Title: Prom Queen

Summary: A new guy comes to the OC from Australia and he's bound to rock the relationships. So who's going to end up his Prom date? Not for SethSummer lovers. Anna comes in a bit later. SummerNew Guy and a bit of SethAnna and the smallest portion of RyanMarissa.

Pairing: SummerTom, SethAnna, RyanMarissa

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the OC characters. I only own Tom and Tina and Sarah and Rachel, the history teacher.

Chapter 17: The Dream

Summer looked at the ceiling of her room. She was lying on her back at some time in the small hours of the morning. It was the morning after the funeral and she hadn't been able to sleep at all. She had finally run out of tears.

Summer then remembered something that Tom had said and said aloud, feeling a tad foolish,

"Tom I want you to be with me. Tom I want to be able to feel you touch. Tom I want to be able to see you. Tom I want to be able to feel love instead of grief. Tom I want you to be with me."

She blinked and felt herself go into an out-of-body state which had been quite normal these past few hours. She felt as if she had begun to float above where her body was and couldn't feel the bed under her or the sheets on top of her anymore. She felt her eyes become immensely heavy and decided to close them. Only for a second, only for a second, only for a second…

Summer opened her eyes as she felt the first rain drop fall on her skin. She stood up when she found that she was kneeling down on grass heavy with dew. She felt her eyelid flutter as a rain drop came perilously close to her eye. She looked up and was awarded with another raindrop near her eye which promptly caused her eyes to flutter again.

She put her head back down and, as if on cue, the rain became a torrent and an innumerable amount of rain drops hit her skin. She looked down and realised that her PJs weren't the best clothes to be in a thunderstorm in. She wrapped her arms around herself in a bid to get a vague scrap of warmth back into her body.

"Hey Summer." Summer turned around and saw Tom standing there in the rain with his hair plastered to his head and a gentle smile on his face. Summer took a second to blink and take in what was before her and then she ran to Tom and threw her arms around him and kissed him in all available places. His neck, his cheek, his forehead, his lips, his nose, even his hair wasn't safe from Summer with her ravaging kisses full of love.

Tom hugged Summer as she did this and didn't get impatient or angry with her. He understood. After all, seeing the person you love after that person has died tends to make such behaviour quite normal. Finally Summer slowed and then, a while later, she stopped. Then she just looked at him. Took in every single detail, no matter how minor or major it was. Nothing was forgotten as Summer looked at every square millimetre of him.

Finally she just collapsed into his strong arms and said,

"I missed you so much." Then, the tears came back.

"I know. I felt it." Summer looked at him with questioning eyes and Tom began to explain.

"I told you I would be watching over you Summer. And you asked for it, so I came. I told you I would. Have you ever known me to break my promise?" Summer smile didn't come and she retorted,

"Yes, you promised that everything was going to be okay. You said I would be strong enough. I'm not Tom and nothing's okay." Tom took Summer's hands in his larger ones and held them to his chest.

"Everything is going to be okay. You are strong enough. I've been watching over you and I've seen the way you've handled things. The strongest person can cry without shame, the strongest person mourns a loss and has the ability to move on, the strongest person has loved and lost and fought and won and is still standing. You have done all of these things and more. You have dealt with everything difficult or challenging that has been thrown your way and you've done it without complaining, without question and without trouble. People might not think this and that's because they treat the smallest things as the biggest things and the biggest things as the smallest things. But I don't, I see your strength, I see your potential, I see what you can do, and I see what you will do. I want you to know that I'm so proud of you, no one I've known has ever come close to you strength and your determination. And that's what I love so much about you. Your whole personality is of a heroine, of someone who is going to change the world so much by just being in it."

When Tom finished the mini speech he'd just delivered Summer felt blown away. She was expecting a long answer but his was a ten thousand word essay and one with every word being meant and she felt a warm glow envelop her. She vaguely realised that the rain had stopped and the sun was now shining down on them. Unable to express her thoughts so complexly Summer settled for,

"I love you so much." Tom smiled at her and then they kissed. It was similar to the kiss that they'd shared when Tom had died, the passion was raging but the love kept a hold on it so that it was heartfelt as well as amazing. When they separated Tom whispered to her,

"Find someone else to love, it won't be too hard." Tom seemed to fade slightly and Summer was desperate to know what exactly he meant.

"Why?"

"You deserve it." Tom was gone and so was the dream. Summer woke up lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was as if what had just happened had never happened. But Summer knew it did, she could feel it in her bones. And when she turned onto her side she saw a card. It read:

I love you always. You deserve it.

Tom

(Sad, sad, sad. I'm proud of that long speech that Tom says, best one I've ever written so far I'd have to say. There isn't going to be an epilogue. Sad, sad, sad. The web site of the before the OC story 'Catch Me' is www . fictionpress . com / read . php ? storyid1790534)