Seth wasn't sure how it happened, but he was pretty sure it was a bad idea. They had sex. One minute she was crying, and the next minute she was kissing him. And then they were doing it, and nothing had ever hurt Seth quite so much. Her skin was now scarred, and he ran his fingers across each line, tracing the puckered flesh with the most delicate of touches. She bucked gently into him, rising closer and closer, trying to touch him more and more completely. They held onto each other the whole time, Seth filling her in every way that either of them could imagine. He didn't think about all the other men he'd slept with since he'd seen her, but she did.

None of them could even compare to Seth. She didn't understand how sex was sex…because it just wasn't. With Seth, it was like…two people who weren't two people anymore. They were just one super-person, as stupid as that sounded. She couldn't imagine how she'd ever slept with anyone else, because it wasn't real like this was.

And after, they were just laying on Summer's bed, quiet. Her head was on his chest, her body curled into his. He kept his arms wrapped tightly around her, and every time he closed his eyes, he had a vision of her just disappearing again, poof. Just like that, and he'd be grasping at nothingness. "What now?" Seth asked, stroking her forearm.

"I don't know," she said softly. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Don't go back," Seth pleaded. "Don't go back to…doing that."

"I won't stay here," she said firmly. "I won't, I can't. I never wanted to come back here, Seth."

"There's other places. There's places that are safe, there's things that you can do that aren't that. There's a million other places, a million other things. Just don't do that again." Summer wouldn't say it, but she didn't know how she could go back to that. Nobody would be like Seth, nobody will fill that place her life no matter how hard she tried. And being reminded, it killed her that she had missed this for so long, and had tried to replace it with other things.

"I know," she said. And that was all she said. She wouldn't tell him the things she wanted to, she wouldn't tell him how much she loved him.

"I just can't believe-"

"I know!" She cried. She looked at him hard. "Seth I know. Okay? I know it was stupid."

She kissed his forehead. "I just want you to be safe," he said. "Safe and happy." And he kissed her again. Maybe he was fooling himself, but he felt like his Summer was back.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Several minutes passed and Seth finally voiced the question he'd been dying to ask her. "What do you think…" he began tentatively. "About Boston?"

"I don't know, Seth."

"I can't lose you again," Seth said. They sat up, Seth staring intently at her. "Don't break my hear again, Summer Roberts. Don't disappear again. Come to Boston." He took her hands. "I love you, Summer. I love you. I promise I will take care of you. I will keep you safe always. Come to Boston. Stay with me."

"What, in your dorm room? That's never going to work."

"I have an apartment. One roommate. But he won't care. You'll love Eric, he's nothing like Ryan. There's plenty of room. It makes sense, okay? There's plenty of room. Seth was looking at her hard, this girl who was Not Summer, who was hardened and cold and sad and broken…she was a girl he could save. Seth wasn't Ryan, he wasn't burdened with a hero complex. He didn't need to save every confused girl who came along. Just the one. Just Summer. He didn't have to save every girl, but he did have to save Summer. "Come Summer. Come with me."

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "You are something, you know that?" He kissed her almost-smiling lips.

"I try."

"I don't need you to take care of me, okay?" She said. "I can do that myself. I need you to…" she trailed off.

"Love you," he finished. "That's all I'll do."

"That will be enough," Summer said.

Seth brought Summer by his house, and his parents were delighted to see her. Kirsten was stiff at first, still mad at the girl who had broken her son's heart. But she warmed up, seeing in Summer's eyes what she had been through, and seeing in Seth's eyes how deliriously happy he was to be with her again. Sandy wasn't happy that they would be living together, and Kirsten thought they were too young. But they'd always loved Summer, and despite themselves, they would never begrudge Seth anything that would make him happy.

They saw Ryan and Marissa. Marissa shrieked and cried and smothered Summer with hugs and kisses and questions, and Ryan looked at her in a new way. He knew where she'd been, he understood. Summer was quieter now. She wasn't her old self. She was more reserved and less talkative. Seth used to think of her as the soul of the group. Marissa was the drama, he was the wit, Ryan was the voice of reason, and Summer was the heart and soul. She had the passion. She loved each one of them deeply, in a different way.

So the Fantastic Four had their reunion. Summer seemed purely overwhelmed. She couldn't handle Marissa's exuberance, couldn't handle the looks Ryan kept giving her. She was different now, and they weren't. Summer clung to Seth, discreetly, but constantly. "I love you," he whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead, as Marissa regaled the trio with her latest theatrics. Summer smiled weakly, desperately, like she wanted nothing more than to be gone all over again.