Alright, I know the last chapter was a little bit boring. Kind of a let down since it's been pretty dramatic lately. I'm feeling a little bit nice, so I'm going to go ahead and post the new chapter. A couple things will be revealed in this chapter so I hope you all enjoy it...
Thanks to ALL my faithful reviewers. I freakin' love you guys!
Please review!
Shockingly enough, Sam and Mikaela arrived in California on time. It seemed like any time either of them flew anywhere anymore, the flights were almost always delayed. After they landed, Mikaela jokingly asked her boyfriend if he had put his so called lucky boxers on; a question to which he swatted at her in jest. In retaliation, she crossed her arms and stalked off the plane pretending to be mad. Sam, gullible man that he was, thought she was actually upset at him and had followed her apologizing profusely. She kept up the act until just before they arrived at the baggage claim and turned to look at him so he could see the amused smile on her face. Their arms linked at the elbows, they walked into the baggage claim area and quickly found his parents.
Mikaela wanted to laugh hysterically at the way Judy almost knocked her son down in her haste to hug him. Ron embraced his son in a tight hug as well before both parents took their turns saying hello to Mikaela in just as warm a fashion. The family spent a few moments catching up while she stood slightly behind Sam to give them their space. The sounds of "Hey Good Lookin'" flowed up from the purse on her shoulder so she moved away to answer the phone. With that ringtone, there was only one possible person it could be.
"Hey Will!" She greeted happily. Will Lennox was the older brother she never had but unfortunately they hadn't seen each other in a couple of months since he was on base in New Jersey and she had been at school.
"How are you doing Sugar Bear?" Mikaela had grown to love that infernal nickname he insisted on calling her, and Will was the only one that used it.
"Sam and I just landed in Cali. How's the family?"
"Sarah misses you. Annabelle is getting bigger every day."
"Tell Sarah I miss her too, and give the little one a kiss for me."
"You know I will, Sugar Bear. Sam still treating you right?"
"I keep him in line," Will laughed at her answer. "Everything okay in Jersey?"
"Can't I just call to hear your beautiful voice?" He teased.
"I'm gonna call bullshit on that one. It's a good thing I know you're happily married because that would be creepy if you weren't. You're old Lennox!"
"Ouch, that hurts," Will complained. "You wound me so with your words, Mikaela."
"You're a freak. What do you want?"
"Holy cow, you've gotten rude since the last time we talked!"
"Shut up, Will. You know I love talking to you."
"I do know that, Sugar Bear. Anyway, I did have a reason for calling."
"That's what I thought," Mikaela could just imagine the older man rolling his eyes at her haughty tone.
"We're going to have a big New Year's bash on the base this year. Everybody is supposed to be here."
"Obviously everybody will be there, you guys live on base dumbass," She retorted sarcastically.
"Hush, woman. Maggie and Glen will be here. Secretary Keller, as well."
" I'm sure we'll be able to make it. Let me check with Sam, but I can be pretty persuasive when I need to be," She trailed off suggestively.
"God, Mikaela, I don't need to know that!" Will said disgustedly. "That's just plain wrong. You're like my little sister!"
"You're the one with the twisted mind!" Mikaela laughed and saw Sam and his parents waiting patiently for her. "I hate to cut this short, but they're all ready to leave the airport and I'm sure Sam is starving. A tiny bag of peanuts for like a six, seven hour flight? The dork probably thinks he's about to die of starvation or something."
"Yeah, you better go take care of the big baby. He's worse than Annabelle I swear," Will agreed.
"I'll call you in the next couple of days, but go ahead and count on us being there alright? Unless something big comes up, we wouldn't miss the party for the world."
"Sure thing. Tell Sam and his parents hello for me, would you?"
"As long as you tell everyone we said hi and we'll see them soon."
"Alright, Sugar Bear, you take care."
"Of course. Talk to you soon," Mikaela disconnected the call and shoved the phone back in her purse as she made her way back to her boyfriend and his parents.
"You know, if I didn't know the only reason you have that ringtone for him is because you both got drunk and sang that song karaoke, I might be a little jealous," Sam teased her when she resumed standing at his side.
Sam threw their bag over his shoulder and the four discussed dinner plans while they walked out to his father's new Range Rover. Ron and Judy had planned on going out to eat, but Sam and Mikaela both agreed they would rather just pick up pizza and chill out at the house. Traffic was horrible so they were all glad to be going home and not out to a restaurant. At the snail's pace the cars around them were moving, it would be an hour or more before they really got anywhere and that's not counting the time it would take them to get off the highway and to the restaurant. The traffic was definitely a downside to living in Los Angeles.
It was just past 7:30 when they pulled into the driveway at Sam's parent's house. Mikaela had fallen asleep on Sam's shoulder sometime while they were still stuck in traffic on the freeway and didn't even so much as bat an eye when the car stopped. Normally she was a light sleeper, and Sam couldn't help but chuckle softly at the fact that she was completely passed out. He carried her into the house and set her gently in the new oversized chair his parents had bought since Thanksgiving. In the kitchen, he put a couple slices of pizza on a plate for both of them. If the smell of the pizza didn't wake her up, it wasn't like it would go to waste. Sam was an admitted pig, and would readily scarf down her slices as well as his.
As expected, the mouth watering smell of the gourmet pizza did in fact wake Mikaela from her slumber. She teased Sam all the time about how much he ate but when it came down to it she could easily put away just as much food as he could, if not more. Personally, he loved that she was comfortable enough with herself to pig out. It's not like she had a weight problem anyway, the woman was flat out gorgeous. She had gained a few pounds here and there in the time they had dated, but a week later it would all be lost again. Her diet never changed, it was just something that happened from time to time. He would always compliment her more on the way she looked when she gained the weight because he knew she hated that it all came out of nowhere.
Of course, Judy wanted to know all about what her little boy had been up to in the month since she had seen him last. Sam gave her an edited version, leaving out the Trent incident and what Justin had done at the party a few weeks before. Neither was something he particularly wanted his parents to know, nor was it really any of their business anyway. The gratitude at keeping mum on those two taboo subjects rolled off Mikaela in waves. He squeezed her leg in response, and she curled her body tighter into his side.
"How about you, Mikaela? Still working at that repair shop?" Judy turned her attention to her son's girlfriend.
"Oh, no I quit working there about a month or so ago. I've been working with Christian, my roommate, at a bookstore ever since."
"What? Why? You love working on cars!" Judy asked in shock.
"I loved my job, I was just tired of all the pick-up lines and sexual innuendos from customers. At first I could blow it off because it didn't happen, but then it got to where it was all the time. Besides, I knew it bothered Sam so it just wasn't worth dealing with anymore."
"That's horrible darling. Men are such pigs!" The elder woman said disgustedly.
"Hey!" Sam and Ron protested.
"Hush, Ron, you know you would flirt with a gorgeous female mechanic. You wouldn't mean anything by it, but it would probably bother her if she heard it all the time," Judy scolded her husband.
"And you, Sam, don't even try to deny it," Mikaela elbowed him in the ribs. "I seem to remember a certain old Camaro breaking down on an old dirt road and a certain boy saying he preferred females to work on his car."
"If she's wearing a short skirt and a tiny tank top, she can work on my car anytime," Sam said wistfully and received another jab to his already sore ribs.
"Unfortunately for you, your car is a robot and never breaks down," She retorted.
"Number one, Bee wouldn't let anybody but you fix anything," He gave her an innocently sweet smile. "And number two, you are the only woman I would let work on my car."
"Alright you two, the sexual double meanings is completely inappropriate when there are parents in the room," Judy teased the young couple and laughed at their identical blushes.
"Mo-om!" Sam whined.
"Don't forget how your bed squeaks every time you move," Ron quipped much to his son's dismay.
"Da-ad!" He said in the same whiny voice.
"Sam, I love you, but I'm sleeping on the couch tonight," Mikaela mumbled embarrassedly.
"I really don't know why you guys are so embarrassed. Sex is a natural part of life. Everybody does it," Judy was enjoying torturing her son with all the talk about sex.
"Mom, I know that, but it's just creepy to talk about my sex life with you guys."
"Sam, you're just egging them on," Mikaela said, her voice muffled against the shoulder she was currently hiding her face in. "If you don't shut up, you're not going to have a sex life anymore."
"Oh, that's just harsh 'Kaela," He responded but did as she said and shut up.
The blushes that still dominated their faces had Judy and Ron laughing for several minutes after they had stopped talking. Ron tuned the TV to ESPN and the two men were soon concentrating on getting their daily sports fix. Judy gathered up all of their plates and napkins before going into the kitchen to clean up their mess and put the leftover pizza into the refrigerator.
Mikaela stretched her legs out onto the ottoman and laid her head against the back of the chair. The rise and fall of her chest slowed as her body relaxed into the soft fabric that covered the oversized chair. It was highly likely that she would be asleep relatively quickly because the long flight had worn her out and her belly was stuffed with the pizza from earlier.
Sam saw her get comfortable out of the corner of his eye and knew she would soon be passed out despite the early hour. He took his eyes off the sports channel long enough to gather her up in his arms and pull her onto his lap. Her legs bent at the knees so her feet rested on the seat her body had just vacated rather than hang them over the arm of the chair. An arm slithered around her waist protectively. His other hand tenderly rubbed her back. Mikaela lifted her head to capture his lips with hers.
"Good night beautiful," Sam softly said while she snuggled herself deeper into his torso. He turned his attention back to the TV and saw that his dad had changed it to the ESPN Classic channel. It was an old college football game; who the teams were he couldn't really even tell. That didn't much matter though, football was football. Old games were sometimes more fun to watch because the hits had a tendency to be more vicious than in live or recent games. There were more rules these days that aimed towards protecting the players, and it really took away some of the excitement of the game.
The score was finally showed and he finally figured out it was an old Army versus Navy game. Ron went to bed at halftime, but Sam stayed up to watch the second half. Whether or not he would actually be able to stay awake for the rest of the game he didn't know, but he was going to try at least. It was obviously a good game if they were replaying it on the Classic channel. There was nothing better than an intense back and forth football game even if he wasn't a big fan of either team and didn't care who won.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Sam felt Mikaela tense up in his arms. The nightmares were back, he knew. She hadn't had one in the last two days, and he'd hoped that was the last of them. Instinctively his arm tightened around her waist but not so much that it would scare her. Her hands found his arm and she squeezed her fingers around it, but didn't push him away. By the tight grip she had on his arm, Sam knew this had the potential to be really bad. If she woke up, she would likely freak out because she wouldn't remember right away that they were at his parents. All Mikaela would know was that they weren't in his room at the house in Philadelphia and he didn't want her to wake up frightened. He resumed rubbing her back and rested his cheek against the top of her head. Reassuring words began to fall from his lips in a comforting tone as he tried to calm her down.
After what seemed like forever but was really only a few minutes, Mikaela subconsciously began to recognize his voice and the muscles in her body slowly started to relax. The grip on his arm was the last to loosen and he felt her start to stir. Sam had hoped the nightmare wouldn't cause her to wake up. Unfortunately, his wish was not to be granted. In the dim light from the TV, he could see the single tear that had fallen when she lifted her head. The arm that had been wrapped around her waist moved as he placed his hand on the side of her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. Pushing the ottoman out of the way, he moved her arms so they were curled around his neck and carefully picked her up. Rather than trudge up the stairs to his bedroom, he instead laid her down on the couch and then laid himself down next to her on the edge. Without a word between them, he wrapped his arm around her waist and held her until she fell back to sleep.
*************
A couple days before Christmas, Judy handed Sam the keys to her Expedition and sent him and Mikaela to the grocery store to buy food for their Christmas dinner. They had spent the first week of their break being lazy and doing absolutely nothing. For the most part, all they did was hang out at the house watching movies in their pajamas all day long. Sam had gone to see his friend Miles a few times, and Mikaela had seen a few of her girlfriends from high school once or twice but never for very long because she didn't particularly want to run into any of the guys she had known. Truthfully she didn't care much to see any of the people she had run around with because they no longer had anything in common.
Sam was searching for his girlfriend in the store. He had left her with the basket to run and grab a few things they had forgotten while she continued on in the opposite direction to finish getting everything off of the list. They were being extra careful to make sure no item on the list was missed because neither wanted to have to come back to the store tomorrow or the next day. It was busy enough that day and would only get worse.
Mikaela was standing in the canned foods aisle talking to another guy. It took Sam a few seconds before he realized it was Trent DeMarco. He was a little surprised to see them talking, but he could see her discomfort when Trent reached out to touch her and she backed away. Her back was to him but he could see the confident smirk on Trent's face. As he got closer to them, he could hear part of their conversation.
"Trent, I'm dating Sam," Sam couldn't see her face but he could tell by the tone of her voice she wanted to be anywhere but talking to her ex boyfriend.
"Witwicky doesn't have to know," Trent pushed. "Like it never happened before."
"And it was a complete mistake. It never should have happened. I was drunk!"
"Honey, you wanted it just as much as I did," The other man noticed Sam and an evil glint appeared in his eye. Before Sam or Mikaela knew what was going on, Trent grabbed hold of Mikaela and kissed her. It was all Sam could do not to jump him when his tongue pushed passed her lips. She tried to push him away, but the way he was holding her didn't give her any leverage. The smirk was still on his face when he let her go. "Oh, hey Witwicky. Didn't see you standing there."
Mikaela immediately spun around and worriedly looked at Sam and mistakenly took the angry look on his face to mean he thought she had initiated it. "Sam, I swear to God it's not what you think."
"No, it's exactly what I think," She tried to cut him off but he kept talking. "I think Trent is hell bent on making me pay for embarrassing him when his girlfriend broke up with him to date the school geek."
"How does it feel knowing I took your girl's virginity while she was dating you?" Old anger flared up in Trent's eyes, but outwardly he remained cool and cocky.
"How does it feel knowing she only fucked you when she was drunk off her ass but she willingly goes to bed with me every single night?" Sam taunted.
"And for the record, Trent, I fucked you for all of ten seconds," Mikaela gave Trent her own mocking smirk. "You couldn't keep it up."
Sam's head snapped to look at his girlfriend in shock. What the fuck? That was news to him. By the murderous look on Trent's face, it was obvious that her words were the truth. The two men stood rigidly staring the other down until Trent threw one last dirty look Mikaela's way and stalked off. She looked over at Sam with the same worried look and opened her mouth to defend herself but Sam spoke up first.
"Mikaela, I know you didn't do anything wrong. I heard what he said."
"I didn't want to talk to him, but he kept following me," Her eyes pleaded with him to believe her. "I thought maybe if I just said hi and whatever he would leave."
"'Kaela, I trust you," Sam smiled at his girlfriend. "But I do believe you have some explaining to do."
"I know, and I will but I don't want to have that conversation here. In the car?"
"Yeah, we're almost done anyway."
Sam tossed what he had in his hands into the cart and they continued their shopping trip. Mikaela was afraid their impending conversation would ruin their lighthearted moods, but Sam was still his goofy, funny self. He almost seemed to be in a better mood because he started grabbing stuff off of the shelves and throwing it into the basket. She couldn't help but laugh at his childishness even if it meant she had to keep stopping to put everything back onto the shelves. Because of his antics, the rest of their shopping trip took twice as long as it should have. Neither of them really minded; they were having fun acting like kids. Mikaela was silently wondering how Sam would react to what she had to tell him, but she was ready for the whole truth to be known.
They were getting the vegetables for the salad Judy was going to make that night when Sam saw Trent again. His blood ran cold when he saw who Trent was standing with, and tried to distract Mikaela from seeing them. For a moment, he thought he'd gotten away with it. That was until she'd turned to put something in the basket and caught them out of the corner of her eye. His heart dropped at the sight of her standing there frozen, her eyes locked on the two people she didn't want to see.
"What…what is he doing here?" Mikaela asked weakly. She finally looked over at Sam and he could feel her fear.
"I don't know," Sam looked back over at them and saw them walking their way.
"Well, well, well if it isn't the little tease," Mikaela started shaking at the sound of the voice that had haunted her dreams for the last couple weeks.
"What the fuck are you doing here Justin?" Sam spat.
"Oh, you didn't know?" Justin smirked. "Trent's my cousin."
"I see you guys have already met," Trent said, and from the sound of his voice Sam knew he knew exactly what had happened back in Philadelphia.
"Oh yeah, we've met," Sam said darkly. "The last time I saw him I left him bruised and bloody in a hallway."
"Still can't accept that your girl has to find some other guy to satisfy her, can you?" Justin taunted.
"You motherfucker, you tried to fucking rape her!" Sam tried to lunge at Justin but Mikaela reached out and touched his arm.
"Don't let him get to you Sam," She said. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you."
"Yeah Witwicky, listen to your girlfriend," Justin mocked.
"You listen to me and you listen good, Justin," Sam stood inches from the other man's face. "Stay the fuck away from Mikaela. If I ever see you anywhere near her, I will fucking kill you!" Surprisingly, the two men walked away without another word. Sam stood silently glaring at their backs.
"Sam?" Mikaela grabbed his hand. "Hey, calm down."
"I could kill those two motherfuckers," He muttered angrily.
"Look at me," She said softly. Sam looked down at his girlfriend and she tenderly took his face in her hands and kissed him. Her arms wove around his neck when he responded to her lips. Before it got out of hand, she pulled away and rested her cheek against his. Normally she wouldn't have even kissed him like that in public because they both hated seeing other people mauling each other so they avoided doing it themselves, but this was a special circumstance.
"What was that for?" His breath tickled her cheek and she shivered.
"I didn't know how else to calm you down."
"Are you okay?"
"I think so. If not, I will be," He could still feel her hands shaking.
"Let's get out of here," They got the rest of what they needed and headed to the front.
It took forever for them to check out because the store decided to shut down half of their registers despite having three times the business because of the upcoming holiday. The cashiers were frustrated at the never ending lines, but the lady that rang up all their food was friendly enough. Mikaela knew she'd be biting off customers' heads if she was the cashier.
Judy had been smart to make them take the Expedition because the Camaro wouldn't have fit half the food they had bought. As it was, the back of the Expedition barely fit it all and that was with the third row folded down.
"You gonna tell me about what really happened with Trent?" Sam turned to look at his girlfriend. "Or do you need some time? Seeing Justin threw us both for a loop. We can wait if we need to."
"Trent and I didn't really have sex. I wish I could tell you I sobered up and realized what I was doing," There was a sad look in Mikaela's eyes when she touched his arm. "But the truth is, he couldn't keep it up after he was inside me. We had to wait for the pain to stop and he just lost it because he was so drunk. It wasn't but maybe five seconds after he rolled off of me that he passed out. As soon as I knew for sure he was out, I left and went home."
"How come you never told me you didn't actually sleep with him?" Sam wondered.
"To me it didn't matter that we didn't technically fuck. We would have if he could've kept it up. I had already cheated on you, so I didn't see the point."
"Honey, it does matter. Yeah, you still cheated on me. There is no denying that, but this whole time I've been thinking you and him were at it all night long," He smiled sheepishly.
"Oh, no definitely not. I don't know, it just almost seemed by telling you that he couldn't keep it up I was trying to justify my actions and I wasn't going to do that."
"Well, look at it this way. For all intents and purposes, you were still a virgin the first time we had sex. All Trent did was take care of the hard part."
"How do you do that?" Mikaela asked.
"Do what?"
"Blow it off like it's no big deal."
"It's not a big deal anymore. That night is in the past. I trust you, Mikaela," He gave her a wicked grin. "Besides, now I know for sure that I am the only man whose name you've screamed as you come."
"You are the only person who would see it like that," She rolled her eyes.
"All I'm worried about is right now. And right now, you're here with me. Not Trent."
They went back to his house and unloaded all the groceries and helped Judy put them up. Mikaela started towards the living room when they were done, but Sam reached out and stopped her. She looked at him confusedly when he told his mom they were going out and would be back later. He grabbed his keys off of the kitchen counter and led his girlfriend through the backyard to the garage where Bee was parked. Mikaela got into the passenger seat when he opened the door for her, but didn't tell her where they were going. Sam drove them out to the old dirt road they knew so well and parked the car under the tree.
"Sam, why are we here?"
"Dance with me," He jogged to the other side of the car and helped her out. Hand in hand they strode to the front of the car.
"Are you kidding me?" She laughed that melodic laugh he loved so much.
"Dance with me," He repeated and took both of her arms and slid them around his neck before his hands rested on her waist.
"There's no music," Mikaela pointed out. Bee, ever so helpful Autobot that he was, tried to supply them with music; however, considering that he was no human, his song choice was rather...unorthodox for a slow dance, to say the least.
I got your legs spread all over the bed
Hands clenched in the sheets
Hair wild as hell I know
The only thing on your mind is sexin' me
Girl I can feel your temperature rising
You should feel my nature too
Come on it's gonna be a bumpy ride
Girl let's do what we came to do
Well, at the very least it WAS a love song. Sort of. Just not the type of love song Sam was going for at that moment.
"Bee!" The young man exclaimed.
"Sorry, chief," Bumblebee said in that robotic voice of his. "Your pheromone levels--"
"Suggest I want to mate with Mikaela, I know. When do they not suggest I want to mate with Mikaela?" Sam growled in frustration. He caught sight of the amused look on his girlfriend's face and blushed. "I am going to kill Ratchet next time I see him!"
"We're just trying to help," Bee said in what would have been a helpful voice had he been human instead of a robot.
"Trust me, I don't need any help when it comes to mating with Mikaela!" It didn't seem possible for Sam to blush any deeper, but somehow he managed it.
"Well, this isn't awkward at all is it?" Mikaela quipped. He motioned for her to hold on and walked over to the driver's side to stick his head inside and exchange a few words with their guardian.
"Sorry about that. Bee's still trying to figure out how we humans work," An apologetic smile lined his face. The opening chords of a familiar song sounded from the Camaro's speaker system and Sam pulled his girlfriend close as they began to sway.
I just wanna love you more than anything else
More than life itself, more than ever, baby
I just wanna hold you, feel your breath on my skin
Again an' again an' again
Let's shut out the world, and dim all the lights
Baby, tonight, I just wanna love you
The couple didn't even notice when the music stopped. Bee didn't dare play another song for fear of a repeat of the first song.
"What brought this on?" Mikaela asked inquisitively. Not that she minded, of course, but he had definitely surprised her.
"I'm just feeling a little territorial," Sam answered sheepishly.
"You know you don't have anything to worry about, right?" She couldn't blame him for the way he felt. It was she who had given him reason to worry, after all. "I don't want Trent."
"I already told you I trust you. I'm not worried about you wanting Trent. It's just the way he was looking at you...it made me want to send my own little personal "fuck you" to the world because the greatest woman in the world is mine."
"So you bring me out to an old dirt road where nobody can see us?"
"Could've taken you to a club or something, I guess, but this old dirt road means something to us."
"Who would've thought you could be so sentimental?" Mikaela teased.
"Aw, it's just 'cause I love you," He smiled that adorable crooked grin she loved so much and that was the last either of them spoke. They spent the rest of the evening on that familiar old road. Sometimes they danced to music Bee played for them (thankfully there were no more embarrassing mix ups on the songs), sometimes they played tag and chased each other all around, and sometimes they just sat on the hood of Sam's beloved Camaro and talked about nothing and everything. It was the perfect night: no drama, just the two of them alone and content to be that way.