A/N: Awesome reviews!!!!! I missed writing this fic....so I took the time out of my busy schedule to try and write this chapter!!!! I hope everyone likes it....I read my last chapter and found that I made it SO hella long....I hope it doesn't get anyone sleep now....hehe. That's why I've just decided to make these shorter....so here ya go!
Disclaimer: Song is not mine, it is: "Don't think Twice" and is played and owned by the band Allister.
A Given Chance- Chapter 20: Sam
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"Take these promises I made,
and hold them strong.
Don't think twice about those things,
That I did wrong."
----
"No, over there! OVER THERE!!!" Sam exclaimed, waving her arms ecstatically towards a big guy with boxes in his arms, covering his view. He struggled to keep the boxes up and couldn't see Sam trying to get his attention
"NO!! WRONG WAY!!! YOU'RE GONNA CRASH INTO THE—"
The man suddenly crashed into the stage of P3, the boxes revealing the wine glasses it stored toppled all over the stage and smashed the glasses into pieces. The man quickly got up and scratched his head. Sam ran over to the stage.
"Ahhhhh!!!!" she screamed in shock. Her eyes were glued, staring at the huge mess across the music stage and she had the biggest look of surprise on her face.
"Uh....sorry." the man said, brushing dirt of his jeans. "I'll uh....go now."
Sam snapped out of her frozen state and gave an angry look to the guy. "What?? What????? What do you expect me to do with all this mess??? I ORDERED A SHIPMENT OF GLASSES AND ITS ALL OVER MY STAGE??? YOU DIDN'T EVEN THINK TO PUT BUBBLE WRAP!!! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW???"
There was a beat of silence until the man shrugged. "Clean it up?" he said.
Sam brought her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes to ease up all her tension and anger. Suddenly, she just wanted to laugh at how idiotic it was. She chuckled and said, "It's alright....Just go on home. Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Miss Halliwell." The man said before walking out of the club. Sam sighed and sat on a bar stool.
"Hrm....what am I to do about this mess." she said, rubbing her chin with her fingers. Sam thought about using magic and thought about the personal gain effect to come if she were to use it. But after a few minutes, Sam just shrugged and smiled.
"It's Christmas. What the heck." she said. "Let the object of objection become but a dream, as I cause the scene to be unseen."
In a flash of lights, the huge mess of broken glass became a simple big box again. Sam smiled again and laughed at herself. "That's more like it."
Sam took the box up in her arms and stored it behind the bar counter. She took a look around the club, and found to be very clean. She rested her arms on her hips as she admired the cleanliness of the room. She was proud of the club, for it had been doing extremely well lately. She was proud of herself for keeping the club going after her mother passed away.
"Mom would be proud." she said, smiling.
"She would. Look at the place, it's sparkling." a voice said behind her.
-----
"Cause I'd never do something intentionally just to hurt you...
And I've stared at the sky and I've asked myself why
You've become like an angel to me."
-----
Sam stopped and wondered how the person got into the club with the doors locked. Without turning around she started to clean the counter and said, "Sorry, ma'am. We're closed."
"Aw, Sammy, you're not even going to let me look around?"
Sam paused, and didn't want to turn around. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Only one person in the world ever called her "Sammy", and that was her mother. She gasped and turned around to see Piper Halliwell in the flesh, sitting down on one of the steps that led down to the club. Sam's hand unwillingly covered the "o" that her mouth formed.
----
"Still the days and the weeks and the hours go by
And the minutes they just fade away.
And I'm missing you every second of time
And it hurts cause you're so far away."
----
Piper looked as radiant and ALIVE as ever. She wasn't the young, clueless Piper that Sam had met in the past seven months ago. It was much more mature Piper that had left Sam years ago when she was younger, it was her mother.
"Mom..."
Piper grinned, stood up and walked over to the counter. She took a look around the club. "This place looks better than ever. I can't believe you kept it up all these years. I'm so proud of you."
"But..." Sam whispered.
"I never thought my daughter would take over this place. I always thought she'd become a doctor or something. But, hey, this works. This works very well." Piper continued.
"How...." Sam gasped.
Piper smiled and stood up. She walked around the counter, to the inside of the bar where Sam was standing, and stood in front of her.
"The Elders thought you needed a Christmas gift. And....I missed you too much to pass it up." she said, still grinning.
Sam smiled, but it soon turned into a sob, and tears started to fall from her eyes. Sam collapsed into her mother's arms and embraced her. Piper rubbed her back as Sam kept sobbing. "Hey....shhhh...." she said, as she tried to calm her down. Sam seemed to be unable to control herself. Somehow, her REAL mother was different than meeting the one in the past. The Piper that she was holding was the one she'd lost, not the one she left.
"I missed you so much, Mom." Sam managed to say through her tears.
-------
"All the tears that I've cried
When you're not by my side
And the nights I dreamed of kissing you goodnight.....
...Are on my mind."
-------
Piper smiled and tightened her arms around Sam before letting go. She laid her hands firmly on Sam's shoulder and gave her a stern look.
"Hey, stop that crying.....I wanna see the smiling face of my little girl, not this sad face." she said, wiping the tears off Sam's cheek. Sam sniffled and laughed. Piper smiled and tucked Sam's hair behind her ear.
"You're so big, and grown up....I didn't get to see anything in between. I'm sorry, Sammy. I hope you know that." she said. Sam nodded and could feel nothing but joy. She had been waiting for the day where she could see her mother again forever, and it was finally here.
"So, they just sent you down here? For how long?" Sam said, as she sniffled the rest of her tears away. Piper thought for a moment and nodded.
"Not long....I just have to get what I came here to do, done." she said, still admiring Sam's beauty. "You've gotten so tall....and you're so beautiful..."
Sam blushed. "I get it all from you, Mom....." she said. Piper laughed. "That's right. You know you didn't get those eyes or your hair from your father's side."
They both laughed. "Is this only happening to me? Or....do CJ and Alex and Rachel get a visit too?" Sam asked. Piper nodded. "Oh don't worry about them, they're taken care of. And don't worry about your brother.....I just thought that the oldest should come first."
Sam smiled, and there was a beat of silence until Sam asked, "So....what did you come here to do?" Piper grinned.
"I was waiting for you to ask." she said. She held out her hand to Sam. "Come on."
-----
"Take.....these promises I've made
And hold them strong.
Don't think twice about those things
That I did wrong...."
-----
Sam wanted to ask where, but she took her hand before saying anything and in a flash, Piper and Sam found themselves looking at a lake. Sam was startled by the sudden transport, and didn't know where they were. Piper let go of Sam's hand, and walked toward the lake, motioning for Sam to follow. There was a small, narrow pier that stretched out onto the lake and Sam followed Piper to the end of it to sit on the edge.
As they sat down, side by side, Sam was still clueless on where they were. She looked at her mother, who was staring out into the water. Sam could tell she was reminiscing about something. She looked out into the lake and could feel the cool wind breeze through her hair.
"The day I died, it was the day before your graduation." Piper said, breaking the silence. She turned to face Sam in the eye. Sam, who hated the memory of the heartbreaking day, turned away and nodded.
"I told you, the day before your graduation, that we would go somewhere. Just you and me." Piper continued. Sam nodded once more, catching on. "Is this supposed to be the place?"
Piper smiled. "Yes."
"Were we going to have a picnic here or something?" Sam asked, still not getting why she took her to a lake.
------
"Cause I'd never do something intentionally just to hurt you...
And I've stared at the sky and I've asked myself why
You've become like an angel to me."
-------
Piper shook her head. "No......see, Sam. You were 13, and I thought you were mature enough so that we could talk." she said. Sam nodded, as Piper paused a bit.
"See, this is the lake where my mom died." Piper said, quietly. Sam was surprised and turned to her mother. "....really?" she asked. Piper nodded.
"Sam.....I was really young when I lost my mom. I could barely remember her, and I really didn't know who she was at all. I blamed everything. I blamed her for leaving me so quickly. I blamed the lake for taking her away. I blamed myself for not being able to stop it."
Sam listened as her mother kept talking.
"I lived a pretty hard life.....without a mother, and it took a while for it to ease down. Then, when I had you, Sam, I thought about you and me, and I realized, I was just as vulnerable as my mother was when I was a little kid. I was a fighting witch, and I battled evil. My life was at risk everyday, and even though I vowed that nothing would ever happen to you.....I could never promise that nothing would happen to me....
There was always a chance that something would happen, and you would end up growing up how I did. Incomplete. Painful. Alone. Motherless. I didn't want that, Sam. I just didn't want it to happen. But I knew that there was always that risk, every time I left you for an innocent. So I was going to bring you here, to talk about it. To talk to you about, how there was a chance that I could leave any moment. That there was a chance, you would live the rest of your life without your mother by your side. And I would talk to you about how I never wanted to you to feel the way I did when I was younger."
Piper looked away. "However, fate seemed to have its ironic side that day."
------
"Still the days and the weeks and the hours go by
And the minutes they just fade away.
And I'm missing you every second of time
And it hurts cause you're so far away."
-----
Sam's heart fell as she thought about her mother dying that night, and how she never got that chance to come here and to talk to Sam about everything.
"And so I left.....without ever getting to take you here. Without ever getting to talk to you. And because of that, you were left with a burden that couldn't be taken away. And I'm here to tell you now, that......I'm sorry, Sam."
Sam turned to her Mom. "Mom.....you don't have to say sorry...." she started, but Piper laid a finger on her lips so she would stop talking.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't stop you from growing up the way you did. I'm sorry I left you without a mother. I'm sorry, that you had to live with that incompletion feeling in your chest. And I just want you to know honey.....how you took care of your brother and your cousins after your father and I and your aunts left.......how you found your strength to keep going.......how you put your family first before yourself......I couldn't be prouder of you. You make me so proud that you're my daughter.....you make me so proud that you had developed that strength without me being there to help you. You make me the proudest mother.....on earth." Piper said, her voice meaningful.
Sam had never felt so happy as she heard her mother's words. "It's all I wanted to do, mom. I just wanted to make you proud." she said, as new tears started to fall down her cheeks. Piper smiled and pulled Sam close for another hug. Sam cried tears of joy, and Piper kissed Sam on the head while holding her, making her feel like a little kid again instead of the 25 year old woman she was.
Piper pulled apart and kissed Sam's cheek lightly. "I love you, Sam." she said, as Piper took her hand again. Sam, then found herself in another quick transportation from the lake, back to P3. She looked around, and her mother was gone. Sam felt her cheek, still feeling the warmness of her mother's kiss.
"I love you too, Mom."
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"All the tears that I've cried
When you're not by my side
And the nights I dreamed of kissing you goodnight.....
...Are on my mind."
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A/N: Hope you like it! It was the best I could do after so many months of not thinking of this story. Sorry to those of you who waited! Please Read and Review, and I hope to start working on the last three chapters soon. Thanks for reading!