A/N: Wow this chapter is longer than I thought it was going to be. I know people were left on a cliffhanger and I apologize, but I wanted it to happen that way. Here is the next chapter so I hope you enjoy.
There are a few more chapters of the "Past" as I like to call it and then more in the present (At the point where Lucas is writing the book. You've seen glimpses in previous chapters). I don't know how long I will continue this story for, but I do want to explore the family dynamic a little bit with them in the present so I don't think you would disagree for me to continue with it after a few more chapters.
Chapter Nine: Life or Death
All throughout dinner Brooke kept glancing at the clock. It was getting later and Sam should have been there by now. Usually Wednesday night dinners were filled with chatter and laughs, but this dinner was silent. Forks could be heard scrapping the plates. Lucas kept looking across the table to his wife. He knew she was worried. He was worried as well.
After dinner Jamie went into his room and Lucas and Brooke cleared the table.
"I'm going to go to the store. I don't know what it is, but something is way wrong."
Lucas nodded his head.
"Call me if you find anything."
"I will."
Brooke grabs her keys and runs out the door.
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
Brooke parks her car in front of the store. She locks it up and walks to the door of her store. There were no lights inside, but the door was unlocked. Brooke flicked on the lights when she walked inside. She gasps at the sight she sees. Sam was lying on the floor in a puddle of her blood.
"Oh my god Sam."
Brooke rushes over to Sam's side and starts accessing the situation. Brooke felt for a pulse and at first she couldn't find one, but after a few seconds she manages. Brooke places a hand on Sam's wound and a cry of pain comes from Sam.
"Hold on honey, I'm going to get you some help."
With her free hand Brooke pulls out her phone and dials 911.
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
It took ten minutes for the ambulance to arrive. The two EMT's enter the store with the stretcher and approach Sam and Brooke.
"How old is she?"
"14…she was suppose to close up, but she never showed at home." Brooke says panicky.
As the EMT's worked on Sam one of them called it in.
"We have an unresponsive 14 year old female, GSW to the abdomen."
Brooke just stood back and watched as the EMT's put an oxygen mask on Sam's face and loaded her onto the stretcher.
"Ma'am, we have to bring your daughter to the hospital. She needs to get this bullet removed. Are you coming with us?"
Brooke nods her head and rushes to the ambulance.
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
Jamie walks out of his room and into the living room where Lucas was currently watching TV to get his mind off of things.
"Dad," Jamie calls out.
Lucas shuts of the TV.
"What's wrong son?"
Jamie sits down on the couch next to Lucas.
"Why didn't Sam come to dinner?"
"I'm not sure Jamie, but your mom went to check on Sam. I'm sure if something was wrong she would call us."
As if on cue the phone rang and Lucas ran to pick it up, hearing his wife crying hysterically made Lucas turn white.
"Brooke, what's going on?"
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
After getting off the phone with her husband, Brooke walked up to the front desk. The nurse handed her papers.
"I'm going to need you to fill these forms out for your daughter."
Brooke grabs the papers and takes a seat in the waiting room. As other members in the waiting room looked at her she never cared. She didn't care that she had Sam's blood dried onto her hand. She didn't care that she looked like crap. She didn't care if the tabloids said that she wasn't in a fashion mode today. All she cared about was Sam and whether or not she was going to make it through surgery. For everyone's sake she hoped she does.
Lucas walked into the familiar hospital after dropping Jamie off at Nathan's and found his wife staring at the papers in her hands. Lucas walked next to her and sat down.
"Brooke, what are you doing?"
In a tired tone Brooke responded. "I have to fill these out, but I don't know how to answer them."
It was the medical history. Brooke knew Jamie's, but it wasn't necessarily the same as Sam's. She had no idea what Sam was allergic too. She didn't know if she's hand previous surgeries. Brooke didn't know a single thing and it hurt her.
"We may not want to, but this is important Brooke. We have to call them."
"But Sam has been hiding from them."
"I know Brooke, but maybe this way they can tell her that Sam is staying with us. I'm tired of playing this game. Sam deserves a home and we can provide that. When she gets out of surgery she is going to need us. We have to do this for her. Besides I already love her."
"Me too."
Lucas kisses Brooke's forehead and stands up.
"I'm going to make the call."
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
After receiving a surprising call from Lucas Scott, Sara Prescott walked the halls of Tree Hill Memorial and into the waiting room. She was sad to hear that Sam was in surgery, but she wasn't all that surprised when she heard that Lucas and Brooke started a bond with the young teen.
"Lucas, Brooke, thank-you for calling me. I have the information on Sam so I can fill those papers out if you like," Sara offers.
Brooke brought the papers closer to her chest.
"I'll fill them out."
Sara knew that Brooke was the one that found Sam so she didn't want to push her. She gave Brooke Sam's information and sat down next to Lucas.
"Besides this event how are things going?"
"Jamie and Sam are still close. Sam comes for dinner once a week and she stays in our guestroom, but my question is, did you stop looking for her? She isn't all that hard to find."
"Sam is a resourceful young woman and if we were to take her she would just fight it. There really wasn't anything I could do."
Brooke finishes up the paperwork and puts it on the desk in front of the nurse who smiles sadly. Brooke walks over to Sara and puts her hands behind her back.
"I want Sam living with us. Whatever it takes, make it happen."
"Brooke, I can't just do that."
"We are already approved so why don't you do what you do best and MAKE it happen while I wait for news of my daughter, excuse me?"
Brooke walks off and sits down on the opposite side of the waiting room.
"Look, Sara, Sam is going to need somebody to help her. Brooke and I we have Jamie and that's Sam's bother. We have another room and if we have to adopt Sam so that she stays with us then that's what we'll do. We already love her. You can help us. Let us be Sam's parents."
A few minutes later a doctor comes out as he is removing his scrub cap and yawning quickly.
"Samantha Walker?"
Brooke and Lucas walk up to the doctor and Brooke starts explaining.
"We are her parents."
The doctor nods his head.
"Your daughter came in with internal bleeding caused by the bullet to be lodged in the spleen. We managed to remove the bullet and we also excised the spleen because there was far too much damage to it. Everything went fine, but for now we are going to keep watch of her in the Surgical Intensive Care unit. We need to keep her for a few days to see how she is recovering from surgery and after that time she can go home."
"Thank-you doctor," Lucas responds.
"A nurse will be here soon after Samantha leaves recovery and then you can go and see her."
Brooke and Lucas nod their head and watch as the doctor walks away.
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
A couple of hours later Brooke and Lucas were walked to Sam's bedside. There was a morphine drip for her pain and Sam's eyes were closed. She was sleeping off the pain. Lucas watched as his wife took the chair and moved it closer to Sam's bedside. Brooke grabbed Sam's hand minding the wires.
"Sam, you have to wake up. We need you here so that I can take you home and you can recover in a nice bed and without all these sounds."
Lucas stood back and watched as tears fell from Brooke's eyes. He knew that Sam had a special place in her heart. She was always worried about Sam from the first time that they had meant. He remembered what he wrote about his wife in Ravens. Brooke Davis is going to change the world someday and she doesn't even knows it. He couldn't have been more right. It may have not been the world, but it was Jamie and Sam's life that she changed.
Lucas walks to the other side of Sam's bed and grabs her other hand.
"You need to listen to Brooke Sam. I need to see those expressive eyes of yours so open them up soon."
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
Sam's eyes flutter open and she looks around the room. She knew it was a hospital, but she didn't know how she got there. She looks down at her hands and they are held onto. Sam looks to her right and sees Brooke sleeping. She turns to her left and Lucas is doing the same thing. She couldn't help, but smile and grasp the hands tighter which caused Lucas and Brooke to wake up.
"Sam, you're awake," Brooke says with a grin.
"Yeah."
Lucas stands up and smiles.
"It's good to see those eyes. I'm going to go get the doctor."
Lucas walks out of the room and Sam turns to Brooke.
"What happened?" Sam asks softly.
"You didn't make it to dinner so I got worried. I went to the store and found you on the floor covered in blood. Apparently you were shot."
Sam closes her eyes. Brooke had thought she was sleeping, but was surprised when she heard Sam's voice.
"Johnny, he was the one that shot me."
Brooke and Sam neglected to see the people enter the room. It was a police officer, Sara and Lucas along with the doctor.
"Johnny was apprehended last night. He's not going to bother you anymore miss."
Sam looks at the officer in surprise.
"That's good."
"Sam, how are we feeling?"
"Like I was shot," Sam responds.
The doctor chuckles and nods his head as he begins to walk Sam through some steps and checking her wound.
"Everything looks great. We are going to keep you here for another day just in case, but then you can be discharged."
Sam nods her head and the doctor leaves the room. Sara steps forward and Sam groans when she sees her.
"What are you doing here?"
"Nice to see you too Sam, I'm here presenting you with two options. The decision is yours and I'm not going to force anything. Your first option is tomorrow when you get released you come back to the group home, recover and I can try and place in you in a home."
"You know as well as I do that no one wants a teenager."
"That's where you are wrong. Here is the second option I am offering you. There is a family waiting to take you in. They already have a son, but they wouldn't mind a daughter."
Lucas and Brooke kept their smiles hidden.
"Why do I feel like there is a 'but' coming?"
Sara raises an eyebrow.
"That's because there is. You can stay with them, but there are some things that you have to do. One of them is therapy. You're going to need it another is the fact that you need to catch up in school. You are behind an incredible amount."
"What do I get out of it?"
"You get to live with your brother."
Sam looks at Brooke and Lucas with a raised eyebrow.
"Sam, we want it officially done okay? We want you to stay with us and I'm sure Jamie would love it as well."
"You don't have to do that," Sam whispers.
"Yes we do!" Lucas states sternly.
Sam glances at Brooke and Lucas and the love that she sees in their eyes. She knew this was for real. Sam turns to Sara.
"Make it happen."
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
The next day Brooke and Jamie headed to the hospital to get Sam released while Lucas had told Brooke that he needed to do something which is why he was coming from the bathroom in clothes over bros with a sponge and a soapy water filled bucket. Lucas stands next to the pile of blood on the floor that the police neglected to clean up. Brooke didn't deserve to see this. Sam didn't need to see this. Lucas kneels down and starts scrubbing the floor and removing the dried blood off of the floor.
~~~/~~~/~~~/~~~
Brooke and Jamie enter Sam's hospital room and the moment that Jamie spots Sam sitting on the bed he smiles. He slowly walks over to the bed and stands in front of his sister.
"I was scared," Jamie admits as his smile goes away.
"I was scared, too."
"Are you going to come home with us?" Jamie asks excitedly.
Sam smiles at her brother's enthusiasm.
"Yeah, buddy, I am."
"It's going to be so great."
Brooke steps forward with a few bags in her hands. She hands a bag of clothes to Sam.
"I figured you wanted to get out of the hospital gown as soon as possible."
Sam accepts the bag and carefully walks into the bathroom and shuts the door. Brooke turns to Jamie.
"Are you happy buddy?"
Jamie nods his head.
"Yeah, Sam gets to come home. We can be a family."
"Yeah, we can be a family."
Jamie looks at the other bag in Sam's hand and points to it.
"Are you going to give Sam the present?"
"When she gets out."
Sam walks out of the bathroom and smiles gratefully.
"Thanks for the clothes."
Brooke smiles and hands the bag Jamie was referring to, to Sam.
"Jamie told me what today was."
Sam smiles appreciating at it.
"Thanks."
Jamie walks up to Sam and hugs her slowly as not to hurt her.
"Happy birthday Sam."
"Your discharge papers are signed and the nurse should be here soon with the wheelchair so they can walk us out."
"I can walk on my own," Sam says defiantly.
"I know that, but please just humor me," Brooke pleads.
The nurse walks in with the wheelchair and waits patiently. Sam walks over to the chair and sits down at it while raising an eyebrow at Brooke.
"Thank you, now let's go home."
"Home," Sam whispers to herself with a smile on her face.