A/N: Sorry it's taken a while, but I have just had so much work to do.

Chapter Nine

In every life there are moments that people deem more importantly than others. Some chose to forget these times, but other chose to embrace them. Sitting inside on a cold day looking out your window, watching the snow falls and gather on the ground, your mind tends to wander to times that you either think about a daily basis, or memories that you would rather forget.

Some people allow themselves to remember these times, some force themselves to remember theses moments, and some will even go through an amount of pain, willing themselves to forget them. Remembering your first boyfriend, your first kiss, your first love. These things will never leave you. They are a part of you. No matter how wonderful or how horrible the memory is you will always hold a fragment of it in your mind. A phrase, a smell, a sound, or even a taste can trigger either a happy time or a sad time in you life.

His name was Hunter Glasby.

He just like Samantha was a small town guy looking for a way out. Never had he imaged that he freedom would cost him his life. He wanted out, just like every other big dreamer in the small town of South Shore, Iowa.

Hunter and Sam grew up together. They were best friends, high school sweethearts, first kisses, and first loves. When they were younger, they had done everything together. You never saw one without the other, it was like they were joined at the hip. If they ever were apart then you could just ask the one where the other was, and just like that they would be able to tell you. Ms. Phillips, the nicest teacher at their school, once asked Samantha where her other half was, Hunter, when they weren't together. When Sam asked her why, Ms. Phillips just laughed and said that the only time that they seemed to be apart was when the other was using the bathroom, and walked off.

But then there was the fight. This wasn't your normal fight, it was a fight between Hunter's mother, and Sam's. They were fighting over something that now seems so stupid that they can't remember why they were even fighting. But their fighting tore apart Samantha and Hunter. Hunters' mother didn't want Hunter to talk to Samantha, and Samantha's mom didn't want her speaking to Hunter. And that is when they began to drift. The friendship became strained, until one day it wasn't even there anymore.

As the years went on, Samantha and Hunter had a some what friendly relationship. By the age of 13, they would pass each other in the halls and say hi, and every now and then have a random talk about nothing, or everything. Soon their old friendship was back, regardless of what their mother's said they became friends again. Hunter and Samantha were once again were always with the other.

When they turned 17, they went to the prom together. At 18 they got married, and by 18 ½ they were divorced. They were still friends though, they talked every weekend, and they still had that same bond that they did when they were kids, if not stronger.

The day that Samantha answered the phone, seeing the caller ID naming the caller Hunter's mother, and as she heard crying on the other end, she got a nervous feeling in her stomach, she knew something wasn't right. Trying to calm Amanda, Hunter's mother, down she asked what was wrong, and that is when she received the news that changed her life forever. Hunter, her best friend, her first love had been killed in a car crash when driving home from work the day before. And just like that Samantha's world was turned out or wack.

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Walking up a hill that seemed like a mountain, Samantha began to take in her surroundings. She had already established that she was in a cemetery. Why she wasn't sure, but she knew that once she found this place familiar, almost like she had been there before. Not to long after that thought popped into her head a voice called out to her.

"Samantha," yelled the voice. "Over here Sam!"

And that is when she saw him, Hunter was jumping up and down, waving his arms in the air trying to get her attention. She started to run. Faster and faster, until she finally reached him.

"Hunter! Oh my God, I have missed you so much. I am so sorry I couldn't have been there for you," cried Sam.

"Hey hunny, slow down. Take some deep breaths for me, yup, that's it," said Hunter in a calming voice.

"I never thought I would see you out of all the people up here, you were the last person I imaged."

"Well, here I am baby," just like that picking up their old banter like when they were kids.

"Good to know you ended up here," joked Sam. "You did manage to get yourself into just a bit of trouble back in the day, didn't you."

"Me! Just me! Come on Sam. You know that you were there right along with me! I don't think that there was one stunt I pulled that you weren't by my side during. We did it all. Do you remember the time that we got our fake Ids and went out drinking the next town over, and by the morning we had to sober up so that we could go to church and sing? Oh man, what a morning that was, you could barley form a complete sentence!"

"Well you weren't much better. It took you like six times till you were able to get the button through the button hole, and then when you were done the buttons weren't even in the right holes!" Laughed Sam, now trying really hard not to cry at the memory. As they continued to talk, they began to walk. Reaching a lake that was in the middle of the cometary they stopped.

"Hey Hunter," asked Sam.

"Yea?" said Hunter looking toward Sam.

"I missed you."

"I missed you, too," said Hunter pulling her into a bear hug. "There hasn't been a day that I have been here that I haven't thought of you, and how much I love you."

"I love you, too. It hasn't been the same without you around. I miss having you to talk to, and I miss hearing you tell your lame ass jokes, and I just missed not having you there."

"Hey, don't talk like that. I was always watching, listening to you if you ever needed me," he said. "But look at you, you turned out amazing. I couldn't have done a better job. I am so proud of you. You accomplished everything that you wanted out of life and more. You changed peoples lives, you fell in love, you got married . . . again. To a guy that is crazily in love with you. You beat the odds darling'. You did all you wanted to do, and everything you fought against for so long. You deserved everything that you got in life."

"You really think that?"

"Would I say it if I didn't believe it?" he asked.

"No," she said.

"Good to know you still trust me."

"I will always trust you. I may not always act like it, but I took everything you ever said and / or told me told heart. You always believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself."

"That's what best friends are for babe."

"Hunter?"

"Yea?"

"Thank you."

"For what," he asked turning to face her.

"For always believing in me. For always being there. For listening," she said as she threw her hands back and forth in the air.

"Come on Sam you know I would do anything for you."

"Really," she asked.

"Really," he said.

"Well in that case," she said turning to face him. " I want to go home, I want to go back to my family, I want to have my baby, and give her the life that I never had."

"Oh Sam, you knew if I could I would do that. I really would, believe me. No one wanted to see you have a family of your own one day, but I can't do that. I am not allowed to do that. It's up to the big man upstairs that chooses when you arrive and leave the earth, not me, not you, no one but him," he said looking at her with sad eyes.

"But it's not fair. I was finally happy. I had finally found that place that I belonged. Now I can't go back. I want what I had. I need Jack, I need my friends, I need to go home. I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go back to the way things were. Even if I couldn't be happy all the time, even if I had to give something up, but I want to go home," she said starting to cry. "I was finally happy. Me, I was finally happy."

"I know you were. And I want to be able to let you go home. I would give anything for you to go back. But Sam, it's over."

"Over. I have always hated that word. That is how Jack ended it the first time. And now look at me. My life is over, and I have nothing. Just like always," said Sam looking at the ground tears in her eyes.

"But you do have something. You have a family that loves you, a husband who would die for you, and you're a mother."

"I was going to be a mother. I can't be now. I died. I am dead," she said as if just realizing it for the first time.

"You may be dead in a person, or in body, but your soul, your spirit. That is still living within the people that you have met, in the people that you have known, in the people that you have touched, loved, cared for. You are always going to live on. No person actually dies, because their spirit, their essence, their lessons, the things that matter, what you have taught people live on. You have actually died, but yet in some sense you are still living."

"You know your right," Sam said, drying her tears. "I just didn't, don't want to look at it that way. Death is so final and I miss them, I miss Jack. I miss being able to be near him, and wake up in his arms. I want to be with him again. But I know that one day, he'll be up here sitting with me."

"Do you wanna see them?" asked Hunter.

"See who?" Sam asked totally confused.

"Jack, your friends, your family."

"And how am I going to do that?"

"Look into the lake Sam," he said pointing to the lake. "All you have to do is think about the person you want to see and you will be able to."

"As much as I love that, it seems sort of odd," she said looking at Hunter.

"It takes a while to get used to it, but soon you'll see it is just like you are there with them."

"Thank you," she said turning to hug him.

"Your welcome Sam," he said returning the hug. "All I ever wanted to do was see you happy."

"I am, and I always wanted the same for you, you know."

"I know. And I was, and I am."

"Good." said Sam turning back to the lake, and thinking about Jack. As Sam got lost in the images swarming in front of her, she hardly noticed Hunter turning and leaving her on her own...