Somehow, you don't completely remember it happening, but somehow Sam got you up and on your feet before the museum attendant returned with the news that he had no idea where you had gone. When he saw that you had suddenly materialized in the room, Sam pinched you, and you coughed a weak "hello" at him. Sam then carried on to cover the rest with some story of how you had been ill a few days ago and had misjudged your recovery and that you had just been in the washroom for slightly longer than normal. Then she hurriedly thanked him and dragged you, quite literally, out of the museum. Outside, she shoved you forward towards the car, and then into it. Now, you're fumbling with your seat beat while she silently watches you.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to get you out of there." She reaches over and clicks the the belt into place for you. "I don't know what happened, but you looked like you needed to get out." You start rubbing at your temples. You didn't realize you had such a bad headache. "You know I wouldn't push you around like that if I didn't think I needed to?"

"S'okay." You'd rather not slur your words, but your brain and tongue have other ideas. "Y'did the right thing."

Sam's not used to you slurring, either. That, combined with how she just found you, is causing her to stare at you with that damn look on her face. "God, Lara, what happened in there?"

You drop your face into your hands, rubbing your forehead with the heels of your palms. "Home first." While it seems that your words are gone, your manners are still intact. "Please." It's a good thing you keep your head down, because the way she's breaking the speed limit combined with her inability to keep her eyes on the road would throw your brain into overload again.

When you do get home, she ushers you through the door in a similar manner to the way she rescued you from the museum, although you're able to keep your feet from dragging this time. She lets you collapse onto your bed and instinctively, you curl into yourself. You feel Sam drop onto the bed beside you, but you stay curled. "How'd you find me?"

She doesn't reply immediately, and the bed dips as she shuffles around. "Did you… not want me to?"

"No, no. S'good you did. Thanks. How?" You've been inarticulate before, but this is so far beyond any of those times that it's starting to get sort of weird.

You still can't see much other than the bedsheets, a pillow, and parts of your arms and legs, but you don't need to see Sam to know she's thinking the same thing. Her tone betrays her. "Ohhh-kay. Well, first of all, I obviously started to worry when you didn't answer your phone around the seventeenth time. Then I worried a little more when you weren't home for supper."

"Hm?"

"I mean, you said you planned on doing a bit of work, but I didn't think you'd be going for a full day, let alone put in any overtime." You're jostled as the mattress shifts around, along with Sam, again.

Your brain is not at all at full capacity, and you're still very confused. "Yeah. But supper?"

"I know, I know, we have the furthest thing from an actual schedule when it comes to food, but most of the time we usually have at least a plan for food by seven."

"It's when?" You really should have caught on by now.

Again, Sam takes her time before responding. When she does, her voice is low. "Lara… do you- how long were you sitting in that closet?"

It would be nice if you could stop your voice from trembling. "Dunno." You try to remember if you ever looked at a clock. "Couldn'ta been there more than two hours before I hadta go in there. Really didn't want to, but where else?"

She takes a deep breath. "Oh boy. Well, you were in there for a long time, then. Shit. Uh, do you maybe want some food or something? I, uh, I assume you didn't have lunch in there."

She's right, but you don't have an appetite at all right now. "No. Later, maybe." An answer to a question that was lingering suddenly occurs to you with the revelation of how long you had disappeared for. "Guess there wasn't a security camera in there after all."

"Huh?"

It's not really the most pressing matter right now. Or at all. "No. It's nothing, never mind."

"Alright." Again, she pauses for a long time. You're getting the impression that she doesn't know how to go about this. Which, admittedly, isn't that unusual. Still, you don't blame her. "Do you think you can tell me what happened?"

You'd rather not even think about it. But you've promised her that you'd stop hiding. You temporarily uncurl so you can look at her as you force yourself to tell her, "I can try." You attempt to relax yourself enough to keep from going back to full-out foetal position. You end up with a slightly increased view of your surroundings.

"'Kay. Take your time." You have enough of a view that you see Sam catch herself before she reaches over towards you. She hesitates. "Is it okay if I-"

"Please."

Almost immediately, Sam is wrapping you up in her arms. It's not the smoothest transition due to your current position, and you loosen yourself enough that you're now closer to resembling an oval than a ball. You don't like that she asked if this was okay. The only other time she's asked, in that manner, before snuggling, comforting, or even just touching you, was the same day that she started her loud entrance routine. And the day after. "Sam? I didn't?" You really don't recall how she got you out of that closet. "When you found me, and got me standing up and all that. Did I? I didn't do anything to-"

"No. What? Of course you didn't."

"Are you sure? I don't really remember exactly what happened…"

"Listen." Pointlessly, she pulls her arm back to brush your hair from your face. Because of how you're laying, it all falls back down into your eyes immediately. "The only thing that you did was scare me, and that was only because of the way you were so unresponsive that I had to literally drag you around. I know where you're going. I asked just now because I've never seen you like this before. You've had bad moments, but this is, uh, different. I wanted to make sure I wasn't overstepping."

"Okay." You tuck your head under her chin.

"I swear I'm not lying." You make an agreeable noise. "Now, are you sure you're alright to tell me about this right now? Because you really don't seem…"

She's given you an out. But putting things off and promising to do them later is almost as bad as flat out ignoring them. "If I don't now, I won't. Or it'll be ten times harder when I do."

"If you're sure."

"I am. And I think my grammar is starting to come back. Bear with me."

She chuckles. "Yes, because correct grammar is of the utmost importance right now. Also, you're telling this to me?"

"Point taken." You try to start, but the only noise you make is a strangled sound. Your inability to get started makes you grumble.

"Hey. It's fine." She leans back enough to be able to look you in the eyes. "Take your time. I'm here all night."

The bedsheets rub against your cheek when you nod at her. She envelopes you again, and you try to relax into her a little more. You could use a few minutes to figure out how to start.

A few minutes turn into half an hour. Frustrating as it was, not knowing what to say, that downtime was needed while you calmed down. "Everything that was in there was from Yamatai."

Sam shuffles around briefly when she hears you finally start. "I know. You're good?"

You could laugh. "Yeah, I don't think so. But I'm ready to tell you what went on at the museum. Probably."

"Well, in that case, I'm ready to listen."

You take a deep breath, and then allow the words to spill out. "See, the problem with all of that stuff being from Yamatai is that it all made me think of Yamatai. And we've already figured out that when I think about Yamatai I-"

She fills in for you, "Panic."

"Basically. Except this went further than panic. Probably because I was looking at and… holding things that I apparently very distinctively remember collecting. But it feels like I remember too much." You're not sure that 'remember' is a strong enough word.

"How so?"

"I don't quite know if saying that I remember too much is the right way to put it. It's more like… an experience than a memory. The items that I was examining, when I picked them up and looked at them closer, something clicked in my brain? It was like I remembered what was happening when I found them, and then I was there again. It was happening again." You let silence linger as you battle with yourself over how in depth you should get with this story.

"Mm," Sam starts mumbling. "I think I understand what you mean."

She might be trying to tell you something, she might just be sympathizing with you. But she's never been the type to say that she know a feeling unless she actually does. "Sam?"

"No, I'm sorry, this isn't about me. Keep going." You don't. "Lara, that wasn't what I was trying to say. I didn't-"

Your voice is flat when you cut her off. "Right."

"Fine. Maybe I did mean it that way. But this really isn't about me right now, I wasn't catatonic in a closet. Later. I promise." It doesn't feel like she's trying to get out of it. After all, she didn't deny it.

"I'll hold you to that." You still haven't decided how much you should tell her. You could leave it there, she apparently understands. But leaving it there wouldn't be much better than telling her nothing at all. "How much do you want to hear?"

"Is there something that I shouldn't hear?"

Yes. "I don't know. Maybe."

"Tell me however much you want, Lara. If you say anything that I, for whatever reason, don't want to hear the rest of, I'll let you know. Otherwise, as much of it as you want." She slings a leg over yours, which are still partially pulled up towards you. It's strange, just how much safer you feel when she's with you.

"There were a lot of things in there. I randomly choose, really, and picked up a little jade statue. It was in the shanty town when I found it, I think. It must have been, because when I was holding it, I wasn't holding it." How do you explain? And do you tell her what you did? You've still not ever gone into much detail of what you had to do to survive, and she wasn't around to see much of it. She's not looked at the camera either. Neither have you. You have no idea what it might have accidentally recorded.

"I'm not sure what that means. And you were carrying statues around with you?"

"It was small, Sam. And, I don't know, finding that stuff made everything feel normal, like how the trip was supposed to go. Even if it was only for the few minutes I could take to stop and look. But yeah, I brought it back and when I picked it up again, I was standing on a tin roof. There was fire. Solarii. I had to- the statue wasn't a statue anymore. It was like I had my bow in my hands again. I had to do it all over again. The Solarii, they were… coming for me, and I didn't know what was happening. But I had my bow…"

She has a general idea of what you did. She knows that you've killed. She just doesn't know any fine details.

"Lara? You okay?"

It shouldn't be so hard to tell her, you think. She knows you had to do it, she understands. The problem, though, the problem is what if she doesn't? "I don't want to tell you what I did."

"Then don't. If you aren't comfortable with it, you don't have to. However, I will say that I'm pretty sure that I know what you did. If that makes you feel any better."

It does almost the exact opposite. You don't manage more than a whisper, "But you don't know how."

"Nope. I don't. I don't have to, if you don't want me to. The thing is, I think you're going to have to tell someone, eventually. I don't think you can keep it all locked away, I think that if you do try to, it'll start eating away at you. I don't want to watch that happen to you. And yeah, I'm here for you, 24/7, but it doesn't have to be me that you tell, that's your choice." It really isn't too much, this time. Tame, in comparison. You're still hesitant though. "Before you make that choice though, I want you to know that nothing you say is going to make me judge you. Nothing is going to make me be disgusted by you. Nothing could ever make me hate you. There is nothing you can tell me that will change the fact that I love you."

She says leaves it at that, and patiently waits for you to carry on however you want to. You're scared to tell her all of the things you've done. You're afraid to even say any of it out loud at all. "I had these… I would light arrows on fire. And everything was so run down. There was junk all over the place. Gas cans. Barrels of fuel. Shooting them? With the lit arrows?"

"Boom?"

"…Yeah. When they didn't instantly… if they just caught on fire?" You have to pause to steady your voice. "They'd start yelling. Screaming. There was so much screaming, Sam. Sometimes they'd beg. But it… never made a difference to me." It's that last bit that's the problem. You wish you hadn't admitted it, and don't know why you did.

"And that all happened again?" There's no hint of anything but understanding and acceptance in her voice. Just like she promised. No displeasure. No disgust. But overall, looking at everything you did? What you've told her is barely the start.

"I mean, not technically. It felt like it did. It only stopped because I was confused and after I had finished- afterwards, I set the bow down to stop and think. But it wasn't a bow anymore. It was a little horse again."

"Then you were back? It ended when you let go of the statue?"

It helps that you don't have to go step by step. That she seems to catch on quick enough. "Pretty much. I was a little confused again, about where I was. But yes, I think part of it had to do with me holding the relics. I mean, everything kicked in when I picked them up. Because the next thing I picked up was a coin."

"At least you can fit a coin into your pocket."

"Sam, it's not- I shouldn't've… it's not funny. I shouldn't have this coin."

"I know, I'm sorry." She sounds like she truly means it. "Wait, so what's the deal with the coin? Out of everything you took, why is it the thing that you shouldn't have?"

The 'What If?' makes your stomach churn. "It's more about where I found it. Uh, when I found it?"

"Alright…" She doesn't get it because she doesn't know. "So, you picked up this coin."

"It was different. I had this funny feeling that I was supposed to meet somebody somewhere. I felt like I was keeping somebody waiting. I don't know why I would think that," Yes, you do. "It's not like I made any other plans."

"But looking at the coin made you think that you did."

Why you bothered trying bypass that fact is beyond you. "Yeah. I thought and I thought, and then I remembered that I was supposed to meet Alex somewhere."

"Lara…"

"But I couldn't remember where. And I thought and I thought about that. I still couldn't remember."

"Lara, where did you find the coin?"

"In the end, I didn't need to remember. Because there were gunshots. I couldn't tell where they were coming from, and I started looking around. I opened the closet, the one you found me in? It wasn't the closet though. It was The Endurance. It was flooded a bit," You're almost on autopilot. You feel like you're watching yourself tell the story. "And it was wrecked. Found Alex there. He was trapped. Don't know why he wouldn't have been. Don't know why I would have gotten there fast enough this time, it's not like I was controlling what wa-"

"Lara."

Autopilot switches off. You could ignore and talk over Sam when she was trying to get your attention during your short pauses, but it's much harder when she cuts you off. You stop and wait for her to ask it again.

"Where did you find this coin? Originally, on the island. No, wait, you said it was more about the timing. When exactly did you find it?"

"I was trying to find Reyes' tools. I saw it when I was going back to The Endurance." Your voice is cracking, you're failing to control it. "I saw it and I stopped. To look at it. To calm down. To have that moment of normal? To pretend everything wasn't going to hell. I stopped and looked at it for a minute or two."

"Okay," Sam prompts you when she thinks that you've stopped the tale completely. Really, you've stopped to try and get your damn voice under control. You can't, and it's coming out at the wrong pitch when you continue.

"It was wasted time? I wasted time. I didn't know, though. How was I supposed to know? If I hadn't stopped, I wouldn't have taken so long to get to the… to find him. Alex. I could have gotten there earlier." You jam your eyes shut so the tears can't get out. "If I hadn't stopped, if I had gotten there quicker…"

"Lara Croft." Sam rolls away from you and you feel the bed shift as she sits up. She's probably staring at you, but you're too busy trying to keep yourself together to check. "Don't you dare. You do not even think that. Please look at me while I tell you this?" You don't move at all, but you do finally open your eyes. Everything is blurry, and you try to swallow back the tears that are imminent. Sam drops back down onto the bed again, if only to make eye contact easier. "Don't you dare think that that was your fault. It fucking sucks, it's fucking awful, and it shouldn't have happened. But don't you dare think that he died because you stopped for two minutes."

"I-"

"No. One hundred and twenty seconds, Lara. Do you honestly think that that amount of time would have changed everything? Anything? I don't know what all happened in the ship, but from the bits and pieces I've caught, I think you would have needed another twenty-four hundred seconds at least. Probably more. You couldn't have done any better. You're listening, right?"

Instead of using words to reply, you simply give up and let yourself cry.

"Lara, I know this isn't what you want to hear. It's what you need to hear. You couldn't have done it. You did so much. So much. I know you think you could have done more, but time wasn't on your side. And that is not your fault. You did what you could with the time you had, and if anything, the one who was wasting everybody's tiii- Um. Huh. But you, uh. What I'm saying is that you, ah, you did everything you could. So you do not blame yourself. You do not even think about blaming yourself. You can be sad. You can be angry. You can wish it didn't happen. You can even want to blow the fucking island to bits, for what it took from us. From you. But I will not let you blame yourself for any of it."

Somewhere along the line, you disregarded Sam's request for you to look at her, and groped around from a pillow. When you found one, you buried your face in it and let yourself keep crying as you listened. And listening only caused you to cry harder, especially when she tripped up. You keep on crying even after Sam stops.

"Okay. Okay, okay, okay. It's okay." She pats her leg. "Come on, c'mere." You don't move. "Or stay there. That works. I can work with that." There's a large amount of shuffling around, and then Sam's maneuvered herself so that your head is in her lap. She starts to gently rub your back while you try to regain your composure. "Let's just take a moment."

It's not long after she goes silent that you hear her sniff a few times. She leans back, and there's a thunk, probably her head hitting the headboard. You can feel her start to tremble.

You push yourself to talk, because it is a complete necessity right now. Because you've been, and continue to be, so oblivious to everything. Still, your voice continues to refuse to cooperate and everything you say sounds far shakier than you'd like. "Sam?" No response. "Sam, you listen now. If none of it was my fault, then there is no way in hell that any of it was even remotely yours." Her hand freezes on your shoulder. She's told you numerous times that what happened wasn't your fault, specifically, while other people have been told you that what happened was nobody's fault. It's small, but you should have noticed it anyway. She's never once told you that it was nobody's fault, only that it wasn't yours. "You are absolutely not allowed to think that either."

Silence stretches further and further and you're about to raise your head when you hear a choked sound.

"Oh god." She slouches a little. Her head drops, and it rests in the hand that isn't on your back. "Oh, god, thank you." She sniffs one more time before allowing one sob. "Thank you. Thank you." That one sob turns into two, and after that there's no point in keeping track. "Fuck. Lara… thank you."

The way that she completely crumbles gets you started on crying again.

Eventually, the two of you downgrade from sobbing wrecks to snivelling messes. Then from snivelling messes to silent humanoid-shaped lumps. It's around the vague time of humanoid-lumps that you realize that you still don't know what the actual time is. "Sam? What time is it?"

Her voice comes out slightly scratchy. "Pretty late. Really early. You pick."

You push yourself up, and your body lets you know that it's upset with how long you spent awkwardly folded up. A few joints make ugly popping noises as you rearrange yourself to sit beside Sam. "Shit. I didn't mean to keep you up all night, you have some appointments today, don't you? Do you want to try to get a-"

"Nope. Fuck whatever I'm supposed to do today. You're more important. I can go call and cancel stuff when the hour is slightly less ungodly." She tips sideways and rests her head on your shoulder. "And it was worth it, I think."

You know what she's trying to say. "I'm sorry it took me so long to… I don't know. To hear what you weren't telling me, I guess."

She laughs. "I think I can forgive you, seeing how it's pretty impossible to hear something that I didn't say."

You jab her in the ribs with your elbow. "Stop it. You know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah. I don't think I have to say how much I do appreciate you saying that to me. Although I don't think I'm gonna be able to shake all the guilt I feel quite that easily. But, still."

"Hypocrite."

Her head pops up from your shoulder, and you end up in a staring contest. It doesn't last long though, the two of you dissolving into giggles within a minute. You try to stop, but you can't; every time your laughter slows down, you hear Sam still snickering loudly and it makes you start all over again. By the time you've both stopped spurring the other on, your stomach hurts. "God, Sam, should we be laughing about this?"

She smirks at you. "What else do we have to laugh about right now?"

"Yeah, I guess you have a point there." Your brow furrows when you fully digest her answer. "That's really kind of depressing that one of the few things that's been making us laugh lately is the fact that we're barely functioning."

"A little macabre, maybe. Thing is, if we can't laugh about it, I think we're fucked, y'know?" She chuckles again, but it's much more humourless than before. "Wow, we're on a bit of a roller coaster, aren't we? What with the hysterical laughter following the intense crying cleanse session." She suddenly sounds tired.

"I think you're understating it." You sound tired too.

She yawns. "Probably. But it did kinda interrupt you. Anything else you wanna tell me about yesterday?"

"Only if we can have a nap first."

"I think I'll take that deal." The speed with which she gets the blankets up and covering you is rather impressive.

When you wake up, you stretch and roll over to see Sam staring at the ceiling, hands linked behind her head. "Good morning."

"Is it?"

She scoffs, and keeps on staring at the ceiling. "Guess so. S'close as we're gonna get."

"How long have you been up?" You finally decide to actually look at a clock, yourself. It's slightly after nine.

"Told you, I had to call to cancel stuff. But I got a few hours, so don't worry, alright? Just didn't feel like going back to sleep after I got off the phone, is all."

Being told not to worry about something generally makes you worry more. "You've just been laying there?"

"Sure. It's comfy. Plus I, uh, I feel safer when I'm with you. Even if you're pretty much unconscious." She hesitates. "And I was thinking."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Hey, I think you should have something to eat." You can't tell if she's trying to steer the conversation away from whatever it was that she was thinking about or not. "You haven't had any food in, what? Over a day?" Or maybe she was just thinking about your eating habits.

Either way, she's right. "I'll go find something. You want anything? I can always make a few extra pieces of toast."

"Don't even say that word. But yeah, I'll just have whatever you're having. Thanks."

It's surprisingly difficult to haul yourself up and out of bed, but the idea of food gives you the strength. You're stuffing your feet into your yolked little bunnies when Sam says, "Wait." She's still staring at the ceiling. You sit back down beside her, and drop the bunnies back to the floor (although you have reason to get rid of them now, you're finding that you're actually rather fond of them). "Maybe this is stupid, or just a bad idea… Although I'm not freaking out at the thought of asking you this, so then again, maybe it isn't. Whatever. So you're eventually gonna have some sort of exhibit with all that stuff from Yamatai, right?"

"Probably."

"Okay." She pauses for so long that you think that that was her question. "All of it?"

"I guess."

"So, then. That coin." She finally looks away from the ceiling, and meets your eyes. "I was thinking, and Lara, do you think that maybe we could… Do you maybe wanna dedicate it to him? When everything gets set up? We're gonna end up thinking about him every time we see it anyway, aren't we? How about we try to remember the good things, instead of…"

You wonder exactly how long she was awake, staring at the ceiling. Counterproductively, you lay back down on the bed and copy her, head resting on your hands. "I think I'd like that."

"Really?"

"Really." Although you had intended to elaborate, you change your mind, and both of you end up looking back up to the ceiling. You stay there, in silence, for a few minutes. "Sam?" She turns her head to look at you. "You know, I think that together, we're figuring out how to be much more than just the sum of our parts."

"And separately, we're kinda just a mess?

Her succinctly accurate description makes you laugh. "Probably, but I wasn't going to say that."

"Well, somebody has to."

"Maybe. I'm glad it's you, though. Wouldn't hear it from anybody else."

She looks up to the ceiling tiles again, and watches them for a few minutes. "I love you, y'know?"

"Mm. And I love you, too, yeah? More than I think you realize."

You pull a hand out from behind your head and reach out so it's in Sam's line of sight. She takes a hold of it, intertwining your fingers. Even though your stomach has started rumbling, you decide you aren't in much of a rush. You want to spend a little more time with Sam, tracing cracks in the ceiling and enjoying the comfortable silence.

When your stomach started to rumble too much to ignore, breakfast was cooked and eaten. A quick shower later, and you're laying on your back in bed again. Sam has slowly snuggled herself towards you, against you, and finally, half on top of you. You're okay with that.

"So that was pretty much the end of my Alex hallucination. Or whatever we want to call it. The second time I opened that door, he told me to get out, so I did. Then the coin fell out of my hand, and it was all gone."

"I can't believe you actually got into the closet after seeing that."

Neither do you. "I didn't want to, but there was nowhere else to, well, hide. I didn't know if I could make it to the washroom without being seen. And it's not like I jumped in there immediately."

"So there's more, then?"

"Yeah, I- I tried one more time." You don't know how much of this one you can tell her. How do you calmly explain to her that you willingly stood and waited for a plane to drop on you? It wasn't real, and it wasn't like you actually did choose to stand there, but combined with some of the dreams you've had, it would maybe seem somewhat worrying. But she doesn't know about any of your dreams yet, so she'll only have one example of you… killing yourself? Does only having one example make it better? "It was a badge that I picked up. I didn't really get much of a look at it, because the first thing I saw was some Kanji etched on it. I ran my thumb over the etchings, to feel the grooves, I guess.. But when I did that, I ended up flicking a lighter on, and the badge was gone. When I signalled the plane? I had found the badge in a building near the tank I set on fire."

She's managed to tuck her face up against the crook of your neck, and you can feel her words when she talks. "You set it on fire again, then?"

"No, it was already on fire. I was just standing there with the lighter. Waiting, I guess. I kept flicking it on and off."

"The plane didn't show up?"

"Uh, it did. And it was the same thing over again, struck by lightning, and then crashing." How do you phrase this? "I, well, I just stood and watched it fall."

"It landed somewhere else?"

Well. Technically, yes, it did. You wouldn't be lying, you'd just be omitting some potentially upsetting details. "Yeah, it- yeah."

"That's weird." She rolls off of you and onto her side. She looks genuinely contemplative. "Where did it land, then? Somewhere else that was significant?"

It landed on your significant other, you could tell her. You don't. "I didn't see." Everything was black at that point, so you're still not lying. You might not be doing the right thing, skirting around the truth, but you aren't lying.

"Hm. Why would it change so much?"

"I don't know." You really don't. So why do you feel so bad about saying it? Because she's thinking about it in a completely different way than you are. "It crashed into…" The whole truth dies on your lips. "It crashed, and I was back again." You tried, at least. "I think I poked myself with the badge's pin."

"Hm." Again, Sam makes her way back to cuddling you. "That one seems like the lesser of the three evils. You stopped after that?"

Edited, it certainly doesn't sound all that terrible. "Yeah. I suppose that was enough for me to start panicking about what was happening."

"That's understandable. What do we do now, though? It's not quite the same as baby stepping your way out of the house again."

You wrap an arm around her. It feels odd to be this relaxed and comfortable while talking about this. The two of you must be starting to get used to it. Which is something that you wish was unnecessary. "I have no idea. What am I supposed to do with myself, Sam?"

"We'll figure us out. Just remember that you aren't alone in this, okay?" She looks up and smiles at you. "Because without you, I'm kinda just a mess. I've heard that you might be too."

take this burden away from me, and bury it before it buries me

The guilt, it runs deep. Deeper than the denial? The guilt gets deeper as the denial get shallower?

Okay, so here's how this chapter went.

Me: Alright guys, so this is what's gonna happen for a few thousand words.

Lara & Sam: Nah.

Me: oh okay then

Anyway, there's a line in this that I nicked from the fabulous Brian K. Vaughan. So thank you, good sir. Please continue to be amazing.

And I'll try to stop having Sam make inventory jokes after this chapter, I promise.

Coming soon to a ff dot net near you: a chapter that was titled but then changed so it needs to be retitled except i haven't gotten to that yet