"It wasn't her," Sam corrected, "it was her blood. It was the way it made me - it was the way it made me feel. The power behind it all." The one thing that Sam had always been wary of. Watching those other kids, seeing how it changed them all so drastically. How had he let the same thing creep up and catch him like that when he had been so careful to avoid it all this time? After Ava and Jake? How?
She was crying, oh God. He wanted to rush over and pull her into his arms, but there seemed to be some sort of invisible restraint holding Sam back. Something was telling him that he couldn't do that anymore. He had broken the rules. Faith didn't want him to touch her.
He held his breath when she spoke. You gotta prove it. That was certainly better than her stating that there was nothing that could be done. That they were broken and could never be fixed. Sam wiped a sleeve across his eyes and nodded.
"I promise you, you'll never question it again. I promise." He'd do whatever it took. The thought of being away from Faith killed him on the inside; hell, it was already slaughtering him, just thinking about how she had been able to believe that he had been faking his emotions for all this time. Sam knew he had been uncertain of a lot of things while he was doped up on that blood, but the way he felt about Faith was not one of them. If that were the case, he wouldn't be standing here now, looking like, as Ben would say, a complete and total wuss. Practically crying. Desperate. He had to make her understand that he wanted to be with her. He wanted to be with her, he wanted to make things better again, he wanted to fix what they were. If that meant he had to work extra hard, then he was more than willing. She was worth every second of it.
"I'm never going near her again, all right? Not after what she's done. To me. To us. What she was planning on doing...I won't have it. Not anymore." And he meant it.
Mostly. He inhaled sharply and closed his eyes. No more blood. No more.