A/N: Well, this is embarrassing. -_-
I'm sorry for not updating soon enough. ISTEP just struck my state (Indiana Statewide Testing of Educational Progress) and it happens for like four days. But it's getting to be calm now. And I realize I've been neglecting my stories for quite a while.
*Clears throat* Excuse me…
But to make up for it, I'm updating one of the stories you all know and love so much… For Better or Worse! Yay! :D
So, let's get on with it then!
*As always… I DON'T OWN DP! Just, and ONLY, this story!*
For Better or Worse
Chapter 6: One Gain, One Loss
The day was warm with a slight breeze, and the classroom windows were cocked open. Sam and Danny were especially happy to be around kids at a time like this. Mainly because they'd found out that the fourth month of Sam's pregnancy had been normal, and the developing of the child was coming in nicely. Danny still didn't have the guts to tell her anything, so she still assumed she was having a stranger's child. But all disappointment was taken away from the both of them every time they'd seen Sam's stomach. It wasn't big, but you could definitely see a new life was forming inside.
The kids of the classroom were doing nothing major, since the testing of the full school year had started. All of the children were either reading or doing a fun activity involving math, social studies or language arts.
The sun was extra bright that day for some reason. But either way, it made the mood of the day more than ecstatic. Danny was kneeled right next to Emily, having a conversation with her about her life in foster care. She had no problem at all explaining what it was like, and Danny was more supporting with every word, giving her smiles and letting her know it was okay to go on.
And Sam did her best for a cranky pregnant woman. She sat behind her desk, rubbing her temples and looking around the room, grinning as she'd seen the kids were doing just fine. Her head had hurt since that morning, and the doctor specifically told her not to have a lot of caffeine. Sadly, she was prone to caffeine, and didn't have any coffee that morning. That must've been her mistake as to why she had a headache. Prone to caffeine, plus no coffee, equals bad headache.
She sighed with relief when she'd seen Danny start toward the desk.
"Tired?" he asked with a jokingly smirked face.
"No. I just need caffeine. But coffee's bad for the baby."
"True."
He leaned against the desk and turned to face her.
"So… you have a bad headache, huh?"
"Yep. But trust me, it will not effect my mood with the kids."
She got up and circled around to him. "I don't care if it were a migraine. The kids are adorable, and I won't be grouchy to them for something so mild."
"You are so stubborn. Yet, not like any other woman you'd meet."
She put on a playful beam. "Yeah. I'm one of a kind."
The phone on her desk rang, and just after Danny went to kiss her neck - which she'd rejected quickly - she answered it.
"Hello?"
A slight pause was given, and Sam's smile began to fade. Danny tried to tickled her on her arm with one finger while trying to kiss her neck again, but she gently pushed him away and nonchalantly waved her index finger right and left in front of his face.
"Yes, this is Samantha Manson."
Another pause, and a sweep of sadness replaced her frown. With a shaky voice, she replied, "Okay. Thank you."
She hung up, and when she turned to face Danny, her tears had finally manage to slip down her face.
"Sam?" he lightly grabbed her shoulders and gave them a tiny shake. "Sam, what's the matter?"
"I…" she started, and shook her head. "Tell the kids I'll be right back."
With that, she turned and left the classroom.
From then, Danny knew that he had to talk to her to figure out what was going on. Luckily, within the past few months he's been coming to help teach with Sam, he's picked up on the classroom rules and policies.
One of them being who the monitor of the classroom was whenever Sam were to step out…
"Hannah," he called for the young blond child. "Monitor the classroom."
She nodded and dashed to the front of the room, leaving Danny to look after Sam.
He'd found her just outside of the room, leaning against the lockers. Her back was facing him, and she'd shown a clear sign that she wasn't to be disturbed.
"Sam?"
She turned to face him, and he'd seen that her make-up was smeared all down her face. She'd look like Pennywise the clown… on a BAD day.
"Yeah?"
"Sammy, what's wrong? You know you can tell me."
She paused for only a second before running into his arms and whispering into his ear, "The phone call was from the hospital. They told me my nana passed away."
A saddened look had struck his face as well, and he met his eyes with hers.
"You mean… the one that used to like me?"
She nodded. "Yep. The one who did her best to keep us together when my parents tried to separate us."
"She's… she's gone?"
"Oh Danny, she's been half dead for a while now… on the inside, at least. She's been fighting breast cancer for months now."
She wiped her eyes, taking some of her mascara with her, as she continued.
"But you know, I just wish I could've seen her before she left so quickly… and…"
She stopped to breathe. "I just… I'd never knew it would've taken her so soon…"
"I'm so sorry Sam. You know, she was family to me too."
"Yeah, I know. She just loved you. She's always wanted you to marry me and start a family with me."
"Your parents tried to stop me."
"My parents had to get through her first."
He chuckled, remembering something rather humorous. "Remember when…"
"She beat my dad across the head with her cane. Yeah."
His chuckle turned into a laugh. "And… oh God… and he fell down the stairs!"
She giggled. "Yeah. That was pretty funny. What was the smart remark she said to him before she wheeled away?"
After a moment, they'd recalled at the same time, "Watch yourself unless you want to my wheelchair's wheel prints all over your face."
With that said, they both burst in hysteria, nearly bringing tears to their eyes.
"Oh my Gosh. Too funny."
She nodded her head slowly, and cleared her throat. Anyone who looked into her eyes could easily see that she still wasn't happy about the situation. In order to smile, she needed a little bit more motivation.
"Hey," he arched his eyebrow and started to flirt with her, using a fake seductive voice. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
"Yeah, you live with me." She joked.
"No… but I know you somewhere else. Oh yeah… I listen to you sing in the shower."
"Very funny."
"No really."
He leaned his hip to the side and pretended to sing in a high-pitched tone.
"It's driving me out of my mind. That's why it's hard for me to find. Can't get it out of my head. Miss her, kiss her, love her.. that girl is poison."
"Oh ha ha. Very funny, Danny! Cut it out!" she laughed. She playfully slapped him on his arm, chest and stomach. He faked each flinch given to her, but still, the way he stuck his lip out like a little boy was just too priceless to be left unacknowledged.
"Oh G-… you're face!" she cracked.
"What?" he panicked, feeling his eyes, mouth, nose, and cheeks. "What? What's wrong with it?"
She couldn't stop chuckling. "Nothing, nothing! It's just… you're face is just so… it's so… rare!"
"Rare? Like… men like me rare or…?"
"No. Just something that you don't normally see a lot."
"Yeah… very true."
The door to the classroom peeked open, and Hannah poked her head out.
"Oh no… are you two making out here?!"
They smiled.
"No, not at all." Sam responded.
Hannah rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Liars" before shutting the door.
Sam took a deep breath and pointed toward the door. "We should go back."
"Yeah."
They returned to the classroom and shut the door behind them. Hannah returned to her seat, Danny stood at the front of Sam's desk, and Sam sat in her chair.
"Okay everyone. Sorry I left for a while. I needed a moment alone."
"That's okay," the children replied, and gathered at their own desks.
Sam sat at her desk and shuffled through her papers.
"Alright guys. So, we are going to have one more test today."
"AWWWW!" The class moaned.
"Oh, stop," she pretended to scold at them. "I know you don't like it, but it's not given out by me, it's given out by the state. And you all know that if I were in charge of these tests, I wouldn't hand so many of them out."
She walked up to Mandy, one of her really shy, not very talkative kids. She buried her head into her arms, and Sam gave a small smile before she kneeled down gently – minding her stomach – and setting the papers on her desk.
"Mandy, would you like to pass these out?"
Mandy slowly lifted her head, and shook it a little.
"Oh come on honey. You don't have to be so shy. It's alright."
Mandy continued her method.
Sam gave a small sigh. "You know, whoever would help me as to do this, I'd give them a little cookie. But I suppose I'll have to give it to someone else then."
Mandy's head darted up, and a gigantic grin snuck on her face. She immediately took the papers out of hand and jumped out of her seat, passing each out to every student.
"A cookie it is for you then," Sam mumbled, raising herself to her feet…
Within a few hours, after all the test were given back, Sam set the last graded paper aside and leaned back, speaking to the class.
"Well, I promised that if at least ninety percent of the class got an 'A' on their test, then… you guys would have the opportunity to, no matter how awkward it would be, feel the baby."
The class cheered.
"Alright, alright. This row," Sam pointed to the row on the far right. "you guys are first."
Danny chuckled at Sam's willing to do anything to please the children.
I hope this isn't to awkward for Sam or the kids. But this is to dang funny.
The row stood and came up to Sam. Maria was first and Hannah was behind her. One by one, each child from each row went up to Sam and felt the baby move for only a few seconds, but even so, they giggled and wiggled at the feeling of a live human in her stomach. Sam couldn't help but laugh out how giddy the children were.
And when everyone was done and all children were back in their seats, Sam stood up and explained a small lecture.
"Now, are you guys happy now?"
The kids nodded simultaneously.
"Good. And you all better not tell your parents that you guys did this. I don't want any phone calls from your parents saying, 'Is it true that my kid felt your stomach?'. Got it?"
They nodded again.
"Good… okay. Now… next thing we're going to do, since we're done with our testing and we have nothing else to do… we're going to play Charades."
"Wait," Hannah scratched her head. "what kind of Charades?"
"Spelling Charades," Sam said happily. "It'll be fun. I promise."
"Well," Maria said. "sounds okay to me…"
That night, as Sam lie asleep in her bed, Danny was downstairs on his cell phone, talking to Tucker, who was playing Fallout 3 on the his XBOX 360.
"I don't know what to do Tuck," Danny ran a hand through his hair. "I can't tell her anything yet, but it's eating away at me on the inside."
Tucker entered V.A.T.S and finished killing a Mole Rat. Then, he paused it.
"Just be honest with her dude," Tucker set the controller down on his lap. "tell her already. Be a good boyfriend."
"I'm not even sure if we're really boyfriend and girlfriend though, Tuck."
"Oh come on dude. You had sex, and that's how she got pregnant. You've kissed multiple times. Face the facts: you two are dating."
"No dude. We were drunk. We weren't thinking straight. That was one time."
"That's not what I heard," Tucker stood up and went to the refrigerator to get a Bud Light. "not what I heard at all."
"What do you mean?"
Tucker sat back down on the couch and picked up his controller, continuing his gameplay. "You can't pretend like you don't know. What about what happened at the school? Before Sam was even 5 months pregnant. Before she even started to show. Remember? Classroom closet?"
"That was another accident Tuck. And nothing happened. I swear on half of my human life."
"You still made out."
Danny stood up and started pacing. He went over to Spade, who was lying asleep in his cage, and rubbed him behind his ears. "Whatever dude."
"All I'm saying is that Sam doesn't deserve to be left in the dirt like this. If you really love her and if you really care about her, she needs to know now."
He un-paused his game once more and continued to play it.
Danny gave a frustrated sigh. "I… I can't dude. I can't tell her."
"Sticking with this secret isn't going to do shit except make it hell for you when the baby finally comes! You need to do something about that! You need to tell her!"
"And if it's so goddamn easy Tucker, why don't you just tell her?! You know the secret too!" Danny's voice rose slightly, turning away from Spade to avoid hurting him.
"That's your problem dude," Tucker said, pausing his game again and setting the controller down on the coffee table. He stood up and continued his rant, sipping his beer once in a while. "your always so damn secretive. Why can't you just tell her? We both know how Sam will react if we tell her now then if we tell her later."
"It's not as easy as it sounds Tucker! A secret like that has to be explained diligently."
"So? Explain the secret diligently then!"
"Like I said, it's not as easy as it sounds!"
"Then what are you going to do? Huh? Wait until after the child's born and it comes out with blue eyes and raven hair, looking exactly like you? Waiting until her memory becomes vivid and she realizes that the man on top of her – inside of her – was you?"
Danny sat silent for a second. "Jesus Tuck! Why don't you just send me to hell?!"
"It's not that hard dude! I'd tell Sam if I had the chance to!"
"Well you do! Why don't you tell her?! Huh?!"
"Because a secret like that has to be told to her by you! Because you're the father! You're the one who impregnated her! If I told her, it would either be too awkward or she'll be even more upset that you didn't have the balls to tell her! I don't mean to harass you bro, but you seriously need to grow a pair! Be a man! Step up to the plate and tell her what she needs to know!"
"Why should I take advice from somebody who just lost their child in a battle for custody in court?"
Tucker was shocked. How could Danny say that to him? Was he insane?
"Because… at least I know better. The same thing will happen to you… if you don't tell her."
And with that, a click was heard on Tucker's end of the line. Danny set the phone down on the coffee table and shook his head.
What did I do?
He went ghost and phased through the ceiling, the roof, and into the sky, flying far into the night. Flying always made him feel better.
Too bad it couldn't help him with his problem.
A/N: There we go everyone! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!
I got nothing else to say really. Except that I'll update soon!
PleaseR&R,
DA98 : )