Running on Insulin

Chapter 57

We agreed to let Samantha simmer down a little bit before going upstairs to discuss, well, everything with her. She's a teenager, dealing with a whole lot of trauma and changes happening  pretty quickly. 

"What do we do?" Jenna asked. 

I sighed. 

"I don't know. I really don't know. We'll give her some space, then go talk with her in a few minutes. Let's let her calm down a little," I said. 

"Thanks for not ratting me out, Jenna, but you didn't have to take the fall, so to speak," Josh said. 

"I figured it was a lot easier for me to be the bad guy than you. Me, she'll have to deal with. You, when you're in California, she won't have to deal with being mad at you. You know?"

Josh nodded. 

"Look, maybe I should go up and talk to her?" I suggested. "She might listen to me if she's still mad at you, Jen?"

"You can try, but I'm going to come up and wait in our room. In case you need... help?"

I nodded and headed up the stairs.  Jenna followed, and went down the hall to our room while I knocked on Samantha's door. 

I opened the door and poked my head inside. Samantha was on her bed, curled up and crying. 

"Hey there," I said, sitting on her bed. 

"What do you want?" she asked, staying turned away. 

"Just wanted to come chat with you. I know you're mad that Jenna overheard your phone call. She didn't listen in on purpose and we're worried about you."

"Why?" she asked. 

"Because parents worry about their kids, and you  have a lot going on. I know how you feel about going  up to the prison. I know you're worried about it."

"I'm not," she said. 

"Sam, I know that you are. And that's okay. Because we're going to be there with you, the whole time."

She rolled over onto her back. 

"I'm sorry," she said. 

"What for?"

"Thinking about running away. It was dumb," she said. "Are you mad?"

"Of course not sweetheart!" I said, pulling her up into a hug. "How could I be, how could we be mad at you for wanting to protect your family?"

"And I'm sorry I lied," she said. 

"What did you  lie about?" I asked. 

"I'm really scared about Thursday. I really, really don't want to go," she said. 

"I know darling, I know," I said, hugging her tighter. "Once we're done, you're done with him."

"I feel like he's going to make sure I'm  not ever done with him."

"Well, legally, he no longer has any control over you. And we promise to protect you."

Samantha looked at me with some doubt in her expression. 

"We will.  Samantha, we will protect you," 

"You don't know Stanley. You don't know what he can do."

"We had some idea with the adoption hearing. But what can he do now?"

"He can still contest the adoption, even though he said he won't. He has friends everywhere. He can get his friends to do whatever he wants."

"Honey, I don't have all the answers, but we'll take care of you, and we'll take on whatever Stanley tries to throw at us."

Samantha seemed, skeptical, but somewhat accepting of my answer.

"So, what do you think about going out for lunch with Jenna tomorrow?" I asked. 

She sighed. 

"You know, that actually sounds nice.  The food at school is okay, but, something not school food might be nice."

"Good.  Let's let her know, okay? I think she's up here in our room."

Samantha and I got up and went out into the hallway.  We walked to our room and since the door was open, went in.  Jenna was sitting on our bed, wringing her hands, apparently nervous that Samantha would have fought or something. 

"Hey there gorgeous wife," I said walking into our room. 

"Hey guys. What's going on? How'd it go?" she looked between Samantha and I. 

"Fine. Samantha  is sorry she thought about running away, and said she thought that maybe going out for lunch with you tomorrow might be fun," I said.  "Right?"

I looked at Samantha. 

"Yeah," she said. "I'm sorry. I know you didn't listen in on purpose. And I know it would be dumb for me to run away. I probably wouldn't last too long out there on my own."

"And we're kinda liking having you around here," Jenna said, pulling Samantha into a hug. "Seeing as we made it a permanent situation and all."

"I'm sorry. I would like to go for lunch tomorrow, if it's still  okay," Sam said to Jenna.

"Of course. I'd love to," Jenna smiled.

"Now," I said. "What about dinner? We still do need to celebrate that we're a family now."

"We do," Jenna smiled, still hugging Samantha. "I was thinking maybe we should go to La Paloma?"

"What's La Paloma?" Samantha asked. "I mean, besides a restaurant, I'm guessing.  What kind of food?"

"Italian. You like Italian food, don't you?"

"Like, pasta and pizza?" Sam asked. 

"Exactly. But fancier," Jenna said. "Much more like real Italian food. I mean from Italy."

"Okay. I guess, that sounds good," Samantha shrugged. "I'd be happy with McDonald's." she said. 

"Well, this is a special occasion. Chicken nuggets won't do," I smiled. Samantha smiled back. 

Since we still had some time before dinner, the three of us went back downstairs.  Jenna had Samantha check her blood sugar from her snack, and then we sat in the living room and she played some Xbox with Josh. He didn't say anything about the phone call, or any of the things that had come up. He just asked Samantha if she was okay, and offered to play Xbox with her. 

I called the restaurant and made a reservation for seven o'clock.  Around five thirty, we all went to get ready to go. Jenna made sure Samantha had her test kit and insulin with her, and the four of us hopped into my truck and headed to the restaurant.  Samantha was animated and seemed happy. 

Throughout dinner, Samantha chatted happily. She talked about school, and what they were studying in Social Studies and English. She said she still didn't like math, but she was doing pretty well, she thought. 

We went home after dinner, and Samantha got ready for bed. I set my alarm for 2 am, as usual, and we checked her sugar before she went to sleep, and made sure she took her nighttime long-acting insulin, said goodnight, and tucked her into bed. 

Jenna and I went to our room, and got ourselves ready for bed.  Josh had gone to his room as well. 

We went to bed feeling that our little family was doing okay.