Okay, folks, last chapter! I'm feeling rather impressed with myself right now; I think this is the fastest I've ever written and posted a multi-chapter fic! Thanks so much to all of you who reviewed. The list is getting rather long so I won't name everyone, but all the reviews really did help keep my motivation up and my creativity flowing.

And if some of you were expecting a big, lovey-dovey Sam/Jules ending scene, sorry. I'm actually not a huge fan of Jules' character and feel like I wouldn't really do her justice because of that. I'm much more comfortable writing man-angst and brotherly love! :)

Enjoy, and nope, still don't own this frickin' brilliant show!

"Eddie. Wake up."

A gentle hand squeezed his shoulder, causing Ed to jerk awake, his body spasming awkwardly in the uncomfortable hospital chair. Exhaustion still lingered heavily on his mind, blurring his vision and confusing him. "Wha – what happened? Sam?"

"Sam's fine, buddy. You saved him."

Greg Parker's soft voice brought him back to reality, and Ed blinked several times to clear his vision. Even as the room around him came into focus, he found that he could only concentrate on the young man lying on the bed in front of him, an IV line trailing from one of his hands. It seemed almost eerie how calm and peaceful Sam looked. His eyes were closed in sleep and his face had completely relaxed – probably due to the painkillers the doctors had him on – and Ed was amazed at how much younger he looked. Aside from a neatly stitched and dressed bullet wound on his upper right thigh, there wasn't a mark on the young SRU officer to suggest all of the hurt and pain that he carried around with him everyday.

Ed let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and ran a rough hand over his face. "Thank God. We almost lost him, Boss."

"But we didn't," Parker replied simply, easing into the other chair by the bed. "You got to him in time."

"I wasn't really much help," Ed muttered, shame making his face flush hot as he reconsidered the events of the night before. "It was Wordy who was able to get him to focus and talk him down. The only thing I did was jump in and make everything worse."

He could feel Parker's intense gaze trained on him, but felt physically incapable of facing him right now. The other man sighed. "I have to ask, buddy, why'd you do that? You and I both know that tackling a subject with a gun is asking for trouble."

"That's just it, Greg, it wasn't a subject!" Ed shouted, before realizing how loud he'd become. Both men glanced fearfully down at their sleeping companion, but Sam was dead to the world, his body working to bounce back from the shock and stress and replenish the large amount of blood he had lost. Ed finished his explanation in a lower tone. "It wasn't a subject, it was Sam. And I couldn't handle standing there, hoping that we could stop him from doing something stupid. I couldn't, Boss."

Greg's hand came up to land on his shoulder again. "I know, Ed. At the end of the day, Sam's still alive and you've done good."

Ed nodded slightly, but he still didn't really believe it. "How did it come to this, Boss? I should have seen it, should have seen that he was hurting…"

"Come on, Eddie, you can't do that to yourself," Parker admonished. "Hell, I'm the profiler and I didn't even see it! What matters is that you were there when he needed you."

The two men lapsed into a short silence, Ed thinking the whole situation over. Intellectually, he knew that Greg was probably right. As a solider, and as a son of the not-so-compassionate General Braddock, Sam had learned how to keep his emotions under wraps a long time ago. There was probably no way anyone on the team would have known the truth about them unless he had wanted them to know. Ed sighed; given the circumstances, knowing this didn't really make him feel any better.

"So what happens now?" he asked his sergeant. "Do you have to declare him unfit for duty?"

To his surprise, Parker shook his head. "That pretty much depends on his mental state when he wakes up. With a guy like Sam, taking him off active duty pretty much sends him the message that he's as worthless as he thinks. So I'm thinking of having him take a week of personal time to get himself sorted out. I've already spoken with my old shrink, and he's willing to meet with Sam a couple of times next week and once a week for as long as necessary for him to work through this. But most of all, we need to show him that we're here for him and that we don't want him going anywhere."

Ed nodded, allowing a small smile to lift the corner of his lips. If Team One was a family and he was the protective older brother, then Greg was definitely the father figure, always checking in with everyone and making sure that they were okay. It was no wonder to Ed that the Boss had already worked out a way to get Sam the help he would need to make it through this, and to handle the whole situation calmly and in the best way possible.

Still, there was still a fear that had taken root deep inside him and made Ed never want to leave Sam's side again. "What if that's not enough? What if this happens again?"

"I don't think it will," Parker answered with such confidence that Ed turned to look at him questioningly. "Why do you think Sam decided to do it at the station, Eddie?"

Ed frowned, really thinking about it. "Actually, I still don't understand that. He knows that there's always someone there on duty, but he was acting like seeing people there was a surprise. Are you saying that he wanted to be caught and stopped?"

"Subconsciously, maybe," Greg shrugged. "All I'm saying is that, even if he'd contemplated suicide before, he'd never been able to do it. In the same way that he was hoping Darren would shoot him and take care of it for him, he went to the station looking to be noticed and saved. And that's where you and Wordy came in."

Ed had to admit, it did make sense, theory though it may be. There was one thing that he didn't quite understand. "Boss, what about his uniform?"

"Same thing as Darren. Sam sees himself as a soldier, so he wanted to die like one, like all of his friends." Parker sighed, looking down at Sam with a mixture of fondness and concern. "Sometimes it really is as simple as that."

A quite knock on the door drew their attention. Jules stood uncertainly at the door. "Hey. How's he doing?"

"He lost a lot of blood, but the doctors said he'll be just fine." Ed answered quickly, though he knew that wasn't all she was asking about. Still not trusting his judgement on Sam's mental state, he threw a look at Greg.

The older man simply nodded at Jules with a reassuring smile. "He's going to be okay, Jules. We don't have any intention of letting him go anywhere."

Apparently that was what Jules needed to hear, because she launched herself at the sergeant gratefully before enveloping Ed in an equally warm hug. He gave her a squeeze in return before heading for the door.

"Thank you," she whispered after him.

Ed didn't leave right away, instead standing just inside the doorway to watch as Jules leaned over Sam to place a kiss on his forehead. His eyes fluttered slightly as she settled back into the chair Ed had just vacated, one hand locked firmly on his while the other gently stroked his hair. Although everything about their relationship was against SRU protocols, Ed couldn't really bring himself to care. All that he saw was a loving relationship that would be the first of many things to help bring Sam back from the edge. Focusing on this, Ed took a deep breath and allowed himself to let go of tackling Sam, of all that could have possibly gone wrong.

If it meant keeping Sam alive for Jules, for himself, and for the team, he'd gladly do it all over again.