necroslacker | seattle ; sunday ft

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seattle ; sunday ft

At some point after the funeral, Sam had passed out in the car. The world had started spinning brutally and he had closed his eyes just to stop from puking again. Sleep had overtaken him.

The next time Sam became aware of the world, he realized Ramon was carrying him and they were at his mother's house.

"This is pretty sweet, Ramon," Sam slurred, giggling. "You're like my Latin Romeo."

"Keep saying that and I'll give you something to puke about," Ramon said, shaking his head. With James leading the way, they walked the path up to his mother's house where James knocked and waited.

Haley opened the door a crack, peering out from behind a chain. Sam frowned because that was new. When she saw Sam in Ramon's arms, she frowned but opened the door for the group.

"You need to get a robe," Sam told her, looking at the pajamas. "Don't you think so, James?"

James said nothing and Sam looked over to see James standing there, tense and coiled up like a spring.

"James?" Sam tried again.

"Yes," James said, finally speaking. "And a better lock." With that, he stepped in and covered Haley up with his jacket all in one smooth motion. "We're sorry to bother you this late but we're in need of your mother's services."

As if summoned, Sam's mother stepped out of the kitchen. Frowning, she immediately ushered everyone into the kitchen to gather around the kitchen table. Ramon dumped me at the kitchen table and Sam's head immediately flopped down since it was just too much work and effort to keep it up. He still felt awful.

He could hear James and Ashley talking with his mother while Haley took a seat across from me. She looked amused, of all things. How she could look that way with all that was going on, Sam didn't know.

"Earth to Sam," Haley said, snapping her fingers in front of my face. She sounded annoyed now. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Anything in the fridge?" Sam mumbled, looking around. "I'm starving."

"Sam, it's like four in the morning," Haley said.

"So?" When Haley didn't answer, Sam mentally called for Brooke. He just wanted someone to get him a sandwich. Brooke appeared quickly, smiling, but it was gone in an instant when she saw that state of Sam.

"What's wrong with him?" Brooke whispered to Ramon and Haley.

"Not sure," Haley answered while Ramon shrugged.

"You okay?" Brooke asked Sam. Sam shook his head and Brooke started patting his back soothingly. That simple movement evoked another person and he suddenly wanted Natalie very badly. He almost started crying again.

She kept up the motion for a few seconds before moving onto to try and comfort Ramon with the same action. "You know, I bet Mrs. LaCroix wouldn't mind if you went outside and did a few laps to burn off some energy."

Ramon nodded and Brooke escorted him out. And Sam still didn't have a sandwich. So, if no one was going to get him a sandwich, Sam was going to have to do it himself. He started to stand up but Haley put a hand on his shoulder and shoved him back down.

"Yeah, no. I'll get it for you so you don't end up drinking Draino on accident," Haley said, standing up.

Sam nodded and dropped his head back down onto the kitchen table. While Haley was off getting him a sandwich, Sam noticed that James, Ashley and his mom had stopped talking and his mom was heading towards the stove, looking drawn.

"I gotta go," Ashley said when her Blackberry buzzed. "Keep an eye on him and I'll check in when I can." With that said, she opened up a vortex and was gone.

Sam turned his attention back to his mother. The worry he'd seen was gone, replaced by calm and reassurance but Sam knew better. He knew he'd feel her fear he got up and touched her. Sam frowned and rubbed at his burning chest.

"She's worried," Sam said to no one in particular.

James took a seat and nodded. "Yes."

There was silence in the kitchen for awhile until Haley finally brought me a snack. It wasn't a sandwich but it'd do. "Thanks, Haley."

Smiling, Haley placed a similar snack in front of James. "Figured you might need one too."

James stared at the plate and got that tense look on his face again.

"Look, if you don't want it -- "

"No." The word was loud and Sam frowned. "No, I do. I'm sorry for my lack of manners. Sincere apologies."

Haley nodded, mollified and took her seat again. "If there's something wrong with my choices..."

"No." James shook his head again. "No, please. As I said, lovely, especially at this hour, and after we barged in unexpected." He quickly bit into a strawberry to prove it to her. And then another. "I think these are the best strawberries I have ever tasted."

"Why, thank you, James,” my mother said from over by the stove. "I grow them myself. With Haley's help, of course."

"If I may be so bold, I would love to get either your or Haley's advice with our own garden. The gnomes aren't much help, and I’m having a bit of a problem with—"

Sam snorted and shook his head as best he could. He even laughed when James glared at him. "How scary you are, James. You've got some brown on your nose, by the way."

Haley stifled a giggle and when she noticed that James didn't understand, she leaned over and whispered something in his ear. When he finally knew what Sam was talking about, his eyes narrowed even further. But, he calmed down once Haley shook her head and patted his arm.

Sam reached for something else on his plate but found it gone and was replaced with a mug. "I was eating that," Sam told her, frowning.

"Drink," his mother said, nodding at the mug.

Sam reached for the mug and started drinking it...and almost gagged. Sam pushed it away. James pushed it back.

"Either you drink it or I will pour it down your throat. Your choice, of course. I would like to add that I’m pretty sure your mother owns a funnel."

"Yeah, yeah," Sam mumbled and dutifully drank it. When he finished the mug, he found himself really sleepy and without meaning it, he fell asleep. Again.

[NFB. TBC since this chapter is super long. Lifted lovingly from Necromancing the Stone Warning for: not much. Nothing objectionable here. Open if you wanna talk to Sam (or, in this case, his sister, mother or James).]

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"It's just a knife," Haley said, shrugging. "It's not a big deal. It's a warning. If they wanted to do anything to me, they would have. Don't freak out. Sam's already done that and he doesn't even know it was my bedroom door."

"You're way calmer than you should be."

Not that freaking out helped anything, and Natalie knew that. She was still doing her own fair share of that. Quietly, internally.

"What else should I be doing?" Haley asked, shrugging her shoulders. "Hover over Sam? Lock myself away? We did get a new chain lock for the house, though."

Just to reassure her a little bit.

"I can't do anything about it. And there's bigger issues here."

Because, you know, Sam. And Brid's father. No matter how much she teased her brother, she couldn't imagine the sight of seeing another dead friend.

Yeah, and Natalie would've preferred not to imagine at all.

This whole thing was making her chest feel uncomfortably tight. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, and sighed. "Have you guys got everything under control?"

You know. Relatively speaking.

"I don't know."

It was honest because she didn't really know what was going on.

"Things could be worse, I guess. It's being handled."

"Good," Natalie said. It sounded like there was something she would have liked to add, but didn't.

She was still waiting for the day when hearing something was wrong with Sam wasn't immediately followed by the feeling that she should have been running to him.

Haley noticed that too and actually waited to see if she'd say anything. When she didn't, Haley sighed.

"I can have Sam call you if he's up to it when he wakes up," she offered. "If he's not puking all over the place."

"I don't know if that's a good idea."

Said the girl who was already thinking about coming over.

"Why not?" Haley asked her pointedly.

"Because we're not in a great place in our friendship right now," Natalie replied. Mildly. Which was kind of her version of saying things pointedly, sometimes.

"Why not?" Haley asked, never one to shy away from asking difficult questions. "What happened?"

"Because we made out and have different ideas about closure."

Well. She'd asked.

"Ugh," Haley said, groaning. "You both are stupid about each other. That's the bottom line. Hear that? You're both stupid and don't even argue with me about this, Natalie. I'll tell Sam the same damn thing when he wakes up. You obviously don't want to let go and neither does he. You're both pretending."

"I want to be his friend," Natalie told her. Again, mildly. "Not that it's really up to you to judge, Haley."

"Oh, I will judge all I want when my brother is lying in his room, dead to the world, and the person he probably wants around is too bogged down in personal issues," Haley snapped, shaking her head. "I will judge all I want because you're practically freaking out and yes, I can tell, about what I've told you and you're refusing to do anything about it besides telling me it's 'good'."

She took a breath but wasn't entirely done yet. "I will judge all I want because Sam didn't call anyone to freaking help him do whatever he did! He just went in there alone and who knows how sick he is right now because he won't ask for help when you probably could have kicked the ass of whoever did this to him. I will judge you and I will judge him and you can't stop me because you're making excuses and he's just repressing every single damn thing and it's infuriating. So, yes, I can and will judge."

Sure, she could judge.

And Natalie could hang up on her. Which she did. She wasn't very proud of it, even though it was to start looking at Portalocity connections.

Sometimes you had to do these things.

"Whatever," Haley said when she realized what happened. She turned her phone off and stalked back towards Sam's bedroom.

Her mother and James were still in there and she went in herself, quieting down as she did. She shut the door to his room behind her.

It took Natalie a good long while to get to Seattle. She had to make sure she was on top of all her work things, and all that.

She left Peter a message saying she was skipping town for just a little while because of a family emergency. She wasn't sure why she even bothered with the vagueness. Peter was going to know who it was about, and she could practically see the eyeroll already.

Eventually, a bag over her shoulder, she found herself outside Sam's mother's house, walking down the winding path.

It was weird to be there.

The outside of the house was still and quiet. It would have been idyllic if you didn't know what was happening within.

The door was closed and locked and Sam and company were still inside. Sam was still out of it while Haley and her mother were in the kitchen, cooking quietly. James was standing outside of Sam's room tensely.

Natalie stalled a little, examining plants and flowers she had no real interest in. Just... stalling. Yeah. She was stalling, and as soon as she realized that, she straightened up again.

And then she took a deep breath, walked to the door, and knocked.

It was Haley who opened the door, keeping the chain on and peering at Natalie through the crack.

"Seriously?" She sounded incredulous.

Natalie just gave her a tired look.

"I would ask you to decide what you want from me, but I think I'm going to opt for a 'don't start, Haley' instead."

Haley wanted to start, she really did but she was stopped by the appearance of Sam's mother.

"Haley, don't start," she said, pulling her daughter gently out of the way so she could open the door. She'd changed out of her pajamas but still looked tired and worried. "Hello, Natalie. How are you, dear?"

"Better than Sam," Natalie replied with that patented mildness, although the expression on her face softened just a little bit. "And the rest of you, by the sound of it. No offence. Hello, Ms. LaCroix."

"We're sure he'll be fine," she said, inviting Natalie inside. "He's just a little ill right now."

It was an understatement. She closed the door behind Natalie.

"I gave him something to help him sleep a few hours ago."

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