A/N: U ALL SUCK!! Ok, except ESA—though I asked for an original review and ESA's was more random. But come on! Nothing original, except the cabbage! It was all pretty much what I heard before, just phrased differently.

Let's try again….MOST ORIGINAL REVIEW GETS A PRIZE! Here's hoping that got you attention, and it is a good prize. I swear. Just you wait and see, but you still have to submit original reviews. And this time random doesn't count.

(Not really mad at you guys, jut had a bad…fortnight. My Nan just died and am rather pissy, is why I haven't updated for a while…not that you want to hear me ranting, that's what my lj's for…)

Chapter 25

Abi arrived at Skippers Wharf fifteen minutes later and she could see her mum from the carpark. She was sitting on one of the cement support columns at the end, legs dangling over the side, staring into the river.

"Mum" Abi yelled.

She raised her head to look at her daughter, "Hey sweetie" Sam said pulling her legs up under her and crossing them.

"I've been looking for you everywhere, Manson someone rang up and said you'd stormed out of the station and he couldn't find you."

"So how'd you know to look here?" Sam asked smiling, Abi was sweet to worry but really she just needed time to her self to think.

"I asked Phil" Abi replied.

"Phil?" Sam's expression changed to nervousness, "What did he say, you didn't tell him anything did you?"

"He tried to explain something but I cut him off – I wanted to find you, I didn't tell him anything other than you hadn't been looking after yourself properly since his accident, you hadn't been eating properly and you hadn't been sleeping and the depression. But come on, you have to tell me what's going on, I can't keep guessing mum. This is too hard, first you are so strong and you don't need me, I feel unwanted, now I need to keep half an eye on you all the time. It's a complete turnaround and I'm not actually sure if it's a good thing, in some ways it's great, but I miss my mum."

"Honey, I know…and I'm sorry. I'll try to be normal I promise, it's just so hard."

"So tell me what happened last night with Phil"

"The night he was hit…that was the night Granny died. Jack came over to tell me the news and…I guess Phil saw me crying into his shoulder through the window and he got the wrong idea. That's why he ran out onto the road without looking, it was all my fault and now he doesn't want to see me ever again. Rightly so I guess."

"Oh God, mum, I'm so sorry. You should talk it out with him, explain it wasn't what he thought, when he calms down."

"No, he says he doesn't want to see me again, I'll respect that."

"You work together in case you've forgotten"

"Yeah, I was thinking about that, what do you say we move? I can put in for a transfer, you'll be closer to uni and you won't have to board, I always fancied moving to the country you know, well the suburbs anyway."

"No you didn't, you hate the nature thing, give you cement streets and hardened criminals any day. Anyway, I won't hear of it, I'm not letting you give up your career because of this and I'm certainly not letting you run away from it."

Sam sighed, she wasn't in the mood for this argument, she wasn't in the mood for anything. All she wanted to do was relax with Phil and a good movie, but she couldn't now, she had screwed it all up. Turning back along the wharf she started walking, Abi sighed and ran to catch up with her.

"Where are you going?" she asked a bit calmer this time.

"For a walk."

"Mum, come on, you have to take Maddie to see him anyway, you can at least talk to him."

"Alright, I'll take Maddie to see him tomorrow morning before work, if he want's to talk to me, then he can talk, but I have to respect that if he doesn't, I wont force him to."

"Mum, I know that tone in your voice" Abi warned, she knew her mother was planning a flying visit, minimise the chance that Phil could make her talk.

"What ever" Sam said abruptly and left. Abi debated going after her but decided that it would be better to wait. She called Manson and said that Sam was alright but she wouldn't be coming back to work today.

"Ok, thanks for letting me know."

"You're not going to punish her are you? She's been going through a rough time recently and she needs space."

"What sort of a rough time? That's what our argument was about, I wanted to know what was going on but she refused to tell me."

"Well her mother died recently, but you probably knew that"

"Yeah, anything else?"

"Umm, she hadn't been sleeping well, she blames herself for Phil's accident because it happened right outside our house and she hasn't been eating properly."

"Come on, I know there's something else"

Abi was impressed, no wonder her mum respected Neil Manson as a copper, he was brilliant. He could smell a lie – or even an omission - a mile away. "Yeah, I'm a bit worried because she's refusing to take the antidepressants the doctor prescribed."

"Ok, thankyou Abi, and I promise I won't punish your mum, everyone has hard times."

"Thanks."

Neil knew about hard times in the worst sense. He had thought that after Andrea's rescue everything would be fine, he'd let the dust settle and then he'd file for divorce. He had already had a trial separation and most of the time he was living at Andrea's but sometimes he stayed at the town house that he and Pippa usually rented out. That was where he was officially staying during the separation. Understandably James was upset but he made the most of it, but then it all went wrong. Pippa got sick and was admitted to hospital after collapsing in the court room, the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. He had the best doctors looking at the case but none of them could figure it out. That was why he had pushed Andrea away, he felt so guilty when he was with her or even thinking about her when his wife was possibly on her death bed, though that was over-dramatising it a bit. He sighed and turned back to his work, that was almost all that was keeping him going right now, that and James.

Sam packed Abi off early the next morning, apparently one of her professors had called and said that one of her lectures had been rescheduled for that morning so she had to get there a bit earlier that usual. She promised that she'd take Maddie to see her dad that morning so that's what she did, it wouldn't hurt her to miss out on a bit of school, she was so bright anyway.

Maddie entered the room to see Phil and Sam closed the door behind her and sat outside to wait. Maddie knew that she wasn't going to stay there long and Sam had been teaching her to tell the time. So Maddie would know when to come out because of the watch Sam had given her last week and Sam wouldn't have to even look at Phil. It sounded like a great plan but Sam better that once put into practice the reality would be much different.

"Hey sweetie, what are you doing here?" Phil asked when he saw Maddie.

"I came to see you silly" Maddie replied, giving her dad a hug.

"Oh, and it's a great surprise, who brought you?"

"Sammie did."

Phil's face froze when he heard Sam's name, ever since Abi had come to visit him and he had found out about her reaction to his accident he had been worried. What if he had said the wrong thing? Maybe there was nothing to what he had seen in the window and they could work things out. Phil had realised that even if she was seeing Jack he still wanted to be her friend. He didn't want to throw all they had away on one misunderstanding, if indeed that's what it was.

He talked to Maddie for a while and found out she could tell the time and she had started reading a book called Five go to Demon's Rocks. Sam had given it to her from the collection she had had as a child. Phil had never actually read The Famous Five but it sounded like Maddie was enjoying it immensely and Sam was helping her with the difficult parts. That's when he realised just how grown up his daughter was. She was almost six and she was reading novels, he could remember the day he had found out about her, the day she had been conceived. It didn't seem like six years ago but it was, time moved too fast for him too keep up – and being in a coma certainly didn't help. Thankfully the doctors said that his body had healed a lot while he was in it, probably faster than it would have if he had been awake, and he might be out of here by the end of the week.

Eventually Maddie said it was time for her to go, he got up and walked her to the door.

Sam greeted her, ignoring him and started walking down the corridor.

"Sam wait, we need to talk," he said softly. She turned around stiffly.

"No we don't, I think you made what you wanted quite clear, I still have a key to your lock up, I've been keeping up the rent on it because I still haven't found room for the piano. I can just put your stuff in there and you can pick it up once you've found your own place." She said curly and turned to leave again.

"What are you going to do with my daughter? Are you just going to leave her in the lock up too?" Phil called out after her.

"I have to go Phil, Maddie has school."

"I can take care of that," a voice said. Sam's sister Lynn was standing there with a look on her face that clearly said you are acting so childishly.

"I am not," Sam said indignantly.

Despite himself Phil chucked, he had always thought she was so adorable when she was indignant and that hadn't changed.

"What are you laughing at" Sam asked angrily, how dare he laugh at her when he had put her through so much.

"Nothing" Phil replied.

"Ok, you two, say goodbye to Maddie cause I'm taking her to school now" Lynn said.

"No, I will" Sam said.

"Sam" Lynn said warningly "He wants to talk"

"Damn you Abi" Sam swore under her breath.

Lynn and Maddie left and Phil held the door open for her politely. Sam glared at him and stalked into the room, he sighed and closed the door.

"How've you been?" he asked after a minute's silence.

Why was he doing this to her, couldn't he see that it hurt just being around him when she knew she could never hold him tight again. How could someone's feelings change so drastically when they were in a coma? She remembered the things the doctor had said to her, he probably won't be the same person who went into the coma. Those words had been haunting her thoughts since he had recovered. "Fine" she answered curtly.

"Not what I hear" he muttered. She opened her mouth to protest but he stopped her, "But I'm not here to talk about that, I… I have to know what it was that I saw that night… is there anything going on between you and Jack?"

"What do you think? What do you honestly think?" Sam asked him.

"No" he answered after a moment of thought, "No, I don't honestly think you would do that."

"Then why the hell did you run out in front of a car? And why the hell did you tell me to get lost? You have no idea the hell I went through in the last month, do you even bloody care?" Sam shouted.

"Of course I do, I would do anything to spare you that pain, I don't know why I did it either. Stupid testosterone I imagine"

"Don't you blame this on hormones you selfish bastard, you know my mother was killed in a road accident the same night you were hit, that's why Jack was there. God, me and Jack, how could you even think that? There was never anything between us and there never ever will be." Tears were running down Sam's face now, remembering her mum always did that to her, and Phil's was just making it worse. She loved him so much and she missed him but now…

"Oh God, Sam I'm sorry, about your mum, I didn't know" Phil said, he knew how close she was to her mum and he hated to think that he had cause her more hurt when she had been mourning over her mum.

"That's because you didn't ask" Sam said furiously, she started hitting him "You didn't bloody ask, you selfish bloody ponce. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you." He grabbed her wrists and held them while she worked her anger out, she was crying and upset but he knew it wouldn't do any good to calm her down, she would just work it out later anyway.

Finally Sam finished ranting and she rested her head against Phil's chest, sobbing quietly.

"I'm sorry, God I'm so sorry" he whispered to her.

"I know" she whispered back. She thought he was just being nice because she was in such a state and that was confirmed when he pushed her away.

"There's just one thing I want to ask" he said, he was still holding her shoulders and that gave her a spark of hope. "You said there would never ever be anything between you and Jack, how do you know?"

"What the hell?" Sam shouted, she couldn't believe he had just asked her that, she shook him off.

He sighed, "No, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you said, down in the tunnels, that you wouldn't kiss me. You'd save my life but you wouldn't kiss me but you broke that. You saved my life twice, you saved my career which counts as saving my life again, and we both know you did a lot more than kiss me."

"Yeah, that's for sure" Sam muttered.

"So, how do you know?"

"Two reasons –one, he's just bought a flat with Debbie, they started dating about a month ago and though everyone had doubts at first, they agree that they are perfect together."

"That was fast."

"Yeah – and two, I'm in love with someone else."

This sent Phil's hopes spiralling, so there was someone else. Shit! That's what comes from spending a month in a coma. He let her shoulders go and turned away, "Well…I hope you two are very—happy together," he said miserably.

Sam's heart leapt at this, so Phil still cared, "I hope so too" she said the side of her mouth twitching up. "Phil can I ask you a stupid question?"

"Sure" he muttered dejectedly.

"When I thought you were going to die…it made me realise how much I love you" Phil straightened up at this, his heart leapt and he turned towards her. Sam continued, "And I was wondering where you were planning to stay after you got out of here, "Coz my place is still open, if you want it."

Phil stared at her flabbergasted, "Of course I want it, God, when you said you were in love with someone else…" he trailed off and pulled Sam into a passionate kiss. The two of them were brought crashing down to earth when the door opened, they waited a few more seconds then they parted. "I take it all's well that ends well?" Steve asked with a cheeky grin.

"You bet" Sam said again and she kissed Phil again.

"Mmm…when I get out of here I'm moving into Sam's, just like we'd planned," Phil said once he got his breath back.

"You're kidding?" Steve said amazed grinning.

"Nup" Sam said happily, she steered Phil over to the bed, she could tell he was tired and she needed to get to work or the DI was going to have her guts for garters.

"Congratulations" Steve said hugging his brother and giving Sam a kiss on the cheek.

"Should I be jealous?" Honey asked jokingly entering the room.

"No, I'm living with someone else" Sam said grinning, finding Phil's hand and squeezing it.

"Oh my God, that's great, congratulations" Honey said hugging both Phil and Sam.

"Mmm, anyway, I've got to go babe, I'll see you after work, yeah" Sam said giving Phil a long kiss goodbye.

"Looking forward to it" Phil murmured and kissed her on the cheek. Sam moved towards the door but his arm was wrapped around her waist. He pulled her back and kissed her gently on the hand then the neck and then again on the lips. "Just so you know" he whispered. He had seen the pin up Confessions of the Heart too and he knew what they meant.

"Right back at'cha" she grinned and left.

C'mon, you know y'all love me, really. And don't panic, more drama returning soon. This story is far from finished.