A/N: Hey guys, thanks so much for the reviews and comments! I wasn't too happy with the last chapter, but I'm glad that most of you enjoyed it. I didn't want to make it too dramatic, because that's just too stupid and someone who's read a lot of stories I feel quite disconnected if it just seems to unrealistic. Anyhoo! Onward! Quick update cause I didn't want to leave you guys hanging, haha.

Chapter Six

Of course, my earlier thought that I was in fact dead couldn't possibly be true, because right now, I'm staring at Quinn Fabray. Except.. this Quinn is different. She looks older, her hair is shorter and as long as it takes me to realise it, she's standing in my backyard.

Quinn's holding onto the swing-set that my father and I built when I was twelve for my younger siblings, which makes me feel as if this isn't real. How on earth did I suddenly get here? How on earth is Quinn, who looks like a golden haired angel... doing in my backyard? Had I been shot, in a coma and suddenly woke up to be standing up and washing the dishes?

All I know is, real or not, watching Quinn is something I could never get used to. Her beauty is just.. mesmerizing. Quinn has the most perfect curves.. she's soft just around the hips and I know the nape of her neck is one of my favourite spots to stare at... besides her ass. Of course, thinking of Quinn makes me feel guilty and images of Sarah flood my mind and when Quinn somehow morphs into this shorter, blonde dyed version, I know something is wrong. That's Sarah. Okay, morphing isn't definitely a thing in my lifetime. Am I in some sort of in between? Am I in my head? Where am I?

As I feel a hot sensation on my hands, only to realise they're submerged in hot water, my name is called. I look back up and replaced with Sarah is Quinn again, but.. she's covered in blood. Her mouth moves again to scream, but I can't hear her.

What is wrong with her?

I drop the plates I'm washing and open the back porch door, only to be confronted with a scene I remember just playing out before. The ground is hot, filled with dirt and sand, and standing across me is Quinn. She feels miles away, her eye's wide and scared, and I can't move. My feet are rooted to the ground, but I have this strong desire to be with her. To escape this strange world.

I can feel something tapping against my thigh. But when I look down at it, there's blood and it's starting to drip to the ground where it just clots with the dirt and sand. Then when I look back up again, Quinn is standing there. Shouting. I still can't hear her.

When I take a step, a humming noise appears and it's so fucking unbearable that I want to just knock myself out somehow. I have no idea where it's coming from and I have no idea what it is. The noise makes my head ache and the feeling of dropping to my knees out of agony overwhelms me, but I catch a glimpse of Quinn's eyes again. The most beautiful part of her and I take another step.

That's when everything goes dark again.

My eyes fling open for what feels for the second time and leaning over me is Puck, his hands clasped together on my chest and I can't figure out what's going on. I turn to find Quinn, her hands bloody and her eyes full of tears, giving me a look I can't figure out. Despair..? Longing? No idea. But my lungs hurt and the sensation of breathing feels new to me, so something must have happened.. right? By the looks on everyones faces, my somewhat weird in between dream and the burning sensation in my lungs, I must have been dead.

Wow.

Holy fucking shit.

Wow. For how long? How - what? Do I have brain damage? What's my name?

I try to sit up but Puck's hands stop me and a painful stab that originates in my thigh, burns throughout the rest of my body. Oh good, I can feel everything, at least that's something since I just fucking died. The humming is still there so I look helplessly between Puck and Quinn who are trying to talk to me. Puck's got this face on that's stern and as if he's my dad telling me off for riding my bike without training wheels. Quinn, on the other hand, looks like she's just murdered someone because there is blood everywhere on her and that, combined with her distressed look makes me start to think that she might have killed me. That scenario doesn't seem likely, although what I'm feeling right now is pretty wacked up.

I think it's Sarah who figures it out, because she bends down close and taps her ear, making me shake my head. Everyone sought of just, leans back at the thought and all start to talk to each other again. About what? God. Now I know how my dog feels when everyone ignores him and talks about him.

Then, suddenly, as if I'm watching a stupid comic show, Puck is reliving actions of what just happened. Running action, duh, then in some strange arm angles, Puck is sort of replicating what I think is a helicopter. I think so. Then he uses his fingers to spell out a word.

Missile.

He hit me with a fucking missile?

That little shit.

The look Puck and Sarah share is the one I've seen a dozen times. The last time I saw it was when I was trying to do a wheelie on a push bike I had found in a back alley in Afghanistan, only to wind up in a ditch with a swollen finger and a pissed off look. Some of the locals even laughed. The Puckermans always found amusement in all my pissed off moods, not that it helped them.

It was Quinn to help me focus on the real world when she touched whatever hurt and saw her carefully applying a bandage to my thigh. Wow, another fucking thigh wound when Quinn's been around? At least it's not a head wound. I watch her as she works and I see a bandage on her own arm too, noticing how pale she also looked. Puck must have hooked that listening device thing out, realising we had no blood to replenish whatever she might lose and hopefully he had the sense to try find something to combat infection.

The humming still continued and I still couldn't hear a word they said, but Puck is constantly checking my pulse, Quinn is checking my bandages and whispering something to Puck, even though it's stupid because I still can't.. fucking.. hear. Sarah's sitting in the far corner of the room, her eyes peeled outside as she sits under a small window that they managed to barricade.

As I look at her I don't know what to think... or to say. She's just gotten out of this place that, personally, was a fucking nightmare. That still is a nightmare. So, as I'm staring at Sarah I'm trying to come up with a way to comfort her since she's just been placed into another nightmare. But as I watch her converse with Puck I know that it must be okay. I'm hoping.

The humming, I finally figured out, was whenever they talked. It was like my eardrums were just so fucked up or whatever, at the moment I hope, that they were scrambling everything that they said. It was fine though, I didn't want to listen and I didn't want to talk. I may get some silent time to figure out what the fuck we're going to do and what the fuck I'm going to do about Sarah.

Of course, none of us have been to Turkey and where we were stationed was quite a hot spot, so wherever we are now isn't going to be any better. We have to somehow reach command, tell them we've been comprised because of Quinn's stupid bug in her arm and our base was completely trashed.

I think about Rick then, about what I had to do. How I had to leave him.. how I had to kill him. Yeah, sure, it was so that he wouldn't have his last moments to be in the most unbearable amount of pain. I think all he needed was some peace.

It isn't until Quinn has her hand on my shoulder that I realise that I'm crying. Yeah, this is so fucking manly of a Spec Ops soldier, but right now in the quiet, everything is bombarding my head I have no idea how to deal with it. My head is screaming at me. Screaming to find Kofi, to kill him and to make him feel as horrid as he made Rick and Quinn and Sarah and me feel.

Another part of my head is telling me to run, to flee, to hide away from all this and just forget it all. Make it a dream. Make it the dream I had. Quinn in my backyard. Happy. Then as I look over to Sarah again, I feel that moment of where Quinn morphed into Sarah pop into my head again.

I need to sleep. This is getting all too much, so I decide to close my eyes and rest my head up against the wall. Then, of course, continuing on his knack for interrupting, Puck shakes me. He gives me a few hand signals which I interpret that we have to move and I nod, moving to stand. Puck grips me and until I've stood and put pressure on my legs do I understand the extent of my injuries. Laceration to the thigh because of a bullet, again, concussion, dead for however long and zero hearing.

Well, I'm a walking model patient.

Puck however, says nothing and keeps my arm around his shoulders, helping me as Sarah takes point. I've forgotten that Sarah is a trained soldier, but it still makes me queasy that Sarah, who was just freed, is now about to go out into the possibility of death and capture. I just want to hide her away, make her forget what just happened too.

Sarah murmurs something, it sounds like clear, but I still can't make out words so I just follow. Puck is gripping my waist tightly and I can sense that he doesn't like this. Knowing him, he's probably echoed all the thoughts I just had and is either having them now, or had them previously. Sometimes it's amazing how smart he is, not that it's a surprise because of his looks, it's because he never brags about it. He always comes out at the best of moments, where it's not to make anyone look stupid or anything like that, it's always to help the common goal. It's what makes Puck such a good soldier.

As we walk, I watch Quinn who has my gun and is shaking like crazy. She's gotten paler and I know for a fact that Puck most definitely had a hard time trying to close the wound. He of course, has only been given first aid and isn't his fault at all. I look over at him now, who seems to have just thought of what I just did because he's reaching out to take the gun from Quinn. Then, as if, I feel like we're all going to die the gun goes off. That I do fucking hear cause it bounces off the small walls of this small alley of buildings and plus it was right next to my bloody ear.

Puck mutters out what I presume to be 'fuck' under his breath and starts to jog, because we've just alerted everyone that we're here. I'm able to keep up with a brisk limp type walk, but I can see Quinn struggling. I wrap my arm around her, ignoring whatever pain and tug her along. Puck sees a building and opens the door before closing it behind us. Still unable to hear, I move Quinn to a kitchen table and have her lie down on it. Grabbing my pack and luckily after spending a few moments in the base collecting more gear, I did grab some sugar.

Of course, as strange as it sounds to spread sugar over a wound, it does dries it out which is turn prevents the growth of bacteria. Since sugar isn't too hard to find in our camp, it's quite helpful. I undo the bandage only to be kind of horrified by what I see. Puck hasn't even tried to stitch this up at all, which is probably because after he hooked it out he would have had to get me. I don't blame him for anything, there is no blaming in war. You do what you can and try give the best outcome to everyone. I pour the sugar on, causing a few looks from Puck and Sarah, even Quinn gives me a horrified one, but then I grab some local anesthesia to numb the area, because the next few minutes are going to be horrifying.

As I wait for the area to become completely numb, Quinn is staring at me. It's not the type of staring I'm used to. The one I'm used to is where the guys would stare because they were ready for me to snap, to break or to just flip the fuck out, but of course I never did. Not on their watch. This stare she's giving me... it's not a stare, it's a sort of gaze.

I turn away, knowing that I possibly cannot think about this right now and focus on stitching up her wound. She twitches every time I stitch but whenever I look up, she doesn't look like she's in pain. I disinfect the wound after I'm done and bandage her up. I grab some juice from my pack and hand it to her. I move to sit down in the corner and try to think about what we're going to do next. Sarah, who happens to be a communications expert, may be able to get us out of this, but who knows what she remembers after her year with Kofi. Quinn doesn't even remember Kofi putting that thing in her arm.

I look around the room and try to figure out what's happening. Quinn and Sarah are talking quietly and Puck is sitting in the middle of the room looking through our packs to figure out what we have. He's writing down a list on a notepad and then I realise we have a means of communication, but then I forget it. I don't feel like talking. This is all my fucking fault. The Kofi mission was a fucking bust because it was a trap. Almost our whole base died because of it. Then of course what's going to happen to Quinn? They're all going to pin the blame down onto her. She was seen kissing Kofi, she had the listening device in her arm. It's not like someone not to look the other way about what it may look like.

Quinn and Sarah interacting makes me a little queasy. They share something.. and that something is me. Plus Kofi, of course. They must want him dead as much as I do and it's strange to watch them, as if they were just old friends. That's what happens to you though, when you go through an experience with someone that you just have this bond. It's the same with Puck and I.

"I've got it." That's the first words I hear in a long time, and they're from Sarah. I don't acknowledge that I've heard it and I don't want to. I sort of want to sit here in my corner of pity, but when Quinn waves me over I have to come. Corner of pity, how I miss thee.

"I just got my hearing back." I murmur quietly as Sarah starts to write and I'm a bit startled as to how I sound. My voice sounds like I've been strangled, but I guess that's what happens to you when someone hits you with a fucking missile and sends you into a wall or something... and you die. I manage to catch the small smile on Quinn's lips before focusing on Sarah. I think she might have caught the look because her eyebrows are furrowed when she speaks next.

"The best option we have is finding a police station."

"For the radio?" I ask and she nods, causing both Puck and me to sigh.

"What?" Quinn murmurs, genuinely confused and I let out a wince as I shift my weight. There are no fucking chairs where we're standing and we all decide to sit when they see how uncomfortable I am.

"After the shitstorm we just provided, I doubt the Turkish police are going to let us do anything." Puck mutters before leaning back on his palms. I check and recheck my bandages as I try to figure out something.

"Can you try using a computer?" I ask and everyone turns to me, like it's the stupidest thing to question. I sigh. "Why don't we go up on a roof, pick out a few houses with satellites and figure out if we can broadcast some sort of thing from a computer."

"If they have computers." Puck mutters. I see the look Sarah gives Puck and it sort of makes me smile. Her scowl was always something pretty funny to see.

"I can get onto the military network. I'm sure they're probably flagging us because we're all M.I.A and if we make any footprints anywhere it'll be high priority."

"Plus I'm pretty sure someone would have figured that the Kofi capture was a trap." Puck murmurs, which makes me feel bad, again.

"Is it safe to try? Pretty sure Kofi would have tapped into any broadcast signals and it wouldn't be a safe server." We all turn to Quinn, clearly impressed, which in turn causes her to blush. It makes me smile.

"She's right." Sarah sighs out. I grab my pack and grab the navigator, finding us on the map and trying to see if there are any significant landmarks that we can head to. Big cities.. other compounds that might be other bases.

"We have to keep moving though, Kofi knows we're still here." Puck murmurs and he's right, but we're out of options. All our options fail as good as they were and it's going to be night soon. We barely have any supplies and with Quinn looking pretty pale, we need to get out of here.

"I have a contact." Quinn murmurs and the look both Puck and I give her are dubious. We don't mean it, of course, but the last contact Quinn had tried to kidnap her and send her back to Kofi.

"You're kidding, right?" Puck.

"He's an american."

"That means jack shit here, Quinn." Puck snaps and I can see the frustrating starting to build in his face.

"Puck." I breathe out, warning him to calm down. He turns away, running his hand through his mowhawk and it's his telltale sign that he's trying to rid of his anger.

"Puck's right, but he did me get most of my evidence on Kofi," I see Sarah shift uncomfortably at his name, "plus he's not too far from here." It's an option I'm willing to consider and possibly follow through with, but I can see Puck not isn't buying it.

"I think we should find our unit." Puck murmurs and his eyebrows crease together.

"That could take days." Sarah counters and Puck doesn't say anything because he just doesn't want to fight with Sarah or the fact is that she's right. "Quinn has a serious wound, Sam is losing blood as we speak and he just died." As Sarah lays down the words, we're all silent. I did just die and it's strange that we've all sort of just passed it off. Well, I didn't want to draw any attention to it, since you know, we're all in a life or death situation, but I am fucking exhausted.

"We need to rest." Sarah continues and Puck just shakes his head. As the only member of the group that isn't plagued by physical injuries and mental injuries - Sarah - he has the only right frame of mind to make up decision.

"I know, but we need to keep moving. Kofi is right under us."

I use the table to stand which causes me to just fall back down again. I frown because I lose balance and I look around me to see everyone just staring at me. I have a sensation to vomit and it's making me feel pretty disgusting.

"He is really not okay." Sarah murmurs quietly. Then, feeling dizzy from trying to get up I move to lie on my side and close my eyes. I can hear Puck protesting, but I block him out and eventually pass out.

"Puck, how is he... really?" Sarah's voice wakes me, but I'm careful not to make a sound because of course, they're talking about me.

"He's a ghost." He mutters out and I can imagine Puck's face looking real bored at the conversation they're having. A few moments go past and I can imagine Sarah trying to prod him for a better answer. "He thought you died and he was ruined for fucking months. Nightmares, everything, you name it. Was in hospital for most of it, but once he got out, he got certified and was able to come back to duty, some fucking how."

"Buried himself?" Sarah murmurs and I try not to be affected by the conversation they're having, but of course I am. I buried Sarah so deep that I thought I would never have to face her again. To face the thought of her.

"Until he met Quinn. She totally just... she brought him back, y'know? You could finally see colour in his eyes. It was like seeing that goofy kid again."

"I don't see it now."

"He's guilty, Sare. He thought you died.. he finally tried to move on, but then here you are. Not that it's any of your fault." Puck sighs and it's frustrated, probably because he's not the one to go this deep into any conversation. "Then he fucking dies and lives, weird how it works." My head thinks about his words until the red behind my eyes go black and I'm suddenly asleep again.

"Sam.. wake up." I blink my eyes open and Quinn is leaning over me. My eyes immediately focus on her lips before I make my way back to her eyes. She doesn't look as tired as she did before and she's not as pale, but she still doesn't look that good. "We gotta move." I nod and with the help of Puck they both help me up. I tell them that I'm fine without needing someone to lean on and we start to head out after deciding that we're going to find Quinn's contact. Quinn's told us that he lives in the neighbouring town and if he's not there, we can easily gain access to his computer. The way there is quite far and without a car, which we're not going to get, it could easily take us one or two days. Maybe more, including our conditions.

Puck figured out our rations and told me that we'd need to go hunting to keep them up, especially since Sarah, Quinn and I needed more to deal with our healing bodies. The town that we walked through was scarily still deserted, which just made us even more alert. Puck was at the front, then Sarah, Quinn and then me, which I don't think is a particularly good idea since I'm getting slower and slower with this lame leg. The buildings are high, which is good, but the alleys are dark so it's making it hard to figure out if we're going to get ambushed or not.

Then, of course, even thinking it causes it to happen. Two men appear in front of Puck which he takes down easily, but as someone reaches out to grab Quinn from an Alley she's passing I dive, taking me and this guy down. Just as I grab my pistol and pull the trigger, I find myself staring at Rick. My whole body starts to tremble at the sight and as my leg throbs, I can't tear my eyes away from... Rick's face.

"Evans!" Puck shouts, I think. I can't tell what's real anymore. I glance up and look to where he's pointing. Another guy has Quinn, but his face is Ricks too. My hand trembles and I can't raise my gun till Sarah appears, doing the job for me. I see Quinn's face once she's freed and it's full of disappointment. I can't even look at her, knowing that I hesitated with saving her life.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Puck shouts and I cringe before following him as fast as I can as we start to move again. Puck's starting to move faster but I'm having trouble keeping up. Then when we turn the corner, there he his. Kofi, standing with a smug smile on his face. A pistol in his hand and I start to tremble as he walks towards me. He's wearing his military outfit and he even has blood still splattered on it. Just like the day I met him.

"Ah, Samuel Evans. The boy that ran." His Kenyan accent is thick and it takes me back. Takes me back to those nights where I was tortured and he would talk to me, calmly and sweetly in that voice. He offered me hope, to stop the beatings, to be able to drink and have something to eat. But every time he offered them, more beatings would come around. Kofi slowly broke me. Broke my pride.. broke my soul.

"I will find you." Then he disappeared. My heart started to race and I can feel my hands, sweating profusely, because the words echoed in my head. They wouldn't stop. The image of his smug face burned into my head.

"Sam.. Sam!" I manage to snap out Kofi's words and turn to whoever is calling me, to find Quinn standing there. She looks perfect... too perfect. Or is that her, just normally?

"Quinn?" I whisper and she frowns at my confusion.

"We have to keep going." She reaches forward then and suddenly, she's transformed into Kofi. I break from her grasp and stare at her.

"Sam..."

"Please Kofi.. don't hurt me." Then, before I know it Puck appears and the butt of his gun knocks into my head and I'm put into sweet, deep unconsciousness.

I'm back in my backyard. Quinn's at the barbecue outside and it's as if we're having some sort of gathering. I move from where I am on the back porch to her and rest my hand on the pool of her back. She turns and the smile she gives me warms me up and I feel good. Quinn's hand reaches up, her fingers resting against my chin and she reaches up to kiss me. The kiss is like the other kiss I remember. Soft, delicate.. but I can feel it building. Then she pulls away with a small smirk on her face.

"Go get the meat, husband."

I wake and I'm being carried, I know that, because the shifting in weight on the ground is constantly hurting me and I don't feel very safe. Also.. I don't feel very good. How I became unconsciousness starts with the fact that my head feels very.. very sore. Plus, I'm a little annoyed because the dream I just had was amazing. Jesus, I was married.

"Are you sure you can carry him?" That's Sarah.

"He carried me halfway across a desert without water. I'll be fine." Heh, I remember that. It was another hallucinating adventure.

"Don't know why you had to knock him out though."

"He was hallucinating, his pulse was fucking crazy and not to mention, his fever is probably over 90. His body needed a little shut down."

"What does that mean?" Quinn.

"Sepsis." I mutter out, which causes Puck to stop and they set me down. I open my eyes and we've actually gotten somewhere, because the surroundings are completely different. The last place I remember being in was covered in dirt, now.. it's not. Yes, quite an achievement in that observation, Evans.

"How long, Sam?" Puck. Straight to the point.

"Morbidity goes up six percent with every hour." The grim faces of Sarah and Puck pull are easy to figure. We're probably in the middle of no where. The degree of how bad this blood poisoning/sepsis whatever you want to call it gets worse with every hour and the only thing we have are a couple of juice boxes and beef jerky. Hah, the beef jerky.

"Were you hallucinating during the whole fight?" Puck asks and I see Quinn bend down close in the corner of my eye. I nod and swallow, thanking her when she hands me a water canteen.

"I had to kill Rick, Puck." His eyebrows furrow and his eyes narrow. God, could have blurted that one out better. "I was in the base.. he was dying. It was a slow.. slow death." I cough out.

"You gave him a peaceful ending, Sam. Don't doubt that." Puck murmurs and he gives my arm a squeeze.

"I saw him on the faces of all those guys. I couldn't move."

"And Kofi?" Quinn asks and I turn to her, nodding slowly.

"He was right there, just.. I felt him." The look Quinn and Sarah exchange are ones of just... fear. Fear that Kofi might have actually been there, or... fear that I'm going fucking crazy? Who knows.

"Where's the nearest hospital?" Quinn asks and I need to touch her. To hold her hand, but to do that I would definitely fuck around with Sarah. I still need to know what page we're on.

The answer isn't blurted out loud because if it was, it would mean it would be good. But it isn't and they want to keep it to themselves. Alrighty.

"Let's keep moving. We'll figure it out."

Okay, I know the ending is a little annoying but I needed to end it sometime haha. I did want to continue but I thought, ugh, I would need another 5,000 words to fulfil it, so that's that. I just realised how mean I am to Sam, poor guy, but don't worry, it'll all work out!

Thanks for reading!

Nicole
I just realised how confusing the last chapter is - it's a little choppy, so I hope it wasn't such a bad quick read for you! But yeah, thank you! I tried to focus on Puck and Sam, because they are the Bro's in this story and still try focus on Quinn. Although, more interactions with Quinn and Sarah in this chapter - not in that much detail though - but it's difficult to write their backstory and what happened in the camp when there is so much going on already haha. But thank you again!

And
Thanks and sorry for the long wait for the update! I tried to make this one so it's not such a long wait :)

Guest
Haha! I'm sorry about the ending! I felt a bit evil when I ended it and I was like... oh dear... what is wrong with me? But oh well! I tried to focus a lot on Sarah and Quinn on this chapter - although not in that much detail - but with how Sam is trying to deal with them. Plus, his dreams don't really help anything. Puck's just there in their relationship to smack Sam around a little and make sure he's not being an ass to his sister, but let's be real, Puck's kinda confused as to how Sam is going to make any of it work, so he's a little amused/concerned too. Thanks for the review!

Dosqueen67
To be honest, the chip thing came to me at the last minute because I just needed an explanation as to how this all fit in and I was like "oh hahahaha let's just stick a chip in her arm, that'll fix it!" and now do I realise how kind of stupid it is, but oh well. But yes! I'm dancing around my OTP being together and with Sarah just being there.. combined with Sam's guilt. It's just like FIGURE IT OUT MAN, LET'S GO, but we can't play nice. I just have to be annoying. But sorry about the wait! Thanks for the review!