Right, so this is the final chapter of Stranded... :-( Thank you soooooo much to everyone who has read and reviewed - I appreciate it so much, it's unbelievable! I really hope you enjoy this final chapter and it wraps everything up for you :-)

The sequel is in the making, but it might take me a while - I know what I want to happen, but it's taking it's time to come to the page!

Anyway, just to warn you: contains sexual content.

Thanks for everything QueenofYourWorld - very much appreciated for all your time and feedback - couldn't have done this without you!

Enjoy...!!

Stranded - Part 14

(Randy's POV)

I have no idea what the speed limit is in England. I'm hurtling down the freeway at 90mph. It took me about a minute to realise that I should go after Sam. Maybe that was too late. Last I saw of Craig he was still leaning against the floor. His nose finally stopped bleeding and to be honest, he got off lightly. Fuck knows what would have happened if the guys hadn't stepped in and stopped me.

I grip the steering wheel. I feel fucking sick; just the thought of Craig laying his hands on Sam makes me so fucking angry. I don't think I've ever felt like this before. I'm still fuming, but I just have to explain myself to Sam. Even if she doesn't want to see me ever again, I just have to explain.

Surely she'll understand? Or maybe she won't. Maybe Craig brainwashed her to a point where even she thinks that what he was doing to her made sense. I pray that isn't the case. I don't think I could live with myself if that's what has happened. I would never forgive myself for being on the other side of the world and unable to do anything about what was happening the other side of the pond.

Road signs flash past me and I briefly see one telling me the speed limit. I will myself to ease my foot off the gas. It takes me five minutes to obey my own brain. And then I realise that I have no idea how far I've travelled. I don't even know how many exits I've passed. I slow even more as the next sign comes up. I indicate and exit the freeway.

The car curves frantically from left to right as I wind down the small country roads. Occasionally, houses and small villages flash past me. I count them. It's five villages from the freeway to Sam's village. After number three, I start to feel nervous. I have no idea what I'm going to say to her.

That's when I notice the red light flashing on the dashboard. But it's too late and I slow.

I'm out of gas.

(Sam's POV)

I'm sitting on the sofa, staring at the TV. I watch the newsreader's mouth open and close, but god knows what she's saying. I can't hear a thing. All I can hear is Craig shouting, Randy trying to get my attention and Toby's sobs in my ear. The newsreader blurs. I blink. She snaps into focus and I catch a snippet of words.

Toby is asleep. I managed to get him out of the taxi and up the stairs to his bed without waking him up. Then I had a shower. I didn't even take my clothes off. I just stood under the hot water and cried. Then I stood in the bathroom and peeled my clothes off. The bruises on my arms are fading from purple to green. My stomach is yellow. I looked at myself in the mirror and I wanted to scream at myself for being such an idiot for letting this happen.

My vision blurs again and I struggle to snap out of it. I look at the clock. It's just coming up to midnight. I watch the second hand tick round and the big hand click forward to the twelve. I watch the second hand do another round. And another. I wonder what happened after I left.

I wonder where Craig is. I wonder where Randy is. I wonder if Craig's nose has stopped bleeding. I wonder if Randy hit him again. I wonder if Craig will be back and everything will be just as it was before tonight. But worse, because now Craig has more ammo than ever before.

The news turns to the weather and then the newsreader wishes me goodnight. I think I should go to bed. Or rather, just lie in bed and think more. Imagine more. I stand up and look around me. Craig's stuff is pushed to one side of the room. I stripped the sofa of his bed sheets before sitting down on it earlier. Everything smells of him. I probably smell of him. He was like a fucking animal, marking his territory, staking his claim.

I close the door to the living room and make my way upstairs. I stop halfway. I can't bear the thought of lying in bed and not being able to sleep. So I sit on the stairs like I have done so many times recently. I lean my head against the wall and close my eyes.

Someone is knocking softly on the door. My eyes flicker open. I tilt my wrist and in the half-light I see that it's three in the morning. The knock comes again. And again. Then the letterbox creaks open.

"Sam?"

My heart clenches as I hold my breath.

"Sam? It's me. Randy. Please open the door…"

I edge my way down the stairs. He continues to call my name.

The lock is cold as I twist it open and pull the door towards me.

Randy is soaked. His hair lies flat against his head, as water streaks down his face, dripping off his eyelashes, nose and chin. The cuffs of his jacket look like they have mini waterfalls running off the ends.

"Where's your car?" I ask, as I move back to let him in. "You didn't walk all the way from Manchester did you?"

He shakes his head and water flies everywhere. I notice that he's actually shaking. "Sorry. No. I ran out of gas about ten miles away. So I walked from there."

"You look cold."

"Yeah…"

I forget that I'm a bit mad at him. I forget about what he did. I just take his hand and pull him the stairs and into the bathroom. He stands there as I peel his clothes off him. We don't say anything. We just listen to each item hit the inside of the bath with a dull, wet thud.

I realise when he's just standing in front of me in his boxers that I don't actually have any clothes for him to wear. So I find the biggest towel I can and hand it to him. And then I dig around in the cupboard and find my dad's old bathrobe that my mum left behind when she moved out. I hand it to Randy.

"I'll be downstairs," I murmur.

(Randy's POV)

I creak down the stairs a few minutes after Sam leaves the bathroom. I can hear the kettle boiling. As I pass the lounge, I notice a ton of stuff propped up against the far wall and a bundle of sheets and pillows on the floor. My stomach knots together, as my fists clench. Maybe I should be grateful that he stuck to the lounge, but I don't feel in a grateful mood.

I stop in the doorway to the kitchen and watch as Sam pours water into two mugs. Her face is shadowed by her hair, but as she replace the kettle I hear her cough and then sniff. And then she clenches the counter with her hands and leans forward. I hear her take a stifled breath and then I hear her cry.

All I want to do is to hold her in my arms, but I don't know if she wants that. God, why didn't I just ignore Craig? Then maybe this whole thing would have been sorted out differently. Maybe I could have just asked Sam out-right about what's been going on, and not resorted to beating the shit of Craig.

All I can say now is, "What happened?"

Sam turns to look at me. She shrugs. "I don't know."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't."

"When I called…"

"He was always there."

"At night?"

"He cut the wire to the landline in my room. And took the battery out of my mobile."

I move slowly across the room towards her. She shrinks back slightly, as I reach out to touch her.

She shakes her head at me. "Don't."

"Sam… please…" My voice is shaking, cracking at the edges.

"It's all my fault," she whispers.

"No."

"It is. I let him get to me."

I shake my head. "Sam, please don't say that. It's not your fault at all."

"I let him into this house, because I didn't have the guts to tell him where to go. I let him bully Toby into getting rid of his wrestling stuff. I let him bully me into submission."

I reach out and push her hair back from her face. I cup the back of her head and pull her towards me. She resists for a second and she literally falls against me.

The front of my chest isn't covered by the bath robe and I can feel her wet cheeks stick to my skin.

"I thought I was mad at you," I hear her say.

"Why?"

"Because you hit Craig. And I feel so guilty for thinking that."

"I shouldn't have done it. It was stupid. He kept telling me all this stuff about you and him. And he thought that you two were a couple and he said… he said some horrible shit. It was too much."

"I'm not mad at you."

"You should be."

She shakes her head. "I'm not. Not anymore."

We stand here for a few minutes. Sam lets me wrap my arms around her and I hold her close. She buries her head against my neck and under my chin. I breathe her in. All thoughts of Craig are lost until she squirms out of my arms.

"It hurts," she mumbles.

I look at her confused. Tears well up in her eyes again.

"I… He… You don't want to see."

"Show me."

She shakes her head. "No. You don't want to see."

I let it go. Maybe I don't want to see.

Sam hands me a mug and leads me to the stairs. Halfway up, she sits down and I squeeze next to her.

"I never told you the truth."

"About…?"

"About what happened when Jess died."

I shrug. "You don't have to tell me."

"I do. Because I haven't been able to tell you the truth for a while."

I don't know if I like where this is going. But I let her carry on.

"So Jess and I were like this," she crosses her fingers together. "Our dad left us when I was four and Jess was eight. Mum worked all the time and so Jess used to look after me. We had this plan that we were going to move out and live together when were older. We had it all planned out, even when we were teenagers we used to sit and look through catalogues and choose what wallpaper we would have and all the furniture. And then one night, Jess brought Craig home after school. And she didn't talk to me all night. I was just left to sit here and listen to them giggle and kiss in the lounge.

"Jess was 17, almost 18, and once she finished college, she got a job and started saving to move out. Craig's parents helped pay for a deposit on a flat and Jess moved out just before I turned 15. I got all depressed because I had no-one. My mum still worked shifts, so I used to sit here on the stairs and listen to the house and wonder what Jess was doing." She stops to sip at her coffee.

"Then one day, Jess came home. She wouldn't talk to me or mum. She just sat in the lounge staring into space. Eventually, she said that she and Craig had had an argument, and that she had to come home for a bit because he was getting mad at her all the time. So she stayed here for a few days. Then Craig turned up with a big bunch of flowers, all apologetic and she just went home with him. I was 16 then and she was 20 and even then, I thought something wasn't quite right. Even after they got married and had Toby, she would still come round every few months, refusing to talk about what happened. Eventually, she told me that it was just one of those things you had to deal with in a relationship, but I wouldn't understand because I had never had a boyfriend.

"So I went out with a few guys, but everything was just fine. They were really sweet to me and I always thought Craig was quite sweet to Jess because he used to come and bring her flowers and say sorry and she would give him this look and then say okay and go home with him. I was so confused as to why she was getting upset with him. I don't what changed my mind. I think I just twigged that if I could find someone that didn't shout at me all the time or make me feel like Jess did, then something between her and Craig couldn't be right. I realised what he was doing… Sort of. I don't think I understood the full extent of what was going on. All I knew was that she shouldn't be with someone like that. Then all I wanted to do was hurt Craig. I think that's why he blames me for what happened. He knew that I had changed my mind about him. Everything that I had thought previously, changed in my mind. I realised that everything he had ever done was twisted. Then Jess came round that one night and said she was leaving him. I begged her to do it right then and she said yes. She left Toby with me and said that she would be back for him and not to give him to Craig ever. And then it happened…"

Sam trails off. I watch her as she stares into space. She hasn't looked at me for the entire time she's been talking.

"Everything just stopped. I couldn't do anything. I could barely get out of bed. Toby had no idea what was going on except that he was staying with his nanny and auntie. Craig would come round every day and shout at me and tell me that it was my fault because I couldn't let my sister go. He wanted Toby. I said no. He asked why. And I said that Jess had told me to never give Toby to Craig ever. So he tried to take me to court to get custody. Jess hadn't even been buried and all he could think about was getting Toby just to spite me.

"But he didn't get to court in the end, because of Jess' will. I think she was completely aware of what Craig was like, but she never had a choice in anything. So in her will, she had made me sole guardian of Toby. Craig wasn't even mentioned. He still fought for custody. But by this time, he was drinking and they ruled that he was unfit parent, so all he got was supervised visits. He cleaned himself up and fought again and they decide that it was my discretion. Toby was always asking about his dad, so I just gave in."

"How did he end up here now?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. It just happened. I think he just wanted to see Toby and to maybe start building a case to get him fulltime. And then maybe he realised that wasn't going to work. So he wormed his way in and started to make believe that he and I could be together and then he would have a complete set. And I think he just wanted to punish me even more."

"I guess I didn't help…"

"It was nothing to do with you. I think he would have done it anyway."

"Why didn't you tell me this when you first told me about Jess."

"I don't know," she sighs. "I didn't want you to think that I had all this baggage. It was hard enough telling you about Jess dying, let alone tell you everything that went on afterwards." She gives me a small smile. "I didn't want to scare you off."

"I'm still here aren't I?"

"Yeah." She pulls her weight off the wall and gently leans against me instead.

We sit here for a while, in silence, drinking coffee. I let it all sink in. How can a guy wreck one girl's life and then start to wreck her sister's as well? I look down at Sam. Her eyes are glazed over. She has the same look on her face that I remember so well – when she cooked me dinner and the way she looked at Toby, with her bottom lip quivering ever so slightly. I should have worked it out then that things were more complicated than they seemed.

I look down at Sam's watch and notice the time. It's almost half four. I need to say something, but I don't know what. What do you say when someone tells you all of this? Sam sighs.

"Everything I do, he uses against me," she whispers. "Everything. Even going to America to see you for those two weeks. Everything I do for myself, without Toby, even if Toby is happy for me, Craig sees it as an opportunity to guilt-trip me."

"Is that why…?" I trail off. I can't bring myself to think about that night.

"Yes."

"If you had told me all of this then, I would have understood."

"I know."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because… I don't know. I didn't want to leave you with all of that to think about, whilst I went back home."

"Why are you telling me now then?"

"Because I'm telling you the truth." She leans away slightly and looks up at me. For the first time in ages, she looks me straight in the eye.

(Sam's POV)

We stare at each other for a minute and then I yawn.

"Maybe you should get some sleep," Randy whispers. I nod. He lets me stand and then he hesitates.

"What?"

"I can sleep downstairs if you want."

"Why would I want you to do that?"

He shrugs. I walk up the rest of the stairs and he follows me. I close the bedroom door behind us and then I pause. After my shower, I put jeans and a top back on without even thinking. And now I have to undress. But I can't let Randy see my stomach or arms. I can feel him watching me as I take my jeans off.

As he shrugs off his bathrobe, he steps towards me. "Sam… I need to see."

"Why?"

"Because I have to justify what I did."

"You know what he did, isn't that enough?" I really don't want to show him.

He walks to towards me. He lifts my chin with his finger. His mouth leans down to mine and he kisses me softly.

"Okay," he breathes against my lips. "I don't need to see what he did. But I can look past that. I just want to see you."

I feel tears prick at my eyes for the millionth time tonight.

"You have the most gorgeous body and nothing that bastard has done will ever change that." Randy kisses me again. His fingers run through my hair, twisting strands around them, holding me to him. "Do you really think that I would let anyone change us? You know how I feel about you… And I don't care how long it takes you to feel the same about me… I'm always going to be here for you, because after this, I'm never gonna let anyone get to you, okay?"

"Okay," I whisper. I bite my lip nervously as his hands leave my hair and trail down my sides. He slowly tugs up my top. I flinch slightly as his fingers brush over the bruises.

"Baby," he breathes against my cheek as my top hits the floor. His fingers undo my bra and then I'm just standing in my knickers. He pulls back slightly and I just want to dive under the covers and hide. "You're still beautiful."

I don't quite believe his eyes. "I told you the truth…" I whisper.

"That is the truth."

"Really?"

He doesn't answer me. He just kisses me again, gently pulling me into his arms. He picks me up and carries me to the bed and lays me down.

"Tell me if I hurt you," he whispers, as he pushes my legs apart so he can settle between them. He hovers above me, his arms either side of my head. I swear I can see tears in his eyes. I know I have them in mine. As he kisses me, I feel them break free.

(Randy's POV)

It's impossible to try and contain myself. All I want to do is make love to Sam, but I'm trying so hard not to hurt her, that I can barely move. I'm so aware of every move that she makes that I'm constantly asking her if she's okay.

"Move," she murmurs.

I roll off her defeated. She pushes me. I move up the bed so that I'm leaning against the headboard. The cold metal digs into my back and I struggle to pull the pillows up from under me to lean against. I'm so busy doing that, that only when I stop do I realise that Sam's sitting on my lap and that her fingers are tracing patterns over my chest.

I fumble for her legs and pull them around my waist. Her heels dig into my lower back, as I slide into her. She holds her breath for a second or so, and then she exhales slowly. Her arms encircle my neck and shoulders as she starts to move on me.

I let her control it all. She moves slowly, her eyes unblinking, staring me down. I watch her mouth open and close slightly. I watch her eyes change colour. I watch a thin layer of sweat form on her neck, that begs to be licked.

I hear her moan softly. I hear my own voice call out to her, as I feel her fingers dig into my neck softly. I feel her clench around my length as her breathing increases. I feel her lean towards me more and rest her head against my shoulder. I close my eyes and kiss the top of her head. We stay like this for ages.

And then:

"Randy…"

"Yeah?"

"I still haven't finished telling you the truth."

"Okay…"

"The truth is…" She leans back to look me in the eye.

"The truth is…" she repeats. Her voice gets lower and lower. "The truth is that I've wanted to say this for a while… But I'm scared."

"Don't be…"

"Were you scared?"

"Of what?"

She raises an eyebrow and somewhere behind those dark eyes, I see a glimmer of the old Sam. The girl that can make me go weak at the knees, the girl that does that crazy giggle that makes my stomach flip, the girl who bites her bottom lip in such a way that it's all I can do to stop myself from jumping her bones right there and then.

"Yeah… I was scared."

"What of?"

"Of what happened."

"Sorry… Maybe I can make up for it now. Three months later…"

"Go on." I feel light-headed. I hold my breath as she opens her mouth again.

"I love you."

I smile and she giggles. Her eyes blossom with light and her face changes.

"I love you," she repeats, leaning in to kiss me. "I love you," she says again, her lips against mine.

Fin.

Thanks for reading :-) x