She recalled walking up to the store with a large, plain brown box in her hands. The weight of what was inside drained her strength with every step. She perservered through her struggles though. She wanted him. She wanted him so bad! If this was what it took to get him, well, she would do it.

"Oh, hey Samantha. Are you looking for more parts for Peppercat?" The store clerk asked with a curious look at the box she held. She placed the box on the counter.

"Actually I'm looking to sell."

"Oh, okay then. Let me take a look at, oh!" Henry's eyes shot open when he opened the box. Samantha kept her eyes on Henry. She could not dare to look back in the box. It would make her weaker. She would cave and take it all back if she glanced at the box. "Look, if money is an issue I can always have you work at the shop to earn a quick buck. I can even let you gently try parts before you buy them."

"The watch and medal is in the box." Samantha did not rise to the topics Henry brought up. He would not understand. No one would understand. "How much will this get me Henry." She stated. She kept her tone as tame as she could to quench the pain she did not want to show. This hurt. This hurt so much. And yet...

"I hate robattling. I hate Medabots. I can't accept your feelings unless I know that you don't do that anymore!"

A large, fat stack of bills was placed in front of her. Much more than she expected knowing how bruised up P... The product was. When she looked at Henry, she noticed that he was looking at her with low eyes. Was he pitying her? She was not one to be pitied!

"I'm not going to ask." Henry said as he closed the box. When he placed the box on the floor behind the counter, she felt a weight starting to go away from her. "Just...if you need someone to talk to. I'm here."

"Have a good day Henry." With cash in hand, Samantha walked out of the store. When the doors closed behind her she took a breath. A deep, painful breath to mask the sheer agony she felt inside. As she exhaled, she felt some of that pain go away. The clouds parted above her, letting a ray of sunlight hit her feet.

Yeah, things were looking up for her. She just knew it.

The room was large. White walls with various picture frames hung around the area. Though most of them were of newspaper clippings, some were of moments of their relationship. From their early beginnings to their engagement, marriage, and honeymoon. The table they stood around was solid oak with various pictures laid out. Unlike the pictures on the walls, these photos were painful to look at.

"Just who are these women Nathan!" Her hands smacked down on the table with enough force to shake the pictures on the walls. Her husband could not look at her in the eyes as he tried to form words. Gosh how pathetic was he? "You kept on saying that you were doing extra rounds of practice for the team. Gotta get in shape for Nationals remember? Oh sorry babe, I gotta cancel on our dinner reservation. Jonsey got hurt real bad and I'm keeping him company at the hospital. No, don't meet me here. I'll be fine. Remember that one? Because I'm sure Jonsey isn't a 34-DD blonde bikini model and that dirty motel isn't the local hospital!"

"They are women who I can get along with better!" Nathan's light brown eyes finally looked at her. The anger on his face did not scare her one bit. "They aren't constantly complaining about what they want from me that isn't something I don't mind giving!"

"Oh, you mean your lack of a sex drive?" Samantha laughed. "Oh I'm so sorry that I ask for you to grab a quick grocery or to take out the garbage after I make your ungrateful butt a nice, homecooked meal. I'm so sorry that, rather than spending all of our money on flashy clothes and expensive jewelry to make me look like your model buddies, I keep myself to bargain stores and on the cheap to save on cash. When was the last time you budgeted the bills? The mortgage? Grocery shopping?"

"Shut up!"

"I will not!"

"I don't need to answer to you! Without me you are nothing Samantha!" She couldn't help herself at this point. She laughed. She laughed so hard that she felt a tear fell from her cheek. When she heard his heavy footsteps coming towards her she grabbed his outstretched hand and glared at him.

"Oh look at you Mr. Bigshot. Can't even be honest with your own wife. Can't own up to your mistakes. So you go to hit me just to make me shut up. Look how adult you are." When his eyes softened, his arm loosened, did she let go of his arm. Nathan had his head down. His face hidden by his shaggy brown hair.

"I don't need you. I don't need this. Any of this!" What started as a whisper ended as a shout. He raised his head and hand up, smacking her down to the ground. As she looked up at him, she saw his pointed hand as she rubbed her left hand on her cheek. "I want a divorce, and you aren't getting a damn thing from me!"

"You say that now, but I am fairly confident that you'll lose more than I will honey." Samantha spat.

In the end, the divorce proceedings only took two months to take place. Nathan stayed out of the house during this period. From what a few of their mutual friends told her, he kept on staying with various women or crashed on their couches. She used this time to box up everything that was hers. Her jewelry, clothes, and photo albums were the most important things to her. As icing on the cake, she found their yearly records of everything she signed off for in terms of bills, ownership of appliances, and of her van.

The face he made when her attorney brought up just how DEEP she was in every nook and cranny financially would never leave her. It was so delightful to see just how little he knew about his own homelife. Every little thing he took for granted would be leaving just about with her. In the end, Nathan was left with a shell of a house, a bed, a TV, and his fancy car that he cherished as much as his trophies.

She, on the other hand, made out with her van, most of the appliances, her personal belongings, and the first two years of property tax owed on the house Nathan inherited from his parents paid. To him, that house was a reminder of his childhood and wanted nothing to do with it. He would have sold it years ago had it not been for her mentioning that having a second option for visiting friends and her family wouldn't be a bad thing.

In the end, the divorce was silent. There was no big media blast from paparazzi. No shady people following her around to get her to leave penniless. No sappy romantics to get her and Nathan back together. Their mutual friends understood why she wanted to leave despite him being the one calling for the divorce. All she wanted was the truth. The truth he desperately did not want to voice. To him, a divorce meant being able to not talk about his mistakes while doing his cheating out in the open. She did not expect for anyone to talk to her from his friends when this was over. Honestly, life for her was better off that way.

When the divorce was finalized, everything now belonging to her in storage trucks to be taken to her new home, and the keys to her house in hand, Samantha took a breath. No words were said when she and her ex-husband parted for the final time. She kept quiet as she drove her van from the courthouse and drove to meet with the movers at her new house. The silence from the early morning was welcoming when her feelings were running rampant in her head.

The property tax was paid for already. That alone was one less thing to worry about. She had already paid for the utilities before the divorce was on the table, which gave her two months to save up money for her new bills. She had cash to buy some groceries to help restock her kitchen, but knew she needed a job right away. She spent too long relying on Nathan's career as a professional soccer athlete to justify her spending habits. Being the trophy wife that was not allowed to work since it would 'make him look bad to his teammates', her time was mostly spent on cooking, cleaning, shopping, and making sure the hired services took care of the yard.

Driving up to the house, Samantha was welcomed by the sight of three large storage trucks opened and being emptied into the house. She noticed some of the neighbors had stepped out of their houses to see the commotion, but thankfully no one came over to talk to her.

"Hey! Don't you dare bump that against the wall! You guys aren't being paid express rates to dick around with your client's belongings!" A loud, familiar voice shouted from inside. The voice brought a small smile to Samantha's face. "Now I'm going to see if the owner just showed up." As Samantha entered the house, she came face to face with a brunette with short, shoulder length hair wearing a long, brown trench coat. The brunette turned towards her with a big grin and threw her arms around Samantha. "Look at the free bird now! Samantha it's been, what, two months since I last saw you!"

"Hi Erika." Samantha returned the hug. It felt weird. Returning a hug, let along being hugged, simply for being a friend. With Nathan being introduced to people was a simple, silent manner. She would mostly stand or sit and speak when spoken to. "Thank you for helping with everything."

"Its no problem Samantha." Erika waved a hand. "I'm sure we wouldn't have spoken again if it hadn't been for one of my clients wanting proof of his girlfriend cheating on him. I would have never thought I'd meet you again like this."

"Yeah."

"Sorry. That was stupid of me. I'm sure you don't want to think about that scum bag." Samantha didn't bother to reply. Instead, she pressed her back against the entryway and sat down. A shadow above her made Samantha look up to see Erika crouched next too her. "Want to go out for lunch after the movers are finished here? I already changed the locks on the doors."

"That might be a good idea. But I need to get started on filling out job applications."

"Oh don't worry about getting a job. I already have that taken cared of."

"Excuse me?" Samantha looked up with a bit of a glare. "What do you mean that you took care of me getting a job?" Erika looked away with a sheepish grin and a scratch of her chin.

"I MAY have pulled some strings and got you a job. But enough about that. Lets walk around the house and make sure the movers are placing the furniture right where you want it."

"I'm not exactly sure that I'm comfortable with how invested you are in my livelihood Erika." Samantha looked at Erika's outstretched hand. The soft, innocent smile on Erika's face made something feel wrong within Samantha.

"What can I say? One of my faults as a PI is getting too emotionally invested in my clients. Especially when that client is a friend I haven't seen since we were kids in elementary school." Not knowing what to say to that, she took the hand and stood up. As she followed Erika to look at each room, the word FRIEND kept on looping in her head.

What kind of friend was she when she left everyone behind?

-Author Note-
Hello readers! This is an idea I've had for a long time now. A scenario based on the episode For Love or Robattle that I've wanted to explore. Rather than the crew being children, everyone has grown up to be in their twenties or so. How has everyone developed without Samantha being around? I wanted this story to have more 'adult' themes, especially since back when I was a kid watching this episode of Medabots I thought 'Wow, this is a mature episode!' I didn't want this introduction to be super heavy with serious content though, so be prepared for shorter chapters.

Until next time readers, stay golden!
Kazikamikaze24