CHAPTER 44

Miguel had one more surprise visitor that night. After his family had all left and visiting hours were surely over, late that night, there was one more knock on his door.

"Come in!" Miguel called. In walked Sam, and she smiled at him as she saw him. Miguel smiled back.

"Hey, Miguel." She said.

"Hey, Sam." Miguel replied. There was a brief awkward silence between them, as there often was with them nowadays. Even though they were 'trying to be friends', they could never be alone together without it being pretty awkward, made more so now for Miguel after he heard what Sam had said while he was in the coma, but she didn't know that he could hear her.

"So, um… what are you doing here?" Miguel asked.

"I… um… I wanted to see if you needed anything." Sam stammered, making up a lie on the spot. Truth be told, she just wanted to see him.

"Yeah, um… everything's good. I've had these stupid tests done on me all day. So many of them are unnecessary too." Miguel said. "Like why the hell do they need to know who my first grade math teacher was? Like I get testing me for amnesia but like I didn't remember who the teacher was before the accident so I sure as hell don't remember now!"

Sam laughed.

"Awww. Are you okay?" She asked. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, I'll live." He replied. There was another awkward silence before Sam spoke again.

"Miguel, I need to tell you something." Sam started, nervously. Here it was. She was about to tell Miguel how she felt about him, and she was nervous. She knew that he was extremely preoccupied with all of his injury stuff, but she couldn't wait any longer. The past year had taught her that life was short, and precious, and it could be taken away at any moment so they needed to savor and take advantage of the time they had.

Before she could say anything though, Miguel spoke.

"Sam, I heard what you said when I was in a coma right before I woke up." Miguel cut in. Sam's eyes widened and her heart started pounding. He knew! He knew how she felt but he hadn't said anything up until now! Was that an indicator? Did that mean that he didn't have feelings for her back?

"You… you did?" She stammered. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, um… I heard you and Johnny talking and then you said… what you said." Miguel said, his heart racing just as fast as Sam's. "Hearing it saved my life. Literally And I… I feel the exact same way, Sam. I love you so much, and I never stopped. When I broke up with you a couple of months ago, it wasn't because I stopped loving you. In fact, it was the opposite. I loved you so much that I knew I couldn't be the person you deserved. I was too messed up."

"And you were too thick headed to realise that I could've helped you, and I would've rather been with you a fraction the amount of time than another guy all the time." Sam finished. Miguel blushed furiously and nodded.

"Yeah, and I completely understand if you don't want to date me ever again. Both times we dated, we had pretty bad breakups. It'd be in our best interests to cut the problem off at the source, right?"

"See, this is your problem, Miguel! That's an awful solution!" Sam exclaimed. "You have a really weird outlook on life! Your mind immediately goes to us just not dating at all!"

"What? Do you have a better idea?" Miguel asked.

"Of course I do! I always have a better idea than you do!" Sam remarked. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah? Let's hear this genius idea!" He challenged her. Sam took a deep breath.

"Well, our problem is with our breakups, right? Both of us suck at breaking up with each other, and handling said breakup. So, my idea is that we get back together but this time, we don't break up."

Miguel listened to her idea, and he took in what she had just told him. He smiled faintly at her, gazing into her gorgeous ocean-blue eyes.

"Damn it, that is a better idea." He groaned. Sam giggled and she leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Miguel immediately returned the kiss, sitting up in his hospital bed but immediately wincing in pain as his head throbbed. Even that simple movement hurt, and Sam noticed. She immediately gently pushed back down so he was lying on the bed. Although his head hurt a lot less as he lay back down, he couldn't kiss Sam nearly as easy in that position. He was about to try and get up again but Sam placed two hands on his chest to gently keep him where he was.

"Miguel, don't sit up. You're clearly hurting yourself." She murmured. Miguel groaned.

"But I wanna…" Miguel whined, protestingly. Sam laughed. Sometimes, he acted like such a kid. A stubborn kid at that. She knew that Miguel was going to keep trying to get up and he would injure himself, so she came up with a creative solution...

Taking off her jacket, Sam slowly climbed onto his bed, straddling his waist and lying on top of him so that she was forcing him to lie flat on his stomach and he wouldn't try and get up. She then leaned down and kissed him again, deepening the kiss until they were full-on making out. Just as both of them were starting to feel slightly uncomfortable just making out and both wanted more (which they couldn't, given that they were in a hospital room of course!), Sam quickly rolled off of him, grabbing her jacket and purse.

"What? Where are you going?" Miguel exclaimed.

"Sorry! You gotta get some rest." Sam laughed.

"No! Sam! Come on! You can't leave me like this!" He groaned, the front of his pants uncomfortably tight.

"Sorry, Miguel! That's all you're gonna get until you're out of the hospital so you better get well soon if you want some more." She said, slowly twirling around seductively and heading towards the door. Miguel chuckled and smiled at her, a massive, genuine smile on his face as he gazed at her.

"I love you so much." He murmured quietly, not meaning for her to hear, his eyes closing from exhaustion and immediately falling asleep. Sam heard him and turned around, silently walking back to him and watching him sleep. He looked so peaceful. So at ease. She looked at him and knew that this was her person. Her soulmate. The person she wanted to be with for the rest of her life.

"I love you too." She whispered. Sending a quick message to her mom to let her know that she would be staying the night in the hospital, Sam slowly climbed back onto the bed, and she lay down next to Miguel, resting her head on his chest, listening to him slowly, quietly breathing in and out. His calmness caused her own heartrate to slow, and she started to feel tired too. She started to close her eyes and fell asleep right there beside him. Miguel felt her head on his chest and he slowly woke up, smiling faintly as he saw her. He slowly wrapped an arm around and pulled her closer, moving the blanket so that it was covering both of them, and then falling fast asleep…

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A week (that's right, a whole week!) later, Miguel was finally discharged from the hospital. The doctors had been extremely overly cautious to make sure he didn't have any threatening side-effects to his injury and surgery, and they did about a million tests on him before they finally let him out.

A LOT had happened since Miguel was last in the outside world. First of all, Silver and Barnes had not been arrested given that they hadn't technically committed any crimes, but they had both left the state and were both on probation, not allowed within 500 feet of children. Kreese, however, as someone accused of arson and attempted murder of 3 children, was on the run from the authorities and hadn't been found yet. The police had tried, but they had pretty much given up at this point. There was extremely little known information about Kreese, and they checked any spots they thought he could be at, but with no success.

They weren't going to give up though, even if the police had. Kreese was the final loose end to tie up in this crazy, out-of-control karate war they were in. In addition, for as long as Kreese was out there, he was a threat to all of them. So they all decided together, if the police weren't going to find Kreee, they were going to find him. Together…

Miguel, Hawk, Demitri, Robby, Sam, Daniel, Amanda and Johnny all met up at the Larusso House that night to spitball ideas on where Kreese could be.

Miguel was one of the first to arrive that evening, and Sam opened the door for him and beamed when she saw him.

"Miguel! You're out of the hospital?!" She exclaimed. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, the doctor finally gave me the all-clear to go back to life as normal." He replied. Sam raised an eyebrow.

"She did, huh?" Sam asked, unconvinced. Miguel sighed.

"Okay, fine, she recommended another week of bed rest, but what does she know?!"

"Um… how to revive you when your heart stops." Sam stated. Miguel nodded.

"True. So, what, are you going to kick me out?" Miguel remarked. Sam giggled and shook her head.

"Nah, I can think of a better idea." She replied, pulling him into the house and kissing him. They made out for several moments before Daniel walked into the living room and saw them. He groaned.

"Ah, guys, come on! If you're going to make out, at least have the common courtesy to hide it from your parents!" Daniel exclaimed. They laughed and broke apart.

Around 15 minutes later, the whole group had arrived and they all sat in the living room. Daniel had bought a large whiteboard for them to spitball ideas onto and he rolled it into the center of the room. Him and Johnny - the two leaders of the group - stood up and faced the rest of them.

"All right, guys! Welcome to the first meeting of the Kreese Finding Committee." Daniel announced. Miguel choked back a laugh.

"I'm sorry, the what?" He asked.

"Kreese Finding Committee." Daniel said.

"I'm sorry, the KFC?" Miguel asked. Everyone laughed and Daniel blushed.

"Miguel, shut up." Daniel stated, jokingly. "Anyways, this is serious business. Kreese is extremely dangerous and the cops are not doing anything to find him. All they said to me was to call if we know for a fact that Kreese is somewhere. We've already called them twice and neither location showed any sign of Kreese so the cops said that if we do that a third time, we're going to get fined."

"What? Can they do that?" Demitri asked. Daniel nodded.

"Yeah. Something about having to gear up a SWAT team and pulling them away from crime scenes that actually need them." Daniel stated. "Anyways, do any of you have any idea where he could be?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, the doorbell rang. Everyone looked at each other, confused and slightly nervous. Now, with Kreese out there, all of them were extremely on edge.

"Did you invite anyone else?" Daniel asked Johnny. Johnny shook his head.

"Nah, you?"

"No." Daniel replied, getting a bit more nervous. Johnny walked over to the door and cautiously opened it. Standing at the door was someone who made all of their eyes widen, but it wasn't Kreese. It was none other than Tory Nichols!

The Larussos all immediately tensed up at the sight of her, but Tory didn't seem like she was there to fight. They didn't know if she was even still hating on Sam, to be honest. That didn't take away the fact that Sam was still terrified of her though. Sam's heart started pounding and she slipped a hand into Miguel's, and he squeezed it reassuringly. To be fair, Tory was there at the hospital as Miguel got surgery that first night, but nobody had seen her since, not even Robby. She had been so overcome with guilt about everything that had happened. She blamed herself. Then, when she got the text from Robby that they were going after Kreese, she knew that this could help her make amends. She was going to help them find Kreese, or die trying!

"Tory, what are you doing here?" Johnny asked, no anger evident in his voice. He didn't have anything against her anymore. She had been there in the fire with Miguel and Robby, and she had helped them fight Kreese right before. Miguel and Robby had told him all about how she had turned her back on Kreese that night.

"I heard you guys were going after Kreese." She said. "I want to help."

"Absolutely not!" Amanda exclaimed. "You seriously have the nerve to come here after everything you've done to our daughter?!"

Tory sighed and looked down. She regretted everything she had done to Sam SO MUCH, but she knew that she had to first reap the consequences before she could move on.

"Look, I'm really sorry. I, um… I took things way too far and I…"

"Yeah, damn right you took things too far!" Amanda shouted.

"Hey, you know, this might not actually be a bad idea." Johnny stated, rationally. Daniel spun around to face him, his eyes blazing.

"You can't be serious, Johnny?!" He exclaimed. Johnny nodded.

"I am. Nichols knows Kreese better than any of us, bar me and Robby. If anyone can help us find him, it'll be her."

Daniel scowled at Johnny for several moments, before turning back to Tory, who was standing there nervously and awkwardly, listening to every word they were saying. After a long silence, Daniel slowly opened the door wider and faced Tory.

"You come near my daughter or any member of my family and you'll regret it, you hear me? I'll have you in juvie faster than you can blink." Daniel threatened. Tory nodded and followed the group into the house…

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"Have you guys tried the homeless shelter he used to live in?" Tory asked as they sat around in the living room. The Larussos sat on one side of the room and Tory sat on the other side, Miguel, Johnny and Robby stuck in the middle as the bridge between them.

"Yeah, the police already went there. He hasn't been there in nearly 6 months." Johnny replied.

"Okay, what about any of Silver's properties?" Tory asked.

"Silver owns 8 places in the Greater Los Angeles area. Police have already checked all 8 of them. Kreese isn't there." Daniel replied.

"What about his place?" Tory asked. "Does he even have an apartment? I literally have no idea."

"Yeah, I crashed at his place once a couple of months ago. I already gave the police the address. He's not there." Robby said. The group then stared at the frustratingly empty board containing everything they knew about Kreese, and they all sighed.

"This is useless! If the cops couldn't find him, what chance do we have!" Demitri cried.

Miguel shot up in his chair. His eyes widened. He had an idea! It was a long shot. A VERY long shot. But it was an idea.

"You guys, I think I might have an idea." Miguel murmured. "Or at least a starting point to possibly leapfrog off from."

"Really? What is it?" Johnny asked. Miguel took a deep breath.

"Well, we've been going about this all wrong. We've been trying to figure out where he is in a similar way the cops would, right?"

"Sure. What's the problem with that?" Hawk asked.

"Well, we're tracking an absolute psycho. So to do that, we need to get into the mind of a psycho. And to do that, we're going to need the help of a psycho."

As Miguel said this, Sam subtly side glanced at Tory, who noticed and glared at her.

"Seriously, Larusso?! I literally saw that!" Tory snapped. Sam shrugged and Tory balled her hands into fists, but Robby quickly pulled her down and stopped her from lunging at Sam.

"Look, Sam, Tory, stop. I'm not talking about either of you." Miguel said. "I'm talking about someone who is certifiably insane. Someone who knew Kreese. Someone who Kreese visited every month for the past couple of months on Visiting Day."

Johnny realised who Miguel was talking about, and his eyes widened.

"No! No way! Miguel, that's such a dumb idea!" He exclaimed. Miguel nodded.

"I never said it was a good idea. But we're literally stuck at square 1 right now. Maybe this could be what we need to kickstart this search." Miguel stated.

"Why in God's name would he help us?!" Johnny snapped. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but last time you saw him, you broke his arm and you knocked his ass out."

Miguel shrugged.

"I don't know. It can't hurt to try though, right?"

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The next morning, Miguel, Sam, Daniel, Robby and Johnny walked into California State Penitentiary together, and they sat down in front of the plexiglass window. Moments later, a familiar middle-aged Ecuadorian man sat opposite them, a cast on his left arm and a black eye still evident on his face from the last time him and Miguel had met. He slowly raised the plastic phone to his ear.

"Hello, Miguel." The man drawled. Miguel, who was slightly pale, took a deep breath and nodded at the man.

"Hey, Dad. We need your help…"