Sam was lying half-asleep on the sofa when the sound of the telephone ringing in its cradle roused her from her slumber. Groaning, she rolled over, buried her head into the back cushions, and sniffed in a breath of stale air. The summer heat had sweltered her and drained her of all of her energy and she really could not be doing with any visitors at that precise moment in time. The sun had been blazing into her apartment all afternoon but now the shards were broken by the dark grey clouds outside and her ears picked up the faint sound of rain hitting off her windows. At last, her mind spoke to her, maybe now the humidity would lift and they would be able to enjoy the heat as opposed to loathing it.

Chicago was a city that could never please its inhabitants. Winters were unbelievably cold and the occupants wished for warmth but, by spring, the inhabitants were wishing for something more cool, to ease the humidity and heaviness of the days. She wanted to get up and hang her head out of a window to let the summer shower hit onto her face but she knew that she was simply too lazy to move.

The phone rang again. Groaning, she rolled onto her back and sat straight up.

"I'm coming!" She yelled as she slowly rolled onto the cream coloured rug around the base of her sofa, knowing that the person on the other end was unable to hear her but feeling obligated to shout out the phrase none the less.

Standing and stretching – she was going to take her time to answer it, just to show whoever it was that she was not happy they were interrupting her sleep – she began walking towards the handset and slowly picked it up.

"Hello," she said nonchalantly not really paying attention to the conversation that was about to take place.

"Hey…" the voice was quiet, distant and the reception was interrupted by what sounded like the waves of the sea.

She was silent. She was still furious with him, for the way he had treated her before he left and on the telephone as he told her he was leaving. Her mind raced with the multitude of things that she wanted to yell at him, accuse him of but she wouldn't do that. She couldn't do that.

A slight shiver ran down her spine as the sensation of being watched took over her once again and she spun around towards the large bay window that afforded her a great view of the abandoned block of flats across the walk way from her. This was a feeling that had become frequent and she did not like it one bit. Even when Luka had been with her, staying over and – if she were truthful – even when she had still been living with him, she had gotten this feeling of a set of eyes preying on her back.

Part of her thought it was Steve but the other, more rational part of her brain, put it down to paranoia.

"Sam? Are you there?"

She snapped back around as though he were in the room with her and smiled slightly at hearing his voice. She hated what he did to her even when she was angry with him she was always smiling.

"Yeah, sorry."

There was a tense silence on the line and Sam shifted uncomfortably under the building tension. She didn't know what to say. She shuffled her feet slightly and then sat down on her sofa at the very edge, ready to stand back up when his voice broke the silence – which she knew it would: he always broke the silence first.

"Listen, Sam… about before… I'm sorry."

She nodded as she shot up again and paced around to the back of the sofa, leaning against it so she could look out her window. She could have sworn that she saw a flash of shadow at one of the windows but shook her head.

"Bloody squatters…" she muttered almost silently.

"What?" He asked, and she could hear the confusion in his voice.

"Nothing… just the squatters in the building across from me." She fiddled with a loose thread on her sofa and twitched her jaw from side to side. She pursed her lips and then let them loose with a loud "pop". "How is your mother?"

It was the only rational thing she could ask.

There was a delay before his answer and Sam didn't know if it was due to a lapse in time from the message being relayed or from his indecision.

"She's not good. I've spoken to her doctor's and they don't think she has long to go."

She couldn't think what to say. Frowning, she looked down to her toes, which had curled at the news. He didn't deserve to lose anything else. Especially not this year. She didn't know how he was able to cope with everything that life threw at him and still be the person that he was. The person who – despite being insanely angry with him – she loved more than anything or anyone in her entire life.

"Luka… I don't know what to say. 'Sorry' doesn't seem ready to cover it. I just… what do you want me to say?"

There was a low chuckle on the other end of the line and Sam was in wonder and how he could find something to chuckle about under the circumstances.

"I just… how's Chicago?" He asked and she could imagine him sitting down on an overstuffed sofa, running a hand through his hair, letting out a deep breath of warm air.

She chuckled a bit herself, feeling tension lifting from her shoulders. She hadn't laughed in a long time, especially not with Luka. She couldn't believe it had only been three days since he left. It felt like much longer. In fact, she couldn't believe it had been three days and already she'd had another guy staying over.

"Well, it looks like there's a storm brewing." She leaned back slightly and looked out the window to the sky, seeing the dark grey clouds, hearing the rain pound harder onto the windows.

"I remember our first storm," he said seductively and Sam grinned despite herself. "About two months ago…" his gravely voice trailed off as he breathed deeply down the phone line and Sam did the same. "And we had to get all cosy under the blankets."

Sam scoffed and leaned her head back, tugging her fringe out of her way with her hand.

"We did not have to snuggle. You insisted that I was scared and attempted to seduce me."

"Oh, so that's your version. The way I remember it was more along the lines of you being terrified of the lightning, the darkness after the power went down and then insisting that I go and get candles to light around the room. And then I remember it being a little more… romantic after that as we… got cosy under the covers!"

She could tell that he was trying to not to laugh, the mirth shining through in his voice and Sam was momentarily caught up in it. But then she remembered that she was mad at him, that he was halfway around the world and that if this conversation continued she would not be able to just drive around to his apartment and… but instead have to find other ways of…

She really had to get her head out of the gutter.

"Luka, stop it," her words were forceful and she heard his automatic sigh of resignation. "I'm still mad at you for leaving like you did."

"I apologised for that," his own tone was sharp and clipped and Sam could feel her hackles rising.

"A simple 'I'm sorry' isn't about to cut it this time Luka. Am I the first person you've called, or did you call Abby before you called me? It seems to be a habit you have lately."

She hadn't meant to be so forthright with her feelings – she never was: too afraid that she would scare him off.

"That's not fair," he protested and Sam felt her eyebrow raise automatically and her breath release from her body in an angry 'Oh'.

"Really? And you think it's fair for you to leave the country and not tell me until you are in London and, even then, be abrupt and curt with me when you find the time to tell your ex girlfriend before you left when you couldn't find the time to tell me?" She knew she was shouting, could imagine him holding the phone away from his ear.

"So now you want to talk about your feelings? Now you want to share something with me?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Sam asked, although she really knew what he meant.

"You know exactly what I mean Sam. You never let me in, you never let me know how you are feeling. I'm sick of having to guess where I stand with you. At least with Abby I knew we wanted to be together."

Instantly, he realised his mistake.

"Fine. Be with her then!"

And she hung up the phone and tossed it across the room, watching it land with a crash at the other side of the room.

The front door creaked open but Sam didn't realise.

"Is this a bad time?"

Sam froze and looked up, a scowl on her face at the intrusion but when she saw who it was her frown disappeared and was replaced with a look of confusion.

"What are you doing here?"

TBC