A/N: NOT EDITED.

Chapter 25 - Revelations in November (Samson Conrad POV) Pt.1

I'm the most patient person in our family, outside of mom but she's had years of practice and doesn't really count. Out of all my siblings, I was also the most stubborn in a way. I wanted to do things in my own time. I cannot remember for myself but when mom would tease us kids, she always made note to stick it to me that once, though I was fully capable of crawling. I sat and cried because she walked a head of me and wouldn't come back to get me.

How far did she walk? Less than five feet.

Was I injured? Not at all, I just felt jilted that she passed me by.

How long did I cry for? Forty minutes.

Did mom come get me? Nope.

What happened? My uncle Trevor came over in the middle of my cry fest and scooped me up, carrying me to the sofa where mom was sitting. And if you hear it from mom and not uncle Trevor, she'll be sure to tell anyone that is around, "And would you believe that he looked over his shoulder and glared at me?" her tone mirthful.

And that stubbornness, of course it followed when I was learning to walk, talk, eat solids, read, get potty trained...

I've always been someone that does things in my own time and there are not many things in the world that can make me change who I am at my core. I think that's why I got on well with Fatima. Despite her weirdness, which I now know more of the backstory, I'm amazed at how much strength she has. I try to put myself in her shoes and that doesn't end very well because if mainstream media had to be trusted, Fatima would have been locked away her whole life but would already be the most popular girl in school. She'd be dating... well certainly not me because I was no athlete, and no one would be the wiser.

She'd change everything about herself, and pretend to be someone she wasn't.

It's as though everything I'm expecting for Fatima, she does the exact opposite. Or I'm not even sure if it's the opposite, it's more like across the street, down the block, two miles east and near that one iffy looking bridge.

And that was another thing about her. Fatima was like this running train that we had in Bend. For a long time, the train tracks, they literally had no reason to be there. They were never used. Many people from school would hang around it for no other reason than it was out of the way of adult supervision. Between the ages of seven and early fourteen, not a single train, freight or otherwise had used those tracks. Then, out of the blue... one day driving by we noted that they were doing maintenance on the tracks and a week or so later, well, there it was.

Fatima made me feel like those train tracks. Made my heart, the part of me that smiles without feeling guilty, feel like those tracks. Useless before its true reason for even being came along.

We were a lot a like in many ways but she was teaching me the pull and push of life again. Giving and taking. I wanted to spend a good portion of my time with Fatima, especially knowing that she had missed so much of life. Just making memories for all the ones that she has missed. However, with her, it was almost like hanging out with a toddler. You wanted to keep them engaged, but too much simulation and bam... you had a tantrum or crying fit on your hands. Or maybe that was just...

Bottom line Fatima and I were a lot alike. We knew when to give and when it was time to pull back, and I was learning her as well. She was herself, being with her was not like standing in front of a mirror.

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"You have to help me, Brennan broke up with Devin," I blinked a bit shocked, before I realized what happened when I left the room on Friday night. "You mean stick our noses in something that has nothing to do with us?" Like Devin had with you and I? Thought but remained silent.

"She - Devin - won't say what happened but I know that it has to do with us," I shook my head, opening my locker and taking out my Spanish textbook, before turning to Taylor.

"I don't know what happened between them either, but I also don't care Taylor. If you're worried about Devin and Brennan, well go speak to Devin and Brennan. I have nothing to feel guilty for whereas you do I'm guessing."

Stepping forward to make sure she understood, "You have been the one moping around, acting like I broke up with you when in reality you had built our whole relationship in your own head. You were nothing but a hypocrite, making fun of all the other girls that approach me when you were only biding your time..." the words just flowed from my mouth in my heated displeasure.

"And you wan to know what I really think?" 

It didn't matter if Taylor wanted to stay oblivious.

"You're a coward Taylor, you've loved me since you were five but you just hung back in the shadows like some kind of stalker," I spat and her eyes filled with tears.

"All those other girls that came at me, where more courageous and upfront than you..." I turned to walk away but she pulled onto my shirt, whirling around to come in front of me, "You don't understand Samson-" her head still shaking.

"I was going to tell you, everyone knew, Silas even knew, thought we were-" all I saw was red, the tint darkening.

"We're done. We aren't friends, I don't even want to speak to you, when you see me, do me a favor and look in the opposite direction. Stop playing the pitiful girlfriend when you weren't mine, you were just someone pretending to be someone you weren't-"

"You and Devin are the two most selfish people I've ever known. I had thought it was just Devin, but now I know that it's you as well."

"You didn't want me, you only wanted me because you thought that I was into Fatima-" she pushed me away.

"Stop saying her name, stop hurting me!" Was she serious?

"I don't want you, I've never wanted you that way Taylor! Do you hear yourself? Stop saying her name? Why because you're self esteem is so low, you're threatened by a girl that you don't even know?" Breaking the glare a few people gasped and I finally looked away from Taylor.

I inhaled angrily, this was exactly what I wanted to avoid, an audience. Not even bothering with a glance in Taylor's direction I left and went to my first period class.

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Things were terribly uncomfortable for everyone, walking on eggshells because Javier was with Talia, but he was also Devin and Taylor's older brother. But like I had told Taylor, I wasn't going to get in the middle of anything, as far as I was concerned the only real problem that I had was I told Brennan something in confidence, and he went and told Devin of all people.

Entering the house, after parking my car in the garage, I saw Brennan in the kitchen alone, walking past him silently, he made a noise, "I'm sorry Samson," he said maybe for the hundredth time to be honest.

"It has been two weeks, when are you going to forgive me?" his eyes on mine I had to wonder if he had hit his head recently.

Turning to him incredulity on my face, "It took me two years to talk to anyone about Silas, and it didn't take more than how long? Five days for you to spill everything I told you in confidence to Devin... Worse of all, she made it seem like I was trying to replace Silas with Fatima," I waved my hand in front of me, wondering how on earth he thought that things would just go back to normal.

"You think what?" my eyes darted around his features, "That you'd break up with Devin, be miserable and I'd have what pity on you that you were hurting?"

He looked away in shame, but I could only scoff "Why would you even tell her?"

His shoulders squared and he looked me in the eyes, "Who else was I supposed to talk about everything you unloaded on me, how miserable you were and lonely even though we've been right here? It was frustrating to me that I'm your own brother and I didn't know - I just - Devin is the person I love, she's the one I share all my problems-"

"But this wasn't your problem to share!" I roar out not caring who the hell was in the house right then. "It was mine, all you had to do was tell Devin, to back off, and let her be your person like you said, tell you how she was dealing, instead you told her how I felt... you told her everything, didn't you see she was already in the middle!?" it's completely rhetorical but he had to have known how telling her would've ended since Taylor is Devin's sister.

"You betrayed me, end of Brennan. It doesn't matter that it was Devin, it could've been anyone and I would still feel betrayed because I opened up to you, not to mom or dad, to you," I pointed at him, shaking my head and turning my back heading up to my room. Changing I looked around my room, not wanting to stay where I was, debating with myself until want decides for me and I'm grabbing my bag and climbing the stairs to Fatima's floor.

I didn't want to annoy her, but for two Sunday's she spent them with the family and sadly enough I had missed the first one, but Thaddeus told me the next day in class. She wasn't eating with us, or spending much time with us, but she had been coming around more often.

"Wanted to know if you wanted to do homework together?" I asked when Fatima opened the door, her hair up messily, her long neck, a plain shirt and shorts on. I hadn't had the time to settle down and see if my letter had really made a difference, but I wanted to hope that being honest and up front with Fatima was the right thing to do.

The black circles under her eyes had truly grown deeper, but my eyes trailed down to her hand, "come in," I had to snap my head up to look back up into her eyes to see her backing up and letting me in. She hadn't changed much in the room, but the room did have little touches.

Walking to her bed, she curls up her back against the rest, and I lower my bag of books down doing the opposite following her. "I've already finished my homework," she said calmly, tired.

"Are you sleeping okay?" I asked or well more like blurted out.

"No... you wrote me a letter." My eyebrows shot up, she really didn't play around, and Fatima just said it how it was. No games.

"I did."

She bit her lip, while pursing it to the side, her chin looking more triangular than ever, "It - it meant a lot to me that you wrote it," I nodded.

"And - and I'm sorry for pushing you away, I don't want to lie and say it was an accident, because I'd be lying," I blinked, trying my best not to laugh at her honesty. "I - you were getting - I didn't think-" she was confused and if I had been wondering why she hadn't approached me nearly two weeks later, I had my answer. She was taking time to herself, thinking of how to explain everything to me.

"You don't have to explain why you pushed me away," I said, "I just wanted - I mean it did hurt that you pushed me away, when I would never do that to you," she nodded picking at her bed sheet.

"I wasn't kidnapped by Dmitri, he - he saved me after your aunt Cynthia left me. She's my mother - but I started having dreams, and - and I thought that maybe you'd think - it wasn't." she was struggling incredibly and I could see the tired frustration building.

I just remained silent, giving her time, letting her have the floor, "I believed that there was a war, that there were groups of people, that there were Independents and Loyalists, and then I learned that those things weren't true," I couldn't begin to place myself in her shoes in that aspect because no matter how I felt, how Silas dying impacted me, I could only barely relate to Fatima now.

"Then I started having dreams, and learned that all the lies, all the stories that Dmitri was telling me, well I'm the one that told him them, not the other way around and I was ashamed," I couldn't help but shake my head in disbelief.

"You - why would you be ashamed?" I squeaked.

But Fatima didn't answer right away, "I mean, again, you were a child, and you had to get those ideas from somewhere-"

Her head snapped up and there were tears in her eyes, that the desperateness in her eyes made me want to reach out and pull her to me which was the strangest instinctual thought, nearly a need, locking my self down so I wouldn't attack the poor girl I waited. Reaching out one hand to her so if she needed the support like I felt like I needed the contact with her in some small way, she could take it.

"I think I'm losing my mind," she whispered, inching her hand towards mine, but her words made no sense to me.

"I - I'm hearing a voice in my head, Samson," her voice shook, the fear great and thick. Immediately my body tensed and I wanted to ask a million questions, ones that would lead me to know what - nearly who Fatima was.

Was she a shifter? Was she like me? Half human hybrid? Aunt Cynthia was a full-blooded Fae... but who was Fatima's father? Was he human? Werecat or Werewolf? Vampire?

Mom and Dad said that we wouldn't tell her about us, just yet, but what if telling her helped more than it hindered?

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