AN: And here it is, my next new story! The other new ideas will probably take some time to come to fruition, so this will be the last one for a bit. This is actually a revamp of an older idea that fell through (some of you may recognize the tittle). Although some of the ideas are the same, I think it's changed for the better. This is a shorter chapter, meant just to give us a bit of a glimpse into this world. It's important to know that Sam and Tucker do not know that Danny is Phantom in this world, I didn't have space to put that in the description. 3

Thawing the Ice

Chapter One: Four Years

It was a cold winter morning as Jack Fenton made his way down the streets of Amity Park. Snow had been falling all day, and most people were tucked away inside of their homes. School and work had been called off alike because of the snow and ice, and smoke could be seen coming from the chimneys that dotted the route the large man was walking.

Not quite so large as he had once been, however. Over the past four years, things had changed and, mostly from the stress of it all, Jack Fenton had lost weight. It had not been the only things he had lost.

Four years.

That's how long ago it was that his wife and daughter had been taken from him. It had happened so suddenly, they were gone in the blink of an eye. It was an accident they said, an accident that had claimed their lives. Maddie and Jasmine Fenton were dead.

He didn't believe it when he first heard the news. It wasn't until he saw their broken and twisted bodies for himself did it finally sink in that they were telling the truth, as awful as it was. An accident, they had said, an accident that had been caused by someone he had grown to despise over the past four years.

Phantom.

He always knew that ghost couldn't be left alone. He and his wife had spent a year trying to catch him and send him back where he came from. If he had never appeared, his wife and daughter would still be here today, and he would not have to be out on this bleak and lifeless day to visit their graves.

He didn't really have anything to tell them today, but it was his tradition. Every morning, he would pay a visit to them, and give them fresh flowers. Even today, with the flower shop closed, and having nothing to give, still the man went to them. Although it was easier now, he had never come to accept their death. He knew he wouldn't until the day he finally got his hands around that ghost boy, and tore him apart until there was nothing left.

He stayed by the graves for several minutes, in the silence, contemplating all of the changes the past four years had brought. Although he himself had changed some after the sudden death of his wife and child, it was not him who had suffered the most because of it.

No, it was the other person they had left behind. His wife's son, his daughter's brother. His own son, Daniel Fenton. Danny, really, is what people called him, Jack included.

Or did, at one point. They didn't talk to each other once more. The Fenton house, once filled with much noise, had gone completely silent. It must have been three years since the two of them had spoken to each other. He had begun to forget what his son's voice even sounded like.

Danny had taken their deaths harder, harder than Jack, even. The man could never understand it, but it always seemed like he was blaming himself for the accident that claimed their lives. Jack knew that the only real person to blame was Phantom, that wretched ghost boy.

If only they had gotten to him sooner, none of this would have happened.

His son wouldn't have gone someplace where Jack could no longer reach him.

It had started as just not talking to him, yes, but after awhile, Danny simply stopped coming home at night. Jack had no idea where he went, and all attempts to find him had failed. His absences grew longer until finally, one night, he packed his bags and left the house.

That was two years ago.

He didn't see his son much anymore. Every so often he spotted him on the streets, and though he tried to make contact with him, the eighteen year old would avoid him, pretending he didn't hear him. It hurt Jack to see him this way, and there was nothing in the world he wanted more than to see his son come away from that place he had gone to.

That place in which no one else could live.

And so, that brought him to the second reason he had decided to leave the house today. He found himself on the doorstep to the Manson household, ringing the doorbell. If he couldn't reach his son, then he would have to try and rely on the only person he thought might still have a chance.

Her mother answered the door, seeming surprised to see him. Once, they didn't get along, but that was before the accident. The Mansons were not so petty or small that they could not see when someone was grieving and they had set aside their own personal distaste for the Fentons to try and lend a helping hand.

The parents to the surviving parent, the child to the surviving child. One had taken it, and the other had drowned.

"Jack!" Pamela Manson stepped aside to let him in. "What brings you out today?" She asked him.

"I wanted to talk to Sam about something, actually, Pam." Jack told her, grateful to be in from the cold. Hazmats were great for protecting him from ectoradation, but not so great from protecting him from the cold.

"I see." The redheaded woman blinked. "Well, she's huddled up in her room right now." She told him. "I think she's reading, but I'm sure she'll let you speak to her. Would you like me to have you brought up some tea?"

"Oh, no thanks, that's fine." He held up a hand. "Thank you for the offer, though." He said, before he headed up to Sam's room. He knocked on the door once. "Sam? It's Mr. Fenton. Do you mind if I have a word with you?"

There was some noise behind the door, before it clicked open and the raven haired girl peered out. She put a small smile on her face as she saw him. "Mr. Fenton. What brings you here?" She asked, stepping aside a bit to let him into her room.

"Well, Sam." Jack began, hoping she would hear him out. "I've come to talk to you about Danny, actually."

"Oh." The smile vanished from her face then. "I see." She didn't look too pleased to hear his name brought up, though they had been very close at one point. Jack knew the two of them had feelings for each before the accident, it was just that neither of them could gather up the guts to confess to the other.

A year after the accident, Sam finally came out and confessed them to Danny. She had seen him drowning, and had tried to extend a hand to save him.

Well, after that, they didn't speak to each other ever again.

"Sam, I know the two of you had that huge fight." Jack started off. "But I still think you're the only person who can reach him now."

"I already tried, Mr. Fenton." Sam said, sounding annoyed. She took a seat back on her bed. She had let her hair grow out over the past few years, and had taken to wearing it in a low ponytail these days. "He didn't want to let me in then." She looked up at him, arching an eyebrow. "He's just gotten worse since then. What makes you think he'll want anything to do with me now? I haven't even seen his face in six months, you know."

"Yes, I know, Sam." Jack heaved a sigh. "I haven't seen him for awhile either." It had been three months, to be exact. It seemed that when Danny wanted to avoid someone, he really seemed to know how to make himself invisible. Jack had tried to track down where he was staying, but found himself once more at a dead end.

"So then why come here, Mr. Fenton?" She asked. "It's not that I don't still like your son, I mean, I do." Sam told him. "It's just that I'm pretty sure he hates me now." She shook her head. "It's been three years now, and I still can't forget the things he said to me. No, I don't think he wants to talk to me."

"Sam, please." Jack told her. "I know he's become the way he is, but I don't think his feelings for you have changed. He's just choosing to ignore them." The man frowned. "If this keeps up for any longer than it has, Sam, I just know that we're going to lose him forever. I don't know what I'm going to do then."

There was an awkward silence in the room then, but Sam broke it, heaving a sigh. She got up off her bed. "I'll try, Mr. Fenton, okay? For old time's sake." She gave him a small smile. "I don't think anything will happen, though."

Jack seemed to be relieved just hearing that. "Thanks, Sam. I knew I could count on you." He patted her on the shoulder. "If you do get in touch with him, you know what my phone number is."

"I'll call you if I even get so much as a word from him." Sam assured him. "You had better get home though, Mr. Fenton. The weatherman is saying that the snow storm is only going to get worse later on today."

Jack nodded, heading out her door. He said a brief farewell to her mother before he headed out the door again, and back out into the snow.

Another month had passed since then, and Sam couldn't even find Danny, though she had tried. She heaved a sigh, her head resting on her desk. She had spent last night tracking down what she thought had been a lead- but it had only turned out that there was more than one person named Danny Fenton living in Amity Park.

"Rough night?" Tucker asked, glancing down at her. They were in school now, the two teenagers were finishing up their very last year of high school.

"Tell me about it." Sam pushed herself back up. "I spent all night on a wild good chase." She heaved a sigh. "I don't even know why I'm trying so hard, really, Tucker. It's obvious that Danny doesn't want to be found."

If things had been different, Danny would have been with them, here, listening to Mr. Lancer drone on about Oedipus Rex. But he had dropped out of school almost as soon as he was sixteen. Even before that, though, his absences just got longer and longer. He hadn't been to school for two months before he officially dropped out.

"Yeah, I've been looking for him too." Tucker frowned. "Nothing." He shrugged. "I even tried a couple less than legal means of finding him, but he hasn't shown up anywhere." He heaved a sigh. "I even checked the neighboring towns just to be sure he hadn't moved."

Unlike Sam, Tucker had never really given up on his old friend. He seemed to have a better knack for running into him, and tried to engage him in conversation every time their paths happened to cross. Like Sam, he too had offered his friend a hand to keep him from drowning, but had just about as much luck with it as she did.

The bell rang then, shattering their thoughts for a moment. Mr. Lancer paused and told them they would pick the lesson back up next Monday, before dismissing them for the day. Sam picked up her bag. "I'm going to go visit the bookstore." She told Tucker. "My favorite author's new book comes out today, and I need something else to focus on for awhile. All this worrying about Danny is going to give me a headache."

"Yeah, alright Sam." Tucker told her, waving goodbye. "I'll call you if I happen to see him."

Sam nodded, before ducking out of the classroom. Really, she still had no idea what she would say to Danny if she came across him. They hadn't talked for three years after all. That day when she had finally confessed her feelings to him...

And he had shot her down more cruelly than she even thought him to be capable of.

She didn't know where Danny had gone, but it was truly a world in which nobody else seemed to be able to enter. It was like he had put his heart in a box and locked it with a key that couldn't be found, no matter how hard you looked. There were so many what ifs raging in Sam's mind, wondering if one little thing she could have done might have made a difference in the long run.

Maybe this, maybe that. Maybe Danny would have still been here if she had confessed a little sooner. Maybe he would have opened up again if she hadn't been so angry at him after the fight and had stayed with him. Maybe she should have tried a little harder to save him, extended her hand just a little bit farther...

There was no point of thinking about the what ifs, really. She couldn't change the past. And if she could, she would have gone back and made sure that the accident had never happened. She would have saved Jazz and Mrs. Fenton from Phantom.

The ghost's behavior had changed after the accident too. Before it, he seemed to like to play hero, trying to fight off all the ghostly invaders that came into Amity Park. These days, he only seemed to show up if they amused him enough. He had left the ghosts to the two remaining ghost hunters in the area, Jack Fenton, and the mysterious Red Hunter.

She was startled out of her thoughts then, the blare of a truck horn sounding in her ears. She blinked, finding that she was on the ground now, sitting down in the snow. She had been so caught up in her thoughts, she hadn't even noticed that she was about to get plowed over by a truck.

She realized someone must have pulled her out of harm's way, and quickly got to her feet, opening her mouth to thank them. She paused then, noticing that nobody was standing by her. Looking around, she spotted a figure heading off in the other direction, and almost felt her heart skip a beat.

Even if it was from behind, she could always recognize him.

She grabbed her bag, shoving the contents that had tumbled out back in, and chased after him. "Danny, wait!" She called out to him. The man seemed to pause for a moment, but didn't look back at her. "Please, hold on for a second!" She hurried down the sidewalk, avoiding another near collision with a man in a business suit.

She caught up to him though, he hadn't gone far. Pausing to catch her breath for a moment, Sam reached out and took his arm. His hands were shoved in his pockets, and his face was obscured by the hood of his flight jacket, but she knew it was him. "Thank you." She said, looking up at him. "That was you back there, wasn't it?"

There was silence for a moment, and Sam's heart sank. Maybe he wasn't going to say anything to her after all. She was sure it was him who had saved her back there, though. Even if they barely saw each other these days, they were still very close at one point, right? She didn't think Danny had it in him to let one of his friends die.

Finally, he opened his mouth, removing his arm from her hands as he did. "Don't mention it." He told her, his voice flat and monotone. Still, those words lit her heart up. She hadn't heard his voice in so long, it was a small miracle that she had heard him say anything at all. "You should be more careful."

"I'm sorry, I was just thinking." Sam told him, hoping to try and keep the conversation going. Maybe Mr. Fenton was right after all. For someone who came across as so clueless, he did seem to pick up on things a lot of other people missed. "I haven't seen you in ages, Danny. It's been what, seven months?"

"I wasn't counting." He told her, glancing down at her.

Sam paused, unsure of what to say to that. Eventually she reached up and pulled down the hood of his flight jacket. "There! I've always had trouble talking to someone when I couldn't see their face." She said, giving him a smile. Her hand paused on it's way down, and she carefully laid it on his right cheek, just below a gauze eyepatch that concealed his right eye from sight. "Oh, that hasn't healed yet?"

Danny heaved a sigh, almost sounding irritated. "What is it, Sam?" He asked, staring down at her with his good eye. He stepped back from her a bit, pulling the hood back up again. "I don't really want to talk to you."

"Oh come on, Danny!" Sam found herself raising her voice, a bit annoyed at him now. "Can't you see that I've been worried about you?" She asked him, staring up at him. "Even after you said all of those mean things to me and pushed me away like you did, I couldn't help but keep on worrying about you! It's not just me, either. Your father and Tucker are worried about you too!"

Danny's good eye seemed to narrow the moment she mentioned his father, and for a brief second, Sam could have sworn they almost changed color. It was probably just a trick of the light, though. "Oh, my father has?" He asked, his voice angry. "I'm sure. Listen, Sam, I meant those things I said to you." He told her, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "I would like it if you would leave me alone."

"If you really meant that, then why did you just save my life!?" She snapped at him. "I know it was you, Danny, there was nobody else!" She stepped up to him, and reached out to grab one of his arms, looking up at him. "I don't know why you think you have to force yourself away from all of us, but none of us want that, Danny! We want you here, with us."

"Sam, just," Danny heaved an annoyed sigh, freeing himself of her grip once more. "Look, I'm sorry, alright." He told her, not able to look at her any longer. "I can't, Sam, I can't. It's better if you and Tucker just forget I even existed in the first place. You'll be better off that way."

Without really thinking too hard about, Sam found herself reaching up and smacking her old friend across the face. "If that's the case, then maybe I shouldn't have even bothered pulling you off the ledge that one time!" She yelled at him. "God damnit, Danny, stop being so selfish and go home to your father already! How many times do we have to tell you that it's not your fault until you finally get it!? Jazz and your mother did not die because of you!"

The raven haired boy seemed to have been slightly taken aback by Sam's outburst, one hand reaching up to where she had smacked him across the cheek. Silence hung between the two for a moment, before Danny laughed, shaking his head. "It's not something you could understand, Sam."

It was then that what she had said to him sunk in, and Sam felt disgust at the words she had just spat out. No, she would never regret preventing Danny from taking his own life that day- why had she even said that? "I'm sorry Danny, I-" She stopped herself, realizing that at some point, the raven haired boy had vanished.

"...Danny?"

Unseen to human eyes, Phantom hung in the air above Sam. His good eye looked down at her, the smallest of smiles on his face, though it was a sad one. No, she would never understand, even if he told her.

Because she didn't know. Nobody knew, not anymore. The only other one who had known the truth about him now laid buried in the ground. But Danny Fenton, Phantom, he would always know.

Danny Fenton was Phantom.

The accident was Phantom's fault.

It was his fault.

It wasn't something he could ever forget.