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Sydney stayed true to her word. She sat at Samantha's bedside, catching herself every couple minutes as her eyelids drooped shut. She held Samantha's hand through the night.
Samantha however didn't tell Sydney the whole truth. She knew that Sydney would stay awake like she said she would. Samantha also knew that there was no way that she could actually fall asleep again. Sydney didn't know what it was like to relive that same day in her head every time she dreamed. At least, that was what she thought. Samantha lay in her bed all night, her eyes closed. She would force herself to think about something else, anything else. But there wasn't much for her to think about outside of her own parents.
Something Sydney had said struck a nerve. "If you look at it that way." It echoed in her mind, over and over again. "If you look at it that way." She had to admit it, she and her parents had never gotten along very well. Samantha had to admit that it felt like they never really wanted to be parents. Parenting seemed to have been a task that had been thrust upon them. She had to force herself not to laugh when she realized that it probably was an assignment. They hadn't gotten along, but love had never been questioned. She had always loved her parents. But were they her parents? I mean she was their assignment, so did they really consider themselves as her parents? And what about Irina? Did she only pretend to care too? And even if she considered her family, her family, was Sydney part of the mix? Could she consider Irina an aunt, her parents as nothing, and Sydney as a cousin? The whole thing made Samantha's head spin.
The sun was shining through Samantha's closed eyes when she had finally decided how she was going to approach her new family. Sydney's hand, which she still held, helped her along. She started easy. Her mother. If Samantha was fighting with her parents, it was mostly with her mother. She had most of her anti-family feelings from her. And what kind of mother tries to kill her daughter, and thinks it's for the best. Her mother was easy. Karen Daily was Abigail Derevko and therefore was not her mother. Deciding about her father was a harder task, but not much harder. He was distant. Working more often than not. She never honestly felt like he was ever home. When he was home, he was always in his office, or his briefcase wasn't far behind. When he wasn't working, he couldn't be sweet. He was protective of her, usually too protective of her. He was controlling, and a tad abusive protective. But there were the occasional late night chats over a bowl of ice cream that definitely proved that he loved her more than her mother did. But in the end, Samantha came to the decision that Vicktor Derevko was also not her father.
Irina Derevko was the hardest for Samantha. Of all of her relatives, she was the one person that hadn't lied. Samantha had always known her as Aunt Irina Derevko. Samantha used to call her aunt when things got crappy. She would dish out advice, it wasn't always the right advice, but it would be the advice she'd want to hear. Accompanied with the correct advice, right afterwards. Samantha would always look forward to Irina's visits. She hated Irina when she dropped off the face of the earth for an entire year. When Samantha saw Irina sitting at her bedside the day before, all that anger melted away. She couldn't help but feel happy. Even as she was told what her entire family really was. Aunt Irina was there. Everything was going to be okay. Irina Derevko was definitely part of her family. She was more of a mother figure than her "mother" had ever been. Weather Samantha considered Irina a mother, or an aunt she decided to save for another sleepless night. Samantha thought that anyone that would be willing to risk insomnia to comfort her was worth keeping around too. Sydney was definitely part of her family. If she considered Irina as a mother, well then, Sydney as a sister was pretty cool. But if Irina was her aunt, as she had been her entire life, Sydney as a cousin was pretty cool too. And if Irina ever really betrayed her, like her parents had done, Samantha figured that Sydney as a friend wouldn't be half bad either. She'll keep Sydney.
"What time did you get up?" She heard Vaughn sleepily ask Sydney. She slowly peeked at the two, lucky; neither of them were looking at her.
"Never went to sleep. Sam needed me up. How'd you sleep?"
"For a window sill, not as bad as it could have been. Would have been better with you beside me."
"Sam saw more than I ever saw at 17, and she keeps having nightmares about it. I don't blame her. After I saw Danny in that tub, I had problems compartmentalizing it. It kept me awake for weeks."
"Syd, I want you to go. Go to the safe house and get some sleep. I'll stay here with Samantha. Go sleep."
"Weiss has the only car, and I don't know the buses or the streets well enough to walk to the house."
"Then sleep here."
"Thanks for being concerned Michael. But you know I can go much longer than this without sleep, and be jet lagged all at the same time."
Vaughn sighed. "You called me Michael." Samantha could hear the smile in his voice.
"Well, it's your name, isn't it?"
"You just don't call me Michael all that often." Sydney's eye's slowly closed and her head fell. She suddenly jerked herself back awake. "If you're not going to sleep, then I will go track down some coffee for you."
"Alright." Sydney kissed Vaughn before he left.
Although Samantha still pretended to sleep, she could tell that someone else had entered the room, only a couple seconds after Vaughn had left. Sure enough, a new voice spoke. "Where's Mike?" Weiss asked.
"He went to go get me some coffee. What's up Weiss? What's in that folder?"
There was a rustling of paper. Sydney gasped. "Does the JTF know about this?"
"They're the ones that got me the pictures."
"Are we ready to…?"
"Yeah. I'm way ahead of you Syd. I've had those for a grand total of twelve minutes. 11 ½ of them I spent in the car, getting the arrangements through."
"Twelve minutes. He couldn't have left yet?"
"Hasn't cleared customs. We can still get out of here."
Samantha tried to open her eyes a little, to see what Sydney was looking at, but she couldn't open them enough. She saw Vaughn walk in, looking directly at her. "Here Syd. All I could find was this hospital stuff. What's that?" Vaughn took the photos from Sydney. "Shit! What are we still doing here?"
"Waiting for you."
"Screw me! Let's go!" Vaughn's voice cried for urgency. The three of them started pulling Samantha off all of the machines. She felt a little violated as someone tired to put shoes and socks on her, until she realized it was Sydney. What ever was happening had to be really important.
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