Sammi Rudolph

Samantha Elise Poinsettia ('Sammi') Rudolph is a fictional character first seen in the miniseries "A Path of Roses and Thorns." The owner of a number of high-end fashion boutiques in the Washington-Baltimore area (and the designer of Amy Barksdale's wedding gown), Sammi is in her early thirties. Sammi is 5'7, shapely in an athletic manner (she is an avid bicyclist and loves long-distance riding) and quite attractive, with a very thick, very long mass of dark blonde hair which she usually wears in a thick, heavy braid that falls over her left shoulder all the way to her waist. Sammi is also known for having very poor personal taste in her own attire (which is believed by some to be just a affectation, in order to give herself a noticeable quirk that helps with her accessability and public persona), and for having a crush on former Vice President Al Gore. A wealthy woman because of her business (she is a first-choice for specialty wedding gowns and alterations for the uber-wealthy and for celebrities), Sammi's guilty pleasures include expensive shoes and flirting with anything in sight. She also has developed a taste for durian (an exotic, yet pungent fruit from Southeast Asia), which becomes a craving during her pregnancy.

Sammi also has a thing for cats. Because of her business, she is unable to own one, but loves to play with any cats she comes across.

Sammi and Paula Trainor have been in a romantic relationship since 1998 (as shown in A Path of Roses and Thorns).

In the fic The Cats Will Play, it was mentioned that Sammi and Paula are planning to get married; because of their careers and friends, their wedding is seen my many as a major celebrity event as well as having major impact on the same-sex wedding debate. Paula (as an three-star general in the U.S. Air Force) is the highest-ranked military member of the military to choose to marry since DADT was dissolved under President Obama.

In the fic Why We Fight, we see that Sammi and Paula are married, and living in a spacious Georgetown brownstone. Both women are currently pregnant (Paula is acting as a surrogate mother for Amy and her husband, and Sammi is carrying their own child). Sammi owns a large, hooded terrycloth robe in hot neon pink, which she loves lounging around in.

Sammi has a sister, who has not been seen in-story, but it has been revealed that she is strongly against Sammi's life-choices to the point that she refused to attend her wedding to Paula, did not contact her during her pregnancy, and has not spoken at length to her since Sammi and Paula became a couple.

Paula's pet name for her is 'Sammi-bear'.