Little bit of Sam/Danny friendship in this one. I love Danny, why can't he get a nice girl?
Samantha sat with her back to the wall staring at the door that Jack had almost taken off its hinges when he'd slammed it an hour before. Her eyes moved to the pizza he'd brought for them. It would be stone cold now, not that she was in the mood to eat.
How could she have messed things up so badly she thought to herself? Jack had always maintained that he was the one who made the mistakes but surely nothing he'd done to her could've topped what she had just said to him. It escaped from her mouth so easily that it scared her. She thought back to what her mother had said to her some years before.
She had retreated to her when her three month old marriage fell apart. She didn't want to but she had no one else. Samantha said terrible things to her the last time she'd left but Amanda let her in without question and held her daughter for hours in her arms that night. Samantha wondered out loud why she found it so easy to say such hurtful things to her mother.
Her mother answered wisely and simply.
"We always hurt the ones we love the most because they know us the best."
Samantha shut her eyes at the soft tone of her mother's voice in her mind. As she opened them again a tear escaped and she hugged her knees up close to her chest.
Jack was the person who had always been there for her. He never judged, he was always patient and kind and more importantly he loved her completely. As she was now calm she realised that he had only tried to help her. He knew better than anyone how her father must be feeling.
She got up and lifted the phone. Dialling the number, her hands shook as she brought the phone up to her ear. Someone answered and she said,
"Could I speak to someone on the cardiac unit please?"
She listened to the tinny hold music for a second before hearing a tired voice say,
"Cardiac unit; Mary speaking."
"Hello, I wanted to check on Adam Spade's progress please?"
"Are you a relative?"
"I'm his daughter." As she imagined the nurse looking through the imaginary list she was surprised at how easily she could now say that sentence when it used to stick in her throat.
"He's resting comfortably now. Whoever visited him earlier seems to have cheered him up a little bit. Would you like me to put you through?"
"Oh no, I won't disturb him when he's resting. Thank you."
Samantha sighed as she hung up. Was there anyone on this earth that Jack couldn't charm?
Jack dropped his keys on the table and sank into the sofa without turning the light on. His stomach growled when he remembered the uneaten pizza but he couldn't have eaten anything.
What Samantha said had stung him deeply. Mostly because he knew deep down it was the truth. He did try to fix everyone else's problems as some kind of sub conscious rehabilitation for himself. But she was wrong about one thing. He had done it mainly out of love for her.
He smiled wryly as he pictured her eyes burning a whole in his head. She was sexy when she was angry but she could cut like a blade. He got up and poured himself a glass of Jack Daniels. Sipping it slowly he shook his head, silently cursing himself for walking out like that.
He realised that he was afraid. He was afraid to fight with her or upset her. He wondered when that had happened. With her he could always be straight and up front but tonight for some reason that had changed. He looked out of the window onto the street below. He realised that for the last two days he'd been walking on broken glass around her. Shaking his head he thought deeply as to why.
Then it hit him. He had never seen her like this; needy, clingy and in need of his protection. It had always been him who had sought those things from her. She was his escape and now the roles had been reversed. Her father coming back had made her retreat to this side of herself that Jack had never seen and it was making him treat her differently. It's why she put her defences up around him and responded so scathingly when he'd admitted he'd seen her father.
She didn't like Jack seeing her that way or treating her differently. He wasn't doing it intentionally but now he shook his head as he realised how easily he'd gone into over protective hyper drive.
As she dressed she thought about going over to his place and apologising but her pride stopped her. She didn't want to look into his eyes and see the hurt that she had caused to the man she loved. As it turns out a knock at the door saved her the trouble of worrying about it.
She nervously looked through the peep hole and couldn't help but smile as she saw the man on the other side. She flung open the door,
"Hey peaches!" Danny exclaimed as he came in uninvited proceeding to drop his leather jacket on the chair and flop down on the sofa. She smiled as she shut the door and sat down.
"So what's with all the cloak and dagger personal stuff huh? Are you pregnant with sextuplets or something?"
She smiled and wrinkled up her nose.
"I don't think so. Sorry I just lit out on you guys like that but I had some stuff to deal with and I couldn't take the "what's going on" questions."
"Ahh. You didn't get these from Jack?"
She looked down and he nodded at her knowingly.
"Look, don't worry about it. We just wanted to know if we could help but we knew you'd ask us eventually if you needed it. Anyway, I thought that we'd discuss your problems over a glass of orange juice what do you say?" He said smiling broadly.
"Will milk do? I don't have any orange juice."
He nodded and settled back on the sofa as she brought them in two glasses of milk.
Handing him a glass she said, "If you knew I'd ask then why are you here?"
"The curiosity is killing me. Spill it sister."
She proceeded to tell him all about her father coming back and her conversation with him. She left out the parts with Jack which left a pretty big hole in her story that she knew Danny could fit his head through.
"So, that doesn't explain why your bed isn't made at 7pm and you've been crying and…..why Jack's wallet is on the counter."
She shut her eyes. When she opened them they came to rest on the leather wallet sitting beside the cold pizza with the initials J.M.M. facing upwards. Danny sat forward a little and took her hand lightly.
"Are you guys on again?"
She nodded and filled in the blanks of her story for him. He sat back and thought for a while.
"I didn't know if you knew all about us the first time?" She said quietly, not looking at him.
"Just because I look stupid doesn't mean I am."
"I don't think you're stupid." She said quickly. He held up his hand to soothe her.
"I just figured it was your business and there was plenty of other people who where going to interfere. So, I kept my mouth shut and figured that if either one of you ever wanted to talk about it then you would."
She shook her head and squeezed his hand.
"You're the best friend I've ever had Danny." She said tearfully. He smiled and sat down beside her folding her into his arms gently.
"When did I become so needy?" She exclaimed. "All I've done since Dad resurfaced is sob onto men's shoulders! Where did my guts go?" She was disgusted with herself.
"Pal, they got ripped out when you're Dad came back. It's ok to lean on people that care about you, you know." He said soothingly.
She pulled back from him and nodded as he gave her a Kleenex to wipe away her tears.
"Do you think he'll forgive me?" She said, dabbing at her eyes. Danny thought about which man she meant and then gave her an answer to cover both
"Your father? Of course and you'll forgive him in time as well. As for Jack, there's nothing he wouldn't do for you sweetie. We've all known that from day one."
He smiled and hugged her again. As she held onto Danny it became clear what she had to do now. She had to make things right with the two people she loved the most before she lost them forever.
