Hello! I know, I'm putting myself in one more trouble again, but I really wanted to write something Christmas-related and this story has happened to be that one. If it is going to be happy, you'll see along with me, as in the process of "doing whatever they want" writing struggles wins;)

It was a snowy morning at Pontypandy, one of those which used to make him always wanted to wake up and spend whole day out. Well, almost always, because some scars were going more too deep to bury even the most amazing moments.

This happened to Sam few weeks before, but even if it wasn't truth, his friends couldn't change his mind, and Sam still after this time's illness leave was thinking he was the one to take full responsibility of the events. Events that were so tragic in its results that it didn't take long he began to forget how he looked. He was a stranger to himself, not to mention others.

When the day began anew, the old sound of the alarm clock, the same taste of toasts, and the remaining smell of uniform, showed him slightly that the world had stayed the same. But when he went back to work that precious morning, one sound haunted him the most. One of the vehicle's siren sounded when the yellow engine ran out of the garage. It was her vehicle, which had started and had ended the journey fighting along her side.

"Oh, Sam, nice to see you back. Are you hanging on?" He was so frustrated and lost in his thoughts full of memories that he didn't notice Station Officer Steele passing by the lockers. His chief didn't ask if everything was going someway, but he simply asked if Sam was hanging on to life. He knew Sam since he was a small, few years old kid running around and making mess, so he understood the way Sam dealed with death by all those years, standing by his side and reaching a helping hand every single time.

"Somehow, sir" Sam replied briefly, he really wasn't in the mood to talking. He wasn't in mood for everything, to be honest, but he had to take himself back up and become a living person once more.
He was only afraid how his colleagues would react. In the diffrence to Station Officer Steele they got the knowlegde about his secret by spying and chasing after him, while Sam on his own told it out loud in Station Officer Steele presence. This huge diffrence meant that they could not understand the situation from a calm way, but rather after some time would pass began the chasing again. And Sam was anxious if he hadn't already given them that space of time when he wasn't showing around.

But to his relief when he stepped inside the kitchen walls, no one of firefighters looked up at him, they seemed like they hadn't recognized him at all.  Was it possible that he had changed so much, since...?

"Who is he?" he heard a smothered whisper from the table after he was staring at the kettle for a longer while. He turned around to face how Ellie whispered back to a light blond haired man sitting next to him.

"To be honest, Jerry, I don't know, although he remind me of someone" Ellie answered back, shrugging her shoulders. Yes, Sam had changed so much that even his friend like Ellie, with all her stubborness and relentlessness, had forgot him after all past events.

"I'm not sure, but isn't it Sam?" Arnold put his words in. He, thanks to his book-head and good memory, as Sam guessed, remembered a little more, but even Arnold himself from time to time wasn't sure about something.

"Of course it is Sam" Sam heard a laughter and a moment later someone jumped up in the air and landed right before Sam's cup of tea. Those blue eyes and black hair he would recognized everywhere as well as Elvis would recognized his best friend even after the worst kind of events.
As soon as the rest of his friends became unblind they came and also gave him a hug as a welcome back way of say.

"Sorry we didn't recognized you, Sam, but yyoure a total stranger to a person you were until..." even Ellie with her mischievous tongue couldn't say it out loud.

"I haven't looked at the mirror myself since it happen, so  I'm not mad at you, I'm just simply glad I can be with you here" he confessed softly,  fighting back the tears that began to fill his eyes as everyday, everytime by last few weeks when he caught a thought of going back to normal. He missed her, she was suppossed to be here, along with them, none of that should have happened. But it was just her nature to check everything too carefully, but that time it took her too long and it was too late for them to started again. So it was only Sam to begin a chase with time, but on his own, he tried, but it was already a failture when he reached her. However he gave her a few more minutes and maneged to listen to her wish. He let her go, he let her in without a fight. But she knew what she was singing up for as she told him when they eyes met that day.
However the consequences went too deep inside and Sam was afraid every single time he was on his own, especially alone and in the dark, they would come back every single time. And they did and it would be misunderstatement to say it helped him forget.

When he woke up from this marathon of dark thoughts, the last person present in the room took his boldness and came a few step forward to him. Just now it appeared to Sam that it was not any accidental firefighter, but Jerry Lee Cridlington - Elvis' cousin.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Sam" Jerry Lee wished he could spend at Pontypandy more time to get to meet everybody better, not waiting for such sad circumitances.

"I'm relived you are the one to take over her duty at Pontypandy" Sam squeezed his hand.