"Sam?" A middle aged woman poked her head around the door to his room, peering at him as he sat on his bed, flipping through a book. "Are you busy?"
Sam shook his head and smiled softly "No Doctor Cullen, I was just looking over some stuff for English Class."
"Well then would you mind accompanying me to my office? I have something I would like to talk to you about." Sam rose from the bed and followed her from the room, her auburn hair bouncing on her shoulders as she clicked her way down the corridor, greeting everyone that she passed.
When they reached her office she opened the door and stood to the side to allow him to enter, closing it behind them and directing him to the chair in front of her desk.
"So," Sam leant his elbows against his knees and rubbed his palms together nervously "what did you need to talk about, Doctor Cullen?"
"My friends call me Esme, Sam. I'd like to think that we are friends." She smiled and pulled a file from a desk drawer and placed it in front of her "I've been your Psychologist for the past eighteen weeks, over the past couple of days I was asked to perform your character review to assess the possibility of early release."
Sam sat up straight, his eyebrows raised expectantly at her as she began to flip through the file,
"I have gone over every meeting we've had, spoken to the officers on staff in your wing and your teachers. The general consensus seems to be that you are a well rounded, intelligent young man, showing genuine remorse for your actions and the trouble that they caused. You were sent to this particular facility because of our specialisation in drug and alcohol dependency and every screening we've performed has come back clean and there was no evidence of prior substance abuse."
"So?" He prompted.
"So, assuming that this behaviour continues and your final screening comes back all clear," she shrugged "then I have recommended that you be considered for release two weeks from today."
Sam's face broke into a wide smile, and he leapt from the chair causing the doctor to startle and jump in her chair "Doctor Cullen, Esme…Thank you, so much!" He held his hand out to her and she chuckled and took it.
"You're welcome Sam, but please take a seat there is something else I would like to discuss with you." She indicated back to the chair, and Sam sat, twitching his knee excitedly. "During my discussions with the other members of staff a couple if thing's came up repeatedly…Are you planning on attending college?"
"I mean, I wasn't planning on it," he shrugged "but…what do you mean some things came up? What kinds of things?"
Esme chuckled at the confusion on his face "Relax Sam, it's nothing bad…far from it. Most of the people I talked to commented on the strength of your people skills, your ability to stay calm in extremely tense situations and even help to diffuse them and how assertive you are during team work and in particular a natural ability to lead."
Sam cocked an eyebrow at her "Really?"
"Yes really! And I can honestly say that I agree with every single one of them. I think that you could go on to do wonderful things. You are a natural born leader, people admire you, look up to you and it would be a shame to see you waste it." She leant towards him, her elbows on the desk.
"I just never really considered it, at school I was always praised for sports, I was hoping to get a scholarship but since I'm here," he waved his arm around the room "it's highly unlikely anybody will give me one."
Esme stood from her chair and walked around to him, leaning against the desk "I'll write you a letter of recommendation, I don't think a sports scholarship is possible now, but your grades are good…better than good."
"But nobody is going to want me!" Sam exclaimed.
"That's not true," she knelt in front of him and wrapped her hand over his balled fist "You don't belong in this place. I am by no means condoning what you did, it was foolish and dangerous and you deserved the punishment you received, but you don't belong here. Everybody makes mistakes but they're also entitled to a fresh start."
"I just…" He shook his head "I can't go home, my mom don't want to know me! And I may not have been banished from the reservation, but I can't go back there and I can't even afford to find my own place let alone four years of college!"
"I can talk to your mom." Esme started, but Sam cut her off.
"There's no point!" He raged "She thinks I'm an alcoholic, I've shamed her."
"Well then show her you're not," Esme stood back up "I know she's wrong, you know she's wrong so make her see it."
"I'm eighteen Doctor Cullen, I don't have a job, I'm basically homeless, and I have about two thousand dollars in savings and a criminal record." He hung his head "I failed the second I got in the car that night, and there is nothing that will change it."
"Not with an attitude like that it won't!" The doctor went back behind her desk and sat back in her chair. She picked up the phone and tapped in a number "Serenity House, Clallum County please."
Sam continued to watch the floor, twisting his fingers and picking absently at his nails, the sound of Esme's voice turning into a dull hum.
"Sam? SAM!" Her voice jolted him from his stupor. "I may have found you somewhere to stay… Serenity House in Port Angeles provide shelter for the homeless. They have some spaces available and if they still are when you get out, then one is yours. It's a maximum stay of ninety days, but if you still haven't found anywhere in three months then I will help you, but you have to let me know."
Sam nodded stupidly "Um, thanks."
"I'm going to make some calls about getting you a job; maybe some work based training, okay?" She cocked a well groomed brow at him and he nodded again. "Right well, you can go back to your room... Finish your English work and I will see you again on Monday for our next appointment."
Sam stood and went to the door, his hand on the knob when Doctor Cullen stopped him "Be good Sam, don't throw this all away. You are a bright, strong man…this will all work out in the end, just stay with it."
A few days later, Sam was headed back to his room, hands shoved into his pockets and not entirely concentrating on where he was going when a loud shout rang through the hallway and Doctor Cullen came hurling down the corridor screaming for security as she ran through a set of swing doors into an adjoining lobby.
The noise increased and Sam glanced through the small window in the door to find Doctor Cullen and another woman trying to talk a large boy who they'd backed into a corner into putting down the chair he was brandishing while screaming at them.
He pushed through the door and Doctor Cullen chanced a quick glance at him before returning her eyes to the boy in the corner.
"You need to leave Sam, go back to your room." She commanded stepping back when they boy lunged forward, growling.
"Paul please! This is for your own good!" The woman next to Doctor Cullen wailed. She rang her hands frantically, tears streamed down her aged face. "You need help, I'm only doing this because…"
"Don't say you love me, you never loved me!" Paul spat, turning on her.
"Paul, put the chair down." Esme said softly. "We'll go into my office and we can talk about this. Your mother's right, you need help."
"I don't need help! Not from you or her, not anymore!" He screamed. "I learned a long time ago not to rely on her for anything, when she stood there and watched me take another beating from that fucking monster she brought into our home!"
"Paul, I…" His mother sobbed, shaking her head.
"You what?" He scowled. "You should've helped me? Stood up for me? What mom? What!"
"I'm so sorry." Her voice cracked and she sank to the floor. "I'm sorry I didn't protect you, I'm sorry I stood by while he did that to you and that I let go on for so long, but you weren't the only one he hit."
"I'm your son! You were supposed to take my side and keep me safe!" Paul exclaimed and turned to Doctor Cullen, his eyes brimming with angry tears. "Do you know what she did? In ninth grade, the school nurse got involved because she noticed the bruises after I took a fall in gym. My mother," He hissed glancing at her "told them that I was clumsy and that I'd been getting into fights outside of school. That night, he beat me for not hiding it better.
Last year, he beat me so hard he broke the top of my arm, my collar bone and left me with concussion. She told the hospital that she'd found me at the bottom of the stairs that morning, that I must have fallen down them because I'd been out drinking the night before. I was put in counselling for underage drinking and anger management because she couldn't bring herself to stick up for her only child over a man that hit us both on a daily basis! "
Paul chuckled manically. "Not anymore though, I finally managed to stick up for myself. Stupid son of a bitch didn't even see it coming!"
"Paul please, I'm sorry…"
"You're sorry? You're sorry, you're fucking sorry!" He hurled the chair over his mothers head. She ducked, shaking to the floor as he stalked towards her, practically brushing Esme off his arm when she tried to stop him.
Sam ran forward and grabbed the slightly smaller boy around his arms and locked his hands together, stopping him in his tracks. "Don't!" He whispered, as Paul spat obscenities at him and struggled under his grasp. "Don't let it get the better of you, don't become him."
"I'm nothing like him!" Paul screeched angrily, his face turned bright red, tears, sweat and saliva dampened his face. "My father was a coward and a liar that beat children and women to make himself feel like a man. I'm nothing like him!"
"Not yet but if you hurt her? You're no better than him." Sam exclaimed. Paul's legs gave out from underneath him and he sank to the floor with a silent scream and Sam still wrapped around him.
The door behind them burst open and security and a nurse ran in, heading straight for Paul who put up no resistance as the nurse pushed a sedative into his arm.
Esme breathed out loudly as he was pulled from the floor and Sam sat back on his heels. "Monitor him closely; he's been using anabolic steroids for an unknown amount of time. It may be in all our interests to restrain him until he comes round in case he decides to lash out again."
Two more nurses appeared with a gurney and lifted Paul's limp form onto the bed before heading back towards the medical wing.
The guard gripped Sam's arm and pulled him to his feet and Esme snapped her head round. "Leave him; it was nothing to do with him. Could you please take Mrs Cusick to Carlisle and get him to check her over; I think she may be in shock." She gestured to Paul's still cowering mother and the guard nodded and helped her to her feet. She turned to Sam. "You, come with me."
"I'm sorry Doctor Cullen, but security weren't there and he was gonna…" He trailed off. "I couldn't let him do that."
"You should have left when I told you to Sam. It was a dangerous situation and you could've got hurt." She frowned. "But thank you, you did very well."
"You mean I'm not in trouble?" He asked.
"No Sam, you're not in trouble." Esme pushed open the door to his room and took the seat in front of his small desk, gesturing for him to sit on the bed. She rubbed her hands down her face and relaxed her shoulders with a sigh. "I know we've broached this subject before, and you've been less than receptive to it but after what I saw today I think it's something we need to discuss before your release. Tell me about your father."
Sam groaned and fell back against the bed, bouncing slightly with the movement and pinched his nose. "I really don't want to talk about that. Besides, don't you already have all that information?"
Esme nodded. "I do, I have the information you're mother gave me, teachers reports and doctors reports. But I don't have your version of what happened. I don't know how you feel about it all."
Sam pushed himself up and rested his elbows on his knees. "Do we have to do this now?"
"I know what happened out there hit a nerve with you, Sam." She cocked an eyebrow. "It dredged up a lot of what happened in the past. You need to talk about, you can't keep it bottled up inside so, our final meeting on Monday? This is what we're going to talk about, for as long as it takes."
"Fine." He huffed and Esme stood from the chair and patted him on the shoulder.
"By the way, I was actually on my way to talk to you before all that happened." Sam looked up at the doctor who nodded towards the empty bed on the other side of the room. "Paul's your new room mate."
Paul eyed Sam warily as the guard escorted him into the room and directed him as to where to put his things before leaving them alone.
Sam sat on his bed, one leg tucked under him and leaning against the headboard as he read. He dropped the book and let forward, his hand out. "Hi, I'm Sam."
Paul sneered and turned to his bunk, opening his bag and pulling out the issued navy sweatpants and white t-shirt. "Whatever."
"So, that was some performance you put on out there yesterday." Sam pressed. "You okay?"
"What the fuck does it have to do with you?" Paul tensed and turned to him, fists balled at his sides.
"Nothing." Sam held up his hands "But I've been where you are, the new kid. It's tough."
"You're nothing like me." He hissed dropping down onto his bed and tucking his hands under his head.
"You'd be surprised." Sam shrugged and picked his book back up.
Paul fidgeted and sighed. "What…what are you in for?"
Sam looked over the top of the book, eyebrow raised. "Drunk driving and causing a serious accident. I got drunk and had an argument with my girlfriend…ex. I made the spectacularly brilliant decision to drive home and ploughed straight in to another car and injured the driver." He pursed his lips. "I almost killed her and myself. You?"
"GBH." Paul mumbled.
"Would that be the, uh, sticking up for yourself you were talking about yesterday?" Sam asked as Paul sat on the edge of his mattress.
"I finally managed to get the first punch in this time." He chuckled humourlessly. "Trouble is, it didn't end with the first one, and the fucker pressed charges."
"Was it worth it?" Paul tilted his head up to look at Sam and shook his head.
"Not really." He shrugged. "He still alive."
