Sam groaned as she rolled out of her bed at the sound of her doorbell ringing. She had only had three hours sleep. Her sleep fogged brain was telling her to lie back under the covers and pull the pillow over her head and go back to sleep but the insistent tring! told her that that was not going to be possible.

Throwing a blanket around her shoulders, Sam's frown deepened with every step she took as she thumped through her apartment towards the door. She was more than willing to show whoever was at the door that she was most definitely not a morning person.

Unlatching all the locks on the door, Sam yanked it open and propped her hip against the doorjamb but then quickly stood up straight when she saw who was standing on the other side.

"Mother?"

Sliding back into the apartment, Sam allowed her mother in and smiled happily when she threw her arms around her in a welcoming hug.

"Hello, Sam. How are you? You look really tired."

"Well considering I have had only three hours sleep, that's not surprising," Sam laughed as her mother ruffled her dank hair. "I've been on night shift."

Sam led her mother into the lounge and sat her on the sofa.

"You look great, mom, have you changed your hair?" Sam asked as she took in her mother's appearance.

Sam took in the appearance of her five foot two inch mother. She wore a pair of light blue jeans, a green roll neck sweater and a short tweed effect jacket. Her hair was hanging loosely around her face and rested lightly on her shoulders.

Sam moved into the kitchen and began preparing two mugs of coffee.

"I just had it highlighted with a darker colour. Do you like it?"

Sam could imagine her mother twirling her finger around a curl self-consciously and smiled.

"Oh yeah!" She called. "How's dad?" She asked loudly over the sound of the kettle boiling.

"Oh you know... playing golf, picking up another new way to lose a few extra pounds... you know what he's like. He misses you."

Sam smiled warmly at the fond memories of her father.

There was a pause and Sam pursed her lips waiting for her mother to speak.

"So... how is Steve?"

Jocelyn Taggert was not a fan of Steven Curtis and she had made that fact very clear when Sam had come home and told her that she was pregnant by the twenty three year old.

"He's fine," Sam replied and picked up the two mugs and balanced them in her hand as she made her way back to the lounge.

"And where is he?" Jocelyn asked as she looked around, expecting him to walk out of one of the rooms from his hiding place.

Sam frowned at the question as she realised that she didn't actually know.

"Uh... I don't know."

"Still running off in the middle of the night with strange women, is he?"

Sam barely refrained from telling her mother that it was she that was (not quite) running off in the middle of the night with another man.

"That only happened the once mother, and you know it," Sam admonished and stared her mother down.

Jocelyn looked away and sipped on her coffee.

"I know, I know." There was a silence, in which both of the women took in the others' appearance and smiled. "Oh, my goodness!" Jocelyn burst out and Sam looked up at her in surprise, her hand automatically going to her dank hair and her eyes following her hands journey trying to assess what her mother was gawking at.

"What?"

"That necklace is beautiful!" Sam instinctively drew her body away when she saw a finger approaching but stopped when she realised her mother was not going to harm her. "Did Steve buy this for you?" She muttered as she fingered the pendant, and subsequently the key that still hung there.

Sam flushed slightly, the way she always did when someone asked about where her beautiful chain had come from.

"Uh... it was a Christmas gift from a friend at the hospital."

Jocelyn looked up to Sam when she heard the slight waver in her daughter's voice and she raised her eyebrow in amusement.

"A male or female friend?" She asked, her hand still holding the chain and Sam could feel her cheeks redden slightly.

Her mother sure could see right through her.

"Uh, male. How about some brunch or something? We could go shopping?" Sam evaded effectively and her mother laughed, pulling back from her daughter.

"Sure. You go get cleaned up."

Sam eyed her mother sceptically, with a smile on her face and then stood and left the room.

Five minutes later, Jocelyn was observing the numerous photos on the wall and on the bookcase when the phone rang. She was about to leave it to ring when she heard Sam yell from the shower:

"Could you get that for me?"

Smiling at her daughter through the closed bathroom door, she moved to the telephone and picked it up.

"Hello, the Taggert/Curtis residence," she spoke politely down the receiver and heard the callers breath pause slightly.

"Uh... hello," she almost melted at that single word. "Is Sam there?"

It took her a while to regain her breath and when she did she fumbled over her words slightly.

"Uh... she's in the shower. Can I take a message?"

She heard the man laugh slightly down the phone and she tried in vain to place his accent. That was a voice, tone, timbre and accent she would never tire of hearing. She wondered what he looked like.

"Just tell her that Doctor Kovac called," the voice said and Jocelyn smiled at the way he pronounced his name.

Behind her, she heard the bathroom door open and she spoke into the receiver.

"Hold on one second, she just came out."

"Who is it?" Sam asked as she plodded down the hallway towards her mother, her hair dripping wet on her shoulders.

"Doctor Kovac," her mother quietly imitated Luka's voice and Sam smiled gently and took the receiver.

"Hey," Sam smiled and caught the look her mother was sending her and she amusedly shooed her away.

"Halo hej zdravo," Luka spoke down the phone to her and heard her groan slightly and he laughed.

"English at all times, please," Sam complained as she leaned against the wall next to her telephone.

"How are you, Sam?" He asked and Sam could hear the laughter in his voice.

"Dripping wet, how are you?" She smiled when she heard him release his own groan.

"Fully clothed images at all times, please," he complained, mimicking her tone from earlier and she smiled. "I'm fine. We're a bit quiet in here today and I... I don't know - I just wanted to talk to you."

Sam smiled and pressed her forehead into the wall as she listened to him breathe down the phone.

"Sam?" She heard him inquire gently and she opened her eyes.

"Hm?"

He laughed.

"Just making sure you were still awake." She smiled slightly and let a laugh out on a breath. "I wasn't sure if I should call in case I woke you up," he said and Sam smiled again.

"And what would you have did if I had been asleep and you woke me up from my beauty sleep?"

She heard him laugh gently and she felt a shiver run down her back. She simply couldn't get enough of his voice.

"Speak to you in Croatian until you eventually woke up enough to speak to me." She felt herself laugh and shook her head at how easily she did that around him.

She looked down to the table where the phone rested and saw a note scribbled to her from Steve.

Out of town for a while. Your mother is coming to visit, so I took my leave. Said she'd be there about ten thirty in the morning. Tried to call you at work, but you were busy.

Love you, Steve.

"Sam?"

She turned her eyes back to the receiver as though she could see him through it and raised her eyebrow.

"What?"

He laughed again.

"I asked you who answered your phone," He repeated and Sam raised her head slightly in understanding.

"Oh, that was my mother. She's in town," she said and turned back to the lounge where she could see her mother looking at something in her hand. Frowning slightly, she looked away. "She dropped by this morning, so Steve took off."

"Steve's not in town?" Luka asked, his interest peaked but Sam could hear the slight admonishment in his tone.

"Yep."

"Since when?"

Sam laughed at him and she could hear him huffing on the other end.

"Since early this morning."

"For how long?"

"I don't know."

"Are you on tonight?"

"Nope."

"Well... good."

Sam laughed again and looked back into the lounge where her mother was now standing with a hand on her hip, staring at Sam with a raised eyebrow. Sam shrugged her shoulders in her direction and shook her head slightly.

"Listen, I better go, there's an MVC rolling up. I'll... call you later."

"Speak to you later," she muttered and tried to keep the regret from her tone.

"Oh and Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Volim te."

"Shut up, Luka."

He laughed and Sam hung up.

Turning back into the lounge, Sam stepped up to her mother who had not moved since Sam last looked at her.

"'Shut up, Luka'" her mother imitated her with an exaggerated flirtatious tone and Sam swatted her arm slightly. "What's going on Sam?"

Sam shook her head and smiled and looked away.

"Nothing."

"Oh please." Sam turned to her mother who was holding up the original picture of her and Luka from the Christmas party - the one with Sam and Luka Kovac scribbled across the back that she had stored away in a favourite book of hers. The one she had left at Luka's for his birthday was the result of her chasing down the med student who had taken it and paying him to make another copy. "I take it that this," Jocelyn pointed to the Croatian doctor, "is the man you were talking to on the phone?"

Sam stared at her mother for a few seconds before she nodded.

"Yes. Yes it is." There was really no point in lying; his name was scribbled across the back of the picture anyway.

They stared at each other and Sam could feel her mother's stare burning through her.

"Just be careful, Sam."

Sam frowned at her mother's words, shocked that she had not dressed her down.

"Mom, come on..."

"I take it he's the one who gave you that?" She asked and pointed to the chain on Sam's neck.

Sam reluctantly nodded and began walking out of the lounge.

"I'm going to get dressed and then we'll get something to eat."

Sam was halfway out the door when she heard her mother call out to her:

"For what it's worth - he is hot and that accent..."

Sam laughed and pulled the towel from around her body not caring that she was now fully naked, it was only her mother, and tossed the sodden garment at her.

"Oh shut up!"

TBC