Eternal Thirst

Skylinn shot up with a yelp, her arms flailing in front of her. Lyra jumped to avoid getting hit, reaching out and grabbing her arms. "Hey! Hey, it's okay it's just me."

Skylinn relaxed, falling back onto her pillows. "What happened?"

Lyra didn't answer as she reached behind her, turning and holding a blood bag out to Skylinn. Skylinn took it quickly, draining the bag while Lyra relayed the previous days events. Skylinn stayed silent for a long time, fingering the empty blood bag in her hands. "Where's my dad?"

Lyra picked at her fingernails, "Sam and Zach locked him in that cell for now. We'll figure out what to do about it once you've had time to recover."

Skylinn set the empty blood bag on her night stand, standing up and walking over towards her dresser. The two of them said nothing to each other as Skylinn changed out of her blood stained clothes and into a knitted cream colored sweater and maroon colored yoga shorts. She turned back to Lyra, running a hand through her curls to try and untangle them. "So, he's back?"

Lyra nodded, "They're all downstairs right now. They wanted to make sure you were okay."

Skylinn pursed her lips, nodding slowly. "Right, okay."

She started for the door, Lyra following close behind. They walked down the hallway and out onto the top of the steps, glancing down into the living room. Michael, Emma, Zach and Sam were all sitting on the couches, playing a game of cards. Lyra cleared her throat loudly and everyone turned to look up at them. Sam got to his feet quickly as Skylinn started down the stairs, flattening down the front of his shirt as if it would help him stay calm. Skylinn stopped a few feet away from him, her gaze hardening. Sam shuffled his way past everyone, standing in front of her, he could feel everyone's eyes on them as they stared at each other. Just the sight of her sent a warm fuzzy feeling through his body and he couldn't help but smile, reaching out and fingering the end of her blonde hair.

"You grew your hair out. I like it."

They had come up with many scenario's for what Skylinn might do, even placed bets. But when she stood in silence everyone exchanged worried glances. Sam dropped his hand from her hair, licking his lips. "Skylinn I-"

But before he could finished Skylinn pulled back her fist, letting it connect with his jaw. Sam's head snapped to the side and everyone let out a gasp. Sam stumbled backwards, rubbing his jaw. "Ow, shit."

Skylinn pursed her lips, nodding to herself as if in approval. She turned to face everyone, "Well, thanks you guys for waiting for me. But, I'm going to go back to bed." She took one last look at everyone before she turned, starting back up the stairs and into her room.

It was quiet for a long time before Michael burst into laughter, everyone turning to face him. "Dude, you just got b*tch slapped so bad."

Sam shot him a glare as Lyra moved beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You deserved that."

"Yeah, I know." Sam grumbled, "That doesn't change the fact that she may or may not have broken my jaw."

Zach chuckled, getting to his feet. "You're fine." He slapped a hand on his back, "Welcome back to Virgin Grove, man. Michael, you owe me ten bucks."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Lyra laid back against the plastic covered foam chair, the hospital gown on her body riding up on her legs. She glanced around the small light blue doctor's office, growing more nervous by the minute.

Zach on the other hand, was currently staring at a college of baby pictures, his eyes squinted. "Hey, which of these babies do you think is the ugliest?"

Lyra bit her lip to keep from laughing, "Zach, that's horrible don't say that!"

He turned to face her, a small smile playing on his lips. "Third down from the right?"

"It's like it keeps staring at me," Lyra moved slightly, "Hey, look at that. It's eyes follow me wherever I go."

Zach chuckled, coming to stand beside her just as the doctor walked in, her light brown hair pulled up into a tight bun. "How are you feeling today? Any nausea?"

It took Lyra a moment before she realized the doctor was talking to her, "Oh! Um, not much."

The doctor smiled, "That's good." She glanced past Lyra at Zach. "And I'm guessing you're the daddy?"

Zach's eyes went slightly wide at the word, "Uh, yeah, that's me."

The doctor nodded, Pulling on a pair of rubber gloves and sitting in her chair. She pulled the ultrasound machine along with her and she made her way over towards Lyra's side, rubbing some jelly on Lyra's stomach before placing the viewer on it. "Alright, everything looks good." She clicked a few buttons, "Here it is on the screen. There's your uterus, and right there, is your baby." She pointed to an area on the screen.

Lyra propped herself up on her elbows, staring at the screen. "Wow, there it is, I see it."

"Oh my god..." Zach half whispered, grabbing Lyra's hand and staring at the screen.

"Congratulations." The doctor smiled at them, pulling off her gloves. "I'll give you two a minute."

"Thank you" Zach watched as the doctor walked out the door, turning back to see Lyra had a hand over her mouth, her eyes squinted as if she was going to cry. "Pretty amazing, huh?"

"I don't see it!" Lyra sniffed, still staring at the screen.

Zach raised an eyebrow at her, "What?"

Lyra held her hand over her mouth again, covering up her crying. "I can't see it!"

Zach sputtered, unsure of how to deal with the situation. "Uh, but, uh. You just told the doctor you did?"

"I know, I lied. I didn't want her to think I was a terrible mother I can't even see my own baby!" She fell back against the foam chair, her face in her hands.

"Oh, c'mon sure you can." Zach grabbed her arm, pulling her back into a sitting position while he pulled the monitor closer to them, pointing at the screen. "See, look, it's right there."

Lyra stared at the screen, her shoulder's slumped. "Oh, oh it's beautiful. I see it now."

Zach glanced between her and the screen, his eyes narrowing. "Do you really?"

"No, I don't see it!" Lyra fell back onto the chair again, only to be pulled back up a minute later by Zach.

He held her hand to his chest tightly, trying to keep from laughing. "Okay, okay, here." He pointed to the screen, "you see this? This tiny thing that sorta looks like a peanut?"

Lyra squinted at the screen, "yeah..?"

"Sweetie, that's it."

"That's it?" Lyra pulled the monitor closer to her, "Well I saw that!" She let out a relieved laugh, turning and beaming up at Zach. She pecked him on the lips, turning back towards the monitor. "Wow, I can't believe that's our baby."

Zach stared at the screen, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Yeah...that's our baby."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Skylinn awoke to the smell of something burning, her nose scrunching up in disgust. She sat up, pushing the comforter off of her and stepping out of her room.

She walked into the kitchen, waving her hand in front of her face at the thin layer of smoke. "What the..?"

She spotted the frying pan still on the burner, what looked to be burnt eggs still roasting inside it. She took a few steps forward, examining it like she'd never seen a frying pan before. It's contents suddenly burst into flames and she yelped, jumping backwards quickly.

"Gangway!"

She turned to see Sam running into the room, a fire extinguisher in one hand. Before Skylinn could even open her mouth he was dousing out the small flame on the stove, covering the entire stove and kitchen floor in foam. Skylinn's eyes widened at the sight of him, "What the hell are you doing?!"

Sam relaxed his arms, turning to face her, a huge smile on his face. "Did you see the look in it's eyes? Mortal terror!"

Skylinn gaped at him, "It was fire! It doesn't have eyes!"

Sam shrugged, setting the fire extinguisher on the counter top. He opened up the cabinet drawer, having known where everything was placed at in this house for years, and started wiping down the stove. Skylinn stared at him, noticing a purple bruise had formed on his chin from where she had punched him. "What are you doing here?"

Sam turned towards her, wringing out the rag in the sink before he started cleaning again. "I wanted to make you breakfast, but as you can see, I'm not much of a cook. I blame the stove, no one ever told me it would get that hot that fast. "

Skylinn narrowed her eyes at him, trying to hide the small smile that escaped her lips when he pulled the frying pan from the counter, cringing at it before he turned and set it in the sink. "No, I mean, what are you doing here..?"

Sam sighed, setting the rag into the sink and wiping his hands on his blue jeans. "I wanted to make it up to you."

Skylinn folded her arms across her chest, "Make it up to me? So burning breakfast and foaming my kitchen is making it up to me?"

"Well I also did this," He lead her into the living room, holding up his arms up into the air proudly. "You like?"

Skylinn stared around the room, which had been decorated in Christmas lights. She turned to face him again, "Why did you do this?"

Sam rolled up the sleeves on his jacket, "Because I know I did a really bad thing and I was an asshole. But I want to make it up to you, Sky."

Skylinn placed her hands on her hips, "if you think hanging a few strands of lights is going to change what a crappy friend you've been then you thought wrong."

"Skylinn I am trying here-"

"Well don't, Sam."

He sighed, running a hand through his brown hair. "I don't care if you don't want me to-"

"Why?" Skylinn interrupted, rolling her bottom lip between her teeth. "Why don't you care? You're the one who always cared. It's what I liked about you." She took a step towards him, causing his breath to catch in his throat. "You know, admits all the crazy in our perfectly messed up lives, you cared more than anyone. How could you just stop?"

"Because I had to." Sam breathed, shaking his head. "I had to move on, I had to find out what I was becoming, what I was going to do, and once I did I had to start over. I couldn't just live my old life with my old friends, I couldn't go near Virgin Grove or Zach or Lyra or-"

"Or me?" Skylinn interrupted, narrowing her eyes up at him. " 'Cause I thought we were closer than that."

Sam sighed, dropping his gaze to the floor. Skylinn let out a shuttering breath, causing his head to snap back up to her again, his eyes scanning her face.

"You couldn't hear in all those messages that I left you? You couldn't hear that I was completely falling apart without you?"

Sam tensed up at her words, and Skylinn fell silent. Her eyes scanning his face, nodding with realization. "Cause you never listened to them."

"I had to move on, Sky. I didn't have a choice." His gaze flickered over her pretty features, "I had to erase everything."

Skylinn felt anger rising up in her now and she pressed her lips into a thin line. "Well, let me summarize them for you." She took a step forward till she was less than a foot away from him, standing on her toes so that she was as close as she could get to looking into his eyes. Sam felt his heart starting to race as she leaned forward, breathing out slowly. "You're a dick."

She turned and started for the stairwell, leaving Sam standing in confusion for a moment. He ran forward, grabbing her hand. "I listened to one of them!"

"I left you over a hundred!" She yanked her hand out of his grip, turning to face him, she shoved him hard in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards. She took in a deep breath, staring at the floor. "Get out."

Sam glanced up at her, taking a step forward again. "Skylinn please-"

"I said get out."

Sam sighed, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. He started for the door, turning and and giving Skylinn one last look before he left.