Sam blinked clouds from his eyes and stared up at the figure before him. The figure spoke. The figure's voice was smoothing and silky but also strong, like if it wanted to it could made it's voice very menacing and frightening.

The figure stopped talking suddenly and kneeled next to Sam, touching his shoulder gently.

Sam recoiled in shock.

"Oh, sorry, Sam Temple. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Sam blinked hard and for the first time was able to see the beautiful girl in front of him. Sam looked around at the house he was propped against, the apartment complex that was almost completely burnt, and the scared people huddling in the plaza. Suddenly, he remembered where he was.

"Sam Temple."

Sam snapped his head back and looked the pretty girl in her hazel eyes.

"I'm sorry. I should have waited until you were fully awake. My name is Fern. Fern Romes."

Sam felt a weird urge to offer her his hand, so he gave it to her, but immediately drew it back because it was covered in soot.

Fern smiled.

"Ah, don't worry, Sam Temple. I don't mind a little dirt."

Fern grabbed his right hand that laid limp by his side and shook it. Sam smiled but it quickly turned into a frown.

"The little girl. . . ." Sam rasped in a throat that was as thin as a straw.

It took Fern a few moments to realize Sam was talking about the little girl from the burned apartment building. Fern shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Sam Temple, but she's gone." Fern laid her hand on his shoulder. "You were brave."

Sam shrugged her hand off. "No, the little girl. . . . She didn't deserve to. . . ."

"The little girl may have died from smoke inhalation. You didn't do anything wrong, Sam Temple. She was just inside of the building for too long."

Sam smiled in a pained way and tried to change the subject. "Do me a favor, Fern Romes, and just call me 'Sam.'"

Fern smiled knowly again. "Alright, 'just call me Sam.'"

Sam rolled his eyes but smiled an actual, real smile, momentarily forgetting about the half-burnt little girl lying dead in the plaza.

"I'm getting a feeling you had come over here to tell me something?" Sam asked, scrunching his eyebrows together.

Fern's face turned into a mask of surprise as she said, "Oh, yes, I had come here to inform you of something. Sorry, I must have gotten sidetracked."

Sam nodded, as if to say carry on.

Fern sucked in a large amount of air, trying to gather her thoughts. "I had come to talk so I could express my gratitude. From what I have seen today and on that newspaper from when you practically saved a bus filled with children, I wanted to say I admire your bravery and the way you stand up. You've always been a hero figure, and yet you don't even bother to rub it in other's faces." Fern threw her hands up a sign of confusion. "The only reason I'm saying all this mumbo jumbo is because I feel that as the future in this new universe progresses, you will be one of the people that many others will look up too. I thought maybe saying a few words of encouragement would motivate you so you can be at your best when you are needed."

Sam lifted his hand and placed in on Fern's shoulder. He squeezed it in a way of appreciation. "What makes you think this new universe will even have a future?"

Fern smiled in a unsure way and placed her hand over Sam's. "To be honest, I don't think life is ever going to return back to the way it was before. I just feel that. . . ." Fern cocked her head. "I just feel that everything happens for a reason."

Suddenly a thought occurred to Sam, a very irrelevant thought, and he gave Fern the once-over, wondering where this very pretty girl had come from. "Are you from Coates Academy?"

Fern nodded and a shy grin crept across her face. "I didn't think it was so obvious, but yes, I am from Coates."

"The adults only disappeared a day ago. How did you get down here so quickly?"

Fern stood up suddenly and stretched her legs, brushing her pant legs off, like there was something on them. "I rode a bike."

"Why come all the way to Perdido Beach? Why not stay up at Coates?"

Fern walked in a few semicircles and would momentarily stop to brush a piece of hair back from her face. Fern was silent for so long Sam was almost sure she didn't hear the question. Then she said, "I came down here because I wanted a change in scenery, if you know what I mean." Fern looked Sam in his eyes and Sam was pretty sure he didn't know what she meant by 'change in scenery.'

"I had always wanted to come to Perdido Beach, it was one of the many things I wanted⎯needed⎯ to do. I wanted to meet the hero I had seen in the paper," Fern said stopping abruptly. She then looked at Sam's expression and realized he had no idea what she was talking about so she asked, "Remember when you saved a bus filled with children?"

Sam nodded yes, his eyes widening as if to say oh, yeah. I remember now.

"Anyway, I wanted to meet Sam Temple. . . ." Fern smiled to herself. "Sam Sam the school bus man," She muttered to no one in particular.

Sam looked unamused.

"Okay. Sorry. Anyway, I just wanted to meet you. I feel safer when you're around because. . . . Let's just stay no one in Coates in really the hero type."

Sam nodded and a smile crept up his face. "That's a first."

"What is?"

"Someone calling me a hero or saying they feel safe in my persistence."

Fern squatted down beside Sam and scooped his hand up the way a backhoe would do with dirt. "Well, Sam Temple. . . . No matter what happens, stay strong."

Fern stood suddenly and sauntered away, back the way she came. Her blonde hair blew behind her effortlessly.

"I must go now, but I do hope to see you in the near future, Temple," She called behind her without turning around.

The soles of Fern's shoes never made a sound as she sashayed across the plaza, seeming oblivious to the people staring. Her hips swung side to side in an almost musical pattern, and her arms would sometimes hit her long, beautiful legs when she swayed her hands. Her golden hair swung across her green shirt and would sometimes land on her shoulders. She brushed it off as if it were a feather.

"I do wish she would just called me by my first name," Sam muttered when Fern had turned the corner and was no longer in view.

He found himself thinking of her even a long time later when he was walking back to the house he shared with Quinn and Edilio.