Sam looked up at Brass through tears in her tired eyes when he walked into the police department's waiting room. She was exhausted, hungry, worried and nervous; creating a very unpleasant and uncomfortable feeling. This was another one of those times where she wished that she was a hell of a lot stronger emotionally than she was.
"You're free to go," Brass said with a small smile.
Sam frowned in slight confusion. "Why?" she asked.
Brass laughed. "I think that's the first time anyone has ever questioned my releasing them from the police," he joked, somewhat seriously. "Nick was just released from the hospital with a serious concussion, but nothing more. He's not going to press charges, so you're free to go," he added simply.
"Of course he's not," Sam said with a sad smile. She stood to leave, but didn't right away. "Is he going to be okay?"
Brass nodded. "Yeah, after a lot of rest, he'll be fine."
Sam nodded her thanks silently before finally leaving the station and taking shelter in her overheated car. The intense heat inside the vehicle did nothing to alleviate her emotional stress, but only made it worse and more unbearable. She didn't even attempt to take out her keys to start the car and get the air conditioning on. Instead, she let her head fall into her hands as the tears flooded from her eyes. The events of the past week or so had been too much for any one person to handle emotionally, and now it was finally getting the best of her as she sat alone in her car with no idea of what she was supposed to do next.
Nick had suffered concussions in his life before; it came with the territory of playing sports, especially football. He had dealt with concussions before, but never any this bad. Catherine had stayed with him for a few hours to make sure that he was alright because his symptoms were very severe; he was dizzy, nauseous, kept forgetting what he was trying to say or do, and couldn't stand for more than a few short minutes at a time. He woke up after falling asleep for a second time to the feeling that someone was taking a jack hammer to his skull. He couldn't open his eyes because he was sensitive to even the smallest amount of light, which was coming from the cracked bedroom door leading out to the hallway. After a few minutes of laying in his bed in extreme pain, his headache subsided enough for him to stagger into the kitchen and get a glass of water, which didn't help anything at all. He had never felt like this in his life before and was getting worried; he was just about to get his phone and call Catherine when there was a knock at his door.
After bracing himself against the wall for long enough to be able to walk, Nick slowly made his way over to the door. He still had the same jeans on from the night before, but his t-shirt had been changed from his previous one that had become bloodstained. He made it to the door in record slow time and pulled it open quickly for fear that he would pass out before he could usher Catherine inside to help him. Upon opening the door, Nick discovered that it wasn't Catherine. Seeing who he thought it was only made him more worried that his condition was very serious and too much for him to handle himself that he wished he had called Catherine before opening the door to see the apparent illusion on his front porch. Against his better judgment, the pain in his heart told him that Sam really was standing in front of him, and after a few blurry seconds he knew it was for real.
Sam had never before seen Nick look the way that he did right now. He was extremely pale with dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. The bandages and butterfly stitches covering his wounds had been displaced when he had been sleeping, revealing the dark bruises and cuts underneath them. Tears started building up in her eyes at the sight of him and the knowledge that she was the one who had done this to him. After everything she had been through because of him, seeing him in such a bad condition made her forget all of that and completely regret what she had recently done to him. Her throat felt like it had completely closed and her hands were shaking by her side so bad that she couldn't look at him anymore. She turned and took a few short steps away from his house before she stopped herself and turned back around, but Nick wasn't there anymore.
He had become so light headed and nauseous that once Sam had turned to apparently leave, Nick stumbled back into his house and collapsed on the couch. When Sam turned back around, she saw that Nick was no longer standing there, but the door was still open. She was genuinely worried about him, so she hurried into the house, shutting the door behind her. She found him on the couch with his clenched fists pressed against his forehead, obviously trying to make the extreme pain in his head go away. Sam knelt down on the floor next to Nick, wanting to help him but not entirely sure what she should do.
"You don't have to be here," Nick said through clenched teeth. "I'm gonna call Catherine. She can come over."
Sam shook her head even though she knew Nick's eyes were tightly closed. "You need help now," she said softly.
Nick suddenly sat up, his eyes still closed. "I'm gonna be sick," he mumbled before staggering to his feet and somehow blindly making his way to the bathroom. Sam stayed frozen where she was, unsure of whether she should call Catherine for Nick and just leave or stay and help him deal with the problem that she caused. After hearing him get sick to his stomach several times, she knew she couldn't just leave him here to wait for someone else to come help him. She quickly got up and went into the bathroom, where she found Nick slumped against the wall, his eyes still closed.
After taking in the sight of Nick suffering on the floor, Sam noticed that the bathroom mirror was shattered. Someone had cleaned up the broken pieces that had undoubtedly been scattered across the counter. While looking around, she also saw peroxide, gauze, butterfly stitches and tape that she would need to redress Nick's wounds were all in a box on the bathroom sink, probably left there by Catherine before she had left. She grabbed the box, forgetting about the broken mirror, before going over and sitting on the cold floor next to Nick, who finally opened his eyes and looked at her for the first time since he had opened the door.
"Why are you here?" he asked softly.
Sam shook her head slowly. "I don't know," she replied. "But these cuts need to be cleaned, and you need someone here with you."
Nick silently nodded as he adjusted his position so he was leaned back with his head resting against the side of the tub. He closed his eyes again and to his surprise, the room stopped spinning so fast. He flinched slightly when Sam pulled off the dirty bandages so she could clean the cuts. His head was still pounding and he felt like he was going to be sick to his stomach again very soon.
"This is gonna sting," Sam said before she started rubbing the peroxide over Nick's cuts. He grimaced, but didn't pull away or flinch hardly at all. He just sat there silently as Sam cleaned and redressed his wounds gently, causing him as little additional pain as possible. His hand that had been shut in the door was also bandaged, but Sam let that be and didn't bring it up.
When she was finished, she put the box back on the counter and ran a face cloth under cold water before ringing it out, folding it and going back over to Nick to hold it on his forehead for him. It didn't do much to alleviate his headache, but it did enough to make Nick grateful that Sam was there with him right now.
A drop of water fell from the facecloth and slowly trickled down the uninjured side of Nick's face, causing Sam to involuntarily reach out and gently wipe it away. Her hand continued its motion upwards until it reached Nick's short, dark hair. She lightly brushed her fingers over the soft edges briefly before pulling her hand away when he looked up at her with a small smile.
"I don't remember our fight," he said quietly, "but I know that it was my fault and that I'm sorry."
Sam shook her head. "I wanted to fight with you," she said. "I want to hate you and I want to yell at you, but when I saw you all I wanted to do was hug you and kiss you because I thought that that would make everything that had happened go away and everything would be okay again. I knew that wasn't true, so I tried to hate you by fighting with you."
"I remember I said something awful," Nick replied. "I can't remember what it was. I told Catherine, but then I forgot. I can't remember anything I said or you said, but I know none of it was any good. Even though I can't remember, I'm sorry for whatever I said."
"It doesn't matter now," Sam responded. "I shouldn't have hit you with that glass. I didn't want to hurt you, I just wanted you to shut up."
Nick smiled. "You knew that was the only way you were gonna get me to shut up."
Sam laughed sadly. "Yeah, I guess that's true." She watched as Nick closed his eyes again against another onset of severe pain emanating from his injured head. Laying on a bathroom floor using a bathtub as a pillow couldn't be the best thing for him right now. "Come on," Sam said, removing the facecloth from his head. "You need to get to bed before you pass out here. We both know I can't carry you."
Nick nodded in agreement. "Okay," he said weakly.
Sam draped his left arm over her shoulders and slowly helped him to his feet. When they were finally standing, Sam wrapped her arm around his waist to support him more as they made their way into his bedroom in the next room over. It was fairly dark in the room, but Sam was able to help Nick maneuver over to the side of the bed, at which point Sam assumed Nick would happily fall down onto the mattress and fall asleep instantly, but he didn't.
He instead turned to face her, putting his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him with surprise, but didn't say anything. He slowly moved his hands down her arms until her hands were in his. She was still mad at him for everything, and she was still trying very hard to hate him. But seeing him so injured and vulnerable had made her remember how worried she had been when he had first left that something awful had happened to him. He left, he broke her heart, and she didn't know if she could ever forgive him or get over that. But despite all of that, he was the only guy she had ever loved, and he knew that. He still had the same power over her that she still held over him. They both knew that what had happened in the past didn't matter at that very moment because it hadn't changed how they felt about each other, even if they had yet to express it aloud.
It was dark in the room, but there was enough light left for them to be able to look into each others eyes. She held on to his hands tightly; she had really missed these hands and being able to hold them.
"God, I missed you," he breathed softly before pulling her against him and finally kissing her.
Sam didn't want to give in, but knew she was going to. She always gave in to him, no matter what. She forgot about everything else that had recently been said and done and kissed him back, reveling in the intoxicating familiar feeling. After a moment or two, she felt his hands begin to shake in hers. She knew he was beyond exhausted and severely concussed and needed to rest, now, and she knew exactly how to get him to do that.
She gently pulled her hands away from his, but kept kissing him. She moved her hands to his jeans deftly undoing them and pushing them down until they slid off. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let herself fall back onto the bed, pulling him slowly down with her. His shaking body covered hers as he was unable to support his own body weight.
"You need to sleep," she whispered in his ear.
He shook his head. "I don't want to."
Sam gently rolled him over onto his other side and pulled the covers over him. "You need to," she said, reaching out and running her hand through his hair.
He was struggling to keep his eyes open as his vision was blurring and starting to fade. "You don't have to stay, but I don't want you to leave. I don't want to be alone, I want you here." His eyes fell closed and he sighed heavily. "I miss you and I need you. You have no idea."