Sammy played with her hands as she rode in the front of Lisa's car, heading for a hospital so she could make her appointment. She was going to be late for her ballet class since this was the only time she was able to get the special doctor they said she needed. Sammy just wanted to get a check-up. After the weird comment the fake Matt made towards her, she felt the need to have a doctor tell her that she was okay. She thought about that pale boy, Kid, that she had met yesterday as well. He seemed, familiar, but he was from Death City, she didn't know anyone from Death City. Sammy wondered why Kid had given her such a strange look after recovering from his mental break-down and was taking the Matt impersonator away.
Stay safe...and stay away from anyone named Lance.
What kind of a warning was that? Who was Lance? Why did that name make her heart ache?
"Sam?" Sammy didn't hear Lisa's voice, her mind still wondering what that name means. Was there a Lance at her school? In her hometown? In the city she now lived in? "Sam!" Sammy flailed when Lisa raised her voice, finally getting the other woman's attention.
"Huh?"
"Are you okay? You were spacing out." Lisa asked.
"Y-Yeah, I was just thinking. Sorry for worrying you." Sammy saw that they were now parked in front of the hospital. "Thanks for driving me." Sammy opened the door to the car.
"No problem, my class was cancelled anyways." Lisa shrugged as she and Sammy got out of the car. "Plus, you're my friend. If you're worried about something, I want to make sure you're okay."
"Um...thanks." Sammy felt her stomach flip a little. "Why did your class get cancelled?"
"Professor's sick." Lisa answered and the two young women walked into the hospital together.
"Do I just..." Sammy pointed at the counter where a young man was typing away at a computer and Lisa nodded her head. "Um...hello?"
"Hello, how can I help you?" Sammy felt herself calm down a little, the man was very friendly and had a wide, genuine, smile.
"I have an appointment." Sammy said.
"Oh! You must be Samantha." The man handed a clipboard and a pen to a stunned Sammy. Why did he know her name? "Just fill out these forms and the nurse will get you whenever the doctor's ready."
"Okay..." Sammy turned around and joined Lisa at the waiting area. "Oh...lordy." Sammy sighed as she started to fill out the forms, asking Lisa what certain words meant since she was the 'nurse'. "I should consider getting contacts." Sammy muttered to herself as she wrote out that she wore glasses.
"Miss. Lobenstein?" A woman called out, holding her own clipboard.
"Here." Sammy shrunk down in embarrassment when she realized that she had raised her hand. She gave the nurse a nervous smile when she laughed and gestured for her to follow.
"Don't worry, I'll wait right here for you." Lisa said, grabbing one of the magazines. Sammy nodded a thanks before leaving the room with the nurse.
"Alright, let's weight you while we're here." Sammy hesitated for a second before stepping on the scale, her least favorite part of every check up. The nurse moved the weights and wrote down the number, smiling as she lead Sammy away from the scale. "I'll do your blood pressure, temperature and draw some blood when we reach the room." Sammy nodded her head, but then realized that the nurse wasn't looking at her.
"Okay."
"Right in here, Miss. Lobenstein." Sammy walked into the room the nurse opened the door too. "Take a seat there and we'll start with your temperature." Sammy couldn't help herself from staring at the nurse from the corner of her eye as she stuck a thermometer into her ear. The nurse had blonde hair and an eye-patch over her eye, making Sammy wonder what happened to cause that. She watched the nurse put the thermometer away and take out another piece of equipment and hated the tight squeeze the wrap did to her arm. Sammy could feel her blood pumping as the grip was loosened and the nurse listened to it through a stethoscope. She was too busy rubbing her arm to notice the nurse's concerned face as she wrote down more notes. "I need you to stay calm as this happens, okay?" Sammy nodded as the nurse came back to her and wrapped a band around her arm. "Please, look away." Sammy was going to question the nurse and decided against it, the nurse knew better than she did. Sammy winced when the needle went in through the crook of her elbow. "Oh lord." Sammy didn't want to know why the nurse said that and gasped when the needle was taken out, it hurting more than when it was put in. The nurse quickly put a bandage on the wound and wrapped it up, hiding the syringe from Sammy.
"Is...is everything okay?" Sammy asked.
"Yep. The doctor will be with you in a little while, he'll need a bit to examine your blood." The nurse left the room.
"Oh...okay." Sammy said to the empty room. She sat in the room for a long time, finding ways to distract herself by reading the posters on the wall, reading the books that were meant for small children, the magazines, just laying and staring at the white ceiling. At one point she was tempted to remove the bandage and look at the hole in her arm, but knew that she shouldn't. Sammy yelped when the door suddenly opened and a man rolled into the room. "Hi?" Sammy squeaked, shocked to see that the man was covered in stitches and had a large screw going through his head.
"Sorry for taking so long, I'm Dr. Stein." The doctor introduced himself.
"So...am I okay?" Sammy asked.
"Nope." Sammy's eyes popped open. "But it's nothing too extreme at the moment. You have your madness under control, even with your blood."
"What?"
"Everyone has a little madness in them, don't you know that?" Sammy didn't respond or move. "Well, you have a lot of that in you, but you have it sealed up, as if something is keeping it back and controlling it." Dr. Stein cranked the screw in his head. "So, I'll allow you to continue living at your college, get your education and what not."
"Allow me?"
"If you ever get angry and you feel something snap inside of you, get away from everyone." Stein said, leaning forward in his chair. "If you kill anyone, I will not allow a danger like that to continue living in this world."
"You'll...you'll..." Sammy swallowed.
"I'll send every student from the DWMA if needed to stop you."
"The DWMA!?" Sammy got off of the chair she was in. "You're from the DWMA!? Why are you here!?"
"Kid called us and said that there was a student here with a problem and was visiting a hospital. He said that her blood was tainted and she might be a danger if she doesn't get any help."
"A danger? Look at me! The only danger I am is if I accidentally fall on someone and squash them!" Sammy yelled.
"Calm down, right now." Stein warned.
"What's wrong with me then? What's wrong with my blood? Why wasn't I allowed to look at it?" Sammy threw the questions at the doctor.
"A lot of things, it's filled with madness and because we don't know how much you know." Stein answered without missing a beat.
"Madness? How am I filled with madness?"
"We don't know, Kid has a strange feeling about you and can't remember everything, but what we do know is, is that something is very wrong with the world right now."
"No shit! Germany's on fire! Why aren't you guys fixing that instead of harassing me!?"
"Lower your voice, we don't need to scare the other patients."
"Fuck the other patients! What is wrong with my blood!?"
"It's black!" Stein snapped, scaring Sammy a little with the harshness in his voice.
"It's...what?"
"Black blood, you have black blood. We don't know how you have it. There's only one other person in the world who has black blood as well, but he's a meister who has a weapon inside of his soul and his own mother caused his blood to go black."
"I..." Sammy sat back down. "What does this mean then?"
"You are to continue you life as if nothing is wrong, you are to stay calm and you are coming here every week to get yourself checked and if you can't come here, we'll come to you." Stein stated. "You're blood will prevent you from ever getting ill, it kills anything that does not belong inside of the body." The doctor took in a deep breathe before talking again. "Are you in a relationship with a male?" Sammy was a little shock from the question.
"No." Sammy answered.
"Are you in one with the woman out there?"
"No, we're friends."
"Are you having any sex?" Sammy didn't appreciate the bluntness to the question.
"No." Sammy said through gritted teeth.
"Good. Don't. Unless you're protected."
"You don't need to give me the 'be safe during sex' talk." Sammy said. "I know I'm not ready to be pregnant."
"You can't get pregnant, anyways." Stein said softly.
"I can't what?" Sammy asked, thinking that she misheard the doctor.
"The black blood kills anything that does not belong inside of the body...including a baby."
"I can't-" Sammy's voice cracked.
"The baby would be killed and absorbed into the blood within a month, whether the baby has a soul or not." Stein stated.
"I can never be a mother?"
"You can never be a birth mother." Stein corrected.
"Oh my God..." Sammy whispered. "I can't be a mom...I can't have kids..."
"I'm sorry for having to tell you, but I didn't want you to have to go through that. Having the hope of having a child, only for it to be killed by your own blood." Stein started to roll out of the room. "You can leave whenever you're ready, but remember what I told you. I'll see you next Saturday for your next check-up. Don't want you missing anymore class for this." Stein placed a piece of paper next to Sammy and closed the door as he left the young woman alone with her thoughts.
"This can't be real...this can't be..." Sammy said to herself, leaning down into her hands. She kept waiting for something to happen. She was praying for a bunch of people will rush into the room, laughing and saying 'got-cha'. For them to say that this was all one big joke, one big social experiment or anything like that. Sammy prayed that this was all a lie, that any moment now, she'll wake up and discover that the past two days were a bad dream and everything was all okay. That her friends weren't threatened by a fake Matt, that she didn't shoot someone in the face with a weird gun-girl, that she couldn't be a mother.
She couldn't be a mother. Sammy's never really thought about having kids before, but always dreamed about it for when she was older and was happy with where her life was at. She dreamed of when she gets home from work a little boy or girl would call her 'mommy' and leap into her arms. She dreamed of her little child having a nightmare and crawling into bed with her for comfort and she would hold her child close, saying that everything was okay and that she would keep them safe. She dreamed of her child tripping over their own feet just like their mother and would cry until she kissed it better. She dreamed of her child doing something silly and hearing her friends and family laugh and say that her child gets it from her. She dreamed of having someone look up to her. She dreamed of having someone needing her. She dreamed of being loved unconditionally by a little child who would grow up one day and thank her for raising them so well. She dreamed of being happy with her child...with her children...she never thought about this nightmare being a reality.
Sammy left the room finally, accepting that this was no joke or nightmare. She walked out of the building and couldn't hear Lisa calling her name. Lisa soon just allowed Sammy to sit in silence and drove back to their college.
"Sam...do you just want me to drop you off at your dorm and take the note to your teacher?" Lisa offered, pulling up to the art's building. Sammy didn't respond and got out of the car, walking into the building with Lisa following. "Sam, please tell me what's wrong." Lisa begged as Sammy continued to walk in silence. Sammy went up the stairs and walked into the dance room, not bothering with knocking. Lisa stayed at the door, knowing that she didn't belong in there.
"There you are Sammy...Sammy?" Mrs. Shelly noticed the low-energy coming from Sammy. Sarah quickly went over to her friend.
"Sam? Are you okay?" Sarah asked. Sammy only shook her head, holding the note to her chest.
"Sammy, if you're not feeling well, you can sit out this class." Mrs. Shelly suggested.
"Would it be okay if I took her to her dorm?" Lisa asked.
"If it's needed." Mrs. Shelly said. Sammy handed the note to Sarah and walked out of the room.
"Keep her safe." Sarah said to Lisa.
"I will." Lisa said.
"You better." RJ added. Lisa just stared at the two before going after Sammy. Lisa found Sammy sitting inside of her car, her whole body shaking.
"Sam..." Lisa sat down in the car as well. "Sam, please, tell me what's wrong. What did the doctor say?" Sammy looked out of the window and saw a young mother with a little girl, both giggling and so happy.
"I..." Sammy's eyes watered up. A sob escaped her throat when she felt Lisa's hand on her own. "I can't be a mother!" Sammy broke down. She allowed Lisa to wrap her arms around her and she cried into Lisa's chest. Sammy's shoulder's jerked as she sobbed harshly, the reality of her condition finally kicking in completely. She would never be a mother.
