Reunited
Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or the COPS program, are you surprised? I wouldn't be
A/N: My regulars will notice a change in the names of the parents, I explain this in my profile but I'll explain a bit of it here too. It felt weird to see the same parent names, jobs and personality in other stories, so I changed their names to make them my own again.
A/N: They are 16
-ENJOY THE READ-
November 5th, it was the day in Sam's life that meant the most to her. It was the day of her life that was the most frightening, and at the same time, the greatest day of her life. This day was the day that she moved from her sarcastic nature and spent it with Freddie's parents. For where she was in her life, she had to thank John and Emily Benson for it most of all. No one, not even Carly or Freddie knew why Sam always was so nice to Emily or why she always liked to hang out with John. Jake, Freddie's best friend, worked with John in a high school program to learn more about police work. He was lucky enough to get to learn from Seattle's Police Chief. The thing that baffled him was no matter how busy he was, he would always have time to talk with Sam.
Carly never thought to ask Sam why this was, and Jake had asked about it as well. Freddie asked his parents about it and neither of them had ever talked about it, they said it wasn't something that was going to be told unless Sam wanted to talk about it. Of course, he was always too nervous to ask Sam about it. Of course, November 5th came around, and once again Sam would find her way over to the Benson home.
Freddie's dad always seemed to take that day off, his mother as well, and even Sam's parents would visit at some times on that day. Of course, they had a different day to celebrate with Sam. It was almost a week later, but both days were supposed to be huge celebrations. One time, his parents took Sam to a fancy diner and another time Sam told them about a movie she thought they'd enjoy watching at the theater. Even when he asked her out and started dating, Freddie still never asked her about it.
This had been going on for ten years, of course, ten years ago was when his father had been working on something and it involved a show on television and apparently helped someone through his job.
"Hey Freddie," Sam said as she closed the front door and walked past him on the couch. Freddie looked at her and smiled, it was the one day of the year that she didn't call him a dork or any other name. Of course, he loved her names for him anyway, only because he loved her so much.
"Hey Sam, how are you? Mom's making something in the kitchen and Dad's looking over some files in his office." Sam nodded and sat next to Freddie on the couch, she looked at the television screen that was on and Freddie changed the channel. He had been changing the channel for the past thirty minutes, there wasn't anything on to watch.
"Can't find anything useful?"
"Nope, it's all boring crap." Sam chuckled lightly and leaned over to give Freddie a peck on the cheek. She sniffed the air and smiled, thinking that she smelled cookies. She then got up and looked toward the kitchen.
"I'm going in to check out what Mrs. Benson's making!" Freddie smirked as Sam quickly rushed into the kitchen. He clicked the channel button on the remote once more and found an interesting program. It was the show called COPS, they were in the middle of an episode and right after a high speed chase. All Freddie saw was a blurry face of a little six year old girl holding her head out of the car window. The girl had long, curly golden hair and was being calmed down by a female officer whose back was turned toward the camera.
"Sam!" Freddie's eyes were wide as he immediately recognized the girl. The blur did not conceal some of the details on the little girl's face and they looked a lot like Sam. Freddie heard a slight chuckle behind him and turned around to see Mr. Benson standing behind him. John had a coffee cup in his hand and was slowly sipping it, Freddie turned off the television and stood up to meet his father. Sam peered out of the kitchen and raised her eyebrow, wondering if Freddie called her. "Sorry, I thought someone on the television looked like you."
"Oh yeah, I'm a famous celebrity," Sam responded while smirking. Freddie chuckled and Sam moved back into the kitchen. After a minute, both Sam and Emily walked out of the kitchen with a plate of cookies in their hands. John took a cookie from the plate and kissed Emily's cheek.
"I have to say, I love eating your food," John said while taking a bite of the cookie. Emily smiled and looked over at Freddie.
"Is something wrong, Freddie?" Emily asked while raising her eyebrow. Freddie glanced at Sam and shrugged.
"Yeah, I just thought I saw Sam on that COPS program." John closed his eyes and took a sip of his drink.
"You did," John responded. Freddie raised his eyebrow and Sam nodded her head.
"Yeah, that's me ten years ago," Sam said while taking the cookie from the plate. "November 5th, it's when I was saved from my version of hell." Freddie blinked and Sam took a bite of her cookie, he was still pretty confused about everything.
"So…do you mind explaining? I mean, you don't have to, but I've always kind of been interested."
"I've got no problem with it, you don't have to seem so scared to ask." Sam smirked and sat down on the couch, pulling Freddie down with her. John and Emily sat in the chairs next to the couch. "Do you want to know what happened?"
"Yeah, that is, if you don't mind letting me know." Sam saw that Freddie was nervous, she giggled and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Okay, well I will say this, I was taken from my parents for three years, and placed in an orphanage for one of those three years." Sam took a deep breath and crossed her arms over. "Kidnapped again, and then reunited with my parents. Mr. and Mrs. Benson are the ones that reunited me with them."
"True," John stated while smirking. "As you know, Dave and Sarah are our closest friends. Let's go ahead and explain this thing to you, since you seem interested."
-Flashback-
John Benson walked into the nearby Subway shop, Dave Puckett was sitting at one of the tables. John sat down at the table while his partner and wife, Emily, walked over to the counter of the shop and bought a sandwich. Dave had a soda in his hand and was staring into it. "Three years, John," Dave said in a shaky voice. "Three years without my daughter…"
"I know it's hard," John responded in a calm voice. "We'll find her one day, the police never give up." He wasn't going to lie to his best friend, though. He knew well that when it comes to missing children, many of them don't make it out alive. Sam Puckett would be six years old, and three years ago, she was kidnapped from the preschool that she had been placed in. Emily took her sandwich and walked over to the table to sit down.
"I made sure the babysitter knew exactly what to do with Freddie," Emily said while taking a bite of her sandwich. "I called her a few minutes ago, and asked how Freddie was." John chuckled and nodded his head, his wife had continued to call the babysitter since they left the house.
"You know while we're on patrol, you don't have to call that often."
"Yeah, you're right." Emily looked over at Dave and tilted her head to the side. "So Dave, how is Sarah? We haven't seen you guys in about a couple weeks." Of course, their friends had been on a vacation for a few weeks. It was a military paid vacation, Dave was a general in the Military and Sarah was a doctor.
"She's doing well. You know, it never gets easier…" Emily nodded and stared at her sandwich. No matter how much time had passed for them all, they could never forget the loss of Samantha. Dave and Sarah had been hit the hardest and still were. "Sorry, we don't mean to dump our troubles on you. Sarah was telling me just the other day-"
"Don't worry about it, Dave." Emily smiled at him and John nodded his head. "You know you're like family to us, your troubles are ours." Dave smiled and took a sip of his drink. "Believe me, I promise that no matter what happens, we'll find out where she is. Sam is like a daughter to us all, and well, she is your daughter."
"Yeah, but I'm telling you, it keeps getting hard to deal with. Sarah cries every time she sees a little girl playing with her family or even a happy moment. We both miss our little girl, but she really was hit the hardest. Just a few days ago, she was crying about the possibility of Sam being killed." John crossed his arms and closed his eyes, his moustache hairs blew slightly as he sighed.
"You know, we can't promise that she'll be alive and we can't promise that she'll be dead. I will promise this, the police are going to find her, and if she's…you know…we'll be the ones to tell you." Dave nodded his head and took a rattling breath, even for a military General, it was still hard for him not to cry over the loss. He looked outside the window and spotted another vehicle sitting behind John and Emily's police cruiser. There were a few cameramen surrounding it.
"Uh, why do you have a camera crew with you guys?" John looked out the window and chuckled, it was for the COPS show.
"Well, it appears that I was singled out at the office to be on this show called COPS. They're hoping I get something good for the show, and if I don't, well we don't get put on television."
"Have you ever watched that show?"
"Yeah, I've seen a few episodes of it. As a police officer, it tends to help me learn a few things. Of course, I live what they go through almost every single day. Right now, we're on a lunch break of sorts." Dave nodded and John's radio started beeping. He pressed the button down and spoke into it, his order was then issued. "Crap! Emily we have to get moving, we have a person reporting a car going 100 mph just south of Main." Emily nodded and immediately dropped her sandwich, she figured she wouldn't be calling the babysitter for a bit.
"We'll talk later, Dave," Emily said as she and John rushed out of the building. John got into the drivers seat and Emily in the side, one of the COPS cameramen got in the car with them. John looked at the camera and then back to the road. He started the car and kept his eyes open for the car, he knew it was heading in his direction.
"We have the start of a chase. Someone reported seeing a black mustang going about 100 miles per hour just down the street. It isn't often we get a speeder running through, they think they're going to get away, that's how these criminals are." John looked over as Emily answered the cop radio, she frowned and looked over.
"They suspect this person to be involved in a recent kidnapping from an orphanage from upper Idaho. He may be passing through Seattle on his way out of the country."
"He made a bad mistake, this is my part of town here." John smirked and watched as the suspect sped by him, he flashed on his lights and hit the gas, shooting after the suspect. "Okay, we have a possibility of there being a little kid in that vehicle. Normally we would try the P.I.T. maneuver, where we hit the backside of the car and try to get them to stop, but it would be dangerous to try if there is a child in the backseat."
"John, look!" John narrowed his eyes as a little girl's head lifted up and looked out the windshield. "Okay, so there is a confirmed child in the backseat."
"She looks to be around five or six, and without a seatbelt." John took flipped on the radio and clenched his teeth. "I'm going to need backup, I'm tailing an apparent kidnapper in what looks like it could be a stolen vehicle and there is a child in the back of the car. We're on the south of Baker and heading toward the residential area." John flipped the radio and Emily frowned, they knew it would be highly dangerous to let them go into the residential area, if they did that, they would risk several lives of bystanders.
"Okay, so how will we stop him?" They watched as the suspect moved into the wrong lane of traffic, throwing his life and the child's life in danger.
"Damn bastard probably doesn't have any concern for that kid in the back." John swerved over to follow the driver, concerning himself fully with the safety of the girl in the back. He spoke once more into the radio. "I need units to block off traffic, and any on ramps going onto the highway."
"What are the chances that he'll run out of gas?"
"If he took this girl from Idaho, and did not stop at any gas stations, he could be running low on gas right now." John saw the driver swerve to the right, narrowly avoiding an oncoming car. "Do we have any units available to set some spikes nearby?"
"Affirmative," A voice said from the radio. "We have spikes set up on Broadway." John grinned and nodded his head, it was the only turn on the road for the driver to make. The suspect did just that as he swerved his car around and went onto Broadway, John followed in quick pursuit. The suspect ran over the spikes and John avoided them, the suspect's tires began to spark on the ground and his car started to swerve.
"Sometimes the suspect chooses to stop the car after being spiked, and sometimes they continue on. Let's hope that he will stop since he has a kid in the back. If he doesn't, we'll have to find another way to stop his mad dash through town, preferably a way that won't cause harm to the child." They drove for another mile until the man eventually decided to pull over, John pulled over behind him and started to get out of the car. Emily got out behind him and took out her gun, but once they got out, the suspect made a dash from the car. "He's running, Emily take care of the child, I'll go after the suspect!" Emily nodded and John chased after the criminal.
"No! I can't be arrested!" The man shouted as he ran. John narrowed his eyes and continued to chase. The man climbed over a fence and John jumped over it after him. The camera crews were fast on his feet while another cameraman stayed with Emily. John then tackled the suspect to the ground and placed his knee on the man's back while pulling out his handcuffs. "I can't be arrested, man!"
"You should have thought about that before running through my city at one hundred miles an hour. Now what made you think you could outrun me?" John cuffed the man and pulled him up, he walked over to where the suspect's car was and saw Emily comforting the girl. She looked at John with wide eyes and walked over to him.
"John, I think she looks a bit familiar," Emily said in a quiet voice. John raised his eyebrow and looked over at the young girl, his eyes widened briefly and he patted Emily's shoulder.
"Read the suspect his rights and get him in the car, I'll go talk with that girl." Emily nodded as John walked over to the child, he knelt down to her level and smiled. "You're safe, the bad man's going to go away."
"He will?" The girl asked as she wiped her tears. "I want to be safe."
"You are, you're safe now. I'm Sheriff John Benson, you're with the Seattle Police Department, you're safe. Do you want to wait and answer questions later, or do you want to answer questions now?"
"I'm hungry…" The girl let out a small whimper and John slowly stood up. He surveyed the location and saw an ice cream shop nearby.
"How do you feel about ice cream?"
"I love ice cream!"
"Okay." John turned and looked at one of the camera crew members, there was a man not doing anything. "You there, how about you go get this girl an ice cream cone. It should be about two bucks, I'll pay you back later." The man nodded and rushed toward the ice cream shop, John looked back to the girl and smiled at her. He felt something different about this child, but he wasn't sure what. "Okay, so what is your name and exactly how old are you?"
"My name is Sam and I'm six years old." John's eyes widened and he gently patted the girl's shoulder, this girl not only looked like Dave's child but she had the same name.
"Sam, where are you from?" He looked into the girl's eyes and she stopped crying, as though John's eyes were very calming to her. She sniffed and John noticed that she had a small stuffed dog in her hand, it was ripped up considerably, but repairable. "I see that your stuffed animal is pretty beat up." Sam looked at her stuffed dog and brought it to her chin.
"I think my original parents gave it to me, I always carry her around with me."
"Her? What is her name?"
"I named her Snowflake! She's special, she's always with me, no matter where I go. She followed me to my second parents and to the orphanage."
"Wait, you had two sets of parents?" Sam nodded and a tear rolled down her cheek.
"My first mom and dad were nice to me. Mommy had blonde hair and Daddy always was strong. I don't remember much about them, but I know that I can remember their faces and them giving me Snowflake. Then I remember being taken by this man and woman, they called themselves my parents and moved me to another place, away from my mommy and daddy. Then they had a car accident and I was moved to the orphanage." John rubbed his chin and looked over as the cameraman brought an ice cream cone to Sam, she smiled and gladly took the cone in one hand while holding tightly to the dog in her other hand. John smiled as Sam took a bite of the ice cream.
"How is the ice cream?"
"I love it Mr. Benson!" Sam smiled gleefully at John and continued to eat the ice cream. He looked at the stuffed dog once more and crossed his arms, he wondered if his wife wouldn't mind sewing up the tears on the dog since she was good at sewing. He looked over as Emily walked up to him, he frowned and let out a small sigh.
"She's a missing child, and the orphanage she's at kept her for a time, I don't know if they knew she was a missing child or not, but they'll have some explaining to do. Not only that, I think she's Dave and Sarah's daughter." Emily gasped softly and her eyes widened as she looked to Sam. Sam was licking her ice cream and slowly forgetting about the events of the day. John knelt back down and Sam looked back into his eyes. "Look, we're going to take you to the station and wait for child welfare to come for you."
"They're not taking me back to the orphanage are they?" John looked over at Emily and his wife gave Sam a gentle hug.
"Don't worry, you're not going there," Emily said in a quiet voice.
"You seem like a nice woman…"
"That's my wife," John said with a smile. "She's a very nice and very beautiful woman." Emily giggled slightly and stood up, trying to keep her calm composure as she remembered her job. John snickered as Emily failed to conceal her blush. "Emily, do you know what the suspect said?"
"He claimed that the orphanage wouldn't let him adopt the child, and that he stole her with the intent of crossing the border and providing a family life for her or something. He failed to realize that she was already a missing child and he figured it out once he made it to Seattle. That's when he started speeding."
"I see…Well, we'll have to have a chat with the owner of the orphanage and then get Sam to her parents. You might phone Dave and Sarah, and let them know they should find their child's birth certificate. Oh, and you wouldn't mind sewing up that stuffed animal for her, would you?" John pointed to the dog and Emily looked to it, she smiled and nodded her head.
"Sure, I'll sew it up." Emily looked into Sam's eyes and smiled. "Hello there, Sam. You don't mind if I sew up that dog for you, do you?"
"Do you think you can make Snowflake look better? She got torn up by that mean man." Emily nodded and Sam slowly got out of the car. "If you have to take me somewhere, can I ride with you? I like you."
"Of course you can. I have a son who is just your age, so I don't mind letting you ride with us."
-NEW SCENE-
"I'm scared of the needle!" Sam exclaimed as one of the nurses stood in front of her. John and Emily were both standing next to her, she wanted them to be there when she had to get a blood test done. Emily smiled and took her hand in hers, she squeezed it softly and Sam looked up to her.
"It's to find out if Dave and Sarah Puckett are your parents," Emily said. They're having a blood test done as well, and they have provided the birth certificate. If they're your real parents, you'll get to be with them."
"Really, you mean that? They seemed like nice people when I talked to them."
"Yes, and the only way to find out if they are your parents are if you let this lady draw your blood." Sam smiled and nodded her head with determination, she wanted to find her parents and nothing would stand in her way. "John and I will be here through it all."
"Okay, I'm ready!" The nurse swabbed Sam's arm and swiftly stuck the needle in, Sam winced but did not scream or cry. Soon the nurse drew the blood and the ordeal was complete. "That wasn't so bad."
"You see, you're fine and another step closer to finding your parents." Sam smiled and got out of the chair, she gave Emily a hug and a tear fell from her eye.
"I can't wait, I want to see my mommy and daddy finally." Emily nodded and hugged Sam close, she looked over at John and he gave a soft smile. A man walked into the room and John turned to him.
"The owner and her lawyer are ready for questioning," the man stated. John nodded and followed the man out of the room, he walked down the hall and into the questioning room. Another officer had already read the woman her rights by the time John got there. John sat down in the chair across from the woman, his face was stern and the woman looked slightly fearful under his sharp gaze.
"Hello officer," The woman stated.
"Let's get right down to business, Ms. Fields. I am Sheriff John Benson, and my policy is a no nonsense policy. So I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want you to answer them as honestly as you can, can you do this?"
"You don't have to answer anything you don't want to," the lawyer said as he leaned toward the woman. Ms. Fields nodded and let a tear fall, she already felt guilty about what she had done, but there wasn't much to say now.
"Okay, so, did you know that Sam was a missing child when she came into your care?"
"Yes sir, I did," Ms. Fields stated.
"So why in God's name did you not report this?"
"I don't deny that I kept her illegally, and if I reported it, she would have been reunited with her parents earlier. I was jealous, I was barren, I could not have a child."
"No, I don't understand. You own an adoption clinic, surely you can adopt one of those children. In fact, because you are incapable of having a child, you should understand the perspective of a mother who lost her child and is unable to get that child back."
"Yes sir, I do. No amount of apologies can ever erase what happened." Ms. Fields had more tears running down her face as she brought a tissue to her eyes. "I may have wanted a child, but that wasn't why I kept her. I kept her out of greed."
"You kept her out of greed? So let me get this straight. You were barren so when this girl came to your orphanage, you felt that you would deny another woman the happiness of having her little girl back and so you illegally kept this girl hidden away in your orphanage, thinking you would never get found out?" The lawyer started to protest but Ms. Fields put up her hand and let out a sobbing breath.
"I couldn't stand to see another woman happy, and I don't know why. I don't know what was going through my mind at the time. I know that I'm guilty, and you can use this as a confession. I shouldn't have kept her away from her mother like that, I don't even know why I did it, really…" John frowned and crossed his arms as he narrowed his eyes. He leaned back in his chair and held his glare into the woman's eyes.
"Well ma'am, you will have plenty of time to think about that, where you're going." An officer walked in as Ms. Fields and her lawyer stood up, they were led out of the room and John let out a sigh. All they had to do was wait a day or two until the tests were done and then they would get Sam to her parents.
-End Flashback-
Freddie's mouth was slightly ajar and Sam tilted her head to the side, she knew he was both shocked and amazed by what happened, and she was going to give him some time to think about it.
"Wow, what happened to the orphanage?" Freddie asked in a quiet voice. That was one of many questions on his mind, he didn't like Ms. Fields for what she had done, but he knew that it would be cruel to shut down an orphanage on all those kids.
"Someone else took control of it," John said in a quick voice. "So it didn't shut down, but Ms. Fields did get a hefty sentence."
"In a way, I'm grateful for that last kidnapper," Sam said in a quiet voice. She remembered being terrified on that day, and she remembered the great sense of relief she felt when it was over. Dave and Sarah had been so happy when they were reunited with her, words could not describe how emotional that time was. "Well Dork, now you know why I'm so happy with your family."
"Yeah, and I'm glad they got you too," Freddie said while pulling Sam into a hug. "After all, if not for them, you wouldn't be with your family and I would never know you. Do you know how bad that would be?"
"Aw, you wouldn't care at all." Freddie's eyes were slightly wide and he shook his head.
"No, it's horrifying to think of life without you." Sam smirked and shrugged her shoulders.
"You'd manage, somehow."
"Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't. I'm just thankful that you're here and not with some other person right now, or even dead." Sam shrugged and Freddie gave her a quick peck on the lips. "I love you, Sam."
"Aw, I love you and your dorky kisses." Freddie smirked and hugged Sam closer. He was amazed by what he learned and extremely glad that his father was on call during that time, because any other police officer might not have recognized Sam at all.
"By the way, how did that stuffed dog turn out?" Sam grinned and slowly stood up.
"I still have it and it still looks like new."
"Awesome." Freddie stood up and the parents stood with him.
"By the way, we're all going out to the diner downtown and then heading to a movie," Emily said while crossing her arms and smiling at Freddie. "Would you like to come with us?" Freddie nodded and Sam took his hand in hers.
"Great, then let's get going!" Sam stated. She was energetic as always and once again Freddie felt thankful to have her. The group then left the house and toward their car, each person reminiscing about the past and each person knowing full well not to take for granted the moment they had. Since something could always go wrong. At least now, Freddie didn't have to wonder anymore about why Sam's always happy when around his family on November 5th. Of course, there was Carly, but she didn't have to know unless she really wanted to know.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that. It came to me while watching an episode of COPS, I'm not a frequent watcher of the program, but it got me writing this. We won't be seeing Carly's reaction, the oneshot ends here. So drop a review!