Part 7

June 7; 12:30PM; Chicago

Sam POV

I stood in the middle of my room looking at all of my clothes laid out all over my bed room. I was invited to come spend a week with Steve and his family at the pole, but I didn't know what to pack. How cold was it there? Do I pack super warm clothes that I would wear out skiing or just normal winter clothes? I was so worried about what to pack I didn't want to look like an idiot in front of his family.

"Why don't you pack a little of everything? I am sure he is going to take you outside and it will be cold but I shouldn't be that cold in his house." Jessy said leaning against the door frame to my room.

"Yeah, but then what shoes do I pack? Boots or sneakers?" I chuckled as I started folding clothes and putting them in to suit cases. Steve was probably going to think I am crazy with all my suit cases I currently had three packed and I need one more for shoes alone.

"Both. Also, with the winter dress you packed don't forget nice shoes. I am guessing by your choice of clothes you are nervous to meet his family."

"Is it that obvious?" I started panicking thinking I over packed. The good thing about Jessy actually knowing where I am going and who Steve really is, so that she could help me pack and I could talk to her about why I was so nervous. Jessy just gave me a weird face and walked into my room to help me go through clothes. "I just want to make a good impression on them."

"Sam don't worry I am sure they are going to like you, and even if they don't, they will tolerate you. After all you have their eldest son wrapped around your finger." I looked over at her giving her a dirty look. Before I could respond I head the front door open and Steve yell up the stairs that he was here. I shouted back that I was upstairs in my room and I heard him making the trip up the stairs. I looked over and Jessy was zipping my one bag I already packed close again. "That is for later, I mean come on you are a bad ass in your professional life; stop being so timid in your personal one after all we all don't get someone as sexy as Mr. Christmas out there." She made my face turn red knowing what she was talking about.

"Ready to go?" Steve asked when he walked into my room seeing how I had everything thrown about.

"Uhhhh… I think so?" I was so nervous I really wanted them to like me after all if things work out, I may eventually be moving in with them.

"You don't sound sure of yourself?" he looked concerned.

"I am just nervous and didn't really know what to pack." I looked around at my mess and figured I could clean it up when I get back.

"Sam," Steve walked over and placed his hands on my arms stopping me from spinning looking at my messy room. "It is ok. I know my parents are going to love you." Steve kissed the side of my head and leaned down to pick up my first bag. We walked out back by the garage and there was a single zip line hanging down with a Christmas tree like foot holder. I looked at Steve and then to the zip line. "Don't worry Sam I won't let you fall."

"Falling wasn't what I was worried about. There is only one zip line." Steve walked over and put on foot on the holder and pulled me to him. I placed my one foot on top of his and held on tight. Before I could ask about my bag I saw two elves zip line down and grab them for us. When we got to the S-1 Steve helped me stand up and I looked around in awe like a child. It was so big; well, I guess it would have to be for all the toys for the kids.

"I know it is big. I started drawing up the plans for the S-1 when I was twelve years old. Follow me I will show you the bridge which is the command center." Steve took my hand and started walking over to an elevator hitting the bridge level button. Once to the bridge level it opened to lots of buttons and computer screens. Steve walked over to the main control panel and pushed some buttons and flipped some switches and the S-1 started to move. I walked over to him and saw him holding on the lever that he was moving very slightly. He saw that I was staring at what he was doing. "Would you like to fly it?" He asked and I am pretty sure my jaw dropped. He was going to let me fly the S-1, his most prized possession.

"Sure." I was so nervous I walked over to Steve and he moved for me to stand in front of him. I put my hand on the lever and he put his hand over top of mine and was showing me how to keep it steady as we flew.

"Once we get to the North Pole, I will show you what to do because we have to land it under water and go through some caves to get the garage bay." Steve stood behind me with his hands resting on my waist as I got to fly his S-1. It felt nice this time with Steve and it helped ease my nerves about meeting his family, well that was until he announced we were approaching the pole.

"Ok Sam we are here so let up on the throttle."

"The what?"

"The lever you have your hand on, let up just a little to start to slow down. Good now just hold steady I will do the rest." Steve stepped to the side and flipped some switches and pushed some buttons. "Now let up completely a second." The whole ship started to go slowly down and once we were under the water Steve came over and placed his hand over top of mine because this part needed some fine tuning and soon we were in the hanger bay. "Ready? My family is outside waiting for us."

We were walking out of the S-1 and I froze causing Steve to jerk back a little from where I had a hold of his hand. "Steve, what if they don't like me?"

He looked at me like I was crazy which made me feel stupid for asking out loud. "Sam, they are going to love you. Arthur already does and has been asking since I told him we were dating when I was bringing you here and my mom can't wait to meet you. As far as my dad it will take the whole trip for him to remember your name, but it doesn't mean he doesn't like you it is just how he is." With Steve's reassuring words I was ready to meet his family. I walked up to him and gave him a quick kiss before we started walking down the ramp out into the hanger. When we reached the bottom of the ramp Arthur couldn't wait any longer and came running over and wrapped me in hug. I hugged his thin frame back.

"Nice to see you again too Arthur." I giggled as he kept hugging me. Steve came over and made Arthur let go as his mom and dad walked over and I could feel my palms getting sweaty.

"Oh, Steven she is even more pretty in person then in the pictures." I held out my hand to her unsure what else to do, "thank you and nice to meet your Mrs. Clause." She pushed my hand away and gave me hug. "Oh, dear please call me Margret and this is Malcolm." She motioned to her husband who just waved at me. Ok, so Steve clearly is the brains of the operation, I thought to myself.

"Sir," an elf appeared at Steve's side and cleared his throat, "there is a slight problem with the simulation training programing that the IT department can't fix." Steve rolled his eyes at the elf's comment.

"Oh, you must be Peter." I said crossing my arms in front of my chest and giving the elf a slight dirty look that only he could see. This elf always gave me attitude when he would call looking for Steve and I saw a message from him to Steve one time saying I was a "stupid distraction."

"Was I talking to you." Peter looked over at me with a glare.

"Peter, I am off today." Steve pinched the bridge of his nose and looked annoyed.

"Go, take care of your work and meet us later. I will show Sam to her room where she will be staying." His mom quickly interrupted and coming to link her arm in mine. "Besides Arthur is already collecting her bags from the elves." We all looked over and Arthur was trying to carry all of my bags. I ran over to him and took two of them from him.

"Fine." Steve walked over to me and kissed my check, which made me blush in front of his parents "Let me fix this and then I will find you and spend the rest of the day with you."

"It is fine I wasn't expecting you to take off the whole time I was here." Steve looked disappointed, and I am guessing he only took today off. With out saying anything he turned to leave and Peter turned back to me as he was following Steve and stuck his tongue out at me. Wow, what a child. I gave him the universal sign of I am watching you and with that he turned smiling, skipping after Steve. Great first day here and I am fighting with his assistant. His mom and Arthur started to walk away and I had to jog a couple steps to catch up.

The Clause living quarters were nice the walls looked to be made of ice but didn't seem too cold to the touch and it wasn't cold inside surprisingly. I was looking at everything when I heard Arthur ask me if I liked riding in the S-1. "It was very nice, I wasn't expecting it to be that big. I was nervous at first when Steve asked me to fly it, but I loved it." Arthur and his mom both stopped and turned and looked at me in shock.

"He let you fly it?" His mom asked still looking surprised.

"Yes?" I was unsure if I should have told them that by the way they were staring at me.

"Well I guess I am getting those grandchildren I always wanted after all." His mom said so nonchalantly.

"What?" I shook my head not understanding what happened.

"Steve doesn't let just anyone on the bridge of he S-1 let alone fly it. I am not even aloud on the bridge and I am him brother. Him letting you fly it means that he truly is in love with you." Arthur explained as we kept walking. Soon we reached a door that lead to a room that appeared to be a guest room. I walked in putting the bags I was carrying on the bed and started looking around in the room. I noticed that Margret was still standing in the doorway and Arthur was carrying in my other bags. Then I noticed that his mother looked worried.

"Is everything ok?"

"Dear can I ask you a favor and don't tell Steve that I asked?" I was surprised, "Steve told me not to bother you with this problem while you were here because you were supposed to be on vacation, but I was wondering if you could possibly take a look at my father-in-law. He has been sick, but has been getting worse lately. Our medical elves are good, but they are not medical school graduates like you and can only do so much." She would not make eye contact with me she kept her gaze on the ground.

"Of course, I can, and it is no problem at all it will give me something to do while Steve is working." She brightened at the idea of me helping, but now Arthur looked at the floor and would not look at me. I am guessing it is something bad just by the vibes I was getting from the situation. Mrs. Clause lead the way to the medical wing and we passed some elves on the way there and they all looked at me like I was a scary monster. I leaned over to Arthur and asked why the elves seemed to be scared of me.

"They are not use to seeing any other normal people other than us, so maybe they are just like that because they are not use to seeing you." I hope that was it and not Steve's mean little assistant spreading rumors making them afraid of me.

Once we got to the hospital wing Margret introduced me to Grand-santa's doctor. The doctor introduced himself as Josh and filled me in on what was going on. So, Grand-santa has had a history of heart disease, with multiple heart attacks that have never been properly treated but recently he was having a hard time breathing. They increased his medication thinking he was going into heart failure and that the extra fluid was building in his lungs, but it had not helping at all. "Do you mind if I look at his chart and medication lists before I go see him that way I have a complete history." The elf handed me his chart and I did a quick flip thought. I saw that his blood work was not 100% normal either; his kidney values were elevated which is a side effect of long term use of the heart medications he was on. He was on all of the five different kinds of heart medications for his condition and he was maxed out on the doses that were safe and I was hoping that they weren't doing more damage on his kidneys.

When I was done with his chart Margert and Arthur showed me to his room. He was asleep I gently walked over and sat on the bed next to him and gave him a light shake to wake him up. He groaned and looked up at me, "oh my I must be ready to go if an angel is waking me up."

I blushed hard at his comment and busted his bubble, "Oh I am no angel I am a doctor here to look at you. My name is Sam."

"But Sam is a boy's name. You wanna them confused boys?"

"No," I chuckled he was very rash, but I liked him. He reminded me of my dad, "My full name is Samantha, but I go by Sam. Besides you think I would were these tight of pants if I was trying to hide something?" This made him laugh, but the look his mom sent I don't think she appreciated it. "Margret asked me to take a look at while I am here visiting for the week."

"This is Steven's girlfriend, the doctor from Chicago." His mom added.

"But you are to pretty to be with techno Tommy and besides you seem nice and he is a spoiled brat." I was very confused by this techno Tommy comment? Did his grandfather not like him? He thought he was a brat?

"Ok. I read your chart and I would like to do a couple simple little test if that is ok?" He nodded in agreement. "I am going to first start off by listening to you heart since this all seems related." I used one of the other doctor's stethoscope and listened to his chest, but right away I knew something was wrong. His heart sounded muffled like there was fluid in his lungs, but slightly different. I had him take a couple breaths and you could hear that not all the bronchi in his lungs were filling with air. I tried to not let the worry show on my face, but I was defiantly worried that if it was heart failure that it going this long was not a good sign. "Ok, next I need to run some blood just a small panel to look at your kidney values, electrolytes, and clotting factors. Also, while I am waiting on the results do you mind if I ultrasound your chest?" Grand-santa looked at me in worry but nodded in agreement.

I drew his blood and checked his fluids while I was at it and it all looked fine. I had to have him take his shirt off to ultrasound his chest and Margret left the room. I was left alone with him because Arthur followed him mother. When I was about to put the probe on his chest he grabbed my wrist. "Take care of Steve will you please? He isn't one to take care of his family. Quite frankly he isn't very nice to any of us, but since he started dating you he has seemed more tolerable of us. You have started to change him. You have a kind and gentle heart take care of this family, will you?" I was surprised I didn't know what to say I just started in awe at the older man. "I know I don't have long, and it is something bad I am not as clueless as everyone thinks I am." I saw a tear slide down his check.

"I can help." Was all I was able to say and he let go of my hand and didn't say anything else. I placed the probe on his chest and automatically found the problem. A mass was in his left lung and was pushing on the aortic arch in his heart which ripped causing a leak. There was blood filling his chest and none of the medications he was on could solve this. He needed surgery to remove the mass and to close ripped leak in his heart.

"Please don't tell them. I do not want them to worry any more than they already do." Before I could respond Steve can busting into the room. He came over and grabbed my hand pulling me from the room and out into the hallway with his mom and Arthur.

"I told you not to bother her with that old bat. I told you that she was here on vacation." His mom and Arthur looked like children getting scolded by their parents for eating all the candy. This is wrong he should not talk to his mother or his brother like this.

"Steve, I wanted to help I wasn't going to sit in my room waiting for you to finish working. Besides it is good thing that I did the medications he is on is not going to help him, in fact they are making things worse. They are shutting down his kidneys." Steve turned to look at me not expecting me to defend his mother. Before he could open his mouth to respond Peter walked around the corner and called for him to come on and finish his work. Steve turned on his heal and left stomping down the hall. He was very different here then he was when he was in Chicago visiting me. He seemed angry constantly.

"Dear I am sorry I expected Steven to be busy for a while. I didn't mean for him to come here so quickly. I am very sorry." She was franticly trying to apologize to me for Steve being a complete ass a moment ago.

I interrupted here before she could keep apologizing to me because it wasn't her fault. It was Steve's he should know that I can't sit around doing nothing all the time, and also why doesn't he care about his family? I was trying to help them. "Stop, it isn't your fault, it is Steve's he over reacted."

Steve's POV

I walked quickly down the hallway. I couldn't believe that my mother went behind my back and got Sam to look at Grand-santa, after all how much longer does he have left. Sam doesn't get to rest even on her days off, I was hoping that bringing her here she could rest because recently she has been looking a little run down and tired. Before, I knew it I was standing in the middle of mission control with a lot of confused looking elves staring at me. "What is everyone looking at? Back to training or no breaks today." I started feeling guilty. I shouldn't have yanked on her arm like that out of the room or started yelling. She was probably really mad at me and unfortunately, I had to finish work first before I went and found her to apologize.

Sam POV

I was sitting in Grand-santa's room waiting on the results to all my bloodwork trying not to be angry at Steve, but I kept thinking about how he was yelling at his mom.

"Don't frown like that it makes you look ugly." Grand-santa said and I looked up to find him holding an open bottle of whiskey in his hand.

"Where did you get that from? That is the last thing you need right now with your health concerns." I scolded him as I held out a glass for him to share.

"Oh, why not indulge an old man. You know that I don't have long left just let me drink some to ease the pain. Besides, it looks like you could use a drink as well." He filled my glass larger than a normal drink and I did not hesitate I took a long drink from it. It burned on the way down, I am use to vodka not whiskey. I felt better after the drink I strongly needed a drink. "Better, you look better now." He smiled at me and took my hand. I knew that he knew what was really going on and there was nothing that I could do from here at the pole. He needs a cancer and surgical specialist, but he did not want to leave. After, I told the family about what was really going on and that he declined being taken some where to have it treated, they all left claiming they needed a moment. I know that they were arguing about what to do next. I hated that I had upset his family, well not intentionally, and how I was still so mad about what had happened with Steve just a few hours ago.

To be continued….