And He takes and He takes, Chapter Two
Title: And He takes and He takes, Chapter Two
Fandom: iCarly
Paring/Characters: Sam, Sam/Freddie
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,643
Disclaimer: I don’t own iCarly
Summary: CT scan. MRI. X-ray after x-ray. It wasn’t how she’d planed to spend her weekend.
A/N: This is a tragedy!fic.
CT scan. MRI. X-ray after x-ray.
It wasn’t how she’d planed to spend her weekend.
She had yet to tell anyone. She couldn’t even tell her mother. A nurse had walked out to the car, tapped on the window and told her the news. There had been a non-stop flow of tears out of her mother. Sam hadn’t cried once. She just sat there, empty.
She was sixteen. Of course that had put her more at risk for her cancer. Ewing sarcoma. She couldn’t even pronounce what was killing her. They’d told her that with chemotherapy and radiation everything could work out for the better. There was a sixty percent survival rate, seventy-five percent if it was localized. She didn’t know what most of the doctors were talking about when they tried to explain how it was all about her chromosomes and how her bones cells were mutated.
She’d had to tell Carly that she was sick; she’d missed school since she’d found out and she’d missed iCarly, which Carly had subsequently canceled. She promised the viewers an extra special show the next week. Sam didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was going to be busy for a while. She didn’t know how.
They called her sister who got herself to a doctor and was tested. She was fine; she had gotten all the good genes. Sam hated her for that, she didn’t wish he sister would have what she had, but she wish that something would happen to her that would make her not so perfect.
She stayed in her bed when she wasn’t getting tested. She didn’t talk to anyone. She didn’t eat. She barely slept. She couldn’t do anything. This shouldn’t have happened to her.
When Sam missed school on Monday Carly came over with soup and demanded that she see Sam. She came into her room and lay next to her on the bed, this is how Carly normally acted when Sam had a cold. She was more of a mother than anyone Sam had ever known, including her own mother.
“So, what do you have?” Carly asked her. Sam didn’t respond she just stared at her ceiling. Carly sighed, “So it’s bad then?”
They laid there in silence staring at her ceiling. Carly didn’t ask any questions, she knew all she needed to right then. She held Sam’s hand and she knew that when she was ready Sam would talk to her.
Carly came back the next day and Freddie came with her. Sam’s mom made her come into the living room to see them. Carly’s eyes were red and puffy; she’d obviously been crying which is probably why Freddie had decided to come with her. Sam just sat there, legs pulled up in front of her to block her from her friends.
“People at school have been asking about you.” Freddie said quietly, he wasn’t used to seeing Sam like this. Normally she was loud and abrasive, now she was looking sad and scared. He didn’t think that she was scared of anything. He knew better now.
They ate sandwiches that her mother made them. They were turkey or chicken, none of them could really tell, but they ate anyway because that’s what people do when they have nothing to say. Sam’s mother whispered to her that she would have to tell them sooner or later and it was probably best if it was sooner so that they could help her through this. She couldn’t tell them. Not when they were right there in front of her.
They left after they ate and Carly told her that she would be back the next day while she was hugging her. Freddie just stood back and shifted his weight while this was going on. He gave her a parting wave and they left.
She went back to her room and spent the night crying. The next day she went to the doctor’s office again. They had her test results back and they had decided that with chemotherapy and radiation she should be okay. They explained to her what was going to happen, there would probably be vomiting and she wouldn’t get much sleep. They told her she would lose her hair and more weight than was healthy. They pretty much told her she was going to want to die, but that they weren’t going to let her.
She left the office with her mother, who had started obsessing over Sam ever since she was diagnosed. She asked her mom if she could take her to school and her mom was both shocked and scared, but did as she asked.
The halls were empty when she walked in. It was fifth period class. Right now she would be in Spanish with Senora Jackson. She opened her locker; everything was just as she left it. She wished that things looked different that everything looked destroyed and ugly instead of life going on she just wanted it to stop.
“Miss. Puckett, where is your hall pass?” she turned around to Benjamin Philter the hall monitor. He was tall, smelly, and no one liked to be with in ten feet of him, but he took his job very seriously.
“I don’t need a hall pass.” She spat back at him.
“Everyone. Needs. A. Hall. Pass.” He responded. He took her by the shoulders and led her into the principal’s office. His grip was tight on her shoulders and the more she twisted to get away from him the tighter he held her. He was muttering about “finally catching most wanted number one” and she knew that he was never going to let her out of this. He walked her right into Principal Franklin’s office.
“Look who I found.” He said with a smirk. He sat her down in a chair and backed up towards the door waiting for his recognition for bringing her in. Principal Franklin looked at her confused and saddened. He had to know.
“Can you please leave us Mr. Philter?” he asked. The boy’s mouth opened and then closed like a fish trying to breath on land, he repeated this process a few times before he turned and left. He pulled the door shut behind him.
“Hi Ted.” Sam said to him. She assumed her usual position on pulling her legs up to her chest and stared at him.
“Would you like to talk about it?” He asked her. She shook her head. “Have you told Carly and Freddie yet?”
“I can’t.” she muttered sadly. She looked at him, and knew that he understood. He always got her in a way that other adults couldn’t. He got up and walked to the front of his desk. He squatted down to her eye level and looked at her.
“Would you like me to?” He asked. This was the first time that anyone had offered to tell her friends. The nurse had told her mom and her mom had told her sister, but no one had thought to tell Carly and Freddie. They had all assumed that she would want to tell them, but why would she want to do that? She nodded to him and he gave a small knowing nod before leaning in and hugging her.
She left the office and walked past Benjamin who was glaring at her. He must have really wanted to be the hall monitor that took down Sam Puckett, if only he knew. And she thought about telling him just to tell someone but she knew better than that, so she just kept walking into the hall, out of the school, to her mom’s car. He settled in for the ride home.
“When did you tell Principal Franklin?” She asked her mother, her eyes never moved from the horizon outside of her window.
“He called the day before Carly came over. He was worried about you.” She said.
Sam was quite the rest of the ride. She wondered if he would call them in during the next class or if he would wait until the end of the day. She wondered if they would tell other people. She was worried about Carly and Freddie, but she was most worried about Gibby finding out. He had been with her when she had gotten hurt and that lead to all of this. She hoped that he understood because while she often made Gibby the butt of her jokes she still cared about him.
When they got home her mother made her chicken noodle soup and Sam somberly ate. If tasted bland, but all food has tasted bland since she had found out. When she finished she took a shower for the first time in a week.
When she got out she examined herself in the mirror, besides the bags under her eyes she didn’t look any different than she had before. She wanted to scream at her reflection. It was all wrong. She should not look like herself. Nothing should be the same.
Her mother knocked on the bathroom door and told her that she had just got a call from Spencer and she thought he said that they were coming over, but she couldn’t really make out what he was saying.
Sam knew this meant that he didn’t wait long before he called them in and told them. She wondered if it was going to be just Carly and Spencer or if the Benson’s were coming over too. She put her clothes back on and went into the living room. Her wet hair clung to the back of her shirt and to her forehead.
She sat down in the chair she’d been in the last time Carly came over, knees pulled up to her chest she waited.