Open to samuelguthrie

[ticktabby]

[ooc: After this.]

The truth: Tabby was avoiding Sam. She'd spent most of her time with the girls, when she wasn't chasing after Lewis for hiding frogs under her bed. Sally had been good on her promise, staying with her. That is, whenever Julian wasn't distracting her. Tabby would grudgingly admit it wasn't a bad thing he and Sam seemed to hit it

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[samuelguthrie]

Sam had taken off the ring Tabby had put on his finger the night she accepted his marriage proposal. He'd given it to his Ma for safekeeping. Told her he was going to give Tabby the space she needed. He knew Ma was worried for him which was why she'd gone easy on him. Hadn't questioned him about why he'd suddenly left, hadn't asked about Tabby, and Sammy had been grateful for that.

"Have a seat." He patted the spot next to him. Sam had laid out a blanket for her to sit on.

"Look at that." He nodded up at the sky. "Pretty ain't she?"

[ticktabby]

Tabby had noticed he took his ring off. It was the first thing she'd noticed, and even though her own finger was bare it had hurt more than she'd like to admit and part of the reason she hadn't known how to confront him. Then again, why should he wear it? She'd put everything in a box. Why couldn't he?

Friends, Tabby. Friends.

She gingerly sat next to him, placing the snacks in her lap. Crinkling her nose, she looked up and tried not thinking about how many times they'd done this. "Very pretty. Doesn't look as lonely from up here," she agreed quietly. "How long have you been out here by yourself?"

[samuelguthrie]

"A couple of hours at most," he shrugged then picked up a spare blanket, placing it across Tabby's shoulders. "Don't want you gettin' a cold or Ma would gimme hell for that in the mornin'." He gave her a crooked smile, and then almost, almost made a move to tuck her hair back behind her ear but Sam stopped himself, dropping his hand to his knee and turned his gaze away instead.

"Ye doin' okay livin' on yer own?"

[ticktabby]

Tabby couldn't help the smile blooming across her own face at the sight of his. It was different when he wasn't physically present, and she could type away whatever she thought she should be feeling on a stupid computer. Stupid computers didn't have Sam Guthrie's smile!

"It's different," she admitted, her hands fiddling with her shoelaces, knees brought up to her chest. "I really like my job, though. I like working for Terry. And I'm not really living on my own, my own. So."

[samuelguthrie]

The minute he heard her voice tremble, he sat up and turned to face her. "If ah didn't hurt ya and if ya don't care, we wouldn't be walkin' on eggshells right now. Doubt ah would've gone back to Xavier's on mah own last week and ya wouldn't be sittin' here cryin'. Darn it, Tabby." He tugged on her hand, pulling it away from her face. "How am ah supposed to make it right?"

[ticktabby]

"I don't know!" she cried out, before pressing her lips together. Tabby would remind herself she didn't owe him anything. Sam was the one who was supposed to just know. Tears stung underneath her eyelids. She gazed down at their linked hands. "Do you have any idea how much I worried about you? Any idea how I'd wonder every night where you were and if you were hurt?"

[samuelguthrie]

Unconsciously, without meaning to, he'd tightened his grip on her hand. "There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think about ya, Tabby. Did ya think I left cause I didn't care about ya? ... That I was never coming back?" He moved closer to her and cupped her cheek with the palm of his hand. "Baby girl, I was always gonna come back to ya."

[ticktabby]

Baby girl. Tabby wanted to block out his words, wanted to block out her reaction to them but she was helpless to it. "You're an idiot, Sam and I'm still mad at you." She pulled her hand away, but only so she could lock her arms around his neck. She allowed herself to do what she'd been longing to from the moment she saw him. Tabby hugged him tightly to her, face buried into his shoulder. "But I missed you."

[samuelguthrie]

Two in the morning on a Monday and they're spooned against each other on the couch in the upstairs barn. Hannah calls it Sammy's Secret Hideout. None of the younger Guthrie's were ever allowed up there. For good reason.

Paige, Jono, Sally and Julian had left for New York after dinner at eight. But Tabby had agreed to stay back at the farm and head back with Sam to the city in the morning. They were going to send Hannah to school first before leaving.

"Ah'm glad ya stayed," he murmured against Tabby's shoulder, fingers trailing patterns down the curve of her thigh over the thin blanket he'd draped over her.

[ticktabby]

In the end it had been an easy and painless decision. She'd decided she wasn't going to overthink it - because really, when had Tabby ever done such a thing? Instead, she was going to wing it. Not everything was solved but things were looking up and her stupid heart was letting itself hope.

Tabby cradled the side of her face with one hand, the other curved around his neck as she marveled at him. She'd honestly believed they would never be here again and the fact that they were was still a little surreal.

"You're just saying that because you just got laid," she said teasingly, acutely aware of his traveling fingertips. "Twice."

[samuelguthrie]

Sam let out a low chuckle. "That ain't the only reason." He laid his head on his arm as he settled into a more comfortable position next to her. The couch was big enough to fit the both of them but he was dangerously close to falling over the edge.

He smirked playfully. "You are gonna help me out with the dishes in the mornin'."

[ticktabby]

"Sure I am. I'll mop the floor, too." This of course meant, Tabby would sit at the counter eating a popsicle, being largely unhelpful until he was almost done. Wasn't she a keeper?

"Hey, Sam?" She grew quiet for a moment as she burrowed closer to him. His hand, still on her thigh, bare of a ring. "Where do we go from here?"