DISCLAIMER: Popular is the intellectual property of Ryan Murphy. I simply dabble in his sandbox, make his characters gay for each other and enjoy the turn on that follows. Spoilers for "Promblems."
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Endurance
By carpesomediem
It was stoicism itself with her tears dried up and the blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders. Sam was standing, overlooking the hospital bed and thinking to herself. She willed the tears to stop but not the pain, but she had to endure. It was the only thing left to do. Sam had to go on, to be strong, to shut down until the time came when she could regain the only feeling she had left: The ones she had for her stepsister, Brooke.
Brooke laid in a coma, draped in hospital garb with dirty blonde hair plastered to her face. It'd been months since Nicole hit her, weeks since the doctor's said she might not wake up at all, and days since her fingertips stirred ever so slightly and they'd been given semi-hope that maybe she would. But that brief glimpse of hope broke Sam.
Mike cried at the news the doctor brought them, Jane comforted him by wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him close. Once again, Sam had no one, she simply stood and quiet said she'd dutifully sit watch until Brooke woke up. Jane watched her go, still cradling her husband and her heart broke, too. Her daughter always knew how to be the strong one; walls weren't built in a day, Sam's took years in the making to get that tall.
In that moment, though, in that short walk, that hope shut Sam down. It dried her tears and wiped her slate clean of all the baggage she'd been carrying since the accident prom night. There was no time for tears, no time for doubt, there was simply time to sit watch. Time to sit, think and pretend that everything was going to be okay. Even if it wasn't, Sam would carry on pretending it was, because if Brooke was gone, endurance would be all she had left.
The End