The next morning, Sam was at the restaurant, busy fixing one of the bar stools that had been squeaking before they opened up. Garry was going through receipts at the cash register and Kenna had run out to grab more napkins from the restaurant supply house.
"So what are you doing for you and Kenna's anniversary tomorrow?" Sam asked, finishing up at the bar stool and getting to her feet.
"I'm taking her to see her favorite painter's art show up in New York," Garry replied. "I was trying to get us tickets to that big football game up there too, but they sold out."
"Kenna hates football," Sam pointed out.
"Yes, and I hate looking at paintings for three hours," Garry smirked. "That was going to be my way of unwinding after being in a stuffy museum. Now I probably won't even get to see the game on T.V…which reminds me. Wanna send me text updates with the score while we're out?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "Fine. Glad to know you'll be having fun on your anniversary."
"Kenna's just lucky I love her enough to willingly go to an art show," Garry chuckled.
"You know you guys can take off the whole weekend to celebrate if you want," Sam said, leaning on the counter next to Roxy, who was playing with some of the toy zoo animals her and Aiden had gotten her when they took her to the zoo last year for her birthday. "I'll just call in a few more of the waiters and maybe I can even convince Freddie to help out again."
"Hmmm, maybe," Garry nodded. "I'll ask Kenna and see if maybe she wants to go to a bed and breakfast place while we're in New York or if-"
Suddenly the restaurant door opened, and Sam expected Kenna to walk in, returning with the napkins, but instead, it was Carly.
"Um…hi," Carly said softly.
"We're not open," Sam said coldly.
"Sam, can we please talk?" Carly asked.
"I don't really have too much left to say to you," Sam said as Roxy watched the scene curiously. "Besides, you've made your appearance. Shouldn't you be jetting off to Italy now?"
"No, I-I'm not leaving yet," Carly said. "Please Sam, can we just talk for a few minutes? I know you probably never want to see me again, but-but I don't want to lose my best friend like this."
"Um, I-I'll just finish this up in the back," Garry said quickly, grabbing the rest of the receipts.
"No," Sam said firmly. "Stay." She turned back to Carly.
"If you didn't want to lose your best friend, then maybe you should've thought about that before you put everything else in front of our friendship," she said. "You always thought I would just be here waiting for you when you had time. But you know what, Carly? I have my own life now, just like you have yours. So why don't you stop trying to pretend we can go back to how things were? We'll just become acquaintances, like we've been for the past ten years. We'll send each other messages on Splashface on our birthdays and if you decide Freddie's important enough to stay in your life, I guess we'll see each other every now and then around him, but that's about as good as we'll ever be again."
"Sam, don't say that," Carly pleaded, her eyes filling with tears. "I-I know I messed up, but-but I want to fix this. Please, just let me back into your life. I-I want us to at least try get our friendship back."
"It's too late for that," Sam said simply. "We can't-"
Just then, a loud noise sounded from the parking lot outside. It was the sound of a car backfiring, Sam knew, but it sounded almost exactly like a gunshot…
And right when she heard the noise, Sam knew what was about to happen.
Roxy suddenly dropped her toys and began screaming, just as she did the night she had come out to see her father's dead body. She screamed and cried loudly, clutching her ears tightly, as though trying to block out anymore of that noise.
"Damn it," Sam mumbled under her breath as she rushed over to Roxy, who was now practically gasping for breath. "Roxy! Roxy sweetie, that was just a car. Nothing's happening, nothing's going to hurt you."
"What-What's wrong? Is she okay?" Carly asked, concerned.
Garry quickly grabbed a paper bag from under the counter and handed it to Sam as he ran over to Roxy as well.
"Roxy, you need to breathe," Sam said, praying she'd be able to get her daughter's panic attack under control without having to take her to the hospital. "Breathe into this bag. That was just a car…it was just a car."
Roxy continued to sob hard as Garry tried to get her to drink some water.
"Should I call someone?" Carly asked, wishing she could do more than stand and stare. "Is she okay?"
"She'll be fine," Sam said harshly, looking over her shoulder as she continued to try and soothe her daughter. She turned away again, stroking Roxy's hair, something that could usually calm her down. "This is my life now, Carly. Now why don't you go back to yours? It's what you're best at."
…
That evening, Sam tried to keep her eyes open as she finished closing down the restaurant. But as she wiped down the tables, her mind kept going back to her confrontation with Carly earlier that day.
Had she been too tough on Carly? Should she have taken up Carly's offer to try and piece back together what they could of their friendship?
No, she had her chance to fix things, Sam thought firmly to herself. If she hadn't been so self-absorbed these past ten years, we'd still be best friends like we were when she left for Italy in the first place.
She heard the restaurant door open, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Freddie walked in, giving her a friendly smile. "Hey," he said. "You said you needed help here?"
"Yeah…if you don't mind," Sam nodded. "Sorry, it's just I told Kenna and Garry they could leave early because it's their anniversary tomorrow and I forgot how long this place takes to clean by myself."
"It's no problem," Freddie said, grabbing himself a rag. He waited a few moments before speaking again. "So Carly told me she came by…"
"Yeah," Sam nodded. "She did."
"Did you two talk?"
"I'm sure she told you exactly what happened," Sam said simply.
"Actually, all she told me was that Roxy had some sort of panic attack," Freddie said. "Is she okay?"
"Yeah," Sam replied. "She's okay now. She-She just got scared because she heard a car backfire and she thought it was a gunshot."
"Oh," Freddie said slowly.
"Yup," Sam said, looking over at a nearby booth, where Roxy was fast asleep. She grabbed the tray of dishes and headed back over to the counter. "So, how long is Carly staying? I'm surprised she hasn't left already."
"She canceled a few of her meetings so she could stay here longer," Freddie told her.
Sam looked mildly surprised. "Wow…I don't think that girl's ever canceled one of her precious meetings."
"She-She really wants to make things better between you guys," Freddie said.
"She wants a clear conscious before she goes back to Italy," Sam said. "If she really valued our friendship, she would've done something like this a long time ago."
Freddie opened him mouth to say something, but decided against it at the last second.
"So, um, I-I never thanked you for staying with me last night," Sam said, looking down at the ground. "I-I really appreciated it."
"Hey, you weren't in any condition to be by yourself," Freddie said. "I wasn't just going to leave you."
"Still, I'm sure you had better things to do than sit with me," Sam said. "There-There was probably some lame Galaxy Wars marathon on or something."
Freddie chuckled. "I actually should re-watch those movies again. I haven't seen them in years."
"Oh!" Sam said suddenly, grabbing her bag from underneath the bar. "I meant to give this to you…I've had it for years but I've never had any use for it. I figure it's better off with you than gathering dust in the back of my closet."
She pulled out a small circular object and tossed it to Freddie. "I think it's called a light orb or something…"
"Whoa, this is a Light Bomb from Galaxy Wars!" Freddie exclaimed. "Wait…how'd you get this? This looks really real."
"Yeah, because it's from the set," Sam grinned.
"What?"
"One of the set managers for the movies was an old friend of Aiden's father," Sam told him. "He gave us that for our wedding…Aiden was never a big sci-fi fan, and you know how I feel about those movies, so you can have it."
"Whoa, Sam, this-this is incredible," Freddie said. "Thank you."
"Consider that your payment for all those smoothies I made you buy me senior year," Sam said. "Better late than never, right?"
"This is gonna look great in my place," Freddie said, examining the prop. "It can go right next to my Nug Nug model."
"Ugh, you've got to be the one spy who isn't even a little bit cool," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "God, you're still the biggest nub around, aren't you?"
"Maybe," Freddie said. "And I'm sure you're still the biggest blonde-headed demon around too."
"Well I've got to protect my title," Sam said.
Just then, the two heard a loud cry coming from the baby monitor in Sam's back pocket.
"Oh, hold on, Liam's awake," Sam said. "He's probably hungry. I'll be right back."
"Okay," Freddie said, still looking at his new prop. "I'll be here enjoying my awesome new Light Bomb."
"Dork," Sam said, shaking her head as she headed back into the office.
Freddie couldn't help but smile. It certainly had been strange not hearing Sam's nicknames for so long. He never would've imagined he'd miss being called a nub and dork, after all.
He heard movement behind him, and he turned to see Roxy slowly waking up and climbing out of the booth she had been napping in.
She looked around for Sam, starting to appear alarmed that her mother wasn't there.
"Your mom just went to the back to feed your brother," Freddie said quickly as Roxy hurried over to the bar. "She didn't leave you."
Roxy of course didn't reply, but she did seem less anxious at Freddie's words.
She slowly climbed onto one of the bar stools, where there was a large pile of pictures and crayons.
"Are these some of your drawings?" Freddie asked.
Roxy didn't look up at him as she picked up a purple crayon and began working on a new picture, but she gave a small nod.
"Well they seem really nice," Freddie said. "They must've taken you a long time to make. Do-Do you mind if I look at some of them?"
Roxy set down her crayon and hesitantly handed Freddie a few of her pictures.
Wow, the kid can really draw, Freddie thought as he looked through the drawings. He got to one of a train zooming on its tracks.
"This one is amazing," Freddie told her. "Well, all of them are, but I think this one's my favorite. I really love trains…I used to build models of them when I was a kid. I was even in a train club in school. Do you like trains?"
Roxy looked up at him, and for once, Freddie noticed her green eyes weren't filled with fear. She nodded quickly.
"Nice," Freddie grinned. "Have you ever been on one?"
She shook her head.
"Well…well maybe one day, if I can convince your mom, we can go on one," Freddie said, handing her the drawings back. "Does that sound like fun?"
Roxy gave him the smallest of smiles as she nodded again.
She picked up her crayon and Freddie watched as she carefully wrote her name on the corner of the train picture. She then handed it back to and pointed at him.
"You-You want me to keep this?" Freddie asked.
Roxy nodded.
"Oh," Freddie said, shocked. "Well…thank you Roxy. I'll hang it up in my apartment when I get home. I've been meaning to get some artwork to brighten up the place."
"Hey what are you guys doing?" Sam asked, coming back out from the office with Liam in her arms.
"Roxy was just showing me some of her pictures she drew," Freddie said. "She's a really good artist."
"Yeah, she is," Sam nodded, surprised to see her daughter acting so…normal around Freddie. She was usually a wreck around anybody who wasn't her, Garry or Kenna. She had only known Freddie for a little over a week and she seemed at least somewhat comfortable around him.
She felt a small smile creeping onto her face as she watched Roxy show Freddie another picture.
She hadn't seen her daughter like this in far too long.
