o O o
A/N: This chapter is chock full of concepts that I don't own. Too bad for me, I suppose! These include Don Quixote, Nancy Drew, Alice (again!)along with the Cheshire Cat, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I Love Lucy, and The Twilight Zone.
o O o
Another Monday afternoon – another mad dash for the door. This was starting to become a habit. Carly frowned at the space where just moments ago Sam had been sitting, staring at the clock. "Freddie, have you actually SEEN any evidence that Sam is working on her paper? We're down to four days, and I'm really worried. What if she decides to blow it off? She'll fail English, and she needs the credit. Then she won't be able to graduate, and they won't admit her to dental hygienist school, and she'll have no way to support herself and will be forced to live life as a hobo!"
"Yeah yeah yeah, for want of a nail. Your extrapolation is a little extreme. Didn't she tell you that she would get it done?"
"And you think I should BELIEVE her?"
"Carly, you should know by now that Sam is only going to do what Sam is good and ready to do. Do you think you can follow around behind her all her life to make sure she brushes her teeth, ties her shoes, and writes her term papers? It's not my day to watch her, and it's not yours either."
Carly sighed. "I KNOW that Freddie, but she's our friend, and I just don't want her to screw this up. I would go home and get her myself but I promised GIbby that I would help him with his footnotes today. Would you please just TRY to get Sam to come to the library while there's still time for us to help her if she needs it? Please? For me?"
What was it about that 'please, for me' line that always got him? "Fine, I will TRY to get Sam to come to the library, but only so I don't have to listen to you do that hopeless sighing all afternoon" he replied querulously. "If I end up with two broken arms over this, my mother is sending you the E.R. bill."
"Thank you, oh High Browed Heart Throb – bounty hunter extraordinaire; I'm confident of your ability to retrieve the recalcitrant runaway unscathed. " She smiled winningly as she gathered up her books. "We'll see you at the library."
"Don't count on it," he muttered under his breath.
"What was that?"
"Yes, dear."
"That's what I thought you said."
o O o
Sam slipped through the door to find an empty apartment and a note from Spencer: "Socko called - he's got junk. BRB. XOXO!" Smiling, she snapped it up and stashed it in her notebook, right next to the page that had "Spencer and Sam" written on it ad infinitum – well, at least until she ran out of space to write it.
"What are we working on today, I wonder?" She strolled over to the open sketchbook and made a face. He was back to Artemis, adding woodland creatures to the scene. Not at all what she had in mind. "Nope, not feeling it. I think I feel…mermaidish today." She nodded to herself – definitely mermaidish. She headed for the shower. Surely mermaids have wet hair.
o O o
Freddie popped into the Groovy Smoothie with two thoughts in mind. First, Sam might be there, and second, if she wasn't, he might still be able to bribe her with a smoothie when he tracked her down. "Hey T Bo! Has Sam been in today?"
"No man, I was gonna ask you if she's ok. Haven't seen her in a few."
"Really?" Freddie was startled. It wasn't like Sam to miss her afternoon snack. Then again, without the gang's pockets to dip into, maybe she just didn't have the spending money. He shrugged.
"Maybe she's on a fatshake kick; who knows? Anyway, I'll take an extra large Renegade Razz to go."
"One Renegade Razz for the man. I got artichokes on a stick today. You interested?"
"No thanks T-Bo, no time today. On a mission for Carly - tilting at windmills and all that. Have a good one." He hustled out of the shop heading for Bushwell and the next most likely location of the "fugitive" Puckett.
o O o
Entering the apartment, Freddie saw no sign of Sam. Any reasonable person would just CALL the girl to find out where she was, but that presupposed that the girl herself would respond reasonably. If she found out what he wanted and he wasn't standing right in front of her to corral her, there was no chance he'd be able to fulfill his mission. The water was running; he figured he might as well stick around to ask Spencer if he'd seen her before moving on to the next stop on his list.
Looking for something to occupy himself while he waited, he wandered over to examine Spencer's latest project. Raising an eyebrow, he studied the scene. Here was one of the Greek goddesses – the huntress, if he recalled correctly, but for all her classical attire, she looked remarkably like Sam. Freddie turned the page.
He smiled. Instead of her trademark torch, Sam (aka Lady Liberty) held aloft a giant spoon. The spoon was dripping something that strongly resembled chili. The next page was ALSO Sam, (aka Nancy Drew, girl detective) who held a magnifying glass over a plate of bacon and eggs. Another page – another Sam. Here she was caught in the act of blowing bubbles - lips pursed behind the wand, ready to breathe life into another. "I'm starting to sense a theme here…"
An entire gallery of Sams in varying stages of completion…Sam riding a carousel horse, sticking her tongue out at him. Sam as Alice, staring at the grin left behind by the Cheshire Cat. The next one puzzled him a little bit – Sam looking very studious, glasses perched on the end of her nose as she perused the book in her hand. Freddie thought the only book Sam had ever read was the biography of the world's fattest priest, however, her other self was engrossed in Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Interesting.
Next was Sam in a classic Marilyn Monroe pose, skirt billowing in an updraft. Nice legs! (He reminded himself NOT to say that to her.) Why had Spencer drawn all these pictures of Sam? So far there hadn't been a single other subject. He turned the page. Sam, Amazonian warrior. Wow. Turning – ok, this one was vaguely unsettling. He thought Sam was intended to be Medusa, but Spencer's rendering was light years away from how he pictured the Gorgon. The snakes were coiled regally on the top of her head; only one escaped, curled into a perfect ringlet along her cheek. There was something almost sensual in her expression, and Freddie suddenly realized that his understanding of mythology was seriously flawed. The Gorgons hadn't turned men to stone with their fearsome visages. They paralyzed the hapless fellows with sex appeal. Or maybe not so hapless – there were surely worse ways to go.
o O o
Stepping from the shower, Sam imagined Spencer poking his head through the door at any moment yelling "Lucy! I'm home!" 'Where did that come from?' she wondered, smiling to herself. She grabbed his robe from the hook and started down the hall to meet him.
o O o
Freddie turned the page and laughed out loud. This was surely his favorite sketch so far. Sam, in exaggerated voluptuous curves, was portrayed as the sultry Jessica Rabbit, complete with caption "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way…" Roger stared up at her adoringly with soulful bunny eyes.
In the hall, Sam paused and tilted her head. That was most definitely not Spencer. She was quite certain that it was Freddie. Freddie – who was supposed to be at the library with Carly, but was instead here, doing…what? She moved silently into the room and instantly raised the alert from yellow to red.
Fingers poised to turn, Freddie jumped at the sound of her voice, low and dangerous. "DO NOT. TURN THAT PAGE."
Startled by her sudden appearance, he said the first thing that came to mind. "Sam, these drawings are incredible. These past couple are just … genius, I guess." As she stared steadily back at him, Freddie experienced an almost Twilight Zone kind of feeling…
He turned the page.