Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 19

Tyler POV

Samantha was working through some worksheets while Jenna went to the door to meet Samantha's tutor. Samantha looked up at me and then went back to her work. It struck me a minute later. She knew I was in the room, she knew Jenna was not in the room. And she hadn't gone running after Jenna. I took it as a win.

"Good morning, miss Samantha," Brendon said, bounding down the stairs and coming into the kitchen. "What are you doing?"

He looked at the worksheets.

"Ew. Math."

Samantha looked up at him, a little stunned, then looked at her math and shrugged and went back to it.

Sarah came down a minute later.

"Hey beautiful," she said to Samantha.

"Good morning gorgeous," Brendon grinned at her.

"I was talking to Samantha, B. But yes, you're beautiful, too," she said, pinching his cheek.

Josh came down behind Sarah and came into the kitchen as well.

"Hey there!" he said.

Samantha sighed, tossed down her pencil and sat back, with her arms crossed.

"Uh, I think we're interrupting someone," Sarah said. "Let's go out for breakfast before we go on our errand."

"Sorry kiddo." Josh said.

"Samantha," Jenna said, coming into the kitchen with a young woman with auburn hair. "This is Ms. Heron. Your tutor. Want to say hi?"

Samantha waved at her.

"It's nice to meet you Samantha," she smiled. "I see you've already gotten to work on some of the work your teachers sent over?"

Samantha shrugged and nodded.

"Alright," I said. "The four of us are going to disappear. Sam, we have a big surprise for you later."

Samantha looked right at me. And shrugged. There was no emotion in her eyes. It was like she didn't care. So many promises had been broken in so short a time, she wasn't expecting much out of this. That made me sad.

We left the house and piled into my truck.

"Where to?" Brendon said.

"Taco Bell!" Josh said.

"They don't serve breakfast doofus," I said. "We'll go to a diner I know. I'm in the mood for pancakes."

I drove into the city and to the diner. We all piled in and got a table. I thought back to the moment the tutor arrived and Sam stayed in the kitchen, and smiled to myself.

"What's got you all smiley?" Sarah asked me.

"I was just thinking of something," I said. "When Samantha's tutor arrived, and Jenna went to answer the door, Samantha stayed in the kitchen. Until today, any time Jen left the room, Samantha chased after her. She was afraid to be in the same room as me. I think she's getting to the point where she's remember I'm not a threat. Or, at least willing to trust me enough to not run."

"She didn't leave when I came down either," Brendon said. "Usually she would, even if you were in the room."

"It's taking time, but she is getting better," Josh said. "You all just need to be patient. She'll get there."

"I know. I just hate that we're here. That he's done this to her. That he's undone weeks and weeks of work. She was doing so well with us. She was starting to be really happy. She was dosing her insulin without us needing to remind her, or help her dose properly. She was, she was chatty. I mean, you saw her on the weekend of the party. Though staggering you all was a good idea. She definitely needed that, but by Saturday night, she was so engaged with all of you. She was making friends at school. She had Jill, and a few other kids she talked about. He took all that away from her."

"Well, he didn't take Jill," Sarah said. "She seemed happy enough visiting on Saturday. Until Sam started crying, but she was worried about Sam, not uncomfortable about her crying."

"She's starting to come around, Ty," Josh said.

I nodded. It was true. She was starting to make strides. But part of me worried that she was resigned and not actually healing.

We ordered our breakfasts, and after we'd eaten, we headed to a tree lot. We walked through it looking at all the trees. I wanted a perfect tree for Samantha. I have no idea what her Christmases were like with her father - if she even celebrated Christmas. And if she did, I suspected it was just another day where he inflicted all sorts of physical and psychological pain on her. I wanted this Christmas to be one she'd remember forever. With happy memories of celebrating with friends, and family. Where the only pain she felt was an upset tummy from too many Christmas treats and too many hugs.

"Dude," Josh said, after we'd been wandering around for at least two hours. "You've found something wrong with every single tree we've looked at! Too small, too many needles, not enough needles, too many funny shaped branches, not enough funny shaped branches. My feet are killing me. And I'm severely malnourished."

"We had a huge breakfast, like, two hours ago," I said.

"Okay, I'm severely undercaffeinated," he said.

"I want this to be a perfect Christmas for Samantha. I can't imagine she's had many of those lately."

"Samantha will have a perfect Christmas because she's with you guys. Even without a tree, she'd be having a perfect, happy Christmas."

"Ty!" Brendon yelled from across the lot. "I found it!"

I went over to where he was literally bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Look, look, look!" he said, grinning like a five-year-old.

I looked up at the tree. He was right. It was the perfect tree. I walked around it, taking it in, making sure it truly was perfect. It was. No bald patches, not too many or not enough needles.

"Okay, stay here. I'll get the lot attendant to tie it to the truck," I said.

I went over to the attendant and we got the tree paid for and loaded on the truck.

"Okay," Sarah said. "Now we need to go to the mall, and we need some food, too."

"Why the mall?" I asked.

"You want Samantha to have the perfect Christmas, but you're not going to get her any Christmas presents?" Sarah smiled.

"Presents! Of course!" I said. "I feel like an idiot."

"You've had, well, a lot on your mind lately," Josh said.

We stopped at a Taco Bell, because of course, and had a quick lunch before heading over to the mall. I wanted to buy it all for her.

We went to Hot Topic, and Brendon and Sarah bought what looked like the entire band merch section. Josh picked up some blankets, and shirts for Sam, and other trinkets, some patches that he said we could sew on her jean jacket.

"She doesn't have a jean jacket," I said.

"Not yet. I'm getting her one of those, too."

I rolled my eyes.

"Now we're spoiling her."

We walked through the mall, and in one of the music stores, Brendon bought some Panic!, Fall Out Boy, twentyOne Pilots and MCR posters. He then took them over to a framing store and asked them to frame them. They'd be ready in an hour. We kept walking and Sarah bought Sam some more clothes from Old Navy. Jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, a warmer jacket. She hadn't needed a winter coat as yet, considering she hadn't gone outside in three weeks. But today's snow reminded us that she might need one this winter. Eventually. Hopefully.

Josh was spoiling my kid even more. He bought her a Switch and said he was going to buy her a laptop.

"She has a laptop," I said. "We literally just bought her one."

"Oh. Well, how about an iPod?"

"I got her a phone,"

"AirPods?"

"Fine," I laughed. He also wound up getting her a good computer bag for the laptop, a couple of cases for the AirPods. Which he also got engraved.

Once we'd bought out the mall, we headed back to the truck and headed home.