SP fans, read to the end before you all shoot me.

"Sam wait" he stood there, hands stuffed in pockets, staring resiliently at the ground

"Yeah?"

"Don't do this. Sure, he loves you, but, me and you… think how great we could be"

"We tried this before, Phil. We could never work"

"Says who? Look, you know I love you"

"Phil…"

"And I know you love me too" he forged on, "Please Sam, one more chance. That's all I need" They stood silently for over thirty seconds, and Phil hung his head, convinced she was going to reject him yet again.

"Okay"

One word. That was all it had taken. One word, and they were still together, seven years later. They weren't married. Phil had already been there, and had nearly done it again with Kate. Neither felt the slightest inclination to walk up that aisle together. They didn't need the expense, or the hassle. They'd been together seven years. That was enough to prove their love and commitment to anyone who asked why they weren't wed.

They didn't want any children either. Sam had Abi, and Phil had Madison and Alfie. Sam was too old for children now anyway, but in their earlier years, they'd both decided they didn't want anymore. Not because they were afraid of it not lasting, but because it wasn't necessary. They didn't have a convention relationship. They lived together, but because of their shifts at work, they hardly saw one another. It was okay though, because they loved each other, and Sam knew, despite his dubious past, Phil wouldn't stray because this Phil was a different one to the one she'd known so long ago. The one she'd fallen in love with.

It hadn't matter that Phil left the toilet seat up. It didn't matter that Sam's family didn't like him, because she was old enough to make her own decisions, and they'd grown used to his presence, eventually. It hadn't even mattered that he usually spent the one day off they shared slouching in front of the television, because they loved each other. Neither would go as far to say that they always had, because they had honestly hated one another to begin with. But they'd grown on one another. That's what the pressures of the job did to you. It pushed you towards people that you would normally despise, forged friendships, and it bonded you emotionally with every single one of those annoying people you called colleagues when you arrived at the station, and friends when you eventually left it.

Sam realised that she loved Phil Hunter from the moment Zain had crashed that car trying to save that young boy, but she'd had feelings for him long before then. The difference was, feelings were easier ignored than proper, full fledged love that gripped her heart every time she saw him chatting up a bargirl, or flashed her one of the trademark Phil Hunter smiles, that he had seemed to reserve just for her. So she hadn't always loved him, but at the start, at the very beginning of the feelings of love, when she was trying so hard to quash those annoying little voices telling her to forget everyone that said Phil wasn't good enough, to ignore the common sense, and just go for it, it seemed like she always would.

In Romania, just as the feelings were starting to fade, she had to get scared, and he had to show he was just as heroic as she'd always suspected. The night they first kissed, and made love, the feelings came back, full force, and she didn't know what to do, especially when Phil started claiming love, and she had to get out. Away from the relationship that common sense told her had no future, and back to sensible relationships. Back to Stuart Turner, who, although was younger than Phil, was so much more mature. So much more like what she needed. So un-Phil like, it was incredible. And that was the reason that she could never love him.

So after just one word, they were together, seemingly forever. They were moved in within two months, and Phil was telling Sam he loved her daily, just because he was able to now they were permanently together. But now he just seemed to do it out of habit, not out of any real need.

Phil had promised he'd never cheat and true to his word, he hadn't. Some might have said it was his old age settling him down, making him more mature, but Sam knew it was her good influence on him that made him a good boyfriend. The good influence that made him boring.

She was in love with someone else now. Someone she'd known just as long as Phil, and had always been there too, just in the background. They'd observed the other's relationships, occasionally passing comment, but never really caring. They didn't think of each other like that. Sam had Phil, and Stuart to worry about, he had his ex wife to argue with, his son to play with, and his memories of his journalist lover to mourn. They didn't have much time to do anything but argue.

So they argued, over important cases, like Amy Tennent, and useless things like desk space. And with every argument, Neil Manson started to remind her more and more of the old Phil Hunter. The sort of man she could love. Not the conforming, ever changing, ever maturing type she was with now. She was doomed to be alone for ever, she knew that. She'd always liked the rebels. It's what attracted her to Phil in the first place, but then she always wanted them to change what made them them for her, and when she did, she dumped them the first chance she got, because suddenly, inexplicably, they'd become 'boring'

Phil still loved her. She knew that. The same way that she would always love him. But she wasn't in love with him anymore, and that was what made all the difference. She knew the Neil thing would hurt Phil more than any other woman every had, but if it helped Phil to regain who he used to be, that was good, because although she was in love with Neil, it wasn't the firey passionate, seemingly neverending love she and Phil had once shared. As soon as Phil started to fight for her, which he of course would, she would dump Neil in an instant, no matter how much she hurt herself and Neil in the proccess, because if she was brutally honest, she had feelings for Neil because he was the Phil Hunter replacement, and once the original was back, why would she need the fake any longer?

True love, real love like her's and Phil's… it only came around once every so often. Once a lifetime to be precise. Her and Phil were falling apart, and if it took hurting Neil, Phil and herself to being back the old, jealous, exciting Phil, then she would do it in an instant.

okay, so sam's a bit of a bitch, but it is SP at the start and the end. And for those SamNeil fans, there's always the middle for you...

reviews, hate mail, theyre all the same to me, so go for it, express yourself :D