Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sam sighed as she put down her phone. The screen was lit up with the latest text from Danny. 

“I’m sorry guys, I’m a bit busy. Maybe we can hang out tomorrow?”

Sam frowned, glancing from the phone, to the ghost scanner and it’s flashing dot and back. Ever since Danny's parents had found out about Danny being a ghost, things had changed. He had been hard to get a hold of, no longer hanging out with her and Tucker almost every day, and spending more time at home. She was glad for him; glad that he had finally been able to tell his parents. Glad that it had gone well. Danny seemed lighter, more hopeful, and she loved seeing him that way, but… But she hated that it would all end when Jack and Maddie eventually—inevitably—turned on him.

She hated seeing the happiness in his eyes even as she knew that his parents' acceptance wasn’t real, couldn’t be. Parents didn't change and accept their children just like that. They simply didn't. 

Tucker seemed as conflicted as she was; he had said that it was good that Danny had more people or back-up now, but in the same breath he had joked about Danny leaving the two of them behind. He had laughed as he said it, but Sam had seen the real fear in his eyes.

She knew the feeling all too well. What if he left them behind?

It was hard to accept that you suddenly weren’t as needed anymore. Especially when the two of them had been there through it all, all the way from the start. They had supported him when his own parents had hunted him! 

And now she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even if she didn't want it to, she knew it had to; Jack and Maddie would reveal what they really thought and drop this charade. Sam sighed. It would be much easier if she could at least stay close to Danny and watch his back, try and take some of the hit of the inevitable blow, but he didn’t seem to want them there.

After everything they had been through together, did he really choose them over her and Tucker?

She glanced back over at the ghost tracker on her nightstand and the still blinking dot on it.

Was Danny “busy” taking care of the ghost himself, or actually busy and maybe he hadn’t noticed the ghost at all?

Fine. If he didn’t need them , then they didn’t need him .

Sitting up and grabbing her phone, she exited the group chat with her, Danny, and Tucker and brought up a private conversation with Tucker. Before she had time to second-guess herself she quickly typed out, “You’re seeing the ghost too right? Let’s meet up outside the mall.”

She only had to wait a few seconds before the response popped up. “And Danny?”

Sam tapped the side of her phone, glancing back at the scanner and the dot that was slowly moving around the mall in question, almost seeming to circle it. She let out a frustrated huff of air, tapping out, “He said he was busy, didn’t he?”

The wait for the reply was longer this time, but when it came she wasn’t surprised to read, “I’ll be there in ten.”

With a satisfied grin, Sam got up from the bed and grabbed the ghost tracker as well as her ectogun that lay on her nightstand. She strapped the gun to her waist with practiced motions and made her way out of her room with resolute steps.

She would show him. They would keep everything running smoothly and when he finally saw sense, they would be waiting for him.

They stopped in front of the mall and Sam and Tucker glanced up at the big building. It was big, empty and very, very dark.

Sam looked down at the tracker in her hands. “The ghost is definitely in there. It hasn’t moved for ten minutes now.”

"Did it have to be the mall?" Tucker groaned as he already went to work with his PDA at a side-door to disable the alarm. "I hate the mall after dark."

“Yeah, hopefully it won’t go as bad as last time.” And wasn’t it sad that this wasn’t their first time breaking into the local mall? Sam grabbed the ectogun at her hip, keeping it ready, as she kept watch for anyone—ghost or human—that might stumble upon them, keenly aware that they sometimes forgot about the more mundane threats while hunting down ghosts. She knew that her parents would never let her live it down if she got brought in for breaking into the mall. And neither would Danny.

She sighed. “Maybe it’s good that Danny isn’t here since some of the stores have—”

Tucker interrupted her. “No talking about him, okay? I’m gonna start second-guessing this.”

“Fair,” Sam allowed.

They eased open the door and slunk inside, finding themselves on the bottom floor of the mall at a side-entrance between two stores, hidden away in the shadows.

Sam made a hand-gesture to indicate that they should move to the left and Tucker nodded and followed her, both of them knowing better than to continue talking when they got close to the possible enemy. Objectively, they were both aware of the fact that the element of surprise was next to invaluable; they just very rarely got to keep it. That didn’t stop them from trying.

They slowly crept down the echoing and dark mall, eyes peeled on every shadow and trying not to jump at every mannequin that they could glimpse through the shuttered windows. Even with the glass windows surrounding them on all sides and even with the open space continuing on as far as they could see into the relative darkness; she almost felt claustrophobic. Exposed. Watched.

Sam kept a tight hold on the ectogun in one hand and the ghost tracker in the other. Beside her, Tucker kept most of his attention on his PDA as he worked on hacking the mall's security cameras. It would give them a better overview as well as hopefully give them a heads up on which foe they were facing. 

With slow and careful breaths, Sam kept glancing down on the scanner in her hands as they walked to make sure the ghost stayed where it was and wouldn’t sneak up on them.

After a few minutes passing in almost complete silence, just as they passed Tucker’s favorite electronics store in town, Sam stopped and lightly tapped Tucker’s shoulder, wincing at his small, startled, jump, before he turned around and she raised a hand to her lips in a shushing gesture. She inched forward and leaned in to whisper, “The ghost is to our right.” She nodded towards the right, and the Outdoor Adventure store that lay there.

They exchanged a nod before slowly and carefully approaching the store.

From inside, they could make out the tell-tale sound of someone rummaging around in the back of the store, muttering something under their breath. Sam leaned against the door to the store, placing her ear against the glass as she strained to hear what was being said and by who, but she couldn’t make anything out beyond the indistinct mutters and the sound of things being moved around.

She shook her head before leaning back and taking the few steps separating her from Tucker. “Alright. So how do we wanna do this?” She whispered.

He glanced from her ectogun—still grasped tightly in her hand—to the store, to his PDA, and back to the store. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but closed it again with a determined look on his face. “I think I can get the door to open. Just give me two seconds.” He raised his PDA up and started tapping away on it again.

True to his words, mere moments later there was a soft chime as Sam heard the door’s lock unlatch. She tried the handle and nodded to Tucker when the door opened a sliver.

It was nearly soundless, but she still found herself holding her breath; only relaxing when she could hear the commotion from inside continuing on, slightly louder now with the door ajar. Whoever was inside hadn’t heard them. She looked at Tucker and whispered, "Alright, are you ready?" 

Tucker swallowed and shook his head. "No." He carefully opened his backpack and pulled out the extra thermos he had stacked there. She could see him swallow heavily and doing his best to look confident as he gave her a shaky smile and a, “Al—Alright.”

Sam nodded and changed her grip on her ectogun, wiping her slightly sweaty palms on her pants as she did. "On three. One, two, th—" 

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Tucker suddenly interrupted her with hushed panic, gesturing wildly. "I think I saw something."

Sam froze before slowly turning in the direction Tucker pointed. It could be a security guard. It could be anyone, it didn’t have to be another ghost, but with their luck… Well, they had long since learned to expect the worst. 

They both held still, barely breathing, as they kept their eyes trained on the corner Tucker had indicated, a few shops down from them. 

Something moved.

A light was growing from around the corner; seemingly coming closer and closer as it seemingly bobbed gently up and down. 

And it was a terribly familiar form of light.

"Is that another ghost?! Didn't you say it was only one?!" Tucker hissed under his breath as Sam met his panicked eyes.

“I don’t—there was only one...! It could be a guard?” She ventured, knowing full well what that light meant. She glanced down at the scanner in her hands, her eyes landing on the second dot that had suddenly appeared on it. "Alright, it's another ghost." 

“Fucking great ,” Tucker groaned as he dragged a hand down his face.

Sam felt her panic abruptly turn into the familiar feeling of anger and she snapped, “Have you gotten into the cameras yet?!"

"Damn it! No I haven’t, I got a bit distracted with getting the door open for us,” he bit out as he showed the thermos back in his bag, raised the PDA back up, and started typing away at it furiously.

The light, whatever—or whoever — it was, grew in strength as it drew closer to the corner; casting all the shadows into stark contrast and making it impossible to hide in the open space between the stores.

"Tuuucker," Sam said as she shifted her weight from foot to foot, sparing one last glance down at the scanner only to see one dot still in the store beside them and one just around the corner in front of them, before hooking it to her belt and raising the ectogun up; taking aim at the corner from where the light was coming.

"It's not that easy!" He whisper-shouted.

She knew that. Tucker knew that she knew that. It didn’t do anything to calm her racing pulse as she adjusted her hold on the ectogun, licking her lips and doing her best not to blink.

There was movement at the corner and she aimed her gun with steady hands; intent on protecting Tucker and her from whatever came their way. She knew that whoever it was were mere moments away from spotting them. 

Damn, they were in over their heads.

They should have talked to Danny, they should have stayed home, they should have—

“Sam? Tucker? What are you doing here?!”

“Danny?!” Sam felt her breath leave her on a shaky exhale as she took in the sight of their friend floating in front of them with a surprised expression on his face. She slowly lowered her gun with a strangled laugh. “You scared the shit out of us!”

Tucker slumped against her side as he hissed out several choice swearwords.

Danny rubbed his neck as he came to a halt beside them. “Sorry, sorry. But now I know why the alarm was disabled! I was wondering about that!”

“Weren’t you busy?” Tucker asked as he straightened back up and Sam could hear the hurt in his voice. “And where are your parents? Weren’t you gonna let them take care of most of the ghosts?”

Danny looked away guiltily.

Sam did not feel bad for him. Why hadn’t he told them that he was planning on going here?!  She crossed her arms and asked, maybe a bit too coldly, “You didn’t tell them about this, did you?”

“No.” He didn’t meet her eyes.

A part of her was annoyed, and a part of her was relieved. The less his parents got involved the better, it would make it easier when they inevitably rejected him, but on the other hand; she didn’t like the thought of Danny going off to fight ghosts all by himself. She tried to keep the majority of the anger out of her voice as she asked, “Did you at least tell Jazz?”

His expression was all the answer she needed.

“Damn it Danny! So you came here without telling anyone?? What if something happened? What if you got hurt?!”

“What if someone needed your help and we couldn’t find you?” Tucker said and Danny flinched as if he had been hit. Sam grimaced and Tucker shook his head. “Yeah, no, that was too low. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Danny said unconvincingly before he crossed his arms with a frown. “Well, why are you guys here? I didn’t know you were going out without me and hunting ghosts. Do you do this often?”

 “Hey!” Sam scoffed. “You were the one who blew us off!”

“We have just as much right to be here as you do,” Tucker said, and it wasn’t often that Sam heard him truly angry. “And we’re doing this because we want to. When will you get it through your thick skull that we’re in this together?”

Sam suddenly realized that the sounds inside the Outdoor Adventure store had stopped. “Guys. It’s silent.”

Tuck blinked at her uncomprehendingly for a second before he paled. “Oh no.”

As if on cue; the door beside them was blown open and a glowing ghost rose out of the darkness with a maniacal laugh, trailed by twisting cords and a couple of monitors. "Well, hello there, children." 

Of course it was Technus.

Tucker groaned and sent his PDA a mournful look. “You were still so young.”

“I am Technus! Master of all technology!” 

“Yeah, Nick, we know. What were you doing in the Outdoor Adventure ? That’s not your typical haunt.” 

Technus sputtered. “I’m not—” He cleared his throat before seeming to decide to blatantly ignore the question, “You shall refer to me as Technus! Fear my mastery of everything technological! You will submit to us!”

“Us?”

“I mean, me! Technus!" And he raised his arms high as the monitors surrounding him trailed the motion. Danny didn’t wait for him to attack before firing off a shot, hitting him in the shoulder. Sam put aside her questions for later and joined in the attack, managing to get in a hit on his left arm.

Technus swore and dove for the electronic store across from them and Danny immediately made to fly after him but Sam held out her hands to stop him. "No, don't!" 

Danny whipped around to face her looking annoyed. "What's the big deal?!" 

"That store installed anti-ghost tech after Technus' attack last month."

Danny looked to the store and back to her with raised eyebrows, "How do you know that?" 

"Dude, we keep up with those things. Someone has to know where you can and can't go," Tucker said as his eyes tracked Technus where he entered the store. Sam knew that they had just opened again after the last attack and Tucker had been looking forward to visiting next week. It looked like he would have to wait a bit longer.

She nodded at Danny, even as she patted Tucker’s arm in what she hoped was a comforting manner. “Yeah, someone's gotta look after you." 

The statement was underscored by a sudden, blaring alarm as several small turrets lowered down from the ceiling and started firing at Technus, several of which hit their mark. 

Sam relaxed as she allowed her gun to lower to her side with a grin, taking in the way Technus screamed and weaved, and got a shot to the back of his head. "I could get used to this." 

Sadly, before long the alarm spluttered out as Technus managed to take control of the turrets themselves and suddenly Sam, Tucker, and Danny found themselves looking down several, glowing green barrels.

“Oh, crud.” Danny threw up a shield just as the first shots went off.

Sam raised her gun back up. "Well, I guess that means that the show is over. Leave the security to me" 

Danny nodded and flew in with his hands blazing as Sam and Tucker ducked behind a bench, Sam firing off a shot at once and disabling the first turret before the shield had finished fizzling out.

She proceeded to make quick work of the rest of them as she took special care to avoid shooting at Danny as he zipped around the store, dodging blasts and cables and monitors from a cackling Technus.

It wasn’t long before the last turret erupted in satisfying smoke as she hit it dead on.

"Sam! Skulker is here."

Sam whipped around and looked down at Tucker’s PDA, seeing that he had finally gotten access to the security cameras. She only spared it half a second as she took up position next to him with her ectogun at the ready; eyes tracking Technus and Danny as they fought on, not daring to fire off a shot and risk hitting Danny as they were flying much too fast for her to line up her shot accurately. "I knew there was someone else! Where is he?! Why didn’t he show up on the scanner?!" 

"In that sports store Technus was in when we got here! He seems to be… underneath a ghost-shield?” He started muttering under his breath. “That would cancel out his signal and make it so that he didn’t show up on the scanners. Why haven’t I thought of that? We could use that to hide Danny from—”

“Tucker!” Sam interrupted him. “What is he doing ?!”

“Right! Well. Oh. He seems to be powering up some sort of gun."

“Powering up?!” Sam whipped back around to face Danny, “We’ve gotta warn—”

There was the sudden sound of a shot going off and Sam ducked down on instinct.

Skulker had fired some sort of device from his gun; two prongs connected to a line that trailed all the way back to the gun. Sam watched with wide eyes as they sailed through the air; straight towards Danny, but at the last second a rogue screen that Technus had caught up in his whirlwind of technology blocked the shot, the prongs embedding themselves into the screen as they gave off electric sparks. As soon as the sparks travelled through the screen, Technus seemed to lose all control of it as all the ghostly energy disappeared and it dropped to the ground with a crash.

Danny looked at the prongs in the shattered screen with wide eyes. “Is that a taser ?!”

She could hear the suppressed fear in his voice, and she winced as she knew how much he hated electricity, but she was also taking in the weapon and narrowed her eyes at the slight familiarity of it. 

“Doesn’t that look like—?” Sam followed its trajectory and, true to Tucker’s words, it came from the Outdoors Adventure ; the one Technus had been rooting around in when they arrived.

A second later, Skulker appeared in the doorway that Technus had blasted open minutes before, a gun in hand and a scowl on his face.

“Are you crazy?! Don’t shoot at me with that thing!” Technus screeched.

“Don’t get in my way, then!” Skulker yelled as he pressed a button on the weapon in his hand and the prongs that he had tried to shoot Danny with reeled back in with a snap. “I had a clean shot and everything!”

“Skulker?!” Danny whipped around, looking from Technus to Skulker. “Since when are you acting like a real hunter?!”

“You are the worst hunter ever!” Technus screamed back.

“And since when are you two working together?!” Sam asked, not liking the idea of their more regular enemies ganging up on them. At least not more than usual.

“We’re not!” Skulker immediately shot back.

Technus frowned. “We kind of are?”

“I work alone! I don’t need anyone's help to take the ghost boy down!”

“I’m right here!” Danny exclaimed at the same time as Tucker asked, “Is that why you’re hanging out in an abandoned mall in the middle of the night? What’s the plan here?”

Skulker huffed. “We were told to get the ghost kid alone, and the most reliable way to do that is to make a scene! And we didn’t even have to wreck the place for you to show up. How considerate of you!”

“Enough talking!” Technus snapped as he glared at Skulker. “I was promised a whole server-room for this job. You better not mess this up!”

Who would offer Technus a whole server-room? And for what? Luring Danny out? 

Did she really have to ask?

“Vlad…!” Tucker said the name like a curse.

Chapter Text

Sam frowned at this new information. Vlad was back in town? What could he be planning now? And if he was behind it all, then there was surely something else going on here—some hidden agenda.

They had to be very careful. She trusted that Tucker would have reached the same conclusion as she had, but Danny on the other hand… It wouldn’t hurt to make sure. So she turned to Danny and called out, “Danny, be careful!”

He gave her a thumbs up and a smile. “Always am!”

That was not as reassuring as he thought it was.

Well, whatever it was that they were planning, it would be for the best to put a stop to it as fast as they could. Sam exchanged a look with Tucker before not wasting any more time and firing off her ectogun, hitting Skulker right in the face. He growled as he turned to face her. "Maybe we need to clear out the trash first."

Tucker stepped back and Sam could see him furiously tapping away on his PDA, trying to keep it out of Technus sight as he did. 

"No, you don't!" Danny said as he flew forward, slamming into Skulker and making both of them tumble backwards and through a couple of displays to land in a heap in the back of the store. Leaving a trail of destruction behind them. 

Sam winced. She hoped the store had ghost insurance in addition to their defenses.

Her attention was snapped back to Technus as he didn't waste any more time to gather up the majority of the electronics in the store in a whirling vortex before forming it into a hulking, sparking, mass of computers, TV screens, cameras, and hilariously—a couple of fridges. It all came together in the vague shape of a humanoid.

It turned one of the fridges with a screen towards them, Technus' face appearing in it as he sneered down at them, zeroing in on Tucker’s PDA. "What do we have here? You brought me a present?" 

"No! She's not yours!" Tucker cried out as he clung to his beloved PDA, but it was too late. It tore out of his hands and sailed through the air towards Technus. 

"She…?" Technus asked with a frown before he shook his head with a laugh. “Doesn’t matter, it’s mine now!" 

Tucker cried out again, but Sam could also see how he stepped behind a column that was close by; making sure it was between him and Technus. He made a discreet gesture for her to follow him and she didn’t hesitate.

Sam had thought he had been trying to hack Skulker's suit, but as soon as the PDA made contact with Technus' hulking form of wires, screens, and other electronics it detonated. 

The blast was big enough that Sam could feel the heat from it from where she stood, even hidden as she was.

"Damn, Tuck! What did you do?"

He was giving her a maniacal smile, even as she could see the tears in his eyes. "Never say I don't learn my lessons! I won't let him use my babies for his evil plans!"

She gave him an impressed nod. "Great work."

All of a sudden, a bench to their right exploded and Sam hunkered down with her hands over her head, accompanied by Tucker’s shout of surprise. Out of the smoke came Danny and Skulker, ectoblasts and fists flying fast enough to register more like blurs than movement.

They came to an abrupt halt close by as Danny seemed to get in a hit that disabled Skulker’s jets; stranding the ghost on the ground. Sam let out a small breath of relief; he would be fine. And then she watched as Danny gave a victorious shout before promptly having to duck through the floor as Skulker let loose a whole volley of shots at him. She winced. Probably.

A scraping sound brought Sam’s attention back to the ghost in front of her.

"Betrayed by my own tech," the remains of Technus lamented and as he sparked and crumbled, pieces of electronics falling away and hitting the floor as he tried to drag himself across it. 

Tucker crossed his arms and looked down on the ghost. "I told you she wasn't yours." 

Technus made a guttural, inhuman sound, and flew out of the crumbling mess of electronics. "You're going to regret that, child." 

Sam fired her ectogun, hitting Technus in the shoulder, and he turned his snarling face towards her. She managed to roll away just as an ectoblast hit the floor where she had been standing and she didn’t waste any time as she rolled to her feet before firing again, watching in satisfaction as it hit its mark in Technus’ chest, before stopping short.

From behind Technus’ angry face she could see Danny having stopped in his fight against Skulker; his focus firmly on her and Tucker with a worried expression. And she could also see Skulker, who had no trouble taking full advantage of this fact, firing off a couple of missiles at his exposed back.

Sam cursed inwardly; he always focused too much on keeping her and Tucker safe during fights, and too little on himself.

“Danny! Behind you!” She called as she dodged another one of Technus’ shots, noticing him taking control of a mass of cords, twinning them together into several thick ropes as they started slithering across the floor. But he was still weak from Tucker’s attack, maybe even weak enough to capture.

She sent a look at Tucker and saw him rooting around in his bag; no doubt having had the same thought as her and now trying to find the thermos in the chaos he called a backpack.

There was the sound of detonating missiles and Sam spared a quick glance to confirm that Danny had indeed successfully dodged at the very last second, only to look back in front of her and noting that Technus had managed to navigate the cables awfully close to Tucker—who was still rooting through his damn bag.

Did both of them totally lack all spatial awareness?!

“Tucker, watch out!” Sam took aim, hitting one cable, another, another, but there were so many of them and Tucker only gave a short, “I almost got it…!”

It was fine. She would protect him. She would.

But she wasn’t fast enough.

The last cable reached Tucker’s foot and in a second it had snatched him off his feet; curling around him and almost immediately rendering him completely motionless where he hung sideways in the air. The backpack fell to the floor with a dull thud.

“Tucker!” Sam frantically tried find a free space where she wouldn’t risk hitting Tucker with a shot, but Technus kept moving him and there just wasn’t any—

“Don’t worry, I’ll—” Tucker started as he did his best to wiggle before the cables visibly tightened and he gave a pained grunt, falling still. “Ah! No, no, okay, I won’t.”

Technus laughed his maniacal laugh. “That’s right, child! You thought you could stand against me?! I am Technus, master of all technology!”

“Damn, just,” Sam tracked their movements with her gun, swallowing heavily, “Just stay still Tuck!”

“I can’t really do anything about that right now!”

Their screams drew Danny’s attention and he turned on a dime, taking in the scene before him with a horrified expression. To her dismay, Sam could see Skulker also turning his attention to them before leisurely aiming his taser-gun right at where Tucker was hanging, a wide grin on his metal face. “Target practice!”

Danny spared Skulker a quick ectoblast, which he easily dodged, before diving towards Tucker.

Maybe she had been wrong; maybe the weapon wasn’t a new version of the Plasmius Maximus. Maybe it was just an ordinary taser and it wouldn’t affect Danny any more than it would a human if he was hit by it. But then she thought back to Technus’ earlier reaction to it, and, well... She wasn’t willing to bet on it. And to her dismay, Danny didn’t seem to have recognized the weapon as he was recklessly diving down in front of it. She fruitlessly held up a hand as if she could stop him and she heard Tucker call out, “No! Danny, don’t—!”

Danny reached Tucker in a second, but the cables refused to budge as he desperately tried to pry them off. At least Danny had the self-preservation to throw up a shield as he put himself in harm’s way.

"Say cheese," Skulker laughed as he fired. 

The shield didn’t help.

Sam watched in horror as the prongs slammed right through it as if it wasn’t even there before striking him square in the back and for a fraction of a second, everything was still. Then, Danny crumpled to the ground, landing on his side with visible electricity coursing through him as his mouth opened in a silent scream.

Tucker looked down with wide eyes, still immobilized, as Danny seized in place; his back bowing off the floor as his muscles contracted in visible spasms.

Sam watched helplessly as his ghostly glow flickered around him as his power seemingly short-circuited. She hadn’t been wrong about the weapon. For once, she really, really, wished she had been.

Vlad had used the Plasmius Maximus on Danny several times since they started out with this ghost hunting business, and it never ended well. After their last run in with the nasty weapon, Danny had told them that the pain had been nearly unbearable, almost comparing it to the accident itself. That he hated the feeling of powerlessness it brought.

Trapped in his own body as his powers short-circuited. 

A ghost was made out of ectoplasm and to create something that actively destroyed or blocked it was… Even Technus looked slightly uncomfortable as he bent down and grabbed one of the multiple cameras that had made up his earlier form, aiming it right at Danny. Sam gave an indignant cry. He was filming this?!

The ring flickered to life around Danny’s torso, died down, and flickered back into existence. 

Danny finally screamed. 

“Sam! Help him!” Tucker called out, clear panic in his voice and Sam blinked as she snapped out of her shock and did her best to focus on what she could do to help; did her best to ignore the heart-wrenching wail coming from her friend.

Gun. She had her gun. She let the familiar feeling of the ectogun comfort as she raised it with shaking hands and aimed at the wire connecting the prongs to Skulker’s weapon, still crackling with electricity. She finally managed to hit the cable after her third shot and the wire sparked as it snapped in two. The prongs fizzled out from where they were still stuck in Danny’s back, but the damage was already done.

The ring split and travelled over his body, leaving a pale and shaking Danny Fenton in their wake.

Danny had said that the transformation into Phantom was painless, that it felt as natural as anything—simply choosing to shift between two equally real parts of himself. But having it forced like this…

As soon as the electricity ceased, Danny slumped almost bonelessly to the floor before curling up into a small ball, hands around his head as he shook in place. The sudden silence was deafening as Danny’s screams died out.

Skulker walked over to stand beside Technus, looking down at Danny with a greedy expression. "Maybe… I should just capture him now."

"You idiot!” Technus turned on Skulker with a furious expression. “Have you forgotten about the job?!"

"I don't care about the job if I can get my hands on him now! Why wait?" 

“Didn’t you want that upgrade he promised you?”

Skulker rubbed his chin in thought, a grin growing on his face. “Well, I wanted it for catching the welp, but now he’s here, so I can just—”

Sam shot him in the face. “Get away from him! Or I’ll shoot you again.”

Skulker laughed. “Are you threatening me?!”

She shook her head, aim unwavering, as she stated coldly, “No, I am informing you.”

Skulker’s laugh turned into a growl, but Technus held him back with a hand on the shoulder. “We’ve gotten what we came here for, let’s not waste any more time.” And then he proceeded to push his hand into the camera. After a few seconds, a disembodied voice that sounded suspiciously like Technus himself but more robotic stated Download complete, and Technus pulled his hand back out of the camera before carelessly tossing it aside. “Let’s report back to the boss.”

And then he proceeded to also unceremoniously drop Tucker, who fell to the floor with a grunt before immediately scrambling to his knees and shuffling over to where Danny was laying.

“I’m not running from these children!” Skulker complained, gesticulating wildly with his gun, “I am not leaving my price just ly—”

His spiel was cut off by a sudden beam of light as Tucker aimed the thermos at him with a furious expression on his face. Skulker disappeared into it with a scream at the same time as Tucker shouted, "Get Technus!"

Sam whipped around and cursed as she saw Technus quickly diving towards the exposed cables still on the ground. "No you don't!"

Her shot hit him square in the back but failed to make him stop. She fired again, missing. “Damn it!”

Technus flowed into the cables with a grin, and just like that, he was gone.

She kept her eyes trained on the cable with her gun still raised, but she knew he was long gone by now.

“No worries!” Tucker called out behind her and she gave a frustrated huff as she tore her eyes away from the cables. Tucker had managed to get Danny to uncurl slightly from his position on the floor but he was still breathing hard where he lay. She approached the two of them slowly.

As she crouched down beside them she looked them both over for any obvious signs of injuries, relaxing minutely when she didn’t find anything obvious. She turned to Danny with a soft, “Are you okay?”

Danny let out a shaky breath. “I don’t like electricity.”

Sam snorted. “No shit.”

Tucker helped him to slowly sit up, patting him on the back but quickly pulling away when Danny flinched at the contact. Sam thought about the prongs hitting him square in the back and asked, “Is your back okay?”

“Yeah, it—it’s fine.” Danny avoided meeting her eyes as he looked down on the ground between his knees.

“Hm, convincing,” she deadpanned, but a sharp look from Tucker made her drop it.

He turned back to Danny and asked, “Can you walk?”

 “Yeah.” He shakily stood up before promptly falling back on his ass.  “Or, ah, soon?”

“Guessed as much.” Tucker gave him a humorless smile and Sam could see the worry in his eyes…Why did it always have to end like this?

She sat down beside them, placing her head in her hands and giving a heartfelt, “Fuck.”

“Are you hurt?” Danny immediately asked and she could hear the worry in his voice.

As if she was the one who had been screaming on the floor only minutes prior. She growled out, “No.”

“Then what’s wrong?” And now he sounded both panicked and hurt. Great work Sam, she mentally kicked herself.

Tucker heaved a sigh. “Dude, calm down.”

“I’m sorry.” Danny paused for a while before continuing with a relieved tone of voice, “Well, I’m glad everyone made it out okay.”

“No!” Sam exclaimed as she looked back up. “You didn't!”

Tucker added on, “Yeah… You really didn’t have to try and protect me, you know? Not that I’m not grateful, but…”

“I’m not going to apologize for that.” Danny crossed his arms. “And the maximus is painful, but not really dangerous in the long run and—”

“So you did recognize it?!” Sam exclaimed. “Danny! We know it doesn’t really hurt humans! It’s just a nasty shock!”

“Well, I wasn’t going to risk it.”

Tucker groaned in frustration. “So you just decided to risk yourself?”

“Yes!”

"I can’t believe you!”

Tucker heaved a sigh. "This is getting out of hand. We need to work on this." 

Danny crossed his arms with a huff. "You sound just like Jazz." 

"She's the only sane person in this town so I take that as a compliment." 

Danny gave a snorting short laugh at that. “Hah, that’s true.”

Sam was grateful that they managed to break the tension that had built between them and they all took a moment to simply breathe, sitting close together on the floor of the ruined store.

Then her eyes landed on the camera that Technus had dropped after downloading whatever he had filmed from it, and just like that the anxiety was back. “God, I wonder what they're gonna do with that film." 

“Wait…” Danny froze. “What film?”

Sam and Tucker exchanged a look before Tucker hesitantly said, “They filmed you after they shot you. Caught your transformation.”

“Oh…” Danny trailed off, gaze back on the floor, and he looked very, very tired. “What—What should we do?”

“I don’t know…” Sam hesitated, before very reluctantly asking, “Maybe we should talk to your parents?”

Danny looked up in surprise. “I thought you said you didn’t want to work with my parents?”

“I don’t want you to work with them!”

“You don’t get to decide that,” Danny said in a hard tone. He was quiet for a while before saying, in a softer voice, “I think I can stand now.”

He slowly got to his feet on shaky legs.

Danny took one step, stumbled, did his best to right himself and tried again. It was painful and frankly, slightly pathetic to watch. Sam and Tucker only managed to watch two steps before they stepped in. 

Sam placed a careful hand on Danny’s shoulder and made a very conscious effort to keep her voice calm as she asked, “Should we walk you home?”

“No, I—” Danny started, but one look at Sam and Tucker and his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Yeah, sure.”

Tucker grinned and hooked one arm through Danny's arms on one side. “You’re welcome.”

“Thanks…” Danny muttered, but he allowed Sam to take his arm on the other side and together they slowly made their way towards Fentonworks.

They had made it all the way to the mall parking lot before Sam couldn’t take the tentative silence that had fallen over them anymore. She broke it with a sigh and a, “Do you want to take it now or later?”

Danny looked up at her in confusion. “Take what?”

“The talk, dude?” Tucker added in with a snort. 

“What talk?” Danny looked between them from where he almost hung from their arms. He looked so confused and like he had no idea what they were talking about. Fuck that. 

“Now it is then,” Sam said as she stopped walking, Tucker and Danny taking another step before her grip on Danny's arm made them stop with a jerk. Danny had just enough time to look back in surprise before Sam asked, very emphatically, “What the fuck Danny?!”

He had the gall to look taken aback. "What??" 

Sam could see Tucker shake his head in disappointment from over Danny’s shoulder. "Dude, you got seriously hurt! What if they had captured you, kidnapped you, or— or killed you?!”

"But they didn't," Danny stated simply. As if that made it all okay. 

Sam scowled at him, releasing his arm in favor of gesturing angrily. "Thanks to us!" 

"I said thank you," Danny pouted, crossing his arms. 

"That's not what I—" Sam cut herself off with an exasperated, "Augh!!" 

Tucker stepped in. "What we're trying to say is that you were planning on doing this alone. And then we wouldn't have been there to save you." 

Danny hesitated. "Yeah, I guess? But I would have figured something out." 

"You don't know that! How do you think it makes us fe—" Sam broke off, looking down at the ground with enough fury in her eyes that she almost expected the asphalt to crack under her gaze. The worst part was that she was sure that Danny just thought he was reassuring them. That they were just mad that they had had to step in. 

So fucking stupid. 

"I don't really understand why you're so angry? I’m sorry for what happened. I'll do better next time!"

"Will you?" Sam couldn't help but ask, hating the venom in her voice and the way Danny flinched at her words, but she was so tired of this.

Tucker sighed. "We really have to spell it out for you, huh?" 

Danny just looked at him in confusion. 

Sam was glad that Tucker was taking the reins on this one, she was too angry to think straight, much less talk coherently. 

"We're not angry that you got hurt, of course not. We're angry that you put yourself in that position to begin with. We—" 

Danny interrupted him with an indignant, "I can't just let them do what they want!" 

Tucker held up his hand to stop him and when he spoke it was with barely constrained anger. "Let me finish! We're angry that you did it alone, alright?! What? Did you think you're strong enough to just go into any situation by yourself and think that you were guaranteed to walk out? What if something had happened? Something really bad? How do you think it would make us feel when we could have been there helping you?!"

A look of understanding passed over his face. "Oooh." 

"Yeah, oh. You asshat. I know it's not really the same as with your obsession and all that but we all want to keep everyone safe. You're not alone. Please stop acting like it." 

"Don't you think we would care if you were hurt? Same as you would care for us?" Tucker asked before pausing. "Is it because you think so little of yourself or so little of us?" 

"No! No, I'm sorry. It's nothing like that. It just… happened."

And they all knew that was a code word for his obsession.

Tucker heaved a sigh. "We guessed as much, but you gotta realize how it comes across?" 

“Yeah...I’m sorry.”

And she couldn’t stay mad at him when she knew it wasn’t his fault, she knew he would never do anything to intentionally hurt them, and he tried to do better. Still, she couldn’t keep in the slightly reprimanding, “Sometimes it’s really hard being friends with such a self-sacrificial idiot!"

"I'm so—" 

"If you say you're sorry again I will punch you."

Danny opened his mouth as if to say something before promptly frowning and closing it again.

Tucker heaved a sigh, but there was a small smile on his lips as he said, "Let's just get you home. You can show how sorry you are by not doing it again."

"I won’t," Danny promised. Neither Sam nor Tucker commented on the way his voice cracked as they each grabbed one of Danny's arms to support him as they started walking again.

Chapter Text

"They're going to be sooo mad," Danny groaned as they walked the last few steps up the driveway to his house. 

Sam couldn't help but agree; they probably would. But Danny wanted sympathy right now and she was still angry, so she swallowed down her reassurances; too scared they would come out harsh and spiky instead of kind. Instead, she took a deep breath and did her best to push the anger down just a tad further.

“Maybe I don’t have to tell them?” Danny asked hopefully.

Sam sent him a look, and was gratified when she saw that Tucker joined her on Danny’s other side.

Danny quickly caved with a sigh, “Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” before he reached out to ease the front door open, and together they stepped inside. “Mom, dad! I’m home?”

"Danny? Weren't you supposed to be upstairs?" Maddie called back as she and Jack made their way out of the kitchen and into the hallway. Both of them stopped dead in their tracks when their eyes landed on the scuffed up trio inside their door with Danny supported in the middle.

Sam could feel herself tense up. Jack and Maddie had done a very good job in appearing supportive thus far, but she knew how parents reacted if you broke their rules or expectations.

But then she was left staring dumbly at them as the next question out of Jack’s mouth was, "Are you guys okay? Danny?" 

"We’re fine," Danny straightened up from between Sam and Tucker, no doubt long-learned instincts not to show weakness around them kicking in but Sam and Tucker in turn refused to step away from him, keeping him within easy reach. And him saying this while obviously not being fine only earned him a couple of raised eyebrows and disbelieving looks, so he amended with, "Well, we got into a bit of a… situation and…” Sam took a small step closer to Danny’s side and she saw Tucker reach out to pat his back. Danny took a deep breath. “And my powers got canceled."

"That's possible?" Maddie asked at the same time as Jack exclaimed, “What?! Are you okay?”

Danny gave a bit of a forced laugh. "Yes and yes." 

"Obviously," Sam said gruffly as she kept a close eye on Maddie and Jack. Even if Danny had seemingly forgiven them everything and really thought they were doing better, Sam and Tucker had had a harder time trusting in the two older Fentons. 

Maybe it was because they lacked the familial bond, maybe because they had been there for all the threats and shootings but not the family nights and quiet bonding that followed them. 

Maybe they weren't completely willing to trust the, in their eyes, sudden change in attitude from Maddie and Jack. They tried their best to work together with them, sure, since that’s what Danny wanted. And they couldn’t deny that it did make their lives a lot easier to have some adults they could count on to back them up or help them.

But that didn’t mean that they didn’t have a hard time believing that they would put all of their science and questions away and just fully accept Danny, ghostly powers and all. 

They would never forgive themselves if they relaxed, and then one day Danny didn't come to school. 

So they kept mostly silent, and most importantly; they kept their eyes peeled.

Any move from either Maddie or Jack that hinted at experiments, or tests, or even just too invasive questions, they wouldn't hesitate to snatch Danny away from them.

But Jack simply nodded and didn't ask how his powers got canceled or why, just accepted Danny’s words as truth and that they were all that they would get at this point. "Will you be okay?” 

"Yeah, it’s not the first time it’s happened. It will wear off in a while." 

"That's… good then." Maddie nodded, even though the admittance that this had happened before seemed to pain her. Sam felt a stab of something vicious deep in her stomach. Good. Maddie forced a smile and continued, "Tell us if you want to go—" she cut herself off. “Well… You know.” They had agreed on a no-mentioning-checkups-in-the-lab-policy, not unless Danny brought it up first. There were too many bad memories associated with that. It was good that they seemed to at least try and keep that promise.

Danny shook his head, seemingly unbothered by the small slip-up. "No, it's fine. I'll tell you if I notice anything strange or unexpected." 

"Alright," Maddie agreed with a slightly hesitant nod, but then her demeanor changed as she crossed her arms and let her gaze travel over the three of them critically, no doubt taking in their scuffed and singed clothes and general have-just-been-in-a-fight-look. "So, what happened to you guys?”

“Yeah!” Jack added. “You were supposed to be in your room, young man!" 

The sudden turn from careful and hesitant demeanor on somewhat unfamiliar ground to disappointed parents happened in the blink of an eye. Sam hated to admit that it was almost a relief, but this—at least—she was well-accustomed to.

Danny, in turn, folded in on himself slightly. "Yeah, sorry. A ghost showed up and—" 

"A ghost showed up?! Why didn't you tell us?!" Jack leaned in closer, but stopped as Danny took a step back from him. Sam watched as his expression morphed from slight anger and fear to regret in an instance. And there was that ugly satisfaction deep in her stomach again.

Maddie nodded as she placed a hand on Jack’s arm, even as she kept her attention on Danny. "You should tell us next time. We’re the ones who have to take care of these situations, not you kids. I mean, you all have school tomorrow!" 

"Don't worry!” Tucker said with entirely too much glee in his voice, “Danny didn't tell us either!"

Danny sent him a betrayed look, but Tucker just shrugged.

Good, otherwise Sam would have called Danny out on it herself. They were behind him, but that also meant looking out for him in ways he might not necessarily agree with. No matter how little they trusted the adult Fentons, if they had to work with them, then Sam would make damn sure that they took on as much of the danger and responsibility as they could.

"You what?!" Maddie turned to Danny with a betrayed and incredulous expression on her face. Such a familiar expression; disappointment. "You were supposed to tell us!" 

Sam steeled herself. Here it came.

Danny grimaced. "I just—I just didn't want you to be in danger." 

"Oh honey, we know,” Maddie allowed as she made an obvious attempt to calm herself down. And that wasn’t how this was supposed to go. “But, we can’t help to protect you if something happens if we don’t know about it."

And they were so nice about it. Sam’s teeth hurt from how hard she clenched her jaw. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go at all.

"We've already been through this," Danny said with a weary sigh.

"I think you can stand to hear it again," Sam blurted out as the anger inside her fought for a way out. Danny had disappointed them. He hadn’t lived up to their expectations. Maybe they just hadn’t realized it yet, had somehow missed it in all the commotion, and the better to get it over with quickly than for them to come to the realization when she and Tucker weren’t there to support him in the aftermath. She crossed her arms over her chest and took a deep breath. Danny sent her a glare which she resolutely ignored. It was for his own good.

“Yes, son.” Jack nodded, an infuriatingly sincere look on his face. “We really want to help.”

Danny looked uncomfortable, but not angry, at what Sam thought was such an obvious lie. And damn it! Why couldn’t they just say what they really meant? Why did they insist on keeping up with the lies?!

And she didn’t seem to be alone in her frustration with the conversation as Tucker cut in with a curt and no-nonsense, “Vlad was behind the attack.”

Or maybe not frustration. Maybe Tucker wanted to show that he still was more in the know than Maddie and Jack were and that he still had a place at Danny’s side; that he wouldn’t be so easily replaced. Sam knew the feeling well.

That got their attention as both Maddie and Jack whipped around to stare at Tuck with wide eyes. To his credit, Tucker only took a small step backwards.

“Vlad?!” Jack exclaimed with equal parts outrage and anger in his voice. “What did he do?”

“Well, he wasn’t there himself,” Tucker clarified. “He sent a couple of ghosts to do the dirty work and then…” He trailed off as Danny made a small noise in the back of his throat, sending Tucker a pleading look.

Sam took over. “They hit Danny with that damn weapon, cancelling out his powers, and then—” Sam took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders and sending Danny a mental plea for forgiveness. “Then they filmed it.”

“…What?!” Jack exclaimed angrily, turning the attention back to Tucker and asking, “Why would they do that?!” The curse of being the first to open his mouth about it, Sam felt sorry for him. Jack and Maddie both had a way of being too intense for comfort.

“I transformed back,” Danny said shortly, voice strained and looking down on the floor. Still taking the heat of Tucker’s back.

“Oh.” The sound from Jack was short and filled with horrified understanding.

“Yeah…”

Maddie shook her head and crossed her arms with a furious expression. “That damn—” She cut herself off, her eyes widening as realization hit, “Wait, so he’s back in town? Then maybe we can finally pay him a visit!” The smile that took over her face was frighteningly familiar, but at least this time it wasn’t directed at Danny.

Danny himself grinned with his fangs on display and Sam couldn’t help but join him. They had all waited for that damn vampire to get back into town ever since they revealed the truth about Dani to Jack and Maddie—a decision Sam wasn’t happy with, but she wasn’t beneath using them against Vlad if they could. But then Danny’s expression dimmed and his right hand made an aborted motion towards his back—towards where that cursed gun had hit him—before he let it fall back to his side. He averted his eyes as if he was ashamed, as if he had done something wrong, and said, “I still don’t have my powers back, though.”

And maybe he was right in his hesitation as Jack and Maddie both blinked in apparent surprise at his words, as if they had already managed to forget the highly traumatic thing that had happened to their son not even an hour ago. Big shock there.

Maddie had the gall to look slightly apologetic as she asked, “Should we wait for them to come back before we go to him?”

“Wait,” Jack interjected, “weren’t we going to confront him with Dani?” And wasn’t that nice of him? To remember their daughter who still lived mostly on the street. Who, until very recently, they would have gladly hunted like an animal. Who was a direct result of their neglect of their son combined with their disregard of their supposed closest friend and all the harm they had caused him and, in turn, all the harm that he had caused others. But at least now, they acted as if they cared. Gold star.

Danny, as usual, didn’t react or comment on it—leaving Sam alone with her anger—as he shrugged. “Yeah, but she left town a couple of days ago and you know how she is. She comes and goes as she wants.”

“I think she said she was going to come back next week?” Jack supplied helpfully and it was jarring to hear the hope and joy in his voice at the prospect. Jarring and infuriating.

“Well, should we… wait for her?” Maddie asked hesitantly. Sam made the conscious decision to try and relax her jaw. It didn’t work.

Danny, true to form, went straight to trying to be helpful. “I can just call her and check? Hold on.”

For a second, Sam’s fury almost tipped over into resignation at his blatant refusal to realize that they weren’t magically and suddenly on his side, but then she was firmly pushed back into familiar territory as Maddie and Jack both quieted down to pay attention to Danny and his call. As if they had never been guilty of not listening. As if they could make up for all the hurt they had caused and everything they had ignored before.

As if everything was suddenly all right.

Danny smiled into the phone and cut off her thoughts with a cheerful, “Hey! Dani! Um… Where are you right now?” He paused for a second, a baffled frown taking the smile’s place on his face. “Where?! What are you even doing there? Weren’t you in Washington yesterday??”

He paused for Dani’s answer and Sam kept her attention firmly on him as she ignored his parents off to the side—wanting to support him and not wanting to get lost in the anger, repeating to herself that they weren’t worth that—but it was hard.

She knew that this whole charade made Danny happy—as short lived as that happiness would be when Maddie and Jack inevitably turned on him—but how could she be expected to act as if everything was fine and that nothing had happened?! She had seen the pain their actions had caused him. The fear.

“Do I even want to know?” Danny laughed as he shook his head. “Right, right. We just found out that Vlad is back in town.” And of course he left out how exactly they had found it out; he did have an almost pathological need to minimize his own suffering. What else was new. Danny continued on, “So, do you want to come with us?”

There was an extended period of silence as Danny listened to whatever was said on the other end of the line. As the moment stretched on, a frown grew on his face. At the end of it he tentatively asked, “No? You’re sure?”

No? Sam frowned. She didn’t want to come?

In her surprise Sam looked over to meet Tucker’s eyes, and inadvertently took in the way Maddie and Jack leaned in close towards Danny, prompting him to take a step away from them as he tried to focus on the call.

Relax. Deep breaths.

And she was trying. She really, really was, but she was also so very angry.

They just came into their lives, after everything they had done, and expected them to just be fine with it?!

“Alright, yeah, I get it. Sure, we can do that. Talk to you later.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw Jack and Maddie wave at Danny with exaggerated motions and big smiles.

Sam took a deep breath. Another.

Danny rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, everyone here says hi.”

And at his words, Maddie and Jack smiled happily. Satisfied.

Another. She closed her eyes as she deliberately unclenched her fists. Another.

She heard Danny say, “I will. Bye,” and she opened her eyes again in time to see him lower the phone from his ear before taking a deep breath and looking up at them. “She says hi. And… She doesn’t want to go with us, but—”

“What?!” Jack looked chocked, ordering on outraged.

Maddie matched his expression as she exclaimed, voice full of disbelief, “What do you mean she doesn’t want to be there?!”

Danny sent them a glare—at least he was still able to get angry on others behalf if not his own, Sam thought bitterly—and continued on, “But she would love it if we could have her on video call. She doesn’t want to—” He cut himself off with a frustrated huff, tried again, “If she doesn’t want to come with us, she doesn’t have to. It’s her choice.”

Outrage morphed into confusion and disbelief on his parents’ faces and thankfully, Tucker stepped in again before they could ask exactly why a traumatized child might not jump on the possibility to confront their parent figure. Why she might want to distance herself from it all.

“I can set up the video. I have her number.” Tucker’s no-nonsense, accepting, statement seemed to bring Maddie and Jack up short, at least enough for them to thankfully not start arguing over it. Sam didn’t doubt that Tucker really was just grateful for something helpful and productive to do. To contribute. No, of course she wasn’t jealous.

At least she had her anger.

Danny let out a breath. “Thank you.” It was said with an almost insulting level of gratitude.

Tucker shrugged, but Sam could see the pleased smile on his face. He still aimed for casual as he said, “It’s her choice, and the least we can do is support her in it.” And as he said the last part, he sent Sam a look. She frowned. What was that about? It was Maddie and Jack who was being unsupportive, not her.

Maddie and Jack looked as if they were reconsidering their stance on arguing, so Sam decided that it was her time to get to feel useful. “I get it,” she said seriously, and she did—at least as much as any one of them could understand what Dani had, and still was, going through. If Sam could do this for her, without Dani having to put herself in direct line of fire, then she would happily do so. She reached out and placed a hand on Danny’s arm, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Of course we’ll help her.”

He sent her a grateful smile and Sam tried to not feel the ugly satisfaction of at least handling the situation better than Maddie and Jack.

“Alright…” Jack trailed off. “If Dani’s sure…”

“She is,” Danny affirmed with a nod.

Maddie returned the nod, thankfully stepping down. “Then we just have to wait for Danny’s powers to come back and then we can—”

Jack cut her off with a worried, “But what if Vlad acts right away?! We have no idea what he plans to do with that footage!”

“We should at least wait for Jazz to come back from her college tour. She would hate to be left out of this!”

“Hey, um, guys?” Danny was staring at his phone with a frown. At first, Sam thought that maybe Dani had changed her mind or something, but then he continued with, “He just messaged me.”

“What?!” Maddie looked scandalized.

“Vlad?!” Jack exclaimed in the same exact tone of voice that he used to exclaim “Ghost!” with. Fitting.

“Yeah, he wants to meet up.”

Tucker gave an exaggerated sigh before his expression turned suspicious, eyes snapping up from his phone to zero in on Danny. “You’re not thinking of going, are you?”

“Well, no?” Danny hedged, and Sam was apparently naïve enough to feel a spark of relief before he continued with, “I mean, he’s coming here.”

Sam couldn’t contain her outrage as she exploded with an, “Here?!” before she whipped around to stare at the door as if Vlad would suddenly materialize like some B-movie villain.

Honestly, she wouldn’t put it past him.

“When?” Tucker asked and Sam envied his apparent calm, even if it was underscored by exasperation.

Danny sighed, and he almost sounded guilty—as if even this was somehow his fault—when he said, “Now.”

“Well, I guess this is happening now, then.” Tucker gave Danny’s shoulder a light shove, a smile on his face and sounding much too calm for the situation.

Sam scoffed, drawing her ectogun for the second time that night. “He sure doesn’t waste any time, does he?”

Danny gave a laugh that was only slightly strained as he shuffled over to the closest table and grabbed a small blaster that she hoped he knew worked. “He’s always been very efficient.”

Maddie and Jack seemed to have frozen at the mention of their old friend coming over, but now they were watching the three of them with something sad in their eyes.

“You guys are very… efficient,” Jack hedged. Maddie gave a slow nod.

Tucker shrugged. “I wish I could say this is the first time something like this has happened.”

Danny flinched lightly at his words and turned to Sam and Tucker with a defeated look on his face. “Yeah, I’m sorry guys.”

“What now?” Sam asked, not bothering to hide how tired she sounded.

“This is kind of my fault? I shouldn’t have been caught by that gun,” Danny berated himself and Sam tried to suppress the sigh at his very predictable line of thoughts. Next he would no doubt insist that he go meet Vlad by himself in a misguided attempt to keep them all safe. Sadly, it wasn’t the first time they had done this either. So when she saw him open his mouth to speak again, she decided to cut to the chase and simply said, “We’re not leaving you alone with him.”

And Tucker, good old dependable Tucker, just nodded. As if her words were obvious; an undeniable truth, which they were—it was just nice to have someone else in her corner. Sam exchanged a smile with him before turning back to Danny. Let’s see him try to worm his way out of this one.

“No, I—” Danny cut himself off and in an impressive show of restraint he let out a long breath, shoulders slumping, before giving a stiff nod and saying, “Alright. Thanks.”

At least he was trying.

Sam clapped him on the shoulder and was gratified when he gave her a small smile.

She was still angry at Maddie and Jack, and she doubted that that would go away any time soon, but she also knew that that anger hurt Danny. So she would try and control it. Direct it. And there was one person they knew who she could safely take her anger out on.

This just might be her lucky day.

Chapter Text

There was a knock on the front door.

Sam straightened up and met Danny’s eyes from across the room; she wasn’t used to seeing him look this nervous anymore, but she guessed that’s what happened when a part of you was suddenly and violently torn from you against your will. Her finger itched on the trigger of her ectogun and she was suddenly very glad that she had had enough time to recharge it. Finally, Vlad would get what was coming for him.

Tucker had also used the limited time to run upstairs to grab the extra PDA he had stashed in Danny’s room for emergencies. She was fairly certain he had those things hidden all over town. Sure, it probably wouldn’t do much if it came to a fight but she knew he felt better with it in his hands, and besides; he wasn’t the best with a gun.

Maddie and Jack had managed to shake off their initial shock and had then proceeded to raid their lab for the most effective guns that they could effectively hide in close reach or on their person without it being too obvious.

They had decided to keep on pretending that Maddie and Jack didn’t know anything about Phantom or Plasmius to try and get Vlad to reveal where he had the footage and, preferably, what he planned to do with it—considering how fast he came over he hopefully hadn’t had the time to make any copies after receiving the footage from Technus.

And then they could get down to the original reason for why they had originally wanted to confront him; making him take some responsibility for the whole situation with Dani.

It was amazing that he had already managed to come up with another reason for them to kick his ass in such a short period of time.

In Jack’s own words, “He’s been duping us for years. I think it’s our turn.”

There was another knock, more insistent this time, and Sam glanced over at the other people in the kitchen. They all proceeded to have a quiet battle over who should open the door.

Sam was apparently deemed “too angry” to be able to act somewhat civil. As if she would give away their plan like a child.

Similarly; Jack was vetoed on the basis of not being able to lie and act subtle enough to not give the plan away. Sam hated that she got lumped in together with him.

Nobody wanted Danny to open the door except, predictably, Danny himself.

Tucker didn’t even offer to do it. He simply placed himself in a corner, as inconspicuous as possible, and raised his phone up in front of him subtly; muttering lowly at it as he talked to Dani.

In the end, Maddie won the debate. To the surprise of absolutely no one.

Maddie reluctantly strapped the gun to her waist and the rest of them did their best to hide their weapons behind their backs or on their person. Sure, they were all known for carrying weapons around, so hopefully it wouldn’t register as something too alarming for Vlad, but they didn’t want to chance him figuring them out too early.

She strode over to the door with the same determination as if she was walking into battle; her shoulders back and a determined set to her mouth. But she paused with her hand on the door-knob, schooled her expression into a smile that only looked slightly strained, and then opened the door smoothly. “Ah! Hello, Vlad. What a surprise.”

And, true to her word, in front of the door stood Vlad in all his pressed suit and greasy smiled glory. If he felt surprised that Maddie opened the door instead of Danny then he hid it well. “Hello Madeline. And company,” he drawled, eyes staying focused on Maddie for a tad too long before they slid off her and over to where Danny stood a couple of meters into the house—unwilling to leave her alone with Vlad at the door, no matter their plan. Vlad’s smile turned sharp at the edges. “Daniel. How are you?”

Sam bristled.

As if he had any right to ask that.

As if he didn’t know exactly what had just happened.

"Save it fruitloop." Danny growled.

Vlad raised an eyebrow with a meaningful glance at Jack and Maddie, no doubt thinking he should remind Danny of who was present and that he should behave appropriately.

Fuck that.

Sam stepped forward and did something she had dreamt about for years. 

She swiftly, and with great force, kicked Vlad in the shin with her steel toed boots—a vicious smile on her face as she did so.

Vlad let out a loud yelp that went straight to Sam’s ego.

"Sam!" Maddie gave a startled shout, no doubt trying to sound reprimanding, but she wasn't able to hide the delight in her voice. 

Tucker didn’t even try as he cheered, "Nice one!" 

"What do you think you're doing?" Vlad asked in a forcibly polite tone of voice which weren’t completely able to hide the snarl underneath it as he stood halfway bent over his leg.

Sam shrugged. “Whoops.” Not sounding the least bit sorry. Plan or no plan, he didn’t deserve even the pretense of sympathy.

Vlad straightened up, and as he did so his expression flattened out into polite indifference. But underneath the mask, Sam could see his eyes turning calculating; flickering from her, to Maddie and Jack, and back.

And just like that Sam’s satisfaction changed into dread.

What if they had been right; what if he did figure them out because she couldn’t control herself? It wasn’t enough that she wasn’t able to defend Danny from getting hurt in the first place, but now she was also jeopardizing their chances of minimizing the damage. Sure, they had agreed to not act too friendly, since that would only make him more suspicious, but they didn’t usually openly attack each other in front of Maddie and Jack.

Sam felt frozen to the spot, eyes locked on Vlad and not knowing how to act as to not make things even worse.

Thankfully, Maddie stepped in, very effectively distracting the disgusting old man with a smile that was sweet and kind and utterly, utterly, terrifying in how sincere it seemed. “I’m so sorry about that! You know how kids can be.”

Sam felt a reluctant inkling of gratitude towards the older hunter.

“Yes.” Vlad straightened out his suit and smoothed down his hair. “Quite”

“Don’t you want any of your own?”

Sam almost let her delight and surprise show on her face. The sheer ruthlessness of her asking him that, knowing how he felt about her. And knowing about Dani. Sam aspired to be that petty. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Danny hide his face behind his hand with a huge grin on his face.

Vlad froze for half a second before he managed a slightly strangled, “What?”

“Kids? Do you plan on having any someday?”

He gave an almost nonchalant shrug coupled with a stiff smile and a, “No, at least not for now. I’m far too busy.”

Maddie just kept on smiling as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, gesturing for him to enter the house. “Why don’t you come in, Vladimir?”

The use of his full name made his smile fall slightly and he stayed in the doorway, hesitating. Sam watched in disgust as delight from talking to Maddie, and her inviting him into her home, warred on his face with suspicion over the situation.

“Please.” Maddie wielded that single word with deadly precision and Vlad crumpled like wet tissue paper.

“Yes, alright. There is something I wanted to talk to you about, dear.”

Maddie’s face lost the cheer as soon as Vlad’s back was to her—getting replaced by an expression of disgust—and Jack made an outraged huffing sound as he watched him enter their home; which might not have been the most discreet thing in the world, but for once Vlad’s complete disregard for the other man worked in their favor.

Sam smiled at the intense feeling of satisfaction she felt when she noticed that he was walking with a slight limp and met Danny’s gaze behind Vlad’s back; returning the big smile on his face.

Considering how nice it felt for Sam to see Maddie and Jack finally notice and react to Vlad's creepy behavior, she could barely imagine how incredibly cathartic it had to feel for him. 

As they stepped into the living room, Vlad turned his smile back at Maddie, completely ignoring the rest of the people in the room with them. “I’m so happy I managed to catch you Madeline. Is it true that you’ve started working together with Phantom lately? I’ve heard rumors, you see.”

“Rumors? Don’t you mean spying?” Danny asked shortly, an eyebrow raised in a silent challenge.

“Oh, no, I would never! I wouldn’t want to break our… agreement, Daniel.”

"Sure.” Danny said as he crossed his arms and Sam was impressed by the level of rebellion he managed to convey in that simple gesture—even without the power to currently back it up. “Cause that’s a totally normal thing to say to your friends’ son.”

“Come now, little badger. You wouldn’t want any unwanted information to get out, now would you?” Vlad slowly reached into his left suit pocket and withdrew something just far enough for Danny, who stood on his left side, to see, sending him a smirk as he did so before putting it back in his pocket. Sam didn’t need to see it to know that it was the footage they were after and considering the size of it, she would guess that it was stored in an USB.

Danny met her eyes across the room; his eyebrows raised in the same expression of disbelief that Sam knew adorned her own face.

Wow, he just up and revealed it himself, huh? Sam scoffed. What a dumbass.

If he thought that a small USB was his new trump card to keep them in line, he would soon be deeply disappointed.

Danny kept quiet now that he had managed to get him to reveal himself, allowing Vlad to think that he had cowed him into silence.

Sam itched for another kick.

Vlad gave a satisfied smirk and turned back to Maddie, secure in his feeling of superiority. “So, you have been working together with Phantom?”

Maddie crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes, as a matter of fact, we have.”

Vlad took a deep breath and Sam saw him fist his hands at his side. “Ah. You see, I don’t know what to think of this. I come back from my little… trip, and suddenly my dear old friends have started working together with a ghost? A known criminal no less. You have to understand why I’m… worried.”

It was Maddie’s turn to take a few calming breaths, visibly forcing herself to relax. “How kind of you.”

Vlad smiled, unaware of the anger in her voice. It was a miracle how blind he could be sometimes, especially when it came to the people he claimed to love.

“Yeah, so kind,” Danny said sarcastically.

Vlad sent him a glare before he seemed to reach some sort of conclusion. “In truth, I came to warn you. Phantom is planning something and I don’t want you to get dragged into whatever mess he creates.”

Sam could see Maddie shaking slightly from where she stood and if you didn’t know her it could be seen as distress and not the anger that Sam knew it was. “Planning something?” Despite her anger, Maddie still managed to keep her voice fairly even. Sam was reluctantly impressed.

“Yes. You know how ghosts are.” Vlad waved his hand dismissively.

Maddie nodded. “Yes, manipulative and traitorous evil scum.” She kept her eyes fixed on Vlad as she said it and Sam didn’t have any doubt about which ghost she was referring to.

Vlad’s smile froze on his face. “Ah, yes, exactly.”

Sam glanced at Danny, but he seemed pretty content to stand back and watch this play out, so she decided to follow his example. For now.

“Well, despite that, we’ve decided to give hi—” Maddie cut herself off. “It a chance.”

“And that’s very commendable of you!” Vlad hurried to reassure her. “I’m sorry to say that that damn ghost has been tricking you. Leading you on. I have it on good authority that he’s been plotting to attack you behind your back. I think it would be best if you told me what you have been doing together so that we can come up with a plan to stop the menace!”

Ah. He felt threatened and wanted to know what they had been doing with Phantom, scared that Danny would turn the Fenton parents—and his precious Madeline—against him. Of course Vlad’s first reaction to not knowing exactly what was going on was to try and get Danny firmly back under his thumb via blackmailing him with his secret identity. Classic Vlad.

Maddie waited just a few seconds too long after Vlad’s “revelation” of Phantom’s evil plan before exclaiming, “Oh! We should have known! That sneaky little ghost!”

Sam would say that she was overplaying it, but despite this, Vlad didn’t seem to catch on.

“Those damn ghosts!” Jack joined his wife and Sam was startled by how genuine he sounded—maybe she had underestimated him—and the surprise managed to trump her attempt at keeping her facial expressions under control. Luckily, Jack’s outburst also drew Vlad’s attention and he didn’t notice her surprise.

Maddie also took advantage of Vlad’s momentary distraction to sneak a look at Danny and Sam saw him make a discreet gesture, miming putting his hand in an imagined left front jacket pocket. Maddie gave a short nod before taking a step towards Vlad with a, "How could this happen?!" Effectively redirecting his attention back to her. "As soon as we decide to trust, we get tricked!" 

“I’m so sorry, dear. You must be devastated.”

“What would people think if this got out? Oh, Vlad, you haven’t told anyone have you?” Maddie looked up at him with wide eyes.

Sam had to hand it to her, she was absolutely terrifying.

“Oh, no, no, of course not. I went straight to you.”

“Thank you, it’s best if this doesn’t get out.” She placed a hand on his arm and Sam almost gagged. “We would lose all credibility in the field if people found out we had been tricked by a ghost! You understand, don’t you, Vlad?”

“Oh, of course, dear!” I haven’t told a soul.”

Maddie nodded. “What kind of proof do you have that we can go over? Together?” The hand on his arm squeezed slightly, “Videos?”

Sam frowned, where was she going with this?

Vlad cleared his throat. “Yes. Videos, photos. I’d be more than happy to show you all the data I have gathered about Phantom’s evil plans, personally.”

“Do you have all of this back in your lab? Even the videos?”

Realization dawned on her; Maddie was fishing for information about where Vlad stored important videos—like the one he had just captured of Danny transforming.

“No, I take security very seriously. I carry all the important data on me at all times, and there’s only one copy of it. Makes it less likely to get stolen, you see?”

Sam almost snorted, that was such an old-man way of viewing data security. But at least he seemed to have learnt something after all the times she, Tucker, and Danny had broken in and wiped his hard drives. Well, it made it all the easier for them since it meant that even if he had had enough time to get a copy made before coming here, he wouldn’t—he only had one version of the USB with Danny’s transformation—and he had already very kindly shown them exactly where he had it.

“You’re not lying to me, are you Vlad? I wouldn’t be able to take it!”

"No, my dear, I would never lie to you." Vlad smiled as he opened his arms for Maddie, all smugness and glee; expecting her to fall into his arms.

It made it all the more satisfying when Maddie, quick as a whip and twice as deadly, struck out and hit him square in the face, making him stumble before falling flat on his ass.

Sam, Tucker, Danny and Jack all cheered. There was even the slightly crackly sound of Dani’s voice joining them through Tucker’s phone.

"Get him, honey!" 

"What…?" Vlad breathed out; looking around as if he couldn’t understand how he ended up on the floor, one hand unconsciously going up to cradle his red cheek—for once looking as if he was one step behind everyone else. 

Maddie didn’t let up as she leaned down, close to Vlad's startled face. "Don't you ever." She poked him in the chest hard enough to make him wince. "Threaten." Poke. “Or hurt.” Poke. "My family." Poke "Again!"

The expression on Vlad’s face was quickly changing from confusion to horrified realization. “Do you know…?”

"We know that you attacked Danny.” Maddie straightened back up. “We also know about Dani and what you did to her, so cut the crap, Vlad. Or should I say, Plasmius?” She spat the name out as if it left a sour taste in her mouth.

To his credit, Vlad only looked panicked for a split second before his mask slipped back into place, but Sam could see the sweat beading at his temples from where she stood. Vlad scrambled to his feet and dusted himself off in an attempt to look unaffected as he said, in a slightly shaky voice, "What in the world are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb. Danny told us everything." 

"Did he now?" Vlad asked in a perfectly calm tone of voice as he turned to look at Danny with raised eyebrows, but he was betrayed by his shaking hands—which he seemed to notice as he hastily showed them behind his back in what Sam guessed he thought was a casual gesture. It wasn’t.

Vlad stared right at Danny, a challenge in his eyes, but Danny calmly met his gaze as he squared his shoulders. "I did." Sam was proud of how strongly he said it. 

Vlad looked from Danny and back to Maddie, even sparing a glance to Jack, before the expression of superiority came back to his face together with a smirk as he looked down on Danny; as if he held any power over any of them anymore. Pitiful. “Well, since you’re all still here, still defending him, I think he might have left out a vital part of information. I’m so sorry to tell you—”

“That he’s Phantom?”

Vlad whipped his head around to stare at Jack faster than was humanly possible; a look of such pure disbelief on his face that it made Sam laugh out loud. She made no attempt to suppress it, only laughing harder as Vlad opened and closed his mouth several times without managing to produce any sound. God, she couldn’t wait to re-watch this moment on the video she was sure that Tucker was currently recording.

"But—But he's a ghost!" Vlad exclaimed, disbelief coloring his voice.

"Yes we know." Maddie placed her hand on Danny’s arm, a loving smile on her face that Danny returned. “And he's our son.”

"But you wouldn't—" 

"Shut it Vladdie," Jack growled as he took a step forward, Vlad leaning backwards ever so slightly. Sam thought she had seen Jack angry before, when he hunted ghosts or chased Danny, but this. This was a fury she hadn’t seen before. For the first time Sam actually felt a bit intimidated by Jack's hulking figure and was thankful that his anger wasn't directed at her. "Don't you dare tell us what we would or wouldn't do!"

“Do some self-reflection.” Maddie looked at him with the same expression Sam had seen on her face when she had fought a ghost that was made of a literal pile of trash and sewage just the other week. “Move on.”

Tucker let out a low whistle from where he still stood in the corner with his phone aimed at the scene playing out in front of him. "Ruthless."

“And next time you get back in town to find that something’s changed, maybe ask what’s happened? Instead of going straight to extortion?” Danny added in a tired voice, but Sam could also make out the relief in it—something she agreed with wholeheartedly. The secrets were all out now. Finally.

Vlad was still staring at Maddie with wide eyes, before slowly turning to face Danny instead. “You can’t really fault me for wanting some… security that you weren’t about to go back on our agreement.” Sam was almost impressed that he sounded as put together as he did, considering the situation. Almost.

“I do fault you!”

"Well, it seems that fear was founded.”

Sam thought it seemed like Vlad jumped all the normal reactions to a life-changing revelation and went straight back to being an antagonistic asshole on pure instinct, but what did she know.

Danny seemed about as done with his shit as she felt as he groaned and said, “I don’t care! You’re done.”

Then it was like a switch was suddenly flipped and Vlad went from cold, almost eerie calm, to a seething rage in the blink of an eye. “I’m not the one who’s done. I can ruin you,” Vlad snarled.

“You could try.”

“I can tell everyone about you. Do you think you can stay in your precious school if people knew the truth? How long until the GIW came for you?”

Danny hesitated at this, but before Sam could do something drastic against the bitter old man, Jack stepped in. “Don’t forget that you’re in the same situation, Vladimir. And besides, who are they going to believe when it comes to ghost-things? Huh? You? Or the two most leading experts in the field? Nobody would take you seriously. You would ruin your own reputation, but go ahead.”

Danny’s hesitation melted of him as he relaxed and nodded with a big smile. “And now that mom and dad already know, I find that I don’t really care if you tell people. Whatever happens, we’ll figure something out.”

Jack placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “We won’t let you hurt Danny-boy or anyone else.”

“I—You can’t just—” He suddenly froze, head whipping back to look at Maddie with wide eyes. “Wait. You—You know.”

“About what you’ve done? About what and who you are? Yes.”

“Well.” He cast a last glance over the room, for the first time actually lingering on the weapons in their hands. He straightened up. “Then I guess I don’t have to hide anymore.”

Chapter Text

“I would think very carefully on my next move if I were you.” Jack took his hand off Danny’s shoulder and placed it on the gun on his hip instead.

Sam took great delight in pulling out the gun from behind her back and aiming it at Vlad, whose hands burst into swirling pink energy that pulsed in time with his now glowing eyes.

Maddie scoffed, her own gun joining the arsenal now pinning Vlad between them. “Don’t threaten us with a light show!”

Vlad bared his teeth, the glow increasing in strength. “Don’t worry, I actually follow through with my threats. Besides,” his glowing eyes turned to focus on Danny, his glare morphing into a grin, “I know that Daniel might have… let’s say, some power issues at the moment.”

And Sam could see how this hit Danny where it hurt; the way his shoulders raised and how his finger twitched on the trigger to his blaster as he was reminded just how relatively powerless he was at the moment. He had never been a very good actor and Tucker must have picked up on it too as he spoke up, keeping his phone aimed at Vlad the whole time, “Well, we four are feeling just fine.”

“As if a small group of humans could hope to lay a finger on me,” Vlad spat, but Sam could see the way his eyes shifted from them and to the door. A drop of sweat rolled down his cheek—he knew very well what all of them were capable of. Then his eyes zeroed in on Tucker’s phone. “And what are you even doing on that phone of yours? Are you… recording this?”

Tucker gave a disbelieving laugh, “You have no right to ask that. Especially after what you did today.”

“Well, no matter. I will simply have to destroy it after I deal with you.”

Tucker got a challenging glint in his eyes, hand tightening around his phone—his precious tech. “Good luck with that.”

“Yeah, we won’t let you,” Jack nodded along, hand still on his gun but seemingly unwilling to raise it and fully accept that his former friend was now an enemy. Maddie didn’t seem to share in his hesitation as she kept her gun trained right at Vlad’s chest.

But still. None of them approached him. Not of them tried to get Danny out of the room, even with him in danger and very obviously uncomfortable in the situation (but she guessed they were so used seeing him like that, so maybe it didn’t even register any more). Sam gritted her teeth in annoyance.

And to top it all off, the smile was back on Vlad’s face again and Sam hated it. “Well, this is all a great show but I heard there was some trouble in your cute little ghost-hunting-gang?”

Danny frowned at that. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, from what I heard, you’re leaving them behind.” He gestured with his glowing hands at Sam and Tucker, smile widening as Danny flinched at the action. “Replacing them.”

Sam knew that Tucker felt insecure about his place at Danny’s side—she was right there with him—but she wouldn’t let Vlad use that against them. She adopted her best non-bothered tone of voice, pressed down on her anger as much as she could, and tried to play on his pride as she said, “This is just pathetic Vlad.”

He turned his attention back to her for a split second before zeroing in on Tucker, his grin widening even more; becoming too wide for a strictly human face. “Is it?”

She stepped in front of Tucker. “Yes. Unlike someone, we know that love isn’t a finite resource you have to fight over.” At the end she glanced over her shoulder at Tucker, met his eyes and took in the pained expression on his face. She managed to produce a small, hopefully encouraging, smile from god knows where.

Tucker cleared his throat, gave her a small nod and met Vlad’s gaze head on. “Yeah. What she said.”

His voice wasn’t as strong as he probably wanted it to be, but Sam decided not to mention it. She was just glad he didn’t fall for Vlad’s blatant attempt at baiting them to turn against each other, no matter how true his words may be. Or feel.

“I’m not leaving anyone behind!” Danny interjected. “Why would you think that?”

The last question was aimed at Vlad just as much as it was aimed at her and Tucker. Of course he would fall for Vlad’s baiting! Even when it wasn’t aimed at him. Of fucking course.

God, why did he make things so hard?!

Sam did her best to swallow down the anger that rose up at that. Breathe. It’s not his fault that he could be so damn slow on the uptake and not care how she or Tucker felt and she just wanted him to act as if—!

Sam stopped short. Oh. Oh no.

What was she doing? Trying to dictate how he should act and feel?

…Was she becoming like her parents?!

Tucker stepped out from behind Sam, phone still raised. “We don’t Danny. It’s… It’s fine.”

Vlad turned his smile on Tucker instead. “Is it? You can’t even be honest with him, huh?”

Sam did her best to reign in her racing thoughts, but it wasn’t made any easier by Vlad’s annoying presence; poking his fingers in all of their insecurities. Why couldn’t he just shut up?!

“Stop it,” Sam growled, trying to ignore the shaking in her own voice as she reeled from the realization that maybe she wasn’t as above it all as she had thought.

“Oh, hit a nerve, did I?” His grin became even wider and Sam’s hand tightened on her gun.

“You’re one to talk. Why are you even fighting now, huh? You’ve lost everything.” She sent a meaningful look towards Maddie, who was watching the interaction with sharp eyes. Always watching, never acting. Just fine with observing and letting their own son get hurt and—

Sam forced herself to refocus on the more acute problem in front of her just in time for Vlad to growl low in his chest. “I won’t let you humiliate me!”

Sam laughed, and it was cold and hard. “Don’t worry, you’re doing a good job of that yourself.”

“You might think you’ve bested me,” he spat out the words, “but I know you are all just pretending to get along. To be happy. But I know the truth.”

“You don’t know anything,” Sam shot back, very much not in the mood for his usual mind-games.

“Is that so?” Vlad raised an eyebrow, expression deceptively calm as he flexed his hands at his sides. “Or maybe you just don’t want to admit that you’re not the perfect little hunting party?”

“Now hold on—!” Jack said with anger in his voice at the same time as Maddie said, “We don’t have to agree on everything for us to—”

Sam felt the anger rise back up, swallowing her up in an instance as she watched the way Vlad’s mouth turned up in satisfaction as they clamored over each other to voice their protests; unorganized and drawing the focus away from him. Just like he wanted them to.

This time she didn’t fight the anger, didn’t want to, as she let it lead her; aiming her gun and then promptly firing. The shot burst from her gun and a split second later it connected with Vlad’s face, but the expected feeling of triumph, of satisfaction, didn’t come.

She still only felt anger.

And Vlad seemed to be on the same page as he snarled at her and charged up two ectoblasts in his hands again, this time not hesitating before firing them off.

“Sam!” She saw Danny raised his hands as if to summon a shield in front of her, but of course nothing happened.

Sam knew, logically, that an ectoblast wouldn’t severely hurt a human, but she also knew that it would sting something fierce and she wasn’t keen on repeating the experience. Sadly, she really didn’t have enough time or space to dodge; stupidly having positioned herself in a corner to have a better view of the room.

And then the blast suddenly ricocheted to the side and Sam was left staring at Maddie’s lightly smoking gun from where she had shot the blast out of thin air. Sam knew she had scary good aim, but damn.

Even so, Sam would not thank her. Her surprise and admiration quickly changed into chagrin; how dare she step in as if she was some pathetic child in need of rescuing? And how could they think they had any right to step in now and help them? When they had just stood by for so long?!

In the stunned silence that followed, Jack stepped in and tried to grab Vlad—who easily avoided it. Sam wasn’t surprised that he still tried for a peaceful solution without weapons on his old friend. Not surprised, but still disappointed.

Maddie, for her part, looked at Sam with an actually worried expression. “Are you okay?”

Sam didn’t deign that with an answer as she raised her gun back up and took aim. Vlad didn’t even notice her from where he was fighting Jack; it would be a clean shot. And maybe it would silence some of the roaring anger inside her.

She felt a grin spread across her face but just as she was about to pull the trigger, she looked at Vlad’s twisted face and his vicious attacks, and she stopped.

Vlad wasn’t fighting for anything, not right now. He was fighting them just because he was angry and Sam… Sam could understand that. She didn’t want to but she recognized that need to take your ager out on something, anything, close by. Especially when someone didn’t do that you wanted them to do, didn’t act like you wanted them to.

She thought about her parents again. About Vlad.

It wasn’t enough that she had just realized that she might be more like her parents than she wanted to admit, now she had to find common ground with Vlad of all people?

Even so, no matter how much she hated to admit it, she knew where this road lead and she refused to take another step down it.

As if to prove her point, Vlad gave an angry roar and slammed Jack back from where he had futilely tried to grab ahold of Vlad again—hit his former friend across the face and laughed as he did so.

Danny looked to be on the verge of a panic attack as he watched Vlad stalk closer to her, Maddie, and Jack. She knew how hard this must be for him; being forced to take a more passive role in the fight than usual, but she would show him that they could take care of themselves. That he didn’t have to worry about them.

But how could she do that with only anger guiding her? Could she say that she was defending if she couldn’t tell if the act of protecting or the act of hurting brought the most satisfaction?

In the blink of an eye, before any of them could react, Vlad had created four duplicates of himself and split up.

Sam screamed as she opened fire, her thoughts clashing but knowing beyond a doubt that she could not let Vlad hurt anyone else she cared about. Knowing that if there was someone who deserved her anger, it was him.

Three of her shots connected with the closest duplicate to her; one in the leg and two in the stomach, and despite her anger Sam took great joy in watching it dissolve. She stepped out of the corner to give herself some more room to move as she watched the rest of the people in the room.

Maddie didn’t waste any time before shooting one of the duplicates between the eyes.

Vlad took a stumbling step away from her, chock on his face. As if he hadn’t expected his beloved Madeleine to be able to shoot him. Well, they were all having big revelations today, weren’t they?

The third duplicate bared his teeth and flew right at Jack—no doubt aiming for possessing him—but as soon as he came into contact with the other man, he seized up before promptly destabilizing. Of course Jack was wearing a specter deflector! They had all prepared for Vlad’s arrival. Sam felt a small trickle of shame as she realized that that was why he had tried to grab Vlad earlier; to shock him! He hadn’t been unwilling to help his son after all; he had tried to take Vlad by surprise. Jack straightened up and gave a bellowing laugh. “Take that! Did you really think it would be that easy?”

He had thought he could just possess them?! As if they were some kind of amateurs! Jack reared back and hit the clone in the face with the butt of the gun. “You didn’t think we’d prepared for you? Did you think it would be that easy?”

“I didn’t.”

Vlad’s voice came from behind her and Sam whipped around to see Vlad holding Danny in a headlock; the last duplicate held Danny’s gun in his hand, a vicious smile on his face as he kept it aimed at Danny’s head.

Cold dread washed over her and she instinctively raised her gun.

“Ah, ah, ah. Don’t.” Vlad tightened his hold on Danny, who flinched in response. Sam’s hand that held the gun started shaking. “You wouldn’t want me to have to hurt little Daniel here, would you?” Vlad grinned.

Danny watched her with fear and panic in his eyes. “Don’t.”

She knew it wasn’t fear for his own safety that made his voice waver—she knew that he would gladly sacrifice himself if it meant keeping them safe—and that made it all the more infuriating. But she also knew that her anger was of no use now.

“Good choice, little badger.”

And his voice was so full of approval. Dripping with condescension. Sam gripped her shaking gun tighter as she lowered it down. She would get him for this, and she would revel in it.

“And now, drop your weapons,” Vlad’s duplicate said as he gestured with the gun still pointed at Danny’s head.

Sam hesitated a split second—seeing the way Danny shook his head in a vain attempt to get them to disregard his safety in favor of their own—before dropping the gun at her feet, hearing the thunks of the other’s in the room following suit.

“Kick them towards me.”

Sam reluctantly followed his command, but she made sure to kick her gun harder than strictly necessary and felt an ounce of satisfaction as it slammed into Vlad’s foot. She could at least get a small victory, if nothing else.

Danny’s eyes jumped from her, to Tucker, to his parents and it was plain to see that it pained him to see them be in any kind of danger “because of him” as he would call it. Sam sent a quick glance over her shoulder and was relieved when she saw Tucker still in the back of the room, phone still up and a troubled frown on his face. But he was keeping still and out of trouble. Good, at least that was one less person to worry about in the direct line of fire of things went south.

Speaking of trouble; she got a quick look at Maddie and Jack with their hands raised, exchanging glances before slowly, ever so slowly, starting to inch their way towards the cabinets where Sam knew they had a Fenton Foamer among other things. She couldn’t help but feel slightly impressed at the quick thinking; with that weapon they could incapacitate Vlad in a second without risking hurting Danny. She was glad to see that Maddie and Jack wouldn’t just sit back and accept the situation, but Vlad would no doubt catch on to what they were doing before they could pull it off, no matter how slowly they tried to move. There wasn’t exactly a lot of cover in the middle of a living room so to pull it off they would need a distraction.

But drawing Vlad’s attention would involve a lot of risk, and a lot of trust in Maddie and Jack to pull it off. Trust that she didn’t have.

She desperately wanted to; to trust that they weren’t all talk, that they were actually on their side and trying to do the right thing. She didn’t, she knew that she didn’t. But still... She could choose to do it. For Danny.

Sam turned back to Vlad as she projected as much confidence as she could while doing her best not to acknowledge Danny and his fearful eyes that pleaded with her not to put herself in danger. Well she had always been bad at listening to others. “Do you feel powerful now? And what’s the plan? You’re gonna kill him? Kill us?”

Danny flinched at her words, but she kept her attention fixed on Vlad.

Thankfully, both Vlad and his duplicate fell for her exploitation of his pathological need for both talking about himself and for always having the last word when insulted, as they focused their attention on her with matching disdain on their faces. “Sadly, no. For some reason Madeleine cares about you all.” Vlad gave a sigh, as if the fact that he couldn’t kill anyone was an annoyance. Then, in a split second, his expression morphed into rage and he spat out, “Which is absolutely ludicrous!  So, no. I won’t kill your our dear Daniel here, but I can make him hurt.” And as he said that he tightened his hold on Danny, tight enough to make him gasp.

Sam felt the carefree expression freeze on her face. No. No, no, no. She couldn’t watch him get hurt any more. Not again. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Maddie and Jack stop in their tracks as well.

She forced her voice to be steady as she clenched her hands to keep them from shaking. “Do you think that will make her like you? You hurting her son? You need to realize that you can’t force people to do what you want and then call it their choice. Or call it love.”

The words felt clunky in her mouth, heavy, and much too real. She took a deep breath; this was not the time for another freak-out. She had to focus on getting Danny out of this and then she could break down.

Vlad growled. “Madeleine should look at me! She should be with me! But instead she chooses to spend her time with you lot.”

“She gets to decide that, not you.” Sam crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes, giving herself a chance to sneak a quick glance at Jack and Maddie—relaxing when she saw that they had started inching their way forward again. “Just because you love someone doesn’t mean that they have to give you the time of day. You can't ascribe feelings or intentions to people and expect them to act accordingly. It doesn't work like that."

"Speaking from experience, are we?" Vlad sneered, but Sam could see his grip on Danny loosening slightly.

And she was, wasn’t she? She swallowed down the rising panic at that. Freak out later, she reminded herself.

“So? It’s still true,” Sam pressed on, praying to keep both of the Vlad’s attention on her even as she herself felt less and less present in the conversation; falling into a hole of self-doubt. But if there was one thing she was used to, it was speaking with conviction. "You assumed Danny would join you and feel like you just because what? You share one aspect of your lives? You assumed that Maddie would magically love you if you juuust changed a couple of things." Just like how I assumed that Jack and Maddie would turn against Danny at the first opportunity, she didn’t say. "...Just like my own parents think that I would be the perfect daughter if they just changed a few things. Or convinced me to change in a few ways. That's. Not. How. People. Work."

Jack and Maddie had almost reached the cabinet by now. Just a little bit longer.

"Well, that was a beautiful speech, but I think you forgot a small detail. I don't care."

Sam was quiet for a few seconds, then said simply, "I think you do." 

"Don't presume to know me!" Vlad snarled, tightening his hold on Danny, who in turn gave a grunt in protest. Sam sent a glance at Maddie and Jack, scared that the noise would make them hesitate even more..not knowing how much longer she could keep him occupied without raising suspicion—but then Vlad frowned and followed her line of sight. Right to where Jack was slowly inching the cabinet open.  “And what do you think you’re doing?!”

Sam tensed. “Fuck.”

Before the whole scene could go to shit, Tucker spoke up from the corner where he had been standing the whole time—still and quiet enough for everyone to mostly overlook him. “Vlad, Vlad, Vlad. Have you forgotten where you are? You have a lot of nerve to threaten us in this house.” He gave a big grin as he exaggeratedly pressed his finger on his PDA, no doubt pressing some button he had on the display.

Sam flinched at the sudden blaring of an alarm going off and it took her half a second to place the sound before the weapons of the Fenton’s infamous security system lowered from the ceiling.

Sam took an instinctive step towards Danny, fearful that the weapons would zero in on him, but stopped when she saw that none of the weapons aimed themselves at him.

Maddie and Jack had reluctantly agreed to bring the system online again after reprogramming it—together with Tucker—not to recognize Danny as a threat.

But of course; even if that weren’t the case, Danny’s powers were shorted out right now. He wasn’t in any danger. There was only one ghost present and it was very satisfying to watch Vlad get a face full of ectobeams.

As soon as the duplicate dissolved and Vlad loosened his grip on him in favor of gripping his face in pain, Danny tore free and promptly kneed Vlad in the crotch—sending him sprawling to the floor.

Tucker worked his magic and the weapons ceased firing and as they did, Jack stepped forward, released the specter deflector around his waist, and slapped it onto Vlad instead.

“Are you okay, honey?” Maddie and Jack stepped up to Danny, who was looking as if he contemplated delivering another knee to the man on the ground, and promptly started looking him over. “Are you hurt? Oh, we’re so sorry we couldn’t get you sooner. Do you want to sit down? Have some fudge? Oh, our baby boy. You’re okay now.”

Danny endured the fussing with red cheeks and stuttered assurances that he was perfectly fine. Sam knew that his definition of “fine” wasn’t very trustworthy, but after several years she knew what signs to look for and he did live up to their, admittedly quite insufficient, definition of fine.

After making absolutely sure that Vlad wouldn’t be able to attack them anymore, Maddie turned her attention to Tucker with a raised eyebrow. “Since when do you have access to our systems?”

“Well, I’ve had a backdoor for a while.” Tucker shrugged, looking unapologetic. “It was kind of necessary. You know, before.”

Before they had known that the system targeted their own son more often than not. That it repeatedly attacked him in his own home. Before Danny still, after all that, had chosen to trust them with his most well-guarded secret.

The fact that Tucker still had the backdoor open went unsaid—and that it indicated that he didn’t trust them completely yet— but Sam had no doubt that they understood it. They didn’t bring it up though, didn’t try and convince them that they were trustworthy, which was a plus, a small one, but a plus nonetheless.

Sam walked over to where Danny stood next to the groaning Vlad and bent down to pick her gun up. As soon as it was in her hand she felt some of the tension leave her.

Maddie and Jack joined them, Jack handing Danny back the blaster that Vlad had taken from him.

After a few moments, Vlad let go of his face and Sam smiled at the angry burns decorating the majority of it. He took a few shaky breaths before he managed to sit up, which was when he noticed the four guns aimed at his head. He froze like a deer in headlights. The sweet, sweet taste of revenge.

Maddie made sure that Vlad was well under control before lowering her own gun, reaching into her pocket, and then casually tossing a USB to Jack, who in turn managed to snatch it out of the air with his free hand. He opened his hand to reveal the USB Vlad had with the footage of Danny’s transformation.

Sam frowned. When had she grabbed that? When she punched Vlad? When she threatened him? Sam felt a reluctant spark of respect for her.

Jack smiled as understanding lit up his eyes and then, while keeping eye contact with Vlad, he crushed the USB in his hand. “If you ever threaten or hurt our family again, Vladdie , it won’t be the USB that we destroy.”

Vlad slowly raised his hands, trying to look casual, but Sam could see the way his eyes flitted from Jack’s hand and to the weapons still rained on him, to the guns still protruding from the ceiling. Could see him swallow hard. He cleared his throat and said, “Let’s talk. Like adults.”

“Ha!” Sam gave an incredulous laugh. “So now you’re acting like an adult? When you’ve lost?”

“Well, things change.”

She frowned. “You don’t.”

“Everyone does,” he said in a regretful voice, eyes flitting over to Maddie for a split second.

“So? What do you want to talk about?” Danny lowered his own gun, satisfied with the fact that Vlad couldn’t fight back and that he was sufficiently intimidated not to try any underhanded methods. That was okay; Sam would keep her gun trained on him for the both of them.

Vlad glanced from Danny, to Maddie, to Jack, to her and Tucker, and then down on the floor between his feet, his face set in a deep frown. After a few seconds he looked up at Danny. When he spoke he sounded… almost lost which was unsettling to hear, coming from him. “Seeing you all there. Seeing Maddie and—and Jack there with you. Supporting you, fighting for you,  even though they know the truth, it—” He broke off, almost sounding as if he was choking up and Sam had to work hard not to start laughing.

Was he—Was he crying? As if any of the people in the room would feel sorry for him after everything he had done, after what he just pulled.

Vlad didn’t seem to get the humor in the situation as he continued, completely seriously, “It’s what I wanted. It’s everything I ever wanted.”

Danny crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down on Vlad where he was sprawled on the floor. “I know.”  

Vlad flinched at that and Sam was proud of the absolute savagery of that simple line.

“Yeah, cry me a river old man,” Sam scoffed. “Go have your life changing discoveries somewhere else. We don’t care.”

“Wait,” Tucker said. “Can you turn this way? I have someone on the phone who would love to see your expression right now in great detail.” He raised his phone up, ignoring the way Vlad scowled at him. But he had no grounds on which to complain about this, not after the way he had just recorded Danny.

And to their surprise, he didn’t. Instead he said, “I—I admit that I might have been… wrong. About some things.”

If she wasn’t holding a gun, Sam would have applauded. “Wooow! How hard was that to say for you? On a scale from one to ten?”

“I—I guess I deserve that. I realize that I might have gotten stuck in the past.”

Danny scoffed. “You could say that.”

“I’m trying to be honest here,” Vlad gritted out.

“Oh, I know. I just don’t care.”

Tucker nodded in agreement. “You’re just saying this for us to let you go.”

Sam frowned, readjusted her grip on the gun. Tucker had a point. “Yeah, this is creeping me out. What are you planning?”

“Nothing. I just have some thinking to do.”

“You go do that then,” Danny said. “Leave us alone.”

This seemed to get Vlad to break his weird, uncharacteristic, honesty and a flash of familiar anger flitted over his face. “I thought this was what you wanted?!” But then it fizzled out as quickly as it had come, leaving him slumped over and even more tired-looking than before.

“Wow! You got it all wrong. We don’t care about you or what you think.”

And this seemed to pain him more than everything that came before. “I can see that there’s no room for me here.”

Maddie nodded. “You’re right about that.”

If she thought Vlad looked wrecked before this, Maddie’s condemnation of him brought him to new lows. Sam could barely keep from cheering.

Jack stepped up beside Maddie and put an arm around her shoulders, saying causally, “By the way, we have another child.”

This time, Sam did laugh at the pure savageness of that action and statement. And the face it prompted on Vlad’s face.

“You—” Vlad cut himself off, looking at Maddie with big eyes.

“No,” Maddie shook he head. “She's about a year old, but very similar to Danny. There were some… problems during the first part of her life. Not a very supportive father, you see.”

Vlad paled.

“But she’s finally come home.” Maddie leaned over Vlad, and said in a voice that didn’t allow for any disagreement, “We will be in touch.”

Jack nodded. “It’s time you understand that your actions have consequences.”

Which Sam thought was fairly ironic coming from them, but whatever, she wouldn’t complain. Not when Vlad stumbled to his feet, mouth working without producing any sound, and then gave a stiff nod.

Sam gestured with her gun towards the hall, “The door is that way.” And to her delight, Vlad simply nodded again before turning and walking out.

“See you later, Vladdie!” Jack called after him with a vicious smile on his face.
They stood in silence for a few minutes, until they were sure that Vlad was long gone, but then Danny broke the quiet with a laugh. “That was great you guys! Thank you!”

“Of course, son!” Jack smiled. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a ghost, a human, or something in-between, nobody threatens a Fenton and gets away with it!”

“Yes, honey. We will do everything we can to protect you.”

“Yeah, man,” Tucker chimed in.

Sam agreed with a nod, her serious facade breaking as she turned to Maddie, deciding to extend a figurative olive-branch. "Did you see his expression when you punched him in the face?” A wide grin spread over her face. “I wish I could frame that.

"Oh, it was nothing," Maddie said as she waved it off before leaning in with a smirk and whispering loud enough for everyone to hear, "But it did feel very good."

Danny snorted. "He had it coming for a long time. I hope this makes him wake up a bit." 

Tucker sighed and shook his head. "We can always hope." 

"Well, if he comes back or if he bothers you again please tell us. We have some guns laying around now that we haven't used in a while that we would love to take for a spin." 

"Moom!" 

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." But her smile told them that she wasn't.

Sam thought about the look of utter defeat on Vlad’s face. "I don't think he will come back anytime soon." 

Danny snickered. “You’re probably right.”

And it was such a relief to hear him laugh, it felt like the sound carried off the last of the tension in her as she let her shoulders relax and finally put the gun back in its holster at her hip.

Of course, that’s when Danny’s eyes landed on the thermos containing Skulker still standing on the living room table. “Oh, right! Skulker’s still in the thermos.”

Then he blinked and seemed to realize what he’d said and in front of who; that a ghost was trapped right in front of his parents who were very well known—at least until recently—for their hatred of ghosts. Even when the ghost in question hadn’t hurt their son directly. Which this one had.

Sam tensed up again as she kept her eyes trained on them before saying, “We should let him out through the portal.”

Maddie nodded. “Yes, we should do that right now before we forget.”

Danny crossed his arms with a frown. “You can’t just keep him locked up in that thermos for—” He stopped. Blinked. “Wait, what?”

“We should release him now.”

Sam just stared at them.

Danny seemed to have similar problems as he looked at them in disbelief for a couple of seconds before managing, “You—You’re sure? You’re not going to try and keep him in there?”

“No.” Jack shook his head. “We can’t just keep a sentient being in there indefinitely.”

Tucker laughed from beside her and she startled before looking at him. He shook his head. “Wow, sorry. This day just keeps getting weirder.”

Sam couldn’t help but agree. But this was good, wasn’t it? Great even. They really were trying to change, admitting that all ghosts were sentient and had to be treated like it, even the ghosts they didn’t personally like. That was a huge step. They really were accepting Danny as he was.

“Wait,” Tucker’s voice cut through her musings. “Technus might still have the footage on him.”

Danny’s smile faltered. “Oh, right.”

“We can ask Skulker to hunt him down?” Jack asked hopefully. “They worked together, right? He must know where he is!”

“Why would he agree to that?” Danny asked.

Maddie tapped a finger on her chin with a thoughtful expression. “Well, why does he work for Vlad?”

“He upgrades his suit.”

“Well,” Jack smiled, “we can downgrade it if he doesn’t agree.”

Sam didn’t know if they realized how threatening they could be sometimes. Whatever, in this situation it might be to their advantage.

“But it’s your call, son.”

She exchanged a look with Danny and he gave a short nod, indicating that they should trust them with this. Sam shrugged. She couldn’t pretend that she would be terribly sorry if their faith in them proved to be misplaced and Skulker was the one who had to pay the price. Sam nodded back and Danny, after repeating the process with Tucker, turned to his parents and said, “Sure. Try and get him to cooperate. But no—No torture or anything, alright?”

Maddie and Jack both flinched at the choice of word. “No, of course not, honey.”

“Alright. We’ll try and clean up in here then.” Danny indicated the four puddles that used to be Vlad’s duplicates. Sam could see them slowly discoloring the carpet beneath them. She wrinkled her nose at the prospect of having to touch it.

As they were scrubbing away at a spot each, Danny broke the silence with a hesitant, “Sooo… What did Vlad mean about the whole leaving you behind spiel? You don’t really think that, do you?”

Sam exchanged a look with Tucker and Tucker heaved a sigh as he paused in the scrubbing to sit back on his haunches. “We’ve been friends for such a long time. I guess… I guess I'm just scared that you're getting bored of me.”

“Tuck, I would never!” Danny exclaimed as he paused his own work. “You know I love you like a brother.”

“Yeah, I know… It’s just nice being reminded sometimes, you know.” Tucker shrugged, trying to play it off as he bent down to continue scrubbing—avoiding eye contact.

“I’m sorry.” And he really did sound sorry.

Tucker let out a long breath. “No, no. It’s fine. Just because you have others in your life doesn’t mean you don't have space for us anymore.” He spoke as if he had said it many times before, as if he tried to convince himself.

Sam kept her eyes down and started scrubbing more frenetically. Were they all being honest? Shit. She wasn’t ready for this.

But of course Danny had to go and ask, in a small and tentative voice, “Do you also feel like that Sam?”

“I—” She hesitated, but nobody would gain anything from her trying to pay it off right now. “Yeah.”

She looked up to see Danny looking down at the pile of ex-Vlad with a deep frown on his face. “God, I’m so sorry, guys. I didn’t realize.”

Sam let out a deep sigh as she gave up on her own distraction tactic and stopped scrubbing. She took a deep breath and let it out, trying to let go of some of the anger with it. She only marginally succeeded. Well, she couldn’t very well demand that Danny work on his shit while being blind to her own. She sucked in another breath. “It’s fine, you’ve had a lot on your plate and, besides I—”

“No, I should have noticed!” Danny cut her off.

“Let me finish.” It came out slightly harsher than she might have wanted, but it did its job.

“Sorry.”

“I just—” She stopped, let out a frustrated breath, tried again, "I—I realize that I’ve—That I’ve been kind of shitty.”

"What? No, Sam, you haven’t." 

"But I have!" She insisted. Not wanting them to allow her to get off the hook so easily. "I tried to make you all live up to my own standard for how things should be! And when you didn't, or when it didn't work out exactly how I wanted it to, I just got angry. Ancients. I'm just like my parents. I’m like Vlad.”

"No, you’re not! It's okay!" 

"It's not, though." Another deep breath. "I gotta—I gotta work on that." Danny looked like he might continue to argue but Sam silenced him with a look. “And that’s my choice.”

After a tense second Danny simply nodded and Sam relaxed. Tucker thankfully, broke the somewhat tense silence with a groan. “Seriously though! These stains are in there. I don’t think we’ll get them out with simple soap and water. Don’t you have anything else for this? It can’t be the first time you’ve gotten ectoplasm in the carpet in this house!”

Danny gave a hesitant smile at that and Sam felt more relaxed than she had in weeks. “We do have something stronger down in the lab.”

“Perfect! Let’s go and get it. And we can check in on your parents as well. No offense.”

“None taken. Let’s go.”