The next day at the hospital
"where's Shelby, Spencer said she was here, what happened" asks Carly feeling very distraught
"you're not on the cleared list to see her, in fact you're on the deny list" says the head nurse as Freddie walks over
"I don't understand" says Carly as Freddie pulls her aside
"you never actually physically asked her out yet you treated her answering your question about if she liked Sam honestly as if she was cheating on you, that fight distracted her during her fight with Sofía Montel, Sofía hit her pretty hard, five seconds later she was unconscious and bleeding from her nose, an ambulance was called, she's only barely awake now, more than fifteen hours later" says Freddie as Carly starts to cry
"all this happened because of me" asks Carly feeling like she just killed Shelby because of that fight
"it seems that way, it didn't help that Sam felt Shelby was competing for your heart and had already won, Shelby couldn't maintain focus before the fight, she kept worrying about Sam" says Freddie
"wait, Sam likes me" asks Carly shocked at this revelation as Melanie walks over
"I'd call it more hopeless love than simply liking you, it's been nagging at her for a while, she's got herself convinced that because she has no money and a criminal record that you'd never love her back, she was willing to keep this all quiet and hidden from you until this morning when she heard about Shelby's accident" says Melanie
"oh ok, how's Shelby" says Carly mulling over this new information
"pretty bad, she's out of fights till at least mid August, the doctors think she has a concussion, as it is when she woke up it took her a few minutes to remember her own name" says Melanie
"what does she remember" asks Carly
"nothing after getting into the ring with Sofía, she remembers the fight with you and arriving at the CFC building with Freddie but the rest of that day is spotty" says Melanie
"she's having memory issues, I did in fact ask her out, you know, with words, not just my actions, she turned me down, saying that it didn't feel like I was genuinely asking her out, that it felt forced because Spencer was watching, I only had him watch me ask her out so he could vouch for me to dad and granddad, they're not so open to me liking girls, let alone girls like Sam or Shelby, they see Sam as a negative influence and they see Shelby as someone who encourages fighting to make money and as a result gambling, when I came out to them after she turned me down they both told me that if I date a girl they'd rather me date Tori Vega, based on nothing but the shared trauma her and I experienced because of Steven" says Carly
"if you had to choose one, who would you rather date" asks Melanie
"at this rate neither of them will trust me and I will have to ask Tori out, me being stupid because of my feelings took choice away from me, I need time, do me a favor and don't tell Shelby I came to apologize" says Carly as she leaves in tears
"wait memory issues, does that mean she might not actually have money issues" asks Freddie as Shelby's manager walks over
"no unfortunately she does, she'd just gotten into the grand MMA club this year, that's what those VIP tickets were about, she didn't realize she bought six month VIP tickets, which cost in the range of thirty thousand dollars for three tickets" says CFC Manager Shawn
"ten thousand a ticket, that feels like extortion, how can they reason to charge that much" asks Melanie
"six month VIP tickets are called long form tickets, basically the fighter invites their friends and vouchers that they're not involved in nor have committed crimes in the past year, they require payment up front, though she meant to ask for the monthly VIP tickets anyway, not the six month long form VIP tickets that she ended up paying for, both Freddie's and Sam's tickets were refunded when she told us you guys refused them but as of right now all that money is gone, sunk into her grandmothers dementia diagnosis and treatment to delay the more severe symptoms for as long as possible and as of right now she's basically homeless, her ticket debt ends at the end of July and while she's injured she will receive enough money to pay for food and meds to help her recover but unless we can convince Sofía that she is at least partially responsible for what happened to Shelby, Shelby won't be getting any further financial help, it took us an hour of fighting with her insurance to get them to cover tests and treatments to make her stable enough to leave tonight or tomorrow morning" says Shaun
"I can do that, I made sure Shelby got into the ambulance then I talked to Sofía, the way she was talking, she thought the police were going to charge her with attempted or actual murder" says Freddie
"they're rivals, their families have always fought, Sofía though has always been more bark than bite, to me it seemed that Sofía wanted to make enough money to run away to another city or state to get away from her family but they have become parasites, feeding off her income so she hasn't had the chance to leave and start over" says Shaun
"is Shelby Awake" asks Freddie hoping to talk to Shelby about talking to Sofía
"she is awake but not awake enough to hold a conversation, she's rather groggy, if you're looking for a way to convince Sofía to help Shelby survive financially is to tell her that any money she gives Shelby will be returned to her, it would keep money away from her family and give her time to find somewhere else to live" says Shaun
"ok, I'll talk to her and bring that up" says Freddie
45 minutes later at the MMA fight ring
"is Shelby ok" asks Sofía
"she was distracted, she had a fight with her best friend not even an hour before the fight, that's how you got the upper hand" says Freddie
"so I'm not going to be charged, my family thinks I'm a murderer and that if I don't turn myself in that they'll take all my money, I hate them, I really do" says Sofía
"it doesn't look like it no, the thing is Shelby is hurting for money right now, her manager had to fight with her insurance company to get them to cover tests and treatment to get her out of the hospital and stable, she told me that your parents steal your money, would you be willing to help Shelby, she's not allowed to fight for at least two months, which is when they evaluate whether they need to wait longer for her to recover, at this point any money would help, her manager assures me that you will get that money back once you're safely away and out of the grip of your family, I have a friend in Los Angeles that said they'd love to help get you settled" says Freddie
"unless it's Tori Vega I have no intention of going to Los Angeles, as for money I can maybe explain away ten grand but that's about it at the moment" says Sofía
"ten grand is plenty for the time being, that will help her get back on her feet, the friend is Tori, however she's on a communication blackout as she was hacked last month, someone released songs she wasn't comfortable with and only wrote to work through her emotions" says Freddie
"so how do you know she's willing to help me" asks Sofía
"through Andre Harris, her ex boyfriend, as it turns out she's quite interested in you, as in romantically, the songs that someone released without her permission are about you, they're love poems more than songs really" says Freddie
"and you know about them how, she's been to every single one of my fights in Los Angeles, she's never said a word to me though, what happened between her and Andre anyway, I thought they were good together" asks Sofía
"they had a difference of opinion on her being bi curious, she felt she was and he hoped and prayed that she wasn't, they still work on music together but that's it, I can have Shelby's manager send you down there tonight if you can get Shelby that money" says Freddie
"my family doesn't see all the money I make, my manager is smart enough that he put half in a separate account but only our managers can access it, Shelby should have one too, are you her new boyfriend, she mentioned something about that before the fight" says Sofía
"boyfriend hopeful, she too is bi curious, though unlike Tori she's not sure if she can commit to boys or if she only likes girls, she's staying at my apartment with me and my mother due to the fight with her friend, by any chance have you noticed gaps in her memory, this friend claims they did ask her out, Shelby has no memory of it" says Freddie
"if this friend is Carly Shay, yeah I can see her being a bit obsessed with Shelby but I don't see her lying, she warned me about people spiking drinks, specifically about Shelby's drinks being spiked on three occasions in the past few months" says Sofía
"were people spiking drinks" asks Freddie
"absolutely, they weren't doing it where Shelby and I tend to eat last year but this year has been different, less safe, honestly Los Angeles isn't much safer but it is a little safer, after the first time it happened to me I stopped ordering drinks of any kind from then on out, though they have started giving girls special cups and lids to make it harder to spike without being noticed, I'll tell Shaun today's access code and he can transfer the money, though I'd have those doctors check her for toxins, one thing Shelby is known for is that her body holds onto medication longer, as in they stay in her system longer, what I do know about her patterns is that because of the meds thing she has to take the dose over a few hours instead of all at once" says Sofía
"has Shelby ever had a reason to hide anything, have you noticed a change in her behaviour that would lead you to believe the doctors need to look for toxins" asks Freddie
"between our second and third fight, Shelby told me she'd been in the hospital for dizzy spells and they couldn't figure out what was going on and that she might have to forfeit or reschedule the fight, I told her that if she had to reschedule because of a medical issue I wouldn't fight her or her manager on it, medical issues are the only guaranteed way to postpone a fight and if it's more than a day delay they require some sort of doctors note, she's had a few medical emergencies this year so it wouldn't surprise me if someone got pissed that she has been using the restaurants new secure taint free cups and found some other way to dose her, I want a rematch against Shelby, we may be rivals but I pride myself in fighting fair and if something is wrong with her health then no fight will ever be fair with her and that's not fair for her or anyone she loses to because it won't be a fair win or loss and nobody wants Shelby to deal with that guilt because she couldn't afford to pay for medical tests, all the money she's ever saved up went to her grandmother's medical bills, leaving her living paycheck to paycheck and last night she told me she was essentially homeless, I'm glad she has people like you in her life, more importantly I'd love to see her happy but that's not up to me" says Sofía
"do you like her or something" asks Freddie
"maybe a little but no, not like my cousin Josie, but after the shitshow my family put on when I came out as gay none of my relatives who are fruity like me will even take a chance at coming out publicly, which is what asking out Shelby would be, anyway you should get back to the hospital, Shelby can't be feeling good without you there" says Sofía
"so you'll go to LA tonight then" asks Freddie, looking for confirmation for Andre to pick her up
"not right away but either late tonight or tomorrow morning, now that things might actually work in my favor I'm a little anxious, like I said Tori has never actually spoken words to me, she's only talked to Shelby before" says Sofía
"ok but please keep in touch, you may be rivals but you care about her health and she cares about yours" says Freddie
"legally I can't contact her, at least not directly, she's a fellow MMA fighter, when contact between fighters was allowed, two fighters staged a draw in protest of a local law restricting where CFC fights can take place, even if they're for charity, so now no fighters can have direct contact with one another, everything has to go through the managers, any worried contact about health has to go through a third party, until recently that was her grandmother, since last week I've had no information about her health, mental health issues or otherwise and for the girls I fight against often I like to keep tabs on their health, I don't like surprises, especially against the ones I lose against more often than not, a sudden win without knowledge of issues scares me, the CFC is saying that I won by Shelby forfeiting because of an undisclosed medical issue, the thing is, if someone did dose her and the CFC did nothing to help her recover they will hide it or find other reasons to disqualify her completely so she can't fight again, the fact that drugs stays in her body longer isn't a secret in the CFC, we all know about it" says Sofía
"would they really hide wrongdoing on their part if that is indeed the case" asks Freddie
"the CFC isn't entirely immune to corruption or belittling of women fighters, however that said there are rules to protect us, at least the CFC's top seeds like Shelby, one of those rules includes partial medical cost coverage and lawyer fees, Shelby gets a lot of hate for the fact that she started fighting as young as she did, people think the CFC groomed her to be the perfect fighter, the perfect model to get other girls to fight, that was never Shelby's role and it wouldn't be, that's my role, I'm supposed to be the model image of a female MMA fighter, I'm in perfect physical health with only minor medical issues from my childhood, Shelby's the underdog, or at least she used to be, the high up's called her the prodigy fighter, the super human fighter, the kind of person young girls could look up to because of her impeccable moral compass, she's the kind of fighter that will back out of a fight if she learns of an injury her opponent has sustained the day of the match, people respect her for that, it's one of the reasons she gets paid what she does, I'm three years older than her and I get half of what she makes and if she returns to the ring when she's healed she will make twice what she makes now, she's currently the top female fighter on this side of America, there's a girl who just turned fifteen in Wantagh, New York that is just like Shelby and she's beaten fifteen thirty year olds in just over a minute for the past six months and she's won every match against twenty year olds that she's faced, at this point if Shelby were to fight in the east vs west matches next month she'd be facing this girl and she's only five foot two and she's built like a tank, Shelby would have a hard time beating her and unless she recovers before the match I'm slated to fight against this girl on her behalf as the CFC thinks its my fault Shelby's hurt" says Sofía
"to be fair you punched pretty hard but you couldn't have known at the time, if your theory about someone dosing her is right, even if she wasn't distracted you would have beaten her the same way, anyway you call her manager and I'll go back to the hospital and ask for some blood tests" says Freddie
"ok, you know she'd be lucky to have you as her boyfriend, Carly doesn't know what she's missing" says Sofía as she motions for Freddie to leave
At the hospital thirty minutes later
"what did you say to Sofía exactly Freddie, she just authorized twenty grand to be transferred to Shelby's account, never in a million years did I expect her to give Shelby that much, even if it was because I told her I'd get her the money back when Shelby gets better" asks Shaun
"she told me she'd give ten grand to Shelby, we had a talk, you didn't tell me Shelby reacts different to meds, that they stay in her body longer, Sofía thinks that someone dosed Shelby, her family thinks that she intended to kill Shelby and that she has to turn herself in or they'll take all her money" says Freddie
"I thought you were her boyfriend, that's how she introduced you last night, she doesn't usually keep that secret from the people she's romantically involved with, I simply thought you knew, as for the money, Sofía said half would be for medical expenses above what the CFC is willing to cover that her insurance won't, the other half was for Shelby to be able to spend personally, what do you mean by dosed, like date rape kinds of drugs, that would at least explain the holes in her memory but not the bleeding she suffered last night" says Shaun
"I'm not her boyfriend yet, that was mostly for show last night so that Sofía would think she wasn't single" says Freddie
"oh, that threat, yeah Sofía never meant that, her family was there that night and she tends to act tougher around them, she called me once she got to her apartment and tore the whole mean tough girl attitude right down again, it's not the first time she's done so either" says Shaun
"I'd like to have the doctor run some blood tests" says Freddie
"for what exactly, you can't just ask for wide blanket blood tests, nobody covers that and it would be very expensive to do so" says the head nurse Sheila
"start with the date rape drugs or drugs like it, I looked it up, they can cause amnesia on rare occasions and Shelby's body holds onto meds longer, we have no idea how her body would react over the long term, I'm calling Carly to see when she first noticed the memory issues, I'll be back in a few minutes" says Freddie as he heads outside
15 minutes later outside as Carly finally answers the phone
"hey Freddie, sorry, I've been busy writing out the pros and cons of dating you, Shelby or Sam, I've been distracted, what's up" says Carly
"you're really considering this huh, anyway, when did you first notice Shelby was having memory issues" asks Freddie
"it started two months ago after we came home from lunch at her favourite restaurant, we were both more groggy than usual but I recovered over the next few days, Shelby didn't, she almost looked drunk, sometimes I'd have to ask her questions a few times before she could answer but she got better after about a week after me, why" says Carly
"because Sofía thinks the effects could be the result of date rape drugs, meds last longer in Shelby's system than most people and nobody knows how long term exposure to the drug could affect her, is there anything else we should know about her behaviour or how she spoke around you immediately after it started till last week" says Freddie as Carly audibly curses
"damn, Sofía did warn us that the restaurant may not be safe for open topped drinks anymore, Shelby didn't take it too seriously at the time, we both went to the bathroom at the same time that day, when we'd returned our food was on its way and we'd noticed that our drinks had been moved, we'd just assumed the table had been knocked and the server replaced our drinks, while she was recovering from whatever it was her eyes were a bit wonky, she said she could see fine but it looked scary" says Carly
"was there a salty taste to your drinks, I looked it up, date rape drugs tend to Taste a bit salty when mixed with drinks or alcohol" asks Freddie
"we didn't get alcohol, we'd gone out to celebrate a win against a quite big muscled woman twice her age, Shelby wasn't sure she could do it so when she did win she wanted to celebrate but she insisted that we remain sober, the reason we thought the drinks had been replaced was because the pop tasted a little sweeter than before we'd left, Shelby said that happens a lot when they refill the pop machines, the syrup doesn't always mix correctly right away, again that's why we thought nothing of it" says Carly
"has she been safe since about leaving her drinks alone" asks Freddie, worried it's a sustained exposure
"not by choice, the restaurant has insisted that we either bring our own drinks, alcohol or otherwise or use their special new cups that are sealed, the cups are single use once they put the top on, she doesn't like that but they look fancy so she agreed to use them, last week the restaurant was waiting on a refill shipment of the new cups so Shelby insisted on using the normal ones, again we both went to the bathroom at the same time, we came back and she took a sip and said it tasted funny so she went up to the bar area and got replacement drinks, she was oddly cold for the next few hours but seemed otherwise fine, not scary like the first time" says Carly
"I'm ordering blood tests for her, you gave me a timeline, have you thought about who you'd likely date" says Freddie
"I'm undecided, Spencer suggested test dates, building on that idea I think I might do one week trial runs, one week each, three weeks total, if I'm still undecided then I'm thinking about two weeks each, I'm hoping that I'll figure all this out quickly and don't leave anyone scared or guessing" says Carly
"Sam won't like the word 'test' dates, she came out to me yesterday, admitting that she has feelings for you, here's the thing tho, she knows that Shelby does too and Sam sees herself as a girl with a criminal record and no money, the type of girl that she thinks you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, let alone kiss or date, she sees Shelby as everything she can't be, smart, pretty, talented and rich" says Freddie as Carly sighs
"oh Samantha, always so hard on herself, that prosecutor really ruined her life huh" says Carly
"huh, are you talking about the prosecutor that got her convicted and put temporarily in Juvie way back when" asks Freddie
"yup, when Shelby learned that she had a juvenile record she got spooked and hired a private investigator AND hired a very high class lawyer to look at everything, like Governor level pay, turns out the prosecutor targeted her because her mother has very little money and he portrayed the evidence in a way to make Sam look like an uncontrollable, anger filled girl, he thought it would be an easy case to push and scare a girl like Sam to find people to cling to so she wouldn't be homeless and on the streets in a tent, Sam isn't the only girl he's done this to, three sisters last year, their mom lost her job and was barely able to pay rent, the girls stole from the dollar store, they stole toilet paper and a few bottles of water, they've been in Juvie for the past three months, Shelby's efforts with her expensive lawyer finally paid off, they were released this morning, juvenile records wiped off the face of the earth, oh I forgot to mention, her mother was wrongfully fired, they had given her the wrong tax forms on purpose, she was only at that job for just over a year, she didn't know how things worked there, she filed those forms during tax season and she got audited, the company claimed she willfully committed fraud and fired her, anyway she's been given a chance by the state to run the company as it wasn't the companies first time purposely giving female employees the wrong tax forms, she has ninety days to show she can do the job, though she has state guidance on financial decisions, if she can show she can do the job to federal standards she can keep the job and the pay, the state is paying for the girls therapy" says Carly
"what's this got to do with Sam and Shelby" asks Freddie
"go give the information Carly gave to you about Shelby then let me know and I'll pop by, we have things to discuss Freddie, Shelby hasn't been entirely truthful with us about her financial situation" says Spencer
"she's never talked about money Spencer, you know that as well as I do, she has a right to privacy about her financial situation, though I do wish she'd told us sooner that she had been kicked out of her apartment" says Freddie
"Freddie, she has at least thirty grand in cash" says Spencer as Carly argues with him
"don't you dare call Shelby a liar Spencer" says Carly as she hangs up
Back in the hospital outside Shelby's room an hour later
"well did the blood tests come back yet" asks Freddie
"they did yes, it showed traces of Ghb still in her blood, what concerns us though is the amount that we found in the hair sample we did, it was a lethal amount, whoever dosed her wasn't trying to rape her, they were trying to kill her, something she was doing pissed someone right off, in my twenty years as a nurse dealing with date rape cases I've never seen levels this bad" says Sheila as three girls are ushered towards them
"Freddie, did Carly tell you what prosecutor" asks Shaun
"no, just that the one these girls faced was the same one that targeted Sam" says Freddie
"Santiago Jones, son of a b*h, Shelby has been taunting him with a fight in the ring because of what he's done, I'll call the cops and have them check to see if he was at the restaurant both times, so you're saying that Sam is innocent, that she didn't break all that public property" says Shaun
"no, she did but the parking meters were broken anyway, her mom would put in enough money for an hour and they'd come out less than an hour later with several tickets on her windshield stating that she never paid for parking, her mom had hundreds of dollars in parking fines because of it, the first time she broke one she was sitting watching the meter as her mother renewed her driver's license, she said it went from half an hour to zero, she thought that if there was no parking meter that her mom couldn't get another fine, Sam's mom has never made enough money to take time off to truly spend time with her so she didn't understand that breaking those parking meters, not only were against the law, that her mother wouldn't want her to, all Sam saw was her mother struggling with money to pay those parking tickets, her mother hoped that the school would teach Sam these basic rules about public property because she didn't have the time to, while her mom is far from perfect, it wasn't her who failed Sam in this case, she had faith in a system that refuses to help girls like Sam, girls from struggling families, like these girls, hey I'm sorry we didn't tell you about that apartment thing" says Freddie as the girls are brought before him
"mom called him the super, he's scary and mean, I'm glad she's not living there, he's absolutely not super, though he is living in her apartment, with her property still in there, he told mom he never informed the internet people that she doesn't live there anymore and that he never intended to" says Hailey Stroma, the oldest sibling
"I'll get all that sorted out, she won't be going back there, ideally because she is the top fighter on this side of the country, the CFC has been fighting her and wanting her to get a house that she can control, that apartment was always too small for her but she likes being in tight spaces, did you come to see her" says Shaun
"yeah, we wanted to thank her, that mean lawyer person labeled us as soon to be hard criminals, we didn't know that we were stealing, nobody stopped us, we thought that if we were doing something bad someone would have stopped us because that's what mom does, we just wanted to make mom feel safer, we didn't mean to take anything without paying, mom gave me money, I'm very good at math, I kept a total in my head about what it would cost, we had just enough for the stuff, I forgot about tax, we were in line and a big man was in line behind us, Susie got scared because he kept coughing, she began pushing me and saying out, the thing is I was sick two years ago, really bad, to the point that a few times Susie thought I was dead or dying, knowing that she was afraid the man would get us sick we left, not even realizing I'd dropped the money, mom thought we paid for it and I was too worried about Susie at the time to tell mom I lost the money, then a cop showed up the next day and claimed we ALL stole the stuff, Susie and Bailey are four, I'm twelve, I get nervous when Susie or Bailey get scared, I wasn't thinking at the time, we gave everything back, IF anyone made a mistake it was me, I should have told that man to step back, that he was scaring my sisters but they both wanted out and mom thought I could handle a small supply run to a dollar store, that lawyer man made all of us legally criminals, when Shelby's lawyer said at MOST I should have been talked to, told what stealing was and made to pay for the items, he said because of our age that we are closer and that my actions, making sure my sisters felt safe was an instinct and not an intention to steal, he talked to me for hours and hours to make sure he knew the story and to see if my story changed but he didn't say that till the end after talking to the judge, mom told me to always be honest so that's what I did, can we see her" says Hailey
"you can, the meds we do have her on make her a bit tired so she may be a bit slower than she normally is and she might not be as perky as she normally is, but it's a recovery process, you may go in" says Sheila
"we girls have one request, fry the person who did this to her, make them pay, she doesn't deserve this, she's saved more people than just us, at least fifteen that I know of, mom told all of us what happened before we got here, we were all in tears, I mean clothes soaked tears, she made us feel heard and showed us that we were victims of a broken system and not criminals" says Hailey as they head in and Shaun seems shocked
"you didn't know about her justice side project did you" asks Sheila
"I knew about it but I didn't know the scale to which she took it till last week, Shelby is very good with money and she has the moral compass of a literal angel, she can't see people wronged and not want to help make things right, especially when kids are involved, she's of the thought that keeping money means you're greedy so she keeps very little for herself and she pours money into projects to make things right, whether that be homeless rehoming projects or getting innocent or easily mislead children out of prison or juvie as it were" says Shaun
"Freddie, you're absolutely certain Sam doesn't have a rebel or criminal thought lean in her actions" asks Sheila
"she has a temper and low tolerance for being talked down to but she's gotten a lot better having been around Carly so much, Sam thinks that she's a negative influence on Carly, that her negative influence on Carly outweighs Carly's positive influence on her" says Freddie
"is she a bad influence on Carly currently" asks Sheila
"no, she's grown a lot in the last few years, Carly has made Sam a better person but Sam has also helped Carly push her comfort zone little by little while also getting Carly to defend herself when she's right about something, they've helped each other grow, Carly went from calling iCarly well iCarly when we started to now at least internally calling it the 'Sam and Carly show', unfortunately she's unwilling to make the public change because people have gotten very used to simply calling it iCarly, if she wasn't having such a positive effect on the people who watch, she would have quit last year, her fans begged her not to, telling all these stories about how the webs how has kept them smiling since it began and they wouldn't know what to do without it" says Freddie
"you will have to get Carly and Sam in here to talk to Shelby about this whole trial date thing, she HAS to be informed that it is a trial and not guaranteed that she will be chosen, she will likely see a trial date thing like she was on the bachelorette show or something, speaking of has Sam accepted Shelby's offer for a few sparring matches in the ring, because if she can last at least a minute in the ring with Shelby the CFC WILL give her a contract if she wants one, Shelby advocates for recreational martial arts programs as a way to regulate the body, from nerves to emotions, she says its helped her stay level headed and believe me it has, it takes quite a bit to get her to fly off the handle, back when she started MMA fighting, there were a few triggers that she hadn't known about previously, in the meantime Shelby's trainer can work with Sam, Shelby's trainer doesn't get paid if he's not working with Shelby, she brought him in specifically because the one she had originally moved after a divorce and wanted a crap ton of money for travel back here, she's known him a long time, he was the trainer she wanted originally but the CFC said no, her fight game has doubled since the trainer she brought in started working with her and if Sam wants to fight, he's the man to train with, he's more than proven himself to be a good man" says Shaun as Melanie walks over having overheard the conversation
"Sam has agreed to train but only if she gets a little money up front" says Melanie
"how does thirty grand over five months sound" asks Shaun as Freddie tilts his head
"you knew about that suitcase of money" asks Freddie
"absolutely, she always has a stash of cash to help others, even though she's almost out of money she won't touch it because she allocated that money for Sam, though she assumed she'd have Samantha's record cleared up by now, no local judge would take the case so the lawyer asked a federal judge and he agreed to look over the case but he does not have time to make an informed ruling until next May, he's very busy with similar cases brought to him by several other lawyers, backed up by psychiatrists and psychologists" says Shaun
"what's his initial thoughts on the case and if she's going to be ok" asks Melanie
"he pointed out several errors of judgement by the prosecutor and is likely to recommend the prosecutor lose his job, anyway you should get back to Sam, you shouldn't have left her alone, not right now" says Shaun
"oh she's here, I didn't leave her, she wasn't feeling well this morning so she came with me, she's in the ER, she was having panic attacks once she arrived so they're giving her a onceover for anxiety and depression, one doctor thinks she's Bipolar because of the anxiety and depression but I explained the situation and the doctor said it was still possible that Sam's Bipolar and they'll put it in her file as a possibility but they'll ignore it for now and just treat her anxiety and depression" says Melanie
"even still, go back to her, we'll keep you updated on Shelby's condition" says Shaun
"that works I guess" says Melanie nodding as she leaves