Sam

-4˚c

She was as silent as I was, and perfectly still. Her lower lip shook. When she blinked, three shining tears left crystal tracks on her cheeks.

She could've looked at the tiny miracles in front of her: my feet, my hands, my fingers, the shape of my shoulders beneath my jacket, my human body, but she only stared at my eyes.

The wind whipped again, through the trees, but it had no force, no power over me. The cold bit at my fingers, but they stayed fingers.

"Grace," I said, very softly. "Say something."

"Sam," she said, and I crushed her to me.

I smelt her hair, her wonderful Grace-smelling hair, and knew I was home, at last. Her glove-less hands found my face in the darkness --something I had missed so much-- and pulled it down to her level.

"I thought you were dead." She whispered, her sweet breath softening the emotional tension in my face. I heard a paper bag fall to the ground, it smelt like birdseed.

"So did I," I added weakly "I only just got back from Beck's house, I've been recovering."

"Why didn't you call?" Grace replied, her voice cracking a little as she stared into my eyes, trying to pry the answer away from them.

"All the phones were either out of reach or cut off; I couldn't move for the first week. I thought I was going to die right there, without saying a goodbye. I nearly called you twice, but chickened out at the last minute."

"Did you think I wouldn't want to hear your voice?" Oh no. Now I'd upset her.

"No, no!" I hastened to add "I just thought, seeing as you'd been through so much, you wouldn't want me being forced on you to take care of. I didn't want to hurt you anymore, Grace. If I'd died with you, that would've felt like twice the loss. Believe me, it was all I could do not to jump outside and sprint through town. But I didn't know if I could go outside, if the transition was complete."

Grace was silent then, her hands still around my face. I realised my own hands were knotted in her hair, though I wasn't sure how. I pulled her closer, anxious to breathe in her soapy, skin smell. Our foreheads rested together for a long moment, and then Grace whispered:

"I understand now, my Sam." Her own fingers gently pulled my face further towards hers.

"Yes." Was that all I could say? My mouth seemed incapable of forming anything else at this moment. Our lips were only a few inches apart now, and Grace walked us slowly backwards, so we were sitting on a new swing, large enough for two. Her eyes never left mine, but I realised it was the same spot I had first seen her over six years ago. The old swing must come down in the recent freak snowstorm.

"But the cure worked, you're not about to change on me?" her out of the blue question staggered me.

"No, Grace. I'm like this, human forever. With you, forever."

"Forever?" Grace's lips were an inch away; I longed to meet them. Her smell radiated off her in waves

"Forever." I closed the gap, and my lips were pulling against hers with more force than intended, crushing her against me with my arms. But she didn't seem to mind. She didn't seem to mind a bit.

Grace

-5˚c

This was mad. This was insane. This was Sam. My mind screamed at me that it was impossible he was alive, when Jack had died weeks before. But this kiss was nonsensically real, his now hot lips moving with mine in a more forceful way than ever before. His arms clung to me, as though never letting go, and I clung back, my hands feeling like claws in the sub-zero temperatures, but I couldn't let go. Not yet. He could disappear any moment, his musky, wolfish smell maybe leaving a scent on my clothes to re-break my heart with later. But now, all I could feel were his soft muscles beneath his jacket, his sweet smell dancing in my nose, and a soft pain in my heart that told me he was there. And I loved him, with every atom of my existence.

I don't know how long our kiss lasted, sending shivers down my spine more than the cold did. It was Sam that broke us apart.

"Grace," he started as though reading my mind "I really am here. I'm not disappearing. I promise." Just hearing him say my name assured me he was truthful.

"Yes." Why couldn't I say anything more?

Then I pulled my head from his chest to see his beautiful, golden eyes on my face, and another shiver went through me.