Title: Glowbug

Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Spoilers/warnings: Takes place post 5.22 (Swan Song), AU
Summary: She finds the glowing guy passed out in her front yard, little wisps of white light drifting upwards from his open mouth and dissipating on the slight breeze.

Author notes: This may be the first in a series.

Glowbug

She finds him sleeping in her front yard, or maybe passed out – Julie isn't exactly a doctor or anything, and about the best she can do is distinguish 'not dead' from 'dead,' so working out if there's something actually wrong with the giant crushing her flowers is beyond her.

He's tall, like maybe 6'5" or something, and he's glowing softly, little wisps of white light drifting upwards from his open mouth and dissipating on the slight breeze.

Julie spends a couple of minutes just staring at him; it's not like she knows exactly what the correct response to finding a huge glowing guy on her property is supposed to be.

Still, apart from the glowing, he seems pretty normal, so she does what she'd do if she found anyone else unconscious in her front yard; she nudges him with one foot and speaks.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty," she says loudly, digging the toe of her shoe into his shoulder.

After a moment his eyes slip open to spill out brilliant white light; he closes them for a second, and when he opens them again they're sort of brown, with tiny flecks of gold.

He stares up at her like he has no idea what either of them are doing there.

"Hey there," Julie says cautiously. "You know you're shedding light all over my yard?"

He blinks, like someone half-awake.

"Really?"

His voice is low and raspy, like he hasn't used it for a while. He seems to have understood what she said well enough, though, because he closes his eyes again and the unearthly radiance of him slowly dims until he's just a guy lying in the grass.

He opens his eyes again.

"Who are you?" Julie asks.

For a moment his expression is unreadable. Then:

"Sam, my name's Sam." He sounds tired. "Just Sam."

Julie watches him for a moment. She's conflicted, but in the end curiosity and compassion win out.

"Come on, just Sam," she says finally. "You look beat. I've got a spare bedroom I can lend you for the night. But you try anything silly, I'll shoot you."

Sam gives a strained, unhappy little grin.

"Yeah," he huffs a tiny half-laugh with a vaguely hysterical edge, white light wafting out like a tendril of smoke with his exhaled breath, "I don't think you can actually do anything to kill me."

He closes his eyes.

"But you're safe from me, Julie."

.Julie feels the hairs on the back of her neck rise at the use of her name, which she had definitely not given.

Whatever this guy is, she's growing more certain by the minute that he's not really human.

Sam pretty much passes out again as soon as his head hit the pillow. He doesn't start glowing again, but Julie checks on him several times, and for the next three hours he continues to breath out light intermittently, like Doctor Who right after a regeneration.

Julie uses this time to cook dinner, and to wonder what the hell glowbug boy actually is. Even in myths and fairytales, she's never heard of people who shine like a small star – actually, 'like a small star' is the perfect description, because Julie saw Stardust a little while ago and that is exactly what Sam's glow was like.

This isn't exactly a Hollywood movie or a Neil Gaiman novel, though.

She wakes Sam up when the spaghetti is done.

"I cooked some dinner," she says, when he stares blearily.

"Oh," he says. "I don't think I actually need to eat. But thanks."

Whether he needs to eat or not, he follows her out to the kitchen and wolfs down two bowls of spaghetti bolognaise like a starving man.

Neither of them speaks as they eat; Julie isn't sure what to say, and Sam… he deals with Julie politely enough, but he has a sort of half-stunned, not-entirely-there feeling to him. Julie's cousin got mugged once, and afterwards in the police station he had the same sort of absent air to him.

Once he's finished eating Sam sits and stares into space, his eyes unfocused, expression abstracted, like he's thinking hard about something.

"Bathroom's upstairs, if you want to take a shower," Julie says into the silence. "I can grab you a towel."

"That would be great, thanks," Sam says politely, eyes settling on her almost with surprise, as though he'd forgotten she was there.

So Julie rummaged around in the linen closet and gets him a towel, and Sam has a shower while she puts the dishwasher on.

By the time she's finished her own shower and turned everything off for the night, Sam is fast asleep in the spare bedroom, his mop of hair flopping all over the pillow.

Julie walks into the kitchen the next morning to find Sam eating a large chicken salad, and a large plate of pancakes sitting in the middle of the table, as well as a clean plate and cutlery in front of Julie's usual seat.

She blinks and looks around at the stove, but there are no dirty pans or anything, just a stack of fresh hot pancakes, and an unopened bottle of maple syrup sitting next to them.

"Morning," Sam says. He seems a lot more alert this morning.

"Good morning to you too," Julie says, a little suspiciously. She eyes the pancakes warily.

"Thanks," Sam says, suddenly and awkwardly. "For letting me stay overnight, I mean."

Julie surveys him.

"You look a lot better."

Sam smiles.

"I feel it." His eyes are bright, and his smile seems to light up the room, benevolent and peaceful. "I just needed time to… acclimatise to what had happened to me."

"What did happen to you?" Julie asks curiously.

A strangely contemplative, absorbed little smile curls Sam's mouth. His expression isn't quite amused, but it's definitely in the ballpark.

"I'm not completely sure, to be honest. But I think – that someone gave me a gift, because they were trapped and wanted to see it used, and they knew that I wasn't going to trapped much longer."

Uh-huh. Nice and cryptic. Still, it's not any of Julie's business, so she doesn't pry any further.

"Anyway, there are some people I need to contact, let them know what happened to me," Sam says, getting to his feet. "But I'm really grateful to you, Julie."

Julie nods, and walks him to the front door.

"Will you be okay?" she asks impulsively, as Sam goes down the porch steps, because this has been strange and inexplicable and Julie knows that as soon as he's gone her life will just go on as normal.

Somehow, she doubts it will for Sam.

Sam's grin is confident and assured this time.

"Oh, believe me, I'll be just fine," he says.