I don't own any CSI: NY characters. The rest are mine. Enjoy, please leave me a review
Don buzzed Sam's apartment. He was invited up and he pushed open the front door of the pre-war building. He trucked up the stairs to the second floor. He knocked on the door and heard "come in" from behind the door.
"God, Sam, when was the last time you left this place?" Don asked as he walked into the apartment. There were dishes covering the kitchen counter.
"I left this morning, thank you," the dog got up from his cushion and ran to Don. "I walked the dog."
"I'll never understand this thing you do when you're working on an article."
She finally turned to look at him. "And I'm glad. I have to keep some secrets from you."
Sam had been one of his best friends since high school. She was the one girl he could actually be friends with due to her lack of drama and interest in him as more than a friend. "Come on." He took her by the arm to pull her away from the computer.
"What?"
"You have to get out of this apartment."
"I'm almost done," she retorted.
"You're going out, this isn't healthy."
She looked at him and tilted her head. "Do I get on you for being passionate about your job?"
"No, but I don't lock myself in my apartment for days at a time either."
She sighed. "Writing isn't just what I do, it's who I am and I enjoy it more than anything. I don't expect you to get it."
"Can't we just go out so both of us can forget about work? I know you'll stay up till two in the morning working anyway."
"Fine, but I do have a deadline," she conceded.
"Alright, I'll be downstairs. You have fifteen minutes before I come back up."
She saluted him. "Yes, sir."
Don shook his head as he passed through the kitchen again. He went out of the apartment then back down the stairs to the foyer where he sat on the bench right inside the door. He waited and looked at his watch. Sam came running down the stairs almost right at the fifteen minute mark. She was wearing jeans and high heels with a black sweater.
"What?" she asked; he must've been staring.
"Oh, nothing. You look nice," he responded. "Big change from the jeans and hooded sweatshirt and tennis shoes."
"Thanks," he stood as she walked past. "So, where are we going?"
"Uh, I don't know I was gonna call Danny and see what he's doing."
"So, you got me out of the house to go…nowhere?"
"We'll go somewhere, don't worry."
"I have an idea. There's a karaoke place a few blocks away."
They were outside now. "A karaoke place? Are you kidding?"
"No, it'll be fun. You dragged me out, can't I pick the place?" She locked her arm in his.
"I guess so," he replied and then changed to small talk as they walked down the sidewalk. She was possibly more of a friend to Don then Danny was; he had known her for so long and knew some different things about Don then Danny.
Don called Danny during a break in the conversation and told him where to meet them. When Don and Sam got to the bar, they went inside and ordered a drink before they sat down at a tall table. There was a couple on the stage belting out a Bon Jovi song. The audience was cheering and singing along with them. Danny came over to them a minute later with Lindsay not far behind him.
"So, karaoke, huh, Sam?" Danny commented as he sat down.
"It's Don's fault for dragging me away from a deadline," Sam replied and took a sip of her drink.
"Yeah, and I didn't already have a place picked out to take you to," Don cut-in.
Sam finished her first drink and she was on the stage, singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Her friends cheered her on and laughed as she danced around the stage. When she was done another girl got up, then Lindsay and Danny after her, singing "Summer Lovin'" from "Grease."
"You guys are good," Sam told Danny and Lindsay as they sat back down at the table.
"Yeah right, you only say that because you've had a few drinks," Danny responded.
Sam looked at Don and rested her head on her hand. She squinted at him.
"What?" he asked raising his eyebrows.
"I bet you a hundred you won't get up there."
"A hundred, huh?" he thought for a second then downed the last of his drink and stood. He leaned closer to her. "Make it one-fifty." He loosened his tie and made his way to the stage.
Sam smiled.
Lindsay leaned toward Sam and Danny. "Have either of you ever heard him sing before?"
They both chuckled. "No," they said in unison.
Don told the guy controlling the music which song to play. As the music started the whole audience cheered, recognizing the Jimmy Buffet song. Sam watched her best friend in amazement. She never expected him to get up there. He was singing off-key and dancing horribly. She was glad that he had had some drinks otherwise she would be worried about him.
Don held onto the railing as he followed Sam up the stairs. She turned around once when she heard his footsteps stop.
"You ok?" she asked him.
"I think it's possible that I drank too much," he replied and looked up at her.
"I'm sure you did. Why don't you get a cab and go home? I can walk myself to my door."
"No, no I'm ok."
They got to her studio and Sam opened the door. She instructed him to go lay on the couch while she made some coffee. When the coffee was done, she brought a mug into the living room but he was fast asleep. She headed back to the kitchen and began to clean up the apartment. After she finished she went over to her computer and began again with the announcement she was working on for the wedding section of the Times.
Three hours later at four in the morning she was still typing away on the computer. She heard Don moving on the couch and turned. He sat up and rubbed his eyes then he looked at her.
"What are you doing?" he asked. "Have you slept at all?"
"My deadline is in thirty minutes. I'm done I just have to save it and run it to the printer's." She stood and collected the pages she had printed.
"You can't just e-mail it?"
"No, they, well and I, like to do it the old-fashioned way. You can stay, I'll be back. If you want go lay up in my bed it's more comfortable." She slipped on her tennis shoes then started out of the apartment. "Oh, aspirin's in the medicine cabinet."
When Don woke up in Sam's bed he looked around. His head was aching even more when he happened to look out the open window and the sun was in his eyes. He could hear Sam doing things around the apartment. He sat up and slid off the bed then went down the ladder from the loft.
"Hey, sleepyhead," he heard and saw Sam walking over to the couch with a cup of coffee and her dog close behind.
"God, what time is it?" he asked with his eyes barely open.
"Uh, about six."
He groaned as he sat down then laid his head on her shoulder. "How much did I drink last night?"
"Oh, obviously too much. Do you remember anything?"
"Nothing after singing," he put his hand on his head. "Did you make your deadline?"
"Yeah, I got it there. I even took the dog out while you were sleeping. Don't you have a job to get to?"
"I'm actually off today, well I'm on call just in case but it's my day off. Well, actually I do have a shift that starts at four." Don got up and went to the bathroom then came back with a couple aspirin, which he swallowed down. "Do you have coffee?"
"Oh yeah, in the carafe on the counter."
Don came back to the living room with a mug in hand and fell back down onto the couch. "I feel like I was hit by a truck."
A couple weeks later Don was walking up to the front door of his apartment building. He was looking down before he noticed Sam sitting on the steps.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Don asked her and she stood up.
"Uh, I just…I need to talk to you," she replied looking away.
"You couldn't call?"
"No, I need it to be face-to-face. Can we go up?"
He looked at her with a confused look. "Yeah, come on." He unlocked the door and she followed him inside the building they went to the elevator and rode to the fourth floor. Sam stayed silent and kept her eyes away from him until they got to the apartment. When he opened the door, she walked past him and sat on the couch.
"Sam, I'm starting to get worried, you're never this quiet," he told her as he walked over to her. He sat in front of her on the coffee table.
She wouldn't meet his gaze at first then turned for him to see the tears in her eyes.
"Come on, Sammy, you're starting to scare me. What's going on?"
"I'm sick, Donny."
"What do you mean?" he put his hand on hers.
She took a deep breath. "I have leukemia. I was diagnosed about a month ago."
Don sat up straight and put his hand to his mouth. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"To be honest, telling you scared me more than anything. No, I have no idea why. But listen," she put her hand on his. "I'm gonna be ok, I promise. It's acute leukemia, which means it came on suddenly and it's treatable. My doctor wants to do a bone marrow transplant. My family's still getting tested to see who's a match, but it looks promising." She stared at him as he was looking down at their hands together.
He looked up and she could see the tears in his eyes.
"Hey," Sam put her hand on his face. "I'm gonna be ok, really."
"How do you know, Sam? I can't lose you."
"You're not losing anyone, especially not me."
He watched her smile with confidence then he rubbed his eyes. "You sure know how to make a grown man cry, you know." He kissed the top of her hand. "You're my best friend, Sam, I can't lose you, ok?"
"I know." Sam fell against the back of the couch and closed her eyes.
"So, when's the surgery?" Don asked her.
"Well, it depends on who matches and how long that all takes. The doctors are trying for next week some time."
"Make sure you let me know for sure."
She sat up. "Come on, I have a craving for Chinese. Let's order some food." She stood up.
Don grabbed her hand as she began to walk away. "Hey, I love you, you know?"
She smiled. "I know, I love you, too."
The next week Sam's mom called Don and told him Sam would be having her surgery that Friday. Her older brother Jackson's marrow had matched his younger sister's. On Friday Don was at work, finishing paperwork. He glanced at his watch then looked over at the picture on his desk of him, his sister and brother, and Sam and her brother. His phone rang next to his right hand on the desk. He glanced at the caller ID and pushed it aside. He didn't want to talk to his mom, not today.
He was scared. He would never admit it to anyone but he was- scared to lose his best and dearest friend. There were so many things that could go wrong, so many what-ifs.
Danny walked up to his desk and sat on the edge. "Hey, Sam's surgery's today, isn't it? Are you going to the hospital?"
"Uh, I…not today, no," he told his friend.
Danny gave him a confused look. "No? Why? She's your best friend."
"I don't wanna talk about it." Don stood up.
"Alright. You wanna go grab a drink, or something to take your mind off it?"
"No man, I'm just gonna go home. Thanks, though."
After Don left the building he made his way to his apartment. His phone rang a couple more times; his mom called again then Sam's younger brother. Don rejected any calls for the rest of the night. He ordered a pizza and settled in with a beer on the couch. He should've called Sam or someone who was there, actually he should've been there to be with her.
A few days later Danny came up to him at work with Lindsay behind him. "We're going to see Sam at the hospital, you been yet?" Danny asked as they walked down the hallway.
"No, I haven't had the chance," Don replied.
"You mean you haven't taken the chance," Danny retorted. Before Don could respond Danny put up his hands. "Listen, you do what you want. But remember, she was by your side every day after the bombing."
Don watched Danny and Lindsay walk away. He hung his head then made his way back to the lab where Mac was waiting for him.
That night he was in his apartment again, now in the dark, staring at pictures of him and Sam. There were ones as far back as the third grade and some as new as a couple months ago. He threw down the pictures and went to the bedroom to get his tennis shoes. Then he pulled on his jacket and grabbed his keys to leave the apartment.
He paced around the lobby of the hospital for close to ten minutes then finally he asked the nurse behind the counter for Sam's room number. He stood outside the room in the ICU for a few minutes. Sam's sister was next to her bed, reading a book. He watched her yawn and look at her watch. Don pushed the door open.
"Don?" Chelsea, Sam's sister, commented as he came into the room.
"Hi," he said almost in a whisper. "She asleep?"
"Yeah," Chelsea's expression was stern. She stood and walked over to him. "You should've been here," she told him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to get some air."
Don went over to the bed and looked down at Sam. He pulled a chair close to the bed and sat down. Her eyes were closed and Don put his hand on hers.
"I know you're awake, you can open your eyes," Don told her.
She squeezed his hand then rolled over onto her left side.
"Sammy, please," he pleaded with her. He got up and went around to the other side of the bed. There were tears going down from her eyes onto the pillow.
"I needed you here and you weren't. What happened to you? You're my best friend, Don." She was whispering to him.
His head fell onto the bed then he looked up. "Sam, I was so scared. I know you needed someone here who was strong and could show that. But I was so scared for you that I knew I couldn't do that."
Sam put her hand on his then on his face. "You just being here would've been enough for me, just to wake up and see your face was all I needed."
"I'm sorry, Sam. I was stupid. Can you forgive me?"
She tried to smile. "Yeah, I could never stay mad at you. But don't you ever forget this because you're gonna owe me. Plus, I stayed with you the whole time you were in the hospital."
"Yeah, Danny reminded me, too. That has a lot to do with why I'm here." He smirked. "I think your sister's mad at me."
"Eh, she'll get over it." She held onto his hand. "Will you stay here for a while?"
"As long as you want me to." Don smiled.
A month later, Don was sitting in Sam's apartment. She was lying on the couch watching TV. She was half asleep with her head on a pillow on his thigh. Don's head was back against the wall.
"Hey, why don't I pull out the bed so you can go to sleep?" Don commented and Sam stirred a little.
"I don't want to move, it takes too much effort."
"Come on, I'm tired too and I can't sleep like this."
She sat up slowly. "Fine," she replied quietly.
Don pulled out the sleeper in the sofa, put sheets and a blanket on the bed, then brought a pillow. Sam laid down and about two minutes later she was fast asleep. Don went up to the loft to sleep in Sam's bed. Because she was still sore from her surgery it was best she didn't climb the ladder and she just slept on the sofa. He didn't want to leave her alone either.
He awoke suddenly in the middle of the night. He made his way down from the bed and toward the sound of Sam's voice. She wasn't in the bed. He went to the bathroom and she was lying on the floor on her side. He rushed to her and squatted down next to her.
"Sam, you ok?" he asked her and rubbed her hair back.
"No," she whispered. She coughed a couple times.
Don felt her face and it felt as if it was on fire. "Sam, you're burning up." She threw up onto the floor. "Ok, I'm calling an ambulance." Don got up from the floor and went out to the living room where his phone was. "Dispatch, this is Detective Flack I need a bus at 735 18th St. That's 735 18th St." He went back into the bathroom.
The EMTs came about ten minutes after Don had made the call. They came into the apartment and into the bathroom. Don was slowly pushed to the back of the room. "Is she allergic to any medications?" one of the men asked him.
"I don't know. She has leukemia and she just had a bone marrow transplant about six weeks ago."
"She probably has an infection. We gotta get her to the hospital."
Don went to the living room to get his tennis shoes. He pulled out his cell phone again and dialed Jackson's phone number. He told him what was wrong and which hospital they were heading to. He also asked if he knew about Sam being allergic to any medications. Jackson, too, wasn't sure.
As he rode in the ambulance with Sam, Don held her hand tightly. He was talking to her, trying to keep her awake. The EMTs had told him that her fever was dangerously high.
When they got to the hospital Don tried to follow them into the room where they took Sam, but a nurse told him that unless he was family he would have to wait outside. He paced back and forth in the hallway. Sam's parents came running down the hall toward him. Then his mom went into the room with a nurse. Don waited in the hallway for almost a half an hour then he got up and made his way outside.
His leaned against the outside of the hospital. Danny came walking toward him.
"I heard it over the scanner. How's Sam?" Danny asked him as he stood in front of him.
Don kept his head down. "I don't know."
"What do you mean?"
"I haven't heard yet. They think it's an infection from the surgery." He squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I just…I can't save her." He looked up at his friend. "Anything else and I could. I could save her from someone trying to hurt her, from a burning building, and even from herself. But this," he shook his head. "I can't save her from this. It's out of my control."
"God, when are you gonna learn you can't save all of us."
"Maybe when you guys stop doing things to make me feel like I need to."
Danny put his hand on Don's shoulder. "Listen, this is something you can't control. She's sick, Don. The doctors are gonna do everything they can to save her. You just have to sit back and let them do their job. It's exactly what we had to when you got hurt."
Don hung his head again and didn't reply. Then he pushed himself off the wall. "Come on, let's go inside."
Don and Danny joined Sam's family sitting in the waiting area of the ER. A doctor came walking toward them. He told them that they were able to lower Sam's temperature and she was now stable. Sam's family went into the room, but her siblings didn't stay in the room long. Don waited until the family was done being with Sam before he went in. Danny got a call to come back to work; he left before he could go inside with Don.
He stood outside Sam's room, watching her lying in the bed. Her parents were sitting in two chairs next to the bed. Don's phone rang on his belt. He pulled it out and answered it. He was called to a crime scene in Harlem. He looked at Sam for a few more seconds then turned to walk down the hospital to the entrance.
A couple months later Don came into Sam's apartment. There was music playing and the place looked and smelled clean.
"Hey, Sam, I'm here," Don called out; he took off his jacket and hung it on the hook by the front door.
"I'll be right there," she replied. She came toward him, wearing a knee-length red dress.
"You look good."
She twirled around. "You like it? It's new." She walked over to the table that was set up with food and drinks. She straightened a few things. "This is the worst part about having a party at your place. The waiting for people to show up." As she said that, there was a knock at the door.
Don welcomed in Sam's parents. They all stood in the living room and chatted for a while. They were all there to celebrate Sam's younger brother's engagement. Brian and his girlfriend, Leah, had gotten engaged a couple weeks before and Sam had instantly volunteered to throw the party for them.
Everyone else scattered in over the next twenty minutes. They all stood around the apartment with their plates of hors 'devours and drinks, talking about various things. Don was close to Sam most of the night; he didn't know many of the members of Sam's family besides her immediate family. He helped her clean up as the crowd began to disperse. Sam was saying her goodbyes to her parents then she came back into the kitchen. Don glanced over at her as she slid off her high heels then walked over to stand by him at the sink.
"It was a nice party, Sam. You've always thrown a good party," Don commented as he washed a plate, rinsed it, and handed it to her to dry.
"Yeah, I try. I'm so happy for Brian and Leah, they seem like they're gonna be really great together."
"I think so too."
Sam put down her towel on the counter. "You know, these can wait till later. There's a bottle of wine over there with my name on it, and the couch is calling too."
"You go ahead, I'm gonna clean up a little more; I don't want you to have to do all of this by yourself." He again watched Sam as she picked up the bottle of wine and a glass then went to the living room. He still couldn't even describe how happy he was that Sam had beaten the cancer and that she was now in remission. The last thing he wanted was to lose his best friend like that. After washing a few more large dishes he hung up the towel and made his way to the living room as well.
Sam had turned on some music that was playing softly. She was looking out the window at the city lights. "This city is gorgeous. I don't care how many cars there are and the pollution, I love it."
"Yeah, me too. I guess being born and raised here makes us love it." He sat next to her and she had her back to him. Don put a hand on her shoulder. "I should probably get going; I gotta be at work early."
Sam put her hand on Don's and she turned to look at him. "I'd rather you stay." She turned around to look him in the eye then put a hand on his face.
"What, Sam?" Their eyes locked. He could feel the attraction heightening and he was sure she could feel it too. His arm was around her shoulders. He pulled her close to him and his lips met hers. The hand she had on his face went around to the base of his skull.
She pulled back a little. "Are you sure we're gonna do this?" Sam asked him.
"Do you think kissing can ruin a friendship?"
She smiled. "Maybe not kissing but what it leads to might ruin it."
"But doesn't a relationship that based on friendship work out best?"
"How about we just stop talking about it, and see what happens?"
He kissed her cheek. "Sounds good to me."
Don woke up the next morning and made his way down the ladder from the loft bedroom to the living room. He went to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. As he waited for the coffee to finish he went into the living room then over to Sam's desk. He noticed an envelope lying underneath some other papers. He could see his name written on it. He glanced up at the loft and didn't notice any movement from Sam. Don thought about it for a second then pulled the envelope out and opened it. He sat in the chair and pulled out the letter; he unfolded it and began to read.
"Don," he heard Sam say softly when he was almost done with the letter.
Don turned in the chair to look at her. There were tears in his eyes and Sam smiled. He didn't say anything.
"You weren't supposed to ever read that."
"But I did. Were you really gonna give that to me?"
Sam took the letter from him and smiled. "It doesn't make any difference now. So, let's just pretend this was never written."
Don stood up and wrapped his arms around her. "I love you, Sammy."
She giggled when she heard him sniff. "I love you, too."
He pulled away from her. "Promise you won't make me cry anymore."
"I promise," Sam replied with a chuckle.