'They say when you almost lose someone close to you, that you realize how you actually feel about them. I am burdened with that clarity now.'

Lara sat on her bunk in one of the cabins of their rescue ship, staring out the porthole. Sam lay stretched out in sleep, her head in Lara's lap. She had gripped Lara's thigh tightly, clinging to her like a life raft. Lara stroked Sam's hair softly. 'What are you going to do now, Lara,' she thought, you're in love with your best friend.' She looked down at the sleeping girl, wondering at the soft smile on her face. 'How can she smile after all we've been through?'

Lara returned her view to the ocean, watching the waves rise and fall off into the distance. "You don't have the answers to anything anymore."

She had been so confident at the start of this venture; searching for the lost nation of Yamatai. She knew what she was looking for and where to go. The people closest to her trusted her. Then they got there and it all went to shit. 'Stop worrying 'bout the past, Lara, you've got a whole world ahead of you.' Roth's voice played in her head. She did have the whole world before her, and all she could think about was Sam. Lara leaned her head back against the wall. The waves past on and on until the horizon blended with blue sky. Her consciousness drifted as the ship rocked on the sea.

Lara walked across the quad of UCL. Classes had resumed after Christmas holiday, and the morning sun glittered off a thick blanket of snow that lay heavy upon the campus. Her focus was on her classes, oblivious to the outside world.

THWACK! A snowball smacked Lara between the shoulder blades. She spun round to find the offending party, ready to react. Sam ran up to her laughing and threw her arms around Lara in a tight embrace. "I missed you so much over break."

Lara hugged her back. "I missed you too, Sam." Sam held her arm across Lara's back as they walked together. "Did you have a good time with your family?"

Sam nodded. "I had missed them. It was nice to see them all, but you can only be home for so long before your feet just want to go."

Lara smiled, she was intimately acquainted with the concept. "I know the feeling."

Sam leaned her head on Lara's shoulder. "I am glad to be back here with you."

A flash of light filled Lara's vision, enveloping her until all she could sense was a deafening ringing in her ears and a blinding white void. She dropped to her knees, holding her head. She felt like she was screaming, but she couldn't tell. The light faded and her vision slowly returned. The landscape around her was changed. The snowy stone of UCL on a sunny morning was replaced with a dark dreariness. Was it night? The building nearest her was in ruins; the marble pillars cracked and broken, the roof half caved in. The quad around her was covered in thick growth, stones upturned and missing in places. She was alone.

Lara awoke with a jerk. "Sam." She was gone. A panic set into Lara. "Shit shit shit." She ran into the passageway. "Sam!"

"Lara?" Sam's voice echoed along the metal bulkheads. "I'm in here."

Lara sprinted to the door. "Sam, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

She rubbed a towel over her wet hair. "Yeah. Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

Lara leaned back against the doorframe. Her breath rushed out as every muscle in her body relaxed. "Everything's fine. I just…I woke up and you were gone. I thought…I don't know what I thought."

Sam smiled softly. "It's okay, I just came to take a shower. I didn't wake you cuz I thought if any of us need sleep, it's definitely you."

The adrenaline ran its course, leaving Lara drained and hungry. "Damn it, that was a rush."

"Sorry." Sam winced.

"No, it's not your fault. You didn't do anything. Let's make a deal though: you don't go disappearing on me anymore and I won't panic every time I wake up and you're gone."

"Deal." Sam held out her hand to shake on it.

Lara took it and realized for the first time how soft they were. Her stomach fluttered, a blush running across her cheeks. 'You've got to get a hold on that.' "I'm going to go see about the galley. Don't know about you, but I'm famished."

"God, yes. I'll be there in a minute. Maybe with some food in us we can start to talk about what happened this past week. I need someone to talk to, to help make sense of everything."

Lara was not looking forward to that. "Maybe."

Lara managed to forestall any conversation about the island until they were back in London. Sam came to her flat under the premise of a girl's night in. Lara both dreaded and longed for it. She knew that they would cozy up on the couch together to watch a movie. Sam would settle against her, resting her head on Lara's shoulder. Lara would drape her arm around Sam's shoulders like she always did. Except it was different now. She longed for the familiar touch, the comfortable warmth of Sam's body against her own. To drown out the desire, Lara had turned her attention to her notes on Yamatai. Her father had notes from all over the world; every culture had a way to overcome death. He had been chasing the concept of immortality, if only he'd known how close he'd been.

Sam came in without knocking. Lara looked up from her desk covered in papers and maps. Sam wore a tight-fitting V-neck tee and leather jacket. It was her usual outfit, but Lara noticed with fresh eyes how attractive she looked in it. Sam tossed her jacket over a chair and dropped onto the sofa, propping her boots on the edge of the coffee table.

'Shit.' Lara grabbed a beer to numb the burning in her chest.

Sam wasted no time. "I read your journal entries and I know you saw my tape." She always did jump straight into the deep end.

"Sam—" Lara attempted to interrupt her, trying to buy time to change gears in her mind.

"I was right the whole time, it really was your big discovery. You were right, Lara. You found Yamatai. You'll be famous. I can see the headlines now, 'Archaeologist Croft Discovers Fabled Lost City.'" Sam beamed.

"Maybe I can begin to wipe the stain from my father's reputation." Lara said sullenly.

"It's a start, at least. We have to figure out how to convince them that Himiko wasn't just myth, that the Sun Queen was real, that there really was a magic to Yamatai." Sam was enthusiastic. Her friend would be a real life Indiana Jones and she'd be there the whole way to chronicle her discoveries.

"What?" Lara frowned. "Sam, no. No one is ever going to believe any of that. I went through it and I barely believe it. That kind of talk is why they ran my father through the dirt."

Sam was confused. "But, Lara, that's what happened. You can't explain what occurred on that island without telling the truth."

"Sam, it doesn't matter. No one will believe it. They'll all say I'm just another Croft gone daft chasing a faerie tale."

"So what's your story going to be, then?" Sam was increasingly agitated, and now she sounded defensive.

Lara took a long swig of beer. "The truth that people will believe—that Mathias was insane. That he wrecked there just like we did and he went mad. He learned the history and the myth of Yamatai and twisted it to set up a cult around himself. That's all true."

"And so is the fact that he tried to bring the Sun Queen back to life in a dumbass attempt to gain favor and end the storms."

"Yes, Sam, he did. But we can't tell them it was real. All we can say is that he thought it would work. That he'd killed so many girls before, convinced himself that he could bring a centuries-dead woman back to life. The proof of his delusion will be in the bodies of all those burnt girls." Lara turned to brace herself against the kitchen counter; she wasn't ready for this fight.

Sam jumped to her feet. "He tried to kill me too, Lara. I know it's fucking crazy, but it happened. And he was right! He did bring her back. I felt it, Lara. I felt her in me. I heard her voice in my head."

Lara faced her again. "It's over, Sam. She's dead. Let it go."

Sam's face turned red. She snatched up her jacket and sped for the door. "Says the woman too afraid of her dead father's shadow to tell the god damned truth." The door slammed closed, echoing off the walls.

"Fuck." Lara slammed her beer on the counter. 'How do you always end up alone?'