T. K.: I know this has probably been done... but not by me so here it goes.
Neko: Digimon isn't ours.
Tsuki: Don't sue us.
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My father once said, "Traits are learned, not given to you." I guess he was right.
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"UNCLE DAVIS!" Samantha Ichijoji yelled before jumping into his arms.
Davis Montimoya swept the sixteen-year-old up in a swinging hug in the middle of the Tokyo Airport. "You act like you haven't seen me in years!" he exclaimed setting her down.
"One month, seventeen days, and twenty hours," Sam told her honorary uncle with her purple eyes shining.
Sam's bag quivered to life. "Can I come out?"
"OH!" Sam opened her bag and her Patamon popped out. "Sorry, Patamon, I just got caught up in the moment."
"That's alright, I'm just happy to be able to breathe again," Patamon said as he floated up to her head and settled on her blonde hair.
"Is Papa okay?"
Davis nodded. "He's tired, but whatever they gave him at the hospital is some good stuff."
Sam smiled. "Well, I'm here now; I'll take care of him."
"Uh, Sam?" Davis started hesitantly.
"No, please tell me she's not---"
"Yolie's there."
Sam massaged her temple. "KUSO!" she cursed.
"Samantha Umi Ichijoji!" Davis scolded.
"Gomen," Sam apologized. "But you know I can't stand her."
"I think you like Hiroko Yagami more," Patamon said.
Sam thought about what her digimon had said. "I hate to admit it, but I think you're right."
"Of course I am," Patamon said complacently.
Sam smiled and told her uncle, "He's a cocky little gaki."
Davis smiled back at her and led her out to his car.
"SAM!" Daisu Montimoya yelled jumping out of his father's car and tackling his best friend in a hug.
"Daisu!" Sam yelled laughing as he picked her up. Behind him, Patamon and Daisu's Augumon hugged each other.
"OI! It's my turn!" Taka Takaishi said as he left Davis's car his Wormmon behind him.
Daisu looked at his other best friend and said, "I'm still playing." Taka smiled and waited for his enthusiastic friend to finish. "All right, she's yours now," Daisu finally said sitting a laughing Sam on her feet.
Taka smiled and hugged Sam. "How was France?"
"It was France," Sam told him.
"How was your mother?"
Sam smiled. "She's fine. She wanted to come back with me when she heard Papa was hurt, but I told her we'd be fine."
"And Catherine let that stop her?" Davis asked.
Sam turned to look at him. "Well, I kinda told her that Papa had just broken his arm."
Davis's jaw dropped. "You little fibber. When she finds out he was really hurt, you're grounded until you're old and gray."
Sam smiled and said, "A chance I'm willing to take, Papa would be running himself ragged with Mama here. Besides, are you going to tell her?"
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"Dad?" Sam said prodding him in the side.
Ken Ichijoji squirmed and chuckled. "Stop that," he told her, "you know I'm ticklish."
Sam smiled. "Duh," she said.
Ken struggled to sit up and Sam helped him, afterwards placing pillows behind his back. "When'd you get home?"
"About ten seconds ago," Sam told him. "I used evasive maneuvers to avoid Yolie so I could see you."
Ken rolled his purple eyes. "She's here to help."
"Such as it is," Sam retorted.
"Don't start trouble," Ken said in a pleading voice.
"I won't start anything I can't finish," Sam said with a smile.
Ken frowned at his daughter. "Do I have to send you to T. K.'s until I'm healed?" he asked flashing her the stab wounds on his arm and stomach.
Sam was instantly in overprotective mode. "Those look awful! Are you in pain, do you need anything?"
"You sound like Mimi or Joe," Ken said with a smile. "I'm fine until the painkillers wear off."
Sam sighed with a frown and the door opened to Ken's room.
"SAMANTHA!" Yolie Inoune yelled in shock. "I didn't see you come in."
"I said 'hello' when I walked in," Sam lied through her teeth.
"Well, at any rate, it's good you're home," Yolie said, "but your father needs his rest."
Sam forced a smiled that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Of course, I was just leaving," she said. Sam leaned over and kissed her father's cheek. "Get well soon," she whispered pleadingly then left his room.
Samantha walked to her room and opened the door. It was filled with photos and photo developing equipment; there were two curtain tracks in the ceiling and black velvet drapes ran along them. Cattycorner to her bedroom door was the bathroom door that connected her and her father's room. Ken's Wormmon sat on her bed with Patamon talking rapidly. Sam climbed the steps up to the loft bed and petted Wormmon's head before lying down on her stomach.
"Sam?" Wormmon started, walking up to her head. Patamon settled in between her shoulder blades.
"I'm okay," she said, "I will be fine. Yolie invading our home is not a problem."
"Who are you trying to convince, you or us?" Patamon asked.
"Both," Sam said with a sigh, then sitting up. "I'm going to develop the pictures I took of France, would you hit the red light and lock the door, Patamon?" Patamon nodded and flew to the other side of the room. "Wormmon, open the balcony door a crack and turn on the vents, I'll grab my film and pull the curtains."
Wormmon repelled off the bed and Sam opened her duffle bag revealing a multitude of camera and care equipment. Sam searched for her pouch of film and found the red drawstring purse.
"How many rolls did you take?" Wormmon asked as he flipped the switch that started the fan in the ceiling.
Sam smiled and bit her lip. "I went through a roll a day for almost a month and a roll for every day we spent traveling. That over forty rolls, I think."
"Plus the seven rolls sitting over here that you didn't develop before we left," Patamon said.
Sam's eyes widened. "Those are the pictures of Tenchi and Kazumi's wedding!" Tenchi Kido was Joe's daughter and had married Izzy Izumi's son, Kazumi Izumi, a few days before Sam had left for France. "I'll do those first, then worry about France."
Sam pulled the curtains encasing her and Wormmon in darkness before Patamon flipped the switch for the red light in the center of the room. Sam knew the motions of developing film by heart and let her instincts take over as she told Wormmon about France. Soon the pictures were ready to be hung and Patamon would come by and take them from her and pin them to lines of web Wormmon hung up. Sam wiped her hands off and examined the three rolls she had developed so far. They were the actual ceremony and there were only fifteen out of seventy-two exposures she didn't like.
"Too dark, too light, too light, wrong angle, I don't think so, " and so forth. But all in all... "Not too bad," she finally said. "Let's do the other four rolls and I'll run them to Tenchi."
Sam started the process over again and soon was finished again and going over the prints. Out of ninety-six frames, twenty were dismissed and tucked away so that she could try and fix them on the computer later.
Sam threw back the curtains to see the sun sinking low on the horizon. "Oh, crap, it's late," she said. "If we hurry, we can be there and back by the time the streetlights come on." Sam gathered the dried prints and slid them into a manila envelope. She hurried out of her room, barely turning back to lock her door (something she always did when anybody she didn't trust was in the house).
"Where do you think you're going?" Yolie asked as if Sam was an untrustworthy criminal.
"To take these pictures to Tenchi and Kazumi," Sam said sliding her shoes on and grabbing her father's car keys.
Yolie's eyes narrowed. "This late?" she asked. "I think not."
Sam smirked a very Kaizer-ish smirk. "I think so," she said opening the door and leaving with Patamon. Wormmon scuttled down the hall to Ken's room and curled up beside him.
"Wormmon?" Ken asked. "What's wrong?"
Wormmon looked up at him. "Nothing, I just wanted to see you," he said. If Yolie is mad, I don't want to be in her way.
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Sam downshifted her father's car. "The nerve of that woman!" she raged. "'I don't so'," she mocked. Patamon took cover under the passenger side dash as Sam took a curve too fast. The one thing she liked about American cars was the Firebird her father had bought. Sam up shifted the car and sped on.
"Sam," Patamon pleaded from the floorboard, "please calm down. You know you shouldn't drive when you're mad."
Sam looked at her Digimon huddled in the floor and slowed down. "I'm sorry, Patamon," she said before just pulling over altogether. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
Patamon slowly crawled out of the floor and into the seat. "Just don't let it happen again," he said.
"I won't," she said picking him up and hugging him. "I just wish she would get a clue. Dad doesn't want her!"
"Let's just drop the pictures off and go stay somewhere for the night," Patamon said reasonably.
Sam nodded before pulling out again and driving a lot more slowly.
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"Sam!" Tenchi said embracing the shorter girl. Sam looked at her friend closely, she just seemed to glow. Her black hair seemed to have more luster to it and her black eyes glowed.
"I just got back today and developed your wedding pictures," Sam said a bit ashamed.
Tenchi just continued to smile. "You have great timing, we just got back from our honeymoon a day ago."
"Really?" Sam asked relieved. "How was it?"
"Oh, it was just the greatest!" Tenchi told her.
Sam and Tenchi entered the living room where Kazumi was sitting in front of the computer. Their Gomamon and Tentomon sat on the floor wrestling over something Sam couldn't see.
Tenchi snickered and walked up to Kazumi, kissing the back of his neck. Kazumi looked at his wife with his brown eyes full of happiness. His red hair stuck up in all angles.
"Off the computer," Tenchi said waving the packet in front of him, "we've got pictures."
Kazumi looked at Sam. "Thanks for taking them," he said.
Sam smiled at him and said, "It was my pleasure, I would love to stick around but I've gotta get home."
"You can't stay?" Tenchi asked a bit put out.
Sam shook her head, her blonde hair bouncing. "Wish I could, I would love to see your reactions. Just call me on the cell if you want reprints; if you call the house you're going to end up talking to Yolie. I'm willing to bet her brat is coming over to stay sometime soon."
"Condolences," Kazumi said. Tenchi elbowed him in the ribs.
"Thanks, I may just stay at Uncle T. K.'s tonight," Sam told them. "You know how to reach me if you need me."
"We'll see you then," Kazumi said.
"Bye, Sam," Tenchi said leading her to the door, "if you need a place to stay, you know where we are."
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"Didn't I just see you a few hours ago?" Taka asked leading her into the apartment he shared with his father.
Sam scowled at him. "Shut up," she told him.
T. K. popped of his office and looked at Sam. "Hey," he said.
"Hey, yourself," Sam said hugging him.
"You're here to stay the night," T. K. said. "Tenchi called me a few moments ago and I called Ken so you're in the clear."
Sam smiled. "Thank you," she said. Her Patamon flew past in search of T. K.'s Patamon.
"He's in the bedroom!" T. K. called after the Digimon.
"Thanks!" Patamon called back and soon 'Boom Bubble Pop!' was heard through the apartment.
Sam smiled and said, "I'll pay for the damages."
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"Who does that woman think she is?" Taka asked as he settled into his bed and Sam crawled in next to him. Sam, Taka, and Daisu had known each other since their births and had slept in the same beds for years; none of them thought of it anymore, they were like brothers and sister. The Digimon had opted to sleep in the living room where the TV was running.
"My mother," Sam said dejectedly as she settled her head on his shoulder.
Taka sighed. "I know how you feel," he said, "Kari comes over when Dad has one his spells and rules over this place like a mother hen."
"Daisu should consider himself lucky," Sam said, "at least Uncle Davis and his ex don't do this crap."
Taka chuckled. "I don't know, Sakura did do a stint of false motherhood when Uncle Davis threw out his back."
Sam rolled onto her stomach and looked at Taka. "But Daisu likes Sakura," she reasoned.
"Touché," Taka said. "So what are you going to do?"
"Tough it out," Sam said with a sigh. "I don't really have a choice."
Taka smiled at her. "I'll drop by everyday to save you from the evil witch."
"Arigato," Sam said yawning, "'Night."
"'Night."
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Sam awoke the next day to the sound of Taka and T. K. talking angrily. She walked out of Taka's room and stood in the hall hiding behind a wall, listening.
"Just because Yolie called demanding she come home doesn't mean she has to!" Taka yelled throwing his hands in the air. "If it were Uncle Ken..."
"It wasn't Ken," T. K. said. "Yolie said she wanted Sam home."
"Probably just to be a bitch and ruin Sam's day," Taka shot back.
T. K. smiled and shook his head. "I know what Yolie is like now and I don't like what's happened to her."
"Then how about we take Sam out for breakfast, then take her home," Taka suggested. "Then I'll go home with Sam and stay the night there."
"You'd have to ask for permission from Yolie," T. K. reminded him.
"Says you."
T. K. looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Sam has a fire escape leading from her room to the street," Taka explained.
T. K. arched an eyebrow. "How do we know this?" he asked.
"Uncle Ken has been injured before and Yolie has stayed there," Taka started.
T. K. nodded. "So you've been forced to break in before."
"Not 'break in', Pops," Taka said, "I was let in, it was either Uncle Ken's Wormmon, Patamon, or Sam."
T. K. glanced coolly at his son and asked, "How many times have you two done this before?"
"Dunno, about twenty times I guess," Taka admitted.
T. K. waved his hands. "I didn't hear that."
Sam smiled, that was just like her Uncle T. K.
"Well," T. K. said, "go wake Sam up and we'll go get breakfast."
Sam snuck back to Taka's room and pretended to be asleep.
Taka picked up a discarded pillow and threw it at her. "I know you're awake and heard everything we said so quit pretending and get up."
Sam scowled at Taka who grinned widely.
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