Chapter 7

Sam breath caught in his throat when he saw her enter the house. He couldn't believe she had even came, but when he saw his sister tagging along side of her it was clear that she had been dragged. Laura looked stunning; her hair falling in soft curls passed her shoulder, which were bare. The light blue strapless dress fit her perfectly, and Sam wanted nothing more then to pull her into his arms, and tell her how gorgeous she was.

Of course, Laura was not speaking to him, and the pain of being away from her hurt like a thousand knives being plunged into his heart. If he could only take back what he said. If he could only make things right again. The world seemed filled with if onlys.

Laura could feel Sam's eyes watching her as she entered. She loved the way it felt to make him smile. There was nothing more painful to Laura then to love someone so much, and yet not be able to be near them. She could tell by the look in his eyes, that he missed her as badly as she missed him, but something was holding her back. There was a pain in her heart that was persistent, and she was not ready to let it go.

"Would you look at Sam?" Parker leaned over and told her friend. "He can't take his eyes off of you. I told you you looked hot." The blonde smile to herself, pleased with what she had done.

"Yeah," Laura whispered, wishing that she could get away from the glares of Sam. Every time she met his blue eyes, her heart broke more and more. She thought it would make her feel better, making Sam miss her, but it was the opposite. She felt worse and worse, and it took every part of her to keep from throwing herself at him.

"Come on," Parker told her friend, grabbing her arm, and tugging her out to the patio by the pool. Laura reluctantly followed, unwilling to be left alone. Outside the yard was filled with people, most of who had been trapped with her in the library. Within moments, Jason had caught Parker from behind, and pulled her off to the side.

Laura looked around awkwardly, trying to find someone to hang out with. She spotted J.D. sitting at a glass table, waving her over. She headed over, desperate to not be alone.

"Where's Sam?" he asked, wondering why the two were not together.

"Why should I know?" she bit back, an usual harshness to her voice.

"I just assumed..." J.D. said, warily.

"Sorry," the brunette apologized. "Its just Sam and I had a fight, and well its just not good. I need mean to take it out on you." Her cheeks reddened, feeling ashamed. She didn't mean to lash out at J.D. and she knew that if was going to wind up alone at this party if she didn't pay more attention.

"Would you look at those two," J.D. said to Laura trying to take her attention away from Sam. Laura looked up to where J.D. was pointing, and her eyes were greeted by Parker and Jason who were obviously unaware that they weren't the only people there.

"When did that happen?" he asked, fascinated by the "show" that the two were putting on.

"A week ago," she told him, watching him roll his eyes, apparently not expecting anything longer. Laura eyes drifted away from J.D. and he could sight of Sam heading over to her.

"Crap," she mumbled under breath, as Sam approached. She debated trying to get away, and stood up trying to appear to be leaving.

She was not fast enough, though, and Sam grabbed her arm.

"Laura," he said, his voiced sending chills up her spine. Being this close to him was like murder. She had to get away.

"I'm getting something to eat," she stated unnecessarily, and headed over to where Lucy had spread out food.

"I'll get it for you," her boyfriend offered, put Laura reached out to stop him.

"I can do it myself," she spat, trying to appear to be angry. "I'm not helpless." She stormed off, leaving Sam alone, and more miserable that he had been. He just could not fix this, and it was killing him.

Jack couldn't take it anymore. If he to pry Jason of his daughter one more time he was going to shoot him. This was his baby girl and the last thing he needed to see was some guy, especially Jason, with their hands up her shirt. He thought that Parker would at least have the decency to wait until she was alone, but she believed in being open about everything, and apparently that included her love life. And so, Jack stared opened mouthed, as he watched the two play tonsil hockey, and narrowly miss falling into the pool on more than one occasion.

Lucy could sense that Jack was stressing, and could clearly see the cause. She knew that he was devastated over his children growing up, and had now given up on the chance that Parker was still his little girl. Each week that went by, it was also becoming more and more clear that Sam was not so young anymore either.

While she loved the idea that her children, a title she had long since began to apply to Parker, were growing up and hopefully, for Sam at least, settling down. Lucy was eagerly awaiting grandkids, and although she was raising Peter now, still wanted babies back in the house.

Jack obviously felt differently about it, and he was become more and more twitchy. His eyes darted back and forth between his two children, lingering longer on Parker, since Sam seemed to be under control. His wife mind had already started churning, and by the time Parker and her new beau had fallen into the pool, she had pulled him into the secluded kitchen.

"Relax," she whispered into her husband's ear, and kissed him on the mouth.

"Easier said than done," Jack replied looking the brunette woman. "It's not your daughter out there."

"Parker is just as much my kid, as she is yours," she replied, feeling irritated that Jack didn't consider Parker Lucy's child too. "Besides, its not worth your energy." She gave Jack a seductive glance, and kissed him again.

Jack's blue eyes lit up when he felt Lucy's hand slid down the back of his shirt, and pull him down the hall toward their room.

'Are you sure we can do this?" he asked, stunned at his wife's impromptu hook-up. "We have guest."

"With Parker out there, no one will even notice we are missing," Lucy joked, and watched as Jack's eyes darted toward the window again. She caught his head in her hands, and pulled it back to face her. "Relax," she said again, "And if you don't remember how, I'll help you."

It was only moments after Laura had wandered off, that Sam decided that he was going to fix things with her once and for all. He could not handle being away from her any longer, and he was going to make it right.

"Laura," he said, grabbing her arm, and nearly upsetting the plate of food she was holding.

The brunette whirled around at the sound of her name, causing the plate of food to eventually slip from her hands to the floor. Her eyes meet the blue eyes of her boyfriend, and she locked on, not wanting to pull away.

Sam ceased the opportunity of silence to make his case. "Laura, I'm sorry. I feel terrible. I love you." Sam felt that he could go on for years about how much he loved her, but Laura was not willing to let him.

She pulled her arm free from his, and looked him dead in the eyes. Sam waited for her to say something, but she kept her mouth shut. She turned and headed into the house, Sam quickly following.

"Laura," he said again with more urgency in his voice. Things were not going the way they were supposed to. "I really am sorry. I hurt you; I never meant to do anything like that. You know that Laura."

The girl kept walking, and entered the bathroom. Laura turned toward him, her doe-eyes watering. "Sam? What are you sorry for? Do you even know what crime you committed?" she whispered, but he voice had the intensity of a scream.

Sam stared at her. What could he say to fix this? "Jesus, Laura. Of course I know what I did, and if you would just let me talk to you, I would apologize for it. I don't know why you are acting like this. Do you not what to make-up, because if you want to me like this, you can do it alone." The words flowed out of his mouth faster than he would have wanted, and before he could stop himself, they were out there. Everything he had been thinking out there for her to hear.

Laura stared at her boyfriend, pain in her eyes. "I can't believe you think that," she said, before slamming the door in his face. She leaned against the counter, wishing this was over, she knew she wanted to be with Sam more than anything. She had been acting immature, and dragging this out more than she wanted to.

On the other side, Sam could not figure out what had happened. He wanted to fix this, and he had ended up making things worse. Laura wasn't acting anyway she shouldn't. He had been a jerk, and he knew it. He could not stand not being with her anymore.

Laura looked startled when the bathroom door flung open. "Sam?" she tried to say, before he grabbed her, kissing her on the mouth with everything he had. The separation the two had been feeling was overwhelming, and Sam backed her up against the wall, kicking the door closed behind him.

Laura ran her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer to her. She knew she loved him more she could ever love anyone, and she knew she never wanted to be away from him again. The girl let her hands roam under Sam shirt, and pulled it over his head, breaking the kiss only for a moment. Her own dress was pushed almost to her hips, and Sam's hands were caressing her thighs.

The pair stumbled slightly, and trying to regain balance, they found themselves collapsing into the bathtub.

The impact should have caused them to pull apart for a moment, but both seemed unfazed. Not being together had been murder to both of them, and nothing was going to ruin this.

Laura pulled back for a moment, smiling at Sam. He was caught off guard by how beautiful she looked. There were times in his life, when he thought it wasn't possible that she could be anymore beautiful, and yet he still was proved wrong. "You know you're not going to get off the hook that easy, Sam Hall," she told his in a tone that was so seductive, he didn't think he could control himself.

Sam kissed her neck, and ran his hands through her long brown. "Oh make it real hard," he told her, kissing her mouth again.

Laura could not believe that things could be so perfect again. Whatever had been wrong was gone, and she was back in Sam's arms again. Nothing could ruin this moment. Nothing at all.

Laura was wrong, however, and at that moment, the one thing that could ruin this moment happened. At first Laura could stare awkwardly from her position in the tub. Sam seemed to freeze in his place on top of Laura, his hand still resting on her bare chest.

The two teens lay uncomfortably in the tub, staring at what had come through the door. Laura shook her head in disbelief, and just kept staring. Finally Sam gathered up enough courage to speak. "Mom? Dad?"

"What do you want?" Parker asked the Asian woman who was standing at the front door.

"I need to talk to Jack," Janet Takada said looking at the blonde. It was a well-known fact that Janet and Parker did not get along. No one knew why, but the two of them in one room together was never pretty.

"He's busy, go away." The blonde replied, shutting the door. Janet reached out and stopped the door, pushing it open, much to Parker's surprise.

"It's urgent," she said again, "I need to show him something about Hurricane Deladis."

Parker looked at the older woman puzzled, "What's Hurricane Deladis?" she asked not to Janet's surprise. "Like from SongCatcher?"

Now it was Janet's turn to give Parker a blank look. "Whatever, Just let me see your father." She locked eyes with the girl testing her to see how far she would go.

"I told you he's busy," she replied snottily.

"Listen you little brat, I don't care. I need to see him now." Janet was becoming irritated, and really did not have the time to deal with Parker.

Parker glared ay the woman, and once again reached for the door. From behind her Jason appeared, obviously in search of his girlfriend. Janet, seeing him as a chance to help her out, not to mention that she still had feeling for him, smiled.

"Jason," the woman called into the house, as he approached the door.

He paused seeing her. Seeing Janet was not something he liked to do outside of work, and now was definitely not work.

"Janet," he greeted the woman, "What are you doing here?"

She smiled a flirtatious smile at him, one that Parker did not miss. "I was just about to ask you the same thing," she replied, and stepped into the house.

Parker reached back and gave Jason a squeeze on the butt. "He's with me," the blonde clarified. Janet's face paled, and she tried to fathom how Jason could possibly be interested in that spoiled, ignorant brat.

"I need to see Jack," she told her ex-boyfriend, trying to smack him for being so stupid.

"Sure, Parker do you know where he is?" Jason told his new girlfriend, still blissfully unaware of the tension that was growing.

"Dad!" Jack cringed at the sound of his name. It was undeniably Parker, and he knew the inevitable was coming. As if hadn't been bad enough to fall through the bathroom door half-naked while messing around with Lucy, and discovering that Sam and Laura were in there together; he now was going to be discovered my his daughter, along with god knows how many friends and co-workers.

Quickly Jack pulled himself off the floor, where he had fallen only moments before, and attempted to find something to cover himself with. He heard the door to his bedroom creak open, and Sam jumped out of the bathtub, and off of his own girlfriend. Jack had only a second to notice that Sam's pants were unbuttoned before Parker, Jason, Janet, and J.D. appeared at the door.

Another round of awkward silence filled the room, and Laura desperate not let anyone else she her half-naked, pulled her dress back into position. The four arrivals sat there watching the scene unfold before them, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Did we interrupt something?" Parker finally spoke. She looked from her brother, who was trying to find his shirt, to her mother who was hopelessly draping a towel around herself. "Wait, is this some sort of family thing? Why wasn't I invited?"

Jack ignored his daughter, and looked over at the group. "I can explain," he said, but Jason cut him off.

"It's ok really, we don't need to know." He assured his boss, and detected a sigh of relief.

Parker looked annoyingly at her boyfriend, and slapped him on the arm. "Speak for yourself," she said. "I want to know what was happening."

J.D. looked over the room, and saw that Sam and Laura were sitting together on the tub ledge, Laura was leaning against Sam, looking although embarrassed extremely content. "Wait?" he said to no one in particular. "Did you guys make up?"

Sam looked over at Laura, and she nodded smiling. J.D. caught the silent conversation that past between them. "That's great. Now the gang is back together. Its like bop bop she wally wally bang."

The rest of the group gawked the teen, who was now realizing what he had said, and how stupid he must have sounded.

"Wow J.D. you really out gayed yourself this time," she said, quoting one of her favorite movies. She had always wanted an excuse to use that line. "By the way how is Don Juan?"

"Its D.J." he corrected her, "and we are just friends." Parker looked at him skeptically, but didn't say anything. Everyone settled in awkward silence again, and everyone knew they should leave, but no one could make their feet move.

The ringing of the doorbell jolted everyone out of their trance, and Jack managed to get himself to his pants.

"I'll go get that," Jason said, and nudged the rest of the group out of the room. The remaining four stood looking at each other, before deciding it was best not to talk about it, and closing the bathroom door.