Chapter Text
Sam Fraser really wanted nothing more than to lie down in a real bed outside of the hospital where she had been staying the past few days. And at this rate, she really didn’t care, so long as she could be left alone.
“Hey Sam, we finally found a place for you to go. It took pulling a few strings, but we can finally break you out of this hospital”. Tommy explained, Tommy Slater had been the case worker assigned to Sam’s case earlier in the week when the state deemed that her mother was unfit to take care of her on the grounds of emotional abuse or some shit like that. He was a nice guy, but his presence generally made Sam’s life a headache.
“Do they know about me?” She inquired, this whole frustrating process had been kicked off when Sam had been caught skipping class and making out with a girl under the bleachers. Both parents had been called and the two girls had been given detention for skipping. Unfortunately for Sam, her mother couldn’t restrain her anger and began yelling at Sam while still on the school’s campus, which would’ve been fine in and of itself until Sam tried to argue back which had earned a slap to the face and tug on her arm to pull forward, which had been hard enough that Sam had stumbled forward. Unfortunately, the school were mandated reporters and had to let social services know that Sam’s mother had slapped her. Which had resulted in Sam being taken to the hospital, even though she didn’t really need it, to be questioned, all while learning that apparently frequently being homophobic towards your only child and with holding food were not normal and considered abuse, which meant that Sam had to be removed from her home, leaving her were she was now.
“Yeah, they know about you. I actually used to date Cindy, one of the women who is going to take you in. She’s really nice, even if a little uptight, but don’t worry she’s accepting.” Tommy explained, as Sam was discharged and he took her out to the car.
“Are we heading there now?” She wasn’t sure if she was ready to meet a whole new family yet.
“Yeah, I know that it’s a lot, but we really don’t have anywhere else for you to go at the moment. Plus, you know what they say, better to just rip the Band-Aid off and get it over with, right!” Sam felt like that was an easy thing for someone to say who wasn’t having their entire life uprooted and while being forced to move into their own family. Ultimately she couldn’t blame him, after all he was just her social worker who was trying to do right by her and make her as comfortable and safe as possible.
“When can I get my stuff from my house?” Sam asked, changing the subject. She wasn’t overly sentimental, but there were at least a few things she wanted to pick up and take with her.
“Hopefully we can take a trip over to your mom’s house tomorrow, she’s not allowed to be there when you are and I know she has mandated therapy then, so I’m hoping we can swing by and get you everything you need.” Well that was a relief, she wouldn’t have to go too much longer without her things.
Deciding she was done with talking for now, she stared out the window, listening to the song that was faintly playing on the radio, she was pretty sure that it was a song by The Offspring but she wasn’t quite sure. Deena would know, she thought. Deena had always been the music lover in their relationship, always making mixtapes and trying to introduce Sam to more artists that existed beyond what was played on Top 40 radio stations. She sighed, that was another thing she wasn’t ready to deal with, the new family she was moving in with lived in Shadyside, a town she had left behind in her parents divorce and her mothers move to Sunnyvale to get Sam as far away from that town as possible. And in that town she had left Deena, her girlfriend. The last time they had spoken to each other harsh words were exchanged in anger and Sam wasn’t sure how ready she was to face her again.
In Sam’s musings, she hadn’t realized that they had crossed the border into Shadyside and they were almost at her new house. Suddenly she felt extremely nauseous and wanted to turn back to the hospital and stay there until they worked things out with her mom. Suddenly everything became real and she was not happy about it.
“Alright, we’re here!” Tommy said, as they pulled up in front of the house. It was a pretty nice house, all things considered for Shadyside, it wasn’t falling apart and it looked like it had been updated and painted recently.
Sam sighed as she got out of the car and followed Tommy up to the front door, she could feel her heart beating in her ears and the urge to throw up got stronger. She started biting her fingernails as she could hear her mother’s voice in her head, telling her to get it together and that Fraser’s didn’t act like that.
“Hi, Sam right? Come on inside and we’ll get you settled”. Sam was startled out of her nervous spiral, as she was met with who she assumed was one of the kids of her new caregivers. “Ohh, I’m Cindy by the way, I don’t know how much information Tommy gave you about me, I know that this was all very last minute.”
“You’re my new guardian?” She inquired, the girl couldn’t have barely been over the age of 18.
“Yeah, I know I’m a little young, but I promise I have experience taking care of teenagers. I actually have a younger sister who you might remember from when you used to live in Shadyside, Ziggy? I’m her guardian as well, I had to get a foster license to be granted custody of her, which is why I was able to take you in as well.” Cindy explained, as she lead her and Tommy into what appeared to be a living room.
Sam could feel her breath begin to go shallow as her heart whooshed in her ears, suddenly she felt like it may be a good idea to sit down or better yet have someone take her back to the hospital because she was sure that she was having a heart attack. She tried to pull herself together, not wanting to alert her new guardian and cause anymore trouble, but she felt someone gently pull her down. Faintly she could hear somebody calling her name and telling her to breathe, she did her best to latch onto the voice and try to slow down her breathing as her face became wet with tears. Finally, the thundering in her heart stopped and her breathing was under control and the general feeling of having a heart attack had subsided.
“Are you ok, I think you just had a panic attack?” Cindy asked, as Sam’s eyes came back into focus as she noticed both her and Tommy kneeling in front of her on the couch she was sitting on.
“Yeah, I’m so sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me, I’m usually not like that.” Sam tried to explain, embarrassed by the situation she had caused.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, panic attacks are completely normal, in fact I have had a few myself. Do you need anything?” Cindy asked, as she handed her a glass of water.
“No, can I just go lay down somewhere, I really want to take a nap?” She asked, Sam felt guilty for not wanting to spend more time with her new guardian, but she really needed to be alone and sleep.
“Sure, I’m sure it’s been a long few days for you. I’ll show you to your room and you can get comfortable”.
Sam followed Cindy upstairs, to what she guessed was now her new room. It was decorated pretty generically, she imagined it had been a guest room before they got the call that they were going to be taking her in.
“I’ll finish sorting things out with Tommy while you rest, just give us a call if you need anything.” Cindy told her, as she closed the door behind her. Finally, she was alone and could try to sleep for a few hours and pretend like her entire life hadn’t been uprooted over the course of the past week.