Punch Drunk Crazy

"You're quiet." Tom noted as he lead Sam down the sidewalk after leaving the theatre when the concert was over.

She was tucked into his side, arm around his back with her hand resting on his side. She looked up at him, through her lashes, and she smiled, telling him, "I'm just... floored."

Tom's lips turned up into a smile and he said, "So it was worth the flying?"

Sam let out a small chuckle and nodded her head, she told him softly, "It was so worth it. I don't even know what to say...really, this was perfect."

"Night's not over yet." He told her, and when her brow raised he came to a stop at the curb of the sidewalk, and Sam's brow arched even higher upon seeing a horse pulling a carriage behind it. Her cheeks flushed, and she covered her face partially with her hands, a giggling bubbling out of her mouth when Tom got onto the first step of the carriage and held his hand out. He grinned at her, partially from her reaction, and partially to make her blush even more, and he said, "Come on, horse drawn carriage ride at midnight? It's fairytale stuff."

She removed her hands from her face, tried, and failed to keep herself from smiling. Placing one hand in his Sam found Tom pulling her up and into the carriage, she sat down beside him on the plush bench, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tucking her into his side again. They were silent for the first half of the ride, simply cuddled together, taking in the city.

Finally Sam asked, "So... horse drawn carriage rides... who are you right now?"

Tom chuckled, and his chest vibrated against her, she smiled, and he told her, "Well, in all my research there is apparently two things you absolutely cannot, not do while here; Graceland and a tour by horse. So... when in Memphis right?"

Sam could say, without a doubt, this was the best technical first date she had ever been on, in fact, she was sure if she thought really hard, this was probably the best date in general. She was honestly surprised with how much effort Tom had put into this, even if she did think that going away for three days for a 'first' date was crazy, it proved to her that he really did listen when she talked, and that meant more than anything to her.

Sure, it wasn't exactly a first date, you could count all of the dinners they had shared together as dates. They were approaching almost four months since she moved in next door and nearly three months of whatever it was that they were doing, dating she supposed, though neither of them had ever really said it out loud.

It was different, here in Memphis where no one knew them. Sam hadn't freaked out when the man at the front desk of the hotel asked Tom if his girlfriend wanted a room key as well, which surprised Tom. It was easier here, with no one breathing down either of their necks about their odd relationship.

They held hands in public, something that Tom could count on two whole fingers for how many times they had done that in Washington. Sam had even allowed Tom to steal a kiss between songs at the concert, though she was still adamant that he wasn't to post any photos of the two of them on any form of social media, but Tom understood that one better than he understood most of Sam's quirks about their relationship. In fact, he was kind of glad she didn't want him to be posting pictures of her, he didn't want to open her up to thousands of comments from people she didn't know that probably would be nothing short of rude.

He knew many couples who posted so much of each other that it was like they thought their relationship wasn't valid unless it was on social media, and yeah, Tom, at one point, had been the same but like so many other things in his life now, it was different with Sam.

Sam cuddled into Tom's side a little more, and Tom pulled himself closer to her, in an attempt to warm her up. He should have brought a jacket.

She looked up at him for a moment, watching him as he watched all of the buildings go by, taking in the sights around them while she did the same. She caught his attention when she leaned up and kissed his jawline softly, his brow raised as his eyes met hers, and she leaned up to kiss him full on the mouth for a moment before she settled back into his side and she told him softly, "I think, this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."

What kind of people do you know?

Tom didn't say that, he simply smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and reminded her, "I told you, I'm one of a kind."

Sam let out a laugh, slightly raspy, low and gentle. Tom's favorite sound.

She pinched his side and told him, "Don't get so cocky, like you said, the nights not over yet. You have plenty of room to mess up still."

He shook his head, leaned back into the bench, spread his legs out in front of him the best that he could and motioned to the scene in front of them, telling her, "Not possible."

Twenty minutes later they were walking into the hotel room, Sam used her hip to push the door closed behind them before she dropped onto the end of the bed. She was fighting with the zipper on the side of her boot when Tom knelt down on the floor in front of her and pushed her hands away. He grabbed the top of the thigh high boot between his thumb and forefinger, before he took hold of the zipper with the same two fingers on the other hand and he pulled it slowly down the length of her leg. He glanced up at her as he did the same with the other boot, carefully pulling each shoe from her feet, placing them next to her at the end of the bed before he got up, leaned down and kissed her.

Sam held onto his forearms as his hands held the sides of her face, while he kissed her. Finally, when he had to pull apart for air Sam slipped out of his grasp and walked into the bathroom. Tom called out, "What are you doing?"

He heard the water running before she appeared in the doorway again, skillfully hiding herself behind the wall as she tossed an article of clothing at him; the cream slip from under her dress. He held the soft material in his hands and looked up just in time to see a lace bra hit the floor in front of him, followed by the matching underwear.

She smiled playfully at him and said, "I think it's about time we get some use out of this thing, huh?"

She disappeared again, but Tom knew exactly what she was talking about. He gathered her undergarments, putting them on the bed along with the slip, and he pulled his collared long sleeve off, unbuttoning the jeans and dropping them to the floor as well. He stumbled pulling his socks on as he headed toward the bathroom, and he tossed his boxer briefs somewhere within the vicinity of the bed before he walked into the bathroom.

Sam was sitting in the half filled jacuzzi style tub, bubbles covering the rest of her exposed body. She smiled over at him as he climbed in, sitting on the opposite side of her, and she lifted her legs, resting her feet on his thighs. He reached into the water, rubbing her feet with the pads of his thumbs, and he watched as she leaned her head back against the edge of the tub and sighed. Tom continued rubbing her feet for a few more minutes, until the tub was filled, and he reached over to shut the water off. He placed Sam's feet back on the bottom of the tub before he made his way toward her, resting his hands on either side of her as he surprised her by pressing his lips against her neck, and then her jaw. She lifted her head up to look at him, and smiled when he instantly kissed her lips.

Sam let out a laugh when he bent down enough to blow against the bubbles and cause them to fly at her face. In retaliation she grabbed a handful of the bubbles and plopped them on the top of his head, watching as they slowly ran down the sides of his head.

She told him, "You're childish."

"I prefer the use of 'I keep you young' you know." He told her, and she rolled her eyes.

"I am young, jerk." She stated.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I mean you are thirty in five months."

"You're mean." Sam stated, pouting and everything.

Tom leaned forward and kissed the pout off of her lips.

- - -

Sam was exhausted and almost dead on her feet by the time they arrived back in Arlington. Tom had both his duffle bag and her overnight bag on one shoulder and he had Sam tucked into the opposite side with his arm wrapped around her waist. He was practically holding her up as they made their way down the hall and toward their apartments.

Tom unlocked his apartment door and slid both bags inside before he turned to Sam and leaned down, picking her up with one hand across her back and the other under her knees. Sam raised her eyebrow at him, "What's this?"

"Asserting my dominance by showing you who makes the decisions around here." Tom joked, big, wide grin plastered on his face. Sam rolled her eyes as he stepped into the apartment, closing the door with his foot before leaving the bags by the door and heading down the hallway to his bedroom.

He gently placed her onto the mattress and put her feet on each of his shoulders, pulling one shoe off at a time. He put them on the floor carefully and slipped out of his own shoes, and by the time he came back from putting them by the door Sam was under the covers in his bed.

She smiled over at him and informed him, "I'm having a nap."

Tom shoved his jeans onto the floor and did the same with his shirt as he said, "My thoughts exactly."

Once he was in bed next to her Sam rolled onto her side and leaned against his chest, she looked up at him and spoke softly, "Thank you, for all of that."

Tom smiled, kissed her softly and said, "I wanted to do something nice for you."

- - -

"Relax, they'll like you." Tom assured Sam as they walked side by side down the sidewalk leading to whatever bar they were meeting a few of his teammates for drinks at. It was Halloween night, and this was the first time in at least three years that Sam had gone out for Halloween, and while she had always been so opposed to couples Halloween costumes she had to admit, she and Tom looked pretty good as Sandy and Danny.

Tom had informed her that almost everyone there would have a couple costume, which put her a little more at ease, but not completely. Sam was worried about what his teammates would think of her, she worried if they would like her, and she really, really worried about how they would take the nine year age difference. She didn't want them to think she was with Tom for any reason other than Tom.

"Easy for you to say." Sam muttered.

Tom couldn't help but smile as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulled her into his side and told her, "I'm sure I'll be just as nervous to meet your friends."

"What, my two friends? Good joke." Sam stated.

"Two's better than nothing?" Tom asked her with a wide grin that made her want to roll her eyes but instead she just smiled.

He lead her inside, where he stopped for a moment, scanning the tables, booths and crowds for his friends. He located Mike first, at a large corner booth in the back, so he put his palm flat on Sam's back and lead her through throngs of people in strange, slutty, and creepy costumes and toward the group of guys and their significant others in the back.

When he approached Andre called out, "Dude!"

Mike turned, looked between Sam and Tom before he grinned and said, "Nice costumes."

Tom shrugged, and Sam couldn't help but say, "Yours are better."

Mike looked down at himself and over at Kelly, who, with him, made up Bugs and Lola from Space Jam and then he grinned at Sam. Kelly leaned past Mike, held her hand out and introduced herself to Sam, "Since obviously this one is challenged. I'm Kelly, it's nice to meet you."

Sam smiled and shook her head, "You too."

"Come on, lets go get us a drink, get away from this testosterone fest. They're about to start 'bro' hugging soon." Kelly stated, kissing Mike's cheek quickly before she linked arms with Sam and dragged her across the bar to get a drink. Once they were waiting at the bar for the bartender Kelly turned to Sam, grinned and asked, "You nervous?"

Sam asked her, "Should I be?"

Kelly shrugged, "Not really. I mean... stay away from Andre, he needs Jesus in his life, but other than that you'll be fine. They're all real nice."

Sam chuckled and as she glanced back at the group of guys she asked, "Are they always like... that?"

Kelly followed her eyes, finding them all laughing loudly, someone was throwing the paper wrapping from straws around the table, and another was whistling by blowing against the top of his beer bottle. She laughed, nodded and said, "99% of the time... yes."

Sam chuckled, and out of curiosity she asked, "Do you spend a lot of time with them?"

"Not really. I go out with them after wins every so often, but mostly it's just Mike, Tom and I hanging out... well... not so much Tom lately but I'm okay with that." Kelly said, raising her eyebrow when Sam's cheeks flushed. She grinned and then asked, "So how was your trip last week? Tom won't really say much about it."

Sam smiled to herself, it seemed as though, between Kelly and Mike's conversations with her, Tom was becoming much more private about things. She appreciated it, she understood that part of his job was the media and publicity but Sam was such a private person, she hated the idea of anyone knowing anything about her life that she didn't want them to know. It was heart warming to know that Tom was taking that into consideration in his own life.

"It was really great. He's really great." Sam told her honestly and she could have sworn she saw a look of gratefulness flash across Kelly's features before a smile did.

"Yeah, he's a good kid." Kelly said with a nod of her head.

Sam was pulled into the booth next to Tom the minute she and Kelly returned with their drinks, and she found herself sitting across from two men, one of whom needed no introduction but Tom introduced them both anyway, "Sam this is Alex and Brooks."

Brooks reached across and shook her hand, and Tom rolled his eyes when Alex grabbed her hand and said, "Willy doesn't shut up about you, nice to finally meet you."

Sam turned to Tom, with a small smirk on her face she asked him, "You talk about me to your friends? Aww, how cute."

Tom rolled his eyes as Alex and Brooks chuckled. They made small talk, asking the usual questions. Where are you from? How did you and Tom meet? There was exchanges of embarrassing stories about Tom, and stories about their own lives.

And then Brooks asked her, "So, what do you do for a living?"

Sam wasn't sure how to answer right away. She didn't know if Tom had mentioned just how much older she was, or if they had any idea that she was a decade older than their teammate. She cleared her throat quietly and said, "Private law."

Neither of them seemed too surprised, or weirded out and if they had any idea of the age difference they didn't let on. Instead Alex asked her, "Exciting?"

Sam laughed, "If you call babysitting spoiled rich kids fun then yes, very."

"So being a lawyer isn't like living a real life version of The Good Wife then?" Brooks asked her with a smile.

She shook her head, "Not my kind of law, no. Believe me, I'd love to have a murderer for a client, hell I'd even take a drug dealer."

Tom nearly choked on his beer, Alex simply let out a loud hearty laugh and Brooks' brow raised and he asked, "Really?"

"Literally I get paid to clean up after teenage boys who make poor decisions when they're drunk." Sam stated with a shrug of her shoulders, adding, "I'd love to loose a case defending someone who hacked someone up into tiny pieces for a change."

Alex grinned at Tom and said, "I like her."

Many hours later Sam found herself leading Tom into her apartment, where, upon her closing the door and locking it, she was immediately pulled into his chest. He leaned down, wrapping both arms loosely around her waist, and kissed her lips gently. When they pulled apart she asked him, "What was that for?"

"Being so go with the flow about meeting the guys. I appreciated it, I know it was a big deal to you but I appreciate that you didn't make it a big deal either." Tom told her honestly. He leaned down and kissed her again, before he pulled back and looked at her, smiling as he tucked a piece of her copper hair behind her ear and said, "That was just because."

"I-" She stated, pausing before she could say what she really wanted to. Tom looked down at her, waiting for her to finish what she had started to say but Sam simply stared up at him with a small smile on her face. Finally she said, "I'm glad I met you."

Tom smiled, kissed her quickly and told her, "I'm glad you met me too."