A/N - So this is meant to be a three shot, all set to music. Please listen to the accompanying music as I believe that it heightens the effect. All of these songs can be found on you-tube.
This chapter is set to 'Across the Burren' by Michele McLaughlin.

"Danny!"

Sam cries out from where she lies crumpled on the ground. Tuck grabs her tightly as the air itself seems to implode on them. The last thing Sam sees as the world disappears is her Daniel flying straight into the jaws of the beast. Then all is blank.

Slowly she becomes aware of something warm at her side. It feels nice though she wishes whatever it is would warm more than just the one side of her.

Sometime later she realizes that she's lying flat on her back. Irregular knots dig into her skin, making her uncomfortable.

Gradually she decides she should really open her eyes. Upon dragging her lids up she is greeted by blood red rays of light peeking over the horizon.

All at once memories of the last battle flood her mind and with them all the aches and injuries she had sustained. She struggles to sit upright.

"No!" her cry is strangled – inspired dually by her physical and emotional pains.

"Sam?"

Looking to her left she recognizes the warm presence that had first greeted her return to consciousness. Tuck sits up beside her.

Sam turns away from her friend, desperately trying to hold back her tears. "No. No. No."

"Sam…" Tuck awkwardly wraps his arms around her in an attempt to console both the goth warrior and his own self. Giving into her inward battle Sam leans into the techno and sobs softly. "He's not gone, Tuck. He can't be. He can't be. No…no…no…"

Tuck swallows back his own tears. He wishes he could join Sam in her denial but from the moment he best friend had revealed his final plan Tuck had known the ghostboy wasn't getting out of this alive.

A week ago the three had been nearing the end of a pre-college vacation in Europe when Sam had been kidnapped by Celtic fairies. The mystic creatures had planned to sacrifice her to Crom Cruac, a demon who had terrorized the living in Ireland until St. Patrick had cast him out. As a ghost, the would-be-god turned his 'friendly' attentions on the other spirits of the land 'east o' the sun, west o' the moon'; the Fair Folk.

In the end even with the help of the few Fey who had joined them in their fight, it had been clear none could best the evil wyrm. Rather than allow Sam to be sacrificed Danny had given up his own life saving his friends and the Celtic spirits from destruction.

Now, as Tuck lifts his head to survey their surroundings he wonders what will happen to them now. The moment Danny had made his decision Crom Cruac had expelled the other heros from the fairyland. No doubt their allies had already returned along with the rest of the fairy host but the two human friends are stranded in the middle of nowhere – 'The Burren in west Ireland to specific' – his mind immediately supplies. Not that it really matters.

"Sam?"

The girl had managed to dam her tears for the moment thought they are by no means exausted. She looks up at him with red eyes.

"Are you ready to go now?" With a gesture that encompasses the massive stone portal at their backs and the acres of barren fields and drystone fences before them Tuck silently draws attention to their current position. "We can't stay here forever."

To emphasize his point a soft mist begins to gather around them as a few raindrops fall sporadically from above.

Silently Sam rises to her feet in steady increments, stretching carefully to work function back into her limbs. Beside her Tuck does the same and slowly they make their way down from the lonely hills of Clare.

From the town of Ballyvaghan they abort the rest of their trip and head to the nearest international airport in Limerick. On the flight back Sam is silent and Tuck alternates between well intentioned attempts to comfort her and fiddling with his PDA – more in an attempt to busy himself than with any goal of accomplishing something.

When they touch down their respective parents are there to greet them, the awful news having already been broken to them by Tucker. Unwilling to be parted Sam and Tuck allow themselves to be guided into one of the waiting vehicles.

As Sam looks out on the ordinary landscape flashing by she twists her ring round and round her finger. Danny had tinkered with it so that it glowed green or blue whenever he was around. The stone, a dark lifeless jade, only further cements the inescapable truth. Danny is gone. Her Daniel is gone. Forever.

Suddenly Sam realizes that this is only the first day of the rest of forever. And forever can be a very long time.