And here's the last chapter!

Author's Notes:

So, because you guys have been so freaking amazing and sticking with me even though these past couple weeks I've been slacking in the updating when I'm supposed to department (I'm so sorry again. I have the attention span of a gnat), you're getting this chapter now. Nice and early. It's the end. At least of this part of the story. In my head (and my heart) real stories don't ever end. Even death can't stop the story of a boy who's half ghost. But this is the end of my contribution to the story.

So enjoy! Please excuse any typos!

Chapter 12

Present

"And now," Dan lifts the medallion and dangles it tauntingly in front of Jazz and Tucker; "I'd better go and fetch your precious Danny. I wouldn't want him to miss the show. But before I go," He smiles wickedly and pushes over the fry cooker that's resting next to the vat they're tied to. He reaches into it and pulls out the metal coil that rests at the bottom, the one that heats up the grease, and places it against the metal vat, "I have to thank you for the idea, Tucker. It was quite an...explosive one."

"What is he talking about?" Jazz looks at the techno geek quizzically.

Tucker watches in horror as Dan hits the on switch on the fryer and the coil immediately begins to turn to a bright red, obviously heating up the way it's supposed to. "He's talking about the Nasty Sauce! If you overheat it...it explodes!"

Jazz's eyes widen in horror. "You told him that!"

The teen shakes his head frantically. "No. I told Danny Fenton..."

Tucker's voice trails off as Dan Phantom flickers in and out of existence a few times before disappearing completely. Beside him, Jazz raises an eyebrow in confusion. "Um...what just happened?"

Before Tucker can answer her, however, the ghostly binds that had been holding them to the vat of Nasty Sauce disappear and they drop the ground, the older Fenton's dropping to the ground beside them. Neither Maddie nor Jack are wake, however, apparently still out cold from whatever Dan had done to them earlier. Without hesitation, Tucker hits the power button on the fryer, shutting it down and then kicking the metal coil as far away from the Nasty sauce as he possibly can.

"I have no idea." He admits, finally taking a second to look around. "But who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth."

A groan from behind them causes both teens to whip around, shoulders tense. They relax visibly as they realize that the source of the sound is only Maddie and Jack, both of them starting to wake up. They both sit up, rubbing their heads and looking around them in confusion.

"How did we get here?" Maddie asks, turning and blinking at her daughter and her son's best friend in confusion. "And what in the world are you two doing here?"

Tucker and Jazz both share a glance, understanding passing between the two teens before Jazz turns back to face her parents. "There was a ghost." She explains quickly. "And he kidnapped you."

"Because you're such formidable ghost hunters." Tucker interjects quickly before they can wonder too much about it.

"Right." Jazz nods along eagerly in agreement. "And so Tucker and I ran after him –and you- to save you. But then you started to wake up and I guess the ghost got scared because he took off."

"Darn right!" Jack says victoriously, even as wobbles as he stands and helps his wife do the same. "Bet that spook will think twice before coming back here!"

"I sure hope so." Tucker mutters under his breath and beside him, Jazz quickly nods her agreement.

"Well..." Maddie looks around, still a bit suspicious. "I suppose no harm done then." She places her hand to her forehead. "Aside from this splitting headache."

Jazz moves to stand beside her parents, nudging them gently in the direction of the exit. "Which is why you two should go home and rest. Come on. I'll make you guys some tea and you can relax."

The teen throws a quick wink at Tucker over her shoulder as she steers her parents out of the building. Tucker nods in reply, obviously understanding her message. She'll handle the Fentons and trust Tucker to take care of the damage control here. There isn't really much damage control to do though. The fryer is tipped over, but aside from that the restaurant is more or less how it's always been. So as long as he can get out of here without being seen, no one should ask any questions. At least not to him.

He exits the building as swiftly as possible and is pleased to see that Jazz has already gotten her parents far enough away from the Nasty Burger that he can no longer see them. He's less pleased to see Valerie riding up on her hover board, her red ghost hunting suit a stark contrast against the cheery blue sky.

"Fantastic." He mutters to himself, but he stands his ground, ready send the ghost hunter away while giving her as little information as possible.

"Where is he?" Valerie demands, pulling up to a stop, hovering over Tucker and looking around. "I know he's here somewhere!"

Tucker sighs and rolls his eyes, shoving his hands in his pockets as he answers her. "He was here." He confirms, because he knows Valerie isn't stupid. Her technology wouldn't have led her here if there hadn't been a ghost, and she knows it. "But he's not anymore."

"And he never will be."

Tucker perks up as a third voice speaks up from behind him. He turns, smiling widely as Danny and Sam both come strolling casually around the corner and into view. "Dude! And you found Sam!"

Sam raises an eyebrow and gestures subtly to Valerie. "Yep. That game of hide and seek got pretty intense, but Danny found me."

"Hide and seek?" Valerie doesn't even bother to try and hide her disgust. "What are you? Five?"

"Maybe." Sam challenges, crossing her arms over her chest. "What's it to you? You don't even know us."

"Uh..." This trips Valerie up and even though the other three teens can't see her scrambling to come up with an excuse, they all know that she is. "Whatever." She finally settles on and they don't need to see her face to know that she's glaring either. "If there's no ghost here then I'm so out."

And she doesn't even stay to see if they had a response.

"Okay." Tucker whirls back around to face his two friends. "What the heck happened? Because it has been a crazy afternoon here!"

"Yeah, I bet it has been. Come on." Danny waves them towards his house, "let's get home and I'll tell you guys everything. And you can tell me exactly what happened here. Although I think I have pretty good idea."

"You do?" Tucker's eyes widen. "Because your-"

"Evil future self came to the past and tried to kill you and my family?"

"Uh...yeah. He-"

"Bound you guys to the Nasty Sauce vat and tried to get it to overheat so it would explode?"

"Yeah. Also, Jazz knows about your ghost powers, dude."

Danny and Sam both stop walking, mouths falling open in identical looks of shock. Tucker whips out his PDA and takes a quick picture because it's rare to every catch Sam off guard like that.

"That..." Danny springs back to life, continuing his walk towards his home, "I did not know."

Tucker nods. "I didn't know either until this afternoon when she tried to help me take out your evil future self. You should really talk to her. Also, what the heck is up with the whole evil thing? And the cape, dude. I mean, seriously?"

Danny runs a hand through his hair and sighs. "Yeah, you're right. I'll talk to her. As for the future thing it's long and kind of confusing. But I'll explain it as best I can when we get to my house."

"And what Danny can't explain, hopefully I can." Sam adds, linking arms with her two friends. "But for the moment, I just want to take time to enjoy the sight of good old Amity Park looking exactly the way it should be."

Tucker gapes in shock at his two friends as they finish telling their side of the story. "You..." He shakes his head, trying to find a word to describe what he's thinking. "Wow." He finally settles on, because there really aren't words to describe what you feel after hearing a story like that.

"No kidding." Danny chuckles. "But all's well that ends well, I guess." He shrugs.

"But wait..." Tucker tilts his head, considering something. "Why did Dan just disappear like that in the present? If you didn't defeat him until after he'd come back from trying to kill us...wouldn't he have had to leave the present for you to do that."

Danny and Sam share a look before the Goth girl shrugs. "Honestly, Tuck, it's time travel. It gives me a headache even when I don't stop to try and make sense of it."

"Good enough for me." Tucker kicks up his feet up, resting them on Danny's desk, leaning back in the chair and grinning happily. "As long as I'm not the newest secret ingredient in the Nasty Sauce, time travel can be as confusing as it wants."

Danny nods. "I agree. And now that I know the original reason that I ended up evil, I'm going to make sure it doesn't ever happen. I'm not ever going to be that horrible thing. And I'm not going to let you guys get hurt either."

Tucker shrugs. "We knew the risks when we signed up, dude. I know you'll try to protect us, but you have to be okay with that idea that one day...you might not be able too."

"Guys…" Danny protests, but Sam cuts him off with a shake of her head.

"Tucker's right." She smiles gently at her friend. Knowing what she knows now, she realizes how hard of an idea that's going to be for him to swallow. "So just promise to try. And promise that if there ever comes a time when you can't, you'll remember that all of your feelings, even the bad ones, are what make you human –make you Danny- and that you can't ever give them up.

"And then come find us in the Ghost Zone." Sam and Tucker both grin at Danny as the other boy blinks in shock at the matter of fact way they can talk about this.

He shakes his head, but he smiles because he seriously has to have two of the best friends in the world. Tucker's video definitely got that right. "Okay. I promise. Now," He stands and tries not to look too nervous, "I'm going to go find Jazz." With that he exits his room, leaving his two friends to their own devices.

"I can't believe she knew this whole time." Sam shakes her head in amazement.

Tucker snickers. "I can't believe she was able to keep it a secret this whole time."

Sam cracks up, throwing Danny's pillow at the techno geek. "That's mean, Tucker. Not completely untrue though." Her laughter slips into silence and she smiles. "But another person on Danny's side can only be a good thing."

"As long as she doesn't try and meddle too much."

And then both teens, as familiar with red head's personality as they are with Danny's, groan in tandem.

"Hey." Danny greets Jazz as he opens the front door, going to sit on the steps besides his sister.

"Hi." Jazz greets back, smiling at the sight of her little brother as he should be and not as the weird evil freak that she'd seen earlier. "What's up?" She has a pretty good idea of what conversation is about to happen, but she decides to let Danny take the initiative, set the pace and the tone. He can tell her as much or as little as he wants to. She'll be happy to listen either way.

"Well...Tucker told me everything that happened this afternoon while I was gone."

"Yeah..." She looks thoughtful. "Where were you?"

"Uh," Danny rubs the back of his neck, a nervous habit he's had for as long as Jazz can remember. "In the time stream. Looking for Sam. And fighting that ghost that attacked you guys. But that's not important."

"Oh no?" Jazz raises an eyebrow. "I'd say finding Sam is pretty important."

Danny flushes a little at her tone of voice and she does everything she can to fight the smirk that wants to make an appearance. "It was." Danny says, trying to sound casual and failing miserably. "And I found her. What's important is that...Tucker told me everything."

"Well he should have. A situation like that...you ought to be informed."

"Jazz." Danny eyes her, looking a lot like their mother when she knows that they're lying to her. "Everything." He emphasizes.

The red head sighs good naturedly. "Okay. What do you want to know?"

"How long have you known?"

"Since the thing with Spectra."

Danny's eyes widen comically because that was almost a month and a half ago. "That long? Why didn't you say anything?"

Jazz shrugs. "Because I wanted you to tell me on your own time. When you were ready to. I was proud of you for using your powers to protect people and I trusted you to tell me on your own time. I didn't mind watching carefully from the sidelines until that time came."

A lot of Danny's good luck in the past several weeks suddenly starts to make sense. "You've been covering for me, haven't you?"

His sister nods. "Yeah. With mom and dad. And Mr. Lancer when I could. You were doing all this good and I just wanted to help in any way that I could."

"Well," Danny squirms a bit; embarrassed by the touching sibling moment they're having in the way that all fourteen year old boys can be, "thanks. For everything."

Jazz smiles gently. "And thank you, little- Danny. For everything."

The two siblings hug and it surprises Danny, how freeing it feels to know that just one other person knows his secret and doesn't care. Is rooting for him even. Jazz has a lot of annoying qualities, Danny's pretty sure it comes with being a big sister, but she's really not so bad. She's even kind of great.

Most of the time.

"Well," Jazz pulls back from the hug and smiles again, "I'd better go back inside and check on Mom and Dad. They're doing better, but it might be nice if I can convince to keep out of the lab for one day." She winks before standing up and heading inside.

Danny's alone just long enough to contemplate heading back inside or being lazy and keeping his butt parked exactly where it is when the debate is settled for him by Sam peeking her head out the front door and smiling as her eyes land on him.

"I heard Jazz talking to your parents. Figured I'd come out here and see how it went." She says by way of explanation as she takes a seat next to him on the steps. "It didn't take very long."

Danny shrugs. "All the important stuff has been said. I'm sure she'll hound me later for the rest of the details. Right now I think she's just trying to give me a chance to recover from our latest adventure."

"Considering what Tucker told us, I think she might need a chance to recover from it too."

Danny nods in agreement. "I think we all probably could." He rubs his eyes and sighs tired. "That was more adventure than I was prepared for, honestly. I didn't think anything could take more out of me than Pariah Dark, but this might actually have beaten it."

Sam turns to look up at the sky and Danny takes the opportunity to sneak a look at her. It's the first time she's been truly relaxed since they got back to the present and he's glad to see it.

"At least you have a cool new power." Sam says after a beat of silence.

"Yeah," Danny chuckles, "One that I can barely use. It's still way too draining."

It's Sam's turn to shrug as she turns back to face her friend. "Well, right now it is. But you'll work on it and you'll get stronger and pretty soon you'll be able to use it like you do your ghost ray. It's just one more thing to look forward to the in the future."

"As long as it's not the future that we saw, I'll look forward to whatever happens in it."

"It won't be." Sam shakes her head. "I know you Danny and I know you'll never let that happen. I mean, come on, you traveled through the time stream and ended up face to face with a pretty scary future just to find me. There's no one way someone like that could ever be evil. And you weren't, deep down, it was Plasmius that was. You were just...unfortunately along for the ride."

The halfa smiles at her words. Sam always seems to know just what he needs to hear. "I think I like looking at it that way."

"Thank you, by the way."

"Huh?"

Sam smiles gently at him. "For saving me. In all the craziness I never got a chance to thank you for jumping into the time stream and coming to find me. I mean, I know it ended up being about so much more than finding me, but still. Thank you."

Danny shakes his head. "You don't need to thank me, Sam. I'm always going to come save you." He can feel his cheeks heat up at his next admission but he forces the words out anyways, because if he's learned anything at all, it's that they're true, with or without any romantic connotations that could be attached to them. "You're one of the most important people in my life."

Sam just sits and watches him silently, knowing that he's got more to say and that it's easiest for him to just say it without interruption. And he seriously owes her a salad and milkshake at the Nasty Burger for being so awesome. "Future Valerie told me the reason Tucker and my family died is because I wasn't there to save them. Because I was looking for you. And before Dan did whatever it was he did to the medallion, it was a one way deal. If I went back to save them, I couldn't use it to come back and find you. And, well you were there so you know that I was going to go back and find them before Dan showed back up, but I...Sam, I honestly considered staying and looking for you instead. I didn't even realize just how much you meant to me until this whole thing and I...well, you're my best friend Sam. And I never want to lose you."

The Goth blushes prettily at his words. "And you never will." And then, much to Danny's surprise (there's a pattern to these moments, he blushes, she blushes, and then Tucker pops up before they get too serious), Sam smiles brightly. "But we don't have to worry about all of that right now. We're only fourteen after all."

Danny chuckles, knowing exactly what his friend is trying to say without her having to actually say it. It's one of the many perks of their...whatever this is. More than friendship, but less than something else. At least for right now. "Right." He agrees. "I mean, we have our whole futures ahead of us to figure it out. And we will."

Sam grins and bumps his shoulder with hers playfully. "Together?" She asks.

He pulls her into a one armed hug and nods his agreement. "Together."

They sit in companionable silence before: "Okay, seriously, when is Clockwork going to come and answer my questions?!"

Sam laughs so hard she almost falls off the steps.

"Okay, it's been a week!" Danny cries exasperatedly as he and his friends walk home from school. "When is Clockwork going to come answer my question?"

"Relax, dude." Tucker tries his best to soothe their distressed friend. "He's the master of all time, he's probably pretty busy."

"Still," Danny crosses his arms over his chest in frustration, "you'd think he could take five minutes out of his day to come explain some things to me."

"Trust me, Ghost Child," The world around the three teenagers freezes, cars stopping in the middle of the road, their drivers frozen at the wheel, other pedestrians are frozen midstep, and one dog is even frozen next to a fire hydrant, his back leg stuck up in the air, "It is going to take longer than five minutes to explain everything."

"Clockwork!" Danny is pleased to hear Sam say the other ghost's name, because it means that she and Tucker aren't frozen this time.

"Hello." The currently elderly ghosts greets them and then waves his hand to the unoccupied steps leading up to the house that they'd been walking in front of. "Perhaps you'd like to take a seat. I wasn't kidding when I said that this would take a while to explain."

Danny, Sam, and Tucker all take a seat on the steps, but it escapes no one's notice that Danny sits a bit closer to Sam than is strictly necessary. Clockwork chuckles as he does so.

"Relax, Daniel. I have no intention of removing Samantha from the time stream again. She is safe. From me at any rate." At Danny's concerned look he elaborates. "You and your friends have chosen a dangerous hobby. A good one, but a dangerous one. Surely you know that you can never guarantee their safety."

"Yeah," Danny nods his agreement though he still sounds less than thrilled about it, "I know."

"About those answers..." Tucker and Sam have been dying for an explanation just as much as Danny even if they have been more patient about waiting. Danny smiles slightly at the way Tucker easily steers the topic back to where all three teens would like it to be.

"The simplest way I can explain it to you is to start by explaining that on your 18th birthday you will cease to exist within the confines of time."

Danny and Tucker both just blink at the ghost's words, but Sam's brows furrow together as she processes what he's just said. "You said something like that before. When we were in the other Tucker's ghost lair."

Clockwork nods. "It's going to be something that happens no matter what, because of something that Daniel has already done."

"Something I've done?" Danny shakes his head. "What could I have possibly done that would cause me to exist outside of time."

"You defeated Pariah Dark." Clockwork answers simply.

"I defeated..."

Tucker's eyes widen in realization. "The Ghost King!"

Sam is the next to catch on, the power she'd seen in the future Danny's eyes suddenly making a lot more sense. "And when you defeated the Ghost King..."

"It made you the next king of the ghosts." Clockwork confirms. "But, because you're so young you haven't officially claimed the crown. And you won't be able to do so until your eighteenth birthday."

Danny eyes the other ghost skeptically. "A half human half ghost hybrid is going to be the new leader of the Ghost Zone. Something tells me that really isn't going to go over well.

Clockwork shakes his head. "On the contrary. With one foot planted firmly in both worlds, you will usher in an era of peace that stretches so far out it is beyond even my ability to see."

"Oh. My. God."

"You can see why we had to eliminate Dan Phantom." Clockwork says after several seconds of silence where all three teens just gap at him in amazement. "And why we needed a more elaborate plan to do so. He'd already claimed the throne in the original timeline, already existed outside the constraints of time, so going back and simply finishing you off or making sure that you didn't become him was never going to work. And besides, to destroy Danny Phantom, making you unable to ever claim the throne, would just have lead to a power vacuum that would have eventually destroyed both the human realm and the Ghost Zone."

"I still don't understand why you took Sam. Why couldn't you have just told me?"

"Because you needed me." Sam answers before Clockwork can. "Because Dan Phantom was too powerful when he was a combination of Plasmius and Phantom. And the only way anyone was ever going to get them separated was if they did it themselves. If Phantom found something that gave him the strength to separate away from Plasmius. A reminder of why he should."

"I guess that would make you the best person for the job." Danny agrees, smiling at his friend.

"Indeed." Clockwork nods, smiling in approval of Sam's explanation. "You were always meant to find your friend, Daniel. Meant to watch has she saved you. But first you needed to be reminded of the importance of your humanity and how it affects your ghostly half. Which is why I sent you through the time stream like I did."

"But how can I..." Danny struggles to figure out how to ask the question he needs to ask. "How I can be sure that I won't...I don't ever want to be that, that thing that I was."

"You won't be." Clockwork assures him. "Because now you know that you can be. And besides, just knowing about the power that you will someday hold, accepting that you will someday hold it, gives you the beginnings of the power and authority that you will have." He smirks. "I'm sure you'll find in that slowly but surely you will meet with less and less trouble from the inhabitants of the Ghost Zone. It won't ever completely stop, even after you take your rightful place on the throne, it's in the nature of ghosts to be impish and disruptive, after all. But I'm sure you'll find that by the time you're actual C.A.T comes around next year, you will have had plenty of time to study adequately. Those events shall never come to pass."

This reassures Danny somewhat, but there's something even bigger that's weighing on him now. "King of the whole Ghost Zone?"

"Yes. But don't worry. Your day to day life won't change much. Not at first. Possibly not for quite a while." He can see the hesitance in Danny's eyes, in his face, and smiles gently. "You're not meant to be ready for this yet, Daniel. There's a reason you have to wait to claim the throne properly. But rest assured, when the time comes, you will be ready."

"How can you be sure?"

Clockwork spreads out his arms in a grand gesture. "I am the master of time. There isn't much I don't know. Particularly about this. It's something that has never happened before. And will never happen again. So I've been watching over it carefully since the beginning."

"The beginning?" Tucker asks. "Of what?"

"Of time."

And with that, Clockwork is gone and the street is full of movement once again.

"I can't tell." Tucker says as the three friends continue to sit and try and absorb everything that's just happened. "Is he a good guy?"

"I think..." Danny falls silent for a second, trying to figure out how to word what he feels, "I think he just is. But in a good way."

"So...yes?"

Sam laughs as she shakes her head and pushes herself off the stairs. "Yes. But I think sometimes it's in a way that we can't always see it."

Tucker nods, accepting this explanation and standing up as well. "Works for me. Although I still think I'll be glad if we don't see him around anymore."

"You and me both." Danny agrees as he joins his friends and they continue their trek back home. "But it's good to know that we have an ally watching over us. Even if it's mostly just from the sidelines."

"It sounds kind of creepy when you say it that way, dude."

"Duh." Sam chuckles. "He's a ghost. I think creepy is in the job description."

2009

Eighteen year old Danny Phantom shifts, still adjusting to the feel of the throne that is much bigger than he is. He's filled out some, grown more into the future version of himself that he'd always been meant to be, but Pariah Dark had been ridiculously huge, a power play that Danny has no interest in taking up for himself. He fiddles with Ring of Rage. It had been far too large when he'd put in on initially, but it had shrunken down to fit his finger almost immediately. He'd worried that it might influence him, lead him down a dark path, but he'd been assured that it was only the Ring of Rage because that's what had been in Pariah Dark's heart when he'd seized control. Already, he can tell that his intentions are changing it. Making it less dark, less evil, but no less powerful.

"I gotta admit," He turns his head and smiles as eighteen year old Sam walks into view. "This place is pretty amazing." Her black hair is longer and hangs loosely down around her shoulders and as she grown and blossomed into a young woman, she'd unfortunately had to ditch the halter top and skirt, but had replaced them with a pair of jeans and a black peasant shirt that Danny thought suited her perfectly.

"I think," he holds up his hand so she can see the ring on it, "that I might change this thing's name to the Ring of Power. Makes it sound much less ominous."

Sam grins, obviously pleased with the idea. "I guess it would be kind of hard to start ushering in a new age of peace with something called the Ring of Rage. What about this?" She gestures to small crown that she holds in her hand. Danny's not sure how the flames that jump off the crown don't burn her, something to do with her relationship with him, perhaps. "You going to rename this thing too?"

"Nah." Danny grins as she places the Crown of Fire on his head. It grows larger, seeming to sense that Danny was not a fan of the tiny crown thing that Pariah Dark had going on. "Fire's not evil. Not if you handle it properly."

"So," Sam asks as she adjusts the crown on Danny's head, "how does it feel?"

Danny looks down at his white gloved hands thoughtfully. "Not that much different actually. I guess I've been growing into this power for so long that there isn't much left to do but make it official."

"And move all your stuff into this really sweet castle." Sam jokes, laughing as Danny wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her onto his lap.

"Yeah." Danny agrees as he nuzzles her neck affectionately. "But, seriously, I'm glad this is still a part time gig. I'm really looking forward to college as Danny Fenton."

Sam looks around the throne room thoughtfully. It's still a little dark and dreary, but already Danny's energy is infusing the place, brightening it up a bit. "Even if we end up in Ghost Zone permanently someday," she tells him seriously, "you'll always be Danny Fenton."

"You're right." His eyes flash back to their normal blue as he grabs her hand, intertwining their fingers and giving them an affectionate squeeze. "Especially since I'll always have my Sam Manson."

"And that," Clockwork says with a smile, gesturing to the image on the clock that shows the newly crowned Ghost King leaning over to kiss his fiancé gently, "is exactly how it should be."

"You mean to suggest that it was always meant to happen this way?" One Observer asks skeptically.

"Oh yes." The ghost of time informs them. "Everything went exactly as it was supposed to."

The two Observers groan in annoyance as the now baby Clockwork smirks, knowing exactly what the other ghost is going to say before he says it.

"Just like clockwork."

The End!

So, that's it. The end of my contribution to Danny and Sam's story. I always felt like TUE could have been so much more than it was -not that I didn't love it all the same- (and I know at least some of that is due to the fact that they had restrictions because it was a kid show), but I wanted to try my hand at it shaping it into what it had the potential to be. It's almost ten years later and I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it felt to type out The End! to finally put down on paper (or the internet, whatever) the idea that's always kind of been floating just on the edges of my creative brain space. I never could quite let it go. I loved it too much.

And I hope you guys liked it too. I will admit, in the original version of this story Sam and Danny ended up together, officially, after they got back from this adventure, making it non-compliant with canon, but after rewatching the series, I realized I loved the little almost moments too much to ruin them by getting them together earlier than usual (I will always hold a special place in my heart for the "is that my shirt?" moment from Forever Phantom and the entirety of Claw of the Wild was just amazing. I couldn't deny my version of Danny and Sam those moments together. So I didn't.

For the most part, with the obvious exception of the small chunk of canon that I've completely rewritten, this is canon compliant and everything that happens afterwards in the series could happen afterwards of this.

And that's officially the end of my ranting. Thanks again for sticking with me and I really hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Leave a review! They make my day (: