When he turned the second wine bottle upside down in the cooler, Sam swirled the plastic cup with the last of the red nectar and giggled gleefully, the toasty warmth everywhere around and within her now.

"See - you want to be him now don'tchya? That was my Jason…those who disliked him didn't know him and those who feared him wanted to be him. But he was mine. He was all mine."

Jason smiled in appreciation of the alcohol-induced unguardedness. She was normally so careful with him, even as they grew closer in recent months she still held him at a safe distance, as if weighing his worthiness. He couldn't blame her either…he'd burned her without meaning to and as regretful as he was for doing it, he knew her skepticism had been earned. But after going through almost all of the last two bottles of wine by herself and sparing no detail of their feats together, he believed he understood her so much more. The respect he'd earlier learned for what he thought was her fortitude, multiplied in the face of what he heard tonight to be her sheer will and unbreakable spirit. She was even more phenomenal than he'd known, impressively strong in deed and in character.

"That really happened? You kicked him?"

"Like a Spartan!" She was nodding nonstop, then laughing when she realized it, "Yep! I thought he hurt Krissy and I was going to make him pay! He wasn't taking my challenge seriously though and boy that pissed me off!"

"So you thought you'd take on a guy twice your size and with no-one there to back you up?"

"Oh, someone showed up awright. My knight, my rider…my Knightrider…get it?" When she winked and grinned Jason chuckled amusedly. She was such a cute drunk!

"I get it, I get it. What happened next?"

"Nothing - you appeared and spoiled all my damn fun! It was just about to get good when there you were - busting in from nowhere, warning Ethan that if he laid a hand on me he was a dead man." The wide grin that spread on her face grew as she curled the cup into her bosom and ogled him unashamedly. "You're so fucking hot when you go caveman over me! Poor Ethan - he thought he was dead for sure."

"Did I hurt him?"

"He didn't do anything to me, so no." She was shaking her head and staring at the fire now. "I still owe him an apology, come to think of it. I was wrong about what I thought he did…it's a good thing you wouldn't harm Luke's boy or you may have done something unchangeable because of a misguided lie."

"What lie did you tell?"

"It wasn't mine, I went there for sisterly retribution, but she later recanted it all to you, because in all that chaos and confusion, she knew she could trust you to listen. It's who you are, Jason…you have a way of coming through for people even when they give you no reason to…without them even looking. No judgment, no blame…you just show up for people."

"You included, I hope."

"Are you kidding? I'm the luckiest one. You have a way of showing up whenever I need you - whether I'm stuck in a basement with a mad tattooed man or in a tunnel buried beneath debris. You show up for me…all the time!"

"Did you say buried?"

She nodded drunkenly. "I did, I said buried." She told him of the trainwreck and the way he found her amid a pile of rubble that would've taken rescue crews days to sift through. "You weren't even supposed to be anywhere near there - I left you home to go find Robin myself and drag her back to Port Charles to treat your seizures when you refused to accept her help because of something that had happened between you two years and years before…but there you were anyway. Just out of nowhere, digging through dirt and rocks with your bare hands to get to me. I was unconscious, nothing but blackness everywhere, and then I could feel you holding, rocking me - I could hear your voice, pleading with me to wake up. When you choked up, I had to push through the haze gripping me, to get to you…let you know I wasn't going anywhere without you. You came for me. You always come for me."

"Glad to hear I didn't always treat you like the enemy and flaunt my unfaithfulness in your face like I did all of last year."

"Losing your memory wasn't something you could control, so I don't hold you accountable for that. I think the choices you made after it happened just goes to show that you probably want a different kind of life. I still think you owe it to yourself to search the truth behind it and own it."

"What do you mean, different kind of life? One without you and Danny in it?" He stared astonishingly at her, agape she would even suggest something that incredulous after the progress they'd made, the incredible place they'd found themselves again.

"Not necessarily without us, but different from what you knew before. I mean, you landed where you did for a reason, Jason. I hate it, but I don't think it was a coincidence - not with that one, of all people. You could've formed a bond with anyone else - there were any number of nurses and other women in town - but you ended up there. I don't think you've really given it enough thought. Ever since we found out who you were, you've been bombarded by this huge life that you lived before and enormous decisions you had to make with other people's wellbeing in mind. Well, you've done that now. You know your sons - your'e present and active in their lives. You know about us and what we had, what we meant to each other, and you've seen what we could be again. You've had the chance to revisit your relationships with Michael and Carly and Sonny, with Monica. So now you have the perfect opportunity to make the choice for yourself that is most true to who you are. Don't be pressured by what you think I want, or what you think anybody else wants. What do you want? Which existence is the one that's most truthful to who you are?"

Reaching his hand out, Jason waited for her to rise from her perch on the stump and take it, then pulled her to his lap to rest her between his knees.

"I did nothing but think about it for months, Sam. I know that I don't want anything to do with Sonny and his business, that's for sure. I grew close to Carly and Michael just like that," he made a snapping move with two fingers then rested on her again, "and I felt an instant attraction to you and my son from the first moment I saw you." Her skeptic look showed she wasn't quite sold and he knew he needed to bare it all. "I fell in love with her, I did…she was an angel of mercy and I was alone in the dark with no idea who I was, or where I came from. I laughed with her and I was able to talk to her, and she was kind to me. I thought it was all I could've ever asked for, but Sam…" He shifted his knees to move her round to fully face him, pulling her in when her legs fell on either side to straddle him loosely, "…It was nothing like this! I get breathless just thinking about you. I open my eyes and my first thought is, where you are, what you and Danny are doing. I hear your voice and it sends tingles through me, you touch me and it's raw electricity bursting me wide open! I'm hearing you tell me about our lives and I know, know without a doubt, it's always been you."

"How can you be so sure?" She was losing breath with each proclamation, hearing him say things she hadn't realized she yearned, but she couldn't dare trust it all without being sure.

"I'm sure! I'm sure as I'm sitting beneath the stars right now with the love of my life alone in the woods in upstate New York." A deep throttling laugh broke from him to shake his head at her. "You're crazy for staying, you know that, right? And that's what makes you so fucking perfect for me, isn't it? You'll stick with me whether I take you to the Taj Mahal or slum it in the backwoods in winter. Whether I live a life of danger, making you a target, or I want to be a simple schmuck living in obscurity with the woman I love. You're happy either way, aren't you?" Marveling eyes travelled her with new appreciation and delighted insight.

"Of course I'm happy with you, whoever you're happy being! That's how it is when you love somebody, Jason." She tugged absently at his jacket sleeve, "I just don't think you've really thought through everything, that's all. I know you've gotten angry at her recently, which is what's probably blinding you to how important you've always found her to be to you. She'd probably be the one you married if I hadn't shown up in Port Charles. She seemed to make you happy, so I just think you should truly explore it before you commit to anything else, that's all."

"Sam, that statement alone proves to me I already made the best choice, even if I didn't love you as completely as I already do! Do you hear what you said? You're telling me to put what I want first, to make a choice that places my happiness above what you want, or what my son needs." He brushed his nose along her cool cheek then found her eyes again, the naked mirrors to her beautiful, selfless soul. "When I expressed to her that I was confused about these feelings arising for you and the memories that were surfacing, do you know what her response always was? Choose her! Choose that life. You're willing to let me go if it's what I want, even after I expressly told you what I need, and you think I'd want to go back to the woman who's only interested in owning me and bragging rights to my name? You obviously haven't been listening so I'm going to try this again…"

Rising to his feet, Jason planted her firmly before him, gripping her hands extremely tight as he bent his neck to meet her head-on. "Sam Morgan, I don't want any life that doesn't have you next to me. You are my equal, my partner, my love, and anyday now, I fully suspect I'll remember that you are my life! I'm dying to experience new things with you! I want to revisit old romps and recovered memories, I want to raise my son with you and learn new things about each other. I'm never looking back - why would I, when what's in front of me is so completely perfect? Of course I could've been a happy Jake Doe, making do with what I had when I had no idea what I had left behind? Not now. Not anymore. I want you! I need you! I'm ridiculously crazy-in-love with you! Is that okay with you?"

She didn't know if it was the delicious cabernet or his words, but something had her insides turning flips. She started nodding to his question then squinted her eyes at his face. "Am I drunk, or is there white stuff on your nose?"

He chuckled and took her by the hand to turn towards the tent. "You are drunk, and it's starting to snow. Let's get some sleep, then we can get to part two of our date."

"Oh shit - this date is in parts?" She laughed in delight as he stopped them in the middle of the tent and removed her hat, his hand softly tucking her hair behind an ear.

"Yep, and if we get as much snow as they predicted, we'll be set in a couple hours. Take your jacket off, I'll get the sleeping bag ready." She was so unbelievable. He not only knew it, he felt it…the magic of her, here in the night with the backdrop of the moonlit starry sky, brought words he'd heard to mind, and watching her with her eyes trusting him, seeing him, loving him, he softly rambled out the lines that defined and described her well…

"I walk into a room

just as cool as you please

and to a man

the fellows stand or

fall down on their knees

then they swarm around me

a hive of honey bees

I say, it's the fire in my eyes"

His fingers brushed the line of an eyebrow and trailed down across her lash to fall softly to her cheek,

"and the flash of my teeth"

arched the corner of her mouth to move across her lower lip and travel down her chin and over her throat,

"the swing in my waist

and the joy in my feet"

brushing the peak of a hardened nipple with just the tip of his forefinger, to continue down its rounded mound and over her belly to clasp the hand hanging at her side,

"I'm a woman

phenomenally

Phenomenal Woman

that's me"

Sam trembled where she stood fully clothed before him but naked to his touch, his tone, his lock on her eyes, her soul. His lips had neared and now hovered just a breath from hers but he made no move to kiss her, and after a lifetime of struggling for composure she was able to once again form words.

"Did you just recite Maya Angelou to me?"

The fire that had been dancing in her beautiful brown eyes all night was vivid now with stormy specks of amber slitting through chestnut to own his soul.

"Mmhm. She was talking about you. Do you even know how phenomenal you are?"

She poked his chest with a mittened finger, her gaze falling from his eyes to linger on his strong, dangerous mouth, reminding her how badly she yearned for the taste of it.

"More flattery. Trying to get laid again, Mr. Morgan?"

He circled her body with both arms and held her tightly to him, still locking her burning gaze with eyes that dared her to deny him, the feel of her panting breath that fell upon his lips stirring him in hidden places.

"I'd live inside you if you'd let me, Sam Morgan. I've never been anyplace like it."

After that, part two of their date died its own death, when the only part they both wanted then took shape in the form of them tearing the layers from each other's uncontrollably aroused bodies and Jason swung her into his arms to sweep her to the sleeping bag, where they spent the next couple hours creating a friction that torridly burned beyond the bag, beyond the tent, and could've melted the falling snow.

Jason's foot smashed something hard when he rolled and pulled her body over him to get her ontop, and Sam's eyes drew momentarily to the sound of something crashing to the floor of the tent.

"What's that?" The breathless question heaved her chest that fought to get air it had been robbed of the past few minutes.

His response was equally labored and panting. "The light for part two - snowboarding on the ridge - but who cares? Come here!"

She was already obeying the command to return to his arms that engulfed her tightly and meet his lips that sought her hotly, moaning when his tongue thrust her mouth and his hand groped its way to her loin. She was burning up in desperate need and could wait no longer, her hand diving down past his belly to circle an engorged, throbbing member, eliciting a groan from his throat when she eased herself onto him, squeezing tightly as she shoved him in.

Lifting himself off the floor, Jason thrust to meet her descent and groaned again, his tongue clasping tightly to hers in a sweet dalliance of their bodies melding from head to groin, joining him with the woman he'd breathe his last breath to give its survival. Gripping tightly to the back of her head, feeling his own swimming when she ground her pelvis against him again and again and again, he gave himself completely over to pleasure unlike any he'd ever known. Her hand braced his chest between them as she lifted her ass and slammed him over and over, gripping him tight as she circled in each descent to drive him mad. He was coming - she'd taken control and was riding him to finish before he was ready, so he had to roll again to send her body beneath his, taking over when he caught her off guard and gripped her knee to bring it up past his hip. Never breaking stride or lips, he stroked her deeply, slowly, fully, until she was moaning, gasping beneath him, her nails sinking into the flesh of his back to indicate he had her at the pinnacle, where he deepened the thrusts to send her toppling blindingly over, crying his name against their locked lips, her nails breaking skin where they clung to him like a lifeline.

Giving her more than he got would always be the name of the game…leaving her wanting more and more, was always the aim. Needing to hear her whimper and cry again, wanting to feel her losing control clinging to him where he wanted her to stay forever, he increased the pace of his strokes and went deep inside her once more.

"Jesus, Jason!" She was coming again, her belly bottom set ablaze by the intense pleasure his strokes evoked and sent her crashing over once more. Her juices washed his member that kept pounding into her, the sound of his catching breath now at her cheek when he slammed again and jerked uncontrollably, burying his face in the crook of her neck to drown the sound of her name that tore from his lips. That was rapid, emblazoning fire that left hem burning and wet - completely sated and giddy.

Sam circled his body with arms and legs and gripped him tightly to her. "Thank you, baby."

Jason couldn't move a limb but tested if his lips worked. "For wha?"

She squeezed him to her again and kissed his ear at her cheek. "For the perfect first date. I can truly say I've never had one like it." They chuckled together and after a few more minutes, were able to move so Jason could grab the towel and dry the sweat from their languid bodies. They made sure to redress before getting back inside the sleeping bag, feeling like heaven falling asleep warm in each other's arms and snug in the comfort of their new unit.

Hours later, Jason's eyes flew open. There was no sudden sound, or movement, nothing that startled him awake…but everything had changed. He remembered! Waking up in the hospital surrounded by strangers calling themselves family, erupting in a fit when it had all boiled to a head, denouncing their name, embracing a new life on his own terms, with his own rules, his own say-so. He remembered all the pain, the loves, the enemies, the friends, the bullets, the kidnappings, the schemes, the tears. He remembered everyone and everything…the moment he opened his eyes.

There was a squirm against him that brought his eyes to rest upon her. Sam. It was as if seeing her for the first time in years…a sight so sweet his vision blurred in an instant and his breath stopped. Sam. Beautiful, patient and loving Sam. Her hand pulled his arm tighter around her where the sleeping bag kept them snuggled and warm, and holding her felt as perfect as he remembered. He'd forgotten her! Once again he'd hurt his head and once again the love of his life had borne the brunt of his idiocy, been left to carry their lives by herself, while he did what he wanted. And once again she came through.

Pulling her tightly into him where her back curved perfectly to his torso, he inhaled the scent that had seen him through some of his darkest days. He knew he'd squeezed too tight when she stretched into a full line and groaned awake, turning her body to face him when he eased a little on the vice hold he had on her. Nestling her head into the small pillow, she smiled with briefly opening eyes that closed back against the burgeoning daylight.

"Mornin."

The sweet sound of her voice blurred his vision again, it's soft caress falling on ears that wanted more.

"Good morning." He watched her eyes flit open to the strangled sound that was all he could manage.

"What's wrong?" The pain in his voice alarmed her, and as Sam studied the strange look he had about him, she realized what had woken her from a deep sleep. It wasn't the cold that gave her pause - the nestled warmth of his arms had kept it at bay all night. Now that she could see the haunting in his eyes, the anguish upon his face, it woke an alarm inside her. "Jason, what's the matter?"

"I love you!" His fingers traced the contours of her face to travel from brow across cheek to chin, resting there to brush it's smooth, soft surface lovingly. "I love you so much."

The alarm in Sam exploded, wrenching her up on an elbow as she prodded him some more. "What's wrong?" His words of love were sweet but wrought with something unknown and she was beginning to panic. Something had changed.

"Nothing's wrong." Jason raised himself to level with her, bringing his fingers back to her face again. "For the first time in a really, really long time, everything is perfect."

Her face shifted against his fingers in a slight caress but her eyes held his locked. "So why do you look like you've never seen me before? Why are your eyes teary?" And then she knew. It was as though asking the questions out loud had suddenly unveiled the answer to her pondering eyes and she could tell clear as the day was shaping up. "Jason?" Her own whisper sounded strangled and wet and she realized her own tears had sprung out of nowhere.

He nodded and laughed out loud when his voice cracked through the strength of what he felt. He remembered her. Every single detail, from the moment she walked into his life to the glorious one playing out before him now - he remembered her unwavering and staggering love.

"I'm so sorry, Sam! I'm so sorry!"

"Sorry?" Her hand clasped the back of his head and she rested her forehead to his and shook in wonder. "What are you sorry for? Jason - you remember?"

She could feel the nod against her where their foreheads still joined and when the confirmation took shape, the sob broke freely, wrenching her body, alerting Sam for the first time how enormous forgetting them had really been for her. She'd placed it in its proper box, labeled it to be visited at a later date and had found a peace with whom he'd become - but apparently that date was here. He remembered…and it was everything!

"I'm sorry, Sam. If I live a thousand lifetimes I'll never understand how I could ever forget you, forget Danny. I can never understand how I could see you and not know you instantly, despite it all. I'm so sorry."

"Stop, Jason - stop apologizing. You have no control over that - nobody does. I won't let you apologize for something you didn't do."

His head shook in wonder as he studied her closely, his fingers once again tracing her face of their own accorded wonder. "There it is, right there. The way you defend me, the powerful way you love me unconditionally and with no regrets…there's that unwavering loyalty I should always be able to recognize."

"What happened? You just opened your eyes and you remember it all?"

He nodded as he thought about it too. "I don't know, maybe it was everything you told me last night, maybe it was just on the cusp waiting to release, but whatever it was, I opened my eyes and it was all back. Every single, solitary detail from the moment I opened my eyes after my accident all those years ago. It all just flooded back!"

She was sitting up fully now after unzipping the sleeping bag on her side, the excitement too much to keep her still anymore. She was awaking from what she'd thought was a huge night, only to find them in the midst of what was a truly, remarkably HUGE morning!