Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 39.

December, Karachi.

Samantha's POV:-

The many hours spent on the plane had left me sleep deprived, devastatingly tired, and absolutely cranky. It was a very long flight, and I had been too agitated to sleep. The entire way, I had switched from watching one movie to another, while Remy had given up and gone to sleep after four hours of having to watch me struggle with it.

Normally, I didn't mind flying. Not that I had it many times in my life, but still. Normally, nothing really freaks me out. Normally, I like to think that I handle pressure very well. But this wasn't a normal scenario, and I had concluded that I had a right to freak out.

I had felt the urge to wake up Remy multiple times, to ask him to talk to me, to distract me somehow. Loneliness had bestowed upon me sometime during the night, and I was sure that I would lose my damn mind. But I felt guilty about waking him up, and so I spent the time drinking orange juice until my bladder reached it's limit. Then I would make my way around the sleeping passengers, towards the bathroom, and then return to my seat after washing my face multiple times. It had become a routine, that I did every other hour. And I was sure that everyone would sigh with relief once I finally got off this blasted plane, because I had turned in to a nuisance overnight.

Remy only woke up once during the night because he was thirsty, and the other time when the plane was about to land in Karachi, and I was counting minutes til I met my fate. And my family.

He stretched, and yawned, and gave me a lazy sympathetic smile that made me frown at him.

"Good morning, sunshine", He said, and planted a kiss to my temple, while attempting to fix his bed hair.

It was beyond adorable, but I was still on edge. Even more so now because we were so close to being greeting by my parents. And the fact that he slept the entire time was ticking me off just a bit. Maybe more than a bit. He should be freaking out too, he was going to be meeting my parents, for Gods sake.

He managed to tone down his hair just enough to look presentable, and excused himself to the washroom. I starting gathering all of our various things in to my shoulder bag, and when he returned, he looked much better than before.

"Does this look fine?", He asked me, and I nodded.

He looked great with all the extra sleep that he had gotten, and I was sure I looked like the dead, with my hand combed hair, and the bags under my eyes.

I spent the last half hour on the plane being squished in to his side, my cheek pressing in to his shoulder, and my eyes closed. That was the only time of relief I got after the fifteen hour flight, and I savored it. I let my mind go blank, and I managed to fall asleep for a few minutes, after which Remy shook me awake and told me we had landed.

The airport in Karachi was just the same as I remembered it, if not worse. It was too small, too crowded, and the air conditioning was broken. It was making my head hurt, and my body ached for coffee, but I knew I wasn't getting any until I got home.

I managed to scurry around after Remy, even though I wanted to lie down somewhere and sleep for a day. We managed to locate our bags after an hour of searching and waiting, and then all we had to do was make our way out through the doors, where my parents were probably waiting. I had begged them not to come, begged and begged and begged. But obviously they planned to make it awkward and tortuous for me. Obviously.

I had made sure to dress appropriately. But I still did a quick up on my clothing and fiddled with my hair. I hadn't let my hair grow out at all, and I was wondering how shocked my Mum would be when she saw this. And my sweatshirt and jeans outfit was the most appropriate thing I owned now, but it still made me feel out of place.

Remy looked even more frazzled than me. This was probably the first time coming back here for him, since his family moved out nine years ago, and he was scratching the back of his neck and looking around nervously. He looked over and caught me looking at him, and smiled reassuringly.

"Ready?", He asked, squeezing my hand one last time before letting go, "Sam, we got this", he added, and I managed a weak nod, wanting to lace my fingers through his again.

Maintaining a little distance had been a mutual decision. Because we didn't know what we were walking in to, and it's better to be safe than sorry. But this was going to be so hard to handle without his reassuring touch. I hadn't even thought about how hard it would be for me. But this was probably for the best. We needed my parents on our side.

Walking through the double glass doors, and out in to the crowd of people was the weirdest experience of my life. I might as well have been walking the runway during some fashion show in Milan. My eyes were scanning the crowd, and they stopped once I realized that the crowd was scanning me. I could feel every set of eyes there on us, and I held the straps of my bag tighter and pushed through the field of people waiting there. I lost Remy somewhere in between, and panicked, only to find him a few steps ahead of me. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes were hard as he looked around. I just wanted to get away from here.

Remy found my parents before I did. I was still standing on tip-toes and trying to navigate my way out of the crowd, when I felt him go rigid beside me.

"Sam", He said, and I followed his eyes to where my folks were making their way towards us, and I felt myself go stiff as well.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck", I heard him silently muttering under this breath as my Mum neared us and grabbed me.

She grabbed me by the sleeve of the sweatshirt I was wearing, and gathered me in her arms as tightly as she could. I was so in shock that I was just standing there wide eyed and frozen in her embrace, unable to hug her back. I reached up an arm and wrapped it around her shoulder, and behind her back, I met my father's burning glare, which softened slightly as he looked at me.

They had aged, my parents. Not so visible to anyone else probably, but I noticed it right away. The few graying strands of hair on their heads, and the crinkles by their eyes. How Dad walked a little slowly now, and how Mum's smile had changed. And my brother, my squirty little brother, over-towered me now. And when I finally let a few tears slip by accidentally, I thought it was Remy who brushed them off. But it had been my Dad. Remy was standing some distance away, with a expression on his face that I wasn't able to understand.

I pulled back from my parents, and motioned for him to come forward. Confident now that it wouldn't turn out as bad as I had originally imagined.

I had never seen Remy as nervous as he was now. Usually, he was the one I always looked to for reassurance, but now the roles had been reversed. Although I had no reassurance to offer him, I pretended to act calm, and not let the nervousness rolling off of him effect me. Because the only way out of it, was only to go through it.

"Um, this is Remy..", I managed to cough out awkwardly, and I could feel everyone scrutinizing him with their glares.

Much to my benefit, he cleared his throat awkwardly, said a polite hello, and shook my Dad's hand when it was offered. That seemed like a total bulls-eye to me, because I was sure they were convinced that I had been joking about him.

"Well, let's get you home before we talk Sammy", Dad mumbled, clearly still taken aback, and started to make his way towards where he must've parked his car.

We let them walk ahead, and Remy grinned at me sideways when he was certain they wouldn't see him.

"That went well", He laughed silently, and started to walk after them, dragging our bags behind him.

I took a full minute to just stand there and breathe in the open air. I closed my eyes, and let the harsh, burning sun cleanse me of the cold winters of New York, before I took off running after them.