A/N: Since this chapter is another rough one, the previous offer still stands. I'm happy to give a heads up to anyone who wants one about the general direction of the story if you message me or ask in a signed review.

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Sammy didn't use the key, but he kept it. He stuck it in a bright blue envelope that also contained the last birthday card he had received from LeeLee, and he shoved that under his mattress. He knew Joshua would never find it there, but his mother changed his sheets, and he figured she'd see it sooner or later.

Leah didn't talk to him for three months, and without her, Sam thought the world wasn't worth being in. At least he got to look at the back of her head from his seat right behind her in school (he barely restrained himself from tugging on her braids), or see the flush of her cheeks in winter (he wanted to kiss them again), or hear her laughing at something one of the Black girls said (he wished he had made her laugh). But the longer it went on, the less he knew what to do to fix it.

Once in a while, he would turn and catch her staring at him with sad eyes and a little pout to her pink lips. He wanted to apologize, but nothing he could think to say seemed adequate, so he just opened and closed his mouth uselessly until she turned away.

Things were somehow simultaneously better and worse at home. Joshua hadn't raised a hand against him since the day Sam had held a shotgun to his father's head, and Allison didn't have any new injuries that he could see. But they all felt like it was just a matter of time until something even worse happened, although none of them said so. Not in front of him, anyway. Although he did hear Allison and Grandma Uley whispering about it one day when his mother dropped him off for their waffle brunch. He was supposed to be washing up, but instead he was huddled under the window eavesdropping. He wasn't certain why she hadn't gone to the store yet.

Grandma was whispering, "How much more do you need?"

"I've got enough for the bus tickets now. It was hard; he found my hiding spot, and well, that was that."

"Did he hurt you?"

Allison sniffed. "You know. I'll be okay."

"Honey, I know I raised that boy, and I don't know what on earth happened. He was a happy child, and I thought I put him on the right path!"

"I remember. I thought you did too. But don't blame yourself. I don't think there was any way for either one of us to keep him away from the poker games, let alone the casino."

"Or the liquor. That poison should be illegal. I know a mother is always supposed to love her children, and I suppose I do since I have to. But that doesn't mean I like him even a little. Not this thing he's become," Grandma whispered.

Allison laughed darkly. "I know what you mean..." she trailed off. "I look at Sammy sometimes, and I remember all the things I used to love about him."

"Me too. You'll do better by him than I did by Joshua, won't you? Warn him. Make him understand the things he has to stay away from. He'll be okay, our Sammy. Because you're a good mother, Allison, and he has as much of you in him as he has his father." Both women tried hard not to cry. Eventually Grandma took a breath and continued, "And what on top of the tickets? You need to eat, you'll need a place to stay while you're getting back on your feet."

Allison made a choking noise. "That's just it. I've got enough to get us out of town, but not enough to pay for more than a few meals at McDonald's before we'll run out."

"I can give you money."

"How?" Allison snorted, sounding more bitter than he had ever heard her. "I know he counts your receipts too."

"Yes, but he doesn't know where my stash is. And I've had a little longer than you have to put it away."

"But you can't spare it either, I know you can't. I know how much he takes! You don't have enough of your own!"

"Enough is a relative term, dear. Anyway, no amount of money is worth your safety."

Allison kept protesting. Sammy knew that she felt as close to Joshua's mother as she did to anyone. Other than him, she didn't have any other family. "But what about you? You have to come with us. You can't stay here; it's not safe."

"I'm too old to go anywhere, my dear. This is my home, and I'm not leaving it. But you're young. You're young and you have your whole life ahead of you. And more importantly, my grandson has his whole life ahead of him." Her voice lowered so far it was almost inaudible. "And you have to keep him safe."

Now his mother was actually crying. He heard his grandmother move to the door, and he quickly shoved himself away and down the hall, twisting the faucet open to wash his hands. He dried them quickly and then just stood in the bathroom, unsure what to do next.

"It's not much," he heard Grandma saying. "About nine hundred dollars."

"But this is everything!" Allison protested. "We can't take all of it!"

"Take it and go find somewhere safe. That's all I want. For you both to be safe."

It still hadn't quite sunk in what was going on. He kept listening but heard nothing, and when he peered around the corner the two women were clutching each other tightly. When they made no move to separate, he finally decided to just ask.

He stepped into the room. "Where are we going?"

His mother pulled away from Grandma and turned to him with red rimmed eyes. "We're going to go somewhere safe, baby."

"Don't say where," Grandma interrupted.

Allison shook her head. "Why?"

"So I can't tell him where you went. Don't send me postcards, don't give me a forwarding address. Don't call to say you're okay."

Allison looked stricken. "Not even a phone call?"

"The line's in his name. He can look at the record and figure out where you are."

"Leave word with Sue and Harry. Just to say you're safe, nothing else. I do want to know you're okay. I have to know you're okay."

Sam didn't understand. "Why are we leaving?"

"Because of what your dad did to you," his mother began. She knelt in front of him and grasped his shoulders. "Until then, I thought... I thought... I didn't think he'd lay a hand on you. He's dangerous."

Sammy didn't have to ask who she meant. "He's always been dangerous," he said stubbornly.

His mother pointed out, "He'd never touched you before, had he?"

"No," he admitted. It had been the first time.

"And he's never going to again. But the only way to guarantee that is to leave."

Sammy felt dizzy. So it was his fault they were leaving. If only he hadn't gotten them into trouble! "Where?" He didn't actually want to know the answer. Wherever it was, it wouldn't have LeeLee in it. And even though she wasn't speaking to him, everything was better just seeing her, just knowing she was there.

Grandma reminded them, "Don't say in front of me."

Allison nodded at her. "Away. Somewhere safer. You and me."

"But why us?" He still didn't understand.

"Because we aren't safe," she explained again.

"No, no," he shook his head and tried not to shake. "Why are we the ones who have to leave? It's his fault, not ours! He should leave, not us! It's not fair!" he yelled.

Allison yanked him into her arms and squeezed him tight. "I know. I know it isn't fair, not even a little bit. If I could make him leave, I would. But the only thing I can control is what I do, and I'm taking you somewhere better."

"There isn't anywhere better!" And he firmly believed it, because even at age nine, Sammy saw the beauty of his home, the lushness of the forests, the rough purity of the cliffs, the power of the ocean, the richness of the life it supported, even just this tiny patch of land. Because his LeeLee had shown him. She had taken him by the hand and pulled him along and showed him the shades of emerald on the underside of a leaf, the darting, rainbow reflection of the scales of fish in the river, and the peach and strawberry rays of the sun as it set behind the clouds over the Pacific Ocean. And his home held LeeLee herself.

Sammy really didn't hear much after that.

Allison never actually left him alone with his grandmother. Eventually all three of them did the shopping together, because if Allison went home without any fresh food, Joshua would be suspicious. He trailed behind the women in a daze as they carefully counted pennies and figured out how to make their money stretch the farthest.

That evening, he couldn't look either of his parents in the eye. His mother was doing her best to act as if nothing was different than usual, but Sammy knew that the roll of bills she stuffed into the bottom of a box of tampons was making her incredibly nervous. Her eyes kept flicking to the bathroom, then rapidly away.

Joshua picked up on her strange mood, and he stared at her as steadily as he could. He was only on his fourth beer, so he was pretty even. Her anxiety flared under his scrutiny.

"Where's the receipt?"

She straightened and pointed at her purse. There was no point in getting it for him. He wanted to look through her bag.

"And the change?" He rooted around the fraying canvas. "Oh. Is this everything?"

Allison found her voice. "All of it," she nodded vigorously. On today of all days, she wasn't going to sneak an extra cent.

He counted it out in his palm, then narrowed his eyes at her. "There's some missing."

Allison jumped up like a startled rabbit. "No, that can't be true. Joy gave me exact change, I'm sure of it." She moved to look, but he stopped her with a hard gaze and a twitch of his chin. Sammy's stomach knotted in dread. Had she accidentally gotten some of Joshua's money mixed up with Grandma's?

"I gave you sixty, and this receipt says $52.17. So how come there's only $2.83 here?"

"There's more, there's more. Take another look," she gestured at the bag.

Joshua balled the money in his fist and thumped it on the counter. "Sam, son, go to your room." He didn't wait for Sammy to go, though. "Are you accusing me of being stupid or being blind?"

"Neither!" Allison laughed a little hysterically, trying to make a joke of it. "That's a bottomless mom bag, you know? It eats things. Can I take a look?" She reached out her hand, but it was shaking slightly.

Sam hadn't moved. He just started at his father, trying to replicate Joshua's hard stare. Joshua blinked at him three times, and something seemed to shake loose inside him. He wordlessly handed over the bag. Allison finally emerged with a crumpled five dollar bill in her right hand. "Here! Here. I didn't zip up my wallet all the way, it was dumb of me."

Joshua didn't look at her. He just kept staring at Sammy while he pocketed the money. Sammy didn't move either, not until Joshua sighed heavily and turned to the fridge for another beer.

Sammy fled to his room, and without pausing with the pretense of going to bed first, immediately opened his window and dropped to the ground. Mud splashed beneath his bare feet, and he wished he had bothered to grab his rain poncho. But it was too late. He sprinted through his backyard. By the time he reached the Clearwaters' house, he was soaked from head to toe. He grunted in irritation when he saw LeeLee through her kitchen window instead of in her bedroom. He didn't want to climb to the roof yet; the whole family would hear him from where they were gathered around the table eating one of Sue's pies. He belatedly realized he'd left the key at home, but he didn't want it. The front door wasn't his entrance to the home, it was her window. Sam thought about climbing up to the treehouse to wait, but from up there, he couldn't see into the kitchen. He stayed on the ground, finding some shelter from the rain underneath the treehouse.

Why couldn't that be his family? Harry had coffee in front of him, not beer or whiskey. It was probably even decaf. Seth had a smear of cherry sauce on his left cheek, and LeeLee swiped it away with her finger, which she then popped into her own mouth. Seth thought this was funny for some reason and deliberately added more of the red confection to his cheek, goading his sister into repeating herself. Sue finally stepped in to stop them when on the fourth or fifth swipe, Leah leaned over threatening to lick it right off her brother's face.

This finally gave Sam his opportunity. Sue hauled Seth up the stairs to toss him in the bathtub, while Leah went to her room to read a book. Harry disappeared, probably into his office on the other side of the house. As soon as he confirmed Harry wasn't on his way to Leah's room, he grabbed onto the slippery trellis and hauled himself up to her room.

As always, she knew he was coming. And this time, perhaps because of the expression on his face, or maybe because he looked like a shivering, drowning rat, or if he was lucky, because she missed him every bit as much as he missed her, she didn't hesitate to open the window before backing up to the end of the bed on her knees. This time he made sure to close the window against the rain.

When he didn't immediately speak, she prompted, "What is it?"

He didn't know what to say, but he knew what he needed. He reached for her, and she opened her arms.

He crumpled against her, relishing the feeling of her arms around his back, as he buried his face in her neck, pulled her in by her waist, and soaked her with rainwater. He breathed her in. Warmth pooled in his stomach, and the disparate pieces of himself, the ones that were tugging at him and pulling away, settled neatly together. For now.

She didn't say anything. She just squeezed him tighter. Five minutes passed, then ten. He didn't know how long they would have stayed like that, but Sue's voice broke the silence. "Leah? Sweetheart, we're all done in the bathroom. Shower's all yours."

Then pattering feet ran up the hall toward her room.

Sammy pulled away and jumped into her closet only a second before Seth burst through the door and tried to tackle his sister in his own small embrace. But he fell back, startled, when he found her shirt soaked. "Why're you wet, Lee?"

Leah looked at Sam, barely visible through the cracked open door, and stuttered, "Um... Uh... I'm getting a head start on my shower. Night, Seth, go on to your room."

"But I want you to read me my story!" he protested. "You do the best voices."

"Sorry, squirt, I already started my shower, see?" She pointed to her wet clothes. "Gotta finish it."

Stubbornly, he folded his arms over his flannel covered chest. "Then I'll wait for you."

Sue reached in to pull Seth out of the room, thankfully not noticing the water on her daughter's clothing. "Let's have quiet time in your room while we wait for your sister, okay?"

"I just gotta put my jams on, Mom," Leah explained. She closed the door behind them and let Sammy out of the closet. "Can you wait for me?"

He nodded. He'd wait for her forever. The past three months made it feel like he already had. She was only gone for a few seconds before she returned with a towel and ran off again. He found two pairs of his own sweatpants and tee shirts in her bottom drawer, dried himself off, and changed into dry, comfy clothes. He eyed her bed, tempted to get in, but was afraid one of her parents would tuck her into bed and discover him there. He settled for stealing the squishy purple pillow and sitting in her closet with it tucked to his chest.

She was gone for fifteen minutes, but that was okay. He could hear her reading a bedtime story to Seth, aided from time to time by Sue's own contributions of funny voices. He could admit to himself that he liked the tale even if it was supposed to be for little kids. Probably that had something to do with LeeLee's squeaky voice for the little boy in the story, her growls for the bear, and her attempt at a solemn, serious adult voice for the narrator. Then she took the fastest shower she had ever taken. He heard Harry wondering why she was so eager to go to bed, and he held his breath and tried to stay absolutely still so that he wouldn't be discovered. He was afraid Harry would sit and talk with her or maybe sing her a song, but she kept yawning dramatically, so her father kissed her on the forehead, turned off the light, and shut the door.

Less than two seconds later, she opened the covers to him, and he wanted to cry in relief. Instead he slid under and wrapped himself around her. He only realized he was trembling when she began to comfortingly run her fingers along his scalp in a gesture that always made him feel better. When he finally settled down, she quietly murmured, "I'm here, Sammy, and I'm not letting you go."

At that he sort of lost it, and he couldn't stop his tears. "That's just it. I think I have to," he muttered into her neck.

Her hand stilled and her breath caught. "Have to what?"

"Go. My mom's taking me away. We're running away, me and her, away from my dad."

He waited for her to speak, and it took her a long time to figure out what to say. "Where?"

"I don't know," he sniffed. "Somewhere safe, she says. So somewhere far."

She gripped him tighter. He could barely hear her, she was so quiet. "I don't want you to go."

"Me neither."

"Maybe you can just stay here with me. It's safe here, right?"

"Probably not safe enough. Plus there's my mom."

She insisted, "She should stay here too!"

"But he knows how to find us here," Sammy explained.

"Oh." She sounded completely forlorn, and he wished he could make her feel better. He knew he felt better being here with her, but how much longer would that last?

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The next day, Allison quietly arrived to drop off a change of clothes and his backpack so that he could go straight to school. He already had his own toothbrush in a cup in the Clearwaters' bathroom, and it had not been thrown away during his three month absence. Sue invited his mother to join them for breakfast, but she was afraid of arriving late to the daycare, so Sammy ate his pancakes with LeeLee and Seth. Then they walked the mile long path to the tribal school.

Leah held Seth's backpack for him since the little kindergartener was running in circles around them, terribly excited that Sam was joining them for their walk. Although in Sam's absence, he had formed an attachment to a new friend. He sprinted ahead to a little red house and banged on it enthusiastically until Sarah Black let him in. He emerged with a slice of cinnamon raisin toast and three other children.

Jacob smiled at all of them and began to listen to Seth's intricate description of all the dreams he had the previous night. The twins glared at Sam and tried to separate him bodily from Leah, attempting to wedge themselves between the recently reunited friends. His LeeLee shrugged them off and took his hand in a show of solidarity. The gesture made him feel wholly better until they arrived at school and Austin spotted their joined hands and screwed up his face in judgement.

He wanted to keep LeeLee's hand tightly in his, preferably all day long, but he didn't know if he could stand the way Austin was looking at him. When Austin nudged Johnny and Roy to make them look at him, he dropped her hand abruptly before they could turn around. They shrugged at his approach when they found nothing to see, and he sighed in relief as soon as their attention was diverted elsewhere. Which was when he noticed the Black twins pulling Leah even further away from him and frowning at him over their shoulders. He felt like apologizing, but that would cause an even bigger scene, so instead he did nothing.

By the end of the day he knew his passivity had been a mistake. Particularly since he sat with the boys during lunch. After all, he had to get used to being without her, right? He hadn't done a very good job of it over the past few months, when at least he got to look at her and know that she was never actually far, when he knew that when he absolutely needed her, she'd be there for him. But if his mother took him away... His chest hurt thinking about it. He'd have to get used to taking care of himself, wouldn't he?

When he chanced a surreptitious peek at Leah, she was staring at her tray and pushing her food around with her fork, and Rach and Becca were glaring at him again. He shoveled his food into his mouth and considered his options. He could pick up his tray right now, excuse himself, and sit down with LeeLee again. She wouldn't just welcome him in, she'd probably show him her dimples. And she'd force the Black girls to be nice to him too. But if by some chance, his mother didn't take him away forever, he'd be forever ostracised from the boys' table. He'd have his one best friend, but maybe not a single other one. On the other hand, if he stayed where he was, for whatever time he had left here, he'd still get picked first on the schoolyard, he wouldn't have to endure any more teasing, and she'd still let him in her window when he needed her.

After all, she had let him in the night before, hadn't he? She probably would have weeks ago if he'd had the guts to climb up, and if he wasn't so awfully bad at apologizing. He'd just have to be more careful with his apologies from now on. Yes. That was it. It was an easy decision.

Of course, it was not so simple. And deep down, he knew all along he had made the wrong choice, and it made him hesitant. Instead of going to her room that very night and letting her envelop him in one of her (warm, tight, amazing, perfect) hugs, he got nervous. Nervous that she wouldn't welcome him in, that she would be mad at him for ditching her for the boys, that the Black girls would have convinced her he was a good-for-nothing rat. So he lay in his own bed and stared at the ceiling and thought about her instead. He didn't find out until much later that she stayed up for hours staring out her window and waiting for him.

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Thanks again to Babs81410, who is simply an amazing beta. All mistakes are mine.