Chapter Fourteen

The Aftermath

It was the day after Thanksgiving, exactly four weeks since the accident, and the day had finally come. Evy was still in a cast, but was able to get around much easier with it. Jason Kensington had written a letter of apology to her, which Sam hadn't given her to read. She was in much better spirits, not having to be confined to her hospital room anymore. She was going home. She was dressed and packed, and Sam was doing a final sweep of the room to make sure she didn't leave anything behind. He laughed when Evy said how nice it was to wear her clothes instead of the hospital gowns she'd been wearing for a month. Sam set up her wheelchair and helped her get into it. He started to push her out into the hallway, where Dean was signing her discharge paperwork, when Evy grabbed his arm.

"Wait. Stop."

Sam knelt down beside her. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"I'm scared." Evy admitted sheepishly.

"Scared of what?" Sam asked. "Baby, we're going home. It's all you've talked about for weeks." "I know. I do want to go home. But…"

"But what?" Sam asked, brushing a piece of hair out of her face.

"I'm scared of getting in the car." Evy said.

"Oh." Sam said.

Dean suddenly appeared in the doorway. "Hey, slowpokes, what's taking so long? I'm ready for some Thanksgiving dinner." Seeing the look on Evy's face, Dean stopped. "What's wrong?"

Sam sighed and looked to Dean for some help; he didn't know how to convince Evy to get in the car. "She's scared to get in the car."
"What are you scared of?" Dean asked.

"Getting hurt again." Evy said.

"Would it help if I sat in the back with you?" Sam asked.
"A little." Evy said. "But I'm still really scared."
"Evy." Cass had appeared in the room, making them all jump a little. "Would you like me in the back with you as well?"
"There you go, baby." Sam coaxed. "You've got me and an angel in the backseat. You can't beat that."

"And I'll let you choose, baby girl." Dean said. "I can go normal speed and get us home in just a few minutes, or I can go really slow so you don't feel scared. It'll take a little longer to get home that way, but we've got all day."

Evy grabbed Sam's hand and gripped it tight. "You won't let me go?"

Sam shook his head. "No. I won't let you go. And if you get scared, Dean's got a blanket in the car. I'll put you in the rabbit hole until you get out of the car."

"You're going to put her in a hole?" Cass asked. Sam ignored him.

Evy turned to Cass. "Cass? You'll hold my other hand?"

"Of course."

"There you go, baby girl." Dean said. "You ready?"

"I guess."

Evy held Sam's hand tight the entire way to the car. She was crying and shaking when Sam placed her in the backseat, but didn't fight him. Cass sat on the other side of her, holding her hand as he'd promised. Sam sang quietly to her, over and over. Dean drove slowly, going no faster than seven miles an hour. It was almost an hour later when they pulled up to the house, even though it was only a few miles away. When Dean stopped the car, Evy was smiling.

"We made it." she said.

"Told you I'd get you here." Dean said. He turned around and faced Evy. "How you doing kiddo? You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm okay." Evy said. "Can we go inside now please?"

"You bet." Sam said. "Let's go."

Sam wheeled her inside and helped her get settled in the living room. The house smelled of food-Jody, Linda, and Laura were in the kitchen finishing up dinner. They each took turns fawning over Evy, who at first hated all the attention then finally took advantage of it. Sam was happy to see her appetite had returned, that it wasn't inhibited anymore by the pain medicine she'd had to take at the hospital. Later that night, after dinner had been eaten and all the dishes cleaned, everyone moved into the living room to watch a movie. By the time the movie was over, Lily was fast asleep and Evy was in Sam's lap heading in the same direction.

"Time for bed baby." Sam said.

"Okay." Evy replied with a yawn.

Sam leaned closer to Evy and whispered in her ear. "Do you want to go in your wheelchair, use your crutches, or let me carry you?"

Evy slinked her arms around his neck and whispered back, "Can I say goodnight to everyone first?"
"You bet." Sam replied. He picked her up and turned around to face everyone.

"Thank you, everyone." Evy said, sheepishly laying her head on Sam's shoulder.

"For what, sweetheart?" Jody asked.

"Moving Thanksgiving for me." Evy said.

"Oh, honey." Linda said, getting up from the couch and walking over to Evy. "You know we all love you, right?"

"I love you too." Evy said.

"I'm gonna take Lily home. We'll be back tomorrow, okay?" Evy nodded. "Good night, sweetie. I'll tell Lily you said good night."

Evy got her goodnight hugs and kisses from everyone else, even Cass. Sam carried her to her bed. Evy savored the feeling of her own mattress, her blanket, her teddy bear. Evy grabbed Beanie and hugged him as Sam sat down on the edge of her bed. He savored the feeling too; it had been nearly a month since he'd put Evy to bed in her own room.

"Feel good to be home, baby?"

"Yeah." Evy said with a big smile. "Yeah, I missed my room."
"We missed you in your room." Sam said. He felt bad bringing this up at bedtime, but she had to know. "You know that it'll still be a while before you can go back to school, right?"

"I know." Evy said sadly.

"It'll be a while, but it will happen, baby. Okay? I promise. You will go back to school." Sam said.

"I know." Evy said. "I just miss it. I miss my friends."

Sam felt a sudden, powerful, overwhelming surge of emotion towards Evy. Life isn't fair was taking on a whole new meaning. She was eight years old. All she wanted was to be able to go to school, see her friends, play; all things she should be able to take for granted. It had gotten taken away from her the first time because of John's hunting. It had gotten taken away from her this time because of a stupid jerk getting behind the wheel and driving when he shouldn't have. Sam vowed that this time, as soon as she was completely healed, she'd be back to the life she deserved.

"I'm sorry, baby." Sam said, rubbing her back. "I'm sorry. It's so unfair what's happened to you."

"How am I gonna catch up?" Evy asked. "I haven't done any school stuff at all."

"Your aunt Linda's kept all your schoolwork in a folder for me." Sam explained. "We're gonna work on that next week. Once you're caught up, aunt Linda's gonna keep bringing me your work and giving it Lily to turn in for you."

"Okay." Evy said.
"But we're gonna wait a couple days to start. You need a break. You want to come to work with me tomorrow?" Sam asked.

"Yeah." Evy said.

"Okay. Dean and I are both off on Sunday. Think about what you want to do. Movie, make something, read, whatever you want." Sam said.

"Can Lily come over for the day?" Evy asked. "I know we can't have a sleepover because it's a school night, but I haven't played with her since I was in the hospital."
"I'll talk to aunt Linda, but I don't think it'll be a problem." Sam said. "You want me to read you a story?"

"Yes, please."

At first, Sam didn't have a hard time keeping Evy's mind off not going to school. She had a month of school to catch up on, and Sam made her pace herself. He only allowed her to work for four hours a day, two on days that she had to go to the hospital for checkups or to continue her physical therapy. Even with the restrictions Sam placed on the amount of time she could work on her homework, she was completely caught up in two weeks. Her cast came off a week after that. Sam was surprised that she only asked about going back to school a few times. Every time he said no, he waited for her to start crying, or yell and scream about how unfair it was, but she just frowned and nodded her head. Sam felt terrible about it, but she just wasn't ready.

Evy finally got a point where she couldn't stand it anymore. It was a little more than a week before Christmas, and Sam was doing everything he could to make it an amazing one for her. He was at the kitchen sink, washing dishes that he'd let build up over the course of two days. Evy was at the table, working on her schoolwork from the day before. Sam was distracted, trying to come up with some more things for them to do for Christmas. Suddenly, he heard Evy throw down her pencil and shove her work off the table. When Sam turned around, she had buried her head in her hands and was crying. Alarmed, Sam turned off the water, threw the dishrag in the sink, and grabbed the chair next to her.

"Baby, what is it?" Sam asked.

When Evy didn't answer him, he looked around for clues. It didn't take long. On the table in front of them, off to one side, was Evy's finished schoolwork for the day. In front of her was an envelope. It was full of "get well" and "come back soon, we miss you" type of cards from her class. Sam had told her she could look at them after she finished her work, but he realized now he should have told her to wait for him to open them.

"Talk to me. What's wrong?" Sam said. When Evy lifted her head, she was breathing hard. "Breathe, baby. Breathe." Once she had calmed, he tried again. "Talk to me."

"I want to go back to school." she said, words clogged by tears and hitching breaths.

"I know you do, baby." Sam said patiently. "You can't go back yet. Getting around school's gonna be too hard right now. I'm sorry."

"You let me play outside with Lily." Evy pointed out.

"That's different, baby." Sam said. "Aunt Linda and I can watch you here. If you fall or get hurt…"

"Mrs. Jackson can watch me at school." Evy protested.

Sam, feeling guilty, finally snapped and said something that he'd hoped to never say to her. "Evelyn, the answer's no! Stop asking."

Before the words were even out of his mouth, Sam regretted them. He knew how much he sounded like their father, and it killed him. Evy completely crumbled. She started crying again, turning away from him. Sam took a deep breath and walked around to crouch down in front of her. He wiped her face and was relieved when she didn't back away.

"Baby, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I snapped at you." Sam said. "I just…"
"I'm tired of thinking about it." Evy said.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Being at home all the time." Evy said. "It makes me think about the accident and why I can't be with my friends." Evy sniffed hard and Sam pulled a tissue out of the box on the table. Evy blew her nose and said, "You said the man that hit us couldn't hurt anyone else. But he's still hurting me."

Sam felt his heart break as Evy spilled hers to him. The truth was that she had been cleared to go back to school two days after the cast had been taken off. Sam had told himself he kept her home so he could be sure she was completely healed, but he'd done it mostly out of selfishness. Having to hold her and convince her that everything would be okay in the back of that car and the ambulance had shaken Sam to his core, and he'd found it impossible to let her out of his eyeline after that. So he had conveniently forgotten to let her school know that she could come back. Only Linda and Dean knew the truth. Sam took a deep breath and decided to be completely honest with Evy.

"Listen, baby. I owe you an apology."

"For what?" Evy asked.

"The doctor said you could go back to school after you had your cast taken off." Sam admitted. "I kept you at home because I didn't think you were ready."

Sam had been holding Evy's hands, but she immediately pulled her hands out of his. "That was over a week ago!" She said. "I could've been back the whole time!?"

"Yes." Sam said. "I'm sorry, baby."

"You lied to me." Evy said.

Sam hadn't seen Evy this hurt with him since she'd confronted him for abandoning her at Bobby's nearly two decades earlier. That had nearly destroyed their relationship. Sam shook his head at the unpleasant memory.

"I did, baby. I'm sorry. But I'll make it up to you." Sam said.

"How?"

"School gets out for Christmas in two days. On Friday." Sam said. "You can go back after Christmas."

"Really?" Evy said. "You promise?"

"I swear. I'll drop you off myself and pick you up." Sam said.

Evy nodded.

"And your class is having a Christmas party Friday. You can go if you want." Sam said.

That got a smile from Evy. "Really? You mean it?"

"I mean it." Sam said. "You want me to go with you or drop you off and pick you up later?"

Evy thought before answering. "If you promise I can go back to school after Christmas, you can come to the party."

Sam laughed. "Deal. Does that mean you forgive me?"

"I forgive you, daddy." Evy said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I love you so much, baby." Sam said, putting everything he had behind it as he said it.

"Love you too, daddy."

The party proved to be exactly what Evy needed. Her teacher turned it into a combination Christmas and welcome back party for Evy. When Sam walked in with Evy, her class clapped for her. Lily couldn't stop saying how great it was going to be to have Evy back, and Sam saw Evy smile more in two hours than she had in the previous two months. After they'd gotten to the car, a replacement given to Sam at a deep discount by Scott, Evy grabbed Sam's waist and squeezed it. Sam, taken by surprise, put Evy's present she'd gotten at the party in the front seat and returned the hug.

"What's this for?" Sam asked.

Evy looked up, her chin resting against Sam's stomach. "You're the best daddy in the whole world."

Sam swallowed back tears of joy. "And you're the best Cricket in the whole world."

Evy grinned.

"Why don't we go see uncle Dean?" Sam suggested. "Tell him how the Christmas party was."

"Okay!" Evy said, climbing into the backseat.

"What do you want for dinner?" Sam asked.

"Ice cream."
Sam rolled his eyes, started the car, and headed to the garage. The conversation about dinner finally landed on tacos, with the agreement of ice cream for dessert. Dean and Evy argued over what kind of ice cream to have. Evy won, and Sam felt as he tucked her into bed that night that life was getting back to normal.

"Good night, Cricket. Daddy loves you."

Next Chapter: Evy and Sam's life takes another bad turn.