Naivete

A/N: Okay, so after several days of pondering, I have officially decided that I hated getting Sam pregnant in this chapter. It was awkward to write, and it\'s awkward to read, and truthfully, I have no idea where to go from there. So I\'ve edited it so that everything in this chapter is the same, except that now there\'s no pregnancy. Sorry for the inconvenience, but now that the story is under my own control again, I\'ll be able to update a lot more frequently. Thanks for your continued support!


Chapter 13
Everything I Touch

The room was a complete wreck. Papers and clothes were everywhere. Broken picture frames and torn magazines littered the floor and bed, and sitting in the middle of it all was Sam, her head bent grievously, clutching a photograph of her family in her hands.

“What the hell happened in here?”

Sam’s head snapped up when she heard the exclaimed question, and her reddened, weary eyes took in Mike’s form with a distinct combination of emotion.

On the one hand, she was relieved – so, so relieved – to see a friend. Sarah was at rehearsal all day, and she had had no idea who else to call. On the other hand, however, this now meant that she was now trapped. She had to tell someone. Worse than that, she had to tell Mike, who was standing before her looking as protective as she’d ever seen a person look. He was panting slightly from his run, and his hat was askew. His eyes were inquisitive and angry, and she knew what he was thinking. He wasn’t too far off either.

“Mike,” she said softly, forcing a small, timid smile. “I’m really glad you’re here.” She took a deep breath and hesitated, unsure how to begin telling him what, exactly, had happened in here. She closed her eyes, and within a few seconds felt Mike’s hands on her shoulders, gripping tightly.

“Sam! Talk to me,” his voice was strained and irritated. “Did Brent do this?” he asked suddenly, his voice cold and low. At that moment, Paul and Karen made their way into the room.

“Holy shit,” Karen murmured when she saw the scene before her. Paul was silent, but blinked several times as he tried to take it all in.

Sam sighed, unable to look Mike in the face.

“He…he just wanted to come over and get some of his stuff. It was fine. It was civil, even. He was just filling up a box, and it was obvious that he was still upset, but it seemed like…it seemed like he’d resigned himself to it. It was fine,” she said again, taking a shaky breath. “Until ...Christ, I don\'t even know what happened.” She stopped. The threat of tears was too much to continue.

“What the fuck happened?” Paul asked, a bit rougher than he perhaps intended. \"You have to tell us, Sam! We\'re not just going to sit around and listen to you cry!\"

Karen elbowed him hard in the ribs and took a hesitant step toward Sam, whose eyes were both dull and glassy. She stopped, and turned back to Paul.

“Come on,” she murmured, grabbing his arm and dragging him toward the door. “We’re going to talk with them about this later.”

Paul sputtered one or two arguments, but ultimately followed his girlfriend out into the hall, closing the door behind him. Mike sat back against Sarah’s bed, a look of indescribable anger on his face.

“He completely freaked. But not in the way I expected. He told me that he had never once lied to me about his feelings, and that he’d never even considered cheating on me. It...it was like he just lost his mind. I\'ve never seen anyone so angry before.”

Mike squinted at the floor. After a moment of hesitation, during which he tried to decide how to respond to this, he spoke.

“What did you do?”

Sam was startled by how pained his voice sounded, and for a moment she was touched that he was reacting so strongly to what was, in fact, her problem, and hers alone.

“I told him that I still don’t want anything to do with him. He, uh. He didn\'t really like hearing that. So he started trashing my fucking room and throwing shit around and threatening me and threatening you –“

Mike cut her off. “Threatening me? What the hell do I have to do with it?”

Sam stopped, and the tears began anew. “He was accusing me of sleeping with you again. And he destroyed my textbooks…” her voice broke as she surveyed the damage for the first time. She picked up her Utopias and Dystopias book off the floor and ran her finger along the torn pages.

“Fucking four hundred dollars worth of textbooks, I can’t afford to replace that.” She started to sob. “Christ, this is so stupid. It\'s over, but...but I was so scared.” She leaned against the book shelf and sank to the floor, burying her face in her hands. After a moment, she felt Mike’s presence near her again. Strong arms lifted her by the shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug. Suddenly not caring about how she appeared to him, she buried her face in his shoulder and cried.

They stood like that for several minutes, Mike remaining completely silent as he held her. His face was stony, his eyes contemplative. She looked up at him and opened her mouth to say something, but he stopped her with a long, firm kiss. Her hands rested lightly on his chest, and her head spun. Kissing him was so wonderful. All the pain of the afternoon seemed to melt away as she felt his teeth gently nibbling her bottom lip.

After a moment, Mike broke the kiss reluctantly and looked at her deliberately.

“We’ll figure out how to help you later. But first, let’s just try to relax. I’m here, I’m your friend. Let’s – “

It was Sam’s turn to interrupt as she threw her arms around his neck and drew him closer for another kiss. He hesitated for only half a second before gathering her up in his arms and pulling her as close to him as he could. Sam moaned a little into his mouth as his tongue caressed hers gingerly. She was almost ashamed of how quickly she’d become aroused, particularly given the circumstances of the afternoon. Letting herself get lost in the kiss, she pressed herself against him even tighter, feeling his erection against her hip. She ran her fingernails through the hair at the nape of his neck, illiciting a small shiver from him.

He couldn’t believe she still wanted to kiss anyone, much less him. ‘If I were her,’ he thought as he ran his hands up and down her back. ‘I wouldn’t ever want to come near another man again.’ He was distracted, however, by her fingers in his hair, and he lost control of himself for a moment. His hands wandered down over her ass and down the back of her leg. Lifting it, he hooked it over his hip, and he brought his hand back down behind her. Making sure she was firmly backed against the wall, he brought his other hand around to her breast, quickly locating the nipple through the fabric of her shirt. At the exact same moment that he began to tease it, the fingers of his other hand began to graze the space between her legs, and she gasped, bucking against him sharply.

Even through her jeans, she could feel the heat of his fingers as they lazily caressed and gently scratched at the area. This was insane. She hadn’t been this turned on in a long, long time, and now, in spite of everything she had been through that day, all she wanted was to feel him over her, inside her, taking care of her. Making her feel real again.

Almost as if he was reading her mind, he removed his fingers and pulled her away from the wall. He turned her around, his lips still pressed to hers, and backed her toward the bed. They fell together on top of the unmade sheets, and Mike very quickly positioned himself between her legs. Grinding against her almost frantically, he moved his lips from hers and began to kiss her jaw line and neck, nipping and lathing in a pattern that made Sam want to scream. Instead, she held back her enthusiasm and moaned a little with each movement of his hips. She could definitely feel his arousal now…it must have been painfully hard, and she ached to free it for him.

Reaching down between them, she unbuttoned his jeans and pulled the zipper down slowly. He hesitated, but made no move to stop her. She looked at him lustfully as her hand slipped inside his pants and gently brushed against his erection. He let out a shuddered sigh and dropped his head to her shoulder. Assuming this was an invitation to continue, she turned her hand at the wrist and grasped him lightly. At the first hint of movement, he jerked roughly and bit into her shoulder to keep from groaning loudly. She continued to run her hand almost leisurely up and down his length, growing more and more aroused with every spasm and gasp she caused.

After a moment, just when she thought she couldn’t handle the wait anymore, he looked at her, his eyes almost pained. “Christ, Sam,” he muttered. “I want you so fucking bad.”

She closed her eyes and felt the warmth between her legs spread up into her stomach. “Then take me,” she whispered back. “Please.” She kept her eyes closed through his moment of hesitation, and almost smiled when she felt his lips on hers again. He was kissing her roughly, passionately, as if every moment he was expecting the world to come to an end. He paused only to kneel and remove his shirt, and after it was discarded he collapsed back on top of her. He unbuttoned the long-sleeved shirt she wore and opened it up slowly. She lifted up onto her elbows to allow him to slip it over her shoulders.

He couldn’t believe it. He’d been so hesitant to ever do this with anyone else, and as he had done so may times, he tried to pinpoint what exactly it was about Sam that made things so simultaneously difficult and simple for him. He couldn’t believe that in just moments, he would be inside her, this beautiful, amazing woman who…

Who had horrible, purple bruises on her upper arms. His blood ran cold as he took in her exposed flesh. Sam’s face was contorted in a mixture of confusion and lust, unsure why he’d stopped and really, really wishing he hadn’t.

“What’s wrong?” she asked through heavy breaths. She followed his eyes to her arms and suddenly gulped, looking very ashamed of herself. She tried to read the expression on his face, but found that she couldn’t. She couldn’t tell if he was about to laugh, cry, or fly right off the handle and go kill someone. She didn’t have to wait long to discover which.

He moved off of her slowly, deliberately. He stood up next to the bed and looked down at her. She quickly pulled the shirt back up over her shoulders, hiding the bruises again. His body and face were both very still as his mind processed what he’d just seen.

“Because I don’t like to jump to conclusions before I act,” he said in a low, cold voice. “I’m going to ask you if he gave those to you.”

Sam looked down, her eyes welling up again, and nodded a little. When she looked up again, Mike was already on his way out the door.

Brent had been trying to get a little sleep all afternoon. He’d only left Sam’s dorm about an hour ago, and he was exhausted from all the emotional output that had occurred. He lay in the dark, pondering all that had taken place. ‘That stupid bitch,’ he thought bitterly. Somewhere along the way, his feelings for her had grown out of control, and now, in spite of the fact that he actually did care about her, she still didn\'t want anything to do with him. Why wouldn’t she just realize that that’s what you do? You grow up, you leave the house, you fall in love... She’d said she loved him…she’d told him many times. But somehow, all that bullshit with Mike had changed that. Maybe Mike hadn’t done all those things to the women in his life, but Brent was positive that Mike could never treat Sam as well as he could. Mike would never be able to understand her needs the way he could.

Brent turned onto his side, attempting to find a more comfortable position, and was interrupted by a very loud, brash, and angry knock at his door.

“Fucking landlord,” he muttered as he dragged himself out of bed. He shuffled toward the door, in no real hurry to pay his late rent, and was very surprised by the fist that collided with his face as soon as he opened it. It wasn’t a very painful punch. Really more of an attention-getter than anything. But it certainly got his attention. Especially when he focused on the face of the person who had thrown it.

His blood began to boil.

“So this is what it’s come down to, then, huh? Are we going to have some romantic fight over the girl?”

Mike responded by grabbing Brent by the collar of his t-shirt and throwing him across the hall and against the wall. Brent recovered quickly and charged Mike, his shoulder connecting with Mike’s stomach. Continuing his charge, he managed to slam Mike into the doorframe. There was a satisfying “whoosh” as the air rushed from Mike’s lungs. Brent stood up, holding his opponent there by the shoulder, and began to punch him in the face again and again. He wasn’t satisfied by the sight of Mike’s blood on his fist. He would only be satisfied when Mike collapsed into a small heap on his doorstep. It might not end things completely, but it would certainly put the silly idea that Mike could beat him in a fight out of his head forever. His fist continued mercilessly, but Mike’s eyes continued to gleam with an insatiable hatred, even though he’d long ago given up trying to struggle free.

“Brent!”

A shrill scream came from the end of the hall, and Brent was momentarily distracted by the sight of Sam rushing toward him. He didn’t care why she was there. He didn’t care that she was probably there to stop him from beating the shit out of Mike. All he cared about was that an hour ago, she had said she never wanted to see him again. And here she was, seeing him again. He had another chance to make her understand. He dropped Mike and headed toward her, holding out an arm as she tried to reach Mike. He caught her around the waist and tried to pull her into an embrace. She shoved him back and shot him a long, deadly glare. When she turned toward where Mike had been slouching against the doorframe, she discovered that he wasn’t there.

She turned back just in time to see him wheel Brent around and lay a solid punch to his jaw. His face was bloody but grimly satisfied as Brent reeled, his hand grazing his jaw gingerly. He struggled to regain control of himself, but barely had time to do so before Mike’s shoulder had him pinned against the wall. A solid fist made contact with his lower ribs again and again. Brent found that whatever he did, Mike would not relent.

‘Christ, it’s like the guy’s on angeldust,’ he thought grimly as he continued to struggle against the surprising force keeping him firmly against the wall. He would never have admitted it, but he was almost relieved when Sam managed to pull Mike off of him. ‘Maybe she cares after all,’ he thought hopefully, sinking to the ground and maybe playing up his injuries a little. She began to pull Mike away, however, not looking back. Mike stopped and kicked Brent once more in the side, causing him to double over. This time, the pain was worthy of the performance. Sam approached him with an unusual look on her face. At first he thought she would help him up…maybe now that she’s seen how violent Mike can be, she won’t want to be with him.

His theory vanished quickly when her face contorted into one that could only be described as utter hatred. She spat on him, then turned on her heel and followed Mike down the hallway.