Title: I Could Be Your Hero
Author: Caramelbrown
Rating:T...M? The rating might boost later on.
Pairing: Cram, LuSam (possible), Liason( hints), Rexis (hints)
Summary: Alternate Universe: Set after Sam was shot and Alexis finds out that they're mother and daughter. Months after her fiancée dumps her Samantha McCall lives the average life of a good citizen, with two sisters, a District Attorney mother, and a Cassadine cousin with an extended family. Once she's settled in something happens that makes her change her mind.
A/N: Alexis does get Sam the job at the Police station this is where our story begins.
"I don't want to try that."
Samantha McCall opted out of the thin brown water the PCPD called coffee and immediately began rummaging through her purse for quarters. She chose a coke from the vending machine beside the kitchen and sighed at the welcomed caffeine. She walked back to her desk where she had been organizing dozens of her mother's files to be taken over to the courthouse by noon. Looking at her watch and seeing that it was only ten o'clock she decided to relax for a moment, leaning back in her chair. She surveyed her surroundings a quiet morning in the station was quite rare.
Every once in a while Mac would brush through with a petty criminal, usually some kid seventeen or younger whose parents wanted them to learn a lesson. If she timed it correctly Lucky Spencer would be coming into work in five, four, three, two,…and….
"Damn I hate traffic."
"Hey Spencer."
Lucky walked past her desk still grumbling. His desk was across from hers leaving him to plop down into his chair and look up at her from the mound of paper that magically appeared there every morning courtesy of hers truly.
"Sam...does your mother want to kill me?"
"Of course not…Alexis is a kind and good natured woman who would never hurt a fly!"
Lucky deadpanned and Sam laughed almost spilling soda on her crème colored blouse.
"I'm not even going to go there," Lucky laughed leaning back and observing the pile as if it were a beast he had to figure out how to spear and cook on a spit.
"I.hate.Mondays."
"Don't be so negative, at least you get to see me bright and early."
"Ah, yes, the unusual ray of sunshine." Lucky rolled his eyes and divided the stack into two then began checking them over.
"Hmmm," Sam took the hint and attacked her own files with a fervor. If the rest of the day were uneventful she could finish this task, run to lunch at Kelly's with Nikolas, and surprise Kristina and Molly with ice cream after school. She smiled at the thought of the two girls whose pictures sat proudly on her desk.
She remembered the first time she actually got to call them her sisters, three days after she'd woken up in the hospital, the day after Jason left her. Sam sighed swallowing a hard lump. She had wanted to forget the six month old debacle. Jason had left her for some ungodly reason and she had a new family to consider.
She hurried through the rest of her paperwork, filing everything by dates and names then piled them high on her desk when she was done she looked up to see Lucky staring at her quizzically.
"Are you okay?"
Sam looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Uh yeah, why do you ask?"
"Well, Sam, you just seem hurried, and your hands are bleeding."
Sam looked down at her hands riddled with paper cuts and quickly folded them in her lap. " Damn, um actually I was hurrying."
Lucky looked at her expectantly. Sam rolled her eyes. Lucky was apart of that new family as well. As Nikolas' brother he kind of came with the package.
"I'm meeting your brother for lunch he said he had some Cassadine stuff to go over and I have to drop stuff off at the Courthouse by twelve and I didn't want to be late."
Lucky raised his eyebrows indicating he was quite sure she wasn't telling the entire truth. He knew about the shooting and Jason's leaving her but she hadn't led him to believe that she was still hurt. In fact they'd both been going through the same thing at the same time with Liz leaving him shortly before the auction. He was there for her, as was Nikolas, Alexis, and occasionally Lulu who came with the package deal also. She was also there for him as a very capable drinking buddy. Lucky had actually managed to teach her to hold her liquor something she was quite happy about.
Lucky was about to answer when his phone rang and she waved that she had to go to the bathroom to wash her hands.
Once the blood was cleared from her hands and she was sure the cuts weren't at all deep Sam looked at herself in the mirror, her hair had grown longer, and she left it in long curls rather than the usual straight mess she used to wear. She noted she was thinner than before mostly because she accompanied Lucky to the gym at least twice a week. He had joked once that he could bounce a quarter off her stomach. She took it as a good thing.
She had considered some drastic change after she got out of the hospital but couldn't bring herself to do anything. Somehow she had reconciled that nothing could fix the pain she felt. Nothing but time and a lot of family support both things she had in abundance. Lately she'd had to keep her pain to herself as it seemed that everyone believed she was over everything that happened. She let them go on with their belief that she was over it sure that this was some step in the process she had to overcome. As the days grew longer she kept thinking of more things that would make her forget the life she once had. It always worked for a little while until one snippet of a shared memory would cloud her mind and bring it all rushing back. She sniffed then thumbed at the tears that began to pool in her eyes.
This was not how she wanted to live. Panting after a man who obviously didn't want her even after all that they'd been through was a lie to herself and she knew it. Most of the time it wasn't just about Jason, it was his lifestyle which wasn't that different from the life Sam used to live with her adoptive father. Nikolas mused if the only reason Sam was somewhat content to work in the police station was that there were guns around. She only silently agreed with him. On some level Sam knew something was missing in her life that wasn't exactly Jason's arms or the penthouse where they lived their lives.
She took a deep breath and dapped at her eyeliner any hint of tears would surely be detected by Lucky and she knew she didn't want to deal with that just yet. Her "cousin" had become quite sardonic since Elizabeth left him and often forced her to see the horrible truth staring her right in the face, whether it was an outfit he considered hideous or a particular action she knew was wrong he called her on it.
Checking her appearance one more time she exited the bathroom thinking everything was none the unusual until she checked her watch and realized it was eleven thirty. Her mother should have been somewhere in the station screeching that she hadn't taken the papers to the courthouse yet. She absently smoothed the black slacks she had on and shrugged thinking that then again Alexis was known to lose herself in her work. Perhaps today was a lucky one. As she rounded the corner to the main area the first thing she noticed was that Lucky was crouched beneath his desk gun in hand. She immediately ducked down and flattened herself against the wall. Beside her was a large filing cabinet that she inched closer to. She peered around the side watching as a police officer was being held at gunpoint by a thin shifty looking male. Sam could hear Mac negotiating with him.
"This isn't helping your case, Aaron!" Mac tried to move closer to the shifty criminal and the officer whom Sam recognized as Detective Dan Evans. Evans looked too shades paler than usual his eyes wide and pleading with Mac to do something. Sam glanced at Lucky who she assumed had yet to reveal himself but was at a disadvantaged point. Aaron was a skinny thing but held his gun firmly in his left hand his right arm was wrapped around Detective Evans' neck. He pressed the gun into Evans' side. Sam thought that he must have been pushing harder with each minute because Evans kept jumping at odd moments of time.
Lucky could have waited until Aaron passed him and shot but unfortunately Evans was on Lucky's side. His shot would have to be very good or else Evans would be hit. Sam watched him until he caught her gaze and she jumped into action. She motioned to him to slide the gun to her, the distance wasn't that far and he knew from their experience at the gun cages, Sam was damn good shot.
Lucky hesitated; they had a small window of time. Mac had Aaron's attention and Sam argued without words. Aaron was close to Lucky's desk and Lucky knew he had no chance of shooting him without hitting Evans. At least, he couldn't shoot him at the angle he was at. He leaned forward on his hands and knees, crawling toward the edge of his desk. Sam was diagonal from him. She leaned as far forward as she dared without being seen. Lucky shot the gun across the floor and it slid easily into Sam's open hand. The moment her hand closed over it she felt a familiar tightening in her stomach. She smiled to herself. It felt too good.
Sam waited patiently for Aaron to get closer to Lucky's desk, aiming for his knee cap. Sam began to pull the trigger but stopped short at the criminal's cold voice.
"Well, look what I've got here. A cop trembling behind his desk. Does real good for my ego."
Lucky glanced at Sam when he raised his hands and climbed to his feet at the last instant he winked and Sam's gun went off. Aaron howled and threw Evans to the ground stumbling in Sam's direction. Sam stepped out from her space gun trained on him, aimed at his chest area. As she did so he held his gun on her a cruel smile on his face.
"This is the best the PCPD has? Some woman hiding behind a cabinet? Damn, I knew things were bad but Jesus Christ!"
"Shut up," Sam ordered easing closer to him hoping to back him up to the open area where anyone could grab him or even better shoot him. Ten to one she could pop him right here but with his gun in her face she didn't want to go down with him. She was after all still rusty even after the few sessions she'd had with Lucky. Could she aim and shoot? Better than half of the PCPD but to do it faster than someone who wanted to shoot her? Her confidence wavered.
"Hey," he smiled lecherously at her. "I know you. Took me a little bit since you haven't been in the news lately."
"I said shut up," Sam barked at him. She kept moving but he stopped and laughed.
"Hey…I should listen to you right? Wouldn't want that boyfriend of yours coming after me would I?"
Sam's jaw clenched.
"Oh wait, I forgot…not yours anymore. Word around town is that he's shacked up with that pretty nurse of his…kills anyone that looks at her."
A rush of pain caught Sam where she didn't need it to. She took deep breaths to keep calm but the ache of Aaron's words proved she was still raw and her heart still broken enough to knock her off balance. She stood frozen as he moved closer to her and could see Lucky over his shoulder shaking his head in disbelief, fear, and what Sam knew was his own measure of hurt. He knew what the man meant by pretty nurse. The gun was out of Sam's hand before she knew it and her mind raced back to the present.
She didn't have the gun. Aaron had two weapons in his hand and she needed to do something. Adrenaline rushed back through her body and she relaxed her muscles. She had fought her way out of situations that were worse before with little more than a bruise or a scratch. Today had to be no different. Today she had to take paper to the courthouse then have lunch with her cousin. Then she had to come back to work and make sarcastic banter with Lucky. After that she had to pick up her sisters from school and daycare and take them home. Sam turned to her side and elbowed Aaron in his gut the sound of gunfire blocking out Lucky's shouts. In an instant she drove the same elbow upward to his chin then brought her fist to his right cheek. She grabbed his left arm and twisted until he released Lucky's gun then slammed her right forearm into the back of his head and brought him down. Her knees bore down on his back pushing him further into the hard floor.
He had the other gun in his hand and with one of her hands holding his arm behind his back and her forearm grinding his neck in the linoleum she had to readjust to jam her foot into his hand. She was breathing hard and even though she hadn't had to fight anyone like this in a while she felt too good to care that Lucky was next to her now fighting to get a pair of handcuffs on him. It was like coming home. It was much different than seeing her sisters and her mother and feeling a sense of family between the four of them. She couldn't help but revel in the hum of her body until her mother arrived and pulled her into her arms dulling it but not ridding her of it altogether.
"Sam are you alright?" Alexis whispered stroking her hair. Sam stepped back and nodded. Her mother retained a tight grip on her hand.
Everyone around her gave her congratulations for saving the day. But Sam was already past it thinking instead about how fantastic it felt to bust the guy and take him down. It was something she had been trying to hide since she had entered (relatively albeit) into her mother's world. She put on a smile that only Lucky knew was hollow and when everyone returned to their spaces Sam looked at her cousin returning from locking up the troublesome criminal then sank into a swivel chair.
Everything drifted back to normal and within an hour statements were taken and the blood from Aaron's knee had been cleaned from the floor. Sam thought back and could only think of what she could do to get that feeling back again.