Present Day

Sam sat down heavily on the metallic crate, a huge sigh escaping his lips as he slung the Mog rifle off his shoulder and laid it on his lap. It seemed like it had been years since he had just sat. Lazily reaching around his body, he roughly loosed the two clasps holding his body armor together over his chest, it falling away to the ground with a loud crash. Much better, Sam thought to himself as he stretched his arms up, ignoring the pain in his side from his nagging wound, and leaned back and placed his head against the cool wall, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Several loud thumps reverberating through the floor coming from below him brought a small smile to Sam's face. Looks like the bombs worked he thought as he opened his eyes again, glancing a the end of the hall, a single hydraulic door stood locked. The bombs would have set off a chain reaction that would totally destabilize the reactor located in this shelter, meaning everyone in here when that thing blew was toast, meaning they were going to be coming to the surface soon, that door was one of two ways to the surface. Nine, Seven and her Cepan had collapsed the other tunnel leading to the surface with the rest of their C-4 charges, meaning this was the only way in or out.

Taking his eyes off the door at the end of the hall, he looked next to him, at the door leading outside, just a few feet away was freedom, the other side of the door of course. Sam's eyes traced a line around the door, following the cable that connected it to the hydraulic machinery that would open it, or at least it could have right up until Sam had fired three highly volatile rounds from his Mog rifle into its center. The sparking and oozing machine would be opening no doors any time soon, and that particular door was designed to withstand a hell of a lot of punishment. Hopefully enough punishment to contain the explosion when this power reactor goes up in flames Sam thought bitterly as he popped the back of his rifle open, discharging the used Mog power canister and replacing it with a new one from his belt.

Sam's gaze eventually went back down range to the door that the Mogs would be coming out of soon like a hive of bees trying to escape death. Sam wasn't really worried about the Mogs somehow finding a way to get through to get outside, but he didn't really want to die like a chump, as he angrily snapped the energy casing into place, feeling the warm hum signaling the rifle was ready to fire. He reached into his pocket, he pulled out a creased and slightly faded picture he kept on him at all times, attempting to smooth it out on his chest. It was a picture of Six, her face a wide smile as she balanced a parrot on her arm. It was from the time he, John and Six had visited the zoo in San Diego while they were hunting for Seven. Sam cherished this picture, held it just as dear as the glasses of his father that he kept in the same pocket, Guess I won't be finding you dad, I'm sorry Sam thought as he stood up, groaning from the wound, and knelt down to take up a firing position on the far door. He felt a few more thumps and a loud alarm began blaring.

Sam sat still as he waited, waited for the Mogs to come through that door, waited for the reactor to overheat and destabilize, waited for the explosion, waited...to die Sam finished sadly as he tried to force a smile. I should be afraid shouldn't I? But he wasn't, his pulse wasn't racing, he wasn't crying, it had been his decision after all, seeing John, Sarah, Eight, Eight's Cepan Isaac, and beautiful Six sprinting away from the bunker, Sam knew that the resulting explosion could kill all of them, he couldn't let them die, any of them, they had a war to fight. War had casualties and sacrifices, and he knew that sealing the door and making sure the Mog's couldn't open it would contain the blast enough so that his friends could get away. War has sacrifices, Sam thought again, he hoped his meant something.

Taking another deep breath, Sam steeled his nerves and focused on the door at the end of the hall and waited, and as he waited, his memories continued to play through his mind like a slow movie, almost like his body knew he didn't have much time left and had started his 'life flashing before your eyes' bit just a little early. Sam knelt unwavering, he waited, and remembered.

FLASH

Sunlight spilled through the window as the shades were yanked back, causing Sam to pull his covers up over his head, but they were immediately yanked off.

"Where is he Sam?" Sam heard yelled at him as he tried to blindly reach for the blankets, it was Six! "I get up this morning and the truck is gone and so is John, where is he, I know you know."

Sam shot out of bed, stumbling and then eventually falling to the floor, hastily getting up and pulling his clothes on. Six had already made fun of his body enough, he didn't need to give her any more reasons. "I have no idea what you're talking about!" Sam responded, avoiding her eyes, he was a terrible liar and knew if he looked at her, Six would instantly know his deceit. Unfortunately he must have been worse at lying than he thought because Six took two steps and grabbed him by his hair while simultaneously striking the back of his knee with her foot, bringing him to the ground.

"Where. Is. He?" she said dangerously quietly.

"We...we..we were talking last night about...girls," Sam sputtered, he had almost said About you, but decided he didn't need to get beat any more than Six already was, "and we were talking about how depressed he was getting because he couldn't see Sarah and-"

"He went to get Sarah didn't he? God Damnit!" Six yelled as she released Sam's hair which he immediately started rubbing to soothe the pain.

"Don't get mad at him, it was my idea," Sam said, ignoring the venomous stare he started receiving from Six, "It's not fair to him that he has to leave her behind, and if the Mogs know who we are, which it looks like they do, the safest place for her is with us, instead of getting caught and used as bait to lure John into a trap. You know he would do anything stupid if he had to save her."

Six bit her lip, Sam had a great point, John seemed as though he would willingly die for this girl, and if the Mogs captured her then Six doubted she could stop John from trying to rescue her. However, Six could not bring herself to tell Sam that he MAY or may not have a point. "Just...When will he be back?" she asked, turning away from Sam.

"He said he shouldn't be any later than noon." Sam replied, standing back up and crossing the room to Johns backpack and pulling out a laptop. "Which gives us plenty of time to do what John asked me to do." Six's questioning glance prompted Sam to continue, "He told me to figure out what our next move is, so me and you are going to figure out where the next number is."

Six stood in the middle of the room for several more moments before making a disgusted sound and throwing her hands in the air. "Fine we will plan but I fail to see how you will be helpful at all."

Sam shrugged off the insult and grinned, "Hey I don't know if you remembered, but I'm pretty smart, I'm sure I can help somehow." he said as he flipped the laptop open and thumbed the mouse, "to the internet we go!" he said causing Six to roll her eyes.

"Stop being lame and concentrate." Six ordered as she sat on the bed next to Sam.

Being alone in the same room as Sam was making it very hard to Six to concentrate. She kept catching herself staring at his face or wanting to grab his hand, or tackle him onto the bed...shaking herself she got off the bed and started pacing around. She needed to distract herself and the best ways to that were to move, and yell at Sam.

"Okay, so you and John both said you 'knew' where the other numbers are, but what does that mean? Do you know who they are, or locations like the town they are in or house they are in? Or-"

"Shut up Sam and let me think for two seconds." Six snapped at Sam as he obediently fell silent and she closed her eyes. Nope, didn't work, still want to throw him onto the bed she thought as she sighed loudly. Taking a deep breath she pushed Sam, difficultly, from her mind as she thought back to when she and John had used the tracking stone. She didn't know how she knew where the other numbers were, she just knew. She knew when she was close, she knew the direction they were all in, and she knew their faces. Faces! That was it! When she thought of the faces of each of the numbers, images popped up in her head

"I see...things...pictures, when I think about the numbers," she said, keeping her eyes shut, "but I can't make sense of them! I need John." she said frustratedly.

"It's okay," Sam said reassuringly, "let's work with what we have now, tell me some of these 'pictures' you see and I will try and find where they might be."

Hearing Sam's voice caused her mind once again to get a little fuzzy but she pushed him away once more. "Okay I see beaches, a beautiful beach...a lot of people on it...Ummm," Six described as she chewed on her bottom lip, "there are a lot of sand castles if that helps..."

"Can you see anything more about the beach? Like a pier or boats or anything? Buildings with signs maybe?"

Six shut her eyes tighter trying to focus on the image, but everything was so blurry and difficult to see. "There is a little snack shack hold on...Mission Bay Crab Shack."

"Mission Bay? That's Mission Beach, that's San Diego!" cried Sam, "Hey I knew that! I was useful haha I didn't even need the internet." he laughed, grinning as he looked at Six.

Six looked back at him and his smile seemed to light up his face, especially his eyes. Six had to get out of there. "Whatever," she muttered as she quickly crossed the room and yanked open the door, "book us tickets and tell John the plan, I'm going for a ride."

"With what money?" Sam asked in astonishment.

"Yours." she replied simply, shutting the door on Sam's gawking face.

Six stood outside Sam's room for several moments taking slow, even breaths. This is foolish, pull it together she silently berated herself as she made her way back to her room to grab her motorcycle key. Nothing made her feel better than a refreshing ride outside and she was thoroughly looking forward to being as far away from Sam as she could be.

Sam watched Six leave and heaved a huge sigh as he put his hand on his face and rubbed his eyes. Even when you're helpful she just wants to get away from you he thought as he slowly put his hands back on the laptop, bringing up one of the many flight booking websites. Sam zoned out while he searched and re-searched for flights for a few hours that would be most inexpensive while also getting them to their destination quickly. He found one departing Columbus that would not hit his bank account too hard when he heard the familiar chug of his trucks engine pull into the parking stall in front of the room. Smiling, Sam jumped up and went out to meet his friend and tell him the good news of their known destination.

Opening the door, Sam as greeted by John walking up to the room trailed by Sarah and...

"Emily?" Sam said out loud in bewilderment, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"Sam!" she cried, running up and throwing her arms around him, "what are you guys doing out here? John told me you guys are going on some road trip or something? That's so cool!"

Sam shot a questioning look to John who nodded his head towards Sarah, mouthing 'they were together, sorry'.

"Wow this is...definitely a surprise!" Sam exclaimed as Emily removed herself from around him stood off to one side, still beaming. Waving to Sarah, he looked back at John, "Need help getting anything out of the truck?"

John instantly picked up on the hint, "Yeah I grabbed some supplies, why don't you ladies go ahead inside and make yourselves comfortable." he said, grabbing Sarah around the waist and giving her a quick kiss before she headed inside with Emily. As soon as the door shut Sam whirled on John.

"What the hell dude? Do you know how mad Six was when she beat the fact that you were going back to get Sarah out of me? She is going to be friggin' furious when she sees Emily!"

John nodded soberly, but then gave a shrug. "Emily was with Sarah when I showed up and she immediately started pestering me with questions about you, and I figured you might enjoy having a girl around that ACTUALLY likes you. I was thinking of you man!" John said, giving Sam a mini head-lock.

"Six is going to kill her, then you for bringing her, then me because she's on a roll at that point why not just finish off everyone that's pissing her off. Sarah is safe though, I think, I'm pretty sure they get along." Sam said as he grabbed a bag of clothes out of the bed of the truck and slung it over his shoulder, he hoped there was not just girls clothing in these bags, he would love to not have the same jeans and red and white plaid shirt until he got around to buying new clothes. "All this stuff the girls?"

"All that stuff is Sarah's," John said with a grin, "women man, they have so, much, damn, clothing! Right?" John joked as he grabbed the other two duffel bags and headed inside, Sam following.

"Okay, so we figured out where to go," Sam said and Johns face lit up, "I was about to book us four flights to San Diego but..." Sam glanced at Emily.

"San Diego? You guys are flying to San Diego? Like a party vacation type of thing?" Emily asked and Sam bit his lip.

"Emily you don't have to go with us," Sam began, "this was sort of just sprung on you and-" Sam was cut off as the door was kicked in, Six's face ablaze with anger.

"Well I'm F-ing glad you're back John, off...who the hell are you?" Six yelled, suddenly realizing there was another person in the room.

"Umm, hi, I'm Emily." Emily said quietly, clearly trying to not further piss off this strange woman.

Six stood there goggling at Emily, then looked at Sam, then back at Emily, the color in her face going from pink to red. "Are you...kidding me?" she yelled, looking again at Sam, "You had him stop by and get your freaking girlfriend?"

Six looked around wildly, presumably for something to throw, but coming up empty handed she resorted to driving a finger into Sam's chest. "Get us our plane tickets and no one bother me until it's time to leave, I don't want to see any of your faces!" she said through gritted teeth as she stormed out of the room, slamming the door so hard Sam was surprised it didn't come off its hinges.

"So that's our friend," said John attempting to force a smile at Emily, who looked horrified, "she takes some getting used to."

"She's sort of a bitch," clarified Sarah, "but as long as you arn't Sam she seems to be nice enough, usually."

"Anyways," said Sam, shaking himself off mentally, "time to get I guess five tickets now."

Sam sat back on the bed and pulled up the laptop, taking his debit card out of his wallet to purchase the tickets. Sarah and John were already cuddling on the other bed while Emily sat down next to Sam, leaning against him.

"So San Diego? This will be fun." she said flashing a smile at Sam, displaying her perfect teeth.

"It will definitely be an adventure." Sam answered mysteriously.

The door slammed and she started stomping towards her room. Of all the people in the whole WORLD she did not want to see, Emily was at the top of that list. Emily! Ugh! Bitch! I should shoot her Six thought angrily, as she ripped open her own door and slammed it with as much force as she had Sam and John's. She made her way into the bathroom where she grasped the sink and leaned against it for support. She felt like she was going to throw up. She looked at the mirror but she didn't see her reflection, the only thing she saw was Emily holding Sam, smiling at Sam, kissing Sam.

Six didn't even remember breaking the mirror but she was suddenly holding her hand, blood sliding down her fingers with shards of glass all over the bathroom floor. Wincing, Six went and sat on her bed, idly grabbing a towel as she left the bathroom to wrap around her hand. Emily was here. It was a fact. She didn't know anything about this girl other than that she was romantically involved with her Sam and that was all the reason she needed to hate her. But now she was here, and it seemed that Sam and John didn't mind having her around, which meant she was outnumbered and couldn't just make Emily leave.

Sighing, she flopped back on her bed and wished he hand didn't hurt as much, wished she hadn't broken that mirror, wished she had just tackled Sam into his bed when she had the chance. Now that Emily was here, it looked like her chance with Sam was slipping away. Curling up in bed she pulled the blankets to cover her and, tying off the towel to stem the blood flow, drifted off to sleep.