CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Title: "Salvation: Forever and Always: Elusive Dreams – PART III"
Author: Michelle Heath
Rating: MA for adult situations and language
Summary: Story #9 in the Salvation series. The bonds of family bring the Five-0 ohana even closer.
Disclaimer: I so do not own Hawaii Five-0; unfortunately! All original characters are the property of the author!
Date Written: November 17, 2012
(The sun is just beginning to rise when Sam quietly lets herself in to the house. She is completely exhausted after being up all night with the emergency at the base and, since she didn't get a great deal of sleep the night before and then spent the day with her family, all she wants at the moment is to crawl into bed and sleep for a few hours. Moving quietly up the stairs, she eases into the master bedroom to find Steve asleep and moves into the nursery to check on their daughter. Emily is sleeping like an angel and Sam leans over to gently touch her baby's silky, dark hair and gently kiss her forehead. After the horror of the past several hours, Emily's sweet face is like a healing balm to Sam. Her heart swelling with love for her precious child, Sam has a small smile on her beautiful face when she straightens up. Ten seconds later, however, the smile is gone and has been replaced by a slight frown as her eyes land on her laptop which is sitting on top of Emily's chest of drawers. As tired as she is, Sam distinctly remembers putting her laptop on the dresser the night before when she came upstairs just before she got the call from the base. Taking the two steps necessary to reach her laptop, Sam lifts the top and finds that the computer is on and a strange feeling begins to take hold of her. Checking the search history tells Sam all she needs to know and she grabs her laptop and strides to Steve's side of their bed. Not wanting to wake Emily, Sam keeps her voice down but there is pure, raw anger dripping from her every word.)
"Steve! Steve, wake up!"
"Hey, Beautiful, you just get home?"
"Don't you dare, 'Hey, Beautiful' me! How. Dare. You?"
(Steve's brain finally wakes fully, he instantly sees Sam's laptop in her hands, and realizes that he is completely screwed; especially when he sees the anger in her eyes and, something else; hurt. In a heartbeat Steve is out of the bed and standing in front of his extremely pissed off wife.)
"I dare, Sam, because I love you! Something's not right with you, Sweetheart, and we need to figure out what that something is and do whatever we have to do to fix it!"
"The only thing that's 'not right' with me, Steve, is the fact that you and my parents are obsessed with finding something wrong with me! What the Hell is wrong with all of you?"
"Why haven't you ever told me about your biological parents, Sam?"
"What?"
"You heard me! Other than some very basic information, you've never talked about your biological parents. Hell, I didn't even know their first names until I was shot before we got married. You've never talked about them, never told me what your life was like before you met Caroline. Why is that, Sam? What is it you don't want me to know?"
(But Sam is getting madder by the minute and angrily strides over to the sitting area to put her laptop on the desk in the corner. As soon as she puts it down, her eyes land on the tray of the printer and she stops dead still as she realizes that Steve has printed out a diagram of the location of her biological parents' graves at Arlington. She pales considerably and Steve moves closer.)
"Did they abuse you, Sam? Did your father abuse your mother?"
(Sam whirls around and she slaps Steve hard enough to leave a handprint on his face. They angrily square off with a muscle working furiously in Steve's jaw and Sam glaring daggers, but before either of them can say another word, Emily's cries reach their ears and Sam immediately goes to her child. When she has changed Emily's diaper, Sam brings her back into the bedroom and gently lays her in the middle of the bed while she jerkily takes off her uniform and slips into a nightgown. Steve, several different emotions sweeping through him at the moment, runs a hand through his hair in frustration and turns to face his wife as she slips into the bed and pulls their daughter close; his voice much softer.)
"That was uncalled for, Sam; I'm sorry. You would have told me if . . . Baby, I'm just trying to help you here. Please, Sweetheart, don't shut me out."
"I don't need help, Steve, from you or anyone else. What I need is sleep. I've had a horrible night; I've got a dead pilot and a dead RIO in the morgue at the base hospital, five of my ground crew members injured, and a huge hole in one of my runways. I've been on the phone a good bit of the night with San Diego N.A.S. as well as Washington, and I'm exhausted. I have to be back at the base in six hours to meet with the investigators from San Diego. All I want to do right now is sleep."
(Steve, realizing that Sam truly is exhausted and knowing that she has to go back to the base in a few hours, expels a heavy sigh and speaks very quietly.)
"Sam?"
"Yes?"
"Will you let me hold you?"
(Sam doesn't say a word but she does gently move Emily and turns on her side. Lifting the covers, Steve slides in the bed and moves as close to Sam as he can get, putting his arm around her slender waist and pulling her close. In spite of her anger, Sam quickly falls asleep feeling safe in Steve's arms and knowing that will protect her no matter what.)