Tory returns to her apartment 2 hours later and calls out.
"Larusso you up yet?"
There was no response. She guessed she was still asleep. Fine whatever she'd make herself busy and get a coffee. She was about to head to the kitchen when she hears a shout coming from her room.
"What the hell…"
Tory goes and opens her door and sees Sam still asleep on the bed but thrashing and kicking and punching and panting. Sams eyes were still shot so Tory guessed Sam was having a nightmare. But damm this was extreme.
Tory walks over carefully and speaks softly but firmly.
"Larusso wake up."
There was no reaction from her. Sam was still struggling and fighting some invisible enemy. Tory tries again.
"Larusso snap out of it."
She says it a bit louder but again no difference, except sams figthing is getting even more desperate with its thrashing.
"Shit…"
Tory was shocked at this from Sam. She looked more scared in her sleep than Tory had ever seen her. If she kept thrashing herself round like this she was going to injure herself even more.
Tory gets closer and grabs sams shoukders and says forcefully.
"SAM STOP"
Sam gasps and her eyes fly open taking in the surroundings. Her breathing was very heavy. Her eyes lock onto Tory and they widen and she throws a punch that lands right on Tory's nose.
Tory yells and staggers back.
"Ah what the fuck Larusso?"
She sees Sam is still trying to get at her. Tory jumps off the bed and moves away.
"The hell is wrong with you are you crazy?"
Sam suddenly stops and her eyes widen as she looks around again and her breathing slowly calms down.
Sam groans and puts her head in her hands.
"Shit…I…I'm sorry Tory."
Tory frowns. Sams voice was so soft and scared and venerable. Tory totally believed her that she was sorry but she couldn't understand why she'd freaked out at her like that.
Tory looks at her slowly approaching the bed again.
"Am I safe to sit down or we going for round 2?"
Tory asks with a small smirk trying to get through Sam or at the very least bring out Larussos more stubborn side. Sam just looks up at her gives her a halfhearted glare.
"You're fine….I didn't mean to do that.."
Tory slowly sits down on the bed.
"Whatever it's cool….good punch though Larusso."
Tory remarks rubbing her nose checking it for blood.
Sam sighs and shakes her head feeling so embarrassed. Tory raises her eyebrows.
"So you gonna tell me what that shit was about?"
Sam groans.
"It was a bad dream."
"Yeah no shit. What about? Was the boogeyman going to gobble you up princess?"
Tory smirks at her. Sam scoffs and rolls her eyes before answering.
"Yeah in a sense…"
That confused Tory as she'd only been joking she didn't think Sam was actually scared of monsters still.
"Come on Larusso spill…I think you owe my nose an explanation."
Sam sighs.
"I was dreaming I was in a fight."
Tory thinks about it then nods. That was fair enough considering what had happened to her todsy and why it'd be a bit traumatic for her. But then she thinks about something else.
"Why did you hit me…I mean when you woke up you stopped fighting you were looking around then you looked at me and swung on me..why?"
Sam doesn't answer she just looks at the floor. Tory shrugs at her.
"Whatever…so you were fighting Piper in the dream?"
Sam closes her eyes and shakes her head.
"No…"
Tory tilts her head.
"Who were you fighting then?"
Sam sighs again and looks up at her.
"You…"
Tory frowns at that. I guess that explained why she hit her when she saw her. But why Sam was dreaming of fighting Tory when she'd been helping her and sure they still weren't friends but she figured she wouldn't be dreaming of fighting her. But hey Tory was no psychiatrist she didn't know how this stuff worked. She nudged her.
I
"So who won huh?"
Tory was trying to joke around a bit as before she left her and Sam were having a bit of banter with each other. But it really seemed this nightmare had taken that all away. Sam didn't even smile as she responds.
"You did…as always."
Tory looks at her even more confused. What did she mean as always. Tory didn't always win when they fought. In fact Sam had beaten her twice. But then it clicked and she looked at her.
"You've dreamt of us fighting before?"
Sam let's out a humorless less.
"Tory I've been having nightmares of if ever since that damm fucking school fight. Ever since then I haven't had a full night sleep. I've been either flashing back to that fight or dreaming of different scenarios of you attacking me. The most frequent is I'm training at Miyagi Do then your turn up. We fight you hurt me then you grab my hair and hold my head underwater and you don't let me up…That's usually when I wake up. Yeah go ahead laugh at how pussy that sounds."
Sam sighs and looks down but Tory doesn't laugh. In fact that couldn't be less funny to Tory. Sure she'd hated Sam and wanted her to be scared of her but not to those levels. Where she's having nightmares of her.
"But Larusso…why are you having nightmares of it…you won?…you beat me, you kicked my ass over those damm stairs and damm well bruised my ass so bad I couldn't sit down for a week,"
Sam snorts and smiles a little at that comment before lifting her head and looking at Tory.
"It's not just about the fight. It's everything that happened. You stabbing my arm, you nearly ripping my hair out and trying to stab me in the face…Miguel getting kicked off balcony, Robbie running and it's all because of what I did….I deserved what you did Tory."
Tory shakes her head.
"No Sam…no one deserved that…yeah what you did was messed up but I took it to far..I didn't mean to do that to you to traumatize you that badly."
Sam looks at her.
"Surely you knew…I mean the arcade fight.. why did you think I didn't come out?"
Tory shrugs. She hadn't really considered it.
"I thought you were hiding in there waiting for me to come find you and strike first so could go on defense. I thought it was your plan."
Sam laughs and shakes her head.
"No….i was curled up against the wall having a panic attack, I couldn't move….I couldn't breathe…."
Tory looks down.
"But you started it. You turned up there and you were fighting…you were kicking ass from what the others said so why did you start….that?"
Sam sighs.
"Because you turned up."
Tory was speechless. She really hadn't realized she'd done this much damage to Sam. Then she thinks back to the house fight where Sam had run from her into that mini dojo. She thought Sam was tricking her, trying to get her away from the fight with everyone else so that she'd have the advantage and even at first when she didn't fight back she figured she was planning something. Now Tory realized she was wrong. Sam was genuinely terrified.
Tory realized that her quip about sam being scared of monsters was true. She was and Tory was that monster.
"I…I don't know what to say sam…I didn't want that to happen to you. For you to get badly messed up mentally like that…I'm sorry."
It was the first apology Tory had made to her and Sam looks at her and nods.
"It's okay…you helping me now makes up for it."
Tory shakes her head.
"Obviously not if you're still having nightmares about me."
Sam shrugs. " it'll take time I guess…and I'm sorry to Tory."
" you already said sorry Sam."
Sam shakes her head.
" not for Miguel. For what I did after….bothering you at work…getting in your face at school…kicking you at prom….I..it wasn't personal…I mean okay yes it was personal but I didn't do it to be mean and malicious. I did it because I was so damm scared and I knew you'd seen that from me.k I was trying to prove both to you and to myself that I wasn't afraid anymore and that I wasn't just going to let you push me around and hurt me again. Me getting at you at school. I was terrified it was all going to happen again so instead of waiting for it to happen. I went on offense and threatened you so you'd be off balance and not expect it from me and maybe make you hesitate in hurting me. But it was wrong I shouldn't have done it so I'm sorry."
Tory nods a little.
"I get it sam and I understand why you did it. Also I couldn't believe it when first you went after me at work. I was stunned then at school. I had no idea how to come back at you because I just wasn't ready for it. Honestly it made me respect you a bit that you had the balls to strike first like that.."
Sam nods.
"I guess we both have fucked up pretty bad."
"Me more than you though Larusso…you did some shitty high school bullshit but I did dangerous criminal level shit. "
Sam sighs and gives her a smile.
"Well why don't we call it even…I mean you got what you want right? You beat me, you won the tournament. I wanted to beat you but I still take pride in how I did. I didn't run away from you. I faced my fears, faced you and I think I did pretty good I scored 2 good points. You didn't run through me so I'll take that."
Tory looks down. She wanted to tell Sam the truth about the tournament that Sam was the true winner. Maybe it'd even help Sams mental health by her being the champion and beating Tory it may give her true confidence. But Tory was to scared to do it. So she just nods at Sams words.
"You did good Larusso. It was a close fight…that damm tornado kick you cracked me with at the start was a badass move. So was that double punch. Also the way you wrecked Piper. Jeez that threw me seeing you fight that aggressive. Now hey I still don't like you much but I can't deny you're a hell of a fighter Larusso."
Sam smiles at her genuinely.
"Thank you so are you. But Tory I don't want to do this anymore. Us fighting we've fought enough. You won the last one, I won before. I think it's obvious we're very evenly matched and either of us can win on any different day so why bother keep fighting like this. Let's just end this bullshit. We've both said sorry for what we did so why keep this going? I'm not saying we need to be making friendship bracelets and braiding each other's hair…but let's at least move beyond ripping out each other's hair."
Tory nods, apart from the fact Sam was wrong. They weren't evenly matched. Sam was better. Tory hadn't been able to ever beat her properly even if all the fights were close Sam was the true winner. But her ego was stopping her from admitting the truth. So she just nods.
"Yeah I'm done with it to."
Sam smiles and extends her hand to Tory.
"Truce?"
Tory hesitates because she knew if Sam found out the truth she'd be mad as hell. But Tory really did want this. So she nods and shakes sams hand.
"Truce."
