Being wrapped in the arms of someone close brings a sense of warmth to a person, it grounds them down on earth and makes them feel safe. After a long exhausting day, it helps decrease the anxiety and worry people carry within them, even if it only lasts for a few seconds, it's long enough to make anyone feel secure.
Katherine was starting to feel that effect in the arms of her childhood friend, Amber. From the second her friends arrived at the hospital room, it was like the sight of seeing Katherine and Tara hurt finally made them realize shit, this actually did happen. They've all heard the stories, and seen the movies of Ghostface, but none of them really believed it to be true when Katherine called them an hour ago.
Amber was the first to arrive at the hospital, confusion and worry both mixed in her features, but seeing her two friends eating pasta as they shared a laugh visually seemed to calm her down. She sat down by the empty hospital bed where Katherine sat comfortable with her legs crossed and wrapped an arm around her back.
The rest of her friends arrived moments afterwards and wouldn't stop sharing their thoughts on how fucked up the whole situation was, and how worried they all were when they first got the call.
An hour later, after the group of friends got comfortable in their seats and did their best in trying to reassure the girls they were going to be fine, the door to their room opened, and Tara's sister appeared on the other side.
She was hesitant to come in, only taking small steps as she looked around at the teens she used to take care of. Once her eyes locked with her sisters, the shyness went away and she crouched down beside her, softly setting her hand on Tara's shoulder and asking, "How are you feeling?"
If the sight of her pale sister who looked like she was in a state between life and death didn't hurt her enough, the words she threw at her were heart wrenching because of the doubtfulness in her voice, "You came."
Sam's escape from Woodsboro had lasted so long that it left her sister doubting she would even show up after she had been hurt, and the realization of that hurt Sam a lot because she never meant for the strand between her sister and herself to get to a point of no return.
"Of course I came." Sam spoke softly, trying to lessen any doubts Tara might be feeling of how much she loved her. "This is my boyfriend, Richie."
The man wasted no second in jumping into the conversation, "It's so nice to meet you. I'm so sorry if I'm intruding."
Tara ran her eyes across the man she had no intention of ever meeting, but knowing he was supposedly Sam's boyfriend, she decided to give him a polite smile and said, "Nice to meet you, too."
Sam had met every single one of the teens in the room a long time ago when she needed a few extra bucks and decided to babysit a few of them, so she went around the room and gave them a hug as she greeted them. She stayed near Wes longer than the others, softly thanking him for calling her and telling her about Tara's condition.
She moved back to where her boyfriend was standing and introduced them to him, "These are Chad and Mindy, the twins, and Wes. I used to babysit them all."
Wes was slightly embarrassed at that comment, or more so confused as to why she needed to add that last sentence in. "Which is always how I like to be introduced." Wes pitched in sarcastically.
Katherine stifled a laugh after hearing his complaint, as did Amber, and that got Sam's attention. She turned to the two girls, finally noticing them for the first time, and a smile grew on her lips. "And these are Katherine and Amber. Hey!"
"Welcome back."
'Hi, nice to see you."
Richie turned to Amber and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Richie."
"Hi."
It didn't take long for Sam to notice the absence of their mother, so she asked, "Where's mom?"
"She's stuck at a conference in London. She called me earlier." Tara filled her sister in, and to Katherine, it just seemed like she was trying to justify her mother for not being there.
"When is she not?" It came out without an intention, and it was more of a mumble, but Katherine didn't care if they heard it.
Tara's mother wasn't always occupied with her work, but after her divorce, she latched onto her job as a sense of security. Recently, it had gotten to the point where she left Tara home alone every few days for a long duration.
Tara glanced at her with furrowed eyebrows, but before Katherine was able to catch her glancing, she looked back towards her sister.
Before anyone had time to cut in, specifically Tara, Amber quickly said, "Look, guys, Tara's really tired. Maybe we should just give her some space."
It only took one glance at Tara for them to agree with Amber's statement. They each said their goodbye's and exited the room silently. Sam trailed behind them, thinking her sister might want the room to herself while she sleeps, but it turns out she was wrong.
"Not you, Sam." Tara called after her. "I want you to stay."
A smile made its way on Sam's lips, and she nodded as she walked back towards her sister. "If it's okay with you, I could sleep here tonight."
Tara didn't have to think at all about the request, "I'd really like that."
"Okay."
Richie took that as his time to leave, and he gave Sam a look to let her know he'd be outside.
Katherine hopped off the bed, immediately gaining the attention of her girlfriend, "You're leaving?"
Katherine walked over to the bed, her thighs softly rubbing against the mattress and nodded, "Yeah, for a little bit, it gives you two enough time to talk."
She pressed a kiss on Tara's cheek, "I'll be back before you know it."
Sam seemed to realize very quickly that they were both together, not that it was shocking, but it did surprise her that they finally talked about how they felt for one another. The last time Sam saw them, both girls were repeatedly throwing flirty banters around and smiling during the whole duration of hanging out together. They were always together, and even when they were apart, there was always a mention of the other one, but they never said anything to each other.
"How long have you two been seeing each other?" Sam asked, taking a seat beside Tara's bed and watching as the two girls appeared to be caught by surprise.
"Umm, practically since we were toddlers. Yeah, you see, daycare really bonded us for life, especially when this girl cut out a chunk of my hair while I was asleep." Katherine joked as she ran a hand through her straight light brown hair and watched as Sam narrowed her eyes at her.
"Not when you met, you idiot, and even then, daycare doesn't count, you guys hated each other and didn't become friends till like first grade." Sam groaned. "Now fill me in, who spilled first, and how long have you two been going out?"
Tara watched her sister's eyes dance back and forth between both girls, "Guess."
Sam playfully scoffed, a smile on her lips as she looked at the tall brunette. Her money was all on Katherine, having spent one entire summer getting the girl ready to ask her sister out, but the little shake of her head made Sam's eyes widened. "You didn't ask her!?"
"I tried." Katherine argued.
"Kissing Amber in front of me is not asking me out, dumbass." Tara rolled her eyes, letting out a small laugh when Sam's eyes widened even more.
"Woah, hold on, instead of telling her how you felt, you kissed another girl." Sam asked, confused.
"I was scared to ask, okay? But I had a feeling she did like me back so I asked Amber if she could help me make Tara jealous, and it worked. Tara ended up kissing me when we got to her house." Katherine pointed out.
"When was this?"
"Like two years ago." Tara answered.
"You've been together for two years?"
Katherine immediately shook her head, "No, nothing came of it, I moved away for a few months, and then came back home. Your sister was very confusing though, she told me she wanted to stay friends when I came back, and then a few days passed and she got into my pa-"
Tara coughed, cutting Katherine's speech short and getting two pairs of worried eyes on herself, "She doesn't need to hear that far into the story. We've been together for about nine months."
Never in a million years would she have guessed her sister was the one to reveal her feelings first. Not that she doubted Tara, she just didn't seem like the kind to do so. But then again, it was hard to know how Tara was when Sam wasn't in her life. Thinking about that, made Sam think about the attack.
"Were you two together when it-" A shaky breath came from Sam before she continued. "When it happened?"
It was a touchy subject, Sam knew, but she still wanted to know.
"Not really, I was attacked out on the street and didn't get to Tara till it was basically all over." Katherine let her know.
"Wait, then why aren't you connected to one of those machines?" Sam asked, pointing at the device that was collecting Tara's pulse and oxygen levels.
Katherine turned to look at where exactly she was pointing to, "Oh, I had Aaron take it off of me yesterday. I'm technically allowed to discharge myself from the hospital since they already patched the wound, but Aaron's letting me stay here until Tara's able to leave."
The name drop seemed to catch Sam's interest, and Katherine wasn't sure if she was happy or annoyed that he worked in the hospital. "He's here?"
Katherine nodded, "Yeah, but don't worry, Tara isn't one of his patients so he's not coming in here."
Sam relaxed slightly at those words, "Can you avoid telling him that I'm here? I'll go find him later."
"Of course." Katherine agreed. "I'm heading down to the cafeteria to get something to drink, you guys need anything?"
. . . . . . . .
After they collectively declined the offer, Katherine left the room and headed down to get herself a lemonade. On her way back she spotted the one and only, Aaron Shane.
He looked a little distraught, "Fuck, I think I'm going insane. I swear I just saw Sam Carpenter like twenty minutes ago."
Katherine did terribly on acting surprised, in a moment of shock the lemonade she was drinking betrayed her and traveled down the wrong pipe. Coughs erupted from her mouth, and Aaron gave her a few pats on the back, looking over at her with a worried look. "Are you good?"
Katherine nodded, her voice coming out hoarse from her dry coughs, "Yeah."
Aaron looked unconvinced, "Right."
"Do you think she's back? I mean Tara was attacked so it'd make sense if she's here right now."
Katherine shrugged, "It would make sense."
Aaron signed, "Doesn't matter. The chances of us running into each other are slim to none. How are you holding up, Kae?"
Katherine brought up the lemonade bottle, took a long sip, and then brought it back down. "I think I'm good, just worried about Tara-and my father. I never take this long to call him, but if I do call him, he'd just throw a bunch of questions on me."
Aaron placed a hand on her back, "I understand, and don't worry about that. I already called and told him you volunteered to help out around the hospital today."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I kind of figured if you didn't want to call him when I first asked you to, then you weren't going to call at all. I hope you don't mind; I just know how much he worries about you." Aaron looked over worryingly to see her reaction, and he grew calm when he noticed she looked grateful.
"Thank you."
Aaron lifted an eyebrow, "Doesn't mean I think it's right to lie to him, though."
Katherine agreed on that, it wasn't right, but it was the best thing to do in this situation.
"Anyways, what are you thinking about majoring in college? You have been volunteering here at the hospital quite often, does that interest you?" Aaron asked, trying to make small talk as they roam the halls of the hospital with no destination in mind.
"Do I think the stuff you guys do here is interesting, of course, but I wouldn't want to work here forever." Katherine told him, but then she noticed the slight disappointment on his face. "It's not that I don't like it, I just don't know if I want to be a writer like my mom or a photographer. I think I'm leaning more into the photographer career though."
The two weren't able to get another word out because their conversation was cut short, and they were both startled by a woman frantically screaming through the halls. As the voice got closer to both individuals walking side by side, they came to realize the person screaming was Sam.
Sam came running around the corner at full speed, fear evident on her face. "Somebody help me! He's trying to kill me."
She roughly bumped into Aaron, and his face morphed into one of confusion. "Sam?"
A police officer came towards the group, "What's going on? You okay?"
"Somebody tried to kill me in the break room." She responded immediately, taking small steps away from Aaron as she looked back towards the direction of the room she had just ran out of.
The cop stormed towards the room, quickly taking his gun out of his holster and holding it tightly in his hands. He looked ready to shoot on sight if he had to, but once he forced the door open, there wasn't anyone in the room anymore.
He turned back to the group and escorted them back into Tara's room until the Sheriff arrived to ask them various questions.
"I've got a body outside a bar on Main, and now you get attacked here. You said the call came from Katherine's number?" Judy asked.
"Oh, and I'm just spit-balling here-you're the killer." Richie interrupted, letting his eyes set on Katherine.
Katherine narrowed her eyes on the man and spoke with a little anger in her voice, "I'm sorry, I'm not sure if you're aware, but my phone was taken off the ground when I was attacked."
Judy could sense the tension rising in the room, and so she cut back in with a question targeted at Richie. "And where were you when this happened?"
"I was-watching Netflix." He answered.
Katherine held back in her laugh, "You mean Stab, right? Why the fuck would you watch that right now!?"
Richie scoffed, "If I'm going to stay here with Sam, I need to know what I'm getting myself into. Where the hell were you?"
"She was with me, dumbass, you on the other hand don't have a fucking alibi." Aaron blurted out, crossing his arms over his chest.
"The three of you, stop it." Judy interrupted them before their little argument could escalate even more.
Sam glanced over at her sister, and just with one look she could tell the younger Carpenter was scared of everything going on. Instead of the situation getting better, it was getting worse and now they were being followed by Ghostface, "You're gonna put more cops on her room, right?"
"Yes." Judy nodded. "And I can move you to a private floor. Deputy Vinson knows what he's doing. You'll be safe."
"Like we've been so far?"
"Samantha, let's step outside." Judy advised, sending her a forced smile and trying to keep the situation under control.
Aaron didn't waste any time once they were out of the room, "I should get back to work."
He wasn't planning on being there when Sam came back, and staying in the same room as Richie, who was supposedly Sam's boyfriend, wasn't doing him any good. With his hand on the doorknob, he glanced back at Katherine, "Can I speak to you?"
Katherine looked back at Tara to make sure it was okay to leave the room and once she nodded, Katherine followed him out. They awkwardly bumped into Sam and the Sheriff outside who looked like they were in the midst of an argument. Sam headed back into the room a few seconds afterwards and the Sheriff made her way down the hall.
"You've got to sit down and let your body rest. Moving around isn't going to heal your wound, in fact, it could reopen them." Aaron informed her as Katherine leaned on the wall of the hospital hall to avoid putting pressure on her injured leg.
Aaron noticed the move and let out a sign, "See, you're tired."
"I'm leaning against the wall, that's completely different from showing tiredness."
"Not if you're leaning on it because you're tired."
Katherine playfully rolled her eyes, "I'll try resting later."
Their attention was quickly brought to Sam coming out of the hospital room her sister was in with tears streaming down her cheeks. In that second, Katherine felt her stomach churn and she took a step forward to run in there. If Sam was crying, she figured something happened to Tara, but Aaron grabbed her shoulder, "Hey, look at me, Tara's fine. There'd be doctors running in there otherwise."
Katherine looked around and didn't spot a single doctor running to the room. Her eyebrows furrowed in curiosity, and she felt herself growing confused.
"They must have argued or something."
Aaron groaned when he watched Richie comfort his ex-girlfriend and soothe her with his words. He felt like throwing up, and consequently to that he made a face like he was about to, which ultimately made Katherine laugh.
Aaron turned to her with a glare, "You wouldn't be laughing right now if that was Tara."
Katherine rolled her eyes-because he was very right, she wouldn't be laughing. "Sorry-just don't ever make that face again."
"Hey, Kae, can we talk?"
Katherine turned around to find Sam.
"Alone," Sam added, eyeing Aaron.
Katherine internally winced by the hurt radiating off of Aaron-but he also wasn't in the mood for arguing and left with a soft goodbye.
"What's wrong? Is it Tara?" Katherine asked, worried from the crying she witnessed a few seconds ago.
Sam shook her head, "No, she's fine. I wanted to ask you something."
Katherine's worry went away, and she found herself nodding, motioning with her hand for her to continue.
"Now I know you don't want your father getting involved-" Sam lifted up her hand to stop Katherine from interrupting, "But he's the only one we can talk to about all of this. You and I both know this is only going to get worse, and if you do want to protect Tara-"
Katherine's jaw clenched, "Don't fucking use Tara as a way for me to involve my father. You know I'd do anything to protect her, as would you-but it's my dad you're talking about."
Sam closed her eyes momentarily, she didn't mean to say it like that, "Sorry-I know you don't want him getting hurt, but if we do nothing then-"
"Don't say it. I know how this goes, okay? I think we all do, and I don't want that, I," Katherine signed, "Listen, I'll take you to him, but if he wants nothing to do with this shit then you leave him out of it. That sound good?"
Katherine knew he would want to involve himself, especially if he heard his own daughter was attacked, and that irked her, because she didn't want to lose him. He'd survived all the previous attacks, but that didn't mean he was immune to dying, none of them were, and her worry started sinking in again. Worry for her girlfriend, her friends, her father, and herself.
"Yes, that sounds fine."
"I'll meet you outside, oh, and if you see Aaron on the way don't mention I'm leaving." Katherine told her before leaving the girl outside in the halls and entering Tara's room.