Sam stared up at the ceiling and fiddled with the broken chain in her hand that she had found tucked between the two pillows on the bed. She didn't know whether he had left it there on purpose or not but she found its presence strangely comforting.

Susan and Abby had left over five hours ago and she was still riling from their words.

"You need to let him help you."

But how? How could she subject him to that?

She scratched her face lightly and turned her upper body slightly, attempting to get comfortable without jostling her leg about too much. It was no easy task.

Sleep was simply not coming to her.

Sighing, she shifted her body again and pulled the covers tighter around her body.

- -

"Luka?"

Luka slowly pulled his arm away from his eyes and let it fall against the back of the sofa and he opened his eyes and lazily turned them in the direction of her voice. Easing himself into a sitting position, he swung his legs off the make-shift bed and leaned his elbows on his thighs and massaged his eyes with his fingers.

"What are you doing up?" He mumbled through his hands.

He dropped his hands and muffled a yawn, swallowed it in his throat and looked at her. He could see her bare foot and her pink foot. Her ankles were flashing to him but the rest of her disappeared underneath a dark blue robe that feel just at his knees. Normally he would have smiled at how cute she looked drowned in his clothing. But tonight he didn't. Her hands were gripping onto the handles of her crutches, the royal blue robe scrunching up at the wrists. Her face was half hidden in the dim light, the only source coming from the orange street lamp outside his lounge window. Her hair was curly once again and the small chunk of hair - a fringe, he'd been told - was bouncing about above her right eyebrow. He looked away.

He heard her click closer to him and he wondered how he hadn't heard her clobber down the stair.

When he next saw her, she was perched on the edge of the coffee table in front of him, her cast leg sticking straight out in front of her, only a few inches from his big toe. Raising his eyes to hers, he saw tiredness reflect from their tepid depths and he saw her uncertainty.

"I... I couldn't sleep," she answered honestly and he nodded.

He knew what she was asking.

"You want some warm milk?" He saw her shake her head. "Tea?" Again. "Hot chocolate?"

He once again raised his eyes to her and only when she had his eyes did she shake her head. He held her gaze, bit the inside of his lip and nodded.

"Okay..."

He stood up from his seated position and waited until she stood before walking behind her up the stair, his hand hovering over her back, just in case. When they reached the top landing, he moved in front of her and opened the door to the bedroom and stepped inside, holding it open long enough for her to step through.

Closing it, he watched as she moved towards the bed and when he saw her detach the crutches from her grip, he moved over to her and took them from his grasp and almost melted at the smile of thanks she sent him.

What she did to him...

His heart was racing in his chest, his hands shook as he rested the minute walking apparatus against the wall beside the bed and his mouth become suddenly parched when he saw her struggle into the bed.

He waited until she stopped fussing around and pulled the covers up under her shoulders before he sat on the edge of the bed, propped the pillows against the headboard and then leaned back onto them, keeping at least a foot between his and Sam's bodies.

He heard her sigh and he let out his own breath and blew air into his cheeks.

"Did I wake you?"

He turned to her with his head and drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them to hide the fact that his hands were shuddering. Her whisper sent a shiver down his spine but he smiled through it.

"Not really," he replied.

He hadn't exactly been asleep, just swaying on the edge of it, his mind tumbling through the events of the past months. The train crash - his first meeting with Sam-, the constant arguments they had over patients, her showing up at his apartment, the bonding session over their losses that led to the bonding session of their bodies... the list went on and on.

"What were you thinking about?"

He looked down at the question and felt her move and move - probably unconsciously - closer to him. He licked his dry lips with his spongey tongue and looked back up at her, his eyes seeking hers.

"Just..." should he tell her the truth? He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Just everything that's happened since I met you," he admitted, his eyes leaving hers as soon as the confession left his mouth.

He heard her breath catch in her throat and he covered his face with a hand and breathed through his fingers.

"Do you... regret what happened between us?"

He dropped his hand and turned sharply to her, her face a picture of uncertainty and loss. He shook his head vehemently and his hand made to reach out to her but he stopped it.

"God, no. I have never been so... No." His eyes drifted over the familiar features on her face, her bruises slowly disappearing and leaving the natural beauty that she oozed. "And don't ever think I do."

He watched as her eyes flicked away from his and her hand reached up and rubbed them.

You made her cry, Kovac, way to go.

He bit his lip and shook his head, turning away from her. She was laying on her side, facing him, her cast leg lying behind her left leg so as not to crush it. He knew that the position must be uncomfortable for her healing ribs.

Silence filled the room for long minutes after his confession and he looked around the dim room. Her clothes were spilled all over the place and he could see his cupboard door open in the corner and saw that it was much fuller than it should have been if it had just been his clothing in it.

He felt the bed move and he turned to her, seeing her attempting to struggle out of the robe. Her arms were free and she was attempting to pull it out from under her body.

"Do you want me to help you?" He asked gently and saw her nod. "What do you want me to do?"

"Just... pull it out when I lift by butt off of it," she laughed slightly and he smiled despite his mood.

"Okay."

He saw her use her arms to lift her lower half off the bed and he yanked the dressing gown away from under her when he felt her weight lift off it.

"Got it," he said as he tossed it to the floor at the side.

He felt his lungs stop midway through breathing in when he saw her sleeping attire - a light pink strappy top that cut low down and where the covers had fallen away from her waist, he saw that she was wearing a pair of mini-shorts in a light blue colour that matched rather well with the top.

Cornflower, it reminded him of.

He looked away again and continued breathing.

"Luka," she began after another few minutes of silence. He turned his head to her again and rubbed his legs as a chill settled over them.

So much for spring settling in.

"This... none of this is your fault," she whispered to him as she shuffled further down on the bed and he jerked when he felt her hand brush against his arm.

He felt his head drop as his strength left him. He was suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue and all he wanted to do was crawl back down the stairs and go to sleep. He wasn't ready for this conversation.

"Sam..." He complained, his voice grating like an old key in a rusty lock.

"No, Luka. Listen to me," she forced and he drew his cheeks together. "None of this is your fault - there is nothing you could have done to stop this from happening."

"If I hadn't come around that day, he wouldn't have had reason to do this to you, Sam," he interrupted her sharply.

"You couldn't have lived with yourself if you hadn't come around, Luka. I couldn't have lived with myself if I knew the last time I saw you was when you... left me in my apartment that night, I was just too much of a coward to actually come and see you."

He shook his head and thrust his tongue into his cheek to stop from biting back at her.

"You would never have been leaving if I hadn't broken off us. You wouldn't have lost our child if we hadn't had an affair because you wouldn't have been carrying it in the first place," he said bitterly but she paid no attention.

"I thought you said you didn't regret us?"

"I don't."

"What you just said makes me think otherwise."

He didn't know what to say. She had him stumped on that one.

"I know what you've been doing, Luka. You've been moping around trying to figure out how to make this all your fault. But it's not." Her hand covered his knee but he pulled his knee away from her. "A part of me wants you to hate me; a part of me still thinks that you do."

He gawked at her shy admission and shook his head.

"What? That's insane! Why would you... why would I hate you?" He asked vehemently.

She closed her eyes and bit onto her bottom lip as she fought with the tears in her eyes.

"I... you lost another child because of me," she whispered eventually and he shook his head.

"Sam... don't do this to yourself. It wasn't your fault." He laughed quietly after that and Sam frowned at him. "Here was me thinking that you wouldn't let me touch you because you blamed me, but it was really because you blamed yourself."

Sam nodded and swiped at her suddenly runny nose.

They were in silence again after that and Luka shifted down the bed, his hands clasping over his chest as he stared at the ceiling.

"When I saw you... I was so sure that I was going to lose you... I..." Tears jumped to his eyes. God, he had never cried so much in his entire life - not even when his goldfish died. "I couldn't go through that again, Sam..."

He didn't bother wiping away the tear that trickled past his eyelid and slid down the side of his face and was making it's way to his ear when he felt Sam's fingers catch it. Her touch surprised him.

"I'm here... I'm here, Luka," she murmured, her voice thick with fatigue and unshed tears. "I'm here," she repeated as she fanned her fingers out across his lips and chin.

God, he was shivering under her touch.

She yawned and he turned his head slightly to look at her and he tried to ignore the burning sensation her fingers made as they slid across his bottom lip.

"Go to sleep, Sam," he whispered and turned back to the ceiling.

He heard her sigh deeply and he smiled as she retracted her hand. She rolled onto her back and slid further into the covers.

"Are you staying?" She murmured.

Luka turned his eyes to her again and took in her closed eyed, peaceful expression.

"Do you want me to?" He asked uncertainly but she nodded. "Then I'll be here."

She nodded and he turned away once more.

Luka spotted the light control on the bedside cabinet and reached out to grab it and put the lights out. Long minutes passed and he heard her breathing even out and, assuming she was asleep, Luka turned on his side and watched her.

"Luka?"

"What?" He asked, his own voice laden with sleep.

"I'm not going to shatter if you touch me."

He watched her for a second more, and then stood up from the bed, pulled the covers up and slid under them. He shuffled until his body was but a millimetre from hers and he stopped.

"I can't feel you..." she informed him with a smile but Luka let out an apprehensive breath. "Luka, I'm not going to break," she reiterated gently and he moved that tiny bit closer to her.

Her body tensed slightly when his naked legs touched hers and he stopped but soon her body relaxed against his and he moved the rest of his body closer to her.

"Closer..." she said and he smiled slightly and moved his head closer to hers, so they were touching all the way down her side. "Closer..." he grinned and slid forward a bit more, his left leg sliding over her left leg a little. "Closer..." He let out an airy laugh and shook his head.

"Any closer and I'm going to be lying on top of you, Sam," he told her with a smile playing on his lips and in his voice.

"I just want to feel you, so I know you're real."

"I'm real, Sam," he assured her.

"Then just a little closer."

He manoeuvred his body and smiled when he felt her hand on his head pushing it down until it was resting on the top of her breast, near her shoulder. She lifted his arm and placed it delicately across her abdomen and he smiled as she wrapped her leg around his, urging his lower half further over her body. When she had stopped fidgeting with his body he let her rest for a moment before lifting his head and pushing himself up to the side of her face, ignoring her complaints.

He pressed his right cheek against hers and then turned his head and placed a soft, lingering kiss there before moving his head back down to where she had ushered it to.

"Volim te, Sam," he murmured against her skin and flexed his fingers over her hip slightly.

"I volim te too, Luka," she laughed and he turned his head further into her skin laughing gently. He felt her stomach muscles tense as she craned her neck and then felt her lips on his hair. "I love you too, Luka," she whispered again and stroked her fingers over his back.

Against all this I contrast you, when all is lost the war is through (Hey angel)
Dare the winds now we can fly
This day will die tonight and there ain't no exception
And maybe tomorrow is a better day

Jocelyn bustled towards her daughter's room to rouse her. She was beginning to worry about the lack of communication she had seen between Sam and Luka. She was supposed to go back to Elgin that day but she was seriously thinking of extending her visit if she didn't see some improvements within the next few hours.

Opening the door to Sam's bedroom, she was fully inside the doorway, had the door closed and was in the process of walking towards the bed before she saw the two bodies entangled together.

She smiled at the sight.

Luka had his head on Sam's chest, his arm strewn across her stomach, his leg entangled with Sam's good one. Sam had one hand in Luka's hair (the one that belonged to the arm that he was half lying on) and the other was laying at her side and, on closer inspection, she saw that their fingers were entangled together at Sam's hip.

Jocelyn smiled and moved towards the bottom of the bed where the sheets were a crumpled mess. Straightening them out, she pulled them back across the two slumbering lovers' and made her way back to the door.

Once she was back outside, she closed the door as quietly as possible and then smiled.

Maybe things were going to be okay.


You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
Your in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there

The End.