Author's Notes: Silver keep breathing, Jack will be ok. Zackery, sorry the last chapter left off at such a tense spot, but at least I updated rapidly. Sent the Jack font to you at your address here that you requested on LJ, if it's the wrong addy, email me and I'll resend. Reviews are appreciated and make me update faster.

Part 6

Age: 12 Years 6 Months

Samantha sat anxiously in the waiting room of the hospital with Janice Fletcher. After Jack was taken away in an ambulance, the police arrested Billy and took him to juvenile jail. Through her fear, Samantha was furious that Billy would likely spend a few weeks at the most in jail. Someday she would hurt Billy, Samantha vowed as she looked up at the clock. Jack had been in the ER for over an hour and no one had given a progress report yet. The sound of the ticking clock was thunderous in Samantha's ears as time seemed to drag on forever.

"If they don't come out soon, we'll have to go," Janice informed her.

"No," Samantha retorted sharply.

"Look my shift is over in half an hour and I can't leave you here. The world doesn't stop for your lame little crush."

Turning her head very slowly, Samantha gave Janice a look that chilled her to the bone. "Lame little crush? I will love Jack until the day I die."

"Well you'd better rethink that one," Janice told her flippantly.

"What do you mean?" Samantha seethed venomously.

"You know Albert's sick don't you?" she asked. When Sam nodded, she continued, "He's been on borrowed time for a long time now."

"No!"

Softening slightly, Janice said, "Afraid so Sam. But you're young they'll be lots of boys."

Samantha simply shook her head. Other boys? Never! Jack had to live, because she couldn't love anyone else. If he died, she would never love anyone else as long as she lived. From the moment they met and Jack rechristened her as Samantha, she knew she belonged to him. He was her destiny, they would grow up and get married, like he promised. What was it Jack said once?

"Alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. Infinity itself. That is us my Samantha," Jack whispered softly as they watched the moonlight through the stained glass rose in the attic.

"Alpha and omega," Samantha breathed.

"Huh?"

Samantha ignored her and stood up. Before Janice could stop her, Samantha ran away towards the emergency room. She wasn't going anywhere until she knew how Jack was and no one was going to stop her. Dodging between staff and patients, she made her way to the emergency room. Just as she ran past a receptionist who tried to stop her and pushed her way through the doors, Samantha saw Jack being wheeled towards an elevator.

"Jack!"

The gurney stopped as he raised up slightly and asked them to wait. His voice was little more than a whisper, having screamed in vain for the first few hours in the refrigerator. A pair of IV's were connected to his arm and an oxygen mask was over his face. Although his lips were no longer blue, they were now as white as the sheet that covered him. Jack looked very frail as he offered Samantha a weak smile. At least he was conscious, she thought as she approached.

Reaching for her hand, Jack croaked, "Samantha. So sorry. Ruined your birthday."

Tears were starting to fall freely from her eyes as she looked at him, the stained sound of his voice hurt her heart. How many hours had he spent alone and shivering? The policeman had said Jack would have died from lack of oxygen if he'd been in there much longer. Why hadn't she gone back to Jack after the incident with Billy? His normally delicate features had a gaunt and haunted look to them. Samantha had never seen anything so frightening as the vulnerable and ephemeral quality of his eyes.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. The only thing that would have ruined today is losing you. I couldn't bear to lose you Jack."

"We need to take him up to ICU miss," a motherly looking nurse told her gently.

"Don't leave me," Jack pleaded, then broke into a coughing fit that sounded like his lungs were being torn from within. After a moment, he gasped, "Samantha."

"Your friend can come up in a little bit after you're settled in," the nurse suggested. She moved to let the orderlies take Jack up and stayed to talk to Sam. Once the elevator went upstairs, she commented, "So you're the Samantha he kept asking for?"

Numbly she nodded, "Yes. Is he going to be all right?"

"There's no easy answer to that," the nurse replied. "The Gauchers Disease will likely kill him eventually, but right now we're more concerned about the bronchial infection he contracted from the cold and oxygen deprivation. According to his charts he lives at the orphanage, where's the staff member for the orphanage?"

"She's-" Samantha trailed off. Desperately she tried to explain her situation to the nurse, "I want to stay with Jack, she says I have to go back. Please don't let her take me away from Jack. He needs me, please."

"I'll see what I can do," the nurse told her as Janice approached angrily.

"Damn it Sam! It's time to go, the hospital can call the home later about the Newquay kid!"

"Miss?"

"Fletcher," Janice supplied.

"Miss Fletcher, the young man from your home is very sick. Could you tell me who's in charge at the orphanage?"

After Janice gave the nurse the manger's name and the extension for his office, she grabbed Sam's wrist harshly. "Come on, we're leaving."

"Miss Fletcher, right now we desperately need to try and keep Jack calm and quiet. He keeps asking for Samantha, isn't there some way she could stay for a little while?"

"Sam needs to go back to the house. Sedate the brat if you want him quiet."

Janice drug Samantha away from the hospital and ignored her protests. Once they reached the home, Janice stopped at the house manager's office to give him an update. Sam ran upstairs to Jack's room and took his dark blue velvet robe from the back of the door. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she sobbed and buried her face in the soft fabric, inhaling the faint trace of Jack's scent that clung to it. Right now he needed her and they were keeping her from him. After a few moments, she dried her tears. Jack needed her, he wouldn't let her down if she needed him, there had to be a way.

An idea occurred to Samantha and she went up to the attic. Walking to the far end of the large space, she bent down and pulled at a floorboard near one of the bookcases. Last week, Jack had shown her the board and the trick to lifting it up, there was a space hidden underneath where Jack hid the generous allowance his parents sent him. When he showed Samantha he told her she could take and use as much as she wanted, he wanted her to feel free. Reaching inside, Sam decided to take about ten dollars for cab fare so she could get back to the hospital.

Her hand brushed something soft on top of the crisp bills and she lifted it out. It was a small black velvet box and she stared at it for a moment. Without even looking inside, she knew it had been for her birthday. Sadly she opened the box and looked inside. Gleaming up at her in the dim attic light was a narrow gold band with a small marquis cut sapphire flanked by two small diamonds. Trembling, closed the ring box and blinked away tears. Carefully she returned the velvet box to it's hiding place and withdrew cab fare. Moving the board back in place she walked slowly from the attic.

As Sam left the house, one of the staff members tried to stop her, but she simply responded, "Jack needs me. I'm going back to the hospital. I'll be back by bed check."

Samantha moved more rapidly as she exited the house, running to hail a cab and drumming her fingers anxiously inside as she waited to return to the hospital. After paying the driver, she sprinted inside and took an elevator up to the floor that the signs said were Intensive Care. When she reached the unit, a nurse stopped her and demanded to know if she had an adult with her and told her coldly that she had to have an adult with her.

"It's all right," the kind nurse from earlier told her. "This is the girl the Newquay boy keeps asking for. I'll watch out for her."

The nurse who stopped Sam, simply shrugged.

"Come along. I'll take you to him."

"Thank you."

"Do you want to help your friend?" the woman inquired gently.

Fighting back tears, Samantha told her, "I'd do anything for Jack. Please tell me what I can do for him."

"Right now, we really need to keep him calm and quiet. His cough is very bad and he's fractured two ribs from coughing. Just talk to him and try to get him not to talk."

Samantha murmured she would do her best as they stopped at Jack's door. Walking inside, she stared at Jack. The two IV's were still hooked to his arm but the oxygen mask over his mouth had been replaced with a smaller nasal oxygen tube. His eyes were closed and she could hear a rattling in his chest even over the beeping of the heart monitor that had been attached with wires that were threaded through his hospital gown. As she took a step forward, his eyes snapped open.

"My Samantha, you've come back to me," he whispered almost inaudibly.

"Shh. You mustn't talk. Of course I came back. I love you," Samantha told him and carefully sat on edge of the bed. Taking his hand, she was relieved when he squeezed her hand softly, but more firmly than he had when he'd been found earlier.

"Did they let you-" Jack's voice faltered and gave out.

"No I simply told them I was coming here and I took cab fare from the attic. I'll pay it back though."

Shaking his head Jack managed faintly, "Only money, not important."

Tears glittered in Samantha's eyes and she pressed a kiss to Jack's cheek, "You're what's important. I thought I would lose you."

A harsh cough shook Jack's body and he grimaced in pain. For several moments he gasped before catching his breath, "Never leave you. Love you."

Several moments of silence passed and Jack forced out, "Wish this hadn't happened on your birthday."

"It's not important."

"Have present for you. Did you find it when you got the money out?"

For a moment, Samantha toyed with lying but Jack expected absolute truth from her always, so she admitted, "I think I did, but I put it back."

"Will you-" Jack gasped. Forcing himself to take several deep breaths he asked, "Will you wear it?"

"Of course-"

"But you don't know what it's for. Not just your birthday. A promise ring. Want you to marry me Samantha."

"You mean when we're older? Of course."

Shaking his head, he struggled to get out, "When I get out of here."

"But we aren't old enough for a marriage license-"

"I know a way," Jack responded. "I love you Samantha and I don't know if I'm going to get to grow up. If you say no, I'll understand and still love you."

Samantha sat silent and answered, "On one condition. Promise me you'll live and grow up because I can't live without you."

"Try," he promised.

"Promise me, Jack," Samantha demanded.

"Promise," he vowed before succumbing to another coughing fit...