Six weeks into his recovery, Janet announced Daniel was well enough to be let out of the infirmary. But she insisted he stay with someone to help him adjust. She suggested Sam and he agreed she would be the best choice. Sam on the other hand, was hesitant. In the Doctor's office, she voiced her concerns.

"I can't do it Janet, I just can't. What if–?"

"Sam, everything going to be alright, what happened last time was a result of the illness. Daniel's better now."

"He may have gotten through the withdrawal but I would not say he's better."

Janet put a hand on Sam's shoulder.

"He trusts you Sam, and that's what he needs right now. Just because something bad happened the last time you took care of him doesn't mean it's going to happen again. And you have start believing that what happened wasn't your fault."

Sam sat down and nodded.

"I know." She said, "But I can't stop seeing it. The blood, the knife. He was relapsing and I didn't see it. I just wanted him to be better so badly that I ignored the signs and we almost lost him."

Janet sat down opposite her and took her hands, rubbing a soothing thumb over them.

"The only other option we have is a stay at home nurse and I think that would hinder his recovery even more. He needs to be around people he knows and cares about. And who care about him, and nobody cares for him more than you do." She paused, hesitating before voicing her next thought, "You love him, don't you?"

Sam looked up.

"Yeah. I love him. I've always loved him. I just didn't realize how much until he was nearly taken away from me for good."

…

Daniel was sitting on the edge of his bed wearing casual clothes when Janet came in to go over his medication. She was prescribing him a low dosage anti-depressant and went over the instructions in a clinical tones without looking him in the eye. She prattled on knowing she was masking her feelings with her words, until Daniel's hand lifted her chin and forced her eyes to meet his.

Her voice died away and she felt tears of guilt and shame welling up inside her.

"I'm so sorry Daniel. I'm so, so sorry."

He wiped her tears away with his thumb.

"I know." He said in a tired voice, "Everyone is." He sighed and rubbed his eyes, adjusting his glasses once he was done. "That's all I've been hearing lately. 'I'm sorry' 'how awful' 'we should have done more'." He shook his head, "I know you blame yourself for what happened and I can't deny that I feel let down by everyone. But I'm tired of all the apologies. I'm tired of the pity. I have too much going on in my head that I have to deal with right now, I can't…"

"I understand." Janet said softly as Daniel trailed off, "You just focus on getting better."

Daniel's mouth turned upwards in a small smile and allowed Janet to lead him out the door.

…

A few days passed in quiet co-existence. Summer was slowly transitioning into autumn and Daniel ended up spending most of his time on Sam's back porch, watching the trees explode in a riot of colour. Sometimes Sam would sit with him. She would talk, not expecting him to answer back, occasionally he did but for the most part he just listened. Sam didn't know if any of it was helping, but he never asked her to leave. Sometimes he would even smile and each time he did it sent a warm jolt of happiness through her.

A week after Daniel had come home, Sam went out for some groceries, leaving Daniel home alone.

The house was dark and silent. The metallic jingle of Sam's key's echoed deafeningly in the quiet. Closing the door, she came to a standstill. Cold fear washed through her and settled in an uncomfortable ache in the pit of her stomach. A chill went down her spine as the strongest feeling of Déjà vu she'd ever experienced hit her. Abandoning her groceries on the front mat she tore up the stairs and rounded the corner only to stop dead in her tracks as she looked down the darkened hallway. A thin sliver of light coming from the slightly open bathroom door cut a stark beam of illumination into the unlit hallway.

"No." She whispered to herself as she made her way slowly towards the door, "No, no, no, no, nonononono!"

Her speech and footsteps accelerated as she neared the door and burst into the light.

For a split second her mind was in the past, reliving that horrible day a year ago. Blood oozed slowly across the white tiles from the prone form of…

"Daniel!"

He was sitting with his back against the tub, facing her. His legs were sprawled across the spotless floor as though they had simply given up supporting him. The sleeves of his sweatshirt were pushed up past his elbows and he was gently fingering the thick, waxy scar that ran from his wrist to his elbow all the way up his right forearm.

He looked up at Sam as she tore into the bathroom with such pain and loss in his eyes that she nearly burst into tears. But, taking control of her emotions, she instead lowered herself down to his eye level.

"Daniel?" She asked in a soft comforting tone.

"I hurt you." He said, his tone flat and emotionless. Then suddenly his mouth began to quiver as he fought to control the tears that were threatening to fall.

Sam moved closer and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. He tensed but did not draw away.

"You'd had a nightmare. You weren't yourself."

"You took me in." he said, his voice was small and so full of pain, "You looked after me and I hurt you."

He looked up at her. He had managed to get his emotions under control for the moment but a few stray tears had escaped and were making their way slowly down his cheeks. He wiped them away.

"You were doing so much better." She said, settling herself more comfortably on the cold floor and holding his hands in hers, "You were responding to the medication. You were more lucid and the hallucinations didn't seem to be as severe. The doctors said you could be cared for from home. So you came here. And it was wonderful."

Sam had to stop and swallow as a lump began forming in her throat. She forced herself to continue, "I thought I'd gotten you back. I thought we'd beaten this thing."

"I remember." Daniel said softly his gaze focused on the ground, "I remember you, and I remember not being at that place." His eyes rose to meet hers, "I remember feeling happy and safe."

For a brief moment she could see a ghost of that happiness in his eyes, she could see the light and joy she remembered on his gaze. But it was short lived and soon the grief had dulled it once more.

"But then I hurt you."

"It wasn't your fault." She said tilting his chin up and forcing him to look into her eyes, "You had a nightmare, you were dreaming."

"I wasn't!" he said, pushing her hand from his chin and shaking with barely controlled self-hatred, "I wasn't dreaming. I thought – I thought you'd been…taken." He bowed his head in shame, "I thought you'd been taken as a host. I thought I had no choice."

Sam was stunned by this new information but refused to let it show.

"That's okay Daniel. It still isn't your fault–"

Daniel's angered gaze cut her off abruptly.

"I was going to kill you!" he said angrily, though whether the anger as aimed inwardly or at her she did not know, "I knew what I was doing. I had the knife. You were asleep, helpless. I was going to kill you, and I would have if the neighbors hadn't called the police."

"But everything was fine." She said, laying a comforting hand on his arm. "I explained everything to the cops and gave you a heavier dose of medication. I mean, you were pretty dopey the next day but no one got hurt. At least not until…" She trailed off, not wanting to think about what happened next but knowing she had no other choice.

"I went to get some things for dinner. You were zoned out on the couch; I didn't even think you could hear me. I thought you'd be fine." Her voice broke on that last word she rested her face in her hand, "I though you'd be fine."

It was Daniel's turn to comfort Sam.

"I knew what I'd done. I knew I couldn't let it happen again. I though I was getting better, I thought I could tell the difference. Between what was real and what wasn't; what was reality and what was…a figment of my…mind."

He trailed off, his eyes were wide and unblinking, his gaze clearly directed inwards as his forgotten memories.

"I followed it up here. I was going to kill it. I thought maybe…maybe if I killed it, maybe I would get better. Maybe I'd wake up and this would all be just a dream. I don't remember how the knife got in my hand, I just remember it being there. I had it cornered. I was ready to strike. And then it just…. Disappeared. No warning, it was just gone, and I was alone. But I knew it wasn't really gone. It was still there, I could feel it." His hand moved slowly to his head. He still hadn't blinked, like he was in a trance, "And it was then that I knew it would never go away, that I would never wake from the nightmare, because it wasn't a nightmare. It was real. And then I saw the blade in my hand, like someone had given it to me. I thought maybe it had given it to me. And I thought at least if I died, it would die too. And then it wouldn't be able to hurt you anymore."

He blinked and looked at her.

"I couldn't let it hurt you again."

Sam was crying as she caressed his face.

"You were always my best friend Daniel," She said in a voice little louder than a whisper, "And I loved you so much. But it didn't hit me how much I loved you until I saw you frightened and alone in that white room. I didn't realize how much I needed you until I thought I'd lost you. And when I opened that door and saw you laying here in a pool of blood I thought 'he can't be dead' because then I… I would die too." She broke off as a fresh batch of sobs hijacked her voice.

A soft touch wiped her tears away and she looked up to see Daniel staring lovingly into her eyes.

"At first, when you cured me, I didn't think it was real. I thought it just another trick, another hallucination, another dream. I thought that at any moment I would turn around and they would be there, in the shadows, always in the shadows. Waiting. When I was alone I felt like I was drowning. I didn't trust my senses, I didn't trust my mind. But I never lost hope, because you would always show up and I would remember all the times you came to visit me and talked to me or just sat in silence, showing me what was real. You're my lifeline. You're my connection to sanity and every time I felt like I was slipping away, like I was drowning, you were there to keep me afloat. I love you Sam. And I am so thankful for all you've done because I know that if you hadn't been there for me, time and time again, I would have lost myself a long time ago and I'm not sure I would ever be able to get back."

Sam stroked a hand down his cheek, a days worth of growth scratching her skin. She didn't say anything. She didn't need too. Instead, she leaned forwards and brushed her lips against his, pressing them together and using the contact to express everything else that she wanted to say but couldn't put into words. The love she felt for this man who'd been through hell and back, the fear she'd felt from almost losing him, the shame and guilt that came from knowing it was her fault. And a promise, to be that lifeline for him.

Because he was hers.

And whatever else happened, they'd get through it together.

…

It is astounding how hard it is to end a story well. I hope I did this one justice. And a huge thank you to all my readers, the ones who stuck with this story until the end and the ones who are enjoying it for the first time, it is a privilege to be able to entertain you.

I can't believe it's over.