- Chapter Seventy-One -

Uncle Sam (Doesn't) Want You

Honored by yet another badge of survival, the heiress opened her eyes to see none other than Elena standing at her side, shielding her in a protective, motherly fashion. Go figure, it was the near-stranger that defended her and the woman that should have been her idol that had struck her. At the least, it proved one thing the vindictive businesswoman had said.

Remorse for the weak, Bai looked poised to keep hitting the insolent little girl for her insolent little mouth. And the interloper too, if need be. Fortunately for them, Sam wasn't far behind, hedging the odds at three-to-one; Bai wasn't intimidated by any one of them individually, but as a group... Well, the woman knew better than to test those numbers.

Surrender forced, the woman held her hands in the air and took a wise step away from the sheltered princess, however she still had one thing to say to the girl before she left. "Remember that this is all out of obligation. Or don't. Just know I'll be waiting for you to come back crying when your new family is done with you."

Elena's hands were so warm when they furled tighter around her shoulders that the heiress thought it was the sun hugging her. Even Sam had stepped forward to dispel the curse, his thieving fingers light on the glass case, yet firm. Without saying a word, they had both filled the girl with the inexplicable yet wondrous sense that they would always be there for her, that any of them would be. It...

It was the feeling Daniella had always wanted.

"Get outta here." Menacing enough to make the businesswoman take another cautious step closer to the exit, his threatening growl implied greater than the request that she vacate the immediate vicinity. And it was endorsed by the journalist in full.

Knowing when she lost the fight, Bai dared to look at her daughter for a lifeline of support after everything that had just been said. When it became clear that none was forthcoming, the woman in red adjusted her glasses, "Very well, I'll leave." Holding her head high, the woman also fixed her attire as she exited stage left, "I wouldn't want to come between you and your beau too."

Grip tightening for only a fraction of a second, half of the supporting force was gone just like that, turned away. Probably to be sure that the wicked witch had been cleared out for the time being, but it could have been something else... Something bad that she had done... Grateful for what she still had, Daniella returned the embrace and hugged Elena with every last ounce of thanks she could muster up, almost enough to knock the woman off her feet.

"Whoa, easy there." Laughing, in that moment Elena would always be the mother that Daniella desired, no matter what happened next.

Affectionately patting the girl in addition to squeezing her in return, the woman called over her brother to collect his charge when she broke out sobbing. "Sam, little help here?"

In no great rush, the historian did as he was bid and helped his little sister free of the clinging princess, inadvertently replacing her as the sponge for these latest tears. It might have been his imagination, but the heiress held on tighter when the guard had changed. "Come on now."

Apologetic, the natural blonde kicked them both out so she could finally relieve herself. "Sorry to do this to ya, but now it's your turn to get the hell out."

Shown the door, the heiress sniffled around her paid escort so that they could both hear her, "I'm sorry, I've just never been so happy..."

It was the truth: in all her years on this miserable little planet, she had just freely been given the exact kind of love her heart had always longed to experience. The dumbest part was that now that she thought about it, it had been there for a while now. She had just been too blind to see it.

"Now." Sam ushered the young woman out to give Elena her privacy. Someone there needed to have some secrets.

Rubbing her eyes of the dream dust and tears, Sleeping Beauty found herself outside the bathroom. Sun blazing overhead, a woman was calling out to the children to come back for another reapplication of sunscreen, and now Mr. Drake was the one playing with Vicky in the lapping tide. Cassie and the other kids were swimming back to dry land, Sullivan was sharing stories with the bartender and Ollie, and Chloe and Nadine were putting the finishing touches on a cast of sand. Everything was strangely perfect, serene, exactly how it was meant to be, and they...

They were standing in front of the bathroom, together, her hair a mess from another person entirely. That was wrong, it shouldn't have been that way, yet it was. Clearly intent on waiting for Elena, it was just her and him. Him and her. And...

"Never, huh?" Adhering to the rules of the game that the young woman had started, the grizzled brunette wasn't pushing her off, but he wasn't really entertaining her either. "Sure didn't sound like it earlier."

Truthfully, anything he might have heard had probably come from Lily, with maybe one or two exceptions... Setting aside the foreign steps of their finger dance, Dells wanted to say something to him - anything, if it might help - however her mind was coming up blank.

Conjuring up just as many jokes as he rejected, when it came down to it, Sam was more bothered by the third party than he thought he would be. Quite possibly a hair more than he was willing to admit. Teeth this close to biting into the filter, he arched a heavy auburn brow when the girl reached uninvited into his pocket. Because why the hell not, right? It wasn't as if they were drawing lines in the sand today.

Orange in the dark and near colorless in the chrysanthemum sun, the light produced from the contraband explained a lot. Bringing the silver rectangle a little too close to his face for comfort, the heiress ignited the spark, granting that sweet burst of nicotine that had been hovering beneath his tongue all this time. So bad for his health and yet an addiction that he couldn't rid himself of, it filled his lungs like bliss.

Breathing her in, breathing it out.

"At least she didn't leave off with your stuff." As Daniella's bodyguard, there was some concern that the encounter ended with a mugging, or worse. Chloe would never let him live it down.

"No, but..."

Watching everyone else enjoying themselves - even the strange young woman that had traipsed back to the bar - the heiress was struggling. Locked away in some mirror-like world that kept her from reaching out to the things that mattered most, to the people that mattered, her mouth didn't know how to form the words. Should she tell him that the other girl may as well have made off with all her worldly possessions and left her laying on the floor, gagging on her own blood? It was so stupid, because there wasn't any one thing binding them together, not in so many words, yet she couldn't shake the feeling that she had done her knight dirty.

Egged on by spite and the least bit of curiosity, she had gone beyond her own limit, and for what? A few, fleeting moments of awkward, probing public sex? A four-foot wall to further divide Sleeping Beauty from her charming thief in his stolen armor? Brain focusing on all the negative, it was difficult to remember that some bonafide good had come from this experience.

For one, actual experience. For another, Dells had figured out she was more than her body, that at least one single point of connection would be nice.

Price higher than she might have liked, the heiress reminded herself that there was a positive in all of this. Maybe even more than one. Playing with the fire at her fingertips as she reflected, Dells allowed the metal to snap shut when she peeked over at the four birds in flight. "How are you?"

How am I? Inhaling the smoke that clouded the air, Sam might have considered answering that, if Dells could actually be bothered to look at him. If she had been sincere and genuinely wanted to know, he could have told her, but first he had to believe that she really wanted to know. So far, he wasn't buying it.

"Why, dear?" Breathing deep on his personal poison, Sam was just as capable of erecting barriers as the next guy. "You think I care? That's cute."

Brusque as the response was, Dells wasn't going to let him get her down. Not right now. "It matters to me." Voice small as she informed him of where she stood, the heiress offered him back his lighter. "Go figure, the one thing that I can wrap my head around today, and it's that..." Hesitating to hand the lighter back when he reached for it, she wasn't quite as ready to let go as she thought, "Sam, I..."

"Look, you don't need to try easing your guilty conscience, alright Sleeping Beauty?" Practically ripping his property out of her hands, the adventurer shoved the lighter back in his pocket. "You're free to screw whoever you want to."

Even you? The question was written all over her eyes despite being nowhere near her lips; it was a shame that neither were facing the other to notice. Instead, what Dells did say was a test, of sorts, "Even Jian?"

Closer to meeting his gaze than she had been that morning, the heiress knew exactly what she wanted Sam to say, even if she still wasn't able to face him just yet. A step above her pay grade, facing him meant accepting several different things that she had either tried to deny or legitimately had been sheltered from. To that end, maybe the face-off with her mother in the bathroom was actually not a bad thing?

He shrugged her off dismissively, but on the inside he was starting to ask questions. Hadn't Dells been just a little too calm after their little meet-up in the woods? And she could say his name without the same gravitas as the rest of their Orange Tiger pals... She wasn't entertaining ideas about going off with that pimple, was she? After everything that had happened because of him?

"If you wanna..." Dammit. Much as he wanted to, Sam couldn't leave it there, "Dells...?" Angling for the right way to phrase his question, Elena had to go and chose that exact moment to come out of the restroom. Obviously.

"Aww, you guys waited! That was so sweet of you!" Mostly taking the piss out of them, there was about this much (enter minimal finger measurement here) of the woman that was truly touched. "Did you guys forget the way back? Come on, don't be embarrassed, you can tell me."

Cue Sam rolling his eyes at the smart-ass remarks that just as easily could have come from his little brother's mouth. Spending time with the petite blonde, he could see how Nathan and Elena had fit together and why they worked. To be fair, of all his little brother's exes - or at least the ones he had met - most probably could have kept up, but this one was a keeper. "That was it, you caught us."

Once on the record as saying that flattery would earn screen time, the reporter beamed, "Well since you put it that way, it would be my privilege to show you the way back."

Finding it amusing, Dells cracked a small smile at the woman she wished had been her mother, "I have no idea how we ever managed without you."

"Sweetie." Seeing a child that was in dire need of positive reinforcement, attention, and parental love, Elena had to second an old joke about adopting the girl. Legally it was unnecessary action, but the law was a cold thing, and the heiress could use a little warmth right about now. "Hey, you wanna join our volleyball game? I know last time you weren't feeling up to it, but we could always use another player."

Remembering vaguely that she had opted out of the game a few evenings ago, Dells was clean, and honestly, it had been way too long since the last time she'd done anything sportier than yoga. Nodding, she fell in step with the other woman, "You mean it? Yeah, I'm in!"

"Playing in that coat's gonna be a disadvantage." Pointing out the logistics from a handful of steps behind, Sam put out his cigarette before flanking his little sister's free side, "I know why you're hiding-"

"Hiding?" More recent events coming to mind, it slipped Dells's mind that she was largely wearing the semi-sheer wrap to conceal her various scars and injuries, and instead she took that as some kind of jab. "I may not be ready to face certain things, but I'm not hiding, alright?"

That might have been the best joke that he'd heard all day. Or the worst. "Wanna look me in the eye and tell me that to my face?" Warrior woman deluxe deflating at the challenge, he even stopped walking to give her the chance to prove him wrong. Nada. Point proven, he fell back in with Elena, "All I was getting at was that I hoped you wouldn't be on my team."

As one of the two captains, Elena could almost promise that that wasn't going to be a problem.

[Aren't People From Arizona Supposed To Be, Like, Really Tan?]

After the net had been set up away from any innocent bystanders or businesses, and up shore where the tide wouldn't be a huge problem, it was time to pick the teams. Set in stone since the beginning of these unofficial summer games, the only way that Nathan or Elena weren't in charge was due to illness.

Three guesses how often that happened.

As per usual, the captains weren't allowed to discuss their prospects prior to the game lest they come under suspicion of rigging the match in any one direction. Which was perfectly fine, for a calm, casual game with no stakes whatsoever.

"Call it." Grand officiator supreme, the ref peered between the two to see which would pick their player first. Quarter held high for all to see before he had tossed it, Sully even twisted the silver coin around to prove that it was a genuine article and not a one-faced joke piece.

"Heads." It was Nathan's go-to answer, and as Sam could attest, it had been that way since he was a small child.

"Tails." More of a cheeky retort to her spouse than an answer to Sully, Elena tipped her head to the side, a cocksure lilt in her tone.

If it wasn't obvious by now, things could get a little competitive between husband and wife, so their friends had convinced them it was maybe a wise idea to take certain measures and incorporate some rules. Usually those rules meant nothing to the participating players, as they were considerably better at not taking anything personally out on the field. Not even a whop to the head.

Slowly, very slowly just to get under their skins and build up a little bit of suspense, Victor picked his hand up off the result of the coin flip. Peering down at the twenty-five cent answer to end all answers, the showman bellowed through his magnificent mustache, "Sorry Elena, Nate wins this round."

Not bothered in the least by the result of the small draw, the couple were both equally confident that they would craft a team that could take them home victorious. Displaying good sportsmanship and what a friendly rivalry looked like, the captains shook hands and wished the other a good game. Not quite at the point that they wished the other would trip on the way to the net, they were evaluating their options and seriously considering strengths, weaknesses, what each individual could offer, and how well they would work with any other given individual. Again, this was serious business for the Drakes.

Grabbing one side of the net each while the rest were clustered facing the sea, Nathan made his first pick. In truth, there was never any doubt in anyone's mind who he was going to pick, because he always selected that person above all others. "Cassie, you're up!"

Pleased not only to be picked first but proud that she was the star player, the bespectacled blonde joined her father. Joey rolled his eyes at the blatant favoritism, while inside he was secretly consoling himself that there were so few players that being picked last was the same as getting picked second. By this point, Sam was used to being overlooked for his niece, and he got it. He might not have liked it, but he got it. Dells stood near the back, growing less and less sure that this was a good idea after all - much as she wanted to play, what if something happened, and her wounds were exposed? If Rafael were there he might've offered something in the way of medical advice, but nope, he was also MIA. Playful as ever, the pickpocket pretended to pout about each person that came before her, but really she didn't mind one way or another. The former mercenary just wanted to get out there and smack some balls around. Preferably she would have the chance to go against the Drake brothers, but she was a team player when it came down to it.

Far from crushed that Nate had snatched up their daughter, the blonde knew exactly who she was going to put on her team. It was a gamble, sure, but Elena was willing to take it. "Ella, care to help me show this one up?" Jerking her thumb over to her husband, the reporter asked the girl rather than demanded she assist.

"Well that's a new one." Remembering all the... 'plus ones' that Sam had brought along in the past, it was strange enough to actually see one of them willing to participate, but for Elena to actually opt for her? Mary-Elizabeth had to wonder if that model-esque woman from earlier was right about the thief's relationship with the young woman.

"Mom, she probably just wants the new girl to feel welcome." Closest to the single-member audience, Joey shrugged towards the heiress.

Almost positive that that wasn't entirely the case, Mary-Elizabeth reeled it in for her son's sake. "Right, I'm sure that has to be it."

Squinting her eyes at the younger of the two blondes, there was a lot going on beneath that adorable white duster, but nothing noticeable sticking out more than it should. Sure, sure, they'd been briefed that Ella had been in a recent accident, but the housewife had to wonder if that was the whole story. It wouldn't be surprising in the slightest if there was indeed a reason why she was being so welcomed into the family.

"Mom!" Joey was no idiot, he knew where his mother's brain was going. "We talked about this with Dr. Singh, remember? Just butt out."

Conversation not as private as they might have liked, Nathan had the good graces to act like he hadn't overheard as he announced his next choice. "Oh, Nadine," he cupped his hands together to re-create an epic announcer voice, "you're wanted in the winner's circle!" It was a no-brainer, the woman was a powerhouse!

"Whoa, bold claim there, cowboy. First, you have to actually win to get into the winner's circle," gesticulating as she explained how it worked, Elena might not have the same amount of brawn, however her team would have agility, and cunning, "right, Joey?"

Glad to be on the team opposite Cassie, Joseph stuck his tongue out at the girl as he skirted around her mother, coming to stand on the other side of the heiress. He hadn't spoken to her once, and if anyone had dropped anything noteworthy about the young woman other than the fact that she had recently been in an "accident" and was shy about her recovery, the boy hadn't been listening. As his father had so aptly put it, "he was just at that age", whatever that was supposed to mean.

"Up your hole with a wooden pole, Jojo!" Spouting off some trash talk she had picked up, Cassie mimed flipping her friend the bird when she caught him trying to check out her uncle's guest. As for giving Joey the finger, Cassie had learned her lesson about that last year...

"Language!" Coming from both sides, both Nathan and Elena went from lecturing their daughter to glaring at the one that was most likely responsible for her potty mouth.

Frowning, Sam pointed down at the child to lay the blame at her feet. "Hey! I didn't teach her that! Not bad though." He gave the girl an encouraging chuckle, which he quickly tried to turn into a cough when he felt the heat turning up. "I mean, geez, Cass, you shouldn't talk like that in front of your parents."

Dells was chiming in before she realized she ever opened her trap, "Discretion is the key. The trick is to not get caught. Example," her first instinct was to turn to Sam, but instead the girl faced Chloe, betting that she would be the only other one there to play along properly, "Ms. Frazer, love that sandcastle!" Buttering the other female up with a compliment, she mouthed 'but I'm going to kick that shit down'. "See? Trust your elders, it's a good way to avoid getting scolded."

"Awesome, thank you." Nathan saluted the heiress, sending off his hopes that she would be the one to straighten his brother out, not encourage his daughter to follow the same dark path. So much for Ella being the chosen child - she was definitely getting coal in her stocking this year.

"You were supposed to be the good influence..." Elena lamented, sighing that the teen was in fact still no better than a kid herself. At least she could mourn the loss with her husband.

Chloe merely rolled her eyes as she stepped from the sidelines to Elena's team, "Drama queens, the both of you."

Privately, Nadine had to agree.

Author's Note:

I totally hate myself for that reference. And that I knew the quote without having to look it up. I can't help it that when I think of volleyball, I think of four things: She's All That, Twilight, John Tucker Must Die, and Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Maybe that Batman quote should be altered to something like "You either die a hero, or you write long enough to see yourself incorporate Twilight".

Oh, goddammit!

Seriously though, not mad who they got for Batman, I'm weary of what they'll do to him. Like Jared Leto's Joker. That was a great move on paper and a total wasted opportunity! But enough talk, have at you! Yeah, there's just way too many references, aren't there? *nervous laughter* Don't grab the stakes and torches :(

(Also, yeah, I did have to look up the Batman quote to make sure I was getting it right. Spoiler, I was a little off).

Finally, another real moment - I don't love the situation with Lily. I just think it kinda happened, and there wasn't enough... development? Build-up? Something along those lines. Like, splat, it happened. Life has a way of doing that, dropping situations on you like that, but, something about how it went down in the story... Well, I have thought up some consequences, but I'm not sure it'll be enough... We'll have to see about that, won't we? Again, I have a soft plan for how things should be, but then I get to writing and things change, so that messes with a lot.

Bright side, I might have found a good way to use some old material I came up with, provided I can change things up enough. Although, it might slow up the pacing... I say as if this wasn't the slowest story ever. To be fair, I feel like the pacing has gotten a bit better, but maybe that's just me?