Up in a puff of Smoke [Closed to Ani]

“I am staring at your face aren’t I...” he said, he hadn’t realized he was staring until Zoe had pointed it out. “You just… You don’t have your little freckles anymore” in a matter of seconds, her freckles reappeared on her face, Sam grinned as they returned onto her cheeks. Zoe moved in closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, he smiled as Zoe playfully explained that he still hadn’t done enough for Zoe to forgive him, but he could see what she was trying to do.

“Oh really? That Sam sounds like a really cool guy, I hope to aspire to be like him one day” Sam leaned in and kissed Zoe lightly on the lips, she had been tempting him for the past few minutes and it wasn’t until Zoe had gotten this close before he decided to do it. His heart rate began to rise, as it usually did whenever he kissed Zoe. He moved his hands to Zoe’s waist as they continued kissing, he didn’t realize how much he would miss Zoe until he left, and now he was back in her arms, it became even clearer what he had been missing.

Sam pulled away slightly with a smile on his face, “I’m not sure about you, but I get the strangest suspicion that we are being watched…” Sam slowly looked over his shoulder to the two pets on the floor, staring upwards at him, he nudged his head to the door subtly and Amber understood, she darted out of the room and Darcy followed, assuming that it was probably some kind of new game that he could play. “There, that’s better” he said as he looked back to the woman in front of him.

Under the kiss Zoe sighed, happily. It was soft and gentle but then without warning it became hungry causing Zoe to gasp as she wasn’t prepared. She could feel Sam’s hands moving but Zoe was not quite sure where. Then a soft growl emanated from Zoe’s chest as Sam pulled away… Oops.
“Sorry,” She murmured but to her relief he was focused on the dog and the cat. “I do believe we had an audience.” Zoe mused, watching as Amber’s tail flicked out of sight followed by a bounding Darcy. “Such an odd Schnauzer…”

Turning back to Sam she asked, “Well?”Zoe sounded slightly breathless, her nose that was now sprinkled in freckles crinkling. Suddenly her phone rang, causing Zoe to jump and step out of Sam’s embrace.

“Hello?”

“You sound breathless. It’s because I called isn’t it?”

“Stuff it Ethan, what’s up?”

“He’s on the move… Hello? Zephyr? You there?”

Zoe hand hung up the phone and walked down the hall to her room. Opening her closet door she noticed the teddy bear. Smirking slightly she began to undress and pulled on her battle suit. Picking up her mask and sword she stepped out into the hallway. “Sam, whats this?” Zoe held up the teddy bear, handing it to him while she passed by. Opening a drawer she stuffed two sets of knives into her boots, closely followed by a gun.
“Amber!”

The cat poked her head around the corner.

“Meow?”

“Your in charge.” Zoe opened the back door and stepped outside, placing the masked on her face. Black wings erupted from her shoulders, soft and silky with flecks of silver and amber.

Sam believed that him and Zoe were having a “moment” and that moment would continue as the two pets left the room, however it was quickly stopped in its tracks when Zoe’s phone began to ring. She backed away from Sam in order to answer it, he chewed on his bottom lip to stop himself from saying anything “Just my luck that someone calls her right now!” he thought as he leaned on the back of the couch, waiting for Zoe’s phone call to be over. Sam could only hear one side of the conversation, and that side seemed like the most interesting to him, “Ethan? Is there something Zoe isn’t telling me?” he thought again, Sam felt completely out of the “moment” right now, his heart rate lowered as he calmed himself down and now he was getting subtle shivers as his relationship with Zoe might be a bit more complicated than he thought. Out of nowhere, Zoe just hung up the phone, clearly she didn’t want to talk to this Ethan and she wanted to continue talking with Sam, he lifted himself away from the couch as he was ready to resume the “moment”, but he was placed into even more shock when Zoe simply walked out of the room, his jaw dropped slightly as his eyes followed her out, “What is wrong with her?...” he thought, she never acted with this much urgency before. Sam returned to his position on the back of the couch as he played with his fingers, waiting for Zoe to come back, when she returned he was about to ask her something when she shoved his old teddy bear at him, she took it off of her as she walked right by him, she was now wearing some kind of weird suit, she had a mask and a sword with her and she was taking out some more knives from a drawer, “Where is she finding all of this stuff?!”

“This is an old bear that I had when I was a kid, always used to have it with me, I’m surprised it’s still in one piece, I thought it would be a nice thing to give it to – ok…” his concentration and explanation was cut off when Zoe yanked a gun out of the drawer, “Seriously… what is happening right now?...” Sam was going to ask Zoe to explain what he was watching, but she yelled out for Amber who showed up seconds later. “Woah Woah Woah, What is going on? You’re just going to leave and put Amber in charge? I’m pretty sure I can handle myself just fine… Wait, that’s not the point! The point is, where are you going and what are you doing?” He felt like he was talking to a brick wall, doing all of this seemed to be pretty routine to Zoe who was now putting on a mask. A pair of black wings shot out of her back, sending Sam sitting on the back of the couch, to scrambling to get up off of the floor, Sam had never seen these wings before, he had no idea that Zoe even had these things, “Ok… Will you just stop moving and explain to me what the hell is going on?!” Sam wasn’t used to yelling in his own house, he was always a very chilled person and was rarely ever aggressive, or at least he didn’t use to be, but when Zoe is running all around the house and pulling guns out of God knows where, he needs to know what is happening.

“Hunting, that’s what’s up,” Zoe stated, her wings stretching out behind her. “A man I have been tracking for quite some time has been sitting on a large stash of cash as well as an item my employer wants. Bag him equals big pay out. Ethan is my Intel guy, horrible flirt but I ignore it. As for Amber being in charge, she is in charge of the house and the dog. You are going to meet me,” Zoe checked her watch and gave him an address. “In fifteen minutes. I assume that’s enough time for you to grab what you need?”

She arched a dark eyebrow, waiting for a response as she adjusted her gloves. “You did say you wanted a job and no, macking on your employer does not get you a raise.” Zoe marched over to Sam and kissed him gently. “Now, I need to go bash in some skulls.”
Then Zoe was back outside and she launched herself into the air.
**

Zoe opened the briefcase, “That’s a lot of cash.” She whistled before closing it and pulling the artifact out of the black felt back. It was slim with hieroglyphics engraved onto it. After reading the hieroglyphics she sighed before putting it back in. Treasure hunters, typical. Zoe took off, whipping the blood off her cheek and hand, very aware of the blood seeping through the wound in her back. It was shallow and posed no real threat.

Then she landed on the rooftop address, wincing, “Sam?”

Everything was happening so fast, Zoe was going hunting for some guy and his personal items, Ethan posed no real threat to Sam now that he knew his occupation and Amber was going to be in charge of the house because Sam was going to help her… Wait, what?! A smile drew across Sam’s face as Zoe explained that he would be helping her with whatever she needed doing, it appeared he had convinced her enough to give him one chance at least. Sam remembered the address that he was told, it was not too far away from where they were right now, “I’ll be there in two” he said, he received one more kiss from Zoe and listened to her deliver one more line before leaving the house, all he could think was “I love you so much right now…” Sam waited for Zoe to leave before putting down his teddy bear on the kitchen table “Stay right there Teddy McBearington, I’ll be right back” he whispered before teleporting into his room, he did not have a lot of stuff to take with him, he didn’t have any armour or anything, he would just fight in his casual clothing, armour would just weigh him down, he lifted his sword and blew the dust off of it, he stared at it for a few more seconds before tossing it over his body to have it rest on his back, he hadn’t felt it on his back for some time now, and it felt good to be reunited with it.

Sam left his regular clothes on, grey t-shirt and black and red hoodie, the chain resting around his neck was tucked neatly under his shirt. Compared to Zoe, he probably looked completely underdressed, but if he was going to be able to work alongside Zoe, he would need to find some kind of badass uniform to wear eventually. He has been waiting on the rooftop that Zoe wanted to meet him by for almost 10 minutes now, he was very eager to get there, he easily could have relaxed for a few more minutes and then made his way over, but he was actually quite excited for whatever was to come. His blade was by his side and his feet were dangling off of the rooftop as he watched the people down below, he wasn’t new to being atop rooftops, this was his preferred method of transport when he was still stopping petty thieves from stealing women’s purses. He heard a pair of feet hit the ground quite hard behind him, he turned to see a wave of dust flying towards him, caused by a flap of Zoe’s wings as she reached her destination, Sam shot to his feet and lifted his sword off of the ground as he made his way to her. Zoe’s face was slightly more red than it used to be, some places were redder than others, no doubt caused by blood, Sam greeted her and rubbed her cheek with his hand lightly to clean some more blood off of it, but he could also notice that she was making some kind of face, one that was in pain but tried to hide it, if she wanted him to help her though, she would ask for it herself, he remembered back to the last time he had helped her with an injury, he performed CPR on her and received a slap to the face in return…

The wind was slightly cold now as it blew quite strong onto Sam’s back, he gestured to the briefcase in her hand before asking about it “So that’s the cash that your employer wants huh? Doesn’t look like it was that hard to get it from them… what do we do with it now?” he asked, there was probably a very simple answer, but Sam had no idea how all of this worked, however he was eager to learn how it did though.

“We are going to drop it,” Zoe growled in pain, setting down the briefcase. Tilting her head back she snarled as the bones of the wings cracked and where absorbed back into her body. “Ahh that hurts. I need to go see Salone after this to make sure there wasn’t anything on that knife. Tomorrow, but for now I want to sleep.”

There was a final crackling noise and Zoe straightened, looking relieved. “Half shifting is always a pain. Break, re heals, and breaks the bones all over again.” Sniffing slightly, Zoe pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. “They also wanted the artifact.”

A gust of wind blew Zoe’s hair around wildly, into a mass of dark tangles. The drop was rather simple, they put the case and the artifact into a box and mailed it to said address, where it would become lost. Most other times it was a hand off and generally much more dangerous. “That was pretty simple, huh?” Zoe teased, pulling the top half of her suit off to expose her tank top with a jagged rip in the back.

Sam cringed as the black wings on Zoe’s back returned to where they once came, with each crack, it sounded worse and worse. “Salone?... They must be good friends now then…” he thought as Zoe brought a name of Sam’s past, it was a chequered one to talk about, but it had been so long now and so much has happened over that period of time that whatever happened in the past should be forgotten. Sam was surprised though that this was the first time that he had seen Zoe grow these wings, when he really thought about it though, it all made sense, Zoe was a shape shifter, he met her when she was pretending to be a small child, he has seen her with both brown her and red hair now, freckles and no freckles, he’s even seen her as a panther, so why this surprised him so much, he was not quite sure.

Sam was waiting for some kind of flaming hole to open up into the Earth to swallow this case that Zoe had collected, but it was rather less glamorous than that, it was placed into a big box and shipped to a random address. “Simple? Yes it certainly was… I didn’t even need to… really do anything” Sam was disappointed there wasn’t something for him to fight or something important for him to do, he was told to grab his gear and come to this address so he could watch a suitcase be posted to someone, how exciting.

Sam’s eyes widened as Zoe took of the top half of her suit to reveal what she was wearing underneath, Sam bit on his lip again, this time stopping himself from doing anything, he tried his hardest to be extremely professional on his first day on the job, but Zoe was certainly making it difficult for him. Zoe reached for her back several times, but she still had not asked Sam for assistance and she already told him she would get Salone to look at it, so there was nothing he had to worry about. Sam took his sword off of his back and turned away from Zoe as he could barely stop himself from making an inappropriate comment, he slowly walked away from her as he began explaining something “Look Zoe, when you said I could help you with this mission, I was hoping for something a little bit more exciting than-“ he began to hear faint groaning behind him, he dreaded to think of what was going on back there, but he finally had enough courage to turn around to see Zoe on her knees, with her hand by her back, the skin of her face had become very pale and she looked quite weak, barely conscious. Sam wasted no time and teleported over to her, he tossed his sword to the side and kneeled down beside her, he peaked to her back to see the wound, it was bleeding quite a lot, Sam was annoyed that Zoe hadn’t said anything, it didn’t exactly look healthy either. Sam lowered Zoe to a lying down position, he had no idea how he could fix something like this, he’s never dabbled in poisons before, he then thought back to moments ago when Zoe said she would let Salone take a look at it for her, perhaps she would know what to do. Sam scooped Zoe up into his arms, it took him a moment to remember where Salone lived, unfortunately it was some distance away and could not be done in one teleportation, Sam knew this would hurt him quite a bit, but he had no other choice.

Sam, with Zoe in his arms, teleported across the street, this did not hurt him very much, but it did start a nosebleed, that would have to wait however. The second teleportation sent him a little bit further, causing him to groan and fall to one knee, the nosebleed was getting worse. The third and final teleportation brought him to some room of Salone’s apartment, Sam was now on his knees, heartbeat racing and his head ringing, he could barely hear what was happening around him and he could barely keep Zoe up in his arms, he yelled for Salone several times, if he was extremely unlucky, Salone could be out somewhere, meaning nothing would be done to help the woman in his arms.

Zoe shuddered against the Sam, slipping in and out of consciousness, her hand grabbing onto his wrist as the door to Salone’s home flew open. A for sale sign swung back in forth in the front yard. Salone’s eyes widened when she saw Sam and they got even wider when she saw the unconscious Zoe.

“Come in,” She just stated, moving aside and pointing on the couch. Everyone was out and Hanna was taking a nap in her crib in Salone’s room.

After Zoe was deposited on the couch, Salone got to work. Checking her pulse, Salone went into nurse mode. “Poisoned… but how? More like what kind… Arae typically don’t have this kind of reaction… unless… Sam you are covered in blood go clean up.”

Salone rolled up her sleeves and got to work. Zoe had built up to much venom in her system from not biting anybody. Therefore her body couldn’t use the poison and recreate it into her own form. Basically, Salone had to flush out Zoe’s venom glands… kinda like milking a snake…. Kind of…

Salone stood, searching for a jar of some sort. Finding some jars, Salone screwed on the lids and walked over to Zoe, tilting her head back, exposing the fangs. Then without warning, Salone slammed the jar up. The effect was almost instantaneous. Clear venom began to leak into the jar off the fangs. That took about five minutes and during that time, Hanna began to fuss.
“Sam, can you go get her please. She’s in my room.”

Sam had just enough strength to place Zoe onto the couch that Salone was pointing at before falling back down onto all fours, he assured Salone he was fine and told her to work on Zoe instead, Sam was breathing very quickly, his chest began to hurt and his brain was in pain, he crawled over to a wall and sat himself upright, he watched Salone run around as he wiped the blood away from his nose, he really wanted to help in some way, but he just didn’t have the strength to. Salone told Sam to clean himself up, most of his body was covered in blood, but he waited a few more seconds for his senses to come back to him before pushing himself up and searching for the bathroom. After a few failed attempts, he found the room he was looking for, he sprung on the tap and let it run, the sound of the water hitting the sink was beginning to grind on his brain as he cupped it and tossed it onto his face, his breathing was beginning to slow down now and it was nice to cool down, he stared into the mirror as he continued to wash his arms and face of all blood, leaving them spotless, his shirt however would need a little bit more than just water.

Sam returned to the living area just in time to see Salone jam a jar into Zoe’s mouth, clear liquid shot out from her sharp fangs and filled up most of the jar in a matter of seconds, a child’s murmuring could be heard somewhere in the house, it took a while for Sam to remember that Salone had a child, his mind was very preoccupied right around now, that was when he was asked to seek the child and comfort her. Sam took a moment to think about what he was about to do, he didn’t have much experience with small children and babies, the only training he had was bringing up a cat. He tossed his black and red hoodie to the floor and searched for the source of the noise, it led him to a large bedroom, one with a king sized bed and a bookshelf full of books, he would have easily dismissed this as the wrong room until he saw a crib in the corner. Sam approached it and slowly peaked his head over the edge to see a pair of blue eyes staring back at him, in a time of horror and panic, Sam couldn’t help but crack a smile at the baby looking at him, her eyes were wide as she was probably confused as to who this strange man was, his appearance stopped the fussing for a short time before she started again. “Aww, it’s ok, come here” he said as he lifted her out of her crib and found a comfortable position for her in his arms, he bobbed up and down and swayed back and forth to calm her down slightly and it worked, it was strange to think that at “that” moment when Sam spontaneously kissed Salone, if she would have had the same feelings about him, this could have been his child that he was holding right now, he thought on that for a few seconds, but quickly shook it off as the past needs to stay in the past. Whenever Sam’s gaze went to the baby, he couldn’t help but smile at her, she was quite chubby and she already had some blonde hair, it felt like all time had stopped and it was just him and her standing together, but he did have other people to worry about, no doubt that Salone was also worried about her own child.

Sam slowly made his way back to the living area with Hanna in hand, she had quietened down now but Sam continued bobbing up and down just to be sure, he averted his eyes away from the child for a few seconds to look at Salone and ask her “How is she doing? Is she going to be ok?”

Salone sighed and sat back on her heals, the jar now full with the dangerous liquid called Arae venom. It was clear but very dangerous, as well as valuable. However the venom would go in the fire pit to be burned, as that is the only way to get rid of such a thing.

“Zoe had developed a clog from not hunting properly for quite some time now, so the poison that was in her system is being absorbed as harmless. She should be fine, but I want to keep her for observation for a little while longer. At least until she wakes up-“ That was when she got a proper look at Sam and Salone scowled. “You- sit!”

She pointed to the rocking chair. After he had done so, Salone proceeded to give him a mild check up, taking titan bodily functions into account. “You are dehydrated and malnourished. I am not going to even ask what you have been doing for the last six months.”

Much more gently, Salone ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair, it was wispy and blonde but you could tell the color. “How have you been?” She asked quietly, moving away and over into the conjoined kitchen.

Sam was relieved to hear that Zoe was going to be ok, he watched as Salone tossed a jar full of poison onto her fireplace, probably the only safe way to get rid of it all. Sam was enjoying holding little Hanna in his arms, that was until Salone ordered him to sit in a rocking chair, he took a step back and tried to think about what he was doing wrong with the child, was he holding it wrong? Was he choking it or something? He slowly walked to the rocking chair and carefully sat down, trying not to rock too much, Salone came over to him and started putting her hands all over him, checking his eyes, telling him to open his mouth and say aww, she even jabbed him in the stomach when he least expected it, apparently this was all some kind of test to see how healthy Sam was, and from the sounds of it he had failed.

“A simple hi would have been nice” he thought, he hadn’t seen this woman in a few months and the first thing she did was tell him how unhealthy he was. He sat with Hanna, feeling quite bad about himself, although he didn’t have a real reason why. Salone ruffled the hair of the infant in his arms, who was quite comfortable now, Sam couldn’t help but think that he was sitting in some kind of parallel universe where it all had worked out in the end, she asked him how he was as she moved to the kitchen, Sam let out of loud breath as he was trying to think of what to say and what not to say.

“Well you know me, got in a fight, turned into some kind of beast thing, did some damage, ran away from home because I was scared and was worried that I would hurt Zoe, flew around the world and ended up in Thailand with a bunch of monks, they taught me how to remain calm and not let it happen again, then I came all the way back, found Zoe somehow, proposed to her, she said not right now and now I’m sitting right here holding your child… So I've just been getting on with my life” It was the most confusing and random stories to tell someone, but it all made sense in Sam’s mind because that is what actually happened. To be honest, Sam was quite exhausted, this is the most stressful day he has had since he turned into that… thing, he just wanted to fall asleep with the child in his arms, the rocking backwards and forwards of the rocking chair wasn’t helping either.

“How have you been? It’s been a while, things certainly have seemed to change” he said as he lifted the baby up slightly, making it clear what exactly he was talking about.

“Wait-wait-wait! You proposed?” Salone looked giddy for the guy. “Wait? She said no? Why?” She crinkled her brow, bring Sam back over a cupcake but at that point realized her friend was exhausted. ‘Never mind, you can answer those questions later. For now, the nurse tells you to sleep. The spare room is open.”

Salone took Hanna out of Sam’s arms. In response, Hanna cooed and buried her face into Salone. She smiled slightly and ran the pad of her finger down the side of her daughter’s face.

“Life has been interesting, the usual of trying to raise a child, a person raised by wolves, and my other hobbies.” Salone smiled at Sam before directing him towards the room.

**

At about one in the morning, Zoe groaned, waking up. Her head throbbed and she looked around. Realizing where she was, Zoe pushed herself up and off the couch. Legs weak, she ended up catching herself on the dining table. After waiting a few moments, Zoe finally made it to the spare door. Opening it, she saw Sam’s prone figure. She smiled slightly before sitting on the edge of the bed and removing her shoes and socks.

Sam figured that the proposal part would be the main focus point for Salone, she seemed more excited than he was at the time, but the excitement soon faded away as she realized that Zoe had declined, Sam didn’t really want to explain but he didn’t have to, Salone noticed how tired and stressed he looked and pretty much ordered him to go to bed, she pointed him towards the spare room where Sam could stay and he greatly appreciated the hospitality.

Sam lifted his hoodie off of the ground before heading down the corridor and into the spare room. The walls were painted with a fair green colour, it wasn’t too special, just a big bed, a chair and a table along with a window with a fairly nice view. Sam pulled the curtains of the window shut, before undressing, he placed his sword by the side of his bed, just in case whoever had done this to Zoe wanted to return and finish the job. He slipped into bed and tried his best to get some decent sleep.

His sleep was disturbed by noises in the night, he could hear footsteps in the halls, but he thought it could just be Salone, so he remained in bed with his eyes opened, just to be sure. His eyes slowly closed tight, but shot wide open again as he heard the handle of his door turn, it creaked as it was opened up, but his eyes were locked onto it, the person coming in may not see that he was awake as the room was so dark, but the way the moon was glaring through the window, he would be able to see who was entering. He saw a freckled face peek in and was immediately relieved, however he did not move, he found it more entertaining to see Zoe creep around quietly. He watched as she slowly closed the door and snuck over to the bed before sitting down on the edge to remove her clothes, this was when Sam decided to greet her, he pushed himself up and wrapped his arms around her waist, he rested his head on her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek, “Nice to see you’re still alive” he said as he hugged her from behind, he didn’t spend too much time with her as he thought it was better for her to sleep, so he resumed his previous position.

The next morning, Sam awoke quite cold, he looked around himself to see he was perched on the edge of the bed with no quilt cover over him, it all of the quilt and space had been snatched away from him by the woman to his side. He sighed and rolled out of bed, he peaked through the curtain to see the sun shining on a beautiful day and he put his clothes on knowing that hopefully, the worst was behind him. Sam didn’t waste any time trying to sneak out of the room, he didn’t even need to walk, he teleported into the hallway just outside the door and searched the house for the rest of the residents to see if he was the first one to wake.

Sighing, Zoe was about to fall back onto the blankets when someone grabbed her around her waist and pulled her to their chest.
“Ah,” She gasped slightly in alarm and shock before she realized who it was.
“Hey.” Zoe’s voice was low and she turned her face into the side of his neck, his skin warm against hers.
“Same here,” She laughed softly. “Being dead would put a damper on this entire situation.”
With that Sam crawled back under the blankets and went to sleep, leaving Zoe to her thoughts. Waiting a few minutes, thoughts churning before she followed Sam’s idea of sleep. Settling down under the blankets, Zoe curled into his side.

*

Salone was awake first and in the kitchen. The dogs were still asleep as well. One draped over the couch and the other in the massive dog bed. Hanna gurgled in one of her arms while Salone sat at the table and was sketching. It was Dragon, who was currently draped over the back of the couch like some large kill Artemis had hauled in. The Sheppard mix wagged his tail sleepily at Sam before laying his head back down onto the arm of the seat. Gir was a white irish wolf hound pretending to be a snow ball in the dog bed.

“Hey sleepy head,” Salone greeted him, putting the pencil down. “Hungry?” She asked, shifting Hanna around as she did so.

Sam crept down the corridor, just in case everyone was still asleep, he poked his head around the corner into the living area to be met by a rather large dog, mouth open, tongue out, tail wagging, but it did not make any sound, it simply acknowledged Sam’s existence and carried on with its life. He took another step in and noticed a giant ball of fur sleeping on a bed, it was tough to make out what it was, all Sam knew was that it was some kind of dog, other than that, he couldn’t see any features on it. Sam span around on the spot when he heard someone behind him, Salone had gotten up early and was already doodling with her sketchbook in the kitchen with Hanna in one hand, a pretty impressive feat. After feeling like his cover was blown, Sam returned to his regular self, “No, I’m ok, thanks” he said as he entered the kitchen, “Just some coffee for me will do” he approached the counter and picked up a random mug, filled it with coffee and began to drink, he turned and leaned onto the counter behind him as he stared at the woman sketching, he had a flashback of the time he first saw her in the café in London, he only noticed her when she walked in, but it wasn’t until he approached her when he realized how much she liked sketching, but if she was still doing it to this day, she must have enjoyed doing it a lot. His eyes moved from Salone to the child, her eyes were wide again when she saw him and she continued staring at him, she clearly recognised him but she couldn’t put her finger on when and where, Sam smiled at her and drank more of his coffee before breaking the silence “Zoe is ok as far as I can tell, she came into the bedroom late last night and went to sleep, she seemed ok and back to her regular self… Thanks for helping her, if she hadn’t have said your name before she became ill, I probably wouldn’t have thought of coming to you, I don’t think I would have known what to do to be honest… So you and Zoe are pretty friendly now huh? I remember she was on the phone to you when I saw her for the first time in 6 months, that’s what made me investigate further, hearing your name… Do you guys talk a lot then?”

Sam sipped on his coffee some more as he listened to Salone give him her answer, “You two don’t… talk about me or anything do you?...” he asked nervously before taking another sip, the last thing he wanted was for Zoe to find someone she could gossip with.

“You’ve been gone for six months and that’s what you’re worried about? Gossip?” Salone said in disbelief. Hanna looked up at Salone and then back at Sam. Clearly he was in trouble. “Zoe came and found me after you left. In tears, saying you hadn’t come home and hadn’t answered her calls. You could only imagine her fear for you… considering everything that has happened to her and to you.”

Her brown eyes contained flecks of amber that seemed to pulse with fire. “And what other things that happened that you two didn’t tell me; So if you want to know if we talked about you, yes but rarely because it hurt her to much!”

Salone stood and shut her sketch book; Hanna swiveled around to look at Salone with an evident question on her face. The mother sighed and adjusted Hanna so she was sitting on her hip and clinging to the front of Salone’s t-shirt. Then Hanna turned to look at Sam before giving him the world’s most disarming smile ever.