Chapter 27
A few weeks had passed, Sam and Carly got settled into their new place. Freddie helped them move, at Carly's request, though he and Sam still said very little to each other. Sam found a job that she didn't hate and life was continuing on for them all. There were infrequent interactions between Sam and Freddie but when they did see each other, there was not as much tension as there had been between them. Things were far from back to normal but they were marginally better. They ended up sitting down with Spencer a couple of times and airing through some of their grievances. Well, Sam's grievances. Freddie simply listened to her and apologized profusely each time.
As much as she hated to admit it, Sam did admire Freddie's parenting. Considering who he was raised by and his generally up tight personality to begin with, he was a perfectly normal father. There would be the rare occasion he would get unreasonable about something but as a rule he was pretty good at being a single parent and far more laid back than she would have ever imagined.
He would ask Carly to watch the little girl briefly here and there and it was then that Sam would get to see her and interact. The girl was perfectly normal and happy. She played like a typical six year old, she wasn't a demanding kid and she didn't seem to have any bad manners like screaming when she was disappointed, talking back or being too sneaky. Although it was clear she was as manipulative as either Sam or Melanie when it came to pushing her father's buttons.
Sam felt sorry for the child though, because she knew how much she must miss her mom. Sam knew all too well the feeling of missing a parent. Alex was about the same age as she was whenever her dad left. The blonde made no mention of Melanie around the kid, that was one of Freddie's requests and she honored it. Apparently, he had chosen to deal with her mother's absence in this way for his own sake as well as the child's. Sam often wished she could get hold of her sister and shake some sense into her.
Sam also wished for a little more of an opportunity to get to know Freddie's daughter. After all, she was family. Whenever he needed a sitter, he would always call Carly or Spencer or leave her with one of the grandmothers. She figured he either didn't trust her or didn't want to bother her. Sam's wish would soon come true at an unexpected time.
Freddie was up against a deadline one Thursday with a piece of software he had been working on for weeks and spent more time at the office and longer days working at home than he normally would. This meant Alex spent an increasing amount of time with Spencer, Carly or Marissa whenever she wasn't in school. Spencer just received a call from his grandfather that he was going to have to go into the hospital and he quickly told Carly so they could prepare to make a trip to Yakima first thing in the morning.
"Everything will be OK, Carls. They do, like, fifty of these operations every week. It's not that big of a deal." Sam tried to comfort her friend as she packed up a few things to take along. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Your grandpa's a tough old bird."
"I know, Sam. I keep telling myself that. But I still worry." Carly fussed as she packed a bag.
"And everything will be fine here, I promise. No wild parties, no bringing strange guys by for casual hookups, I swear." Sam smirked.
"Well, you're on your own, whether you like it or not. Oh, and Spencer wants you to watch his place, too."
"Ooh, I wonder if he's got any leftovers from that meatloaf he made the other day?"
Carly and Spencer left the city and their friends behind for a few days, hoping to return as soon as they could. The day passed normally and Friday afternoon Marissa Benson left for a nurse's conference out of state. This left Freddie and the six year old girl alone for the weekend with plenty of work to do on his part. Thank goodness the girl could easily entertain herself quietly and let him work.
He had a long night on Friday at his desk and got up a little later than normal Saturday morning, grateful his mother wasn't home to admonish him for not getting up by 7 a.m. Unfortunately, there was a problem he had discovered late in the evening that just couldn't be fixed remotely no matter how hard he tried. He would need to go into the office right away so he could finish the project over the weekend and present it to his boss first thing Monday morning remotely.
"Hey, baby girl let's go over to see Uncle Spencer for a little bit." He was so used to Spencer being there that he forgot he wasn't. "I need to run into the office for a few hours."
"Isn't Spencer out of town?" She asked innocently.
"Aw, shoot. That's right. And Carly, too. I guess I'll have to see if Pam is home." He told her. "You haven't been over to see her in a while. Unless you want to come to the office with me."
The kid shook her head. "Your office smells funny. I'll go to Pam's even though she doesn't have wi-fi."
Pam Puckett's phone rang and rang before going to voice mail, all three times he tried calling. Alex went to play in her room and he was beginning to get desperate when a knock came at the door. "Sam? Uh, hey." He opened the door to find the blonde. "How's it going?"
"Hey, Frederelli." She answered and walked past uninvited, carrying a rather large box under her left arm and sat it down on the nearest chair, then taking a sip from a cup.
"What's that?" He asked.
"Got me. It's got your mom's name on it." She answered. "I stopped down to feed Spencer's fish on my way back with this smoothie and it was outside their door. I guess Lewbert put it on the wrong side of the hallway. It says perishable, so I thought maybe it needs to be refrigerated or something."
"Oh, I see. Thanks, Sam." He was holding his phone, trying to call Pam. "You know where your mom got to?"
"Sorry, not my week to watch her." She cracked with a smirk. "Aren't you going to open that before it spoils, whatever it is?" She pointed to the package with her cup.
"I suppose I should." He sat down his phone and tore into the box.
"What's so important you need to reach Pam about? Is Alex OK?" She asked as he dug through the box of packaging materials to determine what was inside.
"Actually, I need her to watch Alex."
"She wouldn't be my first choice for a baby sitter." Sam cracked.
"I have to go in to the office for a little bit and since Mom's out of town and Carly and Spencer are in Yakima, I'm kind of desperate."
Sam didn't want to be too forward but she could definitely help. "I, um, could. If - if you need me to."
"You?" He gasped, holding up a small bottle of some kind of cleaning agent.
"Don't sound so shocked, I was a professional babysitter you know. And she's my niece. Tell you what, I'll even do it for only thirty bucks."
"Thirty bucks?" He asked. "Gheesh, Sam. I won't be gone all weekend, just a couple of hours."
"That's half of what I'd have charged to watch a kid for an Saturday afternoon in L.A. Is that little, tiny bottle seriously all that was in there?"
"Apparently. Mom told me this stuff was coming. It needs to be in the refrigerated or it expands and could break the bottle. She says it smells like goat pee at room temperature unless it's mixed into water."
"Gross. Why would your mom get that? You know what, never mind, it's Marissa we're talking about. Why does she do anything?"
"You're sure you're OK doing this babysitting thing?" He asked.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just go do your nerd thing at work, bring me back a box of extra fatty fat cakes and we'll call it even. Oh, and if you do happen to go by the smoothie shop on the way home I wouldn't get mad at you if you managed to bring me back another raspberry banana smoothie. This one didn't last long." She took another long slurp.
"That can be done." He grinned, she certainly was a life saver.
"And I'm telling Carly it's your fault I didn't get the apartment cleaned or any laundry washed." Although she acted aloof, she was glad for the opportunity to spend some time with her niece.
"Thanks, Sam. You're the best." Without thinking, he hugged Sam before catching himself and breaking away as he called for his daughter. "Alex. Come here a sec, honey."
The little girl soon appeared. "Hi, Aunt Sam."
"Aunt Sam is going to hang out here with you while I go over to the office for a little bit, OK sweetie?"
"Yay!" The girl simply cheered.
"Thanks again, Sam. Call me if you need anything at all. I'll try to be back as soon as I can." He gathered up a few things, stuffed them into a laptop bag and kissed his daughter's forehead before hurrying out the door.
Since they got along so well, and she didn't seem to mind, Sam was another person who could watch Alex. Freddie was glad that the girl was able to bond with Sam and began to call her, along with the others, when he needed a sitter. He feared the day whenever Melanie finally reappeared and what her reaction would be, given the child and Sam's budding relationship, especially the way Melanie and Sam always got along.
There was never a time that Freddie and Sam would do anything one on one. Whenever they would see each other, it was always because of Alex. At the little girl's suggestion, he would ask Sam to stop by for one reason or another and Sam began watching her more than anyone else whenever Freddie would need to go somewhere. It got to the point where Aunt Sam was even invited along to events such as meet the teacher night at school and the like.
Nothing more than a very platonic hug was ever shared by Sam and Freddie and they even returned to their playful teasing banter more often than not. Their friendship was slowly being repaired thanks to a little girl. No one else seemed to notice that she was becoming an intricate part of his and Alex's lives. Or at least no one had the guts to say it. Their life went on this way for months and shortly before Christmas, they all got a shock.
Sam walked into apartment 10-B. Carly looked up from the cookies she was baking long enough to tell there was something not quite right. A closer inspection revealed streaked mascara and puffy eyes. There was very little on the face of the Earth to make Sam Puckett cry and Carly knew this was not good.
Since the three old friends were pretty much back to normal in their relationship and Sam enjoyed her job, Carly had not seen Sam in anything less than a melancholy mood in quite some time. In fact, she seemed pretty happy for the most part, especially when the entire gang would gather at Spencer's just like old times.
Right now, however, Sam wanted nothing more than to be alone and Carly had to run to catch up with her before she would slam her bedroom door shut and lock it. "Sam? Sam, what's wrong?"
"Give me a few minutes, Carls?" She tried ousting Carly from her space but the brunette was not going anywhere. Sam was too upset to be her usual feisty self and couldn't push Carly out like she normally would.
"Sam. Talk to me. Why are you crying. What the heck happened? Was it something with your family?" Carly took her by the shoulders to make her look into her eyes. "Did you get in an accident or something?"
Sam sniffed and turned her face to the floor. "She's back, Carls."
Poor Carly was confused, she had no idea what her friend meant. "Who? What are you talking about?"
"Melanie!" Sam huffed and pulled away. "I was coming out of Groovy Smoothie, and I just saw her walking into the building. She's down there with him, with them. After all she's put him through, she has the nerve to come crawling back like some old, wounded cat and I know he's going to take her back. He's been waiting for this forever."
Carly just blinked. She had no idea why Sam would feel so upset about Freddie and Melanie reconnecting. "Sam, I doubt . . . "
"I've been good enough for months and now this. Well, she can have him!" Sam screeched and flopped down on her bed.
"Are you 100% positive it was her? How would Melanie even know where to find Freddie? Sam, you need to calm down."
"What's the rule about telling a girl to calm down?" Sam questioned.
"This is different! And that rule doesn't apply to other girls?"
Sam jumped to her feet and opened her closet door. "I'm done, Carls. I can't live every day seeing him and her together after all she's done to him. After all we've been through together the last months. Freddie and me, we - we're friends again, I think. We talk, hang out and I, I don't know . . . I should have known this would happen when she reappeared."
"Sam, come with me." Carly took Sam's hand. She had a plan and needed help.
"Where are we going?" The blonde tried to protest.
"You'll see." Carly pulled her into the hall and pressed the elevator call button. As soon as they were inside, Carly pressed the number 8 and Sam broke down again."
"No! I can't go down there, I don't want to see them together." She sobbed. "Please don't make me do this!"
"Will you relax!" The elevator opened and Carly pulled Sam down the hallway. "We're going to Spencer's. Basically because I'm afraid if I leave you alone, you'll bolt again and I won't see you for another eight and a half years."
Carly escorted Sam into apartment 8-C and explained to Spencer everything that happened. He set about to comforting the petite blonde and Carly headed across the hall unnoticed by her friend. Before she could raise a hand to knock on the door, it opened and Melanie stepped out, eyes red from crying herself.
"Carly!" She hugged the dark haired young lady tightly. "I'm so glad to see you, I was just coming up to your apartment."
"Huh? Why? How did you know where I live?"
"Freddie told me about you and Sammy having your own place. I need to talk to her." Melanie sniffed and wiped at her eyes with a tissue.
"Well, um, I'm here now and Sam's not home." This was absolutely true. "So what's wrong? You look like you've been crying."
"Can we maybe go up to your place and wait for her, I'll explain it all to you." Mel begged.
Carly knew there was little chance for Sam to return right away so she took Melanie to her place to talk to her and hear first hand why she was back and what was said between her and Freddie. Whatever it was, it obviously didn't go Melanie's way.
