Archive of Our Own ^beta

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There was a familiar chill in the air when Sam entered her bedroom after school. She scanned the room waiting for her best friend to materialize, "Danny?" No response.

"Danny?" She hesitated before closing the door behind her. She had seen Danny less than an hour ago and he'd said nothing about wanting to stop by tonight. "This isn't funny, Danny." Goosebumps erupted over her arms. Something wasn't right about this. She shrugged her backpack off her shoulders and started digging for some sort of weapon. "Okay, whoever you are, I know you're here. I'm not scared of you, but you damn well better be scared of me." The lipstick blaster wasn't her favorite weapon, but it would work.

She kept her back to the wall as she moved slowly around the room, waiting for the ghost to make their first move. Something white caught her eye and she whirled toward it, ready to shoot...and was brought up short by the sight before her.

A small white-haired girl with bright green eyes sat huddled in the corner between her nightstand and the wall. A pool of ectoplasm was gathering beneath her as she looked cautiously up at Sam. "Um...hi."

She looked so much like Danny had when they were kids. They had the same round face, the same nose, even the same wide-eyed expression of a child pretending to be brave.

Sam blinked and slowly lowered the lipstick blaster. "Danielle?"

"Yeah." The little girl gave a tentative smile.

"What are you doing here?"

The smile dropped and she looked down at the puddle of ectoplasm beneath her. "I...I didn't know where else to go."

Chapter Text

Sam's first thought was to call Danny. He'd been talking about Danielle nearly every day for the past month. He was worried sick, trying to figure out where she'd gone and how to stabilize her ectoplasmic DNA when she came back.

But the second she'd pulled out her phone, Danielle panicked, "Wait! Don't! You can't tell anyone I'm here, especially not Danny!"

"But-" Danielle tried to lunge for the phone but her feet slipped in the ectoplasm and she crashed to the floor.

Sam put her phone away and knelt next to the dripping child, her hands hovering over her. "Are you okay?" She wanted to help her up, but she was hesitant to touch her. Sam had enough experience with ghosts by now to not go touching something she didn't yet understand.

"I'm fine." Danielle brushed her off with a very Danny-like defensiveness and weakly pushed herself to her knees, "But I need you to promise me you won't tell anyone I'm here. Please."

If Danielle was anything like Danny, Sam knew that she would take any promises she made very seriously. She sat back on her heels and folded her arms. "If I'm going to keep secrets from my friends, you need to tell me why."

Danielle hesitated and Sam realized with a start that she was fighting back tears, "Because I'm being hunted." Her voice was soft and childlike, "Daddy's trying to find me and he's watching The Fentons. If you tell Danny, he'll find out where I am. Daddy's ghosts will come and I..." She sniffed and looked down at the growing puddle of ectoplasm beneath her, "I've run out of places to hide. I could probably do it if I could stay a ghost all of the time, but I can't. When I use too much energy, I start dissolving." She wiped green tears from her eyes, and looked up at Sam wearily, "Please, please don't tell them I'm here."

Danielle had used the last of her energy getting here, Sam could see it in her eyes. It was the same look she saw in the eyes of animals when they arrived at the shelter she used to volunteer at. The look of a creature that was so far past its breaking point that all it can do is hope there's some goodness in the person looking back at them. What else could she do? "Okay, I won't. I won't tell anyone. I promise."

With that promise, Danielle finally let go. Sam recognized the look of total exhaustion on her face and braced herself. As soon as the two rings of light finished passing over her body, Sam jumped forward and caught the unconscious child before she hit the floor.  

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She looked like Danny. That was all Sam could get herself to focus on as she laid a towel out on her bed and placed Danielle on top of it. Memories from elementary school kept flashing through her mind as she assessed her for injuries. There were differences between the little boy she remembered and the little girl in front of her, but beyond the obvious gender and hair length, they were subtle. Danielle's nose was smaller, her ears were wider and she didn't have that small scar that Danny had on his chin.

There were other differences too, ones that kept nagging at Sam's mind. It took a minute or two for her to identify them, but once she did, she couldn't un-see it. Danielle's cheekbones were more pronounced, her face wasn't quite as round and her body was thinner than Sam remembered Danny ever being. Danny was often teased for being a scrawny kid...seeing what he would have looked like without the baby fat made Sam's heart ache.

When was the last time this kid ate?

She reached out to carefully remove Danielle's hat but paused before touching it. That hat…She sat back to look her over again, frowning as she confirmed her suspicion. Danielle was wearing the same clothes she'd been in the last time they'd seen her.   

Sam had placed her on a towel out of habit. When Danny stopped by to get patched up, she would always put a towel down to keep ectoplasm off her comforter. As she took in Danielle's appearance, she was glad she'd done so. Sam had gotten in a lot of messes with her best friend when they were kids, but she'd never seen Danny as filthy as his clone was right now. 

She shook her head as she pulled the hat off and checked for any bumps or wounds. The knit hat was unraveling in several places, the yarn stiff and frayed. The little girl's dark hair lay flat and greasy against her head, almost gray with dirt. Next, she pulled off Danielle's shoes: a pair of beat up sneakers that might have once been blue, the laces knotted too tight to undo them. 

Discarding the hat and shoes, Sam contemplated removing the hoodie. Danielle hadn't said she was injured…but Danny usually didn't, either. He would show up, pass out, and leave Sam to play Find The Wound: a game which held the #2 spot on Sam's Worst Games to Play at 3am list (second only to Where's This Blood Coming From?). In the end, Sam just lifted the hem to be sure. 

Once she'd confirmed that Danielle wasn't hurt, Sam cleaned the ectoplasm from her floor (another task she was a little too familiar with) and took to pacing the room. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

Sam prided herself on her adaptability. At fourteen, she'd watched her best friend die in an accident that she herself caused…and then come back to life again. She'd helped him learn to control his abilities, taught herself how to stitch him up, and joined him in protecting their town. Now, almost sixteen, she was a capable ghost hunter who thrived in unusual circumstances. If anyone could figure out what to do when the unstable clone of their half-ghost best friend fainted in their bedroom, it would be her.

…She had no idea what to do.

Chapter Text

Rain pattering against the window woke her up. It was a reflex at this point: she heard rain and in an instant, she was alert. But she didn't feel the rain. She was dry. She'd made it.

Danielle opened her eyes and looked around the room. Sam was seated at her desk with a textbook open in front of her, idly taking notes. She was chewing her lip…she did that when she was nervous. That was one of those things Danielle knew that she wasn't supposed to know. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, it got disorienting sometimes, remembering something that she didn't actually remember.

"How are you feeling?" She opened her eyes again to find Sam staring at her.

"You didn't tell Danny." She skirted around the question; she was still trying to process the fact that she'd made it here in one piece.

Sam shrugged. "I promised I wouldn't."

Danielle slowly sat up, trying to get her bearings. She was on a bed. Her shoes were gone. Had she really been so exhausted she didn't notice being moved?

"Here." She looked up to find Sam handing her a glass of water. She took it eagerly and drained it. It was cold; she missed cold water.  

“So, you're being hunted…” Sam set the glass aside and sat on the bed next to her looking at her expectantly.

Danielle sighed heavily, she supposed it was about time to explain herself. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, wishing she had something to hold onto. “Yeah, I'm being hunted…a lot has happened.” It was an understatement; life after leaving Amity Park had been one nightmare after another. Her eyes glazed over as she launched into her story, doing her best to summarize everything that had happened.

Danielle hadn't thought things through when she flew off all those weeks ago. All she'd known was that she was ready to start making some choices of her own. She wasn't Danny Fenton and she was done trying to be, done being the placeholder for what her creator really wanted. She wanted to figure out who she was, to become an independent person. That was easier said than done considering she was still a kid, but she'd been determined to give it her best shot.

...She should have known he would send his ghosts after her. Of course; he wouldn't just let her go. She was his most stable clone to date, his Greatest Creation. Of course, he would send his personal army of ghosts to retrieve what was his.

He'd sent animals first: vultures that scanned for her from the sky. Indistinguishable from living animals in the daylight, but surrounded by an eerie glow in the darkness. She'd seen them overhead, following her, circling above her like a dead thing for them to consume. Her daddy's vultures had always made her uneasy...the sight of them hunting for her would replay in her nightmares for the rest of her life. 

When the vultures failed, he'd sent incorporeals: ghosts which couldn't maintain an ectoplasmic form outside of the ghost zone. They interacted with the physical world through overshadowing. She'd seen the incorporeals that worked for her dad jump easily from one body to another. When they left a body, sometimes their victim woke up...other times they didn't. She would never forget the night she'd watched an incorporeal dig a grave and climb into it before using a new body to bury the one they no longer had use for. Incorporeals frightened her more than she could articulate.

When they found her, they came to her in bodies she hadn't seen them use before. First, a woman approached her, asking if she was lost. She offered her food and tried to lead her away somewhere. They might have caught her, but the incorporeal slipped up and Danielle saw the flash of green in the woman's eyes. She waited until they had their back turned and ran as fast as she could before phasing into the basement of someone's home to hide. She'd spent two days hiding in that basement while ghosts searched the neighborhood for her, praying whoever lived there wouldn't come down and find her. 

She had been approached two more times: once by a police officer and once by another child. Both times she'd run off before they got close enough. It was technically possible that they had been regular people, but Danielle couldn't take the chance. Everyone was a potential incorporeal in her eyes.

After that, she started hiding in the woods, only sneaking into neighborhoods to steal food under the cover of darkness. Sam was the first person she had actually spoken to in two weeks…or was it three? Time quickly became irrelevant when she was on her own. 

Life as a homeless child had been brutal. She hated stealing, but hunger drove her to do so over and over again. She did her best to space it out (never stealing from the same place twice) and she was sure to only take the bare minimum that she needed to get by. Rumors of a thief would have attracted attention and attention could get her captured.

She reached her last straw two nights ago. She was hungry, tired, cold, and scared. The struggle just to stay alive was weighing on her as she tried to get herself to sleep…and then she hit a breaking point. Quite literally, the branch she was sitting on broke and she fell out of the tree she'd been trying to sleep in. She hit the ground with a thud and lost control of her powers, transforming without meaning to and launching ectoblasts into the darkness. Instead of getting up, she’d curled up on the ground and cried. All of the pain, grief, fear, and loneliness spilled out of her and she was too exhausted to even try to stop it. She thought of giving up, of turning herself in and allowing herself to be taken back to the lab even though she knew what would happen to her if she did. All she wanted was to stop running, but that was impossible when there was nowhere for her to run to.

 She wasn’t sure how long she stayed there, sobbing into the earth. But when she was done, Danielle knew in her heart that she couldn't continue this way, she couldn't do this on her own. She needed help. In that desperate moment, she almost broke down crying all over again. The only family she'd ever had was the man who was hunting her. The only friends she'd ever had were dissolved clones in her father's lab. Danny Fenton was the only person who had ever shown her genuine kindness and she knew he was being watched; she'd helped set up the surveillance equipment herself. It seemed there was no one that she could trust. 

The answer had come to her so clearly she could almost hear Danny's voice saying it. There was one person she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt could be trusted. Someone who was kind, smart, and loyal to a fault. Someone whose address she was born knowing. 

“So, I came here hoping you might be able to help me somehow. Maybe I could crash here for a night or two and catch up on some sleep?” Danielle traced the outline of a stain on the hem of her shorts, avoiding Sam's eyes, “Or maybe you might have some extra clothes I could take? I haven't had anything clean to wear and-”

“Why me?” Sam's interruption caught her off guard and Danielle looked up to find the older girl gaping at her with an almost baffled look on her face.

“Because I knew I could trust you.” To Danielle, the answer was simple, but it only seemed to confuse Sam more.

“But…but, how? We met once over a month ago and we barely talked. How could you possibly–”

“Danny trusts you.” Danielle pulled her knees up and hugged them to her chest. “I trust you because Danny trusts you. It’s kind of a clone thing.”

“A clone thing?”

She nodded and took a deep breath, hugging her knees even tighter. Her dad had forbidden her from sharing information about her creation with anyone for any reason. She knew that she didn't owe him anything, that he didn't care about her and never had. But breaking his rules still made her feel all sick inside. 

"Part of creating a functional clone involves extracting implicit knowledge from the original.” Danielle’s voice was barely above a whisper; it was all she could do to keep it from shaking. “I was created with some of Danny's knowledge already there.”

“So…you have Danny's memories?” Sam asked tentatively. She seemed to understand how much sharing this information frightened her.

“Not memories, at least not exactly. Implicit knowledge is the stuff that you know without really having to think about it. I didn't have to learn how to walk or read or speak, I already knew how to do that. When you learn something so well that you'll never forget it, to the point that it becomes implicit, it becomes a part of your DNA.”

Sam's eyebrows knit together. “But wouldn't that mean babies would be born knowing how to talk?”

Danielle shrugged. “It's different. Babies make their own DNA out of chromosomes from their parents. I was made from Danny's DNA directly…Almost directly, I guess. I know Daddy moved things around for us clones to try to make it work when using Danny's DNA alone didn’t. I don't know what he changed for me other than getting rid of the Y chromosome, he never told me.” 

Sam nodded slowly. “Okay…so, what does this have to do with you trusting me?”

“Oh.” Danielle had almost forgotten that part. “Danny trusts you implicitly...which means I trust you implicitly.” She offered a cautious smile. "Danny's trust in you is embedded into his DNA."

Sam was quiet for a long time, staring off into space. Danielle tried to stay patient, reminding herself that Sam was almost certainly not expecting any of this. But after a while, she started to get anxious, wondering if she had made a mistake or said the wrong thing. She shifted and licked her lips. “So, um…will you help me?”

Sam blinked a few times as if to clear her head and then turned to her with an apologetic smile. “Of course. Sorry, I was thinking through some logistics.”

“Logistics?” 

“I was trying to figure out what we should do next.”

“Oh.” It was strange to hear the word ‘we’ and know she was a part of it. 

"Okay, how about this: you go take a shower. You can use my shampoo, body wash, whatever you want. I'll see what I can put together for you while you're in there. Then we'll get you some food and decide what's next."

Danielle beamed. “That sounds perfect.” She'd been dying to have a real shower.

Her smile stayed as Sam led her to the bathroom and showed her how to adjust the water temperature. She was going to have a warm shower! And clothes! And food! When she closed the bathroom door and turned the lock, Danielle almost cried in relief. It was the first time in so long that she actually felt safe.

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Chapter Text

After Danielle disappeared into her bathroom, Sam dug a bag out of her closet and started searching through her clothes for anything that might fit the younger girl. After stuffing a few shirts in the bag, it occurred to her that Danielle was still growing. These clothes wouldn't fit her forever. Besides, how was she going to wash them? She hadn't had a proper shower in over a month, now she had to find a washing machine too?

She pictured the little girl with her best friend's face digging through trash cans to eat, sleeping in trees, running from anyone who got close to her. She might have some of Danny's knowledge but she was still so young.

"What am I doing?" she whispered to herself, looking down at the tshirt in her hand. It was a shirt she hadn't worn in over a year, just taking up space in the corner of her closet. Here she was, living with a surplus, while this child was scavenging to survive. Was she really going to just let her leave? What about when winter came? Was Danielle supposed to just sleep in the snow? "No." Sam climbed to her feet. "No way. She asked me for help. I'm not just going to give her tshirts." She moved to her desk and sat with a sigh. "I'm probably the richest teen in Amity, I should at least be able to...I dunno, rent a motel room for her or something."

Right, because a fifteen year old girl renting a motel room for a child won't raise any eyebrows.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and stared at Danny and Tucker's names at the top of her contacts list. This was the kind of thing they always solved together. Not even Danny would have tried to figure this out himself, he or Tucker would have called her, no question. They were Team Phantom, they didn't deal with this kind of thing alone. If she called them, maybe Vlad would find Danielle, but Danny had his powers; he could protect her, right? But what if he can't? She put the phone down.

For several minutes, Sam just sat there, staring at her desk. Why me? 

It seemed like half the people in Amity would be a better choice for a homeless child to turn to. She had no experience taking care of another person, she wasn't even old enough to drive yet, and she knew nothing about kids! 

…But she did know an awful lot about half ghosts. That thought quelled some of her rising panic. Sometimes, it seemed like she understood Danny's powers better than he did. She also knew how to keep a secret. She'd been helping hide an entire half of her best friend from the world for almost two years now. None of that scared her. Ghosts, secrets, and danger were a normal part of life to her at this point. She wasn't intimidated by the risks of hiding someone. She wasn't worried about having a ghost in her bedroom. Even the fact that Danielle was an unstable clone of her best friend was something Sam could easily take in stride. 

So, why was she so frightened right now?

She almost laughed out loud when she realized: it was because Danielle was a child. Sam had been kidnapped by a meat monster, turned into a dragon, attacked with lethal weapons, and had nearly fallen to her death on multiple occasions. But interacting with a little girl had her so anxious she could barely think straight.    

Seriously. Of all the people, why'd it have to be me? 

She put her head down on the desk, using her arms to muffle her groan, allowing herself a brief moment of weakness to sort through her anxiety.

Sam didn't particularly like kids. In her experience, they were loud and whiney and always getting in the way…Although she could freely admit that her experience was rather limited. The only kids she really interacted with somewhat regularly were her bratty cousins. (Those spoiled little jerks were the bane of her existence.) Beyond that, she generally gave children a wide berth, and they tended to do the same with her. As a general rule, children didn't like her any more than she liked them. 

Her friends were much better with kids than she was. In a ghost attack, it was always one of them who would evacuate any children unless Sam was the only remaining option. Danny in ghost form was better at soothing a crying child than she was. Kids loved him. She could never understand how he always knew what to say to them. She'd asked him about it once and he just shrugged, saying, “You were a kid once, don't you remember?”  

The thing was, Sam did remember. She remembered her parents complaining to their friends about how exhausted they were. She remembered her mother’s disappointed sighs and her father's pointed absence. She remembered being dropped off at the Foley's house unannounced multiple times a week because her mom “just needed a break” and Mrs. Foley was always too nice to say no. Memories from her childhood only served to remind her of how much trouble children caused just by being young.

Then there was that memory. Sam screwed her eyes shut, trying to push the thought away. It was no use, the memory was so vivid she could practically smell the orange juice from her mother's mimosa. 

Little Sam was in the hallway outside her mother's sitting room, when she heard her aunt ask if her mom might ever want another child. She hadn't meant to spy; one of her pigtails had come undone while she was playing outside and she needed to ask for another ribbon. She wasn't allowed to wear shoes on the carpet, so she'd stopped by the door to the sitting room to remove them. Her mother's voice traveled, the way it always did when she was tipsy. “Absolutely not! Getting pregnant is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Have you met my daughter? I’ll never make that mistake again.” 

Mistake.

Sam couldn't have been more than eight years old at the time. She remembered staring down at the shoes she'd been about to take off: glittery pink Mary Janes with little bows on top. Her aunt had laughed. As if Sam being the worst thing that ever happened to her mother was something terribly funny.   

The memory ended there; Sam couldn't recall what she'd done next. Perhaps she’d asked for a new ribbon, perhaps she'd gone back outside, all she knew for sure was that she never confronted her mom about what she'd overheard. In fact, she never told anyone. Not even Danny or Tucker. But she never forgot either. It was a secret shame that she carried with her. Even now, when she'd long since given up on her mother’s acceptance, it gnawed at her.

Sam pushed back from her desk abruptly as if she could escape the memory by moving away. It always found a way to sneak up on her. All it took was a flash of pink, the smell of orange juice, or even just a reminder of childhood and then she was right back there, kneeling in that hallway, staring at those awful shoes, with her aunt's laughter and the word ‘mistake’ echoing in her mind.  

Sam took a deep breath, trying to recenter herself. She needed to stop dwelling in the past and focus on the problem at hand. 

I'd bet Danielle feels like a mistake too. The thought made her pause. The difference is, my parents have never tried to hurt me. Her creator is hunting her like an animal. Shame bloomed in Sam's chest. Had she really let herself be so distracted by her discomfort around children that she forgot there was a life at stake? It didn't matter if it was out of her comfort zone; Danielle asked her for help. She would suck it up and she would help.

Sam pushed herself to her feet and left her room, heading for the kitchen. I don't know much about kids. But I know they have to eat. I'll start there.

Chapter Text

Danielle emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in one of Sam's fluffy towels. It almost reached the floor wrapped around her small frame. 

"Best. Shower. Ever!" She beamed at Sam, who had returned to her desk. "I love your body wash, it smells so good!"

"I'm glad." Sam forced a smile and handed her some clean clothes. "These still might be a bit big, but the shorts have a drawstring so they should stay up."

“Thanks!” Danielle took the clothes and then hesitated, looking somewhat sheepish. "Before I get dressed, could you do me one more huge favor?” 

"Of course.” Sam liked this dynamic: Danielle telling her what she needed so she didn't have to figure it out. Maybe her friend's clone was more mature than she looked and this would be easier than she'd thought. 

"Could you cut my hair?"

"What?" Sam blinked, of all the possible requests…that was not one she saw coming. "I-I'm not a hair stylist, I don't think I can-"

"No, I mean cut it off.” Danielle shrugged like it was no big deal. “I can't keep it clean when I'm on the run. I used a lot of conditioner and it's still all tangly."

Sam stared at the younger girl in shock. Okay, maybe she shouldn't trust a kid to assert their own needs. "No."

"Please! Even if you just give me some scissors, I can-"

"No Danielle, I'm not cutting your hair because you're not going on the run."

Danielle’s brows furrowed together, “But…Daddy’s hunting me.”

Sam nodded. “I know that.”

“If I stay here for too long, he'll probably find me.” She clutched the towel and clothing tighter against her chest, “He’ll kill me, Sam.”

Sam nodded again, trying not to wince at the blunt statement. “We won't keep you here forever. Just for a couple days, like you said. But I'm going to find somewhere else for you to hide. You're not going to sleep in trees anymore, I'll make sure of it.”

“But…” She trailed off and Sam could see the apprehension in her eyes. 

She leaned forward and forced a smile, trying to appear less intimidating. “Look, I don't know where I'll take you yet, but I promise, I'll come up with something. I have a lot of resources and-”

“Are you sure?” Danielle stared at her doubtfully.

“Yes. Just give me a couple days to figure something out. Don't go cutting your hair or running off again, okay?”

“...Okay.”

“Okay, go get dressed and I'll help with your hair.” Sam couldn't say where this authoritative attitude came from, but she leaned into it. 

Danielle offered her a small smile. “Okay.”

Danielle's hair was more than a little tangled, it was downright matted. Sam drenched it in detangling spray and it still took her the better part of an hour to work out all of the knots. It didn't help that there was something horribly sticky clumping bits of hair together. "I think it's tree sap," Danielle admitted. "One time, I woke up with a pinecone stuck on my head."

To her credit, Danielle did not complain. She sat on the floor and ate the sandwich Sam had made for her, doing her best to stay still. Sam perched on the bed above her and worked through her hair as gently as she could. As she worked, she explained that while she didn't have a great plan yet, she was confident they could come up with one. 

“I should be able to buy anything you need as long as I'm careful about it. My parents don't really check my credit card statement very closely; but if I start hitting the limit each month, I'm sure they will. Oh shoot, sorry!”

Part of Danille's hair had snagged in the comb and she wasn't able to hide her sharp intake of breath when it tugged roughly. In truth, Sam been distracted; from her position on the bed, she caught a glimpse of something that she'd missed before. The inside of Danielle's skinny little arms were littered with round scars of varying sizes. Puncture wounds.

As if she could feel her looking, Danielle folded her arms, hugging them to herself. Hiding them. Sam reluctantly turned her focus back to her hair, carefully untangling it from the comb before continuing. She cleared her throat and tried to pick the conversation back up.

“Anyway, Danny's already been trying to figure out how to stabilize you. I think he's tricking his parents into doing a lot of the research for him. It's going to take a long time, I'm sure. But once you're stable, you won't have to hide anymore, right?”

Danielle’s posture relaxed. “I think so. If I were stable, I'd be able to fight back. Right now, all it would take is one bad hit and I'm toast. Then Daddy will melt me down or dissect me like all the other clones.” She slowly brought her hands back down to rest in her lap.

Sam frowned at the mention of the other clones. She had a lot of questions about them, but now was not the time. “So, if we get you stable, what's next? Have you thought about what you want in life?” Besides not being dissected.

“I just want to become real,” Danielle said, fidgeting with the ill-fitting socks drooped around her ankles.

Sam paused, comb poised mid-air. “Real?” 

“Yeah, real. You know; have parents, go to school, do stuff that real kids do.” Her tone was so casual, like she was describing what she wanted for lunch. 

Sam hesitated, trying not to overreact. “I think you mean typical or maybe normal. You want to live more like a normal kid.”

She just shrugged. “Yeah. Like a normal, real kid.”

Sam set the comb down. “Danielle, you are a real kid.”

Danielle turned to look up at her. “No, I'm a clone.”

“That doesn't mean you're not real. You're a living, breathing person.” 

“Well yeah I'm alive, but I'm not a person; I'm a copy of a person.” Danielle was looking at Sam like she was the one who was talking nonsense. “Clones aren't people, Sam.”

She didn't know it at the time, but this was a moment Sam would look back on a lot over the coming months. The memory would haunt her much the same way that her memory of those pink shoes did. She would look back and imagine saying something like: “That's not true, you're as real as I am.” Or perhaps: “How you were made doesn't matter. You have your own mind and soul; that makes you a person.” She would imagine climbing off the bed and giving Danielle a hug. She would wish she had done something–anything! to comfort the girl. 

But no. Sam did not do any of those things she would think of in the future. Instead, she picked the comb back up and gestured for Danielle to face forward. “I'm almost done with your hair.”  

Chapter Text

“Are you sure Danny won't come to visit? You thought I was him when you got home.” Danielle was tucked into the left side of Sam's queen-sized bed, watching the pajama-clad teen get ready for bed.

“I closed my curtains. So, if he does stop by, he'll call or at least knock on my window before coming in.” Sam gathered her partially-finished homework off her desk to put in her backpack.

“At school tomorrow…you'll see Danny and Tucker right?” Danielle played with the ends of her now-smooth hair where it spilled over her shoulders. 

“Yup.” Sam nodded as she zipped up the bag and dropped it by her door. She turned to find Danielle had drawn her knees up to her chest again, hugging them tightly to herself. “What's wrong?”

When she didn’t answer, Sam had to suppress a groan. So far, she'd done okay with Danielle, especially when compared to her interactions with other children. But coaxing information out of a child that didn't want to talk was one of those things that Danny or Tucker would do. 

“Danielle, seriously, what’s wrong?” Her tone was harsher than she meant it to be, but at this point, all Sam wanted was to go to bed.

She watched as Danielle curled in on herself, eyes downcast. “I’m fine.” 

A small part of Sam was tempted to leave it at that, to take her word for it and call it a night. But just as Danny couldn't ignore a cry for help, Sam couldn't ignore pain when she saw it.

She studied her for a moment. Danielle's facial expressions were similar to Danny's but the look in her eyes was different, almost haunted. “You're not fine, you're scared. Why?”

Danielle ran her fingers through her hair, like she was trying to soothe herself. “I-I just…How do I know you won't tell them about me? What if they find out and then Daddy finds me and…” She trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut tightly.

Sam’s stomach sank. Calming scared kids was Danny's thing, not hers! She wracked her brain trying to figure out what to do. You were a kid once, don't you remember? That still wasn't helpful; Sam hadn't really confided in adults when she was younger. She'd been a deeply insecure kid that didn't trust many people. Starting in elementary school, the only person she'd really trusted with all her deepest secrets was Tucker. He still was; she told him things she wouldn't even tell Danny. 

Actually, this could work…

Sam moved to sit on the bed. “Danielle, do you know what a pinkie swear is?” She held up one of her pinkie's for emphasis. 

Danielle looked up at her quizzically. Then, hesitantly, she reached out one of her pinkies to wrap around Sam's. “Like that?”

"Yeah exactly. Well, I'm going to make you a pinkie swear, but not just any pinkie swear. A Quadruple Pinkie Swear."

“I don't think I've ever heard of that.” The anxiety in Danielle's eyes was slowly being replaced with curiosity. 

Sam smiled and leaned in closer, as if sharing a secret. “Well, you wouldn't have heard of it because it’s something that me and Tucker came up with a long time ago. It's for secrets so secret that you won't tell anyone, not even your other best friends. Me and Tucker used it for things that not even Danny can know."

“So if you make a…a–”

“A Quadruple Pinkie Swear.”

“Yeah, if you make a Quadruple Pinkie Swear, what happens if you break it?” 

Sam sat back slightly, considering the question. What were the consequences of breaking that kind of childhood pact? 

“Honestly…I don't know. This is the first time I've even mentioned the existence of Quadruple Pinkie Swears to anyone but Tucker. Neither of us has ever broken one. It's something you just don't do.” She shrugged. “But believe me, I'd sooner chop my own pinkies off than break that kind of promise.”

Danielle nodded slowly. “So if we make a Quadruple Pinkie Swear that you won't tell anyone I'm here…and then you told someone…you'd have to cut off your pinkies?” 

“...Sure.” 

Danielle sat up abruptly, tucking her legs under herself with a bright smile. “Okay! How do we do it?” 

Sam chuckled, wondering if it should concern her that this child was so comforted by the idea of severing her body parts.

“Okay, well first you hold both of your pinkies out like this-” She held up both hands, pinkies extended so they were parallel to the floor and Danielle mirrored the position. Sam chose to ignore the scars that were now painfully visible on her arms. “Then I do this…” still holding out her pinkies, Sam crossed one wrist over the other and locked their pinkies left to left and right to right. “Then I put my hands back and you do the same thing.” She held her pinkies out.

Danielle crossed her left wrist over her right and glanced up. “Like this?”

“Yup, and do both at the same time like I did.” After Danielle locked their pinkies together, Sam held her hands up, wiggling her fingers like she’d just done a magic trick. “...And that is a Quadruple Pinkie Swear. So now I can't tell anyone.”

Danielle’s shoulders dropped, the tension in her body releasing. “You can't tell anyone.” She sighed and fell back against the pillow.

I can't believe that worked. Sam smiled and pulled the covers back over the little girl, amazed at how much the silly ritual had reassured her. 

Thank you, Tucker. 

Sam finished her evening routine quickly and climbed into the other side of the bed. She was so ready for this day to be over. She'd already been exhausted thanks to a late patrol the night before and had been looking forward to a quiet evening to herself. That obviously hadn't worked out, but she was hoping to at least get some sleep. She turned off the light and eagerly collapsed onto her pillow.

 "What have you made Quadruple Pinkie Swears about?" 

Sam tried not to sigh. She should have predicted that Danielle would have more questions. “I can't tell you, that's the whole point."

Danielle rolled onto her side, propping herself up on one elbow. "But you can tell your own secrets can't you? There's no rules against that, right?”

Well, she had her there. “Um…”

“I won't tell anyone, you can make the swear with me too.”

Sam rolled onto her side as well, resting her head on her arm as she tried to assess the other girl through the darkness. “Why do you care?”

“I dunno…I guess…I want you to trust me too. You have my secret. It's my most important secret. I was thinking maybe you could let me have one of yours."

Sam chewed her lip. It wasn't an entirely unreasonable request. She was basically holding Danielle's entire life in her hands; she couldn't blame her for wanting a little reciprocity. She sighed. “Okay. Let me think for a second…”

Most of the secrets Tucker kept for her were of the embarrassing variety. He knew how much she cared what Danny thought of her and as such, he would always help her save face in front of him. As much as they loved teasing each other, Sam and Tucker would go to great lengths to keep each other from actually being hurt or humiliated.

“Alright, I've got one, but you can't make fun of me about it. Deal?”

“Deal.”

"Once, when we were around eleven, Tucker made me laugh so hard that I wet my pants.” 

Danielle slapped a hand over her mouth, suppressing a giggle. Sam tried not to smile, she'd been expecting that reaction. 

“Hey in my defense, we'd been drinking a lot of soda and Danny was in the only bathroom!” 

“Danny was there too?”

“Yup, but like I said, he was in the bathroom. Me and Tuck were goofing around waiting for him to come back. I don't even remember what he did that was so funny, I just remember being mortified after. When I realized that Danny was coming back too, I was about ready to cry.”

“What did you do?” Danielle asked, eyes wide in the darkness. 

“Tucker poured soda on me.” Sam chuckled at the memory. “An entire liter of it. He didn't even say anything, didn't warn me, he just opened a bottle and dumped it all over me and my chair. When Danny came back, Tucker said that he knocked it over by accident.”

“Really?”

 “Yup. After that, Mrs. Foley —Tucker's mom— drove me home to change my clothes. Danny and Tucker came along in the car and when Danny wasn't looking, Tucker winked and held out his pinkies for the pinkie swear. He never told anyone; in fact, he's never mentioned it at all.”

“So Danny still doesn't know?” 

“No one does but me and Tucker…and now you.” She smiled. “You won't tell anyone my secret, will you?”

Danielle pushed herself into a sitting position and held out her pinkies. “I promise.”

Once the Quadruple Pinkie Swear had been made, Danielle fell back onto her pillow with a smile. “You know, Tucker sounds like a really good friend.”

“He is.” Sam stifled a yawn. “The best.”

"How'd you meet him?"

Sam opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling, trying not to get frustrated. The kid has been alone for over a month. Of course she's going to be talkative. She took a deep breath and answered the question. “I met Tucker at swimming lessons when we were in kindergarten. I let him share my goggles and he helped convince me to put my head under the water for the first time."

"Swimming lessons? That sounds like fun."

“It was, we took lessons together for a few years until we 'graduated.’ Now, I buy us passes to the waterpark every summer. If it weren't so bad for the environment, I'd ask my parents to build a pool in the backyard.”

Danielle sighed sleepily and cuddled into her pillow. "I'd like to try that sometime. I bet I'd love swimming."

Sam glanced over at her. "Do you know how to swim?"

"I don't know...does Danny know how to swim?"

Sam chuckled. "Kinda, but not very well. He never took lessons and it shows."

"Hmm..." Danielle yawned and let her eyes slip closed. "Maybe you could teach me."

"Yeah, maybe..." Sam trailed off. She waited and when there was no reply, she relaxed back and closed her eyes. She wondered idly if it would ever be possible to teach Danielle how to swim. 

The problem, of course, was that there was nowhere she could teach her that they wouldn't be discovered. They would pretty much need a private pool in the middle of nowhere. Or maybe a pond or a lake. 

Sam's eyes flew open. A lake! That was it! How had she not thought of it before? Suddenly, hiding a child didn't seem so difficult. She had the perfect place to take her!

As quietly as possible, she slipped out of bed and grabbed her laptop from her desk. Not wanting the light to wake Danielle, she took it into her closet and settled on the floor there. She had a lot of planning to do. 

Chapter Text

I know where your clone is. She's alive.

The guilt was heavy in her heart as Sam met Danny and Tucker on her front porch to walk to school. She'd stayed up all night crafting the perfect cover story…and figuring out exactly how to lie to her best friends.

She hasn't destabilized. She doesn't blame you for what happened.

She decided to walk next to Tucker, using him as a buffer between her and Danny. She hoped they wouldn't notice the change. Ever since the two boys got taller than her, Sam always ended up in the middle; it was the best way for her to be able to talk to both of them at once. But today, she hoped having Danny blocked from her view would help her avoid telling him.

She's not in a lab being dissected. She's actually asleep in my bed right now.

This secret was going to drive her mad. All she wanted was to ease Danny's worry. But easing his worry could get Danielle killed, which ironically, was the very thing he was worried about.

There had to be another option, a way to let him know Danielle was okay without putting her in danger. What if he flew them way up into the sky and she whispered it to him? Then again, she had promised that she wouldn't tell him. Maybe she could get Danielle to send some sort of a message. What if–

"Are you okay, Sam?" She snapped back into reality abruptly to find both of her friends staring back at her. She'd fallen a few steps behind them; something she normally wouldn't let happen.

"Yeah of course." She gripped one of her backpack straps and picked up her pace to walk past them. They fell into step easily on either side of her, much to her irritation. So much for having Tucker be a buffer.

"You sure?" She could hear the mischievous smile in Danny’s voice, "Because Tucker's been talking about meat since we left your house and you haven't said a word."

She shrugged. "I'm just not really in the mood for a debate."

Tucker nudged her arm. "Who are you and what have you done with Sam?"

She didn't answer. As the silence stretched on, Danny and Tucker shot each other worried looks. Sam mentally shook herself. Pull yourself together. You have a promise to keep.

"Sorry guys, I'm being rude. I'm just kind of distracted." She glanced up at Tucker and gave a sheepish smile. "The school board budget meeting is coming up and I don't think I got enough signatures to de-fund the football team."

"I thought you gave up on that last month." She had. A small part of her was pleased that Danny remembered. It meant he'd really been listening. But dammit, this was the one time she really needed him to be clueless.

She turned her head in his direction, but didn't quite meet his eyes. “Uh yeah, I did, but I thought maybe I should at least submit the proposal. You know, since I did get a few signatures.” 

Tucker scoffed. “Yeah, I'm not buying it. What's actually going on?”

Sam glared at him, but he stared back, unintimidated. 

She decided this was as good a time as any to try out her cover story. She was hoping to have some time to present the idea to Danielle first, but this would have to do.

“Okay fine, I've been thinking about joining the science fair this year.”

Tucker rolled his eyes. “Uh huh, and what's your agenda?”

“Ecological protection for Amity National Park.” She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to challenge her.

“Why couldn't you just tell us that from the beginning?” Danny asked.

“Well, first because it's not a sure thing yet, I still have to get my mom to let me. I was thinking of using my parents’ lake house as a sort of base of operations. I can collect data on Minnow Lake and measure the changes throughout the year. But obviously I need their permission to use it.” 

She sighed. “But also, it could take up a lot of my time. Collecting all that data would mean taking a lot of trips out there. That would get in the way of me helping out with patrol and I’d hate to leave you in a bind.”

As she knew he would, Danny jumped to reassure her. “Sam, you don't have to worry about that. I can take care of Amity Park.”

“Are you sure?” She gave him an uncertain look, biting her lip for good measure. 

Danny stood a little taller and flashed her his Superhero Smile. “Of course I'm sure! You know me, I can handle anything.” 

Tucker snickered. “Except writing an essay, or asking a girl out, or taking your shirt off at the pool, or-”

“Okay! Point taken, geez!” Danny reached over Sam's head to shove his shoulder. “Phantom can handle anything, is that better?”

“Unless he gets himself stuck in a mirror, or Ember plays a love song, or–”

“My point–” Danny shoved Tucker again, who was fully laughing now. “My point is, if you want to do the science fair, you should. Me and Tuck can figure things out.”

His sweet smile nearly broke Sam's resolve. She felt awful manipulating him like this. Danny always wanted to make sure his ghost stuff didn't get in the way of his friends’ dreams the way it did with his. She was playing on his hero complex which really wasn't fair. But it worked. 

Now that he'd pledged his support, Sam could be sure he wouldn't question her periodic absence. In fact, Danny would do pretty much anything to help her be successful. He just had no idea that he would be helping her lie to him.

Chapter Text

When Sam presented her idea to Danielle after school, she responded with cautious optimism. That was about what Sam had expected; the lake house did sound too good to be true. But she’d agreed to try it if Sam could make it work.

Danielle was on board, her friends were supportive, the cover story was almost completely planned out…now Sam had to get past the final hurdle. This was the real test of her ingenuity; the whole plan hinged on her ability to surpass this major obstacle.

"Hey Mom?" Sam stood in the doorway to the kitchen where her mother was busily arranging flowers in tall, ornate vases.

Pamela Manson didn't look up. "Hello, Samantha. A proper greeting is 'hello' not 'hey.'"

It took all of Sam's willpower not to roll her eyes. Even though she wasn't looking, her mother would know; she always knew. Sam didn't want to put her in a bad mood. "I apologize. Hello Pamela. May I have your attention for a moment?" She couldn't resist one small dig; her mother hated when she called her Pamela, but Sam hated being called Samantha. She figured fair was fair. Besides, if she didn't have a little attitude, her mom would know something was up.

Pamela sighed and glanced in her direction before turning back to the flowers. "Yes, I'm listening."

Sam folded her arms and leaned against the counter, doing her best to act like this wasn't a big deal. "I've decided that I'm going to join the science fair. I have a year to complete a project and the winner gets a big scholarship and a private tour of a few Ivy Leagues."

"I suppose that would be a good use of your time." Pamela swapped out one rose for another, tilted her head and changed it back.

"I thought so too. I already came up with a great project. There hasn't been a lot of research on the ecology of Minnow Lake over at Amity National Park. It's not very far away and we–I mean you –have that summer home there." Sam pretended to study her fingernails. "I was thinking my lab partner and I could use that as the base for an observational project. We'd gather data and–"

"A lab partner?" Pamela shook her head. "Samantha, I am not letting you use one of our properties for some hang out."

"It wouldn't be a hang out," Sam insisted. "I wouldn't bring anyone else! It would just be two of us there for the project."

"Really, Samantha? Just the two of you alone in a cabin? Why can't you use the school for this?"

"Well, you see, she–"

Pamela spun around to face her. "She? Your friend is a girl?"

The abrupt shift in tone took Sam off guard. "Um, yeah–"

"Yes." Pamela beamed. "Yes, absolutely. I'll get copies of the keys. Do you need anything? Pajamas? Nail polish?"

Sam took a small step back; she wasn't sure she had ever seen her mother grin at her, at least not like this. "Mom, it's-it’s not a sleepover, it's a science project."

Pamela waved her off. "You'll get bored staring at the lake all day." She dug into her purse and pulled out a card. "Here, anything you need. As long as there's no boys there, I don't care."

Sam blinked and wordlessly accepted her mother's credit card. It had a much higher limit than her own and she'd never been allowed to touch it, let alone use it. For once, she was completely speechless. 

Pamela reached out and Sam flinched almost imperceptibly as her mother tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "So tell me about this new friend! What's her name?"

"Jane Donner? That was the name you came up with?" Danielle stood next to Sam's bed in oversized pajamas, listening eagerly as Sam recounted the conversation with her mother. Everything about the story was fascinating to her (she'd long wondered what having a mother was like) but the name caught her attention more than anything. She had always wanted a name of her own; a real name just for her, not a clone classification. The idea of Sam making one up for her stirred up that desire in her. In truth, she was a bit disappointed; she thought Sam would have come up with something more interesting.  

"In my defense, I really didn't think she was going to agree so easily. My mind went totally blank and I just blurted out the first name I thought of." Sam folded an old Amity Middle School hoodie and added it to a small duffle bag.

Danielle climbed onto the bed across from her. “What made you think of Jane?”

Sam gave her a sheepish look. "Well…I read a lot of death records. It's to try and learn more about who ghosts were when they were alive. Lately, I’ve read a lot of cases with unidentified bodies for some hard to study ghosts. When police find a body and they don't know who it belongs to they call them either Jane or John Doe, just to have a way to refer to them. So, Jane Doe just kinda popped into my head." 

"So you gave me the name of a dead body?" Danielle gaped at her, she wasn't sure if she should be amused or offended.

"Almost. I realized part way through saying it that it was a dumb idea. So I said 'Jane D-' and when mom asked me to repeat the last name I had to come up with something that starts with D."

"Where did Donner come from?" 

Sam winced. "Um...The Donner Party?"

Danielle tilted her head questioningly, the name was meaningless to her.

"Okay..." Sam sat down on the bed and bit her lip. "So back when the United States was first taking land out west, groups of pioneers would travel through the midwest to claim land in places like Oregon or California. Those groups were called 'parties' and they were usually named after whoever was in charge of leading them. The Donner Party is kind of a famous one."

"Why?" Danielle scooted closer, eyes wide with curiosity.

Sam hesitated. "Well, they got stuck in the snow and a lot of them died and to survive some of them kind of...ate each other."

Wait, what? "So...you named me after a dead body and cannibals ?"

"Look, I'm goth, I'm kind of into dark stuff and-"

Danielle burst into laughter. "Oh my gosh, that is–" She dropped onto the bed clutching her stomach. "That's so much better than being named after Danny!"

Her laughter was contagious and Sam couldn't help but join in. "Are you sure it's better? I might as well have called you 'death and dying.'"

Danielle just laughed harder, giggling almost hysterically. She didn't tell Sam, but it was the first time she'd laughed in months. It sparked something in her and to her amazement, Danielle felt the first small flicker of hope. 

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you can do this?” Danielle asked from her place in the back seat. 

“Of course I can; I'm in Driver’s Ed! I'm just…not sixteen yet.” Sam gripped the steering wheel tightly as she pulled out of her parent's garage. “You've got your seatbelt on, right?” 

“I thought I was supposed to hide under the blanket so no one saw me.” 

“You are. Just put it on under the blanket.”

Sam waited until she heard the click of the seatbelt before she continued down the driveway. She was skipping school that day so she could drive Danielle to the lake house unnoticed. Getting a car was the easy part; her parents didn't exactly hide the keys to their non-work vehicles. Probably because they didn't think their daughter was stupid enough to steal one. Clearly, they had underestimated her. 

Until now, Sam hadn't been overly enthusiastic about getting her driver's license. Not only did she dislike driving (and the environmental damage it caused) but she rarely had any need to. Her house was within walking distance of the school, her friends’ houses, and her favorite book store. It also helped that her best friend was able to fly her across town in the blink of an eye. But right now, as she cautiously drove them through town, Sam wished she had paid more attention in Driver's Ed. If she made a mistake and got pulled over, both she and Danielle would be in a world of trouble. 

They made it through town without incident and Sam relaxed as they reached the winding roads leading toward Amity National Park. “Okay, you can probably look now, but keep the blanket over you, just in case.” In the rearview mirror, Sam watched a lumpy blanket rise up and press against the window.  

“Why'd your parents buy this place if you already live so close?” Danielle's muffled voice asked. 

Sam shrugged, more to herself than to Danielle. “It was supposed to be an investment. They own a lot of vacation homes in Illinois and a few other states. A nice house in the right location can bring in a good amount of money if you rent it out. I'm pretty sure this one stopped being profitable after Amity Park developed its ghost problem though.” 

“So it never gets used?”

“I wouldn't say never. We've had little family get-togethers with my cousins out here. I think they've let some of our neighbors use it too.” They reached the sign for Minnow Lake and Sam turned the car onto a dirt road. “To tell you the truth, I don't think the point of the vacation homes is to make money anyway. I think my mom just likes furnishing them. Design is kind of her thing.”

A few minutes later, Minnow Lake came into view. “You can come out now.”

Danielle dropped the blanket and looked out over the lake. “It looks smaller than I thought it would.” 

“It's more like a big pond than a lake, I know. I think that's part of why it hasn't really been researched before. The Great Lakes get all the attention.”

Sam was rather proud of her science fair idea. An observational research study would explain her frequent trips to the lake and would provide a subtle way for Danielle to communicate with her. She would leave her with an old laptop for “Jane” to post the data she collected in a shared document. Some of it would be actual data (Sam figured if her parents were supplying her with research equipment she may as well have Danielle use it) but some of it would be coded messages. So far, they had only come up with a few codes for things like “I'm okay” and “I need you to come visit tonight” but Danielle would have plenty of time to come up with more. 

They finally pulled up outside a modern wooden cabin with a wide front porch. Danielle practically leapt from the car in her eagerness. She ran to the edge of the lake first, much to Sam's surprise. Sam hurried along behind her, hoping she wasn't about to try swimming for the first time before they'd even made it into the cabin.

When she caught up, she found Danielle looking over the water, eyes wide with awe. "It's beautiful!” She looked up at Sam. “Do you come here a lot?"

Sam found a large boulder and sat down on it. It was a nice autumn day; if Danielle didn't want to check out the cabin yet, she didn't mind waiting. "You know, I don't, actually. I'm usually so busy with school and ghosts and stuff that I don't really think about how close this is."

Danielle reached out and grabbed the stalk of a cattail plant, gently tilting it toward her for a better look. "Have you ever brought your friends out here?"

Sam thought about it. "Once. Just Danny back in Freshman year. We didn't go to the cabin, just the lake, to release some frogs."

"Frogs?" Danielle continued to examine the cattail, cautiously prodding the brown cylinder on top.

Sam chuckled to herself. "Yeah, frogs. From the biology lab. They were going to kill them for students to dissect and I was trying to convince the school not to. They shouldn't have to die just for science, you know? I wasn't sure if my petition would work before they killed them, so I broke into the bio lab and stole them."

Danielle released the plant and looked back at Sam with amusement. "And Danny helped you?"

"He didn't help me steal them; I did that on my own. Danny and Tucker thought it was ridiculous. But when it was time to let them go, I guess Danny could tell how important it was to me and he decided to help. He flew me out here to release them into the lake, so they could live out their lives the way nature intended." Sam couldn't help but smile at the memory. Danny had been so sweet. He flew around the lake releasing a few frogs at a time so they could spread out and make a home for themselves. Then they sat together talking until the sun went down and the frogs started to sing, the sounds of their little ribbets echoing over the lake...

"So basically, this is where you take things you don't want dissected." Danielle's blunt comment took Sam by surprise. She actually hadn't made the connection between Danielle and the frogs until she'd pointed it out.

"...Kinda, yeah.” She bit her lip, wondering if Danielle would be upset.

Instead, she shot Sam a playful grin. “Do I get to sleep in the cabin, or should I find a lily pad?”

Chapter Text

Not only did Danielle get to sleep in the cabin, she was given three bedrooms to choose from! She flew from room to room, trying to decide which one she wanted. 

“You can always change your mind later,” Sam said as Danielle zipped past her for the third time. She was in the kitchen, going through the cupboards and making a shopping list.

“But then I'll have to move all my stuff to the other room!”

“You can put your stuff anywhere you want to. You don't have to sleep in the same room you put your clothes in.”

Danielle paused to think through that option. “No, that's not how it works. Real kids only have one bedroom.” With that, she flew off again, to the big room with the cool ceiling fan. It had a huge closet and an attached bathroom. She liked that one…but then Sam called it the Master Bedroom. She didn't like that name at all. Maybe she could change it?

She flew back to the kitchen. “Hey Sam?”

Sam jumped, dropping her shopping list, and Danielle couldn't help but giggle. Sam picked up her notebook muttering, “You know, normal kids don’t fly around and sneak up on people either.” 

“Do we have to call the big room the Master Bedroom?” She floated up to sit on the counter.

Sam shrugged, writing something on her list. “I dunno. Does it matter?”

“It matters.” 

Sam turned, a curious look on her face. “You can call it whatever you want. It's just a name.”

“But, is Master its real name or its fake name? You always use real names.”

Sam stared at her for a long time. “...What?”

“The bedroom, is Master its real name or its fake name?” 

“I…what's a fake name? What do you mean I always use real ones?” Sam looked utterly confused and Danielle didn't really understand why. It was a fairly simple question.

“A fake name is the name that you make up for something. So, like my real name is Danielle, and my fake name is Dani. But you don't call me Dani, you always call me Danielle. You use real names.” It felt odd to explain a simple concept to someone older than her. But Danielle was starting to get the feeling that this wasn’t as simple as she thought. Maybe it was another clone thing and she just didn't realize it.

Sam was quiet for a moment, looking back and forth between Danielle and that notebook in her hand. Finally, she sighed and put the notebook down on the counter. “Maybe we should go talk about this in the living room?” 

Danielle shrugged and hopped off the counter. “Alright.” 

She followed Sam into the living room and watched her pick up and pat some of the throw pillows before she sat down on the couch. That was weird. Tentatively, Danielle grabbed one of the pillows and patted it a few times before sitting down too. Sam made a face like she was trying not to laugh. 

Danielle felt herself blush. “Did I do it wrong?”

Sam pressed her lips together and took a deep breath before answering, like she was pushing back a laugh. “No, you didn't do anything wrong. It was cute. You don't have to fluff the pillows before you sit down though.”

“But that's what you did?” Danielle's face still felt very warm. She wasn't sure if she liked being called cute. 

“Yeah, it's kind of a habit.” Sam chuckled, but this time it seemed more like she was laughing at herself. “My mom always had me fluff the pillows in the sitting room before guests come over. I honestly don't even notice that I do it anymore.”

“Oh.” Danielle nodded, understanding now. “So it's not something real kids do, it's just something you do.”

Sam's brows furrowed. “It's not a standard thing that normal kids do, no. But I'm not exactly normal…and neither are you. We're both unique. If you're hoping I can teach you to be normal, you might have chosen the wrong person.” 

“I don't want to be normal, I want to be real.” 

Sam pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. Danielle didn't understand why she was getting so frustrated. 

Finally, Sam dropped her hand and gave her a tight smile. “Okay, the reason we came in here is because you wanted to talk about what we're going to call that room, right?”

“Right.” 

“And then you were saying something about me always using real names?” Sam squinted her eyes slightly, like she was trying to remember.

“Yeah, because you use the real names for things, like when you call me Danielle instead of Dani. You don't like fake names, right?” 

Sam frowned. “That's what I wanted to talk about. I'm sorry if I've been using the wrong name for you.”

Danielle waved her off. “Oh it's okay, I know it's probably weird because you're friends with the real Danny. It doesn't really matter.” 

“No, names are important. Technically, ‘Sam’ isn't my birth name, it's Samantha. Sam is a nickname; not a fake name, a nickname. I chose it because I don't like being called Samantha.” 

“Oh.” She hadn't known that.

Sam smiled apologetically. “If you don't like being called ‘'Danielle,’ then I won't call you that anymore. Just because it's not the name you were born with doesn't make it fake. If you don't like your name, you can change it.” 

Dani stared down at her feet, feeling a bit self-conscious. “It's not that I don't like the name Danielle. It's just…I worked really hard for the name Dani. I was supposed to be the first clone to earn it.” As soon as the words left her mouth, her stomach clenched with anxiety.

She pulled her knees up to her chest. This wasn't any easier to talk about than the first time. There was a voice nagging at her in the back of her mind. Stop talking. It's against the rules. You know what happens to clones who break the rules.

Sam's voice was gentle. “What do you mean by that? The first clone to earn it?”

Dani couldn't get herself to make eye contact. She considered changing the subject. But Sam deserved to know the whole story, didn't she? Besides, Dani wanted her to know. She wanted someone to know her real story.

“There…there were other Danielles. And even more Daniels. I was the fourth Danielle…the fourth to live more than a week, that is. My classification is Danielle Epsilon Masters.” 

She took a shaky breath and hugged her legs closer. “When Danielle Alpha only lived for a day, he decided not to assign a classification to us until we lived for at least a week. Danielle Beta made it exactly one week. Danielle Gamma lived for ten days. Danielle Delta survived a whole month. Then there's me...and I’m still here.”

She could feel the tears welling up and closed her eyes tightly, trying to keep them in. She forced herself to keep talking. “Daddy really wanted a boy though. So he kept trying to make Daniels. I got to meet a few of them. Daniel Zeta and I were pretty good friends...before. Daddy didn't really let me talk to Daniel Eta because I cried too much when Zeta die–destabilized.” 

The tears were trekking down her cheeks now, but she kept going. “Daddy said that if any of us lived for a whole year, we would get to be called Danny. Just like the real Danny. I–I was going to be the first. I'm only a few months away. But I broke the r-rules,” She choked on a sob. “I didn't earn-n it. So it's f-fake. But–” 

“Hey, it's okay, Dani.” She was surprised when felt a blanket being wrapped around her shoulders. She hadn't even heard Sam get up. “It's okay.” Sam sat beside her and started gently stroking her hair. “A name's not something you have to earn, okay? You get to decide if you want to use your birth name, a nickname, or something completely different.”

Dani was reminded of Sam brushing her hair two days prior. It felt nice. The gentle weight of the blanket around her shoulders made her feel safe. She was still crying, but it didn't feel quite as awful as before. She wiped at her eyes, and sniffled.

“S-something different…like Jane Donner?” 

Sam's hand paused in stroking her hair. “I mean if you like being named after dead bodies and cannibals, sure.” Dani snorted at that and the sound made Sam laugh quietly. “I'm going to grab you some tissues, I'll be right back.” 

While Sam was gone, Dani thought about what she'd said. “You get to decide…” In truth, it never occurred to her that a name was something she could give herself. The closest she'd come was trying out the name Dani before she'd earned it. 

Sam returned with a box of tissues and an apologetic smile. “I don't mean to rush you, but I just saw the time. If you want my help unpacking you should probably pick out a room now. I need to make sure I'm home before my parents are.” 

Dani accepted the tissues. “Thanks. I think I already know what room I want.”

Chapter Text

Dani chose the “Ceiling-fan Room” to unpack in and Sam made a mental vow to never refer to it as a Master Bedroom ever again. From now on, it was Dani's room to her. 

“What drawer do you want pajamas in?” Sam was sitting on the floor of the walk-in closet next to a built-in dresser. 

Dani peeked her head in. “Tops or bottoms?”

“It's a nightgown.” Sam held it up. Secretly, the dark purple nightgown had long been one of her favorites. She'd been hesitant to give it up (she still wore it as a nightshirt sometimes) but she couldn't justify keeping it for herself when it would fit Dani better. 

“Um…probably in the middle drawer.” 

Sam nodded as she re-folded the nightgown. Dani's organizational system made absolutely no sense to her. 

“Hey, can I ask you something?” She looked up to see Dani standing in the doorway.

“Sure.”

“How did you decide that you wanted to be called Sam?” 

Well, we already unpacked her name, why not mine too? 

“I don't know, honestly. I didn't like Samantha; it's long and it sounds kinda snobby to me. Of the nicknames you can make from Samantha, I liked Sam the best. It's short and simple. Plus I like that most people think it's a boy's name. It’s fun taking something that everyone says is for boys and making it my own.”

Dani thought about it. “So, you just decided by yourself? No one had to call you that first?”

“Pretty much.” Sam shrugged as she put the last shirt into the dresser. “When other people try to give me a nickname they almost always call me Sammy.” She scrunched up her nose in disgust. “Please, don't ever call me Sammy” 

Dani laughed at that. “So basically no one is allowed to call you anything but Sam?”

Sam hummed as she climbed to her feet and carried the empty duffle bag out of the closet. “Not exactly. If someone is really close to me I sometimes let them use pet names…if they've earned it. I know I said a name doesn't have to be earned but pet names are different. Pet names are a form of affection, like a hug. Affection is earned.”  

“I don't think I’ve heard of pet names before,” Dani said, following Sam out of the room. 

“Sure you have, you just didn't know that's what they're called.” Sam dropped the duffle bag in the living room and went into the kitchen to get her notebook. “Things like Sweetheart or Honey or Babe.”

Dani gave her an incredulous look. “You let people call you Sweetheart?”

“Ew, no. That was just an example.” She flipped through the notebook, looking for a blank page. “I was thinking more like my grandma calling me Bubeleh.” 

“Ohhh.” Dani floated up to sit on the counter again. “Do you have any others?”

Sam looked up from the notebook to think about it. “Sammygirl. Tucker calls me that sometimes.” 

“Isn't that basically the same as Sammy?”

“Nope, completely different. I would kill him if he called me Sammy.” Sam grinned at Dani's confusion. “Sammygirl is something he came up with in Kindergarten.” At least, that’s what they assumed. Neither she or Tucker could remember how or when the pet name originated. “It’s mostly when we're at his house. Mrs. Foley took care of me a lot when we were little, so it's kind of a reminder of us growing up together.” She placed the notebook on the counter and started writing.

“I guess that's why I don't have any pet names,” Dani said thoughtfully. “I don't have a grandma and all the clones I grew up with are dead.” 

Sam froze, pen hovering over the page. She wished Dani would stop saying stuff like that. Actually, I wish she didn't have a reason to say stuff like that.

“What are you writing?” Dani asked, breaking the awkward silence. 

Sam blinked a few times, clearing her thoughts. “A list.” 

“Of?”

“Possible nicknames for you.”

Sam smirked at Dani's stunned silence. This kid was so easy to read. She kept writing, waiting for Dani to say something.

“...Why?”

Because it’s beyond obvious that you want one. Sam shrugged. “I thought you should have more than two options. You can still go by Dani or Danielle, but it will be because you like the name. Not because some fruitloop assigned it to you.” 

Dani scooted closer, trying to get a look at the page. “What nicknames did you think of?”

“I figured I'd start with names you can get from Danielle. But you don't have to stick with Danielle either, we could change it into something else entirely. So far I've got: Dani, Ann, Annie, Elle, Ellie, Nell, Nellie, and Dee…since Danielle starts with D.” 

“Can I see it?” 

Sam carefully tore the page out of the notebook and handed it to her. “It's only a few options, if you don't like them, we can think of more. You don’t have to decide right now and you can always change your mind later.”

Dani looked down at the list in her hands like it was something sacred. She whispered each name as she read it, like she wanted to feel the shape of it on her tongue. 

The sight filled Sam's heart with a mix of pride and outrage. It felt great giving Dani something that meant so much to her…But it was only meaningful to her because she'd originally been given a “classification” instead of a name. Otherwise it would have been no more significant than the lengthy shopping list she'd also made that day.

Sam picked up the notebook, flipping it closed as she glanced at the clock on the wall. She really needed to get going soon. The last thing she needed was her parents to catch her driving their car when she was supposed to be home sick from school. 

It just felt wrong to leave Dani alone here. She likely wouldn't be able to make it back out to the lake house until Saturday which was two days from now. 

“Dani, can I ask you one more thing?”

 Dani nodded and looked up from the list with a smile.

“How old are you exactly?” 

“That depends on what measure you're using.” Dani set the paper on the counter next to her and leaned back on her hands.

“What measures are there?” Sam had known there wouldn't be a simple answer for this one. She was just glad Dani didn't seem upset. 

“Intellectually, I test at a level comparable to an under-educated ten year old. Danny was fourteen when his DNA was harvested, but like I said before, I only have his implicit knowledge.” Dani told her. Her tone was overly casual, like she was forcing herself to stay calm. 

“Physical Development is harder, Daddy said I could be anywhere from five to eleven. He wanted a teenager, but prepubescent clones last longer.” She ran a hand through her hair absentmindedly. “Then there's my consciousness…what month is it?”

“It's October.” 

“Then I've been conscious for about nine months, give or take.” 

Nine months. 

Sam didn't quite think through her next question before asking it. “Why give or take? You don't know your birthday?”

“Clones don't have birthdays. I wasn't born; I was made .” Dani took a shaky breath and Sam was afraid she would start crying again. Thankfully, this time, Dani was able to stay composed. 

“I came out of the incubation chamber in early February. But I was conscious a bit before that. I was asleep for most of it but I did wake up sometimes when Daddy was taking care of me. I didn't really understand what was happening until the end. That's how he knew I was ready; I asked him to let me out.”

That haunted look in Dani's eyes was returning. Sam tried to bring her attention back to the present. “You forgot a measure.”

“I did?” 

“Yup.” Sam leaned against the counter opposite of her. “You forgot the most important measure, actually: How old do you think you are?”

Dani's eyebrows scrunched together. “I just told you.”

Sam shook her head and smiled. “No, you told me about different measures of your development. If you want to be a normal kid someday, you need an age to tell people. You may have come out of incubation less than a year ago but you don't seem like a nine month old baby to me.”

“I am not a baby,” Dani agreed.

“So, how old do you think you are? What feels right to you?”

Dani thought about it for a moment before giving Sam a helpless look. “I don't know. I haven't really met a lot of kids. What do you think? How old do I look?”

That was a good question. Sam appraised her thoughtfully. It helped that Dani looked so much like the Danny she grew up with. What grade were they in when Danny was the size of the girl in front of her? 

“Well…you look too young to be ten or eleven…But definitely older than five.” She folded her arms and chewed her lip as she thought about it. “I'd say between seven and nine. But if your birthday is in February, nine is probably too old, you don't look like you're about to turn ten.”

“So seven or eight, then?” 

“Yeah, seven or eight.”

Dani contemplated the idea. “You know…I think I want to be seven. That means I have more time to grow up.”

“Okay, seven it is.” 

Chapter Text

Dani watched from the window as Sam drove away. She wondered if Sam really would come back on Saturday like she said she would. What if she forgot? 

The lake house felt very empty now with only Dani in it. There also wasn't a lot for her to do. There was a TV, but no cable. The computer in one of the bedrooms did connect to the internet, but she wasn't supposed to use it for much besides logging research data and sending coded messages. Computer activity could be tracked.

Sam had promised she'd bring stuff for her to do when she came back on Saturday. Her parents would be out of town and she'd be able to take the car shopping for supplies. Dani had asked Sam to bring her things that might help her practice being real and Sam had agreed (although she insisted on using the word normal). Dani was eager to start practicing. But first she had to figure out what to do with herself for the next two days.

There was stuff stored in the closets and cabinets. Sam had told her that most of it was stuff her mom kept on hand for vacations and the rest was stray belongings left behind by renters. Either way, anything she found was hers to use. The only rule Sam left her with was: “Don't burn the place down.” 

Dani took her time exploring her new home, looking for anything interesting she might have missed when they first arrived. Most of the stuff she found in the closets was boring: blankets, cleaning supplies, umbrellas, etc. The books on the shelf in the living room were equally boring: A travel guide, an atlas, The Torah, a cookbook, and an instruction manual for the computer. In the smallest bedroom she found some clothes: a raincoat, some cracked sunglasses and a big floppy hat. Also boring.

After further searching, she did find another book: a worn paperback tucked away in one of the nightstands. She pulled it out and turned it over. The cover depicted a shirtless man with long hair holding a woman in a red dress that must have been three sizes too big, considering the way it was hanging off of her. The title read: Lady Elizabeth's Scandalous Secret. 

“Gross!” Dani tossed the book back in the drawer and closed it. That was enough exploring for today. She turned to leave the room and was surprised by a dark-haired girl standing near the door. “Oh!” 

Her own startled expression greeted her. She had forgotten about the floor-length mirror. I look like I've seen a ghost. Dani barked out a nervous laugh and the girl in the mirror did the same. She tried to brush it off, to see the humor in the situation. But she couldn't get rid of that heavy feeling in her chest.

Dani didn't like mirrors. She didn’t like the reminder that no matter what, she would always be a ghost. No matter what form she took, she could never be more than an echo of someone who used to be alive. She could see it in her eyes.

Those wide blue eyes were terribly familiar to her. They were Zeta's eyes. Eta’s eyes. The eyes of every unclassified Daniel and Danielle she'd watched dissolve. She couldn't even transform to forget; if she let her eyes glow green, she would be reminded of the Phantoms. Over and over, she had seen those exact eyes staring back at her through glass. 

It was the first sign of sentience in a clone as they floated in an incubator; when they opened their eyes and looked around. She learned that eyes were a great predictor of what would become of them. If they were green, they wouldn't make it. Either they would destabilize when they left the incubator, or they would be sent to fight until they fell apart. Sometimes they didn't even get to try, Daddy would just melt them down and start over. The Phantoms (as she thought of them) were doomed from the beginning. 

In truth, the blue-eyed clones weren't much better off. She'd watched each of them destabilize too. But if their eyes were blue, it meant they had a chance. They might be a halfa clone, like her. They might be able to stick around for a while. Danielle always made a point to smile at them. No one had been there when she woke up the first time and she had been so scared. She tried to give the Daniels–her brothers–the compassion that she wished had been given to her.

That compassion was the reason she had convinced Daddy to let her be there when one of the Daniels came out of incubation. Each Daniel would tumble out of the chamber naked, soaking wet, and frightened. Danielle would wrap a towel around him and hold his hand while Daddy completed his initial scans. Most of them destabilized immediately and Danielle would feel his hand turn to liquid in hers. If he stayed stable, she would be the first to talk. “It's nice to meet you Daniel,” she would say, “I'm Danielle Epsilon and this is our dad. He needs to run some tests now. Try to hold still and I'll be back with some clothes when it's over.” Many of them destabilized before she got back, some held on longer, but all of them destabilized eventually. She was the only one left. She was the living ghost of all the clones that came before her and all that came after.

The girl in the mirror was just another doomed clone. 

Except…she wasn’t. She looked different.  

Is that really me?

Dani approached the mirror cautiously, observing herself. She was skinny, really skinny. (Suddenly Sam’s agonizing over the grocery list made more sense.) She was wearing clothes Daddy wouldn't like: a tshirt for some heavy metal band and black pajama pants being held up by a tightly-knotted drawstring. Her hair was down, framing her pale face in a way that looked almost pretty. She reached up to touch it, watching the girl in the mirror do the same. Danielle was never allowed to wear her hair down back at the lab. Loose hair was a hazard; she could get hurt. At least that's what Daddy always said. Though he never seemed concerned about hurting her when he needed to collect samples. The scars on her arms told that story well enough. 

She lifted her arms and looked down at the pockmarked, discolored skin. Her thighs were similarly damaged. Daddy had always needed more samples and Danielle learned to just let him take them. Let him take pieces of her. 

She would never get those pieces back. 

Danielle could run away, change her look, go by a different name…it wouldn't change anything. She was a failed creation marked for death and dissection and Sam was only helping her to prolong the inevitable. No matter what, she would never be more than a scientific specimen.

I hate mirrors. 

Dani felt very alone as she tucked herself into bed. She didn't bother to check the time. She was tired, really tired and that meant it was bedtime–even if the sun hadn't quite set. The cabin was so quiet and it put her on edge. She hoped she could fall asleep before it got too dark. It’s not that she was afraid of the dark necessarily…well, maybe a little bit. It just made her feel so vulnerable. 

She curled up on her side and hugged a pillow to herself for comfort. She felt like crying but she didn't really know why. She had already cried so much in the last few days, it didn't feel possible for her to cry any more. Sam must think I'm such a baby.

It mattered a great deal to Dani what Sam thought of her. If Sam didn't like her, she could kick her out or turn her in. There's no way Sam would do that. She tried to reassure herself. But what if Sam's plan didn't work? What if something went wrong? 

Wraak … A strange noise echoed outside. Dani tensed, listening carefully. Wraak… What was that? The sound repeated a few times before another one joined it. This one was a small voice that made a much more unmistakable sound. Ribbet…

Understanding dawned on her. They were both frogs, one was just more croaky than the other. Shortly after another frog joined, then another, and another. There were so many of them. 

“So this is where you take things you don't want dissected.”

Dani couldn't help but smile, listening to them.  

“We're alive,” they seemed to say. “We're here because our lives were worth saving…and so is yours.”

On and on their songs echoed across the lake. It was the most beautiful thing Dani had ever heard. 

Chapter Text

"Dani!" Sam called as she closed the door behind her. It was Saturday morning and she had arrived early. Her parents had moved up their travel plans for the weekend, leaving their car available sooner than Sam had expected. Perfect for her to go shopping, load up on supplies and have a few extra hours to make sure Dani was settling in okay.

Speaking of… "Dani?" Sam called again. She'd been expecting to find her in the living room but it was empty. Surely she wasn't still in bed. 

"Dani, are you h–"

"I'm here!" Dani's voice came from directly behind her. Sam jumped and yelped in surprise, dropping the bags she was carrying.

"Don't do that!" The young girl fell over laughing. Sam shook her head but couldn't help but chuckle as well. It was nice to see Dani looking so happy. Her laugh sounded a lot like Other-Danny's. She knelt to pick up her bags. "I hope I didn't break the DVDs."

Dani sat up. "DVDs? You brought me movies?"

Sam smiled. "Yup, movies and a lot more to keep you occupied. Can you take these to the living room and the grocery bags to the kitchen? I'll get the rest from the car." 

The young girl jumped up and floated above the bags. "No Dani." Sam grabbed her hand and gently lowered her toward the ground. "No powers, remember? You have to practice if you want to do things like a normal kid." Dani pouted slightly but did as she was told, her feet returning to the floor.

It's like when Danny first got his powers. Except he had to learn how to use them and she has to learn how not to, Sam thought as she grabbed groceries from the car and carried them to the kitchen. She felt a small pang of guilt at the reminder of her best friend. She didn't like keeping this from him.

Dani ran into the kitchen and jumped to sit on the countertop with a big, trusting smile on her face. Sam's heart melted. Danny would just have to forgive her; no way in hell she would betray this girl's trust.

"Okay, I'm guessing you don't know how to cook, right?" Sam asked.

"Nope," Dani confirmed, swinging her feet absentmindedly.

"I figured. I'll teach you how eventually, but for now I got you stuff that you can either warm up in the microwave or eat raw." Sam pulled several boxes of TV dinners from the first bag. "These will go in the freezer; there's instructions on the box. Do you know how to use the microwave?"

Dani rolled her eyes. "Duh. I'm under-educated, not stupid!" She jumped off the counter and carried the boxes to the freezer while Sam smiled and shook her head at the attitude.

"These can go in the toaster. They're not the healthiest but I figured, well, you're a kid, you'll like them. Just don't overdo it." She pulled out several flavors of Eggo waffles. "I got extra of the blueberry ones." Those were Danny's favorite.

Dani's eyes lit up. "I love blueberries!" She beamed as she gathered the boxes to put in the freezer as well.

"I have a blueberry bush in my greenhouse. I'll bring you some fresh ones next time," Sam promised, making a mental note to herself. She turned back to the bags. "I got you some canned stuff too. The soups, chili, and ravioli should keep you fed for a long time if something happens and I can't bring you fresh supplies for a while. Keep them in the pantry. I don't want you eating them unless you don't have fresh food. They're full of sodium."

Dani nodded and gathered the cans in her arms to take to the pantry. She carried much more than a girl her size should be able to. Sam decided not to mention it this time. Instead, she started pulling out boxes of cereal and instant oatmeal. "I'll try to bring you milk each time I visit, but I got some powdered milk just in case. Let me know what cereal you like best. I got the ones I've seen at the Fenton's house; I don't know for sure which is Danny's favorite but I know he eats a lot of cereal so I brought plenty."

She didn't notice that Danielle had stopped putting food away and was watching sadly as she pulled out Danny's favorite snack foods. "Danny practically inhales these at sleepovers. Just pace yourself, okay? Eat some veggies too. I brought some carrots and–" She looked down and saw tears in the young girl's eyes. "Dani, what's wrong?"

Dani sniffed and wiped her eyes. "You- you know I'm not him right? I know I'm a clone but...I'm not Danny Fenton. Are you going to be disappointed if-"

"No." Sam knelt down to look in her eyes. "No Dani, I'm not going to be disappointed." She could see the doubt and fear on the young girl's face so she continued, "I'm not expecting you to be Danny. I promise. I don't want you to be him, I want you to be you."

Dani took a shaky breath. "But...you got his favorite foods."

Sam wanted to kick herself. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply you're the same person. I just wasn't sure what you'd like and I thought I'd have a good chance if I went with what I've seen him eat since families tend to like the same food. I'd do the same thing if it was Jazz I was shopping for."

"Did you bring his favorite movies too?" Dani asked suspiciously.

Sam tried to hide her relief. "Nope. I brought my favorites along with some stuff I thought could help you learn to fit in with other kids...and whatever I thought my parents wouldn't miss from their dvd cabinet. Let's finish putting the groceries away and I'll show you." 

Dani smiled tentatively and nodded.

They put the food away quickly and moved to the living room, settling on the floor. Sam started pulling items out of the bag. "Along with movies, I brought some CDs so you can listen to music." She unzipped a large disc organizer and let Dani flip through it.

"There's TV shows too. I actually bought the box sets of a bunch of sitcoms. Danny thinks sitcoms are boring, but I thought they might help you get a better idea of how people normally interact." Sam put her hand over the CD case to make sure Danielle was listening. "One thing I do want to emphasize though is that sitcoms aren't very realistic about things money or dating. When you watch these, if there's something you have questions about or anything you don't understand write it down. I can let you know what they're talking about and if it's actually normal or not. Please do not try to look it up yourself."

Dani nodded and continued flipping through the CD case. "I thought you'd have more horror movies."

Sam chuckled. "I do, I just left those at home."

"What? Why?" Dani gave her an indignant look.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, I don't know much about kids but I'm not going to give a seven year old a bunch of horror movies and then leave her alone in a cabin in the woods."

Dani folded her arms and glared at her. "I can handle it! I'm not a baby! I'm literally half-ghost!"

Sam shrugged and reached for the bag again. "I'm sure you can. Half ghost or not, I'm still not bringing you horror movies." Before Dani could protest again, Sam pulled more items out of the bag: a jigsaw puzzle, a deck of cards, a sketchbook, colored pencils, a rubix cube...and a model rocket kit. She saw Dani eyeing the rocket eagerly and smirked. "I hope it's okay, I brought a model rocket. I remembered you like space stuff, but if it's too similar to something Danny would like–" She suppressed a laugh when Danielle ripped it from her hands and started reading the descriptions.

"There's so many pieces!" Dani exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, it comes with paint!"

"I thought you'd-" Sam was cut off when Dani launched herself into her, knocking Sam against the couch and hugging her tightly.

"Thank you thank you thank you!!" she squealed.

Sam wasn't sure what to do. She'd never been hugged by a child before. After a moment's hesitation, Sam hugged her back. "I'm glad you like it." Her voice was a bit strained.

Dani hugged her tighter. "I mean it Sam, thank you. Not just for the rocket. I can't believe how much you've done for me and you barely know me."

Sam patted her back gently. "I know enough. I know you fought beside my best friend and now you need someone to fight for you." She sighed. "And I know what it's like to be young with no one to count on. I can't say counting on me is the best thing to do–I mean I seriously know nothing about kids–but you deserve to have someone on your side for once."

"I can see why Danny likes you so much." 

Sam felt her face grow red. "Well...yeah, he's my best friend."

Danielle stepped back and looked at her with a shrewdness that belied her young age. "That's not really what I meant."

Sam didn't know what to say to that and was thankful when Dani turned back to the CD case. "Can we watch a movie today? You know, before you go?"

"Of course."

Chapter Text

Sam was busy making them lunch while Dani picked a movie. She took the time to actually cook something, considering Dani didn't know how. She was standing at the stove getting some pasta boiling when Dani burst into the kitchen. 

“Sam! I just had the best idea!”

Sam couldn't help but think of all the times she'd heard Danny say almost the exact same thing. The results of his “best ideas” varied but they were almost always entertaining. “Alright, let's hear it.”

“I’ve been wanting to try out some of those nicknames you gave me and I realized I just need to be an actor!” 

“...You're gonna need to give me a bit more, I don't follow.”

Dani huffed a sigh, as if Sam being unable to connect her thoughts was an irritant. “I was looking at the movies and they have the same actors in different movies. They're like a totally different person based on the movie and you know which person they're being because they wear different clothes.”

“Right…”

Dani spoke slowly, like she was trying to explain a very simple concept. “So, if I want to try different names, I should wear different clothes when I try them.”

“And what were you thinking of–” Sam turned around and she wasn't able to finish the sentence before she lost it. “Where–” she tried unsuccessfully to smother another laugh. “Where did you even find that?”

Danielle was encased in a bright yellow raincoat that all but swallowed her small frame. Her head was covered by a gigantic floppy hat and to top it off, she was wearing oversized sunglasses with a huge crack over the left eye. 

“One of the closets.” The brim of the hat drooped over her face and Dani did her best to push it back. Sam snorted in an attempt to rein in her laughter.

“Dani, you look like a school bus trying to go undercover as human.”

“Who's Dani?” The school bus girl asked, throwing her arms out dramatically. “I'm Annie!”

Sam forced herself to turn back to the stove so she wouldn't laugh again. “Alright Annie, would you prefer pesto or marinara on your pasta?” 

There was a long pause and Sam glanced back to see her taking off the sunglasses. “Okay, I hated that. Let's try just Ann istead.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Okay Ann, pesto or marinara?” 

“Marinara." The hat fell in her face again and she fought the brim of it. “If I go by Ann, do you think people will call me Annie?”

Sam shrugged as she retrieved a jar from the pantry. “Probably, like how people try to call me Sammy.” 

“Okay, then nevermind.” She gave up on the hat, tossing it onto the counter beside the sunglasses. “How about Nell?”

“You might still have the same problem with that one. People will call you Nellie. Same with Elle, people will call you Ellie.” Sam told her as she stirred in the marinara. 

“If I go by Dee will people call me Dellie?’ 

Sam snickered. “I doubt that, but since you brought it up, I might.”

Not-Annie groaned in response. 

Sam turned and gave her a thoughtful look, trying to ignore that she was still enveloped in the yellow raincoat. “Look, in the end It really is up to you, Nell. You can keep playing dress up if you want to and I promise you, Ellie, I'll call you whatever you want. But you should know people will try to give you nicknames anyway. That means it will be up to you, Dee, to stand up for yourself and correct people if you don't like what they call you.” 

Definitely-Not-Dellie was listening with a great deal of interest, obviously well aware of what she was doing. Sam crossed her arms and leaned back against the counter with a grin. “I might not be able to teach you to be perfectly normal, Nellie, but I CAN teach you to stand up for yourself. So, if people call you Annie or Dellie, or anything else you don't like, you can correct them. It's all about boundaries and being bold in enforcing them. It takes practice, but I know that you can do it, Elle.” 

Sam watched as the wide-eyed girl unzipped the raincoat and shrugged it off. “I don't like Dee, but maybe we can keep trying the others?”

“No problem, Nell.” Sam turned back to the stove and took the pasta off the burner. “Do you know how to set the table?”

“We just need bowls and forks right?”

“I usually put pasta on a plate, but bowls work too. Could you grab the forks, Nellie?”

Together, they set up their lunch on the small kitchen table and started eating. Sam waited patiently for the very pensive child to speak again. 

“Is it even worth choosing a nickname if people will call me whatever they want?”

Sam nodded emphatically. “Yes, in fact, I think that it makes it even more important.”

“How?”

She put her fork down to think about her answer. “It's a respect thing, Elle. When someone calls you by the wrong name, even when you've made it clear how important it is to you, it's a form of disrespect. You can't force anyone to respect you, Nellie, but you can refuse to interact with people who don't.

“Take it from me, when you're a girl and you're physically small, people take that as license to do whatever they want. You have to push back and demand respect from the beginning. That means refusing to accept being called by the wrong name.”

The two girls finished their lunch in contemplative silence. As they cleaned up the table, Sam asked, “Have you made a decision or do you need more time?”

“Ellie.”

“What?” Sam had actually been trying to find out if she'd chosen the movie they were going to watch. She'd assumed the little actor would want more time to try on names.

“Ellie. I would like to be called Ellie. Maybe when I'm older, I'll want to go by Elle because it sounds more grown-up. But right now, I like Ellie.”

“Okay, wow, I wasn't expecting you to decide so fast. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I'm sure. I like that it comes from the name Danielle, but most people wouldn't guess that. So it's not like I'm changing and saying I'm not Danielle anymore…but I also don't have to be reminded that I'm a clone all of the time either. It's like a real name.”

“So if I bought you a keychain or something with the name Ellie on it, you would be happy with that and you wouldn't want to change it later?” Sam asked, wanting to be certain.

“Yeah, I want my name to be Ellie.”

“Well in that case…” Sam knelt down to look her in the eye and held out a hand. “It's nice to meet you, seven-year-old Ellie.”

Ellie beamed, her smile practically blinding as they shook hands. She then immediately jumped forward to wrap her arms around Sam's neck. This time, Sam did not hesitate to hug her back.

Chapter Text

Over the following weeks, Sam tried to make trips out to the cabin every few days. Now that she wasn't bringing so much stuff with her at once, she was able to ride her bike there. The basket on the back was more than large enough for the groceries, clothes and science fair supplies she brought with her. 

To her great surprise, Sam actually found herself looking forward to seeing Ellie. She took more trips out than was strictly necessary. To avoid suspicion, she bought various supplies to use for the science fair project (everything from soil pH kits to an actual microscope for Ellie to observe microorganisms in the water.) It was more than worth it for her to be able to check in and spend some time with the little girl.

Sam had never been able to say no to Danny. As it turned out, saying no to the child made from his DNA was even harder. Autumn was well underway, but Sam still braved the icy lake to teach Ellie to swim as she had promised. She spent money she had been saving on a telescope and astronomy books. One day, she took apart her electric piano, tied the keyboard to her back, and biked out to the lake house with it because Ellie wanted to learn something Danny didn't know and Sam decided to teach her to play the piano. 

She realized how attached she was getting the night that she accidentally stayed well past her curfew. They'd been watching a movie and Ellie fell asleep leaning against her (Since when did Sam let people cuddle against her?) and instead of waking her up, Sam found herself dozing off too. To be fair, she was completely exhausted. If she wasn’t biking out to the lake house, she was on patrol with Danny and Tucker and if she wasn't on patrol, she was frantically trying to catch up on her homework. 

She'd only been asleep for less than an hour when she got a text from her mom asking if she was on her say home.Thankfully, since her parents knew she was at the lake house they weren't as furious as they might have been. Sam replied with some excuse about getting caught up working on the project and hopped on her bike. Had she waited, she may have seen the text from her mom suggesting she spend the night at the cabin and wait for someone to pick her up in the morning. Amity Park wasn't safe at night; even the ghost skeptics knew it by now. 

But Sam was a capable ghost hunter; she wasn't concerned. She simply slipped her wrist ray on, clipped a flashlight to the front of her bike and started making her way home. As she rode along, Sam was acutely aware of how exhausted she was. Just a couple more weeks, she reminded herself. Two more weeks, and I'll be sixteen. I can get my driver's license and trips to the lake house will be a lot easier. 

“You're out pretty late, huh?” The voice came out of nowhere and took Sam completely by surprise. She jumped, accidentally jerking the handlebars to the side. She didn't even have the chance to try for control of the bike when a weightless feeling rushed over her body, bringing both her and the bike to an abrupt stop. 

“Danny! What the hell?” Sure enough, her friend materialized in front of her, both hands resting casually on the handlebars of her bike. His mischievous grin was simultaneously endearing and infuriating.

“Don’t you have a curfew you’re breaking?” He returned them to tangibility, gently setting Sam and her bike back on the ground.

“Don’t you?” Sam shot back irritably.

“I am not breaking curfew,” Danny told her, moving to float on his stomach, chin propped on his elbows like he was laying on an invisible floor. “I snuck out. It's completely different.”

“I thought you weren't patrolling tonight. Did your ghost sense go off?” 

“No, that's not it.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “I just wanted to take a look around. See who's out and about, you know?”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “At three in the morning?”

“You're one to talk. You shouldn't go out this late by yourself Sam, you could run into a ghost.”

She gave him a deadpan expression, waiting for him to think through what he'd just said. Danny slapped a hand to his forehead. “I mean another ghost!” 

Sam rolled her eyes and climbed back on her bike. “I got caught up working on my science fair project. Besides, ghosts don't scare me.”

“They should.” Danny flew alongside her as Sam started pedaling again. “You're not wearing a specter deflector. You could be overshadowed.”

Sam scoffed. “I doubt anyone would be interested in overshadowing me.”  

“Kitty was.” Danny muttered.

“Besides, if I got overshadowed, you and Tucker would find out and you'd pull them out of me.”

Team Phantom had come up with several code phrases they used to discuss ghost matters in public. As they became more aware of ghost strategies, subtypes, and abilities, they naturally added additional codes and check-in processes. Sam wasn't afraid of being overshadowed because she trusted the safeguards they had set in place together. 

“I'd still feel better if you just wore the specter deflector.” 

Sam rolled her eyes. “Your concern is noted. Now do you want to tell me what you're out looking for this late at night or should I guess?”

Danny sighed. “I’m looking for Danielle, okay?”

Sam was careful to keep her expression neutral. “What makes you think you'll find her in Amity in the middle of the night?”

“I don't know. She's my clone, so I've been thinking about what I would do in her position. If I didn't want to be found, I'd probably hide all day and sneak into town at night.”

Well, you're not wrong.

“So you've been doing extra patrols to see if you can find her?” Sam turned down her street. 

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“That's not very healthy Danny. You need to get some sleep.” Sam knew full well how much of a hypocrite she was being but she did her best to ignore it. “Danielle will show up when she’s ready. The best thing for you to do is to figure out how to stabilize her.”

Danny frowned. “I just can't stop this worry that someone's going to find her before I do.”

Sam was saved from responding when both of their phones went off simultaneously, the loud alert chimes echoing through the night. Their eyes met and in an instant Danny had grabbed Sam off her bike and launched them both in the opposite direction. 

One of Team Phantom's safeguards was a panic alarm to notify the others in an emergency. Tucker had just set his off. 

Chapter Text

“I don't understand how this happened.” 

Sam and Danny were standing in the middle of Tucker's ransacked bedroom. Tucker leaned against the wall near the door, trying to catch his breath. The Fenton Thermous was still in his hand, the light on the side blinking.

“Ghosts don't normally go into civilian houses at night unless it’s relevant to their obsession.” Danny carefully righted Tucker's desk that had been flipped onto its side. His computer lay face down next to it. 

Tucker slowly slid down the wall to sit on the floor. “I don't get it either. They didn't really seem to want anything.”

“They obviously wanted something.” Sam rubbed her tired eyes, trying to get herself to wake up enough to understand. 

“Did they say anything to you?” Danny asked. He picked up the computer to put on the desk and Sam saw him wince at the condition of it. Oh no. She hoped it wasn't truly broken, Tucker built that computer himself. 

Tucker ran a shaky hand over his hair. “I think it said something like ‘you weren't supposed to be here.’ They seemed surprised when I walked in.”

“Do you think you were targeted? I mean most ghosts know who we are by now.” Danny scooped a blaster cartridge of the floor and held it up for emphasis.

“I don't know. Maybe.” Tucker dropped his head into his hands, his breaths hitching. 

Sam crouched down and put a hand on his arm, trying to help ground him. “Did you get hurt?” 

He shook his head. “No, I-I just keep thinking of what might have happened if my parents were home. What if it was my mom that walked in? She doesn't know how to use the thermos o-or anything!” Sam squeezed his arm, a silent reminder for him to breathe. 

Danny looked over at them thoughtfully. “Your parents aren't home?”

Tucker grunted affirmatively. “It's their anniversary. They planned a weekend trip to Lake Geneva.”

“Did anyone else know they'd be gone?” Sam shot Danny a quizzical look. He sounded like a police officer collecting a report.

“No. They didn't really want to advertise that I'd be home alone.” 

Danny floated over to look out the window. “Your parents' car isn't in the driveway. The house looked empty.”

Sam cut in. “Where are you going with this Danny?”

Danny turned back to them. “I think you walked in on a robbery.”

Tucker looked up sharply. “Holy shit you're right! Some of my neighbors were robbed last week!” He turned his baffled look to Sam. “Did I just capture a robbery ghost?”

Sam shrugged. “Maybe…But what were they stealing? They didn't have bags to carry stuff away in, right?”

Tucker considered the question. “No, they didn't have bags…I don't know. They weren't really grabbing stuff so much as looking through it.”

Danny came and joined them on the floor. “Did your neighbors say what the robbers took?”

“No, they just said their home got trashed.”

Danny hummed thoughtfully. “So it wasn't so much a robbery as breaking and entering.” 

Sam's stomach sank as she slowly put the peices together in her mind. “It sounds more like they were looking for something.”

Or someone.

Chapter Text

Sam went back and forth on whether or not to tell Ellie about the ghost that had attacked Tucker. She didn't want to scare her, but if Vlad was having ghosts search empty houses for her, Ellie deserved to know about it.

She's practically a sitting duck out there.

When Danny flew her home from Tucker's house (stopping along the way to collect her abandoned bike) Sam swallowed her pride and asked him to get more ghost weapons from his parents. She played on his hero complex again: “I just think I'd feel safer if I had extras. Please don't tell Tucker, I don't want him to tease me about it.” It worked; he promised to have more weapons for her within 48 hours.

When Sam finally made it home, it was almost morning. She collapsed into bed, hopelessly exhausted. I’ll just get a couple hours of sleep, then I can get to work. 

Five minutes later, she groaned and sat up, fumbling for her laptop. Who was she kidding? Sleep would elude her until she had a plan in place. 

Ellie hadn't been expecting Sam to stop by on Sunday. She was out by the lake, collecting cool rocks when Sam came up the trail on her bike. A surprise visit. 

Ellie glanced down at herself nervously. She was wearing the new jeans Sam got her from the thrift store last week. She hadn't meant to get them all muddy; it just kind of happened. She'd been planning to wash them really well before Sam's next visit. No one had ever bought new clothes just for her before (she’d always shared them with the other clones) and she wanted to prove to Sam she could take care of them.

But now Sam was coming and her jeans were all muddy! Not knowing what else to do, Ellie dove behind some shrubbery. 

“Ellie?” Of course Sam saw her. She hadn't been very subtle. At the very least she could have gone invisible.  She jumped up with a smile, careful to keep her waist behind the shrubs. 

“Hi Sam! I didn't think you were coming today!”

Sam didn't look so good. She had dark crescents under her slightly bloodshot eyes. “Yeah, I needed to tell you about something…What are you doing?”

“Collecting rocks.” She held up both hands, showing Sam the half dozen stones she was carrying. 

“Oh. Alright.” Sam stifled a yawn. “I should bring you some geography books sometime.” Her brows knit together and she stared ahead at nothing for a moment before saying, “Geology. I meant geology.” She sighed and rubbed her forehead.

“Are you okay?” 

Sam dropped her hand and nodded. “Yeah, I'm fine. Can we talk inside?” 

Ellie hesitated. “Um, yeah. You go ahead in, I just need to…grab another rock.” 

It was a terrible excuse, but to Ellie's surprise, Sam didn't question it. She just nodded and wheeled her bike toward the house. 

Ellie waited until Sam had parked the bike and carried her bags inside before she sprinted around to the side of the cabin. Once she was outside the Ceiling Fan Room, she phased through the wall and ran to the closet. She changed her clothes quickly, then phased back out of the house and ran around to enter through the front door. 

Sam was kneeling on the floor in the living room pulling several identical canisters from her bag. 

“What's with all the salt?” Ellie picked up one of the canisters, wondering if perhaps it was a disguise and the containers actually held something else. Nope. It was just salt.

Sam sat back and looked up at her. “I have reason to believe Vlad still has ghosts looking for you.” 

“I'm sure he does.” This was hardly news to Ellie.

“They're searching through houses while the owners are away. Disguising it as a robbery. Right now there doesn't seem to be a pattern; I think it's opportunistic, they search when it seems easy to do so.”

“Okay…” That was a bit more concerning, but they were searching houses in Amity Park, not cabins out near the national park. 

“I've been doing some research on ghost deterrent tactics,” Sam continued. “I'm working on getting a ghost shield generator for you but that should only be for emergencies. A ghost shield over a house would definitely attract attention. Instead, we want to discourage them from coming here without making it obvious.”

Sam finished unpacking the backpack and zipped it up. “A lot of the stuff people used to use to repel ghosts is just superstitious nonsense. But, it turns out, some of the legends have a bit of merit.” She held up one of the canisters. “Ghosts don't like crossing a line of salt.” 

Ellie had her doubts, but opted to keep them to herself. If Sam wanted to pour salt everywhere, then that's what they'd do. She knew (implicitly) not to start an argument while Sam was visibly tired.

Together, the two of them poured salt around the external walls, making a curve around doorways so they could open the doors without disturbing the barrier.

When they completed the circle, everything still seemed the same to Ellie. “What now?”

“Now we see if it works.” Sam opened the front door and gestured for her to follow.

As she approached the barrier, Ellie found herself feeling strangely uneasy. It's just salt. She pushed past the feeling and stepped over it.

She couldn't stop her entire body from shivering as a pins and needles sensation covered her skin. “Oh! I do not like that!” She rubbed her arms trying to brush the feeling away.

Sam watched with obvious concern. “Does it hurt?”

To Ellie’s relief, the sensation faded quickly. “It doesn't hurt exactly, but it does make me feel weird. Almost itchy.”

“Is it the same when you go in?”

Ellie hesitated before crossing the threshold. “Ew, yes. It’s like sand and spiders all over me.” She shuddered as the feeling faded. 

“Is it something you think you can tolerate?” Sam asked as she rejoined her in the cabin. “It could discourage Vlad's ghosts from coming here. Make searching for you a little less pleasant, you know?”

Ellie thought about it and sighed. Sand and spiders were better than capture and death. “Yeah, it's not fun, but I can handle it if it means I won't get caught.”

“Maybe you could break the circle and rebuild it when you go in and out?” Sam suggested.

Ellie reluctantly tested the theory, using a stick to break the circle before crossing it (that felt fine) then pouring more salt over the gap and crossing again (sand and spiders). 

“Yeah, this could work. If Daddy sent me to search houses, I would probably search this one last.” Ellie looked up to smile at Sam and she couldn't help but notice the way her eyes didn't quite focus. “Sam…are you sure you're okay?”

“I'm fine.” Sam waved her off and made her way to the kitchen. “Be sure to put salt on the grocery list when you start running out, okay?”

Ellie followed behind and watched as Sam checked the front of the refrigerator where they kept the aforementioned list. It was currently blank, Sam having brought fresh food less than two days ago. She picked up a pen and stared at the list for several seconds. 

“...what was I going to bring?” Sam whispered to herself. She looked down at the pen like it might have the answer. Maybe it did, because it only took another second for Sam to say, “Oh, right!” and write something on the list. Curious, Ellie stepped closer to read it.

Rock books 

Wordlessly, Sam dropped the pen and wandered off in the direction of the living room. She was definitely not fine. Ellie knew she was busy. Sam was always sharing patrol stories, worrying about homework, doing research, and biking out to see her. It made sense that she'd be tired… Ellie couldn't help but feel guilty for asking so much of her. Sam was already doing a lot to help Danny and now she was trying to take care of his clone too. 

The problem was, Ellie wasn't sure what to do to help. Suggesting Sam take a break would just make her defensive…which was one of those things Ellie wasn't supposed to know about her. The realization that she was drawing from Danny's knowledge of his friend rather than her own experiences with Sam made Ellie feel strange…almost angry. That was odd. Danny's knowledge had only ever been of use to her. She would never have ended up at the lake house without it. But she didn't want to be dependent on it anymore, especially when it came to her relationships with other people.

Ellie didn't want Danny's relationship with Sam. She wanted her own. 

Ellie followed Sam into the living room and watched her fluff the pillows before sitting down. A habit she developed because of her mother. That was something Danny didn't know. That thought was encouraging. Sam's relationship with her was already very different from Sam's relationship with Danny. Maybe that meant Ellie could find her own way to help. 

“Are you going to stay for a while?” She asked, hopping onto the couch next to her. 

Sam looked up and shrugged. “Maybe for a little bit. I do need to get back to researching ghost deterrents though. I don't think the salt is enough and-”

“Can we watch a movie?”

Sam blinked at her, taking longer than normal to process the question. “I don't know. I really do need to research more. Plus, I have homework I need to get to.”

“Please? There's one I’ve been really wanting to watch with you.” Ellie gave her the biggest puppy-dog eyes she could manage. “It's my favorite thing to do when you visit.”

Sam rubbed her forehead again, like she was trying to get her mind to wake up. “Yeah, okay. I can probably make time for a movie.”

Ellie hopped into action, selecting a random animated movie from the DVD organizer and getting everything set up. Within minutes, the curtains were closed, the lights were off, and Ellie was curled up against Sam on the couch with a blanket thrown over their laps. 

It wasn't really a lie, Ellie reasoned. Movie nights were one of her favorite things. Sam let her cuddle close during movies and after being alone for days at a time, being close to someone was wonderful. But the movie she chose was not one she'd been wanting to watch with Sam; she chose it simply because it was the first animated movie she'd found. 

Any guilt Ellie may have felt for the manipulation went away when she noticed Sam's breathing begin to slow. She smiled to herself, feeling a little smug. There was something else Danny didn't know about Sam: without additional distractions, animated movies made her fall asleep.  

Chapter Text

Ellie hadn't been planning to actually watch the movie. She figured after Sam fell asleep, she would get back to her usual Sunday activities; clean the rocks she'd collected, eat some blueberry waffles, and maybe do some laundry so Sam wouldn't see those jeans all muddy. 

But she just couldn't quite make herself get up. She was tucked under Sam's arm, leaning against her side, and it felt nice. Sam was warm and smelled faintly like the lavender body wash she used that first night in Sam's home. It made Ellie feel safe and calm in a way she hadn't personally experienced before. She did recognize the feeling from Danny's knowledge, though.

It felt like…like chocolate chip cookies and forehead kisses. Like booming laughter and teal headbands and… 

Home.

It felt like home. Like family.

Sam felt a lot better when she woke up. Except…she hadn't been planning to go to sleep! She sat up quickly and looked around.

The living room was dim, illuminated only by a streak of light filtering in from the kitchen. The TV had been turned off and the curtains were still drawn. Ellie was sitting cross-legged on the floor facing away from her, sorting various rocks into small piles. 

“What time is it?” 

Ellie looked over her shoulder and smiled. “I dunno. But the sun hasn't set yet. You still have time to get home before it's dark.” 

“Why didn't you wake me up?” Sam dug her phone out of her pocket to check the time. She'd been asleep for several hours. 

“You needed to sleep. That was the whole point of the movie anyway.” Ellie turned back to her rocks with a casual shrug. “I know you're tired because of me and I wanted to help.”

Sam rubbed her eyes trying to wake up enough to process everything. Ellie had tricked her into resting. It was exactly the kind of thing she and Tucker would do for Danny; Sam had never had that kind of strategy used against her before. 

“Ellie, I'm not tired because of you.” 

“You are. It's a lot of work for you, biking out here and everything.” Ellie kept her back to her. 

Sam felt some of her hair plastered against her cheek and grimaced as she tried to pull it back into a messy ponytail. “Look, I'm tired because of school and my friends. I didn't make enough time for sleep this week. That's not your fault.”

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Ellie turned around, her blue eyes concerned. Sam was reminded of Danny and the way he was always fretting over her and Tucker. Usually, Sam found that habit of his mildly annoying. But on a seven year old child, it just made her feel guilty.

She sighed and eased herself off the couch to sit on the floor near her. “I know. But I don't want you to worry about me, that's not your job. It's my responsibility to take care of myself and make sure I get enough rest, not yours.” 

Ellie gave her a skeptical look. “But you worry about me. Friends take care of each other. That's how it works, right?”

“But we're not friends,” Sam blurted without thinking. She saw the hurt on Ellie's face before the younger girl quickly turned back to her rocks. “Wait, no, I didn't mean that!”

“You did,” Ellie said quietly, picking up one of the rocks with feigned interest.

“No, not the way you took it.” Sam put a hand on Ellie's arm but she refused to turn back around. “What I meant was that we're not friends like me and…and Tucker are friends.” She barely stopped herself from mentioning Danny. 

When Ellie didn't reply, Sam continued. “It's different when we’re not the same age. It's okay for me to take care of you because you're younger. It's like–like babysitting my cousins.”

“I am not a baby,” Ellie huffed.

Sam rolled her eyes. “Okay, then it's like you're my little sister, is that better?”

Ellie finally turned back to Sam, wide-eyed. “You think of me like a sister?”  

“Well…yeah, I guess.” That wasn't exactly what Sam had been getting at, but hearing it phrased like that made sense. “Like a little sister I take care of. There's different responsibilities with a sister than there are with a friend. As the little sister, it's not your responsibility to take care of me.”  

“I've never been a little sister before,” Ellie said softly. “What is my responsibility?”

“Your responsibility is staying alive.”

Chapter Text

Sam took care to pace herself better over the next few weeks. She visited Ellie a few times, dropping off defensive weapons, ghost deterrents, and–of course–the promised geology books. Her visits were less frequent, giving her more time to at least attempt to rest between school, patrol, and tending to her greenhouse.

She felt guilty for leaving Ellie alone for longer stretches of time, but she knew it wasn't healthy to keep putting her needs on hold. It was a habit of hers, one she'd always justified one way or another. Now, she couldn't forget what Ellie had said after hugging her goodbye Sunday evening:

“Please be careful. It's easier for Daddy's incorporeals to take you if you're tired. I know you don't want me to worry but…” She'd trailed off, wringing her hands before looking up. “You're all I have, you know?”

It added a lot of pressure, to say the least.  

Thankfully, Sam's sixteenth birthday had finally come. Danny and Tucker were completely shocked when she got her driver's license the very next day. Despite the fact that he was the youngest, they'd all assumed Tucker would be the first of the three to get his license. Danny wanted to be the first, but he was still struggling to rack up enough practice hours.

“It's really not a big deal!” she insisted the next morning when they demanded to see the license.

“Not a big deal?” Tucker scoffed. “Aren't you the one that wanted Danny to haunt a truck dealership so no one would buy them?”

“It's not like I'm going to go buy some gas-guzzler. There's just some situations where being able to drive is–”

“But you're scared of driving,” Danny interrupted.

“Was!” she snapped. “I was scared. Past-tense. Besides, I was never afraid of driving, I was afraid of crashing.” 

In truth, she still didn't particularly like driving. But it was a huge relief to be able to make it out to the cabin more easily. 

After school that day, Sam was able to take her parents’ car out to the cabin (with permission this time!) and she took full advantage. She had a few other ghost deterrents to help keep Ellie safe that she'd been waiting to transport. There was one deterrent she was particularly excited about as it just happened to involve one of her hobbies. 

Once she arrived at the cabin, she carefully collected one of the pots and balanced it on her hip as she unlocked the door. 

"Sam!" Ellie bounded around the corner with a smile. She stopped just short of hugging her and slammed her hands over her mouth and nose. "Gross! What's that smell?!"

"That smell is what's gonna help keep you hidden," Sam declared proudly. "It's sage and I brought a ton of it!"

Ellie took a few steps back. "Why? It's worse than cat pee!" Danny had said something similar when she tested it with him. 

"Sage is basically ghost repellent,” Sam explained.

"Well it's definitely repelling me." 

“Exactly, it's perfect!” 

“Can you put it outside? Please? It's awful,” Ellie's muffled voice whined behind her hands.

Sam rolled her eyes and nudged the door back open with her foot. “Fine. But I'm going to need your help setting it up later. I was thinking we could put pots all around the outside of the house.”

“Please don't do that,” Ellie begged. “I can't live here if you do that.”

Sam came back in from setting the plant on the porch and gave her a skeptical look. “Is it seriously that bad?”

“It's that bad.” Ellie finally lowered her hands, still grimacing. She moved into the living room and sat on the end of the couch; as far from Sam as she could get. 

“That's kind of the point, you know,” Sam told her, leaning against the other arm of the couch. “Ghosts won't want to come here if it smells like sage.”

“I don't care. I don't want it.” Ellie folded her arms, pouting.

Sam grit her teeth. “I get that. But it will help keep you safe. Don't you think you'll learn to ignore it?” 

Ellie scowled. “Could you learn to ignore living in a sewer?”

“If my other option was death, then yes!” Sam snapped. This was the first time Ellie had given any resistance to her plans and Sam found that she had very little patience for it.

Ellie rolled her eyes, testing Sam's patience further. “You can't leave that stuff here. I won't let you.”

She wouldn't ‘let’ her? As if Sam was going to take orders from a seven year old. “I make the rules here Ellie, not you. It's staying. End of discussion.”

Ellie climbed to her feet and glared up at her. “You don't even know what it's like! You're not a ghost!” 

Sam folded her arms, glaring back. “I may not be a ghost, but last I checked, I know a hell of a lot more about keeping one alive than you do!”

“You don't know anything. You're just making stuff up!” 

“Just making stuff up? How about you go ahead and step over that line of salt then? Since it’s just made up it shouldn't bother you!” 

Ellie's little hands squeezed into tight fists at her sides. “That doesn't prove anything! You still don't know what you're doing! I don't need you bossing me around!”

Sam scoffed. “Oh please, without me playing babysitter you'd still be in the woods with pinecones in your hair!” 

Ellie stamped her foot. “Stop being mean!”

“I'm not being mean! You’re being a spoiled brat!”

“Well you're a control freak! At least that's what Danny thinks!”

Before Sam could respond, Ellie changed into her ghost form and promptly disappeared from view. 

“Seriously?!” Sam yelled. “Turn back! Now!”

“You're not the boss of me!” Ellie's voice called from the hallway, shortly followed by the sound of a door slamming. 

Sam clenched her fists and let out a muffled scream behind her teeth. She could not believe how obnoxious Ellie was being. 

“Fine!” she yelled. “Then I’m leaving!” 

Sam stomped out the front door and slammed it just as loudly as Ellie had slammed hers. She stalked to the car, intending to drive away, but stopped short of opening the door. If she left, Ellie would think she’d abandoned her. 

“You're all I have, you know?” 

“Uggh!” Sam shoved her keys back in her pocket and made her way to the lakeside instead. This was why she didn't like children.

Splash.

“I spend hours biking out here…” Sam picked up another rock. “Lie to my friends…” She threw the rock as hard as she could. 

Splash.

“Steal my parents’ car…” She looked around and scooped up another stone. “And she just doesn't care! She'd rather risk it!” 

Splash.

“I spent my ‘sweet sixteen’ studying for a driving test. I don't even like driving!”

With no more rocks within reach, she grabbed the nearest stick instead.

“‘Just making stuff up.’ Of course I'm making stuff up; what the hell else am I supposed to do?!” 

The splash made by the stick was nowhere near as satisfying so she stomped along the side of the lake looking for a suitable rock instead.

“There's no instruction manual for hiding half-ghost clones! Most ghost science is garbage! I’ve had to dig through freaking fairytales to figure out what to do!” 

Sam's foot caught on a tree root and she fell forward, barely catching herself on the boulder she'd sat on the day she dropped Ellie off here. “Dammit!” She shoved herself to her feet and continued her search for something to throw. 

“And she took all the freaking rocks!” Sam threw pinecone instead, which was even less satisfying than the stick had been.

She wished that she was combat training with Team Phantom right now. Maybe sparring with Tucker. There was nothing better for stress relief than knocking down someone larger than her. Hell, Sam was mad enough she might even be able to pin him for the first time since they were fourteen.

“Finally!” She found another rock.

But instead of hanging out with her friends, Sam was out in the middle of nowhere arguing with a seven year old. It wasn't fair. It felt like she never got to do anything normal anymore. She missed her friends, missed spending time with them doing the stuff they used to do back before she convinced Danny to go into that stupid portal. They used to have time to do normal things between the ghost stuff; now, Sam could only make time for patrol, homework, and occasional training. 

Splash.

“I'm sixteen. I shouldn't have to be worrying about this shit. I could just call social services and let them figure it out.” 

Just saying the thought out loud made Sam feel sick. She would never be able to trust strangers (even social workers) with Ellie. They knew nothing about halfas or clones or what it took to keep one safe. The only way to ensure Ellie's safety was for Sam to take care of things herself…to stay in control. She threw one last rock and went back to the boulder to sit down, breathing heavily. 

“I'm not a control freak. I'm doing what has to be done.”

“At least that's what Danny thinks.”

Is that really how Danny saw her? That comment had stung more than Sam was ready to admit. Danny was her weakness, he always had been, and criticism from him cut deeply. If Danny thought she was a control freak…

Well, there was one way to find out. Sam pulled her phone from her pocket and selected the first number on her speed dial list.

Danny was wrong about Sam, Ellie decided as she kicked a pillow across the floor. Danny saw Sam as someone loyal, trustworthy, smart, and fun. But Danny’s implicit knowledge had in no way prepared her for how mean Sam was. Not to mention bossy; she was so bossy! Granted, Danny thought Sam was bossy too, but not this much.

Ellie went to pick up the pillow and realized it was much further away than it should have been. She hadn’t meant to float but when she was in her ghost form it sometimes just happened. Especially when she was angry. She landed on the floor and returned to her human form. 

Her mind flashed back to the day Sam told her she needed to practice walking rather than flying and Ellie's anger flared up again. What gave Sam the right to tell her what to do?

She'd actually thought Sam taking charge would be a good thing. It was one of the reasons Ellie had chosen Sam rather than Tucker to ask for help. Sam always had ideas.

But now, Sam was controlling everything!

I don't let people tell me what to do, Ellie reminded herself firmly. I don't let people hurt me.

She reached to pick up the pillow she had kicked and her arms caught her eye. The mottled skin there.

“I don't let people hurt me,” she whispered to herself, needing to hear it out loud.

At least…not anymore.

Ellie had promised herself she wouldn't do this again. She wouldn't let someone order her around and hurt her. How had everything gone wrong so quickly? Now she was trapped in a cabin with Sam ordering her around! 

What if this was her plan all along? What if the plants were an experiment? What if the science fair project was real and she was the subject?

She couldn't breathe. Her body was trembling and she was somehow too hot and too cold at the same time. How could she have been so stupid? It was all happening again!

Weeks ago, Ellie had gathered as many blankets as she could and put them in a big pile in the closet. Like a nest. It was her soft place for when she got scared. Danielle went there now and wrapped the blankets around herself, trying to breathe.

She closed her eyes and flinched from the images playing behind her eyelids. Needles. Frightened eyes watching her through glass. Biopsy punches. Blood. Surgical masks. Ectoplasm dripping through her fingers. 

Danielle pulled one of the blankets tight around her shoulders, and choked on a sob. Why did she let herself believe things would be any different? She was a clone. She would never get to be real.

“You're a living, breathing person.” 

Why was Sam always saying stuff like that if she was just going to use her as a specimen? 

Dani ran her fingers through her hair as she continued to cry. It was comforting, stroking her hair. It reminded her of that first night, when she asked Sam to cut her hair…and she brushed it instead. 

Sam was always doing stuff like that; finding a gentler option. Oftentimes, an option that Dani didn't even realize existed. Daddy never did that. He never chose a softer option. She just had to comply or things would get worse. 

“If you don't stop crying, I'll get a bigger needle. Is that what you want?”

Most of the time, he gave her no options at all.

“You exist to serve me. Just do it!”

 Danielle forced the memory from her mind and looked around for something to distract her. There wasn't much to see in the closet. It was rather empty, with nothing hanging in it. Sam had offered her hangers, but the racks were too high up for Dani to reach without flying. All of her clothes were in the built-in dresser. Sam had been so confused when she helped her put the clothes in there (she didn't understand why nightgowns would go in the same drawer as belts) but she had followed Ellie's preferences anyway.

Ellie continued to stroke her hair and gradually started to catch her breath. Things were different here. 

Sam cared about what she wanted.

“So, how old do you think you are? What feels right to you?”

Sam gave her choices.

“You don't have to decide right now and you can always change your mind later.”

When Sam didn't give her a choice, it was usually because she had already chosen a softer option for her. 

“Half ghost or not, I'm still not bringing you horror movies.”

Sam didn't make her lie or spy on people or train until she collapsed.  

Sam…Sam wasn't trying to hurt her.

“Hello?”

“Do you think I'm a control freak?”

“Oh I'm great Sam, thanks for asking. No, I'm not busy right now.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Danny.”

“It's so thoughtful of you to call and check in, it's not like I'm your best friend or anything.” 

Sam knew from experience, he wasn't going to let this go. “Ugh fine, hi Danny, how are you doing?” she asked in an exasperated tone.

Danny snickered. “That's better! I knew you could do it!”

“I'm hanging up.”

“Come on Sam, you know I'm just messing with you. What's up?”

Sam took a deep breath and asked again. “Do you think I'm a control freak?”

A voice in the background answered before Danny could. “Yes Sam, you are.”

Sam felt her face warm. “Danny! Why didn't you tell me Tucker was with you?” 

“You didn't ask.”

“You should have told me,” she grumbled. Tucker would definitely tease her about this later.  

“Sorry,” Danny said unapologetically. “We're playing video games at his place. You were invited but you're too busy with your science fair thing, remember?”

“Oh…right.” God, she was the worst friend ever. 

“Anyway, why do you think you're a control freak?”

“I don't think I am, I wanted–” She barely stopped herself from admitting that she specifically cared about if Danny thought she was. “Nevermind.”

“Who called you that?” Danny asked instead.

Sam sighed before offering her half-truth. “My lab partner.”

“The homeschooled one?”

“Yeah, Jane.” 

Tucker's voice broke in again. “You never told me you had a lab partner! Is she your girlfriend? Is that why you're gone all the time?”

Sam screwed her face up in disgust. “No! She is definitely not my girlfriend.”

“So she's single then?” Tucker asked, making Sam shudder. He had no idea how gross that was.

“And that's exactly why we didn't tell you she had a lab partner,” Danny deadpanned. “Sorry Sam.”

“Maybe I should just call later.”

“No, you don't have to do that. Tucker can keep his mouth shut. Right, Tucker?”

Tucker muttered something unintelligible in the background. 

“So did you get in a fight with her or something?” Danny asked. “Does this mean you'll drop out of the science fair?” The thinly veiled hope in his voice just made Sam feel worse. 

“No, I’m still committed to this project. We just had a disagreement about part of it. I had a good idea and she won't even listen to it!”

“What was the idea?” Danny asked. 

“That's not important. I just want to know if you think I’m a control freak.”

“...well, I wouldn't use those words exactly.”

Sam groaned. “Okay what would you say then?”

“I would say…that you're really passionate. You care a lot about…well, pretty much everything.” He chuckled and Sam heard Tucker agree. “And I admire that about you, I do. But sometimes you care so much that you kinda become a steamroller. You stop listening to people.”

Tucker spoke up again. “You always think you're right, Sam, and most of the time you are. But when you're wrong, it sucks.”

Danny continued before Sam could respond. “It's not always about being right either. Sometimes you get so focused on the details that you forget why you’re doing something in the first place.”

“Like with the gorilla,” Tucker added.

“Yeah!” Danny agreed. “You wanted to let it out before you even had somewhere safe for it to go. The point was to give it a better life, but you were too focused on getting it out of the cage.”

Sam felt herself redden. That really wasn't one of her best moments.

“Okay, I think I get it.” She kicked at the tree root by her foot. “I’m a control freak.” 

“That’s not what I said,” Danny insisted. “You just need to listen better sometimes; even when you think you're right.”

Sam looked out over the lake, letting Danny's advice sink in. 

“Sam?” 

“I'm still here. I was just thinking.” Sam sighed. “I should probably go talk to her.”

“Probably,” Danny agreed lightly. 

“Yeah, Sam,” Tucker called. “Go make up with your girlfriend!”

Sam rolled her eyes and hung up without responding. She hoped Tucker would listen when Danny told him to cut it out (as he was undoubtedly doing at that moment) because the ‘girlfriend’ jokes were going to get old fast. His jokes were annoying under normal circumstances, but knowing that the girl in question wasn't even half their age made it so much worse.

Her anger was finally fading, being replaced by a tangled mess of anxiety, guilt, and grief. But more than anything, Sam just felt tired.

She dropped her head into her hands. All of this had started out with deciding to do the right thing. A hungry, frightened child asked her for help and she helped. But now…now, Sam worried constantly. She could never relax. If something happened to Ellie, she would never be able to forgive herself. 

“I just want to keep her safe,” Sam admitted to no one. The pressure was becoming overwhelming. The first thing Sam did every morning and the last thing she did every night was look at their research documents for updates from “Jane.” Instead of studying for school, she spent her time researching ghosts. She couldn't even tend to her greenhouse normally: her flowers were withering while she stocked up on sage and medicinal herbs. Somehow, despite all of that, it still didn't feel like enough. The worry never stopped. 

“Sometimes you get so focused on the details that you forget why you’re doing something in the first place.”

That point of Danny's stood out to her the most. Did the sage really matter that much? Or was it a distraction? It would make Sam feel like Ellie was safer…but was that worth making her miserable? Sam was operating under the assumption that the top priority for both of them was Ellie's safety. But Sam remembered that Ellie's stated goal wasn't safety…it was to be “real.” She wanted to be treated like a human being with freedom and a say in her own life.

Sam cursed and scowled down at her phone in her lap. She just had to call Danny. It figured he'd side with Ellie. 

She’d yelled at Sam. Ellie could not believe that she had actually yelled at Sam. Worse, Ellie had thrown a complete fit in a way that she'd never done before. She was a good clone; one that didn't have temper tantrums. She'd never even slammed a door before…granted, she hadn’t had her own door back at the lab, just a curtain. But still! It was something she just didn't do!

So why had she done that with Sam? Of all the people in Ellie's life, Sam was the one she should be on her best behavior with. For the first time, someone was looking out for her and Ellie had ruined it!

Sam hadn't abandoned her yet, but it was only a matter of time before she left. Left and never came back. Ellie could not believe she’d been so stupid. Sam was all she had and now she’d pushed her away.

Ellie's mind raced as she tried to guess what was going to happen now. How much trouble was she in? Would Sam be able to forgive her? She had no frame of reference for how to come back from this. 

With her future now uncertain, Ellie couldn't get herself to leave her soft place. She knew logically that she was no safer there than anywhere else in the house. But the blankets and the small space made her feel protected nonetheless. 

Her heart started racing again when she heard the front door open. Sam was back. Ellie had known that she'd never left; she would have heard the car start if she had. But Sam had been outside for a long time, no doubt deciding what to do with the “brat” she'd been stuck with.  

Ellie ran her fingers through her hair and tried to steady herself. Sam was back, which meant she’d made a decision. All Ellie could do now was wait. 

Sam took a little more time than was necessary to remove her now-muddy boots at the door. Someone had to be the first to apologize and as the older one, she knew it should be her. But that didn't mean it was easy.

She made her way down the hall and stopped at Ellie's door, knocking softly. 

No response.

She tried again. “Ellie, can I come in? I just want to talk.”

Still no answer. 

She tried the handle and found it unlocked. “Ellie?” She eased the door open and looked around. An icy fear settled Sam's stomach. What if she'd run away?

“Ellie? Ellie, are you here?” 

“In here.” The voice was so soft, she almost didn't hear it. Sam practically sprinted to the walk-in closet. Ellie was huddled in the corner on a mess of blankets, one of them wrapped around her shoulders. She wasn't crying, but the streaks down her face made it obvious that she had been.

Sam froze in the doorway. She'd had a plan for her apology, but none of it included finding Ellie hiding in a closet. Sam liked to think she was someone who could adapt quickly to changing circumstances. Apparently, that did not apply to apologies. Any words she might have had prepared were gone from her mind.

“Are you going to kick me out?” Ellie asked quietly.

“What? No! No, of course not!” Sam took a step into the closet, then stepped back jerkily as she remembered her plan. “Um, can I come in?” she asked awkwardly. Sam had always resented the way her parents barged into her room without asking first. Step one of her apology was to respect Ellie's space. This just wasn't the space she'd been picturing.

“Yes?” Ellie gave her a confused look, as if building a bed of blankets in a closet was a perfectly normal thing to do and Sam was the one acting strangely. 

Sam nodded stiffly and stepped into the closet, carefully lowering herself to the floor beside the pile of blankets. Ellie looked nervous. That, combined with the tear streaks on her face evaporated any lingering irritation Sam might have felt. 

“I'm not going to kick you out. I would never do that.” Sam wanted to get that fear out of the way first. “Seriously, Ellie. It doesn't matter if we're getting along or not, this is your home. For as long as it takes to stabilize you, you have a home here. ”

Ellie's hands wrung the blanket in her lap. “So what happens now?” she asked.

Sam leaned back against the wall and sighed. “I actually came to apologize. So what happens now is I tell you I was wrong and I'm sorry. Then I take the sage home.”

Ellie's jaw literally dropped. She said nothing, just stared at Sam with a look of total bewilderment. Looking at her comically wide eyes and open mouth, Sam couldn't help it. She laughed. 

“Ellie!” She snorted, trying to suppress her laughter. “I’m trying to be the mature one here, stop looking at me like I just grew a second head!” 

Ellie stared at her a moment longer before she giggled in relief. “I thought you would still be mad at me.”

Sam relaxed against the wall, feeling her tension start to release. She didn't know why she’d thought this would be so hard. Ellie was seven years old. She wasn't being difficult on purpose, she was just being a kid.

“Nah, I'm not mad anymore. I'm sorry for how that all went and for calling you a brat. That wasn't cool.”

“I'm sorry for calling you a control freak,” Ellie offered. “I kind of lied about Danny thinking that. I mean, he does think you’re bossy, but–”

Sam waved her off. “I talked to Danny, it's fine.” She saw the fear flash in Ellie's eyes and clarified, “Not about you, of course, about Jane. I said we got into an argument about the science fair project.”

“Oh. What did he say?” 

“That I sometimes get too focused on details and forget the bigger picture,” Sam admitted. “I realized I was doing that with the sage. To me, if something makes living here safer for you, then it's worth any discomfort.” She stretched her legs out in front of her. Her purple-socked feet almost touched the opposite wall. “But I'm not the one who has to deal with it, or the one that's in danger here. You should get the final say.”

Ellie brightened considerably. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Sam paused and thought about it. “Within reason. I'm still the adult here–sort of–and you're still seven years old. It's really important that you listen to me and–”

Sam stopped when Ellie rolled her eyes. “I'm serious! You have to listen to me and stop doing that!” 

“Doing what?” Ellie asked with an irritatingly innocent look on her face.

“You know what. The eye rolling, the attitude. I don't understand where it came from, Danny never…” Sam trailed off, the memory of Ellie tentatively fluffing the pillows on the couch entering her mind.

“What?” Ellie asked, her tone concerned.

Sam dropped her face into her hands and groaned. I am the worst babysitter ever.

“I'm sorry for rolling my eyes. Please don't be mad!”

“I'm not mad, Ellie.” Sam sighed and lifted her head from her hands. “I promise, I’m not mad. I'm just…I'm just tired.”

Ellie's eyebrows knit together. “You're lying. Are you lying because you're mad or because it's something else?”

“...What?”

“You only say you're tired when you're lying.” 

“Implicit stuff again?” Sam asked wearily. 

Ellie nodded. Sam didn't bother denying it; she knew it was true and ironically, she was too tired for a debate right now. 

“Alright. I was just thinking that I'm not very good at this. I still don't know anything about kids. Instead of keeping you safe, I taught you to roll your eyes and sass people.”

Ellie thought about it and Sam saw her eyes widen in recognition before she shook her head. “No, I did that before. I used to roll my eyes all the time.”

“Oh now who's lying?” Sam folded her arms and gave her a pointed look.

Ellie shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry, I didn't mean to copy you.”

“It's fine. We should just probably talk about ground rules later. It's important that we both know which of us is in charge of things.”

“What kind of things?” 

Sam stifled a yawn. Now that she wasn't so angry, fatigue was setting in. “Like I'm in charge of our cover stories and you're in charge of making the house comfortable for yourself.” She could tell Ellie wanted to negotiate rules more but she didn't have the energy for it. So, Sam took the easy change of subject instead. “By the way, what's with the blankets?” 

“Oh.” Ellie looked down and shrugged. “It's my soft place. Sometimes at night I sleep in here. I keep the lights on in the room so it's not so dark and I feel safer with the walls around me.” 

“Do you get scared at night?” 

“No,” Ellie said defensively, folding her arms and looking away. “I'm not a baby, I'm not scared of the dark.”

Tired of sitting on the floor, Sam climbed onto the blankets next to Ellie and pulled one onto her lap. “Being scared of something doesn't make you a baby.”

Ellie huffed and refused to look at her. Sam could see her cheeks turning pink. She nudged her shoulder.

“I'm serious. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone has things they're afraid of and they don't always make sense.” Sam’s mind flashed back to the day Tucker begged her not to tell Danny about his fear of doctors. 

“You don't,” Ellie muttered. 

Sam blinked. “You think I'm not afraid of anything?”

“Nothing stupid like being afraid of the dark.”

“I used to be afraid of driving.”

Ellie gave her a skeptical look. “That's different. You practiced and now you're not scared anymore. You weren't really scared, just worried because you didn't know how.”

“...I do have things I'm scared of though. I just…” She just was too embarrassed to tell anyone. Sam chewed her lip as she realized she was being a hypocrite again. She wanted Ellie to be honest with her. She couldn't help if Ellie didn't tell her the truth.

“Thunderstorms,” she said finally.

“What?”

“I'm afraid of thunderstorms. Even when I'm inside.” Sam forced herself to remain nonchalant. “I have to stay away from windows so I don't see the lightning flash. It's the lightning that bothers me most, but the sound of thunder reminds me of what's going on outside.” She picked at one of the blankets. “I plan movie marathons or Team Phantom training for nights when thunderstorms are on the forecast so I have an excuse to hide in the basement with my friends. I guess that's my ‘soft place.’ It helps me feel less afraid.” 

It's nothing to be ashamed of, Sam reminded herself, careful to maintain her calm facade. Still, if Danny or Tucker found out she might die on the spot.

She let the silence settle over them for a minute or two, giving Ellie the chance to open up a bit more, before speaking again. “Would it help if I brought some night lights?”

Ellie blushed deeper and nodded hesitantly. “I do want to sleep in the bed again. I can't listen to frogs in here.”

Her eyes widened and she sat up urgently. “Oh! I forgot!”

Sam didn't get the chance to ask what she was talking about before Ellie phased right through the wall of the closet. 

She returned shortly after with something hidden in her hands. “I kind of got you something for your birthday. I…I know it's late and we just had a fight but–”

“I told you that we didn't need to do anything for my birthday.”

“I know. But…I wanted to do something and then I found this.”

She opened her hands to reveal a small oddly-shaped rock with two dots drawn on it. “I thought it kind of looks like a frog. I drew the eyes on so you could see it better.” Ellie placed it in Sam's hand and pointed at it. “See, right there are its back legs, and this part here looks like a mouth.”

“Oh yeah, I see it! It does look like a frog,” Sam agreed. It genuinely did, especially when she looked at it from the right angle.

Ellie smiled tentatively. “You told me that you brought frogs here before you met me. They're still here; I can hear them at night a lot of the time. They’re my favorite thing about this place.” She lowered her eyes and started wringing the blanket in her hands again. “I was thinking, maybe you could take this with you so you don't forget about me when you're gone. You'll see it and you'll remember that I'm out here with the frogs.”

“You like frogs?” Sam tried not to sound surprised. She thought of them as a reminder of the ever-looming threat of dissection. 

“I do, they're my favorite animal ever.” Ellie ran a finger over the rock like she was petting it. “Especially the frogs here. Sometimes I like to pretend they're my brothers; that instead of dying in the lab, they turned into frogs and you saved them too.” 

Sam looked down at the stone again. It felt heavier in her hand now as the significance of what Ellie was giving her slowly sank in. 

“I love it.” She held the stone to her heart and Ellie beamed. “Thank you. This is the best birthday present I can imagine.” She reached out and hugged Ellie tightly. 

Nothing about the day had gone the way Sam had planned. She hadn’t been expecting to spend a portion of her afternoon angrily throwing rocks into a lake. Nor would she have guessed that she'd be leaving with a rock in her pocket…and that one oddly shaped rock would be the most meaningful gift she'd ever been given.

Chapter Text

“Can we add no lying to the list?” Ellie asked, peeking over the edge of the fridge at Sam, who was sitting cross-legged on the counter writing in her notebook. 

“For you or for me?” Sam asked. She finished what she'd been writing and looked up. “Because I have to lie pretty much every day, Jane.” 

Ellie propped her chin on her hands so she could see Sam better from her place lounging atop the refrigerator. “For both of us. I don't mean, like, to other people. I mean can we make it a rule that you won't lie to me?”

Sam chewed her lip and tapped her pencil on the notebook. “I think I can agree to that. Just don't ask me questions I can't answer, okay? Like stuff I promised my friends I wouldn't tell anyone. And it goes both ways, you can’t lie to me either.”

“Yup.” Ellie scooted back and sat up so she could do a somersault off the edge of the fridge, landing lightly on her feet. “Can we be done now? This is so boring.”

Sam had insisted on making a list of ground rules after their fight the last time she'd visited and they'd been working on it for ten hours now. Probably…Ellie still couldn't read the analog clock that Sam had hung in the kitchen. She'd turned off all digital clocks to make Ellie practice since “kids can usually tell time by third grade.” 

Ellie had mixed feelings about the changes Sam was rolling out. Besides making house rules, Sam had also started trying to fill the gaps in her education. While Ellie didn't mind the math workbooks or piano practice all that much, she was really not looking forward to all the reading. She would do it though: anything to get closer to being a real kid.

“We're almost done,” Sam reassured her. “I just wanted to talk about some ideas I had for keeping you hidden. Can we do that?” One of the rules they'd put in place was that Sam now had to “present the plan to Ellie before implementing ghost deterrents.” 

“Okay,” Ellie huffed, floating up onto the counter to sit across from her. 

“The first one is pretty simple,” Sam said, digging into her backpack. She pulled out an egg-shaped disk with a single button in the center and placed it between them. It was small, not even the size of Ellie's palm. “It's a panic button. If you press it, it will send an alert to my phone with your location.”

“So then you can come find me?” 

“Then I can come find you,” Sam confirmed with a smile. “You should only use it in an emergency, but if something happens, I'll be here as fast as I can.”

Ellie ran a tentative finger over the device. “What if I push it on accident?”

“It's designed to avoid that. See the way the button is kind of tucked inside? But it can happen. One time, Danny’s was set off in his pocket because this jerk at school shoved him into a table. Tucker was already with him, but I got there so fast that people started saying we had some sort of psychic connection.” Sam laughed and scooped the device off the counter to hold out to her. “If it happens, it's not a big deal; I’d rather respond to a false alarm than miss a real one.”

Ellie accepted the button, turning it over in her hand to see the familiar logo on the back. “This is old Fenton technology; why don't I recognize it?”

“Danny didn't know about it until recently. Team Phantom's buttons are newer.” Sam reached into her backpack and removed a similar device with a more current iteration of the Fentonworks logo on it. “The one I gave you is the prototype; I think it was the only one they made before Jazz swiped it. The old version only connects to one phone at a time. It took a while for me to program it to send the alert to my phone instead of hers. It was originally meant to notify her if Danny was in trouble.”

“But if she was using it for Danny, then I should recognize it. Why don't I?” 

Sam chewed her lip and Ellie wondered if she was about to break their ‘no lying’ rule already. To her relief, Sam didn't lie, but she did seem to choose her words carefully. “You don’t remember it because Jazz didn't give it to Danny…she gave it to me.”

“Why–”

Sam cut her off. “No more questions, okay? Just take the button.”

Ellie scowled but chose not to argue. She had agreed not to ask for secrets, after all. “Okay fine. What's the other thing you wanted to show me?”

“The other thing is more of a project.” Sam dug into her bag again and pulled out a couple small jars of paint. “I've been researching protective symbols. I was thinking we could paint some in a few subtle places around the house. Maybe make some decorative ones you can put by the doors and windows.” She gave Ellie a sheepish look. “The only problem is, they're kind of hard to test because they're meant to ward off evil or harmful intent rather than ghosts specifically. So, I can't guarantee they'll work, but it can't hurt to try.”                            

“Symbols? Like your bracelet?” Ellie pointed to the charm in the center of a black braid on Sam's wrist.

“Sort of…But not exactly.” Sam fiddled with the bracelet thoughtfully. “This is a Magen David. Or, Star of David. It is a symbol, but it's not for protection. I'm Jewish; it's more like an outward expression of that. I like wearing it as a way of showing that part of my identity.” 

Something tickled in Ellie's mind. “Oh! I knew that!” Didn't she? Ellie hadn't connected the symbol on the bracelet to any implicit knowledge until now. Why was that? 

When she thought about Sam being Jewish, it seemed like something that belonged by her heart. It felt wrong somehow for the symbol to be on her wrist, so far away from where Ellie just knew it should be. 

“Did you used to wear it on a necklace?”

Sam looked startled for a second but quickly shook it off. “Um, yeah actually…Is my old necklace an implicit memory?”

Ellie shook her head. “Not a memory. I don't have Danny's memories, just knowledge.” 

“Right, sorry. But how did you…”

“Danny thinks of it as something that goes here.” She leaned forward and tapped on Sam's chest, just below the hollow of her throat. “By your heart. Why'd you move it?” 

Sam’s face softened and she pressed a hand over her heart like she was looking for the necklace that wasn't there. “Ghost fighting,” she said finally. “I stopped wearing it because having something around your neck is dangerous in a ghost attack.” Her hand traveled up to touch her throat absentmindedly. “A ghost named Kitty grabbed it once to pull me away from Danny. Thankfully, the clasp broke so it didn't do any serious damage but I did have to wear a turtleneck for a week.” 

Ellie frowned, feeling a wave of guilt that was not her own. “You shouldn't have had to stop wearing it.”

Sam gave her a wry smile. “Danny said the same thing.”

“Well, he shouldn't have made you get rid of it,” Ellie huffed. Why was she feeling guilty? It was Danny's fault that Sam couldn't wear her necklace, not hers. 

“Danny doesn't ‘make’ me do anything,” Sam insisted with a slight edge to her voice. “I make my own decisions. I choose to be a part of a ghost hunting team and that means I give up wearing necklaces. Nobody, not even Danny, gets to make that choice for me.” 

Ellie clenched her fists. “But it's important to you. You wouldn't have stopped wearing it if Danny protected you better. You should be able to be Jewish AND be a ghost hunter! You shouldn't have had to choose!” Danny might not have forced Sam to remove her necklace, but he knew that it mattered to her. He should have never let a ghost touch it, let alone hurt her with it.

Sam tilted her head and studied her for a moment. “Ellie…you know it's not the Star of David that makes me Jewish, right? I didn't have to choose; I am still Jewish and I still fight ghosts.”

“I know. But it's like…an important part of it…right?” Ellie crossed her arms, feeling a bit self-conscious. She hated it when she only sort of knew something. It was a reminder that her knowledge was not her own. Anything Danny knew that never became implicit was missing and she didn't have memories to give context to the flashes of insight she got. It was so much worse to stumble onto knowledge gaps in front of Sam. She didn't want Sam to think she was stupid. 

“Not for everyone. I mean, my grandma doesn't wear one. I like wearing mine because I think the way I dress should reflect who I am. Being Jewish is a part of who I am and the Star of David reflects that.”

Ellie still couldn't shake a heavy sense of loss that settled over her. “It's important to you,” she insisted. “It's important. Danny should have-”

“Yes, it's important. That's why I still wear it.” Sam held out her wrist, drawing Ellie's eyes back to the black faux leather braid with the silver star displayed in the center. “It's just moved, is all.” 

She shouldn't have had to move it. Ellie knew it belonged by her heart and if she knew it that meant Danny knew it too. He was supposed to be Sam's best friend; he should have done better.

Sam seemed to pick up on Ellie’s distress; her tone became reassuring. “Besides, I really like the bracelet. It's beautiful and it matches my style even better than the necklace did. It was actually a gift from Danny.”

Oh. Ellie’s anger faded. Danny had replaced the necklace with a bracelet…a very nice bracelet. That he picked out specially just for her.

She looked up with wide eyes. “Danny gave you jewelry?” 

“Well…I mean, just to replace the necklace,” Sam stuttered. “And it wasn't just Danny. Jazz helped him find it and I think Tucker too. It’s not like a big deal or anything.” 

Sam may not think it was a big deal, but Ellie knew better. She couldn't help but grin. Gifts meant a lot to Danny. He would have asked Jazz and Tucker for help specifically because it was very much a big deal. “He likes you.”

Sam scoffed and turned back to her backpack, putting the paint away. “We're just friends.”

“Yeah but that's not how he feels.”

Sam paused in zipping up the backpack. “Hold on…Are you saying that you inherited Danny's emotions along with his knowledge?”

That was…actually a really good question. Ellie considered it. “No. At least…not exactly.” She wasn't sure how the implicit knowledge thing applied to emotions but she did her best to explain. “I think we feel the same about some things because it's implicit that they're good or bad. So I know that I don't want to hurt people because that's bad and I don't like bad things. And sometimes I can kind of predict what stuff I'll like because of what Danny knows about it. But I don't actually feel anything until I experience it. Like I knew I could trust you and I'd probably like you but I didn't really feel anything until I met you myself.”  

“So you don't actually know how Danny feels.” Sam finished zipping the bag. 

“Okay, fine. I don't know for sure how he feels. But I do know he thinks you're pretty,” Ellie retorted.

Sam stiffened, her face flushing. “You don't actually know that either. It's not like you can read his thoughts, right? You're just guessing based off stuff he knows.”

“Okay, so Danny knows that you're pretty.” 

 “...Maybe you should stop telling me stuff about what Danny thinks. It feels like I'm reading his diary or something.”

“Danny doesn't keep a diary.”

“The point is, if he wanted me to know, he'd tell me.” Sam slid off the counter. “Besides, I care about what you think, not just what impressions you got from Danny.” She held a hand out to help Ellie off the counter. Elllie didn't need the help, but accepted it anyway.

“Are we finally done?” she asked as she landed softly on the floor. Sam nodded and tried to release her hand but Ellie tightened her grip. “Perfect! Because I want to show you something I found yesterday.”

Sam collapsed into her bed that evening with a heavy sigh. She was finally beginning to feel like their plan might just work. Giving the panic button to Ellie had taken a huge weight off her shoulders. Not to mention the pleasant surprise that Ellie's little discovery had been.

A cellar! Ellie had found an old storm cellar in the woods behind the lake house. The sloped door had long since been buried in leaves and twigs but was still in decent condition. When they got the door open, they found that it must have once been used for food storage. A few boxes remained, full of potato sacks, canning supplies, and such. Sam was just glad whoever owned the property before her parents hadn't left any food behind to attract vermin. 

They agreed that the cellar could be a great secondary location for Ellie to hide in an emergency. The door blended in well with the surrounding foliage and they would do their best to keep it that way. It was an easy contingency plan, one that Sam was grateful for.

She was pulled from her musings by a knock at her window. Sam sat up, smoothing her hair as she reached to turn on her lamp.

“You can come in.” 

Danny phased through her window with a sheepish smile, clutching his forearm. “Hey.”

“Stitches or just general first aid?” Sam asked with a yawn. Her purple curtain wasn't closed, meaning Danny was more than welcome to burst into her room unannounced. If he stopped to knock anyway, she knew for sure the situation wasn't urgent. 

“Just some bandaging, I think.” Danny waited patiently as she laid out one of her towels on the bed and collected her first aid kit. 

“Who was it this time?” she asked as Danny returned to his human form and settled on the towel.

“Cujo.” He held out his arm to reveal several shallow gashes.

“Cujo bit you? I thought he wasn't violent.” 

“He's not,” Danny insisted. “It wasn't his fault; it was mine. I confused him.”

“You confused him?” Sam asked skeptically as she began to gently clean the wound.

“I was trying to train him to track stuff; I just didn't think it through all the way. I taught him to track and pick up a few different things and then tried to get him to track me. When he found me, he picked me up…with his teeth.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “We have a test in history tomorrow and instead of studying or sleeping, you're out getting yourself mauled by ghost dogs.”

Danny chuckled. “He didn't maul me; he was trying to play. Besides, I studied in detention. I know enough to at least get a C.”

“But you could be sleeping. Why were you playing with Cujo instead?” Sam started to wrap the bandage around his arm.

“He's only ever around at night now that he's got his toy back. When else was I going to train him?” Danny gave her his most innocent smile. 

Sam huffed. She was too tired for this. “Just tell me what you were actually doing with Cujo.”

Danny's shoulders drooped. “I was hoping he could help me find Danielle.”

“Danny, we've talked about this.” 

“I'm not going to stop looking for her, Sam,” Danny told her tersely. “Maybe if you helped me look instead of nagging at me-”

“I do not nag at you,” Sam snapped. 

“Yeah, well you're not exactly helping either!” 

Sam's temper flared. “Fine.” She dropped the bandage and stepped back. “Then patch yourself up if I'm so little help.”

Danny rolled his eyes and grabbed the roll hanging from his arm, taking over where she'd left off. “That's not what I meant. I just don’t get why you won't help me look for her. She's just a kid, Sam. I figured you, of all people, would understand.”  

“Why me of all people? I don't like kids.” Sam couldn't watch him struggle with the bandage anymore. She took the roll back and finished wrapping his arm.

“Yeah but you're always doing stuff to help them. Remember last summer when you made me go with you to paint the new preschool? Or the fundraiser for the children's hospital? Is Danielle just not as important as those kids?”

“This is a completely different situation.” Danny didn't have any other injuries, so Sam started putting her supplies away, avoiding his eyes.

“Why though? You helped me look for her when she first went missing and suddenly you want nothing to do with her. Is it because she's a clone?” 

“Of course not. It's just…” Sam tucked the first aid kit back under her bed slowly while she tried to think of the right way to phrase this. “I just think that she's probably hiding for a reason. If she wanted to be found, don't you think she would have come to you by now?” 

“What if she's just scared though? She's a little kid. Maybe she doesn't know that I’m here for her. If I just find her then I could keep her safe.”

“Or she's taking care of herself and all you're doing is running yourself into the ground.” Sam fixed him with the most sincere look she could muster. “Danielle is not your responsibility, Danny.”

“Isn't she though?” Danny asked her earnestly. “She's made from my DNA. I know that doesn't make me, like, her father exactly, but...she's just a kid, Sam. She's out there alone. If I don't take care of her, who will? Other than Vlad, I'm the only other half-ghost there is. I feel like I have a duty to make sure she's okay. Can't you understand that?"

More than you know.

"Of course I can understand.” Sam sat down next to him with a sigh. “But I think you need to seriously consider that she may not want to be found right now and respect that. She just left a very controlling, toxic environment and she deserves a chance to decide for herself. The best you can do is keep working on a way to stabilize her and trust she'll come back when she’s ready.”

She could see that Danny was listening, considering her point. What did it say about her that she knew exactly what to say to manipulate her best friend? She tried not to think about it. “I know you care, but you're only sixteen. Maybe learn how to talk to girls before you start trying to act like someone's dad."

"I guess you're right...wait, I can talk to girls!"

Sam smirked. She knew that would throw him off. "Sure you can."

"I can! I-I'm talking to you right now!" Danny gestured between them indignantly.

She waved him off. "I don't count. You've always been able to talk to me.” 

“You count!” Danny blurted. 

Sam scoffed. “I do not. What was it you said freshman year? You get weak-kneed talking to cute girls.”

“I-” Danny took on a deer-in-headlights look. “I, um, that was a long time ago!” 

“It was. But I have yet to see you talk to a pretty girl without phasing out of your pants.” She wasn't fighting fair, Sam recognized that. But Ellie had gotten in her head, telling her that Danny thought she was pretty. She wanted to hear Danny confirm it. 

Danny opened his mouth, but instead of the words Sam was shamefully fishing for, a puff of bluish condensation passed through his lips.

They reacted quickly. Danny transformed while Sam grabbed the blaster she kept in her nightstand and they both rushed to her window. They stopped there as they both processed what they were seeing.

Danny spoke first. “You know…he may still be tracking me.”

Sam stared down at the small glowing dog sniffing up her parents’ driveway. “You think?”

“I put him back in the ghost zone. You gotta admit it's kind of impressive he found me here!” Danny shot her a grin.

Sam tried to hide her smile. “Don't let him near my greenhouse.” 

“I wouldn't dare.” Danny laughed and phased through the wall.

Sam watched him fly off, shouting encouragement to the dog who immediately chased after him. She stayed at the window after he was out of sight, thinking through their conversation. It had been annoying that Cujo interrupted, but now, she was glad he had. Danny's panicked expression had told her all she needed to know. Ellie truly didn't know what she was talking about. 

“Well that was stupid,” Sam muttered to herself. She finally turned away from the window and climbed back into bed. 

When Sam gave the panic button to Ellie, she hadn't anticipated they would use it just a few days later. She was already on her way to the lakehouse for her promised visit when the alarm went off. 

She abandoned her typical slow pace and hit the gas hard, arriving in front of the cabin within minutes. The lipstick blaster was still the only weapon in her backpack and she cursed herself for not packing something better. 

The door was locked, which Sam hoped was a good sign. She unlocked it quickly and stepped inside, scanning for Ellie. The muffled sound of crying drew her into the house and toward one of the bathrooms. The door was slightly ajar. 

She pushed open the door, lipstick blaster ready, and stopped when she found the dark-haired little girl kneeling on the floor. Ellie was crying with one hand pressed over her mouth and the other clutched to her chest. 

Sam stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind her as she scanned for any signs of a ghost. The room was warm, bright, relatively organized, and quiet but for Ellie's muffled sobs. She lowered the blaster. “What happened?”

Ellie said something behind her hand that Sam couldn't make out. Before Sam could ask her to repeat herself, she dropped the hand, revealing her mouth, bright red with blood.

"Shit." Sam grabbed a towel off the counter and fell to her knees, already trying to find the source of the bleeding. "What happened?"

Ellie flinched away. "I-I'm destab-blizing!" she sobbed, pressing her bloody hand back over her mouth. 

Sam's stomach dropped. "What?" 

"A-and I'm human t-this time!" Ellie choked out the words. "I'm falling apart, Sam!" 

"What do you mean?" Ellie didn't look like she was destabilizing. She just looked like she'd hurt her mouth. 

Ellie sobbed something that sounded like, "I'm dying!" Hyperventilating as tears coursed down her cheeks.

"Ellie," Sam said firmly. "Tell me what happened."

Finally, Ellie held out a trembling hand, smeared with blood. In the center of her palm, was a small white tooth. It took Sam a second to put the pieces together.

"You lost a tooth?"

The trembling child nodded, gasping for breath around her sobs.

"Ellie, this is a baby tooth." It was so small. How did Ellie not know? "Did anything else happen?" Sam asked, trying to figure out why it was bleeding so much. Had her own mouth bled when she lost her baby teeth? She couldn't quite remember. 

"I can't get it back in!" Ellie told her frantically.

"You've been trying to put it back in?" 

Ellie nodded and Sam mentally cursed Danny for not committing knowledge of baby teeth to his DNA. This kid knew all about Fenton tech and Sam's old necklace, but she didn't know that losing baby teeth was normal?

"You probably cut your gums," Sam reached out to her again, “Open your mouth, let me see."

Ellie's eyes widened and she slapped her hands back over her mouth, scooting away until she hit the wall. 

“Ellie, come on, just let me look.” Sam was trying not to get frustrated but she wouldn't be able to help if she couldn't even see the injury.

“No!” Ellie brought her arms up defensively, covering her face the best she could. “No tests!” 

Tests? Ellie wasn't making any sense. Sam scooted closer and was about to try and physically hold her still when she realized.

Oh.

Ellie's little arms were trembling badly, showcasing the scars and pockmarks littering her skin in a tapestry of experimentation. Samples taken for testing. 

Sam eased back, giving her space. “Ellie, I'm not running any tests. I just want to see if your mouth is okay.” 

“No!” Ellie choked out the word.  

Well, now what? Sam did her best to stay calm but she could feel her own anxiety ramping up as her mind raced. 

Ellie gasped out rapid breaths and wrapped her arms around herself tightly. She looked like a caged animal. 

Sam fought to keep her own breathing under control. She wasn't qualified to handle something like this! She could barely handle when Ellie had a tantrum. How was she supposed to handle this…this…panic attack. Ellie was having a panic attack. 

It's just a panic attack.

Sam had seen her fair share of panic attacks, primarily involving her technogeek friend. Tucker went to great lengths to keep his panic attacks a secret. Besides Sam, his parents and doctor were likely the only people who knew that he had them at all. But Sam was the only one who knew just how often he had them. She'd made a Quadruple Pinkie Swear years ago to keep them a secret. As a result, she'd walked him through more panic attacks than she could count.

Sam's mind flashed back to a particularly rough incident two years ago. 

Tucker had gotten hurt in a ghost fight. It wasn't a mortal wound by any means, but Team Phantom hadn't learned how to stitch each other up yet. Danny left them outside Amity Memorial Hospital and took off after whatever ghost they'd been chasing that day. As soon as Danny was out of sight, Tucker had a complete meltdown.

He'd been inconsolable and Sam struggled to calm him down enough to get him to walk inside. 

"Breathe with me, okay? Slow breath in..."

"I-I can't!"

"Yes you can; you've been breathing all your life. Tucker, you can do this. Try again. Deep breath in...Deep breath out..." Sam exaggerated her breaths, trying to get him to copy her, but he wouldn't stop hyperventilating. She was starting to worry that he might pass out. That was when the idea came to her.

"Do you remember when we were in swim lessons together and we practiced swimming to the bottom? Pretend we're doing that. Take a deep diving breath okay?" When he did, she held up one finger in front of him. "Happy birthday! Blow out the candle!" Tucker exhaled too quickly again. "Aw too bad, candle's still burning. Give me another diving breath."

He'd almost smiled then, the corners of his mouth quirking up slightly as he inhaled. "Happy birthday! Can you blow out the candle this time?" He'd managed a slower, controlled exhale.

Eventually, he'd settled down enough for her to lead him into the hospital, talking to him the whole time. "You're doing awesome! Keep breathing like that okay? Swimming lessons and birthday candles. Slow, deep breaths."

Thank you, Tucker.

Sam brought her focus back to the panicked little girl trembling in front of her.

 “Ellie, can you hear me right now?” 

She didn't respond and Sam waited before repeating herself, careful to keep her voice even and unrushed. “Ellie, can you hear me? Please nod, so I know.” 

After a few moments, Ellie nodded hesitantly.  

“Good. I'm going to help you feel better, but first you need to breathe. Can you do that for me?”

Ellie tried to speak but all Sam heard was a vague squeaking sound before she coughed and shook her head. 

“That’s okay. I'll guide you through it.”

Sam wracked her brain for ideas. When she taught Ellie to swim, they'd only covered the basics. Diving breaths wouldn't mean much to her. She'd need something else. Something meaningful to Ellie. 

“Okay Ellie, we'll try again. This time, when you breathe in, your chest needs to expand, like a bullfrog when they're croaking. Then blow the air out slowly like…” Reminding Ellie that she had a creation date instead of a birthday would probably not be helpful. “...like you're blowing bubbles.” 

Ellie finally looked up and Sam noticed her eyes were beginning to glow, more green than blue. She was losing control of her powers.

“Okay, let's be bullfrogs; big breath in…” Ellie's breath was shallow but Sam could tell she was trying. Instead of holding it, her breath rushed out and she gasped again. “That's okay, let's be bullfrogs again and this time you'll blow bubbles after.”

It took several tries but Sam was eventually able to elicit a few controlled breaths from Ellie. 

“Good, now I want you to look around for me. Can you tell me where you are?” The next step was to get her grounded back in the present.

The drying blood on Ellie’s lips cracked as she hesitantly whispered, “The bathroom.”

“Right, you're in the bathroom in my parents’ cabin. You're not in the lab.”

Ellie nodded, her darting eyes gradually fading back to blue.

Sam stood slowly, and turned on the sink, wetting a towel with cool water. “No one is trying to hurt you here. You're safe.”

“I'm safe,” Ellie echoed quietly.

Sam crouched back down and smiled as reassuringly as she could. “Here. To wipe your mouth off.” 

 Ellie reached out to take the offered towel but stiffened at the sound of the forgotten tooth clinking to the floor. Sam picked it up quickly and shoved it into the pocket of her jeans. “Have you ever heard of The Tooth Fairy?” she blurted, hoping to avoid more tears. 

Ellie's brows knit together and she shook her head. Wordlessly, she accepted the offered towel and brought it to her mouth.

“The Tooth Fairy is great! She gives you money when you lose teeth.” Ellie looked more concerned than comforted so Sam continued. “Because all kids lose their teeth. It's a part of growing up. Your baby teeth fall out and then your grown up teeth come in. I lost all my baby teeth when I was a kid. So did Danny and Tucker and everyone. It's a normal part of growing up. Your teeth are supposed to fall out.” 

“It's normal?” Ellie asked around the towel as she gently wiped the blood from her lips. 

“It's normal,” Sam confirmed. “You're not destabilizing. You're growing.“

Ellie lowered the towel and stared down at it. “I-I wasn't sure that I would…”

“You weren't sure that you would…what? Lose teeth?” Sam inched closer, hoping Ellie was calm enough to let her help.

“Grow.” Ellie looked up, her red-rimmed eyes still shining from her tears. “I wasn't sure that I would grow up.”

Sam felt her own eyes sting and she looked away, swallowing hard. “Well. You are. You’re growing up.” She cleared her throat and turned back. “Can I look in your mouth now? Just to see if your gums are okay?”

Ellie eyed her warily. “You’ll just look? No touching?” 

Sam tucked her hands under her folded legs, essentially sitting on them. “No touching.”

Finally, Ellie opened her mouth. It was one of her lower front teeth that had fallen out and sure enough, Sam could see a number of shallow cuts where the tooth had scraped against her gums. 

“It looks like the bleeding is already slowing down. Let's rinse your mouth out and we'll put some ice on it.” 

Ellie obeyed, floating over to the sink and turning on the water. “So…is The Tooth Fairy a ghost?”

“No, she’s not a ghost,” Sam answered carefully, using another towel to wipe a smear of blood off the floor. Maybe playing Tooth Fairy could help give Ellie some semblance of a normal childhood experience. But they had promised not to lie to each other. 

“Why does she buy teeth? What is she doing with them? Can she get past the salt?” Sam looked up to see Ellie's eyes wide with apprehension. 

Good thinking Sam, tell the kid hiding from ghosts that a magical creature is going to come take her teeth. 

“She's not real, it's just something some parents do for fun. They swap out the tooth for money and say it's from her.”

Ellie spat into the sink and gave her a bewildered look. “Why?”

“I don't know. It's just a silly tradition.” Sam joined Ellie at the sink to wash her hands. 

“But it's dangerous to make a deal with an unknown entity,” Ellie told her seriously. “They shouldn't teach that to kids.”

It was the phrase “unknown entity” that helped Sam finally understand; she'd heard Mrs. Fenton use it often enough. "Unscientific approaches to unknown entities" were so abhorrent to her that she and Mr. Fenton fought every year over the ethics of letting kids believe in Santa. Of course she wouldn't have allowed The Tooth Fairy tradition in their home.

“You know…you make a good point.” Sam turned off the sink and gestured for Ellie to follow her to the kitchen. “We could still do it if you wanted to though.”

“Wait…so you're going to buy my teeth?” 

“Not buy them. Just pretend The Tooth Fairy visited.” They reached the kitchen and Ellie floated to sit on the counter while Sam got ice from the freezer. “You'd put the tooth under your pillow. Then, when you're asleep, I'd…” Sam trailed off as she handed the ice to Ellie. She hadn't thought about just how bizarre The Tooth Fairy tradition was until that moment. Ellie was right; she was literally offering to buy her teeth. 

“What are you going to do with them?” Ellie asked around the ice, a hint of suspicion in her tone.

“Nothing,” Sam told her quickly, holding up her hands and taking a step back. She realized too late that her defensive response would not help Ellie’s anxiety.

“Nothing?” Ellie's brows drew together. 

 “I mean, I don't know.” Sam leaned back against the opposite counter, trying to project a casual, nonthreatening confidence. “To tell you the truth, I have no idea what parents usually do with baby teeth. Maybe just throw them away?” She pulled the tooth out of her pocket (just then realizing how gross it was to have it in there in the first place) and looked around for something to place it in. “We can do whatever you want. It's your tooth.” She finally settled on placing it in a condiment dish on the counter. “It's just a silly tradition. We don't have to do it.” Sam turned back to Ellie and offered what she hoped was a comforting smile. “But if you wanted to I would. Just for fun; since it's something a lot of normal kids do.” 

Ellie brightened slightly at that. “Yeah maybe.” She lowered the ice from her mouth thoughtfully. “But I don't really need money.”

“I could bring something else.” Sam went to the sink to wash her hands again. “Oh! Maybe gelt! I think chocolate coins are better than real money anyway.”

“I do like chocolate…”

“It's the perfect time of year for it too. I'll be buying gelt anyway.” Sam turned back around, drying her hands on a dish towel. “That does remind me though. What would you like to do for the holidays?”

Ellie tilted her head questioningly, her mouth covered by the ice.

“It's December!” Sam couldn't help but smile at that. This truly was her favorite time of year. “I'm already thinking hot chocolate, arts and crafts, and a snowman. Assuming we get enough snow, of course. But did you want to do anything special for Christmas? I mean, I've never bought a Christmas tree before but- what?” She stopped when she saw Ellie was scowling. 

“I don't want to do any of that!” Ellie squeezed the ice in her fist. “I HATE Christmas.”

Chapter Text

While Ellie practiced on the piano Sam did her best to tidy up the living room. It was obviously where she spent most of her time. CDs, art supplies, books, pillows, puzzle pieces and about a dozen “cool rocks” were scattered about the room. It was like a prepubescent bomb had gone off.

At least she's keeping herself busy.

As Sam collected colored pencils in a container, a spiral-bound notebook caught her eye. Written in curly, colorful letters on the top of the page was the title Places I'll Go. Curious, she picked it up and scanned over the list.

Places I'll Go

-Coffee Shop

-Church

-Comic book store

-Hair salon

-Shopping mall

-Park

-Disney Land

-Swimming pool

-Train station

-Build-a-bear

-Pet store

-Gym

She turned the page and found another list.

Things I'll do

-Go to school

-Swim in the ocean

-Walk a dog

-Open a lemonade stand

-Make a real friend

-Have a crush

-Go trick or treating

-Go bowling

-Karaoke

-Earn money

-Catch a cold

-Go camping

-See a rainbow

Flipping through a few more pages Sam found several more lists. Stuff I'll buy. Things I'll eat. People I'll meet. Each page was filled with lists. She closed the book and looked at the cover. Written in bright orange marker were the words When I'm Stable.

Sam couldn't seem to move as she sat there and stared at the notebook. These were Ellie's goals, her dreams. Some of them were to be expected for a kid her age living in the midwest. She wanted to go to Disney Land and swim in the ocean. But...what elementary schooler has never been to a park or seen a rainbow? Sam's heart ached as she considered the goals 'go to school,' 'catch a cold,' and 'make a real friend.'

"Sam? Are you coming back?" She jumped slightly at Elle's voice in the other room. She hadn't noticed the piano stopped playing.

"Yeah. Yeah, just one second." Sam turned back to the page the book had been opened to and placed it back under the box of colored pencils. Blinking, she realized with surprise that there were tears on her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away and climbed to her feet. "Did you practice three times?"

"You weren't listening?" Ellie sounded offended as Sam met her back in the sitting room.

"No, no I was listening. Was that three times?"

"...it was two."

"One more time." When Ellie started to groan she added, "I'll let you paint my nails after. Any color you want."

"Even pink?" She started playing before Sam could answer, a mischievous grin on her face.

Even pink. Sam answered in her mind. If only to cross something off your lists…

Chapter Text

Sam took a bus to the next town over, her stomach in knots the entire way there. This was a bad idea and going alone was an even worse one. But this was something she had to do herself, without Danny or Tucker as backup. If it were possible, Sam would have gladly let one of them take her place. Maybe that made her a coward...or maybe she just knew her limits. Either way, it wasn't possible; it had to be her.

It was a shorter bus ride than she would have liked. Sam kept her head down as she climbed out at her stop. It was unlikely anyone would recognize her (people from Amity didn't travel here often) but she was cautious just the same. She didn't even want to think about the consequences of someone recognizing her here.

Sam hesitated outside the colossal building before her. Strangers milled in and out of the large glass doors, blissfully unaware. She watched as two girls, not much older than herself, left the building together, and she envied them. The bus hadn't left yet, maybe she could get back on? Come on Sam, pull it together. She reached into her pocket, running her hand over the small, smooth object inside, reminding herself why she was here.

Finally, she pushed her way through the doors. A security guard standing off to the side locked eyes with her and for a moment she was afraid that he somehow knew she didn't belong here. Instead, he simply nodded at her and went back to monitoring the doors. The building was massive and maze-like. Sam knew her destination was on the first floor but was otherwise uncertain. Asking for directions was out of the question so she decided to start searching on the west side of the building and slowly make her way east. She would know it when she saw it.

She walked quickly through the wide hallways, deftly weaving around people, avoiding eye contact. She needed to get to the suite before she lost her nerve. Suddenly, a woman's voice called out to her. "Excuse me, Miss?" Oh no. Sam glanced up and saw an overly made-up woman in a fitted skirt stepping away from her work station. She kept her head down and walked faster. The woman stepped in front of her, trying to stop her, and Sam's ghost hunting training kicked in. Before the woman could say another word, Sam jumped to the side, swiftly dodging and ducking between a small group of passers-by. She merged into the crowd and then darted down another hallway, leaving the woman behind.

A faded memory tickled at her mind and Sam's stomach sank as she realized that she recognized this hallway. She was almost there. Her heart thundered in her chest as the large, formidable doors came into view. I can do this. I can do this. She told herself in her mind. This time, she did not allow herself to hesitate in the doorway; she couldn', trust herself not to flee. She braced herself and strode boldly through the doors.

Instantly, Sam was assaulted. The sound hit her first; voices yelling, small children screaming, the din of machines, and the music...what sadistic monster decided to include music in this chaos? Next it was the heat; it felt as if she stepped into another atmosphere, why was it so hot? Then it was the colors, so harsh and bright she had to squint.

She kept her eyes open, but it took everything in her not to turn away. Cold, dead eyes on sunken faces stared at her from all directions. Bits and pieces of the pathetic creatures were strewn about the room, the counters littered with their discarded parts. The grotesque display of greed and hubris made her sick. Once again, she considered running.

To her left, a uniformed man approached her and Sam knew the time had come for her to do the unthinkable. Not wanting to meet his eyes, Sam glanced down at his uniform. Horror filled her as she realized trace remains of those wretched creatures were clinging to his shirt. A thousand washes would never remove the evidence of what he'd done.

For Danielle, I can do this for Ellie, she reminded herself as the man drew closer. Sam clung to the image of the young girl in her mind. Although a small part of her wondered if Ellie would ever be able to look at her the same after what she was about to do. Would this sacrifice be worth it? Of course it would. Sam would do anything for Ellie. Even subject herself to this unspeakable torture.

She met the man's eyes with a steely resolve. She was ready. For Ellie, for Ellie... Sam repeated the phrase in her mind as the man flashed her an unnerving smile. It was too late to run away now. She held her breath as the man said the words that she had been dreading...

"Welcome to Build-A-Bear Workshop. How can I help you?"

Chapter Text

Sam was in history class when it happened. They'd been assigned partners for a small project and she was relieved to be paired with a girl who was doing well in class. She was carefully writing on a poster board when her phone vibrated. She froze for just a moment before dropping the pen and yanking the phone from her pocket. Ellie's alarm had gone off.

Sam bolted from the room, not bothering to explain herself to anyone. She ran as fast as she could out of the school and went straight to the bike rack. Normally, she would never dream of stealing someone's bike, but she did so without hesitation. The bike got her home and to the car within minutes. Once she was in the car, she floored it. Today, Sam drove like a Fenton.

She made it to the cabin within fifteen minutes of the alarm going off. Her heart was in her throat as she pushed the front door open, plasma gun ready. Everything looked normal in the quiet cabin. She stuck close to the wall as she made her way through and checked each room. The only sign of anything amiss was the back door which had been left open...and the fact that Ellie was nowhere to be seen.

Please be okay, please be okay...

Branches whipped at her skin as Sam sprinted through the woods. She didn't see any footprints; Ellie must have flown. The thought worried her more, but she didn't see any ectoplasm either. She prayed that was a good sign.

Finally, she made it to the cellar. After checking to be sure no one was around, she unlocked it and descended into the dark space, closing the doors behind her. "Danielle?"

Silence.

"Ellie, it's me. Are you here?" Sam tried her best not to panic. She had to be here. She had to.

It was a small sniffling sound that caught her attention. Sam went in the direction of the noise, turning on her phone's flashlight to find her way past everything. It was coming from the corner under the stairs. She had to climb onto boxes to reach it. At first, all she saw was potato sacks. She grabbed the first sack off the top and pulled, revealing a small white haired girl curled up in a ball, trembling and crying softly.

"Oh Ellie, thank God!" Sam pressed a hand to her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart. 

Ellie didn't say anything, just continued to cry. Sam finished climbing over the boxes and sat on the potato sacks next to her. Ellie was terrified, that much was clear. But Sam couldn't tell why. She set her phone on one of the boxes, flashlight still shining, and held her arms out.

"Ellie, come here." Ellie only hesitated for a second before hugging her tightly, sobbing into her chest. Sam wrapped her arms around the icy cold child and pulled her onto her lap, stroking her hair as she cried. She had so many questions but they would need to wait until Ellie calmed down. Sam noticed Ellie's feet were starting to look a bit misshapen. "Ellie, you're using a lot of energy. You need to turn back now, snowflake."

Ellie nodded into her shoulder and Sam closed her eyes at the bright light that traveled over her. When she opened them, Ellie was human again, dressed in grubby jeans and one of Sam's old tshirts. "That's better," Sam whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Can you tell me what happened?"

It took a while for Ellie to choke back her tears enough to speak, "I...I saw..." Another round of sobs shook her body and Sam held her closer, rocking side to side until she could speak again. "I saw vultures."

Sam's eyes widened in understanding. "Where?"

"B-by the lake." Ellie's voice shook. "I was getting water samples."

"What were they doing?" Sam tried to keep her voice calm, but inside she was panicking too. Vultures weren't exactly uncommon in the area, but there was no way for them to be sure they weren't Vlad's.

"They were eating something. I think it was a duck." That made Sam feel slightly better...but only slightly.

"Did they see you?"

"I think so. They flew away, but they didn't follow me. I went invisible until I got back to the house."

"The back door was open, was that you?"

Ellie thought for a moment. "I think so. I called you, grabbed my bag and then flew here. It happened fast but I think I opened the door instead of going through it to save energy."

Sam took a deep breath, steadying herself. "You did the right thing Ellie. It was probably just regular vultures. But I'm glad you didn't wait to find out."

"Are you going to get in trouble at school?" Elle asked guiltily, sitting back and wiping her eyes.

Probably.

"Don't worry about that. School is my responsibility. Your responsibility is-"

"Staying alive, I know." Sam could see the fatigue on the little girl's face. She'd definitely used more energy than she should have. "What do we do now?"

That was a good question. Most likely they were hiding from nothing; Ellie had just seen some ugly birds. But was she willing to bet Ellie's life on that?

"We'll stay here tonight." She decided. "I'll reach out to the rest of Team Phantom and see if they have any intel. I'm not leaving until I know you're safe."

Ellie nodded tiredly. Sam shifted so she was sitting in the corner against the wall. It was only moderately more comfortable but she didn't mind. "Come here, you need to rest." She pulled Ellie to her and the young girl collapsed against her chest without resistance.

Sam grabbed her phone and glanced at the questioning texts from her friends. She sent a quick 'I'm okay' message before setting the phone down and letting the darkness wash over them. She'd work on gathering intel after the boys were out of school.

The cellar was quiet but for the sound of their breathing. Sam stroked her hands through Ellie's hair absentmindedly, worry heavy in her heart. She could feel how much Ellie relaxed against her, listening to her heartbeat. Ellie trusted her so much and Sam was trying so hard to care for her. But what kind of life was this for a child? She should be whining about school and acting shy around her first crush, not spending weeks in isolation and running from birds. Elle deserved a normal life...what if that never happened? What if there was no way to stabilize her?

Ellie shifted in her sleep and Sam wrapped her arms tighter around her, holding her closer. She rested her cheek against her hair and smelled that light scent that she'd come to love. The scent was like Danny combined with something softer that Sam couldn't quite identify but that always made her think of home. Not for the first time, she felt a powerful sense of hatred toward Vlad. How was it possible that he could see Ellie as anything less than human? How could he have spent so much time with her and not see what a gift he’d had?

Ellie yawned and cuddled her face into Sam's shoulder. "I love you, Mom."

Sam felt like she'd been struck by lightning. Her eyes flew open and she looked down at the sleeping girl in her arms. Had she heard her right? Mom?! I'm not... Her thoughts crashed into each other; it felt like forever before she could even breathe again.

Who exactly were Ellie's parents? What counted as a parent to a clone? Was it Vlad: the person who cloned her into creation? Danny: the one whose genes she was cloned from? The Fentons: was Ellie basically another sibling of Danny's?

...Or was it the person who was keeping her safe? The one who worried about what she ate and how much time she spent watching TV. The one who made her learn math and taught her how to play the piano. The one who checked in on her daily and dropped everything at the first hint of trouble. Well, look at that. I'm a teen mom and I haven't even had sex.

"I love you too, Ellie."

Chapter Text

Sam stayed there sitting on potato sacks in the cramped corner of the cellar for hours listening to the soft sound of Ellie's breathing. She deserved better, so much better, than a troubled teen as a pseudo-mother. What would isolation like this do to the girl's psyche?

The thought occurred to Sam that had Vlad actually found the lakehouse there was very little she could have done to protect the younger girl. She was a damn good ghost hunter but there wasn't much she could do against an adult halfa. What if Sam had been killed on her way to the cellar? What would happen to Ellie then?

As much as she hated to admit it, Sam needed help. Someone else needed to know Ellie was here just in case. Sam knew that the young halfa was more capable than most children her age but there was no getting around the fact that she was still a child. In any other circumstances, leaving a girl so young alone in a cabin for days at a time would be considered neglect, if not outright abuse. Not to mention the fact that Ellie was pretty much trapped out here; if Sam didn't come for her would she be able to make it to town without destabilizing? She was dependent on Sam's visits to get her needs met. The thought made her feel like Ellie's kidnapper rather than her guardian...or her mother.

Sam mentally shook herself; that train of thought would get her nowhere. She needed to stop wasting time trying to label things and start thinking of actual solutions. Ellie mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep and Sam exhaled slowly, releasing some of her growing tension. The simple reminder that right now Ellie was here, safe, and resting helped Sam calm herself and think more clearly.

She grabbed her phone and checked the time. Her friends should be out of school by now. She sent a text to the Team Phantom group chat.

S: Has anyone had eyes on the fruitloop lately? I saw some vultures today that were acting strangely.

D: I'll look into it

T: Nothing suspicious digitally. Why'd you run out of school today?

S: Girl stuff. Don't worry about it.

That excuse wouldn't work forever, but it was an awfully effective way to get teenage boys to back off.

Despite the uncomfortable conditions, Sam found herself growing tired. Her stress was gradually being replaced with relief. Danny wouldn't let her down; the fact that he was investigating the vultures for her was comforting. Sam put her phone down and allowed herself to fall asleep.

Chapter Text

"This can't be happening, this can't be happening..." Sam muttered to herself as she shifted the car into reverse and flew back toward the trail.

"You've reached Jazz Fenton! I can't come to the phone right now-" Sam gasped as an icy chill ran over her whole body. Her muscles clenched painfully and her vision went black. 

"-Leave a message and I'll get back with you as soon as I can. Remember, your life is what you make it!"

Everything sounded muffled, like it was coming from far away. Sam tried to open her eyes but she couldn't feel them. She couldn't feel anything!

"Hi Jazz, just wanted to see if you could meet me at the high school. I have something important to talk to you about." Wait, that wasn't right. That wasn't what she was going to say! She heard her phone being set down and very slowly, her vision came back into focus. She was in a moving vehicle. It was with great alarm that Sam realized SHE was driving. How was she driving when she couldn't feel her arms?

"Figured it out yet, babe?" She heard her own voice ask. Her vision flicked to the rearview mirror and she saw her own eyes staring back at her, lit up with an eerie green glow.

I'm being overshadowed. Sam wanted to scream with frustration. No! This can't happen right now! Sam tried to speak but she couldn't seem to find her mouth. Her body was somewhere far away she couldn't reach.

"I've got to hand it to you, you're fighting pretty hard in there. It's fun when they fight back. It means you'll get to watch."

For a brief moment, Sam felt an opening. "What do you want? Where are you taking me?" In an instant, the control was ripped away and everything went numb again.

"Interesting, usually they ask what's going on. Mr. Masters was right, you are familiar with ghosts." Sam watched with disgust as the ghost lifted her arm to her mouth and licked the blood that was slowly seeping from one of her scratches. "Yes, I can taste the ectoplasm. You must waste an awful lot of time around that stupid clone." Another lick. "But I taste something else too. Is that...is that chlorophyll? It is! You must be the little bitch Overgrowth chose as the mother for his weeds. This will be more fun than I thought."

Sam felt sick as two parts of the ghost's ramblings stood out to her: "Mr. Masters was right" and "that stupid clone." Her worst fears were confirmed, Vlad had found Ellie.

The ghost laughed. "Ooh that scared you. I love adrenaline, it's such a delicious rush. Are you scared of Undergrowth?" She paused. "No, that's not it. Is it the clone? Ah, that's it. You're worried about the clone. You care about her, don't you?" She smirked in the mirror again before turning the car down another road. "Well, I'm happy to report that your little pet is back where she belongs, with her 'Daddy.' She was terrified by the way. Tried to fight us off until she started melting. Then she ran. She didn't make it far before we caught her; the pathetic thing could barely stay solid."

No. Sam wanted to cry, scream, do something with the horror she was feeling but all she could do was listen as the ghost continued. "We thought she would be looking for you; you're the one that led us to her after all. Well, you and Undergrowth. He's been telling the whole ghost zone all your little secrets. Including all about that little spot in the woods you wouldn't let the vines take over.”

He knew. But I was so careful! 

“Turns out, she was trying to find the halfa boy. Apparently she thought the original would want to save a clone."

Does that mean Danny knows? Maybe he could help!

"Is that hope you're feeling? Please, we captured the halfa right along with her. Although, that does remind me..."

The ghost pulled the car to the side of the road and picked up Sam's phone again. What now? Sam watched her select Tucker's number from her speed dial list.

"Sam! Where are you?! Danny's been-

"Help! Tucker, please, I need your help!" The ghost cried into the phone. Oh please, that sounds nothing like me.

"What's going on?!"

"I'm being chased by a bunch of ghosts! They're everywhere! I think they're going to hurt me! I'm so scared!"

Come on Tuck, think it through...

"Sam, breathe, Where are you?"

"I'm at the high school! Please hurry! You need to come save me!"

There was only the briefest of pauses on the other end before Tucker's wary voice asked "Should I bring the umbrella?"

Yes! Yes! I knew you'd figure it out!

"Um, yes! Bring everything! I need help!"

Sam heard Tucker swear under his breath before he said, "Don't worry Sammygirl, I'm on my way!"

Tucker would not be going to the high school for whatever trap they had set for him. The only correct answer to "should I bring the umbrella?" was "no, the skies are clear." Sam didn’t allow herself to be comforted by that, instead she tried to imagine how desperate she would feel if Tucker hadn't remembered the code phrase. She didn't want to tip the ghost off by feeling relieved.

"Perfect. All that's left is to get you to the mansion to finish things off. Then it's just you and me..."

The ghost looked down at Sam's body, running her hands over it in a way that flooded Sam with embarrassment.  "You know, I like this body. It's been a while since I've been able to take one so young and you've taken such good care of it. It will be quite a while before this body is too broken for me to use..." The ghost lifted Sam's shirt and looked down at her torso. "Imagine the fun we'll have once this mission is over." The ghost chuckled as it pulled at her bra, trying to get a look at her chest. "Why so embarrassed? This is my body now, I can do what I want with it."

Sam was enraged as the ghost reached to touch one of her breasts. "Like hell you can!" She barely had time to pull her shirt back down before the ghost took control again.

The ghost simply laughed. "Struck a nerve, did I? You must be a virgin. Virgins always get so upset watching me have more fun with their bodies than they do." They started driving again. "Ah well, there will be time enough for that once the clone is dead." 

I had control again, did my anger do that? Maybe if she tried hard enough, she could push this ghost out of her.

"As fun as this is, you really shouldn't bother, babe. No one has ever been able to get me out of a body until I'm done with it.” The car turned down a scenic road winding alongside a steep embankment. The road to Vlad's mansion. “You'll tire out and fade away eventually, they all do. But you're welcome to keep fighting. If you stick around, you'll get to see the look on the clone's face when you betray her." No! They were going to use her body to hurt Ellie. What kind of sick twisted monsters came up with something like that?

"She'll be much more compliant after that. Once she believes Mr. Masters is the only one who loves her, she'll submit to the tests. Maybe he'll even let you be the one to pull the final switch."

I won't let that happen. Sam would rather die than have Ellie spend her final moments thinking her chosen mother betrayed her.

The ghost continued talking as they drove along but Sam wasn't listening anymore. She thought of all of the times she'd seen people overshadowed before. Usually it took Danny pulling the ghost out of them or some external force–like the Ghost Gauntlets–to get a ghost out of a person. The only other way she'd seen someone regain control was if the ghost left their body voluntarily. That obviously wasn't going to happen, this ghost was too excited to have a young, healthy body to play with.

Wait a second.. . Sam thought through what the ghost had said. 'It will be quite a while before this body is too broken for me to use...'

A grim determination settled over her. This ends now. Sam summoned up all of the energy she could muster and fought for control of her body again. The ghost was right, she was already getting worn out. Her consciousness ached with the strain as she struggled for control. For Ellie...

It took every ounce of willpower Sam had to wrestle control of her body back. Once she had, she didn't hesitate. She unbuckled her seatbelt with one hand while jerking the steering wheel to the side with the other. The car spun violently before careening off the embankment. In the final second before she crashed into the tree; Sam thought only of Ellie. As it turned out, she really would rather die than betray her.

Chapter Text

Plop...plop...plop...

There was something odd about that dripping noise.

Plop...plop...plop...

It was coming from above her head. That didn't make any sense. Things don't drip up. Sam tried to open her eyes but the light was painful. Her head was pounding and her arm...something was very wrong with her arm; it was excruciating.

Plop...plop...plop...

Sam finally opened her eyes and groaned as the world spun around her. She felt like she was going to throw up. It took forever for her eyes to focus and when they did, she was more confused than before. Through the shattered windshield, she could make out the rough outline of trees illuminated by the headlights. But why were they growing upside down?

Plop...plop...plop..

She craned her neck to look up at the growing puddle of blood on the roof of the car and watched as another drop plopped into it.

Oh...I'm upside down... That explained a lot. With her good hand, Sam tenderly felt the aching spot on her head. She hissed at the pain as she touched the painful, wet bump. When she brought the hand in front of her face she saw it was covered in blood.

How did I get here? Sam struggled to remember as she looked around. She was in the driver's seat and there wasn't anyone else in the car. For some reason, that seemed wrong. She could have sworn there was someone else here. She pushed that thought aside as she looked herself over. She was dangling by the waist from the unfastened seatbelt that hadn't fully retracted. Her right arm was twisted up in it and Sam's stomach rolled when she saw the unnatural bend of her wrist. It was broken for sure.

Broken. Her body was broken. That realization brought everything flooding back. She'd crashed the car on purpose so her body would be too broken for the ghost to keep possessing her!

Later, Sam would be amazed that she had actually survived the crash. Right now though, her primary concern was Ellie. She needed to get to Ellie. She twisted her body, trying to get her feet beneath her before falling unceremoniously onto the roof of the car. She screamed as the fall jerked her arm and pain lanced through her wrist and shoulder...which she could now tell was dislocated.

She looked around for her phone which was nowhere to be found. It must have flown from the car at some point in the crash. No help was coming. She was going to have to climb out of here herself. 

Sam slipped around in the puddle of her blood as she tried to get into the right position. This was going to hurt like hell; she'd helped Danny with dislocations enough times to know. Tears spilled down her face as she reached above her head and bent her elbow. She took a few shallow breaths before pulling hard. She almost screamed herself hoarse in the process, but the shoulder was back in place. Sam only gave herself a few moments to catch her breath before she forced herself to sit back up. She reached up and pulled one of the back seats forward to drag her backpack out of the trunk. Carrying it would be painful, but going without it would be suicide.

She used her boot to clear as much broken glass as possible before easing herself through the car window. The world tilted and spun when she stood up. She gripped the car and tried to stay upright. Is this what a concussion feels like?

That would have to be dealt with later. The sun was almost down which meant she'd been unconscious for a while. What if she was already too late? Sam pushed the thought away. She couldn't give up, not yet. 

The embankment the had car rolled down was steep and slippery. As she began trudging through the mud, the pain in Sam's legs became more pronounced. One of her knees was red and swollen; she'd likely hit it on something during the crash. In addition, her shins were bleeding in several places from broken glass. I guess I was successful, no ghost would want to possess my body now, Sam thought wryly as she stumbled over a fallen log. The trek out of the embankment took far longer than Sam felt it should have. She fell more times than she could count either from vertigo, stumbling, or pain. She couldn't use her right arm to steady herself and her legs were shaking badly. Every part of her body hurt and threatened to give out. Sam occasionally had to slow herself when black spots swirled through her vision as her body protested the exertion. But she did not stop. I'm coming Ellie, I'm coming.

It was dark when Sam finally made it to the road. She removed her backpack and checked over her supplies. Her blaster must have broken in the crash but her wrist ray was still functional. She kicked herself for not practicing with her non-dominant hand more often as she tightened the strap onto her left wrist with her teeth. The thermos was dented but appeared to be functional. Most importantly, she had a flashlight. Sam chewed her lip nervously, wishing she'd brought more supplies. She hadn't been planning on storming Vlad's mansion on her own but she was out of time and out of options. She'd go alone and either she'd leave with Ellie, or not at all.

Sam would have liked to run to the mansion but the road tilted and blurred while she was just walking. Thankfully it was only about a half mile from the crash site. She turned off her flashlight as she approached the Mansion grounds. Vlad likely had cameras watching and already knew she was here but she wasn't going to make it any easier for him. It was with great difficulty that Sam scaled the fence surrounding the property. As she attempted to climb down her foot slipped and she landed in a painful heap on the grass. It took everything in her not to cry out. She groaned as she grabbed the fence to pull herself back up.

A low threatening voice broke the night's silence. "Put your hands up." She heard the unmistakable click of a fresh blaster cartridge being snapped into place. Shakily, she raised her hands, careful to keep the wrist ray angled out of sight of the person behind her. 

"Who are you?" the voice demanded harshly. Sam didn't answer, her mind sluggish as she searched for a strategy and tried to figure out where she knew that voice from. "Answer the question!"

At this point, she could only think to tell the truth. "I'm Sam Manson."

"Like hell you are." The person slowly circled around her until she could see his face.

"Tucker!" Her relief was instantaneous. She started to drop her hands, sure he hadn't recognized her until now.

"Keep your damn hands up!" Tucker yelled, pointing the blaster directly at her face. Startled, Sam did as he asked.

"Tucker, it's me! It's Sam!" What was he doing?

"Stop it! I know you're not her! If you don't get out of her right now I swear I will make you regret it!" There were tears in his eyes, his face a mask of rage.

"Tuck, listen to me-"

"No! You listen to me! Get out of my friend! Now!" Tucker's eyes widened as he stepped closer. "Who's blood is that? What the hell did you do to Sam?!"

"I can explain-"

"You have two seconds before I blast you out of her!"

"Tucker the ghost is gone!" Sam yelled, her arms instinctively blocking her face in preparation for the blast.

Something in her tone of voice gave him pause. "Prove it. Do I need an umbrella?"

"No. You don't need an umbrella because...um...because..." She couldn't remember the rest of it.

"Wrong answer."

"Swimming lessons!" Sam blurted.

Tucker paused. " What ?"

"Swimming lessons and birthday candles! That's how I calmed you down when you went to the hospital. Do you remember?"

Tucker lowered the gun slightly. "How do I know Sam didn't tell you that?"

"Because I made a Quadruple Pinkie Swear that I'd never tell anyone about your panic attacks."

He lowered the gun more. "What other things have we made Quadruple Pinkie Swears about?"

Sam searched her mind; thankfully she was able to recall a few. "Um...you killed Danny's gerbil. I really wanted to go to homecoming freshman year. We almost burned down your treehouse in third grade. You have a crush on Jazz."

Tucker finally dropped the gun to his side. "Is it really you, Sammy?"

"Don't call me Sammy."

He sighed in relief and holstered the weapon before extending his hand to help her up. "I really thought I was gonna have to shoot you, Sam."

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Danny paced back and forth, unable to settle himself. This well may be the worst night of his life…and it wasn't over yet. His hands shook as dialed the number and held his phone to his ear. “Pick up…Come on, pick up.”

“Hello?”

Oh god, he did not want to do this. His mind flashed back to a casual conversation from so long ago. You know me, Sam. I can handle anything. For her. He could handle anything for her.

“Mrs. Manson, it's Danny. You have to come to Amity Memorial right now. Sam- Sam's been in an accident.” 

Everything felt numb after that. It was like he was watching it all happen from far away. He finished the call and tucked his phone into his pocket, staring down at his feet. The sounds of the hospital faded away. There was blood on his shoes. Sam's blood. Slowly, he tilted his chin to see the rest of his clothes. There was blood there too, especially on his shirt. He hadn't really noticed before. 

His best friend's blood was all over him.  

“Danny?” A voice yanked him back into reality. The sounds of the hospital crashed into him from all sides. The smell of antiseptic and blood filling his nose. He looked up to see worried teal eyes. 

Then Jazz was hugging him. Jazz was here. Tucker must have called her.

Slowly, he started to put the pieces together. Jazz was hugging him. She was getting Sam's blood on her clothes. Because Sam's blood was on his clothes. Sam was hurt and he'd brought her to the hospital. Now Jazz was here. Jazz was here to help him. Because he'd just brought his best friend to the hospital. And he didn't know what to do now. But Jazz was his big sister. His big sister would know what to do. His big sister was here and she was hugging him and she would know what to do.

Danny didn't cry very often and he certainly didn't cry in public places where anyone could see. But tonight, he had been kidnapped by his ex-girlfriend and attacked by his parent's half-ghost college buddy. He had barely rescued a younger clone of himself from being murdered right in front of him. Then he carried his bleeding, unconscious, best friend into the hospital. Now his big sister was here and he was so confused and so scared and he just couldn't help it.

He hugged her back, buried his face in her shoulder, and cried like a baby.