Hello, my loves, and welcome to Surrender!

I've actually wanted to do a Twilight fic for a long time, and I've debated so much with myself over who the fic would focus on. It was a toss-up between Jasper, Paul and Sam. My three favourite characters. Clearly, Sam won that little debate. Maybe my next fic will be a Jasper or Paul fic. We'll see, aye?

The first thing I'm going to address is how we're going to get around Emily Young. I do love Emily. She's a great character. But so is Sam, and Twilight touched so little on him. It's sad, really. So much happened to Sam, and so little was said about it. What I really want is to be able to explore that, and since I have a deep aversion to writing any canon character pairing fic, I'm doing that with an OC. Sam will meet (and imprint on) this OC minutes after he finally shifts back to a human for the first time, weeks before he even would even meet Emily in canon, or find out what imprinting is. That's how we're getting around that. How are we gonna get around the Claire situation? Who knows. We'll work it out.

The next is the rating. I try to strive for realism in my writing, or as close to with vampires and werewolves running around the town. Peggy is an adult. An adult that has been through a lot. So there'll be a lot of themes in this fic that aren't particularly happy or kid-friendly. Peg also has a particularly loose tongue.

I hope you all enjoy this one.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or anything recognisable that could be mentioned in this fic. If it's recognisable, it's not mine

Warning: This fic will contain some dark themes. Abuse, self-harm and suicide will all be mentioned in this fic, in varying degrees of detail. Please be aware of that going into this fic. If you don't want to read about any of these themes, please do not go on.

Surrender
Twilight

Sam Uley / OC

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

On a sunny day in Forks something strange had to happen.

It was an unwritten, but very much enforced, rule of the town.

Screaming. Blood slick on the steering wheel. Shaking. No!

The forest was bright around me, beautiful green filtered through the canopy above, and a fresh breeze ruffled the tumble of rusty curls I had attempted to tame with a hairband. My boots slogged through the mulchy carpet of degrading leaves. Once upon a time, I had hated that feeling. Now I'd come to enjoy the squelchy feeling. It was satisfying.

A smile came to my lips as my boot sank particularly far into the muddy mass, and I pulled it free with a wet squelch. The black leather of my boots was covered in a thick layer of brown goop. That would be a bitch to clean off.

I felt like a child playing in the mud. So much lighter than I used to be, just a year ago.

Worried gold eyes. Shaking. Burning. Save me, please!

Despite the fun playing in the fun, I had come to know a lot about the woods in this past year hiking the area. Enough to know that the sight I stumbled on after rounding a tree was certainly not the norm. Especially this late in the year.

A good twenty feet away from my current spot, sat in the undergrowth with his back to me, was a stark naked man.

I will admit that I had seen naked people while hiking before. A few times during the summer past, I'd stumbled on hastily put up tents with couples of many ages enjoying each other's company. I'd seen more than my fair share of lily white asses high-tailing it away from me to hide when I stumbled on them. It happened at least once a month. It was embarrassing for all parties involved, I promise.

This was different.

This guy certainly wasn't here to enjoy a stolen moment in the woods with a lover away from prying eyes. There was no camp in sight; no partner in a loving embrace. He was hunched over alone, trembling. In November, I wasn't too sure whether I could chalk the trembling down to something scary happening (which was quite possible - it only took a stroke of bad luck to encounter a bear here, even this close to a defined trail) or the cold.

"What the fuck," was the first thing out of my mouth, before sense kicked in. "Hey, you okay there?"

The guy snapped around, his eyes wild, body tense. His gaze combed the area and found me, but his eyes didn't raise any further than my feet, and the trembling started anew a moment later. No answer to my question.

Now I was worried.

I took a few cautious steps forwards, and my voice dipped into a more serious tone. If this guy was in trouble, we needed to get past the awkward questions stage and get him some help. "Are you okay?" I asked again, inching closer to him.

He scrambled back away from me when I came to about five feet away from him, back hitting a tree behind him.

This close I could get a better look at him.

The deep brown shade of his skin and angular planes of his face had him pegged as Native. More than likely from La Push, but I'd come far enough down the 101 that he could be from the Hoh Reservation. We weren't too far from the mouth of the river here. The Reservation was probably only an hour walk from here, as the crow flies.

My assumption on his state of undress had been right, I realised, diverting my eyes respectfully, even when he didn't cover himself up. The guy was naked as a jaybird, but he didn't make any move to remedy that, clearly still deeply affected by whatever had put him in that state.

He was tall, too, I noted. He was still sat down, but this guy was definitely taller than I was. At six foot one myself, I wasn't exactly short. I'd bet my left tit that he had a few inches on me, too. I didn't see that often.

My hands came up in a show of innocent intentions. "Hey, hey, it's okay." I tried to throw as much calm into my voice as I could. I didn't want him freaking out anymore. "I wanna help."

"I-I'm fine," he insisted. His voice was deep and rough, adding to the whole tall, dark and handsome package he had going for him. It was full of stammering fear, though. My heart clenched. What had happened to this poor guy that he was as scared as he was?

Clearly, he wasn't fine, but pushing him into a confrontation in this state wasn't going to help him at all. "Okay. Do you want me to give you a ride somewhere? My car's just a few minutes that way." I gestured vaguely behind me. We weren't that far off the trail, and we could probably get to my car in ten minutes tops. "I can run you to the nearest hospital. Or back home. Hoh? La Push?" I hoped I wasn't being an ignorant ass here. For all I knew he could have lived in Forks, or somewhere else around here. Was it shitty of me to just assume that he lived on a Reservation?

He still wouldn't meet my eyes, but his gaze had lifted from my feet and hovered somewhere around my stomach. "That- Yeah. A ride back would be great. La Push. To La Push." His answer was disjointed, but he was actually talking now and there wasn't a stammer to his words anymore. That was a definite plus in my books. He wasn't trembling as much now, either. Good.

I'd kind of hoped he'd taken up my offer to take him to a hospital, rather than back to La Push. I wanted to make sure he was okay, but I wasn't going to force him to go to a hospital if he didn't want to go. There had to be a doctor in La Push, though. If he was in trouble, he'd get help from them, right?

I hoped so.

He rose to his feet in a surprisingly fluid movement, then threw off any awe I may have had by pitching to the left with an unsteady step.

I lurched forward to grab him, hoping I could at least attempt to steady him. He was heavier than me and I wasn't exactly strong.

I'd misjudged his height, I realised, when I had to look up to gauge how well he actually was. He had to be six five. Maybe even taller. I wasn't sure I had ever met a man that I actually had to look up at like this. It was an interesting novelty.

His hand came up to assure me he was okay, just as mine found his elbow to steady him. His skin was burning. How he could remain as warm as he was, stark naked in the middle of a Washington winter I didn't know, but he really was boiling hot.

He still wouldn't look at me. His eyes had found something interesting on the ground by our feet, and there was a trembling in his limbs again.

Gauging that he was okay to stand by himself, I took a step back to give him some space. "La Push," I agreed. "C'mon, then. Let's get you to my car." And more importantly the thick blanket I kept in the back of it with all my camping gear. It wasn't often I did decide to camp out when I hiked, but the camping gear was an almost permanent fixture in the back of my car. I was thankful for it now. This guy needed to cover himself, stat. Before he froze anything important off.

We began a slow pace towards the car. I was making it a point to walk a little slower and keep an eye on him. He wasn't staggering anymore after that first lurch but I wasn't convinced that he wouldn't fall faint again.

"So, what's your name, stranger?" I asked a couple minutes into our hike, when he hadn't volunteered any conversation. I was a chatty person. I liked filling silent gaps with something - mindless chatter, humming, singing; just something. Now wasn't any different. I couldn't keep myself in check. The silence was just awkward, filled with too many loud thoughts between the two of us. This guy was clearly trapped in his head, and I was avoiding that trap myself.

There was a beat before he answered. "Sam. I'm Sam." There was a strange note to his introduction. There was something deep and emotional and unsettling about the way he said it. Too firm, like he was reminding himself rather than telling me.

"Well, Sam, I'm Peggy, and we should step it up a notch. I'm freezing my tits off, so who knows how you're feeling." I was half worried that he'd lose toes, or something a little more important if he carried on in the buff for much longer. I didn't have any plans to be privy to a guy losing his nuts to the cold. Not today.

There was a little quirk to his lips, a trace of humour amongst the bleak emotion weighing him down in response to my joke, but no other response as we found the trail, and soon after my car.

A low noise of appreciation sounded from the man beside me. "That thing's a beast. That's your car?" Of course it would be a car that got him offering up his own conversation.

A part of me preened. Who didn't like their car being complimented? "Yupp. That's my baby girl." My baby, a '77 Toyota BJ40 in faded red, sat waiting for us by the side of the road, looking quite magnificent. In my eyes, at least. And, it looked like, in the eyes of my companion, too. "She's my favourite, but don't tell the bike. She get's jealous." I dropped Sam a little wink as I sifted through the deep pockets of my pants for my keys.

I hopped up into the back when she was opened up and began rooting through the piled up camping gear for the blanket. When I found it, I shook it out, dubbed it free of any crawlies, and handed it off to Sam.

He immediately looked a little more comfortable when he wrapped the blanket around himself.

I slid out of the car and slammed the doors shut, heading round to the driver's side and jumping up into the cab. Sam scooted into the passenger side and we slammed our doors shut in unison. "Heater's broke, so the blanket's gonna have to do for now, and the radio decides on the day whether it's gonna work or not. It wasn't feeling it this morning. Hope you don't mind the silence."

My baby roared to life when I turned the key and a smile came to my lips. I'd had this car since I'd passed my test seven years ago, and I still couldn't get over how gorgeous she sounded when she came to life.

"No. Silence is- It's fine." He belted up, then pulled the blanket tighter around himself to make sure he was definitely covered.

Compassion. Stark bandaged. Blood stains. Stitches. Would you like to talk?

"Good." I bounced in my seat to get comfortable, then we were off. "You'll have to give me directions when we're closer." I'd lived in Forks my whole life, and like most teenagers back in high school, sunny days had enticed me over to First Beach with classmates, and occasionally we'd gone camping along Third Beach, too. But since I'd started commuting up to college in Port Angeles daily, and life had taken a harsh hold of me, I had precious little time to myself. The La Push beaches hadn't really factored into my life then.

Maybe soon I'd make a point of going hiking to Third Beach again. It'd be something new to do.

We chatted pretty idly in the twenty minute drive to La Push. Or rather, I chatted idly, and Sam sat quietly, occasionally pitching a few words into the conversation, but mostly just stared out of the window at the passing landscape until we turned down onto La Push road. Then Sam guided me through the community, right to the far end, to a little cluster of houses right on the edge of the reservation.

Muttered thanks and goodbyes were exchanged, and Sam slid out of the cab, slamming the door closed behind him. He strode around the front of my truck without looking back at me and made his way towards the house furthest from where I'd parked.

I watched him for a moment, debating with myself. I should let him go, let him forget about the last twenty minutes and work on getting over what had upset him. That's what most people would do.

No, that was bullshit. Most people would have insisted on taking him straight to the hospital and getting him checked out.

I groaned and let my head drop back, hitting the headrest of my seat.

I couldn't do it. Couldn't leave it be. The haunted look that had been in his eyes had gotten to me and I couldn't let him leave without addressing it. Fuck my life, I couldn't keep my nose out of anything.

With a new purpose, I unbuckled my seatbelt and flipped the old lock on my window and pushed the glass down into the door with a firm shove. "Hey, Sam!" I called out, hoisting my upper body out of the window to catch his attention.

He span around, and our eyes met for the first time.

"I don't know what happened out there, but you can pull through it," I assured him. There wasn't anything people couldn't pull through if they put their mind to it. When I had worn a haunted expression like that, I'd wished for someone to tell me that. I wasn't going to let him go without hearing it. Maybe it wouldn't make a difference, but maybe it would.

I couldn't chance it.

"You're in a bad place, I can tell. Don't let it beat you, Sam."

His lips parted, but no noise came from him. The shock was still prevalent. He took a step towards me, then stopped again. He looked dumbstruck. I hope it was a good dumbstruck. I hope my words got to him. Helped, even if only a little.

"Don't let it beat you," I repeated firmly, eyes firm on his. Then I dropped back into my car and raised one hand in a wave.

Goodbye, Sam. Good luck.

Healing. Scars. You'll pull through this, Louise. Pain. Hope.

And that is a wrap for the first chapter. A little short, but its the setup for the rest of the fic. The next chapter will be longer.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoyed it. I would love any feedback you'd be willing to give!