A/N: Not really the ending that I wanted, but I wanted to end it. It's not really a cliffhanger either so it's like an eh effort. Sorry!
Also more fabrevans moments in this chapter!
Chapter 3
"No fucking way." I almost yell, causing half of the mess hall to stare at me with startled and almost amused looks. They can tell Quinn is affecting me in more ways than she should, but they all seem to tolerate it. They've all seen me lose my temper and I guess they don't want to see that again.
"Sam, I can get back in there and I can get you the information that you need." I shake my head, the way she said my name making me a little breathless, but I stand and continue to shake my head at her. Quinn's hazel orbs are trying to plead with me and it would be working in any other situation, but as I'm staring at them I'm imagining the blank stare when death creeps over someone.
That's something I can hold onto.
"That is not how we do things. There are protocols, there is intel to collect, this idea is stupid. You will get killed." I state, ticking off the words on my fingers before leaning on the table as I grip the edges. Hard.
"You don't know that." Quinn murmurs softly, her voice barely audible. I bite my lip and keep my eyes on the table, knowing that if I look at her I'll crumble. I'm still contemplating how she just landed in our lap still. Does she have contact with them? Is my feelings getting in the way with the fact that we could be aiding and abetting a spy? Am I overlooking something massive?
"They were going to sell you off in good faith so those dealers could have a fuckfest with you. If you go back in there, you won't die. You will wish you were be dead." I turn to Puck and he's standing against the far wall, his words coming out harsh and short. His eyes are narrowed and his arms are crossed over his chest, making his words overly aggressive. I kind of want to deck him, but at the same time I want to thank him. Puck could always say the things that I never could. I turn back in time to see Quinn's expression change and I see the tears forming in her eyes. This isn't fair on her, of course, but in unfair place like this, there has to be some lines.
It was an absurdly stupid idea, wasn't it? Who the fuck knows what would happen if she went back in there? We would have no control over the situation, let alone the fact we didn't even know if Quinn was an inside job… that makes me question why no one else besides me is questioning that fact.
Quinn stands then, grabbing the apple off her tray and storms off to the hallway, presumably back to my bunk. I sigh, my shoulders dropping and decide that I should go find Hudson. I head to the kitchen and find Finn's favourite, beef jerky and search for him where I eventually find him in the main garage, shooting hoops. From what I've heard, he could have gone all pro if he didn't flunk out of College.
"Finn." I call. Of course we really only refer to each other by last names, but this is a touchy subject for him. His girlfriend back home, well, fiancé is pregnant. A beautiful brunette by the name of Rachel, who so much shorter than Finn, is almost five months pregnant. I only learnt this when Finn and I shared the plane trip over. I actually thought he'd been single for a long time, but he tells me how Rach sends him emails of pictures of the baby and long lists of annoying things that are constantly bugging her. It makes Finn miss her more.
"Sam." He replies before fist pumping a little when he gets a three pointer. I smile and move, catching the ball as it drops through the net.
"You okay?" I ask as I dribble a little before shooting, it hits the backboard and bounces off in Finn's direction. I watch as his tall frame barely moves to retrieve the ball.
"It's just…" He shrugs, sighing.
"Tough?"
"Yeah." He goes quiet then and he's lining himself up, keeping his eyes trained on the rim. Finn jumps and lands himself another three pointer.
"You plan to bring a kid into this world and then you hear about kids who don't even get to live. Scares the shit out of me." He murmurs after a while once I've retrieved the ball from one of his misses. Rare, misses. Finn tucks the ball under his arm and rests the other on his hip, his eyes staring off in the distance.
"But you're fighting out here, so you know that your kid will have a chance to live." I murmur, moving to sit down on a bench and watch as he follows. He leans over, folding his hands together in front of him as she stares at the floor. I decide that maybe beef jerky time would have to be later.
"But I want to fight here too so these kids get a chance as well." Finn counters, his eyes lowered so I can't see how he his, but I know he's pretty upset. I sigh, completely unsure as to how to counter that. I just reach over and grip his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.
"We can't save everyone." I murmur, dropping my hand to rest it back on my thigh. Finn just nods, his eyes still lowered.
"Just wish we could."
"Me too."
It's been a couple of hours since Quinn's storming off so I decided that, hopefully, my decision to not chase after was a good one. It would be very difficult to maintain a bit of respect in front of the guys when you're off chasing this beautiful girl to make sure she's okay. Plus, I'm not the expert with the ladies, but I'm pretty sure I would have made her more pissed off if I followed her and tried to explain. I don't know – Quinn's a hard one to figure.
I look through the bunks and find no sign of her, but I do find a note on my now very neat bunk. Addressed to me in a very nice, neat, almost Victorian era handwriting is the words
Sam,
I've gone to find my own answers. Don't worry, not the way you're thinking. I've contacted the embassy in Turkey and I'm headed back to the U.S in a short while.
Under that is her contact details, which I'm slightly giddy about, but I want to call the embassy to make sure that she made it okay. When I do call, there is no evidence that someone had made a call like that, or in fact, any requests of that nature.
Of fucking course.
She did bite me when we were middle of a firefight. She's a journalist. She also appeared out of fucking no where with intel that we falsely obtained by this Abasi guy – who is still out there and is god knows doing what – but there is no way Quinn, a very beautiful but crazy as shit journalist, would walk away from the one place she'd find the most amount of information. She'd go straight to the source.
But how straight?
I find myself running through the hallways of the small complex to find the equipment I need. I gather radios, medical gear, utility belts and shit like that before making my way off to the armory. There I meet Puck, and good ol' Puck did not look very amused. He's like that school bully in the playground that's got control of the sand pit. No one's stepping inside it unless he says so.
"No way you're going out there by ya fucking self." He mutters as he cleans the barrel of a shotgun. Why on earth do people always do the scariest things like checking out trigger mechanisms of C4 explosives and cleaning firearms around me?
"It's not even dark." I mutter as I push past him, finding myself a pistol and a disguise that we most commonly use in middle-eastern type places like these.
"This is about Quinn, isn't it?" I try not flinch at the question, but I feel my stomach do a flip at her name.
"She's out there. She left me some bullshit letter about going to the embassy and back to the States." I finally admit, because with the shit Puck and I have been through, I can barely say something without him asking if I'm okay.
"She's a fucking journalist, don't believe anything she says." Puck says with a scoff, but I know he's right so his attitude doesn't piss me off.
"She bit me too." Puck nods, actually serious, before he cocks the shotgun and puts it back. He starts arming himself, which in turn causes me to raise an eyebrow at him.
"You're coming?"
"Damsel in distress, who knows what could happen?"
"I'm the white knight." I counter, smirking.
"Was that a racist remark?" I let out a laugh then and we're both smirking before I let out a breath, finally geared up. Puck reaches out and squeezes my shoulder, giving me a small smile.
"We'll find her, okay? She'll be okay."
Twenty minutes later we've had Chang offer his services and we're now driving in a very – not so suspicious – van, looking for any sign of Quinn. She was trying to get information about this Abdi/Abasi guy the last time and the whole basis of her investigation was this. Also with the introduction of her new intel, that she might have not completely told us all about, from the camp god knows where on earth... she could be walking into a trap. Or... she could be heading back to her superiors?
It's difficult to not have a clouded mind when all you can see is how great her ass looked in those khaki pants she wore this morning, but I have to stay objective. I don't know Quinn. I don't know who exactly she is and all the stuff with Abasi and how she basically appeared to us like the Jesus on a grilled cheese – Finn's words, not mine – I have to keep my distance. When it's god dam so hard too.
Then, I see her. She's really got to cover up her hair because I've managed to spot her in the middle of a crowd since her hair shines in the sun like a blonde freaking halo. I slide out of the van, readjusting the sort of dress shirt thing that the men around here wear and keep the balaclava around my eyes. Pretty suss for a very white boy American to be running the streets of Turkey in traditional dress.
"Just keep going straight." Chang whispers in my ear through the communication device he rigged up a couple of minutes ago and I nod, noticing as the van peels off and down a side street that I'm going through. I have a clear view on Quinn and she's speaking very quickly to a short man with a pistol strapped to his belt. I try to blend in as I make my way through the crowd and avoid a few looks as I continue to make my way.
Then, it all happened suddenly. Quinn was just standing there and then the next minute, some guy had her by her waist and hoisted her over his shoulder.
She is definitely not going to like that.
I rip my balaclava off and sprint, pushing through the crowd as I race after them. I can hear Quinn screaming and I'm using it as a guide since the crowd is getting denser and it's difficult to reach her. I get to a point and climb a set of stairs, managing to climb on a small balcony before sprinting, jumping and tackling this guy to the ground. Fuck that hurt.
I look up to be confronted with two men, one that had the grip on Quinn and another that looks like a middle-eastern version of George Clooney. His dashing looks almost stops me what I'm about to do next, as laughable as it is. They're both conveniently in kicking distance, which causes me to kick them both in the nuts – at the same time – and roll over when I hear George Clooney's gun off. Of course, I get hit, something that I guess I'm going to have to get used it whenever I'm chasing Quinn around and groan softly.
Then, as if I'm watching some weird daytime TV show involving a crack team of a macho army guy and a hot sidekick lady, Quinn comes running out wielding a sort of wooden plank thing. She swings out, quite forcefully, and George Clooney's sidekick falls to the ground while George swings around to deal with Quinn. I jump up, ignoring the fact that I've got a flesh wound to the thigh and kick the back of his knee and finally render him unconscious when I send a punch straight to the back of his head.
I look around and notice that we've caused quite a scene and what I can see from over the crowd; more of these dudes are on their way. I press my finger to my ear and I panic, hoping to make contact with the rest of the guys, but of course, I can't feel the communication device. It would make sense because Mike would have been talking to me the whole time. He likes to comment on how bad my style of boxing should be replaced with jit fit su or jujitsu or whatever the fuck it's called, making me angry. It works. I glance around, noticing the small skin coloured device that was once able to fit in my ear is now shattered on the floor. I must have knocked it out when I jumped on that guy and now I have no way to contact the guys.
"Sam." Quinn brings me back and I'm staring at her soft, delicate features as I try to figure out what to do next. I have no coms, no way of the guys being able to find us and we have to go, now. Will I be able to get us back to base alive? Then, just as my prayers are answered, the van slides up beside us and Puck's familiar smirk is greeting us.
"Are you actually insane?" I spit out once when we're in the van and I'm sitting across from her, staring at how there is a small trail of blood starting from the top of her hairline to just below her chin.
"He was a trusted contact!" She counters, her nose flaring and I'm feeling more pissed off as ever. How Quinn could be so stupid to do this, to go straight to the fucking source and almost get herself killed for it? I can feel my hands forming into fists on my knees as I think about all the possible scenarios that could have happened to Quinn.
"We told you how dangerous it was, Quinn, how stupid can you be!"
"Oh don't you dare." Quinn spits at me, sitting up in her chair as she leans over and points her finger at me. "You get a kick out of this, this whole white knight damsel in distress business. You should have just left me there, I'd be treated better by them by you!"
That hit me harder than I realised it did. Of course, Quinn didn't know why, but Chang and Puck go silent and I'm suddenly feeling very claustrophobic in this small van. Luckily, we've arrived at the compound and I fling myself out of there, heading off in any direction that will take me away from the feelings that I don't want to feel.
"Evans, you need to calm down." It's Puck and he's startled me, because I didn't realise he'd been following me the whole time. I shake my head and continue walking because I can't stop. If I stop I have to confront it. "What happened to Sarah isn't going to happen to Quinn." Then it hits me like a brick wall and I find myself turning, staring at Puck with such anger I don't know how I'm still standing. Puck's looking at me, tears in his eyes and I know how angry it makes him to talk about it as well.
"Do not bring her up." I spit at him, probably more forcefully than I intend to, but I do not want to talk about this.
"She was my sister, Sam!" He moves to me then, gripping my shoulders and I don't have the energy to fight him off. "What happened to her isn't going to happen to Quinn. She'll be on a flight to New York or Michigan or wherever the fuck she lives and she'll be safe." I look past Puck then and see Quinn, staring at us with her hands clasped in front of her as she looks at us in worry. I look back at Puck and he's giving my shoulder a squeeze.
"Sarah would want you to move on Sam, to get past it and find someone to help you get past it." I feel the tears burning my cheeks and I wipe at them furiously, swallowing hard.
"Do you still blame me?"
"I never did. I just wish it was me." I knew Puck didn't blame me for what happened, but I had to hear it aloud.
"It's not your fault either, Puck." And without another word Puck walks off, past Quinn and back into the main complex. Then I'm stuck with Quinn's face, staring at me with such worry I'm sure she'd crumble to pieces in a second. But I can't do it, I don't want to talk to her even though I know I probably should, but the pain in my thigh is hurting more than I can ever imagine. It was just a bloody flesh wound.
Somehow as I made my back over to the complex, Quinn didn't say anything and just gripped my arm and swung it around her shoulders to use as support. I did kind of lean on her as we made our way through and I was feeling pretty bad for her because she's quite a tiny person and I obviously am not.
As soon as we got to the small medical room, she pushed me to sit on the bed and gave me a look. It was a very confusing one.
"Drop them." She murmurs with an eyebrow raised, the corner of her mouth slowly starting to show a small smirk. "Unless you go commando."
"You wish." I retort back and she lets out a soft laugh, smiling when it reaches her eyes. I don't know how, but in a manner of minutes she's suddenly made me feel from a complete utter fuck up to just a normal guy. Maybe Puck was right. She might be the right person to help me move on.
But I do what she says and drop my pants, painfully aware that I am wearing my Captain America underwear that has his shield spotted everywhere on it. It was a birthday present from my mum, okay?
"Quite the patriot." Quinn comments and I roll my eyes, shifting as I watch her. I almost automatically reach out for my kit, but she pats my hand to let her do it, so I just lean back on my palms and watch her handiwork.
Of course it hurts, so I'm not going to make fun of Puck whenever I patch him up the next time. It's a lot deeper than I thought, but I'm just bloody glad I didn't actually get shot. I just got… deeply grazed. As I watch her work I feel the urge to talk, to sit her down and make her look me in the eyes, just so I can watch her smile as I talk about the stupidest stuff. But I know what she wants to know is what just happened in the van, so I oblige. If this girl can make me instantly feel better just by smiling, then what else could she do if I told her what happened?
"I had to leave someone behind." I breathe out as she swabs at my cut and watch as she instantly stops. Her eyes travel up to mine and I can see the worry in them again. The same look I saw the first time I met her. I almost smile at the memory.
"Sam…" She grabs the stool she used to sit on to work and pulls it closer, resting her hand on my thigh as she smiles sadly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean what I said."
"It was Puck's sister." Her face falls and I instantly know that she's not apart of whatever Abasi has cooking up. No way in hell does a girl show such emotion and compassion to a guy like me, when she might be aiding some dick like Abasi. No matter the circumstances. "She was a communications specialist, I was helping her out with a satellite when we were attacked." I don't realise that I'm actually crying until Quinn reaches up with her thumb to wipe them away, her own eyes filling with tears.
"We… we were taken." My words are coming out in hurried sentences as my throat contracts around them, trying not to let them come out, but they have to. For my sake. For Puck's sake.
"I understand, Sam. You were just protecting me and from my little time with you… I know you wouldn't have given up without a fight, okay? I know you'd never leave anyone behind just on a simple whim. I know you would never leave me behind." I glance up at her as she moves to sit down beside me, taking my hand as she gives it a soft squeeze. Quinn smiles softly and leans in to kiss my shoulder, as if it was something easily done between us. Something we'd been doing for years. "You never did from the start."
Then I feel the smile starting to form on my lips, flashes of our first meeting together coming to mind and making me feel a whole lot better about the whole conversation. Quinn's smile matches mine before she looks away, her eyes finding the floor as she lets out a soft sigh.
"My Dad died in 9/11." I hear her whisper and I instantly give her hand a squeeze. I also had to swallow hard because I have no idea how I'd be able to live through that. "I remember the day so well because he refused to come to my first cheerleading semi-final, telling me that he'd only come for a grand final." She looks back up at me to give me a smile and I give her hand another squeeze before she continues on. "I was really upset that he didn't come, but I look back on it now and realise that was his way to get me to strive really hard for what I wanted."
Her breathing is even and slow and I watch as her shoulders shift with every breath. Quinn is so controlled, so driven and she looks so tense. I guess we're all like that out here, all tense about the things we've seen and the things we're going to encounter.
"This Abasi story… isn't just a story. It's something really personal and I know that it shouldn't be. But… I don't want people to have to experience what I went through. That constant regret of trying to change something that you can't. I can change that, I can uncover what's real and what's not. I can make them feel that they're not worthless." Quinn's eyes are far away but I can't tear my eyes off them. As vulnerable as she is at the moment, she has never looked so beautiful and I realise that I never want to be anywhere else than right here with her. No matter how strange she appeared to us. No matter her background or what she's done. To me, she's the only thing that's okay in my life. The only thing that makes everything all right.
"The stuff I saw in that… hell, I never want to see again, but I'm so blinded that goal I'm getting people into danger because of it." I sigh and wrap my arm around her shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze.
"I'm so blinded by you that I can barely do anything." I murmur softly and I smile softly when she looks up at me with a questioning look, but it turns into a smile. Quinn ducks her head but I can see the blush creeping to her cheeks, causing me to do a mental fist pump in my head.
Then as I'm about to say something, Puck conveniently appears again, but this time his face has no smirk in sight. He looks very grave and serious.
"They've got Abasi."
A very blergh ending, but there it is! Don't hesitate to send in any reviews, rants, etc.
Ceruleanblues
Ah! Thank you so much again. As much as I want them to be together as soon as possible, especially since this is AU and they don't know each other, I'm trying to take it slow, but not too slow. Even though they are in this very hostile environment and it'd be very difficult to have a relationship, I think they're sort of ignoring that and going where their feelings take them. But then there's Sam story and the reasons why he's so slow and not jumping on those feelings, but sigh, we'll see. Puck is always my favourite to write, he has that fun compared to Sam's seriousness and everything is just kind of laid back and chilled with him - although in this chapter you kind of learn a back story to the way he works, which is nice I hope, haha, whereas Quinn's just amazing. She's a ball of utter sass and vulnerability that I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know about, so yeah, I think she's discovering herself and figuring out what she's really here for, with Sam helping her along the way. But yes, thank you again for the review!
Samquinnchorddianna
Thank you! There are more Sam & Quinn interactions in this chapter, so hopefully you like them! I hope that you like the background story behind Puck and Sam - it kind of figures in as to why Puck's so hovery and why he pokes a bit of fun from time to time in hopes to get Sam to lighten up, but yeah! But yeah, the twist of the story isn't really dealt with in this chapter and I don't know, Sam seems to be the only one picking up on this mystery but that might be because of his infatuation with Quinn, haha! Also how great is it that we're now 2 points ahead on the ladder!? YEAHH #GOOOOONERS
And
Thanks so much! Hope this chapter filled in a little bit more of Quinn for you!
