The reviews have been much appreciated! Thanks so much. :o) This chapter gives you a little more background on Sam's mother, and even though it's sort of a filler (maybe?), I hope you all enjoy it. A longer chapter will follow this one, and it'll have some lighter moments to coincide with the heavier ones. Enjoy and leave me a review!

*                                           *                                         *                                         *

May 16th

5 PM

"Ready to go?"

Sam jumped slightly as Luka came up behind her and kissed the back of her neck. "Yeah. In a sec." She finished putting in her earrings and quickly walked out of the bathroom, smoothing down her short, strappy black dress before picking up Luka's keys and tossing them to him. "Here."

"Thanks." Luka grinned. "You look…wow. Really great."

Sam blushed a little and smiled. "Thanks." She watched Luka out of the corner of her eye for a moment and thought back briefly on everything he had told her about his past the night before. At first, she had been a little angry. A relationship was supposed to be built on trust, and without trusting the person you were with, then there couldn't be a relationship. It wasn't that they didn't trust each other. Sam trusted Luka, but…

It had come as a major shock to find out that Luka had once been married with two children. After the storm ended, Luka broke down and told her everything, everything about his past, everything that had happened to him before he had met her. And she had just laid there in his arms, comforting and reassuring him when he needed her to. Sam didn't want to admit it to anyone, but she was having a hard time accepting everything. Luka's hardships had made her own look like a complete picnic, and she didn't even know if her own past should be brought up. It would only be fair, but right now, she still needed time to cope in her own way with what he had told her.

It wasn't that she was angry or jealous that someone before her had loved Luka. It was only natural. Before Luka, Sam also had been with other people, but never anything so serious as what her and Luka's relationship was heading towards. 

When Luka had fallen asleep, Sam started to wonder what his family had once looked like. Did Danijela have the type of beauty that a person had to be born with? Did she and Luka have the kind of relationship that couples always strived for, but few were lucky to achieve? What about his children—was Jasna a rosy cheeked three year old who questioned everything? Had Marko been the spitting image of Luka himself?

What would their own baby look like? Would their relationship ever become--

"You okay?"

Luka's voice shook Sam out of her thoughts and she managed to put together a fake, but convincing smile. "Yeah."

"Okay. Let's go."

*                                             *                                      *                                        *

The drive to the restaurant in uptown Chicago was silent for the most part. Luka had attempted to get Sam to talk about anything in between drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and switching the radio stations back and forth, but she hadn't said much of anything, and that worried him.

He was about halfway to the parking lot when he really started thinking about everything. Had something that he had ended up telling Sam upset her in some way, enough so that she wouldn't want to talk to him about it? Luka realized that it probably had something to do with either his family, or his experiences in Africa. Either way, after dinner he was planning on getting it out of her. The silence had gone on enough.

Luka pulled his SUV into a space towards the side of the restaurant, tilting his head to look at Sam before shutting off the engine. However, she had already gotten out of the truck and was standing on the sidewalk, arms crossed over her chest and staring at the ground.

He pocketed his keys and walked over to her, and together they walked side by side with no source of physical contact towards the entrance.

"You feeling all right?"

"I have a headache." They reached the door and Luka held the door open for her, allowing Sam to slip inside before himself.

"Are you okay with everything I told you last night?"

Sam nodded, approaching the waiter at the podium. "Two for the Brampton party." She glanced back up at Luka and crossed her arms over her chest. "It's a lot to take in at one time, but I'm okay with everything. I guess."

"Good, okay. Do you want to…talk some more about it later?"

"There's not really much to talk about," she replied tiredly. "Look, I just want to get through this dinner and get home so I can sleep. If you really want to talk then, we can."

Luka nodded, not wanting to push the subject any further. He could tell that Sam was easily getting pissed off right now—whether or not it totally involved him, he couldn't be sure. "Sure."

The maitre'd led Sam and Luka towards a table in the back corner of the restaurant, where Lynne was waiting. However, she hadn't seem to realize them heading towards her and was quickly placing what appeared to be money onto the table and collecting her purse over her shoulder.

"Uh, Mom? Where are you going?" Sam questioned her. She and Luka had just reached the table when Lynne was about to make her hasty exit. "We had a dinner date, remember?"

"Oh sweetie, you're late! I'm sorry, I meant to tell you earlier today, but Bruce and I—well we're about to head out on a cruise on Tuesday and he called, telling me that he switched the reservations a day ahead of time, so we'd be spending a full day in Miami before the ship leaves the port," Lynne babbled. "I left a message on your answering machine! I had to switch the reservations from five to four because my flight leaves in two hours. I've been waiting here for you two for over an hour."

"What? You're leaving tonight?"

"I'm so sorry honey, but I can't help it. Bruce and I had these reservations arranged almost a full year in advance—we just want to head out to Miami a day early. I promise I'll make it up to you. Oh, and you must be Luka! It's wonderful to finally meet you!" Lynne smiled broadly up at him. "I'm sorry I can't stay any longer for more formal introductions."

"You too," Luka replied softly. He looked over at Sam and winced. He could tell by the look on her face that she was very angry—and getting angrier by the second.

"So you're leaving, now? After Luka and I came all the way down here to meet you, who insisted on taking us out to dinner?" Sam rubbed her temples and blinked at her mother. She couldn't believe this, but what else did she expect? It was so like her mother to pull a stunt like this. Wanting to come visit for the longest time, and then getting up and leaving anytime the slightest thing came up, disappointing Alex in the long run. Although she never liked to admit it, even Sam was disappointed in her own mother.

"Samantha, don't raise your voice. You'll make a scene." Lynne's eyes darted around nervously and she smiled at the few patrons who had glanced up when Sam had raised her voice.

"Fine. Go."

"Oh don't be mad Sam, you know I can't help these things," Lynne smiled sadly. She hugged Sam tightly and kissed her cheek before pulling away. "I promise I'll come down sometime soon, hmm? It's just that something came up, but we've had fun, haven't we?"

"Sure Mom," Sam replied bitterly. She glanced up at Luka, who had his hands tucked in his pockets. He gave her a small but apologetic smile.

"I had a car arranged to pick me up at my hotel at six, so I better get back there. I'll call. Give Alex a kiss for me."

"Yeah."

"Nice to meet you, Luka." Lynne gave them both a final smile before hurrying out of the crowded restaurant towards the entrance.

Luka cleared his throat and gave Sam another smile. "Well, the good thing is we can still have food," he joked.

"Let's just go back to my place, okay?" The tone of her voice was so final that Luka knew that no matter what he could say to Sam, he couldn't make her feel any better right now.

"Okay. Sure." Sam led the way to the parking lot, and it wasn't until they had reached the front door that Sam leaned up against Luka and rested her head against his chest. He wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head before helping her into his SUV.

*                                             *                                           *                                       *

"Does she do this a lot?"

"Hmm?" Sam lifted her head off the pillow. She had been lying down on her bed ever since they had gotten home twenty minutes before. She hadn't even bothered to take her dress off yet—just her earrings and shoes.

Luka sat down on the edge of the bed and started taking off his own shoes. "Taking off like that? Does your mom show up and then take off?"

Sam nodded slowly. "Ever since I was eight years old—when my parents had gotten divorced. My dad took off for Seattle and my mom kept me in New Jersey. She ended up with full custody anyway. Every time she couldn't handle something, or in her own terms, when something "came up", she'd take off for days, weeks, even a month one time."

"Who stayed with you, then?"

"Friends of my mom's, aunts, uncles, cousins…usually my grandparents took me in until she came back though."

"Where did she go?" Luka laid down next to Sam on his back and looked up at the ceiling before turning his head to the side to face her.

"Depends. A boyfriend's house, to the bar, to her dealer, to rehab. My mom had a hard time dealing with the divorce, and she turned to cheap beer and cocaine to get her through it. She used to tell me that she was sorry all the time, but that she couldn't help these things." Sam rolled her eyes and laughed slightly. "But you know what? I still loved her. I used to make a list of everything that happened to me when she would go away and tell her everything the minute she walked in the door. I'd give her these drawings and she'd be so happy to see me. She'd tell me she missed me so much, that she'd never go away again. Then the next month, it would happen all over again."

"When did it stop?"

"She had a pretty bad overdose on cocaine when I was thirteen. She almost died. Her heart stopped in the emergency room twice. They kept having to shock her…and god, I couldn't move. My grandmother kept trying to pull me away from the trauma room but I wouldn't go, I wouldn't leave her."

"I'm sorry." Luka reached his hand up and brushed a strand of hair off of Sam's face. "Did she get better after that?"

"Somewhat. She went to rehab for three months in the fall of '92. She was gone for the first semester of my freshman year in high school. She came home two weeks before Christmas and it was like she had never left, except this time, she was finally better. She'd stick around, and she even got a job. We got a new apartment in the spring of '93, a nice one."

"And then?"

"Then…I met Steve in June of '93. Some of our friends at the time introduced us. He was a major pothead, and I guess I just went with the crowd. We drank, we smoked, we had sex…and then I got pregnant sometime, I guess around November of '93. Or, I didn't notice I was pregnant until then. I was fifteen years old, with a fifteen-year-old boyfriend who was more irresponsible then my own mother was. We didn't even have jobs. But Steve told me it was okay, that we would make it because we'd be a family. I know it sounds pretty delusional, but we were young, stupid, and naïve. We broke up about a month after Alex was born."

"And now he just comes around sometimes when he feels like it?"

Sam nodded. "About once a year. It's his way of being a father figure to Alex or something and making up for lost time."

"Some father," Luka muttered. "And your mom? She was supportive?"

"Not at first. She and Steve both tried to get me to have an abortion, twice. Two separate appointments, a week apart from each other. I didn't leave the waiting room for either one. They called my name…and I ran out the door," Sam said softly. "But then the farther along I became, the more she realized that she wouldn't want to shut her future grandson out. It wasn't until Alex was a year old that I really started to worry about her. She had started drinking again, and before long she pretty much turned into an alcoholic. It was at my graduation party that she really lost it…and my grandparents sent her to rehab again."

"How long has your mom been clean? And what about your dad?"

Sam thought for a minute. "From cocaine, about eleven years. From alcohol, four. Bruce, her husband now, was her AA sponsor. That's how they met, and I guess they fell in love or something and eventually got married. And my dad died of a heart attack when I was twenty."

"You don't like him?"

"Who? My dad?"

"Bruce."

"Oh. He's okay. He kind of has a complete "holier-than-thou" attitude and that's what bothers me the most."

Luka laughed and smiled. "Kind of like Pratt."

"Yeah, basically. Except Pratt is a little nicer about it," Sam smiled.

Luka kissed Sam's bare shoulder softly. "I'm glad you told me this. I wish you hadn't waited so long."

"Oh yeah, sure." Sam laughed and brushed a piece of hair off of Luka's forehead. "That first trauma we worked on, I just had this incredible urge to tell you that my mother was a coke addict."

"Now I know where Alex gets it from."

"The smart ass routine?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "He learned from the best." When Sam lightly punched his shoulder, he flipped her onto her back and gently laid on top of her. "Okay, I take it back."

Sam wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled. "You better." She started playing with the hair on the base of his neck. "I'm sorry that I was so…distant before? I guess if that's the word I'm looking for. Yeah."

"It's okay. I probably shouldn't have just sprung everything on you last night. It was late," Luka said, kissing her forehead.

"Do you…miss them?" When Luka didn't respond right away, Sam sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked—"

"No, it's fine," Luka cut her off. "I can't place… their faces are blurry a lot of the time, because it's been so long. Only in my mind, though. I have pictures in an album somewhere but I don't like to look at them. I haven't really in a long time. But I do miss them, but like I said, it's been a long time."

Sam nodded. Maybe it was about time they got off of the depressing topics and changed it to something else. "I think I really need to get out of this dress and into the shower."

"There are easier ways to do that. We wouldn't even have to get up," Luka winked. He kissed her deeply and she reciprocated before pulling away.

"As much as that sounds really great right now, I need that shower and Alex is getting home soon." Luka rolled off of Sam and let her stand up off of the bed.

"True. What time are you on tomorrow?"

"Eight to eight, you?"

"Not on," Luka smirked. "Would it be okay if I picked Alex up from school and we hung out until you got home? We could catch a movie, or go to that skate park he's always talking about and get a pizza."

Sam grabbed her plaid pajama bottoms and a black tank top out of her dresser drawer, grinning. "Sure. I think he'd like that."

"This way he won't have to hang out at the lounge until you get off, and it'll give me and him more time to I guess get to know each other."

"Great!" Sam shouted over the noise of the bathroom fan. "I'll be out in a sec. Come join me if you want."

Luka didn't even have to think twice, because that was an offer he was more than willing to accept.

*                                               *                                         *                                         *

Reviews are wonderful! =]

Coming up: Will Sam follow Luka to Africa?