As soon as he opened the door, he saw a figure on his doorstep with an umbrella and gave a small shout of surprise. They turned around slowly and spoke as they did so.

"I'm so sorry that I ran out, Sam."

He knew that gentle voice. He looked them in the face and immediately felt better and worse at the same time. Kate was on his doorstep and she was apologizing to him.

Once he recovered from his initial shock, he asked her inside and took her umbrella and jacket. Once he'd put those up so they could dry, he brought her into the living room so that they could sit and talk. He sat on the end that had all of his work from the position paper, clearing a spot for her. He watched with a mixture of shock and guilt as she sat at the other end. She'd always sat near him, even when they were upset with each other. This was the first time she'd made a point of sitting away from him.

"I'm not sitting over here because I'm upset with you," as she watched his face, "I'm over here because I have a lot of things I need to tell you, and I don't know how you'll react."

Sam gave her a small smile. "You'll tell me whenever you're ready to tell me, Katie. I feel horrible about scaring you the way I did. You know that I've never wanted to hurt or scare you, ever." She dropped her head & began to fidget with her hands. They both sat in uneasy silence for a long while before either of them spoke.

"Sam, you didn't frighten me. I got scared because I didn't understand what was going on inside me. I reacted the only way I know how, and I'm sorry if I upset you by running out like I did."

"You didn't upset me, sweetie. Actually, I was upset with myself because I thought I scared you by the way I touched you. I thought I'd chased you off."

She smiled and moved a little closer to him. "You could never chase me off. I promised myself that I wouldn't lose you to my fears. We've been apart for far too long, Sam. I ran because I was scared of what was happening inside me, not because of anything you did or said."

Sam nodded, but still looked confused. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I need you to listen to me very carefully. Something happened to me when I was 13."

She fidgeted with her hands for a bit because the reality of talking about it made her very nervous. He moved all the papers aside and gingerly sat down next to her, laying his hand on hers. She looked up at him and could see the love and concern in his eyes.

"I'm listening….Beth. I'll always listen."

She smiled to herself. He'd only started calling her that yesterday afternoon, but she'd quickly fallen for it. Not so much the name, but the way he said it; gentle, quiet, like a caress. She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye.

"Sam, I was raped when I was 13."

She carefully watched his face for any sign of a reaction. Looking in his eyes, she saw every emotion go through them: sympathy, concern, worry, love, anger. Anger was the only one that held. Knowing what it meant, she lowered her gaze and slowly withdrew her hands from his. Even though he hadn't said it, she knew it was time for her to leave.

She got up slowly and could feel his eyes follow her. She couldn't bring herself to look at him directly. The look of disappointment and betrayal on his face would be too much for her to bear, knowing full well that she was the cause. She spoke quietly.

"I'll leave now. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this sooner. I should've told you that you were getting damaged goods, and I know that you're angry with me for that. I just hope that you'll remember how much I love you, Sam."

She continued to walk toward the entry to leave. She heard his footsteps behind her and became passive when he put his hands on her shoulders. She allowed him to turn her to face him without argument or protest. He brought her chin up so that she was facing him, but she turned her head to the side to avoid looking directly at him. He turned her head to make her look at him and held her face in his hands to keep her from avoiding it.

"You never lied to me, never. You bring up something like this in your own time. I'm not angry with you at all. I'm angry with the person that did this to you. They hurt you very badly, I can tell. You should not have had to go through that, no woman should. The only reason that I'd feel hurt, which I do, is because you've been hurt."

He saw the tears in her eyes, and could feel them pricking at his own as they looked at each other.

"If this is what you meant about your past scaring me off, you're wrong. I'm not going anywhere, Beth. I love you too much to even think about leaving."

He brushed back a lock of hair from her forehead and then began to gingerly trace the outline of her face. He ran his fingertips up and down the sides of her neck, carefully watching her face for any sign of nervousness or fear, but all that he saw was love and bliss. He leaned in a little closer.

"Love, would it be all right if I kissed you?", he said in a whisper. He was afraid to make any kind of advance towards her because of the way she'd run out earlier. If it made her more comfortable, he was happy to take it all back to the beginning and work from there.

"Well, Sam, I don't know….," she said, with a teasing half-smile on her face. "I suppose you could, provided that you do it the right way," she continued.

"Thank you, but I want to make sure what the 'right way' is first before I do anything."

"Oh Sam, I think you know what the 'right way' is." She giggled quietly. He pulled her into a tight embrace, lightly playing with her hair as he held her. He'd nearly forgotten how beautiful her laugh was, and hearing it again just made him love her more.