Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 62nd cycle. Now cycle 63!

"A Ring in Pocket"
Sam(/Rachel) & Nell (OC)
Sam & Nell/Samchel series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Nell had been sick on the train back from New York. He'd spent the latter half of the ride holding her close and rubbing her back, trying to make her feel better. She was asleep by the time they got home, and he lay down with her, in case she woke up.

It was no surprise that his unoccupied mind would wander back to the reason they had been in New York. The reason had not actually been so he could propose; that had been a spur of the moment kind of thing. This wasn't to say he hadn't intended to ask Rachel to marry him, because he had, just not at that specific moment.

He turned his head toward his nightstand, carefully stretching out his arm without disrupting his daughter's sleep, so he could open the drawer and reach inside. He did this more often than he'd care to admit, ever since he'd bought it. He would open the small square box and look at the ring set inside. It wasn't the biggest thing, and he'd had to work a lot just to get something like this, but he had known it was the right one from the moment he'd seen it. He hadn't brought it with him to New York, because that hadn't been the time, not the way he'd planned it. And he did have a plan.

Only they'd been there, him and Rachel, and he had looked into her eyes, and… he couldn't help himself, he had to ask his question, ring or no ring. He only remembered bits and pieces of that moment now. He definitely remembered feeling his stomach all in a twist. And he really absolutely remembered that she had said yes, that one word acting to unwind the twist in his stomach.

It was going to stay a secret for now, they had both agreed. They weren't going to do it now, while they still lived states apart, and they didn't want everyone jumping on them about it, so no one was to know. Truthfully though, there were four of them who knew. He'd hesitated about doing it, but he wanted to do things right, and that included going to Rachel's fathers and asking for her hand. He was completely ready for them to shut him out, and for a moment it had almost seemed like they would, but they had given their blessing. He'd bought the ring that very same day.

Maybe it wasn't just about the fact that they were going to wait until after he had graduated high school and moved to New York with Nell to be with Rachel. He just didn't want people to comment, to tell him that they were too young, that they were rushing into things. They didn't know him, not in this respect. Everyone knew that he had a daughter, and they knew that Rachel was his girlfriend. But there was so much more to it than that, and they couldn't even begin to understand.

Part of him had always known, that the moment she had entered his and Nell's life, she wasn't going to leave it again. She had entered his world so effortlessly, and there had been this connection, that eventually led to them being a couple. She had been there to see him through the ups and downs, through Summer's death and the aftermath of it. She had cared for Nell like she was her own from the very beginning, almost like some part of her had known, this little girl was meant to be in her life, her daughter if not by blood then by love. And Nell had taken a hold of her right in return. It could have been written off that she was just a baby, and with how much she saw Rachel, it would only be normal that she identified her as her mother, but being her mother was so much bigger than sight.

Nell was loved by her, a love that came hand in hand with fear, the day Nell had landed in the hospital after he'd dropped her, with concern that they might take her away, with how torn up Rachel had been over choosing to go to New York, without the both of them for a whole year, or staying in Lima at the expense of her dreams… Rachel was Nell's mother, had been for the majority of her life.

Even without factoring Nell in, he would have wanted to marry Rachel either way. He loved her, like he'd never loved anyone else. He had loved her enough to let her go to New York, not showing too much how it pained him to be away from her, because he knew how much her feelings could weigh on her, and he didn't want to be the one to hold her down and keep her from doing what she'd been dreaming of doing since before she had ever known him to exist. Now that she was out there though, he counted down the days. He knew the moment his last exams would be in, and he'd walked across that stage to get his diploma, he would be getting back home, packing up his daughter and their things, and they would be on their way to New York, where they would live, with Rachel, in the apartment they had already acquired and lived in over the summer.

He put the ring back in the drawer and shut it when he felt Nell begin to stir against him. He stroked her hair, gave her his other hand to hang on to, and she slowly but surely settled back to sleep. This whole strange year of phone appointments and visits back and forth was all going to be worth it in the end, he knew. They were a family, and with patience and compromise and love, they were getting through this hell of a year. Making it official that they were what they had already become to each other, that would be their reward, their victory over it.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!