Punch Drunk Crazy

When Tom knocked on Sam's door at close to six that evening with a bottle of wine in hand he hadn't expected for her to answer her door in pyjamas. She looked stunned to see him, so he smiled, held the bottle up and asked, "Got any dinner plans?"

"Uhm… actually..." She trailed off with a guilty look on her face and Tom instantly felt bad.

"Oh, uh… okay. Sorry. Another time." He stuttered out and Sam smiled.

She shook her head, "It's not that I have plans… I mean I do I just…-"

Before she could explain exactly what her plans were a small voice full of curiosity came from behind her, "Who is it?"

A blonde girl, Tom figured no more than five, peered from around Sam's legs at him. Once she caught sight of him she let out a tiny gasp and hid behind Sam again. Sam smiled and told Tom, "I'm babysitting for Lauren. It's just… we never talked about… I wasn't sure how you felt about children."

Tom shot her an easy smile as he knelt down, setting the wine bottle on the floor beside him as he rested his elbows on his thighs. When a head of blonde hair poked partially out from behind Sam's legs again Tom smiled at her, "Well hi there."

"Hi." Her voice was muffled into Sam's leg.

"My name's Tom. Do you have a name?" He asked her.

"Mama says no talkin to strangers." She told him.

Tom smiled gently and informed her, "That's a very good rule, but I promise I'm not a stranger."

She looked up at Sam, who smiled and nodded slowly, and then she looked over at Tom and said, "Tiffany."

Tom smiled, "Well, it's very nice to meet you Tiffany. I like your pj's."

He tugged on the bottom hem of her t-shirt, which was white and had a large unicorn head on it, the pyjama pants were also white and covered in the same unicorn heads. She told Tom, "We're watching movies in our pj's."

"You are? That's my favorite thing to do." Tom told her softly.

Tiffany tugged on Sam's pant leg and asked, "Can he watch the movies with us?"

Sam glanced at Tom and asked, "Can you?"

"What are we watching?" He was asking Tiffany, instead of Sam and Sam could tell by the smile on Tiffany's face that she liked that.

She told him, "Thunder and the House of Magic!"

"I've been meaning to see that." Tom told her and when Tiffany grabbed his hand he said, "Lead the way."

So as Tom and Tiffany got comfortable on the couch Sam closed the door behind them all and went into the kitchen to put the wine in the fridge and grab the tray with a cup of juice, adding two cups of water with ice and the bowl of pink coated popcorn before she carried it into the living room.

She placed the tray on the coffee table and dropped onto the couch, Tiffany between she and Tom. Tiffany leaned against Sam's side, and while the movie started she not so quietly whispered, "Is Tom your boyfriend?"

Sam glanced at Tom from the corner of her eye, he had clearly heard the question and was clearly interested in the answer. He watched her intently as she looked at Tiffany and she said softly, "Yeah, he is."

"He looks like a Disney prince." Tiffany stated.

"He does, doesn't he?" Sam asked her with a smile.

Tiffany nodded her head as she turned to Tom and practically jumped onto his lap. She looked up at him and asked, "Tom?"

"What's up buttercup?" When he asked this she giggled and he smiled proudly at the sound.

Sam choked on her water when Tiffany asked Tom, "Are you gonna marry aunt Sam?"

Tom chuckled, both at Sam's reaction and Tiffany's question. It was the ease with which he answered her question that made Sam smile, "Maybe someday, if she'll have me."

"Mama says when you get married you have babies, like me and baby sister. Are you and aunt Sam gonna have babies?" Tiffany asked him curiously.

"Maybe, if all kids are as great as you then absolutely."

"Are you-"

"That's enough questions out of you. Watch your movie I'm gonna order us some dinner." Sam said, cutting Tiffany off from yet another question for Tom.

"Okay." Tiffany said, shuffling off of Tom's lap and onto the couch.

With her attention on the TV Sam asked Tom, "You good with pizza?"

"One day a month we have pizza and watch movies." Tiffany informed Tom without even looking from the TV.

Tom glanced at Sam and smiled, "Sounds like fun."

So Sam went into the kitchen to order pizza and she watched as Tiffany and Tom had a conversation, no doubt about My Little Pony, Tiffany's latest obsession.

Sam disappeared down the hall with the phone, and when she finished ordering dinner she slipped a thick cardigan over her shoulders. When she came back into the living room she found Tom and Tiffany sitting on the floor and she was showing him all of her My Little Pony figurines while he showed maximum interest.

"Pizza will be here in forty minutes." Sam told them, and Tom glanced over his shoulder at Sam and smiled, so she smiled back.

Hours later, with Tom promising that he would sleep over when Tiffany asked him, and her already asleep in Sam's bed Tom pulled Sam into his side on the couch. He kissed the top of her head and she told him, "Thanks for tonight. I hope it wasn't too boring."

"It wasn't. Actually it was a lot of fun. She's a pretty great kid. Very questionative… is that a word?" Tom asked with a chuckle.

Sam laughed, "I don't think so. I'm surprised she warmed up to you like that."

"She doesn't like strangers?" Tom asked her curiously.

Sam shrugged her shoulders and admitted softly, "She uh… it's hard to… Lauren and Jared are… when she was three they thought she was autistic, and when that didn't pan out they went to aspergers, but they ruled that out."

"So basically they know somethings up but not what?" Tom asked her and when Sam nodded he let out a sigh and stated, "I feel bad for her…all of them."

Sam nodded her head in agreement, "Yeah I can't imagine."

Sam woke up the next morning to Tom and Tiffany making breakfast in the kitchen. Well, Tiffany was sitting at the table with her toys while Tom cooked, and she would give him the background on each pony she had.

Tom glanced at Sam when she walked into the kitchen and he smiled, "Morning gorgeous."

"Morning handsome." She said, kissing his cheek as she passed him. As she filled a glass with water she looked at Tiffany and said, "Morning booger."

"Morning." She said without turning around to look at Sam.

Sam brought her a glass of milk, and sat down in the chair adjacent to Tiffany's, and asked, "Did you have a good sleep?"

She nodded her head, concentration all on arranging her ponies in a certain method that didn't make any sense to Sam. So Sam simply watched her while Tom finished cooking breakfast, and then the three of them ate together.

When they were done eating Tom took a seat on the couch and packed up Tiffany's things while Sam got her dressed and her teeth brushed, hair combed and pulled back in a tiny little bun. When there was a knock on the door Tiffany grabbed her backpack and pulled the door open and threw her arms around Laurens legs.

"Mom! We had pizza and watched Thunder and the House of Magic, and Tom let me show him all my ponies!" Sam and Tom both chuckled at Tiffany's motor mouth but when Lauren looked at Tom his laughter stopped. He couldn't exactly describe the look on her face, but he knew it wasn't very nice.

Still, he got up and headed over there, holding his hand out as he introduced himself, "I'm Tom, it's nice to meet you."

She completely ignored both his introduction and his hand, so Tom awkwardly stuffed his hand back into his pocket and Sam narrowed her eyes just the slightest at Lauren. Tom excused himself, heading down the hall to give them some privacy, it was obvious Lauren didn't like him and he didn't want to do anything to make it worse.

"Sweetie go wait for me at the elevator okay?" Lauren asked, looking down at Tiffany. Tiffany nodded but came back into the apartment to hug Sam's legs again.

Once she was gone Sam looked at Lauren and said, "He was just trying to be nice, you could have at least shook his hand and faked it."

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't bring your bad decisions around my child." Lauren told her bluntly, and Sam stared at her, stunned.

"I'm sorry?" Sam knew she had heard correctly but part of her just couldn't believe that had really come out of Laurens mouth.

"You are flaunting this decision like you're proud of it. Like you're proud of making yourself look like an idiot. Keep it away from my kid. I won't have her growing up thinking that's okay." Lauren told her.

Before she could turn to walk away Sam said, "You don't get to tell me anything about how I live my life. At least I'm happy, and you know what, maybe I am stupid, maybe this isn't a good idea, but it makes me happy right now so if you have a problem with that guess what? I don't care."

Tom came back into the living room as Sam closed the door and he said, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" Sam asked him curiously. He looked down at her with a soft expression and she told him, "Don't do that, if I didn't want to defend you I wouldn't have. She had no right to say any of that."

"I don't want to cause problems between you and your friends Sam." Tom told her softly and honestly.

She shook her head, "If she can't be happy that I'm happy, is she really that great of a friend?"

"I mean… I guess not. I just-"

She cut him off by leaning up and kissing him softly and when she dropped back onto the heels of her feet she smiled up and him and told him, "You didn't do anything, and I like having you so I'm keeping you around for a while."

"Yeah?" He asked with a smile on his face.

She nodded her head, "Yeah."

- - -

"I have an idea." Tom stated as he and Sam laid in his bed in his apartment, it was early in the morning, five or six he figured. They had dinner with Mike and Kelly, and then when they left for the night Tom and Sam curled up on the couch to watch a movie and they ended up fooling around for a bit before they moved their party to the bedroom. Which was where they had spent most of the night messing around like Sam hadn't since college. She was enjoying doing things she normally wouldn't, and she was greatly enjoying doing it with Tom.

Sam looked up at him, pulling the covers up higher on her chest to cover more of herself even though she didn't need to, it was nothing he hadn't seen before. She asked him, "What's that?"

"How would you feel about coming to a game and sitting in the wag room?" She must have looked like she didn't like the idea because Tom was quick to tell her, "Kelly would be there. I just want you to meet some of the girls."

"I guess I could handle that." Sam told him softly. Tom leaned down and kissed her quickly, before he spread a collection of kisses down her jaw and neck and all the way across her bare shoulders. Sam let out a small giggle and asked him, "What are you doing?"

He mumbled against her skin, "Showing you how much I appreciate you willing to do that for me. To meet my friends and teammates. I know it's not fun, meeting new people and I know our situation makes you nervous so I appreciate you making the effort."

Their situation. She knew he meant their age difference. Sam wondered if maybe Laurens comments, which she knew Tom had overhead, were weighing on him. Maybe he was starting to change his mind. On everything, maybe he was starting to think in the way that Sam had only recently stopped thinking. She didn't know how to feel about that, it was like they had switched places. Sam had been trying so hard to change her own thoughts that she never even thought about how Tom's thoughts might change.

He silenced her thoughts by kissing her again as he settled in between her legs and he grabbed her attention by reaching down and lifting both of her legs up, hooking them around his hips as his hands pressed into her thighs. His hips pushed just slightly against hers as she reached out and pushed his hair out of his face. Sam pressed a gentle kiss to his chest and Tom said, "I can show you how much I appreciate it."

"Maybe you should." She told him softly, leaning up to kiss him as she ran her fingers through his long hair.

His hands slipped up to her waist where they held onto her as he dragged his lips down her neck, and chest, between her breasts and down her stomach.

When his head disappeared underneath the blanket Sam asked him, "What are you doing?"

His voice was muffled as he told her, "Showing you my appreciation, in my favorite way."