It was the year he had turned eighteen and the year he had found his affection for his friend, Sam, had bloomed into something else. He had given her a hug that day, that day he had headed out for the one week with his family that he took every year. He had said his good bye, the words I love you, on the tip of his tongue, but he had chickened out at the last moment. Fear had gripped him and now he regretted it because when he had come back he found Tucker, alone. He had stepped out of the Fenton RV and Tucker had greeted him, but when Danny had inquired about the Goth the technophile hadn't been able to hold eye contact and that was when the halfa had realized something had happened.

Flashback

"What happened?" the halfa asked, dread building in his stomach and in his heart. "Where's Sam?" Tucker had looked down at his hands now, his body taunt. "Tucker!" Danny growled as he grasped his friend by his upper arm before shaking him. "Where is she?!"

"She's gone." It was so simple and so complicated because when Tucker finished explaining her disappearance Danny felt that dread turn to anger. "She was taken by a ghost and dragged into the Ghost Zone, but no one knew until the next morning and by then it was too late."

"It's never too late! You should have gone in and searched for her!" Those had been the last words that

End of Flashback

Danny had spoken to Tucker in the last few weeks since the Goth's disappearance and he had done what he had told Tucker to do. He had searched. He had gone every day into the Ghost Zone and had asked so many ghosts about her, a picture of her in his hand as he searched, but the Ghost Zone was so vast and it was like going in circles. He had even tried to use the infi-map, but even that had failed him. They had given up, all of them except for him. He had stood there looking into that abyss for several hours at a time, only sleeping when he needed to and eating when his body began to fail him.

How long would she be missing?