--It seems, sadly, that we've come to the end of our tale, my friends... I'm so sad it's over, but I know I have to let it go. Thanks to everyone so much for their support! I hope you all enjoy the grand finale; the last stand of Casey and Sam… --

She was the one to hold me
The night the sky fell down
What was I thinking when
The world didn't end
Why didn't I know
What I know now…
--from Crazy For This Girl by Evan and Jaron
.

Tuesday – Sam was sitting alone, with her long hair pulled back in a high ponytail and hanging out of the hole above the adjustable part of a hot pink baseball cap. She was eating her lunch in silence.

Actually, she was almost finished, just consuming the last of her miniature bag of Doritos… Casey was off somewhere, probably sitting on the bleachers, or walking around taking pictures…

Sam took a long drag out of the straw of her orange juice, finishing it. She stuffed it inside the empty chip bag and crumpled them up together, with some effort. Looking around her, she noticed that the cozy little stone tables and blankets sitting on the grass were still rather populated with peoples. She looked to her right, where Stokely was sitting under her normal table, except with Stan rather then a book. They were laughing and it seemed that Stan was trying to kiss Stokely's neck but she didn't want him to because it tickled.

"Hey, Stokes," Sam called, interrupting them. They both looked up at her. "Any idea what time it is?"

Stan bent his wrist on the arm that was wrapped around Stokely so that the bottom of it was pointing upwards. "What does that say, baby?" Sam barely heard him say to Stokely. She read it, told him, and then they both looked up.

"12:18!" Stan called, with Stokely saying it almost at the same time, but just a pinch later then him, so she repeated it, and then they went back to their kissing game.

Sam frowned and looked back at the crumpled up remains of her lunch… still some minutes before classes started again… she'd finished early.

"Hey, Sam," said someone, swinging to sit down beside her. She turned her head quickly to see who it was…

"Oh, hi… Case," she hadn't expected him at all. "What's up?"

He shrugged. "Just wanted to talk to you… to be around you…"

Sam smiled meekly, and looked down at the ground. How had this happened? She didn't even feel right just sitting and talking to Casey… Delilah had always threatened Sam, that she'd break her; that she'd break them… she really had won, hadn't she?

"Sam," he said softly, drawing her attention back to him.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"'Course…"

"When you were… infected," he began, turning his eyes to the ground rather then looking at her now. "Was it true… what you said?"

"Which thing?" she shot back. "If you mean what I said about buggy and possessed being better then, no, but if you mean what I said about always being there for you, yes."

"I-I don't mean either of those thing," a very slight pink, like rose mist, discolored his cheeks. "I mean what you said about… liking me… as more then a friend."

He waited, expecting the worst, but when nothing came he looked up hesitantly. Sam was just staring at him, eyes blinking, mouth slightly agar, emotionless besides a bit of shock and something else… something, he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Why do you even need to know that?" Suddenly, she pushing her self away from the table, standing and looking in the opposite direction, her arms crossed over her upper abdomen insecurely. "… So, yeah, it-it's true, alright? But don't go all… freak show on me, okay? I get the picture; I got the picture a long to ago. You like Delilah, you've always liked Delilah, and I am not going to play sloppy seconds to my worst enemy, got that?"

A sympathetic expression was on Casey's face, now, and he stood up from the table as well and walked over to where Sam was standing. When he was right behind her, she whirled around.

"So what does it matter? What do you care? Why did you even need to know that? I thought you were my friend, Casey Connor, and now you're trying to play me like a card in your stupid game with the biggest slut this world had ever known!"

Meanwhile, as she let out strings of emotional words trying to hide the emotions inside and failing miserably, he repeated her name twice trying to get her to stop. Finally, when patience was lost, the third time her grasped her head still and said her name a little louder and much more persistence, "Sam!"

She stopped, and tightened her lips to keep them from trembling.

"Listen to me," he said softly, lowering his voice again. He said slowly; "I don't want Delilah."

"Y-you don't?" her voice was shaky. She shook her head softly in his hands, eyebrows knitting in confusion.

"No," he shook his head softly, keeping eye contact… so intense… so blue…

"… What are you getting at, Casey?"

He smiled, ever so slightly. "I want you…" and he paused only for a moment, before his hands left her cheeks. It all happened so fast! One grasped the rim of her baseball cap and turned it around backwards over her ponytail, the other; gently touching the nap of her neck, ushered her face to his with the florescent blue eyes half opened… and he kissed her.

She seemed to melt into him, then, and fit perfectly against him, her elbows bending so that her hands could hold the backs of his arms, his hands holding her face to his so she couldn't turn away… just incase. The kiss was as sweet as bliss, and when it ended they were both breathing deeper then normal.

She head slipped back but he still held it, so she left her hands on his upper arms. He was staring her in the eyes, though his eyes did wonder just a little… and after a moment of only breathing, her whispered: –

"I love you, Sam…"

She let out a little sob of a laugh; perhaps because this all seemed so surreal at the same time it was real… and a liar, someone who was going to play jealousy games, especially with their best friend, their only friend, as a pawn, was not Casey. "… You know what?"

"What?"

"I love you, too, Casey."

That night, Sam dreamed again…

She saw the water, all around her, with the unmoving students and the teachers on the floor of the oceans… but now, she saw Marybeth fly up above the surface, and explode from the heat of the sun into a million little golden sparks, floating down to the water and releasing everyone. She saw all the students around her come to life, and immediately begin swimming fiercely for the shore. She saw the teachers – not all of them, because they scat jabbed a few, but most, were resurrected and swam as well… and lastly, she saw Casey. He smiled at her, took her by the hand, and they swam to the surface together… and everyone was free… almost no one drown, and everything was alright.

The End