diff --git a/model/metric.go b/model/metric.go
index 9527a5c18..6289f9057 100644
--- a/model/metric.go
+++ b/model/metric.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"code.google.com/p/goprotobuf/proto"
 	"fmt"
+	dto "github.com/prometheus/prometheus/model/generated"
 	"sort"
 	"time"
 )
@@ -135,6 +136,17 @@ func (v Values) InsideInterval(t time.Time) (s bool) {
 	return true
 }
 
+func NewValuesFromDTO(dto *dto.SampleValueSeries) (v Values) {
+	for _, value := range dto.Value {
+		v = append(v, SamplePair{
+			Timestamp: time.Unix(*value.Timestamp, 0),
+			Value:     SampleValue(*value.Value),
+		})
+	}
+
+	return
+}
+
 type SampleSet struct {
 	Metric Metric
 	Values Values
diff --git a/storage/metric/leveldb.go b/storage/metric/leveldb.go
index 36022be60..653827735 100644
--- a/storage/metric/leveldb.go
+++ b/storage/metric/leveldb.go
@@ -656,9 +656,14 @@ func extractSampleKey(i leveldb.Iterator) (key model.SampleKey, err error) {
 	return
 }
 
-func extractSampleValues(i leveldb.Iterator) (v *dto.SampleValueSeries, err error) {
-	v = &dto.SampleValueSeries{}
+func extractSampleValues(i leveldb.Iterator) (values model.Values, err error) {
+	v := &dto.SampleValueSeries{}
 	err = proto.Unmarshal(i.Value(), v)
+	if err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+
+	values = model.NewValuesFromDTO(v)
 
 	return
 }
diff --git a/storage/metric/stochastic_test.go b/storage/metric/stochastic_test.go
index cdd4f43bb..9e19869a5 100644
--- a/storage/metric/stochastic_test.go
+++ b/storage/metric/stochastic_test.go
@@ -216,17 +216,11 @@ func levelDBGetRangeValues(l *LevelDBMetricPersistence, fp model.Fingerprint, i
 			break
 		}
 
-		retrievedValue, err := extractSampleValues(iterator)
+		retrievedValues, err := extractSampleValues(iterator)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
-
-		for _, value := range retrievedValue.Value {
-			samples = append(samples, model.SamplePair{
-				Value:     model.SampleValue(*value.Value),
-				Timestamp: time.Unix(*value.Timestamp, 0),
-			})
-		}
+		samples = append(samples, retrievedValues...)
 	}
 
 	return
@@ -463,15 +457,15 @@ func StochasticTests(persistenceMaker func() (MetricPersistence, test.Closer), t
 					samples, err = levelDBGetRangeValues(persistence, fp, interval)
 					if err != nil {
 						t.Fatal(err)
-						return
+					}
+					if len(samples) < 2 {
+						t.Fatalf("expected sample count greater than %d, got %d", 2, len(samples))
 					}
 				default:
 					samples = p.GetRangeValues(fp, interval)
-				}
-
-				if len(samples) < 2 {
-					t.Errorf("expected sample count less than %d, got %d", 2, len(samples))
-					return
+					if len(samples) < 2 {
+						t.Fatalf("expected sample count greater than %d, got %d", 2, len(samples))
+					}
 				}
 			}
 		}
diff --git a/storage/metric/tiered.go b/storage/metric/tiered.go
index 8b69b8e76..5cf1b5bd0 100644
--- a/storage/metric/tiered.go
+++ b/storage/metric/tiered.go
@@ -472,8 +472,8 @@ func (t *tieredStorage) loadChunkAroundTime(iterator leveldb.Iterator, frontier
 		targetKey = &dto.SampleKey{
 			Fingerprint: fingerprint.ToDTO(),
 		}
-		foundKey   model.SampleKey
-		foundValue *dto.SampleValueSeries
+		foundKey    model.SampleKey
+		foundValues model.Values
 	)
 
 	// Limit the target key to be within the series' keyspace.
@@ -510,9 +510,9 @@ func (t *tieredStorage) loadChunkAroundTime(iterator leveldb.Iterator, frontier
 		rewound = true
 	}
 
-	foundValue, err = extractSampleValues(iterator)
+	foundValues, err = extractSampleValues(iterator)
 	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
+		return
 	}
 
 	// If we rewound, but the target time is still past the current block, return
@@ -520,33 +520,25 @@ func (t *tieredStorage) loadChunkAroundTime(iterator leveldb.Iterator, frontier
 	if rewound {
 		foundKey, err = extractSampleKey(iterator)
 		if err != nil {
-			panic(err)
+			return
 		}
 		currentChunkLastTime := foundKey.LastTimestamp
 
 		if ts.After(currentChunkLastTime) {
-			sampleCount := len(foundValue.Value)
-			chunk = append(chunk, model.SamplePair{
-				Timestamp: time.Unix(*foundValue.Value[sampleCount-1].Timestamp, 0),
-				Value:     model.SampleValue(*foundValue.Value[sampleCount-1].Value),
-			})
+			sampleCount := len(foundValues)
+			chunk = append(chunk, foundValues[sampleCount-1])
 			// We know there's a next block since we have rewound from it.
 			iterator.Next()
 
-			foundValue, err = extractSampleValues(iterator)
+			foundValues, err = extractSampleValues(iterator)
 			if err != nil {
-				panic(err)
+				return
 			}
 		}
 	}
 
 	// Now append all the samples of the currently seeked block to the output.
-	for _, sample := range foundValue.Value {
-		chunk = append(chunk, model.SamplePair{
-			Timestamp: time.Unix(*sample.Timestamp, 0),
-			Value:     model.SampleValue(*sample.Value),
-		})
-	}
+	chunk = append(chunk, foundValues...)
 
 	return
 }