Jenna and I looked at each other as Samantha slept.
"We haven't told her everything," I said.
We both knew there was so much more Samantha didn't know and needed to. She didn't know the extent of her injuries, most of which had healed while she was in a coma. Physiotherapy had helped keep her joints and limbs from stiffening up. And they'd had to be careful because of the fractures in her pelvis, but those were healed now, too. There wasn't much keeping her in bed beyond still having a catheter, and general weakness from her ordeal. We'd been told she'd had a head injury, but it was mild. Probably would have knocked her out if the rest of the injuries hadn't.
They were planning on trying to get Samantha to eat something today. They were starting her on a liquid diet. Applesauce, meal replacement shakes, chocolate pudding. Soup. That's what we were told was coming for lunch. They'd see what, if anything, she could tolerate. Her stomach had been bruised in the accident. Along with her liver, spleen, kidneys, lungs. Everything had been damaged in some way or the other. Plus, she hadn't had anything by mouth in two months.
"We will," Jenna said. "When she wakes up, we'll tell her everything."
I nodded. Then I sighed. California was supposed to be different. It was supposed to be better for Sam. This wasn't supposed to happen to her. She was supposed to have a good year. She wasn't supposed to lose another friend. She wasn't supposed to spend two months of her senior year in a coma. I lay my head down on her bed and cried silently. Suddenly I felt arms around me. I looked up and Jenna was hugging me.
"Hey," she said to me. "She's going to get better. She's going to heal. And we'll help her through everything else. Like we've always done. Like we'll always do,"
"It's just not fair," I said to my wife. "California was supposed to be better. Was supposed to be different. This was supposed to be a good year for her. I'm not even sure she'll be able to play the rest of the basketball season."
"Don't count me out yet," I heard from Samantha. I looked up and she was staring at me.
"What?" I asked.
"I said, 'don't count me out yet.' You wouldn't let me give up when I lost my leg. You don't get to count me out now."
I looked at Samantha with incredulity.
"Sam," Jenna said. "That is an amazing attitude."
She shrugged.
"Honey," Jenna said, sitting on Sam's bed again. "We have more to tell you."
"I figured," she said. "I suspect if I've been out for two months, something more than being in a car accident had to have happened."
"Well, that's the main and most major thing that happened, yes," I said.
We sat with Samantha and discussed all the injuries we knew about. We told her about the infection that had deepened her coma and about the many, many surgeries she'd had. We discussed what the doctors had told us about her kidneys so far.
"Right now they think it might be some scarring from the injuries you sustained in the accident, and they might have to go and operate on your kidney to try and break away some of the scarring that might be blocking your kidney from working properly. But if they have to, they might remove it."
"You know," Sam said, thoughtfully. "I had kinda thought of donating my body to science. But I'd kind of expected that to be after I died of like, old age or something in a million years. I wasn't expecting it to be piece by piece in my teens!"
I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic, serious or trying to be funny. I looked at her with confusion I suppose, evidently on my face.
"Dad, relax. I'm okay," she said. "I mean, I want to hear what the doctors say, too. But I'm okay."
"Sam, you've been through so much in just the past couple of months. I'm so sorry this happened."
Sam looked down at her foot and sighed.
"I've stopped asking myself, or the universe or whoever, why this keeps happening to me. Maybe I'm cursed. Maybe I'm just incredibly unlucky. But one thing I know, if I hadn't run away that night, I wouldn't be here today."
I hugged my daughter, who even through her own pain, heartbreak, trauma and sadness was able to reflect on what could have been. And she was right. Based on what we knew about her upbringing, what she'd told us, what we'd learned through the years and the one time we got to meet Stanley, she was probably right. After all, he'd very nearly killed her when he'd had her abducted right after our adoption went through. But he was sadistic, because he also spent that time he had her beating her, berating her and doing everything he could to raise her blood sugar by feeding her sugary food, when he'd feed her at all, from what little she'd remembered.
She had been so traumatized from that week, we weren't sure we'd get our daughter back at all. Even once we had her back home, she had remained silent for three weeks. She was afraid of everything and almost everyone.
But she'd worked through that with Doc, and he'd guided her through so many traumatic things. Specifically the school shooting. We hadn't realized just how affected Sam had been. She'd hidden her pain so well when we'd been on tour, that we hadn't realized how devastated she was until she'd been home and back at school, and had gotten so bad, we had to have her hospitalized. It was only then we saw in photos that as much as she was smiling in a lot of the photos she was in, that smile never made it to her eyes.
"Lunch time!" Zoe said, coming in, with Brendon and Sarah right behind her with the girls.
"Sammy? You awake?" Rosie asked, as she peeked her head into the room.
"Hey, RosieRo!" Sam smiled. I looked at her and watched her blue eyes begin to sparkle.
"Hi, Sama!" Junie said, toddling up to Samantha's bed.
"Hi, Junie!" Sam smiled.
"You wake!" Junie smiled.
"Nope. I'm asleep," Sam said, and then dropped her head to her pillow and pretended to snore loudly. Junie giggled.
"Sama, you silly!" She clapped. I picked Junie up and put her on Sam's bed where she immediately crawled over to Sam's left foot and grasped her toe. Sam started to wiggle her toes and Junie giggled. Rosie climbed up on the bed and lay down beside Sam.
"Sammy?"
"Yeah, Ro?" She asked, turning her head to her sister.
"I missed you. But? Now you awake. I telled you stories. Do you remember me saying stories to you?"
Sam glanced over at me. I didn't know how to answer that. But Sam answered before I had an opportunity to.
"You know, Ro, I might have. But, I was so deeply asleep, I don't remember them. So you can tell them all to me again if you want. Because now I'm awake and I can hear and listen and remember."
I smiled. Since the day Rosie was born, Samantha and her sister have had such a special relationship. Apparently, their relationship started before Rosie was even born.
Zoe had finished setting up the food we were going to challenge Sam with.
"Ready, Sam?" Zoe asked. "I have a few things for you to try to eat, okay? It's all soft and mostly liquid. It's been a while since you've had any solid food, and you've had a lot of injuries that needed to properly heal. So, today, don't worry if you can't tolerate everything. We'll go slow. If you feel sick or have any problems, we'll stop. Okay?"
Sam nodded.
Jenna pulled the tray over towards Sam. Junie watched from the end of the bed and Rosie watched from beside Sam. Zoe placed a towel on Samantha to act as a bib.
"You got chocolate pudding!" Rosie squealed.
"Yum," Sam smiled at her.
"Alright," Zoe said. "Let's start with the water. Something simple,"
Jenna picked up the cup of water and brought the straw to Sam's mouth. Sam lifted her hand and held the cup with Jenna. She took a small sip first and seemed fine with that so she tried a bigger mouthful and that seemed to go well, too.
"Okay. Good," Zoe smiled. "Try the soup. It's cooled down so you shouldn't burn yourself. It's just chicken broth, anyway."
Sam wrinkled her nose at it but picked up the spoon and, with a shaky hand, managed a spoonful of broth without spilling too much. We had her sitting up more, anyway. So it was easier for her to reach the table and the tray. She managed about five spoonfuls before I could see she was physically tiring.
"You're doing great, baby," I said. "Are you getting tired?"
"Yeah, but I want to eat more. It's so good. I missed food," she said, grinning. I smiled at her.
"Let Mom help you," I smiled back at her.
"Uncle Brendon?" Sam said, looking at Brendon who was sitting at the end of her bed.
"Yeah?" He said.
"Are you okay?" She asked, looking intently at him. Sarah looked at Sam and then Brendon.
"Sam, darlin', right now, I am one of the happiest people in this room," he smiled at her. "I'm so sorry you're here, and I'm so sorry you got hurt. But now that you seem to be doing so much better, I am very, very happy."
Samantha didn't seem convinced. But seemed to be willing to drop it for now. Knowing her, she'd talk to him alone at some point.
There was a knock on the door to Sam's room as we were trying the pudding.
"Dylan!" Samantha said as he walked into the room. There was another boy with him I didn't recognize. "Ambrose!"
"You're awake," Dylan said, surprised. A smile started to bloom on his face.
"It would seem so," Sam said. "But tell me. Is it really December?"
Dylan looked between us. We nodded.
"Uh, yeah," he said, his hand going to the back of his head. "We're on winter break right now."
Sam frowned.
"And Brandi?" She asked. She didn't have to finish her question. Dylan knew what she was asking.
"Yeah," he said, looking away. Samantha looked away.
"Oh," she said simply.
The kids sat quietly for a bit, looking awkwardly around.
"So...," Ambrose started. "How are you feeling?"
"Okay, I guess," Sam said. "I don't remember the accident or anything really before I woke up, and I'm having a hard time understanding that it's December and Christmas."
"I bet that feels weird," he said.
"You have no idea," Sam said.
Dylan kept looking at Sam with doe eyes, listening to her every word.
Suddenly there was a screech from the hallway and Samantha was enveloped by a whole other person. I looked over at the doorway and saw Erin standing in the doorway, a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.
By the process of elimination, I figured out that the sobbing mess currently attaching herself to Samantha was Jill. I smiled. They'd been able to make it out here. We'd been keeping them informed and they'd asked us to let us know how things were looking during the winter break and they'd try to bring Jill out to see Sam. She'd been just devastated when she'd heard about Samantha's accident. We'd wanted to bring her out over the past two months but school and other commitments made it hard for her, so we'd discussed the winter break, thinking Sam would likely still be comatose. She hadn't shown any signs of waking up for six weeks, and then when she did, she didn't show any more improvement for another couple of weeks.
"You're awake!" Jill smiled at Sam.
"Hi, Jill. Yeah. I am," she smiled back. "Jill, this is Dylan and Ambrose. Guys, this is my best friend in Ohio, Jill."
"Nice to meet you," Dylan smiled at Jill, then looked at Sam and back at Jill. I couldn't quite read his expression.
The kids all talked together, Jill catching Samantha up on things back home and how her class had reacted to the news of Samantha's accident. Dylan and Ambrose talked about the things she'd missed and how the school had reacted to the accident.
We sat back and listened to the kids talking, comparing things between South Columbus and Mulholland High. Sam seemed to be able to keep up with the conversation and would ask questions if they referred to something while she'd been unconscious. I smiled at Jenna, and she smiled back. Sam was doing okay. But we'd have to keep an eye on things. I wasn't sure she'd processed Brandi's death yet.