Broken Rules and Broken Hearts

I don't own Danny Phantom

Chapter six - It's a Chance I've Gotta Take

"What do you think?" Ember asked, referring to her song. While the band disappeared, Samantha answered with the thoughts that had just been running through her head. Ember smiled. "You really think so?"

Samantha nodded, then asked something that had been on her mind, "How long have you liked me?"

"I took an interest in you the first time we me," Ember replied without hesitation. "You were cute adn somehow unaffected by my spell. After that, I made sure that I would meet you face to face, but getting trapped in the Ghost Zone and mixed up in evil plans kind of got in the way of that."

"And what if I don't want to be your girlfriend?" Samantha asked, but when Ember kissed her, the question became completely rhetorical.

"You wouldn't consider such a thing, would you, babe?"

"No... of course not."

Ember smiled. "Good." Note to self: find way to make love spell last longer.

It being a new power, or as least a new way of transmission, Ember wasn't too worried. She would make Samantha fall in love with her for real. In due time.

Samantha's cell phone rang, and she answered it, "Hello?"

"Forget to check the caller ID?" Danny asked.

"Yeah. What's up?"

"Not much... just wanted to see what you were up to... and maybe arrange to see you again."

"Today?"

"Yeah... I'd like to be alone with you."

"Like... without Tucker? Or anyone?"

"Yeah... is that gonna be a problem?"

"N..." Sam looked at Ember. "I don't know, Danny. Something..."

"It's okay," Ember cut in softly. "I can stay invisible and sit nearby."

"Hold on," Samantha covered the speaker. "Are you sure you'll be okay with that?"

"Yeah," Ember grinned. "We can tell him when you're ready."

"You won't, like, attack him or anything?"

"Nah... I'd rather stay on your good side... no matter how cute I think your temper can be."

Sam tried to ignore the latter half of the comment. She uncovered the speaker and told Danny, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah... we can meet at the park."

"Sounds good... right now?"

"Right now?" Samantha echoed, more so looking to Ember for a reaction. When she got a nod of confirmation, she said, "Yeah."

"Parents right there?" Danny asked teasingly.

"Nearby," was all Samantha could say. "So... talk to you there."

"Right. Bye, Sam."

"Bye, Danny."

Samantha hung up, and Ember held out her hand. "Shall we?"

"But Danny..."

"Don't worry about him, babe," Ember smiled, taking Samantha's hand in her own and flying out of the building. They headed to the park at a decent speed, and the way she and Ember were holding each other now reminded Samantha of flying with Danny the first time they'd met Ember... right before they'd crashed into the oversized cut out of the undead pop star.

"There he is," Samantha pointed to someone under a tree. Ember flew down behind another tree and let Samantha go, then went invisible and followed her.

"Hey, Sam!" Danny said, then his ghost sense went off. "Oh, boy..."

"Wait," Sam put a hand on Danny's shoulder before he could go ghost. "I don't see anything, you're probably just cold."

"Sam, I know it's September, but I'm not cold."

"Do you see any ghosts?"

"No... but they could--"

"Just let it go... you said you wanted it to be just us, and it is."

Danny sighed. "Alright, Sam, but if we get attacked and something goes wrong, I'm holding you responsible."

"Okay," Sam said. Meanwhile, Ember had placed a small transmitter behind Samantha and then tried backing up a bit until her presence didn't affect Danny's ghost sense. The teens sat down against the tree. "So how are you today?"

"Pretty good, you?"

"Alright. Parents make any new inventions?"

"Yeah, and apparently Mom's been doing more of the work, because this one not only homed in on me, it began working right away." Danny shuddered.

"Well, what does it do?" Sam asked gently.

"It tears ghosts apart from the inside out."

"Woah! How did you get out of that one?"

"Well first it tried to force my transformation so it could get to my ghost half, so I resisted it and it was causing me severe pain so Mom turned it off and started to contemplate how weird it is that all their inventions target me. Jazz showed them a picture of Danny Phantom and said it's probably just confused because of all the similarities."

"That's a risky move."

"Well they don't know about halfas. Nobody does except me, you, Tucker, Jazz, and Vlad."

"And everyone in the Ghost Zone."

"I meant of people in the real world."

"Oh, okay. What about Danni?"

"Dan... oh yeah, my 'cousin'."

Sam smiled. "Maybe she's around somewhere."

"Hmm?"

"Maybe she's hiding. You know, being playful Danni. Maybe that's why your ghost sense went off."

"You think I can detect other halfas?"

"Has it ever gone off with Plasmius around?"

"Probably, I try not to think about him too much."

"Well if she's in ghost form then she's a ghost. She's probably spying on us."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Probably."

"At least we know we can trust her."

Danny sighed, then glanced at Sam. "If I may ask, hows the, um..."

"Room?"

"No."

"Parents?"

"No."

"...Oh!" Sam blushed. "It's... I'm fine. It's my third day so it should be over soon."

Ember couldn't help but grin at that.

"That's good. So it doesn't hurt...?"

Sam looked at Danny curiously. "Why are you asking me these things?"

"Awkward conversation worse than awkward silence?"

"Can be. There shouldn't be anysilence, though... we both have something we need to say."

"Yeah..." Danny took a deep breath, sighed, then said, "Look, Sam. I know we're great friends... and I know we've been through a lot... but I just... I can't..."

"It's okay, Danny, just say it..."

Danny closed his eyes tight. "I don't love you, Sam!"

Somewhere inside, Sam was hurt. But outside, Ember's spell was numbing the pain.

"That's okay, Danny," she forced the words. I gave up on you. The rest of the sentence wouldn't form. I have a girlfriend. That wouldn't go, either. I don't love you, either. That would be a lie. "I..."