Disclaimer: If it looks like it came from Danny Phantom, sounds like it came from Danny Phantom, and is directly a part of Danny Phantom….than it probably is from Danny Phantom, which is not owned by me- but owned by Nick and created by Butch Hartman.
Story Notes: This takes place after Flirting with Disaster and is written from Sam's POV.
Author's Note: I've been thinking of this one for awhile, and it actually came out a bit longer than I thought. Hopefully, you all like it! Enjoy!
"No excuses, Samantha," Mrs. Manson said sharply, giving her daughter a firm push towards her bedroom. "If you're going to be having those two boys over tonight, you're going to have to clean that disaster area you see fit to call your bedroom."
"Their names are Tucker and Danny," Sam growled over her shoulder at her mother, "they've been here a million times before, they're only coming over to watch a movie, and they don't care what my room looks like!"
"Neither do you apparently," Mrs. Manson said, placing her hands on her hips. "Clean it immediately, young lady, or we'll lock up the theater tonight so you three can't use it."
Shooting a final glare behind her, Sam sulked into her room, slamming the door deliberately in her mother's smug face. Turning her attention towards her room, Sam gazed at her surroundings. It wasn't messy at all- just a few CD's on the floor...and half of her dark colored clothing was spilling out of the closet…maybe she should straighten those bookshelves…and alright, she wasn't sure when she had last cleaned off her desk…but other than that, it was fine.
"She just wants an excuse to keep Tucker and Danny out of here," Sam said grudgingly, but it was because of this reason that she would comply and clean her room, both to see her friends and to spite her mother. And after just a half hour of shoving the clothes back in the closet, tossing all the old papers from the desk into the trashcan, and re-shelving the books lying around the room, her room was already looking marginally better.
Next, Sam moved over to her bed- kicking a bottle of black nail polish, a stray sock, and a cracked CD case under it in the process. She sat on the edge of the bed next to her small beside table, which was barely visible under the layer of wadded pieces of paper, tissues, a few books, and various make-up items. Opening its small door, she used her arm to knock everything into it in one swipe- everything except for a small item that hit the edge of the wood with a defiant "ping!" and fell to the floor.
She bent to pick up the item and when she saw it, she froze instantly, her hand stationary over the piece of jewelry. It was a small gold ring with a blue stone in the center. It was the ring that Danny had wanted to give to Valerie. The ring he had asked her to hold on to. The ring she had spent many nights wondering over, before setting on the table, where it soon became lost under her clutter.
Sam slowly reached down the rest of the way, picked up the ring, and sat up with it in her hand. She didn't need to look at the inner band to remember what it said. But she did anyway, and sure enough, the name Wes twinkled up at her.
With a sigh, Sam stretched down onto her bed, crossing her legs over one another and using her arm as an extra pillow. Lying on her back, she looked at the ring pinched between her thumb and forefinger, once again reading the same three letters that had confused her for months. Now that she was distracted from the rest of her room cleaning, she began to twirl the ring absently in her fingers and stared up at the ceiling, once again lost in trying to figure out what it meant.
She thought back to that night outside of Axion Labs when Danny had handed it to her. He was about to go inside to stop Technus from getting through to the satellite in space, when he turned around and stopped to give her the Fenton Phones…
"Here," he said, reaching out and dropping the tiny ear buds into her open hand.
"The Fenton Phones?" she asked blankly. "Yeah," he said shortly. "Once Technus leaves here let me know." He began to walk off, but suddenly he stopped and walked back towards her with his arm extended again. "Oh. And, uh, hold this." And instead of another Fenton gadget, Danny quickly dropped a small, thin, gold ring with a blue-green stone into her palm.
Dozens of questions whirled through Sam's head and instead of picking one, she looked up at Danny with eyebrows raised and an expectant expression on her face as she waited for an explanation. Instead, Danny quickly went invisible and the leaving breeze told her that he had left towards the lab.
"He really is clueless isn't he?" Tucker asked in half amazement, half exasperation.
Curiously, Sam picked up the ring and squinted on the inside band. The letters W-E-S sparkled sweetly back at her.
"Who the heck is Wes?" she asked aloud.
"I mean, sure, we all know Danny can be a little loopy at times," Tucker continued on, "but this is getting ridiculous."
"What is?" Sam asked, giving her head a quick shake as she slipped the ring into her pocket and turned her attention to the Fenton Phones. "He likes Valerie, but gives you a ring. I mean, c'mon," Tucker said, turning to Sam, "you should just tell him how you feel already and save him the hassle." "What?" Sam yelped as she fumbled with the Fenton Phones she had been trying to put on. "What do you mean how I feel? You mean…about… about Danny?"
"Please, Sam, I'm not that stupid," Tucker said simply. "It's obvious you like Danny."
"How could I like someone that clueless?" Sam said as calmly as she could, trying to hide her blushing from Tucker.
"Because you think it's adorable," Tucker said with a grin. "Admit it Sam, you like him."
"Be quiet, Tucker, we've got work to do," Sam snapped. She needed to check on Danny. "Clueless One, this is Goth One, over," she said over the phones. Tucker snickered from beside her and Sam glared at him. "What?" she demanded. "Just tell him, Sam!" "No!" she retorted.
"Goth One, this is Clueless One- why am I Clueless One?" Danny's voice crackled over the Phones.
"Tell him!" Tucker cried. "Shut it!" Sam said, whirling around and yanking out the Phones so Danny wouldn't hear Tucker's shriek for help as she lunged at him…
Despite her current musings, Sam couldn't help but smile at the memory of her twisting Tucker around into a half-nelson and threatening to break each piece of technological equipment in his possession if he ever mentioned anything to Danny. Tucker agreed to stay quiet, but only if Sam would tell him everything. She grudgingly complied; mostly out of shock that he was willing to risk his precious PDA's to hear her admit it.
She told him everything there was to tell. How she really felt during the time he was under Ember's spell and during their first fake-out make-out. How badly it hurt when he looked at Paulina or to know how seriously he was pursuing Valerie. Not to mention the way her heart raced when they shared a small touch or quiet smile. It all came pouring out after so many months of carefully bottling it up.
Unfortunately, even though it gave her a bit of a relief, since she had told Tucker the truth, there had been a steady stream of comments about her true feelings, some even in front of Danny. Though true to his codename, Danny was always too clueless to notice it. It was a fact that seemed to be amplified as she felt the ring dancing around her fingers. For although she was happy that her cover wasn't blown, Sam still felt the all too familiar pangs in her heart when she thought back to those few days when this ring almost became the property of Valerie Grey because she still hadn't made her move...
Again she heard the question float back through her head as she stared again at the name, "Who the heck was Wes, anyway?" Why would Danny have given this ring to anybody without first putting the right name into it? By the looks of the ring, it was old, as if it belonged to one of his parents. She wracked her brains, trying to remember if she had ever heard the name 'Wes' as a Fenton relative or a family friend, but nothing came up. But her biggest sense of confusion stemmed from one simple issue- why did he give it to her to hang on to? He still could've given it to Valerie, even when they decided not to date. But instead he asked her to hang on to it without a problem, as if it was meant for her to have it…
She glanced back down at the ring and suddenly stopped twirling it in her fingers. When she had twisted the ring towards her, she felt that the name had looked different. That last twist had given a new view of the engraving on the inner band. The letters looked rearranged and seemed to say something else.
Curious, Sam sat up in bed and held the ring up to her eye level as she squinted at the name. Yes, it still said Wes…but…it seemed sort of silly…but if she just turned it upside down…just as she did now…it now read…
Sam.
For a split second, Sam could only blink in confusion before she finally realized exactly what she was seeing. Her eyes widened in disbelief and her jaw dropped open as she stared at the tiny word inscribed neatly into the golden circle band.
Sam. Not Wes. But Sam
There was no doubt about it. That was her name. Her name written on the ring that Danny had wanted to give Valerie. Her name on the ring he so carelessly allowed her to hang on to, without even thinking about what would happen when she realized what it said. Her name…on the ring Danny should be giving to someone he cared about.
Slowly, Sam lowered the ring from eye-level and clutched it tightly in her hand and gazed unseeingly down at her fist. What did this mean? Why would Danny have a ring with her name in it? Why give it to her without even explaining what it truly meant…if it meant anything! And how could she have never noticed that before? She had had this ring for months now, and had never looked at it closely. True, she was just glad that Valerie didn't own it…but to not even sit down and really look at it…
Sam opened her hand and looked again at the ring. It glinted back at her, in a way that made her feel as if it were mocking her. And just as suddenly as the confusion over the ring had come, so did a wave of anger. "Well, she thought scathingly, as she glared at the little golden loop, "it's a good thing he didn't give this to Valerie. I could have been the cause of a break up without even having to plan it!"
What the heck was Danny playing at? He had to have known what the ring really said! Why else would he have been okay with Sam having it? And if he did know what it said, why in the world would he be giving it to Valerie? Didn't it matter to him whose name was in it? And then it hit Sam with the force of a giant wrecking ball.
"It didn't matter whose name it was," she said slowly, the ring beginning to tremble in her shaking hand. "It only mattered who owned the ring. That's all Danny cared about. He only cared about who he wanted to have it." Hot, angry tears rapidly welled up in her eyes out of sheer frustration; and she flung the ring across the room, where it hit the wall with a hollow chime before falling to the floor.
Sam rolled over onto her stomach and smothered her face deeply into her pillow, trying to press back the tears and the cry of anguish that threatened to spill out. She couldn't decide which was worse- knowing that Danny wanted to give something meant for her to Valerie, or now knowing that he gave it to her because he felt like he had to, not because he wanted to.
She stayed that way for a few minutes simply fuming and cursing Danny (and Valerie for good measure) with some half hearted threats and colorful names. But despite her resentment and anger, a voice calmly spoke up in her head. "Why did he have your name in the ring in the first place, Sam? Where'd he get something like that?" It was enough for Sam to raise her head from the pillow as she considered this.
She had wondered where it came from. It wasn't something that looked expensive, more like an heirloom. And based on the large cut of the stone, it did look like a boy's ring. In fact, it reminded her of the one her father had. He kept it in a box on his dresser and he would let her wear it when she was younger. She remembered because it was his class ring from Yale and he had always wondered aloud if she would follow in his footsteps and go to that school as well…and…and…
Now Sam gasped as another revelation came crashing down on her. That was it! It was a class ring! It must've been Jack Fenton's class ring from college. Of course Jack would've thought it fitting to give his son his own ring for him to give to a girl and keep up a tradition. He must've done something similar with Danny's mom and…
"Why the heck did Mr. Fenton get my name engraved in his ring?" Sam burst out in confusion, scrambling out of bed and moving across the room to pick it up. She remembered that day when Danny's dad had barged into Danny's room asking about a girlfriend. He had asked to speak to Danny alone about it, presumably a chat that would have become embarrassing had her and Tucker stayed. It was that same day that Danny had later shown up with that ring at the lab…
And for the first time in months, everything clicked into place. Sam flipped the ring over another time to read her name and it was clear. Danny's dad had thought that she was Danny's girlfriend, and he had given the ring to Danny so he could give it to her. The thought only caused Sam to blush a brilliant shade of crimson.
"Great," she thought with a wry smile, looking out her bedroom window. "It's obvious to the wrong Fenton that I like Danny." It was enough to cause her to laugh in a mixture of embarrassment and relief. To think that Jack Fenton, who although was very sweet could also be pretty absent-minded, knew that she liked Danny before Danny could notice it for himself. And in an odd sense, it gave Sam a feeling of satisfaction that Danny's dad thought well enough of her to put her name in the ring.
And Danny didn't give it to her right away because he had liked Valerie at the time. Granted, Sam still couldn't believe that he had wanted to do that, especially if he knew that it was her name engraved in the metal, but giving her the ring would have probably been more awkward for him than giving it to Valerie. Especially when he didn't know what she really would have felt about it.
Because really, had Danny tried giving her the ring, had he explained that it was his dad who thought she was his girlfriend, not him, it probably would've sent Sam for an even bigger loop than she was just on. It would've led to awkward questions, rushed solutions, and a confession that Sam just wasn't sure she could admit to him yet. She might even say that she preferred it this way. She would much rather have the ring knowing that Danny was trusting her to keep it, than having it full of questions and half-truths. So Danny was still clueless about her true feelings for him…but at least he didn't settle on Valerie. That was something that gave her a small window of hope that one day, he could know the truth.
And maybe giving Sam the ring without even explaining why her name was on it wasn't exactly the smartest thing Danny had ever done- but the fact remained that he did do it. Whether out of obligation or he really wanted her to hang on it, Danny had given the ring to Sam. Not to Valerie, not back to his dad, he didn't keep it himself or throw it out. He gave it to Sam. He trusted that she would keep it…perhaps for the day where he would need it again. The day where he would decide that he cared enough about one person and give her something to show it. And maybe…just maybe…that would be the day where he would give it to the person it was originally intended for…
Abruptly, Sam moved back over to her bedside table, and set the ring gently on top of it. She quickly tidied up the rest of her room, carefully applied a bit of make-up to hide her flushed cheeks, and grabbed the DVD they were planning to watch from her desk. She moved towards the door, but stopped before she got there, turning back to go pick up the ring once more.
She still couldn't believe that after months of questioning, she finally understood what was really behind that little circle of metal. So with a sigh of content that she had finally uncovered the mystery of the ring, Sam slid it onto the ring finger on her right hand. She thought she would wear it, just for the movie tonight.
"After all," she thought to herself with a smile, "it is my ring. Even if Danny doesn't know it yet…"
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