What Should Have Been

Part 35

After his meeting with the consultant, Sam's mood had been dropping considerably. His treatment had been upped to twice a week for the next month as there had not been as much of an improvement as he'd wanted to see. With this came the added side effects of being exhausted more often than not.

Sam had began spending more and more time alone in his half decorated house. On the days he was up to doing something, he'd paint another room or move things about. Bit by bit the house was coming together, but he felt his relationship with Connie was fracturing. He'd put distance between them recently, intentional or not he wasn't sure, but it wasn't helping his mood.

Connie sat at home with an agitated Grace who never stopped asking for Sam. She picked her phone up calling his number before passing the phone to Grace. "Connie look-" "Sam where are you?" He stiffened up hearing her voice and not Connie's. "Hey Gracie... I'm at home-" "You promised you wouldn't leave me and Mummy forever."

Sam stopped what he was doing immediately, dropping everything to the floor as he sat down. "Hey, I haven't left... I've just been busy. Grace I promised I wasn't going to leave and I won't." Connie had never expected some distance to have such an adverse affect on her daughter, but apparently she wasn't the only one to love this man. "How about you and Mummy come round this afternoon?"

Connie watched as Grace turned to her, her eyes alight for whatever reason. "Can we see Sam, please Mummy, please?" Connie smiled running a hand back through her hair with a gentle nod. "If Sam says it's okay-" "Tell your Mummy of course it's okay. And tell her to pack a bag-" "Like for a sleepover?" "Like for a sleepover. I love you Grace." Grace smiled standing up, jumping about. "Sam said it's okay... Please Mummy can we go now?" "Woah calm down sweetie, how about we get dressed and have some lunch. Then we'll go."

Sam sighed placing his phone down but with a gentle smile that hadn't been there earlier. He looked about getting himself up and cleaning everything away. Speaking to Grace had given him some energy, but knowing that they were coming over soon seemed to be all he needed to get the place suitable for a three year old.

In the time he'd spent away from everyone, Sam had redecorated almost every room. The living room finally looked like somewhere he could live and enjoy spending time. He could picture him and Connie spending evenings together here sometimes, and it was enough to know that doing this had been the right choice.

Before he knew it someone was knocking on the door repetitively. He laughed pulling it open as Grace came tumbling inside wrapping her arms around his legs. "Hey you..." He scooped her up from the floor with a smile before she hugged him properly. Connie smiled stepping inside following him through to the living room, placing her bag down behind the sofa.

"Sam is this what you've been doing?" She looked about at the room which hardly looked like the one she'd seen on the few occasions here. "I wanted somewhere I could actually bring you two." Connie smiled before seeing the few pictures he had framed. Sam wandered to the kitchen with Grace getting her a drink.

Connie looked to the photos. There was the same picture of the three of them that she had on her phone, alongside one of the two of them and another of her and Grace. She gently trailed a finger over them as Sam came back into the room. "Oh-" "Where'd you get these?" Sam stepped closer to her looking to the images. "They were from the day we went to the beach." Connie smiled before turning to face him. "You didn't have to do all this-" "I wanted to... There's something else as well."

Sam took her hand wandering through the house heading upstairs. He stopped at one of the bedroom doors opening it for her to look inside. "Oh Sam..." She looked about at the small bedroom that had been decorated much like her room at home. "I know we've never really discussed what this is, or where we see it going... But I'd like to think we could really do this."

Grace squeezed through the pair looking to the pink bedroom. She looked to the princess bed in the corner of the room which had small twinkling lights hanging about it. "Wow... Whose bedroom is this Sam?" She sat herself on the end of the bed before he looked to Connie who nodded. He wandered in crouching before her, his hand on her knee. "Well, if you'd like it to be it's yours... For when you stay here."

The smile on her face showed him that he'd done the right thing. "Me?" "Yeah, because every princess needs the perfect bedroom, am I right?" Grace nodded before hugging Sam properly. Connie couldn't help but smile as she leant against the door frame. "Can we stay tonight Mummy, please?" "Now I know why we had to pack for this sleepover she wouldn't stop talking about." Sam laughed before wandering back downstairs with Grace and Connie.

It was sunny outside so Sam ushered Grace towards the back door. "Mummy look!" Grace was running down the garden to the small house at the end of the garden. "Sam you really didn't have to do all this." He smiled wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "I wanted to. Besides that smile of hers is enough to tell me I did a good job." Connie laughed wandering down the garden sitting on the porch looking through the window at Grace.

"There's a kitchen and everything in here Mummy." "I can see that baby, how about you come and say thank you to Sam." She came flying out of the door, running up the garden to Sam taking him off guard. "Hey you-" "Thank you Sam, I love you." He smiled picking her up before looking to her with a grin. "And I love you too Princess Grace. Now how about we make that Mummy of yours some tea, I'm sure there's something in your new house that could do that."

He placed her back down as she skipped to the house pulling out various toys. Sam took a seat beside Connie who leant into his chest immediately, happily watching her daughter play. Things were good now, she couldn't believe she could cause it all to fall down by telling him the truth about her daughter, their daughter.