Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Four Brothers or any of it's characters or it's contents. I only own Samantha. Pretty please review with sugar and sprinkles on top.

Chapter 2: The Michigan Mauler Returns

"Sammy, wake up, baby!" I heard Dad as he shook me awake. "We're here."

I opened my eyes only to be blinded by the sunlight. "This is the place?" I yawned. "The place where you grew up? Detroit?"

He nodded as he parked the car in front of the cemetary where the funeral for my Grandma was taking place.

I looked at the enormous crowd of people entering the church and was amazed at how many people who cared about her had shown up. Before I knew it I could feel tears emerging from my eyes. My dad came to my side to open the door and saw me in tears.

"I can't, Dad. I don't know if I can handle it." I gasped between breaths.

Dad took my hands in his. "It's okay, baby girl. Just let it out." He spoke softly as he wrapped his arms around me and helped me out of the car. With his arm around my waist my dad and I walked up to the church and met up with my uncles, Jeremiah and Jack.

Uncle Jerry was the first to notice us. "Bobby. Give me some love, brother." He said as he hugged Dad then looked at me. "This can't be our little Sammy, can it?"

I forced myself to smile. "Hey, Uncle Jerry" I said as I wrapped my arms around him. "I've missed you so much."

"What about me?" Uncle Jack said and I noticed his eyes were puffy from crying, too. I guess I wasn't the only one who was taking this so hard. I rushed into his arms and felt his hand run up and down my back, comforting me as I cried for the person we both lost.

When the small family reunion was over we went inside the church to commence the funeral. It was full of nothing but mourning. I looked around to see all the sad faces in the building right until I realized there was one person missing: my uncle, Angel. He didn't even show up when they placed my grandma's coffin in the ground. It broke my heart seeing my role model being placed inside the earth. My uncles and dad wrapped me in their arms, along with my aunt Camille as I shed my sorrows.

Once the service was over Uncle Jerry invited everyone to his house. Dad helped me to the car then we started for Uncle Jeremiah's house.

"I wonder why Uncle Angel didn't show up. It's weird for him to not show up when there's a family matter."

Dad shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me. But I'll be sure to beat his ass later on if he does show up."
I kissed his cheek. "I've got your back, Daddy. Just let me know when the ass kicking starts."

He chuckled. "I should call you the Mauling Munchkin. You're too much like me." He said but his smile faded when he stopped next to a car and stared at the driver next to us then drove off and we parked.

"Who was that, Dad?" I asked as I climbed out of the car. "What was that all about?"

"Let's just say your dad has a big reputation with the cops in Detroit, baby girl." He answered, wrapping an arm around my shoulder's.

As soon as we got there I could see Uncle Jack exiting the house with a cigarette in his hand. I nudged my dad in the side and nodded toward Uncle Jack. We approached him from behind as my dad placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey. You all right?" Dad asked while my uncle replied with a nod.

I hugged him. "You sure, Uncle Jack?" He nodded again as he wrapped an arm around me.

"You know we love you man." Dad said. "Come on, let's go see Jerry."

The crowd around Jerry dispersed as we approached him. More hugs and hello's were exchanged between us. I looked up at the house we stood in front of. I smiled because I was glad my uncle seemed to be doing okay for himself and his family.

"Do you remember," Uncle Jerry said as he pointed to my dad, "when I built that tree house and you burned that shit down? Boy, I wanted to kick your dad's ass, Samantha."

"Don't worry about your house, Uncle Jerry." I laughed. "I ain't gonna let him burn it down."

I walked ahead of them to the backyard to be greeted by my cousins, Daniela and Amelia.

"Cousin Sammy!" They cried out as they ran into my open arms, draggin their cute little dog with them. "Will you play with us?"

"You know I will, my pretty baby girls." I said as I kissed each of their cheeks at the same time my dad and Uncle Jack came.

"You must be Daniela." Uncle Jack said as he took her tiny hand in his and shook it gently.

Dad crouched down next to me. "And you must be Amelia. Nice dress, Amelia."He said, scratching the dog's ear.

My cousins giggled. "I'm Amelia." Amelia said pointing to herself.

"I know. You guys probably don't remember us, but I'm your Uncle Bobby and this is Cracker."

Don't teach them that, man." Uncle Jack said at the same time I hit my dad on the shoulder.

"You're not my uncles. You're white." Daniella pointed out.

"Grandma Evey and cousin Sammy are white." Amelia said as I picked her up.

"We're a different kind of uncle. Your grandma adopted me and Uncle Jack, like she did your daddy." Dad explained.

"You're a policeman!" Amelia cried out as she gestured toward Officer Green and another cop that I wasn't familiar with.

I put Amelia on the ground. "Hey, why don't we go inside and ask Mommy if she can make us some hot chocolate. Then we can go play for a little bit." I suggested while they nodded. "Okay. You guys go ahead. I'll be there in a minute."

Dad stood back up. "What about me, Green? You gonna arrest me too?"

"Depends, Bobby. You keeping straight?"

"Straightish." Dad answered as he and Green embraced each other for a second. "You remember my kid, Samantha, right?"

"Little Sammy Mercer? Last time I saw you, you was only five or six years old. Give me some love." I gave him a quick smile and a quick hug.

The other cop, Fowler, had a creepy grin on his face. "She got any boyfriends?" He asked. What the hell? Uncle Jack seemed to notice the way the guy was looking at me.

"Sammy, go inside, baby, while your dad and me talk to Green. Okay?" He said as he kissed my forehead and I walked away shooting Fowler a dirty look as I stepped inside the house to sit down at the table with Aunt Camille.

"Hey, Samantha." Aunt Camille said. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine."

"And how's school going for you? You got any boyfriends?" She asked with a smile on

her face just as I started to smile and blush too. "I knew it. What's his name?"

"His name's Chase."

"How old is he?"

"He'll be nineteen next month. Please don't tell my father."

She held her pinky out. "I won't tell a soul. That's a girl's promise." She said as I locked pinkys with her and I continued to drink hot chocolate with my cousins. Yes, I still hadn't brought up my boyfriend to my father but the reason why is because my dad is very overprotective and he'll resort to pointing guns at any guy I go out with while interrogating them. What else would anybody expect from a daddy's girl?

Bobby's POV

I glared right at Fowler, whose eyes were locked on my daughter as she strolled into my brothers house. As soon as he saw me stabbing imaginary daggers in his direction he changed his expression and changed my attention back to Green.

"Thanks for coming, Green. Mom would've been happy you made it." I said.

Green chuckled. "Your mom would've been happy you and Sammy made it for her funeral."

"I didn't come back for no funeral." I stated when Fowler's shot me a dirty look.

"Thanks for the offer," He said, "but we got it under control."

"I could tell by the looks of things when I drove in." I shot back. "The place looks completely different. Detroit's finest cleaned it up, huh?"

"Be easy, Bobby. We got these punks." Green assured me. "Kid playing basketball across the street witnessed two gangbangers running in there shooting up the place-"

I interrupted him. "I used to make a good living around here because cops like you couldn't find tits in a strip joint." I saw Fowler eyeballing my daughter again. "Keep your eyes and hands off my daughter. And, Green, why don't you come inside, have some coffee and some doughnuts and then take your boy and get the fuck out of here,okay?" I slapped Jack on the chest to let him know to follow me. As I walked in I couldn't help but hear the word "boyfriend" in their conversation. "What is that I hear about boyfriends?"

Sammy glanced up at me. "Nothing, Dad." I raised an eyebrow letting her know she can't hide anything from me. "I hate it when you give me that look, Dad."

"Like it or not we're gonna talk about this boyfriend thing when we get to your grandma's house."She groaned in protest while I just chuckled from satisfaction. "Let's go." In a few hours we were parked in front of my mother's house. It felt good to be home.

"What you been up to, Bobby?" Jack asked me while I grabbed the luggage from the trunk and woke up Samantha.

"I'm a freaking college professor, Jack." I responded. "What do you think I've been doing?"

Sammy slowly got out of the car. "Yeah, dad, I think you lack all of the traits required to become a licensed professor."

"You and me are still gonna have that little boyfriend talk when we get inside, baby girl." I said, making her go silent as we walked inside of the house laughing our asses off when a voice came from the corner.

"Ya'll ain't right leaving me out here in the cold like this." I turned on the lights and there was my little brother, Angel.

"Yo, little brother! You asshole" I greeted loudly. "You missed our mother's funeral, too, jarhead."

My daughter ran into his arms. "Hey, Uncle Angel." She said while wrapped her arms around him and gave him a squeeze. "It's been a while."

"Fucking right it's been a while, baby girl. You all grown." He chuckled as we stepped further inside the house where we all went quiet as we looked around and how uncomfortable itmade us feel to hear nothing but silence instead of the sound of pots and pans banging in the kitchen or scoldings telling us to get our feet off the coffee table. I didn't like this sort of atmosphere.

Samantha's POV

I could feel the negative energy radiating through my dad and my uncles when we stod in front of the stairs looking around as if they were waiting for someone to jump out at them. Uncle Jeremiah was the first to break the silence.

"All ya'll hungry?" He asked us.

My dad shook his head. "No, Samantha and me are gonna get some sleep. Jack, you take your old room, all right? Angel, take yours. We're gonna sleep in Mom's room."

Once the sleeping arrangements were made Dad and I marched upstairs to my grandmother's room. It felt so strange to be in that woman's room. I unpacked my things from my luggage then dress in my Aeropostale sweats and a baggy t-shirt for bed. My dad had gone into the bathroom while I went into Uncle Jack's room. I found him messing around on his guitar on the bed.

"Can't sleep, Sammy?" Heasked with a smile on his face.

I laughed softly. "I'm not even tired yet. Mind if I sit next to you?" He shook his head as he patted the right side of the bed. "Thank you." I said, as I laid my head against the headboard and let out heavy sigh.

"What's wrong, baby girl? Don't say it's nothing either because I know when you're lying, too, Samantha Mercer."

Tears began to block my vision. "I can't believe she's gone. I can't. I don't want to." I sobbed quietly. "I miss her so much, Uncle Jackie." He quickly took me into his arms and rubbed my back gently.

"It's okay, baby girl." He said as he kissed the top of my head. "I miss her, too. We all miss her. It's gonna be okay." One of the thing's that makes Uncle Jack a great uncle is his singing. He rocked me in his arms back and forth as he sang me a song he had written a long time ago until I had stopped sobbing. As soon as I was done he wiped the tears away from my face and we both sat straight up again as he went back to playing his guitar just as my father came into the room.

"You guys been crying in here?"

"Leave it alone." Uncle Jack said as he pulled out a cig.

I crawled on the bad over to where my Dad was. "To weird in Grandma's room, Daddy?" I asked as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

He kissed my hand. "It's crazy, baby. Everything's the same. She didn't change nothing in this house."Uncle Jerry came smiling through the door as we asked what he was so happy about.

"I'm happy to see you, man. Happy to see my brothers and niece, that's all." Uncle Jerry responded.

"We're all happy to see you, too, Jerry." Dad said.

"Guess I'll stop by the grocery store and grab a turkey or something. Have a thanksgiving dinner." Uncle Jeremiah suggested. "Let's at least act like we're a real family. Mom would like that."

At that moment, Uncle Angel stepped out of his room all dressed up like he was ready to go on a date or something. I knew where this was going so I bid my good nights to them all and went to the bedroom to go lie down until I could fall asleep.

Bobby's POV

I waited until the door to my bedroom was closed so we could continue to have a conversation with Angel.

"Where you think you going?" Jeremiah asked as if he was trying to test our little brother.

"It's a little heavy in there." He responded. "I'm just gonna go outside and get me a little fresh air." I threw my head back as Jeremiah, Jack and myself busted out laughing at his answer.

"You're full of shit, man. You can smell that ass from down the street, huh?" I told him, hoping he knew who the fuck I was talking about.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, obviously acting stupid about it.

I smirked up at him. "You know exactly what we're talking about with La Vida Loca."

"Ain't nobody going to get no La Vida Loca nothing."

"She got a boyfriend." Jerry pointed out.

"She got a boyfriend. She's got hard dick in her right now. She screaming somebody else's name, and the last thing she's doing is thinking about your black ass. Leave it alone man. "I said making Jack and Jeremiah laugh while pissing Angel off at the same time.

"I can't believe ya'll coming at me with this crazy junk, man. I'm standing telling ya'll both right now, I'm not going to see that girl and I'm not!"

After a few minutes Angel was out the door to go see his crazy bitch of a girlfriend. I got out of Jack's room and headed back to Ma's room. I opened the door to see Samantha still wide awake. She looked up at me and moved to make more room on the bed.

"Uncle Angel left again, didn't he?" She asked.

I chuckled as I got in bed. "Yeah, and this time it was to go see your crazy ass aunt Sofi."

"Shit. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow if he brings Aunt Sofi over here." She said as she scooted closer to me.

"You ain't gotta warn me about that, baby girl. Now get some sleep." I told her as I put my arm around her and she slowly closed her eyes and in a matter of minutes she was asleep breathing heavily in my arms. "Daddy, loves you, Sammy."