Sam's Reality: Cape Canaveral, Florida - Kennedy Space Center

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

Leeroy wasn't too sure how the night guard at the Kennedy Space Center had acquired Sam's name. He assumed it was the Internet - everything's the Internet's fault these days - but he couldn't be too sure, as the guy looked to be about sixty and the type who wouldn't touch a computer to save his life.

"They're freakin' out the dogs," he said in a Southern accent. "And we ain't been able to photograph 'em, either." He pointed to the large behemoth of metal that could be seen a few miles in the distance. "They're always there."

It was, Leeroy recognized, launch pad 39-B. Jeimu had launched from there not even a year ago.

Why freaks were hanging out around launchpads, Leeroy wasn't certain. He turned to Sam and asked quietly, "What d'you make of all this, eh?"

Comments

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

He flipped the card over in his hands a few times, then looked up. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Now that she was more or less safe and fear had come and gone, other emotions were starting to come to the forefront.

[i_salted_dean]

"I was afraid. And I remembered how you always reacted whenever someone said we should have kids." She put a hand over her eyes. "And I couldn't see him. I never saw him till he was gone."

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"That doesn't mean that I wouldn't have ... Look, things happen, and you have to deal with them. I might not be very good at anything apart from kicking ass and taking names but you didn't have to bear that burden alone, Sam."

He sighed and sat down in the chair beside her bed.

[i_salted_dean]

"I'm sorry." She turned back to the window, berating herself for having frozen up with fear and kept something like that from him. In retrospect now she felt like a thief.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"It's... it's fine," he said. "But... you don't have to do it next time, okay?" He got up from his chair and sat down on the edge of her bed, reaching for her.

[i_salted_dean]

She almost flinched away, feeling like she had no right to be comforted and forgiven. But then she realized how he might take that and let him pull her close.

"We have to make sure no one gets him... what there is of him." Fierce protectiveness mingled with tears nearly choked her. -I killed him, but I won't let anything mess with his body.-

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

He was lost for a moment when he had her in his arms, but then came crashing back to reality when she spoke.

"Is there even..." He paused. "Never mind. I'll help you do what you have to."

[i_salted_dean]

"I screwed up so bad." Her voice was a broken whisper as she hid her face against his shoulder.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"No." He said it fiercely. "No, you didn't."

[i_salted_dean]

"I got our son killed!" she shouted. "He's dead! I froze up and got a helpless baby killed!"

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

Leeroy didn't know what to say that wouldn't make her angrier, so he just sat there, in shock.

[i_salted_dean]

And Sam... just seemed to collapse in on herself as she started to cry. The strong, sure warrior was gone, replaced by a confused and grieving woman.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

But Leeroy's grip on his wife never faltered. What he couldn't say, he tried to show with his actions: that he didn't blame her for this, he didn't think she was a murderer, and most of all that he still loved her.