~Chapter 7~
It didn't take long for Sam to get to sleep last night and it didn't take her long to wake up early this morning. She wanted to wait until Danny was awake. There was no way she would ever have the courage to tell them she was raped. It would sound wrong to let someone else tell them, but she had been through more than enough and wasn't exactly eager to go through more.
Besides, being in Danny's arms... Every night she was in his arms but that safe feeling never went away. And all that ghost hunting had built up alot of muscle mass. Being able to feel all that muscle beside her was...unbelievable. Maybe it was her girl hormones, but he wasn't just charming anymore. When exactly did he get all that muscle anyway? She really hadn't paid much attention to it until now. Maybe that was what made her feel safe in his arms. It sure made sense.
She looked up at him and started chewing on her lower lip. He was...he was every girl's dream guy. Yeah, so he had his quirks, but...boy was he cute. Really, really cute. Her breath caught in her throat when he tried to turn over, only to be stopped by her body weight.
She looked at the clock. It was only an hour before he was supposed to wake up for school. The twins were still asleep; fortunately they'd slept through the night. She sighed. It was hard, being a parent. Especially when there were two babies of equal age to care for. Even Maddie had admitted she'd never had this problem. And although Danny couldn't be at home to help her watch the kids during the school week, Maddie and Jack helped out when she needed it most. Jazz absolutely adored the twins and loved to help out, but sadly she had a ton of work to do and usually wasn't able to babysit for long.
Jazz adored the twins...but so did her parents. Danny would never change his feelings toward the twins, but that didn't mean his family wouldn't. Maddie was older and more experienced. She was also a woman, meaning she would have the greatest chance of understanding everything. Jack was...well...you know...Jack. If anything, he should be the last person to know. Jazz was different. She was a girl, and pretty mature for her age, but she wasn't experienced and had never been a mother. She had never planned on having kids, at least not until she was twenty-five or older and married. She also viewed the world much differently. To her, every single thing had a psychological reason behind it.
Maddie would probably be the easiest one to tell about this mess. It was also for the best since she was around the babies the most often out of the other family members, including Danny. It wasn't that he didn't want to be around the twins, it was just that he always had to be away from them. And sometimes he would get home and have too much homework to do. It seemed as though Lancer refused to let up on him even when he still thought Danny was the dad. The only upside to that situation was that Danny had more practice on his schoolwork and made much better grades on his tests.
Even Tucker was backed up with work sometimes. He liked to help out with the twins until a dirty diaper came into play. But Sam wasn't very choosy about who helped out so long as it was someone she knew and trusted. She was grateful for any help though. And now she finally understood why mothers would complain about 'not having a nap since the baby was born'. A nap was the world's greatest blessing after you had one kid, let alone two.
The next morning started as usual for Danny. Got up, got dressed, got ready, gathered up his backpack and work, kissed Sam and the twins goodbye, rushed out the door, and flew himself to school.
At school, the same comments and questions kept being thrown at him, the only ones answered were those being thrown by Tucker. People at school constantly asked about the baby and how it was doing, if it was a boy or girl, what its name was. Ever since Sam dropped out, he was forced to bear the burden of everyone's nonstop interrogation. He didn't tell them anything. They didn't deserve the answers to their questions after the way they treated Sam. And he'd even told them that. He'd told them specifically that they had no right to ask him a question and expect an answer after all the torture they'd put Sam through. Apparently most of them didn't get the message.
"They're like mosquitoes, I swear!" he'd once told Tucker.
Occasionally one of the mosquitoes would leave its flock and try to probe Tucker. The geek refused to tell them anything, saying the exact same thing Danny had told them. Nobody wanted to be left out though and kept pestering them. They should've thought about that when Sam was still pregnant.
Thankfully today was Friday. The weekend was coming, which meant freedom from the swarm was near. At least for two days.
Sam finally succeeded in rocking the twins to sleep. Junior sometimes woke up in his mother's arms. When he woke up, Lilith woke up. When they were both up, it was back to square one of the rocking process. But it could be done, even if it took a couple hours. Maddie sometimes laughed at that, remembering how needy Danny was as a baby. Apparently he would not go to sleep unless he was rocked.
And of course...Danny Junior was needy and would only sleep if he was rocked. In Maddie's eyes, it was one of those weird traits passed from father to son. In Sam's eyes, it was a coincidence.
She gently laid them down in their crib and pulled a soft blanket over them. They looked harmless and innocent, but if Sam didn't tell Maddie about their origins now, they would tell her later. And later was closing in really fast. It was only a matter of time until someone commented on Lilith's hair. Sam would have to tell everyone now.
Before she went out the room to break the ice to Maddie, she took a glance a sticky note she'd just noticed; it was taped to the front of a notebook he must've left behind in his hurry this morning. The note had 'SF' written on it. Beside it was a tiny doodle of a heart. SF...? And a heart...? SF could be someone's initials. And a heart would normally symbolize love. It led her to conclusions. She chose to give him the benefit of the doubt and decided that before assuming the wrong thing, she would simply ask him about it when he got home. How he reacted to the note would answer her questions.
Sam walked out the door, taking one more look at that suspicious little note.
To her convenience, Maddie was downstairs, fiddling with some kind of new device. Maybe a ghost radar or something to blast a ghost back into the ghost zone. Whatever it was, she was very focused on it.
"Hi, Mrs. Fenton," Sam said, waving to her as she came downstairs. "Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you about something."
Maddie looked up from her little metal...whatever it was...and turned her attention to Sam. "Of course, what is it?"
"Well...it's about the twins," she answered, sitting down on the couch beside Maddie.
The woman looked at her, concern spreading across her face. She turned slightly to face Sam.
The teen took a deep breath. Her confidence was starting to waver. Suddenly Maddie looked intimidating. She wasn't as easy to talk to as Sam had imagined. But she had to get this over with. She kept telling herself that the pressure would be taken away once Maddie knew. She took another deep breath and looked away. This way, talking could be made a little more bearable.
"The twins aren't..." Her voice faltered. She was on the right track, but the words just wouldn't come out for some reason.
"The twins aren't what?" the woman asked.
They weren't Danny's. "They..." Again, she couldn't force the words out. Talking was a natural, normal, human thing; why the heck was it so hard to say one single sentence?
She gasped. "Sam, what's wrong with them?!"
"No, no! Nothing's wrong with them." Just a little more, she just had to let it ease into the whole blow-my-secret part and everything would be fine after that. "They're fine; they're in their crib sleeping."
"Well then, what about them? Do you need some advice? Because they can't eat peanuts..." Maddie trailed off when she saw Sam run a hand through her hair. She looked stressed out and uncomfortable. From the looks of it, this wasn't about the twins, but about Sam herself.
"Sorry, this is just a little hard to talk about," Sam said. She took several more breaths, not to the hyperventilation state, but enough to help calm her down. She was more nervous than she'd ever been before. "They're not really..." The rest just came out in a sigh. It seemed impossible. Maybe letting Danny do it was a better idea after all. But now Maddie was expecting something about the twins...and it was too late to go back on it now. Sam couldn't walk out on the conversation. She would just have to...
She took a few minutes to gather as much courage as she could and while it lasted, she quickly blurted out, "Danny's not the father!"
A wave of shock came over Maddie. Sam didn't look her in the eye. Couldn't look her in the eye. She could feel every emotion and every point of confusion the woman was emitting. But at least something was finally out of the way. At least layer one of the ice barrier had been broken. And layer one was the hardest. Now it would be easier to explain everything. But first, letting Maddie absorb what she'd just been told was probably for the better.
"Oh no...oh no..." Danny whispered. "Where is it?!"
"Where's what?" Tucker asked as he bit into his sandwich.
The halfa continued to frantically rummage through his backpack. "My notebook!"
Tucker swallowed. "You mean the one that had your sticky note on it?"
"Sam probably found i-"
"Dude! Relax. Sam won't even know what 'SF' means. You're still in a safe zone," he interrupted.
"You're right. Just...promise me you'll help me out if she finds that note. I can't have her knowing who she is."
"'She' might as well be your other girlfriend," Tucker said matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, and something tells me Sam won't like that. She can't know who SF is yet, okay?" the halfa said.
Tucker smiled. "I found out pretty quick."
"Well you go to school with me every day. Plus, you're my best friend. It's alright if you know, but Sam...?" Danny sighed heavily. "She can't know, she could kill me for this!"
Maddie was still so shocked that she couldn't piece her sentences. She could only fumble around, trying her level best to find something to say. But Sam knew what she was trying to say.
"But...Danny has to be... I mean...if he's not... I-I don't understand, I-"
"Mrs. Fenton, calm down. I can explain-"
"Well you should explain!" Maddie shouted, her temper beginning to flare. "Does Danny know he's not the father? Having you been sleeping with my son and other boys?!"
Sam put her hands up in defense. "No, I-"
"How could you do this to us?! Here I am, happy to be a grandmother and helping you out with these children, and now I find out you've been lying this whole time?! Have you just been using us all along?!" the woman continued.
Sam frowned, still refusing to look her in the eye. So this is how they would react... And until Maddie calmed down there was nothing she could say or do that would make this right.
"Who else have you been sleeping with, Sam?!"
Sam only shook her head. This was supposed to be easier but it was now ten times harder. And she didn't know who she'd slept with! She didn't know who the real father was! It was turning into a similar situation with her own parents. First came the yelling, then came the questions, then came the part where she got kicked out. And this time, she would have no place left to go. Except maybe Tucker's place, but the twins wouldn't like moving into a new environment. And honestly, Sam didn't want to move them somewhere else while they were so young. But she couldn't stay on the streets either. If Maddie threw her out, maybe Danny could convince her to let the twins stay. Maddie had explained to her a few days before the twins were born that a mother always wants the best for her children, even if it means sacrificing something precious. Sam would sacrifice anything for her kids.
She found herself unable to answer any of Maddie's questions.
A/N
Whew! My brain went into full-time overload with this. Sorry for the wait, everyone. I'm hoping I didn't make either Maddie or Sam OOC-ish, so if I did, I'm sorry. I needed that kind of personality to fit the situation. And did anyone notice I left TWO cliffies in this chapter? I've never done that before (and if I have, then it was a complete accident).
Originally, Jazz was supposed to overhear Danny and Sam's conversation last night and interrupt it when Sam said, "...I for one think she would care..." and she would've walked in the room and said, "I don't care." and I'd have left it as a cliffie from there, but that idea changed for some reason and I thought up the concept of Jazz overhearing their conversation but waiting to confront Sam about it after Danny went off to school the next day. As you can clearly see, neither idea was used and I don't think I'll throw in a twist where there's another conversation about that exact same thing and Jazz happens to overhear it.
Alright, I guess you want me to get on with it already. But one more thing: I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH! Review quota will be one hundred (100) reviews. I'm pushing my luck with this but I want to see how far I can go. I only asked for...I think it was 81 reviews last time and I ended up getting 91! (THANK YOU!)
Okay, so here are your review replies, in the order in which they were posted:
Inuyuke- Hm. Number four seems to be very popular. :P You must've started a trend here.
puppets4ever- I never really liked her parents either. And it's not wrong to hate fictional people. :D I hate lots of 'em.
Kitty in Boots- Thanks! :) I hope I've gotten back on your good side.
BrittneyluvsChrist- Oh, thank you. :) I'm glad you like it.
Sammi- Thank you. :)
PlasticPencils- It will! D: But I also have three other stories I'm working on. :/ But yeah, you've made it pretty clear that you like this one the best. Well she's got the pressure of telling Maddie face-to-face.
Hazel Blue Mystery- Yeah, I spend alot of time trying to sort out ideas and pick the best one. Only, I got stuck on four ideas and needed you guys' help.
HandmadeVeggies- Well, it might and it might not. Question is, will Sam back out on telling Maddie, will she not tell her at all, or will she let Danny tell her?
Animalistic Ballistic- Don't be worried. :) Now that I've tallied all the votes, I can continue on with the story. Well, I actually counted your votes a little differently. One went to 2 and the other went to 4. So it's like you cast two separate votes.
BeamerProductions- You're the second person to say that about his family. Thanks for voting, patriot. ;P
CrypticNiteMare- You stole my name... -_- lol I know it's a hard decision, that why I asked for help. :P It's hard writing a complicated story like this. It's even harder when you manage to wedge yourself into a rock and a hard place when you reach a point where you can't choose just one idea on your own.
Favorite Daughter Of Hades- I was thinking the same thing but then there were the others that came into mind and I just didn't know what to do at that point.
ChristinCC- Thanks. :)
Skye ofthe Night- Well, the story itself has been up for...I don't even know how long. But the update was pretty recent.
LittleBoomBoom- Remember, I never said WHEN the idea would take place, I only said it would. ;)