Secrets

[andrea]

Continuing Chapter 40

Talinda cracked a smiled and looked at Rob.

“Okay. All where going to be doing today is an ultrasound. So whenever you ready you can lie back on the exam table and will get started.”

Talinda nodded her head. She turned her body to sit at the end of the examination table and started to lie down. Dr. Bergstrom pulled out a surgical towel and placed it over Talinda’s leg so it would cover her lower half when she would pull up her gown, “You can come and stand beside her if you want to Rob” Bergstrom said as she started to get the ultrasound machine set up.

Rob got up from the seat making his way over to Talinda. When he got close to her he took a hold of her hand.

Dr. Bergstrom turned her attention back to Talinda. After putting some gloves on, she raised Talinda’s gown to show her producing stomach, “You ready?” Bergstrom asked.

“Yeah” Talinda responded.

Taking a tube of gel out, Dr. Bergstrom opened the cap and put some on Talinda’s abdomen. Dr. Bergstrom then picked up the transducer device and placed it on the gel that was on Talinda’s abdomen. Activating the ultrasound machine, Dr. Bergstrom pressed a couple keys and turned on the monitor. Moving the transducer a little Bergstrom had the baby on the monitor.

“The baby looks health, Talinda. Have a look for yourself.” Dr. Bergstrom turned the monitor to face Talinda and Rob. Talinda turned her head to face the monitor, “That’s the head right there and the feet are over here” Bergstrom pointed out.

“Wow. That’s the baby?” Rob asked amazed by the image on the screen.

“Yes it is” Bergstrom replied, “If you would like Talinda we could also fine out the *** of the baby, but that’s totally up to you.”

Talinda turned her head to look at Rob. Since he did have some say in the pregnancy, as he could be the father, she wanted to see what he thought about finding out the *** of the baby.

“It’s really up to you Tal. But you know setting up the baby’s room would be a lot easy you if you knew. But then it would be exciting to leave it a surprise” Rob said to her as she nodded her head.

Talinda turned her head back to Dr. Bergstrom, “I think I want to keep it a surprise.”

“Alright” Bergstrom replied. She moved the transducer away from Talinda’s stomach and put it back with the ultrasound machine. She handed her some paper towels to wipe away the gel on her stomach.

Talinda grabbed the paper towel and wiped the gel off her stomach before she slowly sat up on the examination table.

“I’ll print out a couple pictures of the ultrasound for you to take. Keep staying up with the prenatal care and bed rest. Do you have any questions for me?”

Rob cleared his throat which made Talinda turned her head back to look at him.

She turned her attention back to Dr. Bergstrom, putting her hair behind her right ear. She shook her head, “Not at the moment.”

“Alright. Then I’ll see you next month” Dr. Bergstrom explained.

“Okay. Thanks” Talinda responded.

Dr. Bergstrom got up and made her way out of the room closing the door behind her. Talinda closed her eyes for just a second and felt a tear roll down her cheek.

“You ready to go?” Rob’s voice pulled her back.

Opening her eyes back up, she looked at him, “Yeah.” She nodded her head.

Rob handed Talinda her close back. Grabbing her close, she changed out of the hospital gown. As soon as she was finished both her and Rob walked out of the exam room.

They then made there way to the nurses station. Dr. Bergstrom was waiting out there from them, “Here are the ultrasound pictures” she stated handing Talinda a small brown envelop, “So for the next ultrasound how does December 17th sound? Around the same time?”

“Yeah. That sounds good” Talinda replied nodding her head.

“Alright, well then were all set up. I’ll see you next month.”

Talinda just smiled. She turned away from the desk and Rob followed her.

After getting out of the hospital and getting home, Talinda and Rob made there way inside. Talinda just made her way over to the couch and sat down while Rob stayed standing by the front of the door.

“I hate to do this to you now, but I have to go to the studio. You’re okay being by yourself?” Rob told her.

Talinda nodded her head slightly, “Yeah” she replied softly.

Rob only shook his head and then turned around and walked out of the door closing it behind him.

As soon as the door closed, Talinda closed her eyes trying to stop the tears from wanting to fall. ‘Why am I keeping this a secret from him?’ she thought to herself.

Taking her cell phone out of her purse she dialed her voicemail. After the call connected and entering her pin number, she placed the phone against her ear.

‘Hey Tal. It’s Jennifer. You’re never going to guess who came by the New York firm today. Elizabeth, the New York receptionist, called me to tell me that he wants to see you. Don’t worry; he doesn’t know you’re in California. Elizabeth seems to think there was something fishy about him, it seem like he wasn’t looking for you to talk about the firm. I kind of think it has something to do with the baby, maybe he heard the news. But hey that could be my imagination. Anyways I’m calling to check and see how you and the baby are doing? Have you told Rob? You know how I feel about you not telling him. I don’t know why you're keeping it a secret. It’s not like he’s going to get mad. The longer you wait the more likely he will.’

Once the message stopped playing all Talinda could do was cried.

*******

Review's are appreciated!

 

[Ravynlee]

Ah you updated! Took me a while but caught up again. Have to say, and you know, feel like am repeating myself over and over, but you have such a way with words than when you write its... like being there. It really IS like watching it unfold in front of you... really, there's not much more I can say to that except I am in awe of your abilities. Everything rings with such integrity and heart these people seem real (yes I know they are real life, you know what I mean) but still...

And even though I know why she's keeping it a secret I still feel bad for her, hard not to...

Great as always

 

[X...Re-Arranged...X]

Oh man. I've been dead for ages. Sorry I've been missing out. :[

Great and long updates. I like how you very intelligently tied in the whole "The Crow" thing in with the story. Very cute. :] Very sweet, yet at times demented, story you've got going my love. Keep up with it my mate!

 

[andrea]

Thanks Rav and Sebby for the reviews, meant a lot to me. Well, surprise, I got an update today! Yeah!

Things are going to be moving a long really fast in a next couple of updates. I'm hoping to have it all tied up really soon.

******

A Week Later

“Okay, Sam why don’t we discuss how you felt about divorcing Chester” Teresa stated after she finished reading what Sam had wrote down in her journal so far.

Sam looked back up from the carpet, “Okay” she replied softly. She didn’t want to talk about it, but she knew in order to get out of Rose Lawn she needed to.

“Just tell me how you felt about the whole thing.”

Sam sighed softly to herself, “I…” she started out but stopped, “I feel like it’s my fault. Well it is. I couldn’t stand him being gone all the time. I was fine with it in the beginning. But then when he started to be gone more often it really got to me.”

“And why was it getting to you?” Teresa question as she wrote what Sam had just said.

“Before Draven, I would go with Chester. But when the baby did come, I had to stay home while he left to do his job.”

“And you felt like he should have spent more time with you and Draven?”

“Yes. At times I did. But now, that I think about it more, no. He had a job to do. I should have been grateful for the time that I did have with him. I just wanted more time.”

“You both have a pretty close relationship now” Teresa shared as she looked at Sam.

“Yeah we do” Sam replied back nodding her head, “We have decided to go even slower this time and see if we could handle a relationship again. But when he does leave and I can’t go with him for some reason I’ll just have to tell myself to be grateful that I was lucky to get another chance with him.”

Teresa smiled lightly before she continued, “And I hope it does work for you and Chester.” Teresa crossed her legs, to get more comfortable, “Sam why don’t we talk about your rape.” Sam looked down, “Sam, were going to have to talk about it. It's the main reason why you’re here.”

Sam let out a sigh and then looked up, “Okay, fine we can talk about it.”

“Well first, why don’t you tell me why you think it happened?”

“It happened because Sandra’s father wanted me to pay for what happened to his daughter.”

“Why is that?”

“Sandra and I got into an argument over something so stupid. She left my house in tears, getting behind the wheel of her car. She crashed her car pretty bad. I found her after she called me before the crash. But I fainted when I saw the amount of blood all over inside the car.”

“When did her father rape you?”

“Two months after her crash. He wanted to give me some pictures. I can’t believe I fell for that lie. There were no pictures. I was going to ask Robert were he put them at, but he was already in Sandra’s room where he originally said they were at. And that was, where I was raped.”

“How did you feel about it after?”

“Disgusted. Mostly with myself, I felt like I didn’t fight back hard enough. He did it to me even though Sandra was alive, recovering in the hospital. But I never knew that she survived until twelve years later when I was going through my divorce from Chester. His lawyer Talinda Bentley who he was dating turned out to be Sandra. I found out all this from a stupid reunion invitation that was sticking out of her purse. I wanted to go after her because her father raped me all for nothing.”

“Do you think you can forgive her?” Teresa asked.

“Um, no, not right now, but in the future sort of. It’s going to take a long time to be what we were like in high school” Sam responded.

“Do you blame Talinda for the reason her father raped you?”

“Yes. I felt like if she didn’t crash her car then Robert wouldn’t have raped me. But I shouldn’t blame her for what Robert did; it’s his entire fault that he raped me.”

“Well, Sam I’m glad that we got to talk about the rape and I’m glad that you realized that Talinda's not the one at fault and that Robert is” Teresa stated closing her notebook up, “Well that is it for now, but will have another session soon.” Sam nodded her head. Teresa sat up straight in her chair, “Would you like to join us out in the living room?” she asked her hoping to get Sam out of her room. She hadn’t yet made a movement outside her room since she started talking again.

Sam shook her head. She slightly turned her head to look at the door of her room before responding to Teresa, “No. I don’t feel like I’m ready to leave my room yet. I’m not ready to face anyone yet besides you and Dr. Kim.”

“That’s okay. I’m not forcing you to leave your room. You make the decision yourself.”

“Okay” Sam replied.

Teresa then got up from the chair she was sitting in and walked out of Sam’s room, closing the door behind her. As the door closed Sam turned her head to look out her window.

 

[andrea]

The Next Day

At the Bennington’s home, Chester was in the kitchen while Draven was sitting at the kitchen table, “So Draven, when do you want to pick out a Christmas tree?” Chester asked his son as he was cooking something for the both of them.

“I want to wait and get one when mom comes home before Christmas” Draven stated.

Chester was about to respond to that, but the house phone started to ring. He stopped what he was doing and walked over to the ringing phone and picked it up, “Hello?”

“Hi Chester, its Teresa” the voice on the other end responded.

Chester looked at Draven before he responded. He chose his words carefully, “How is she?” he straight out asked automatically thinking that this was another called about something bad happing with Sam or that she wasn’t getting any better.

“Well, I’m just letting you know that she’s back. She's talking and has opened up about why she shut down for a while here” Teresa stated.

Chester’s eyes widen after hearing that. ‘Did I just hear her correctly? Sam’s…back?’ he thought to himself, “Um, really. How long ago did this happen?”

“About a week ago. We wanted to make sure that she was really back before passing the news on to you.”

“Wow. I wasn’t expecting her to come back so quickly” he replied before continuing on, “But can you tell me what she was scared of?”

“Robert Grace” was all Teresa told him.

“Why would she be scared of him?”

“She was seeing him, but it was all in her head.”

“That explains about her shutting down” Chester responded.

“Actually besides letting you know that’s she's back I just finished having a meeting with Dr. Kim. We discussed about Sam and we came to the conclusion about agreeing in letting her family members being able to see her again.”

“Really? I can come and see her?” he asked double checking to make sure he heard her correctly.

“Yes. Would you like to see her today?”

“Yes!”

“Alright. I’ll let Dr. Kim know your coming.”

“Okay. I’ll come as soon as I can” he stated back. After that he hung up. He was happy that Sam was back. They were now finally going to move on.

He’s eyes landed on Draven and he realized he couldn’t bring him to see Sam. He needed to have Leticia watch him will he was gone. Picking up the phone again he dialed the nanny’s number. When she picked up her phone, Chester asked if she could come and watch Draven. Luckily she was available to do so and would be over soon. After talking to Leticia he put the phone back down on the counter. His train of thought travel to what it would be like seeing Sam again, but Draven’s voice interrupted his thoughts “Dad? Was that mom’s doctor?” he asked him.

He snapped out of it and looked at his son, “Yes it was.”

Draven looked down at the table for a second before looking back up at Chester, “How is mom?” he asked softly waiting to hear that she wasn’t going to come home for Christmas. There have been bad things that have happened to his mom since she left. It was always something bad. His mom wasn’t going to get better.

“Well, I actually got some good news about mom” he replied to his son as he moved closer to the kitchen table. He sat down in one of the chairs.

“Yeah, like what?”

“I got news that mom is doing really well.”

Draven’s eyes lit up, “Will she be coming home for Christmas?” he asked in a cheerful voice.

“I don’t know buddy, but I hope she will” Chester told him, “But I’m going to see mom today, is there anything you want me to tell her?”

“Yeah” Draven nodded his head, “Tell her that I miss her and that I want her to come home for Christmas.”

“Will do” he said. The doorbell went off after he said that. Getting out of the chair he was sitting in, he walked over to the door. Opening it he let Leticia in, “Thanks for coming to watch Draven.”

“It’s no problem” Leticia said.

“Um, I was fixing something for Draven to eat before I got the called that needed me to be somewhere.”

“Alright. I'll give it to him.”

“Thanks Leticia. I don’t know what I would do with out you.”

Leticia just smiled slightly.

After Chester bid a goodbye to Draven, he left the house making his way to Rose Lawn to see Sam.

An Hour Later

Inglewood, California

A pond entering the gates at Rose Lawn, Chester had to get himself buzzed into the place. When the gates opened, Chester drove further into the parking lot and parked his car. Shutting the car off, he got out and started to walk up to the building.

Reaching the front door of the building, Chester opened the door and walked in silently and closed the door softly behind him. Looking in front of him, he saw Dr. Kim standing with another doctor. As he walked down the small steps into the living room, Dr. Kim made his way over to him.

“Mr. Bennington” he greeted him holding his hand out for Chester to shake. Chester briefly took it before letting go, “I’m glad you were able to come down. Sam doesn’t know you’re here. It’ll be good for her to see you. So if you’ll follow me I’ll take you to her room” Dr. Kim stated before turning around and walked pass a set of door that took them to the hallway. Chester followed behind him.

As they were walking to Sam’s room, Dr. Kim turned his head around to look at Chester, “Don’t be concerned about Sam not feeling comfortable leaving her room just yet. Teresa and I aren’t really concerned about that at the time being” he said as they continued there way to Sam’s room.

Getting to Sam’s room, Chester knocked on the door. When there wasn’t a response he turned to look at Dr. Kim. Dr. Kim moved closer to the door and knocked himself before opening the door. Chester stepped in, “Sam?” he called out.

The curtain moving caught his attention and he walked over to it. ‘She escaped! Please tell me she didn’t’ he thought to himself. He walked over to the window and peeked out. He didn’t see her. Turning around he faced Dr. Kim “I thought you said Sam was afraid to leave her room?”

“She was.”

“Then where is she?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll notify my staff and will look for her” he said quickly turning around walking out of Sam's room.

******

Reviews are always appreciated!

 

[X...Re-Arranged...X]

You're definately going to make the end a dramatic ending. :]

 

[andrea]

Chapter 42

Thanks sebby for the review!

******

Slowly walking on the ground, a woman stopped at a rose bush and reached out slowly, carefully picking a bud off the vine. She brought it up to her nose breathing in the delicate scent it gave off. Lowering herself to a bench, she put the rose bud behind her ear. Looking around the garden, she started to imagine her homecoming when she would leave this place, but the sound of her name being called broke her thoughts. She stood up and faced the sound.

“Sam?” the voice called out again. “Sam, are you out here?” This time she noticed the panicky tone. Sam moved closer to the source of the voice and saw it was Teresa. Teresa turned her head and looked at her. Relief washed over Teresa’s face when she saw Sam.

“Is something wrong Teresa?” Sam questioned walking closer to her.

“Oh no. We just didn’t know you left your room. And we freaked out because there was no notice.”

Sam looked down; she didn’t think that they would be this freaked out about her wanting to leave her room. Looking back up, “I know I told you that I didn’t want to leave my room, but I just couldn’t stand being in there any longer.”

“I’m glad you decided to come out. Actually there someone here who wants to see you” Teresa addressed.

“There is?” she asked. Teresa nodded her head and turned around. Sam followed after her.

Walking down the hall, both her and Teresa reached her door. Teresa then turned to face Sam, “He’s in your room waiting” she stated before walking off.

Sam just stood staring at the door. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to go. ‘Who could it be?’ she thought to herself. Taking a deep breath she slowly opened the door. Walking in she was surprise to see Chester sitting on her bed. Closing the door softly behind her she just stood there afraid to move. Chester moved his head to look at her and smiled seeing that it was her. He slowly got off the bed and walked over. Reaching out his arms he stopped, lowering them back to his side as he stood in front of her. He wasn’t sure if she wanted to be touch or what to do right now. The two of them hadn’t been in the same room for three months and it’s been six months since Sam was in the right mind.

It took the word “Just hold me please” for Chester to wrap his arms around her waist. Sam was tense at first, since this was the first time since she came to Rose Lawn that she was touched in a pleasant way. Relaxing to the touch, Sam moved her arms around Chester and lowered her head into his shoulder. A sudden wave of emotions overcame her. She didn’t realize that she was crying until Chester started rubbing her back to calm her. “Hey. It’s okay Sam” he told her as he pulled her out of the hug. He caringly wiped away her now stain tear cheeks. After they were completely wiped away he kept his hand still on her cheeks and looked into her eyes, “I want to give you a kiss right now but I know you’ll say no” he softly said.

Sam lowered her eyes slightly, avoiding contact with his eyes. She then placed her hand over his and kept them there not moving his away. Chester lowered his eyes to her hand and smiled slightly when he saw the bracelet on Sam’s wrist.

“You still have the bracelet on I see” he smiled at her.

“Yeah. I hadn’t taken it off since you gave it to me when I first got here. It’s given me a lot of strength to keep going.”

Chester lowered his hands from Sam’s cheeks to her shoulder, “Will you dance with me?” he asked.

“What?” Sam asked raising an eyebrow with confusion. ‘What was he trying to do?’

“Dance with me” he repeated again.

“Now?”

“Yes.”

“To what music?” she asked about to move back but Chester stopped her shaking his head.

“No music.”

Sam just looked at him like he had grown two heads. What was he trying to get at? Why does he want to dance? And why does it have to be right now? All Chester did in return was just smiled back at her. Sam sighed softly to herself, “Alright” she let out. After she said that, he softly pulled her closer to him and the two of them slowly started to move with each other.

As they kept moving with each other, neither one of them noticed the room’s door open. Teresa poked her head in, just checking to see how things were going between Sam and Chester. Seeing them dancing, she softly closed the door behind her.

Turning away from the door, Teresa made her way down the hall stopping as she saw Dr. Kim approaching her, “Is everything alright with Sam?” he asked her.

“Yes” Teresa replied as she shook her head.

“I was thinking about getting her release papers ready. What do you think on the matter?” Dr. Kim questioned her.

“I think she’s ready to be release. As we discussed before, Sam has made a lot of progress since she first got here. Plus Christmas is coming up and she should be with her family.”

“Alright then, I'll go get her release form prepared” Dr. Kim stated before turning around and walking to his office.

In Sam’s room, Chester stopped moving but didn’t let go of Sam. She stayed holding onto him and rested her head on his shoulder taking in the moment. The moment didn’t let to long and Chester broke the hold he had on Sam.

Moving his hands to her upper arms, he took a hold of them before talking to her, “Sam, I'm sorry to do this to you, but I have to go back home to Draven, okay? I’ll come back tomorrow and see you.”

“It’s okay. I understand. Draven needs to be taken care of. How is he anyways?”

“He misses his mother a lot.”

Sam felt tears starting to burn her eyes, “I miss him to. Will you tell him that? And tell him that I’m trying really hard to come home for Christmas.”

Chester just nodded his head, “Yeah. I’ll tell him that.” Before letting go of her he leaned in gently and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Pulling back he let go of the hold and made his way over to the door. Opening it softly, he walked out closing the door behind him.

 

[andrea]

Continuing Chapter 42

Making his way down the hall, he saw Teresa coming his way. At first he thought she was just going to pass him. But when she slowed down so did he.

“Chester, can I have a moment with you?” she asked when she got up to him.

“Yeah” he said. Both Teresa and him made there way over to a couple of chairs at the end of the hallway and sat down in them, “Is there something wrong with Sam?” was the first question to come out of Chester’s mouth.

“Oh no. Nothings wrong. It’s actually good. Dr. Kim and I have been talking some more and we both agree that Sam is better enough to leave Rose Lawn. Actually, Dr. Kim is preparing her release forms” she explained to him.

Chester just sat there for a moment taking in the good news about Sam’s released before responding, “Is it for good? Her release? It’s not a temporary release since Christmas is coming up?”

“Nope. It’s for good.”

‘Great. Sam is definitely going to be happy to go home’ he thought to himself “What day is her release date?” he asked.

“If Dr. Kim can get the release forms ready by tonight, then she can be release tomorrow” she told him.

“Alright. The sooner the better” he replied.

Teresa laughed slightly, “I’ll go let Dr. Kim know. Would you like to tell Sam about her release now or would you like me to pass the news to her tomorrow?” she asked.

“You can tell her” he stated.

Teresa nodded her head.

After that was settled, Chester walked out of the building and over to his car. Getting in, he started the drive back into L.A. When he arrived home, he let Leticia go of her duties and got Draven to sit down so he could talk to him.

Draven quietly sat down. He knew the reason why his dad sat him down was to talk about his mom. He hoped that she was better. He really wanted her to come back from Christmas.

“Is mom okay?” he quietly asked looking at his dad.

“Yeah. Mom is doing great” Chester replied to his son. He moved back to lean against the couch before continuing, “Tell me what’s the best thing you want to happen to mom?”

Draven went quite for a second, “For her to get better so she can come home for Christmas.”

“What if I told you she was?”

The boy’s eyes just widen before he responded, “She is?” he replied in a shock voice.

Chester just smiled at Draven’s expression, “Yeah.”

“When is she coming home?” he excitedly asked. He just wanted her to walk through the door right now.

“It depends on if her paper work is done, but hopefully tomorrow.”

Draven nodded his head, “Then can I make a welcome home sign for mom?”

“Sure you can. Mom will love it knowing that you made it for her” Chester told him. He was glad to finally see he son really happy again. It’s been a long time and it’s just what his family has needed. To be back together again.

“Dad, do you think Uncle Mike and Uncle Joe could help me make it? I want it to be really pretty for mom.”

“If there both up to helping, I’m sure they would like to. Do you want to call them and ask them?” he asked him. Draven shook his head. He got up and walked away. Chester looked back behind the couch to see what he was going to do and watched him walk into the kitchen. A few seconds later, Draven came back out, walking back into the living room. Walking up to his dad, Draven gave him the phone so he could dial Mike and Joe’s number since he didn’t know them.

Once Chester dialed the guys number, the details where made after they agreed to help Draven make the sign. They decided to make the sign right now and that they would do it at Mike’s house.

After the plans were made, Chester had Draven change into some clothes that were okay to get paint on, since there was a chance that it would get messy over at Mike’s. While Draven was getting ready, Chester went and called the rest of the guys seeing if they would like to stop by for a quick ‘welcome back’.

When Chester was finished with the calls he made, everyone agreed to come expect Rob who told Chester that he was going to stay with Talinda since she was still on bed rest.

Chester set the phone down on the coffee table and made his way upstairs to Draven’s room. He stood in the doorframe and saw Draven putting his shoes on.

“Ready to go, Drav?” he questioned him.

“Yep. Already” Draven answered standing up off the bed.

Chester nodded his head and walked back down the stairs with Draven following him. When they walked out of the house, Chester locked the door and the two of them made there way over to his car, getting in.

Mike only lived a couple blocks from them, so they made it in about two minutes top. Parking behind Joe’s car, Chester and Draven got out and walked up to the Shinoda’s front door. Draven ran ahead of Chester ringing the doorbell. A few seconds later Anna answered the door.

“Hey guys! Come in” she greeted moving back to let them in. Closing the door behind her, she turned to face them, “You look ready Draven” she told him.

“I am” he responded.

“That’s good. Mike and Joe are in the garage setting up.”

Draven nodded and took off towards there.

Chester and Anna started walking in that direction, “How are you Anna?” he asked her. He wanted to catch up with her, seeing how her and Mike where handling the whole pregnancy since he hadn’t talk to them, due to Sam’s problem.

“I’m good. How about you?” she asked, as they walked to where the garage was at.

“Hanging in there. I’ll be better if Sam gets to come home tomorrow” he replied to her. They both reached the door to the garage and stood there watching Mike and Joe help Draven make his welcome home sign.

Few minutes later, Chester turned to look at Anna and saw that she had a long look on her face. He also noticed that she was holding her stomach. From the angle he was looking at her, he could see that she was far along, about five months, because she looked like she was really showing. But if Chester remember correctly she wasn‘t even five months, “Anna are you okay?” he softly asked not saying it to loud so it wouldn’t get Mike’s attention.

She turned to look at him, “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s the baby kicking.”

“Your baby’s kicking?” he asked interestedly.

“Yeah. It started happening about a week ago” she explained, “Would you like to fill?”

“Uh, sure” he replied. Anna grabbed his hand and put it on her producing stomach. At first Chester didn’t fill anything and was about to take his hand away, but Anna kept it in place.

“It'll just take a second” she stated. A couple second later, he felt a small kick follow by another one which made Chester smile. It started making him think about when Sam was pregnant with Draven and the first time he felt Draven kick. Snapping out of his thought, he moved his hand off of Anna’s stomach.

“Have you and Mike found out what the *** of the baby is?” he asked her.

“No. Not yet. We’ve decided on the next ultrasound that will find out the ***.”

Several hours later, Draven, Mike and Joe finished the ‘welcome home’ sign. As Chester and Draven where getting ready to leave, Mike told Chester that he would keep it here so it could dry over night and that he’ll bring it over before Chester went and got Sam.

******

Reviews are appreciated.

 

[andrea]

Chapter 43

The Next Day

When the day rolled in, all Sam wanted to do when she got up was stay in her room. She wanted to wait for Chester to come and see her. To pass the time, Sam spent her time looking out of her window taking in the beautiful scenery. A knock on the door broke Sam from her thought. Thinking that it was Chester, Sam got up and walked over to the door opening it only to see that it was Teresa.

“Teresa! Hey. Are we having another session?” she asked her not remembering if the two of them where to have a session or not.

“Oh no. We’re not going to need those anymore.” After she said that Sam rose her eyebrows up in confusion, “Actually, I have some good news that I want to tell you” she added.

“What is it?” Sam asked her as she let her into her room.

“To tell you that you should start packing” Teresa explained.

“Why?” Sam questioned a little skeptical as to why she should do so.

“Because when Chester gets here, you’re going to go home with him.”

Sam eyes widen in shock, “I’m being released?” she manage to get out.

“Yes” Teresa replied.

“You’ve got to be joking with me” she stated back. She couldn’t believe what she heard.

“It's not a joke.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll start packing” Sam replied still in shock.

Teresa smiled at that, “I'll leave you to it.” She turned around and walked out of her room. Once the door closed Sam face the closet and walked over getting her suitcase out. Setting it on the bed, she opened the flap and started carefully packing her things.

A few hours later, at the Bennington's home, Mike and Chester, along with Draven finished putting up the ‘welcome home’ sign on the garage door. As soon as they were done they went back inside to where everyone was at.

Before everyone had come over, Chester brought back out the pictures of Sam that he took down when she was first committed to Rose Lawn. He was finally glad to have Sam’s presents back in the house and couldn’t wait to go and bring her back home.

After walking back into the house, Chester looked at the time and grabbed his car keys. Before walking out of the house, he announced to the guys that he was going to leave and go pick up Sam. As he stepped outside he joked with the guys telling them not to break anything while he was gone.

The drive to Rose Lawn actually felt like it was longer then normal. But when he finally got into Inglewood and reached the gates of Rose Lawn, he couldn’t hold back his excitement. After he buzzed into Rose Lawn for the last time, he parked his car. Getting out he quickly made his way up to the front door. He stood outside of the front door for a few seconds calming his nerves. Although he was glad that Sam was coming home, he was starting to get nervous. What if all the work to make Sam sane didn’t last? What if she went crazy again? If anything like that happened to her again he don’t think he be able to handle it. Breathing in slowly, Chester opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind him. Looking in front of him, he was greeted by Dr. Kim.

“Mr. Bennington, I’m glad you’re here. Before you go and see Sam I actually need you to step into my office and sign Sam’s release form” the doctor stated. Chester shook his head and followed the doctor.

When the men walked to the room, Dr. Kim slid the form in front of Chester. It was marked to wear Chester needed to sign. Taking a hold of a pen he quickly signed his name.

“Okay” he let out placing the pen on the desk. He stood up and faced the doctor, “Thanks for getting Sam better.”

“Oh no, I didn’t do anything. It was all her” he replied shaking his head.

“Well thank you anyways.” After saying that, Chester walked out of the office. He walked the corridor, reaching Sam’s room and knocked on the door. It took no more then a second for Sam to open the door. When she did she stood in the door smiling really happily. She moved to the side and let Chester walk in. Chester turned to look at Sam after she closed the door and looked at her smiling thinking to himself, ‘*** I’ve missed her smile’.

“Are you ready to go home?” he asked her.

Sam’s eyes lit up, “I’ve been waiting for you to say that since I got here” she softly stated back.

“Well, then let’s go” he replied back. He looked over his shoulder and saw her bag packed and lying on the bed. Slightly turning around, he grabbed it for her. Turning to face her, he took a hold of her hand and they both walked out of the room. Walking out of the room, the both of them walked down the hall and out of the facility. Reaching Chester’s car, he put Sam’s bag in the back and got in after Sam did. Starting the car up, he turned out of the parking space and got back onto the road, driving back to town.

An hour later, Chester and Sam arrived back into town. Pulling into the driveway, Chester turned off the ignition and stayed in his seat not getting out. He turned his head to look at Sam. Sam’s direction of vision was in front of her and she was looking at the sign that Draven made with Mike and Joe. Sam was in awe about the banner that she felt tears threaten to slip. She slowly turned to face Chester, “Who made the sign?” she asked him, moving her hand up to her face to wipe her eyes so that the tears wouldn’t fall.

“Draven. He made it just right for you, so he enlisted Mike and Joe’s help” Chester told her.

“Awww.” Sam let out looking back at the sign smiling slightly, “I love it.”

The both of them stayed in the car in silence for just a little bit. Chester was starting to get uncomfortable with the silence and wanted to get Sam inside due to the guys waiting for her. He slowly got out of the car and Sam followed his moment and the both of them walked up to the front door.

A few seconds later, Chester felt like he was alone and turned around to see if Sam was behind him. She had stopped walking and was a foot behind him. He turned around and walked back over to her, “Hey. Its okay, Sam” he said back to her.

Sam shook her head, “I know. It’s just been awhile” she stated as she looked at the house. Chester put his hands on her shoulder giving it a slight squeeze in reassurance. He got her to move with him and they both continued there way up to the house. When they reached the door, Chester opened it and they both walked inside. Walking into the living room, they stopped. Sam was shocked to see all the guys sitting in the living room. Chester was grateful that they didn’t get up right away. Footsteps where heard coming down the stairs and Chester turned his head towards the dining room to see that it was Draven.

“Mom!” he yelled out as he ran down the small steps.

“Draven” Sam let out walking fast up to him. She knelt down onto her knees and hugged him.

“I missed you mom” he told her when she loosened her grip on him.

“I missed you too Draven.” She ran her hand through his hair and was just amazed at how big he'd grown since she last saw him, “You’ve grown so fast since I’ve last seen you.”

“You’re not going back there are you?” he asked.

“Nope. I’m home for good.” After she said that Draven hug her again. When he let go, Sam stood back up and wiped the tears that were spilling down her cheek. From the group gathered in the living room, Mike was the first one to welcome Sam back.

Getting up he walked over to her, “It’s good to see you, Sam” Mike stated to her. He didn’t want to move his arms around her because he wasn’t sure what Sam would be like.

Sam sensed his hesitation, “Its okay. If you want to give me a hug, you can” she told him. As he gave her a hug, the rest of the guys followed and gave her hugs as well. The girls also followed in suit and hugs Sam. When it was Anna’s turned, Sam’s eyes widen when she saw Anna’s stomach.

“Oh my ***. Some stuff happen while I was gone” she smiled in respond as the two girls hugged each other. “How far along are you?” she asked Anna when they separated.

“Four months.”

“Four?” Sam let out in shock, “Anna, you look more than four months to me. Are you and Mike having twins?” she questioned her.

“Twins?!” Mike let out hearing Sam.

 

[andrea]

Continuing Chapter 43

Anna quickly shook her head, “No. Why do you think that?” she then asked her.

Sam shook her head in response, “Never mind that I asked.”

“Well, whatever it was I’m glad your back, Sam” Anna let out. She then wrapped her arms around Sam giving her a short hug again.

After everyone welcomed Sam back, they started leaving to give Chester and Sam the time they needed with each other. The only people that were now left were Draven and Sam’s mom. Knowing the two probably needed some time alone, Lily offered to take Draven with her for the night. At first, Sam didn’t want Lily to have to do it but Chester talked her into it.

When the decision was made, Chester took Draven up to his room so he could pack a bag to take to Lily’s. He chose to help Draven so that Sam and Lily could talk to each other for a little while. Draven didn’t mind spending the night at his grandmother’s house since Chester told him that it was for only one night. He explained himself to Draven because he thought he would be upset about leaving his mom.

Once the boys finished, they made there way downstairs, “You ready to go to grandma’s Draven?” Lily asked him when he walked into the living room where she and Sam where sitting at.

“Yep. Already” he proclaimed happily.

“Okay. Then I best we better get going. Why don’t you say bye to mom before we go” she told him as she got up. Draven then made his way over to the couch. He got onto his knees and wrapped his arm around her. She hugged him back as well.

As soon as Draven was out the door with Lily, Chester made his way over to Sam and sat next to her. He wrapped one of his arms around her waist and she responded by resting her head on his shoulder. They just stayed like that enjoying each others company.

Sam lifted her head off of Chester’s shoulder after a few seconds and turned to look at him, “Is it okay if I go and take a shower?” she quietly asked him, wanting to make sure it was okay with him first.

“Yeah…” he started saying but then stopped remembering what happen last time when Sam was left in the bathroom.

Sam sensed that and put her arm on his shoulder, “Chester, it's okay. I’m not going to try and hurt myself again. When I was at Rose Lawn I realized that I have more important things to live for” she moved her arm from his shoulder up to his cheek cupping it with her hand.

He didn’t say anything to her when she got up and walked out of the room going up the stairs to their room.

Chester stayed downstairs for an half and hour before deciding to go upstairs and check on Sam. When he got to their room he didn’t hear the water running. At first he had an unsettling feeling but when he got closer to the bathroom door he saw that it was open. Looking in, he saw Sam standing near the sink counter. It looked like she just had finished taking a shower because she was standing in a towel. He quietly walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulders. She turned her head to look at him and he saw that there were tears running down her face.

In response, Chester wrapped his arms around Sam, “Hey, don’t cry. It’s okay.” He let her continue to cry on him.

When she calmed down, she pulled away, “I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

Chester just looked at her, “Mad at you? I’m not mad at you. It wasn’t your fault that it happened. I want you to know that okay?”

Sam just shook her head. “What’s going to happen now? Are you going to think less of me?” she closed her eyes.

“No! Of course not. I love you. I want you to know that” he watched her as her eyes opened and looked at him. More tears fell from her eyes, but she didn’t make a sound. Chester pulled her into his arms again, holding her as she buried her face into his shoulder.

“I know that. I love you too” Sam responded. He then walked both of them over to the bathroom door, turning off the bathroom lights and led her into their room sitting Sam down on the bed. She lowered her head looking down at the floor. While she was sitting down he keeled in front of her.

“I’m not him you know” he told her.

Sam looked up at him, “I know.”

“And when I touch you, it’s out of love. You know that right?” Chester asked as Sam frowned.

“Of course I know that.” ‘Where was he going with this?’ she thought to herself. Chester sat down next to her and brushed some loose hair that had fallen into her face away from her left cheek.

“Let me love you…right now” he quietly breathed. Sam looked into the depths of his brown eyes and saw a yearning for her that she’d hadn’t seen in a long time. “I promise I’ll be gentle, but if you don’t want to, I understand.” Sam couldn’t help but wonder at his motivation for wanting her…right now. Chester leaned in closer to her, “Let me erase his touch in your mind” Chester whispered into her ear. Sam smiled a little. He had just answered her unasked question.

Sam reached her hand up to his face and slid a finger down the side of his face. She slowly leaned towards him and touched her lips to his. Chester had to hold himself back because he didn’t want to rush her into anything she wasn’t ready for. He decided that he was going to let her set the pace. After a couple minutes later Sam realized what Chester was doing, so she increased the pressure on his lips. It wasn’t long before they were in a passionate kiss causing Sam to moan at little when their tongues met. Sam then lowered her self down onto the bed bringing Chester with her.

It didn’t take long after that before the both of them were lying side by side breathing heavily, their hearts beating rapidly, both tired, but happy. Chester turned to his side facing Sam. Kissing her shoulder softly he spoke to her, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah” she told him turning her head to look at him. She touched his cheek softly. Chester put his arms around Sam, holding her. “You know, I thought I was going to have trouble getting close to you again, since I was afraid when you wanted to kiss me a couple days ago” she admitted softly.

“I was kind of afraid of that, too” Chester said. Sam looked at him, her face only inches from his.

“Can I be mushy for a moment?” she whispered, he smiled in acknowledgment. “I love you with all my heart and as long as you’re with me, I know that I’ll be safe and protected…and the fact that I was able to be with you so soon after coming home shows that” she told him. Chester kissed her forehead and then her lips softly.

When he pulled away, Chester spoke, “It kills me that this happen to you. It happened to me too. That why we have each other to lean on for support when we need it” he softly stated which made Sam smiled lightly.

“I didn't know you could be such a softy” she joked laughing softly, running one of her hands through his hair.

“Shhh, don’t tell anyone. Especially Mike. He’ll be devastated that his writing partner turned into a softy. It’ll ruin my reputation” Chester joked back with her. Sam just started too laugh in response.

“Oh I’ll make sure next time I see Mike to tell him” she jokingly stated watching the look on his face. She just laughed again, “You know I’m joking with you” she told him.

“I know you were” he'd let her know. He then kissed her forehead again. After he did that she rested her head on his chest. Soon sleep overtook her and she fell asleep as Chester kept his arms around her protectively.

******

Review's are appreciated!

 

[andrea]

Chapter 44

When Chester opened his eyes the following day, he turned his head a little to look at Sam who was still resting her head on his shoulder. He slowly moved his left hand up bringing it close to Sam's face, moving some of her hair that had fallen into her face. As he was moving a piece of her hair behind her ear, she slowly opened her eyes looking at him. Sam smiled when she saw that he was looking at her. “Good morning” Chester stated to her softly.

“Morning” she replied in a whisper.

Chester moved his hand away from her face bringing it back down to his side, “How are you feeling?”

“Better, now that I’m home.”

After Sam said that, Chester moved her a little more closely to him. He turned his head and kissed her forehead. Moving his lips from her forehead, Chester rested his cheek against her forehead. They both ended up staying a little bit more in bed before finally deciding to get up.

When they finished getting dress, the both of them went downstairs. Sam was about to make her way into the kitchen as so was Chester when the door bell went off. Looking at the clock that was hung on the wall in the dining room, Chester noticed that it was 11:24. Wondering who it could be, Chester told Sam that he would get it and walked over to the door opening it. Who was standing on the other side of the door were Lily and Draven.

Chester moved to the side a little and let them in. Draven got excited and ran further into the house. Chester turned his attention to Draven and saw Sam standing near the small steps. He smiled to himself and when Lily was inside, he closed the door behind her. The two of them then made there way over to Sam who was sitting down on the top step with Draven. Sam looked up at Chester and Lily and smiled at them. She turned her attention back to Draven who was showing her a piece of paper. It must have been something he drew over at Lily’s. She leaned down a little and gave him a light kiss on his forehead whispering something to him. After she did that, she got up off the step and made her way over to Chester and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Mom, I want to thank you for watching Draven for us last night” she told Lily.

Lily just smiled, “It was no problem. I love to watch Draven anytime.”

Sam turned her head to look at Chester. She raised an eyebrow seeing if they should ask her mother on what they talked about as they where getting ready this morning. Chester nodded his head. Sam turned her attention back to Lily, “Um mom? Are you doing anything for Christmas?” she asked her.

“Nothing. Why?” she questioned.

“Chester and I where wondering if you like to spend Christmas with us?”

Lily looked at them before asking, “You guys are still having Christmas?”

Chester and Sam just looked at each other.

Lily continued on, “I’m just kidding. I know you guys haven’t had time to put anything up. And of course I would like to spend it with you guys.”

“We will have the decoration up before Christmas is over. As a matter of fact where going to pick out a tree today” Chester told Lily.

Draven heard that and asked excitedly, “We are?”

Chester turned to look at him, “Yes. We are.”

He quickly got up and walked over to Sam and Chester. He took a hold of both there hands and started pulling them towards to the door, “Let’s go then.”

“Not at this minute buddy. Where not done talking with grandma yet, okay? After where finish will go” Sam told him.

He stopped pulling them towards the door and turned to face them, “Okay. I’ll wait then” he said in a soft like sad voice. He let go of there hands and went over to the door to wait.

Going back to the grown ups conversation, Lily spoke up, “Is there anything you guys want me to bring for the Christmas dinner?”

“Well, were going to be having ham, mashed potatoes with gray, stuffing, carrots, and maybe a can of whole cranberries. That all I can think of right now” Chester replied. He was trying to remember what Sam and he made when they were able to have Christmas dinners.

Lily nodded, “I still like to bring something.”

Sam shook her head in disagreement, “You don’t have to do that mom. You’ve done enough for us already.”

Lily smiled lightly, “Yes I have, but I still would like to bring something. How about I just bring one dish over?”

Chester and Sam looked at each other wanting to see what they both thought. Sam shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head. Chester then looked back at Lily, “Sure. Just don’t go over board.”

“Oh. I wont” Lily stated.

Sam raised her eyebrows up at her mother.

“I won’t!” Lily repeated seeing Sam's expression, “Actually I’ll just bring over your favorite Christmas dish, Sam.”

Chester turned his head to look at Sam to see her expression, “You’re going to make homemade Tamales?”

Lily laughed to herself before responded, “No. It’ll be too much for me to make them now. I’ll just go and buy store brought ones.”

“I don’t care where you get them from. I haven’t have Tamales in a long time. Now all this talk about food is making me hungry” Sam said.

Lily laughed, “Alright. I’ll bring them over on Christmas. But before I go, I need to give you the gifts you wanted me to get for you know who” Lily replied turning her head to look at Draven who was still standing near the front door.

“Oh, yes. Thanks for being able to do this for me since I couldn’t, mom” Sam told her, “Draven, can you go to your room for just a little bit and go play one of your games” Sam told him.

“But I don’t want to. You said we were going to get a Christmas tree” Draven responded back to his mom.

“Draven, please do what your mother asked you to do. If you don’t behave you won’t be getting the gifts from Santa” Chester told Draven. Draven let out a sigh and walked to his room.

Once Draven closed the door, Chester and Sam helped Lily get his Christmas gifts from her car. Since Lily took her time and wrapped the gifts up already, all Sam and Chester had to do was put them under the tree after they got one. So in the mean time, Sam took the bags to the master bedroom and put them in the closet. Sam then went and got Draven and when he was ready, Chester, Sam and Draven all piled up into the family car and left to pick out a Christmas tree.

Christmas Tree Lot

Pulling into the dirt patch for the Christmas tree lot customers, Chester parked the car and shut off the engine. “Okay. Were here” he stated to the other two people in the car with him.

“Is there a pacific tree that we are going to look at?” Sam asked looking at Chester.

He shrugged his shoulders, “Not really. But I know I don’t want to pick out a scrawny looking one.”

Sam turned around in her seat to face Chester, “I don’t want a bushy one.”

“And I don’t want a short one.”

“Then I don’t want a real tall one.”

“I don’t want one that cost too much.”

Draven was still sitting in the back seat listen to his mom and dad going back and fourth with each other, “Mom. Dad” Draven spoke out.

Chester and Sam stopped talking and Sam turned around to look at Draven, “Yes Draven?”

“Can we go and pick a tree now?” he asked.

 

[andrea]

“Sure” she told him. She turned to look back at Chester, raising her eyebrow, “Why don’t we just look around for one until we find one that we both like?” she questioned.

“Alright.” Chester agreed. The three of them got out of the car. As they walked into the lot, Draven ran off in front of them going to find a tree. Chester took a hold of Sam's hand as they made there way pass the gate of the tree lot.

About a couple minutes of walking around, Draven stopped in front of a three. He turned to look back at his parents, “What about this one mom and dad?” Draven asked standing in front of the tree. Chester looked at Sam.

She let go of Chester's hand since she had been holding it the hold time they’ve walked the tree lot. After letting go, she walked around the tree Draven picked out shaking her head, liking the tree, “What do you think Chester?” she asked him.

“Let’s see how much it is first” he replied. He walked up closer to the tree and took a hold of the price tag that was on the tree, “Not a bad price” he said out loud to himself.

“How much is it?” Sam asked him in question.

“120.00” responded Chester.

Sam nodded in agreement with Chester, “Well, what do you think?” Sam asked.

“I want it!” Draven cried out.

“It’s not a bad tree” Chester said taking a good look at the tree.

“So, is this the tree?” Sam questioned.

“Yeah” Both Draven and Chester said at the same time.

After making the decision to buy that tree, Chester walked away to get a worker to clean and trim the tree a bit. When the workers of the tree lot came a picked the tree up, Sam and Draven followed Chester as he went and paid for the tree. The tree was then finished being trimmed up by the time Chester had finished paying for it. It was then tied to the roof of their car. As soon as the workers finished tied it down safely, Chester, Sam and Draven climbed back into the car and started the drive back home.

Pulling up to the driveway, everyone got out of the car. Chester and Sam decided to leave the tree on top of the car for now since they weren’t sure where they where going to put it at. Getting inside the house, Sam and Chester made there way into the living room to figure out a spot.

“Why don’t we put the tree right there” Chester stated pointing to where the sliding glass door were located at.

Sam thought about it for a minute before speaking up, “Or we could put it right next to the second couch were the speaker is at” was Sam’s replied.

Chester shook his head in disagreement, “It’ll block the T.V. if we put it there.”

“But then wouldn’t the tree block us from going out on to the patio?” she remarked back.

“We’ll just go out the front door to get outside.”

“Okay. The tree can go there. But the trees pretty wide so will have to move the speaker in front of the CD rack. As your doing that I’ll go get the Christmas tree decorations and find that tree stand” Sam let out as she ran out of the room to go and find the decorations.

“Thanks Sam!” Chester called out.

“Your welcome!” she yelled back from where she was.

While Sam was getting the Christmas tree decorations, Chester moved the speaker so that it was now in front of the CD rack.

When Sam came back into the room she had a box with her. She set it down on the couch; “If I remember correctly the stand should be in this box” she said out loud taking some stuff out of the box and setting it down on the couch. “Here it is!” excitedly she turned around holding a small box that had the stand in it. She moved towards Chester and handed it to him.

“Draven come out here and help us!” Sam yelled out as Chester opened the box and took all the parts out. He set the box down on the coffee table and started putting the stand together so that he could bring in the tree.

Draven walked into the room. Chester just finished putting the stand together and set in on the floor where the tree would be going. After he did that, he walked back outside and went over to the car. Untying the string the held the tree down to the roof of the car, Chester groan and moaned as he lifted the heavy and huge tree into the house. With a little bit of Draven’s help, Chester managed to put the tree in the stand. Once it was tightened down in the stand, he looked back at Sam and saw that she had brought out more boxes.

Sam was going through the boxes and pulled out a string of light, “You and Draven can put this strand around the tree” she stated handing the string to Chester.

Chester looked at Sam then at the string of lights in his hand. Without question, Chester took the lights and strung them around the tree. As Sam was taking out the garland from the boxes she brought into the room, she looked at the tree. Frowning a little she noticed that the three was leaning a little, “It's leaning to the left. The tree is leaning to the left” she let out.

Turning his head, Chester looked back at her, raising his eyebrows up.

“Really. It is!” she stated.

Chester leaned down to Draven who was looking through a box on the coffee table. He whispered something into his ear. Draven just shook his head to whatever he said. Standing up with his dad the both of them leaned there heads to the left, “Nope. It looks straight to me” Chester replied.

“Very funny guys” was Sam’s response. She moved closer to them carrying the garland with her, “Come on guys. Look, the lights are all bunched up at the top Chester. It needs to be fixed.”

“Well Draven, you want to fix the lights?” Chester asked him.

Draven shook his head in agreement.

“Well then and fix them for your mom” he stated to him.

“I get to climb the latter?” he asked looking back at his mom.

She shook her head, “Yes. You get to climb the latter. Just be careful not to fall.”

“Don’t hold onto the top, okay? You’ll knock the tree over if you do” Chester told Draven as he carefully climbed the latter.

Draven took a hold of the lights at the top and straighten them out as Chester helped him out to, “Okay. How does it look?” Draven asked his mom when he stopped after it was straightened out.

“Perfect” Sam told them.

Carefully getting down the latter, Draven walked over to his mom, “Alright, the tree ready for ornaments. Chester, you can start with the box on the coffee table” Sam told him. Draven followed his dad as Sam went back to the box on the couch. She picked up the first ornament her hand got on. Bringing up to her face, she laugh, “Draven, come look at this” she called out to him.

Draven walked over to her. She handed him the ornament to look at.

“You remember making this for me?”

The ornament was of a hardened coffee filter painted with red, green, and white paint. A hand print was in the middle of the coffee filter, “Wow! This ornament is lame” Draven stated.

“Hey! It’s not lame. But this one is my favorite” She said handing him another ornament. That one was a frame glued with glitter and beads. A picture of a young Draven was in the middle, “You made that in preschool.”

Draven laughed and shook his head, “I can’t believe you found these.” Draven turned around and walked back to the tree. Sam laughed lightly and turned to face the tree.

Chester walked over to her, “You all right? You’re usually never this cheerful about Christmas” he told her and wrapped his arms around her.

She smiled in response, “I’m just glad that I got better to celebrate Christmas this year. I just want to make sure it’s perfect and a Christmas not to forget.”

“It’s not” he replied. He then kissed her cheeked softly. They both watched Draven as he finished putting his ornaments on the tree.

******

Review's are appreciated!

 

[andrea]

Chapter 45

Christmas Day

The morning of Christmas at the Bennington’s house was quite. Chester and Sam were still asleep soundly in their bed. Draven, who through decorating for Christmas was lame, couldn’t wait to open up his gifts that were tucked under the Christmas tree. He got up bright and early so that he could open up his gift, but since his parents weren’t up yet, he had to wait for them.

Christmas Eve night, Draven didn’t want to go to sleep. As a matter of fact, he wanted to stay up and fall asleep out of the couch to wait for Santa to come down the chimney. But Sam and Chester wouldn’t let him, so they made sure that he was in bed before they went into there own room.

Draven couldn’t take the wait anymore and decided to go wake his parents up. Walked up the stairs, he slowly opened the bedroom door. Quietly, he walked into the further into the bedroom and then ran and jumped onto the bed. His mom was the first to respond as she opened her eyes. She turned around to face Draven, “Hey buddy, what are you doing?” she asked Draven. To her surprise Chester was still sleeping.

“It’s time to get up mom. Santa came and left presents. And I want to open them up” he told her, smiling widely.

Sam yawned, “Okay. I’ll get up. Why don’t you go and wait downstairs for us? We’ll be down soon.”

Draven nodded, “Okay. Just don’t take to long” he replied. He moved off the bed carefully and made his way out, closing the door behind him. Sam smiled to herself, shaking her head. Chester’s back was facing her, so Sam moved closer to him. She put her arm around him and rested her chin on his shoulder, “Chester” she let out softly.

Chester moaned in response, lightly pulling her arm closer to him, “Hmm?” he replied.

“Draven wants us to get up so he can open his gifts” she told him.

Moving around, Chester turned to face Sam. He lightly gave her a kiss and then smiled, “Why don’t we just stay in bed and make him wait.” He moved his head to her neck, starting to give her kisses.

Sam tried moving away when his lips touched her neck, but he stopped her from moving, “Chester!” she squealed out trying to get out of his hold again.

Chester moved his lips from her neck bringing them up slowly to her lips. Pressing them against her’s, he quite her. She responded back with more force then him. Feeling his hand slid down her side, Sam grabbed his arm to stop him, breaking the kiss, “We can’t” was all she said.

Frowning, Chester responded, “Why not?”

“Draven is downstairs waiting. And it’s Christmas, you know my mom is coming over.”

“But she won’t be over until a couple hours. Will have enough time” he smirked at her.

Sam rolled her eyes, “No” she paused, “What if I promise that we can do it at a later time?”

“Like tonight?” he questioned her.

“Yes.”

“Alright, but I hold you to the promise” he smiled. Moving off of her, Sam got up and was about to make her way into the closet. She stopped in the doorway. Flashbacks of what she did to the closet came back to her. Turned her head, she saw Chester sitting at the edge of the bed with his back facing her. She closed her eyes and shook her head from the memory. When she open them back up, her eyes traveled down to the floor where saw some small new pillows.

Taking a deep breath, Sam continued into the closet. She grabbed her rope, putting it on and tied it around her waist. When she walked back out into the master bedroom she saw the bathroom closed. Knowing Chester was in there, she decided to go ahead downstairs and get some coffee made. Before she reached the second staircase, Sam turned around and went back up to the bedroom. She walked over to the dresser and picked up her camera so she could take picture of the activities of Christmas.

Sam made her way back out of the bedroom and continued down the stairs. Reaching the last step, she turned left, going into the living. Draven was already there waiting patiently. He turned head when he heard Sam’s footsteps, “You took forever --where’s dad?” he asked his mom not seeing his dad around the room or dinning room.

“He’s in the bathroom Draven. He’ll be down in a few minutes okay?” Sam told him as she sat next to him. She noticed that the T.V. wasn’t on, “You want me to turn the T.V. on for you?”

“Please” he begged. She picked up the remote that was on the couch, turning on the T.V. A few minutes later, Sam got lost in what was on the T.V. that she didn’t feel Chester sit down next to her. He kissed her cheek. She turned to look at him and smiled. She reached the gesture by giving him a kiss on the lips.

“Eewww” Both Chester and Sam heard. She pulled away from him and turned her head to look at Draven.

“Hey buddy” she smiled.

“That’s gross. Can we open the presents now?” he asked getting excited.

“Will open them after we have breakfast, okay?” Chester told him.

“Okay” Draven responded softly.

Chester got up off the couch and walked out of the living room going into the kitchen. Sam then got up and followed him. Just before going into the kitchen, Draven ran passed her and went over to the small table and chairs in the kitchen. Getting onto one of the tall chair, he sat down so he could watch his parents.

After breakfast was over, Draven went back out into the living waiting so that he could open his gifts up, but Chester and Sam where cleaning up the breakfast mess. As they were cleaning, Chester notice the look she had on the face when he looked over at her, “You okay?” he asked her.

“Yeah. I’m just really glad to back home and spending Christmas with my family” she told him.

He took a step closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. She wrapped her arm around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a few minutes before separating. After completely finishing up, Chester and Sam walked into the living. Chester sat down on the couch as Sam sat on the floor near the gift so that she could pass them out.

Looking at the gifts under the tree, Sam found one, “You’ll be next Draven. This one for dad” she said grabbing the gift and handing it Chester.

“What could I have gotten?” he teased in question, slowly taking off the wrapping paper.

“Ripe it open dad!” Draven told him. Chester took off the paper and opened the box.

“All right, just what I wanted” he stated excitedly.

“What is it?” Draven asked peaking over his shoulder. Chester should him that it was a shirt that he saw a couple days ago. Sam and Chester went out for late Christmas shopping. As they were shopping, Sam saw him looking at the shirt in one of the store they went into so Sam went back there the next day as she finishing the Christmas shopping alone and got it for him.

Going back to opening the gifts, Draven got a lot of toys and outfits. He was really excited and couldn’t wait to play with them, especially the playstation system he got. What Sam and Chester ended up with was some little knit knacks and clothes. After all the gifts were opened only seven boxes were left under the tree.

“Who’s next?” Draven asked seeing that there were still some gifts left.

“Those boxes are for the guys and grandma” Sam replied. She was now sitting on the ledge of the fireplace picking up wrapping paper. One of the wrappings she made into a ball and threw it at Chester who was helping Draven get one of his new toys working.

Sam laughed as Chester turned to face her, “Hey! What was that for?” he asked. He picked up the wrapping paper that she threw at him and threw right back at her. She picked it up and put it in her little pile of wrapping paper she was making and got up going into the kitchen where she grabbed the garage can. Bring it back into the living room, Sam recycled the papers.

After all the papers where cleaned up, Sam and Chester sent Draven up to his room so that they could finish getting ready for the Christmas dinner that they started working on last night. As it started getting close to six, Sam went and got ready and made sure Draven was cleaned up.

When six o’clock finally rolled around the doorbell went off. Sam answered it greeting her mom, “Hey mom. Come on in” she told her moving to the side to let her mother in. Closing the door, she noticed that her mom was holding a casserole dish and another bag in her other hand.

“Did Draven get what he wanted?” she asked her daughter.

“Oh, yeah. He’s in the living room now playing with his game set that he got” Sam explained.

“That good. Glad he likes it.”

“I can take the casserole dish off your hands and you can put whatever you have in the bag where ever you need to.”

“Oh. Thanks, Sam” her mother stated and carefully handed her the casserole dish.

Sam smiled at her mom. Taking the dish, she walked into the kitchen where Chester was still at cooking away, “My mom is here. She brought the Tamales” she told him as she setting on the kitchen table for the mean time. She walked closer to Chester, “Needed help?”

“Yeah. You could help me” he said to her looking at her with a smiled.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the Christmas meal to be finish and when it was everyone gathered around the table. The dinner was delicious and everyone went for seconds. After dinner, everyone sat around the Christmas tree and open the gift Sam’s mother brought over. And in exchange her mom opened the gift they got for her.

Sam was just all smiles, watching her family enjoy themselves together. She was definitely glad that she was back where she’d belonged. She never went to go back to that dark place again. There where a lot of things to look forward to now. Her and Chester getting remarry. Trying for that second child they wanted to have.

Chester noticed Sam’s decent as they were finished open the last of the gifts. He got up and moved closer, sitting next to her, wrapped his arm around her waist. She responded by resting her head on his shoulder, “You okay?” he softly whispered to her.

She just nodded her head.

After the celebration was over and Sam’s mom left to back home, Chester and Sam took Draven to bed. The two of them then head off to their room to finish what was started in the morning.

******

Anyone reading this story anymore? Reviews are really appreciated!

 

[xeviane]

I'm still reading it... and still enjoying reading it..

Just haven't been here for a while and I see that I've missed a lot. Really, you've done an excellent job as usual. Beautiful writing.

 

[andrea]

Chapter 46

Four more chapters are left until these story is over!

******

January (Two Week Later)

When the year 2008 rolled around, Chester and Sam talked about there future and what they wanted to happen. A wedding date hadn’t been decided yet or even anything about the wedding. They agreed on wanting to take things slowly because they didn’t want to rush into anything they weren’t quite ready for.

Sam was getting back to being herself. She was starting to accept the changes that happened to her in the past. The only thing she wasn’t ready to face was talking to Talinda. But she knew she would have to do so eventually.

As for Chester, the band was continuing to work on the album they’ve been working on for months. For the whole month of January, they would be working in the studio. Today, Chester was in the control room with Mike waiting to lay down some vocals. As he was waiting for Mike to let him do so, he was starting to get bored since Mike was messing around with the pro tools program. “Hey Mike, how’s Anna?” he asked him trying to strike up a conversation.

Mike was silent for a few seconds as he clicked on something in the pro tools program before he replied, “She's good.”

“Have you and Anna found out what you guys are having yet?” he questioned trying to keep the conversation going.

“Actually, we found out yesterday” he replied with his back still towards Chester.

“Really? What’s the ***?”

“A girl” he stated, stopping what he was doing since he was losing concentration with Chester talking and turning around to face him.

“Congratulation dude” Chester told him smiling a little.

“Thanks” Mike replied smiling slightly.

“When is she due again?”

“Around May” Mike stated.

After that there was a brief silence between the two men. Chester then spoke up asking Mike what he really wanted to say, “Um, are you ready for me to lay down some vocals?” he asked. Mike laughed in response.

“Yeah, sorry about making you wait. You can go ahead into the vocal booth.”

Chester nodded his head. He got up and walked into the vocal booth. After he was done laying down the vocals he needed to, he walked out of the control room joining the other guys who were playing a video game to pass time.

“You like done recording?” Brad asked looking at Chester when he heard him come into the room.

“For now” he told him as he looked around the room.

“Cool. Want to like join us?” he asked.

“No” Chester replied, “Is Rob practicing?” he added.

“Yeah. You like know him. He’s like going to be at it like even more, now that like he’s getting some time off like after Talinda has like her baby” Brad stated going back to look at the game, making sure he’s gamer wasn’t dying.

“I’ll be back” he told him. Brad just nodded. Chester walked out of the waiting area going to where Rob was at. Since Talinda’s fall out with Sam at Rose Lawn, he and Rob haven’t really talked. When he reached where Rob was at, he was coming out of his practice room, “Hey Rob” Chester said stopping him.

“Chester” he let out, looking at him.

Chester cleared his throat before speaking to Rob, “I know you’re mad at me for what happened between Sam and Talinda. And I just want to say that I’m sorry for what happen to her and anything that could have happened to the baby. I wasn’t thinking clearly at that time. I just hope that you can forgive me someday. I know I shouldn’t have asked Tal to go in my place” Chester stated to Rob, apologizing.

“Chester, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know how Sam would react towards her. Tal didn’t know Sam would get a hold of a needle. Sam wasn’t thinking rational. Yeah I was mad at you, but I understand why you did it” Rob told him.

Chester nodded his head, relieved to get that over with, “Are we cool?”

“We’re cool” he responded nodding his head. After Rob said that, they did a truce handshake before parting ways.

February

When Talinda woke up in the morning, she moved her hand to the other side of the bed seeing if Rob was there. She felt nothing. Guessing that he was at the studio, she slowly raised herself up, getting out of bed. Being nine months pregnant made it more difficult, so she turned to her left side and pushed herself up into a sitting position. Slowly, she stood up and stretched a little. She was really tired of lying in bed through out her whole pregnancy. But she was kind of glad it was almost over. Walking to the bathroom, she did her thing and checked to see if there was any more discharge, since she lost her mucous plug a few days ago.

After doing her bathroom routine, she made her way out into the living room. Slowly sitting down on the couch, she lowered herself to lie down. Once she was lying down on the couch she turned on the T.V. She wasn’t that tired, but after a few minutes of watching what was on the T.V. she started nodding off because she had trouble sleeping last night…

Talinda’s Dream

Talinda found herself in a hospital bed. She looked down at her stomach and noticed right away that she wasn’t pregnant. Curious filled her mind. She wanted to find her baby and see what he looked like. She pulled back the sheets of the hospital bed, and slowly got out. She walked out of the room and into the halls on the hospital, walking down them slowly. Something didn’t feel right to her because there were no doctor or nurses walking in the hall. The lights were out leaving a red glowing light that filled the halls. As Talinda slowly walked the hall she heard a baby’s cry. She continued walking down the hall trying to find were the crying was coming from. She suddenly stopped walking when the crying stopped. Turning to her side, she saw that she was in front of the hospital’s nursery room. Walking up to the windows, she looked through them and into the nursery. Seeing a light in the corner, she slowly walked to the door opening it. Going into the room, she was hoping to find her baby. She went up to one of the incubator and pulled the blanket up seeing that there was no newborn in it. She went over to the next one, doing the same thing and there wasn’t a newborn in it either. Looking over to the corner of the room she saw something that shocked her.

“Matthew?” she asked wanting to make sure it was who she was seeing as she slowly walked over to the corner. He was holding a baby.

“Yes. It’s me” he stated. He looked down at the newborn in his arms, “You did a great job Talinda. He’s a beautiful baby.”

“I wish you could have been there” she responded back.

“I am always with you. In your heart, your memories, and in Matthew” he said as he’s image started to faded. Then he was gone along with baby Matthew.

“Matthew!” Talinda sat up quickly letting out his name.

She was startled when a hand touched her shoulder. She looked up and saw that it was Rob, “Its okay Talinda. It was just a dream” he said as he sat next to her.

“It felt very much real” she told him.

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“I-I was at a hospital. I must of had the baby because I wasn’t pregnant. I went looking for the baby. The hospital lights where off except for this red glowing light that filled the hall. There were no doctors around. I just kept walking and found myself at the nursery. When I went inside, there were no infants. Matthew was in the room and he was holding our baby. He was telling me that the baby was beautiful. I couldn’t see the baby because he was holding him. Then he faded away with the baby before my eyes” she explained all most on the urge of crying.

Rob wiped his thumb over her cheek wiping away a tear that fell down her cheek, “You know that's not going to happen right?”

“I know” she said looking down. She paused before looking back up at Rob, “Did you get back from the studio?”

“No. I didn’t leave to go to the studio. I have some time off until the baby is born.” And that was the end of that conversation.

Later into the night, Talinda got up from the bed with the feeling of having to use the bathroom. Her stomach was fluttering a lot through out the night. After using the bathroom a sharp pain came over her, it almost sent her to her knees. As she was making her way back to the bed, she suddenly felt a rush of liquid run down her leg. Another contraction started up and that’s when she realized she was in labor. Slowly making her way over to the bed, she went to wake Rob. Waking up, Talinda told him what was happening and they quickly made there way to the hospital.

The Bennington’s

The sound of the phone ringing filled the house waking Sam up. She didn’t bother getting out of the bed to answer the ringing phone and tried to go back to sleep. When the phone stopped ringing, a relief watched over her and she settle back into the bed. A couple minutes later the phone started to ring again. Sam opened her eyes again and this time looked at the clock on her nightstand seeing it brightly shining 2 a.m. ‘Who could be calling this late at night?’ she thought to herself. She felt Chester move as he got up. The soft light of his lamp on his nightstand illumed the room. Picking up the phone, he answered it stopping the ringing, “Hello?” she heard him ask, “…she did? ....yeah we will come…okay, see you in a little bit” he continued.

When Chester hung up the phone, Sam was sitting up in bed with her back leaning against the headboard, “Who was that Chester?” she asked him as he turned back around.

Chester rubbed his hand over his face before telling her, “Rob -- Talinda went into labor and there already at the hospital. He wants us to come down, but that is only if you want to” he told her looking at her.

Sam looked down before she responded, “Yeah. I do.”

“Are you sure?” he questioned her, wanting to make sure she really wanted to.

“Yeah” she said looking back at him, “I know things have been hard between the two of us, but she was my best friend. I know that it’s going to take a while before were friends again, but I want to start working on that now by being there for her” she explained to him.

Chester nodded his head, “Alright, then lets go.”

Sam moved the blankets back and got up. She walked into the closet and quickly put something on. After she dressed, she made her way to Draven’s room. Getting him up, she got him ready so that she could take her with them because it was too late to call Leticia or her mom. When they all were ready, they got into the car and drove to the hospital.