This is the final chapter - and my first ever completed multi-chapter fanfiction.
Also, I reached a boundry point of 10,000 words - I'm so happy!
Thank you for reading.
I wanted it up before Episode 31 was aired, but alas, it was not meant to be - never mind.
This is the ending where Sam lives! (The ending where she died was much more fun to write though!)

The rest of the world was shut out as he saw that annoying, obnoxious fireman begin heart compressions on his beautiful, (if not always) sweet Samantha.
Not even noticing that he was almost running to her side and pushing the fireman away from her still body, one thought echoed in his head.
She can't die. Not like this. Not now.

Dylan didn't even realise when the second ambulance turning up, and barely blinked when his Sam was lifted up and carried into the back of it - he never stopped his compressions.
He was going to keep her alive, even if it killed him.
Dylan made a promise to himself - as soon as this was all over, as soon as the nightmare was finished, he'd tell her exactly how he felt.
Maybe they could even start over.
Or at least be friends again, instead of avoiding the other like the bubonic plague.

Sam's eyes fluttered, then opened, to find Dylan looking directly at her - she was only half aware of aching pain all over her body, but she was aware enough.
"Am I dying?" she asked, in such a small and terrified voice that it made Dylan think of a seven year old Sam, most likely tormenting her parents.
"No." He answered shortly, the way he always did. "I promise you will not die."
Sam laughed slightly, despite the pain it caused. "Don't make promises you can't keep Dylan. I thought you had learnt that lesson."
"This one I will keep. I will Sam."
Sam's eyes drifted shut, and Dylan shook her shoulder slightly to keep her awake.
Opening her eyes slightly, she took a chance, and told him what she had to say. "I love you." She whispered, and Dylan stared at her. "I never stopped loving you." Her eyes unfocused once more. "I'm sleepy now Dylan. I'm going to sleep."
"No, Sam..." Dylan's warning was too late as Sam's eyes rolled into the back of her head.
Taking her pulse, he began compressions once again, almost before Jeff told him to start.

Counting each compression aloud, he was on his fifth set of thirty when they pulled up at the ED.
The ambulance doors were quickly thrown open by Jeff, as Dylan quickly whispered in his wife's ear. "I never stopped loving you either."
Pressing a quick kiss on her now restless forehead, he helped Jeff pull her out of the ambulance and into the busy ED - Dylan just walked by her side as he listened to Jeff tell the doctors and nurses on duty what had happened - or as much of it as he knew anyway.

Following Sam into Resus, but staying at the back out of the way, Dylan knew he looked terrible - covered in dust, and dirt, and blood, not all of it belonging to someone else.

Watching Sam from a distance, he couldn't feel anything, he didn't know anything - he felt helpless, and unable to help his wife, his love.
He felt unable to do anything but watch.

Until her heart stopped beating once again, and Dylan felt his stop at the same time - he couldn't lose her, he wouldn't lose her, not here, not now.
He had only taken one step forward - face blank - when he felt someone grabbing his arm and leading him out of the room.
Zoe's mouth was opening and closing from besides Sam's bed, but no noise was coming out - none that he could hear anyway.

He saw them shock her from the other side of the glass - one - two - three times.
And then her heart started again, and it would be okay, and she would live - and everything would work out in the end.
Sometimes, everyone lives.

Led to the showers by a nurse who only meant well, and probably wanted him to stop scaring the small children in the ED, he washed as quickly as he could, removing the blood and grime that had accumulated over the last - had it really been less than three hours - it felt much longer than that.
Checking himself over, he was utterly amazed in the way that he had escaped with only minor abrasions, but that Sam would be needing major surgery.

They (the rest of the hospital staff) had arranged for someone to take over the rest of his shift, due to the 'traumatic circumstances'.
Dylan would have minded working, even if only to keep his mind off of Sam, but he wasn't going to complain.
The waiting was the worst, sat in the dingy relatives room, that somehow felt smaller than the cave, and twice as stuffy - he rested his eyes, relieving the worst times over and over again.
The times he thought he was going to lose his Samantha.
And the times he realised how much she meant to him.

Two hours later, Dylan was led into the small cubicle by the nurse, the one whose name he never bothered to learn, and he checked quickly to ensure he was alone, before approaching her bedside.
Her eyes were lightly shut, blonde hair spread over the pillows and blood still slightly stained across her face, but someone had obviously tried to make her more presentable.
It didn't matter how much he had thought about it before, it was only in that moment, with her in front of him, Dylan finally acknowledged how close he had come to losing her - and how empty his life would be without her.
Smoothing her hair back with his hand, her lips quirked upwards. "Hello Grumpy," she murmured, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Dylan hid his look of surprised, "And how long have you been awake?"
"Only a few minutes. Why?" Her face was suspicious as she tried to sit up but Dylan would not let her - not just yet anyway.
Dylan just shook his head. "What's going to happen now?" He asked Sam, despite knowing perfectly what was to happen.
"I've got to have some surgery to completely repair the damage - I'm due in theatre in a few hours." She rolled her eyes slightly, "And all I want right now is something to eat." Closing her eyes, she mentally steadied herself. "In the ambulance, I told you something." She looked up at him, and saw ... something ... that made her keep going. "I meant it."
Dylan smiled that strange half smile of his, a rarity even for Sam. "I know. I meant it too."

And then they kissed, properly, in the way they hadn't since long before Sam left for Afghanistan - and they didn't stop until that nurse walked back in again and straight back out.
And honestly, Dylan was impressed, he hadn't known it was possible for someone to turn that shade of red at all, let alone so quickly.

Sharing a look with Sam, he settled into the hospital chair next to her, refusing to move until she was taken up for surgery.
They weren't perfect, they never had been.
But, then again, where was the fun in perfection?

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited, or story alert-ed (is that a word? No, I didn't think so either) this story, or even for just reading it.

Thank you for reading, and please, still review - I want to see if I can get 40 reviews for this story - it'll make me so happy!
Mia.