistently closer, but not forcing her. There was no need; she went willingly, snaking her arms up and around his neck as they kissed. The sun sank and the wind that moved in off of the lake was cold, but the shivers she felt weren’t because of it.

Somehow, just the feel of his body against hers was enough to make her break out into goose bumps. He pulled back a little, blue eyes burning into hers, and Sam couldn’t smile, couldn’t even do more than look back and hope. He gave her a little half smile and pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth in a careful and chaste kiss.

“Sam,” he started, but said nothing as he pulled her against him again.

Again she went, willing slave to her love, and laid her head against his chest as the sun continued its journey past the horizon. It was full dark before either of them said anything, moved, even thought. And when one of them did, it was her, breaking the silence that had been built over years.

“I don’t want this to end,” she whispered. She wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sad when he didn’t say anything.

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

It had only just gone nine o’clock when Danny parked the Chevelle in front of his building. Somehow the happy homecoming wasn’t exactly what he’d hoped. Sam was quiet and withdrawn, and he wasn’t too much better. His mind kept going to the next morning and the fact that she was boarding a plane back to New York at a quarter after twelve. She would leave and this would become nothing more than a memory.

Without a word he slid out of the car and headed for the trunk. He shouldered his duffel bag and the little bag of souvenirs he’d gotten in Vegas and then reached for Sam’s, but a slim hand on his stopped him. When he looked up she shook her head at him and picked it up, and her backpack where it was tucked against the wheel well, slipping it on and turning her back on him as she headed straight for the stairs.

She knew where his apartment was, they’d made a single stop there between the airport and the first leg of the road trip. She’d wanted to grab a quick shower after being cooped up on a plane from New York to Chicago to Amity Park. She was waiting at the door when he got there and flipped through his keys before sliding one in the lock and twisting it. The door opened, they both went quietly in, and he closed the door, locking it was an ominous sounding click.

Without thinking Danny dropped his bags next to the door with hers and reached out for her. “Sam, I—”

She stopped him with a hand over his mouth, keeping his face turned down as the backpack slid from her shoulders and hit the floor with a thud. “Don’t, Danny. Don’t say anything.” Then her lips were on his and Danny didn’t really care what he’d been about to say. Better that he just take what he had right now, and maybe later he could sort it out into something he understood.

The apartment was dark as Sam drew him deeper within, the only light being the lamp next to the door, but their steps were sure as they found their way to his room and the bed. He was careful as he pulled away from her, fingers skimming down her arms and then slipping to her waist and the hem of her shirt. He drew it up slowly, eyes still adjusting to the darkness, but he could see the way her chest rose as she breathed in sharply when his fingers skimmed the edges of her lace covered breasts before he tugged the shirt over her head and let it drop to the floor.

“Wait,” he whispered as she started to tug on his shirt.

With a flick of his fingers tiny little flames sprang to life on the stand next to his bed, glaringly green for a moment before the ectoplasm wore itself out and left nothing but clean orange-yellow flames behind. Her eyes darted to the candles for a moment before finding his again, and he smiled down at her.

“Yeah. Your candles. I only burned them the once,” he said softly as he took her back in his arms and laid her gently back on the bed.

“For luck,” she replied as she watched him pull his shirt off over his head and let it drop to the floor. His fingers were hot as they undid the snap of her jeans and started tugging them down, only to be caught up with a curse that was half laugh as he worked the laces of her boots until he could take them and the jeans off to lie in a crumpled heap at the foot of the bed.

She was biting her lip as Danny let his own jeans fall to the floor but the worried gesture was quickly turned to a whispered moan as he knelt on the edge of the bed, running his hands up her legs as he followed them with his mouth. She squirmed on a gasping laugh as his tongue flicked into her belly button, and Sam tugged him further up so that she could kiss him, her hands playing along the hard lines of his shoulders as she arched her back for him to undo the clasp of her bra.

The second it was off Danny’s mouth slipped from hers to suckle at her breast, leaving her to gasp as his tongue flicked across the nipples. She nearly protested when he stopped, but the thought was completely given up when his fingers looped themselves around the hem of her panties. She started to lift her hips but her skin chilled as he gave a pull and smirked as the lacy black material returned to tangibility. She laughed and plucked them from his hand before dropping them over the edge of the bed.

“Nice trick. Do it to yours,” she commanded as she yanked on the edge of his boxers.

And then her eyes were closing as he sank into her with a groan, drinking in the way the candlelight played across her pale skin and the way her lips fell apart on a whimper that sounded like his name. Her nails were digging into the skin of his arms, but he didn’t mind, didn’t’ even care. The pain was a goad to the pleasure that he was giving her, just knowing that she came apart like that just from him being inside her—it was almost like heaven. He bent down and brushed his lips across hers, carefully moving within her as her eyes slipped open again to meet his.

Her lips curved up in a faint smile, and Danny kissed her again as he quickened the pace, knowing from the way that she was breathing that she wasn’t far from coming. It was something that he prided himself on, knowing that he could control himself and his own desires to make sure that she enjoyed herself as much, if not more, than him. But the control almost wasn’t there her head fell back and his mouth found her throat as she throbbed around him. Danny had to force himself still for a moment before he lost control. She’d liked it the night he had, but this…

This was special.

There were tears in her eyes when she opened them again, he could see them clinging to her lashes, flames dancing off them in watery glints. “Please,” she whispered, and Danny buried his face in Sam’s neck as he moved again, the muscles along his back clenching as he drove himself and her again to the edge.

It was there again as he did. The want, the need to tell her how he felt. The plaguing desire to cry to the world how much he loved her. But in the end the words couldn’t leave his throat as he plunged them both over the edge of the abyss. In the end the words were still inside as he held her in his arms, both of them trembling in the aftermath. Trapped and useless as she gave him a soft kiss and slid away and out of the bed and padded silently to the bathroom.

He heard the water turn on, the hiss of the shower, and couldn’t help but to bury his face in his hands. For someone who was a hero, his courage was certainly failing.

He heard her get in and the soft spray of water hitting skin. He followed her in then, letting his hands glide across her back as she leaned into him, warm and wet. Her eyes were closed, and she was biting her lip again.

“Sam,” he murmured above the sound of the water, turning her to face them. Her eyes opened, dark and lavender as he stared down at her. The words failed him again, so he lowered his mouth to hers. And if the water that stained her lips was a little saltier than it should have been, he said nothing about it.

---

He was awake long before her, his mind whirring into consciousness as the sun rose above the horizon. Danny didn’t wake Sam. Instead he just watched, memorized the way she looked sleeping next to him. The way her hair spread like a dark mist on the pillow, the way his old shirt bunched p at her waist so that he could see the uninterrupted length of pale leg. They way that, even as she slept, she held on to him. It was almost like she couldn’t bear being apart from him.

The sun rose higher and Danny’s eyes finally flitted to the clock. He sighed when he saw that the alarm was going to go off in less than a minute and reached out with one hand to turn it off. Instead of letting the arm blare loudly he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, kissing her until he felt the pressure returned and she was moving next to him, her hands coming up to tangle in his hair as his pulled her close.

She pulled back with a sleepy yawn, and he smiled down at her trying to at least look happier than he really was. “It’s time to get up. You’ve got half an hour before you have to check in.”

The words were like ice water splashed in her face and the foggy pleasure Sam had felt at being wakened with a kiss evaporated as she realized that Danny was telling her that she had a half hour before she had to leave. She blinked rapidly trying to stall the burning in her eyes as she sat up and swung her legs over the bed putting her back to Danny. She nodded, unable to find her voice.

Danny could only watch as she disappeared into the bathroom, backpack in hand, with a whispered, “Call me a taxi,” that brooked no argument.

He did, and when she emerged not ten minutes later the yellow car was already waiting at the curb in front of his building. The backpack was clutched in her hands and she didn’t look at him as she stooped to pick up her other bag, slinging it across her should and grabbing the doorknob almost before Danny got to the door and stopped her.

He slapped one hand on the door to stop her from opening it and looked down at her, forcing her face up to meet his with one hand under her chin and glaring at her, half angry, mostly hurt. “Sam, what are you doing? You can’t just go.”

She tugged her face from his grip and closed her eyes. “I’m going to be late.”

“Sam,” he said softly, bringing his face down in an effort to kiss her. She stepped back before he could and he could only stare at her.

“Goodbye, Danny,” she said, and she could see the way his face went blank in emotionless shock. She used it, the effects of her cold goodbye, to slip under his arm and wrench the door open, escaping into the morning light, leaving him behind.

She didn’t close the door, didn’t pause for a moment that Danny could hear. He could hear it clearly when she yanked the taxi door opened and slid inside with a harsh order for the airport, and the slam as she closed it echoed loudly enough that it nearly drowned out the engine as the car pulled away from the curb taking her away from him and, he could admit it in the face of her farewell, out of his life.

The taxi was well beyond hearing before Danny finally closed the door. When he did he turned and leaned against it for a long moment before his knees gave out and he slid into a huddled heap in behind it, his face buried against his arms as he tried to figure out what had just happened. She was gone, and he’d let it happen. She wasn’t coming back, if she’d been planning on it she would never have left.

And, if he was completely honest with himself, Danny had never given her a reason to stay. He’d never once said anything to her to tell her that it was more than just sex, that it was just plain more.

He should have. The fact that he didn’t made him hate himself. He’d held it all in, god, since they were kids, when he should have just told her. His fear, his cowardice was the reason she was gone.

The thought struck him in the space of a heartbeat: She hadn’t left; he’d let her go.

That realization made him feel even worse that he already did, because that made what he’d done, what he hadn’t said, worse than the way her own parents had hid their failing marriage. At least they had tried keeping it quiet in an effort to keep Sam happy and secure until they thought she was old enough, mature enough to cope with it. And he’d held his peace because… because he was a fool.

She was gone, and she wasn’t coming back.

---

Sam had always been a strong person and she’d always been thankful to that core since she’d been young. Mostly the thankfulness had been Danny’s fault. She’d spent far too much time worrying about his safety when he was off fighting ghosts. In reality she could readily admit that the only time her strength had failed her was in the face of her parents’ divorce, and then she had relied on Danny and Tucker instead.

She didn’t have Tucker at her side now, and she wouldn’t have Danny either. So she relied on herself as she checked her bag, her brain on autopilot as she filled out claim slips and slid around the handle. Her boarding pass was tucked safely away in her backpack, slung over her shoulder as she threaded her way through the other passengers waiting to check their luggage, and into the line to pass through security. Time passed, unerringly whittled away as she waited there, and Sam forced herself to stay still, to stay calm. It was a trial in will not to think of Danny and the way that they’d parted.

Her composure stayed perfect until she was passed through security and she found her way to the escalator that led to the concourse. It seemed that almost the second that she set foot on it, that her hand found the rail and she could rely on something else to take her where she needed to go, that her mind woke up and she could hear him again. Hear the way he said her name as they made love, or the way he’d whispered it as he pulled her close to sleep. The sleepy way he would say it in the morning when he didn’t really want to get up and tried to drag her back under the covers for a few more minutes.

She almost missed her step at the top of the escalator, but she caught herself just in time. It jarred her back to the present and she managed to wipe the tears from her eyes enough that she could find her way to her gate. It wasn’t a difficult task; Amity Park’s airport wasn’t international and only had a dozen. Hers was gate seven, right in the middle of the concourse, and she found a seat on the far side of one of the planters where she was hidden by the massive leaves of the fake bush.

She sank into the seat and shoved her backpack underneath it as she curled in on herself, holding her arms tightly as she closed her eyes against the sunlight. “Danny… I didn’t want to go. Why didn’t you tell me to stay?” she whispered miserably to herself as she felt her eyes growing hot once again.

She laughed quietly, bitterly as she rubbed her eyes again with her sleeve. “Stupid, stupid me.”

“Sam.”

She bit her lip at the remembered sound of his voice.

“Sam. You can’t just leave.”

With a startled gasp she shot upright in the seat, tear streaked face whipping around to find him sitting next to her, eyes just as upset and shadowed as hers, if not as tearstained. “Danny, you can’t be here.”

He gave her a crooked grin. “What the use of having ghost powers if I can’t slip past security?” he asked as he reached a hand out towards her, rubbing at her cheek with his thumb before leaning forward to brush his lips against hers. “Sam, I can’t just let you go.”

“But you already did,” she said softly.

He shook his head. “No, Sam. I’m never letting you go. I love you too much to let you go.”

Whatever she’d been planning on saying flew straight out of Sam’s head at Danny’s words, and her jaw dropped as she stared at him in numb silence. Without any warning Danny slid out of the chair he sat in and dropped to his knees in front of Sam, taking both of her hands in his. She could feel his hands shaking where they held hers.

“I can’t promise you a happy ending, Sam,” he said as he raised one hand to cup her cheek. “But I can promise that I’ll never stop trying to make one with you.” He leaned up and pressed another kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Just don’t go like this, please.”

And she found her voice.

“I have to go, but okay.”

“Okay?” he echoed.

She nodded. “I can finish my semester, it’s my last, and I can come back. Come home.”

He grinned at her widely and she answered it with a smile of her own. “You can come home to me. This time, I’ll make sure you don’t have a reason to go.”

“You love me, and I love you. That’s reason enough,” she whispered against his lips.

I'm gonna make damn sure
I just wanna break you down so badly
I just wanna break you down so badly (damn sure)
In the worst way (worst way)

Description
Title: MakeDamnSure (SongShot) p.3
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.3

I'm gonna make damn sure that you can't ever leave
No, you won't ever get too far from me
You won't ever get too far from me
I'll make damn sure that you can't ever leave

Vegas was a blast.

When they got there the strip was already lit for the night—it came earlier in the desert where the world was below sea level—and Danny and Sam found themselves arguing over where to stay. Danny wanted to go to Caesar’s Palace, he’d already heard Sam rave about how awesome it was when her Grams took her as a graduation present. Sam wanted to try the MGM Grand, because she’d already been to Caesar’s and it was old school now. In the end they compromised, though they never agreed to.

Danny was the first to lay eyes on it: tall, towering, with brilliantly reflective windows colored gold. He stopped Sam in the middle of her sentence and dragged her face around to see what he was looking at and said, “There. We’re staying there.”

She laughed at him. “And why there?”

“Because the windows tell me we’ll win in the casino,” he answered with all seriousness.

“The windows are talking to you?” she snickered behind a hand as she started to look at the hotel next to it. And then she saw the name of Danny’s dream casino and a smile split her face. “Oh, Danny, you’re right. We’re staying there.”

The valet was well done, and Danny tipped him as he deserved, but there were several other people waiting and Danny sighed as he realized that it would be a few before someone got to their bags. But Sam just smiled and laid a hand on his arm as she arched a dark brow at him. “No, Danny. We won’t have to wait. Watch, and see how it’s done.”

Two second later a porter walked past them and Sam sent him a beaming smile and instructed him to take their bags to check in. Then she said, “And tell them that Samantha Manson is here, of the Long Island Manson’s.”

The check in was gratuitously fast with the fawning manager jumping them in front of another couple and a party of too many to be counted. They ended up with a suite on the thirty-ninth floor that had been reserved by someone else and, try as Danny might to feel guilty, he just couldn’t, because the second they walked in it was like heaven in Vegas.

“So,” he said after the bags had been delivered and the bellboy tipped and gone. “The Long Island Manson’s?”

She only smiled lazily at him. “Did you really think that we got all of our money from deli toothpicks?”

Without a word further Sam only took Danny’s duffel and hers and upended them in the middle of the floor before sorting her way through the clothes. With a frown she ended up just piling them up and then searching the kitchenette for a phone. That done she made a call and Danny just watched as she worked quickly and quietly.

“You know, Sam,” he said when she was done issuing her orders disguised as requests over the phone. “For someone who doesn’t flaunt her money much, you certainly know how to use it.”

She stuck her tongue out. “Danny, Paris Hilton has nothing on me. Come on, let’s go grab a shower.”

“All of our clothes are dirty and in a pile in the middle of the floor.”

“And they’ll be gone when we get out,” she answered in a singsong as she made her way to the larger of the two rooms and peered in, pleased.

Danny frowned. “What did you do, Sam?”

She smiled cagily. “There was a reason why I refused to do laundry at Tucker’s. I hate doing my own laundry. Now we’re paying someone else to do it.”

He chuckled. “And we’re going to stay here until said laundry is done?”

She shook her head. “What’s the use of playing the princess if I don’t drop a couple grand on a new outfit or two?” She grinned. “You always wanted to see me in a dress, Danny. Well, tonight you get to. And I get to see you in something other than a t-shirt and jeans.”

He was at a loss for words at her declaration.

“Now,” she said, and her tone turned impish. “Are you coming? Because I need someone to scrub my back.”

---

The self conscious way he felt disappeared after the first hour of wandering the Mandalay with Sam at his side. She had, sneaky little thing that she was, ensured that their clothes were taken to be cleaned while they were in the shower. And, as promised, she’d dropped a couple grand on new clothes. For the both of them. And while dressing up wasn’t something Danny did very often, he’d dropped his complaints the second Sam had emerged from the bathroom and ordered him to take her out.

She’d used the hair dryer that came with the room to dry her hair after the shower they’d shared. It was dark and shiny and he already knew exactly what it smelled like. He would, since he’d been the one to wash it for her. She’d pulled it back into a clip so that it gathered loosely at the nape of her neck leaving nothing but her bangs to swing around her eyes and make her look almost exotic and mysterious, but Danny could already see where strands were working themselves steadily loose.

Before the night was over he’d have the clip in his pocket. That he knew, too, because before the night was over he was going to have run his hands through her hair so many times that she’d get sick of fixing it.

The dress was slim, a fitted black sheathe that he couldn’t figure out, for the life of him, how it was put on. It left too much pale leg free for his imagination for all that it covered the rest of her so wonderfully. Bare arms and a tiny little strap that slipped up one shoulder, around the back of her neck, and down the other. She wore diamonds at her ears, another at her throat, and her high school ring on her right hand. Next to no makeup; as far as Danny cared she looked best in nothing at all.

He’d told her that once and he supposed she remembered because all he could tell she was wearing was a bit of eyeliner and some lip gloss.

But it was really the heels that did him in and made him not care about anything else. The black heels that were strapped to her foot by a dozen thin straps and made her lips inches closer to his. For that alone he loved them, but the fact that they only made her legs look longer helped. And the way she walked—he’d never seen her in anything but her boots, sneakers, and a pair of sandals at the beach. Flats, all of them, and they did nothing for the woman’s hips like the heels did.

The best (or worst; he’d yet to decide) part was that she knew it. And she took great pains to walk in front of him, or position herself just so if she leaned against anything. Or to Tucker herself right up under his arm because with the heels her head rested higher on his shoulder and if he turned his head just so his lips were very nearly on hers.

It was devilish. He loved it.

He was sure that the dress cost more than he wanted to know. He was already trying to figure out how to pay her back for the shirt and pants she’d gotten for him. He wouldn’t have worn them if he’d had anything else to wear, not after seeing the price tags. After all, who in their right mind spent eight hundred dollars on a pair of plain black pants? Sam, apparently, so he wore them, and the blue shirt she’d gotten, too. She’d been overly thoughtful. The outfit was complete, right down to an undershirt and boxers, and there was no way in hell Danny was ever telling Tucker how thoroughly Sam had gotten to him.

But the outfit looked alright. She said that the shirt matched his eyes. He didn’t care if it didn’t or didn’t because right after she said Sam let him kiss all off her lip gloss off of her.

They toured the shops, glanced around the restaurants, and Sam was firm as she steered him away from the casino. “I want to go look at something first, Danny,” she insisted. “It’s the only reason why we’re staying here and not at the MGM.”

He rolled his eyes. “I could have talked you into this.”

“Oh, sure. Because you’re so smooth, right, Danny?” she said with a snicker as she dragged him around another corner and into the beginning of an oversized fish tank.

“Whoa, what’s this?” Danny asked her as he glanced through the glass at the brightly colored fish.

“An aquarium.” Sam shook her head. “What does it look like?”

He took a startled step back. “It looks like trouble,” he said as his eyes followed a dark, dangerous lithesome shape swimming less than three feet from him. “That’s a shark, Sam. That’s a really big shark.”

She laughed at him. Laughed. Of all things she laughed. He scowled at her and she slid an arm around his waist. “The Mandalay has a shark reef, Danny. I’ve heard about it from some friends. I wanted to see it.”

“You’ve seen it. Can we go?”

She laughed at him again and his scowl deepened. “Are you afraid of the sharks behind the glass? They can’t get to you. It’s inches thick and nobody is about to break it.”

“Sam, I’m the king of bad luck. I’m jinxed. I don’t like sharks, and when the imp of the perverse puts two and two together I’m going to end up swimming in there somehow.” The sad thing was that Danny was perfectly serious.

She just smiled at him. “One time through it, okay? I promise I’ll protect you.”

How could he do anything but give in?

---

“It wouldn’t have been this much fun if we’d gone in with the high rollers,” Sam said over the shouting as they crowded in with the other members of the audience. They’d finally made it to the casino and someone had started a streak at one of the craps tables. In an effort to teach Danny the game Sam had dragged him over and attempted to be heard over the crowd.

She would have been better off trying to go ghost. It was impossible to be heard at less than a shout every time the dice hit the felt.

Danny already dragged her through the slots (he lost twenty there) and amid the blackjack tables (that had been closer to fifty) and she’d tried to get him away from the roulette wheels (that had been more than fifty, but less than the three hundred he still had in his wallet). And now, much to her chagrin, Sam realized that crowding Danny at a craps table probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

“I want to try,” he nearly yelled in her ear, and Sam winced. The damage was already done.

There was nothing to do but to follow Danny as he worked his way in to take the place of one of the players who’d either lost enough to call it quits, or won enough. He slid in and Sam snagged his wallet from his pocket and counted out a hundred to cash for chips. In short order she had him set up and three turns later the dealer was pushing the dice at Danny.

She picked them up and laid them in his hands. “Listen to me, Danny. It’s a hundred in. you get one shot. Roll a seven or an eleven. Okay?”

He shifted. “It’s more complicated than that, isn’t it?”

“Not for you, it isn’t,” she smiled. “You just roll the dice, I’ll take care of the rest.”

It had to pure luck. He didn’t have a clue how to play, he sucked a gambling period, but somehow, and Sam never could figure it out, rolled a seven. She watched in pleased surprise as the dealer stacked three chips next to the original one, and then the dice were back in Danny’s hand as Sam stared at the now four hundred dollars worth of chips, still trying to figure it out.

“So, seven or eleven, right?” Danny asked with a smirk.

She leaned closer and flushed at the cat calls from around them as she was sure the crowd thought she promising wild sexual acts if he rolled another winner. “Did you use your powers?”

He shook his head as he pulled back. “Nope. Just rolled the dice. Betcha I can’t do it again.”

It had to have been that certainty that he wouldn’t, Sam thought. The next roll was a seven, and more chips joined the small stack. She stopped him before he rolled again and ordered the chips moved. An eleven, this time, and Sam smirked a little as she realized that Danny was now the one with the streak. Another move of the chips, and a seven. The dealer traded nearly all of the chips in before Danny rolled again. It was another seven.

Another seven, an eleven, and Sam didn’t really want to even think about what would happen if Danny rolled badly. But the dealer was looking at Danny and her, waiting to see if the chips were hopscotched across the board again. Danny looked at her and she bit her lip and shook her head. “Let it ride,” she said softly enough that the dealer leaned forward to catch the instruction.

She turned to Danny. “No pressure, but do it again.”

He grinned at her and pulled her close, nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck. “Anything for you, Sam.”

She closed her eyes as the dice fell again and waited in the almost hush to find out if Danny’d done it again. It was still quiet, too quiet, and Sam wondered how she was going to explain to him what the chip values he’d just lost were worth. Except that then there was a whisper from the crowd, and there was the sound of chips dancing against the felt, and Sam found herself opening her eyes to see that the single hundred dollar chip Danny had started with had multiplied exponentially.

“Again?” Danny asked, and Sam shook her head at him and signaled the dealer that they were out.

“No, Danny. Not a chance in hell,” she said, still in a surprised shock. “You don’t know what you just did, do you, Danny?”

He shook his head. “I won?”

She chuckled and pointed at the dealer who was waving one of the Mandalay’s security guards over and handing him a small satchel with Danny’s chips in it. “We follow him,” she said and dragged Danny along as she muttered, “Cash out,” to the guard.

As they walked she slipped her arm in his. “Alright, you started with your chip. One chip, worth a hundred dollars, right?”

He nodded as they stopped at a closed door and were ushered in. “And now I’ve got a bunch of chips in crazy colors. I did good.”

She laughed. “You did very good, Danny. Now watch as they count your winnings.”

There was one stack that Danny recognized. “Okay, those are all hundred dollar chips. Right?”

“Yeah,” Sam said as she pointed at the next stack. “And these are worth five hundred. And these are worth a thousand.”

Danny blinked. “I did really good.” His voice was a little tight as he realized exactly what he’d done.

“Call it beginner’s luck,” she said as the last of the chips were stacked and counted. With a glance for permission she fingered one of the chips in the smallest stack of three. “These are worth five thousand, Danny. You didn’t have to go play with the high rollers to be one.”

It was worth the look on his face when he got the official looking check.

---

Forty-seven thousand dollars. It was more than Danny had made in the last three years at his job. Not that he worked full time, or even really got paid all that well. But still, he would have had to work another four or five years there to make that much. And he’d done it in a single night with Sam at his side. It was probably one of the best things that had ever happened to him, outside of the things that involved Sam.

He had, at his absolute and utter insistence, treated her to a very late dinner at one of the restaurants next to the reef, where they could watch the sharks swimming languidly through the aquarium. Sam had been beautiful and sweet and had charmed the recipe for the eggplant parmesan out of the chef. Danny had watched the sharks carefully while he considered the fish on the menu. He’d stuck with steak in an attempt not to poke at fate.

After that he’d kissed her and played with her hair in the shadow of the reed until she let him tuck the clip away, and then he’d kissed her some more until he convinced her that the bed in their suite was more interesting than anything else the Mandalay could offer them at four in the morning. It was, and it was hours until Danny let her drop into a sated and exhausted sleep next to him, with his arms wrapped around her and his face buried in her hair at the nape of her neck.

He was too awake to sleep, somehow still energized from the rush that was Vegas. He’d offered to split the winnings with her, but Sam had just laughed and told that it had been his cash that started the streak. That was where he’d brought up food and demanded that he pay. But even with that money spent, the entirety of the check was still locked in the safe in the closet, waiting for him to take it home and add it to his account.

And the thoughts that check gave him…

There was enough there, added to his savings, and despite the money he’d taken out for the trip, to do what he’d been saving up for. There was a house on the west side of Amity that had come on the market his first year in college. The price had been outrageous, but it was sold within a matter of days. Less than three months later it had come back on the market.

It had gone through the same cycle three times before the for sale sign finally stayed up. And Danny had investigated.

It turned out that the house was haunted, and that the haunting had driven the price down by more than half. And now, if it was still on the market when he got him, Danny had enough to make an offer. Sure, he’d have to apply for a loan from his bank. But there wouldn’t be a problem with that. He’d made sure of that when he’d started to seriously think about trying to make an offer months before.

The money was the only thing that had kept him from doing it. He wanted to be able to put enough down to keep the monthly mortgage low. And now he could. And maybe, he thought as he pulled Sam a little closer, he could talk her into it, too, make her an offer that was too good to refuse. A home, his heart, a life together.

The sun had long since risen when Danny’s mind finally slowed enough to let him sleep. Less than an hour later the phone was ringing and Danny was fumbling to answer it before it woke Sam. It was the wakeup call they’d asked for, and Danny groaned and rubbed his eyes as he peered at the clock and realized how little sleep he’d actually gotten.

“Sam,” he muttered as he shook her shoulder. “It’s time to wake up. They called. We need to get on the road.”

She whimpered and burrowed her face into the pillow. “Five more minutes?” she asked, mostly asleep, and Danny sighed.

“We have to get up. We have to go. Come on, Sam,” he insisted as he tried to get her up and out of the bed.

She just wrapped herself around him and snuggled close. “No we don’t. We can make it up later,” she murmured as she dragged him back down to the bed and held him close.

It took Danny all of two minutes to relent and give in, forgetting the wakeup call and curling himself back around her until sleep found him again. But she was less than friendly when she woke up later. Much, much later. It was nearly five o’clock and the sun was only hours from setting, and her eyes were so very angry as she ripped the thick comforter off of him and tossed it on the floor as she seethed with annoyance.

“Danny, get up,” she ordered. “We missed our wakeup call. We’re running way behind. And why are you so tired? Didn’t you get any sleep? What were you doing instead of sleeping?”

Danny tried not to laugh. He really did. The laugh got him a pillow in the face, but he was still wildly amused as he made his way to the bathroom for a quick shower before they hit the road. She was so angry because he’d let them both sleep, and how could he ever tell her he’d missed hours because he was contemplating buying a house and asking her to live with him. Forever.

But he wouldn’t mind getting woken up by her every morning.

No, you won't ever get too far from me
You won't ever get too far from me
You won't ever get too far from me (ever get too far)
You won't ever get too far...

She’d fallen asleep sometime after Grand Junction and before they hit Denver. The lights didn’t even disturb her as he slipped through the sleeping city and found his way to I-25, and from there to I-76. It would merge into 80; then he could follow that through Nebraska and Iowa straight on into Illinois. He’d have to reroute and Chicago to take them back up to Amity Park, but that wouldn’t be so bad. All he’d have to do is convince her to let them keep driving on until they were home.

He’d rather spend his last night with her sleeping next to him in his own bed, in his own apartment, instead of some strange and unfamiliar hotel in the middle of Chicago two hours from home.

He made it to the Colorado border and passed them into Kansas without disturbing her, but by the time he’d made it halfway through the state he was dying to hear something other than the purr of the Chevelle’s engine, the sounds of tires moving across the road beneath them. Even the need to concentrate on the road was undercut by the silence around him, and Danny slowed the car down to the regular speed limit as he carefully and quietly reach past his sleeping Sam and let the glove box drop open so that he could reach in and grab a random cassette out.

He made sure to close it as quietly as he’d opened it before he saw what he’d grabbed, but he wasn’t worried. There wasn’t a single scrap of music in that glove box that he didn’t already love. But out of all of his cassettes, Danny could easily say that the Eagles tape in his hand was probably the most well played.

It was on the B side, and Danny listened in silence as he drove steadily on towards Topeka and the Missouri border. The sun was just beginning to show the first signs of rising as the tape flipped to the A side, and Danny sighed a little as Sam shifted in her sleep so that she was leaning more to the side and trying to slip off of the seat that she’d leaned back so many hours before when she realized that she wasn’t going to stay awake.

And as the song wound down Danny found himself with a still asleep Sam using his leg as a pillow as she tried to curl herself up on the front seat. She didn’t look tired anymore, he mused as he glanced down at her. Her hair was streaked like inky strands across her face, and her breathing was slow and steady.

“I was standing all alone against the world outside; you were searching for a place to hide.”

Danny bit his tongue with a faint grin as he found himself opening his mouth to start singing along. It wasn’t his favorite song on the tape; he still thought Desperado was totally rocked live and that the remake outshone the original like the sun when compared to a candle. But it didn’t mean that he didn’t know every word to every song, and it certainly didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy singing along.

But he didn’t want to wake Sam. She looked so peaceful asleep, and as much as he enjoyed sleeping beside her, this was different. She seemed so much more vulnerable for some reason. Maybe it was just the fact that she trusted him enough to sleep while he drove. Maybe it was the way she had finally wormed her way around so that she could touch him. That was something, surely.

Barring the one occasion it had happened at the zoo while on gorilla watch (and God, he hoped that Sam had burned the picture) Tucker had always kept to his sleeping bag, his side of the car, his patch of grass, even when completely zoned out to the world.

So it had to mean something. It had to mean that Tucker was completely and utterly right. Or at least that she cared for him as much as he did for her. Except that that was an oxymoron and completely redundant, because it was the same thing. He smiled down at Sam as he thought that. Well, at least he could prove to her that he really did pay attention in class now. She’d be proud.

“Don’t you worry, sometimes you just gotta let it ride. The world is changing right before your eyes.”

He bit his lip and unconsciously eased his foot off of the accelerator a little, letting the needle drop from ninety-five to eighty. It wasn’t the first time he’d listened, actually listened to the words of the song. But it was the first time he’d really listened to them while Sam was with him, and now that they were… intimate seemed so passé, but he couldn’t say that they were together.

Neither of them had spoken about a relationship. He’d been too afraid to broach the subject, even if he didn’t know why she refused to mention it. Maybe lovers was the best word for them. He could surely ease her from the thought of lovers to beloved, if he did it carefully enough.

Or maybe he could just let things go the way they were and trust in fate or destiny or some higher power to make things turn out the way he wanted. Everything had changed since they’d started this trip. Not that it hadn’t changed years before when he was just a child realizing he was in love with his best friend. That had been a hell of a change to realize at fifteen.

Now he was twenty-one, an adult, out on his own, and the knowledge how helplessly and hopelessly in love with her he was still scared the life out of Danny. She changed everything, just by being.

Without a thought he reached down to brush the hair form her face and eyes, slowing more and smiling as she blinked sleepily up at him. “Morning,” he said softly, barely loud enough to be heard over the radio.

She smiled a little at him. “Is it morning already?”

He nodded and lifted his hand to point at the dawning sun where it painted the sky before them in pinks and purples and misty silvers. “Just about; the sun started rising a bit ago.”

She yawned but didn’t move to sit up or even return to her side of the front seat. “You let me sleep all night.”

“You were tired,” he said as he dropped his hand back down to smooth his fingers down her shoulder and then lay it on her side. He smiled as he felt her hand find his and twine their fingers together.

“Wake me up when you want to trade, okay?”

He didn’t answer, just let the song play on and lull her back to even breathing and restful slumber. Once he was sure she was gone again, he wedged his knee against the steering wheel and reached across it with his now free hand to turn the music up a little, loathe to wake her by tugging his hand from hers.

“I would you die for you, climb the highest mountain. Baby, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do.”

This time Danny just sang softly along, content with his arm resting on her side, her hand clasped firmly in his.

---

“Danny, we don’t need gas,” Sam said, exasperated as he trundled the Chevelle down an off ramp that wasn’t on the map. “We got gas before we left Chicago, and we only left an hour ago. You can’t empty a perfectly good gas tank in an hour, not even driving your parents’ GAV.”

“I’m thirsty,” he said with a smirk as they drove past a gas station complete with convenience store.

“Danny.”

“Sam,” he said back with equal gravity, though he couldn’t mimic the annoyance she’d used.

She only glared at him as he sped along the road as quickly as he could. It dead ended on a stretch of sandy beach and the dark lapping waters of Lake Michigan. Still silent she followed him until she was leaning against the hood of the Chevelle next to him as he watched the water growing darker as the sun set behind them.

“I wasn’t sure if we could get here before sunset,” he said suddenly, startling her from the silence. “I knew we were going to hit traffic the second we made it to St. Louis. And I knew we’d have to stop to see the Arch. I wanted a picture of it, too,” and he flashed her a grin. “And I knew we’d hit even more traffic in Chicago. Weekday, middle of the afternoon. Don’t have to be a genius to figure that out.”

“So why?” she asked, not even sure what she was asking. Maybe she was asking why he’d been so intent on getting to Chicago and turning northward, homeward. Maybe she was asking why it mattered. Somehow, she thought she was asking why it was so important for them to be there, right there, right then, at sunset.

He looked down at her and turned so that he was leaning with his hip. His eyes were dark, but she knew the look on his face. It was the face he’d worn so often when they were kids, the face she thought she’d never have to see again after the morning they left their little sanctuary in Oklahoma. A face that was want and longing and love and fear and a million other things all at once that made her heart ache as he smiled and reached for her.

His lips were gentle on hers, as gentle as the first kiss they’d shared in the middle of nowhere. His hands were at her waist, pulling her insistently closer, but not forcing her. There was no need; she went willingly, snaking her arms up and around his neck as they kissed. The sun sank and the wind that moved in off of the lake was cold, but the shivers she felt weren’t because of it.

Somehow, just the feel of his body against hers was enough to make her break out into goose bumps. He pulled back a little, blue eyes burning into hers, and Sam couldn’t smile, couldn’t even do more than look back and hope. He gave her a little half smile and pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth in a careful and chaste kiss.

“Sam,” he started, but said nothing as he pulled her against him again.

Again she went, willing slave to her love, and laid her head against his chest as the sun continued its journey past the horizon. It was full dark before either of them said anything, moved, even thought. And when one of them did, it was her, breaking the silence that had been built over years.

“I don’t want this to end,” she whispered. She wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sad when he didn’t say anything.

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

It had only just gone nine o’clock when Danny parked the Chevelle in front of his building. Somehow the happy homecoming wasn’t exactly what he’d hoped. Sam was quiet and withdrawn, and he wasn’t too much better. His mind kept going to the next morning and the fact that she was boarding a plane back to New York at a quarter after twelve. She would leave and this would become nothing more than a memory.

Without a word he slid out of the car and headed for the trunk. He shouldered his duffel bag and the little bag of souvenirs he’d gotten in Vegas and then reached for Sam’s, but a slim hand on his stopped him. When he looked up she shook her head at him and picked it up, and her backpack where it was tucked against the wheel well, slipping it on and turning her back on him as she headed straight for the stairs.

She knew where his apartment was, they’d made a single stop there between the airport and the first leg of the road trip. She’d wanted to grab a quick shower after being cooped up on a plane from New York to Chicago to Amity Park. She was waiting at the door when he got there and flipped through his keys before sliding one in the lock and twisting it. The door opened, they both went quietly in, and he closed the door, locking it was an ominous sounding click.

Without thinking Danny dropped his bags next to the door with hers and reached out for her. “Sam, I—”

She stopped him with a hand over his mouth, keeping his face turned down as the backpack slid from her shoulders and hit the floor with a thud. “Don’t, Danny. Don’t say anything.” Then her lips were on his and Danny didn’t really care what he’d been about to say. Better that he just take what he had right now, and maybe later he could sort it out into something he understood.

The apartment was dark as Sam drew him deeper within, the only light being the lamp next to the door, but their steps were sure as they found their way to his room and the bed. He was careful as he pulled away from her, fingers skimming down her arms and then slipping to her waist and the hem of her shirt. He drew it up slowly, eyes still adjusting to the darkness, but he could see the way her chest rose as she breathed in sharply when his fingers skimmed the edges of her lace covered breasts before he tugged the shirt over her head and let it drop to the floor.

“Wait,” he whispered as she started to tug on his shirt.

With a flick of his fingers tiny little flames sprang to life on the stand next to his bed, glaringly green for a moment before the ectoplasm wore itself out and left nothing but clean orange-yellow flames behind. Her eyes darted to the candles for a moment before finding his again, and he smiled down at her.

“Yeah. Your candles. I only burned them the once,” he said softly as he took her back in his arms and laid her gently back on the bed.

“For luck,” she replied as she watched him pull his shirt off over his head and let it drop to the floor. His fingers were hot as they undid the snap of her jeans and started tugging them down, only to be caught up with a curse that was half laugh as he worked the laces of her boots until he could take them and the jeans off to lie in a crumpled heap at the foot of the bed.

She was biting her lip as Danny let his own jeans fall to the floor but the worried gesture was quickly turned to a whispered moan as he knelt on the edge of the bed, running his hands up her legs as he followed them with his mouth. She squirmed on a gasping laugh as his tongue flicked into her belly button, and Sam tugged him further up so that she could kiss him, her hands playing along the hard lines of his shoulders as she arched her back for him to undo the clasp of her bra.

The second it was off Danny’s mouth slipped from hers to suckle at her breast, leaving her to gasp as his tongue flicked across the nipples. She nearly protested when he stopped, but the thought was completely given up when his fingers looped themselves around the hem of her panties. She started to lift her hips but her skin chilled as he gave a pull and smirked as the lacy black material returned to tangibility. She laughed and plucked them from his hand before dropping them over the edge of the bed.

“Nice trick. Do it to yours,” she commanded as she yanked on the edge of his boxers.

And then her eyes were closing as he sank into her with a groan, drinking in the way the candlelight played across her pale skin and the way her lips fell apart on a whimper that sounded like his name. Her nails were digging into the skin of his arms, but he didn’t mind, didn’t’ even care. The pain was a goad to the pleasure that he was giving her, just knowing that she came apart like that just from him being inside her—it was almost like heaven. He bent down and brushed his lips across hers, carefully moving within her as her eyes slipped open again to meet his.

Her lips curved up in a faint smile, and Danny kissed her again as he quickened the pace, knowing from the way that she was breathing that she wasn’t far from coming. It was something that he prided himself on, knowing that he could control himself and his own desires to make sure that she enjoyed herself as much, if not more, than him. But the control almost wasn’t there her head fell back and his mouth found her throat as she throbbed around him. Danny had to force himself still for a moment before he lost control. She’d liked it the night he had, but this…

This was special.

There were tears in her eyes when she opened them again, he could see them clinging to her lashes, flames dancing off them in watery glints. “Please,” she whispered, and Danny buried his face in Sam’s neck as he moved again, the muscles along his back clenching as he drove himself and her again to the edge.

It was there again as he did. The want, the need to tell her how he felt. The plaguing desire to cry to the world how much he loved her. But in the end the words couldn’t leave his throat as he plunged them both over the edge of the abyss. In the end the words were still inside as he held her in his arms, both of them trembling in the aftermath. Trapped and useless as she gave him a soft kiss and slid away and out of the bed and padded silently to the bathroom.

He heard the water turn on, the hiss of the shower, and couldn’t help but to bury his face in his hands. For someone who was a hero, his courage was certainly failing.

He heard her get in and the soft spray of water hitting skin. He followed her in then, letting his hands glide across her back as she leaned into him, warm and wet. Her eyes were closed, and she was biting her lip again.

“Sam,” he murmured above the sound of the water, turning her to face them. Her eyes opened, dark and lavender as he stared down at her. The words failed him again, so he lowered his mouth to hers. And if the water that stained her lips was a little saltier than it should have been, he said nothing about it.

---

He was awake long before her, his mind whirring into consciousness as the sun rose above the horizon. Danny didn’t wake Sam. Instead he just watched, memorized the way she looked sleeping next to him. The way her hair spread like a dark mist on the pillow, the way his old shirt bunched p at her waist so that he could see the uninterrupted length of pale leg. They way that, even as she slept, she held on to him. It was almost like she couldn’t bear being apart from him.

The sun rose higher and Danny’s eyes finally flitted to the clock. He sighed when he saw that the alarm was going to go off in less than a minute and reached out with one hand to turn it off. Instead of letting the arm blare loudly he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, kissing her until he felt the pressure returned and she was moving next to him, her hands coming up to tangle in his hair as his pulled her close.

She pulled back with a sleepy yawn, and he smiled down at her trying to at least look happier than he really was. “It’s time to get up. You’ve got half an hour before you have to check in.”

The words were like ice water splashed in her face and the foggy pleasure Sam had felt at being wakened with a kiss evaporated as she realized that Danny was telling her that she had a half hour before she had to leave. She blinked rapidly trying to stall the burning in her eyes as she sat up and swung her legs over the bed putting her back to Danny. She nodded, unable to find her voice.

Danny could only watch as she disappeared into the bathroom, backpack in hand, with a whispered, “Call me a taxi,” that brooked no argument.

He did, and when she emerged not ten minutes later the yellow car was already waiting at the curb in front of his building. The backpack was clutched in her hands and she didn’t look at him as she stooped to pick up her other bag, slinging it across her should and grabbing the doorknob almost before Danny got to the door and stopped her.

He slapped one hand on the door to stop her from opening it and looked down at her, forcing her face up to meet his with one hand under her chin and glaring at her, half angry, mostly hurt. “Sam, what are you doing? You can’t just go.”

She tugged her face from his grip and closed her eyes. “I’m going to be late.”

“Sam,” he said softly, bringing his face down in an effort to kiss her. She stepped back before he could and he could only stare at her.

“Goodbye, Danny,” she said, and she could see the way his face went blank in emotionless shock. She used it, the effects of her cold goodbye, to slip under his arm and wrench the door open, escaping into the morning light, leaving him behind.

She didn’t close the door, didn’t pause for a moment that Danny could hear. He could hear it clearly when she yanked the taxi door opened and slid inside with a harsh order for the airport, and the slam as she closed it echoed loudly enough that it nearly drowned out the engine as the car pulled away from the curb taking her away from him and, he could admit it in the face of her farewell, out of his life.

The taxi was well beyond hearing before Danny finally closed the door. When he did he turned and leaned against it for a long moment before his knees gave out and he slid into a huddled heap in behind it, his face buried against his arms as he tried to figure out what had just happened. She was gone, and he’d let it happen. She wasn’t coming back, if she’d been planning on it she would never have left.

And, if he was completely honest with himself, Danny had never given her a reason to stay. He’d never once said anything to her to tell her that it was more than just sex, that it was just plain more.

He should have. The fact that he didn’t made him hate himself. He’d held it all in, god, since they were kids, when he should have just told her. His fear, his cowardice was the reason she was gone.

The thought struck him in the space of a heartbeat: She hadn’t left; he’d let her go.

That realization made him feel even worse that he already did, because that made what he’d done, what he hadn’t said, worse than the way her own parents had hid their failing marriage. At least they had tried keeping it quiet in an effort to keep Sam happy and secure until they thought she was old enough, mature enough to cope with it. And he’d held his peace because… because he was a fool.

She was gone, and she wasn’t coming back.

---

Sam had always been a strong person and she’d always been thankful to that core since she’d been young. Mostly the thankfulness had been Danny’s fault. She’d spent far too much time worrying about his safety when he was off fighting ghosts. In reality she could readily admit that the only time her strength had failed her was in the face of her parents’ divorce, and then she had relied on Danny and Tucker instead.

She didn’t have Tucker at her side now, and she wouldn’t have Danny either. So she relied on herself as she checked her bag, her brain on autopilot as she filled out claim slips and slid around the handle. Her boarding pass was tucked safely away in her backpack, slung over her shoulder as she threaded her way through the other passengers waiting to check their luggage, and into the line to pass through security. Time passed, unerringly whittled away as she waited there, and Sam forced herself to stay still, to stay calm. It was a trial in will not to think of Danny and the way that they’d parted.

Her composure stayed perfect until she was passed through security and she found her way to the escalator that led to the concourse. It seemed that almost the second that she set foot on it, that her hand found the rail and she could rely on something else to take her where she needed to go, that her mind woke up and she could hear him again. Hear the way he said her name as they made love, or the way he’d whispered it as he pulled her close to sleep. The sleepy way he would say it in the morning when he didn’t really want to get up and tried to drag her back under the covers for a few more minutes.

She almost missed her step at the top of the escalator, but she caught herself just in time. It jarred her back to the present and she managed to wipe the tears from her eyes enough that she could find her way to her gate. It wasn’t a difficult task; Amity Park’s airport wasn’t international and only had a dozen. Hers was gate seven, right in the middle of the concourse, and she found a seat on the far side of one of the planters where she was hidden by the massive leaves of the fake bush.

She sank into the seat and shoved her backpack underneath it as she curled in on herself, holding her arms tightly as she closed her eyes against the sunlight. “Danny… I didn’t want to go. Why didn’t you tell me to stay?” she whispered miserably to herself as she felt her eyes growing hot once again.

She laughed quietly, bitterly as she rubbed her eyes again with her sleeve. “Stupid, stupid me.”

“Sam.”

She bit her lip at the remembered sound of his voice.

“Sam. You can’t just leave.”

With a startled gasp she shot upright in the seat, tear streaked face whipping around to find him sitting next to her, eyes just as upset and shadowed as hers, if not as tearstained. “Danny, you can’t be here.”

He gave her a crooked grin. “What the use of having ghost powers if I can’t slip past security?” he asked as he reached a hand out towards her, rubbing at her cheek with his thumb before leaning forward to brush his lips against hers. “Sam, I can’t just let you go.”

“But you already did,” she said softly.

He shook his head. “No, Sam. I’m never letting you go. I love you too much to let you go.”

Whatever she’d been planning on saying flew straight out of Sam’s head at Danny’s words, and her jaw dropped as she stared at him in numb silence. Without any warning Danny slid out of the chair he sat in and dropped to his knees in front of Sam, taking both of her hands in his. She could feel his hands shaking where they held hers.

“I can’t promise you a happy ending, Sam,” he said as he raised one hand to cup her cheek. “But I can promise that I’ll never stop trying to make one with you.” He leaned up and pressed another kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Just don’t go like this, please.”

And she found her voice.

“I have to go, but okay.”

“Okay?” he echoed.

She nodded. “I can finish my semester, it’s my last, and I can come back. Come home.”

He grinned at her widely and she answered it with a smile of her own. “You can come home to me. This time, I’ll make sure you don’t have a reason to go.”

“You love me, and I love you. That’s reason enough,” she whispered against his lips.

I'm gonna make damn sure
I just wanna break you down so badly
I just wanna break you down so badly (damn sure)
In the worst way (worst way)