Updating a little faster than usual, I hope. Blame my immune system; I'm home sick for the second Monday in a row.

Thanks for all the reviews, people :)

Here's Chapter 21!

Sam woke up very groggily, the faces of Carly, Freddie and Gibby looking at her with concern. Just as she was about to tell them to back up off her chiz, the events leading her to laying on Freddie's lap in Spencer's car came back to her like a wrecking ball.

The webshow.

The cops.

Her mom, in an accident.

"Why aren't we at the hospital? For all I know, my mom could be dead and I'm not with her!" Sam screamed, shoving herself into a sitting position on Freddie's lap.

Freddie pulled Sam into a comforting hug and rested her head on his shoulder. "Sammie, I know this is terrible on you, but we're literally doing everything we can. You've only been out for five minutes at the most. Seattle Memorial is fifteen minutes away from Bushwell on a good day, but there was some sort of freak accident on the roads so traffic is bumper-to-bumper. We will get you there." From her position on Freddie's lap with her head resting against his neck, Sam felt the soothing sensation of Gibby's hands rubbing her back in the most non-creepy way possible.

What would normally be a fifteen minute trip turned into a forty-five minute stop-and-go ride to Seattle Memorial Hospital. As soon as Spencer had put the car in a parking place close the the emergency room doors Sam was out of the car, not even bothering to wait for Spencer to turn it off. Freddie, Carly and Gibby followed. None of them trusted Sam to keep her head when the status of her mother's life was unknown.

Gibby and Freddie may have been stronger, and Freddie may have been Sam's boyfriend, but Carly was faster and she had known Sam nearly all of her life. She even remembered back when they had first become friends.

After the infamous sandwich incident, Carly had had a few playdates at Sam's house. It was back before Sam's dad had bailed on Sam, Melanie and Pam. Back then, things were more normal. The house was still crazy and eccentric, with playful violence being encouraged, but it was plain to see that the Pucketts loved and cared for one another. Pam had even become somewhat of a mother figure to Carly. But then Sam's dad left, and Pam just sort of stopped caring. It was actually insanely sad to watch. As weird as the Puckett family was, Pam and Sam's dad obviously loved each other and to see Pam lose herself after he left was unsettling. It was also the reason why Carly almost crashed into Sam at the ER registration desk at the hospital. The power of romantic love or basic friendship had nothing on the power of knowing that someone you had been best friends with your whole life was suffering, and someone that they cared about was in trouble.

Carly saw Sam attempt to talk to the nurse at the registration desk, but no words would come out of the blonde's mouth.

"We're here to see a Mrs. Puckett, please. This is her daughter, Sam." The nurse acknowledged the group and its' members (Freddie, Gibby and Spencer had finally caught up with them) and typed something into the database on her computer. After a minute of typing and cross-referencing, the nurse looked up at the eclectic group with a kind smile on her face. "Room 315, Mannheim wing. Only two visitors at a time, though."

Carly turned to Freddie, confused. "The Mannheim wing?"

Freddie visibly paled. "It's the ICU." He stepped closer to the desk, politely nudging Carly aside so he could talk to the nurse. "Hello, my name is Freddie Benson, I'm Marissa Benson's son? I know she's on duty now, is there any way we could talk to her for just a moment?"

The kind nurse nodded, and called another nurse with light blue scrubs over. "Katelyn, if you could go get Marissa for me, that would be wonderful."

Spencer lead the motley crew over to the chairs in the waiting area, where they waited for Freddie's mom to see them. It was less than a minute later when the nurse named Katelyn emerged with Mrs. Benson. At the sight of her blue scrubs and sensible brown bob, everyone jumped up.

"Mom, what's the status on Pam Puckett? All we know is that she's been in an accident. The police didn't even tell us what kind of accident it was..." Freddie's voice trailed off, hoping his mother would have some knowledge to assuage Sam's fears.

Marissa Benson sighed and looked at the young blonde currently holding the hands of both Carly and her beloved son. She really was the spitting image of her mother. As much as she wanted to despise the young Puckett girl, she just couldn't. Marissa could tell that Samantha loved her son, as she should. You would have to be a fool to not love her wonderful son. And someone who loved her Freddie should not have to endure what this girl was going to have to deal with. "I'm afraid it doesn't look good. Apparently Mrs. Puckett was drinking and driving, and she drove into a telephone pole. Something was wrong with the airbags and they didn't deploy. She has a fractured skull, a deflated lung and she's bleeding into her brain, not to mention apparent alcohol poisoning. I'm so sorry, Samantha, but we don't think she's going to make it."

Freddie, Carly, Gibby and Spencer were floored. They had no idea that the situation was this bad. Sam, on the other hand, was fearful to the point of desperation. "Can I see her? Now?"

Marissa nodded her head towards the set of double doors that she had come through. "This way. Just this once, all of you can come with me. But only because this is an emergency situation, and I don't think Samantha can handle it without all of your support."

Sam didn't even protest when Mrs. Benson called her Samantha, she just grasped Freddie and Carly's hands tighter and followed Freddie's mom through the hospital.

There was nothing in the woman lying on the hospital bed that would indicate that she was Pam Puckett. The short blonde hair was matted with blood. Her eyes-Sam's eyes-were closed. Pam's skin was bruised in most places, and where it wasn't bruised, it was almost terrifyingly pale. There were various tubes and needles poking everywhere. The respirator was beeping erratically, only emphasizing what Mrs. Benson had said about Pam's fragile state.

Sam raced to Pam's bedside and began stroking the top of her mother's head, oblivious of the blood that was staining her fingertips. "Mom? Mom, I love you, okay? Please don't leave me." Sam pressed her lips lightly to Pam's forehead.

The second Sam's lips touched Pam, the respirator machine went wild. The group was shoved out of the way by a team of nurses and doctors. Marissa gestured at Freddie to get Sam and the rest of them out of the room, and he obliged. From their new position in the hallway outside of Pam's hospital room, Sam and the others could see the doctors and nurses working frantically over Pam with a defibrillator. After five minutes, they all backed off.

One of the nurses looked over to the clock on the wall and even through the general ruckus of the hospital, Sam and the others heard every word she said clearly.

"Time of death, 6:45 p.m."

Sam slumped against Freddie in the hall, unable to gather the strength required to make an effort.

Her mother was gone, just like that. Pam may not have been much of a mother at times, but she was the only one that Sam had. And now she was gone.

"Samantha?" Sam lifted her head up to see Richard Weinstein, her and her mother's attorney, approaching her. "Samantha, I'm so sorry about Pam. I just got the message. How is she doing."

"She's gone, Rick. She's gone."

Rick looked flabbergasted. Sam was sure that through all of her mother's shenanigans and boyfriends, she never realized the pure gem that was Rick Weinstein. Rick was one of those men that didn't realize a woman liked him unless they said it outright, so Sam was thankful that her mother never developed feelings for Rick. She would have torn his heart to pieces, and Rick was one of the men in her life that she held no animosity against. The others were Spencer, Freddie and Principal Franklin.

"Well, Sam, that makes things both easier and more difficult. Pam had a will and life insurance, so that part is covered. Where is it..." Rick rummaged around in his briefcase momentarily until he emerged holding a manila folder. "Here it is. If you would do me a huge favor, all of you, and follow me? I had to work through lunch and this place actually makes a pretty decent cream of broccoli soup."

When they got down to the cafeteria, Rick grabbed a turkey sandwich and a bowl of his aforementioned cream of broccoli soup and led them to a large table near a window. "Samantha, the contents of your mothers' will and her life insurance policy are in this folder. Pam's will clearly states that you and Melanie get the house and whatever other assets she has to her name. Unfortunately, due to her amounts of debt, the bank will repossess the house. They have every right to, we have no chance of protesting that. You and Melanie are, however, the new owner's of your mother's car and the contents of her bank account will be split between the two of you. Pam's life insurance will cash in at roughly $50,000, so her funeral or whatever you decide will be covered financially with the remainder of the funds being split between you and Melanie's respective bank accounts. Then there is the matter of your placement."

Sam raised her eyebrows at this.

"Sam, you are still underage. In her will, Pam has stated that, should he be willing, Spencer Shay would assume custody of you and Melanie. Melanie will not be a burden, as she spends the majority of her time between boarding school and your grandmother's house. She will more likely than not choose to reside with your grandmother instead and just not intrude on Spencer. She doesn't have quite the same relationship with him that you do."

Sam looked over at Spencer's unsurprised face. "You knew about this." It was more statement than fact. Sam didn't have the life in her to act shocked anymore.

"Yeah. Your mom came to me a year or so back and asked me." Spencer said, reaching over to put his arm around Sam's shoulder. "You're always at our place anyway, have been for years. You've basically been a Shay for years."

Sam glanced over at her friends, the members of her extended family. There was nothing in her that was okay at that moment, but looking at the faces of her friends and family (and Rick), she knew she would be alright in the end.

000

"Hey, Sam."

It had been three weeks since the death of Pam Puckett, and Sam was coping in her own way. Freddie, Spencer, Carly, Gibby, and Mrs. Benson all would have readily admitted that they thought that Sam's method of coping would involve extreme violence and eating like there was no tomorrow.

Instead, Sam had surprised them. Most days, she stayed in the bed that Spencer had put in Carly's room for her. Carly and Spencer had offered to turn one of the apartments' extra rooms into a bedroom for her, but she opted for just helping rearrange Carly's bedroom furniture and staying in there with Carly. Sam just didn't want to be alone. She really only got out of bed to shower or go downstairs for food.

Freddie and Carly were always there, being the ever-vigilant supportive boyfriend and best friend. For those first few days, Sam wouldn't even move from her self-induced fetal position between her sheets. But they persisted, bringing over Sam's favorite movies and fat cakes and bacon and staying with her, watching terribly cheesy movies from the eighties that they really should have hated but couldn't help loving. Sam cracked her first smile in over a week the day that Freddie brought her a fat shake and his copy of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Carly didn't quite understand the look the couple shared when the Transylvanians started doing the Time Warp, but she figured that it was one of those couple inside jokes and she was better off not knowing.

On day thirteen, Sam brought down her comforter and the T-Rex Squishable that Carly had gotten her as a Christmas present the past winter and set up camp on the sofa. Spencer and Freddie, who had been sitting on the couch watching Celebrities Underwater, looked up as they heard Sam's sock feet softly descending the stairs and saw her in all of her glory; messy blonde curls swept up into a bun on the top of her head, wearing one of Freddie's old penny tees and a pair of Ridgeway sweats, purple comforter wrapped around her shoulders and the T-Rex (lovingly named Godzilla) cradled in her arms.

Freddie knew it might get his thumbs ripped off if he said it aloud in Sam's condition, but he couldn't help but think that Vulnerable Sam was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Instead of saying something he'd regret later, Freddie shifted on the couch so there was enough space between him and Spencer for the grieving blonde. Sam crossed the room and burrowed herself in her blanket between her two favorite men in the world. Freddie grabbed Sam's hand, intertwining their fingers while Spencer reached out and wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders. When Carly returned with four smoothies (an extra-large Strawberry Splat for Sam) she joined them, sitting criss-cross applesauce and leaning against Sam's legs.

"Thanks, guys." Sam didn't specify what her thank you was for. To an outsider, she merely could have been thanking them for her smoothie. But they all knew. It was Sam giving her thanks for being there for her and not letting her be alone in her mourning time, without getiing all mushy and emotional like they knew she hated.

To SeDdIeLuVeR13, Arocksprpl2, Geekquality, AllyJackson, hpfreak1213, LyshaLuvsSeddie, reader, Mish, DannySamLover20, Maddiee: Thank you so much, all of you! I hope this satisfies your cliffy rage :)

Please review? For me and my sickly self?