DISCLAIMER: These characters belong to Ryan Murphy and the WB. No infringement is intended.
CONTINUITY: This really isn't in any part of my universe because I've torn asunder the very fabric of time and space. In the S&B continuity that I've developed this would be set in October/November of 2001. The movie 'Imagine Me & You' didn't actually come out until 2005.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Imagine Sam & Brooke
By Quatorz
Cold blue light painted Sam's pale skin, giving her an ethereal glow. She sat alone, absorbed in her movie and absentmindedly shoveling handfuls of popcorn into her mouth. It was late, and the Palace was deserted. Jane and Mike had taken Mac on a weekend getaway, and Brooke was out doing something with her friends.
Or so she thought.
"Whatcha watching?" Brooke asked.
Sam jumped, gasped, and subsequently choked on her popcorn. Brooke rushed over and pounded her on the back.
"Jesus, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." She let up her assault as the coughing fit abated. "Are you all right?"
Sam took a swig of her soda and nodded through teary eyes. She managed to swallow the rest of her popcorn. "I thought you were going over to Nicole's?" she asked in a raspy voice.
Brooke shrugged. "I didn't feel like dealing with them tonight. I figured I'd come home and see if you wanted to hang out."
A smile pulled at the corner of Sam's mouth. "Really?" she asked quietly. She shook herself out of a daze. "Sure, let me just turn off the--"
"No, a movie's good. Perfect in fact," Brooke affirmed, and walked over to the sofa. "Fill me in. Did--
"Hey, that's the girl from Coyote Ugly!" Brooke realized.
"Piper Perabo. Yeah," Sam acknowledged.
Brooke sat down on the sofa beside her. Of course, Sam noted. They'd just gotten the new living room furniture: sofa, loveseat, and-the piece de resistance-Mike's new chair.
Mike had wanted to have a comfy piece of furniture just for him, and Jane had been accommodating as long as it could fit into the décor-and not a purple Lay-Z-Boy emblazoned with the Lakers logo.
It was sad, really, that to get one chair, Mike actually had to agree to purchase an entirely new living room suit. But once they started shopping, Mike had been more excited than the rest of them. "The salesman said that it will conform to fit me, like..." he snapped his fingers. "What are those shoes?"
"Birkenstocks," Sam supplied instantly, and then mentally slapped herself. Jesus, Sam! Be a little more obvious, why don't you? How about waving a rainbow flag like an extra from Les Miserable?
Fortunately, no one seemed to notice, and she was relieved that she hadn't 'outed' herself accidentally.
Only the bowl of popcorn sat between them, and Brooke grabbed a handful. She smiled in appreciation. "Yum," she said.
Sam laughed at the visual of Brooke's cheeks puffed out with popcorn.
"What'd I miss?" Brooke asked, sending small fragments of popcorn airborne. She put her hand over her mouth. "Sorry," she grinned.
"Um," Sam began, "Piper Perabo's character meets the person of her dreams at her own wedding."
"Oh shit!" Brooke laughed through a mouthful of popcorn. "Did she still get married?"
"Yeah. She doesn't realize how strong of a connection they have until she gets to know her better."
"Her?" Brooke raised an eyebrow.
"Um, yeah," Sam blushed. She cleared her throat. "She discovers she's fallen in love with another woman."
The hum of the Palace's air conditioner was suddenly deafening. "Oh," Brooke replied.
"Yeah." Sam agreed. She swallowed nervously.
Brooke turned her attention to the movie.
On screen Piper Perabo and Lena Headey were watching a child's report on the planets. As shadows fell across them in the darkened room, their hands tentatively reached out and connected. Unable to resist, Piper Perabo turned to the object of her desire. Their eyes met. Tentative touches grew more confident, bolder, until--
A sudden change of lighting and the applauding classroom clued them in that it was just a fantasy sequence-a figment of one of the character's imaginations. But which one?
"Is-Is this making you uncomfortable?" Sam asked. "We can watch something--"
"No, it's okay." Brooke answered. "I'm not uncomfortable. Is it making you...?"
"No," Sam laughed nervously. "I picked the movie, didn't I?"
Their eyes met, but neither followed up on that thread.
A few minutes later, Piper Perabo stormed into a flower shop and demanded that whatever was blossoming between her Lena Headey's character had to stop. Leaving a reeling Headey to wonder when everything had gone so horribly wrong, Perabo burst back through the door a second later and gave into her desire, smothering the other girl in a smoldering kiss.
Sam's hand had stopped in mid-motion above the popcorn bowl, mesmerized by the passionate moment on-screen. Brooke absently reached for some popcorn and their fingers connected briefly.
Sam withdrew her hand quickly. She offered the blonde a mumbled "Sorry" and an awkward smile.
They stared longer than was polite.
"What's this movie called?" Brooke asked, her voice husky.
"Um," Sam stammered, and cleared her throat. 'Um' had come out about three octaves too high. "I-Imagine Me & You."
The muscles in Brooke's throat worked reflexively as she swallowed. "Imagine...me and you?"
Sam nodded. "Imagine Me & You," she confirmed.
"Oh."
And the three of them watched the rest of the movie in relative silence: Sam, Brooke, and the
Large
White
Elephant
sitting in Mike's brand new chair.
The End