Sorry for the delay, guys. I know I usually update once a week, but last week I wasn't anywhere near a computer. Also, there was the little fact that I'm not quite sure how to end this one. I had a few events planned out that were basically the seeds of this story, but I never quite figured out the end. Now that I'm getting closer to that point it's getting harder. Not to mention how depressing Days is lately. Sorry, I'm being a real downer right now. Enjoy the newest installment.

As they entered his apartment there was a nervous tension she didn't know how to break. Sami closed the door behind them. The sound of it seemed too loud for this moment.

"So, umm, I guess we should watch it now."

She bit her lip before responding, "Yeah."

She couldn't explain it, but there was an overwhelming feeling of panic trying to take control of her body. A little demon in her mind was whispering, "Don't let him watch it. Don't let him watch it."

She tried to ignore it as she settled onto the couch and he hung his coat up in the closet. It was only an insubstantial whisper when he walked toward her. She could almost pretend that the feeling didn't exist as he turned on the television.

But, as he bent down to pop the tape into the VCR, the little nagging doubt became a full-blown terror. Somehow she knew that if Lucas watched this tape his world would be completely different.

"Wait."

Sami was on her feet before she knew it. His wrist was in her grasp and she refused to let go. He couldn't watch this tape. Somehow it would hurt him more than words could express and she was going to protect him at all costs. They didn't need the tape anyway.

"We can't watch that, Lucas."

"What're you talking about? We have to, Sami, it's the only way."

"Nothing good can come from watching that tape. Please, just trust me."

"Proving my innocence is nothing?"

"You don't need the tape. We don't need it."

For a few precious seconds nothing else in the world existed to him. His hand lost its hold on the tape and he turned away from the screen to see her fully.

Slowly, she reached across the couple of inches between them and linked her tiny hand with the one he had suspended in the air between the floor and the VCR. He barely noticed the contact seeing as he was completely mesmerized by the look on her face.

"It isn't important anymore. I believe you. I don't care about the tape."

His hand moved up in what seemed like slow motion to tenderly cup her cheek. His voice was whisper soft, almost as if he could not believe this moment, "Really?"

She was looking at him in a way that she hadn't for days. He had only seen the look in unguarded moments during the past few days. When she said she'd help look for the truth, when she had kissed him in the storage room. At all other times he was never allowed to see what she was truly feeling.

But the look was back now in full force. It was the look that told him that her future happiness was wrapped up in him. That she felt safest when he was around. That there was no one on earth that she would rather be with at that moment. It was the look that Lucas had been craving for what felt like an eternity.

And then suddenly they were kissing and he couldn't be sure who started it. What he was sure of was the fact that this was so much more. It was more than he could have hoped for. More than she could have allowed herself to imagine. It was a tempest of emotions that couldn't be stopped.

He was also sure that this reunion would not happen on the floor. Although, in one way it seemed a fitting tribute to their start, this was more than that. More than their past. It was their future, and that was why he gently but firmly began to guide Sami from the floor to the bedroom.

………………………………...

With an affection he had never known he possessed until Sami came along, Lucas played with the soft blonde curls beside his head. He pressed a kiss to her temple and filled his eyes with the sight of her back in his arms. He wanted to pack in as many memories of this feeling as he could, not that he'd need memories anymore.

Maybe it was just the moonlight or the magic of the moment, but the afterglow had never seemed so satisfying as it did in this moment, and Sami wasn't even awake. It looked as if the day had finally exhausted her, although he would rather flatter himself and say it had been their… making up.

After taking on last deep breath to fill his senses full of Sami, he carefully disentangled himself from the sheets of the bed. She groaned for a second and Lucas thought he may have been caught, but she snuggled deeper into the pillows and all was well.

He pulled on his boxers and silently made his way into the living room. He had to know, it was a simple as that. Someone had set out to destroy his life and he had to know who that person was.

There was a person running around Salem determined to hurt his family and he had to know whom that was. In order to protect them, he had to have all the leverage he could. It would be better for Sami that way.

Sure, she was acting as if she was afraid of the truth, but he was convinced that it would be better to know. Besides, he was burning with a morbid curiosity. And maybe a little part of him wanted some revenge for the past couple days of his own personal hell.

Lucas pushed the tape into the VCR the rest of the way and settled back onto the couch. It wasn't until after the volume had been adjusted, so as not to disturb Sami, that the sense of impending doom overtook him. If he had been paying attention, he would have known that this was the part in the movie where the music swelled and everything changed.

Instead of paying heed to the elements, Lucas pushed play.

………………………….

Sami woke up expecting strong arms wrapped around her and a warm body under her cheek. What she got instead was a warm pillow under her head, cool sheets, and no Lucas. She sat up in confusion for a second before realizing where he was.

It was an instinctive knowledge more than anything. A deep-down-in-the-bones awareness that she knew to be true without question. He was watching the security tape and there was nothing she could do to stop him.

She grabbed the first piece of clothing she could find, one of his shirts from a laundry pile, and moved to the door. The light murmur she could hear from the television touched her heart. He hadn't wanted to disturb her sleep. He was taking care of her even through his own turmoil.

She pushed open the bedroom door, making sure to keep the hinges from creaking, and peeked out. If she were completely honest with herself, Sami knew that the profile on the screen was exactly the one she expected to see. What surprised her more was that she wished it could have been anyone else in the world.

Cautiously she moved further into the room.

"Is that…?"

His voice was calm and distinctly un-Lucas-like, "Yup, that's my mother."