A/N: Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all your kind reviews! They mean so much to me! I just want to warn you guys that this chapter does contain some mature content. If some of you are uncomfortable with this, please let me know and I will try to tone it down. Normally, whenever I plan on having mature content in a chapter, I will give people a heads up since this is rated "T". That way, nobody is caught off guard. If you are actually okay with some mature content here and there and it doesn't make you uncomfortable, please let me know and I will continue on as I have been! Your feedback is extremely helpful and I appreciate it greatly! Thanks a bunch! Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-One

(Eric's POV)

"What do you mean, 'I've been gone a week'?" Amy's tone of voice suggests she doesn't quite believe me, but her complexion has already become paler. "I've only been gone for a few hours."

If only she'd been gone for that long. I've barely managed to survive this week without her. It's been absolute hell. I was terrified and crazed out of my mind. I spent almost every moment of her absence searching for her. The first few nights I didn't even sleep. Only after my body had collapsed of exhaustion was I able to manage a few hours of rest. I'd hardly eaten anything and I hadn't even taken any time to shower. I probably stink horribly but at the moment, I'm just so happy to see Amy is alive that I don't care.

I also don't care that tears are still streaming down my face. I had begun to believe she was gone for good…that she was dead.

"No." I tell her softly. I'm still holding her against me since I refuse to let her go right now even for a second, but I had pulled back enough to look at her. "You were gone for an entire week."

I watch as Amy tries to process this information but I can tell when it truly sinks in when a look of horror forms on her face. Her breathing has quickened and I can feel her heart rate increase beneath my own chest.

She tries several times to form words but remains unsuccessful. I can only imagine what questions are running through her mind. So many questions are running through mine as well but right now, I'm mostly focused on the fact that she's alive and in my arms again. I didn't think I'd be able to hold her – let alone touch her or see her ever again.

However, at the moment, she's bordering on the edge of panic.

"Deep breaths." I tell her, gently. "We'll figure this out. We'll figure everything out but for now, just breath."

I don't even think she heard me. Her eyes are wide and darting around frantically. I don't even think she's seeing me at the moment. We're both still lying on the ground so I carefully pull us up so that we're both sitting.

I gently take her face in my hands and eventually her eyes meet mine. "We'll figure this out." I assure her, softly.

"Eric…how…what…" Amy starts, but continues to have difficulty. "How…How is…it possible…I don't…remember…anything."

I can't imagine what's going through her head…to wake up with a week of memory gone. The thought gives me chills and I hug her even tighter to me.

"What happened to me?" It's the first time she's been able to get a complete sentence out but neither of us have any idea what happened.

"I don't know, but we'll figure it out." I tell her. I look down at both of our appearance and realize that we both need to get cleaned up. "Let's get you cleaned up." I say, pulling her to her feet. I continue to hold onto her, not only because I still don't want to let her go but because she seems shocked and rightfully so.

I pull her over to the river and she doesn't even put up any sort of resistance when we step into the steady stream of water. I don't go in very far – only up to our calves – and begin rinsing her off while we remain standing. I don't clean all the mud off her, but enough that I can be fairly certain we won't clog up the shower. I continue to hold her hand as I rinse my own body off.

I pull Amy out with me a few moments later. She has a far off look in her eyes. Her mind is somewhere else still. The building isn't too far away from where I found her so we only have to walk a few minutes until we see the building. I bring her inside and immediately into the bathroom.

"What happened while I was gone?" I hear Amy ask softly. She's looking at me now and seems to have resigned herself to the fact she's been gone.

At first, I'm not sure if I should tell her because it might only make it worse for her, but decide it is best to tell her the truth.

"On the day you disappeared…when I woke up, the bed where you had slept was…freezing…and you weren't there. When I realized you were actually gone I freaked out. I really lost my head there for a while. I searched for you everyday. I was so worried. I really though I'd never see you again."

"I'm so sorry." Amy whispers before wrapping her arms around my middle. I return the hug immediately.

"It's not your fault and…you're here now." I tell her. "Your back with me."

I pull away a little ways and remove my grimy shirt. Then I begin to help her out of her own dirty shirt.

"Wait. Eric I-

I spin her around so fast she nearly falls. My face burns and my heart is now speeding in my chest.

"A-Amy…what happened to your bra?" I ask, my voice coming out a bit higher than usual.

"I used it to try to distract a large aquatic reptile…crocodile thing."

I stare at her back stunned from both her confession and the fact that I saw her chest…again. "R-Really? You're going to have to tell me that story sometime."

I see her head bob up and down in a nod. We stand there awkwardly for a few moments. The right thing to do would be for me to leave, but I'm honestly terrified to let her out of my sight. I force myself to take a step back and move towards the door. I'll be right outside the door and I'll be awake. The only entrance is the one I'll be standing by so it's not like she'll be able to disappear without me seeing something…at least that's what I'm hoping.

"Eric." Amy says in a small voice.

"Yeah." I turn around to face her again and then immediately look away. She's facing me again but she's covering herself with her arms.

"I'm…scared." She says, softly. Her voice is shaky. "I don't…I don't want to disappear again." A sob breaks loose. My face immediately goes to hers and I see she's crying. Sobbing actually. "I'm so scared."

That's all it takes for me to step back towards her and pull her to my chest. I try extremely hard to not think about the fact that she's shirtless and focus on trying to comfort her and make her feel safe again. But when she removes her arms from her chest to wrap them around me, I stop breathing.

Amy's chest…her bare chest…is pressed against mine.

And it feels even softer than the rest of her body.

My heart pounds against my chest and I'm sure she can feel it; I can definitely feel hers. I'm aware of every part of her that is touching me - how her chest rises and falls against my own.

That's when I realize I'm still holding my breath.

Immediately, I take in a huge gulp of air. And now I can't stop breathing heavily.

"Are you…okay?" Amy asks a little uncertainly.

"Y-Yeah-No…Maybe? I'm not sure." I can't really seem to think straight at the moment.

A small laugh escapes Amy. "Your very tense."

"You're not making this easy on me." I say.

She begins to trail her hands up and down my back causing me to shiver.

"A-Amy." I groan. "You're killing me here."

As much as I'm enjoying this, I need to put a stop to it. Right now, I know she's doing it to get other things off her mind and I don't want it to be like that. Her mind isn't in the right place for this and quite frankly, neither is mine. I gently pull away and place a kiss on her forehead.

"I'm going to let you shower now. I'm just going to be right outside the door." I tell her, making sure to keep my eyes on her face, which is as flushed as mine probably is.

When she nods and gives me a small smile in return, I turn and leave the bathroom. I close the door behind me and than slide down against the wall beside it.

I don't think I'm ever going to get to be able to get this out of my head and it's going to be a long time before I lose the erection I'm currently sporting. I bury my head into my hands and try to think of something – anything – to get my mind off of what just went down.

Ten minutes later, Amy comes out all clean and wearing a towel – which doesn't help my situation at all. I quickly stand, grab some clean clothes, and then head into the bathroom for my own shower before my mind gets even more sidetracked.

It feels great to shower after not showering for a week. I make sure to scrub my body well and remove all of the remaining mud from my body.

When I finish, I change into my clean clothes and join a now fully dressed Amy who's sitting on the couch with her legs tucked up against her. I glance down at her feet and notice the scratches again. I go to our first air supplies and grab some bandages, a cloth, and some rubbing alcohol. When I return, I kneel down before her and take one of her feet into my hands. I begin to tend to it while trying to be as gentle as I can be. She jerks a little from the pain when I pour the alcohol onto her foot, but otherwise remains still.

"Sorry." I mumble softly as I continue to work. After a few moments of silence, I carefully ask, "So…do you want to talk about it?"

"You mean after I woke up?" she asks.

"Yeah." I reply.

She waits a moment before nodding and I stay quiet as I wait for her to speak.

"It's actually a crazy story." She begins. "I woke up on a raft a little ways off shore."

My eyes widen and I jerk my head up to her face. Amy's terrified of water; I can't imagine what it must've been like when she woke up and saw where she was.

"It was chained to the ocean floor so I couldn't paddle my way back." She continues. "And…there was this…creature in the water. It looked like a crocodile and a fish put together but very very large. So I waited for what felt like hours. I wasn't sure what to do. I was so…scared."

When she went silent for a few moments, I ask, "Then what happened."

I realized there was a chance that you might be in the same predicament somewhere and that you may needed help so…I decided to swim for it."

"You what?" I ask, feeling shock and a little anger at the same time that she'd actually attempted it.

"Yeah, believe me. I was quite surprised myself." She told me. "But finding you was more important. So that's when the bra comes in."

I feel myself flush again and a small smile forms on Amy's face. I quickly move my focus back to her foot and begin to wrap it in bandages.

"I only had my pajamas so I didn't really have any other means to distract the creature besides, of course, my bra. So I sling shot it in one direction and then swam for it."

"So you actually swam?!" I asked feeling a bit awed by her actions.

"Yeah." She tells me. "And I made it back to shore."

"So the bra thing actually worked?" I asked, amazed.

"Actually…that's where the strange part comes in." she says. "It didn't go for the bra…and it didn't go for me either. It didn't even acknowledge I was there at all. I guess it's only interested in seafood."

I'm pretty shocked by this. The creature Amy described sounds just like a mosasaurus and under normal circumstances, it definitely would've gone for her if it knew she was there. The fact that it didn't makes no sense at all. I don't tell Amy this, though.

"After that, I did the infamous mud trick you taught me and began to head back towards where I believed the buildings to be. I actually saw some pretty neat looking dinosaurs on the way. Then eventually we found each other and that's it." She finishes.

"Wow." I say, finishing with her other foot. "That's pretty insane."

"Yeah." She responds with a smile, but it quickly fades away. "I had no idea I had been gone for an entire week. It…doesn't make any sense."

"No it doesn't." I agree. "But I'm not going to let it happen again."

Amy looks at me in silence for several moments before responding softly, "You can't be sure of that."

"I don't care. It's not happening again." I say firmly.

Amy doesn't look convinced and deep down, neither am I, but I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure she doesn't disappear again.

Exhaustion hits me suddenly I realize just how much sleep I've gotten in the last several days.

"Hey." I say softly. "Do you mind if go to sleep a little early tonight?"

Amy shakes her head and I take her hand and lead her over to the bed. We crawl in and I immediately pull her to me. I'm not going to lie – I'm honestly scared of sleeping again. I don't want her to suddenly disappear like last time, but I know there's no way can keep going without sleep. Amy looks a bit uneasy herself so I pull her even closer to me and lock my arms around her.

"You're not going anywhere." I whisper to her. I place a soft kiss on her mouth and lean my forehead against hers.

"I hope your right." She responds.