A/N: Hello there everyone! Well, as far as I can tell, I think "The Sessions" is going to do well. It is on here, as well as AO3, where it's received a fair amount of kudos! I'm pretty excited to see where this goes! I would like to give thanks to everyone who has given feedback on this story, and a very special thanks to my new pal Reasons Lost for being such an awesome beta reader. We celebrated the end of this chapter with a few drinks! I would like to explain that this chapter is more of a series of flashbacks than anything, I apologize in advance for any confusion!

THE SESSIONS

CHAPTER TWO - Haunted

"Whatever you're fussing about, stop."

I shivered as fingers traced my collarbone and took my gaze down from the ceiling to focus on Sam. She was wrapped in my arms and using my chest as a pillow. I observed her for a moment before she noticed. Her breathing slow, her voice was soft and slow.

Tomorrow was the day that all of us were boarding the Endurance to take part of Dr. James Whitman's journey to find Yamatai, and I couldn't have been any more nervous. I glanced over at the alarm clock sitting on the nightstand next to our bed. "2:00 A.M." it read. I let out a sigh as my head fell back onto the pillow, mentally cursing Sam for believing that showcasing the lingerie she had bought just before I was headed for bed was a good idea. Her heart was in the right place, hoping that a quick romp before bed would tire me out, only it had lasted almost an hour. I'd never been more awake in my life.

"Your eyes aren't even open, Sam." I quietly chuckled. She lifted her head at the sudden movement of my chest and turned to face me. Her brown eyes met mine. She was fighting to keep them open.

"My eyes don't need to be open to see what's going on with you." She smirked. She gently bit her lip while she looked me in the eyes, her fingers still tracing every inch of my exposed skin. She knew me better than anyone.

"What's bothering you, sweetie? Are you nervous about tomorrow?" I shifted my weight as her hand slipped under the duvet, traveling further down my torso. "If so...I can help take the edge off?" She flashed a cheeky grin.

"Stop it." I smiled back, shaking my head. "I'm not ready to go again just yet." I used an elbow to prop myself up in our bed. I was now looking down at the girl that I loved. There were a million and one reasons why we never could have worked. Sam was creative where I was studious. I was shy where she was bold. She lived exclusively in the now, and I chose to dwell in the past. I can't explain how we fell in love or how we became inseparable. We just did. Sometimes it's just like that. Two people who should have never fit together end up together. I thought of my life without her in that moment, and I felt my heart drop down to my stomach. "I can't live that life," I thought. She reached up and cupped my face with her hand. Her thumb stroking my cheek, her concerned eyes not leaving mine.

"What's wrong?"

"I just...have a bad feeling. Like something is going to go horribly wrong, and I'm gonna lose you." I sighed. "I know, it's stupid." I broke eye contact and turned my head away. Her other hand now grabbing my face, gently turning it back to face her.

"Hey...you're not going to lose me." I shifted my weight so that I was laying directly on top of her, the warmth of her skin made my heart ache. "You've been so stressed out...With this expedition and planning the wedding...If anything happens Roth and Joslin will have control over the situation. Have faith in them, okay?" She smiled as she gave me the reassurance I needed. Looking into my eyes again, she lifted her head up to where our lips met, sending a current throughout my body. They parted only to meet again. The same electric shock surged through me again as she bit my bottom lip playfully.

"I love you, Lara Croft. Until heaven falls."

"I love you, too. Until heaven falls."

I awoke with a gasp, my body drenched in sweat. I rolled over to the other side of the bed to wake Sam, only to feel the cold empty spot where her body used to be. Used to be. I woke up every day, every night like this. She was the only person who ever truly understood me. I shuffled over to her side of the bed, burying my face in her pillow in a desperate attempt to breathe in her faded smell of her skin made my heart ache. How I'd move heaven and earth to bring her back. I missed the way her eyes would glimmer when she told me she loved me, or how she always managed to get the last word. I missed the hairpin curve of her lips whenever she looked at me, or the way she would moan my name in hushed whispers late at night. Losing her was like someone had ripped my beating heart from my chest, and replaced it with a black hole. I rolled over on my back, staring up at the ceiling. How could this happen? I brought my shaking hands up to my face. My eyes, like a dam disaster, attempting to hold back the deluge of tears. How could you be so careless, Lara?

I had lost all restraint, as I began to let go, sobbing uncontrollably. My pillow muffling my cries for her.

I'll never forget the moment that I knew. The moment I knew Himiko had latched onto her. We had gotten into a huge fight the night before. Earlier in the day I had bought her some cupcakes to make up for the fight. She insisted that she needed some space and went for a run. Upset, I called on Jonah and Alex's sister, Kaz, for comfort. Sam had been gone for a few hours at most, I was worried about her. She was acting so strangely. Kaz had been giving me a lecture on running away from my problems when the phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Is this Miss Lara Croft?" A man's voice was on the other end. I glanced at Kaz and Jonah.

"Yes."

"This is the Westminster Police Department. I'm afraid that your friend Samantha Nishimura has been arrested for assault." No. This couldn't be happening. The room started to spin, I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. I took the phone away from my face, my mouth dropped open in horror.

"Miss Croft, are you there?"

I didn't sleep that night. Kaz and Jonah stayed with me, begging me to get some rest. How could I? My girlfriend had just been arrested. My mind was riddled with questions.

"What happened to us?"

"Is this my fault?"

"Sam wouldn't do something like this, would she?"

"My Sam wouldn't do something like this…"

It was my fault. All of it. My mind drifted back to the fight that we had the night before.

"Do you know what it's like, having you rescue me over and over again? Do you know what that feels like? Her voice still ringing in my ears. I wanted to get away from London, go back to Yamatai a third time to try to make sense of all of it all. I stood at the edge of our bed with a suitcase half packed and Sam standing behind me. I looked over my shoulder to face her, she had her hands on her hips.

"We are supposed to be partners, Lara. I used to think we were equals. Not anymore." Her voice broke, she looked away from me and stared out the window, rain drops coating it from the outside. "You've already made up your mind…"

I turned around, and started to walk toward her, my hands shaking. I'd lost everyone that I had ever loved in my life. "This can't be…" I thought.

"What are you saying, Sam?" I reached out to her only for her to smack my arm away.

"I'm saying you can't help it. You have to control everything!" She sobbed, wrapping her arms around me and burying her head into my chest. "You can't let me in anymore…"

"What do you want me to do, Sam?" I started to choke up. She lifted her head as I gently placed my hands on her arms, looking into her eyes.

"What can I do to fix this?"

She backed away and shook her head.

"I want things to go back to the way they were. I want us to get married and get out of here, like we planned." She explained, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I want you to teach me how to fight, I want to show you that I'm not completely useless." She threw her hands up in the air. "But no, no one gets to be the hero but you, do they, Lara?" Her words cut me to the bone. I loved her so much. I wanted to fix things. I wanted more than anything to marry her, get that six bedroom in Witham...Fill it up with children one day. But, I couldn't risk putting her through that. As long as I was around, she wouldn't be safe. I knew that now.

"I want that too, love, I do…" I stepped closer to her and cupped her face in my hands, wiping away her tears. "But I have to keep you safe...I need to go to where Jonah's staying right now, he needed my help with something." I kissed her forehead as I turned to leave, I was almost to the door when she stopped me.

"Lara..." I looked back at her, her arms folded.

"If you leave...I won't be here when you get back." She threatened. "I can't do this anymore."

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. There was a war going on inside of myself that I most certainly wasn't winning. I saw things on Yamatai, things that I thought were impossible. On the first trip home from there I studied my father's old notes. He had been studying something very similar to what I saw on the island. I can't quite make the connections, not yet. I needed to go back there. I needed to find a way to fix things, so that I could move on with my life. Move on with her. At that moment I should have said something, anything.

But I didn't.

I came back later that night to find Sam sleeping on the couch. Her bark was always worse than her bite. She had to have known how much I loved her, how much I wanted to keep her safe. I carried her to our bed without waking her then retreated to the couch where I spent my night. That morning I had woken up before her, and made my way out the door in an attempt to make up for what I had done the night before. We hadn't really done much talking since our trip to Mexico.

Mexico.

That night on the boat Jonah and I noticed a storm was on its way, so I decided to go wake her. I walked into our cabin to find her sitting on one of the small beds, hugging her knees to her chest. Something was wrong. I tried to reach out to her, but she snapped at me. I decided it had been best to just leave her alone. As I walked out I ran into Kaz. She asked me if everything was okay and we got to talking. It wasn't long until Kaz noticed Sam walking out to the bow. Concerned, I looked out of the room to ask her if she had been okay, but she just stood there in an almost catatonic state. I began to feel uneasy as she made her way to the edge of the railing. To my surprise, a huge wave hit port nearly knocking me into the water below.

"Sam! Please get down! Stop this! Whatever's wrong, we can sort it out, okay?" She didn't listen. She plunged into the ocean. I dove in immediately and I swam out to her. She was floating there, unconscious. "What on earth has gotten into you, Sam?" I thought to myself. To add to my confusion, I looked up into the sky to see how close the storm was getting to us. Only the storm had disappeared. The captain, Arturo, jumped into the water and quickly swam out to us after. I yelled at him to go back to the boat. I could see a shadow approaching us underwater. As it got closer I could make out the dark grey mass as it's back fin twitched violently.

A bull shark was headed straight for us.

Grabbing Sam's hand, I took a deep breath and dove underwater. I gave the shark a good kick in the eye as I came up for air, yelling for Art to keep an eye out for it; it had begun circling around us. Sam opened her eyes, coughing.

"How did I get in the water?"

"No time to explain, we just need to get out." I yelled. We started to swim away as I heard Art start to roar in pain. I looked back to see the water turn a murky, red. The shark had bit him. I quickly went back and grabbed him as I instructed Sam to keep going, that If it got close, to kick it and scare it.

"Lara, it's coming!" Sam yelled behind me as I helped Jonah get Art up safely.

"Just keep swimming!" I turned to check on Sam, and to my horror, she had swam out to face the shark alone. The shark surfaced, and Sam had taken her ankh necklace and drove it into it's eye. I watched in disbelief as she swam back towards us, as if nothing had happened.

That's when It all started.

I drove to H.M. Prison Holloway with Jonah and Kaz the following morning. I grew more anxious with every mile that we got closer, feeling like I was going to have to stop the car and throw up. First, Sam had stabbed a shark dead in the eye in Mexico, threatened to leave me, and finally gotten herself arrested for assaulting a man who simply asked her for directions. This wasn't like Sam. I knew it, Jonah and Kaz knew it too. This wasn't the Samantha Nishimura that I fell in love with. This wasn't the Samantha that I wanted to marry. We were on a road to ruin, and It was all my fault. If I only just let her in. Perhaps I was testing her, perhaps I put up that wall to see If she loved me enough to break it down. I felt selfish at the thought. Everything I'd done, everything Roth had taught me to be prepared for, I did for her. Roth gave me structure. Sam gave me purpose.

The prison troubled me. H.M. Prison Holloway had been in the papers recently due to the female prisoners being exposed to intimidation and abuse. Private contractors forced them to travel in escort vans with male inmates. If any of those bastards touched her.

"This is crazy. Why couldn't they just keep her at the station?" Kaz asked.

"They said she was a danger to herself and others." I lowered my head. "And I couldn't afford her bail." I knew what they both were thinking. My father was a wealthy man. That I should have more than enough money. When he died, my uncle received his estate, refusing to release it to me until I wished to call the Manor my home. It was Roth who put me through university. I worked several odd jobs while taking my classes, one in particular happened to be tending bar at this dive bar not far from UCL's campus, The Nine Bells. The start of my struggle with alcohol that only got worse after the island, another reason why my money disappeared. The job had been just enough to pay for my books. Sam offered to pay, but I just couldn't take that money from her. After Yamatai, Roth had listed me as the primary beneficiary for his policy as well. I didn't have it in my heart to take what both Reyes herself, as well as the daughter she shared with him, Alisha, rightfully deserved.

"And he was just asking her directions, that's all?"

"Yes. We've been through this." I cleared my throat, Kaz still looked shocked.

"I know, I-I just don't believe it." She stammered.

"Even Sam told them that. She just can't remember what happened next. Until they were pulling her off of him." I explained. Jonah turned to me, a worried expression on his face.

"That's sounding a bit too familiar…" He referred to the incident in Mexico.

"I know, although I won't be telling them that." I revealed. I was afraid of what they might do to her, afraid of what was to come next. I was visibly starting to shake, knowing that I had to face her soon. Jonah put his hand on my arm, in an attempt to comfort me.

"Do you want us to come in with you?"

I shook my head. "Best not. She's not exactly been all that communicative...even with me." I started to walk towards the entrance, trying my absolute hardest to get myself to calm down. Breathe, just breathe, Lara. I heard Kaz mentioning to Jonah that out of all of us, she never would have thought that Sam would end up in a place like this. None of us thought that. We all thought that it would have been me. It should have been me.

My father had a drinking problem well into my youth. I have reason to believe that the loss of my mother, and the stress of his job was the cause. I recall a story he had told me, over and over about after I had been born. My mother had complications with her pregnancy. I almost died at birth, but I didn't. He was so happy, he drank half a bottle of whiskey, tried to make snowshoes out of tennis rackets, and fell asleep with the cat. Roth told me he always drank when he was happy, when he had something to celebrate over. It wasn't until after my mum died, when he got worse. He drank constantly. I wondered if that wasn't part of the reason he sent me off to those boarding schools. So I wouldn't...become like him. I'd like to think that he tried, unfortunately history has a tendency to repeat itself. In order to sleep at night, I would drink a half a bottle of scotch whiskey, with the help of sleep aids. But that wasn't all. It made the nightmares forgettable. That is, until I developed a tolerance. Another flaw in my relationship with Sam once she discovered my vice.

"How is she doing?" I asked one of the guards leading me to her.

"Quiet today, she had a rough night last night." The guard responded unlocking the door and opening it for me. "If you need me yell or hit the alarm. I'll be just out here." She motioned toward the wall. Shit, is she serious? I walked up to Sam on the other side of the glass. She seemed almost catatonic again, like she was on the boat. There were scratches up and down her arm, I felt a lump in my throat as I sat down across from her. We both picked up the phones when I started to speak:

"What happened to your arms? Did someone do that to you?" Or did she do it to herself? She sat there, motionless. "Sam? Hello? Can you hear me?"

"We can hear you fine." She replied. We? No...it couldn't be. In Mexico, a woman walked up to Sam and claimed that she had been possessed. Could it be, Himiko? I took deep breaths, trying to remain calm. This was finally starting to scare me.

"Sam, It's Lara. Come back to me. Please, come back to me!" I cried, putting my hand up to the glass. "It's going to be okay. I'm going to find a way to raise your bail. Get you out of here. Get you proper help. You know I will, right?" Her eyes changed. They glanced around the room, unsure of what was going on. This was Sam, and she looked terrified. Her hand met mine opposite the glass, she smiled faintly.

"I know.." Her brows furrowed, eyes grew cold. "So you'll be going away then?"

"I...maybe...I don't know." I stammered, trying to remain calm.

"Go!" She yelled, slamming the phone down as she got up and walked away.

"Sam! Come back! Sam!" This couldn't be really happening.

She was gone.